Merry Christmas

I love Christmas I really do, I love everything it means, the savior, family, delicious goodies, snow, santa, gingerbread houses, trees, colored lights, and everything else! However this year I lacked the excited feeling that usually comes with this time of year. It just didn't feel right, perhaps I lost sight of what Christmas is really about, or the fact that working in retail entitles you to Christmas in September, and listening to grouchy customers complain about this or that, I though this was suppose to be the happiest time of year? or maybe it was that I was going to be the only one home this year, no brothers or sisters to share in the excitement, whatever it be I was seriously lacking spirit. On Christmas eve me and my bahumbug spirit went to work to help all the last minute shoppers, then after work my parents picked me up and we went to the Christmas eve service at the Methodist church, a cool experience, we sang songs by candlelight and watched a nativity performed by little kids, and then went home ate some food and watched movies. Christmas morning we slept in until 9ish and opened up presents, I got some good loot, new scriptures, clothes, a food chopper, and some reusable shopping bags, Thanks Santa, mom, dad, and Olivia! The day was pretty low key and relaxing, two of my sisters stopped by, we ate delicious food, slept and watched The Grinch and The Nativity Story which was fantastic as usual! I am so so grateful for what this season means and the spirit that it brings, and hopefully I can be more into the spirit of it all! But still it was an amazing day a great way to celebrate the birth of Christ!

Ugly Sweaters, family photos, and Jelly Boy

I sure do love my friends, there are a lot of us so when we all get together it is quite the scene and we always know how to have a good time. Tuesday the 21 we all got together Tanya and I's day of birth and also to celebrate this wonderful season. Oh it was wonderful! We all donned the ugliest sweater we could find, and took an awkward family photo in them, we brought delicious snacks to eat, learned new games, Jelly boy (Big Booty on steroids) and running charades, it was brilliant! I needed a good laugh and they all sure did deliver! They are my best friends, I miss them, I love them, I hope you like our family photos!

Happy Holidays!

Au revoir, Seavas, Adios, Auf Wiedersehen, Cheerio, Good Bye

Dear Teenage years,
Tomorrow I say goodbye to you forever. What a crazy, sad, happy, amazing adventure these last years were. We have been together for some time now. And I will say. You have been good to me. You got me through many milestones, yeah sure we had our ups and downs, but overall we played harder than we worked, and laughed more than we cried! We made quite the pair , you and I, and every year you brought me something new, 13 you were just the beginning, the long adventure started, 14 We entered Junior high together, how cool were we!?! 15 Well all I can say is atleast we didn't completely total the Drivers Ed. Car, luckily we eventually learned how to drive, 16 you brought High School, the first date, first boyfriend, first kiss, first car and a state championship to finish it out! 17 we had our differences, you were full of drama, had a bad attitude and made mistakes, and together we paid the price while learning important lessons, I would not have wanted to do it with anyone but you. Thank you. You also brought my friends and I 12 speeding tickets with 9 different drivers! 18 we became a legal adult, I bought my first lottery ticket with you by my side, sadly we didn't win anything a poor way to spend 3 bucks, then we, you and I graduated from Rigby High School what a relief. Full of sadness and happiness all at once! And that leaves us at 19, you got me to and through my first year of college, on our own for the first time how amazing that we learned together, we met some really great people from all over the world, and you got me through some of the hardest goodbyes. So this is to the 7 of you. Thanks. You taught me lessons I will never forget and have sculpted me into the person I am today. I will miss you! You will always be some of my favorite memories full of immaturity and rebelliousness, all around full of wonderful times. Syonara.


Love,
Chelsey

Run to Feed the Hungry - 5K

It turns out that Idaho Falls has all sorts of little fun runs that you can do. Like they have one for every occasion, it is so cool. I just wish I knew about all of them before now. The Turkey Trot was on Thanksgiving morning so we (Amy, Brittany, and I) decided it would be perfect to run it seeing how they would be home for Thanksgiving. Little did we know that when we signed up for it, the ground would be covered in snow, and it was going to be 2 degrees. In other words it was FREEZING! But so much fun. It wasn't that hard of a race and I was able to run the whole thing despite the weather. There were quite a few people out ready to run it with us. They even got the missionaries to come and help direct us where to go. You could tell that some of them were seeing snow and below freezing temperatures for the first time in there lives! WE got to get our picture taken with the Turkey man and everything. It was so much fun, the path was so so beautiful all white and snow covered, and I am so thankful that I got to run it with my sisters! I love them!

