Happy Day!!

Finally got my driver's permit :)

Update from the Burg

So as you probably have noticed I'm really bad at keeping up with this but hey at least I occasionally update :-)

First off how this semester has gone (that's winter 2009). I've been babysitting this cute little girl who is now 7 months old. It's only an hour and a half three days a week but it's fun; I love it. She is so cute.

Since I am off-track, I am taking 5 credits this semester. I am taking an online Book of Mormon class, and am doing band although I am not registered for it. I am also taking a sign language class. I am having lots of fun in that class and I am learning a lot. It is more difficult than I thought it would be but it's a great learning experience. Band is awesome. I love going there on my own time just because I love it and because of my passion for music. I am learning how to better play my trombone. We have our concert next Wednesday and I am excited but at the same time nervous. Although we are ready.

I lost count of how many of my friends have gotten engaged this semester, but 2 of my best friends were among them. Brittney was the first and what an adventure that has been. She and Dan are so good together though and I am very happy for her. I couldn't have picked a better guy for her. They are going to be married probably June 6th in Rexburg and I am way excited for her. <3


Tanis is the most recent out of the bunch and we were just waiting for that to happen. I get a call on Wednesday night and I wondered what was wrong because she never calls me since she's in Canada and it costs us both extra to talk. She told me and we were both screaming on the phone. They plan to be married June 10 so I am going to be at 2 weddings in 1 week. I don't have a picture of Tanis and Cody but if I did it would be on here. Cody is an awesome guy and I couldn't be happier for them. <3

I registered for classes for next semester last week and boy I am going to be busy! I am taking 17 credits and working 20 hours a week. Basically my schedule goes as follows: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I will leave my apartment at about 8:30am. Tuesdays and Thursdays I will leave about 7:45am. Everyday I will get back at about 6:15pm. Ya talk about busy. I told my roommate for next semester and she was like when am I gonna see you? I was like uh before I leave or after I get back ;-)

Well this is a pretty long post and I have to get going to band then to work (at the Opinion Center again but I'm putting in my intention to quit form today so it's all good).

one work answers about me

1. Where is your cell phone? pocket
2. Your significant other? georgia
3. Your hair? wet
4. Your mother? tall
5. Your father? working
6. Your favorite thing? friends
7. Your dream last night? none
8. Your favorite drink? dunno
9. Your dream/goal? teacher
10. What room are you in? kitchen
11. Your hobby? computer
12. Your fear? stairs
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? family
14. Where were you last night? freezing
15. What did you have for dinner? none
16. Muffins? yum
17. Wish list item? pants
18. Where you grew up? california
19. Last thing you did? dressed
20. What are you wearing? clothes
21. Your TV? off
22. Your pets? nope
23. Friends? everywhere
24. Your life? grand
25. Your mood? whatever
26. Missing some one? YA
27. Car? none
28. Something you're not wearing? make up
29. Your favorite store? none
30. Your favorite color? blue
33. When is the last time you laughed? night
34. Last time you cried? dunno
35. One place that I go to over and over? school
36. One person who emails me regularly? page
37. My favorite place to eat? dunno
38. What are you doing tonight? class

Winter Break Part 1

Yet again, I haven't posted in a while. I'm not very good at keeping up. Sorry for all those who read this to keep up with what's going on in my life. I will try to do better.

I'm finally home in San Diego for the first time since before summer semester started and that was in April. Ya, April. I hadn't seen any of my family, except Mom, since April. 8 months! I got home and I was basically attacked by my bros; their so cute :-) For a while, they got upset if I wasn't the one to watch them.Christmas is coming up and my family and I are going to go to my aunt's house for dinner. It's about 3 hours away so it isn't too long of a road trip. There is snow there this year so it will be fun watching Schuylar, Logan, and Parker in it and playing in it with my family. There isn't so much that it will be annoying and is not even comparable to Rexburg. I don't think Parker has ever been in snow actually so it should be a fun experience.

I'm going to be going back to Rexburg for winter semester this year. It will be interesting with all the snow and ice but it'll be fun. I'm rooming with Brittney and I'm really excited for that. I will be working at the Opinion Center (unless I find a job that I like better and hopefully even pays better) and babysitting Maria (a 5 month old baby girl) for a couple for about 8 1/2 hours a week while they are in class. I am also taking some classes: sign language 101, time management skills, test taking skills, and I'm auditing university band (aka I will participate in it but I'm not registering for it). The 2 skills classes are online classes that I'm taking just because I have time and they will help me with other classes. They're just extra classes to help me out since I'm kinda lacking in those skills.

