Christmas Time in 1404

Half way through November my roommates wanted to start playing Christmas music and I quickly vetoed it saying that Christmas music is not allowed until after Thanksgiving. This became a little argument because 2 of my roommates are Canadian and their Thanksgiving is in October... funny thing is that they listened to me! I mean if they would have played Christmas music I would have just put head phones in and ignored them eventually... But as soon as we all got back from Thanksgiving break Christmas was in full swing. I had promised my roommates that I would bring my small tree for our apartment and my room roommate Lauren brought lights that we could hang up. When I got back from class Christmas music was already playing and we had to decorate our apartment, so the tree got decorated and we started hanging lights. We hung lights around the window with command hooks and then we had icicle lights too. We didn't have anything to hang these with so we opted for duck tape.. this was not a brilliant choice they kept falling, but we just kept putting up more tape hoping they would stick. Lauren also decorated our pointless chalkboard on the wall and put a string of lanterns above the TV.

Our 3 foot tree with 8 foot ceilings!

Little did I know that when we were putting up these lights that they twinkle... My biggest pet peeve are dancing Christmas lights. Let's just say that college is testing my patience.

That night for family home evening we decided to cut snowflakes and our original plan was to put them on the our doors... but we didn't make it that far so we hung them up in our apartment. 

The next morning the twinkle lights and the lanterns were all on the floor... the duct tape just didn't work out. Lesson learned here, off brand duct tape is crap. So Lauren and I went to the store and bought more hooks and rehung the lights. Monday night one of the colored lights around our window went out. They were the big bulb ones that actually go on the house not inside of apartments. So being the handy one in our apartment I got up there trying to see if the bulb went out or it was the socket thingy that was broken. I took the light that wasn't lighting up out and the one next to it out so I could switch them to see what happened, but before I had the chance to check I dropped the light that was working. It didn't shatter and it looked just fine, so I continued what I was doing and when I screwed in the light I had just dropped the whole string popped and sparked and went out. I didn't know if I had blew the breaker so I checked the outlet and it worked. I was at a loss, so I called my dad who happens to be an electrician :) I told him what happened and he laughed at me telling me that I blew the breaker in the light strand. Who knew there was a breaker in those things?! I didn't! Now there isn't any lights in the window because I have yet to buy a new one.. 

The Many Smells of 1404

Ever since the beginning of the semester there has been some not so lovely smells in our apartment.. and no matter how how much I clean there always seems to be one lingering. First there was our dishwasher (which has decided to return this week) that I cleaned and it went away for a while. Then the usual smells of the garbage... that is until one of my roommates decided to throw away sushi. The nasty smell in the apartment wasn't horrible until I opened the garbage to throw something away and the wall of green stench like in the cartoons hit my face and I thought I was going to die. However this has all been child's play until the potato incident. Our bishop brought over a truck load of produce from his garden and I am not exaggerating when I say truck load, so my roommates went down and got some potatoes, tomatoes, and squash. We ate the tomatoes but the squash and potatoes sat there for a long time. I was cleaning the kitchen one day and I had had enough of the bowls sitting on the counter. I went to take out the squash and I poked a potato. My pinkie punctured a potato how does that happen? It was so rotten; when I threw away the potatoes there was black gunk on the bottom of the bowl. The smell of these potatoes is still burned into my nose.

Trying to be an Adult Part 1

Before I moved out I would have told anyone that living on my own would be a challenge and it was going to be rough until I got the hang of it. However, I would have never told anyone that I would be the "mother" of my apartment. Two weeks into college and my roommates are calling me Mommy Hannah. Why? I am the only one who locks the door behind me as I walk into the apartment and lock it behind me when I leave the apartment. I cannot tell you how many times I've come back from class to an unlocked, empty apartment. I have also received a couple of texts asking me if I have my key or I have come back from class with one of my roommates sitting in the hallway waiting for someone to come back with a key. Another reason I have been deemed Mommy Hannah is that I clean. Cleaning is something I'm good at and I get sort of OCD if there's a ton of dirt or crumbs on the floor or if there are pots and pans with dried up food on the stove from two nights ago. Yes, I consider myself to be a really clean person, but ask my parents how much I love doing the dishes. I'll answer for them, I NEVER did dishes at my houses. I'd clean the entire house before I touched the dishes. Guess what Mom and Dad I'm doing other people's nasty dishes on a daily basis! Who would have guessed! I actually have my sister Stacy and my brother in law Matt for learning to mind doing dishes... It's probably a good thing I did your dishes for a month before I moved here. My roommates may think I'm very responsible and I may be their temporary mother while we are here, but I don't like cooking dinner! And I know everyone woman probably would tell you the same thing. But cooking for one is so hard and so not fun! I have made myself dinner a total of three times since I moved in and once for a few other people... Thank you Mom for making dinner and giving me leftovers : )

One thing I have established while living in this apartment building is that there are ogres living above us. They are constantly running back and forth in their apartment, moving furniture, and jumping. Seriously thought? Is there a need to run in your small apartment all day? or jump off of your bed at 2 in the morning? And please tell me why you guys are moving your furniture every single day? One of my roommates told me one day she was here alone after one of here classes and the ogres of 5th floor were playing basketball. I have contemplated going up and meeting the ogres, but I don't know what to expect when they open their door. I have also thought about writing them a passive aggressive note, but I'm not that rude. Hopefully soon the ogres will learn how to act like humans and not make so much noise.

