welcome to boise, folks

Tuesday after classes Danny, Brittney, Madi, and I packed up the car and drove to Boise (with a short stop in Brigham City to get some Idle Isle - in honor of Dad) to spend the holiday with Meagan, Spencer, and Sienna.

We started off with a great trip to the Boise zoo. Guess what? Boise's zoo was actually worth the seven bucks we paid to get in. They had some awesome monkeys, sweet penguins, and HUGE tigers. But the best part was probably these two girls.

Let's be real, I have some of the cutest nieces ever. 

Then that night we had a GNO (minus the babies) and went to see the new twilight movie - it was overrated in my opinion, but had some decent parts. The best part of this? Meagan made us all some breaking dawn movie packages. 

Type A Blood (cherry soda), Blood Straws (twizzlers), Vampire Diet Food (Beef Jerky), Werewolf Cookies (chocolate fudge cookies), Red Hot Werewolf (cinnamon gum), and Vampirice (chapstick). 

How cute is my sister?

Of course we had a delicious Thanksgiving meal, and yeah it was chicken not turkey because we're all poor college students. 

Friday we did a little black friday shopping at Forever 21, and then we had a little bowling party with the babies. Saturday the boys went to the BSU game while we got to do some serious shopping, and go to the farmer's market. 

Oh, and did I get $220 worth of clothes at anthropologie for under $60? You better believe it. 

We finished off our Saturday night by going to the Boise Fry Company where you choose your potato, style of fries, seasoning, and flavored ketchup. It's better than it sounds. If you ever get a chance to go my recommendation is the yam fries, with cinnamon and ginger, and marshmallow sauce. Delicious. 

The long ride home was totally worth the trip up there. I'm officially counting down for Christmas in Tokyo with the same crowd. 

where's my mother?

Despite the fact that I spent the majority of yesterday starting and finishing a 300+ page book for English, so I could honestly tell my teacher I read the entire book...

I'm sick. 

and surprisingly enough, too sick to go to school. I would be angry about it, other than the fact that I probably got sick from babysitting my adorable niece. And who can be mad about that?

So now, other than the fact I had to go get new tires today, my day gets to consist of bundling up in my snowman blanket, finishing my stats assignment, trying to understand my sociology paper, catching up on my religion packet, and lots of Michael Buble christmas music. 

My only question is, where's my mother? Oh yeah. she's 5545.7 miles away.

So forget about ghost whisperer, cold medicine, and hot soup. 

I'll be living off airbornes and downing throat lozenges.

the senselessness of strangers

Today after driving home from the grocery store I was stopped at a red light and saw a man in his late twenties or so standing on the corner. He was holding a sign that said lost my job, rent is due. Now usually these people make me feel uncomfortable and I try to ignore them. And even if I do by chance see them, I won't even think about giving them money. Why? Because first, I believe people should work for what they're given, and second because I naturally think that they'll spend it on boos. Nonetheless, I really felt like I should give him something. So as the light turned green I drove forward slowly, unrolled my window, and handed him a dollar bill. Was this stupid? Absolutely. What person in their right mind unrolls their window with their wallet open and someone they don't know standing outside? Well, I guess I do. Sorry Mom and Dad, guess your lesson on stranger danger never stuck.

But despite the fact that I probably just did something stupid, AND that I'm a poor college student and need to save all my money, at least I can feel like I did something good for someone today. Hopefully.

College 101

Things I’ve been lucky enough, and unfortunate enough, to learn the last two months:

Gas is way too expensive.

Meet someone new? Check their ring finger first.

If you make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, you will probably eat them all.

Costco is also too expensive.

Dishes pile up really fast.

If you leave your homemade granola in a ziploc bag sitting by your dryer sheets, the homemade granola tastes like dryer sheets.

The taste of dryer sheets burns your mouth.

Skype is a necessary commodity.

You do actually miss your family.

People think its funny to doorbell ditch cooked peas on your doorstep.

People also think it’s funny to fill the stairwell with crumpled up newspaper the day before it rains, making it stink the entire weekend.

Falling asleep in class is embarrassing.

Singles wards are awkward.

Toilets are never as nice as they were back home, they will probably break somehow.

When your toilet does break, and its 2:45 in the morning you have to call campus police.

Jillian Michaels and Sean T are lifesavers.

Missing the bus sucks.

Going on a date with a returned missionary isn’t as scary as it seems. (Don’t worry Dad I’m not getting married.)

Taking a class at 8 in the morning is a bad idea.

You can put peanut butter in any jamba juice.

But probably the most important of all of these, is that it's really hard to make yourself go to class sometimes. GO ANYWAY. 

well hi, i'm liz :)

and instead of writing some amazingly clever post about how “I never planned on starting a blog but unfortunately, after some serious blog stalking, here I am” I’m starting out this blog with seven things that you probably didn’t need to know about me or something like that - because I got tagged by this cute girl. So here goes …

#1 - I have a weird thing for shoes. This doesn’t mean that I own a million pair, although someday I hopefully will. This means that the first thing I judge you on is what is on your feet. I honestly think that someone’s shoes can say a lot about their personality.

#2 - I went vegetarian for one year, exactly. This was something I did just to prove to myself I could do it. I guess it was kind of a self-discipline thing. Don’t get me wrong I love animals and all, but I love my steak too much to go vegetarian for the rest of my life.

#3 - My feel good movie – Peter Pan. And although I absolutely adore Disney movies, and their version is great, sadly I’m talking about the 2003 Jeremy Sumpter version of Peter Pan. If I’m upset or feeling blue, this is what I turn to.

#4 - I like to back into my parking spot. This is partially because I'm terrified of hitting a person or biker when trying to back out, but also because it kind of runs in the family.

#5 - I have a large birthmark that I used to hate. I would try everything possible to get out of swimming or any other activity where it might be visible. Also, I may or may not have believed my hilarious family when they told me it was from a bear bite. Now I’ve actually come to like my birthmark, just because no one else has one like it.

#6 - I’m a huge nerd. I read for fun, I like learning new things, and I love knowing random facts that no one else knows.

#7 - Insanity workouts have become a must-have in my life. My sister-in-law got me hooked on them at the beginning of the summer and I just can’t seem to stop. I still hate the sweating, the shaking muscles, and the soreness the day after, but Sean T is my idol and one day I will look like the stupid Asian girl that does the entire workout and never gets tired.

Since I’m relatively new to this whole blogging thing I don’t have seven people to tag, so Sierra and Kyler it's your turn.