Busy Week

All throughout finals I kept telling myself how excited I was to just come home and relax, but I have to say, things here have been far from relaxing. This past week and a half have been so fun, busy, stressful, and amazing all at the same time.

My mom and I drove out of Provo on Thursday at about 3pm which made it a late arrival in California. As we were leaving I realized that my ipod was in my backpack and thought that I would just get it out at our next stop- but no, it was never needed. I think my mom is one of the few people were I could be in a 10ft x 5ft box (or car in our situation) and not get bored after 11 1/2 hours. We talked the entire way home. It was so much fun just to talk about things and catch up on things that had happened but we had not talked about because of how busy finals week had been.

Friday morning I woke up and came downstairs to an amazing surprise- my sister had come to visit with her two beautiful kids. We made a trip to the store (where I realized how nice it was to live at home since I wasn't buying the usual onions, bread, milk, and tortillas that were on my shopping list from school), went out to Murillos- my FAVORITE mexican restaurant- with my family, got some frozen yogurt, and just enjoyed being with my family.

Saturday morning my mom and I drove out to Danville to see my sister Melissa who was so kind to do my moms and my hair. When I am saying she is so nice, it is a serious understatement. Just ask her- it takes literally HOURS for her to foil my hair and I appreciate it soo much, she is a great hairstylist. We went shopping that afternoon, played with Savs at the park, then met up with my dad and had some dinner. We went to a little place under Luke's office where we played ping pong and had some delicious food. From dinner my dad and I drove to San Jose for the SHARKS game. I LOVE the Sharks (another understatement). The game was so much fun- I even got to see my friend Mark that I know from school- and best of all, the Sharks won it in overtime. It was a great day.

On Sunday Rach and Ryan came out and had dinner with us after church and the wedding prep began (well atleast for me). We trimmed the (hundreds of) flowers and put them back the buckets, folded the boxes for the favors, and moved outdoor furniture.

Monday and Tuesday I worked up at the pool for a few hours and on Tuesday my mom was so nice to take me to get my nails done. This whole week kinda blends in my head with wedding preparations, family, and eating. We went out to Green Valley with the Linebacks (Carrie's family), Chevy's with the family, and just enjoyed being all together.

The wedding was on Friday and it was beautiful. I'll have pictures and details in a later post.

Done..

As of yesterday at 12, I am done with all my finals and BYU in general. Now I'm packing- well I guess taking a little break, and my mom and I will drive home to California on Friday. As excited I am to go home, I think its hit me today how much I really do love it up here. Over all my complaining of the bipolar weather, school work, and stress- I have had SO much fun up here and I will miss everyone and everything while I'm home, especially:

Getting ready in the morning with my roommates. Making gym trips at insane hours of the night. Making cooking a social event. Cannon dinners with Erik. "Family" dinners with our closest friends. Watching What I Like About You. Salt Lake trips. Dates with Mac and George :) Concerts. Wendy's frosties. Cafe Rio (almost weekly). Trips down to Yo Zone. Snowboarding. Walking to class with Blake. Laughing so hard we cry. Quote board. Watching Donovan do his version of the Single Ladies Dance. Karaoke. My FHE group. Dance parties. Cookie dough. Las Vegas Trips. Home made pizza. Halloween at Chipotle. Hearing Torrie yell through the apartment. Having Sam read my mind and know what I'm trying to say when what came out was nothing close. Our craft/hardware drawer, Yup- its the same drawer :) Our Colorado trip. Watching How I met your mother. Phase 10. Blue Line Deli. Looking out my window and seeing the mountains. Sunday movie nights. Dance parties at Carries. Rachel's delicious desserts. Anatomy lab friends. Volleyball. The boys that are leaving on missions.
My AMAZING roommates.

So this leaving is bittersweet but thank you to everyone who has made this year so great for me.
I love you all!

