Lori's Blog

New Email=New Blog

2010-05-27T10:55:00.000-07:00

So, rather than having to sign in and out any time I switch from checking emails to checking blogs, I made a new blog with my new email address. Here's the link: Lori's New Blog!

Another Quick Update

2010-05-07T18:11:00.000-07:00

The financial aid finally posted!

I've been offered $6,400 in grants (on top of my $9,000 scholarship), and Justin was offered $6,900 in grants. So, for grants, together we were offered $13,300. Add on my scholarship: $22,300. All that we don't have to give back. We might take some out in the subsidized loans too (we were offered another 10,000-ish there, we probably won't take all of that out though), so we should have a lot easier of a year next year! Lower rent, and lots of free money from the government and ASU. They are giving us free money because we are students, and we're poor. Awesome.
Just wanted to let y'all know! :-)

Quick Post

2010-05-06T18:12:00.001-07:00

To say that I got the writing tutor job! :)
"We are pleased to inform you that you have been selected as a writing tutor in ASU’s Tempe Writing Center. We had many qualified applicants for Fall 2010, and as we strive to provide an exemplary service to students at ASU, we continue to raise our standards for writing tutors. You have demonstrated the skills and qualifications necessary to meet those standards."
Hooray! Just wanted to let you all know, because I'm SUPER excited!!!

An eventful two weeks

2010-05-01T07:37:00.000-07:00

So, the next two weeks of my life will be very busy and exciting.
We have decided to move into the apartments on this side of town, because the ones in Glendale are very expensive, and we figured out it would be cheaper to have my husband commute every day than to pay the short term lease. Lots of other things were factored into the decision, but that was a big one. Being close to family and the temple will be nice too :)
We'll be moving pretty much right after finals, on the 15th, Justin will be starting his new job two days before that. Somehow I have to find time to pack amidst all the finals studying and last minute school projects. Wish me luck.
In addition to that, we'll find out right around mid-May what financial aid we'll be getting for next semester. Hopefully lots of grants!
ALSO around that time, I'll find out if I got the writing tutor job I applied for. I really hope I get it, because it would be a great transition from where I am now, it's close to what I actually want to do with my life (be an editor), it has flexible hours, I wouldn't have to drive from home to work to school to home every day, and I would actually really enjoy going to work. Keep your fingers crossed for me. Oh! And it would put me working in circles with a lot of the English department faculty, which might help me with getting a foot into the editing world. All in all, it would be a great opportunity.
So, if I don't blog in the next two weeks, that is why. I'll be crazy busy. BUT I will definitely blog with updates when I find out about financial aid and the job.
My aunt Randi Sue just did a contest on her blog, and it has me thinking - that would be really fun! I don't have time right now, but be looking out for one some time over the summer :)

Summer Time

2010-04-19T18:17:00.000-07:00

So, I finally know where I'll be for the summer! Mostly.
Justin got the job, he'll be working for Blue Sky Pest Control, selling pest control services door to door. It will be hard, and highly commission based, but there's the potential for a lot of money by the end of the semester. We both feel really good about it, so we're excited to see how that pans out. We'll be moving to North Phoenix/Glendale area. The company suggests an apartment complex for us, but it's pretty pricey, and they only reimburse about 70% of the cost of the rent there, so we've been looking around at other options. It's hard to find places that are not too expensive, but still nice, and have a 3 month lease option. We've found a few online that we want to look at, so we'll probably spend a day up there scouting things out.
We also want to see if we can find me a job while we're up there. It would be hard to commute several days a week, especially to a job I'm not all that fond of. So, we're hoping to find me something up there, probably just part time, just enough to keep me busy and bring in a little extra income.
Another exciting thing: I applied to be a writing tutor for fall semester through ASU, and on the application they said they'd only contact me if they wanted to set up an interview. Well, guess who has an interview scheduled for this Wednesday? It's only 50 cents less an hour in pay than I'm making now, I wouldn't have to drive from our apartment to work, then to school, then home every day, it would all be at ASU, and I think I'd like it a lot more. So, hopefully that goes well.
Things have been pretty exciting around here. Hopefully everything turns out as great as we want it to. We just have to make it through the end of the semester, finals, and packing.
Thanks for reading!

An uneventful month

2010-04-10T11:04:00.000-07:00

My life is very consistent:
Sunday: church
Monday: school and homework
Tuesday: work and homework
Wednesday: school, homework, mutual
Thursday: work and homework
Friday: school, sometimes work, and either laundry or free evening with my hubby
Saturday: laundry (if not done friday), school work, house work, grocery shopping.

Then I start all over again. That's why I haven't blogged in a while. What is there to blog about?
Conference was really great. I definitely felt uplifted, and it was a good boost, just what I needed. I didn't really feel like a lot of the talks related directly to me right now (major theme, as I'm sure most people noticed, was parents raising kids, family family family. I have a very small family, and I'm sure those talks will be useful when I am raising kids, but right now, I'm more focused on other things). But the talks were still really good, and even if I didn't take direct messages from each and every talk, the spirit that was felt that weekend was a great buoy to my spirit.
This past week and going into next week is crazy for me. Wednesday I had a test in my musicals class, Friday a test in English and in History, Monday I'll have one in my Religions class, and Wednesday I'll have a French test. Out of my five classes, I have a test in every class between last Wednesday and next Wednesday. But, once next Wednesday is over, I don't have much between that and finals. One paper (somehow I only have one paper to write this semester... so much for English majors having to write a lot!), one homework assignment in English, and one French composition. That's all I have between next week and finals, a good two to three weeks of school.
Justin and I will be moving in May. Not sure where to yet... Justin might be getting a job in North Phoenix over summer, selling pest control. Apparently he could make up to $19,000 over the summer (which is right around what we made combined for the total of last year). It's highly based on commission, but from the info he's been given, he will likely make at least 10,000. He found it through RMJobs, so it's a reputable company, and Ashley even said she knew someone in her old ward who worked for the company. If he does get that job, I'm not sure what I'll do with myself. I would still work probably two days a week, to keep my job, but not more than that, because holy cow that's a long drive. So, I'd have lots of time to craft and write and read and finish his Christmas stocking! And probably get mindlessly bored. We'll see.
That's pretty much all that's going on over here, I've got some cupcakes cooking in the oven (see post below this, finally trying them in cupcake form), I'll post pictures later if I remember to take any.

Recent Accomplishments

2010-03-13T21:02:00.000-08:00

For my niece's birthday, I was told she wanted a journal with her name on it. I can do that! Mod Podge makes that a very doable, very affordable gift. Plus I just really enjoy covering comp books with fun paper :)

This one turned out VERY cute though - one of my best, I'd say.

But I couldn't giver her JUST a journal - the journal itself cost me nothing, I already had everything on hand.

So I made fun flower pens to go with it!

I also made monkey bread for my birthday, and attempt number one was definitely delicious.
Tonight, we had some couples over (finally, after postponing from getting sick :P). It was really fun! We had three other couples over, and now our house is really clean. That's really one of my favorite parts of inviting people over. It results in a clean home.
I was originally going to make symphony brownies for dessert. Then I stumbled across this recipe:

And my first thought was: that would be REALLY good with a chocolate base. After looking the recipe over, I also changed the fudge layer from store-bought ice cream sundae fudge sauce to ganache (less expensive!). Mine didn't quite thicken up like I wanted it to, but it was still REALLY yummy.

And instead of Ande's mints on top, I used crushed up grasshopper cookies (essentially the Keebler version of thin mints).

I think next time I'm going to make it into cupcakes. I'll use a thicker ganache, and pipe the cool whip on, then garnish with a cookie!

The taste, on the other hand, was perfect. I wouldn't change a thing.

Trial Number 1

2010-02-21T13:34:00.000-08:00

So, here's attempt number one at being outgoing. My fantastic, supportive hubby helped me do it :)
We invited a few couples over to our house for Friday night. We bought a big lasagna a while ago because it was on super sale, and we'd have leftovers for a month if we ate it just the two of us, so we'll be eating that, with some other stuff, and have super yummy symphony brownies for dessert (brownies with a layer of symphony bar chocolate in the middle - I'll probably do either a ganache topping or just powdered sugar, depending on time), and then we'll play games after! I'm excited. And I have friday off of work - no idea why - so I'll be done with classes at 12:40, and have the afternoon to clean and prep. Hopefully it goes well.
When planning this, we realized there are a lot of couples in the ward... too many for one night. So, we're planning another such night for sometime in March.
Phase number two will be tomorrow - sitting by people at lunch, instead of upstairs where it's safe. Wish me luck!

Becoming Outgoing

2010-02-18T18:18:00.000-08:00

Some people may see that and think, "What? Lori is one of the most outgoing people I know!" Sorry Mom, I used to be, but I'm not so much anymore.
But that is going to change. I've decided I want to be outgoing again. I'm tired of hiding upstairs at institute and eating alone (except Mondays, I eat with Anna on Mondays :-D ). I was reading Justin's textbook (don't judge, you know you read your spouses textbooks too... okay maybe not, but it's really interesting!), and it was talking about networking, and how you need to create a network before you need it. And I realized, if I was more outgoing, that would help Justin's network too! And then I might have friends who are in a similar situation as me!
The only thing is, I've become quite accustomed to living my own little life, enjoying my lunch upstairs alone. So I need some help on ideas of how to become less chicken. :)
My first plan is to just find someone to sit by for lunch. Easy enough, right? Hopefully. But how else can I make more friends? There are a bunch of fun couples in my ward who are in the same boat as me, fairly newly married, no kids. How to I become friends with them?
Any suggestions are appreciated. Also, I need you to follow up and make sure I actually do something this time. Comment, email, pester me and make sure I'm networking! Or making friends, or whatever you want to call it. Either way, I want to have people I can invite over to my place for fun game nights and such.
Thanks for reading!

Happy Happy Birthday, From Myself to Me!

2010-02-16T06:21:00.000-08:00

So, it's the first day in a while that I have nothing pressing, so I'll blog!
Today is my birthday, I'm finally no longer a teenager.
I'm excited to eat monkey bread, not go to work, go shopping, and spend an entire day with the man I love. Today is going to be awesome. Much better than last year, when I only saw Justin for 20 minutes (he happened to have an accounting test that evening. Who gives tests at 6:00 at night?)
So, life has been busy. Being in Young Women's is really fun, but definitely keeps me busy. And concerned. I always believed my leaders when they told me they loved me and wanted me to be happy, blah blah, but now that I feel it, man, I didn't have any idea. It's weird, I see these girls a few hours a week, I've only known them a few months, but I really do love them and really want them to make good choices so they can get to the temple.
School has been fairly light for me (I think it's to make up for the fact that Justin is having a really tough semester). It's strange because I'm taking more credits, and more upper level classes, than last semester, but it's way easier.
Sunday was Chinese New Year, and we were invited to celebrate with a family from Justin's old ward. It was really fun, we had a nice Chinese dinner and then just talked. They are a fun family, 7 kids, the dad went to Taiwan on his mission too, so he and Justin had fun talking, asking if they remembered this or that. The kids were so funny too, one of them was telling me I could keep the chopsticks (they were the disposable kind), they were surprisingly well maintained for there being seven. It was really fun though.
Well, I need to go check on my monkey bread, so have a great day, everyone! I certainly will!

Crafting

2010-01-17T20:26:00.000-08:00

For Christmas this year I did a lot of home-made gifts. And now I am finally getting around to showing all of you!
For Dustin and Sarah, I made an ornament wreath (I stole the idea from Ashley, she's got lots to spare though.)

Theirs was actually slightly different, it had gold instead of silver, and a red bow, but you get the idea. This is the one I made for my own home.
For Benjamin and Curtis:

A lot of it was tracing, but pretty much everything I modified from the picture. The race track, garage, park and house were free hand, no tracing. Justin did a lot of coloring in the roads. He's so great :)
For Abigail:

For whatever reason I didn't take a normal picture of the tutu, I just took a crazy one of it on my head as a hat. At least I'm making a normal face in this one. I wish I had gotten a picture of Abigail wearing it though.
For Justin:

I bought the paper lantern at Michaels (on sale!) and wrote our name in Chinese. I think it turned out pretty good :) Plus look at those gorgeous books behind it... I'm such a nerd. (By the way, if you're wondering, from left to right, they are the complete works of: Douglas Adams [Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series], Lewis Carroll [Alice's Adventures in Wonderland] and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle [Sherlock Holmes]).
One of my coworkers just recently turned 66 (she's awesome), and we decided to celebrate. Someone brought in decorations, someone cookies, and I brought these cupcakes:

There's a reason for the ducks.

Our company recently got new insurance, and so they were giving away these Aflac stuffed ducks. They only gave out like three, and Phylis (the one who turned 66) got one of them. I would constantly talk about how cute it was, and it has now become the official duck of scheduling. We dress it up for the holidays (it's been a turkey, Santa Claus, a partier [for new years], and will soon be cupid). So, duck cupcakes! I think they turned out really cute! Ashley is the one who suggested how to do the ducks. I didn't have a cookie cutter that would fit on one cupcake, and there is no way I'm going to try to free-hand that. So it's a mosaic affect!
That's what's been keeping me busy lately.
And, as always, thanks for reading!
(P.S. I just posted two in a row, because I had a lot to blog about, so there's another new one just below this)

A weekend of giving

2010-01-17T20:12:00.000-08:00

And receiving. Mostly receiving on my end.
My husband had a camp out this weekend, so we spent our first night apart since getting married. It almost killed me.
To keep from thinking about it too much, I invited myself over for a sleepover at Kristi's - I figured, it would make things more bearable for me, and I think Jenny had a blast :)
As I was heading out to go to Kerry's baby shower, Kristi says to me, "Oh, by the way, there's a grill in the garage if you want. It's our old George Forman one, we upgraded recently, but it still works great. Has detachable plates for washing and everything."
I just looked over at her and said, "Really?"
What she didn't know was that I had been planning on asking for one for my birthday. I think my stunned reaction made her think I didn't want it, because she kind of excused herself, saying "you don't have to take it if you don't want it."
Needless to say, I took it, with much gratitude. :) I've been aching for a home-grilled hamburger for months.
So, trying to think of something else to pad my birthday list...
Justin and I have been talking about how when we move to a bigger apartment it would be really nice to get a desk. Then just this past week, we've been thinking maybe we should get one sooner than that. We have a wall in our bedroom that would fit a small desk, and it would be really useful.
So we were talking to Justin's mom about how we were looking for a desk, and I was planning on maybe asking for one for my birthday, she says, "well, if it would fit, the one in Justin's old room doesn't get used very often." Justin's sister and brother still living at home both have desks in their rooms, so the only one really using it was Travis when he would come home from the dorms. Yeah, it didn't get used very often.
So we all troop into the room to take a look at it, and it definitely is small enough. Justin leans over to me and says "You know, I bet that would fit in the Explorer right now."
So, ta da! We now have a desk. Family rocks.

