Go round and round

Randomness.

I have been scrap booking like a crazy person all weekend. 

I didn't get any of my cleaning done. 

It's insanity. 

Here are some of my favorites from the insane amount of pictures and things I looked at this weekend! 

My cousin Lisa and I

Eri and Danielle- evil older sisters unite! 

All of us. Not sure what is happening here. It was the 80's. 

All of us and our cousins Lisa and Greg. 

I hadn't seen any of these before today. They are amazing!! 

Me and Erin with Jr

My kindergarten picture. I had the same lack of smile as always :) 

My mom at her baby shower for Jr. She was 20. She looks just like Erin!

She does this EXACT same face EVERY day! 

Every single thing from my mission is now contained in these two books. 

I snuck this thing into my office. We'll see how long until they make me get rid of it :) 

And my fall decorations are already up!

Ok- so very random, I know.

But I am feeling a little dizzy from over focusing on scrapbooking.

I'm taking a break until next weekend!

Lori Ann

I will remember you

So, missionary work is still my current obsession but, now that my feet have healed from that crazy half marathon, I am shifting back into weight loss and fitness.

(and by 'shifting' I mean "kinda thinking about doing something while I eat fiddle faddle for breakfast")

What I am trying to do more than anything is keep myself inspired when it feels like progress is really slow. 

So, here are some before and afters.

You've probably seen them before, but I need to see them again. 

So that I don't ever go back. 

 Hopefully this time next year my current 'after' pictures will be my new 'before' pictures :) 

LORI BEFORE 

The infamous license picture. Oh. My. Gosh. 

LORI AFTER

Still with the same, angry blank expression.

So, clearly I am hot at any size. 

But hot and healthy is my ultimate goal :) 

We're 70% of the way there, people!

Let's get the last 30% done and then...

Endure to the end!!

(without fiddle faddle. Oh how I'll miss you fiddle faddle)

Lori Ann

Do it all again

Dawn and I had a crafting party tonight.

(Dawn, as you'll recall, is one of my favorite coworkers. She keeps me sane!)

We craft on Friday nights because we are edgy like that. 

We had originally planned to craft under the influence of moonshine and maybe heroine but decided that chips, chocolate and water would work just as well.

Since we both have declared it fall, we decided to make wreathes!! 

I love crafting at Dawn's because she has the cutest house.

It looks and smells like fall magic. 

\

The supplies. 

 Our crafting assistant.

 She actually didn't do all that much crafting. 

She mainly asked for chips and looked cute. 

Dawn's finished wreath!! 

Mine. 

Odd, I know.

 Crafting is like a language I really wish I could speak and have a lot of interest in, but I just don't get it. 

Before crafting, I went out again with the sisters today. 

They try so hard. 

I am happy that I have gotten more involved in missionary work. 

It reminds me of how blessed I am to have the Gospel in my life. 

Lori Ann

p.s.- My parents are watching a 9/11 documentary. It's featuring phone calls from people in the planes and in the towers. It's making me sick to my stomach. I don't know how they can watch it. 

Sugar, sugar

Oh man. 

I am in the middle of a two day juice fast.

I am trying to detox from sugar. 

As I was literally eating it for every meal. 

Just straight out of the bag. 

I feel a little out of it. 

I think this picture illustrates the sugar shock that my system is going through. 

My eyes look vacant. 

And holy hannah, how did I not know my forehead was that wide?

Scary. 

Anyway, to keep my mind off the sugar, I have been working on this!!! 

My mission scrapbook! 

It's fabulous! I only wish I could have captured all of the really amazing moments. 

But most of those moments don't lend themselves to having a picture taken.

Now I am just scrap booking my life.

It turns out I haven't been the most reliable of record keepers as I can't even fill a small scrapbook with my life pictures. 

It's probably better to leave most of it to mystery and urban legend anyway:) 

And, most importantly, it's keeping me away from the sugar. 

So, it's a win-win. 

Lori Ann

p.s- I wanted to say thanks to everyone who comments on my posts. I am not passively aggressively seeking for validation (or more comments!) in saying this but I know this blog is kind of like a weird diary of the tedium of my daily life. I appreciate the feedback and support you give me. :) 

Ever called to serve

Let me be the first to say that I know it gets kind of boring when I get fixated on specific topics.

Who can forget the agony of my first half marathon training throughout the blog posts of January, February, and March?

Some of you may still be recovering from that trauma.

And honestly, I think this blog has gone in a kind of boring direction lately.

I used to do crafts, try new recipes, and experiment with things.

So, I am going to get back to that.

To spice up the old Spinster Chronicles.

But, while I wait to get motivated to do that-

Let's get back to our current favorite topic!!



My mission and missionary work in general.

2 of the 3 Milford West sisters...and one angry calico.

I went out with the sister missionaries again last night.

It's been so much fun.

There was this calico cat named Trixie (featured above) and she would purr and let me pet her and then turn on me!

