Finals Finally Over

I know finals have been over since Friday, but I got a tad sick this Sunday and Monday and did not feel up to posting anything.  I got the flu from Christie's little kids again and on a positive note I do believe I have found a pretty reliable diet plan seeing how this is the second time I got the flu from them. (sorry Christie) =)
But back to finals week.  This has probably been the hardest finals that I have ever taken.  Maybe because it was BYU, maybe it was the classes, but they were so hard and I am so glad to be done with them.  Especially with Anatomy. For those who don't know this about me I do not handle bodily things all that well. I've passed out while getting an I.V. just from seeing the blood and I get queasy over other peoples cuts and scars.  It's what ruled out any medical field for me early on, but alas, the Health & Wellness major had it out to get me and a prereq. for this major is indeed Anatomy.  The first class period I had with the actual cadavers I ran out of the room within 20 minute sobbing and got sick. (Not my proudest moment) But as the semester continued I knew I had to do it, so I worked hard and finally....(this is about how I feel and how I feel how hard anatomy was)

Though I did not get stabbed by a Nazgul, or get chased by a giant spider or make friends with a multiple personality lizard-hobbit hybrid (Gollum) or have to climb the mountain of Mordor, I do feel like that when I walked out of that testing center after taking that 2.5 hr anatomy exam that I had accomplished something just as great as Frodo had done.
Now enough with finals and on to better news.  Zachary came down this weekend and we went up to Christie and it had snowed a ton that day so we decided to take the little infectious tykes sledding.  They did not find the snow as magical as we had expected.  Most of the time Maddie trudged behind making little snow balls as she went while Topher would walk about 5 feet and fall into the snow complaining of how he was physically inapt to go any further unless carried.  I refused to carry either one of them, but Zach, what a good guy, did the best he could and carried both of them to the hill to go sledding at.

Overall a good weekend, ended rough, but that's ok, it's always good when I get to be around Zachary.

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..."

Well it is finally December! And the countdown to Christmas has begun, well actually I'd say the countdown to school being over and finals being done with will be first, but then the Christmas countdown has begun! I love Christmas (who doesn't?) and this weekend i filled my time with tons of Christmas activities.  On Friday guess who came down and saw me...? YUP! Zachary did =) my favorite =) and we did lots of Christmas activities together.  On Saturday we drove to Sandy and went to the Festival of Trees, it was sooo pretty! There were so many trees of every different theme, from Mickey Mouse to the Griswold's Christmas to fishin, it was so pretty.  They also had the neatest Ginger bread houses, this one was my favorite depicting the Shire, so much talent!

After that we headed back to Provo to head to my ward Christmas party for the real dinner, and there was our own ginger bread house contest and wouldn't you know Zachary and I tied for first place =) With another teams ginger bread house (ours was better). No lie and no bias.  The other team (which had 7 people in it, we were only 4 but then the other 2 left so it ended up just being Zach and I) tried to make a tower and it ended up falling so then they just threw everything on the frosting and said it was "Hurricane Sandy" so we should have won, but oh well, tying for first is just as good =)

Well I cannot wait to see family, even though I have a countdown for finals to be over with, then for Christmas to come I have a countdown first to when I get to see Lisa, 17 days, and then Mom, Dad and Katie, 21 days.  =)

Thanksgiving

 On Tuesday Zachary and Emilie came down and after a quick meal and a game of bowling with Kaleb Jenkins I went to hang out with Zach and Em.  We just relaxed on Tuesday watching movies and eating snacks.  Then on Wednesday we met up after we all woke up and went to Rock Canyon park to enjoy the lovely weather Provo was having and just hung out that night as well.  On Thursday we headed to Saratoga Springs to enjoy the delicious meal Aunt Jan had prepared and went to see "Wreck-It Ralph" later that day.  We spent Thursday and Friday in Saratoga Springs enjoying good food and family time.  On Friday we went a big park with this huge jungle gym and cool swing and then later that night went to visit Christie (a mistake later on in the week because we caught the same flu bug they had had only a few days earlier) but while we were there we enjoy the company of the little squirts thoroughly.

 Zach is in the blue hoodie at the bottom, his sister is directly above him (being up that high is quite the accomplish for her) Then all the rest of the cousins are in the middle of the jungle gym.

Then on Saturday we went up to Salt Lake City to meet up with one Zachary's really good mission friends and his family to see the lovely Christmas lights.  Later that night we went back to Zach's friends house and his new wife then around midnight the three of us got the flu and spent the next 12 hours taking throwing up in this newly weds house as there first guests ever.  Were banking on the next visit to be much better one. But overall we had a really good trip and I always love spending time with Zachary of course.

Happy Halloween!

I remember how excited I used to get for Halloween.  One year in particular is when Halloween landed on a Tuesday and I had piano lessons on Tuesdays and I knew that I wouldn't be able to go trick-or-treating until after piano lessons....longest lesson of my life.  I did not think it would ever end! I just wanted to go home and put on my costume.  Another year I remember, strangely in particular, is when my mom made us eat our entire dinner of spaghetti with meatballs before we could go out trick or treating ( I was a ghost that year) I was so anxious to go.
Not sure why I am sharing these particular memories, but they coincide with the holiday.
 I have found out though, since growing up some, that Halloween is much more fun when you are a kid and not so much as an adult.  But I was still able to have fun this year through the kindness of Meagan and her side of the family.  I went to their annual Halloween party just to eat, socialize, and junk out.  I had a really good time and I was even able to dress up, as Tinkerbell if you can't tell.
So even though Halloween is much more fun when you are kid, I guess depending on who you are with in certain situations things can become fun again. and I can't wait till I can make my own kids practice piano and eat their spaghetti and meatballs =)

And of course the best part of Halloween for most =)
Happy Halloween!

