Shimp Home for the Holidays

This year is my first year not going home for Christmas.

.....I KNOW. Hash tag, big girl.

Instead of Baltimore lights twinkling up into my airplane window on Friday, I experienced the lights of Indianapolis for the fist time.

Then I experienced:

-some delicious cheesy bread, sugar cookies, peanut butter fudge, and cold medicine
-getting tackled by little boys who quickly stopped when they realized I was not their sister
-using all of Natalie's makeup since I apparently left all of mine in Utah
-going out Christmas shopping in the middle of Indianapolis flooding

{I'm serious. I got an emergency weather alert txt telling me to stay away from potential flooding areas}

-sleeping with Stephen in the bed his parents assigned to us. Oh, with his brother in the same bed.
-the Christmas program in the Indy 1st ward, which included a fabulous special musical number and donuts after the meeting
-a Christmas dinner at an interior designer grandma's BEAUTIFUL home

-a conversation that went like this:

me: Brandon, are you taller than me now?
We stand up to measure ourselves and find that he is a good 3 inches taller.
Diane: Oh yeah, I can't keep him in the same pair of pants for more than a month! He just grows out of them so fast!

-followed by a riveting game of boys vs. girls Catchphrase

-in which I got "growing pains," and the timer was speeding up, and it was up to me to help my team guess it, and I blurted out: "Okay, this is what....Brandon keeps doing this out of his pants."

-and my team didn't guess it and instead just got really confused.

-so I said, "Diane was just telling me about it!"

-and then people just laughed instead of guessing and I had to try something else.

There's no place like home for the holidays, but there's an H on one of the stockings here, and Natalie drew me in the family picture she put in Eric's room, and I'm surrounded by people I love. Besides which, there's a huge ball of mistletoe that I can stand under whenever I want. So for my first Christmas away from home, it's going to be a pretty nice one :)

Just a Little Rain

Last Saturday, something very exciting happened for BYU. We won the football game! It was a pretty crazy game and lots of my friends posted all up on Facebook about how fun it was to be there, even though they got soaked. (It started raining during the game.)

And ALL I have to say to them is, my goodness, you do look wet, mind if I share my story now?

Because you see, Stephen and I really like going on hikes. Utah has some beautiful hikes, it's a fun way to be outdoorsy and in shape without going running, and it doesn't hurt that we got engaged on a hike, either. So when he asked me on Saturday afternoon if I wanted to go on a hike, I said yes. 

We were on our way to hike Squaw Peak when Julie called. Nicole's mission call had arrived! She would be opening it in 3 hours. 

"We're not afraid," we declared boldly. After all, the sun was shining. It was barely 75*, perfect weather for hiking, and we were two in-shape (ish) people who could certainly make it to the top of a mountain and back down in 2 1/2 hours. Armed with our phones and water bottles, we set off up the mountain. 

Our hikes typically go something like this: 

Phase 1 - Optimism in togetherness

Phase 2 - Optimism in individual hiking

Phase 3 - Pessimism in individual hiking

Phase 4 - Elation in reaching the top 

Phase 5 - Energy and renewed optimism in the downhill slope

Phase 6 - Self congratulations in our completion of the hike.

Allow me to offer a more detailed description of these phases, in terms of this particular hike.

PHASE ONE

We hike hand-in-hand. We are both chatty and smiley. We are enjoying nature. We are enjoying one another's company. It's so much fun! Hiking is so fun! Whoa endorphins! I feel excited, optimistic, and a little bit euphoric.

PHASE TWO

The hiking is still fun. I am still appreciating nature and enjoying myself. I am no longer enjoying Stephen's company, though, because he has decided to plow ahead. I sometimes catch a glimpse of his red shirt through the trees. Sometimes he pauses and waits for me to almost catch up before taking off again. I am okay with this. Britney Spears joins me on my own personal hike. 

