The Time of My Life

This past weekend I had the pleasure of a visit from my DC girls. For those who don't know, Devon (blondie) is a good friend from Highland who recently moved out to DC. Pulaski is about 4 hours south of the nation's capital, so they came down for a girl's weekend at the lake house. I am proud to say that the first dance party at the lake house took place on Saturday night ... We couldn't help it, we just got finished watching Step Up 3. It was a lounging visit. We played Rummikub, watched chick flicks, visited Blacksburg, and stayed up each night until 3 in the morning talking about who knows what. Oh, and you can't have a proper stay at the cabin unless you build a fire :) I'm starting to get pretty good at it. I am the maker of the fuego.

The ladies also accompanied me to sacrament meeting.

Top floor of the Institute building.

The maker of the fuego. Look closely and you can see that I am sweating from dancing ... on second thought, don't.

Devon's roommates Rachel (L) and Kayla (R). They were clearly impressed with the fire.

Cute pic of Dev and Rachel.

I was trying to catch them flipping their hair. It might have worked ... had they done it at the same time.

Chillin on the ground.

These girls have been training with Michael Jackson for the past three weeks.

I LOVE this one of Devon ... and knew she probably wouldn't want it on Facebook ;)

Amigas en el suelo.

Devon and Kayla gettin their groove on.

Weekend at the Lake House

I'm sure MLK would have loved the way I spent this past weekend. The Currans came up from NC and it was another relaxing vaca at the lake house (Although the lake is actually frozen over). We exchanged presents (I'm the proud new owner of some sweet Nike Shox), we went bowling (Baby Girl's first time), learned how to play Parcheesi (which was surprisingly fun), attended the singles ward, and watched Princess and the Frog. Seriously, how can you beat that weekend? Not possible. Plus, I got to put my new camera to use.

This the BYU bear that Morgan got Sissy for Christmas. He texted me and said he wanted it to be named "Bobby" or "Jackson". But I suggested that we just give him the full name Bobby Jackson. It might take Livi a while to learn it, but we believe that it's a name that's worth the wait :)

Not in a photogenic mood.

But her attitude changed quickly. Here she's coming to show me the snow she found.

Olivia the Eskimo.

She loved running around outside, even if it meant she had to put the whole getup on.

I love this face.

We went to Backstreet Pizza in Blacksburg and ordered the Cordon Bleu pizza ... surprisingly good.

She looks like her Papa in this picture.

A momentous occasion: Olivia's first time bowling. January 15th, 2011. Ball: Size 7, neon yellow.

After we introduced her to the sport, she was hooked. She wanted to bowl during each of our turns :) Notice Richard's Winter Meetings shirt with SF Giants colors.

Eileen kicked TRASH in the second game. She got two strikes and like 4 spares.

Look at that form ... and that fashion statement. What kind of guy picks out a ball that matches his shirt? Haha.

It wasn't my finest hour at the lanes, but whatever.

Me and Sissy.

The Curran family at Christiansburg Lanes.

This is Sissy in my sink, helping me get ready.

I had to put this up here for my brothers. Riley bought her the BYU shirt and Morgan bought her Bobby Jackson .... and she loved them both :)

This is a video of Olivia taking a turn bowling. She made the most excited face every time the ball went down.

Feliz Año Nuevo a Todos

Let me start by telling you that I rarely take pictures when I'm home. So I've only got 4 or 5 pictures to show for the break. But I haven't gotten them off my camera, so you'll just have to wait. It's like I want to take a break from worrying about taking cool pictures ... so I just don't do it altogether. Oh well.

I got some pretty fun presents this Christmas ... so I thought I would tell you about the top six. The coolest present that my family was given was the gift of Michael Jackson ... in a Wii game.

I know that you're probably getting sick of hearing about Michael Jackson in my blog posts. He was just so talented ... And I get so much joy and positivity from his music that I can't help but mention him. We found out about this Wii game approximately 5 days AFTER Christmas from a friend in our singles ward. Michael Jackson - The Experience will go down as the coolest game Wii has ever made. Each player holds the Wii paddle and has to mimic either Micheal's moves or the moves of the backup dancer. So you get points for his hand movements, not what your feet do. That's why this is better than DDR ... because you're actually doing real moves. After our plan to go to Vegas crashed and burned, we stayed in Highland for New Years. We didn't really plan a party ... but slowly, friends of ours trickled in and we soon had like 25 people in our basement taking turns playing this game. It's simple ... This game brings people together :)

Feel free to imagine Rodg, Morg, Riles, and Granty dancing to MJ in our basement ... because that's what happened. Except I don't think it was Thriller, I think it was Smooth Criminal. Anyway, the image to the left is what the screen looks like when you're dancing. Great stuff. And believe it or not, it's a workout. It's hard to keep up with MJ.

One of the most meaningful gifts I got was my framed diploma. This is what I have to show for the last 7 years ... this and my mission plaque, I guess. Yes, it took me 5 years to graduate from college. I'm not ashamed. I had been asking to see my diploma the week before Christmas, but my mother kept giving me ridiculous excuses ... like "I'm not sure where it is ..." or "it's somewhere in the Christmas room" (which is the room none of the kids are supposed to enter). Getting this present brought a tear to my eye. It was a long road. As a BYU freshman on academic warning ... I never thought this day would come. Oh, happy day.

The Canon Powershot SX30IS is a ridiculously long name to tell people, but a cool camera nonetheless. My dad originally got me a Nikon for Christmas, but I traded it in for this. I decided that I needed a better camera since I take a lot of pictures (except when I'm home). They call this a "tweener" camera because it's not a normal digital camera, but it's not a nice DSLR camera with the huge lens. I think it will suit me well. It's got 35x zoom and 14.1 mega-pixels. Now all I need to do is go buy a memory card. You'd think since we were paying $300 for a camera ... it might come with one. Not the case. That's the only thing that irritated me ... aaaaaaaand I'm over it.

Everyone knows that my favorite color is green. I told my mother that I would like a CHI flat iron for Christmas ... and she surpassed all my expectations. The flat iron that I got is EMERALD GREEN! It's the coolest thing I've ever seen. It reminds me of the Wicked musical. It actually matches my iPod nano perfectly. Now I can listen to music while straightening my hair ;) (Something I've always dreamed of) The point is, this color makes me happy ... regardless of how well the flat iron works. Hehe.

Apparently a lot of people use these electric toothbrushes. I never have until now. My parents are believers and are attempting to do the same to their children. I've got to tell you, the first time I put this in my mouth ... I felt I like I was at the dentist. It's like putting a jackhammer in your mouth. It feels weird ... and it's hard to get used to. But it works. My teeth have never been this clean. It's like that feeling you have when you just get back from the dentist ... EVERY DAY. Lets just hope this takes the Lyman dental bill down a notch or two. We shall see.

Ralph does rock ... and I will tell you why. This perfume is soooooo good. I am recently obsessed with perfume. My recent favorite was Guess by Marciano, but that has now been trumped by Ralph Rocks. I also got a perfume by Ed Hardy ... please don't judge me by this. I hate Ed Hardy with every fiber of my being, but this perfume is actually really good. I have been telling people that it's a random one my mom found at TJ Maxx. I would never promote the Ed Hardy brand ... but I will secretly wear his perfume. Don't judge.