A diamond in the rough

I took a drive through springville the other day to go visit the elementary school that my roommate Katie works at, and can i tell you that i never knew Springville, Utah was so cool! Goodness, that little town has some character! There's about a billion places i want to visit there someday. For example, it is full of hole in the wall, cute little restaurants like Kranky Franks, and T-Bone(which is a Chinese Restaurant!), Charlie Boys BBQ Pit, and a cool trolley restaurant. What I want to see most in springville though is the toy store. It's called Funfinity and it looks like a dream come true. I've never seen a toy store that looks like it'd be more fun. There's a sweet Art Gallery in springville too which i've heard good things about. Basically what i'm saying is some day, i'm giong and spending a day in Springville, your more than welcome to come. Who would've guessed it would be soo cool?

Halloween

My halloween day has been pretty good so far. My cousin showed me some really really funny SNL skits this morning, which got my morning off with a bang...if anyone is in the mood to laugh, boy do i have something for you to watch. Then Mychal and I watched a scary movie and made cherry puff deliciousness things. (i dont know what they are really called). Can i just say, that i love scary movies? I don't know what it is, but i love to scare myself. You can almost definitely be assured that i have one hand grabbing onto the person next to me and on arm wrapped around a pillow or blanket or something like that. I get scared easily but I love it! And then after that I came home and went for a nice relaxing 8 mile run, which does wonders to help clear your mind. And since then I've been studying physics, eating steak, and trying to get rid of all my old birthday treats.

And boy do i have fun plants tonight...

I'm going to dress up like a grungy college student...in my sweats and transformers t-shirt...and STUDY MORE PHYSICS! woo hoo!!! I think this is the first year i won't have done anything for Halloween, sad.

Birthday Celebration

So last night my Aunt Leslie and Uncle Dave and cousins invited me over to celebrate my birthday with them. First they banished me to the basement for an hour and had grandpa babysit me while they were decorating...and boy were their decorations good. There was a sign that said "Brooke looks as good as a chocolate chip cookie"! If that's not love, then what is?

Next awesome thing that happened at this party was the present they got me...don't be too jealous, but they got me a snuggie. Yes, i am now the proud owner of a red real-life snuggie. Come over anytime you want and test it out...the bonus was, it came with a sweet reading light. That was probably the best part of the snuggie. They are actually really cheaply made and not warm at all.

The best part of my birthday celebration was dinner. My uncle is the master of making steaks on the grill. They melt in your mouth they are so good. There was one leftover after we finished eating and so they told me to take it home when i left in the morning. Who am i to refuse a great t-bone steak? Best part was, i warmed it up for dinner tonight and was sitting on my couch chowing down on my steak and one of my roommates walks in and says "Holy cow, that's a lot of red meat. You sure you want to eat that all of that cow?" and i thought about it a minute to myself and then replied back heartily with a "yup, i'm pretty sure i do" (mind you she's a vegetarian). She then left, but everytime she walked back into the room, which was 3 or 4 times she'd drop comments like, "That sure is a lot of meat" or "that poor cow" or a number of other comments that showed her disgust for the amount of meat i was eating, or how she felt bad for the poor cow that i was eating. I found it funny.

The last awesome aspect of my family birthday party was the movie my Uncle picked out for us to watch. A birthday, in true Tolman family style, isn't complete without watching a good western. According to my Uncle, since i didn't have a man in my life, i should strive to find one like the star of the western movie Trinity...which we watched. It was awesome, not quite as good as a john wayne, but it sufficed.

Needless to say, family is the best. Whether they be immediate or distant, it's all the same. After feeling sort of homesick for a few weeks, this was exactly what i needed.

Word of the Year

Charlotte a few years back got me hooked on choosing a word to center your year. It's great because instead of making goals each new year that you more than likely will forget about by the end of January, you just keep your word in mind and try to focus your life on that. It's been a really great experience and has really bettered my life in so many ways. Last year my word was overcome, and this year my word is simplify and i know it's only October, but while reading my scriptures one night this week, i had a stroke of genius and my word for next year came to me. I'm not going to tell you what it is yet, because it's still this year so i'm still focusing on simplifying, but I'm excited for my word next year.