Surprise!

Today has already been filled with a lot of emotions.  And It's not even 11 AM yet...  So I took my last midterm last night for the class that I'm taking.  The way I was planning on doing it was to take my last midterm this week, and then take my proctored final next Tuesday.  It's not due until next Thursday, or so I thought, so it should be fine.  Right?  WRONG!

 

OK, first emotion of the day.  It's not really an emotion, but I was really tired.  And with that tiredness came a little bit of grumpiness.  But it's normal for me.  I'm not a morning person.  Give me 30-40 minutes (depending on how early it is) and I'm fine.  So onto the next emotion.

 

I was super excited this morning.  It's our work Potluck lunch and Yankee Swap.  It's a really fun afternoon and I got to work and started playing Christmas music and it was just so exciting!  So after I got that figured out, I went to my desk to sit and do some work for a bit.

 

Onto the next emotion.  Extreme anger and panic.  I logged onto my school's website to see something, and checked my school email, which I only do about once a week.  There were 4 emails there that were unread.  4!  Until this morning, I had only seen 4 emails total this semester!  And then I saw the subject lines.  There were something to the affect of "Final due THIS THURSDAY THE 13!!!" 

 

OH NO!   So I looked into it, and apparently, our final was due yesterday.  The syllabus was wrong.  Our teacher was wrong.  And she only gave us 2 days notice.  And that was the only form that she told us that the due date had changed.

 

Hence the panic for the next hour.  If we didn't take our final, we failed the class.  I had worked my butt off during the last 4 months to do well and I was about to see it go down the drain.

 

So I sent her a text (her preferred way of communication) and after about 40 minutes, I got a response saying that she just averaged my midterm grades and that I got an A.

 

WHAT?!!??  Did that really just happen?!

 

So as a recap, here were my emotions for the day so far (and there's potential for more!)

1. Tired/Grumy

2. Excited

3. Anger/Panic

4. Extreme Relief

5. Excited

 

How's that for a whirlwind of a morning?! :)

New Gadgets

I realize that I am not the best blogger out there.  I'm actually probably very close to being one of the worst bloggers ever.  But I actually have a viable reason for this last delay!  I have this post all ready to be published about this fun trip my roommate and I took.  All I needed to insert were the pictures. 

 

And then something awful happened.

 

My computer DIED!!!

 

It's so frustrating when your computer just up and dies on you, and it costs a lot of money to fix it.  Last time it was my power cord that broke.  This time it was the thing inside the computer that the power cord connected to that broke.  $200-300 for a 4 year old computer is definitely not worth it.  So I was in the market for a new computer.  I normally wouldn't have worried about it as much, except for the fact that I am in school and I am hoping to go back to even more school in the very near future. 

 

So computer shopping I went.  Can I say how much I hate shopping for technological things?  I hate it so much!  But I finally came to a conclusion.  I am ditching PCs. :)

 

I got a Macbook Pro and so far, I LOVE it!

 

That brings me to my second gadget of the weekend.  My phone has been dying for a loooong time.  I've been holding out on getting a new one because I love my flip phone and wish it would live forever, but it has been struggling for the last few months.  So over the long weekend, I got a new one!

 

I got an iPhone!  Apple, here's your newest convert!  I love the phone, and the computer (and the ipod that I've had for awhile).  They're such great products and I love how well they run.  I know they won't be problem free, but I'm excited about them anyway.

 

Yay for new things!!!

Seattle/Bellevue

Seeing as how I don't have time to go on many adventures right at the moment, I think I'll post some about the adventures that I've had over the past year or so.  Here's one that I titled in probably May and never got around to actually writing anything.  Oh well.

 

So I work for an Architecture firm called MulvannyG2 Architecture.  We do mostly commercial buildings, focusing on big-box retail.  Our main client is Costco, and we also do work for Target, Lowes, and Kohl's.  We also do other commercial work.  It's definitely an industry that I never thought that I would know much about.  But I do really enjoy learning things that I never imagined I would learn.  Just yesterday we had someone come teach us about lighting and they talked all about LED lights.  I still couldn't tell you much, but it was interesting, for sure!

 

Anyway, this is the company that I've been working for during the last year.  It has a great sense of community and has a wonderful feel.  The people are great and I love my bosses.  With that being said, people in the company are all for helping others to achieve their potential and help them to delve into other areas of interest.  With me wanting to go back to school, this didn't seem like much of an option for me.  I thought I'd just be at the front desk until I went to school.  So when I came to the conclusion that I wanted to try to go back to school, I also came to the conclusion that I wanted to make my work day more fulfilling and try to get into something besides just being at the front.  I was going to look for a new company to do HR with, but then, that very same week, my bosses asked me if I'd be interested in trying Marketing.

