Oops on First Generation Photo

In my "First Generation Roommates" post, I said that the last time we got together was in April '08. I knew there was one other time we all got together, but in the excitement of everything I couldn't remember when it was we got together. So...

For really real, the last time the four of us got together was June '08.
We had breakfast and played our favorite (or not so... LOL) game: Ticket To Ride
It was so much fun :)
Good times, my friends. Good times!

Third of Three Generations

The last set of roommates I had moved in months apart from each other. The first one to move in was Ashley.

She moved in during the second week of Sept. '08
(This picture was taken Oct. '08)

Due to the landlord's renovating the single bedroom, it was just the two of us thru the holidays. During the 'snow' season, we made these snowmen. It took a lot of time - the snow was very wet and heavy. But we had a lot of fun making them. We'd often go on walks and try to knock the other person down in the snow.

Ren is in the back, Stumpy in the front

In Feb. '09 Natalie moved in.
(This picture was taken in July '09)

In April, Ashley and I celebrated our birthdays together (they are 3 days apart).
It was fun. We had sloppy joes and tater-tot 'cake'. As you can see in the picture, the cake really turned out to be a mound of tots. We used the toothpicks to try to get the shape of a cake, but it didn't work ;) Luckily, it still tasted super yummy!

July '09 was the only time the three of us were home long enough together to get this picture taken.

In August '09, while I was on a trip to Wyoming, Ashley moved back home. Natalie also moved back home shortly thereafter. I have been by myself ever since (and absolutely LOVE it!).

Living with these two was, in some ways, more of a challenge than living with Seini and Amber. I discovered what it would be like to live with myself - one of them reminded me of myself way too much. It was a struggle most days to not fight with her. We did have our great times and good laughs, but it was not as frequent as I would have liked.

Points of Interest:

• One was from North Carolina, two from Alpine
• One worked at a school, one worked at River Woods Senior Living, one was a hair stylist
• One was 20, one was 22, one was 29
• One had gone to school for her pilot's license
• We all had strong personalities and sometimes found it a challenge to be understanding of each others' difficulties
  

2010 update:

• One still lives by herself :)
• One has passed away (Dec. 20, '09)
• There is really not a lot of contact between myself and the other one since she moved

As I was typing up these posts, I realized that I maybe should have done them on the same day. It seemed to me that with each group I did, I lost a little of what I had intended... or maybe I did what I was supposed to have done/said about each 'generation'. Who knows.

This I do know: I have learned things from each group that I could not have learned from any other circumstance. There were unhappy times, but many more happy times and good memories that have come from each experience. I have been blessed to know so many good people and have grown so much since knowing them. I am grateful for the opportunity I have now to be living by myself. I am not really looking forward to any new roommates (especially if they're 10 years younger than me!), but I trust that God knows best and if/when someone moves in, then it's supposed to be. Until then, I will continue enjoying my time ;)

Second of Three Generations

In November of 2007, I got two new roommates. Little did I know how my life would change (ha).

• We all were in education of sorts.
• Two worked at a school, and one was going to school
• One was 28, one 19, and one 18
• Two from Alpine, one from Cedar Hills

Left to Right: Seini, Amber, Klara (me)

We did many fun things together. We played in the snow, had a 'sleepover' party in the living room (let me tell you how uncomfortable the floor is LOL) for Christmas, celebrated birthdays (I tried to keep some traditions alive), and laughed a lot.

Dec. '07

For Easter '08 we decided to take 'new' pictures. We came home from church and took some pics, then changed and went out walking.

We ended up being at Moyle Park and took some more pictures

As I mentioned before, the experience of being with these two changed my life. We had many, many good times and lots of fun; but I also feared for life - not only for myself, but for them too. We each had very strong personalities, and being such, there were times of yelling and hating. Many nights of staying up late talking, many tears shed and feelings hurt.

Don't get me wrong, I love them both and I know they loved me back, but it was SO very different than living with Allison, Kali, and Erin. Lots of tension and stress. It really wore me down, not only physically, but emotionally. However, I am grateful for the opportunity I had to live with them. It was a good way for me to experience a touch of what I may encounter (tho I pray I don't) when I have my own children. It also helped me realize what I may have put other people thru while I was growing up and making bad choices.

Luckily, I like to stay focused on the positive things that happened (they had a surprise birthday party for me... balloons all over the floor, cake, full on party decorations and everything!) and remembering all the good times we had.

