so i've been thinking a lot about the mind blowing concept that is the reality of february 29th every four years. it's literally an extra day that we get, that we normally don't. what are we supposed to do with that extra time? it feels so special for some reason. maybe because it doesn't happen very often. and i feel like we should do our best to make it count! i'll most likely be watching the movie "leap year" because... that's what you do. on groundhog day you watch "groundhog day," on valentine's day you watch "valentine's day," and on february 29th, i guess you watch "leap year." my new favorite blogging homegirl is called fat mum slim and she has some brilliant ideas of how to cherish that extra time.
i can't believe i'm going to say this, but... i'm liking winter in idaho. it hasn't been bad at all. i work a lot. like, a lot. but i'm not even really that mad about it because i finally have money in the bank. i'm so glad i got to go down to provo to spend time with my cousins for christmas. we had lots of christmas pj days, fondue, movies, and shopping. and we made a trip to temple square to see the christmas lights. it was magical.
brent is here and i'm so very glad. i hadn't seen that boy in four months. we're going to jackson hole on sunday and i've got other things to show him around rexburg. it's been so nice not being entirely alone during winter break. unfortunately he's going home on tuesday :(
and can i just say that the weather has been fantastic? it hasn't snowed once and it's been in the 50's all week. gimme more of that. i guess what i'm trying to say is that being stuck in the iceburg won't be so bad this semester. i'm going to concentrate on work, my friends, and being the best version of myself. maybe i'll have enough to find a new hobby. basketweaving anyone?
this is the first year i haven't been at home for christmas. it was the first christmas eve in over 10 years that i haven't spent at my grandparents house, with all the family (four brothers, one sister, their kids, spouses, and grandkids), enjoying a turkey feast and counting down to the grand opening of presents. it was the first christmas eve i wasn't cuddled with my sister in bed, forcing ourselves to fall asleep. it's the first christmas morning that i didn't send "merry christmas" texts from my new phone, today i'm not going to see a christmas movie with my family.
it's okay though. this christmas i am with the barrows in provo. all i was expecting was a place to go so that i wouldn't have to spend christmas entirely alone. but i've enjoyed so much more. i spent christmas eve at my great uncle and aunt's house with my mom's cousin and all of is kids. we had wasal (some fantastic orange/cinnamon drink), homemade bacon, cheese, potato soup, and homemade treats. there was a visit from santa and a story about ladius, a shepherd boy. there were christmas pajamas (for me too!) and wallets and slippers. there were card games and christmas trivia and lots of family time.
i'm getting to enjoy different family traditions, including homemade cheese balls, waffle breakfasts, and the classic mr. kruger's christmas. it's strange not being home in kansas city with my mom and everyone, and part of me wishes so badly that i was there with them. but part of me is really loving this christmas. a different kind of christmas.
1. yesterday was allie's last day in rexburg, so we mourned her leaving by getting drinks from horkley's and going shopping at DI. check out the gem of an ugly christmas sweater i bought. i challenge anyone to find one more hideous than that.
2. betsy and i woke up to the note on the left. i would just like to point out that betsy, kelsey and i spent hours cleaning yesterday. hours, my friends, hours. i don't like meaniepants roommates.
3. i get to spend the next 7 days all alone in my apartment
finals week is coming to close. praise the lord, allah, budah, whoever you worship. this was the hardest semester in my five semesters (unfortunately my grades reflect that) and i've never wanted so badly for it to be over. this is the first second of spare time i've had all week and i'm simply reveling in it.
i wish i was going to kentucky for christmas. but i'm thankful i have a job, and i'm thankful i have a place to live, and i'm thankful i have family in provo who is letting me spend the holidays with them. but most of all i'm just really excited that in just 12 days brent will be here in idaho with me.
the last day of classes is in 8 days. and everybody leaves in about 11. but not me. no, i'm stuck here during christmas, and new year's, and until everyone else comes back. why? because i have to work. it may sound like i'm complaining, but i'm trying not to. brent is coming to see me a couple days after christmas, but i will truly be friendless and alone until then. rexburg will be a ghost town, and i will probably end up talking to myself, discovering an imaginary friend, or sleeping the days away. only time will tell...
seriously though... december, already? december is snowflakes, christmas music, candles, chocolate dipped pretzels, hot cocoa, finals, christmas in vegas, and secret santa at texas roadhouse. bring it.
