The Pinegar's

Mother's Day

2010-05-10T23:10:00.000-06:00

"...to me, beauty and motherhood are one, they're the same thing.

There is a plan for us, it is a plan that ultimately will give us the

greatest joy and happiness that we will ever experience."

-Stephanie Nielsen

I'm going to remind myself of that next time it's 4pm and I'm in my pajamas with my unwashed hair and unbrushed teeth. Love it, cherish it and make each moment the best...it's a blessing.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Birthday Armani!

2010-04-18T00:05:00.001-06:00

I was REALLY excited when I got Armani's birthday party invite. Stephanie had sent out the cutest invitation for a cowboy themed party...and western wear was optional, I LOVE having an excuse to dress up! It was the cutest party ever. I don't know if I've seen a little boy so excited. He definitely looked the part of a cowboy, but better than that he told me he was a REAL cowboy and he got a shotgun for his birthday, so if I saw any bad guys he could take care of them. He has the cutest little personality! Stephanie had 3 ponies there to take the kids on a ride. The first thing Matthew said when we got out of the car was that I was not allowed to ride one. I felt bad Gracie didn't have a pair of cowboy boots...but I figured she could wear a little dress with her jean jacket and fringe sandals and as my Mom said, "well that's like cowgirl chic"...I brought a straw cowboy hat for Matthew, it looked hilarious on him. I got to wear my Jessica Simpson cowboy boots and only had 2 panic attacks when I tried to get them off and couldn't. I haven't broken them in and I get a little clostrophobic when I can't just slide them off.

Gracie and the Birthday Boy...he told me he was strong enough

to hold her in his lap because, "I'm like a real cowboy"

Gracie meeting the pony...

Giving him a pat (she wasn't totally sure about it)

Hanging with her Dad

Grandpa Steve took Gracie for a ride. She's not quite sure of Grandpa Steve either...

I think she's slowly warming up to him...especially when he feeds her cake

She has so much fun crawling around...there were lots of people there to make friends with

The cowgirls...it was too warm for her jacket, so she doesn't even look "cowgirl chic"

We had SO much fun and loved celebrating little Armani!

He Learned His Lesson.

2010-04-17T23:50:00.000-06:00

We went out to dinner last night to Chef's Table. When we went to pick up Gracie @ Mandy's he suggested we take a picture before we got home and he was asleep on the couch. We had SO much fun just sitting and talking and relaxing. Matthew leaves Wednesday for California where he'll work until the end of August. Both of us knew it was possibly the last time for awhile we'd get to go out on a friday or saturday night, so we made sure to enjoy every minute. We weren't stressed about Gracie either...as we were sitting down at the table I got a picture of her playing dress-up with Emma and Sophie...I think she had more fun playing with her cousins then she had at home all week!

Hello Out There!

2010-04-17T23:35:00.000-06:00

She likes to sit here and wave to everyone walking by.

She finally figured out that she could crawl outside on her own.

She got filthy dirty crawling around outside, but she just looked so happy.

Thank heavens Mandy is the laundry queen and can get any stain out of any piece of clothing.

When I uploaded my pictures I had about 37 of this same picture.

When she figures out I'm snapping away she comes to take a closer look.

She's NOT Your Rag Doll.

2010-04-17T23:30:00.000-06:00

Matthew and Gracie rough house every morning and every night. I usually am yelling, "be careful, she is just little!", but in in Matthew's defense you can't really hear me over Gracie's squealing and laughing. I took a couple pictures the other day. Yes, it looks like they're having so much fun, but I can't help feeling a little sick to my stomach!

They try to get all the way around the island in our kitchen like this.

But when she gets too excited and starts flapping her arms it all falls apart.

They both get really proud of themselves.

I get nervous when he puts her up so high her head touches the ceiling.

It just makes her more excited.

She already likes riding on Dad's shoulders.

And loves when he flips her around and gives her kisses.

Really, I can handle it all...but THIS makes me crazy...

and she thinks it's the most fun she's ever had.

All of the rough housing makes her really thirsty.

Diet coke really hits the spot.

I Am a Mean Wife.

2010-04-17T23:21:00.000-06:00

I'll admit it. I am a mean wife. We got home from a group date night and Matthew was exhausted. He's been working like a dog this semester. School has been brutal and on top of it he has recruiting events and interviews with big accounting events a couple times a week. We got home and I was really sad we hadn't taken a picure together. With a crazy schedule we haven't gone out a ton lately and I wanted to have a picture of us...99% of our pictures are of Gracie Belle (she is way more fun to photograph) and I wanted a picture of us for our fridge. While I was trying to figure out the self timer on our camera he passed out...I literally think he was unconscious. I didn't let that deter me...we were going to have a picture. So I set it on our entertainment picture and ran and jumped on the couch before the camera went off. For some reason I set the timer for 20 seconds...so I jumped on him and then just waited and waited...and I think he was barely waking up when it went off. And then he fell back asleep, and the first picture was so awkward I took another...

But really, this one is almost more awkward then the first...so I kind of just moved around a lot and made a lot of noise...and when he happened to wake up I suggested we take a picture together...

I just uploaded them and I feel AWFUL...He looks like he's ready to keel over. And he didn't even complain. What a stud.

PS...I've been waiting for him to tell me I can blog about all his interviewing and everything going on with school, it's been so exciting! I have lots to update!

It's FINALLY Spring!

2010-04-17T23:08:00.000-06:00

We are loving the warm weather! We usually sit out front every afternoon...it's been amazing for Gracie and I, I think we both were getting cabin fever! They recently aerated the lawns in our development so there are little dirt nuggets everywhere. I turned around for 2 seconds yesterday and she had crawled off her blanket and gotten one in her mouth. I felt like a bad Mom and quickly wiped off the mud coming out of her mouth...and then I was mad I didn't take a quick picture! She loves when we blow bubbles for her and gets excited chasing after them. She wasn't sure about the grass at first and now we can't keep her on her blanket. After Matthew gets done studying we all go out for a walk. Gracie loves riding in her stroller and saying hi to all the neighbors, but even more, she loves wearing her sunglasses. I don't know what her deal is, she will wear her glasses the ENTIRE time and cry when we take them off...Matthew and I were a little embarrassed the other day when we took them off in front of some people and she had a fit...can she be high maintenance at 8 months? Matthew has ruined her! By the end of our walk she has usually fallen asleep and will take a little cat nap in her stroller when we get home...I have to say seeing her asleep in her little sunglasses is probably one of the cutest things I've seen! We are so enjoying this weather and are getting even more anxious to get down to California to enjoy the sun and take a trip to the beach!

This is AMAZING!

2010-04-07T22:48:00.000-06:00

Tonight she discovered something...

She had exactly 15 unattended seconds,

Her Dad and I were getting her bath ready,

and this is what we turned to find...

THIS IS AMAZING!!!

No joke, this is what she was doing, and no, our dryer isn't loud, she was in total shock

THIS is the COOLEST thing she has EVER seen!

She turned to tell us about the incredible thing she found...

She was confused why we weren't in utter shock

just watching the clothes go around and around...

Ever since she's figured out that she can do this

(or at least her own little version of this)

she has learned just how big this world really is...

And she's not sure she's ready to stop taking it all in

(we seriously couldn't get her away)

We finally coaxed her into coming over to take her bath...

But she turned one last time to make sure it was still there...

And then her mean Daddy snatched her up and forced her into the bath...

But I promised her that first thing tomorrow morning she could

go in and see the dryer...and if she promised she would stay in

her CRIB all night long I'd even let her push some of the buttons.

We are loving our curious little monster

and watching her take it all in.

We're Still Alive!

2010-03-24T21:06:00.000-06:00

Oh my, things have gotten awfully crazy around our house! There is so much to update, sometimes it's overwhelming! I just uploaded tons of pictures and I couldn't help but share this one...and one more...she's becoming a ham, we bring out the camera and suddenly she has plenty of smiles and personality (I don't know where she got that from), but either way, it's pretty cute! Matthew is off tomorrow for New York City for about 24 hours, more of that to come!

Here she is after church a couple weeks ago...

She felt pretty stylish, a beret, lace leggings AND a jean jacket...

Is it embarassing that I've looked for a beret to wear with her?

Don't worry, I didn't buy it.

Valentine's Date Night!

2010-02-15T23:59:00.003-07:00

We went out Saturday night to celebrate Valentine's Day and decided to go out as a family. We got tickets for the BYU basketball game and Gracie got to come along! Coach Rose was nice enough to give us tickets in the Cougar Club so we got to to go early and eat dinner where we met Elder Hale and Elder Scott who were down eating in the same room. Gracie was pretty grumpy during the first part of the game until she fell asleep. She slept all through halftime, even when we went back to get snacks! She finally woke up in the beginning of the second half and she was ready to cheer!

The woman next to us actually crocheted the entire game!

She got a little nervous about the game until we told her that

BYU had actually doubled Air Force's points!

A little bored towards the end of the game...

she loves blowing spit bubbles!

With Matthew after the game...

When we got home she wasn't quite ready for bed, so we of course sat and played for awhile. We've learned to live by the rule "what Gracie wants, Gracie gets". Matthew took some pictures of Gracie and I (it seems like I'm always taking pictures, so here are a few of her and I together!)

She loves to lay on my stomach and play with my hair...

She LOVES getting kisses...

Excited that we were both looking at her...

She has decided that she can only communicate by yelling and squealing at the top of her lungs...

we spent most of church on Sunday in the hallway

I think she would be okay if we just played with her ALL DAY!

And usually I do, she's getting very interactive!

Matthew thinks we're looking more and more like each other,

but I'm not convinced yet, I think she still looks like a Pinegar!

Gracie has discovered her shoes, and she ABSOLUTELY loves them!

Maybe I've been able to pass on a love for shoes?

(or she just likes them because they're shiny)

Either way, I think we've bonded over it!

We had so much fun together! It's funny to think how different our Valentine's Day was this year compared to last year. We are grateful for all that Gracie has brought to our lives, she was definitely the best little Valentine we could have asked for!

Prepping for Valentine's Day!

2010-02-15T23:24:00.003-07:00

Gracie and I had lots of fun getting ready for Valentine's Day! Friday we went to the mall to pick up some presents. This was extra special not just because she got to wear her "prepping for Valentine's Day" outfit but also because it was the first time she got to ride in her upgraded stroller. She has been using the bassinet part but we switched it to the seat so that she can see everything around her. I absolutely loved it, and I'm pretty sure she did too! She got to look around and then when she got tired and hungry (shopping is hard work) I just tilted the seat back and she ate and took a little rest til she was ready to join back in! The nicest lady helped us at Nordstrom (we had a neat experience when my Mom and I were in shopping one day and when I told her Gracie Belle's name she got teary eyed, she had gone to the temple that morning to do work for her Great Grandmother named Gracie Belle), she held Gracie and walked her around to show everyone her cute outfit. We had success and finished all our shopping...we even picked out her first Valentine's!

At Nordstrom in her big stroller! She felt very cool!

This is the Valentine's card Grammie Dear and Big G sent Baby G...

She was fascinated by the feathers and loved eating it (as you can tell)

Trying to read it...

Gracie picked out Tinkerbell Valentine's to send to all her little buddies...

She sealed each one with a kiss...

But wasn't too happy when we told her we had to send them, she wanted to keep them all!

Gracie sent a special package to Britton, he was her Valentine this year! She is missing him now that he lives in Texas but hopes that he'll remember her when he comes to visit in April!

Matthew's Little Study Buddy

2010-02-15T23:07:00.001-07:00

One of Gracie's favorite things to do is lay on the floor in our study and "help" Matthew study. She lays on the quilt Matthew's Grandma made her and he hands her his highlighters to play with...she could lay there for hours...but usually the highlighters get her so excited she starts yelling and squealing and it's a little distracting for Matthew!

Trying to be serious and quiet...

Desperately trying to get the caps off the highlighters...

Wanting to play, but trying to keep calm til Matthew's next study break...

She can't wait one minute longer...

"Dad! Please come play with me!"

Gracie is always anxious for Matthew to get done with his homework, so before he got home one day she thought she'd get started on him homework for him...

It took her awhile to get the book open...

Jumping right into the reading...

Trying to understand...

"This is harder than I thought..."

Maybe highlighting will help...Dad always does that...

Finished! She thinks she did pretty awesome!

Double checking her work...

Matthew got up early the other morning to study, so Gracie went in to give him a little bit of help...

Holding the highlighter for him...

Working on some calculations...

Helping him read...

Matthew loves being able to take study breaks and play with Gracie...but he did have to tell her that the best way to help him is to play downstairs and wait for him to call us up!

Sleeping on the job...

2010-02-15T22:34:00.002-07:00

Matthew caught me sleeping on the job last week. I had gotten home from working out just in time for the evening rush at our house. Between dinner, bath time, bottles, laundry and picking up I had time to only wash my face before I went in to put Grace to sleep. I think I fell asleep before she did. Luckily she likes to cuddle...and I love that she still holds my hand when she's asleep!

Time-Out for Gracie

2010-02-15T22:31:00.001-07:00

This is where we put Gracie when she is naughty...

Could you actually imagine this little angel being naughty?!

All the time, but we love her anyway!

PS...Matthew plays peek-a-boo with her and this is where she hides!

Bedtime with Daddy!

2010-02-15T22:23:00.002-07:00

Usually when I get Gracie ready for bed I turn on her little lamp in her room, play quiet music or sing to her, rock her in the rocking chair and keep a quiet, calm atmosphere. This is what I found the other night when Matthew was putting her to bed...

Playing airplanes...

Upside down kisses...

Uh-oh...BUSTED!!! (please notice how Matthew likes to do Gracie's hair!)

And then he wonders why she's so wound up and doesn't want to go to sleep! His remedy? Let her go downstairs and watch SportsCenter with him!

But at the end of the day I just have to laugh...how can I get mad at these faces?!

Gracie's First Nike's

2010-02-03T01:14:00.001-07:00

When I grow up, I want to be just like my Dad...

I LOVE this picture! Matthew's basketball coach from BYU, Coach Rose, and his wife Cheryl sent Gracie her first pair of Nike's right after she was born. They are the cutest little shoes! I have loved finding outfits for her to wear with them and can't help but make them as girly as possible...much to Matthew, and I'm sure Coach Rose's dismay. I took a bunch of pictures of Gracie and Matthew in their matching Nike's...I don't think there is anything much sweeter than seeing them together! Matthew isn't banking on Gracie ever playing basketball...after seeing Whitney try to jump he has questioned if any girl's with Kershaw genes will ever be athletic enough for basketball. It's been a lot easier taking pictures of Gracie as she gets more and more comfortable sitting up...although she is VERY intrigued with the camera and we have a hard time getting her to pay attention to anything else (we think she wants to put it in her mouth)...

We had LOTS of fun taking pictures...

I love how she holds on to Matthew's leg and shoe!

She looks like she posing in this one!

I was laying on the floor taking the pictures and she kept

inching closer and closer like, "HELLO Mom!"

She found Matthew's shoelaces...

And then both of them...she LOVES having something in each hand...

And then it goes right in her mouth...

I know it's totally gross, but I wanted to get the picture!

Matthew and Gracie are CONSTANTLY playing...she is ready for bed by 5:30...I'm pretty sure it's because someone has absolutely EXHAUSTED the poor baby! (And it is NOT me!)

Hanging out on the stairs...she looks so tiny

sitting in between Matthew's legs!

In the past couple weeks she has started to get a little bit chubby! We can't wait for Summer, she'll be able to wear little shirts and bloomers like this all the time!

Very interested in where the shoelaces went...

I like to think she's admiring her shoes and outfit.

BYU vs. Utah

2010-02-02T23:16:00.001-07:00

Matthew and I were SO excited to go on a little date Saturday night! We went to the BYU vs. Utah basketball game and had tons of fun! We got Gracie bathed and ready for bed and took her over to Matthew's Mom's house to be babysat. As much as we love to spend time as a little family we always enjoy getting away together for a few hours. Matthew has still kept in close contact with all of the players so we usually use their tickets and sit down with the families and wives. We love to visit and chat (well maybe I love to chat, Matthew always just watches the games) and lend our support to everyone. I was anxious for the season to start to see how Matthew would feel about it being the first time in his life he is not on a team...and I am happy to say he has done really well with it all! He says the hardest part is missing the camaraderie with the guys, but he knows not playing is really a blessing because he is able to do accounting (he wouldn't have been able to do both accounting and basketball, they are both too demanding) and really focus on his grades. He still isn't 100% with his body...he played pick up ball with a bunch of guys of Friday and was up all night with pretty bad back pain, so he spent most of the game either shifting around in his seat or standing up. He has come to terms with his injuries and knowing he will never be able to compete the way he once did and has turned a lot of his competitive drive to school...I just hopes he doesn't stand up and cheer when he does better than someone else in class! We feel very blessed to have had the experience of him playing and are very grateful for the relationships we continue to have with everyone involved. The game was pretty close and really exciting, there is nothing like a sold out crowd in the Marriot Center! They're playing next Saturday against Air Force and we're planning on taking Gracie Belle, she loves going and cheering! We were ready to go pick Gracie up from Lisa's...she was passed around and held the entire time, she absolutely loved it!

