The one where I'm grateful it's over!

The fam reunion was okay. It just made me remember how in-the-middle i am. With lindsay six years older than me and kira four years younger than me...it just SUCKS! I don't feel included in anything. I tired to be the cool cousin and took bracelets to give to all the girls only to have brynn make all the girls-but me-one, yeah that made mad. I did love playing with young cousins though! Reese, noah, trent, cali, spencer-yep that's about all the ones that love me. I tried to get to know ryan, my aunt kathy's new off-spring, but she had none of it. I swear I wasn't even allowed to look at the kid so I gave up and refused to play. Not like it matters-we'll never actually be close considering the age gap. Plus ocean city has like no cute guys, i was highly disappointed! Not that anything would have actually happened, considering I was only there for a week, my uncles and i have nothing to offer but i digress. When we went to wonderland, it's kinda like a mini amusement park, all I did was play with my faves, the kids listed above, and take them on rides. I didn't really like it, it just wasn't my thing. I did go on a dinky log fume thing and then on a required ferris wheel ride. I felt bad, cause everyone was like go ride a ride, don't go on a little one with them but there was nothing for me to do. My mom tired to do this love language thing with all of us and she challenged everyone to show people you love them with their love language, I think I was the only one who did it. Then the night before we left grandma had an adult meeting for the next reunion, and considering I will be an adult next time, all on my own-ya know not living at home, going to have to make an effort to actually come-I thought that I should stay. Then grama said all the kids needed to leave and my dad said since it was an adult meeting i should go do some laundry, can you see why he's not high on my list right now, so I left and went to my room cause I was way past done. Just to come out and see them still discussing the next fam reunion with half my cousins sitting on the floor, can you see why my grama is not high on my list either? Not to mention she promised she would take me to the boardwalk for dinner after fam pictures and she left with my uncle mark while I was putting my bike away that will had gotten out. I hate that I don't stick up for myself, I try so hard to change it but it just makes it harder to do, I try so hard to be happy-go-lucky so that people will want to be with me. I hate that I feel like I have to put on a face for everybody, but once again I digress. By the time saturday rolled around I felt like I had very few goodbyes to make; the barnetts, mark, the burninghams, kira and that's about it. I finished packing, took it to the car and rode my bike til I had to return it. Now don't get me wrong, it wasn't all bad and I really did try to see the glass half-full. We went to this MRA pool that they used to go to when they lived there and that was pretty cool. The hamburgers weren't half bad either. I loved the boardwalk at night, it was so beautiful, the beach was kinda pretty. It was a little too crowded, I would have loved to walk along it at night. I babysat, pro bono, for lindsay when the 'adults' went out to dinner. Hanging out with reese was really fun. I can't wait to do stuff with her when I go out there. I'm off to bed, you better comment if your reading this! Oh and pictures to come later!

The one where we ride on the boardwalk

This morning we were up and early! We got up, had a little breakfast and were off to bike rental place. Grandma got us two surreys and I got a cruiser, with a basket of course! Rachel drove the other surrey while grandma drove this one, god bless her! Brynn, jessie and I had fun on our bikes. I was really happy at how well I did because I haven't been on bike since...i think right after we moved into the lynch road house. We met barnetts and corn-joe's(hehehe) at the boardwalk after we got there. I love reese and noah, they are SO cute! We were up there for about an hour. I rented my bike for the week, I can't wait to go again tomorrow!

