Christmas Adam

This is the first year of many that I haven't been home for the traditional sibling sleepover under the tree for Christmas Adam, the day before Christmas Eve.

In fact, no one will be home, not even that dumb little dog. And I will probably be sleeping at my house all alone tonight, with locked doors and space heater blasting.

Christmas Adam usually consists of lining all the presents up in, like, a bar graph, by person, to see who has the longest line. Plus, we have to get them all organized before Christmas morning anyway. Then we eat snacks and watch a Christmas movie, and when we were little, dad would start telling us to go to bed around what felt like 8pm. And then we play games in the dark. Our favorites are Sleeping Lions, Rock, and Steamroller. Sleeping Lions is where everyone is a lion, but the person who is "it" is the hunter. And the hunter tries to be really funny and make the lions "wake up" and laugh. The first lion to laugh is the next hunter. I learned that game from Mrs. Friz in second grade. Rock is the great game where you try to hold really still, except you are actually always moving, you just can't let the person who's "it" see you. So it turns into this hilarious game of people laying there, and when no one is looking, a random leg sticks up in the air, but no one saw it happen. And then you can't laugh, because then someone will see you move!

Lots and lots of giggling came from these games. And sibling sleepovers. And Christmas Adam. And now, tonight, it will not happen.

I'm going to St. George tomorrow, Christmas Eve. And I'm so excited to play games and look at lights and sing the traditional Spainhower family "Candy Free Christmas Tree" song that makes no sense and changes every year. And I'm excited to make a giant mess of sprinkles and frosting when we roll our and decorate Christmas cookies. I might be able to convince Elise to eat the cookie with Elmer's glue for frosting, like that one time.

Heaven

is St. George. And my family. Rolled into one.

This weekend, when I was home, we went to Snow Canyon State Park and ran around on the rocks. And really it just turned into a huge photo op. I made all my family members pose in the distance with epic scenery behind them. And this is what we came up with. You can see it as a small tutorial on how to imitate the current internet photo trends-- you know, planking, tebowing, owling (and we added young woman-ing and flamingo-ing and yoga-ing).

See for yourself.

Tebowing

Owling (if you can zoom in, you HAVE to see her owl face. love you mother)

This is how the girl on the old personal progress necklaces was posed. She was hot. obviously.

my dad invented flamingoing. We settled on this after we vetoed his "wheedling" idea. I can't believe I just typed that word. Eww. 

so handsome.

my and my father. He is wearing his "Audrey hat." that's seriously what he calls it.

and Moriah is performing the infamous "plank" in a slightly precarious location.

Elise tried to make us do yoga. We would only do this one move. So I just took a picture of the instructor.

DID I FORGET TO MENTION PHOTO BOMBING???? Mom and Dad wanted to take a picture of themselves. It was not to  be done. We bombed it to smithereens.

this is a secret photo bomb. Can you spot it? Can you see Elise lurking?

And this is our attempt to get everyone in the picture. Way to get only yourself Dad.

I love it. And now you wish you were in my family, because we are awesome. But we missed our brother and our Mal pal. They will come next time, I am sure. :)

It's April, the second best month of the year.

Just some things of late:

1. New favorite music: Adam Lambert, almost the ENTIRE For Your Entertainment album. Except, I don't listen to the title track. It's, um, not uplifting. But the album is super fun. I actually like to listen to it while I do homework. Weird, I know. I never used to do that. But I love to now. "If I Had You" and "Pick You Up" are my favorite songs on the album. Except I really like "Aftermath" too.

2. I went to St. George this weekend. Dani came with me. :) She loves St. George now, and that makes me so so so so happy. Because I love St. George. And I want everyone I know to love it too. But while I was home, we had a picnic on the Sugar Loaf, went to the Art Festival, watched General Conference, celebrated both me and Elise's birthdays, celebrated Easter, showed Dani around St. George (yeah, I took her to the high school), went to Dairy Queen with Moe and Jen, and drew a picture of a pig for Elise to hang up in her bedroom while my sisters made headbands. It was a fabulous weekend of happiness and sunshine. And St. George. What could be better? Btw, Elise redecorated her room, and it looks AMAZING.  I'm so jealous of that's girl's decorating talents. She is so creative. Anyway.