 

I had never thought of going into Marketing, but it was something I was willing to try.  Our company headquarters are out in Bellevue, WA.  So they sent me off for a week!  It was so exciting to actually be able to travel for work.  I for sure wouldn't want to do it all the time, but it's exciting every once in awhile, especially when you're single.  And it helps that some of my best friends live in Seattle!  I called my friend Ellisha and told her that I was coming out to visit and if I could come see her and her family and we started acting like 14 year old girls again.  We were talking really high-pitched and really fast.  It was just so exciting for both of us. :)

 

So out to Washington I went.  From one Washington to the other, I guess!  I was able to see my friend Matt from school.  He took me on a tour of Seattle, which was fun.  I was also able to see my trek parents, the Picketts.  I was really close friends with two of their kids in high school and I loved going to their house.  It made me sad when they moved back to Seattle, but luckily I've been able to see them twice, thanks to having some ties to that area.  And then I got to see Ellisha and her husband and their son.  Ellisha and I were roommates for about a year and a half, but it feels much longer than that.  She's one of my best friends and since we live on opposite ends of the country, I don't see her often.  I was able to go keep her company, meet her baby boy, and then go camping with her family that weekend.  I had a few friends that live there that I wasn't able to see, but hopefully next time we'll be able to catch each other!

 

We went to camp at Deception Pass, which is a gorgeous area on Whidbey Island.  Oh, did I mention that it was sunny the entire week I was there?  Yeah, I got a sunburn and when I came back, my co-workers didn't believe that I went to Seattle.  It was funny.  But it was so fun to spend time with her family and just have a nice relaxing weekend catching up with an old friend.

 

Work was great too.  I got trained on a lot of different marketing skills, and I got to meet a lot of the people in our company that don't ever travel.  It was such a fun time, and was a great experience. 

 

Unfortunately, I was having too much fun to actually break out my camera and take pictures.  But it was a great week and I wish I could go back to visit!

The difference of Fall from Summer

So this summer was FULL of adventures!

 

I went out of the country, I went to the beach a handful of times (more than I think I've been in my whole life combined), I went to New York a few times, I went to New Jersey for a weekend, I went home a few times, and I even went back to Utah to see a wedding.

 

I do need to actually post pictures of all my adventures and tell about them.  Maybe I'll get around to that this Fall, seeing as how my adventures are down to a minimum for the next few months.

 

Let me explain why.  It's kind of exciting in its on way! :)

 

I am going back to school!

Well, I'm going to try to go back to school at least.  I've decided that I actually want to get a graduate degree.  Crazy, huh?  Ever since High School, I think, I swore that I would never get a Masters degree.  Here I am, a few years later, eating my words...

 

 

I love the company that I work for and I absolutely love my coworkers, which helps a lot.  But sitting behind a desk all day is killing my spirit slowly.  I need to be up and doing things and I want to be able to definitively say that I've changed someone's life for the better.  So I'm going to try going to school for Occupational Therapy.  It's bringing me back to my psychology roots, which is also cool!

 

I have a few classes left to take before I can apply though.  And I still have to take the GRE.  And I have to volunteer for 20 hours with an Occupational Therapist and get CPR certified.  So needless to say, the next few months are going to be quite busy for me!

 

So for the most part, any posts are going to be about random things that I did this past summer.  I'm on an exciting adventure, for sure.  It's just not the type that you take pictures and tell stories about.... At least, not yet. :)

Belize!!!

Ok, so I'm finally going to recount my trip, two months later.  Exciting, right??

Seeing as how I had never been out of the country before, I really had no clue what I was doing.  I've never taken a trip like this before in my life either.  I've done some crazy things with friends, and gone on some trips, but I don't feel that I've ever quite done a vacation like this with friends.  I've definitely done it with family (the whole, let's plan this trip and make sure we do all the things that we want to, thing), but never with friends.

You can ask almost any one of my friends from BYU.  I was never one to go on random trips.   I was hardly ever able to get the time off work, and so I usually had to say "I'll see ya when you get back" and then do things with other friends that were in town.

But anyway...

