christmas break... in numb3rs. (heh)

one fabulous time in Boise meant:
one huge chunk of my hair burned to a crisp by a very hot straightener. (probably in need of one haircut)
one of the best books read. and two more to go before class starts up again... hunger games. so fantastic.
one perfect pesto pizza made on Christmas eve.

one whole season of modern family watched in one day. (record? probably. it is just too funny!)
one patriarchal blessing received finally!
one too many cookies eaten.
two trips made to the dollar movie meaning two huge bags of caramel corn eaten before both movies started.
two new mattresses for my sisters.... meaning no bed for me. three great nights on the couch!

two recipes tried out of one new vegetarian cookbook. mmmm it's a good one.
two married friends kicked out of the VVC. so good to see my high school buddies :)

three basketball games and choir concerts attended. yep i have talented siblings.

four eyes. (next week the glasses come!) i spent a good two hours at the eye doctor picking out the perfect specs to fix the problem these huge pupils in my eyes cause.
four trips out to the mall to do christmas shopping/returning. the boise town square mall and i have a love hate relationship. the good deals are the love. everything remaining is the hate.
four days spent alone in my apartment til the mates get back... there is not one living soul in all of Provo.
five chickens in the backyard providing all sorts of great eggs I wish I had to eat in Utah.

six burgers from Red Robin and a family night out. (thank youuuuu giftcards.)

six people jumping around in the living room whacking each other in the face playing the best game ever. Just Dance.
seven (billion) texts sent to my favorite boy in san diego. (sunday sunday sunday)
eight hours of sleep achieved nightly. mmmmm
nine AM workouts almost every day at the best gold's gym in the country. I wish I could have fit that gym in my suitcase.
ten minutes it took me to unearth my car from the 6 inches of ice and snow that covered my car upon arriving back in Utah.
countless pictures taken, times I laughed, times my mom and I stalked people on facebook, and times I realized how great I had it. Thanks for the good times, Treasure Valley and my great family. Love you :)

today has been swell.

I feel like I have so many posts to post. So one at a time, here we go. Let us cover Christmas 2010. Boy howdy it was a good one. If there is one word I could use to describe the day, it would just be normal. We kept our traditions alive, and spent Christmas Eve in the following regimen:
made and delivered various treats/gifts
making pizza (pesto this year. We're getting fancy :)

hitting up the lights at the Capitol and Bayhill Springs (they're getting kind of lame, Way to go, Bayhill.)

reading Luke/ The Living Christ
and then going to bed.
 I like normal.
Christmas day went the same way. We woke up at a record breaking 8 AM (usually it's 5/6) and spent the morning digging into the gifts under the tree. I keep seeing all these pictures people have been posting on facebook about Christmas and these huge parties, dressing up, etc etc etc, but to put it quite frankly, my family is a pack of bums on Christmas. We mostly lay around the house all day, Dad enjoys wearing every article of clothing that was under the tree for him in one fell swoop of an outfit (quite hilarious, I must say) and mostly we don't brush our hair or anything all day. That is why there are like no pictures on here of Christmas day. They may or may not make your eyes bleed. However, this one was just too precious not to add. A box hand picked by Kourtni with ol St. Nick holding a precious kitten. I just love cats.

To our delight Santa ended up paying us a visit, and he must have mixed up us and the good Ball children somewhere else in the US, because we got all kind of stuff we definitely didn't deserve. Payton got Wii games and a new wardrobe, Kourtni and Lindsay made killings in the clothing/footwear department, and I am now the proud owner of more clothes and a new phone. Antonio was great, but Antonio II is closely becoming near and dear to my heart. :) He's a 4G Mytouch and I am already somewhat attached.
The rest of Christmas was jolly as well after the gifting subsided. We went on a brisk walk, stuffed ourselves full of dinner, then ate more caramel corn and diet Coke at the movies that night, prefaced and followed by Just Dance, the best WII game ever invented, and then the best movie I have seen in many moons: Babies. It is the best. Watch it. You won't be disappointed.
Anyhow,  it was fantastic. So normal, so familial, so homey. Happy Holidays 2010, and only 363 til the next one!

merry christmas

We bear testimony, as His duly ordained Apostles—that Jesus is the Living Christ, the immortal Son of God. He is the great King Immanuel, who stands today on the right hand of His Father. He is the light, the life, and the hope of the world. His way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come. God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine Son.  -The Living Christ


I really like Christmas. And this video I found today when I was playing "spy on Spain".
most of you won't understand it. watch anyways.

Nochebuena: un día de reencuentros familiares

Merry Christmas. Feliz Navidad. May your holiday be happy and joyous, may your heart be light, may all your troubles be out of sight. (& may Santa bring you everything you asked for. :)

i've been away too long

and I know it because I just looked out my backyard window and saw that the tree we bought as a twig all those years ago is probably the size of the one in Rockefeller Center. what happened?
The flight home was wonderful. much better than any old drive would have been! the flight from SLC to BOI is wonderful because you basically ascend into the atmosphere, stay there about 10 minutes, and then it's back down and you're descending into beautiful Boise! I do love it.
I seriously love Christmas break already. I have nothing to do. NOTHING. When Pat asked me what I was gonna do over break, I told him I was gonna read and sleep on my couch. Well people, I accomplished both those things yesterday- I read one page of Hunger games and was out cold. I like it.
As for finals, they went meh... they're over. I think I slid by with some pretty average grades but whatever I NEVER HAVE TO TAKE ACCOUNTING AGAIN. That is truly a Christmas miracle.
I feel like I should do some kind of first semester recap of all the great things that happened... okay you talked me into it.

