School Time Again

Hello to all!

(Warning: Due to the pictures and such, this is a very long post! Read when you have time)

Well, as stated above, school has started again. I made some minor changes to my class schedule. I now attend Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10 am - 1 pm (on Mondays I also have a lab from 3-5 pm, which kinda sucks, but in 2 hours I can get lots of homework done!!!) and Tuesday and Thursdays I go 11 am - 2 pm. It's not a bad schedule. There's Microbiology (with the lab) which has been interesting so far. I love my professor, he's hilarious! And the lab instructor seems way cool!!! The material is difficult, but nothing I can't handle with a little (or a lot) of studying. In dance we're learning the rumba. Oh my goodness, I love that class. :) Math is simply statistics, so nothing too hard there, and there's not a lot of homework either. So far, it's been really easy. My professor is Chinese, so she has this funny accent, it reminds me of Matt's, after he got home. haha! Oh, I also have nutrition. It's just a one hour lecture with a slide show 3 times a week, I'll let you know how hard the class is gonna be after I take the first test. Finally, I go to institute Tues/Thurs. I'm in a "teachings of the living prophets" class. It's actually really cool! The first lesson, each girl got a nice white rose just cuz the teacher likes us. (The roses went along with a small object lesson as well, but they were nice!)

So that's the school update.

I got mononucleosis the last month of summer (yes, the kissing disease, get over it. It's most commonly picked up from drinking fountains anyways). Basically I was sick for about 3 weeks (the basic, fever and headaches). I was sleeping about 14 hours each night and taking 2-3 hour naps in the day, yet still felt tired! Finally the doc said I had mono, and to rest up. I'm doing better now. I can go running about 3 times a week again! I can only go 1-2 miles instead of my usual 3-3.5. I went sooooooooo stir crazy while I was recovering, my brain would work, but my body still needed rest. I've gone back to normal sleep patterns, but I often feel fatigued still. I learned that most people who get it tend to feel better within 2-3 weeks (that's me!) although the fatigue may last for 2 months, or longer (also me!) and the disease can last up to a year, with recurring sickness (I really hope that won't be me!)

That's the rest of my summer update. Good thing I already hit Lagoon and Seven Peaks!

I promised lots of pictures, so the rest of my summer will be veiwable to you, as well as readable!

Matthew is home!!!! He still has his accent! It is hilarious! His Chinese is so good! We signed him up for a Chinese class at UVU, but it's Mandarin, not Cantonese. He brought home so many wonderful things. The best by far, though, has been the stories he has. He still loves the Chinese culture and has a lot of music and odds-and-ends that he brought back to us.

Look at that happy boy with his all-too-happy parents! We went out to a Chinese restaurant afterwards just for our China man.

There is Matthew's homecoming party!!! WOW!!! Just look at all of that support :) We were so proud of him and so happy to see him again!

In other news, Christopher Scott Williams, my lovely little nephew (who's a good 6 inches taller than me) has graduated from marine boot camp and is now officially a marine! Go Chris!

Betcha can't tell which one is him ;) what a great thing to see, all those marines!

My parents and I traveled down to San Diego to watch this graduation. We are so proud of him! What a wonderful trip it was too! I got to go play in the huge swells on Mission Beach, tour the U.S.S. Midway, and eat at In-n-Out. Oh good fun!

This is my favorite statue! Looking off the USS Midway :)

Mom found the room that her dad (Grandpa Piepgrass) worked in when he was in the Navy, working on the boats. It was pretty special to see up close and personal the tools he worked with and the area he worked in.

Look at those swells!!! I love the beach!!!!!!!! :D

Dad and me at the beach!

We love our In-n-Out's!

Finally, on the way home we stopped in St. George and walked around the temple grounds. It was really a wonderful experience. I enjoyed my trip with my parents so much!

Blog you all later! Peace!

