Thanksgiving Break 2013

On Wednesday, after 13 hours in a car, I was home! It was so nice to be home for Thanksgiving this year, the first in four years. I'm sad I didn't get to see everyone though. Since it was a surprise that I was coming, some family made other plans and I wasn't able to see all my siblings. Luckily, I'll be back for Christmas in 21 days. 

This Thanksgiving was pretty special because we had eight Oregon State football players and 2 of their girlfriends join us for dinner since my cousin is a freshman on the team. My younger cousins had a blast playing with them and they were very entertaining. They were very friendly and enjoyable to have around. We had a lot of food, but they didn't eat as much as you would expect since some of them had the Civil War game (Oregon State vs University of Oregon) the next day and the ones that didn't play had to watch their weight. We played a game of Spoons with Fred, my cousin's roommate, and they all went swimming after dinner. It was a great day.

Yesterday was the Civil War and sadly we didn't win, for the sixth year in a row. We lost by one point, which is almost worse than losing by a lot just because we were SO CLOSE. It was fun how the family kept looking for my cousin and the players we had over the day before on TV. We saw them a few times. It was pretty exciting. 

I had also spent over an hour on the phone with Verizon. My grandma was on the phone for a while and we found out they had made a mistake and wanted me to change my phone number because of it. I was going to go along with it just because I didn't want to make things difficult for Nana, but I didn't really want to change my number. I took over the call and after over 2 hours on the phone between the two us, we finally got it resolved. Working at a call center has its perks because I definitely knew how to get them to fix it our way. I still have the same number :)

Today I spent most of the day shopping with my aunt and sister Sunhee. She has her first formal dance next week. She is in Jr. High and growing up so fast! We went to seven different stores before finding the dress. It was hard because she is small so it was hard finding the balance between something that fit but looked her age and not too childish, but we did it. One of the highlights of the day was watching her try to walk in heels for the first time. I would compare it to watching Bambi walk. She went with some cute wedges since they give her the height (oh the curse of the short Asian genes) but are still comfortable and she can actually walk in them. 

I spent most of the evening held up in the craft room making Christmas decorations for my apartment. They are so cute! I'll post pictures when they are finished. Now I'm just finishing a movie and then I'll be off to bed so I can get up bright and early for the trip back to Utah. To sum up, it was a great (albeit extremely short) break and trip home.

*Actually posted on March 11, 2015 but I used the date I wrote it. I think I just forgot to post it.*

Well I'm Going Home...

Back to the place where I belong. Are you singing that song now? Its the eve before the eve of Thanksgiving. Three hours and counting until I start the drive home with two friends. I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity to take a few extra days of (paid!) time off so I can go home. I don't get to go home very often and its always too short. While this is a short visit, I'll be on my way back in a few short weeks for Christmas. I'm excited for the road trip, it should be fun. And my siblings don't know that I'm coming so it will be a surprise. I can't wait to see everyone!

The one thing that I'm sad about is that I'll be away from best friend and roommate Amber, AKA Panda. We have so much fun together! She's like my sister out here in Utah while I'm away from my sisters back home. She's my Bosom Friend, for those who have seen Anne of Green Gables. Sometimes we read children's books with accents (Amber's not that great at it, but it's fun watching her try). We tell bedtime stories to each other, often made up stories about how we meet our future husbands while travelling abroad. They are are like a made for TV Hallmark or Lifetime movie. In other words, they're awesome. We laugh. A LOT. We both hate being apart and talk about how we are going to be neighbors when we're older and our kids are going to be best friends.

During the summer she went on a 2 week Europe tour and I made
her a little scavenger hunt list for each place. She liked it and took a
picture of some of them for me to see.

A closer look at the lists.

I've gone camping with her family.

Please enjoy some of our text conversations. I'm blue.

We love Pitch Perfect and using hash tags (#)  in texts.

We've started playing The Bacon Game. You replace one word in a movie title with the word bacon. Some of favorites are Legally Bacon, He's Just Not That Into Bacon, Girls Just Want to Have Bacon, The Sound of Bacon, The Secret Life of Bacon, etc. The list goes on...literally. We've been keeping track of the good ones. Try it out and see what you come up with. If its a good one, you should leave it as a comment.

Now she loves her purple hair.

That was just a glimpse into our relationship. One of these days Amber wants to come visit Oregon. That will be a fun trip. Hopefully it will be sooner rather than later. 

Anyway, maybe I should sleep a little before we leave, but I doubt it. I probably won't post again until after Thanksgiving, so to anyone actually reading this, I hope you have an enjoyable holiday with those you love and be safe to anyone traveling like I am.

My Life As of Late

Because I've let myself get behind yet again, I will keep it short by catching up in picture form.

This was my pumpkin for Halloween this year. Didn't actually carve it, but I like how it turned out. Maybe one day I'll see the real thing.