3. Elise made me a shirt for my birthday that says, "I would've picked Duckie," on it. Pretty in Pink is one of my favorite movies, and Duckie is like my all-time favorite movie character. The girl, played by Molly Ringwald picks the dumb supposedly hot boy over Duckie, the sweet and quirky best friend. And well, I would've picked Duckie. And now I can declare that to the world when I wear my shirt.

4. My cousin Nicole is coming home from Hawaii to visit in May. We're going to set up the Harry Potter shrine and have a party. I'm SOOOOOOOO happy about that. I love that Harry boy. And Nicole. :) When I was home this weekend, and I showed Dani my room, I pulled out some of my old Harry Potter stuff. Dani thought I was a FREAK. I showed her my binder of editorials about Harry Potter that I printed off the internet and annotated in order to keep track of theories and devise my own. And then I showed her my character files. I have index cards with details of all the characters on them. She thought I was a weirdo and said she would have to re-think our friendship. haha. I told her that she had just underestimated my obsession. I mean you can only say, "yeah, I love Harry Potter" so many times, and people still just don't get it. It's funny, too, because while I was dating Josh I kept thinking, he just doesn't understand my obsessive nature... it'll be funny when he figures it out. Unfortunately or fortunately, I don't know which, he never figured it out.

5. I have two and a half weeks left of school. I am so utterly excited I can't even say. Summer is going to be relaxing and fantastic, and I will just get to lay out in the sun all day. Except for when I have to go to work.

6. Rachelle is graduating and moving out. That's going to be weird. Not living with her, I mean. I'll miss that girl.

7. Vanessa and Kennedy are coming home SO SOON. I am so sosososososo excited. I have to admit, I've been very much a failure at writing to them, but that doesn't mean that I don't love them! I do, I promise. Vanessa is coming home the 15th, and Kennedy the 21st. So like a week apart. That means that I'll have to go to St. George to homecoming TWO WEEKENDS in a row. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but it'll be all right. I do love St. George. The real problem is that it'll be right in the middle of finals. Oh, and I won't have money for gas. I'll just have to figure that one out.

8. I love reading books. I started a book blog at the beginning of the year. But it's private. And it only has like 6 posts on it. But it's super fun to write on. I can say whatever I want about books, and it doesn't matter. But I really do love reading. I had forgotten how much I loved it until this semester in my adolescent literature class. I have some new favorites: The Chocolate War, A Separate Peace, and Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones. Check 'em out. Read 'em. I do have to say, though, The Chocolate War is slightly controversial. I loved it. I read it in a day. But I was one of two students in my class who liked it. So beware, I guess. Rachelle liked it okay. She had some slight issues with it. Nothing big. But if you read it, make sure you let me know what you think. It's an interesting read.

9. Jen's baby is adorable, and Moe's is growing inside her. I love babies. And I love when my friends have them.

10. I finally saw Invictus in the dollar theater. I. loved. it. After like the first ten minutes, I turned to Dani and said, "I really like this movie." Cause I did. It was already super interesting, and I couldn't wait to watch the rest of it. It was a good one. Now I just have to see Blindside. I know, how in the world did I go so long without watching these movies?!??! I have no idea. Sports movies are like my fave.

11. Speaking of rugby, I love it now. Dani and I went to a rugby game last weekend, and it was SUPER COOL. Kind of scary because all players were getting in fights and stuff, but it was just so interesting! I kind of seemed like there were not rules. Like, players would punch each other and not even get in trouble! What kind of game is this?!? In Invictus they described it as "a barbarian game played by gentlemen." And football is "a gentlemen's game played by barbarians." Loved that. So, yeah, I just gotta find me a rugby player.

12. I'm in pretty much last place in my march madness competition. I was SOO winning at first... oh well. Maybe next year. Dumb upsets.

13. The color festival was last week. I love colors.

14. I found some new funny blogs to read. There is this one called the Daily Apple, and there is a random topic everyday to read interesting facts about. Like today, it was candy bars. I actually really like it. And if I read it everyday, then I'm bound to beat everyone at Trivial Pursuit and Jeopardy some time in my life. And that is the goal, right?

