More bad pictures

I don't know why I think it's funny to put unflattering photos of myself on my blog, but I got a root canal yesterday and a filling and had practically my entire lower jaw numbed. Here are my attempts to pucker and smile. (Mind you, my appointment was at 7:30am and I went to bed after midnight.)

Yes. Attractive, I know.

Picture this:

It’s Christmas, we’re all wearing our new pajamas (everyone in cute little onesies and me in my new nightie, I didn’t want a onesie, but now I think I want one because it looks so fun). We’re wearing our new Anthropologie aprons. Those who got new shoes, hats, jewelry etc have also put them on and are parading around the living room wearing it all because we’re hyped up on the Rittersport chocolates we all ate. We turn on Mama Mia which we got from Santa while I make Bigos and Pickle Soup (I promise, it’s good) for our annual White Elephant/Bingo/Soup party at our friend’s house. When Mama Mia finishes we watch the Sing-Along version and my dad excuses himself to the other room for some NBA/Lakers time.

Around 3:00 Jess calls from Singapore and we get to hear about how clean the subway is, that she’s going to be in Miri East Malaysia and will be traipsing around the jungle and riding bikes in heavy humidity not being able to talk to anyone who is Muslim. It sounds so different from my mission! Her trainer is from New Zealand and we are all excited about Jess perfecting her impression of her!

After getting off the phone, we’re all a little melancholy thinking of her, missing her. I’m consumed with thoughts of my mission, remembering being so nervous to go to my first area, sitting on the train with my trainer, completely trusting her and following her to wherever we go. I remember feeling so apprehensive about talking to people and a little anxious about what we’re going to do everyday. We rode the train down to my first area and I gave the first vision story to the other travelers in our compartment. I wonder what’s going to happen with Jess. I can’t get over how strange I felt going into my new apartment on the 16th floor of a huge old Soviet apartment building, hearing about our current investigators and the upcoming meetings we’ll have with them. I remember getting excited at the grocery store with the prospect of having Kinder Buenos and tasty juices and yogurts everyday. I remember being urged by my trainer those first days to contact people on the street and wondering if we were going to tract all day every day (we generally did). I remember being shocked that I didn’t get extra time to sleep so I could get over my jet lag and lamenting the fact that I was going to be tired my entire mission. I think I’m going to be reliving my mission a lot through Jess and comparing the huge differences.

Christmas day was wonderful. Jess was definitely the highlight, then maybe my Anthropologie apron, then soup at the Barnes.

Cami

felt the need to hijack my blog. See preceding post for more details.

I always feel a little British when I come home because we feel the need to quote Pride and Prejudice and A Room With a View and speak in British accents, so there will be no American Merry Christmases here, just a quick little Happy Christmas! I hope it's wonderful!

I love Kenalog

When I'm confronted with this:

I'm so glad to come home and have my dad inject it with a little bit of Kenalog. It makes my day. Am I spoiled? Yes.

I HATE FINALS

AND THIS:



IS WHAT THEY'RE DOING TO ME!

(And yes I am in a cubby hole in the library avoiding studying for my Ancient Maya exam which I now have four hours to study for. Procrastinate much?)

Stress

This is what I look like when I toss and turn all night thinking of all the ways I'm going to fail this week. On my "to-do-list":

1. Paper on In Cold Blood
   
2. Contemporary Art Final
3. Ancient Maya Final
4. Clam Shell box for Bookbinding
5. Creative Project for Bookbinding
6. various church meeting (planning/Enrichment)
7. Humanities final
8. Study for that final
   
9. Pack
10. Clean for a cleaning check.
11. Work

I don't think I have enough time for all this plus sleep. The only things going through my mind are why. Why did I go to the wedding, wedding brunch, shopping, and reception Friday on my vital reading day? Why did I get up at 10:00 on Saturday? Why didn't I buy my paper for my bookbinding class before I went to my review session on Saturday? Why did I go to the ward party Saturday afternoon? Why didn't I go up to the library Saturday night instead of attempt to study in my room which needed to be cleaned first? Why do I have to have a calling that requires no Sunday quiet time? Why did I insist on going to my JC Christmas party last night when I KNEW I was going to be there too long? Why can't I wake up earlier? Why did I affirm I could work this week? Why can't I have five more hours in the day?

