I am so grateful!

I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father. Last weekend I was in a car accident. It totally sucked!!!! I have not had my car since last Saturday and I will not get it back till next friday. It is $3090 worth of repairs. Thank goodness for insurance and I only have to pay my $500 deductible. Unfortunately, I do not have the money and I have been praying to try to figure out what to do. No matter which way I figure out the math I am always $200 short. Needless to say I have been super stressed and have cried ALOT this past week. But my Heavenly Father answered my prayers through my parents! My amazing parents who I love so dearly have told me that they will lend me the extra $200 to pay to get my car back. I am so thankful for them and for my Heavenly Father and His love and I know that He answers my prayers.

Oops.....

Ok so I am a total bum.....I have not blogged in over a month.....Time for an update :) It has snowed WAY TOOOOOOOO much!!! I really hate snow...It is cold and wet and awful :( (Mary I know you strongly disagree with me but whatever). Last weekend, I went to FEBCON. Which is the February conference in Ithaca,NY at Cornell University. It was a BLAST!!!! We had sooooo much fun:)

Amanda, Ellen, Me, Sheridan, Annie and Ronnie under the cheesy arch :)

Ronnie, Me, Ivan, Robyn and Annie

Ronnie, Me, Ivan, Robyn and Amanda

These are some pics from FEBCON. We had so much fun. I am so glad that I went.
On Wed, I went out for wings with my friends at Beanies. It was Joel's Birthday so we took pictures.

Joel, Lauren and Me

Me and Lauren

Then on Friday we had a "Valentine's" Dance...it was a week after the holiday but oh well. That was a ton of fun as well. These pictures are from the dance :) Emma did my hair(thats why it looks so cute)

Me and Annie

Me and Amber

So as you can see I have been having a lot of fun :)

Ringing in 2010!

Every year the YSA's have a New Year's Eve Dance. This year we had an "I'm Dreaming Of A White New Year's" Theme. I came up with the idea. So all the food was white and the decorations were snow. We had white salsa and tortilla chips; french onion dip and potato chips; white cupcakes with white frosting, smartfood white cheddar popcorn, white cheddar cheese puffs, white cheese tray and crackers, milk, sprite, and sparkling white grape juice.

It was a TON of work, but it was sooooo worth it. I arrived at the stake center, on New Year's Eve, at 5 pm and I unloaded my car and got to work. I started putting up the decorations. Then Emma arrived at 6ish and started helping me. We finished decorating and then we started with the food preparation. We finished an hour before the dance started and so Emma did my hair cute and curly :)

We did this to both sides of the gym walls.

This was the stage!
Ivan and I

We got like 40 people there at the dance!!!! I was so psyched!!!! It was an excellent turnout :)

After the dance I went to my friend Shannon's house and we had a Disney movie marathon from Friday morning till Saturday afternoon :) It was a great way to bring in the New Year!!!