Rice Cereal Anyone?!

2010-02-02T22:54:00.001-07:00

So our doctor gave us pretty strict instructions on feeding Gracie...he wanted us to start between 5 and 5 1/2 months and start only with rice cereal. Now, I have heard about 500 different tips on how and what and how much to feed babies...but being that I was already totally stressed about everything I decided to follow my Doctor's instructions to a T. I went to Babies R Us and had so much fun picking out dishes and spoons, but was a little confused when I got to the aisle of cereal...how many different types of rice cereal are there?! I finally decided on the organic brown rice cereal...I figure she's never had anything other than formula, so she won't know if something is nasty and healthy anyway! We were SO excited to feed her, and LOVED her reaction to the food. At first she didn't know what to think...then she was obsessed with grabbing the spoon...then she wanted to hold the bowl...and then she just wanted to kick back and relax with her full belly! We are working on sitting up and she is getting better everyday. She is starting to wiggle and squirm when we lay her down because she wants to sit up and see all around. I'm anxious for her to start eating food other than rice cereal. My Mom gave me a baby food maker for Christmas so I can make homemade food for her! Here are some of our favorite pictures (we got a Nikon slr camera for Christmas and we ABSOLUTELY LOVE taking pictures of Gracie...so forgive the million pictures, we're proud parents and have a hard time narrowing them down to a decent amount!)

The First Bite!

Taking it all in...

Ready for some more...

She thought she was ready to feed herself...

She finally got ahold of the spoon and didn't let go!

Relaxing in her Bumbo...she sits with her arms up like she's just kicking back!

Finally full! Although more got on her than in her mouth...

Just hanging out...she thought the whole thing was pretty cool and got sad when we took the bowl away.

Gracie Visits the Hospital

2010-01-17T16:38:00.004-07:00

When we were leaving the hospital after having Gracie the nurses and doctor talked to us about all of the sicknesses that go around during the winter. Needless to say I was absolutely terrified and have been OVERLY cautious with where Gracie goes. We are constantly washing our hands and keeping her home when it's cold outside. I have always said it's better to be safe than sorry. A week and a half ago Matthew was getting ready for bed and turned to me and said, "my throat really hurts, I'm sure it's nothing though"...well nothing turned into an awful cold, and even with trying to keep some distance between the two of them it wasn't long before Gracie was coughing. Last Sunday night we took her into the weekend physician who assured us that Gracie only had a little cold and sore throat, and that it would go away in a couple days. Matthew teased me a little about being so worried about her, but I just didn't feel comfortable with how she sounded. We got up on Tuesday morning and Gracie seemed to be working a little too hard to breathe...I called the doctor right away who said we should definitely come in. Matthew met us at the doctor's office and after checking her lungs he wanted us to go to the hospital to have her suctioned out and tested for RSV. We headed over to the hospital for what I'm sure was Gracie's most traumatic moment in all of her 4 months. The stuck little tubes up her nose and basically vacuumed out all of the mucus in her chest and nose. Poor Matthew had to hold her down while I stood in the corner fighting back tears...yes, a little dramatic, but right before the doctor started he turned and said, "well she is definitely not going to like this, it hurts pretty bad". We had to wait 24 hours for the test, but with as much mucus as they got out he suggested we come back the next morning to have her suctioned out again. After a sleepless night and another suction visit we got a call that Gracie did in fact have RSV. Because Gracie is still to teeny (at this point she only weighed 11lbs 9oz) the doctor felt the best thing was to have her admitted into the hospital so they could watch her breathing and oxygen levels and so she could get suctioned out every few hours. I was a total wreck packing everything up for the hospital, I packed all her toys, 5 or 6 blankets and her favorite jammies. Once we got her all settled they hooked her up to a bunch of different monitors to watch everything. Her respiratory rates were the most concerning, it was so hard to watch her tiny chest moving up and down so fast. She constantly wanted to yank all the cords off her chest, so the monitors were beeping every few minutes. She LOVED only wearing her diaper and cried when we tried to put clothes on her. The biggest blessing was that Gracie continued to eat, in fact she never missed a feeding, which is an amazing thing. I'm pretty sure she got Matthew's appetite! Matthew slept on a cot right next to the bed and I snuggled in close to Gracie in her bed. We didn't get a lot of sleep because they came in to suction her out every few hours, but it was so comforting being able to look at the monitors and know she was doing okay! All the nurses loved coming and visiting her, she would smile and grab at their hands and stethascopes...one nurse said she was the most curious baby she had seen. A little over a day later the doctor gave us the go ahead to take her home, we just had to bring her back every 12 hours for suctioning. It was so nice to be home, we gave her a warm menthol bath and her and I snuggled in bed and watched Annie. She is still going back in for suctioning, but we're seeing hugh improvements...the doctor said the biggest thing now is keeping her healthy and indoors...for the next couple months or so! We have a little free time on our hands (hence the return to blogging) and have been skype-ing family A LOT so we can feel some interaction with the outside world! We are so grateful for how well she has done and cannot wait for her to be good enough to escape the cold and fly down to California!

Looking pretty pathetic in her bed...even though she felt awful she insisted on having a toy and her blanket that Whitney made her in her hands at ALL TIMES!

Loving her monkey from Anna...her little eyes are all red and swollen from crying and being so stuffed up...

I wasn't sure where I was supposed to sleep...she was completely sprawled out in bed!

She managed a smile whenever someone came in to check on her...

I stared at her monitors ALL night making sure everything was okay...

Matthew and Gracie looking beyond EXHAUSTED...

Bad Hair Day?!

2010-01-17T16:16:00.004-07:00

Don't worry Gracie, when you're as cute as this there is NO SUCH THING as a bad hair day!

Either way, that's what we keep telling her! Matthew is only allowed to do her hair at night, because if it were up to him she'd look like she had troll hair all the time!

No Better Time Than Bath Time!

2010-01-17T14:38:00.004-07:00

Bath time is our favorite time of the day...no matter how fussy Gracie Belle may be she is always happy in the bath!

It's usually where we get her best smiles...especially when we fill up her tub with a lot of bubbles!

Even though she looks sweet...

Sometimes she can grow horns...

It's usually when Matthew takes a study break and we have family time...

But whenever I leave the bathroom Matthew plays with Gracie and her toys and she gets SO excited she kicks and splashes and water goes EVERYWHERE!!!

She LOVES being bundled up in her towel...we usually fight over who gets to cuddle her!

Her Grammie gave her a purple princess towel for Christmas and we can tell she absolutely loves it!

Gracie and her animals!

2010-01-17T14:11:00.003-07:00

Gracie is still making up her mind about how she feels about her stuffed animals...

Sometimes she gives them loves and kisses...

Sometimes she grabs them, puts them over her face and just YELLS at them...

But our favorite is this...

I'll hear her making LOTS of noise on her blanket and when I look over she has her animals on her chest like they're attacking her...

3-6 Month Clothes!

2010-01-17T14:07:00.002-07:00

When oh when will my 3-6 month clothes fit me?! Gracie is almost 5 months and some of her 3-6 month clothes are still not quite fitting her! We're SO excited for them! This is her Lucky Brand outfit my Mom sent her, Sophie has a matching outfit...it says Karma on it, so she wears it when she misses Whit's puppy Karma.

Blue White Game

2008-11-02T21:44:00.003-07:00

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_v09jLL6-Jwc/SQohSP48yqI/AAAAAAAAAgc/r5pmJBvNRxU/s1600-h/Matthew.jpg

I finally got to see Matthew play basketball! Last Wednesday was the Cougar Tipoff...it's pretty much a scrimage, they split up the BYU team and they play each other, it's the first time for the fans and the media to see how the players are doing. I was pretty anxious for the game...Matthew wasn't sure what kind of playing time he'd get and really what to expect at all. We had a player's wives luncheon and they talked a lot about supporting our husbands, especially when they have a bad game, or when things are especially stressful...so, with Matthew being unsure about how the game would go I was feeling an intense mix of emotionsI told my Mom that all day I felt like I was going to wet my pants! (I think I get that from her)...and what I would say if things didn't go well. Luckily, that was not the case! He played great, the best part was seeing how intensely he played, he was SO into the game! We had a little (well not little, it was huge!) cheer section for Matthew. Chelsea and Dan came with Logan (and they were all wearing their BYU shirts, it was so cute!) Jon and Emma came, Emma was of course wearing her BYU cheerleading uniform and then a lot of Matthew's family came. His Dad and Mom were there, all his little sibblings and Breanna and Todd with their kids. When Matthew was introduced on to the court Chelsea started crying, which was pretty funny, but very sweet...and just so like Chelsea! When I saw that Matthew was about to go into the game my heart was beating SO fast! Not that long after he went in he scored his first 3 pointer...I jumped out of my seat and started cheering (luckily it wasn't just me who jumped up!) It was awesome, I could tell he was getting more and more confident being out there. He ended up playing a huge portion of the game. In the second half he scored two more 3 pointers in a row and had an awesome steal. He played defense really well (his Dad told me that, I'm not good enough to tell that yet) and was aggressive with his offense. He wasn't fouled at all, thank heavens, because I would have had to go find whoever fouled him after the game to chat with him about playing nicer (oh my gosh, Matthew would KILL me if I did that!). His family was so happy to see him play again...it has been like 4 years since he played in a game...we're very lucky to have our families so close and so supportive. It was great hearing about what the media had to say about Matthew the next day, my favorite quote was in a newspaper (I can't remember which one!) who said the surprise performance of the evening was Pinegar, who did awesome...or something like that. There were even some posts on a website about people liking his hair...Chels, you could get some business out of this! It was great to see him play...for the last year it's been such a huge part of our life, but I haven't actually gotten to see it...I was very proud of him, he has worked hard to get where he is, and it definitely shows! We both came home pretty beat, but we stayed up until almost midnight, we were a little wound up! His next game is Thursday at 7pm at the Marriot Center. Let me know if you want to come, we can try to get you a ticket to sit next to everyone!

These are some pictures of the game...Matthew runs around so fast it's hard to take a good picture of him!

Anna and Emma Sleepover!

2008-11-02T21:25:00.004-07:00

I promised Anna, Matthew's youngest sister, and Emma that they could come have a sleepover at our house. The girls were thrilled to come over! Matthew and I were a little nervous about entertaining them all night, but it was pretty easy. We went to Magleby's Fresh for dinner and of course got chocolate cake...the little girls pretty much inhaled it, I had to stop Matthew from trying to steal the plate away! We went to and rented a Hannah Montana movie and headed home for them to do a fashion show with all my dress up clothes. The fashion show lasted almost 2 hours. Their dressing room was behind our kitchen island, each time they were ready to present their outfits Matthew and I would have to clap and make a total fuss about their new creations...Matthew got a little tired at the end, I was having to wake him up each time they came out! They had snacks and treats and finally at about 11 we all laid on the couch together...I had a little bed for them made up on the floor, but they wanted to lay by Matthew and I. The girls kept asking if they had to go to bed, but I told them it was a sleepover and they could stay up as late as they wanted! Emma turned to me and said, "You're the best aunt, we're going to stay up all night!" I cleverly put a movie on and sometime between 11:30 and 12 they fell asleep. Apparently Matthew wasn't comfortable, so he got on the floor and I woke up at 2am sandwiched in between the girls...Anna was curled up around my head and Emma was laying halfway on top of me. Matthew got them upstairs and tucked in (luckily they were okay sleeping in our guest bedroom, I was worried that all 4 of us were going to squish into our bed!). It was so fun having them over for the night...they came in and woke us up at 7am the next morning and said they had a surprise for us, and they'd come get us in a little bit to show us. I was slightly concerned what they had done downstairs, but I was so exhausted I fell right back to sleep. They came back up 45 minutes later, when we went downstairs they had taken all my dress up clothes and laid each of them out separately all around our downstairs...needless to say, it looked like a bomb had dropped in our living room! They were so cute though, they told me they had laid them out so that you could coordinate the outfits easier...and I was so proud! There hasn't been another sleepover again, but next is the little boys, and I'm thinking I should stay somewhere else that night!

3 Months, Can You Believe It?!

2008-11-02T21:18:00.004-07:00

Matthew and I are still celebrating each month...we're doing it until we eat all of our wedding cake! These pictures are from our 3 month anniversary...We have lots of fun going out on a special date and coming home and eating some cake...we went to a new restaurant called La Vigna out in American Fork...it was pretty good, but more than the food it was just nice to go out. I love eating the cake at home too because I use different dishes each month...we got lots of darling dessert plates and I love using them! It looks like we take the same picture, but it's kind of hard just having the two of us, pictures are a little difficult to take!

BYU Football Game

2008-10-27T21:57:00.004-06:00

Last Saturday the basketball team was introduced at halftime at the BYU football game! When they introduced Matthew I stood up and cheered SO loud for him! I was so excited! He looked pretty cute up on the big screen! This Wednesday is the Cougar Tip Off...It's at the Marriot Center at 7pm...let me know if you can come, I'm saving seats for Matthew's cheer section! I asked Matthew if I could start a tradition for him and have everyone do "snaps for Matthew" when he goes out on the court...he said no, but I think we could give it a try! Come support him on Wednesday night, I want him to be able to hear us from the stands...GO MATTHEW!!! (And the whole BYU team too!)

PS...this is a picture of us at the game (duh!)...we got great seats, as JT took the picture they scored a touchdown! It's hard to see, but the other one is of Matthew up on the big screen, he was so cute I wanted to start yelling that he's taken!

UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE!

2008-09-10T23:14:00.015-06:00

So I have been slacking big time with the posting...who knew married life would be this crazy?! Between school and studying and the never ending basketball practicing we are going non-stop! Well and the constant trips to the grocery store take up quite a bit of time as well. Matthew is getting into the conditioning part of practice and comes home exhausted and starving every night. He goes through a gallon of milk almost every other day, not including the and last week we threw out 7 boxes of cereal...yes 7, I didn't know one person could consume that much cereal. He eats half a watermelon for a snack, usually 2 cups of greek yogurt (which is insanely overpriced), sandwiches with cream cheese, ranch, bbq sauce, 4 slices of chese and a half pound of meat...seriously, and lots of vegetables. He drinks protein shakes with at least a quarter cup of peanut butter once or twice a day, a pb&j sandwich, if not two, oh, and his new thing is honey, and he goes through one bottle a week. He goes through about 2 dozen eggs a week (I eat them too though)...he even puts eggs in his spaghetti for the extra calories and protein. For breakfast every morning he has two or three pieces of french toast with peanut butter and syrup, 4 pieces of bacon and around 3 or 4 scrambled eggs and then maybe a couple eggo waffles with peanut butter, jelly and whipped cream on top...and he has lost weight this week. I am in constant awe watching him eat, it's almost sad because he said he has to keep eating just to feel like he's eaten enough calories! Either way, it seems to be working, he was able to run a personal best mile, he came in in 4 minutes and 56 seconds, a nice 35 seconds before anyone else. I have been so proud of how hard he works, we're getting very anxious for the season! I wanted to just put a few pictures on of some fun things we've been doing...

COUPLES MEXICAN TRAIN NIGHT

We had a couple of Matthew's teammates over with their wives to play mexican train and have pizza. We had so much fun! It was a little crowded with two guys over 6'10" sitting at our little table, but we made it work! Chris and Matthew are horribly competitive, it is beyond comical to watch...it was pretty funny to watch James end up taking the win right at the end, although I was worried dominoes were going to start flying! Chris and James' wives are really sweet and so fun to hang out with!

2 MONTH ANNIVERSARY
So it's definitely cheesy, but we've been celebrating our wedding anniversary...mostly it's just an excuse to take turns planning a fun little date night. When we get home we usually eat a slice of our frozen wedding cake...it surprisingly still tastes really good. For our 2 month anniversary Matthew planned for us to go to the Thanksgiving Point Gardens and walk around, it was so pretty and we had such a good time! It was very peaceful and about halfway through we got kind of bored so we started doing cartwheels and running around on the grass, I'm not sure, but they may frown upon that. It smelled amazing and the waterfalls were pretty cool, they are the largest man made waterfalls in the western hemisphere...it really made us want to see the world's biggest man made waterfalls!! Matthew bought me a hot pink tennis racket, we've been enjoying playing together in our spare time...Matthew is patient and is teaching me how to play...I have some great pictures of it, but they're on our other camera and we have somehow misplaced the cord to it!!

