Back in the 801

I'm HOMMMMMEEEE!!  

Or actually, I'm at my parent's home.  Like I said at Christmas time... who knows where home is these days.  Kalamazoo feels a lot like home.  It IS where Gloria and my baby herbs are.

But as far as hometowns go, I'm definitely here now.  Chillaxing with my family.  My Dad had a birthday yesterday.  It felt really nice to have a BBQ and watch the Jazz vs. Lakers while playing board games with all the Beckstroms.  Fantastically comfortable evening.

And my sister Erin had baby #4 tonight!  Welcome Samuel Alvin Thomas into the world.  He is wonderful and has a head full of poofy blond hair.  Simply perfect.    

Which means that the 3 other Thomas boys are having a sleepover here tonight.  It's a wild rumpus!!  But also so so so fun.  Aren't little boys incarnated joy... when they aren't having tantrums, squirting each other with the hose,  and fighting over cupcakes I guess.  

I never realize how much the 'ville reminds me of Nathan until I'm here.  My room is full of his stuff.  My house is full of his picture.  The whole city is full of our favorite places and memories.  Everyone here asks me how he's doing.  Not that I don't love talking about him, and thinking about him, and being surrounded by his things... but it makes me miss him A LOT.  Sunday was his 13 month mark.  Only 11 to go.  If you were ever curious... waiting for your best friend for 2 years is not at all easy.  But I have no doubt it will be worth it.

I'm excited to see my USU friends play chamber music tomorrow night.  And to hang out at the cello party after.  I'm excited to eat "ranch thanks" with Stace and to drive by the old Yellow House.  I'm excited to see Lauren home from her mission and see Katie J before she leaves for hers.  I'm excited to see dear Karlie all ripe and ready to harvest.  And Nyle.  Let's not forget Nyle!!

I learned to drive a standard transmission today.  I'm sure anyone hanging out in Park park today had a good laugh at me starting and stopping all over the parking lot, but I finally got the hang of it.  Thanks Mom for having patience with me and for having more faith in me than you did when I was 16.  :)  

And speaking of Mom... her hair is growing back now.  She has about 2 inches of wonderful fuzz (kind of like new baby Samuel... ha ha).  She got it cut and highlighted yesterday, and she looks super fierce.  Like Agent M from James Bond. I'm so happy that she is healthy enough to grow hair again.  

Did I mention how excited I am to hang out with Ashley and Katie on Thursday??  And sister Em on Friday?  What a good week it's going to be!  

I love the snow-capped mountains.  I love big hugs from family.  I love being bounced by cute little Kizzie.  I love.  love.  this home.  

I'll be here till Saturday, folks!

ABC

Tagged on Facebook...

Answered on blog.  

A - Age you got your first kiss: 15... or We can erase that one in our minds and really say 18.

B - Band listening to right now: if I WERE listening to a band, today I feel like listening to The Rocket Summer

C - Crush: Nathan Matthew Morris.  A perpetual crush. 

D - Dad's name: Blake D. 

E - Easiest person to talk to: Nathan, Mom, Lynsie

F - Favorite ice cream: Pistachio Pistachio.  Also pear and coconut sorbet

G - Gummy worms or gummy bears?: cinnamon gummy bears.  YUM.  

H - Hometown: Taylorsville UT

I - Instruments: piano and cello.  It's kind of a big part of my life.

J- Junior High: Bennion Jr.High

K- Kids: someday when I learn patience.  Then perhaps 2 polite children who will always be clean and quiet.  LOL.  

L - Longest car ride ever: In 4th grade I drove with my mom from Utah to Wyoming and then straight to Texas, then back to Utah.  It was totally fun and a sequence of life defining moments spent with my mom.  

M - Mom's name: Gae Terenna 

N- Nicknames: James, Jay, Jay-Z, Jammers (only Zach), Lyn

O - One wish: To know how the future will turn out

P - Phobia[s]: failure, spiders (wimpy, I know). If I watch even a mildly scary movie, I'm way scared of the dark, and scary noises and every little thing for at least a week. 

Q - Quotes: Current favorite "What in heck, Anne!" said by Gilbert in Anne of Green Gables.  Also from Little Women "Your potatoes.... Heeeerre!" and the Office "Lord, beer me strength!"  

R - Reason to smile: Semester is over, spring is here, and the summer is full of optimistic possibilities! 

S - Song you sang last: Oh Yikes, I don't remember.  I always mindlessly sing along to what ever song is going on in my life.  I bet it was from my ipod "best of Michigan" mix though.  Probably a Daisy May something or other.  

T - Time you woke up today: 5:00 am.  Had to catch an early flight HOME!!!  

U - Unknown fact about me: I'm actually really an FBI agent.  

V - Vegetable you hate: Sprouts.  gross gross gross.  Might as well go eat grass.  

W - Worst habit(s): eating things that make my tummy hurt, wasting time, worrying about silly things, leaving my shoes everywhere, procrastination.  

X - X-rays you've had: left hand... BROKEN!  Besides that... just dentist x-rays and stuff.  

Y - Yummy food: ALL food!  I LOVE food.  Pears, pasta salad, PB and J, oatmeal cookies, grilled salmon, cafe RIO!!!!

