Laura's Random Rants: January 2012

So I've failed at blogging (again). It's been over a month (so if you look at the last post, it says January 4th but it's a lie... it was written forever ago and I never posted it until just now but I made it say January 4th because it seemed like a date I should have blogged but didn't). I feel as if I only blog if I have things I should be doing (such as finals or work) rather than things I wanna do (like hanging out with my friends). So, as you can guess, I'm currently sitting in a class (work & school at the same time) procrastinating listening (I know-people totally wonder why I don't fail out... just luck I guess)! :P

But since I'm not dead yet, I decided to update people (okay, myself) on life! Wellll... firstly, I (and my roomies) survived finals! It was a slight miracle considering the amount of procrastination and grumpiness I had during finals. And--I didn't do too shabby on my grades (like, I didn't flunk out). Actually, I've adopted this new philosophy:

I think it will work out well and I'll be less/semi-unstressed!

Wellll... after the semester ended, I went home for Christmas! Not that home isn't wonderful but... it was slightly a lot a time to be at home with nothing to do! So... needless to say, I found things to do! I painted Mattie's room (interruption time... so I was at Home Depot and picking up paint for another room and I saw this shelf of "Opps Paint" with a gallon of paint/primer that we like... and it was this slightly, possibly ugly blue color but it was $5 so I bought it in hopes that it would cover Matt's walls AND not look ugly! Guess what... it did both!)... that was pretty fun but I remember why I'm not a big fan of painting especially rooms with chair molding! So this is the finish product... not too shabby if I do say so myself!

After that project was finished, I cleaned and organized like I do. I packed Lisa's box o' crap--and trust me, the picture doesn't do it justice. In reality, she owned a lot more stuff than this but I took this after I worked consolidating it for a few, you know... hours! My grandpa picked up all her stuff from Florida and brought it back to us. My family is going to bring it to Matt in a few weeks but there was no way it could all fit into his truck or our van in this state. So... I repacked and threw out a lot of stuff! The good thing about going through her stuff is that I got to keep stuff (hahaha... just kidding... mostly... although I did take a couple pairs of jeans and shirts).

So this is the before picture... where I couldn't fit all the stuff into the picture. It looks a lot better now. This took a dayish but hopefully Matt can get all their stuff back to California now! Oh and a quick update on them! Lisa still in CA and Matt just finished Core Men School (don't know what its really called) in Texas! He graduated high in his class and got to pick to go back to CA-which is good for both of them! He'll be headed back (with all this crap) in just a few weeks and should be stationed there for the next 5(?) years!

I also got my wisdom teeth out but I have no pictures (you're welcome)! It really wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be but the dentist took FOREVER making me anticipate it like horribly! I didn't even cry. Speaking of health, I forgot to mention how I got my finger pricked at the doctor AND didn't pass out... can you say improvement!

AND... Christmas happened! It was super fun and decently small (compared to normal Christmases)! Not nearly as much family came in town and my madre was off! We talked to Lisa and I found out I'm going to have a niece in May (if you didn't figure it out... it's a GIRL)! Sooo... pictures of stuff below!

David with his maracas

Andrew, Matt, & Chris

Me & a snow globe I got (yeah, no one else
in our family takes pictures)

Mattie with a Jujitsu hoodie

Oh another funny story! So my dad dressed up as Santa this year for David (my five year old cousin). So I distracted David with a gingerbread house (yes, that's our house... don't judge) while Santa came to the door. He knocked, David answered, and freaked out (this is actually the first year David wasn't completely scared of Santa). David and Santa talked about what David wanted, if Chris/Andrew/Matt were naughty/what they wanted, and so on. Finally, David asked if Uncle Brent (my uncle he's afraid of) was naughty. Santa assured David that Uncle B was on the naughty list and would be getting coal (which he explained as a big rock). So finally, Santa left (he dropped his hat in the front yard though so David had to give it back next year). When my dad finally got out of the "bathroom," David was telling him all about Santa's visit. When talking about Uncle B, David said, "Oh... he's naughty... but don't worry-Santa's gonna drop a rock on him." We all basically died laughing! And apparently, I just realized how long winded I really am... but if you made it this far... either you're really bored or really procrastinating! So here are pictures of David & Santa!

So I can't turn it but here is David answering
our door for Santa (he thought Santa couldn't find
him this year cause he's at our house...)

Here's Santa & David

Here's David & I working on our gingerbread house

And here... is our master creation. We decided
to make the wise man and the foolish man rendition...
mostly, I just squirted icing everywhere, David licked his
fingers, ate some, and stuck a little candy on it. It was pretty
legit! So yes, be jealous! :P

A shot of it with semi-better lighting (but not much)

Now, I am back in Provo (happy) at school (sad)! My classes seem like they'll be interesting and my life seems like it'll stay busy! As for work, still love it! My co-workers are freaking awesome as is my job! I can't wait to see what this semester has in store for me!

Oh one more thing... I feel as if I should keep myself updated on my bucket list so here are things I did since I last posted about it:

Smashing Pumpkins (accomplished with my lovely roomies-Kirsten & Amy-see picture above because I couldn't figure out how to move it down and gave up trying)
Had a mental breakdown in the testing center (during my stats test... people stared...)
Break the law (I watched some random lady's bag in the airport... she didn't speak English... probably not the best decision I made in my life considering she disappeared for like 20 minutes but hey, not dead!)
Find Jeffery's long lost brother (his name is Steve...he is a ninja & trained assassin! Gnomes are so violent but hey... at least Jeffery has a friend! Thanks Amy Lynn!

See the lights @ temple square (look at this post)
Not fail stats (yah! I won! But I haven't burned my book yet... it's coming though)
Picture with Cosmo

Things I added to my list...

Keep Steve in my house for-like-ever
Get the thrown away Krispy Kreams with Rachel (if we can both put our germiness aside)
Become a hobo (for at least a day or so... if my backup plan doesn't get inacted of course)
Go to Santa School... yeah, it exists
And other stuff I can't think of at the moment/didn't write down so this is all I'll share!

I freaking LOVE my family! You know, ~~sometimes~~ most of the time, they are embarrassing, tacky, and talk nonsense but you know what-I realized tonight how well I fit in with them! Like currently (when I actually wrote this), I'm suppose to be listening to my dad read the night before Christmas cajun style (yes, he uses an accent and the book is different... it looks like this)! And our tree--well, it's pre-lit but all the lights went out. Our family, being too cheap to buy a new tree, decided to just string random lights in... doesn't look too bad until you get up close (then you realize that there are random lights not working)! And we were def that tacky house on the street this year which had a random string of lights out on our roof in the middle... it was great so nobody changed it cause it just made us laugh! So here are some pictures of my family! They are freaking wonderful!

Lisa & Matt with our future niece Riley Paige

My whole family

Becca, Me, & Aunt Beth

Below are pictures from our family past! I didn't put very many because it took FOREVER to upload! But basically, moral of the story... my family is freaking awesome!