New Years!

Happy 2009 everyone!

Like I said...I'm behind on this thing, so I'm trying to catch up.

Sean, Pieter, Mom, Dad, Leslie, and I went up to the cabin in Arnold on New Year's Eve day. We had almost made it (we were less than 2 miles away from the cabin), when we faced a hill covered with a sheet of ice in my dad's Camry. Unfortunately for us, the treads on the tires on that car were about worn out, coupled with the fact that neither Leslie nor I had ever driven in snow before, so we didn't make it up the hill. We were stuck, and my mom and dad, who were with the dog in the new CRV (which conveniently has 4-wheel drive and good snow tires) made it up just fine and then looked behind them and saw that we weren't coming anymore. They turned around, and my dad came down to rescue us (sliding down the ice all the way from the top of the hill down to us, which was pretty awesome). We all got out and he got in. He didn't have any control over the car either, but he got it so it was sliding down the hill again instead of being stuck in the middle of it. He also managed to do this really cool 180 so the car was even facing in the right direction! Go Dad! (He takes no credit for the 180. He says it was all the ice, and nothing more. I'll choose to believe that my dad has superpowers. It was THAT good.)

Anyways, we piled into the CRV and made it up to the cabin, where Sean and I started shoveling the driveway, which is REALLY steep. Put it this way - when we're not up there and it has snowed, the neighbor kids use it as a sledding hill because you can get going really fast. Just watch out for the asphalt of the road at the bottom after the roads have been plowed! We had a good 6-8 inches of snow on the ground, and there was a layer of ice underneath all of it, so it took a really long time to get the driveway clear enough for car to make it up (the Camry got to camp out at the bottom of the driveway. No way was it going up at all).

We had dinner, played a game of Risk (Leslie and Pieter cheated, so they destroyed Sean and I), watched Serendipity, and then Pieter ended up coming down with a really nasty 12-hour flu, so he was sick as a dog that night. We brought in the new year by going up on the indoor balcony that overlooks the family room and threw serpentine and mylar confetti stars everywhere. We made such a mess. I even got my New Year's kiss, which was fun. New Year's Day was pretty low-key...Baby New Year came and brough each of us a candy bar. Baby New Year is a Madsen family tradition started by my grandparents because they would shop the after-Christmas sales and then Baby New Year would bring presents for the kids when times were financially rough). Leslie ended up getting the bug that Pieter had, so she was miserable for a while. The day after New Year's, Sean, Pieter, Leslie, and I tried to go sledding up near Bear Valley, but it started snowing and the roads were getting really bad, so we turned around and went back to the cabin. Sean and I went on a walk in the woods behind the cabin and ended up back at the cabin having a mini-snowball fight, taking turns hitting each other and then throwing snowballs at the sliding glass back door of the cabin because my dad was on the other side of it. We found Pieter with a shovel at the front of the cabin, so we started chucking snowballs at him too, which was fun, until we realized that he had a distinct advantage of being able to throw tons of snow at once with his huge shovel. We came inside, soaking wet, but it was so fun. We made it home without incident, and we even got to stop at In-N-Out in Tracy on the way home. I love In-N-Out, and it makes me so sad that there isn't one anywhere near Provo...

I went over to Sean's house after we got back and we worked on cleaning out his room before he leaves. I folded what felt like a never-ending pile of clean laundry for him, and then we went shopping for his Christmas present from me (an electric razor).

Christmas!

I am so far behind on blogging...

So. Christmas. I spent Christmas Eve with Sean's family and we had dinner, and then opened presents. I even got a few! I got a bracelet from Elizabeth (Sean's stepsister), Joe (Sean's stepdad), and Linda (Sean's mom) that is made out of paint. I haven't tried it yet, but it seems like it'll be pretty cool. I got a box of homemade truffles (made by Sara, Sean's sister) from Sean. They're amazing. They look professionally made - and Sara said that she made 15,000 truffles this year - crazy! Best of all, though, I got a pair of pajama pants that Linda made for me! And they're pink! I love them. They have an LDS pattern too - pictures of a baby, a baptism, Primary kids, a Young Women's group, a girl reading the Book of Mormon, and a bride and groom standing outside the Salt Lake City Temple. Rinse and repeat. The pictures continue around and around, so the pattern just keeps going. They're so warm. Thank you, Linda!

