Rice Krispie heart

I'm not going to lie, I got some pretty awesome gifts for my birthday this year. Between a pendant necklace with an anatomically correct heart on it, a year long subscription to Entertainment Weekly, a Scrabble game with a note from a certain roommate that made me bawl my eyes out, and a generous donation from my parents to the London fund in an exchange for my slave labor services all Summer, a girl couldn't ask for more.

Unless she knew what four batches of Rice Krispie Treats made into one giant Krispie looked like.



I keep thinking that I'm going to take a bite of Krispie treat and be sick of it but it never fails to be delicious. I am so lucky to have thoughtful friends that know just what I need. Thanks again friends!

When I die, please stir my ashes into a batch of Rice Krispie Treats and take me to Disneyland. Oh, and don't forget the mini M&Ms.

TWENTY! (finally)

After 364 days of being almost twenty I have finally reached the only goal that I've wanted all year--TWENTY!!! No more will I be grouped with irrational, thoughtless, reckless teenagers! Now that I've reached twenty and have a car I've officially been ushered into adult status! According to Adrie anyway. But seriously, all joking aside, the almost twenty year has been pretty integral in my life so far. If you had told me that I would learn so much about myself and what I wanted from life in one year I would not have believed it. I have laughed, cried, and studied more in the last twelve months than I have in my entire life. I have strengthened friendships with my family and friends creating bonds that will last for eternity. I am a different person than I was twelve months ago. And you know what, I don't think I could be happier.
Hello new decade of life. I'm excited to meet you.

My Saturday that was like Sunday, sort of

By 7am Saturday, May 14, 2011 I was awake and ready for the day in my Sunday clothes putting the finishing touches on what I was going to say to the Laurels of my home stake. I was pretty nervous to say the least. I don't know who thinks two years out of Laurels myself makes me qualified to teach them but, you know, I went along with it anyway. Lucky for me I have a supportive Dad.
I guess I just have too much of Jan in me to do something halfway. I kept finding things I wanted to display on my table. I thought it turned out alright.
Oh hey, did I mention that the night before my big teaching debut I made 120 cupcakes for the Stake Achievement Day activity? The baking went smoothly and everything worked out well. I did come home from the Laurel Activity to find that Kino had jumped up on the table and broken into one of the boxes of cupcakes. It was sort of a miracle that I had 30 extra unfrosted cupcakes that I could hurry up and frost before the delivery was due. After a little stress of driving to the wrong Stake building and running sort of late from the whole Kino disaster, the cupcakes finally got delivered.
And I could go home and take a nap.

Slipping into new habits

-Suddenly 10pm seems like the middle of the night and an appropriate hour to retire to my bedroom
-I often find myself staring at the clouds in the sky. Why have I never noticed how awesome, diverse, and constantly changing the clouds are in Oregon?
-I am constantly craving sun. It's not that I resent the rain but it's that I am dying for that feeling of being warmed by the light and heat that comes from the sun.
-I can read, and I can read for pleasure/non-school related things. I find myself enjoying it.
-I've started sleeping in the middle of my double bed. Man, do I feel luxurious.

It's REAL

You know how people have inside jokes that no one else understands and then you try to explain them and they're still not funny? Well that's probably how this whole blog is going to go but I don't care, people need to know.

There's a Miniature Tigers song called Japanese Woman Living in My Closet so naturally, since Liss Biss is half Japanese, I assumed she would live in my closet. We joked about it all year and it eventually turned into one of the most exciting mornings of my life. On a beautiful Sunday morning, our last Sunday in the Brittany, I got out of the shower and could not find Liss anywhere. I messed with my closet door a bit because it was falling off the track. Once I got it fixed it fell off again so I just opened it. To my GREAT surprise, there was a half Japanese woman living in my closet! It scared me real bad but it was so SO hilarious. Here she is right after the greatest surprise ever.
Now that my Japanese woman is leaving on Friday as a Young Preforming Missionary in Nauvoo the lyrics seem even more applicable.

There's a Japanese woman who lives in my closet
Eats up all my food when she thinks I'm at the office
I came home one day to find she'd gone away
Why do you wanna hurt me?

On my way to work, I'm lost in my head
Every turn I take I hope that she's there
She lived in my closest for a year and now she's gone
How could I ever go on?

Have you gone and lost your mind?
Why'd you let her stay so long?
Now you're all alone
So alone, alone

Okay, well maybe my situation isn't that depressing. It took eight months for Alyssa to change my life forever and I will miss talking to her via modern technology terribly over the next four months. But I guess that's the good thing, it's only four months. Oh and she'll get millions of blessings for serving. Good luck on your mission Liss Biss. I can't wait for you to live in my closet next Fall.

Oregon has been pretty good to me

I've been trying and trying to think of some clever way to share the two exciting things that have happened to me in the ten days that I've lived in Oregon but I've go nothing. In this case, I'm going to rely on the old "a picture is worth a thousand words" thing to get me through.

I've been hired as a cashier at my most favorite store on all of the earth.

Joshua came to Oregon for a weekend visit. Hiking Silver Creek Falls with Kent and Jan was fun and almost 100% dry! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Oregon keeps sending us good weather. I am more than ready for sunshine.