15. Did you hear about the people in Texas who are trying to take Thomas Jefferson out of history books? I'm not sure how valid that sentence is, it might not even be true. But we talked about it in on of my education classes, and I was shocked. And then there was something about it in the Daily Universe, which isn't exactly your most valid source. So I looked it up online, and all the reports were contradictory and confusing. So now I'm just hoping that good old TJ will stay in history textbooks forever, and everything will be back to normal. 'Cause we can't lose that guy.

16. I want a new build-a-bear. It'll be a koala named James Monroe. You know, the guy from the "Era of Good Feelings." Oh wait, that might have been James K. Polk. Oh well.

17. I need a hair cut.

18. There is a baseball game tomorrow. I'm going to it. Why? Because I love baseball games.

19. Did I already say I'm excited for summer?

20. I should go to bed now.

Sleepy McSleeperson Sleepovers.

This weekend.... I had two last chance ever sleepovers. I am so lucky!

I went home to St. George on Friday afternoon for several events of the weekend:

1) Mallory's family bridal shower. YIP! I loved her family. They are fantastic. And I really love her. It was kind of odd, though, being there. I've never been on the groom's side of things before. They made a movie of the groom answering questions, and whatta ya know, it was MY BROTHER. Odd. But they are adorable, and I'm fully excited for the wedding.

Yeah, sorry, Mom. Your eyes are closed. Eek.

2)Part of that excitement, however, it due to our awesome shiny green groomsmaid (cause that's what we are, I think) dresses. We went to the second fitting on Saturday morning, and I fell in love with the lovely thing. YAY.

3) We made a quilt. My mother likes to make her life WAY more stressful that it actually needs to be. I think I used to have that trait, but in recent years the habits of lazier, happier roommates have rubbed off on me, and I am much more relaxed about over-achieving. So my mom decided that while we were home, we would actually QUILT (not tie) a blanket for Andrew and Mallory. It was very nice thing to do, but not necessary. This would not have been that big of a deal had my mother already had the quilt on the frames and ready to go when we got there. She didn't. She had cut out the squares, only to find out that they needed to be re-cut. I did that while she sewed all them together and grandma ironed the strips, and THEN, we put it on the frames and quilted to our hearts' content (while we watched GC of course) We got about half of it quilted by the time conference got over, so my poor mother darling will have to finish it herself. :( Well, Sugar Doll can help her, I guess. But, it really was a blast. I love quilting with my sisters and mother and grandma. It's a bonding experience. And, by the way, the quilt is gorgeous. I'm secretly like VERY jealous that it's not for me. Mother, I want one.
4) General Conference. Love it. I especially love the idea of casually waking up on Sunday morning with no place to go, and only something to watch and enjoy. It's such a good break (especially when my Sundays have been JAM PACKED with relief society craziness).

5) Sleepover #1. Me and my darling siblings, Stephanie, Andrew, Elise, and Moriah, AND our kind of cousin Celina, had a sleepover in the family room on Friday night. We pulled all the mattresses off our beds and pushed them together in one giant bed, then told each other stories until we fell asleep. It was a last chance sleepover, because, well, Andrew is getting married VERY soon, and although I'm happy about it, I'm still very much freaking out about the whole idea/concept. Marriage is just so BINDING. :) I mean, once it's done, it's done. There's no going back.

6) Sleepover #2. On Saturday night, I had a sleepover with Moe and Jen, my favorite all-time and forever besties in the world. I mean, I have a lot of other besties, but they have been my besties the LONGEST, so that gives them more devotion and laugh points. They are very funny girls, and we had a fabulous time together. This was a very rare opportunity because they are both involved in that one binding marriage thing... And Jenny is going to have a baby, remember? SO, we were only able to have this fiesta because both of their charming and handsome husbands were out of town hunting or camping or something else that boys do. Lucky me, right? I know. We talked forever, went to Dairy Queen (our classic get-a-away. We love that place more than the average ice cream loving group of girls), played games, reminisced about secret high school memories, and giggled until the wee hours of the morning. This is a last chance sleepover because it will only get harder to do this kind of thing 53 days from today when Jenny has her baby.

