The End of an Era...

For the past 4 years, and 8 months, this is what you would see when coming into our office.

Meet Melissa, the front desk girl.

She knows every patient's name and life story, every patient's insurance, when they were in for their last appointment, and if they have an unpaid balance on their account, and that's without looking at their chart, that's what I remember when I see them in Target.

It has been a good almost 5 years.

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It is now Thursday, January 31st.

When I marked this day on the schedule at work almost four months ago, it seemed ages away. The note on this day saying,

"MELISSA'S LAST DAY OF WORK!!!"

Sounds exciting, yes? Yes, it is.

But I'm also REALLY REALLY sad.

You see, I love work, and I will sorely miss my best friends.

So since I'm in a list-y mood, here are the top 27 reasons I will miss work.

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number 1:

Eating lots of food, especially food that our patients and other offices bring us.

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number 2:

Brooke googling random words to see what pictures she can find that best fit her emotions.

Last Thursday she told me that she felt like this:

James van der Beek=Google images search: crying

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number 3:

Pretending that I am Dr. Phil and giving bossy advice to Bethany even when she doesn't ask for it.

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number 4:

Brooke and her red vine straws

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number 5:

LAUGHING AND LAUGHING AND LAUGHING.

And taking pictures while doing so...

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number 6:

Brooke and Bethany doing Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who has to assist on the not-awesome patients.

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number 7:

Me and Sara sharing a brain at work and chiming into each other's conversations from across the office, because we were eves dropping all along, which totally takes people by surprise.

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number 8:

Becca working on Tuesdays. We all wish that there were more Tuesdays in a week.

Oh, and the fact that Sara and I hired Becca and then told Dr. Heap.

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number 9:

Dr. Heap putting up with me and Sara, but mainly me telling him what to do, even though he is the boss. He kind of lost boss points after this: Yes, those are princess press-on nails.

Or maybe he gained them...are you wishing you worked for him yet?

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number 10:

The Amazing Magic Carpet Ride Bonus System

(That's what Dr. Heap named it because what's more exciting than a magic carpet ride?)

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number 11:

Genie, the wicker squirrel who held the funds for the magic carpet ride, and drawing the $100 on my birthday of all days!

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number 12:

Birthdays with the office, it was so fun to get things from and for people that we knew they would love. For my birthday at work, Brookie got me wrapping paper, Bethany got me a QT gift card, and Dr. Heap got me electric scissors that are amazing to wrap with. They have basically changed my way of wrapping. Can you think of three presents that better suite me? I kind of can't.

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number 13:

The eel. Multiple times.

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number 14:

Ugly faces in general, and all the time.

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number 15:

Ugly dancing, all the time. I personally like doing this dance.

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number 16:

When any of us try something new with our hair and are crazy self concious about it, and would rather that nobody try to compliment us.

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number 17:

Going into Rubio's, where we all get Kid's meals, and seeing the manager get ticked as we walk in.

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number 18:

The sacredness of Diet Pepsi at the office. Looky, we have it in glasses here, classy huh? Oh, and going public places such as continuing educations and consultations with everyone and making fun of other offices and people in general, and making up conversations for other people.

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number 19:

Nicknames that we've created for patients that include:

Ostrich Lady,

First Date,

Ladies Please,

Catfish Lady,

Sulky Brat (who is coincidentally Catfish Lady's daughter)

Lucielle 2,

Zombie Twins,

Cute Hellen Keller,

The Goblin,

Anna Nicole Smith, but with brown hair,

and more that I can't think of.

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number 20:

Using key phrases to describe patients, such as:

-She's the one with the beard and hangy moles...

-She's the one with huge teeth and a tiny mouth...

-He's the one with the mail order wife with the extra middle tooth...

-He's the one that had an arranged marriage and hasn't learned to love his wife yet...

-He's the one that Dr. Heap thinks looks like Will Smith, but he totally doesn't...

-He's the one with the mail order wife that left him...

-She's the one with the voice of a kitten...

-He's the one that looks like a Far Side cartoon...

-She's the one that has two cats named Mr. Fish and Jasmine, and Sara touched her hair one time...

-She's crazy and is Anna Nicole's mom...

-She's the pretty one that has the personality of a lobster...

-He's the lobster girl's husband with the stupid enormous watch...

-He's the one that has the mole on his nose and decided to stop watching tv...

-She's the dental hypochondriac...

Seriously, this list could go on.

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number 21:

Brooke and Bethany drawing on the Hygiene Town magazine with white out, and making the lady really pretty. Oh, and the water bottle lid isn't referring to the lady on the cover, keep reading to find out what that is.

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number 22:

Adding words to the initials that other girls put on their drinks.

Putting Slytherin on Sara's drink made her way more mad than the one below! Us Harry Potter nerds would totally agree. I'm glad I found a way to get to her! Then Bethany tried to outsmart us by doing this... no such luck. ...

number 23:

Bethany

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number 24:

Becca

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number 25:

Sara

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number 26:

Brookie

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number 27:

Dr. Heap

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Now's the part where I'm seriously crying. I love all of you kids so much! Thanks for being my best friends!

