Dashing Through the Snow

Alright, so there really was no dashing involved...and the snow came before Christmas so it was already plowed, however, most of my Christmas was spent traveling, just to give the meaningless headline merit.
Merry Christmas to all by the way!
I love Christmas time. Seriously. Purely and truly LOVE this time of year. I love Christmas music--I'm one of those people who is completely fine playing it before Halloween. I hang onto the idea of Santa Claus and still put out plates of cookies--even though everyone in my house is old enough to know better. (For the record--Santa DOES exist.) I usually decorate to the nines and actually plan ahead for gifts and Secret Santa and what not.
Sadly though, I've been rather unenthusiastic with things this year. Mostly due to moving. But it's still been rather sad and discouraging. However, the first thing set up in my house was my nativity scene--even before the necessaries like tables and beds and what not. And I did get a tree up (albeit barely--it will now retain a 2-3 week residence because I was so late getting it in.) And I have brilliant plans for next year--when, you know, I'm not going to be painting, moving in, and back and forth.
However, despite the craziness of moving I still found so much joy in Christmas.
First off, I have to tell about the best part of this Holiday that happened as sort of a pre-Christmas gift. My little brother got called on an LDS mission--he'll be leaving in March for 2 years. The leaving part isn't necessarily the exciting part but he'll be able to partake in so many opportunities, experience a different culture, and meet a myriad of people. I'm excited for him to have the faith to take this opportunity and for the experiences he's going to have.
That was probably one of the most exciting moments over the holidays.
The 24th I received my fridge. I got it from Sears and I'll say it is fabulous. The best part? It's listed at $999 and I got it for $599! ...This week I price checked it again and it's listed for $799. The joys of discovering you have good timing. I'll say though that I loved it. At first I was skeptical of buying black. But I've decided as long as I stick to black appliances I think it will fit. Despite the fact that I have cream cupboards. (Update with pictures coming soon)
The stove that I got will work well with it too--at least, I hope. Someday I will get a black dishwasher and microwave etc. (But that's going to be a someday for a while now.) Then Christmas Eve my boyfriend came over and we had all of our Christmas Eve rituals as my family. It was bittersweet realizing that this would be the last year that we'd be doing such, next year our Christmas will be spent waiting for a phone call. But it will all work out. I'm such a sucker for tradition I can't see how we'd be able to NOT do certain things. That's honestly what this year was as well. Even though all of us "children" are older now I still insist on certain things (which is slightly ridiculous seeing how I'm the oldest.) We watched Mr. Krueger's Christmas. Which, I will admit, is NOT my favorite part of the rituals. Then we had a wonderful traditional Christmas dinner with turkey--we always cook the dinner for Christmas Eve then snack and laze for Christmas. Then we sit together and everyone opens 1 gift--which is always pajamas. We read the Christmas story from Luke and then my Mom reads the poem "Annie and Willie's Prayer" just like she has since I was around...3? We talk about the true meaning of Christmas then set out cookies, milk and gum drops for Santa. (He always leaves 1/2 of them uneaten.) Then we trod off to bed.
This year was different in that manner though, we went down to Weston's family's house after this and wrapped presents for Santa with his family and did Christmas morning with them. It was really fun actually. He has a younger brother and sister who still believe in Santa so it was fun to see their excitement. That morning I was surprised to actually sleep in until 7 (My brothers would have been up at 5:30) then the typical opening of presents. It was so much fun to watch the little kid's faces.
That was my Christmas. It was fabulous I was able to spend time with my family, my amazing boyfriend and his family. We even got in some time to see my Grandpa. Then that night, we watched Despicable Me at my house--which was, officially my first "get together" at my house (despite the paint cans and brushes all over the place.) Not to mention, I LOVE that movie. It was a very nice, lazy Christmas. It was my first time not exclusively with my family though. That was different. Weston's family made me feel at home and comfortable though.
Sunday I went with Weston's family again to see his sister and her family. She has the cutest little girl. Then back to the real world.
I'm setting up goals. For New Years too but not quite yet:
My Goals for This Week:
1-Finish Painting Cabinets
2-Set up Cabinets
3-Not stress Work
4-Unpack
5-Clean house
6-Have a New Years Party.
I best go get busy.

Moving Joy

I finally have moved all of my stuff into my house! ....well aside from my bed, my clothes, and...oh yeah, myself! However, It is so nice to have everything out of that storage unit and everything worked out. Hopefully I'll be in before Christmas...with my Christmas tree up. That's my goal. I'm just cleaning and painting and moving everything right now.

