Jen, Moose & Provo!

So, I got to go to Utah again and I absolutely LOVED every minute of it! I think it turned out so well because my flight was on time, non-turbulent AND (mind reels there could be more right?)I didn't get stranded anywhere....I don't think that has ever happened...maybe once, but that's pushing it haha. Naw, its usually not THAT bad, but I have been given the reputation of the cursed flyer as something unfortunate usually happens. I've just grown to expect it tho. Seriously tho...one of the best flights I've ever been on! Anyway...here's my trip in a nutshell (remember, this is basically my journal, so I wont be offended if you stop reading out of boredom haha):

Day one: Kami and Chipin came to get me from the airport which was awesome to see them. We went to Dee's for breakfast/dinner (still not as good as IHOP...sorry Chips)and then hung out and such. Lovely :) I hadn't realized how much I missed the mountains...and not to mention that it gets darn cold in Utah at night...I definitely forgot that. Its a good night here if I dont wake up sweating haha. This was also the day of the 'hooker story.' Should any of you be interested in hearing that one, you know how to get a hold of me :)

Day two: Kami and I went shopping because I needed pants. Good thing too because the only pair that I brought with me got a huge hole in an unfortunate spot on Saturday. While we were there, I felt like being sporadic and suggested that we hit up those little photo booths for a good time. The first one totally gypped us...it chose our background so it turned out to be these really gay "sugar and spice" thing. Weird. Needless to say, we tried it again at a different one...as luck would have it, the camera wouldn't move so we looked like floating heads, but all the better for good memories right? Classic. Definitely some great Kami time...Just me and my bestie! :) Later on, I went to Jen's grandparent's house to hang with her for a bit before her big day. It was so fun to have all three of us together again! (Me, Jen and Emmy Pants)...LOVE you girls SO bad! I always LOVE spending time with these girls...never a dull moment and always so therapeutic. Don't you love when you can be apart for so long and when you come back together, its like no time has gone by? So good! XOXO

Day 3: Jen & Moose's BIG day!!! (Yes, we call Brent, Moose...but that's a story for another day!) It definitely didn't start off well...there was a HUGE wreck on I-15 and it ended up taking us 2 1/2 hours to get to the temple when it should've taken like...40 minutes MAX. So lame....I was sad that I had to miss the sealing, but no sense in getting upset for something outside of our control right? They got married and that's what counts! I'm sure I'll get to go back to the Salt Lake temple some day and it'll be awesome! We had the luncheon which was fun and then the reception later on at night. It was SOOOO great to see Erin, LP and Alex at the reception. It was seriously, just what I needed...Emmy and Jen the night before...Emmy all day and then add in LP and Erin and its like YEAH BABY! We just talked about life and caught up with stuff...seriously, Erin...thanks so much for talking to me for so long. It was definitely an answer to prayers! We ended the night by cleaning off the car as the ppl decorating it thought that they were taking Jen's car (the one we were using) instead of Brent's...yeah. Good times. I vaguely remember falling asleep on Emmy's bed while they were talking, but who is surprised? haha. Either way, Emmy, Laura, Matty and I had a great time!

Day 4: Marisa came to get me from Emmy's house to take me down to Provo. It was so great to be on the old stomping grounds again! I went on many trips to the bookstore (haha sorry about that, by the way) and saw my old coworkers which was FANTASTICAL. They are going to publish an article about the study I was on when I left a year ago so they're going to involve me a little and keep me posted with that so I can add to my article library (all of one journal, but still...). I saw quite a few ppl on campus too, so that was great! Marisa and I went to Tucanos for lunch...its all you can eat meat, basically. I was definitely ready for a nap afterward, but I would have none of that! Later that night, I went out with Adam Arnett...we went to Los Hermanos for dinner, to Sammy's for Pie Shakes (yummy), stayed around for the outdoor concert and then went to our designated Star Gazing spot and chatted it up for a while...mostly because there were definitely no stars this time *sad*. The night ended with getting down poured with rain...talk about good times! haha.

