12/31/20

 LAST DAY OF 2020! It's finally over. It will certainly be interesting to see what 2021 brings. I'll try to be better at posting this next year than I was this year. I seriously slacked off, especially in the summer. That's entirely on me. So sorry about that. I feel like the biggest thing that I got from this year is just such a huge appreciation for the people in my life. I'm so lucky to have the family I have, both immediate and extended. Not to mention my chosen family- my lasting friendships. I love my girls so much and honestly they got me through a lot of the tough times I went through this year. I don't know what I would do without them. That's a big reason why I decided to put a lot of effort into handmade gifts for each of them. I finally finished Kenny's today. So that's all five of them plus Patri. (I also have a gift for Derity and I'm planning to make one for Macy and for David too.) Today was good because I got to end the year with a FroYo trip with Rachel and Mary and Kennadee (Em's sister Ashley tested positive for COVID so we are trying to be safe and Megan had work) and then we had a Pierce family New Years Eve Party complete with both cheese and chocolate fondue. All in all it was a fantastic way to close out 2020. Now, I'll bombard you with some photos of the gifts I made for everyone and also some from today's activities!

Mary's Gift

Emily's Gift

Megan's Gift

Pat's Gift

Rachael's Gift

Kennadee's Gift

Rachel, Abbey and I tonight

Mary, me, Rach, and Kenns at FroYo today!

12/30/20

 Had another date (maybe date? I'm just calling it a date) with Douglas today. We met up in Provo at Don Joaquin's Street Tacos (a suggestion from Rachael) and each got some tacos and had lunch. We walked in probably around 11:45 AM and I'm not sure when we left exactly but likely no more than an hour later. We drove to the MOA at BYU and just walked around all the exhibits and talked and it was good and fun and easy. After we got through all five we walked back up to the main floor and checked the time and to both of our surprise it was already 5:00 PM. He mentioned that he likely had to leave soon if he wanted to be home in time for dinner with his family. We started walking towards the door but right before walking outside he was like, "Well is there anything else in Provo you wanted to show me while I'm here?" So we ended up going to the Creamery on 9th and getting ice cream and eating it in my car and talking for a little while longer until we finally said goodbye at like 6:00 PM. So we inadvertently (ish?) had a little over a six hour date but like I'm not even mad at all. I just genuinely enjoy spending time with this kid like holy cow. It helps that I think he's pretty cute too. But I don't want to get like too excited about it ya know? Cause what if he's just like, "Nah we're friends and I like hanging out but that's all." I don't necessarily get that vibe but still. I figure though no matter what happens he is someone that I at the very least want to have as a friend and so far that's working out!

12/29/20

 Dropped off Mary's gift and it was actually the most tender thing. As soon as I pulled it out to show her her eyes started watering and she wrapped me up in a hug and told me how much she loved it. It made my heart so happy to know that it meant so much to hear. I stayed at her house for a little while and chatted with her and her parents in their basement. Spending time with Mary today was good and wholesome and blessed.

12/28/20

 Drove to Provo today to drop off my gift to Rachael! I ended up staying for two and half hours and talking her ear off but man oh man I needed it. And Rachael is a wondrous listener and a particularly good advice giver. I'm very grateful for her in my life. She also gave me a sweet present, a plant! It's pinkish red and green and she said that it reminded her and Matt of me and my hair. I decided to name it Joyce and then painted it's pot and wrote the name across the top.

12/25/20

 Christmas! I got a vacuum and a portable desk that I can pop up on my bed and use for school. Additionally I got the full set of my favorite book series from Alicia, The Illuminae Files. Grandpa Pierce made each of the grandkids this really cool pen/pencil set. Mine is made from Caribbean Rosewood and it's legit so beautiful and I love it. We had our traditional cinnamon rolls and the later biscuits and gravy. Once again it was a more laid back holiday but still very very good. It's been nice to spend time with family, even if they're a little crazy sometimes. 

12/20/20

 Good news: I do not have COVID! Which is nice because now we can do family things over the holidays and not all have to quarantine but also less nice simply because if I did get COVID then I could get paid $100 per plasma donation afterward which would be lucrative. 

12/19/20

 Megan Rice had her bridal shower today and I only kind half way got to attend. I was waiting for results back from my COVID test since David tested positive and I'd been around him like five days before he got that result. Although I am like nearly a thousand percent sure that I don't have COVID I would rather play it safe than sorry and not inadvertently be somewhat directly responsible for the death of someone's grandma just because I wanted to go to a bridal shower. So instead I facetimed in on Kenny's phone and got to semi participate that way. I can't remember exactly what it was but I whistled at something that was said and the people sitting around Kenny were able to hear it and all busted up laughing. Even though I wasn't able to be there in person it was still fun to be able to be there to a degree!

12/18/20

 So I slept for twelve hours and it was luxurious. 

Additionally I drove home today for the break/holidays and I made it safely! 

12/17/20

 Derity got married today! I also almost died today. It's been a stressful day to say the least. A stressful week actually. Between calculus finals, last day of work at the tutoring center in Idaho Falls, making a wedding cake, white glove clean checks, and the bachelorette party and wedding I have been entirely and completely overwhelmed. 

Basically here is the rundown: I have my calculus final due on Wednesday night. Also on Wednesday night? Derity's bachelorette party. I managed to get my final done before the party but I didn't feel entirely confident. I didn't absolutely bomb it but I didn't do great either. There are still a few questions and things that need to be graded but I'm projecting that my final grade is likely to be a B or a B+, honestly at this point I'll take it. 