Christmas morning was spent at my house with Mom, Dad, Leslie, Pieter, and Sean. I got a bunch of stuff, much of it is useful for me living on my own. I got a set of Henckel knives, which apparently are some really awesome and high quality, a "Sauteuse" pan to make crepes and other stuff in, a cookbook from my brother Scott and his family, a pass to go tubing in Midway from my sister Laura and her family, and a set of pens that look like syringes in different colors from my sister Aly and her family because I start the nursing program at BYU this semester. Sean gave me a brown sweater and a burnt orange long sleeve t-shirt. And stamps. Lots of stamps. I think he wants me to write to him while he's gone on his mission??? Leslie gave me a couple of long sleeve t-shirts as well as a beanie. It's like people think I live in Utah, where it's cold, because they keep giving me cold weather clothes! :)

We had a nice Christmas dinner, and then Sean had to rush off to work before dessert, so I went down to the movie theater where he was the manager (it was his last night of work too!) and gave him some dessert. Mmmmm...

I even got to have a third Christmas, on the 28th, with more of Sean's family. On Christmas Eve, it was Sean, Joe, Linda, and his stepsister and three stepbrothers (and the 4th is in Spain, so he wasn't there). On the 28th, it was Sean, Joe, Linda, and Sean's two sisters and their families. We had brunch and then the family opened more presents. It was so much fun being able to watch the kids opening their presents! After the fun of opening presents were over, everyone got ready to go to church. Sean spoke in church because he is leaving soon for his mission. Tons and tons of people afterward told me what a great job he had done. I'm so proud of him.

Ha! I almost forgot to talk about my excitement trying to get home for Christmas! I was supposed to fly out on the last flight going to Oakland from Salt Lake City on Southwest on Wednesday night. Well...our flight was delayed, and then eventually canceled. There had been a snow storm in Las Vegas that day, and the plane and flight crew that were supposed to be flying us to California got stuck there because of three lousy inches of snow. We were able to scrape together a first officer, flight attendants, and a plane, but we couldn't find a pilot ANYWHERE who would be able to fly us! We were stuck. We were able to get seats on the 6:30am flight out the next morning, but by this point, it was after midnight, so we decided it would be ridiculous for us to get a hotel that night or have Laura come pick us up from the airport, so we had a giant slumber party in the "Fishbowl" (I guess it's actually called the Rotunda) in the Salt Lake Airport. The people working there basically unloaded a plane and gave us all the peanuts, drinks, other snacks, earplugs (wonderful, wonderful inventions!), blankets, and pillows we could ask for. Of course, no one slept really well because there wasn't any really comfortable place to sleep, but I got a couple of hours of sleep, at least. Sean and I were both pretty bummed that we wouldn't be able to see each other that night and would have to wait until morning. We got on our flight in the morning, and made it, uneventfully after that night. Seeing Sean again was awesome. My mom and dad took us straight from the airport to Pieter's house, where we picked him up and then we went to Country Waffles for breakfast, and Sean met us there! It was so nice seeing him again - I had missed him!

Sean and I got "elf-ed!"

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Sean and Me

Sean came out to Utah to be with my family and me for Thanksgiving, and while he was out here, we decided to get some pictures professionally taken, so here they are!

Sean and Amy

Sean and Amy again

Me
(see the necklace he gave me before I went back to Utah for school this fall? Isn't it pretty?)

My wonderful, handsome boyfriend

This is definitely the picture he sent in to SLC with his mission papers...NOT!
(But he thought about it!)

And just so you know, we've been "officially" dating since 02/15/2008, and "unofficially" dating since about 12/20/2007. I love him so much!

