Saturday is a special day

What better way to spend a Saturday morning than waking up at 5:40 am for Lu'au practice? I ask you.

But seriously. This week was the second practice, and let's just say that waking up that early when you're sick is not fun. Oh yeah, did I mention that I was sick? Because I am. Apparently doing no homework + stressing out for five hours at work every day + the weather changing by 2 degrees = me getting sick. Maybe I should stop working so hard... One day I'll start doing my homework.

So I called the Mautzes this week to see when it would be okay for me to come visit them. It was so funny because Elder Mautz was like, "May is wide open!" And then I heard Sister Mautz in the background, "May is NOT wide open!" An elder from our mission is getting married in the middle of May in the Nauvoo temple (he's from Ohio... Iowa? One of those), and the Mautzes are going over to represent. They were like, "just fly in a day earlier and come with us!" So my two-week trip to DC just became a one-week trip to Nauvoo and a one-week trip to DC. I think I'm okay with that! I'm really excited to get to see new places this summer and spend time with some of my very favorite people. I'm also going to see how many new temples I can go to! Exciting. I'll at least have these two:

Let's see. Other than that, I'm excited about this new student journal. If I can just make it to all the meetings (it conflicts with my work schedule), I think it'll be a cool experience, since we're kind of starting from scratch here.

I'm currently in between Lu'au practices (Fiji is from 6-8, New Zealand from 10-12), and I really should be doing some homework. Or sleeping. Or working on my Relief Society lesson for tomorrow. Or doing anything productive besides looking up endless combinations of flights for later on in the summer. But alas.

New new new year.

So. Christmas break is officially over. But it sure was great. We had a great Christmas at home, including a delicious brunch, church with the whole family, and some good quality time together.

Lisa & Logan:

Dad & Lucas:

Gavin & Megan:

We started this great new tradition of spraying each other with silly string at midnight (okay, to be honest, it was more like 12:02 because we had to finish up our scattergories lists). We all loved it, can't you tell? :)

Lisa had her baby!!! Paisley Sue. She is so precious. The three of us slept over at Lisa's house the night before, then got up with the kids, teamed up to clean the house, got everyone ready, and then waited ALL day for her to come. Lisa had my friend Linnea come to capture the event. We are obsessed with the pictures. Go here to see her "Birth Story."

So it is officially a new year. I can't believe how fast the year went by. Once again, my life has not gone according to plans, but I guess it's still going according to the Lord's plans (I hope :| ), so all is well after all.

What was great about 2011:

• Starting back at BYU, adding a double major, and making new friends.
• Participating in the Lu'au. Taking a polynesian dance class with Laurel.
• Going to the festival of colors and thereby finally fitting in in Provo.
• Working at the MTC and getting to work with so many wonderful, wonderful senior couples.
• Mission reunions, big and small.
• Going to Senegal and having such an amazing experience learning about and experiencing the culture, meeting new people, and making new friends.
• Going to Oregon and Washington with Megan and Gavin.
• My bike + the Provo River Trail.
• Getting a job at Nu Skin and being spoiled by them.
• Getting 18 A's and only 2 A-'s.
• Getting back to not only pre-mission weight, but to pre-high school weight.
• Becoming an aunt for the seventh time.
• Realizing for the million-and-tenth time that the Lord really knows what He's doing with my life.

Things to look forward to in 2012:

• January=Brian Regan. Megan got us tickets for Christmas!
• Lu'au practices every Saturday! I signed up for the Fiji section this year, and I hope that I'll have enough time to do New Zealand as well because I just loved doing it last year.
• What's shaping up to be an awesome winter semester. Today was the first day and I just kept thinking, "I love English. I love etymology. Basically I just love words. I love editing. I love France. I love French. I love Professor Lee and that Laurel and Jacqueline are in my class. I love that I'm in the same classroom as last semester again with Michael, who is hysterical. I love seeing all of my girl friends who got engaged over the break. I love that I have two classes with my friend Jenny. I even love doing my homework." I am a freaking nerd on the first day of school.
• Editing for a new student journal. They're starting this women's something journal... Obviously I'm not quite informed about the specifics yet.
• Hopefully taking a little trip over to our nation's capital to visit a certain wonderful couple that lives too far away.
• WICKED! in July with all the girls.
• Finally going to Europe with Megan. Hello France, baguettes, cheese, French; Italy, pizza, gelato; Greece, vespas; Prague: castles?, etc., etc., etc.
• Weddings, weddings, and more weddings. (Probably not my own, however... on verra!)
• Being a quarter of a century old. Apparently it's great.
• Figuring out what exactly I should be doing with my life. Good luck.

