The Saturday after finals ended we celebrated roommate Christmas. We drew names to buy each other gifts and had a big pancake breakfast. Here are a few pics of the scene, minus the roomies. Girls who just woke up don't like to be photographed. Love these girls.
My sweet grandma passed away on December 18, 2011 just before 3:00 pm with her family gathered all around her. She was 92 years old and had lived a long, healthy, happy life, but it was definitely her time to go and meet my grandpa. There were plenty of tears, but over all this has been an extremely happy and peaceful passing. I know it is because we all know in our hearts that her departure from this life is not really goodbye. She is finally happy and free from pain, all her questions answered at last, and we will all be together again. I don't know if I've ever had a stronger testimony of the plan of salvation than I have had born witness to me at this time. Death is not a sad thing - it is a happy thing. We will always miss those we love, but we are so glad that they are in a better place that sadness cannot prevail. It is a beautiful thing, and one of the many reasons I can testify this gospel is true.
Grandkids and great-grandkids at Grandma's 92 birthday party, June 26, 2011.
One of the many blessings to have come out of this weekend is the opportunity I have had to watch my family come together from all corners of the country to be a part of this moment and to say goodbye. Everyone is kind, loving, patient, and willing to help one another. For this moment there will be no squabbles or thoughtless words. Just the honest love we have always have for each other, but sometimes don't show. I can't even remember the last time I got to see my mom together with all her siblings. It reminds me of when I get to be with all my siblings - I guess we're not so crazy after all!
Uncle Ken (Mom's twin), Mom, Uncle Bob (missing Aunt Jean). Note that the boys accidentally wore the same thing...they couldn't let it go all day. Neither could we.
My grandma was one of the sweetest, silliest, most stubborn, most opinionated, most loving, most devoted individuals I have known. I will always be grateful for the memories (sleepovers, iced oatmeal cookies, babysitting when Emily was born, driving the tuna boat, closing her eyes when she didn't want to listen because she'd already decided she was right, waving her hands, telling me to drive safely...) and lessons she gave (always dress nicely, her testimony of the gospel, the importance of tithing...). We love you and miss you grandma. Thank you for blessing our lives!
Compare that to the first day of school picture found here and please evaluate what the semester has done to me. Don't worry. I'll recuperate over Christmas. Eep! Christmas!
Today marks my official halfway mark for finals - I'll finish them up tomorrow night. Though, technically, I consider myself more than halfway because all the hard ones are done. All I have left is an art project, a German translation, and a religion test. Ace.
As promised, here is a crappy picture of our apartment tree. I fully intended to take a really nice picture of the tree with my really nice camera, then decided to settle for my semi-nice camera, then felt especially lazy and really wanted to get this post taken care of...so here's a cell phone picture. If necessary, just have faith that it's beautiful. And call me ridiculous, but I truly believe it has made a difference in all of our countenances. Ooooh that sounds cliche. But really. The tree...makes the apartment feel a little more homey, a little more friendly, a little more cozy, a little more hopeful. And watching the tree twinkle late at night is a welcome rest for study weary eyes. I'm not sure any of us will be willing to take it down after we come back from the break.
Also, the fam and I went on our annual adventure to pick out a REAL tree for the homefront. Delightful. As always. Every year it gets a little easier to find the perfect one. So it's really not as daunting of a task as it once was. But still fun. Always. While a tree hunting, we found a special friend and could not resist begging him to take a picture with us. It's nice to know that Mater was towing his own Christmas tree to partake of the Christmas spirit. I laughed. Internally and externally. Don't judge.
One last thing before I end this anticlimactic post. Here's a shout out to friends in unlikely places. I have become very good friends with some interesting people this past year - people I never expected to have lasting relationships with. That sounds bad. What I mean is I'm grateful to have met these people, and for the chances and coincidences that have allowed us to be really great friends where we might not have under slightly different circumstances. These people bless my life. Daily. Just said goodbye to one such friend today. But the really great thing is that it wasn't really goodbye - even though our friendship sort of came out of nowhere, it has meant enough to both of us that we will stay in touch regardless of the differences in our locations. True friends come in strange shapes, sizes and circumstances. Thank goodness for the true friends - wherever they may be - who make life worth smiling about.
One of the full-time guys at work has been out all week because his wife recently gave birth to their seventh child. She was released from the hospital today and on the way home they swung by the shop to show off new baby Gideon - so sweet! They hope to have one more child for a total of eight kids. That being the case, I had to have my picture taken with the little guy, for I am also number seven out of eight. Twinners! Sort of...
