ugh...how about a half apology? and an update.

i'm so so so sorry, guys.
i've just been wicked busy with holidays, work, etc.
i've had a couple traumatic experiences, some good ones, and i have very few excuses, but i also don't feel the need to justify myself. this is, after all, MY blog.
i need to write though...i really, really miss it.

life's about to get a little crazy.
i started a pretty intense workout program to lose that 21 pounds from The List. my workout program is by the same company who does p90x, so i'll be able to cross 1 and 7 from the list. how about a full update?

1. lose 21 pounds. although, if this only ends up being 2.1 pounds, i might be okay with that. 

i've actually gained a few pounds. so i guess in reality now i need to lose like, 27 pounds. but i'm on the way.

2. take silly photos in a photobooth with my bff Brandon the very Larsen.

i give up, Brandon. i'm doing this one with someone else. anyone else, maybe me and wallice?

3. go fishin'. i've never been fishing, but i've always wanted to!

i'm still just waiting for someone to take me!

4. have a hobo roadtrip and spend a night in the Redwood Forest! check! :)

hmmm. done. i will not be divulging details. suffice it to say, i have done this one. it may or may not have included doing illegal things, and getting stuck in the snow storm of the century in the Sierra Nevadas...

5. kiss a complete stranger.

i don't know any strangers. i'll work on this one, but i have a feeling it'll require some serious lady balls. plus, the sleepy kitty singer will be way jealous...

6. eat squab. i don't know what "squab" is, but i'm sooo tryin' it. they talk about it on the Food Network all the time.

i'm still planning on doing this. Handy Manny actually agreed that we can try it next time i go see him. hmmmm....the sleep kitty singer DID NOT feed me squab yet. i'll make this one happen, fo sho!

7. successfully complete p90x. (in the designated 90 days.) almost check!

it's happening. currently. and i'm gonna be soooo hot by my birthday.

8. be a rebel and get a real tattoo. okay, a real henna tattoo....check!

about that...i actually got one. a real one. it says "chaque etape du voyage..." which translate to "every step of the journey..." It's in French. and it's not done. i'm going to have a dandelion added above my toes that will blow some seeds over the words. judge away, judgers...

 

9. buy a cactus and watch that sucker grow. no way is that thing dyin' on my watch! check! :)

hells yeah! Mervin's been in my life since....i was looking for blog, but i never wrote it. Mervin here is the Break-Up cactus. he's been in my life since February, i think. we've got a good 11 months in! we've had a few close calls, but he's thriving!

10. take or be in a picture every day for an entire month. just to remember the days between.

i don't want to do this one...sigh. but i will. i'm pretty sure i've done this in various pictures for Handy Manny, but one can't be sure. the point was to facebook/blog them anyways. i'll work on it. i'm seriously starting this immediately...

11. gulp. go on 21 dates...(i have a feeling i'll come to regret this one...) check! :)

i'm nearly positive i've been on at least that many dates in the past year and a half. if i haven't, oh well. not super into dating at the current time, so i'm at peace with this goal.

12. spend the summer of '11 in a far away place...working, adventuring, etc. check! :)

i spent the last four months of 2010 and the first four of 2011 in the slc area. i don't think that counts. but i'm making a big move next spring anyways, to an unknown destination, so we'll take it.

13. volunteer in a soup kitchen.

i should have done this already...shame on me. i donate to food pantries all the time.  i can have half a point. but i still want to do it.

14. find the perfect pair of jeans and buy them without batting an eyelash. check!

hmmm. this could be argued in either direction. i'm going to vote that i still need to find them. however, i'll do that after i'm all sexy from turbofire.

15. trade in facebook for the self-realization and peace that comes through the practice of zen...this shall occur for just ONE month. 

okay, okay. i need to do this. i actually don't think it'll kill me. so maybe i'll start that soon. as in, today! i'm doing it. right now!

16. get a kit and learn how to make balloon animals.

i still want to do this. i need to do it. my mom has a kit. i'm soooo going to ask her if i can borrow it.

17. have an Oscar Meyer Weiner-mobile experience....preferably ride in it, but i'll settle for just a pic. check, check, check!!!

this is one of my favorite things about the sleepy kitty singer, actually. if there's something i desperately want to do, he'll drop stuff and make sure we can do it. we were driving one day and he suddenly pointed out the Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobile and missed our exit and started following it so i could get some pictures. it was ADORABLE! 

18. go to the ocean and play with REAL sea stars in the tide pools! (they are my favorite animal of course!)

this should probably just be part of the Price Is Right adventure, though i have a feeling it's not gonna happen...

19. for those of you who are cache valley natives, you'll know what i mean by saying i shall Clean The Sink by myself! 

i didn't do this. and i will not be doing it. it's too much ice cream. i don't even like ice cream that much anymore...i just can't do it alone. maybe with friends ON my very birthday? perhaps? 

20. ride on a San Francisco trolley while hangin' off the back and singing the Rice-A-Roni theme song....

i want to do this still. not sure when i'll ever be in SanFran, but we'll see. don't hold your breath though.

