"I Love You"

I was thinking the other day about that phrase at the top of this post. What does it mean when you hear it? When you say it?

Because to me it means, "Hey. I'll be there for you. I want to spend time getting to know you even better than I know you now. I will sacrifice for you. You are worth it to me."

I feel like, a lot of the time, those words are a scary thing in our culture. We're afraid of them. And understandably so sometimes--those words mean a lot. A lot of commitment and a lot of trust. And sometimes those are hard to give up to people.

But we don't always say it when we need to, I think. I think a lot more people in our lives could hear those words more often than we say them: family, teachers, neighbors, roommates. Those people in your life that do so much for you and don't realize how much you appreciate it. You know the ones.

I don't think "I love you" always means a romantic promise. I think it's beautiful when a couple feels safe enough to say those words because "I love you" means a lot. It's a phrase that reaches deep into our hearts and touches the strings that make us want to say it back. And that's when this life is worth it.

Tall Art

So you remember that Tall Club activity I had last night? Well. It was a lot of fun. I think these are my kind of people (all six of them that were at the activity last night). I'm excited to make new friends and get to know people on campus. I think it'll be really good for me. PLUS, they helped bring out my artistic side!!! We did finger painting and I had a lot of fun creating this little masterpiece with another one of the girls:

I then threw it in the garbage as soon as the activity was over. . . I figured a picture was good enough, especially because I wasn't sure the paint was ever going to dry. Which would've been irritating.

But anyways, people are awesome. Friends are worth it.

On My Mind

This year I've been chomping at the bit so to speak about the Christmas season. I'm not usually like this, but this year. . . well I've probably been excited for Christmas since before Halloween. I didn't do anything about it back then, though. But it's almost Thanksgiving and I haven't been able to wait any longer. So I'm listening to one of my favorite Christmas CDs. And I'm allowed to do that right now because my roommate who FREAKS out every time Christmas is even mentioned before Thanksgiving is over is asleep. So this is a bit of a guilty pleasure. And I am RELISHING it!

I'm also super excited to decorate this apartment. Two of my roommates are determined to get a live Christmas tree so I'm excited about that. It's going to smell delightful in here always. I have all sorts of visions of what we're going to do to this place :)

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We had a cleaning check this past Saturday. None of us passed, some of the fails were ridiculous and I'm annoyed that I have to pay five dollars for a few fingerprints that showed up on the mirror between when I cleaned it and when they checked it, but whatever. I passed the re-check today.

Cleaning checks are kind of the bane of my existence. They cause so much stress in this apartment. But I'm also extremely grateful for them. If it weren't for cleaning checks I doubt much of anyone would do any cleaning besides me, and I wonder if I'd even be able to make it to my bed in my bedroom (I think my small path leading to it would be overcome with my roommates clothes and books and shoes. . . It already happens often enough for me to be concerned.

Karena and Amy's bedroom was a disaster when they came to check the apartment on Saturday, Elizabeth's side of the room was as well. They were in the same condition last cleaning check as well. Because of that, I'm pretty sure our landlords are going to start springing surprise cleaning checks on us. Because of this, I came to the realization that my cleaning the apartment solo between cleaning checks wasn't going to cut it anymore. So I'm creating a weekly chore chart. I really hope this improves things in this apartment.

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Amy is moving out in December. I am going to miss her so much! I've had the opportunity to get to know her a lot better lately and I love her to death! There will definitely be a gap in the apartment without her. I wonder if we'll be getting a new roommate. . . If we are I really hope I grow to love her as well. Good roommates make all the difference.

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I joined the tall club here at BYU a few weeks ago and I'll be attending my first activity tomorrow night. We'll be taking pictures for tall club posters and finger painting. This is right up my alley and I am so incredibly excited for it! It's going to be great for me to get out there and become social again. I think I've kind of allowed myself to get caught up in the scholastics of school and have needed a push to meet--really meet--people. I think this whole club business is going to be my saving grace this year.

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Elizabeth and Karena both have wonderful boyfriends and Alisha goes on dates frequently. And I haven't been and it was really tough on me for a while. But I came to the realization just barely (sitting in the room as adorable couple #2 [Karena and Morgan]) that I am completely okay with being single. Sure it would be nice to have someone, but I'm happy where I am right now. And that makes me even happier because I'm choosing to be happy. And I'm not allowing my happiness to be dependent on the interest of others. I have divine worth and that doesn't change based on what other people think or feel. That is a liberating thought.

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Have I mentioned already that I love Christmas and Christmas music and the feeling of this season and everything about it? Because I do. Life truly is wonderful.

October

October has been a good month to me. It's involved a lot of laughter and a lot of accomplishment. It's been so great so far and I'm having a difficult time processing that it's almost over.

'Tis the season of pumpkin and caramel apple flavors and soup and I decided that I was in the mood for caramel sauce and apples. My mom has this absolutely divine recipe that I just had to make and so I did. HOWEVER. . . I forgot that our micorwave in our apartment is weak-sauce and so it didn't actually end up working. The caramel sauce wasn't nearly thick enough and it was too runny to stay on the apples long enough for you to get the goodness in your mouth. So my roommates and I imporvised and cut the apples up into small pieces and dumped them in the sauce thereby creating caramel apple soup.

And it was quite satisfying.

I love that Pandora knows what season it is and it's been playing good Halloween-ish songs all month. For example, it's playing In The Hall of the Mountain King on my Dvorak station, and Thriller and Ghost Busters on my Vocal Point one. And it just makes me all kinds of happy.

My roommate Alisha is good at buying candy for stuff. She bought candy corn and those candy-corn pumpkins and put them out for everyone to partake of. Except those things are NASTY! I prefer the pumpkins to the candy corn, but I should avoid both altogether because they make me shiver. I don't think they count as candy.

I also purchased my favorite Fall candy and I am so happy I did. Those caramel-apple suckers are pretty much the greatest things ever. I've loved them for as long as I can remember and I doubt I'll change my mind about them any time soon :)

Seeing the leaves fall off the trees makes me smile to myself. I love walking across a sidewalk that hasn't been cleared off by the BYU grounds people because it's padded with dead wet leaves that smell like Fall. And the smell wafts up to you with every step you take. And it's lovely. Oh. It's also fun to step on the crunchy ones. That's also an acceptable pastime.

I went running last Friday and it was lovely to be running under the yellow leaves still on the trees and on top of the ones that had already fallen. It made the whole exercise experience worth my time. And that's always something I need to have happen.

Extreme Makeover: Kitchen Edition

"I hate the dishes in the sink

Which roommates care for less than I

And sometimes make me want to cry

But then I do them 'cause they stink."

-Written today in my English 

class as an assignment

So dishes have kind of fallen by the wayside this week in the midst of homework and, in the case of Elizabeth, boyfriend. Today was day three of the accumulation and I finally got fed up with it.

So. I decided to pull up my big-girl (aka mommy) pants and fix it. It's obviously bothering me more than my roommates so if I want it done I only know one person who'll do it and do it well enough to satisfy me. Me.

It's a good thing it's Friday--otherwise I would fall behind in my homework. It took two hours.

Long story short, my kitchen went from this

 And this

 To this

 And this

I want to say that the kitchen will never get like that again, but I know that's simply wishful thinking. But I do know that it will never get worse because my threshold won't allow it. Thank goodness I have one!

Friday, September 27

Thank goodness for Fridays. I don't know how I would handle my life without the weekend. Actually, I have a pretty good idea: I'd probably take an obscene number of naps. And I might get a tad grumpy which is funny for the people who know me and irritating to myself. :P

Also, the air is getting crisper by the day and the leaves are starting to change color. Aside from the fact that I have to carry tissues in the pocket of my sweater, I love Fall! It has gorgeous colors, everything is changing, and pumpkin flavor is everywhere. I love pumpkin everything and look forward to trying some of my favorite recipes on my own. And all will be delicious. :)

That's all that's on my mind right at this moment.

Before You Panic!

I'm still alive. But I've been so incredibly busy and I haven't even managed to write letters to my best friend across the country and I'm so horribly busy I can't even stand it! Oh goodness I need to breathe!

And I've had so many fantastic adventures that aren't documented here! They will be, I (hopefully honestly) promise.

For now I'll share my awkward story of the day. Are you ready for this??? 'Cause you should probably be ready before you continue reading.

(I'm running on too little sleep and it's late at night and so I'm a little loopy right now. Sorry. But not sorry enough to erase anything)

So I realized today that time truly does equal money: if you run out of time, you spend more money. Like if you wake up later than you should have and only have time to make yourself a bowl of oatmeal instead of eggs and a lunch you end up having to buy something on campus and spend a quarter of what you're used to paying for for weekly groceries simply for lunch! But that's beside the point.

The point is the oatmeal. I only had time to cook oatmeal and practically inhale it (painful!) so I could be out the door and on my way to campus on time.

Well something you should know about oatmeal and me is that we don't like spending time with each other. No matter how much oatmeal I eat in the morning, I am starving an hour and a half later. Without fail. It's awful. I have yet to find a way to make a breakfast of oatmeal last longer. I think I'll try putting peanut butter in it next time. . . I've heard that it's amazing. . .

Anyways, on Mondays I have class from nine to two without any breaks longer than the ten minutes allotted between classes. So I really have to eat a good breakfast on Mondays. Plus Mondays need all the help they can get as a general rule and that includes breakfast.

So I have my New Testament class at eleven. It's my second class of the day and I'm usually still okay from breakfast. Unless, like today, I had oatmeal for breakfast.

I was sitting by this attractive guy and all was going well for the first ten minutes. I was happy to be sitting by such a fun (and fantastic) person. And then a hungry tiger in my stomach woke up and started whining. And it was LOUD!

There was NO WAY the guy next to me couldn't hear it, but I prayed that he was somehow a little deaf in his left ear.

He wasn't.

After about ten minutes of constant stomach growlingness he turned to me and asked, "You hungry?" I could've melted from embarrassment. Not that a growling stomach is a horrible thing, but it's not considered very ladylike or attractive. I just replied, "Apparently!" and that was the end of it.

My stomach decided to be quiet eventually, but the damage was done. I guess we'll see how repulsed he was by me on Wednesday. If he sits by me again I'll know I didn't scare him off for good.

Moral of the story??? Say no to oatmeal in the mornings!!!!! That is all.