Ski Boot Story

Well I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I certainly did. I flew back to Austin on Christmas Eve and Bryce and I had a great day. I'll give more details about my time home in another post, but I had to share this story first.

The day before I came back to Austin, I went skiing with my parents. I decided to borrow my older sister's ski boots because mine always hurt my feet. So the night before I went and got her boots which were up in the garage in the house she used to live in. When we got to the mountain, I got ready to put my boots on in the locker room. Left foot went in fine. When I put my right foot in, I felt something that felt like sticks or leaves in the toe, so I took my foot out and put my hand in to pull it out. To my HORROR as I began pulling whatever it was out, I discovered that it was a DEAD FREAKING MOUSE. I dropped it and squealed while my parents looked at me like I was crazy. I told them what I had touched and my dad disposed of the mouse in the trash. DISGUSTING. The rest of the day was great, but I still get the heebie jeebies thinking about touching a dead mouse with my bare hands. Looking back it's pretty funny, but oh man, I was freaked out. Hope that gave you a chuckle.

Here's a picture of my dad and I all matchy-match at the end of the ski day.

Tradition

Without a doubt my favorite Christmas Tradition is reading A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Ever since before I can remember, my dad would start reading to all of the kids on December 1st and finish on Christmas Eve. When I was little, I really loved looking at all the beautiful pictures in the edition that we had. It was this one:

As I got older I started to understand the story more and appreciate how beautiful Dickens' words are. There was one year that we all decided to memorize the first paragraph of the book, which we can all do I'm proud to say. Every year my dad tears up in the same place in the final stave and every year I can't wait to start reading again.

As all of us began getting older, moving away, and getting married, my dad thought it would be a great idea to get each of us our own copy of the same edition of A Christmas Carol. However, it was out of print. So he got on ebay and found four copies. One for each child to continue on the tradition in our own families.

It's been wonderful to continue on this great tradition in my own little family with Bryce. I'm not sure he fully appreciates it yet, but I think he will eventually. It still feels a little weird not to listen to my dad reading every night, but I just love the fact that I can re-create a childhood memory every year, no matter where I am.

P.S. I go home in 3 days!

'Tis The Season

After a very successful Thanksgiving with great friends, I was excited to get into the Christmas spirit. We didn't get up super early to partake in the Black Friday sales, but we did make it to Nordstrom Rack (we had groupons, got some great deals!) and Target. Our apartment is kind of small so the only place that we had to put a Christmas tree was on top of a bookshelf. As soon as we got home from Target I set it up, and it's really starting to feel like Christmas now! Christmas is my favorite part of year and it will be kind of fun to start our own traditions this year since we will be in Texas for Christmas. Break out the Christmas music!!!

Count Your Many Blessings

I've been doing a lot of complaining lately. It's bad and I'm trying to stop and to turn the things that have been getting me down into positives. For example:

Complaint:
I hate how busy I am. I'm at school all day, every day, including most weekends.

Positive:
How lucky am I that I'm in a great program and I get to work with awesome musicians everyday and develop my talents?

Complaint:
I miss my family.

Positive:
I have a wonderful husband who I love and adore and we are a family. I get to talk to my family almost every day and they love and support me in everything I do. I maybe be away for a while, but it's only temporary!

Complaint:
Because of Bryce's new job at Costco, we will be in Austin for Christmas. I've never spent Christmas away from home and I don't know how Merry it will be this year.

Positive:
We are extremely blessed that Bryce has been able to get a job. Now when bills come in the mail, it's a little less stressful than it has been in the past. We can start our own traditions and spend the whole day together rather than splitting between two sides of the family. It may be a humble Christmas, but that really doesn't matter in the large scheme of things. We are blessed to have each other.

I could go on, but I won't. I'm very thankful for everything I have been blessed with. Sometimes it's easy for me to look at what other people have and be jealous, but I really have so much to be thankful for.

My favorite talk at General Conference this year was given by Dieter F. Uchtdorf. Even if you don't share my religious beliefs, I encourage you to read or listen or watch this talk. You can read it here, listen here, or watch here. It only takes 10 minutes but I think his message can apply to everyone, regardless of religious affiliation. This talk really struck me and I've re-read it several times since it was given at the beginning of October. When I heard it I immediately knew that it was written for me and was exactly what I needed to hear. I love it when that happens.

I'm a lucky girl. I just need to remind myself of that more often.

I Am Champion Of The World

Ok not really but that's how I felt after today.