2010 update:

• One still lives in Alpine
• One moves around a lot
• One lives in Orem
• Sadly, we don't keep in contact with each other much

First of Three Generations

Finally, I have organized my photos enough that I can do three posts which I have been wanting to do for a long time... my "Three Generations of Roommates". For the next two days (in addition to today) I will be posting about all the roommates I've had (but will only be sharing a few photos of each group). This should be a fun 'memory lane' activity for me ;) Here we go:

In August 2006, the four of us met.

• We all were in the 'education' system in one way or another. Two were teachers, one was going to school, and one worked at a school.
• Two of us were 27 and two were 24.
• One was from Utah, one from Arizona, one from Washington, and one from Nevada
• None of us knew each other before we met, but everyone thought that we did!

This was the first roommate picture we got.
We had lots of good times together!

From left to right: Klara (me), Allison, Erin, Kali

We decided to go out to dinner for each of our birthdays. We went to: Carrabba's, Olive Garden, California Pizza Kitchen, and Applebee's.

Kali hosted a Mystery Murder Dinner around Halloween. SO much fun!!

We cut down our own tree for Christmas. It was hard to find the 'perfect' one, but it was so fun cutting it down and putting it up/decorating it at home. We found pine needles in the carpet for months after. LOL.

There were so many fun things we did, and so many good memories we made. Lots of laughing and being silly.

Allison decided to get married... (summer '07)

This is the last time the four of us got together, April '08
Some things didn't change.. we are all still just as crazy as ever! and we love it!!

2010 updates:

• Three of us are teachers now, and the other one still works at a school
• We all live in Utah... one in Alpine, one in Highland, one in P.G. and one in St. George
• To my knowledge, we all somewhat keep in contact with each other - or at least we try.

Since this was my first experience living with roommates, I didn't know what to expect when it happened. Much to my relief, it was awesome! We had some sore spots, but that's to be expected. The good times WAY outweighed the bad! I loved meeting these three and getting to know them. They are great friends and I consider my life blessed because of them :)

Thanks, you guys, for a great time!! Love you!

"Catch Up" Post (hopefully I don't miss anything)

I think I am able to do a 'catch up' post today... I uploaded all the photos yesterday (being the 5th... I don't know what day this will post as. LOL), and will finish the post today.

On the 5th of December, I was invited to Stacey's birthday dinner at Pirate Island. I love going there, the atmosphere is awesome and the food is pretty good too :) Stacey got this balloon parrot and named it Pinky.

Logan also got a balloon parrot, but I can't remember what he got named... Sorry... :(


On the 14th of December, I was invited to the Jazz/Timberwolves game up at the (Delta Center) Energy Solutions Arena or whatever it's called now. LOL. My friend won some tickets at her work party, so we sat pretty close to the floor, behind the Jazz bench. It was fun. We got to have dinner in the Sponsor's room before the game, then at half time we got to get nachos and popcorn! So much fun!!
Also attending the game was another teacher from the school, Ann Mitchell. We found each other and waved. Sitting behind us were a couple people (father and son) who knew another teacher that works here; the dad is a fiance of the sister of the teacher. Also sitting behind us were a couple of boys and one of them was most definitely 'special' (gay) and it was funny the stuff he was saying; sadly, things that I cannot repeat here. But it was still funny.

The Jazz lost the game by 2 points. Very sad they lost, but it was a good game. Intense to watch. My aunt said that no game was worth watching unless the score was over 100. The scores were over 100... so it was a good game :)


On Dec. 19 the Oliverson's had a party celebrating everybody's birthdays for the year. It was held in the gym at my house - It's hard being host to such a large party. I tried to get pictures of everyone, but there were some I missed (sorry) and I'll try to get other pictures.

Here are three of my four aunts: June, Vicky, and LeeAnn

My dad and his brothers, Jeff, Kim, and Mike

Jake and Jarren slam dunking the ball

My nephew decided it would be fun to let all the balloons go off the walls, my uncles made a game out of trying to get them down. They used a pole they found, attached a fork, and put tape on the fork to try to get the string.

After some attempts, success was reached! A joke was pulled, and the balloons had to be fetched again. It was so funny! I love my family :)

Me and Aunt Pam. Notice our earrings... flashing Christmas light bulbs!

Here's Pam's fiance (at the bottom of the picture, next to grandma's head. haha), Wanda, and cousins Aaron and Megan

Jarren and Chloe had a fun time playing with each other

On Dec. 24 we got together for the Huxhold Family Christmas party. We always meet at my uncle's house - this year, we broke in his new house :) We always have so much fun!

