THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF KRISTINA

Friday Fun!

2010-03-07T17:12:00.006-05:00

I woke up and spent Friday morning with all of my favorite kiddos. It was Bike Rodeo at the girls' elementary school...we did it at my school growing up, so it definitely took me down memory lane! Lainey's grade came out first. They watch a bike safety video, and then the policemen are outside on the bike course to remind the kids about safe bike riding. Here is Lainey:And here are Havana and David, being silly and waiting to see their sisters ride bikes. They did get to ride bikes and scooters in between the grades. They were wishing they were big school kids...
Here is Holli, chilling and enjoying things from her stroller...or is she enjoying things?! not sure...
Once the first graders headed out, Ruth grabbed Aimee's bike, and took it for a ride...the policemen got more of a kick out of it than Ruth and I did, I think.
Go, Ruth!
Here is Aimee, ready to ride at Bike Rodeo with all of her school friends and classmates.
After a day at Bike Rodeo, and some work on wedding invitations, I picked Brian up at work and we headed downtown for engagement photos. Besides all the traffic that we got in, we had tons of fun taking engagement photos. As we were all around the city, I got so excited! I miss Boston, but I realized there was lots to do, experience, and enjoy in Houston...it will just be more work since I am not living right in the city. I don't know why I love my big cities, but I do, I love all the exploring and meandering, I love their individual cultures and appeal. We wandered around Rice Village. We decided to have dinner at Shiva, a really yummy Indian restaurant!

Here is Brian, with his dinner sampler plate-we each got one of the sampler plates, which means we got to have several dishes and sides. I love Indian food, and Brian, he loved it...he kept saying, "This is so good," "This is really good," "Oh man...I love this food, it is so good." Do you think he enjoyed it? I think so ;) I have now decided that it is my quest to learn to cook for Brian so that he says the same thing of my meals, "This is so good," "Oh wow, this is really good," over and over. I think it may be a lifelong quest, seeing that Brian is a better cook than me, and more of a food snob than me ;) But I will take the challenge!
After a delicious dinner of Indian food, we wandered around Rice Village, a very fun area of town, right around Rice University. There are lots of restaurants and shops. Here I am with the wart hog...he is supposed to be a replica of one in a plaza in Florence...did I miss the real thing back in 2002 when I visited Florence with my parents and little brother, Alex?! Bummer.
And Alex, here is for you...remember those red bikes all over Salt Lake City, and how we mounted one, the both of us, while Mom tried to snap a picture...well, they make them better in Houston...they are bigger, of course, and they have flat seats for you to sit on...this one was a tandem with 2 seats. Here I go for my ride!
And here is Brian getting a little carried away on his bike ride...
We had a fun night, and opted not to do any wedding plans...we had a real date night, just the two of us, and left wedding plans far behind in our memories. We really do deserve nights like that more often...I guess maybe we will get more of those after the wedding, once we are married and not planning a wedding!

Only 5 weeks until the wedding!

God Bless Texas!

2010-03-03T14:52:00.004-05:00

There are many things that I am being reminded of all the time about Texas, what it means to live in Texas, and what it means to be a Texan. Even though I should claim being Texan, and was mostly born and raised here, it has been about 8 1/2 years since I lived here, and I am having to remember a lot about the great state of Texas.

Last night I went to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, the largest rodeo anywhere, and had a blast. James and Ruth invited us (Brian and I) to go to Alan Jackson with them, and Ruth's mom and sister came, along with another couple. We got there in time to get some good rodeo food, watch the rodeo events-buckin' broncos, barrel racing, and lots of other favorites. Our new favorite was mutton bustin' where 5 and 6 year olds ride sheep and see who can stay on the longest-it was hilarious. Then we enjoyed the Alan Jackson concert. I love the rodeo, it brings out the cowgirl in me, kinda.Here is the Reliant Stadium, where the Houston Texans play football, converted for rodeo time. The rodeo had just ended and the concert was getting set up.
I ordered a baked potato with chopped bar-b-q on it, and jalapenos, and was quite apprehensive, it weighed like 5 pounds and was the size of my head. Okay, not really, but seriously, everything really is bigger and better in Texas. But don't you fret, I ate the whole entire thing, and yeah, Brian did not even finish his ;) I really am the eater! There were deep fried twinkies, nutter butters, oreos, etc. on the menu. I don't really love any of those things, but maybe I will have to try them in the next couple of weeks...just to say I have. Brian and I have 2 more rodeo shows to go to-Tim McGraw next week, and then Keith Urban the next week with his family.
Brian and I at the rodeo (love this man!!!)

Last week, I went with Ruth to get Havana from her cousins, and we had to head south. We stopped at one of those huge, great outdoor stores, and Ruth, Holli, David, and I had fun...being redneck or something.
Ruth and Holli; Holli is wearing some princess hunting hat that Ruth tried on her...nice.
Here is David holding a gun, he was so stoked to get to do something so BOY.
Here I am helping David with the gun, not that I am much better than he is; we paid 50 cents to shoot like 25 or 30 times...it was not for real.
Here I am hugging my brown bear (Brian gives the best Brown bear hugs, and he even sent me my very own brown bear to have while I was far away from him in Boston). So while he was at work, I had to opt for a hug from this great big brown bear.
And here is David, being Davy Crockett or something, in his raccoon hat.

I love Texas...and I guess maybe I forgot ;)

The Most Expensive Piece of Paper Ever!

2010-02-23T12:54:00.005-05:00

So in the midst of dinner and Family Home Evening last night at James and Ruth's house, James came in with all of the mail. He handed me a really big envelope...and lo, and behold...the most expensive piece of paper that I have ever had in my possession. My diploma from Boston University had arrived, and so it appears that it is official, I have my Master's degree! And seriously, I spent thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars on that diploma...but honestly, I can say, it was worth every dollar just about...completing my program and getting to have my Boston dreams come true!Now I just hope I can get a job that allows me to use some of my knowledge, education, and experience. I just keep praying for that!!!

Goodbyes in Boston

2010-02-12T17:15:00.006-05:00

After spending time in Utah, my Mom and I flew back through Houston for a weekend to get some wedding plans organized with Brian and his mom. It was a fun weekend, and I always love seeing Brian, and then I always hate saying goodbye. I got a lot accomplished-picked a reception location, picked a florist and flowers, started looking at invitations, and the list goes on.

I flew back to Boston, and spent a couple of days saying quick goodbyes, packing up my room, and getting my car ready to drive across the country. I picked my brother, James, up from the airport on Wednesday, January 27, and we did a quick tour of Boston. Then Thursday morning we woke up, packed up my car, and started our drive. We left around 8 am and stopped at about 2:00 am that night in Chattanooga, TN. We left Massachusetts, and hit a snow storm in Connecticut, which slowed us down, but was really pretty.There was a lot of traffic in New Jersey, too. I ate more fast food than I had in months in just a couple of days. Thursday we had Dunkin Donuts for breakfast, Burger King for lunch, and Five Guys burgers for dinner...at least my snacks were semi-healthy. We ate a little better on Friday-continental breakfast at Holiday Inn, subway for lunch, and back to Kingwood in time for pizzas that Ruth had made for dinner. Friday we left around 7:00 am and drove until 7:30 pm. Driving on Friday through Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas meant good country music. It also meant tons of rain. I drove for 3 or 4 hours in a really intense rain storm, it was coming down in buckets, visibility was really bad, and I avoided hydro-planing for the most part.

My body was grateful to be out of the car after 2 days of sitting. I have also now officially been in 41 of the 50 states (just being in airports does not count, or I would have more). Maybe I can get in all 50 before I am 30 years old. Anyone want to join me for Montana, North Dakota, Michigan, Minnesota, South Carolina, Kentucky...and there are a few others ;)
Here is James at Copley Square with the tortoise and the hare...notice the tortoise is winning.
Here I am on the tortoise, I have many pictures on this tortoise in Copley Square, and do you like his festive ribbon around his neck this time?! I love Boston so much, and saying goodbye was hard. It was a dream come true to live there. I am just grateful that I had my time there, and I know now that there are other things that I need to do in my life, and sadly, it was time to move on. Maybe I will get to go back and visit, and maybe someday I will get to live there again.
Here is James about to cross the Boston Marathon finish line which is right near Copley Square! Go, James, go!
No worries, I did not end up buying this lovely lobster hat, but I could not resist trying it on. I did buy a Boston Red Sox hat; I couldn't leave without one and still call myself a Bostonian ;)
I will actually miss the snow and cold of Boston (Texas is hot). I will miss running in the snow and avoiding turning it into ice skating as I avoid all the icy patches. I will miss seeing the duck and goose footprints in the snow.
I will miss my roommates. Here I am with Alison on one of my last days. We went out for a drive and got lunch at our absolute favorite sandwich shop, Al's State Street Cafe. Then we stopped off at Mt. Auburn cemetery.
Here I am with the cemetery behind me, and some of the city in the background.
There is the city, and Harvard Stadium is at the left-the one that looks like the Colosseum.

I can't believe that I actually have to leave Boston. If anyone is ever going, let me know. If anyone ever wants a tour guide, let me know, and I would gladly fly in and show you around. It is such an amazing place, filled with so many amazing people, places, and sites.

Goodbye Boston! Here I come Texas! I am going to be a Texan again, who would have ever thought!? I am just so ecstatic though to not have to keep saying hello and goodbye to Brian all the time...

January Trip to Utah-The Best of Times and the Worst of Times

2010-02-12T16:57:00.005-05:00

My trip that my Mom and I had scheduled to Utah, quickly changed purposes when my Nana passed away just a few days before I was to leave Boston for Salt Lake City. I still needed to get a wedding dress, but I hoped and prayed that I would find one really quick since time needed to be spent with family and with funeral planning and funeral events. I guess you could say it was the best and worst of times, some happy and some sad times were all mixed into one week.

Thankfully, my prayers were answered. I flew into Salt Lake late Monday night, right after being proposed to (I could not stop staring at my sparkly new ring the whole flight), and was met by my Mom and Dad. Tuesday we went wedding dress shopping, and my prayers were answered. I tried on 7-8 dresses at a bridal shop in Salt Lake, and then we decided to go to Provo, where the second dress that I tried on...was it! I found the perfect dress. It was so me, it fit perfectly, it is the perfect length for my height, and no alterations are needed at all! Done. It meant the rest of my time, I got to enjoy with family. I got to go running with one of my favorite running partners again, my Dad. I got to see lots of family and relatives that I have not seen in a long time. I got to have a sleepover with Andrew and Leigh in their motel room. I laughed and smiled a lot, and I shed tears for my Nana and the void that filled my heart knowing she was gone from me. I am grateful to know she is no longer suffering and that she is happy and peaceful and with my Papa again. It was interesting to be at the viewings and the funeral, and yet have people so happy and excited for me and my engagement and upcoming wedding. I know my Nana would have been so excited for me if I could have seen her.
Here I am with my nieces, Aimee and Caitlyn
And here we are again, being less silly. I love being an auntie!
Here are my sisters-in-law, Leigh (married to Andrew) and Stacey (married to Alex). All of our birthdays are within a 13 month period, so we are quite close in age. I love you, ladies, and it is always so good to see you!
Here is Alex and baby Jan...and yes, I did tie my scarf around her so she looks like a little sumo baby. Hehe.
After the viewing on Tuesday night, my Dad, Mom, Leigh, Andrew, and I went out for some yummy frozen yogurt.
I first insisted on sitting at this little table, just me, and just my size! Haha. I did join everyone at the big kid table to eat frozen yogurt, I promise.
My fiancee, Brian, and his family sent some flowers for my Nana's funeral, which was so thoughtful. They had chosen birds of paradise; my Nana's favorite flowers were birds of paradise and similar tropical flowers. What a tender mercy. I will miss my Nana, but I know she is happy!

IT'S OFFICIAL!

2010-02-12T16:51:00.004-05:00

So I spent about 2 weeks back in Boston, being Relief Society president, and wrapping things up with school and my Master's degree. I did lots of errands, I got my apartment contract sold, and tried to work out moving to Houston details. I also started wedding plans. My mom and I decided that I needed a wedding dress shopping trip to Utah, since that is the only place to really find modest wedding gowns these days. I left Boston on Monday, January 18th, with a bad winter storm delaying things a bit, headed to Salt Lake. I was supposed to have a several hour layover in Houston before going on to Salt Lake that night. Of course, Brian and I had decided to meet up and do dinner or something. After talking to Brian the night before I left, I thought something was up...and I was right! He proposed during the time for my layover in Houston and I am officially engaged with the ring to show it!!! I am excited to be getting married, and to get to be Mrs. Brown soon!Here is the ring! It is just what I like, Brian did well! He met me at the airport, all dressed up, and waiting for me with a rose. Then he walked me outside and we got in a limo...what a romantic-love him! Then on the limo ride, he got down on one knee, said some really wonderful, adorable things, and asked me to marry him...I said, "Of course! Yes!" It was perfect...the proposal, the ring, being with him. He hadn't told me where we were going, but he took me to a yummy restaurant in Kingwood called Raffa's.
Here is the happy engaged couple! Dinner was perfect, and then we had just enough time for Brian to drive me back to the airport for my connection to Salt Lake. I love you, Brian!

One Amazing Week in Houston, TX

2010-02-12T16:44:00.005-05:00

Oh, man...where do I even start?!?!? Amidst finishing a Master's degree, being called as Relief Society President in my single's ward in Boston, and spending time with my family all over the place, things continued to go well with Brian. Let's be honest, they continued to go really well, really quickly. I just couldn't get enough of him, and I took his time however I could-emailing, phone calls, texting, and visiting him. After spending a week with my whole family in St. George, Utah, I flew back to Houston with James and Ruth and their kids. I got to spend a whole week in Houston, which meant time with the nieces and nephew, time with Brian's family, and time for just Brian and I. We basically spent most of everyday together. There was lots of fun to be had-games, movies, great food, date nights, a temple outing, and wonderful conversations. Basically, my time in Houston went from just wanting to spend all of my time with Brian and getting to know him better...to realizing that we wanted to get married! It was one of the best weeks of my life! Here are Brian and I on my last day in Houston before heading home to Boston.
My husband to be and me!
We did a date night with James and Ruth, we did dinner at Red Robin and then played games and bowled at Dave and Buster's. We played 2 games...but you should really check out the score board for the first game's results...yep, Teena Weena (me) totally won! It was amazing, I kept getting strikes and spares, so not like me. I decided it must have been my lucky night. I guess Brian and I had talked about getting married earlier that day, and I must have been floating on Cloud 9 and been the happiest girl around!!! The second game, I am pretty sure I lost...which is more like me for bowling.
Ruth and I at Dave and Buster's
James and Ruth at Dave and Buster's-I felt so grown-up being on a double date with my big brother and my sister-in-law. I know I am 26, but I just think of myself as a kid most of the time and as the little sister.
Brian watching me do some driving game-that I was horrible at...and I think he is slowly learning in real life that I am definitely a woman, which might just mean a not so good driver ;)
I found this virtual jump roping game, and loved it. I think Ruth was more addicted than I was...and then James won the most tickets at this one-go James!
James and Brian being manly men and playing some shooting/killing game.
Here I am with all of my favorite Texas nieces and nephew, we are all in the picture, look closely. We went to see the Princess and the Frog with my family, and the kids all wanted to hold my hand or Brian's-it was cute. We also saw another movie out with Brian's family-Sherlock Holmes.

The week was lots of fun. We went to the temple together for the first time in Houston, and it was an awesome experience. Then we got to go out to lunch after the session with Brian's parents, who work at the temple. We had a fun date night in the Woodlands.

I am not going to give you all the details...but I had an awesome week, I knew I wanted to marry Brian, and all of our conversations were so timely. We went and looked at engagement rings on Saturday before Brian put me on the plane back to Boston.

Brian and I seem to say goodbyes too often...hello and goodbye, hello and goodbye, over and over. The goal was that I would go get things done and wrapped up in Boston, as quickly as possible, and get back to Houston as soon as I could.

December Trip to Utah-2nd stop in St. George

2010-02-12T16:43:00.004-05:00

So my whole family spent a week in St. George, Utah for Christmas. It was a blast. We had lots of time to hang out, laugh, eat, sleep, and play. I got to go running with some of my favorite running partners, my Dad and Alex. We got to swim in the pool and relax in the hot tub. We got to jump rope, double dutch, etc., and the more skilled members of my family got to play tennis (I am horrible at tennis and I mean it!) We cooked and ate. We made graham cracker temples and sugar cookies. We saw some of the historic sites around town, like Brigham Young's house. We did Christmas shopping. We played at a whole place full of bouncy castles for hours, and I think the adults had more fun than the kids. We did the longest zipline in Utah across a canyon, we each got 4 turns...and everyone went except Andrew and my Dad (the babysitters) and the kids 3 and under did not go. So yes, even tiny 5 year old Havana braved the zipline alone on her last 2 tries. I had so much fun being with family. We had lots of laughs and fun, along with some of the typical family drama that happens when we are all together under one roof. I love my family. I had a great Christmas, and I hope you all did, too. I am just posting this family picture that we took on Christmas day (with James' camera and tripod-turned out quite nice), but maybe when I get more time, I will add more pictures from all of the family fun in St. George.

Merry Christmas to all y'all ;)

December Trip To Utah-1st stop Salt Lake City/Provo

2010-02-12T16:35:00.003-05:00

After finishing up a busy semester of student teaching, I left Boston on Monday, December 14th and headed into Salt Lake City airport. I spent several days with my Mom and we stayed at my Aunt's house in Centerville. We did lots of errands, Christmas shopping, visited my Nana, and spent time down in Provo with some of my favorite people-Alex, Stacey, and baby Jan. I also got to see Brian 3 days in a row! The picture of Jan is her in her bear suit, that keeps her warm...I like to say she looks like a bunny, so I call her my little bunny! She is so cute!
So the bumbo chairs are for babies to sit in and keep themselves from falling...well, Alex is having as much fun being a father as he did being a kid. Here he is wearing the bumbo chair upside down on his head like a turban.
I got to do breakfast one morning with one of my bestest friends ever, Sarah. Our new favorite breakfast spot is Magelby's at the Shops at Riverwoods in Provo. The food is so yummy, and pretty cheap...well, maybe just cheap for me compared to Boston.
On Tuesday night, Brian and I went to dinner in Salt Lake at one of my favorite Thai restaurants, Sawadee; I had the Massuman curry-delicious! Then we went to Temple Square and walked around and enjoyed all of the lights. We all stopped in the Assembly Hall to hear some high school aged singers/performers. I love Christmas music, Christmas lights, and spending time with family and friends. Brian took lots of pictures at Temple Square, and he does a much better job than I do capturing things at night. This one looks like it could go in the Ensign.
Merry Christmas from Salt Lake City! This is a pretty view of the Salt Lake City Temple and the reflection pool.

So I spent time with family in Provo and Centerville/Bountiful, and then my Mom and I left on Saturday, December 19th and headed down to St. George.

I am GRATEFUL!

