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My Roommate pointed this passage out to me in about January.  It is from Jane Austen’s Sense & Sensibility (my favorite Jane Austen!)

“'A woman of seven-and-twenty," said Marianne, after pausing a moment, "can never hope to feel or inspire affection again, and if her home be uncomfortable, or her fortune small, I can suppose that she might bring herself to submit to the offices of a nurse, for the sake of the provision and security of a wife.’”

We both had a good chuckle over that as sometimes it seems that, even now, people view my life that way.  But I can tell you that each year is more rewarding than the last. 

This year my friends threw me the wonderful surprise party.  Yes, you can believe your eyes, that is the Costco food court!

LauriAnn told me that she had forgotten to ask someone to get the cake and then figured I might as well pick out my own.  So we waltzed right into Costco and my oblivion was definitely on surprise’s side. 

After we picked out the cake, we went to check out (yes, right in front of food court.  Did I notice the balloons? Not a chance!) At the checkout stand LauriAnn said that she needed to talk to Cindy.  Well, Cindy came right over and paid for our cake.  My thought was, “These Costco people really are amazing!  They even buy their members birthday cakes!”  Little did I know!

And then we were off.  LauriAnn literally had to shove me in the food court as I would have walked right by.  Yes, I missed the balloons, the long table of all my friends and the party hats! 

This is Cindy. : ) She was so cute.  She just kept saying, “We’re gonna get this in the newsletter!”  I hope, for her, we made it!

LauriAnn has been such a good friend.  Her birthday was just the week before and all I did was get everyone together for dinner.  She outshined me, but it rocked my world! 

In this picture we were supposed to look awkward! Nailed it!

And then there was this. So Justin told me he had some stuff to do so he couldn’t come to the afore mentioned dinner the night before my birthday. His work, I later found out, was setting up this -

So the day of my birthday Justin came over and made me lunch.  Then we hopped in the car because “we” had an appointment we had to make.  Well, we pulled into this kinda shady strip mall and Justin turns to me and simply says, “Get out.” Uh… What?  He seems extra patient and says it again.  When I still hesitate he finally says, “Alycen, you’re gonna be late for you massage.”  Oh that boy. :) So I walk into this spa and there the nicest lady is waiting for me.  She then tells me that Justin came in earlier and organized the whole thing.  I was getting the whole works, which included: full body massage, hot stone therapy massage, facial, paraffin wax on both feet and hands!  Needless to say, it was A-MAZ-ING! It took over 2 1/2 hours! By the time I was done, it was getting pretty dark, but there was my chariot, just waiting for me.  So we drove up to his house, but to my surprise we didn’t stop there.  By nature of what Justin does, he has access to a lot of private land, so after going through a couple of gated communities and winding down an ever narrowing road, we eventually saw lights glowing in the distance.  At this point I asked, “Well, how do those people get to their house?” Justin just smiled and as we got closer I realized it was a pavilion with all these tea lights and a fire blazing in the middle!  Holy Crap!  Who is this guy, right?

He had cleverly stalked my pintrest and found that I had a recipe for chicken cordon bleu.  So he found what he thought was a better recipe and made the whole works!  Then we just watched the fire go out, well and smooched a great deal too!  Now, I’ve dated a few guys in my day.  And some of them were, what I thought, quite romantic, but I’ll tell ya what, nobody holds a candle to non-member boy.  They actually have to put in effort. 

Thanks Justin and LauriAnn for really making me feel special!

February

So I’ve picked up sewing… this was my attempt at making my own pattern…  Fake it til ya make it right?

So I started dating this boy… Justin Zornes. Rugged, bearded, and took me dancing.  He’s so sweet.

Then LauriAnn had a birthday.  Don’t blame her, she’s a little crazy, but that’s why we love her so much.

Now there is a story I must tell you.  It all began one fateful night last October.  A co-worker gave me a cheesecake that she had meant to take to an event but forgot.  So I took it to girls night.  Well as the night was wrapping up, I was trying to sneak out without taking the remaining slices of cheesecake with me (I don’t need those temptations!).  Well, this wasn’t the first time I’d done that, so LauriAnn was only a half step behind me and ran to my car and put in under my windshield so I would have to take it, but I couldn’t let it end that easily.  So I left it on her doorstep.  Well much to my surprise, when I woke the next morning, it was on MY doorstep.  So here the battle really began.  So since I had lived with LauriAnn I still had a key to their house, so that night I quietly delivered that package back onto their kitchen counter. (so sneaky!)  Two days later after a wonderful Sunday night dinner at her house, I went to my car to find that the cheesecake was in the driver’s seat and my house key had been revoked while I was socializing!  So I placed it in front of the garage in hopes that LauriAnn would run it over in the morning when she left for work.  Alas that didn’t work and it found its way in my BED later that week!  So this is where we started to get creative.  LauriAnn’s sister was getting married in the Tri-Cities and I knew she would be leaving that Wednesday after work.  Well, I happen to work an hour later than LauriAnn and her roomies, so to my pleasant surprise and success, I was able to sneak in the back door after they had all gone to work and to my further success, LauriAnn had already started to pack, so I gently placed the well sealed cheesecake in the bottom of her bag and covered it with the things she had already packed.  IT WORKED!!!!!  She was getting ready for bed that night in the Tri-Cities when she found it!!!!!  She said she screamed she was so “mad”. 

Well, through the crazy of the weekend, she forgot it at her sister’s house and I thought it was all over, until one day… So I very rarely get mail and even more rarely do I get mail.  So how excited was I when there was a package waiting for me in my room.  Until I noticed it said it was from:

Alice

Eat me lane

Wonderland USA

Oh ya, I knew what was in it!  

Well, so I waited for a few weeks and the next time we went to dinner, I had the server bring it out to us for dessert (luckily by this point it was taped shut and covered in a plastic so no diseases!).  Then LauriAnn solicited one of our jolliest friends to dress up as Santa Clause and bring me a “special” package at our ward Christmas dinner.  That was embarrassing! 

So the next step took a while to put into action.  First of all I had to keep it long enough that she didn’t expect a thing.  So I waited until after her b-day.  I even gave her a fresh cheese cake to make her feel like we had put it behind us.  Then I worked my connections.  It just so happened that my boss’s father in law worked at the state hospital where LauriAnn is a social worker.  So I wrapped that puppy up to look pretty as a picture and I trusted it to the hands of Bob.  When the package was delivered LauriAnn received a message there was a package for her from the forensic unit (so the real crazies! ) She was so worried to open it.  She said she worried it might be fingers or something!  She went down to the attorney’s office to have a witness and what did she find, but a 8 month old cheesecake!!!!!!!!  (insert evil laugh).  Well, at this point (I’m writing this blog the end of July, 3 days before my departure) there is no update, but I’m pretty sure I’ll find it somewhere in Idaho!

January 2013

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Well, now lets see, January.  January 2013 was a good month. There was friend time, including amazing dinner at Ferrante’s (amazing cajun chicken pasta!) and a regional YSA activity with broomball (the classic, less dangerous version of hockey.) I was also able to go home to see the family.  It didn’t go as well as expected because I happened to get a bladder infection while I was there and it made me so tired and not at all fun, but it was good to see everyone.  I got to play in the snow with Connor and Cambree.  Cambree is what I would call mischievous, which makes me so excited for when she’s older and we can pull all sorts of pranks on her mom!