If you give a boy a roll of toilet paper . . .

SO, driving home from church today, I had Michele (my roommate) sit in the front seat and Mike sit in the back. Michele had a skirt on, and everyone knows that if you're in a two door vehicle, the lady in the skirt gets the front seat. So we stick Mike in the back and he finds the random roll of toilet paper I keep in my car. Needless to say, he was having the time of his life and many a person passing my car while I was driving must have been a little curious about why the guy in the back seat was TPing the car. By the time we got back to my house, he had TPed himself into a corner. Funny. He thinks he's funny. I think he's funny.

P.S. I had to stop at a toll booth to pay the toll and was stuck there considerably longer than normal because I had to explain to the nice lady why I as driving around with a car that looked like it had exploded in toilet paper. Thanks Mike :)

Proper Sleeping Hygiene . . . .

Apparently I don't have it :)

Reminiscings and Reflections

Is "reminiscings" a word? Well it is now. Definition: the memories one thinks about when in the act of reminiscing.

Ok, now that's out of the way. The past few days I have been reflecting on where my life is, where it was, and where it is going. You don't want to have too many of these days in a row because it starts to hurt your head. It's been good for me though. I spent about an hour the other night reading back through my journal, and it got me thinking about change and progress. I am so thankful that my life has moved forward, that I have changed personally, and that I actually view life differently than I did before.

I've always felt like I end up in the same spot over and over again, never learning from my mistakes and experiences. But as I reread some of these entries, I realized that I actually have learned from my mistakes. I approach certain situations with more caution and reservation than I did in the past. On the other side of that, I recognize things that I would overlook previously. I'm being vague, I know, but I don't know how else to describe it. In my past, I have always been so afraid of what comes next. It always scared me that I have no real control over the things that happen to me in my life. Yes, I can put myself into position, but I can't stop what comes at me after that point. I have learned to relish and enjoy this piece of life. It's exciting to know that anything could happen. I think this change in thought has a lot to do with how much my testimony has grown in recent years. My faith has become solidified in the fact that I am led and looked after by a Being that loves me and takes personal stock in my happiness. This realization coupled with the fact that I trust in my Heavenly Father and want to return to be with him, has made all the difference. My decisions aren't scary anymore.

I remember talking to my dad when I was trying to decide what to do after graduating from BYU. I remember feeling so much fear about making the wrong decision. It was almost paralyzing in that I was so afraid of making the wrong decision, that I wasn't making any decision. He said something to me that I will never forget. He told me that the only wrong decision I could make would be a decision that would take me farther away from what I know to be true and right. One that would put a distance between me and my Savior. He reminded me that there are probably many places I could choose to go and things I could choose to do that would be considered "right", and that this was the beauty of agency. I have never forgotten that, and as I made my decision to move to Boston and watched how my life continued to move forward and my testimony continued to deepen . . . I have realized how true that is.

Toll Booth Smooth Talker

A couple of weeks ago when I was driving west on the Mass Pike, I had a memorable encounter with the toll booth guy. I got off on I-495, and when I got to the toll booth the guy was giving me all sorts of compliments . . . "Wow, you have beautiful eyes" . . . "You have a very pretty smile" . . . "What a pretty girl you are" . . . Let me back up one moment. The man was in his late 50's early 60's. I could have been creeped out, but instead I got the giggles and didn't know how to respond. I'm not used to being showered with compliments like that from complete strangers! So, I hurried and took my change and waved as I drove away - still giggling mind you. Well last night I drove the same route, and lo and behold I am at the same booth and it is my toll booth Romeo. I recognized him immediatley (although it had been a week, he had left quite the impression on me). Instantly the compliments start pouring out of his mouth, and out of my mouth came the explosive giggles . . . again! You know the ones you try to hold in, but just the mere fact that you're trying to hold them in is a sure bet that you are not going to be able to? Again, I waited for my change as he continued. Maybe I should try to have correct change next time?? I don't know, I kind of like my run-ins with this guy :)

