Life Accomplishments thus far

Instructions: Take the following list and bold the items you have completed or experienced.

1. Started your own blog

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyland

8. Climbed a mountain

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sang a solo

11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched a lightning storm at sea

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitch hiked

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Run a Marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught yourself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David

41. Sung karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been on television

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten Caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper

85. Read the entire Bible

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous

92. Joined a book club

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a lawsuit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

100. Totally copied a post from someone else's blog to your own

39/100

I got my mission call!!!

I just opened my mission call and am going to the Switzerland Geneva Mission! I will be speaking French and will enter the MTC on June 3, 2009. I'm so excited!

Where will I go on my mission?!?

I will submit my mission papers this week and will probably get my call within the next two weeks. Everyone make a guess as to where I will go. Here is a link to a list of all the 345 current church missions. Pick one and submit it in a comment. I will post on here as soon as I find out where I'm going.

When I'm Gone

1. Put your iTunes on Shuffle mode and press play.
2. To answer each question below, press next and write down the title of the song as the answer.

Here are the questions...

IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY? Darling Corey by Crooked Still

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY? Ode to a Butterfly by Nickel Creek

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL? That's Life by Frank Sinatra

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY? A Home by Dixie Chicks

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE? Track 5 (Wow, that's deep. :) )

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO? The Narrow Way by Nickel Creek

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU? Hey Jude by The Beatles

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN? It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year (that's good)

WHAT IS 2+2? Driving by Everything but the Girl

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND? Long Time Gone by Dixie Chicks

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE? All By Myself by Green Day (haha)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY? Cursum Perficio ("I finish the course" :) ) by Enya

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP? What Do You Need by Gutterflower (Haha, that's really hilarious. I will be whatever you need :) )

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE? Old Man and Me by Hootie & the Blowfish (okay, that's kind of weird)

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU? Love is Strange by Everything but the Girl

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING? She Likes Me For Me by Blessid Union of Souls (I highly doubt that)

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL? Woman in Love by Barbra Streisand

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST? Gone Country by Alan Jackson (haha, nice)

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET? Give it Up or Let me Go by Dixie Chicks (some secret)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS? Lazy Afternoon by Barbra Streisand

WHAT'S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN? This Time the Dream's On Me by Harry Connick Jr.

HOW WILL YOU DIE? Running out of Days by 3 Doors Down (How appropriate :) )

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET? The Tender Trap by Hanna Richardson/Phil Flanigan

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH? Forget Me Not by Celine Dion

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY? I'm Already Gone by Diamond Rio

WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED? Longview by Green Day (Not for a while I guess)

WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST? Girls' Night by Deana Carter (haha, sad)

DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU? Don't Rock the Jukebox by Alan Jackson

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE? Angeline the Baker by Crooked Still

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW? Flavor of the Week by American Hi-Fi

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS? When I'm Gone by 3 Doors Down

Pretty good. :)

Photo Tag

Elise tagged me in this and since she attached a snide comment about how I never update my blog I decided to do it. Although, maybe that was her ploy all along. Oh well. :)

Tag: Post the fourth picture in your fourth folder.

So, when I went into My Pictures to see what picture this was, I was like, "Oh no." The reason for this groan is that my fourth folder is solely dedicated to one Sunday when Bekah, Sarah, and I took a bunch of silly pictures of each other. The folder is actually titled That One Sunday November 2006. I think the one below is some sort of impersonation of the Lady of Shalott. Hence the spread hair, flowers, and me looking like I'm dead. :) Anyway, I tag Camille.

Chicago!!!

So, this last weekend I visited Dan, Lise, and Violet in Chicago! It was so much fun. I got there Thursday night and Dan and Lise picked me up at the O'Hare airport there.

On Friday, Lise and I went shopping pretty much all day and bought some fun new clothes. That night, we all went to Wicked. Wow, that was awesome! Now all the songs are still stuck in my head, but that's okay because they're great.