2009-12-04T15:25:00.005-05:00

Well, I had a lovely Thanksgiving break with my roommates. We ended up going to the Bishop's house, and helping his wife, Tammy, with most of the baking and cooking. We went over Wednesday night and made all of the pies, and then got started on some of the veggies, the rolls, the jello, etc. On Thursday, Thanksgiving day, I slept in and then I went on a 6 mile run. I figured that if I ran far enough I could justify eating just about anything....and don't worry, I snacked and then ate until I was stuffed. Early Thursday afternoon, we helped Tammy with last minute preparations and then enjoyed great food with other friends from our ward at Church and with the Bishop's family. Here are Rachel, me, and Amanda with our yummy pies. Rachel makes the best pie crust ever. Amanda and I made the pecan pie (left), I made the caramel apple pie that I am holding (I didn't add the pecans to this one since we were already having a pecan pie, and since Rachel is allergic), and then Amanda made the pumpkin pie that she is holding.
Here is just part of my Thanksgiving feast...I did not want anyone to think that I went without a fabulous dinner since I was not with family for the holiday.
And to top it all off, I had a sliver of all of our pies, and a sliver of another chocolate creme pie that someone else brought. I love dessert, and I love pie!
After a relaxing day at home on Friday, my roommates and I all stopped in at Walgreen's really quick before we headed to Maine for the weekend. While in Walgreen's, I tried on this random Christmas tree hat that moves and plays music. (Oh yeah, and since Rachel and I had the day off, we had time, and so she did my hair...she got it really curly with the diffuser, fun and different for me to be so curly.)

We headed to Maine, and got to stop and have dinner at the only Sonic in Massachusetts-yummy, on our way out of town. Friday night as soon as we got to Rachel's parents' house, we headed out with her mom to the local movie theater. We saw The Blind Side, a great movie. Then Saturday we all slept in, and afterwards I headed out for a run in the windy Maine weather. I ran by Maine-esque homes and little lakes and streams. We spent Saturday afternoon and evening at some of Rachel's family friends' home. We had another delicious Thanksgiving dinner, we talked, we played games, and we got to use their hot tub. It was perfect, and the friends lived in a typical Maine home situated on acres and acres of property. We had a good time.

Me, Rachel, Alison, and Amanda...oh, with our rubber ducky friend ;) I am so grateful for my amazing roommates!
The water was just the right temperature, and the cool weather (40s) made it just right to be in..not too hot and not too cold. I was hoping it would be more therapeutic on my tight left hamstrings...oh well.

On Saturday night we hung out at Rachel's house and watched Mary Poppins.
On Sunday morning we went to Rachel's home ward, enjoyed the meetings, and then had a super yummy lunch with her parents. Here we are out on the driveway, right before we headed home to Boston. Left to Right: Rachel, me, Amanda, Alison.

It has been a busy week back in the real world, but student teaching is going great. I love the kids, and I love teaching them. My roommates and I have all made a no sugar/no sweets pact. We went out for dessert on Monday night, and then started it on December 1st. I will not break it until I am in Utah and with my Mom, so the 15th at the earliest. Last night, Alison, Amanda and I went downtown and watched the Christmas tree lighting at Boston Common (one of the parks). It was actually relatively warm yesterday for Boston, record temperatures-67 for the high, and only down to about 55.
When we got off the T (the train/subway), we got some food to go and then enjoyed our little picnic dinner on the grass in Boston Common. We listened to the performers, enjoyed people watching, and stayed to see the lights all go on in the park before we headed home.
Alison, me, and Amanda-I was going to take it of the 3 of us, but then a nice man came by and offered to do it.

I am so so so happy that it is December, and I am trying to make the most of this season, despite a busy life. I love you all and wish you happy holidays. Actually, I wish you a Merry Christmas, since I feel like we have to be so politically correct these days and avoid that word, Christmas. Well, I love Christmas, and I love celebrating it, and I am Christian, so I say to you all...HAPPY CHRISTMAS! or MERRY CHRISTMAS (depending on where you are ;)

Fun with Roommates

2009-11-14T23:28:00.003-05:00

I just love, love, love my roommates and I am so blessed to be living with some of my bestest friends in the whole world. I love Boston for so many reasons, but they just make me love it and enjoy living here so much more. Last night we went to a dinner at the Bishop's house, the guys in the ward were making breakfast (yes breakfast foods for dinner, it was all delicious) for all of us, ladies. It was fun, and then we came home and did the Color Code. Alison had been anxiously awaiting the day that we would have time to all do it together. For those of you who do not know, the Color Code is a book that helps you determine what kind of personality you have. It categorizes people by 4 colors-red, blue, white, and yellow. The test helps you identify your primary/strongest color, and then your secondary colors. I did the test a few years ago, and after all this time, I am still a Red-Blue. The interesting thing though is that I am almost tied Red and Blue, so I have 2 very strong personality types within me...which makes me complex. Most people have one color that is very dominant, and then a secondary color that is significantly less dominant, and then 2 others that are only slightly noticeable. Obviously 2 very strong personality types existing in one person makes things a bit...umm...complicated to say the least.

To quote the text of the book, "The most difficult color combination within one individual is the mixture of Red and Blue. If you are strong in both categories, you will often find yourself stepping on someone's toes to get a task completed (Red), but feeling guilty afterward for making that person unhappy (Blue)...you have a constant struggle between seeking power and searching for intimacy in relationships."

Saturday I spent the day getting some student teaching work done and going to work. After work, my roommates and I went to dinner in celebration of my birthday this past week. I picked a great restaurant that we have never been to, called Kashish. It's an Indian restaurant in Belmont (on the way to the temple). It was so so so yummy!
Me and Rachel at Kashish
Here are Amanda, me, and Alison after a yummy dinner. We went from there to do some errands and shopping. We, of course, ended up in Target, always a favorite, and Alison insisted on trying on this one-piece pajama outfit...notice the sock monkey feet. She really wanted them, but they were a bit pricey.
Then I tried some on, cause they all insisted. Now for those of you who do not know, I was not tempted to buy any, since my sister, Allyson and I bought some lavender snowflake one-piece pajamas for our 2004 Thanksgiving Family get together in Park City. I still have them and break them out from time to time. They saved me and kept me warm last November when my heat was broken for a few days in my old place. They are like having a sleeping bag on...so warm. Anyway, these ones at Target were a hideous pink on me.
Complete with little bunny faces on the feet, that we decided were kinda creepy.
To finish the night off, we came home and watched one of my all time favorites, and definitely a Carruth movie of choice...yes, Better Off Dead. It is a classic, and I am not sure if my roommates really got it, but I laughed and enjoyed every moment of it, even the awkward moments.

I hope everyone else is happy and enjoying life as much as I am! MUCH LOVE!!!

Happy Birthday to me!!!

2009-11-11T21:05:00.019-05:00

I got to spend the last several days in Utah for a fun trip and for my birthday celebration. Alex had been eager for me to come see him and Stacey, and to meet their new baby girl, Jan. After a busy week in Boston, I left right after school on Friday and headed to the airport, where I sat and sat too long, and was way too cramped in my seats. I was so thankful to be out of the planes and to be met at the Salt Lake airport by Stacey and baby Jan. I spent Friday night with Stacey and Alex-laughing, hanging out, etc.

Then on Saturday morning, Alex took me on a grueling run up Rock Canyon. He decided that he needed to kick my trash, so he wouldn't be embarrassed about whether I beat him or not, so he made me basically climb a mountain and gasp for air the whole time. So the elevation did not cooperate for me, I must be acclimatizing considerably to Boston and sea level ;) After our run, which Alex wants everyone to know that he kicked my trash on, I met up with my dear friend, Sarah for a yummy breakfast.

Then I headed into Salt Lake. My Aunt Susie needed to be with my cousin who had been admitted to LDS hospital for medical complications, probably pregnancy related (Nicole-you have been in my prayers!) and so I took Presley for a couple of hours. I used to play with her lots when I lived in Salt Lake, so we spent the afternoon doing some of our favorite things.
Here is Presley at the park; we picked up food for lunch and headed to the park for picnicking.
Presley then took this picture of me. We had a yummy lunch and as we sat under the trees, all of the leaves were falling like crazy...falling onto our lunch, all over our picnic blanket, and even into my purse. It sure was funny. We watched the dogs, and then we played on the playground. Afterwards, we went to find a spot to do sidewalk chalk up in the Avenues, where I used to live, so I hope no one minded our sidewalk art. Then Presley was a bit disappointed that I didn't have a house for us to go to and do one of our all time favorites-bake and decorate cupcakes. So instead we opted to go to Mini's Cupcakes on 900 S.
We each had a cupcake and then decided to save the rest to share with Susie and Nicole. I, of course, had to have the peanut butter chocolate one (top right).
After stopping for cupcakes, Presley and I headed back up to the hospital to meet up with Susie.

I headed back to Provo after that, and had a really fun, really awesome Saturday night ;)

Then Sunday morning, I went with Alex, Stacey, Jan, and Brian up to Temple Square where we watched Music and the Spoken Word. I love listening to wonderful music, even if I am not musically talented myself, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performed so well. It was definitely an inspiring, uplifting way to start my Sabbath day. After Brian headed back to Provo, I went with Alex, Stacey, and Jan up to Bountiful to visit my Nana. She was good and quite chatty. I attended Alex and Stacey's married student ward; BYU students married and so in love...it was almost too much for me ;)

Here are Alex and Stacey in the Visitor's Center on Temple Square, what a cute couple!
No wonder they have such a cute baby! Isn't she darling!?
She is so cute and so fun and loves me so much, she even lets me squeeze her, and apparently squish her a bit too much.
Jan Eliane Carruth is my 8th niece, and I do have 1 nephew, too. She is so fun. She is very alert for a 2 month old, she laughs and smiles a lot, she giggles, she scoots on her playmat, and she lets me hold her, feed her her bottle, talk to her, sing to her, and rock her to sleep. She even lets me change her diapers-what luck!
I love her!

I miss you already, Jan!

Then I spent Sunday night, and all Monday with good company, in good conversation, having great fun and even eating good food...what more could I ask for?!

Which brings me to Tuesday-my birthday! On Monday night, Alex had asked me what would make a perfect birthday, and I decided that not having to go to school or work was going to make the day pretty darn good. After experiencing the day, I would say it was perfect...the best birthday that I have had in quite some time. Part of the reason that it was so wonderful is that I got so many phone calls from all of the people who love me and care about me. It was so good to hear from all of you, and I love you, too!

I spent the morning with Alex and Jan, playing at home, and then we went to the mall with Stacey. I got new jeans with my birthday money, and had the luck of running into my friend, Sarah again.

Then I went with Brian at 1:00 to one of my favorite places in Utah, to Main Street in Park City. We spent the afternoon meandering through the fun shops, the furniture boutiques, and the art galleries.
Here I am with the random moose along Main Street, he was a little shaky so I guess I am lucky that he did not decide to tip over on me. Although getting trapped under a moose in Park City on my birthday might have made for a really great story later.
This monkey puppet reminded Brian and I of Alex...who is slightly obsessed with YouTube and had shown us a clip of Bubbles the Monkey performing on Britain's Got Talent. I love you, Alex, and even your wacky sense of humor!
Then at the bottom of Main Street was this huge sculpture by FrogMan, an artist who makes all of these frogs from bronze. Brian and I had seen a bunch of the smaller versions in an art store. The bright colors are probably my favorite part. There were signs that said Do Not Touch, but I am not actually touching the frog, right?! Just getting as close as possible ;)

After meandering through Park City, Brian and I ended up on the freeway headed towards Salt Lake City, which was perfectly fine with me...it meant we would be getting there for dinner time. You can imagine how excited I was to get to eat at one of my favorite restaurants ever-Aristo's! It is an awesome Greek restaurant in Salt Lake, up on 1300 E. by University of Utah. I love the ambiance, the service, and the food is just amazing. No one is ever disappointed when they dine there with me, and Brian definitely was not disappointed. I make it a point to go back every time I am visiting in Utah. Man, I am craving some amazing Greek food now, opa!
After dinner, Brian and I headed back to Provo. Here I am at Alex and Stacey's later that evening with one of my birthday presents...a Belle barbie doll. It is a funny story for another day, but just know that I was really excited and she has already found a special place on my bookshelf.
Brian and myself (the newest, proudest owner of Belle!)
We made German Chocolate cupcakes which were really yummy and Alex insisted we play a game. After I frosted them, we used the writing icing tubes to play pictionary on the cupcakes. We each took turns drawing a picture while everyone else guessed. I really love decorating cupcakes, so I think this might be my newest, most favorite game.
Alex also insisted on putting all 26 candles in one cupcake for me to blow out. 26! I know, I am getting so old ;) but thank goodness that this mini bonfire did not get out of control, or burn Alex and Stacey's apartment down.
I set up my camera on my gorilla pod (my little tripod that Mom got us all a few Christmases ago; yes, Mom, I do use it!) and we had a mini photo shoot, serious and funny poses. Here is one of the non-goofy ones. L to R: Alex, Stacey, Brian, and the Birthday girl.

We finished off the night playing cards and having a lot of fun. After a perfect birthday, I had to pack up and leave Wednesday morning. I made it back safe and sound to Boston on Wednesday night and was thinking of all of the catch-up work I needed to do, for my calling and for student teaching...and what a lovely surprise I had waiting in my bedroom?!
Here I am with my beautiful bouquet of flowers! Thanks, Brian!

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-27T19:40:00.010-04:00

So I realize that Halloween was a long time ago, but get used to me-I blog when I make time and it's not very regularly. We actually had a couple of Halloween parties the weekend before Halloween (since we had Stake Conference and another church conference going on Halloween weekend, and we got to hear Elder Ballard speak!)

My roommates and I went together as a themed group last year, and we decided to do it again this year. We actually were out to dinner a couple weeks before, and ran our ideas by our waiter...he was a big supporter of our final decision-the US Double Dutch National Championship Team. And we are actually trying to learn double dutch, we haven't been practicing as much lately, but shhhhh....don't tell our competitors!

Ironically enough, our Double Dutch team uniforms got a little carried away, and we ended up being quite 80's. I basically like any reason to put on tons of make-up, particularly eye make-up, and to get to do crazy things with my hair. Here I am all decked out.Our ward had a Halloween party, which included a cupcake contest, and with the help of my savvy baking sister-in-law, Ruth, I totally won best overall cupcakes. My funny little spiders won cause overall they were best tasting and best looking. Go me!

I won a thing of Halloween sprinkles as my prize.

At the ward Halloween party, we played lots of fun, crazy games and even tied each other up like mummies. Here is my roommate, Alison, and I looking mummified.

And here are my roommates and I in our team shirts, we made them ourselves-complete with puffy paint...man I loved decorating with that stuff as a kid and I still do. We each had a Double Dutch team nickname, I was "Skip."

From left to right, it is Rachel, me, Amanda, and then Alison is laying across us. Aren't we the coolest jump roping team ever?Amanda, Rachel, our friend Janey, me and Alison at our first stop for the night, showing off our team spirit at some friends' Halloween party. After stopping by another Halloween party later on, we went to Friendly's to get some ice cream sundaes. And of course we were not in the least embarrassed to show up in style.

Alison and Amanda (above) and Rachel and I (below)

Special Thanks...

2009-10-20T16:59:00.002-04:00

I just wanted to give a special thanks and shout out to my personal IT guy, who is the smartest IT guy I know...that would be my big brother, James. He has helped me through all of my laptop ordeals, helped me figure out how to get things downloaded and uploaded again, and thanks to him, you are getting to see a new blog post. Thanks for all your expertise, James! Thanks for all the free IT services and support that you give me!!!
(PS James is really excited to be on my blog and be "famous")

I am back!!!

2009-10-20T15:56:00.007-04:00

I know that there have not been any new posts in a while, but I have a good excuse this time, I promise. I broke my LCD screen on my laptop 2 weeks ago, and it was going to basically cost the same price as a new laptop. Being 3 years old, I just decided to invest in a new laptop. I finally have it, and I can finally catch up on all of the millions of things that I need to do.
Things have been going well here in Boston. After my trips to North Carolina and Texas, I started student teaching, and I have had a really rewarding experience at my school. I am learning lots, and being reminded that I love working with kids, I love being active, and I love teaching kids skills and activities that they can develop and continue to utilize throughout their lives. My Master's program has been a good fit for me.
Besides student teaching, I am having a blast living with my 3 really good friends. We like our house, and I always feel like I am home. We cook together, talk, run errands, laugh, talk, cry, pray, talk and play and talk some more. The weather went from fall to winter, it has been really cold the last couple of days, in fact, we even got snow flurries on Sunday night. It is supposed to warm back up to the 50s this week, crazy Boston weather.
I love the Fall because it means that it is General Conference. My roommates and I watched the prophet, apostles, and other church leaders speak from our laptops at home. On Saturday night, while the men watched and listened to the Priesthood session of General Conference, all of the women in my single's ward went to the Bishop's home and enjoyed the evening with each other and his wife. We had soups, breads, rolls, and a dessert bake-off. Above, my roommates Rachel and Alison are sampling and judging each of the 10 desserts. I made the yummy Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bundt Cake and won best seasonal dessert.

Later the following week, Alison and I drove out on a weeknight to the Topsfield Fair. SheDaisy was going to be performing, and it only cost $10 for the whole event. We were ecstatic when we saw a Sonic on our way to the fair. It is the first one in Massachusetts! We had yummy salads, mozzarella sticks, and I had a peanut butter chocolate shake-ooh, so so so good.

YAY for Sonic....we thoroughly enjoyed our entire meal, and after all of our food, we still got fried dough at the fair ;)

Alison does not like animals at all, not dogs, not cats, nothing...but for some strange reason, which I still do not fully comprehend, she loves cows. Go figure, she claims they are very misunderstood and very docile?! Whatever, here she is with a cow.

And I thought my Aggie brothers might enjoy the longhorn; hey, he is caged up, right?!

The last time that I saw SheDaisy was in Houston, as a sophomore in High School, at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. The Topsfield Fair was no Houston Rodeo, but was still lots of fun!

Then on Monday, October 12th, I ran the Tufts 10K in Boston. Most people get school and/or work off for Columbus Day, don't you just love how patriotic Boston is?! I recruited lots of other girls from my ward at Church to run it. It was an awesome race, just for women, and there were some 6,000. I had an awesome run, despite not having my regular running buddy with me (my roommate Alison was supposed to do it, but started having major Achilles tendon pains just days before). Alison and Rachel, my roommates, came to be my personal coaches and cheerleaders. I ran it in a 51:11, averaging 8:15 per mile. That is the best time I have ever run a 10K, besides when I have run with Alex, who pushes me harder than I can push myself. In this picture, I am at the bottom left, white running shirt and navy running shorts, and one of my signature racing bandannas.

Here I am at the end of the race, so happy to be done. Despite a chilly morning, the sun came up and made for awesome racing weather.

Here I am with a girl in my ward, Lauren, who I convinced to run a 10K, her first one ever. She had fun, even though she had to run/walk it. We enjoyed the rest of the day around Boston and downtown.