And you should be happy that first and foremost, you don't look like me today. Happy Finals!

Digital Dropbox

Have you ever had to use the Digital Dropbox to submit assignments? Well, this is the first (and probably last time) I will ever use it. I just went to submit my last paper today and realized that I HADN'T SUBMITTED ANY OF MY PAPERS THIS SEMESTER! Yeah. The grade list probably shows that I have good test scores and NOTHING else! So my teacher got a long explanation about how I'm an idiot and don't know how to work blackboard. I feel so dumb and now I have no idea what my grade in the class is going to be.

My gum is hard and instead of spitting it out I keep chewing and my jaw is sore.

What the Hel-sinki!

After Cami's day from Hell, she opened her mission call in my apartment. She had told us about a dream she had about going to Finland on her mission, and well, her dreams came true, she's reporting March 18th to the MTC! Yay!

She pulled the envelope contents out but the mission call wasn't in there! (I saw an application for a passport and knew she was going foreign.) Lacy found the call still in the envelope.

Emma's face is great! She's holding the phone for my family in Oregon.

Happiness daily

This ad:

This scent:


These cookies:


This shampoo:


This perfume:


All were an intricate part of my day today. I laughed at the ad this morning during breakfast, I washed my hands with the scented soap; the cookies were eaten at work; the shampoo was used to create my do today; and the perfume sprayed before leaving the house. I should only surround myself with things I love.

Randoms

When looking in the mirror today I thought I saw a gray hair. So I prudently plucked it out like any normal person would do. It wasn’t a gray hair. Whoops.

I have a mirror on my dresser that I have to keep tilted vertical so I don't see myself in it. Have you ever looked at yourself out of the corner of your eye and though, "Ew! Who's that?" and then realized it's you? Not fun.

I think I have mono. Not really, but I am really tired. Christmas break couldn't come any slower. I need it now. I went to bed at 10:30 Saturday night and slept soundly until 8:15.

Our apartment's heating doesn't get back to my room. It is significantly colder in my room then the rest of the apartment. It doesn't make sleeping easy, especially when I'm already a picky sleeper, but when I have to wear sweats to bed because it's so cold-- sweats that seem to create a velcro effect with the fleece blankets under my down comforter-- it makes sleeping semi-miserable.

The water heater in our apartment is messed up. The shower is incredibly hot every time I get in and I have to slowly inch myself backwards into it and also keep decreasing the temperature until it's too cold then I get out of the water as fast as I can and then slowly increase the temperature until it gets to the desired heat. It's especially bad in the mornings when I have cold toes to put them in the hot water.

I like Nutella. A lot.

I have a paper due tomorrow. I don't want to do it.

Gossip Girl was really good this week. I loved it!

My football team won the tournament! Here we are in our team uniforms:

We were the Princesses. And not only are we that, we're crafty too. We made our own shirts.


Here we are in our tournament winning "Champion" T's. It felt good. It felt really good.

Simple equation for puke

(Mike and Ike's + chocolate milk) before 10 = sick to my stomach

Take that!

Flag football is still going. We are two games away from a sweet little intramural tee. Tonight we played the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They are the team that put us in the losers bracket. We lost to them in overtime a few weeks ago. So beating them tonight was completely satisfying and definitely the highlight of the season so far. Even better is that they didn't score on us! 14-0. Here are the reasons that beating them was so incredibly satisfying:

1. They beat us first.
2. They have a coach who tells them all the plays to do. We have a QB who tells us.
3. They are really intense and not nice.
4. They play rough.
   
5. They are in Cami, Pris, Nicole and Melissa's ward and the ward supports them and not our team as they should.
6. The Princesses, in our pink tie-dye shirts, beat the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

It was a great night and I'm just nursing a slight injury from a collision with Lacy but life is grand. Now I just have to focus on getting through this last week and a half of school.

Thanksgiving

The menu for our Thanksgiving dinner was fabulous. This might be the first year that we have had just our family at our house for the meal, and because of that, it was a great family effort to get everything made. Here is what we had:

Turkey breasts-- we didn't want to have an entire turkey so we made two turkey breasts that were smothered in a sage, thyme, paprika, sugar mix.

Sweet Potatoes with Brown Sugar and Pecans-- this is my favorite dish and I got to make it this year.

