2010

Okay so this is the last one. For real this time. Just a quick update for the day, went out for ice cream with my sister, cousin (Emma), and Kristi. Then went to the mall (yuck), wal-mart, and Pizza Pie Cafe (YUMMMM!!). It was great fun but then we came home, and my poor car, just couldn't make it up the hill to my house. So I tried going around to another side. That was even worse and then when I tried to turn around, I got stuck. BIG TIME. My sister got out to see how bad it was and practically fell over into the snow laughing. She thought it was hilarious. It took Julie, Emma, and Kristi pushing (my sister had her back to the car and her feet on the concrete sewer thing sticking out of the ground) for me to finally get out. We went back around to the first side and made it up but it was quite ridiculous. Then we had to go back out later to push my roommates friend out and my roommate as well.



Report for 2010
Temple attendance - check
Exercise regularly - did well for the first part of the year, then it died.
Write in my journal - blogging really helped with that one.
No Soda - I did okay with this one, it kinda fizzled at the end, but I'd give it a B+.
Drink more water - Having a job helped me a lot with that one. I definitely get an A.
Smile more - better keep trying.
Be more positive - again, keep trying.
Get a job - Did it twice!
Decide what to study and apply to Grad School - EPIC FAIL. Maybe just fail. I decided to not do Grad School but to go back for another Bachelors. Now I just need to find out where and apply there.
Stick to a budget - I find this a bit difficult being single, but I did okay A-.
1 day a month with my cousin Jamee - I definitely failed on this one. I saw her at family things, just like every other year. I think I'll revise this one.

All in all not too bad, but there is definitely room for improvement.
2011 - BRING IT ON!

Made it

Here I am with my last post of 2010. Maybe not. I was going to give a review of my success on my New Year's resolutions for 2010, but I don't have them on me. I'll have to do it another time this week. Maybe. So the big Christmas week. It was great. I left Thursday morning for Idaho with my friend Katie and her family.

We made good time and I was in Rexburg around 1 and headed to the temple. Provo temple was closed last week which made it difficult to go. Lucky for me Rexburg was open. I love to go to that temple and see people I know working there. The rest of Thursday was fairly uneventful. My family was gone to go pick up my Grandma from Pocatello which took much longer than planned since the people bringing her to Pocatello left 4 hours late. Friday was a fun filled day. My sister and I headed up to campus with my dad. He was giving a tour of the new auditorium to one of my former co-workers who was here visiting for Christmas. After the tour we had the great pleasure of trying to get my sisters Christmas present for my mom from my dad's office to the car. It was very big, heavy and awkward but we made it. Then we raced home to unload so we could make it to our movie. TRON!!! I must say it was a good movie. I especially enjoyed seeing it with all of my family. We made it home for our delicious Christmas Eve dinner and then we wrapped presents like crazy.



These are a couple of our crazy elves.
My sister decided that we needed to rearrange our entire front room to accomodate the new cabinet she made for mom so we rearranged and finally finished around 1 a.m. Around 2 a.m. I woke up wanting to puke. We were all sleeping in the family room so I called out my brothers name, knowing he'd still be awake, and asked him to get me a bucket. Luckily I didn't puke. Christmas morning brought great surprises and it was fun. My sister and I then took a nap on the floor, which I don't recommend. Don't be so lazy and move to a couch or something. Christmas night I got a great surprise but you'll have to ask about that. Sunday I went to church with my parents. I had completely forgotten about the 2nd ward tradition of randomly calling on people who use to be in the ward who are visiting to bare their testimonies. My dad was gracious enough to point that out on the bulletin, but lucky for me the bishop did it a bit different this year and he had called and asked people before hand. Then at the end of sacrament meeting he sent everyone home. That's the second time that's happened to me this month. Monday was time to come back to Orem. I was tired but apparently not as tired as my friends I was traveling with. I wasn't going to go to sleep after I watched the driver nod off a couple times in the rearview mirror. Instead I put in the earbuds and started singing, not loud enough to wake up the kids but loud enough to maybe annoy the driver or atleast keep him awake. :) Once we made it home I went to packing up all my stuff. I sure do have a lot of it. Then I moved it. I have another load in my car right now and then I'll need one more trip, but after that I'll be all moved to my new house. I'm excited for the change.