Z - Zodiac sign: Sagittarius. Today's horoscope... "It's up to you to push your friends to communicate in more meaningful ways." Come on friends, communicate!!  :) 

Tribute to My Girls

So as I mentioned before, I'm a little obsessed with the photo editing program called Picasa.  I've been going through all of my old photos lately, and a lot of my favorite ones are with these girls right here.  Everyone needs a good best friend.  I'm lucky enough to have three!  

Katie and I grew up in the same neighborhood and even went to preschool together.  I met Ashley in Jr. High because we were in all of the same smart kid classes.  Lynsie and I met as echelons our sophomore year.  All 4 of us ended up in cheerleading together as juniors, and then in concert choir the next year.  And we've all been BFF ever since.  

These girls have been there for me through all the funnest, craziest, and hardest times. Whether it's road trippin' to St. George, customary halloween parties, billions of cheer memories... good and bad, concert choir tour, graduation, moving to college, Lynsie getting married, Nathan leaving on his mission, new years kisses on temple square, family deaths, boy drama or moving across the country, these girls have been with me through it all.  

I've learned so much from them.  Katie always influences me on how I treat others and inspires me to have a positive attitude even in hard times.  I love how she is so thoughtful and is always cheering me on.  Although it doesn't always show, Ashley has taught me a lot about responsibility and the value of being punctual.  I love that even though she is so disciplined and responsible, she still has an amazingly fun rebel side.  She is a rocker at heart, loves to travel, and is so cleverly sarcastic, and I love these things about her.  Lynsie is constantly happy and finds fun in any situation.  Watching her and Steve teaches me a lot about how I want my own married relationship to be.  I love that she loves being a wife and a home maker.  I really appreciate the advice and perspective Lynsie provides for my silly problems.  

Not to mention that these are three of the most beautiful girls I have ever met!!  

SO here's love and hugs to my best BFFs in the whole wide world.  Although you live far away, and we're all busy doing our own things, you continue to bless and inspire my life all the time.  As Lynsie would say, "Aw... we're such good friends!!"  

And we are.  

Checklist-Picasa-Music-Easter-Herbs

My sis-in-law, Andrea, blogs 5 cool things that happened in her life within the week.  And she calls it her fab five.  I'm stealing her format for this week.  Here's fab five... JB style.  

1. 3 papers, 1 presentation, and 4 concerts have been checked off the end-of-semester stress list.  I realized last Monday that there are only 2 weeks left in this semester!  Spring semester 2009= turbo speed.  And I like that!  I can totally handle one more article summary, a WMU orchestra concert, 2 finals and a jury... no sweat.  

2. Picasa, a photo editing program, is FINALLY available for macs (or maybe it has been for a long time, but I just discovered it).  And there is a free download on their website!  So now I can productively spend my time creating things like this:

3. I accidentally found some old music files that I thought I had deleted ages ago.  So the past few days I have been rocking out to old tunes from Norton Recorded Anthology, which makes me miss Rosie, Ann, Julie, Bekah and Nyle severely.  I'm instantly flung back to the days of late-night music history study parties and classes with Smigel in FA 220.  Every song in the Anthology from Saul to Mackey Messer is another hilarious memory.  

In the old music files, I also found some Enya, EFY music, Jim Brickman, Peter Wispelway, and the Pride and Prejudice soundtrack.  :)

4. Tomorrow is my first Easter away from home.  And my first Easter not spent with Nathan since 2004.  I'll miss dying eggs, being forced to eat peeps, hunting for the $ eggs in all the usual places, and eating dinner with my fam.  But on the bright side, I got to dye eggs with church friends last night, I'm eating a Middle-eastern Easter feast at the Johnsons house, and then an egg hunt hosted by Jana.  I even saved the stickers from the dye kit to put on my forehead, and bought myself a peep to eat.  It's going to be a great Easter.  

Behold, my 2009 Egg creations: 

5. I have a chrysanthemum plant that has outgrown it's little pot.  So I picked up a new pot at Target.  And while I was in the garden center, the display of herb seeds caught my eye.  I've always wanted to have a window sill garden full of herb plants.  And I decided it's about time to fulfill that dream.  I bought another pot, and a packet of basil and oregano. (I'm starting simple).  I had a good time planting the tiny seeds, and now I'm patiently awaiting the little sprouts.  They should make their appearance in about 7-14 days.  I'll take pictures and keep ya updated, cause I'm pretty excited.  

Happy Spring!  

Last of the year mark celebration

Here is a little slideshow of pictures from Nathan's year mark.  It was so fun putting that last sticker on the top of the countdown chart.  I sent Elder Morris a "fill your hump" package full of my favorite vegetarian treats.  I also found the perfect card of two kittens smushed together in a hammock, just like Nathan and I used to do.  Nathan sent me half of his shirt to burn.  We both decorated the shirt with important things that have happened in the past year for us.  I burned it yesterday, a year from the day he will finally come home!  My awesome friends from the branch helped me burn it.  Caty is about to become an MG, cause Sam is getting his mission call any day now.  I'm so glad I'm not at the beginning any more!  I remember that I couldn't WAIT for Nathan to leave so he could be closer to coming home.  My heart goes out to Caty.  It's such an exciting, yet heart-wrenching time.  After the shirt was a pile of ashes on the sidewalk, we went to Sweet Water donut mill.  YUM!  What a way to celebrate a year.  :)