Tuesday, January 20, 2009

President Barack Obama

I just watched President Obama's Inaugural Address again online. I don't even know what to say; I just wanted to remark about this momentous occasion somehow, but words fail me. I'm so excited to see what the next four years will bring, and I'm so glad to be a part of this piece of history, even if it was only casting a ballot for him, and watching him on TV. I wish I had gone to his rally in Las Vegas. I didn't have the money to get there, but the people I was going to go with were just a couple yards away from him.

I know this isn't much, but I'm so happy. His address made me cry. Thanks for all the hope you've given America and good luck President Obama!!!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Kelly

I can barely type because I'm kind of almost jumping up and down at the moment.

Kelly's flight plans were just emailed to me by his mom. He will land in Salt Lake City at 1:35 on April 10th.

85 days!!! That's right, I've finally decided it's okay to count down. Despite what most of my geriatric ward members believe, (and even some of my best friends *cough*BECKY*cough*), I have not counted down prior to this. I did know that he had 100 days left from January 1, but that's because KELLY told me that on the phone on Christmas Eve. I actually scolded him about that and said, "Get back to your mission, Elder." I don't want him coming home with any regrets about wasted time or efforts or anything. When he comes home I want him to be completely satisfied about putting his whole self into the Montevideo Uruguay Mission for the entire two years. Good thing I already know he's done this and will continue to; he's such a good person and I admire him so much. When Kelly does something, he gives it all he's got, and he does it right. I'm so proud of him and how much he's grown since his baptism in 2005. I wish I could shout to the whole world how amazing Kelly is, how blessed and grateful I am that he is in my life and I've been able to share so many awesome experiences with him, and how much I love him.



Kelly's mission has blessed him so much. His testimony has grown, as has his love for the gospel, the Book of Mormon, and Joseph Smith. It's almost hard to believe the young man writing these letters is the same guy who was Bible bashing with me at Country Boy Dairy in June 2005--the same guy I cried with on the hill at Beus Park because neither of us could see how our relationship could work out, but we couldn't see it ever ending either. Kelly is more outgoing and confident. I think he's even more patient and understanding, and even humble--I didn't even know humans had the capacity to become more patient, understanding, or humble than Kelly already was! He is absolutely awe-inspiring.



Almost more amazing is that although I've been left behind, I have grown so much. I am more independent and well-rounded. I have developed interests and pushed myself out of my little comfort zone. I've come to realize I have talents and that I am an interesting person. I'm not so scared about what others might think of me, so I am more outgoing and confident, too. Some people have told me how suprised they are that I'm funny--thanks to those of you with a refined sense of sarcasm, because you actually get my so-called wit. No one can say I am just Daniandkelly (affectionately dubbed "Danelly" by some friends our sophomore year when some people honestly didn't know if it were "Dani and Kelly" or "Danny and Kelli".) A lot of my friends have never even met Kelly! (But believe me, they know about him.) Kelly is forever my other half, me in male form, and my best friend, but I am somebody and no one can take that away from me.

That being said, I AM SO EXCITED TO SEE KELLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Teach For America

I'm interested in education. I mean, I want to be a teacher someday. I am in the process of applying for Teach For America. It's a non-profit organization that sends college graduates to underprivileged areas of the United States to teach in effort to narrow the achievement gap. It's hard to get into, the training is "rigorous" (according to my sources), and I just moved up the latter a little!

I sent in my application a while ago and today is the day the third deadline applicants find out if we qualify for a phone interview, and guess what! I get to SKIP the phone interview, because I have been invited directly to the final interview! SWEET-FREAKING-NUGGETS! (I just had to share the news with someone, since my mom isn't answering her phone, Kelly is 6,000 miles away, and I don't know how excited he'd be about it anyway since he doesn't exactly want to come home and then move right away again. But he'll follow me anywhere. He said so. And even if he's not happy for himself, he'll be happy for me.)

Monday, January 5, 2009

Dani's Fabulous Call From Kelly/Christmas/Hanukkah/Graduation Party/New Years/Trip to Logan/Break in General!

I finished school on December 11, 2008 and headed home the next morning. It was so great being home with my family! They are all so cool!

I spent the next week working for my dad's office. I spent days in a storage unit going through boxes of medical files. I had to pick out all the ultrasound film and separate it from the normal paper so it can all be shredded. I have 52 paper cuts to prove it. Oh, and these pictures:

A bunch of boxes that I had to go through and a little baby ultrasound. Aww...