Melissa's 2008 Resolutions

I understand that it is January 26th, but it's still January right?

Here are some of my goals for this year,

along with lots of extra commentary...per usual.

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# one.

Be punctual. Not just more punctual, but downright punctual.

I suppose that means using my watches for more than just accessorizing.

Here at the Lindblom house, watches are kind of our guilty pleasure.

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# two.

Walk my shoes into the closet every day.

I have a tendency to take them off in the living room as soon as I walk in the door. At one point Philip counted five different pairs of shoes, plus slippers in the living room. Whoops.

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# three.

Put on lotion every day. Especially when I start school and will have to wash my hands every five seconds, and they will inevitably look like this:

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# four.

Make and follow a budget

&

be more frugal and look for opportunities to save.

I kind of thought those went hand in hand.

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# five.

Use groceries before they go bad.

Usually this is what our fridge looks like after we go shopping, and then two weeks later, it looks about the same, but smells kind of funny, and then we throw lots of stuff away. I don't think that is very frugal of me...and remember goal four?

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# six.

Learn to play the piano again.

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# seven.

Read more books.

I've started the year off right because

I recently read this: which was amazing.

I am currently finishing this: which is totally inspiring.

And I'm about to start this: which my sisters have said will make me cry...which means I will love it.

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# eight.

Take Philip on a date that I plan once or twice or more.

Maybe then he won't have to date Guitar Hero, which by the way, he is getting so good at. I will challenge people for him...

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# nine.

Take lots of pictures of everything.

Including me and Alisse's lunch today for her birthday, but because she is the most generous person in the world, she had a present for me too... Poor Alisse, totally got the crappy end of the friendship. Let it be known though that she asked for socks, and the ones on the left have chihuahuas on them acting as cupid...can you find better socks than that?

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# ten.

Do cute things for and with my cute Sunbeams.

This is my class this year.

Words can't describe how much I love my calling right now. A couple weeks ago as me and my three girls (who were all folding their arms so reverently) walked into the primary room, the secretary said, "This is like the ultimate Melissa class." And it is. I am so excited for this whole year!

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# eleven.

Eat healthier snacks.

Por ejemplo, just one 100 calorie pack, not four.

But have you had the tiny Cheetos? They are so irresistible.

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# twelve.

"I really want to lose three pounds."

Maybe I'm kind of serious, because I would like to shop at 1.3.5 instead of Sears.

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# thirteen.

Drink more water, and maybe not as much Diet Pepsi.

Do you see how I threw the maybe in there? No pressure, just a friendly suggestion.

But seeing as how this is our current stash of the liquid magic, in addition to what's in the fridge, I don't see it happening.

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# fourteen.

Work out once a week.

Don't laugh people, we're talking baby steps here, and I'm trying to be realistic. Perhaps 2009 will be twice a week.

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# fifteen.

Learn to cook healthy meals.Perhaps this shouldn't be breakfast anymore.

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I figure the more goals the better, because even if half of them don't work out...I still accomplished like 7 things! Happy New Year by the way, and do you want to hear something crazy? I start school in 9 days! Ahhh! (nervous scream)

SICK OF COLD.

I am so dang tired of being cold.

This is in my house, just moments ago, and it is 61.7 degrees.

I hate it. What place is warmer than Arizona?

Because I think I need to move there.

I am also sick of MY cold. Especially since yesterday it turned into a wimpy dry cough, and then this morning I woke up (after a very restless sleep, might I add) with the ultimate man/monster/ugly/sick voice.

And I am still coughing, so my favorite future pharmacist made me take this:

And I HATE medicines that I have to drink or suck on. Give me like 500 pills, no problem, I'll take them all with pleasure. Ask Philip how well I took my Wal-Tussin...or don't, because I was a baby about it, and shuddered after I pounded my two teaspoons.

Have I ever mentioned how almost every medicine in our medicine cabinet is Wal-something?

I introduce to you: Wal-Tussin, Wal-Dryl, Wal-Zan, Wal-phed, and Wal-Dram, which I always think is called Wal-Mamine. We used to also have Wal-Buprophen, but we ran out, and then got the real stuff in bulk from Costco. Basically we are slaves to Walgreen's, and will be until Philip retires in 45 years.

Anyways, I'm sick. And I'm cold. And kind of a baby.

And I really wish we were here:

Don't you agree?

Holy Holidays part TWO!!!

CHRISTMAS GIFT!!!

Here my friends, are the rest of the holiday pictures. I tried to keep narrating to a minimum, but if you don't know by now, I'm wordy, so that didn't happen so much. Needless to say, Christmas was amazing, here we are at 6:15 in the morning, opening some of our gifts.

