Happy Birthday To ME!

Yesterday was a big birthday for me! I am now a quarter of a century old! That's right, 25 years ago my mom gave birth to the cutest baby! And I got to CeLeBrAtE yesterday.

I am going to give you a run down of my day, so you will know how much fun I had! I woke up early so that I could do my hair all cute. Now, just so you know, I have massive amounts of hair! LOL I got my dad's hair, so it is super thick, and coarse. I love having it long because then I can style it many many different ways. Well, I hardly ever wear it all the way down because it is just too thick. But I wore it down yesterday, and got soo many compliments on it.

I went to work/school and took donuts to share with the kids. As soon as I walked into the classroom, they all shouted "Happy Birthday." One of the students is in charge of recognizing people on their birthdays, so she came over and put some plastic lei's around my neck, and the class broke out in song! They also signed a HUGE piece of butcher paper for me as well. The head teacher I work with got me a bunch of cute socks! One of the students in our classroom is an SBO, so she was in charge of announcements for they day. She announced to everyone that it was my birthday and that they needed to wish me well. So many kids came up to me throughout the day and wished me Happy Birthday.

After school, I came home, grabbed a bunch of stuff, and headed over to the DMV. I now have a Utah Driver's License. The picture doesn't look as cute as my TN one, but all well. When I get my actual license, I will post both of them, and you can compare. The lady that I talked to at the DMV knew where I worked and we talked about how important it is to be a compassionate teacher in schools today, and how it is OK to cater to some children's needs. We talked about how amazing Charter Schools are and how we would never go back to public school systems.

I came home after that and met Trio #1! She had some birthday presents for me! I actually got to open up one present before school, so that I could wear them to school. Here is what I got:




*Tom's Shoes, in Red Stone-washed! I LOVE THEM! They are so comfortable, it is like being barefoot, but not! I now know why my sister-in-law owns sooo many pairs. My mom ordered them, and sent them to me in the mail.



*A new Fossil purse! i love fossil! It is a cross body bag, and sorta matches Trio #1 and Trio #3.

Trio #2's purse

Trio #1's purse

Trio #3's purse

*New cricut cartridges! I love my cricut that I got for Christmas, and Michael's and JoAnn's Fabric stores have been having some awesome deals on cartridges lately, so I have scored big time. Trio #1 got me two new ones.

*Whatever Trio #3 is getting me. I talked to her this morning, and she said that my present is coming, but that it has a little bit of a delay on it. That is all the clues she would give me.....

One of the girls that lives upstairs decorated the stairwell. When Trio #1 left to go to work, she showed me how darling it was. I was soo surprised and happy that she would do something for me.

Last night, Trio #1 had another surprise/present for me. We got to go see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZn70TNz08Y

It was hilarious! Like totally laugh out loud, guffaw, snort, giggle, rolling on floor, funny! During one of the intermissions, they recognized people who were celebrating their birthdays, so of course I got to stand up and tell everyone how old I am. They also recognize people who are celebrating their anniversary's, as well as those who are on a first date. For those couples, we all sing "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" and at the end of the song, they are all supposed to kiss! One of the first date couples totally kissed, and the other two kissed on the cheek! LOL The anniversary couple kissed good.

After the show, we came back to the apartment and ate my favorite Ice Cream Cake. It was delicious! We invited down the girl who decorated the stairwell, and we talked and laughed with her until midnight.

That was about it for yesterday, but the celebrations are NOT over! Tonight I am going down to Orem/Provo to celebrate some down there, and tomorrow I am going out for my 20th annual Birthday Ice Cream with my aunt and uncle. Sunday I am also having dinner and cake with my dad's baby sister, her family, cousins and friends.

I just love my birthday. I am so grateful that my parents wanted to keep me and wanted me part of thier family for eternity. I love everyone who wished me happiness on my special day. It was fun receiving over 120 notifications on Facebook from many, many friends.

Spiritual Moment

I have one amazing family. I have a family who worships our Savior Jesus Christ. I have a family who is strong in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And I have a family who has taught me that everyone else comes first! I am eternally grateful for the opportunity I had to serve today.

