Roomate Celebration!

Friday Tara found out she was accepted into the accounting program. It was extra incredible because she turned in all her stuff only about 2 weeks before and no one was supposed to find out till middle/end of february! SOOOOO basically she's really great! Syd and I wanted to celebrate for her and Whit, who was accepted into the el-ed program at the beginning of fall semester, but we hadn't celebrated it yet, so we did a duo party! Here's some pictures of the cupcakes we made them and the sign Syd so beautifully created!

xoxo

What a wonderful feeling!

Oh man. This has turned out to be a fantastic week! I mean, aside from my near-frostbit experience, it has been a really good one!

-Salt Lake Center classes are going fantastic

-Made HUGE progress in my genealogy stuff

-Decided I'm going home this summer

-Get to nanny this summer for the families I nannied in High School for full-time work

-It's warming up during the day

-It has not snowed the past couple days

-Met some other non-freshmen in my freshmen courses

-Spent a lot of time with my mini-tramp

-I am having a good hairday

-Just feeling so happy!

p.s. can I just say how much fun I'd think it'd be to live in the "Singin' in the Rain" era! Seriously, everyone was so classy, yet still a little wild. p.s.s. also can I throw out there how great it feels to be getting sleep! With work I have to be out the door by 7:30, or I'm screwed, so the mornings are EARLY. Because of my early mornins I've actually been going to bed and for the first time since...uhh maybe early high school years, I'm getting sleep! It's the most awesome feeling! I do feel like an old fart, though,when I go out, I sometimes get tired early....that's not okay. But for the most part, feeling rested WAY outweighs the cons!

xoxo

Well...

I AM GOIN HOME THIS SUMMER!!!!

New Loves

I LOVE MY TRAMPOLINE!

And FACEMASKS W/ SYD!

xoxo

It's Up!

I've posted my Family Research Blog on the top right side! Please be patient, I'm just starting out, I will post stuff as I find out more, but there may not be anything too interesting yet. I'll let you know if I've posted some exciting stuff!

xoxo

There's no place like home....

SO, great news ladies and gentlemen, I may be able to go home for Summer!! I'm so excited! I've been feeling kind of sick about living in Utah again this summer. I kind of know this will be my last chance to really go live at home before life starts picking up!

The #1 thing about going home is definitely to be able to spend time with my family before I get any older! I want to be able to spend time with my brothers, now that I'm mature enough to enjoy their company. There are also some other bomb things about Franklin, though. I hope you enjoy this mini salespitch I'm throwing. Also, anyone who ever wants to come visit is more than welcome to stay @ my house!

#2 intense Civil war history

Battle of Franklin is said to be the single most bloody day in the civil war. My ward is named after the epic hill (Winstead Hill) Every year we have a pancake memorial breakfast out on Winstead hill. It's said that all of Franklin was ankle-deep in blood....yeah gross. It was confederate land, so it's rich in that history as well w/ confederate graveyards and memorials all over the place

Carnton Plantation that was taken over by Union soldiers and it was used as a Yankee hospital.

#3 Awesome Scenery: incredible sunrises and sets, lots of trees, pastures, and naturally green

#4 Lots of celebrities

It's not uncommon to see someone famous often. It's funny, because Franklin is no big city, but lots of celebrities live or have moved to Franklin. Some include:

Trey and Miley Cyrus- Miley's brother and lead singer of Metro Station, yes he was in my class freshman and sophomore year of hs, but back then he was quiet and had blonde shaggy hair and 0 tattos and piercings hah

Last summer Miley Cyrus filmed her Hannah Montana movie @ our new built high school! Except for they had semis carrying in palm trees. Gay, it's apparently supposed to be california or somethin. Such a scene :D

Steve McNair and Sarah Evans- I pass both their houses on the way to Jenna's

And last, but not least, Paramore. Yes, I'm name dropping on this one, because Haley dropped out of school before she got to high school. She was a grade below me, but the guys were all seniors when I was a freshman. One day during senior lunch I was walking through the commons and I hear "Monica, Crystal, Samantha, Rachel" I looked up and they all cheered. I was so scared. It was a huge group of guys and I guess they were just throwing out random names trying to guess my name. Oh, man, I wouldn't be surprised if I ran away. hahah

xoxo

This is the place?