This weekend I was really lucky to have been able to spend so much time with lots of people I love. It was amazing. And I'm not going to pretend that the warm weather didn't contribute greatly to my happiness.

Please do not note that I am only even wearing makeup in one of these four pictures. I guess it was a good weekend for not getting ready and looking gross too. Love that.

Also, real fast, I have a new initiative in my life. I need to become re-devoted to my schoolwork. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I used to be THE. MODEL. STUDENT. I did. Promise. And somehow, I've forgotten that drive. I've lost that motivation. So now, I am making a commitment to work harder and do better. THE END.

I didn't go on a mission. Yet.

As many of you have probably noticed, I didn't go on a mission. Yes, it was part of my plan MY WHOLE LIFE. But, when it came time to turn in my papers, it simply did not feel right. I am very happy to be back at BYU (if you didn't already gather from my other posts: I LOVE BYU), in Provo, close to my family, with my roommates, etc.

Reasons why I am glad that I stayed home:
1. My brother is getting married. I could not/would not have ever missed this anyway, but I am very glad to be around and involved with the whole thing. Many of you know how much I adore my brother. It's like A LOT.
2. Dani and Rachelle are awesome to live with. Why would I risk living with companions that I didn't get along with when I have these awesome girls to grow with and learn from? They are amazing girls. PLUS, Lauren and Ann are right across the street!
3. BYU football is currently my favorite thing on the planet (except, of course, the important things like church and family and Harry Potter and the Michael Jackson movie...) In all honesty, one of the first things I thought of once I had decided to stay home was that I was going to be able to watch BYU football games. Football season makes me really happy. And having school spirit makes me really happy. Dani and I have made a goal to learn all the players names, recognize them by sight, and memorize all the referee signals. I'm pretty football literate already, but these are some necessary improvements. Look for a post detailing the BYU football experience later. I know I posted one last year, but I love it too much to let the first couple games go unrecorded.
4. I got a job at the Special Collections in the BYU Library. I am VERY excited about this idea. I actually start the job tomorrow. So... BYU jobs are very competitive because everyone on campus is looking for a job at the same time. I was one of the lucky ones who got the only job that I applied for. And that doesn't mean that I'm super cool or anything, it just means that my network was powerful enough. The people that I worked with in Washington, particularly Alison, knew a man at the Special Collections, talked to him about me at the SAA conference in Houston a couple of weeks ago, and then he emailed ME asking if I was interested in a job he had available. I said yes, interviewed, got the job, and am now officially an employee of the L. Tom Perry Special Collections at the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University. Yay!
5. I think I'm really going to like my ward. The bishopric is very organized, the people are fun, it doesn't feel like a meat market, and I have a real calling! The ward has three relief societies (Yeah, I had never heard of that either), and I'm in the presidency of my relief society. I am really grateful for the opportunity and excited to get involved. It's really a blessing.
6. I get to live in Northern Utah with Stephanie AND Elise.
7. I can talk to my Mom and Dad whenever I want to, and not just on Mother's Day and Christmas.
8. I get to be around when Jenny has her baby. I think about that baby quite frequently, actually. I'm excited to have a best friend baby. Maybe I'll get to be a godmother or something! Hint, hint Jenny.
9. I didn't have to say goodbye to my Washington friends and be forgotten forever more. I still see Kate, Cameron, Erik, and sometimes Taryn on a regular basis. And we are planning parties and reunions. I'm so glad that I got to know all these people. They are amazing. (But I miss Genevieve, who is still living the dream life in Arlington, VA.) I actually think about the District a lot. I really do miss it. Somehow, someway, I am going to find a way back there. I'm toying with the idea of going to grad school at Maryland or something. Then I can live in College Park and do a fellowship with the Library of Congress or something (I met the people in charge of that program this summer, and my friend Matt from the Museum That Must Not Be Named wants to apply too!)
10. If I went on a mission I would miss my Sugardoll, Moriah, too much. She's too precious to be away from for too long.