PHASE THREE

"The hiking is still fun," I insist to myself as Selena Gomez starts to serenade me. "The hiking is still fun," Stephen insists to himself as he stops to wait for me again. I vaguely remember a time in this very same hike where I tried to keep up with him. It's a vague memory because at this point, I have decided that if Stephen is going to be 8 miles ahead of me, I might as well take a break whenever I feel like it. So I do. And since I don't love running up mountains, but I do love walking up mountains, the hike starts to really be enjoyable again. 

It was at this point in the hike when we made a new friend - a rattlesnake!

He rattled at us because we were on his turf. Then he slowly inched off the trail to let us pass. We slowly inched around him. Stephen asked if my phone had reception, so I called my dad to check that it did. My dad was barely able to hear me, but he did hear me tell him that we saw a rattlesnake and we were on a hike. I hung up, put my phone back in my pocket, and we continued on our merry way. 

PHASE FOUR

"It looks like it's going to rain," Stephen said, looking at the sky.

"Maybe we should head back?" I said. "We can't miss Nicole's mission call opening!"

"We'll be fine," Stephen said. "We're so close to the top. We seriously will be there in like another 4 minutes. And then it won't take long at all to get down." 

Famous last words, hissed our friend the rattlesnake. We didn't listen to him. We just kept going. 

Stephen was right; it really didn't take us long to get to the top. When you hike Squaw Peak, you climb up the mountain until you get to this meadow platform place, and then when you walk to the edge of the meadow, you get this awesome view, supposedly. 

I say supposedly because we actually didn't walk to the edge of the meadow and look out off of Squaw Peak and soak in the awesome view. Instead, we got to the meadow and were suddenly enveloped in a cloud.

The cloud swirled around us, spewing water on the meadow and picking up dead leaves to fling at us as we tried to take a picture of ourselves.

We took some pictures of the cloud, but I guess it was a little photo-shy, because instead of smiling for the picture, he started to rain. 

PHASE FIVE

We started down the mountain, hoping the trees would offer some cover, but they didn't. We were literally soaked in a matter of minutes. It was kind of like being at a water park, except you didn't dress for success, so you're wearing normal people clothes inside of a water park. Also, that's not a very good analogy, because water parks are typically pretty fun. And you are trying to get wet. And you on purpose did not bring your phone to any of the fun watery places. 

I think for this hike I really need to split Phase Five into some sub-phases. 

Phase 5A - Panic and adrenaline in running down the mountain

In which I was still trying not to get wet or muddy, and adrenaline was coursing through my veins, and I believed (erroneously) that the trees would provide some protection from the elements. 

Phase 5B - Anger at Stephen and sassiness in running down the mountain

In which I started to blame Stephen for this predicament, and he started laughing at me and apologizing, and I realized it was futile to try to not get wet, and I also realized that my phone was soaked and would probably be no help if either of us got struck by lightning or bitten by the rattlesnake from earlier or smashed by a falling tree, and I started sassing Stephen and this conversation happened:

 Him: Heather, I want to go ahead and apologize....

Me: Shut up. Don't talk to me.

Him: Huh?

Me: I'm s-so, m-mad at you right n-now.   

Was it really his fault? Let's be honest, no....but I was feeling a teeny bit sorry for myself and believed that I deserved to have someone to blame for the whole predicament. 

Phase 5C - The First Fall

I did not feel as enthusiastic as Stephen did about the battle we were fighting against the mud, wind, and rain. I didn't love that my socks were completely soaked. I wasn't thrilled that my shoes would probably never be the same. I was sad to see my phone looking like it took a dip in the Great Salt Lake. I dreaded looking in a mirror and seeing the mess that all of the rain had made of my face. 

Stephen, on the other hand, was as happy as a duck. He was a little nervous about the rattlesnake, and a little nervous about the possibility of electrocution, and also a little nervous about flash flooding. (He kept saying things like, "Heather, I don't want to rush you, but we kinda need to hurry it up because in weather like this there's danger of flash-flooding, and I really don't want us to get caught in a flash flood....") Other than that, though, he was loving the adventure and already planning how he would tell this story later on. 