Apple and Sausage Stuffing-- this is Cami's favorite

Mashed Potatoes

Garlic and Chile Seared Green Beans-- new recipe

Raspberry Jello Salad-- we can't be true Mormons without it (and it's my second favorite)

After dinner we went to see Australia at the theater. It's the new movie out with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. It was long but I really liked it. I like historical-ish movies and epics. (And I like good-looking men in a movie.) After the movie we came back home for pie. And it was delicious.

Lattice Top Apple Pie-- this was made by Cami and Emma

Banana Cream Pie-- our family favorite and was made by Rachel and my dad

Pumpkin Pie-- crust made by Cami, filling done by Rachel and Emma

Pumpkin Pecan Bread Pudding

The only thing our Thanksgiving was lacking was Jess. But she seemed to have had a fun day at the MTC. She'll be back for Thanksgiving 2010.

Weekend fun

I feel like Thanksgiving break already started and that I'm really from Salt Lake and that's why I commuted back and forth from there three times in three days. But I had a fabulous weekend and here is why:

Thursday-- Although not technically the weekend, I'm still counting it. I went to the Mason Jennings concert and it was really good. I was amazed at how good his voice sounded and luckily Mandi had staked out some good standing position about five rows back from the stage.

Friday-- I had a wonderful surprise of Erin calling me and telling me she was in Provo for the day. Yay! And I got talked into going up to Salt Lake for the night to see Twilight with her and her sister. And I wonder now if I should be embarrassed that I enjoyed the movie as much as I did. Maybe it's because cheezy things are so much more enjoyable when you see them with 17 year olds. I spent the night up there, stayed up too late but had some much needed chatting with Erin.

Saturday-- Slept till about 8 then borrowed a book out of a Barker closet and read for the majority of the morning until I figured I should go back down to Provo to actually be productive. I ended up finishing the book:

It was good but not nearly as good as my favorite Ella Enchanted. I got a phone call from my sisters who decided very last minute that they were going to go to the Coldplay concert at the Delta-- hm, 'scuse me, the Energy Solutions Arena that night. And I, despite my reason telling me not to, decided to go to. And it was completly worth it!

This is us sitting in our "nose-bleed" seats before it started. We're so excited!




This is a video of Fix You. The sound quality isn't very good when it gets loud and you can hear me and Emma "Whoo"-ing during it. But, it show's you where our seats were. And despite being really far up, I'd much rather be at the side closer to the stage than far away in the middle. (Maybe I'm just justifying though.)

Sunday-- not enough sleep and not enough time for a nap but I laughed for a really long time with my roommates and that was the best part of the day.

I now should get going on my work that I didn't do this weekend, but I'm going home in 11 hours and 20 minutes!

What the world needs always

I’ve decided there are a few little things that make my life and the world an all over more beautiful place. (In no particular order.)

Deodorant

High pressure flushing toilets

Mascara

Acne medication

Gchat

Pillows

Chocolate

Feather comforters

My MacBook

Comic Strips

Airplanes

Air conditioning and heat

Bananas

Music I can dance to

Domesticated animals

Hair products

Chicken nuggets and dipping sauces

Websites that rebroadcast TV shows

Razors

Nutella

So this is a pretty materialistic list. There are other things that could definitely be added, like friends (this would add a lot of subcategories, like, friends who I call when I’m lonely, friends who I can grocery shop with—either on the phone or in person, friends I can burp in front of, friends I can be a complete idiot with, friends I can cry to, friends that call me out of the blue and make my day, friends that comment on my blog—hint hint, friends who buy me presents, friends who make me really really happy, etc), or family (also multiple categories in there, like favorite cousins, or sisters I can go to concerts with, or sisters I can go to dumb teeny-bopper movies with, or parents who still provide financial aid when I act like I won’t need it ever again, or parents who leave messages about the latest People Magazine cover—well, obviously I only have one set of parents, so that doesn’t make sense, but you get it). But add to my list and we’ll have a great Thanksgiving inspired list of wonderful things together. And since Thanksgiving is less than a week away (I’m starting mine on Monday night around 8 when I fly home) I’ll be reflecting on the things I’m thankful for, no matter how shallow.

