I love to see the Temple!

I love seeing the different temples!! DC will always be my favorite of course, but each one is so beautiful! Last week I got to go see the SLC temple for the first time and I was so excited!! It was amazing :)

Beautiful!!!!

MeLisa and I in front of the temple 

Me!

My big brother :)

The Three Amigos

This picture was taken from on top of the conference center

Happy birthday Beth!

MeLisa and  I love making birthday cakes for our friends! Well, really MeLisa usually makes them and I just watch her. But, I actually did help a little with this one.

 The cake on the top is a pair of pajama jeans, which is one of the presents Beth got for her birthday. On the bottom is the poem I wrote on the extra cake.

Welcome Home!!

My friend Ben just got home from the Boise, Idaho mission. I am so proud of him!!!

Who ever thought it was a good idea to give me a gun?????

So last Saturday MeLisa and I had a date to go shooting with our good friends from M9. It was awesome. Mainly because none of us died. And I even hit the targets on occasion. The pumpkins though, not the clay pigeons. I can't hit moving targets.

"How do I hold this darn thing?"

"Like this"

 "Thanks Dallin!"

 "Mwahahahaha"

MeLisa's turn :)

  Todd throwing clay pigeons for Michelle

 Afterwards we went to Dallin's work for hot chocolate...and really long straws

Sad Day

Probably the saddest day of the school year was when MeLisa found our pet fish dead in his tank. We were just about to buy a friend for Rico when it happened and it was quite upsetting to both of us. We love you Rico!!!

Our friend that gave him to us said that the boy she got him from said he was an Asian pucker-fish. Well, according to google, there doesn't seem to be such a fish. So I guess it'll always just be a mystery.

RIP Rico
September 27-October 30, 2011 <3

Happy Halloween!

I know this is a little bit late, but I figure it's better to post late than never. 

Here are my awesome Halloween festivities. 

 First, we had an awesome pumpkin carving competition for a ward activity. My group had five pumpkins to carve and we came up with this scene. We lit the pumpkins on fire and it was pretty awesome. We won the competition!

We went to a Halloween party on Saturday night. MeLisa and I went as the ultimate night gamers because we love to play night games with our ward. Of course, most people didn't know what on earth we were. Here are some of the guesses we got. Some are okay, but some were ridiculous! Ninjas, Robbers, Indians, Baseball players, Football players, Night time, and Males

I just can't figure out why someone would think that this is how I would dress if I were dressing up as a boy!! or a football/baseball player, or an Indian. The ones that make sense at least are ninjas, robbers, and night time (although if I were being night time I'd probably add a moon and some stars).

This picture is of me with my roommates all dressed up to go to the party. My other roommates were Medusa (she has little snaky things in her hair but you can't really tell in the picture) and a robot.

And this is a corn dog. Just thought he should be here as well.

It's been a while

Because I've been busy.
Here is what I've been up to!

 My good friend Brian got married. And I caught the bouquet his wife threw. Somehow I don't think I'll be the next one to get married though! Considering the fact that I'm not dating anyone.

My friend Kyle took my brother and I on a lovely nature walk to some springs one Sunday afternoon.

 MeLisa and I went to lots of football games. I am not sure who this game was against, but I know that is it one we won by the looks on our faces :)

 My friend Josef went on a mission to Riverside, California! I got to see him one last time before he left. I am so proud of him!!

 MeLisa turned 21!!!!! Happy birthday roommate! Love ya!

Rex also had a birthday. This is his Waxenpoo cake. We surprised him with it. I'm pretty sure it is was the best surprise ever.
http://vimeo.com/176351

Holly's Got Talent

So I have a new found talent of getting locked inside of things. Mainly bathroom stalls (at West Point) and. . . my apartment! Tonight my cousin/roommate MeLisa and I were leaving to go get dinner from the awesome boys in our dinner group, when we discovered our front door wouldn't open. We could turn the little knob, but it wouldn't unlock our door!! We tried, and tried, and tried again. Our roommate Katie tried. And tried. Finally, we got the bright idea of calling our manager to see if he could bring a key up and unlock the door from outside. He didn't pick up. At this point, I was kind of starving out of my mind. We clearly had no other choice then to go out of our front window. And that is exactly what we did, pulled out the screen and hopped down. If you are wondering, unlocking the door with a key from the outside did not work. We tried it. Since MeL and I were leaving, and Katie had to go somewhere soon, we decided we'd just have to leave our window open a crack (so we could climb back in later) and trust that nobody would notice and get evil ideas. Luckily, we live on the third floor. And we live in Provo. Just because I live in Provo though, that does NOT mean I trust everyone! I still don't like walking around here alone at night. Tonight was the first night I ever actually spent in the library. I was not at all excited to walk home by myself at midnight. I guess I just value my life and prefer not to get kidnapped by some wacko. 