On Saturday, we all went downtown and visited some different sites like the Cloud sculpture (everyone calls it the Bean though, apparently greatly offending the sculptor when they do so), Millennium Park, and Navy Pier. We also went inside the mall and got hot chocolate and ate lunch because it was so freezing. The hot chocolate was pretty awesome. They would take melted chocolate and just put milk in it and whip cream. It was really rich (we all had to share two), but very good. Navy Pier was a lot of fun. Lise described it as a "year round carnival." It had a huge strip mall of shops and museums down the whole pier which was actually really long and Lise and I bought some cute hats at The Mad Hatter.


Sunday, after church, we went down to the University to see all the buildings and take pictures. The buildings were amazing. They are built in this Gothic architecture style which is just so austere and majestic. I sort of wish BYU looked like that. It just looks so academic. :) It was freezing that day as well, so we took refuge in the library for a bit. That was also an awesome building. We went back to Dan and Lise's apartment after we couldn't stand the cold anymore and had some yum Mexican hot chocolate that Dan made.

On Monday, Lise, Violet, and I went to Shedd Aquarium with some of Lise's friends from her ward and their babies. The fish and turtles were all pretty sweet. My favorites were the sea dragons and sea horses though. Lise and just hung out the rest of the day and watched North and South (great movie).


Tuesday, I left and because of the bad traffic, I rode the Metra to the airport, but as I kept reassuring Lise, it was fine and I wanted to ride the Metra anyway. After two flights and a layover, I made it back to Provo late that night. It was an awesome trip and I'm so glad I went. It was great to see Dan, Lise, and Vi. Thanks for letting me stay with you! I can't wait to see you at Christmas!

Back Home in the Good Ol' U.S.A.

Well, I returned from Europe and it feels great to be back. Not that Europe isn't great and all and not that I didn't have an amazing time, but there's nothing like home. I got back on Saturday and am currently trying to get over jet lag. I think I'm doing pretty good though. I jumped right back into work on Monday and I haven't been feeling too exceedingly tired.

Now to summarize my last few weeks in Europe. After we finished our language course in Uppsala, we took trains and buses and a ferry to get to Gotland, an old Viking island off the coast of Sweden (the journey there was quite an experience-barely finding our train stop in time, barely catching the bus, and hauling all of our luggage along with us through the whole thing).

The medieval city of Visby

Being there was a lot of fun. I have been telling people that it was my favorite part of the trip 'cause even though I am not sure that it is (as many know I have a very hard time deciding favorites), it was tons of fun. We went to several different beaches and got to relax in addition to seeing really interesting old viking churches and visiting with a famous Swedish artist and his wife.

Arch in Visby

After Gotland we went back to Stockholm and visited some more museums, Drottningholm Palace, and went to an opera and play. Drottningholm Palace has amazing gardens which are modeled after the gardens at the Palace of Versailles.

We left Stockholm on Monday and caught a train to Malmö, a city in southern Sweden. While we were there we visited the Lund Cathedral which was built in 1080. It was really interesting.

Lund Cathedral

We even got to see the astronomical clock chime (figures circling and organ playing; really neat) and watched a church play that was performed right inside the church. We also visited the university in Lund which was pretty cool. I also got to visit the church site where my great, great, great-grandmother was christened.

On Wednesday we took a train across the bridge to Copenhagen. In Copenhagen we went to some more museums and went on a sight-seeing walk through the city that took us to tons of churches including the one with the original Christus, a citadel, the Little Mermaid, and several other things.

Kristina, Me, Brittany, Madeleine, and Julie--Fredriksborg Castle

Christus in Vor Frue Kirke in Copenhagen, Denmark

Little Mermaid--those dang girls would not move

Brittany and I--Eating Danishes in Denmark

Marie-Laure, Julie, Madeleine, Brittany and I--Round Tower

On Saturday morning I took a bus to the airport and after a long day of flights and lay-overs I finally got home at 11 that night. It is good to be back.

View of Denmark from the airplane