Puzzling

This is my life.

There is a little of me here and there...do any of the pieces actually match up...who knows?

Sleepless in Seattle

Getting out of town for a few days is always a good thing. It's relaxing, fun, and is bound to generate a handful of journal worthy stories. Let me give you the rundown of our trip up to Washington.

Destintion: Seattle, Washington
Fellow Travelers: Patty (roommate), Kristen (old roommate), Alex (guy from ward who served in Seattle area), and Matt (Alex's friend)

Thursday 7pm: We left Rexburg after waiting more than an hour for the guys to show up

Friday 1am: Halfway between Missoula Montana and Superior Montana going 75mph the hood on Patty's car flew up hitting the windshield. It was strapped down from a previous accident. We pulled off the highway, safely no one hurt, the windshield amazingly in one piece, and the hood no longer shaped like a hood and only connected to the car on one side. The boys got a rock and managed to reshape it to once again fit the car. We restrapped it down pretty well and drove the 18 miles to Superior going 35mph so it wouldnt fly back up. In superior we bought $25 worth of bungee cords and with the help of the store clerk got the hood securely in place. Even going 90mph on the highway it was going nowhere!

3am: I took over driving for 3 hours til I was too tired.

9am: We made it to Patty's sister Sandy's house in Sumner for breakfast. Most of us had only slept for an hour or so in the car.

10:30am: We went to Mandy's in Puyallup where we would be staying for the few days we were there. We dressed and cleaned ourselves up then left for downtown Seattle. With only a few hours of sleep we brought to life the title of the wonderful movie "Sleepless in Seattle".


We met up with two of Patty's friends and spent all day wandering around all the touristy sights starting at the space needle and then to the waterfront and to shops at the Pike Place Market and another mall as well. Yes, it rained the whole time as would be expected from Seattle, but we still had fun of course.

(the gang Matt, Kristen, Patty, Sarah, Alison, and Alex)

I found the only remaining evidence that bogfoot does indeed exist.

And found McDreamy standing outside a shop looking for Seattle Grace Hospital..I helped him out.

We went to this curiosity shop that was full of WEIRD things like shrunken heads, stuffed two headed calves, flattened walrus faces, and this lady...yeah..weird.

Sitting on a bridge over look the waterfront. These are my wonderful travel mates. Me, Patty, Kristen, Alex, and Matt.

8pm: Patty, Kristen, Sarah, and me were all too tired to walk around anymore and headed back to Puyallup after getting lost and drenched in the rain trying to find the car.

Saturday 10am: Mandy suggested that Patty take us up to Tacoma to see the waterfront and a beautiful park. We played on the beach and took lots of pretty pictures!

Kristen and I on the beach...pants rolled up like the cool kids that we are!

Kristen, Patty and me while we were chasing after the Raccons who apparently only liked us when we were in our car. So we threw goldfish out the window for them.

They were incredibly friendly even to the point of grabbing the goldfish out of our hands!!

We also visited Stadium High School where "10 Things I Hate About You" was filmed. It was originally built as a hotel which explains the Victorian look. This place was huge! We also walked down to the stadium where Heath Ledger does his dance in the stands.

4:30pm: We headed to Patty's brother Andy's house near Lake Tapps for our Thanksgiving dinner. We ate good food in good company and got to play Gestures and Pictionary before we left. Patty has the cutest nieces and nephews...in particular one 3 week old nephew that I got to hold for a lot of the night!!

9:50pm: We went to go see the new Christmas Carol movie with Jim Carrey. It was way good even though I was so tired I started drifting off towards the end. The animated characters were made to look like the actors doing the voices. The first few words out of Scrooges mouth and I knew it was Jim Carrey!!

Sunday 10:30am: We departed for our long drive back and got into Rexburg at exactly midnight. We were really busy the whole time...but we all had so much fun!! I have spent every second since then trying to get back into school and getting the rest of my life under control too.

"Let the bodies hit the floor..."

Wow. I had a couple of crazy weeks. I don't even know where to start.

My roommates and I made 79 caramel apples a few weeks ago, to take around to the sisters in our ward and to other people we knew. It was fun to decorate them together!

Then with the leftover apples I attempted to recreate my mom's delicious apple crisp. It turned out not quite the same way I remembered it, but still very very tasty!!

After a particularly rough night, I woke up to find this beautiful cheesecake in the refrigerator for me with a wonderful note on top for me. I have the worlds greatest roommates who definitely look out for me, even though they call me Kingface!

To add to my particularly rough couple of weeks, I have for the first time in my six semesters, dropped a class. I met my match and in order to save my GPA and what is left of my sanity, I thought it was the best choice. Even still though, I have been incredibly overwhelmed, not only with classes but with my calling and trying to make a few much needed changes in my life.

A big thank you to everyone who has helped me out and been there for me to talk to!!

Other Parting Salon

I haven't posted in a while...I promise I am still alive I am just overwhelmed to the max. I miss my not-so-busy lifestyle...and I'm having trouble parting with it. Hence it being 12:30 and I still have a lot of work to do for my classes tomorrow! At least they don't start until 11:30am!!

