Some Things are Meant To Be

How do I go on?

Just an empty room...

All I have are memories.

I need a task to do

Someone give me a task to do

I need a.....

I thought that somehow we would always have forever

I thought the promises we made would have a different end

I thought the love we shared would keep us as we were

It was the fire within me.

We dreamed and plotted with abandon in this attic

When we were gathered here the room became our citadel

We were amazing then my sister and I

She was the fire within me

In this room I knew we were alive

Nothing was too painful to survive

We faced the world together

The two of us forever side by side

Everything I promised was for her

I was hers no matter where or when

How can that be lost forever?

How when I gave everything with all my heart?

Everything I promised her is here

Both of us the way we used to be

We will always have each other

She will always be the fire in my heart

Here I go, and there's no turning back

My great adventure has begun

I may be small

But I've got giant plans

To shine as brightly as the sun

Here in all the smallest details of the past

Here in this attic suddenly life is something vast

The both of us forever here at last

As unexpected as can be

Astonishing.

I wish I could post with happier news. I wish with all of my heart that I could be saying that we got the results back from my sisters final scans and she is completely tumor free. I wish I could say that she just needs to do a few months of physical therapy and then she can get back to Florida, back up on that float, right where she belongs.

However, my sweet sister's condition got exponentially worse literally overnight. She was admitted back to Huntsman Cancer Institute on Friday, February 26th, hopefully to control the pain that was getting so much worse in her back and between her shoulder blades. I was able to go up for the weekend and spend time with her, even though she was almost completely unconscious because of the amount of pain medication she was on. I went back on Sunday night on the condition that my mom would call me if ANYTHING changed. She called me on Monday night and told me that I needed to come up that night. There wasn't anything more they could do for Brittanie and she would be gone within a couple weeks, possibly a matter of days.

For the next 5 days, we had a constant stream of visitors at the hospital, including her roommates from Florida Meg and Beth, Beth's fiancee Trevor, Brittanie's best friend Sawyer from Las Vegas, Chirpie from California, Becky from Colorado, Victoria from Florida, and a number of friends and family from around Utah.

Saturday morning around 5:30, my mom called me at home and said that Brittanie was getting close and I needed to get there. Chirpie had just made it into town a few hours earlier, so Sawyer and I woke him up and brought him to the hospital with us and hoped that we would make it in time for Chirpie to have a few minutes with Brittanie. Chirpie was with her until about 6:30, then my dad and mom and I slept in her room with the monitors turned up so if anything started to change, we would wake up.

About 8:25, I heard the alarms start to go off and my parents start to move around. My mom woke me up and told me to go to Brittanie's bedside. Within a minute or two, my sweet sister was free of all the pain and torture from this evil disease.

The next few hours are a blur to me. There are many things that I will remember for the rest of my life, like finally being able to lie with her and hug her and hold her without worrying about hurting her. I sat with her and sang to her and just felt so much peace. My best friend was out of pain and was dancing with angels and partying with our Grandpa Duke, Uncle Cliff, Aunt Deb and Inkie, our dog.

I remember my sister in law, Andy, making me lie down at one point because I was hysterical and finally giving me a Valium. Leave it to me, right? After that, I don't remember much. Except for one little inside Ellen joke that I knew she sent to make me smile. And it worked :) I was vaguely aware about an hour later of my dear friend, Shordy, coming to my parents house and lying with me until I fell asleep, but after that I was out for a few hours.

The next day, we celebrated my sisters life in true Brittanie Siobhan fashion: with an Oscar Party! My brother, sister in law, two nieces, Sawyer, Chirpie, my parents and I filled out Oscar ballots, each put $5 in the pool and watched the entire show. Its a tradition we've had for years and even when Brittanie was on the other side of the country, we would all call one another on commercial breaks and talk about the awards given since our last conversation. We like to think she had a front row seat at the awards that night. Right next to Heath Ledger :)

The week after that is also pretty blurry. Lots of arrangements were made, and thats pretty much it. Friday night, the 12th, was the viewing. The turn out was out of this world, but then, did Brittanie ever expect anything traditional? So many friends, family members, coworkers (past and present) and childhood neighbors showed up to pay their respects and let us know how much they loved our girl. When our family got there at 5:45pm, the line was already out the door and it wasn't even scheduled to start until 6. We didn't leave the funeral home until 9:30 that night. It was amazing.

