pineapples33

I had a great birthday today. Usually they aren't as wonderful as the one I had today. I blame it mostly on the timing of my birthday. It's right after Christmas, New Years, it's just at the beginning of a new semester at school, and in the middle of winter. It isn't really the best time for a birthday. This year was great though.

I woke up at 5:30 to take Dustin to work. He said I could borrow his car today so I could go anywhere I wanted but I had to drive him to his meeting at 6. My car is in the shop after I wrecked it over break. Boo. After I got home from bringing Dustin, I sat in my bed and watched quite a few episodes of Scrubs. I thought I would eventually fall asleep but it gradually got light and I knew I was toast. Haha.

At around 9ish, Dustin sent out a mass text to his roommates and everyone in his family. I got a bunch of texts all at once from his roommates Pete and Brett, his brothers Jared, Jason, and Deric, his sister-in-laws, Jami and Holly (and his neice Kaylee), his brother-in-law Jeremy, and even his mom wishing me happy birthday. It made me smile a lot. They are such a nice family.

My morning was very slow paced. It was nice. I didn't really have to do anything so I watched some more Scrubs, took a shower (which turned out to be freezing), and got ready for the day. Sarah drove and picked me up from a class that went from noon till one. Not too painful but I hadn't eaten so I was excited to get out of there.

Dustin sent me a text just as my class was getting out that he was off of work and was having a friend drive him home. Sarah, Pieper and I decided we wanted to go to Guru's, a restaurant on Center Street, for lunch. We took Pieper's car since it had just started to snow pretty hard and Dustin's windshield wipers aren't working these days. We went and picked Dustin up and went to Guru's. They have amazing sweet potato fries. I love fries. So... Way yummy food, way fun company... great birthday lunch.

We dropped Sarah off at home and Pieper, Dustin, and I went to the mall. We went to a few stores, just mainly looking around. Dustin found some nice pants at Banana Republic that looked great on him. I tried on a few pairs of shoes and a few dresses but didn't buy anything but a plastic cover to protect my phone from scratches. Still... it was a fun trip to the mall.

When we got home, the people from my FHE group came over and we had a quick lesson and celebrated my birthday with them. We had cake that Tricia made for me, with my mom, dad, Heidi, Hannah, Naomi, and the dog Boone visiting on web cam. I opened a few of my presents while they were joining us as well. Sarah got me a movie "A Lot Like Love". It is a way cute movie. Becca got me my favorite perfume. I had bought the same perfume for her about a year ago and I steal it all the time. Tricia got me some comfy BYU sweat pants. She didn't even know that I had been looking at them at the store. I love them. While we were at the mall, I had seen a pair of Sperry shoes and said that I really liked them. Somehow, Pieper managed to buy the shoes without me seeing and give them to me for my birthday. Sneaky girl. Haha.

Then a bunch of us went to Red Robin for dinner. Me, Dustin, Pieper, Becca and Jon, Tricia, Sarah and Jordan, and Dustin Alexander all went to just grab something little to eat. None of us were too hungry. Dustin got me a delicious birthday chocolate mudd pie for after my meal. It was fun just hanging out and talking with so many of my friends.

After dinner, we came home and I had two more presents. Sarah and Jordan had gone in together to buy me a long board. It is awesome. Everyone else had gotten one for Christmas so I'm glad I'll be able to join them when they go now. The last present really surprised me. My mom and dad told me that they knew that my birthday was usually not so fun so they wanted to send me on a helicopter ride. Unfortunately, it had snowed too much and we weren't able to go up today, but they told me over web cam that they were going to pay for me to have a helicopter ride for my final present. Wow wow wow. I am SO SO SO SO excited about that. How fun! Seems like everyone knew before I did though. Haha. Dustin will be my pilot when I go up so that will be really exciting to actually be able to see what he does every day. Super stoked!

I wrote all of this out pretty fast... I guess I'm pretty sleepy from being up since 5:30. I hope I didn't forget anything super fun or exciting. Haha. I did have a wonderful day though. I know that my family and my friends care about me a lot. Everyone really worked hard to make this a special day for me. I appreciate it so much. It was really great. Thank you to everyone.

I am in Health 461 right now. I am pretending to follow along and take notes on the power point presentation. This class starts at 4:00 and ends at 6:40. Way too long for one class! I really like this class though. The title for this class is "Chronic Disease; Prevention and Control". It is probably one of my favorite classes. Every day in class is very interesting... just too long. I wish we could split it up into 2 days. Oh well. Maybe I'll be a community health educator. Today we are learning about osteoporosis and other musculoskeletal diseases. Pretty neat stuff.

