luxuries...

Here are a few things that I never knew were luxuries... until now:

-restaurants that don't charge you more to sit and eat, rather than just take away.
-free toilets
-toilets that actually have a toilet seat
-having the right of way at a cross-walk... they will just barrel right on over ya!
-eating more than bread and hot chocolate for breakfast

I love learning all these things first-hand. Quite interesting the things that are different between cultures....

an overload of awesomeness...

Here I sit in Paris, my last night here before we head off to Rome, and I don't quite know what to do with myself. Ever since I left SLC, everything I have seen has been awesome. First airplane flight (I discovered that I LOVE flying), seeing Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the National Gallery, British Library, walking the streets of London and seeing all the adorable houses, Salisbury Catherdral, riding the tube for the first time (the metro is less than desierable after so many times :)), enjoying the Effiel Tower, Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, seeing all the square trees in France, etc, etc, etc... I could go on for days! Literally, everywhere I turn I see another something that is awesome. My mind can't handle all this awesomeness I see... but I love it incredibly. I throughly enjoy beinging a foreign country, like L-O-V-E it. I get random bursts of overwhelming excitement. Tis fabulous.

I can't wait to write of all of my adventures, but for not it is extremely late and we are leaving at 3:00 tomorrow morning to enjoy warm and exciting Rome! Plus this computer is no go; confusing European keyboards.... Stay tuned for more details!!!

p.s.- Thanks to Tammy, my sister, for the header of awesomeness! Love her... And you can get one too here!

an afternoon with fiona

katie: do you like snow, fiona?

fiona: no

jenny: do you like saying no?

fiona: no

amy: do you like saying yes?

fiona: no

tammy: do you like saying maybe?

fiona: no

grandma: fiona, are you contrary?

fiona: yes

word of the year

pro·ac·tive \prō-ˈak-tiv\

adj.

*Action and result oriented behavior, instead of the one that waits for things to happen and then tries to adjust (react) to them. (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

*Tending to initiate change rather than reacting to events. (The Free Dictionary)

*(of a person, policy, or action) creating or controlling a situation by causing something to happen rather than responding to it after it has happened. (Oxford American Dictionary)

i'm back!

Yes, I know it has been way too long since last post. No, I did not go anywhere; I am still here in lovely Rexburg enjoying school. I have had a "blogger's block" and did not have any amazing, shocking, or horrifying stories to tell. But, I realize now that each post doesn't have to be some elaborate story with incredible pictures included! I can post about any random thing I want to. I'm not taking on the task of keeping up a blog to please others (although I do appreciate those that follow my blog, don't get me wrong). This is just another way for me to express me and keep track of the goings-on in my life. So there. :)

I have also decided that being a procrastinator is no good. So taking better care of my blog is one of my first steps to becoming a non-procrastinator person. It is definitely a working progress though. And as for now, today is turning out to be a fantastic day!!! Here are some things that make me happy at the moment:

-hot showers

-Jack Johnson

-fog (as always)

-The olympics

-visiting teaching

-amazing friends

-My family foundations class (a.k.a. the best class ever invented)

-Pepperidge Farm's wheat crisps

-mint brownies

-exercise!!! (to work off the mint brownies)

-prayer

-lunch with my bestie

-and of course, my family :)

the best things in life are free!..... mostly

I seriously think that someone out there does not want me to post anything. Ever again. It has taken me hours between trying to find the camera cord to downloading pictures from Jenny's camera to finding all the right links. Frustrating! And who said blogging was easy? For the record, they were wrong. So no pics this time either. But it's all good. I can deal with this. Deep breaths. Chill.

I don't know why, but life has been SO hilarious lately. Have I finally cracked and gone nuts? Or are these random events actually funny? Either way, at least they brightened my day. :)

1. I was filling up "my" car at Maverick and only wanted $26 in the money-sucking gas tank but got distracted. Which happens easily. So I jumped out of my dodge to stop the pump just as it hit $30.00 exactly. Without even trying! I have mad skills at the gas pump.....

2. Right after that, Jenny and I raced into "Great American Video" (which is WAY too long of a name to say and has nothing to do with edited movies. What's wrong with "Clean Pics" or "Movie Rentals Here"?). We wanted to rent The Proposal but alas!, they were all gone. We cried. Then an employee came to the rescue! Someone had just returned a copy and we got the last one. High-fives all around.

3. To top the night off, we opened the last popcorn bag in the box! Ok, that one was a cheat. We only got the second to last popcorn bag but we were on an awesome get-the-last-of-everything night. So you can see how necessary it was to continue the streak.....

4. To fully understand this one, you must watch this. After Tammy introduced Katie and I to this comical video, I wrote the following on a leaf to put on top of our family Thankful Tree, positioned above everyone else's naturally: "I was thankful for everything before everyone else so...."

Apparently, sometimes the best things in life are not free. Was $30 at the gas station and a movie rental worth a smile and a chuckle though? You betcha.

And Jenny's toenail fell off tonight. Hilarious.

jo-siahhhhh........

So I was power walking through the BYU-I bookstore yesterday while making my daily hike up to the Hinckley from the Snow (for those you who don't know the ridiculous distance between these two buildings, try hiking a mile uphill on a 90 degree angle in 10 minutes). Anyways, as I was huffing and puffing my way through the bookstore, I got stuck behind a slow walker. Isn't it just infuriating to get caught behind someone slow when you're in a hurry? Pet peeve right here. So I signal into the other lane of walking traffic to pass this nuisance to all society when he turns his head back towards me and and asks me where I'm headed to. 

"The Hinkley. Where are you going?"

"The Tay-Tay."

"Tay-Tay, eh? What's your name?"

"Jo-siahhhhhh......"

"Really. You are my new best friend."

And in the next two minutes it took to walk to the 'Tay-Tay', I learned that Jo-saihhhhh wanted to name his future daughter Kameria which is some mythological disease that actually kills people, and when you are in a shark attack (which happens all the time, obviously) you are to:

1. punch the shark in the nose because that is how it detects fish miles away and this would disorientate it terribly

2. gouge its eyes out at the same time (apparently this is vital in defeating a shark when it is about to eat you) and

3. rip its gills in the opposite direction they lay. No biggie right?

I don't know who the heck this guy was and I will probably never see him again but he sure made my whole week. I can only hope I can brighten and educate someone's day just as this Jo-siahhhh did for me.