Saturday is almost too difficult to describe right now. I hope I'll be able to at some point, but I feel as though right now it is too sacred. She would have been very pleased though. There were tears, but more importantly, there was laughter. After the services and the luncheon, Sawyer, Chirpie and his friend Tim, Shordy and I came back to the house and had a Brittanie Movie Night. We watched Drop Dead Gorgeous and 300 and ate lots of Fat Kid Food. She would have been very proud of the Fat Kids :)

Now its technically 3 days after the funeral and I have to return to my life in Provo tomorrow night. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to do that, though. I can't imagine a "normal life" without my sister. My partner in crime. My other half. So I guess we'll see how that goes. I know she'll be with me, helping take every step. And I know that she wouldn't want me to sit around and be sad. She'd want me to go on with my life, remember her, and make my life Astonishing. http://obit.russonmortuary.com/obitdisplay.html?id=763390&listing=Current

Miracles Happen!!

Heavens above!! Its been too long since I did this!! Its been insane. I can't even believe its been 3 months. Time has flown, but it also seems like it has stood completely still. We had an AMAZING run of "Into The Woods." Amazing friendships were formed, good times were had by all. That is my favorite part of a show, really. Everything that happens backstage. All of the stupid inside jokes and crazy random moments.

But it wouldn't be a fractured fairy tale without...well..a fracture!! Well, almost. Just a couple of torn ligaments. While I wish I could write this eloquently, Julie Webb describes the scene the best.

"No One Is Alone. Truly."
Written by Julie Webb "The Baker's Wife" Into the Woods 2009
10/02/2009

I have often had a nightmare where I'm to play a leading role, and it's time for the performance and I realize I've never been to a single rehearsal, never read the script, don't have a costume, don't know my songs or my lines.

Last night I was on stage with someone who lived it.

Right after Little Red's solo "I Know Things Now", she went back into Granny's House, a moving set piece that is a three-in-one (Granny's House, Rapunzel's Tower, Cinderella's Mother's Tree). Its is pivoted from behind by a member of the tech crew for each scene. As the piece was being turned, there was a horrifying high pitched scream. At first, we wondered what had happened. Did someone fall from the tree? Was something wrong in the audience? And then:

"Turn the tree back! My leg is broken!"

I leapt on stage and helped Cody, our tree moving tech, pivot the tree back. The father of one of our actresses jumped on stage and yelled into the audience, "Is there a doctor in the house?" And then the granc curtain came down.
At this point, I was panicking more then I ever have in my life. I had seen her get her foot caught. I was right there, but I couldn't help her. I ran out on stage, looked into the audience, saw my dad sitting there and told him to come help. We didn't know what to do to help her. I was pacing and starting to hyperventilate (I'm such a drama queen), so Jordon Sorenson came up and grabbed me and told me to breathe. I collapsed into him. I cried on his shoulder for a little bit while Marissa was crying and screaming from the other side of the stage. I looked up and saw Josh coming toward us. He pulled me from Jordon and tried to calm me down. It helped a little, but after a few minutes, I just needed to be with her.

I ran around to the front of the tree. Marissa (our Little Red) was laying there, crying. There was an EMT and a nurse in the audience, who immediately came forwad to help. Marissa was moved off stage. I stayed back. I didn't want to crowd anyone, and I knew I couldn't do much to help. Someone was calling 911. I felt an overwhelming urge to pray. I stepped into a corner of the stage behind the tree and fell to my knees. I pleaded with the Lord, "I know I can't do anything to help. But I KNOW I have enough faith. Please heal Marissa's leg. Please take away her pain." After quite some time, I felt calm, and I stood up and walked to where the commotion was. Three men in the cast had just given Marissa a priesthood blessing. I stood by Marissa abd stroked her hair and hugged her and made sure she had clean tissues while we waited for the ambulance to arrive.

The EMT asked her, "On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the worst pain you have ever felt in your life, how would you rate what you're feeling right now?"
"Well," Marissa said, "this IS the worst pain I've ever felt, but I'm only 16, so...I guess I'd say it's about 8.7."

She was so brave. I could hardly even believe it. I was in worse shape then she was. The only time she ever showed that she was in pain was when they tried to move her foot or take off the shoe. She kept asking us what we were going to do about the show and apologizing for ruining it. I finally told her to shut up so the EMTs could work on her and that we'd worry about the show later. She had my hand the whole time and I just sat there with tears running down my face.