Day 5: started out awesomely with a trip to the Provo temple with Adam Borgia and Marcus...thanks for the invite, Adam! It was definitely good to be back in there...so many great memories in that temple. We hit up Panda Express afterward and then I met up with Joyce! YAHOO! She was so nice to take me to see my friend, Meth (aka Michael), in the hospital. He had a motorcycle accident almost 2 or 3 months ago. He's still not doing all that great, but he's awake now...just not very responsive. I guess the damage was all done on his brain stem which complicates things quite a bit. It was really hard to see him like that...it definitely puts things into new perspective. At any rate, I'm SO glad that I got to go visit him. Afterward, Joyce and I met up with Klark at the park and we hung out for a while. MISSED YALL SO BAD! Then, I went on a date with LP and Alex and their friend, Michael...haha that's two sets of names of friends that are the same...I really should make friends with different names. Its definitely easier this way tho. haha. We had a great time tho. We hit up a pizza place and played phase 10. Mike was cracking me up tho...he LOVES Texas even though he's only 'lived' there for 3 days. lol. Loved it! So great...it felt like back in the day when I used to double with them a couple of years ago. LOVE LOVE LOVE you guys! XOOX

Day 6: I ended up recruiting some old timers into going to our old ward with me. It was so fun to be back and see our old bishopric! Definitely different, for sure tho. Brother Clay took us for a ride in his new "bumble bee" car which was FANTASTICAL. :) It was definitely good to chat it up with them tho. I definitely miss those men! They helped me do so much and helped me get thru so much during the last couple years of my BYU experience. LOVE YALL! After church, we partied it up at my place for a bit. Melly came over which was such a fun surprise. You always make me smile, Banjo Pants! :) Please come visit me soon! I didn't get nearly enough time with you! :) Then...it was time to go... Adam A came and got me and brought me to the airport and I had to say farewell to Utah.

The plane ride was definitely not as good as the first one, but it went by a lot faster (and yes, it was delayed haha). Time flies when you have a lot of things to reflect about and a Relief Society lesson to prepare :) In all, it was a fantastic trip and I loved, absolutely every minute of it. Thanks for all of the wonderful times, friends and for making time to spend with me while I was there for such a short time!

Its Update Time! :)

Okay, so I realize that I haven't blogged since Dinosaurs roamed the earth, however, I've decided to repent of my sins and write so as to not disappoint. I distinctly remember telling Adam that I would write every Thursday so he had something to do during class...so Adam, if you haven't given up on me yet...this one's for you! And my apologies for not delivering the last, oh....15 blog entries. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.

Seeing as how I have neglected to write in the last two months, almost, I'm going to do a very short update from all the cool things that have happened since I last wrote. If you would like the full account of these activities, you may read my sister's blog as pretty much everything I do, is with her and she blogs much more than I do :)

Dancing the night away...

It felt so good once the dance recital was over :) So much stress had been building up with teaching and making the costumes and yada yada, but you know I loved every minute of it. Now that I'm done, all this free time has been kinda weird, but I'm soaking it all up. I'm sure I'll start teaching again once all this junk with my foot is over. Either way, the girls did great. There were a few bumps in the road, but I think it went pretty well. I really miss getting to teach those girls! They're so fun. I think one of my favorite moments from teaching was when one of my hip hop girls said, "Miss Tara...you're hip hop moves are just SOOOOO HIP!" hahaha so funny. You probably had to be there and know the girl, but it was just so funny because she's one of the shyest girls I've ever met and I got to see her come out of her shell so it was fun.

Arizona

I had so much fun with Emily! We did a lot of reading, relaxing, napping...yeah good times! :) It was fun to just relax and not worry about anything for a few days, although the airport on the way home was definitely not fun, but its all good. I made it home and that's what matters :) I think my favorite thing that Emily and I did was going to Borders to sit and read for a while...I seriously haven't sat down and read in a long time and I've missed that. But the top of my list is getting to go visit Beth, Sister Borgia and little Elsie Rae. I was sad that we didn't get to spend more time together, but I was definitely glad that I got to see y'all a little bit. Thanksgiving, Beth? Yeah? good....hahaha Love you guys! And Emmy, I had a BLAST with you, as I always do. I cant wait til May when we'll be in Utah for Jen's wedding! :) XOXO