Oh my goodness. Talk about waking up on the wrong side of the bread. Getting ready for work/ school was fine, but then the bus decided to zoom past me. So, I had the joy of walking to work. I live south of campus at 400e 600n and my work is up by the MTC/Provo Temple. When I wasn't even a quarter of the way to work I looked down at my hands and I couldn't bend my fingers they were already frozen. My thoughts went to when I played soccer in the snow last year and when I told my mom about it she said, "Rachel, frostbite still exists you know." I wanted to just sit there and cry and turn back knowing my apartment was atleast 4x closer than work. Buuuuut I didn't, I trudged on in my skirt and boots. I was desperately wanting one of the many cars that passed me to just stop and say, "Oh, poor girl, you're in a skirt, can I give you ride?" So, I get to work about 25 minutes later, if my tears wouldn't have frozen on my eyeballs I would've cried. But, I walked in the building and my glasses fogged up from the luke warm air inside. I checked the temperature on weather.com and the feels like temperature is one degree. OH MY GOODNESS! Freakin cold. I don't know if I've ever been in one degree weather before. All I can say is, How did pioneers even live through this, especially the ones with no shoes. I cannot imagine the intense paaain! ouch!

Geneology

So this semester I'm taking a geneology class! I am supposed to start a blog about my findings for my final project! I'm really excited! Just thought I'd give ya'll a heads up and I'll put a link to it on the side of my blog and anyone who wants to read about my family or add anything or w/e feel free to comment! I'll let you know once I actually start the blog! It'll be starting soon!

HOLY MACEROLE!

So you wanna hear somethin wild and crazy? Syd and I were out of bed and on our trampolines @ 5:30 this morning...no lie!! Oh man. I seriously just wanted to roll over every single time my alarm screamed, "GET OUT OF BED, WAKE UP, WAKE UP, WAKE UUUUUUUUUUUP!" (not lieing either, I recorded it myself on my phone...it gets the job done) We did get out of bed and jumped for 30 minutes on the trampolines and burned around 450 calories! Incredible, huh? Ah, I love it and it feels so good! It's only 8:30 a.m. and I've already exercised, watched an episode of Lost, showered, gotten ready and been out of my apartment for an hour.

It's so fantastic!

Daddyo!

So, I got a huge slap in the face today at church. I've been praying a lot lately for my dad to be safe in Tokyo. It scares me to death that he's so far away so much of the time. He has been going to Tokyo since August? Maybe mid-summer? I can't remember. He is a CPA and commutes every week for his job and gets back thursday or friday and is home on the weekends. He's had this job since right before I started high school. It's been a good job for him and he was so excited about the job. It's good for him especially working in the accounting department, he goes in fixes things up w/ finances/whatever in different businesses, then onto another project. He stays in the same place for a few months usually. Some of his commutes have included California, Minnesota, D.C. Texas, Russia, Mexico, Ohio and now Tokyo.

At first it was thrill for the family, because when it was places closer like D.C. or Ohio my mom and brothers and sometimes I would go along and we'd drive to the places he'd be working during the summer or other breaks and hang out and tour the city, etc. As the years have gone on, he's been promoted or worked his way up, but his work becomes more demanding.

This Tokyo time has been the hardest on my dad and heaven knows it has on my mom as well. He is gone for 3 weeks and home for 1 or 2. I know my mom misses him especially more now that my sister and I are out in Utah for school. I feel sad for her and I feel really sad for my dad. He travels the 30 hr flight 3x a month....I feel like I travel a lot w/ the 10 hr flights at christmas and summertime! ....yeah it doesn't even compare. So, it's made me sad and it's especially hard, because with the economy he needs to stay on the project and it's a huge risk to find a new job, just because the new guy is the first to get cut. But, I've prayed about it a lot and for my family that everything will work out. I know my dad wants to be home, but he is an righteous man, and so I know he follows his inspiration and there is a reason he's staying on this job.

Today at church our sacrament meeting was based on prayers of gratitude and I realized, 'Wow, this has been a huge toll on our family, but such is life. There are bump, bruises and trials galore, but we grow from them.' What a blessing it is that my dad has a job, that he is able to provide for my family and how blessed I am to be sealed to happily married parents that are a great example and make good choices, etc. I love my family more than I can tell you. I have the most rad little brothers (well big brothers, but younger) and the greatest older sister. I love them so much! I can't wait to visit home again! Welp, just thought I'd share that w/ yall! xoxoxo

Lost?

No, I'm not watching the premier tonight, we're at the Salt Lake Center currently. So, after last weeks little Trax run-in we were prepared this time. We were going to get off on the right exit this time....BUT apparently my internal compass was off tonight, because when I saw the exit for 6000 south I was thinkin, 'PERFECT!' 6th south, we'll get off @ the next exit! So we get off on the next exit...we're in Murray not Salt Lake. I was so confused. But we got lost in Murray before we realized it was Murray not SLC. So, it's now 5:00 and we think...shoot, we're going to be late...so we drive through Murray. We finally realize we need to find the Interstate. Apparently there are hardly any interstate signs in Murray. We finally reach the interstate, but apparently it branches off into different interstates. We get spit out in the wrong direction. So I'll just keep this short, but we drove around Murray and finally found the Salt Lake Center after 1 1/2 hours. I'm not even kidding. We legitimately were looking for it for 1 1/2 hrs. at first we think, "Not again! (but we were smiling)" Then we just laughed histerically, thinking, "We would get lost...again." Then it got to an annoyance stage of... "Seriously?" By the time we got there we were too embarrassed to go for just the last 30 mins of class so instead of going to Walmart after class @ 10, we decided we'd just do it in Salt Lake w/ our leftover time. So we each purchased a mini-tramp that comes w/ resistance bands and it counts your jumps/calories/time! I'm so excited to use it! I'm probably not going to test it out until tomorrow though, because I'm still sore from weights last night! Welp, I love you all! xoxo

FOCA

Okay, for all ya'll who don't know what FOCA is, it is the Freedom of Choice Act. Obama said while campaigning at a Planned Parenthood convention, "The first thing I'll do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act". That is the most outrageous thing. This man is either an extremely smooth talker and tells the crazies what they like to hear (this is true) or is absolutely insane in the sense that he is saying his FIRST act as president will to sign this bill to kill babies. If FOCA is passed all forms of abortion will be legalized without need of consent during any trimester in the pregnancy...YIKES! Oh and yes this includes partial birth abortion. Can I just explain what this procedure includes? For anyone who has a heart or some other moral compass, cannot seriously support abortion when you realize what happens. Partial-birth abortion was given that name so the courts could have something to refer to it as. But using forceps, the doctor will position the baby to come out feet first and then have it born and when the baby's body is out and just the head is left in the birthing canal they use scissors to create a hole to put a vacuum in to remove the brain....therefore the cranium collapses. If that does not bring tears to your eyes I do not know what will. I mean, seriously one of the saddest things I have ever heard. FOCA will also make it so every single hospital and dr./nurse will HAVE to perform abortion. Therefore, most, if not all, religious hospitals will be closed. LDS ones, but also the catholic ones. You know, the hospitals you see on every corner that begin with St., yeah those. FOCA is still going through congress, but please take action everyone and tell your friends. Go to to www.fightfoca.com and please fight for those babies.

I am on this soapbox right now, because I got an e-mail from my friend David's mom about it and looked into it. To be honest I'd never even heard of FOCA and I thought it's such a big deal and it should be brought to everyone's attention. I had to write an opinion editorial for my english class and I chose to write on this subject. I hope that it can become public and stopped before more damage is done to our country's moral base.

I added that picture just to remind everyone that babies are God's creation. He has a plan and we all play a part in it. Please help petition FOCA.

Church crashers?

So this past weekend Syd and I were the 2 laziest people 0n the face of the planet. Granted, we've been very productive since winter break and done our homework and gone to bed at or before 12 every night! With the exception of maybe once or twice! SO this weekend we were dog sitting her cousin's dog while her and her family went to a resort somewhere. We put perma-creases in their couch cushions, it was hands down the comfiest couch of MY LIFE! So, Sunday rolls around and we say, well we need to go to church. But we didn't feel like going to our ward so Syd said we should go to some random ward and throw on some accents and a wild story. So, Sunday morning we got all dolled up and went around trying to find a Sacrament meeting we'd like to attend. We drove around Orem and could only find retirement area buildings. So we headed back down University into Provo and decided on a freshman ward. So we go and I swear there are about 50 people in the whole chapel...Syd and I are like...whoa not to draw attention to the girls that aren't in this ward.... We found out though that a kid that was in that ward from the previous semester had a farewell so the majority of the ward was attending that instead!

We got a lot of curious looks peering at us throughout the meeting. We decided to book it out of the chapel so as to avoid all discussion w/ ward members. So, we did. It was a successful church crashing session! Oh and on our way out we saw an incredible park job outside the JKB, thought it was the perfect photo-op!

Killer Trax

So Syd and I are taking classes at the Salt Lake Center on Wednesdays.

Last week we were heading up and couldn't remember which exit to take. We got off the interstate an exit too early. Thank heavens for the grid system. We were able to find our way to the Salt Lake Center. However, we ran into a near-death experience on our way.

