twenty twelve in review.

JANUARY

When I went to The Holy Land,
met and roomed with some of my favorite people in the whole world,
and went to Petra in Jordan.

FEBRUARY

When I helped plan the "Arab dinner,"

it was really windy,

and the Russian-Swede-Asian became an unlikely trio.

(how unlikely?...just ask Vlad. ;))

MARCH

When it snowed on the Dome of the Rock,

I went to Turkey, 

 spent 10 days on the Sea of Galilee,

participated in the Palm Sunday Walk, 

and discovered mint lemonade.

(Oh how I miss it.)

APRIL

When I bike rode through Tel Aviv and ate my first cheeseburger in months,

 went to a "Sun Rise, Son Rise" service on Easter at the Garden Tomb, 

finally put a prayer in the Western Wall, 

and had a Farewell-Jerusalem photoshoot with my Jerusalem roommates.

MAY

When I put the finishing touches on the Total Pillow Infomercial,

the addition on our house got carpeted,

and when I listened to Tim and Cameron's mission stories for hours.

  

JUNE

When Daniel graduated high school, 

I bought my very own car,

and I got a job as a tour guide of BYU.

JULY

When it was much too hot to sleep indoors so we took our mattresses outside,

and when I finally got to camp out for the 4th of July Parade.

AUGUST

When my cousin Kierstin stayed with me for a couple days,

 I turned 21,

I was finally reunited with my jerusalem roommates,

 won GOLD in the synchronized swimming competition,

my best friend/cousin/ex-roommate got married,

and when I got an unhealthy addiction to Hokulia shave ice.

SEPTEMBER 

When I taught Kindergarteners PE and had a blast doing it,

when I participated in the Dirty Dash in Midway, UT.

OCTOBER

When we celebrated the first marriage from our Jerusalem group,

 I went to Colorado (twice),

and survived visiting the scariest house I've ever been inside in my life.

NOVEMBER

When I went home for thanksgiving

and we ordered sushi for 24 people.

(Oh my delicious.)

DECEMBER

When we stopped at the Reno temple on our way to Utah,

wished everyone a very hairy Christmas,

and went to see the lights at temple square.  

It truly has been an INCREDIBLE year,

I can't wait to see what 2013 has in store!

Oh what a life I'm livin',

Scared Silly

Tomorrow I will be teaching a kindergarten class for P.E. 

Only 30 minutes...it can't be that bad right?! 

I'm terrified. 

Who knew Kindergarteners could be so scary? 

(They're really not, I'm just a scardy-cat.)

At least I have my whistle, and my very official-looking picture badge complete with finger print...

So if nothing else....I'll LOOK legit :) 

Oh what a life I live! 

SPLAT. And then a Christmas Miracle.

Today was probably one of the most stressful days 

of my entire life.

I stayed up entirely too late last night

working on a Christmas present for 

my dear friend and beloved roommate, Erikka

who I will not see again for a very very long time :(

(Even though she says we won't see each other ever again, I refuse to believe it!)

Around 4:30ish (a.m) I was done and I went to sleep.

This is what the final product looked like:

Surprise! Erikka, if you're reading this...I'm going to get a real copy for you real soon :)

I still had a lot of packing/odds and ends to do 

so I knew I was going to need to get up pretty early.

I got up around 8:30 and then actually got out of bed around 9.

I started packing.

I returned some stuff to work (keys, etc).

I sent my collage for Erikka to the printer so I could pick it up later.

I continued packing.

And packing. 

And packing.

But no matter how much packing I did, 

no matter how many suitcases I stuffed

or boxes I filled,

the amount of stuff that still needed to be packed appeared to be never ending! 

Around 1:30 I started getting frantic.

My grandparents were coming to get me at 2:00 to take me to the airport

and I wasn't nearly ready.

Who knew packing would take SOOO long?! 

Obviously, this packing took much longer than the typical

I'll-just-be-home-for-two-weeks packing.
Since I won't be returning to Provo after Jerusalem 

(I'll be coming straight home to California) 

I needed to have EVERYTHING packed that I want at home for next summer!

Plus, I was trying to get mostly packed for Jerusalem at the same time. 

Just take my word for it...it was crazy.

And stressful.

I asked Madi to pick up my picture collage for Erikka,
she agreed to do so (she's the absolute BEST!)
but of course the printer was down and they said they wouldn't have it ready until tomorrow!
(Which doesn't do me any good because now I'm already gone...)

At about 1:50 p.m.

I remembered that I still had to turn in my application 

for the Elementary Education Program.
The application is due while I'm in Jerusalem but they told me to turn it in before I left to go home. 

(...in 10 minutes.)

My grandparents came and by 2:10 we had the car loaded.

But I still had to go turn in the El Ed application!

I ran as fast as I possibly could to the Mckay Building.

Upon arriving, I realized to complete my bewilderment

I needed to be finger printed.

Faaaantastic.

I whizzed through the paperwork faster than humanly possible.
Then I waited...

(for what seemed like forever)

for them to process the paper work, enter the information, 

and then call me back to be finger printed.

First the right hand: index finger through pinkie all at the same time.

then right thumb.

Then left hand: index finger through pinkie.
left thumb.

Then....each finger individually:
left pinkie.
left index finger.
left middle finger.
left pointer finger....
. . . .

