{the end...}

so yesterday was the beginning of the end...

it was my last day at church [in the byu 76th ward]... last ward prayer...

and last sunday dinner at paula and kevin's...

and that one made me sad. they really have been my family up here... im so thankful to have gotten the chance to get to know everyone and be apart of their lives [even if it was only for sunday dinners and a few games of farkel]. it sure was fun. i will really miss them all...

::

when i got home jamie was vacuuming under the couch and we decided to rearrange our living room... it looks pretty different... i had taken down the squares last week... and have been slowly taking back all of the stuff that was mine and packing it up... im trying to make it as easy a transition as possible for my roommates... but it really looks so empty [i dont know how i always accumulate so much stuff... but every year it is like this. goodness me.] lol... and i have been forbidden [by said roomies] to take down my paintings until the day i am leaving. haha... they are so funny. i think they are really going to miss me! apparently im amazing. lol. i will miss them too. we are going to take a picture of all 4 us before i leave... ill post that later... and ill take pictures of our sad little rearranged apartment when i get home from work.

{before}

{after}

it definitely looks like a college apartment again. sad...

::

anyway. i have 4 days of work left... and 6 days left in provo.

i really didnt think that i would miss utah... at all. i've had fun times and all...[sunday dinners with paula and kevin, dinners with jason and laurel and isabel and erik, rock climbing, cross country skiing, canoe-ing on the provo, the field trip to moab and arches, conference, working at the rmyl, learning to live in the snow, etcetera etcetera] but i still didnt think i would miss it all that much. the closer it gets the more i realize that i am going to miss it. it has never been "home" like thatcher and tucson are, but it i have really enjoyed living here... snow and all. there are a lot of great things about utah... and provo... yep. ill look back fondly on the last ten months here... ive met a lot of great people, strengthened relationships with my family and friends... yes- it has been a fun few months...

sad day...

so danielle left this morning.

its kind of a little sad for me. we [me dan and jared] went to kneaders for breakfast... and had their amazing french toast. it was delicious. and then jared took her to the airport. ill see her next week, but for some reason it just feels so much more final today. sheesh. shes only getting married... shes going to be living just down the road, shes not dying or anything. but this past week weve been doing a lot of "do you remember that one time..." and we would both start laughing... its funny how we rarely have to finish that phrase for us both to remember the same exact event.... like that one time my mom invited her to my 16th birthday and she shared french fries with natalie evans... or that one time that stephanie got scared of a frog and fell and dented the dishwasher with her elbow... or that other time... hahahah!! :) weve been through a lot together, me and dan. a lot. its an exciting time for her though, starting her life with jared (who i love... hes awesome for danielle)... i know its going to change our friendship a little, but i cant help be excited for them! they will be all types of married next friday. i cant believe its time already. i moved up here in june, feeling like i had forever to be with my best friend. now my time is up and its jareds turn. i do love you like crazy dan! :)

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on a happier note, since she left i switched sides of the room and moved my stuff over to danielles side... you know just to mix it up a little. lol. and i just finished up... she left her posters for me, so i still have a little piece of her. it feels a little more like home having so much stuff on my walls! i love it!



and! its snowing like crazy! we are supposed to get a few inches from this storm... we almost made it a full semester without it really snowing. oh well... its still fun! :)

new things....

alrighty... so first of all, it is merely hours away that my family will be here and the fun will begin!! hours!! but i wont get to see them till i am done with work... but its just a few hours away, like four and a half... anyway... im sure i wont be able to blog again till monday... at least, ill just be too busy having fun! :)

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so danielle and i went shopping last weekend... we actually had a little "girls night" which was super fun! we saw

the women... it was a really fun movie to see with her. it was interesting. ive been feeling a little danielle-deprived lately, even though we live in the same room. so this little girls night made it all better! oh and we went and picked up her wedding dress yesterday. and it is absolutely gorgeous!! absolutely!! okay yeah so last weekend we were shopping and we found these beads that were on mega super sale, so i bought them. and they match absolutely perfectly with our apartment.... they are black and purple and couldnt be more perfect!!

oh this is our apartment if you have forgotten what it looked like. oh actually i think you may not have seen the coffee table... thats fairly new too. stinking cute eh? we got that piece of fabric for like 2 bucks... and then i just used that sewless hem stuff to make it look nice... its just like glue but its so cool!! ...and the flowers are danielle's, from jared. beautiful arent they?

and... i went to macey's the other day and i saw these

little tiny mini gummy bears!!

ive seen them a couple times.... and i finally just had to get them!! they are so cute!! i just couldnt resist! and i had to take a picture to show you just how stinking cute they really are!! :) oh they make me smile!

why?

okay so danielle and i bought a purple beta fish for our apartment last saturday.... because it matched our apartment. oh...lol, we found this really cool square vase at d.i.- for a buck! amazing! anyway... we named the fish francis... haha. okay so last sunday i had gotten all ready for church and i came out to feed our little francis (he was on the kitchen table) and i couldn't see him! i seriously spent like two and half minutes looking for him... and i even called danielle out and we were looking for it.... and he seriously wasn't in there! so... then we started looking on the floor for it... and it was on a kitchen chair... all shriveled and dried up... he was kinda stuck to the chair. i scraped him up and threw him away. for serious. we had him for less than 12 hours. what would compel a fish to do that?! honestly...

*i woulda had a picture of francis for you (he was a really pretty fish) but... we didn't have him long enough! lol... sorry!

so yesterday we bought new fishies... we decided to try little goldfish... well, white gold fish- just the little feeder fish... we named them edgar and rupert.... they are pretty sweet... and they haven't committed suicide yet! yay!

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okay. so we live right by all these fast food places. right across the street is taco bell. and ever since i got up here, i've noticed how there are seriously always cars there... at the taco bell. i think i've figured it out... there is an average of 4 cars there... pretty much regularly. and it seriously makes me laugh so hard. ill look out the window and be like "oh its only a three car day..." haha i don't know why i am so amused by this, but i am. i've told danielle about it- and she just shakes her head at me... lol. so this one day (this last week) i was sitting and watching tv and looked out the window and there were a freaking butt load of cars! there were ten cars when i saw it first and i was like "holy poop! gotta get a picture!" and by the time i got my picture (like ten seconds later) the cars were already backing out... so i got 9 cars in the picture! and it still makes me laugh... just in case you were wondering....

new apartment....

* i tried to do a panoramic view from our front door... it almost worked... lol*

so... danielle and i decided to move.... next door. haha... our apartment smelled-- bad! apparently the cinammon tree people were working on the roof and whatever they used to fix it seeped into our apartment and refused to leave... it kinda smelled like acetone or adhesive or something like that... and it was infecting everything! so we asked the managers if we could move and the let us! yay! so we moved from 53 to 52... so yay for non-smelly apartments! and we decided to redecorate... we didnt do a duct tape basically because everybody was freaking out that it would peel the paint... which by the way, it did not. so this apartment is the exact same set up as the other one... so it looks very similar... we did the furniture different... and we threw in some purple stuff so it looks stinking cute! :)

*this is our front room. we got little corkboard squares and painted them. they come with their own mounting stuff... so it wont peel the paint. we did a little cascade effect with them and they were pretty cheap... 5 dollars for 4... and me and dan already had paint... and we got the purple pillows on sale from walmart and the black and white ones cheap from biglots... so yay for being frugal! :)*

*that is our bedroom with our cute alternating brown and black decor... and our seriously fun and non-matching lamps that we got together in arizona----- my newest painting... dont judge too harshly, im not quite done... i have some erasing to do (you can still see the pencil marks...whoops)----- and my bulletin boards... i painted these also- they are so much cuter now!*

provo!!!

(so i am really sorry i am a terrible blogger... i had such a fun time on the cruise and disneyland... just check out adrians blog... its awesome! and hopefully i will be able to do something about it later...)

okay so its hard to believe... but i am really in provo! and i start school tomorrow! aahhh!! i am really excited though! and i am officially a byu cougar! yay!! and i have moved in to an apartment with danielle and it is so much fun!

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on monday me and my mom left tucson and drove all day to st. george. i have to tell you... i dont think i was quite ready to leave... mentally, emotionally, physically... it was really sad leaving home. its kind of funny because i have been at ea for three years.... and i didnt even move home last summer... so ive been "gone" for quite some time... but this just seems so much more... i dont know final? (i even gave up my room to austin!) i suppose me coming home every weekend for two months this last semester didnt help... but really i was having so much fun in tucson hanging out with kelsey and devin and zac... and watching ben 10 with austin... helping mom.... seeing dad every day... and dustin and adrian were so close... just chilling with the fam, going swimming and watching movies. me coming to utah is like really leaving.... im gone gone. you know? there were definetely a few tears shed on my way out of town. okay anyway...so once we got to st. george we stayed with her friend (and roommate from college) tracy. she had a such a beautiful house and she was really nice and super funny... we went to dinner and then spent the night with her. it was so funny to listen to her and my mom catch up... even though they rarely see eachother, it was like they just picked right up where they left off in college... just laughing and having fun.

then on tuesday we slept in a little, said goodbye to tracy and drove on in to provo. we stopped and jason and laurel's house, which i have to add is stinking cute! (they have been remodeling and fixing up and it is an adorable house... they have done such a good job!) i also got to see their daughter... isabelle for the first time every!!! and she is just a doll!! ...i think she looks like erik... kinda weird i know... maybe its just the richardson-ness in her lol! then we went to my apartment! i live in this cute little apartment complex called cinnamon tree. me and mom unloaded my car... as fast as possible because it was really hot!! (i was expecting cooler weather...but it was in the high 90's. yuck... oh well i guess its better than 110) then we went over and met paula at her house (i hadnt see this house so i got another tour of a house...second for the day... but i didnt mind) then we chatted with her for awhile and then we left and met jason and laurel and isabelle for dinner...at carraba's i believe... (random little side note... if you go there you have to get their frozen raspberry lemonade...delicious!!) after that mom dropped me off at my apartment and she took my car to paulas... and i had fun unpacking and everything... danielle was home from work. and that night me and danielle and her fiance jared and his friend tim all went to the movies and saw hulk... it was pretty fun! :)

*this is the view from our front door! cute!!

*the black and white squares are my bulletin boards... i painted them to match... cute, eh? and i think i need something else above my bed... i think i am going to do a little quote painting or something. oh and austin look! do you see the little puppy you gave me? ;)

*if you notice.... dan has a brown comforter with black pillows and i have a black comforter with a brown pillows... we are all types of matching!! :)

on wednesday... me and my mom walked around campus for awhile... met up with paula again.... had lunch with her. oh i went to a counselor to talk about classes and stuff... that was pretty interesting. and i think i had dinner with paula and mom and kevin... paula's husband you i met then. he is a really nice guy.

thursday we... me and mom took lunch to my cousin marcor.... it was a nice little visit... a little bit awkward... but that was to be expected right? mom took me shopping (wednesday and thursday) and got me all settled...i have groceries now! yay!! :) and!! me and dan went and visited our old roommate from thatcher ashley... and that was so fun!! ash is so cute and she has the cutest apartment! so we must have done something else... but its been a long week.... i dont really remember!

friday i slept in a bit then went and got my books and student id...then i met up with mom and paula at her house and had lunch. then we all went to "get smart" the movie... which was stinking hilarious!! i met her parents for the first time... in i dont know... 20 years? they were very nice... paula's mom reminded me so much of my grandma neilson!! we went to dinner afterwards.... i saw slash "met" paula's son david... i probably havent seen him since i was 13 or 14... that made me laugh. and then i went and got ice cream at the malt shoppe with tim... jareds friend (actually we had been talking on facebook for awhile...so it was nice to have another friend up here). then i went back to the apartment and dan and i decided to redecorate!! so now our living room is terribly cute... we duct taped the wall... put our new pillows out there... got this wicked sweet fabric that we are using as a rug... and everything looks awesome now... not that it didnt before... but this is just so fun!! :) ...see danielles blog for details!! lol. ...oh yes and i said goodbye to my mom... *tear tear!!

*its duct tape!! how sweet is that!?

saturday.... my mom flew back home. danielle and i spent hours tanning... and now we are both a little red and sore... and i have more weird tan lines... this is getting ridiculous. i started reading "the host" by stephanie meyer and i am loving it! i am having a hard time not reading it! so we had a nice relaxing day... went out shopping for a bit and then me and danielle and jared went and saw "kung fu panda" ... which was a really funny movie to. apparently i like to go see movies. haha...

and now sunday....i went to church for the first time!! our ward is really cute and small right now since it is just summer.... but the smallness was familiar and somewhat comforting... everybody was really nice. actually annika is one of the relief society presidents... and she made sure to introduce me in relief society! (thanks!) oh yes!! on tuesday the bishopbric were apparently making their rounds... and stopped by and introduced themselves to me... and today the bishop stopped me (by name... i was thoroughly impressed!) we walked across campus to our building... and i wore shoes that i thought were broken in.... apparently not, i have a couple cute little blisters. bummer i know. i went to paula's house for dinner... it was kevin's birthday... i felt kind of bad... i didnt take him a card or anything. whoops. there were a lot of people there! i met his kids... and paula's kids were there... and her brother in law and his family and her parents... and a couple other random girls (like me) who werent related... lol it was funny we sat at a table pretty much by ourselves. it was definetely the cool table though... actually one of the girls... olivia... is paula's other secretary so it was nice to get to know her a bit more. okay so apparently in utah its the cool thing to do to have "ward prayer." haha this really makes me laugh... our ward gets together every sunday night at 8 on the "grassy knoll" to pray together... yep im in utah. haha! i guess its more of a social thing than anything else... but still it makes me laugh!

*oh and dont worry.... edmond made the long journey safe and sound! phew!!! :)

....and thus my utah experience begins....