One definite plus about Utah is its incredible bus system. It's called UTA and in SLC they have a branch of it called Trax. Trax is a railway system that runs all through downtown Salt Lake and into surrounding cities. It is a train system that's tracks are in the ground, kind of like those trolleys at Disney World or something.

Devon has recently deemed me accident prone, due to my snow plow incident and a couple other bad run-ins, in his e-mail he sent me on Monday. I responded to his e-mail refuting the accusation. Then Wednesday night I sent him another e-mail and told him that I am officially accident prone. Here's the story:

We got off of I-15 an intersection too early and we're looking for the Salt Lake Center. We come to a stop light and I saw it and yelled, "There it is!" It was ahead of us about 5 or so blocks. So, we're sitting at the intersection and then Syd casually says, "Oh, look, a train's coming!" So I turn around and look out the back left window and I see this trax train headed straight for us. It felt so unreal, I looked like it was just a semi coming up to the light next to us. Then, we follow the tracks w/ our eyes and realize that the car was braked past the white line and that the front end of the car was on the lighter colored pavement, signifying the section of the road used for trax. When I realized we were in the way of the train I grabbed Syd's thigh and just started screaming bloody murder over and over. The train passed in front of us seriously right around the front of her car, as in inches from it. Let me just set up the scene for you. We're in her car there is a train running inches from her car and eachtime a new train car passed was just as scary. I'm screaming like a lunatic and Syd just sat there frozen, mouth gaping open. I was still screaming and she finally snapped out of it and looks over at me and yells, "SHUT UP!" I stopped screaming (not really realizing I had been haha) and she then rips her car into reverse. Then we both looked at eachother and just started laughing so hard. It was the kind of laughing that you do once every lightyear where from the get up there is no sound attached your stomach is clenched so hard and you can't breathe. Oh, man scariest moment of my life. Somewhere along the way, not sure if it was when I realized we were about to get hit by a train or from laughing so hard, I wet my pants. Not even kidding, that's how scary it was, I have really good bladder control too! Sorry, I'm not sparing any details.

I guess it happens sometimes..yikes that completely could've been us. This picture is even more eerie because that car in that picture looks just like Syd's little VW Golf!

2009 You Make Me Feel So Fine

Whaaaaaat's up!? Long time no blogging! Let me just give you a little fill in sesh!

Christmas break=INCREDIBLE!

I had such a great time with my family, extended included!

School: It is going so well! I am taking less credits and it has made all the difference. I'm on my last semester of GE's! HALLELUJAH! I like all my professors and courses, so that makes it nice! Syd and I are taking SLC classes on Wednesdays from 5-9:10, so basically we're in salt lake from 4-10 on Wednesdays! And yes, we are the only dorks to ACTUALLY commute to salt lake during the winter semester. HA!

Weather: INSANE! It snowed from Monday morning to Tuesday night, STRAIGHT. Not even kidding, it didn't let up once. there is a layer of 3 feet of snow on the edge of the sidewalks, I have NEVER seen anything like it. It kind of scares me to be honest. Snow freaks me out. All I can say is props to those people who can and CHOOSE to live in snowy cold weather. It definitely can get cold back home, but it doesn't snow....when I was younger I'd always say, "If it's going to feel this cold, it might as well snow!" I am now SO glad it never did ha! AH! But yeah, so Syd and I took a grocery store run Monday night and her car got stuck on the tiniest hill. We stopped by Ty's apt and he wanted to come w/ us so he did. We did our shopping, then went to his mission buddy's apartment and her car got stuck there too! Both times nice boys came and helped push us out. Wed. when we were headed to the SLC we also got stuck, but some nice boys reversed down the street in their truck and came and pushed it out. Provo is really great!

Life: Great. This semester has been better just in the first 3 days for a number of reasons. Some of which include: We've hung out w/ Ty a lot and it's been really fun. Classes are more interesting and less stressful. We have seen mohawk boy within three days of just being back at the Y, go figure. I have time to rest. I go to bed. Anna is back in the states...not to mention also my ward! I bought a bus pass. I have tights to keep my legs warm w/ my skirts for work. I have met so many people. There are cute boys in my classes. I've been e-mailing w/ my bestest friend Mitch. I miss him horribly. I haven't fallen on the ice. Ends have been meeting eachother financially.

