Taco Bell/Head Painting

For those of you who don't know... Taco Bell is my meal of choice on the night before I start chemo.

Every round, I've had Taco Bell as my final meal before going in to get back on the juice.

So, tonight, it made the most sense to have Taco Bell, chips and ice cream for dinner at the Woods' house. With Kirk's family. And some head painting. ... Because I am, pretty much, the coolest cancer patient around.

Call it a blank slate, a bald pallete. Whatever you want.

We call it a good time. From youngest to oldest:

Kirk

Russell

Hazel

Monson

Maggie and Hazy

Dad's getting in on the action (and Cili's taking up permanent residence... watch for her in, pretty much, every single picture from here on out through the night... girl got seriously addicted to painting my bald head!)

Dad, me, Hazel, Maggie and Sally

Jo and Kirk, taking turns

Jo takes her head painting VERY seriously! 

(Whereas, I, clearly... do not. I got mocked tonight for my need to smile for EVERY picture. Who doesn't smile when they know their picture is being taken, is what I want to know?!)

Roomie, being hilarious. ... Or, uhm... ruling. (Whatever.)

Cili

Mag

Sally

Judy

Brett

Brett and Kirk both having some good times.

Another one of C and me

I can't believe we didn't get a shot of the other side of my head! (Because, I'm telling you, it was pretty sweet. Complete with a bucket of Blue Bell ice cream, courtesy of Russelbear, and other smiley face, since Jo and Kirk were, apparently, painting the exact same thing at the exact same time.)

It was a good night. I'm full of tacos and Sun Chips and rocky road ice cream. I'm so grateful that Jo and Dean totally let me invite my family over to their house whenever I want, and I love that there's an activity that all of the kids (both those who are actually young, and those who are young at heart) can get into.

The painting of the head is something I sort of stumbled across last spring when Hazel (jokingly, or maybe not...) asked if she could paint my head like an Easter Egg. (I love kids and their crazy imaginations.) Whatever it takes to make the kids okay with the baldness... it's the greatest equalizer ever. Cili, in particular, has always had a hard time with my baldness. (Sally, too. But it's hard for C on a different level.) But tonight, she was the one person who could not get enough of painting the fuzzy head. Two words: Worth it.

Whatever I can do to make the cancer, and the baldness, more fun. Not just for me, but for everyone else in my life.

Sunday

As a continuation of Family Par-Tay Weekend, tonight we had Sunday dinner with the Woods.

It was basically a repeat of The Last Supper that we had in January, before I started chemo the first time. Chips, hotdogs, ice cream. (Listen, I know what I like. And, I'm here to tell you, what I like is a burnt hotdog with bacon jalapeno poppers, chili, cheese and mustard. ... OMG. Best hotdog ever.)

Me and the little girls in my life: Maggie, Sally, Hazel, Hilly

The Boys: Kirk, Seth, Connor, Russell

Jo and Dean are THE BEST. They not only fed me Sunday dinner, but also my entire family. Mom and Dad had driven down the mountain with Brett and Natalie, and Katie was there. We were a full house, and then some. It was the greatest.

Cili and me

RussellBear, me, Kirkey

Dad played "Velociraptor" with all of the kids.

After dinner, we had a full blown (and completely impromptu) Family Talent Show. It started with me begging Roomie to play one (or maybe three) of the songs she's written...

And then I begged Seth to play the guitar and sing. (I had to beg pretty hard, fyi. The kid isn't phased by The Cancer Card. At all. ... It's like someone's been trying to manipulate him with it for years or something. Weird.)

After Hill and Sethie sang, it was a full-on free for all. Evans kids/cousins singing along with Seth's guitar, Wood girls pounding on the piano. A Frozen sing-a-long.

It was epic.

We even got a shot of the original Evans Eight before the night was over.

All told, it was a pretty magical evening. Fabulous food, great company, some serious sing-alongs.

I soooooo love my people!

What happens in Vegas...

Last weekend, Jo and I went on a little roadtrip. To G's. For the weekend.

Lucky for us, the Kirks had gone to Utah via Vegas for Conference, and they ran across this random little wing place (that's also a gas station) in Kingman that... sells Dole Whip. Totally legit Dole Whip.

It may not be a great picture of us, but don't let that discourage you from stopping, should you ever be in Kingman. It was awesome.

We spent the weekend at G's. Mich flew in Friday night, about an hour after Jo and I pulled into the driveway. I didn't take pics at the house, but couldn't help but have our server commemorate the moment when we had lunch at The Grape Street Cafe. 

I seriously LOVE this place.

When I was going to Vegas, the ONLY thing I wanted to do was eat here.

And order this.

It didn't photograph well, but man alive... I'm telling you. Their Hawaiian Ahi Tuna is, like, my favorite meal. On the planet.

And, of course, we had to have a spy-ish photo shoot with Mich once she saw the super cool (bathroom) door at the restaurant.