"Masquerade! Paper faces on parade!"

This weekend I went up to Rexburg (again) and saw Zachary, Peter and Jill.  I really don't mind the drive almost each weekend because I know the end result is I get to spend time with some of my favorite people.  (Some of my other favorite people include, Dad, Mom, Christie, Tyler, Topher Maddie, Caroline, Drew, Jess, Lisa and Katie)
I arrived in Rexburg around 8pm and got dropped off at Arpad which is where Zachary lives and the little homemaker had a vegetarian friendly dinner hot and ready waiting for me.  The taco in a bowl was very good, I am not sure if that was the name of it, but whatever it was called it was really good.  Then he and I went over to Peter and Jill's for pumpkin carving and scary moving watching.

Since Jill and I are weenies about scary movies we decided against some of the scarier options and opted for a less-scary but still Halloween related movie, "Ghost". (One of my very favorite chick flicks, so double bonus for me to get to watch it).
It was a good night =)

(Our pumpkin is pac man, you just can't see pac man because he is on the other side)

The next day I went and watched Zachary's soccer game, and then out to eat at a Greek restaurant in Rexburg called Opa with him and his sister, Emilie. After, Zachary and I decided to go walk around campus.  When we were walking in the Hart building we saw a flyer for a masquerade ball that night.  Zachary asked me if I wanted to go and I said yes, but told him I had nothing to wear.  So we promptly went to D.I. and did the best we could to find a masquerade appropriate ballgown.  The rest of the night we danced and had a marvelous time! They even had a live band, it was just so much fun!  After we had had our fill of dancing and jigging we went over to Peter and Jill's again (they are so hospitable, THANKS!) and watched I.Q.
Sad the weekend is over, but I had a great time as always. =)

 And this is just having fun after the dance =) Don't worry, he wasn't driving!

 After the dance the boys did what they do best, and saved the world by killing one zombie at a time.

Back to the 'Burg

This weekend I got to go up to Rexburg! It was so much fun and I cannot believe how fast days can pass when you are with the people you love being around. I mostly spent my time with Zachary (of course) and the other bit of time was with Jill and Peter, but even then Zachary was usually around.
I got to watch Zach play soccer on Friday and Saturday.  In the Saturday game there was a free kick in the last minute of the game.  Zach's team was up 3-2 so if this went in it would be tied.  Most of the defenders and Zach made a wall as the kid on the opposite team went to shoot it.  He did, and it hit Zach right in the face.   Zach fell backwards and just laid there and received a swollen face and a slight concussion, but the good thing was that the kick got blocked with Zach's face so his team won! (way to take it like a champ)
Then that evening we had planned to go to a wedding reception but because of the concussion decided to hang around Rexburg and spend our evening with Jill and Peter.  They are such goofballs, especially together.  Peter was pretty unsuccessful at creating a flint fired and determined he would have died as a caveman.  But the rest of us enjoyed watching him and his efforts and making s'mores.  It was a great weekend.
Oh and a new hobby is (Aunt Jan being sooo sweet taught me) how to crochet.  My first work in progress (its a beanie).

 All swollen, but still happy (probably unaware of how bad it actually looks )

 Looks like a 70 year old man. Poor Zach.

 This is the kid who shot the ball at Zach's face, his name is Taylor Curtis.

Swelling finallly went down and we were able to enjoy the rest of our evening.

 This picture makes it look like Peter is being successful at a flint fire, but don't  be fooled.

 Delicious hot smo's =)

Breakfast of Champions

Zachary came down this weekend and there are more pictures coming, (Jessie and Drew's blog) which I will promptly steal and add on, but for now I will share the ones that we have.
On Saturday morning I decided to make Zachary a lovely banana, almond, oatmeal, honey smoothie.  It WAS going to be delicious, but my cooking "ability" got the best of me.  The phrase a "picture is worth a thousand words" is pretty accurate here, but the only difference here is these are more of million word pictures. Enjoy.  And since I am sharing this embarrassing moment; be kind =)

Fall Fall Fall

This has been the first fall that I have experienced in a really long time, probably since Atlanta when I was 9.  Savannah has many pros to it but one con it has it that it does not have 4 seasons, heck it barely has 2. So this afternoon I was fortunate to go up into the mountains this afternoon at the Sundance Resort and get a good walk around and look at the Fall season. I had forgotten how much I love fall.  Walking around in the woods with all the leaves crunching under my feet, and the familiar smell brought back a ton on memories of my early grade school years.  I would come home from school and throw on some "play clothes" (usually a sweater and an old pair of jeans) and spend hours raking up leaves with my siblings and jumping into the big piles. I love fall, it is just so beautiful and I am glad I am getting to experience it again.

oh fall..... =)