I was so glad that I had Bekah.  This really was my trip.  As much as I didn't really want to admit it, this was all my thing.  It was my idea, and ultimately, it came down to what I wanted to do.  Which is nice, in a way.  But I'm still so glad I had Bekah.  She's been a world traveler for quite awhile.  She is lucky enough to have every summer free (ah, the life of a school teacher), and she usually goes on some foreign trip during that time.

So she and I got to planning.  We always asked our companions what they thought and what they wanted (lest you think I was completely selfish during the planning), but everyone seemed fine to just let us plan it.  They always offered to help, but schedules seemed to get in the way.  Don't you hate when that happens?

So anyway, (I'm kinda scatter-brained this morning... sorry) we plan our trip in two halves, basically.  The one where we have adventures, and the one where we sit at the beach and do nothing.  I was really excited for the second part.  And the first part, but I really just wanted to sit at a beach or at a pool and read and just soak up the sun.  Call me lazy, I don't care.  But I had never taken an extended vacation like that until this summer (I had 2 week long beach vacations! wahoo!!).  So needless to say, I was excited!

The first half of the trip, we went inland.  We were about 20 minutes away from the Guatamala border, which was kinda cool and kinda scary.  Apparently Belize and Guatamala have been in a dispute for awhile, since Guatamala feels that they should own Belize, or something like that.  I sould research that a bit more...  We had such a great time in San Ignacio!  It was this quaint little town that just had a spirit all its own.  We made friends with the local people there and had a favorite cab driver named David.  He was this little old man and was so funny!  We hiked ruins (awe inspiring), hiked through a Mayan cave (one of the coolest things I think I've ever done) and went tubing through some Mayan caves.

There was lots of character in this town, and we had one of the best views from our balcony.  It was on a hill and overlooked the entire town and all the countryside around it.  It was seriously awesome!

Then came the part that I was most excited for.  The beach!!!  We had a day of transport with a few bus rides and a water taxi.  To get the resort, we had to take another boat from San Pedro on Ambergris Caye (prounced Key) about 10 minutes north.  It was so cool.  There was basically just a line of resorts.  As we got off the boat, there was someone there with 5 drinks welcoming us to our place!  They took us to our resort and it was like a home away from home.  It was so nice!  It really was just like paradise in a bottle.  Mom, I'm petitioning that we go to Belize for our next family reunion.... :)

While on the island, we mostly just sat at the pool.  Why not the beach, you ask?  Well, the water was absolutely beautiful.  Super clear and warm and that pretty blue color.  But the beach itself wasn't the type that you want to go spend a lot of time at.  The sand was just hard and compact and it only lasted for about 10-15 feet.  So we hung out at the pool.  There was one day that Bekah stayed in the same chair for about 5 or 6 hours straight (maybe even more, I can't quite remember). 

We did have one grand adventure while we were at the beach.  We went fishing!  Now, for those of you that know me in relation to fish, you know that I don't like them.  AT ALL.  IN ANY FORM.  They freak me out, dead and alive.  Ew, gross.  BUT, I went snorkeling and swam with the fishes!  And I at fish voluntarily.  And I even ordered shrimp for dinner one night (not fish, I know, but still seafood and still not high on my list).  It was so fun!  There's a great story from that fishing trip, but retelling it just doesn't do it justice.  It involved me trying to real in a barricuda, while David stabbed a fish.  I'll try and find the video that we have of it and post it sometime.  If you want to hear the story, just ask, and I'll gladly retell it. :)

It was just so nice to have a week of absolutely no responsibilities and no time.  Especially on the island, we had no plan and usually had no idea what time it was.  I don't want to live like that forever, but man, it was so nice!  Until next time, Belize.  You treated me well!!!


The view from our Hotel in San Ignacio.



At some of the Mayan ruins, Xunantunich.
From left to right, Me, Laura, Whitney, David (our guardian and protector for the trip), Bekah


Our awesome pool at the resort... :)


My favorite thing to do.  And yes, I brought the floatie with me.


Me... fishing.  I'm glad this is documented.  It might not happen again...


The beach with the pretty blue water.  And a coconut tree.


We woke up early one day to watch the sunrise.  Another surprise if you  know me at all.


Goodbye Belize!!!

Out of the Country

What a week!  The subject of travel always seems to come up in conversations.  Inevitably, the question of "Have you been out of the country?" always comes up.  I never quite knew how to answer that question before this past week.  I had been to Canada for about 15-20 minutes before the border was closed and we didn't even stop the car to get out...

So technically yes, I had been out of the country.  But it was so lame, that I never quite counted it.

I now have a definite answer to that question.