BABYSITTING THE SOPHSTERS
Matthew and I got to babysit Sophie last friday night for a little bit while Mandy and Jon went out to dinner. She is at such a fun age! She just sat on the couch eating cheerios talking to us...she especially like sitting at the dinner table with us while we ate, she was able to hide under the table and then jump out at us. Matthew loves feeding Sophie, and Sophie likes to eat as often as Matthew does, so they work well together. I thought these pictures were so cute of Soph, she gets so excited when we take pictures of her! It's great having nieces and a nephew so close, I'm working hard to become the favorite auntie, I've gotten Soph to say my name! We love getting to babysit, it's so fun getting them completely wound up and then sending them home with their parents!

MINIATURE GOLFING
We went miniature golfing a couple weekends ago with some of Matthew's teammates...we had a blast golfing, it was super windy which made it pretty hard, but we were both able to get at least one hole-in-one. We also got to race go karts and go to the batting cages. So our date night turned into a little competition for Chris and Matthew. It is pretty fun to watch them tease each other and get totally into winning...it's all in good fun, it's like they suddenly revert back to 4th graders! Matthew won miniature golfing which meant that Chris was determined to beat him in the go kart race. While we were waiting in line Chris turned to Matthew and asked, "how do we keep score at the batting cages?"...I started laughing until I realized they were completely serious, they were thinking of a way to keep score! Luckily the idea of ice cream beat out another competition and I think they ended the night tied, I'm sure Matthew would say he won both, but for Ashley's and my sake we try to always make it so they tie! They've been friends forever and I don't think this will ever go away, they'll be 90 and still finding ways to compete with each other! We were able to go to Red Mango (our favorite new little treat place!!) with them last week and had so much fun just chatting and relaxing...the boys were so tired from practice that they didn't find anything to compete about!

I have some classic pictures of a family home evening Matthew and I had up the canyon, Matthew decided I was going to learn how to play frisbee and it ended up being a great picture moment...I also have some pictures from dog sitting Chelsea's little chihuahua...Matthew and her bonded and were pretty much inseparable! I love you all and look forward to chatting and looking at your blogs! Hope everything is going great!

Friday Night Date!

2008-08-04T00:58:00.004-06:00

Friday night Matthew and I had our date night...we went to Bajio for dinner (it's one of my favorites!) and then Matthew asked me if i wanted to take a little drive to get some ice cream, he knew the best place to get it. We took his car out and the weather was perfect to drive with the top off! He wants to sell his car, but I am kind of stalling, it's so fun and cute (he would not be happy if he heard me call it cute)! We started driving up the canyon when he mentioned that this incredible ice cream place was a little out of the way...we drove all the way to Heber to find that the place closed at 9...we just barely missed it! Matthew highly recommends this place if you happen to be in Heber...and trust me, he knows ice cream!

This wasn't a huge deal though...Matthew knows where every good ice cream place is...no matter where he is he'll be able to find somewhere to get his fix! There was another little place a few blocks up...it was a cute little drive thru that had the best shakes...I got a cheesecake brownie one that was amazing and Matthew got a raspberry one, he was pretty distraught that mine was better than his...so he ate mostly all of mine.

After we left we pulled over so Matthew could eat a little before he started driving home...we heard fireworks going off and I got so excited, I love watching fireworks! We drove down a little street and found the field where they were setting them off...we had front row seats for an amazing show...I couldn't believe little Heber put on that great of a show! Matthew said he had planned it all, but I think we were just lucky he wanted ice cream up in Heber! It was lots of fun to sit in his car and watch the show as we ate our ice cream...the weather was perfect up there! Matthew had lots of fun driving up and down the canyon...I only had to tell him to slow down a few times, he said his car can only drive fast, but after getting 4 or 5 tickets this year I told him his car needed to learn how to take it a bit slower.

We are loving being married, it's so fun to go out and get to come home together! We're feeling a bit more settled, we have an entertainment center and bookshelf, but still no kitchen table or barstools, so we've been eating picnic style. I'm having a hard time picking one out, I see lots I like, but just can't seem to make a final decision...Matthew has finally just said to pick one out, he doesn't care anymore! I'm still surprised everyday with how much Matthew eats...he at 4 waffles and 2 huge bowls of cereal for breakfast yesterday and was hungry again an hour later! Grocery shopping is much more frequent than when I was single and could go once a month. Matthew has been practicing a ton...he goes to shoot about two hours before practice and then does weight lifting, running and then playing, so altogether he's practicing about 6 hours a day! I'm guess it's not a huge surprise how much he eats! I'm proud of how hard he's working...I know it must be hard, he comes home pretty beat! I'm starting my new job sometime this week, but haven't heard my official job title, I'll have to post about it as soon as I know, but it sounds pretty promising! I got my new church calling today, I'm on the enrichment committee...I'm pretty excited and have a couple of ideas that I think would be really fun! My visiting teaching companion is really cute, we're having a lot of fun making new friends in our ward...we have two relief societies and there are I think 6 girls who are pregnant and due between now and October just in my group! Needless to say it's a pretty noisy ward, but we're having a really good time!

Savannah Sleeps Over!

2008-08-04T00:29:00.005-06:00

Matthew and I promised his little sister Savannah that she could be the first one to come sleep over at our house. She is eleven and getting ready to start 6th grade this fall. She came over last wednesday night and we had tons of fun! We played a pretty long game of phase 10 (which I won, much to Matthew's dismay!) until almost 11...at close to midnight she got a little hungry so we went to Wendy's and to Albertson's to get a redbox dvd...I don't know if she was actually hungry or just thought it'd be fun to go out at midnight! I told he we would take her toilet papering, but Matthew told me that may not be the most responsible thing to do! We rented Nancy Drew and all fell asleep watching it on the couch...at two I woke up to hear both Matthew and Savannah snoring on both sides of me. She was pretty exhausted so Matthew had to all but carry her upstairs...the next morning she didn't even remember us waking her up! (I felt a little bad, I think we wore her out!) The next morning Matthew made he and Savannah a big breakfast, they had french toast, eggs and bacon...we had fun using our skillet for the first time! Matthew was going to his Mom's to shoot basketball at her house and told Savannah to get ready to go home, but she wasn't ready to go yet...She ended up staying until 6pm that night! She helped me babysit Emma and Sophie for a little bit (the girls LOVED her, I think Mandy and Jon found the perfect babysitter!) and then we watched the rest of Nancy Drew, which was the cutest movie! We got to talk lots and she enjoyed watching all the episodes of Shark Week that we had recorded. I was a little nervous that she wasn't going to have fun with us or that she wouldn't enjoy herself but I think we all had a blast! She is such a cute girl and reminds me a lot of Matthew...it's nice for him to get to spend some quality time with each of his younger siblings, it's really sweet to watch them together, they all adore him! We saw her tonight and she told us she wants to come over again soon, I was so relieved to hear she had a good time too! I think I was exhausted at this point in this picture, I forgot how tiring sleepovers are! I promised Emma and Anna, Matthew's 6 year old sister that they could come have a sleepover together this week...I'm not sure how we're going to handle two at the same time! When Isaac, Matthew's 8 year old brother, found out about the girls coming over he thought that he and Noah, Matthew's nephew, needed to come have a sleepover too! I'm not sure what I'm going to find to entertain two 8 year old boys, but i'm a bit nervous!

OUR HONEYMOON!

2008-07-23T22:42:00.012-06:00

We FINALLY have the internet! After waiting quite a while to get everything set up in our townhouse we have internet and cable...we felt out of the loop having to listen to the news only while we were driving! I wanted to post some pictures of our honeymoon, we had such a great time in Bora Bora...when I went through all of them I had picked out 93 to post, so I'm trying to cut it down and make it short!

While waiting in the LAX airport to get on the flight to Tahiti Matthew decided he was going to be a chocolate conosuier...this lasted about three and a half minutes until he decided that expensive chocolate was nasty!

The flight to Tahiti was a little over 8 hours...Matthew crashed about 30 minutes into the flight but I was too excited to sleep! I kept moving around a lot to "accidentally" wake him up, when I succeeded we played games on the little seat back tv monitors and watched a few movies..they fed us two meals that were pretty gross, Matthew hardly even ate them! My Mom was smart enough to make sure we got seats that were in our own row, we were grateful we weren't stuck sitting by anyone weird! My parents also let us borrow their traveling neck pillows and their Bose headphones which were so nice to have...the flight wasn't bad with those!

This is the airport in Tahiti, it's pretty small but it at least had security! We stayed one night in Tahiti and were pretty sad we didn't get to explore more while we were there. After not being able to sit still the whole plane ride I pretty much went comatose once we got to our hotel. Matthew ordered some room service and watched CNN Europe while I was passed out. They were very kick back at the hotel...their machine to program the keys wasn't working, so they walked us to our room and told us if we left we had to come find them...we didn't have any towels and when they brought them they just walked in without knocking!

Our plane to Bora Bora was very little! It just had the prop things on the front, we were so excited to get there we didn't care! The flight was only about 45 minutes and they spoke mostly in French...I don't think we were prepared that everyone over there spoke french, but we thought it was pretty cool.

The airport in Bora Bora was VERY small...it had no security and only three gates! Someone from our hotel was there to welcome us and to take care of our luggage. We took about a 15 minute boat ride to our hotel...the island was so pretty and green...we were both surprised how underdeveloped it is. Our hotel was about a 5 minute boat ride from the main island of Bora Bora...most of the hotels are right along the reef about a quarter mile from the main island.

Our room was so awesome! There was a huge glass floor right in the middle...the water is so clear you can see straight to the bottom. The water was about 15 feet deep, which made it perfect to jump off our balcony into it. We thought it was pretty cool to be on a vacation together, but felt like little kids away from their parents!

Monday night we went to dinner at the hotel...I loved getting dressed up and ready to go out...I always made Matthew wait out in the room so I could surprise him with my outfit...he was a good sport, even if it got old he didn't show it! The restaurant was really nice, the food wasn't that good, but we sat at our table for a long time just enjoying it...I ordered a coca-cola light, which is their version of diet coke, I didn't love it but I was happy to have it!

The walkways around our hotel were really pretty. The restaurant was open and right on a little lagoon. Outside there was a huge pond with a million lilli-pads on it

My Mom let me borrow these shoes, I love them! They looked cute with everything and were the perfect night shoes to wear with my dresses

After not eating much at dinner the night before Matthew ordered enough room service the next morning for about 5 people...their bacon and sausage looked a little different and they brought like 12 pounds of it! After eating all of it we got ready to go to the main island.

We decided to rent a car and go find out what was on the island...we mostly wanted to find a grocery store to stock up on some good food to eat! It took about 45 minutes to drive around the whole island. It was definitely third world, their houses were shacks with tin or grass roofs and a lot didn't have windows. There wasn't a single nice house on the island, there didn't seem to be much diversity between social classes, it was pretty much just poor. The people seemed so genuinely happy though, everyone was content with what they had. A lot of people were in the little town square hanging out and playing music, they were all very relaxed and friendly. After making a few stops we found the only big grocery store on the island and grabbed all the american food we could find! We bought ritz crackers, peanut butter (they even had Matthew's favorite, Skippy!), jelly, grapes, chips, salsa, cereal, milk and cheese...I was pretty excited to get some coca-cola light. We bought three baguettes for Matthew to make peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches on...it definitely saved us!!

Wednesday we got up early to feed the turtles at the turtle sanctuary they have at the hotel. Matthew could hardly wait to jump in with them! Most of the people just stood around and watched, but he loved swimming and chasing them. They had little baby ones that were pretty cute! I checked our bathtub when we got back to our room to make sure there wasn't a turtle swimming around in it, Matthew thought one would be the perfect souvenier and pet! We finally met a couple americans while we were swimming with the turtles...we were pretty excited to talk to people in english! My Dad let us take his digital camera that you can actually take underwater! It took the most amazing pictures!

After the turtle feeding we decided to take a kayak trip out and explore...it was so cool to see the island as we paddled out. Matthew was impressed with how hard I could row...he was in charge of the steering while I did most of the hard rowing...I'm pretty sure while my back was turned he just sat and relaxed!

After we paddled out for a while we found a little lagoon thing...Matthew wanted to have a real adventure so we got out and started hiking in the rocks. We had a lot of fun exploring and finding little creatures in the rocks.

The ocean fed into the lagoon...this was where the water came in off the reef, it's kind of confusing to explain, but it was really pretty! The water was absolutely clear!

As we were paddling around we saw a million long black skinny rock things...after poking them with the oars we got one up out of the water...they were alive! My Mom told us after we got home that they are called water slugs, but we referred to them as water weenies!

This was where the adventure got a little out of control...Matthew decided we should carry the 500 pound kayak through the rocks to get into the ocean. I did not think this was a good idea, but trying to be a supportive wife I went along with it. I didn't end up being a big help...as Matthew was dragging it across the rocks I got distracted by something and somehow lost one of my sandals...there was a little current and it started floating away quick. I got so nervous I started running after it and ate it pretty hard. I landed on some sharp rocks and cut my hand...I was pretty convinced they were poisonous rocks and thought for sure they'd have to life flight me to Tahiti to go to the hospital. I ended up being okay, thank heavens.

This is where I was able to check my e-mail and update our blog...it was nice to be able to go in and know that everything was fine back home! This picture was taken after my little accident, as you can tell by how I'm holding my hand. I thought about searching to see if there were any poisonous rocks in Bora Bora to make sure I was okay, but Matthew assured me I would be!

This is right off our balcony of our room...we laid out here everyday and read, it was so nice! This was later on in the afternooon and it was a little overcast...Matthew loved snorkeling around our room and jumping off the balcony!

Matthew loved snorkeling around our room and jumping off the balcony!

Thursday we went on a shark feeding tour. The boat picked us up at the dock with about 7 or 8 other couples. Matthew couldn't wait to get in the water with the sharks, but I was feeling a bit anxious! The guys who took us around were crazy!! They were insane with the animals and flirted with all the wives (everyone there was on their honeymoon or taking an anniversary trip)...I thought Matthew was going to push one of them off the boat!

They videotaped the whole thing with an underwater camera...i'm trying to get it put on my blog because it's pretty funny! Snorkeling was pretty cool...the second we got out of the boat Matthew took off, he liked going down deep and finding the moree eels...i kind of stayed plastered to the top.

There were a few other tour boats out and I kept getting dragged out by the current and actually ran into another boat...all the guys were above water yelling for me, but, duh, my ears are under water! My eyes were stinging pretty bad from the sunscreen so I kept having to take my goggles off to wipe my eyes...finally one of the guys through me a little floaty thing (Matthew said they were throwing me a life preserver because I looked retarded) so I could lean on it while I fixed my goggles. I kept it with me after though...I think Matthew was a little embarassed!

He took the camera and got some awesome pictures of the eel...once I saw that giant thing I got back in the boat. I thought it looked scary from twenty feet away, once I saw the up close pictures I was definitely glad I got out.

After we all got back in the boat we went to another place about ten minutes away to swim with the sting rays...the whole ride over I was trying to tell myself to be brave. We pulled up and Matthew was the first one out of the boat...he loved it! We were so sad when we realized our camera battery had died...so we don't have pictures of this part! The water was only about 4 feet deep, so everyone was standing and petting them and they swam by...they'd come right up to your legs and come out of the water, they pretty much swarmed everyone. Matthew was about 20 yards away and waving to tell me to come in...I stood on the ladder of the boat with my snorkel gear on pretty much frozen in fear! Finally one of the guys came and carried me out to Matthew...I felt much safer being next to him...until one got close to me. I jumped up on Matthew and stayed there the entire time! On the video they show everyone lining up to touch them...I was the only one being held by their spouse. My hand was shaking but I finally touched it! Next they had everyone line up and they made us kiss the mouth of the sting ray...you kind of have to see the video, it's pretty funny! After that we got back in the boat and drove to where we'd swim with the sharks. I thought that the sharks would be two, maybe three feet and wasn't too nervous...until I looked over the side of the boat and they were no joke the size of me! Then the guys started throwing chum into the water and they became very aggressive. For the first few minutes we had to hold onto a rope attached to the boat...it was a plontoon boat, so the rope was out on the wood thing. I tried to shimmy myself out onto the wood part in the water so that my body wasn't exposed to the sharks...that definitely did not work out. I got in long enough to look around then climbed out onto the wood thing and crawled on it to get back to the boat, don't forget that I had my snorkel and fins on, it was quite possibly the least graceful thing I've ever done. The guys finally helped me back into the boat and I thoroughly enjoyed it from there. I watched Matthew and waved to him while he swam out with them. They let everyone let go of the rope and they were free to swim around, which I was surprised they thought was safe, the sharks were thrashing all over trying to find the food they had thrown out to them which could have easily been mistaken for a hand or foot! The group swam out about 30 yards to where 9 and 10 feet lemon sharks were swimming. Matthew swam down to get close, but they were down quite a ways and he had a hard time equalizing his ears (he may have been scared though!) He touched quite a few of the other sharks though and thought it was the coolest thing ever!! The whole was back to the hotel I was watching to make sure the sharks weren't following us back!