The one where I face plant

So I went to my uncles on the fourth for an all italian, i mean american, cookout. It was okay I guess, it was just that my mom and I knew nobody. Almost everyone there was from my new aunt debbie's family and we really didn't know them. my hair was pin straight when i got there, but did it stay that way? nope! michael and brandon on our way to the fireworks-they are getting SO big! So I was trying to be the cool big sister so I gave will a piggy back ride all was good til all of a sudden we went down. Will of course walked away without a scratch, but me no way! I have the scrape above on my knee, the pic is upside down and i was too lazy to flip it, and ad scraped skin on my hands

The one where I have to admit...

that I am actually having a good time, don't rub it in. We did this tour of the city on a bus yesterday and I was going to write about it last night but it was so late! We went to the Love (which by the way-the o is slanted because the sculptor said "love is never perfect") then took pictures with the "it's your move" sculpture Will had fun "knocking down" this domino. While we were on the tour we saw city hall and the guy who did all the sculptures-yeah it def took him 20 years, and the building took 30 years to construct. They wanted to have it completed for their centennial but it didn't happen. It is also the largest free masonry building in the world. (which for all you lame brains that means that there is no steel structure-it's stone upon stone) these were just some of the cool places in the city. The bridge takes people from Pennsylvania to New Jersey, free there-3 bucks back. Then a view of the skyline. The free library, again. Another view of the skyline, the museum and yet another view. The way cool building is some church in philly's version of a theater district. The playground right there is where they filmed the opening part of fresh prince of bel-air. The gold statue is of joan of arc, thought that was pretty cool. Philly has TONS of murals, something about if someone was caught doing graffiti then the would have to do a mural with a real artist. They're all really cool, hopefully I can get some more when I go out again on the bus. The awesome gates are for the federal reserve, cool right? When you go in the federal reserve for the cool exhibit and finish you get a hundred dollars! I was so excited, did I mention it was shredded? The four hands thing was given to people who contributed to the fire department and if you didn't have one and your house caught on fire the city would not put out your fire. The mint was a cool place to drive by, you can't take a camera in, not even if it's on your phone, and they have no where to put so we didn't get to go in-plus they don't give samples , :(. The statue thing before william penn is monument to christopher columbus. The statue on the building is william penn, founder of pennsylvania, which means penn's wood. Below it is the actual graveyard that nicolas cage ran through in national treasure. The thing that looks like a clothespin actually isn't one, it's a sculpture call 'the embrace,' the metal is an arm and it is supposed to be two people embracing, believe it or not. This friendship gate was way close to our hotel, a block a way. It was given to philly from their sister city somewhere in china I think. The guitar is for the philly hard rock cafe. The fountain sculptures were made by the guy who did the city building sculptures son. It was commissioned by someone's wife to celebrate him. The ship is some naval ship that is docked at penn's landing right now-don't ask me anything else about cause I have no idea. The bell is obviosuly the liberty bell. The gate thing with the statue is the rodin museum. These are just some houses around philly that I liked and the buildings at the bottom was actually in trading places, the movie. laters!

The one where I wish I was still at home

So little ol' me got up at 4:30 this morning, earlier than I used to for seminary, to catch a plane. We left for Philly this morning, the flight from columbus wasn't that bad. But for some reason I couldn't sleep on the ATL philly fight. Then when we got here we went straight for some cheese steak, SO GROSS! We checked into the hotel and then we were off to the free library-much to my dismay, I was ready for a nap. It was so lame, there wasn't anywhere for somebody to just sit and read a freakin' book! I thought that was what a library for, but whatev! After mom was done we went to walmart, here are some pics from today...waiting for the Philly flight

and I thought the north branch library in columbus was bad although the architecture was pretty cool after the library we stopped to get some philly pretzels, def a good thing then we saw strohemann bread at walmart and i had to have a picture of it, grandpa used to work there

The one where I am thinking this could be fun

So I was bored and looking at blogs and I found this site called allmediocre.com. It's for people who's blog is pretty cool, like mine, but don't really get attention. My loyal followers are family and friends so you don't count(jk, you know I love you all)-I'm talking about the ones that you've never met before, they found your blog and are now religious followers(0ne can hope right?) You should check it out its pretty "fye"

The one where I reveal another secret

When I am bored I look at other people's blog. It's kinda fun sometimes, like one day I found a blog called the tip junkie-it's pretty cool you should check it out. But the blog is turning one year old and they're doing a 20 day giveaway, cool right? So you should so check it out!

