Buh-Bye 2011, Hello 2012!

Finally, this hellish year is over! And yes, hellish is how I'd explain it.

The beginning of the year seems so long ago. I've changed so much! I've lost friends, found friends, and made friends... Yes.. Made friends. Out of paper.. It was a low point for me. 

Here are some things that happened:

I fell in love. That was fun. While it lasted. My first love. And from it I learned about the kind of person I want to be and the kind of person I want to spent the rest of forever with. It wasn't a complete fail of a relationship. It taught me what love it all about. It also taught me that I can trust someone, even when I shouldn't. 

I got a real job. Not that working at the pawn shop wasn't a legit job, but this one just seems more legit.. Probably because I actually worked. And I drove myself to and from. And had work friends that weren't at church on Sunday. I'm not going to lie, as hard as being a maid is, it had it's fun parts. I made some really good memories and friends. The ladies I worked with are in a league of their own and it was great to be a part of it. I got to learn about hard work and sticking it out to the end. And honestly, it's probably the best job I could have had over the summer. 

I came back to school. It was a tough decision. But seriously, a wise one. As much as I love Alabama and all of my friends and family there, I couldn't see my life going anywhere there. I needed to get out and what better place to go to than a church school where I can feel the Spirit all around me. I get to go to the temple every week. Have FHE with fellow students. Have awesome roommates. Meet amazing people and learn from some awesome teachers. It's hard sometimes. And really lame. But the highs are the highest and the lows aren't even that low. I love it and I couldn't be happier to have come back.

Madi and Katie

Katie and Jessie.. The Hobbits

Katie

Michael and Janessa

Colten

Me and Madi eating a delicious crepe made by Jimmy

Michael and Katie and their disgusting fruit casserole thing

We finished the puzzle!

The Handy Man:)

I made some awesome friends. Now, the friends I had in 2010 were great. But they didn't make it very far into 2011. The ones I have now will last a lifetime.. And then some. I love them. They teach me so much about myself and the gospel. We've had some serious gospel discussions just because in our apartment and it's been wonderful. I love being able to just share my testimony and not get funny looks. We have had the most wonderful conversations about life, love, church, school, boys.. Everything! It's been the best semester and just what I needed to come back to. I just hope that the people who have befriended me this year have benefited as much from me as I have from them. 

I ate bacon. Lots and lots of bacon. We did something called Epic Meal Time with some guys in our complex and it was awesome. Disgusting, but awesome. We made something called Fast Food Lasagna. It consists of hamburger, Baconators, bacon, and a Martinelli's/Jack Daniels BBQ sauce mixture. So good. But way too much meat.

Bacon Weave

Seth and the meat loaf about to go in the oven

Yum!

 

 

Finished product

And we made ginger bread houses and exchanged presents. That was super fun. The six of us were given Secret Santa assignments and the last day we were all together we made gingerbread houses and exchanged gifts and had so much fun. 

Charlie got a PeeWeee Giraffe Pillow Pet

I got the award for Awkward Neighbor. Th triangle and the outhouse are mine:)

Jessie's scary Santa

I took this at the same time Madi used her camera and it looks like the house is on fire.

Madi, the gingerbread house queen

Left to right: Al, Evan

Our awesome houses

Our tree and fireplace. Presents and sticks and all

My "outhouse"

Too Much!

