From the Mouth of Babes

I just got this e-mail from Shelly. It's a very distraught Susanna, after finding out that I had to kiss a boy for a dare (thanks Gabe... good one). Here's the e-mail...

"Susanna sat behind me in the car on the way home from school, just DISPAIRING!  Here's a ver batem recap:
 
"Poor, poor Auntie.  I am just so disappointed of her.
She kissed a boy.  You know, THAT boy!  
And now she has to marry him.
She HAS to marry him!  HAS TO!"
 
Let me know when the wedding will be!  HA HA"

I guess I'm just going to have to marry Thomas now. BTW here's a link to the incident in question...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DB9v_VSYoqs

Boys Do NOT Read

Today was a really exciting day. Mary, Sarah and I went to WALMART!!!! I know, really lame when going to Walmart is your only source of entertainment but it's true, there really is nothing else to do here. So I bought a birthday present for Joe and some necessities. One of which was a bra. I have lost enough weight here at school, that my bras no longer stay on my body. So I bought ONE bra to last my until at least Thanksgiving. Thank goodness Walmart is so cheap. It was only $7, but the BEST part was the fact that it is... LEOPARD PRINT!!! I was so excited about it. Pretty bras always make me feel pretty when wearing them. I'm not worried about posting this, because I still know that the only people who look at this are family and girl friends, so no panicking...

My Babies, But not really

My Big Man- Scotty (Future James Bond of dancing)

My Little Man- Luke

Sweaty-Head Susanna (AKA Dancing Machine)

One thing that makes up for the fact that all Hallmark children have big heads is that we make stinkin' cute kids. They are always a huge source of entertainment. Whether Susanna's singing, Scott's knowledge, and Luke's talent for yelling like Tarzan. I love these kids so much. I remember after Shelly and Jon adopted Scott, and they were pregnant with Susanna I thought "How can I love this baby as much as I love the one we already have?" "Will I be able to love her as much as Scott?" The answer is YES! Then we got the news that Joe and Stacey were expecting; I thought to myself "I can't imagine loving another baby as much as those two kids."
But as it turns out, I CAN! In fact I love those kids more and more each year. It just truly amazes me that the capacity of the heart is ever growing, forever loving.

"Sisters... Sisters... There were never such devoted sisters..."

I was driving home for a weekend at Provo, Utah. On my journey back to Rexburg I saw a sign that said 'Shelley Ave.' It reminded me of my sister Shelly. If you haven't met my sister (which most of you have since pretty much only family reads my blog), she's my +15 years- Twin. She's the reason that the rest of us Hallmark siblings have no talents because she sucked up all the creative genes. She's the world's best cook, the most awesome sower, the fastest reader, most creative scrapbooker, and she always gives the coolest presents (known fact). She was there on the infamous first trip to Disneyland. And for ever other amazing experience that has ever happened in my life, she's pretty much been there... making it ten times for fun. We're completely different but she's one of my best friends. I love you Shelly!

Dreaming of Disneyland

I once read that "dreams are wishes in your subconscious". If that is true, then my subconscious wishes to be in Disneyland. Ding ding ding! When do I NOT want to be in Disneyland?!

Last night I had a dream. I was in Disneyland with my best friend Gabrielle Murphy. We were sitting in the Victorian Restaurant watching a parade. Suddenly I remembered that I was supposed to be in that parade, so when I saw the Little Mermaid float, I jumped on. Then I told the Ariel (who was my friend Sarah from 325) that I'm there and she needs to leave, from there I pushed her off. I then proceeded to sing "Part of Your World" then I noticed that my sister was supposed to be there so she could sing Aquata's part of the song. There really is no part for Aquata in that song, but my subconscious wished it so there was. I looked down into the crowd where I saw Shelly waving in the crowd. So using one hand I strongly pulled her up were we both continued to sing together. I looked up and Gabrielle was dressed as Sleeping Beauty and gave us a thumbs up for our singing.

That was only the Disneyland portion of the dream. The rest continued on and was completely random. But the point is that even though I'm not in Disneyland, I can always go there in my dreams- to the Happiest Place on Earth!!!!

Photo by Gabrielle Murphy

Mother's Weekend

Me, Mother, and our favorite treat, Arctic Circle :D

This weekend has been the most fun since school started. My mother flew down from Seattle for Mother's weekend. There were a ton of things going on and seminars. But we decided we were too cool for those (we already know how to be "Exemplary Women"... it was one of the seminars). So instead, we spent the whole weekend hanging out and watching movies and shopping at Walmart (it's all there is here). We watched 'Phantom of the Opera', 'The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning', 'Muppets in Space', and 'The Importance of Being Earnest'. We also went to the ONLY movie theater here and saw the movie 'Eagle Eye' with Shia LaBeouf. It was SO GOOD! I won't spoil it for you because you must go see it yourself.