In closing, I have not completely thrown out the idea of going on a mission, obviously. That is what the "Yet" part was for in the title of this post. But, for now, I feel very good about being home. I will think about a mission again later. AND, if it so happens that I don't go on a mission while I'm young, I have several years of being an old person to serve a mission in. It's something that I want to do eventually, it is the WHEN that I have to concern myself with.


Goal for next semester: Be a history TA.

14 Days of Summer

I came home from D.C. with 2 weeks of near-freedom. I spent the majority of it very peacefully. I LOVE living life in St. George.

The Main Ideas:
1. The first day that I was home I often walked outside of my house and simply stood in the sun, spun around in circles, or swung on our tree swing and exclaimed my joy at the weather. Yes, it was hot, and yes, I love it when it is hot. I love stepping outside and feeling the heat just HIT you. I love feeling the sun kind of burn your skin when it touches you. I was obsessed with the heat when I was home.
2. My car. Imagine not driving a car in 3 and a half months. It was painful. I missed driving more than I ever thought I would. That first day I was home my first priority, after standing in the sun for a bit, was to drive and listen to my music.
3. Sleeping in. I slept in like a total of 2 times ALL SUMMER. So, when I got to St. George, I very much took advantage of my opportunity to sleep in. It was fantastic. And although it made me more tired because I often over slept (a good 12 hours isn't bad, right?), I loved every minute of my sleeping-in.
4. Disney Channel. I LOVE IT. I watched a mixture of JONAS, Sonny With a Chance, Hannah Montana, and Wizards of Waverly Place everyday.
5. Dairy Queen. SHALOM?!!!!! Why didn't anybody ever think to put one of those guys in Washington, D.C.? Those hoity toity Washingtonians are TOTALLY missing out. I must have eaten 7 Dilly Bars since I came home. My love affair with DQ has been going strong for several years now, and our relationship rekindled when I came home. And I am very attached to the back booth at the DQ in St. George. Good times, girls, good times.
6. My Moe and Jenny. When people talk about their BFFs, they often use the term loosely. These girls really ARE my best friends forever. I may have other best friends too (okay, I have a lot of them), but Moe and Jen are my LONGEST best friends, and I love them. They will always be there, caring about my life and depending on me to make them have fun. I love that. And I SO admire what they have become. They have both married men who are perfect for them, and they are doing so well! Jenny is a nurse and is going to have a baby! Moe is doing elementary education, and we are going to be teachers together! And when all three of us are old and married with lots of grandkids, we are going to ditch all of them AND our husbands and go on roadtrips and to EVERY Dixie High School event, completely decked out in blue and white (we may even wear our old Color Guard warm up suits!), and be the loudest flyer supporters in the stands. And all the students will laugh at us and act annoyed, when really, they will want to be just like us when they are old. Me and Moe and Jenny will leave a legacy.
7. Sand Hollow Reservoir. We went to the lake one day. The water felt great, the sand was amazing, there a lot of plants in the water, and a lot of bugs. AND, some people randomly picked a spot on the beach VERY CLOSE TO US for no reason. The entire rest of the beach was completely empty, but a family complete with grandparents, like 4 couples, and probably 14 grandchilden camped right next to us. We were annoyed. But the best part of the day was the sun. I got so much sun! And I did get a little burnt, but mostly, I just got tan. I will swear, forever, that the sun in St. George tans better than the sun in any other part of the world. It's a verified fact, not an observation.
8. The end of my Washington classes. I spent WAY TOO MUCH time in the Washington County library. I had TWO papers to write- one 5-7er, and one 15-18 pager. Lame-o. I hated almost every second of it. Except, I got a little bit into the research paper, and then I got excited. Sometimes writing papers make me a little excited. But I still don't like it, okay? So I wrote about the 1968 Riots in Washington, D.C. And I spent A LOT of time on it. But it still probably was not enough. But it's done, and when research papers are done and turned it, one finds a very happy Audrey.
9. Mom's school. I helped my mom get her classroom ready, and then I came with my Dad to help do testing. I loved her students. It almost makes me want to be an elementary school teacher.
10. Celina. She is staying with us! YAY!
11. Cafe Rio. Our reunion could not have been sweeter.
12. Me and Andrew had a sleepover. The whole family was gone, so I made Andrew keep me company. In a remarkable gesture, he agreed to hang out with me for a night instead of hanging out with Mallory! We went to DQ and then sat to watch a movie. We were both falling asleep, though, so we went up to bed. We slept on Mom and Dad's bed because it was the only place that we would both have a bed. We proceeded to talk for hours and hours and hours. Until about 3:30 or 4 in the morning. It was SO great. I can't remember the last time that we talked like that. And I doubt that we will ever have that opportunity again. He is getting married in less than 2 months-- which I am excited about. I love Mallory, and I know he is really happy. I love my brother so much.
13. Elise moved to Weber State! She is officially on her own, and I am SO excited for her!! We had a lot of sleepovers too. I love hanging out with Elise, and when she left a couple of days before I did, I walked around the house wishing she were there. I missed her.
14. Stephanie came down for Moriah's birthday. My sugar doll turned 14, which is CRAZY.