Disney On Ice

LONG story short...Syd woke up with a fever and flu the day we were supposed to go to Disney on Ice. She had been so excited about it for MONTHS and she just laid on their couch and cried since she didn't think she was going to get to go. But...luckily, prayer and faith work! My sister and Syd (as I'm sure along with the rest of us) prayed all day that Syd would feel well enough to go. I would've hated to have to have my sister tell her she couldn't go because she was so sick. We decided to take her and she did just fine through the whole thing and LOVED every minute of it. It was more fun watching her than the ice skating! so great. Needless to say, we brought along the trusty barf bucket just in case :)

Malla's Birthday

I can't believe this girl is TWO! Man how time flies...One thing I learned...Malla LOVES Dora! haha Well, technically, I knew this already, but seriously...every present she opened, I'd see this excited look on her face and then hear her exclaim, "DORA!" hahah love, love, love it! She's so cute! I'm so lucky to have such awesome nieces! :)

Kami & Chipin

Kami and Chapan came to visit for a week and Malla kept calling him Chipin, so naturally, that's his new name :) It was so fun to see them! I needed a good Kami fix :) And as always, when someone visits, we got to go to BABES. YES....the best country fried steak, biscuits and mashed potatoes with cream corn. Dude, its good! We got to do our traditional facials and our playing with hair/back scratch trade offs....love that. Not to mention having all around good times, all the time. Our Cranium game was quite awesome! Loved it! That has got to be one of my favorite games to play. I was sad that I had to work while they were here, but we still had a good time! I miss you already, lovely head! Oh May...will you please come now?!

Temple Time

While Kami and Chipin (hehe) were here, we had the fantastic opportunity to all go to the temple together. We did an endowment session and then took my family names that I've been compiling to do sealings, afterward. It was such a tender and special experience. My brother and sister and Ben were there, Kami and Chipin, Ron Dude and Jeremy and JaeLyn. I was sad that all of our family couldn't be there to be a part of it, but I was glad that we were able to have so many of us there. It was so cool...for both of the families that we sealed together, all of the siblings that were there (either Breinholts or Andersons) were all sitting in so it made it even more personal and meaningful. The sealer was hilarious...he kept trying to figure out how all of us Andersons, Breinholts and Konkrights were related. I think he finally figured it out toward the end of the session, but lets face it...there aren't many compilations of family like us haha. It was so wonderful though. I wish we could do that every weekend! Lots of tears of joy for getting to do temple work for our family. Very special...I cant wait until we get to do it again :)

Women's Shelter-ness

Last night, I got to volunteer at the Presbyterian Night Shelter for women. It was such an amazing experience. For those of you, long time readers, you remember me telling you that if I could work anywhere and do anything, that that's what I want to do. I LOVED it and absolutely ate it up. There's just something about seeing the kids smile and get so excited to have someone new to play with that just brightens any bad day. This one little girl came running up to me and gave me this huge hug and said HEY! DO YOU WANT TO PLAY WITH ME?!?! With this huge smile on her face. How can you say no to that? By the end of the night, I had made good friends with around 4 or 5 of the kids there and it was just so much fun. My favorite was this little shy girl, Manya. She hardly spoke to me, but would just sit on my lap and play games with me. Towards the end of the night, I couldn't get her to stop talking! She was on a role and such a cutie! I hope I get to go back soon so I can play with them again :)

So there you have it...I tried to keep it short, but alas, it ended up long anyway! I'll try not to let the next two months slip by me before I write again :) Chao!

It's the small things in life...

I’ve been thinking recently about some of my favorite moments in movie history. There are plenty…but the more I’ve thought about it, there are three moments that particularly stand out to me. One is more of a “wow…that really bites.” Like, more than your normal suckage factor. Another encompasses the feeling of “dang…that’s so absurd that its hilarious” and lastly, “How hardcore…I wish I thought of that.” So...here we go! We'll do the bad news first and work our way to the good :)

