I'm going to kick this...

So for the past week I haven't felt all that great. I have been fighting this cold and it has been horrible. So, I went to the grocery store today and spent $26. I bought garlic and ate a clove of it...yep it was gross. I bought Vitamin C stuff that you drink and Cold Eeze cough drops that have zinc in them. I am going to be better by Friday -- no matter what!!

Asking Boys Out...

So, I know that the dating game has changed in the past generations and now it is acceptable for girls to ask boys on dates, but is it really? Well, I hope so, because I did last night, but I have to wonder: even though he said yes, is it a bad thing that I asked him on a date? And if it is, how will I know because I can't really ask him, "Is it a turn off that I'm asking you on a date?" For some boys it probably is and others probably have no problem with it, but how do I know which one he is? Ahhh...for all you married people out there, be glad you are done with the dating game. I know, I know ... all my married friends tell me to enjoy single life and marriage is hard, blah, blah, blah, but who really enjoys all the crap that comes with dating?

Computer Woes

So, on Thursday I tried to turn on my computer and all that would come up in a blue screen saying that there were errors while trying to boot up. Well, that problem has turned into me having a laptop that has nothing on it... Yep, that's right: my hard drive no longer has anything stored on it. Gone are my pictures, my transcripts of tapes and letters about my Grandpa, my music, my lists...oh I'd forgotten about all my lists! I want to just cry! At least I backed up my pictures in April, but what about everything else! Ahhh!!!

Cutest Song...

So, I know I have 20 other, more important, things I should be blogging about, but I just can't help but post this. My cousin Emily learned this song in her pre-school class and as soon as I heard her sing it, I fell in love with it. I had to catch it on video. In case you can't hear the lyrics she is singing:

Pumpkin, pumpkin, on the ground,

How'd you get so big and round?

Started as a seed so small,

Now you are a great big ball.

Pumpkin, pumpkin, on the ground,

How'd you get so big and round?

Started as a seed so small,

Now you are a great big ball.

Pumpkin Rolls Disguised as Pumpkins

I know, I know...I have been the worst blogger since coming back from Europe. I am so behind. However since I've received comments from people about my blogging absence, I figured I better get on the ball again. So, last Sunday, I decided to make some pumpkin rolls in the shape of actual pumpkins. They were so cute...but SO much work. To make 12 pumpkins, it took me three hours. To make them, I used little bundt cake pans and then put the bottoms together with frosting as the glue. They were so so yummy! Pumpkin rolls are definitely one of my favorite desserts!!

The Lion King

Wow, so it has been almost a month since I posted something. Time really does fly! I've been so busy making Heather's wedding announcements...all 365 of them. They are beautiful though...but I'm kind of biased. :) Also, I know I still need to blog about the rest of my Europe trip...I think about it a lot, it just takes a long time to blog with that many pictures!
Last night I had an amazing experience. I went with a group of people from the singles' ward to see The Lion King musical. From the very beginning I was blown away with the costumes and the sets. I don't really know what I was expecting, but I wasn't expecting the people to be wearing props that actually made them look like giraffes or hyenas. It truly was incredible. I couldn't help but wonder how much each animal cost. I was really interesting watching a Disney movie on stage though. I haven't watched the animated movie in probably ten years, so I didn't know exactly what was coming next, but I still knew what was going to happen. When I saw Wicked on Broadway last April, I had no clue what the story line was, so it was all new to me. Another amazing thing was young Simba and Nala. I couldn't believe the intensity and amazingness of these actors. They were so adorable. We were up in the nosebleeds, so we couldn't even see their facial expressions, but still...they were amazing!!
If you ever get the chance to see the Broadway version of The Lion King, you should totally take it. It was so worth the money!!

OOoook lahoma....

I know I still have so much to blog about my trip to Europe, but I've just gotten back from yet another trip...to Oklahoma. My friend Becky decided about a month and a half ago that she wanted to go to the BYU vs. Tulsa game in Tulsa. I said I'd go with her, so along with our other friend Bailey and Becky's mom, we went to Oklahoma yesterday and came back today. Tulsa is only about 4.5 hours away from here, so the drive isn't too long and we had such a fun time. We talked about boys (no surprise there, right?), the ward, sang songs from Girls' Camp, sang Oklahoma songs when in Oklahoma, sang Texas songs when in Texas, sang Celine Dion songs to remind us of middle school, sang High School Musical 2 songs, sang Hairspray songs, played "ask a question and everyone has to HONESTLY answer," listened to church music and a talk on John Taylor...let's see is there anything we didn't do? :) We had such a fun time. The game was good, we didn't win, but it was still a fun game. The first half we had lots of hope. It was a high scoring game, so there was a lot of energy. We didn't sit in our assigned seats because there wasn't much room, so we found our own seats. We were surrounded by both BYU and Tulsa fans (mostly Tulsa though), but we some how drove all the Tulsa fans away, because we were so loud... oops. :) By the end of the game, we were so tired. It really was sad that we lost, because on top of it being sad for the obvious reason, we were the minority in Tulsa territory...which is always awkward when you didn't win and people want to shove it in your face. It wasn't too bad, but still... The game ended up being four hours long and didn't get over until midnight, so we stayed the night in Tulsa at a cheap hotel. There was a special treat for us there though:Check out this golden hurricane! So funny...
We went to sacrament meeting this morning there and then drove to the Oklahoma City Temple since Bailey, Becky or Sister Manion had never been. Then we continued to Texas. I got home at a little after 7 p.m. What a short, long fun trip...

