Peace, Joy, and FREEDOM!!!

Yes, that is right... today was my first official day of freedom for a couple of weeks! I am OFFICIALLY done with all my finals! I haven't felt this good in a couple months! Ha ha Now I get to play with my roommies, make christmas treats, do christmas activities, and enjoy the season! I am so happy! It was a good semester! I learned a couple valuable things this semester...

1. don't leave the door unlocked while you're showering (you might get cold water dumped on you

2. check your bed for hair balls... let's just say you don't want to end up sleeping with Al's and TaeC hair

3. Don't leave all your homework to do for all day Sunday.... it's not going to happen!

4. You can survive on less sleep than you ever thought possible.

5. "D's" get degrees! ha ha no but really.. stress is not the best! I learned not to stress so much over school! You can still go have fun romping around the King and do well in school! 

All thanks to my fabulous roommies!

Oh... and 6. There is no way I will ever go into Philosophy!  

Lots of l-o-v-e! have a fabulous holiday season! 

Marriage... Marriage is what brings us together!!!!!

Three words!
Ring-Ryan-Alex!!!!
Ha ha hopefully no one was thinking it was me who was being brought together with marriage... because I am far from that! Heavens I would have to find a man first for that to be true... not just my multiple crushes on boys! ha ha But seriously I'm just as excited as if it was me getting married, because my brother is getting married to the girl of his dreams! They actually got engaged a couple weeks ago, but I'm just getting around to posting it! I'm so stoked for them to be together forever on December 29! And the best part is not that she'll be his wife... but my sister! Alex is so fun and cute I just love her! I can't wait for her to be my sister... even though they already invite me to do a lot with them... now I'll get to do even more with her! Yay! They are the cutest couple ever! Congrats guys!

Quote!

"Even the darkest hour is only 60 minutes.... and in those 60 minutes there is always a hand of a friend who truely cares.... just waiting to be reached for!"

- Unknown

BFFL! (Best friends for Life)

"A Friend is someone who reaches for your hand... and touches your HEART" -Unknown

Friends are so amazing! I honestly don't know what I'd do without them in my life! They have been with me through all my ups and downs, always there for me when I need a good hard laugh or a shoulder to cry on or are there just when I need someone near! I have old friends and I have new friend, each touching my life in some way or another. 

Through my life time I have had a bunch of different groups of friends. I just want to say a little about each of them.... 

I have been blessed my whole life to have such great examples for friends. Although I often would jump from group to group, I had one group of girls I could always count on growing up. We all joined the group at different times in life, yet I feel like I've known every single one of them since I was born. Our friendship began in elementary school...... and each one came into my life until there was the seven of us...

 This is Tera. She is my best friend in the whole wide world! I don't know how I could live without her. She's hilarious and has some major spunk to her. We met in kindergarten... and we became friends when I told her if she didn't take the penny I found we would not be friends! Yes I was a little brat, but luckily for me Tera took the penny! We made a promise to each other in the fourth grade that we would always be friends no matter what! Ten years later and we have still kept that promise!

This is Shelby. I also like to call her Shebby. We also met in elementary, but not until the fifth grade. She's sassy and very stylish. She makes hanging out a fun time because her and Alyssa are crazy together. Honestly I didn't like her much when I first met her, because I thought she was trying to steal away my friends.. ha ha so silly! I wouldn't trade our friendship for anything now!

 This is Alison and Stasia. They are so super cute! I didn't meet them until Jr. High, but they just made our group so much more complete! They're personalities are so fun, and you just can't resist smiling around them. Alison was always a friend I loved to talk to, we ate lunch together a lot our senior year of high school. Stasia and I became really close our senior year also, because she'd ride to school with me every day! Love them!

This is Alyssa. We met in elementary, but became friends in Jr. High. She's so talented in music and can make anyone feel good about themselves. She's such a happy person and very inspiring. Such a good example! She knows how to brake down with the dolla dolla bill car dance! ha ha

The last chica is Ali! She became friends in the fourth grade, but she moved away from us in Jr. High. We missed her but she would come play with us a lot! She so smart and adorable! Whenever I think of Ali I think of how she will always ask me, "So how are you?"... and we had already been talking for 20 minutes! It made me laugh, but I'd always tease her for it!