Gratitude

Thanksgiving has come and gone and I never posted about things I am grateful for. So real quick I'm going to update on that. I'm doing it my alphabet.
Atonement. Agency.
Brothers. Books. Boyfriends. Boys.
Christmas. Chocolate.
Disneyland. Dads.
Emotions. Effective communication.
Friends. Family. Faith. Feeling.
Giselle. Gospel. Grandpa.
Hearing. Hugs.
Individuality. Ice Cream. Institute.
Jesus. Joy.
Kindness. Kisses.
Love. Laughter. Life.
Mothers. My other self. Music.
Nature.
Opinions. Outdoors.
Patience.
Q...Quirks.
Reality being better than fiction.
Stories. Smiles. Sight. Scriptures.
Temples. Togetherness. Touch. Taste.
Uniqueness.
Verla.
Weston. Worlds Wonders. Water. Warmth.
Youth. Yesterday.
Zion.
Then I realized I wanted to name people I am grateful for too:
Andrea. Amelia. Amanda.
Braden. Becca. Brennon. Britni. Brenda (Both of them)
Charlotte. Clint.
Dad. Daniel. Darla.
Eric.
Felicia. Falisha.
Grandpa. Giselle. Garna
Heather.
Jamie. Jenny. Jessica.
Keith. Kelly (Dad) Kay.
Leisl. Lucilla. Linda (all of them) Leslie. Lou.
Marles. Matt (Both). Melanie.
Nora.
Penny. Patsy.
Royce. Ray.
Sariah. Shari. Shawn. Shay.
Toni. Troy.
Verla.
Weston.
Zachary.
There are so many other things I am grateful for in this world. But I love this season. Both Thanksgiving and Christmas are the Season of Giving. I love it.

Differences in Thoughts

I'm in a pondering mood this morning and started thinking about differences in people. What makes us unique? And why can't we accept uniqueness and let bygones be bygones? I say this but I'm not good at this. I had a talk with a friend about being a vegetarian. I could understand the concept. But I couldn't wrap my head around a tofurkey and couldn't help but think his idea about not wanting to waste resources so walking in the snow for a mile is still a viable option. And I think to myself that it makes sense in so many ways and yet I still don't understand any of it. The most bizarre thing for me is the fact that it matters. It causes separation between us.
So I wonder, why do we search for differences and similarities with people? People are all different. Depending on how hard we look we will find something different. They can be little things--and I've seen discrimination upon it. And often it goes both ways.
Peoples opinions on love differ. I've seen an argument between friends on whether or not you can fall in love quickly. When in reality it goes both ways. Some people need time to fall in love. The experiences they've had or their personality allows for them to need time. Others fall suddenly and easily.
People differ on ideas and philosophies. And I'll admit I see some as wrong--mostly because they are different to me. But I'm coming to realize that if they make that person feel genuine then there's nothing I can do. I may have my differing opinions. I am just as biased as any person.
That's not the point of this post. This was just on my mind. And I wonder why. I know that I feel validated when I meet somebody who has similar ideals. But why do I feel threatened by people who are different? It's not a bad thing to walk to work everyday to preserve our natural resources. And yet I still note these differences and sometimes slander them.
And I wonder why it matters. Why do I care so much about silly differences? Why does it matter what color someone is? What religion they practice? What clothes they wear? How they fall in love? Or how they get to work?

I Fought For You By The Sound Tank.flv

So I finally uploaded some needed pictures from my camera, as you can tell from my last post I'm sure. So I just quickly wanted to post some pictures and tell about my weekend. Which was of grand proportions. First thing first I wanted to point out my adorable dog and her fairy princess outfit. She fits the princess costume all too well.

