Happy Friday!

Snow Day

I woke up this morning feeling tired and sour,
But my spirits were lifted by the end of the hour.
Good news from the principal – it’s a snow day!
I then got to relax in a very big way.
Hours of TV and reading took place,
Until the time of Tyler’s returning face.
We went to a movie and then grocery shopped,
And lay on the couch until my head almost dropped.
Now off to bed, while all night I'll dream
Of another great call to make my heart beam...

Gratitude

Today I am grateful for three things:

First, I have a warm house that comes with a wonderful husband who will strip down while I crank the heat up to 90 degrees on frigidly cold days like today.

No, this is not really Idaho…it’s some awful place in Switzerland.

Second, This blue box that came today after my necklace was lengthened. Now I can finally wear it…hurray!

And Third, Jack Bauer

He is the only one you can trust.

Four Faves

Did you know that my own mother and father never thought I would make it through the first semester of college? Shocking, I know. Now it’s hard to believe that I graduated college and am now on my way to a Master’s. Honestly, I wouldn’t have believed it either if you had told me years ago. Somehow it happened, and tonight I was thinking about the amazing adventure that was college, and reminisced through pictures and memories that I hope to keep forever. I moved almost every semester in college, and was able to meet so many amazing people. Through the journey I met four people that I considered (and still consider) some of my closest friends. I would now like to introduce you to my four faves:

Emily

Jessica

Whitney

Allyson

I started writing individual paragraphs for each girl, but soon realized that was going to take hours. These girls were my greatest friends and (I know it might sound lame) but they changed me. Here’s a very short list of some of my memories with them:

-Emily and Jessica trying to teach me to dance – moment of silence for Club Retrix (and the thirty-two other names it went by)
-Watching Friends until all hours of the night and completely pissing off our lesbian, trumpet playing roommate
-Wearing our matching pants courtesy of Broulims
-Breakfast Tuesdays! Eating oranges and making waffles (and especially giving the ones that fell on the floor to our other weird roommate…haha)
-Making our own maracas
-Playing tricks on GP
-Filling giant holes in chocolate cake with frosting…what a sweet surprise!
-Every aspect of Vashon Island (Allyson, aren’t you glad I didn’t put any of those pictures on here? Yikes!)
-Spending hours walking the track and listening to boyfriend drama… Yes, I really do miss those walks/talks

Oh, I could go on forever, but since many are inside jokes and probably boring to you, I won’t. I sure do miss the “old days” when we would hang out without a care in the world. I’m sad that things are so different now with careers, kids, husbands, etc. It is crazy how things have changed so much in the last few years. But I am so glad that I am able to keep in contact with all of my four faves! And here’s to more years of memories together! I love all you girls!

Grammar Punk

Back in September, when I went to a writer’s conference, one of the presenters, Sam Beeson, told us about this “game” he created called Grammar Punk. I thought it looked like a great way to assist me in my creativity, as well as possibly bring into my class (on a much simpler level of course). This is one of the few things I have wanted for a while and never actually bought myself, so Tyler was lucky to get that as an idea for Christmas. I just wanted the dice, but since we couldn’t buy them separately, we got the game 12 Tall Tales, which on top of the dice includes cards with: location, character, genre, etc.

Here’s how it works:
There are six dice to roll. They tell you:
1. The topic of your sentence or story.
2. A type of punctuation to use.
3. A part of speech to use.
4. Vowel*
5. Consonant*
6. The number of dice words* to use.
*A dice word is a word that has the vowel and consonant you rolled in it.

Today I am using these to help me write my poem of the week. This is what I rolled.

So in my poem about sports, I need to include a question, an interjection, and at least three words which have a w and an i (turns out I had a lot more).

To start off, Sam suggests creating a list of dice words to use. Here’s my list:

wicked witch win wisdom wimp wind

wide will window write white wipe

And the final product:

Oh no! When I look out of my window I see:
All the wicked children playing football without me!
I point my wand out through the window,
And send a load of magic down below.
The football gets hit and takes a new flight.
While all the children suddenly turn white!
A few start floating up to the sky,
While many begin to loudly cry.
What is the lesson they must all learn?
Don’t forget to give the witch a turn.

I am pretty awesome at this game, but if any of you want to challenge me to a rousing game of Grammar Punk/12 Tall Tales, give me a call...

What is Grammar Punk?
(For those of you who may want to know a little bit more.)

Braggin' Rights

Remember that hideous paper my group and I spent days crossing the “APA” t’s and dotting the “neurology” i’s until we were just about ready to die? Well I found out that we got 100% on that paper! Can you believe that? 100%! That is completely unexpected, but utterly deserved.

On a side note, I also passed both classes with flying colors.

Straight A’s baby!

And here’s hoping for another perfect semester…

Arizona

After Christmas we left the great white north,
In search of somewhere warmer we set forth.
Hour after hour we did drive,
Only on junk and fast food could we survive.
We finally arrived after hour sixteen.
And we were very excited to improve our hygiene.
The purpose of this trip a month ago was revealed,
Tyler’s dad and his wife were going to be sealed.
Even though the trip was very short,
We were able to do some things of report.
We saw Tyler’s favorite mission companion,
As well as the breath taking Grand Canyon.
We ate gourmet food and rocked out with Dave and Kate,
And we ending up rocking until a little too late.
It was nearly sunset when we got to the park,
Which is why some of our pictures are a little bit dark.
The freezing cold and all the snow
Was something that surprised me so!
After our many hours of driving around the nation,
We were grateful to be home at the end of our vacation.

Ode to Christmas

We spent the majority of the holiday in Canada visiting my family. It was a lot of fun. My three brothers and their families all came to join in the festivities. Some of the highlights were: Wii games, walking down a “Candy Cane Lane” type thing, playing with two super cute nieces and one way cool nephew, eating McD’s breakfast, everyone (but of course not lucky Tyler) getting sick from such sweet kids, and driving thirty hours. Here’s some proof.

My parents' beautiful tree.

Tyler and my dad loving Wii golf.

Ally sprinkling food for Santa’s Reindeer.

A bad picture of us ruling Outdoor Challenge.

Jordan and Cyd in awe of how friggin' awesome Tyler and I are at the Outdoor Challenge.

Arms flapping...getting too excited for her favorite present.

And this is that very awesome present.

Tyler didn't flap, but was just as excited for his new shoes.

As was I for a new Tiffany's necklace to add to my collection.

Matching aprons from Cyd.

Jordan being weird while Cyd conducts the Wii Music Orchestra.

Warren, very addicted to Guitar Hero.

Like father, like daughter.

Sweet Grace.






Ally and my Grandma.

At the end of this very cold, yet very enjoyable holiday, we were so excited to go feel the warmth of Arizona. But that’s another story…