Their oldest is the same age my oldest sister would have been when I was born and I can't help but watch their family run around the new baby and wonder if my older siblings were as excited when I was born. It's sort of fun to see a little of what my family might have been like before I can remember observing them on my own. I also couldn't help but laugh about their nonchalance about the seventh child - in and out of the hospital, down to a science. Most first-time parents stress the hand sanitizer and baby beanies. They walked in and handed the baby off to each of us, no questions asked. So great.
Also, I'm going to take the time to brag. Just a little. I've been getting some tests and papers returned over the last couple of days (today was the last day of class!!!) and let's just say, I've been more than a little pleased and surprised with the results. After a particularly satisfying ACE of a score on a certain paper, a friend and I went to celebrate with a cazookie at The Chocolate. Fan. Tas. Tic.
I like days where no matter how many things go wrong, it never actually gets to me. I was running late all day long, I did not make it in to work like I planned, and my last photo assignment was *shudder* pretty rough. Also, someone ate all of my wheat tortillas that I bought for a super stellar deal that will never occur again and therefore I shall never own wheat tortillas again. (I know someone ate them...because I didn't and I took everything out of that fridge and put it back in.) But I don't care! Maybe I was cheery because of this fun greeting I found on my dirty car this morning:
Or maybe it's just because this is the last Monday of classes of the semester.
Coming soon: The apartment Christmas tree. We love it sooo much!
I don't know what it is about them. But I LOVE them. They make me feel happy and hopeful and bubbly and warm and fuzzy and they make me feel like a kid again. I LOVE LIGHTS! I still love the annual family lighting ceremony we have every year when Dad puts the lights up: "Ooooh, aaaaw, ohhhh!" (It's tradition.) And I'm sorry for those of you who have problems with things like this...but I am a pre-Thanksgiving Christmas celebrator. I say that December just isn't long enough to fully enjoy all the delightful things Christmas has to offer. Like LIGHTS. Or music. I mean really, the music from "Charlie Brown Christmas" always puts me in a blissful trance. Guess what I'm listening to right now?!
**Disclaimer - I swear I'm not the type of person who skips Thanksgiving either. I believe in celebrating Christmas without dismissing Thanksgiving. It's really the precursor to the whole holiday season. And I love it all. It's a time of year, not two distinct holidays.
SO! As I was leaving my last class on Monday before my Thanksgiving break, you can imagine how tickled I was to discover that adding to my initial joy of starting the break, there were CHRISTMAS LIGHTS on CAMPUS. I feel creepy stopping to take pictures on campus sometimes, so this is the only picture you get. How delightful is that?!
Now let's back up a little bit. The roomies and I had a lighting ceremony of our own on Sunday. We invited some friends, cranked up the Christmas music, make some hot chocolate, and dressed up in colorful hats, gloves, and scarves, and decorated the front room with lights. I was dancing around to "Jingle Bell Rock" while someone untangled lights, someone eye-balled, and someone tacked. It was truly a fantastic little get-together. And when it was all finished, we turned out all the lights and sat back to enjoy our handiwork:
Personally, I love the juxtaposition of the Thanksgiving pumpkins that remain in the window along with the lights and ornaments hanging above. Who said the holidays can't go together?! Across the entertainment center is a garland with lights and over the couch is our gift-wrapped painting. It's a nice touch. After Thanksgiving we'll put up the Christmas tree!!!
And since I'm spending so much time talking about Christmas lights, please enjoy this song by Coldplay entitled "Christmas Lights." (Oh, the irony.) I'm not sure why I love it...it's catchy. But upon listening more closely to the lyrics, it's a little depressing...and the members of Coldplay are sort of creepy. But it fits with the theme. So there.
Ran an errand at the craft store the other day with Em and found her name near the top of the naughty list. We laughed. Really hard. The cashier who served me was named Cinda.
Sometimes life is like getting stuck in a box that your co-worker dared you to try to fit into. Part of it is funny, part of it is scary, part of it is frustrating, part of it is painful, and part of it makes you want to die of laughter. Sometimes you ask yourself why you did it, sometimes you need a sharp object to get out, and sometimes you are late to things because of it. But in the end, it always makes for a good story.
PS - Happy REAL 100th post. Turns out that last count was lying to me. Such is life. ;)
Call it silly, but I like to pick one pen when school starts, use it for everything I do, and see how far I get until it dies. It's sort of a monumental thing when the pen finally goes. And trust me, the pens are never special in any other way. For example, this particular pen (which I LOVED) I accidentally stole from the lady who brought me my apartment contract to sign. (Last year it was a UTA pen I got for free from some on-campuse booth.) On November 9, 2011 at approximately 4:28 pm, it finally gave out. It was a sad moment. RIP.
