A Break from the West

Last Saturday, I flew home for Christmas break. It's so great to be home. There's a lot that I'm liking about being here. Especially the fact that I get to eat real food! So far it has been pretty relaxing. I've just been hanging out with my parents and baking TONS of Christmas cookies. I did get to have my first doner, which, for all of you that have lived over here know, was a pretty big deal. I was so excited for that first bite that I got a bit of paper in my mouth. I'm going to be honest. I was too happy to be eating that first bite that I didn't even bother to get that bit of paper out. So. I ate paper. Yum. I also made my first trip to base today. I got stuck in the "baggers only" doors at the commissary. It was so embarrassing! Ohwell. I can laugh about it now.
The only downside about flying from Idaho to here is the jetlag that comes along with it. Hopefully I get over it soon. Until then, I'll continue to watch movies and eat brownies until 4AM. Yay! Actually, I've been watching quite a few home videos. They make me smile. And how could they not? Just look at how cute I was!

My First Birthday : )

The Timeline.

Many people are switching to the timeline view of facebook. I also decided to switch. I love seeing all of the things that I've posted or the things that others have posted on my wall in the past. Some of it is making me crack up. I thought I would share a few of my favorites:

"So this is what happened:i walk into my house and my mom didn't want me to look at something so she like pokes me in the eye and i accidentally just let "what the hell?" slip out.so my sister asks my mom why i swore, she says i don't know. and alison says, 'its probably because she's been around mr. o'connor.'"

-Amanda

"It's going to get BEASTLY outside!" 

-Grandma

"guess what? i cried. because i miss my best friend, and i haven't even left yet. not a good sign. and i totally feel like a lame-o friend, but your present is in the works. you'll love it. my mom will bring it to you because it's not quite done yet! well, i miss you, best friend. come to utah. soon."

-Amanda

"I wish you luck with riding in a hot air balloon."

-Amanda

"Emily! Forget water aerobics...let's go to the bazaar and eat all the food!"

-Angelia

"Only Martha Stewart can get this knot out." (after tying my apron too tight at work).

-Angelia

"Martha Stewart is stupid."

-Jana

"Hmmm... think I just dyed Emily's hair orange.... bright side... she can be a pumpkin for Halloween."

-My Mother

"You should get of FB and spend time with your family members..... Please note I signed onto FB only to post that." 

-David (cousin)

"I want you to play checkers with normal boys."

-Jana

"Why the hell did you buy 'ho' earrings?"

-My Mother

"They looked a lot smaller online!"

-ME

"I loved that movie! I'd watch it again if I could...so who was Tron?"

-Amanda

"28 year old art majors are dealbreakers." 

-Jana

"went to the book store earlier to buy a ‘Where’s Wally’ book. When I got there, I couldn’t find the book anywhere. Well played Wally, well played."

-Angelia

" Favorite Memory: You on the floor dying of laughter bc I pushed that guy out the door lmao"

-Brittany

"You're my special friend."

-Jana

"You're my hot friend."

-Me

"I was trying to teach you to fish by throwing you in the water."

-Jessica

"EMILY! You posted on my wall at 3 in the morning.....and 4 in the morning....WHAT THE HECK?! I love you! You're getting baptized today :)"

-Jana

"How did the strings get this way?"

-Parker

"I pretended that I knew what I was doing and turned all the knobs."

-Me


"um Emily, the dude was coming STRAIGHT at us on the road & we almost landed in a pond! "Holy Tractor" could have been my last words...it was the only thing I could muster in such a moment of panic! and, just for the record, I pray that you will not be a driver such as myself...I never received the proper training- I just did what the next German did. But there is hope for you my dear."
-Abbey


"And where were your glasses?"
-My Mother
"I pulled them out of my magic sleeve!"
-Jana

"I'm going to go find an old lady who is deaf and would like a companion. That's where I'll send you."

-My Grandma

"I discovered reeeeeaaaaaal quick to get out of terminal F. I found terminal B and hung out there for awhile....now I'm back at F.....dees people sure do got dat aatttiituuude."

-Jana

"I got on Pinterest this evening and saw a bunch of pictures of beautiful men. I believe I have you to thank for this."

-Clarice

"Are you two high? You don't know what kind of cake you made?"

-O'Cutie


"Emily Darling Rice-A-Roni, I think you are probably one of my favorite people...ever haha"
-Abbey

"Du hast ein herz kaputt."

-Jana


"LEARN THAT PART"
-Mr. Pellaton


"so i tried looking up the world record for longest daisy chain, but there isnt one. so i'm going to set it."
-Amanda

"Amy Winehouse should have gone to rehab but no, no, no."
-My Mother

"You cannot be left unsupervised, dear."

-Lindsay

"We're up on a hill in Fort Montgomery. It sounded like a spaceship landed in our backyard."