Justin setting everything up

Hard at work

So, it's been a pretty good weekend. Other than the whole camping trip thing. But all the free stuff is awesome. Thanks everyone! The desk fits perfectly, and I can't wait to use the grill.

New Years Celebrations

2010-01-02T08:00:00.000-08:00

What did I do for New Years?
I slept.
Justin and I went over to my parents and played wii games and made yummy hot chocolate things and then watched tv with Ashley and Zach, and Ashley fell asleep first, then I did, then Zach did. Somehow Justin stayed awake. Probably has to do with the fact that all growing up he rarely went to bed before midnight. That was an adjustment for him when we got married, me going to bed at nine :)
Justin woke us up (well, he tried to wake up Ashley but she was too disinterested and tired to actually wake up), and we did the countdown thing. Then I went back to sleep.
We're finally getting over the sickness that has been lurking in our home for the past week. It's been nice to have the energy to do things outside. I was getting really stir crazy.
I used to get really into making new years resolutions, and every now and then would actually keep some.
This year, my main goal is to make dinners that actually have nutritional value instead of just fast and easy (not every night, but get some fruits and veggies in there several times a week), and to keep my house in a state that is, if not up to my standards of clean, at least not embarrassing if someone stops by. Wish me luck, neither will be easy with as sparse as time can be at my house.

Hope everyone had a great new year!

6 Wonderful Months

2009-11-30T18:21:00.000-08:00

Today marks six months that I have been married to the man of my dreams.

We celebrated by having a nice dinner - turkey potato casserole, goat cheese with crackers, rolls with honey-butter, and some cheesecake for dessert. (we're poor and couldn't afford a $20 meal at Chili's - this meal cost a total of $2 for the Goat's cheese, everything else was leftovers or we bought on sale a while ago)
It's been a really amazing six months. Very stressful, but definitely worth it. Justin makes me happier than I ever imagined I could be. The past few days have been tough as we've been looking at our diminishing budget, and I've been looking at my not-so-diminishing load of homework. But somehow everyday Justin makes it better. He sends me a text telling me how beautiful I am, he washed my car while I'm out shopping with his mother and sister, he buys me goat's cheese, he cleans the kitchen. He's so selfless, and sometimes I wish I knew how he does it. He has such an amazing testimony, and works so hard to provide for our little family and make sure we are comfortable.

I don't know what I'd do without him. He is exactly everything I've ever hoped for, and knows how to make me feel happier than ever before. I'm so happy that I get to spend eternity with him - these six months seem to have flown by, and I'm glad I don't have to worry about running out of time with him. Yay for temple marriage :)

Wreath!

2009-11-19T21:02:00.000-08:00

So, I decorated a wreath tonight. I have never done anything like that before, I had no idea what I was doing. I mostly just stuck stuff where it looked good and then glued it in place :)

I think it turned out pretty cute! I am especially proud of the bow :)

Also, I got a hair cut!

Special thanks to Ashley, my hair stylist.

Christmas is in the air!

2009-11-14T19:23:00.000-08:00

I love the holiday season. Justin and I went shopping on Monday to Michaels and bought a tree! We're going to have a fake one while we're in a tiny apartment, so it's waiting for Thanksgiving to come and go so that it can come out of the storage closet! We also got some cute candy dishes, a wreath to decorate, and some other fun stuff. Today we went shopping again for birthdays, and we looked around Michaels again (I'm weak, what can I say? Plus when my husband enjoys looking at all the Christmas stuff as much as me, it's impossible to resist!), and got some cute ribbon and a cornucopia. I'm really getting excited to decorate our apartment! I'll take pictures when everything is up and post them :)

Pictures!

2009-10-31T13:19:00.000-07:00

So, I had about 125 pictures on my camera, so I'm going to share some with you all. :)

All Quiet on the Blogging Front

2009-10-27T09:29:00.000-07:00

Hello world of blogging. I'm still alive, my husband is still alive, no need to worry about us.

So I just looked and my last blog was over a month ago... oops! Life gets crazy, and I expect November to be equally or more crazy. So if you don't hear from me until December, it's just because of all the craziness.

One exciting thing that happened recently - the young women's leadership in my ward is full! Until two weeks ago, there was a President, 1st Counselor, 2nd Counselor, and Laurel advisor. So the 2nd counselor and I were both teaching every week and doing all the counselor stuff. But we now have a miamaid and beehive advisor, so I won't have to teach very often! I enjoy teaching, don't get me wrong, but with as busy as I am at school and work and home, it will be nice to be able to enjoy Sunday mornings, and get to church early instead of pushing it to be on time. I'm very excited for this.

Also - National Novel Writing Month quickly approaches. For the past two Novembers, I dedicated my spare time to working toward the goal of writing a 50,000 + novel in 30 days. Failed the first time, but got in the 60,000's last year. This year, I'm taking a slightly different approach. I'm going to attempt it, but I know that it would be quite a feat to succeed. So, with that in mind, I'm going to write a crazy super silly story, that will just be my way of escaping into writing, and I won't worry about the 50,000 word goal. If I get it, awesome. If not, well, I'm not expecting to, so there you go.

Life at home is awesome. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband. A week or so ago I got whatever Ashley had, and I got it bad. I could barely go to the effort of showering without being exhausted, for four days. And my amazing man kept the house from falling apart, cooked me meals (well, mostly just heated up meals or made sandwiches, but it was still appreciated), helped cool me down when I had a fever, and was just overall a wonderful guy.

His mother was also incredible. Any time one of us gets sick, we joke that we should call Mom C to see if she just happens to be making her minestrone soup. Justin called the first day I was sick, and she wasn't making any for that night, but while the kids were at mutual, she put it together, along with a salad, bread, and peach cobbler, and brought it over. I'm so lucky to have found a wonderful, selfless husband, but to have a wonderful family of in-laws, what did I do to get so lucky?

Anyway, not much has been going on in our lives except for school, work, laundry, the usual. We're going to carve a pumpkin on saturday, so I'll try to get pictures up. Thanks for reading, and I'll try to not go so long between blogs!

Thief!

2009-09-23T17:28:00.000-07:00

I'm stealing from Lindsay.

I have to say, her choice of username really threw me off. For most of my life I used lmaroney as a username, and couldn't figure out why she was doing one for me... anyway, here's my own. It's called... something weird. But you click on the linky-doo, and click on a couple of attributes you think I have, and then we can all see what I think I am like, and what you think I am like, and how it compares. It's pretty neat.

http://kevan.org/johari?name=lclement

Day off

2009-09-17T13:37:00.000-07:00

So on thursdays, I have one less class than on Tuesdays, at that class happens to be the last class of the day. So I always get off early. WELL, today by last class on thursday got cancelled! So I have a whole afternoon to avoid doing homework! I mean... umm...

Anyway, I'm going to post a random picture, just for the heck of it. I even changed the list view so all I could see was numbers... Jenny blowing bubbles for Maddie Me kissing my handsome husband Justin in the middle of dipping me
The only weird one really is the last one, since it's right in the middle. Okay, so I cheated a little by only picking ones from my wedding. Still fun :)
I really should get to work on my homework now. Thanks for reading!

Best Time to Blog

2009-09-08T16:55:00.000-07:00

I've decided the best time to blog is when you don't want to do something else. Take, for example, me blogging right now, instead of starting my short story. Last time I blogged (admittedly a while ago) I should have been working on a lesson for young women's. I'm sure I'm not the only one, just an odd observation.
Three day weekends are wonderful. Yesterday, Justin and I went and saw Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I'd rate it the same as all Harry Potter movies: good, but didn't do the book justice. And amazingly, it's still in theatres! At the Hollywood theatres on Gilbert and Warner, if you see the first showing of the day, it's only five dollars per ticket, so we saw it for a combined ten dollars. Awesome. I can afford that, if you consider how often we see movies in the theatre... last one was Monsters Vs. Aliens. It came out in the end of March.
We also had the opportunity of eating crepes yesterday, which was great! Justin's family has a tradition of having crepes for dinner on fast sundays, but for various reasons, we haven't been able to have them since June :( So we talked to Justin's mom, who was kind enough to move crepes to monday this month, since we celebrated Cliff's birthday on sunday. Yay for yummy crepes!
That's all for now, if anyone has any good ideas for a science fiction or fantasy short story, feel free to let me know, I've got nothing.
Thanks for reading!

Happy Birthday To You!

2009-08-24T19:39:00.000-07:00

Leaning Tower of Tim Tams... except not leaning.

First we drink...

Then we SLAM!

For Justin's birthday, we celebrated by eating a super delicious dinner at YC's Mongolian Grill. His birthday present didn't arrive until today, so all he got from me on Saturday was his silly gift (a salt and pepper shaker glued together, kind of an inside joke), but today, his gift arrived!

Tim Tams!

They are these chocolate cookie biscuit things that they have in Taiwan, and they do this thing called a Tim Tam Slam.

Pumping Iron

2009-08-10T07:29:00.000-07:00

Today I have the day off, so I took the opportunity while Justin is at work to steal a ride on his bike! Wow, it's definitely not set for me. The seat is about two inches too high, and it's angled up, which is awkward for a girl. I don't know if that's comfy for a guy, but it definitely wasn't for me! I felt really silly trying to get on it at first, it was too high! Finally I got on though, and took about a 20 minute ride. Which doesn't seem like much, but it's warm, and I went in this really cute quaint area near the apartment complex that has a bunch of ups and downs, so that was a good workout :)

Last week was pretty uneventful. We had stake conference saturday and sunday, and I think that was the first time I've ever actually really enjoyed it. I've never hated it, or dreaded it, but I really enjoyed it yesterday, there were some really good talks! I may or may not have cried... several times.

This week should be a nice break from the norm, as I have today off, wednesday I'm just working 10-2, and the other three days are just 8-5. Definitely NOT my normal schedule.

Also, we ordered our textbooks online recently, and slowly they've been trickling in. I have two books for my science fiction creative writing class, and I've already gotten both books for that class, and they're absolutely awesome! I was looking forward to the class before, but now I can't wait! One of them is just a collection of short stories (I've already read two... I got the book on friday, and haven't read it since saturday), and the other is called "The Truth About Fiction", and the first chapter is titled "Lying 101". Awesome! I started reading the latter, and after I finished the first chapter, I said to Justin, "You know, this book is very similiar to..." and I walked over to my bookcase and grabbed another book, "this one! Which I've read twice. Since I got it last november." :) I'm super excited for this class!!!

Cleaning Spree

2009-08-02T11:15:00.000-07:00

If you read my mom's blog, you'll know that Justin and I invited my mom, ashley, zach and madie over for dinner and games last night. What she didn't post, however, was that we spent all day getting everything organized and cleaned so they could come over.
I know our apartment is small, but it's amazing how much can accumulate if you let it! On friday night I got a kick to clean the bedroom, which had never really been organized as nicely as it could have been (and is now!). We had our laundry hamper just at the foot of our bed, and we had a laundry basket with random items of clothing that had never been hung up. Various things like that. We got home from Kristi and Cliff's around 11:30, and I didn't get in bed until around 12:30. I get the urge to clean at the most random times.
Then yesterday we worked on cleaning the rest of the apartment, and finally it looks really nice! We don't have random boxes in front of the bookshelf, and we don't have piles of paper all over the table anymore. July is over, and Justin had finished his little spreadsheet of expenses and all that, so we could get rid of all our receipts and such from July, which was very nice to be able to do. Hopefully we can keep the apartment from getting so cluttered, cross your fingers!
We also had the pleasure of ordering our textbooks. Bleh, so much money! I have quite the price range, one of my lit books for english we managed to get for 5 cents, but my french book will be 150 dollars! Ick! Hooray for amazon though, makes getting textbooks WAY cheaper.
That was my busy weekend, I think I'll go make rice krispie treats to eat after dinner tonight... sounds yummy!

Because apparenlty I fail for not blogging very often

2009-07-26T19:41:00.000-07:00

Lots of business going on lately. Not really too much to update on, my life has been filled with work, running the house, and my calling.
Work has been crazy, I was training all last week, so it was super boring, and the days just dragged on and on. This week, I get the pleasure of training again! But apparently it's someone who used to work there, so it should be easier and shorter. Hopefully.
Last week I ended up working 44 hours, which is a big jump from the 28 or so I'd been getting. Kind of hard to adjust. Justin's been super helpful though, he ended up making dinner twice last week, so I only had to cook on thursday really. He's also been taking care of some of the other things that need done, like getting insurance and such, unfortunately he's been pretty busy with that, so the house is still super messy. Hopefully at some point this week I can work on that. I'm only scheduled for like 38 hours, so... maybe?
My calling is taking up more time than I imagined it would. Between mutual every wednesday and preparing a lesson every sunday, I feel like there's always something to do. But, I don't have to prepare another lesson for three weeks (1st sunday is all the girls combined, 2nd is stake conference) so that will be a nice break.
Just wanted to let you all know why I haven't been blogging. I fell asleep at like 8:30 or 9:00 every night this past week, it's just so exhausting. Looking forward to school though, for a change in pace. I'll still be busy, but with more enjoyable tasks. I love learning!

Busy Busy Busy!

2009-07-16T07:51:00.000-07:00

This week has and will continue to be insanely busy.
For those of you who don't know, I got called to be over the young women. I'm a miamaid advisor. Yep, over girls I'm only four and five years older than. Yesterday I went to mutual (the presidency is missing a secretary, so they invite me to come to everything, right now there's just the president, two counselors, and me), and we were discussing plans and such, and the bishop walks in to talk to one of the girls who just had a birthday, and asks "Who's the new Laurel you have tonight?"
Why, that would be the one you called and set apart on Sunday. Yikes! That was pretty crazy. But I am a LOT closer to the Laurel's age than to the leaders...
Justin and I also got asked to sing in church on Sunday, a duet. I've never sung in church where people can distinctly make out my voice. I'm good at blending and being a strong lead for others to follow, but a duet? I'm a little nervous, but I think it will be okay.
Yesterday I finally got new tires on my car! Now I don't have to be afraid every time I drive to work that I'll be late because of a blow out! That's always nice to have peace of mind :)
This afternoon I get to go to the MVD (I'm only working 10-2, random I know), to get a new license with my new name. We tried to go on my day off last week, but we went right after going to Social Security, and apparently it takes 24 hours to go through the system. That would have been nice for SS to tell us before we waited in line at the MVD. D'oh!
Right now I'm trying to work on the lesson I'll be giving on Sunday, and, well, as you can see I've gotten distracted. I just felt bad that I haven't blogged in forever.
I'm also SUPER excited for the new Harry Potter movie! Can't wait to see it! My parents got me a shirt from their CA trip, it's from the Monterey Bay Aquarium, it has an otter with a lightning bolt scar and round glasses, and says "Hairy Otter" it's super cute!
Anyway, I should get back to my busy life. Thanks for reading!

Guess Who!