For those without a Facebook...I got my hair cut on Friday. Yeah its short, but I kind of really love it. This was my first time ever getting my hair professionally cut. So, as a 20 year old I walked into the salon and was completely lost. I made it out okay and the girl not only massaged my scalp nicely, she managed not to ruin my hair!!

In other news: its midterm week, we lost power once again (for just 5 or so minutes this time), I went to see Up (which really is as good as a movie as everyone says it is), I have rediscovered the magical homework finishing powers of the library, I read The Princess Bride, my hair dries in under 10 minutes, and Obama wants to legalize marijuana (woot!).

Banana Bonanza

I have one word for you today. Yum.

Pancakes and bananas = Yum
Banana bread = Yum
Yogurt and bananas = Yum
Peanut butter and banana sandwiches = Yum

The above list = I inherited too many bananas for my own good

: )

There Snow Way

Winter has arrived in Rexberg. This is after not quite a week of Fall and a longer than normal Summer. Snow is awfully pretty though. : )

In other news I'm going to Vegas this weekend, for Sarah's wedding. I'm way excited to see her and Larin, and my Mom and Dad too!! It will be a nice break after a very busy week!

Creamy Inheritance

So when I got back from summer break...there was a crock pot in my closet. Someone apparently no longer cared for it. But now I do.

I decided to try to create this tasty dish that Brooke posted on her recipe blog and that Cassie had made a few times for my eating pleasure.

It's this delicious Creamy Italian Chicken schloop....that is great atop a delicious pile of rice or on fresh bread or biscuits.
It was sooo sooo good and since I made a lot that I don't have room to store anywhere...I'm gonna go share it with some of the best people on the planet. You should make it...its tasty. Thanks Brooke!

Powered Pizza

I am failing miserably at keeping up with my blog this semester. Apparently 17 credits and a new Relief Society secretary calling are managing to keep me pretty busy. But I have also been enjoying myself!

My new roommate Grace brought with her her hammock...which is hanging from our balcony now that the apartment below us is empty. Classy? Yes, I think so. = )

We also lost power during the General Relief Society Broadcast...we went to Wal-Mart to buy candles half expecting for it to be back on by the time we got back. But it wasn't so we spent a candle lit night...watching movies on lap-tops til the batteries died...listening to music and talking...and pulling our mattresses out into the living room for a classic mattress party. We all woke up early when the power came back on 7:30 the next morning.

Freak power outages, amazingly warm weather, Craigo's with friends, ridiculous reading assignments, an overwhelming number of things to do...life.

My Willoughbian Hero

I'm pretty sure that I met my new hero on Friday night. She took us on an trip through her life...she told stories about her family and friends. She was clever and quick witted..and I could tell just by the way she talked that she was passionate about her writing. Her name is Lois Lowry and I got to sit in a room with her and shake her had after her presentation.


For those of you who had to google her name to see who she is...shame on you. She wrote one of my very favorite books, The Giver. As an interesting fact Lois Lowry actually took the picture that adorns the classic cover of The Giver...her favorite shot of him that she wanted to use was one in which he didn't look so sinister, but he had a band-aid on his finger. And in those days they couldn't just photo shop it out.

She closed her presentation by talking about her book The Willoughby's. As the book has many large words and is geared towards a younger audience, she chose to include definitions of the larger words. She ended, appropriately given her audience, by reading her definition of the word affable from the book, "Affable means good-natured and friendly. There are whole groups of people known for being affable. Cheer leaders, for example. Or Mormon missionaries."

She received thunderous applause.

LOL

Yes, I wore this as my name tag for our ward opening social. I'd like to say that this resulted in a date for Friday night...but it didn't. A lot of laughs...but no date. That's okay...laughs are good too.

Bah Humbug

Yes, it's that time again. Another semester is here already and this one is going to kick my butt in ways it hasn't been kicked before. To begin I spent waaaaay too much money buying everything on my rediculously long book list.

And even though its the second day of classes I still haven't unpacked everything.

But I'm glad to be back in Idaho and really glad that I got to spend a few days with Bri. I'm glad that this is my third to last semester and hope that will be motivation enough to help me make it through!

These pictures are just for kicks...my Dad had his birthday dinner (finally!) right before I left home, and when I got served my piece of cheesecake it pretty much had a face. Then I added raspberry juice to the mouth...

and then graham cracker crumbs for the hair.

Mom probably thinks I'm old enought to not need her telling me not to play with my food. But thats one thing I'll never grow out of!

KFC 2009

The long awaited post has finally been posted...it is hard to show, in just a few pictures, all of the things we did or fun we had. But here is a summary of our vacation...

This is the home we stayed at near Hancock, Maryland. It was a fun house with plenty of space and was only mildly infested with yellow jackets.

We took our family picture though we were missing our soon to be newest addition, Larin. Most of them turned out okay.

But then things just got goofy!

Some of the best times were had piling into the party van and venturing the wild and crazy wilderness known as Maryland.

We played a fabulous game of Speed Scrabble...and needed two sets of tiles to have enough to play.

