secret confession . . .

TWO secret confessions actually . . .

1 - i totally fell going up the stairs at work this morning . . . and it hurt . . . and it was hilarious

2 - i was changing the CO2 tank in my lab today, and at the end i screwed the regulator on tight the way i always do, by hanging on the wrench . . . as in my feet come off the floor and i hang for a bit, letting all 100 lbs of me pull it tight (jen is the only person who has actually witnessed this i think). so the funny part is today as i was hanging there, i swung right into the empy CO2 tank next to me and scraped my elbow and got rust all over my jeans. my elbow still stings and i'm still chuckling, because i can still picture how ridiculous i looked. k maybe you had to be there . . . but i thought it was really funny

my birthday week!

well it's official. i'm old. 22!! I got to drag out my birthday for almost a whole week since we waited til the weekend to celebrate with the fam. here are some pics from my birth-week! :)

So when i got to the lab that morning i found a flower and balloons and starbursts with no note which is always exciting :) turns out it was my cute sister abby! thanks abby!!! Here's me with the flower plus a flower i got from some cute girls i work with which included a SINGING CARD. i've always wanted one of those. my favorite part is how the flowers are in a flask. that just makes it so much better.


macaroni grill with the girls! janelle, kylie, sally, and anne marie. the highlights: learning to write my name upside down in cursive and the free chocolate cake. ah it was amazing. OH and the leftovers the next day. so fun.

i don't have pics of it, but angie made me dinner the day after my birthday! she's so cute. i just loved hanging out with her and preston. they are so great. ang and I had a much needed chat! she's so fun to talk to and it'd been forever.

the next day willie gave me a birthday treat: wendy's for dinner and PAZOOKIE! half baked cookie dough with ice cream on top. oh gosh it was probably the most amazing thing my taste buds had every encountered. there must be a repeat of this.

on friday, my roommate janelle got engaged!! i'm so excited for her. she's such an amazing friend and she deserves the best. mike's such a great guy too! ah what a great couple. love them :)


on saturday we had a fun get together at jane and kenny's with the gang. it was a blast as always, even though garrett got lost going to their house again. next time we're going to go STRAIGHT there the fast way. we had a birthday cake for both mine and logan's birthdays. it was in the shape of a bicep . . . so i think obviously more directed toward logan haha. we blew out ALL the candles though! jane, kimbre, and i ate WAY too many muddy buddies. i think it's tradition to get sick off of them every time we make them.


angie, preston, and i made a trip to the savages to finally meet ka's little one, chloe grace! and can i just say she is adorable?? i can't believe my friend's are having babies, but i know that ka will be the best mom there is! here's me with my pseudo-niece :)


here's the whole group! me, the andersons, and the browns!



I finally got to celebrate my birthday with my family on sunday!! this picture looks funny because it was on night vision haha . . . of course it looks funny ANYWAY because i am modeling all of my gifts from my cute fam! i'm wearing my new dress, a bathrobe, my new mission skirt, my new scarf, two hats, 3 pairs of mittens and holding my disney princess memory game!! can a birthday get any better? i submit that it cannot.


so a fun tradition in my family is to make signs for each other that are all hung up around the family room and kitchen. dad's always been the best at it, but this year he topped them all. here is a "rap" he wrote for me. yes, the picture is of me, modeled after an actual photo we have (although i don't recall my hair being THAT crazy . . . or dark . . .) ah i am keeping this forever.this next one was also by dad, highlighting both my cowgirl tendencies and my extreme nerdiness in one song!

so let's be honest, my birthday was pretty much amazing!! thanks to everyone who made it great :)

follow up on the "theo" post . . .

ok i have to update you, since i'm sure you've been on pins and needles wondering if theo is ok! before i went to bed last night, i took the little goldfish out of theo's bowl. then, this afternoon, the little fish died!! that could've been theo is all i have to say. thank goodness i separated them. also, i forgot to mention that during my googling last night, i discovered that the whole goldfish having a 3 second memory is a MYTH. it's true. they disproved it on mythbusters. there is scientific evidence that goldfish can have a memory up to 3 MONTHS! so to all the people that said theo didn't really know who i was, i say HA! pretty sure he knows and adores me.

