finally a new, but nothing real exciting...post:)

(these are just some of the pictures from my little get-together, sorry a lot of them are blurry :/)

It is most definitely time for a new post. I think it made my year when my sweet brother Reagan told me to update my blog...which means he reads it...while on the other hand every time I tell my mom to read my post she answers with "you have a blog??" haha my poor overloaded mother :)

Anyway I turned 21...I am so old. I had a last minute get-together at my house and my intentions were to have the people closest to me (including my mia maids) join us in our low key celebration. I've always known that the majority of my friends are older but my little get-together confirmed it. How blessed I am to have the friends that I do...seriously no one will ever know the impact they have on my life.

So in my attempt to create something to write about, I'm trying to decide if I should honestly write how life is currently going, or promote optimism, or... recap funny excerpts from the past few weeks...yeah that sounds good.

So I'm going to jot down a few instances that have made my world go round:

-Jordan (7 year old sister) runs with me on the canal about once a week and does the first mile along side me. So this week I was preparing her i-pod for her by putting her primary song/Disney play list on but for some reason the ipod was malfunctioning. So while I puttered around, trying to get it to operate Jordan responded "It's okay Jos, I'll just listen to the birds while I run." Pretty much adorable.

-I was trying to bond with Lola Bird (my fat rabbit) and while she pretended to be my friend, just when I wasn't paying attention, she snagged the carrot out of my hand, hopped just far enough away from me that I could not reach her, and then stuck her bum at me and shook it. No joke, my rabbit is a snob.

-the daddy long leg spider that has been living in the corner of my bathroom finally disappeared hopefully by virtue of bug spray and not by relocation

-It's that time of year I basically stop shaving :)

-there has been a new addition to my green check engine light..there is a new, more dominating red check engine light that compliments my car Christmas decor quite nicely

-I wore make up today, first time in a long time

-in order to stay conscious and mobile in the freezing cold house of Lisa Thompson (who thinks it is a game to see how long we can go into the winter without using the heater), I purchased a new heating pad and that has added much joy to my life :)

-the other day I got reprimanded for not posting the "half off Saturdays" at goodwill, on the family calendar...dead serious

-And last but not least, just when I thought I couldn't be more indebted to my good parents, I am. Hopefully no one will know just what they've gone through this past year, but my goodness they are SAINTS!! I love them and the rest of my family dearly :)

dogs, cats, and rabbits oh my

So I'm told I'm like a terrible person for finding 99.9% of animals repulsive, but I want those that think I have no heart for not liking beasts that smell terrible...to know that I have had over 7 dogs over the years (note: how long the animals actually lasted at our house, irrelevant), 9 cats (started / with 2 cats, but my mom didn't want to spend money getting them fixed and figured cats had morals and believed in abstinence...2 pregnancies later we had 9 cats), list continued: over a dozen rabbits, 4 turtles (my favorite animal thus far...zero maintenance), 1 frog, countless fish (we lose interest fastest with fish...needless to say they don't have a long life expectancy rate at our house)...and probably more animals...but I can't remember. Anyway please know that I do aspire to find a dog one day that will suit my needs:
Wanted: a big enough dog to keep me safe from creepers on the canal and big enough for me to ride, a dog that will obey with exactness, never barks, doesn't poop, doesn't shed but isn't long haired, smells fresh and can brush it's own teeth, doesn't eat a ton, kills scorpions, attracts cute boys but keeps the neighborhood kids and home teachers away (haha I know Brother Brenchley reads this so that's just for him :) he's wonderful)...a dog that listens to me and only me, does cool tricks so that I can get on the Letterman show, a dog that can deal with my affection inconsistencies (usually pertaining to the weather...if it's hot, don't touch me) a dog that will eat mom's left over "mystery casserole"...(food usually given to us to take home after someone moves or a funeral or food storage that is 10 years past expiration and needs to be used up before weevils completely devour it...uhhh) oh yeah and a dog that does not lick or go completely crazy when someone rings the door bell...that's so annoying. Well if anyone knows of one of these dogs in existence...give me a shout out.

