She's Alive!

No need to fear, all! I have come back from my blog slumber! Lots has happened since the last time I posted on here.  So here's what's new the other Roomie in LB.
Soooo... last time you all heard from me was right before finals of last semester. Oh finals. Wicked.... wicked finals. I busted my tushie to the extreme at the end of last semester and it paid off!

I seriously don't know how I pulled that one off. This was definitely the hardest semester to date. I took one of the hardest history classes offered at my school, started my prerequisite classes for physical therapy, and was working 30 hour weeks. It was a grueling semester full of all nighters and stressing out about 8 page papers. But I am SO proud of myself! Seriously one of my greatest accomplishments in my college career.

Shortly after the semester I dove right into holiday season in retail. Man! It was intense. However, I actually had a lot of fun during holiday. My store is generally on the slower side so it was fun to actually have some life in the store lol. I helped many a procrastinating husband find their wife the perfect Christmas present. Have I mentioned I still love my job? I get to pretty much shop all day long. I recently had a performance review with my manager and she told me a good way to better learn the products would be to try them on. Seriously? You want me to play dress up at work? If you insist! :)

Here's a picture from my store's Twitter page during Christmas. Love me some fashion!

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Christmas was on the quiet side for me this year. My siblings didn't come down so it was just me and the parentals. They tried extra hard to make sure I still had a fun Christmas. And I did! It was nice to get a day off from work and spend it with my parents. The day after Christmas, I worked a nice 8 hour shift that started at 7 in the morning. After I got off, my parents at I rushed off to Idaho to spend a week with my sister and her family, my brother, and his wife. It was a fun trip! On this trip I learned how much of a California girl I really am. One night after coming home from the movies, temperatures dipped to about 8 degrees Fahrenheit. Holy  moly it was cold! I don't think I can handle those kind of temperatures for long periods of time! I did have a lot of fun hanging out with my family though. On this trip I was also reminded of how my family really are my favorite people in the world!

This was the first night we got in. Snow everywhere!

Going out to a Mongolian Bbq for Lawrence's birthday. Pretty sure they found the 2 Asians in Idaho and had them open a restaurant. ;)

Lawrence's fortune. Especially awesome because Lawrence has an epic  deep voice.

Christmas part two with the Brown family

There were many a gift from Nordstrom Rack this Christmas. Lawrence modeling his Quicksilver jacket I found for him on sale for $30!

Happiest grandparents on the planet!

Girls night out! Of  course, we go to a mall.

We passed by a jewelry store. I had to try on a sparkly diamond, obviously. 

My brother-in-law Joel;s family owns a furniture store in Twin Falls. His dad graciously gave us an after hours tour one night. We all particularly enjoyed the motorized recliners :)

Wimpy California girl hiding from the cold

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After about 5 days in Idaho, we said goodbye to the Browns and my parents, myself, Lawrence, and his wife Chelsey headed back down to Salt Lake for New Years Eve. Once again, this California girl got a little taste of what the rest of the world is like during the winter months. We spent most of our New Years Eve walking around Temple Square. It was FREEZING! Pretty sure it was around 12 degrees that night. We also stopped by the beautiful new City Creek shopping center across the street from Temple Square. Obviously, I had to check out Nordstrom. So pretty! After freezing our behinds off, we went to the Joseph Smith Building to check out the Joseph Smith movie and ended up eating dinner at a fun restaurant at the top of the building! No worries, we got our spiritual on after our delicious meal and caught the last showing of the movie. Seriously so good. Definitely cried at the end.

Snow is freezing but it sure is pretty

Pretty Mama in pretty Temple Square

Love my cheesy parents :)

We party hard

The next morning we flew back to California. As soon as I got off the plane I pulled out my shades and basked in the beautiful California sunshine. All kidding aside, I had a really fun trip to Idaho. It was so fun hanging out with my siblings. We sure missed Julieta though. I love my family! I wish we were all living close to each other so we could hang out all the time!

The rest of my Christmas break consisted of pretty much just working and dreading starting school again. My break went by way too fast. As soon as I knew it, I was waking up early to make it to an 8am class :( This semester I am taking General Chemistry, Anatomy and Physiology, Roman History, and History of Modern European Women (yeah that last class is a total joke). 4 weeks in, it's already proving to be a hard semester. But hey, I wouldn't do it any other way, right?

The last update is probably the most exciting one. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a hair virgin. I've never dyed my hair and never really had plans to. However, lately I was getting super bored with my hair. It wasn't really a color. One of my coworkers came into work the other day with a fun new hair color and I thought, "that's it! I'm dying my hair!" That night, Stephanie and I picked up some hair dye and three hours later.....

Tada!!! It actually looks a lot blonder in this picture than it actually was. It took me a little while to get used to it but I really do love it now! It's just a fun change for a girl who didn't know what her hair color was before. It's starting to fade a little but I'm still loving the way it looks. Amazing how a little box of bleach can boost your confidence! It was really fun going into work the next day and having everyone not recognize me. It's Jennifer 2.0!

Well, if your still reading, thanks for staying tuned in for this long! Sorry for the ridiculously long post. Next time I will try to actually post about these things when they happen. Life is still good for this roomie in LB. I'm very grateful for all the opportunities I've been presented in life thus far. I love the school I go to, I love the church I belong to, and I love the friends I surround myself with. Steph and I are still the best of buds and I'm glad to have her as my roomie. I don't know if many other people could put up with me! ;) That's all for now! I'll leave you with a picture of me and my Valentine.

P.S. Sorry I stole all your pictures Lisa! :)