:)

Yes, I have been out of the country.  Where did I go?  Oh, a little country called Belize.  Never heard of it?  That's ok.  I hadn't heard of it until one of my good friends volunteered there two summers ago.  It's sandwiched between Mexico and Guatemala and it's right on the Carribean.  Paradise, or about as close as  you can get.

It was such a fun vacation.  In my mind, it had everything that a Carribean vacation should have.  We had a bit of adventure, lots of sun and laziness, and plenty of laughs.  And we left with the longing of still wanting to be there.  Perfect, right???

I'll post pictures later and actually talk about what we did and the adventures that we went on, but now, I'm just enjoying the fact that I have been out of the country.

Finally.

Adventure July

One of my old roommates used to have "Adventure" days with a bunch of our friends.  They would dedicate one night a week to be their "adventure" day.  One year it was Wednesdays.  Another year it was Thursdays.  Then if there was something cool happening on another day of the week, they'd change the evening for just that week.  I wasn't able to, or didn't go most of the time.  Not that we didn't like each other, but we just did different things with our free time.  Although some of their adventures sounded pretty great... :)

My month of July of this year has reminded me of Heather's "Adventure" days.  But instead of it being a day every week, it's been every weekend and 2 of the 4 weeks.

At the beginning of the month, my family had a mini reunion of sorts.  5 of the 8 kids in my family live on the east coast (4 of us in Virginia), so we all rented a beach house down in the Outer Banks for a week.  There were 9 adults and 9 kids, including a one month old baby.  It was fun to see part of my family and just have a week to relax.  Until the last year or so, we've never had many girls in my family.  Now that there are a bunch of baby girls, my Mom made them all matching dresses and we took some pictures.  Here are a few:

The day after I got back from the beach, one of my good friends from BYU came to visit me for the weekend. He's in Connecticut for the summer, so he took the bus down and we spent most of the weekend just catching up and having fun.  It was also my brother's birthday that weekend, so I had to make him a cake!  I think I'm going to have to try that recipe again.... Mmmmm, it was good!

Ryan and me by the Washington Monument.  Sometimes I do love being in DC... :)

This past weekend was awesome!  Thursday night a few friends and I went to the midnight showing of Batman.  I still think I liked the second one best, but this one was super good!  I LOVED the ending.  On Friday a bunch of friends and I went to upstate New York to go see the Hill Cumorah Pageant.  I haven't seen it in over 10 years, and that was probably the most recent out of anyone in the group.  Some had never seen it.  It was a super fun weekend.  We split into 2 different groups.  One went to Niagra Falls and the other went to Hershey.  We ended up being in 2 minivans and just drove around everywhere in them.  It was great and SUCH a fun weekend!  I'm kinda tired now, but it was so worth it. :)

This is what 3am looks like

The group altogether in Palmyra!

The biggest adventure of the month is yet to come though!!!  This next Saturday I am leaving for.... wait for it... BELIZE!  If you don't know where that is (I didn't until a friend went there 2 years ago), it is in the Caribbean just south of Mexico and east of Guatemala.  It has the second best Scuba diving in the WORLD (too bad I don't have my scuba license...)  But the snorkeling should be fantastic!  I'll let you know ALL about it when I get back.  

Sounds like a fun July, right??? :)

Almost Dying

I wish that the title of this post was not serious.

First things first.  I'm ABSOLUTELY fine.  No injuries or scrapes or anything like that.  Not even any resounding psychological trauma.  But there was a serious chance that I could've died or been seriously injured about a week and a half ago.

This is a short story.

My roommate and I were visiting her hometown of Princeton for the weekend.  It's a really cute town that just has that country charm.  Seriously, it reminded me why I want to not live by a city for most of my life.  I hate traffic...

Anyway, after church on Sunday, we were driving around seeing some sites.  The road we were driving on on our way back to her house was this normal country road.  Two lane, no shoulders, 25 mph speed limit.  As we drove down this road, we saw a car coming from the other direction.  Not thinking anything about it (because let's be honest, who normally thinks about it when a car is coming in the other direction?), we just keep driving.  The other car swerves, and in my mind they were attempting to miss something.  No.  That wasn't it.  They swerved completely into our lane and didn't move.  And they were going at least 45 mph, if not over 50.  And they just kept coming.  Head on.

