adjusting

mom wants me to start blogging again. she keeps mentioning it. and since i started this blog for her i guess it’s only right that i restart it for her…even if mom is the only one reading it. i guess a year and a half of letters every week has made her miss my writing now that i’m home. so here it goes…this photo marks a moment of change. maybe the change didn’t start exactly in the moment this picture was taken. you could easily argue that the change started before this, the moment i boarded a flight headed for the USA, or the moment i stepped off that plane and hugged my dad who had patiently waited at the gate. or maybe it started after, when i slept in MY bed for the first time or when i took my missionary tag off. i dont actually know-but this picture comes pretty close.

my mom says i’m great at adjusting to change. i guess that’s true. change doesn’t bother me too much. at least not in the moment. when i know it’s coming it bothers me, i worry about it, i often dread it. but when it actually comes i usually just go with the flow. take life as it comes and keep smiling. but that doesn’t mean i dont feel it. that doesn’t mean that inside i dont miss the past or dont long for “ the way things used to be.” and it doesn’t mean that just because i seem to be well-adjusted i dont notice all the things that are different.
i’ve been home about 2 months and its weird. i’ve definitely changed. not too much i hope. i think i’m still me. i still love tv show marathons, sleeping in, laughing too loud and shopping (although i am having to re-discover fashion). i still speak my mind, love eating sushi, and dont mind spending all day in bed once-in-awhile (like today).

but i also have all these weird quirks that i can’t seem to shake. sometimes i have to ask myself if a word is english or spanish before speaking. i resist the urge to point at things with my lips. i used to look for the closest parking spot now i choose the solitary space at the edge of the lot because, honestly, i kinda miss walking everywhere. while i’ve gotten over the shock of bathing with running water i’m still pleasantly surprised when i remember that i can control the water temperature. i eat everything on my plate-even if i dont like it-not just because the idea of “starving children who would love to eat those vegetables” is now real to me but because i have a different idea of what food actually “costs”. seriously…why is cheese SO expensive?!

so yes, i’ve changed. but i think i like change. because i think change always comes when you have adventure and i love adventure.

so here’s to adventure and change and the inevitable adjusting it brings…even if it’s weird and uncomfortable sometimes.

p.s. hope you liked it mom

New Hampshire House

My childhood is filled with memories of mini-vacations north; New Hampshire to see Story Land,Six Gun City and Santa’s Village,Vermont for horseback riding and to witness to famous change of seasons. So when the Patraikos offered my family a weekend at the “New Hampshire House” I was more than excited. Memory lane plus a weekend with my favorite twins. Score! The cutest girls I know. There is nothing like being woken up in the morning to the sound of little giggles and these two jumping on your bed and then crawling under the covers with you. Plus I was invited to come visit them in the Hello Kitty house they’re going to live in when they grow up-I feel pretty special. Zach and I spent Saturday afternoon training to be telephone line repairmen 60 feet above the trees in an aerial adventure park. Here I am clinging to a piece of wood for dear life while everyone below mocks me in their heads but laughs out loud…including Mom and Dad. I could not figure out how to safely cross the obstacle before me. I just stood on the platform trying for what seemed like a half an hour and then I just threw my body at the piece of wood and hung on tight. Probably one of the scariest moments of my life, almost as bad as that time I plummeted down a ski slope in a wal-mart blow up sled backwards. Almost. (I’ll have to tell that story sometime).1//Zach on the tight-rope 60 ft up. He was freaking out and screaming at my parents while they tease him from the ground. I actually enjoyed the tight-rope walk. 2// Me clipping in ready to zip-line. 3//Zip-lining to the ground…wee! 4//Zach having a little trouble. Then we went “Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” all the way down the Mountain Coaster! They wanted to go “super fast” and so we did…over and over again. Sunday we went up to Cathedral Ledge. I was beautiful. I can only imagine how amazing it is when the leaves start to change color and its a sea of red, orange and yellow below. I just love the picture of my mom and dad…seldom is my dad’s personality captured so perfectly.

Then we went to Jen’s parents house for dinner. The Bowen’s are awesome! It was pretty cool to get one-on-one advice from a former mission president and his sweet wife. Perfect ending to a fantastic weekend. Thanks to the Patraikos (and Bowens) for a wonderful weekend…and to Jen for letting me steal these pictures without permission ;)

Giossi Adventures in Maine

“Nature has a way of refreshing me” that’s what my mother has to say about the first part of our 2012 family vacation to Maine. We started up in the town of Forks (population 30) for some camping on the river and white water rafting. Last year we forgot the tent poles and rigged that sucker up with sticks and rope, this year we forgot a compressor and blew the air mattresses up with a bicycle pump-we probably could have blown them up faster using our lungs but we probably would have passed out first. Maybe “practice makes perfect” and we’ll get it next year or maybe we’re just not cut out for this camping stuff. Towable pop-up anyone? We took a nice “hike” to Moxie Falls, the tallest Waterfall in the Northeastern United States. Remarkable. You can literally feel the power as you stand on the platform overlooking this piece of God’s handiwork. Safely made the trip down the Kennebec River thanks to our awesome guide “Chip”. Spent the next two night in beautiful Kennebunkport. It’s pretty cool being in an actual town, they have things like shopping…and showers…and toilets. The toilets are especially nice. First night was just dinner and shopping but the second day the girls went sailing and the boys did some deep sea fishing. Basically your typically vacation…less relaxing than expected and much more food than you planned on.

made another little video…enjoy

Called To Serve

I’m pretty sure most of the people who read my blog already know this, but just in case…I have been called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and assigned to the El Salvador San Salvador Mission.