2009-06-25T16:26:00.001-07:00

Yep, Mrs. Lori Clement. First post as a married woman!
Sorry for the delay, by the way. It's been a crazy three weeks!
I'll try to be brief and yet descriptive in my narrative.
Las Vegas was AWESOME! I think at some later point when the apartment is more settled I'll do a post just of that, with pictures and all. We went to the M&M world factory, where they had a LOT of super fun stuff, we walked around the strip, ate a delicious burger at New York New York, had yummy crepes in Paris, it was awesome. AND we got to see Blue Man Group since we didn't have to pay for the hotel (thanks again Mom and Dad!), and it was DEFINITELY worth the cost of the tickets. Oh man, it was hilarious! If you ever get the opportunity to go, DO IT! Justin and I were cracking up the whole time, it was very family friendly, a small theatre so it was nice and personal, a great show.
That's all on Vegas for now, more later I promise.
The rest of the two weeks have been spent in an attempt to both work close to full time, and settle the apartment into a semblance of a livable situation. It's getting there, slowly but surely. The front room is pretty good, especially after I went through the ads today and threw out a bunch of excess papers. The kitchen is pretty well set up as well, since I use that room a LOT. :) The bathroom is nice as well, the main problems lie in the bedroom. Still a few boxes and such, no nightstands (although today I did concoct sort-of nightstands, made of boxes stacked and covered in a sheet!).
That's all I have time for today, I have to go get started on dinner, but I'll post again... eventually. I'd say soon, but realistically, it probably won't be soon. :)

Move in

2009-05-28T21:30:00.000-07:00

I am getting married in two days! Holy cow! I'm really excited!

We got the keys to our apartment on saturday so we could start moving stuff in, it was very exciting! And busy! Just thought I'd take a quick moment to post a few pics :) Here's the front room/family room

This is the dining areaThis is half of the kitchen. Yes, that's a kitchen aid :) Here's the other half of the kitchen.

That's the very empty bathroom.

Sink of the bathroom, to give an idea of how big it is :)

Here's the bedroom, with our California King size bed. We don't have a comfortor on there yet, but some ladies in Justin's ward made us a nice quilt that we'll use until we either get the comfortor or can buy it :)

This is the rest of the bedroom. Pretty empty right now, but as long as the man in the picture is there, I'm happy!

Tomorrow I have the day off work, I still need to get my room taken care of, get as much stuff gone as possible, and I need to get my nails done! Can't wait for saturday!!!

Teeth Extravaganza

2009-05-19T08:45:00.000-07:00

I totally remember loving these movies when I was little. Timmy the Tooth!

So, yesterday I had five teeth ripped violently from my head. It was an experience I hope never to repeat.

You may be reading that sentence and asking, five? I thought she said she has TWO extra teeth!
Well, we'll get to that, don't you worry.
So, I was lucky enough to have my fiance with me in the office. He could be in the room during the extraction, but he was there right up until I walked into the room, and he was there when I walked out to sit in the "rest" area. So that was nice.
They numbed me up, and it worked really fast! By the time they had finished the last shot, the first area was ready to be worked on! So they go in and remove the two teeth in the upper left area, then go down to the lower left, then they work on the right side. And they are digging around in the upper right area for the second tooth, and they can't find it. So they assume they read the x-ray wrong. So they finish up and send me into the rest area, where I sit for about five to ten minutes. Now, when the doctor was leaving the room, I almost said, wait, I thought the extra tooth was in the bottom right. But I figured, he's the doctor, and also I couldn't really talk. So I shrug my shoulders and leave the room. But then the doctors comes into the rest area and says, let me have another look at you.
Great! I was right. Go figure. So he's pushing around, and asks, is that tender? Well yeah, you had me sitting for like ten minutes before you figured it out, the numbess is wearing off. So he numbed me up again, and said he thought the tooth might be covered by a thin layer of bone. So he takes out his DRILL and is drilling away at my bone, and comes to the conclusion that what he saw on the x-ray is not actually a tooth, just a denser area of bone.
So, that was fun. Sure gave me a lot of faith in him as a dentist. Oh wait, no, no it didn't.
So then I spent yesterday bleeding a lot, eating ice cream, pudding, apple sauce, and mashed potatoes, and basically doing a whole lot of nothing. Still pretty sore today, and can't really open my mouth all the way. Plus I woke up with a sore throat. I'm not sure if that's related to the wisdom teeth being removed, or if I have the luck of getting sick on top of it, but either way it's not fun. I sound like a frog. The worst thing though is that it hurts to swallow, because it puts a bit of pressure on the areas where there are no teeth any more. And humans swallow a lot more than they realize, until they are made very much aware of each swallow. Not just food, but saliva, that's the worst part.
Well, I'll stop complaining now, just thought the lack of a six tooth story was interesting. Thanks for reading!

An Abundance of Teeth!

2009-05-06T20:35:00.000-07:00

So I went to a dentist appointment for a consult about getting my wisdom teeth removed, and they took the extra of my mouth, and the first thing the dentist says after looking at it is:

"You have some extra teeth."

Me: "What? As in, I have more than 32 teeth?"

Dentist: "Yep. Looks like you have some extra wisdom teeth growing in."

Beat.

So he lets me take a look, and sure enough, behind that third molar is another tooth! In two places! The average mouth can hold 28 teeth, which is why the four extra teeth (putting you at 32 teeth) have to be removed. But, lucky me, I have 34 teeth.

It's kind of cool, if you think about it, until you look at the bill, and see that those teeth are charged the same as the others. :(

Apparently it's pretty uncommon, but not SUPER rare. I always knew I was kind of strange, but now I have empirical evidence! At this rate though, soon I'll look like this:

Thanks for reading!

Driving Home

2009-05-03T00:05:00.000-07:00

So I was inspired by Lindsay's blog to write about something that I usually consider mundane. Although this particular instance wasn't exactly mundane, at least not in how I reacted.
On my way home from school yesterday, I was driving down Broadway (I don't take Apache to the freeway, what with all the lightrail stops now), and a bit ahead of me in my lane cars were slowing down, but only in my lane. So I slow down, and eventually come to a complete stop. As I wait for traffic to free up and the cars behind me to stop going around, I can see what's going on ahead of me. There's a truck with its hazards on. Just sitting in the far right lane. So eventually I manage to get around, and as I pass, I look in my mirror, and I see the whole fender just kind of shlumped off the car. Still attached, but only barely. Definitely more on the ground than on the car. And I can see a girl walking in the grass on her cell phone, looking very disheveled. And I think to myself, you know, some people stuck behind that truck were probably really annoyed at the delay. I mean, I was in line for a good little chunk of time. But I was just struck by the thought, I would so much rather be stuck in a line getting around a truck, than the girl driving the truck! And it made me grateful that I was waiting behind the truck, because it's better than having my car bumber-less.
And then again as I was exiting the freeway, the exit line was WAY backed up, to almost half way down the exit lane. So I get it, not knowing why it's backed up. And as I am nearing the light, I see a mom and a little girl, probably about six, sitting on the curb. And as I turn the corner, I see a tow truck and an unhappy car on it. And I have that thought again of, man, I'm glad I was in the line waiting, and not sitting on the curb with a six-year old daughter waiting for someone to come pick us up after having been in a car accident.
And then as I was thinking about this, I was thinking what I'd do if I were the mom. I can imagine the girl: "I'm BORED mommy!" What do you do? So I decided I would create a game, to count how many happy drivers you see go through each light. Because not many drivers are generally happy.
But I just thought I'd share that with you, my random thoughts of gratitude at having to get stuck in traffic. Because I'd rather be stuck in traffic than waiting on a curb with my six year old daughter for a tow truck.
Thanks for reading, and thanks to Lindsay for the inspiration!

Brief break in the crazy

2009-04-29T15:36:00.001-07:00

End of semester = busy.
This is the first day in about a week and a half (maybe two weeks, I can't recall) that I've been able to sit down and not do homework immediately when I get home! It's wonderful, and I'm enjoying it thoroughly. The rest of the week should be easy, just study for my french oral. Next week, however, right back into the crazy. Finals!
Wow, I can't believe next week is already finals! So close to being done... so... close.... Anyway, life has been great! We got all the invitations sent out, so for wedding plans, all that's left is the small details.
I don't really have anything exciting to talk about... life is great, but it mostly consists of school, work, homework, and spending time with Justin. Sorry I'm not more exciting.
Anyway, thanks for reading.

Selfish driving

2009-04-17T15:38:00.000-07:00

I've come to the conclusion that I quit BEDA, because it's not for me. I tried, I get props for that, right?
I've also come to the conclusion that I dislike selfish drivers. That's what I've decided to term them: selfish drivers. Those who drive with no thought for other drivers, only with their own destination and timeline in consideration, are selfish drivers. Those who cut in and out of traffic, those who whip around people with no thought, they bother me. What really bothers me is when a third lane is open just for the intersection, it widens just before, and then narrows right after, and people sit there, not caring about the people behind who are in the lane because they want to turn, they only care about getting a few cars ahead. Is it really worth it to get two cars ahead? I just don't understand, and in my mind, it's selfish.
Now that I've gotten that rant out of the way, this week has been pretty crazy. Today has been nice though, we had an institute fireside type thing (called friday forum) and a member of the quorum of the seventy came and spoke, it was really amazing.
That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Veggie Monster?

2009-04-13T22:41:00.000-07:00

So, they talked about turning cookie monster into veggie monster... is this what he'd look like?

My friend stumbled on this picture today, and I thought it was awesome. Mostly just working on invitations today, although I did get some socks that were on sale! Yay easter sales! Woot!

BEDA not so much for me

2009-04-12T23:12:00.000-07:00

I've realized that I don't like BEDA. I am not good at it. I am busy busy busy until Justin leaves (more often than not, later than my bedtime), and then I don't feel like blogging, I feel like going to bed.
Easter was great though. I love Easter, and I love what it represents. No, not the bunnies and eggs and chicks and pastel colors. I love that it represents the atonement and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
I also love the time it gives me to spend with family. Lots of fun activities, which kept me busy, but I loved it all, because I love spending time with my family. And, I'm very glad that I'm able to say this, I also love spending time with Justin's family. His family is so welcoming, and I really do enjoy the time we spend with them. Yay for having good in-laws!
That's all for tonight, because I'm worn out. Thanks for reading!

Six Minute Blog

2009-04-11T23:54:00.000-07:00

I only have six minutes before I miss another day. Better type fast.
Justin and I got approved for our apartment application! hooray! We'll be living in the Eastridge Apartments on Southern and McClintock. :) Yippee! Sometime soon we want to go measure stuff so we can start planning where everything will go.
Also, we got a bed! Frame, mattress, boxspring, headboard, everything for 400. The headboard/footboard/frame are all new, the mattress/boxspring are used, but still in good condition, and pillowtop!
Only 49 more days until the big day, and we continue to progress towards having everything ready. We picked a tux today, and found out a bit more about ordering a cake through Fry's. Didn't order it though. We apparently have to order it where we want to pick it up, so we'll have to go somewhere closer to Regency to order.
That's all for tonight. Thanks for reading!

Nothin' to talk about

2009-04-10T11:37:00.000-07:00

I can't think of anything to blog about today. My life is mundane and un-exciting. I'm pretty sure unexciting isn't a word, actually.

I had a french test today that I was worried about, but then it ended up not being so bad. Maybe because I spent three hours this morning studying for it... Anyway, I was the first one done, so I either went too fast, or knew the stuff. Hopefully the latter of the two.

Oh! Justin and I got a bed! On tuesday we got the mattress and box spring, and on Thursday we got the frame and headboard. I spent four hundred dollars this week! Intense. Plus gas. :P I hate buying gas. At least it was only $1.79! Woot! Apparently the average in the state of AZ yesterday (the day I filled up) was $1.928. I was way below! And one year ago, the average for AZ was $3.29. Blech! Glad we're not up there!

When in doubt, blog about gas. :D

So, I found out that I can no longer work on saturdays in the financial office, which is bad to find out when you are in need of money. I was able to talk to my supervisor though, and the week after next (they already have the schedule for next week) they're going to train me for front office, so I can work in one of the offices on some saturdays. It's good that they are willing to help me get more hours.

We also got cubicles when we moved into the new office, and at first I didn't like this idea, but now that I've worked in them, I actually like my little 4X4. We can decorate it, and there's a window behind my desk. I brought in a mirror so I could see who wanted to talk to me (because someone left me a post-it note while I was on a call, and I didn't know who it was, so I didn't know who to tell that I had scheduled the appointment), and conveniently it also gives me a nice view of the window! Mine is the only cubicle with a view of trees :) Plus I put up pictures of my nieces and nephews, and of the temple, and of my fiance, and of the periodic table of elements... what? I'm not a nerd!

So apparently I actually do have stuff to blog about. Thanks for reading!

Killer Spider Squirrel?

2009-04-08T20:28:00.000-07:00

So, I'm tired (I woke up at four, and got about five hours of sleep total, split up, I woke up at midnight to work on homework), and don't feel like actually blogging.

I'll just say, I got to see Katie and Madie today, which was a pleasure, and actually got to spend time talking to both Kristi and Ashley, which was also nice. It's not often that I get to talk to them without interruptions, and I really do enjoy when I get the chance.

Justin is sick, which is why I'm home at 8:30. :( Poor guy. I told him I could stay there if he wanted me to, or go home so he could get sleep. We watched until the end of the basketball game, then did our scripture study, then I left. Hope he's better tomorrow.

Anyway, to fill up and make me not feel bad about the tiny blog post, I googled the most random phrase I could think of (killer squirrel. Actually not so random if you follow the vlogbrothers, but anyway), and found this rather interesting picture. Just thought I'd share it with y'all.

Skookie time!

2009-04-06T20:25:00.000-07:00

As promised, pictures of a delicious skookie!
Don't eat it yet!
Justin enjoying the skookie

I don't want to sound all prideful and like I'm bragging, but that was one of the best skookies I've ever had. The first one I made wasn't as good, I wasn't sure how much dough to put in the pan, or how long to cook it. The second one (as pictured) was much better, it filled the whole pan, and cooked nice and evenly. Mmm, it was delicious.

Today, that was pretty much the highlight. Not much else has occured. French class was cancelled, so our test, which was going to be on Wednesday, is postponed to Friday. Woohoo!

Math I had a test, and it's my first real class of the day (I have insitute first, that's a different category of class), and as I reached in to my backpack to pull out my calculator, I realized, oops, my pencil pouch is at home in my bedroom. So I had no writing instruments, and no calculator. Luckily my teacher had an extra TI-83, and I borrowed a pencil from a kid in the class. And, as usual, I finished first (it's a college algebra class, not exactly a challenge. I mean, we were doing mean, median and mode, for crying out loud), so I was able to return the girls pencil.

That about sums it up. For conclusion, a picture of my prince charming!

Guilty as charged.

2009-04-05T16:20:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention cutting Justin's hair.

Okay, first off, hi, did you see the time I posted it? 11:10! I'm a morning person! I was tired and wanted to be asleep, so I posted as minimal as I felt I could get away with.

Anyway, to fill in what was skipped...