Luckily, I was not driving.  I have no clue what I would've done.  Bekah had her head in tact a little more than I did and slowed waaaaay down and laid on the horn.  At the last moment the car swerved back into their own lane and kept driving.  We thought that they may have fallen asleep or something, but as we looked at her face, there was no surprise or shock or anything like that.  She had the most dazed look on her face.  I hate to accuse anyone of anything, but I seriously think she was super high.  I really wonder sometimes...

Bekah and I were definitely dazed for awhile after that.  She would've pulled off into the ditch if the lady hadn't have swerved back into her lane when she did, but the end of the car probably still would've been hit and who knows what that would've done.  Or we could've been hit head on.  And seen it coming.  I feel that that would not be fun, to see an accident coming and not be able to do anything about it.

It was definitely a scary moment in my life.

Addendum

Apparently my strep throat story was not quite complete when I wrote that post.  On Friday night, I noticed a rash on both of my shoulders and my forehead.  Ughhh, really???  Not fun.  So I called the urgent care place on Saturday just to make sure it wasn't something that I should be worried about.  When they called me back, they said I should probably come back in just to make sure.

So I went in, thinking I'd be there for 30 minutes, at the most! 

2 hours later... I had a bruise on my hand and was feeling sick again.  Man, why do doctor's offices seem to make you feel more sick than when you got there?  So they tested me for Mono (luckily that came back NEGATIVE), and couldn't find a good vein except in my hand.  So in went the needle!

They decided that I must be allergic to the medicine that they gave me, so they changed my medication, and voila, 2 days later, I feel back to normal!  No wonder it took so long for me to feel good.  Hopefully I'm done with that debacle!

What an interesting week

Ok.  

So this week started off to be really awesome and has just gotten more interesting every day (an not necessarily in a good way).  It started last Saturday morning.  After arriving at the Outer Banks at 1 in the morning, my fellow road trippers and I decided to sleep outside instead of crashing on the floor in the common room (we claimed it was to get more sleep and have more quiet).  Little did I know, a little creep crawly friend of mine was just begging to sleep next to me.  Luckily I didn't see it, but it definitely saw me and decided to take part of my cheek as a souvenir.  So as I awoke bright and early hoping to be at least somewhat refreshed to be at the beach and hearing the waves of the ocean all night, all I could think of was "wow, my cheek feels itchy and puffy..."  

I turned to my friend Whitney and asked if there was something on my cheek.  Her eyes got HUGE!  Ok, not really, but they did get big and she did say that my cheek was really swollen.  I went to look at it and yup, it looked like I just got my wisdom teeth out.  What a great way to start a long weekend at the beach, huh??

Luckily, I was able to get some allergy medicine (Thanks Chelsey!) and go buy some benedryl cream which helped a TON!  By noon the swelling was mostly gone and most people couldn't tell that anything was wrong.  Whew!  Crisis averted!

Fast forward a few days.

Let's start with Tuesday.  I drove into my parking spot around 1:45 in the morning.  I don't want to do another day of driving like that again anytime soon.  So when I woke up with a sore throat, it just seemed normal to me.  I often get colds/sore throats when I don't get enough sleep.  I just thought that if I went to bed early that night that it'd help to make up for it.  I went to dinner with a friend and then came home and basically crashed since I felt so tired and just ikky.  The next morning I didn't feel any better, but I still got up and went to work.

Bad decision.

I lasted about 2.5 hours and then lysoled everything on or around my desk, and went home and crashed for a few hours.  I tried to loosen my muscles and then as I started to think I felt better, I looked at my throat with a flashlight.  There were big white spots on the back of my throat.  That couldn't be a good sign.  So I went to the urgent care, even though I was sure I wasn't THAT sick and couldn't have a fever.  

Definitely wrong on both of those points. :(

Good news:  The Strep Throat test came back negative.  

Bad News:  There are at least 5 different strains of strep that they didn't test for.

So on the bright side of the week, I had a good excuse to get 2 extra days of sleep and movie watching in.  And I guess I got sort of a 4 1/2 day weekend...

But now I know what strep feels like, or at least what something like strep feels like.  (I still don't know if I actually had it or if it was just something similar)  Who knows???  

