Brush with a handsome French boy

Hey everyone!

I'm back! Yep. This is going to be a long blog post. I have a lot on my mind.

Sister Mueller and I arriving in the Salt Lake airport

I just spent the last 18 months away from home in the wonderful land of Fukuoka, Japan, and I want more than anything to go right back there.

I had THE most amazing experience of all time serving my Heavenly Father in a land that I have learned to love so much. If you happen to want to read about it feel free to visit my mission blog. There is a lot of great stuff in there.

I'll give myself credit for making a concerted effort to focus on doing the will of the Lord in those 18 months I was gone, but when the time to return home seemed pretty tangible my mind started to go...a little like this.

First and foremost, I thought about how wonderful it would be to hold my new niece Violette and just SIT with my family and talk. I also did a great deal of thinking about the logistics of returning home- the ten days I would spend in Provo, one month in Europe, and the eventual start of Fall semester at BYU. Lastly, I thought of getting back into the dating scene, how awesome it would be to stay out past 9:00 PM, and the mysterious Italian men I might have a fling with before heading back to America.

All of my wildest dreams came true upon holding Violette who is the squishiest, cutest baby I've ever laid hands on. My family, who are less squishy( I think?) but still awesome, are the happiest I've ever seen them.

However, as far as the romantic daydreams I might have had...lets be honest, guys. It is just not going to happen.

So the other day we were in the French Alps about to take a goldola to the top of this incredibly gorgeous mountain and we passed this really cute guy who was monitoring the rides. At first I thought I was imagining him looking over in my direction(is there a non-chubby-post-missionary American hottie standing behind me or something?)... then very obviously smiling at me ( Awkward thing with the eyes where you don't know where to look..)...and still looking(...so I look desperately at my sister who makes it worse by laughing and saying, "that French guy is totally smiling at youuuuuu!"),  he makes eye contact (still panicking)...and then I go huddle by the wooden guardrail trying to convince myself not to jump over the edge while my sister tries to convince me to go talk to him.

Monte Blanc in the French Alps

I did the obvious right thing (or so my slightly brain-washed Sister missionary mind still thinks is the right thing)  and completely ignored him, all chances of a romantic mountain date-hike with a rugged Frenchman whispering sweet nothings about the Alps into my ears being blown away by the crisp mountain breeze.

What happened to my high school self who had the uber-confidence to approach any cute guy? Or at least flirtingly smile back? He was FRENCH for heavens sake!

Why wouldn't a hot French guy want a piece of this? Hahahah

I guess the rumors are true. Life after the mission is just a little rough. Just a little, though. Here are some things I am currently struggling with:

1. Knowing how good it is to go to bed early and rise early because I did it for 18 months nonstop but for one reason or another not being able to keep that schedule anymore. Heart-breaking

2. Having a conversation without annoyingly telling some story about my mission.

3.  Getting back into social media. It took me literally a week to figure out how to work the new Facebook. I kept telling people I hadn't logged on yet but I was really just embarrassed that I couldn't work the dang thing to check my messages and write anyone back. Also, my last companion, Sister Takabori, told me a lot about Pinterest, Instagram and other new fads that apparently make it easier to show people how cool you are, but I can't figure those out, either so I guess I'm doomed to being ever non-cool. I used to be kind of cool, though so I'll give myself a break.

4. Remembering English. I'm not saying I'm one of those RMs who came back and had a goofy mission language-related accent and said embarrassing things in their homecoming talk, but after spending one year straight with Japanese companions I have definitely lost some of my former English language vocabulary. I'm a communications major, so that's kind of a problem. I used to be kind of witty and pull out big words here and there to make myself sound slightly intelligent but now I got nothin'. Aint got nothin'.

I'm sure the list will continue to grow longer as my time as an awkward return missionary passes.

Despite all of my current challenges I am looking forward with an eye of hope and excited for what the future holds.

Wish me luck. I'm gonna need it.

The Infamous Bet

Just for the record, Curtis won the bet, but only because I weighed 117  instead of 116 like I was supposed to. He was way further away from his goal than I was.

If you are behind on the whole bet situation, read this.

Anyway, he wanted me to make a public statement concerning the matter so he can brag. However, due to extraneous circumstances, the conditions of the bet did not play out. Although, I think the bragging rights he now has are worth much more to him than a shallow make out session.

I'll miss you Curt.  

Just one last post...

I couldn't help it. This was just too good.

 The week I left Pittsburgh I dressed Bea up as a saucy Mexican Chonga for fun. Whenever I babysat just her she would beg me to put makeup on her and do her hair. I think this was my best, haha.

 One day Bea came bounding up the basement stairs saying, "Woosey, mouse!" I didn't really know what she meant until Annie brought up this little gus. Poor guy was just enjoying some cheese. We were actually really sad when we finally caught him because he was so adorable. He spent endless hours in the basement filling our snowboarding and ski boots with lentils. Every time we got our boots out to go boarding we had to dump all of the lentils out, haha. 

 Ok, this is officially my last post. To see what I'm up to from now on refer to my mission blog linked on the right of this blog!

Sayounara!

The last four months have been a crazy rollercoaster. Some of my favorite adventures include: Amy and Matt's wedding in North Carolina; Traveling to Puerto Rico,Boston,Rhode Island, and Lake Tahoe with the Jet Blue All You Can Jet pass; Playing in an open mic in downtown Pittsburgh and meeting some awesome people; Going to the NYC Chocolate Show; Spending Christmas in Connecticut with my sister's in-laws and seeing some long lost Tokyo friends in NYC for the New Year; Taking a road trip through Philly, Baltimore, and Gettysburgh; couch surfing and milking a cow in Amish country....

