Hello, Family!

Hello, Friends, Family and Acquaintances (although probably just Family)!!!
        It has been expressed to me that people are interested in what I am doing. In other words, my parents are tired of giving lame answers and trying to guess what their youngest daughter is doing when curious people ask them. Sooo, I have decided to resurrect this lovely blog! Sadly, I have no camera and/or iPhone, so there will be no fun pictures like on Katy and Amy's blogs. I am also not an English major by any stretch of the imagination, so my posts will probably not be as engaging as my wonderful sister-in-law's, Amanda's. Also, I make no promise that my posts will be as consistent and informative as my mother's e-mails. At this point, my family is probably thinking that I should stop being like our mother and sandbagging my ability (Love you, Mom! ;) ). But y'all are supposed to be curious, so here we go!
       I am currently living in The Elms Apartments at the address of 29 E 700 N Provo, UT 84606. It takes me about ten minutes to walk from my apartment to the Benson Building, which is the Chemistry Building on BYU campus. This is a very good thing because I have an Analytical Chemistry class every day. I have it from MWF from 8 to 12 and TTh from 9 to 11. I have a social dance class from Monday through Thursday from 12 to 1 and then I have Sign Language Monday through Thursday from 1 to 2:40. And I have been loving just about every minute of my schedule.
      Today was a very interesting day. I woke up, having very little clean laundry. Saturday night I went with my ward to the Hot Springs in Saratoga. It was all right, but I very stupidly did not think about how if we were leaving around 9, we probably would not get back before 10, which is when the laundry room in my apartment complex closes. And they're closed on Sundays... Anyway, back to Monday morning! I woke up, took a shower, then very carefully put Sting-Eez on a big bandage I got from a good friend to put on the bee sting on the bottom of my foot. Yes, this demands explaining, I believe...
      So, the trash needed to be taken out, so I took it out and I saw a guy from church unpacking his car. During church this guy had accidentally said water instead of wine when blessing the sacrament but quickly started all over. So I started talking to him joking about his mistake and found out that he wanted to be an ER doctor. We finished talking and went in opposite directions. I was walking barefoot b/c I am a Southern girl and shoes are for wussies! Well, I turned into a big wuss right then. I felt something prick my foot. I turned my foot over, expecting a thorn but instead found a bug. I thought it was just something with pincers, so I pulled it off. I'm pretty sure it was a bee b/c I had a stinger in my foot, the bug was  fuzzy and my foot started to really hurt. So, I called to the guy I had been talking to, named Josh, and said, "Josh, do you have any Benadryl?" Him: "My roommates might. Why?" Me: I think I just got stung." He then tried to get the stinger out with a dollar bill. That didn't work so we went near his apartment, he found  credit card and got it out. While he was getting th stinger out, I called my mommy, feeling very embarrassed b/c it was past her bedtime. Me: "Hey, Mom! I think I just got stung by a bee. What should I do?? Oh, and Happy Mother's Day! :D" She was nice and told me what to do. I went back to my apartment, treated my foot, took Advil, then made Peanut Butter Melts (Hannah Swenson recipe from Katy's cousin-in-law's blog) to make me happy.
        Gosh, I haven't even left my apartment yet! Anyway, I showered and I was seriously considering wearing sweatpants today. I didn't care what I looked like, so I wore a dress, brushed my hair well and put on mascara and my best blue sparkly shoes from Amy. Ironic, I know, but I had to wear a dress for my dance test and I decided I didn't want to change. I left my apartment, got to the Lab prep/pep talk my professor gave us before letting us into lab. We have to try and figure out how much potassium hydrogen pthalate is in a substance. Basically, they give us a vial of stuff and we have to figure out how much of whatever is in the powder or liquid they give us. Yay!  I got done with lab and hurried over to the Richards Building. I practiced a little bit with a guy I had asked to test with before. We danced the foxtrot. I did all right. It was fun though. Oh, and I was worried about my foot and having to dance with it, but I was fine. It doesn't hurt at all. Dance class finished early and I went and recuperated a little before going to my sign class for another test. I think I did all right on that test as well. I love learning sign language. I think part of it is I love to learn different languages, but I also have an amazing teacher. She's actually deaf and tells some of the funniest stories!
        So I was done with my classes and I went home, I mean the Benson Building (BNSN Bldg). I'm only partially joking though. I really do think of the BNSN as my home. I gave away the last of my peanut butter cookies to friends, after using my mom's awesome wet paper towel over cookie in microwave method. Then I really went home, tried to buy a replacement key (I lost mine), but the office was closed. But I was able to get my clean laundry! I talked to my mom as I walked back to campus, took a nap, had Subway for dinner, then tried to work on homework in the library, but it was not happening. I talked to my friend, Mitchell, for a little bit as I walked home. (Mitchell lives in TX and I have known him since we were 17. He's working on turning in his mission papers.) I went for a run. It felt good to go, especially since I ran around Provo Temple. I always feel more peaceful after going there. I got home, packed my stuff and went to the library. I read for American Sign Language (ASL), but my reading was cut short b/c the library was closing. But I absolutely loved the fact that the library played "Clocks" by Coldplay to tell us to get out. I walked home and finished my reading. Then I started to write this. So if you are still here after this Dostoyevsky of a post, I'd like to know what you think. Should I post every day? I was always sort of confused as to why people were curious about what I'm doing. I'm just doing school. My life is homework and classes. But I guess I do have some crazy stuff happen to me every once in a while... Or every day... Anyway, tell me what you want! If you don't like the idea, tell me! As people that know me well, I value honesty. So please be honest with me. If you want me to keep going, I guess we'll just have to wait and see how this turns out...

