One Year Older...

Well, I had a birthday last week. I am now officially 27. I am frequently asked if I like having my birthday around Christmas and the answer is, of course, YES!!! I love that there are so many fun things going on around my birthday and I get to have the great Christmas spirit. Growing up, I always thought that all holidays were celebrated at this time of the year and I always thought that I was special because Santa ALWAYS came to my birthday party. While I have been home, I have worked a little bit on scanning old pictures into the computer and so I decided to do a fun birthday post with as many birthdays as I could find pictures for. Since haven't really had a scrapbook since I was in high school and I don't write in a journal as often as I should, I guess this will have to do.

Starting with.....

A few days after I came home from the hospital

3rd Birthday. I know that pictures of 1 & 2 are somewhere in the mess of pictures. I just didn't seem to get to them!

4 yrs. old. Yes, my Mom made me wear the same dress 2 birthdays in a row. How lucky am I to get Santa at my b-day party every year?!?

5th Birthday. I must have really loved my unicorn birthday cake. I was obviously really camera-shy at this age as well!!!

#6- I remember that my brother always tried to tell me what to wish for while I was trying to blow out my candles.

Birthday party for 7. I LOVED that NKOTB t-shirt. If I only had it now.....

8 years old. This is the day of my baptism. Me in my little Scottish plaid outfit.

Happy 9th birthday to me.

Super fuzzy picture, but this is my 10th birthday.

I couldn't find 11 or 12, but this is #13. I don't know what I'm doing with my face. I loved Winnie the Pooh then. I got all Winnie the Pooh stuff for my birthday this year I think.

14th birthday morning with Dixie- no more bangs

My 15th birthday slumber party

Sweet 16!!! I got an awesome Christmas tree ornament with Santa playing soccer before I went to school that day. I was really into soccer at 16 even though my team was horrible- it was still fun!

18th birthday party at Libby's house. Great people!!

I know that I have pictures of 19-21 somewhere, but I couldn't find them Here is #22 in Russia. WE had a mission Christmas conference on my b-day and I got this amazing porcupine stuffed animal as a white elephant gift. It had the stupidest little laugh and I used to squeeze it and throw it at my companions in the middle of the night to freak them out- I LOVED it!! :)

Birthday fun at the temple lights in SLC for birthday # 24

I couldn't find pictures of 25, but here is a post-birthday sushi trip for #26

AND finally... 27 yrs. old!! I had a great time with great friends. My roomies spent the whole day making these yummy cake ball thingies- they were delicious- thanks guys!!

As much as we all protest birthdays and getting older, I am really grateful for the chance that it gives me to reflect on what I have done with my life over the past year and celebrate the gift of life that we have been given. I am so grateful for all of the opportunities that I am given daily to learn and become better and can't wait to look back again next year at the things that will have happened. Here's to 27 AWESOME years of life!! :)

Family Pictures

SO, I have an amazing friend named Stephanie. Not only is she an amazing friend, but she is a fantastic photographer. Over the summer, Derek and Sierra came to visit from Pennsylvania for Mom's birthday and Stephanie took family pictures for us. They turned out SO WELL!!! I can't believe I've never posted any of them on here, so here you go:

My mom always picks on me!!

My cute niece, Sierra

I have to have somebody to pick on!!

Even though it was like torture to get my family to take pictures, I'm glad that we did and some of them even turned out where my family was smiling!! MIRACLE!!! THANKS AGAIN STEPH!! You're the greatest! :)

Disappointment

In celebration of my hardest finals being over, I decided that I wanted to watch a fun Russian movie tonight. I get really excited and invited my friend Lane over to watch with me since he speaks Russian and would actually understand what was going on. The only problem was that, as we found out, my DVD player doesn't play international DVDs. We tried 6 DVD players- that's right- 6!!!! Finally- we gave up. I was really sad. I really wanted to watch the movie. I had to repeatedly move the TV and re-plug in cables for the DVD players. BUT, at least we had a good time trying to make it work. My roommate, Katie decided that I looked ridiculous doing that and took some pictures to document my disappointment. Here they are:


And this is Lane. He decided to take the camera from Katie and take multiple pictures of himself. Oh heavens.......

On a happier note- my finance and operations finals are over. I don't know how I did (probably not too hot) but they are OVER!!! I only have 2 left and I am actually looking forward to them in some strange sort of way. Only a few more days to freedom!!!!! :)

The joy of G-Chat

Here is the transcript from a G-Chat conversation that took place between me and my friend Michelle tonight. *Names have been altered to protect the innocent*. Enjoy!