So for Christmas, I came down to Utah with two of my most favorite roommates, Katie and Madi. I stayed with Katie in Orem this whole week, and then today (Friday) I came to Madi's house, where I'll be until January or so. Not really sure. I have a bed waiting for me in Sandy, and I just might use it. We'll see.
Katie Jensen. What can I say about her? She's fabulous.We got to her house kinda late on Saturday, mostly because we went to a Jazz game as soon as we got into Orem. Sunday, we went to church and then took some amazing Sunday naps by her fire place. We ate dinner and then watched Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers until about 1 am. It's the extended version, so it was about 5 hours long. Two discs. Amazing. We finally got into bed and slept in. Katie was up at 10:30 and I rolled out of bed at 11:30. We made some delicious breakfast consisting of eggs, bacon, and toast, and then watched a movie. Wanna guess? Lord of the Rings:Return of the King. Extended, again. So that was another 5 hours. Then we went shopping for Christmas presents for her family and let me just say, we got some awesome stuff. Jimmy texted and invited us to a movie, so we went out with him. We actually ended up missing our movie and decided to go back to the house and watch Ferris Bueller's Day Off. It's a pretty funny movie. Around 1, again, the movie was over, Jimmy left, and we hit the sack.
On Tuesday, we woke up, made another delicious breakfast of pancakes and bacon, and then sat down to watch TV. I'm pretty sure we were going to make a video, but Katie ended up falling asleep, so I went downstairs and watched... Dun Dun Dun.. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Extended, of course:) I hadn't seen it yet, so I wanted to watch it and see all the cool extra stuff. When I finished the first disk (about 4 hours) Katie was waking up from her nap. Then we worked on a puzzle and watched some movies. Oh, we also stayed up super late and made paper snowflakes and then strung them on some fish wire and hung it across the living room. It looked like snow flakes were falling form the ceiling, like in Harry Potter in the Great Hall. It was so awesome, and so worth staying up till almost 4 am.
Wednesday, we didn't do much. We went to the mall with Kaite's mom and her brother's girlfriend to Christmas shop. After that, we were worn out! So we took a short nap. Then Jimmy came over and we went to Target to make a video for Katie's sister's Christmas present. We interviewed a bunch of random people about Janina, Katie's sister. It was hilarious, because none of these people knew Janina and they just made up their answers. After getting kicked out of Target, we went to Shopko and Smith's. I'd say it was a pretty successful and fun night. But it doesn't end there. Of course we came back to Katie's and watched Adjustment Bureau. Such a good movie. Love Matt Damon. The best part: Jimmy fell asleep. So we messed with him. We took eye liner and drew a very French mustache on him, goatee included. And then when the movie was over we tried waking him up. Like.. 20 times. No Lie. He kept falling back asleep. And when we did eventually get him to get his shoes on and stand up, he was so totally out of it. I was scared for him to drive all the way back to Murray! That's a long drive! But, after a good laugh at him, some ice down his shirt, and some water on his face, he was finally out the door. I've never had more fun waking someone up than I did just then. Finally Katie and I were able to go to bed and I sure wanted to.
Thursday I went to breakfast with a good friend of mine from Alabama, Elizabeth. It was nice to get together with her, as I haven't seen her in over a year. After breakfast, I went home and napped. I was so tired! When Katie got home from lunch with her mom, we continued to nap. Once we woke up, we ate some dinner and then worked on another puzzle. This one was hard because the pieces were all cut the same and the picture we were trying to form made it difficult to discern what piece went where. But, after three hours of hard work and one headache later, we finished it and called it a night.
Today we cleaned. I was leaving and Katie had family coming over, so we did laundry and cleaned up the living room and kitchen. Then we were off the SLC to meet up with Madi's parents. When I got to Madi's house in Kaysville, my friend Breanna came and got me (Madi was one her way back form California) and I went with her family to Temple Square to see the Christmas Lights. It was freezing but beautiful. Jimmy met us up there and we just cruised around town. We almost got to meet David Archuletta. Exciting. Not. Breanna is like in love with him, but I don't see the draw. Yeah, he can sing. Sure, he's pretty attractive. But he's famous. I've always kinda viewed famous people as untouchable. So I wasn't too let down when it turned out he wasn't home. (Back story: Jimmy use to work with David over the summer and I think their sisters are best friends, or something.) Then we finally made out way home. So here I am, 12:30 in the morning, waiting to go pick Madi up from the train station.
This week has worn me out! But, it was totally worth it. I'm totally glad I decided to come to Utah instead of staying in Rexburg alone.
Side note: There was this missionary that served in my ward back in Alabama a couple years ago, Broc Pendleton, who lives in Alpine, which is right next to Orem. Well, he was at the mall the same day I was and I totally spent like, ten minutes staring at him trying to decide if it was him, and he was doing the same. Small world!