Surprises

I had a happy little surprise today when I figured out how to use the new backgrounds for gmail. Hooray! They make my email look so pretty! I have a green ocean one right now. I'll probably switch it tomorrow and try something new. Or maybe I'll do it right now... Changed it. It's now on Summer Ocean, but I really like the Beach one too. Hm. I can't decide which one I want. Well that's my good surprise of the day.

The bad surprise of the day was that I skipped my Maya class to go to the temple. (Haha, is that somehow bad? I don't know, I can't decide.) But to make it even more ironic is that I skipped class to go to the 3:00 pm session because that's what session Jess's MTC group goes. The surprise wasn't on her today and seeing my lovely face, the surprise was on me and that her district went early by about an hour and I missed her! Then in the dressing room I checked my phone to have a text from a friend who saw her there. I was so bummed.

I'm going to the Mason Jennings concert tonight. And I have a football game in 45 minutes and I don't want to play in it. Oh well. Tomorrow is Friday and next week is Thanksgiving! Hooray!

I wish...

I wish I had not procrastinated my homework.

I wish I had the thighs for skinny jeans.

I wish I always had good hair days.

I wish I had an unlimited clothing budget.

I wish I could focus.

I wish I didn’t rely so heavily on my computer.

I wish I had not double booked my Thursday night.

I wish I could get more sleep.

I wish I had a candy bar to munch on right now.

I wish I had a magic ball to show where I’d be in five years.

I wish I knew what to do with my life.

Parking

Dear Horrible Parker,

Why can't you park your car between the lines? I understand that the spots are tight at The Dev, but honestly, what gives you the right to take up two spaces? You car isn't that nice and it already has scratches all over it. It's not like it's worth it to take up two spaces to "preserve" it's pristine condition. No. It's a crappy college car.

Haven't you ever come home late at night and after searching the parking lot only to realize that there are no empty spaces and so you have to go park on the street around the corner? Don't you get angry when you can't park in your own parking lot because some idiot parked crooked or couldn't stay between the lines? Isn't it frustrating that if people just took the extra two minutes to park right, then most of us might get a place to park?

Well, I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you. Thank you for being that person for me tonight. Thank you for parking like an idiot so I have to walk in the dark and cold into my apartment after searching around for a spot to park in.

So next time you get out of your car and it looks like this:

you should remember this:

and get right back in your car and fix your crap-tastic parking job.

Hoping you can fix it before I have to take drastic measures,
Lauren

Good day.

Note: This was supposed to have been posted yesterday, but I forgot. So when it says last night, it's actually talking about Wednesday night, not Thursday night, even though I’m posting it today and the first paragraph says last night. But it wasn’t last night, because last night I forced myself to stay awake till 12:00 (Midnight) and headed on over to the new Cinemark Theaters by Costco and saw Quantum of Solace (the new James Bond movie). And then probably slept through the movie with my eyes open with an occasional "Oh!" or "Oh my gosh!" But the movie discussion is for another time.

Here’s the post I should have posted yesterday:

As I was about to turn off my light last night I heard my familiar "sister ring tone" because Cami was calling. I figured she was probably calling to analyze our flag football game that we had just lost. But when I answered the phone she said, "Lauren, I left my car on campus." How someone leaves their car on campus I'm not exactly sure, but I got dressed and met her outside to drive her to her car which was parked way over by the Law building. (Too far of a walk at midnight.) We had a good little talk in the car and when I got into bed last night I was in a really good mood. I didn't have any big exciting things happen to me during the day but a whole handful of little things that made my day great, and I went to bed happy.

1. There were donuts in the Life Sciences Dean's office. I got a chocolate one.

2. We had a really good lecture in Humanities about WWI and I just felt so sad about the events of the past. Ok, now why is that good? It got me thinking about All Quiet on the Western Front, one of my favorite books I read in high school, and then I started thinking about other books that changed the way I think.

3. I finished my paper. Only two days late this time. It was three days late last month.

4. I took a giant step towards adulthood and applied for graduation!

5. Bought pretty blue handmade paper for bookbinding and was very glad it had stopped raining because there was no way that big role of it was going to stay dry. (Tender mercy? Yes. Yes it was.)