What are you majoring in?

Oh how I detest this question! I have no idea what I'm majoring in and when I tell people that I get the same answer over and over again. "That's okay, you have plenty of time! I changed my major a few times!" Although I'm unsure what I want to major in, I do know what I DON'T want to major in and that is anything involving medical.

This last Thursday I was at my ballet lab and we were doing a jumping combination. I went to jump in and I felt my knee buckle and I fell to the floor. When I looked down at my knee I watched my knee cap shift from the left side of my leg to back where it should be. It is very strange that my knee dislocated, I've never had anything happen to me like that before. Some students were very nice and worried about my knee during class. One girl even ran out of the studio and all the way across campus to get a bag of ice for me. The teacher is a sweet old lady who was terribly worried about it and would not let me walk home even though I could have. It would have taken me 40 minutes, but I could have done it.

Here's a picture of it that night. It's kind of hard to tell how swollen it was, but I kept ice on it periodically throughout the night and I also had a knee brace my roommate and her guy friend were kind enough to run to walmart and pick up for me! 

My knee is back to a regular size now and doesn't hurt as bad. It only hurts going up stairs now, which is unfortunate because I feel like there are stairs everywhere on this campus! 

A Week into College

I have been meaning to post about my room and my classes now that college has actually started, but the lovely homework keeps getting in the way.

So its a week into college and I've already done more homework than I ever did my senior year of high school, however, my classes are going pretty well and I really like my roommates.

Here's my room that I spent all summer collecting stuff and working on my projects for.

That little ottoman sitting on the ground was one of my projects. I found it at a thrift store and covered it with the same exact fabric as my curtains. Which is a little win for me because I got my curtains at Target and the fabric at Joanns. 

This is the view of my corner of the room. Yes that is a rake on the wall... I saw something like that on Pinterest and I thought that would be way cute and then never actually did anything about it until one day I was wondering around our garage at home and found an old rake head laying on the ground. I have lived in that house for 16 years and have never noticed it sitting in the garage... 

I also made that board sitting on my desk. I had what my brother in law, Matt, calls a "Stacy Vision" one day and I thought I could make a board out of a pallet and use it as a head board, but obviously my "Stacy Vision" changed and it became a picture board. 

I took a pallet that my grandpa got for me and used my Dad's sawzall and cut off the boards I wanted. Next I used my Dad's nail gun and put it all together. My dad told me that I am the only one of his daughters that ever wanted to use his power tools. :)

 I stained the whole thing, put a few rows of twine up, and hung up my pictures! :)

And here's my closet. I hated the fact that there was no cover on the closets... It drove me nuts. I'm one of those people who can't sleep with their closet doors open, so the curtains were a must!

All my classes are good so far! My professors seem to be good too, except my math teacher... she's a little crazy! I'm liking the whole college thing and I love even more that I can go home for Sunday dinner!

Summer of Traveling Part 3

When I got home after spending a few weeks in California I was home for 2 weeks when it was time to turn around and go back to California for Elsie's baby blessing. My parents and I drove down this time, and I was very happy we were. I was so sick of airports and crammed airplanes. I had a stack of books that I had been wanting to read and this was the perfect time to read them before I started college.

After Elsie's blessing my parents and I drove to Tucson, Arizona to see my sister, Nicole, my brother in law, Stephen, and my nephew and niece, Adam and Olivia. I hadn't seen them in over a year and I had never met my niece, Olivia. We loaded them and all of their things into our car and brought them back to Idaho with us and they're here until some time in September.

Took Adam to the library

It's like we have two dogs now, always following everyone around. Begging for every bit of food we're eating.

Visited our lame zoo, Adam didn't care he was still happy to go somewhere.

We tried to go camping this last weekend, but it was really rainy and cold. We ended up coming home instead.

Summer of Traveling Part Dos

After my parents and I flew home from Philadelphia I was home for a total of six days before I flew out to San Diego to my sister, Stacy's. It was sort of my summer job since I didn't have one in Idaho Falls. I helped her out with my nephews, Graham and Mason while I was there. Here are some random pictures that I took on my phone while I was there.

Souvenirs from Philadelphia 

Mason loved taking pictures with me. He would ask to take a picture on my phone every so often. I think he just like making faces at the camera.

Hide and seek, these boys get pretty creative with their hiding spots

Stacy made the boys reading charts while I was there. If they read enough they would get a prize. Graham worked so hard to get his goggles and when I had put enough circles on his chart he was so excited about getting his goggles that he wouldn't take them off, so we had to go swimming just so he could use them.

While I was there Stacy and Matt had their little girl Elsie Jennette Serafine on July 11 :) I was there to watch the boys while Stacy and Matt went to the hospital. 