That night we made reservations for a restaurant on the island called Kaina Hut...we weren't sure what to expect, but Whit said it was really good. We loved our food! We both ate everything off our plates in about 4 minutes, we hadn't realized how hungry we were! The island was beautiful at night and it stayed warm...we never got very cold! This was out in front of our hotel at the beach.

The floor in the restaurant was sand and they had a cat running around. The atmosphere was really neat, it was quiet and kick back, it is a definite must if anyone goes to Bora Bora!!

Friday we went on an aqua safari adventure...it was the next best thing to scuba diving, and we weren't certified to do that. We had no idea what it was like...it ended up being pretty funny! We wore these giant yellow old school scuba helmets that they pumped oxygen into. They put it on as they lowered you into the water and because of gravity, or something, you were able to walk around on the floor with the helmet on...we were with two other couple who were in their late fifties, everyone seemed surprised to see a young couple!

As soon as we got down to the bottom the tour guide released little bags of bread right in front of our faces. We were immediately attacked my hundreds of fish!

Of course there happened to be another little gang of sting rays...which kept me alert the rest of the time! As you can tell I was a bit wary of them...the fish I was fine with, but the sting rays looked a little evil!

Matthew enjoyed disturbing all the animals again, it was pretty weird to walk around the floor of the ocean! We got some awesome pictures, I even touched lots of funky things and we saw a school of clown fish.

After walking around under water for around a hour we were happy to be on land! This is the one road that goes all the way around the island...there are no stop signs and no traffic lights and most of the way it's one lane!!

We got kind of bored waiting for the boat from the main island to our hotel...the view is really pretty though!

Friday night we went to Bloody Mary's...it's the most popular restaurant there, it has two huge signs out front with the names of all the famous people who have been there. We couldn't believe how many people there were, we didn't even know that many people came to the island! We loved this restaurant, it was really fun and the food was amazing...an american owns it so we were knew the style of cooking would be something we were used to. The tables and chairs were really cool!

Saturday we laid out at the beach...we had fun reading and snorkeling. Matthew put a ton of tanning oil on, he wanted to be really tan when he got home...20 minutes later he was convinced he had gotten fried and started panicking...2 hours later it was miraculously gone (I don't think it was there to begin with!)

We went snorkeling in the lagoon and saw the coolest octopus!

Saturday night we decided to go back to Kaina Hut for dinner...we were hungry for some good food! We had lots of fun going back...Matthew scarfed down his food again!

This is where we ate breakfast almost every morning...the food wasn't awful. We would steal yogurt from the buffet to eat throughout the day, it was our favorite food we ate there! We ate right along the water, it was so pretty! At each table there was a sign that said not to throw food to the fish and turtles. I couldn't figure out why there was a school of fish swimming right by us...the last day I caught Matthew throwing food to them, he had been doing it all week!

We were sad to leave Sunday afternoon, but at the same time we were excited to get back to get settled in at home! This was on the boat ride back.

At the airport in Bora Bora there were only three gates...they were right next to each other and there was nothing there to stop people from going out onto the runway! It was pretty fun flying out of there!

We were so happy to have such an amazing honeymoon! I'm going to try to post the video of our shark feeding tour, it was really cool! I know we posted lots, but I couldn't cut anything out...i'm impressed if you made it to the bottom of this post...this is kind of our way to journal it all too! Hope everything is going great with everyone...i still have some posting to do from the wedding...it's just been so crazy! We are loving being married and can't believe how much fun it all is, we feel very blessed and taken care of! Thanks to my Mom and Dad to helped us out with the trip, my Mom was so awesome to help get everything booked. And thanks to Whit who gave us great advice! Love you all, talk to you soon!

A Day at the Beach!

2008-07-17T22:32:00.012-06:00

4th of July in California!

2008-07-17T21:49:00.010-06:00

A Quick Update...

2008-06-25T13:20:00.003-06:00

We just finished breakfast, it was actually pretty good!! they had french toast, fruit, eggs and cereal...i wanted to crawl under the table when matthew asked for a to go box and filled it up and then made me carry out 4 yogurts for him to eat later on!! Yesterday the weather was very windy, cool and looked kind of stormy, so we decided to go into town...we rented a car and made the drive in, it was a lot of fun to see everything!! After a few stops we the only real grocery store (they have a fez general stores, this was the only nor,al one) they had skippy peanut butter and jelly, and we bought three long baguettes...we were pretty excited!! i got some coca cola light and we stocked up on any american food we found...we got ritz crackers, fruit, tortilla chips and cheese...i think we are set for the rest of the week!! we were pretty excited to find that!! we are going to bloody marys for dinner and then mostly eating around here, the other big restaurant on the island closed down! we saw lots of cool stuff yesterday, it was pretty exciting driving around...there are about a million dogs, i felt better when i saw a couple vet shops. today we are feeding the turtles and going snorkeling...tomorrow we are feeding the sharks and swimming with stingrays, friday we are doing an aqua safari and saturday we are maybe going sailing!! we were so tired yesterday we laid down to take a little nap before dinner and we slept til 1030!! we both feel much more rested today!! a really cool thing that happened yesterday...we had looked around for a church building, but just assumed after not seeing anything (and we drove around the entire island twice!!) that the church was only in tahiti...we were on our way home when i spotted two missionaries in the back of a truck...we followed them a couple miles until they stopped at a house, we talked to them for a bit, they were both from tahiti and spoke only a bit of english...they were so excited we were from utah!! we met the ward mission leader (he was a bit different than dad, he was missing all his teeth!!) and they took us by the church building...it was pretty cool to see!! they had a basketball court outside and i was waiting for matthew to ask when they were playing next!! we are going to maybe try to go to church there on sunday, they have a ward at 8 and at 11...we thought it would be pretty cool, even in french!! we have only talked to one american couple, it is very european!! matthew just finished up at the activities desk, we are going to go get ready to feed the turtles!! we arent starving anymore, so dont worry! we love you lots and are having A LOT of fun!! thanks so much for everything!!

ps...whit, was the safari in the jeep things fun? we are trying to decide between that and sailing or a picnic!!

Send Money Quick

2008-06-23T20:37:00.002-06:00

Send money fast...we just found out a plain hamburger alone is 34 dollars and Matthew says he cant make it back to our room without eating!!!

we made it here safe!!!

Greetings from Tahiti!!

2008-06-23T15:07:00.002-06:00

Matthew and I made it safely to Tahiti! We are about to check out of our hotel to go to the airport to catch our flight to Bora Bora!! Our flight yesterday to Tahiti was so so long!! Matthew slept like the whole way...I kept trying to wake him up!! we watched a couple movies and played tetris and chess on the little screen in the seats (that was after i finally got him to wake up!!) We got into the airport and it was pretty cool...after we changed our money we sat and counted it for like 10 minutes to try to figure out the exchange rate! We got a taxi out front and the man/woman (it was a he/she, we werent sure which one) and it was pretty scary! they pulled out in front of another car and i spent the rest of the drive covering my eyes!! Our hotel is nice, and the people are very relaxed. They couldnt figure out how to code the key for our room so they just let us in and told us to prop the door open if we left. We didnt have towels or room service menus in english...when we finally got ahold of some menus and ordered they just walked right in without knocking!! after not sleeping on the plane i literally passed out, i dont remember eating dinner and matthew said i would talk for a second and fall right back to sleep...we both feel much more rested and are ready to get to bora bora! its been pretty fun!! the weather is great, its really humid. We are enjoying ourselves and still really really like each other after being together non stop!! we hope you all made it home safe, we love you and are so grateful for last weekend, it was amazing!! we are going to take a walk before our flight, love you all!! ps, i cant sign into my mac account from the computer here, just e mail at lindseykershaw@yahoo.com!! love you!!

WE'RE MARRIED!!!

2008-06-22T08:44:00.009-06:00

We're married!!! It was an AMAZING day and we feel so blessed to have been sealed in the temple by Elder Holland! We're off to Bora Bora for a great time in the sun!!!

2008-06-02T18:38:00.003-06:00

So I'm sitting down to blog and I'm not sure where to start...I have about two dozen different entries I should be working on...from going to the zoo, a bachelorette party and everything inbetween! But I thought I would do just a quick note about what's going on with all the insane wedding plans!! After waiting over 2 months I finally got to go in for my first dress fitting! I was so nervous I wasn't going to like my dress anymore...I had taken a few pictures of me in the sample size dress and after coming home and looking at it I felt a bit anxious...and to make it worse my Mom and I stopped in at a dress store down in California and asked to see the Monique Luhllier dresses to see what color my dress was, the sample size dress was in white and I ordered in an ivory and latte colored dress. Well this lady pulled out a dress that was similiar to my dress in the ivory and latte color and it was seriously caramel colored...I didn't say anything to my Mom, I didn't want her to get nervous but I was freaking out! It was darker than my khaki colored bridesmaid dresses! So naturally I was quite anxious to go in and see my dress. My Mom and Dad went in with me last saturday to Alta Moda in Salt Lake, where I bought my dress. I tried to act casual and non-chalant but I pretty much ran to the dressing room to see my dress. Right away when I saw it I relaxed, it was the perfect color! My Mom let out a huge sigh of relief and turned to the lady and said, "I've been so stressed about how dark the dress was going to be, I didn't want to say anything to Lindsey, but I was panicked!!"...it was pretty funny both of us were trying to keep the other one calm! I absolutely loved my dress on, I was very relieved! I'm just excited to get to wear it now! I wore it all around the store finding shoes, earrings, bracelets and a brooch to wear around my sash. I loved wearing it, it's so comfortable, which is surprising for a wedding dress. I'm going back and forth between wearing a veil or just flowers in my hair...I'm not sure a veil goes well with my dress, but I don't know if I want to pass on the tradition of wearing one! My poor Dad sat there for almost 2 hours! He didn't seem to feel too out of place with all the girls and their moms though, he was giving girls his opinion on dresses, it was pretty cute! One of my favorite moments came when I was being fitted for my dress. A girl and her mom were waiting there to meet with Pam, the alterations lady. The Mom reached over and tapped me and said, "Excuse me, I know I don't know you, but that dress just fits you, it looks like you!" It was the sweetest comment and it helped to confirm that I had picked the right dress! (Some of you may not have heard about me buying one dress and calling back the next day to see if I could go back in and retry on the dress I ended up buying...hello, can I do anything without being totally dramatic?!) All I could think about when I was standing there being fitted was that the next time I'd be wearing my dress, or after the next fitting when I would wear it would be right after Matthew and I had been married...and that makes me SO excited! I can't wait to have him see me in it for the first time! (Okay, I know this is pretty cheesy, but for heaven's sake I'm less than three weeks away from being married, so I think I get a "get out of being cheesy card" I'm supposed to be like this!!) Matthew text me the other night and said that we were just so lucky, he said we had just so many things to be grateful for, but mostly because we love each other so much! I thought it was a really sweet thing of him to say, but it got me thinking, and we really do have A WHOLE LOT to feel so lucky about!! Not only do we get to get married (in 18 days!!) but we have the most darling townhome to move into,a scholarship to live off of, job offers for both of us, LOTS of family who will live near us, and just about a million other things! I'm getting SO anxious for the wedding to actually get here...and Matthew is even worse, he is convinced I'm NEVER coming back to Utah!! I'm more convinced than ever that we are being majorly taken care of by our Heavenly Father...it's so neat to sit back and look at all the amazing things that we have going for us! I know that pretty soon all of the wedding plans and the honeymoon will be over and we'll face lots of hard times and we have to be prepared to make sacrifices, but I hope that we can remember all the things we feel so lucky for now when we're going through those things...we are pretty excited, but we're realistic too!

YAY FOR MATTHEW!!

2008-05-29T11:12:00.003-06:00

Matthew has been waiting patiently to hear about whether or not he has a full scholarship for this fall (maybe waiting patiently is a bit of a stretch!)...so after much anticipation Coach Rose scheduled a meeting for last Tuesday at 11:30. Matthew was really nervous about going in and started thinking he wasn't going to get it. Tuesday morning he was even more anxious, and I was beyond anxious! We talked for a minute on the phone before he went in and then it was silence for like 45 minutes! My mom and I were running some errands and I kept telling her that I was sick to my stomach and my heart was beating fast...she tried to distract me, but it really didn't help! I wanted him to get the scholarship not just for the money, in fact that didn't have anything to do with it (but that will be a HUGE help when we are so poor!!), it was important for him to have his scholarship to know how important he was to the team and to help him to be confident going into the season. So FINALLY after what felt like forever Matthew called and HE HAS HIS SCHOLARSHIP!! Coach Rose and Coach Rice said that the whole staff was really excited to be giving him the scholarship because of how hard he worked last year as a red shirt. They said he had worked as hard if not harder than anyone else they'd ever had in the position. They were very impressed with how well he has been playing and are anxious to have him officially playing in games! It's been so fun to see how passionate he is about basketball, and how much effort he is putting into it! He'll get home from a few hours of practice and then go and practice shooting for another hour. Another exciting thing is that every friday they have a conditioning compitition thing...they'll run a mile, or a 40 yard dash or a stadium run where they have to run up and down stairs and he has come in first for every compitition except for one, where he came in second, trailing by only 1 second! I can't wait to see him play next year, except my Mom is concerned about how stressed I will get watching the games...it could get ugly! I'm so proud of Matthew and all of his hard work, now with his scholarship it is all paying off! PS...I don't have my computer so this is the only one of just Matthew on my Mom's computer!!

MY LEOPARD SHOWER!

2008-05-28T23:12:00.017-06:00

My sister Whitney and my Aunt Marcia were so sweet and planned a shower for me. Whit did the cutest invitations and planned everything around leopard print- she hung rice paper laterns with ribbons hanging down and planned some fun games. My Aunt Marcia outdid herself with the food as always! People were so generous and I got lots of great things from my registry- and a darling leopard print nightie from my YW leaders from my old ward!

WEDDING INVITATIONS FROM H-E-DOUBLE TOOTHPICKS!

2008-05-28T22:27:00.005-06:00

I never knew that getting wedding invitations out would be such an ordeal! First, just picking them out was hard enough but then getting all the addresses ready was impossible. I love the invitations we got and thought they were beautiful, but when we went to the post office to get stamps they only had two stamps to choose from- a scary monster one and a hideous blue ram's head- everytime I had to put the ugly blue one I got mad all over again! My mom tied 500 bows on them and never complained- okay, maybe she did just a little.

I HAVE A BOY NEPHEW!!!

2008-05-28T22:16:00.003-06:00

After a long, long, LONG line of girls in the Kershaw Family we now have a BOY!!! Chelsea had her baby on Friday and he's pretty dang cute. We all hide our eyes, though, when we change his diaper!

2008-04-11T00:04:00.001-06:00

2008-04-10T23:58:00.000-06:00

2008-04-10T23:31:00.001-06:00

Basketball with Matthew

2008-03-28T02:37:00.003-06:00

The BYU Game, My New Favorites and a Little Epiphany!

2007-11-09T02:44:00.001-07:00

I thought I'd blog quick tonight before the weekend...I'm awful at blogging over the weekend! This picture was taken tonight at the BYU football game against TCU. BYU was expected to lose (some people just have no faith) but came out victorious...it was such an intense game! The girl on my left is Lauren, she's soon to be my new roommate come January, and on the right is my neighbor Morgan. We sat with a big group in the student section which is always a blast!

I had a busy week with school and planning Michelle's bridal shower which is next thursday! Just thought I'd include some of my new favorites...the tv show Moonlight...it's on CBS and it's about a crime fighting vampire. At first I didn't think he was that cute...but now I'm totally crushing on him! You can watch all the episodes online, it's really convenient...I watch it in the library while taking study breaks! After the whole Twilight book craze I've started to enjoy that science fiction genre, which a had complete disdain for before! I love the new Carrie Underwood CD Carnival Ride...it has a couple great songs, my favorite is track 11, More Boys I Meet...i tried to get it on my playlist, but it's not on the website yet! I am embarrassed to admit, but I bought the new Britney Spears CD...I only listen to a few songs...and only while alone in my car! There are a couple songs that are fun to dance to, but as I've learned, you shouldn't dance a lot while driving, it slightly impairs you! I'm reading Sense and Sensibility right now, which is SO AMAZING! For any who haven't read it, I strongly suggest it (except I would suggest Pride and Prejudice first if you haven't read it...it still reigns supreme in my mind!) Jane (who I now feel like is my close friend...scary I know, but she totally gets it!) explains relationships so well in the novel...it's so neat to see interaction between sisters, mothers and romantic interests...especially because the two sisters are so different in their approach to love! It's a tough read, but so worth it!

