As of late.

Well it is Fall. Okay so it's on the brink of Winter now. It was Fall.

I went camping one weekend. Despite fears about our lack of camping abilities, all things ended quite successfully. The tent was pitched in the dark. We made fantastic tin-foil dinners over our perfectly made campfire, along with a few gourmet s'mores. And we had were at a lovely overlook of the valley.

As we all know, I TA for a floral design class. This month we made pumpkin flower arrangements. And one, of the many, benefits of being a TA is that I get to enjoy all the flowers. AKA I get to make arrangements and take them home for myself. Or when I'm feeling generous I make bouquets and take them to other people.

I made the pumpkin on the left during lecture and we gave it to Norah because she has been sick. And my white pumpkin I took home and displayed it for all the world to see. Okay well just my roommates and their boyfriends.

     

I had a few spare flowers, thus an additional arrangement.

The week before Halloween my family had bought tickets to Thriller at Odyssey theater in Salt Lake. We had a few extras so I brought along the bestie, Lauren. We even wore our matching sweaters and watches. Unfortunately we didn't have matching pea coats.

Notice the creeper in the middle window.

Next up we had Sarah's annual Halloween party. It was a smidgen traumatic in the lead up to it. But in the end was a great party. We started getting ready for it just a few hours before it began, the little midgets never would have known how little time we spent on it.

And as for actual Halloween. First off, I am not a fan. It is a pointless holiday. Second off, I hate dressing up. For anything and that for sure didn't happen. So I hung out with Lauren all night. We made a delicious Onion and Ricotta Frittata for dinner. I ended up burning my hand pretty bad on the stupid pan. Who grabs a hot pan. Oh me. (The picture makes it look miniscule. I promise it was worse than it appears.) I also made pumpkin-chocolate cheesecake bars. We had to have some holiday spirit. To finish off our night we went to the Temple and did baptisms, there was barely anyone there. So we got through pretty fast. We started watching the first Harry Potter when we got home. I didn't make it very far, before I was out. Then Lauren being the responsible one made me go to bed. Good roommate right there.

Took some extras to my fellow TA's the next morning.
They enjoyed them.

 Also today is November 1st. Making it my best friends birthdays. 21!

Twin sandwich.

Children's Justice Center

I volunteer at the CJC just once a week for two meager hours. But these two hours make the all the difference. Volunteering at the CJC makes my entire week better. It grounds me. It reminds me of what really matters. Today I in charge of six kids, I have never had more than two at a time. So it was a little overwhelming. I had three six year olds, all still working on their sharing skills. I loved playing with them for nearly an hour an a half, which is an unusually long time for the children to be there. One of the girls, Ashley, had already started her interview when I had got there, so I only got to meet her for a short time. While I was with her we read books together and just talked. It is kids like Ashley that amaze me. I have never been so impressed with a young girl. Even though she was the victim in this case, I feel like she changed me for the better. She truly is beautiful on the inside and out. I know she is going to have a hard life ahead of her, but I know for a fact that she will be alright. In that brief time Ashley made the biggest impact on me and I am so grateful for it.

I Won't Give Up Date

This last week I got asked out on a date in possibly the cutest way ever. Okay well the cutest way I have ever been asked out. A couple months ago I showed a boy, Taylor, in my ward a song that I love, he was a fan and said he would learn to play it on the guitar. So last week comes along and Taylor and another boy from the ward Kimball came to my apartment with their guitars. Well they serenaded me. Kimball sang the entire time, later I found out he had never heard the song when he played it and that he had just learned to play it that night. At the end of the song Kimball changed the lyrics to asking me to go out with him the coming up weekend. How adorable is that. I have never been interested in him, but I mean come on. How do you say no to that? You're probably wondering what song it was. Welp here you go.

Sometimes.

Sometimes we pose with our first kitchen

Sometimes we enjoy a little Pinterest

Sometimes we get flowers for Valentines Day

Sometimes we play the roommates guitars

Sometimes we drink out of our "L" mugs

Sometimes we try Shamrock Shakes

Sometimes we read newspapers in Park City

Sometimes we bake pizza

Kony 2012.

This video is longer, but I don't see how you can't watch it. Kony 2012.

These kind of things remind me that I am headed in the right direction. I want to make a difference.

College life..oh wait.