We slept in, painted nails, ate out, and talked. It was completely relaxing and fun. We even got to play in the snow a little bit. I was extremely sad to see her go. But Thanksgiving is coming soon! (44 days today Mom!)

Snow Buddy-Bunnies

Me, Mary, Sarah, Chelsea, and Brooke
Me and Mom standing in the falling snow
Proof that I really am there... in the snow

This weekend was Mother's weekend. And of course, it snowed! It was pretty nice because mother and I got to see it. But it is so nice to have a warm cosy apartment to stay in and watch movies,

"Appreciate" What Others Wear

So Sarah, Mary, and I were at the cafeteria for lunch. While we were sitting enjoying our meal, I noticed a very nice looking young gentleman. He was wearing very stylish black thick-rimmed glasses, a nice collared shirt and a sweater over the top. He was 'fine'... so I asked my friend if I should go over and tell him how nice he looked. Foolishly she told me to go for it. So even more foolishly, I did... I walked up to him and said, "I just wanted to say, I really like the way your dressed." He smiled at me and thanked me. Then STUPIDLY my mouth threw up and said "Yeah, I really appreciate it." APPRECIATE IT?!?! He looked at me like I was a freak so I turned around and beckoned for Sarah to follow me as I made a hasty escape. URG! (Or in the words of Sarah... YARG!) I was so STUPID! TOTALLY blew my chances. So that's my idiot action for the week, stay tuned for what Holly will do next week...

Dang You! I Said NO!!!

Well, my previous blog about snow must have truly jinxed me. Yesterday I was walking to lunch with my friends Jessica and Sarah when we noticed that small white flakes were falling from the sky, but it quickly turned to rain so we thought we must have been imagining things. But then, those imaginary white flakes turned to soft white clumps of cotton. By this time we were walking out of Cold Stone, wondering why the heck we were buying ice cream on such a cold day anyways (BUT IT WAS WORTH IT!!! Ghirardelli chocolate ice cream ;D). But no worries, it didn't stick thank goodness! But soon, I can just smell it in the air!!!!

No, Not Doctor Hallmark... NURSE HALLMARK

So thanks to my mother forcing me to learn first aid and to the doctor-genes I have from my father. I am prepared for any bumps or bruises on the way through life; both mine and others. I was able to use my skills on behalf of Mary (with her graceful fall in relief society) and Brooke (with her gutsy moves on the field during the Ward soccer game). Life, bring it on!

Mary's wrapped ankle
Me in the process of wrapping her ankle
Brooke being a chicken. You'd think I was pouring acid, it was just Hydrogen Peroxide!

Say No to Snow!

So the wards here have intramural sport. My friends Jessica and Brooke and then one of my roommates Liz are in the team for our ward. So I went with Mary and Sarah to go support them. We have gone to the other games and they had been really fun. But not tonight, especially since I couldn't see any of it. I was too covered with blankets... It was almost 25 degrees! This afternoon, the high temperature was a scorchin' 35 degrees. I was so cold!!! WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WHEN THE TEMPERATURE GETS UP TO THE NEGATIVES!!!! 

Why College is so fun...

So there is a ton of construction all around campus, all the time. It is such a pain. But when Sarah, Jessica, Candace and I were walking to get lunch we saw this sign in the construction area. So we ran out to it (even though it said construction only :D). We were just goofing around.

FREAKY MOVIE!!!!

This was the freakiest movie I've seen in a long time! So last night, we had nothing to do. Sarah, Jess and I were going to watch "Hot Rod" with a friend named Miles. But all of the TVs were in use, so we weren't able to. So We called up our friend Brooke who was watching some scary movie called "The Descent" with some friends. She invited us over, so we headed to Somerset apartments to watch it at some guy's apartment from the ward.

I was scared out of my pants! Not literally though... The movie involved a group of friends (all female... bad sign right there) who decided to go caving in an unknown cave (HELLO?! Smokin' boots!), in the cave they got lost, then stuck because a part of the cave collapsed (ofcourse...) and then, how could the movie get any better without mutant human-eating people! Miles throughout the whole movie kept saying "I hate to be in this situation" or "this situation just can't get any worse!" No kidding Miles.

Anyways, I wasn't too freaked out because I didn't actually see most of the movie. I had my face covered most of the time, watching through my fingers. And I don't know how it happened, but in the end of the movie, pretty much Brooke, Sarah, and Jessica all ended up on top of me, so I wasn't afraid of being the first one to be attacked if the mutants happened to be real, especially since I completely surrounded.

And then, to make matters worse(!) all of my roommates were not home. Some had left to go to Salt Lake for conference and the others were sleeping at friends. There was NO way I was staying home alone after that! So instead I slept over at 365. Ofcourse it didn't help that Sarah kept hearing mutant noises (oh man I got them good when they sent me after one of those mysterious noises! Hahaha!). But needless to say, I survived without any encounter from any mutants...