It was a fabulous weekend, full of downtime. Saturday morning, Jo, Mich and I hung out while G went to a training. That afternoon/evening, the four of us went out to eat, then pillaged a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Shop and had more Dole Whip (because Genevra knows how much I love it, and how hard it is to come by). Sunday morning, Jo and Mich went to church (like the good little Mormons they are) and G and I went to Starbucks (because when I'm on vaca, all religious rules are suspended) and sat and chatted for hours. Sunday night, Jo and Mich made us some sweet chicken tacos for dinner. ... And then, Monday, we drove home. 

It was a quick trip, and a short weekend... but it was awesome to spend hours in a car with Jo, and then a couple days with two of my oldest and dearest friends.

Four months

It's one of my favorite days of the year!

That would be: International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

AKA: Get a Dozen Free Donuts if You Dress Up Like a Pirate and go to Krispy Kreme Day.

This morning (after having had a sleepover last night with Maggie (7) and Sally (5), during which very few people got any kind of decent sleep), the Wood kids and I (sans Roomie, because she had a soccer game and thinks her priority needs to be with her team and not with us and our glazed donut pirate booty - lame!) dressed up and went to claim our goods.

One dozen donuts per person in costume = 5 dozen donuts. That's 60 donuts for five people to eat, kids.

And while we didn't eat all 60 of them, we ate... a lot of them. Like, until we all felt sick.

It was a very awesome morning.

And then, this afternoon, I met back up with the Woods to see this Mormon movie.

And, you guys... IT WAS FUNNY.

As in, actually funny. Not just laugh-at-Mormon-culture, funny. (Okay, mostly it was that. But I think it would be funny even for people who don't know about camp songs or ridiculous, totally contrived, but still somehow effective spiritual object lessons.)

I laughed. I cried. I thought about my life, about the people I love the most and would do anything for (including putting myself right back on chemo, even though it made me wish I could just die, in case it'll give me more time with them... but that's a post for another time). And then I laughed again.

At one key moment, I had just taken a swig off my ever-present water bottle and something happened that made me laugh. I mean, out loud. ... After spitting my entire mouth full of water into my hands and then letting it fall into my lap. (It was a super full theater, and I didn't have any napkins. Or warning. What was I supposed to do? Spew water on the kids sitting in front of me? ... I felt like spitting it into my own hands and then dumping that popcorny spittle into my lap was the right thing to do.)

You guys. This movie is funny. If you live somewhere that you can see it (which, mostly, is... Utah), you should. It was a good time.

And, when the movie was over, I walked outside to see this. You can try all day long, from wherever in the world that you are, but I'm telling you straight up that you just can't beat an Arizona sunset.

Pirate costumes. Free donuts. Harkins popcorn. A movie that made me laugh and made me cry. All kinds of quality time with my favorite little weirdos. A gorgeous sunset.

Topped off with the fact that, as of today, I'm officially four months into the 3-6.

It's been a really good day. ... And, so far, I am winning.

Blast from the Past

Yesterday, my friend Cili came over to make brownies and watch movies with me.

Product Placement Break:

Have you had these?

They are a-maaaaaazing! (And they're just under $2 a batch if purchased at your neighborhood WalMart.)

You're welcome.

Anyhoo... C came over to make (and eat) a batch of brownies and watch some movies. Knowing the Wood house rules, I gave the girl a handful of PG movies to choose from.

Sleepless in Seattle was her first pick. (Smart girl.) She'd never seen it, and I knew she was in for a treat. (I mean, besides the brownies. Those were an obvious treat and a half.) That movie and 11 yr old girls are MFEO.

She laughed, I laughed. I teared up a little at all the Affair to Remember references. ("It was nearest thing to heaven. You were there!" ... "Winter must be cold for those with no warm memories.") She asked me if Meg Ryan's character was crying. I had to tell her that, yes, she was. (I did not admit that maybe I was a little bit, too.)

All around, it was a good time had by all.

And I'm not just saying that because I saw this familiar face.

Ahhhhh, Rosie.

Back in the day when, everywhere I went, people told me that I looked just like her. 

Case in point:

Mind you, this face I'm pulling is a little bit more "Another Stakeout" than it is "Sleepless in Seattle". But still.

I'd forgotten how much we really did look alike. ... And how, circa 1993, that was a compliment. (Post-A League of Their Own, anyway. I never did like to hear that I looked "just like" Doris Murphy, as I'm sure you can imagine.)

I had a friend in one of my BYU wards who actually called me Rosie instead of Laurie. (It's alright. I called him Bob. As in, Bob Saget, of Full House fame.) 

See the pic below: 

Care to guess which one is my boy, Bob? 

I promise you that he was bent almost in half in this pic. In no way was Bob short enough to put his head on my shoulder on the reg.

When Rosie was doing her daytime talk show, she did a show when she filled the audience with women who were look-a-likes. When Mark Packard found out that I had known she was doing that show, and hadn't sent my picture in, he was furious and insisted that the bank would have given me the time off to travel back and forth so I could be on TV. He was certain that no other woman in the country could possibly look as much like Rosie as I did, and that I would have for sure won a huge prize.

Ahhhh... the Rosie days. They were good times.