Movie Bite-age
Phantom of the Opera

One of the best musicals in my opinion, but the worst thing, ever, happens at the end. He’s crazy and in love with Christine and the whole, “I’ll kill Roul if you don’t stay with me” deal goes down. She decides to stay with him to save Roul’s life and because of her kindness, he lets them go, right? Great…that’s fantastic. Everyone is happy except for the crazy man. That’s not the bad part tho. One of the worst things happens after this point. As they are leaving, (I’m sure he’s heartbroken, by the way…no love, no friends, he just killed a bunch of people and he’s all alone in the dungeon thing again) and what does he hear? The two of them, singing about their love for each other. It’s like, lets pour some lemon juice on that insanely large gash in your soul, shall we? Hahaha Maybe because I’ve experienced something similar, it really gets me…although my experience was not quite the same though. I mean…there was no murder, no dungeons, but some crazy guys and some not so thrilling love moments. So, in a nutshell, pretty dull compared to a murdering, singing phantom, but I'll take what I can get. Haha Either way, Phantom…my heart reaches out to you and your lame situation :)

Movie Absurd-ness
Sleeping Beauty

This part just cracks me up…Aurora is in the meadow singing with the animals as per the usual, and Prince hottie comes along. They sing their song, all is well, right? The absolute funniest line is this… “Who are you? What’s your name?” And what are they doing when he says this? Snuggling by a tree... something doesn’t quite add up. Don’t get me wrong…snuggling by a tree is nice, and I have been called a ‘cuddle slut’ many a time in my life, but I don’t think I’ve ever snuggled with a guy who I didn’t know his name…not to mention snuggling with a guy that I met like 2 minutes before…and not really met but he found me while I was cavorting around in a forest. Kinda stalkerish and creepy if you ask me. Although, he’s hot, so if it happened to me, I’d most definitely let it slide. Please don’t think I’m blaming Aurora, because I’m not. I applaud her actually, and frankly, I'm a little jealous…but really…who does that?


Move Awesome-ness
Star Wars Episode 5

You all know the part that I’m talking about…they are about to lower Han Solo into the Carbonate chamber to freeze him. Leia says “I love you” as he is lowered…not knowing if she’ll ever see her true love again. And how does he reply? Like a pimp, he goes… “I know.” HA! Love it. Fantastic. None of this heart to heart mushy stuff from someone as hardcore and manly as Han Solo (one of my childhood heartthrobs by the way…and by childhood, I mean now) haha. The best is in episode 6, he tells Leia that he loves her and she comes back with an “I know.” BAM. Love it. I was watching a Star Wars documentary on HBO one time (yes…I’m a nerd. I know) and they did a little interview with him about that part, and I think I remember him saying that that was not what was in his script, which makes it even better. That was pure Harrison Ford awesomeness. You can’t beat that. Why wasn’t I born with Jedi powers? Princess Leia is so lucky…minus the part where she kisses her brother. Sick.

Anyway, its been a while since I've blogged and this was the best I could come up with in the short amount of time that I had. Our dance recital is tomorrow night, so stay tuned for cute videos and pictures of little girls in tutus, skirts and hip hop splendor! Until then, be on the look out for some of your favorite movie moments...

Overheard @ BYU

Okay, I know I just posted like an hour ago...but this was too good to not share with everyone.

There is a facebook group called Overheard @ BYU. If you are on facebook, please give it a gander. Basically, people post things that they hear people say while they're walking around on campus or in class.

Example:
*In a religon class*
Teacher: Why are you obedient?
Student: Because I like pissing Satan off.
HA! Brilliant and probably only something you'd hear at BYU...although, most everything on this list is.

Here's another of my favorites:
*Guy saying to a girl*
"You have great birthing hips!"....sadly this doesn't surprise me.

"She's the weirdest girl I've ever met. I'm going to marry her...yup, I have to."

And one more personal favorite:
Professor, His 202- You all look dead. Wait- you all had this paper due last night, and this is a school where you don't drink coffee.
Anonymous student- Mid-terms.
Teacher- You all stayed up all night, didn't you?
*students nod*
Teacher- Without caffeine?
*students nod*
Class dismissed!

hahaha now you all know why I miss BYU so much. Never a dull moment :) Although, if you want to hear about another not so dull moment in my life, Heather blogged about my recent dating experience the other week...feel free to take a gander. Its pretty funny.

My New Abode

I've had requests for pictures of my new house that I'm renting with Amy...so, as promised, here it goes! :)



Here's my bedroom! May I just say, thank you, Grandmama for picking great mattresses. :) I love this bed.


The little entry way when you walk in to the house...home sweet home!


This is where I spend my time watching Chuck and reading and all that jazz :) I'm grateful for slip covers as they turned my mom's old couches into something cute. Nothin like goin green :)

Here was my big project...this is the before picture.

And here is the after! :)
Through all of this, I have learned 3 things:
1. I have entirely too much stuff. It would surprise you how amazingly little I had to actually purchase in the decoration of this house
2. I still hate moving. Especially when its icy cold outside. Good timing huh? Pretty sure it was like 70 degrees the week we moved in and then Friday morning it dropped down to the 40s or something. BRRRRR
3. I'm still as OCD as I was before...I didn't sleep much knowing there were still boxes to be unpacked and/or dishes in the sink, etc. That may be something that I never grow out of.

I didn't take pictures of EVERYTHING...mostly because the computer room still isn't done yet :) But that's not going to be too exciting anyway. Its definitely not much, but its home...:)

It's Amazing What's Out There...

Pardon the extreme blogging-ness all of a sudden. These things just keep happening/me thinking of them and I think to myself…hmmm, self…we should blog about that. So, here’s the next one:

Websites, websites, websites….what’s out there amazes me. Recently, I have stumbled across a really awesome website and another not so really awesome website, although, because of the horribleness of its nature, I find it very funny, albeit, sickening. So, let’s get the bad news out of the way first and end on a good note, shall we?

I saw a commercial the other day for a website called WhoCanISue.com. That’s right, Who Can I Sue .com….really? Are we that desperate for money that we’d hire a lawyer to tell our stories to and have them figure out who I could legally sue so I can get some money out of the situation? I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not spend the money, and more importantly, the time for something like this. It’s sad that people are going to these extremes. Is it just me? Or are people getting more nasty? More selfish? More just, downright inconsiderate? Don’t get me wrong…I am a firm believer that there are opposites in all things, so with the nasty come the more sincere, kind and all around amazing people who are even stronger than in times past. Either way…it’s sad that a website like this exists. Although, there are worse things out there, for sure.

Now, onto the hilarious website. There is a website that, probably most people are familiar with called “Stuff White People Like.” It’s pretty popular, especially with…you guessed it…white people. There are quite a few things listed, so it takes forever to read thru them all, but I’ve read some of them and I admit…I laugh, or sometimes chuckle, to myself. However, this is not the website I’m talking about. ‘Stuff BYU People Like” was inspired by the said website and is much shorter. I believe there are only 10 or 15 things, but it goes into great detail as to why we like these things. I seriously cried from laughing so hard. If you didn’t attend BYU, you may not get some of them, but either way, it’s a great look into what my life was like for 5 years. May I add one more to the list though? BYU People like putting their car in neutral and coasting down 900 East to see how far they can get. At first, I thought it was just my friend and I that did it. We’d hit the spot at the top of the hill, marked by the MTC (missionary training center), we’d shove our cars in neutral and see if we could get through all of the lights, all the way down to the bottom of the hill (about 2ish miles down), and into a parking spot in our apartment complex, right off of 9th without putting our cars back in drive. We would have these competitions to see who could do it the most in one week. The funny thing is, is while I was in the car with other people, they would do it to. Of course, we’d never draw attention to our gas saving scheme, but I noticed…mostly because I was looking. It’s fantastic and we all do it. Well, maybe not ALL…but a good chunk of us did it. Good times. I tip my hat to you, BYU…thanks for the good times and all the fantastic, ghetto memories! I miss thee… :)

What did she say?!?