Laurel (our Jack's Mother, and a member of the Scera faculty) pulled Samantha (Step-Sister) aside and asked her if she could go on for Little Red. "I think so. Maybe," she replied. Laurel told her that there was no maybe. Either she could or she couldn't. If she could, we'd continue with the show. If not, we'd have to call the show and send the audience home. "Okay," Samantha said. "I'll do it."

Marissa's mom and the ambulance arrived, and took Marissa to the hosptial. She left wearing her costume, leaving behind only the apron, the cloak, and the wig. the cast circled up in the green room. Samantha was given a costume to throw on. Another actress was brought in to fill the empty Stepsister role. We prayed together, and then re-started the show where we had left off.

It was truly amazing. Samantha learned her lines for the next scene whenever she was off-stage. Everyone covered for everyone. We helped each other and held each other up. We prayed for each other. Samantha was brilliant. Nicole covered nearly all the stepsister lines, and never dropped character for a moment. It was the most remarkable theater experience.

Our audience was terrific. We were playing to a packed house. We felt such love and understanding from the. When Samantha came forward to take her bow, the entire cst joine in the audience in their applause.

Near the end of the show, Marissa's mom called Laurel. After looking at the x-rays, the doctors said it was merely a bad sprain. Nothing was broken. It's quite possible the hard leather ankle-boot saved Marissa's leg. She's wearing a fiberglass splint. We don't know if she'll do our closing night tonight or not. If she does, it will probably be on crutches and we'll be overjoyed to see her.

I wanted to write this all down before I forgot the details. It was sureal. Everyone was so brave. I'm so proud of every single member of this fanastic cast, and so grateful to be a part of it.
Marissa DID do our closing night...in a wheelchair! It was amazing. She totally rose to the challenge. It was like she was looking at the people who thought she couldn't do it and saying "Oh yeah? Watch me." It was one of her best performances. Howard, the director, pushed around on stage for the majority of the first act (as her dead grandfather who watches over her), but during the second act, the other people on the stage helped her get around on the rare occasion she couldn't do it herself. Backstage, we had two people help get the chair from stage right to left and when I could I helped her hobble back and forth, other wise she just hopped on one foot. Jacob, Charlie, Cody, and I had gone to see her earlier that day and she was doing so well. She was in a good mood and excited to do the show. She was in a lot of pain, but my dad went and go her some Ibuprofen and she was fine for the rest of the night. There were, of course, some shaky point, but it turned out really well and we had an amazing closing night!"

Thanks Julie, for letting me use your beautiful description of an amazing night!!!

So yeah, that was pretty much the extent of 'Into The Woods.'

The same night as the accident, my parents (who came to EVERY performance except for the first 2 because they had been in Florida) pulled me aside after the show and told me we needed to talk. They sat me down and told me that Brittanie, my older sister, had gone to the doctor earlier that day for just some general fatigue and malaise. Because she was having stomach pains, they did an ultrasound. The ultrasound showed a growth the size of a grapefruit on her left ovary. They did some pathology tests a couple days later and said that we would probably hear about the results within a week or so. My dad called me the next morning from outside my classroom, so I knew it was bad. He told me the doctors has discovered that its what is called an 'adenosquamos tumor' or something like that. That meant that there was a chance it would be cancerous.

My mom was already down in Florida with Brittanie and then my dad would go down in about a week, just a few days before the surgery to remove the tumor from her ovary. My dad and I spent the day at Barnes and Noble waiting to hear anything more from the coast. We heard a few hours later that they had decided to keep an eye on it, bed rest, and keep the surgery scheduled for October 14th. We all went about lives for the next few days. My dad and I were at Evita at Roger's Memorial Theater when he got a text message from my mom. Brittanie's pain was through the roof and they wanted to admit her to the hospital where she would be having the surgery. My dad left the following day (I believe it was the 9th or 10th of October) to be there with them. The surgery happened on the 14th as planned at it went really well. They got all the of the tumor from her ovary, she would recover for about 2 weeks, then come here. It is cancerous, but they were really hopeful. They came home about 2 weeks later, and we got her settled in at home. Lots of bed rest, not much outside of her bedroom, but she could walk around on her own when needed. On Halloween night, her pain was out of control again. We tried to get her downstairs to the car so we could take her to hospital, but we got to the top of the stairs and she couldn't even stand up anymore. We called 911 and they took her to the University of Utah Hospital. She had gotten really dehydrated, but they were concerned about some more mets they had found in her lungs. She was transfered to Huntsman Cancer Institute that night.

