Family Week: Mom

Family week has turned into Family Month since I can never get any of these posts done in a consecutive week. Oh well, it is what it is. Now its time to move on to Mom. A couple weeks ago my mom asked me why I hadn't posted about her yet. I told her that I was waiting till after I came back from Cedar Badge because then I would write all this mushy gushy stuff because I'd been gone for a week and I missed her (: Writing mushy gushy stuff about my mom is easy because she's my mom. She's the cleaner, cook, referee, taxi driver, miracle worker, nurse, psychologist, gardener, and everything else that goes into making a house a home. My mom does it all and makes it all look so good. Everyone loves my mom. She's funny, pretty, nice, and she makes everyone feel loved. All of my friends love to come over to my house because half of them come just to talk to my mom and the other half love it because my mom makes our house so much fun. Even some of my friends refer to her as Momma Hanson. Mom is silly just like Dad. That's why they get along so well. I want a marriage like my parents someday. My mom is my best friend. Being the only daughter not only has its advantages of being a Daddy's Girl. My mom and I like to go shopping and go out to lunch. We talk about friends and boys. I tell my mom pretty much everything. She likes to come in and flop on my bed so we can chat and I like to go sit in her empty jacuzzi tub when she's getting ready and talk to her. We like to paint each other's toenails and we like to watch our shows. (We love the Real Housewives, The Hills, The City, Project Runway, and just about any show that the men in our house don't like.) I like to come home and just lay on the couch with my mom and let her brush my hair and sometimes I fall asleep in her lap. When there's only two women in the house, we have to stick together.
I love my mom but not everything is always sunshine and roses. We butt heads and I get too stubborn for my own good sometimes. We're alike and that can be a problem sometimes. We're both fiesty and independent. My mom has raised me to be a strong woman and sometimes we don't see eye to eye. No matter what, my mom and I's relationship still hasn't changed. We haven't found an issue that we can't overcome yet and I doubt that we ever will. Even when we may not understand the other person, we still make up and go back to how we were with some lessons learned. My mom and I get homesick for each other and when I'm gone for a long time, we miss each other. I don't know how college is going to be but when I move out I know that my mom and I will be texting each other back and forth and will talk on the phone every week. I know that she'll be reminding me to eat good and not let strange boys into the apartment. I know that when I come home for visits we'll go out and buy things and spend time and talk about boys and friends. We'll go out to lunch and things will slide back into place as if I'd never left. And I know that when I come home I'll have my mom's lap to lay my head back on and she'll play with my hair and I'll feel about five years old again and mom will be able to fix anything.

XOXO

Back Home..

I'm back from Cedar Badge. It couldn't have been a better week..I am so blessed to have had such a great week and that I was able to meet such awesome people and grow spiritually. I know even more now that my Father in Heaven loves me so much and blesses me. I love that program with all my heart and how could I not? It's changed who I am as a person and the way I look at life. Every year I learn how to be a better leader and team player. I love those kids. We worked hard but we played harder. I miss everyone terribly but I'm glad to be home. Developing pictures today so more will follow soon.

XOXO

Family Week: Dad

Continuation of family week! So you've heard (or read) about me and my brothers right? Well, what would a family be without parents? I mean, they created us so I suppose that I should probably mention them. I'll start with Dad. My dad is a silly silly man and always has been. I'm fairly certain that a large percentage of my silliness is directly inheirited from him. Not only is my Daddy silly but he's a lot of other things. Dad is hardworking and quite funny. He's a softie sometimes but he can be Big Scary Dad when he needs to be; case in point, when my dates for dances come to pick me up, he gives them The Speech. The most common lines in The Speech is "Remember, whatever you do to her, I get to do to you." and "She looks pretty special doesn't she? Let's keep her that way because I'm not afraid to go back to prison." This year my commencement date was given the gift of a bullet with his name on it. No, I'm not making this stuff up.