-Jana
"She says this sober."
-Me
"HEY!"
-Jana


"Emily, really?? We feed you, I save your life, I get you safely home and no cookies?? None. Not one. Think about it."
-Abbey


"And who is going to snuggle with you then?!"
-Lindsay

"I almost cried for a different reason." -Lindsay 

The Week of Mishaps.

My week of mishaps started last Sunday. It went like this:

Sunday: The One with the Super Glue

My friend, Jana, and I were sharing stories Sunday night. I had my computer out and I looked at the bottom and noticed that a part was coming off. I decided that super glue would be the best way to fix it. Due to previous mishaps with super glue I'm not allowed to have it. I asked Jana what was on the bed behind her so she would turn around and I could easily grab the super glue without her noticing. Mission accomplished. So as she's finishing up her story, I'm trying to squeeze super glue onto the broken part of my laptop cover. Nothing was coming out of the top. I didn't see any scissors anywhere so I tried biting the blocked part of the super glue bottle off. Yeah, not my finest idea. As I was trying to bite the top off, I squeezed a good amount of super glue into my mouth. There was super glue all over my teeth, under my tongue and on my lips. My face probably expressed my fear because Jana says, "Emily! What's wrong?!" Once she sees the super glue in my hand, she knows. And freaks out. I cried. Not gonna lie. It's all okay now though. Just so everybody is aware, hot water will remove super glue from your mouth.

Monday: No More Toothbrush

While getting ready Monday morning, I placed my flat iron on my toothbrush by mistake. I was waitng for it to heat up and walked away. I came back to a horrid smell. The smell of burning plastic. I lifted up my straightner and coming off of it were strings of melted plastic. I melted the top of my toothbrush. Yay.

Tuesday: The Pizzas

This is one that I was able to keep from my roommates. On Tuesday, my friend, Clarice, and I decided that we wanted to have pizza for dinner with some other people. She left me in charge of ordering the pizzas. Shouldn't be difficult, right? Wrong. The amazing thing I find about America is that you can order pizza online. I love ordering things online. Anyway, so I'm ordering the pizzas and I accidentally hit that I'm paying with cash. Yeahh. Cash I don't have. So there I go walking to campus to get out money. Then I go to break one of the twenties. With the amount of walking I did to get the money for the pizzas, I could have just gone and picked them up too. Oh, and turns out that there is a money machine right around the corner from my apartment. Good to know.

Wednesday: Ein Großes Fehler

Wednesday was my "productive" day. Until 10:30. At 10:30 I decided to take my online exam for german. I had to sign my name for the first question. After doing this, I hit submit. A message comes up saying, "You have not answered one or more questions. Continue?" I say yes. Turns out I should have said "no" because I just sent in a blank final. So to fix this problem, I go to e-mail my teacher. In the subject line I put "ein groer fehler" ...and sent it. Why? Because the symbol for 'ß' is made by hitting the option +s button. That is also the combination that sends an e-mail. So I send in a blank final and a blank e-mail all in one night. Yay.

Thursday: Helloo, Tree

Nothing bad really happened on Thursday. Just dumb little things such as running into tree branches that have snow on them (I got wet), dropping an eggshell in the cake batter (I got it out), and apparently when you're told to turn the heat way down, that doesn't mean to 54. I thought 17 people in one apartment would be enough heat for the night. It was until 2am. 

Friday: My Bad

This was the day that I got all my stuff to my storage unit. I went with Jana's mother and brother to do this. We had to get some of Jana's sister's stuff out and put mine in. Her mother asked if I knew where the office was so they could get a storage unit. I told them that there was a building on the corner of the block where the office was. Nope. It was vacant. Then I realize that I'm holding the business card for the place. It has the phone number on it so they call up and ask if they can get a storage unit and such. Then I hear them ask for the address on the place and I look at the card in my hand again and see that the address is written on it. Yeah. I know. I'm a great person to have around the day after an emergency :)

Saturday: The Day of Travel

I woke up at 4am to get ready. Why I thought it would take me 2 hours to get ready, I have no idea. At 5:30am I decide to go wake up Jana. Not only did I wake up Jana, I woke up her mother. Sorrrrry. And I made sure Jana stayed awake until I left.

"Everyone needs an annoying little sister and everyone needs a bossy big sister." -Jana. 

I knew going into the airport that my bag was probably over 50lbs. And it was but I'm pretty sure my lost, innocent face gets me out of anything cause the guy just smiled and said, "ohwell." Ohhhyeahh. Then I bought headphones because I lost my old ones. I spent from 2:14pm  - 2:55pm opening them. Scissors just don't exist in the travelling world because you can take over the country with them. So I used my thumb nail. And it hurt. But totally worth it. On the plane to Frankfurt, a fight broke out. Most people would be alarmed but I just kinda watched. I was just hoping that we didn't have to land like the flight attendant said we would because I just wanted to get the trip over with. After living with 5 other girls, you learn that little arguments burn out fast. When we landed in Frankfurt, I went looking for the baggage claim. And somehow missed it. That's right. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one that can manage to skip baggage claim. It's okay though because I eventually realized that I didn't have my bag and went back to find it. All is well!

