Lots has been happening since I last posted. I got back to Provo from the Christmas Break on the fourth of January just in time for classes to start on the fifth! haha When I first started the semester I didn't think that it was going to be too hard, but now I realize that it may just be more work than I bargained for! My first week of school I had a test in Latin, I had two tests today alone, one in Latin and another in World Civ. Which would have been fine but my World Civ. test could have gone a whole lot better. It was an essay exam, which is fine except for I'm like the most verbose person known to man and I only had an hour to do it in, and when the TA's said that they were looking for detail and not generalizations, that's what I tried to give them. And I succeeded with two of the civilizations I was discussing, the only problem was that I was supposed to talk about four but ran out of time after the first two and had to leave it at generalizations as far as the last two were concerned. At the review session that I went to the TA's said that the average length of a paper is four to five pages! Oh, my gosh! When I talked to my roommmate Michelle about it she said that tests such as that are usually given in the testing center and that you would have to write really fast to crank out a four to five page essay in an hour. So that makes me feel marginally better about it but I still don't think I did very well at all. Matty was there for me, supportive as usual, although he mentioned that he didn't particularly like the fact that I worry so much and beat myself up over stuff that I can't change.
Which, by the way news there, even though I'm sure everyone who reads this is already aware, because I told Mom, and let's face it half of the United States probably knows by now! (haha love ya' Mom!) Matty and I have officially started dating. We had been getting closer just before we left Provo for the Christmas Break, and while we were gone we talked every night on the phone. The night I got back to Provo, he came over to visit, and I basically saw him everyday after. I introduced him to the comic genius that is Nacho Libre (XxOoXOxoXoxO haha) and he liked it, or at least didn't think it was utterly stupid like most people, which made me happy. Everyone could basically see me falling for him but myself. Earlier in the month my roommate Aurie said to me "The only one who can't see how crazy you are about him is you!" A few days later I got a taste of what it was like to go a day without seeing him, which I hadn't done in at least a month, and I have to say that I really didn't care for it. So after a bit more waffling on my part I realized that he's my best friend, he's sweet to me, and has been so patient because he's known what he wanted since at least November-December time frame but he's stuck with me through my indecision, he even told me that if I wanted him to stop liking me that he would because in the end he really just wanted me to be happy, he cares more about me and what I want than himseld and I finally admitted to myself how I felt and then of course I let him know. Today he took me out on a date, and as we were sitting at dinner he said to me "You know how they say you can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink?" "What they don't tell you is that you can salt the horse's oats." Apparently, that day that I had to go without seeing him was planned, he was "salting my oats", trying to get me to realize how much I hated not seeing him. His plan worked.
Last Saturday I got to go to the open house of the Draper Temple. My roommate Jessica's family had bought tickets for ten and they were going to drive out here from CO to go, but the weather was too bad and they couldn't make the trip. So Jessica invited Matt and I to tag along with her and Ben. It was so beautiful in there! We got to go into the sealing room which is something we didn't have the opportunity to do at the open house for the Nauvoo temple, and it was really cool to look into the mirrors and see them reflect back and forth forever. It was so peaceful in there as well.
Well that's about it for updates on this kid!
P.S. Wanda and Hannah I'm learning a new routine in my tap dance class and will totally have to teach you guys! It's fun.

L: My New Years Eve Challenge.

R: Emily and I getting ready for the slide on Monday.

Monday, I was sitting around with Desi, and I mentioned to her that Matty was going to Jack-in-the-Box because I had been pestering him to go because they have those in Houston and he'd never really been because he was one of those anti-Jack people because of the whole food poisoning thing a few years back (turns out that he doesn't particularly care for it anyway, and he also prefers Cafe Rio which is like half as good and twice as expensive to Chipotle! What am I going to do with that boy! haha). Well, at that point Desi and I decided that some Jack sounded pretty darn good so we drove about a half hour to get some. After that we took Emily to the park and let her run around for a little bit before going back to the house and running some errands.

