In the dead of winter, comes the light of hope...

My dear blogging friends. I have missed you.

You have probably missed me more...but not really.

SO much has happened since I've last blogged! Goodness where to start?!

Yeah, I know I have a cheesey title to this post. Get over it.

Hum hum hum. I got a job!!! Yay me! I work at Washington Terrace Health and Rehab. It's part nursing home and hospice, part rehabilitation center. I'm able to use my CNA and it's the best job I could've asked for. It pays well, the shifts go by fast, the residents are so sweet, and most of my coworkers are extremely helpful and nice. I am so blessed. I do tend to work a lot of holidays though, but I guess that just comes with the job. It's not so bad.

Of course we took our Fall vacation in October with the whole family to Yellowstone this year. So much fun! :) I always enjoy the cabin. Yellowstone is as beautiful as ever.

School is going great! I passed all my finals last semester. Got a 3.01 average, not bad, not great, but not bad. Especially since I took Math, Chemistry, and Anatomy all at the same time. I was also sick as a dog over finals week, which was also the week that we had our big chorale performance. It was awful!!! I had to suck a cough drop on stage (shhh... don't tell my director!) However, I also had it real good that week cuz my boyfriend (yes, boyfriend, I'll get to that later) brought me flowers, soup, stuff to make lemon tea with, and bought me my most favorite dinner ever from Golden Jade on performance night. He's the best!

Now how he came to be was a funny story. Rhett is my brothers really good friend, neither of us thought much of the other our whole time knowing each other (since 7th grade for me, 9th for him). Over the summer, we swapped numbers to set up a time for a group of our friends to go see a movie. So we started texting, IM-ing on facebook, then I went to his apartment to go chill with him and ended up inviting him up to Ogden. At which point I guess he asked Matt if it was okay that he took me on a date. Matt was chill with it... Our first date was the Saturday before Jeffrey left. He also kind of had his arm around me while we were watching Pride and Prejudice that night (we also went to see Flo, the ghost, and went ice skating, and out to dinner). So that's the story of Rhett. We hung out at my house the next weekend (which happened to be conference weekend) and that's where the cuddling really began. The Friday after that, he took me on a date in Salt Lake and that's where he kissed me! Yeah, we moved pretty fast, but it felt pretty natural. That date we went to the Zoo! Way Awesome :)

For Halloween, we dressed up as Penny and Dr. Horrible, from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Video Blog! It was the greatest costume idea ever! :D I couldn't help myself...I turned Danni into a hot-dog... Hehehehehe!

Over Thanksgiving, there was a HUGE snowstorm that hit Ogden, we literally duct-taped ourselves inside the house. There's towels and rags lining every window (of course, they're all single-paned) and the door was what we duct-taped because there's a gap in it that was very, very drafty. We stayed warm though! We also got about 8 inches of snow in under 4 hours :) Needless to say, it was AWESOME!

Christmas this year was small, but nice. I got a lot of the stuff I asked for/needed. I also got a hair cut! It's 6 inches shorter now! It is so so so so so cute!!! AND...It was Danni Girls second Christmas with us! She turned 3 on December 7th. I couldn't be happier to have her! She brings so much joy into our house, I don't know how she does it being so small and all. I just LOOOOOOOVE her!!! Who else do I love? My bestie Bethany! She came home for the holidays. She got tickets to the David Archuletta concert and invited me! It was so amazing. That boy is so talented. Plus, it was with Mormon Tabernacle Choir and all the wonderful Christmas music. Definitely a highlight of the year :)

(That's less than half my hair on the floor there :P)

So Danni gets in moods... We started them when we gave her a choice of milk-bone (there's 5 flavors) by laying all 5 out, she'd sniff them all, then hurry and pick the one she wanted and run off to eat it. Now, we'll hold two chew toys out for her and she'll literally shake her little head at the one she doesn't want (if she does want it she jump up and grab it from you). It's hilarious!!! I've never seen anything like it! She taps her front paws when she's feeling impatient, and if you don't give her enough attention, she'll do a half-bark kind of thing. Its funny. She's so short! Oh!!! And she's learning tricks. She knows "dead dog," roll over, sit, up, down, crawl on your belly, go in circles, jump over my legs, shake, and we're teaching her more. She's so smart! :D

As for Jeff, he's in Chile now. I haven't heard from him in awhile (probably because I haven't written him in awhile) so hopefully I'll get a letter soon! If not for Rhett, I'd be a very bitter woman this season... Jeff keeps switching between my good side, then my bad side. Right now he's on my good side. Let's hope it stays that way, eh? Then I don't have to stress about any of that stupidity. Haha that sounded mean. We love Jeff, we do. The last I did hear, he loves being a missionary! Yay!

Another missionary who's out is Rachel Morrell. I miss her so much. I write her all the time! Well, not all the time, but way more than I write Jeff. She's doing so well. She loves her mission (Kirtland, Ohio). Her companion is awesome, she runs into one of Matt's girlfriends who got sent there, Dani Talbot, quite often. I love getting her letters! I'll keep you updated about her too, if I can :)

So my car has had massive problems, but luckily, my dad took a job up here in Ogden for the IRS and has been able to help me out when I get stuck in the Smith's grocery store parking lot... Now it's fixed, and should be running real good for a real long time! Boy was that an adventure getting it fixed. 2 major problems in the last 2 months. I think my car is fine now though. We're going to do a check up in 6 months just to keep up on it. So yay!

Steph's brother, Tom, sucessfully got married in January. Monica celebrated her 25th birthday, and a day later I turned 20 and a half ;) I also had my first New Years kiss this year. That was fun. We gave Danni some sparkling cider to try, she wasn't sure what to think... haha! Hilarious!

There's the update through New Years. Now I'm into the 4th week of this new semester. It's been way super crazy! (Crazy enough that I almost told Rhett we were breaking up...) 17.5 credits, and working 25 hours a week. I have no clue how I do it all. Well I do, I just don't get any sleep... Which is bad, cuz now I'm getting old enough to where I'm not functioning on such a lack of sleep. Oh high school days, where did you go? Not that I miss you... Just miss functioning on little to no sleep. Haha! I'm taking a Political Science class, Child and Family Studies, Library Science, Theater, Intro to Visual Arts, Medical Terminology, a Jogging class (just to keep me active) and then I'll be testing out of 1.5 credits of computer literacy. I do still attend institute, and what a blessing it is to have it in my life! I'm participating in the Choir, we just sang at a satellite broadcast fireside with Elder Christofferson, and I'm in a Teachings of Luke class. It's amazing to learn about the Savior in his own time. It really brings me closer to Him.

At the fireside we sang at, there were 2 songs. One was "Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" the other, "Be Thou My Vision." It's an old Irish hymn translated to English. It's one of the most beautiful pieces I've done! We get to sing it again for the Church Music Festival on Temple Square. That will be February 18th. We have a GREAT selection of songs that haven't been sung before which we will be performing for the church! I'm so excited!

Well, I finally did my update! Sorry that took soooooooo long! I'll try to do better, but no promises with how crazy this semester is going to be. All my love!

Tink

Fall And All That Comes With It

I'm baaaaaaack! ;)

Haha so can I just say how good it feels to change into gym shorts after wearing spandex all day? Not that I mind my spandex, but my legs feel like they can breathe now.

So I have to admit, I've had this obsession with Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. I looked it up with Steph, cuz she's never seen it before, then the music got stuck in my head. So I now have the soundtrack and I love it. Though it's still stuck in my head, its been better. hahah For those of you who haven't seen it, look it up on Youtube. It comes in 3 Acts, and there's 2 parts per act.

