Meet My Dance Partner

Every Saturday I get to plug in the earphones, turn up the volume and boogie with this guy:I have this habit of dancing shamelessly whenever there is music playing and my lawn mower has gotten to come along for the ride several times now. A good time spender? Yes. Dangerous? Probably. Fun? Absolutely. The neighbors may or may not think I'm crazy.

Life is Good

This has been a rough week adjusting to school life again and getting myself in a normal routine. I've been in this funk where the little things that usually excite me, haven't. However that all changed with one wonderful visit from one wonderful girl. Andrea, my old roommate and one of my best friends, came to visit this weekend and it gave me the laughter I needed to get back to my usual self. And its good to be back!

So here are my Sunday lists. People I'm grateful for:
1. ANDREA!!! She just made everything okay again!
2. ELIZA!!! For listening to hours of my rambling on the phone when I really needed an ear.
(Do I have some great friends or what?)
3. My advisor. He didn't really do anything, but just letting me explain my plan for the next year really helped.
4. A girl in my class who said people with Tourette's are cool.

And things that I'm grateful for/made me happy this week:
1. My new book shelf! (I've decided to become a reader... as soon as I have time)
2. My new picture frame (thanks Phil)
3. Mowing the grass.
4. My freshly weeded back yard.
5. My completely over organized schedule/bulletin board that puts things in front of me so it doesn't have to swim around in my head.

I've never wanted to slack off from school as much as I do now. And I've never needed to work as hard or do as much as I do this semester with taking way too many hours, taking the GRE, and applying to grad school. One person suggested to me that I'm getting senioritis. I think she might be right :) Wish me luck!

Hooray for driving!

As of today, I am an official licensed driver again. Thank goodness! Living on your own, in a more rural area, and not being able to drive is not the most convenient thing.

In the spirit of this joyous occasion of getting my license back, I thought I'd share a secret of mine. I've always wondered what it would be like to make these:

I would love to spend a day making rumble strips. It just looks like it would be fun to take fresh, perfectly smooth pavement and make special dents in it. I imagine a giant steamroller with raised lines across it going over and making perfect lines in the asphalt. However, I'm sure the actual art of rumble strip making is not nearly as glamorous as I imagine.

Is It Just Me?

On the days when I have a ton to do, I usually wake up and get going. In the midst of all the busyness (yes busyness is a word, I looked it up), I often don't realize I'm hungry and forget to eat. Then, at the end of the day, when I finally get that minute to sit down and rest I realize my stomach is doing this: However, I like to think my lion is a little more friendly looking than this one. Of course, after realizing I haven't eaten all day, I eat enough for 3 days. I often wonder if I'm I the only one who forgets to eat.

The List

Hopefully I'll get back to doing my Sunday lists regularly when my life gets back to normal.

But for this week, people I really appreciate:
1. Brittany for letting me live on the floor next to her bed for a week and for making my trip a blast!
2. The Dudleys for picking me up and giving me a place to stay while I was in limbo even though they already had a full house.
3. My mom. Recent observations of other moms and mother-daughter relationships has given me a good dose of appreciation for her. I don't express it enough, but my mom is great and the only mom I would want.

And things I'm grateful for/made me happy this week:
1. Having a really fun week away from home this week.
2. That I'm going home tomorrow.
3. That I have a week left before school starts.
4. We're going to have Internet at the house at school this year!
5. Feeling Heavenly Father's love every single day.
6. That I have a friend who travels everywhere with me, listens to me talk as late into the night or as early in the morning as I need, and doesn't mind my rambling. Do you know who it is? ;)
7. Learning much needed lessons.
8. Even though I'm sad that I'm not going to BYU, Heavenly Father really gave me the reassurance I needed that I'll be where he wants me to be.
9. The fact that I have a spectacular life and I'm blessed beyond what I can hold!

The Final Days

The last bit of my trip has been fantastic. First, BYU had a yard sale, yes a yard sale, where I got this GIANT coloring book, which was so big I had to ship it home. Along with the coloring book, I got a Disney princess Frisbee for 10 cents. Was I excited? O yea.

And what do you do after yard sale shopping but bowling?

Ok, brace yourself. Here's the BIGGEST MOST AMAZING story of the week. Brittany had 2 cousins in a ballroom dance camp at BYU this week so we went to their final performance. And you'll never guess who 2 of the judges were. Jonathan and Anna, from Dancing With the Stars.

And they performed!!

Yes, we were that close. Too bad they didn't turn around so I could get their faces.

Next up was the improv comedy act on campus where Brittany and I met up with NICOLE! She's a friend from my home stake that moved a few months ago to Idaho. It was good to catch up!

One of my favorite things about Provo is that you can walk places in the middle of the night and its relatively safe. We took a nice little trip to Sammy's which is a diner where they make shakes and put in an entire piece of pie! Or so I'm told. YUM!

So in the spirit of firsts and lasts, I had my first trip to IHOP on my last official night in Utah (Sunday nights don't count). And I did my first Chinese fire drill in the state of Utah :)

This has been an amazingly fun trip. The only down side is that it makes me sad that I'm not going to the Y this fall. Hopefully I'll be here next year for my master's degree. If only :)

Summer fun!

The past couple weeks have been jam packed with fun. Last week Brad and Bekah were in town for birthday week (the week when my mom, dad, Mindy, and me all have birthdays). I loved spending time with the PA Goldies and the Ohio Goldies.

During our family visit, mom, Bekah, and I sang at church. Can you guess who our accompanist was?

ELIZA!!!! She came and we had a wonderful visit. And she came with awesome birthday presents, which I used to create THIS masterpiece:

Eliza. Is. Wonderful.

On my 18th birthday the family went kayaking down the Little Miami. Here's Mallory and me on the way:Is a little attention on my birthday too much to ask :)

Here's the three sisters on the car ride:
No pics from the river due to water and electronic incompatibilities.

Its kind of weird that I'm an OFFICIAL adult. In a lot of ways I've been an adult for a while now, but in a lot ways I'm definitely not. And to be honest, I hope I never grow up. What fun is life if you can't act like you're 5 years old sometimes?

After the family visit I took my chances with standby and went to UTAH!!! I stayed a few days with the Dudley's (my sister-in-law's family). They were nice enough to pick me up at the airport which I greatly appreciated. While in Salt Lake I went with Bekah to Oakcrest girl's camp. For those of you who I haven't told about Oakcrest, its the camp where I want to work next summer. When I went last week I LOVED it. I really hope I get a counselor job. Wish me luck!
After Salt Lake came Provo, where I am now. I'm staying with my wonderful friend Brittany at BYU and we're having a blast. Look at this gorgeous face I get to wake up to every morning:

While in Utah I took my first bus, had my first Jamba Juice,

Played my first game of Sardines, in which I got THIS BABY:

And learned I'm a pretty intense Sardines player.

I've already had a ton of fun and there is much more to come. And in case you're wondering if I'm the kind of girl who goes to DI and tries on the ugly wedding dresses for no reason... I totally AM!I think the puffy sleeves were my favorite.

One funny mishap was that Brittany and I walked to DI and didn't realize how far away it was until we got there. So, we sat on the curb looking pretty shady until we got one of Brittany's roommates to pick us up. Totally worth it.