Okay, okay

Well, on a much more superficial note than the last post, I have decided to finally grace all of you lovely readers with an actual update on my life.  So.

I'll start off with my birthday, because Tess has been bugging me about that :)  The night before my birthday Heidi and I went to BYU Spectacular, which was, in a word, spectacular.  Great singing, cool dancing, dresses that made me want to join the Young Ambassadors...  Awesome.  On my actual birthday, I went to the dentist's, the opthamologist's, Divine Comedy, and swimming.  It was fantastic.  Then I got the stuff for Muddy Buddies and substituted that for an actual birthday cake.  It was delicious.

Now, the birthday package from the fam didn't come until 5 days later, but it was no less appreciated!  I ate all of the chocolate in about three days, am working on the rest of the deliciousness, and love the laptop case and earbuds.  (Note to Levi: Nice job on picking out the earbuds!  They conduct sound so well that I can run with only on in my ear and still hear the music, which is a lot safer and more comfortable. Thanks :)  All of you who helped to put that together are wonderful and amazing in every way, and I love you ever so much.

In other news, I am running a half-marathon next Saturday, the same event I ran last year.  It should be great. I've been training for it a little more intensely, and I'm trying to go running at least 5 times a week.  I was kind of proud of myself today for running 2.4 miles in 20.5 minutes, with a significant uphill slope for about half the way.  We'll see if that translates into an improved time for the actual run...

Also, and this is just a comment as my birthday has passed and Christmas is too long to wait... I love these boots, and I may buy them:


http://www.callitspring.com/us/women/boots/booties/85441891-trousdale/37

Aren't they cute?  Oh, and one final note.  Heidi and I had an afternoon of photo shoot/zucchini bread madness on Saturday.  The photo at the top of this post is my favorite picture of me, albeit on a strange prop.  Heidi hasn't posted any of her pics, or I would put some of her as well.  That girl is photogenic.


Anyways, I'm off to study now, so remember that I love you all!

<3
Eliza

Realizations

I hope nobody is offended by this post.  If you are, I'm sorry.  I'm not trying to be insensitive, and I hope you don't see it that way.

So, as most readers of this blog already know, three girls were hit by a train yesterday in Spanish Fork.  Kelsea and Savannah Webster, ages 15 and 13, and their friend Essa, also 15, were taking pictures by the railroad tracks and somehow got caught between two trains going in opposite directions.  They were blown by the slipstream into the trains, and Kelsea and Essa were killed instantly.  Savanna is in critical condition.

I first met Kelsea and Savannah when I was twelve and I came over to babysit them, along with their older and younger sisters.  I babysat them periodically for a year or two until their older sister was old enough to take care of them herself.  Since then, they've followed me in young women's, come over to our house for many family game nights and activities, and have joined our family at school events and church activities.

They were our neighbors for about a year, and Savannah and their littlest sister would walk up the hill with Tess and Levi from the bus stop.  I've seen the Websters as almost equivalent to cousins for our family.

A couple of months ago, Savannah and Kelsea moved out to Utah to stay with their aunt and father while their mom tried to find a different job so she could move and have all of the girls with her again.  I remember hugging them good-bye after church on their last Sunday in Sonora, and joking that I didn't know when we would see each other again, but it had better be soon.  

Last night mom called me and told me, more or less calmly, that Kelsea Webster had died.  I felt like I had been sucker-punched.  My only possibly response was to ask how.  

After a good hour or two of crying and breakfast this morning with the only other girl from our ward at BYU, I was still having a bit of a rough time with the whole idea.  How could this have happened?  How must their family feel?  Wasn't there anything I could do to help?

This evening, the story came on the news and my roommate came and got me so I could see it.  It was hard to look at their faces on the TV screen and know that Kelsea won't be around to give me an exuberant hug or favor the room with her fake sarcastic girly laugh.  I didn't even know how Savanna was, or whether, if she survived, she could ever be the same.  

As I walked out of the room halfway through the newscast, I was still trying to get a handle on the whole thing.  It's okay, I assured myself, it's not like they're dead.  

That mental statement caught my attention as I reminded myself that Kelsea and Essa are, in fact, dead.  But then I realized what my subconscious was telling me, reminding me of something my mind has always known but my heart hadn't quite acknowledged - they're still there.  I will meet Kelsea again, and she still has potential, a life, a future.  We're just going to be missing out on her company for a while.

It is harder to face than an extended leave, I know.  We humans have a hard time trying to comprehend even a year into the future, let alone eternity.  The time of separation will seem like forever.  But that's not what's important - the important thing is that it's only a separation.  They're not gone, not - for lack of a better word - dead.  Kelsea and Essa still exist.  They still know the inside jokes we had, they still know us just as well as they did, and they still care for us just as much as they always have.

I'm so grateful to heavenly father for helping me to come to this realization at this time.  I know it won't be easy dealing with their deaths, but it gives me hope to think that it's not a permanent separation, and their chance at life isn't over.  We didn't have the chance to say good-bye, but we will have the chance to say hello again.

<3

Eliza

This is weird...

So, last time I'd passed 10 years of my life it was so exciting to have two digits in my age.  Now I'm 20, and there's still only two digits!  What a rip-off!  Nonetheless, I am kind of excited to be a year older.  On the other hand, I'm not a teenager anymore.  Sad.  However, it's my birthday!

I'm not planning to make a cake.  I think I'll go buy the ingredients for muddy buddies.  So far for my birthday I've gone to BYU Spectacular (last night - thanks Heidi!), the dentist's office (where they were going to give me a J-Dawgs certificate for my birthday but were out so they just gave me $5), the opthamologist's office (where I got yellow eyes!), and work. After my work meeting I'm going to redeem all of my birthday coupons for Red Robin's, Baskin Robbins, Cold Stone Creamery, and Weinerschnitzel with Heidi, and then all of my roommates, Heidi, Caroline (freshman cousin!), and I are going to Divine Comedy.  Yay!

<3
Eliza

Eliza Houghton and the Awesome Roommate

Hello, all.  Disclaimer before I begin: all of my roommates are awesome.  Only one of them, however, has introduced me to four hilarious youtube videos in the past two weeks, and so it is with great pleasure and honor that I announce this week's Awesome Roommate: Megan!!  And here are the videos that won her the awards!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZwM3GvaTRM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y57sYHIDP_Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvgVMecNp0c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeYOdgwByLc

Also, this post is dedicated to Marta, who posted that bit of coolness on the family blog the other week.  Love you all!

<3

Eliza

Lunch out

Well, as you may be able to tell, my new smartphone (with 2x as many megapixels as my old camera, and much more portable and useful) has inspired me to take more pictures of my life.  Now, most bloggers apologize for days when they take pictures on their phones - not me!  Just be happy they're this good!  And that they exist at all...

Stacey and Erin at Sammy's.  We actually ate lunch at Osaka and went to Sammy's for pie shakes, but I may have forgotten to get pictures while we were eating lunch...

Pie shakes!!  Delicious.  And way cute restaurant.  I should have gotten a picture of the front, sigh.

Heidi, me, and Stacey in Sammy's.  Ignore the weird squinty thing.  I think my eyebrows have gotten too used to being quirked one at a time.

<3
Eliza

P.S. How was your weekend?

By any other name...

They call me... she who puts weird things in dishwashers.

And also, she who empties the dishwasher.

<3

Eliza

P.S. Last time it was a combination lock.  And pennies.

Tour

Homework!

Bed!  Covered in homework-related paraphernalia!

Over-desk shelf!

And again, with the food-related items shelf!

And everything else. This is my room!



<3
Eliza