Things One MUST Do During Christmas Time

Read A Christmas Carol

Take a nap

Get your hair cut

Snuggle with your niece :)

It Was Cold So I Went .....North?

I had the opportunity to go to one of my brother-in-law's favorite places: Virginia Beach! I had to get up the same time I do for Seminary: 5:45 a.m. Everyone was complaining about how early it was but I was used to it. We eventually got on to the buses. They were really nice, big buses with plushy seats and a dvd player for all the tv screens. On our way up, we watched "Avatar" and "School of Rock." It was my first time watching "Avatar." It was better than I expected. When we finally got to the hotel, we unloaded and went up to our rooms. I quickly changed and did a short work out. Then, we all got ready to go to a sail boat where we danced and ate pizza. :) I had a lot of fun. We were all tired when we got back and went to sleep.
The next day, we could basically do what we wanted until about 2. I ran on the beach and boardwalk. I read. I showered. I ate lunch at Abbey Road Restaurant and Pub. It was yummy. We left for our music Festival at 2:30. First Chorale sang with Chamber Choir as a big mixed choir. Then Chorale waited for Chamber Choir to sing. We went back and were escorted to Wendy's b/c the Navy was in town! There were a few people who asked us if were choral or prom, which we all thought was silly b/c girls wouldn't wear the same thing to prom.....oh well. We went back to the hotel. I was boring and stayed in my hotel room. It felt like vacation to me because I was able to watch tv. :)
The next day, we got up early and checked out. Then we went to Busch Gardens! I t was soooooo much fun! I rode a ton of roller coasters. At 9 p.m., we had the awards ceremony. Lexington won first place for Chorale and Chamber Choir! We got two other awards as well. It was pretty awesome. We left the park and got on the buses. We watched "The Princess and the Frog." Then, I tried to sleep for about five hours. I was so happy to be home. Fortunately for Mom and Dad, they decided to leave me the car. I am now happily at home.

Celebrating 17

(If anybody was wondering what I looked like early in the morning, you don't have to wonder anymore.)

I had an awesome seventeenth birthday that started pretty early. I think I was the first awake in our house. We, Mom, Dad, Amy and I, all celebrated by going to Waffle House for breakfast. I had a waffle, of course, and my mom and I put some quarters in for music. It was classic with Elvis Presley playing and eating a waffle. (We had a lot of driving and I read my Book of Mormon on the way.)This is a before picture at the beginning of our hike at Table Rock State Park. It was my dad, my mom, Orah, Zara (the dogs) and me.

We finished! I am very happily pointing to the sign saying we were at 3,124 feet. We hiked about 7 miles. It was not easy.Someone was nice enough to take the picture for us so we could have a group shot, including the doggies. :)Lunch at the summit. I had an apple of course.
Dad with Zara (see if you can find her)I told Mom it would be better for her to be in the picture because then she wouldn't have to see how high we were. It was beautiful.
A prettier view on the mountainDad with both of the dogsMom showing the steps cut into the mountain with OrahEliza and me tasting the frosting from my red velvet birthday cake: Yum-yum! Thanks, Mommy!

Birthday cake!

We went to Shealy's for dinner. It was delicious!

West Columbia Stake Trek 2009

Before: We're all clean and not sweaty

Friday at 6:24 A.M.

Friday night's campsite: I learned to love trees even more when I want to make a tent. My family was sort of lucky. There weren't very many adviser couples/grandparents so we shared an adviser couple/grandparents with another family. Families usually had nine people in them: two people were "ma and pa" and seven people were "children". I was a child. So we ended up having like a cousin family because we shared grandparents. Having a cousin family came in handy when we were trying to make our tents. We had rope, tarps, and wooden poles. We were able to make two tents to fit the girls and the boys. Other families that only had one pair of grandparents were pretty close together in the tents. that's what happened to my mom and dad. they said they were packed in like sardines. They had to sleep in the middle to separate the boys and girls: boys on one side, girls on the other. We were usually in cleared meadows so there were a lot of bugs.

Mom and Dad's family: They were grandparents to what they said was the most diverse family.

These are after pictures. I was very happy to take a shower. My bed and pillow were very nice also. My favorite picture is the one below.

It was soooo much fun. I wouldn't have traded it for all the world.

Mother's Day

I don't really like this picture, but Mom and Amy do, and they look nice in it.

I just wanted to do a little post honoring mothers. I know my mom has definitely spoiled me in the smaller things. She has to be one of the best people I know. I am so proud I'm able to call her my mom. My sisters are also terrific people I'm proud to know and call my sisters and mothers.

Sixteen Candles

This past week I turned 16. Woo-hoo! If any of you are familiar with the movie "Sixteen Candles," I fortunately did not have a beautiful, stupid sister's marriage to a jerk cause anyone to forget my birthday (I only havebeautiful sisters married to nice guys). On the contrary, my mom got up at who knows when to go to Wal-Mart to get fruit for my breakfast, a balloon, gorgeous flowers and doughnuts for people at seminary. Everyone was happily suprised. There were some doughnut holes left over and I gave them to to friends at school. Thankfully, I did not have to ride the bus, but got to drive myself home.
When Mom and Dad got home, I got to unwrap presents including:

I was having a ton of fun playing with my new toy.
And talking to my siblings.

Just so you know, I had gone running and that's why I'm sweaty. But the cake is banana-delicious!

I'll have to tell more about the party later.