...but most of all spending time with my beautiful sister and her family.

What a perfect way to spend the months before my mission! I'll be back July 2012. Peace!

Bet update

Curtis: Lost zero lbs

Lucy: 3 lbs to go until goal

Looks like Curtis is going to have a lonely New Year

Curtis and my canteen

Sooo....my friend Curtis and I recently made a bet. I've been telling Curtis to lose some weight for a while now, but he doesn't seem to have any motivation to do it. So being the good friend that I am, I decided to give him some. Actually, I think he came up with the entire premise and conditions of the bet all on his conniving little own. But that's not the point. Here it is:

I am going home to Colorado for 10 days before I leave on my mission on January 26th, and if Curtis loses 15 lbs by the time I get home on the 16th of January we are going to make out. Yep, that's right. We've even specified what this exactly means, and yes, it is what you think. However, there's also a catch: I have to lose 8 lbs by the 16th or I have to do the dirty deed regardless of whether he lost his 15 or not!

Here is a series of pictures to demonstrate the need for the bet

Sophomore year of high school.

Senior year

freshman year of college

self explanatory

Now.

 So, are there any guesses on whether I am going to fill my canteen before my mission after all? I hadn't planned to, but now I'm getting a little nervous. I honestly don't think he can do it, but I am also a little scared that I can't hold up my end. I mean, 8 lbs? I hope he has fun making out with an emaciated skeleton!

I am extremely interested in the outcome of this little bet. The stakes are pretty high. Maybe I'll send him some chocolate.

What's been on my mind lately

Thats all.

Some lucky guy's gonna have to deal with this...

This is what life will look like in about 10 years when I have 5 of my 8 kids.

Yeehaw

Isn't it common practice to dress up for midnight showings?

I went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter last night, and got all dressed up (as is tradition), and what do you know? Absolutely nobody else there was dressed up!! People in Pittsburgh are lame-sauce.

I'm not the only one who was angry about it

However, I'm proud to say that I wasn't the least bit embarrassed because my friend who went with me looks almost exactly like Harry Potter so I felt kind of like a celebrity. Unfortunately, I didn't get any sweet pictures of us all dressed up.

The movie was amazing, though! I've been looking forward to that foreverrrrr. Now the thing that's getting me all giddy and excited inside is the thought of stuffing my face at Thanksgiving!

The Chocolate Show

This weekend my sister and I drove all the way to NYC to go to The Chocolate Show

That's right. 

A convention.

All about chocolate.

And you get to eat it.

As. Much. As. You. Can. Handle. 

This is no joke people. I almost threw up because I sampled so much chocolate. 

Chocolateers(yes, they really call them that) from all over the world come and set up booths in the Metropolitan Pavilion and all you have to do is pay $20 and you can walk around for hours and hours and hours sampling different chocolates. 

Trying some chocolate filled with wasabe at the Japanese counter

Scary killer clown chocolate sculpture

This is me dry heaving over a trash can because I ate too much chocolate

Poor Clemmie doesn't know the wonders of chocolate yet

Gulzat, Annie and I at the very end

One last piece... It was a truffle, I couldn't resist!

I got a little carried away with my last taste...

These outfits are from the chocolate fashion show. they are all made out of chocolate!

Some of the chocolate was bad, but most of it was so delicious I couldn't even believe it!

I highly recommend going to the chocolate show if you're ever in NYC in November!

Sprint triathlon

I just completed my first ever sprint triathlon! It took place on the fourth floor of the Westin hotel here in Pittsburgh. All indoors! It was pretty weird...and I'm pretty sure the 25 lengths they had us do in the pool (which was 18 yards each length) didn't add up to 500 meters. Hmmmm haha

But it was awesome! We did the swim first, then the airdyne bike, then the treadmill run. We barely did any training for it, so it was an absolute miracle that we finished....let alone got 5th and 6th place out of the women. Then again, only about 15 women competed...haha. 

Annie and I right before the swim

About to jump on the airdyne bikes. Aren't the shirts they gave us super cute??

I can't figure out why Annie won't look at the camera. She said its because she was looking at how bad her hair looked haha

After the whole thing. Can you tell we were pretty wasted by our shiny foreheads?

I love training for things, like the half marathon I did with my bestie Sarah a couple of years ago. It's pretty much the only way I can motivate myself to exercise, even though I really do love to exercise. I think it's mostly the early morning thing. Bleh.

I want to train for another race before I leave on my mission. I'm planning on doing the midnight New Years 5K run in Central Park with my best friends from Japan Ali Beavers and Kathryn Germano, but that's totally weak sauce, so I need to find something else to do.

Asian night at the Hohl residence

Annie and I were inspired recently to make home-made sushi. I also really wanted to experiment making my favorite Thai dish called pad see ew, so we decided to invite over the guys I played with at the show and have an Asian night! My pad see ew didn't turn out how I expected, but it was still edible!

We even listened to Japanese and Korean music while we were preparing our dishes! Here are some pictures from the night

Annie and Henry.

Don't these look legit!?

Bea didn't seem to like them too much

Mmmmmm eeel. My favorite.

Tim on the left holding Clementine and James no the right.

Tough samarai warrior faces

There's my pad see ew in the green bowl.

This was James' first time EVER trying sushi, so I had to capture his emotions.

Taking his first bite

Tasting....

He loves it! haha