Anthropologie LOVE

I LOVE when friends come to visit! I get to feel like I'm on vacation with out even leaving! The spring semester just ended in Idaho and some boys from my ward @ school road tripped it to Seattle. Danny, wearing the hat, is insanely musically talented. Vince is in green- I actually hadn't met him before they came, but by the end I felt like I'd known him a while. Marc in the orange is the BYU-Idaho Student Body President and his cousin Lincoln is on the end in blue. Marc and Linc are from the middle of nowhere in Arizona and they were my home teachers Winter Semester.

We spent a day on the boat, did the downtown Seattle thing, took a ferry over to Bainbridge Island, took our friend's barge out on Pine Lake, ate good food, laughed and then laughed some more. It was GREAT to have a break from work/regular life.

One thing I love about these guys is how much I laugh with them! I swear, the majority of boys only contribute humor that is crude or condescending, but not them! :) Their never ending bad puns, relief society impersonations, and stupid red-neck accents are enough to entertain me! So we laughed and laughed and laughed. Even after we were in bed, I could hear them all laughing in the other room. They were like little girls that couldn't stop giggling it was hilarious! I know my parents enjoyed having them- they did all their dishes, made their beds, did FHE for the family, bought my mom fresh flowers, and talked golf with my dad. My parents keep telling me to just pick one and marry him! If only it were that easy!

My old roommate Kelsey Johnson has arrived home from her missionary service in the Philippines! She served in the Bacolod mission for the last year and a half, and I'm glad she's back! FINALLY! I got to visit her in Denver for a long weekend and hear her report on Sunday. Man she inspired me to get back into shape spiritually! (She is the tall white one in the picture!)

I think her mom bought the entire cereal aisle before Kelsey came home! This wasn't even all of them! We had a handful of each cereal for breakfast. It was her first breakfast with out rice for the last 18 months. As you can see from my face, 11 different cereals is my version of a gourmet breakfast. I LOVE CEREAL! :)

Kels will be back in Idaho w/ me in the fall! WOO!

HONEY

We got a dog! She is a mix of a German Shepherd and a Rottweiler. Santa finally answered the last two decades of christmas letters! Her name is Honey.... i know, i know, I wanted to name her BoneThug but the previous owner named her Honey and that is what she responds to. She belonged to some friends of ours who train dogs, but they were moving into a small town home and already had 2 other dogs so there just was not space for Honey. So she is officially Ms. Honey Bell!

I've always gagged at pet-obsessed people who worry about their little pooch being home alone, but I might be turning into one of them! Don't worry, she can't fit in my purse.

I took a course this last month to be a Nurse's Assistant because its a pre-req for some RN schools. I took my state exam today and I passed which is such a relief! I'm excited I have that done and I'm officially a CNA! :) So LEGIT! Here's a random picture of me with "Mr. Joshua"

I'm home now! Living with the parents, just working and trying to find friends that aren't wasted...

Rather bored... No new news. No boys. Going to the singles ward. Wooooooo!

Winter Semester has ended!

Recent thoughts:
Oh the joys of my YOUTH are so evident right now... enduring finals to get credit for courses that apply toward nothing other than nursing schools that "regret to inform" me I've been REJECTED, packing up every item I own every 3 months so I can scrub down another old apartment, and drive hundreds of miles alone to move back in with the parents to go to the same ole creeper-filled singles ward where I have no friends...

Now with all that self-pity in mind, you can better understand how happy it made me to take a week break. Before driving home to work all summer, I took a road trip with Dustin, Sam and their roommate Brant. They decided not to shave for the week so they all look extra hairy. I made 3 rules for the trip with the boys: #1- No farting, #2- No burping, #3- Remember I'm a girl! (They did a pretty good job up until the very end!)
Here's a recap of the best week ever:

Sunday: drove from Rexburg to St. George, stayed at Dustin's cousin's.
On the way down we saw a sign for a historical site in the middle of nowhere so we hopped out to stretch and look around. We were at Cove Fort which is apparently a church site, so the missionaries gave us a tour.

Sam is next to me on the left, Brant is the bald one on my other side and Dustin is the one on the end.
Monday: St. George to Las Vegas

4-wheeling and cliff jumping

Spent the evening roaming Caesar's Palace and the Bellagio! So much to look at! (I'd never been to Vegas) Slept @ Dustin's Aunt's in Vegas.

Tuesday: Drove from Las Vegas to Temecula (inbetween L.A. and San Diego) to stay with Liz

Spent the rest of the day at the park, went a movie that night

Wednesday: Baptisms @ the San Diego Temple

Mexican Food - Mmmmm delicious flautas!

Afternoon: playing in the ocean/sand, Bonfire and dinner on the beach


Thursday - Six Flags: Magic Mountain (met up with my roommate Catherine)

Friday - Met up with a friend to take out her Jet Skiis in San Diego. Its all about WHO you know :)

Left San Diego, drove forever and arrived at Dustin's Aunt's @ 4am in Highland Utah. We drove through the night because we wanted to jet ski but our friend was getting married in Utah in the next morning.