20 minutes

8:57 PM me: Edward* is over here and he just asked us on a date- and vocally admitted that we are a last resort because he has already asked other girls who turned him down!!! He is still explaining his plan

8:58 PM Michelle: you had better as heck shoot him down

me: direct quote from him- "that way everybody is happy"

Michelle: any guy that straight out tells you that you're a last resort deserves to be shot down

8:59 PM me: this is possibly the funniest thing I have ever done- he can't decide who to ask right now- it's between me and Lindsay

9:00 PM Michelle: hopefully he'll ask you, you'll shoot him down, then he'll ask lindsay, and she'll shoot him down too

me: :)

that would be the greatest thing in the world- I haven't laughed this hard in a lng time (as I try to suppress my laughter and still carry on a conversation with this guy all while G-Chatting with Michelle)

Michelle: honestly, that's pathetic of him

me: he just said "so should this be a real date or a pseudo date!!" (What in the world is a pseudo-date anyways????)

9:01 PM Michelle: oh wow

me: I almost peed my pats cause we talked about it this morning (Michelle and I had talked about how guys really seem to like doing this "pseudo-date" thing lately and we don't quite get it- it is a date or it isn't- how old are we???)

Michelle: seriously, that's a riot

me: you would be dying

Michelle: men have issues!!!!

me: seriously

9:02 PM oh heavens- he is now on the phone with Jacob* and trying to figure things out before he asks us on a date- IN FRONT OF US!!!

Michelle: unreal

9:03 PM me: Oh- this is SO BLOGWORTHY!!!

Michelle: hahaha

Definition of a pseudo-date, courtesy of the online urban dictionary: when one person asks another person to do something and only one person knows that it's a date.

So there you have it. This is definitely not the first time something like this has happened at apartment 27 aka "the fly trap". It actually happens quite frequently. As a follow-up- he is a nice guy and we are all really good friends. It was just REALLY funny!!! Gotta love my life!!!!!

Addicted to Projects!

I might have a slight problem. I might be addicted to doing projects that I make up for myself. I am sure that my roommates are SO sick of it by now, but like I said, it's an addiction. I have always been kind of stubborn. When I get something in my head that I want to do, I have to do it. For example, about 4 years ago in the summer, I decided that I wanted to buy a barbeque. I went about my day and tried to forget about it. But, I couldn't. Everywhere I went, there was a dumb picture of a barbeque in my head. I HAD to have it. So, since I didn't have a ton of money, I went to DI and bought one. Luckily there was a pretty nice one there for only about $20, so I didn't feel too guilty- AND it lasted for quite a while until I threw it in the garbage a few months ago. But, that is how I am. When I decide I want to do something, I do it. Whether it's a BBQ, applesauce, strawberry jam, or business school, I just go with it. This addiction seems to get worse around finals, too- go figure! :)

This week I had a few projects in my mind that I wanted to get done. The first one was a wreath for our front door. I had a picture in my head of a cranberry wreath hung with a sage-ish green ribbon. I couldn't find the wreath I wanted at any of the stores, so I had to make it. I bought some fresh cranberries, toothpicks, and a round foam wreath form and went to work. I think it turned out really cute. It's exactly what I wanted.

My next project was stockings for the roomies. I wanted to make some Christmas stockings out of white linen-type fabric and use old handkerchiefs for the top, but I couldn't find any old handkerchiefs. So, I found some muslin cloth and some cute lace and a few doilies and put these together. I wish that I had more time to embroider a monogram onto each of them with the first letter of each of our names, but it didn't happen, so this is what we get:

I have been listening to this book on CD that my friend let me borrow all about eating whole natural foods and the health benefits associated with that. It is actually really interesting, but I decided that I wanted to try making some of my own things that wouldn't have preservatives. So, I decided to try my hand at making butter. I had never done it before but I heard that it tasted so much better than store bought butter. We made some whole grain bread to have with it. It didn't rise super well (if anyone has a great recipe for whole grain bread that rises well, please pass it my way), but it still tasted pretty good. Here is the butter making process:

whipping the cream

the butter and the buttermilk in the bottom

DELICIOUS homemade butter

So, this is what I spend my time doing when I should be studying for finals. What can I say, I am the queen of avoiding things that I really NEED to do. Life is great!! I can't wait until Christmas.