Belated Pics from Roommate Christmas

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.

Happy New Year!

We Make a Pair of Parentheses

Here's the song...

(...with a crappy music video...it's what I found. Just appreciate the musical talent of The Blow.)

Here's the interpretation...

Reason #3,792 I love my family.

Family.

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!

Fin.

Traditional end of finals portrait:

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!

Halfway and My Love for Trees

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.

Little baby, Giant cookie

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.

Time to go read some more articles. Happy finals!

The Last Monday

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!