I came...I saw...I just wanna take a nap

This semester has been so utterly busy...I just don't even know.

I just finished my last final and while I am so dang excited that summer is finally here...I am probably more nervous now than I was during my last test. I just have one more hour until that fateful time when I go and see how I did. OChem, please be nice!

Honestly, there hasn't been a whole lot of excitement in my life as of late. I wake up, go to class, go to work, go to class, go back to work, and come home and do homework. Then I go to sleep. The cycle is never-ending! I did manage to squeeze in a little bit of a social life in there (probably too MUCH social life. That will be determined by my final grades :P)

All I know for right now is that I am so excited for SUMMER!
Some friends and I are planning on starting it out with a bang :) Hopefully there will be many posts in the coming weeks seeing as I have been completely absent almost all semester.

Now, to spice up this boring post a little bit, here is a picture that I thoroughly enjoy:

Look how cute she is!!

This now makes me the one and only girl in my immediate family who has never been crowned some sort of royalty at a dance. 

...I must have been too busy being a nerd *snort*

17 years ago today...

My little sister was born.

Seriously though, where have the years gone? Maci pointed out to me last night that in February she is going to be Mom and Dad's only child under 20! *shudders* It's so weird to think that I am going to step out of my teen years in just a couple short months.

Here are a few things that I love about Maci:

Maci has always been my best friend even though we were bitter enemies at times.

She seriously gets more gorgeous with each passing day, which makes me more and more certain that she will be married before me haha (I don't love that so much actually...)

She says it like it is. She is the one who finally made me realize that I needed to move on after a breakup. She took me by the shoulders, sat me down (so she could look me in the eye haha shorty), and said, "You can't spend all your time thinking about him! He can't determine the rest of the decisions you make for the rest of your life! Move. On."

She is a cookie maestro. I envy her ability to make cookies...I try, but they just never measure up.

Even though we have different interests we still have those things that we can laugh at for hours (Boy Meets World quotes are the latest)

She has this personality that just makes me laugh.

Those random times when we seriously just laugh at anything and everything and everyone looks at us like we're absolutely insane.

She taught herself to play the piano. She's no Beethoven, but she's teaching herself to play some hymns, which is something I could never do.

I can talk to her at any time of the day or night.

I could go on and on and on, but I will stop now so I can go prepare my thought for ward prayer tonight.

I love you Maci Lynn Owen! I hope you know that the memory I have of walking out of the church on December 18, 1994 is one of the fondest I have even though it is faint. You are my best friend and I am so glad that you chose my family :)

My Eternal Family

My home teachers asked me the other day what I am most thankful for in the gospel.
Without thinking I said that I can be with my family for eternity.
As these words left my mouth I had some words come to mind that overwhelmed me with happiness and joy:
"You will never go another day in all of eternity without your family."
Oh it is such a comfort to be sealed to them and to know that I can be with these amazing people that I love like nothing else forever and ever and ever.

The gospel is true, folks. I can't say it loud enough or with enough feeling.

We love each other.

We support each other.

We cheer each other on.

We talk to each other.

We are best friends.

What I did to deserve to be in such am amazing family, I don't know.

But I am forever and eternally grateful for whatever it was.

*Oh man, here come the water works.*

Is it ridiculous that I make myself cry just thinking about how much I love my family?

Surprises!

On October 12 I took a trip to Aberdeen to see Maci play volleyball.
She didn't know I was going to be there.
I may have gotten lost trying to find the school...shut up.

When I got there Maci hugged me and cried and said she didn't think I was going to get to see her play this year. I felt bad that I haven't been there for her more, but I'm certainly glad I got to see her that night.
I love her.

Aww! Look at my cute little sis!

She's number 1! She's number 1!

Waiting for hitting lines to start (she's the libero)

Look at that form!

Hey Aberdeen, you're doing it WRONG! Last time I checked your colors were Orange and black.

NOT Red and black. (Their senior rock was also painted Red. They must not have gotten the memo)

She's a pretty darn good server too!

Adding to the list of surprises is little "itty bitty" baby Hyrum. 

