Thanksgiving

So for Thanksgiving I went to Britt's and Bobbie's house! It was a lot of fun! I took lots of pictures of Britt's family. She has adorable nephews and the cutest niece. So here are some pictures of the day.

Britt's Dad couldn't wait until after dinner :)

This is cream cheese with jalapeno jelly. I didn't try it cuz I don't like spicy, but the girls siad it was delicious.

This is Logan! He is adorable.

This is the magnificent Damon! He is the funniest kid ever!

Damon and his dad, Josh.




We were trying to figure out how to play the guitar game.

We hadn't figured out why it was so difficult to play...






Then we realized we were holding the guitar backwards lol!!! It was much easier when we played










Then the family put together a rock band!

Joel is the sweetest little boy. This is during the pie!! He kept going right back to sleep after he would take a bite. It was so funny!!

This is after the pie:)















This is Olivia :) She is darling.

After making pies all night, Jake still really wanted Britt to make her delcious apple pie she said yes, but Jake had to cut the apples. So it worked out quite nicely!

I am back.... well sort of :)

So I finally finished my Art History paper and turned it in tonight. I didn't have anyone proof read it so wish me luck! I had to write the darn thing completely over because I misunderstood the directions and I did a different assignment. Yep I am amazing. So this is what I have left to do. I have an English literature paper due Monday. Not too bad, but I also have two finals that same day. French and Art finals along with the paper. So, sometime between now and Monday I have to find time to squeeze in all of that stuff. Ya, you could say I am a little stressed. Just ask Sarah. She just watched me do a "freak out and clean cuz that's the only thing I can finish tonight, but it doesn't really help me get the things I actually need to get done finished" thing. But my room has a lot less crap on the floor and so does the red room. Oh, and some dishes are going and a load of laundry. All done in a half an hour too. That makes me stop and have a little grateful moment for our washer and dryer, along with our dishwasher.

Speaking of things I am grateful for, I just wanted to spend a little time before I go to bed telling you all about my Thanksgiving weekend. On Thursday I went to Brittani's house for a fantastic and lovely Thanksgiving dinner. It was so relaxing and her family is so nice and hilarious. I will write more about that day and post some pictures of it as well. But for now I just want to talk about after Thanksgiving.

I got home frome Britt's family's house sometime after dark. I don't know what time it was. I walked into the completely darkened house and I felt so alone. I thought, "if I never get married this is what my life is going to be. I am going to be completely alone." It was my first Thanksgiving away from family and it was different and at this point it felt difficult too.

Fast forward to the next morning around noon. I had woke up at 3am sick as a dog throwing up nonstop along with other awful symptoms til about 2pm. In the midst of my agony Brittani was a life saver and brought me gatorade, popsicles, and saltine crackers. I was so grateful. I slept most of the day and then I developed a bit of a fever, I was dehydrated, and my head hurt so badly I was crying. I decided I needed a blessing. I started asking around and I asked Meg to help me find someone. After Meg found someone she called to tell me someone was coming and I was still crying( k so I am a horrible baby when I am sick) so she volunteered to come over. After she came over and after the blessing was over I started to feel better. At this point I had Meg and Jilyn, my roommate, keeping an eye on me. Soon after we started watching a movie my buddy Braden called. He was on his way to the store to get me anything I needed. I wanted soup so he brought me soup. Right after I hung up with him Derek called me and told me he would be right over to check on me. And right after I hung up with Derek, Britt called and said she was on her way.

I felt so loved. Meg pointed out right after I hung up with Braden how man friends I have that love me. I was already thinking of that and of course I started crying....bawl baby remember. I am never alone. I have so many people who love me. And even when they can't be near me I have a loving Heavenly Father who loves me too. He is always there no mater what.

MY PAPER IS SUFFERING!!

Ok I am cutting myself off. I even have something I can post about my Friday night, but alas I must RESIST This new found blog addiction is so much fun, but I will not be doing anymore posts til I FINISH my Art History Paper and atleast get an outline done of my ENG Lit paper!!!

Thank you and wish me luck!! :)

A poem by Sir Walter Raleigh

So I am taking English Lit this term and I wanted to post one of the poems that we read. I really like it.

EVEN SUCH IS TIME
by: Sir Walter Raleigh

EVEN such is time, that takes in trust
Our youth, our joys, our all we have,
And pays us but with earth and dust;
Who, in the dark and silent grave,
When we have wandered all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days:
But from this earth, this grave, this dust,
My God shall raise me up, I trust.

TWILIGHT!!

So I was just discussing the amazing Twilight phenomenon with my coworker (who has not read the books) and it put me in the mood to write about Twilight opening night.