They found that it was a very aggressie type of cancer (Stage 4 Ovarian) and had spread to her lungs, bones, brain, and lymph nodes. She was doing relatively well for about a week and they let her go home except to come back for a few hours everyday to do radiation. They wanted to work on her medication levels, so they admitted her again. She was there for about another week finishing radiation. On the same day she finished radiation, she started chemotherapy. She was sitting up, talking, alert, watching movies with us until about 6 o'clock that night. Starting at about 6:30 or 7, she was REALLY groggy and having a hard time keeping her oxygen levels above about 85 (which is really low). They started talking about putting her on a ventilator, but then told us that if she was put on a ventilator, there was a good chance she would never come off of it. We started to wonder what she would tell us to do if she was conscious and had basically come to the conclusion that she wouldn't want the tubes. We began to say our goodbyes. We thought it was time for Wendy to back to Neverland. One of the respiratory doctors said that if we put her on a special oxygen mask, then we might not need to intubate her. We tried that, but it gave her such bad panic attacks from the pressure behind the air (my sister in law compared it to trying to take a drink from a fire hose) that she couldn't keep it on for more then a few minutes. It was a start and that was all we were asking for. They took her down to the ICU at U of U hospital, where she stayed from Sunday night to Friday. On Tuesday, my uncles came and gave her a Priesthood blessing. I won't go into detail, but it was the most amazing thing I've ever heard. It was such a breath of fresh air. She was blessed with healing and recovery, which was everything we could have asked. By Wednesday night, she was sitting up in bed, watching Project Runway, eating full meals, and only using the BiPap (the high pressure mask) for a few minutes every hour.

We got her back up to Huntsman on Friday afternoon. There were still a few days before Thanksgiving, but we were pretty sure we wouldn't have her home by then. We had a really nice Thanksgiving dinner at the hospital, eating lukewarm turkey and canned cranberries from the cafeteria while watching a video that her Florida family had put together from a benefit they had had in her honor.

A few days later, she slipped and broke her pelvis in 3 or 4 places. That set her progress back a little bit, which was really disappointing for her. About a week later, she had surgery to repair the fracture. They put a screw in from one side of her pelvic bone to the other, so about 8 inches long. The surgical team was AMAZING. One little nurse, came up to us while we were all kneeling around Britt's bed (she gets claustrophobic when we all stand around her) and asked if she could join us. We said of course and she bowed her head and folded her arms. When we didn't do anything, she looked up and said "Oh I'm sorry! I thought you were praying!" We looked at Brittanie and asked if she wanted us to. She said yes, so we had a word of prayer before sending her into the OR. This sweet nurse (I feel bad, but I don't remember her name) gave Britt one of her husbands medals from a triathlon or marathon or the Iron Man....I think it was the Iron Man. Apparently he does a program called "Medals for Metal" where his wife chooses special cases from her surgeries where they have to use rods or screws and gives away his medals. I think it is so awesome that he wants to acknowledge the strength that it takes to have these kinds of surgeries. Brittanie was in recovery for about an hour after a three hour procedure. At one point, the nurses called up to ask if "Brittanie's sister" was ok. We told them that yes, I'm fine. They told us that she had woken up asking for me, wondering where I was, saying that she needed to find me and be with me. When she got up to the room, she saw me and started to cry. I asked her what was wrong and she said "I thought we were here for you and I couldn't find you. It was so scary." I, of course, burst into tears and couldn't leave her side for the rest of the day.

Brittanie's recovery time was about a week for that, then we finally got her home. We got her home on December 5th and on the morning of December 6th, we were showered with gifts. My mom had received a call about a week earlier saying that someone had anonymously purchased a Festival of Trees tree for us. On December 6th, it was delivered. First, they brought in a HUGE 7 foot tall tree decorated in red and gold ball ornaments, ornaments the size of my head(!!), and an assortment of Mickey ornaments. THEN, they brought in a fireplace, which in place of an actual fire, had a flat screen TV and DVD player, complete with a Disney DVD called 'Magical Fireplace.' It looks and sounds like a real fire, but every few minutes, the silhouettes of Disney characters float past in the background! THEN, they brought in an arm chair and ottoman, complete with large, plush Mickey and Minnie in Christmas Attire. There was a train around the tree. There was a painting of Santa Claus (who, we are pretty sure, was modeled after Walt himself) with Mickey and Minnie. There were tools for the "fireplace." There was a top hat and scarf for Mickey. There was a table and 4 Christmas Disney mugs. All kinds of little details that only Disney would think of. To this day, we don't know who it is from. We have a few ideas, but I guess we'll never know. Which, honestly, makes it a little more special. :)

