So Busy up in Here

I don't know why I apparently have more time to blog when I am on-track than when I am off, but apparently I do. And now I have 5 minutes before I have to leave to go to Idawhat, but here's a blog on what I have been doing instead of blogging:

1. Sleeping in.

2. Napping.

3. Going to my friends' classes.

4. Grading and planning some stuff. I have to write that small because I really haven't been doing all that much of that. 

5. Convincing other people that they don't need to do their homework / study / go to bed early because playing with and / or feeding me is much more important. I am the worst. 

6. Going to Cornbelly's. What's that, you say? Wellllll just my [fourth] favorite place on Earth! After, you know, like Disney World, and the temple, and my house.....Pictures coming soon!

7. Going to a Halloween party all dressed up with the roommates!

Left to right: Minnie Mouse, Pocahontas, Tangled, Alice in Wonderland, Snow White

As you can see, the Jew joined us! She came to town this weekend and pretty soon, I will be venturing over to her hood for even more fun times :)

8. Eating at the Cannon Center with some studly biceps.

9. Consorting with famous authors. NBD (aka, VBD) but I shook hands with him and rode in a car with him and chatted with him and just, you know, spilled the Starbucks that I got just for hanging out with him on my new blue pants about it, but whatever. #famouspeoplepantsfail

10. Ate my heart out for the annual birthday lunch at Tucano's!

11. Re-discovered the Fall Waffle at the Awful Waffle.....why is this list almost entirely about food.....

12. Spent the night in Snowbird in this swanky little place that I'm obsessed with, with some roommates, a hot tub, some romantic music, and about 40 cookies.

13. Watched House at the End of the Street again. For the record, it is at least as scary in the drive-in as it is in the real people theater.

14. Watched Casper for the first time! Watching movies has just become my favorite thing recently.....totally not sure why, but yep. That's just what happens when you go off-track, kids.

15. Carved a punkin! You have to say it like that: punkin. Or else you basically hate Halloween.

16. Made about 5069 punkin seeds. And they are the most bomb-amazing punkin seeds you have ever tasted, ever.

Recipe:

1. Get all your seeds rinsed off.
2. Boil seeds in salt water (2 cups water for every 1/2 cup seeds, 1/2 tsp salt for every cup water).
3. Simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Drain.
6. Put olive oil on a cookie sheet. Spread it around. Put the seeds on top.
7. Sprinkle with lemon pepper seasoning and onion seasoning. And some more salt if you don't care about your cholesterol.
8. Bake at 400* for about 10 minutes. When you hear popping, they are getting close!
9. Show off your talents to all your friends who previously hated punkin seeds. Like me, until I was converted with this very recipe!

Peace out, Provo! Don't worry, I'll be back in time to fit in 2 more Halloween parties. Which is convenient, since I have 5 more costumes for this year that I haven't worn yet.

Awkward Turtle

Life can get a little awkward when……….

- You go to an elementary school (where you are supposed to be a teacher) and happen to be wearing the same skirt as one of the students.

-Someone asks how you and this boy know each other and the boy in question quickly replies “We flirt in church.”

-You go to buy a car and learn all about the dealer, including, but not limited to: his conversion to the church, the story of his move from Iran to America, how many kids are in his family, the life story of his favorite son, the story of the time he switched careers from making crowns and bridges for teeth to selling cars, his political leanings…..

-You can’t even bring yourself to smile at the people working at FedEx because that place is a joke and you feel a little bit like they are waxing your nostrils with duct tape because of how much everything costs.

-Sooomebody has to stand up and say how great of a game kissing rugby is, and no one else steps up to the plate, so it ends up being you. And then you’re that girl.

-You tell a few people that you are considering going back to your old ward this upcoming Sunday, and every last one of them responds: “Oh, there are no cute boys in your new ward?”

-And you have to admit that no, there are not.


-You have a dream that you are serving a mission and your mission president's wife is giving a presentation to welcome you to the mission, and she announces that Matt Damon is in the boundaries of the mission, and he loves the missionaries, so feel free to get rides with him whenever, but don't kiss him. She goes on, "It is soooo hard not to kiss him. But don't do it. My gosh. It's, like really hard." And then all the other sister missionaries turn to you and nod and confirm that it is so hard not to kiss him. 