Secrets

I HATE keeping secrets. I'll do it if I have to, but it's not fun, especially when the news is so wonderful! Well, I can finally tell one of the secrets I've been keeping to the whole world!

MY BABY SISTER (okay, my twin sister who is younger than me by a whole 30 seconds) IS ENGAGED!

I've known about it for three weeks, but I had to keep it a secret from everyone, including (and especially) Sean! Uh! So hard! But I did it, and Leslie and Pieter are now officially engaged.

Congratulations Leslie and Pieter! <3

Last Weekend

I went home last weekend! It was so nice just getting away for a while. I flew home Thursday night, and Sean picked me up from the airport. We drove across town (in Oakland! On the freeway, though) to Fentons, and then realized that it had closed 15 minutes prior to our arrival. Sad story. So we went to a 7-11 and got slurpees. Sean was laughing at me because there were too AMR (American Medical Response) ambulances parked outside it and I was spazzing out. I kind of have an obsession with ambulances. :)

We drove back to Pleasanton then, and went to Sean's house. I said hi to his family, hung out for a little while, and then drove Sean's car home so he wouldn't have to pick me up the next morning, as my car is in Utah!

Next day was Halloween and also Sean's stepdad's birthday. We had to go shopping for his birthday present, and we also went out to dinner (Outback). By the time we were done eating, both Sean and I were in a food coma and too full to go to Great America (amusement park) like we were planning that night (the park was open from 7pm-midnight), so we decided we would just go on Saturday. We went back to Sean's house and passed out candy to the trick-or-treaters, which was fun. I got to wear my Renaissance princess dress and Sean dressed up as a Jedi Knight. He had a way awesome costume! Oh, and we also got to go on a late-night adventure to the store because I didn't have any contact lens solution! So we went to Safeway and I got the stuff I needed, plus a movie - GATTACA. He bought a bag of Warheads that had 175 Warheads in it. Then we proceeded to act like little kids and eat some. The first ones weren't bad, but the second ones both got to us! I had my second one first, so he just laughed and laughed and laughed as I was dying from the sourness. Oh, but then I got to laugh at him as his second one nearly killed him. It was sweet, sweet revenge. I love it.

Saturday, I woke up, and it was RAINING! Dang it! Anyways, Sean had to work for a little bit this morning in Danville, so we drove up there together, and while he was working, I took his car up to Walnut Creek to the Kaiser hospital to get a flu shot after failing at getting one on Friday (long story). Sean's mom is a nurse up at the hospital there, so she was able to hook me up with one, which was so nice of her. Sean's family is wonderful! It was absolutely POURING when I was driving home, and Sean has this tiny little 2-seater car (a 1994 Civic del Sol), so it's not heavy at all, and we all know that I'm not very heavy. I hydroplaned like, four or five times, and everytime it was sooooooo scary. I was almost crying, I was so scared. So I called Sean and said, "Sean! We are NOT going to Great America! I would rather lose the money I already spent on tickets than DIE on our way down there." He agreed, and then we went and got new tires for his car because his were wearing out. Of course, while he was driving, he didn't have any problems with hydroplaning. It was just me. Luckily, though, he listened to me and fixed one of the problems as soon as he could. We had lunch while we were waiting for his car to get worked on at this place called Athens Burgers. It was so good! We had gyros and fried zucchini. Mmmmm...it was delicious, but so much food. Then we walked over to the Dublin Library and read a children's book and part of a comic book while we were waiting. I was exhausted, so he kept reading the comic books while I put my head down and took a little nap. Hmmm. What else did we do on Saturday? I can't remember.

