Snow Fun

My aunt Cathy took Chris and I snowboarding on Monday.

It was SO much fun, mind you , I haven't gone in two years so I ate it pretty bad.

I've been finding plenty to do while I'm in Provo all by my lonesome, and can hardly find enough time in the day to do everything I need to.

My friend Alexi invited me to go to a cabin in Park City with her and ten-odd friends of hers who I'd never met. I think I surprised us both when I said yes, and drove out there by myself to meet up with them after snowboarding.

Lexi and I and the cabin

It turned out to be such a fun night, we went snowmobiling and quading in the snow (they all made fun of me for being an Arizonan and calling it "quading" not 4 wheeling). I've never been so cold in my life, I will have more pictures of that to come!

Christmas in AZ was great

I was only able to go home for 5 days so I soaked up every bit of it. 

I spent time with my lovely friends, it felt like I never left. This was the night of our "friends talent show" at Sweetcakes.

Christmas Eve, the fam got together and made gingerbread houses. It is a fun new tradition to us.

Of course Kodi's would be the coolest design, bell tower included.

I also spent some time with Bradley on Christmas Eve, it was so good to catch up with him and see his friends again. I miss this child!

Christmas day, I spent the morning with my beautiful family, including my adorable nephew Parker.

I learned how to crochet a beanie off a 5 minute youtube video and created this little number for part of Kodi's Christmas present. 

I gave Lindsey the first season of Gossip Girl to keep her company while she hangs out with Parker all day. I also got Kodi and Lindsey (husband and wife) argyle sweaters, and I'm really hoping they wear them on the same day haha. 

As for my parents, I thought it would be fitting to give them an electric toothbrush :)

Becca and I spent some time together Christmas day as well, but she was in New York the rest of the week so I didn't get my fill of her! I need to see her again pronto!

RIP fishy

While i was in arizona, I found someone to tend to my beloved fish Brahms. They fed him every day, and I was not worried about his ability to survive without me. However, I came home to find Brahms laying sideways on the bottom of his little tank. 

Brahms the Fish

October 2008-December 26th 2009

Froze to Death while the heater was off in this hell hole we call Utah snow

New house

So I'm back in Provo for work, and I'm a week ahead of everyone else so I had a "house warming party" all by myself last night. It was a bit scary until I went next door and realized all of our boys are home and could keep an eye on the house :)

Cheers to my new casa!! No pictures of the room until I'm settled

Strangers

Alright, I admit I have a fetish with meeting strangers and getting to know them. This weekend, I went to Vegas for Laci Toups' wedding. This was my first time in Vegas, other than the airport. After spending a day at the wedding and on the strip, I planned on sleeping in the airport and flying to Phoenix the next morning. However, my old roommate's boyfriend's sister and family overheard my plans and offered me a bed, and a ride to the airport the following morning.

So being the person I am, I jumped at the opportunity to stay by myself in these lovely strangers home. They have the two cutest little girls who I played with and did their hair. I slept oh-so-comfortably there which I don't think I would have done in the airport.

Once at the airport, I sat next to a black guy in his mid 20's. I started crocheting a beanie for Kodi, and noticed that he was staring at the needle and yarn. Once we boarded the plane, we started to chat a little bit, and I asked if he wanted to learn how to crochet. So I taught him.

Can you picture that? Me, a black football coach in his late 20's, crocheting together??

I love the simple pleasures I get in meeting strangers.

Hallelujah!

Today was a momentous day. Today, I took my last final exam of my first semester in dental hygiene school! Oh - what a relief it was.

Me and Devin, right before our last final :)

Some of the girls in my class went to lunch to celebrate :)

Celebrating our last day!

Let's reflect over this semester:

Hygiene school is not as hard as I thought it would be.

I managed to get 7 A's and 1 B, with very little effort.

I didn't ever cry, or even feel overwhelmed

I did this while working 20 hours a week

I worked out at least 5 times a week the whole semester

I made new friends
I was a relief society instructor

Busier than I've ever been, and ready for more!!

Now, its time to go to Vegas for Laci's wedding, and then home to AZ!

Dirty Minds

Yesterday was quite a day. After working out in the morning, studying, doing my laundry, working, and shopping, I went to not one, but two bachelorette parties.

The first one was for Jenna Nielson. It is always fun for me to go to bachelorette parties or birthday parties of my friends from high school! It's crazy to me that they are all married and what not. I love that when I see these girls, we pick up right where we left off.