I was able to come home for Christmas Break on December 22nd. It was so nice to go home and not have to worry about coming back down to Provo for almost 2 weeks. We were all able to relax together, take naps on the couch together, watch Wife Swap and West Wing together, all of our favorite stuff! On the 23rd, we went to our grandma's house for a family Christmas party. It was the first time Brittanie had been out of the house since we had gotten her home and she looked BEAUTIFUL. Then, on Christmas morning, we went to our grandpa's house for Christmas breakfast. It was SO fun to be able to get her out of the house and around people again. It was really draining for her and she wasn't feeling very good for a few days after, but she was so happy while we were there.

Brittanie had her 3rd round of chemotherapy on December 30th and we got some AMAZING news. Her tumor counts (not exactly sure what that means, honestly) had gone from 163 when she was first diagnosed, down to 95 after the first round, and then down to 63 after the second round. The normal rate is 30, so this is so great.

We have lots of hope now for her recovery. There is still a rough road ahead, but she is doing SO well. She walked up the stairs the other day in front of me for the first time in 3 months, and I started to cry. No one does determined like Brittanie and she is proving it to us tenfold.

I think that is pretty much everything exciting from the last few months....well, I DID get in a car accident because I was texting, went to court with about 30 thugs from Downtown Salt Lake City that were there for domestic abuse and theft (If you ever want to feel like a skinny little white girl, thats the place!) almost got sent to jail for 10 days (I had no idea about that one until I got outside and my dad told me what the judge had said and I almost passed out on the sidewalk), and now have to pay a $595 fine....but thats all!!

Don't be careful. Don't be clever. When you see your wish: PURSUE!!

Once upon a time....later!
It has been a CRAZY couple of months! I started my classes at Mountainland Applied Technology College about 2 1/2 months ago and got cast in 'Into the Woods' at the Scera in Orem and trying to work enough hours at the Big Orange Box to keep me afloat! I'm realizing as I type this that it doesn't sound like it should be that time consuming...but it is! I swear!
I am LOVING my class. I never realized how much work the Medical Assistants actually do. Did you know that the average temperature to keep the reception area at in a physicians office is 76 degrees? Cuz I didn't! Seriously though. I have learned so much. Its amazing to me that the human body goes through so much and has so much going on inside that we don't even know about. And we just go about our daily lives! Its crazy! Plus, I now have my own stethoscope and blood pressure cuff. So thats pretty awesome.
Into the Woods has definitely been interesting!! We have such an amazingly talented cast and I'm so honored to work with them. Right before opening, it was scary, but it went really well!! 6 weeks of rehearsal went really fast but we got a lot done and were all pleasantly surprised when we put it together and it actually worked! It has been so much fun to get to know these new people and work with my sweet friends Kaelie and Laurel and of course, the handsome prince, Josh. :D
I became an aunt for the 3rd time this morning! Cameron and Trin Hutchings baby Kaylee Amberlyn was born this morning at 8:05. She is BEAUTIFUL and you know I'll spoil her rotten. I'm her godmother! Its what I do!

I'm just the girl all the boys want to dance with!!

Remember that one time when God dumped a bucket of rain on the stage of the Scera Shell during a performance? Because I do! The AWESOME cast went through the show until "Gaston," but once the Tech Booth saw that our performance of "Beauty and The Beast" had turned into "The Little Mermaid," complete with water works, we finally called the show and ran off into the wet rainy night!! Our weather for the entire run was so crazy bojangles. I swear, every other night we got rained on. By the end of the first weekend, my feathers were drenched and mostly ripped off! But it was totally worth every second. Especially the sunny ones!
Its so weird to me that the show is over. I forgot how much I love being on stage and under the lights. The friends that I saw everyday for hours on end, I consider myself lucky if I see them once a week now. I miss everyone so much! I'm so excited though, because tomorrow a group of us are going to see a fellow cast member in West Side Story, so that will be an awesome reunion.
I have finally decided on what I'm doing with my life, and hopefully, this time it will stick. I'm going to keep working on my Theatre degree at Utah Valley University, then starting in the Spring, I'm going to start the Medical Assisting program at Mountainland(the tech college in Provo). I looked at so many different options, and I really think this is the best one. So, unless something better jumps out at me, that's the plan.
Earlier this week, I had the privilege of going to a MDT workshop called "Take It From The Top," taught by Paul Canaan (who has been performing on Broadway for years and helped judge the Legally Blonde reality show on MTV last summer), Megan Larche (one of the casting directors from New York), and Dave Barrus (another performer, recently seen in 'Chess: In Concert' with Josh Groban, Adam Pascal, and Idina Menzel). It was such an amazing opportunity to learn from people who have actually been there and done the things that I want to do and could give us advice on how to succeed.

