On the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth Days of Christmas...

Fifth day
I flew home. Hooray! Let the vacation begin!

Sixth day
Visited the office... etc...

Seventh day
Did a little Christmas shopping!

Eighth day
Christmas Party! On this day, my nose started to run...

Ninth day
Happy B-day Mom! Church... on this day, no air was passing through either nostril, eye swelled up, not a pretty sight...

Tenth day
It's about 11:30am, I'm sitting in my PJ's blogging... and I can breath through one nostril... I'm on vacation, so I might not blog again for a few days. Hope everyone has a fabulous Christmas!! See you in '09!

On the Fourth Day of Christmas...

I took these cookies to work for my co-workers, and they liked them.
Special thanks to Brenda, who slaved all night with me making these suckers!

HOORAY!! Good news!! Well, first some bad news... I showed up to the White Christmas Lottery, yet again (for the 5th time, to be exact) and sadly, I was not aware that the show is at SEVEN pm on Tuesdays instead of EIGHT pm like all the other nights of the week!! So I did NOT win lottery tickets as there was no lottery to enter.

Upon learning this pivotal piece of information that would have been much more beneficial to me 1 hour prior, I marched into the Box Office and bought a regular ticket. Aside from the great news that I was FINALLY getting to see White Christmas (YAY!) the ticket ended up being discounted 25%! AND I convinced Kyle to join me! So the two of us saw White Christmas. Yay us! Here is my playbill (and my Christmas PJ's)...
Kyle might have fallen asleep at one point during the show, but he said that is typical for him and musicals, and that he really liked it. :) Nasty side note- this man sitting behind me kept making hawking loogie sounds every five minutes... pretty icky. Dude, you're a grown-up! Blow your nose and take some DayQuil! The lady next to me actually gagged at one point!

This scene was really great in the musical! And the classic movie is always great, so here you go: "The Best Things Happen When You're Dancing!"

On the THIRD day of Christmas...

our ward had a Christmas party! And guess whose name was FINALLY pulled in a drawing! MINE! Let me tell you, I've attempted to win lottery tickets to the Broadway show "White Christmas" FOUR TIMES in the last 2 weeks, and failed miserably every time... so tonight, when my name was FINALLY pulled, I was so happy!!! This is what I won...A $15 gift certificate to iTunes! Yay me!

On the Second Day of Christmas...

...all snug in our beds, Heidi and I awoke to Ash screaming off her head!
We jumped out of bed, and ran into her room! Poor Ashley's shoulder was dislocated! Ash said it has happened several times (since she used to do gymnastics) but usually she can get it back in... not today though. Heidi called 9-1-1... poor Ash was in so much pain she couldn't move!
The ambulance arrived, and wheeled Ash away in a strange chair... she commented later it looked like a crazy person chair, and that people must think they were carting away a crazy person! When they got her downstairs, they transferred her to a regular stretcher and into the ambulance.Ashley was in so much pain, she kept saying "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!" the ambulance guy was like, "Where you from?" and Ash said "D.C." and the ambulance guy said "no wonduh, you keep sayin gosh, that's not how most people talk around here."

On the bumpy ride, Ash did slip a swear word... the guy was like, "Now I can understand yuhs!"


When we got to the hospital, the doctors gave Ash some drugs... after they put her arm back in the socket, I think she felt a lot better. While waiting for x-rays, the three of us roomies sat around and, despite the traumatic events of the day, had some good roommate laughs!
Ashley is doing much better now. When we got home, we were all so tired we just zonked out! Had you peeked into our living room this afternoon, this is what you would have found...
THE END.

On the First Day of Christmas...

** ** ** ** ** ** **

I had an idea for a picture last night... so I drew it...

Then today I painted it up in photoshop (adding a bkgd I found...)"Make Time for Love this Christmas!"

"It's Christmas time, and time for a carol...

...time to sing about... THE LITTLE KING!"
Did you know the words to that song? I didn't (until recently)... but I'm glad I know now, cause that is the real meaning of Christmas after all, right? Yep.

SO... we got a Christmas Tree!! My roommate Ashley's Mom and sisters came to visit last weekend, and as a thank you gift for staying at our place, they sent us a CHRISTMAS TREE!!! With lights and decorations and all!! It is SO exciting!
AND beautiful! Prior to deciding on the tree's final placement (above)... we took a photo op with the tree and Pip (it's his first Christmas) and Peeve (ugly green dog on kitchen wall). Pip loves Christmas!I got a haircut recently... snapped this pic... it looks stellar if you ask me! Those hair salon people really do a good job at styling the hair as well as cutting... It only took, what, TWO HOURS!? Well worth it, my friends, well worth it. Here's a recent picture of my head as well (pre-hair-cut) for my Mom, who requested to see more pics of ME on this blog. :)
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Been reading a new book...

