Christmas Weekend

Christmas this year was a very different one. Different, but still just as great. I knew everything that I was getting because I had picked it all out myself and it was an off year where my siblings, besides Tiff and Blake, went to their in-laws. So it was sad that there weren't any little kids running around all excited. I'm definitely not complaining though because since our family was small this year, Christmas morning didn't last too long which created the great opportunity for me to drive to Vernal to surprise Landon. It turned out to be a great success. He had absolutely no idea which is all thanks to his parents for keeping it secret! So then I spent a couple days in Vernal hanging out with him and his family. It created some firsts for me. First time driving 3 hours by myself (wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be and was pretty surprised my car made it that far!), first time snowmobiling (which I now have a love for and can't believe I've been missing out on something so fun all these years), and first time playing Cribbage and winning (which was pretty awesome. It sure taught those boys not to mess with us girls! Haha). So all in all I had a great fun weekend and was sad it had to end!

Now it's almost New Years and I'm very sad because it's the first year my family isn't doing anything! The Hansen family has just gotten too big so we can't find a place big enough to fit everyone. If only my Uncle's business partner would stop being dumb and let us use the bowling alley without having to pay him! It's the perfect place to celebrate New Years! But until then, no more New Years parties for the Hansen family.

I don't know what I'm going to do!

I'm Home!

Winter break is finally here! After a busy couple of weeks and then one week of intense studying for finals, the semester is finally over and I couldn't be more relieved. I am now back at home with my family and I couldn't be happier. The only thing I'll have to deal with is that I'll now become a slave for my mom. Ok, so I'm just going to work for her to earn money for school since apparently I'm only an average worker at the Post Office and they just don't seem to want me to work for them. So bitter. (For those that may not know, I worked at the Post Office last year and though I hated every minute of it, it paid great money so I applied again this year only to find out I'm average instead of excellent so they won't hire me again. Soooo lame!) But I guess I shouldn't complain because I'll actually get to spend time with my family this holiday season. Lots of parties that I'll be able to go to that I wasn't able to go to last year. So this winter break should be a good one and I'm so stoked! I just love this time of the year!!

"The Rules"

The Rules- Time-tested Secrest for Capturing the Heart of Mr. Right

NOTE: Thanks to Tiff for giving me this gem of a book. I thought it was so good that I decided I needed to share it with the world. Therefore, I have compiled what I believe to be some of the most important rules, and the suggestions that go with them, for catching Mr. Right. Enjoy!

THE RULES
1. Be a "Creature Unlike Any Other"
2. Don't Talk to a Man First (and Don't Ask Him to Dance)
3. Don't Stare at Men or Talk Too Much
4. Don't Call Him and Rarely Return His Calls
5. Don't Accept a Saturday Night Date after Wednesday
6. Stop Dating Him if He Doesn't Buy You a Romantic Gift for Your Birthday or Valentine's Day
7. Don't Date a Married Man
8. Even if You're Engaged or Married, You Still Need "The Rules"
9. Do "The Rules," Even When Your Friends and Parents Think It's Nuts
10. Don't Discuss "The Rules" With Your Therapist
11. Do "The Rules" and You'll Live Happily Ever After!

Meet a Rules Girl:
"Don't leave the house without wearing makeup. Put lipstick on even when you go jogging! Do everything you possibly can to put your best face forward. If you have a bad nose, get a nose job; color gray hair; grow your hair long. Men prefer long hair, something to play with and caress. It doesn't matter what your hairdresser and friends think. You're certainly not trying to attract them! The point is, we're girls! WE don't want to look like boys."

"Now a word about clothes. If you walk around in any old clothes on the theory that what counts is only what's inside...think again! Men like women who wear fashionable, sexy clothes in bright colors. Why not please them? Don't aspire to the unisex look. Buy feminine-looking clothes to wear on the weekends as well as during the workweek. Remember that you are dressing for men, not other women, so always strive to look feminine."