My room here in Ogden is looking beautiful! :) I couldn't love it more. It's been known to some people as the harem. Two walls are curtained from ceiling to floor, plus the curtains around my 4-poster bed, and a fireplace. Others have said it looks like a princesses room. I have to agree. I have all my pictures up and everything is organized.

My homework load is awful, and I'm still looking for a job... Though that doesn't take away from how much I love living here! My roommies have been awesome, too! Yesterday was Steph's birthday so we made a little cake :) Monica has some of the best stories when she gets home from school (being a teacher and all). Poor girl has to stay at the school today for PTC (Parent Teacher Conference), man I'm glad I'm done with those. Anywho. We are having a blast! Every Tuesday and Thursday nights we have a roommate dinner together. When that happens, we eat really well. Otherwise I'm living off of ramen, soups, the occasional sandwich, and tuna helper. Hahaha! I also have fruits and veggies to go with it, so no worries. I eat all healthy-like.

Rachel is now in the MTC. I wrote her a letter the other day, I hope she gets it!

I'll let you know when she responds. Jeff goes in tomorrow, so that'll be fun. I've discovered the dearelder.com thing... It's wonderful, I don't have to buy a stamp the whole time they're in the MTC! I'm a little bit cheap like that... ;)

This was at her farewell. The yellow wrap/scarf/thing I'm wearing, she picked out for me while she was living in Iraq this summer! Yeah, we're pretty much besties! :) I miss that girl...

Well, I'm just about done with my first round of exams this semester. Chemistry was only ok, but I learned what I need to do to get better for that one, so I should be just fine. Math exam I is tomorrow... Wish me luck!!! As for anatomy... I took the first exam and got an 86% which is pretty good. Then I got an email that night saying that my test got regraded and my score went up to 90%. I was stoked!!! The NEXT day I got yet another email saying one of the questions was bogus, and my score went up to a 92%!!! That was a good day :) That's school for the moment...

I went on a date on Saturday (I didn't know it was a date until halfway through it, but it's good, cuz I should be going on dates, not just hanging out). It was pretty awesome. I took him to the Golden Jade (my most favorite Chinese restaurant in Ogden!) and we went to the planetarium, wandered around the tailgate party that was going on that day, then we went ice skating! It was a blast. After that we did dinner at my apartment (some Hungarian chicken and noodle recipe). Of course we had to go see Flo... Have I not told you about Flo? Well the story goes...

Florence was a 15 year old girl who fell in love with her 18 year old boyfriend. Her father disapproved heartily, and tried to keep them separated. So her boyfriend told her to run away with him. The plan was he would park at the top of her street at midnight and flash his lights 3 times. Well, Flo was running late and thought she saw his lights flash, so she went running out into the road. At that moment a drunk driver hit her and she was instantly killed. To this day, if you go to her gravestone and flash your lights three times, her ghost will appear and walk out into the road, thinking you're her boyfriend, come at last to take her away.

The moon was too bright. She didn't show up for our date. However, I went earlier this year with Monica and Steph, and she did show up. Legend says she's a greenish glow, but it's really closer to a blue :) hahahaha. Oh the stupid things we think to do!

It would have been cool if she had come out... The day before that (Friday) was opening day 0f Frightmares at Lagoon! I got to go with another one of my friends :) There were NO lines to ANY of the rides!!! It was AMAZING!!! (This includes Wicked, Samurai, the Rocket, Colossus, etc.) We went on a lot of the rides twice, just cuz we could. The moon was almost full, and their theme this year is more vampire-ish, and I thought they needed more were-creatures. So coming into the station of the Roller Coaster, I pointed out the moon being full and howled really loud... I got a lot of laughs and people telling me to do it again. Tehehee.

Oh and earlier this month, we all went up to Stephs cabin at bear lake. Hilarious!!! It was so much fun!!! Steph's brother Tom is engaged, did I tell you? He's been home from his mission for 3 months. Yeah. Crazy. The date is January 11th. The girl is still in California (he met her there while on his mission). So my time at bear lake was my first time on a speed boat. We had a water weenie, and Monica can wakeboard!!! It was stinking hilarious! I got to kayak for a bit too, which I loved, but it was windy and kept pushing us back :P

Here we are at the cabin, falling asleep ;) haha it was fun!

Hum hum hum. That's all I can think of to really update you on. I'll try to be better about that haha. Have a good week :) Pray for me! Much love to all.

Peace!

Mar

Dachshund photos :) I miss my Danni Girl so much!!!

Back to Blogging

Well hi there, friends!

Yes, it's true, I'm back to blogging. School has started up again, summer is over, so I think I'll actually have stuff to write about. Yay!

I have two really awesome roommates. Stephanie is the first one, I've known her for like, ever. She's finally graduated high school and has moved up to the college world. Monica is our other roommate. She has graduated college and is now teaching English at a near by middle school. The three of us live in a HUGE apartment right next to my last apartment. So far it's been really good.

My classes are History, Chemistry (online, bugger), Math 1040 (haha yeah, didn't do so well in my last stats class, I guess that's what happens when you don't show up), Jazz Dance I (for funness, right? It's awesome), and Anatomy (yes, I'm retaking it for a better grade... Pray for me on this one). I also have an Old Testament class at institute that will cover a good part of Kings through Malachi. So far things are looking up, I'm just waiting for the last of my textbooks to arrive so I can start studying. Ugh, studying, how I hate it so. I also have to find a part-time job here real quick, otherwise I'll be outta luck. And money.

Today was only day two of school. I'm pretty tired, but I've been getting to bed earlier each night! My classes start at 8:30 am, which means I have to leave by 8:00 to catch the shuttle to school, which means I have to get up at 7:30. Joy. I do have chorale to look forward to on Wednesday evenings :) Then when it's over at 9, I'll go home and go to bed. Do you know the last time I was in bed before midnight? Yeah, neither do I. hahahaha!

So the rest of summer was pretty ridiculous. I just worked and worked and worked. The last 2 weeks of my job, I was called "Rachel" more often than "Mary" by the customers who came in. Cuz Rach usually lives at the shop, but so was I, and I guess we're starting to look alike... Anywho, twas kinda funny.

Speaking of Rachel's... Ray (Morelle, my best friend up here in Ogden last semester) is leaving on a mission September 15th!!! She was living in Iraq all summer, you know? When she came back, she brought me the most BEAUTIFUL scarf (head wrap) from there! It's yellow and black... I wore it to her farewell as a sort of scarf... Man it looks so pretty! She was happy to see it on me too, I think :) We will miss her for all 18 months she's gone. I promised to wait for her (she has to be in my wedding line, you see), and I'm totally gonna write her, so I'll keep you updated on how she's doing as well.

I can't really think of anything else right now. So I'll leave you with this blog and I'll be writing again soon! XOXO

Tink

JULY!!!

Ahoy there, folks!

July was the most AWESOME month, and I haven't written a thing about it yet! Oh No!!!

Well of course, the last day of June my Aunt Ginger comes and brings Randi and we just had a grand old time! On the 1st of July we went to the Kennecott Copper Mines here in Bingham. It's really quite amazing to see what they've done to the land and how everything works. (I found out that it's a very environmentally friendly mine.) It was dad's first time ever going. He enjoyed himself a lot :) Everything he looked at, he would go off about it from an engineering perspective, which was pretty cool, too. We had our 4th of July BBQ on the 3rd cuz the 4th was on a Sunday this year. Of course it was the bomb!!! Good food, good company, all around a great day. Especially going off to light our illegal fireworks we got from the Chinese kids who work next door to Sub Zero :) We'd drive to an empty parking lot, light one off, then drive away real fast! Hahaha it was great! While GG was here we also got to go to the Gardener Village in SLC (at 7200 S. I believe). It was a fun time. Good shopping and good food and of course good company (I do so love being with my family). She and Randi left on the 7th. We miss them! Also on the 7th though I drove up to Paris, Idaho with mom and dad after dropping those two off at the airport. We stopped by bear lake and drove home just in time for me to pick up a pizza and go to girls night!!!

