how about I just quit life?

I wish I had Moosey here to be my buddy.

It's cloudy and rainy outside, I have a cold creeping up me, and I have no motivation. Solution? Let's just quit life, okay? By quit life, I don't mean actually terminating my life, but rather I just want to not address any of my responsibilities today. I wish that I could have just left work early, not gone to class, and spent the rest of the day watching Gilmore Girls in my pajamas.

But I went to work and went to class but am at least putting off homework until I finish this one episode of GG. Here's to an afternoon/evening/night full of researching, reading, and editing with a Frosty run thrown in there.

So I'm sickish, motivationless, unusually tired and can't quit life. I state again, I wish I had Moosey here to be my buddy.

and I'm back

Thanksgiving was amazing. Emily and I went home on the 22nd and just got back today. I love being able to go home for such extended periods of time. I had a paper to write and a bunch of reading to do and some worksheets. Did I do any of it? . . . Nope. This is what I did instead.

getting behind throws me off

I can't remember the last time I didn't post for a week and a half . . . . When I get out of a groove, it's sometimes hard to get back into the groove. Fortunately, I have been taking pictures of my happening over the summer, so I'll post those as a recap of my summer antics.

Nick, Mom, and Dad getting breakfast ready up in the mountains on the Fourth.

Our new dog, Moosey--thanks Jess :)

We love her lots!


Mom, Em, and me up in the mountains


John and Emily goofing off with the festive Fourth of July straws


Sarah playing ball with Melissa and Jacquelyn (not pictured)


Emily and me on her 18th birthday

Emily and I had a Mary Kate and Ashley night: "The Challenge" and "Holiday in the Sun"=quality movies (hahahaha)

Emily, our friend Michael, and I went ice blocking (definition: sliding down a hill on a block of ice--it's like sledding for summer)

We then went to McDonald's to get some dollar ice cream sundaes. There was a really creepy, somewhat emaciated Ronald McDonald sitting on one of the tables--we sat there to be daring.

I went to a party at Rachelle's to say farewell to our friend Mikayla, who is going to study abroad in Germany for a year.

So, it's been busy, but I've been having a good time. I can't believe it's already been almost four weeks since I came home and before I know it, I'll be back at school for fall semester. I'll do a real post about other happenings soon--I just couldn't face doing real posts about all of these events: getting behind really throws me off.

Operation Santa Fe--Days 4, 5, and 6

The last half of Operation Santa Fe went pretty well, considering:

• Church on Sunday. This was Emily's first day back.
• I made Parmesan chicken, white rice, and carrots for dinner. Emily made the biscuits. Jacquelyn came over for dinner.
• Sunday night we watched "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."
• Monday morning, Jacquelyn and I went up to Crown Hill to go running, and Sarah rode her bike alongside.
• Sarah went to Marilyn Fowler's house in the evening and spent the night--score
• Monday was cleaning day. Sarah had a fit because I wouldn't let her eat ice cream for breakfast . . . figure that one out.
• Monday, we discovered who the peeing culprit was. All throughout OSF, one of the dogs (we also were watching Grandma and Grandpa's dog, Tyrone) kept peeing everywhere. Because we never were able to catch them in the act, I didn't know which dog to scold, so I didn't scold any dog. We had our suspicions, but no confirmations. Monday night, I was watching TV and I heard a whizzing sound behind me. I turned around to see my suspicions confirmed: Tyrone. He was the whizzer. I was so mad. And he did it again on Tuesday. I was not sad to see Tyrone go . . . .
  
• My friend Cheyne came over on Monday night, and he, Emily, and I went out to ice cream, and then came back to our house and watched "Stranger Than Fiction," (which I loved by the way--I'd never seen it before).
  
• Tuesday I basically just hung out. Sarah was still at Marilyn's all day, I vacuumed, I scrapbooked, I waited anxiously for Mom and Dad to get home.

They've been back for a couple days now, and I've decided I'm perfectly okay not being the mom. Mom can have that job back. :)

Operation Santa Fe--Day 1

Beginning today (meaning last Thursday), Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, Susan, Fred, Lee, Linda, and Patricia are all in Santa Fe for six days. That leaves me here with John, Sarah, Moosey, and Tyrone for six days. (Emily is in California until Saturday.) I'm trying to find fun things to do with the kids so these next six days can seem like a vacation of sorts for us too. I mixed up some chewy brownie cookie dough and in a few minutes, Sarah and I are going to go swimming. John is working for most of the day doing yardwork, but maybe later tonight we'll get pizza and watch a movie. I've kind of been dreading this, but I'm going to try and make the most of it. I'm having a couple friends over throughout the next few days, and having Moosey will definitely make things better for the kids. (Moosey and Tyrone seem to get along okay--Tyrone basically just ignores Moosey and Moosey tries to sniff Tyrone's butt. We have to keep Moosey's food up because Tyrone would just eat it, but apart from controlling the food situation, things with the two dogs should be fine.) If I finally get my camera cord I'll post pictures, but we'll see.

summer groove

I'm finally home! Dad, John, and Neighbor Nick drove out on Thursday and we moved all my stuff into my new apartment for next year (my roommate next year is staying for summer and living in the apartment we'll be in for the fall). Then we went out to Cafe Rio for dinner (none of the boys had ever had it and they were all pleasantly surprised by the tastiness and the quantity of food), then we went to see "21" in the dollar theater--hooray for Movies 8! The next morning we picked up Josh Elliott (a kid from my home stake) and gave him a ride back. It was a pretty fun car ride and I listened to my iPod, talked with the boys, ate Wendy's chicken nuggets and a Frosty, slept, and enjoyed the pretty ride back to CO. I put off unpacking until yesterday, which works just fine because Emily is gone for the whole week beach camping in CA. I still have some work to do on the unpacking front, but at least of my stuff is unpacked.

I'm starting my job hunt right away. A couple months ago, one of my friends at WaMu said they probably would be able to hire me for the 10 weeks I'm home, but when I went in to the bank yesterday to inquire about that, they said that right now the company is only hiring internally . . . blast. I wasn't completely "banking" on that though, so I do have a couple other options. I applied at Borders as a fall back--I'd rather not work retail, but if I must, books are the way to go, I think. I'm applying at the temp agency I worked through last summer, and so hopefully that will work out soon. Also, I'm still writing articles, and another editing opportunity will hopefully come through. So, with a regular job and a few editing/writing things here and there, I should be able to save all I need to this summer.

I have a few pictures to post, but I don't currently have a cable to connect my camera to the computer because it was in a package that got lost in the mail last September. I was using my printer to transfer all my pictures from my memory card, but I left my printer in Provo. I ordered another cord from Amazon, so I'm hoping that will come in soon.

We have a dog!!!! Jessie gave us Moosey, and Moosey came in yesterday. She is SO cute, and we all love her to death. I have some pictures of her, but as I mentioned earlier, I can't transfer pictures yet. Good grief. (Oh yeah, I still don't have my laptop--it's been over 2 weeks.) Anyway, Moosey is the hit of the Wood household right now, and we love having her! Well, I'm off to polish up a resume, iron some clothes, write some articles, and enjoy the dog.