current guilty pleasure: justin bieber's christmas album current color: black (ugh blogger is being retarded and keeps putting in necessary spaces, forgive me)
current playlist: lots of gavin degraw and bruno mars
current read:my child development textbook
current drink: chocolate milk
current food:caesar salad, butterfingers
current favorite show:new girl
current wish list:new blue skinnies
current needs: someone to pay my rent... today
current triumphs:3 pounds
current bane of my existence:school school school omg schoooooool
current celebrity crush: dermot mulroney
current indulgence: sleep, so much sleep
current blessing: kind strangers
current outfit: striped tank top and sweats
current excitement:brent is spending winter break with me in idaho
current mood:stressed, nervous, anxious
current link:i love aj... and eventually everyone else will too
tumblr thursday will most likely come later (that's for you chelsie and ashley), but right now i've got a hot date with some stats and spanish phonetics. ugh let's fast forward two weeks please.
i'm not sure what it is, but apparently i'm entirely incapable of traveling to or from anywhere without there being some complication. do you remember about 8 months ago when i had the hardest time getting home from ecuador? or a couple thanksgivings ago when i missed my flight? or every other time i've flown anywhere and the airline somehow manages to lose all my luggage? well this trip to kentucky hasn't been any different...
i missed my flight
i'm not leaving until tomorrow morning
i'm stuck in a hotel...
but i'm not even that pissed because i just ordered takeout and i'm watching dermot mulroney <3
right now i'm cuddled up in a big blanket, with my puppy and a cup of hot chocolate that my brother made me. my hands are warm, my feet are toasty, and i am thankful. i have been so blessed with the best life i could ask for. i have a family who loves me, friends who support me, a boy who cares about me, a job that provides for me, and countless other things and people that make waking up every day worth it.
i'm in lagrange kentucky right now. it's kind of strange. this isn't my home, but my family is here so it feels right. the house my mom bought is beautiful and the town is charming, complete with railroad tracks that run right through main street. the view from every window is picturesque and the trees lining the driveway are something out of a movie. my brother and sister are lucky to finish growing up here.
this is the first thanksgiving i've spent with my family in two years and i'm not ready for it to end in a couple days. however i'm enjoying the little moments while i can; the laughter that accompanies 30 minute rounds of apples to apples with my mom and siblings, the childishness of letting my sister give me a makeover as we sing and dance to britney, katy, and gaga, the wet on my face as my puppy kisses me awake every morning, and the warmth that comes not from the fire burning in the room adjacent me, but from the family that i get to call mine forever.
in 21 hours i will be departing from salt lake city and on my way east and a little bit south to kentucky. am i over-the-top excited? i am. have i been counting down to this day since i booked my flight? i have. it's been a long four months since i've seen my family and i miss them! this week means hair appointments, scrabble games, a turkey feast (duh), probably some movie watching, a tour of my family's new town, late-night conversations cuddled up in bed with my sister, hugs from my baby brother who is taller than i am, and making up for way too much lost time.
i'm thankful for my family and that i get to go home for thanksgiving this year.
first of all, listen to some john mayer as a soundtrack to this post
i love this song. i love john mayer. i woke up with it stuck in my head. and i think it's because i got a text at 4:19 in the morning that said, "My dear, we're slow dancing in a burning room." good start to my morning. thank you, mike schwartz, for putting that song in my head. anyways, moving on.
my 4th of july weekend was kind of lame. i had thursday through monday off. and i honestly don't even remember what i did on thursday, friday, or saturday. i'm entirely pathetic. but sunday morning i went to church to teach my little babies.
and then my stepdad's family had a going away party for us...
dan grilled burgers and brats
everybody ooh'd and ahh'd over josh and melissa's new baby burke
my mom posed with my grandma (aka, the potato salad queen)
we let little logan charm us with that face
and logan's sister lilah told my family to "go away"
(minus hadley cause she was at the lake)
i mean, i probably gained a couple pounds in the matter of that three hours. but hey, i didn't want to be rude and refuse all the wonderful food that took so much work to prepare (including the brownies with oreos in the middle). that would've been disrespectful. aaaaand then we came home and put our fat pants on and watched beastly. alex pettyfer is yummy. so that was sunday.
monday we had cheeseburgers on the grill again, pasta salad (made by me), watermelon, and potato chips. i feel like we probably watched another movie but i couldn't tell you what it was. then we piled in the truck and went to watch what came to be the most pathetic firework show i've ever seen. no offense, america.
so that was my weekend. not too terribly exciting. but it was a quality 4th of july spent with family, family, and more family. i'm not complaining though. i'm probably not going to be seeing them too often anymore. i guess maybe that's part of growing up.
i'm so happy to finally be back to work. it feels weird not getting to play with kids all day. ha! i seriously have the best job. why didn't i start nannying sooner? yesterday sam and i decided to prepare ourselves for the 15th and start a harry potter marathon. so we popped our popcorn, got some blankets, and curled up on the couch to start harry potter and the sorcerer's stone. it's kinda cloudy and not really feelin' like a pool day today, so we'll probably watch the second one! oh and my lovely mother finally had time to highlight my hair. yay for mom's that don't have work for the next six weeks!
and here's for the ultimate countdown...