And I love Boston for so many reasons...I love the weather, even when it's cold, I love the trees, I love the city, I love downtown, I love all the runners, I love the river, I love the neighborhoods and all the things that there are to do, and I love the houses-here is a good example of why-isn't this one just so fun!? I love the colors....

Hopefully, I will try and stay on top of things. Happy Autumn to all of you!

Reach the Beach

2009-09-20T15:33:00.015-04:00

AND WE DID IT! Myself and 11 teammates completed New Hampshire's 208 mile relay race from Franconia, in the northwest, to Hampton Beach, in the southeast. We dropped 30-40 minutes off of our estimated team finishing time, and did it in 30 hours, 40 minutes. It was amazing. Everyone was running their legs of the race faster than planned or right on their pace. We each had 3 legs of the race to complete. We started Friday morning and our last runner finished around 4:30 pm on Saturday. I ran a 6.6 mile run Friday afternoon, and felt like I was dragging, but ran at an 8 min 30 sec mile pace. I was quite pleased. Then at about 2:00 am on Saturday, I had a 9 miler that I was not adequately prepared for. The first 1/2 mile was downhill, and then I climbed uphill for the next 5 miles, followed by the last several miles of flat and downhill running and just a few inclines. I averaged a 9 min mile pace for that run, which I was really excited about. My left hamstrings got really tight during the last couple miles, and there was some funky pain, but I just prayed to finish and I did. I ended on Saturday around 2 pm with a 2.2 mile run, also at a 9 min mile pace. It was an amazing experience...over 2 days of no showers, hardly any sleep, lots of sweating, lots of running, lots of snacking and van driving, only using port o potties, and all mixed with dirt, bugs and other fun.

Here are our guys, we had 6 guys and 6 girls on the team:
Bill, Adam, Teppo, Doug, Allen, and Nathan
Doug ran the first leg of the race, and ran fast. Right before he started, he was hiking up his shorts really high, and the guys just couldn't handle his short shorts...there was lots of laughing all weekend for sure!

Below I am with Lora (left) and Sarah (right). We bought these matching zip ups before the race started so we would have proof of how amazing and hard core we are. Note that this picture was taken before all the running, lots of sweat, no showering, no toilets, and the lack of sleep had all really started to effect us.

The lovely ladies of Team 312, Sweep the Leg Johnny: (left to right) Abby, Liz, Lora, me, Sarah, and Lisa. All 6 of us live in the Boston area.

Here are Doug and Sarah at the start. We all cheered all weekend long, but even more at the beginning when Doug took off. Doug and Sarah are dating, they are supercute together, and lots of fun.

I loved running through New Hampshire, and I did most of the driving for my van, which meant I didn't sleep but saw a lot of beautiful scenery. New Hampshire is a gorgeous state-mountains, rolling hills, forests, rivers, lakes, and the foliage was starting to change to some awesome oranges and reds.

And here is a photo of the blessed port o potties...I was so happy to come home Saturday night and use a real toilet again, along with have a much needed shower, and sleep in my very own bed. The port o potties were at every transition area.

Here is Lora, who was in my van, and was our first runner. The other van's runners had run their first legs, and Lora was waiting for Lisa, runner number 6, to finish and do the hand off. She looks like she is praying, and most of us did-especially that none of us ended up with major injuries.

Here is Abby (left, also in my van) right after Lisa (on the right/blonde) had done the hand off to Lora. Lisa sweats more than me, a lot more than me...and for those of you who know how much I sweat when I run and workout...you understand that it is a ton...you can't really tell here, here Lisa just looks like she is glistening!

After Lora finished her first leg, she did the hand off to me (I'm in the pink shirt) and I started my 6.6 miler.

Adam and Abby were both in my van; they are dating, lots of fun, and did some great running for our team.

Lora and her older brother, Nathan, were both in my van. Here they were looking in the offical handbook to figure out what the next coordinates were for our runner's transition.

While Adam was running, we stopped along the way to be able to give him some water and some cheering. We saw this double rainbow-awesome. It is only the 2nd time in my life that I have seen a double (first time was on my mission, on the island of La Palma, on a really hard day), and it was just as impressive this time to see it.

Lora was waiting to use a real bathroom at the gas station, and she just had to imitate the bathroom sign...really gotta go, eh?

Here are Allen, Bill, and Doug after they had finished all of their running. We were waiting for Lisa (from their van) to finish her 3rd leg, and then Lora would start the last legs of running for my van. These guys were all trying to look tough, hard core, and umm, puff out their chests.

Lora did her final leg, and then passed off to me...I finished my final 2.2 mile and was grateful that my leg was not bothering me too much and I was able to finish at a decent pace. I had my zip up on to keep warm before I started running. New Hampshire was actually quite chilly this weekend.

Above, Doug is posing at the finish...he is such a goof.

Here is our AWESOME 12 member relay team...exhausted, smelly, but thrilled to have finished and finished well under our goal!

Teppo, Liz, Bill, Doug, Allen, Adam, Nathan
Me, Sarah, Lisa, Abby, and Lora

We were all so eager to scarf down a real dinner after lots of fruit, powerade, power and cliff bars, and trail mix all weekend long. They even served us some clam chowda!

We celebrated by playing and chilling on the beach after; it was a little too cold to get in the water for most of us, but Nathan and Lora got in. Allen was supposed to be taking pictures of us with my camera, but instead was taking them of himself.

Here are Lisa and I. She is the coolest girl ever, even if she does sweat more than me...and she is my Relief Society President, so I have gotta love her. I want to be just like her when I grow up. She already emailed me and requested that I be in her van next year for the relay or she isn't doing it. Apparently everyone in my van thought I was quite the life of the party, and I did all the driving, which they all appreciated. They decided that I should be the mascot!

Reach the Beach- and we did it, here it is...208 miles later, and lots of training besides that.

Running is mental...and we are all insane (quote from a tshirt that we saw while running, and boy is it true!)

Welcome to Boone, North Carolina!

2009-09-12T09:04:00.015-04:00

So it is about time for me to report on my fabulous stay in North Carolina with my brother, Andrew, and my sister-in-law, Leigh, and their 2 dogs, Chaco (a boxer) and Emma (a husky puppy). After finishing my summer job, and a million errands, I flew to North Carolina and spent about 11 days there. I loved it. Andrew is starting his Master's Program at Appalachian State, and I went to help them get settled-lots of painting and cleaning and errands, and one too any trips to Lowe's, right Leigh?! I had fun hanging out, eating lots of good food, playing with the dogs, watching TV and movies (Andrew and Leigh make it their task to catch me up on TV and I get my year's supply when I am there...I rarely watch TV, I just don't have time for it and don't make the time for it either), and stopping in all of the local thrift stores. My parents came for the last few days of my stay, and we saw more of Boone and the surrounding area, as well as went to ASU, Andrew's new campus. Emma, the puppy, is struggling to get potty trained. Andrew went in the sunroom/his own bike shop, and stepped in a bunch of poo. I graciously offered to help clean it off his shoe, and we used the potty pad since Emma had conveniently managed to miss going on that and going on the floor instead. My Mom decided that it looks like I am wiping Andrew's bum...uh, nice. I am such a good sister.

Here are Andrew and I dining outside at the Mellow Mushroom it is a really yummy pizza place that I got to eat at twice. It was sunny, so Leigh offered to let me wear her supercool Oakleys. I love all the scenery and the green mountains/rolling hills of North Carolina.

Leigh, my Dad, and Andrew, stopped along the main street in Boone. It has some quaint shops, restaurants, boutiques, and a yummy sandwich shop, Macado's.

Here is the Mast General Store, been there since 1883. It had outdoorsy gear, clothes, country home decorations, and an old fashioned type candy store.

Here is the look down main street-they have lots of stores selling ASU gear.

Leigh insisted that I get my picture taking in this hand on campus, hmm. I decided to do a little meditation while sitting in someone's hand.

Leigh and I in the hand.

Here is my boyfriend. He has the same sunglasses as Leigh...wait, those are Leigh's sunglasses. Isn't he cute?! He is one of the few guys in Boone without dreads and without facial hair...and with a part in his hair.

My family and I decided to pose with the school of education statues, most of us were intent on listening and learning. Meanwhile, Dad is kissing the teacher.

Appalachian State seems like a great school and it has a very pretty campus, I think that Andrew has picked the right place for him.

I have not had any tongue pictures lately, so here you go. In the background is one of the climbing walls in Boone. I loved the town and all of its outdoor lovers-lots of climbers, skiers, snowboarders, cyclists, hikers, etc.

We made a stop on campus at the official bookstore and I got some ASU gear, a t-shirt and a hoodie. I love trying on hats, and and I really love hats...I would wear them more, other than they give you bad hair for the rest of the day.

Go Mountaineers!

Me, Leigh, and Andrew are standing in a umm really cool formation?! I just love being silly.

Here is my big brother, Andrew. I am so proud of him, and know that he is going to do great in his Master's program, and go on to do lots of great things with his life, things that will benefit and help lots of people.

Mom and Dad are now the proud parents of 2 East Coast living children. Before heading into Boone for the day, we did some gun shooting, just with Andrew's BB gun, not with the real ones.

Just me and my mom...

In the Mast General Store, they had this awesome hammock/chair thing. It was super comfortable and I could have laid in it all day.

Me, my Mom, and Leigh, at an overlook in Blowing Rock. Andrew, Leigh, my Dad and Mom-we are a happy family.

Scenic pictures from Blowing Rock, you could see the mountains and hills for miles, and everything is so green.

Leigh looking at a whole new world.

I was really excited that Mom had quarters and we were able to look down into the valley. I was ecstatic about the telescopes really. It was beautiful, and I could see Grandfather Mountain.Andrew is taking his turn looking through the telescope.

Leigh and my Dad atop the Blowing Rock, there is a cool Indian story behind the rock. It is also the only place where the snow blows upward...something about how the rock sticks out and the way the wind blows through the valley.

Dad, Leigh, and Andrew on top of Blowing Rock.

Leigh, Andrew and I (they are both totally Oakley kids, and I wanted to be just like them...those bright ones are really something else on me)

My mom took this picture in memory of the time that she read a similar sign about climbing on wet rocks while we were at Yosemite National Park, and she fell in the cold river, up to her waist. I should have seen this as a foreshadowing of what would happen to me in the ocean, down at the Cliff Walk in Newport, RI with my Dad.

This is the view from Leigh and Andrew's house...forests, trees, and rivers.

This outhouse is right off the road before you get to Leigh and Andrew's mountain cabin. Andrew threatened to lock me up and make me sleep in there at night (kidding)

Emma and Chaco are so cute. I love dogs and really want my own someday soon. They play well together sometimes, and then sometimes they are mean and fight just like a brother and sister would. Here they are both looking over their shoulders.

and here they are both looking at me.

Here is the one view of the mountain cabin, also could be known as Hagrid's Hut.

Here is the road up to their mountain cabin, it's a 0.7 mile drive up, and parts of the road are a lot worse than this. My Mom was taking a picture of me, while I was taking a picture.

The driveway ;) Leigh even let me drive up and down several times, in their Xterra, my first time having to drive in 4 wheel drive up anything.

There is another view of the mountain cabin.

It is a fun place, and after lots of work, Leigh and I had it looking great, and it really feels like home...except when it is dark and late at night. I made Chaco sleep with me every night.

Here I am on the first night with Chaco and Emma all curled up on me on the couch.

Emma was attacking me with wet kisses and her slobbery tongue. She is cute, and sometimes totally acts like a cat.

Leigh and I in all our glory during painting. We painted over some nasty wallpaper and over some marker scriblings of a ranting, disturbed teenager.

Yay for painting. We had to paint over the wallpaper and marker with some primer, oil-based. We managed to get it all over us, feet, hands, arms, legs, faces, hair, yep everywhere. We had to go back to Lowe's to find out how to get it off us. We bought paint thinner and basically bathed ourselves in it outside, and scrubbed with the sponges.

Me and Leigh with the paint thinner can...we had to get the primer off because we had church the next day.

Scrubbing and exfoliating off our first layer of skin to remove the primer...

Emma sleeping.

I was reading on the futon on Sunday, and the dogs curled up on either side of me...please excuse the cheesy pose.

Andrew, Emma, my Mom, Chaco, and me on the couch. I had so so so much fun in Boone and hope to be able to visit again really soon. Don't have too much fun or too many adventures without me there, Leigh and Andrew!

Just Me and My Dad...

2009-09-10T22:43:00.014-04:00

So apparently everyone really wants to make it on my blog and when they do, they feel like they have accomplished something. People also take it personally if I forget to blog about something that I have done with them. I try, people, I really do. So my Dad was eager to have a post on my blog about his trip to Boston to see me. He even offered me the perfect suggestion for the post's title. My Dad and I left Charlotte, NC from Leigh and Andrew's mountain cabin and headed to Boston on Monday. We arrived in the afternoon, got a taxi to my old place, checked my Dad into my favorite bed and breakfast in town, and then went to pick up a uhaul. We drove the Uhaul to my old place, and started loading it up; my new roommates, Rachel and Amanda, came to help. It made it go much faster. Then we unloaded all of my stuff at our new place. We dropped off the Uhaul and all of us met up with Alison (the 4th roommate) for dinner at Corrib Pub-we all pretty much had salmon, yummy. My Dad was eager to try their Boston Creme Pie, since Alison always talks about how good it is, but they didn't have any. Sad day. After dropping my Dad off, I went back to my new place and did lots of unpacking and unloading. My room is smaller (but cheaper, which is important), and I was struggling to see how all my stuff was going to fit. With lots of dejunking and organizing, it finally all fits...and I am just finally feeling settled. Tuesday morning, I met my Dad and we hopped on the T (Boston's subway) and went towards downtown. We got off right by the Boston Public Garden, and walked the Freedom Trail-through Boston Common, past the Massachusetts State House, by Park Street Chapel, through the Old Burial Grounds, alongside King's Chapel, by the Old South Meeting House, right by the Old State House, and onto Faneuil Hall. We walked through Quincy Market and got our first sampling of Boston Creme Pie (Leigh has suggested the kind in the market). Here is Dad with his first treat, I helped him eat it though, of course. Then we walked over to the Harbor, bought tickets for a ferry, and went to grab lunch at Al's State Street Cafe-they make awesome sandwiches. We ate our sandwiches, got on the ferry, and road over to Charlestown. We walked past the USS Constitution and then onto Bunker Hill Monument. We even climbed the 25o stairs to the top for the view of the city. It was a lot of stairs, after lots of walking, and lots of moving the day before. Let's just say we were both feeling pretty sore! Then Dad decided to walk back towards the North End (Boston's Little Italy) and see Paul Revere's house and Old North Church (one if by land, 2 if by sea). I had to get on the T and head to Boston University for my student teaching meeting with my advisor. Dad and I met up after, walked around campus, walked down Newbury Street (a charming, posh shopping street in Boston) and all the way to Copley Square. Then we headed into the Prudential Center where we had dinner at Legal Seafoods. We sampled the New England Clam Chowda (the same stuff that is served at the Presidential Inaugurations), Dad had lobsters for dinner (I got to help him eat it, since there was a lot), and I had the crab cakes. We finished it all off with dessert, yes, with Boston Creme Pie. The waiter had specifically offered it, and I figured Dad would not say no to 2 Boston Creme Pies in one day, it is Dad's favorite, so I guess we are justified.

The view from the ferry in the Harbor

Dad on the ferry boat headed from the Harbor to Charlestown

Here is me on the ferry ride; I love the water!

Dad in his lobster bib-so cute. Dad really knew how to crack those things open and get the meat out...I would have been helpless.

Here are his yummy lobsters

and here is the Boston Creme Pie that made our meal more than complete and more than satisfying.

After dinner at Legal Seafoods, we went to the top of the Prudential Center to do the Skywalk Observatory. It is one of my favorite spots because you can see Boston at all angles and off into so may directions. We got to see everything at dusk, and watch the sunset. I love, love, love this city! After a long day of lots and lots of walking (probably some 5 or more miles, maybe 7, who knows), we headed back on the T to get some rest for the evening.

On Wednesday, we decided to head out of Boston, since Dad basically saw the entire city in one day. That's my Dad, he can do it all! We started the day with a 5 mile run along the Charles River with all of the other Boston runners, and there are lots of them. Then we took my car out to do the historical exploring in Lexington and Concord. We stopped at my favorite farmer's market in Lexington, called Wilson Farms, and bought some snacks and food for lunch. Then we did a couple of visitors centers, walked the Battle Road, saw where much of the action took place along the way between the colonists and the regulars.

Here is Dad on Old North Bridge, where the shot heard round the world was fired, starting the fighting.

I saw this tree and thought it was cool, it basically fell into the ground while growing, but then still managed to start growing back upward. I guess I saw it as a huge metaphor for our lives...think about it. If you want to know more on my thoughts, email me or comment on my blog and I can expound.

Here I am on the Old North Bridge

After seeing the majority of the historical sites in Lexington and Concord, and driving past Emerson's home and the place where the Little Women story takes place, we headed over to Walden Pond. We did not swim, but we walked the entire Pond-it is beautiful and reminded me of the importance of simplifying our lives.

After all that, I was pretty worn out, but Dad was still up for more. So we got in my car and headed up North to Salem, MA. We walked around Salem, but missed most of the witch stuff that was already closed. I was reminded that I really don't like Salem all that much, and there are so many more places that I would rather go and where I would rather take people. We continued up North to Marblehead, which I had forgotten how much I loved. We drove around the town, through a narrow, winding seaport town with darling houses, then over to the part with all the huge, gorgeous homes right along the beach and the ocean. We stopped at Cape Ann Lighthouse, which was a beautiful vantage point at sunset. Here is Dad at the lighthouse.

And here is another look at Marblehead and all the sail boats.

We finished off the night by driving back to Boston, all along the shoreline. We had a late dinner at a yummy Jewish delicatessen in town. They serve breakfast all day, which means I got my Challah French Toast-yummy. It was a very fun day, but a very long, tiring one, too.

I don't seem to have any pictures documenting Dad and I's day on Thursday...sad. We had a good day though. We took the T to Harvard Square, and ate Indian food for lunch. Then we walked around the square and around Harvard's campus. We got frozen yogurt at one of my favorite places, BerryLine (it is that healthy, tart frozen yogurt, and you can get all sorts of berry/fruit toppings-love it). Then we went to see Longfellow's house, and we saw my burnt down chapel that is still being gutted and cleaned in the interior. Dad also came with me that night to my favorite place in Boston, to the temple. It was ward temple night, so he got to meet some of my favorite people here in town.

On Friday, we took a day trip out of town, and it is definitely a trip that I would repeat with any visitors who wanted to see more of New England. We drove down to Newport, Rhode Island and had a great day. We walked around the wharf, ate a very good seafood lunch right on the water, looked at all the shops, and the yachts. I think this yacht suits Dad, and I would sure love to ride around in it ;)

We had seafood for lunch, but no crab-don't worry.

Here is a look at Newport.

