Shopping Day

On Saturday my friends Mary and Sarah and I went shopping at The Gateway. Even though it was freezing outside, we had tons of fun! Our first stop was Old Navy so Mary could look for a scarf for her friend serving a mission in Switzerland. She didn't find one, but I found one for me! The next stop was a kiosk to look at the sunglasses. Here we are showing off our movie star look:

We all ended up buying a pair, so we got 3 for $20! What a deal! Next up was Aeropostale and Hot Topic (not a store I usually go to, but I had to get a Christmas present). With our arms full we hiked over to California Pizza, where we had a nice, expensive lunch. I got the California Club (below):

I thought it would be weird to have lettuce on pizza, but it actually tasted a lot like a regular club sandwich. Dang, it was good. Sarah got the same one, and Mary got Chipotle Chicken, which was also very tasty.

It was fun to have some girl time and do some shopping, even though I probably spent more than I should have. :)

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

Yay, I'm all decorated for Christmas! Mom and Bethany came down on Monday and for our little fhe we decorated my apartment. I got this tree (pre-lit, 6 1/2 ft.) at Walgreens for $20. Not a bad deal.

I also set up the Nativity set that Mom sent me on my mission. We still have it, although the angel must have broken when I mailed it home.

Work and Halloween

I've been working at MasterControl as the Marketing Admin Assistant for 5 months now, and am really enjoying it. The people I work with are all so different, and a lot of fun. As the admin, I'm involved in just about everything that goes on in marketing, so I have learned a lot. This is me at my cubicle (right after I decorated for Halloween).

For Halloween this year I got an idea from my friend Brittany to be a missing person. This is what I came up with. I made it late at night, so it's not as cute as I would have liked, but oh well.

New Home, New Life

So ever since I moved to Salt Lake, I've been postponing the inevitable change of wards because....well, because I don't like change I guess. I was really comfortable in my Ogden ward and knew pretty much everybody. I also haven't been doing much to get to know new people closer to where I live. But this last weekend things started to change a little bit. On Saturday night Brittany Adams invited me to come to a party with her that was for a bunch of people in the ward she recently started attending (down at the U). I went and it was pretty much a huge step for both of us because neither of us knew anybody. But it was actually a lot of fun and we met a lot of people. So on Sunday I went with her to that ward, and discovered I knew even more people because a few members of my old ward had started going there (the members are mostly from Ogden to Centerville). Then I decided to just go ahead and take the full plunge and I went to their FHE on Monday night all by myself (Brittany had to work). It turned out ok, and now I think I have finally found the ward to transfer my records to. Good thing because my tithing checks are building up in my checkbook :)

All decked out

This is Maggie ready for Halloween and Christmas! On her head is her lobster costume from Halloween last year, and on her body is her Santa outfit from last Christmas. We've had her for a whole year already, I can't believe it!

Mission Reunion

Last Friday, October 5th (which just happened to be my year and a half mark home from the mish) I had a mission reunion. It was so much fun! It's so crazy to see missionaries as "real people" and there were a lot there that I worked with. President and Sister Morrow were there and they spoke to us in the chapel; Sister Morrow did her usual Top 10; this time it was the top 10 things we miss about New York. President Morrow talked to us about covenants (some things never change) and a newly sealed convert couple from Flushing, Queens bore their testimonies. It was very sweet; they had just been sealed in the Salt Lake Temple that afternoon. Then we went into the cultural hall and ate chili and socialized. Here are a few pictures:

Left: Me and Sister Collier, my favorite comp in Richmond Hill, Queens.
Right: Me and Sister Ivanova, my "eternal" mission companion. We lived together/were in the same zone/were companions for our whole mission except the first 3 months.

Left: Sisters Kim, Zambrin, Zufelt, me, and Miles

Right: Part of the MTC district - me, O'Donahue, Lee, and Marsh

Part of my last district in Rego Park, Queens: Cordova, me, and Knapp

This is a picture of the house I live in. It's in the cutest area...every house is different. I live on the top floor. There is only one bedroom, which I am supposed to be sharing, but my roommate hasn't been there the whole time I have. So it's like I have my own apartment, which is nice sometimes and not so nice at other times. Last night at about midnight it was not so nice. For some reason my doorbell decided to go off again and again and again and wouldn't stop. It must have gotten stuck or something. I had been asleep for about an hour so when it woke me up I was completely disoriented of course, and it took a while to figure out what that sound was. So of course I was freaked out because I thought maybe someone had gotten in or someone was at the door. I was kind of scared to turn on a light, but I did and went down to make sure the door was still locked, which it was, and then I wondered how in the world I would make the sound stop, because I sure wasn't going to open the door at that point. Then I noticed a little box near the top of the stairs with an on/off switch and I switched it to "off" and it stopped! I was so relieved and went back to bed with my heart pounding. So sometimes it is a little scary to live by yourself in downtown Salt Lake, but it's a fun adventure too.

This is me with a llama sent to me by Joanna, one of my converts from my mission. She's from Peru (hence the llama) and she's SO awesome! She's so strong and is a great influence on her family, most of which still live in her country.

I decided to do a blog because...

Hey everybody! This may sound a little weird, but I decided to do a blog because I haven't been doing very well at keeping a journal lately. And since I'm on the computer for 7-8 hours a day, I thought maybe this would work a little better. So here I am!

There's not a whole lot going on in my life right now. I moved to Salt Lake almost 2 weeks ago, and the life down here is definitely different than up in Ogden/Layton. For one thing, I don't currently have a roommate as the one I was supposed to have decided to start taking her law classes at BYU and is kind of living down there, although half her stuff is still in my apartment. I'm slightly confused about what is going on, but oh well. I went to a singles ward at the U of U on Sunday and it was huge! So different from my ward in Ogden. But I actually knew two people, which was kind of a relief. Other than that I'm just working at MasterControl down in Cottonwood and.... I guess that's it!