Thursday night Justin and I went to my work's open house (the financial office, the office I work in, is moving locations). It was kind of lame, as far as open houses go, except for the food. Which was absolutely fantastic. Kristi made it :) Mmm... I love her pasta salad and her desserts. But I got to see the cubical I'll be sitting at... blarg, I hate cubicals.

Friday night, Justin came over and my mom kindly grilled steak (it was also delicious), and then we watched The Emperor's New Groove, and I made a skookie! For those that don't know, it's a skillet cookie, and it's delicious. It was the first time I made one, so it wasn't as good as it will be with more practice, but still yummy. I'll try to take a picture of one the next time I make one. Which will probably be tonight, since I didn't use all the cookie dough.

Saturday, I mostly covered, except the evening portion. After conference, we went to Ashley's, and I cut his hair! almost entirely on my own. It was the third time we went there to cut his hair, Ashley's been teaching me. It's the whole, give a man a fish vs teach a man to fish. Now I can cut his hair on my own! She just had to show me one spot I was unsure on (around the ear), and I only messed up a little! Sorry Justin!

Then after that, while the boys were at Priesthood session, we went to Kristi's and had leftovers from the open house. I worked on stuffing invitations while I was there, and Jenny helped. :)

Today, I made muffins for breakfast, and we watched conference, and stuffed some more invitations. We folded them first too, don't worry.

So, that's what's been up with me. Look! Pictures!!!

Invitations are taking over my family room!!!

This is Justin's messed up hair cut. Not TOO bad, but it won't happen next time. Start in the middle of the back, apparently. D'oh!

Day 4...

2009-04-04T23:10:00.000-07:00

So I suck at this. I realized though, after only three days (given that I didn't know about it until the 2nd) that I don't feel bad for not blogging as often as some people. I legitamitely don't have the time for it.
It's 11:11 right now, and I'm still awake. This is a problem.
Conference was great though! And during lunch, we went and filled out an application for an apartment! We went with the bigger one, it has more counter and cabinet space in the kitchen, which, ultimately, is more important than how open it is. Plus it passed Ashley's Refridgerator/Dishwasher open at the same time test.
Sorry, I'm too tired to write anything else, but at least it's something, right?

BEDA: Blog Every Day April

2009-04-02T22:30:00.000-07:00

So, my friend Allison mentioned in passing "BEDA" today, the 2nd of April. But didn't say what it was. So I google it, like a nerd, and find "The Bureau of European Design Association." Pretty sure that's not what she meant. After MUCH searching (okay it was only like three minutes), I figured it out! I actually was trying to think of random acronyms, and came up with it, and then found the website that confimed it! Blog Every Day April.

Why not? I blog... every now and then. I couldn't hurt to blog more. They might not always be the most interesting to read, but maybe it will make me feel better about myself because I'll realize just how much I actually get done in a day! Or maybe it will make me feel worse about myself... we'll see.

So, today, the second of April, 2009, I went to work, which was annoying. I don't feel like going into details, but it was not a pleasant experience. Then Justin and I went to my work open house for the new financial office, that was actually fun. Kristi and her family were there, she was catering, so naturally the food was spectacular. Plus it meant there were people there that I actually enjoy the company of! Fancy that! Then Justin and I went back to my house and just kind of chilled.

I think I'm going to try doing it sort of an every other day thing, where the even days I'll blog about my actual life, and the odd days I'll work on a short story. That could be fun. :-D

Busy as can be!

2009-03-29T10:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a VERY full day. I made aebleskiver for breakfast (and since I was home alone, there were leftovers for today, and for tomorrow!), and then I went visiting teaching. Right after that I went to Justin's house and ate lunch (chicken salad sandwich... yummm...), and then we started day two of our apartment hunt!
After day one, there was really only one place that we liked, and it was kind of farther away than we would have liked. Day two, we saw five more places, and they were all good! So, we had six options, and had to whittle it down. Right now, there's one that stands out, but our decision isn't quite final. Hopefully this one will work out. It's on Southern and McClintock, so it's close to school, and also close to freeways, which will make it easier for us both to get to work. It's 600 sq ft, so not the biggest one we saw, but it feels very open. Plus, we went to apartment ratings, and most of the ones I've looked at there had a rating under 50% recommended. The apartment Ashley and Zach have was only rated at 55%, and they both like it, so I was expecting the rating to be fairly low, because that seems to be the trend. I wasn't worried about it being low, because I had looked up Ashley and Zach's, but the rating for it was 78%! Wow! There were 46 or 48 reviews, and only four or five had anything bad to say. Can't ask for much more than that!
We also went and added to our registry last night. We have 7 pages at bed bath and beyond now! Which, oddly, is only 50 some items. And we had 50 some items on our target registry before adding to it... Odd. Oh well. We are up to the 80's for Target now, but we'll probably add a bit more.
Also, last week was my bridal shower, and wow oh wow! It was great! The food was great, the friends and family were great, the gifts were great, and I'm so thankful to everyone who came and who helped throw it for everything! I can't believe how generous everyone is! It's really fun to think about putting all this stuff in the apartment we looked at yesterday, to try and imagine everything as it will be. :-D
That's all that's on my mind right now, thanks for reading!

I hate titles.

2009-03-10T22:51:00.000-07:00

So... I haven't blogged in a while, and I don't know what all I haven't talked about. And frankly, I don't feel like going back and figuring out what I've already mentioned... so, you may get repeats, or you may not get it all, but, oh well. At least you're getting something!
This past weekend Justin and I went and looked at apartments! There are a lot of apartments in the valley! We went to just a few this past saturday, but there's one that is pretty promising. We'll continue looking though, no final decision.
I'm on Spring Break! Woohoo! Except, not much of a break. I've got a lot to do. Homework, study for midterms, plan a wedding, the likes.
We also went and got our wedding invitations (or at least half of them, they only had part of what we needed, so we had to order the remaining boxes), and that was exciting! They are really pretty, and I'm excited to mail them out and invite people to come give me stuff ;-) And also to come to our wedding, that's important too.
It just keeps on getting closer! I can hardly stand it! I had one of my friends get married this last weekend, and she was so incredibly ecstatic, and I know, because she told me, she hadn't gotten hardly any sleep that whole week, but she was buzzing with energy. It was fun to go and see their reception, and to picture what ours will be like. Yay for indoors... and real food... and people we know... :)
Well, I lost my train of thought, because I'm picturing how lovely it will be to go to sleep when I finish, so, I'm going to cut this short.
Thanks for reading!

Loooong day

2009-02-22T08:26:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a very long day. I woke up and went to work (7-12), then I was home for about twenty to thirty minutes, then Justin and I went to a Korean Bbq, which, by the way, if you've never had, you are missing out. It was incredibly delicious. Mmm... meat... It was a group of people from the business college, there's some club thing for business college people that Justin is in, so I didn't really know anyone, but it was still fun :-).
After that, we went to Target and Bed Bath and Beyond and registered! Holy cow, registering is a lot of work. It's so much easier at Target, they just give you the little gun and let you be, but at BBaB, they talk your ear off first, telling you all sorts of things you don't care about. And then they had us look through this huge book of dinnerware. Part way through, I asked if they had a display of dinnerware in the store so we could just look at it in person (because I was pretty sure they did), but she said they didn't. So, finally we manage to evade making a decision from the book, and we manage to get away from the lady, and lo and behold, they have a display of plates. Lots of plates and bowls and cups. So, that was annoying. Crazy lady. Anyway, we got that all figured out, which is nice to have done with. The only things we still need to register for is a vacuum (I have no idea how to pick a vacuum) and bedding, because we're not sure which size bed we'll be getting. It is pretty nice to already have quite a few things, like a cutting board, cookie jar, pots and pans (!! thank goodness I didn't have to figure THAT out. Thanks mom!), and other various things.
Our next big task: find an apartment!
Thanks for reading!

Fixing an error

2009-02-18T14:59:00.000-08:00

So, apparently when I said we picked our colors, people wanted to know what they are... not sure why, but whatever... ;-)

Anyway, blue and black. The dresses are going to have a black bodice with a blue skirt. It's kind of like the blue in this picture, except slightly different. A bit darker, and a hint of green. But it was the closest I could find.

Incidentally, funny story as to how we picked them. I was looking at my socks one day, and I thought to myself, you know, I have like, five pairs of socks with this same colors scheme. Obviously I like these colors. And so, we went to the fabric store and I brought a pair of socks, and held them up to different blues until we found the closest match. :-D I know, I'm crazy, but it works! That night, before we went to the fabric store, the night I had the revelation about the socks, I showed my socks to Justin and said, what do you think of this shade of blue? Haha I thought that was worth sharing.

Thanks for reading!

February.

2009-02-18T13:32:00.000-08:00

So, it's been a while since I've blogged, and that's mostly been because I've barely had enough time to do homework and get sleep, let alone write a blog. Plus I got sick, which made it even harder, because then when I wasn't doing homework, I really really needed to sleep.
Anyway, two days ago I had a birthday! And it was awesome! I got lots of great stuff! I got a set of 16 pots and pans, some super cute kitchen stuff, decoration stuff for Christmas, and, yeah, mostly everything I got will actually be useful for the future! Which is excellent, because that's what I really wanted. Because, well, I look at all the crap I have that I don't need, and I think, dang, I have to pack all that stuff up soon, and I don't really need more crap. So, yay for useful presents! Oooh, and I also got a SUPER DUPER cute pair of pink pj pants (particularly wonderful because Sarah made them, and she made them long enough! Yay!). And I got two cd's of Harry Conick Jr, and the book The Infinite Atonement. So, lots of awesome stuff. Thanks to all for the wonderful gifts!
Other than that, February thus far has been pretty uneventful. The first two weeks, not much happened. Homework, school, work. And I got sick. :-P But I'm getting better... sort of. Mostly. You could say. As long as I don't do anything except lay in bed. ANYWAY...
We went and picked out wedding invitations, that was fun! And we finally have colors. And when we went to pick out invitations, we stopped by his grandparents house, because it was super close, and his grandma has a little painting store, where she gives lessons, and has stacks and stacks of paintings, things she's done during lessons, and she told me to pick one! So I got a painting! It's really cool, it's of a boat, and it's all blue and white, and the boat is on the edge of a lake, and it totally looks like it could be a scene from a book. So I think I'm going to write a story around it. When I have time....
Also, Valentine's Day was fun :-D. We went to Jenny's royal princess ball in the afternoon, everyone was dressed up as princes and princesses and knights. Except my dad, who was the dragon :-). Then in the evening we went and saw a movie (yay for movie passes from work!), and we went to dinner. I made him some brownies for his gift (they had a layer of symphony bar chocolate in the middle, the kind with the nuts, and then caramel on top, I was trying to make them turn out like turtle brownies. I think I should have put nuts on top or in the brownie as well though. Now I know for next time!), and he got me some potted tulips, which are very beautiful, and a box of chocolate.
Well, not much else to update. Thanks for reading!

Beautiful Clippie

2009-01-31T08:14:00.000-08:00

Beautiful Clippie,
oh so pretty,
beautiful clippie,
fills me with glee.

Beautiful Clippie,
Oh I love you,
you are more beauti-
ful than a shoe.

Beautiful Clippie,
graceful and black,
at work you help to
keep me on track.

Beautiful Clippie,
life without you
is not worth living,
I would be blue.

Beautiful Clippie,
I must admit,
If you disappear,
I'll throw a fit.

Beautiful Clippie,
you are to me,
what Ginny Weasly
is to Harry.

Hooray! I remembered the fifth verse!!

Anyway, that was in case anyone was wondering how I occupy my time at work. I work at a doctors office, scheduling appointments. So I answer phones all day. So between calls, I write awesome lyrics! You may be wondering what is so special about this one particular clip. Well, it's one of those plastic clips you can put on the cord of the headset and then clip to your shirt to keep the wire from getting in the way (it also makes QUITE the fashion statement!), but it is different than the other clips we have for this purpose. Not that I've used it for its intended purpose, but that's okay, it does something better! The grippy part that would grab onto your shirt is kind of wavy, and on the other, lesser clips, it goes one way on half, and the other way on the other half. So where it goes up on one half, it goes down on the other, and vice versa. So it's essentially good for nothing. THIS clippie, on the otherhand, doesn't do that. It goes up and down, and can be used to emboss a border around a piece of paper! It's super awesome!
This is the kind of edge you can make with the beautiful clippie!
And on the very far left of this, you can see kind of what the beautiful clippie looks like!

So, if you couldn't tell, I don't have a whole lot to blog about. This week has been like any other. Super busy, getting back into the swing of things, getting a fatty lot of homework, yay for homework... 130 pages of reading a night for one class... blah! And it's not even a good book! Oh well, hopefully it will pick up... but yeah, nothing too much to write about. I'm starting to realize just how tricky this semester is going to be, with 17 credits, working part time, and planning a wedding. I didn't realize I'd have so much reading for one class! But anyway, it'll work out.
Thanks for reading!

The Story.

2009-01-25T08:31:00.000-08:00

Well, anyone who reads my blog should already know, but just in case you don't...
I'm engaged!
Here's the story.
It was Wednesday night (ssshhh, don't tell anyone, but I already knew what day it would be). Wednesday was a significant day for several reasons: it was exactly two months from our very first date, and it was exactly one month from when marriage first came up.
Backstory so it makes more sense: Justin and I first met at the institute opening social, WAY back at the beginning of the school year. We were both standing on the basketball court, and since we were all kind of early (there was a group of about five or six of us) we all kind of just started talking to each other, getting to know each other.
And back to Wednesday night. We are taking an institute class together on Wednesday nights, so we were over at the institute building. We got there a little early, and we walked across the gym to "find where the classroom was." We set out scriptures down in a chair just outside the door, then we were going to go walk upstairs to find our bishop (I'm getting a calling, but not yet. Apparently.). Then he pulled me aside and said, "But first, I want to make something official." Then he got down on one knee, said the line we all know so well, and of course, I said yes. :-D
So then I just have to add this part to it, because I think it's cute. We had called a bunch of people once we got home, siblings, etc, and we were having a bowl of ice cream, and suddenly I heard that it was raining. I pause, wanting to make sure I'm not hearing things, then I ask him, Is it raining? He didn't think so, but we listened, and sure enough, it was raining!
More backstory: I always thought the most romantic scene in any movie is in Sound of Music, when Liesl and Rolf were in the gazebo, and it started to rain, and they did their little dance and song. So, I've always thought it would be amazing to recreate that scene in a sort of way.
So, as soon as it started to rain, I looked over at Justin and said, Put your shoes on. He was already wearing his (because I'm smart, and noticed, obviously), so I pulled mine on, then dragged (I guess dragged isn't the right word, but I was definitely pulling him along :-D) him outside, and we stood in the rain. It was definitely the perfect way to end the perfect day.
So, now you all know!
May 30th is the big day, this semester is going to go by SO slowly, but at the same so incredibly fast.
Thanks for reading!

Updates...