So a few weeks ago, I was saying something to my roommate Jessica about how I'm terrible because I constantly sleep with my contacts in even though you aren't supposed to and it's really bad for your eyes. Well at that point Aurie (another roommate) overheard me and said that I really shouldn't do that and told me about how she had done that for a long time but then developed an astigamatism because of it and wasn't allowed to wear contacts for a year! Needless to say I've been trying to be better about removing my contacts before I go to bed at night and since, I've noticed that when I do happen to fall asleep with them in my eyes are always irritated the next day. Well, Monday night I was up really late and completely forgot to take my contacts out before bed! So Tuesday when I woke up my eye was a little dry and irritated and a bit pink so I took my contacts out to give my eyes a little time to breath. I spent the better part of Tuesday blind except for like maybe an hour when I went to get dinner at Chipotle for everyone and while we ate. And then I took them right back out. But, Tuesday night as I was talking to Matty on the phone my eye just started to burn and water like crazy and I couldn't figure out what was going on. I slept through the night but when I woke up Yesterday my eye was still just burning and watering like nobody's business and it wasn't just a little pink it was red. I immediately thought of Aurie and had this little freak out inside my head about how maybe I had an astigmatism. I spent the better part of the morning just trying to relax and praying that my eye would just get better. At around 11:30-12 ish Desi told me that I might walk down to King Soopers and purchase some eye drops so that is exactly what I did. I borrowed Desi's sunglasses and trekked down there and as I'm standing in the grocery store I can only imagine that I must look like the biggest crack addict or something of that nature as I'm standing there with shades on in the middle of the store with one eye bright red and leaking and I'm looking at eye drops. haha But I bought some and went back to Desi's and Mike's and had Desi help me put them in and thankfully they did the trick! Rather immediately actually.

For the past few days Desi and Mike have been getting this notification in their mailbox that there was a parcel waiting for someone with the last name Bainbridge down at the post office. Well the most recent notification said that the parcel was specifically for me. Now, I must say that I'm a little perplexed by this because I haven't ordered anything online recently without having switched the shipping address to my apt. in Provo and even if by some chance I missed switching the address over I just ordered the stuff on Monday so it wouldn't be getting her by now. I can't figure why any member of my family would be sending me something because Desi and Mike had me for Christmas this year and I spent Christmas with them and they already gave me my gift. Also, none of my family members have menthioned anything about sending me a package. But, no one outside of my family would have known to send me a package at this address. So I don't know who/where this package is from, why they're sending it to me, or what it is! I guess the only way to know is to pick it up and find out, but when we went to do that yesterday the post office had already closed early.

Last night Desi and Mike had people over for New Years Eve. Seth and Lexy Ludwig and their little girl Hannah and then Val and Nathan along with Lucas and Bridgette showed up. It was pretty enjoyable. We had burgers for dinner (grilling on New Years Eve!) and then played Would You Rather? I ended up on a challenge space and had a do it challenge, one of my options was go through two full player turn with a spoon in your mouth, it didn't sound too hard so that's what I chose. haha Desi tells me "OK go get your spoon, wait.....I'll get it!" so I'm sitting there waiting for my spoon when Desi walks back in with this huge metal serving spoon. Of course, I can't back down so I have to shove this thing into my mouth and just sit there while they continue to play the game. Everyone was laughing, including myself, but the bad part was that because I'd been laughing so hard and because I had the challenge of forcing something twice the size of my mouth into my mouth I had all this excess saliva that was just pooling in my mouth and then eventually began to dribble out of my mouth and down the handle of the spoon! It was so gross!!! And then to make matters worse, the game practically stopped because someone else hit a challenge space and had to perform their challenge. Fun times right! haha

Today, I've just been trying to figure out how I'm going to get all my stuff back to Provo. Let me tell you what it's looking like it might be a bit of a challenge.