Ode to Linx

Typically I would not have a problem. However, this is lame. So, Friday night. I'm at work. That's fine. Planned on that.

But, I did not plan on everyone being told to go home while I have to stay. That's all I have to say about that. L.A.M.E

Linx
Always
Makes Mari hate them
Everyday

(Linx is where I work and I dont actually hate them. It just worked well with the acrostic poem.)

This is Halloween!

So I LOVE LOVE LOVE Halloween. It is probably one of my favorite holidays. I think it is so fun to dress up and just have fun! I love seeing all the kids costumes. I remember how fun Halloween was when I was little and how EXCITED I was to go trick-or-treating.

So, I've grown out of the whole trick-or-treating phase, but I still love getting dressed up. However, I never think of anything until the day before or the day of and then I get all stressed out and whatever.

Yes, I need ideas. Last year I was Mr. Rogers. I'm finding it hard to top that. I think that it was probably my most favorite costume. AND...it was all my idea. But Im not coming up with anything good so I am seeking the help of those much smarter and creative that me. Please. Offer ideas if you have any.

"Happy Birthday To ME!!!!!!" by Mari Cook.

I am a firm believer that birthdays should last longer than the 1 day that is allotted. That is such a waste of celebration time. So, as a solution to this I like to think of my birthday more of a birthweek.

So here is what I have done for my birthweek. It all started last Friday night.

Little background information:
I LOVE trains. I think I inherited that from my father. He is also a fan. They are so cool and I love them.

Ok, on Friday me, Aly, Lexi, the Parents, James, Jerr, Zach, and James' friends Cliffy and Megan all went on the Heber Creeper to do the Haunted Canyon ride. I was anticipating this being a bit more spooky than it was, but it was still fun!! It was definitely kid friendly which explains the very vocal group of 12 year olds that were sitting next to us.

Bless their hearts I wanted to shoot myself. Were they loud you ask? Oh, why yes they were. They will never ever have a problem being heard by anyone.

Anyway. I loved it in spite.

After the train we were a bit hungry. So to solve this predicament we went to Applebees. Now I have recently become a fan of Salmon. I LOVE it. So of course, any restaurant that has it, I will order it. There is nothing significant to me telling you that, I just didn't want to leave anything out.

Applebees was fun. But it was late and I was at the opposite end of the table from everyone, so conversation was sparse. Thank goodness for the salmon. It kept my attention for a while. They were kind enough to bring me a dessert because it was my birthday, but guess what? NO SINGING!! I know, right?! Outrageous! So, thanks to Zach I got a "Happy Birthday" song sung and everyone else got my dessert. Thanks to my lactose intolerance. Love it...

At the end of the rendezvous at the magical world of Applebees I went home. I wish I had more to put there, but I dont. This is where the night ended.

However, I got to start my day bright and early 9 a.m. (dont judge, thats early) with work. And work was awful. My birthweek was off to such a great start only to be shut down by work.

But, I did not let that get me down. I just put on my good attitude hat and just kept swimming.

I went home and had pizza. It made it all better.

Then I got to go to my friend Alex's reception. This is where Im going to stop talking about me and focus a little on Alex.

It was so great to see him so happy. He deserves it. And his wife could not be cuter. I think she is super sweet. Congrats to them!

Ok, back to me. So then we went to Cafe Rio. Now, I used to LOVE LOVE LOVE this place. Not so much anymore. It's not the one place I crave, but I do like an occasional burrito every now and again. So I got one. Well, I shared one with James. I think his feelings are pretty close to mine, but Jerr loves it so he goes. What a good husband!!

Then we went to Zach's for the BYU game. Sadly, I did not watch much of it. I dont really remember what I did...

Saturday was not very much a celebration of my birth. Thats ok. Its good to take a break.

But we're back! Sunday my mom invited everyone over for dessert. It ended up just being me, Abby, Amy and her 2 cute girls! Still fun! They put balloons up and a lovely banner that my niece Maggie, who is 3, let them borrow. The banner was the 12 dancing barbie princess'. Cant beat that. So we had this wonderful dessert. It really was very good. I cant remember what mom called it...maybe a tussle...? I know it wasnt called truffle if thats what youre thinking.

Ok. So that ends Sunday. Not much else happened.

But Monday....DUN DUN DUN....was my BIRTHDAY!!!! I love my birthday. It is so much fun! And this is the first year in a while that I wasnt sad I was getting older. I have learned to embrace your age.