If you didn't already know, I've got a huge thing for polka dots. I got this sweater at Forever 21. I'm a huge fan of their sweaters. It's one of my favorite clothing items in my possession.

My friend Jensen and Porter are becoming close friends. 

Amber and I decided to have an all nighter one Friday night and both had our first Monster Energy drink to help us stay awake. I lasted until 5 AM , which is pretty impressive since I usually go to bed before midnight for work and my internal clock is set to make me tired around 10.

Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream!! We made shakes and threw in some chocolate chips. We also added a few spoonfuls of eggnog  ice cream too. YUM!

I just had to put this here. It's too perfect. Love Emma Stone. Love Easy A.

Amber and I decided to chalk our hair on Saturday and I messed around some more on Sunday. It's a fun and non permanent way to add color to your hair. I really liked the look of the red in my hair.

Fast forward a few days...

I DYED MY HAIR!!!

I've always been against dying my hair until I go gray because I love my hair and it's to expensive to keep it up after you start. I'm too low maintenance for that and I'd rather spend my money elsewhere. After chalking my hair, I kept thinking about adding some color to my hair permanently. I only wanted to do the ends so I could cut it if I didn't like it without being bald and it  it was cheaper. I looked at pictures online and ws deciding between red and purple. Amber, my roommate, is a red head (and I somehow managed to convince her to do it too) and purple was one of the few colors that would work for her so I went for the obvious choice. I regret nothing. I was terrified to do it myself because like most girls, I'm pretty attached to my hair and I was sure I was going to manage to screw it up. When we were buying the dye, we had to admit to the employee at Sally's Beauty Supply that we were clueless. She told us what to use and then I went home and watched a few youtube videos and then went for it. Since my hair is dark, I had to bleach it first so the read would show better.

Then it was time to add the red. 

Took this at work the next day. Rockin' the red and the polka dots. 

i love it. I Love It. I LOVE IT. 

I got so many compliments and people were surprised I actually went through with it. I was surprised I went through with it. One worker even serenaded me with Alicia Keys' "Girl On Fire". It was great.

I think a lot of people have been getting the itch to do something different with their hair because Jensen wanted to shave his hair.

It's been said that the first cut is the deepest. In his case it was the hardest. Its the shortest his hair has been in a long time or maybe ever.

Finished. He doesn't look too pleased.

He likes it. I did pretty good if I do say so myself, although its not that hard to just shave a head. 

Lately I've been in a crafty mood. I made these using cheap canvas, scrapbook paper and thumbtacks. i put some cardboard in the back so the thumbtacks would stay better and not just be poking through. 

Live. Laugh. Love.
Not a fan of the way the L turned out on love but I didn't want to fix it.

I made this banner for Thanksgiving. I'm the process of making a different one, also for the upcoming holiday, but since I'm moving at a snail's pace it may have to make it's debut next year. Sad.

Isn't it pretty?

Well, I think that's about it. Of course other things have happened, but I don't have pictures documenting them and that's okay. I'm getting better at taking pictures because it is nice to have the memories captured, but it's also good to just live in the moment and not worry about collecting the moments on film (or in most cases these days on phones). Life is for living and that's what I'm doing.

Winter Break

Here's what I did over break, in list form. At the ripe old age of 21, my memory is starting to fail me so it won't be too long or detailed. 

• Slept in...A lot
• Scheduled consultation with surgeon
• Got Just Dance 3 as an early Christmas present
• Played Just Dance 3
• Christmas Eve with the whole family. Ate yummy food. More Just Dance 3...Klaire was so cute dancing! Opened presents from aunts and uncles. Got some cupcake PJ's (which I love!), cupcake liners and edible ink pens for decorating, a cupcake calendar, cupcake book, and probably a few more things. Seeing a theme? 
• Spent the night at my aunt's and got to spend time with my sisters
• Christmas. Opened presents...three more cupcake books, more cupcake liners, an OSU hoodie (which I also love!), 
• Met with surgeon the day after Christmas. Scheduled surgery for the 28th.
• Watched my sister Sunhee at her Jiu Jitsu class. Ended up being a part of the class. The instructor likes parent participation...older sisters too. It's really hard to practice moves on someone who is half your size.
• Had surgery. Detailed post to come.
• My friend Sara visited me the day after surgery. I couldn't do anything so we got caught up and watched YouTube videos. Not the best idea. Laughing was painful and I felt it for the next few days.
• My cousins stayed with us New Year's weekend. Lamest New Year's Eve ever. I couldn't do anything or eat anything. With 10 seconds left on the countdown, everyone accumulated downstairs in the living room and we hugged, kissed, and wished each other a happy new year.
• Watched Harry Potter 7 Part 2
• Watched the Pretty Little Liars premiere with my sister
• Made my cousins and sister CD's with KPop (Korean Pop) songs. I'm glad they've jumped on the Kpop bandwagon. Pretty soon I'll have everyone listening to it. 
• Went shopping. 
• Hung out with my friend Stephanie, something we hadn't done in a long time (like a year).
• Went to church. The bishop held up a garbage bag filled with a paper chain. It was his Christmas present from the primary children. Each link on the chain represented a week where a child read the scriptures by themselves or with their parents. He had everyone go into the gym after sacrament meeting and had the children hold the chain up for everyone to see. It was so long it stretched around the whole gym. It was pretty impressive and inspiring. My home ward is so awesome.