And then, my 14 days of summer ended, and I packed up and drove to Provo.

Welcome to Audrey's life as a spontaneous person!

I never ever do anything that is against the plan. I always have a plan. And it stresses me out when, for some reason, I cannot follow the plan. Every night when I go to bed, I make a plan in my head, and very rarely will I alter the plan.

However, this weekend, I did something SO against the plan! And it turned out great! The plan was to go home President's Day weekend. It made perfect sense to go home when I had three days to be home instead of two. It made perfect sense to go home when I would be able to hang out with Keith, my friend from high school who just came home from his mission, instead of just going to his homecoming. It also made perfect sense to go home with Rachelle so that we could split gas. BUT, I did not do what made sense, and I did not follow the plan! I went home this weekend instead. I don't know what came over me, I just wanted to go home! It was weird. I called and told my mom, and she was very worried. She kept asking me what was wrong because, like she said, "it's just so unlike you, Audrey." Even my Dad called to make sure I was okay. At least I know they care. :)

I was scheduled to work on Friday night, but two hours before my shift started I called around and got someone to work for me. I was packed and out of Provo within a half an hour. My roommates didn't even know I was leaving! I just disappeared! Isn't that great?

And I had such a good weekend! St. George is seriously SO therapeutic. It was amazing. I slept in and caught up on American Idol (I made sure everything was recorded for me), scrapbooked at Pebbles for a while, had dinner with Moe, and played Scrabble with my family. And then, on Sunday, Me, Moe, Anisa, and Rachelle went to Keith's homecoming! It was like a high school drama people reunion. Great! I love those guys. The pictures were taken at Keith's house after the homecoming.

All in all, I did something spontaneous this weekend. It was very unusual for me, but I think it might start happening more often. Yay for being spontaneous, yay for Keith, and yay for Moe! (just because I love her so much).

More Christmas...

I forgot about these pictures and I decided that they were too good to pass up! I always like to post pictures of my family because they are so adorable and I just love them SO much! I also had to post a picture of my besties in St. George. They are too too awesome, and I want them to know how much I love and adore them. Moe and Jen are the best friends a girl could ask for, even if they ditch you for a husband. I understand. Okay fine, I don't really understand, but I'm good at pretending that I understand. And pretending will have to do until I get a husband and actually understand. But anyway, I love you guys.

The pictures of my family are from Christmas Eve. It is tradition to get new pajamas, put them on, and then all pile in the van that we are too big for and drive around looking at Christmas lights and singing the "Candy Free Christmas Tree" song. It is, by far, the best Christmas song ever.


I didn't even put a list in this post! Yay me!

The Holidays in the St.G

Nicole, Stephanie, Grandma Colleen, Me, Elise (at the family Christmas Party)

Me and Dax in the center, Elise and Heeather are off to the sides.

Moriah and Andrew. I promise, Andrew really does know how to smile. And Moriah is being a reindeer at the moment. It was a game. She doesn't wear that all the time.

Elise, Daxton, and Me. Daxton was the reindeer on our team- and he did it grudgingly.