It all started at 12:12am Monday morning. Abby so kindly came and told me that it was my birthday. Of course we both freaked out a little because we do that. The next morning at 7:30 she proceeded to sing "Happy Birthday" in all the languages she knows. It really was quite the show. And Sarah made the most wonderful muffins for me and an acrostic poem too. The poem is now on my wall. I will have to post it on here...its pretty great.

Then at 10:12am Abby sent me an email as well as texts throughout the day. She might have been more excited than I was. Love her! And she made me the most wonderful shape cake ever!!! I will post pictures!!

Started off by going to school. I know, school on your birthday=lame, but I actually didnt really want to miss. Plus, I would be home alone and that is just no way to spend a birthday. So to school I went. My class clapped for my birthday, thanks to the lovely girls running morning meeting :).

Then after class I went home for a little. Relaxing on your birthday is essential. You will never make it through the nights festivities if you dont. So I did. Then, Jerr and I went and got pedicures!!!!! Love 'em. I painted my toes orange and had them put a cute little spider on them for Halloween.

Then!!!! We went to dinner. The parents came down with Alyson, and Jerr and I met James and Zach at Carabas. If you havent been there, go. It is wonderful. And a plug for our waiter...I was never without Mr. Pibb. He is #1.

At the end of the meal they brought out ice cream with fudge on it!! Yum. And...THEY SANG! Of course when I say they I mean my family...But still. I directed them as if they were my own personal choir. Bless them. And I ate my own dessert this time. I decided that I could bare the pain for one night if it meant I got to have fudge. And it was gooooood!

The night came to an end and I bid farewell to the parents and sister who trekked back to Sandy. After, I went to James' for the after party where we got wild and put in Snow White. I know, I know. You may ask why we didnt try to contain ourselves and I can only tell you that it was impossible. We had to do it. End of story.

Actually that really is the end of the story. It has been a great birthweek so far and I can only assume it will continue till the clock strikes 12 on Friday night.

If more adventures are to be done, you will hear of it. I promise you that.

The joys of being an adult...sort of.

So, I am at work. This is the joy that I was refering to in my title. I understand that I have actually been ensalved by this thing they call work since I was 14...but still. All that money was my own and I didnt have to pay anyone anything. That is sooo not the case now. Boo to people taking my money. And what is this having to go to school and whatever. High school was so much easier. The college prep classes I took did no such preping. Nothing like actual college. Pretty sure I did more sleeping than preping. And now I know youre thinking that maybe the reason they didnt help was because I was sleeping. That is entirely false. I slept because I was BORED OUT OF MY MIND!!!! Im just sayin. The whole purpose of this was to say that once again, Im bored. So instead of sleeping I now blog...and I would get fired if I did sleep. I would much rather be asleep. Once again, Im just sayin.

Dear Abby,

OK, so. My sister in law Jerrica texted me a couple weeks ago and asked if I wanted to run a 10K with her. At first I thought she was insane and I only said yes to be nice (Sorry jerr, but its true) Then I thought about how much I hated running, but how I wanted to like it and then I thought that this would be a perfect way to test it out. And its a great goal to work towards. Except I have no idea how to go about doing it...Remember how I said I hated running? Well, that hasnt changed. So, the purpose of this post to ask for advice on how to work towards this goal of ours. What has worked for you? I really want to do this, but its very daunting to think about. Just let me know what you think. Thanks!!

Clarification

Ok, so having read my Chicago post one would think that I had an awful time judging by the first couple days. THAT IS NOT TRUE!!! I dont know why it all came out like that. I really did love it and I loved everything. The people I was with are what made each of those things we did enjoyable. I hope none of you thought that I hated the whole trip. Not true friends. Not true.

Chicago!!!

So I have made an executive decision that Chicago is one of my favorite cities!!!! It is such a fun place to be. I was excited to go, but I wasnt quite sure how it would be. I never knew there was so much to do in Chicago. Well, we decided we were going to a city pass which got us into 5 or 6 museums and the sears tower for pretty cheap. With that we did the Field Museum which was cool, but not my favorite. Then we did the aquarium which was so fun!! I didnt think it would be very exciting, but I was wrong. We ended up staying there for about 4 or 5 hours. Im pretty sure we saw EVERYTHING in the aquarium. Then I guess in Chicago, the big day for fireworks is the 3rd of July instead of the 4th. So we plopped a spot on the grass by the lake and watched them. They were pretty but I think the ones they do here are better. There wasnt any music so that was kind of their downfall in my opinion.
P.S. I found Nemo.

