Stomach vs Social Life

I've been trying to get back into the habit of visiting friends. I have been out of commission for a while with what I initially thought was the stomach flu. I didn't visit people because if what I had was something that could be shared, I didn't want to be that generous. I kept it to myself and kept myself to myself.

As time went on and things didn't just work themselves out, I came to realize that somehow I'd developed food allergies. I couldn't eat anything with wheat or dairy in it. No fun. But I know people who have to deal with that on a daily basis, either for themselves or their loved ones. So I just did my best to figure things out to make my insides happy. The answer that worked for me was a round of probiotics, several vitamins, and completely cutting off dairy and wheat for two weeks. Guess what? It seems to be working.

I have started to reintroduce a greater variety of foods into my diet, and I'm working on reintroducing myself to some of my long lost friends.

Jon's childhood neighbor's the Van de Merwe's came through. We had enough time to meet up for a sandwich picnic-style lunch at the St. George temple. But first Jan had to get his hair cut. They were on their way north to visit his parents and they are "strict old-style Dutch" according to Martha. So, it was time for a hair cut. And the place closest to the Jimmy John's that we'd selected to grab lunch from was this dinky barber shop. It was awesome.

Check out that barber!

Jan and Marth on the temple stairs.

I think Martha was close to tears once they got done giving her husband a "missionary" hair cut, but then it was time to hang out on the temple grounds, and that makes everything better. We caught up on life and gawked at all the wedding parties circling the grounds. There was one girl with full-on cowgirl boots-- not the cute ones with girly colors or bling, just straight up country.

It just so happened that some of the missionaries that we know were working the Visitor's Center that afternoon. Martha was so excited to get to meet Sister Carnahan (who is in our area now and with whom I go teaching from time to time) and Sister Hyde (who taught Jon back when he was learning about the LDS faith last year). So of course, we had to take a photo.

Sisters Carnahan and Hyde (and us)

L to R: Jan, Martha, Janel, Jon

I've also had the chance to hang out with my good friend Rachel. We ended up going to the What Women Want Expo in St. George one of the times. Other than the company, it wasn't all that great. That night Jon and I took our friend Chad out for his birthday. He had been wanting to play laser tag forever, but we ended up watching a movie instead, which was just fine by me. (No photos for those events.)



On the 25th I saw my friend Ashlie from Salt Lake. We hadn't seen one another face to face in oh, about two years. We met up for cupcakes. She is as cute as ever and so fun to talk to--we ended up chatting until after they'd closed for the night and they were vacuuming. (We had a lot to catch up on.)  And the cupcakes were really tasty, too.

Two days later, it was time to say goodbye to Chad. He accepted a seasonal position at Cape Cod and will be gone the rest of the summer, if not longer. He stopped by the house to say bye and to grab a few things that he'd left at our place. 

Chad's sad face.

Realizing that I wasn't going to get sick also left me open to see Sophia Elle for the first time. She came earlier than Rebekah or anyone was anticipating, but she's a cute healthy little doll. 

No flash, and kind of blurry.

Add flash, and I'm shiny as all get out.

And finally, I got to help out with a wedding this past Thursday. Holly from my ward got married. She had been in the YW organization and her mother, Sandy is the Young Women's President. Their whole family is really sweet. Sandy does SO much to make sure that the YW activities go off without a hitch, that I really wanted to help her out in any way I could. So I went to work in the kitchen among some other really amazing women. I was glad to hang out with my pal Marcy again. I recently took her place as the YW 1st counselor and I really miss her presence in the group. She's always so on top of everything. Maybe some day I can be that together. :) So, my one photo from that evening is me working with Marcy on sandwiches.

We cut and skewered countless numbers of sandwiches.

I was exhausted by the end of that night, but it felt really good to help out. I still can only handle a couple of hours of activity, and running around Sandy's huge house, smiling, and arranging sandwiches and cakebites made me a tired girl.

Anyway, if I haven't seen you in ages (and you live close) I am super sorry. But I am trying to make amends. I've been especially missing Chrissy and hope to see her real soon. And to all the friends I have gotten to see-- hurray! It was so good to see you. :)