Since Last I Wrote

It has been a while since I last posted. Finals went well and I passed all of my classes with As! Christmas was great! All of my siblings were there and we got all sorts of new things to have fun with. My dad got a brand new board game we've been playing it almost non stop. The update on the lounge is that they've finally fixed it up! So when I go back for the winter semester I'll be able to do laundry!

Turkey Day

Bryce and I travel home last week for Thanksgiving. We had lots of fun. We got together with some family members from dad's side of the family for the actual dinner. It was lots of fun. On Friday we kept with tradition and went up into the mountains to cut down a Christmas tree. We've never cut down a tree in the Hailey area so we had to get a map of where we were allowed to. With our permit in hand we headed off to find the perfect tree. We had quite the adventure and thought that we might never find the one when I found it. On the side of a very, very step hill. The Christmas tree beat us down the mountain by a long time. On Saturday we decorated the tree and went to the new James Bond movie Skyfall. It was good but not as good as Casino Royal. On Sunday I became ill and spent the entire day on the couch. Then we had to drive home. I still feel a little :P but I made it back here to Rexburg with no problem.

Sink

I think that something is up with the plumbing here. We have the problem in the lounge mostly taken care of but yesterday we woke up to find that the kitchen sink won't drain and the disposal won't even turn on. The sink upstairs also has a draining problem. Luckily unlike the kitchen sink it will drain eventually. It just takes a really long time. We're all hoping that our apartment complex's maintenance man will come fix them soon. Especially the kitchen one.

Midnight Pearls

Midnight Pearls is a retelling of the Little Mermaid by Debbie Viguie. I saw it in the store the other day and decided to give it a try. This retelling is very cute and likable. Pearl is a girl who doesn't fit in at all. She is pale, has huge eyes, and legs that are way to long. She also doesn't remember where she came from. Her father, a fisherman, had found her in the ocean during a storm clutching a midnight blue pearl in her fist. I recommend this book to anyone who likes the story of the little mermaid and is looking for an interesting twist on it.

Sense and Sensibility

Sense and Sensibility is the first novel Jane Austen wrote. For years people have enjoyed reading the story of the Dashwood sisters and their attempts to find love after their father dies and leaves them close to penniless. Elinor, the eldest daughter, is reserved and rational in her decisions, while the second daughter Marianne believes in acting on your emotions. They both believe that they have found love but the world seems to be working against them. Will they find true love? I love this story and all the other books by Jane Austen. There is a definite reason why her books have never been out of print.

Cleaning

Clean checks for our apartment are today so we decided to clean last night. Kristen and I offered to do downstairs if Christina and Akira would do upstairs. Kristen and I started when I got back from class at 3:00 p.m. and didn't finish until 9:30 p.m. We really went all out. We cleaned the windows, the blinds, cleaned out the couches (45 cents was made), and vacuumed the couches, the stairs and the carpet. Not only did we vacuum the couches we went all over them with a lint roller because an apartment of girls means a lot of hair and the vacuum just wasn't cutting it. Then we cleaned to kitchen. Microwave, fridge, sweep, mop, and scrub at the stove. After we were done with downstairs we headed upstairs to work on our rooms. When we finished that we were on such a roll that we ended up cleaning the upstairs bathroom as well. We're both really tired but the apartment looks great!

Ice Caves

Yesterday my roommate, Kristen, called me and asked me if I'd go on a blind date with her to the Rexburg ice caves. I agreed because I promised her that we would do something fun soon. It was pretty fun, it wasn't so much like a date as just hanging out. We dressed really warmly and as waterproof as spontaneous  spelunking will allow. The drive out there was pretty fun but the last part is pretty much off-road so it was really bumpy (thank you four-wheel drive!). The ice caves were really fun and I'd totally recommend the one we went to. It's not a good idea if you're scared of the dark or claustrophobic though. You can stand up most of the time but there is a lot of sliding on your knees and crouching.

You have to climb down around this spire of ice to continue through part of the cave. I slipped right at the bottom and slid a foot or two across the floor. 

This is a picture of one of the caves you can stand up in. The floor is an ice block that you have to climb up onto. At the end of the cave is a tunnel you have to slide on your knees through. At the very end of this particular set of caves there's a wall of ice that has steps and a slide carved out. It was fun and we had contests to see who could slide the farthest across the room. Us girls had no chance at winning though, we barely had enough mass to get to the bottom of the slope, but it was fun anyway. By the time we were finished we were soaking wet, but inside the caves was actually pretty warm compared to outside. When we got outside all of our pants froze. It was really funny. After we were done spelunking we got together at the other girl (Rebecca's) apartment and made dinner and played Apples to Apples.  I have quite a few bruises from the caves. My knees are pretty bad from crawling around on the ice. This is the worst of the two.

But the worst bruise I got is on my elbow. I banged it on the cave wall when I slipped down that spire. It's one big mass of purple. I can't even hardly stand wearing a long sleeved shirt. I don't have a picture though because it's really hard to take a good picture of your elbow with a  tempermental camera. Despite all the bruises though, it was tons of fun!

Update on the Lounge

They have managed to sanitize the laundry room part of the lounge for our use but they have to replace the carpet and walling in the other parts of the lounge, so still no mail.

Snow and Sewage

Everybody in my apartment complex woke up to two surprises today. There was a sprinkling of snow on the ground(but it doesn't look like it will stick) and our lounge had flooded. There have been work crews doing work up and down our street. I think they are fixing some electrical cable or something. Anyway, yesterday they were working outside of our complex and broke a pipe. They thought that the water pouring down the sidewalk was the only problem until we discovered that when they broke the pipe all of the sewage backed up and flooded our lounge. It's super gross and nobody is allowed in today so no mail until they get it fixed. It looks like the men have finally fixed the pipe outside and the water damage cleaners are parked outside so here's hoping that we can get our mail and do laundry tomorrow!

Best Family Ever

This week has been fairly uneventful. There was some homework to do and I had a quiz in my great books class but that happens every week. I went to see Casablanca at the school on Friday. That was pretty fun. My roommate Kristen came with me. She had never seen it before and it was really fun to watch her emotions as the movie progressed. Plus I really like Humphrey Bogart movies. Today my brother, Bryce, took me to the store. We talked a bit and it was pretty fun. I really have a great family. My brothers are awesome and my sister is tons of fun. Our entire family loves to hang out together and play games. I love them all so much!

Halloween Books

As part of this blog I have decided to add little reviews about the books I have been reading. Since it's Halloween I thought it would be appropriate to talk about Edgar Allan Poe. Edgar Allan Poe is famous for his horror stories and creating strong emotions in his readers. I will be talking about four of his works: The Raven, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Cask of Amontillado, and The Tell-Tale Heart. The milder two works are The Raven and The Cask of Amontillado. The Raven is about a man who is mourning for his lost love and The Cask of Amontillado is about a man who wants revenge. I say that these two are the more mild  of the four because they lack the feeling of tension and the more gory elements that the other two have. But don't get me wrong, The Cask of Amontillado is probably my favorite work of Edgar Allan Poe's. The Tell-Tale Heart is about a man who is driven mad by the thought that another man is constantly watching him. He eventually murders the man and hides him underneath the floorboards but he still hears the other man's heart beating. The Pit and the Pendulum is about a man who is sentenced to death. He is strapped to a table and a pendulum with a sharp blade that this swinging above him slowly gets closer to him. Have a Happy Halloween!