Some of my cousins little kids came over. One of them was dressed up as a puppy dog. Her dad said. "Look, you're dressed up like a little puppy dog and the puppy dog is dressed up like a little girl!" Ha ha I thought it was so funny.
I also dressed up like a fairy princess for a Halloween Party. It was a lot of fun.
Now onto my weekend. This last weekend was crazy busy. But so much fun. Luckily due to Veteran's Day, I had a day off. I do want to take a shout out to honor our veterans. I posted a video by SoundTank off of youtube for it. They are such amazing people. And they fought for YOU! And ME!
Friday my family went down to our old stomping ground and I, for the first time, got my hair done in an up-do. There was a winter semi-formal dance that night that I was going to.
It was officially amazing! I was so pleased with how it turned out. I felt like a princess.
The funniest part about the night though wasn't the dance, but getting ready for it. I wanted a little bit of poof at the end of my dress. So I scoured several stores for something that might work, but to no avail. My Aunt had something we hoped might work. You can see for yourself:
Yeah, talk about poofage. I felt like I'd stuck a Marshmallow under there. It seemed like a good idea. And it definitely gave me a laugh. I think I cried from laughing so hard. I even left it on for when he came to pick me up. Just to see his face...BUT I was laughing too hard so he knew that I didn't mean it. But here's us right before leaving. Isn't he so adorable?
Then us again. I seriously think this man is wonderful and adorable. We had so much fun at the dance. It was just great and grand.
The next day I had to wake up at 5:00 (on a Saturday! the horror!) so I could rush up to class by 8:00. And then sat in class for 8 hours. Okay, it wasn't necessarily as bad as all that. I love my classes, I learn so much and really do enjoy every moment of it. It also reminds me that I am taking the right course. I just find so much joy in it...THEN after class I got to go see:
Yes, that's right. Pretty much the best play in the universe. Same with the movies. And the books. Ha ha. It's just marvelous. Sink Me! I went to that with a friend I have in elementary school. We had so much fun together. And check out our Percy and Marguerite.
Aren't they just adorable? They had a good chemistry together to play off of. I'm a critic of this play and I was rather impressed. Then that Sunday we ended up with my boyfriend's family. They are so amazing and sweet. I really enjoy spending time with them. That's my wonderful weekend.

So here it is! The pictures of al la house. Of course I have MUCH MUCH more work that needs to be done. But really that's part of the glory of this whole thing isn't it? The befores and afters. First are the not so bad--just a LOT of cleaning and paint to go into. I've also posted some of the changes I've made so far. Here's the living/dining room area. I love love LOVE the fireplace. It's so rustic. But it makes me cheery. I think of Snow White.

Now this is the front room. I still have carpet from the 70s. And I'll continue until I can afford not to. (Trust me it's the next big expenditure after paint) But I love the 3 big windows. It provides so much light and makes the room much bigger.
This is the downstairs finished room. Most of the basement if unfinished or partially finished. This will be turned into my entertainment room. I really like the brick wall on the side. I'm excited to do some work with this.I really don't have to say much with this bedroom other than the floors, believe it or not, are orange. Yep, blue, pink, and orange all collide in this room. It will be so much fun to change. Because, seriously, no matter what I do, it has got to look better than this.

The kitchen colors aren't pretty. The wallpaper is hideous and the holes in the walls make me wonder. But really this is going to be a rather functional room. And I'm going to like it. Especially when I can make it look good.
With this next photo what I want attention drawn to is the broken cupboard at the bottom corner and the middle drawer that is completely missing.

And now a la replacemento. Hopefully I'll get the cupboards painted soon. And replacing the dishwasher.
My Bathrooms were the funnest (READ: worst!) part of everything. My toilets enjoyed it though. They were able to become friends. There they are in my dining room...wrong, on so many levels.
This is my kitchen door entryway. I have no idea how it was done. But I do know that for safety reasons it had to be fixed.
So we did some demo work.
And wa lah! I was too strapped for time and money to do the entire floor. This isn't as pretty but much more economical for my pocketbook.
Now onto the bathrooms. I don't have an original before picture just a during and an after. Just basically imagine the toilet and vanity in tact with linoleum very similar to the kitchen.
And check out this gouged out sink! Do you think they took a jack hammer to it?
Officially floorless.
The bare area was lifting so we replaced the subflooring. I love my father. But we are not the most...skilled at carpentry work.
Even without being skilled in this area of work, I do have to say I'm impressed with our work.
Then onto the finished project. New tile--FREAKING DIFFICULT-- and new vanity with sink. I think they're loverly.
Then there's the master bathroom...not that there's really anything masterful about it. There was never (at least not as long as I saw it, I'm sure there once was...long long ago) real flooring. Just the gross, rotting out, sub-flooring.
YUCK!
Starting to replace the sub-flooring with our Oh-so-amazing skillness
And then the finished project. Woo hoo. I don't have a picture showing the vanity. But whenever I get to actually finishing this, I will. Believe me, I will. As it were, I love the tiling and the colors in this room. It's going to make it much much nicer.

Beware: This post contains sloads of nauseating twitterpation.