Mingle with the shingles

Jenessa and me playing

Me, after playing with Jenessa

(and FINALLY...now...16 years later...look I have a map of the US on my back haha...ps shingles don't typically look like this but it's all blochy because.... well I'm too embarrassed to say what I did, but anyway I only perpetuated it.)

I just wanted to publicly thank (amongst the 3 people that actually read my blog) my mother who back in 1992 insisted that I walk 2 houses down to the neighbors and play with my good friend Jenessa. I was more than happy to comply, but was still a little unsure as to why my mother would be so enthused about my attendance to a typical play date. So my mom eagerly walked me over..while aggressively steering me with her hand, as though she was anxious about something unknown to me. Much to my surprise Jenessa greeted me at the door with these strange red dots all over her. I looked up at my mom puzzled and my confusion only grew when my mom said in an attempted sweet but more demanding voice "hug her and kiss her on the cheek"...so almost frightened by my mother's forcefulness, I, being the obedient 4 year old that I was, quickly obeyed and then went inside to engage in a fun game of house or play with pogs or whatever kids did in the 90's. Anyway a few days later I was taking a bath when I noticed some semi-familiar dots on my own body. So when I approached my mother with this inquiry regarding the origin of these dots, my mother almost with an approving smug grin, attempted to display grief when she declared that I had indeed contracted the chicken pox. So fast forward 16 years later... Just recently I began feeling this chronic pain in my back and after a trip to the chiropractor and then to the doctor; concluded that it must be attributed to the running I do-so with a little ice I'd be fine. But then a few days later I developed some kind of rash on my back and then we knew: shingles!

Though it's quite painful (my back blistered just today, so the burning started) its still nothing short of comical and we've all had a good laugh about me being 100 yrs old. The only reason we were able to recognize it as shingles was because my 83 year old grandmother once had the virus. Of course I'm kidding about it being my moms fault that I ever got chicken pox in the first place. Her defense, when asked about why she subjected me to the the chicken pox, was so I could get it over with before I started school....so fair enough. However when I asked her about the vaccination shot I could have have potentially had...she plead the 5th, but anyway I still love her :) she's taken great care of me!

Just to name a few...

haha...

Ever had one of those days where its pretty tough, but then out of no where you are just overwhelmed with love and gratitude for your blessings? Every time I feel blessing-deficient, all I have to do is begin naming off those people in my life that bring me joy. My mom would attest that I am always beginning my sentences with "Do you know who I love??" (in a platonic way of course, my "love life" is non-existent) or "Guess who I think is the best?" or some kind of rendition of the question that follows with the answer of someone I recently encountered or someone who I've known forever and was just reminded of how amazing they are. So just to name a few: ...ps of course this is not all, in fact this became a long process so I didn't even come close to posting everyone/nor do I even have a picture of everyone, but the point is valid: Josie=blessed

pps: the reality just hit, the majority of my friends/icons are all a lot older than me..one day I'll have friends my own age :)

our crazy, but awesome family

Growing up I was most certainly guilty of murmuring about family home evening. My parents have always been extremely obedient to the commandment of faithfully holding it, and 10 years ago I might have followed up to this sentence with"...much to my dismay". However as I have slowly matured I have found family home evening to be a pillar of our family's spiritual fort. While our family benefits from this routine assembly, from a spectator's point of view our "family home evening" might be conveyed as quite humorous. For instance following an opening song and prayer our fhe always consists of a family council (aka bone picking session) where we must all raise our right hand in compliance that we will not take offense to any matters of business that might be presented. So in tonight's family council my mom kicked it off with a lovely object lesson. From out of her suitcase-of-a-purse, she pulled out a full loaf of bread and proceeded to demonstrate how to properly seal the bag so that no air would remain inside and threaten to harden the bread. Apparently Jordan did not pay good enough attention to the first demonstration which subjected our family to a second demonstration of how to properly seal the bread bag....yawn. The next matter of business was of course instigated by again my mother who opted to encourage all of us to be more frequent toilet flushers...nudge nudge Jordan. We then listened to a 15 minute dissertation on the importance of Sunday school attendance and a certain teenage member of the family was implored to not only attend but to be punctual to class and avoid confrontation with the adult hall monitors. Following that lovely debate I then took a hit for being too hard on the girls and expecting too much of them when it came to the delegation of upstairs chores. I strongly disagreed and still resent the accusation that I am too strict, and instead think it is the girls work ethic that could use some modification but whatever :) As for the best matter of business, I would venture to say it was a tie. The the first nominee: was when Jordan was reprimanded for wasting "perfectly good women's products"and using them as diapers on her baby doll Lilly. And the second nominee being "one family member" accusing "another" to stop stealing their pillows during the middle of the night and then returning them with unruly drool marks...barf.

