Lately..

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I've been pretty overwhelmed with mid-terms and other stressful events that were going on.

Anyway, Emily and I pledged to go to the gym at least 3 times a week. Not too much of a sacrifice considering we have a free gym available on campus, and we're on campus everyday.. We also pledged to stop being so lazy. When we get home from school we crash or watch TV. We're boring, but we're also worn out! Don't judge!

My lame boss cut my hours, so now I'm only working every other weekend. I figured out how much money I would lose, about $200/month. Which isn't too much, but when you're a struggling college student, every Penny counts! We're supposedly having a meeting on Friday to discuss hours, I will voice my opinion for sure. That's crap!

My dad's birthday was on the 15th. I balanced my schedule so I would be able to make it home that day and back in time for work. My plan worked out perfectly, except for one thing.. My dad wasn't even home!! He had to travel for work on his birthday! He had a good attitude about it, he's a good man! I love you dad, and grateful to have such an awesome dad to take care of me all the time! You're so sweet and always make sure I'm living comfortably. I'm so blessed to have a dad like you, who looks out for our best interest and always put others before yourself. I LOVE YOU DAD!

I've been really sick lately. Not with the swine flu, thank goodness, but I have a terrible cold. I've never been this sick over a cold before! I'm so grateful to have such an understanding roommate who feels bad for me when I'm up all night hacking out my lungs, when I feel bad for keeping her up! She's always saying, "Laurel, I feel so bad, what can I do for you? What can I get for you?" She's the bomb. Love you Em.

This month is full of birthdays! It was Kenny's birthday about a week ago. (Kenny is a guy that's in Kristin's house, and he just started hanging out here all the time, so we made him a little birthday dinner.) Let me just tell you how excited I was about making my contribution to the dinner..

So, I found this awesome recipe from Emeril. You can never go wrong with one of his recipes, they're always the bomb. It was for scalloped potatoes. The recipe called for 4 cups of cream. Well.. it was a Sunday, his dinner was spur of the moment, so we had to use what he had. I had no cream. And we all said that our dinner would be SOO good if we didn't break the sabbath to buy something. So, I didn't go buy cream. I used milk, Emily said it wouldn't make a huge difference. WRRRRRROOOOOOONNNNNNGGGGGGGG. Also, forgot to mention, that Matt (a guy that lives below us) was home alone for the weekend, so we invited him to our dinner. He came up to tell us that he invited ALL of his roommates that came home later that night. So basically we're feeding about 10 people. With groceries that we have on hand. Anyway, back to the potatoes. So I let the milk and potatoes simmer, I cook it, and I taste it. I have NEVER in my life tasted something so disgusting. It tasted like burnt milk. Which, the milk probably did burn while it was simmering on the stove. I made like 10 servings, and had to throw it all out. I've never had a recipe go wrong, but then again- I followed the recipe. I improvised on this one.. bad mistake. But glad I didn't break the sabbath. Let's just say this guys didn't hear about my potato incident. That would definitely ruin my chances for getting dates.. haha

This weekend Emily and I were pretty bored. It was Maile's birthday, our other roommate, but her parents came up, and we didn't want to intrude on family time, so we made a spontaneous trip to Salt Lake. Let me just tell you how much I love Salt Lake. It's soo pretty, I seriously want to live there, or maybe I don't. Maybe I just love to visit? I haven't decided yet. But we went to the Cheesecake Factory, we were going to sit down and enjoy a nice slice of Cheesecake, but the wait was 2 hours- no lies. So we got it to go, and ate it at the mall. While walking inside, we're stopped by this lady. She says, "You girls are really cute, I like your style. We just got done with a High School Musical audition, and I would love for you girls to audition for something. Let me get your numbers." We exchanged numbers and she called the next day. I missed the call, and she left a message saying she wanted to set an appointment. I haven't called back yet.. Anyway that's basically all we did. We went walking around the mall a little bit and I got sucked into buying the cutest purse known to man. I couldn't help myself. I was JUST looking, but the oriental lady probably hasn't gotten a sale all day, so she's totally trying to sell me the purse. She talked me into it, and was jumping up and down and hugging me. This went on for about 3 minutes. I got myself a cute new purse, made her day, but was $50 poorer. I figured it was a nice birthday present to myself.