So life has not gotten any less crazy. And still in a crazy good way. Twitterpated me. We've been doing things everyday since our first date. It's been fun and whirlwind like. This last weekend he asked me to come home with him and go on a triple date with 2 of his sisters. I'll be honest, I was terrified. I know he'd met my family but still...sisters are terrifying. The weekend was so much fun though. Before I even got into the house his 5 year old sister was running out and giving me hugs. Then we went to dinner and went bowling with 2 of his sisters and their dates. Bowling is normally among my list of evil sports, but we played a game with them this time and it was hilarious. We had a bag of skittles and you'd choose one and depending on the color you'd do a stunt. Like lay on the floor and roll the ball or spin around 5 times and roll it. Stuff like that. It was so funny. At some points, all 6 of us were on the floor laughing. The next day we spent time with his family and went on a 4 wheeler ride. We went and saw my grandpa. And he asked if we could exclusively see each other. We came home that Saturday and then he came over yesterday and we spent time with my family.
In many ways I cannot believe this. It's completely and totally not what I was expecting for my life. However, I am so ridiculously happy. I don't think I've been able to stop smiling since our first date. I'm starting to feel like tour-guide Barbie.

Twitterpation

Life is so crazy. But in a good way. In a most certainly wonderfully good way. Actually at this precise moment I am twitterpated beyond belief. It is slightly ridiculous but so wonderful. I met the boy at my institute class, he's from the same area as my Dad and went to school with my cousin and we talked about that. No biggie. I thought nothing of it. He added me as a friend on Facebook. Life went on. I missed a few weeks of institute and he facebooked me saying that he wanted to do something with me but didn't see me at institute and didn't have any other way to contact me. I gave him my number. The next week at institute he asked me out. We were supposed to go play tennis but the weather had other ideas. So instead we stayed at my house and made a cake, played games with my family and watched a movie. I found myself realizing, as the night went on, that I really liked this guy. He came over the next day...and the next. And consequently, it's happened even more as time goes on. I REALLY like this guy. And he seems to feel the same way about me. It's insane. But like I said earlier, in a crazy good way.

Quiz Results

I didn't know where to save these quiz results then decided *shrug* why not share about myself. So here's my color wheel. The test is not avery well thought out and obviously has many limitations but I still like what it says about me.

BLUE

BLUES are motivated by intimacy. They seek opportunities to genuinely connect with other and need to be understood and appreciated. Everything they do is quality-based. They are loyal friends, employers and employees. Whatever or whomever they commit to is their sole (and soul) focus. They love to serve and give freely of themselves in order to nurture others' lives. BLUES have distinct preferences and are the most controlling personality. Their code of ethics is remarkably strong and they expect others to live honest, committed lives as well. They enjoy sharing meaningful moments in conversation as well as rememebring special life events (i.e. birthdays and anniversaries). BLUES are dependable, thoughtful, analytical and can be self-righteous, worry-prone and moody. They are like "sainted pit-bulls" who never let go of something or someone once they are committed. When you deal with a BLUE, be sincere and make a genuine effort to understand and appreciate them

Updates

Updates to my life. It hasn't been terribly interesting. However, I will not be moving into my house until Dec 1. Which is an inconvenience and not so great but still, I think I'll be able to handle it and it will be great to finally do it when we get there. In the mean time I should probably work on school--at least, that seems like the ideal idea.
Life is good if not the most interesting. My best friend/roommate got married. (I'll post pictures once my home computer gets fixed.) And I officially completed all of the repairs for my house. I moved in with my family until I can get into my house.
Things have been crazy the last little while and it's nice to let things go for a bit.

Upon Being Sociable

So I have found the secret to being a social person: Stop worrying. And just live and learn. I am somewhat of a socially awkward person. I don't always know what to say and often my mouth gets away from my head. And many many other reasons but basically I was always so worried. I was so different because of this reason. Or that reason. I didn't really fit in. No body would be able to accept me. Blah blah blah blah blah. Insecurity. Stupidity. Got it. Did it. Still. ^ ^