I think that's pretty much it. 

Wonderful Weekend

Happy Fourth of July! This weekend has been awesome. I've had so much fun with so many great people. Let me catch you up on what I've done.

Friday

Ally, Rosi and I were bored and wanted to do something. We came up with a few plans, but decided against them because we didn't really want to spend money. Ally really wanted to prank someone so we decided to do that. We had a hard time coming up with pranks. We took a trip to the Dollar Tree to see if we could find anything (and cheap) there that could be used for pranking. No luck. We then went to Walmart and bought 10 goldfish and three rubber ducks. One guy in the ward, Patty (Patrick- who is also my home teacher), really likes rubber ducks. The one bathroom in his apartment is decorated with rubber ducks (the apartments at Sparks are town house style with two bathrooms...oh Arcadia, why can't you have two bathrooms?) . We went to Phil's apartment (only one person was home) and used their cups and containers to put the fish all over their apartment. Downstairs anyway, since we can't go upstairs where the rooms are. My favorite part was that there was a bowl shaped like a toilet. We put a couple fish in it and stuck it in the bathroom. 

We then headed over to Patty's. We stood outside his door for a few minutes trying to come up with a way to leave the ducks without him realizing what we were doing. We decided to just knock on his door and go with the flow. We went in and hung out for a bit. Phil came in with fireworks. While we were heading out to watch the fireworks, Rosi asked to use the bathroom so she could place the ducks (that she had hidden in her purse) in the sink filled with water.

We went outside and set off over $100 dollars worth of fireworks in the parking lot across from the complexes. I guess no cost is too great when it come to boys and exploding things. I would never spend that much, but they were really good fireworks. The first one they set off did not exactly go the way it was supposed to. It had nine little tubes/cannons on it that shot out fireworks. After the first one shot straight up, all hell broke loose. Excuse the language, but I think that's the best way to describe it. They started shooting sideways. One almost hit some cars, one hit a building (and went the direction all of us girls were standing), and then they kept following us. It would come our way, we would run a further and a slightly different direction and we would almost be hit again. It was pure chaos. There was about seven or eight of us girls just running and screaming for our lives. We laughed when it was over and we didn't feel like we were going to die anymore. We all wished it was recorded so we could have seen it because the guys thought it was hilarious and I can only imagine what we looked like. We figure that's how it would feel to be shot at. It was fun night.

Saturday

I went to the Stadium of Fire!! It was pretty awesome. It was at the football stadium, hence the name. They had some guys parachute in and the last one to drop in had the American flag. All of the guys stuck their landings, except the guy with the flag. He fell and crashed into a guy. The military men that were on the field rushed over and grabbed grabbed the flag. Since it touched the ground, aren't they supposed to burn it now? Anyway, they had a ton of little girls from all different dance schools that made up the Stadium of Fire Dancers. They were so cute! There performances were awesome. 

For the National Anthem, they showed a clip of David Archuleta singing it for the first time in the stadium back in 2003 and then he came out and finished singing it. He was AMAZING!!!!! I still can't believe I got to see him. During "the rockets' red glare" they had red flares go off and during "the bombs bursting in air" they had loud booms go off. It was a nice touch. Oh yeah, Ally and I had great seats. The stage was in one end zone and we were in the other, so we had a perfect view. Not ideal for pictures, which was sad, but still great. We also saw Katelyn from our seats. David is so good at singing live! I love when people sound as good live as they do on their CD. It's not the case with everyone. 

David first sang A Little Too Not Over You. Then he sang, The Other Side of Down (the title track from his latest album), Stomping The Roses (also from the album), his first single Crush and ended with a patriotic medley. I love him! I love him! I LOVE HIM!! He is just so cute and an amazing singer. In between his songs he would talk a little bit. I guess he gets nervous when he talks because he got a little awkward, but it was so ADORKABLE! He can belt it like no other, but when he talks he gets so nervous. Funny how that works. I really wish he was the headliner instead of Brad Paisley, but I still enjoyed the concert.

Brad Paisley sang a bunch of songs and I only knew one of them. It's not that I don't like him, I'm just not a huge country fan. He had some interesting videos that played during his songs. Some were music videos that went with the songs and others were just weird animations and stuff.