On Christmas Eve I got to go to Kelly's parents' house and talk to Kelly on the phone! I was able to talk to him alone for about 30 minutes. It was awesome. He has a release date: April 10!!! Three months! He has really loved his time in Uruguay, but I think he's getting a little excited to come home and see/marry me. (But seriously, who wouldn't be?) I told him to get back to his mission and he can think about me sometime around the afternoon of the tenth of April, and on P-days when he writes to me, but not in the same kind of way. But it was so wonderful to talk to him! I love him! I love him! I love him!

The next day was Christmas...obviously. We all slept in quite a bit and had my mom's cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and to keep from breaking tradition, we all had our orange juice too. My grandparents always used to spend the night before Christmas at our house and one of the rules is everyone has to eat breakfast before we can start opening presents. To my grandpa (Pop) this included orange juice, no matter what you were eating and it didn't matter if you had just brushed your teeth or not. Then a Mythbusters marathon was on TV, so we ended up chilling and watching a few episodes of that. Then we has biscuits and gravy for brunch, and finally got around to opening our presents around 1PM. I drew Kevin's name this year, so I got him a couple movies: Ironman and Leatherheads. I got a really cool exercise ball and some little weights so I can be super-hot when Kelly gets home. I also got another teapot to add to my collection! It's SO CUTE! See?



And I got some new clothes and some money and candy. Kevin gave me a Stephen Colbert I Am America (And So Can You!) desk calendar and The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Kelly's parents gave me a scarf and the movie Little Women, and his brother and sister-in-law gave me a fragrance diffuser and a little mirror for my purse. And my friend Becky gave me season 3 of "The Office". I love that show.

We gave my 84 year old grandma (Mimi) a new TV because her old one sucks and also for the change in February. She opened the box and sat there looking at it like, "What?" and then we told her to look at the picture on the box. Well, there was a picture of the TV, but on the TV was some people white water rafting. She didn't notice the TV part. It was pretty much hilarious. She thought we were sending her down the river. She got pretty excited when we pointed out what it really was.

When we were all done opening presents, Cami carried her hoard to her room and the rest of us went back to the family room and there was a giant new TV for us! We spent the rest of the day setting that up and taking the old one down to Bryan's nest where he hooked up all his stuff to it. Cami came out a couple hours later and was pretty suprised to see us all watching more Mythbusters on a brand new flatscreen.

Christmas was great! Mythbusters, jammies, cinnamon rolls, turkey, a nap, and seriously freaking out my grandma. What better day could you ask for?

We also celebrate Hanukkah at my house. Really all we did this year was light the Menorah, but it was still pretty fun. We don't have Christmas lights on our house, while the rest of our neighborhood goes all out on the holiday grandeur. People probably go down our street thinking Ooh! Ahh! Grinch. Oo-wait! The Grinches are Jewish.

The day after Christmas, our good friends the Marsdens decided to throw me a graduation party. It was pretty fun. We just ate and talked and played Loaded Questions. I also got a book called You Can Do It! and 20 bucks. Sweet.

Over the next week I pretty much vegged at home a lot. It was blissful. Kevin and I did go hang out with our good friend Kory and he bought us dinner at Lee's Mongolian Barbeque, and then we went back to his house and watched the end of the Jazz game and all of "Muppets From Space".

On New Years Eve my best friend from high school, Katie, and I went to a party in Salt Lake called First Night. It was pretty fun. We heard some awesome groups and watched some jitterbuggers and firedancers. We also heard a horrible group called "Acabella" singing so-called showtunes. These guys were terrible! They sang to canned music, had absolutely no sense of groove, and I'm pretty sure that quite a few of them were tone deaf. Fortunately we left that one early and followed it right up with the most amazing big band! AWESOME! They were in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and all the senior missionary couples were dancing with each other. It was pretty cute. And the band was great!

On New Years Day my Mom and sister and I decided to have a girl's day and go to a movie. Well...we saw Twilight. I have to tell you I wasn't too excited to see this one and was actually pretty embarrassed to be seen walking into the theatre. I had a great time though! The movie was terrible!!! But it was so much fun to make fun of. I thought I was going to be attacked by a bunch of angry preteen girls and their mothers at the end of the movie for all the snotty comments I made to my sister. I think Cami had the best zinger, though. When Edward is having a flashback about becoming a vampire and he's laying on the bed "dying" and then Carlisle attacks his neck to bite him, but it really really just looks like he's giving him a hicky and Edward really really likes it. And Cami perfectly placed the "Emporer's New Groove" line: "We all coulda been spared your little 'kiss of life'!"

But seriously, want to see what Twilight is like? This is spot on:
(I would like to take this moment to say that the following video has some swearing and one pretty inappropriate comment. Those of you who only watch PG movies should probably skip this one.)





The day after that my whole family went up to Logan to spend one more day with Kevin before school started and I headed back to Cedar City. I got back about 1 this afternoon, and drove through a snowstorm to get here. *sniff* ...I miss my family.