After lunch, we walked around the major downtown part of Newport, which had charming houses and lots of fun shops, boutiques, and restaurants. Then we got back in the car and took the Ocean Drive. I had to stop and get my picture and smell the ocean water.

Then Dad and I decided to just go and see one of the many mansions that are in Newport. They were built as people's summer cottages back in the day, and are truly impressive. We went to see the one called the Breakers. Here is the backyard, yep that huge lawn that backs right up to the ocean.

Here is the front entrance to the mansion

and here are Dad and I wishing that it was our mansion or that we could at least stay a while. I loved the grounds more than the mansion, and decided that I would have been happy with a little tree house or a shed to live in if I could have that outside space right on the sea.

After an extensive tour of the mansion, Dad and I ventured over to the Cliff Walk, a 3.5 mile walk along the ocean. We just walked a small portion of that, and then walked the 40 steps down to the water. I got adventurous and decided to climb down some rocks so I could get really close to the ocean. I love the water. Dad was still above, and I was down below...then I noticed a really cool waterfall coming out from between the rocks. I went back, got Dad, and got my camera.

I was moving out onto the rocks, and was feeling pretty confident about being as close to the waterfall as I could. I kept moving closer. I stepped onto a darker rock, and well, the dark was from algae. It was super slippery. I lost my balance, slipped, and landed on my butt in huge pool of water on the rock. Luckily, my camera didn't fall in and my purse was relatively dry. I was laughing really hard at myself, Dad was in a bit of disbelief, and I was really wet. However, I felt that I had come this far, and needed a good picture of the waterfall. So what did I do...I headed back out onto the rock in a matter of seconds, I slipped again, worse this time, and was on my hands and knees sliding backwards down the rock and towards the ocean. I was able to stop luckily, and not fall right in with the huge waves. I was not laughing as much this time. I had been really close to falling in and getting hurt. My camera and purse were magically still safe. Dad looked really concerned, and was dumbfounded that I had gone back over the 2nd time. I got to my feet with his help, climbed back up, and had to walk around and drive home....with a soaked behind. That is what I get for getting too close to the edge, and for trying the same dumb thing twice. Slippery rocks-stay away from them, even if they don't look slippery.

The lousy pictures of the waterfall

They did not even really turn out; that is what I get for being stupid and stubborn, I suppose.

And here is my wet behind, you can see down the middle of my shorts are wet and darker than the outside. My shoes (sanuks, which I love and just got this summer) were covered and stained with dirt and green algae. Sad day. Dad and I headed home, got dinner at Upper Crust in town (a pizza place), and then I packed my bags for Texas and tried to set up my room more. I had a blast with my Dad, despite a few blunders. Thanks for coming to visit me, Dad! Any and all are still welcome. I am becoming quite the tour guide and perfect itinerary planner...and I always do at least a couple of dumb things to keep you entertained...just ask my Dad.

Baptism and Baby Blessing in TEXAS

2009-09-10T21:32:00.004-04:00

I have spent the last 6 days or so in Kingwood, TX...more or less, where I was born and raised. I flew in Saturday, Sept. 5 and left today. I always have so much fun being the auntie with my Texas nieces and nephew. My Dad and I flew to Houston together, and were picked up at the airport by my Mom, who had been there the majority of the week. We went back to my brother and sister-in-law's home in Kingwood. James and Ruth's second oldest, Aimee, was being baptized. In our church, children are baptized at age 8, and Aimee was so excited for her special day. Aunt Krissy (as they call me) and Aimee, at home before her baptism. We went to the church for the baptism and for the special talks and music that accompanies it. There were a lot of family and friends there to support Aimee in her decision. It was neat for me to reminisce, since I was also baptized in the same church in Kingwood, back when I was 8...wow, almost 18 years ago!

My sister-in-law, Ruth is very talented and makes all sorts of birthday cakes, wedding cakes, and other special desserts, treats, candies, and cupcakes. She made this cake for the baptism; it is made to look like scriptures/the Bible.

Here is the aerial view. Maybe someday I will be as talented as she is, or I guess, I will just be sure to enjoy all of her sweet treats in the meantime ;)

After the baptism, everyone headed back to James and Ruth's house for dinner. Instead of eating, I went on a 12 mile run (in preparation for my team's relay race in a couple of weeks). My mom rode a bike while I ran, and so we had fun chatting, and running all around Kingwood. It sure was nasty and humid though.

On Sunday, James and Ruth's 6th child, Holli Danese Carruth, was blessed. In our church, babies receive a special blessing from their fathers when they are born. She is such a darling baby, and looks a lot like her sisters and her brother. The rest of the day was a typical Sunday, relaxing, being with family, and playing with the kids.

On Monday, we spent Labor Day at Uncle Russ and Lora's house, which is right on Lake Conroe. It was James and Ruth, their 6 kids, my Mom and Dad, me, Russ and Lora, and their son Bill and his family-wife and 3 girls. We played, swam, went boating and kayaking, ate lots of yummy food, and enjoyed each other's company. Lora's ribs were amazing for dinner. We had a fun day in the sun, probably my last one since it is already Fall in Boston. Above is Havana and I on the boat (don't ask-no makeup and crazy hair that was falling out for sure ;)

Here is Lainey on the tube for her turn. I got on the tube twice and insisted that Bill drive really fast...I love speed, I love pretending that I am tough enough to handle anything, and I love a good adrenaline rush. My arms are still sore from having to hold on so tight while he was driving so fast, I bit my whole upper lip pretty bad, I bruised my chin but that is disappearing, and my legs were super sore from flopping up and down on the waves and the wake of the water. Man, I love boating...as well as the battle wounds to prove my toughness.

My parents left on Tuesday morning, and I spent Tuesday and Wednesday playing with Havana and David, who don't go to school yet, and holding baby Holli. I got to play with the big girls when they got home from school. I always love getting all my time to play and be with cute kids, expecially in Texas. Here is Havana blowing out the candle on the cupcake that I made for her out of playdough...looks real, huh? I am that good!

Here is David making a pouty face, he is hilarious and so BOY, especially considering that he has 5 sisters now!

Havana was showing me lots of gymnastics tricks in her room, on the trampoline, and in the gameroom; she wants to be an Olympic gymnast, and she has the build for it.

Havana took this picture of David-he is a cutie!

Havana took this picture of me with Holli while we were playing in her bedroom. The kids love taking pictures with my camera and with my camera phone...they are kind of technology junkies.

Last night, we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. Here are Lainey and I with our bandit bandana's-we are bad cowgirls (ps they are our napkins).

Here is Caitlyn and David at dinner-cute smiles! I love my Texas kids!

and this is Ruth and Caitlyn.

Thanks for letting me come and play in Texas! I miss all of you already...and I really don't know if I can wait until Christmas to see y'all!

My Sincerest Apologies...

2009-09-10T21:17:00.003-04:00

So I realize that I have not blogged in over 2 months...oops. I know that I always blame it on being too busy, but really that is still my excuse once again. I stayed really busy this summer with summer events, summer fun, training for my upcoming 12 person relay race (and dealing with injuries and the physical therapist), and with my job. Right after I ended my summer job (a summer camp working with teenage boys with Asperger's Syndrome, a disorder under the Autistic Spectrum-super challenging but super rewarding), I did a million errands in my few days off and finally sorted out the stress of a new apartment once and for all. My friends, Rachel, Amanda, and Alison, and I had spent 6-8 weeks looking for a new apartment for all of us to live in...let's just say that the process proved super stressful and tedious this summer. So on my last day in town, I packed up my room, packed a bag, and headed off to North Carolina to see Andrew and Leigh. I will try to have posts out in the next few days with details and lots of pictures of my fun trip to Boone, NC, of my tour of Boston/New England while my Dad was in town, and then of my very recent trip to Kingwood, TX. I got back to Boston this afternoon, and I really feel like I am home, and I am really, really glad to be in a home with my 3 favoritest girls in the whole city. I promise I will post as fast as I am able...please just be patient with me ;)

a little ketchup...

2009-07-08T23:28:00.003-04:00

(Maddie, Me, and Alison...) ...or catch up?! I guess with all of these barbecues, hot dogs, and burgers...I was thinking of ketchup. So I wanted to say that I have been way behind in the blogging world. After finishing an intense, stressful, but rewarding student teaching experience at South Middle School in Braintree, MA, I hosted my mommy here in Boston/New England for a week. Then I started training and work for my summer job. Things are going well, just busy and stressful at times. But don't you worry, I am playing plenty, too. I have tried to get a lot of new posts on my blog, so scroll down to see everything. I will do more updates in a day or so, with some of the excitement and latest in my life from just this past week...so check the blog again soon. I love you all, and thanks for being patient with me!

4th of July weekend

2009-07-08T23:00:00.005-04:00

Happy Late Independence Day to all! I had a wonderful weekend! I got Friday, July 3rd off from work, and apparently the majority of working professionals in Massachusetts get the day off. I spent Friday shopping with my friends, Alison, Rachel, Carly, Aimee, and Alison's sister, Maddie. We had lunch at a Japanese sushi buffet-it was so so good. We shopped in the Natick area-their mall is huge, and surprisingly, with a group of 6 girls, we did not get burnt out for 4 hours and saw the entire mall. We spent the night hanging out. Saturday was filled with Boston's 4th of July events and lots of fun with friends. After church on Sunday, my friends, Charlotte and Katie, had a barbecue at their place-it was a great turn out, great people, and great food. Here is Rachel, Alison, Mollie, and Maddie at the Sunday afternoon barbecue.

Here is Katie flipping the meat, Derek being goofy, and Charlotte getting the veggie kabobs ready to grill at the barbecue.

I was so excited that after the awesome fireworks on Saturday night, we got to walk home some 2-2.5 miles, but mostly that we got to walk along Storrow Drive, a major road along the river for cars. It was closed, and I was excited to walk it! This is usually my exit to get off in my car.

The Boston Pops Fireworks are by far the most amazing fireworks that I have ever seen in my entire life. They were huge and impressive. We had a spot on a dock right out on the Charles River, so we had a great view. The fireworks are put off on a barge in the middle of the Charles River.

The fireworks probably brought in a million people, since we actually had sunny, beautiful weather, something that is very rare this summer.

Look at these beautiful bursts. The Boston Pops play patriotic songs and Neil Diamond came this year...pretty cool, eh?

Here are Lyndsy and I on the dock, staking at our spot before it got dark and the show began.

Bryan, Rachel, Maddie, Luke, and Katie headed down on the T/subway to find a spot to watch fireworks; we left from Alison, Rachel, and Maddie's house.

On the 4th of July, our friend, Doug, put together a last minute barbecue. Here are Bryan and Luke sitting on the roof-they are crazy.

Here are Bryan and Maddie, just chilling on the patio.

I met up with Alison and Maddie on the 4th at Government Center. We watched the Flag Ceremony, heard the Star Spangled Banner by some amazing 10 year old boy, etc. We followed this small parade around to the Burial grounds, down some streets, and over to the Old State House where the Declaration of Independence was read. Here Alison, Maddie, and I are on the donkey...I don't know that we are necessarily Democrats, but there was no elephant to climb on. We are in Massachusetts, go figure.

Alison and Maddie, sisters.

Here is what we saw at the flag ceremony for the 4th of July celebrations in downtown.

Oh, and I wanted you all to see my spread from the Sushi buffet, where we had lunch on Friday afternoon. Are you really wondering?! Of course, I didn't eat just this...I had another plate first that was way more full!

Mommy Comes to Visit Boston-Day 6

2009-07-08T22:56:00.007-04:00

So Day 6, Friday, June 19th was supposed to be my Mom's last day in Boston. We headed over to Harvard Square area, and went to the Longfellow Historic House; where Henry Wadsworth Longfellow lived, and where George Washington lived for a time during the battles. It was an excellent tour despite the rain. Then we headed to Harvard Square and popped into a few shops, and stopped at our last cupcake joint, Sweet. Sweet does mini cupcakes and regular ones and definitely had the most posh cupcakes in town. We did a few more errands and then I took Mom to the airport...I hate taking her back to the airport...Mom and I in my car-all smiles. I wore my hat to prevent the frizzy fro that comes with rain and drizzly days.We had mini cupcakes at Sweet, the carrot cake and red velvet ones-scrumptious!

Here are Mom and I outside of the Longfellow House; it is literally right across the street from out burnt down chapel. I hate seeing our burnt church, it is still so sad and heartbreaking, but we are grateful to the Episcopal Divinity School for letting us use their facilities.

Here I am at the front door of Longfellow's house.

So I dropped Mom off, and I always seem to get my way. She called 4 hours later, her flight had been delayed and she would not make her connection to Salt Lake City. I got in the car fast and headed out in traffic to pick her up from the airport again. We headed to Braintree, where I student taught, to do some shopping and so I could make some returns. We had salads and New England Clam Chowder for dinner. Saturday morning, bright and early, I had to take her back to the airport, which was harder the 2nd time around.

I loved having my mommy in Boston with me. We had lots of fun adventures, and I got to explore lots of places and sites that I had not been to. I am excited to take Dad around in August. Feel free to come and visit, I promise it will be an amazing time! Great company (me!) and great city (Boston!)

Mommy Comes to Visit-Day 5

2009-07-08T22:37:00.006-04:00

Day 5 was Thursday, June 18th and a good day for the most part. We got in my car and headed southeast. We stopped at the Sugar Plum bakery, which we saw along the way. Of course, we had to try the chocolate peanut butter cupcake and the canoli flavored one. Canolis are these amazing desserts that you can get in the North End (the Little Italy of Boston). I liked them a lot!We drove through all the towns, through Plymouth, and other historical locations, and on to Cape Cod. Cape Cod gets a lot of hype here in Massachusetts. Don't get me wrong, it was beautiful, but a little overrated and not at all what I expected. Since there are so many trees, plants, bushes, and foliage here in New England, it is all over Cape Cod, too. You cannot see the beach or the ocean at all as you drive. We finally saw a sign for a beach, and had to drive a ways out. But we found it and I insisted that we walk along the beach and towards the ocean. It was a windy, cloudy day, but I just love the water and the ocean. I don't think I would pick to have my beach house at Cape Cod though.

My converse on the beach...come on, you have to walk barefoot along the sand.

Here I am- I said it was windy, didn't I?!

I thought it was cool...the tiny, birdy footprints and then the cool patterns that the waves make in the sand.

We stopped to see the Mayflower in Plymouth as a quick detour.

And here is the infamous Plymouth rock; Mom now understands that it is small and a little disappointing. I think most of us imagine it to be a huge crag jutting into to ocean.

Here I am at a cupcake stop outside the Sugar Plum Bakery.

We finished up the Cape Cod excursion by stopping at a restaurant and getting lobster rolls. Then we headed back to Boston and went to the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art) because Thursday nights are free. Both my Mom and I love modern art, and so I figured it was kind of a must-do since I had not been. We loved the museum; it was a neat collection and just the right amount of art. Too much, we decided years ago, equals visual overload.

Mommy Comes to Visit-Day 4

2009-07-08T18:20:00.007-04:00

So Day 4 was Wednesday, June 17th and it was a beautiful day in Boston. We headed downtown for the day. We took the T, our train/subway, into town and first bought tickets for a Duck Tour. We then went directly to the top of the Prudential Center, the 55th floor or so, and we could see out for miles in all directions. The view from way up there helps me to see this wonderful city that I am glad to call home and so happy to get to live in and explore! After the Duck tour, Mom and I had a late lunch at one of Boston's best seafood restaurants, Legal Seafoods. After some shopping, we explored and walked the city. Here I am in Copley Square with the tortoise; I have sat on him now 3 times. I sat on him for the first time last August when I had just arrived in Boston with my mom and moved in. Then I sat on him at the beginning of the year when I was out with my friend, Alison. Needless to say, I always have my yellow shoes on! I love my yellow shoes, but they are getting pretty worn...they sure do lots of walking.

You can see the reflection of our Duck in the John Hancock tower. Duck tours are a great way to see Boston because they are the army/amphibious vehicles that go on land and water. So we drove all over Boston and saw tons of the sites, and then we got to go into the Charles River, too. I would vote that besides walking the Freedom Trail, a Duck tour is the next best way to see a lot of Boston.

Did I mention that our hilarious tour guide let me drive the Duck?! Yes, me...I got this sticker as a result. I got to drive it a bit once we were in the Charles River. I was stoked, of course.Here is Mom on the Duck while we were still in the Charles River. The weather was perfect, something that we have not been experiencing hardly at all this summer, unfortunately.

Yep, there I am driving the Duck in the river, and there is our tour guide to the right. He was trying to make small talk, but I was just so excited to be at the wheel.

...and that's me driving the Duck again.

Here is the Massachusetts State house, we passed it on the tour. And that gold dome? Yes, it's 23K gold...no wonder everything in Boston is so expensive, we have so much to live up to.There is Fenway Park from the top of the Prudential Center-the green monster...Go Red Sox!

Isn't it lovely? Doesn't it just make you want to come visit me?! Here is Commonwealth Ave, a major street, with Boston University buildings on both sides, the Citgo sign marks Kenmore Square, and there is the Charles River off to the right.

The view from the top of the Prudential Center, looking at Copley Square, the shiny, tall John Hancock tower, and on towards downtown.

Mommy Comes to Visit-Day 3

2009-07-08T18:15:00.004-04:00

So Day 3 was Tuesday, June 16th and it was a great day, too. We woke up and got ready. We headed to my favorite place in Boston, the temple!, to do a session and then we spent the day in Lexington and Concord seeing all the sites and enjoying some great food. We picked up lunch at Wilson Farms, a wonderful, year-round Farmers Market in Lexington, and did a picnic at MinuteMan National Park. After learning some of the history, we headed out along Battle Road and saw some of the historical landmarks that played a major role in the events of 1776.We had dinner at Lexx restaurant, located along Lexington's quaint main street; Mom and I had the same thing for dinner and then shared this refreshing, summery custard dessert. It was sure pretty to look at!

We did not go for a swim, but we did walk around the edge of Walden Pond before getting dinner. The pond was beautiful and it was surrounded by tall, green trees and foliage. What a peaceful place.

Here I am at the Old North Bridge in Concord, where the battle began-where that first shot rang out.

Here I am along Battle Road, it runs between and Lexington and Concord, and the colonists/Rebels as well as the regulars/Red Coats marched along here during the first battles of the war. They marched all the way back to Boston from here. Paul Revere and a couple of others rode their horses along Battle Road to sound the alarm on the evening of April 18, 1776!

Hers it is-my beloved home away from home. I always love my temples and they always have such a special place in my heart. I feel so welcomed, at peace, and calm in the hallowed walls of the temple...and having my Mom with me there was extra special.

Tuesday was a great day, and we ended by doing some errands, and going to Target.