My adventures

I want to apologize for my lack of posting. I made a goal this year to have more adventures and to be busier. Little did I know that that would very much come true! I am booked almost every night of every week. Usually it's with the same things each day of the week, but even still. I have things that I should do and then other things that I choose to do. It's kinda hectic, and it's problematic when something else needs to be done (like laundry and getting a tire fixed.) So here's my usual weekly breakdown (after work, of course):

Monday: FHE
Tuesday: Neighboring Stake's Institute
Wednesday: Bowling
Thursday: My Institute
Friday: Usually some basketball game is going on, bday parties, other parties, etc.
Saturday: Also usually some basketball game going on
Sunday: Church

So although Basketball is ending next week, I'm sure my weekends will still be busy. And in the spring I'm on a softball team, so that's going to start sometime soon. I somehow never have free time to just relax. I haven't had time to watch a movie in a loooong time! And I LOVE movies! But I honestly do love constantly having something to do. It is a big difference from my last year in Provo when I felt like I never had anything to do. Anyway, this is my apology for never posting about the adventures that I've had. Mostly because I'm never home to grab the pictures of said adventures. Besides that schedule, I do make time to do some random things and have fun with friends. This last week I basically lived and Shauna and Bekah's house. That was fun! Anyway, hopefully I'll get a bit more time to write about my real adventures, but for now, this will have to do!

President's Day Birthday

So before it gets too far past my birthday (and it was a month ago... oops), I figured I'd write a little bit about my day. I am officially a quarter of a century old. Weird... Anyway, I don't know why, but I've always loved my birthday. No matter what I have on the day, it's always been fantastic. This year was no exception!

It was honestly a pretty chill day. I slept in (Yay for birthdays falling on a National Holiday!), made chocolate cake, played racquetball, ate a fantastic dinner at Benihana, and had some friends over for cake in the evening. It was just a fun day that I was able to spend with good friends!

When I lived in Utah, I had a tradition of going to Tucanos on President's day for my birthday. For those of you that don't know, Tucanos is a Brazilian meat buffet. It's making my mouth water just thinking about it... Since there isn't one out here in DC and those types of restaurants are super expensive, we went to a hibachi place instead. So we got dinner and a show! Fantastic! The only thing was that Steve wasn't able to come. He had to work... :( Oh well. That's life, right? He made it for cake later, so at least I still got to see him!

My friend April was super nice to me and spent all day with me. Seriously, she's so great! She also made my birthday cake. It was a 6 layer chocolate cake. We recreated P.F. Chang's Great Wall of Chocolate. If you haven't had it, you need to go try it because it's absolutely delicious. She was so great to do that for me!

Anyway, it really was a pretty chill day and I was able to rest and relax and just enjoy talking to some old friends. That was probably my favorite part. I talked to some of my best friends in the world, who, unfortunately for me, don't live by me. So it was good to talk to them and catch up. It was a fantastic day!

Groundhog Day

Ok, so before February ends, I need to write about one of, if not my FAVORITE unappreciated holidays. GROUNDHOG DAY! I think there are two main reasons that I like this day so much:

1) It's in February and I just love February (mostly because of my birthday, I think)
2) It's in Pennsylvania! Yay for my home state!

In case you hadn't heard, Punxsutawney Phil predicted 6 more weeks of winter. Although seeing as how on the east, we've only had a few days here and there that have even FELT like winter, I'm still waiting for it. Here's to hoping that we'll have the snowstorm of the century in March. Anyone with me???

Anyway, back to Groundhog Day. The groundhog website says that he's always 100% correct (of course) but in all actuality, he's usually wrong. But we should still celebrate the day, right? And what better way to do that than to watch the movie that made the day a phenomenon, Bill Murray in "Groundhog Day"

And along with watching the movie, I thought I would recreate some cute and yummy groundhog cookies that my sister and I made last year. We got the idea from our friend Mandy. Sad that Sharon couldn't be here to make them with me this year though! Not the neatest things ever (when I make them at least), but super cute. And what is the best part, you may ask? Eating all the messups and scraps... Yummy!
I got kinda lazy with the "grass" this year, but you still can get the idea. Anyway, it was a fun night filled with yummy treats and good entertainment and great friends. Till next year Punxsutawney Phil!

It's a SMALL world

Most of what I post on here is going to be about the fun and random things that I do, seeing as how life is too short to not go on adventures. I will, however, occasionally post things that I've been thinking about recently. This is one of those posts. It has been amazing to me how small this world really is. It seems that everywhere I go, I find people that are connected to important people from my past. And even if they're not connected to people in my past, there's some story there from before. I know this isn't true with every single person that I meet, but it just seems to happen a lot. Here are some of the crazy connections that I've made over the last few years:

-My freshman roommate was in my older sister's ward in Boston, and we first met when we were 14.
-Another friend freshman year used to live in my stake for a few years while we were teenagers.
-My best friend's older brother and my older brother became best friends in the dorms, which is consequently where we met and became best friends as well (as well as I met all of her best friends when I was 15 at EFY).
-A good friend's great uncle (or some strange relation like that) was my grandma's good friend and I met him on several occasions.