I have been home from Israel for nearly three months now, that just seems crazy. You know now I'm just living the college live, down here in lovely Provo. Sarcasm. Provo's fine. But I do tend to gravitate about an hour North of here frequently. Oh you're quick, you're right I do live an hour North of here! What can I say? I'm a homebody, I just can't help myself. Anywho... I spent this weekend at home. Sarah turned a whopping 13 years of age yesterday, March 2nd if you need reminding. After I finished classes I spent the afternoon shopping for presents with my majer (aka mom) and Hannah who apparently didn't feel the need to be at school. We gave Sarah 13 balloons, one of which was a giant pig who unfortunately popped after half an hour of being home. We also had a Bakers cake, I'm not going to describe it, because you should just know. I mean it is Bakers..come on. For the birthday girls dinner we wined and dined at Brio's Italian, without the wine. It was a loverly's day.

I then proceeded to spend the night in good ol' Farmington. The next morning (you following? March 3rd) I woke up nice and early to go skiing with the faja. Park City was packed, but what else could you expect? It was Saturday and it had just snowed, which hasn't happened much this season. Sadly for me, well mainly my faja, I had rented some shoddy skis and I seem to have pulled some kind of muscle of some sorts in my foot recently. Therefore I skied like a third grader, actually I wouldn't even I skied as good as that. Bummer. We decided that my ungraceful skiing was not worth our time and finished early. Once we got home we hit up (ha pun'y') Toads and I ungracefully, again, swung at a few golf balls. And of course we finished off the night by playing a round of Hearts, which I dominate in. Okay not really, but I like to think I'm good. Luckily Mr. Sir Eddy Leonord Esq. decided to lend me his advice, he is quite the wise little puppydog I must say. And now I am an hour South of Farmington. Again so quick, yep Provo. Yep, yep, yep.

Day 108

Thursday. The 15th of December.

Our last and final day in Jerusalem. I went out with Whitney, Ben, Lindsay, and Koryl again today. Mainly because I was still a bugged from yesterday.We did the Via Dolorosa, it is the fourteen stations along the path that Christ carried His cross. We don't really believe in it, but it was still fun to do. We found the first nine stations and then went into the Holy Sepulcher where the rest of them are. I went into the little shrine thing build on Jesus 'burial place.' Usually there is a humongous line for it, but there was only like five people in line so we went through. Afterwards we walked over to the Western Wall, we stayed there for a little while. We then saw Izak, he had left the center for good the day before, he was with his mom and soon-to-be-fiance. It was fun meeting someone's family. Izak told us that they had just been up at the Dome, which we thought was closed. So we ran over there and it was open! Someone had been spreading some lies at the center. So we had about five minutes up there until it actually did close for lunchtime. Afterwards we walked around the city a bit, a few kids did some last minute shopping. We went to that gummie man that loved my hair the other day and he remembered me and gave me a free treat. Then he called me 'the princess of Israel.' He was super nice, he even asked me how I was enjoying the gummies I had bought from him the day before. We did an final Aladin, Omar, Jimmy, and Bagdadi sweep on our way out. We stopped at a place for shawarma. They only sold shwarma and I only had two shekels left to my name. Whitney ended up buying me a tortilla with hummus, what a kind soul. We walked through the Arab Costco one last time and headed up the hill home bound. At the center I finished packing, my bag is exactly fifty pounds. I am quite an excellent packer if I do say so myself. I have my large suitcase, a tiny bag, and two backpacks full of four months of accumulated stuff. I turned in my cell phone and lugged my heavy bags up all of the stairs to the top level. Those will be a joy getting through the airport. When I got to the top Lauren was there and told me that Sam was outside. I had texted Sam earlier in the day and asked if she would come by to say goodbye, because I wanted to see her one last time. So I went outside and we talked to her for a little while, she was in the hospital the other day because she was feeling really sick. But she was feeling a little better now, she also has officially decided not to go back and work for her mean lawyer man. I wanted to talk longer, but Lauren and Leslie hadn't even started to pack so we said goodbye one last time and went inside. Right before we left Sam told me that her husband Zaki had told her after I had left her house a few days ago that I had 'the beauty of all the nations.' Basically that I have got the best attributes of every single ethnicity. Easily the best compliment I have ever gotten. I happily went back to my room and finished cleaning all of my stuff completely out. And I have just been working on updating my blog. We had our last dinner, I have been saying it is our 'last' everything today. Now I'm just waiting until seven, when we will be driven to the airport. Also bummer I just found out that my flight from JFK to SLC was changed to be four hours later. Lame. But I am so excited to go home. I love it here. But knowing that I will be home soon is far more exciting.