I got back from Arizona a few days ago. To say that this trip was planned for the most perfect time possible would be beyond understated. Right before coming home to pack for my glorious spring break from work to visit my family and friends in AZ, I got fired.
Hold up.
Rewind.
What?
Yeah, fired. It sucked. I was so embarrassed and discouraged and down on myself. Strangely enough, though, I was relieved. In the midst of "Wow, I am unemployed," I was crying half out of sheer joy. Teaching preschool was not my "thing." It's not just that though. Ever since I began working at Challenger full time, moved up here away from my family for the first time, took on a full load of online classes, I've felt like I was slowly slipping under water until I reached the point where I was suffocating. I was miserable during a time that should have been one of the happiest of my life. I was under so much stress between working full time at a job I wasn't very good at, trained at all for, and didn't even like and being a new wife and student. I lost myself in all the stress. Old feelings of loneliness and isolation that I never really dealt with came back full force and knocked the wind right out of me. There was not even enough energy left in me to spread thin. The worst part was that my wonderful husband who is absolutely the best thing in my life right now felt that he lead some role in my unhappiness, when really he was the only thing helping me hang on.
So, like I said, a trip to the land of the sun could not have been better timed.
The night before I left was Travis's mission reunion for the Russia, Samara mission. A few of Travis's mission buddies pooled together and raised enough money for President and Sister Davydik to come over for a week from Belarus, which was truly amazing. The reunion was so fun, and the Davydik's, the Bennets, and Elder Roshetkikov (sp?) of the 70 all gave incredible talks which were translated almost flawlessly. It was so fun to see all of Travis's mission companions and old roommates. Then a bunch of people came back to our place to play our Kinect that we bought ourselves for an early birthday present. Jesse, Corinne, Andy, Makenna, Nate, Kylee, Jacob, Justin - it was so great having you all over! I love you guys. Then Andy and Makenna crashed at our place and we stayed up late talking and they are so great.
My plane left early the next morning though (8:00...) and I landed in AZ about 9 and the fun began. The weather was amazing and my dad picked me up and we drove home with the windows down the whole way mmm. He took me back to my parents house where he, my mom and I sat on my bed for an hour and just talked and hung out. My mom and I watched the new design show she's obsessed with that I'm now becoming obsessed with too and taught me all about how to use coupons. I hung out there and Nolle came over with my Grandma and we played with the puppies (I mean BEASTS gosh they're huge now) all day.
Then I went to lunch at RA with my dearest friend, Amanda, and we caught up after what's been WAY too long. It's crazy to me that even after barely seeing each other for 3 months, she still understands me better than almost anyone. I guess being best friends with someone for 8 years gives you that wonderful advantage.
Jaimee and Noelle dragged me to some scary movie that night, Insidious, which really WAS scary but it was also really lame and I screamed like a child the whole time and they laughed at me but that's usually how it goes. Mark came too and it was awesome to get to know my future brother-in-law better. He is a really great guy and he and Jaim are perfect together.
Sunday was General Conference so of course we all slept in until 11, customary in the Jenkins household. We made brunch and watched about 45 minutes before my mom and I got fed up with how everyone else was asleep/snoring so we called it quits. We just hung out the rest of the day and lazed around. ("Lazy Sunday, wake up in the late afternoon" ha....) Sunday night I spent the night at Jaimee and Noelle's.
All of Monday we watched Vampire Diaries while Noelle worked on her art project. It is AWESOME. Way better than Twilight; new favorite show. I just wish we had got all caught up so I could start watching this season's episodes, but we will. Then I spent the night again.
Tuesday I took my cousin Victoria out to lunch. She is so cool. I wish we were the same age so we could have been best friends in high school because she has got it together. It sucks that we didn't grow up closer because she is a beautiful, smart, funny girl. But I'm just glad we're becoming good friends now. Later that day I went shopping with Jaimee and my mom at Scottsdale Fashion Square (why can't there be one up here?!) and discovered H&M and fell in love! Considering that I had just gotten fired and should be running on severe confidence lows, I daringly bought only the kinds of things I'd always wanted to wear but never had the guts to buy before. That seems silly, but trying something on, that on any other day you would feel totally self-conscious in, and rocking it is a great feeling. (Pictures to come of these daring outfits).
Wednesday Jaimee did my hair and my mom's. Her little salon is so cute; I love sitting in there and looking at all the peacock colors and feathers. My hair turned out so good but it's still not exactly where I want it to be yet. I think it's because I don't know exactly where I want it to be yet. I'm loving these i-tip extensions though and will replace some when I go down again in a few weeks (eek!) I love long talks with my mom and sisters. My family is just so amazing and wonderful. I am so blessed.
Thursday Travis drove down after his morning class. He is so wonderful to drive all day by himself so I could come down a few days early. Staying at my parents house without him was really weird because it brought me back to when he and I were doing long distance. At times, I kind of forgot I was married (not forgot about HIM) because it just flashed me back to a year ago's phone calls and webcam chats and "I miss you"s and "I wish you were here"s. I missed him a ton, but I didn't even realize how much until he was on his way down. He pulled into the drive way and I ran out and jumped into his arms (it was timed perfectly, movie-style) with my arms and legs around him in a full-body hug squeeking, "Oh! Oh! Oh! I love you! Oh! Oh!" Then my dad started to walk out and Travis practically dropped me on my bum. Thanks, babe!
It was so great having the family all together! Saturday, Travis and I busted out the old ping pong table and after getting frustrated (correction, after me getting frustrated) because the wind was blowing the ball everywhere (making me even worse), we moved it into the entry way, which is the best place for a ping pong, table, anyway. My family played all day and it was so fun but Travis is the undisputed champ! Mark brought his boys over later and they are such great kids and are so cute. My mom babysat baby Oscar later while Jaimee and Mark took Ben and Cecil to see Hop and Oscar is the best baby and so cute. Then my mom, dad, Travis and I and Oscar met them at In N Out after the movie but we got there before them and it was funny because people were looking at me thinking that was my baby haha. We went to Yogurtland after and then back to my parents house to play the Game of Things for a bit until it was too late and everyone had to leave.
Saturday no one could really decide what we wanted to do. Everything is so expensive. So we all just hung out and Mark brought the kids over again and we all played ping pong again and my dad made the most amazing Asian marinated pork chops in the whole world and wow they were so good. I hope that someday I am half as good of a cook as he is. He just has an amazing talent! Then we played Game of Things h-core style. We busted out a whiteboard to write everyone answer's down (mostly to help my mom who kept getting the rules mixed up!) and it got pretty racy. The best time though was when almost everyone wrote the same hilarious inside joke answer and we could not stop laughing/crying/hyperventilating. It was epic.
When Travis and I drove home the next day, I was so sad. It was hard to come back to real life knowing that real life would be so different. Living up here is hard because Mesa still feels like my home no matter where we go or how long we're here. I guess Arizona will just always be my fairytale land I can escape to.
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