My roommate Heidi and I are obsessed with House. You know, the show about the doctor who probably would hate us both in real life. That's okay! We love him. And the show in general.

I was out Christmas shopping this weekend, when I stumbled across this book:
House and Philosophy. I picked it up (duh) and read the introduction. I'm in love. Not to mention, within the first page it contained reference to none other than Steve McQueen... not the actor, but Dr. House's pet rat. If this sounds at all familiar, this book is for you! My sister Alyse would be so proud!
*This book has not been approved, licensed, or sponsored by any entity or person involved in creating or producing the TV series.

Marriage Protest Outside Temple

Don't be deceived... this is lighthearted, and hilarious! Watch it!
PS- Courtney, this is Ryan Simmons (since you were curious from a previous post as to who he was...)

Christmas Cheer!

Walking home tonight I ran across something spectacular and snapped this pic on my cell phone camera...It's Christmas time! And the NYSC has a huge Christmas tree up along with a giant lighted American Flag. Christmas has found Wall Street! So fun. :)

Shrek the Musical!

Don't worry about it! Lyndee and I went to see Shrek the Musical last night, and it did not disappoint!

My favorite part? Lord Farquaad. Hands down. HilARIOUS. The fair tale creatures were also a plus! ...which is funny, since the show is about Shrek, Donkey and Fiona... they're all really good too (especially Fiona) but the random people were the best!I definitely recommend everyone sees this show! Especially if you want to have a laugh, and an overall good time!

I have a cold!

I tried to find the perfect cartoon for how I'm feeling, but when I saw this cute little guy I could look no further... He may not be an accurate representation of how I feel, but he's super cute!
Chilly Willy the Penguin! Gotta love the classic cartoons.

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin passed away last night...

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/joseph-b-wirthlin-oldest-apostle-dies-age-91

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_11119183

Thanksgiving Highlights! (aka- forgot to utilize camera... this is all I got!!)

Thanksgiving was GREAT! as mentioned... forgot to get pics of any of my fam (excepting 1- Alyse (below))

I went to SLC, and got to see Jana and fam!
Went to Provo, got to see Val, M-A and fam!

Here I am with my friends Stephen, Debbie and Grant!
Hitched a ride to Vegas, and caught this pic of a cloud machine in the middle of the desert... super cool if you ax me!
Arrived in Vegas, hung out with Alyse and fam! Saw Shelby/Dave and met STELLA! Snuggled Buster for Courtney!

We had Thanksgiving dinner at Alyse's friend's house, it was delish! We even survived a roll-tastrophe! Alyse whipped out new rolls in NO TIME! We made it in time for dinner and the rolls were a huge hit (duh, Alyse is uh-mazing!)
It was a fabulous trip! I even got an A- on my test. :)

3 weeks till Christmas!!

I've Been Tagged!

8 Things I Did Yesterday:

• Woke up at 5:30am
  
• Hitched a ride to Vegas
• Played the Counting Cows road trip game (Don't worry, I won- 2100 to 1800)
• Hugged my nieces and nephews
• Played house with Savannah
• Met Stella/got to see Shelby and Dave for 45 minutes
• Went to the movies with Alyse- saw "Australia"
• At 12:30 that night thought the one day had actually been two!
  

8 Things I Look Forward to:

• Christmas Music
• Christmas vacation
  
• Snow
  
• life after the next 3 weeks (busy busy!)
  
• Sleeping tonight (I'm tired)
  
• Visiting Courtney in Micronesia!
• Seeing Jon's new house
• Graduating
  

8 Restaurants I Like:

• Guru's
• Island Burger's and Shakes
• Dos Coyotes
  
• Yum Yum Thai
• Mimi's Cafe
• Max Brenners
• Panda Express
• Baja Fresh
  

8 Things On My Wish List:

• Manicure would be nice
• Pedicure too...
• haircut soon
• 4 door jeep wranglers are pretty cool!!
• hmm....
• massage
• 4 more hours in every day
• ... that one was unrealistic... but at least I got 8 bullet points! Moving on!
  

8 Favorite TV Shows:

• NCIS
• House
• Stargate Atlantis
• Heros
• uhh...
• that's kind of it! Too busy for TV these days... well... too busy for more than at least 4 hours of TV a week plus at least 5 hours of NCIS re-runs... a day... ;) Word to the wise- never count how many hours you spend watching TV or you'll regret it!!!
  

I'm going on vacation!

