Nanny Reflections

there are a few things in life that make me cry. some of which include watching white fang, boys who let me go to taiwan, the death of my dog Tanner, and the day that i said goodbye to my old nanny kid. for the privacy of this same ex nanny kid, i try to be pretty candid about my life and experiences while working with her and her family, however, i feel no apprehension expressing my feelings and emotions about her and sharing some of the experiences that we have had recently.

this past weekend I had the chance to go with the family to Montana, a land where you will see a taxidermy on just about on every street corner and find yourself talking with a hick accent saying things like howdy and ain't. it was fun to hangout with my ex nanny kid in the same way that we used to. she still looks to me to figure out how to act, asks me if she can have candy or go outside or whatever she needs to do, when she gets hurt she runs to me, i have no problems telling her i love her, but realize that it is important for her to know how lucky she is to have so many wonderful people in her life that love her such as me, her new nanny, her family, etc. i think about how curious it must be for a child to develop so many attachments to people and see them dissolve. i believe it is for this purpose that when i left her i cried so much because the reality of it is that i can't be her mother, i was just her nanny. but with being her nanny, i developed a strong love for her as i served her and acted as a mother would act towards a child.

as we were sitting and playing with linkin logs sunday morning i was singing. she used to tell me "you have a funny singing voice" to tease me, but this time around she started to cry and she looked at me and said "i miss you singing." it just about broke my heart. the reality of the situation is that i love this girl very much and she means the world to me but understanding this love just makes me realize the capacity for a mother to love a child is so much stronger then even i can understand. i think that perhaps one day, when i have my own family i will understand this love more. i realize every trip that i go on that by giving up my job, i gave up a ton of opportunities to see the world and to do great things, but perhaps as cool as that job was, even better things are in store for me. one day when i am quite grown up, having a family of my own will be the biggest blessing of all.

Pics from the ranch in Montana:

Catching Up - the Bahama Mama

Did you know that I went to The Bahamas?!?!?

It was probably the single most unrealistic experience of my life. I did things like jump off of my employers yacht into the blue water. At nights I rode on a speed boat to an island where I stayed in a cute house on the beach with the other nanny. I was able to fulfill my life long goal of swimming with sharks. I snorkeled under thunderball cave - the same cave from the James Bond movie. I was fed fancy yacht food (one of my favorite parts). We played on our own private islands with white sandy beaches all day long. I had my fare share of tube rides and jet skiing. It was a trip of a lifetime and one that I will most likely never have the chance to experience again and I loved every second of it :)

Spring Break Pics

For UVU's spring break, i went to California with my family (wow, does that sentence not sound like the beginning of a bad jr high paper addressing what was done for summer vacation?) Anyway, I found the vitamin d to be rejuvenating, disneyland to be magical, and the ocean to be full of waves. All was as it should be; a girl couldn't ask for much more!

The Good Old Days

I hung out with my first ever roommate this last week after not seeing her in about 4 years. I'll tell you what, man how time flies! Brittany and I were roommates at BYU-Idaho in 2005 at Royal Crest apartments in Rexburg. I started talking to Mrs Brittany Potter on facebook the other day and was pretty much shocked to learn that she and her new husband moved to Utah about a month ago. We met up in Salt Lake on Thursday and decided to just walk around and look for some restaurant and after spotting out some thai place, we talked about those good old days. That semester was the most influential and changing time of my life so I decided to write down some of the memories that I had and was reminded about after hanging out with her.

1 - Once my parents said the goodbye's, I ran right to my room and started to cry my eyes out.

2 - My roommate Jordan was a new freshman just like me. She walked into the room and was already crying and then we both started to laugh at ourselves and cry together.

3 - We met the rest of the roommates. Brittany came from Canada and along with Brittany came Adam Piper. He was pretty much our 7th roommate. He had a cupboard for food, kept some shoes and clothes in our apartment, and would brush his teeth in our sinks.

4 - none of us made friends with anybody else. We were content to just be in our apartment and hang out together.

5 - We were poor! I lived off of roman soup and learned about 101 ways to make roman more exciting.

6 - our roommate Crystal knew how to cook. We were all jealous when she would make food and hers smelled good and then she would horde it away.

7 - Every Sunday we would have Sunday dinners. I would have to call my mom about 3 times for one simple recipe like "how to make jello"

8 - None of us had a car. We would walk about a mile in the snow to wal-mart together to buy food. We would make it our Saturday activity.

9 - Big Judd's! If you have been to Rexburg, you have heard about Big Judds. We went to this burger place where the hamburgers were the size of your plate. We each ate a fourth of the burger and it was still the size of a normal portion.

10 - Brittany and I once decided to take some tweezers to Jordan's caterpillars (eyebrows) and she has never been the same since.

11 - singing with our hairbrushes to songs such as "men in black," "I love you always forever," Adams bad music, and Jordan's oldies!

12 - Going ice skating at the homemade ice skating rink at the football field.

13 - taking a carton of ice cream and putting milk in it and then gathering everyone around to eat "milk shakes" right out of the carton.

14 - pretending to play tennis at the tennis fields outside of Royal Crest

15 - walking to hogi yogi to get the cheapest thing off of the menu on Friday nights

16 - Jordan making beany weanies every single day

17 - Adam Piper hiding in my room because he knew that I would flip out at him for breaking the honor code

18 - laughing so hard we would cry. over the stupidest things. oh oh, sometimes jordan and i would just start laughing at each others laughs and then we would be up like all night just laughing

19 - Studying on the 4th floor of the library together and never getting anything done because we would just end up talking

20 - and finally, the time Brittany and I were in our apartment when it was a complete and total mess from the night before. We were both in our pajamas on a Friday night, no makeup, and pretty much looking awful. I was at one end of the room throwing something away and Brittany was at the fridge when this HOT guy walks in. He takes one look at us, then our apartment, and then walks out. We laughed forever and didn't take it personally. Although we probably should have.

Good Times BYU-Idaho. Good times. And thank you for the memories!

Brittany and Jaimie 2010

What Up Blog?!?

Well, it's been a good long while since I've blogged about exciting things or even less exciting things, but I couldn't hold off blogging about my beautiful baby niece Ellie Beth. Stewart and Cynthia adopted this ball of sunshine about 6 months ago and on Thursday she was officially and legally adopted. On Saturday she was sealed to our family and today she was blessed. I love this baby so much and I'm happy that she is ours both legally and for forever.

Have I Done Any Good in the World Today?

The Truth

Well mostly because I decided it was probably a bad idea to have my homework up for a blog post for the next couple of weeks, I decided to inform you all about the meaning of my name according to urban dictionary. It says:

Jaimie - a Godlike girl who is most likely the greatest single asset to someone's life. She also most likely has the best personality of anyone within a million mile radius.

This is obviously a very accurate definition here and I agree with all of it :)