Tale as old as time....

Rehearsals are over and we have officially started the run of "Beauty and the Beast" at the Scera Shell!! Woot!! Its finally here!! Rehearsals had us pretty worried about opening. Costumes and set pieces weren't done, people got sent to the ER after set pieces fell ON them, choreography looked awful, dedication levels went WAY down, we were forgetting lines and cues. It was like as soon as we started practicing on the actual stage, everything we had spent 6 weeks learning had gone out the window! That was slightly nerve wracking. So far, everything has gone relatively smoothly, though. Well, at least most of it...the Beast is still giving us a little trouble...like running out on stage without his Beast wig on but complete with a Nike sweatband. THAT was a lot of fun. I got to run it onstage to him in the middle of a scene. AWKWARD!! Everything else is pretty good though. We've had really good audiences both nights and of course my parents have been front row center through out the whole thing. It's crazy that everything that we've been working for is so close to coming to an end, though. Its going to be hard to not see the cast everyday! The best part has been getting to know them and hanging out backstage and being r-tarded with them at Denny's and Applebee's until all hours of the morning! I'm going to miss these people so much(aka stealing carafes from denny's, creme brulee vs brownies, etc). We've all gotten to be so close after spending long hours rehearsing and working together. But I think we'll all stay in touch and I'm SURE we'll do more shows together!!

I'm so bored my brain is collapsing---love Bill

So this post is totally illegal because I'm on the computer at Home Depot!! Yay for stickin' it to the man!

Beauty and the Beast is starting to take shape and its going to be so awesome!! At rehearsal about 2 weeks ago, Jerry Elison, the director, and Robert, the stage manager called me out into the hall. My first instinct was "Aw shoot, how did I screw this up already?? We've only had 3 rehearsals!" But, to my surprise, Jerry said(in his cute little old man voice) "Madison, our Babette has had to drop out of the show. Would you like to do it?" On the outside I was very calm, cool, collected, thanked him so much for the opportunity and told him I would love to accept the role! On the INSIDE, however, this was me : "OH MY GOSH!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!! MY FIRST REAL SHOW DOWN HERE!! THEY LIKE ME! THEY REALLY LIKE ME!!" I'm having so much fun and LOVING my role. Its slightly discouraging when I tell people that I'm the skanky hoe French maid and they say "That fits you!!" but whatever! It's fun!
SAST closed a week ago today and we had a really good run! A few more screw ups then we would have liked, but it turned out ok. And we had a blast doing it, so what more can you ask???
FINALS ARE DONE!! WOOT WOOT!! I probably shouldn't complain because I only had one actual test during Finals week, but still. The stress of people around me stressing is stressful! I now get to enjoy the torture that is waiting for the final grades to be posted. I only have to wait for two of my grades, but its killing me! This is my punishment for being OCD. I don't have all my grades, thus I go insane.
My Florida ladies have all left me except for Laura. Chelsie is on her way to England(, Sarah is in Italy, Paige is in Europe, Kelly is in Montana, Kate is in Mississippi and Elyse is at BYU-I. Which leaves me and Laura! Sad face, but Laura and I are going to have so much fun without them that they'll wish they were here instead of their various locations across the globe....hmm

Pampering

I think that at some point in their life, all women should get a facial. I just had my first one and oh my word....that room is my new happy place! I was thinking about it while I was in there and I realized that women totally deserve this kind of stuff. We put up with a lot of crap!! We deserve to be rewarded. Guys and some girls get to go play sports or whatever to release tension, but for those of us who are "athletically challenged," that is why God gave us estheticians.