Favorite Moments of 2012:

• Driving to Metz, France for Sephora with the Amanda.
• Finding an egg in my calzone. Darn French.
• Going to London with my mother.
• Going to Florida with Papa Bear.
• Stealing oranges from the neighbor's orange trees in the dark with the cousin. Bringing them home and realizing they were all rotten. All that sneaking around for nothing.
• Getting stranded at sea, or, in this case, river, and having Eva pull us back to shore.
• Getting videos like this one from Jana:
  
  
• Going to New York for Spring Break and seeing the Crandalls. Minus one.
• Eating my first panini, drinking pear juice for the first time, laying in Central Park, walking through Times Square at night.
• Bringing my mom to experience Rexburg.
• "Deep Talk" with the roommate every night before bed.
• Driving to Jackson Hole with Amanda.
• Going to Nauvoo and all the places in between.
• New York for the 4th of July and surviving the firetruck sirens during the parade.
• Having study sessions with this kid and having it go more like this. But with pizza, of course.
  
  
• Going with Parker and Jana to their grandparents home in Wyoming. First time canoeing, roasting starbursts and riding on a four wheeler.
• Rigby lake with Clarice, Spencer and Jana. I made Clarice swim across it with me since she was getting married. It made sense then.
• Visiting Amanda and her grandparents.
• Daily City Creek runs in Utah with Amanda.
• Almost falling in the fountain in Temple Square.
• Visiting Papa Bear in New York and learning how to drive.
• Visiting Kayla at her home in Park City, Utah. Wedding dress hunting!
• Staying with Jana for three weeks in August/September. So thankful.
• Road tripping with Jana to Virginia and visiting Lindsay.
• Giving myself a black eye as a nine year old watched.
• Labor Day celebration at West Point.
• Giving my first talk ever in church. I'll write it out next time.
• Going to Prague with the Cherringtons.
• Watching these dorks chant with an "indian" homeless man.
  
  

• My dad brought home two cute kittens. George and Wincy.
• Seeing President Monson's talk in Frankfurt then seeing him at the temple!
• Going to the Christmas market in Cologne.
• Getting Taylor Swift tickets.
• Christmas morning with the fam bam.
• Getting my new camera!

Pictures:

The closest Sephora is here. It's a blessing in disguise. 

There were tears 'cause ew.

Momma Bear at Buckingham Palace. Attractive.

Beautiful Florida!

Shipwrecked. Eva stepped on a few stingrays. That's why I'm in the boat.

Rotten orange thieves.

Walking in the footsteps of Chris Evans.

Chillin' in Central Park where the thugs tell me I have a cute smile.

I like it here. It's fun. I miss them terribly. Btw, we're in the same house. : )

Yeah, I stole Kayla's hoodie. I'm doing an excellent job canoeing. About to crash. Like the Titanic.

We sent pictures to Parker 'cause we missed him. And I have a black eye.

George and Winston napping. Such cute kittens.

 We like to take pictures from the car. While it's moving. Sometimes it works.

Cherringtons & I in Prague.

Alison and I at the Hard Rock. We have a tease/laugh/love relationship.

President Monson at the Frankfurt Temple.

Momma and I at the temple.

Christmas Market food!

Christmas Market in Cologne!

New Year's Eve party food!

Bringing in the New Year!

You Know You're a College Student When...

Granola bars are a food group.

You get robbed...for paper towels.

Quiz due at 11:59? Sent in at 11:55.

Sink full of dishes. Always.

"I'm going to bed early tonight" "When?" "12."

Lifewater + chocolate bar = lunch

Healthy food is expensive. Tortillas & cheese FTW!

Calling mom to send the neccessities of life.

It's raining out? Avoid straightning hair.

Spending small change & saving quarters for laundry.

Skyping with every state.

Wishing, hoping, praying for a car.

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!

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!

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!

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.