-Also, Arie was supposed to be going to your mission, too, but he broke his leg right before. So that's a bummer. 

-You have to tell a dealer that you don’t want their car, and you find yourself channeling your inner Emily Maynard in the hopes that you will be able to break up with the dealer as gracefully as she broke up with 24 guys.

-You call your mom every day at the same time to ask her to get you un-lost again.

-You seriously consider going to the dollar theater to watch “The Lucky One” by yourself, since your Zac Efron fan friend is currently in a different state and your other friends expressed specific disdain for the fact that he won some Teen Choice Awards.

But for real, how could you find fault with this?

-You watch Toddlers and Tiaras and it has the opposite of the intended effect on you. As in, you watch it and kind of want to put your children in pageants….

-Someone txts you "Be there in a sex."

-The next day, someone else txts you "Ok, see you in a sex."

-Both someones are immediately horrified and correct themselves. Both someones get a txt from you that says, "I'm sexcited!" because you are convinced that it wasn't only funny the first time and that this is a joke that is okay to repeat with different audiences.

-You fill out a damage sheet for the apartment you just moved into, which is the same apartment you painted 2 years ago, and in the spot where it asks about whether the walls are white or painted, you not only list the colors of all the walls but also compliment them.

-You go to buy 50 composition notebooks, 25 pencil boxes, 25 highlighters, 50 colored pens, 30 dry erase markers, 25 desk name tags, 50 boxes of crayons, 60 erasers, 48 glue sticks, and 100 folders at Walmart, and the cashier asks: "Are you a teacher?"

-And you respond, "No, I just have a lot of kids." 

-And for a second, he looks like he believes you.

-You txt a friend and accidentally ask what time "Capture the Fag" is going to start.

-You meet the worst boy ever at the pool, and he is the really persistent kind who keeps trying to talk to you and your friends, despite your blatantly rude body language that clearly says "don't talk to me, in fact would you please go crawl into a hole because that's how annoying you are...."

-You go to a baseball game and are told by the little girl sitting in front of you “Okay, I won’t lick your legs. But they sure do look tasty!”

-You go to the bank to deposit a check like an adult and the banker goes to shake your hand and asks what your name is, and you have to shift everything you're holding to the other hand and pull the lollipop out of your mouth to answer, and you realize that no amount of check-depositing will truly make you into an adult. 

-You and your sister make cupcakes for a friend for her birthday. They are the best cupcakes ever. Then, you don't know where she lives, so you just eat a couple while you wait on getting her address.

-On a possibly related note, you learn, through personal experience, that it is indeed possible to eat 18 cupcakes in 5 days. By yourself. 

And finally, it can get a little awkward when all the things on this list are actually the little things that make your life really enjoyable :)

Sister Sleepovers: A Tutorial

Sarah, Julie, and I love having sister sleepovers whenever I'm home. Usually this means all of us crowding into Julie's queen-sized bed, fighting over the body pillow, whispering and elbowing each other until we finally fall asleep in odd positions that are entirely different than the ones we wake up in.

But last night, "sister sleepover" meant something entirely different. And now, for our tutorial:

How to have a Successful Sister Sleepover without getting the Usual Bruises

1. Have your brother go on a scout camp-out. When he gets home, have him air out his tent in the living room.

2. Get really excited when you see said tent in the living room.

3. Make s'mores! If you can't find any plain chocolate, special dark chocolate nuggets with almonds from your dad's secret stash in his office will do just as well. You just have to cut out the almonds.

4. Pose excitedly while preparing these s'mores. 

5. Pre-heat the oven to 400* while cutting the almonds out of the chocolates. When you are ready to put the s'mores in the oven, turn it from "Bake" to "Broil." 

6. If your s'mores look like the picture above, then they are perfect. Top them with another graham cracker. 

7. Eat them in your tent. Pose for more pictures!

8. Have a lovely night in the tent!

New Coat

There was once a time when I was the youngest in my family. I know....weird, right? So that phase didn't last long. It ended officially with the birth of a red-haired, wide-eyed, explosion of a person named Nicole, on June 9th, 1992....twenty years ago. 