16 days until i move out of my house
43 days until phil flies to kansas city
45 days until our trek to utah
54 days until i'm in vegas
57 days until disneyland with juelaine and ashley
and 64 days until i drive up to rexburg
i'm getting so giddy and excited and weird about it :)
i'm not sure if anybody can tell yet, but last summer (which was spent in rexburg with my best friends) was my favorite summer. so every summer holiday, like memorial day, and like today, i spend wishing i was out west.
this time last year, my roommates blake and kat went to oregon for the long weekend. so i had the whole apartment to myself for like four days. yes it was lonely, but yes i kind of liked it. i don't even remember what i did in the morning. for some reason i feel like i went and saw a movie. idk, that's weird. but in the afternoon, amy and i went to idaho falls with zack and tanner and tucker and matt and jeremy and jeremy's woman and braden and a few other people that i don't remember or don't care to mention. we played cards on the side of the highway, and then walked down to the river to watch fireworks. it was magical. but unfortunately these are the only pictures from that day.
memorial day weekend 2010 i was in rexburg. miss becca came to visit me for the weekend, all the way from kansas. courtney and i planned a trip to the dunes with old friends and new friends. we played soccer, capture the flag, tried to roast marshmallows but got kicked out for our illegal bonfire, and then broke curfew to watch a movie at brad's apartment. oh and he lit a cup on fire at mcdonalds. it was enjoyable. i feel like this memorial day weekend won't quite be as eventful. but it does kind of mark the beginning of summer, which i happen to find all too exciting...
i have a lot to say. and when i say "a lot," i mean i'd-like-to-catch-you-up-on-everything-that's-happened-since-my-laptop-broke-but-for-now-i'll-just-talk-about-yesterday.
my mother's day started at about 1am when i got home from work. i very quietly, as to not wake up my house, carried in an armful of stuffs including my keys/wallet/sunglasses/phone, flowers, a card, and my drink. i decided to put the flowers i got my mom in water in a vase and set it on the kitchen counter along with her card so it'd be the first thing she saw when she walked downstairs in the morning. well, everyone stayed asleep while i did such. except our pets. my puppy josie walked downstairs and whined at the back door so i let her outside. and then boo (our kitty) crept down with her. after i had cut the stems, put the "flower food" in the water, and the flowers in a vase, i set them on the counter as i had planned. while i was at the table writing in my mom's card, i heard this rustling noise. i got up to see what it was, and boo was eating my mom's flowers! i proceeded to lock the naughty kitty in the room where we keep her food and litter box, hoping to keep her from mischief .
sunday morning i got ready in exactly 50 minutes. including a shower AND blow drying and straightening my hair. that's impressive for me, if you ain't know.
church was great. i love the sundays that are effortless. the ones where i don't struggle to stay awake and focused. the ones where i don't beg my mom to scratch my back while i doodle on the sacrament meeting program. i enjoyed two of the most wonderful talks on motherhood. also, a baby was blessed. i think baby blessings are pretty neat. officially presenting a newborn child to the congregation, and to heavenly father -- i don't know, i just think it's cool. but for some reason this one was different. i immediately thought of my babies from ecuador. and i started to tear up. i know you're probably so sick and tired of hearing about ecuador, but i seriously still think about it everyday. i wish all my babies got to be blessed and welcomed into a loving family.
i believe i mentioned that i get to teach the ctr 7's now, right? well, i do. and yesterday's lesson was about how being obedient shows heavenly father and jesus our faith. so i was telling ruthy, susie, robbie and joshua about when lehi's family left jerusalem and explaining that they had to leave behind all of their friends and almost all of their possessions. i told the kids to pretend they were lehi's family and asked them what their most prized possessions were. some of them asked what that meant, and i explained that it was their favorite toy, book, game, or movie. susie said her most prized possession was her babydoll. robbie and joshua both said theirs was their legos. when i got to ruthy she responded with "my mom." i told her that it had to be something not living, because their family got to go with them. and she goes, "well i still want to pick my mom if that's okay." it was the cutest thing. and ruthy gave the closing prayer and in it she said "we're thankful for our parents, especially our mothers. and please help us to do whatever we can to make them happy today." ugh, i seriously love her. i want a ruthy. after she finished making her mother's day card she gave me a shoulder rub. and when it was time to go she hugged me and said she liked me. it made my whole day.
