I Love Thursdays.

Thursday is when I usually put my life back together. After a crazy week, I finally have a little time to clean and organize and breathe. It was especially so today because I've been sick and needed to catch up on homework and wash my hair for the first time in a few days.

The moon was full and gorgeous tonight. Noelle dubbed it a love-moon because it's not harvest time and it's my celebrity boyfriend's birthday.

I'm still not feeling great, but it's been a great day. 

Crap. I still have school tomorrow. Arrrgh.

Something Finally Gave.

Today was probably the most productive I've been in a long time. I feel like myself again--not like a zombie. The apartment is clean. I made dinner. I'm getting caught up on my homework. I let a stranger give me a hug and take a picture with me. All without makeup on. Huzzah.

There's More to it than Blood.

We spent all day today cleaning because we had company coming. Our house is strangely immaculate.

But now the Morgans are here!  It's so funny to watch the boys with the seven little girls running around our house. They clearly adore them. When Lyla walks by the table, Dallin puts his hand on the corner so that she doesn't hit her head on it.

What our families have is something special. When my mom was little, Hugh and Luana babysat her and took her to church with them. She went on to babysit their six boys--my "uncles" Brent, Neil, Geoff, Steven, Kevin, and Alan. They look to her like their big sister. The Morgans are almost more than family. I don't think any of us can imagine how things would be without each other.

Unfortunately, not all the Morgans are here tonight. Work kept Alan up in San Jose, but Chami, Kendra, Kylinn and Lyla are here. Brent and Leti are here with Sadie, Lexi, Kaylana and Vanessa. Hugh and Luana are here. Neil, Katie, and Parker will be here Saturday. So will Kevin and Teri and Kirra and Tanner. And Steven. We're gonna miss Geoff and Emily and Jackson and Natalie and Staci.

Chami just found the fake snake Dallin put in her suitcase. Chami hates snakes. Just another night with the Morgans.

Extreme Makeover: Bedroom Edition, YSA Conference, and BiF Prom!

I can be either the neatest or messiest person in the world, depending on the day. So my room either looks like it did on Sunday night when I got home from YSA Conference:

Or the way it looks now:

Hopefully I'll be able to keep it this way!

Speaking of YSA Conference, it was a BLAST! I think it's really changed me for the better. It was a statewide conference, but we met up by temple district. The Redlands Temple District met in Riverside.

This is Andrea and Chelsea during lunch, right before the speed dating started. Due to a shortage of men, there were some points in the speed dating where there would be one guy to two or three girls. I met a few guys one on one who were really cool, though.

We had AMAZING speakers who really put some new perpective on the Atonement, covenants, and prophets, and the sacrament. Saturday night we did a service project, tying quilts. The conference website doesn't have any pictures of that up yet, but I met some really awesome people like Taylor, Brian, Nyles, and Carlos doing that. We all talked about politics and southern accents (Brian served his mission in Missouri) and whether or not it is sissy for boy scouts to tie quilts for their Eagle projects.

Me and Katie, a girl from my stake. We're the same age and were KITs, Counselors, and YCLs together at Girls Camp. She's schizophrenic and has been through the foster care system her whole life. She's had a hard life, but she is SO sweet. I love Katie.

Me, Taylor, and Andrea at the dance. Not the best picture, but we like it.

And the night before THAT was BiF Prom. Dennis had gone home the day before, but we still had a good time.

from left to right: Caitlyn (owBiF), Diana (obBiF), Me (fBiF), Chris (wBiF), Liz (aBiF), and Kyle (hBiF)

We started out at the Cheesecake Factory for dinner.

the oBiFs

a blurry Kyle

Liz was my "scrub" in junior high when I was in 8th grade and she was in the 7th.

Me and my sister-brother! Chris is like the cool sister I never had. Chris has three brothers, but to him, I'm like the cool brother he never had, so I'm his brother-sister.

Liz got a tiny little plate.

I got me a BIG bowl of pasta.

And of course, it's not a trip to Cheesecake Factory without Cheesecake.

Kyle and Liz didn't want any, but Chris, Diana, and Caitlyn shared a slice of Stephanie's Ultimate Red Velvet Cheesecake™. The Cheesecake Factory website describes it as "Moist layers of Red Velvet Cake and our Original Cheesecake covered with our special Cheesecake Factory cream cheese frosting. 25¢ from the sale of each slice will be donated to Feeding America, the nation's food bank network." They let me have a bite and it was delicious.

And I got a slice of Vanilla Bean Cheesecake. Again from the website: "Layers of Creamy Vanilla Bean Cheesecake, Vanilla Mousse and Whipped Cream." This is my new favorite. mmmmm.

After dinner we took pictures outside the restaurant.

Diana and me

I ♥ Caitlyn!

We earned lots of weird looks for our formal dress. We didn't care.

Then we went to Kyle's house for hot tubbin', movie watchin', guitar hero-in', and lots of junk food. Driving there was quite the adventure.

Caitlyn and I took offense to some of Diana's jokes.

and some of Chris's.

We also blasted silly music and sang along to it while driving down a major street. Caitlyn has yet to upload that video, which only has Taylor Swift's "Love Story." Also on our playlist was "Bye Bye Bye" and "Make a Man Out of You" from Disney's Mulan.

Overall, an excellent weekend.