The last week I've ran into quite a few girlfriends who are experiencing traumatic boy problems...I usually end up being a pretty good shoulder to cry on, I think because they think I've been through it all, so I can empathize easily...which is kind of embarrassing...and kind of true...but regardless, I'm happy to do it. Anyway, so I made a couple girls CDs to listen to with all the good anti-boy, better off without you, I'm so depressed I'm not leaving my bed songs to help them cope...it's been pretty bad! Last night while dropping a girlfriend off after the basketball game we ran into the guy she's been dating, who was "sick", dropping off a date...she was pretty crushed! It's been kind of hard not to jump on the "bitter bandwagon" as I like to call it. I was helping Michelle try on her wedding dress today and I couldn't help feeling the urge to slam my head against the wall (dramatic, I know, but she also had Christmas music playing, which means Christmas is coming soon...and it's always nice to have someone around Christmas, and I don't exactly know what the status of my love life will be at Christmas!) I kept having visions of Michelle walking into her room and seeing me sitting in her wedding dress with her veil on as I sat crying eating ice cream listening to Celine belt out "All By Myself"...oh boy, that is one heinous mental picture! I've been thinking a lot lately about how much I allow fear to dictate my actions...it's really hard to move forward when you're almost frozen in trepidation at what the future holds. For my girlfriends, and definitely for me, it's the uneasiness of having our hearts broken again. It's something that I would be okay never experiencing again, but at the same time, I realize that remaining stagnant doesn't bode well either. It's nerve wracking to take that chance, whether it be with love, a big move, job change, or whatever that next scary step is, but the benefits of swallowing our pride, letting go of fear and clinging to our faith so out weigh the risk of being hurt or disappointed...it's disheartening and exhausting to stop and pick up the pieces time and time again...but what other option do we have? I know it's SO cliche, but it is something that has been occupying my mind for sometime...I was thinking tonight about Winnie starting her new job and Chels preparing for her first baby, I realized that being apprehensive to take that first step is something that I will continue to face for the rest of my life...graduation, career, marriage, family...all of that will be something I can face with distress or absolute resilience...and when I look at it that way isn't it so obvious?! I've been given everything I need to make it, it just takes a little blind faith! This little epiphany certainly doesn't make taking that first step any easier, you know, the whole "easier said than done" thing...but I look back at some of the trials and hard times I've gone through and am more than positive that without the support of friends and family I would not be where I am today, and regardless of hard it was, I'm still okay. I've always been able to depend upon those I love for the courage to keep going when all I want to do is hide under the covers! Not to mention the countless pep talks I needed to pull me out from under the covers! So this is me officially getting off the "bitter bandwagon"... I am grateful for the countless blessings I have been given...I am certain and aware that I have been more than taken care of by my Heavenly Father...and with my faith in that I have nothing else to do but be confident and brave! I know this is all so so so cheesy...but i couldn't help it! Writing this out has helped me come to grips with it all...things are much clearer for me when I put it on paper...or on the computer, it's my little version of therapy...and usually they're filled with a few good laughs! Either way I love you all and am indebted to the great examples and comfort you lend to me...hope you are all doing great! Can't wait to see Whit next week...it'll be awesome to have all my sisters here!

Halloween Part Two...it's long, but worth it!

2007-11-05T01:49:00.003-07:00

Well, it took me awhile...but i'm ready for halloween part two! It was a great weekend, I'll have to fill you all in on that in the next couple days...I can't imagine every being on top of my life enough to blog as it's happening, I always feel as if I need a few days to recover! So, first things first, after "family" halloween I was ready to go out with my girlfriends! We ditched all the boys...sometimes boys just get in the way of a fun night with the girls...but I learned that that is kind of a difficult thing to explain to a boy...when did they become so SENSITIVE?!... anyways, so we were pretty excited to go to the Hollywood House's Halloween Party. It's a giant party every year, thousands of people are there and it's a guaranteed fun fest! After a few minor costume adjustments (I had already been to parties in my ballerina costume, so I had to change my sweater, and due to the frigid weather I swapped my cute ballet slippers for pink uggs, the tights and tutu didn't exactly keep me warm!) we were on our way! I went with a group of girls that live in my apartment complex. We were quite a group...there was an Amy Winhouse, Eddie Sedgewick, Britney Spears and a sailor.

The Hollywood House was PACKED! I mean, you could barely move! At 5"3' inches I felt lost in the crowd, not to mention that no one could see my whole costume...which was pretty upsetting...probably mostly for me. There were a lot of clever costumes...I love getting new ideas for next year! I'd be SUPER stoked if I had someone to dress up with because I have about a dozen sweet couple costume ideas for me and my future significant other. Upon observation, there are a few things I'm not particularly comfortable with boys dressing as for halloween...for example, the whole dressing up as a skanky girl thing, that may point to signs of deeper issues...I'm not really big on the whole mask thing either, that definitely creeps me out. Leotards and excessively tight clothing are pretty awkward as well. Next year I'd like to go one night as "I Dream of Genie"...I think that'd be darling! So, the party was going well...we finally made it over to the edge of the massive group of people where you can actually talk and mingle, which, hello, that's what I was there for! I must have really looked the part of a ballerina because I got picked up and thrown around expecting to do some cool dance move...I don't know what ballet these boys have been watching, what move am I supposed to do when you throw me over your shoulder?!

To say the least, I am sure it did not look graceful! The cops finally came to break up the party. The boys in the house had a permit for 250 people...and when over 4,000 students showed up the police had an issue with it. I've learned my lesson, when they tell you to leave, you leave. The last time they broke up a Hollywood House party they came into the courtyard to kick everyone out and I continued talking...after being asked 4 or 5 times to leave (I was just saying hello to everyone I hadn't seen yet!) a police officer finally came over and said that if I didn't leave he would arrest me, I was unjustly blamed for being the cause of people not leaving. After seeing the cop who almost arrested me I quickly left...I'm 90% sure he was glaring at me. We headed over to a friend's house who had people over. They live in a big house on a giant hill up by the "Y" parking lot. It was a much smaller gathering...I was just happy to have my "personal space" back after being in tight quaters with that many students. The party was a lot of fun, I got to catch up with friends I haven't seen in awhile (by awhile I mean like a week...and in Provo your whole life can change in a week!) At large gatherings like this I have to be sneaky. I ran into a couple old boyfriends walking in, I thought the ballerina costume was incognito enough, but apparently they could still tell it was me. Sometimes ex's have this awful tendency of continuing to "stake their territory"...they might as well just pee on me...so it's better to just avoid the whole situation! We stayed and got our fill of halloween fun and decided it was time to head out. (PS...these are some random pictures from the rest of the night...they're not exactly the best pictures, but I like them because you can tell we're having fun!)

Now, this next part, I will admit, I've yet to tell my parents. Mostly because I figure if they read it in my blog they wouldn't get that mad if it was sprinkled with light humor...but this may be an absolutely awful approach...I'll let you know if I get in trouble! So my car was parked on a GIANT hill...and this girl had parked pretty close to the back of my car. As I went to pull out my car rolled back and GENTLY tapped her front bumper...I mean barely, I didn't even know if we hit or not, so my girlfriends dressed as Amy and Eddie jumped out to check. The girl was walking out to her car and saw it happen so I rolled down my window to talk to her. Amy and Eddie came back and said there was no damage, I bent her license plate and that was it! There was nothing wrong with my car either. Well this girl wasn't in a very good mood (I didn't ask, but I could just tell, I sensed some boy problems and decided it probably wasn't the best moment to bring it up!) Anyways, she decides that she needs to call the police, even though it was very apparent that there was NO DAMAGE! But she insisted! So we waited inside my car for the police to come...I was just hoping that the people at the party would stay inside and not come out and see the whole scene that this girl had created. Finally, after like 30 minutes a police officer showed up. As I saw him get out of his car I put my head on the steering wheel and prayed it wasn't the cop who had threatened to arrest me...not only that, but that he would understand when I got out of the car dressed up as a ballerina. He came over and I grudgingly got out of my car, for the first time I felt embarrassed, I was a 22 year-old dressed up in a tutu. As I looked at the police officer I thought for a moment my karma was kicking in...it wasn't the cop who clearly had it in for me! He did, however, say that he had just come from the Hollywood House, he didn't look like he was having the best night. I was explaining what happened and was kind of shivering (once again, the whole tights and tutu thing wasn't exactly warm!) He looked at me and said, "what, you can't handle the 60 degree weather?" My eyes just got really big, and I opened my mouth to tell him that it was actually 42 degrees with a wind chill, but decided that I'd let that one go...after he walked away I realized I had spoken too soon about my karma...oops. He made me fill out about 3 pages of information while he checked out the damage, I asked if I could do it in my car and he said only because he didn't want me to get hypothermia...now I thought that was borderline mean...I was contemplating whether or not I was going to have to start crying. I was filling out the papers and looked in my rearview mirror at Amy Winehouse and Eddie Sedgewick fighting for my cause...it probably didn't lend much credit to me...I think the cop thought we were nuts!
The girl was being a drama queen about it all, i thought it was a bit excessive...and coming from someone who enjoys a bit of drama every now and then, that's saying a lot. So I walked down to talk to the police officer at his car which was now surrounded by about 15 boys...I was officially embarrassed, but convinced that he would warm up to me. It was definitely difficult, but I prevailed. I sat and chatted with him while he filled out all the paperwork...amazing what he and I had in common! We talked about the Hollywood House (that's who gave me the permit info) and how frustrated he was that he was sent to break it up. I told him that I always supported them when they came to break up parties because there were always those few who just didn't get that they had to leave. We discussed all the hot spots for getting speeding tickets and what his kids went as for halloween. In those 15 minutes I'm confident we became friends...enough that I asked him if it was okay if Amy Winehouse took pictures of us...I explained that I had a blog and all my friends and family around the country would thoroughly enjoy seeing this.He laughed and agreed...he even posed for a few! I thought I'd press my luck and ask to get handcuffed...I mean, that would have been a classic picture. He didn't even look up when I asked, he just said no way. As he was writing me up for my ticket he said that it was actually breaking his heart to give it to me...he said, and I quote, "in all my years on the force you're actually the nicest person I've ever ticketed...not to mention you are the only little ballerina I've given a ticket to, I'll enjoy sharing this story"...I asked if he'd enjoy sharing the story more if he didn't give me a ticket...apparently not, because he still gave it to me.
He did tell me that there was no damage done to either car, and that personally, he thought she was a bit out there. I wasn't sure if we were going to close with a handshake...or maybe even a hug...I think he wanted to keep a "tough guy" image because he just patted me on the back and got in his car. He did say he'd keep his eye out for me and to call if I had any trouble with anything...but deep down I wonder if I ever called and asked for him if he'd really talk to me. Either way, I'm not going to lie, it was quite entertaining...minus my whole ticket thing...that was definitely my bad!

I hope you all had a great weekend! I've loved catching up on all your blogs...for some reason my internet connection is kind of funky, it hasn't allowed me to submit my comments, but I think i've fixed the problem! I love you all lots and can't wait to see you!

Halloween Night...part one

2007-11-01T00:28:00.000-06:00

I'm just getting home from an eventful halloween night and I'm not quite ready for bed...I'm still awake and ready to have fun, but this whole "mature, responsible" thing is kicking in and telling me I should go to bed! (Now that I'm aware of this whole "mature, responsible" thing I'm trying to figure out how to ignore it! It'd be so much more fun!) So, I'll start with earlier today...I was able to get ready quick enough to go see Mandy and Jon and the girls trick-or-treating in Highland at Jon's brother's house...it was so fun! They were so excited to get candy! It's so neat to see Emma with all her cousins...but a little damaging to my ego to see how I'm suddenly not cool! I went to a few houses with them, but was absolutely FREEZING! It was worth it though...I hadn't been trick-or-treating in FOREVER! Jon's costume was so awesome...props to Mandy! Who knew she was quite the little costumer maker...I think she is going to come in handy! I even scored dinner tonight, Janna made chili, it was so good...I probably wouldn't have stopped to eat, but I think it gave me energy to keep going...so Mom, maybe you should talk to her about how late I stayed up! Mandy's nephew Cameron is darling, he struck an Elvis pose in our picture...it's so fun to hang out with little boys...growing up with all girls we kind of missed out on it! Sophie's costume was so cozy and Emma and I actually kind of cordinated! I LOVED Mandy's make-up and her green hair! I am just tickled that I have family up here to do fun things with, I'm always appreciative of the invite, it's nice to take a little break from the single, self-absorbed tornado of Provo and catch a glimpse of another life! I'm going to go to bed, but I have so many entertaining stories about the rest of my night...we're only at like 8pm! Talk to you soon!

2007-10-31T15:21:00.000-06:00

A few more random pictures...my blog won't be long...but I have been jotting down notes in my notebook of things to include when I finally sit down and complete my blogging for the last two months! The first picture is of some girlfriends at a "Witchy Women's Night Out" party we had...it was so fun to catch up with old friends! Rebekah, at the far left is pregnant! Pretty crazy!

On the pregnancy note...Saturday night I was looking in my closet at what to wear to church on sunday (I know it's weird, but I still pick out my outfits the night before, I feel better going to bed, and then I have all night and morning to decide what accesories are needed to complete the perfect outfit!) Anyways, my roommates were teasing me that my dress was too big on me and that I could wear it when I was pregnant...well that started a whole hours worth of fun! But yes, we discovered I can wear this adorable nanette lepore dress while pregnant! That led to us finding all my outfits I'll be able to wear while pregnant...which led to me in an 80's dress...also which can be worn while pregnant. It's amazing what we can find to do late at night...and I always seem to be the one instigating it!

The third picture is one of many halloween costumes i've sported...I borrowed a toga/cleopatra/romanish dress from a girlfriend and went as a, well, I'm not sure what the exact title is, but it was pretty dang cute! My friend Allie was an indian, she used to live next door to me and has been a good friend for the last couple years. Taylor, the nerd in the middle is a total goofball and definitely played the part of a dork ALL NIGHT! I was good and only graced everyone's presence for a hour, before retiring to bed, I haven't been sleeping much lately, and it's starting to take it's toll! Friday, saturday and tonight i'll be a ballerina! I have more pictures to post of that!

Love you all, hope things are going great!

My Birthday...quick overview!!

2007-10-31T15:10:00.000-06:00

I'm quickly posting some pictures...just so you all know that I am alive! Life has been crazy...to say the least! I still need to post my 100 from my birthday! These are a couple pictures from my party...the first is the darling present my Mom and Dad sent up to me...they gave me 22 presents, I love all of them and have pictures to post of me using all of them! The second are my roommates...I had to put one up of me in my red Betsey Johnson dress...after seeing it online I realized that I couldn't live without it! (I don't know how I survived this far!) I thought if I can't wear a red silk dress to my birthday party then when on earth can I?! It was quite the hit! I'll write more of the events later!

2007-09-11T19:33:00.000-06:00

Yes, I Am Still Alive!

2007-08-31T00:02:00.000-06:00

I'm back, and it already feels good! I've been wanting to for a while, but part of the hesitation of actually doing it came from the daunting task of filling everyone in on the last four months...my life this summer has been a rollercoaster...the kind with so many twists and turns that when you get off you're dizzy and quite certain that your lunch is on your way back up...but for some reason, the rollercoaster was so fun you want to get back on for round 2. I, however, am on like round 18, and still up for a few more...so, between winnie and ryan's wedding, EFY counseling, trips to san francisco, lake powell, st. george and jackson hole, a new church film, education week and an ever changing, exciting social life, I feel the best thing to do is start from right now, and as time permits I'll fill you in on my summer adventures. Thanks to my mom, who has posted the pictures of the last few months for me...it encouraged me to start writing again...well that and i thought if i waited long enough someone was going to start doing it for me! I had to laugh tonight while going back and reading my blog...first, because I didn't realize what a nerd I am, it's actually quite humbling, and a bit embarassing. Secondly, it brings back some funny memories...most of, well actually all, the boys i've blogged about have since fizzled out and have been reduced to somewhat uncomfortable encounters at social functions in which pleasantries are exchanged and i'm left with the ever puzzling thought of, "huh, so what exactly about him and i made sense"...which i guess is a good sign things ended! I've decided though tonight while talking to mandy, that since I have no idea where my life will be in 6 months (6 months, i don't even know where it'll be in 2 weeks!), that it's a form of journaling for me...i'm just doing it in a completely public way! I love reading all your blogs (and yes, I've read them even while neglecting my own!), it's so fun to hear about your lives and the fun things you do...I feel sort of lame writing just about me, but regardless, i'm hoping it brings some form of entertainment to your day! As my mom put it the other day, "your life is a constant source of, oh my goshes"...which is actually quite true...so i figure it'll be fun to share all those memories again...although it won't be as fun as hearing it in person in which at least three times during the story i stop to say, "no seriously, I can't believe that happened...seriously, no for real...seriously" which i really thinks adds to the whole experience. (Mandy is going to start limiting my time with Emma when she realizes i may be a bad influence on the whole drama queen thing!) Either way, i'm hoping to find some time this week to share some stories from EFY and my trips, because those are equally as great!