Girls night at Sub Zero was so fun!!! We had pizza and drinks and music and p.j.'s and everything in between! We watched New Moon (Laykn had never seen it before, and Eclipse had come out in theaters the week before). Then we each grabbed a couch and slept over! It was pretty awesome :) The next big event would be my birthday...

We had planned on going up to Park City to go shopping, but mom got really sick that weekend! :( It was AWFUL! I've never seen her so sick. She did take me out to lunch at China Isle where I got my favorite, Mango Shrimp :) Then she gave me $50 to go out and shop with Beth. We spent most of our time at Rue 21. My favorite clothing store! Beth was awesome to shop with the whole day. That night we had some cake and some singing (and Rachel picking on Matt for a bite of his food, he was not happy about that). Overall, good day! Two days later we took Steph apartment shopping in Ogden. I have the greatest place!!! It's in the Christopher Village apartments, it's huge, it has a pool, and its quite, and very close to campus. I couldn't be happier. We have a 3rd roommate named Monica, but I'll get to those stories later.

Friday the 16th I got my wisdom teeth out. I looked like a chipmunk on botox according to Rachel. I woke up humming. Don't ask me why, but I was humming quietly to myself for the next 2 hours. I wouldn't even stop to talk to people, I just gave hand signals haha. Thumbs up or down. The nurses were very tolerant. On Sunday I made my mom give me bites of the steak they were having for dinner. Yum! For the most part though, I lived on mashed potatoes, pudding, soup (LOTS of soup), spaghetti-o's, and apple sauce. I lost some weight out of it, so I guess that's good? Monday I went to see the Wizard of OZ because my friends Melissa and Camille were in it! They did so so so so so so so good!!! Melissa was Glinda, and Camille was Dorothy. Isn't that perfect? It was wonderful, and so much fun to watch. I was back to work by the next Wednesday and Thursday was Chloe Flathers (now Chloe Garfields) wedding. What a great wedding! It was pretty much my dream wedding. They had the white tent set up beautifully in their backyard (I never really liked the idea of the tents, but it was gorgeous!), tables set up everywhere with good food and gorgeous bridals, a pool with running water (for background noise, maybe?), and a dance floor. The environment of the whole place was just fun! Everything was gorgeous and well put together. Of course it was, it's Chloe after all.

Want to hear my funny stories? I had also spent the last part of that week looking for a 3rd roommate. On the ad I put "STRONG LDS standards." Just like that, all caps. The first girl we met wasn't Mormon, but "lived by the standards." She was super nice, but dressed like a non-mormon. The next girl wasn't an active Mormon (I have serious reservations there, those ones are more likely to rebel against or not respect our standards). The 3rd girl was Monica, whom I adore! She's like 5' flat, or shorter, has red hair, is modest and cute. I felt so good about her. She was very confident and so sweet. The last girl I met was very presumptuous. We drove an hour and a half to meet her in Scipio, when she called and asked us to meet her in Aurora (another half hour down the road) so we did. She was coming from Richfield so the drive for her was about 20 minutes. She came with two boys she had met that day on the lake, and a girlfriend she met in May. We texted quite a bit before meeting and she said she was VERY active in the church. As we talked, she referenced a lot to her singles ward and her friends missions, etc. However, she came in a low-cut tank top and shorts (granted, they were bermuda shorts and very appropriate). My mom tried to think leniently because they had just come from a day at the lake, but the vibe from her was wrong. She was nice enough, but she didn't have enough common sense to think that other people might be looking at the room. She also seemed kind of spoiled. So all the next day she bugged me about if she was getting the room or not and I finally said sorry but no. I tried to be gracious about it. Her reply was "Well thanks for wasting my time. Bye. :)" I was so miffed. It just confirmed my choice. If I had chosen her and any sort of conflict arose in the apartment, that's the type of crap she'd give us. Nothing is ever going to be her fault. I drove 4 hours round trip to meet her and I didn't complain about her wasting MY time! Inconsiderate... I'm sorry, I'll be nice now. SO... Monica is who we chose. She's 24 and a teacher at Morgan Jr High School. She teaches English, and is 2 credits away from being able to teach French. She loves to cook (her favorite food is Thai :S She says it's just for the curry, not the peanuts, so no problems there, eh?).

Last Sunday I went to Bethany and Sarah's ward :) (They moved out to Provo together this summer! Fun!) Afterwards, they made me and Darcy Alfredo Tortellini. YUM! I've decided I want to put together a cook book for us college girls of things that are quick, easy, and nutritious. As well as things that don't require a lot of specific shopping, but more of general staples. Tuesday morning Darcy took me to the Temple. I did baptisms for the dead for some Hungarian girls from the 1840's and 50's. I don't know about the confirmations I was doing, but they were foreign names. My guess was Finnish, but they could've been Hungarian as well.

On Thursday I partied! I picked up Sarah and Bethany, telling Sarah we were taking them out to dinner. She thought we were going to SLC, but I kept driving and we went to Park City instead! She was so confused!!! At the hotel, I gave her a birthday card from her mom. Enclosed was $200 and a note saying happy surprise birthday, I'm treating you to a girls retreat! She had paid for a hotel room (which Darcy went up earlier to decorate) and Sarah was SO SURPRISED! We went to a fancy Italian restaurant for dinner, where it was $20/plate and they gave you half the amount of food than at a normal restaurant. It was good though. Then we wandered main street just talking and laughing and looking in shops. We met Summer Saunders! (If that's her correct last name...?) She was the Olympic Gold medalist for America in Swimming for the summer Olympics and she was on last season of Celebrity Apprentice! Sarah got a picture with her, she was very gracious :) AH! Awesome! So we went back to the hotel (after an adventure to find an open wal-mart... don't ask. haha.) and had ice cream cake and played Pit and watched P.S. I Love You. I've never seen it before now, and it was adorable!!! In the morning we ate breakfast, checked out and headed to the Alpine Slide and Coaster. (I still haven't ridden the Zip Line.) The Coaster was WAY fun!!! It's like the slide, but your strapped in so you can go as fast as you want!!! WOO!!! We headed back to Park City Main Street for some more shopping (I love the Olive and Tweed store!) and I bought the best caramel apple ever! It was a fresh green apple, dipped in caramel, dipped in mini M&M's!!! YUM! Then we went to the outlets, bought tons of new clothes :) and then headed home. Overall, great trip! Loved it :) And I think Sarah did too!

So now I'm home after a long day of work. The Rasmussen's are coming over after church tomorrow to celebrate dad's birthday and mine (they were in Arkansas for mine). So that should be fun :) July just flew, and I already have so many plans for August! Keep an eye on the 14th, cuz I'm moving back out, baby! I'm sorry I haven't updated more... Which means this post is way too long. I've been so busy! What a fun month! Now it's August (technically). Jessica's baby boy is due December 9th, so I guess we'll wait and see what happens there. Matthew moved out to Provo finally with some friends. He's happy. He has a great apartment too! I'm excited for him. So there's the newest news. Until next time, my friends!

Peace Out!

Tinkerbell

Summertime! It's a Bright Future!

Greetings!!!