Saturday - John Tidwell's Wedding: Salt Lake Temple

We went to the luncheon and then drove back to Rexburg from there. So there it is!

I turned off my phone for most of the trip so my fun could not be interrupted. I ate whatever I wanted. I didn't think about school or grades or work or any form or reality. All that with my closest friends! :) I'm one blessed bird!

Festival of Colors

(before)

PHOTOS from this semester:

Liz Donaldson and I on the worst couch of all time! Ha I love it. Our cushions are too small for the couch so it spices things up. Liz has been an excellent friend to me this semester!

Our futsol team went out for ice cream to celebrate beating the most intimidating team in the semi-finals, making it to the championship! I seriously went into that game thinking that it would be cool if we weren't totally destroyed! I must brag that I scored a few sweet goals! We went into double overtime, it was still tied so we eventually won in sudden death shoot out! Definitely my favorite game I've played in a long time! I have loved futsol (futsol is basically just indoor soccer) this semester. My roommates brother started this team and we are just a bunch of random misfit people who look so thrown together. Just looking at us, nobody expects us to win but we held our own! The boys on our team were so randomly nerdy and funny and I loved it! So many other teams would have a couple cocky guys who never passed to the one girl on their team and that just ticks me off. So beating them was so satisfying! :)

We actually lost the championship but whatever. Here's a shot right after our last game.

Liz's Dad gave her a fatty gift card to Olive Garden so we were all treated by Mr. Donaldson! Above is Rebekah, Liz and I waiting to be served. Below Dustin and I are about to get waisted... see the wine glasses! Ya right. Am I the only person who doesn't really like Olive Garden? I've been there probably 4 different times and every time I've been ridiculously overcharged for something small, or my food was just gross. And I'm not even picky! This time was probably my best experience since I didn't have to pay. I just ordered a Caesar Salad- how bad can that be right? I asked for dressing on the side, and I got a soup of lettuce drenched in dressing.... Not a big deal but seriously... every single time I've been there, no good.

The sun was shining and so were we! My birthday this year was excellent! We had a little shin-dig at the end of the night where some friends came over for cake and ice cream. Amelia also drove from Logan and suprised me with an Armadillo Cake! I told her thats what I wanted for my birthday (like the grooms cake in Steel Magnolias) and she actually made it! It was an excellent surprise! After we at it, it looked like legit roadkill on a pan so I doorbell ditched it off at a friends place. :)

There was a special needs dance that we went to. Probably one of the funnest things ever. (Confession: I had a hard time distinguishing who was "special" and who wasn't! HA!) Its amazing how you go to support those with disabilities but they are the ones who make you feel like a million bucks.

The school had the Peking Acrobats perform. It was definitely one of the most entertaining, insane, favorite performances I've ever been to! Here's some pictures I grabbed from their website. You'll look at it and think WOW and then I will say multiply that times 48902 plus the adrenaline rush you experience while watching it and that was the Peking Acrobats! The whole crowd would literally scream out loud or inhale a breath of terror every other second! Here is some of the stuff they did:

@ the show:

There's my update!

Oh MERCY!!! THE 2010 OLYMPICS HAVE BEGUN!

I had an Olympics party last friday! The opening ceremonies in Vancouver were reason to celebrate! I thought the ceremonies this year were a little weird and kind of crazy but still totally entertaining and still amazing.

The lighting and passing of the TORCH! so dramatic! It was rather stressful trying to pass it with out letting go of the button that kept the torch lit up! Our torch may or may not have been a light up princess toy from Wal-Mart...

We had our own Olympic games! The Nylon/Orange game - I don't know what its called but I remember doing it when I was little... You put an orange or apple in the leg of a nylon, tie the nylon around your waist, put an orange on the floor, and you have to try and knock the fruit from one point to another by swinging your hips. Looks a little awkward, provides for some good entertainment :)

You can barely see the gold medals hanging from the ceiling from the picture above, but the winners of each round were presented one of those medals. And of course the ultimate winner earned the Mexican Coconut juice, with pulp!

Mr. Marc blowing up the balloon as big as possible. Those things just keep stretching! I wish I had taken more pictures because the decorations were fabulous! I must say the Olympics inspire me to go all out. I made food and people brought stuff from all over the world... well kind of. A baguette and cheese from France! Bruschetta from Italy! Sopes from Mexico! Potstickers from Japan? all those Asian countries, and Pizza for the one and only USA!

Its been a while since I actually planned and hosted a party and I forgot how much I love it! It was a 3-day weekend so a lot of people were out of town, including all my roommates except Catherine. So i was worried nobody would come and I didn't know how it would turn out. but my Olympics party was all I ever dreamed of! :)