so you made it twenty months

without your best friend.

that's right,
TWENTY JEFFIN MONTHS.
twenty months of:
-being grumpy.
-not wearing makeup/real pants/not putting in my contacts because i just don't care.
-watching videos like this and this and this over and over again. (plus a million more. many hours have been wasted watching homecoming videos.)
-eating heinously unhealthy foods. (i may or may not be eating a s'mores cupcake while writing this. we'l never know for sure.)
-saying "i'm gonna get fit now!" at every month mark. (it's starting to take effect…)
-staying up late to write letters instead of studying for tests.
-mainly, just missing that crazy kid i am lucky to call mine.
4 MONTHS LEFT, FOOLS.
see you soon.

who gave him that sweater? no idea. but they
 should keep giving him insatiably attractive clothing.

LATELY:

-so i mentioned in my last blog post that something went wrong with my car, but that i got it fixed. well, like three days later i loaded up my little car and started my drive down to utah, where i would pick up all of my family and then we would all drive home to beautiful colorado for christmas! except for an hour and a half into my drive down to utah my battery started to die. i was able to pull over into the nearest gas station in MCCAMMON, IDAHO. literally the middle of nowhere. there was nothing even close to a car repair shop anywhere around. i would have to drive back a half hour to pocatello to get my car worked on. except my car didn't drive. and it was 4:45- all of the mechanic shops would be closing in 15 minutes. so, i put on my big girl pants (after calling my parents in a frantic panic), called a mechanic shop to tell them i would be coming, called a tow truck to come and pick my up and cried by myself in a booth in the gas station until the tow truck came. not one of my brightest moments.

lyle on the back of a tow truck. not something i ever
wanted to see.

 i was going to have to stay in a nasty motel that night but then my sister-in-law called her cousins who live in pocatello and they came and picked me up from the auto shop, brought me back to their house, fed me, watched a movie with me, let me sleep in their guest room and then took me back in the morning. i was SO grateful for them. kind people, man. they're the greatest.

-wow. that was long. take a breather.

-i had my whole family home for christmas this year. and it was amazing.

AMAZING life-size gingerbread house at the broadmoor.
even more amazing siblings.
(cheesiness for the win.)

aaron eating the lobster of our traditional surf&turf
christmas dinner

new year's hiking.

-my dad went out and checked the mail one day and nonchalantly put a package in front of me when he came back in. my heart nearly stopped beating when i saw that this was no ordinary package, this was a package from FRANCE. and it had this little beauty in it.

holy gorgeous necklace.

you win this round, elder. 

-i started back at work again. i walked into the room that had my old kids in it and they looked at me so confused for a minute before saying "anne!!" in their little voices. my heart melted.

-if you watched the super bowl (like most american humans) and you were watching right after it ended, then you saw this amazing commercial that my amazing sister-in-law wrote. she's pretty much the coolest human ever, and i am not related to someone famous. no biggie.

six.

CAUTION: long post ahead.
proceed with caution.
and cookies.
(because who doesn't love a good cookie?)

dear you,
i get to see you in six short months.
when did this happen??
i feel like i was just celebrating being half done.
now in just half a year i get to be in the presence of your wonderful lanky-ness.
i can't wait.
i've done my happy dance more times than i should have.
(you know the one.)
so. six months.
be there or be square.
see you soon.
always,
me.

LATELY:

-"anne, it is literally the middle of the month. you are the worst at posting these on your blog." i am well aware, world! but now there is only five and a half months left. so you can't really put a damper on me. HA! win.

-that one time we decorated for my roommate's birthday and it looked exactly like kelly's birthday on the office.

-i got to spend thanksgiving with my favorite humans in the whole world.

good humans and good turkey. i'll take it.

-evidence of how well facebook knows me:

curse you, facebook! how did you know i was looking for REAL goth guys??

-i found this impressive specimen at the DI.

YEESH.

-you know what isn't my favorite thing? feeling your nose hairs freeze on your less than three minute walk to class. oh rexburg, how i loathe thee.

-after a tri-city wide power outage (when it was -9 degrees outside, yay rexburg!) our heat did not come back on. this was our thermostat.

the top line is what temperature it is supposed to be. the bottom line is what it actually is. woof.

i got this tiny space heater and pretty much lived by it for days until they fixed our heater.

i may or may not still live by it. and it may or may not be on right now.