Good news! The Water gardens Cinemark in P.G. is now a $3 theater! Think of all the shows I can see that I've missed before :) I'm quite happy... Speaking of which, there are so many new movies out to see right now! The Killers, Toy Story 3, Karate Kid, The A-Team, etc. And more to come! Rachel is taking me to see Eclipse when it comes out too. The Last Airbender is coming out soon so Alisha will take me to that one. I'm so excited!!!

I'm sorry I waited so long to update here... My little nephew (who really isn't so little) is now married. It all pulled together really well despite all the disagreements and upsets and miscommunication's. They are now moved down to Arizona to the military base there. It was a pretty fun wedding and ended up looking really nice despite having to have moved it indoors the night before. Yeah, CRAZY! Her colors were black, teal, hot pink, and orange. Her dress was super poofy, he wore his dress blues and his grin literally went from ear to ear. That was the best part of the wedding... Watching his face when he saw Elise that is. The whole day was good. I caught the bouquet! HAHAHA!!! Any bets on how soon I'll be married? ;)

My car got to be the sign bearer! I know, awesome, right?! Hahaha :) There ya go.

So there's my nephew Chris and myself. I was so happy for him! (Note: In this picture, I'm wearing my 4" stilettos!!! Chris is sooooo tall!)

Kissing his bride!!! How neat :) It was quite beautiful.

The next day was so lazy. No one in my family went to church, sadly. We were too exhausted. I was able to hit my good friends house for his farewell party though. Elder Tanner Spear departed for the MTC that Wednesday. He's off to New York! There's one more missionary I'll be meaning to write forever and prolly won't get around to it very often... He will be missed greatly. Tanner is amazing! We're super excited for him though! Also moving away, Bethany and Sarah! They moved to Provo together for the summer. The bums! Now who am I supposed to play with?! Hahaha I'll be in Provo a lot this summer :) No worries, I'm not stalking anyone at the MTC. As far as you know anyways... ;)

Other than that I've been working, and working some more... I have another consult about my wisdom teeth tomorrow. Wish me luck! They may come out within the next month.

Fathers day was so beautiful outside! It was our friends the Buchanan's farewell that day. They're going on a temple mission to Manhattan. Anywho, I got my dad 2 western books for his gift. I hope he likes them, the author is still alive... He usually reads books written by dead guys ;) hahaha We like to tease him about his age.

Today was my parents 26th anniversary. They took me on their date to Red Lobster. Hahaha. It was good though. I'm glad they're still together and happy and willing to take me with them on their dates. The waitress kept calling me "sweetie". I was about ready to start saying "thank you, dear" to everything she said, but I was nice. No one has called me sweetie that many times in such a short period of time...

Every day brings us closer to our big Celebration... You know what that is... The 4th of JULY!!!!!! WOOOOO!!!! Aunt GG is coming back up with Randi :) I'm so excited to have them here again! And I'm just as excited for that Bar-Bee-Que!!! Oh YUMMY!!! It'll be Danni's first 4th of July with us!

Funny thing, we were all thinking about all the things we do for our dog. All the things we let her get away with... Even with her own children, my mom was never so relaxed and tolerant about things like this. She's getting better as she gets older. Honestly though, Blue was never allowed on a bed, he was bathed maybe once a year, he stayed outside a lot... Danni gets to leave her toys on the couch (when we were young, that was a crime), she gets to eat on the couch, sleep in whoever's bed she wants to, go in or out, she's bathed about once a week, the list goes on and on!!! We love her though! She deserves all this good treatment. She's got a different personality than Blue did, so I guess in his own way Blue was spoiled too. He was happy at least! Danni is now too :)

Well this week will be busy. I have to go apartment hunting up in Ogden again this week, but I'm looking for 2 rooms now :) Yep, Stephanie is moving up there with me!!! Yay!!! Maybe she can help me get to bed early... er... hahahaha. I'm insane and took an 8:30 class Monday, Wed, and Fri cuz I really needed the class and that was the ONLY stinking time available. So there. Pray for me!!!

Much love!

Tink

Summertime! The Madness!

Well Hi! Thanks for stopping by the existential blog of a fairy princess (me... A.K.A. Tinkerbell, Tink, or Mary)

I had a pretty relaxed week, I must say. I saw Robin Hood for the second time (love it!!!) and I went hot tubbing with some friends down in Provo, reminiscing about the past. The rest of my time has been spent working. Though I got a lot of cleaning done today. My laundry is finally done (it's only been like 2 weeks since I last did it... I was running out of clothes!) haha. And all of my mom's windows are super clean!!!

I've been blowing all of my money on music lately. However, if your'e wondering, you should buy from Amazon.com and not Itunes. Amazon downloads straight your Itunes anyways, but it's cheaper and doesn't have all those nasty copyrights on them. The songs listed for $ .99 are just that much (no tax!!!) and it's very rare that I buy a song that costs $1.29 (again, no tax! Itunes will charge like $ .13 tax so it's like $1.42, yeah, rip-off!) So buy from Amazon!!! It's great! If you're buying text books though, I find ebay to be the best deal.

Good news about my wisdom teeth! The roots aren't formed, so if they get them out within the next 6 months, there is about a 2% chance of nerve damage, and the damage at worst-case scenario would be minimal (meaning a tingling in my lips for up to 6 weeks... no numbness or paralysis!) So we're happy about that. Though I'm not excited to get them out... I don't really wanna look like a chipmunk.

I officially broke up with Skyler (my latest fling...) but I guess I kinda did it at a bad time... He broke his knuckle (possible surgery for it), his best friend is having a hard time too, and then I break up with him... I don't think he's terribly happy. Now I feel bad. Kinda guilty.

Beth is finally home from Spain! Though she's moving to Provo here in about two weeks. It's good to have her home... We went cruising tonight, just like old times, listening to music, talking, and driving past some boys' houses. Hahahaha! Oh good times, good times :) It makes me think of how much has changed though. Two years ago I was graduating high school, not knowing real love or heartbreak, dog-less, my family on the brink of collapse, and no clue of what bigger things might lie ahead of me. Well, I'm still clueless about what's to come... I have a dog against all odds! I fell in love and had my heart broken, twice. I've broken hearts (granted one may have been before this two years that I'm going back). I realize that the only things I miss about High School are hanging out with all my girls all the time, Choir, AP Literature, and mostly, the football games! The sweet smell of dirty sweat, the crisp fall air, the cheering until my voice is gone, the friends who went with me, the painted face and ribboned hair, the list goes on and on.

Two years ago, I was sending out a missionary. That much hasn't changed, because here I sit two years later, ready to send out yet another missionary. I realize how lucky I am now. My family is all here to support me and love me. At my next graduation (which is hopefully soon, for my Associates Degree) things will go more smoothly, I'm sure. It's interesting to look back and remember packing my mom's suitcase for her as she moved out of our house. Then making a midnight call to the Bishop to let him know what was going on. Rachel had moved to her own place with Aaron (they were still newly-weds) and Matthew was in China on his mission. It was just me. By the end of that week I didn't even care if I had a graduation party or not (family tradition to throw a big dinner party for the grad), I just wanted to walk in my cap and gown and be done. Luckily, my family all decided they could get along for an evening and we did the party anyways. In my house. It was a little quiet, perhaps a little tense, but we were together and they tried to focus it on me. All my pictures look happy at least! No worries, things settled back down after that. I'm not sure if I had a hand in that or not... I like to think I did. What a nutty two weeks of my life that was! We did convince my mom to move back in but I guess we can all figure out the ending to this story seeing as how my family is still whole and happy. It just makes you think about life. Two years ago was a different time...