Dad is a good provider and a good father. He takes the time to spend time with each of us, whether its taking someone out to lunch or making one of us go pick up takeout with him. His family is important to him and he takes care of us. My dad is strong. He holds the priesthood and I will always be thankful that he does. Because of this, my dad can give me blessings whenever I need them, whether I need comforting or I'm sick. Because of my dad being a righteous priesthood holder, I've been blessed over and over.
I've always been my daddy's girl. I mean, when there's only one daughter in the family there's not much competiton (: Just kidding, I didn't really mean that how it sounded. Anyways, my dad and I have always been close. From when I was a baby and would hide in his coat with him or hang onto his legs or when I was around five or six and we used to have our "Date Nights" and we'd go out to dinner and maybe a movie. I've been teasing my dad lately about me leaving for college and all the things I won't be around for anymore like sitting on his lap, "Dad, I won't be little forever so you have to let me sit on your lap while I can," or "Dad, one day I'll be gone and you won't be able to tuck me in anymore." (Yes, I still sit on my Dad's lap and hold his hand and yes, I do like to be tucked in at night. I don't care if I am eighteen). I know that when I blog about leaving for college I may make it sound like I'm forever leaving or dying or something final but many things will change when I leave for college. I won't be living at home any more and I can't call my Dad everytime I need help or whenever I'm having car problems. I won't be the same little girl. But the one thing that won't change is that as soon as I get home, Dad and I will go out to lunch and catch up and maybe, just maybe he'll tuck me in on my overnight visits to home.

XOXO

Countdown

Guess what?! I leave on Saturday! Week of camping, hiking, rafting, and having fun (: Cannot waaaaaaaait....

XOXO

Family Week: Kyle

Kyle is my older brother, who is now currently almost twenty-one. He'll be coming home from his mission in November and he's been serving in the Nashville, TN mission. The relationship that I have with Kyle is completely different from the relationship I have with Alex. Alex and I have more of a silly, goofy relationship while the one between Kyle and I is more about talking and bouncing ideas off of each other. Kyle is the one brother I always went to when I was having boy problems and when I was mad and needed someone to vent to. Kyle is very protective of me and it goes both ways. Whenever a boy made me cry, Kyle was always more than willing to go give him a talking to and was willing to get the fists out if it was needed (it never was). As I mentioned before, Kyle and I would do things to tick each other off. Repeatedly. We both know the best ways to get under the other's skin and we're good at it. I remember one instance where we were fighting (once again) and he told me to get out of the car. I smartly replied "You can't kick me out of the car because imagine what Mom will say when you come home without me. You'll just have to come back and pick me up anyways. Save yourself a trip." Oh yes, we're very good at bugging each other. But even though we're good at picking on each other, we have a lot of fun together. Kyle is the one who will go with me on The Scrambler and the fair when no one else will. Kyle will take me out on drives just so we can drive around. Kyle would bring me Jones sodas and treats when I was feeling sad. Kyle gave me Domo (story will continue later).

Kyle has the attitude of an older brother. The protective, all-knowing, Kyle-knows-best older brother. But its not always bad. Kyle knew what was best when we were building forts and we ended up with a great summer. Kyle knew what was best when I fell off my bike and needed a band-aid. Kyle knew best when I was sad and crying over a boy and he told me, "Randi, it may seem like he matters but he really doesn't. He doesn't matter." Kyle knew best when he was seven and I was four and he was showing me the best way to pretend paint your toenails (you didn't hear that from me). Now that Kyle has been gone for two years, it'll be intresting to see how our relationship has changed and grown. When Kyle left I was sixteen, a little lost, and liking yet another boy that wasn't good for me (I soon would find out, so don't worry your little hearts about me). I've gone to the majority of my school dances, had my senior year, cried over enough boys, changed friends, had new experiences and graduated without Kyle here. But I have a feeling that when he walks off that plane, a big spider monkey hug will take place and he'll slip into the Kyle-knows-best phase as soon as my next date will walk through the door (:

XOXO

Family Week: Cheeko

I haven't posted much about my family besides the fact that I have two awesome parents but this week its going to be Family Week. Besides my parents, our family consists of my older brother Kyle, me, and my younger brother Alex, affectionatly known as "Cheeko". Now the word chico means little boy in spanish but I like my spelling of C-h-e-e-k-o better. Today, I'm going to post about Cheeko a.k.a Alex. Alex and I are about three years apart so he's just getting ready to start high school whereas I just left. Watching him grow up has been harder than watching Kyle grow up because Alex has always just been a little boy to me. Now that he's getting older we've moved past sharing Hot Wheels cars and playing house (you didn't hear that from me) and now we've moved towards pushing each other's buttons. What?! Siblings fight and try to tick each other off?! That's unheard of! Oh yes, you better believe it.
Cheeko is teaching me about being the older sister. I remember Alex and I had gotten into a huge fight and we were in the making up stage and I remember telling him something that I realized in that moment. I told him that we needed to be more patient with each other because I had never been the older sister before. Now, you may think "Of course she's been the older sister before, she's older than he is, it's not like they've been the same age!" but I really have never been the older older sister before. Being an older sister when you're five years old and your younger brother is your pretend puppy is a lot different than being the older sister when you're eighteen and your younger brother has a good couple inches on you. Like I told him, I used to do things to Kyle that I knew would tick him off and he would do it back because he was older and I was younger. Now its come to the point where Alex and I do it because I'm older and he's younger and it's a little different than bothering your older brother. I know that I'm not a perfect sister and I know that I could be much nicer to him sometimes. I could grumble a little less about his messes and stop with the "Why not him?" but I'm doing the best I can sometimes and I think that's enough. We're not all the Brady Bunch and that's okay. What's the fun in eternal families if there's not a little excitement every now and then?
Cheeko is an affectionate little soul and he enjoys doing things with me that I have never done with Kyle. We like to sing and dance in the car together and we like to take pictures together. We wrestle (it's like WW Smackdown at our house sometimes) and sometimes he is my cat (that's a story for another time). He likes to give me piggybacks around the house and sometimes we secretly like to watch Disney Channel. We've been in this stage where we fight a lot and his new favorite come-back is "Well, I can't wait till you go to college!" but I know that he is going to miss me and that I am going to miss my Cheeko. I have a feeling that I may have a tag-along to USU football and basketball games and I'm more than okay with that because like that line from Finding Nemo (with a few alterations): "I shall call him Cheeko and he shall be mine and he shall be my Cheeko. Come on, Cheeko. Come on, little Cheeko."

XOXO

Romance With A Store? It's Target Time!

Ahh..Target. My one true love. Anyone who knows me knows that I adore Target. If only we could have a Super Target here and then my life might just be near to completion (I still have a few other things on the list of course like maybe marriage or something I guess..)
Dear Target,
You are wonderful, and shiny, and beautiful! You can make me spend money like no one else can. Your wonderful products make their way onto the checkout belt and my wallet opens before you can blink an eye. Now, I'm not trying to bag on you because we both know the wonderful things you've given me.
Like that purse that's a dark mustard yellow and we love it so much? I can pack everything in here. And yes, I do mean everything.

Or that dark grey tee-shirt you gave me this week that is super soft and super long and absolutely perfect AND was ten dollars? It's my new favorite.

Or how about those gladiator sandals. Shiny..enough said.

Oh Target, how I love you. I'm cutting off this letter now because if I gush anymore about you I may have a Target craving. You're wonderful and I'll come visit soon. Oh and don't worry about other people finding out about our wonderful relationship. I'm willing to share (:

XOXO


DISCLAIMER: I know that some of these products are not the color that I purchased but I just wanted to show everyone my beautiful new things. Use your imaginations people (:

Registering For Life

So this weekend my parents and I drove down to Logan so that I could register for college! Aaaah! It's like registering for life! We went down Thursday afternoon after I got off work and stayed at a hotel that night because I had to take a test early Friday morning before I registered. I got a big queen sized bed all to myself and I looooved it (even though Dad snores). Dad and I got up and he drove me to the college early in the morning. I'll be the first to admit that I was freaking out because I was so nervous. It's something different and change is really hard for me sometimes. I had a hard time going around campus by myself but my parents were gracious and came and ate lunch with me (: I registered for all my classes and the whole thing was still feeling very surreal. I'm still just too little to go to college.
But what a gorgeous campus! There are flowers and trees and sculptures and fountains everywhere! Even the area surrounding my apartment is gorgeous! I can't wait till I find out who my room mates are and then I can go down and decorate my apartment. I know that I'm going to struggle the first while because I'm really close to my parents and I'm a homebody sometimes. I'm sure that my parent's phone will be ringing quite a bit the first month.
It was surreal, scary, fun weekend.