we also had the missionaries over for lunch. i looooooooove missionaries. especially the ones serving in our ward. they're so cute. they both go home in a couple months. one's from washington and one is from orem. i plan on loving/dating/marrying the one from orem.
but really, i love my mom. i do. she's the greatest thing in my life. everything i have, am, and hope to be, i owe to her. she's the only person in my life who has been there for me always. sometimes i'm hard to love. and i know that. but she always does. no matter what.
this has to be one of my favorite pictures of the three of us
that's all. i hope everybody had the most fantastic day yesterday celebrating their moms. i'm so happy to be back. hoooray.
awkward:
- so at the all girls orphanage we were at on saturday the girls kept calling us sénor, but i thought they were saying señor. so every time i heard it i'd be like "no soy un señor, diga chica or senorita." but then they explained to me that sénor and senorita were synonymous. so that was just fantastic. too bad i never learned that word in high school. - forgetting it was superbowl sunday until i saw everybody's statuses on facebook.
(there wasn't a lot of awkward this week, i apologize)
awesome:
- eating at crepes and waffles last night to say goodbye to chantelle. yay for ham and cheese crepes. and yay for strawberry and brownie ice cream cones afterwards.
- one of the 2 yearolds finally calling my name every time i walk into a room. even though it sounds more like "peeeee" than it does "paige" i know she knows who i am. its the best feeling.
- being sick, yet again... not
- having two birthday parties this week for 5 of our babies (happy birthday emily, vicky, manuel, josue, and camilo).
- skype dates this week with madi, betsy, adrianna, and ethan.
- making valentine's day decorations at night shift with macie
- homemade pizza for lunch yesterday
- chopping my first tomato and onion for bruschetta... please dont judge me
- i've been here 6 weeks as of tonight!
- talking down a cab driver from $5 to $2.50
- the new aj rafael single being released early.
- starting roommate prayer in cassie's room at 8:30 every night.
- the possibility of spending fall semester studying in guadalajara.
- my religion teacher from the last three semesters ending his email to me "your friend, brother riggins"
- having a whole day tomorrow of nothing to do!
- my first valentine's day not in the united states being monday. i don't have just one valentine. but i have 30 little ones that i love who i get to spend my whole v-day with.
soo the day that i've been waiting for forever has finally come. the journey here was pretty rough, to be perfectly honest. before last night, i hadn't slept since tuesday, because of my certain travel circumstances. it was awful. we left salt lake at 6:05 in the morning and didn't get to ecuador until 10:25 at night. are you aware how long that is? its so long. but along the way i got to know the other volunteers; both the girls going to cuenca and the girls going to quito. i'm sad cause a lot of the girls that i met that i really liked are in the other city now.
however, after five flights, 29.5 hours in an airport, a stressful experience through immigration and customs, and $4500, i am finally here in quito. and i absolutely love it. there were 13 of us that stayed at the house last night. 5 went in one van, 5 went in the other, and three took a taxi with athena (the assistant to the project director).
so this is the house i'm staying at. it doesn't look that nice on the outside, but it's quite lovely to be honest. it's SO BIG. a lot of the buildings here are more vertical than they are horizontal cause like 2 million people live in quito so they don't have a lot of space for everything, except for up! upstairs where i am there are 6 rooms i think? and three bathrooms. and a big area near the top of the stairs with a big mirror where we all do our hair. i'll try to take more pictures of the house without being creepy and awkward.
here is mine and ariel's room (you can't see her side). two of our walls are windows. it's soooo cool. i absolutely love our view. it's stunning. and in that first picture of my room, above my bed it says "the purpose of life is to be happy" in magazine letters :)
apparently in ecuador on new year's eve, they have this weird tradition where men dance in the streets dressed up as women and ask for money. it's pretty disturbing actually. but mildly entertaining. when we were walking back home they were like, "HELLLOOOO MY FRIENDSSSS!" across the street to us.
absolutely everyone stares at us because we're a group of 11 attractive female americans. it gets annoying. also, all the people here are so tiny! i feel gargantuan next to them and i'm only 5'8"
look at these funny little things i saw!
oh look, a kfc in ecuador. they say it's really good actually.
apparently this is a department store ish thing that we can shop
and the last thing we saw on our walk was a literal garage band. and they were actually pretty good.
it's only day 1 in ecuador, but i absolutely love it. tonight for new year's we're going out to eat and to some dance/festival/party thing? idk, but i hear ecuadorians do holidays pretty big. i can't wait. adios 2010, holaaaa 2011 :)
Twenty-four. Kansas City native living in Utah. Returned Madrid & Provo missionary. Lover of college basketball, Thai food, the Spanish language, fall clothes, loud music, and a boy named Michael. This is my little life.