Everything was going normal until when I was packing up my things from practicing to go to a rehearsal, my phone fell off my music stand and landed face down. I thought that it would be fine, but no, there were two cracks beneath the screen and the display didn't work at all. Crap. I had just gotten this phone less than a month ago. I was sure T-Mobile would do nothing to help me. Expecting the worst, I went into CostCo (where I bought it) after I was done with my rehearsals to see if they would do anything for me.

When I got there, I explained what had happened and asked if there was any way that I could just buy a new phone for the upgrade price instead of the full $500 for it. They said they couldn't do anything for me. I explained that I had just bought it less than a month ago and tried to look as pathetic as possible. Lucky for me, it worked. One of the workers looked at my phone and said that you can't really see the crack unless you're looking for it. He said not to tell customer service and said, "You're the spitting image of my daughter, we'll exchange it for you."

That just made my day. I was so worried about having to buy another new phone, because that is definitely not in the budget right now. Thank goodness for kind people with a soft spot for sad looking red-heads.

All I'm Gonna Say Is...

I made this to break our fast today. It was delicious.

To get the recipe, go here.

It reminded me of Panera Bread's soup. Next time, I'll serve it in a breadbowl. So good. Make it soon.

Lunch of Champions

This was my lunch today.

Today was one of those days that I would rather sleep an extra 10 minutes than make myself a lunch. Between going to classes, four different rehearsals, and practicing today, this is all I had time to eat. Grad students are busy people, and I would argue that music grad students are among the busiest of all. I have to somehow juggle classes, practicing, rehearsing with different ensembles and pianists, PLUS teaching my own students, going to young women's and church every week, and somewhere in there find time for my husband! It's a crazy life. It's great, and I love being busy, it really makes me appreciate when I do have down time. Usually I don't get home from school until around 8 pm so I'm usually pretty tired by the end of the day. It's good that I actually like this music thing... I'm going to bed now. Another 11 hour day awaits me tomorrow.

Parenting Training

While our good friends Brandon and Liz went on a cruise without us (jerks!), they asked us to watch their two adorable boys (Danny, 15 months and Taevin, 3 1/2) for a few days while they're gone. It's been a little crazy, but all in all it's been pretty fun. They're really good boys, and so so cute.

We got them on Friday after Bryce took Brandon and Liz to the airport. I had school all day Friday (literally all day, I got done at 9:30 pm) so Bryce took care of them by himself all day. I was so proud, especially since he doesn't have much experience babysitting and Danny was sick with an ear infection.

Saturday morning, Bryce played football and then worked at a wedding in the early evening, for I was by myself for most of the day. They were almost perfect angels and took 3 1/2 hour naps! The only major mishap I had was when Danny decided to poop in the bathtub. That was fun...

We did surprisingly well at church today. I was worried about going to sacrament meeting with them, but Bryce took care of Danny and was so cute with him. It's so fun to watch Bryce interact with them, he's going to be a great dad some day. We ended up having to leave church a half hour early because Taevin was complaining that his ear hurt and was pretty fussy. He's usually a really happy boy so it was so sad to see him in pain. We brought him home, gave him some tylenol and put him down for a nap to see if he would start to feel better. When he woke up he was still pretty crabby so we called the pediatrician who said that the after hour center was closed so we made an appointment for tomorrow morning. Luckily he seems to be doing a lot better and was acting mostly normal after his nap. We'll see in the morning though.

Tomorrow we turn them over to another family for a few days and then get them again on Friday night until their parents get home on Saturday. It's been a really good experience to throw us into the parenting world for a few days. It makes me kind of excited to be a mom someday. Not for a while, but someday.

Brandon, Liz, Danny, and Taevin. Yes, I am aware that Brandon and Liz look like models. Sometimes it's hard to be friends with them. (jk, but seriously) My young women call them Barbie and Ken. They're awesome.

Where were you?

On September 11, 2001 I went to school just like any other day. While waiting for the first bell to ring, my best friend Hilary came up to me and said, "Did you hear what happened? A plane flew into the world trade center, they think it was terrorists." So began a day that I will never forget. I sat in my first period class (Mr. Elzey's freshman biology class) and instead of doing our usual "bird, the word, and the barometer", we sat glued to the television. I remember watching the second plane hit the other tower, watching one by one as each tower fell, and being horrified at how someone could deliberately take away that many lives. Each class I went to we watched the news. The administration even put tv's in the hallways so that no one would miss a second of what was going on. After school I had a tennis match and I remember that there was such a different feeling towards my opponents. I don't remember who I played, or even if I won, that wasn't so important that day. In the days following, I remember there being such a sense of community and pride for our country. Everyone put aside their differences and were simply Americans. Nine years have passed since that fateful day, and somehow we've forgotten that feeling of togetherness that we felt immediately after the attacks. I sincerely hope that it won't take another tragedy to come together again. May we never forget the sacrifices made for our fellow Americans on that day and the sacrifices that our service men and women continue to make so that we can maintain the freedoms that we enjoy. God bless America.

