my name is rachel and i'm a hoarder

"...hi rachel."

The last week of my life has been dedicated to many important things. Reading Harry Potter duh. trekking to Provo for a few days of work, singing to Katy Perry's new single, working out phone and money stuff for Ukraine like a pro, eating Oreos, having dishrag whipping wars with Caroline oh i lost bad. and have the welt to prove it trying sushi for the first time in my life holla!, and sleeping at ridiculous hours. 

I've also gone through all of my possessions at least three times, trying to get rid of clothes that I didn't even remember existed, figuring out just how many different hair softening products I need, and debating whether I will ever want to don that ring from 7th grade that has googly eyes embedded in it. i mean, maybe? I've given away bags of clothes and have sufficiently organized my jewelry into what could pass as acceptable apparel for my age. Maybe.

But the one thing I cannot and will not give away? Notes. Letters. Tickets. Valentines. Birthday greetings. Anything that anyone has ever written me. I will go through my box of cards every year, trying to see what I could throw out in an attempt to streamline my hoard, but every time I keep them all. And it's because I read them all. And I smile and I tear up and I laugh and I remember and I put that little piece of paper right back where it was.

I remember the cards I have thrown out in previous years, when I lost all sense of nostalgia and sentiment for an hour and went on a recycling rampage. I regret those rampages already because I miss all those little notes and encouragement and tokens of love.

So, if you have ever written me one of those things, thank you. Whether you signed it, left it anonymous, wrote on the back of a napkin or folded it into a swan, I kept it. And it still means so much to me.

peace and cheetos

rrw

home again home again

This last weekend I moved back to Salt Lake. I'll be there for the next two and a half weeks before I board a plane to go adventure abroad for the rest of the year. As it gets closer and closer, I get more and more excited. There might be a hint of terror in there too, but that's what makes it even more exciting. You know, like when you're waiting in line to go on the scariest slide at the water park and you know it's going to be terrifying and your heart is going to hate you because you'll basically be free falling but you have to do it anyway because you just do. am i the only one that feels this way about that dang slide? fine. whatever. i'm a wimp.

But being home has been wonderful, and it's only been two days. The carpet in my home is so soft, I could just sleep on the floor and be fine but then I'd be missing out on the massive bed I have all to my own. The water in the shower is always warm, no matter how long I stay in there. There's always ice cream in the freezer and all the elderly people in the ward are nice to me. I can just go up one flight of stairs to tease my little sister, even if this means she only has to go down one flight of stairs to do the same to me. I get to pretend I can still play the piano anytime I want and my dad even thanks me for playing while my mom plans backpacking hiking trips for us to take next weekend. I also get to take the scoot-scoot on evening rides up the canyon, which is basically in our backyard. Caroline joins me and we laugh as we barely inch up the hill while having the gas on full throttle.

Oh that little scoot. It's my crush of the week for sure. fo sho.

she's in tune with nature.

So now I'm missing my real camera and am committing myself to taking it out with me on my next Millcreek visit. Just so you know.

peace and baseball games. 

totes going to one with my bff tonight. #yesssssss <------- oh, and feel free to say that in Parseltongue. I did.

rrw

babysitting in style

Today I'm wearing a pink and white stripped shirt with...green? pants. I actually don't know what color they are. Dark mint? Seafoam? Moss on the Pine? Whatever. The point is that I'm two days away from moving out of my apartment and all my clothes are packed up or already strewn about the guest room at my parent's home. So I'm wearing pink stripes with Jungle Green pants. Because I mean, why not? People's retinas are screaming with reasons why not but I don't have to look at myself so why should I worry about it? This is also my reasoning behind the ponytail and zero makeup I'm proudly displaying. Plus I have plans to go to the water park after work, so that's just double reason to not get ready.