I say "itty bitty" because he was almost 10 pounds! What a chunk!

I am still finding it difficult to believe that Nate is a dad...time sure flies.

Cute little Maci and Cute little Hyrum :)

And winding up the surprises for this post is this:

Guess who fit into her size 7's??

This girl did XD

All That I Can

The other day at work I had the line "I'm gonna do all that I can" pop into my head and I couldn't get it out for several days.
I decided that the only way I could get it out of my head was to get it on paper, so I wrote a draft of a poem and emailed it to Maci.
Over the course of the next couple of days she critiqued and I rewrote it until we were both happy with it.

I'm having some mixed feelings about posting it because it feels so personal, but I don't want to keep it to myself. I don't think that's what poetry is for...so here goes.

All That I Can

Little boy, arms 'round my neck
He's suffering pains that won't relent
Stuck in a world that's all his own
Left behind as others have grown

I don't understand the pain you feel
But what I'm seeing is, oh, so real
Little boy, I swear it's my plan
So I'm gonna do all that I can

Mother, with tears welling in your eyes
Sometimes your boy is hard to recognize
No day's the same, but still you push on
'Cause each day leads to a brighter dawn

I don't understand the pain you feel
But what I'm seeing is, oh, so real
Mother, I swear this is my plan:
I'm gonna do all that I can

Savior, Ruler of earth and sky
You know my pain, I see it in your eyes
I'm reaching out to find your hand
'Cause, Lord, I've done all that I can

~Emma-Leigh Owen (with lots of help from Maci Owen)

"I would starve."

{one} what was one thing that you valued when you were a kid?Play time with Maci :)
{two} what was your favorite (+ lease favorite) subject in school?This is a direct quote from my 5th grade self (back when English was my fave):"If the only two jobs left on the planet were a scientist and a mathematician, I would starve!"Oddly enough, those were my two favorite subjects in high school...to the point where I took Anat and Phys, Zoology, Calculus, and Statistics in my Senior year.I hated high school English.
{three} do you remember your first love?How will I ever forget?Believe me, I try!
{four} what one pet would you love to have?A penguin. Honestly, who doesn't want one?I feel like I've answered this recently...
{five} would you rather live in the country or in the city?As much as I love being close to shopping...I would definitely say I would rather live in the country
{six} what do you love about blogging?I love comments! 
{seven} what is the first website you visit everyday?Ugh...Facebook.Then grouchyrabbit.com because it's the funniest thing of my life.
{eight} will you or have you joined google+?I haven't and probably won't.My family is all on Facebook, so I'll probably stay there.
{nine} what is your favorite scent of candle/air freshener?I really like the French Kiss and Skinny Dippin' from Scentsy...Suggestive, I know...but they smell delish!
{ten} how would you describe your style?Roll-out-of-bed-and-grab-the-first-thing-I-see-before-I-head-out-to-work...Yep, that about sums it up :)

My First Trip to Wyoming!

It all started three years ago in Washington DC.

I was part of the team who made it to the National Science Bowl and I was super stoked!
The third day that we were in DC we met some really nice guys from Star Valley.
Brittni, Ashley, and I spent as much time with them as we could over the next couple of days.
We made a ton of memories that I wrote in my journal (there may or may not be three pages)

"There's a David-shaped hole in this bush!"~Zac when David tried to jump over a 6 foot bush and ended up going through it

"Fox SKUNK fox SKUNK fox SKUNK!"~ Tyson and David playing Fruits Basket. Tyson was skunk and David was fox

"Well that's just trecious!"~Apparently this is something they say in Star Valley? Treasure and precious

"Could you turn the radio down? I can't see!"~Their friend was telling a story about a guy who got so drunk he was seeing sound waves

"Are you gay?"
      "Only on Mondays"~Zac's answer to everything. And proof that it doesn't always work out.

"I don't have a list. She just has to be a good little Mormon girl."
      "Uhhh...Zac? I'm pretty sure that's a list." ~Zac and Tyson talking about their ideal girl

These are just a few!

