Christmas Day

Christmas morning brought a lot of excitement :)

It was so fun seeing my niece and nephew open their stockings and their presents.

They were so overly excited and happy.

There was a whole lot of energy!

After presents (which surprisingly only took about an hour and a half...) we all had our traditional Christmas breakfast casserole with hot chocolate and fruit.

(If you couldn't tell, I'm all about the traditions :) )

The rest of the day was spent playing with new toys, playing games, listening to Christmas music, playing in the snow and just enjoying spending time together.

Jaden and Grandpa building a garage

Learning how to play Sorry :)

It snowed all day and I was thrilled.

I haven't had many Christmases that weren't white, and I hope I never have to :)

Playing with his new toy :)

Grandpa got Jaden a DVD of Tom and Jerry episodes, and holy moly, did those kids love it!

It was a great day :)

Merry Christmas!

My parents started a new tradition this year.

Instead of spending Christmas alone, they've decided to go to Alanna's house and Jen's house every other year for Christmas.

Once I get married, I'll be thrown in there as well, so they'll come to one of our houses every third year.

They started with Alanna, so my mom, dad and I all headed to Colorado on the 22nd.

We spent a lot of time just hanging out, playing with the kids, eating some amazing food, playing games, and visiting. 

On Sunday we took a trip to Glenwood Springs for a cave tour!

Riding the tram!

View from the tram

The kids loved the tram ride!

I love this picture, despite the fact that you can tell it was ridiculously bright outside, and we all look ridiculous! :)

 

 

The caves were pretty cool. I think the kids enjoyed it, especially the stories about the dragons :)

Sunday, the 23rd, was our Christmas Eve. Originally we thought that my brother in law would have to work on the 25th, and my dad has to work tomorrow, so we planned to do Christmas Eve on the 23rd and Christmas on the 24th. The kids didn't know the difference.

So our Christmas Eve came and we all drank Egg Nog, watched the 49ers get trashed by the Seahawks (boo!) and then opened our traditional Christmas Eve pajamas.

Everyone got a pair this year!

In our brand new Christmas pajamas :)

Then grandpa did his traditional reading of The Night Before Christmas

The kids (finally) went to bed and fell asleep, and then Santa came... ;)

More to come about Christmas Day!

Another semester ends...

And here's the re-cap of Apartment 202's Fall 2012 quote board (with a few from the seven week break as well...)

(at least the ones that were appropriate to share... :) )

"The Bishop would be like, 'um, flies never have clothes on...'"

-Esther

"You get the gold in the slock crocking competition!"

-Melissa

"Okay, my name's never anywhere except the Bible."

-Esther

"I really just want a milkshake, Chelsie!" -Melissa

"Why would you want to shake me?!" - Chelsie

"How long does it take to drive up to Ricks... college... oh, wait..."

-Esther

"Stop for the little effers!" (For the record, I meant to say "Effies" and I was referring to the EFY kids...)

-Melissa

On chat at work:

"Maybe you're going through metapause... however you spell that." - Esther

"I'm pretty sure it's 'menopause' sweetheart..." -Melissa

"Bath tissue... this aisle." -Melissa

"No, I need toilet paper." -Esther

"She's not going to die and if she does, boo-hoo."

-Emily

"Maybe we purchased non-fluffy quinoa..."

-Melissa

"I don't know! I came home and there was this weird thing growing on my eye!" -Melissa

"Like mold?" -Esther

"Let's watch some p. break." -Melissa

"The lyrics to this song are really weird. 'I love you like I love some baby?'"

-Esther

"Mine's going to be, you will meet your eternal companion in the next life. Good luck."

-Melissa

"What are you doing?" -Camie

"FAFSA" -Mike

"The salsa?!" -Melissa

On chat at work:

"Good. I'm glad I could help you with your sucess." -Esther

"Perhaps in return I could teach you how to spell... The first word is s-u-c-c-e-s-s-." -Melissa

"I'm so bored I'm going to go read that 'say-on' math book. I don't even know what that means..."

-Melissa

"You know how some people get hooked on phonics, I'm hooked on clinique."

-Esther 

And if you made it this far, here's hands-down, the best conversation all semester:

"Hey Bishop! I forgot to get a yellow card for the temple re-dedication." -Emily

"E.L.O. card..?" -Melissa & Esther

"Electric Light Orchestra!" -Melissa

"Eternal living..." -Esther

"ORDINANCE!" -Melissa

"What are you guys talking about?" -Emily

"What's an E.L.O. card?" -Esther

"A YELLOW card..." -Emily

"...." -Melissa & Esther

I'm going to miss living with these girls.

Finals...

I'm not sure how I'm still breathing.