She's so precious and snuggly :) 

I had a great time in California with Stacy and Matt! I love staying there with them and helping around their house. Plus I think I've cleaned their house more than I've cleaned my own in the past year! Thank you Stacy and Matt for letting me be your live in nanny for a few weeks. And a special thanks to Matt for cleaning out my ears while I was there! 

Right around the 4th of July I woke up one morning and I couldn't hear out of my left year, but I just thought it was my sinuses because I have really bad allergies. I took some decongestant and it didn't help. I was telling Stacy about it one afternoon and Matt had to look in my ears to see what was happening... Let's just say ever since I was a baby I have had multiple doctors and nurses tell me I have really waxy ears, but I never knew how waxy until Matt cleaned them out. Thank you again Matt! 

Summer of traveling

Finished my senior year with a bang! Okay not really it was more like a junk car with a really loud muffler on sputtering to it's destination. Yeah that seems a little more like it! Anyways, I graduated high school along with seminary! Which was a miracle considering the amount of make up work I had to do... I blame the seminary program really, all my missing classes were because of tennis. I missed days on tennis trips or I missed days because I was forced to make up tests at school, so I was able to graduate! But I did it! Yayy!!

{Aw look at me all grown up!}

Then came summer, FINALLY! My parents took me on my senior trip and I chose a baseball trip! We flew into Philadelphia to see my absolute favorite team play at Citizen Bank Park home of the Philadelphia Phillies :)

{It rained the entire game but I didn't really care! I was happy to sit there!}

We went to two games in Philadelphia, one against the San Diego Padres and one against the Chicago Cubs. We did some quick sight seeing while in Philadelphia and we saw Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell.

We then drove over to Baltimore to see the Orioles play on Father's Day. They were giving out free fedoras to all the men at the game.

The next day we took the metro into DC. There was no game the first day, so we went to the National Mall. 

Washington Monument

WWII Monument

At the WWII Monument there were pillars with the states on them so a selfie with good ol Idaho was a must!

Lincoln Memorial

Vietnam Memorial. it was impossible to take a picture without getting random strangers in it, so I decided I'll be in it instead.

Korean War Memorial

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

We hopped on a tour bus and rode about an hour and a half to George Town. Let me tell you it would have been faster to walk to George Town, but we got on the bus at the wrong stop and had to go through way too many stops and a small break at the train station. Although we sat on the bus forever it was air conditioned and it started out to be a good break from walking around the National Mall. That is until a lady needed to sit in the seat next to me, and that was fine with me. I'm not the most keen on sitting really close to people I don't know and being up close and personal with them. This lady fell asleep and started leaning on me; it was probably the longest half an hour of my life. But when I took a bite of my George Town cupcake the bus ride was so worth it!

The next day before our next baseball game, we hopped on the bus again (We planned a little better this time so we were on the bus for a short period of time) and rode over to Arlington National Cemetery.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier 

This day was so unbelievably hot and humid. I have never sweat so much in my entire life as I did standing here watching the Guard change. I am also so happy I chose to wear dry fit this day :) After we rode back we decided it was time to enjoy some air conditioning in the Holocaust Museum and the Air and Space Museum. 

Game 4 Washington Nationals vs Houston Astros 

And of course our seats were directly in the sun. By this point in the night I was regretting that I don't drink hardly any water. I was exhausted and didn't want to eat anything at the ball park. It wasn't until I sat down and wanted to take my shoes off when I noticed my feet. 

My feet at the game

My feet on a normal day... Just so you can compare

We ended up leaving that game around the 7th inning because none of us could sit there any longer. We were all exhausted and dehydrated, so we went back to our hotel to get some sleep.

The next day we slept in and when we finally got up we walked around DC to just see a few extra buildings we had yet to see.

That night we went to another Nationals vs Astros game, so we could actually enjoy some baseball since we were suffering from heat stroke. 

I had a great time on this trip, it was so much fun! Thank you mom and dad for taking me on my "strange vacation" as my grandma named it. Not very many 18 year old girls pick baseball tours for their senior trip.

I'm unsure how to do this adult thing...

It's hard to believe that I'm going to be moving to college in just a few short weeks... I still feel like I'm a little girl! I guess I have to start doing adult things like cook and clean and do laundry. Being an Adult sounds like a lot of work and I'm not sure if I'm ready to make that commitment quite yet. Can I just take my mom and dad to college with me? Everything would be so much easier.

I have been deemed as Permanent Vacation Hannah by my brother in law Matt, he thinks that I'm gonna be in for a rude awakening once college actually starts! He's probably right though, but I'm open to advice to make this easier! Some advice I've already gotten from people is

1. Don't get married. (A real challenge considering I'm going to BYU-I)

2. Have fun

3. Study hard

4. Wash your clothes

Now if anyone has any advice on how to study I would gladly take that... I couldn't tell you the last time I actually studied. Wish me luck on my new adventures and keep checking back here! I will try my hardest to update you on my learning experiences after I move out! :) 

-Hannah (: