Finished

I just thought I'd take a minute and give a quick update.

These past two weeks have been out of control. I was so busy everyday it seemed! Last week was papers galore, this week was tests. Plus, right on que, I came down with a cold. So I've been tired, stressed and sick. Finally, I feel the burden of almost all of that off my chest. I am just glad to put this semester behind me.

Monday Kara and I got a HUGE pizza from this pizza place up the road called Nina's Original New York Pizza. We often go in and just get a huge slice. This time we got the whole pizza, the big apple size. We took some pics and maybe I can get those from Kara and post some. We are talking probably a two foot in diameter pizza. It was delicious, and super filling.

Tonight, Jeremy and I went out to dinner at this place called Goodwood Barbecue, I think. It was fun! It was nice after two weeks of chaos to just let loose and unwind. The food was good, the atmosphere nice. For desert we got this raspberry, blackberry, huckleberry cobbler with french vanilla ice cream. We were so full, but it was so delicious. I had a really good time with Jeremy tonight, I am excited to see him after the holiday. He js just a great guy who treats me so well and tries his best to take care of me, if I let him. He is always very complimentary, too. Today he told me he liked the sweater I was wearing and that I looked good in it.

There is so much more I could write, but I must get to bed, I am headed home bright and early in the morning. Actually, it'll probably still be dark. It is snowing here, but I hope that the roads won't be too bad. I am excited to get home and finally enjoy what is left of the holiday season, to see family, friends, and to have a much needed break from school.

In case I don't post again til then, Merry Christmas! I can't believe it is only a few days away!

Uh, snow

I read yesterday that there was a heavy snow warning for SLC/Provo, from 6pm yesterday to 6pm today, with a possibility of 5-12 inches of snow. It just rained all day yesterday and this morning there was only a dusting of snow. Feeling in the holiday spirit I decided to venture out and about and do some holiday shopping. An hour later, as I was checking out of Wal-Mart I began to see people coming in with literally a half an inch of snow on their bodies. I looked outside and it was basically a white out.

I don't have snow tires and this is a bigger city and it is a Saturday only a couple weeks until Christmas, in other words there was a ton of traffic. I had to pray that I could make it home and make it home unscathed. Well I did, but I took some pictures, too. I wish you could really tell how bad it is snowing. Anyway, it is quite cozy and Christmasy feeling, I finally put up my little fake Christmas tree, so I gutess it can stay for a little while, but things best be clear in two weeks when I am coming home......

It's the most stressful time of the year!

Let me first preface this by stating that because I am writing this instead of reading George Orwell's "1984" I feel like the biggest slacker. I stayed up until 3:30am writing the last ten page portion of a term paper and have run out of stamina.

Things have been quite busy in my little life and they are only going to get worse over the next two weeks as I battle papers, readings, reviews and exams in order to make it home for the holidays. My last final is a three hour history final on the 20th from 2:30-5:30pm, I am contemplating driving home after that, putting me in the valley around 1am or leaving early the next morning, it all kind of depends on the weather.

Anyway....

Monday night I ended up going to Jeremy's FHE because they were going to SLC to see the Christmas lights on Temple Square. We watched the Joseph Smith movie as well. I was grateful for the reminder of the freedoms and blessings I enjoy, and the legacy of faith that has been bestowed upon me because of the courage of the early Saints. They were forced from place to place, persectuted, threatened, homes and possesions burned or destroyed, an extermination order placed on every Mormon, killed, and yet so many endured because they had such strong testimonies. I often wonder if I could endure such trials with the same patience and strength.

After the movie Jeremy and I walked around the Square. It was beautiful. I had two favorite parts. First was the reflection pool with the candles floating on top and the temple reflecting on the surface, and second were paper lanterns with all sorts of designs. I really enjoyed myself and thought it was good way to cultivate the spirit of Christmas.

Tuesday I was quite productive. It is my longest day of classes and labs. I attended them all, thank you. I also did laundry, cleaned, dusted and vacummed my room, as well as did homework.

Wednesday I reverted back to my slacker ways. I had plenty of hours I could have been writing my paper, but just couldn't bring myself to do it. That evening I went with Kara, her sister Kami and Kami's friend Stephanie to a musical type show called "The Forgotten Carols" in Salt Lake City. It was really good. It had moments of corniness, but the songs were beautiful, and in the end, Michael Mclean, the star and writer, brought us back to the reason for the season, the birth of our Savior. By the end I was teary eyed and contemplative. We didn't get back until 11pm, I had some things I had to get out of the way before embarking on my paper, but finally got going on it by 12am.

Tonight is the ward Talent Show/Semester Closing Social. It is being catered by Cafe Rio, a restaurant I haven't been to, but one that has a good reputation because everyone is excited to go just for the food.

I have a date Friday night with a guy from the ward, Jared something. We are going to a comedy show with a group, should be casual and fun, a nice break from the stresses of the end of the term.

Other than that my weekend will be full of reading and writing, luckily no arithmetic. Next week will be worse than actual finals. Within three days I have two exams, a vocab exam, a huge term paper, two books to have read, and a reading journal for history readings I haven't done since midterms, yikes! Pray for me! Send me good luck charms! Whatever! Hope you all are enjoying the holiday season, I am finding it hard to fully do so with all the stuff weighing down on me. I can't wait til it's over.....Two weeks from today, baby! Happy December!