On Thursday night/Friday morning at 1201 the first showing of Twilight was shown and I along with a bunch of really awesome people had our tickets for the buggest auditorium in the theatre. Stephanie Young organized the cutest line party for before the show. She made cute bingo cards with pictures from the movie. I didn't actually win, but Steph still gave me a little silver Volvo matchbox car for coming in second place in the blackout game :) Or maybe it was just because I am awesome.. I dunno.
My little Volvo


Bingo cards were just the tip of the iceberg. Stephanie had three little cars, volvo, red corvette, and uh I think a mercedes...all representative of cars in the film and story. I missed this activity, but they raced the little cars for prizes. Val Roberts won a cute little night with Alice gift bag. It had nail polish and other girly items that Alice would play with. My favorite thing Stephanie put together were the little gift bags each especially made for our favorite character. I chose Edward of course. In the bag was powder to make me sparkle like a vampire, tattoos, stickers, and a bracelet that represented things that make us think of Edward. Val chose Jacob and I thought her bracelet was so cute cuz it had a charm on it with a little dog paw and on the back of it, it said, "I love my dog." It was really cute. Stephanie did such an amazing job on everything. It made the experience so much more memorable!
My bracelet to remind me of Edward...as if I could ever forget??


As for the movie, I have come to the conclusion that I did in fact like it. Directly after the movie I was a little indecisive because I love the books sooooo much. But books are always better and I feel that they did a good job with what they did in fact do. I do, however, wish there were more kissing scenes. I know...silly right? Too bad. I love Edward!!! So hot. And Robert and Kristen have such great chemistry together. I loved the baseball scene the best!! And I am way excited to see it again. Ye, that's right, Steph and I are already planning a second viewing tonight. We can't help it we just adore Twilight!

BINGO!! I didn't win, but it was so fun.

Carrie Underwood Rocks!!

Tonight I went and saw the Magnificent Carrie Underwood!! I have pretty much been in love with her voice since her album Some Hearts came out. I love pretty much every song on that album. And when I first bought it I would listen to it over and over and over!!! Now it is what I crank up on the stereo whenever I clean cuz I can belt out every word of every song on the album.

The show tonight was FANTASTIC!!!!! She is such a great live performer. I sat next to Stacy and we had a great time screaming our heads off, dancing, and of course singing along.

One of my FAVORITE parts of the show was when she brought the most adorable 6 year old up to the stage to sing with her during American Girl . It was so cute. I teared up a little. The little girl was so cute and she is going to have the coolest story to tell everyone. She said she didn't know the words but she knew the chorus and so she sang along.

One thing I was impressed with was that Carrie was actually covered during the entire performance. I think that is great. I hope she keeps it up and doesn't change her image. She is beautiful and she really has a lot of influence over little girls. I hope she realizes that she has that kind of power and keeps on being a good role model for young girls.

As a side note; opening act was Little Big Town. Now, I am not a huge fan, but they are pretty decent performers. I am officially in love with Jimi Westbrook. He has such a cute smile and not to mention a great um... rear end!! Thank goodness we had binoculars under our chairs!! haha But seriously, when they were performing I totally got pumped for Carrie Underwood to come out on stage. It was thrilling when the bass was pumping. You could feel it in your chest. They closed with the BOONDOCKS song. Stacy and I don't love that song, but we got up and danced cuz we knew their time was ending and the real show would start soon!!

Jimi is the one in the white shirt :)

Quantum of Solace

We (Me, Brit, Bobbie, Stephanie, Meg, Braden, Val, Jackie, Joe, Greg, and Annie) went and saw the new Bond movie on Friday!! I love Daniel Craig. He is beauiful and he has the most amazing eyes. I love that he is not a pansy too!! He totally kicks butt. Now as far as this new movie, I wasn't as impressed as I was with Casino Royale, but I still loved it. The Bond women were lovely, and the fighting scenes were intense and exciting.

One of the best things about a Bond movie is that James Bond drives an Astin Martin!! I love this car. If I owned one though I would be afraid to drive it and it would never leave my garage. Or on the other hand, my license might be revoked and I wouldn't be able to drive it because I would break too many speeding laws in the Astin Martin. ahhhhhh I can dream can't I?

I have more to say, but I don't want to ruin it for anyone else. I might wait for a while to add my comments about a few certain scenes. But know this, there a few tender moments in this film. One in particular made me cry...kind of embarrassing but none the less, it happened.

The Wedding Bouquet

So picture this: five or six single girls, a beautiful woman in a white gown, a young man in a pea coat...what do you get? A bloody lip and a cut finger, but heck, you also got the bouquet!!

Telling this story isn't quite as fun when it can't be reenacted, but I will give it a try...

My beautiful sister was about to go up a few stairs in order to throw her bouquet to what would appear to be a desperate throng of girls longing for marriage. Tradition states that the woman who catches the bouquet will be the next girl to get married; and I will be honest, I am getting up there in age and I wouldn't mind if I were the next one to walk down the aisle.

So I pull my sister aside and I gently bribe her..."hey, I will give you an extra 30 dollars if you throw the bouquet to me... " Now I had no intention of actually paying her, but it was a little joke I knew she would appreciate it. Fortunately she had been sipping a little bit of the "punch" and my bribe probably needn't have taken place. She readily agreed to throw the bouquet in my direction and asked me where I was going to be standing.