Tink

Summa '09

Well, Summer is getting close to ending. Where did it go?!?! Oh yeah... work! haha :P

I think I've said this in previous posts, but work seems to consume my life. Actually, it does consume my life. ha. I have had some fun times this summer though! Jeffrey took me to 7 peaks water park (for the first time in my life) sometime early July. It was a blast!!! We raced in the wave pool, while the waves were on, and I totally beat him! hahaha!!!! That's what 7 years of swimming does :) But I was tired cuz I was a little out of shape in the water, so he beat me on the swim back. Then at the end of July I took Jeff to Lagoon! That was a blast too! (Until I ate lunch too quickly, right before going on 2 roller coasters... haha Then we had to hit the ferris wheel and rehydrate me before any other rides). I'd say I've had a good summer, once I got past June :P

Now I'm on the countdown to Matthew returning home from Hong Kong! :) 4 more days! I'll post pics from it later. Along with a few I took at lagoon, and I should probably post all my prom pics... They are so pretty! :) And who knew I would ever fit into Rachel's fabulous dress?! I didn't think I'd ever be that skinny... but I was apparently. Well, still am :) That's what running 3 miles a day does for you.

So that's the latest in the mundane routine of Mary the Fairy. haha. Pic's will be up within the next 2 weeks.

Loves to all!

Tink

Summer Started!

Hello Fellow Bloggers...
Well... I'm not really sure what to say anymore. It's summer so I've just been working like crazy!!! Matt gets home on August 7th!!! Exactly 2 months from today!!!! AHHHHH!!! :D haha. Life has been pretty good. My best friend Beth came home from Virginia and is keeping me company. On a sadder note, Jeffrey and I decided to break up (its a long story) but its okay cuz it'll only be for a little while (okay, maybe as long as 3 years but we were both confident that we'd date again). Last week, when we broke it off, was an eternal hell, but now I'm doing much better and I'm much happier and we still talk just a little bit, so it's not like we're trying to pretend to hate each other... In fact we both feel the opposite, but we take it as a good sign that when we see each other, we still enjoy one another's company without being all cuddly or anything. So... now that update is over...
I ended up going to Lone Peak's prom this year (yes, with Jeff). It was actually a blast!!! I felt so bad though because the whole group had planned to go out to a Thai restaurant for dinner, and I was a last minute date (Jeff's original date bailed on him) but they had to change reservations cuz I can't even go into Thai restaurants! (the whole peanut allergy can be harsh sometimes) and speaking of my peanut allergies, I've had about 4 reactions within the last few months alone... Most of which have happened at the ice cream shop :S So once (or twice) again, Benadryl has saved my life. Anywho... now that tangent is over ;) the rest of prom was a blast! We did a polka around the entire second floor of the capitol building! haha!
I was able to go to Jeff's seminary graduation and his high school graduation. Both were very fun! I'm so proud of him and so happy for him!
As for my school. I ended up with really good grades this last semester! I got an A- in Dance, Biology, and Chinese! And I ended up with another B in Math :P I'll be taking an Anatomy class this summer and then go back full-time in the fall with Chemistry, Microbiology, another Dance class (Latin this time!) and a Statistics class (Math 2040).
Other than that, my life has not changed much, did I mention I'm still working my little toosh off? haha Well, I am!
Much Love to you all!
Tink

Picniked Pictures

April Snow Showers?

Hey! So it's already April... Wow!

Finals are the end of this month! I'm glad it's almost over but those tests are gonna kill me :S haha. March was lovely... It stormed a lot near the end of the month. I've moved on to the second book in the Lord Of The Rings series that I've been reading :) I've been learning lots more characters in Chinese class! Yay! I have a Chinese name now! It is Wei MeiYa, or  韋玫雅 (Same thing, just in the characters.) The translations are Wei: a form of leather, Mei: rose, and Ya: elegant. I'm quite happy with it, and I can't wait until I get to tell Matt! 

Guess What?!?! 4 MORE WEEKS! Beth, Darcy, and Alisha will all be coming  home, and I will be done with school for the summer. Yay!

Next weekend (April 11th to be exact) will be the 6 month anniversary for Jeff and myself. It's pretty awesome actually.  I'd say we still like each other just as much as when we first started kinda dating, but that's not true, because I like him more and more the more I get to know him.

Some notable things that have happened since my last entry are: I made it to the semi-finals in quick-step (though my partner and I are both still unsure how we made it that far), I got a whole bunch of chocolate covered strawberries for Valentines Day (Really pretty ones from Jeff and a couple from my mom actually), I was able to see the Draper Temple with both Jeff's family and my own, I was able to see the Draper Temple dedication, Bethany got a boyfriend who is awesome (his name is Kenson), and General Conference was so wonderful this year!!! 