Roaches

I hate cockroaches. Since I grew up in a very dry part of the US, I never encountered cockroaches, just seen pictures of them. When I moved to Texas, I learned a whole new definition of scary. I generally hate the saying, "Everything's bigger in Texas" but when it comes to cockroaches, it definitely holds true.

My first encounter with a massive cockroach happened a year ago when I first moved here. Bryce wasn't living with me yet and I was sitting at home on the couch around midnight when I felt something tickling my bare foot. I looked down at the floor and there was a cockroach, probably about two inches long, tickling my foot with its antennae. I absolutely freaked out. I tried to muster up my courage and catch it, because I didn't want this monster running around my house, but it ran under my couch when i tried to trap it with a bowl. I screamed, I ran into my room, and I called Bryce crying because I was so scared. I couldn't get anyone to kill it for me because it was midnight, and I didn't have any pest spray, so all I could do was wait til morning and hope it didn't invite all its friends to come live with me. The next day I bought some traps and some Raid and dared it to show its ugly face ever again. I never found it.

So in the last year, there have been a few sightings of roaches, which is pretty common in this area. I was told by someone that the big daddy roaches live in trees and we live in an area that is surrounded by oak trees. I can see how they could come in. Every once in a while I have to pull out the can of Raid and spray and watch one shrivel up until it dies. This past weekend though, we killed four giant cockroaches in two days.

Since we were out of town for most of July, I think they decided that this would be a good place to live for a while. I've seen a couple tiny bugs, but hadn't seen anything huge until this past Friday. I had just gotten home from school and was laying on the couch to relax from the day, when I saw a cockroach crawling on the wall by my back door. I ran and grabbed a my trusty can of Raid and sprayed it and it quickly died. Later that night, we had some friends over to play cards and I was going to make some popcorn, so I opened my cupboard to find an absolutely massive cockroach sitting in there. I yelled at Bryce to kill it. He pulled out everything from the cupboard, sprayed, but it ran away somehow. Determined not to let my house be overrun by roaches, I decided to pull everything out from my cupboards yesterday and clean and spray every crack so that no more roaches could make homes in my kitchen. I didn't see anything while I was cleaning so I went to watch some TV while the chemicals dried. While I was watching TV, I heard something moving on the things I had pulled out of the cupboard. Sure enough, there was a cockroach trying to make a getaway. It crawled across my counter, behind my fridge, and when it came out, I sprayed the daylights out of it. While I was waiting for it to come out from behind the fridge, I saw another one on the wall trying to make a run for it, but I lost sight of it while I was trying to get the first one. Once I was sure the first one was dead, I saw another dead one under the counter. When Bryce got home from working out (I swear this always happens when he's gone), he found the third one and killed it.

Hopefully we've gotten most if not all of them. I really don't think we're infested, I think we just had a few that decided to live in our apartment while we were gone and didn't vacate when we got back. This is the time of year when they come inside looking for water, so once it cools down and rains, we'll see a whole lot less of them. Here's hoping I don't see anymore for a long time. I've had my fill.

Reminiscing

Five years ago....
I moved to Santa Barbara, California.
I moved in with complete strangers.
My life completely changed.

Some brief highlights of living with Amber and Rosie...
Laughing so hard that I cried over Rosie snapping her belly button.
Riding our bikes to school together.
Project Runway/ANTM nights.
Hanging out in the little room because Kim was sleeping in the big room.
Daaaaavid....
Skinny dipping in the ocean for Amber's 21st birthday.
And many many more....

And even though we all live in different places now and live different lives, I will always cherish the memories of those short 9 months that we lived together.

I love and miss Amber and Rosie

Love,
The Freshman

An Open Letter

Dear Texas Drivers,

It is, in fact, ok to drive the speed limit on the freeway, not 5-10 miles under. That on-ramp thingy is for you to speed up to the flow of oncoming traffic and merge smoothly, not to accelerate to 45 mph and cause me to slam on my brakes so that I don't run into you. Also, "yield" doesn't mean "stop". It means "yield". Thank you for your cooperation.