The one where I steal from Sister Johnson

So sister johnson wrote on her blog one hundred, one-zero-zero, things about her. I read it and while I was I kept thinking I could never do this-I want to prove myself wrong so...here it is-

1. I like to eat crescent dough, the pillsbury kind
2. When I'm cooking in the kitchen all by myself, I like to pretend I have my own cooking show
3. I compare myself to people way too much, which is why I have a low self-concept
4. I write songs, sometimes
5. I love falling asleep to rain-I will go to bed early just so I can fall asleep to rain on my window, and the cd sounds just don't cut it
6. I love to lay in my bed and look at the moon out my window and think about the man of my dreams
7. I already know what I want to name my kids
8. I save text messages forever, and then usually I'll write them down in my journal
9. I love babysitting-I would even turn down a date to babysit
10. EFY is my favorite part of the year
11. My greatest fear is that I will not get married and have kids before I die
12. I love snow, i would sleep in it if i could be warm
13. I have always wanted older brothers and sisters
14. My hot chocolate is uber chocolate-ty
15. I am probably the pickiest eater you'll ever meet
16. My love languages are Receiving Gifts and Words of Affirmation
17. I love watching my brother play baseball
18. I love to sleep in
19. I wish I could redo high school
20. I spend too much time on facebook
21. I don't like the beach, i'd much rather go to a pool
22. I'm a procrastinator and a slacker
23. I stay up late instant messaging on facebook and texting
24. I love missionaries
25. I was born on my due date
26. I love taking naps
27. I love reading
28. I have always wanted to be a teacher
29. I feel this great responsibility to get married soon so my great grandparents can at least see one great grandchild get married-the next oldest is will
30. I don't want to get married til after college so my parents will pay for my education
31. I was born in SLC, Utah
32. My favorite ice cream is Graham Central Station from Brusters
33. I love daises because of the Mormonad poster
34. I love earings, but i always forget to put them on
35. I don't stick up for myself
36. I have a hard time finishing a journal, I always move on to a new one
37. I used to turn on Clay Aiken's Measure of a Man CD while I read Harry Potter at night so my parents would think I was asleep, so now whenever I hear the CD I think of Harry Potter
38. I have a hard time getting rid of things
39. I love sprite (not seven up, sierra mist or any of the impostors)
40. I have to sleep with two pillows and I have to be holding something
41. There are three kinds of girls-the girl that gets the guy, the best friend and just a friend, I'm just a friend
42. I have over 30 purses and almost as many pairs of shoes
43. I'm pretty sure I have OCD
44. I like to scrapbook, but I have to be in the mood to get anything done
45. I love ice water in glass glasses
46. I love the way they serve soda at the olive garden-green tinted glasses with a black straw, it just seems so elegant
47. I always think of some witty remark I could have said in a situation hours later
48. I love tubing, but I hate getting thrown off-I have a phobia of lakes
49. When people would tell me I looked like snow white I would say "I not 'now white I mychel"
50. I have real big trust problems, as in trusting others
51. I watched american idol this season religiously
52. I have some amazing dreams and I always write them down in my journal
53. I got really scared watching signs and the village, I know-I'm a whimp and I'm okay with that
54. I have to add extra raisins to my rasin bran
55. I would rather text than talk
56. I failed my learners permit test the first time I took it, but passed my driving license test the first time I took that
57. On Sundays I wear my church clothes all day long
58. When I go to subway I get a ham foot long on white with the monteray cheddar, lettuce, tomato and cucumber (and I make them clean their knife before it goes on my sandwich)
59. My mom says my catch phrase is "it tastes funny"
60. I love taking pictures
61. I wish I would have been a cheerleader
62. I took art 1 my senior year of high school and really liked it, and I got tons of art supplies for christmas
63. My favorite holiday is my birthday
64. Whenever I go anywhere, like a field trip or a vacation, I always try to bring something back for my family
65. I could eat top ramen forever
66. My favorite colors are brown and pink
67. I hate picking blueberries
68. I have thought of running away, more than once
69. I really hate loading the dishwasher, it makes me sick
70. When I had braces and I went to the orthodontist my mom and I would go to sonic afterward, get lunch and then I would go back to school
71. I've never been on a date
72. I wish my hair was naturally straight, I hate it curly
73. I collect ribbons to go in my hair
74. I hate cleaning
75. I like my room to be cold and then have lots of blankets on me
76. I sing in the shower and make up routines to the songs
77. I love to read the latest and most read news on fox news
78. I love listening to music REALLY loud
79. I'm a trend setter
80. I like watching old shows that my mom finds...like Hogan's Heroes and Mission: Impossible
81. I want to do the College Program at Disney World
82. I'm going to LDSBC for business background and then I am going to go to BYU for early elementary education
83. I am really picky about my water-deer park and park city water are the best then my reverse osmosis water but I can't drink Disney World water
84. I sing random ad jingles all the time
85. I did a news casting thing at school my senior year and loved it
86. I had the chicken pox four times
87. I had no comfort toys or blankets as a baby
88. I used to make doll beds all over the house as a kid
89. I went to 3 elementary schools, 2 middle schools and 2 high schools
90. I have live in Utah, Arizona, Florida and Georgia
91. I was home schooled for second and third grade
92. My brother's and my birthday's are six months apart Me-August, Nathan-February, Will-August, Zac-February
93. My first airplane ride was at four months and the first time I flew alone at 12
94. I used to pray for lots of sisters and one brother
95. My first solid food was a banana(which I learned how to spell from gwen stephani)
96. I had braces in 6th and 7th grade
97. I used to have my hair cut like Anne Marie in all dogs go to heaven
98. I used to watch Cops with my dad and I would say "Down the gound, down the gound, hands behind you back"
99. I learned to walk on my first birthday
100. I am always dancing

