2011 in review

okay so i know i have been a really crappy blogger as of late. but guess what? 2012 is my year. it has already been decided so i think that part of my year will include blogging on a regular basis. there i said it. it's out in the universe and so it shall be done! let's review what has happened this year shall we?

i watched both my roommates meet, fall in love and marry their one and only's. i moved in with a texan and it was the best move of 2011. i got proposed to in haiti by a vendor. i went on my annual flaming gorge trip. i bought a lot of clothes...a lot. i expanded my shoe collection by approximately 15 pairs of shoes. i stayed up past midnight almost every night. i stayed awake for a whole 24 hours. i had a 5 hour and 45 minute phone conversation. i got extensions. got second place in a singing competition. hiked dunn's river falls in jamaica. went cliff jumping in a jungle river in jamaica. learned how to boogie board on the back of a cruise ship's flow rider. joined the world of online dating...gasp! i went to logan for a wedding. saw my grandpa for the first time in 22 years. knit 2 pair of gloves. i got proposed to by 2 rastafarian's in jamaica, one named barrington and the other bob. went para sailing in mexico. ate curried goat, really greasy like duck. caught a horny toad lizard. went skinny dipping...gasp! went on a dam tour. did hair for 3 weddings. made 7 tissue paper puff balls. went to a rodeo. sold my car. bought a car. threw out my back again...over my birthday weekend. watched one of my childhood friends get married. went to about a million movies. survived humongous waves on the ocean. finally got over a certain someone. fell in love with ryan gosling. found 3 gray hairs! discovered pintrest and therefore wanted to die quickly after. finally finished reading the glass castle after about a year of reading it.

i know there is a lot more exciting things that i could have reported about, but i'm really tired and can't think clearly with the crazy wind outside my window right now. i can concentrate on this however, 2011 was a great year. i can't complain. it was full of a lot of hard things, but somehow i survived and found out a little more who aly is. because no matter how hard or crappy things can seem....someone out there has it harder or crappier than i do. i have a car. i have a house to live in. i have a job. i have my health. i have a family who loves me. i have amazing friends who keep me sane. and i have a loving heavenly father. what more could a 26 year old gal wish for? onward and upward 2012! happy new year folks.

yep this is happening

i am currently running on 4 hours of sleep and yet it is 1:18 am and i am still wide awake! my reasons for staying up late last night and for staying up late tonight are so different, but i am finding that all in all i am just as happy tonight was i was last night! thanks to a and c. ha ha!

tonight's events included this...

it is my paper chain countdown to when i can get my iphone. yep. i'm in fourth grade still.

another note

this is the last thing tonight i promise!

char is having twins again...i know i have mentioned that before.

but i didn't mention that they are......

BOYS!!!!!!!!!!

yay for future nephews!

thanksundance

my grandpa (toni's dad) came out from arkansas with his wife (carolyn) for thanksgiving. now grandpa (dean) and carolyn haven't ventured to the great state of utah for 22 years. so to make it easier to understand...i hadn't seen them since i was 4. my mom was pregnant with emme when they last came so emme hadn't ever met them! crazy is right. all i remember about our first meeting was that he took us all for a ride on his motorcycle...so you can imagine as a 4 year old that was pretty cool. then he breezed on out of your lives for 22 years.

i had just finished curling and spraying my hair when they knocked on kate's door. i was the last to greet them and i just could hear carolyn say 'oh my god dean, look how pretty she is!' in a really think midwestern accent which coincidentally sounds like a cheese head...from wisconsin. they are a fantastic retired couple who will tell the same story while talking over each other the whole time, leaving you to struggle to know which one to listen to. only to find out that once you make eye contact with either one you are stuck in their non stop talking until either you have to go to the bathroom or fake an injury.

dean loved to talk about his 2 lexus....which i think you should pluralize to lexii. your thoughts? they also really loved to talk about how much money carolyn's daughter pearl has. which is fine, but i think i should get a cut of that money for being pearl's step niece...right? on thanksgiving day it was dean's 79th birthday! so we celebrated by making real mashed potatoes rather than potato pearls. and also by stuffing our faces full of turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, shirley's rolls and various pies, banana cream being my personal favorite as always. it was the good thanksgiving ever, even though i lost mario party yet again. stupid single siblings! then we sat around talking and for me playing angry birds on my mom's new kindle fire. yep i am just like a 12 year old...boy.

the day after thanksgiving was my mom's (toni) birthday. so i celebrated by working at 8am! no we really celebrated by heading to sundance to meet up with the garn's for an adult only dinner at the tree room. really fancy we are. well actually we aren't. turns out that after dinner char told me that she wished we would have sat differently at the table so that all the single kids would have been separated and not all at the same end of the table. whatever. dinner was delicious and we stuffed our faces with our individual desserts and a giant delicious chocolate birthday cake. we bought my mom a new ski jacket. she was stoked. then we went back to the cabin they were staying at (it belongs to olivia newton-john...omg!) and just hung out with the kids for a bit. it lost it's magic when i asked grace (10 year old niece) if she was excited for hawaii, seeing as they were leaving in 4 days. her reply was, and i'm not making this up...'yeah, but not really. i wish we were going to maui instead.' oh boo freaking hoo grace, you HAVE to go to oahu instead of maui. your life is so hard! that girl has been on an airplane more than i have and i am in my mid 20's! kids just say the darndest things!

so anyway...happy birthday dean and toni. i hope you both had the good birthday ever!

where have you been?

i know that is what so many of you are thinking right now. well let me tell you all...

i was in the western caribbean oct 30-nov 6.

i have been working non stop.

i was in farmington for thanksgiving.

i was at sundance the day after thanksgiving.

i went to carrabbas for the first time ever.

i have been in a state of bitter cold.

i have been so unproductive it feels like.

i have no cruise pictures yet because my new roomie has them all on her computer and i am patiently waiting for a cd of all 1,000 pictures.turns out that 3 girls can generate a whole crap load of pictures.

hold the phone...this is also new!

yep that is me. and yes those are extensions! i know what you are thinking, and yes i do look really pretty. it took me about a week to get over them and stop talking about them non stop. and then another week to get my attitude into check as well. turns out looking like a 'summer sales' guys girlfriend makes you want to be a major wench! like all the time. so i am sorry if i have offended anyone, but it was the hair.

at thanksgiving i asked my mom if we were going to go around the table and say what we were thankful for and she said sure. so i started and ended by say that i was thankful that i was so pretty...mind you this was still week 1 of the extensions so i was still self absorbed. after that my mom put a stop to the thankful party and we just finished eating. maybe next year we can revisit the whole meaning of thanksgiving.

so more about the cruise. it was fantastic and i didn't want to come home. when i get my cd of pictures i will post numerous amounts of visuals and stories to go along with.