Yesterday was exciting beyond the death of my pen. I was sitting in my studio techniques class waiting anxiously for it to be late enough to warrant leaving...when the fire alarm went off. Two shows, two concerts, and at least a dozen classes in session, and they evacuated the entire HFAC. I watched the firetrucks pull up as I made my way to my car. Turns out one of the opening productions used some fancy light that legally requires a fire marshall on hand to turn off the alarm when it gets set off. Made my night. Almost as much as the awesome site I happened upon on my way home:
Most epic toilet papering ever? Check. Turns out they were filming some youtube video. I don't really care about all that jazz, the fact is that the effect of the 1000 rolls of toilet paper in the dark with strategically placed lighting was strangely magical. Don't believe me? I've got about a hundred more pictures you can go through.
- Most of the motorcycles parked at BYU belong to unattractive guys.
- Some girls wear really, really tight pants. Or jeggings. And it's not fun to walk behind them.
- Walking to campus hurts when your toe is bleeding.
- I can pretty much describe any day I have with a food analogy.
- Studying is super boring.
- Sometimes Christmas music is all you need to get going in the morning.
So...I'm going through these grumpy, angsty and really light-hearted phases. Back and forth. Hating school. Being fine with it. It's definitely related to stress. For example, super cranky and disagreeable when I left this morning. Took a test. Feeling much better. Bracing myself for more bad attitude because I KNOW I need to get researching for my paper that's due...oops...next week. Sigh. I'm allowed a little break to reward myself for the good job I did on my test, right?
You know, I thought this post out as I was walking the long walk to my car with my painful toe and in my head it was really creative and fun and full of actually interesting facts about what's going on in my life right now. Typed out...it really sucks. So here's a picture of a snow shovel lying in the middle of the intersection by the Marriott Center.
Okay. So it wasn't quite the MIDDLE of the intersection...enjoy all the same.
You know those days where you wake up at quarter to five and for about ten minutes you are wide awake and panicking because you realize all the things that you have to do that you haven't done and you should go in to work but you probably won't make it because these things are high priority because let's face it you have a test tomorrow and a paper due next week and you definitely forgot to do that silly photography assignment that you really should have just done last Saturday and what the hey did you do with your Saturday anyway you slacker?
Sigh...I've suddenly gotten very, very, very stressed about school. And for the first time, it's stress enough to make me want to just cry.
I should be doing the copious amounts of homework I've put off AGAIN, but instead I'm getting sentimental over this song. I just love it. Really. I do. Enjoy it. Just remember, I loved it first.
In more exciting news, I went and bought a German Book of Mormon today, or, "Das Buch Mormon." I feel like it needs an exclamation point..."Das Buch Mormon!" And you have to say it with a really bad, heavy, rough German accent. Spit a little. That's not the point of this story. The point is, as I flipped through "Das Buch Mormon!" I was surprised by how much I could read! (That really does deserve an exclamation point.) Just off the top of my head! Gee willikins, Dr. Kelling, I really am learning something in your class! Speaking of German, that's exactly the homework I'm putting off. That and photography. Do you know how hard it is to take an abstract photograph?!
And here's my plug for the delicious Shirley's Bakery. All their pastries were 30% off today. I bought far too many. Sooooo worth the stomachache I'm going to have.
And here's a plug for the Indian Palace on Center Street in Provo. I was introduced to Indian cuisine last night and I finally know what I've been missing in life. It was that good. And according to this friend of mine, who is a self-proclaimed connoisseur of Indian cuisine in Provo, the Indian Palace is the place to go. But don't take my word for it. ;) PLEASE, SOMEBODY PICK UP ON THAT REFERENCE!
Ach! German. Peace out.
EEP!!! That was my 100th post! Here is an anticlimactic exclamatory celebration!!!
Oh hey friends. Digging the new blogger format. Wonder how long I've been missing out on this excitement. Guess I should pay more attention to life.
In other news, here's the fresco I made in art class tonight. And in case you couldn't tell, it's supposed to be Monet's "Impression of a Sunrise." Fresco = A lot of work, and a lot of fun.
I don't care what anyone says, I will never get over the excitement of carving a pumpkin. And I will always spend way more time than I should making a creative idea look really rough. This year the roomies and I invited a couple ward friends for pumpkin carving, caramel apples, pumpkin cookies, and games. Mucho fun.
And this is a project I had to do for my History of Photography class today. I thought it was sort of cool. So I'm posting it. Go self-timers.
