Disney Cruise Line....Part 1

Last Friday morning (Friday the 13th interestingly enough) we set sail. The morning was rough because Heather still had stuff to pack and other stuff to mail home and we just had more things than I had anticipated that needed to get done before the cruise. Our expected departure time from here was supposed to be 9:30. I believe we were actually on the road around 11:30. But it was no problem because we didn't really need to be at the port until 1pm.

So we took off and arrived at the port around 12:30. We checked our bags, parked, and made our way into the Disney Cruise Line building.



It was under construction so it was hard to get a good picture of it.

Sailor Minnie was there to greet us!



We went over to the check-in area to get our Key to the World cards and eventually, board the ship!!!



Crew members were standing there waiting for us. As we approached a man asked for our names. And as we entered the atrium of the ship, the man's voice came over the loud speaker saying, "Disney Wonder welcomes Dianna and Heather!!!" and a bunch of other crew members cheered and clapped for us. It was amazing! (This picture was actually taken later from the top of the stairs)



After boarding we went to grab some grub. Our whole reason for getting there early was the free lunch! The Beach Blanket Buffet had tons of colorful and awesome foods. Some that I'd never even had before!



There were two new soups that neither of us had tried before so we grabbed some to taste. I got the leek soup and Heather grabbed a bit of the strawberry soup. We sat outside with an awesome view at the back end of the ship and ate our food. It was so tasty!



Turns out I don't like leek soup and Heather doesn't like strawberry soup. But when we traded we liked each others more. However, still, neither of the soups were finished.



We then went to check out our room!











It was actually bigger than I expected. We even had a tub! When we got to the room, one of Heather's checked bags was missing. They told us that all the luggage wouldn't be put into the rooms until 5:30, but we were still worried. We still tried to have fun. Thankfully nothing super valuable was in that bag.

While we waited we explored the ship...



Found the cast member's only pool...



Put on our life vests for the safety drill...



And attended the sail away party!!!



They made the dad's dance to YMCA. It was hilarious! Poor guys. The one in the Indian hat had the thing turn inside out on his head.



Who is that nerdy looking tourist in the sunglasses in the bottom left corner?



When we got back to our room after all this fun, Heather's suitcase was there. We think someone searched through it, I guess checking for bombs or something. But nothing was taken and we could continue our amazing, no-stress vacation!!!

We then walked down the red carpet to the Disney Theater to watch a show called "The Golden Mickeys."



Photos weren't allowed in the theater, but OH. MY. GOSH! Take my word for it. It was unbelievable!!!

After the show we ate dinner in the Animator's Palate. Probably my favorite restaurant on the whole ship.



The colors on the walls became brighter and brighter throughout dinner. As the music played a certain movie or character's theme song, that character would come to life in color. It was fun to pay attention and figure out what movie belonged with what music and then watch that picture for signs of life! (actually, Heather usually figured it out first and told me where to look... she knows everything about Disney. Everything. Haha)

Then, just when you thought the whole restaurant would be colorful, they'd all fade away and start over. It got just a little bit farther and farther to the point of being colorful each time. It's something I can't even really describe. You'd just have to experience it. AMAZING!



Plus, this was the best butternut squash soup I've ever tasted. Okay, so it's the only butternut squash soup I've ever had, but still... pretty sure this is my new favorite food!



The ceiling and paintbrushes became colorful too.



Do you see the hidden Mickey??





Even my dinner was a hidden Mickey! I think this was the veal.



And of course at the end of the meal the walls were getting more and more colorful and all the servers went in the back at the same time. We knew something was up! When they came out, their clothes were no longer black and white, but totally colorful! And they danced for us too.






When we got back to the room we found this little guy on the bed. We couldn't figure out what it was. A bunny? A dog? I think we decided on a floppy-eared dog.





Our room service guy had also been in to turn our couch into a bed so we each had our own place to sleep. We turned on the TV to watch a movie, but both of us fell asleep almost immediately. Such a perfect day!

And to end, here are a few random pictures of the boat...