No Fun No More.

The end of the semester is coming up waaay too fast. As always, I have procrastinated in every way possible. It's what I'm good at...unfortunately. Like right now for instance. I have a paper to write, a book to read & write a report on, a few worksheets and a presentation to prepare. All for next week. It's crunch time, folks! But I'm going to Utah tomorrow anyways. Fun just sounds more appealing than homework :)

Be Thankful.

For the month of November, one of the roommates decided we should put up a poster and write something we are thankful for each day. I loved this idea! I was given the job of making the title of the poster. If you know me at all, you know this took a while. The title had to be even, neat and pretty. "It's going to be a looong night," my roommate said as I started working on it. She had no idea.

The final result!

Getting Nowhere Fast.

I'm finally back in Idaho...which I'm not exactly thrilled about. I've officially decided that I'm allergic to Idaho. Everytime I come back to this place, I get sick.

On the ride back, I took some pictures. There wasn't much else to do. We ran out of stories within the first four hours and I got to $3,000 on Sky Burger. But at least I can say that I've been through a desert.

You can kinda see some of the Grand Canyon.

"Look Simba, everything the light touches is our
kingdom." -Clarice

Some things I learned in the car on this roadtrip:

- Don't watch Cougartown on a Sunday. 

- Don't get too close to the edge of a cliff. People kinda freak.

- You have to get out of the car to avoid blood clots.

- Christmas/Church music for 15 hours is hard to do.

- In-N-Out is good!

- Saying "tell a story" = "are we there yet?"

- Sunglasses are a necessity

- Pumpkin seeds can easily get everywhere.

- It's 'Ox in the mire" not "Ox in the mill".

Thanksgiving in Arizona

For Thanksgiving, my roommates and I decided to go down to Arizona. This could most possibly be the best decision I've made this semester. It's so warm here and there are palm trees!

We ate Thanksgiving dinner at my roommate's sister's in-law's house (that was confusing). It was sooo good. The best part was being able to eat dinner outside. Never in my life have I been able to eat Thanksgiving dinner outside. It's always been too cold and snowy. We actually had to fry last year's turkey out in the snow so this weather is definitely a treat.

Thanksgiving night we went to the Mesa Temple to see the Christmas lights. They were soo pretty. We also visited the cactus garden there. Of course I had to get a picture with a cactus!

So pretty! 

I didn't realize how close I was to it.

After spending an hour or so there, we went back to the house to pack up and head down to Benson, Arizona. On the way there, we stopped at a Walmart to participate in some Black Friday chaos. Never have I ever seen a checkout line that wraps around the perimeter of the store. Definitely not something I care to relive.

We finally arrived at my roommate's house in Benson. Benson is a cute little town but when I say 'little', I mean little. Smaller than Rexburg and that's pretty amazing. I loved the house though. It's so big and cozy at the same time.

Friday morning rolled around and I was made aware of all the sales going on online. Good sales too. And I went crazy. We're lucky I still have money in my bank account 'cause I was using my debit card like no other. Too bad I didn't realize until after the fourth order that I hadn't been putting my apartment number in the address....ooops. We'll see how that goes.

The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxing and now I'm back in Mesa getting my stuff together for the trip back to Rexburg in the morning. I'm not ready to go back to snowy Idaho yet. It's too nice here. So looong lovely, warm, sunny Arizona. I shall miss you!

Ice Ice Baby.

My roommate came home the other night with her brother. They decided that they wanted to try this pizza place down the street called "Five Buck Pizza". After much debate over how much it would actually cost (yeah.. I know), her brother was ready to go order it. He didn't want to go alone and my roommate did not want to go with him. I don't blame her. It was freeeezing outside. From that last sentence, you can probably tell that I was the one who ended up walking there with him.

Once we get to the bottom of the stairwell leading down from my apartment, I find a problem. The streets are covered in black ice. My roommate's brother starts going on about how he's happy I came with him blah, blah, blah but all I'm thinking is, "Holy mother, this is ice.". I told him that I don't mind going with him on these short trips as long as he catches me when I slip on ice.

One thing you should know is that I'm pretty close to this family and have known them for a while, which explains his response to what I said. He says, "bahahaha, this is ringing some bells in my head from last winter."