Towards the end, they had the dancers perform again. They had traded their red, white and blue pom poms for lights or glow balls or something (similar to a glow stick). They danced to Katy Perry's Firework and that's when some fireworks went off. They used different colored lights to stand and form the head and torch of the Statue of Liberty. It was cool. 

The concert ended with probably the best firework display I have ever seen. It was big and long. It was awesome. They had some music playing and some of the fireworks really went with the music. I'm so glad I went to the Stadium of Fire with Ally! It was totally worth the $56. It was an amazing night.

Sunday

It was fast Sunday and we had Break the Fast with another ward. We had Hawaiian Haystacks for dinner. It was good. I haven't had haystacks since girl's camp, so it's been a while. I made red, white and blue cupcakes and I was going to take them, but I was trying a new frosting recipe and it there were some hiccups. I wasn't completely happy with the appearance of the finished product so I decided not to take them. They tasted fine so some people came over afterwards to eat them. I layered the batter (red, white and blue) so they looked patriotic. 

While the wrapper looks like the colors stayed in their perfect
horizontal layers, they didn't quite bake that way.

See what I mean? But they still look cool.

After ward prayer, there is always a movie. Usually we are in an apartment, but this time we took it outside. Phil moved his t.v. and couches outside and there were blankets to lay on. We watched Mulan and no doubt we belted out the songs! I'm sure the neighborhood enjoyed our performance. When it was over, most of us weren't ready to go so we watched The Blindside too. I mean, it was a holiday weekend so we could stay up cause it's not there was school or work (for most) the next day. It was fun.

Today

The only thing I did today to celebrate the 4th was to eat hot dogs for dinner. No one really did anything around here to celebrate. Rosi invited me over to eat some of the giant cookie she made to look like the American Flag and it was good. I enjoyed (well, I still am enjoying) watching some fireworks from my bedroom window. I could even hear part of the parade this morning since I left my window open last night...I think that's what it sounded like. While I didn't go all out and celebrate today, I'm ok because I had a wonderful weekend. And my hot dogs were delicious!

Father's Day

While I can't say Happy Father's Day to my own Dad (that would require him to actually be a father and do his fatherly duties), I have a couple great uncles who are great examples of what a father should be. I was talking to my aunt about my dad and she said to just call him the sperm donor and my mom the incubator since I can't really call them parents. Sad, but it's the truth. At least I can laugh about it.

I went with Nana and Mimi to church. It's been a while since I've gone to a family ward. I love the primary programs. The kids were so cute singing for Father's Day. There's always the one kid that tries to out sing everyone else and just belts it, the kid that plays around and can't stand still, and the kid that refuses to sing. Love it.

Tonight we had steak and my great grandma's potato salad. Awesome Father's Day dinner! It's been a while since I've had steak from our cows. Boy is it good! It was so juicy and tender.

Tonight Sara came over and tomorrow we are going to the beach!! I'm so excited. The weather doesn't have to be perfect; as long as it doesn't rain I'm happy. The plan is to go to the beach, maybe look at some fun shops, hit up Mo's for clam chowder (YUM!) and then the Tillamook Cheese Factory for free cheese and maybe eat some ice cream too. Tillamook ice cream is so good.

More highlights of home:

• Playing Just Dance 2 (I may have gotten my butt kicked by my 10 year old sister)
• Caught up on scrapbooking! I got Nana's pages done for last Christmas. Only six months late, but she was happy and they turned out great. [My family is big on scrapbooking. All my grandma wants every year is 4 pages from each family. Once I turned 18, I became included.]
• Catching up with friends and people at church (got to see my old YW leader's new baby... so cute!)

Well, I need to go to bed if I'm going to get up in the morning and be awake enough to drive.

Slightly Annoyed

So, you would think that after a roommate has moved out, they wouldn't call you up at 11:45pm to ask to borrow something of yours. Well, that's what I thought and apparently I thought wrong. Manju called to ask if she could borrow my iPod dock because some of her friends were having a party. I probably should have said no, but I didn't. I mean, Manju's a nice girl and all, but because of how things are in her culture she sometimes does things that we would consider rude or unsanitary. Curious? I think I've mentioned before about how she's used my pots and pans without asking. That doesn't bother me as much as when she uses metal on them (they're non-stick so this ruins them) and how my biggest pan has this crud stained on it. My pots & pans were bought last summer so in less than a year of use, some already look a few years old. Yeah, I'm still kind of peeved about it even though there is nothing I can do to change it. Here't the unsanitary part. She used to rake my washcloth that I use to clean my dishes and use it to clean her desk and shelf in our room. I once even saw her use it to wipe the kitchen floor. Then she put it back in the sink! Luckily I saw so I knew not to use it, but how many other times had that happened before I saw it? Gross. She did this during the final cleaning check too. She took a new rag I had just put out and wiped down her side of the room and washed the kitchen floor, with chemicals. She still put it back. Call me dramatic, but I could have died! Okay, maybe just gotten poisoned, but still. Like I said, she's a nice girl and I enjoyed rooming with her, but I'm not going to miss her too terribly. Let's hope my iPod dock returns home safely and in proper working condition.