6. Ran into Emily Dreschler who I haven't seen since last year sometime. And it was like no time had passed. I love her.

7. Ran into Elizabeth, my friend from Stained Glass, who got her mission call. (Romania)

8. Went to bookbinding.

9. Left bookbinding early so I could play in our flag football game. We lost. How does that make the good things list? Well, I now won’t worry about winning so much. We can go back to having fun.

10. I went to dance practice. I was feeling completely uncoordinated because I was having a hard time learning the dance. I felt stupid because after taking dance the majority of my life, I couldn’t follow some simple moves. But by the end of practice I was feeling fairly confident and knew that would change and get better with a few more strategic practices.

11. I curled up in bed with my laptop and watched FNL. If you haven’t seen it yet, WATCH IT! I love love love love it! I can hardly go a day without watching it and don’t know what’s going to happen when I get all caught up and have to wait weeks in between to watch the latest episode.

12. Drove Cami to her car. It was so funny that there was no way I could get mad at her.

See, nothing big, but it was just a great day.

Lonely Laundry

My clothes feel neglected. At least that's the way I always think when I haven't worn something for a while. And inzd these last couple weeks old clothes have been able to get a little use and not feel quite so neglected. Why in just these last couple weeks you wonder? Well, our dryer was broken and I didn't want to do my laundry if I couldn't dry my clothes. The only washing that got done was underwear, and I may have used my blowdryer to dry them. But on Monday it was fixed. As I pulled my fresh, white lilac smelling clothes out of the dryer last night, they were soft, dry and sweet smelling and I was happy. As I folded them I rediscovered clothes I forgot I had! They must have felt sad to have been in my hamper for so long. And now they are happy because they can be worn again. I love doing good deeds, even if it is for my inanimate possessions.

(And now my blog feels happy again for having neglected it for almost a week.)

The Ladies' Room

The Women's restrooms in the library are fantastic. With the arrangement of chairs, couches, and utility vanity I don't know why anyone would want to leave them! I walked into the restroom on the 5th floor of the Harold B. Lee library today and saw one girl sleeping on the couch (her coat was over her head), one girl was eating lunch on a chair, and another was doing her hair. Yes, she was actually straightening her hair. Even the mere fact that she brought her straightener to school cracked me up. All the bathrooms need now are vending machines and maybe an actual bath or shower and we would never even have to leave the library. Actually I think I could live in the library like Claudia in the Metropolitan in From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Although the Met would be so much more exciting and glamorous. Actually come to think of it, I'm pretty sure people do live in the library here, they just leave periodically to go sleep in a bed somewhere south of campus. But next time I'm running late, all I need to do is grab my blowdryer, make up and a pillow and head on up to the 5th, and I'll be set for the day.

Thoughts

I wish that with a title like thoughts that I would have something profound to write. I don’t. My knee hurts. I banged it on the wall last night before I went to sleep and then I banged it again in the middle of the night. It’s not swollen, but it’s sore and it’s a deep hurt, one that I’m not sure is going to bruise. I feel so accident prone. I slept with my computer, notebook, and textbooks in my bed last night so that when my alarm went off at 5:30, so I could study for my test, I could press snooze a few times, and the reminder of the books in bed with me would force me to get up. It didn’t happen. I got up at 7:00 and needed to work by 8:00. So needless to say, I didn’t get anything done. I love having my own room, but the number one problem of that right now is that I can’t get up in the morning! I don’t have to worry about waking or annoying anyone with my incessant snooze pushing. (Number two would be that I can’t keep it clean and I can just close the door when it gets too messy.) I thought I could get up this morning but it didn’t happen. I also end up reading late in bed without worrying about annoying a roommate who thinks it’s weird I’m reading for fun when I am swamped with a million other things to do. I’m trying to work on my motivation but it’s just not working. I have two tests, a term paper and another paper all due within the next five days.

In a different frame of thought, I think I’ve discovered the perfect man. Well, probably not perfect but it sounds so romantic to me right now to have a mix of Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) and Gilbert Blythe (Jonathan Crombie).

Gilbert's always been my literary crush, he has a mix of humor, sarcasm, smart and persistence that I love. And I think that Jonathan Crombie is perfect for the movie. And lately I just love Jim. I love Jim. It's true, I l.o.v.e. Jim. I know the characters are both fictional, so I think their writers are good at making wonderfully lovable characters and maybe I'll find my own Jimbert someday.