Now, these are definitely from awhile ago. These friends and I put the stories together years and years ago and it's something that we always seem to come back to. I wonder why small world stories are so fascinating? Maybe because it really shows that everyone is interconnected and it helps us know that we aren't alone here. I don't know, it's just a thought.

The reason that I've been thinking about this lately is because the last few days I have had my mind blown with small world stories. And that really doesn't happen to me often. But it just happens to be that these particular stories hit closer to home than usual. It's been good friends that I have now are telling me of crazy connections with other really good friends, or people that I was really close to in the past.

There was one recently where a really good friend of mine served her mission with this boy that I sort of dated a few years ago. I had even told her about this boy awhile ago, but didn't bother using names because what were the chances that she knew him, right?? She's in DC and he was part of my Provo life. But we were talking about another random mutual friend that we had and she asked about this particular guy. And I had actually run into his old roommate a few weeks ago too. Talk about coincidence, right?

And the night before we put that together, I had my mind blown with a crazy connection that is just a little too hard to explain without saying names, but I'm going to try anyway. Basically, I had heard about this random boy from one friend and he ended up being really, really good friends with another one of my best friend's fiancee. This boy was planning on coming out for their wedding, but is unable to make it. Just the fact that I heard about this boy previously and knew that he was thinking of coming out for a wedding that I am going to attend was just a crazy connection to me. There are a few more details to it, but that's the basic jist. It doesn't sound as crazy written down as it really is, trust me.

I have definitely made a few others in the last few months that have been so ridiculous. It really is amazing to me how small this world is. I absolutely LOVE it though! I love finding these random connections between people and realizing that I have connections with people that I've never even met before. Or finding out that someone that I am good friends with NOW used to be close to someone that I was close to years ago. Or my favorite is when I find out that one of my friends now is someone that I used to hear about years ago.

It's great, isn't it? What are some of YOUR small world stories??

Martin Luther King, Jr. Present Day

No, that is not a typo. I didn't randomly put the word "present" in there by accident. It is MOST DEFINITELY on purpose. Let me explain. Over Christmas vacation, my brother, Steve, and I were sitting around watching basketball (that's a lot of what we did that week. It was FANTASTIC!) Some commercial for a really expensive car came on or something like that, and here's basically what our conversation went like:

Steve: "You should get that for me for Martin Luther King Present Day"

Me: "Excuse me?"

Steve: "It's the perfect gift to show how much you love me."

Me: "I don't love you that much..."

So a little bit later, towards the end of the game, Martineau came out and played. We were, of course, watching a BYU basketball game, and Martineau is one of the deep bench players. He pretty much only plays when we're up by so much and even then it's usually only for the last few minutes.

So because I refused get Steve a car, he decided to ask me for something more practical:

Steve: "I now want a Martineau jersey for Martin Luther King Present Day."

Me: "Done."

Steve: "Wait, I don't ACTUALLY want one..."

Me: "You should be more careful what you ask for."

So, I got him a Martineau jersey. Of course I couldn't buy one (he's a really deep bench player), so I made one. And we couldn't find a basketball jersey that was his size, so it's a soccer jersey. But it's the thought that counts, right??

Look how happy he is with his jersey! I've gotta be one of the coolest sisters EVER!

We actually ended up having a Martin Luther King Present Day triangle. Steve was telling our friend Bekah about what I was doing, so she decided to get me a shirt. I'm now officially a "Langley Ward Girlfriend."

And so consequently, Steve completed the triangle and got Bekah a Jimmer shirt. Because no one should be without a Jimmer shirt...

Bowling Shoes

Ok, so I LOVE bowling. I'm not great or anything, but it's just so FUN! A little over a year ago, I started bowling almost once a week with a few friends out in Utah, and it continued with different people all through the summer. Once I moved out here to DC, I kinda stopped going. I just got so busy trying to figure out life that I forgot about bowling. Anyway, I've started bowling again, so I finally broke down and bought bowling shoes. I figured it would save me money in the long run.

Nerdy?? Yes. Do I care? Not at all.

I'm excited about my shoes. They're cute, huh? :)

BYU vs VT

One of the saddest things about living on the east coast is that I can no longer easily attend BYU sporting events. I was able to go to one of the football games against Idaho when I was in Utah for the weekend in November. That was super fun! The game was ok, but it was just so fun to be back in LaVell Edwards Stadium and soak in the atmosphere of BYU sports. But that was just a wonderful coincidence that there was a home game the weekend that I was there.