I say "explosion of a person" because Nicole is one of those people who is just exploding with personality and awesomeness.

Obviously, Kelly and I were happy to have her.  

 

Mostly, when I remember Nicole as a baby, I remember her with a shocked expression and hair standing straight up. I remember her blowing bubbles in the bathtub. I remember playing Barbies with her for hours on end, and then playing with our matching horses for the rest of the day. 

One time, we were all cleaning the pond behind our house during Spring Break. At one point, Nicole got some pond water on herself and left to change her clothes. When she came back, she was too nervous to get back in the pond, so instead, she stood on top of a storm drain and made up a song to encourage us. For some reason, it didn't exactly encourage us, and we encouraged her to get down. We still tease her about that!

Nicole is super-social, and she makes some really good friends. Her best friend Gina is a favorite of our family. 

Nicole and I have an interesting history with stuffed animals. One time, Nicole was annoyed at me about something, and I didn't realize that she was. She came into my room, where I was calmly sitting on my bed, reading a book. She was tenderly holding a stuffed animal of mine, a penguin named Shuffle. Smiling broadly, she said: "Heather, do you like this penguin?"

I looked up. "Oh, sure," I said, and went back to reading. 

"Well that's nice," she said, and then proceeded to beat the penguin on the floor repeatedly. 

It's okay though, because I got back at her. Nicole has this Blues Clues-esque stuffed animal gender-confused dog called BenKetty. I don't know why, but for some reason, I hate it. I think it annoyed me for real one night and then after that it was just so fun hating it that I couldn't stop. 

One time I sent Nicole a picture on her phone of Benketty hanging from the fan. 

Another time, I sent her a picture of Benketty about to fall in the toilet. 

In response, she sent me a picture of Benketty holding my purse one night before I went on a date. The txt said, "Look who's coming with you on your daaaate!" She also took a picture of Benketty in my suitcase when I was about to go back to Utah with the caption, "You will never escape!" 

Would you end such a glorious back-and-forth? Neither would I. 

Nicole is very generous. She always gives me zzzz's so I can be more bootylicious. Also, one time she sent me a care package that was literally THE BEST THING OF MY LIFE. It was so great that sometimes I get a little teary thinking about it. Nicole just is so good at thinking of others. 

One of my favorite things about Nicole is how hilarious she is. She's funny when she's just waking up and she trudges downstairs with her hair all piled on her head for dinnertime. She's funny when she's singing at the dinner table, or when she's explaining politics to me. She's funny when she's talking to the birds or imitating them. She's funny when she's giving a talk or when she's gushing about Dream Street or Steve Johnson or Winnie. She's just funny all the times!

Nicole's unofficial motto for life is WWFRD: What Would Flo Rida Do? She is a great rapper. And she finds really great music and shares it with me, which I appreciate. 

Nicole is a princess, and she loves princess things. In fact, her blog is called "Life as a Princess" and should be read by everyone and their dog because it is so entertaining and great. In high school, everyone called her a princess, and when this one really adorable boy asked her to prom, he gave her a tiara and did it really cutely. Nicole deserves things like that to happen to her, and she looked absolutely gorgeous when she went to Prom with her princess self. 

Nicole is super-photogenic. Just see above for proof: ^

Misery loves company, and when I am miserable, I often choose Nicole as my company. She is sympathetic and hilarious. When I complain to her, I feel better. She makes me laugh. She is great.

Nicole has come to visit me in Utah many times, and we always do such fun things when she does! The first time, we went to the Bean Museum and took funny pictures. We went ice-skating and to Bridal Veil Falls. It was wonderful having her there :)

Now that she is at BYU-Idaho and I am in Provo, she comes to visit more often. I always try to plan fun things when she visits because I want her to think I am cool, like her! Nicole is always fun to do stuff with because she is so funny and always makes me laugh. Besides which, she loves my friends, and they love her, so we all get along great. 



Nicole is someone who is dependable. I love her because if she says she is going to do something, then she does it! She is also really nice to have on road trips and at movie nights because she is comfortable to lean on, and she is nice about it.