Mommy Comes to Visit-Days 0, 1, 2

2009-07-08T17:45:00.007-04:00

I picked my Mom up from the airport on Saturday evening, June 13th. We enjoyed Saturday evening and then Sunday my mom came to church with me. She got to see all of my friends and all of the wonderful young single adults who I go to church with. After church, we ate a quick lunch and then went over to Arnold Arboretum-a beautiful park near my house; we walked a lot, we sat on a bench, we watched the people and interesting couples, we watched the dogs, and we took some silly photos. My mom and I on the bench in Arnold Arboretum

On Monday, I had to go to 1st Aid and CPR training for my summer job, so Mom went to the Cambridgeside Galleria and quickly got burnt out on shopping. Afterwards, we headed south, stopping at a Costco on the way. We drove into Providence because we were going to pick up my friend, Rachel, who was flying into that airport and then we would take her back to Boston with us. We had a fun afternoon in Providence, RI. I loved all of these old houses along Federal Heights; they were so well-restored, painted in lots of fun colors, and the street was open and lined with trees.

Here are Mom and I down by the riverwalk that runs through downtown Providence.

This is me in front of the capital building in Providence, which is in fact the capital of Rhode Island. My mom had never been to Rhode Island, and now she has officially been to the smallest state in the U.S. Providence is much smaller than Boston, but it really is a charming place!

Here is Mom in front of the Providence capital building; there is some neat architecture in Providence.

Isn't the detail on this front door entrance neat?!

Here is a view of the riverwalk and parts of downtown Providence...if you look closely at that bridge across the water, more towards the left....can you spy me? Where's Kristina!?

Mom's cool angle of the capital building, taken from the car. Yes, I am the tour guide, and I get around just fine, thanks to Yolanda, my faithful GPS. Those of you without a GPS might mock the name, but you clearly do not understand how important they are, nor how they often take on a personality of their own.

So with Mom here, the cupcake expert, we spent a lot of our time together trying the yummiest cupcakes we could find. We found Nancy's Fancies in Providence. They filled and decorated them in front of you on the spot; they were fresh and really homemade tasting! Loved them. We had Lemon meringue, Coconut dream, Boston Creme Pie, and then the Dirt one was for Rachel (chocolate, chocolate frosting, oreo crumbs, and a gummy worm)

Here I am with our cupcake box! Yummy! We sampled a couple and then headed to the Little Italy section of Providence for some yummy pasta, the real stuff, none of this American Italian.

The pink awning marks the spot...cupcake heaven!

Here is the pineapple hanging over the entrance into the Little Italy part of the city; I forget what the pineapple symbolizes?! Something important...what was it again, Mom?!

Happy Father's Day!

2009-06-12T23:09:00.006-04:00

So I just wanted to take the time to wish my Dad a very Happy Father's day! I am eternally grateful to have such a wonderful father. My Dad always believes in me, always encourages me, and never lets me quit or stop short of my goals. He knows what I am capable of, and motivates me to keep going when the going gets tough. My Dad has taught me so much over the years, and it has been mostly through his example and watching the way he lives his life. My Dad is smart, funny, organized, hard-working, spiritual, humble, selfless, generous, patient, diligent, and the list could go on forever. Many of these qualities I possess myself, or at least I am striving to obtain...because after watching the way my Dad lives his life and watching how he makes choices, well, it has made me want to live my life more like his. I love you, Dad! I am so glad you are my Dad! Thanks for teaching me about the gospel, about how to be happy, about how to survive in the world, about the importance of appreciating other cultures and other parts of the world, about the joys of running and skiing and lots of other things active and outdoors related. Thanks for being there to cheer me on through my adventures, whether it was in person at my swim meets, through letters on my mission, or through your prayers and phonecalls in the last couple years. I love you, and am so excited to share my world here in Boston with you in August! Happy Father's Day, Dad! I wish I could be there to spend the day with you! A couple of Christmases ago, Dad tried on this wig from the girls' dress-up clothes and a pair of my fake, red glasses. Nice look, eh?! I would love him even if he did look like this everyday...you might get more stares in Tokyo though.

My Dad loves the gospel and is so diligent in his gospel studies. I hope to know as much as He does someday. His diligence in studying the scriptures is evident in this picture. Here he is a couple of Christmases ago in Ally and Luke's very small kitchen in London-he sat on a stool in the middle...it really is the size of some people's closets. He didn't want to be in the way or wake anyone.My Dad, Alex and I-a bunch of monkeys?! Speak no evil, see no evil, hear no evil.

Here is Dad, doing a little manual labor :) We were spending time at a playground in Kingwood with James, Ruth, and the kids.

Here is my Dad and I in Kamakura, Japan. I love how much my Dad loves Japan and everything Japanese. It is fun to learn from an expert of sorts, and we had a fun day showing Ally and Luke around.

I love when my Dad comes to visit me and spend time with me. When he came to Salt Lake City last spring, we had a fun day at Park City with the Zip line at Olympic Park and then a yummy picnic.

Here is Dad and I going up the lift, to then ride down the Zip line at Olympic Park. I would say I look like my Dad...and there are not many people who I would rather be like.

I love you Dad. I miss you everyday. Happy Father's Day to you!

Scooper Bowl

2009-06-09T21:19:00.003-04:00

So for three days in downtown Boston, there is an annual event called the Scooper Bowl. This year was the 27th annual, each person pays $8 to enter, and it is all you can eat ice cream, frozen yogurt, sorbet, etc. The $8 goes to the Jimmy Fund/Dana Farber cancer research. In the end, it is a great exchange, yummy ice cream for finding a cure. We tried to get a big group together, but alas, in Boston, we have so many lame people who always back out of activities. Only a few of us stalwarts showed. It was rainy, superwindy, and really cold for the middle of June, but we had lots of yummy ice cream and a fun time, despite the weather. Katie, Me, Maddie, and Alison-here we are with our ice cream cups, one scoop per cup...I totally won with 12 cups (and I honestly could have had more, but I decided not to make myself sick)

Me posing with the stack of ice cream cups-this stack is all of our cups stacked together, but I could have umm....eaten that much if I wanted?!

Katie is obsessed with ice cream, but was sorely disappointed that she could only handle 9 cups.

Maddie and I got downtown first, so we had an early start and got to spread our ice cream consumption over more time; she ended up eating 9 cups, too.

Alison had the latest start, but she still ate 7 or 8 cups. After this picture, she took the entire stack over to the trash can, and one of the employees was staring at her in utter shock...he honestly thought for a minute that she had eaten all of that...no way!

My favorites: Brigham's Black Raspberry Frozen Yogurt, Ben & Jerry's Oatmeal Cookie Chunk, and Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Macadamia. There were some interesting ones-like Maine Lobster Tracks, Take a Cake, and Rock n Roll Swirl.

I LOVE ICE CREAM! I will definitely have to do this event again next year!

Saturday is a Special Day

2009-06-09T21:03:00.003-04:00

I love Sundays, but Saturdays are often wonderful days, too. I woke up Saturday morning, and lay in bed debating whether to go straight to the temple or whether to go running first thing. I decided to change and head to the temple, and I am so glad that I did. A friend from my ward, Luke Stoddard, has received his mission call to Panama and was going through the temple for the first time. What a privilege to be there!!! He was there with his older brother, other siblings, his father, his roommates, the bishop, etc. I was so happy to be there with so many people that make living in Boston so grand. I love being in the temple, and I learned a lot, and was reminded of my first time through the temple, like 4 1/2 years ago-crazy how time flies, I went through the London temple in December 2004. It was so great to be there with people who love me, accept me, and who were so happy to see me there, too. After a fabulous session at the temple, I headed home. After a little bit of reading, I got a call from my good friend Cassie, inviting me to the beach with her and some other friends. It was lots of fun. We played frisbee, played in the huge, freezing cold waves, ate snacks, sat huddled together to stay warm and dry off, and had great conversation. I am so so so excited for more beach trips this summer!!! Charlotte, Katie, Me, and Cassie after playing in the waves (I have never been so cold from swimming/being at the beach...I guess the east coast is colder, and I am going to have to remember to pack warm clothes...I had to borrow Cassie's hoodie!)

The 4 of us out playing in the waves, they got much bigger!!!

A view of the sea shore; we were also joined by 3 other friends (Andrew, Emily and Matt-but they didn't make it into the pictures). I love the water, guess that is why I chose swimming!?!

WOOHOO!

2009-06-06T00:35:00.002-04:00

So I am pretty sure that I can say that I have some of the most awesome friends ever, and they are right here in Boston with me. On Monday, we had FHE (Family Home Evening, an activity that members of the church have in their homes, but as single adults, we have at each other's homes every Monday night) and my 2 friends, Amanda and Rachel, said that they had a surprise for me in the kitchen...This is my surprise!!! It is a super fun, fabulous yellow bag. It will be perfect for summer, and I had just been thinking that I needed a new handbag, a fun one, but a nice one. Rachel and Amanda went to Maine last weekend, and I had planned to go with them, but I had to cancel the fun and stay home to do lesson plans and paperwork for student teaching all weekend. They knew that I had really wanted to go, so while at the big outdoor market in New Hampshire, they picked this purse out special for me and gave it to me as a gift. It is a Coach (knockoff), but still so great.

I think it is perfect and I really love using it already!

OPA!

2009-06-06T00:25:00.003-04:00

So I have no idea what that means, other than greek people say it all the time and it's fun to say while throwing your arms up in the air. My friends and I have made an extensive list of all of the things that we want to see and do and experience in and around Boston this summer. Alison called me today to remind me that the Arlington Greek Festival was on our list, and was this weekend. We decided to make it an outing, and invited a few other friends. Alison also just got a new cd, which we decided will be our summer 2009 theme music. So we listened to it in her car, and tried to learn the words on the way to the Greek Festival.This is us looking excited for summer and all the fun that we are going to have! Amanda, Me, and Pat riding in the backseat.

Here is Alison and her sister, Madeline (Maddie) riding in the front seat. Don't worry, we were stopped at a red light to take the picture.

We literally sampled a little of everything. We started off with 2 gyros, shared amongst the 5 of us, to hold us over while we waited for our main meals in the long line. Then we had 2 platters to share which had: spanakopita, tiropita, mousakka, pastitsio, rice pilaf, greek salad, chicken souvlaki, etc. For those of you who know me, you know that I love Greek food, and that my favorite restaurant in all of Salt Lake City is Aristo's on 1300 E, by the U. It is awesome, and I have probably been there some 15-20 times. We also had desserts-baklava, keifti, and galaktobouriko (say that 10 times fast). It was amazing, and I loved it all.

Here is Alison, Maddie, Amanda, and Pat about to enjoy our spread!

Here is Alison and I, we were so hungry and waiting so patiently to split up the food and eat. We also got to enjoy a live Greek band, music, dancing, etc. We got up and learned some of the Greek dancing with a bunch of Greeks, it was a blast! I guess if there are not any more Greek festivals anytime soon, we will just hope for some other fun festivals. We ended the night watching a movie and chatting. We will see what tomorrow holds...I think there is a Strawberry festival several blocks away...

Happy Memorial Day (a few days late...)

2009-05-28T15:29:00.002-04:00

Last weekend was lots of fun, and Memorial Day was a really good time, too. I woke up and did a run with my relay team (all 12 of us will be running a 200+ mile race in September, so each of us will run 3 different legs of the race, each of us running somewhere between 12-20 miles total, I will be running just under a total of 18). We ran along a beautiful part of the Charles River that I have not run along before, it reminded me of the greenbelts in Kingwood, only greener and with a river. Then we had a ward barbeque at the Johnson's home in Belmont. Brother Johnson is a counselor in the bishopric, and his wife is Jane Clayson Johnson (famous news caster, did Good Morning America, and some other morning shows, etc). There were lots of great people there, wonderful food, and fun times-including frisbee and croquet. Maddie (Alison's sister), Melissa (my roommate), and Rachel enjoying a sunny day outside at the barbeque

Some fun ladies-Aimee (from Maine) and Carly (from Alaska, who is also Boston's craftiest, most creative person)

Rachel, me, Alison and Maddie having a lovely time!

Here is Melissa and I right before we left the barbeque and headed out for more fun.

Our additional fun included a short stop at the beach, dinner, and a movie to finish off the Memorial Day weekend. I definitely played way too much this weekend, in addition to Memorial Day, and with a busy week of student teaching, I am suffering from allergies, lack of sleep, and some student teaching stress. Overall, life is good. I am debating taking a trip to Maine this weekend with my friends (that is where Rachel is from) or staying home to play a bit and get caught up on lots of other things...hmm?!?!

Life has been CRAZY

2009-05-24T20:00:00.003-04:00

So I have not blogged in a while, but it is because life has been crazy. I finished up all my classes, but still had to work a couple more weeks at my assistantship at BU. Then I also started student teaching. I was excited at first, then overwhelmed and discouraged with my placement. Needless to say, I was kind of a nervous wreck, on the verge of emotional breakdowns for a couple of weeks in May. I was stressed about multiple things and just always had a lot weighing on me and a lot on my mind. I was feeling incapable and inadeqaute. I was feeling like student teaching was not going to be a good experience, from interactions with the teacher at my middle school. Last weekend, I was literally at my breaking point. We had Stake Conference on Saturday night, which was a wonderful session. Then on Sunday morning, while watching the Stake Conference broadcast from Salt Lake City, our lovely chapel in Cambridge, MA caught on fire and we had to evacuate. That was a huge ordeal, many of you got my email, and I will put the details of that in a separate post. That broke me. I just didn't think that I could handle any more, and especially not with my chapel, or refuge from the world, gone. It was a sad day (big understatement). However, a week later, I am here to say that I made it through. I had a wonderful week of teaching middle school physical education, and my teacher actually had a lot of positive things to say about each of my lessons, along with the constructive criticism. I am feeling much better about my student teaching experience and much more capable. I have had a good week and a good weekend. I have been teaching, exercising, spending much more time with friends, and enjoying Boston, and making time for the most important things. Back: Rachel and I, front: (L to R) Amanda, Alison and Madeline. We were celebrating Alison and Amanda's birthdays by going out to dinner. We feel like this could be our little family picture. I am grateful for good friends who love me here in Boston.

The birthday girls, Alison (now 25) and Amanda (now 24)-Rachel and I threw them a little surprise party.

Since Alison and I are now both 25, we are trying to be 25...I am the 2, she is the 5-random, I know.

Here is Maddie, Alison's sister who is here in Boston for the summer with us until she heads back to BYU for the fall, being the 2 and Alison being the 5. We are having too much fun, eh?

And here are Amanda and Alison being 24, Amanda had her b-day and turned 24, and Alison was still 24 for a couple more days til her b-day when she turned 25.

Here is Maddie and Alison, sisters; Maddie made Alison's favorite pudding cake-oh, so yummy!

Here is Amanda with her b-day cake, Rachel made it, the funfetti kind!

Here I am at the park on a Sunday, we were reading and enjoying the beautiful weather. I decided to roll down the hill, but had a white shirt on that I didn't want to get grass stains. Hence the blanket tied tightly around me. It was a long hill, and I got really, really dizzy.

I love Boston this time of year; everything is so so green and there are so many things blooming and blossoming. These are some pretty tulips on the Boston Temple grounds. Unfortunately, I did start to get some allergies this week; I think it is because I have spent so much time outside everyday at my middle school for student teaching. Well, enjoy the rest of the month of May, it has gone fast!!!

Half Marathon pics

2009-05-10T23:18:00.006-04:00

Scroll down to my post written yesterday to get a detailed play-by-play of the half marathon experience. It was amazing, challenging, hard, and so rewarding all at the same time. I loved it! Alison, left, and me, right, doing our pre-race warm up in our motel room. Alison is stretching, and I am umm, meditating?!

Strike a pose! (L to R) Melissa, Candice (my roommates), me and Alison doing a little stretching yoga, while overlooking Lake Winnepausakee

This should have scared off most of the competition-we are strong! (I am like a foot taller than everyone else...sometimes I forget how tall I am!)

Some pre-race jitters, but mostly lots of smiles and energy before our big 13.1 mile run

If you look to the right of this picture, that is me first in line, with my hands at my side like a soldier, I was really anxious to pee and use the port-o-potties and the race was going to start in 10 minutes!!! There just weren't enough there, and people just were not going fast enough.

My pigtails left, and Alison, waiting at the start, and checking out our competition.

Okay-find the woman in yellow top/blue shorts with glasses, then find the tall man with glasses, and then I am to his immediate left...do you see me?! and my crazy face?! I am pretty excited and was pretty energetic like that, pretty much through miles 10 and 11...at mile 11, I hit a wall and had to push hard through the end.

Alison's younger sister, Madeline, was our personal cheerleader and our photographer...here is one she took of the Lake. The run was quite scenic.

Here Alison and I are crossing the finish...she needed me and the perfect pace clock that runs in my body through mile 11, and I needed her to get me through the last 2 miles...we finished fast...that time is wrong since we started a little after. We made it in 1:56.20...under 2 hours!!!

Here is our group after the race-Team Sweetfeet, I am in the back row, 2nd from the right. Oh, it was awesome to finish!

Alison and I at the end-we are making a V for victory...we make the best team and the best running partners ever!

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-09T23:48:00.003-04:00

I just wanted to wish a happy mother's day to my mother, of course. Without her, her sacrifices, her love, her support, her encouragement, her teachings, and her prayers, I would not be the woman that I am today. Thanks, Mommy, for everything you have done and always do for me! You are my bestest friend in the whole wide world, and I am glad that I get to grow-up and be just like you! My mommy

My mommy and I in Tokyo-I want to look just like her, so I wear fake glasses to attempt to pull off her look.

I also wanted to wish a happy mother's day to my sister, Allyson. She has been and continues to be a woman of faith, hope, and strength. She has always been such an example to me, and given me a path to follow. I wanted to be a missionary just like her, and I hope someday, I can have the chance to be a wonderful mother and wife like her. Thanks for being such a wonderful friend, and a fabulous big sister. I love you, Ally!

To my sister-in-law, Ruth. Happy Mother's Day to the mother of 5, soon to be 6, precious children, who makes being a mother look easy. I am grateful for the relationship that we have developed over these years, and for your help and advice in trying to help me be happier and have more fun. Thanks for believing in me and thanks for sharing your children with me!

To Stacey, the newest member of my family, and another sister-in-law. As a soon to be mother, I know you will be wonderful in your efforts. You are such an example to me and you live your life in such a righteous manner that I know you will create a special home for your children. I am excited to be your sister-in-law and I am excited to be the auntie of your children!

Ruth, Leigh, Allyson, and me in back-I love that I get to be a part of such an amazing family, I love that all my favorite people share themselves and their families with me, and I love that I have so many stalwart examples to live up to.

And to Leigh, who is last in the post, but certainly, certainly not least. I love you, Leigh! I love being your sister-in-law, and you are definitely one of my favoritest people to talk to. You are a very strong woman, your testimony is inspiring, and your love is easily felt by all who you come in contact with. Thanks for being you, and thanks for being fun, and thanks for being faithful even when life is not perfect. I know Heavenly Father has so many amazing blessings in store for someone as good, obedient, and committed to the gospel as you are. I am so excited for y'all to be in North Carolina.

And so to all the women in my life, my family, my friends, to those with children and grandchildren and to those without, you are women who inspire and motivate me to be better. I love all of you. I love how good and nurturing you are. Thank you.