On our way home from Salt Lake, my sister texts me and tells me she's in the hospital waiting to have her baby! Bad timing!! If we were still in Salt Lake, and spent the night, Emily would have driven me to Provo to see the baby! But that didn't happen. And now I'm sick, so I can't see her baby for a while..

I'm pretty excited for my birthday. I will no longer be a teenager! And I'm also excited for the big Halloween Dance, The Howl! I'm dressing up as the Corpse Bride, I'm pretty stoked. I'll fill you in on Birthday Festivities.. But here are some pictures to enjoy.

Kristin, Maile, Me, and Emily on Maile's birthday.

I forgot to blog about how we went to Lava Hot Springs. It was fall break, and I got off of work early, so we made a quick trip up. We went through Grace, ID. So my roommates could see what an awesome little town it was.. haha

The hot pots are amazing.

Yummmy Cheesecake!

Design on a Dime & Evan's 80th Birthday

I finally got around to posting pictures of my new apartment! I live on the very top floor.. kind of sucks. Moving was such a pain, but thank goodness that's done with..until I move out. But my roommates are so cute, I get along with all of them... and when I say all of them, I really mean 4 of them. The other girl just has different interests, and we just don't seem to have anything in common, which makes it hard to try and hang out with her. But I'm trying!! Anyway, our apartment looked like barf when we moved in, and I was hating on life because I didn't want to move out of my summer apartment. I have adjusted, and love it here. There are WAY cute boys in the apartment on the lower floor. All RM's might I add. Which was a relief because I thought everyone in this complex was 18. That's the one of the only apartment's in the complex who are older 20. They're fun, and we're having a dance party in the commons this weekend, I'll be sure to blog about. ;) Here are some pictures of our newly decorated apartment. We got pretty festive for Halloween! Pretty much we have the cutest Apt. in the complex, hands down.


3 of my roommates from left to right: Elicia, Kristin, Emily


Haha, Kristin brought all of this up from home, she is a major
Halloween fanatic. Love her.


These are actually puzzles that we mod podged and hung
them on the wall. We have to improvise when we don't have
money! This is kind of the theme of our living room, 50's/gambling/music --random,
but it's soooo sweet.



End table centerpiece



Our couches were the ugliest print ever. So we went to walmart
and got ourselves some couch covers! Actually, they're fitted sheets.
$5! How's that for designing on a dime! And it looks a million times better.



See those pillows?? That's what our couches looked like.. barf right?
And all of the roommates each made their own piece of art work to display.
I did an attempt of the Ace of Hearts card. FAIL. I love Emily's painting, the
poker chip. She's an amazing artist.

Our CD display is freaking sweeeeet. We wanted to find those

60's beads that you hang from your bedroom door, but we thought

that it would be cool to do CD's, and everyone that visits our apt writes

their favorite movie quote and name. We are so creative. That whole project

probably costed like $20.

Haha Mine and Emily's attempt to decorate for Halloween.

Check out the TV too, basically the size of my head! Better than

nothing though.

Kitchen centerpeice.

Our kitchen.. and Kristin :)

*** Yesterday was Evan's 80th birthday! His daughter came to town from New York, and we had a little party for him. We went to the Golden Coral (his favorite) and had some cake back in his room. He was so cute, when I came in to start my shift I said, "Evan! Happy Birthday!!" And he smiled and said, "Let's hope it's that way!" I'm starting to like my job more and more everyday. I'm so blessed to have a job in such troubled times, and I'm also blessed that this job allows me to do my homework and make money at the same time, which was a huge concern for me coming to college. The weekend girl was fired, so I picked up extra over-night shifts on the weekend. I love going to the retirement home and meeting all of the residents. They are such great people.

Evan's B-day cake!

Ohh Evan, you never fail to read to me the Herald Journal!

80 years old and still truckin!

*I'll be sure to post about our dance party this weekend!