It's a miracle! Can I just tell everyone I AM BLESSED! Also, I have the most bomb-dig family and roomates!

p.s. I almost got run over by a snowplow on Tuesday....I'm not even exaggerating! I was on the phone with Diana when the heinous act occurred. Poor girl got an earful! The plowtruck was in this driveway as I was walking to work I was walking on the sidewalk and I was about 2 ft behind it and it whipped into reverse, it's like the driver had somethin out for me! Don't worry w/ some bits of screaming, fearing for my life and trying to run across the ice, I survived. So some things I've realized lately: . Sleeping is NOT overrated . Snow is NOT what everyone builds it up to be . Hairy legs DO keep you warmer in the cold weather . It is NOT smart to start buying books a week after the semester's began . Taking less credits IS better on your brain and sanity . Scarves MAKE or BREAK body heat retention

You know those times?

You know, the ones where your brain forgot to kick in before you opened your mouth? I don't know if it's everyone or just my hilarious self. You say those things that are just so stupid that if you were a celebrity or American president you could probably get impeached for saying it, but it is just so funny you can't help but to tell the stupid story about yourself? Well here's some good stories that just came to my mind. I hope I won't completely botch them up w/ my bad writing/speaking skills. #1: This one time my sister, mom and I were cooking and my mom asked me to pull out the Baking Powder. I opened the cabinet and began looking. I couldn't find it! I thought it was strange that we didn't have such a cooking necessity. I continued my search to no avail, finally giving up I told her, "I can't find the Baking Powder, but there is some King Powder here...." My mom and sister begin to pee their pants. My mom comes over and starts to turn the can.... "Ooooh Ba-king Powder" #2: First week of sophomore year of HS and my teacher passed out a 'getting-to-know' you survey, that the teachers file away just to have as a reference to use later to figure out why some kids are as weird as they are, etc. So I filled out the "hobbies" line and "family" line. Then proceeded to the "Clubs" line. I felt my brain drop through the seat of my chair....clubs, clubs, what were they talking about? I finally figured out what my teacher meant by "Clubs". I wrote Sam's on the solid line. #3: (This one isn't anything stupid I did, but it made me laugh really hard) Syd and I were studying in the Periodicals, ya know, hittin the stacks. I pulled out my sandwich and began eating my PB & J. Between too shelves crawls one of those Campus-Student Rent-A-Cops. He passes us then literally back-pedals to our table. He then proceeds to YELL on the top of his whispering lungs, "EXCUSE ME, BUT WE DO NOT ALLOW FOOD OR WATER IN THE LIBRARY. PLEASE PUT IT AWAY UNTIL YOU LEAVE THE LIBRARY." I lean to Syd and say, "Besides the fact that everyone in here is staring at me, why does it feel like he just scrame that in this silent room?" "Because he did" hahah it was outrageous. xoxo

Eyeballs!

About 2nd night home for break I just about drove Dani, my grandmother and i into a guard rail...yeah....we would've died... That experience confirmed my want to go to the eye dr. So these past 2 weeks over break I have only been wearing my glasses, because I'm a brainiac and forgot to pack spare contacts. Today I finally made it into Sam's Club. They treat me so well there! They feed me lunch via millions of samples and happily check my eyeballs and tell me that I'm legally blind. So the Dr. Nieber is the bomb.com and he's one of those dr.s that doesn't have any social skills, but he's one kool kat. But today there was a girl dr.! DOUBLE WHAT?! Dr. Nieber is the man, MY eyeball man! Yet, she took just as good care of me! New perscription and more TLC made my vision that much better! Hoorah for being in club de Sam's!

Blokme?

So my family loves to play games. Growing up, anytime our family was home and had an open schedule, we would always play games. I have grown up on games and have loved them since day one. I swear I came out of the womb with puzzle pieces in my fists. My mom said I could rip through puzzles when I was 2. I actually was in the circus for a few months one summer for that 'baby that can do a puzzle freakin fast!' act. It was really great. So one game we got for Christmas last year is Blokus. Best game ever. We played it all break and we've pulled it out again this time and we're just as obsessed. We've even gotten Aunt Julie wrapped in it. The most played game this break award is tied between the all-classic "Phase 10" and "Blokus". Granted, playing these games are not always just fun and games. Why do we like to play games so much? Because we're extremely competetive. I never liked to think I'm competetive, until the day that I realized I was indenial about the fact that I never let the kids I babysat win.... These games could make or break relationships. Not kidding. One second someone will be loving you for blocking someone else and then you're blocking them your next turn and you get clipped from the family tree. My grandmother tells me I have a big heart because I help her lay her pieces. My mom then proceeds to call her a democrat. Then my aunt Julie says yeah she may have a big heart, but it's kind of evil. (They don't recognize that I help my grandmother lay her pieces and BASICALLY it's helping me block them... that's not why I help grandmother, but when I lay her pieces, I most definitely don't block myself :D) xoxo