To those of you with children, thanks for sharing them with me. As a young single adult woman, I want more than anything to be a mother. I love children. And I know many of you look at my blog, wish you had my life, and wish you could play, be single, and put your mother/wife responsibilities aside from time to time. But you have no idea...you have no idea that yes, life is good and I make the most of it, and I am truly blessed, but I would give up everything in a heart beat to be doing what you are doing. My heart aches to be a mother, to teach and nurture children, and to help this world be a better place through sharing the gospel and through raising a family of my own. Thanks for giving me hope and the desire to still have that, hopefully, be a part of my life sometime in the relatively near future. Happy Mother's Day-you are loved, and you are appreciated!

AMAZING HALF MARATHON

2009-05-09T23:35:00.002-04:00

So last night I drove up with my friend, Alison, her little sister, Madeline, and my 2 roommates. We stayed the night in Alton Bay, New Hampshire and then woke up bright and early to run the Big Lake 1/2-marathon. I have been Alison's training partner for most of the half-marathon prep, and we decided to stick together again today. Good thing we did, she needed me for the first 11 miles, and I needed her for the last 2. We started out great, running 9 minute miles, and a couple of friends who we passed said, you better slow down. We didn't, we felt great. So we kept going at 9 minute miles, sometimes closer to 8 minute miles, and did really well. About mile 6.5, they had Gu and I wasn't ready for mine, but I put it in my pocket. I was ready for it at mile 8, but need water to get it down, and they didn't have water til mile 10. Ugh! It was pretty humid with all the rain we have been getting in New England, I had sweat a lot, so I was needing fluids long before that. At mile 10, we were still doing well, and the hills we had just ran were not nearly as bad as everyone had told us they would be. At mile 11 though, I hit my wall and proceeded to finish the last 2 longest miles of my life; I think I was a bit on the dehydrated side. Alison kinda panicked cause I was breathing hard, superfocused, and not chatty and energetic like I normally am. She was worried, so at that point it turned her role to encourage me and stay only a few feet ahead. I told her to go on, 'cause at mile 12 I felt like I was dragging...she refused to go on and said, you have gotten me this far, I am not leaving you. As we neared the finish, I found some extra energy and we kicked it in through the finish, crossing the finish together with a time of 1:56.20!!! We had thought a goal of under 2 hours might be a stretch. Needless to say, we totally achieved our goal, and despite 2 difficult miles to the finish, we really didn't slow our pace much at all...my body was just struggling. We hadn't even trained at a sub 9-minute mile pace, but we totally ran it today! It was awesome, and felt so amazing to do it!!! I loved it, and will definitely being doing more half marathons, and then someday down the road, I will try to train for another full marathon (hoping to not deal with broken foot issues ever again). I am a little sore, but feeling great. Pictures will follow soon, I have to get them from Madeline's camera, she was our cheerleader/photographer, etc.

May 1st

2009-05-01T23:34:00.004-04:00

Tonight we went to our friend Holly's show, she is studying at the Boston Conservatory, and it was her and other very talented students at her school, singing, dancing, and performing. It was lots of fun to watch. Before hand, we met up with some friends for Thai food. They had a regular menu, but then they also had a student menu (as opposed to a children's menu!?) Anyway, it was lots cheaper, so I decided to order from it, after having to show my Boston University ID :) Well, you could say I was pleasantly surprised when they brought out my meal and this is how it was served... Yes, that is basically a school lunch tray! Kinda random, kinda fun, and like one friend said, it kinda makes it seem less appetizing...school lunch=less than ideal memories for some. Everyone else had normal plates and bowls for their meals. Oh, well...the food was yummy, and cheap for me!

Every Friday in April, and then today, I would pick Isaac up from the Jewish synagogue (he really is Jewish, not like some nieces I have that go to Jewish synagogues for preschool and are Mormon :) where he goes to preschool and we would have lunch, run errands, go to the playground, go to the library, etc. I have been babysitting him over the course of the year. So today, after walking through some rain on the way home, it cleared up and we went to the park. Isaac actually took this one of me, with the green racket that we found on the ground.

And here is more evidence of springtime! It is absolutely lovely in Boston, everything is green and everything is blooming! I love all the flowers, in the ground, on the trees, on fences, etc.

I love surprises, don't you?!

2009-05-01T23:20:00.002-04:00

Well, like I had mentioned, I am all done with my courses for my Master's program, and now I just have student teaching. I haven't really had much of a break though, I have been running a bazillion errands, and doing lots of things for other people, and just still feeling exhausted. So Thursday was a long day, and I had to work in the afternoon, and then we had a celebration for our tutors and all their hard work over the course of the year (all part of my assistantship this year). When I got home, much to my surprise, I had mail! and lots of it. I got 2 particularly fun things. I opened a box from Amazon to find the Deluxe Edition of Dr. Seuss's book, Oh, the Places You'll Go! I was so excited, this is definitely a favorite children's book with an important message. It was sent from my wonderful brother, sister-in-law and their kids. I love it! Then there was a big box from Cherry Moon Farms, and I was like...what is that? and what would I order from there? and who would send me something from there? is it jam? random. So I open it and find these beautifully delicious contents...

Yep! It's a fruit basket, and I love my fruit and I love to be healthy, but there are also some nuts, and a little box of chocolates (just enough to indulge and not feel too guilty). Sound like someone knows me?! I searched for a card or something, and finally found it...also from James, Ruth and the kids! Thanks so much! I love y'all and appreciate all the nice gifts. The food will go to good use...I will definitely eat it, and then burn it off running :) When you are single, and the kind of person who just expects things of herself, and forgets to celebrate major accomplishments...it is nice to know people love you, think about you, and are perhaps more excited about your acomplishments than you remember to be. Thanks again!

I AM SO DONE!!!

2009-04-28T22:55:00.002-04:00

I just want the world to know that I am officially done with all my papers, projects, finals, and even my long research proposal (which I might add, I finished ahead of time, it was not due until tomorrow at 4 pm, and even with all my playing and never-ending to do's lately, I totally finished it and turned it in tonight)! I am done with the semester, and officially done with all of my coursework for my Masters degree at BU!!! I feel great, and pretty exhausted all at the same time. Now I just have student teaching left, 5 weeks starting next week, while schools are still going. I will be at a middle school in Braintree, MA (which will mean a commute, and ways needed to fill my time-anyone want phonecalls at the crack of dawn in your time zone?!) Then I will have 10 weeks at an elementary school in the Fall! Oh, it's just fabulous to be done with classes, as much as I do love school and learning (yes, you should know by now that I am a nerd who likes school)!!! Well, that is that...I should be in bed soon and then I get to relax the rest of the week, and work on my million non-school related to do's...I think I am justified in going out for ice cream tomorrow, right?! Too bad I need to find a great place still in Boston...Well, Lots of Love to ALL!

The Circus is in Town!

2009-04-23T20:35:00.001-04:00

So when we were out and about on Monday, we realized that the circus was in town. Tuesday night while I was in class, Rachel called and left a message. She was excited to go to the circus and wanted to get us all tickets. So I went. Did I mention that it is my last week of school (I will be all done next Wednesday, April 29th)? And I am playing all the time? Umm, yes. My school work is getting done, mostly, and my research proposal-eek, well, I will get to that. So last night, we headed into the city, grabbed some dinner at Faneuil Hall, and then went to the circus. There were not lions, and tigers, and bears...but there were: dog tricks, horse stunts, trapeze artists, tight rope walkers, twins who juggled and did stunts simultaneously, incredible acrobats, gymnasts, and dancers, etc, etc. Only 2 goofy guys, and they weren't really clowns. It was a good old time, being a kid again?! I never had been to the circus...here is Rachel and I outside the tent.

I loved Marathon Monday

2009-04-23T20:29:00.001-04:00

So Patriot's Day here in Boston is also known as Marathon Monday. Every year, the Boston Marathon takes place on this day, and I was so excited. After an early morning in Lexington, I went home to shower and then watched the marathon on TV. I was watching the elite female and male runners. I timed it so that when they would be finishing, I could be just a couple miles from the finish, on Beacon Street, to watch them past. So I called Amanda and Rachel on my walk over, who live right off of Beacon Street, and we met up. Here are Rachel, Amanda, and I as marathon spectators.

This man was amazing, running on 2 athletic, prosthetic legs...I was inspired.

Here are the male elite runners, Ryan Hall (the white guy who ran with the pack of Africans) ended up in 3rd place at the finish.

Here was the 1st place male runner, and at this point he had gained considerable distance over the other men.

Here are the elite women, the fast pack. Sadly, Kara (american in front) did not end up winning, she got 3rd-an Oregonian. I believe one of the Ethiopians got 1st.

Needless to say, Marathon Monday was inspiring. We watched lots of the fast runners, then we headed into the city for shopping, and on our way back home, we got to see runners still finishing, this time the really slow runners. I saw several 75 year old men still going. I saw overweight individuals who were accomplishing a major physical feat for themselves. I wanted to cry again and again. Some of them looked so tired, and others looked like they were in pain. I was inspired, did I say that yet?! I am definitely doing a Marathon in the next year or so, and I am definitely doing Boston sometime soon! Happy running to all my runner friends and family out there! This all made my half marathon look like a stroll in the park :)

Happy Patriot's Day

2009-04-23T20:14:00.002-04:00

So here in Boston, well, in Massachusetts, we have our very own state holiday. It is Patriot's Day, and commemorates when the battles began. To celebrate, we got a big group together (probably about 18 of us) and drove to Lexington to watch the reenactment on the battle green. The reenactment starts at 5:30, so that meant that I left my house at 4 am to start all my pick-ups and get my car load of people there by 5 am. Here we are posed with some "British soldiers." Front row: Rachel, Pat, Aimee, Me, Joseph, and Charlotte.

Here are the "regulars" doing a salute and showing respect, after the battle, to their soldiers who had fallen dead. Today it is the cemetery.

Rachel and I, in the cemetery

Pat, Aimee, Molly, Cassie, Katie, Denise, Joseph, Charlotte, and Rachel (the 3 blankets in my car did come in handy to keep us warm on a cold, crisp New England morning)

Here are the British marching off of Battle Green and down the road.

The drum line

Here is Battle Green. It is insane how many people pack in and get up so early to witness this reenactment. People sleep out to get front row seats, and others bring ladders-they climb them, sit on top, and watch the battle. Here is what my camera took from some ways back-the British marching off the field.

It was a foggy morning, which kinda set the mood and the perfect ambiance to the whole event. We had a boy behind us on his dad's shoulders, and he sure knew his history, he was giving us a play by play of what was going on down on the field when we couldn't see certain things.

Aimee, Cassie, me, Rachel, Katie, and Charlotte in front. I think our group was the happiest bunch to be alive at that early in the morning, people probably wondered why we were so "happy" and laughing so much.

Aimee, Cassie, Me, and Rachel-rise and shine...how many people can say that they are perky and bright-eyed at this hour of the morning?!

After all of the events in Lexington, we headed back to Boston and all had breakfast at IHOP. Fun morning, and we got so much accomplished by 9 am! Amazing.

Some of my favorite things...

2009-04-23T20:08:00.002-04:00

One of my favorite things is definitely running, as always, and these days with warmer weather (40s, 50s, 60s if we are lucky), I love being outside. I just bought some new running shoes last week and that made me really happy :) They (my shoes) have already been out numerous times, and they will take me through the rest of my training and onto my half-marathon. The 13.1 mile race is in New Hampshire on May 9th, who's excited to sweat?!

There is lots that still needs to bloom here, but I love these trees (I think they are magnolias). These flowers are so lovely, and made me really happy last Friday!

I hope that you are enjoying more consistent spring weather than we are here in Boston.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-23T19:58:00.004-04:00

Easter was a very special day and a blast. We had a beautiful meeting at Church with lots of wonderful music, and special musical numbers. I love Easter, and I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. After church, we had a dinner at Cami's with lots of fun people from our single's ward. The meal was complete with ham, my au gratin potatoes, sweet potatoes, vegetables, salads, rolls, bread, fruit, cake, etc. Someone also brought robin eggs, and I was taught how to properly eat them. Apparently, you lick them with your lips, the blue ones, and then rub the egg on your lips like lipstick, and then you can eat them. Here is my roommate, Melissa, and I having fun with the robin eggs...on our lips and on our tongues!

Melissa and I

The night before Easter, we had people over to our apartment for Easter egg-dyeing and banana splits. It was a fun group of people, and some proved extremely artistic at egg-dyeing. Check out Carly's egg above, she is very artsy! Hers was my favorite.

Melissa, Cami (in the doorway), Lora, and me...in front, Joseph, Candice, and Carly (in the hat)

Our beautiful eggs, we had such fun with all the colors!

Here I am with mine, it was blue and I used an awesome silver Sharpie to make stars.

Here is Joseph, my nice home teacher, with his very happy egg.

I hope that you all had a wonderful Easter like me!

GUESS WHAT?!

2009-04-08T16:58:00.002-04:00

I am so excited! I have some great news! I am so grateful...oh, so would you like to know what my good news is?! Well, I will tell you. Today I finally heard back, after weeks of waiting, and 2 interviews later, and I have been offered the job that I really wanted for the summer. I am in an interesting situation with school. I finish classes on April 30th, and then I have to do 5 weeks of student teaching this summer...well, that means that I have to student teach while kids are still in school, so I am most likely going to start student teaching the week after classes wrap up, while simultaneously finishing up things with my assistantship. I will student teach through June 12, most likely. Then I have to student teach again in the Fall, and will finish up around Thanksgiving time. So what did that mean? It meant that I was going to have a very small window of time, from mid-June through August, unemployed and without school commitments. I was going to need someone to hire me for 8-10 weeks, and that seemed unlikely. I could always nanny, I had thought. Well, to make this long story shorter, I found a job listing on BU's website for a summer camp program. It is called YouthCare, and is run and funded by Massachusetts General Hospital. It is a program designed for children and adolescents with high-functioning Autism and Aspergers Syndrome. I interviewed with the lady in charge of the kids' program as well as the lady in charge of the teen program. So in the end, I got a job as Program Facilitator for the Summer Explorations Teen Program. I will be working directly with several staff and mentors, and a total of 12-15 teenagers. I am really excited to have a rewarding, challenging, and beneficial (for my future) job. In several of my education classes, we have discussed Autism extensively, it is more and more often diagnosed these days, and so I know that what I learn about these kids with Autism will help me in the future with a variety of children. I am excited to learn more about the disorders, the therapies that are used, and I know I will learn a lot from these kids, too. I am also excited to have fun. The kids do morning exercises, outings, field trips, therapy sessions, social skill activities, games, service projects, ropes courses, cooking, etc. It should be fun and challenging. So hooray! I am excited for the opportunity, and I am just so grateful to have the job, with the economy as is. I am so blessed, always. I will probably be free after mid-August until schools start after Labor Day in September...so visitors will be most welcome, or your proposals as to what I should do, who I should be with, and where I should spend that time are welcome, too?! The best, most persuasive proposals just might convince me where to go! :)

General Conference Weekend

2009-04-05T20:18:00.002-04:00

This weekend was wonderful. Friday was actually really, really productive for me. I studied and got lots of school work done. I cleaned. I even rearranged my room, which is always a fun change, and somewhat refreshing. I am really enjoying the new set-up. I did errands, babysat, and went for a run in the pouring rain. It was a bit warmer, and I find running in the rain to be rejuvenating. I wanted to get lots done on Friday, so that I could really enjoy all of General Conference this weekend.
Saturday morning my friend Alison and I ran 10 miles. It was a great run, and went by really, really fast, probably because I am not sick and I can actually breathe, unlike last week when we went. After getting ready, we grabbed some food and headed to the Church to watch both sessions of Conference. I could watch it on my laptop, but I like being in the chapel, and I pay so much more attention there. After sessions, we went out to dinner with some other girls in our ward to an Indian restaurant in Harvard Square (right by the Church). Then I had a sleepover at Alison's with our friend, Lindsy, and Alison's other roommates, Amanda and Rachel. We chatted, watched Funny Girl (an old Barbra Streisand movie). This morning we woke up and enjoyed a yummy breakfast-french toast! Then we headed to the Church again to all enjoy the two sessions of Conference. Today it wasn't rainy or windy, so we actually went outside between sessions for a picnic and to enjoy the sun. I think Spring might actually be coming. It was 55 today, the sun was shining, and everyone in Boston seems a little bit happier!
I loved Conference, I always feel so inspired, and I was reminded of why I love the temple so much. I love to go, and it was good to hear so much focused on the importance of regular temple attendance, and what we can continue to learn and feel there. I love you all, thanks for supporting me.

Just Random...

2009-04-05T19:07:00.003-04:00

So I have been back from Spring Break for 3 weeks now, and it has been a busy, random few weeks. This first picture is to show my mom how I attempt to french braid my own hair. I have a Monday night class, right after I work all day on Mondays, and no matter how productive I try to be over the weekend, I still always have to get up at the crack of dawn (literally, like 4 am) to make sure I am prepared for class. The last couple of weeks, I have taken to practicing french braiding my hair while I read, study, review materials, etc. to keep myself awake. I am getting better...
Since I have been back, I have been busy with church activities, going to the temple, doing lots of running for my upcoming half-marathon, had a cold (after I had just told people that I don't get sick all that often), babysat for some cute kids to make extra money, had an interview and then a follow-up interview for an ideal summer job (I hear back about that this Wed!), played with friends, gone out to eat, studied, attended classes, worked, made a Costco trip with friends, been to a Luau party, enjoyed cold, sunshine, and rain, etc.
So I have also had several opportunities lately to help the missionaries, the sisters who serve in our single's ward are fabulous. I have been to a couple of appointments with them, and I have done some street contacts with them-totally fun, and it took me straight back to the mission-I loved contacting and talking to everyone! The missionaries have also started going to Boston Common, a park/central square area in Boston to contact people on Saturdays. They need members to come sing hymns and be supportive. So one Saturday my friend Alison and i went to help them. Right before we were about to leave, we observed something very interesting...

What are these crazy college kids playing? Look closer...yes, that is Quidditch!

They were totally serious and into it. They had different names on the backs of their shirts, real Hogwarts Quidditch players' names. They ran around with these brooms between their legs the whole time. Not house brooms...but real brooms.

They all played in a field, but the two seekers were running freely throughout Boston Common trying to find the Snitch (a player who wore yellow and had a small ball tied to his waist), who they had to catch. It was hilarious...Alison and I decided that it would make for a fun Family Home Evening activity! Anyway, I love Boston and its randomness. I guess I love my life and its randomness, too.

Happy Springtime!

2009-03-20T16:02:00.002-04:00

So my friend, Sarah, has inspired me like she often does. (Thanks!) She sent me an email today entitled "A toast to the first day of Spring," which it certainly is, and it listed all of her favorite things. So even though mother nature is teasing us here in Boston, I am grateful to know that Spring is somewhere around the corner. Last Sunday was a gorgeous, sunny day that got up to 65. Wednesday also got up to the 60s, and I was running in short sleeves-that was marvelous! But the rest of the time it has been 30s, 40s if we are lucky. So thanks to Sarah, I am feeling happy and grateful.