Woohoo!! Blogger's nervous break down is officially over . . . or maybe it's because I am using someone else's computer. Either way, three cheers for pictures. I love my camera, mostly I love taking pictures with my camera . . . taking pictures of myself with my camera?? This is a fun little habit I adopted from Kirsti.
Speaking of Kirsti, this weekend was her birthday, and we really wanted to throw her a surprise party, but we had to do this at the risk of disappointing her deeply. She wanted to hang out with us on Saturday (her birthday) but in order to get everything ready, we had to be unavailable. So we kept coming up with excuses not to hang out with her. Earlier in the week I had made plans with her to go out to breakfast on Saturday. Then I realized that this would be totally interfering with her brother and sister-in-law's plans to kidnap her and take her to breakfast and then distract her for the rest of the day. I had to be a quick thinker to get myself out of this one, so I told her I might not be able to go out to breakfast with her because I really just wanted to go to the temple instead. I think she was a little confused/disappointed that I decided to go do a session RIGHT when we were supposed to go to breakfast and no wait until later. But really, how can you argue when someone decides to be spiritual? I knew I had her on this point. Well . . . I couldn't really get out of getting up early once I told her that. I had considered sleeping in and going to a later session, but then I wouldn't have an excuse NOT to go to breakfast with her, thus ruining the whole plan for the day. Yup, I grudgingly got up and ready at 7 o'clock on a Saturday morning. No need to worry - I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to the temple, as I always do. Thanks Kirsti for making me get out of breakfast with you so you could be surprised by your family, and I could be spiritually uplifted :)
My biggest accomplishment for the day was the Hedgehog cake I made. Dang I'm good.
While I was at the grocery store, I picked up candles for the cake and I saw these candles that said, "Sparkler Candles". I thought to myself, ooh this looks fun! Little did I know that those puppies were ACTUALLY sparklers! They throw sparks . . . as in, I was worried that they were going to throw sparks in my direction and burn a hole in my shirt. ALSO, they were those trick candles that keep relighting. This was not mentioned on the package and what a delightful surprise it was to see her get all confused and then annoyed and then call us all butt heads. Hahaha. Soooo . . . . .here are some pictures. Enjoy!



Notice Kai FLYING through the air . . .and the silly string FLYING through the air . . . and me bracing myself for impact . . .


Don't worry, revenge is sweet . . . .
Did I mention we are sneaky?? She didn't see this one coming . . . hehehe
The Hedgehog cake I so masterfully crafted.


Eating the delicious Indian Food Esther so carefully cooked

Ummm . . . Sometimes when we get bored we take the "what would we look like . . . " pictures. This one was, "What would we look like if we really DID have a pet hedghog??" I am holding the imaginary pet in my hand and talking to it . . . don't judge.
We regularly have music playing in our house. I heard music playing from the living room and when I went in, this is what I found. Life is sweet.

An exilirating update!

I just got a phone call from my dad (mind you it's 10 o'clock at night) telling me that I need to update my blog because he's bored reading the same things over and over and over again. Sorry Dad, I don't mean to be so boring :) Here's an update of some of the unusual things I have been doing lately:

1. Silly String Fights: Did you know they sell Silly String at the Dollar Store?? This may be the best discovery thus far for my roommates and I, well the best discovery of 2008 at least. The only downside of dollar store silly string is the smell . . . there is definitley some toxic chemical in the stuff and I'm sure if it had prolonged direct contact with my skin there would be some sort of chemical burn. My favorite thing to do is ambush people when they least suspect it . . . I feel so sneaky!

2. Running unheard of distances: . . . ok, this might be a little bit of an exaggeration. I ran four miles today. This is not unheard of or unusual for most people. But this is the longest distance I have ever run in my life . . . ever. On Saturday I am supposed to run six, I may not be happy or walking even when I am done . . . but this is the sacrifice you pay when you are trying to prove all those people wrong who said you couldn't ever run a half marathon. That's right - I'm proving all you naysayers wrong! This does no good because those naysayers probably aren't the ones reading my blog. It still feels good to say it though.

3. Taking my daily nap: Nellie and Tiffany, I almost feel bad writing this because I know you guys don't get this luxury, what with the madness of kids running around and all, but I love my naps. It's almost become an addiction with me. I know that I could probably survive the day without crashing right when I get home from school . . . but I just have a hard time believing it when it feels so good to just crawl into my bed for an hour or two. And I want to apologize for the times when I didn't answer your phone calls because I was napping . . . love you!

4. Loving my weekends: It's amazing how fast the week flies by and how much faster the weekend goes. The past couple weekends have been so fun. . . I'll leave you all hanging on that one ;)

So here is my update. I would have put pictures, but for some reason, blogger is deciding to have a nervous breakdown. It pretends like it's going to let me upload pictures but then changes its mind at the last minute. So let's practice our visualization skills (said like the true English Teacher I am), and try to imagine what all these fun things I am doing look like. Please don't focus too much on visualizing me napping. . . that's just a little creepy. I hope this is NOT boring. Love you Dad!