Worst of 2011

This is Part 2 of a 3-Part Post Series I'm going to do for my blog. The first post focused on my best and favorite moments of 2011. This second post will be my worst and least favorite moments of 2011. The final post will be a revisiting of my resolution for 2011 and seeing how well or not well I did.

My Worst Moments of 2011

(In no particular order whatsoever.)

1. MEPS. Such a long, drawn-out process at the Military Entrance Processing Station in Salt Lake City. Probably the longest day of my life so far. And that's just the beginning. I was there from 6am to almost 6pm and most of that was waiting in lines. 

2. DLAB. I was devastated when I took the language test to get a linguistics job with the Navy. I was 2 lousy points away from the minimum. 

3. Halloween Weekend. My plans and my friend Casey's plans for the weekend were apparently very different from each other. I like the idea of Halloween but for some reason, Halloween is always the worst day for me. Examples:

               1. Senior year of High School. Injured my knee at ballroom dancing practice right
               before school. 

               2. Utah State. Made an idiot of myself by wearing this hideous mask thing to work. I think
               there were some pranks in there that, by that time, I did not find funny at all. 

               3. Mission Halloweens. I always hated talking to people on Halloween. They were always drunk
               or just a little more belligerent than normal.

 I rest my case.  

4. California trip. The wedding part, like I said, was awesome. The whole part where I spent most of my time in airports or my hotel room or waiting for a ride was super uncool. Probably my least favorite trip I've been on in a long time.

5.  Winter. It seemed like last winter clung on forever! Hence we did not get a good summer. Summer was cool and just...not summer-ish until maybe August. Bring on the heat!

Guess it's a good thing I can only come up with a few bad moments of 2011. It was definitely a year full of ups and downs but I think it will always be a memorable year for me.

Awesome Date

Last Friday I had an awesome date. It took some meticulous planning and preparation for this event and I think it actually paid off.

I took a girl from my branch named Heidi. My friend, Tyler, took a girl he met on an American and Church history tour named Ali. And then Michael and Lacey came as well.

We had this little shin-dig at my house. I picked up Heidi around seven (she knows of my chronic condition that is called tardiness, I swear it is a growing problem these days). We came back to my house where we met up with the other two couples.

Randomly, when Mike and Lacey arrived, my aunt and uncle who live in Utah had followed them to our driveway, so when we answered the door, I was pretty surprised. They stayed long enough to leave a note for my parents and then they left.

Once we got situated we took off to Broulim's grocery store and got some pumpkins and candles. We took those pumpkins home and got to the business of carving while we baked some Papa Murphy's pizzas of deliciousness.

Our pumpkin, we decided, was going to be a pirate. Fred the Pirate Pumpkin. Complete with eye patch and bandanna.

Fred the Pirate Pumpkin in all his glory.

Mike and Lacey's pumpkin was fun but I never got a picture of it. They did a sort of goofy faced one.

Tyler and Ali's pumpkin was pretty sweet. See for yourself.

I love its huge mouth!

After carving pumpkins (or, rather, while Heidi and I were finishing our masterpiece) Tyler and Ali made apple cider. We had some pizza then drank the cider which was fantastic. Tyler had even bought cinnamon sticks we could stir our cider with. After that we lit our pumpkins and took pictures.

Mike and Lacey left after the light show. Tyler, Ali, Heidi, and I went downstairs and played Blurt! which is an awesome game. If you have not played it, check it out.

Hadjii and I took Heidi home. It was one of the best dates I've had in a long time.

Autumn and Stuff

I am so anti-winter but I have to admit I do sorta like autumn. The leaves are changing and whatnot...yeah everything looks dead and nasty after awhile, but there is a different feeling in the air when fall comes around. Everyone seems to be holding their breath for the first snowfall and the impending doom of winter. More than that, though, there is a joy in the harvesting of gardens and as families and friends draw closer for the coming holidays.

With that said, I really, really miss summer. For those of you who don't know me, I want to live somewhere that has summer/spring weather all year round. That, to me, would be the ideal.

This Halloween sneaked up on me. I think I was so caught up in the remodel of the store, the trip to St. George, and other things that Halloween never caught my attention. I did decorate my parents' house for Halloween and it was quite a hit. I strung fake spiderwebs over the hutch in the living room and put orange lights on top of it to give it a creepy glow effect. I did have fun with that.

Today I took down the Halloween decor (I should have taken pictures. Oops.) and put up Thanksgiving stuff. I had fun with this yet again. I'm finding I can use my artistic eye for just about anything. I have to admit, Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. What other day do you get the excuse to be a glutton? No one looks at you like you're a pig either because they're pigging out just as much as you! It's remarkable. However, this year I am going to exercise a little more control than in previous years. I'm losing weight and that would just put me way behind.

My parents and Gigi were in Utah for the weekend of Halloween. My sister's family came over to avoid trick-or-treaters. I invited my friends, Mike and Lacey, to come over as well. I got a pizza from Papa Murphy's after work. When Kate pre-heated the oven some meatloaf juices that had dripped into the oven from a previous meal lit up. My brother in law had to use baking soda and everything to get the fire out. Scary.

I got home and the house was all smokey. We cleaned the oven, opened doors and windows to clear the air, and then got the party started. Morgan was dressed as a monkey and Wyatt was a lion. They were adorable in their little outfits (again I wish I had pictures).

Kate and her crew left before the pizza was done. Mike and Lacey and I watched The Proposal while we consumed the delicious pizza. That movie is very well done. I didn't think I would like seeing Sandra Bullock as a mean, beasty woman but she managed to still be funny even as a beeotch.

So there's the rundown of my Halloween night and my feelings about the changing seasons. Stay tuned for more!

Oh, hey, btw...I have officially 17 lbs. since I started working out in June. Boo. Yeah.