The next party was Laci's :) I threw a tea party for her and it turned out perfectly. I made cucumber sandwiches to go with our "tea" (really lemonade because I'm the only 20 year old that likes tea) and I had my old roommates bring food too.

I was trying to think of games we could play with this group of girls that would be fun and dirty, but clean enough that they wouldn't all hate me. So we played a game called Dirty Minds. Basically you read descriptions of something very ordinary, like a toaster or a pet shop, but the descriptions make you think something dirty and it's hard for everyone else to guess what you are really describing. It was a hit!We waited for Nicole to get there to play, and her reaction in this picture explains why.

I let the two married trouble makers sit together...

Roommate reunion!

Bachelorette and Maid of Honor!

Amber decided it would be a good idea to smash a cupcake in Laci's face...The culprit

simple pleasures

Today has been a very good day.

Today was my last day of clinic until January, so I "celebrated" by painting my nails while studying. (I can't have painted nails in clinic. I'm not sure I even like painted nails, I just don't like being told what not to do).

Walked in my room today and let out a "Hah!" when i realized there were 5 different pairs of boots out on my floor, but only the right boot?

I decided I wanted to crochet a scarf for Ben for his birthday/Christmas/-40' weather, even though learned to crochet about 6 years ago one day and hadn't touched it since. It was an adventure, and is getting mailed tomorrow (I know, late).

I was told by a complete stranger at the BYU library that I looked like I was from Gilbert. "How did you know?" I asked. "You're clothes gave it away" said he. I went to the bathroom to document, and I don't get it... How am I a "Gilbert girl"?

Look what 4 months in Utah can do to a person

This summer, I was tan. Remember that?



Well I'm getting so pale that I now look ill. And its only downhill from here

Then ->->->->->->->->->Now

The Snow Ball, so classy right?

Ladies of the night



On Saturday, a friend of mine threw a ball. She sent out invitations a month ago and it was such a classy affair haha. Basically we all just got dressed up, went to Park City, and danced the night away :)

My group of friends made that party

Turns out my date is not a huge fan of dancing

with strangers... so I took a break to be a wallflower with him

I forgot how much I love getting dressed up :)

These are things I will require from my future husband:

Have a profession that requires us to dress up for work parties

Take me to symphonies or ballets so we can dress up

Appreciate how much I like dressy events

Snow is BEAUTIFUL

I know I've griped a lot about snow in the past... I seem to remember a good three months during 2007/2008 when I would lay in my bed ALL day to spite winter. I wrote a lot of poems... haha it was a very bleak winter. I wrote poems about how much I hated walking to school with wet shoes. I wrote about having a flood in my room for 3 weeks. I wrote about talking to myself when the snow kept me locked in my room. Haha I was so miserably precious.

Well things have changed my friend!!! This morning I woke up at my friends' house and looked out the window to find about 8 inches of snow. Honestly, it's beautiful! I gathered my things and went outside, busted out my snow brush/scraper to clean off my car. I was feeling ambitious so I did a couple other cars too. Yeah, my hands were freezing because I didn't have gloves, but I guess I'm ready for winter.

Getting ready to drive on the first unpaved roads :)

Secretly, I went joy riding in an empty parking lot haha

Haha I had just woken up, and I was trying to smile normal...

The snow will still get old, I know I will miss the sun, and I soon may post and contradict myself. All I'm saying is that today, I'm happy.







Love you all

Thanksgiving in Utah

This was my first year away from the fam for Thanksgiving. I had to stay in Utah if I wanted to keep my job at the Lobster... So here I am!

I woke up early yesterday morning and drove home so I could get started on my sweet potatoes. I tried some new recipes and made things I've never made before. I loaded up my car and headed to Grandma Nixon's house where I ate meal #1.

Please note the side pony.

*

Bon apetite!

When that was over, I took the rest of it to the girls' house so we could have round 2 :) I have to say, Thanksgiving on my own was really fun, and pretty dang extravagent (compliments of Bree, Kelsey, and myself. Emily helped in Spirit!)

When the girls and I sat down to eat, we listed some things we were thankful for.

This Thanksgiving I am very grateful for friends.

Family who loves me

School and a job

Support and blessings from God

A life full of purpose

To know what I want, where I'm going, and what I believe in

And last but not least, my health

*

*

*

I almost forgot! At the end of the night, we were driving to see a movie and we saw a UFO!!! We pulled over and stared at it for a few minutes and I still have NO idea what it was. It landed in a little field off of University Avenue and we all jumped out and ran to go find it. I said to my friends "this is the part in a scary movie when the whole audience is thinking 'Don't get out of your car!'" We weren't able to find it. so it will forever be a mystery. Here it is in all its glory:

ahem...

"as your belief and trust in God increase, your fear of man and what he may say or do will decrease in direct proportion."

alright just take a deep breath

I miss thee Arizona
I miss Becca dear, and my family.
I hope everyone has a beautiful Thanksgiving week!!

In the mean time, you know where to find me.
That's right, Red Lobster in Orem.

A testimony of tithing

I procrastinate many things, and tithing is one of them. Each year, instead of taking ten percent of each paycheck and giving it to my bishop at the time, I tallie up my paychecks all year and make one large tithing check at the end of the year.

Yes, it is MUCH harder this way and I don't know why I insist on doing it every year.

This year was particularly difficult, because I'm broke as a joke. I reluctantly paid my tithing on Sunday at my tithing settlement appointment.

Now here is where it gets interesting. I was nervous about where I would come up with money I needed before I would get my next paycheck, and the Lord blessed me.

Do you guys remember when I did Junior Miss? A completely embarrassing scholarship pageant that takes place your senior year of high school? Well, my friends, when I competed in this pageant, I won a scholarship in the Academic portion. I procrastinated submitting my winning certificate, and completely forgot to obtain the money I won. About a year later, I remembered and tried to get the money. Didn't happen.

Well two and a half years later, what do you know but Junior Miss sent me a check in the mail. Two days after I had paid my tithing. Wow.

Some experiences are simply undeniable. I know God lives.

improper karma

Are you KIDDING me.

You would think that, since I don't eat meat/kill animals, they would do me a favor by leaving me alone.

Well that just isnt the case. You all remember the gopher from the summer. You remember the bat that lived in my chimney and somehow got out into my room. You even remember the time Woody (the dog) brought a dead bird inside. The trend has continued.

I was being a good girl and cleaning my room/filing a million papers that have been sitting on my desk this semester. When I opened my filing box to put some things in, I noticed some mouse poop inside. "Ew" I thought, and decided to pull all of the files out to dump any mouse poop into a trash can. Well guess what? Where there is mouse poop, there is also a mouse. Yep, a dead smashed mouse at the bottom of my cute brown suede filing box that I ended up throwing away.

I didn't scream, I didn't cry, but I freaked out for a good ten minutes and kept saying "I don't know what to do". Boy, do I love animals.

Bradley David Cluff

Today is Bradley's birthday and I want to give him a special tribute. Maybe in the form of a eulogy? Okay.

Bradley David Cluff (middle name after his father) was born on November 20th, 1989 to Kathi and David Cluff. He is the 6th of 8 children, with 5 older sisters and one younger brother. I'm sure his childhood was great... but lets fastforward to when I met him.

It was a beautiful summer day in Provo, Utah. We were both at EFY (cute right?), in the same group. As our group gathered for the first time, we played a get-to-know-you game in which you stand in a circle looking at the ground, and on the count of three you look up; you pair off and talk to the first person you make eye contact with.

I remember looking up and instantly finding Bradley's eyes and we went and talked. And this was the beginning of a long journey.

Throughout high school I'm pretty sure Bradley and I only hung out twice when it wasn't a school function. But when we went on choir trips or talked in our seminary class, we were besties. We helped each other through hard stuff. We also drew a lot of pictures to keep us occupied in seminary.

It wasn't until I moved to Utah that we became really close. We were great pen pal's, and still hang out when I come home.

These are the things I love and appreciate so much about Bradley:

-he has been my friend through a lot of crap

-he listens to my complaints, and then bluntly tells me I need to stop my self-pity

-he is hilarious

-he can be the biggest sweet pea of them all

-he can write awe-inspiring words and beautiful music

-no matter how much he changes, he is still that little 14 year old boy I met so many years ago

LOVEEEEEEE YOU BRADLEY BEAR HOPE YOUR DAY IS FABULOUS

I wonder if she knows

that she is the most unique 50 year old woman ever?? Panda turned 50 on Monday, but don't worry it's not going to slow her down.

I'm sure she'll be having dance parties and staying up/out all night till she's 90.

LOVE YOU MOTHER DEAR

I thank God-

I love you all so much :) You make me who I am.