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

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

Birthday parties!

I know it's been a couple of weeks, but I finally have the party post!  On my actual birthday, Heidi had a brownies and ice cream party for our basketball team.  It was great, and we had a wonderful time.  The other two parties were put on by my roommates (who are fantastic, by the way!)

On the eighth, Kristin made these cupcakes:

Remember when I posted about wanting to make these?  Well, Kristin saw that post and made them for me!  Aren't they precious?  The crown toothpicks and Disney Princess cupcake wrappers were in the package from home :)

Megan was the chief cherry-putter-onner of the operations.

Sadly, I don't have any good pictures of Stacey or Kristin at this party; however, we had a marvelous time.  

The other party was last Saturday.  There were cupcakes, balloons, games, a veggie platter, chips, party poppers, streamers, good friends from last year, and a happy birthday sign.  

The spread - is that cute or what?  Megan arranged it and put the streamers (pictured below; they're still there!) up.

Yellow cupcakes with chocolate shavings... yum.

Balloons!!

Kristin and I before the party.

They made me wear a huge birthday hat, which I would have minded more if they hadn't put on this fabulous birthday party :)

This picture of Stacey expresses perfectly how the parties made me feel.  They were awesome.

<3

Eliza

All right, already

I know I haven't posted in a while.  It's been a CRAZY week.  I've had tests, papers, and a lot of reading and homework.  Also, the first midterm for PlSc 170 was this week, so I've been a grading maniac.  I still have to talk about birthday parties, pictures, running, food, water polo (!), and the lost and found sale.  But it's late, so here's the most exciting news from this week:

Kristin got her mission call.....

to Kyiv, UKRAINE!!!

I am very sad that she's going to leave me, but I'm very excited for her.  It's going to be so awesome!  A guy from our ward who went on his mission to Ukraine came over to talk to her, and he mentioned that he really misses Ukrainian food.  When he gave a list of a few Ukrainian foods, he mentioned borscht.  I told him I would make borscht and invite him over, because it's my favorite.  So Mom, would you please email me the recipe?  Pretty please?  Kristin hates beets, but I'm sure we can convert her with this recipe.

<3
Eliza

Picture update - day 6,930

My drying rack.  I sure am pushy, huh?  And I may or may not have saved my laundry for today, in hope (anticipation?) that the large bulky amazon package was a drying rack... Thanks Mom and Dad for being gracious about taking a hint!

I am SOOO excited about my new immersion blender.   Soups and smoothies, here I come!

These are the kind of bread pans that I will pass on to my grandchildren when I die.  I love them.  Plus, handy dandy visiting teaching (and any other) gift!  

This is me being silly with the awesome headband/ear warmer that Tess made for me.  I was going to put it on like it's supposed to be worn, but I had a bunch of bobby pins in my hair, so it would have gotten stuck.  Thus, the ultimately fashionable birthday crown thing is goin' on.  Tess made this over conference weekend - she has some mad skill!  It also has an ingenious adjustment thing in the back, which allows me to change its size according to my hairdo - even a ponytail!  Marta also crocheted something amazing for me.  It is a beautiful variegated blue hot pad.  The picture for it didn't turn out (weird lighting, sad), but I will show it soon.  And also, I loved Marta's note.  This hot pad has words of the prophet in it!

I'm not quite sure why this spoon has a hole in the middle, but I like it.  It allows for a great photo-op, too!

Doesn't my family know me well?  They also sent me some exciting things like voter registration forms, dried tomatoes, peach-raspberry jam (which looked so delicious I could barely stand to leave it closed until I have something to eat it with), chocolate, and craisins.  And, since my family couldn't be here to take pictures with me, I decided to post some of my favorite pictures of them:

I love you guys lots!  Thank you so much for all the love.  You are awesome!  

<3

Eliza

P.S. Parties yet to come.  I will write about them as they occur.

P.P.S. Special thanks to mom.  Without all of her labor, I wouldn't be here (sorry; I had to include a child-bearing pun somewhere, didn't I? ;)

Oh genie of the lamp

So, as my birthday is coming up, I feel that I am justified in posting a wish list.  This is what I would ask a genie for if I had one.  Also a little hint hint for mom and dad, eh? ;)

Mini loaf pans - I'm not sure whether these are the same size Mom has, but I love the size of her mini loaf pans.
Jesus the Christ - now this one's serious.
Laundry drying rack - We've already discussed this, but I think it's important enough to mention again.  After all, look at this:

Isn't that ridiculous?

A time turner - P.S. did you notice that this link goes to the Harry Potter version of wikipedia?  Awesome.
A food thermometer - awesome, no?
A waffle iron - Mine isn't working :'(
A planner - yes, I admit that I have too much going on to carry it all around in my head.  Sigh.
An immersion blender - does this even need explaining?  I like to make soup :)
A new pillow - seriously, I've had mine since 7th grade
A million dollars
A book about choosing a college major - by Henry B. Eyring, no less
An ipod - I know, so cliche.  But I just haven't gotten over the theft of my last one, I guess....
A cure for this annoying eye allergy thing I have that makes me wear glasses all the time
While we're on that topic, a cure for diabetes would be nice too
Also, a cure for procrastination
A cure for world violence?
A Josh Groban CD
Hard shoes for Irish dance (tap shoes work)
Fun spices from Penzey's
A pair of TOMS shoes
A 9x13 pan
A personal assistant
These

I obviously need to stop late-night posting.  I'm babbling on and not making any sense even to myself.  So I will talk to you all later.  If you happen to see a tarnished brass lamp with a genie inside, let me know.  That would be nice.

<3
Eliza

P.S. I have physiology and organizational behavior tests that I need to get done in the next few days.  I also have a spanish quiz and the practice LSAT on Saturday.  What have I gotten myself into?  I also signed up to be a part of the Honors Student Advisory Council, on the Public Relations committee (as soon as I told them that I knew how to work CS InDesign, I got shunted into that committee.  I don't object.  All the other members are of the male persuasion ;).  And I'm going to host a chick flick night next week for my intramural basketball team.  No word yet on whether any of the boys will actually attend, although Ian says he will if I make popcorn.