The next day we did Sears Tower and walked a lot. I honestly cant remember all we did that day. Oh yes! I remember now. Thats the day we went to The Taste of Chicago. Its where a lot of the food vendors in Chicago all gather and then you can experience all the foods of Chicago. It was a good thought. I honestly had a very hard time enjoying it. It was raining and it was crowded. 2 things that do not go well together. The food was good, but I had a very bad attitude and I was wet. But then after that we went to Navy Pier. It was fun but once again because it was raining we pretty much stayed inside. I would like to go there again and go all the way to the end of the pier. A few people in our group did it and they said it was pretty cool. Going back to the Sears Tower, which the name has technically been changed to Willis Tower or something like that. Weird. Anyway, they had this glass box thing you could step out onto and pretty much all that was below you was air and the tops of buildings. You were standing directly over the city. Kind of scary and being out there actually made me dizzy. But I did it because I am so cool.
Here is what it looks like to look down:

And here is us sitting on it...

It actually was very cool to see all the things below. Kind of creepy yes, but still fun!

The next day we went to the planetarium. I was so excited because this was the one thing I really wanted to do...and it was a dud. Not that cool. I was so disappointed. I was expecting it to be awesome and...it was not. But then we walked to Buckingham Fountain and it saved the day. It was so fun! I forgot how huge it was! It was so pretty!

After that the parents left. I was sad to see them go. I was secretly hoping they would miss their flight so they could stay and then I felt bad when they almost did. But after that we went to Millenium Park which was honestly one of my favorite parts of the trip. It was so chill and relaxed. Everything up to this point had been go, go, go but we were able to take things really slow and just enjoy the park. They have a pretty cool fountain there and all the kids were playing in it. There was also an individual who was dancing in water. No one can be sure if it was a male or female but it was very good at dancing!

The next day I got to go to breakfast and hang out with my friend Jae who I havent seen in a couple years! It was fun to be with him and just to catch up on what was going on in each others lives. We met a few years ago when I worked in Wyoming and have stayed in contact since. He is from just north of Chicago, so it worked out perfectly!
Oh my gosh!!! I almost forgot!!! You know how I said that the park was favorite part? I was totally lying! Im very sorry. My absolute favorite part was when we got to go to the Cubs game at Wrigley Field!!!!!!! How could I forget?! It was so fun!!! The fans there are so great. There were a few people in our group that were cheering for the Braves and one lady after the game told them she was sorry that the Braves lost and they played a great game. I thought that so sweet! The game was so fun!! I loved being there. I love baseball! I dont understand why people dont like it. It is after all, America's favorite pastime.

The next day we just kind of took it easy. Aly and my flight was supposed to be at 4 so we just hung out around the city till we went to the airport. (That is an entirely different story which I will tell later)

I loved loved loved Chicago!! It was so fun to be with friends and family. We had a blast and I would do it all over again. All of it. Even The Taste of Chicago.

P.S. If you have made it to the end of this novel I award you a gold star. :)

So...life.

Yeah, I did so good at this whole blog thing for a good 2 months and then all of the sudden...I started to fail. Sorry bout that. School? Until this past Wednesday I was attending, but I am now school free for 2 whole months. Ask me if Im enjoying it. Yes, I am. I havent had a break from school since spring of 2007, so I am going to take advantage of this whole freedom thing. Everything else is really good! I am currently working at a place called LINX Satellite. James is a sales rep (one of the best in the company I might add) and he got Alyson and I a job here. Its not the most glamorous job, but I really like it! The people are great to work with and I get to talk to James almost everyday, which is nice since he has decided to migrate to the midwest for the summer. Alyson, me, and the parents are going to go visit him and Jerr next week and I cannot wait! We have some pretty kick butt plans in the mix. More of that to come for sure! I dont want to spoil anything, but hopefully we get to tour Chicago in a very different way...Im just sayin. I'll end there and leave you all in suspense, well the 3 people who actaully read this anyway. Ok. The time has come for me to say goodbye, for now. I will update you 3 on how the trip to Chi-town goes! Later!

Just Another Weekend in Provo...

So this weekend was somewhat exhausting/amazing! On Friday my ward had an 80's night at Classic. My roommates and I kind of got in to it. Abby and I went to DI to see what we could find and I have decided that the DI is the Mecca for 80's clothes. Fabulous! Abby found the most hideous outfit so of course we had to get it. Then we called her friend Jenny to raid what she had. I found the brighest yellow shirt, which I have determined, should never have been made. Naturally, I wore it. I was amazed at how well Sarah's and MacKenzie's outfits worked. Sarah actually pulled all her stuff from her closet. Every article of clothing she wore she wears on a regular basis. I was very impressed.