Top Things About Germany

Top Five Most Favorite Things About Munich:

5. Yummy sandwiches and pastries
4. Finding Kinder chocolate
3. Going on the tour of Dachau concentration camp (the beautiful tour guide is a plus too)
2. Kababs
1. There were tons of bells on all the clock towers that would ring on the hour and every fifteen minutes

Top Five Least Favorite Things About Munich:

5. The rainy / dreary weather
4. My blistered and bleeding feet
3. The huge coo-coo clock was all covered up and being restored
2. We didn't get to go see the castles because they were two hours away and tours were only offered on Wednesday and Friday mornings from Munich
1. Not finding the hostel

Pictures and Stories from GERMANY

So, I'm finally getting around to blogging about my trip to Europe. I'll start with the first place I went and were we flew into: Munich, Germany. The flight really wasn't too bad. It was long, but on the first flight to Philadelphia, I literally slept from take off to landing. I was so tired from not getting very much sleep the night before, so it was really easy to sleep on the plane. Then the flight from Philadelphia to Munich wasn't too bad either. I ate the pasta thing they feed us, but then I took a sleeping pill, put ear plugs in and had a eye cover thing to block out all the light, and I slept until landing again. So, when we got in to Munich at 11:00 in the morning, I had no jet lag and I was ready to go. Going through customs was so easy that I didn't even know I went through it. When we met up with Magen I asked her where customs was and she said I just walked through it. Here I am after meeting up with Magen and getting money out of the ATM so I would have euros to spend. :)The first thing we did in Munich, is try to find our hostel so we could get rid of all our luggage. We couldn't find it. After about an hour we gave up and we took a taxi. Interestingly, all the taxis in Germany are Mercedes. It was really different from anything here or even NYC... I was so grateful to finally make it to the hostel, because I had already gotten a blister and rubbed it raw, so I put on another pair of socks. The whole time, I wore two pair trying to minimize blisters... After going to the hostel and dumping all of our stuff, we hit the town. It was a little drizzly and kind of chilly, but after the 100+ degree heat of Texas, it felt so wonderful!


I don't really know what any of these buildings are, but we just took the pictures... From the very beginning of planning the trip, Magen would send me messages saying, "I can't wait for you to try..." It was all about the food and trying the different cuisine there. Magen loves cheese strudels so that is what she is eating (They're good, but have really gross raisins in them that you have to pick out.) and Brooke had a chocolate mousse. She got it all over her and we joked that it was the mousse that kept on giving... :)After walking around for a while, we found this nice garden to take pictures in. I experienced my first naked statue. It was really the first of hundreds... There were so many people on bikes around the city... I really liked this picture.After leaving the park, we came across this arch, but like most things I took pictures of, I don't know the name of it. And I really like signs...On our second day in Munich, we took a tour to the Dachau concentration camp. When I tell people I went to a concentration camp, most people wonder why I would go, but really when ever I think of Germany, I think of WWII stuff, so it seemed like is should be a part of the Germany experience. Since we paid the 17 euro to go on a tour. I learned a lot of things and I am glad I went. Dachau is the first ever concentration camp in the system, opening in 1933 official as the first concentration camp for political prisoners. In total, over 200,000 prisoners from more than 30 countries were housed in Dachau of which nearly one-third were Jews. Officially, 25,613 prisoners are believed to have died in the camp, however that number is believed to be lower than the actual number because certain groups, like homosexuals, were not recognized by the government at the time and therefore not included in the numbers. The actual number is estimated to be about 44,000 to 55,000. When the camp first opened up, since it was for political prisoners and it was publicly said to be a way to reeducate these people, a lot of the prisoners were let go, however some were still killed.

I don't really know why, but it wasn't really all that eerie. I think it is a lot harder to go to the Oklahoma City bombing memorial that it was to go to the concentration camp, but while I was there, I looked at it more as a history lesson than anything else. Plus or tour guide was really cute, so that was a good distraction... :) However, it has a really humbling and reverent spirit there.