2009-01-16T08:24:00.001-08:00

According to my mom I haven't blogged in a while... it's been just over a week, give me a break!
Life has been good as ever. Saturday Justin and I went over to Ashley and Zachs and watched the cardinals game. Yes, I watched a football game. It was actually really fun! Granted, most of the time I ignored the game to either play with Madie or to make chocolate covered strawberries (the one thing we've found that I eat faster than Justin).
My dad's birthday was on Sunday, my sisters and I went in together and got him a miniature verion of the leg lamp from A Christmas Story. We wrote FRAGILE on the box, and as I predicted, my dad said the line from the movie before opening it. My dad placed it prominently on the sewing table right by the front room window :)
Monday night Kristi and Cliff and Ashley and Zach came over with their kids, and we had another dinner and played Guitar Hero World Tour, another gift my father got for his birthday. We got booed off a lot, but it was still fun :) Justin had his first experience playing, and by the end made vast improvements. He's up to playing on medium. And I found out I can play on expert on the bass part :)
Then on Tuesday we (Justin and I) went to the Suns game, which was my gift to him for Christmas. Not the best seats ever, and there was a very obnoxious (and very drunk) lady behind us yelling through most of the game, but it was still a good game. It was really close at the end, but the Suns ended up winning! Hooray!
School starts up again next tuesday, I have my first classes on Wednesday, I'm looking forward to starting up again. I like being in school, because it means I don't have to work every day, just tuesday and thursday, and every other saturday. Plus I'm really looking forward to my french class. And my English 213, intro to the study of language. Yep, still a nerd :)
Life is going great, just thought I'd give some updates.
Thanks for reading!

Resolutions [or lack thereof]

2009-01-05T23:53:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!
A bit late, but it still counts. Why? Because I said so, of course!
Most people make New Years Resolutions, and some people actually accomplish their goals. In years past, I've made broad, vague goals like "eat healthier" (I can't exactly say lose weight, because frankly I'd prefer to gain it in muscle), or "read the Book of Mormon" or "keep my bookshelf organized". And these are all good goals to have. But, I've never really continued on with them through the entire year. I couldn't tell you what my goals were last year if my life depended on it. I could probably guess and come fairly close, but only because I know how vague my goals have been in the past.
I'm not entirely sure where I'm going with this yet, so stick with me.
This year, I thought about making resolutions. But I thought about how likely I am to keep them. And I realized, the ones that I want to accomplish, I'm already working on, and the back-burner ones are likely to stay on the backburner. Frankly, my life is busy. I barely have time to STAY in shape, let alone get in BETTER shape. I barely have time to eat, let alone think about how many calories I'm consuming. Plus, I really just don't care about how many calories I consume. If it is yummy and in front of me, I eat it.
Anyway, this year, as I've thought about this, I decided (by this year, I really mean about five minutes ago, when I started this blog) that I'm going make a different sort of goal this year. And I'm only going to make one. Because to me, it is the most important goal a person can make as a New Years Resolution, and there are many ways it can be accomplished. Also, it will help in every other aspect of my life.
My goal is not to lose weight, or to read the entire Book of Mormon, or to finish my novel (although I wouldn't complain about any of the above three happening). My goal is not to get all A's, although I will strive for this.
No, my New Years Resolution for 2009 (I really love building up anticipation, can't you tell? Not the first time I've done this either. It's the author in me, I just can't resist a good build up) is to draw closer to the Lord.
I want to become closer to my Lord and Savior.
That's all. And I think as I do this, it will affect every other aspect of my life. Now, I like to think that I have a good relationship with Him, but life is about progression. If you don't go forward, you go backward. And I refuse to let that happen. And yes, I'd do this whether it was a resolution or not, but I think it's nice to write it out, put it out there for the world to see that I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. I am not ashamed to put my trust in the Lord, to show him that I know He can make up the difference.
Yesterday (I suppose technically it was two days ago, since it's 1:00am) I went to Justin's singles ward. I have never been to that ward, and I didn't know very many people, so I didn't get up to bear my testimony. If I had been in my own ward, even though I really don't know many people there either, I probably would have gotten up. Sunday, I felt the spirit so strongly, and I really just wanted to get up and testify. So instead, I'm going to do it here. I would rather let my family and close friends know that I have a testimony than a group of complete strangers anyway.
I know the church is true. I know without a doubt in my mind that Christ came to earth and died for me, personally, because He loves me, and wants me to return to live with Him in the celestial kingdom. I know that God loves me and watches over me, every decision I make, and I know that if I but turn to Him, he will be there waiting. Always. He will never leave me without comfort, without hope. I know that Joseph Smith was inspired of God, that he translated the Book of Mormon, and that he laid the foundations for the restoration of the only true and living church on the earth. I know that the prophet and apostles are ordained of God, and that they have power to govern His church. I've been through some difficult times, some times of doubt and unbelief, but I can say to you this day that I know all of these things to be true. It fills my entire being, the truthfulness of these things. I honestly don't know where I'd be without such a strong, sure foundation in my life. I am so grateful for all the many blessings I have received through my faithfulness and dedication to my Lord and Savior. I am so grateful for the support of all my family and friends, and for their love. I'm grateful to have so many people to love in return. But mostly I'm grateful for the amazing sacrifice of the Father and the Son, and for the chance it gives me to live with my family for all eternity.
I'm also grateful for the opportunity to share my testimony with you all. It is humble and meek, but I hope you will all take it at face value. These are the things, the thoughts and feelings that govern my every day life. These sentiments are what drive me to make the decisions I do, to live my life the way I live it.
Well, I didn't intend for this post to go the way it did, but I'm glad it did. I was sad I did not end up bearing my testimony in church on sunday, and feel much better now that I have.
Thanks for reading.

Tidings from California

2008-12-28T18:11:00.000-08:00

We (my parents and I) arrived in California on Friday night (super late), got all settled, then went to bed. It was a very long drive, but I was fortunate that it was the day after Christmas, so I had lots of literature to tie me over :)

Speaking of... Christmas! It was fantastic! I'd say my favorite gifts were my super cute black boots, my awesome and useful knives, which came in a case that doubles as a cutting board, my three "complete works" books, bringing me up to five total (Shakespeare, Douglas Adams, Lewis Carrol, Poe, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle). They look so great next to each other. Also my super cute bookends made by my talented sister, and the super cool 3-D cookie cutters that Kristi brought to the Maroney exchange (when I make them, I'll take pics and post them).

Anyway, first day in California was fantastic. We went to the beach, which is always fun. Then for lunch we ate at this mexican food place that puts guacamole on everything, but had really good fries. Then we came back to Nick and Lindsay's for a while, I read, others napped, I napped a bit too. Then in the evening we had potato soup and watched mixed nuts. Today was also great, we went to the Aquarium, then walked along the street that was lined with all kinds of fun shops. We found Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and ate there for lunch. Then we walked for a while again, and then came back and watched Bones (again I napped and read for a good portion of the Bones-watching). And now, we are making dinner, and will probably watch Bones or something else for the rest of the evening.

Other updates - I finally got a picture of me and Justin! So now you can all see what he looks like. Also, just to note, I was wearing my new boots in this picture, which have about a three to four inch heel. And he's still that much taller than I am :)

Other than that, not much to say. It's been a super fun trip thus far, and looks to continue as such. If I knew how to make one of those photo videos, I'd put up my pics from the trip, but it's too much effort to upload them all onto the blogger website. So, use your imagination. Or, if you really want to see them, teach me how to get one of those video things. :)

Thanks for reading!

Guilt...

2008-12-23T23:33:00.001-08:00

I felt kind of bad for not posting in such a long time, but then I realized, it hasn't even been a week. But my life has been so full, and so busy, it feels like it's been a month!
All the days kind of blur together, but mostly, it's been shopping in the day with my mother, or working on tutus (still haven't gotten around to wrapping), or taking a nap. And why do I need a nap? After all, I'm off work, I should be able to go to bed early, no homework, wake up later... haha that's not so much happening. I've been staying up until about one every night, and waking up anywhere from seven to eight thirty. Because, my evenings have been so preoccupied, that I feel like I need to wake up fairly early in order to get anything done. And granted, six hours of sleep is adequate. But not for a week. I'm a morning person. I'd much rather get six hours from eleven to five, which was standard during school, than from one to seven.
But, I really cannot complain. Completely worth it.
In case the build up has been driving you crazy, sorry, you're going to be disappointed. Maybe. I've spent every evening the past week with Justin. So, yeah, that's how it's been worth it.
Well, I'm very tired, so I'm going to stop writing now, and go to bed.
Merry Christmas!
Thanks for reading!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

2008-12-19T07:25:00.000-08:00

So, this week has been pretty great :)
I've been working, I had my dance "final" to get an A+ (and always get talked into taking a dance class next semester, even though I already have 17 credits. Still debating whether to take one or not...), I found out I got an A in pscyh! Hooray! I thought I'd get a B, but apparently the teacher curved it, so my 87.5 turned into an A! Hey, no complaining here! Still waiting for my english and latin grades to be posted. They should hopefully both be A's.
And, the real reason for this post: I have a boyfriend now :) I'm sure if you read my last post, you can guess who. At lesat, Kristi was able to. Justin. Yep. So, that's pretty exciting :) I won't bore you with all the little things going through my mind right now, because that would make for a long entry! But, he is coming to dinner on Sunday night, for the Maroney side. So that should make most of my siblings happy, they can finally meet him. Sorry Ashley. You should try to drop by for a moment! Or, you know, I'm sure there will be other opportunities to meet him.
Ooh, just have to point this little detail out: he's 6'5". Yes, you read that right. He's four inches taller than I am! I can wear heels with him!
Obviously that's not the reason I'm going out with him, but boy oh boy is it a nice perk :)
Also, I started work on the tutus I'm making for Christmas presents, and they are turning out super cute! I'll take a picture when I'm done with all the different colors so you can see how cute they are. And then also after Christmas, I'll get a picture of the girls wearing them. That will be a better picture :)
Yesterday was a good day. At eleven o'clock, an hour before I was supposed to go into work, I got a call from the Gilbert office manager. Apparently the power was out at the financial building, so he told me not to come in. Um, hmm, okay! No complaints here :) I was able to go over to Ashley's and just chill with her, and then she helped me get started on the tutus. It was a fun afternoon! And then in the evening, I went to see the temple lights with my friend Randi, who's not a member of the church, and has only seen the temple lights once, so that was cool. And so far, I'm doing good on my goal of seeing the lights at least once a week :) I never get tired of going to see them. Really, I never get tired of going to see the temple, lights or no lights.
That's the news with me. Looking forward to Christmas and all the fun giving involved, and very glad I'm done with the shopping I need to do :) Now I just need to finish the tutus, and wrap! Voila!
Thanks for reading!

Living large in LA... or AZ...

2008-12-11T19:28:00.000-08:00

But AZ didn't make it an alliteration.
So, I'm "studying" right now... as you can clearly tell. Here, I'll study for real:
(masc, fem, neut)
Sing:
N: is ea id
G: eius eius eius
D: ei ei ei
Ac: eum eam id
Ab: eo ea eo
Plur:
N: ei eae ea
G: eorum earum eorum
D: eis eis eis
Ac: eos eas ea
Ab: eis eis eis
And now I check to see if I got it right... HA! Yes! I did it!
Okay, that was boring for you to read. ANYWAY, that's what I've been doing all week. Studying for my Latin final, which is tomorrow, which I really don't even need to do that well on, but I have a feeling it's going to be a doozy of a test. That class is ridiculous. I actually have to study for it! What's with that?
Tomorrow is also baking day, which I look forward to with great anticipation. I love to bake. And even more than that, I love to eat what other people bake. So, I'm excited for that. Also I love spending time with my family. Aw. And not having work!!!
So, boy situation: I went on a few dates with Ryan, it was fun, but we aren't going to go on anymore dates. Mutual decision. And last night I went out with this guy named Justin, I've been out with him once before last night, he plays the trombone, went to Taiwan on his mission and speaks Mandarin Chinese. He's taller than me, and he's 21. That's pretty much all the important details... oh, he's also in the marching band, plays the trombone. We're going out carolling and to see the temple lights on saturday.
I made a goal to see the temple lights at least once every week this season. Because last year I only ended up seeing them once, and that is simply not enough! So far, I'm on track! I went last week with Ryan, this week I'm going with Justin, next week I'm taking my friend Randi (girl), and then the week after that is Christmas, so I'll go with my family! I'm a winner at achieving goals!
Well, I really ought to get back to studying. I've been procrastinating long enough! I'm so ready for it to be nine o'clock tomorrow so I can be DONE for the semester. And done with Latin FOR EVER! I'm so excited to take French again. It's so much easier!
Thanks for reading!

Becomming Old

2008-12-09T19:25:00.000-08:00

I believe my brother-in-law put it best, when he said "you went to bed at 8:30? You're an old fogie!"
Old fogie, is apparently what I am. Because I fell asleep at 7:30 today. I woke at a little after 8 to the sound of Mario (my cell phone's ring tone), and after seeing the caller id, decided it was okay to have been waken. Plus I have to change and take out my contacts and such before I can really go to bed.
Last week was c-r-a-z-y. I went out just about every night, then that weekend went to Sedona with the family, all my siblings and their spouses except Nick and Lindsay (who were missed, sadly. Can't wait to see you guys in a few weeks!), and did not get a lot of sleep this weekend either. So, after eight days in a row of averaging five hours of sleep (one night I did get six, but another night I ended up with closer to four), I am plum tired. Just in time for finals!
Although to be fair, I only have one final left: latin. The final of all finals. The killer of the bees, the meanest of the bullies... can you tell I'm not looking forward to this test? Friday... blah. All my others were either final papers, a dance final (piece of cake!), or a non-cumulative final, which I had on monday. So, one left. And it's the hardest. Oh well, I have a solid A, I'd have to get somewhere in a C/D range to drop down to a B. Still, I'd like to do well on the test. Luckily I have thursday afternoon for studying!
So, I think I'm going to go to bed again after this. I'm so t-t-t-tired (that's the equivalent of a blog-yawn). It's pathetic, but I'm a college student. I sleep all break, so that I can go the entire semester without sleep. I'm like a bear. I hibernate, and then go for weeks without any sleep. Commence hibernation mode... now!
Thanks for reading!

Memories, all alone in the moonlight...

2008-12-03T21:09:00.000-08:00

Sounds like fun...
1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I have together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments. We all have some sort of memory... SO DO IT :)

The End.

2008-12-01T16:42:00.001-08:00

I did it! I finished my novel.
Total count: 126 pages
64,684 words
It feels weird. I've never finished a novel before. I've never written those fantastic words: The End. It feels WEIRD!!!!! I'm not sure if it's in a good or bad way, either.
Both, I think. But it is kind of sad, knowing it's over. And now, let the editing process begin.
Actually, let me take a little break first... too much time with this novel! I need a break. A well earned break.
Holy crap! I wrote a novel! I FINISHED a novel. I've never finished anything before! It's weird, having to tie everything together. I'm in a state of... weirdnes... I don't know how to describe it. It's a neat feeling. And it totally applies with how I ended my book too. Because it's officially a book now, I decided. Yep.
Just thought I'd update you. I wrote a novel!