I just don't get it

Why? Why do I do dumb things? I don’t know, maybe because I don’t want to or maybe I’m just lazy. I put off things or don’t do things when I should. Well, yesterday it cost me $12. Well, it doesn’t seem like that much, but when your bank account is ridin’ low it is essential to hold onto that cash. Instead of paying $0.42 to send my ballot, I had to overnight it to Oregon so that it could get there before 8pm and be counted. Why? Why didn’t I just fill out that ballot and connect my arrows earlier? I was excited to vote. I even put up a picture of me with my ballot. I got it weeks ago. Now I’m out $12 and I’m still not sure who I want to win despite voting, and if he does win, am I going to actually be excited about it? I don’t know. What I do know is this: click here. And that is all worth the voting. Mmmmm.

November November November

Since I like procrastinating and my usual procrastination outlet is updating my blog, I’m going to post pictures from my fabulous last Halloween in Provo (and hopefully Utah County). Ok, maybe not the most fabulous, but Cath was definitely the highlight and having her there to match my shock and amusement at the lack of pants and shirts and boob coverage at the Alpine Village dance party was worth every bit of the extreme heat I felt by being fully dressed as a nerd:

Now onto November inspired things. I have finally found my lot in life. I am a bridal shower game wiz! Last June I went to a shower and won the game that included matching up the names of famous couples to each other. Yes, I totally knew that Victoria and David (Posh and Becks) went together, as well as Cupid and Psyche, Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam, George and Laura, and Victoria and Albert. (There were tons more but I can’t remember them all. But I matched them all up.) Then, tonight at the shower I went to, I wrote the fastest to name the most temples in two minutes. (31. I'd write down my list but since it is so extensive you'd get bored and go find something more interesting to occupy your time.) Ok, now after much contemplation, maybe my nerd costume of the night was appropriate. I'm congratulating myself for knowing famous lovers and naming the most temples in two minutes. Geez, I need to get a life!

Well, I've officially closed this procrastination session. Now all I need to do is add a paper to that thesis statement that took me all afternoon to write and my day will be complete.

Quirks and Pet Peeves

"But it's Halloween! Shouldn't you be posting about what you're going to be and what you're going to do tonight for your last (hopefully, oh gosh hopefully) Halloween in Provo?" you say.

Well, I say, it's Halloween 4:00ish and I still don't know what I'm going to be dang it! I'll probably be something lame and be angry when FB pics get posted. Embarrassing! Remove tag. Remove tag. Remove tag.

But since Cath tagged me days, weeks, months (it was a while ago, trust me) ago, I decided to gather up some of my quirks and pet peeves that I am not ashamed of and which won't (hopefully) come back to haunt me in the future. (See this is a scary Halloween post! Here, I'll even post a scary picture:

Vampire, Edvard Munch
Ok, I think it's scary-ish.)

Now, onto my fabulous post about me and the weirdness that is me:
1. Mmmm. Leaves! I love stepping on crunch leaves. I zig-zag all over the ramp up to campus to get the most crunchy ones. (And I think I found them, but I won't tell you where otherwise they'll all be gone when I go to walk to school on Monday.) Crunchy leaves give a sense of satisfaction, like poking a bubble, or popping bubble wrap, squeezing a pimple or draining a blister. (Liz, you know what I’m talking about! Sorry Erin.) I just love stepping on leaves. It’s totally worth stepping on every leaf just to get the surprise crunch of a really good one.
2. I sometimes feel that if I can’t do something perfect I shouldn’t do it at all. It seems to be the pattern of my life. I very highly debated dropping Bookbinding a few nights ago because I just wasn’t getting my book done but after talking to the teacher and really wanting to stay in the class, I’m turning over a new leaf (a crunchy one) and I’m going to force myself to stick with it.
3. Keep it simple. I can’t stand it when people use big words just to sound smarter. Just use words that everyone understands please! Then no one (me) feels inadequate when you use a big word that they (I) don’t understand. The same goes for acronyms!
4. Eyebrows. I notice eyebrows. My eyebrows are far from perfect but I always notice who has skinny ones; who has unplucked ones; who has a great arch; who has no arch; who has a unibrow; who has full ones etc. But don’t worry, I will never say anything to you about your brows unless you ask me to pluck them, and I’m really good at that too.
5. Shifting. I like shifting gears. And I always have to be driving fast. It seems that even if I’ve all the time in the world I will still be passing all other drivers. I think I like to drive in fourth gear because I get to shift three times before cruising. I also think I like the feel of acceleration.
6. My two favorite things to eat are cookie dough and ice cream. I have to avoid them at all costs because I will eat them and only them if that’s what is around.
7. It has already been established that I like the strange people on campus, but I find myself laughing out loud, walking with a big smile on my face or looking for someone to share in the situation with. I then end up talking to some random person about something funny I just saw. It’s never fully appreciated but since I shared the experience I then remember it and can share it with someone who will fully appreciate it later.
8. As much as I share it is a little known fact that I am pretty private. Ok you don’t believe me. That’s probably because once I share a “secret” once, it’s almost as I’ve given myself permission to tell everyone! It’s a bad habit, and I’m trying to break it. (Not working I’m afraid.)
9. I brush my teeth in the shower so I don’t forget. It’s not so bad once you get used to the hot water.
10. I love cooking but I never do it. It’s one of my goals for the month of November. I got a new cookbook and I will be making at least one dish a week. I’ll keep you posted on what I make. (This is a goal I’m really trying to keep.)