Tyson is the only one that I really kept in contact with.
We became pretty good friends.
Here we are in DC back when I was a Sophomore and he was a Senior:

Ugh! I had glasses and a freshly unstitched weiner dog scar on my lip...

That was the cause of a lot of teasing:

"Okay, I know it was a weiner dog, but what were you doing? Kissing it?"

So naturally I made plans to attend his homecoming talk!

And here we are after his talk on Sunday:

Much better! Scar isn't so visible and glasses are gone!

Also, Carley's family was kind enough to let us stay in a house they own in Star Valley so we didn't have to leave too obscenely early in the morning.

Carley and I may or may not have worn the same color...

This is Carley opening the closet in the room we stayed in at her great grandma's house

And this is me at the other end of the closet....also a doorway to the other room

I had an awesome weekend folks!

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

The 'It' mentioned in the title of this post refers my life for the last week :)

Don't you just love when you actually get stuff in the mail???

I had to take a picture so I would remember the awesome-ness I felt at this moment.

On Sunday afternoon Mom, Dad, Maci, and I made the trip to IF to see the family.

This little guy is growing up SO fast!

Can you believe he's already three months old?

He looks more and more like Ronnie every day.

We also had a new experience!

Nate and Rebecca were able to come up and visit for the weekend

and they introduced us to Wild Asparagus Hunting. 

This is Maci and I before we left.

Here I am afterwards.

I look awful because it was raining and windy :P

Asparagus hunting is so dang hard!

It grows along ditch banks in the Idaho Falls area.

You would think that it would be pretty easy to spot, but it's NOT!

I was pretty awful at it until Rebecca's brother came and helped me.

It was actually a lot of fun even if it was cold and wet and miserable the whole time.

The three sisters sharing their spoils!

I was so happy to get to see these guys!

Rebecca is due October 5 and is having a little baby boy!

I can't wait to see the Three Amigos running around and playing together.

Sleepy little Isaac!

He definitely doesn't like to wake up!

He's adorable and looks just like an Owen.

Maci and Greysen.

Maci got her braces off recently and this was the first time I saw her without them for almost two years!

Doesn't she look so gorgeous?

She's seriously growing up :(

Oh, and thanks to Lindsay for lots of the pictures on this blog!

Finals, Moms, and Klutzy Moments

I've given up on the Photo Challenge...it just wasn't very fun!

So here is what has been going on in my life lately...

Finals

Last week was Finals week, which meant lots of studying and worrying and breakouts :P
To be perfectly honest I was really disappointed in myself.
I feel like I slacked off a lot more this semester and my grades weren't as high as they usually are.
My classes weren't even that difficult really...I was just bored out of my mind!
Next semester I'm starting new with classes I actually feel like matter for my future as a pharmacist.
It's going to be tough going, but I'm determined to not slack off again!

Moms


I always kinda figured that I would come home for Mother's Day...I mean why not? It's not like I have anything to do!
Then I noticed my gas tank was running a little low, so I checked my bank account to see just how much I could spare for gas.
....All I had left in my account was enough for rent and tithing.
The thought to use my tithing money was in my head for about 3 seconds.
Ultimately I decided that I would just give my mom a nice call for mother's day :(
The day after I made my decision a very welcome surprise came in the mail.
MY TAX RETURN!
Though it wasn't much, it was enough to get a roll of quarters for laundry and fill up my tank.

Then I decided that I wasn't going to tell mom that I was coming and surprise her :)

Klutzy Moments


I left church right after Sacrament Meeting for Soda Springs.
I pulled my phone out to text Maci (she was in on the secret).
I saw that I had a missed call from Mystie, so I dialed her number and started to walk down the stairs.
About half way down I missed a stair and fell down about two stairs on my knees:

I didn't clean it before I left for Soda...so that was another surprise for mom.

I really can't express how thankful I am for my mom.

She is an amazing woman.

One day while I was sitting at the Daycare I was asked why I loved my mom

without even having to think I said, 

"Because she's really supportive of me and she loves me too."

It's 100% true.

I can't imagine life without my mom.

She loves me even though I laugh at stupid things.

She loves me even though sometimes I don't give things my all.