What a great year 2010 has been. Bringing me lots of surprises and so many blessings.

The season is upon us

I can't believe that Christmas is this weekend. It's ridiculous. I've been working on getting my New Year's resolutions for this next year and reviewing how I did for 2010. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I did better than I thought. I'll have to post those next week. This past week has been busy with Christmas parties and shopping. Friday night I took my cousin Emma and we headed to Salt Lake for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas show featuring David Archuleta. Our cousin Rick got tickets and invited us to go. Sadly it took us 25 minutes to go less than a mile. The traffic did get better and we were only 15 minutes late meeting Rick. We got in his car to carpool to the conference center and man was the traffic not on our side. We finally made it into Salt Lake and turned down West Temple. He was going to drop us off and then go park the car. Well as 7 o'clock approached we were still sitting in the car not moving very much. We were at the same light for 3 lights! Emma and I decided that this was just unacceptable and that we would get out and run so we could get in and save seats. It's a good thing we did. First of all let me just say that running in a skirt and high-heel boots isn't the most comfortable thing and I'm sure I looked ridiculous. Second it's no fun to run when it's 20 degrees outside. My lungs were killing me! But we made it. Emma and I went in and found 3 seats together, which wasn't the most ideal thing since Rick had also invited his friend Susan. We managed to get one seat two rows in front of us and only had to beat off one elderly couple. Susan showed up around 7:10 and informed us Rick was still parking the car. Susan texted him our location and we settled in to watch the show. I was very worried he wouldn't make it in since all the doors were closed and no one was coming in. But at 7:40 I looked up toward the doors and there he was. I stood up for a second so he could see us and then we enjoyed the show. I went to a David Archuleta Christmas concert last year and was so impressed with him that I went out and bought his Christmas album. He didn't disappoint this year and as always the Choir was amazing. On the way home we got stuck in traffic again and then when traffic thinned the roads were so slick that my top speed was 40. It took us a while to get home.
Yesterday I woke up yet again to a winter wonderland. The weather here has been pretty lame lately. Last Wednesday it snowed, but was followed by 50 degree weather which melted it all. Yesterday we got good heave snow (which I got stuck in and the neighbor had to push me out). I was suppose to go into work but our internet was down so I never went in. Instead I went home and Katie and I built a giant snowman. It was quite the ordeal and I'll have to get pictures from her. Sadly later in the day it warmed up and rained so by 9 p.m. the snowman was leaning precariously and this morning we found him in pieces in the road. He had a good life, short though it was. We also made a cake out of snow for Katie's husband Marc's birthday. She made most of it, I contributed at the end. It was a fun day in the snow. I finished off the night by going to visit my friend Camille who served in Spain with me. It was fun to see her and her cute little boy and her pregnant tummy.
I love Christmas time.

Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland

So it's Wednesday and I completely forgot to post yesterday, but it's okay because today we have SNOW. I would post a picture but I left my camera at home. It's been a bit ridiculous not having any snow. Growing up in the frozeness that is south east Idaho, I just love a White Christmas. Katie made a good point that I'll be there for Christmas and have snow, but it's so much easier to get into the Christmas spirit when there's snow on the ground to help me out.
I can't believe the month is half gone. I'm a week behind. I keep thinking that the 18th is next weekend. HELLO, it's this weekend, STOP planning things. Oh well. Maybe I'll catch up.
This last week was super great. Thursday night I got together with a couple girls from the RS presidency and we bought stuff for and made jingle bell earrings for the girls in our Relief Society. I was in charge of tying tiny red bows. Not the most fun I've ever had. Tying tiny bows is hard! Then I was in charge of taking all the earrings and gluing the bows on them. Fail. Almost all the earring hooks had come off the bells so I had to redo them. But I finished them yesterday (after a second trip to get more ribbon) and they are super cute. I also got some other Christmas gifts done.
Friday night I went with my good friend Aubrey to Salt Lake and we went to a Christmas ball. A formal ball! It was great. That's right, the two of us went together without dates. It was a blast. We were jumping around and dancing like crazies. SO MUCH FUN!