Be a Creature Unlike Any Other: "When you go to singles dances or parties, you pump yourself up. You pretend you're a movie star. You hold your head high and walk in as if you just flew in from Paris on the Concorde. YOu're only in town for one night and if some lucky hunk doesn't swoop down and grab you it'll be his loss! If you think you aren't pretty, if you think other girls are better dressed or thinner or cooler, you keep it to yourself. You tell yourself 'Any man would be lucky to have me,' until it sinks in and you start to believe it."

Don't Talk to a Man First and Don't Ask Him to Dance: "By talking to a man first, we interfere with whatever was supposed to happen or not happen, perhaps causing a conversation or a date to occur that was never meant to be and inevitably getting hurt in the process. After all, the premise of 'The Rules' is that we never make anything happen, that we trust in the natural order of things--namely, that man pursues woman."

Don't Stare at Men or Talk Too Much: "Don't look anxiously around for 'The One.' There is nothing attractive about anxiety. There will always be moments on a date when neither of you has anything to say. Don't feel the need to fill in these silences. You'll end saying something stupid and forced. Sometimes men just want to drive in silence without saying a word. Let them. Maybe he's thinking about how he's going to propose to you one day. Don't run his concentration.

Don't Call Him, and Rarely Return His Calls: "Don't worry about seeming rude. When he loves you or wants to get in touch with you badly, he won't think you're rude, just busy or hard to get--and men always call again. Life has enough pain without our adding man pain to it. We can't control cancer or drunk drivers, but we can restrain ourselves from dialing his number. One last thought about the phone: sometimes we want to call a man we are dating not to speak to him, but just to hear his voice. We feel that we are simply going to die if we don't hear his sexy voice this minute! That's understandable. We suggest you call his his answering machine when he's at work. Hang up before the beep. It really works!"

Don't Accept a Saturday Night Date after Wednesday: "The best way to encourage him to phone sooner is to turn him down when he calls on Thursday for Saturday night. Hopefully he will get the hint. Nicely say, 'No, wow, I wish I wasn't busy!' Then sigh and get off the phone. He will soon realize that you simply want to be asked in advance for a date. Don't be offended, just train them to call earlier without actually demanding it of them. If you play your cards right, he will reach the conclusion that the only way to see you whenever he wants, at the last minute, is to marry you!"

Stop Dating Him if He Doesn't Give You a Romantic Gift for Your Birthday or Valentine's Day: "This is not a rule for gold diggers; it's just that when a man wants to marry you, he usually gives you jewelry, not sporty or practical gifts like a toaster oven or a coffee maker. One point about greeting cards: check to see if he signs 'love.' If he doesn't sign it 'love,' don't assume he does. Just read what's written! When you do receive gifts, don't overreact. "

Don't Date a Married Man: "All women who date married men suffer from low self-seteem, or why would they settle for so little? We are not big advocates of therapy, but we believe it would be worth $125 an hour to find out why you would do this to yourself. If you have recently met a married man that you are mad about, then you must practice self-restraint. If he is everything you ever wanted in a husband, be friends with him and hope he gets divorced. By the end, you are always crying on the shoulders of girlfriends and wishing his wife would die."

Even if You're Engaged or Married, You Still Need "The Rules": "If you didn't do 'The Rules' at the beginning of your relationship, your husband might ignore you, talk to you rudely, or treat you badly. You might wonder, 'Is his behavior the result of bad upbringing or something in his past?' Maybe. But we believe it's because you didn't do the rules."

Do "The Rules," Even When Your Friends and Parents Think It's Nuts: "If you can't find any like-minded women to support you in doing 'The Rules,' just read this book a lot, carry it around in your purse to refer to on long supermarket lines, and practice what you read as much as possible. Believe us, if you do 'The Rules,' you'll be so busy dating your future husband to care or even think about what anyone else is doing or what anyone else things of what you are doing."

Don't Discuss the Rules with Your Therapist: "Some therapists will think that 'The Rules' are dishonest and manipulative. They will encourage you to be open and vulnerable in your relationships with men, to talk things out, not to keep your feelings of love or hurt inside. Self-improvement is great--we can all be better in many areas. But simply being a better person won't get you the man or your dreams. You have to do 'The Rules!'"