This picture doesn't quite have all of us, but it was taken at Stasia's bridal shower on September 24, 2010. She is the first of us to get married... yes married! I'm still shocked! We are so excited for her! And I can't wait to have us all together again for the first time in over a year at her wedding!

I LOVE these girls!

The next group of friends were like family to me. I danced for ten years, and my team and studio were my second family! We had a ton of good times together from practice every Thursday to trips for competitions! We had advertures together, we fought together, we overcame together, we laughed together, and we stunk like dogs together! I love these girls and miss seeing them every week! I wish them luck with all their competitions this year though!

The first year I moved away for college. I moved in not knowing anyone. It was scary but exciting at the same time! Fortunately for me.... My roommates took me under their arms and welcomed me right in. We became good friends and had lots of adventures! Jessican, Whitnee, and Emily will always be ma ladies!

Over the summer of 2010 I met some great friends who lived across the hall! Jon, Kyle, and Jake. Such funny boys. I spent pretty much every night with them for three months straight! We had some crazy times!

Fall of 2010 I moved apartments and lets just say it's been a party since! I have amazing roommates, who I do super fun stuff with all the time! We have talks every night which ends up with us laughing our heads off! I love it! Just look at these cuties!

And last but not least.... my best friend Jaron Henry Call....

This kid is a stud!!! I would have never imagined that I would have a best friend that was a boy... with my same name! He's so talented in music, snowboarding, skate boarding, and loving! He has the biggest heart and would put anything to the side for me! He is the one person who knows everything about me and still is willing to be my best friend! I hope he knows I luv him more than wet sand in ma underwear!

Friends are the best! I LOVE LOVE LOVE them!!!!!!

Grandma.... I love you!

The things I will always remember and cherish about my Grandma Crabtree......

• Her huge collection of holiday decorations
• Saying "Hello Hello" with jazz hands as you walked in for a visit
• Trips to her swimming pool during the hot summer days
• Her annual birthday party for her grandchildren
• Always misspelling my name as "Garen"
• The state quarters she gave to us for every year they came out
• Clicking her dentures
• Her comments on my roosters in my hair when I'd go to visit her
• Her laugh (it was almost like a giggle from a little girl)
• Her strong testimony
• Her example as a mother and grandmother
• Always having her finger nails painted
• Her love for family
• Me and my cousin trying to figure out how we could get out of eating grandma's sloppy joes
• Her faith
• Her singing toys
• Playing in the basement of her old house with the dolls
• How she often hummed songs
• Watching TVLand shows
• Her blowing out a whole cake full of candles... in one breath!

Berdean Crabtree

February 3, 1923- September 11, 2010

"You can do and be anything you want to"

-Berdean and Dahl encouraged their children with this

I Love You Grandma!



A Night at the State Fair

The white trash bash was not the end of my weekend! The next night I got to go have a fun night at the State Fair with Heath who just got back from his mission! I had such a good time with him at the there. We didn't ride any of the rides, but just wondered around looking at all the fun stuff. We got there kind of late so a lot of the shows going on were ending as we walked in, but no worries there was still tons of stuff to check out. I told him at the very first the one thing I wanted to see was the big fat pigs! I think he thought I was nuts, but I just love looking at the animals especially the pigs! So after looking through the 4-H stuff and seeing a huge sculpture made out of butter (I wish I had thought to take a picture of it) and wondering around the booths we found the animals! Yay! I dragged him through all the barns birds, rabbits, goats, cows.... and finally found the pigs! And after all that I found out animals and hay gives Heath allergies... I felt like such a jerk... but I loved it! There were baby pigs that were so dang cute... but my favorite......

The big fat pig! It was huge... I honestly don't think it could stand up by itself!

