All Moved In!

Well, spring semester is in full swing now and my homework is kicking my butt already. On the bright side, I'm all moved in! I love my new apartment and my new roommates. It's super fun with all of them!

Full of Hot Air

This weekend, before heading up to Rexburg, Rachael and John took me on a little trip to go Hot Air Ballooning. I had been once before over thanksgiving. John's Birth dad Kevin is a hot air balloon pilot, so they took me up that time. On Saturday, though, we woke up bright and early and headed out to Logan to take flight. There were 4 hot air ballooning crews there, and once they were all blown up and ready for lift off, it really looked amazing. Hot air balloons are really a spectacle. I went up in a balloon with John and a friend of his. It was a perfect morning, great for flying!

Time's Up!!

Well, the time has finally arrived for me to pack up 100lbs of my things and head back to good old Idaho for 13 weeks of school! I must say, looking back, the break went by faster than expected. I had such an amazing time at home that I almost don't want to go back!! I think a little photo montage of all of the fun that I had should help show many of the things i've done throughout "winter break". (granted, I have not been the most diligent in taking lots of pictures. I have been thinking maybe it's due time to invest in a new travel sized camera since mine can be a little testy)


Finn!!! I saw this adorable boy 5 days a week! (6 if you count church) I love this little guy!

I endured one of the worst snow storms ever. Who would've thought that it would've been hitting Maryland rather than Idaho?

Baby Emma Rae Harding was born and she is just cute as a buton! even Aunt Rachael and Uncle John came to see her!

The family went to Nick Markoff's birthday and had an Easter egg hunt- little George was hoarding most of the eggs!

You've got to love that Gabe!

I took my first trip to the Cherry Blossom Festival with Mom, Shayne and the Martinis'! I was so bummed my camera battery was dead, but thanks Anjie for letting me steal some pictures!

I baked waay too much! after this, I never wanted to see another banana muffin for the rest of my life.

Me and Isabelle made the most epic Harry Potter character list ever- 113!!!

Gabe and Shaybe were hamming it up at the Jefferson Memorial in DC! I love that place so much!

Every few weekends, Elle would take the bus down from NYU and come play with me, like any best-friend-attached-to-my-hip would!! This is from our trip to Georgetown (all for a measley cupcake... but well worth it!) She's a gem!!
One thing I will miss very much while i'm gone is Georgetown Cupcake. This place is spectacular!
I spent lots of time with some dear friends while they were on break! you can't see him in the picture, but Alex was there too! During this week, we became hooked on 90s shows and movies. It was the greatest week ever!
For Maggie's birthday, Brooke and I filled her car with balloons with movie quotes written on them!

I took a girl's day trip to NYC with Elle, Bess and Kelly. What a fun time!!!

Late

Hmmm... well I'm pretty ashamed to say i haven't kept up with my resolution to actually keep up with my blog. My last post was about 4 months ago! I mean well, but I just never get around to doing it! but now that I'm bed ridden for a little while with the flu, maybe I'll just put up some pictures of what has happened with my life in the past while...

Reed and Sam got their mission calls!

The Great Fruity Pebble Mishap

Visiting Provo for Thanksgiving and I run into these 2 busters,
Some of the best RMs!

My first cake!! (with lots of help from Rachie and John)

I took some family pictures for the Hardings, and Rach
and I couldn't resist getting a few ourselves!

Rachie and John! I love them!

Home for winter at the Christmas lights! I love this girl

This man sits here every winter wishing everyone a merry Christmas
What a trooper!

So these guys come to our Christmas party late and manage
to eat about everything

Brooke picked out my Christmas gift all by herself!
What a gem

All of the kids made these angels in preschool, and Dad spends a lot of time
fitting them all on top of the tree each Christmas even though they're so old a ragged!
But it sure shows my dad's soft spot for all his babies!

While i'm home for winter, i'm babysitting for the Martinis Family
and I get to spend the day with this adorable boy, Finn!

My friend Sam just left for the Philippines for 2 whole years!

I somehow managed to take the snow with me from Idaho. This is a picture from
the second storm, I believe. We were stranded in the house with no power for days!

But the snow could never stop the Carvers and Laumanns from watching the saints
play in the superbowl! AND WIN!!! Geaux Saints!

I finally got my wisdom teeth out! I had a surprisingly quick recovery though! I didn't
even swell! When we got home, Shayne played caretaker for his poor sister

Me Brooke and Emilee skipped sunday school to frost some cookies for Donavan
Miller's baptism. and we played around a bit too!!

Comida

I can't think of too many things I love more than food. Maybe my family, friends, and possibly a really good pair of shoes. But they have to be REALLY nice shoes. All I know is basically nothing can beat a nice piece of Cheesecake Factory lemon raspberry cheesecake. I could eat one piece of that fruity delicacy every day and never get sick of it. ever.

For most women, when they think of comfort food, they think of Ben and Jerry's. I think of grits and eggs. I do love ice cream, but when I need something to make me feel better, those grits fill that hole in my heart. I don't even know why I loev them so much, but it probably has something to do with my family being from the south. I don't know too many people in Maryland who eat grits too often. They're missing out.

I bring up this topic because what do you think I made for myself when I was feeling homesick and sorry for myself? And what am I having for dinner tonight?

It's breakfast for dinner time! it's basically the best idea ever. Breakfast is the best meal of the day, but also the one most skipped. Which is why Brooke and I are fixin up a whole smorgasboard of breakfast foods! We've got french toast, eggs, cinnamon rolls, strawberries and (at least for me) grits! yummy. We're having Sam, Reed and Adam over tonight too so it should be really fun!

french toast!!

A Needed update

Well, it's certainly been a while since my last entry, about 7 months actually. So I would say it's about time for an update. My mom and grandma found out about this blog and keep telling me I should keep writing in it... so Hi Mom and Muzzie! I hope you like this entry!!

Let's see.. so much has happened since February. I graduated! (Thankfully my parents even let me live after seeing the not so great grade I got in psychology fourth quarter. Hello senioritis) Before that I took a little road trip to Utah to see Rachael graduate and then I headed up to Idaho with Muzzie and Pawpa to visit my college, oh yeah, did I mention I'm going to BYU-Idaho? I'll have more on that later... I visited in April i think and we got caught in a snow storm. it was crazy but I really liked the campus a lot. I also had a blast with my grandparents even though all of the rock formations got a little old. I must say that I am a true East Coaster. I got pretty sick of all of the brown, gray, and dark green out west. In fact, I was giddy once we got out of Colorado and into Kansas. The west does have it's own kind of beauty, but personally, I prefer color, and a little humidity never hurt anyone.

This summer I worked at Kids Adventures (again) and it was so fun! I took a whole bunch of pictures and even though the kids sometimes drove me nuts, I still had a fun time. In fact, I think all of the staff members had more fun together than the kids did.

But, there was one experience I had that was a little terrifying that I don't think I could ever forget. Our bus driver Scott is pretty creepy and I don't think he brushes his teeth. They were always covered in this weird filmy gunk. He was a nice enough guy, but he thought he was a staff member and he just had a creepy feeling about him. One day at the pool, I brought a kid under the umbrella to grab some money for the snack bar. While I was waiting on the kid, Scott walks out in his bathing suit telling me about how he got his sunburn. He was with another camp and he didn't feel comfortable asking any of the staff members if they could help him out, but oh, because he's so comfortable with KA he decided to ask me if I could rub some sunscreen on his back. Well what was I supposed to do? say HECK NO and run away? (i really considered it... but you can't run on the pool deck) so I gave in and said fine. BIG MISTAKE. I rubbed it in and he went down to the pool. Meanwhile, I was left frozen in place, staring at my hands. I don't think I moved for a good 2 minutes. what had I just done? The poor kid I was with gave up on me and went to the snack bar. I speed walked to the bathroom and washed my hands at least 3 times. I would've settled for one but there was barely any soap in the dispenser. perfect. I couldn't look Scott in the eye for the next week. But then the next day he decided to ask if i could rub some sunscreen on his face. I told him he could do it himself and I would tell him if he had any white stuff left. then I ran away.

I also got to improve upon my photography portfolio this summer. I took Rachel Sabin's engagement and bridal pictures and I took family portraits for Rach and John and their puppy Samson. Rachael and John paid me in frozen yogurt and the Sabin's paid in cash... I'm still not sure which way I liked more. I think all of the pictures turned out well and it was fun to perfect my photography skills!

Rachel and Brant The Hardings

All summer I had been thinking about what to pack for college. What an experience. Ithought I had all the basics down for Idaho (only 2 pairs of flip flops. that's nuts.). Mostly jeans, socks, about 1000 sweaters, skirts, shoes. Then I got looking in my closet and realized that I forgot my snow boots. what a rookie mistake. I did remember all of my headbands, though!! It shows where my priorities are.

Move in day at BYUI was on September 7th. I'm in Lamprecht Hall and I'm loving it. I share a room with Amber and an apartment with Amber, Brooke, and Megan. We all get along pretty well despite our differences. Brooke and I put up a movie quote wall, which actually takes up the entire wall. we plan on expanding it, too. Whenever someone comes over, we make them name at least 4 quotes on the wall. We also have posters of Jacob Black from Twilight, The Jonas Brothers and Zac Efron. It's nice to know that there will always be some hot guys in out living room!! haha I also put up some pictures that I took/ made in high school and hung them up around the apartment to give it some personality. I think it looks pretty good!

Most of our awesome quote wall

I am really liking my schedule here. I have 6 classes. Writing for communication careers (my major), Women's Glee (This class sounds really good on paper, but the teacher drives me crazy. thank goodness Brooke is there with me. All the teacher does is works with solfeg syllables, which i think are stupid so Brooke and I basically sing our own tune in the back), American Foundations, Psychology, Community vocal performance (it's basically Broadway singing class, which is a BLAST!! the teacher is such a firecracker), and Book of Mormon. The classes aren't too hard, all I have to do is keep up with the work which isn't too bad.

Me and Adam lighing Brooke's cake

Since being here, I've managed to make some really awesome friends, but no dates yet. lame. But like Elle told me, I do have four years for that. I don't think my dad minds too much either since I'm at "BYU-I do". Me and Brooke have managed to go to a whole bunch of really fun parties since arriving here. My favorite was probably an 80s party because we got to dress up in really fun outfits! I wore my black hooker shoes to the party and didn't take them off the whole time. I was pretty proud of myself until the time came to walk home. I had to practically roll home my feet hurt so bad. but at least I looked cute! haha

Before the 80s party! The impromptu water fight... I lost.

Last week I took a road trip to Provo for conference weekend, which was really fun! We got a last minute ride from my friend Barrett's sister Colleen. I had never met her before but she was so cool! the traffic on the way down was killer though. It took us about 6 hours to get to Provo when it usually takes about 3 1/2. And it didn't help that we all had to pee REALLY bad. like, since passing Pocatello. Somehow we made it to BYU and sprinted to the nearest bathroom without wetting ourselves. Me and Brooke managed to get some nosebleed seats at the BYU game and it was so fun! My friend Matt came up to sit with us, too. We stayed at Rachael and John's place and got lots of kisses from Samson as well as the occasional paw in the face.

At the BYU Game!

Rachael and John were nice enough to give me and Brooke tickets to the Sunday morning session of conference which was amazing. I got to hear the MoTab sing Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, which is basically one of my favorite songs ever. It was so moving and it was so beautiful. I might've fallen asleep for some of conference on accident, but I didn't miss President Monson's talk. He talked about his birthday presents and "warm fuzzies". He is such a cute old man!! And a great Prophet, too.

Our view at conference

After spending all that time with people from back home, by the time I got back to Rexburg, I was feeling a little homesick. It didn't help that it rained most of the way home and by midnight it started snowing. This would usually cheer me up except for the face that it was OCTOBER 4TH. I am just not ready for all of this cold and snow quite yet, which made me miss Maryland even more. Since being out here, I've realized how AWESOME Maryland is. I was really lucky to be raised there. But by Monday after I got to spend some time with my friends I was back to myself again.

Oh by the way I got a calling a couple of weeks ago that keeps me pretty dang busy. I am the relief society second counselor. how scary! I hope I can get everything to work together and that I won't become too overwhelmed with school work and my church calling. I love my committee, though so I have a feeling that we'll have a great time together. I also am anxious to get my patriarchal blessing. I never got around to getting one at home, and I really think it would help me at this time in my life.

All right well this entry is almost novel length, but I'll try to actually keep up with it from now on!!

-Julie