Want to know another outfit I dawned recently? Too bad. It was my prom dress. No joke. It happened. I was in Salt Lake over the weekend, swinging in the hammock with squirmy babies, feeding squirmy babies, reading the Berenstein Bears to squirmy babies and taking squirmy babies on drives all the way down the Wasatch front. ah but i love those squirmy babies. But the point was that I had a wedding to go to and no appropriately-formal-enough attire. So I went to the closet of things I've always kept at my parents. And pulled out my prom dress. The prom dress my mom handmade for me and I love. I put it on, surprised my whole family that I could still fit into it, (thanks guys) and went to the wedding, where the compliments were given in such a way that I committed to wearing that dress every day for the rest of my life. (Except today, because I'm already wearing pink and Croaking Toad Green)

^^^this is the prom dress^^^

This was an important weekend because the baby pictured above, my little cousin, finally started calling me by my name and not just staring at me and running away. And her younger sister actually came to me to be picked up. I guess she had no other choice, but it still made me so happy to see her crawl towards me, reach my feet and look up at me with expectation. I would wait just long enough to take in the moment before swooping down to pick her up and let her squirm in my arms. ohmygosh i sound like a mom. i'm not even dating anyone! calm down rach.

Just to clarify, I'm not "baby hungry" at all. I've just never been the one of my friends who absolutely loved babies. I mean, I DO love babies, but during church classes I just preferred to listen and comment on the lesson rather than tend the teacher's baby. So now that I feel like I really do love babies I have to acknowledge the fact that maybe I'm finally growing up...ish.

Plus this might be me advertising my ability with babies so that my sister and brother-in-law will trust me with their child when the time comes. #auntrachel #abouttime

peace and jonsi

rrw

hunters and harry

-Many months ago I went on a search for Lay's Chicken and Waffles flavored chip. My pursuits proved fruitless and I was left without. This week, however, a dear friend of mine presented me with the chips I had almost completely forgotten about. I was ecstatic and flattered that she remembered how desperately I desired to try these things. And try them I did. The first bite is bad. The second better. And then it just goes up from there. Think...salty syrup.

-While hiking alone in the rain on Wednesday I decided I wanted my hair up, but had no elastic anywhere near. So what you're looking at in that second picture is the concoction I whipped up. Yes, my hair is tied around a stick I found on the trail. And it worked like a gem. I think the rather fit young man running the trail without a shirt on was impressed. I mean, aren't you?

-The following morning I woke up early-ish to go frolic in the mountains again. It was beautiful. After hiking a short ways I had this crazy thought to run. I immediately acted on that because it's rare for me to feel that way. I hung my backpack (containing all my things ie keys, phone, wallet, breakfast) on a branch so I wouldn't miss it on the way down and ran on. I now realize how stupid that was. But then a nice hunter man and his son stopped me along the trail back and asked if I was Rachel, pulling my backpack out from behind them and handing it over to me. So right now I'm grateful for nice, honest people who don't steal my car and eat my banana, who pull out their phones to show me their latest kill and who basically invite me to go hunting with them. Maybe next time boys.

-The Harry Potter marathon continues on. And oh what a joy it is.

peace and rainstorms

rrw

this is happening

This morning I got an email.
In that email was a link.
That link showed me the following:

And now I have to go find an adapter. But seriously you guys. This is actually happening. You have less than a month to take me on that date you've always wanted to take me on or invite me over for dinner or give me that massage or take me out for sushi i've yet to try it or have me as your road trip buddy. You have less than a month to try to beat me at the Avalanche Racer at Seven Peaks Water Park. Less than a month to take a joy ride in Sneaky. Less than a month to have me over for a sleepover or go with me to the drive-in movies or hike with me to the top of Timpanogos.

Less than a month people. Contact me before it's too late and my schedule is too full with important things like naps and Stephen Colbert, because I'd love to fit you in.


peace and
....ok. there is no peace. i'm too dang excited.

rrw

a look into the galaxy*

*the title of the post was chosen because almost every single thing represented in this post came from my phone, the samsung galaxy. so i thought it would be clever. and i couldn't think of anything else. so go with it?

Happy Monday everyone. I'm not entirely sure what the theme of this post is going to be. It could be the crush of the week, #nomakeupmonday, the events of my weekend, how I'm doing with the Harry Potter marathon I've got going, or the terrible dream I had last night that made me wake up with my heart beating faster than ever, convincing me that I was about to have a heart attack. stupid heart murmur. freaking me out. 

Anyway, it might just end up being all of the above. And you know what? I'm going to make it a bullet list of sorts. Because the whole connecting thoughts thing isn't going to fly right now. Let's begin.


~Maybe we should all meander over to the campus food court. My sources tell me that the new Chik-fil-a there is open for the first time today, and my sources are never wrong because my sources are my tastebuds.

