Gobble Gobble Gobble!

Well everyone, Gobble Gobble Gobble Gobble! Happy Thanksgiving!!!! I drove up to Rexburg, Idaho yesterday to spend Thanksgiving with my sister Marie. She goes to school in Idaho and neither one of us wanted to go home for three days. Well we wanted to go home but we thought it would be more practical to stay. Needless to say we had one killer Turkey Day!(killer being interpreted to way good) Marie made all the good stuff like stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and my favorite...asparagus. I prepared the turkey and made my mom's famous gravy! Well.......so it's not famous....but I like it! Wow...Marie and I are some freaking awesome cooks! We also bought Sparkling Apple Cider and toasted. We didnt say "la heim"...sorry Dad maybe for New Years.... but as Marie said...one bottle later.....we had to take a nap. I think she thought it was alcohol.....once again....maybe for New Years. ( I KID! I KID!) So here are some pictures and I will either describe it or put a caption underneath....though most are self explanitory.
So we started early this morning preparing dinner. Here I am reaching into the business end of the Turkey. Marie wouldn't do it since she's a social work major. I guess being a business major means I have to reach into the business end. Sad. ( I inserted a social work joke but Marie didn't think it was funny so I had to not do it. SAD! DICTATIVE OLDER SISTERS!)
Marie's stuffing was KILLER!!!
Marie : "Look mom and Dad! We did it all by ourselves!"
Mandi:" Does that turkey go in at 250 or 450? For 2 hours or 4? If one turkey is leaving Rexburg headed south at 11 am and gobbles 4 miles an hour and another turkey leaves Salt Lake headed north at 12pm (that's noon) going 10 gobbles an hour at what time will their paths intercept and will they be eaten before they get there?"
Marie was shocked the turkey looked good.

Aww what a pretty table with yummy yummy food.
Marie and I with our masterpiece!
AWWW!!! This is the first turkey I have ever carved!!
MMM isn't it beautiful?
La Heim!

Well peeps. That's our show for tonight. Tune in next week.....same bat time...same bat channel. (or website..ya know. what-ev-)

Fun Filled Friday

Well........here is another post! Tonight was pretty fun and I still have the WHOLE weekend in front of me......granted most of Saturday will be spent studying but........still. Friday night was a lot of fun. I made a new friend @ work and we decided we need to start haning out. She is from Nevada and I guess she doesn't know too many people here either. So tonight we went to meet her cousin at some resturant called the Mayan. It is supposed to be mexican type food. Notice the words SUPPOSED to be Mexican TYPE!. HaHa. It actually wasn't that bad. The food was OK but I guess the big thing about this place is that they have this guy dressed up like an Indian and he creeps and crawls all over these rocks that are above this water and then like every 15-20 minutes they have a diving show. They have divers come and do stunts off the rocks and into this deep water they have built into the resturant. It looks really SCARY and they do some CRAZY jumps....but it was fun. The Indian type guy was walking past our table and I got him to take a picture with us. I needed to show you guys! haha.

After dinner we went to go see Happy Feet! We were actually going to go see Prestige but sadly it was sold out ( I love little kid movies!) so I suggested we see Happy Feet. I had never heard of it (we all know how often I go see movies.....) but it looked cute and IT WAS! I really enjoyed it anyhow. The two girls I was with liked it but not as much as me. haha. After that Diana and I were headed back downtown and the ice skating rink opened tonight and they were having a free night in celebration so we went and ice skated for a bit. After ice skating we walked around Temple Square. Temple Square is the center of town. Salt Lake City is based off of a grid and Temple Square is what it is based off of. IT is smack dab in the center of city. I took some pictures because it is absolutely breath taking at night. I work 50 feet from this building but though its gorgeous during the day its not nearly as gorgeous at night!! So...here are some pictures.




Well...All In all I suppose I had a great night but it is time for BED! YAY! Well just a few more days until Thanksgiving and a few days after that it will be my birthday so that means more pictures and more updates! be excited!

A few trips down memory lane

So...this weekend was about spending time with friends I haven't really seen in years. Friday night Amanda Davis -she kept her last name - and her husband Dane Stephens came to Salt Lake City and we went to The Pie and met up there. Amanda and I pretty much grew up together. We used to spend so much time together until her family moved to Albequerque early in our high school years. Here is a picture of us together. She shaved her head a few months ago but I think it looks kinda cool...
Saturday I drove down to Provo which is about 45 minutes away where I have some friends that go to BYU. So.. the thing in Utah to do is to put the letter of the city or whatever it is on the side of the mountain. You know how in Texas everywhere you go you see a water tower and it has the name of the city or the school? Well I have yet to see a water tower here. Instead they just slap a big initial on the mountain. It is actually really awesome to be driving and to see the initial from far off. It gets you pumped up! I will have to post a picture of the U on the mountain here (for university of Utah) but here are pictures of the Y for Brigham Young University (also known as "the school down south" here @ the U. They are our biggest rivals.)

And the U close upAnd a little further back.
I went to go see Steven Chalk and Tyler Freeman. I have barely seen them since they got off their missions. They took me grocery shopping with them...hmm.....not soemthing I usually do when my friends come to visit ME but ...whatever. It was fun. At least they didn't ask me to cook for them.....though oddly enough this picture was taken in the kitchen....hmmm....
While I was in Provo I got a call from my friend Mathew Haderlie who lived in Houston briefly for two years though he is from Idaho. He called because he wanted to come visit me in Salt Lake and he happened to be in Orem visiting his uncle at the time. Orem and Provo are about 5 minutes apart. It is like saying Kemah to South Shore (but with mountains). So he followed me to my apartment back in Salt Lake and we ate dinner and just talked for a bit before he headed back home to Idaho. Well that was a trip down memory lane filled weekend! Now I have to study for Calculus and Economics! YAY!!!! :( But seriously I do love going to school here and I enjoy learning. I am glad I am here! Go UTES!

My first blog...an update

Well this is my first post. It is designed for those of you who don't have myspace or facebook and can't keep up with me that way. Well I just wanted to let everyone know that I am doing well! I just landed a WONDERFUL part time job as a Portfolio Manager Associate at Key Bank. I work under Bill Wallace and with Brent Moore on the investment team on the 19th floor (out of 20)of the Key Bank tower in Downtown Salt Lake City. Man I hate riding that elevator every day! YIKES! We are moving buildings in the next few months because our building is being demolished! SAD! They are redoing like the center of downtown to make Temple Square prettier. So in a few months I will have to ride to the top floor of an even higher building...the 26th floor...even more YIKES! I guess I like my feet on the ground. I don't know how people like my dad and my Tia Mimi have ever worked in downtown everyday riding those elevators. The worst part is going down in my opinion though. haha. I am just being a baby. I haven't learned how to do too much yet but I have been very excited by what I have watched Brent and Bill do. Investment is SO EXCITING! I love my job and I have hardly been there a week! But I guess I felt the same way @ Texas First Bank. Man I miss those guys! : ( The good thing is that Bill and Brent are just about Key Bank's equivilant of Kurt and Matt (in that order) only WAY MORE RELAXED!!! There is not nearly as much stress put on them as Kurt and Matt have.

It has also been nice because I have seen my sister Marie what I feel to be a ton since I got here. She lives in Idaho about three hours away from me. She came down the first weekend of October. That is the picture that is posted above. Below is a picture of me and my friend Ally at the Utah vs. TCU game that Utah won (sorry Kurt!)


The Barn dance I went to was so much fun! I was skeptical about it but it turned out to be one of the best dates I have ever been on. It was fun to dance around and just to have fun. NO I am not dating him!! We went to the barn dance together and that is it. As far as dating is concerned I think I expended too much effort money and time to come up here, I really need to focus on SCHOOL AND MY GRADES first right now. I might date in about.......ten years. hahaha. Here are some pictures from the dance.

My sorority and their dates. I am on the far left. You can see my date's beltbuckle from Montana!
Below is a picture of me and my three roomates after a nice Italian roomate dinner. I try to get us to eat together once a month at least. We are all so busy but it's nice to enjoy time together every once in a while. From left to right are: Amber, Chelsea, Laura and of course yours truly.


I wish I could remember the date but it was the around October 25th ? that it really snowed for the first time. It snowed in September but it didn't stick to the ground like this one. This is a picture of the first real snow. That is right outside of the building I live in. Doesn't that look too pretty?!?! It was so much more beautiful in person! I am sure I will learn to hate snow but for now I love it. Of course all the snow melted about a day or two later and the mountains are green again but there are still lots of mountains with white at the tips.


Well I guess this is long enough. My plane ticket home was purchased today so I will be going home Dec 24th- Jan 1st! YAY! School starts again the week after that. Well I guess that is all for now. I miss everyone but I really like it here. I have gotten over the homesickness and I am ready to be here for the next few years. I think I might even get my masters here instead of in Texas. We shall see....