 

Nicole has style! In high school, she would often wear pajama pants to school. It stressed my dad out a lot. He would sometimes work himself into fits as he imagined his daughter going to college without knowing how to dress herself. But he needn't have worried, because Nicole gracefully rose to the occasion. She now dresses SO cutely and so stylishly. She has about 30 cardigans. She wears cute boots and scarves. She is cool.

Nicole is who she is, no matter who she is interacting with. I love this about her, and I'm pretty sure that's one of the big reasons why she has so many friends. She's not trying to impress anyone by being someone else, and people love who she is, so there's no need to, anyway.  

I love doing photo shoots with Nicole because she always makes them so funny! This picture (above) is from this last Christmas. My mom wanted pictures of all of us with our baptism quilts. I think it was cold outside and that's why we were all doing those faces? Maybe? Anyway, Nicole's makes me laugh every time I see this picture :)

Troy Toy was one of our favorites of the pest control boys from summer 2009. I mention him because it was funny to me how Nicole interacted with those boys. She would sit with them in the living room, making friendship bracelets and talking about all her boy problems. They loved her, and Troy wore that friendship bracelet for a long time after leaving us. 

Nicole is a great travel buddy. She is so good at directions, first of all, so that is super-handy. She just kind of has an innate sense of direction. Sometimes it fails her....like when we tried to go to New Jersey and ended up nearly in New York at 5 in the morning, searching for a hotel we hadn't planned on needing. But that wasn't her fault, and I loved having her in the car with me, because she was so fun, and she stayed awake with me. 

I don't know if you are aware, but Nicole is a superhero. She even gave a speech at her graduation about it. 

Nicole loves DC. She was a nanny here last year, and she got to know the city pretty well. She integrated herself into the "Moms' Club." She figured out the Metro. And then, at the end of her term as nanny, she brought all of us to DC and took us on a "Tour d' Nicole," where she showed us all of her favorite places. We loved it!

I can't even really get over how great Nicole is. She keeps getting better and better! I love being her sister :) 

Sarita Bonita Chiquita

Sometimes when I meet new people, they ask me where I fall in my family. Sometimes, I have them guess. And more often than I would like to admit, they guess that I am the baby.

The thing is, I am not the baby of the family. The baby of the family has reddish hair, not blonde. She is a basketball champ. She started blogging at a much younger age than I did. And she just turned ten today.

Sarah started out cute. She had strawberry-blonde hair and big blue eyes. We loved having another baby, a baby we could dress up and dote on and adore, and she loved being that baby. She laughed all the time and somehow, despite all of us clamoring for a chance to paint her nails or feed her or dance with her, she didn't turn out spoiled.

She had these two super-cute outfits when she was about three: a fluffy little skirt and a shirt to go with it. One was pink and one was green. She loved wearing them and dancing in the living room to "Supermodel," the song from the Lizzie McGuire movie.

One time when she was a baby, she was running around the island, being chased by Joseph or Jacob and just laughing her head off. All of a sudden, she stopped running, stopped laughing, and squatted down, looking very concentrated. The broder stopped. "Sarah?" he asked. She made a little panting sound, then stood up and started running and laughing again.

I guess when you got to go, you got to go!

One day when I was in college but was home for the summer, I took all the kids to get their hairs cut. The haircut lady put this streak of blue in her hair so obviously we had to have a photo shoot right when we got home!

Two years ago, we had a family reunion in Midway. All the girls shared one bed which was SO fun. I discovered then that Sarah moves around a lot in her sleep, and she is suddenly endowed with super-strength. If she wants to move, she does, and nothing will get in her way. I don't know how, but apparently, I slept through this.

On the flight home from that trip, Sarah got hot chocolate for her beverage. As the cherry on top of a disastrous plane ride, it of course spilled all over her. Since she didn't have any other pants, we just had to strip off the ones she was wearing and wrap Mom's jacket around her. I think it makes a very stylish skirt, don't you?

Something that I love about Sarah is how funny she is. She says the funniest things sometimes! I love talking to her on the phone and hearing about her day at school, or the boys who like her, or the latest drama with her friends. When she was about 2 or 3 we would browse through the Avon catalog every time it came and pick out our favorites on each page. She talked like a teenager then, and now, I feel like I am talking to one of my friends when I talk to her.