Today college is preparing my death (tehehe), I'm going into a field I never thought about until my senior year in high school, our family is no longer falling apart at the seams and is more than whole (my sister moved back in with a husband this time, and we adopted me a dog!), and here I sit, happy, content, I have a job and good friends and I still have my wisdom teeth.

Now we're preparing for another wedding! Not mine, not my brother's, but my nephew Chris! Ya know, the one two months older than me? Yeah, him! He's getting married in our backyard this Saturday. Here I thought the family feud's two years ago were nutty, this wedding is making this house a little crazy! It's quite insane! I love it... Hahahaha!!!!

Well, I guess we'll see what the next two years bring me. Hopefully acceptance to a nursing program, but I think I'll have about three years before that happens... In the meantime, I'll blog!

Madness does not always howl. Sometimes, it's the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "Hey, is there room in your head for one more?"

Until our next party!

Mary

Hahaha... Punny!!!! ;)

Kinda ugly, but I thought it funny...

Oh this one kills me!!! :P

Summertime! It's June!

Howdy!

Thought for the day: Frozen Jr. Mints are so much better than regular Jr. Mints :) Mmmmm...

So I ate birthday cake for breakfast this morning! It was so great. Thank you, Rachel, for having a 24th birthday so I could eat cake :) Then my beautiful sister Rachel also made me eggs. I have a great sister! I get to lay in her bed (after her husband goes to work) and watch Grey's Anatomy reruns with her on her new laptop. My life is complete. Hahaha

I got to give my stinky dog a bath today too. Now she smells like Pure Seduction by Victoria's Secret. YUM! Now I don't mind giving her lots of kisses and loves :) It's been a happy day.

I want everyone to know that I'm officially in love with Russell Crowe. He is my hero. He is the perfect gentleman in every movie I've ever seen him in. He's pretty ripped for someone his age too... I believe that everyone on screen brings some of their own personality into the characters, so I've got him down as someone a little bit quiet, but who knows when to be funny and have fun. Not to mention that deep, slightly raspy voice. So now I'm just going on about my crush on Russell here. I'm sorry. But DANG! I like him... Or at least I like his characters. Yeah, that's a more accurate statement seeing as how I don't actually know him. Too bad they're all fictional. Oh well. I'll eventually find a personal Russell Crowe character, right? We're just going to agree with me and say yes :) Basically, Robin Hood = My Hero and the best movie this summer. Though Iron Man 2 was great, I fell in love with Robin. Tony Stark is awesome too though. In a very different way I think. Robert Downy Jr. is another extremely attractive man... Sherlock Holmes, anyone? Oh yeah! K, I'm really done now, I swear!

So my life is still centered around work... I work about 5 day's a week. Though next week I only work 4 cuz my nephew Christopher is getting married in my back yard!!! We've kind of been planning everything. My mom was gonna make me play the wedding march as his fiancée walked down the aisle, but it's been hard to plunk out, so it looks like I'll hire a slightly more talented friend who can play it more smoothly. It'll be so nice to have it here, but there's a lot to do! Of course, I remember going though it all for Rachel's wedding too, though I guess it was a little different...

Get this, 2 of my ex's are trying to talk to me a lot lately. It makes me laugh. Whatever though, I'm in a good place right now. I dunno why I decided to share that other than it's kind of making me laugh to think about it.

OH! So I was working tonight and I was freezing the top of someones ice cream (already scooped into the cup) and I was wearing a rubber band around my wrist, but nitrogen got on it and totally froze it!!! I though it was frozen to my skin at first but I pulled it away and it was just really stiff in that one part. It was hilarious! It was frozen solid! However, looking at it now, I guess it did freeze to my skin a bit cuz I have a very long, oval shaped burn blister on my wrist (instead of a rubber band indent like I usually have at the end of the night). It's pretty awesome looking actually. Yeah...

That's all I can think of for this week. I'm going to go see Prince of Persia tomorrow afternoon with Sarah (then go out to lunch with her too, if we have time) I'm excited! I'll let you know how it is :)

Much love to all!!!

Tink

More doggie pics? It's been awhile...

Mwahahahaha!!!

I thought the Godzilla concept on this one was well played :) And Hilarious!!!

I know it's not a Dachshund, but dang that is funny! Poor dog is having identity problems ;) hehehehe...

Missionaries, Movies, and Sunshine in May!

My, my, it has been awhile, hasn't it?

Luckily, my life hasn't gotten much more interesting in the past few weeks, so you're not missing out on much.

I lied about the sunshine...partly. Yesterday I woke up to 2 feet of snow in my backyard and more coming down. Yes, snow!!! I was a little bitter about that. However, by that evening, most of it had melted down to a lot of water. Today has been sunnier and warmer :)

I finally saw Iron Man 2. It was fabulous!!! It inspired me to dye my hair red... So I did. I look pretty different, but I like it a lot. Some people have told me it looks really natural. Yeah, I think they're a little crazy too. However, it's been lightening up a little, so it does look more natural now. Anywho, it's fun for a month. I really like it. I'll be happy to be blonde again though :) Oh, I also saw Letters to Juliet with my dear friend Sarah. It was so funny and so cute! Definitely a good romantic comedy for chick flick night.

My big asian brother (from another mother), Alex Hironaka, got home from his mission in South Carolina a few weeks back. How fun to have him home! We almost have the whole group back together again now! We're just waiting on Zack, who's in Japan till October.

Tom (yes, my ex-boyfriend, dear-johned while gone, Tom) is now home from his mission. Apparently the day he got home, he drove himself to Provo to pick up his girlfriend so she could meet the family. She speaks very little English (she's Mexican), and he met her while teaching her family in California where he served. I guess she continued to write him, and now (less than one week later) they're an item! He did text me when he got home... He wanted to "thank me for everything I taught him." I can't imagine what he's referring to at this point. He also wanted me to know that "he's moved on and all we'll ever be is just friends." Thank you, Tom, for informing me of this information. I feel so much better about dating other people... There's been no contact since, but I hear his name a bit more often now due to the fact that his little sister is a good friend of mine and a potential roommate at Weber next year. He got right back into texting, gaming, and having his earphones around his neck 24/7. It's a little disappointing to see people come home and fall right back into the things that weren't so good for them before. I worry about those people sometimes. I dear-johned him mostly because I thought his priorities were messed up and I wanted him to focus more on his mission... It didn't work all that well I guess. However, good for him for finding a girl. My bet is, he'll be married before the year is up. He wanted that for himself in life anyways... Marriage, and a really big family. More power to him if things work out well with whoever-she-is.

It brings certain thoughts to mind though. What if, you have a falling-out of sorts with someone before they leave, and then when they return, you find that you can't trust them to not fall back into those same habits as before? Am I not putting enough faith in these people, or am I lacking experience and putting too much faith into them? Does everyone fall back into the same habits when they return? Or do they gain insight, maturity, and ability to be independent? Or is it somewhere in between...? What if, what if, what if... I'm beginning to hate those words. What if it's purely psychological on their part? What if it's pressure from family or peers? What if the problem lies entirely in myself? What if I don't ever take the chance? What if I get hurt again? I'm kind of going off on my own little train of thought now... Sorry. Though the big question, will I be asking the same what-if's when friend's 2 years are up? Some food for thought. As I said, those words, what if, are not my favorite right now. (Though if you've ever played the game "what if" it's a crack up!!! I love it!)