After that I wanted to go check out the art work that was on show... I wasn't planning on staying long because I figured Heath wouldn't really be into it......... but we ended up staying in the art and photography for probably an hour and a half to two hours! It was such a blast! We joked around about interpretations of all the art and just checked it all out! Who would have thought looking at art could be so much fun!?

I'm so glad I got to go, especially with Heath. He really made it fun! If you've never been to the state fair... grab a date next year and go check it out!

Thanks Heath!

I Ain't Nothin But White Trash

What a fun time last weekend was! We threw our first party at our apartment on Friday! The theme was "White Trash Bash"! So so so fun! Before I wasn't really sure how it was going to turn out. We had just thrown it together at the last minute, so I wasn't sure if it was going to end up just being 111 roommates and Lorna or if others would come. Even if it had just been us it would have been a blast, but lots of others did show up too! People were coming in and out all night long! We went all out for it, getting all dressing up and acting like good ol' white trash! Amy even dressed up prego, Al wore a baby on her back, and lots of us wore overalls and tattoos (fake ones of course)! People thought it was hillarious, some just came in for the treats we had, but others came for the party! We jammed out to country music etc. Sweet Home Alabama, grilled hot dogs on the front porch, and took tons of pictures! Kevin was even there as a mascot... Kevin's Lorna's and Amy's pet trianchula! Here's just a few pictures from it.....

Twinners!

This is when the party began... when we walked in with Kevin blastin Sweet Home Alabama!

Showing off our Tats

Our talented roommate!

Now we have one thing checked off our bucket list for the year........

Next one... ghetto party!

Something Smells Fishy!

A lil' bit of Texas and a lil' bit of Ogden started War with G-Unit and A-Dawg the other day! I came home from work one day and a bunch of my roommates were in the kitchen. When I walked into the door I was blasted with people yelling you and Al have been Pranked! I didn't even have to think about who had pranked us.... Amy and Lorna had their names written all over it! Al had waited for me to come home before she looked at it. We walked back to our room and found a funny poem, which led us to the bathtub! The curtain was closed... not normal! They had said something about a new pet in their poem, so I was so scared it was going to be their trianchula! We opened it up.... and what do we find.....

a bathtub full of water with five fish swimming around. We started laughing so hard! Our roommates all (except prankster Amy- she was not home yet) came back  to laugh with us. So what did we do next..... 

We went fishing with the strainer!

Then came the planning of the revenge!

 

First our own little poems....

Then getting more fish....

and then... well....... let's just say we didn't exactly do the nicest thing... to Amy and Lorna... or the fish....

yeah.......... we put our signature 1 cubed on their wall with the fish...... probably should have thought that threw a little more!

We did a lot of planning and laughing..... and the good thing is Lorna and Amy laughed too when they found it, but were also grossed out! They were shocked we killed Don, Ron, Cracker, Andy B, and Hell ( the 5 fish names)! So war is now on.... and let's hope there's no more slotters!

New Adventure

I can't believe that another new school year is here again! Time flies so fast, it's mind blowing that I'm already starting my second year of college and I'm getting a new fresh start! New apartment complex, new area, new classes, new ward, and new roommates! Sometimes change can be overwhelming and hard, but I think I'm really going to like all these changes =) Although my old roomies and friends across the hall are missed- they're just a phone call away and a short drive! Already in the short weeks I've lived at the King I've loved every minute of it! I honestly think this year is going to be one big adventure! I have the cutest, funniest, most adventurous roommates! I love love love it! We get along so well that it doesn't even feel crowded with six of us! I am even sharing a room for the very first time in my life- with bunk beds! There's always something going on from a bunch of us chillin in the living room doing our homework together and laughing to going on a Spoon Me run to piling into a car to go up the canyon to a ward activity! I'm learning that I can go out and have some fun on the week days and still get my homework done- who would have ever thought! ha ha And because this year seems like it's going to be full of good times and adventures, I figured why not start a blog to record all of it- especially since I didn't record any of mine last year! So we'll see how this goes =) Enjoy!