This has been quite possibly the most emotionally draining day of my life.

On top of that, I had to find a way to write a ten page paper.

I'm physically exhausted as well from pushing myself too far this week, having back problems, and spending too much time sitting in one place all day.

I don't know why I'm still awake. My bed is the only place I want to be right now.

Six more days and I. Am. Free.

I don't think I've ever hated finals week so much.

On a happy note, I get to spend Christmas in Colorado with niece and nephew.

Oh, how the thought of that just makes me smile :)

It seems like every finals week comes with a couple of songs that I put on repeat.

Number One: A Child's Prayer by Sweethaven

 I thought I'd throw in a little entertainment as well, so enjoy the video :)

And in the spirit of December,

Number Two: All I Want For Christmas Is You by Lady Antebellum

(but who are we kidding, the whole CD is great)

Hooray for finals!

You know what sucks...?

Being single.

Being single sucks.

Hear me out.

1. You get ripped off on housing. $1000-1300 per girl, per semester?

Let's calculate that... 6 girls, in one apartment, each paying roughly $1250.

That's $7,500 for one apartment, for one semester.

Now let's say one complex has 12 apartments in 5 buildings.

That's 75 apartments in one complex.

75 apartments paying $7,500 is $562,500 per semester.

Three semesters in the year = $1,687,500

That's not including the cost of living over the summer, the non-refundable portion of the deposit, and parking permit fee on top of that.

That, right there, is enough reason to explain why being single sucks.

2. You don't get to choose who you live with.

Every semester you get stuck with roommates who end up hating you for one reason or another.

At least when you're married you choose to be stuck living with that person.

3. Two words: Financial aid.

4.  When you're single, Mormon, going to school at BYU-Idaho and you're approaching your 21st birthday, something is clearly wrong with you.

You're not married? You're not going on a mission? And you mean to tell me you're actually okay with all of that?!

What in the world is wrong with you?

5. At the end of every semester you have to pack up everything, even if you're staying in the same exact apartment, and put it all on your bed so some stranger can come clean the space that you've already kept clean the entire semester. Oh, and did I mention that you have to pay 35 dollars for that as well?

Don't get me wrong, I know there are downsides to every situation in life, including being married. But let me tell you, at this point I'd marry the next male I see to get away from crazy roommates and greedy apartment complex owners.

Better yet, I'm dropping out of school and moving to Ireland.

Picture Perfect Dream

I fell asleep while doing homework and listening to Christmas music.

Next thing I know, I'm having quite possibly the most picture-perfect dream I've ever had.

Picture this:

I was in my living room with my husband, decorating our Christmas tree, drinking Egg Nog, and listening to Ella Fitzgerald's "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas."

Someone came to the door, and as I opened it, our little golden retriever puppy ran out the door and started to prance around in the snow.

Cutest. Dream. Ever.

I hope that's one dream that really does come true :)

 

Today I'm thankful for...

Feeling wide awake when your alarm goes off

Class ending early

New glasses

Mom's who buy you lunch

Nieces and nephews that you adore more than anything in the world

Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

Christmas music

Mission calls

Naps
and picture perfect dreams.

 

Mixed Emotions

Well, friends, I'm back on Facebook.

I would guess the majority of you didn't even know I was gone :)

It was actually a really great, and much needed experience.

I went through some withdrawals for the first day or so, but after I broke the habit of clicking on my Facebook tab after starting up my computer, it was easy.

Honestly, after about two days I had zero desire to even get on Facebook.

I saw such an improvement in the quality of my time in a matter of days.

I actually got my homework done early, I went to bed at a reasonable hour, I exercised, and I've diligently done the things I need to do to keep my life in check.

As a result of all of these things, I've been so much happier.

The only reason I re-activated it today was because of the election, and being semi-political, I wanted to feel somewhat connected to cyberspace as the day unfolded.

That said, I'm back with quite a bit of hesitation, so much so that I may or may not deactivate it again here soon.

It sounds pathetic, I know, but it was so freeing.

Let's hope I broke the habit for good :)

 

Facebook Fast

I've been MIA from this blog for forever.

I'm struggling to find the time or pointless things to post about.

I've also felt more disorganized, distracted, lazy, and unmotivated than ever before in my life.

I was talking about that to my roommate, Emily, last night after a run and before doing my homework.

That was the first time I had gone for a run in about two weeks due to "being too busy."

We were talking about how we weren't putting our all into our assignments, we had been going through the motions, our room was getting cluttered, and we just felt flat out lazy.

We both sat down to start our homework, and lo and behold, the assignment for my Parenting class was on Elder Bednar's talk, "Things as They Really Are" and we had to watch the Frontline special called "Growing Up Online."

