I'm Thankful For The Alphabet

Here is my all in good fun but totally serious list of things I am thankful for in alphabetical form.  The rule of the game is to go in order and list the first thing that comes to mind that you are grateful for. There were other things I thought of but I play by the rules and this is what emerged:

A-Airplanes
B-Bishop and Sister Wilcox
C-Cheddar Cheese
D-Deseret Industries
E-Erika Kern
F-Friends and Family
G-God
H-Houses
I-Ice scrapers
J-Joseph Smith
K-Kristin
L-Love
M-Moccasins
N-Neville Longbottom
O-Olives, black
P-Photos
Q-Quadriceps
R-Rain storms
S-Silly Youtube videos
T-Tattoos of the fake variety
U-Underwear!
V-Vaccines
W-Watermelons
X-Xerox machines
Y-Yummy Thanksgiving dinners!
Z-Zachary Levi

Now I don't want anyone thinking that I'm being all flippant and making fun of the Holiday or not really showing gratitude. I honestly believe that it is important to think of the obscure little things that really are blessings in our lives. I was getting out of the shower earlier and looking at how my hair color is fading again and I thought, "What a great gift that God gave us color." Because honestly it isn't a necessity, but how much better is a world full of color compared to one in shades of gray? There are so many small things in my life to be grateful for. I find it easy to appreciate the big important ones like my fantastic family and awesome friends, but I don't say how much I love tupperware that often. And I really like leftovers a lot. So I should lay it out and be straightforward. I love tupperware. 

Bishop and Sister Wilcox are on here because I'm going to have dinner at their house tonight. I'm in charge of my absolute favorite part, the sweet potatoes so I better finish getting ready and go put those suckers in the oven!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Ketchup

Yep. I took my own advice and spent some time off of the internet and read a book! Given, it was a graphic novel but it was excellent. Browsing through the local library I found a copy of Persepolis and had to read it. It's a memoir of a woman who grew up in Iran in the 1980's and about her experiences as a girl in a family that was opposed to the changes in the government at the time. It was moving to see how much her family fought for their cause and eventually her parents sent her to finish school in Vienna because they knew that she would only be punished and persecuted more if she stayed in Iran.  It's a beautifully told story and really informative so I'd highly recommend that you check it out. 

15. a photo of you and someone you love

This is me and my mom making total tard faces at my sister's wedding. You can only smile for a pictures and look normal like 500 times in one day. And this was obviously not one of those times. 

 16. a photo of you at the last party you went to

I've been to parties since Halloween, just none of them have been documented. 

 17. a drunk photo of you

Well no drunk pictures of me exist anymore, so this will have to do. Because any normal person in this situation would probably be drunk. I find it HILARIOUS!

Best Friends Foreverrrrrr!

I think it is time that I make some introductions via blog post.
Meet Erika.

Erika is my bestest friend and we literally spend all of our time together aside from working and sleeping (except sometimes we sleep in the same twin sized bed. Our guy friends think it is especially weird that we are comfortable with that, but dudes, girls start sharing beds with each other from the time they are like 7. Its just standard procedure.)

We just celebrated our one year anniversary in October and will probably have a fiesta for it every year since our friendship officially began at a Halloween party.  I had just moved to a new part of town and the atmosphere was completely different than any other part of campus that I had lived at previously.  It was much more quiet and you had to already be part of a group to be invited to things (Except for wolf howling lessons. I think that's a different story though.)  Erika and I lived in neighboring apartments and she came over a few Saturday mornings to invite us to her apartment's breakfast parties.  Something in me was shy and intimidated and I only went once, very briefly. Luckily she is a persistent little thing and didn't think that I was anti-social. The day of our ward Halloween party she came over looking for markers and yes, I have every craft supply necessary, so I let her borrow mine as well as the crown from my birthday party. What on Earth could this costume be? None other than the Queen of Hearts! I was some kind of witchy thing. My real costume wasn't ready yet.

I have a slightly obsessive personality so when I meet people and get along with them I just want to spend all of my time in their presence.  We quickly realized that we are both extreme literary and grammar nerds and bonded over facebook flair and Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog.  We even signed up for two of the same classes winter semester so that we would see each other every day on campus.

I have to add that after typing "grammar" into google images I found this one and I started laughing uncontrollably. 
I think I should probably lay off the candy pumpkins for a little bit. Oh whoops! They're all gone!

Back to the subject. We have now spent 12 months of constant companionship guaranteed to drive each other's roommates nuts and we just get cooler and cooler! There is nothing better in the world than finding people that fit perfectly into your puzzle.  We both have best friends from growing up but as life changes so do our needs in our support group and we're just great for each other.  I was thinking the other day that if I had gone on a mission like I had planned I wouldn't get home until next April at the earliest and we never would have met!  

Here's to my best friend. The one who knows just what I am thinking, enjoys being ridiculous, is not ashamed of who she is, works harder than anyone I know at having balance in her schedule, rocks the most amazing ugly sweatshirts, prefers moccasin slippers to shoes, indulges in eating out when we both know we can't afford it, likes starting new traditions, has an adorable freckle on her nose named Hammy, doesn't get mad when people tell her that the animal she looks most like is a mouse or a hamster, will handle my repetitive boy talk and then dish her own out to me endlessly, comes to see me at work while braving the wrath of my sometimes super grumpy boss, lets me come to her office to brave her usually crazy boss, race reads young adult novels with me, MEETS ME IN THE FOREST (uh, go watch Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs please), adores henna tattoos, quotes crappy movies like House Bunny with me, and harmonizes to Ke$ha and Nelly with me on freezing car rides! 

Now you may enjoy many pictures that show some of these fabulous things :)

Super excited about our Mockingjay pins and desperately wishing we'd win a copy of the book! Alas, Erika did win something, a 75 cent soda at Horkely's.

Please disregard my Draco Malfoyish hair and crappy t shirt. I started this day in California. You'd look like poop too.

Making faces in the crowd of J.Wride's concert

Birthday orange dreamsicles and the funniest henna tattoo of all time

Yay! She helped me throw the best birthday party!

 Showin' off those buff Rosie the Riveter arms she developed in our weight lifting class.

This is our tradition of "attack cake". Didn't I promise a post on that? Remind me of it later please.

Sampling the delish food at Sammy's. We had a little chat with Sammy himself that night and talked him into letting us have the first ever peppermint shakes. That happened like 3 days later :)

I'm trying to convince her into being a blogger because I know she'll be fantastic at it, but its slow business. Give her some encouragement! The Key of E

We have a most musical friendship and this is the best way to share that

Download a playlist of us! 

Erika and Elle