On a happier note...
Marjorie and I got out new roommate, Christina (I'm not sure if this is how she spells it yet). She seems nice. definitely different than Arianna, Rylee and Marjorie. It will be interesting to see how things go. She was coughing a lot today, you know, that deep cough. I really hope I don't get sick from her. Sharing germs is not the kind of roommate bonding I have in mind.

All the new people moved in today. Apparently they all know each other from their last ward, or most of them do anyway. We did FHE as a ward tonight and we did the typical introductions and played "Do you love your neighbor?" which was a lot of fun. Everyone sits in a circle and there's one person in the middle. They ask someone if they love their neighbor. If they answer no, then the people on both sides of them have to switch places while the person in the middle tries to grab a seat. If they answer yes, they say, "but I I don't love people ..."(wearing jeans, can speak a different language, etc). Whatever they say, anyone that it applies to has to switch seats while the person who's it tries to get a seat. I pretty much fell on one of the new guys while trying to get a seat. Embarrassing first impression. Luckily, I wasn't the only one falling on guys. Ally basically landed in a new guy's lap. You can see why we're friends. From how FHE went, I can tell this is going to be a fun ward. Maybe even better than before. We'll see.

The purple one on the bottom left is the one with melanoma. I wish  I would've
taken pictures of us actually dyeing them so you could see everyone, but I forgot.
I only remembered to take a picture with my phone at the last minute. 

After FHE, Marjorie, Ally, and I dyed eggs. Ally's roommates Jane (new) and Katelyn joined us and we invited a a guys apartment (all new guys) to also join us. They came over under the impression we were doing an Easter egg hunt, but they had fun dyeing eggs . Some turned out very interesting. We were drawing on them with sharpies, crayons, and putting on rubber bands. One of the guys, Chris, he drew melanoma on one of the eggs. Melanoma. Really? The other guys are named Chris (yes there are two and no I'm not sure about spelling this one also looks better than the other), Brian, Patty (Pat, Patrick, whatever you want to call him;he reminds me of Joseph Wiest-looks and personality), Sky (he's super tall), and David. They're pretty cool. I mean, we wouldn't have invited them to join us if they weren't.

The eggs were to wet to hide them so we skipped the hunt. Patty, Sky and Chris (good looking) went to Walmart. Ally, Marjorie and Jane went over to their apartment to watch a movie with the three remaining guys. We watched The Italian Job. Great movie. I really should buy because I've watched it multiple times and it never fails to make me laugh. We actually realized while watching it that the "evil" guy's mustache is crooked. Or maybe it's just his mouth. while we were leaving, we noticed there was a hiking boot left outside their back door (the Sparks apartments are townhouse style and have two doors) filled with pretzels and cheese-type stuff. Random. Walking back to my apartment I have to go past their front door, where I saw the other boot! Also filled with a cheese like product. I couldn't see any pretzels. I had to laugh at that and text Ally.

Anyways, it's been a great day. I also I made lemon poppyseed muffins with a lemon glaze early in the afternoon after hard boiling the eggs (it was my first time and I'd call it a success even though there were a few mishaps that I'm not going to tell you ;) ) . Delicious! I think they played a key role as to how my day was good and just kept getting better. Food can do that you know. Never underestimate the power of food. Food is magic. I love food. Ok, I'm done. Hope eveyone had an enjoyable Monday like I did, which is rare (because it's a Monday and Mondays are just meant to suck).

Festival of Colors

Today a group of us went to the Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork to celebrate Holi-the festival of colors. It's a Hindu spring religious festival, though Utah has put a little twist on it, so it's not exactly the same as in India or Nepal or other countries. It's kind of a huge deal. Thousands of people attend and supposedly this year was the biggest so far. We had to park and then walk a few miles. Basically you and your friends get together and have a colored powder fight. It's so much fun! They have scheduled throwing times where everyone does it together, but we barely missed the time we were aiming for. Right before we started up the road that lead to the temple, we saw a bunch of colors appear in the air and quickly turn into a big brown smoky looking cloud. Since we missed it, we bought the powder and did our own thang.

Our Colorful Group (Except for the guy in back. We don't know him.)

Two girls we don't know, Ally, Stephanie, Claudia, Me and Arianna.
(Claudia and Stephanie live next door.)

I guess Arianna saw something that was more interesting than taking a picture.

Standing in a temple arch.