Do "The Rules" and You'll Live Happily Ever After: "It's that simple. You do 'The Rules' and trust that one day a prince will notice that you're different from all other women he's known, and ask for you hand! Incredible, unbelievable payoffs:
-he wants to marry you!
-when you are seated at a booth in a restaurant, he slides over and sits next to you. Sitting opposite you is just too far away when he's truly in love.
-he writes you love notes or poetry for you and tapes them on the refrigerator door.
-if you call him at work, he'll always want to talk to you even if he's busy.
-he doesn't like it when you go to bachelorette parties.
-when you walk around the house with very little on, he whistles, as though you were a babe on the beach.
-when he loves you, he loves your kids."

The Rules: Time-tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr. Right
by Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider
(c) 1995 Warner Books, Inc.

I guess that's what I'm not married yet. I haven't been following "The Rules!"

Fall time

Oh how I love the fall time! It might even be my favorite season. I love watching all the leaves change colors. It makes being outside so beautiful. The sad part about being in Logan is we get a very short fall. We've already had snow. The past couple days have been good, but the leaves are mostly all dead now. BUT another part of why I love the fall is Halloween! There are so many fun things to do. I always go see Thriller which I just love. It's so good.

And then you can always have fun dressing up in costumes! This year I was Tinkerbell. I was supposed to be Glinda from Wicked but I didn't feel up to wearing a prom dress all night. It was a good thing I went to a party the week before Halloween with my sister and her husband so I actually had a back up costume. We actually had more fun getting into our costumes than at the actual party.

Pumpkin carving is always another favorite. I didn't do any last year, but this year I was able to carve 3! It was a lot of fun. Ellen and I were pretty proud of our spider web pumpkin.

On Halloween night, me and a couple of friends decided not to go to the Howl. I didn't enjoy it too much last year so we decided to have our own party. Turns out we aren't very decisive and can't plan parties though. We ended up just watching the baseball game. There was a party going on in the apartment building we were at which we visited for a bit. They had this coffin that we had fun taking pictures in.

Since I had my Tinkerbell costume, we found some clothes for Nate to wear to be Peter Pan. Yes, he is wearing all girl clothes. It was awesome. Rylee completed our group by being Wendy.

Now that Halloween is over and it's November, I'm looking forward to two things: New Moon and Thanksgiving! Oh how I love fall!

Hey There Delilah Missionary Style

Hahaha I think this is awesome! Very clever and funny.

Meet Jacob Black

I'm in love with Taylor Lautner.

Pretty sure he is the reason I'm stoked to see New Moon. I'm definitely a Jacob fan when it comes to the movies. I think I've watched this trailer about 100 times. I can't wait.

Homecoming

Last Saturday was the homecoming game against SUU. I still had to go home Thursday night for a doctor's appointment I had on Friday and to mow lawns, but I was excited to be able to go back up Saturday and finally spend some part of the weekend in Logan. After mowing early Saturday, I got all ready and was stoked to make it to Logan in time for the game when I got stuck on the freeway for 45 minutes because of an accident. It was frustrating sitting in my parked car knowing that I'll be late to the game. But I finally made it past the accident and was an hour late to the game. Once there everything was alright and I had a great time! My friends were all shocked to see me in Logan on a Saturday so it made it fun. Rylee and I bought a big snowie that we shared with everyone and then had a fun time chewing on our straws the rest of the night. Once the game was over and seeing that we finally won a game (53 to 34) we went to the dance afterwards and had a great time. I'm definitely excited for when I don't have to go home to mow anymore and I can just stay up in Logan and hang out with my friends, seeing as my friends at home are now all gone.

Chubby Cheeks

I got my wisdom teeth out Thursday and it wasn't a fun experience. I decided to do a study so I will get paid for testing out a new drug. The drug seemed to work fine for a while but I really just had a hard time with the Lortab that they gave me afterwards. I had to stay in the hospital for 24 hours which wasn't too bad. I just watched TV all day long and slept.

