...Where did September go?

Man, I feel like we just got back to Provo and that everything is getting under way. In reality, we've been back for nearly two months and we've fallen into a great routine. (I love schedules and routines; I just feel better knowing what I have to do and when I have to do it.)
This week's excursions went well! I got a 91% on my Elang test--gotta love that. I believe I did fairly well on my Spanish test but I won't find out that score until Wednesday when my professor comes back from vacation. The girl at the Testing Center told me I was the first person to take the Spanish test--I thought that was pretty cool. I'm not a procrastinator (when it comes to tests, anyway) but I never imagined I'd be the first in a class to take one. So there I go! My Jane Austen paper and criticism notebook were both handed in on Friday...the school life ended well this week. Let's hope this week will be just as good or even better!
On Monday night we went to the Holden's apartment to celebrate Steve's birthday. Britney made some ridiculously good angel food ice cream cake and we loved it. And as always, the laughs never cease when we are all together!
Don't the cakes look amazing? Good job Brit!
Steve is making his wish...
The Stapley's
The Lee's
The Killion's
On Friday night, the Lee's stopped by and naturally, we made a Beto's run. Chris says that's one of the things he missed about being here in Provo. But now we're back and we can enjoy it once more! For those of you who are unfamiliar with Beto's, it's a fast-food Mexican restaurant (I use the term "restaurant" loosely here). It's kinda sketchy inside, but MAN are the burritos AMAZING! Chris will get a cheese, potato, bacon, and egg burrito and they are to die for! I'll sometimes get one of those, but this time I got a bean and cheese--also very tasty. Beto's is known for their midnight visits by the college students; a lot of people go at midnight on Sunday, so it's technically Monday night haha.
Saturday was great because it was full of football and full of spirit! We girls (Britney, Brianna, Adri, me) got together at Bri's stake center to watch the General Relief Society Broadcast because they had a humanitarian project and dinner before the broadcast (okay, let's be honest--we went for the food ;D). We had a terrific time and all the speakers were wonderful. Afterwards, we went back to the Holden's where we glorified in all the top 10 upsets...and BYU's current #8 ranking!
Today was also a fantastic day; we had our home teachers over for the very first time and they are really cool. My visiting teachers also stopped by and I can tell that we will have some good times. We topped the night by going to Molly Adams's house in Lehi for dinner. Chris and I ran into Carrie and her husband yesterday and they invited us over for today's dinner. GREAT food, GREAT people. It was essentially a Linwood fest, with some Cape May flavor provided by Chris and me haha. We had a marvelous time being with the Jersey crowd.
I decided it was time for a haircut (see previous picture above). When it gets too long, it gets too heavy; since my hair is so fine, heavy just doesn't work. So I went to Paul Mitchell where I had my girl Britney Smith, formerly of Moorestown, take care of my problem. What do you think? :)
We are looking forward to General Conference this weekend--we will be up in Clearfield visiting Aunt Tawna and Uncle Dan, in addition to going to the Saturday morning session with our friends, the Chaffin's. Have a wonderful week!

Week Tres

We all know that the week drags on and the weekend flies by way too fast.
This weekend was no exception. Friday night, we had my great friend Ashley Walters come over with her boyfriend, Chris Jensen. We watched Stay Alive--pretty freaky! It was a good story and thankfully, it wasn't cheesy. On Saturday, Chris and I had the Lee's and Brianna over to watch the BYU Cougars KILL the Wyoming Cowboys, 44-0. (Steve was feeling under the weather and used the game time to get some sleep!) The boys ran to Macey's during halftime and brought us some snacks for the second half. The game was phenomenal; there is nothing better than watching your team in its glory.
Later that night, we met up with our Texas friends, Rob and Jamie. (We were in the PG 1st ward in TX together and they moved to American Fork a month before we came up to Provo!) We went to a busy Applebee's for dinner; after we left Applebee's, we were good to go to Trafalga in Orem. Trafalga is a combination of mini golf (indoor and outdoor), go-karts, batting cages, arcade, etc. They have a date package that includes everything I just mentioned, plus some Dippin' Dots, so we went ahead and bought it! We did the indoor mini golf course, which was pretty spectacular--everything glow-in-the-dark. The go-karts were so much fun--Chris must have sped past me five times; apparently I was going slow! haha Unfortunately, only two of the seven batting cages were working, and the line for those two cages were long. Instead, we went to the arcade and asked if we could substitute tokens for the cages. The answer was yes so we went to work! I won the jackpot on one of the games and I got 549 tickets in one shot! Chris loved the basketball game and did very well with it! The Chaffin's got a lot of tickets too, and they were kind enough to give them to us. We ended up getting a baby Big Bird for Liz's room (most of the other prizes were kind of boring). We all then enjoyed our Dippin' Dots. What a great night!Today was a very happy day in the Killion household. In addition to a wonderful morning at church, both the Eagles and the Broncos won this afternoon! (Eagles beat Steelers, 15-6; Broncos beat Saints, 34-32.)
This week is busy: two exams, Spanish speaking lab, Jane Austen paper...keeps me going! We love you and miss you and we hope you have an awesome week!

What a week in Provo!