Afterwards, Ally, Stephanie and Claudia came over and we ate leftover pizza and cupcakes. Then we took turns messing up the shower that Arianna had just worked so hard to clean. We had cleaning checks this morning. I don't think I've ever been so dirty, except maybe from the pioneer trek I did. It was a great day. My only complaint is that one of my perfectly good camis has been permanently dyed pinkish purple. I should have worn one I didn't care about, but I didn't think I'd end up with that much powder down my shirt. Luckily my jeans are fine. The shirt I didn't care about. Now I know for next year because I will be going again. I'm so glad I made it this year after last year's failed attempt.  

Luck O' The Roommates

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Did you remember to wear green? I didn't until I got on good ol' Facebook. Lucky for me, it was right after my shower so I was able to change before getting pinched. So, Rylee is from Dublin, OH. It's not Ireland, but they still take St. Patrick's Day just as seriously. I don't think I've ever seen someone so decked out in green. She even had light up earrings. Just how serious does Rylee take march 17th? She dyed all the milk in the fridge green! And dinner was green pancakes in the shape of leprechaun hats (more or less) and green eggs. Yeah, I live with pretty cool people. Be jealous.

LOVEly Day

Happy Valentine's Day, Single Awareness Day and Oregon's birthday!

Check out these gorgeous girls!

Yes, this post is a few days late. I wrote it on Valentine's Day, but I wanted the pictures from Rylee (like the one above). She didn't post them on Facebook right away so I had to wait. I didn't end up stealing all of them so you can just look them up. You may no be able to see everyone with their gifts because of her privacy settings, but you will be able to see all of the ones with me.

Isn't it cute?

Ok, so we did our pink elephant gift exchange for our Valentine's Day FHE. It turned out great! There were some great gifts, funny gifts, and gifts that we had no idea what they were. We followed the typical rules. Everyone draws a number, highest number goes first (I lucked out, I had 3 so I got to see almost everything and take my pick, but I chose to unwrap instead of steal cause it's more fun that way), and each gift can only be stolen twice before it's locked. Our group was a little lame in the stealing department because honestly, there wasn't that much worth stealing. There was the Korean version of Pocky sticks (Japanese candy) courtesy of Matt. Who would've guessed, right? He's still pretty fresh off the mish I'm guessing because he talks about Korea a lot. I don't know when he got back, but it's probably been a year or less. I don't mind though. Tara brought strawberries. They weren't wrapped and she promised to dip them in chocolate for whoever ended up with them. Those two were the most fought over. The pregnancy test was a hit too. It was so funny when Ally opened it. She turned bright red (fitting for the holiday) and everyone was laughing so hard. I'm glad everyone shares my sense of humor and that no one got offended because it could have turned out badly. A Mormon girl opening a pregnancy test on Valentine's day. Yeah. I told people that they wanted the pregnancy test (because I had those toy guns to go with it). Jason stole it from Ally, only to have it stolen and locked by Chas. He knew about the guns. There was also the movie Sleepless in Seattle (surprisingly, a guy contributed this). Other funny gifts were the one's from Chas. He was hoping a guy would get them because it would be funnier. A girl got the deodorant (which was passed around for everyone to smell) and Joe got the pink sleeping mask that read "Beauty Rest". Poor Joe. He originally had the Korean candy and then the strawberries, but both were stolen and he ended up with a lame gift. Arianna got one the evening's practical gifts, a little desk set with pens, paper clips, and push pins. We have no idea what my gift is. It's been sitting in the guys' apartment for a long time and they didn't know what it was either. It says Hasbro on the bottom so we know it goes to a game, but we couldn't figure out which one (I even turned to the all knowing Google, but had no luck). It's this read thing that lights up and makes noise when you put your fingers on the bottom (there's like this metal sensor thing) and push a button. It resembles a heart monitor in the way there are the zig zag lines and makes a noise similar to flat lining. It currently resides in my room collecting dust. Matt ended up with Rylee's roll of toilet paper that she covered with heart stickers. Everyone uses toilet paper, and if they don't they should. Another practical gift. I think that's all of them.

After the exchanging was finished, we ate cupcakes that I made. I made chocolate with butter cream frosting. I used the pink striped liners from Christmas and a big round tip that I was finally able to find online to do swirls like the professionals. They looked pretty good and tasted great. Everyone had fun taking turns shooting the guns while eating and hanging out. It was fun. the guys were so curious about the pregnancy test. I told them I got it at a dollar store and about the look the cashier gave me. Matt asked what I would've said if she had asked how long I'd been married. I would've just flashed my left hand.

Not to brag or anything, but I was pretty much the star of the night. I had the best and funniest gift and I made awesome cupcakes. It was indeed a great Valentine's Day, despite the fact that I am single. Men? Who need's 'em!