Disney Cruise Line....Prequel

I'm actually going to begin the night before because that had to do with Disney too. :) My friend (of a friend) was able to get my dad and me into the park to watch the parade and the fireworks. I hung out with some friends I hadn't seen in a while and watched the new Electrical Parade. Also, the Summer Nightastic fireworks show (which was spectacular) was ending the next week so it was extra awesome!









There was fire literally on the castle during the Pirates of the Caribbean sequence.

IN-CRE-DI-BLE!






This got me in the Dinsey spirit so I could start cruising off in the right direction! I LOVE Disney World!!!

Sad News

My roommate is being sent home.

She didn't do anything wrong. It's just international problems and paperwork that wasn't filled out.

Totally sucks. I feel so bad for her. I'm thinking of every possible free experience there is here. We're going on the ferry ride tonight by the castle. Hopefully that'll be better than nothing.

And I don't know what I'm gonna do cuz after she leaves I'll be alone in a four person apartment which isn't allowed...

We shall see.

On Top Of The World

I'm in Florida. Finally got an apartment. All checked in and ready to work.

My location? Magic Kingdom, Main Entrance and Parade Control!

The cruise was amazing. I ate a snail and got three free necklaces in the Bahamas.

I don't start work until Monday but I get my ID tomorrow so I will be playing in the parks until Monday.

My roommate is from Hong Kong. Which is awesome.

I am literally the luckiest kid on the whole freaking planet.

I am tired as heck, but I promise to update more within the next few days complete with pictures and stuff from our totally awesome fantastic five day cruise!

Plans

I've pretty much been neglecting my blog a lot lately. But really it's because there's been so much to write about that I just haven't felt like it. Except for the past week. The past week I've spent literally doing just about nothing. It's been fantastic!

On Wednesday I'm driving to Florida with my dad. We'll go to Disney World Thursday night to see the summer fireworks and then I leave for my cruise with Heather Friday morning. Friday the 13th.

That'll be fun.

Yeah, words can't even describe how excited I am for this cruise. And I think Heather's even more psyched than I am!

Since you have to pay through the nose for internet on the cruise, I'm not even gonna bother. Also, phone calls cost $7/min on the cruise. Yep, you read that right. $7 for ONE MINUTE of talking! Geez!

It's okay though, cuz I still love Disney.

Pictures will come soon (both of the cruise and the Maine trip). And by soon I mean probably two weeks from now after I'm done with the cruise and checked in and settled at Disney World.

I'm the luckiest kid in the world. Seriously. :)

Firsts

You can see a lot of what I've been doing for the past week on my mom's blog, but here's how I'm documenting our trip to Maine. At least for now...

In the past week, I have done each of these things for the first time (not necessarily in order):

Drove for 35 hours straight (through the night from Idaho to Virginia)

Visited Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire... At least I think that's all the new states I visited

Went down a zip line

Returned empty soda cans for money

Rode in a convertible

Ate lobster

Went down a hill in an Ogo ball

Saw my mom puke

Went on a "duck" tour which is a "bus-to-boat" type vehicle

Toured Acadia forest in Maine--and hiked part of a mountain there

Toured Fort Bragg in NC

Went to Myrtle Beach (although we didn't really get to see the beach)

Stayed in a handicapped hotel room

Saw New York City and Washington DC in the same day

Drove a Honda and a Ford car... I'm pretty sure I've only driven Toyota brand cars up til now

And, of course, got pulled over by a cop (and got a warning... but let's not discuss that further)

I may have forgotten some, but let's just say it's been an extremely eventful past nine days and I am SO ready to SLEEP!

Bitter Sweet

As happy as I am to finally be done with Spanish for the rest of my life, and as delighted that I feel that I'm almost finally a Senior and ready to go home and enjoy more adventures, I have to say I'm a little sad too.

With my gift card I decided to go out to eat with my friend Ashley one more time. She's one of my best friends that I've made since being up here and even though we weren't even in the same ward this year, I feel like we hung out more than I did with some roommates even.