So after our stimulating session of family business we then had sharing time and then it was my dad's week for a lesson so we heard part 2 of his Plan of Salvation lesson, which was actually very informative...minus the tangent I started about this one lady who died during a suns game. Anyway we closed with family scriptures, a song, and then of course a family prayer...and I must conclude with the utmost honesty, that I loved every minute of it. How blessed I am to have the family I do and in spite of all of our idiosyncrasies and sometimes conflicting ideals, they're a great bunch.

As for anything new and exciting in my life: my best friend Kenzi got married and for anyone who knows her....she is absolutely perfect and therefore the whole day was perfect!!! :) :) :) (I'll do a separate post for this)

-I also got called to be a Mia Maid advisor in my ward so I'm super excited :) ...good for me, probably bad for the girls haha

I Believe

I am not a cutsie (possibility cutsie is not an official word) person...though I wish I possessed the creative talent, so with that... my room and anything else I have stewardship over, has taken a hit for ugliness haha... BUT I am proud of the new vinyl that hangs on my wall-I wake and rise to this very sentiment EVERYDAY and EVERY TIME it gives me strength soooo....I hope the adversary can read because I believe in Christ...So Come What May :)

tribute to my pops

I consider my dad to be one of the biggest tender mercies in my life. This man is absolutely the most selfless, faithful, courageous, devoted man I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Anyone can throw out a compliment about their dad, so I feel very inadequate attempting to portray his rare caliber of a father and truly convey his unconventional spiritual latitude... but to sum it up, he is one of the Lord's finest servants and definitely my hero. His selfless-ness and devotion to me manifests itself everyday through small and simple deeds. Just last night he was saving his restaurant left-overs but I stumbled upon them so he, with out any hesitation, gave them up. Then today he spent all day helping me re-do my room while I moved on to other things, yet my absence did not deter him and he worked until finish. My dad's best attribute is that he loves the Lord full heartedly and aspires to be Christlike and honest in all that he does. The past 10 months, I'd bet he's given me well over a dozen father's blessings, and not once has he ever had to postpone one or stop and prepare, but instead being the Lord's vessel, he has been able to administer me one right on the spot.

My dad knows and loves his Savior and I know this not only because of his verbal testaments, but because he lives it. He is constantly serving members of the ward, my family, and friends and neighbors. He'll tell you that the best thing that ever happened to him (besides marrying my mom) was laboring in the Puerto Rico mission for 2 years, in full service to the Lord. There on that mission, my dad completed 2 fine years that continue to bless my family each and every day. Whenever I have any kind of predicament, there is always a story or parable learned from mission field that he is able to liken my life to.

My dad has many gifts and talents but the ones that are most special are those that fall under the spiritual categorization. My dad isn't very vocal with some of his more sacred experiences, but I do know that my dad has been a recipient of many wonderful, rare opportunities; these experiences would not have occurred had it not been for his spiritual preparedness and abundant faith in God.

It is no secret that our family has maxed out on adversity this year :) all of my siblings (especially my brothers and I) will tell you that the majority of our rescuing can be attributed to my father. He is single handedly the most unconditionally loving man I know. I have had confirmed more than once, that I was specifically sent to these goodly parents to be taught the statutes and precepts of the Gospel and learn from their peculiar examples...and because of this divine decree, I know I have been given all of the opportunities and experiences one needs to come to know their Savior and live happily obeying and adhering to the gospel principles. My dad has taught me all my life to make good choices and to stay in close proximity to the Gospel teachings, and again, he has instilled this in me through his own example.