21. it is my wildest dream to be a contestant on The Price is Right!

i bet i could find tickets and be a birthday princess on the Price is Right on my very 21st birthday...but i won't. because Drew Carey sucks...

eight checks and 2 half checks...that's not very good odds, though i'll be honest, i'm okay with that. life is a blast and i'm doing really great! you don't need a list of things to do to have an amazing life! 

just another old-fashioned love story.

i've called her Grandma Harris since I was little.
technically she's my dad's grandma, my great grandma. but we all know how i love to shorten everything!

her name is Dorella,  and she is 98 years old.

she isn't doing very well currently. the doctors think she's got 4 months left, at the most.

in order: my Grandma Leishman, my Grandma Harris, Jaycie the Cutest, and my cutest Dad, aka Shayne.

this picture was taken the week i left for college. 

looking at this picture kinda makes me think i must have inherited my ghostly pale skin from her...

anyways, my grandma lived in Millville, UT when i was little.

she had the coolest house and you had to go over a bridge to get there.

every week in the summer, my dad went and mowed her lawn and sometimes we stopped for ice cream cones from Macey's on the way home. once i was old enough to walk, her raspberry bushes seemed to quit making any raspberries.

i'll admit it, fair and square. I, Jaycie the most deviant human ever of all time, ate all of the raspberries, every single week. those bushes made enough raspberries, i just took and ate them all...

she also had this little paddle, it was this stick with a big fluffy heart pillow that she'd spank me with.

sometimes i'd go out of my way to be naughty just so she'd "spank" me, then i'd run off giggling because it didn't hurt at all.

my dad hates and i mean HATES Macaroni and Cheese. Every once in awhile, she'd cook us some for lunch and he'd eat it with no complaints at all, simply because his grandma cooked it for him.

she had two plum trees in her yard, and every fall when they started falling off, it was my job to go and pick them up before my dad mowed. i remember always watching him, sometimes riding with him, and when he had to mow under the tree, he'd always reach up, grab a plum, and wipe it off on his shirt to clean it before he ate it.

to this day, i refuse to wash my fruit. i wipe it off on my shirt, just like my dad.

when i was 17, i got a summer job at Williamsburg Retirement Community. my Grandma Harris was living there and i got to see her and serve her lunch every day that summer. nothing made my day more than to see her smile and overhear her bragging to her lunch-time friend ladies about me. it was then that i learned her favorite drink was cran-apple juice, no ice and that when it came to desserts and breads, she only likes to eat corners and ends.

later that fall, my Grandma Harris went to the hospital for the first time after a stroke. she'd been having mini strokes for awhile and this one was pretty bad. ever since then, her vocabulary has been very jumbled, and it's been hard for her to communicate. she did great until earlier this year, when her health really started to decline. now she's living with my dad's mom, my Grandma Leishman. she doesn't really remember me anymore, but she's sure changed my life. 

my Grandma Harris' husband died in 1950. i can't remember what he died from, and obviously i never met him. eventually she met the man of her dreams, but she was too busy taking care of her mom to marry him. that's how she is. she takes care of and puts everyone first, all the time. even now, she hates that she can't take care of everyone. and of course her boyfriend waited. and waited. and waited.

he dated her for 26 years before they were married. 

they had lunch together every day, and sometimes they went out on the weekends. finally, they got married. he was diagnosed with cancer, and died less than a year later. i never met him either, but i bet i would have loved him. 

is there anything cuter in the world than a man who will wait 26 years so he can marry the girl of his dreams? i don't think so, and if/when i get married, i hope it's to a guy who would do that for me.

she's an inspiration to so many people, and there's literally no way i could ever express how deeply i love her and how much i've learned from her over the years. if i grow up into half the lady she is, i'll be happy.

she's incredible and will be very missed when she's gone, but i'm sure her lover is waiting just as patiently as he did all those years ago for her to join him again, once and for all.

I love you, Grandma Harris. Thanks for spanking me all those years ago...and for never getting TOO mad about me eating all of the raspberries. I'm sure you were able to see me picking them through your kitchen window. I wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed back then...

Do me a favor and give em' hell until I join you up there, okay?

my secret wish:

is to one day long into my blog and have there be one already.
i go to my blog sometimes but it's always the same as the last time i left.
of course, because i haven't posted...but just once i would be okay with showing up and reading something new.

i need to see Harry Potter 7.2.
it's time. part of me is just sad to say goodbye.
HP has been a part of m life since the third grade.
we all kind of grew up together.
and now it's almost over! technically, it is already, but i'm putting it off.

i have to say goodbye to one of my bffs for a month this week.
it's fine. she'll be right back after her super awesome trip to Egypt, but regardless, i'm crying on the inside.

in other news, i'm really craving indian food.
i think Satan is actually named Barbara Elliot, who was SOOOO rude to me via phone call at work today.
and so now i need a new job.
i am excited to sleep in my bed.
and crazy stupid love is about to start, so i'll catch you punks later.