It's About Time I Tell Some More Adventures...

Welp! Looks like I got  more busy with school than I thought I would for that last month of the fall semester! Now I have a bit of time to reflect and think back on some of my adventures I've had since Thanksgiving. Man, that seems so long ago!
Thanksgiving was great! My whole family was there and we had a blast visiting with everyone.
After I took the week off from school for Thanksgiving, I had to get back to SO MUCH work in the three weeks before the semester ended. Seriously, I don't know how my brother-in-law Jon does it... I think I have a lot of school work to do, but then I think about him and how he's at school ALL DAY. By the time finals week came around, I was pretty much burnt out with all my classes. I only had a couple of actual final exams and the rest were final projects I had to do. I did not do very much studying at all, but ended up doing pretty well in all of my classes.
I was so excited when I was all done with those classes and it was Christmas Break time. Yay for going home to real food, my favorite Christmas decorations, my big comfy bed (not the Big Comfy Couch... that girl was weird, but entertaining!), and of course, the best family in the world. I missed having Kassie there so much, but her and Kyle had fun at the Christians and then on their honeymoon. I was so grateful for the time I got to spend with my two adorable nieces. Over the break, I actually never wanted to sleep in too long because I didn't want to miss out on precious time spent with them! Olivia is a little hoot. It was so fun to watch her sing and dance, she's a star! And little Emma is the cutest baby ever. I just loved holding her all day every day. And it was so fun to be able to see her grow; in just that short amount of time we saw her learn how to crawl! Another fun thing was having Nate and his new FIANCE, Mindi there for a couple of days. I love them both so much and am so excited for them!
My sisters and I have this little Christmas time tradition where we take a day to just bake our little hearts out. It usually ends up being just Bre and I. I think everyone else grows impatient with us and our goofiness and our (my) ability to mess up the easiest recipes. This year Malissa came over and stuck with us through all of our craziness. And we made so many delicious goodies that all turned out! Yay!
After Christmas, the fam had planned on going up to my grandparents cabin in McCall for a couple of days, but poor Olivia got sick, and then the rest of us didn't want to go without them so we all stayed home. It was actually pretty nice to just sit at home and relax for a day or two. A couple days after Liv had gotten sick, we thought she was feeling better, and Bre, Allison, and I decided to just get out of the house and treat ourselves (or have mom treat us I guess...) to some Cheesecake Factory. We got there, sat at our table, got our drinks, ordered our food, and just sat there chatting and waiting for our food. Out of the blue Liv started crying and suddenly there was Livi puke all over the table. Breanne rushed her to the bathroom, Allison took her weak stomach and dashed away from the puke scene, and I just sat there with Emma (who seemed very content through all of this), not knowing what to do. Finally, the busboy came and started to clean up the table while I just sat there awkwardly. Then Breanne came out of the restroom, walking towards the door with Livi behind her. Through the whole restaurant, I'm pretty sure everyone could here Liv screaming, "I WANT MY MAC AND CHEESE!" over and over again. Bre finally told  her she couldn't have it right now because she was covered in "spit" as Livi calls it and they just needed to go out to the car. I was finally able to grab our waitress and tell her we wanted our food to go. When we got the food, we went out to the car, where the stripped down Liv was still crying for her mac and cheese. Maybe this is bizarre, but I thought that was pretty funny.
I had such a hard time leaving my family when it was time to come back to Rexburg for the winter semester. I already miss Liv and Em so much! (And of course all of my other family members too!) I bawled my eyes out when I had to drive away!
I am so grateful for a couple of good roommates who make being here and away from home a little bit easier though. When I first got back to my apartment, my roommate Emily called out my name, came running out of her bedroom, and gave me a big hug. And then sypmathized with me when I told her about how my bad day had turned worse when I got my first speeding ticket. Yep, that happened. I was dumb, was speeding, got caught, and bawled my eyes out again (apparently I had put them back in after the first time) when I got slammed with a ticket. They also make it easier to be here because they are so fun and seem to like to turn everything into an adventure too! That first night back, Emily thought she had lost her phone. She was certain that when she had thrown away her trash, she had thrown her phone into the dumpster too. So, I went outside with her (in my Christmas pajamas!) to help her look for it. And then we were going to move our roommate Melissa's car to campus so she could drive herself home when her shuttle got there. Emily climbed the ladder up to the top of the dumpster, leaned over, and yelled at me to hold onto her feet. I'm sure that was quite the sight; seeing me in my jammies, holding onto a pair of legs coming out of the dumpster. After she had been looking for awhile, I heard a mysterious clunk come from the dumpster. And then, "Oh no, my keys!" And then another clunk. "Oh no! Melissa's keys!" Then I thought I heard something hit the ground behind me, but couldn't see anything. Emily couldn't find her phone, so she got down from the dumpster. "Where's Melissa's keys?" she asked me. Uhhhhh.... oh, that's what hit the ground behind me! So then we looked like a couple of fools (we didn't already), crouching down, searching the dark parking lot for the keys that Emily had thrown at me so she wouldn't drop them again. We did a little happy dance when we found them. She gave up on her phone for a second and we went to drop of Melissa's car. When we got back, we went into Emily's room to make sure her phone wasn't in there. I called it, but it was on silent. Then, she lifted up her skirt that was on her bed. WADA! There was her phone! Good thing we made an adventure out of that!
So, after a wonderful Christmas break that went by way too fast, I'm back into the swing of things with school and I kind of feel like I never left! I have all new classes though, and have high hopes for a great semester. Except for maybe my art methods class that I have to take so I know how to teach art in my future classroom. My first assignment was to draw a self-portrait. I have never ever been good at drawing anything. After spending quite some time on this assignment, I have a picture that looks like it came straight from Napolean Dynamite. "It took me three hours to finish the shading on your upper lip." Pictures may or may not be coming soon, for your entertainment and laughing pleasure.

Again, I'm sorry that I ramble so much, but now I feel like I kind of got caught up on what's been happening in the exciting-when-I-make-it-exciting life that I have.