Lettters to Juliet? Not quite...Letters to Everyday People

Dear Black Jeep People,
Thank you for creating a space for me to get out of my parking lot into the road. Without you there, the other vultures on the road would have passed me by and I would have been stuck there forever.

Dear Best Buy,
Next time you see a blonde girl wandering aimlessly through the printers and printer cartridges, you might want to help her. I understand that you may have been very busy, so I will forgive you because I found what I desired.
P.S. I know that you play music in the back to show off your incredibly super cool steros but you might want to turn down that goth music just a smidge. It's a little intimidating.

Dear Woman In Parking Lot,
Please do not look at me as if I am blatantly trying to run you over. I stopped far far away from you and still you gave me the strangest look and grabbed your kid's arm and ran like the dickens. Next time, I'll honk.
P.S. You have weird hair and you shouldn't wear a mumu in public. Just sayin'.

Dear Guy at Wal-Mart,
I'd appreciate it if you would not stare at me for so long next time. It makes one quite uncomfortable and prompted my to do a quick teeth/nose/hair/clothing check. Once I found nothing, I found you quite weird.

Dear Guy in Non-Signaling Truck,
You cannot be mad at me if I didn't let you into my lane. You neglected to SIGNAL, SIGNALING that you wanted to turn into my lane. That's what the SIGNAL is for because when you SIGNAL and play by the rules, you get into the lane because you SIGNALED. Get the picture? I'm not a mind reader.

Dear Sulking Girl,
I hope you were having a productive day sitting in the foyer of my office building sulking but next time when you see a young woman who is trying to open both sets of doors while carrying a large mirror, a potted plant, a clock, and her purse, you may want to help her out and hold the door open instead of staring at me with your headphones in your ears. I even smiled at you and you still sat there. Kids these days.

Dear Little Boy,
You were riding your bike in my neighborhood when I was coming home and as I slowed down for you, you made my heart smile. With your legs pumping and you mouth open,
you were singing/yelling to the world. It made my afternoon.

Dear Mother Nature,
I don't know what's going on right now like if you just broke up with someone or if you're just having a bad day but this whole inconsistent weather thing needs to stop. It's time to stop moping and move on with life. Go take a Midol and let the sun out. Thanks!

Sincerly,

Got Boredom? Blog!

Here I am just hanging out at work feeling..unproductive. I work as a assistant so when I finish my tasks for the day and there's nothing else to do what do I turn to? Bloggin! I wish that I had funny stories about children and such but you're stuck with Randi Hanson, the eighteen year old high school graduate. Status: Single, childless, and apparently lifeless because she blogs at work. Eh, oh well because if you're reading this than apparently you couldn't peel your eyes away from the life of one such character. Of course, it's probably a good thing that I'm not blogging about having children because if one will notice the status mentioned above, it may not be proper. Ahem, single and eighteen. Anyways, back to the blog. Well, today has been fairly uneventful. Prayed that I would make it to work this morning because my "check gauges" light was on (I was close to no gas but thankfully I made it to the gas station an hour later). I ran errands with my gloriously full gas tank (My life is facsinating isn't it?). Ah, the life of a working girl haha. Memorial weekend was uneventful for the most part, I spent it with my familia'. We went and saw "Prince of Persia". I'll admit it, I enjoyed Jake Gyllenhal's rippling muscules (: We went and did graves and even drove out to Mackay to visit Grandma's grave. I'm am completely convinced that the hymn that mentions "And we hear the desert singing, carry on, carry on, carry on!" was written for Arco and Mackay. That place would require some singing. But I will also admit that I think the cemetary in Mackay is beautiful. If cemetaries are allowed to be beautiful of course. I wish that I could leave you with some feeling of having accomplished a great task by reading this but sadly, I cannot. Thank you for wasting some time on my blog. Feel free to drop by again (:

Month of May..are you ready for this?