My sister-in-law Marcie was the one who picked me up from the hospital and boy am I glad to have her in my life. She really was my mom figure for most of the weekend taking care of me when I got sick and made sure I had food and medicine. She is usually the one who ends up taking care of me when something happens. I've decided she's my second mom haha. Thanks Marcie!! I also have to thank cute little Gracie because she definitely made me happy after the first time I threw up. Marcie had left to get me a Jamba and Gracie started crying in the car and so I went in the back seat to try to make her happy even though I wasn't happy myself. She immediately stopped crying and got this big huge grin on her face and started laughing! Ha no joke! She was totally laughing at my chubby cheeks I'm sure of it! So then how could I stay unhappy with my situation while looking at this cute baby just laughing at me. It definitely put a smile on my face.

Later that day after leaving the hospital and getting some rest, food and medicine, I headed to a family reunion. It was a big debate whether I should go but I wanted to and I'm glad I did. I probably should have stayed home to rest but I couldn't help resisting a chance to be with family even if I was in pain or felt sick. I had a good time dancing and catching up with family that I hadn't seen in a couple of years.

Saturday was the worst day because I was super chubby and in a lot of pain again. I threw up one more time but towards the end of the night I finally got food down and switched to Advil instead of Lortab. I'm now doing a lot better. My cheeks are still a little swollen but not bad and I'm still in a little bit of pain but it's going away thankfully. I'm now just bugged with the stitches and want to be able to brush my teeth normally and eat popcorn! Ha

But now that I'm over the whole weekend of pain, I can look back at some pictures and laugh. So here are a few:

This is before surgery

I had to show off the awesome outfit haha

Right after surgery. I was still out of it.

Twins! Both at birth and now with chubby cheeks :)

Gotta keep the swelling down haha

(I tried to walk around with ice packs on my face so I didn't have to let

people see how chubby I really was)

State Fair!

I went to the fair a little bit ago with Chantell Jarem and a couple of their friends. I was debating whether or not to go (because I wasn't sure if I'd have fun and feel weird being at least 5 years younger than everyone and that's only because of my sister, otherwise it's at least 16 years!) but they talked me into it and I was sure glad they did.

I had never been before so I didn't know what it would be like but I definitely had a great time! We first started out watching the rodeo which was only my second one I've been to and this one was pretty lame compared to the other one. It was still a good time. We then mostly walked around and saw all the animals which was a lot more fun than you think it'd be. We ended the night with a ride which was a giant slide and probably the best ride ever! Very fun.

Oh, and as we were walking out, we noticed a booth that said "Worlds Smallest Woman" so Mikey gave Chantell and I both $1 to go see her and pretty sure it was the most awkward thing of my life! It really was just some midget woman sitting on a little couch on a table! We didn't know what to do seeing as how we paid to see her. She's on display for people to pay to see her! I really wonder how she feels about that. She kept avoiding our eye contact though and it was just a very awkward experience. Ha definitely only something you'd see at the fair. But all in all I had a very good time and was glad I went. I'm excited to go next year to see what other surprises it has to offer me. :)

Me and Mikey watching the rodeo

Me and Chantell petting the biggest pig!

Yes, he actually kissed the pig..

and the cow..

and I also heard a goat but we didn't get a picture of that one..

Fat cows

cute lambs

This is the slide that is super fun. I totally won the second time we went down. :)

SYTYCD meets Ellen.. again..

I loved when Ellen was a judge on SYTYCD. It was one of my favorite episodes. Now as a result, Ellen had the top ten dancers on her show. I found this on the internet and loved it. I wish I would've seen the actual episode of the Ellen DeGeneres show. But watch it, it's pretty awesome:

Really though.. who knew Ellen could dance?!

Package!!

You know when you're having a bad day/week and all you need is something to happen to make things better? I wasn't having the best week because of the situation with my car and school starting to pick up with lots of homework. I've also been trying to find a job which is a very stressful thing but I desperately need one. So I was in a bad/depressing mood all week until Thursday when I went up for dinner and found out that I had a package! Trent's package finally came! It actually caught me off guard beacause he only sent it two weeks ago so it got here a lot sooner than I expected. But it was the thing I needed to forget about the stresses of my life. It came at the perfect time!