On to Sunday! I got to sleep in an extra hour because of the time change! It was wonderful! I woke up on my own, without an alarm, at the time that I would have gotten up if I were going to my family's ward, so I decided to go with them. I went to Sacrament meeting with my parents, saw a bunch of old friends, and headed over to Sean's before the Tri-Valley Ward started. He wasn't even out of bed yet! Lazy bum. Anyways, we went to church, and because it was Fast Sunday, there was Break-the-Fast afterwards, and because it is November, it was a complete Thanksgiving dinner! It was amazing. And, just like a true Thanksgiving dinner, there were tons of desserts! So yummy. We also went to my house and had the leftovers from my mom and dad's dinner (steak wrapped in bacon!) and had a birthday party for MY dad, whose birthday was the Wednesday before. We had Maple Nut Cake, and it was gooooood. I went BACK over to Sean's and hung out with his family for a little while (and one of his sisters was in town with her baby), and I finally decided to go home because my flight was supposed to leave Oakland at 6:45 the next morning. Ew. Well, it was 1:45 before I got home, and then I had to pack all my stuff before I went to bed.

So I went to bed at 2:30, and set my alarm for 4:00 so I would have time to shower in the morning. My alarm went off, and I said to myself, "just a second longer..." and next thing I knew, it was 4:45 and Sean was calling me saying he would be there in ten minutes to take me to the airport. Alas, no shower that morning. So he drove me to the airport (what a sweet guy - he is NOT a morning person, but he did it for me), and I got to the airport with plenty of time to kill - I think I was at the gate an hour before my flight was supposed to leave. Anyways, I fell asleep as soon as we reached our cruising altitude, and then woke up less than a minute before we landed. It was beautiful. I was able to find my car with no problems, and then I drove back to Provo, where I took a shower once I got to my apartment. I went to class (and basically slept through both of them, so I shouldn't have even bothered going because I was so tired), and then came home and slept for a LONG time. And then slept a LONG time that night too. It was wonderful.

On Tuesday night, I got to go to the MTC for the Tuesday night devotional they have every week, and Sister Julie B. Beck was the speaker! She's the General Relief Society President (head of the church's women's organization), and she and her husband's messages were wonderful.

Nothing too exciting happened the rest of this week, besides getting to register for classes. I officially have the WORST schedule known to man. Except that I don't have class on Mondays.

Anyways, I need to go get ready for church, so I'll just say one more thing - BYU's football team won yesterday! We played San Diego State University and won 41-12, which wasn't all that surprising, but a win is still a win! Yay!

Have a good week, everyone!

YIPPEE!!!

This post was written on 10/30. I didn't have an internet connection at the time.

I am on top of the world right now! I have the best news!

I GOT INTO THE BYU NURSING PROGRAM!!!

I found out this afternoon via email...I wasn't expecting to find out until tomorrow! I really didn't think I was going to get in, especially after not getting accepted to the program last time I applied. I read the email as soon as I got it (I have this program that pops up when I get a new email and it includes a snippet of the text of the email, so I was reading it with bated breath when I opened it), and I let out a full-on little girl scream. Sheri heard me from her room, so I told her the fantastic news. I had to call my family right away and let them know, so I called Laura's house because Mom and Dad are visiting right now and staying with them, and had everyone get on speakerphone together. Well, darn it, they guessed what I was calling about before I could tell them! They were all so excited for me, and then Dad said something to the effect of, "You must be living right." I was so proud at that moment. Then I immediately got off the phone with them and called Aly and Leslie to tell them. I actually didn't call Sean because, guess what! I'm on an airplane right now flying to California to see him! I wanted to tell him in person! Anyways, so I am just floating on air right now (Southwest Airlines should give me a discount for making the plane easier to fly!) Anyways, I was so excited that I called one of my friends who was accepted to the program for this fall. I told her that I got in and that I was also going home to see Sean, and she said that I was having the most absolutely perfect day. So then once I got on the plane I called Sean and was telling him what Stephanie told me. He was all confused (remember, I hadn't told him that I had been accepted yet), and then he just flat out asked me if I had gotten in. I couldn't deny it or even hide my excitement. About ten seconds later, unfortunately, the flight attendants came on the intercom and told us to put our phones away, so I wasn't able to keep talking to him. But from what I heard, he's so excited for me and proud of me. He said that he'll never comment on how much time I spend doing BYU EMS (because believe me, he's commented on it before). Uh! I'm just so excited that I can't stand it! It feels like I'm just living in a dream right now. I actually did pinch myself to see if I was dreaming, but I'M NOT!!! It makes all of the tears, anguish, and stress that I've experienced since beginning to apply to the program the first time just kind of melt away and make them all so worth it. I have so much more appreciation for my acceptance than I would have had if I had gotten in my first try. I am so grateful for this second chance that I've been given. I know that this is what I need to be doing. My dreams of becoming a flight nurse are finally taking flight! (haha, pun intended...) Life is good.