News

Wow. Its funny how quickly things change. Just Monday I was saying that there wasn't a whole lot going on in my life. Well I'm not really sure I was wrong however in the past few days that has most certainly changed. I'll begin with the news and then I'll tell the reasoning and the experience behind it.
I'm buying a HOUSE!! ...There, I said it. *phew* It seems so crazy and insane and yet completely right. And I have no idea why. All I really know is that I can't deny it.
But I will admit that I am extremely psyched for it although I am nervous as all get out. The house is a 3 bedroom 2 bath affair (I would more qualify it as 1 1/2 bath) But really it's even bigger than that. It's great. Upstairs there are the 3 bed 2 bath. And a soon-to-be marvelous living room, kitchen and dining place area. The living room has 3 great windows so a lot of light comes in. And the dining area has a set up for a stove or fireplace--It just doesn't have them yet. Then there is the downstairs. There is a finished living room area and 2 partially finished rooms--as in they are finished except for painting and carpet and one of them has to fix up the sheet rock in one corner. Then the unfinished basement has hook ups for a dryer and washer and a place and fixtures for a small bathroom if I so desired. I'll just have to see. Its on just under a half acre and needs plenty of tender loving care but that's part of the fun for me is envisioning what I'm going to do with it and how I am going to make in into a home. I'm muchly excited.
So it seems like a lot of home for just me and my dog. And it wasn't really what I originally intended.
I had a story to it but it feels strange writing very personal experiences and feelings--especially since they can be misconstrued in ways that I don't intend for them to be and it feels very personal. So I will say that I am very grateful for a loving God who will answer prayers and hope that the reader will understand this to mean that this is the house that I'm going for. And that's that really.
So soon--possibly next month, I will be a homeowner. Right now I am a homebuyer. *insert mild form of freaking out a little* I don't really feel old enough. And there are so many other worries and questions and wonderings I've had. However. I am going forward with faith. It's gotten me through so far.

The Nose Goes

Really not too much is going on in life. Which is extremely nice. I am meeting people right now and actually being social (a giant gasp should be included in there.) And life is wonderful. I finished my first semester of grad school. Passed too. It feels so crazy but I am definitely enjoying the 2 week break. Seriously. It needs to be longer. Then, hmm...*ponder ponder*
Really my life is about enjoying my break from school and being social (or more so attempting sociability--that is a word, I looked it up.) But other than that--oh! I did have one announcement: I am buying a house. Yeah, that makes me feel so official and kinda oldish but I have decided its the right thing for me to do. So I'll just see how that goes.
Then my random hilarious but disgusting event in my life: My Morning Events
So this morning I was starting to go walking with my Mom and our dogs. We weren't even a block away when my mom's dog found us. She brought a pungent odor with her--actually pungent is too mild a work, try the freaking worst smell in the history of, well, just about anything. Seriously. That's right. She'd found a skunk. Yeah, that guy.
Goodness! I thought that the odor was bad just smelling them across a field or what not. It had nothing on this dog. I thought my gag reflex was pretty down pat. Gags was about all this induced me to. We tried to walk but only made it a block before it was apparent that our full 3 miles was so not happening. Literally, I couldn't make it past the block without gagging to the extreme. Walking and gagging are not very nice to lungs. Once we were back home we realized that we had no place to put her. Nobody wanted to get close enough to put her leash away or hook her to something else. And she normally resides in my family's house. There was no way that was happening. Finally we put her in the shed. And tried our walk. It wasn't very successful. By that time my mom and I were still gagging and shuddering. Even still I got an email from her--12 hours later talking about how she could still smell the disgusting-ness. I keep asking my coworkers to smell me in case I still have something sticking to me. Because it's really disgusting.

Blog Change How Tos

So I have just found out some of the coolest things in regards to blogs. The Title fonts I learned how to do here that website is where I got the font for them as well. And the fabulous header I created I learned how to do here. I think it's fabulous.

Ending Results

So I finally found a new friend: It's a Singer 7407 and I have to say I love it. I've never been a big sewing person. More because I haven't had the access though. I love sewing when it comes down to it. So I decided that he could be worth my investment. And so far so good. It works like a dream--and that is with me working it too! I even made some things without any pattern. I finally made the cover for my bench. It was this really bad as far as material wise. But now I think it looks marvelous.
Remember this? Yeah, sad isn't it. Well now I actually have this lovely piece of furniture in my front room where all can see. Because it's not tragic anymore. At least I don't think so. Kinda reminds me of a life guarding chair though. Then this sad headboard. He is now a matching set with the table. And looks nice and sparkly. Even if you can't tell from this picture.
Then because I had this spiffy sewing machine I decided I needed a desk for a work place then to go with the desk I needed a chair. I didn't get a picture of the desk--don't know why--but imagine it a lot like the chair. I wanted them to be blue (don't ask I couldn't really tell why) but I found blue paint in the "Oops section" at Home Depot and it worked fabulously. I also bought some fabric to cover the chair. I'm quite pleased with the result. It makes me want to sew even more. Which is good--I have to justify buying a machine. Well that's all folks