But all of that enthusiasm evaporated pretty quickly when his feet slipped out from under him and he landed with a splat in the mud. "Okay. This isn't fun anymore," he said. Being the good wife that I am, I took a picture. 

Phase 5D - The Second Fall

I was definitely trying to be careful more than speedy in our descent - hence, the frequent (very kind) reminders from Stephen about flash floods. It's hard to be careful when you are essentially walking down a muddy slide, but I was grabbing onto trees and plants whenever possible to steady myself a little bit.

At one point, I was holding onto a tree with both hands and trying to step around it to avoid a huge mud puddle, when one of my feet slipped. In my head, I knew it was game over, but I couldn't go down without a fight! My hands clenched the tree trunk. My feet started running, trying to get a grip anywhere on the muddy bank. 

And then, I fell, still hanging onto the tree. My whole right side splooshed into some mud. My elbow smacked against the root of the traitorous tree I had thought would save me. 

Stephen ran up the trail and picked me up. "Are you okay?" he asked. His enthusiasm was back. Somehow, seeing someone else fall does that to you. It's okay. I understand. I felt the same way when he fell. 

I kind of wanted to cry as we stood there in the torrential downpour, and Stephen laughed and wiped my hands off, one finger at a time, on his shirt. But then I also kind of wanted to laugh. And I also wanted to take a picture. So I guess both of our enthusiasms were back, and we continued down the trail. 

Phase 5E - The Return of Enthusiasm and also some Apathy

In which we realized we were already muddy and drenched and we really didn't care about trying to stay clean or dry, and all we cared about was getting down off the mountain. 

Phase 5F -  The Last Leg

In which we were finally out of the woods - not out of the rain, but out of the woods, and walking on flat ground towards the parking lot, still getting pelted with rain. We saw an old man with an umbrella walking towards the mountain. I don't know why. I didn't ask. I hope we weren't the last people he would ever see in his life....

Phase 5G - The Drive Home

In which we tore up a cardboard box in the trunk of my car to put on the seats so we didn't ruin them, and also in which we realized that neither of our phones were working, and we had barely 15 minutes before Nicole opened her mission call. 

PHASE SIX

This is when we are usually congratulating ourselves heartily for a hike well done. This time, we were blaring the heat and discussing all the things we I wanted to be eating right then: a Krispy Kreme donut, hot chocolate, a funnel cake, Awful Waffle. I wanted everything. I was convinced that all of those things were essential to my happiness.

We didn't have time to stop by our house, so we just showed up at Kelly and Dahl's house. I'm sure they wondered why a homeless hag and her husband were knocking on their door, but when they recognized us, they let us in and gave us a towel to shiver in while Nicole continued on with her mission call opening. Yes. She had already started. I guess we all know where Stephen and I belong on the totem pole....

Anyway, Nicole is going to Everett, Washington! She will be fabulous. I can't wait for her to write home about all the Twihards she brings to the gospel :)

Storm's a'Brewin'

So my cute famiglia is in Maryland, Dorothying it up with Sandy as I type. I've gotten emails from Amazon, Wells Fargo, and School's Out about it. And of course, there have been the countless Facebook statuses regarding the Frankenstorm. Apparently it's a big deal? (Please read that in a Despicable Me voice.)

People have been really sympathetic and concerned about it. They keep asking if my family got evacuated, if we still have power, if we're okay, etc. It's nice to know that so many people are concerned, but where I come from, rain is a good thing.

Rain means lightning, rain boots, and sitting with the lights off and staring out the window with my siblings. Rain means bright green grass, a happy garden, puddles and vapor rising from the ground. Rain means a slightly paranoid dad backing up all his computers and running around with a flashlight, just in case the power goes out. Really bad rain means no school and an excuse to sleep in. When it rains, we party.