Yeah it took me over a week to do this. Well, that's all I have for this post so...laters!

The one where it's a miracle!

Anyone that knows me, I mean really knows me, knows that I am a picky eater! Usually I use the "oh, I'm not hungry" excuse if I don't like the food, even when I am starving. I was at the Hanna's yesterday for my mom's book club and I was really hungry and then she brought out these sandwiches which just from what I could see I knew I wasn't gonna like it. So I gave the "oh, I'm not hungry" excuse. After everyone left she reminded my mom of dinner tonight and she ask if Venezuelan food would be okay. My mom was all like sure, while me in my my head was like oh, great I'm going to have eat before I come. When we go there everything smelt great so I was all like this might actually be good. When we sat down I decided I would try at least a little bit of everything. And OMGosh! It was amazing, there was only one thing I didn't like. I loved it, I could have eaten everything there all by myself! I want my mom to get the recipes so bad. Seriously for me to like almost an entire meal I had never had before is a miracle!

The one where I am thinking that I have a lot of things to pack

So I am almost done with my AE and so I am really starting to pack (I'm shooting for leaving on the fifteenth, oh well American Idol Live tour). I have 65 days left at home, how did this happen how did I go from a cute sunbeam that wanted to wear dresses everyday to seminary graduate that loves jeans? How did I go from being dependent on my parents to independent? Sometime last fall, I think it was, my Uncle Mike said wouldn't it be cool to live life backwards? I didn't think so at the time but now I wish I could. I want to go back to when a big grade consisted of drawing a picture, I want to go back to when I would be carried around. Why do we not cherish our youth? Why do we want to grow up so fast? I remember one day I was putting on glitter for make-up and my dad told me to stop and said "you'll grow up fast enough!" Why didn't I listen to him? But seriously I have so much stuff to pack! I don't know how I am going to get it all out there. I'm flying and there is no option of driving. I really don't want to have to send all of my stuff out there cause that would cost a fortune. So I'm thinking, I will be flying home with nothing so that I can take lots of things back to Utah. Well I'm off to pack a box before I go to bed! p.s. sean you should read the comment i wrote you on my last blog