(make sure to click on all of the hyperlinks---they're good ones)
I blame it on pregnancy and also spending the whole summer by myself, but when 5:30 pm Friday afternoon rolled around, I did not want to spend the weekend alone. I’m usually ok with being by myself—-I can
eat,
watch,
read, and
do whatever I want. It’s usually pretty nice to spend some time by myself, but Friday night, that was not going to fly. So I called
Ladie and Kate (who was going to be in
Utah for the weekend) and we figured that I could
stay at Ladie’s for the weekend (and
follow her around a bit) and be able to see Kate
sometime. This turned out to be the greatest idea ever. I was
nervous about going, because I didn’t really want to drive down by myself (or really at all after all the summer driving), and I knew I had a lot of homework that needed to get done. After I had gotten done
packing up and was in the car, but not out of Rexburg yet, I saw that during the time of calling other people I had a missed call from my physics friend
Heidi. I listened to her message which said that she had just made
dinner and wondered if I wanted to come over, eat, and do
homework together. I wasn’t even to the highway yet—it wasn’t too late to
turn around and do the
smart thing! My solution was to call
my mom (who was the one to first convince me to drive down to Utah in the first place) and asked her to convince me the best thing was for me to go to Utah. That was a great idea—she did it and there was no turning around! I got to Ladie’s house at
midnight and she and I happily fell asleep
talking in her bed.
The next day we happily woke up between 8 and 9 and made a batch of
pumpkin pancakes with one of Ladie’s friends Taylor (who brought over that milk in a glass because he didn't have--and I quote "a sippy cup to bring it in." .
They were the most spectacular thing I’ve ever eaten. I’m sure it’s the pregnancy, but I just love pumpkin right now and they were extraordinary! They were
gluten-free, because Ladie can’t eat gluten, but they were super super super good. I’m making them tonight with whole-wheat flour and they’ll hopefully turn out. While we were eating them, we watched a few episodes of
Arrested Development (funny as ever), and snarked down the whole batch of pancakes. After we were done eating, Ladie and I went to a
yoga class that Ladie goes to almost everyday (a real one, not one at
BYUI, and not on a tape), and it was one of the greatest things I’ve ever done. It was nice to
stretch my body and put it in different positions that aren’t in my regular regime of sitting in a chair and taking notes or sitting on my bed and doing homework. This is the room it was in, only it isn't a lounge anymore, it's a yoga room. The walls are the same color though, and there's still a window in the back.
We did a lot of breathing which was really nice to just focus on breathing and not think about anything but the air circulating through your body. We did a lot of “sun salutations” and so I got a hang of them after a few sets of those. There were a few parts where I couldn’t really do because of my belly, but it wasn’t awkward, and I just did something else instead. It was a 90 minute class, which I didn’t think I’d be able to get through, but I did! I learned that my arms are really weak and that my abs have gotten pretty weak after not working out since school started. My arms, shoulders, and abs are pretty sore today, but it’s a pretty nice kind of sore. This morning while I was getting ready to go to school, I decided it would be kind of nice to do some yoga, so I did a couple things I remembered from the class and it was really nice! I really like using my body and keeping it active. It only took my 15 minutes to do everything I remembered, so I’m going to make an effort to get up an extra 15 minutes early so that I’ll be able to do it.
We got home, got ready for the night, and Enter Kate! She and Nic came up from Provo and the four of us went to Sawadee, the greatest Thai restaurant I’ve ever eaten at! Ladie’s been there a ton of times and really enjoys it and she was certainly right about the quality of food! The service was also super super fast, and the only solitary thing I would complain about was that every time they filled up my water glass, they kept adding ice so by the end of the night my glass was just full of ice. The pad thai was the best pad thai I’ve ever eaten, and I wish I could eat it every day. It was a little different than I’ve had before, in that it was a little sweeter, but it was absolutely spectacular. Our friend Greg loves this restaurant, but he had already eaten, so he just stopped by and talked to us while we ate. We got a lot of other dishes, which were all good, but the pad thai was certainly the best.
That man with the spectacular beard is Greg, and it is has the most interesting texture to touch...I don't mind it even a bit. I'll put pictures up of Jordan's beard next. He shaved it off a few days ago, but I still want it to be recorded that he had one.
After that we went to
a great chocolate place that is run by a midget, but I guess he had surgery a few weeks ago so he hasn’t come back to work yet, so only regular sized people were there. It certainly didn’t change the quality of the food, though! I got a dark hot-chocolate, and I could have drunk it all night long. It was super super super thick, and exactly the way that hot chocolate should taste. It’s a good thing I live 4 hours away from that place or I’d be tempted to go back much more than necessary. (The following is an actual picture from the actual chocolate place)
After that, Kate, Ladie, and I went back to Ladie's for a sleepover!
The first snow had fallen that day, and I had some of their Christmas presents in the back of my car so we had a little Christmas! The following is a video of it---I got Kate a
Katherine Hepburn book and Ladie a
Musée D'orsay picture book. It was a good idea and very fun.
The next day was kinda chill. We slowly got up and ready for the day, I drove Kate down to Provo and then got to see Rachel! We went to a restaurant called
Carabba's Italian Grill and it was a very very very enjoyable meal. I got some kind of chicken filled with cheese (super good), with grilled zucchini. She got a smoothie and I got a frozen lemonade, and they came in these super sweet glasses that are in the picture. We also got dessert which were cheap and came in these super sweet small containers. We each chose two to eat, but I wish I had only gotten one because they were super rich. They were super super super good though, and very asthetically pleasing. It was super good to chat with Rachel and see her after a good long time of not seeing her (coming down to Utah just doesn't happen as often as it should).
After that I drove home! All in all it was a super good weekend and I'm so glad I did it! Every part was great and the lower gas gets, hopefully the more often it'll be able to happen!
That was absolutely amazing. The two didn’t really go together, but separately they were both really good, on their own. While we were eating the cake, we watched Baby Mama, which Ladie and I saw together in the theater when I went to Portland for the research conference. 
It was funny then and it’s just as funny now. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are just so funny, especially together. The next morning, I went to a baby shower for my friend Jordelle (which was super fun), came back, went and got construction paper for Ladie’s school lesson on homophones, and came back to chill for a bit. After Ladie was done with her lesson she left to spend the rest of her weekend in Rexburg with her sister, but the chilling for Jordan and I didn’t stop when she left. We kind of chilled for the rest of the day. Jordan didn’t change out of his pajamas all day, or go outside. 
Neither of us wanted to leave for lunchtime so we ordered a pizza (something with a lot of meat from Domino’s). We just watched tv all day, and were planning on leaving, but just didn’t end up getting out of the house. Jonathan and Rebecca Monson came over for a couple house at 10, where we watched the end of Reign of Fire (with Christian Bale), and then the last 45 minutes of Notting Hill. It was a pretty nice Saturday, and super good to see Ladie, again for the second weekend in a row.