Here's what Thanksgiving week looks like for me:

Salt Lake City/Grantsville
Jana and fam
Provo/Springville
Michael-Ann and fam
*Guru's (YUM!)
Midterm Test
Grant
*Guru's
Val and new baby
*Guru's
Stephen and Debbie-want to go to Guru's next week?? It's my favorite restaurant on Provo Center Street! :)
Las Vegas
Alyse and fam
Thanksgiving

PERFECTO!

Disney Princesses

Ashley is Pocahantas!

Free-spirited and wise. You have a strong passionate spirit that touches and changes all who know you. The wisdom and common sense that you have is really what guides you through life. Even so, you also have a very playful side that loves adventure and excitement.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

Spoon... Spork... Spovel?

We found these 2 strange spoons while setting up at the Luau... Brenda said I ought to blog about them, so here they are. Also pictured above... proof that I've actually been studying!

Prudential Rock Star!

Congrats to Jon, who after an invitation from the President, won FIRST PLACE in Prudential's karaoke version of American Idol this weekend in San Diego! So fun... :)

Frozen mode

ya heard of it?

Frozen mode: the inability to get anything done because of an overwhelming TO DO list. It's debilitating. For Example: one could spend an entire evening watching re-runs of House when one could have been studying, accept that one couldn't even function at the idea of opening up one's text book. (that's just an example though... Frozen mode could also include staring at the wall, blogging, repeatedly checking my... I mean, "one's" email, etc...)

Funny Commercial

November 11th

Today may very well be the first day of Christmas. I can't help myself! I've been listening to Christmas music all day long... day dreaming about wearing red and green sweaters, sitting by the fireplace, watching White Christmas, sipping hot chocolate, the smell of Christmas trees, colorful lights, shiny ornaments... I LOVE CHRISTMAS!

Lockdown loves YOU, Ben Stiller

So at our weekly Monday morning meeting, we go around and everyone updates the teams on what they're working on. Today, when it was my office manager's turn, she said... "My update is, I met Ben Stiller!" and everyone kinda laughed, and then she said "and he's a fan of Lockdown!" Cool, right? Apparently, she was at some old-school dance party, and he was there, and she started talking to him, and he asked her what she does for a living, and she said "I work at National Geographic Television" and HE said "Really? I love their show 'Lockdown'!" That show totally gets produced here in NY! I even worked on it a couple seasons back. So yeah... I thought that was pretty cool. Don't worry about it, my office manager is also totally related to Alicia Keyes!!

Sad news.

My favorite author died today. Michael Crichton wrote Jurassic Park, The Lost World, and many of my other favorite books. He was so talented at combining fact with fiction and building a world one step further than our current science takes it.

On his website, michaelcrichton.net, it says:

Through his books, Michael Crichton served as an inspiration to students of all ages, challenged scientists in many fields, and illuminated the mysteries of the world in a way we could all understand.

He will be profoundly missed by those whose lives he touched, but he leaves behind the greatest gifts of a thirst for knowledge, the desire to understand, and the wisdom to use our minds to better our world.

John Turner in NYC!

JT came to visit me in NYC! We had a BLAST... here we are on the double-decker bus tour... gotta do that at least once! (it might have been my fifth time...)
Here we are in front of Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall! It got to be kind of hilarious, trying to get random people to take our picture. Right here this lady totally ignored John... those New Yorkers are intimidating!!
We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge!What's New York without some authentic NY style pizza?! Here is John showing us how it's done, you gotta fold the pizza in half... yum, that was some good pizza!
One of my fave things to take tourists to are the wooden escalators in Macy's (the one from Miracle on 34th street). It's like the largest department store in the world, with 10 floors covering an entire city block! And the escalators haven't been replaced since the store opened! (I just made that up, but it could be true... check them out, they're totally wooden!)We took turns getting pics on this one... :)Hello Empire State Building!Here is JT at the top... don't worry, we were all about sticking our heads through the railing... that's the best view! JT's head apparently got stuck (I didn't realize we took so many pics of his head through the railing! haha)Here is the beautiful view from the top of the Hudson River, lower Manhattan and New Jersey. YES... we're TOTALLY tourists!They recently put these red steps in the middle of Times Square for tourists to rest on... they are totally cool! We took advantage...
What is NY without Serendipity's Frozen Hot Chocolate?! That stuff is DANG good... Here's John checking out the menu...Here is the delicious Frozen Hot Chocolate! Yes, we pretty much ate our way through Manhattan...
Here we are in Central Park at my favorite place, the Angel Fountain.
We ran in to a woman who had the cutest little poodles, just like the one I used to have growing up! These were mini's though... but so cute and soft! That's me petting Bogart.
Here we are in front of the NYC temple.
We stopped by Bryant Park to say hi to Heidi Klum, but all we found was this ice skating rink! ;) The weekend was SO fun!