Over the Edge

2008-11-24T15:32:00.000-08:00

And lovin' it!

Meaning: I finally hit 50,000 words!

Granted, my story isn't quite finished. But it's close. I'll be able to finish by the end of the month.

But I did it! I wrote 50,000 words in 24 days! Wahoo! I celebrated with delicious sparkling cider. Mmm...

That's all. :-D Thanks for reading.

Weekend Highlights.

2008-11-22T15:44:00.000-08:00

So, want to hear about my amazingly awesome day yesterday? Well I'm going to tell you, right... now! So, I took my Latin test in the morning, and I thought I'd bomb it, because I didn't really study a lot. Or, um, at all, until about an hour before the test... and then I took it, and it was actually really easy! I'm thinking high b, low a, which is good, because that means my grade is fine! Then, well I had work, and work is work. But AFTER work, I went and looked at a house to potentially move into for next semester, and by george I think I've found it! It is SO much better than every other house I've looked at. Good sized room, nice roomies, around my age, good price, super close to ASU. I'm really excited! I'm the only one that has looked at it so far, and I basically said yes I want to move in, so now all I have to do is call over and confirm everything, set up when to sign the contract and such, and I'm done! YAY! Finally! I'll be moving in on January 19th (MLK day), and with my school schedule, I have school mon/wed/fri and work tues/thurs, so I think I'll request work off on the 19th, so that I can have plenty of time to get everything all unpacked and situated. AH, I'm so excited!!And then AFTER that, I actually had time to eat dinner, which I wasn't sure I would, so that was good! And then after THAT, I went on a date! It was SUPER fun! It was a group date, there were four of us, and we met up at Fry's (meaning the two couples. Justin still picked me up, don't worry!), and the guys were being all secretive (I totally figured it out though, because I'm a genius), and so Justin (my date) had two notecards, and Ryan (the other guy, in case you weren't sure) took one, and we took the other and we went and got the two items on our list. And didn't show the other couple. Then we went to Justin's house, and it was revealed: we were going to make mud pudding cups. The pudding with the oreo's on top and the gummy worms poking through. Except, there was a catch. So we flipped a coin to decide who would be making it, who would be directing it. The guys made it. Blindfolded. :-)Half way through we switched, to keep it fun. It was intense! I used a blender blind! But it was super fun. And then after we played boggle. And Ryan and I won, he beat me by one point! Grr. But it was SO fun! Basically, an awesome day.

And tonight I am going to my first ever nano write in! Basically a bunch of nano-ers get together at a coffee shop (because most writers drink coffee) and we write together! It sounds lame, put like that, but if you actually know anything about them, I'm very excited! I've wanted to go to one since my first year doing it, but time has been mean, and kept me from it. Tonight, however, I am free as a bird, and don't feel bad coming home late (like eleven, because I still like sleep! This one is an overnighter, but obviously I'm not staying until six in the morning!), because I won't have to wake up my parents. I always feel bad coming home late and waking up my parents to tell them I'm home.

So hopefully I'll be able to get ahead on my word count again. I fell a tiny bit behind because I literally had no time to write yesterday (I barely had time to eat dinner!), but I will definitely be able to catch back up tonight, and probably get pretty far ahead. Yay for super fun weekends!

C-C-C-Catching up!

2008-11-15T21:44:00.000-08:00

So, this past week I fell behind on my nanowrimo novel... :-( I got sick, had two tests and an english paper. That's the excuse I'm going with anyway. SO it was very exciting for me to hit 20,000 words today! I'm almost caught up! (I should be at 25K words... not bad, not bad!). And now I have hope of catching up. And not having it take the whole rest of the month to catch up. I am fairly certain that I can be fully caught up by tomorrow. Goal for tomorrow is 26,672, which is really not that bad. I mean, it's a lot, but I wrote 5,000 words today, why not 6 thou tomorrow? Right? Write? haha pun...
Anyway, that's my life right now. And I almost just said that's my life write now... gosh I'm a nerd. Oh well, I love it! Yay nerds!
And I honest to goodness cannot think of anything else to say... umm... my life is consumed by writing... and I have no other life... how sad. And yet not sad at all. Because one day, I will change someone's life with the written word. They will see life in an entirely different way, and it will be because of me. And when nerds walk into a bookstore, they will be able to pick up a book with my name on the cover, smell the new book smell, and tingle with anticipation of a well written novel.
Granted, I'm a long way from there... I mean, nanowrimo is about writing quantity, not quality. So even if I do end up publishing what I'm working on right now, there would be EXTENSIVE editing before I even sent it to a prospective publisher, and after that lots more editing, and then lots more stuff that I don't really know about yet... and then finally my book would be in print on bookshelves across the country! Dang that would be cool. Like, my dream, right now, is to be able to walk into a barnes and noble, go over to the sci fi section (that's what genre I'm writing right now), and see a book written by me on the shelf. And secretly sign it and leave a note in it saying how awesome of a book it is, and walk away. Mwahaha evil author... I wonder if they would think it was fake... curious. Very curious. Makes me want to do it some time, when I'm published. (WHEN, not if. If is such an ugly, unnecessary word.)
So, that's my life. Thanks for reading!

Updates on Life

2008-11-09T19:30:00.001-08:00

So, obviously the most important updates are always centered around boys :D
I went out with a guy named Ryan last night, we played racquetball and then cards, it was really fun! I really suck at racquetball, but it was my first time playing, so that was a good excuse. And he was a good teacher. I can now actually keep it going for a while, and I even scored a few points! We might go out to Kat's Korner this weekend, which will be super fun, because I don't suck at dancing :). That's how I met him, he's in my latin dance class, and he saw me at the institute building once I guess and asked if I was LDS, and, well, I am, and told him so, and he is too! He went to Mexico on his mission. And really enjoys speaking spanish, which just cracks me up.
Anyway, not doing too hot on my novel, I have fallen a bit behind, but still plenty of time to catch up. Once wednesday is over, I'll have a lot more time to write. I'll be less worried about papers and tests and the likes. SPEAKING of which, I totally rocked my Latin test! Yay! I was worried, because it was the first one where we went from focusing on nouns to verbs, and was supposed to be really hard, but really wasn't hard at all! I definitely got an A.
Also, I think I've found the place I'm going to move into. When I was more actively looking at places, this one girl said the guy who she rented from was renting out another house, but could never get more details, but she is moving home at the end of the semester to save money, and wanted to offer her room to me before advertising it. It's a really good price, and SUPER DUPER close to campus, so I said I'm definitely interested, but want to look at it before making a definite decision. So sometime soon I'll be taking a look, and hopefully it will all work out! That would be fantastic! Not that I don't love my home... but yeah... anyway...
Not much else going on here.
Thanks for reading!

Incredibly morose

2008-11-06T18:09:00.000-08:00

So, all this crap is keeping me from both studying for Latin and working on my nanovel, which is no bueno, because I'm actually really stressed about the test and the test I have next week and the fact that I have a work meeting the night before... stupid work... and I'm just really stressed about the remainder of the semester, because there's a lot to do in a little time.
But, I cannot go without speaking, because it will just stress me out more.
I read Lindsay's blog today, and almost cried. Within my own family, there is so much hurt and anger, and I just wish people could be more accepting of each other. I enjoy being able to talk back and forth with all of you, because I see some of you so infrequently, it's nice to know what's going on.
So I plead with everyone who reads everyone's blogs. Can we just leave this all behind us? Can we just move on, acknowledge that we have differing points of view, and go back to loving each other? Because I love all of you. You're my family, and you all have traits that make me love you for who you are. And politics will not change that. We are all entitled to our opinions, yes, and we are all entitled to voice them. But is it worth it to do so, when it is tearing us apart? As a family, as a country? My opinion is no. And so, I am renouncing the discussion of politics on my blog, and I hope we can all get past this and move on. Because it makes me sad that all of this has happened, and I hope I have not hurt anyone's feelings, and if I have, I'm sorry, and now let's discuss other things.

On the note of other things: current word count: 9,505! Still on track! Because I haven't finished writing for today. Holy cow, I'm supposed to be almost a fifth of the way done? And I only just barely started chapter two! I think my novel is going to be longer than the goal of 50,000... :D
Also, I've officially registered for spring classes: eng 200, eng 213, world geography, college algebra, and French 111. I'm excited for french! I was looking, and I'm considering a minor in french, because I would only have to take like, three extra classes, and I really do miss french. And it's also significantly easier than latin.
Also, I'm really really tired... too many nights of little sleep...
Thanks for reading!

Election 2008

2008-11-05T19:03:00.000-08:00

To everyone who is saying crap about Obama:
I realize that you're sore and bitter from losing. I lost too! But complaining about how horrible of a person Obama is won't change anything. Except that it will tear this country apart. With so much crap going on in the world, we can't afford to have our country torn apart. So, suck it up, deal with it, or move to Mexico. Obama is the President Elect. Maybe you don't agree with his ideas, maybe you think he's the scum of the earth, I don't honestly give a darn. Because he's going to be the next president, and therefore, he deserves our support. It's really not going to have THAT big of an impact on your daily life anyway. And if he really is as bad as you all think, then the next election we'll get a republican again. Just stop freaking complaining! We need to be united! I hate political parties, and elections. They tear the country apart. And that's not what America is to me.
To all of you who agree with me, sorry, I just had to get that out there. It's really bothering me. Politics. Sheesh.

Happy Halloween, Goodbye World

2008-10-31T06:37:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween! May the spooks follow you, and may you have occasion to be scared. :-)

Tonight begins National Novel Writing Month. And I'm VERY excited!!! I thought of a plot last friday, and I've been thinking about it since then, fleshing it out, getting more and more ideas until I don't know what to do with them! I'm going to start at 12:00 tonight, stay up until I'm too tired to write coherently, go to sleep, wake up, clean my room, and spend the rest of the day writing. With maybe a brief pause to do, you know, homework. So, basically, starting tomorrow, you won't be hearing from me a lot on this little blog thingy, because most of my spare writing time will be dedicated to my novel (that's the "Goodbye World" part of the title. Goodbye, blog world, hello nanowrimo world!). I'll try to put updates every now and then, and in the middle of Week Two I'll probably write about how my novel sucks and I shouldn't finish (week two is always the killer), but then in Week Three I'll be all optimistic again and excited to finish, so, that's how my month will be. AH, I'm so excited!! And impatient! And HOLY COW I'm a nerd. Oh well, I can live with that. :-) Good thing, too, because otherwise I guess I'd have to die. And I don't want to die! Not yet anyway! I need to write my novel, get married, have kids, and be published before I die!
I'm in a crazy mood! Because I'm so excited for tonight! Hope everyone enjoys this happy halloween, and I'll see you in November!
Thanks for reading!
P.S. So, twice in a row I almost ended without saying "thanks for reading" but I feel like I HAVE to put it now on every post. So, even though I could have ended it with "I'll see you in November" I had to add "thanks for reading" because it's kind of like my signature now... Oh bother.

Eureka!

2008-10-26T19:10:00.000-07:00

I had a Eureka! moment yesterday. Although I admit, I didn't run through the streets of Chandler naked. Not that kind of Eureka! (P.S. Anyone know what I'm referencing here?)
I was sitting at work, listening to the Fiddler on the Roof soundtrack. And it was playing the song "If I were a rich man". And I was thinking, you know, it's funny how people think, if only I had some money, then I'd be happy. But if they're unhappy without money, having money might make them happier for a bit, but it won't really make them happier, not in the long run. They'll still have all their old problems, now they'll just also have more ice cream. So then I was thinking, you know, that's kind of like me. Sometimes I think, I'd be so much happier if I just had a boy. And maybe at first I would. But I'd still have all my stupid little doubts, worries, and unhappinesses (not a word, ask me if I care) that I have now. Getting a boyfriend or husband doesn't magically make you happier.
Not that I'm unhappy, mind you. Especially now that I'm in college. I'm enjoying college SO much more than high school. High school was good and all, but college is just a whole other... thing. I don't know how to describe it, but I absolutely love college. And I've actually been really happy most of this year. Calendar and school year. But, I always have that little part of me saying, I could be happier if I had a guy.
And maybe I would be happier. But who cares? I need to take charge of life, and enjoy as much as possible. Because, (I just read a book where the chick died, that's why my train of thought is going this way. Very sad book, but very good.) I could die any day, any time. Who knows? That's not something that can be predicted. I mean, the second coming is close, yes, but there are still some signs that have to be fulfilled, so I know I've got some time for that one. But there's no way of knowing when my time is up. Now, I sincerely hope my time doesn't come before I get married, but it's not impossible. Plus, what if I don't get married until I'm like thirty? So, I've decided I no longer care [as much] about guys. Obviously I'll still care some. Because I'm an eighteen year old girl, with a very cute guy in her institute class who should really ask her out again. But, I don't [need] a guy to be happy. Because my life rocks! I have so much to be happy about! Booksigning tomorrow, national novel writing month in five days (it's practically the end of today), adorable nieces and nephews who are just SO dang cute... yep, lots to be happy about in my life. And if I don't get married for another fifteen years, (that would suck) I'd be okay. I could handle it. Because whatever the Lord has in store for me, there's nothing I can do to change it anyway, so why complain? Just take it and run with it!
That's my outlook right now. :-)
Thanks for reading!

Clarifications

2008-10-20T19:21:00.000-07:00

So, after my last post, and a comment I received on it (love you mommy!), I feel the need to clarify. I'm not crazy. Well, that's not true, I am. BUT, I'm not going to get married just to continue a trend. Or just to get married. I'll get married when I'm good and ready, to the right guy at the right time at the right place. I may be impatient, but I'm not going to rush it and screw up the rest of my life. Just needed to clarify that for you all.
That being said, I'm very excited for tomorrow! First time I'll see Jason after our date. Did I mention how much fun the date was? Maybe once... or twice... or... anyway, I'm happy it's almost Tuesday. I realized, the way the date was set up, we pretty much just spent six hours talking to each other. Yeah, we talked to other people, but you know what I mean. It was fun. :-)
And I need to spend less days up until... really early... reading books. :-) I read Paper Towns on Saturday. And I mean, I read ALL of Paper Towns on Saturday. Although does it count, since I technically went over to very early on Sunday morning? Hmm... Anyway, it's an absolutely AMAZING book! If you get a chance to read it, I highly recommend it. Although most of the people who read this won't like it, but I liked it. And I really liked the ending. I'm one of those weird people who thinks the happy endings are cliche, and this one, while not being a sad ending, wasn't a happy ending either. It was just kind of an ending. But a beautifully crafted ending, leaving me wanting more! But satisfied with what I got, at the same time. You know? Excellent read. Also very well written. It's sad to me that Twilight is way more read that anything by John Green, even though John Green is so much better of an author. But, that's from an English major's standpoint.
Thanks for reading!