Round 2

Did I go to the premiere of Harry Potter? Did I love it? Did I wear a I support Lord Voldemort shirt? The answer to all of the above is YES. My mom, Amy, Brittany and myself were one of the millions of fans that were present for the long awaited final HP film. We had a little Hogwarts feast, with Steak and Kidney Pies, Sugar wands, Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans, Goose droppings, Worms, and Pumpkin Juice. It was perfect. And finally, decked out in our homemade Team LV shirts we arrived at about 10:30 to wait until they let us into the theatre. It was so worth it. Yeah it was slow but that is how it is in the movie. Yeah they could have put more detail in and left some things out, but I thought overall they did a MARVELOUS job. Only 8 more months till I get to see part 2. I can hardly wait.

The Potter Crew

An Ode to Obsession

As previously stated I have an obsession. Just one. Harry Potter. Well seeing how the first part of the last book comes out next week (7 days) I thought a little HP gathering was in order. So I text some of my friends that are also die hard fans and set to work planning a little movie marathon night. Last night was the perfect night seeing as I had the night off (Something that rarely happens I assure you) and this time Rexburg came to me. I made a Platform 9 3/4 sign, put on my new Harry Potter shirt, frosted and decorated cupcakes with HP shapes, and made homemade butter-beer complete with homemade pizza. P.S. Tanya it didn't turn out as good as our chicken Pizza. When everyone arrived we settled down and let the marathon begin. Well seeing how each movie is like a bi-gillion minutes long and curfew is at midnight, we were just able to watch the 1st one. But we still have a week so I have no fear. I do love this series but even more I love the people I got to share this experience with. The countdown has started and in one week I will be going to the midnight premiere with two of my sisters and my mom. So so excited.

October

A good month. Atleast until the end when a bad case of food poisoning prevented me from going out dressed up in my costume on Halloween. I was even going to be a fairy with huge wings. I have always wanted wings. But the rest of the month was filled with working my life away at Fred Meyers, chasing very energetic children around all day, carving pumpkins, going to haunted houses, getting my ears pierced, trips to Rexburg, birthdays and eating way too much chocolate! Happy Birthday Mom!

Girls Night

Despite the fact that everyone at work is older than I am I have become very close to most of them. But the two that I would consider my best friends would be Christina and Brittany. These girls are amazing. Christina is a 25 year old returned missionary, and is the most spiritual person I know, she is the reason I want to serve a mission next year, she never talks bad about anyone and if I am feeling down she can always make me smile. She has taught me so much. Brittany, is the one that is closest to me in age, she is 21 and has three adorable children. This girl knows how to make the best situation out of everything and I am often in awe when I see how she is always helping others. However she is leaving me in a couple of weeks to go back to a California base where her husband is a U.S. Marine. So in order to hang out as much as possible the three of us and sometimes a couple other girls go out every Tuesday night to either Applebees or Denny's and have a much needed girls night. They are the highlight of my week and always give me a reason to keep going. Usually I end up laughing so hard I nearly pee my pants and make it to the restroom just in time. Oh just thinking about it makes me smile and I can't wait for the next one! I love them so so much.

Me, Christina, Brittany

A list..