I'm anxious to start school next week...I have a grueling schedule, but i will enjoy the routine...being back on campus for education week got me excited...even though it was all older people walking around. People have been moving into my apartment complex...I always look forward to seeing my ward change, everyone comes back re-energized and ready to meet new people. This saturday is the first BYU football game! I can't wait to go, my all-sports pass football tickets are with 32 of my closest friends...and if they're not already my closest friends, they soon will be as in the student section we practically sit on top of each other. I tried to convince my mom that I needed 6 new navy BYU shirts, one for each home game (don't forget that the fans are wearing navy this year, not white...just trying to prevent an awkward fashion faux pas for any of you lucky enough to attend!) because my tickets are always around the same people...she somehow didn't understand my reasoning, but i'll post pictures of the game and my new shirt. (She gave in and bought me a couple). I have a surprise coming for my Mom...as you all know she is the biggest cougar fan, I used my connections with a few players and have a present I think she'll more than enjoy!

I sought refuge tonight at Mandy's, Jon is out of town for the night, so I brought dinner from cafe rio and relaxed for a few hours. It's so fun to have her close and to get to watch her be a mom...she is so great with her girls, I'm always so impressed with her and her ability to multi-task and be so selfless with her daughters...and not to mention that I have a total blast being the favorite auntie for a moment. Emma and I have become best friends...I often wonder if i should be concerned that I can relate and have such a good time with a 3-year old, but she's just so fun! She got to come over a couple weeks ago (at least i think it was a couple weeks ago, but come to think of it, everything in the last 3 months is a bit of a jumble in my head) for a sleepover...we had a ball, we made cupcakes and played lots of games...i think i was more tired than her at the end of the night, which gave me a new found respect for all the mom's i know! I laid in bed tonight with her and listened to a book on tape and fell asleep til my phone started ringing out in the other room, startling me and reminding me that sadly, I've grown up. Sophie is at a darling age, she's smiling and making a lot of noise...she's not too little anymore, so I'm not scared to hold her...little babies make me semi-nervous! I appreciate her letting me come and hide out...i've had a cold for the past month and thoroughly enjoyed the uninterrupted downtime, which is next to impossible to find at my house...i've often wondered how everyone here stays up all night every night and still functions...and then i discovered that not everyone stays up all night every night...it's just me...and that occasionally, it's okay to go home and go to bed...the party will go on without me (although i'm not entirely convinced)

It's also been a blast to have Chelsea out in utah as well...we've gotten to have lunch a few times and went to the pioneer park with mandy and the girls. I am waiting for a call to babysit Nelly...which i would gladly do...as long as she didn't tap dance on my back all night again! She's looking great, i can tell a difference everytime i see her! It does make me a bit nervous to have her and dan here though...I'll be honest, I could picture the two of them showing up while i'm on a date to spy on the guy...now that would be a great story! Dan's always over-protective of me, which is fun to experience what it would have been like to have a brother!

I'll give a quick shout-out to my Mom...last week (was it last week? I can't remember!) at education week was so awesome! I'm so happy that she planned that and got all of us together...going to classes and spending that time as sisters and mom was a really special experience...i felt so lucky! I was especially grateful that Whit could come up...I've missed spending time with her since she's moved back to california and am always reminded at how much fun she is when we get to hang out. When her and ryan came up for sophie's blessing we went and got wendy's late one night and talked for a while and it was just like old times...I miss them both terribly! Anyways, thanks to my mom, she really is more than awesome and feel so so blessed to have her! (ps mom, remember this when you get mad at me for being up this late!) i'm excited to see her and my dad tomorrow, they're coming up for the game!

Well, I'm getting tired and am more than ready for bed...i'll write more tomorrow! I love and miss all of you...i hope everyone is doing great...i'm going to try to comment tomorrow on all your cute blogs!

San Francisco with the Family!

2007-08-30T22:52:00.000-06:00

She may be Ryan's wife but she was my sister first!!

BEST Friend!

2007-08-29T09:19:00.001-06:00

EDUCATION WEEK!

2007-08-28T09:49:00.000-06:00

My Neice has arrived! And you get to find out if I got lucky!:)

2007-04-24T00:06:00.000-06:00

Well today has been a joyous day...for a few different reasons! First, i'd like to be the one to give the first shout-out to my new niece, Sophie Lyn Fairbanks...I was so excited to hear Mandy was in labor and am so so so grateful that everything turned out well and healthy. While talking to Mandy this morning she did inform me however that it did hurt more than the first time...I got a little woozy while she was telling me about it, but after she assured me that she was okay I felt a little better. A second shout-out to Mandy for being so great through the whole ordeal, I can't express my admiration! I love the pictures, I thought she looked a lot like Emma and am so anxious to see her...I got to hear her cry on the phone today, which was quite impressive! My second reason for the joyous day, although definitely not as cool as the first, is that today is my half birthday. Apparently not too many people think it's cool, however I like to celebrate it. I thought it showed a real bond between Sophie and I that she chose to pay homage to her favorite aunt by showing up fashionably late on my half birthday...I'm impressed that at such a young age she already recognizes the importance of being fashionably late. Lastly, a reason why it was not a joyous day was that I spent the entire day in the library...not cool, but definitely worth it!

So, I've been receiving some hate text-messages (I won't say names, but this person knows not to push my buttons or she may have to start planning a July wedding) about the fact that I haven't posted since the other night. Well, dinner went great, the food actually tasted incredible, if I don't say so myself. We had another couple come too, which ended up being a lot of fun. Mark was impressed that the plates matched the tablecloth...I was impressed that he noticed. He told me that I really out did myself with dinner and that he really liked it...he ate a lot, so I knew he wasn't lying (however, he told me beforehand that he was excited for dinner and promised he would eat whatever I made regardless if it was edible, which I thought was sweet)...I know you all don't really care about dinner and more want to know what happened after dinner. I'm proud to report that I did get lucky...I was pretty excited! (My mom did some editing, I was going to use some clever slang words for kissing, but she said it wasn't appropriate, call me if you want to know!) He hung out for a while, dinner went late so we couldn't go play tennis with his sister and boyfriend, he said we'd have to go soon though...I think it'd be a lot of fun, except for the whole I don't play tennis thing...however I do have a darling tennis skirt, so maybe that will make up for the lack of skill. Two things I've enjoyed/liked/been impressed with...1- he was the first to clear the table and help with dishes. 2- he showed up unannouced sunday afternoon to change all the burnt out lightbulbs in my house. I thought both were pretty cute...and on sunday he looked pretty cute in his sweatpants! Unfortunately there was no scoring on sunday because he brought his roommate to help. So, I hope this was a sufficient update...hopefully I'll have something more to write about soon! A couple things to look forward to this week, my finals and the completion of them, on wednesday I got suckered into a lunch date (in the cougar eat) with a boy in my ward...I'm not exactly sure who he is, so I guess it'll be a semi-blind date, but I have the sinking suspicion that it's going to be pretty funny. I taught sunday school yesterday on being neighbors, becoming like little children, forgiveness and the merciful servant and the good samaritan...I really really enjoyed teaching about it, I felt it was something that I have such a testimony about and loved studying the topics and sharing the things I'd learned with my class. Everyone was great about participating. I was able to talk about Emma and some of the admirable qualities she had...I got pretty choked up when I talked about Mandy having another baby soon and what an incredible blessing it was that Heavenly Father was entrusting Mandy and Jon to take care of one of his daughters. Everyone loved the pictures I brought of Emma too, they all thought she was the cutest little girl in the world. I brought Lifesavers as a treat to encourage everyone to be a "lifesaver" in someone's life this week. I love my calling and am thankful for the chance it gives me to learn so much! I love you all and hope that you're doing well...sorry i've been so lame at commenting on your blogs this week, my week has been pretty crazy. (Mostly Chels, I get on to read yours but always get caught up in something...I'm being what I called you the weekend you were here, sorry!) Hope everyone had a fabulous night, can't wait to talk to you!

My Friday Night

2007-04-21T14:04:00.001-06:00

Just wanted to put up a quick post. We took this picture last night after the Virginia Tech vigil on campus last night. It was so neat to attend, I was impressed with how many students came, it was a great way for us to lend support to their campus. A few students who lost friends spoke and we sang a couple songs. They had a slideshow playing the whole time of all the victims…it was sobering to see how young a lot of them were. There was such a sweet spirit there, especially when we lit our candles and sang God Be With You Til We Meet Again. I think it’s comforting, even with as tragic as it was, to be able to feel the spirit and know that we have the gospel in our lives…just to see even a glimpse of the big picture and to have a peaceful assurance that Heavenly Father has a plan for all of us is such a blessing…I hope that the families can feel some of that comfort and peace, even with such a horrific loss.

On a lighter note, my next-door neighbor is getting married and has to sell his little puppy Wilson. He’s a pug/shitzu (I have no idea how to spell that!) mix…he’s like four pounds and is just the most adorable little thing I’ve ever seen. We’ve been considering getting a dog…partly because we desperately want one, partly because the girls who live down from us were robbed the other day and believe that the protection of a dog would help us sleep better at night…mark, the law student (okay, that was quite a big step to disclose his name) is not exactly thrilled about the idea of me getting a dog, so we took Wilson over to his house to convince him that Wilson was no longer a want but an absolute necessity. He thought Wilson was pretty cute…until he threw up on his carpet. Apparently Wilson doesn’t quite grasp the whole idea of being charming…because believe it or not after ralphing on his carpet he didn’t exactly win Mark over. I’ll take a picture of Wilson and post it soon so all of you can help me convince Mom and Dad that I should get him!

I’m making dinner for Mark tonight…I’m making chicken from the Mormon cookbook that is supposed to be incredible…I’m a little nervous…but Mom and Dad assured me that it would be impressive. I’ve always thought that, more important than the food, was the presentation, like making sure the table is set really nice and the kitchen is already clean…and there is music playing and the guest bathroom looks nice and there are candles lit…but supposedly the food has to taste good too…which might be a little much to ask…but I think what’s important is the effort…right? I’ll post some pictures later!
PS…maybe if the food is really good I’ll get lucky tonight (I won’t be posting pictures of that though, sorry)

I'm finally cool enough to post a picture!

2007-04-18T04:10:00.000-06:00

I was exhausted tonight (maybe because i've been up for almost 24 hours?!) but felt bad after studying with my law school buddy...he has a huge final tomorrow morning and is pretty stressed for it...I decided to make a good luck card for him (it's not even close to as cute as what all you guys make, but it was late and I could hardly keep my eyes open, i did struggle a bit with cutting the stars out!) and went to 7-11 (I was scared to go so late by myself!) and bought a "SKOR" bar (for a good skor on his test, not like skor with me) and a "TAKE 5" candybar (because hopefully he can take 5 after his first final and relax) and left them on his car...i hope he likes them! I put a picture up because I FINALLY bought a charger for my camera! It'll be exciting to put pictures up like everyone else! The other study date went well today too...but to be honest I can't do this much longer! I have a giant pile of clothes on my closet floor...for some reason I insist of changing outfits when I hang out with each of them...I'm starting to forget what outfits I wore with each of them...I'm sure some of you are wondering why I change clothes when I change boys, and to be honest I'm asking myself the same thing...which is a sign that i'm exhausted, so i'm heading to bed, I've had a long long long day...I think i'm coming down with something and have nothing but the library to look forward to this week! Love you all!
PS...thanks to Mom for the scrapbooking supplies...she brought that paper up for me over conference weekend, I really like it!

My Last Update for the Night! Read down, there are quite a few!

2007-04-17T06:16:00.000-06:00

So, as it is much too late this last blog will just be some random thoughts I still wanted to get in. Please excuse all gramatical errors, I'm hardly thinking straight!
1. I can't wait for the baby to come! I've been thinking a lot about her and am so anxious for the call that Mandy is in labor. I had the neatest experience last week in the temple while thinking about her...this is going to be such a speacial time for our family!

2. Congrats to Jon, I'm proud of you! I can't wait til he's practicing, I have about four cavities that I've been waiting to get filled, I'm hoping to be his first patient!

3. Here's a shout-out to Mom, my easter basket was especially great this year...it had the coolest books and cd's and little things in it, I really appreciate it!

4. I've loved hearing about all the wedding updates, any chance whit and ryan are starting a blog? I think everyone would enjoy it!

5. I get the worst sister award for this weekend, I didn't make it up to salt lake to see Chelsea while she was here, I feel awful, sorry! But a shout-out as well for chelsea, she cut my bangs and I love them.

6. Shout-out to Dad, just because he's cool.

7. The Bachelor was so good tonight! I definitely have a little crush on him!

8. I hope all of you are happy and healthy! I miss you all and am excited to be back up and blogging so we can keep in touch...i think about you often and keep you in my prayers. With everything that happened back in Virginia today I kept thinking about how blessed we are to have each other and the gospel, I really am fortunate! Hope to hear from you soon...love you lots!

The Rollercoaster of Love...what a ride:)

2007-04-17T05:12:00.000-06:00

So, my dating life has been, well, a little chaotic. Since everyone and their mother has recently started blogging I have to censor some of this...mostly just names, and with my luck I'll still get caught...oh well, I'm not going to lie, I probably deserve it! About three weeks ago I went to a friends house to watch the march madness basketball games with a bunch of people. I met a guy I hadn't seen before, which when you date like me doesn't happen often. He seemed cute and smart, but didn't ask for my number. I told Katelyn I thought he was cute...I thought my secret was safe with her, but apparently i have friends with large mouths. Later that week my girlfriends called and told me I absolutely had to go to the hot springs...I wasn't going to go because it was 10:30 and I still had homework, but two cars full of people showed up at my house...I couldn't figure out why my girlfriends were so insistent on me going! Well, I gave in and got ready quick and to my surprise when I went out to get in the car with all my girlfriends they told me to get in the other car...with the boy from the other day. Come to find out later that between my friends and his friends a little plan was devised to get us together...his friends woke the poor boy up and told him he had to go to the hot springs because one of the girls thought he was cute, and I guess through elimination he figured out it was me. Yes, this was quite embarrassing for me...but i looked at the positive side, at least he was smart enough to figure out that it was me who thought he was cute, and i definitely have a thing for smart boys. So, to make a long story short, which I happen to be dreadful at...he and I started hanging out. He is a first year law student at BYU...he played lacross throughout college and is from utah. I've had a lot of fun hanging out with him...we've been out quite a bit, he even took me to his basketball game when the byu law students played against the utah law students. I got to sit amongst all the wives...it was pretty funny to watch both of us turn red when people would ask how we knew each other and if we were dating...word among the first year law students is I'm his girlfriend, it's a little scary, but i have ears everywhere! I've met his sister and brother and even had him over to watch Pride and Prejudice. He and I get along really well but are quite different...but I've been enjoying spending time with him, we laugh a lot and I think have that natural chemistry. Last friday after dinner we went to the library (he has law finals coming up and is really stressed)...I was pretty excited to study with him...mostly because I've seen The Prince and Me...and who can forget what happened in the stacks (for those who haven't seen it, they totally get it on). That didn't happen for me though...not even a kiss...which I really can only blame myself for because I was the dork that suggested we wait to kiss til we know that something could happen between us...but also because I had just started hanging out with someone else...boy, this is a lot to write! So, there has been a boy in my ward that i've thought was cute for a while, he lives right down from me...he always comes to my sunday school class and I sometimes eat lunch with one of his roommates. He's 22 and from Laguna Beach, he goes to BYU and is majoring in business. He started stopping by my apartment and came over to dye eggs on easter sunday as a little apartment date thing. He asked me to go to dinner with him the next day. Well, while talking to my Mom and filling her in on all the details about him she realized that she may have dated his Dad. So, when he picked me up to go to dinner I asked him what his Dad's name is, and sure enough, they dated! We laughed all night about it! We went to dinner at The Foundry Grill up in Sundance...it was so good! We got to sit in our own little room by the fireplace...it was pretty romantic, but I think both of us felt a little awkward, just because it was our first date. We've hung out quite a few times since then...mostly just at each other's apartments. On saturday he called to see if he could take me to lunch. When he picked me up he had a picnic packed and took me to a park for lunch...he even brought chocolate cake from Magleby's, which is simply to die for! He's very sweet and a little more shy than the other one, but i've enjoyed getting to know him, he's very spiritual and seems genuine. The more I spend time with him the more I like him...I've been taking it really really slow with him...kind of because there is someone else. This has all been a little stressful...for a few different reasons...first because the second one lives down from me there is always a risk that he sees the other one coming over. Second, because I sometimes forget the name of the one i'm with...they're pretty generic names, and how awkward would it be if I got them mixed up?! Third, neither one of them really know about the other one. This isn't really crucial information mostly because i haven't kissed either one, and haven't even cuddled with the second one (I have a lot with the first one). Fourth, my roommates want to kill me because both boys talk to them about me. The second one even called Michelle and asked her for advice...I told her good luck and to let me know what she told him, which apparently didn't help when he cornered her yesterday. Fifth, i'm supposed to study with both tomorrow, at the same time. So, I've been thinking of a few different ideas, most of which have been veto'd. I thought bringing both to Whitney's wedding and taking a family vote was one of the best ideas I had, but Mom said that was a for sure no. I tried talking Dad into coming out and meeting both so he could decide, but he's been pretty busy...I also thought of doing a Bachelor style two on one date where one gets the rose and the other goes home, but i'm not exactly sure if they would be up for that. So if you guys could submit a few new ideas that'd be great...Ryan's idea of kissing both and just picking the better kisser was not a good suggestion, it needs to be something better than that! As you can imagine it's been a pretty crazy couple of weeks with too many late nights and not enough decision making! My gosh, if someone reads this i'm in so so so much trouble! Now that i'm all caught up I'll be able to make updates more frequently...which could really start to get confusing!

