I am turning into an old lady

-i have to take stairs one at a time.
-i keep falling over because my dad says that i some kind of cold virus in my ear. this means that when i move my head too fast, i get really dizzy because my inner ears are too busy fighting a virus to keep me balanced. this happens every time i switch cheeks on my pillow when i am asleep. doesn't that sound like an old lady problem? all of the sudden i am sympathetic to old people who loose their balance, it's actually a lot easier than you think. i fell over today while i was bending down trying to pet my dog.
-i put all of my letters in a pretty box/tiny trunk old-looking thing that rachel gave to me.
-i had fun cleaning my room.
-i started trying to learn how to play the ukulele like this old man in my home ward who plays every guitar-y type instrument.

I'm one year older. or maybe forty.

so happy new year everyone! glad i could read about most of your lives. (not trying to sound creepy.)

there is a bag of frozen pees on my knee.

that's why you are not seeing pictures of sunriver, the place we go with some families that is next to a big ski resort. we come here for the snow, because we usually don't get snow in eugene. i went snowboarding and the snow was very ICY instead of wonderful like it is in utah. i fell on sheets of ice and fell squarely on my knee. it is huge and puffy, and i feel like naming that swollen area of my body that jiggles a tiny bit when i walk and makes me go up stairs only stepping up with my other leg. YES.

but here are some pictures to make you smile:

from nottingham. yes, THE nottingham:

thank you tourism industry:

thank you rioters who prevented me from seeing the robin hood statue:

thank you rioters from the seventeenth century who burned down the castle and only left this part of the wall here:

yes

So...today Rachel and I decided to have a photo shoot.

I made her bring her point shoes.

Rachel is my little sister who is sixteen and makes me nervous when she's driving but I try so hard not to act nervous and try to be supportive because I hated it (and still do hate it) when my sisters get nervous when I'm driving. But she actually is a pretty good driver. And she's kind of good at ballet. Today in Eugene it was freezing and foggy, and we had talked about doing a photoshoot yesterday or the day before or something. We decided it would be really great to take some pictures in the fog, so I made Rachel wash her hair and change her clothes after we went running and I also made her bring some old point shoes. We both felt awesome because we felt like Rachel was a real model, braving cold and discomfort like the models on ANTM. Her fingers were so numb that it was almost impossible to tie the knots on the ribbons of her point shoes. And her toes were completely numb. But it was so much fun I think for both of us to pretend we were at a real photo shoot! We were so cold at the end that we jumped into the car and then jumped into the hottub. mmm

And also, I was taking pictures of Rachel, and I think I may have said at one point: "Rachel, I am so jealous that you can make your body do that!" and then I remembered she has been practicing making her body do that for about the last eight, nine, ten years? or something? Take a look...

Thanks for a fun day Rach!

clear skies and a wheel to sit behind

on monday, all of my friends had finals or studying monopolizing their lives, so i decided to strategically run into people in the library. i couldn't believe i couldn't find anyone i knew on all five floors, and usually i see way too many people i know there while i am dressed in sweats. (mother-this is not that often.) anyway, so i settled down behind a table, pulled out my computer and earbuds, and settled down with a furrowed brow to...write on my blog. yep.

when i woke up tuesday morning, i decided the library was out. and when i walked outside on to 500 n, it was the most beautiful december day, and i seriously was skipping down the sidewalk, smiling so huge because it was so pretty. i could finally see the mountains and the sky, and the snow was still white. i made whitney go on a drive up the canyon with me. my grandparents were so nice to let me borrow their huge white van! i missed driving while i was in paris. the metro is fun, but public transportation starts to get annoying sometimes, and i was starting to want to be able to drive places when i wanted to go there...it was nice.

also, lucky whitney for being with me in pretty places when i have my camera. people will think i'm obsessed with you or something...

(yep...that's my jacket.)

also, look who greeted us on our way up to sundance. I don't think i've ever seen this many deer in utah ever:

8 months is way too long

at least that's what i thought when i got to utah on saturday night. on sunday morning, the sidewalks were built up with slush and water and snow and i had decided to wear some really great heels. good idea. i ended up almost completely soaking my favorite heels, getting roxanne's car stuck because i couldn't make it over a giant puddle, and staring at a puddle for a long time before sam, roxanne's sam, came and lifted me over the puddle as he had been doing with roxanne while we walked to and from the conference center. later that day, i walked around on 800 n for a long time trying to get to the sidewalk because it was slushy and puddly everywhere, and i seriously couldn't even get to the sidewalk. i don't know if i've ever made a worse fashion practicality decision...have i?

how???

don't worry! i still thought eight months was way too long without being here. the last time i saw the lady above, we were saying goodbye in dublin. the last time i saw roxanne, we were saying goodbye in rome. some people i had seen for the last time in london, and all of my other lovely friends, i hadn't seen since APRIL, beFORE i went to England! EIGHT months. there were a lot of glorious reunions. i wish that i had cute pictures of all of them! but alas, you can't really take good pictures of having fun conversations and laughing and eating on the couch of people's apartments, can you?

and this last week, all of my luggage, a large suitcase, two overly stuffed carry-on-sized bags, and one huge study abroad backpack barfed all over whitney's house. isn't she the greatest.

it's great to be back in the states!

some things to drool over...

chatsworth

my favorite estate i've ever been to.

i guess some people think it was jane austen's inspiration for pemberley

and they used it in the 2005 film verion of pride and prejudice.

i've never seen a place so happily situated






the only sad thing was that it was having restoration work done:



i did my best with my imagination to make it go away, as well as using the cropping tool on iphoto. but really, it was a good thing that the grounds were not under reconstruction. now that would have been a real misfortune. would it not?

had to get some documentation that i was there.