We went to Disneyland last week. Have some pictures.

Oh, there you are, Perry.

To answer your question, yes, it was VERY DELICIOUS.

It's been sooooooooo long

Hi there. It's been a while, hasn't it?

Jordan and I moved from Riverton to somewhere else. We moved so we could be closer to Jordan's new(ish) job. He does web stuff for Perfectly Posh, which is awesome because it means I get to try out a lot of fun products for free, awww yeah.

Our new ward is pretty good, but... I'm kinda sorta taking a break from church again. There are just too many things that are bothering me right now. The way I see it is this: I want to stay in the Church, but if that's going to happen, I'm going to need some distance to process some pretty intense stuff for a while. I wish it didn't have to be this way. I actually really miss going to church and feeling spiritually uplifted and feeling generally good about the Church. My heart longs to somehow have a healthy relationship with the Church again, even after becoming aware of some of the negative things they have done in the past and continue to do presently.

Probably the biggest development in my life right now is that I've started therapy. Yup. I finally did it. My therapist seems like a really good match for me and I'm excited to get to work and figure out this depression/anxiety thing, because I'm ready to move on.

On a lighter note, I've been making lots of books lately, and that's been fun. Want to see some of them? Okay!

Basic codex

Coptic binding

Long stitch on a recycled candy box

Spiral bound

Japanese stab binding (the notes are for a Nancy Drew computer game)

Our missionary, Trevor

Well, this lil' fella is coming home from his mission tomorrow:

It makes him happy to be taller than at least one dude in the world

It still feels almost too weird to be true.

Okay

This is what I've accomplished this week. It's adorable and you're not allowed to say otherwise.

It's a birthday present for my baby sister. She still only considers stuffed animals to be legitimate gifts. That, at least, makes it easy to know what she wants for her birthday.

Making a sweater for my new pocketknife

My dad is a Renaissance man. Lately, his thing has been designing and hand-crafting pocketknives. They're really cool, and I've always loved pocketknives, so I told him to make me one. Since I'm his favorite biological daughter.

The coolest thing about the design is that it's really easy to open with one hand. Plus it has a safety lock at the top, so you can't accidentally slice your finger off.

The only problem is that it doesn't have any way to attach it to my key chain...

...so I crocheted an adorable little case. Hooray!

Twilight Sparkle is my spirit animal

I drew this for Jordan the other day. BEHOLD MY AWESOME ARTISTIC ABILITIES:

... yeah, I crochet a lot

Hello, frens! Over the summer, I've crocheted roughly thirty things. That's a lot of things. Here are a few of the recenter ones:

Crochet is a good anti-depressant.

Sugar and temples, mostly

Well, hello.

Things are good. Mentally, I've been feeling great. I haven't felt sad for a little while now, which is cool. I've even been feeling up to facing my fears and getting back into driving again (I drove around my block!! Wooooo!). Physically, I've been all over the map. I got a gross nasty cold, and have determined that granola, Cheerios, and Frosted Mini Wheats definitely have too much sugar for my poor little head. Sad face. But eating un-sugary cereals has made a big difference so... buh. Goodbye, delicious, sugary breakfast cereals.

I'm looking forward to the upcoming temple dedication in Brigham City. Temples are cool. You should like them.

But you don't actually have to like them. But you'll at least agree that they're pretty, right? Good.

Oh, and here's another exciting thing upcoming. Tomorrow, actually.

If you aren't watching Parks and Recreation, shame on you. Shame.

Progress

My experiment is going well, and I do believe I may have found a trigger: added sugar.

I had my first migraine in about two weeks yesterday, and I'm almost positive it was because of all the sugar I had the day before. Tricky, right? So, if it does end up being a trigger, that's great, because I'll avoid stuff with lotsa sugar and probably feel healthier. But it will also be sad, because I like sugar.

Craziness: my stake was COMPLETELY REORGANIZED last weekend, and I have been moved into a ward that didn't exist before last weekend. I just don't even know what to do with that. The good-for-sure news is that we have Church at 11:00 now instead of 9:00...

Fer cute

Today is day three of my migraine-safe diet. It's been prooty good, although it's hard to come up with quick snacks I can eat throughout the day that aren't fruit, veggies, or rice cereal. Suggestions?

In other news, I've been further improving my legit crochet skillz. The tiniest project I've done was this little set of flower earrings; I'm planning on making other little crochet things so the earrings can be switchable.

I'm currently working on a big ol' basket. It looks weird in this picture. I'm (loosely) following this pattern, but I used t-shirt yarn that I made instead of normal kind.

I made what the interwebs folks call a boutique bag. Look at it.

Finally, I've been crocheting around the edges of GAJILLIONS of baby blankets and stuff my mom made. It's strangely addictive.

Elimination

What do the following foods have in common?

I love all of them. Also, I can't eat any of them for the next 6 weeks. Along with beef, soy products, corn products, caffeine, and sugar.

What is this madness, you ask? I'm embarking on my second attempt at an elimination diet to see if I can identify any migraine triggers. Here's how it will work: for two weeks, I eliminate all the above foods from my diet. After that, I challenge each food, one at a time, to see if reintroducing it into my diet triggers migraines. When I introduce a food back into my diet, it is only for 24 hours; after that, it's gone again. I don't want different types of food interacting with each other somehow and messing up my experiment.

I'm gonna be eating lots of fruits and vegetables for the next little while. Wish me luck.

Lately

Exciting things have been going on around here for us. First and awesomest, we get to work at the Provo Temple as ordinance workers! (Once renovations are over.) I say "awesomest" because it's a cool word, and also I've always wanted to work at the temple, and now I have my chance. It seems like you can only do it when you're really young, or when you're really old, so why not now?

Second and pretty awesome, I've been feeling normal, as in happy. I'm still not up to my former level of productivity or self motivation, but feeling so good makes up for that.

Third and sort of awesome, I'm rededicating myself to figuring out my migraines. I've had pretty bad migraines since I was about 14, and in the past few years, they've become more severe and I've had them more frequently. While the good news in the migraine department is that they aren't nearly as gross and painful as they have been, the bad news is that I've been getting them almost every day for the past month and a half, so... ugh. I'm hoping that keeping track of daily activities and (eventually) talking to a specialist will help me conquer this illness so I can have an even more normal life.

Fourth and also awesome, I really like my ward. Maybe it's because I'm more interested in socializing now, but this ward seems friendlier than the last one I was in.

I know this has been a pretty boring post, so sorry about that. To make up for it, I'm going to include some pictures of babies with animals.

Also, this: