Skiing

On president's day I went with Tara and Christina to Kelly Canyon. Tara and i have never really skied before, and i was a little nervous.



But Christina teaches little kids how to ski all the time, so we knew we were in good hands.


Top o'the bunny hill. Why is is called "bunny"? And are the bigger hills called jackrabbits?

Somehow, Christina persuaded me to go down the big hill. I'm pretty sure i was more scared of the chair lift than i was of going down the hill.



I will have you know that i didn't fall once on the bunny hill. But i fell when i got off the chair lift. I had never fallen before, so i had no idea how to get up. The chair lift operator had to stop the lift and help me up. I needed a lot of help.
I also fell about 60 times on my way down the hill.


But Christina would go down backwards and hold my hands on the steep parts. She is in the red coat in the way back, helping me down the mountain. I have better pictures of this technique, i just wanted everyone to get an idea of how confident all the little kids are while they zoom around the mountain.

Pathetic Snow

We have gotten like, .5 inches of snow this year. It is ridiculous. I have been preparing myself all year for the terrible snows and freezing weather. Yesterday it was cold, i needed gloves, but today it was 40 degrees and sunny! I have been so confused. I don't understand this place.
Honestly, I'm a little ticked. I did not expect to see the sun until June. I don't know what to do with myself. More importantly, i don't know what to wear to school. Will a sweater do the trick? Should i wear short sleeves and a hoodie and jacket? Pea coat? Fleece? Am i going to freeze? Am i going to sweat all the way to school? I have no idea. Do i need gloves? Maybe a scarf? How about a hat? When i breathe in, will my lungs freeze up? Maybe. But maybe not. I don't know. There was a day when i could say, "Hey, it's Idaho, it's February, i need jeans, thick socks, shoes to battle the snow/ice/slush maybe a T to start, then a sweater, then a hoodie or fleece, followed up by a pea coat or jacket with matching mittens and hat."

See how easy that was? But these days, well, not only are some of my classes hard (i'm learning German! Plus, i have to use a calculator for one of my classes.) but getting dressed is also hard. So lame.

So lame.

Anyway! We did get some snow and we took advantage of it!
HOORAY


The snow caterpillar with ears like a bear is chasing this poor Snowman family.


The Snowman family just can't seem to get away.

This poor snowman slipped on some ice and splattered up against our house. Jenna and Shalyn had nothing to do with it.

Forgot

I forgot a majorly cool part about my birthday: my cake.
One time, my roommate said something about how she would never fall for a certain line that we had heard about. And i said, Not even if he was your husband and said it like this, and then i changed to a different voice. Since then i have made up voices for all of my roommates future hubands, to use when the need arises, and they have one for mine.

Up until now i had no idea what mine looked like. But now that i know, i can be on the look out. If any of you have seen a man with brown hair, cool sideburns, big ears, chocolate nose and uneven skin, please let me know. He may be my husband.

A week ago, things looked pretty much like this. But then, it all melted, and i had to wade through puddles to get to school. Sometimes i walked on the street instead of the sidewalk because it was easier and a little safer.
Last night, it was pouring rain! I woke up this morning, and saw this:

I was shocked. SNOW!
I was not expecting it at all.
This was my view from our front door which is really the back door. As you can see, the snow thought it would be fun to come all the way up our steps and meet us at the door. The snow was right, it was fun.



I took this picture about 3:00 pm, and they still hadn't cleared off our part of the road yet. You can see where they plowed down the road, so cars are going regular speed, through the stop light, then they hit our area and immediately lose traction. It's too bad, really.

Bonus info:
One block past the stop light is where the university begins, but i usually have to walk about one more block to get to my first class. Some of my roommates have to walk about three more blocks, uphill, in the wind and snow!
I'm glad that is not me. If it were, I might move.

Birthday, Mine

I woke up on my birthday, and came down these stairs. Check out those balloons. They are like worms! They were awesome. I had never seen anything like it before in all of my life. I was so lucky to get such awesome balloons.

I went down those stairs and turned the corner into the living room, and i found out that i had a pirate birthday! Isn't that great? We still have these sculls up.


The night before, we went to a Mongolian Grill, not very pirate-like, but good none the less. I had never been to one before. My roommates had, but they had never been to this one. The Grill in Idaho Falls is this little hole-in-the wall where you find the only tattooed people in South Eastern Idaho. It is awesome! You pick your favorite things to put in stir fry, and you just pile it in your bowl. Make sure to get a lot of sauce. Then, you say, "Here, cook guys, cook!" and they do! They throw it on this big heated thing and move your food around with long sticks of wood descent.


Hole in wall.



Pre-cooked.



"Cook guys, Cook!"



On my birthday, I had to sing for one of my presents. My roommates set up this awesome scavenger hunt in which i had to go around town and find my gifts and sometimes sing for them. Here, i was singing, "We're all in this together" from High School Musical which was hard because i'm not very good at singing 4 parts all at once.



But i finally got my gift! I'm sitting on my bed, the bottom bunk, and if you will note the palm trees in the background on your right, i made an ad for myself for one of my classes. Those palm trees come from Hearst Castle.
Mom sent me all the parts to make Lentil Soup. (It's in that box.) She even sent the carrots and celery which turned out very well considering they were in a box for about a week. It was a great birthday, and the soup was great. Arrgh! (That's pirate talk, ye mateys!)

Karaoke, Texas, and New Chair

Tara's birthday was January 25. It was pretty great. For her birthday gifts, i thought it would be best to set up a scavenger hunt to find them. The gifts were wrapped up fancy in newspaper and i hung this one on a hanger under our roommate's bed. Inside the package: beef jerky.
It was a pretty good gift.

Also for Tara's b-day, we went to Texas Road House Grill, a grill of which i have never seen in California. (It could be there, of course, California is a big state.) Anyway, Tara dared herself to fit an entire delicious roll into her mouth, and she did it! Congratulations, Tara!
Later on we went shopping and Tara bought a karaoke machine, which was her birthday wish, and i found a killer good deal on this chair. I am currently sitting in it and have wondered how i had survived all these years with a little metal folding chair. How did i survive?
I don't know. I just don't know.

Sweet Face

Well, on Tara's birthday, of which i have not mentioned yet on my blog, but will soon, we decided to take pictures of "sweet faces." These pictures were taken on Tara's birthday, so that should explain the crowns, but if you still don't understand the crowns, well..... You simply have not had a really great birthday. I'm sorry.
If you look closely, you will notice my crown has Belle on it. I'm pretty lucky.

I think Tara's Sweet Face is the best. Mine is pretty good. But Jenna.....We aren't sure if she quite grasped the concept. We have tried other facial expressions with her, and they just aren't working. But we won't give up. We are hoping for an "angry face" by the end of the semester.

Because of new goals

Well, because of my new work out goals, (i think) my lower back hurt real bad. Thankfully, i have a massage therapist roommate. I guess this is what massage therapists do. They stand on you. But it worked, and thank goodness.
I tried to persuade her to let me grab her arms, and then we could be a circle and do semi-somersaults. She didn't go for it.