A week with the Grandparents and A weekend in St. George

When I arrived in Utah, rather than going straight to Provo, I first went to Price to see my grandparents for a few days. I had a great time with my friend Ashley who came with me. We played a lot of pool, did a lot of eating, had a bonfire, watched my cousins tennis match, had a photo shoot, went on a walk, played on the trampoline, and relaxed a whole lot. It was fabulous!

I feel like this wasn't legal...but the boys from Price swear it's fine

On Friday, we finally drove to Provo.

It was a nice long drive. Fun stuff.
I moved into my new apartment that day.

After my first week of school (see previous post) my cousin and I went down to St. George to see family. I had a great time seeing the kids I hadn't seen in 2 years and their new siblings who I had never met.

On the way down we stopped at the cheese factory to get....ice cream?  Because obviously the thing to get at the cheese factory is ice cream...

I love this kid!

Hair braiding line. I love how Easton is in it. Like he has any hair!

Not gonna lie, I'm pretty proud of this french braid I did. Its pretty good considering I really have not ever been able to practice french braiding on anyone.

The Lott family after Brynlee's baptism

Sadly, the weekend is over. Time for me to get ready for school :(

Homework...

So, I've officially finished my first week as a student at BYU! It was definitely not my easiest first week of school ever. I had to deal with feeling like a freshman all over again even though I'm a junior. Fun stuff. In the end though, I managed to find all my classes while using my map as few times as possible. I also got to go to fun things with my cousin, like FHE, a ward tie-dye party, a relief society activity, night games, and dinner at some boys apartment from our ward. I'm not gonna lie though, I still feel awkward at all these events. Making friends is simply not my forte. I am too shy and I hate it. I am working on it though! Hopefully I'll feel like I have real friends in a week or two (I mean new friends, thank goodness I did come into school already having some family and friends here).

So for one of my homework assignments in my writing class I have to keep a journal and have at least 30 entries over the course of the semester.  I am not really sure what the heck I am supposed to write about other than the fact that five of the entries have to be author imitations. So, here is journal entry number 1. I have to hand write it, so when I actually write it out I'm sure I'll end up changing a few things.

1. A recent Facebook fad was to write a note with 25 facts about oneself. I never posted a “25 Things” list on Facebook, so I figured I will do it now! Here is my list, entitled “Everything You Never Wanted to Know about Me!”

1. I am obsessed with making lists (to do lists, packing lists, reason’s I’m upset with someone, schedules for myself…). It’s probably the kind of writing I do most. Notice, that my first journal entry is a list. Funny how that worked out.

2. I love to read out loud to kids, and use different voices for the characters.

3. I’m not the neatest person in the world. But sometimes, I just HAVE to clean my room or else I simply cannot do my homework. A messy bedroom just stresses me out!

4. I hate running.

5. I love running.

6. I like to do things just to say that I did them (dumpster diving, eating alligator, and running the steeplechase to name a few).

7. My four brothers mean the world to me, even if they drive me crazy sometimes. The name of my blog, “The Rose Amongst Thorns” comes from them. I am the rose and they are the thorns.

8. I have been away from home for 13 days now, beating my old record of an 11 day trip to Europe. Except this time I am not going home. I have a new home in Provo. It is kind of weird to be so far away from Maryland when I’m not on vacation.

9. I am absolutely terrified of dogs. When I was 16 years old, I was playing a game of “Bigger or Better” with some friends. One man opened his front door and out walked an enormous dog. I was down the street and around the corner in about three seconds. My friends didn’t notice right away, but when the man and his dog walked back inside they started looking for me. I sure as heck was not going anywhere near that house as long as the dog was outside!

10. I have a weird body that can do things other peoples bodies cannot. I can lick my elbow and my nose. Furthermore, I do not believe anyone who claims they can lick their nose also. Sorry. Nobody can do it quite as well as me. (I’ll believe it if I see it, I just haven’t seen it yet).

11. Scary movies scare me. I usually have to watch them wrapped up in a blanket. But usually I don't watch them at all.

12. Last year I went to a haunted forest around Halloween. I accidentally punched a man who was holding a chainsaw or something similarly scary. He just got to close to me and I had to defend myself. As soon as I slapped him I apologized immediately. After all, he would never hurt me for real. I just momentarily had gone into self defense mode.

13. Apparently it is hard for me to come up with 25 interesting things about myself.

14. I’m a little bit overwhelmed by the BYU campus. And by a little bit, I actually mean a lot. It is huge compared to my old school, HCC(Go Dragons).

15. I love getting letters. They can turn a bad day into a great day.

16. I LOVE tie-dye.

17. I cannot really cook. I do like baking though. If only I could eat cookies and cake for all my meals.

18. I am not a morning person.

19. I doodle on EVERYTHING.

20. I am the last one out of the apartment and the first one home many days. It makes me feel very lazy compared to my roommates.