The clothes were good, but nothing compared to the hair. It all started with a side ponytail and just bloomed from there. I remembered how awesome Lizz used to do my bangs for me. I did mine and LOVED how they turned out. The roommates also enjoyed them so Abby, Sarah, and Me all had ginormous bangs. They were many conversation starters.





After skating, we went to Denny's and we got so many weird looks! It was so great! Our friend Robbie came with us and he had a tux on because he had a choir performance. So there were 4 girls dressed in 80's and a guy in a tux. Of course people looked at us funny. Can't blame them.



We went home and crashed. I'm pretty sure none of us got to bed before 3 in the morning. Long...but fabulous night!

Then on Saturday was the Krishna Festival of Colors in Spanish Fork. To sum it up its a religious celebration and they open it to the public. The burn and effigy of a witch and throw chalk...Im a little rusty on the details, but it is so much fun! They have all colors of chalk and you literally just throw it on people. I got chalk everywhere. In my mouth, ears, nose, eyes, and I still have the evidence in my hair and on my scalp. My hair has remnants of pink. Kinda makes me look a little hardcore so I dont mind that much. I have some great before and after pictures of Abby and me. It was so much fun! There were so many people. We went down into the mosh (because you have to do that once in your life, sorta like getting chalk thrown in your repeatidly...) and Im fairly certain I was violated in so many different ways, but thats what happens when you try to squeeze that many people into a small space while jumping...not my thing. But I did it.
Before...


After...


The overall experience was so incredibly fun! I had a blast! The whole weekend was so awesome! I am so glad I was able to do everything. I will never be able to do some these things again and thats what this part of my life is about. So great!

New Decisions

So I have made some decisions about life that I feel pretty good about.
1.) I have decided that I am not moving in the fall. This is a big deal because I have never lived anywhere for longer than 9 months in the past 3 years. I have lacked stability which is something that I need in my life. Change is a hard thing for me and I am glad that I have decided to stay where I am at. It feels right.
2.) I am not going to worry so much. I may or may not tend to get stressed out somewhat easily, but from now on I am going to handle life as it comes and not so be so concerned about the little things. My mom will be so proud.
3.) I am going to be more healthy. That means that I should probably be in bed now rather than doing this...but anyway. I realized that a lot of the reason I am so tired all the time is that I dont do the things I need to keep my body energized. So from now on no more sugar. Kind of kills me, but I think I will survive.
Anyway, you can see that this is a bit different from the last entry. I feel really good about the way my life is going. I understand that we don't have to know everything and that having faith is essential in Heavenly Father's plan. I am excited to see what is in store and I know that it will happen in the appropriate time and place.
I hope all of you are well. I wish luck to you and you all in my prayers. Have a fabulous day!

Life...

So I have decided that life is just too crazy. I have all these plans and they always get muffed up. I understand that I need to be patient and just let things work out the way they are supposed to, but that is so hard. I am the type of person that has to see the end results. I have to know and not knowing is one of the hardest things for me. I know it all has to do with aligning my will with God's and having the faith to know that everything works out in the end. Thats the part that gets me. Its always a challenge for me. I think Im getting better, but sometimes it just gets to me. Things just pile up and it gets hard to balance it all. Thank goodness for the tender mercies the Lord sends. The people who smile at you for no reason and a message that only says "I Love You" from a family member or friend exactly when you need it. The Lord knows what we need when we need it. He will never leave us alone. What a comfort that is in this world that is so unpredictable and dark. I am grateful for the knowledge I have. Even though life is difficult and its hard, I know it would be more of a challenge without that light to guild me through the darkest of days. I guess life isnt as bad as I thought it was. It could be much worse.

Who's Proud!?

After much scolding from my sisters, I have decided to update my blog. I just want to explain that I honestly don't remember that I even have a blog until Amy so kindly tells me how horrible I am at doing it. You can thank her for her warm prompts to update this.
My life...well, nothing too exciting. I finished my first semester of the education program. The end of the semester, to put it lightly, was the worst experience of my life. I am fairly certain I did not sleep the last two weeks of school. But I passed and got the best grades I have ever gotten in college. So I can not complain. Hard work always pays off.
I am going to call it a night, but I promise I will try and remember to not be so terrible at this whole blog thing. At least I am pretty consistant with updating every six months or so. Not too shabby.