The Provo Marathon

2007-04-17T05:09:00.000-06:00

I have recently begun training for a 1/2 marathon in August...i'm getting excited! I'm running (or attempting to) 4-5 miles, 3 times a week. I've been runnning either at the gym or down along the provo river trail up the canyon. I've really been enjoying it, it's a nice break from sitting inside at school and the weather has been incredible! Everything is in bloom and is so peaceful, I've even been running without my ipod, it's nice to just be alone and free to think. I had been running about 15 mintues the other day when it started pouring...i ran as fast as I could back to my car but I was drenched...I'm just grateful I haven't caught a cold! I've made a couple new friends with other runners and the homeless man that hangs out under the overpass...well, we didn't so much as make friends and I just got a little nervous and have started to run a different way. I hope I can keep up training during the summer heat...I think it'll be worth it!

Idiot Neighbors!

2007-04-17T05:02:00.000-06:00

About a week ago Michelle and I were sitting on our couch in our family room watching tv at around midnight when someone started throwing things at our window...I thought it was just my weiner neighbors and I crouched down...if they know I'm home they'll sit outside and yell "dragon" for like fifteen minutes. Anyway, I assumed they were throwing rocks, but it was really loud, I thought the window was going to break! I moved the blinds to see if they were gone to find our windows covered in something! We ran outside and were shocked to see our windows and house covered in what looked like egg. We walked around the house to check out the damage when the car who had been out front when it happened pulled in front of our house with their lights off...right away I knew it had to be idiot boys, because who comes back that soon?! So, Michelle chased after them on foot while I ran and got my keys...she had made it down the block by the time i picked her up. We called the police because we didn't recognize the car...not to mention our terrible history of being attacked, just to name a few...fireworks on our porch, our cars have been ceran wrapped, the house and cars have been covered in shaving cream, all our mattresses, couch cushions and pillows were stolen, the black toilet was put on our porch, all our pictures were stolen out of our house, toilet papered, power boxed (where boys come and shut off our power from the little box thing in the garage), and egged, we've kind of had it! So after a short high speed chase two boys were pulled over and escorted to our house by four, yes four, police cars with their lights on and everything!(it must have been a slow night in provo!) I was so anxious to see who had done it...boy was I surprised to open the door and see our home teachers standing there! These two brainiacs decided to paintball our house because, and I quote, "well, we hadn't hung out in a while and we thought it'd be a fun way to kick it again." The most amusing thing of all was watching them clean off all 25 paintballs while the policemen made fun of them...they thought it was pretty funny! It was like watching two thirteen year old boys as they hung their head in shame...one policeman kept refering to them as Romeo's who didn't have a clue...they even called another squad car to come watch. I made friends with all of the officers and am hoping the new friendship will come in handy! I offered them cookies, but they were called away. Everyone came out of their apartments to see what was going on...it was quite the exciting night! I still have pink paintball marks on my third story window and am at a loss to how to clean it all off!

I'm Back!

2007-04-17T05:00:00.000-06:00

Due to recent death threats I have decided to update my blog. The recent absence has not been from a lack of entertaining news, but rather the abundance of comical adventures and a major shortage of time...so, to update you all I've decided to do several posts. Not to make anyone feel guilty (mom and mandy) but i should be studying...but this is a very nice little break. My life will suck this week, I'll mostly be in the library...which right now sounds about as fun as ripping my nails off! But it'll all be over with next week! Not to mention I have to continually find new little secret places to study in the library so I don't see anyone because apparently I don't make a great study partner...honestly, how could someone think I talk too much?! So...where to begin...

My 2nd Blog of the day...For Your Enjoyment...a Playlist!

2007-03-14T04:46:00.000-06:00

I was making a couple new playlists tonight in iTunes and recalled the time when I sat the family down and played my theme songs...a collection of songs that I felt truly depicted who I was and how i was feeling...I also recalled the joy you all found in that so I have decided to post a playlist! Since I'm not with you to explain why i've selected the songs I'll write a quick reason...this playlist makes a great CD...let me know if you want one!

1. The Winner Takes it All- ABBA
Is there such thing as a playlist without ABBA? They're able to tell the story of a defeated love, and you still can't help but
tap your feet along to it!
2. DON'T MATTER- AKON
I think Emma would like this song...I like turning it up loud in my car!
3. YOU DON'T KNOW MY NAME- ALICIA KEYS
This song is a shout-out to my new "boyfriend"...i've dumped my "gym boyfriend" (the one who still doesn't know I exist)
for a definite keeper. I've only seen him driving, but I think he's the one...he doesn't know my name (if you want to be technical, he doesn't even know i exist), but someday he will!
4. HE WASN'T- AVRIL LAVIGNE
Avril is a true poet, she sure knows how to capture the tone of angry girls..."He wasn't what I wanted, what I thought, no.
He wouldn't even open up the door. He never made me feel like I was special, He isn't really what i'm looking for"
5. QUIT PLAYING GAMES WITH MY HEART- BACKSTREET BOYS
I knew these guys would come through for me...they've been able to combine pathetic pleading with upbeat dance moves,
does it get much better? I don't think so.
6. IRREPLACABLE- BEYONCE
To the left, to the left, everything you own in a box to the left.
7. ARE YOU LONESOME TONIGHT?- ELVIS
If i weren't lonesome do you really think i'd be posting a playlist on my blog?
8. I BELIEVE IN A THING CALLED LOVE- THE DARKNESS
"My heart's in overdrive and you're behind the steering wheel" Nothing else needs to be said.
9. HANDS DOWN- DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL
"My heart is yours to fill or burst, to break or bury, or wear as jewelry, whichever you prefer." This is everyone's favorite
group to listen to when you're either really excited about someone or considering throwing yourself out a window.
10. MR. RIGHT OR MR. RIGHT NOW
I'm waiting for a guy to sing this to me..."I can tell by the way you've been turning men down, not your ordinary guy is
gonna do, You've been waitin' for that someone who can turn your head around, well now honey, i'm that special one
for you."
11. CRUSH- GAVIN DEGRAW
I listen to this about 36 times when I have a new crush!
12. FOOL'S LIKE ME- GREY'S ANATOMY
"Love was surely made for fools like me"
13. CUPID'S CHOKEHOLD- GYM CLASS HEROES
"I mean, she even cooks me pancakes and gives me alka seltzer when my tummy aches, if that ain't love than i don't
know what love is" I laugh everytime I listen to this song...it is actually really funny, but somehow reminds me of
something i'd say!
14. JACK JOHNSON- BETTER TOGETHER
This is a total summer song but romantic at the same time...It's on everyone's make-out mix...from what i hear.
15. MIKA- GRACE KELLY
This song makes me want to jump around, I listen to it when I need a study break and I march around my room
16. FIDELITY- REGINA SPEKTOR
I can't forsee a time when I could listen to this song without smiling...everyone hated when it was my callback tone, I was
only attempting to spread cheer throughout the world.
17. PICTURE TO BURN- TAYLOR SWIFT
"I think this says it perfectly..."So go and tell your friends that i'm obsessive and crazy, that's fine, i'll tell mine you're gay"
I think it blends class and complete disdain perfectly!
18. IT'S ONLY MY HEART- BATDORF&MCLEAN
This is one of the most depressing songs i've ever heard, but sometimes you just have to hear it..."i've been measuring all the damage over time, seems for just a few things my recovery's slow, but, it's only my heart, it's only my mind, it's only my soul"
The truth is a sad realization...and when you listen to this song it hits you like a brick wall.
19. ETERNAL FLAME- THE BANGLES
I don't know if a greater question was ever asked...am i only dreaming or is this burning an eternal flame?

"The Dragon"

2007-03-14T02:30:00.000-06:00

It's been a while since I've updated my blog...I have been crazy busy, even more than normal...I have lots to write about! I hope Daddy is feeling better...I was shocked to hear he actually went to San Francisco for the day! Apparently someone doesn't understand the whole concept of taking it easy...either way I hope he's doing better, he's been in my prayers lots! Also, I am getting even more excited about the wedding! I love the colors whit picked out for dresses...it's been so fun to hear all the details...I think everything will be beautiful! I'm happy to hear that whit and mom are having fun doing it as well...I'm sure it's been a great experience! Anyway...now on to a little update...

I had a great weekend...my blind date of friday night went well, he seemed like a nice guy...he's from washington and is 25. He's a little more shy than guys i usually go out with, but that might be a good thing! He's in the MBA program at BYU and working on his thesis for his masters, he's inventing some sort of cool thing...it made sense when he explained it, but now it's a big blur...science was never my strong subject! I was a little embarrassed at dinner when a guy I dated in january for about four and a half days walked over to the table to say hi...turns out he knew my date, of course! We were going to go roller skating after dinner, but were too late to make the last session so we went back and played sequence...it was a lot of fun! I'd hang out with him again...he text me on sunday and wanted to go out again this weekend...but i'll be out of town.

Saturday night I went to a Nacho Libre party....what is this you ask? Good question, I actually asked it too. Apparently it's an excuse for guys in Provo to dress up in tights, masks and capes attempting to look like wrestlers. No girls dressed up, but there were a handful of boys who were way too eager to put on tights. One guy wore really tight short shorts and put oil all over his body...and let's just say it wasn't the most fit body...I don't think anyone should have seen it...it was as bad as it sounds. It was definitely interesting!

Church was great as always...I didn't have to teach, so it's a bit more relaxing...and I actually get to use the fifteen minutes between classes to talk. I'm not sure most wards allot fifteen minutes to socializing, but our stake definitely encourages it. I had to say the prayer at ward prayer on sunday night...I was almost more nervous to do that then teach! I'm such a spaz! I went to a dessert party and watched a movie with some friends later on.

This week has been so nice...it feels like spring is here! Everyone has been outside laying on the grass and wearing shorts...I'm afraid it's going to snow again, but i've loved the teaser! I've been able to drive with my sunroof open and my windows down and actually wore a sundress to school! I love spring in Provo...everyone's hormones defrost...mom and dad should come up for church to experience that! The snow on Y mountain has melted and people have been hiking it...there are tons of scooters and motorcycles out (don't worry dad, i haven't been on one yet!) and the long boarders have returned. They ride down seven peaks blvd. going about 40 miles an hour...it's so scary when they do it at night because you can't see them when pulling out of our complex...I can't believe the dumb things boys find to do! I can't wait for all the trees to bloom...then it'll officially be spring!

There are a couple boys in my ward who love to harass me...they're out of control! After hearing some embellished stories from an old neighbor (we'll call him Mason) who I happened to date I acquired the nickname "The Dragon". Apparently this isn't a nice nickname...i know what you're thinking, I was shocked too! They claim Mason is like a sweet butterfly...they sent me a ward gram of a picture of a dragon breathing fire onto a butterfly and killing it as a symbol of mine and mason's break-up (in my defense I didn't even kiss this boy, we merely dated for like two weeks). Tonight the harrassment reached an all time high. My neighbor sent me the picture above next to the statement, Someone once asked me who the meanest person I have ever met was. Ohhh, that was hard, with out a doubt LINDSEY K. aka “The Dragon.” He has threatened that if i am not nice to him the rest of the week he will post it along with reasons why i'm "The Dragon" on his blog. Is it any wonder why I don't like boys?! Luckily he's moving this spring, I'm counting down the days!

I'm excited to go home this weekend...the beach has been calling my name! I'm sorry if i haven't text some of you back this week...my phone has been acting kind of funky...i think they put up cell blockers at school, or something like that because I've hardly been getting service! If i don't respond call me and I'll be sure to call you back. I love you all and hope that you are having a great week!

I Survived the LoveSac Trap!

2007-03-09T00:47:00.000-07:00

I'm just getting ready for bed and I couldn't resist updating my blog...I went on a date tonight and I thought you guys would enjoy hearing the details! I met my date right after New Year's this year, he's from Utah and was visiting his family here on break from med school, he's in his first year. Michelle and I went with a big group of people to dinner and played games...he showed up while we were playing games. He talked to me quite a bit, but I figured it was just because there were way more boys than girls...he seemed nice, but I wasn't paying particular attention to any specific boy, so I didn't seem to notice. A couple days later I started getting texts from him...I had no idea how he got my number and he refused to tell me! I was a little wierded out, but it seemed pretty harmless, I had distance on my side. The past couple months he has called me often...I think it was a case of him being away at school with no prospects and the convienance of modern day communication that led to the idea that maybe there was something going on. I knew he was coming into town for spring break, time sure crept up on me, all the sudden he was here. He got into town last weekend when I was occupied with Mom and Dad...he was a little upset that he was in town and I seemed so busy...turns out it was his birthday yesterday too, I felt pretty awful that I had been avoiding him. I agreed to go out tonight, figuring I had stalled enough and it was getting down to the wire. He picked me up at seven...it was a little awkward at first, I had only met him once and we hung out in a big group and now he was at my doorstep picking me up for a date! We went to dinner at Macaroni Grill...things were going well, he's smart and easy to talk to...then he asked me to meet his family and visit him away at med school. I quickly began talking and I'm pretty sure I didn't stop the rest of the night. In my head I imagine that if I go a million miles a minute they will first think i'm a little crazy, and second it won't allow them to bring up absurd things, like me visiting him at school. So I talked and I talked and I talked...about anything and everything. Did it deter him? No. He said, "that's what I love about you Linz, you're so passionate about everything, you're not afraid to speak up!" I was a bit confused...i wanted to be honest with him though, I told him that lately I hadn't been very interested in boys, I would possibly be away for the summer and didn't want to start something with someone at this point. We had plans to go rock climbing after dinner. I thought this was an original idea, I actually haven't ever done that on a date...but after eating Macaroni Grill I wasn't exactly stoked...not to mention that I am a Kershaw and happen to be somewhat clumsy! Luckily, the place was super crowded and we would have only had a few minutes to climb (I believe my luck has changed...either that or my prayers had been answered) so off we went bowling. We finished our first game in about 15 minutes...after seeing how awful I was he suggested a second game...of course with a bet of whoever loses has to buy dinner for the other person at a restaurant of their choice! I agreed, knowing that he wouldn't be in town again until summer. After bowling I assumed our date was coming to a close, but he suggested we go back to my place to watch Pride and Prejudice, he had never seen it and knows it's one of my favorites. He said he wanted to experience it for the first time with someone who had read the book and loved it so that they could help narrate the story. I thought that was a bit overboard, he could have just said he wanted to watch a movie! While I was putting it on he jumped on the lovesac...I cursed myself for having the dumb thing, i tried to sit on the couch, but it just doesn't work...it's pure trickery. For those of you who haven't experienced the joy of a lovesac let me explain. A lovesac is like a giant bean bag, but it's filled with foam, it's pretty comfortable, but let's be honest, the main reason everyone has them is for cuddling. When two people lay in a lovesac it creates this little crevice, your both sink toward the center...it forces your bodies very very close, allowing you to "naturally" cuddle. I spent the next two hours holding onto the side of the lovesac for dear life, i was determined to not fall into the trap...when you "naturally cuddle" the next step is "natrually kissing"...i've been in provo way too long to fall for that! My neck is very sore now, in my determination I think I kinked it:( He kept asking me to pause it to explain little details...i was impressed he was so interested in the movie...at the end he even wanted to discuss a couple things that intrigued him. I enjoyed this until we started discussing the part where after Mr. Darcy proposes and Elizabeth is still hesitant with her feelings for him...she doesn't want him to walk her back to the city while she's visiting Pemberley with her Aunt and Uncle. He said that in this case, even though Elizabeth was hesitant and didn't want something to happen, Mr. Darcy should have chased after her because he knew what he wanted and was sure that deep down Elizabeth felt the same way. Just because she had her reservations it didn't mean all way lost for them, they could make it work even though they were from two different worlds. I suggested he read the book because that was not at all correct, and it would never work had he chased after her because he would have been acting like Mr. Collins, the man who just didn't get it...she had to figure it out on her own, she was independent and fully capable of deciphering her feelings on the situation and would ultimately have to make that choice. I thought i had made a valid argument, but he claimed that I couldn't see what was really going on because I, like Elizabeth, was too stubborn. I had a feeling we weren't talking only about the movie. He told me he would try to read the book, but didn't know if he would have time, so instead he said he'd get the movie so he could watch it again to attempt to figure Elizabeth out. We chatted for a little longer and then he left. I had a good time with him, he seems like a great guy, he's very sweet and considerate, he's even pretty cute...he'll make some girl very happy...but it seems a little unrealistic to date someone who lives so far away...okay, okay, if I felt that way about him I'd find a way to make it work...but regardless he is a great guy!