So when my brother Steve and I saw that there was a BYU basketball game against Virginia Tech AT Virginia Tech, we decided that we just HAD to be there. Although I love BYU football, I love BYU basketball even more. It's my team, and I feel so invested in their success... or failures, as it has been more than I'd like to admit this season.

Anyway, our sister Sharon and her husband Johnn moved to Blacksburg in August so that he could start a PhD program there. So we even had a free place to stay! So we each took 2 half days off of work, and headed down! It was a pretty easy drive, and everything went smoothly (it was a good thing Steve was there, I'm useless when I'm tired.) Our Mom decided to join us as well, since 3 of her children were going, so it ended up as a family event.

The game was kinda messy, but we got the win, against an ACC team, which looks good. And there were a bunch of BYU fans there, which is always great! There wasn't a BYU section, but there was definitely little pockets spread everywhere around the arena. I just loved seeing the Blue interspersed with the Orange and Maroon.

Steve and I do a lot together, so you'll probably see him in most of my posts... That's what family's for, right?
It was fun to be able to see a BYU basketball game in person. I've definitely missed the Marriott Center this year. I hope something like this can happen more often in the future!

Farm Show

There is this AWESOME tradition in Pennsylvania called the Farm Show. The easiest way to describe it is that it is basically a state fair, except that it's inside and it's in January. Except it's waaaaaaay cooler than any normal state fair.

So naturally I had to go.

It is always the second week in January. I had been home for Christmas, came back to Virginia for New Years, and then went back home the next weekend. Good thing it's only a few hours away, right?!

Since this isn't the type of thing that you usually do by yourself,

I decided to bring some friends up with me! We spent two nights at home, took a tour of Hershey Saturday morning and then headed off to the Farm Show!! Seriously, it is probably the biggest building I know of. It's HUGE! I should've gotten a picture. Oh well. I did get

a few other pictures from the eventful day though!

The whole group that went. Although I think we only spent this time, and maybe 5 other minutes total together the entire afternoon... I told you it was a big building. Lots of places to get lost.

My brother and I are sooo cool, huh? (Mom, sorry we weren't more dignified)

I spent the majority of the day saying that I wanted a John Deere t-shirt. Did I get one??? No. But I did see this awesome hat.

This is a sculpture made out of 1000 lbs. of real dairy butter. It took over 10 days of sculpting. Don't worry, it'll be put to good use. I thought using it for rolls would've been awesome, but they power a local farm with it. That works too I guess...

Can you guess what kind of animal this is? If you guessed a rabbit, you'd be right.

This was my favorite sign of the entire day. And let me tell you, there were some other pretty awesome ones.

Anyway, it was a great day full of milkshakes, funnel cakes, pulled pork, lots of animals, and plenty of other things to look at. It brought me back to my childhood. I'm glad we were able to go this year!

A little bit of History

Alright, I figured since it's been so long since I've posted, I should fill everyone in on what's been going on in my life for the last two years. I'm going to backtrack just a little bit though, because it's easier for me to do it that way. I graduated from BYU in April of 2010 (Go Cougars!) I had an internship that summer and had every intention of moving out to the DC area at the end of the summer.

BUT...

that just didn't feel right, so I stayed in Provo for an extra year. I can't believe that I ended up doing that, but it was definitely the right thing for me. The fall of 2010 was really hard for me, as EVERYTHING changed in my life, and so it was good to be around my best friends and people that I knew and loved. I just wasn't quite ready for an entirely new adventure yet. I learned a lot about myself in the next year and had many adventures, some of which I may mention, most of which I probably won't.

I finally moved out to DC in August of 2011. I didn't have a job, and didn't know anyone other than my two brothers and sister-in-law. It's been a grand adventure so far, and I've done some pretty fun things already. It'll be fun to see what happens in this new stage of life!

New and Improved

Ok. So it's been a loooooooooooooooong time since I've updated this thing. Well, this lack of updating is (hopefully) going to change with this new year!

I've decided that my life is just too boring, so I'm going to go on adventures so that I will actually have things to write about. And maybe I'll post things about the happenings in my life over the last year and a half.... just maybe though.

Anyway, start looking for an updated look and hopefully more posts more often. Although, if I write again in the next year and a half it's more often than it has been, right???

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and let's get on to enjoying the new year!!