Sincerely,

Alison

Mer

We're not related or anything.

I have a problem

I have a new found love for making treats. I mean, I've always liked to bake, but I've done a lot since I've been home, particularly in the last couple weeks. Here's a sampling of what I've made. All were amazingly delicious.

Muffins that taste like doughnuts. Recipe here
Brigadeiros. Brazillian treats that are so ridiculously easy. Recipe here
Cake pops. I copied Bakerella's basic recipe here. I used strawberry cake mixed with cream cheese frosting. They are so good. The hardest part was dipping the dang things. She makes it look so easy. Needless to say I won't be trying this or this anytime soon.

I also made The Pioneer Woman's Best Sheet Cake Ever but it got eaten so fast that I didn't have a chance to take a picture. Same story for these Peanut Butter Bars.

What should I make next.... hmmmm.... Maybe something healthy? Nah...

Shaun Kevin Baumgartner

I'm in love.

See more pics of his birth at bryceolsen.com/blog.

Homemade Pizza

Now I'm not a fancy person, especially when it comes to food. Anyone who knows me knows this. I'm perfectly happy eating chicken nuggets and rice for the rest of my life. I was on The Pioneer Woman's website the other day and found this recipe. For those of you who don't know who she is, The Pioneer Woman is a lady that grew up in the big city and is now married to a cattle rancher and lives on a ranch in Oklahoma. Her posts, especially the food ones, are pretty funny. I figured since Bryce has been working so hard this weekend he deserved something a little special. It was pretty fun to make and I felt pretty fancy. Not to mention that it was delicious. Again, a terrible picture, and the crust got a little bit crunchy, but it was still yummy. I have tons of leftovers too so I know what I'll be eating for lunch tomorrow.

Chocolate Carmel Cookies

I've had a lot of time on my hands lately. So this week I decided to bake some delicious cookies. These are seriously so good. I got the recipe out of a homemade cookbook that was given to me at one of my bridal showers. Do yourself a favor and make some of these this week.

Here's the recipe:

1 C butter, softened
1 C sugar
1 C brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 C flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 C cocoa
1 C chopped walnuts (optional, I didn't use them)
1 Tbsp sugar
48 rolos

Beat butter until creamy. Gradually beat in sugars. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda, and cocoa. Gradually (very gradually, otherwise you will have flour everywhere) add to butter mixture, beating well. Stir in 1/2 C Walnuts. Cover and chill at least 2 hours. Preheat oven to 375 (I heated mine to 350 because my oven bakes a little hot). Combine remaining nuts with 1 Tbsp sugar (or in my case, just the sugar). Divide dough into 4 parts. Divide each part into 12 pieces. Quickly press each piece of dough around rolo and roll into a ball. Dip the tops in the sugar mixture. Place sugar side up on a cookie sheet and bake for 8 minutes.
Kinda a crappy picture but you get the idea. They're even better when they're served warm and the caramel and chocolate are all ooey gooey. Mmmmmm....

Memorial Weekend

We had so much fun this weekend! On Sunday evening we went camping (like real camping Rosie, I had to squat in the bushes) on the shore of Lake Travis with two other couples in our ward. Bryce came very late that night because he was assisting at a wedding in San Antonio but I had fun with the Jensens and Kunzes until he arrived. We ate around a campfire, ate lots of food, killed a couple of scorpions (I know, freaking scorpions) and stayed up til 3 Sunday night. On Monday we woke up with the sun, went cliff jumping (everyone except me, I was too chicken), and swam in the lake. The lake felt sooo good. Perfect temperature to escape the searing heat of central Texas. Monday was also Liz's birthday so last night we went out to dinner to celebrate at this AMAZING Italian restaurant in Austin. It was such a great weekend, I can't wait to do more fun things like that this summer!The fire that eagle scout Keith made for us.Cutest little guy ever. He didn't really like sleeping in a tent too much though.

Oh TaevinBryce climbing up the cliff to jump off again! This cliff was probably 35 feet high.

Awesome form Liz. I would have totally jumped off this cliff but the only way to get to it was by jumping off the big daddy cliff.Brave women.Sweet farmer's tan, Bryce.
Lovely ladies.Manly men.At dinner that night.

Sewing!

While I've been in Utah, my mom and I have been doing a lot of sewing. I've made 6 fabric keychains, 2 diaper holders, and 2 baby wipes holders. I found all of the patterns on The Idea Room. The diaper holders and wipes holders are for my sister Maren for baby Shaun. I can't wait for his arrival in July!!

End of Semester Bowling!