In the old house, two houses down from the new house, we had a big window in the kitchen, with a sliding glass door and a railing so no one could fall out. There was a big thunderstorm, and even though it was past bedtime, there were three little girls sitting by that window. We each had on one of Dad's big t-shirts, and we sat with our knees tucked up in our shirts, looking out at the storm.

This isn't a picture from that storm, but this would be what we looked like.

We watched the swings on our swing-set sway back and forth, knocking into each other in the wind. Our turtle kiddie pool filled up with water, and we wondered if the giant tree would fall on us, but it never did.

I'm sure I wouldn't be writing this blog post if the tree had fallen on us. I'd be writing one called "Dear Sandy, I hate you and every other storm like you." Instead, I'm writing one called "Storm's a'Brewin'."

Enjoy Sandy, Murrlanders! And Virginians and Jersites and errbody else. I hope you like Easy Mac, good book, Blind Man Bluff kinda days as much as I do. May your laundry finish before the power goes out, and may your greatest trial continue to be the fear that you may not be able to access Facebook for a stint :)

Vegas Virgin No Longer

Last week, I was a Vegas Virgin. Now, I can no longer say that.

Sunday morning was a bit of a stress-fest with keys getting lost and plans being delayed a few hours, but we eventually got ourselves on the road and set off! 

Our fearless driver!

Do you wanna kick it in the backseat?

I made mix CD's for the trip. Not gonna lie, it kind of gave me anxiety as I was making them and every single song was chosen with the utmost care. I tried to imagine all of my friends laughing and singing along enthusiastically as if we were in some 50's convertible car commercial, and if I couldn't picture it, the song didn't make the cut. The result is some pretty rock-awesome mixes, you guys. 

We made it to Vegas just in time for dinner at Steve's sister's house. She has literally 2 of the cutest kids I have ever seen, ever, so we hung out there for a little bit, and then got ready to hit the strip, just to look around at night. 

Tony Stark stood in front of this very statue. The beginning of our fame?

Vegas is an interesting place on a Sunday night. The crowds are thinner and more hungover than on a Friday or Saturday, but the signs are just as vibrant and demanding. Everywhere, something is flashing in your face. There's always a bigger, brighter, or flashier sign. There's always a bigger jackpot. (There's always a bigger crackpot.) Smoke trails around you, unintentionally symbolizing the way money and dreams and clothes disappear so quickly around here. 

Despite all the smoke and glazed expressions, I did enjoy the following about Vegas at night:

*the lights

*the awesome spray-painter guy

*the statues

*the Bellagio fountains

Vegas is also an interesting place on a Monday morning! Winnie, Christine and I took our sweet time getting ready, which was too bad for Steve, whose nephew woke him up at 7 with a freezer pack to the face. 

We had Earl of Sandwich for breakfast / lunch, and that was one of the best decisions ever made in Vegas! 

Then we went to the penny slots. You have to put in $1 but then you can play a ton! At least I think you can....I didn't really understand the game, but I got $1.57. I took that little voucher and went to the next penny slot machine.  

And thatttt machine paid for my Earl of Sandwich! And gave me an extra $9 besides! Which I did not even mind. Thank you, Las Vegas. I knew I liked you. 

Vegas has a lot more to offer, too. We got an exclusive demonstration of how different sodas are made upstairs in the Coca Cola store, and also tasted sodas from all around the world. Some were delicus. Some were egregious. I guess you could say the same about a lot of things. 

We also found a free 10-minute 3D movie at the M&M store!

Palm trees are basically my favorite plant in the world, and there was an abundance of them in Vegas. Did you know that each palm tree costs $300? Sometimes I like to count them and figure out how much a specific street corner cost somebody. Maybe it was paid for by the people who played the penny slots and lost?

We bid farewell to the sparkling city and continued on our way to the Golden State: California!

Peggy-Sue was the first person to welcome us. We saw about a million signs advertising this cute little 50's diner and HAD to go! 