Katie Barber, Me, Danielle Wolverton, and Rachelle on New Year's Eve. Those bottles are Martinelli's, promise.

Best things about Christmas and New Years:
1) Family Christmas party and the Reindeer Game.
2) Sleeping in my own bed.
3) Having a bathroom counter that actually fits things.
4) Singing the "Candy Free, Christmas Tree" song on Christmas Eve.
5) Christmas Adam and Christmas Carol.
6) Pretending that we went to several New Year's Eve parties with our other pretend friends.
7) Treating New Year's Eve like not a big deal.
8) Eating Grandma Colleen's peanut brittle. Sorry Andrew, I know you didn't get any. :(
9) Sleeping in EVERY DAY.
10) Going to High School Musical 3 at Flood Street with ALL of my siblings. It was highly enjoyable, and we developed two new lines for our family vocabulary: 1) If you are describing some attractive boy to someone else, but he is less attractive than Zac Efron, you say, "Well, he's no Troy Bolton, but..." Note: This is the situation in most descriptions of attractive boys. 2) "Slow down, Lebron!" Andrew practically fell off his chair when Troy said it to Chad.
11) Going to Pizza Factory and Dairy Queen with Moe and Jen. It was SO GOOD to hang out with them. So refreshing. I love those guys.
12) Um, Presents, duh!
13) My Mom's lasagna.
14) Christmas cinnamon rolls.
15) Staying up and watching TV with Elise every night.
16) NOT worrying about school.
17) Being in St. George- not wearing a jacket some days, hiking in Snow Canyon, sitting on the Sugarloaf, driving around St.G, etc. I just love St. George.
18) The excursion Rachelle and I made to look at the stars and drink hot cocoa. The stars part didn't work out too well, but the hot cocoa did!

Thanksgiving!

My Favorite Things about Thanksgiving this year:
1) Being home with just my family

2) My cheeseball. It's pretty much my new favorite food.

3) Our 5 baby bunnies. My favorite one has red, white, and gray fur. His name is T-Gray, cause it's kind of gray, but is also striped like a tiger.

4) My brother's new car.

5) The swing my dad built on our tree. We finally got it hung on the branch on Saturday.

6) The leaf marks that the falling leaves and rain left on my car. They are going to be a pain to wash off, but right now it looks AWESOME!

7) Helping my mom in her classroom and reading the kids' stories about turkeys.
8) Low gas prices!!! I filled up in St.G for $21.00! It was only $1.54 a gallon. AMAZING!

9) Watching music videos on VH1 every morning. I LOVE music videos. My new favorites are Pink's "So What," and Katy Perry's "Hot N Cold." They are both hilarious.
10) The St. George sun. I loved the warm weather. I loved driving down the street with the windows down and the sunroof open. And PS, if you've never driven around in St.G, you don't know what you're missing. The streets are wide, clean, and peaceful. It's just the best place ever. I love St. George.

A Tribute To My Missionaries

Yes, I have two missionaries now. Two at a time! And they inspire me. I love my Vanessa and Kennedy, and I'm going to miss them like crazy. But I'm so proud of them! They are just such amazing girls! They are doing such a scary thing, but if they can do it, then I can too! That's the plan: Washington this summer, and then a mission in the fall. It's weird to think that I won't be going back to school this year, and I'm not sure that I'll get over it. I mean, school IS MY LIFE! It will be very odd, that's for sure.

Anyway, aren't my missionaries gorgeous? They are. Vanessa is the one in the top picture, and I must admit, it's odd for her to be wearing glasses. She never did before. Apparently her eyes are no longer superior to me and Braidy's. Kennedy is the one in the second picture. She just got Lasik, so now she doesn't have to wear glasses!

Kennedy is going to the San Pablo Philippines mission- she left yesterday.
Vanessa is going to Malaga Spain, and she left last Wednesday.
Soon we'll be able to say that I'm going somewhere cool. Oh please let it be cool! And historic! I do love history.

And PS, I went shopping with Kennedy for missionary clothes, and we went to the Sister Missionary Mall. There is only one word to describe the clothes at that store: UGLY.
The end.