Stolen Flamingos

This is one of those family stories that we just laugh about. And no, it is not about me, it was my little sister Emily who did this.

My family went to Utah about every other summer for the longest time. One summer we went when I was eight or so and Emily was two (actually we don't really know, everyone thinks she was a different age). We were constantly in and out of the house. Kids were playing in the yard and there were a couple of adults outside. With all the chaos, nobody kept a close enough eye on Emily.

At one point Emily wandered off to the neighbors house. When she was younger she loved the colors pink and red (still true) quite excessively and wanted everything that was one of those colors. Well, the neighbors had a collection of pink flamingos taking residence in the yard. This did not go unnoticed by Emily. She simply walked into their front yard, and stole the flamingos so that our grandma could have them instead.

A few minutes later, someone noticed the strange happenings. Two year old Emily was pulling a flamingo out of the flowerbed and dragging it through the grass to a spot where she had hidden a couple other flamingos. This was pointed out to everyone else and we laughed because it was so strange. We quickly returned the flamingos and went our merry way. This was not the end of it. There were a few times she tried to retrieve the flamingos again but we already knew what she was up to and it didn't work.

Everyone remembered this story, except Emily as she was so young. Recently when it was brought up we laughed about her stealing flamingos and she was quick to accuse other people, namely our mom of stealing the flamingos. That added another dimension, which just made us laugh all the harder. Why she picked our mom to accuse I have no idea. She was two when she did it, and it was cute, not criminal.

Oh and because this is only slightly relevant (since it is about someone other than me) I will post it here. This is another thing that happened we all laugh about. On the first day of school (or the first day of seminary) one year, while Anna was getting ready for seminary she tumbled down the stairs (very normal in our family). It was very loud though, and I remember getting out of bed to look at the scene. Apparently she had latched onto one of the spindles while she fell, resulting in her breaking it. So basically, Anna broke the stairs.

Passing Notes

I have a couple of notes from Sundays past. This first one is from high school, possibly when I was a sophomore, from me to Anna. Also take note that Brother Milton looked exactly like Peter Parker and we often referred to him as Brother Spiderman.


Brother Milton came and tried to give something to Tyler but he wasn't there. Chris (Tyler's brother) said he would give it to him but Brother Milton didn't "trust" him. Then Chris said that Spiderman is all about trust so he gave Chris a bag of M&M's for Tyler. 


In case you didn't know (shame on you), the quote referred to is "With great power comes great responsibility."


Secondly, a note back and forth to Kara during our freshman year.


Dear Laura,
THAT'S NOT WHAT I WANT!
Love, Kara

Dear Kara,
You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you'll find, you get what you need.
Love, Laura

Dear Laura,
I love that song... (some other stuff)
Love, Kara

Dear Kara,
I am glad you knew which song I was talking about. It is a very good song indeed, although not as cool as that nap song.
Love, Laura

Dear Laura,
I think my favorite is the don't bite your friends song. It's ridiculously funny. Why would anyone not bite their friends?
Love, Kara


Dear Kara,
That is a good point, whenever I become friends with someone I bite them to show my affection, MY VAMPIRE AFFECTION.
Love, Laura

Movie Scene

After work today I really just felt like sitting by the window to watch the rain while listening to a sad song. So I did. I put Vienna by Billy Joel on repeat and had a pity party. It felt like a scene from a movie. So of course I took a picture.

Things that make me sad lately...

I had a dream about my mission! Except that in it I had forgotten to tell my friends prior to going into the MTC where they could see me one last time. Since I couldn't use my phone it meant I didn't get to see them. Yikes. I was quite upset in my dream, and I woke up freaking out a little. This says one thing, I worry too much. However, maybe I will dream of other more likely problematic scenarios for my mission that I will be able to avoid because I am thinking (dreaming?) ahead. Not likely, and yes self that is a poor excuse for worrying.


Also, I've mentioned that I'll have to bike in California. Apparently my mission president doesn't believe girls should have cars if at all possible. So that's going to be fun. I have this horrible vision similar to a scene from Princess Diaries. In the movie Mia tries to go up this crazy hill in her old convertible and it is too much for her car. She ends up stalled on the side of the road, in the rain then says, while crying, "I am invisible, and I am wet." Well imagine that but me on a bike, unable to get up a hill, crying in the rain. Poor Laura. Let's just hope that doesn't happen.

This new group of friends in PA called me mom on Sunday! For real? I haven't baked anyone food the entire time I've been here. The one time I participate in making baked goods I only put it in the oven and started the timer. Someone checked the brownies and said they were done ten minutes early. I was surprised and said they had awhile left. She put up the "clean fork" to prove it. Well I guess it was clean, except for the chunk of brownie?!? I said that even though I was ten feet away I could see that it definitely was not clean. I didn't mind they were gooey brownies, I actually like gooey brownies better, but I called her out on her lying about the clean fork. It was stupid, but they called me mom. Then yesterday I used the phrase, "you are testing my patience!" Whatever, I already am a mini mom, just my friends/roommates are the kids.

Also mom-like, I now own a sewing machine! My mom bought it for me for $5 at a surplus sale. It's old so it is completely made of metal and built to last. Now I want to get my hands on it to sew my mission skirts!

Back to the regular scheduled posts filled with laughter and excitement.

Hodge Podge

Caution: random post up ahead.

It's not entirely a secret but I haven't really told too many people. So here it goes, I'm going on a mission!! My call comes in hopefully one week. It will be interesting as to where I go. The other night I had a dream that I got sent to Washington DC and my start date was in June, the middle of my internship which was a sad mistake. In my dream, I was upset about being called to the east coast, I mean I live about 2 hours away and I've been there quite a few times. Although somewhere along the east coast could happen. Interestingly enough the next night I had another dream about my call. I got my call to Finland same as my friend Sarah but it was to another Finland mission (there isn't a second Finland mission). Then I just dreamed about the MTC. I am not sure what these two dreams mean, probably just that I worry too much.

I have avoided it for the better part of three years and it has come to the point where I can't postpone any longer. I have a skype.... I realized it's necessary so my family can videochat when I get my call so I am giving in. I assume that if you are reading this, you are one of the people I would give it to myself, but it's just easier this way. laurakjohnson100

In other news, I got a splinter from my piano bench. I don't know if that means that I'm a hard core pianist (not) or if I'm just a wimp.

On my birthday my sister slammed the car door on my leg. I now have a bruise, awesome. I guess it could have been my hand or finger which would have broken/fractured so it could be worse.

Our poor white van was broken into. Whoever those thieves were, well they're not smart. They didn't check to see if there was anything of value in there before breaking in and they didn't even take the radio! Seriously, they were not smart thieves. At least when Anna went looking through the van she found some stuff that we had lost in there including a pancake turner.

And I am at my internship! It's pretty exciting. I'll update at the end of the week when I have more to say.

I looked up the town I'm living at. As I was browsing I noticed the Susquehanna River is located near me and it passes through Three Mile Island. I recognized the name but didn't know from where. I realized that I learned about it this semester in physics when we talked about radiation. There was the largest nuclear waste accident in US history in the area by the island. So that's kind of cool.

Also, I named this Modge Podge??? I meant Hodge Podge... Crafting on the brain I guess. I really should get more sleep or something. Just forget about this if you didn't notice.