One side fact, I have never never never heard my father curse; not once...my mom would be mad if I didn't add that I have never heard her as well...the amount of patience both of my parents have is qualifying enough for Celestial Glory :)

My dad is absolutely one of my best friends and one, if not my biggest, example. But I would have to say I probably love my dad most because of how he treats my precious mom. He absolutely cherishes her for the princess she is, and does his best to appease every need she has. He has been that faithful, loving, charitible husband that I would presume the great men in the scriptures were to their beloved wives. One night my mom and I were discussing qualities I should look for in a future husband blah blah blah haha, and so I tirelessly listed as many traits as I could possibly conjur up, and at the conclusion of my list I realized that I had just sketched the very essence of my dad's catalogued attributes and qualities, so I proceeded to say "I want someone just like dad."

My dad is a saint and even while still on this earth today, he has already imprinted his legacy into every aspect of my life. Because of my dad I know who I am. I have walked in on my dad countless, COUNTLESS times, fervantly on his knees giving thanks to His Father in Heaven or crouched in a small quiet corner of the house studying his scriptures. He is a light to so many and ESPECIALLY...me. Dad you are amazing and I love you, happy father's day!

catch up...ps love my cousins

So these past few weeks I have done the following:

-girls camp with Kellster!!

-learned that 2 of my best friends, Kenzi and Season are engaged to awesome, AWESOME boys :) :) :)

-fished with cousins: Ole and Rainy

-Got on a plane to Idaho for my cousin Kellie's wedding and while waiting to depart from Phoenix, I witnessed a woman across the aisle, in distress having a panic attack and making quite the ruckus on the plane...though trying to hide the reality of the situation and suppress the inner desire to stare, I couldn't help but notice that the crazy lady was my mom. Apparently the handful of Dramamine did not suffice and her anxiety got the best of her. Oh I felt horrrrible, we laugh about it now but it wasn't funny for about 5 hours. But 73 prayers, 6 Dramamine, 4 mini bags of pretzels, 2 baby cans of Sprite, 8 run-throughs of "Be Still My Soul" with fellow members of the church smiling (the plane was headed to Salt Lake first, and then routed to Boise), 3 visits to the nasty air plane bathroom, and several big scenes...later, she was back in commission

-experienced the joy of day light savings-it's so crazy, doesn't get dark until 10!!

-went to a random singles ward in Idaho by myself

-flew home unexpectedly and missed the wedding... but still had tons of fun for the short time I was there

-had honestly the best 24 hours I've had in at least a year!!...went camping with Rainy and my 2 little sisters, and I cannot even verbalize how much fun we had. I want Rainy Dawn to know that I absolutely love her. She is a tender mercy in my life and without any effort at all she has the ability to lighten any situation and just enjoy life. She is so precious and soooo amazing. I could go on forever about her accomplishments but just to name a few, she is a Hinckley Scholar, graduated number 2 in her class, student body pres., varsity soccer and track and absolutely beautiful inside and out. She is all that and more and yet she still gives her lowly cousin (me :) the time of day!! The girl has made my summer!!!

-set up a tent at 10:30 at night

-having zero understanding of what Twitter even is, made a user name and password and haven't gone back since

-so as previously mentioned, my mom doesn't do super great on planes, so she rarely flies anywhere, and especially without the family. So for the past week I lived in a house with only my dad and the girls and there were so many things worth laughing and blogging about. If only my mom saw what Jordan's hair looked like every day going to school... I also loved my dad's meals: my mom isn't a huge meat person so her meals rarely have a large portion of meat, but with my dad, the first night I got home from Idaho (I came home a week before my mom) my dad had this huge roast prepared...and every night after consisted of a hearty meal. I also observed that when mom was away no bed times existed, but instead designated quite zones...mainly because when my mom's here she doesn't let anyone sleep on the couches as if they're nice haha, so with my dad in charge everyone slept where they dropped and took advantage of this overlooked decree.