This morning, like the last 3 Saturdays, have started out pretty early. It is kinda sad when every day for the last 24+ days, my life has started with an alarm clock. Anyways, I had the opportunity to help out at the Bishop's Storehouse. It is part of the Welfare Square organization with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When the church was first organized back in the early 1800's, the Prophet received divine counsel from the Lord himself on what steps needed to happen to take care of the Lord's children while here on this earth. One of those programs was the Welfare program, including the Bishop's Storehouse. What happens is that those of us who are blessed enough to have surplus in goods and money are to donate that which is within our power and desire to the Church, to then be distributed to those who are going through a rough time in their lives. For example, when my dad lost his job about 10 years ago, we did not have enough money from my mom's job alone to take care of all four of us kids, to pay the mortgage, to buy gas, and to buy groceries. So we approached the Bishop (head leader) of our congregation (Ward) and explained, in humility, our situation, and he was able to provide us with information about this service available. It truly was a huge blessing in our lives. We were able to use the little money mom had to pay bills, and the food was provided to us by the church. Then, once my dad was able to be employed again, we were then able to return the favor by donating back to the program so others could benefit from it the way we did.

So helping out today really brought the tears to my eyes knowing exactly how some of these families felt. There was no judging on my part because I had literally been in their shoes before. I am so grateful for the programs that are set up by the Lord, himself, because they can never fail when we faithfully trust Him.

For more information, you can visit:

http://lds.org/service/humanitarian?lang=eng

The Giggles

You know when you start to laugh, and then someone tells you to stop, you can't help but laugh harder?

It used to happen to us all the time when we were younger. We would be kneeling down for family prayer at night, and Dad was tired and ready to go to bed, and then something super funny would happen, or be said! Then the whole thing would turn into a giggle session! We would all get a huge laugh, and then we would try to stop, only to start back up again 2 seconds later, or even worse! Then we would all try to be serious, and then someone would snort-laugh and the whole thing started again. Sometimes Dad would just start the prayer hoping that it would calm us down, and most of the time we laughed silently through the whole prayer.

Today, I had another giggle session. I got to hang out with the cool kids in class today, and one funny thing said led to another funny thing, which led to a funny action, which led to tears in my eyes from laughing soo hard. I was asked to be the adult and keep the kids under control, but I had it worse then them. Then when the teacher tried to gain control of the class, we snort-laughed and it started all over again! I totally felt like a teenager again!

It was the best feeling just letting it all go, and connect with the kids, and get all those giggles out of my system. Someone just knew that I needed a good laughing break!

seriously?!?!

Common Sense....does it really exist?! Are there some people who posses it and some who don't? Is it a learned trait, or something that is inherently in us from birth?

I know that most of what I learned is from a question that my mother always posed (usually after something stupid happened). It went something like this: "Are you serious?" or "Did you even think about that before you did it?" or even "Wow! And you thought that was a good idea?"

Learning from my own mistakes is what has strengthened my common sense today! Just 1 hour ago, Trio #1 and I were discussing how we are grateful for common sense.

Now to get on to what really set me off....and it set me off pretty bad!

There is a new person that moved into the apartment upstairs. Just moved out of Mommy and Daddy's place, first time on her own, ridiculously shy, and more of an introvert than anything else. I have met her, maybe, once or twice. There are some more background things you need to know before I can get on with tonight's catastrophe.

Since there are FIVE cars parked out our residence, two belong in the carport, two on half of the driveway, and one on the street. Since Trio #1 and I live downstairs, we have two assigned parking spots to ourselves; and it was decided long ago that we don't switch spots. The other 3 girls upstairs rotate spots daily! In the driveway, I park at the top, and another person parks RIGHT BEHIND me. Not too complicated (or so I thought.....)

The very first day that the person to whom set me off tonight lived in the house, she parked in MY spot. Not all the way, just half in my spot, and the other half in hers. This is not cool, because then I can't park where I am supposed to, and then it just sucks. So I asked her as kindly as I could in my frustrated state to move her car back a little. I also informed her that when she parks in the driveway, she needs to park close to the grass, or someone in the carport, while reversing, may run into her.