This is what is left of the original railroad tracks leading into the camp. One of the first things we were asked when we got there was how many concentration camps there were. I guessed about 20. I was shocked to learn that there were over 1,500 known concentration camps in the system. We were shown this map with marks representing every camp. After the prisoners arrived at Dachau, all personal items were taken from them. Some of those items have survived and are preserved in cases. Seeing these pictures really personifies what happened there because I now have a face in my memory and not just the label "the prisoners." We were taken through a building that was used to imprison some of the people in the concentration camp. The rooms were dark and divided up into three sections, so small that they couldn't lay down or stand up. They would only be fed one meal a day and be left in these little prisons for days at a time. The barracks that held the prisoners were destroyed about ten years after the war because most of those who were liberated were still living there because they had no where else to go. There are two that have been reconstructed to show visitors what they looked like. These are the bed from the first few years of the concentration camp. Notice the shelves and the separators...As time went on, the beds got smaller and less nice... This is a picture that was taken at the time of liberation. Each barrack was made for 203 people. A couple weeks before liberation there were as many as 2,097 people in one barrack. Notice all the people in one bed and the condition of the barrack... The camp was surrounded by barbed wire and electrical fences. There were also 10 meter deep trenches dug and towers with snipers in them to prevent anyone from escaping. Since people would ask questions if there was bodies being brought out of the camp, the dead were cremated. It was built in the summer of 1940, after the foreign prisoners arrived and the mortality rate greatly increased. A year later it was already working beyond capacity and another, larger, one was constructed to replace it three years later. About 11,000 people were cremated here.This is the statue of the free prisoner build in memorial of the 30,958 people who were at Dachau when it was liberated. The german translates: "To honor the dead and to remind the living." There are also two other memorials there:I'm really am glad I got the chance to go here, but well, what do you say? It is so sad the amount of people that died here -- how they died here. This is prejudice at its worse...

The Office season 3

So, I am finally home from Europe. It feels like I haven't been home in so long. Over the next few days I'll be posting all my stories and pictures from each place we visited. So, stay tuned.

One reason I was really excited to come home is on Tuesday The Office season 3 came out. So, I just got back from buying it at WalMart. Yep, that's right. After waking up at 4:45 a.m. in Salzburg (that's 9:45 p.m. here in Texas), taking a train to Munich, taking a 8.5 hour plane to Philadelphia, a two hour lay over and a 3.5 hour flight to DFW with only about a four hour nap throughout the course of the two flights, I went to buy The Office instead of going to bed. I am utterly exhausted, but I just had to see the pilot. I've been waiting all summer. I didn't watch the show until I came home from school and Heather had season 1 and 2 on DVD, so I haven't seen any of season 3. I'm so excited, but so tired...

So Long and Farewell! GOODBYE! :)

I'm heading off to Europe today. Here is my itenerary for the next week an a half:

29th: Munich, Germany
30th: Munich with an overnight train to Rome
31st: Rome
1st: Rome
2nd: Rome
3rd: leave Rome early in the morning for Florence
4th: Florence
5th: leave early morning for Venice then over night train for Salzburg
6th: Salzburg, Austria
7th: get early morning train back to Munich

I'll be home Friday night about 8:30. I'm so excited! It is going to be so much fun. I'll post tons of pictures when I get back. :)

The Summer is Coming to a Close...

Usually at this time of year, I'm stressed out about going back to school, packing and making travel plans... Well, not this year. This year I'm still stressed out about packing and making travel plans, just for Europe this time and not Utah. Of course there are more stresses in my life right now other than Europe, but who wants to talk about those. :) Anyway, tonight I went to a goodbye party for my friend Camille. She is heading back up to BYU for her last year of school and I'm so sad. We met in the Singles' Ward this summer and I wish she was sticking around with me for longer, but she'll be back hopefully, next summer too. It is just sad to say goodbye...

