Why I love Christmas...

It's the feeling of the season that gets me. The memories. It means family time. My family came in a week ago and we surprised my mom. She didn't know that my two oldest siblings were coming. It was a big surprise! Happy 60th Mom! Merry Christmas!

New Job!!!

I got a job at Arizona Spine and Joint Hospital! It's not a very big hospital, but it's a great place for a brand new nurse to learn. I started yesterday with a class they offer to their patients about total joint replacement. I start the nursing part tonight. I'll be doing night shift at the beginning, but they will still train me for day shift. I want to do mostly nights, but I'll do whatever is available. I feel like such a career woman now! I'm working out in the real world! :) I'm really excited about this job and I can't wait to start being a nurse!!

The problem with getting a job is that now I have money coming. I prematurely went shopping. Sunglasses are my 2nd favorite accessory after shoes. I bought 2 pairs of sunglasses and 2 cases. I couldn't help myself.

More exciting news!!! I became an aunt for the 12th time yesterday! My sister Jessica had her 5th child! Congrats you guys! Her name is Anthea and she is so cute!!!

Asia's Baptism!!

Asia got baptized! I am so proud of her. She is so amazing. She is holding the scripture bag that my mom made for her. 

We did a lot of swimming while my brother and his family visited! So much fun. Jumping off things. Doing flips. Splashing. Here are some of my favorite pictures.  

Oh and I finished another cross-stitch. I started this one when we went out East and I finally finished. I had help on it. My nieces and nephews helped with some of the houses.

Happy Birthday, Faith!!

Yesterday was my BFF Faith's birthday, but the festivities actually began the day before. We have been planning this eventful evening for a month and it was finally here! We first began by treating our self to some delicious Indian food! We had the dinner buffet at India Oven and it was delicious!

Next we went to Cinemark to wait in line for 4 hours to watch the much anticipated "Hunger Games!"

Here we are in line! We just hung out and talked and saw old friends and played card games. It wasn't too bad of a wait. We made friends with some of the people waiting with us.

Finally, We got in and Faith and I got great seats! Both of us weren't feeling too good (that wasn't going to stop us) so we got some munchies to keep us comfortable!

Finally the movie began! It was AWESOME! When a movie is based off a book, it ends up being picked apart. It's hard to live up to the imagination of the readers. In my case I think the movie did real well. It was very much like I imagined. It was also very exciting and kept me on the edge of my seat! It's worth seeing whether you read the book or not! (Read the book!) :)

It was a fun night. I'm not a fan of midnight showings, but i enjoyed being with Faith. I'll get over my sleep deprivation eventually! Happy Birthday Faith!!!

Oh and Happy Birthday to my wonderful Father. His Birthday was this week as well, but we are celebrating it next week when the whole family can get together!

Mundane Metro

I hope for a great and crazy story for Metro Mondays, but sometimes my metro rides are uneventful. I tried hard to find someone acting crazy or dressing crazy...no one! It's the end of the semester and the light rail tends to reflect the mundane days. I studied a lot on the way this morning. That's what is exciting about the rail today. My blogging was bad this week. I had a full week of school and it was crazy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CALLIE!!!

Visitors from the East!

My sister Jessica and her husband and kids came to Arizona. Her father-in-law passed away and they came for the funeral and to be with family. They are currently staying with us and it has been wonderful to see them again, even though it hasn't been very long. Margaret and I have had so much fun playing and babysitting our niece and nephews. There are such cute kids! The other night we made cookies with them and their cousins from their dad's side. Our kitchen was a mess and I am so sad that I forgot to take pictures. They had awesome cookies. They will be here for awhile longer and I promise to post some pictures! Oh, and today is Tac's birthday! He is four and a cool kid! :)

BFFiversary! 6 Years!

Yesterday, my BFF Faith and I celebrated our 6th BFFiversary! We celebrated by treating ourselves to delisous food at the Cheesecake Factory! I ordered the Pan Seared Salmon with mushrooms, spinach, and angel hair pasta! SOOOO YUMMMY!!! Faith and I decided that we deserved to treat ourselves to a good meal, so we ordered appetizers. We had the Avocado Egg rolls that were delicious. So good! We thought it would be fun if we got all dressed up and fancy! We ended up color coordinating! True BFFs!! :) We, of course, ordered cheesecake, but we ordered it to go because we had a movie to get to! We went and saw the Harry Potter movie! We went with my little sister, and friends, Ashlee and Holly. I thought this was one of the better Harry Potter movies. I am not the biggest fan of the 7th book, but I thought the movie was done well. The best part of it was the parts about Snape. I don't want to give it away, but if you have read it or seen the movie, I hope you agree with me! Alan Rickman is also one of my favorite actors ever since I saw him in Galaxy Quest (hilarious) and Sense and Sensibility (wonderful)! I think he was great as Snape and was the BEST part of the movie. Out of 5 I give the movie a 4 (thanks to Snape!) Faith and I had fun on our "date" and I can't believe that we have been best friends for so long! Yay for friends!!!