I finally finished with the semester last Thursday! To celebrate, Bryce and I went bowling with some other couples in our ward. I'm a terrible bowler but we had a blast! Here is a fun video that Bryce put together of that night.

Bowling With the Peeps from Bryce Olsen on Vimeo.

Hold on

No real picture, again. Sorry. If you did have a picture it would be of me sitting at my kitchen table among bunch of open books about Diaghilev and Stravinsky for a paper that's due tomorrow. I am anxiously awaiting the end of the semester. I need a break from everything. Playing the flute has been a little frustrating lately and I'm looking for some time off so that I can fall in love with it again. I'm not one of those people that can just play all day, every day and not get sick of it. I love the flute, don't get me wrong, but I definitely can get burned out, and it's happening now. I'm just holding on until my jury next week and then I'm not going to touch it for a few days (at least).

I'm going home next month for 10 days and I am sooooo excited. I can't wait to relax with my family and have no responsibilities for just a little while. I can make it to May 19... I can make it to May 19... I can make it to May 19...

The Help

I recently finished this book called, The Help. It's great, inspiring, sad, and you should read it.

The last two books I read (the other one being A Thousand Splendid Suns, which you should also read) had similar themes. They both center around women that have a ton to deal with in their lives. So much, in fact, that it makes me feel bad about complaining about the seemingly big things that I have to deal with in my life. I should stop complaining.

I want to read something happier for my next book. Any suggestions?

UP

Maybe I'm getting old, but this movie makes me cry. In multiple places.

Also, I love my husband.

Happy Birthday to Me

This year for my birthday I will have class, 4 hours of rehearsals, and a wind ensemble concert in the evening. And my husband will be working from sunrise (literally) to who knows when so I won't see him. So this is what it feels like to be old?

In case anyone is feeling particularly generous, this is what I would like for my birthday in order of preference.

One of these

This

Or this

Thanks.

Rainbow Cuppies!

I got the recipe here. They taste even better then they look.

Spring Break

This is the first year that I was unable to go home for spring break. Instead, my sister Angie and her husband Jordan came to Austin to visit us! We had so much fun together. I really miss having my sisters around all the time, but I guess it makes the time we do get together that much more special. We did everything from going to a movie at the Alamo Drafthouse, walking around Town Lake, stuffing our faces with Salt Lick BBQ, going to the outlet mall in San Marcos, and even doing some sealings in the San Antonio Temple. It was a wonderful trip and I miss them already.

One night when Angie and I were running some pizza boxes to the trash, she said "You're so lucky that you get to live all these places and experience things that most people don't get to do." This really struck me and I had to think, yeah, I am pretty lucky. Sometimes I get so bogged down in wanting to be done with school, moving home, wanting things that I can't have, that I forget to live in the present and be so grateful for the opportunities that I have. Not many people have had the experiences that I have and it was nice to have a reminder of how lucky I truly am.

I didn't take a single picture while they were here, Bryce actually took some but I haven't seen them yet, so as soon as I do, I will post away. I did make some pretty amazing cupcakes though that I will post pictures of soon. Here's hoping that this Spring Break was the rest I needed to get me through the rest of this semester!

End of February

Two weeks ago we got something very rare for Austin... snow! The flakes were seriously huge and it snowed all day leaving a couple inches on the ground. It all melted the next day but it was so pretty while it lasted.
We also made our first trip (hopefully out of many) to the San Antonio temple. It's a smaller temple but it was so beautiful. We went with our new friends Tash and Keith in our ward. It was a great experience and I can't wait to go back!

So a couple posts ago I talked about The Idea Room and how I wanted to be crafty. She posted this free pattern for a knitted headband and I immediately knew this was going to be my new project. I had just enough leftover white yarn from a past project and I'm really happy with the way it turned out. It was pretty easy too!

See, I told you I'd post photos!

Olympics and such

I love the Olympics. I could sit home all day and watch them. It's a good thing we don't' have cable or else I'd be in big trouble. I get so excited about each sport and the stories behind each athlete. I probably love the Winter Olympics so much because of my experience with them when they came to Salt Lake. I had the opportunity of being in the official band for the games so I got to be in opening and closing ceremonies, play at a ton of different events, and even get to see some of them. That was one of the best experiences of my life. So magical and inspiring. I really wish we had the Olympics every year so that I can get inspired by the determination of these athletes more often. Team USA is doing amazing so far, let's hope they keep it up in week two.