Routines

So I've come to a realization that my life has become a basic repetition of routines. We haven't had classes these past few days because we had reading days and then finals and I am so lost as to what day it is. This is when I came to the realization that depending on what classes I went to that day, I know what day it is. Mondays and Wednesdays was always Religion and Chemistry, Tuesdays was Volleyball and English, Thursdays was Volleyball, English, Anatomy lecture&lab, and Physical Science, and Fridays were English and Chemistry. Besides the fact of knowing what day it is by my weekly routine, I realize that I do a lot of the same things everyday:

-Set my alarm clock 9 minutes earlier than I want to get up so I can hit snooze once
-Roll out of bed, say my prayers, head to the bathroom
-Go to the bathroom, get my toothbrush, and as I'm brushing my teeth I make my bed
(that's my new definition of multi-tasking)
-Then depending on how ambitious I'm feeling I go to the gym
-Come home shower
-Do makeup and hair
-Go put water on the stove to boil
-Get dressed, when I come out I add my oatmeal to the boiling water
-As the oatmeal cooks I make a sandwich and a snack to take to school

So I think we get the point. Getting ready for bed is pretty similar to that, even with folding down my sheets as I'm brushing my teeth. So as uninteresting as this blog post is, it was just another realization about my life.

Really?

No, not Christmas, but APRIL 16th.
gotta love Provo.
1 more week till sunny c.a.l.i.f.o.r.n.i.a.

the view from my apartment:

I've decided

A carton of ice cream and a spoon can fix anything..

EASTER

So Easter was a little different this year- without being at home and all. Last year I went home for Easter so this was my first Easter away, but still a good one. We woke up, and sadly walked out to no Easter basket- but had a good breakfast and got ready for Church. I always love Church on Easter as it is so centered on Christ. It was a really good opportunity to really think about the atonement and how much it means in our lives.
After church we came home, did our visiting teaching, cooked some steaks we had marinated (we are becoming quite the chefs), baked some potatoes, put together a salad and Erik and Justin joined us for a delicious dinner.
Sam and I even made our favorite cookie dough pie for dessert :)
After dinner we had planned on dying Easter Eggs so we boiled some water and waited for them to be done. We thought they'd be done when they floated but 25 minutes later we figured they couldnt float because there wasnt enough water in the pot. Don't worry- we entertained ourselves quite well while waiting by using the egg stickers to decorate eachother and proving to the boys that jumping pictures are harder than they look- I think after about 6 attempts they finally believed us.




We also watched an episode of the Home Makeover Extreme Edition, which was surprisingly really good. I like to watch the show to see all the cool things they put in the houses, and how they decorate but in this episdoe the house was done for a family who has adopted 6 special needs children from China and whose father was diagonosed with a brain tumor. To make a long, sad, story short, they were able to build a new house that fullfilled their needs better but the father was never able to see it because he was in the hospital and passed away 3 days after it was finished. This was really just a wake up call to me about how blessed I am and how I should never take things for granted. I am so grateful for all of my family, friends and people in my life.
Sometimes we all just need to take a step back when we are feeling down and realize all of our blessings.
Overall, it was a great Easter.

Girls Do What They Want...

..Boys do what they can. -The Maine

Last night me, Sam, Torrie, Rachel, and Justin went to a concert in Salt Lake. We went to The Pie (a really fun pizza place) before and then headed over the concert. It was soo much fun. There were 5 bands- Hit the Lights, Family Force 5, Rocket to the Moon, The Maine, and 303. Were we mostly there to see The Maine but the other bands we a lot of fun as well. After the concert was almost over and we had had enough sweaty people rub against us we left and hit up Wendy's for some frosty's. Oh new favorite- Vanilla Frosty. I LOVE them. I know you think the chocolate can't be beat, but your going to need to try it :)

The girls at The Pie

So we started up in the front but we were literally getting THROWN around. I was half laughing and half crying because I couldn't even move and was getting SO claustrophobic. Luckily we found a spot a little further back- still fun but without the stomping on our feet, shoving, and insane amounts of sweat :/
We also got ourselves our very own bodyguard, or thats what we called him haha

Big John.
That's what his name tag said.
Our new friend.

Torrie, me, Rachel, Sam

Me, Rach, and Torrie in the backseat on our way home
Apparently I missed the memo of the peace sign