It is so great that someone who is far away in a different country can make me happy when I'm having a hard time. :)

My car hates Logan

Apparently there is something with Logan that my car doesn't like. I've only had two major problems with my car needing serious fixing and both have happened when I get up to Logan after a weekend back home. I am not a car person so I have no idea what to do when I notice some weird noise coming from my car. My dad normally is there to fix it but of course my dad isnt in Logan when something serious happens.

I think my car has finally reached its limit of being a good car. The transmission now has something wrong with it and will cost a lot of money to fix. It may be the end of the only car I've had since I turned 16. It is currently parked to the side of a road because it made a horrible noise and smelt very badly that I knew I wouldn't make it home. I had to sit in it for about an hour before someone was able to pick me up. It was a very stressful and emotional day. My dad is currently figuring something out to do, but it may result in just buying a new car that will solve the transmission problem and also get a bonus of working AC! That is the only good news about the situation.

I luckily have great people in my life that are willing to help me out in my now stranded position. I have been offered rides, a bike, and also to borrow cars for the week. It's made it a lot easier to get through the situation but I still don't like the fact of having to depend on other people to get to and from school every day.

I'm just frustrated my car had to break down on me. It's been a great car these past 3 years and I'll be sad if we do end up getting rid of it. It has cost me a lot of stress and money but I am still attached to it. I guess we'll see at the end of the week what the verdict is. Will we fix my car or get a new one?

The Posse

After my first week of being back at school, I came home for the weekend to spend some time with my good friend Nick Flynn who will be leaving very soon on his mission. Nick is the last of 6 close guy friends to leave. The 6 guys, Pace, Jace, Soup, Joey, Josh, and Nick all called themselves the Posse. These 6 guys were my best friends throughout my senior year of high school and now they are almost all gone. Since Nick is the last to leave, he was sad that his best friends wouldn't be there. So, being the clever guy that Nick is, he came up with a way to make sure they were there.

For a while now Nick has had an idea of making cardboard cutouts of the other 5 guys to place strategically throughout the room during sacrament for his farewell. Now of course this idea was shot down by his bishop but that didn't stop the idea of at least making the cutouts.

Saturday night came around (last night) and we decided we better put the plan into action since his farewell was the next today (today). We went to Zurchers and picked out 3 different cardboard cutouts: John Wayne, Zac Efron, and the Jonas brothers. After getting very weird looks from the workers, we purchased them and set off to start the process. It took us a long time to find good enough pictures of close up faces but we found some in the end. We blew them up and cropped the head out so they looked like floating heads on the computer screen. We had a few problems with printing the pictures out so we left that part till the very end. We grabbed a bunch of ties and tied them around all the cutouts and then I made name tags with white out on black paper. After all that, we finally were able to print out the pictures and tape them onto the cutouts faces. We had to cut the cardboard to fit the new face, which we called their "haircut" and once we did, our project was complete. We had our 5 good friends staring back at us and it was a great sight. We were very proud of ourselves because they all worked out so perfectly.

Floating Head

Before

Name tags

Jonas Brothers= Soup, Josh, & Jace

Zac Efron= Joey

John Wayne= Pace

Getting "haircuts"

After

The finished project on display in the entry way of Nick's house :)

College

Well summer is now over and it's time for school! I'm a little torn about coming back to school. I'm excited to finally have something to keep me busy because I did start to get bored of having nothing to do at home. I'm also excited about not being a freshman anymore! The night I got up here, I went to this dance party and you could easily pick out the freshman from the rest. I took one look at them and now know how stupid I must've looked last year. The only thing I'm not so excited about is the actual school work part. I've decided to try out the accounting major which is a little scary. Hopefully it works out though and doesn't just kill me with the workload.

I moved up to Logan on Saturday and packed my whole life into one car like always. I don't have very much stuff so it's not too hard to fit everything. I am lucky to have very generous cousins that are allowing me to live with them in their basement seeing as how I decided to come back to school on very short notice and then finding housing would've been very hard. But Jeff and Marci went all out in preparing my room which I love!

They've made me feel very welcome and at home. I was a little nervous at first that I was intruding on their space, but they've made it so I feel comfortable here. Their kids have been very welcoming too. From the moment I walked in the door they all were so excited and couldn't wait to show me around the house. They always come into my room just laughing and wanting to play and have fun. It's a good time.