Here's what happened last winter. I went ice skating. For the first time and oh boy was it an experience. I just stood on the ice and fell. I didn't even have to move my feet. I held onto my friends so tightly. But that didn't help. I still fell every five minutes or so (no exaggeration). For my last few rounds around the ice skating rink, I linked arms with my roommate's brother to keep from falling. I'm pretty sure he couldn't believe how unstable I was on the ice but, hey, whaddaya gonna do? Anyways, he kept me from falling though there were a few close calls and lots of screaming (from me). I was scared. Then a song came on the radio that I reallllly liked and decided to sing to. I was more into my song than the skating because I somehow ended up on a path that was sure to end in a collision with a lady in front of me. My roommate's brother, trying to save me from that embarrassment, pulled me to the side, which resulted in the worst fall of them all. My roommate yelled, "Way to go!" from across the rink. It was greeeeat. But hey, good memory, right?

I remember coming home that night and my father saying, "Let's see your knees." I pulled up my pant legs to show him the red and purple bruises. It stayed that way through Christmas. It was a painful few weeks. I truly despise ice. Ice is dumb.

Oh, Snow.

Winter has officially made its way to Idaho. I best get used to the slipping and sliding. I can't remember ever having as much trouble as I am now walking on the snow. I have a hard enough time trying to stay upright without the ice and slush. It has snowed for the last two saturdays. Doesn't sound like much of a problem since there's no classes on Saturdays, right? Wrong. I have a test in my DNA class every weekend until Thanksgiving break. The first saturday I was dumb and waited for the snow to stop before going out. The snow was all packed down and slippery the whole way to campus. The next saturday, thinking that I learned my lesson from the past saturday, I left the apartment as soon as possible....which meant mid-blizzard. Needless to say, I was covered in snow from head to toe after that test. Pictures were taken. It was lovely. I'm told that I need to get used to this crazy weather because it's only going to get worse from this point on. Yay.

Walking home in a blizzard. Good times :/

A Generation of Wimps

While eating lunch the other day, my lovely roommate found an article in the paper about "wimpy children". It was going on about how parents have babied their kids all their lives and, now that they are at college, they cannot do things on their own. As she was reading it aloud, I got a look from another one of our friends.

Normally, I would try to defend myself. Normally. Just one problem. The day before this lovely lunch was clean-check day. This is when somebody comes around and checks the apartment. Everyone has a job they are responsible for. My job that week was to clean all the kitchen appliances. The oven was a mess! I found "All-Purpose" cleaner under the sink and began spraying it and scrubbing. This is when my mom got on skype. She asked what I was up to. I told her how I was cleaning the oven. She asked what kind of oven cleaner I was using. This is when it was acknowledged that bleach was in this all-purpose cleaner and , when used in ovens, causes toxic fumes. Joy. So there I am using soap and water half cleaning, half praying. I'm not sure how well of a job I did getting all the bleach out but a dessert was cooked in the oven this weekend. People ate it. Everyone is alive. I think I did well.

Clay Pigeons...Whaaa?

The Beginning

I want to start out by saying that I hate loud noises. All loud noises. Especially guns. So, when I was invited to go shooting with my friend and two guys, I wasn't exactly thrilled.

The guys came to pick my roommate & I up and then we were off to the Middle-of-Nowhere, Idaho. We get out of the car and the first thing I ask for is earplugs. I pushed those earplugs so far in my ears, it hurt. I had all of these 4th of July flashbacks going through my head. The 4th of July parade was not one of my favorite events as a child due to the guns being fired. Ugh. Well, here I am in a potato field with 3 different kinds of guns and clay pigeons. By the way, clay pigeons are not actually shaped like birds. They are orange discs. Who knew?

My roommate was the first to shoot. "PULL!" she says and there's me freaking out. I then realized that earplugs do actually work. That's when I got brave and decided to try out this shooting thing. Even though I didn't shoot any clay pigeons, I felt accomplished.

Later that night, I drove us all to Wingers. Yup, I drove. It may have been dark out and I may not have had my glasses on and my roommate may have had to tell me when the car's brake lights came on in front of me BUT we survived. My roommate was so nice and remained calm by saying, "Okay, you're going to want to slow down to be able to make a complete stop at the stop sign." The guys in the back had little faith and freaked out by saying, "STOP THE CAR!" Chill guys. I got this.

The End

A Taste of Home :)

My roommate turned quarter of a century old on the 23rd. I found this super exciting because her mother sent her a Prima pizza as a birthday gift. My mom teases me with these pizzas. She asks me if I want one then says, "hahah, just kidding." Well. Who's laughing now?

It came on Wednesday. I was happy just to see the pizza box at first. It said Cornwall, New York on it! We baked it on Thursday & the smell coming from the oven was amaaaazing. We couldn't wait to eat it! The first bite was a little home-sickening but then it was just heaven. A bit of New York came to Idaho. Dreams do come true.