Saturday morning after sleeping in a bit we headed to the Salt Lake temple for a session. It had been 4 years since I had been to the Salt Lake Temple. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I find it so much easier to pay attention in a live session. It was also great to go to Salt Lake again now that I know what I'm doing and can take it all in instead of worrying about what I need to do next. When I went 4 years ago it was only my second time to the temple and I was all by myself. I remember the nice lady next to me who helped me out. I love the gospel.
After the temple we headed back to Aubrey's aunt's house to get ready for the Fondu party. I'm not sure that I really helped very much, but I did watch the BYU game on TV with her uncle. That was some good basketball. Then we were looking for a Christmas movie on TV and found White Christmas. This is my ALL-TIME favorite Christmas movie which sadly and ironically I don't own, so I was super stoked to watch it. I did have to change it to the Jazz game on commercials to keep the guys from attacking me.

Sunday was fairly uneventful. What am I saying! Sunday I went and looked at a house in Provo to see if I wanted to rent a room there. It's perfect. My own room, own bathroom, only one roommate, an entire house, and the rent was $200 + utilities. I told them I had one other place to look at and that I'd get back to them. As I'm driving, the roommate (who is also the daughter of the people renting) calls me and says her mom said she'd drop the rent to $150. I was sold right then. I didn't even go and look at the other place. I called my mom, talked to her about it. Monday on my lunch break I called the roommate to tell her I wanted it, then her mom called and Monday night I went and signed the contract. Hurray!
Monday night for FHE we went and did the shopping for our ward's sub for Santa. We had the auction to raise money last week and it was so fun to go and buy stuff. We were shopping for a 79 year old woman who wanted shirts and then a 10 year old boy. Like we know what a 10 year old boy wants. We were asking little kids in the store how old they were and what they wanted and then I called my brother to ask him. He was very helpful even though he was 10 almost 13 years ago. :)
And so life is good. It's Christmas time, a season for love and giving and reflection on the purpose of the season, our Savior Jesus Christ. What a wonderful gift. Our Heavenly Father sent us a Savior to redeem us from our sins and make the way possible for our return to him. It doesn't get any better than that.

Tis the Season

One week already gone for December. Craziness. I guess I'll start with the saddest news in my opinion. It's been 50 degrees here and all our beatiful snow we got last week is now gone. Now it's just rainy and gray. In the flux of temperatures I have also aquired a head cold. I'm not loving that. It started with a stuffy head, waking up because I couldn't breath. It has now spread to include my throat and lungs so I have a lovely cough. I have discovered that I shouldn't take NyQuil late at night unless there is time to sleep-in in the morning. Found that out this morning when Katie came to shake me awake on the couch, telling me it was 8:30. Good thing work is close and I had all green lights so I was only 10 minutes late.
Sunday I had the opportunity to go to the conference center for the 1st Presidency Christmas Devotional. What a great devotional it was. It's always nice to have a good reminder of why we have this Christmas season. It's a great time to reflect on our individual testimony of the Savior and his life and sacrifice for us. It is a beautiful time of year.



We of course went to look at the lights afterward.

Last night was my ward party. We went to this amazing house up Hobble Creek Canyon in Springville. Really this house was amazing. HUGE. We had our dinner in the gym that you got to my walking by the indoor playground. Complete with giant tree for a tree house. After dinner we had an auction to raise money for sub for santa. They've done this in years past. Last year they raised $1200. Aside from being too long, the auction was very entertaining. I got teeth whitening trays that will be fitted just for me with the whitening stuff for $35. I was happy with my purchase. And the quilt I donated brought in $50. In total we raised just over $1500. A couple other highlights of the night were the Holman's who use to be the 2nd counselor in our ward came with their baby Penny and the guy I met from Spain. Malaga even! It was fun to talk to him. I'm tellin' ya, accents from southern Spain just make me melt. I wish I had had a book in Spanish for him to read to me. Loved it. Even if I thought it was going to be super awkward. What would you think?! A guy in your ward (Joe) comes up to you and says "Come with me. I want you to meet someone." Awkward right? Luckily it was just because Joe knows I served in Spain. What a great night. I can't believe it's only Tuesday though. I'm ready for it to be Friday.