Wants.

I bought Colin's Valentine's present. And I bought myself a book. And I'm telling myself that I am NOT going to indulge in post-Holiday splurging. So I will just share my lusts here.
If you decide you would like to indulge me, I will not attempt to dissuade you.

That chunky knit infinity scarf in gray. $28.

Hello, perfection for $37.60.

And then I just really like these. In a whole assortment of colors. And I can't even explain why they catch my fancy. But they do. $6.00 of my fancy, each.

And now that my wishes have been documented, I can finally close those internet tabs.

Collegiate Cooking

In my house there is one standard-sized frying pan. It resides on the stove. And there is generally just a little bit of grease coating the bottom. It is our communal frying pan.

Given, we share all the pots and pans among ourselves, but this one is especially "communal" because it is rarely washed. And by "rarely" I mean a couple of a few times a week.

I mean, if it's all greased and ready to go, why grab and grease another pan to fry my egg? Ya know?

We're really just being environmentally sensitive. And time efficient. And loving. And sharing and caring.

Not to mention... mmmmm, leftover grease is delectable!

Oh, this semester

My body and mind are just really opposed to this semester. Really.
I'm only through with week 1, and I feel like it's going to be an uphill battle the whole way.
I don't even know how to explain it... I'm just not into it.
I tried to take it easy this semester. But it doesn't feel like that's quite how it's going to go.

On Mondays and Wednesdays I have...
11-11:50, Book of Mormon part II
1:30-2:20, Teachings of the Living Prophets
2:30-3:35, Body Flow

Tuesdays and Thursdays are...
8:00-9:15, Group Voice
9:30-10:45, Saints, Signs & Symbols: Reading Medieval Art
12:30-1:45, American Politics and Foreign Policy Since WWII
2-3:15, Western Civilization II

Fridays I don't have any classes.

I'm planning to work a total of 17.5 hrs/week, Tuesdays through Saturdays.
And I'm just not feeling it.
A lot of this is work I need to be doing on my own-- I'm supposed to practice singing for 30 min/day for Group Voice. I'm taking the class because I'm not good at singing, and it feels so awkward to be doing when my housemates are home. And I have four housemates.
I thought I would have a lot of free time on Mondays and Wednesdays to get homework and readings done, but that hasn't been the case so far.
My mind and body are just exhausted.
Christmas break was so short. It was too short.

My Finer Moments

A little over a semester ago, Colin and I were enrolled in the same Environmental Science course.
(I have a sort of underground interest in environmental science, quasi-intentional pun.)

For a day or so, we'd been discussing levees, which are basically artificially heightened riverbanks to prevent flooding. (But don't quote me on that-- like I said, it was a more than a semester ago!)

Naturally, I had a question about the real-life applications of the concept. I raised my hand. Colin knew what was coming and shook his head.

"What does it mean," I inquired, "if a levee is dry?"

"I'm not quite sure what you're asking," our professor responded. "Does the book mention that somewhere or--?"

"No, just hypothetically speaking, what would it mean if you took your Chevy to a levee, but the levee was dry?"

VALID QUESTION. Am I right?

Our professor was just surprised we were familiar with such an old song. But she didn't know the answer, so opened it up to the amused class.

One guy, who had spent some time working at an auto shop or something of the sort, said that there's a car part that's sometimes called a "levee" and if it's dry then you're out of oil. We accepted that as a plausible answer.

But I have been unable to find any support of his hypothesis online, and consequently reject it.

Maybe the river itself was just dried up?

Caroling!

Tonight a family in our ward invited my family over to sing Christmas songs.

I thought this was a bad idea.

"Don't they know," I asked my mom, "that our family doesn't sing?" (at  least not well)

But it ended up being a lot of fun. "What we don't have in skill," my mom told them, "we make up for in volume."

Ben brought along his viola, Rebekah brought her cello, and Lindsay, her violin.
Each played along for at least one song, and Nick played a few songs on the cello as well.

And then we ate cookies!

And we wanted to pawn off the extra cookies (leftover from Friday's reception), so we went off to sing a song for some friends!
We opened it up with "O Hanukkah!" and closed with "Hark the Herald Angels Sing."

It was a good time.

Michigan Reception

Katie had some more wedding festivities shortly after I got home!

This was the only wedding event that my family really planned, and I just loved it so much more! There wasn't a fear of treading on anyone else's toes. We could make contributions and suggestions and got to help decorate and get everything ready without it being a chore.

I MADE THAT ARCH. It is so pretty.

And during the reception I kept busy talking! I felt like I was holding down the reception line at the back of the room! I found out afterwards that many of the guests were awkwardly curious about my relationship status with Colin, since it was my older sister's reception and Colin and I have been dating for awhile. Just wondering if the next reception is around the corner but afraid to inquire directly, I guess!

I DJ'd the music off of my iTunes and felt like a playlist pro. Plus hanging out and dancing with the sibs was a party. Bekah got a little camera happy, the little narcissist (with good reason, I suppose-- she's a looker!), so we do have a photographic record of quite a bit. I swear I'm eating in every photo, though!

Just embarrassing ourselves, pretty much.

All to amuse our mother.

Like I said, eating in all the photos.

Ryan wants to be a bridesmaid. He's on top of it.

We needed our hands free to help put chairs up. Easy solution.

Yup, Ryan's a bridesmaid. Initiation.

Thoughtful

Colin gave me the best Christmas present and I am so excited about it.
He came up with a theme.
And then found three presents with three different purposes.
The first, just for fun.
The second, to be useful.
The third, to show charity.

The first was the board game SCRABBLE. But this version lets you lock in the letters so that they won't slide around. And he promised to play with me. SCORE.

Have you guessed the theme?

The second present I am still geeking out over. It is "The Dictionary of Word Origins" and I am absolutely thrilled. I mentioned last year that I wanted an etymological dictionary, but had totally forgotten about it until sending my mom a Christmas list three days ago. BUT HE REMEMBERED! And I can't wait to read that reference book cover to cover.

NOW have you figured out the theme?

The last gift is a $20 donation (from his bank account, in my name) to an organization that teaches Afghan girls how to read.

Enough Said.