Here is my toast to Spring and some of my favorite things: going to the hair salon and coming out feeling like a million bucks (just did that!), long runs (6 miles or more) when you push your body to its limits, the sunshine, water-the drinking kind and the chlorinated kind that I love swimming in, working out hard and sweating like a man (I work for every last drop of my sweat!), reading a good book, going on drives, listening to good music, walking around cities and exploring, visiting family, traveling, talking to my brother Andrew on gmail chat, talking to my family on the phone, teaching underprivileged kids how to stay physically active and healthy every Tuesday and Thursday at Boston University, eating my Mom's food, eating at Aristo's the greek restaurant in SLC, driving my car Penelope, my health, my bike, laughing, apples and peanut butter, making and eating cupcakes, skiing and almost dying every time but never actually getting hurt (my Heavenly Father really loves me and watches over me :), and so much more.

I LOVE ALL OF YOU! HAPPY SPRING!

More Fun over Spring Break

2009-03-17T23:04:00.003-04:00

My last night in town, I spent the evening in Salt Lake with my 2 old roommates, Shalene and Casandra, and another good friend, Mallory. We did dinner at my absolute favorite restaurant in Utah, Aristo's-it's an amazing Greek restuarant up on 13th East in SLC! Then we tried to visit old friends, chatted tons, laughed lots, and had fun posing for these pics. I love ya girls, and it was great to see you! Just like old times.

Shalene (blonde in back), in front, from left to right-Mallory, Casandra (red head) and me...4 cute girls, all single!!! Feel free to pass that information on to any good-looking, righteous, fun LDS guys who are also single!!!

Casandra and I posed on her awesome yellow couch...we are both tall, loud, and well, have lots in common...

Casandra and I

Shalene and I

I LOVE YOU GIRLS! KEEP THINGS GOING IN SALT LAKE, AND KEEP ME UPDATED!

Spring Break in Utah

2009-03-17T22:28:00.004-04:00

I actually get Spring Break at Boston University, something that I missed out on at BYU. I had made plans to go to Utah to see my Nana, my little brother Alex and his wife, Stacey, and several other wonderful people. My mom had decided to fly in to Utah as well. I always love my mom time!

We had dinner on Wednesday at Alex and Stacey's apartment with my Aunt Susie, my cousin Nicole, and my favoritest little person in Utah-Presley. PS...Nicole's hair has been dark for some time now, apparently, about as dark as mine. Oh, my Mom and I stayed at Alex and Stacey's apartment. Imagine that, I got to stay in Wymount, BYU's married student housing, and I didn't even have to be married.

Here are Alex and Nicole listening attentively to Stacey's explanations of what she was learning in her classes. Do you see what they are all sitting on?! My beautiful red couch, I mean, their beautiful red couch. They were lucky to inherit my red couch, black love sac, and glorious queen-sized bed and bedding...lucky them!

Alex and Nicole just being silly!

My beautiful, Presley, and I helped my mom decorate her yummy lemon cupcakes. Presley and I have always been big fans of baking and deocrating cupcakes together. Besides dinner, chatting, and cupcake decorating, I was the evening entertainment. I sang and danced to High School Musical 2 (still have not seen 3, I know, I am a disgrace). That explains the fabulous video that my little brother so graciously posted for me already.

I met up with my awesome mission companion, Sandy Schaugaard, for lunch on Wednesday. She finally got to meet my wonderful mom, too. There we are being crazy...

...and here we are being just us. Congrats again, Sandy, on the wedding! I am excited for you!

Oh, and my mom and I had a great Monday exploring some fun boutiques in Salt Lake, and trying these absolutely delicious and super darling cupcakes at Mini's. Can anyone guess what kind I had to try?! Yes, chocolate with peanut butter frosting-delightful! My 2 favorites ever are chocolate and peanut butter...and together, even better.

Here I am outside one of the random shops/boutiques in Salt Lake. A pretty major snowstorm hit on Monday, so we stuck around, and I had to reschedule skiing with one of my favoritest ski partners ever, aka Michael Meek. We ended up going Tuesday evening to Brighton, and it was a gorgeous evening, stayed light out for forever, and the snow was great. I did really well and had lots of fun, except for that whole pile of powder after the 8 foot hole. You will have to call or email to hear that story! I tell it so much better than I can write it! Anyway, I didn't get a picture with Michael. It would probably be incredibly stupid of me to ski with a camera, and it would be broken if I had had it with me. All in all, I had a wonderful spring break. I did no homework, except for on the planes. I got to eat out lots, and break my "no sweets" weeks by eating plenty of those. I got to do lots of running/training in Utah, running up mountains/hills and canyons-loved it! I got to spend lots of time with my mommy and I got to see my Nana everyday. She is doing ok, but not swell. I got to see my awesome friend, Sarah, for lunch on Saturday, but I don't have those pictures; my mom does. I got to have fun with Alex and Stacey, and well, it was a good time...to see those adventures, visit Alex's blog. Everyone is more than welcome to come to Boston, since I do all my visiting to y'all! Happy St. Patty's Day!

DISCLAIMER

2009-03-12T11:40:00.002-04:00

My little brother logged on my account last night, added that lovely video, and well, decided it would be a delightful addition to my blog, without me knowing it. I could take it off, but I really am not embarassed by it. I love kids, and dancing to High School musical is always a favorite. Maybe this will at least help some of you to understand how I really am...haha. I will blog more about my fun and adventures in Utah once I am back in Boston. Love y'all!

A BU grad student at her finest

2009-03-11T21:43:00.002-04:00

So this is my trip to Utah with my cousins daughter, I did this for the whole family.

A Day Around Town

2009-03-01T23:05:00.004-05:00

So my friend Alison had Friday off of work. It was a beautiful, warm day (yes, 55-60 degrees in Boston is warm! Especially with it being like 15 tonight, with a horrible winter storm on the way that will dump 10-15 inches of snow in 6 hours or less!) I woke up to go swimming with my friend, Andrew and then I ran 6 miles with Alison. I love being active, and it was great after 2 days off with my pulled back muscle that I had been resting from. PS sore back-take advil regularly-it works! Anyway, after working out, going grocery shopping, and getting ready for the day, Alison and I headed out. We realized once on the T (the train, ie the subway in and around Boston) that we didn't really have a plan. We were just excited to be out without coats or even jackets on! We headed to the Prudential Center, went to the Skywalk on the 50th story, and used the free audio guide to learn all about Boston and see everything. It was fun to pick out things we knew, and try to find home, etc. Then we walked through Copley Square, past the Boston Common and the Boston Public Garden, got turned around in Chinatown, then walked along the water and past Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall, and finally ended up where we wanted to be-in the North End. We found some yummy Italian food-I had gnocchi with pesto sauce...and then we got delicious pastries to go at Modern pastry-there is also Maria's pastry and Mike's pastry shoppe, all supposed to be the best around...anyway, we got these amazing canollis to go...come visit, I will take you and we can experiment a little bit of heaven together! We just hung out the rest of the night, made an appearance at a friend's b-day party, etc. I have enjoyed the rest of my weekend, too. This semester seems busier with school, but I am still making time for the important things and for a social life. I still love Boston, and am excited about all of the things that I have left to explore! So the first picture is of the funniest thing that we saw on Friday. It was superwindy for a little while. As we were cutting across Copley Square, we saw a guy on a razor scooter holding a huge plastic tarp, yes, like a sail, he was trying to sail through with the wind, without having to use manpower for his little scooter. I couldn't really capture it, but man was it funny!Here I am in Copley Square on the turtle. Yes, many of you have seen the picture of me on the turtle back in August when I first got to Boston! Everyone tried to claim that the turtle got me from Boston back to Colorado for the family reunion. Haha. Anyway, the windblown scarf and hair are natural effects!

Alison and I are posing at the top of the Prudential Center with beautiful Boston behind us!

This is a picture of the infamous Fenway Park, if you come in a few months, I will take you to my first Red Sox baseball experience...it is on my list of must-do's very soon.

See that Citgo sign? That marks Kenmore Square, where I get off the T or the bus and walk a few blocks to campus. Boston University is what you seeing running between the river and that major 2-way road.

This is a view of the Back Bay, one of my favorite parts of Boston. I love all the buildings, the tree lined streets, Newbury Street-a posh shopping street, and the tree-lit walkway down the middle of Commonwealth Ave. I would love to live there someday...

Here is a view of Boston, that tall, shiny tower is the John Hancock Tower, and at the bottom left base is Trinity church, located in Copley Square.

I love being in Boston, and I love being able to explore. I can't wait for some of the activities that will come with warmer weather. You should come visit me soon! Hope you are warmer than I am wherever you are in the world!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-15T21:49:00.003-05:00

(From L to R) Lindsy, Alison, Rachel (center), Amanda, and me

GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN! Happy Valentine's Day to us, living it up being single!

So I spent Valentine's Day doing my favorite things: studying, cleaning, running 7 miles (I am training for a half marathon in May and I am so excited to be training for something and to have a reason to increase my running mileage :), etc. Then I went with my friend, Alison, and her friend, Lindsy to a yummy Tex Mex restaurant in Harvard Square called Border Cafe. We observed couples around us and tried to determine at what point they were in their relationships-1st date, several dates, about to be engaged, etc. After, we got yummy, healthy frozen yogurt at this place nearby called Berry Line-it is so good, sweet, and a small one only has like 125 calories! We burned that off just walking around. Then we were going to see a chic flick but decided that everything was probably sold out, so we headed back to Alison's house. A few minutes later, her roommates and my good friends, Rachel and then Amanda got home from work. So we ate more sweets, chatted, and then watched Emma-a classic chic flick! We decided to have a sleepover, so we put all their mattresses in the living room and we all were very warm and cozy. I don't hate Valentine's Day really, I never have, but I especially enjoy it when spent with fun girls! I love my Boston girlies!

Super Random Friday the 13th in Salem, MA

2009-02-15T21:24:00.002-05:00

So my friends and I had good intentions of going to Salem, MA for their festival the week leading up to Feb. 14th for their So Sweet Valentine's and Ice sculpting event. There were supposed to be tons of window decorations, ice sculptures throughout the city, lots of free prizes and free chocolates all over. We thought it sounded fun. So without realizing, we ended up there on Friday evening...yes, Friday the 13th in Salem, MA. Nothing scary happened, I promise, but it was definitely one of the most RANDOM nights that I have had in a while. We get in town around 7 pm, and it's like a ghost town. Everything is closed and deserted, and apparently most of the ice sculptures were melted (we actually had several warmer days this week, yes, above freezing in Boston in the winter-a true miracle). So we wandered around, and ended up spending most of the night at this place called Gulu-Gulu Cafe. We had an assortment of meats, cheeses, and bread for starters. We had yummy smoothies, and we had crepes or paninis for dinner. They had an old Godzilla movie on a big screen-horrible movie, totally weird. There was also a DJ playing 80s music. Then there was a cabinet filled with games. Andrew and Alison chose to play Scrabble...we played twice. The first picture (above) is of the 2nd round-we were struggling with too many short words.

Me, Andrew, Amanda, and Alison (L to R) at Gulu-Gulu Cafe, after eating our yummy crepes and smoothies.

Our first round of Scrabble...we did ok, I lost this round. Yes, we are all members of the Church, and yes, that is the word exalted in the center of the board; Alison played this first word to get us started!

Before deciding on the Gulu-Gulu Cafe to spend a random evening of food eating, Godzilla watching, Scrabble playing and all of us being in weird moods, we stopped in this Comic store. Here I am posed with the KISS doll...I would fit in with the band a little too well, due to my tongue fetish.

Alison and I posed with our Be*witched friend, a little Friday the 13th like. We laughed on the way home that we had driven the 20 miles to Salem with good intentions of particpating in the festival events, and instead playing Scrabble, listening to 80s, watching Godzilla, and yeah...it sounds like a freaky dream...We had a good time, but it's not an excursion that I plan to make again anytime soon.

Michael Phelps

2009-02-15T21:08:00.003-05:00

Ok, many of you know that I am a huge Michael Phelps fan...I guess we should define fan?! He is an amazing swimmer, and I love watching him swim; he is my athletic hero. I might also have had a slight obsession with him, and I might have gotten way too excited when he showed up at the Celtics game back in December. It might be the case that all of my family and friends referred to him as my secret boyfriend. This picture is me posing with him on his box of cereal at a random convenience store here in Boston. This picture was taken before all of this "news" came out about him doing drugs, and smoking bongs and what have you. Was I sad? Was I hurt? Were all my dreams shattered? Well, I was disappointed, but he knows what he did is wrong, and once I can teach him about the Word of Wisdom, he won't even consider doing anything dumb like that again. Haha. I still admire him as an athlete, but I guess I will now have to seriously re-plan my future life with another man by my side. :) Kidding...I deserve better than him, right?!

Happy Birthday Mommy!

2009-02-08T17:14:00.005-05:00

My mommy is my absolute best friend in the whole wide world and I don't know what I would do if I couldn't talk to her all the time and if I couldn't see her regularly!!! Even though she lives in Tokyo, Japan I get to see her quite frequently. While I was living in Salt Lake City, she would come almost every 3 months to see her mom, my Nana, and she would always stay with me! I miss all of our drives around the Salt Lake Valley, listening to my favorite tunes, and talking about anything and everything! Mommy-I LOVE YOU, and I thank my Heavenly Father every day that He allowed me to be your daughter. I am grateful that Heavenly Father knew so well what I would need. Thanks for keeping me happy and for helping me keep things in perspective. Thanks for listening so well, for being my personal cheerleader, and for being an example to me of what kind of mother and wife I want to be. Happy, Happy Birthday to you! Know that I love you for now and forever!

(August 2008-Alex and Stacey's wedding) I am always flattered when people say that I look just like my mother-she's beautiful!

(August 2008-At the Sacred Grove in Palmyra, NY) I love being with my mom, we both like driving, we both like listening to good music, and we both like talking to each other-it was the longest road trip I had ever made, from Salt Lake to Boston-but by far, my favorite road trip so far! Thanks, Mom!

(July 2008 in Provo, UT) We had lunch with Alex and Stacey and were just being silly...

This is what I decided I might look like after the long road trip out to Boston; my Mom is the best for willingly doing the drive with me.

(Christmas 2006 in London, England) I have a tongue fetish in photos, and this photo is so funny because my Mom is sticking out her tongue the way that I usually do, and I am sticking out my tongue the way that she usually does it.

(September 2007 in Tokyo, Japan) My mommy will always call me her baby girl, and I am glad that she still lets me me that baby sometimes. I am glad that she lets me need my mommy...and even lets me sit on her lap from time to time.

(September 2007 in Tokyo, Japan) My Dad took the best picture ever of us...he doesn't give much warning, not even a 1, 2, 3...

(July 2007 in Park City) My mom and I spent a day in Park City when she came to visit me and my Nana one time. We spent the day walking around, shopping, eating a yummy meal, and I convinced her to do the zipline at the Olympic Park-it was such fun!

(January 2009 in Yokohama, Japan) My mom and I spent part of the day in Yokohama exploring while my Dad was at home in Tokyo a little under the weather. I love doing anything with my mom!

(Christmas morning 2009 in Tokyo) My mom, or "Santa," got me these fun, fake glasses, this pink scarf, and the cool hat...she is so good to me!!! In my glasses, it makes us look alot alike!

(September 2006 in Tokyo) My mom and I at a park in Tokyo; I am wearing a hat that my mom convinced me to buy...she loves me in hats and I love her for buying me hats.

(August 2008 in Boston, MA) My mom helped me get safely to Boston, she helped me unpack and paint some furniture in my room, get things set up and moved in, and we did have a little time for some sightseeing. Here we are in the Boston Public Garden. Mom-you need to come back and visit me very soon here!!!

(December 2007 in Salt Lake City, UT) Here we are on Temple Square right before Christmas. Alex and my mom came for a visit. One of my favorite things to do with my mom is to go to the temple; it is my faovrite place in the whole world.

(December 2007 in Bountiful, UT) My mom and I had just been to visit my Nana in her assisted living home. I know my mom always came to see my Nana, but I was so glad that it meant I would get to see her lots....now that I am in Boston, it will be another extra stop that isn't very convenient.

Mom-I love you so much. I am sorry that I am not there in Tokyo to help make your day super special. But I hope you know that I would love to be there, and I will be thinking about you all day. I love you so much. You are my best friend in the whole wide world, and I am the luckiest girl ever to have someone like you. Friends never understood how I could be so open and honest with you, and literally tell you everything...but I always found it sad that they couldn't have those same bonds with their moms. Thanks for being my mom and a best friend all at the same time!!!!! Happy Birthday to you!!!

Tokyo, JAPAN

2009-01-19T00:53:00.005-05:00

My mom and I on Christmas Day at Asakusa (my glasses are fake-I have always wanted bad eyes cause I love wearing glasses....I have 3 fake pairs!)

My 5 year old niece, Maddie (Madeleine), and I trying on fake glasses at one of the many, many shops that lead up to the temple in Asakusa-kinda reminds us of the moneychangers at the temple in Christ's day.

Here I am posing at Tokyo Disneyland-it was a magical day and I think just about all of my dreams did come true! :) It was cold and windy, but nothing compared to what I am experiencing being back in Boston!!!

Here is supercute Izzie playing hide and seek through the tunnel at Disneyland.

Here we all are-Mom, Dad, Izzie in the stroller, Me holding Maddie, Luke, and Ally-outside of it's a small world-man! that song really can get stuck in your head.

My 1 year old niece, Izzie (Isabelle) is such a doll!

My Dad and I went with my sister and my brother-in-law to Kamakura on New Year's Eve Day.

We saw the Great Buddha, a huge one outside sitting/meditating on the hill-My Dad was so proud of this picture-it looks like Buddha is a part of our little group.

Let's just say that Ally struggles with chopsticks...so my Dad started feeding her-cute, or not?!

I always like my chocolate-covered bananas. Yes, I am healthy...but it is fun to get something fruity covered in something yummy and not so good for you like chocolate...this one tasted a lot better than my chocolate-dipped banana in Japan the time before.

I LOVE Tokyo, it is so different, but I always find a special place in my heart for the different places that I travel to, and especially for the places that my parents live that become home to me, even if they are not in America. I love so many things about Tokyo, and it is always an enjoyable, eye-opening experience. These photos just recap some of the fun and adventures that I had there this time (my 3rd time to visit!)

Overdue

2009-01-18T23:22:00.005-05:00

James, Ruth and I went out for yummy Mexican food without the kids, watched Disney's Camp Rock without the kids-yes, we are nerds, and hung out. I love my big brother and sister in law!

One of my really good friends from BYU, Kristen, now lives in Houston with her husband and their 2 darling kids. She drove to Kingwood and spent part of the day with me and my brother's family. It had been about 4 years since we had seen each other-way too long! It was so good to see you, Kristen! We will have to do it again-when I come to Houston, or when you come to Boston, maybe?!?!

Ruth and I enjoyed a beautiful day outside playing with the kids. I said if the weather was like that year round in Texas, then maybe I would stay-60s and 70s, not 100% humidity. I know I am a Texas girl...but the heat and humidity kill me as an adult!