It is such a nice day outside. We took a 10 minute break about 30 minutes into class to walk around outside and get Vitamin D from the sun. Good idea. Spring is so happy.

This week doesn't look like it will be as stressful as last week. Yay! Stress leads to all kinds of problems. We just learned about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in this class. Stress is one of the main causes of CFS. Gosh, that would be rough. I'm sure that not being able to sleep would just make everything worse. More stress... less likely to be able to get to sleep. I know that there is no way to totally get rid of all stress. We learned in class, though, that exercise, good diet, and just living healthy can greatly decrease stress levels. Good idea. I am going to work on that.

YAY... we're done early!

Check out my new layout, too.


This is Becca.


Speaking for Rachel.



She might not like it, so I might change it.


We'll see.



Peace.

This is Becca. I made Rachel a new icon.


See it and love it.


You


can


not


stop this.

I woke up earlier than usual today to get in line at the Marriott Center to hear President Hinckley talk. Becca got there before me and saved a place towards the beginning of the line. I was glad… there were so many people there. The line went all the way across the overpass and down around the walk way and back into the parking lot. Wow. Hearing President Hinckley talk was amazing. It was so moving how everyone got so quiet and reverently stood up when he and some of the other General Authorities entered the center. He spoke about the magnificent life and presidency of the prophet Joseph F. Smith. Most of the things he talked about were new to me. I had no idea that President Smith did so many things and was a part of so much. It was really an awesome experience to be able to see the Prophet of our church in real life. I’m glad I didn’t miss it.

I have to make this short because I have to go to the bus in a few minutes. My humanities teacher though told us to make sure to write in our journals about reading The Odyssey. We just finished discussing it in class today. It was great. When I saw that we had to read the whole thing in just a week and a half I was dreading it but I actually got really into it. I didn’t finish the whole thing but I did have my helper book so I do know the whole story. I think that The Odyssey is probably one of the best poems ever written. It has so much symbolism and really… Odysseus is just awesome. I wrote a paper this weekend comparing Achilles to Odysseus as heroes. I argued that Odysseus was more heroic because he’s got the strength just like Achilles, the gods loved him just like they loved Achilles, but he is also so dang smart. I mean… beating that Cyclops and getting his men back from Circe… he’s no dummy. I also love how bad he wants to get back to his wife and home. He gives up immortality and living in beautiful places to return to Penelope and his kingdom. Also… the way that he came back to Ithaca all sneaky like then BAM takes back what is his. What a great poem. Odysseus is my hero.

I visited James this weekend in Lewiston Idaho where he is going to school. It was a lot of fun. He cooked all my meals for me the whole time. He is an excellent cook. One morning he made me eggs benedict for breakfast. I had never had them before and they were FABULOUS! He likes to treat me like a princess. One of my favorite things was helping to make meals. He made me fajitas, french toast, and wonderful home made salsa with the tomatoes from his own garden. I helped make 5 layer chip dip and cookies. I have a good time doing things like that with people. We went to the Lewiston parade on Saturday. It was the first parade I had sat and watched. I have marched in something like 12 or so but never sat and watched. It was hot when the parade began... then it got cloudy and started to rain. James put the chair bags on my arms and head to keep me from getting wet (and to try to stop the whining). haha. It was fun though. We did a lot of shopping for things for James. He just moved into his new home and needed random things like food and kitchen supplies. We actually bought a nice bed for way cheep too. It was fun to set everything up and try to make his place look more homey. James has a big garden that he inherited from the previous owner. He has TONS of cucumbers from it so we decided to make pickles on Saturday night. We went over to his sister's house and found a recipe and made all kinds of pickles. Like 10 or so jars. Very fun... a new experience. It was nice to see him and to get out of Provo for a few days. It was a very fun weekend.

I finally found a place to live. I have been here in Provo for over a week. Ugh. It feels so good to have that taken care of. Becca and Rose have been so nice to let me crash with them for the past little while. Gotta love family (plus...ours is just the best). I am actually pretty happy with where I am living now. I have my own room with a full size bed and a sliding glass door that goes out onto this little patio thingy. Pretty neat. The girl I bought the contract from said that the roommates are really nice and the ward is way fun. That is a MAJOR plus. I need more friends. I think my sister is getting sick of me borrowing hers. The complex has a pool and a hot tub and work out facilities and a game room and all kinds of neat amenities. I think it will be good. I'm going to miss hanging out with all Becca's roommates all the time. They are so fun, friendly, giving, nonjudgmental, happy, and so many more things. I sound like a sap... but its true. I'm sure I'll visit lots.