VEGAS BABY!

This post is continued from the Arizona one. on our way home we stopped by Las Vegas. here are a few pictures.



below--Caesars palace. those aren't stairs, they're escalators!















left--the coolest Mcdonalds ever!




left--"your wedding live on the internet FREE!"


right--there were so many wedding chapels! this one says "24 hr. drive up wedding window!"
left--it comes out of the hotel...and KABOOM!

on the road again...

On Tuesday afternoon my mom, dad and i hit the road for Arizona to visit our old friends the Workmans. We drove to Mesquite Nevada and stayed at the Casa Blanca resort-casino-spa. spa? yeah right! anyway, on wednesday we drove to Chandler, Arizona which is a couple miles from Phoenix. We had a very yummy Thanksgiving homemade by the beautiful Lisa. Friday we went shopping at "World Market-Cost Plus," "The Great Indoors," "DSW -discount shoe warehouse," and then we topped it off with "Savers!" you can never go wrong with a second-hand store. Saturday we drove to Las Vegas and checked that out, and then drove to St. George. we finally got home on Sunday afternoon! Arizonians are strange people. for one they drive crazy! they also have "thin blood" which means that 75 degrees to Arizona is like Utah's 53. you can always tell who the tourists are because they are wearing shorts in November and Arizonians would never do that! let the photographic journey begin!




we had a bit of fun with these ones...these are our Album covers. we haven't decided the name of our band yet.

bottom left--the Workman's home.


bottom right--me, mom, dad, Larry, Lisa, Levi, Josh.
























below--the courtyard at the oldest hotel in Phoenix.








below--the traditional "Tumbleweed tree!" i told you Arizonians were strange!

ah freak out!

i'm freakin' out!
i leave for india in 3 weeks!
i'm freakin' out!
because i'm leaving in 3 weeks i have to take finals early!
i'm freakin' out!
i've stayed up late every night this week because of homework resulting in being late to class the next day!
i'm freakin' out!
perhaps going to Arizona with my parents for Thanksgiving will be good and relaxing...
if not...Amy i need to see happy feet.

amy

Amy this is for you.
i watched it today.
i'm going to pray like he does...

i'm tired

tonight i am babysitting the 2 Vanderstraten children. Katie and Bec. Katie is a cute 1st grade girl, and Bec is an energetic 3 yr old boy. Richard V. works with my mom. Richard and Mary went out to dinner and are probably having a great time considering this is the first time they have gone out since they moved here (which was a long time ago). i got here and we watched Cars, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, and frosty the snowman. quite a huge line up of movies, but Mary said the kids can stay up so it's alright. it is now 11:25 and the kids are asleep. i wish i was asleep.

chaco, chaco, chaco

well friends here is my latest steal. i bought these little babies for 40% off! woo! what a deal! the exact color is called "ladybug." thought that was cool.
so now i can join mat, amy, and stinky pete in the chaco song...(i can hear them singing it now).

la-de-freakin'-da!

i watched this video in my business class. it was great! just thought i would share this amazing motivational speaker with you all. if you have no idea what these pictures are...we need to talk.
have an amazing day everyone!

a vicious cycle.

lately is seems like i'm in a vicious cycle.
i don't want to be (who would?!).
i get discouraged (for various reasons...mainly spiritual), throw myself a pity party, invite a few kind folks, get encouraged only to realize that it's my fault that i'm like this and so i get discouraged again.
i'm very, very thankful for all you kind folks out there that encourage me.
thank you.
that is all.

all on my own...well, sort of.

i'm living in my parents basement. it's my own little apartment! i have a laundry machine, sink, fridge, dishes... it's wonderful. my mom decorated it in a retro/ antique/ things from grandma's basement/ before we transformed it into my place, so i'm trying to figure out what needs to stay or go. the ugly brown table is craig's card table, and the blue one is the actual table. the tall fridge is the real one, and that small old one is a pantry because it doesn't actually work as a fridge. the sink unit thing came from my grandpa's work shed, and i love it. i love my dishes too! my mom and i bought a lot of stuff at walmart on saturday, and it was so much fun to shop for every thing! i'm so excited! ya me! that is all.

what a rush!

Last night jesse, micah, matt, and i saw "Flags of our Fathers." It was really good and you guys should all go see it! Micah and I rode with jesse to the movie, but matt and jesse bought tickets for "The Departed" right after our movie. 2 movies in one night! So micah and i drove jesse's car home and almost died! It was crazy, but we're still alive so I'll move on.
So the movie was really good, but during the previews i was so sick of the movies that were coming out. All of them are about genocide, hurting people, cheating people, stealing...why can't we just get along?! all of the things that have been in the news and happening around the world makes me so sad. The world has gone mad and last night i was so sick of the evil that is in it. Don't get me wrong, most all of those movies that are coming out will be really good ( really good! and i would like to see some of them), but right now i need a shrek movie. Does that make sense? Happy and funny. I need the next "feel good movie of the year." that is all.

the forgotten adventures of sarah and suzy...

today was a great day...and it's not even over yet! it's only 3:48pm. right now i'm sitting at the counter in suzy's kitchen listening to a great song. today was the first time in a long time that i got to hang with my b-e-a-utiful suzy Q. it was grand, and i miss it. it's hard not going to the same school as suzy and not seeing her everyday. tough..."life's tough, get a helmet!" enough about that... at 5:30 suzy, kelli, katie and i will be going so see the amazing production of THRILLER! i cannot wait! girls night all the way. before we head to the show we will be stopping by the oh so good resturant of wingers! i love that place, and i know exactly what i'm going to order...wings. enjoy your weekend, i know i will! "ME TOO-suzy"
---notice that in everyone of these pictures my mouth is open, and suzy is always on the left and i'm always on the right....we don't know why.

to grandmother's house we go.

so i went to my grandma's house to get it ready for the garage sale this weekend. (the grandma that passed away in august...my dad's mom.) i love my grandma's house! if you really knew what it looked like then you would think i was crazy, but i love it! my grandma was a major, major packrack! i love her house because there are places in her house that i have still never seen...example...i went into my grandpa's shed for the first time today ( it was always locked...until now). there's parts of rooms that i've never seen (corners and closets) because it's always been so clutterd that i've never been able to walk around. it's the greatest adventure! you find the best treasures, and because she was a packrack, i learn so much about what she experienced during that time. all of that to say that it's amazing what you can learn from cleaning someone's house out. i love my grandma. always have, always will...but after today i love her more and appreciate her more than ever. that is all...

thoughts...

i'm not sure what to post about.
i haven't posted for a while.
sometimes life is so confusing.
why is it so hard to be disciplined in prayer and reading?
i get distracted so easily that God fades into the background.
sometimes i wish it came natural.
do i really rely on God like i say i do?
for bible study Terry typed up some questions that have been hard for me to answer...
-what's one thing you could to this year to increase your enjoyment of God?
-what one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?
-what's the most important need you feel burdened with this year?
-what is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?
that's just a few of them.
this is what it says at the top of the page that hit me hard...
"once, when people of God had become careless in their relationship with Him, the Lord rebuked them through the prophet Haggai. "consider your ways!" (Haggai 1:5) he declared, urging them to reflect on some of the things happening to them, and to evaluate their spirituality in light of what God had told them. even those most faithful to God occasionally need to pause and think about the direction of their lives. it's so easy to bump along from one busy week to another without ever stopping to ponder where we're going and where we should be going.
enough said...that is all...

more nanny pictures

these are just a few pictures from our experience with the girls.



we gave the girls drinks from got coffee...studies show that a child hooked on coffee at an early age will either become crazy, or a genius when they grow up...do these picture show crazy or genius? don't answer that.

SuperNanny to the rescue!

last week i had the pleasure of picking Dylan(3rd grade) and Maya (Kindergarden) up from school, and then doing homework and playing with them until Todd (dad) got home. Lori (mom) was on a little vacation and so my dream of being a nanny was complete! it was great. on wednesday we went to Dinosaur Park (for my very first time), and during the rest of the week i drove Dylan to football practice. the best thing about it was that i got to drive my mom's car the whole week because mine wasn't safe for their car seats!!! ya!