Ok! Have a safe and happy Halloween weekend! Love you! (And leave me comments! I love them.)

Missing

I missed Jess today. That's all.

Jess

Jess, me and Ellie

Jess and Me at lunch.

At the Portland Temple

Jess went into the MTC this week. She is going to be a wonderful missionary. Cami, Emma, Grandma, Grandpa and I went to Eugene last weekend to go to Jess's farewell talk and to have some time with her before she left for the Singapore, Indonesian speaking mission that she was called to. I think I just want to say a few things about how much I admire Jess. I don't think I could have gone on a mission at 22, with a serious boyfriend, and one semester left of school. I feel like I did it the easy way. I wanted to go, I had nothing to hold me back from going, and so I went! Jess had everything to hold her back, and she didn't want to go when she was officially eligible to go. But she is going to be great. I thought I'd share my highlights from her farewell talk:

• Mosiah 29:3-- the sons of Mosiah want to serve missions and have been completely forgiven for their past. She elaborated saying how merciful Heavenly Father is for letting imperfect beings proclaim His perfect message.
• Come What May, and Love It-- she'll be doing this a lot on her mission and has been doing that ever since she decided she was going to serve.
• She was called to serve, and she has not doubted that those impressions to serve were from the Lord.

Jess was poised and collected as she spoke, but she was also heartfelt and emotional. She had the perfect combination for her talk.

We picked her up from the airport in Salt Lake on Wednesday and drove down to the MTC stopping at Guru's for dinner since she was going to miss it at the MTC. We waited for her companion, Sister McCurdy, to meet her at the front desk but she must not have heard the page. Around 6:15 the MTC worker took Jess to her orientation and we said bye. There really wasn't a lot of tears. Jess looked good walking away and I was really excited for her to start her mission. Here are some more pictures:

At the airport. I don't know what the face I'm making is...

Kissing Jess outside the MTC.


Jess, having just been missionary-ified.


Waiting for Sister McCurdy, Jess's MTC companion.


Saying goodbye.


Jess being taken off to her orientation by an MTC worker. (Sister McCurdy never showed...)

Fixed

Intruder!

I woke up this morning and this:

is what I saw! Someone must have come into my room while I was sleeping and thrown everything about! I'm now attempting to clean up the chaos this said intruder caused.

I love Eugene 2

I couldn't resist putting up another video. This one is so quintessential Eugene. We're at the market, she's hippie dancing, she's got wings on her ears (although they do look like elf attachments from far away), and I think she was a vendor that just had to get out and move. She made us so happy. Pictures of my cute missionary sister to come! And she really is so cute.

I love Eugene

I'm in the process of writing a post dedicated to Jess, whom we took to the MTC yesterday (Singapore, Indonesian speaking mission), but until I actually finish the post I'd post this little gem from the Eugene Saturday Market.

The star of this clip was seen congratulating me for my sweet Saturday Market inspired moves (which unfortunately for you probably won't be posted) saying something to me about how there is an inner dancer in all of us and that he's so happy I let mine get out. Little does he know...