I’ve known for a little over a week but I think it’s just now sinking in (especially since my visa application came in the mail). Although it wasn’t even a place I considered, I am beyond excited for the opportunity to serve the people of El Salvador and look forward to embracing the culture and language. It’s crazy to think I will be living in this completely foreign place for 16 months. From what I’ve read and heard it’s going to be an eye-opening experience that I know will change my life. I’ll keep you updated but for now if anyone has any suggestions feel free to share (particularly in regard to clothes and shoes).

Overnight on the Vineyard

Remember how I said I was itching for some adventure? Well, my mom took care of that. On Friday she surprised me with an overnight trip to Martha’ Vineyard. We relaxed at our Bed&Breakfast, ate our meals with a view of the ocean, got lost on bicycles, bought matching Alex and Ani bracelets, and enjoyed multiple ice cream cones.We spent Friday night at The Arbor Inn in Edgartown…so quaint and adorable! Enjoying the sunset from the harbor in Edgartown. Yes, I’ll take the helicopter option with my new Yacht. Lunch on Saturday at the infamous Black Dog Tavern-I tried my first crab cake sandwich and I actually enjoyed it. We just happened to choose what is known as Shark weekend in Oak Bluffs. I had mixed feelings about the whole thing…seeing these sharks up close was cool but I couldn’t help feeling bad for them. We wanted to take the “Ocean View” route back to Edgartown from Oak Bluffs…when we asked a local 12 year old for directions he laughed at us for attempting the ride on bikes. We made it back though and completed out 20 mile ride around the island. Gorgeous sunset as the ferry pulled back into “the mainland”…perfect ending to a wonderful trip.

the SUNSHINE state

It’s been raining but it’s okay because I just spent a week in sunny Florida with my second family, the Normandins. We stayed at a resort right in the middle of Disney (but it wasn’t a Disney resort). The trip consisted mostly of laying by the pool reading (mainly the Hunger Games) and soaking up the sunshine (you know how much I love the sun) with a little bit of gym time and one day at Disney thrown in. I couldn’t believe how fast it went and we were all so sad it was over. I miss spending all day in my bathing suit and sharing a king size bed with my best friend. (view on Bonnet Creek Resort from our balcony)(Mrs. Normandin’s method of keeping the boys from leaving toothpaste blobs and lugies in our sink)  (like I said…reading by the pool) (Shelby, me and Mrs. Normandin on the bus-that we almost missed-headed for Magic Kingdom. Pretty much we were late and when we saw the shuttle already at the stop we started running to catch it. Now, we’re all pretty well endowed and we were wearing tight ribbed tank tops…so you can only imagine how the three of us running must have looked. When we get on the shuttle the bus driving is laughing and says while giving us a once over, “I saw you running and I just had to wait.” Yeah…I bet you did.)  (Shelby and I ended up with these awesome “Happy Birthday” pins. I was told happy birthday over 30 times by complete strangers…it was awesome…thank you Disney cast members.)(These lovely expressions brought to you by the Go-Carts and Tea Cups)  (I love these sweeties…and as annoying as those boys are the trip wouldn’t have been the same without them)

And here is a little, poorlyquickly-put-together video with some random moments from the trip. Enjoy!

long weekend…(bucket list #42)

i dont have classes on fridays this semester so every weekend is a long one. but this one was extra special, thanks to our presidents (?).

i spent the first half of the weekend sick…so for me the party started on sunday afternoon. we had a lovely french toast dinner at brooke’s. it was delicious! and we learned that you can split an apple in half by slamming it with your first…amazed!then there was a “dating fireside” (oh BYU)-but he didn’t really talk about dating as much as telling us how to understand the differences between men and women. it was absolutely hilarious and i could have sat through at least another hour of this man speaking. he is sending me an mp3 copy and i will definitely listen to it again. then we played this game called “killer bunnnies”, ever heard of it? it’s very strange. i didn’t like it because everytime i got a bunny someone killed it…it was very traumatic.

today we decided to get a little group together and go to a hot spring. with the help of a jogging man we were able to find it-and he was even nice enough to warn us to “watch out for the hook worm”…yeah, thank you, sir!

it was fun it was also very muddy and gross…and it’s winter-this made the walk back quite un-enjoyable. then jimmy suggested we venture off the nice paved path and into a crop circle to take some group shots-so we did when we got back to the cars i realized i had left my hoodie at the spring; lawrence ran the half mile trip to go get it for me-what a guy!finished the night off with a banana cream pie shake from sammy’s…perfect ending!

back to school tomorrow…bring on the exhaustion.