A 21st Birthday... Phyllis style.

In the regular word, outside of the BYU/Provo bubble, I mean, the 21st birthday of an individual brings a sort of joy and freedom that could not yet (legally) be experienced up to that point. Mine, however, did not bring such a feeling seeing as how I still won't be drinking even though I am legal. Anyway, this was not the point. My point was to share all of the wonderful goings on of my first and fabulous birthday away from home.

My best friend and adoptive sister, Becky Messmann, came into town that week and it was such a treat to get to see her on her way home from school. I was excited to get to spend time with her and also to have her meet Clay. The week of birthday celebration stated off wonderfully with getting to see both Becky and Brianon and getting to attend the Provo Temple, as I often do these days. Before she left for California, we were able to all get together and have some "fro yo" as the two would say. Oh I miss you two!

The week or two previous to my birthday was filled with Ally and Lisa trying to figure out when I would be free so they could "kidnap" me for a sister celebration and then Clay trying to figure out if I was actually going to be free on the evening of my birthday so he could continue with his scheming. It worked out that Ally and Pisa were planning on capturing me on the Saturday following my birthday so my actual birthday ended up being available for Clay's scheme. haha

On my birthday, my roommates kept commenting on my "cupcake." I had no idea what it was and just assumed that someone was kind and brought over some cupcakes for my birthday. It wasn't until later that I went up stairs to see what it actually was. It was a flower arrangement that Megan Vosburgh had sent to me. I was so cute and the top was all white carnations that made it look like it was a giant frosted cupcake and not actually flowers. It was so cute!



My dearest Mommy had sent me a package that I was not allow to open til my birthday. Talk about torture! Here I have this box filled with wrapped things and I can touch none of them. It was worth the wait and upon the opening I discovered...

Some movies... thanks for feeding the addiction. jk I love them!



And a fabulous handbag. Needless to say, my mom has excellent taste :)



For my fabulous birthday, the two of us (Clay and I) went out to dinner and had Thai food... which was amazing by the way. I secretly love it along with most other Asian type. I think he made a perfect choice with dinner. Not only do I love it but I can only recall mentioning that I love it a few months ago. 10 points for remembering small details :) After dinner we saw Taken with Liam Neeson, which was both amazing and severely disturbing. Maybe not the best birthday movie choice but I chose it. It was really good but I was just jumpy for the rest of the evening.

After getting back from the movies, it was present time. This was my favorite part :) I present to you...


The 2 cup, Pyrex, liquid measuring cup and a quality silicone spatula that is heat proof up to 450 degrees. Yay!



The Pyrex 9 x 13. Yay!



And the mother of all glass baking dishes... The Pyrex 10 x 15! Yay!



Who had any idea that something so beautiful existed? ...not I :)

Ok this may seem very odd to you. Perhaps it is partially the unnatural love I have for glass bake ware or that my boyfriend got them for me. I assure you that if you find either of these parts odd that you must have missed something quite important. First, ask yourself "How could I live without my glass 9x13?" Well my friend, you can. I did for 5 months... but it sucks. Not even the beaten up, thin, aluminum 9x13 could come close to meeting my needs. Oh how I love my spatula that won't melt when I am cooking with it. Yes, my name is Emily and I am in love with bake and cookware. I have to fully admit that I did jump up and down and do a "happy dance" upon opening my presents. I could hardly believe that Clay had remembered all of the little things that I mentioned through out our times we have cooked together. Not that I didn't think he would remember... it was just so awesome to see that he did.

It was a really wonderful birthday. Ally and Lisa's surprise was a morning with a breakfast of delicious, fresh bagels and a trip to the spa for massages. Oh my! It was unspeakably wonderful and relaxing. All I can say is that I am officially an addict :)

Thank you all for the best 21st birthday ever :) I love you all!

My First Semester in the Holy Land

I have been feeling like such a slacker lately because I have not updated my blog in so long. It is not because there is little to report from my adventures in the "Holy Land" but more due to the fact that there is so much going on that I have had no time to post. Now that the winter semester is over and the spring term has just begun, I have some time. My thoughts have been turning to where I was only 16 weeks ago. Everything was new to me. I had no friends, tons of homework, snow everywhere and I hated it. All I wanted was to go home to the people who loved me. Thank goodness that along the way I was found by a group of extraordinary people that saw the best in me and were willing to get to know and love me.

My Adopted Family



From left to right we have James Chandler, Clayton Chandler, Me, Brooke Tolman, Andrew Jones, Cliff Chandler, Chelsea Jordan, Emily Hammond, and Chris Graham.