We went to Taco Time (surprise surprise) and sat and talked for the longest time. I'm really going to miss her a lot. She graduates Friday and then goes off to grad school at Gonzaga University or something like that. A month from now she'll be in Washington and I'll be in Florida.

I'm gonna miss my roommates too. We're never gonna get to be roommates again for various reasons. I've had such a fantastic semester with them. We've had so much fun and I've made so many friends. I just wish all my friends could just be graduating at the same time as me so that the whole, sad "I'm gonna miss you." thing only happens once with a ton of people instead of being spread through practically every single semester.

Ah well. I'll just keep moving on. I get to go home and visit friends and family I miss there. I'll get to be in better weather and have much more freedom. I can't even wait!

And did I mention I'm done with Spanish forever!?

It's the Little Things in Life

I'm getting free pizza for dinner tonight. And in one class tomorrow. And in another class on Wednesday.

I'm done with all classes except Spanish.

My teacher just switched the Spanish final so we can get it all taken and done tomorrow and not have to show up to class Wednesday! Now I get to be done with school a whole hour earlier than I thought in a class where I'll be eating pizza and finding out if my group won the $200!

I just got some free ringtones for my cell phone. Now I'm excited for people to call or text me just so I can hear them!

My friends want me to live with them in Cloud 9 next year. We talked to the managers. Cross your fingers!

I'm going home on Friday!

I'm going on a cruise!

I work at Disney World!

Okay, so maybe they're not all little, but still! I'm the happiest kid in the world!

Wow

I just slept for 12 hours.

I love Saturdays.

And I need to remember not to go to overnight slumber parties during finals anymore.

What The Heck?

Earlier today when I went outside I noticed the sky looked funny. It was overcast, but a different overcast than I'd ever seen before in my life. In fact, it was so weird that I made a mental note to blog about it when I got home.

I've seen overcast, but usually the sky is a pretty grey color. I'd never seen a brown sky in my life... at least that I recall.



By the way, I stole these pictures from my friend who lives in Sugar City (like two miles away from here). I got them off of Facebook. Just so you know.



I had no idea why the sky was brown, but I figured it was just another unknown part of the horrible, disgusting, dry Idaho weather that I hate... but I digress.

So I went to my group meeting and we worked for a while and as I came home the brown overcast sky was still there. As I walked inside, my roommate, Kiara, notified me of the reason. Apparently, there's a big forest fire somewhere around here. It's like ten miles north of where we are or something. I'm not too worried.

But at least now I know that skies are not generally just brown for no reason. No matter how disgusting I think the weather may be. And there probably won't be rain.

Final Week-ish

It's that time of the semester.

There's only a week and two days left of school.

White glove sheets have been handed out.

People are running out of food.

Illnesses are being handed out more than exam papers.

Students have started cramming.

We've moved into hyper-insanity mode.

The wind is blowing hard than ever.

The paper chains counting down days in people's apartments are getting shorter.

Wish me luck! This is not the kind of roller coaster I enjoy boarding!

Better Than Nothing...

You guessed right!

They haven't released the actual picture yet. I got this from watching the school news channel and using print screen (and everyone isn't in the correct places yet here anyway, you can see all the holes).

They're going to blow the picture they took up to 25 feet by 20 feet and put it in the Crossroads which is the school dining area. It'll be huge! Unfortunately, it won't happen for another eight weeks and I'll be gone then. But I'll definitely put up a real picture someday. Me, Kiara and Jake were in the bottom left crook (I was literally right exactly in the corner on the outside) of the I as pointed out here.



Can't you see me down there? :)

The B was the hardest one. They kept having to correct the people in the B, telling them to squish together more and stop moving. The dash and the I were the two easiest letters. It was definitely very fun and very worth the hour and a half of my time!

Darn Good Day, I'd Say

I just wrote a post going through all the rest of the assignments I need to turn in until school ends. Then I figured no one cares about that. So I deleted it. But sum it up: Two presentations, a newsletter, an open book exam, and a mountain and a half of never ending Spanish homework that I'm totally dreading.