The second person to welcome us to Cali was a Finnish movie star. Actually, there were three of them! And they picked the booth right behind us to shoot their oh-so-famous gonna-be-a-big-fat-hit documentary of Peggy-Sue's Diner. Steve talked to them as if they were normal people. I stared at them as if they were movie stars. And I might have spent my meal leaning really far back, trying to get in as many shots as possible. 

We rolled into Steve's neighborhood in La Canada (pronounced The Canada, if you're a real local of the area) late at night, under a thick cover of some weird fog conjured up by Winnie's wish for a world full of clouds. 

You may not understand the following list of quotes, but try to enjoy them anyway:

"I feel like I'm in Seattle right now, where it rains 367 days out of the year. 

.....because there are 367 days in the year. Because it rains so much, that they get an extra 2 days in the year. 4 days? 3?"

"I just want some cream to rub on my....areas."

"You have to shower. What if someone sees you on TV, in hi-def, and they're like, daaaaang!"

S: You would pick that magazine. 

H: I picked it because it's political! And I'm intelligent.

S: You picked it because of the boobs. You have been all about boobs this weekend!

W: I guess you just always notice what you don't have?

"We need to just, stop having each other's backs."

"I'm gonna staple your face."

Obviously, it was a wonderful time :)

I'm a Happy Girl

Today, I was walking along, just heading back home in the rain after taking my finals. A boy I have never seen before was walking towards me. When we got close to each other, he said:

"You look really happy right now."

I didn't really know what to say, so I just said: "Thanks!"

Why did I look so happy? I don't actually know, but here are some possibilities.

I was wearing these. My mom gave me these boots. And I am FEARLESS when I see puddles and I am wearing these boots!

This week is finals week. I actually love finals week.....no one believes me when I tell them this, but believe you me: I love finals week. And this page is really funny and accurate.

In 2 days, these cute people will be coming to see me.

In 6 days, I will be waking up here.

In 7 days, I will be on this show.

In 8 days, I will be here.

In 9 days, I may run into this guy.....

.....this girl......

....him.....

......or her. Since I'll be walking all up on their streets.

In 10 days, I will be here.

Okay, I guess I know why I looked so happy.

Aimees

One day, I was sitting in my apartment at Raintree, just hanging out, doing homework maybe. The door opened. Chelsea bounced in, and behind her, a person with poofy hair followed.

"Hi!" the poofy-headed person said. She flashed a huge smile at me. "I'm Aimee!"

"Heather!" Chelsea said, also smiling hugely. "This is Aimee! She's my friend!"

"Hi!" I said. Their smiles were contagious. "I'm Heather -"

"I'm so happy to meet you!" Aimee said. (I believed her. She was practically giddy about it.)

For a few weeks, I just knew Aimee as Chelsea's friend. But then, she moved into our apartment, and she became my roommate, and then my friend too, and then one of my very best friends. And now, she is one of my very best friends.....who is one year older!

Aimee is one of the funniest people I know. She is constantly making me laugh, and something else that is great about her is that she also laughs a lot. So sometimes I feel like I'm really funny when we are hanging out.

When we were roommates in Raintree, we had a lot of fun together. One time, we had a girls night with Chelsea, and we all went to see Dear John at the dolla theater. The movie sucked. The company did not. So we tried again, another time, with New Moon. This time, we all wore our respective boyfriend's clothes. Both times, it was worth the dollar, because we at least had fun hanging out with each other :)

Aimee is always supportive of my ideas. I don't know why, because a lot of the time, they are not that great. Like this one time when I really wanted to check the mail, but it was raining, so I couldn't go by myself! Aimee pulled on mismatching boots and a jacket and off we went. She is so accommodating.

Another time, I wanted to do the Bikini Body workout for our Girls Night. Aimee did it with me. I loved it. She hated it. She only just complained a little bit, but she did it with me!

We also took super-fierce pictures together. She loves America's Next Top Model, and I like it, so usually when she is around, I get hooked on it again. The results are, obviously, worth the time spent on it.

Yep.

Aimee is super-sharing. She is so domestic - she can make anything, tortillas or chicken dumplings or parmesan broccoli or syrup or lemon raspberry cupcakes or cake cookies. And she doesn't just make delicious food. She shares it, too! She always took care of me when we were roommates. She still takes care of me when we are not roommates, by giving me rides to work or bringing me yummy foods she made or sending me encouraging txts (or having her husband txt me funny things) or putting candy all over my bed after I fall asleep on a particularly bad night.

Aimee is a life guard sometimes and also a swim teacher. Therefore, she gets suuuuper-tan and super-blonde in the summertime. And I spend lots of time being jealous of her. I've never seen her teach swimming, but I know she is great at it. Aimee has awesome management skills and I'm so happy that she switched her major to Elementary Education. She is going to be such an amazing elementary school teacher! We are going to share lessons with each other all the time.

Aimee is always happy for me when something good happens to me. She is also such a good listener. She's just good at talking to people and getting them to talk about themselves (and especially their farts). Sometimes, I go into our conversations thinking, "Okay. This time, we're going to talk about Aimee." And then the conversation goes something like this:

me: Tell me about bla! How did it go?

her: It was fun! How did this go?

me: It was great!

her: Did this happen?

me: Yeah! (elaborate)

her: Oh awesome! What about this?

me: Oh! (elaborate more). How was this for you?

her: It was okay. Hey, did this ever happen?

me: No...(elaborate).

Do you see what I mean? I don't know how, but somehow she always turns the conversation back to me. She is selfless and encouraging and kind. She is smart and hardworking and hilarious. She got the hottest bridals taken I have ever seen. I love her! And I think she deserves everything good in the world :)

Many Happy Days I Squandered

I've been saying a gradual goodbye to Florida and all that I love here over the past week or so. It's been sad, but at the same time, this week was one of the best weeks of my time here! About half of my bucket list got crossed off in this last week. So I'm feeling way more ready to leave now.

(BTW, the title of this post is a line from the Florida state song. And it's pretty much how I feel about my time here. My days were so happy and I squandered so many of them in a kind of blissful daze.)

Wanna know what I did for my last two weeks here?? Ok.....

Tuesday, 4/5. Met the Fairy Godmother at our 5-yr anniversary celebration at work. I had to wake up early, but it was worth it, because I got to take pictures with all my coworkers and I ate cake for breakfast.

This is the cake I ate for breakfast. (I didn't eat the whole thing, don't worry.)

This lady is my boss. Well, not anymore I guess. But she was.

After this lovely work party, I had to leave to go back home in the pouring rain. There was seriously a monsoon as we left. Here's what happened to me:

After the work party, I went back home for a few hours and hung out with my roommates. I ate Chick-fil-A for breakfast, which is delicious anytime but especially on a gloomy monsoon-y day, and then we made a "Remember When" list. I love making these at the end of every semester and Olivia left on the 7th, so we didn't have much time left together.

After this lovely bonding time, I worked for a few hours and then headed over to Hollywood Studios to watch Fantasmic. I can't believe I spent 3 months in Florida and only just barely made my way over to watch it. It was really cool and I think I looked like a little kid with how excited I got.

Once Fantasmic was over I traded in my flipflops for some heels and headed over to the House of Blues for Latin Night with my roommate Jackie and some other friends. Another item crossed off my bucket list :) It was fun and I realized that I forgot how much I love dancing. I think Jackie and I were the some of whitest girls in the place, and I'm pretty sure we were theonly blondes.

Wednesday, 4/6. Jackie, Dianne, and I went with Olivia and her friend Emily to Daytona Beach!! I love the beach and I love these girls, and Daytona is gorgeous.

Some things to remember if you are going to the beach:

1. Sand sticks to everything. You will be scraping it out of your phone and sunglasses for weeks after leaving the beach.

2. Swimsuits get bigger when they get wet. So you should always hold onto them when waves crash into you.

3. You can touch the tops of jellyfish, but don't touch their squiggly little legs. Don't even do it.

Sunday, 4/10. Have you ever celebrated your birthday by being rudely awaken at 6 in the morning to the sound of popping balloons and screams of "Happy Birthday!!!" ? If your answer is no, you need more friends like me, Dianne, Christine, Jackie, and Sean. Two of our friends, Cheyenne and Brad, turned a year older on this day. We pulled them out of bed at 6 in the morning and made crepes and sausages and cupcakes for their special day. Surprisingly, it was lots of fun!

Tuesday, 4/12. I worked a twelve-hour shift this day and was dead tired by the end of it, but I was able to muster up the strength to get dressed and drag myself to the Magic Kingdom for one last viewing of Wishes (the fireworks show) with my FGIT friends. We watched the fireworks and took pictures in front of the castle and got pineapple dole whip and watched the Electric Lights Parade and rode Space Mountain.

I'm going to miss this magical place :(

Wednesday, 4/13. The Saunders came to town! Amber Saunders was one of my leaders in Young Women's and Seth served with my dad in the bishopric. They are in Orlando right now with their youngest son Kellen for an acting and modeling competition so I got to meet up with them and take them to Disney World. On Wednesday morning I picked them up from their hotel and we went to Animal Kingdom. Right after saying hello, Kellen handed me an autographed photo collage. He is darling :) At DAK, we went on a safari and did some catching up, and then I had to go to work.

It was my last day of work, and I didn't have time to go from DAK to my apartment, so I had to go straight to Downtown Disney, which meant that I didn't have my name tag and I had to be Melanie from Reedings, England for my last day.

Everything was bittersweet. All day, my FGIT friends were coming up to me one at a time to wish me luck and express their sadness that I was leaving so soon after arriving. I am going to miss them all so much! Everyone I work with has been so kind to me. I'm a little surprised by how attached I've gotten after only a few months, but when I think about how included everyone has made me feel here, I'm not so surprised after all.

I went on my last parade and thought back to my first parade. It seems like it was only last week that I went on the carousel for the first time and thought, as we went round and round, how fun my job was. My time in Florida stretched out before me with no end in sight. When the carousel stopped this time, my FGIT friends called me over and we took a few pictures together with our flags and banners. Looking into the camera lens, I actually got tears in my eyes, because I'm going to miss this so much.

Rhonda, my favorite coordinator, left at 4. Rhonda was born and raised in Florida but has kind of a Southern accent. She is so funny and sassy and always lets me go on the parade when she's coordinating. She gave me her home, cell, and work number and told me that if I wanted to use her as a reference she would have nothing but good things to say.

I was doing a princess makeover and she came over and said, "Princess, can I say goodbye to your fairy godmother really quick?" My princess said yes and Rhonda came behind the chair and gave me a hug. That was the second time I started crying, but I held it in really well, since I was onstage. Rhonda wished me good luck in everything and then told my princess, "Thank you for letting me say goodbye. Your fairy godmother is going to the castle for a very long time, so I'm not sure when I'll get to see her again. So it's exciting, because she's going to get to live in the castle, but I'll miss her too." Ugh. The castle sounded soooo unappealing right then!

Nadira, my trainer, and Marjorie left at 5. I was helping Valerie with makeup and Nadira came over and asked to speak with me backstage. They both gave me big hugs and said they were sad to see me go. I loved these ladies so much so I started crying then too. Haha I was seriously like a fountain all day, it was ridiculous.

I didn't leave until 8:30, and at 8:00, a FGIT named Patty came over with all the other FGIT's that were still at work and said that they had something for me. She handed me a laminated sheet of paper that everyone had signed and a PhotoPass card with pictures on it that the photographers had taken of me throughout the day. Make that the fourth time that I cried....

Patty was so nice and said, "We don't usually do this for CP's, but you were such a pleasure to work with. You brought so much to this boutique and we all loved working with you. We just want to wish you luck with everything you do, and we hope you come back to visit us soon!"

Above: me with Nadira

Below: me with Marjorie

Thursday, 4/14. I finally started packing on this day. It really should have happened sooner, but what-er. After a few hours of packing, I went to Typhoon Lagoon with Sean. Sean is one of the first people I met here...in fact, we met on the bus ride from the airport! So it was nice to come full-circle.

We strapped on snorkels and swam with sharks for our first activity. I was retarded at first with the snorkel and it kept filling with water, so this Australian lifeguard swam over to me and was like, "Are you all right, love?" And I was like *cough cough hack deep breath* "sorry, my snorkel just keeps filling with salt water!" And he was like, "It's all right. Here, hold onto my arm." And I was like mmmm. Ok :) And he was like, "You just make a nice seal around that with your lips." And I was like, "what about my lips?" Just kidding, I didn't say that. I just thought it....and then I stopped hanging onto him and swam away and then Sean and I went through again.

This time I wasn't so preoccupied with trying to breathe, so I was actually able to see the sharks. There were some hammerheads and some tiger sharks, and then a bunch of other cool tropical fish. I felt so cool and didn't even get eaten.

After that adventure, we went on a few slides and played in the wave pool, and then it was time to go. I picked up the Saunders and we went to the Magic Kingdom! I've decided that Disney World is a lot more fun when you go with little kids. Kellen was so excited about everything and it was great hanging out with them.

Right after eating dinner, I met up with some of my friends who were also in Magic Kingdom. The Saunders were ready to go home, so I stayed with my friends to watch the fireworks and get one last pineapple dole whip and then we headed home, too. We got home at about midnight and then there were some more goodbyes as Jackie, Christine and I stayed up until 5 in the morning packing and talking and eating pizza (thanks, Anne!)

Friday, 4/15. Three hours after going to sleep, I woke up to take Jackie and Christine to the airport. I know I'll see them in about a month, but it was still sad saying goodbye! I love these girls!

I got back to Chatham at about 10 and learned that I had to be out by 11. Thus began an hour of panic as I ran around, gathering everything, trying to decide what to keep and what to leave behind. My only regret is that I didn't get to say goodbye to the pool :( I definitely squandered many happy days there!

Once I was all packed, I turned in my key and housing ID and left Chatham forever. I turned in my costume for the last time and then I went to hang out with the Saunders for a little bit while Kellen got ready for his competition. It was so exciting! I can't wait to hear how he did.

Later in the afternoon I brought all my stuff over to my friends' apartment. I'm staying with Sarah, Angelica, Amanda, and Abbie for the rest of my time here in Florida. They are being so nice to let me stay with them! It's kinda fun because every time I drive through, I have to hang out outside the gate until someone else wants to come in who has a gate key, and then I just follow them in real quick. Or I have to call the front office and say, "hi, I'm Sarah Stallings, I just left my gate key at home!" And then they open the gate for me. So it's always an adventure. Last night, Geli taught us how to make these cool bracelets so I made two. We are going to go to the beach in a few days and I'm going to surf again and I'm so excited.

Last night, I met up with some of my FGIT friends at the Rainforest Cafe for Kayla's birthday dinner. It was delicious and we had a really funny and nice waiter. Except he accidentally told my friend Shayna that she was sexy and then her boyfriend met up with us later and he was a meathead and got super mad about it and wanted to fight our waiter so that was awkward since our waiter was just being nice and in fact has a girlfriend who also works at the Rainforest Cafe and was standing right there when Shayna's boyfriend confronted him about it.....

Saturday, 4/16. Tonight I am going out for one final hurrah with my FGIT friends. Haruna is having her birthday party and we are going to give ourselves princess makeovers and then go out dancing. I'm going to be a Disney Diva with blonde hair. It's gonna be awesome.

WHEW. I'm sorry about how long this blog post is. I just had so much to talk about! I'll probably come back later and post some more pictures, but until then, I think this is more than enough material. If you don't read the whole thing, I won't even be offended.