-i should be studying for finals at this moment in time. 

-i'm not.

-you know who i hate? little me. i found this gem in my Facebook history.

*shivers.* little anne, you are the people i block on Facebook.

-my roommate and i had driven to idaho falls for the afternoon to shop and really just not be in rexburg. while driving back, my battery went dead and my car died. that is not supposed to happen. luckily, i have a friend from back home who so amazingly came over and looked at my car and told me what my problem was and fixed it for free! i love good people.

-i have less than three days left in rexburg. excited is an understatement, but i will miss this lady far too much.

although we are opposites in so many ways, she really has been there for me this semester, and i am forever grateful for that. gonna miss ya, khlo. 

humans.

i joke a lot that i do not like humans.

(and most of the time it is pretty accurate.)
but this is the month of being grateful, right? right.
so when i really think of all my blessings,
i realize that the humans i have in my life are my biggest blessings.
i realize that i have some of the best humans in the whole world in my life.

fambam.

KREW.

roomies.

and of course, four of my four favorite people who i am falling apart without:

i sure do like my humans.

i think i'll keep 'em.

let your love grow tall.

oh that title?
yeah it's a wonderful song by passion pit.
if you ever ask me how i'm feeling i can probably explain it better through songs than words.


i haven't seen you in 17 months.
which means i start to forget.
i start to forget how amazing you really are.
i forget that you bring me french fries and sour patch kids to tell me you're sorry.
i forget that you dance like a loon with me, and laugh like crazy when we realize how ridiculous we look.
i forget that you encourage me in whatever i want to do, even if it's to drop out of school and open a cupcake shop. (then you bring me back to my senses because you actually care about my future, unlike me.)
i forget that you still race me to open my door even when i fight you on it.
i forget that you look out for me more than i look out for myself.
i forget how you'd give me a new reason every night of why you love me, never repeating a reason you'd used before.
i forget how big you smile when you see me.
how you put up with all of my crap and love me unconditionally.
and i forget how much you really mean to me.
but i'm trying really hard to remember now.
please be patient with me when i forget.
see you in seven.

in other news:

-there is new music in my music section. if you see me dancing on campus i might be listening to one of those songs.

-"anne i'm tired of hearing about your missionary." well that's unfortunate.

-i am the best at being the worst at chemistry. (did you catch that?) my science class this semester unfortunately had a chemistry section in it. even more unfortunate, my teacher told us that practically everyone fails this test, and we should expect to do the same and just pray she drops one of our test scores at the end of the semester. i studied my butt off, praying for at least a 50. imagine my surprise when i came out of the testing center to see i got an 82, well above the average of the rest of my class. i definitely did a victory dance despite the people around me.

-i really miss these people. on account of they are some of my favorite people in the whole world.

it's appalling how photogenic we are, really.

oops i'm in rexburg.

yeah that definitely happened. 

but let me tell you, blogging world.
it has been a million times better this time.
first of all,
i got these amazing ladies as roommates:

we're obviously the hottest ladies in rexburg.

sometimes we get hotdogs at 10:30 at night.

then i had the best mail day ever:

new glasses, a package from home and a letter from my missionary? i'll take it.

or those too often occasions of hitting up mcdonalds because it is the only place open at midnight.

there was that one time i got to go to an imagine dragons concert for free! we got there late and missed fictionist who opened for them. meeting them after, getting a t-shirt and getting them to sign my ticket lessened the blow a bit but i will be forever angry about it.

i also did the true idahoan thing and went to a rodeo!

codi didn't stay on for long...

or that time jared, codi and i made the nastiest cookies to ever exist and dropped them off at some poor, un-expecting girl's apartments. what else is there to do in rexburg at 1 in the morning?

the illegible number at the bottom is the best part.

moral of the story, it's been so much better this time.

but i still miss my mountains.

single digits.

i feel like i'm morphing into one of those girls who only talks about their missionary. 

you know, those girls that call themselves missionary girlfriends (GAG ME), whose every instagram picture is about their missionary, who hole themselves up in their room writing 15 page letters everyday and who sob at night because they cannot bear to do life without their missionary.
ok, i'm definitely not that extreme, i just feel like i've mentioned him in every blog lately.
BUT.
i couldn't let this momentous occasion go unblogged. sorry, world.

today, it has been 15 months since i have seen my very best friend.
which also means that i only have 9 months left until i see him again.

that is SINGLE DIGITS people.