I do feel a little cut off from the college life because all my friends live very close to each other and right by campus so I'm far away from all of them. I'm used to that sort of thing though seeing as the past two years I've lived in Murray while all my best friends lived in Holladay, a good 15 minutes from my home, so it's all good.

I'm now just excited to see what this new year of college will bring me!

Summer

Well it's been a very long time since I've updated this so it's probably about time. Summer is almost over and I've done many fun things. Here is a little summary on what I've been up to for the past 4 months, and get ready for a lot of pictures!

The first of the summer I went on a little road trip with Rylee and Brooke to Manila to visit some friends from college. We were amazed at how small this little town was and couldn't imagine growing up in such a small place. We did have a lot of fun camping and hanging out though.
They live right by Flaming Gourge so they took us on a scenic tour of the place and it was beautiful. This picture was at one of the look out points.

I went to the sand dunes with Tobin Heather and JD. Tobin had been promising to take me there for a long time and we finally went. It was a lot of fun. Heather and I had just a little too much fun dancing and taking pictures.

I then went on a week long trip to California with John Sara Mandi Carl and Robbie. We had so much fun. It was probably the best trip I've been on with friends. We had a fun time at the beach, walking the pier, and going to Six Flags. It was a great time!
We had a lot of fun in one particular store on the pier trying on all the different crazy sunglasses they had. It was a good time.
The very last night there, we discovered awesome beach bikes that we enjoyed riding down to the pier and getting ice cream. I had the best bike by far with the basket, bell, and pom poms coming off my handle bars.
I got to go to the REAL soccer game with David when he performed. It was a lot of fun for the 6 of us girls to pretend to be Davids bodyguards. I had a great time and David was amazing when he performed, but what else is new?

I also had a lot of family stuff this summer. I had the great pleasure in going on a trip down south with some of my family to Zion, the Grand Canyon, and Bryce Canyon. I had never been to any of those places and they were all amazing. My favorite place was Bryce Canyon!

One of my favorite family reunion places has been the Heber Valley girls camp. It's a great area and has many fun activities. The best is the lake that we get to ride in canoes and paddle boats for an hour. My sister-in-law Marcie and I loved the life jackets we had to wear and couldn't help showing them off.During clean up time, I stayed busy entertaining the kids. We were playing a game that my cute niece and nephew (Sadie and Carson) love to play. They catch me and take me to jail. They are very serious about the game as you can tell by their faces. Oh how I love them.
I've gone boating a couple times with my friends. It was stormy one particular time we went. It wasn't the smartest idea but we still had a lot of fun!
This summer has also been a time for many farewells. One by one my guy friends keep leaving and it's soon going to be just the girls left.

I've also had the opportunity to go on some hikes. I love going on hikes. Nature is truly beautiful.
My favorite hike was one I went on with Ellen Stacey Lindsay and Brooke. Half way up the mountain we ran into snow. Luckily it wasn't cold and it increased the fun we had.
We made it to the top and it was beautiful! The lake was frozen over but it was still worth it!On the way back down we had to hurry. We had limited amount of time before Stacey had to be home and at something for Miss Murray. So we figured the fastest way down was to run. Now running down a mountain isn't the smartest thing to do especially when there is snow. We didn't care though and it was so much fun. We ran and kept sliding at times and it was just great. I did have a couple accidents though. Everyone had stopped at one point and seeing as I was running pretty fast down a mountain with snow, I couldn't stop myself and ended up tripping which resulted in this:We ended up going off of the trail for a bit to jump off cool rocks and take pictures. As I was following Ellen and Lindsay I fell through the snow into a little stream. It was very wet and cold but very funny. It took me a while to get out because the snow all around me kept caving in.
Once I got out and we finally found the trail again and we made our way down the mountain. As soon as the snow was gone it was a very speedy way down. It was amazing that no one really got hurt. It was a great time and I would love to do it again!
Well that was a very brief summary of my summer and I do mean brief. I wish I could go into more detail about these events but it'd take way too long. But besides any fun trips, I've just been mowing lawns and hanging out. It's been a great summer and I'm sad it's nearly over but I am pretty excited about going back up to school.