BEST PARTS:
Anatomy and feeling smart when I hear the doctors saying smart doctor-y words at work.
Me and Pat's really great dates.
Living with great people.
Cooking with Anita
Chase Baker and his wonderful shows.
Going to St. George and leaving Happy Valley.
Dinner parties and other gatherings.
Working a great job.
Lots of other things.

WORST PARTS:
4 tickets in 6 months. 2 speeding, 2 parking. Honestly UPD. Get off my case.
Liberty Square Maintenance. Pretty sure we spend a good half of the semester living in darkness. Seriously, how many maintenance workers will it take to screw in a lightbulb?!
That's really all I can think of.

Alright, well guess it's time to play carpool again. Since I'm home all the sibs just think they can make me come pick them up whenever they like. And I do. I'm whipped.
Cheers

the pirouettes on the counter are tempting me.

ohh the many joys of finals week.
Three are finished, leaving the two scariest ones in my path: Accounting and Spanish Literature. ay ay ay. This semester I've tried the "pull the bandaid off as quick as you possibly can" approach, meaning minimal studying and hoping and wishing and praying for some decent grades. so far, so good.

I wish I had something more interesting to say.

Oh, oh I know I know. I get on a plane for my own house in, oh, about 42 hours. That's pretty neat.
I got a parking ticket for parking over 12 inches away from the curb on Sunday morning. Not so neat.
It was Kelsey's birthday yesterday and we surprised her at Gateway Friday and it was fantastic.
I watched Julie and Julia last night and wished I had more time to cook this week. Not so fantastic.
There has been an avalanche of baked goods which have made their way to our apartment this week. Great for the taste buds. Not great for the waistline. However, during finals week calories do not count.
The weather has been in the 50s this week, and the tepidity is just fantastic. I love not being able to see my breath.
Liberty Square is the dumbest. Why? We have cleaning checks on Friday, meaning NO ONE will be here, meaning if they fail us we don't have any time to fix our mistakes, so they will just charge us 30 bucks. Tyrants.
HOWEVER the semester is almost over and I leave on an airoplane so soon I should almost be packing. That brings true joy to my heart. K time to get back to the managerial financing and whatnot.
Cheers.

success

if someone would have told me I'd write a 6 page analysis of Spanish literature in Spanish at the beginning of college, I probably would have laughed.

(but most likely cried) And I am just proud to announce that I DID IT and it's done and I didn't procrastinate, and that's just one more thing that is outta the way between me and my Christmas break.

Mmmmmm smells like gingerbread.

and here is a list of random thoughts on a night such as this:

Provo decided to get all nice and lose the snow this week. What's up with that? Not that I'm complaining, but really?

I didn't fail my anatomy final. It's hanging on the fridge serving as a good dose of motivation for the next week. (oh boy, do I need it!)

Kelsey and Sam are going to London on study abroad. I am so excited for them and their European adventures because I am kind of a Europophile. I just love Europe. A lot. (but mostly Spain)

We are in the process of making our free christmas cards from Shutterfly. Hallelujah it's kind of exciting.

Tomorrow me and Pat are going to Brian Reagan and it's going to be fabulous.

I can't believe Christmas is sneaking up so much. Last night we had an FHE Christmas complete with Christmas sweaters and a whole lotta cheer. Our family is great.

And currently I am what one might call obsessed with red pepper tomato soup. And no, I did not make it. I simply dump it in my bowl and heat. Ahhh it's good and fast and easy and tasty with string cheese.

That's all. Time for more homework!

Cheers

ATTENTION BLOGWORLD.

I love Shutterfly.
They email me with great deals on different photo projects multiple times a week, have great projects to do with your pictures, and they've done it again with an offer you just cannot pass up.
So you've been thinking about doing Christmas cards, yeah? Well Shutterfly is offering 50 FREE CHRISTMAS CARDS to those who just simply do a little bit o' bloggin' about their offer. Boy oh boy I just about jumped for joy when I saw this offer and the fabulous selection of cards they've got here on their site. Me and the roommates were thinking about getting some cards made to send to our families, friends, missionaries, etc etc, and the great cards on Shutterfly really sealed the deal. I mean, who can even think about passing these up?!

Shutterfly has so much to offer when it comes to the ways you can actually USE your pictures instead of just letting them sit on your memory card. They have tons of projects, and you can really let your creativity flow through all the different options they have for styles, patterns, and templates. My favorites are the calendars because making and giving these is truly something you can enjoy year round.

I was just giddy when I saw the variety of holiday cards they have to offer, too! Me and the 'mates might not be as cute as these kids, but I think our faces will look nicely right down there! We've taken lots of good candids over the semester, and I just love this card because it's a little less traditional, and a little more me! 

 

Thank's Shutterfly!!
Now head on over to this page to start planning out the best Christmas cards of your life! And don't stop there! Shutterfly also has a great selection of thank you cards for after the holidays, and wall art to enjoy year round. Now get on over there and make some magic!