And now, ladies and gentlemen...

My Washington drivers license was going to expire on my birthday this year, and since I'll be turning 21 I get to go renew my license and get a new one... one that is turned the other way. However, I have no idea when I'll be in Washington next... so, this week I became a legal resident of Illinois. My license here is good for 3 months after my birthday, which means when I come back for Christmas I get to go get my next new drivers license. Did you know that in Illinois there is no law that says that children cannot ride in the front seat? I did not know this, so I missed that question on my written test. I also registered to vote.

This week I also have... been all over Quincy (wherever that is) with Mom as we ran around looking for fabric for pajamas for the family reunion. I think we are steered towards plaids right now (no longer looking for pioneer/handcart themed fabric). We went to this store called Hobby Lobby. It's one of my new favorite places. I picked up some scrapbooking supplies, and I've spent today (and last night) figuring out how I want to scrapbook my first two years of college. BYU has classes that teach you how to cook, how to do water aerobics, how to basketweave... but they do not have a scrapbooking class. It makes me kind of sad. Oh well, once I get back to Utah I'm sure I'll find a bunch of really big craft stores, and even some that are specific to scrapbooking. I haven't scrapbooked in a long time, and even back then I wouldn't really say I scrapbooked. I was pretty good at using glue sticks and getting pictures on a piece of paper, and maybe some sort of caption. I've moved away from 8 1/2 x 11 and now have a 12x12 scrapbook. All of the scrapbooks and extra sheet protectors were 50% off at Hobby Lobby, so I felt justified in making the switch now.

What else have I been up to? Well. I've introduced mom to Paula Deen from Food Network. I've been trying to find times when Bobby Flay is on (she doesn't know who he is either) but so far I've only watched Bobby at night, when mom is asleep. I pretty much am obsessed with The Food Network. It is such a good thing that I haven't had access to this channel while I've been at school. Between Food Network and The Disney Channel I can always find something at least remotely interesting to watch on tv.

Mom and I went to Grandma & Grandpa's to play games last night. Grandma and I were a team and we beat Grandpa & Mom at Hand and Foot... really bad. So bad that we didn't even figure out the final score. We were only ahead by 5 points going into the last round, but we went out, and Grandpa had a bunch of points still in his Foot, which we didn't let him get into. If you haven't played the game this might not make sense, but if you have... you know what I mean. And if we have the same grandparents and you have not played Hand and Foot I want to know how you've gotten away with this.

On Facebook this week a lot of the guys (and some girls) from my ward have been posting notes of their memories of the year, and commenting about how much they miss being in Provo with all of their friends. I know I wrote a post on here about how much I was going to miss my RA friends and Megan, but is it wrong that I don't miss my roommates one bit, and that I like being able to control when/if/how I want to communicate with everybody else? Sure, I've put on Facebook that going to mutual with mom made me miss my girls, but really I would prefer 58 freshman girls over a ward full of youth anyday. I forgot what Deacons and Beehives are like. Holy cow. That's what 2 years of college and a summer in a Singles Ward do to you. I guess my point in this paragraph is to remember that right after my freshman year I felt the same way that these kids all feel now, so I guess it's normal.

I found mom's Dustbuster today. Oh. My. Gosh. I LOVE it! I want one. I quickly put one of the attachments on it and cleaned out the cracks (I don't know what to really call the space between the tiles) between the tiles on the kitchen floor. Oh man! And then I cleaned some of the corners in the kitchen, under cupboards and stuff. Oh man. Doing 8 months worth of Cleaning Checks has really taught me how to keep my eye out for things that need to be cleaned. I've also cleaned part of the dishwasher, because it was gross, and I know that the rubber gasket in the fridge/freezer needs to be cleaned too. I emailed Megan to ask her if I am ruined for life. Looks like I am. I guess I should just enjoy living in clean places.

I start work on Monday. And guess what I get to do all of next week? CLEAN!!! I get to deep clean as much of the Adventure Zone as I can. I am so excited. It will be funny to see how much area I can actually cover in a day. Everything needs to be cleaned so thoroughly so it might take me a long time to clean a small-ish area. The good thing is I'm doing all of this cleaning now, not 2 years ago. Two years ago my version of clean was putting everything in my closet. Now my idea of clean... is using a dustbuster (or at school a Mighty Mite) to edge my room after everything is put away in it's own spot. This Adventure Zone is going to be looking good after Aunt Kathy gets back from her little week long trip.