Wedding Circles

2008-10-19T21:07:00.000-07:00

So, my family has this circle of weddings thing going on. And I'm going to attempt to use it to my benefit. Hopefully.
Here's what has happened: Ashley took Zach to Ross and Kimberly's wedding, and they ended up married. Roy took Kerry to Ashley and Zach's wedding, and they ended up married. Mark took... Ashley? Rachel? Some girl whose name I forgot to Roy and Kerry's wedding, and they're now engaged to be married. So, the way I see it is, I caught the bouquet, so if I can manage to find a guy to take to Mark and Girl's wedding, then I'll be good to go! I've got a while, I figure, because they only just got engaged. This weekend? I think? Not to sure on any of the details, clearly... :-)
So, that's my new goal.
P.S. I'm excited and impatient for Tuesday, so I can see Jason again! I have no patience when it comes to guys... again, clearly.
That's all! Thanks for reading!

Sittin' on a corner in Winslow Arizona

2008-10-18T00:53:00.000-07:00

That song has been stuck in my head all day. I was watching the news this morning, and it was giving the weather, and it said what it would be in Winslow, and BAM that song just popped into my head. Which would be okay, except that and the chorus are the only parts I know...

It's about one o'clock in the morning. And I'm wide awake. You may be wondering, isn't that pretty late to be up, considering you have work tomorrow at seven? My answer: yes, it is! But totally worth it!
And now, the explanation. I went on a date! It was really, really fun! I went with Jason, he's in my tues/thurs institute class (World Religions with Brother Wold). He's taller than me (score!), smart, nerdy (which is fantastic), plays the piano, economics major, went on a mission to Washington and is very sad that he doesn't know any foreign languages. He wants to learn Mandarin, and I asked him if he had any idea what he was getting himself into ;-). This is his last semester of college, he's twenty four, works at Chase currently, and doesn't know what he wants to do with his degree. He's really fun! I thoroughly enjoyed tonight. It was a big group thing, there were about fourteen of us, we went out into the desert by some random bat caves, had a bbq and bonfire, one guy brought his guitar and made up a song about two of the people who went and stood by the fire to see who could stand the heat for longer... very amusing song. Anyway, it was a really fun time, met lots of new people, got to know Jason better, and had a blast! First official date of college! Woo hoo!
I'm tired though, so I think I'm going to save all other updates for another time. Thanks for readign!

Catching the Bouquet

2008-10-12T10:04:00.001-07:00

So, yesterday was Roy and Kerry's wedding. It was good, but it was very weird seeing my dad up there being a minister. There was dancing, and I had a blast with Jenny. We played "find the color". There were these two disco ball type things, and so we had to find a certain color and try to stand on it. And then Jenny did her first ever line dance, it was a pretty simple one, just walk left, then right, then kick, then turn. She enjoyed it, and it was so fun watching her. Then, Kerry threw the bouquet, and guess who caught it? Well, not so much catch, as go over and pick it up. She threw it a bit far, so it was behind everyone, and I was on the side, so I could go around the little pillar and get it. So, it's official, I'm going to be the next one to get married. Haha if only that could be true.

In my last post, I mentioned being obsessed with Nerdfighters. And Lindsay asked me what Nerdfighters are, and I'm sure she wasn't the only one wondering. Well, it's actually very random, but I'll explain. There are these two brothers, Hank and John Green, and they decided to go for an entire year without any textual communication. So they make video blogs every weekday, alternating days. So like, on Monday Hank with make a vlog, then Tuesday John with respond to it, then Wednesday is Hank again, then Thursday is John, etc. And in this vlogging, they came up with Nerdfighters. There was this arcade game in an airport John was at called Nerdfighters, and he wondered if that meant they were nerds fighting, or if they were fighting against nerds. Well, if you watch any of the videos, you'll see very quickly that both brothers are incredibly nerdy. So, they decided to become "nerdfighters", nerds who fight. And what did they decide to fight against? WorldSuck. The sucky things in the world. It's all just kind of them being silly, but it's really entertaining. If you're interested, you can go to http://www.brotherhood2.com/. It's just another way for me to procrastinate doing my homework :)

Anyway, updates on writing I believe are in store. So, as you know, October is 30X30 month, and one day writing I stumbled on a plot. So, this might turn into a project for the rest of the year (meaning not November), because I really would like to see this finished. I've been working on it throughout November, I'm not sure how many words I have, because a lot of it is handwritten, and I haven't had a chance to type it all up yet. Once I do, I'll let you know. But it's shaping up pretty nicely. And I think I've decided that for November, I'm going to start cold. I'm going to sit down at midnight on November first with no plot in mind, and just start typing. It's more fun that way. :) Plus I requested November first off work (it's a saturday, I work saturdays from seven to twelve), so that I can stay up and start at midnight, and then use the whole day to get ahead on word count. And, just a warning, most of what I talk about for November will probably be novel related. That's just how I roll.

This week are midterms for dance, and they will be taped. So, when I get the url for it, I'll put it up here so you can all see me be graceful and elegant. Oh wait, it's latin, so, you can all see me bust a move! :)

Anyway, hope you all have a great day! Thanks for reading!

I'm doing this against my will and better judgment.

2008-10-07T09:55:00.000-07:00

I've Been Tagged
8 OBSESSIONS
1 - NaNoWriMo
2 -family
3 - reading
4 - dancing
5 - Boys :)
6 - food
7 - Nerdfighters
8 - school?

8 WORDS OR PHRASES I USE OFTEN
1 - great scott!
2 - Welcome to the conversation
3 - dork
4 - why do you talk? - wow, I'm mean
5 - That's awesome
6 - That's silly
7 - I love you - mostly just to family :)
8 - what the heck?

8 THINGS I WANT TO DO BEFORE I DIE
1 - get married
2 - have kids
3 - have grandkids
4 - become a published author
5 - get a PhD
6 - go on a mission with my future husband
7 - live somewhere other than the valley of the sun
8 - go sky diving! Not really, I couldn't think of anything else :)

8 THINGS I'VE LEARNED
1 - how to dance
2 - how to read
3 - how to write
4 - how to dance well
5 - how to read well
6 - how to write well
7 - that family is more important than living somewhere that's not blasted hot
8 - No matter how impatient I am, the Lord is going to move at his own pace. So stop being so impatient!

8 PLACES I WOULD LOVE TO GO
1 - Denmark
2 - Hawaii
3 - the Bahamas
4 - Alaska
5 - France
6 - NYC
7 - Disneyworld
8 - Finland

8 THINGS I CURRENTLY WANT OR NEED
1 - need to do my homework
2 - need to get more sleep
3 - need to see my nieces and nephews more
4 - want to go on a date
5 - want it to be November
6 - want to be less impatient for getting married
7 - want pugsley to stop barking - he's very noisy during the day, apparently
8 - need to iron for work

8 PEOPLE I TAG:
You
Him
Her
Them
Anyone who hasn't already done this?
Your mom! tee hee hee

woah here she comes

2008-10-05T19:34:00.000-07:00

For some unknown reason that song is stuck in my head.

So, it is officially October! Holy cow, where did September go? Hello and goodbye to September, and hopefully October goes just as quickly.
October is the month of 30X30, where I try to write thirty minutes every day in preparation for National Novel Writing Month in November (heretofore called nanowrimo.) And the goal of Nanowrimo is to write 50,000 words in a month. The goal for October is to get me into the habit of writing on a daily basis, which to be honest, I pretty much do with having homework, but hey, creative writing is fun! :) I thoroughly enjoy it.
On the nanowrimo forums (yes, there are forums, and yes I go on them, frequently.) there's a thread with writing prompts for each day. On October third, the prompt was "it looked a mile to her feet" so I started writing in a desert landscape. You're supposed to use the phrase in the text, but I got carried away with my characters and such that I forgot about the phrase until they'd already "teleported" to another planet. Not really teleport, but I don't know how else to describe it. Anyway, it's turning out to be an interesting plot so far, I might turn it into a short story to carry out throughout the month of October.
So, in this short story, one of my characters is half elf, and my mom asked what the other half was. To be honest, I don't know. I'd played with the idea of making her half elf half dwarf, because it would be interesting to play with the relationship of her parents. But then my mom was listing animals, lions, panthers, and I said no, that's weird. So she said make her half elf, half leprechaun. Leprechaun! Leprechauns don't exist! That's absurd! And especially not in science fiction/fantasy stories, which is what mine will be. My mother is crazy. But, that's where all my creative brilliance comes from, is my insanity, so for that I must thank her.
Midterms are coming up in school, I'm not too worried. But that's because I'm a test taker. I do better at tests than stupid in class worksheets. I'm excited for my dance midterm, because the teacher is recording it and then is going to put it on youtube, so I can watch myself dance! I'll put the link on here so you can all watch me be beautiful and graceful :)
Conference was absolutely fantastic, as always. I love those spiritual weekends just jam packed with richness. They make me happy, and make me determined to be a better person. Which, let's face it, I could stand to be a better person most days.
I can't think of anything else to say right now, so I suppose I'll just go. Thanks for reading!

When life gives you lemons, listen to swing music!

2008-09-28T21:05:00.000-07:00

I figured out this week that when I'm not in a good mood, if I listen to swing music, I suddenly am! It was an amazing discovery. I was listening to my ballroom music cd on thursday, and on the way home from school the two swing songs on the cd played, and I was all upbeat and happy, but then when it went back to the latin music, I wasn't as happy. Still happy and dancy, but not AS happy. So then I scoured the house (with the help of my wonderful mother) for some more swing cds, and I've been listening to nothing else since! Well except today, because I always listen to church music on sundays. But other than that. :) I just need to get some more blank cds so I don't have to steal my mom's, because I know she hates that. Trip to walmart, here I come! Unless someone knows anywhere to get them cheaper. Oh, and also stamps! I don't know where to buy stamps other than the post office, and that's not in my way anymore, it's out of the way. Unless someone has a bunch of extra they want to give me, but that's doubtful.

So on Saturday night I went dancing at the Kat's Korner, it was so much fun! I just met some people there, so I could stay longer and not have to worry about it, so I basically just danced for four hours straight. I got home and my legs were so tired, but it was totally worth it. I'm so addicted to dancing. I watch some of the people out there, and I think, holy cow, I want to be that good! I really like dancing with good leads, I know enough about following that even though I don't know the moves, I can keep up, so it's way more fun with them! Plus I learned a little bit of charleston! Neat!

This week, not too much going on. I'm doing another psychology study, meh, I AM excited that it is my last week of ASU 101. The most stupid class on the face of the planet. I will be so happy to no longer waste an hour of my life every week about how horrible global warming is, and how if we just educated women everywhere, that would control the population. What?! That doesn't even make sense. It does in a twisted sort of way, but it's like we were talking about in my psych class, correlation does not mean causation. Maybe education of women and population growth are related, but it doesn't mean one causes the other! That was the weirdest idea I've heard from that class. Partly because I only understand half of what the teacher says.

I'm definitely getting psyched for Nanowrimo. Like, very excited. I think I can do it. I have less homework than last year, and I don't have a dance concert to take up two and a half weeks, which was mostly what killed me last year. I'm optimistic, to say the least.

Kristi, if you're reading this, I miss you! I don't like the sunday's you go to the Tolman's, because it means I don't get to see all of you. And that makes me sad :( Just so you know.

Lindsay, I know you're reading this, because you always respond (I love that you do, too, it makes me feel like, hey, people actually read this! The only other clue I have is if my parents are reading it and I walk into the room). But, I miss you and Nick too. You guys understood and appreciated my sense of humor so much more than anyone else, it seemed. Or at least you showed it more. This girl I was training at work this week (she was insane, I swear. Very strange, at the very least), she would say these incredibly stupid things and laugh, and when I wouldn't laugh, she would look at me like I was crazy. She actually said to me after one of these incidents, "(fowl word here) you don't have a sense of humor at all." And I sat there thinking, man alive, you're an idiot! Because I had been using my own sense of humor frequently, the satirical, cynical kind, where I make fun of her without her realizing it, and I thought to my self, who doesn't have a sense of humor? So, I miss that. That you understood my sense of humor, and appreciated it. Plus you're just fun to be around!

Sarah, I don't know if you read these at all, but if so, I miss you too. I love it when you come up to visit, and wish you did so more often. You're so fun to talk to, and we have such similar interests, it's fantastic!

Just had to get that out there. Everyone I always see, I love you too, but I always see you, so I can say that in person! I really do love my family, and appreciate everything you all do, so much. Sometimes I'm not great at showing it, and if I'm having a bad day, I can be moody, I know. But I really do love you all, and I'm so greatful for all of the different things you all do for me, whether you do them on purpose or it's just your nature.

Anyway, school tomorrow, I should go to bed. Which really means read for another hour and THEN go to bed :) Thanks for reading!

Another Early Morning Post

2008-09-26T05:49:00.000-07:00

Because that's the only time I have that I'm in a quiet house and can think without distractions. :) you're loud too, mom and dad!

Not much has happened this week, to be honest. I have a latin test today, I'm hoping I do well. Last one I got a ninety eight, good ol' extra credit questions! Got to love those! I'm hoping I do equally well today. We'll see I guess.

School has been normal. I'm learning to play pool, which is fun. Especially when guys start teaching me :). I'm slowly getting better, but I can actually get the balls into the pockets I intended now! Not all the time, about half the time, but that's still way better than before!

I got the new book Brisingr on saturday, and have barely had an opportunity to read it. I'm only a hundred pages in, after an entire week! That is shameful. It's pretty good so far. I like the plot. I'm starting to get annoyed by Paolini's style though. It's so... formal? I don't know. Like, he'll say, we could not go to the store, for there was no means of transportation. He uses "for" a lot in that way, and the more I read the more it bothers me. Plus, sometimes the characters talk like they are knights in the middle ages, and other times they talk modern. Pick one! That's just me being picky though, and knowing that it got published because his parents are publishers. Where's the justice in that? Psh! No, it is a good book though. The style actually reminds me a lot of one of my ex's writing style. It bothered me when we were dating, and even more after, and now it's manifesting itself in a published book... :P

Speaking of writing, it would be so cool to get published! That's a dream of mine: to someday get published. Then all of you would know a published author! Neat!

I think this weekend I'm going to go to Kat's Korner with some friends on saturday night after the relief society broadcast. I want to go out dancing, it's so much fun!

Oh, and I found out the Christmas party at my work is on December sixth. What bad luck! Because that will screw up our plans for Sedona. I mean, I'd be okay with missing it, as long as I still get the gift, but I'm pretty sure Kristi and Cliff will be helping with all the fun stuff that goes into it, so I'm not sure they'll want/be able to miss it. I'm putting this here, because I'll forget to bring it up at a time when we can all discuss it.

Anyway, that's my life. Wish me luck on my Latin test! Thanks for reading!