I was so lucky to be able to walk through the Draper Temple twice! It is so beautiful! The dedication was wonderful, but now it'll be a few years before I get to go through it again haha. Both times I went, I was able to go with/take Jeff, which was really fun for me. :)

Well it's off to bed with me... Maybe I should blog a little more often so that these aren't so long then it's not as tedious to read haha. Peace Out! 

Tink

It's February

Sup y'all?! So Mary has been pretty busy as of late, but there's not a lot of new stuff to report. I'm not really sure as to what I should be putting on my blog anyways... haha

So, I found a car!!! A 1997 Chevy Blazer, Forest Green, 4-wheel drive, sunroof, leather seats, functional CD player/radio, the works! And it runs great! Only $1900!!! I know, I was so blessed to get a deal like that. 

School has been fun. I have a Quickstep competition coming up for my dance class tomorrow night :S I'm not ready!!! haha. Math is still a beast, Chinese is still awesome, and Biology is looking up (but only slightly). I'm still loving taking care of Tyler Tolbert :) and of course working at my favorite ice cream shop ever, Sub Zero! I've been so grateful to have that job, I get to see Rachel and Aaron a lot while I work there which has been nice cuz I missed Rach a lot after she got married. Speaking of which, I'm actually way excited to have them move in with us for the summer!!! Now I won't be so lonely! 

Speaking of lonely... I've been missing Matt so much lately! I dunno what it is, but I just want him around. As of yesterday, only 6 months till he gets home!!! I'm stoked!!! I get to talk to one of Matt's most beloved compainions, Elder Lee, a lot cuz he's on facebook all the time! We've gotten to be great friends. He's gonna come up to Utah the summer after Matt gets home :D That'll be exciting!

Hum hum hum... I'm just using my blog to procrastinate my homework now... Not good. haha so I guess I will say good day to everyone and I'll try to keep ya updated a little more, but really, my life isn't terribly exciting at the moment. Much love to all! Peace!

Mary

The Holiday Break Update

Alrighty! So now that I have some time... Happy Holidays to everyone! Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and all that good junk. Hope you enjoy the holiday pic's I put up with this post. 

First I'll comment on the pictures I posted earlier in the cute little winter slide show. That was the night of the Christmas concert. It was so much fun! Rach and Aaron only got 4 tickets for Saturday night, but we decided I'd go too, and stand in the stand-by line, cuz they usually all get in. Heh. I invited Jeffrey and when we got to SLC, Jeff and I jumped out of the car early to go get in line. As it turns out, we were number 175 in the SECONDARY stand-by line! We found out later that not a single person in Thursday's stand-by line got in. Luckily, by some miracle, my parents got 2 more tickets right next to the 4 we already had! The concert was amazing and dinner afterwards was too. We went to Little America and had a jolly 'ole time. So at the beginning of the dinner the waitress asked if the check would be together or separate, and my mom jokingly points at Jeff and says he's going to pay. Dinner was wonderful and so was the conversation that came with it. When everyone had finished, the waitress comes by and hands Jeff the check. We all just started laughing and Aaron says "Yeah, I hear he's a heavy tipper." Mom was laughing so hard, she almost fell off her seat! It was hilarious!!! Haha yeah it was a good night :)

Christmas wasn't bad at my house. Pretty small this year with only mom, dad, me and Brett. It was great. We all slept in, had breakfast at noon, chatted at the table for awhile and didn't open gifts till around 1. I got just about everything I asked for (which wasn't a whole lot) plus some!

Brett had some friends come up from Cali to go skiing/boarding. They were awesome guys. Brett went home on Tues after Christmas... It never seems like we get to spend enough time with him. Oh well, hopefully it won't be a full year before we see him again! (Love you Brett).

For New Years, Rach and Aaron threw a party at sub zero, and out of 7 people I invited, only one showed up. It was a very good party though! I elbowed Jeff in the nose and he tripped me a couple of times, but no major injuries :) Lots of candy, chips, and bubbly for everyone! Woot! My type of party! (Thank you Rachey). 

Most of my break was spent looking for cars and hanging out with friends (the latter part I didn't mind at all). School starts again on Wednesday for me...ugh! And another ugh...Beth flies back to Virginia in the morning and doesn't come back for 4 months! 

So that's pretty much the update, I'll see if I can put a few pic's up of the break. 

Loves!