Service Disaster

So I received a Olive Garden gift card from my boss for Christmas. Shannon, her son, Logan and I went out last night to the Olive Garden in Lancaster by the mall. We arrived at the restaurant and were told that it would be a 35 minute wait, so we went to Border's. We went back to the restaurant after a half hour and went inside. They told us it would be probably another 10 minutes so we stood in the corner and waited for our buzzer to buzz. It did so and we were seated and told that our waiter would be right over.
So Vince, our waiter, came over with a bottle of house wine and said Hi, How are you doing this evening. We all answered and he continued to stare at me and Shannon and I said again I'm fine and he said ok well are you ready to order or do you need sometime. Shannon told him that we were ready to order our drinks, which we did and ordered an appetizer. He said he would be right back with our drinks.
He came back with the drinks and took the rest of our order. He then came back with our salad, soup and breadsticks. Still no appetizer. We finished our first bowl of salad and basket of breadsticks and were waiting for him to come back to our table. He came back and asked us if we wanted refills on our drinks and we said yes and he walked away, without asking about the breadsticks and salad. So as he was walking away, I called after him and said excuse me ( he was 2 tables away), he turned around and looked at me and since he did not walk back I said could we have some more breadsticks please? He put his hand up to his mouth and cupped his mouth and said ok. I was shocked at his attitude!
When he brought us our refills of drinks and breadsticks, he said thanks for yelling at me across the restaurant cuz if you would not have yelled at me I wouldn't have heard you. I did not know what to say. Shannon asked him if he was being a smartass to me. He said no I am just kidding, and then proceeded to punch me in the arm!!!!
I was infuriated at this point. Still no appetizer by the way. So Shannon asked if he would check on it. He came back and said we never ordered one but he could put in an order for one now and we said no. He then brought our entrees out and after he gave them to us he asked if there was anything else he could do for us or should he walk away so I could yell at him again from across the restaurant. I just stopped saying anything and looked at my food. I was soooooo pissed!!!!!!
So after I ate my delicious entree I got up and went to the restroom. When I was headed back to my table, I stopped and said to the hostess I know you guys are crazy busy right now, but can I talk to a manager. She said sure just give me one sec. So the manager came over and I told him EVERYTHING that happened from the moment we sat down to the moment we got the entrees. He was shocked and asked where i was sitting. He followed me back and was talking to me and Shannon. Shannon said she did not appreciate the attitude and I said I did not appreciate being talked to like a 5 year old. The manager said that he would make an adjustment on our check and he apologized profusely.
Vince brought us boxes and asked if we needed anything else. We said no. He left again. The manager came back and said You ladies have a nice night, the check is taken care of.
Shannon and I were SHOCKED! We got a $50 dollar meal FREE!!!!
So in the end, even though the service was AWFUL, the food was GREAT and it was FREE!!!!!

Christmas!!!!

I love Christmas sooo much. It is my favorite time of year. The reminder of the Savior's birth and all that He has done for me and the spirit of Christmas. I love it all!!!! So this morning we opened gifts at 7 am...(i could have slept in longer :( oh well) I as ked for an mp3 player and that is all i expected (it's a lot of money). Well I got more than that :) I got a red mp3 player (sony), dress pants, a dress, socks, flip flops (i am still warming up to those), candy, gift card(from my cousin), money(from Grandpa Leavitt), a shirt and 2 movies (from Amanda and Josh). I am so grateful for everything I got. I am so excited to wear my new dress on sunday :) I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

Snow Day

In case you haven't noticed, it is snowing.....A LOT!!! I really like to look at the snow....It is so pretty! I HATE driving in it and I hate that it is cold and wet. I think that is partly because I spent 1 & 1/2 years in Idaho where it snows way to much!!!! So yuck, yuck, yuck. I had to drive from Emma's house this morning home and it took me FOREVER!!! I had to drive soooo slow(another thing I hate doing...hehe) Oh well, it was a fun time hanging out with Emma so it was worth it.

Last night Emma and I watched My Sister's Keeper. Ok total cry movie....(tear, tear). I have read the book and it made me so mad that I cried for 30 minutes after I finished reading it and I threw the book across the room. So MAD!!! But I really did want to see the movie and for the first time ever. The movie was better then the book. I never thought I would say it but I just did!!!! So I suggest watching the movie (have the tissues ready) and DO NOT read the book. You should however read other Jodi Piccoult books. :) That is my insight for the day.

Cookie Day :)

The day started out on Sunday night when we played both Scene it games....LOVE IT!!!!

On Monday Morning it started out with a couple disney cd's, lots of cookie supplies, 4 girls (me , shannon, sharrisse and sammy) and 2 dogs and we made cookies!!!!! Lots and lots of cookies.

Here is Sharrisse....

and Shannon....

Dough

rolled dough....

rolled sugar dough balls.....

on a cookie sheet....

kisses to put in the cookies

pb cubs to put in cookies

Completed cookies :) so yummy!!!!

After Cookies we made fondue!!!!!!! Sooooooo yummy!!!

It was an AMAZING day!!!! I had sooooo much fun and I am sooooo glad that we did it. Thanks Ladies :)