it's been christmas around here

well, i've returned.

the school year ended with a big bang and many tender mercies. i had a beautiful semester, full of more growth, answered prayers and saving grace than ever before. i know the our heavenly father listens to and answers prayers! i've even managed to obtain a job--after how many months of searching? it practically fell into my lap.

between the time school ended and christmas officially began for the work world, i was trained, per say. during those last few weeks of school, i literally could not give christmas a thought... i didn't have the brain capacity to think of the gifts to buy slash make for people--there was no room whatsoever. and then with the job training until wednesday.. i got to most of my christmas preparations a bit later than usual.

kurtis and i started the grinch around two in the morning on christmas eve when i'd finally finished most of my garb and we kept saying, "it doesn't even feel like christmas eve," with slight disappointment mingled with our excitement. there's nothing like that extreme anticipation that came around christmastime in the younger years of life. it felt surreal to us, as i'm sure it did to many of you. i've felt that way about christmas for a long time now; i think i grew up a little too fast. I still feel so fondly for Christmas!

(duh, who doesn't?)

i guess--what i'm trying to say--is that things have changed. you know? but it's a good change.

anyway, we had a beautiful christmas. the 25th was a fun-filled morning of will's hash bowns/eggs, kristen's bacon, and serious and not-so-serious gifts. i think kaylynn and colby won this year when the gave kurtis ten dollars.... trapped inside a miniature pinball game that he had to beat before he could have the money. haaa. even with high-larious things like that, it was a meaningful time.

we've spent this Christmas with loved ones eating, visiting the cemeteries, and partying. i love, so much, Christmastime--it brings us all back to one another!

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and now, some photos of the times. the break has been full of things i love:

friends and reunitings.

roommate christmas party: homemade pizza and gift exchange. it was a blasty!

nicole, shayna, chels, mak and mal.

beauties.

love these girls.

thanks, nicole!

ahhhha. nighty inspired by ali mercer.

(here's the story. a year ago i dreamt of having a nightgown. i told ali and she gave me one for christmas 08. i wore it to bed one night when mal and i were living in hawaii and she thought i was absolutely insane to be wearing a silky, red flowery nightgown. ha ha. ali inspired it and now the memory will live on.)

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the lovely marie bates has been called to the slc mish. we parted ways and i wished her my best. she will be such a stalwart sister!

congrats, maria, i love you! thanks so much for your consistent examp of charity and humility!

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a bunch of the uads girls got together at classy b.o.

i am always amazed at how easy it is to be with them--even when its been years since i've seen some of them.

i love you girls so much!

ali, betty, ashley, racheal, silvia and natalie.

k8r the gr8.

viel lieb.

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family.

unfortunately i don't have many phots of all our gatherings.

just trust me when i say it's been a wonderful time.

and...

i've been able to spend hours at end doing what i love--

making my room into a complete disaster of organized, paper-y chaos. :)

oh, and i received a new camera. I am thrillllllllllllllllllllllllled about it.

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and that's that.

school's starting up again in the next few days. considering how excited i was for it to end, the excitement i feel for it to begin again is quite paradoxical. i have my last two generals and allllllll major/minor classes. i am incredibly anxious to delve into it--especially my bible as literature class. ahhh. i'm sure it'll be another good semester, as they all are.

until my next post--you know what i'll be doing:

schooling

workin the new job

dancing for the show opening in less than three weeks. ha.

spending time with liebers

etc

a few weeks ago, a girl at church said, "Christmas is a state of mind."

i'm going to try living there.

the friendship tree

this is not to say we are not any of these things anymore; but, rather, that we have been forced to grow up a bit since:

we were seniors--carefree, queens of the world, free spirits, adventurous and lively. we partook of the now widely-forgotten free time on the daily.

we enjoyed wheat bread, adams and jam--toasted. we puddle jumped in the flash flood: we laid in the gutter and got stared at and splashed big time by cars. we went chalking. we took electoral signs from neighboring cities (stealing, dishonest, bad. i know now.) and stuck in them in kerry downs' front yard. we put flour all over the car and waited for baby hands to leave marks as they pushed us up the hill. we jumped in the freezing river, went streaking, rhino riding and bizzing. we slept all around orem (as in rem sleep)... soccer fields, cascade, etc. soup friday. temple thursday. brother brown. chase. siblings. friends. kneaders. kites. baths and fingernail bits. sleepovers. dance. golf. senior year. graduation. college. life.

we found this perfect tree. we climbed it and called it ours. we immortalized it all by etching our names into its thick bark. we told our english class and found out which of our classmates were truly concerned about nature--surprisingly, kerry was included. we didn't care. we loved that tree with our carved names, we loved each other, and we loved life.

sassar, you are a forever friend. although our friendship tree moments are interspersed more than an earlier era of our lives, my gratitude, appreciation and love for you is no less alive. i love you.

see ya at the friendship tree.

just in time for christmas

kristen, my dear mother, and kaylynn, my dear sister, have combined and combusted ideas and talent to produce an epic seasonal fest. this coming saturday, december 5, they will be holding their yearly christmas jewelry marathon. come to see lovely jewels, beads and such in the form of earrings, necklaces, and bracelets.

time: 12 noon-6

location: my house. (i'm wary to put my address here. let me know if you need an address.)

manner: refreshments served.

come oodle and munch. the way i see it, if you don't see something you like for yourself, you'll find something for someone for Something (aka christmas). tis the season; come for gifts and a great time.

reward

"just slap an ending on there," i told myself. so i jumped on it, threw a conclusion on that paper, and here's my reward--a spare blogging second.

i have been quite estranged from this world. i know. i apologize. i then i take that apology back again because sometimes there's just no time.

i wanted to give a series of shout outs to my good buddy, tal-meister, whom i am soooooooo stinkin proud of. he's worked long and hard for this day to come, and come it has.

congrats my classy friend. brazil won't know what it em. march 31st can't come speedily enough.

thanks for bein there, tal. you're a good man, and a treasured amigo of mine. i want you to know how much i appreciate your

a) examp

b) testimony

c) temple time

d) humor

e) music sensibility

f) diction

g) late night bike riding ideologies

h) choice advice

i) insomnia-maniac ways "I'm going to kill a mockingbird"

j) realism and honesty

k) identity

l) refer to a-k

surrrrrrrrrre love ya, tal. way to be.

define...

Garbage:

Results from statistical analyses performed on non-random samples or experimental data obtained without random allocation of treatments to individuals.

ummm? ha ha.

don't go in the street if there's a car. ...well what about how fast it's going? just don't go in the street! [30 works.]

(CLT. central limit theorem.)

you know you're doing something wrong when you're finding stats humorous.

since we've last spoken...

we had a glorious Wien reu.

It was blessed and beautiful and blissful and soooo incredibly wonderful to hear everyone's good news. marriages, engagements, mission calls (the millenium will be beginning over in the germany, austria, switzerland area. seriously. tons of calls to that area). it was a great but impartial group.

alyse got married.

kels was the maid of honor and looked stuuuuuning. the wedding was a gigantic success.

yoasis reu.

i love you girls, really. i wish we could make these occurrences regular.

my grandparents and i went canning.

more like bagging--frozen raspberries, blueberries, boysenberries... ohh baby.

maken took me to a byu game. first ever.

(it's not that i've never had an offer to go, i've just never accepted. but makena looooves football and she's helping me see the light.)

we celebrated halloween around here.

(makena is hialrious.)

missing black woman shayna and fad-tastic makena at our stake dance.

kels=beauty

jeff=ryan adams the zombie

neil's bro=star wars?

neil=halo?

talley=dinosaur

a young kyle grey=brigham young

tc=a stike all match

we went to regina...

and we loved it...

...and she soothed my eardrums, brain, and eyeballs.

? ha. somehow.

it's been good. things are good. life is just plain good.

"Still, like water, I remember where I was before I straightened out.”

No matter how “fictonal” the account of these writers, or how much it was a product of invention, the act of imagination is bound with memory. You know, they straightened out the Mississippi River in places, to make room for houses and livable acreage. Occassionally the river floods these places. “Floods” is the word they use, but in fact it is not flooding; it is remembering. Remembering where it used to be. All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. Writers are like that: remembering where we were, what valley we ran through, what the banks were like, the light that was there and the route back to our original place. It is emotional memory—what the nerves as the skin remember as well as how it appeared. And a rush of imagination is our “flooding.”

-Inventing the Truth, 198-9.

epictetus was on to something

"Don't demand that things happen as you wish,

but wish that they happen as they do happen,

and you will go on well."

i prefer my milk ice cold.

As it is seemingly customary, I blog now with many a thing to say and show due to my blogging ineptness.

I thought Raintree would be mediocre at best, but I have been majorly surprised.I have the world's coolest roommates, greatest (and biggest) ward, and neatest bishop. It's nice being close to campus--I embrace this change. I have loved riding my bike to and from school. I don't have to leave 30-40 minutes early. I get great parking. I ride uphill to campus, becoming slightly breathless. I get to feel the wind all around me, and have my lungs filled that fresh fall feeling. Oh, how I have loved lately--getting pelted with orange, brown, or red leaves as ride there, back, or somewhere in between.

I am reminded that life is what I make it.

I loved Sunday night; I came home with both banana and honey whole wheat bread, makena with carrot cake, nicole with no-bake cookies, chelsea with pumpkin cupcakes, jeff (home teacher) with rice pudding, and Jesse/Sven with a crepe, some rice krispies and chocolate chip cookies. It's always a party around here.

I love being in the middle of everything, the diagonal? Agh!

I love our fridge. Why is it always so full? What is it so full of? What is that smell? Where the freak are my eggs? Why are they all cracked?! Oh yeah, because it's freezing in there--literally! no matter how much we adjust the temperature, my things are always icy. But i tell ya... the milk that goes in my bowl makes for cereal that has never tasted so good.

It doesn't feel like a huge transition. I am loving it. I am happy. I am grateful.

Mally Mal girl. Roomy.

Jesse set up the bookshelf--what a man.

Makena brought the pink tool kit--what a woman.

And here we are at our primero fhe gathering.

L-->R

Shayna "Bell"

ich

Mak dog

Nicole

Chelsea

(Mal=m.i.a.)

Hawaiian/Provonian roommates collided in Utah--

remember zell and marie?

quiet house dwellers?

ahhhh they are just the best.

i left a part of my heart in their palms

and in laie.

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Next.

a VERRRRRRRY happy birthday to this wonderful woman!

three necklaces later, she stands, a freshly birthed twenty-year old.

what a beauty, no?

impeccable style, no?

i could stare all day.

(not in a weird way. ha. but seriously.)

after the after party celebration, her choice of fried ice cream and mario kart. N64. ya!

Kels, happy birthday.

I love you, and will love you to my dying day.

No, not even until then, the love will carry over in to the eternities because you are worth holding on to. Way worth it. You're the best, thanks for being such an inspiring, remarkable, incredible friend. I love you. Happy day!

20.

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As a Utahan and a Mormon, it would seem standard protocol for me to have attended at least one sesh of g-con. Alas, I am apparently the exception to that rule.

My cute Canadian cousins invited me the weekend of--best surprise ever! I drove up Sunday evening, slept at their luxurious suite with them, dined like Queens the next morning (Little America. Um, wow.), and enjoyed Sunday morning session on the balcony of the beautiful conference center.

It was a transpiration to remember. :)

Carly introduced me to Eggs Benedict, and Josie hand picked luscious red- and black-berries for me.

Gracias for the meal, ladies.

Ahhh such a stunning place!

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Then

I had the sweet sweet opportunity to see my Viennese American roommate wedded.

Melisser, many many congrats, lovely lady.

While there, I got to see...

...timeless treasure R&B--who happens to be Melisser's cousin.

(Picture this [pun]: Whilst in Österreich, I posted a photograph of a bunch of us on a bike-ride from Melk to Krems. Naturlich, I tagged those I was with, and, naturlich, people commented. Imagine my surprise when R&B wrote, "What the--Tawny, Melissa is my cousin!" Her kusine, my mitbewohnerin.)

...as well as a bunch of blessed babes, aka wien kindreds.

What a time, love yous.

Can't wait for that reu, Covey.