In the middle of March, we decided that me needed to take a break from school and escape on a sort of make shift spring break. For some reason Andrew got this idea that we should go up to the Chandler's farm in Idaho... so we went and it was great.

The Activites

*A trip to the store to get things to shoot




*Shooting

*Playing with knives

*Making honey... rather watching James make honey

*Wrestling and tagging calves

*Riding Horses

*Shooting more guns

*Wrestling more claves


*Bottle feeding


Idaho was only one example of the fun that I had. I have made such amazing friends and I am so very grateful and blessed to have them in my life. I don't know what I would have done without them.

Thank you!

If you were Emily in Utah... This is what your house would look like!

I am very quickly coming to the close of my third week here in Provo, UT and I realized that I have not written anything about what I am doing! How rude of me?! It was a beautiful rainy day today and I felt suddenly inspired to write... or rather, to take pictures. I love how everything smells so clean and earthy after it rains. I love the rain! Anyway, I went outside and walked around my little bubble and took some pictures of what I look at everyday.

The mountains were just too pretty to resist taking some pictures of them.


This is 800 N heading east. (Like how I can now tell which direction I am actually going?)This is the way I usually walk to campus in the morning.

This is my beautiful 4-plex.

My bedroom window...

We have the only white door :) Yeah that is what I call being a rebel. haha

Oh wait! Kassandra is leaving for her work interview at the farmer's market place thingy...

Good Luck! Bring home the bacon Baby! haha Literally... she applied to work the meat counter.


Welcome to our common room! Please don't mind that it is a little messy. Everyone just got home and left again for night classes and work. I promise it does not usually look like this Mom :)



At the moment, we have a lovely sculpture. It is Chelsea's green Schwinn that is waiting 'til the snow melt to get back out in the sun.

Here are only some of my books on the bookshelf because the majority of them are always in my backpack :(


The Kitchen...



There are still some things left over from the girls that Kassi and I bought our contracts from.


Now we will go downstairs to my bedroom.

At the end of the hall at the bottom of the stairs there are storage cupboards that contain very little except for things like our irons and my extra towels and blankets.

Entering through the door immediately to the left of the cupboard will lead you into the room I share with Kassi.

This is my sweet bed in my sweet room. When I first got here the beds were bunked but things did not stay that way very long. We are both grateful that neither of us have to climb up or have someone climb up over them each night.

I get all of the drawers to myself! Isn't it magical? :)

My bed again with all of my pillows :) and my nightstand of course with my essentials and mini pharmacy.

This is the view from my window.


OH MY!!! Look out for the infamous bathroom door knob. Everyone new to the apartment has issues with opening this door after locking it because you have to push it back in as you twist it to unlock it before you can twist to open it. Everyone who lives here has it pretty much down with the exception of late at night or very early in the morning when brain processes and reflexes are slowed down significantly. Kassi, however, would fall under the "has troubles getting out of the bathroom" group. I love to hear the door knob twist again and again and again and then a growl and finally to hear the door open and Kassi can escape. I tease her that she should keep her phone on her just in case she gets trapped and I have to come back from school to free her. She is such a good sport about it and has not had an incident recently until I was in our room taking pictures and she was trying to get it unlocked. I am so happy she reminded me of our favorite part of our little home so I could capture a picture of it for our posterity.

Our bathroom is really large and has tons of counter and storage space but then again it serves 5 women so I'd hope it does.


Can you guess which drawer is mine?

It helps to have the extra mirrors with so many girls in the bathroom on Sunday mornings.

My corner of the shower...

I am currently sharing my real estate with Kassandra's shampoo and conditioner.

Here is my side of the towel rack with my beautiful purple towel! You may be asking yourself "Why do they have two chairs in the bathroom?" Well the answer is simple... because we love to have parties in the bathroom and hang out for hours :) Ok the real reason they are in there is because we had no other place to stick two chairs than in the bathroom. It is kinda nice when we have stuff because then we have another place to put it other than on the counters or floor.

Here are my lovely two shelves in the mirrored vanity over the sinks.

My towels again :)

The stairs going back up to the common room...

And once up the stairs our tour is complete!


But now we have come to the most important part! The presentation of the roommates!
(These pictures have bee brought to you by the BYU 26th Ward Directory...)

Here we all are! My don't we look like an apartment of pleasant women. I personally think that we would win for the best looking apartment full of women but don't let it get out. People are already jealous of us ;)

I hope you enjoyed the tour of my current residence. Well I must go do my homework because I have put if off long enough and would like to get to bed before midnight!