Worst

My purse was stolen out of my car last night.

So I am down a wallet.

And credit and debit cards.

And a driver's license.

And a library card.

And ten dollars.

And a social security card.

And my collection of random euro coins.

And all the cute notes from Russ that I have saved for four years.

And a really cute purse that Target no longer sells.

And a Domino's coupon card I bought from one of my students who is on the basketball team.

And my makeup.

Yes, I am at school. Teaching. With not a stitch of makeup on my face.

My students are awfully quiet today, staring at me with a mixture of sympathy and disgust.

It's a perfectly bad dream. 

Too bad I can't wake up.

Skiing

Did you know Alta has free lifts every day from 3 to 4:30?

I didn't, but now I do.

And I want to take advantage of it every single day.

For all Russell's skills and ability, I appreciate his patience and willingness to scale bunny hills over and over with me, and also to race down the mountain when I'm going too fast, slide in front of me, catch me spectacularly and bring us both to a halt without me getting hurt.

Can't wait to go again!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We spent a few days before Thanksgiving in Logan with the Lees, and I don't have any pictures 

except for this one of my first-ever homemade pies:

And this one where we hurriedly squeezed into the mudroom and posed for a couple photo with Brian and MJ. I love the Lees.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at my Grandma Shirley's house. It was a beautiful day for a family picture.

My aunt Lorie made this beautiful horn of plenty.

Some people rested and let their stomachs expand rather than helping with dishes.

We played Bananagrams.

I had a genius round.

The next day, Melissa came over and we made Christmas garlands.

Today, we heard our friend Rachel give a talk. She is leaving on a mission to Independence, Missouri next month. She is an inspiration and a beautiful person, inside and out. I loved her talk.

Then I visited my darling friend Angie, who has a baby girl due next week.

Thanksgiving is such a wonderful time of year. I cherish the time I get to spend with friends and family
and eat several pounds of food.

"I Feel So Betrayed!"

I brought in my large collection of People Magazines for a project. 

My French I students loved finding pictures and cutting them out to make a collage.

But I think what they enjoyed most of all were the magazine covers and cheesy headlines of stories,
which they kept yelling out in passionate, emotional tones:

"Michael Douglas: I feel stronger every day!"

"Paris Hilton: my time behind bars!"

"Susan Boyle's Christmas album will have you nodding off in your nog!"

"Kim Kardashian: mistake or fake?!"

"Carrie Underwood's dream wedding: It was everything I could have imagined!"

"Christina Aguilera: I knew I had to end it!"

"Jessica Simpson's baby joy!"

"Bachelorette Ashley: 'I feel so betrayed!'"

Next time, maybe I should bring in Russell's collection of The Economist instead.

Three Texts From Russ

Text #1:
"There is a school-wide warning of some campus rapist and his description is me haha"


Text #2:
"Brown hair blue eyes between 6'3" and 6'5" clean shaven gray pants and black hood"


Text #3:
"It wasn't me I promise"

Better

These treasures are making me feel better.

Thank you, Divine Comedy Mormonadz. 

The Pits

Well.

My computer just deleted hundreds of my new photos.

With no explanation as to where they went.
I haven't felt this saddened or frustrated in a long time.

After a good cry and a large amount of crippling despair,
I have come to terms with it.
Almost.
After all, the experiences themselves are more important than the pictures.
(I just really love to print them out and put them in books...that's what my mom has done and I love getting them out and starting with their first year of marriage together and seeing myself as a 2-year-old and
reliving hilarious memories of my family growing up.)
So I will just tell you about the rest of October instead of show you.
Daniel celebrated his 18th birthday and we gave him a nice white button-up shirt.
I dressed up as a black cat for Halloween at my school.
We went to a murder mystery party. Russ was a mathlete and I was his math team cheerleader.
He had a mustache and looked like a pervert and we laughed about it the whole night.
We went to Island Park with our ward friends and had a blast. We stayed in a sweet cabin, hiked to the bottom of a gorgeous waterfall, saw the Old Faithful geyser at Yellowstone, drove around for hours in a sweet RV and played lots of games, and held darling babies. Oh, and Russ got some slack line and set up a tightrope between two trees.
I am ending this before I sink too deep into depression.