She did NOT take my suggestion well, and just parked illegally on the street for the night. I rolled my eyes, and walked inside.

Now on to this evening.........I walk out to my car, and almost had a cow seeing her car parked the way it was. I was the first one home, so parking behind me is NO big deal. I am in the right spot, so you pull up behind me and voila you are now parked correctly. Everyone who has lived here the past 18 months has known how to do this. COMMON SENSE lets us know how to do this. My grandmother could figure out how to do this. Especially if she had lived in the house for at least two weeks, and saw every other person do it. Well, the person whom I shall not name, "kindly" left 10 feet between our cars. Now you must be thinking to yourself....."How can she leave 10 feet between your cars and still fit on the driveway?" That is a great, inquisitive question. SHE CANNOT! The back end of her car was lined up with the asphalt road. SHE WAS PARKED ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE SIDEWALK! Where was common sense when she pulled up, stopped, and put her car into park, stepped out, and walked into the house? Who in the H$%& thinks that is OK!?! I really hope that she gets a ticket for it. Maybe that will help the common sense wake up in her brain and think harder next time before she does something sooooo stupid!

A play, an opera, a musical, an exhibit and a ballet

We have truly become involved in the Arts!



The first thing that the "Trio" went to go see was Romeo and Juliet by Shakespear. It was performed at the HFAC on BYU's campus. We have a mutual friend that performed as Romeo. It was amazing to see Richie Uminiski in action. For the first time ever, I fully understood the story line, and the plot. The director did an excellent job at demanding that they use Shakespearian language while performing. It was awesome!!







The second activity the Trio attended was the Opera. Trio #3 got tickets to Capitol Theatre to see Hansel and Gretel in GERMAN! Yes....in German. They did, however, have super titles above the stage in English so that we could understand most of what was being sung. 



 

The third activity took us back to the HFAC again, but this time to see their "fly system" in action. We got to see Peter Pan. The original Peter Pan was played by a woman...a very small, Alto woman! LOL So, again, BYU stuck to tradition and chose a female actress. Tinker Bell was a green laser light that flitted, and fluttered, and almost died. Through the enthusiasm and belief of the audience, children of all ages, we brought her back to life!!





 

Carl Bloch was a historical painter who depicted, through amazing art, the scenes of Christ's life. BYU won an amazing grant and right to display the original artwork. They also grew very techinical and had iPad's available for rent that walked you through the artwork, and gave more detailed background information about each piece, their original location, etc. Well worth the $3.
 

 

Trio #1 and Trio #2 got asked by their awesome aunt to go and see Les Miserables at one of the local high schools. It was pretty good. We really like to see shows put on by the high school children because you get the story line, tickets are cheap, and you just have a fun time. The only downside of the musical, was that the student playing grown-up Cosette did not have a good singing voice..... 

Tonight brought the Trio back together for another uncomfortable, leg-cramping seat at the HFAC. We got to see Cinderella performed by ALL ballerina's! There were even men in the show...obviously. Looking through the program before the show started, I got to see another familiar face. Before Trio #2 came to Utah, she was on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That took place in Jacksonville, FL. While there I met the Deakyne family. Their oldest daughter was one of the dancer's this evening. It was so fun to see her perform.





The Trio has more plans for the future....so stay tuned!

I finally caved

I have wanted to start a blog for awhile, but you know how everyone else has one?! Yeah, me too! I am not married, having a baby, getting engaged anytime soon, going on a super long trip, or anything too exciting...but I am starting a blog anyways!

Most of the posts are going to be about my sisters, Trio #1, Trio #3, and me, Trio #2's adventures! We do things all the time, and hopefully writing them down will be able to help me remember things to tell strangers when they ask: "So, what's new?" (ps: HATE that question) I might whine a little, vent a lot, share some opinions that make you cringe, and hopefully share a ton about who I am!

If you don't enjoy reading my blog...then don't! You won't hurt my feelings! Seriously!

Well...read on!