School is going pretty well for me although I feel like I'm way busier this semester than last. Probably because I've taken on extra projects and stuff. We had our first orchestra concert this past Wednesday and it went really well. I got a lot of compliments, including from my teacher, which is always really gratifying. Although she did say that she thinks I need a new flute... urg... I'm playing in a woodwind quintet for a composer's concert on Monday night and both times that we've met together to rehearse, the composer was late to the rehearsal. Yesterday, he was almost a full half hour late to rehearsal. I was so annoyed. I just feel like if we are taking time out of our busy schedules to play your piece, you better show up on time. So lame. If it sounds like crap it'll be his fault.

Did you hear about the guy that flew a plane into an IRS building in Austin? Yeah, that was like two miles from my apartment. The building is right off the freeway and I drive by it on my way to work. When I was driving home on Thursday (the day of the accident), I saw the building. It's even more crazy in real life. Sometimes when we see things like that on TV it doesn't really feel real, but seeing it in person is just crazy. And I found out that his wife is a collaborative pianist at the music school. I've never worked with her but I know who she is. Crazy stuff. I really feel bad for her and her daughter. I can't imagine having to deal with something like that. Please keep her in your prayers.

Everything else is going well for us. We've gotten closer to a few couples in our ward and have been hanging out with them and had a lot of fun. We're getting so excited for Spring Break because Angie and Jordan are coming to visit!!! That'll make not going home not suck so much. Haha. Sorry for the long post with no pictures. I'm really terrible about getting my camera out. Maybe next time...

Craft Me

I am not a super crafty person. My one crafty claim to fame is that I can crochet like my grandma. Last year in Santa Barbara, I worked at a specialty yarn store called Knit and Pearl Boutique. It was a lot of fun and made me want to do more crafty things.

Through my blog stalking I came across this blog. theidearoom.blogspot.com.
She has some of the cutest ideas I and I want to make about 50 of them. I really want to make the glass tile pendants and the fabric keychain. I just need my sewing machine. Too bad it's in Utah...

Jinx

Andy lost the day I made that post. In 5 sets. So sad. Maybe next year.

School is already so crazy busy. I'm in extra rehearsals for a concert of the Rite of Spring by Stravinsky. I'm playing the alto flute part and it's really fun, just makes for really long days. Like today, I had class at 9, practiced til 12, had orchestra from 12-2, went to a masterclass with the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet from 2-4, took the bus home and ate some toast and a diet coke and then grabbed the alto flute I left at home and went back to school, Rite of Spring rehearsal from 6-7:45 and the Berlin Phil Quintet concert from 8-10. Woof. I'm exhasted, and I will be for the next two weeks. I did find out that I have an extra week to make a recording for a competition so that's happy news but I'm still stressed out about it. I just want to sleep all the time.

Up for tomorrow- teach in Leander from 8:45 to 3:15, practice during the time I don't have students, and then go visiting teaching. At least I have The Office and Project Runway to look forward to.

Dear Andy

You know how much I adore watching you play tennis. It broke my heart just as much as yours when you lost the Wimbledon final. You are playing awesome in Australia and I would really appreciate it if you could win the title and shut those nay-sayers up. I would do the best happy dance ever.

Sincerely,
Ali

P.S. When you get back to Austin, will you give me a call and teach me how to play tennis again? I promise I won't drool too much.

Winter Break in Utah

I am, admittedly, a horrible blogger. I haven't posted in such a long time because of busy schedules, finals, and being in Utah was full of so much fun that I waited until now to post something. I didn't take a whole ton of pictures, but here's a snapshot of what we did.Picture from our plane just about to land in Zion.Spent time with wonderful friends who I miss like crazy.Snuggled with my puppy by the fire. She slept with Bryce and I just about every night.Saw my best friend get married.Watched the boys play video games while Angie and I slept.

Met Shawn Bradley. He's 7'6". Wrap your head around that.Helped Bryce celebrate turning 25!Saw the Dew Tour halfpipe competition up at Snowbasin.
Along with all of this, we got to go see a free Dashboard Confessional concert, went skiing, watched the National Championship game (too bad we lost...), and spent a lot of time with family and friends. My favorite thing about this Christmas break was that I found out I'm going to be an aunt in July! I couldn't be happier for Maren and Kevin, they're going to be amazing parents.

All good things must come to an end, and we are now back in Austin with the start of a new semester. Of course, the minute we left Utah there was a huge snowstorm that dumped fresh powder in the mountains (after weeks of no snow at all), and my car batter was dead when we got here, but oh well. Back to the real world. We can't wait to come back to Utah sometime soon!