I think all calicos are a little feisty.

This whole mission revival started when I was asked, about a month ago, to speak about sister missionary work and my mission experience.

I thought at the time that it was such an odd choice.

I have been home from my mission for (holy hannah!) 12 years and, at the time, I didn't even know the names of our branches missionaries.

But something about giving that talk made me realize AGAIN how much my mission changed my life.

It was a refiners fire like nothing I have ever experienced before or after.

It made me feel angry at myself that I wasn't doing more to support the missionaries- especially when I knew how hard it is to be far from home and overwhelmed and trying to teach people the Gospel. (Especially the awesome but unrepentant people of Southeastern PA!) 

So, the next time they called me, instead of letting it go to voicemail, I picked up.

I've been out with them on an (at least) weekly basis since then.

I've been leaving weird treats at their door and we had them over for dinner.

 (for the first time in YEARS)

I've met some incredible people that they are teaching.

And, as we were walking down the dark streets of Pennsburg last night, running from one appointment to the next (I still think the word 'cita' before appointment) I was reminded of that feeling I got from time to time on my own mission.

The feeling of literally following in the footsteps of Jesus.

There were times as a missionary when I felt like if I had looked down I would have seen His footprints in the snow walking before us.

It was really cool to feel that way again.

Even for just a minute.

Then it was nice to go home BY MYSELF (no companion to fight with!) watch TV and eat m and m's for dinner.

All the blessings of missionary work with none of the crazy!

Lori Ann

Sugar and Spice and everything nice

It's Random Thoughts Tuesday!

The "my two o'clock was a no show and I should be doing paperwork but I don't want to" Edition!

So.... I continue to scrapbook like a crazy person.

Do people even scrapbook anymore?

Or just have facebook albums?

Now, when you come visit I can make you look at my exciting Europe scrapbook...or my mission scrapbook...or the one I am calling "My entire life, baby" scrapbook.

It's bound to be 3 of the most delightful hours of your life.

Speaking of delight, I got to see the love of my life this weekend.

She's actually the daughter of one of my coworkers.

That's right. I said daughter.

Meet KELLY!

The cutest thing EVER!!!

Only possibly rivaled in cuteness by this crazy thing.

(she has been out battling the hedgehogs again!)

I am going out with the sisters again tonight.

I am going to give them this picture of myself.

It's kind of inspirational, right?



Sometimes I am so inspiring it brings tears to even my own eyes.

Anyway...

back to work.

Lori Ann

Time goes by

Ok, so I made a bunch of plans this weekend.

But I've spent most of it rummaging around in my storage bins, looking at a million pictures and scrap booking my life.

I have been carting around pictures in zip lock bags for literally years- occasionally looking at them but never doing anything with them.

So, I got kind of hyper focused on that. 

(between baking bread that scared me, being hit on by younger men and destroying things in my friend Michele's house, that is)

ANYWAY,

Lucky for you, I've downloaded all the pictures onto my computer and you are about to the recipient of a bunch of pictures and stories about people you neither know nor are likely particularly interested in. 

Let's do this!

 This was actually from this weekend. 

Lately there have been some GIANT spiders everywhere. 

This one had built a huge web in the middle of our back porch.

In like 2 hours. 

I killed it, much to Katy's distress.

She did say she felt like it was in clouds with Heavenly Father now. 

 This is the man I am helping teach with the sister missionaries.

 He is such a nice guy. 

He always gives us candy! 

 Me and my Sugar cookie 

 The Amish white bread I made yesterday.

 It turned on me.

 Like most of my baking projects.

 We made it a point to capture all the really spiritual moments on our missions. 

To pass down to our grand kids and all :) 

 I keep telling the sisters I will take fall pictures of them if they want.

 Because I am obsessed with fall pictures! 

(Is it just me or do I look a little serial killer-y in this one?)

 I've been a natural with children my entire life. 

Sometimes, when I tell people I don't have kids, they cry a little. 

"The world has just lost it's most amazing mother" is what they say. 

Not out loud or anything.

But I can feel them thinking it. 

 Highlighting my hair with Tyler.

I had to try and compete with that hotness.

(They literally called her 'la bonita')

Another spiritual moment captured for posterity! 

 My mission nickname was the "the beast". 

I think because I worked so hard and was unstoppable. 

(as evidenced by the above picture)

The sad thing is that they never said it to my face. 

I don't think they wanted me to know they were jealous of my work ethic. 

So they only said it behind my back. 

If that's what they had to do to deal with their jealousy, that's fine :) 

Me and Mietzner and Chicago.

I have been reading the notes she wrote me in my mission journal.

She was always so kind.

Even in the face of my trunky, end of mission, middle of summer- stuck in the same area for a full year craziness. 

Which I think was the height of my crazy for my entire life. 

So, there is a hodgepodge of my life right now.

Now to immerse myself in scrap booking, dropping off bread, and sneaking furniture into my office...

Lori Ann