now on to something that matters . . . today i officially scheduled my prospectus defense for next tuesday at noon and finished my written prospectus!! i'm kind of nervous to present it, but pretty excited that my prospectus is done :) you can't help but be a LITTLE proud when you look at your own scientific, 11 page, single-spaced, shnazzy proposal with figures and everything. next stop, making a poster! then on to boston! then on to writing a thesis! then on to the MTC! ah life is great :)

Theo . . .

as mentioned previously, theo is my goldfish. he's already outlived his predecessor(theo senior) by a little over a year. secretly i was not way excited when i first got him because i had to hold him in my lap during a 45 minute drive to my apartment in provo. since then however, i have become way too attached to him . . . it's almost sad! he's seen me through thick and thin and moved with me four times already! anyway, the reason i brought this up was because tonight, we decided to add lindsey and sam's tiny little goldfish to theo's bowl just to see what happened. i was all gung ho (how DO you spell that?) about it, thinking it would be cool if theo ate him (theo is quite large). but now that he's in there, i just can't stop worrying about theo! what if the little midget fish steals all the oxygen and theo suffocates? what if the tiny thing has a disease that gets passed on to theo?? mostly i'm getting these ideas because i googled goldfish care to see if they said anything about having more than one in a bowl at a time, and there was all this advice (mind you that one site was run by a 13 year old! -- she did mention though that she's been a goldfish owner since age 6, so i think her advice counts for SOMETHING) (funny side note . . . when i first typed this, i accidently put that the 13 year old girl had been a golfish since age 6. now that's funny) and they advised having 10 - 20 gallons per FISH. theo is swimming in a half gallon. apparently theo could grow a lot larger if he had a bigger space, which would be awesome because theo's already HUGE! also he needs enough surface area to get enough oxygen, and having two fish means needing more surface area which i do not have! moral of the story is, that after my googling, i am probably going to remove the midget fish before i go to bed, and i'm seriously tempted to use my christmas money to buy theo a tank haha. i'll sleep on the idea. i mean, if theo weren't here when i got home from my mission, how would i adjust?? who would move back to provo with me and help me through the craziness that is inevitable while you're in college?? it really is kind of sad how attached i've become . . .

for auld lang syne . . .

well we had a fabulous new year's eve in the gibbons' household! the bosters arrived on the 31st which made it even better . . . nothing like having the whole fam damily around :) i think this was the first new year's eve in quite a while that we were all home all night. i happened to be at walmart earlier in the day and saw a shelf of overpriced new year's paraphernalia that i couldn't resist! hence the top hats, "happy new year" tiaras, and sparkling cider in these pics! after eating mom's famous tacos, exchanging christmas gifts with the bosters, and playing pirates dice and pictionary, we drank in the new year! we had james taylor singing auld lang syne in the background, and some of us decided to join in (mom humored me . . . probably because i'll be in seattle next new years!)

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and old times since ?

For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

We two have run about the slopes,
and picked the daisies fine ;
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,
since auld lang syne.

We two have paddled in the stream,
from morning sun till dine ;
But seas between us broad have roared
since auld lang syne.

And there’s a hand my trusty friend !
And give us a hand o’ thine !
And we’ll take a right good-will draught,
for auld lang syne.

For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

there's a taste of the lyrics for you courtesy of the american translation on wikipedia :) i think it's quite an appropriate song to drink to and remember the good times of 2008! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

KIF!

for the confused: "kif" means "christmas" in the gibbons dialect . . .

Christmas is always my favorite holiday! our family has so many traditions and even though we're all growed up they carry on :) we missed you bosters!!

CHRISTMAS EVE

grandma and grandpa glenn always came over for a candle-lit dinner, the christmas story, and christmas carol singing . . . we miss grandpa but grandma carries on the tradition! this year we watched "holiday inn" while we waited for the pot pies to cook!


"yummy rolls!!" (famous liz quote from family home videos). mom's amazing rolls! abby did lots of the work this year . . .


"the stockings were hung by the chimney with care." mom made these all for us a lot time ago! even though they lost their whiteness in our basement flood, i still think they're beautiful :)


christmas pj's! i wish mom was in this pic. she made BYU pants this year (dad got 2 pair, one BYU and one U of U since he was a Utah man . . . we love him anyway)


sibling sleepover waiting for santa!! we synchronized our clocks as always. and what would christmas morning be without josh's rooster alarm to awaken us all gently? :)


it was pitch dark and abby told me to surprise her with a pose. surprise!