Today I opened up my email inbox to find a VERY short email from one of my friends who is currently serving a mission. Considering I wrote him a what would have been atleast 5 pages long hand written email, I was more than a little sad/irritated/hurt that he apparently had nothing to say to me. But happy to atleast hear from him I read. My favorite part was this "...You were a bit pessimistic in your last Email. Why? When you have so much to love? Remember Satan was a hater too! Don't go there." There were about 3 additional lines and then it ended. Um ouch blunt much!? I read my email to him and sure I complained here or there but I didn't think the tone was necessarily pessimistic, but it wasn't really encouraging him, then I looked at what it was that I was complaining about little things that with the right attitude could be considered a blessing. So in reply I sent him this a list of things that I loved, and a promise to next time send more happy greetings. That list is
1. You (This kid is truly amazing and I miss him so so much. )
2. Family
3. Chocolate
4. Being an aunt ( Sophie, Emma, Olivia, Taylor, Evan, Gracie and the ones on the way I love them so so much)
5. History
6. The gospel, temple, scriptures, priesthood, prayer
7. Taking crazy pictures
8. Running
9. Reading
10. Food-I will leave this open to ALL kinds.
11. Getting letters
12. Ice Cream
13. Walking barefoot
14. Idaho
15. Sports
16. Playing the piano
17. The D. I.
18. Having an opinion
19. Laughing
20. Hearing stories about "when I was younger.."
21. Knowing that fairytales can happen
22. My Grandparents
23. Babies
24. The Blackfoot Fair
25. Having a Best Friend and just friends in general
26. Crafts
27. Harry Potter
28. Having a home cooked meal - Every night
29. Blankets
30.Freshly cut grass
31. Camping/hiking/nature
32. The stars
33. Roasting hot dogs
34. Sun Shine
35. Water
36. My car-most days
37. Making cookies
38. Babysitting - I really do enjoy this no matter what I say
39. Knowing there is something after this life and that it is even better than this one.
40. LIFE
The list continued but this covers most. I. LOVE. LIFE. I know I will have my love-hate relationship days, where I just want to curse everything. I just have to remeber there is so much more reason to love than not love. I don't want to be a HATER.

Work On The Brain

Lately I have been having some really weird dreams. Its like those ones that you are half dreaming half reality. I don't know why maybe its because I don't sleep my regular hours anymore, or I have to many things on my mind when I fall asleep but I always wake up feeling really confused, and sometimes in different places then when I fell asleep. Like the other day I woke up laying on the bathroom floor. Weird I know. But what really made me think I am going crazy is Wednesday morning my alarm clock starting going off and me still be in the half dead mode, answered it and said "Thank you for calling Fred Meyer. This is Chelsey. How can I help you!?!" I couldn't understand why the noise wouldn't stop. Finally I came to and realized I was talking to my alarm clock. Even when I am fully awake I keep doing strange things. Like putting the milk in the cupboard with the cereal. Classic. I thought to myself, self you are awesome at life. I knew this day would come but I never thought it would be so soon.

Temple to Temple Relay

37.5 Miles, 8 girls, 2 Temples Rexburg to Idaho Falls, 1 great experience. This thing was killer. I am NOT a runner. A sprinter yes, runner no. I was told when I agreed to do this that I would be running about 4.5 miles, not to bad, but for me thats like a marathon. So thats what I trained for, I ate healthy, went running, did many ab workouts, I could have done better sure, but I felt pretty good about the shape I was in. Two days before the race, a girl on my relay team informed me I was running the 6th leg which was 6.8 miles. WHAT!?! Holy Kracker Jacks! I have never run that far, I am quite the pansy when it comes to running and this was surely going to be my downfall. But atlast race day arrived, we were team What the Hill!?! dressed in green shirts and matching head bands. As I encouraged runners 1-5 to keep running, I was getting anxious. Surely I was going to die. I just knew it. I got the nervous pees about 50 times and I finally just decided that if I had to pee during the race, I was just going to have to pee my pants. Finally it was my turn I grabbed the baton, turned on the Ipod, and started running. I kept running, and running, and still I was running. It was windy, hot and I just wanted to be done. Did I mention I hate running. I got passed by a few guys, who told me not to give up, which at this point I seriously considered jumping on one of their backs for a piggy back ride. After about and hour of running I saw the exchange zone, sweet freedom. I passed off the slap bracelet and gulped down lots of water and applied some lip balm. Yum. Then I went with the rest of my team to cheer on the last two runners. As a team we ran the last little bit together and crossed the finish line at the Idaho Falls Temple. We did it! My team was so amazing, I am so proud of what we all accomplished. I love them all. Thanks ladies for giving me one of the greatest experiences of my life.Go NicoleShelb WebbShae was the super star of the team Just Starting

That cop was going to pull me over because I was running too Fast : ) My mom is awesome. She gave me water when I was parched. Final Stretch.

Micah

Aisha-You can do anything good. YEAH!

Team What the Hill!?!