My dating life, or lack thereof, has been drawing some attention. I'm being set up on yet another blind date tomorrow night. I'm not sure if I should take offense to so many people wanting to set me up...I've been left to contemplate if people assume i'm not capable of finding my own dates...everyone seems to know someone i'd be, "just perfect for!" Now this is going to be a very very blind date, I know very little, which could turn out to be a recipe for disaster! Oh well, I'm anxous to write my blog tomorrow night to let you all know how it went! I love you all lots...I've thoroughly enjoyed reading your blogs!

ps...i found out how he got my number...he asked if he could look at my phone while we were all hanging out because he hadn't seen that particular one. He called himself from my phone so my number would be in his phone...very sneaky!

My first official shout out!

2007-03-06T23:13:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been awhile...i haven't had much time to do anything, but i finally decided it was time to sit and write about my weekend! Sometimes I feel as if i struggle to just write the big moments in the weekend, it's like i want to share every moment and every detail (it's like a severe case of TMI!) that everytime i write it's like 14 pages long...so after this blog I vow to work on keeping them short and sweet...but somethings need explaining, i like to paint a vivid picture!

Here is my first official shout out...to my mom and dad! I had such a blast with them this weekend...i can't remember the last time it was just them and me, but it was great to be selfish with them for a weekend. I am now even more convinced that i do have the coolest parents ever! We went to the roof for dinner on friday night, it was so good...i'm pretty sure i ate about three of my normal meals in one sitting, and the dessert was pure heaven, i had about four...i think mom and dad were embarassed, people probably thought i hadn't eaten in weeks! I had to laugh when the waitress came to the table and asked if there would only be three of us for dinner...for a brief second i had a picture in my head of me being forty and still at dinner with mom and dad...hopefully dad will still be paying! We went back to their hotel for a bit after dinner...it was quite apparent how tired and overworked they are, they fell asleep in about two minutes, dad was even sitting up! I felt so bad I let them go to sleep. I ended up hanging out with Matt for a while when i got home...i was happy to see him again. On saturday daddy went skiing, he was so excited, he was like a little boy! Mom and I went to cafe rio for lunch...it was my second dose of heaven in 24 hours. We went shopping for a bit, i enjoyed having mom there to talk to about everything, she's such a good sport to listen! They went off to the wedding while i went to the byu basketball game (go cougars! they smoked the utes!) and hung out with friends. I loved having mom and dad come to church with me...it's so fun to have them see what i do every week. I appreciated them being patient while i stopped and socialized in between sacrament and sunday school...even though they compare it to swimming through hormones! I was surprised i found myself a bit nervous to have them in my lesson...it's the first time they sat in for it, but i was so grateful they came! My class was very well behaved and attentive...i was relieved to see that the boys were out of town who usually hold up signs in the back of the room with messages on them. It was one of my favorite lessons i have taught. I learned a great deal and felt my testimony strengthen as i studied and prepared. The beatitudes are something that can so improve our lives...i feel like the sermon on the mount was a moment of change for the world...christ was able to give us an enormous amount of responsibility with great consequences...even with teaching such important doctrine he was so sensitive and thoughtful...he was able to teach it in a way that was clear to those hearing it that very day and to us thousands of years later. It is a demonstration of his perfect love and understanding...i feel inadequate and humbled to be able to teach such deep and powerful doctrine but find myself filled with gratitude to do so! I love that my class speaks up, they have great insight and it feels more like a big discussion than a lesson. Mom got to read a quote about parents loving their children, even when it was undeserved...i feel that way a lot! They have always filled their home with love...and even though i'm living away whenever they come to visit there is a certain sense of safety and love i feel. I was definitely surprised to see Matt walk in, i hadn't told him i was teaching...or that i was even a teacher, but the guy who set us up told him. When i looked up at him i had to stop myself from saying, "oh, hi!"...he drove down from salt lake to come to it...i was glad he made the effort. Mom and dad both said they knew exactly who he was when he walked in, they could tell by my face, i hope the rest of the class couldn't tell! After church and dinner mom and dad were awesome enough to help hang about 45 pictures in my room. Poor dad had hurt his back and i know they were both pretty tired, but they were troopers and got my room looking absolutely darling! (PS...i was able to get my house all clean before they came!) Mom always has the cutest ideas and I've never met anyone who can hang a picture straighter than dad! They even let me turn on a cheesy Lifetime movie...i wasn't a ton of help...there is a big window in my room that overlooks the street between our townhomes and two other big complexes, it's always entertaining to watch the chaos! I was sad to see them go, but i loved having them visit! They do so much for me and are always so thoughtful of my feelings and what's going on in my life...they have done such a great job as parents...i have always felt loved! Thanks again for visiting! I was able to hang out with Matt a couple more times before he left. I learned lots about him and think he seems like a great guy...i'm not sure when i'll see him again, but i would definitely hang out with him if i had the chance! It was an eventful weekend...it left me tired! i have a crazy week of pretty much non-stop studying...i have a couple of big tests this week, it's crucial i'm prepared and know i'll spend a giant portion of the week in the library. I finally escaped for a while tonight to go to the gym, i needed a break! I'm not sure how exciting my week is, but hopefully i'll have something fun to update you all with! I love you all lots and am grateful for the many blessings we've been given...i hope you're all doing great!

Good thing i'm not the dramatic sister:)

2007-03-01T21:06:00.000-07:00

Tonight's events have brought me to contemplate some of life's mysteries. Things like destiny and fate for example, or even karma...those little things that somehow help bring everything together. After some serious reflecting I have come to the conclusion that I am currently going through a luck drought. You may think i'm being hasty to come to such a sobering conclusion, but i am sure of it. It's not that nothing good ever happens, it couldn't be farther from that...it's just that a few specific events that have taken place over the last couple weeks have caused me to question if destiny, fate or whatever it is is playing a mean trick on me. I have come up with a list of the top ten reasons to prove why i am no longer lucky.

10. I tripped walking up the stairs today and fell all the way to the ground...in front of everyone during a passing break, spilling the contents of my bag between ten different steps...I quickly gathered everything, except for my dignity, which was no where to be found. Thinking the worst was over I was walking down a crowded hallway when a boy came walking up quickly and yelled, "hey, here's your lipgloss. It fell to the bottom of the stairs when you tripped. are you okay? that looked like a nasty spill!"

9. I totally left the tag on my shirt last week when i went out to a huge dessert party.

8. I got set up on the world's worst blind date (this guy is from utah)...he was two hours late when he finally called. When I met him he was wearing capri pants...no joke, capri pants with plaid tennis shoes. He then showed up, uninvited, to my house for michelle's birthday party in which he attempted to light my kitchen on fire. When I asked him to stop he actually threw an orange at my head...i wish i were joking, but i'm not. And last saturday i ran into him at the lift at sundance. He had gotten his pass taken away for going out of bounds and wasn't allowed to ski the rest of the day. He stayed at the lift so we could talk everytime i came down the mountain.

7. While rearranging our bookshelves I picked up my budha statue by his head and it just fell off. I didn't drop it or anything, the head simply just broke off...if that's not a sign i'm not sure what is!

6. Michelle went home for the weekend...all the creeper boys found out and now know i'm home alone. Unwelcomed random stop by's are the worst. Four in the last 24 hours and counting!

5. After taking my car into the shop this week my entire car radio would not turn on...for no reason it was just broken.

4. I've gathered quite the large music library on my computer over the past couple years which is, of course, not backed up. After having a little problem with my computer i turned it off and to my surprise when i turned it back on all 5,300 songs had disappeared. After two and a half hours i got most of it back though!

3. It's 2:20 and I still have to clean my apartment...and not just normal clean, like really clean...mom's coming tomorrow! (okay, this one really doesn't have to do with luck, this is plain and simple my fault!)

2. I got my Chanel bracelet back yesterday from the repair place...the little bird head fell off over thanksgiving and they had to put it back on. I wore the bracelet out tonight and when I took it off I looked down and the bird head had fallen off again.

1. My blind date from california text me today while i was at school...i text him back during class but didn't hear back from him all day. To my surprise I walked into my girlfriend's jean party tonight and he was standing in the entryway. I didn't even know he was coming today! We had a pretty awkward encounter, it was a little embarassing to run into him not knowing if he was going to call me or what was going on...Come to find out later my text didn't send, it was in my sent box showing it had been canceled, so he thought i was blowing him off. It was pretty awkward!

Okay, so i feel better now that i've vented and been sufficiently dramatic! Although i have had quite the little run of bad luck I do know how blessed I truly am. I have the world's greatest family, friends who i adore and i'm able to go to an awesome school...I'm happy knowing that one day my crazy life will make an incredible book! I know everyone gets tired of hearing all the details, but it helps knowing that i have you guys to talk to. It really did make my day much much better to see that cute picture of Emma windexing the windows! I love not knowing what my life will be like next week...although it can be a little nerve-wracking it's exciting to think that something great is right around the corner...whether it be an awesome grade on my next paper, going to visit mandy and emma or even that long awaited second date! I love you all more than i can say and am so thankful that i have you to share my stories with...especially mom, who is always sure to spend time talking to me, even though i know she is beyond busy! I pray for each of you everyday...i feel so blessed to have such admirable examples in my life. This summer is going to be the best...between the new baby, the wedding and mandy and jon (and hopefully in the near future chels and dan!) moving closer...there is so much we have to look forward to! I love you all!

PS...After calling Mom and telling her that something was definitely wrong with me things started to look up. I ended up hanging out with the guy from california...he even sent me a text after saying he had a really good time and i was "a really cool girl"

2007-02-28T01:29:00.000-07:00

Well, i'm happy to be home tonight! I had a long day...I woke up this morning and it was snowing like crazy! The thought of ditching school to go skiing was quite enticing, but i fought the urge...walking on campus is NOT fun in the snow...thank heavens I still have Mom's black uggs! I was very grateful the snow died down by my second class, and I have great friends who will come pick me up so I don't have to take the bus (when it's cold it smells funny...and let's be honest, there are lots of zoobies!)...I was sad I missed Mandy's call, but i was a little nervous when I checked her message and she mentioned something about how comfortable i'd feel being in the delivery room in the event that she goes into labor while I'm visiting and Jon's gone. It took a couple minutes, but after the hot flashes and the nausea went away I decided I could handle it. I'm going to rent the Miracle of Birth to get a few pointers, I think it could be a great experience!
My girlfriends and I went ward hopping on sunday to scout out some different apartments...mostly the male tenants...we met a guy named Stan (this should have been our first clue!) and decided to meet him and a bunch of his friends for a movie night. He was having seven or eight guys over...i thought the odds were in my favor enough to even make cookies! When we got there I was the first one to walk in...I'm not going to lie, i had to fight the urge to turn around and run out. It was pretty bad. They were awkward to say the least...one told me it was the first time they'd hung out with girls in a couple months. My friends and I quickly sat down and huddled in one lovesac when the boys informed up there was a strict staggering rule in the apartment...the seating arrangement had to go boy girl boy girl. Kaitlyn was smart enough to jump up and grab the nearest barstool and Stan jumped (i'm not kidding, it was pretty much a body slam) inbetween michelle and i on the lovesac...he was WAY to close for comfort...I sat on the kitchen counter for the remainder of our visit. We managed to find a good reason to leave...things like, i have work at 7am, my roommate just broke up with her boyfriend and i have to go see if she's okay and i'm suddenly feeling like i'm going to hurl were muttered as we made our way to the door. And to think i showered AND baked for this! Oh well! I got home thinking i'd do a bit of reading and head to bed when an old fling (i'd mention names, but i'm afraid at some point it could get me in trouble!) stopped by with his dog...he knows his dog is my weakness! Both were very cute...very sweet...and very tempting, but i sent them on their way (you may not think this a difficult task, but let me remind you he is tall, extremely handsome and charming)...it broke my heart a bit to see them go, but i knew it was for the best. After a night like this I felt like the only thing to do was sit down with my favorite book, pride and prejudice...i wondered if reading about mr. darcy again would give me a false sense of reality...but after a couple moments of serious contemplation i concluded that that was just silly! I'm sure my own mr. darcy is hanging around provo just waiting to sweep me off my feet!
I'm teaching sunday school this week on the sermon on the mount...it's been really interesting to study...if anyone knows of any neat stories that would go well with the lesson i'd love the input. I'm excited mom and dad will be here for it!
I'm so excited for everyone else in the family to start their own blogs...this is going to be so fun! I am slightly worried it's going to become my little journal...after proofreading (dorky i know, but it's habit) I realized you may not all want to know about my daily drama! Thanks mom for putting the picture on for me...it's one of my favorites! I miss being tan too, it was nice to remenisce about hawaii after being in the snow all day! I love you all lots...hope everyone had a great day!

My First Official Post!

2007-02-26T19:25:00.000-07:00

So I'm thinking this could turn out to be a nice little outlet for me! I'm getting ready for bed...I had a wonderful evening of Family Home Evening, studying and the laundry-mat...although I have a washer and dryer in my apartment, I was forced to pay a visit to the laundry-mat...you have to do things like that when you have five loads of laundry (i'm not sure, but i think i inherited that habit:)!) I was so happy when I found out What About Brian wasn't on, it's one of my new favorite shows. I've been able to acquire about eight new shows...it's possible when I ignore my social life...or at least boys! I feel good tonight...all my clothes are cleaned and put away (a rare occasion!), I'm caught up on homework and studying, mom and dad are coming to visit this weekend and there is a chance I could have a second date this weekend! I haven't had a second date in almost two months...they're becoming rare! He's finishing law school in california, so it's a long distance thing and there is a chance he may not call while he's up here (i just realized it's going to be a slight dose of public humiliation when he doesn't call!)...but i'll be sure to keep you all informed, keep your fingers crossed! My camera charger was somehow left in California (whit if you stumble across it can you send it up with mom? Thanks!) so as soon as i get it i can post some more recent pictures! I hope everyone is doing well and finds themselves in a happy place! My car stereo for some reason won't turn on, so i was left alone with my thoughts today (it can sometimes be a scary thing!), i thought about you all...it's lonesome being here without any of my sisters! Hope to hear from all of you soon...Love you!

A New Beginning

2007-02-26T18:48:00.001-07:00

After checking out Mandy's cute blog, I decided to take a cue from my much more together sister and start my own. I figure family and friends may find some amount of entertainment reading my posts...and as an english major and aspiring author I have much to write! I do understand the risk of embarassment...i'm sure there will be plenty to tease me about! With our family spread across the country and only so many hours in a day, this will be a great way to stay connected. As the last remaining single Kershaw girl, I feel a certain obligation to share the details of my undeniably comical life. I miss you all lots and send my love!