National Novel Writing Month

2008-09-20T19:02:00.000-07:00

NaNoWriMo is November, and it's just around the corner! The goal is to write 50,000 words in a month. Last year, I missed it by about 6,000. There was like, a week and a half where I stopped writing. But I found out later in the month, if I write every day, even if it's only for ten minutes,it is easier to finish. Because if you stop for one day, the next day it's harder to pick up, and each additional day it gets harder to pick up. Whereas if you write every day no matter what, then you remain acquainted with the story. So, this year I am determined to get the 50,000. Today at work I came across a couple of names that were very literary names, it got me excited! I jus need to pick a plot... I havea while though. But I'm getting excited! Plus, I have less of a social life than I did in high school right now, and while I hope that changes by November, if it doesn't, that will make it easier to finish! So, yep. That's what's going on with me today. Thanks for reading!

Another Day, Another Dollar

2008-09-20T06:15:00.000-07:00

So, in case anyone pays attention to the time I make posts, yes, it is ridiculously early for a saturday. But I'm going to work at seven, and woke up earlier than I needed to, so, why not blog?
This week has been crazy! Homework and tests gallore! I had a psych test on Wednesday, I have no idea how well I did. Monday I had a rough draft paper for English due, the final is due this monday. Latin, well, I'm always swamped with Latin homework. It's been busy, definitely. I got so little sleep most of this week, so on Thursday I fell asleep at eight, and friday I fell asleep at nine. But I'm feeling well rested now, so hopefully tonight I can manage to stay up later than my parents.
Other than school, not a whole lot has happened this week. I don't know if I mentioned Ryan earlier, he's in my dance class, he's tall and a good dancer. :) Ooh! And in dance, I learned how to do the death drop! It's so much fun. It's where the guy drops me like four inches from the ground. It's way fun.
So, my guy life is pretty much dead... I need to work on that. I've decided I don't care anymore. I'm going to ask out a guy, and if he says no, he's an idiot, but no big deal :) (that was my way of boosting my self esteem since no guys have asked me out yet hee hee). Now I just need to decide which guy I most want to ask out... decisions, decisions... any suggestions are welcome. :)
Yep, that's about the extent of news for me. My friend Allison posted a note on facebook about how she's impatient to be a mother, and how she's excited to do all the fun homemaking things, cooking, cleaning, etc. And it made me impatient. Again. Or, still, rather.
That's about it. Thanks for reading!

The same topic as always. It's my life, what can I say?

2008-09-15T18:26:00.000-07:00

More boys!

So today in dance I partnered with this guy I haven't ever danced with before: Ryan. One of his first questions was if I'm LDS, because he's seen me at the institute building before! I say yes, and turns out, he is too! He's a really good partner too, because I feel more comfortable with him, because I know he's not just taking dance so he can have close physical contact with girls, if you know what I mean. Plus he's a good lead, he's taller than me, and he's funny! He can talk while we dance, which not all guys can. They can't all split their attention like that. So, I'll probably seek him out to partner with him again on Wednesday.

Plus in dance today I learned how to do the death drop! I've wanted to learn that ever since I saw it! And now I can do it! It's so fun. It was scary the first time, trusting the guy to not drop me and split my head open, but once I got the trust established, it's so invigorating to just release your entire weight and know that there is someone there to catch you. It's a nice adrenaline rush. Oh man, it's just so much fun! :)

FHE tonight is going to be charades, sardines and telephone. Should be interesting. Hopefully :)

Well I should go, I have to get ready for FHE. Thanks for reading!

Flavor of the week?

2008-09-13T22:30:00.000-07:00

Can I say that if I'm not actually dating all the new guys I meet, only liking them?

Anyway, Friday night there was an institute opening social, and I met a whole bunch of new guys! It was way fun. I met Matthew, Aaron, Justin, Michael, Matt, Andrew, and some girls, Victoria, Laura, Beth and Kristin. I met some other people, but those are the ones whose names I remember. :) And I got two phone numbers, Matthew and Aaron, but I am mostly excited about Matthew. He's a little bit older, but only a year older than the last guy I dated, and he only just barely turned 25 in the end of August, so it's really not that big a deal. But he's a really great pianist, he's studying law right now, and he's just really nice. I also met his sister, who was also there, but I only met her for like, ten seconds. But anyway, I'm kind of hoping for something to actually happen with this one. And if it doesn't by the end of next week, then I think I will be sorely tempted to MAKE something happen :) Why do I like older guys? Weird. Oh well. Even in high school I liked a guy who was two years older than me, so I guess it's always been in me.
Speaking of Robby (the guy I liked in high school), he gets back from his mission in April! That makes me feel old, because I went to his farewell. I DROVE to his farewell, and he's coming back now. Wow. His family actually moved to Utah right after he left, so he's coming home to Utah, but he wants to go to ASU apparently, so after his homecoming and all that fun stuff he's going to move down here for schooling. I found all of this out because his sister started working with me. Apparently it's a touchy subject for their family, because of the move, and the fact that he still wants to live here.
So, right now, life is good. I'm contented because the number of guys I know has gone up significantly, and that's always good. Oh, and I learned the name of the cute guy in my institute class who I met on thursday! Eric. But I think he might have a girlfriend. :( Oh well. He's still cute.
That's pretty much it for me. Thanks for reading. :)

Making friends is difficult

2008-09-10T20:25:00.000-07:00

So, it has been a lot harder lately for me to make friends than normal. I don't know why, but I've been having difficulty with that. I mean, yeah, I flirt with all the guys, but it's not getting me anywhere. I've been in school two and a half weeks, and I still don't feel like I fit in. Tuesdays and Thursdays are fine, because in between classes I can talk to Anna, and Daniel if he's at the institute building. But on Monday and Wednesdays, I don't know anyone who has breaks the same time as me, so I just kind of sit and observe people. It's really lonely, and frankly I'm getting sick of it. There isn't even anyone who has more than one class with me. It's not so bad, really, at school I just bring a book and be lonely. It really sucks on the weekends though, when I see on facebook what all my friends from high school are doing in their various locations away from here. And I'm sitting at home reading.
But the good thing is, tomorrow is Thursday, and that means that I'll see Daniel and Anna. And maybe flirt a little with Marc. We'll see what happens.
Today I was at school from 7:30 to 6:30. I had to stay late to take this really dumb english test thing, it basically analyzes how good I am at english now, and then again when I graduate to see how much ASU helped me. It was supposed to last two hours, it took me an hour. Because I write fast. Thank goodness! But the time slots they have available for it were really dumb, so my last class ended at 3:15, and the test didn't start until 5:30. But, for my psychology class, we have to do these research participation things, and we need four credits of them, but only two can be done online. So I managed to sign myself up for one of them in the time between, so it wasn't a complete waste. Still a long day though. But the test was a joke, it was so easy.
Well, that's all that's new in my life. Thanks for reading!

You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus ~Mark Twain

2008-09-07T21:05:00.000-07:00

That's just a good quote. :)

So, now that I've told the people in person the people who want to hear in person, I can post it on my blog. I would call Lindsay and Sarah too, but it's kind of late, and I only officially decided today, and since then I've had family dinner and a fireside. So, I hope you guys are okay with reading it on my blog.
Anyway, I've decided on a house. I'm going with number two, the house with ducks and the girl who likes musicals. I'm going to call over tomorrow and see if it's still open, and if so find a time to go over there and hash out details and measure the space (because I like to plan where I'll put everything. I'll start packing tomorrow night assuming it's still good to go. I have no idea how long it will take me to pack, because I've never moved, and I have a fatty lot of stuff. Hopefully it won't take too long. I don't want to live out of boxes. Another problem right there... finding boxes. Supposedly they have them behind grocery stores a lot of times and they are free to take. So you can be sure I'll be spending part of tomorrow driving around the back of grocery stores :) I'm pretty excited because it's something new, a little nervous, and definitely wondering where I'll find the time to pack, and after that to move. Because this saturday, I'll probably work in the morning, and then we have bookclub in the afternoon. And the saturday after that seems so far away. So, I might move on a random tuesday. Who knows? But anyway, wish me luck on the packing process. And if anyone has boxes they want to loan me ;-)
Thanks for reading!

More on the house hunting front

2008-09-06T20:45:00.000-07:00

So today I called three more places and went to one that I called yesterday. Of the three I called today, one of them answered, one of the girls is 32 and the other is 26... no thanks. One of the people who I left a message for, they called back, and apparently all three of them are 26. Again, thanks, but no thanks. I haven't heard back from the other one, but it's in a gated community and it's a bit higher of a price than I'd like, so I probably won't pick that one.
The place I went to today, it was very weird. It's this old lady and her daughter, and they just have a spare room that they rent. I am looking for more of the actual college experiece, you know, living with people my age, that kind of thing. I don't want to be worried about waking up some sixty year old from talking on the phone late at night, you know? Plus it was just weird! And also kind of run down looking. Like, the roof was a nightmare. But, I'm the daughter of a construction worker, what can I say? I notice those things :) (P.S. Thanks for that, daddy!)
So, right now I'm leaning toward house number two. It would be five girls including me, the one with the fruit trees and the ducks. It's cheap, it's the kind of atmosphere I want, the girls are really nice. They have a keyboard, one of the girls is really into music. They have a nice tv, no cable, but I read more than I watch tv anyway, so no harm there. Except missing house, NCIS and Bones. But I can just ask someone to tape those for me. Because everyone loves me enough to do it, right? :) So, tomorrow I'll just double check that this is the right decision, and then go from there! I kind of want to decide quickly, because I really like this place, and I don't want someone else to call and take it. So I feel like I need to decide fast. I know, I'm weird. But, that's life.
That's pretty much all I did today. I'm currently reading Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card (it's in the Ender's Game series - SO good!). I'm not very far, but it's just as good as the others. I'm so addicted to Card right now, it's not even funny.
Yep, that's life. Thanks for reading. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

An Adventurous Day

2008-09-05T21:18:00.000-07:00

So, I got a listing of LDS people looking for roommates from institute, and I started calling places today. I saw two houses today, and I'm going to see another place tomorrow. It was pretty exciting looking at potential homes to live in.
The first place I went was really kind of weird. This old married couple owns it, and they rent it out to college kids. It can fit seven people, right now four live there. It's kind of shabby and run down looking, kind of white trash-ish. It was really big though, and had a pool. I only met one of the girls there, the others were all out, and she seemed okay. She had just woken up though, so she didn't really talk a lot. I don't know, it was just kind of a weird place. They had all this random furniture, they had three fridges, and nothing really seemed to go anywhere. I don't think I'll go there. Plus it's farther from ASU than I'd like. It was on Stapley and Southern.
The second house I went to was much better. Three girls live there now, another is moving in soon. If I move in there, I can either share a room, or they have this little tiny room I could have to myself. I don't really know which I'd prefer. But they had a nice kitchen, washer and dryer, a really big back yard with fruit trees and ducks (yes ducks. Three of them!), a big tv, wireless internet, a family room... it's really nice. And the girls there were really nice too. One of them likes musicals! :)
Tomorrow I'll go to another place, and we'll see from there. These were the best three from the listing I got, considering price and location. I might look at the next best three depending on how this turns out. But I really liked that second place I went. It had a great atmosphere, and definitely a college atmosphere. Wish me luck for tomorrow on my adventure!

Getting into the swing of things

2008-09-04T18:42:00.000-07:00

School today was good. I have a feeling thursdays are going to be my favorite :) not because of the classes I have, but because of the boys I'll see. In institute on thursday I sit next to Marc, who is very cute and spiritual. Then I have a rather significant break between institute and latin, my next class, and I have been hanging out in the game room at the institute building. Last week I met this guy, Daniel, and we had a nice discussion about quantum physics. I know, I'm a nerd, but so is he, which makes it all the better! He was there again today, along with two other cute guys, Brandon and Jordan. Of the three, Brandon is the best looking, but I don't know much about him, other than he's good at ping pong :) but I like that I was able to talk about quantum physics with Daniel the first day we met. Always a good thing. At least when you are a nerd like me. So, thursdays are going to be my fun days.
Latin is turning into a really fun class. It's such an intriguing language. I'm really enjoying myself.
Dance, wow. Dance is my favorite class. No surprise there, but it's just so fun! There are actually as many guys as girls, which is good. The class is moving at a pretty fast pace, which keeps me from getting bored. It's really great too when I get a tall guy for a partner :)
English is actually really fun too. I thought I'd be bored since it's just 102, but we get into a lot of debates. And even though only like, four of us ever actually participate, it's still fun. Especially since I'm the only girl who says anything.
Institute is, of course, a blast. So many guys! Unfortunately, half of the guys in my mon/wed class are married. I don't know about my tues/thurs class, because I mostly only pay attention to Marc, in the guy department.
School, all in all, is going very well. I feel like I'm adjusting well. I just need to find a few more friends, maybe some that are female, just to shake things up. College is really just so much fun. I was right to be impatient for it last year :)
That's really all I have to say for now. Thanks for reading! :)

Day Two of Blogging

2008-09-02T19:19:00.000-07:00

So, blogging... that makes me think of that commercial for twix. The girl says something, and the guy says, do you want to go to my apartment? And she says what kind of a girl do you think I am?, and he eats a twix, and then says I thought you were someone who would want to blog about our ideals, and she says, oh, I love blogging! So every time I write something on here, that's what I'll be thinking. Just so you know.

Anyway, college life is excellent, apart from being sick. My list of boys is growing exponentially. I really don't know how I'll get to them all in a semester! I think my first focus will either be Mark (he's in my institute class, I sit next to him. Very cute, and participates a lot in institute which is SO attractive), and this guy who isn't in any of my classes, but we both have a gap on thursdays at the same time, and last thursday we got into a nice discussion about quantum physics. I mean, come on, he's read Alice in Quantumland! How fantastic is that? So those are my top prioritites right now.
Other than the whole boy crazy thing, college is exactly what I wanted it to be, and more. I absolutely love college. Really, if I could be a full time student for the rest of my life, I would SO do it. That would be the absolute best job in the world. Apart from being a mom of course. But really, college is so much fun. I feel bad for anyone who didn't get an opportunity to experience it, because it's just such a fun experience. I sound so nerdy right now, but I really don't care.

So, that's my life. Going to college, learning, getting into debates in most of my classes (in one of my classes, I always take the side I know will have the minority, just for fun. For a challenge. And I usually present better arguments than even the teacher. That's going to be a fun class), flirting it up with cute boys, all the good things in life.
Thanks for reading! :)

Peer Pressure

2008-09-01T22:08:00.000-07:00

So I've been told I need to get a blog. Normally I ignore these remarks, but considering that it came from Lindsay, and she lives so very far away and can't just talk to me at Sunday dinner, I figured, what the heck. For her, I'll do it, so she can hear just how boy crazy all the rest of you are lucky enough to know I am. :)
I'm procrastinating doing my incredibly stupid homework right now (ASU 101: write a paper on how you plan to be successful at ASU. How cheesy can you get?), but I really should stop procrastinating, so I'll give updates on my life later. Right now, you're just lucky you get a blog. My present to all of you who love me and want to know what is going on. Happy labor day! (don't expect anything next year ;-) ).

Good night!