Sorry I haven't posted in a while; life has been crazy with various multipage papers and mom coming and the holiday...it just never seems to slow down any. So this is a super long post. Everyone should be happy, with lots of pictures. I'm just hoping I can endure through the end of finals.

This is what BYU does to all the statues around campus during rivalry week, when we play the University of Utah. I don't know if it actually prevents any vandalism, but it looks cool.


We all went to the California Pizza Kitchen to celebrate Ellen's birthday. It was a lot of fun! Here's mom and Rita.
My roomies, starting from the left: Crystal, Ellen the birthday girl, Njeri (who is not a roommate but Ellen's friend), and Kristin.
Ellen and I were being silly...as you can see quite plainly.
All of the roommates.

I finally got a picture of me and mom.
All of us at the restaurant.
Sorry Ellen, I told Crystal to make a funny face.
Crystal and Ellen battled over Ellen's birthday dessert. There was some whipped cream spread, some faces dunked, some laughter, and some exasperation.




Me and Rita
Mom with her grandbaby Evan.
Colin's boys attacked him.
This is Colin's face during the BYU Utah game when we were losing. Evidently since we lost the church isn't true this year.


We all had Thanksgiving at Rita's house, which was awesome. This is the Dean side of the table.


Colin assented long enough to make a nice face for a picture. I love this photo.

Nana and baby Evan.

So this is my life lately; I quit the group home and so now have more free time to do things like study, papers, and other school work.

Randomness and Halloween

So a lot has happened lately, and I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while, but here it is! On Sunday my roommates and I went down to Rita's house to have dinner, which was yummy, and we had a dance party to ABBA's greatest hits, because seriously, what's better than that on a Sunday night in a girls' apartment?? School has been going pretty well, but it's getting to the point in the semester where life starts to suck, what with all the papers and tests and junk. Urg.

Ellen and Rita!

Ellen and Crystal. They stole my camera and made many faces. This is just one of them.

We partied to ABBA's greatest hits; the three girls on the left live above us, and we had a lot of fun! Ellen's hair is just awesome. I can't believe I caught it at that moment!

This is me with two friends from the Telefund: Dani on the left, and Holly on the right. We went to Saturday's BYU vs. SDSU game, and had a lot of fun! BYU: 42 SDSU: 12. Co cougars!

This was before the game, when the marching band was doing their marching band thing. They made a Y on the field, and I thought it was awesome.

Holly and I at the Telefund before we went to the game. We were wearing the same tee shirt, so we thought we had to take a picture!

Ellen and I went to Target this week, and I'm crazy with the camera, so I was taking pictures. Oh well.

This is me at my other job, the group home, except you don't see anything. The other girl making the weird face is Whitney, who also works with me at the Telefund.
Halloween parties are awesome, and the Telefund's is so much fun. We all dressed up, and had a blast. Here's Holly and me. When she came into work, I didn't even recognize her!

This pirate is one of the cool costumes I saw on campus on Halloween. My favorites were: Darth Maul, a tavern wench, Braveheart (complete with facepaint and weaponry), Thing One and Thing Two (from Dr. Seuss), and a Deer. Don't ask.
This is Dani, our resident ghost-nun. She wanted to be a ghost, but we couldn't wear "masks" so she had to cut a hole for her entire face, so she ended up looking like a nun!

Holly again, being her bad goth self.

Me and Jaclyn; I don't know what she was quite going for... a mobster? I was just trying to milk my Irish heritage for all it's worth.

I think this was my favorite costume at work. Hannah's dressed up as bon qui qui, and if you don't get the reference, here's the video from Youtube. It's awesome.

Ward Temple Trip

My ward went to the temple today, at 6:30 a.m. I don't think I've woken up at 5:30 since seminary, so it was a little difficult. My roommate is one of the temple coordinators, so we had breakfast and juice in our apartment before we went. I was surprised at how many people showed up so early! The poor guys in our ward couldn't come into our apartment because it was too early (they can't go into a girls apartment until 8:00), so they took their cinnamon rolls and juice to a guys apartment. The two temple pictures are of when I went in and when I came out.

Work Work Work... and then school work

So I've been working like an insane woman lately. This has been my weeks lately:
1. School (15 credits)
2. BYU Telefund (17-18 hours a week)
3. The group home (today I worked a 14 hour shift, followed by another 14 tomorrow)

Basically, I have no weekends, no evenings, and no time to do things. Urg. Despite this, I love my job(s), and am enjoying myself. Maybe I'm a closet masochist. Who knows. I really should be working on a French test right now, but I have to go to bed in a half an hour, and I don't really want to open that can of worms. Thought I would check in. No pictures today; I'm using my roommate's computer, since mine is being fixed.

My first post!

So... I have decided to start a blog, because I figure now that I have a digital camera I can put something up besides just words. Mom and dad, this is mostly for you. Life has been pretty good lately; I've got some serious emotional senioritis, but I've actually kept up with all my readings, papers, and exams. At least this senioritis has not affected my school work. Some recent good news:
1. I handed in my student teaching application (the beast is finished)
2. General conference was this weekend, and I got to visit my brother's family.
3. I am over my awful cold.
4. Mom is coming to visit for Thanksgiving.

Today I was able to go visit Colin and Jen and their boys, something I haven't been able to do in a while. I have new respect for Jen , who has to try and get Ryan to look at the camera; it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be! I just hung out for a little while, and drove home. These are some pictures from today, and also some random ones of stuff I've done recently.

These are my awesome nephews, Evan (six-ish months), and Ryan (three). They're awesome.


Colin and Jen, with Colin doing his standard photo pose.


We had BYU spirit week at work one week, and everyone dressed up one day, and we had games all week. Priscilla and Holly stole my camera to take this. The lower one is what my work looks like.















This is me and Amanda... working...




This is one of the games we did this week: BYU Donut eating contest. It was quite entertaining to watch.



Each team at work made banners to show their spirit for the cougars; this is my favorite one. If you notice, on the bottom there is a small picture of a football field and a player kneeling, with a speech bubble that says: "Give us this day our daily touchdown." It seems to be working lately, huh?












These are my roommates: Ellen, me, Kristin, and Crystal. It was Crystal's birthday a while ago, so we took her to Outback Steakhouse, which was a lot of fun.








I got to go visit dad a little while ago, and here are pictures to chronicle the event.





















Me and dad in the hotel, and eating ice cream at the airport. The visit was a lot of fun, and I was so excited to see him!







I think this is all for now... we'll see how good I am at keeping up with this thing!

P.S. This formatting thing is tricky! I spent forever on this, and still haven't figured it out!