I couldn't believe what I was reading and watching right after that discussion we had.

I realized the reason I've been disorganized, distracted, lazy, unmotivated, and at the same time "too busy" was because I was wasting my time on the most pointless things, such as Facebook and Pinterest.

So I did it.

I deactivated my Facebook.

For now, it's just temporary, and I'm going to shoot for two weeks.

These two weeks include more than just forgetting Facebook, but also any other time-consuming internet distractions.

It's time to re-focus my life.

I hope I'll be able to break the habit of being so dependent on Facebook so I can re-activate my profile in a few weeks and only get on it for more important matters, rather than multiple times a day to waste my life away.

I already feel so liberated.

Happy, Happy Birthday

Today is my nephew Sam's first birthday.

I can hardly believe that this was a year ago!

I love that boy so much and I'm so happy I could be there for his birth, for the first year of his life, and today to celebrate his very first birthday.

Fall Semester 2012

Alright, here's the run-down on my semester!

I'm working part time, still at the Alumni office, and I'm taking 14 credits.

I've never taken less than 15 credits, so this semester is seeming like a breeze so far.

Who knew that you could actually have a social life if you aren't slammed with homework all day every day! :)

These are my classes:

Infant and Toddler Development: I'll love it once we get past all of the theory and research stuff that we go over in EVERY child development class. It's an early class and my teacher (who I'm distantly related to) kind of puts me to sleep... But, I'm so excited to tour the L&D and Nursery at the hospital later this semester!

Adolescent Development: I really like this class, and my teacher is great. He used to teach at BYU and he did a lot of research and had quite a few journal articles published worldwide on his findings. He's a fun teacher.

Parenting: I absolutely LOVE this class. I have the same teacher I had for Child Development last year, and he's definitely one of my favorite teachers of all time.

Children's Literature: This class is so much fun! All we have for homework is reading children's novels (like Ella Enchanted, Harry Potter, Charlotte's Web, Beauty, and so on). My teacher reads us picture books and is having us start out own personal children's library.

Prep for Eternal Marriage: Laugh all you want, but I love this class. Brother Pyper is awesome and he has a lot of really great insights. I've learned a lot already!

So with all of that, work, and a social life, I'm plenty busy and really enjoying this semester :)

Hopefully I can continue to say that for a while!

All I have to say is that Bronco Mendenhall better not sleep tonight.

You thought going for the 2 pt conversion was a good idea?

Seriously?

We could have tied the game.

Oh, and Bronco, get a new quarterback.

This is real life...

So I'm sitting in the MC peacefully eating my sandwich, when I decide to walk into the bathroom to get a few paper towels for napkins.

I walk over to the bathroom door and start to open it, when thankfully I realized it was the men's bathroom.

I tried to be discrete so I turned to walk the direction I thought the bathroom was, but I was headed the wrong way. So I turned around and walked the other way towards the real women's bathroom.

Looking back to where my stuff was sitting, there were about five people watching me in amazement and chuckling to themselves.

But wait, it gets better...

Not even an hour later this poor girl who was sitting near Esther and I walked IN to the men's bathroom. Seconds later the turned around and came out, looked at Esther and they both busted out laughing. She went and sat down by her husband and we were all just laughing for a good five minutes.

Moral of the story, my embarrassing moments could always be much worse.

Also, we don't know this poor girl's name, but we'll forever remember her as the girl that walked into the men's bathroom.

"They need to put a sign or something... oh wait, they did."

-Esther

Today We Remember

September 11th, 2001

We all have our story about where we were on that tragic day eleven years ago. Today as I was sitting in class, listening to the many different places people were from, I realized that each and every one of us were affected in a different way. Maybe your the girl in my Adolescent Development class who lost her brother in the World Trade Center. Maybe you're the father who lost his son in the Pentagon. Maybe you're like me and you were old enough to understand something tragic had happened, but too young to grasp the concept of terrorism.
No matter your story, we all have one.
Eleven years ago, today, our country changed.

Today our school put on a memorial service. They did the colors, a choir sang a few patriotic songs, and there was a moment of silence.
Seeing all of those students stop their busy schedules to stand and listen and remember during a moment of silence was so incredibly humbling and moving.
It brought tears to my eyes.

For the first time I finally understood true patriotism.
May we never forget.

Daddy-Daughter Vacation, Day Five

Today was the day we decided to head home so we could make it to the BYU kick-off game Thursday night.

It felt like we'd already been gone for a week and a half.

We'd done so much and seen so many things, and I think we were both rather content to get home and sleep in our own beds.

But first, we had a lot to see in Zion National Park.

We began the morning with a hike to the Emerald Pools.

I didn't even take any pictures of the pools.