Like I said earlier, I am headed home to hang out with Sean for the weekend! Tonight after my flight lands, he and I are going to Fenton's to get some ice cream, and tomorrow night (Halloween), we're going to Great America! We had bought tickets this summer to go, but the day we tried to go, the park was closed, so we had tickets that we needed to use up before the season is over (which is this Sunday). I'm not sure what else we'll be doing while I'm home, but I suspect that it will include a trip to San Francisco for dinner. Other than that, though, Sean's going to surprise me! Good thing I trust him, right? I'll be at home until ridiculously early Monday morning so I can get back to school and homework. You know, that "real world" stuff.

**Sorry if this post seems so disjointed, but I'm spazzing out about getting into the nursing program still...and I likely will be for a while yet to come!**

Let's see. So I know that I'm horrible at blogging frequently (both Aly and Laura have been bugging me to update it more often), and it's not because nothing is worth blogging about! So many good things have been happening this semester!

-I got a 96% on a Statistics test! I was sooooooo excited about that because, as you probably know, math is NOT my strong suit, and I've always had Dad around to help me with math. Well, he's 800 miles away and has never taken a Stats class, so he hasn't been able to help me.

-I got my hair cut at the Paul Mitchell Beauty School and I love it! It's just about shoulder-length now and one layer (except for where I'm growing out my bangs). It's super easy to take care of!

-Leslie is going to move into my apartment when we come back after Christmas break! I have a good feeling about it. I hope we'll be able to get along, and I think things will work out. Living apart this semester (farther than 30 yards away, unlike last year) has proven to be a little bit of a challenge sometimes. I miss her!

-Laura gave birth to her third son on October 9th. Miles Samuel belnap entered the world at 7:45pm, weighing 7 lbs 4 oz and 19.5 inches long. I got to visit Laura and him in the hospital before he was even a full day old! He was so tiny and adorable. Scratch that. He still IS tiny and adorable!

-Well, this one won't sound like a good thing at first, but bear with me for a second. Three weeks ago tomorrow I was running while on duty for EMS and was responding to a call. I was trying to run around a corner and was wearing slippery shoes on a marble floor. Bad idea, let me tell you. I slipped and fell, landing right on my left hand. The good news here is that it is NOT broken! After two trips to visit a doctor and two sets of x-rays, it was diagnosed as a "deep bone bruise," whatever that means. I didn't know that ones themselves could get bruised! It sill hurts when I'm doing things with that hand and it hurts to bear weight on it, so I've been wearing a splint everyday, but at least it's not broken!

-Sean got his mission call! He has been called to serve as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for two years in the Texas Houston Mission! He reports to the Missionary Training Center (MTC) on January 7th, and he will be serving in Spanish! He doesn't know any Spanish as of right now, but he'll learn!

(Have I mentioned yet how happy and excited I am to have gotten into the nursting program and to be going home right now???)

Sorry, told you I'm spazzing out about it. But that's to be expected, right? Most of you would probably be worried if I wasn't, I think!

YAY! Only 50 more minutes until we land in Oakland! So only like an hour until I get ot see Sean!

Funny story. The person I am sitting next to is from my home ward! How crazy is that? He came to Utah just for the day to drop his stepson off. What a small world! It's a beautiful thing.

Anyways, this post is long enough for now. I'm just so thankful for all of my wonderful, wonderful blessings. like I said earlier, I know that LIFE IS GOOD.