Hope that you have a great 2012!! :D

Zoo, Zupas, And A's.

Lisa wanted to get her hair done before the baby comes, so Megan and I were on kid duty. We went up to the zoo, and let me tell you, mid-December is prime zoo-going season. Not a person there! We had the animals all to ourselves. It flurried a bit on us, but we had fun anyway, besides everyone (AKA Lucas) being bummed about the train being closed for the winter. Here are some pictures from our fun morning:

They were both cold. Tigers are humongous.

I'm pretty sure that I haven't been to the zoo in about 8 years. It's completely different, but totally cool. Check out this Asian-looking elephant. So cool.

Yeah, we were pretty much wearing the same outfit. Oh well.

Afterwards, we ate at Zupas. I'd already ordered a salad when I decided to sample the chicken enchilada chili soup. Oh my gosh. So good.

This morning, I took my last final of the semester. Freedom!! It was for my French literature class, which was one of my favorites because my professor was hilarious. I only needed like maybe an 80 to keep my A, but I wanted to do well. I told myself that if I got higher than 92, I could reward myself. Here's how it went:

I love taking finals.

And here was my reward:

I seriously recommend that you try this soup. It's so delicious. I might have to find other reasons to reward myself.

And thus begins Christmas break! Woot! I'm going to try to see how many books I can read over the break, since I don't ever have time for leisurely reading during the semester.

:D

Guess who...

...got a haircut? Me!! And it's darker than before. I like it. I especially like not having to rip my hair out from under my coat and my backpack every time I went anywhere.

Partying it up, Nu Skin style.

I have been looking forward to Nu Skin's Christmas party for about a month, and it did not disappoint.

So I got dressed up, actually did my hair (attempted!)...

My friend Nathan and I took our dates to Smash Burger and then headed off to the party. They served some refreshments (aka dessert for us!) while everyone arrived.

The entertainment for the night: Kurt Bestor. He put on a really good show with his piano skills and trying to impress us with his synthesizer. I really loved his rendition of "Il est né le divin enfant," a French Christmas song. He played some fun songs and his fellow musicians were equally impressive (including Michael Dowdle on guitar).

Next up: Prizes. They had a lot of them. Basically they just put all of our names into one of those little turn-y things, and pulled out random names to come up and get prizes like IPads, a laptop, flat screen TVs, watches, a telescope, a KitchenAid mixer, a powerwasher, a vacuum, etc, etc. If you didn't want your prize, you could pick out of one of their pockets. If you picked a pocket, they basically just pulled out a wad of $100s and had you count it out. This one girl won $1000. She seemed pretty calm. I would've been freaking out.

Here's my friend Nathan (far left) showing off his French with the founders . . .

and winning his $600. Brat.

Finally: GIFTS.

Boy does Nu Skin know how to give a gift.

Each of these four just started "giving out" gifts to all of the employees.

First off, $100 Costco gift card. Woot!

#2- Two weeks extra pay

#3- this fancy body cream that they don't even sell

#4- a leather backpack

#5- $250 American Express card

and number 6 . . .

A Kindle Fire!

Yeah. Pretty. Dang. Cool.

So fancy. I'm excited to start using it.

Have I said how much I love my job?

Thanks Nu Skin!!

Merry Christmas :D

a festive weekend

It's that time of year again!

Props to Megan for getting us all together for our once-yearly beloved tradition that we haven't really done for a while. I still remember going to the Festival of Trees when we were little: dancing the Nutcracker on those little stages, playing in the playhouses that my dad built, and just having fun looking at all the trees. I still love it! :)

Mom was happy that they started having quilts... check out this cool Book of Mormon one.

Jayna sure loved this Barbie tree.

I don't have pictures (maybe my dad does, somewhere? I'll have to ask), but we were glad that Lisa could come too... although we had to wheel her around in a wheelchair! She's thinking up excuses to get the same treatment next year. Not likely, unless she's somehow 9 months pregnant again!

For the rest of the weekend, Megan came down to Provo to visit! Woot! We had fun. Went to a waffle party (awkward much?), Texas Roadhouse (we love ribs! and rolls. Mmm...), and then watched P.S. I Love You and got serious about planning our trip to Europe this summer (maybe we'll find some attractive Irish men? Who knows). It was fun to have her down here for the weekend. One day our plans will work out and we will be able to live together and get away from all of our crazy roommates. Love you Meg!

(Don't worry, I'm getting my hair cut this week. It's a little bit out of control. I'm aware.)

p.s. my contribution to Thanksgiving dinner:

Yeah, don't even ask how long this took me. But it was so worth it!