~At one point over the weekend I found myself on the couch watching Becoming Jane by myself. It was quite late. I might have shed tears. And immediately sent a text to my best friend who I knew would understand, seeing as the first time we saw it in theaters she sobbed for almost a half hour after the show had ended.

Here's another conversation we had. This is pretty typical.

We should probably work on our self-esteem huh? We're just way too hard on ourselves and each other.

#worldsgreatest #rkelly

~Speaking of Becoming Jane, James McAvoy is totally the crush of the week. He kind of even reminds me of a friend of mine...

~Last week I decided I needed to reread the Harry Potter masterpieces. My dear friend has the complete set and is letting me borrow them and it's been magical. Literally. Here are a few moments from my reading thus far:

I always thought this was clever and funny.

That awesome moment when you realize the Weasley twins hit Voldemort in the face with snowballs repeatedly.

And this always gives me chills.

~Maybe it's all the Harry Potter in my life recently that's giving me bad dreams. After receiving an email late at night in which Bathilda Bagshot was discussed, I then proceeded to have the worst nightmare of my life. I was alone in a sort of hotel/hospital/jail type place. As I climbed the stairs and made my way down a hall, a hunched figure turned the corner and stared at me. I turned and immediately began running down the stairs which became and endless staircase that kept bringing me back to this:

ererrrghgggghghh

~I don't want to leave off on that ^^^^ note, so here are some pictures from the most recent wedding I attended. Yeah, I'm a moron and didn't get one with the bride and groom, but they looked spectacular, as did the mountains. And I got to do some selfies with this girl so it's all good.

Little Cottonwood Canyon

 Snowbird.

Let the skiing season begin already.

And then this guy tried to photobomb us doing a selfie so we just asked him to join in.

#fatherofthegroom #hemightworkforthecia #wedontknow #uneasyface

peace and water parks

gotta hit that place up all week

rrw

totes the best fam vacay

The Weiler family is known far and wide for the fun vacations we go on.

...Ok, so maybe not, but we should be. To throwback to just one of these vacations is an injustice to my childhood. I mean, do I choose the three day river-rafting trip down class 5 rapids when we slept on the side of the Colorado River and lost our guide's bocci ball? Or do I write about our road-trip to Mt. Rushmore when my parents totally rented a CruiseAmerica vehicle and we duck-taped a full on TV to the side of it so we could watch movies like rednecks? But then there are all the little local trips to Moab, Bear Lake, and Capitol Reef during Easter break when we had to hunt for our Easter baskets in the cliffs of the National and State Parks. And I can't forget about the trip to Virginia and our 9 hour drive to see the wild ponies of Chincoteague Island and they ended up being tied to a post.

We've hiked through Canada and biked in Colorado. We've lounged on the beach in Seaside and we've ziplined through the jungle in Puerto Vallarta. We've walked through Historical Williamsburg during a rainstorm and we've had marshmallow gun wars in the goblins of Goblin Valley. We've ventured through slot canyons in Kanab and we've para-glided in Mexico. We've boated in Montana, swum in the natural springs of South Dakota, rappelled in Southern Utah, taken in the grandeur of Glacier, stuck our feet over the side of Halfdome in Yosemite Valley, and shot guns at the Sun Valley Gun Club.

And all of these have stories and stories and stories to go with them, which make for terrible dinner conversation because you end up laughing so hard you can't even enjoy the Thai Peanut Chicken shish kabobs.

But the best? Maybe the best was when we were in Cancun and going to visit a monkey reservation in the depths of the jungle. As soon as we got out of the car, monkeys attacked. They stole Rebecca's sunglasses, climbed on our car, and teased us endlessly- much to the amusement of the other families sitting safely in their minivans. We were dealing with the situation and laughing it off, when the last straw was reached.

My little sister, about 6 or 7 at the time, came face to face with a monkey twice as big as she was. She turned and started running away as fast as she could, but the monkey was faster. It went chasing after her, arms raised above it's head like a full on ghoul-monkey and screeching at the top of its lungs. We all stared in disbelief while my brother sprang to action. Picking up a nearby log stick, Spencer went chasing after the monkey chasing after Caroline, swinging the tree he had uprooted and yelling at the monkey screeching at Caroline who was crying. we never knew spencer could be so protective.

In the end, we were all ok. Spencer was almost arrested for threatening wildlife and a monkey bit all the beads off my recently braided hair.

Good times in Mexico.

peace and vacations

rrw