I cannot believe that I haven't posted since the beginning of this month! How embarrassing. Actually, not really because I doubt that anyone even really reads this but still it's been one of the busiest months of my life and I didn't even record it. Naughty naughty Randi. ALOT has changed this month. I turned eighteen, went to my last school dance, had my last day of high school, graduated from seminary and TA-DA! I graduated high school! I cannot even express how thankful I am for my family and my friends. My birthday was stellar and even though the weekend was insane I still had a great birthday. I turned eighteen on May 14th and my parents treated me like a princess :) (We've been joking all month that we should rename it Randi because it's been all about me this month). I went out to lunch with my parents and my friends sang/yelled "Happy Birthday" to me at lunch. The newspaper staff got me a cake and my parents got me balloons that I had to carry around all day. Later that night I had a Cedar Badge camp out which was a little more purposeful because we were trying to plan our trek. I didn't stay the night because Commencement a.k.a Prom was the next day and my parents told me that I would want to get to bed at a good time and shower that night...hmm suspicious. My date and our friends woke me up the next more at 5:50 a.m. and they had a recorder so they could video our cranky faces. We went to breakfast at one friend's house and then they took us to the mysterious day date. It was so mysterious because they didn't tell us all week what we were doing. Ready for this? We went CAVING at the Civil Defense Caves in St. Anthony. It was one of the BEST dates I have ever had besides Josh's crazy driving :) We climbed all over and went into a tunnel called Fat Man's Terror and then we lit off fire works and sprayed glow sticks everywhere.
Later that night was the dance and I have to tell you what a trooper my date was. Parker is the senior class president so he ended up making sure everything for the dance went well and it wasn't going well! The poor kid ended up picking me up an hour late because of all the problems going on. I was fine with it though and my dad gave him the "talk" which included giving him a bullet with Parker's name on it haha. We went to the dance and had an AWESOME time and I loved wearing my new sneakers that matched my dress.
The next day was seminary graduation and that was hard for me. I've loved seminary so much over the years and I honestly don't know if I would have made it through high school in good condition without it. We went to Lagoon this Tuesday and had our senior celebration. I've got to admit that I've a huge baby when it comes to roller coasters but I sucked it up and went on every single ride my friends went on even though The Rocket and Samuri had me whimpering a bit haha.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010 I graduated from Bonneville High School. It was a little strange because I didn't really feel like I was graduating. My parents ordered my a flower lei from Hawaii and I wore that and felt special. I had to sit on the stage because I'm a senior class officer so during the program I looked out at my fellow graduates and I tried to think what I knew about every single person. I wish I would have been more friendly the past few years like I was this year. I'm so glad that I was in a lot of extra curricular activities this year because I got to know more of my school and we really had a great senior class this year. No one did pranks during the program! I cried a little bit when it was over and I was hugging everyone but it was because I realized how much I really loved my friends.
Last in the month of Randi was the senior all nighter. I loved having this chance to spend some more time with my classmates even though I didn't get home till 5:00a.m. and I went to work at 8:00a.m.
What a beautiful, crazy, happy, emotional, mile-stone, life changing, insane, busy, hilarious, and absolutely memorable month.



Climbing in Fat Man's Terror

The Sneakers


Seminary Graduation

Graduate

What? No diploma?

Senior All-Nighter

Crafty Crafty Week...

What a busy week yet again! My week was all sorts of busy AND crafty! Who knew? Tuesday, I worked on a senior quilt for Young Women's and it turned out great except for our minor miscalculation. For a full quilt we needed 6 yards of fabric and we had 3 yards of each fabric! Oops! Thankfully, one of my leaders ROCKS at making quilts and my wonderful mother ran and got us more fabric! It turned out pretty darn cute if I do say so myself! Wednesday, my mom and I met up with my grandma in her ward and learned how to make watchbands. Who knew it was so easy? I mean, all you have to do is find some beads and string them up right and voila'! You have a cute watch band for way cheaper than buying one! I couldn't resist the cute green beads and then I had to have a brown one because I wear brown all the time!
Now to a different sort of crafty...my loving parents got a car for me to drive to college! Great right? It took me by surprise because for anyone who knows me, you know that I absolutely ADORE my other car, Beast. So because of that factor, I've been kinda struggling with the whole first car syndrome because again, I love Beast haha! I know that I'm INSANE because I'm probably the only teenager in the world who doesn't want a new car but what can I say? It's just one of those things I'm different about! I've been slowly getting used to the idea and who knows, maybe I'll bond with this car too.