Check me out rockin' the red lips. I've decided I REALLY want red lipstick. This was a leftover Mary Kay sample I had.

Must. Get. More.

New Year, New Wendi

So at church last Sunday, one of the speakers said, "Be who you want to be and be who Heavenly Father knows you are." That really stuck with me. I know that I'm definitely not who I want to be or who Heavenly Father knows I am and can be at this point in time. Don't worry, I'm not calling myself a horrible person or anything like that, I just need to tweak the way I've been doing things so I can reach my full potential. That's why, this year I'm making some changes.

I'm also setting the goal to be better at blogging. I would love to blog everyday, but I think that's a little ambitious for me. I plan on blogging as often as possible. Even if nothing happened that day; I will post a quote, a picture, something.

I hope you all are enjoying the new year so far and good luck keeping any goals, resolutions or whatever you like to call them that you have set for yourself.

Eat, Drink And Be Scary

Happy Halloween! I hope everyone has had a spooktacular holiday like I have. Monday night for FHE, our family carved pumpkins @ our apartment. It was fun having everyone crammed into our kitchen. It got really interesting when the guys were collecting the seeds because we wanted to roast them. Matt called his mom and found that the best way was to put all the pumpkin guts in water and the seeds would float. We offered a bowl, but they wanted to just fill our sink. We were a little worried that they might clog it, but they reassured us that wouldn't happen. There were three guys crowded around our little sink (two to push down the guts that managed to float and one to collect the seeds). While they were doing this they were talking about this gas that causes blisters and bleeding in your throat (gross!). Everyone else had left already so it was me, Rylee, Arianna (roommates) and the guys. We had to laugh at their interesting conversation.

When the seeds were collected Matt and Joe left. Chas stayed behind to help us clean up the mess. Isn't he a great FHE brother? After we cleaned the kitchen, we decided to put candles in our pumpkins and take pictures through our kitchen window. Chas got a little too into it. He wanted to move our huge bookshelf from the living room outside so we could place the camera on one of the shelves and use the self timer. We were having problems getting a good picture when others were taking them.

For our ward Halloween party, I dressed up as a bunch of grapes. It was a last minute costume and cheap. Only $2! Perfect on a college student's budget. I covered a black garbage bag with a bunch of purple balloons and wore a brown beret to be the stem. It looked good. Arianna was Snow White and Rylee was a Greek goddess. That was perfect because during the costume contest we ended up going together because Greeks love to eat grapes. She actually "picked" one the grapes. It got some laughs. Almost everyone knew that I was grapes, except for Russell. He's from Ghana so he needed a few hints before he figured out what I was. Russell's costume was hilarious. He and his roommate James dressed up as each other. Russell painted his face white and dressed as a cowboy (James is from the south) while James painted his face dark brown (black) and wore an African looking shirt. Needless to say they won the costume contest.

Overall, I'd say I had a pretty enjoyable Halloween.

Pictures for this post can be seen on facebook.

I'm A Smurf And Other Thoughts

Today I was going to start painting our fence, but it got too hot too soon so I didn't end up doing it. Since I was going to paint, I was wearing my painting shorts. I told Sunhee the pink spots on them were from painting Alina's room in our old house in Beaverton. She said, "They still fit you after that long?" I told her yes because I don't grow anymore and that the only time my height will change is when I'm old and I shrink. Will said, "You'll be a smurf!" I told him he meant dwarf, not smurf. He said, "No, a smurf!" I tried to explain that smurfs weren't real, but he wouldn't hear any of it. I guess I'm destined to be a smurf.

Will is just so cute and says the funniest things. For lunch I made them Ramen noodles and I asked him which flavor he wanted. I asked him if he wanted beef or chicken and he told me he wanted regular. I told, "So, you want chicken." He said, "No, I want regular." I told him regular was chicken because that's what he usually has. He said, "Ok, but no chicken in it." How adorable is that?

Can you believe this weather? CRAZY! It was like 100 degrees today. It has been so hot the last two days and I've got a lovely sunburn to prove it. I remember to buy sunscreen every summer, now I just need to remember to put it on.

Okay, so I have to apologize for not blogging in a few weeks. My bad! Now I have to catch up on things.

The Bachelorette:

I know I said I wanted to see more of Chris N. and I got my wish. Too bad it was train wreck. He was so awkward with Ali. I felt bad for the guy, but he had to go because he obviously wasn't the one. Justin is a JERK! He was the one that had a girlfriend back home. Messing with Ali and her feelings the way he did and taking the spot of someone that could have been great for her was wrong. WHAT A JERK! I'm glad he's gone. I'm glad Kasey is gone too. I didn't like him. He had issues, I didn't like his voice (talking or singing), and all he ever said was that he was there "to guard and protect Ali's heart," which got annoying after about 20 times. Craig R. is gone too. He and Ali didn't have any romantic chemistry. They were just like friends. Next week is hometown week so I can't wait to see how that goes. From the previews for the rest of the season, it looks like Frank is going to do something stupid. I've like him from the beginning so I hope he stays around. I also really like Roberto. I have no idea who Ali is going to choose. I also thought that the interview with Jake and Vienna was a HUGE joke. I knew they weren't going to last.