I know this post is overdue and I have no excuses other than I have been putting off blogging. Well, that and I have been spending a lot of time with my wonderful family. So after my semester ended, I spent over 2 weeks in Tokyo with my parents and my sister, Allyson, her husband, Luke, and my 2 adorable nieces. We had a blast, enjoying the holidays, homecooked meals, lots of yummy Japanese food, movies, walks, trips to various playgrounds, seeing the major sites, shrines and temples in Tokyo, and a few side trips out of the city. I always enjoy running with my Dad, he takes me all over Tokyo and its a great way to cover a lot of ground and see different neighborhoods quickly. After that, I spent a week in Kingwood, Texas, my hometown and the residence of my oldest brother, James, his wife, Ruth, and their 5 beautiful children. We hung out, colored, played outside, jumped on the trampoline, I went to lots of gymnastics classes, and we ate yummy food. I think all I did was eat over the break...hmmm...

My 2 year old nephew, David, put on his helmet to ride his little scooter-safety first!

Lainey and Havana enjoyed their blue jello as well as the accompanying blue tongues...Havana and I made the jello-aren't you proud...I really can be more domestic than that...sometimes!

Aimee is darling...

Caitlyn is the oldest, and still beautiful in her brand new glasses...she pulls them off well!

The BEST way to end the semester

2008-12-16T20:09:00.003-05:00

Me, Allen, Luke, and Doug after the Celtics beat the Jazz!

The 4 of us again, having a good time (Allen is trying to be short?!)

OK-now I love a great professional sporting event, and the Celtics/Jazz basketball game was great...until my boyfriend showed up!!!! Can you see who this is being interviewed on the big screen?! Yes!!! MICHAEL PHELPS!!! I will admit that I reverted back to my middle school crush syndrome and was screaming, and frantically looking for Cami's binoculars, and then scrambling for my camera. It was a dream come true!!! OK, so Michael Phelps might not be the next Brad Pitt, but he is good looking in my opinion-and the guy is the most amazing swimmer ever!!! My family knows what an avid watcher I was during the Olympics...anyway, this made the night more than worth my $45 ticket. The guys kept asking how long Michael and I had been dating? I said, well, we go way back, you know, he just doesn't know it...kidding. I was so excited though...I mean to be in the same arena as him...I had felt so distant watching him with me in Breckenridge, CO while he was in China...ok, now I know I sound obsessed...so enough about my Michael Phelps (although Kristina Phelps has a nice ring to it, huh?!)

Here I am with my girls-Cami, Rachel, me and Alison before the game started (yes my hair got darker a couple of weeks ago...my mom wasn't thrilled to hear I had gone darker...but I do really like it!)

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year from me to you!!!

So yes, I am now officially done with my first semester of grad school and man, does it feel amazing!!! It has been hectic and crazy since I have been back from my Thanksgiving break in Dallas, hence no new posts. I have been swamped with school, work, and then babysitting quite a bit to make ends meet for this month (and to pay the $50 in parking tickets that I accrued last week...and no, we do not need to go into detail about 2 horrible, no good, very bad days that I had last week). All of my final projects, papers, exams, and presentations got done on time, and I think I did really well this semester. I enjoyed all of my classes and am really looking forward to my courses next semester. To end it all, I went with Cami, after we got off work yesterday, to grab some dinner, to see the Christmas lights in downtown Boston, and then to meet up with some other friends at the game. It was wonderful...the Celtics totally beat the Jazz (I say when in Boston, do as the Bostonians, and the best team did win!) As you can see, the game was fun, and seeing Michael Phelps was well, amazing! Today has been one of the craizest days yet...I got up to take a friend to the airport at the crack of dawn, babysat for 5 hours (now I can pay utilities and parking tickets), finished a take-home essay final exam, and am doing all of my catching up, laundry, and packing bags so that I can get up super early tomorrow to leave for Tokyo!!! Oh, for those of you that do not know...I will spend 3 weeks in Tokyo and 1 week in Houston before heading back to start school on Jan. 14. Enjoy your holidays, I will try and update with Tokyo adventures! Love you all!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

2008-11-29T18:57:00.009-05:00

Rock climbing--easy landing

Nice shot, eh?! Here I am in action...

Andrew...thanks to him, I have the coolest climbing shoes ever

Leigh is a hot shot-this is totally her thing...maybe one day I can be as hard core as her.

Andrew and I at the Dallas Temple

Leigh and I after our session at the Dallas Temple

One size fits all?! Big chair...small chair.

Big chair for me, small chair for Leigh

Andrew and Leigh at Chili's

Kristina and her mysterious date at Chili's?!

OK, me just wishing I had a significant other to take to dinner with Leigh and Andrew

Leigh and I playing the Wii

Andrew playing Guitar Hero-he is really, really good-go rockstar!

Here I am failing miserably at Guitar Hero

Leigh and I-fun and crazy

Here I am trying out the racing helmets at Richardson Bike Mart-Lance has gotten his cycling gear here...maybe I can be that good, too!

Leigh and I in Lenscrafter-she really needs glasses, I have always wanted glasses-do these ones suit me?!

Enjoying my burrito from Freebirds, mine was huge!

So I did survive 2 more days of class and work, and then got up bright and early for my 7:30 am flight out of Boston to Dallas, Texas on Wednesday morning. My flight was good and long, but I was productive and wrote a paper on the journey. I was picked up at the aiport by Leigh, my wonderful sister-in-law. We had lunch at Freebirds, a popular Burrito place...and mine was supposed to be a half-bird, but it ended up a whole size. Then Leigh and I went shopping at a huge, fabulous Texas mall. She was looking for new dress pants, and she ended up with two pairs, and I ended up with one pair. We picked Andrew up on his commute home from work. Andrew and I were out for a while, and then came back home to play Wii-I rock at Mario Kart-actually not at all. On Thursday, I went with Leigh to watch Andrew playing football with some guys from Church on the morning. Then I went for a really long run, and took Chaco (their boxer) with me for the last part...man, I really want a dog! Someday, someday... after getting ready, we all headed out for Thanksgiving dinner at Leigh's aunt's and uncle's house. I met most of Leigh's extended family, and enjoyed some awesome Thanksgiving food!!! and I did quite well, I only ate one plate of food...talk about self-control. Thursday night we watched some TV, and I also played Guitar Hero with Leigh, then we played some other Wii games. Friday morning I went running in the Texas rain, something that I do like. Then we went to see the new James Bond movie-Leigh and Andrew and I, and Leigh's parents and sister. Afterwards, I went with Andrew and Leigh to visit Oma, Leigh's wonderful grandmother. Then we grabbed some food at Chili's and ventured over to REI. I love REI, it inspires me to want to just live in a tent and be outside and active all day every day. I did buy a new fleece with a hood-I do love my hoodies. We also picked up Leigh's aunt and cousin from the airport, and then came home. Leigh and I had some great girl bonding...I love my family! Today I went to the Dallas Temple with Andrew and Leigh, and after some errands we met up with some of Andrew and Leigh's friends and went to a great indoor rock climbing center. My second time rock-climbing and I loved it. Plus, I got to use my new climbing shoes! Now we are enjoying pizza and a movie. I am having a great time in Dallas, and I cannot believe that my vacation is quickly drawing to a close...sad. I am having a great time with my brother, Andrew and my sister-in-law, Leigh...they are so good to me! Happy Holidays to all!

Happy Pilgrim Day!

2008-11-23T14:36:00.005-05:00

Here is the Pilgrim Village in Plymouth, the employees all assume the character of someone that really came over in the Mayflower, and settled in Plymouth. They tell you all sorts of things about their lives in England, and their lives in the new colony. There was lots to see, and we liked hearing their stories inside their little homes, right by the fires they had built....warmth!

Charlotte, Katie, and I on the cannon; there were cannons set up in the upstairs of where they met for church meetings below...interesting...church and weapons

I decided that this was the first Jenga game...the wood is all stacked very strategically; I was worried that it really might all fall over if we tried to pull a log of wood out.

Here I am, a little sad...I only get to live in the poor native's hut?! Why don't I get a big one? Apparently because I am single, the natives of Plymouth only built huts big enough for their families, but never bigger...that makes sense, don't have something bigger than you need-genius!

Katie, Charlotte, Victoria, Michael, and I in a canoe made by natives. They actually sailed this one from Plymouth down to Martha's Vineyard, on open water...scary!Here is the whole group warming up in a cafe along the ocean, we could see most of the Thanksgiving parade from the windows; I enjoyed super yummy hot chocolate and award-winning New England clam chowder in a bread bowl.

Here is my roommate, Candice, and I posed by the Mayflower that brought the Pilgrims.

And the Mayflower again, it brought over some 130 people! It wasn't all that spacious, and my family would not have been comfortable, I had to walk around the boat with my head tilted to the side...I guess the Pilgrims were much shorter...

And here is Plymouth rock!

Those are the pictures from my fun Saturday in Plymouth, Massachusetts. So I had a bit of a long, stressful week, trying to keep up with schoolwork and studies, and my life in general, after 3 fun, but busy days in NYC last weekend. I made it through the week ok, and have had a really good weekend. I have been trying to get a research paper done all week, and it just doesn't seem to be happening for me. I have decided that I do not like research papers; I like writing and have done well on all my other papers this semester, but research papers are not my thing. Maybe a PhD will not be in my future..hmm...or maybe it could if I was doing some of my own research. Anyway, after a long day of unsuccessfully working on my paper on Friday, I went with my roommate, Melissa, to the temple in the evening. Have I mentioned that I love it there?! I think so, but I really do. Going once a week to the temple keeps me going really, and gives me so much more peace than I can ever find during my busy weeks. Saturday morning I went with my roommates, Candice, and Melissa, to breakfast at this super yummy restaurant called Zaftigs with another friend, Cami. I had Challah french toast, it is a Jewish delicatessen. It was delicious! I love yummy breakfasts, they make me happy. Then I drove myself, Melissa and Candice down south an hour to Plymouth, Masssachusetts where it all began. We found parking, met another group of friends, 10 of us in all, and enjoyed a day in the life of a Piligrim. It was freezing cold, seriously...thermometers were reading 25, but with the windchill in Massachusetts, it was probably 10-15 degrees. Cold, cold, cold. And apparently, it will be here to stay until April or so. Enjoy the pictures, and happy early Thanksgiving!

My Wasabi Green B-Day Present

2008-11-21T23:47:00.003-05:00

So Andrew and Leigh, my brother and sister-in-law, were really excited when they heard about my first rock climbing adventure earlier this fall. I had a blast, did well according to my guy friends, and was anxious to go again, but being a busy grad student and not having stuff has prevented me from going again. The day after my birthday, I had a fun surprise in the mail from my fabulous brother and sister-in-law...rock climbing shoes...my very own! and in none other than wasabi green...perfect color! Andrew and Leigh are supposed to be taking me to use them when I am there in Dallas next week for Thanksgiving! And so that Andrew doesn't feel left out...we are down to 4 days until I see you! Sorry I don't have a paper chain link, but I am counting down, and I am excited to see y'all! Thanks again, I love them!

I LOVE NYC!

2008-11-21T23:03:00.004-05:00

NYC from the Empire State Building

Cool American Flag display at Ellis Island

Alison, me, and Michael on the ferry to Ellis Island on Sunday

I saw Mary Poppins for the second time, first time on Broadway, on Saturday

(Alex-made me think of you, I took my picture with this in a museum on my mission)

Alison and I on Friday night, near Radio City

Alison, Michael, and Melissa in SoHo on Saturday

Me, Alison, and Megan at Rockefeller Center on Friday

Alison and I on Friday, after going to the Manhattan Temple

**Disclaimer: This is the only picture with my hair done, I did it Friday morning; it was humid and rained the whole weekend, so I did not waste time the rest of the weekend on my hair. Also, I did change clothes, I promise, but I did end up needing this green jacket most of the time.
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This post is overdue, like most of mine are, especially since it has been over a week since I left for New York City. So I had a good b-day and in order to extend the celebration a bit, as well as to celebrate my roommate, Melissa's b-day, we went with a few friends to NYC. It was an absolute blast! I have been twice before, but still absolutely love that city! Although, I will admit that I love living in Boston way more (it is more me) but it is nice being close to NYC...I suppose I would really like living there, but not for right now...my friend, Alison and I said maybe if we are still single and 35, we can head that way. We had invited around 12 friends, but people are lame and always bail...so it was 5 of us. Alison and I left with her friend, Megan (who had flown into Boston the night before from Las Vegas) on Friday morning. We took the subway, aka the T, into the city, and then got on our bus-a 4+ hour ride to NYC. We slept, I did some reading for a class, and we watched a funny, cheesy movie, Underdog, that was being shown. We spent Friday walking around Times Square, shopping along 5th Avenue (mostly looking), walking through Central Park, Alison and I did initiatories at the Manhattan Temple (my first time in that temple), we met up with Alison and Megan's friend, Caleb, and walked around Times Square some more, past Rockefeller Center (the Christmas tree was getting set up), past Radio City Music Hall, etc. We had some great dinner and some super yummy New York cheesecake! I met up with my roommate and went with her to get food at Carnegie Deli, I was still full. Then we headed to the Upper West End in a taxi to the apartment where we were crashing, a friend of a friend's place. Saturday morning I went for a run in Central Park-awesome! It was raining, but refreshing, and I love parks like that-very Hyde Park/London park-like. After Melissa and I grabbed some fresh fruit and yummy bread, we headed in to Times Square. We met up with Alison, and our other friend, Michael, and waited for half price Broadway tickets in the pouring rain! We were soaked! We explored Canal Street, and wandered through SoHo, and then came back for Mary Poppins, which I had already seen in London, but it was great, lots of fun, wonderful music...we all enjoyed it. We walked around some more, went up to the top of the Empire State Building when it was dark, had dinner at a fun diner, shopped some more, and then all headed our separate ways after 2 exhausting days. I managed to get Melissa and I turned around several times going the wrong way on our way back to our place...we were on the wrong side of the park, I usually have a better sense of direction, but it was dark, rainy, and I was tired. Sunday we got up, grabbed some yummy pastries for breakfast, and headed to church, we went to sacrament meeting in a family ward-it was the primary program. It was wonderful-I loved it! You really do miss those primary programs when you are in a single's ward for so long. Then we went to south ferry and went to Ellis Island, which I have never done, and loved. It was so interesting. We came back for dinner and headed to the bus for a very long ride home. I love NYC! There is so much to see and do! I was exhausted after 3 days straight of walking, but I have survived this past week more or less. I will post in a couple of days about this weekend, it will be fun, too!

I'll be home for the holidays!

2008-11-10T23:23:00.004-05:00

...my Mom posts specifically for me, so this post is just for her...I am so excited to see you in like 38 days, I think it is...I am making a paper chain link to count down the days, too...here are pictures of it. (For those of you that do not know, I will be in Tokyo for 3 weeks for the holidays, and then I will be in Houston for 1 week. I love Boston University, giving me a month of vacation-a genius idea!!! )

Happy 25th B-Day to Me!

2008-11-10T23:09:00.005-05:00

The flowers from my mom-thank you so much, I will be sure to enjoy them!

Rachel and I at dinner

So today I turned 25, and I feel great, so hopefully it will be another good year. 23 was weird, it's a prime number, an ugly number if you ask me, and it was a weird year...I have loved being 24, and I feel even better about 25. The day has been wonderful! I have received so many emails, phonecalls, texts, and notes wishing me a happy b-day from family, friends, and people here and all over. Thanks to everyone for remembering me! Special thanks to all my nieces and to my nephew for my birthday song renditions-they were the best part of my day. So all in all, I got sung to about...6 times, not bad. My mom so kindly posted on her blog just for me. Oh, also, Mom-I did get the flowers! They are beautiful. So my day was filled with nice things, but was all in all a normal Monday. I went for a run at 6:30 am, it was cool outside, and just perfect. I went to the school where I help teach PE for 3 hours this morning, then I went to work, then I had a class. After commuting home (by the way, I do my commuting on my bike...I am not dead yet and it's much cheaper!), I went out to dinner with my friends, Alison, Rachel, and Amanda. I have spoken with more family, and am enjoying my evening carefree. Tomorrow is Veterans Day, and since east coasters are patriotic or something, no school and no work for me. Yay!

Cupcake Decorating/Dessert Night!

2008-11-10T21:57:00.005-05:00

Last night my good friend, Alison, threw a birthday party at my house for my roommate, Melissa, and I. My birthday was today, and Melissa has hers on Friday. We had lots of friends over for desserts and cupcake decorating. It was a good time, with good company.

Make a wish...I can't tell you what mine is or it won't come true, and I

really need it to come true!!! and soon!!!

My friend, Alison, made a super yummy b-day cake for us.

Here is my living room, filled with fun friends that live here in blessed Boston with me!

My good friends, Andrew (left) and Marissa (right), and I

Fun girls-Victoria, Kristie, Marissa, Cassie, and Melissa...

Cupcake decorating is one of my favorite things to do!

It was a fun night, with fun people coming and going throughout the evening. We had lots of yummy desserts, and boy, do I love sweets! So I indulged, and now I am on with my self-discipline for the rest of the week, and plenty of running! Alison also had everyone write birthday wishes for us on pieces of paper, and we had to read our wishes outloud. Some were inspiring, some were thoughtful, and some were umm...awkward. It was a great night. Happy early b-day to me!

One more state visited...

2008-11-04T23:41:00.002-05:00

...which leaves me 22 or 23 more to visit...I forget, we counted a few weeks ago. Anyway, I made a weekend trip to Maine with my friends, Alison and Rachel, this past weekend. We left Saturday morning and came back Sunday evening, just in time for the CES Fireside. Rachel is from Maine, and has a best friend, also from Maine, who is living in Salt Lake City and who just got married. We went to Maine so that Rachel could go to the wedding reception on Saturday night. It was a beautiful drive, there are still pretty autumn leaves left, sooner than later though they will be gone, and we will be left with bare, wintery trees. We saw the world's largest globe, we went to the only actual L.L.Bean store (most of you just get catalogs) where I took my picture with the giant boot, only to find out right after that I wasn't supposed to be on it, oops! We did shopping in a cute area called Freeport, I only got winter gloves, but Alison got some great deals (plus she has money from her real job). We shared a whoopie pie, and headed back to Rachel's house. At the wedding reception, Alison and I planned our upcoming weekend trip to NYC! We are so excited for that! We are going for my belated birthday celebration with some other friends. Anyway, Sunday we went to church in Rachel's old family ward, had lunch with her parents, and had a great chat with her mom and dad about dating/boys/marriage-the usual talk of LDS single girls! We saw an awesome lighthouse on our way home, (I have always put Maine and lighthouses together) but sadly my camera battery died before that, so I will have to get some lighthouse pics from Alison to put up later. It was a great weekend in Maine! It has also meant that I have had an insanely busy week getting all my studying and work done for my classes this week....I work hard and play hard! It's a great life motto! Happy November! Time is flying!