After showing her where I would be, my devilish friend and ally, Taylor, took his place behind the crowd of girls and told me he was going to help me get the bouquet. So Heidi throws the bouquet in to the air..way high up in the air. My 5'3 inches was not enough to get the bouquet, but I was going to get it so help me! So I jumped. I jumped and when I came back down I slipped on the hem of my gown and began to fall backwards. I was completely fine with this because that was the direction the bouquet was heading. I rolled over and reached for the bouquet. My lovely friend Taylor pushed Dani, my other sister...Heidi's twin, out of the way and tossed me the desired bunch of flowers. I won!!! I caught the deliciously sweet smelling bouquet!! But alas, I had a bloody lip and a sliced finger. Both were minor injuries and neither cuts had any problem clotting and basically disappearing. It was HILARIOUS!

At first, I thought, "Is it fair that I used such means in order to obtain something so trivial?" But after discussion with some dear single friends....Meg Brit ;)....We have come to the conclusion that it is completely fair! No one ever specified the rules of the game. The only rule is the object of the game: OBTAIN THE BOUQUET! And if that means stooping to small trickery ploys, then so be it!

My sister's wedding and proposition eight

This last weekend I went to Utah for my sister's wedding. I am very glad to be home, but the wedding was beautiful. My sister found herself a very nice guy and a good dad for my little niece. I brought my friend Taylor home with me and it was a good thing. It really helped me stay mellow and there was minimal fighting with the family.

We arrived on Friday and we went to see the Joseph Smith movie at the Legacy theatre. I love that movie. It was probably the fourth time I saw the movie and I still cried. It is a very touching story. We came out from the movie and in contrast with the beautiful Salt Lake City Temple, there were thousands of protestors protesting the church becuase the propositon 8 that was supposed to legalize gay marriages did not pass in California. The gay community blames our church. The fact is though is that we are not even the majority of those who backed the proposition. The Catholic church put out this statement,

"Like our friends in the Mormon faith, the Catholic Church has long
championed and promoted the sacredness of traditional marriage and the
importance of the family in our society," Wester said. "While
acknowledging that this position is not universally held in our society today,
our churches are committed to proclaiming the truth and we cherish our ability
to participate in the democratic process," he said.

I also really appreciated the following statement made by the previous slc catholic bishop,

"Catholics stand in solidarity with our Mormon brothers and sisters in support
of traditional marriage--the union of one man and one woman--that has been
the
major building block of Western Civilization for millennia.
"The
ProtectMarriage coalition, which led the successful campaign to pass
Proposition
8, was an historic alliance of people from every faith and
ethnicity. LDS were
included--but so were Catholics and Jews, Evangelicals
and Orthodox,
African-Americans and Latinos, Asians and Anglos.
"Bigoted
attacks on
Mormons for the part they played in our coalition are shameful
and ignore the
reality that Mormon voters were only a small part of the
groundswell that
supported Proposition 8.
"As the former bishop of the
Diocese of Salt Lake
City, I can attest to the fact that followers of the
Mormon faith are a good and
generous people with a long history of
commitment to family and giving to
community causes.
"I personally decry
the bigotry recently exhibited towards
the members of the Church of the
Latter Day Saints--coming from the opponents of
Proposition 8, who
ironically, have called those of us supporting traditional
marriage
intolerant.
"I call upon the supporters of same-sex marriage to
live by
their own words--and to refrain from discrimination against religion and
to
exercise tolerance for those who differ from them. I call upon them to accept
the will of the people of California in the passage of Proposition 8."

This whole event has stirred up a lot of emotion for everyone involved. I felt very hurt that people were being so hateful and intolerant of us when we are a loving and giving church. Marriage is a sacred institution ordained of God. And our faith is not the only one that believes that. Regardless of who is right or wrong , seeing all the protesters was pretty intense. Taylor wanted to march with them and "talk feelings" with them. My brother was a little freaked out though and I kinda was too so we didn't do it. But we did take a picture of ourselves in front of them.

So the next day was my sister's wedding, to a man by the way ;). It was a nice ceremony. All the bridesmaids were crying. We were kind of silly. But Heidi is my baby sister and therefore I was entitled to some very happy tears. Even though the bride is supposed to be the belle of the ball, I think the girl who really stole the show was my beautiful niece Kaelyn. She was amazing and everyone knew it. When it was her turn to walk down the aisle, she suddenly became shy and hid her face behind kitty. My mom had to go and get her and they walked together down the aisle. When she got up to the end crowd cheered! It was so cute, they clapped their hands with her and said yay! She was so beautiful.

On Sunday Taylor and I went to see Lani, Jordan, and Lael. Lael is a doll!! Lani gave me the best blanket ever. It is a halloween quilt that is so very awesome. She also gave me some halloween cookie cutters and even though Halloween is over I have been commanded to make Halloween Cookies anyway. I will gladly obey! Meg and Brit and I have a cookie making date which is yet to be decided. After our visit we went for a drive up Big Cottonwood canyon. It brought back a lot of really good memories with my dad. I had a lot of fun and it was beautiful and I got to not only see snow but I also ate some. So did Taylor. I think that even though my family has a lot of drama, the weekend went really well...especially in comparison to to her weekends.

This video is amazing! I can't believe how much she has grown up.

K so Meg has convinced me to start a blog. So here I go.