Here's most of the family (that was there) getting ready for dinner

This is the only way Jarren would get a picture with me. He looks like his daddy

And he looks like his mommy

We exchanged fleece blankets this year. Warm and cozy!

Christmas morning, all the kids (and their families) came to Mom and Dad's house. We opened presents starting with the youngest and working our way up. Chloe was excited to see what gifts she got!

Jarren was next. He was very cute to watch open his gifts. So fun seeing how excited these kids get to open their stuff. Melts my heart :)

The rest of the order: Casey, Ed, Crystal, Kati, Robert, Jess, Jake, Mindy, Me, Jamie, Mom, then Dad.

After presents, we all played Rock Band, Guitar Hero 5, and Band Hero. It was a lot of fun! We even got Mom to sing a song :)

I got lots of awesome gifts, but being a HUGE Star Wars fan, I had to post a picture of this one...

December 30 my singles ward went up to the Salt Lake Temple. I invited my cousins Aaron and James (different Aaron than mentioned before) to come with us. Here's a pic of us just outside the temple gates. It was fun getting to spend the evening with them.

Close up on James, Aaron, and myself

Our group went to dinner afterwards (13 of us) and we had a very enjoyable time. We drove from Salt Lake down to Orem so Aaron and James could get their 'sleep over' stuff then we went back to my house and watched a movie. It was fun to hang out with them.

New Years Eve was a lot of fun. We played many many games and had good times laughing and eating food. I love my family parties!!

This year we played games including:
Trivial Pursuit 90's

Skip Bo

A game we call "Oh Heck"

We also played Boggle and Mad Gab

With the start of the new year, I have decided to go back to my home ward instead of staying in the singles ward. I felt like my life was in a rut, so instead of sitting and waiting for something to happen, I took some action. I didn't get a 'no' response about it, so I went with it. It is going to take me a few weeks to get used to being there again... it's been 7 or 8 years maybe since I'd been there. I will miss the people in the singles ward, the bishop told me I'm still invited to EVERYTHING!! :) Leaving the singles ward means that they will be stressed out with no organist. I have been playing the organ for them since I've been in the ward. They've called someone to the position and I gave him pointers about playing the organ. I know he'll be great at it! Replacing me as a teacher in Relief Society is not so much a huge deal, but the president tried to get me to say 'ok' to coming once a month to teach.
It's strange to know that people don't want me to leave... it's also strange to know that my home ward will be 'fighting' over where to put me. I've been told by people that I would be a huge asset in any of the organizations; from Primary to Relief Society with Young Women's in the middle ;) We'll see where God needs me to be and what I'll be doing. I'm sure wherever it is will be fun.
Until next time...

Before Everything Else...

So, I know I need to 'catch up' my blog... but I need to first and foremost give thanks to God for the little miracles in my life. Here's the story:

I had lost my school name badge with my magnetic door key before Christmas break in Dec. I'd had it on Monday, 21st (because I had used it), but I did not have it on the 22nd. I didn't think too much of it because I thought maybe it had fallen inside a bag with all the gifts I'd gotten at school. Over the course of the break, I went through all the bags and boxes and didn't find my badge. I started looking all over my house to find it. I checked all the places it normally might be, I checked in my truck, I checked all my coat pockets, I called anybody who may have come in contact with my name badge (i.e. if I got a ride in their vehicle at any point). I could not find it.

I had actually thought I hadn't seen it since the previous Friday (18th), so I called lots of people to look for my badge. When I came to work yesterday, I asked the principal to check the log of door keys to see when mine was used last. He told me Monday around 1, so I had it narrowed down to having lost it Monday after school. I backtracked to all the places I'd been Monday and couldn't find it.

I had prayed long and hard multiple times to find my badge (for school security reasons... having the door key lost too). I continued to search for it with no success. I came for play practice this morning, came into the office, and started getting things out of my bag (which I had searched at least twice a day - every pocket, nook, and cranny), and there was my name badge!! I had resigned myself yesterday to believing my badge had fallen on the ground and been buried in the snow, much to my great happiness I have it back and am wearing it ;)

It could seem such a small thing to have found it, but I know it was God answering my prayers. There's no other reason for it. The pocket I found my badge in I had checked over and over and over... it was not there. Tender mercies are a blessing; thank you!!