In 1995, when we moved to Texas, we were given a little something that others thought might help us to make the proper adjustments to living in the Lone Star State. We already knew it was hot and we’d need new wardrobes that consisted of t-shirts, shorts and sandals (which were hardly ever used in Washington…maybe for that one week in the summertime when it got above 80 degrees and it didn’t rain :)), but we never anticipated all of the new words we’d need to be familiar with in our day to day conversations with people. This is where the Texan Dictionary came in handy. Yes, there is an entire dictionary dedicated to helping outsiders understand the way we talk. Words like ‘fixin to’ and ‘ustacould’ are common phrases that we have come to learn and love (and yes, I have been known to use both in my every day vernacular from time to time). So, with that on my mind, I’ve decided to start y’all off on a little Dictionary to help you understand the words I use. So many times, I’ve used these words and people look at me like…wha? And to me, it’s common knowledge. So, now, if you ever hear me use these words (which are all non-Texan by the way), you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. If, by chance, I say something that does not appear on the following list, and it sounds Texan in nature (you can tell by the simple fact that it could be the combination of 2,3 or 4 – sometimes 5 – words put together merely because we’re too lazy to say the whole thing), then you can pick up your own Texan Dictionary at your friendly neighborhood Wal*mart. I guess you could always just ask too, but I promise, the dictionary is a great read.

Number 1: Stinky Cheese – yes…I actually call parmesan cheese, stinky cheese. If I remember correctly, this is what my grandpa used to call it. Something about it smelling n such. I grew up calling it that, and I still call it that, to this day. I remember the first time I used this word around non family members. I was at a friend’s house for dinner and we were having spaghetti. I asked them to please pass the stinky cheese, thinking that’s what everyone called it and wow…I wish everyone could’ve seen the crazy looks I got from everyone at the table. Not to worry though, we’re still friends and now I can call it stinky cheese whenever I want! :)

Number 2: Druthers – ….is this such a weird word to everyone? No one understands it and we’ve been using it in our house for years. I believe it’s a combination of “would you rather,” but I’m really not sure. You’ll have to ask my mom since it’s her fault that I say it in the first place. Used correctly, it’ll go something like this: “Does anyone have any druthers for what we have for dinner tonight?” Simple as that. I said it during Disney night once…again, the looks astounded me. No one knew what in the world I was talking about, and it literally confused me. I really should stop assuming that everyone uses the same words that I do. Druthers is a real word you know…I just looked it up on dictionary.com, so you know its legit. :)

Number 3: Peachie – meaning folder. Like the school folder with the pockets and sometimes the brads in the middle. It’s a peachie. Always has been and always will be. I’m not really sure where this came from. Everyone called it that in Washington, where I grew up, although, my roommate that lived just a town over had never heard of the word before…maybe we were the elite town in the area and could make up our own words?? Or maybe we were just all off our rockers….

Number 4: Quee – a combination of ‘sweet and cool.’ I usually reserve this word for use only when I’m around those who understand its meaning and power. But, now that those who read this will know about it, I guess I can use it more :). The great thing about quee is that, as long as it has a positive connotation, it can be used for just about anything. Ex: ‘that skirt looks so quee on you.’ ‘I rocked that test. Quee (said with the ee’s elongated and accompanied with a power knod/head shake),’ etc. This wonderful word came to be, one night during the early morning hours while staying at J Tal’s apartment for about a week or so. We were really tired from moving all of my stuff over there and, of course, we were out partying that night, or something fun. I was really tired, and she said something to me that was really cool for her. Instead of saying cool or sweet, it came out quee. If I remember right, I kind of sounded high or something…probably looked it too since I was so tired. We laughed (a lot) about the word and started using it in the magnet poems that we’d write while bored at work. We also made up the words nessing and truthtion, by combining two magnet words together, however, I don’t use those enough to warrant them making the dictionary. The only places they appear are in our poetry, and they are so abstract and make so little sense that most people don’t really ask anyway…

So, those are my main four. I’ll have to start using quee more often, for sure. Maybe it will catch on. Number 53 on my bucket list is to invent a word that makes it into the dictionary…or at least one that the general population uses, whether its counted as real or not. *crosses her fingers*

Random aside: I realized two things about me recently that are quite strange. (I know there are a lot of things about me that are strange, but I JUST realized these ones…that’s why I’m announcing it). 1) Whenever I drive under a yellow light, I always look into my rear view mirror to see how many people followed me thru. It always intrigues me. 2) Whenever I hear the song ‘Baby Love,’ it always makes me think of that episode of Full House when Michelle is sick and Uncle Jesse gets worried about her and he has a flash back of all their good times together…the song is playing in the background. I’m not sure why I remember that. I haven’t watched the show since Syd was born…and who knows if I even saw that episode. Meh…it’s hard to tell, but either way, it’s a fun memory. :)