One of our meals we did a cook out...Dan and I single handily burned the majority of the burgers...but hey..isn't that why we decided to grill them ; )

We went to the Washington DC Temple, and those who could went in to do a session with Sarah who was going through for the first time!


The rest of us went to the visitor's center and watched the Joseph Smith movie.

We also walked around in the C & O Canal...this is us standing on a bridge over one of the locks along the canal.

We did a service project at a food bank distribution center in Hancock. We brought with us a large donation of canned vegetables, and then helped them spiff up their building and package some things up. I was on Team Window Painting....yes, we actually painted the windows. Yes, we were supposed to.

After the service project we went out to Wendy's for lunch. We were quite the crowd, they managed to mostly get our order right too!

On our way home from Hancock we stopped to go swimming in a lake...which was cold but refreshing!

From the house we stayed at we could walk not even 1/2 a mile down the road to the Pennsylvania/Maryland border.

So we all stood in two places at once!

On our way home we stopped for some all you can eat goodness at Country Buffet. We tried to eat all of the food, but they just kept putting out more!!

All in all it was a fantastic weekend. We had so much fun spending time together and getting to see those in our family we don't normally get to. We partied hard and got almost no sleep, but it was all so worth it!!

The Time Has Come!

We're finally there folks...Dan and Sarah are both here and Scott and Cassie will be getting in later tonight...and we're headed to Maryland!

The reality of the nearing end of my summer in New Jersey has begun to sink in and is saddening, but exciting as well. I'm excited to have a few days to visit with Bri while heading up to Rexburg (what an amazing friend...she offered to drive me), And I'm excited to see all my Rexburg friends. But I'm sad to be leaving my world of little to no responsibility, good food, and cuddly little brothers to go back to my world of classes, homework, cooking for myself, and very limited human contact.

I wonder where I can adopt a new cuddly little brother who can fit in my closet. Googling now....

Real Men of Tomatoes

Emily presents real men of genius (real men of genius). Today we salute you Mr. Tomato Sandwich Eater (Mr. Tomato Sandwich Eater). Never has one man done so much with so little (eating them tomatoes). What do you do when you have a wheel barrow full of tomatoes? You eat through hundreds of tomatoes in a summer, and prevent explosive bowels by putting the tomatoes between two slices of bread (between two slices of bread). There is no stopping you when it comes to laying on the mayo. Armed with stretchy pants and an empty stomach (stretchy pants and an empty stomach) you eat what every one is craving but they just don't know it yet. So crack open another over sized tomato and enjoy one more sandwich oh prince of the most debated vegetable on the planet, you deserve it (Mr. Tomato Sandwich Eater).

Lobster Family Faces

This small collage is long in coming...but for those who did not see these three on Sunday...you can laugh now at their crispy lobster faces. Ben was the only one who cooperated in my picture taking attempts...and Becky gets two pictures because her "don't you dare take a picture of me" face is just too funny! We'll just hope they aren't too peely and gross for family pictures this weekend!

Speaking of this weekend, we leave on Saturday, after our ward camp out, to embark on another Kinghorn Family Conference (more affectionately known as KFC). We are renting a house in Maryland and everyone who can, is flying in at the end of this week to join in! Though we will be lacking a number of people I really wish could be there with us...we'll make the best of it and hope for them to be able to join us next year! Pictures of our adventures will definitely be posted for your enjoyment! I can't wait for a fun filled weekend with my favorite people!

Swash Strumming Stuff

I do not know the true definition of swashbuckling (I'm not sure anyone does), but today I think I probably swashbuckled.

We are getting a lot of rain from hurricane Bill as he makes his way up the coast. Jeff and I went out to play some basket ball while it was still hot and dry out, and finished our game in a refreshing downpour. I won the game 40-17. After the game we frolicked in the puddles and swashbuckled up a storm, then convinced my mom to take a picture of us all drippy and cold.


Splashing around in the rain for an hour or so also loosened the skin from my biggest blister that I got last weekend, and so that you can see truly how big and painful it was, I took a picture.

Perhaps I need to rename my blog to relate more to the many disgusting pictures that I post : P

I'm off now to make some home made bread for dinner and laugh some more at the kids who returned home from the youth beach trip today, looking more like lobsters than they did when they left. And then to strumma-lummin on the guitar.

Sweating Sunsets

My mom and I spent Thursday afternoon through this morning together on a small Girls-Get-Away trip. I got called into work, and we got off later than we had planned, but our spirits couldn't be dampened. We stopped at Bridgewater mall for a little shopping and some burgers at the food court. Then we drove the rest of the way up to Newton and checked into our hotel and then drove up to girls camp for the Liahona. Seeing the Liahona again brought back some amazing memories and I got remarkably few mosquito bites. We left right after to party hard watching tv in our air conditioned hotel room!

Today it was hot. The kind of hot that makes me not miss New Jersey. The kind of heat that made my chilled macaroni sweat. Though it was 92 degrees today (with humidity it was more like 101) we got a break when a cold front brought some rain in. In a matter of minutes the temperature dropped by like 20 degrees. Then the remaining clouds made for this fantastic sunset. And my love for New Jersey returned.