There is no question that Sarah is the most athletic girl in our family. I think her athleticism is Heavenly Father's blessing for my dad serving in the bishopric or something, because none of the first four girls did much of anything with sports. Sarah, on the other hand, loves basketball and soccer and pretty much any other sport she tries. She is, without question, the best one on her basketball team. (Don't worry that she fowls out on a regular basis ;) and we all love watching her play!

Sarah has a huge heart. She just knows how to love people and show them. She is a good listener; when she's talking to me, I never feel like she's just waiting for her turn to talk. She is genuinely interested in others. She is honest, sensitive, and sincere, and you can tell when you talk to her.

Contrary to what you might think from this picture, Sarah likes when I do her hair. I remember when I worked at Club Libby Lu and she was so pumped when she got to come in and get a makeover. She's just being sassy in this picture.

Sassiness is not a bad thing if you do it as cutely as Sarah does it. One time, when she visited me in Florida, she met my friend Sean. I don't remember what he said, but she thought it sounded a little flirty and decided he needed to be called out on it.

Hand on hip, eyes fixed, she bobbed her head and said, "Oh, I see, you crushin' on my sister?" in a way that reminded me that a lot of her friends are these cute little black girls. Sean wasn't crushin' on her sister, but he still turned red and laughed about it for weeks afterwards.

Even though she's almost 8 years younger than Julie, and the rest of the sisters are only about 2 years apart from the next sister, Sarah fits right in with us. She easily floats from the sisters to the brothers to her own friends.

Sarah had a unique experience when she came to Disney World. Having a sister who worked there and had just tried out for Cinderella, she knew more about how the park worked than lots of other kids her age. But at the same time, she was so much fun to go around the park with. She is super-energetic and was so enthusiastic about everything.

This is when she accidentally splashed me when getting out of the pool. I think that she mostly likes being the youngest, but thinks it would be nice if she had a sibling more her age who always wanted to swim in the pool with her when her boring older sisters just want to sit on the side and dip their feet in.

One day, a girl in our ward broke up with her boyfriend. Actually, he broke up with her, and she ended up at our house for dinner that Sunday. We had a great dinner, and afterwards, she wandered out of the kitchen, unnoticed by most of us. Sarah of course noticed and followed her to the living room.

When I went in there later, the Single Lady was lying on her stomach on the couch, saying something about how "I just don't understand, everything was going so well!" Sarah was nodding and "mhmm"ing sympathetically, her hands expertly karate-chopping a rhythm up and down the Single Lady's back.

Now, whenever I have a bad day, I wish that Sarah was there to give me a nice massage and "mhmm" sympathetically at my pathetic story. She's not, but the memory of that still cheers me up when I need it!

Sarah makes me feel like a million bucks every time I go home to visit. She doesn't try to hog attention; she tries to throw it all on the person who is having a special day. If I'm visiting from college, I am that person. If Nicool is having a birthday, she is that person. I literally think Sarah doesn't even think about herself when it is someone else's time to eat off of the Special plate.

This Christmas, my dad dropped a coin in the garbage disposal. Or at least, he convinced himself that he had. He tried getting it out and couldn't, having big man hands, so he got Sarah out of bed (it was probably about 6:50 in the morning) and asked for her help. She traipsed downstairs in her pink t-shirt and hand-me-down-from-the-broders tiger pajama pants, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, hopped obligingly up on a chair, and felt around for the coin.

I thought it was so cute that I had to take this picture. All I know is, if Dad asked me to do that, I can't promise that I would be so sweet about it. And that is why Sarah is cooler than me.

She loves doing sister photo shoots. Here are some gems from past sister or family photo shoots:

At Disney World, a guy walking around Animal Kingdom made up this song on the spot for Sarah. If nothing else, he at least got the name right: "Princess Sarah." Enjoy!

Love you Sarah!!! I am so proud of you and brag about you all the time. I can't think of a better way to finish off the Connor Clan. I hope you know how amazing I think you are. I love you forever!