21. I have had issues falling asleep my whole life. For some reason though, this has not been a problem since I moved to Provo for the school year.

22. I won’t eat cream cheese, mayonnaise, ranch dressing (or almost any other dressing), or sour cream. Simply looking at these products sometimes makes me start gagging.

23. I hate when someone tells a joke and I just don’t think it is funny at all, but I feel obligated to laugh to make them feel good.

24. My favorite church calling was in the Nursery.

25. I procrastinate too much. Writing a ten page research paper the morning it is due is not fun. 

 Now I have to come up with 24 more interesting journal entries, and 4 authors I want to imitate.

What I learned this week

Moving is not fun. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed at the moment.I had to unpack lots of stuff cause my bags would've weighed too much and I'm too much of a cheapo to pay for an overweight bag or extra bag. I had planned on sending stuff with my brothers who are driving out to school but that plan fell through this morning. There was absolutely no room at all in the car :(
Hopefully I'll feel better once I've gotten all moved in, in less than a week!!!!

Other Fun Stuff I've Been Doing

Here is a little bit of my August 2011.

I went to the Chesapeake Beach Water Park with the cutest babies ever!! And a cute 4th grader though there are no pictures of her here. And their mother! It was a great day and the kids were so good!

Babysitting. Nerf gun fights. Water balloon fights. Gymnastics. Mini Birthday Parties. Tickle Monster. Reading. Cinnamon Rolls. Burning my finger. Piano and singing time. Monkey in the Middle (I pretty much hate this game by now). Star wars. Dragon Ball Z Kai (kill me). My Little Pony.

My friend Danny got baptized. I played the piano at it! It was very scary for me. We had a ysa temple trip. Danny didn't have the priesthood yet so he couldn't go in the temple but one of my brothers took him to the visitors center.

I went to the HoCo fair with two old friends of mine. It was a really nice day to go cause the weather was pretty fabulous. Unfortunately the rides didn't open until 3:00 and we had to leave before that. But was still enjoyed seeing all the animals and crafts and things. Next year Han and I want to enter stuff in the competition. There is so much you can do! Sewing, photography, painting, scrapbook pages, baked goods...the list just goes on and on! Of course I always want to enter something but I never actually do. But maybe 2012 is the year for me!


I have exactly 3 more days of babysitting! And then I'm leaving for school in five more days!!!!! I am pretty much dying of excitement/freaking out like crazy. I hope that my schedule is all good and that everything works out for me!! I have a ton of crap to do when I get to school and it's all cause of my stinking major. Which I decided to change 2 weeks ago. The change from early childhood to elementary education totally screwed up my schedule. I had to redo my perfect schedule not one time, not two times, not three or four times, but FIVE stinking times. It was enough to bring me to tears multiple times. Let's hope it is all okay now and that I get everything done like paperwork, taking the TSA (and passing it), getting fingerprinted, attending my meetings....

More of the West Point Trip

Okayyy so posting on this just really confuses me. Idk if there is a word/picture limit or something...
I could not post any more on that last one though so here is part 2.

We went to lunch/nap at our friends house. Their son was the cutest thing ever. I always have liked little kids, but I reallyyy liked this little boy and he liked me too. At one point I got up from playing with him cause my mom was calling me over. He started crying when I left, so I picked him up and took him with me. Instead of playing and being rambunctious like we were before, he was content just to sit in my lap while I looked through a scrapbook with my mom. It was adorable!

We went out to eat at Cracker Barrel

On Sunday we went to the teeny little West Point Ward (idk if that is its actual name or not). This was the view from outside church.

Me :)

Add caption

So yeahhh.
I Love my little bro.

****Another side story******
This is for you Ashley, my hopeless romantic friend :)

During relief society, the lesson was on Temple Marriage (of course it would be).
But I actually really liked the lesson and it didn't make me feel pressure or anything (I'm sure I'll get that at BYU though). One of the things one of the women said though was soooo adorable!! She said that in her home growing up, the most important holiday of the whole year was not Christmas, not Easter, or any other holiday you'd usually think of. It was her parents anniversary, because her dad wanted them to know how grateful he was that for having the best wife ever and that he got to be sealed with her and their children for time and all eternity. I thought that was just awesome. And I hope my future husband feels the same way!

Haha one more thing. I'm pretty sure I've just trained myself to sleep in the car. Cause I can seriously just sleep for hours and hours. It's great. I think it is a defense mechanism.
1. Defense against car sickness (seriously this trip was not so great for my stomach)
2. Defense against boredom
3. Defense against feeling awkward /having nobody to talk to (not on this trip, this is more for long bus rides to cross country meets)
4. Defense against sadness (I miss my brother. Sleeping makes me forget. Although not gonna lie I had a really super creepy dream last night in which my friends mother killed her and my other friend).