I got a keyboard! I know that sounds odd to most of you, but here's a little tidbit about me, I took piano lessons for seven years, and have very little to show for it. Therefore, I asked for a keyboard so that I can learn to play again. I'm really excited.

Philip got Guitar Hero III for the Wii. Ask me if it was NEARLY impossible to find. The answer is yes, but I am the best wife in the world and totally pulled it off. Alright, the next pictures prove that we are a little bit nerdy. I got Philip the boxed set of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and it is absolutely beautiful. Who says that books are beautiful? I do. And by the look on Philip's face, I think he agrees. I then proceeded to open my AMAZING Sound of Music 40th anniversary collection kit. It came with the DVD, the soundtrack, and this book that tells all about the real Von Trapp's, the Broadway production of Sound of Music, and the actual making of the movie. It's amazing. I'm nerdy. Philip with all of his goods: Me wearing half of my goods and proudly displaying the rest. And it took approximately 10 minutes to tear all of this off, sad huh? We then headed to my mom's, where the six of us kids would proceed to take really nerdy pictures. Does it amaze anyone else that I'm second to the shortest?

(Aly was wearing heels, she really isn't as tall as me)

Then us in age order...

This was right before Kev and Nicole left, and I was SOOO sad to see them go. I can't wait until they move back and we can have sleepovers all time. But next time we'll make sure that Nicole takes some allergy medicine so that she can actually sleep. Poor girl hardly slept a wink at our sleepover. And once again we'll start the random picture assortment:

Philip and Sophie being adorable.

Chris and Bethy opening some presents.

Rissa just hanging out with her Webkins. Did you know that those are all the rage? It seems like every kid I know got at least one! Philip enjoying some delightful orange julius, which is the standard Christmas morning treat at my mom's house. Brynn being charming with laser eyes. Me and Philip being SERIOUSLY excited about our present from my parents! A Bose ipod dock are you kidding me? It is totally something that we could never justify buying for ourselves, and would never think to ask for. Do you see what I mean about my parents being the best gift givers in the world? The next two pictures are probably my favorites. Kev and Nicole got a Wii, and the pictures captured their sheer joy and excitement.

Oakley liked the pop-up book he got... And that shirt looks even more adorable on Alyson than it does in the picture. And could we all please remind the Nielson family that getting ready on Christmas morning before going to my parents' house just ISN"T fair?!! I love that everyone in my family totally gets excited about EVERY present. Isn't Sara such a good gift opener? I think it is genetic. It was at this point that my camera ran out of batteries, and my memory card ran out of room. Don't worry though, we were all recharged for the next night when we hung out with family some more and took the following pictures:

Jake was making Parker laugh so so so hard! He was seriously roaring with laughter! Philip and Kirk being too cool to play games. My mom, Noelle, Alyson, Marissa, Sara and Oakley playing games and looking super cute. Remember that I love this kid? I also love this kid. And these too cute for words kids.

And this kid, quite a lot. And then all my brothers went home and left us sisters very sad that they live in different states. Come back soon brothers, we love you and miss you a lot. And we love it when you come to visit.

This year for New Year's, my super fun in-laws decided to throw an 80's party. Let it be known that is was a huge success, and I've decided that decade's parties should be thrown every year. Here we are enjoying the festivities! Philip's token 80's outfit consisted of: Member's Only jacket, pale yellow polo, black jeans, and penny loafers, with real pennies in them.

My outfit was the standard: Acid-wash overall denim mini skirt, leggings with stirrups, and of course, jellies. Half of Philip's sisters that helped put this whole thing together. Just making sure that my high ponytail is still high.

Remember what I said on Sara's post about her making costumes in short amounts of time? Here is yet another example. And remember how I said that she had the best costumes whenever there was an opportunity to dress up? True once again. She totally upstaged my outfit with her Units outfit. And her french braid and bangs and glasses? Is there really any competition?

For more pictures of Sara and Jason, and their rendition of the evening, click here, and you can read about it on her blog too!

We took our slow dancing VERY SERIOUSLY. Basically we were trying to be as unattractive as possible throughout the evening. You would not believe how good I am at PacMan and Ms. PacMan. I'm totally not joking. I'm really good, and now I'm kind of embarrassed. Philip is pretty much the most amazing dancer I've ever met. He is great with glow sticks, unfortunately, we didn't have any, so he had to make do with our celebratory blowers. It was a happy new year indeed.

But I'm not going to lie, it wasn't as good as our New Year's Eve from three years ago. For that my friends, is when we looked like this:

(This being so very giddy in love)

And Philip gave me this:

Awww, I just got all sentimental. Philip is the best husband in the world and gave me the prettiest ring in the world. It is exactly what I had always wanted...not joking, it's perfect. As is my Philip.

Sorry I get sappy all the time, I'm the luckiest girl in the world though, so it is hard not to be very grateful.

Anyways, hooray for finishing up the holidays in blog form!