I'll post before I leave home and give an update on how things went for the 3 week break. Till then, peace out! Amanda

Pictures

I put up pictures on that link so feel free to look at them! :-)

Pictures for last post

I forgot to put the link in the post. I haven't put them up yet but here is the link to pictures from Summer break. Next time I post I'll have pictures in this album so you can see them.

http://picasaweb.google.com/arholmn/Canada#

Summer Break

I haven't written in a long time so it's about time that I did. The last time I wrote was the end of Summer semester 2008. I finished off the semester in good standing and went to Wisner, Nebraska for 6 out of the 7 week break. While there I worked at Braun Research of Nebraska (a telephone research place-those people who call you to take a survey-its a job so whatev). I got to see my family (aunt, uncle, 2 cousins, and grandma) so it wasn't all bad. Besides the humidity that wasn't fun.
Then I went to visit Tanis in Southern Alberta. My aunt, cousins, and grandma were going to Minnesota so I went with them and took the train from Red Wing, MN to Cut Bank, MT. It was a long ride. I got on the train at 9:20pm on Sep 29 and got off the next night at about 6pm. It wasn't too bad I was just really tired because I did not sleep well on the train. When I got to Cut Bank Tanis, Cody, and Tanis' mom picked me up. Tanis' family and I went to the barn dance (Great Canadian Barn Dance-its in Hillspring). I stayed in Canada till Sep 6.
If I had to pick my favorite day while in Canada, I would have to say Wednesday, September 3, 2008. It was a great day that had a bump in the middle and ended badly but it was still a good day. Tanis and I got up in the morning and decided to go through the pass. Tanis wouldn't tell me what was on the other side because she wanted to surprise me. On the way we saw beautiful scenery and she showed me Frank's Slide. When we got to Sparwood (its in BC-British Columbia) we saw this GIANT truck. Seriously it was huge. It used to be the world's largest truck. It was used for coal mining. We took pictures by it to show how big it was. Then we went to A&W to eat. On the way back we decided to go to Lethbridge before going to Debbie's house. We went to Michaels and got stuff to make t-shirts and Tanis found some socks she liked. When we went to the car Tanis caught her hand in the door when she was trying to close the door. That was the bump in the day. She was okay after some time passed. I just had to help a little with the driving. Just with starting the car and changing from park to reverse to drive.
Then we went to Cody's and got him to come with us to party at Debbie's. We had a lot of fun. We just hung out. We had a little fiasco with the frosting for the cupcakes but that was fun. When it was time to go things took a turn for the worst. It had been raining that day and it was like 10:30 or 11 at night (or something like that-either way it was dark and late). Tanis, Cody and I left at the same time. We said goodbye to everyone and started to leave. As we were going down the porch steps (me in front with Cody and Tanis behind me) Cody asked if I could see. I told him I could (the porch light was on so I could see but not enough). Right after that my crutch slipped it was like someone flipped the slow motion switch. I tried to grab the banister, and when that didn't work I closed my eyes and hoped for the best. As I was falling I remember hearing Tanis say 'thats bad" (usually when I fall it's not bad I just get right back up and I'm fine but she and I both knew that it would not end well). I fell down 4 of the wooden steps and hit the cement on the right side of my face. It was what Cody calls a face plant in history if there was one. Cody was next to me a split second after I hit. I knew he was there even though I kept my eyes closed. Tanis ran and got Debbie (she is going into paramedics and her parents already are paramedics along with her brother). I stayed laying down because I knew they would want to check me over. They checked me out and made sure I didn't break anything and after what seemed like forever helped me to stand up and walk inside. Debbie got me cleaned up (after pictures were taken) and they sent Tanis and I to the hospital in Cardston to check it out. So I rode with Tanis and Debbie and Becky rode in another car.
On the way to the hospital (which was about a half hour or so away) Tanis and I talked about what had happened and I found out about the outside view of it. Cody had felt that something bad was going to happen and that was why he asked if I could see. He was pulling his flashlight out of his pocket when I slipped. Tanis had to pull him away from me so that the paramedics could check on me. He just kept saying that he should have caught me. We called him while on the road to make sure he was ok (Tanis told him to leave since he had work in the morning and he left only after he knew that I would be fine). I told him to promise that he would stop feeling bad although Tanis said he lied. While I had been laying down and had opened my eyes (I kept them closed till they needed to check my pupils) Tanis had stuck her tongue out at me. I thought "oh what they heck why not" so I stuck mine back out at her. Turns out that she was testing me. That was her way of checking to see if I was ok. She said that if I hadn't stuck my tongue out at her then she would have been worried.
When we got to the emergency room Tanis' grandpa was there and the attending doctor/nurse (he was more than a nurse but not really a doctor so ya) put a sterie strip on the bridge of my nose (that was the major injury-it was about a half inch long cut) and said that he didn't think my nose was broken. He sent us home with an ice pack and said if it got worse that we could come back. When we got back to Tanis' grandparents house we carefully went inside (after I slipped down two steps of course-I didn't get hurt that time it just scared grandpa like crazy-Tanis and I both knew that fall wasn't any big deal even before I hit the ground).
So that was my exciting story and hopefully you didn't get to bored with this long post. I'll just summarize the rest because this is really long. I came back to Rexburg with Joe (Debbie's boyfriend) and moved into my new apartment. I'm rooming with Rachel and have 4 new roommates who are pretty cool. Jacqueline and McKayla are from Idaho Falls; Catharine and Wendy are from New York. We have had lots of fun already. Classes are going well along with work.
After much pondering I have decided to stay in Rexburg for the winter break. I'm going to room with Brittney on campus (I figure it's safer for me to live on campus when the weathers bad). I'll take sign language 101 and work.
Ok I'm done. I'll try to post more often so my messages aren't so long. Hope all is well in your life and keep in touch!