I love my family

We came home from breakfast at the Barnes this morning and played with Photo Booth for a little while. Maybe not the most flattering of pictures, but these we had fun and these are our favorites. (Cami and Emma were MIA and probably hanging out with Kate or recording music in the other room.)

I'm voting!

I got my ballot yesterday! Hooray! I'm going to be real live voter for the first time ever! (Sad but true, last presidential election I didn't get an absentee ballot soon enough and was in Vienna for the election.)

All before lunch

I sit in the back of my office and hear people getting candy out of the bowl. It makes me laugh because they try not to get caught. Today we have Reese’s Pieces.

I got catcalled walking to school for the first time ever. I must look good today. Ok, not really. But I did get a, “Lauren get out of the road!” by two guys in a red Mini Cooper when I walked across the street south of campus by Brick Oven. I have no idea who was in the car but they obviously knew who I was. Dang. And, there wasn’t even the slightest sound of a whistle or wolf howl. Dang again.

Some guy was letting his baby crawl all over the floor and stairs in the MARB. All I could think of were the hands of that baby going into his mouth. Does that dad know how many people walk those stairs every single day?

I walked to the front of the office today to get some paper work and saw some guy standing outside in the hall waiting for the elevator. I said, “Hey, do I know you?” He said, “Yeah” and then “Elder Reid?” came out of my mouth. What are the odds of running into someone you haven’t seen for over two years at your little measly place of employment?

Hooray for procrastination!

Good news, good news, I finally have a thesis for my paper! So in celebration I'm writing about my fabulous weekend. (This coming weekend is going to be equally great because I'm going home to Oregon!)

Miss Amy came to visit from DC--she's the one who would have told me about my fly had she been paying more attention to me like she should-- and we had a wonderful wonderful time. I spent all Saturday morning preparing for her coming by cleaning and organizing my room while watching past episodes of House on Fox.com and avoiding doing the pressing homework for Monday which I knew wasn't going to get done anyway because as soon as she got into Provo it was going to be an Amy filled day and night so I was just being helpful so that when she did get here I would be ready to give her all the attention she deserved instead of waiting for me to do my homework. I'm so thoughtful. So she got here and we went to the bookstore and got matching BYU sweatshirts. (Ok, they aren't matching exactly, but pretty dang close.)

That's us sportin' our sweet Cougar gear, eatin' our blue bunned J-Dawgs (which were only $1).

When we got to the game we decided to watch the team run by us. Amy was mostly excited to see Mr. Fui Vakapuna because he incidentally told her she was cute (twice) while she was skipping class once last year. (She doesn't even remember what was happening that day in class, or what class it was for that matter, but, who cares? She has her diploma, and a real life grown up person's job.) But her memory of Fui will go on and on.

This is us waiting for Fui with Brybry. He was really excited, but I couldn't tell if it was the awesome company or the fact that he was back at BYU, back in Cougar Stadium living the Provo Dream. (Or maybe he just really really likes football. It's the football definitely.)

That's him! That's Fui Vakapuna! #1! He's #1! He's #1! And, he almost touched her hand! Just a few more inches, and you and Fui would have meshed skin cells together Amy. (If that even works! Meh, I have no idea. Bio 100 was not my strong suit, but let me tell you about Edgar Allan Poe...) You should have put it out there a little farther Amy!

Here is another good picture of our sweet matching Cougar Gear. I have my excited face on.

By the end of the game it was freezing. Amy had conveniently invited her young and innocent cousin Michael to sit with us and then used him for his deliciously warm blanket! I have my hood on. It was warmer that way. Lindsay J was roughin' it in just a puffy vest but she does look more stylin' than me in my hunter's jacket. Lindsay S is looking warm and comfortable in her hat and puffy coat. Michael although looks happy is just wanting his blanket back.

Unfortunately there is no photo documentation of the rest of the night but it included a Cafe Rio trip and a wild game of Catch Phrase. Adam and Eve-- Gethsemane, Sacred Grove! Junk yard dog! Basement! Beyonce!

Love you Amy! Thanks for making my weekend! And now I'm going to go back to writing that paper. Three pages minimum. I think I can, I think I can.