CHRISTMAS DAY

5 am waiting to go wake up the parentals!!


"the first gift of christmas!!!" popsy and his new head lamp


annie's napolean pose. seemed to come up a lot over break haha


putting out the smokey fire. bad idea to start one with the wind, but hey it's a tradition :)


visiting at grandma and grandpa gibbons'

well that just about wraps it up folks. i must give abby credit for all of the pics! thanks friend :) i love my family so much. i'll miss you guys next year!!

2008 in review . . .

well i've been thinking about the past year so i decided to take a trip down memory lane and relive all the good times through pictures :) i think that i feel this way at the end of every year, but 2008 has been one of the happiest of my life! so many wonderful experiences, hard things that made me grow, amazing people i have come to love, and so much to be grateful for. so here's looking at the year 2008 . . .

to start off, my goldfish theo who has seen me through the
entire year, the official mascot of 2008! one of my constants,
what a champ . . .

i turned 21! i'm getting OLD . . .



jane got ENGAGED! another amazing roommate
on to better things . . .



good times with dinner group . . .



i loved another semester working in the biology tutoring lab . . .



we lost lady to cancer :( best picture we could get before
she was put to sleep . . .



biophysical society meeting in long beach, california with the lab!
the ultimate road trip . . .







good times with the fam. here's easter and conference weekend . . .






some pics of james since the gibbons family has seriously revolved
around him this year, the cutie . . .





it was a fun year catching up with old friends as the guys got
off their missions and we girls are married, having babies, or
chuggin' away in school! makes me feel old . . .


my last dancesport. how appropriate to go out in style, the
country two step with isaac! we made the heel click famous . . .



this reminds me. 2008 will definitely be remembered as the year
i officially found the cowgirl in me and became addicted to
COUNTRY SWING DANCING on wednesdays . . .



ok here's a big one. i became a college graduate!!
a bachelor's degree in biophysics . . .









jane got MARRIED and i got to be a bridesmaid . . .



i moved out of the south downs and into the colony with janelle!
truly happy times . . .





i started working on my MASTERS degree in physiology at byu!
can you believe it? a summer of full time research . . .





i received my MISSION CALL to the washington seattle mission . . .





the fam at the extended gibbons family "round table" . . .



i officially became "hard core" during an amazing trip to
MOAB with friends . . .






i received my endowment in the salt lake temple . . .



yup i turned down being an efy counselor again to go to the
tim mcgraw concert. i don't know what that says about me,
but it was worth it . . .


not only did i become hard core this summer, but i also feel like i
unleashed my inner gangster. meet "lizzle" . . .


camping in american fork canyon
(including snow tubing in JUNE) . . .


some firsts: flying a kite, and hiking the Y . . .


family vacation to st george, always a good time . . .


road trip to washington for some camping, caving, and then
orb-hunting/partying in port townsend . . .


then i got to live at home for about a month, first time in a few years! we had a sister outing to see james taylor live, watched a lot of olympics, and saw josh go on his first date! crazy . . .

another lab trip: to use the two-photon microscope
at UC, irvine . . .


first time in chicago! fun labor day weekend.
my ninth state in a month (a record for me) . . .


everything always falls into place.
i moved into victoria place, got new roommates,
headed back to the lab to finish up my thesis project,
and deferred my mission for 6 months . . .


ok highlight of fall semester, camping in november: hiking in the gear like 10 miles (exaggeration) because the road to the campground was closed (willie: "look is that them? we're almost there! oh wait, it's only a mirage!"), and the girls' tent struggling . . .


well other than that, i've just been working really hard, playing with the fam, making new friends, and trying to keep in touch with all the old ones! life is happy . . .

thanksgiving and christmas at home . . .
(thanksgiving pics were just posted, christmas pics to come)

well that was a LOT of stuff, but it was across 12 whole months and i never was good at choosing favorites and narrowing it down. gosh after going through all that i realized how much has happened this year! so much has changed. it's funny how crazy life can be yet everything always seems to fall right into place! i can't wait to see what's up next. i do know it will be four months of hard work to finish my thesis and then off to the MTC on april 15th! i can't wait!! happy new year :)