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEANI!!!

Trip East, Part 1: Phoenix to Palmyra

My Family (mom, dad, margi, and I) set off for another grand road trip cross country about a week ago. (explains the lack of blogging, sorry) We traveled very quickly across New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, into Virginia. It took us 2 and a half days to get to Virginia and that includes the night we slept in Nashville. It was a lot of driving and it included a near death experience, which is another story. This was the fastest road trip I've been on, but then it slowed down a bit. We picked up my niece and spent the night in Maryland, then we drove up to New York with my family that lives by DC. So, lots of driving. We ended up in Palmyra for the Hill Cumorah Pageant. Before the pageant we went to lake Ontario and had a bit of beach fun. It was hard to enjoy it because it is an extremely smelly lake, but we tried to make the best of it! The pageant was awesome! It's about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration of the Church of Christ. We also saw a bunch of the awesome church sites in that area. We went to the Smith farm in Palmyra (after seeing the Palmyra Temple that's next to it!) and stood in the room in which the angel Moroni appeared to the boy Joseph. Very cool! We also walked through the near by Sacred Grove where the same boy saw God the Father and the Son Jesus Christ. It was peaceful and comforting to stand in the same woods where God and Christ had appeared. The trees and scenery were beautiful! The other site we went to was an hour away in Fayette. It was the Whitmer farm where the church was organized in 1830. Very awesome! We saw all these sites in one day and to finish it off we climbed to the top of the Hill Cumorah, the hill where the Gold plates were found by Joseph Smith Jr. We saw the behind the scenes for the pageant and the statue of the angel Moroni. So far this trip has been a blast and I have loved hanging out with my older siblings and all my nieces and nephews. They are so cute and we have had so much fun playing with them and watching movies. (except that they all keep asking me when I am going to get married :( no good!)

We celebrated Margi's Birthday in Palmyra and had ice cream.

She's getting old! 20 years old and the baby of the family.

More about the awesome fun will be posted! Keep an eye out for it!!!

P.S. It's my nephews B-day today! Happy Birthday Tai! (He's the little boy in the picture!)

The Cleaning Philosophy

I have not been posting as frequently because I have been cleaning a lot. We've been cleaning the house before we leave for our trip out East! So excited! At first I thought it would be silly to blog about cleaning, but then I decided to blog about my adventures of cleaning anyways. They can be exciting and it has been a big part of my life the last few days! So I cleaned the laundry room...EXCITING!!! And I cleaned the game closet...EXCITING!!! And I cleaned

the spare room...EXCITING!!! Wasn't that exciting? :) I've learned that if you trick yourself into thinking that cleaning is fun it gets a lot easier! In the words of a very wise nanny: "In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun, and - SNAP - the job's a game!" This is a lot harder than in the movie, but I find it to be true. To help me enjoy cleaning I usually put on music (creating my own element of fun) and I dance as I clean! The songs have to be upbeat; the kind people workout to and such! With the music playing, cleaning is a lot more enjoyable. My mom's house now looks great thanks to Margi, Mom, and myself! Plus, cleaning is not so bad when there is a vacation at the end of it! Can't wait to visit family out East!!!

P.S. Shout out Happy Birthday to my buddy, Robby!!!

Christmas in July & other things..

Merry Christmas in July! My Mom at one of her Relief Society nights got a kit for a Christmas magnet board. It was a few years ago and I don't remember who made the kit, but thank you whoever you are. Mom gave the kit to me and I was in a very crafty mood. This is what I made:

I really really love Christmas! I usually start listening to Christmas music in August because I just can't wait for it to come around.

I made each individual magnet for all the 25 days of Christmas. Each magnet has its own special something and I had so much fun with each one!

I didn't do it exactly as the kit showed. I made it my own. The entire time that I was crafting, I was singing carols in my head and getting excited for the holidays. Only 5 more months!

The snowman magnet was all my idea! The other magnets I just modified the original idea, but there was a design missing so I made one up myself! I think it's adorable!!!

I really like my magnet board and can't wait to use it this Christmas!

So, I've been in a crafty mood all week and so was my sister Margaret! She used my Mom's "Cricut"which is a special machine that cuts cute words and pictures.

These are the ones that she helped me do! Cute, right?

Margaret will probably blog about the other cute ones that she made. So don't forget to check them out at her blog! margaretsmakings.blogspot.com

Just gotta ask yourself, "Do I feel crafty?"

P.S. Happy birthday to my beautiful sister-in-law Tori!