I still have no clue what grades to expect, but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna get my first C in college this semester. And I openly admit, I totally deserve it because I've been lazy as ever.

Enough with classes, though. I'm going on a cruise next month! A Disney cruise! I'm so excited I can actually feel my heart flutter in my chest sometimes! I was reading about it today and it turns out there'll be a Pirate night one night! Complete with fireworks! On the boat! How freakin' awesome is that!?

Today was my friend's birthday, too. We threw her a little party. I got her some presents and Daisy wrapped them with Jeanette's wrapping paper. We went to the park to help Kelly (birthday girl) do an assignment for class. She had to videotape herself teaching us how to play certain games. Then we came home and Daisy made us lunch. Tuna fish sandwiches that were also incredible. I made Ghiradelli triple chocolate chip brownies from scratch (yes, I know, they were AMAZING!). It was the thickest brownie batter I've ever seen in my life and adding the chocolate chips only made it thicker. This worried me, but they turned out incredible!

What a totally fantastic day!

Oh, and also, there's a thunderstorm outside. I haven't seen a good thunderstorm since Florida. And let me say, this is no Florida thunderstorm. But it'll do considering the circumstances. :)

I Hate Macs (Volume Five)

We have to create a book for one of my class projects. Carol had the book on her Mac because she was using InDesign and it was her job to compile the book.

Well, she titled the book on her computer as Wildhouse.indd. The name of the organization we're sponsoring is called Wildhouse. She saved it in a folder called Wildhouse.

Well, part of my job was to come up with pictures for the book. So I put a bunch of the files on my computer and titled the folder Wildhouse. I put that folder on my thumb drive and gave it to Carol.

She went to copy the folder to her desktop. She clicked and dragged as I watched, and a little pop up screen came up. As I asked her what it was and if we should rename it, she responded no. She said she knew what that was and was sure it wouldn't be a problem as she clicked OK.

Except that it was a problem.

Not only did it delete the entire book we've spent the last month creating and writing. It deleted the few pictures we already had, all the writing and pretty much anything and everything else linked to it. Because on Macs you can't just copy and paste. You have to create links.

By clicking OK we replaced the file with nothing but a bunch of pictures.

This is bad. Very bad. The book is due in less than a week. Very very bad.

I'll admit, a PC would have probably done the same thing.

Fortunately for me, I don't have any extra work to do since my writing part I have backed up on my computer and can simply send to her again. She's the only one who has to start over. But still, that stinkin' sucks!

What Did I Do Today?

Seven hints ought to be ample. :)

It involved people...



and tape...




the stadium...



many, many cameras...



proper placement...



and a couple thousand of these shirts.




And everyone sure cleared out of there quickly... this was taken within five minutes of the previous photo.

Fourth of July

It was a fun weekend. But I'm too lazy to fully write about it. Basically, Disney World pretty much ruined all other fireworks for me. :) But the IF fireworks were still somewhat impressive I guess. I got a lot of homework done. It was nice having the apartment to myself!

I've been getting progressively more and more excited for school to end. Seriously, I don't even know what I'm gonna do Senior year if I'm already this psyched for school to be over. Not that I dislike school. I love friends and parties and weddings (oh my gosh, the weddings! ugh!) and learning and stuff, but really I have way more exciting things to look forward to.

First off school ends exactly two weeks from today. That in and of itself will be great! Two-ish days after that I'll be on my way home. We're driving. In a car. Across the country! 32 hours in a car. This is gonna be so much fun!

After that I'll get to be home for a few weeks! I can tell right now I'll be bored out of my mind, but my mom usually has a pretty long list of work for me to do. Plus I'll get to see the people in my home ward again!

Then we'll drive down to Florida. 12ish more hours in a car. Depending on how fast I drive. Heehee! I'll get to see my Grandma... maybe both my Grandmas. I haven't seen them in a while. Plus I'll get to see the new place my one grandma is living in. She's lived in the same house for like sixty years, so it's kind of a big deal that she moved.

Then I'll go down to Orlando. I'll get to see Kimmy who I haven't seen in a while (we may even be able to be roommates again! Long story....).

Then Heather and I will go on a five day cruise! That'll pretty much be the coolest thing ever. Especially since I've never really been on a cruise. At lease, not a real one!

Then Heather will leave and my other friend Laura will come. On the 18th Laura and I will check in to work at Disney World! I'll be in Main Entrance Ops and she'll be in Merch.

Now, if I can't be ridiculously excited about that, what can I be excited for?

Captain EO

When I worked at Imagination in Disney World, I heard rumors several times about how Captain EO would make it's return sometime in the "near future." For those who don't know, Captain EO was an attraction in the place where I worked from 1986-1994 centering around Michael Jackson. Since Michael died last year, they were talking about bringing it back in his memory.

I heard the rumors. I didn't care. I'm not really a die hard Michael Jackson fan. I wasn't totally sure where they were going to put the attraction, but I definitely heard people talk about it. I thought it was one of those rumors that was just a rumor though.

But it's true. As of two days ago, the new Captain EO attraction opened up in the place where Honey I Shrunk the Audience used to be, right outside the doors from where I used to work. Honey I Shrunk the Audience was a pretty good show in my opinion. But I'll be honest, it scared the kids.

I remember one day I was working in strollers. As people return their strollers I would sometimes make small talk with them. One particular family with a little girl came to return theirs. I asked the little girl what her favorite part of the park was. She said Test Track as probably 90% of the little kids enjoy that ride the most. Her dad then completed this by saying, "Yep, but she sure didn't like the snake in the Audience show." The mom of the family pushed her husband and said, "Don't remind her!" as the little girl began crying. I had to try really hard not to laugh. Apparently she was deathly afraid of snakes. And there was a giant snake in the 3D Audience film determined to freak out small children. That why the signs say, "Warning, may be frightening for children!" Although, the Ellen DeGeneres ride also says it's frightening and it isn't at all. Meh.

Apparently Captain EO is supposed to be frightening as well. I will have to see. The only ride at Disney World that seriously freaked me out was the Dinosaur ride in Animal Kingdom. I rode it several times and each time I can say I was genuinely freaked out of my mind almost to tears. It was awesome!

Only At BYU

My friend Stephen just got engaged to a girl named Stepheni. Both spelled exactly like that. It becomes confusing on Facebook because the other day he made his status "I love Stepheni!!!!!"

Well, it was funny for me at least. I guess when I write it on here it's just not as funny. Needless to say he got a lot of comments from people asking why he loved himself.

In other news I'm helping a friend with a photography project tonight. For her photography thing she has to take pictures of a group of people. Because our clothes have to be coordinated, I was told to come in a white T-Shirt and jeans. I own a white button up shirt and a few white tank tops, but no T-shirt. So my roommate loaned it to me. Now I just have to hope against hope that it doesn't rain (even though rain is in the forecast and this is Rexburg, The Land of Horrible Weather).

All Kinds of Random Stuff

Today was clean check. We did nothing. And we passed. I love my roommates!

The rice that I ate when I had lunch with Pres Clark was rice pilaf. I had just forgotten the word for it, but yeah. There it is!

Only 21 more days of school! And if you take out weekends that leaves only leaves 15! Actually, that's kind of scary considering all I have to do in that time.

I just got back from the pet rescue. Apparently they found out that their newest bird rescue has Parrot Herpes. Yeah, that's disgusting. But it's contagious to the other birds (not to humans, thank goodness, but I'm taking a shower anyway cuz I'm freakin' disgusting from all the cleaning we did!) so we had to clean everything.

Both my papers that were supposed to be due Friday were pushed back another week. I'm still planning on getting them done by Friday, though so I'll have more time for this one big project.

Tomorrow's Rabbit Rabbit day. Don't forget!

Did you know it's possible to sunburn your eyes?

Exotic Pet Shelter

So as an explanation to those animals I posted a little while back....

I've been volunteering with a local exotic pet shelter. It's sort of for one of my classes. My persuasion class requires us to find a community organization and then work with them to win this $200 grant. We went to talk to the owners, and I just fell in love with the animals and can't stop going back.

Off the top of my head, these are the animals that they currently have and I've gotten to play with:

Seven snakes (one is missing at the moment... slithering somewhere in the house), a chameleon, two spotted geckos, a bearded dragon, two turtles, three sugar gliders, two chinchillas, three chickens, one other kind of chicken (not sure the exact name), two conures, one parrot, four budgies, four ferrets, one "normal" bird (one that you'd find somewhere outside... a family tried to house train it and they couldn't put it back in the wild), two dogs, a pygmy goat and one more animal that I can't remember what it's called but it can walk on walls which is freakin' awesome!

At least I think that's all of them. They all have names too, but I'm not even gonna try to go through all of those. I'm still learning their names.

Anyway, they're really nice people and I love helping them out. It's so much fun! I doubt I'll do something like this in the future, but for now it works out perfectly! And I've learned some really cool things about animals. More on that to come later. :)

Looking Ahead... Way Into the Future

I've been thinking a lot lately about the toys I want my kids to have(assuming I ever get married and assuming, after that, we have kids). Here are some things I remember from my childhood that I wonder if kids will still think are fun years from now. I mean, I look at some stuff from my parents generation and think, "Really? They thought that was cool?" Anyway, here goes (and actually I'm pretty sure some of this is from my parents generation):

-Jump rope
-Skip it
-Hula hoop
-Jacks
-Marbles
-Pogs
-Magic/Pokemon/or even Yu-gi-oh cards
-Hopscotch/chalk games
-Hacky sack/bean bags
-Stilts
-K'nex (I"m specifically not including Legos or Building blocks because I doubt those will ever get old or go out of style)
-Lincoln Logs
-Polly Pocket
-Giga pet/Tamigotchi (okay, so kind of like a computer game but still, I think they're cute and usually you get bored after playing for like ten minutes at a time)
-4 Square (I had some homeschooled roommates who had never heard of this game!)
-Cardboard boxes (Every child should know the joys of a good, giant cardboard box and some colorful markers!)
-Rubik's Cube
-Pickup sticks
-Cat's cradle (and all the stuff that goes with it)
-Yoyo
-Bop it
-Slinky
-Etch-a-sketch
-Sprinklers
-Barrel o' monkeys
-Choose your own adventure books (I always wished I could find more of those. The few that I read I really enjoyed though.)
-Games: Guess Who? Twister. Battleship. Chess. Jenga. Sardines.

....what did I miss?

Things that will never be in my house:

-Tarantula
-Snakes... except maybe a small corn snake or two... nothing else though
-Bratz... I just think they're stupid
-Easy bake oven... my kids will learn the real way to cook. They will not be pansies.
-Furbies... Those things are so freakin' annoying!

I hope this doesn't offend anyone. I've just been thinking about this a lot lately, especially with the new Toy Story 3 coming out. I hear it's great!

I understand this list may entirely change in just a few short years. I may change my mind about any or all these things. Since I'm not a parent I have no clue what it's like. Sometimes I wonder what kind of mom I'm gonna be.

There's a water play area at one of the local parks around here. It feels like every single time we drive by I either witness, or hear about, another story where a little kid cracked their head open there (I can still hear the screaming of one little girl and see the blood going into the drainage area). It's super dangerous.

But yet there's always tons of people there. I wonder if I would let my kids play there or not. I mean, I wouldn't want to be over protective and I'd want my kids to have fun. It's lame to be like the only parent who doesn't let their kid play because it's possible they might get hurt. But at the same time, I would not want my kid to get their head busted open!

Yeah, you could take your kids there and say "No running." But that's like putting a bowl of M&Ms in front of a kid and saying, "Look at them, but don't you dare eat any!" It's just no fun if you can't run.

Good thing I don't have to worry about that right now. All I have to worry about is whether or not I'm gonna graduate college next Summer. No big deal.

Oh, and did I mention I'm going on a cruise in August!?

Lunch With the President

I ate lunch with Pres Clark today. The food was incredible. The first course was a small salad with vinaigrette dressing and fruits and spinach and stuff. Then our main course was this weird kind of rice (none of us knew the name of it but we'd all seen it before... it's like super fat rice), squash and zucchini, and this chicken stuffed with asparagus and some sort of cheese. Dessert was this amazing three layer white cake with strawberry something in between each layer and topped with cream cheese frosting and whipped cream. Amazing.

Of course the company was unbelievable too. I got there a couple of minutes early and they had all of us students sit in this room and chat for a while. There were about ten of us. Fortunately after I got there I found this guy Shawn. He was in my Spanish class last semester so we already knew each other so we kind of stuck together. After chatting and getting to know each other in the first room we all moved over into the "dining" room. The table was in a big octagon shape so everyone could see each other. To my left was this girl Lindsey. To her left was Sis. Clark and to her left was President Clark. We all had assigned seats.

We talked about a lot of stuff. It was really fun. I don't really want to go into the details of what we talked about, but if you're really dying of curiosity you can ask me. I talked to Pres. Clark a bit. More to his wife actually. They are all such incredible people it just totally blows my mind. I'm so grateful that I get to go to this school! And I'm especially glad that our president does things like this. It's such a good idea!

I got to sit on the stand at devotional. It was really cool looking at the auditorium from there and reading the teleprompter along with the speaker. All over a really cool experience. I'm grateful to have been picked for it!

Gotta Love College Fun!

This was in my inbox today...

Title: Lost Pants

Hey my dear Greenbrierites!!! I have received reports of someone that hid a pair of pants in a tree as a joke and then when they went back to return said pants they were gone! So if any of you happened to eye some pants in a tree please let me know and if you have them...please get them to me asap! Thank you all so much for your help on this truly dire matter.

So Cool!

You'll never guess what I've been up to the past two days!

But if you read my facebook status you'd have a pretty huge hint. :)








Oh yeah, and here are some more hints. Heeheehee.

More details later.

On Saving Money

When I worked in Disney World one of my roommates, Natalie, liked to be frugal. One of the things she did to save money was, instead of buying expensive tupperware, she would keep old plastic sour cream or cream cheese containers.

One morning, she made herself a lovely salad for lunch before work. She put in some carrots and lettuce and tomato and all kinds of delicious greens. She then put it in the fridge as she took her shower and finished getting ready for work. I watched as she happily went to the fridge, pulled out her salad in her giant sour cream container and chuckled to myself as I thought about other people at work might think she was eating nothing but sour cream for lunch. However, her idea was a smart one to save money.

She came home from work that night, though. Upset with me for not noticing and not telling her (sarcastically of course). Turns out she had two identical looking sour cream containers in the fridge. One with her lunch and the other with, surprise! sour cream. She took a container of sour cream with her to work for lunch. Gross!

Apparently, to make things better, she had taken it to work and a coworker did make fun of her for bringing the sour cream with her. She opened the container to prove she wasn't just eating sour cream for lunch. But failed. I love Natalie!

There Are No Words...

...for the excitement I feel.

Food!

I like food. A lot. I also like cooking. A lot.

I've been trying to learn and make new stuff lately. I'm pretty sure I'd never eaten spaghetti squash before. Every time I go to the store and walk through the fresh produce aisle I always want to learn how to make some of the vegetables there (artichoke is next on my list... and someday I want to figure out what the cactus leaf is all about). Apparently, while I thought we ate loads and loads of veggies growing up, there's still a ton I've never tried.

So I made spaghetti squash the other night. And it was actually really really good! I think I can make it better though. All I did was put butter on it and pop it in the oven (after cutting and gutting it of course). But it tasted surprisingly like spaghetti (duh!). I want to start eating that more than just spaghetti cuz, hey, it's healthier and somewhat yummier!

I also made fettuccine alfredo last night (mostly) from scratch. I was surprised how totally delicious it came out to be. I added chicken and peas and it was super delicious.

Jeanette and I were talking about cooking today. We were talking about how it's different to cook in Idaho than out east (she's from Tennessee). We both feel like we're probably gonna be those wives who try to cook these great meals (that we really can cook sometimes) but they just never work like they're supposed to and then we're gonna get all sad and our husbands are still gonna try to pretend they like it even though it's totally no good and then we'll get even more frustrated.

Hopefully I'll be a fantastic cook by the time I get married. I can usually cook stuff, but I hate cooking for other people. I know what I like and how I like it, but I'm always worried other people aren't going to like it. Especially since I do things a little weird. Like I never ever add salt or pepper to my eggs. And I like creamed spinach, something none of my roommates have ever wanted to even try (they all always hate spinach).

Anyway, Jeanette and I are going to the store later today. We want to buy stuff to make a super delicious pizza. There was this show on TV talking about the best pizza places in Chicago and it made us hungry. Wish us luck! Hope we don't burn down the apartment!

Little Happy Update... With Nothing To Say

It's been beautiful weather lately. That always makes things happier. Me particularly. :) I love this kind of weather. I especially love waking up in the morning and walking to school listening to the birds chirping in the nice cool weather with blue skies going past the beautiful green trees and grass. I like this apartment complex because we actually have a yard. In a way we have two yards. But the second isn't really a yard. We just have this giant tree with a tire swing that random people like to play on. It's great!

I have officially started counting down the days to the end of the semester. I don't actually do this typically until we have like 5 or 10 days left. Right now there are 40. August can't come quickly enough.

I'm still frustrated with my teachers, but I have to say I have the best roommates this semester that I've had in my entire life. I don't think I've ever had a better apartment atmosphere in my entire life. Usually there's at least one of us who doesn't like another or one super messy person or one super clean person or one arrogant brat. But no. We all get along surprisingly well. We're all friends. And it's GREAT!

I can't wait to move back to Disney World. I feel like every day I'm reminded of it somehow! Oh sad!

And yeah. So there's my update on life. :)

Note:

Tomorrow is Donald Ducks birthday.

Just thought I'd warn you.

LOVE It!!!!

You know that feeling when you're just so happy and excited you can't possibly wipe the smile off you face?

I freakin' LOVE that feeling!

That's Kinda Cool... But I'm Shy!

Weird... I got an email today inviting me to eat lunch with President Clark (the dean of our entire school) and his wife next Tuesday. Me and seven other students at a fancy white tablecloth meal. (They do it every week, it doesn't mean I accomplished anything awesome or successful. It just means I'm a random lucky kid.)

I'm nervous. I haven't responded to the email yet. I'm sort of shy.

But don't worry. Of course I wouldn't pass this opportunity up. I mean, seriously. Free food!!!! :)

Dreams

Most of the time my dreams are random places I don't know with random people who I don't know doing things I don't understand (You don't get it! I have to put these worms in the peanut butter jar! If I don't, the world is going to explode!!).

Lately my dreams have felt very realistic though. Things I know won't really happen, but feel like real life and I don't realize I'm dreaming. Here are two:

Last night I dreamed someone in our apartment complex died. I even watched them carry the casket out of the apartment and put it in the hearse. I can even tell you which apartment it was at my complex it was so vivid. Creepy!

I dreamed I was at graduation next year. But as I went up and handed them the paper to call my name, they paused. Apparently, I had forgotten to fill out the proper paperwork so they wouldn't let me graduate. When I woke up it took me a while to realize that I'm still just a Junior.

I remember thinking last night just before falling asleep that there was something important I had to do today. I told myself, "Self, you better get up and write that down or your gonna forget." But then my other self told me, "No way! I'm tired. I'll remember it. Usually important stuff I can remember. I'm so exhausted." And then my other self said, "ZZZzzzzz" and I fell asleep. Now I have no idea what the important thing I had to remember was. All I remember was that it felt imperative that it had to get done today and that I don't have a clue what it was.

Anyway, there's part of my sleeping life for those interested. I guess I just have really dramatic fears!