What an Amazing Experience

To set the scene of this story, I'm going to first say that I've been feeling pretty ill the past few days, so I decided to take a nap today and just lay down for a while. Well, during this nap, I was awakened by my phone ringing at about 6:30. Audi, a girl I grew up with was calling me so I answered the phone... She was calling because her aunt Deb was in town and they wanted to show her my mini scrapbook albums from my New York City trip and my College from A-Z album thing. So, they came over and to my surprise, Deb really liked my albums. Oh, I should also say that Deb is a professional scrapbook designer / apart of the 7 Gypsies creative team and designs new scrapbooking products and stuff, so needless to say I was a little intimidated about her checking out my stuff. After looking at my stuff, she showed me the newest 7 Gypsies catalog and I couldn't get over this new product and how cute / adorable it was. I mentioned it probably three or four times and kept going back to it and looking at it. She totally shocked me by telling me that she actually had the completed album / product that is in the picture with her on the trip. So, my mom and I went over to Audi's house with Deb and Audi's mom, Ellen to look at this album. It was amazing. It was smaller that I thought it would be, but so so cute. She not only pulled out this album, but several that were done for the huge convention that was just held in Chicago that I think is just specifically for vendors and scrapbook companies... anyway I didn't really look too much at them, because I was so blown away with this one, but it was soo soo cool to be checking them out, watching her demo one of their newest products and talking with them all about coming up with ideas and stuff! Then, as I was leaving, the unimaginable happened. She asked me if I was a pretty fast scrapbooker. I said, "Well, I'm faster than my mom or any of my family. I don't know if I'm fast when compared to you though." Not the best and most positive answer...I didn't know this was a informal job interview! She then asked me that if she were to send me new products and give me a week, if I could use them and send them the product for promoting what ever the new product is. I was speechless! I told her I would love to. She said they don't have anything really soon since they just released the new catalog, but she got my email address and said she would be in touch!!! The subject then turned to digital scrapbooking and how I've started gotten really into it. She then started talking about paper and said that they might have an opportunity to help design paper too! I still can't believe it. I'm so excited! A little overwhelmed and scared for the pressure, but this is so cool! Who would have thought on a day that you feel so sick, that it could turn into this? Yay! :)

Check out my bruise...

I have the worst bruise of my life! Yesterday I was over at my aunt's house talking and playing with her kids. I was laying on my aunt's bed with my head propped up on the foot board. My four-year-old cousin came and sat on my stomach and began bouncing on me like she was riding a horse. After a few seconds she got distracted and told me to stay still. So of course that means I'm going to move... So I jumped off the side of the bed, but I misjudged how close I was to the edge. So as I am falling to the floor, I didn't clear the bed and the whole way down my forearm banged against the post of the foot board. It was definitely painful, but Emily saw me disappear and she came after me and jumped on my back ready to ride the horse around the house. So I convinced myself that I had to push through the pain and play horsy. I did and it worked until a couple of hours later I touched my arm and realized that it hurt. I was shocked to see such a huge bruise because I don't really bruise too badly. Seriously, I have never had a bruise like this! It is so disgusting and it really hurts! The picture doesn't do it justice...

After two days:

My Adventures ARE As Cool As...

Back in April I wrote a blog about my upcoming adventure to Idaho not being as cool as Magen's adventure to Prague. Well, now I am going to have an adventure just as cool as Magen because I'm joining her on a trip to Germany, Austria and Italy! :) I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. I bought my ticket on Tuesday evening for $821. I'm going with Brooke, Magen's sister and we are flying into Munich, Germany and meeting Magen there. We will do some stuff there and then take a train to Austria and maybe do some stuff there...it isn't really planned yet. I can't wait to get on a train...it, in and of itself, will be an adventure! Then we will take another train to VENICE, Italy and spend a day and a half or two days there. Then we'll get on the train yet again and go to Florence, Italy and then Rome, Italy. Magen has a friend in Rome that is going to drive us around and show us all the sights. Plus she can speak Italian, obviously, so that will probably help. I am so so excited, it is all I think about. We are going to have the best time ever! EURO TRIP 2007 -- here I come!!! :)

Wedding Dresses

Today the girls in my family went wedding dress shopping for Heather. We went to David's Bridal, not really expecting to find a dress she could modestly wear, but it happened. My mom will have to make a jacket thingy to wear over it, but it is beautiful and screams Heather. I'd post a picture, but it isn't my dress. She tried on six dresses and as soon as she walked out in the sixth, we all knew it was the one. She didn't want to take it off, tears were shed and everyone was smiling from ear to ear. During the day devoted to Heather, we also decided on her colors and the type of dresses the three brides maids will wear and the type of dresses the flower girls will wear. We even went to Jared's to pick out a ring for Andrew and I never saw it, but she is happy she found one. She also found a band of bagettes that looks good with her ring for a wedding band. I was too busy looking at rings for me to pay attention to her shopping for Andrew. I found this gorgeous ring that sparkles like none other! I can't stop thinking about it... Hmmm... :) It was a very successful day. We all had a lot of fun too.

Frame courtesy of OScraps.com Funky Floral Kit

The Room is Slowly Coming Along

Today I finally finished painting my walls. I really like the way it turned out...simple and elegant at the same time. You can't really tell in the picture, but the top has a textured wall paper that is painted. I still am only half done with my furniture and painting it black. It is so much work. I am anxious to get it all done though because my belongings are scattered from one end of the house to the other. My dresser is down stairs because I painted it down there, but my drawers are in the game room and all the small stuff is in my closet. I'm sitting on my bed right now, and it that feels like an island because it is in the middle of my room. It will be nice when it is all done -- I am excited to see it finished.