School is great. I'm enjoying what I'm learning and I hope that continues! I don't know what else to say about it, besides the fact that it is going well...but if you're interested in English Grammar or Jane Austen, etc., I'd be happy to tell you about it ;)
This weekend was awesome. On Friday night, Chris and I went to the Utah State Fair, as a tribute to our very first date! This is us, two years ago, after our first date to the Fair...
And this was us on Friday night!Even though I couldn't go on any rides (for the obvious reason), we still had a great time. We watched an illusionist show, checked out some huge anacondas/boa constrictors, and looked at art and photography displays. We even ate an elephant ear (fry bread) and Chris won me a teddy bear. As we were leaving, we stopped by some vendors, and we found the cutest sundress for Liz, which was made in Ecuador! It will be perfect for summer time...maybe it will get an appearance in North Wildwood this upcoming summer (we hope, we hope!).
Saturday was busy as usual, but I wouldn't have it any other way. President Sikahema is THE man who got us tickets for the BYU vs. UCLA game. He even invited us into the Cougar Club, where he was a guest speaker. We then grabbed some food and headed up to our seats, where we watched UCLA absolutely crumble underneath BYU and where they lost 59-0 (worst loss for UCLA since 1929). It was SO hot outside, but it was a great game! BYU should gain some more respect for this win, and we should move up in the AP Poll...we shall see tomorrow. After the game, President Sikahema treated a group of us to dinner at the Pizza Factory. We had quite a crowd there and we had a marvelous time.
I have a new calling in our ward--I'm the Service Coordinator. We have a lot of activities coming up in the Stake, including a Free for All (bring things you don't use anymore to give away to someone who will use them) and a Blood Drive, so I'm helping out at those and I'll be getting people to volunteer, too. I'm excited for it because it will help me to get to know more people in the ward. :)
Well, that's all from here. Hope to hear from you soon. I'll talk to you next week!

A Rant on Complaints of Pregnancy Weight Gain

Okay. This has been on my mind the past two days, in between my mind concentrating on class/homework.
I'm pregnant, right? Yes. Have I gained weight? Uh YEAH--I'm supposed to. Do I know how much I have gained so far? HECK no! Why? Well, I've gained five pounds and I am absolutely devastated about it! ...Why?
What bothers me is when I hear other pregnant women (usually early in their first trimester) crying to their little friends, complaining about their "weight gain." Usually these women are sticks to begin with. They've been a size 0 their entire lives and they just can't handle "getting fat"!! It's not fat; it's PREGNANCY!
I will readily admit that I was somewhat dismayed when I noticed that my shorts were getting tighter and my shirts weren't fitting right. Chris and I talked about it (one day when I stupidly decided to be depressed about it) and you know what, there's a SECOND person inside of me. She needs to eat and to grow, and the only way that happens for her is when my body eats and grows for her. I'm going to gain weight! I'm going to get bigger! That's life! And I should enjoy it.
And I have enjoyed it. I don't go out and eat ten boxes of doughnuts every morning, followed by five racks of BBQ ribs for lunch and 2 large pizzas for dinner--but I eat when Liz is hungry and I stop when she's full. I have gained weight and will continue to gain weight as my daughter grows. So will you, if you are pregnant. Big whoop--get on with your life, aka STOP BEING SELFISH, and get to love that little person inside of you.
I had to laugh out loud when I came across a friend telling another pregnant friend, "Oh I hear you eat more when you have a boy and less if you have a girl. Let's hope it's a girl!" What a bunch of BOLOGNA. You're going to eat more no matter what you have. YOU ARE GOING TO EAT MORE NO MATTER WHAT YOU HAVE. Accept that and move on.
I already know my body won't be the same after Liz enters the world. I wasn't a size 0 before pregnancy anyway, so who cares? I don't necessarily think about that all the time, but is that going to be the focus of my life once she is born--to get the extra weight off as soon as humanly possible, to look good for everyone who sees me? NO! My daughter is going to be the focus of my life, first and foremost! Now I keep and will continue to keep myself healthy for her, but healthy and skinny are not synonyms. And they never will be.
So if you're a pregnant friend of mine, don't COMPLAIN to me about your weight gain. Laugh about it and love it for the present time. It's for your child, not for you.

First Week-Finished!

This past week included the first four days of school, all of which were awesome. I LOVE my classes: English Language 325 (The Grammar of English); English 350 (The Bible as Literature); English 384R (studying Jane Austen); English 495 (the Senior Course-Twain and James in America); and Spanish 326 (Spanish Phonetics and Pronunciation). I have friends in every class and that makes every class better. It's a lot of reading, but I knew to expect that coming into it--this is an English major, after all! I got a little nervous after the first two days of school, just worried about doing these classes while having Liz bouncing around my middle, but Chris gave me a blessing and I feel better again. It's refreshing to be back on campus amongst the other 30,000 students.
This weekend was great! Friday night we went to the Holden's for a Murder Mystery Party and dinner and we all had a blast. The "murder" took place in Cottonwood, CO in 1984. Chris played the part of a bodyguard who was secretly a KGB agent, while I played a flight attendant, who in reality was an FBI agent. We had a wonderful time with our friends: the Stapley's, the Holden's, and the Lee's. This is everyone in character:
Chris: Roberto Martine. Mary: Tiffany Enderly.
Yesterday was jammed packed: we began our afternoon at the Holden's again, this time to watch the BYU-Washington game. We won 28-27 and we were on the edge of our seats for a good part of the "controversial" game. From there, we went to my freshman ward reunion at Kiwanis Park. It was so much fun to see all the boys back from their missions, all the girls married with their husbands, and the few babies and babies-to-be in attendance. I loved my freshman ward immensely! After the reunion, Chris and I headed over to our stake center for the adult session of Stake Conference.
And we went to Stake Conference this morning--ours was a regional broadcast seen by 135 stakes in Utah and Wasatch Counties. It was broadcast from the Marriott Center--two of our speakers were President Boyd K. Packer and President Dieter F. Uchtdorf! I loved their talks and the messages they had for us. Tonight is a CES Fireside, also being broadcast from the Marriott Center, and Elder Jeffrey R. Holland is speaking! I love Sundays! This is me before Conference this morning: 26 weeks along.

Well, that's all from this end of the country. I hope you all have a good week and that you out in the East remain safe and dry in the midst of those tropical storms/hurricanes. Love you!