So we have the party, which included rock climbing (an activity that I now know I'm terrible at) and then dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Afterwards I drove to her house in St Anthony and gave her a bachelorette party appropriate present (I labeled it a "Honeymoon Kit") and then painted her nails for the wedding before driving back home. Once home I spent ALL night (I'm not kidding, I only got an hour and a half of sleep) cleaning for white glove. I wasn't even able to get it all done in time. Ellen and I were both up pretty much all night and Ellen, bless her soul, offered to finish up the final things for me since I had all the wedding stuff to do. 

So 10:00 AM rolls around and I head to St Anthony to the chapel they'll have the reception at to start prepping the cake, thinking that an hour and a half is plenty of time to get everything sorted out. WRONG. SO WRONG. Part of it is that I had originally planned on getting David's help but then he tested positive for COVID so that was a no go. I'd also planned on asking her family for a ride with them to the sealing (it was about a forty minute drive and I was exhausted plus my internet has been weird lately so I wasn't sure if I could get Google maps to work.) By the time I'd finished at least putting the tiers together I was already about ten minutes past when I'd thought people had been leaving so I walked out of the kitchen to find that everyone had already gone. So that was freaking dandy. 

The Idaho Falls Temple wouldn't pull up on Google maps, shocker, and so I frantically called my parents asking if they could look up the new wifi password for the Church. Eventually I got it and ran to my car worried that I was cutting it too close to the time I needed to be there for the sealing. I got stuck in the snow trying to turn onto the main road and luckily a bunch of men stopped and pushed me so I could get out. And then not even like two minutes later I was trying to turn onto the freeway and my wheels decided that they didn't want to turn but instead wanted to go straight into what would be a nose dive down off the entrance ramp. 

I was seriously panicking thinking about how likely I would be to survive the drop and desperately turning the wheel while slamming down on the brakes. The fresh snow ended up being a blessing because I got stuck again, just shy of plummeting to my possible death/serious injury. Again a bunch of men got out to try and help me reverse out but them pushing the car while I revved the gas was just not cutting it. One of them ended up having to hook me up to his car and tow me out. Mind you during this whole time I'm just trying to not have a panic attack that in all honesty had been a long time coming considering all the stress I'd been under the past week combined with the inhumane lack of sleep I was dealing with. Once I was out I popped my head out the window and yelled "Thank you!" and waved and drove off down the freeway ramp (the safe route this time). Then I called my mom and burst into tears and cried for thirty minutes of the forty minute drive to the temple. (Not a safe driving practice, definitely do not recommend. Especially on so little sleep.)

I did end up making it to the sealing on time and it was a relief to be in the temple again. I was the only person there who wasn't a relative but that was okay. It was my first live sealing and I think it's very fitting that it was Derity's. After the temple we took pictures at this lake thing across the street. As soon as my pictures were done I drove back to St Anthony to finish the cake. I called my mom again but this time it was more as an insurance policy that I wouldn't fall asleep at the wheel. It took a while but I did get the cake done. I worked on it over the luncheon which was a little not fun since the luncheon food was being administered from the kitchen into the relief society room so the doors were wide open and everyone was watching me try to make the cake. I finished the cake with three minutes to spare before the reception started. It was an outdoor reception (beautiful but freezing cold) so her sister and I worked together to carry the cake outside. I was starving and my feet ached from standing in heels for so long so I went back in and ate like three bowls of soup by myself in the relief society room. It was nice to finally be DONE with everything and feel like I could actually breathe and wind down for the first time in weeks. I decided that as soon as the reception was over I was going straight home and crashing. I wouldn't even set an alarm, just let my body wake up when it was ready. So that's what I'm doing, wish me luck! 

Doesn't she look SO PRETTY?

P.S. Here is the cake!

12/5/20

 Today we dyed Macy and Sydney's hair! (We thought about doing mine too but it's kind of green right now and if I want to dye it again I'll likely need to bleach the green in order to get new color on.) Sydney already had blonde bottoms so we dyed them "flamingo pink" in hopes that it would end up fading to the rose quartz shade she was hoping for. She ended up totally loving the brighter pink that it came out to though. Macy's is more of a deep violet brown. It's hard to tell that her hair is dyed a color as opposed to just being darker. Until she's in the light that is. Whenever light, the sun particularly, catches on her hair it gets all iridescent and almost glows violet. 

The best part though was seeing Sydney beaming at herself in the mirror and in the most sincere and also giddy voice saying, "I haven't felt this confident in like two years you guys! I kid you not!" It melted my heart!    

12/3/20

 One year. ONE YEAR. I HAVE BEEN HOME FOR A WHOLE ENTIRE YEAR. It is so strange to think of all that's happened. I moved to Idaho and I'm finishing up my third semester here now. I started dating Vince. I stopped dating Vince. I learned a lot from that. I feel like I really settled into my convictions about the gospel this year. On the mission it's easy to have convictions about the gospel. You eat, sleep, and breathe it. It's all you know. The real test is when it starts to take a lot of work. And trust me it does. Mostly the little things, the prayers and the scripture studies. They add up. It was easier with Vince because I felt so responsible to be avid about reading scriptures together. I think that was really good for me. Since the break up it's been a little bit more difficult but I'm really trying. I sincerely and totally and completely want to live the kind of life that the gospel offers. I genuinely think that counts for something.