She loves me even though I sometimes lose my temper.

She loves me even though I don't deserve it at times.

She loves me even though sometimes all I call for is advice on how to make food.

She loves me even though I'm not perfect.

I LOVE YOU MOM!

Happy Mother's Day!

Double post

Yesterday I got a little caught up in something:

So I kinda forgot to post...

I guess I'll just have to double up to keep on track!

Photo Challenge: A picture of the people you spend most of your time with.

Kenna and Mystie (I kinda don't have a picture with Lyndsey and Megan)

Kyle= Awesome

Derek= ...Derek

Photo Challenge: A picture of the best part of your day.

Getting to come to IF to spend time with Greysen, Lindsay, and Ronnie.

...And Brendan and Witney and Mom and Dad and Maci.

Can you believe this little guy is already almost 3 months old???

My other half...

Photo Challenge: A picture of your other half.

I don't have an 'other' half.
I think I have something more along the lines of 15 other 16ths.

Carley

Kristin

Daddy

Mommy and Linz

The rest of the kids (Rachelle too, she's just not in this picture. Oh, and WITNEY!)

Mystie (and the rest of my Pocatello Peeps)

My Puppies

And last but not least, my Savior.

What do Maci and I do when we get together?

Pretend to be tough!

Before Pilates...

After Pilates. I was in serious pain!

My favorite comic strip :)

Sometimes when I'm bored while waiting for my next client at work I look up a bunch of Pickles comics. They make me happy :)

 

I mean seriously, who doesn't love the antics of Opal and Earl?

Hey Mystie, does this remind you of something?

Ain't that the truth!

This one's for you Maci!

Anyway, speaking of "wise-ness" and "wisehoodness" I really should get back to studying my chemistry :P

This one's for you...

This is for all of you who:
Know that Dove chocolate does indeed fix everything.
Genuinely care about me.
Leave notes for me that you know I'll see that always always ALWAYS make my day.
Tell me that you love me unconditionally.
Say those profound things that I've heard zillions of times, but all of a sudden make an impact.
Understand where I've been and know where I'm going.
Can finish my sentences.
Can always make me smile.
Laugh at my (usually) stupid jokes.
Have told me that you're proud of me.
Know that there is a deeper meaning to Bubbles and Potato Salad. :)
Understand what I'm talking about when I say Potato Tots.
Compliment my cooking even when it's not the greatest.
Crawled into my bed with me when you knew I was crying just to give me a hug (just FYI, this only applies to Maci)
Pulled me onto their knee and held me while I cried.
Supported me even when I was failing.
Have lent me things even when it wasn't convenient.
Bring me down to earth.
Helped me separate Cross Stitch thread into the wee hours of the morning.


I LOVE YOU!
That is all :)

Another birthday and a warning!o

Happy birthday to Maci Lynn!

Here are a few things that remind me of Maci:

M: Missed the boat. This is a term meaning Late. Maci is definitely one to take her time getting ready.

A: Absent-minded. I know I used this for Ryan...but everyone knows it applies to Maci as well. What exactly is half of two-thirds, Maci?

C: Cheerful. Maci is one of the happiest people on the planet. She is always happy and peppy.

I: Ingenious. Some things that Maci comes up with are silly, but lots of them are simply ingenious. Like eating a chocolate bar and stuffing peanuts in your mouth.

Maci turned 16 yesterday, which was a shock to all of us I think. This is also the part of my post where the warning comes in:

She may be 16, but she is still my little sister. If any boy even comes close to breaking her heart I will be just as close to smacking you upside the face. Kapeesh?

Anyway...she had a nice birthday. This is the first year in a long time that Maci didn't make her own birthday cake.

This is a phone cover for her cell phone. She picked it out.

This is a new cartridge for her Cricut. It's got lots of pretty letters.

This one is from me. I passed that frame in Ross like 5 times before I finally decided it was to Maci-like to pass up. Seriously, it's pink. It has pink ZEBRA PRINT and RHINESTONES!

I love this girl more than words can express. I can't believe she's getting so old! Honestly, where does the time go?