And so December begins...

This week has been Jeremy dominated.

Monday, his FHE was canceled so I tagged along to mine. We combined with another group for an Iron Chef Desert competition. It was fun, and tastey. Afterwards, he and I were supposed to study but we ended up chatting and we had a really good conversation in which I was able to be honest and open with him. I finally kicked him out around 11:30pm.

He called me Tuesday night and I was excited to see him again.

Wednesday I asked him to tag along with me out to Old Navy because I had heard about a sale and just wanted to take a peak. He bought me dinner at Pita Pit (so good for a pita!) and then we walked around Old Navy. It was fine, but I left him around 9, and a little burnt out. I hadn't had the best day anyway, so I think part of it was my mood.

Thursday morning at 8:48am I got a text message from Jeremy telling me to look at my doorstep. I rolled myself out of bed (I was trying to sleep in, I've been sooo tired lately), in my short shorts, old purple Jazz tee, and eye mask pushed to my forehead stepped out on my stoop and found two king size symphony chocolate bars and a card telling me that they were to help me stay awake (I'm always telling him how tired I am). I set them on my desk and just went back to my bed ;-).

Friday Jeremy picked me up around 6:30 and we went to eat Chinese, then we went to this stand up comedy/variety show that these groups on campus were putting on to get canned food for the community. Afterward we ended up at this apartment just talking, he played me some songs on his guitar, too. He was supposed to be going up to Salt Lake that night because his Mom is in town from Virginia, visiting his sisters who have recently had babies. Because of poor road conditions he ended up staying here in Provo. On our Friday date he mentioned to me that he had a Christmasy surprise for me on Saturday.

So today, Saturday, he picked me up at 1:30 and we went to "Christmas Around the World," which is a performance of music and dance from different countries. It was sooo good! My favorite was the Irish stuff and the early U.S. stuff. But all of it was fun to watch and hear. I was really excited that he surprised me with that because I had wanted to go to it but had never gotten around to buying a ticket or anything. It was a good way to kick of December, and it snowed the first real snow today, too! About three or four inches! Afterward we hit up this great pizza place called Brick Oven. Apparently we aren't pizza compatible, so we ordered seperate individual pizzas. I got an chicken artichoke pizza with alfredo sauce, sooooo goooood. We got hot chocolate, too.This picture is dark and isn't that great of either of us. In fact, Jeremy just got a hair cut and he looked really good! Jeremy is a great guy who treats me so well. Sorry that he was the basis of my whole entry, but he was the basis of my whole week. I do feel a bit overwhelmed and am just trying to take thing slow and go at my own pace. Jeremy seems to be pretty understanding.

Thanksgiving Part Duece

Thursday was a pretty great day. Mom, Zoey and I (but mainly just Zoey and I) had done a lot of the baking Wednesday night. We made two pumpkin pies, an apple pie and a cheesecake. We also made our own stuffing and turkey, and then the green bean casserole and relish trays to take to my Grandma's. The Smiths and our family met over at Grandma and Grandpa's around 1 o'clock. We ate a little bit early because Morgan had to work at three.

Dinner was delicious and far too filling. We all sat around and chatted, watched movies, whatev for until about three. Morgan and I "digested" in the spare room with twin beds and caught up a bit. I think our family finally left around 4pm. Later we went out to Wal-Mart to pick up somethings. We ended up buying Santa Claus 1, 2, and 3 on DVD. I hadn't seen the third movie yet. So when we got home we popped that in, ate thanksgiving seconds and had a good evening together.

Friday was pretty uneventful. We elected to reserve our energy for Saturday. Saturday we went to the Festival of Trees that the community puts on. Different groups decorate trees that are later autioned off with the money going to charities. Then on Saturday they are put on display for the public. Our family spent far too much time there, with Riley having to do every activity imagineable. It was fun though, and a continuation of our family tradtion. After that we went and bought some Christmas decor, our Christmas tree, and got a lot of our holiday stuff out of storage. Mom, Zoey and I had to use our womanly strength to take the tree off the top of the car, saw off the bottom and put it in it's stand. We spent the next few hours putting on the lights (that was my job), and decorating the tree. We decided on a green, white and silver scheme for the tree.

That night I was able to catch up with a group of friends from highschool. We sat around and chatted for the most part. We hit up the hottest spot in town, Denny's, at about 12:30am. Then they dropped me off back home around 2am. It was a ton of fun. There were seven of us sardined into my friend Teresa's car. Don't worry, I had on my seatbelt. I don't think I'll forget sitting in the car and all of us (guy's included) singing to Aretha Franklin's "Respect" or to "So Happy Together."

Sunday I went to church, came home, ate my last supper of Thanksgiving leftovers, said "Peace" to my family and then headed out to Union to pick up Kara. It was a really nice, relaxing and festive week with family and friends. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays because all that is involved is food and loved ones. The upside to this year's holiday was the lack of family drama! Yay! No arguing, bickering, storming about, or any of that nonsense.