I mean, so are these. But those were good times. For me and for Rosie. (Is it just me, or did she use to smile more?) It was fun to see the old me/her on the small screen yesterday. And when I told C that people used to tell me I looked like her, she looked me over and then sagely said, "I can see it". Ha!

The Utah trip

I drove to Utah last month. For the first time in ten years. (For real. That's not an exaggeration. I moved to Mesa in 2006, and I've lived 10 minutes from the airport since then. The last time I drove to Utah was in 2005, when I was going from Taylor. Crazy.)

Because I knew that well... my body is broken, and my energy level is pretty crappy, I planned to break the drive up into three days. Judy agreed with, just in case I got to tired to drive. I left my house Saturday morning and went to Flagstaff, where my dad had driven down to give me Judy. We met with Brett and his sweet family for brunch before hitting the road.

After lunch, Jude and I got in the car... planning to get as far as Page that night.

Uhm... until we had to stop at Cameron for a potty break and they had one room available in the lodge. 

Sold!

And if the scenic views and incredible rock work wasn't enough to make us happy... The restaurant on site was AMAZING. Such fabulous food, and an awesome variety of traditional Navajo and boring American fare.

Sunday, we drove from Cameron to Cedar, through Jacob's Lake and over Cedar Mountain. It was an awesome drive. Beautiful, breathtaking scenery... but since this post is already going to be about a million pages long with the pics of the people, I'll skip posting the pics I took on Cedar Mountain.

Monday, Amy and Holli were off, so we got to just hang out ALL DAY. It was awesome! I got to see their new house, and meet their new baby, and Aunt Cindy bought me an all-I-could-eat salad bar for lunch. It was the best day ever!

Sadly, I forgot to get a pic taken before Holli left for work, and before Rae went down for the night. (Or at lunch, when we were all seated around a table and could have gotten a group pic.) But Amy took this pic of Baby Owen and me on the sly, and I just love it. He's the sweetest little dude. I love him!

On the way to Provo, I made a little stop in Spanish Fork to have a sleepover at Mich's house. 

Knowing I was in Spanish for the day/night, our old pal, Stacia, came by to say hi. And then we had a group photo with Michelle's scarecrow/boyfriend. (Because Mich gets real attached, real fast, to her Girls Camp props.)

Shelly was on her way to Hawaii in the morning, so I didn't get much time with her, but I dropped Jude at Shell's the night I was sleeping at Michelle's, so I could give her a quick H&G hug. Love that girl!

And then... the next morning, I went to Rachel's for a couple nights.

Rach lives in our grandparents' house, so it's always fun to have sleepovers there. I get to sleep in the downstairs, where the bathroom still has light switches that Grandad labeled, in the room that has smelled the same... for my whole life. I love it there!

And because Rachel is the most laid back, accommodating, person I know (outside of her mother, who can also handle having large groups of people thrown at her at a moment's notice), she totally let me invite all the cousins (and Kathy U) over for a last minute get together Thursday night.

Friday morning, on my way out of Provo and up to Kaysville, I stopped by Jule's to say goodbye to her girlies. I love those weirdos! It was so great to get to see them, to hang out at the house for a few hours, and take them all to see Inside Out. (Nothing like dropping $50+ on concessions at the movies. ... That is not me complaining, btw. I so love to make children's wishes and dreams come true when we're standing at a candy counter!)

Friday afternoon, the Jude and I got to Spencer's house for the weekend, where we met up with my dad, who'd come up for a friend's funeral. (Lucky timing, right?)

Saturday morning, Hilly and I went and got matchy/matchy mani & pedis.

Front porch selfie with my sweet Hilly

Saturday afternoon, Conman introduced me to his favorite drink place, Fiiz.

Yeah, we ordered (and drank) all of those.

We started with the two 32 ouncers in the bottom right, and then he started listing all of the other drinks he thought I should buy. Uhm... okay. (We may or may not have filled an entire punch card in one day, and then when we tagged ourselves at Fiiz that afternoon, they reshared our pic as the customer of the day.)

Best Laurie/Connor bonding day. Ever.

Sunday, Seth (and Hillary) sang for us.

Brea made some rocking awesome salsa.

For real, look at the bowl. We basically drink that stuff. It's freaking amazing!

Sunday night, we had a Cousins dinner at Nikki's house with Lindsay's family and Spencer's family

Good times were had by all. 

And Sethie and I were photobombed by Jesus.

Monday morning, breakfast at Granny's. 

Spencer and me in our matchy outfits with our matchy short, salt and pepper hair.

It was a super awesome trip. Exhausting, but exhilarating. I had multiple breakfast, lunch and dinner dates with old friends (no pics exist of any of those... I blame the chemo brain), and was able to see, like, every single cousin who was in town that week.

I am tired, but I went on a trip. I'm glad to be home, but I'm also super glad that I went. I saw people and places that I love. I'm so grateful that I am well enough, that I was strong enough, to do this. I'm so grateful that so many of my favorite people were gracious enough to make time in their busy schedule for me when I was in their city.