I used to have 24 months left.
but oh ho ho! NO LONGER.
i'll take 9 over 15 any day of the week.
(or 24 for that matter.)

see you soon, dallin pumpkin.
(ok, so it was two days ago. let's pretend i don't suck for 4 seconds.)

life events as of late:

-my family moved to colorado springs the summer of 1999. my very first friend in colorado was casey. casey has been one of my best friends since that summer of 1999 and we've gotten even closer as we've grown up. i have called him more than once completely sobbing to end up laughing and feeling super loved when we hung up. he's always been there for me through thick and thin, no matter what.

14 years of awesome right there.

i said goodbye to this kid for two years this week, and there have been few goodbyes harder. i had to flee the scene pretty quick (i hate getting emotional in front of people), but i cried all the way to my hair appointment and i'm crying as i'm writing this now. i'm so proud of his decision to serve the lord, though, and there is no where else i'd rather he be. see you in two, case.

-in case you haven't heard enough about missionaries yet, here is one more bullet about them!

i also said goodbye to jared this week. (who decided to take these two away on the same day?? not okay.) jared was a really good friend of my roommates who i became quick friends with because he understood my dry sense of humor and would play mario kart on the n64 with me. he was always there to be my date (like pictured above) when i had to have one and didn't want to ask someone. i'm not looking forward to being in idaho without him this fall. but i am so proud of him for choosing to serve the lord too. i know some pretty awesome guys. 

-oh yeah, there was that one time i got my tonsils and adenoids out and it was the worst two weeks of my life. i may or may not have emailed dallin 13 different times, all of them while on drugs and none of them coherent thoughts. (one being about how grateful i am for mashed potatoes.) oops. 

before- super chipper. so oblivious to the awfulness about to be inflicted on me.

after, realizing that satan himself is sitting on my throat.

on heavy medication- i probably drank my weight in sonic's ocean water.

there were several blog entries written while i was on heavy painkillers that i have little, if any, memory of writing. one of them replaces the lyrics of the fresh prince of bel air theme song with lyrics about getting my tonsils out and how awful it was. yeesh. 

-that one time i went to costco in orem, utah and found this little gem:

those crazy mormons and their nutella.

-we ended out little trip to utah with a trip to temple square. it was gorgeous as always. 

i'm going there someday. well, not there. but to a temple. 

last day.

today was my last day
(well, technically second last day, it's my second time quitting)
at primrose.
i had to say goodbye to all of my amazing coworkers,
and blow kisses for the last time to my sweet one year olds.
and yes, i cried.

as one of my little girls said "anne, i wuv vu."
or as one of my little boys begged at my legs for one last airplane ride
i couldn't help but feel grateful for the time that i have been able to spend with these amazing little kids.
i have learned so much about myself through teaching these little ones, and i wouldn't give those things up for the world.
but mostly, i learned how much love i had for those little crazies.
how even after they bit me, or threw their sippy cup on the ground or just did exactly what they knew they weren't supposed to
i still loved 'em.
and it made me think that if i loved those kids that much,
how much am i gonna love my own little crazies?
watch out, future kiddos.
lotsa love comin' your way.

lately:

-so i just passed the fourteen month mark, which means ten months left to go. last december i had to get a ride down to salt lake from rexburg, so i got a ride from the girl that seemed the nicest on the ride board. turns out this girl was also waiting for a missionary. i asked her how long she had until her missionary was home and she told me ten months. i remember thinking "TEN MONTHS?? are you kidding me??? i will never ever ever get there. augh." and look at me now. getting there. pat yourself on the back, self.

pat yourself on the back too, elder.

-gettin' those stupid tonsils out in like 4 days. heyo.

-finally got warm bodies from redbox after all the hype. super cute, hilariously funny, heartwarming but OH MY HEAVENS. i thought i was going to die. so jeffin' scary. i had my eyes closed and hid my face in my unicorn pillowpet for a good portion of that movie.

-while shopping with my mom tonight a lady came up to us and said "i know you guys are in shape, but here are some weight loss techniques!" and handed us cards that told us how to lose weight. uh... what?

and uh... that's about it.