My dog has been throwing up the past few days. I'm really worried about her. Nothing else is out of whack though. She's still energetic and loving and happy, and she's not scratching at the inside of her ears anymore! Mom say's she's stressed. Though I wouldn't know why... She say's its probably because we've been leaving her alone for longer than usual, and she hates being alone. I'm gonna try to work on that, see if it doesn't help. She's so funny, I have a great story for you! I was laying on my parents bed, telling them how she was doing something, then came to the door and started howling. So I imitated her howling and whimpering, and she came running!!! She just jumped up on the bed and snuggled up next to me like "I'm here, don't be sad, you're not lonely!" It proved true again tonight when I was making whimpering noises like when she's lonely or something, and she came running again to come lick my face and she stayed by me. What a thoughtful, loving little dog I have :)

In other news, I finished "Wicked". It's a good book. The ending is a little weird, though I liked it, I think. If you've seen the musical, it is not in any way, shape, or form similar to it. (I like the story line of the musical better to be honest...) Haha so there we go! Good book, though a little risqué... There are some pages worth skipping, sadly. He's a very detailed author, and it was great, for the most part.

I doubt anyone wants to hear about my dentist appointments or my mundane work schedule so I'll spare you. Well, maybe not, cuz there's a really funky story about my wisdom teeth. My top ones aren't to worry about, I probably won't need them taken out. The bottom ones are a different story though... The bottom left is impacting (luckily, I have a permanent retainer on those teeth, so it can't do much damage) but the worst is my bottom right wisdom tooth. Not only is it impacting on my bottom teeth, the root is also on my mandibular nerve. (The nerve provides sensation to that half of my jaw, top and bottom teeth on that half, as well as skin surrounding [gums, lips, upper neck, etc]) Which means no oral surgeon is going to want to touch it! However, even if I keep the retainer my whole life, there's still a high risk for infection in the pockets of gum... So I guess we'll see what happens. He say's not to worry about it for a few more years anyways. Great, eh? (Just FYI, there is a possibility that the root is not on the nerve, but next to it, however, we can't tell cuz the picture is 2D).

Next movies on my list: Robin Hood (with Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchet) and Prince of Persia (Jake Gyllenhall or something like that, and some other girl)

Farewell for now my bloggers. Whoever reads this... Hahaha, maybe it's just myself :P Much love.

Tink

Mother's Day and Rain in May!

Aloha my friends.

It's been a smooth sailing week here in the rockies... Hahahaha okay I'm done with the cheesy, whatever that was. Yeah so pretty much all I do now is work and work out. It's great! I suppose... Luckily, I should be earning enough money to put me through another semester (hopefully two). I'm searching for a new job though. I want to find work as a CNA, if I can. Otherwise, Ice Cream is cool too.

Good news! I knocked 4 minutes off my 2 1/2 mile run!!! :D YAY!!! 4 MINUTES! I'm in better shape than I thought. It's grand.

I'm so sleepy right now... I've had this great routine ever since I came home that I go to bed at like 1 and I get up by like 10. Having 9 hours of sleep each night is soooooo nice. Except last night. When I went to bed at 3:30, woke up a couple times (I do love my dog), and then got up at 7 to help mom clean house. She hosted a luncheon for some local ladies (the daughters of Utah pioneers) so I got to clean, set up tables, then get ready for the day, then run around to Kneaders and Costco like a chicken with it's head cut off. Great fun! During which, my sister calls me and beg's me to work for her cuz she accidentally scheduled someone for the day shift that couldn't work... So I ate a fabulous sandwich in my sisters bathroom with my dog (so as not to disturb the ladies meeting, they discuss genealogy and share ancestral stories) then went to a 5 1/2 hour shift. More money for me! Woot!!!

When I got home, there was no dog to greet me. I felt oddly empty inside because of that. Then my brother proceeds to tell me that my mom took Danni to the Vet. Then he leaves. OH NO!!! I can't get a hold of mom... Two days ago Danni threw up and acted very lethargic. I was worried she was sick, but Rachel and Aaron have been miserably sick, so I figured she got something from trying to chew up their snotty rags... She seemed to be getting better though, so I was freaking out at this news! Mom just took her because she won't stop scratching her ears (her right ear especially), which is a sign of infection, and I guess she just got sick of it. So the vet took a look, and yes, Danni has an ear infection. In both ears :( My poor baby. So now we have to clean her ears twice a day, then administer an ointment, and give her some pills. So it'll all be good by the end of this week! No more scratching, and my baby will feel better :) It's quite a blessing cuz I've been so worried about her the past few days. I have a full set of vitals and a log of abnormal behavior from her... Yeah, I got a little obsessive. She threw up! I was worried! Don't judge me...

Haha So I realized that Sunday (yesterday) was my first real mothers day! I have a baby dog!!! :) My grandma always gave me and my sister something for mothers day cuz we're future mothers... I felt like it was somehow validated this year ;) hehehe. So here I sit, on my bed, with my baby dreaming right next to me. I think she's chasing something... Haha!

On a different note, I think there's a possibility that I may or may not have been dumped... He hasn't talked to me in over a week. He won't respond to any of my messages either. However, this type of thing has happened before (he left cell service areas to do some work for his uncle), and when I got all worried, I think he agreed with a text of mine saying "you'd respect me enough to not break up with me by randomly ignoring me forever, right?" (or something to that effect). He also said he'd give me warning if that sort of thing were to happen again. Soooo... I'm really not sure! Hahaha not like it matters. Though it would kinda blow if I were to be dumped like that. Or even dumped. We weren't really official anyways. And we're not exclusive... I'm kinda excited, cuz my brother set me up with a track star at UVU from Ghana! His skin is that really awesome dark dark dark black and he's super fast, and he's got a cool Ghanaian accent (which I have to listen really hard to understand sometimes haha :P) So, yeah. I feel weird putting my "love life" on the blog... It's entertaining though cuz it's a little weird, so I'll leave it be.

Oh yeah, I should probably update ya'll on Patty. We went to visit her for mother's day (it was a very nice mothers day... My brother Matt and I made egg drop soup together for my mom, and we found out my brother Brett might come to Utah for a week this summer!!! I'm stoked!!!) Anywho, Patty is getting stronger every day. She pretty much just eats, sleeps, and takes med's, but she can cough better, and move her arms more, and look alert for longer. She's doing so well!!! :)

I guess that's all for now. Aloha!

Tink

Tender Hearts and Snow in May

Ahoy there!!! I know it's been a bit longer than normal; I haven't been around a computer lately.

I have SO MUCH good news to share!!! First, finals are finally over!!!!!! YAY!!!! I moved home Thursday (the 22nd of April), but I never really stayed home. I had a date, I worked, and my friends wanted to play with me! Then on Sunday (the 25th) I moved back... basically. I moved up to Scott and Patty's for a little while to play mom whilst Patty was in heart surgery.

Every day Sunday through Wednesday, I drove an hour from Plain City to Salt Lake, then an hour back. On top of which, Sunday I had the drive up to Plain City from Alpine and Wednesday from Plain City to Alpine. Plus Monday, From Salt Lake (from Plain City) to Provo, to Alpine, to Plain City. It was exhausting! I'm glad I did it though. I love spending time with my nieces and it was great that I could help out when I was needed. As for Patty's surgery...

Everything went so so so so so so well! Even better than expected!!! The Dr came in Monday morning, and took her in an hour before she was scheduled. The surgery was a complete success. She didn't even need to stay on the by-pass machine once they put the heart back in. It started back up without having to shock it or anything. We had made contingency plans just in case something went wrong, or it turned out she needed a transplant, or whatever, but we assumed I'd stay with the girls the whole week anyways if all went as we hoped with the surgery because they would probably keep her for 2-3 weeks in the hospital. Guess what, though? It went better!!! I got to come home Wednesday night. There was nothing left for me to do... The girls all have rides to school, the house looked pretty clean, and everyone was so relieved that they didn't need the psychological support all that much either.

They're hoping to bring Patty home Monday (the 3rd of May), but it'll probably be Tuesday. Either way, it's fast!!! I go up to the hospital with my mom to see her plenty still. The first night I saw her (Tuesday after the surgery) she was hooked up to about 7 different IV lines and wires and tubes were everywhere. Now, less than a week later, she's off of everything, she's walking and eating whole foods... It's a miracle! Thank you to all of you who prayed for her. Even the doctors in the operating room said there was a lot of inspiration coming in. The nurses on her floor all knew her as "The Miracle Lady". After a surgery that big (especially being a 2nd time around) they were expecting a train wreck lady... We are all so grateful for the prayers, the blessings, the inspiration received (and given) and for the support.

Well... That's really all there is to it. Patty is great, the whole family is great, I'm finally home, my dog is amazing, and I finally have time to blog a little. I've been running around like a crazy person as of late :) It's good though. I like being able to stay busy. I can't wait until my friends all get home from school. I ended before everyone else...

Oh! More good news!!! Alex Hironaka, my Asian brother from another mother, is home from his mission! He's got just a bit of a southern drawl (North Carolina mission) and he's got that glow! It's so wonderful to see him home. Soon my other (little) brother, Ashton, will leave. This is so crazy! Matt's guy friends are all starting to get married now. It's creeping me out... It's one thing that my girl friends are all getting married, but now my guy friends will be doing it soon cuz they're all getting home from missions! At least I have my dog ;) hehehe...

Welcome May. Please stop snowing. Yes, snowing. I woke up to 2 inches of snow on the lawn on Saturday... the 1st of May! This is killing me!!! I want sunshine!!! Anywho...

I really think that's all now. My life is about to be consumed by work again, now that the stress of finals, moving, and surgery are over. So I dare say, this summer may not have as many updates. Ice Cream shop stuff isn't as entertaining as the rest of my life... Hopefully I'll finish reading "Wicked". Maybe I'll put my room back together too ;)

Fare thee well, my unseen friends. Enjoy your lives. I'm happy in mine, and so should you be.

Tinkerbell

My Life In Blog (FINALS! AHHHH!)

Oh the funny things that happen in my life! Hello my digital friends.

Run for your life!!! It's finals week!!! If I were to be abducted by aliens right now, I don't think I'd mind. HAHAHAHA! Yeah... I have a massive headache right now but I can't sleep. So I'll blog. Hey, I think it's a step up from facebooking. I facebook enough of my life away anyways haha ;) It's been an entertaining week though, so I've got plenty to talk about. I also have some serious things that I will be posting this week as well.

It is officially finals week. The most hectic and craziest week of my life, which comes twice a year (until I start summer semesters, then it'll come thrice!) I only have to take my Anatomy, Physiology, and Microbiology finals. As well as write a paper. It's the only paper I've had to do this semester! Yay! My anatomy lab final I took on Friday... Please pray that I did well on it! Other than that, I'm just getting ready to go home come Thursday morning when my last test is over! I can hardly keep myself from packing. Though, I really love living in my apartment and being on my own, something is just pulling me back towards Alpine... Probably Danni :) I miss my little doggie so much. I woke up crying twice the past week because I've had dreams that she died. I could hardly stand it. She has brought more joy into my life than I can express. I'm just so glad to have her, I can't imagine not having her anymore... 3 more days!

I've been going over my fall schedule already. I'm working on generals and such, and boosting my GPA and I realized today as I walked from the Science Lab building to the Student Services building and then back to the Science Lab building, that I may have my Associates degree before I get my RN! Generals are much easier to knock off while your waiting for a spot in the nursing program. I doubt I'll get in my first application (next spring, I can't believe I missed the deadline this spring!) So the spring after that is the plan. Which means I'll have 2 semesters left to get my RN starting Fall 2012. They apparently take applications yearly instead of semesterly. It would've been nice to know that before hand... In the meantime I pray that my finals go well enough that I won't have to retake Anatomy or Physiology. Though if I do have to retake one, I really really hope it's not gonna be Physiology. UGH!!! Keep your fingers crossed folks! Keep a wary eye on April 2011, I may just get a degree!!! Albeit, a degree of generals without my RN...

OH!!! MY GOODNESS!!!! My choir put our spring show on, Saturday the 17th. I cannot tell you how amazing it was!!! I spent Friday night from 6:30 to 11:15 in our dress rehearsal. Ugh. That's the one bummer about shows, night-before dress rehearsals are painful. However, I did survive and Saturday morning, I got up, got ready, left my house at 5 to 1:00 and off we went. We had the pre-show devotionals (I love the institute for that), then went on-stage at 2:30 and did a killer matinée! Afterwards, we all headed down to the institute where we got free lunch! Subway! Yum!!! Then we got to chill there from 4-6, when we went back to the nice big auditorium here on campus and started the evening pre-show devotional. The evenings performance was indescribable. The spirit that was felt there was so strong. My numbers were first and last, so between them we gathered in the holding room around the piano and sang hymns and the EFY medley. What is a better way to spend that time? My family (well, mom, dad, and Rachel) were in attendance which made it that much better. After the show was over, we walked out discussing it and a lady walking in front of us turned around, and with tears in her eyes said, "Thank you. I got the announcement in Relief Society to come to this, so I did, and I am so glad. Thank you so much for performing." I was touched! Everything that my choir teachers had said to me about the reason for our performance came out in those few words from a kind stranger. Not to mention, college performances are just another step up from anything I did in High School. Amazing!!! :D

Sunday was a wonderful day, the weather was warm, church was good, and I had an unexpected suprise! My home teacher called me to see if he could make dinner for me (he's trying to clear out his pantry before moving home). So he came over and made some killer spaghetti. He served his mission in Italy, so it was pretty legit. We didn't have onions or meat so we shredded a carrot into the sauce and used tuna fish! Crazy, right? Well an Elder on his mission couldn't eat hamburger meat, so they used tuna once. It was amazingly good! Then he invited me on a hike for Monday morning. I said sure! Then he decided we should do a sunrise hike. Yikes!!! I don't do mornings! However, I already agreed to go, so I said okay, and at 6:20 am he sent me a text saying "look out your window" and there he was, ready to pick me up and go! We hiked up waterfall canyon to the waterfall itself! It was so big due to the snow melting! Totally worth the sunrise hike. We got to watch it rise over the valley on our way down. It was beautiful!!! Talk about a home teacher going above and beyond in his calling :)

On a more serious note... I ask those of you who may read this (I know, there's not many of you) to pray for my dear sister-in-law this week. She's going into heart surgery next Monday. They will be taking out the heart, putting her on a heart and lung machine, so they can work on the back of it. She's had this surgery once before, and it was a long recovery... This one may be longer. The operation holds a lot of risks... She may need a heart transplant, the heart may not restart and she may be hooked up to a machine for as long as a few months, or there's a possibility of death. I myself am confident that things will work out just fine. She has a wonderful husband (my brother) who is a worthy priesthood holder and will give her a blessing, and she has the prayers of all her family and friends. I know I'm moving home on Thursday, but I'll be back up in Ogden Saturday for Matt's track meet (yay!) and to move the heavy duty furniture out, then on Sunday I'll go live in Plain City to take care of the cutest girls in the whole wide world, my nieces, while their mom is in recovery. I should be in Alpine again by Wednesday.

It's gonna be a crazy summer, I can feel it. My boy is moving out of state early may, my best friend up here at Weber (Rachel, you remember her, right? Love the girl!) is moving to Iraq for a year with her family, (Her dad supplies water to the troops over there, so that's where business is, and that's where family follows), and my best friend in Alpine doesn't get home till June. Aw shucks.

Well, I guess that's all for now. I'm sorry this was a freakishly long post! I feel so long-winded... Not good. :S Anywho... Pray for me for finals week!!! I'll let you know when I kick butt in that wrestling match ;) hahahaha!

Peace be with you.

Tinkerbell

Life, and Love, and Why...

Greetings!

Again I sit on my bed, curtains drawn to make me feel childish, and raindrops outside my window. School ends this week! Then next week finals go from Tuesday to Thursday and I'm done! We still have to figure out what to do with my furniture. I found that I like my hair wavy, it also saves time blow-drying it, cuz I don't anymore! It's getting longer now, long enough to curl well without a dryer. It's also going back to my natural golden color. It's a dark blonde right now. Though talking about my hair seems extremely irrelevant to anything in life...

We played water polo today in swim class. I do love that sport! Today's game was much more competitive than usual, it was quite entertaining. I'm much stronger in the water now than I was at the beginning of the semester! I'm quite happy with my improvement. I think it's always important to keep reaching to do better in life. So I don't feel too bad about being proud of myself in this instance. Haha.

Today marks 3 months until I turn 20! Just some trivia for you there... :)

I worked 12 hours at Sub Zero in one day this weekend. Double shift Saturday. Plus 6 hours Friday night. Dang, I'm gonna get a good paycheck next week!

Now I'm debating as to whether I should change my relationship status on Facebook or not ;) Hahaha! See, there's this guy. I met him my junior year of High School when we had a class together. We were mean, and I mean brutal to each other! Not to mention, I was dating someone on his team at the time... Now, 3 years later (2 of which we had little to no contact) we met up somewhere, started teasing each other again, and now we're dating. Go figure! It happened really fast, but at the same time not...? We went on quite a few dates last summer where we got to be pretty good friends, then we just stopped talking. Then in January-ish we started talking again, went out a few more times, and ba-da-bing ba-da-boom. Though I've never actually had a serious conversation with him... Basically all we ever do is tease and flirt. It's great fun! What's funnier is that early in the morning, before going to bed, we were texting and I challenged him to a wrestling match (it started out as an arm-wrestling match...) and my pride, or maybe ego, got in the way and I told him he was gonna lose. He's 5'11", 180 lbs, and maybe 2% body fat... I'm 5'10.75" and 145 lbs, maybe 16% body fat. I'm screwed, aren't I? Don't tell him I said that, I'm still trash talking it!!! ;)

So I have to say... My good friend writes stories. The ones I read are her fan-fiction stories mostly about JackSparrow (yes, from Pirates of the Caribbean). Though these stories were mainly meant to entertain and be good stories, they hold so much more sometimes. These flashes of brilliance (besides the brilliance of her writing!) come across to me and make me ponder all sorts of things in life. In one story of her's she asks the question: "Where do you find hope?" Not that I've ever had trouble finding hope, but honestly, it's a good question! Where do I find it? I don't even know the answer... I have my religion, which is helpful, but if you think about it, when you're totally hope-less, how can you reach into yourself to find it? Where do you go if not in your own self? Just a thing to ponder...

Another thing she said in a different story... "that to speak truth and lie with actions, is the worst kind of lie, in every way." Why did that hit home for me so much? Because people have told me things, no, not things, they've told me the truth about what it is they were saying. Yet they're actions weren't congruent with their words. It's caused unimaginable pain... To know what they say is true, to feel it, yet to see them do something else. I guess the word for it is hypocrisy. That's all there is to it, really. And it is the worst kind of lie. The hope that one can feel, yet the trust that gets betrayed. I think about this more than I should. It's mildly absurd, I always feel like I'm too young to have felt or feel anything so deep. This is why I don't tolerate hypocrites, they can burn entire relationships to the ground, then burn any bridges to get back. I've often gone on tangents about this sort of thing before, I won't start into another one now. The really sad thing is, it's not just me who knows this. There's more hypocrites in the world than one might imagine. Anywho! Funny how one sentence in one story can provoke so much thought. I swear sometimes this girl is writing about my life in pirate version. Hahaha!

So that wasn't the happiest note to end on. I will give my disclaimer here that I am not depressed, nor feeling hurt by things past anymore (most of the time, except for those rare, really bad days that everything goes wrong, so you think back and feel all "woe is me," but today nor any day in awhile has been like that...) The thought was provoked by a story, at 3 am. At 3 am, emotions can run a little higher than normal. Life is happy, especially if I don't think about the past! It's the past... Besides, I have too much on my mind with the present alone, and I try to plan out my future constantly. It's a lot of work for one girl.

So this is my current contemplations of Life, and Love, and Why... Tune in next time to hear about Psychology and Boredom and How ;) Not really... Life and Love and Why is a good song by the band Switchfoot. If you're interested.

Much Love! Peace!

Tink

It's April... Fools and Easter!

Happy Easter All!!! :)

I'm sitting here in my room, listening to the raindrops outside my window (being grateful it's no longer snowflakes...for the moment anyways), and I've just put up some bed curtains! I have this great 4-poster bed and my mother dear bought some curtains for it... I thought it'd be a pain to put them on, but it was actually really easy! I'm quite confident in my ability to take apart and put back together all of the furniture in my room now... Thank you IKEA! So I basically feel like a little kid again, cuz I'm in this wonderful fort (my bed with curtains), it's raining outside, I'm playing games, and I have very little homework to worry about. Another good point to 4-post beds: Laundry. I can hang my clothes over the connecting bars up top (where my curtains now hang) so they can dry! It makes life so easy to have the extra space to hang things like that when my closet doorway is full or something :)

Life otherwise is pretty uneventful... I did really really good on the multiple choice section of my physiology test, which usually I don't do as well on, but the long/short answer bumps me up, so we'll see what happens with this test... Easter Sunday was awesome! Big dinner with the whole family (minus grammy, she's sick. We should pray for her) and it's Jackie's 14th birthday on the same day! Fun!

So on top of the huge dinner, we had about 3 tons of easter candy... Then birthday cake! Oh Mamma Mia! Speaking of which... Last Thursday lunch at Institute was Fettuccine Alfredo. Normally, I don't really like Alfredo, but this stuff was GOOD! It had chicken in it too. My point is, Rachel and I dressed up Italiano this week :) I was in a red shirt with a black and white scarf, and she was in a black shirt with a red scarf! We looked pretty good if I do say so myself.

Oh my goodness, I almost forgot... April Fools day!!! I played the greatest prank on my entire institute class!!! Rachel and I got there extra early so we could switch all of the chairs around to face the back of the room... Then I wheeled the teachers desk to the back of the room and we took our seats in the back (which used to be the front) so we could watch all the reactions... Our teacher laughed and went along with it. Others were extremely confused! Those who usually sit in the back, couldn't sit in the new back cuz it was the front but they couldn't sit in the old back cuz it was the new front. So the whole non-assigned, but the usual seating chart got messed up big time! It was great. Then throughout the lesson, secretaries and other teachers kept popping their heads in to see it cuz the word spread that things got a little messed up in our classroom... Hehehehehe.... 'Twas fun!

I have to say, I'm so proud of myself! In swim class, we're learning the butterfly... I'm terrible! I look like I'm having seizures across the water between breaths. Haha!!! However, it is kind of fun, and I'm getting better! On the downside to this fabulous work out and new skill learned, I suck in a lot of chlorine water... Then when I go to choir in the evenings, my voice gets all scratchy. Oh well!

Our Spring show for choir is April 17th. There's a matinée and then an evening performance, it's gonna be really good!!! :)

And I guess that's all... Much love till my next post!

Tinkerbell