I'm not sure I even really looked at them because I was mesmerized by the waterfalls.

I was also busy cooling off underneath them :)

After that we did the Temple of Sinawa which leads to The Narrows.

I spy, with my little eye, a mountain goat!

I spy, with my little eye, a hummingbird!

My dad and I finally decided to just do it, the Narrows hike, which is the one where you hike through the Virgin River.

We only had our hiking boots, but neither of us really cared. I really wanted to do it even though we'd have to walk two miles back on a path and take a forty minute shuttle ride back to the truck.

I'm so glad we did it.

It was so much fun!

I already want to go back and hike even further in.

Maybe when there are less people :)

So overall, I had the time of my life, saw things I'll never forget, and created memories that will last forever.

Everything aligned perfectly for our unplanned trip and we had so much fun.

I'm very glad I took the time off of work and the time away from Rexburg just to spend time with my dad doing some of our favorite things and seeing some more National Park and National Monuments.

There's not much I love more than exploring and learning more about the world.

What a beautiful place we live in.

 

Daddy-Daughter Vacation, Day Four

The morning of day four, we woke up and took our time getting packed up and ready to go.

It was a chilly morning so by the time I woke up my dad had a fire going and water hot to make hot chocolate. Every time I've ever gone camping my parents have done that each morning before I woke up, so now I truly felt like I was camping.

We headed out to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and this is what we saw as we walked a couple little rim trails:

We walked up to the lodge and were surprised that we could snag a comfy couch in a bay window overlooking the Grand Canyon.

The Lodge. We sat in the bay window overlooking the Canyon.

I'm not going to lie, I wasn't blown away by the Grand Canyon.

Sure, it's cool, and pretty vast, but after all we'd already seen on our trip, I just wasn't impressed.

I was ready to go just a couple hours after we'd gotten there.

But, I saw the Grand Canyon, which everyone should see at least once in their lives.

Next we headed on our journey to Zion National Park

Before we got there for the night we ended up at Pipe Springs National Monument, which has quite a bit of church history, so we spent an hour or so looking around outside and in the visitors center.

Once we got to Zion and got a campground the trip turned bad for the first time yet.

We had a storm coming - fast. We needed to get the tent and alcove set up before the rain so we could cook our dinner and feed our starving bellies.

We got it all set up just in time and it only rained a little bit.

I started cooking our dinner, and then the bees attacked.

I kid you not - at LEAST thirty bees were swarming our campground.

To top that off we had ants on literally every square inch of the campground as well.

The bees were relentless and I have this incredibly irrational fear of them, so my dad took over the cooking while I sat on the tailgate of the truck trying to avoid them and the ants.

To make a long story short, my dad got stung bad, I got bit by an ant twice and had an allergic reaction.

Who knew that could even happen?!

So after dinner we were short on patience and decided to get out of there and go for a walk to the visitors center and to one of the Ranger Programs.

Thank goodness we got packed up in the morning before the bees came back.

Let me tell you, it was awful.

Daddy-Daughter Vacation, Day Three, Part Two

Day three began in the desert, in what felt like a completely different planet.

It would end in a lush green forest.

After lunch, my dad and I saw quite a few amazing and very unique things.

We ventured through the Vermillion Cliffs and also Balanced Rock.

I'll let the photos do the talking...

My dad looks miniscule compared to that giant boulder!

A rock tree :)

This next sight was something we drove up upon and were just confused and, quite frankly, in awe...

We asked a few Navajo women (who were working their jewelry stands, I told you they were everywhere...) the story behind this little house.

They said that way back when a woman was traveling through this area when her car broke down right there. Story goes that she loved the area so much that she didn't want to leave. So she purchased the land and built a home out of the giant boulder that was already sitting there.

The view from a window inside. This is quite possible one of my favorite photos of the entire trip :)

Next we traveled along Honeymoon road (that's really what it's called) and headed into the Kaibab forest.

View from the Kaibab forest looking over Honeymoon Road and the Vermillion Cliffs

We were in for a huge change of atmosphere.

We went from what you've seen above to a desert-style forest to this:

Miles and miles of forest destroyed by fire.

There's something I just adore about the aftermath of a forest fire.

Maybe it's the new vegetation that's grown in spite of the destruction done before.

As soon as we got out of the damage done by the forest fire and had climbed thousands of feet in elevation, this was our surrounding...

I'm not going to lie, after feeling like I was on another planet the greenery was refreshing and I felt a little more at home.

I guess it reminded me of Washington :)

We camped that night surrounded by trees in Demotte Campground fairly close to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

It was a cool night so my dad and I were able to have our one and only campfire of the trip, complete with s'mores and hot chocolate.

It was definitely a well-rounded trip :)