Last Tuesday night I really wanted to see the midnight showing of Eclipse so I got a small group of friends together (that didn't already have tickets) and we went and saw it. It was so good. The best of the three. One of my favorite parts of the night was the preview for the last Harry Potter Movie. At the end it said it going to be in 3D and the whole theater erupted with outrage. I agree. What is with every new movie coming out in 3D? In my opinion it ruins the movie. The other part I liked was that there was a guy dressed like a vampire. He wasn't that good looking , but he was better than Rob Pattinson. I really don't like him. It was a fun night. Needless to say I was tired the next day and started getting a sore throat.

Wednesday through Friday I was sick with a sore throat and had a 24 hour flu bug or something. It sucked. I was miserable and vomiting does not help a sore throat. Luckily, I have a great family who takes care of me and does my chores while I'm incapacitated. Thank you guys!

Saturday I finally got to see Alina play softball. It only took me like three years to make it to a game. What a terrible sister I am! She is AMAZING! She caught almost every ball that came her way or she made it to the ball fast and was able to throw it to first and get the other team out. She is one of the best girls on the team. I'm so proud of her!

For the 4th of July I didn't really do anything. We had Break the Fast and the theme wa BBQ. I made read velvet cupcakes to be festive and they turned out great. I wish I had taken a picture. I wanted to try and be fancy so I got out Nana's old cake decorating stuff and did a basic swirl with the frosting and added some red sprinkles. They were a hit and I was very pleased. Yay for cupcakes!

"Any Man Can Be A Father, But It Takes A Special Person To Be A Dad" ~ Author Unknown

(This was on the church program for the ward that Nana and Mimi attend. Mimi read it before dinner and we all agreed that it screams Tevita.)

Today is a day for honoring our father's and all of the wonderful things they do and all of their hard work. Unfortunately, I don't really have a father in the picture and the one's that I did have were not the best examples, to say the least. However, I have excellent examples from the other men in my life, my uncles! All of my uncles who are raising their own children, as well as children that are not their own, are doing a great job. And for you Bilbee, you may not have any children of your own, but you are amazing with all of your nieces and nephews. Thank you guys for showing me what a good father looks like.

Here is a great example of fatherhood. This is a VERY cute video.

Proud To Be An American

"And I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free. and I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me."
~Lee Greenwood~

Happy Memorial Day! Today is a day for remembering those who lost their lives while fighting for our country and the freedoms that we have today because of what they did. I'm glad I'm at the age where I can realize and appreciate the real meaning of today. It's not just a day where there is no school or work, though it is a plus.

Speaking of work, I too did not have to work today. I didn't know it until I had already driven to my friend's house to pick her up. We ride together since her car is in the process of getting fixed. When I got to her house she told me we didn't work today and that our boss had texted her at 5:30. She never called or texted me so I had no idea. I kind of thought it was weird that we had to work on a National holiday, but the job I have isn't like a normal job so it didn't seem that weird. I would think that as an employer she would have contacted me instead of just assuming that my friend, Stephanie, would tell me. It was kind of irritating to drive to Steph's only to find out that I had just wasted time and gas, even though she doesn't live that far.

Anyway, not having to work today was a great ending to an extended weekend. Alina was able to come and spend the night on Saturday. We went out to lunch at Carino's and then went shopping. We tried to find something as a VERY belated birthday present, but we had no luck in Albany. We went to pretty much every store here to find some clothes or something that she would like, but the selection in all the stores was limited and looked "too young" for her. So we're going to wait until I go to Salem (they have a great mall) unless something jumps out at me.

We also made cupcakes. I found the really cute baking cups that were red, blue and white. Alina made fun of me for being so excited about them. How could I not though? They weren't plain old baking cups and I felt that they would make the cupcakes that much better. She told me I don't act my age. They were kind of a waste though because they just ended up in the trash. I didn't want them to be plain cupcakes so we did funfetti cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and a Swedish fish on top. They didn't look bad or ugly, but they were definitely cuter in my mind. I don't know, I guess I just can't stand plain cupcakes anymore since I made those flower ones. They turned out great though and it was fun making them together. We went to church the next morning and then came home and I made breakfast since we only had time to grab bananas on our way out the door. The Titus family came over and we had a BBQ. It was delicious and fun. I love when family gets together. I'm glad that there are relatives that live close enough to be able to get together often. I love my family and I'm extremely blessed and grateful to have them in my life.