The night before my mom got home I asked my dad if he was excited for her to be home...and with great intent he answered "absolutely; there is just no replacing her" it was so tender to watch him miss her as much as he did. I missed her as well, but while she was gone I ransacked her room and traded her pillows. Forever I have been stuck with what feels like cardboard, while my mom had the real-deal, tempurpedic pillows that she has horded (I say horded but really there are only 2 in existence at the Thompson home). So the first night she came home, a couple hours later about 1 am I was just snuggling into bed enjoying the comfort of the amazing pillows when I heard Jessi shouting out warnings...just then my mom stormed in and took my precious pillows back...sooo other than that I am super happy she's home:)

swimming

Okay today we all became officially the most white trash family in the neighborhood. How? Well as if our family van that is as old as me wasn't enough or the yelling that protrudes from our house if after 2 seconds some one doesn't shut the door behind them...the neighbor's hear: "shut the dang door, and even louder, the air is ON!!" or best yet our porch furniture that seals the deal: a freezer that sits on our outside porch and has the turtle(s) and the rabbit and whatever other random animal we have that week, burrowing under it for cool air. Now this freezer is definitely not an outside freezer so it has some annoying beep that beeps every 9 seconds to warn us that the outside temperature is not accommodating. So what's more white trash than this? Today my 3 sisters and I decided we wanted to swim. Okay actually not true, no one wanted to swim except me, but nonetheless they were sweet and decided to come. So the usual protocol, "Jacque call the neighbors and see if we can come over". Yes pathetic, but it usually works. However, today the neighbors said "yes, but asked us to wait an hour"...haha awkward!!... They're assumpmtion that this very evident hestiation and an hour wait would deter us...nope. But after all none of us wanted to wait so we then said, Jacque call White's. So Jacque protested a little but she lost the 1, 2, 3, not it...game...yes we're definitely 3 years old and that's how we settled it. So Jacque proceeded to call the White family in our ward and they didn't answer. So finally I said "okay I want to swim, Sister White is awesome and would not care, so let's go." Reluctant, all the sisters followed and because we're fat and lazy we got in my car and drove 4 houses down..haha. So we got there and again, "Jacque go knock on the door" "1, 2, 3 "Not it!" So Jacque again lost and went up and apparently no one was home. Well we had come so far and I was not stopping. So we went to the back gate and I put Jacque on my shoulders and helped her to open the unusually tall gate (it was hilarious because once she unlatched it we all walked in but she was still stuck, slouched on the gate and the gate swung closed with her screaming...hahah sorry Jacque) So I helped her down and just as I was doing so, Jessi comes running back yelling "abort abort!! they're in the pool!!" so we start retreating back to the car so embarrassed. So for the next 15 minutes we drove by every house in the neighborhood assessing which house we thought was suitable for our needs. The demands were the following: I needed a pool that was not directly in view of every window in the house-I had no make up and let's face it, look disgusting in a suit. Jessi's terms and conditions were pretty close to mine, Jacque wanted a diving board-unfortunately beggars can't be choosers, and Jordan...though Jordan's vote didn't count much anyway, she was in the market for "pretty pool toys". So we were on the hunt, throwing out pros and cons to every house we passed. Then if we had all agreed, Jacque would call or run up, and today it seemed that no one was "home"...well now looking back on the day I'm 99% sure when whoever saw us crawl up to their house all creepy with 4 sweaty heads sticking out of the windows (I didn't want to run the A/C, my car was going to over heat-so we were all dying) all in swim suits, eyeing their back yard...I'm sure this very display opted whoever to shut the blinds and turn down the tv, as if the Jehovah's witness's were there to preach. Well we were growing desperate and the peak tanning hours were fading, so 5 minutes away from absolute desperation which would have lead to hitting up the nearest Hampton Inn pool, we decided to go back to square 1 and wait the hour out, and go swimming at the original pool. Well we did just this, and finally went swimming. Yup we need a pool.

When I grow up...

I finally know what I want to do with my life. It's so simple, yet I've been blinded to the obvious solution for so long. Well the fog has lifted, and my life ambition has been revealed: I am going to be a stay-at-home aunt :)