Gregy Grows Up

So my best friend Greg left this sunday for LA for his new job with Merck as a pharmaceutical sales rep.  I am very proud of him because getting a job now-a-days is nearly impossible, especially one that pays well.  I have seen him work extremely hard on brag books and resumes and travel far to go to interviews and it has paid off! Good Job Gregy!


Even though he is moving on in his life to bigger and better things I miss him a lot.  We spent a lot of time together over the past couple years and it is hard to think we will probably be living on opposite coasts :( but I will always have the memories :)


Here are some pictures of the good times we had...

East Coast BBQ

Howh Skiing

Fajitas!

Ward Socials 

BYU Games

Sacramento

Feeding the Ducks

Torn Ligaments

Date Night

Halloween

Sacramento Temple

Turkey

SLC Temple

Greg-  I love you tons and you will always be my best friend and I miss you but know you are loving the warm weather in CA :)

Quote-Attitude

So I was cleaning out my room and I found a quote...


We cannot change our past ... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way.  We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it.  And so it is with you ... we are in charge of our attitudes.


My mom gave this to me but I don't know who it is by.

First Flight with Pilot Dad

So on the last day of 2010 I took my first flight with my dad who has his pilot license (I can't remember when exactly).  This is a big deal for me because I am not very fond of flying, turbulence scares me just a little...haha.  But surprisingly this was not bad at all!  It was a calm day and we did not go nearly as high as commercial jets go.  This was nice because we were able to sight see a little, I even saw my mom's house!  Well we flew right next to the Bay Bridge and landed at the airport on the other side and met up with an old friend of my dad's who he hasn't seen in a long time.  He seemed to have a great time catching up, I learned some funny things he did... Like throwing pine cones at cars...oh dad... After we had lunch we flew back to Virginia.  It was really a great experience because it is very different then flying in a big airplane.  I think it would be something cool to learn how to do... maybe someday down the road haha.

Lunch Group

Bay Bridge

Mom's House! (Its there I promise)

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How The Grinch Stole Christmas on ICE

My family and I went to the National Harbor in Maryland where the Gaylord National was putting on an event where people sculpted the store of How the Grinch Stole Christmas out of solid ice.  It was really amazing how they made all the sculptures in the exhibit!  The place it was kept in looked like a tennis bubble and it was a whole 9 degrees in there!  Felt like early morning in Utah in January and February haha. We were given big blue parkas and we were bundled up under that as well.

Nativity

The tree was made out of Peeps!

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I Love to See The Temple... Lights!

Friday night Greg and I grabbed some dinner and then drove to SLC to see one of my favorite things.  Lights on the Temple grounds.  Unfortunately I wasn't going to my favorite lights, The Washington DC Temple lights.  These worked for now until I go home :)  We met up with Diana and Katie as well and walked around until my toes felt like they were going to fall off from the cold! Here are some pictures of the lights :)

Me, Diana, and Katie

Sign Language for Ma-g and Me - Joy

Spanish for Greg - Amor

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Home Cookin' Weekend

This past weekend I wanted to make this yummy dish that I got from Kim Harrison's mom who actually got it from her mom.  I got it at a recipe exchange and I have loved it ever since!  Well so I decided to make it for Greg and me.  It has still lasted to this day it is so much food!  since I am a poor college student this works for me because it was about 15 bucks for about 5 days worth of dinners including other eating too.  Then I think on friday Greg and I went to target and he bought.... a turkey... a WHOLE 20 LB TURKEY. Why you ask... he wants real turkey sandwiches!  Haha oh goodness.  The turkey took forever to thaw and took just as long to cook.  Greg was probably up until 1 am cooking and pulling appart the bird. Well needless to say we had a weekend of good cooked food and have enjoyed it throughout the week :)

Me the Domestic Goddess... I get it from my mommy ;)

    

THE TURKEY

                                     

Pecan Pie

For Thanksgiving break I was lucky enough to go home and see all of my mom's side of the family but before that Maggie and I had spend about 8 hours in the SLC airport.  Here's the story... so Maggie and I got to the airport early so I hopefully didn't have to drive in the storm.  Driving to the airport there were clear skies so we were both wondering if there was going to even be a storm.   OH THERE WAS!  After we tried to change our flight to an earlier one... there wasn't one... we sat there with about an hour delay which wasn't bad but the plane that came in was broken.  The flaps on the plane were damaged from the high winds so we had to wait for another plane to come in which was going to be now a 9:30 pm departure... GREAT!  The people coming off the broken plane looked horrified from the flight and one lady said that it was so bumpy it wasn't fun it was just scary.... EVEN BETTER since I am afraid of turbulence!  Well since we had a long wait for the next plane of course what do I do... SLEEP :)  only for a little though then I watched as the snow piled up and the wind was blowing it parallel to the ground.  The wind was so strong that the food things couldn't be raised up on the risers because they would blow over... that signaled me to get dinner! After I had bought my food Delta gave us a voucher for food so that means I went and got a Cinnabon :) YUM! needless to say I was very full on airport food at that time.  Well eventually we got on the plane and I feel asleep off and on while Maggie did some work and was on the internet... yes the plane had WiFi which was pretty cool and it was free because of the holiday.  We finaly reached our house at 5:30 am EST... I slept until 2:30 that afternoon :)

Well, that night I got to see some Whitman friends which was great and always something I look forward to.  Then the next day, THANKSGIVING :) we got up to the smells of my mom cooking turkey.  We had a early dinner so we went over to Tootsie and Pop's house where the house was filled with the smell of food :) always makes me happy. One thing about my family is when we are together we never stop eating. So we had artichoke dip and shrimp (because the crab was bad... so no crab dip which made me sad) as appetizers and since we were cooking all day we all just pick at everything!  I stand right by the turkeys and eat little pieces here and there.  Debbie, Todd, Geoffrey, and I skinned the cooked turkeys pretty well :) we love the skin especially on the fried turkey!!  Then when it comes to dinner time I am usually almost full...haha... but I still managed to eat a full dinner :)  Then of course the pies come out!  Maggie and I take a large slice of pecan pie... oh it was sooooooooooo good :)  By this point I am in a food coma and I go home and pass out while Maggie the Christmas elf decorates the house.  I wake up and the whole house is put together and it looks great as always... I love when a house is decorated for Christmas it makes me so happy.  I love the glow of Christmas lights in a house.  Well since I took a long nap I couldn't fall asleep until about 3 in the morning so I just looked at old photos which some Maggie has put up on Facebook.

Ma-g and me :) 

the older cousins

One of the tables

everyone together! minus Tootsie because she is taking the picture :)

On Saturday Keva's Parents hosted a surprise birthday party for her which was tons of fun.  It was good to see friends from high school and to have a yummy but spicy dinner! hahah :)  It was so funny when the did the skit about Keva and my favorite part is when they did her laugh! I about died laughing! (pictures possibly coming later....)

The next morning was Sunday so I went to church and my grandparents were talking and Pop put me on the spot.  I sent him and email about one of the conference talks about names and how I was happy to be named after him and he used it for his talk.  I am glad that came in handy for him and also made and impression.  Here is the talk if you would like to read it.  Then Maggie and I flew back to Utah with another 1 hour delay because of snow and driving back to Provo from SLC was not fun either it made me want to be back in Maryland really bad :(  Thank goodness I will be back in about 3 weeks! Can't wait just have to get through these things called finals... ew....