...SERIOUSLY?! I have a plane to catch people!! 

Fiiiinally I was done.

I ran upstairs to turn in the application 

and was out of there quick as a whip.
As I was running back down the stairs...

I lost my footing for a split second.

 "Wouldn't it just be so perfect if I fell right now?"

I thought to myself cynically.
Luckily, I didn't.

I caught myself and used the stumble as an opportunity to propel myself even faster forward.

I burst through the doors, 

feeling like a rock star, all I have to do is make it back to the car
so we can get to the airport when

SPLAT.

 I'm on the ground.  

Apparently, my over-confidence in catching myself on the stairs inside

only set me up for failure when on the stairs outside.

...So I fell. 

And I fell HARD.

I didn't take a lot of time to look around

I know at least four people saw it happen.
They all stopped dead in their tracks,
watching. 
One guy letting out an audible "woah! what the?!"

Another guy was standing with in two feet of me,

struggling with difficultly not to burst in to laughter asked,

"Are you okay?!!"

I couldn't blame him....if I had seen someone do what I had just done
I would have laughed until I cried. 
No joke! 

Under normal circumstances, I would have laughed too.

But these were not normal circumstances.
I had a plane to catch.

I did not laugh.
I didn't even smile (weird! I know, right?!).

I inhaled a barely audible "I'm fine thanks." 
And. I RAN.

Adrenaline pumping, 
hair raging,
I ran all the way back to the car.

...Finally we were off,
about 40 minutes behind schedule.
It was now 2:38. We had an hour's drive ahead of us,
and my flight was scheduled to take off at 4:00 p.m.,
sharp.

The odds were looking grim.
My grandma said that she'd looked up other possible flights
and since I was likely going to miss mine,
the next one was leaving 6:00 a.m. the following morning.
She suggested that if I miss the flight I spend the night at my Aunt an Uncle's in Bountiful
and then take the flight early the next morning.

 Now, there is something you should know about me:
I am not a crier.
As a matter of fact,
my roommates often tease me about my heartlessness/lack-of-crying.
Granted, there have been times in my life when I was 'more prone to cry',
but recently this has not been the case.
However, as stated previously,

today was not a normal day.

And so the tears came

...and came they did indeed.

Just as I was ready to admit defeat and positive I was going to miss my flight

I got a text.

From

645-53

Huh? That's not a number I have in my phone...

"SWA Flight 2003 from SLC is delayed. The new departure time is 4:20 PM. Flight times are subject to change. Please check airport monitor for update." 

 

A Christmas Miracle.

You may say it was just a mere coincidence,

but it was more than that.

I know it was more than that.

It was a tender mercy.

Heavenly Father was looking out for me. 

From that point on...the day got a million times better. 

I made it to the airport just in time.

Checked my bags (they were each 47 pounds...another miracle!)

Went through security (there was no line...that never happens) 

and got to the gate just as the B 1-30s were starting to line up. 

(I was B 27.)

Even though I didn't have time to shower and I looked quite scary...

even though I lost my lucky penny when I took my boot off before going through security...

even though my arms were losing circulation and felt like they were going to fall off because my backpack was so heavy...

even though all I had eaten the whole day was a few chocolate chip cookies from my home teachers (thanks guys!)

even though I had to throw away my favorite pair of scissors because I forgot they were still in my backpack...

It was a GREAT day.

A miraculous day.

It only got better when I had the privlege of sitting next to the most adorable little boy and his mom.

(Who I randomly found out is twins with a girl that works in Helaman...gotta love connections!)

Pictures are necessary:

Sadly I couldn't find my camera so I had to take pictures on my phone...Obviously he was shaking his head. Lol.

Even though it has been extremely stressful, 

today was a wonderful day. 

I am so grateful for the knowledge I have that Heavenly Father is mindful of each of us.

I am 100% convinced He was watching out for me today.

Now, I am home.

And SO happy to be here :) 

 It is truly a Christmas Miracle. 

 

Good Morning, Bad Morning

Yesterday, was a good morning.

I was awakened by a phone call at about 7:00 a.m.

47 minutes before my alarm. 

'Daniel Calling.' Huh? Weird. 

(...he never calls me, haha)

I answered only to find that it was a pocket dial 

(at least I'm assuming -- I only heard silence on the other end).

Usually i don't mind getting woken up to phone calls

 because i never have much of a problem falling back to sleep. 

But yesterday morning i was actually grateful.

  I had wanted to get up early

(partially due to a particularly persuasive speech in my public speaking class the day before)

 and i was already awake enough so i figured i might as well use the time productively! 

I read the Book of Mormon for 30 minutes

 (a daily goal i sent this past February that i haven't been doing too well at lately.) 

I did some homework. 

I responded to some emails i had been avoiding (work stuff).

I caught up on a few guiltily pleasure TV shows that will remain nameless.

I even made Banana pancakes.

Pardon my tie-dye shirt. Pardon my hair. Pardon my abnormally large forehead.
 Mainly just focus on how happy i look to have those FABULOUS banana pancakes. 

They were delicious. 

To top it ALL off...i ACTUALLY got ready. 

(..let's just say...this semester I've been a liiiitle lax in the "getting ready" department..

....I think I've probably done my hair maybe 10 times..? haha. oops...) 

Today, was a bad morning.

I was awakened by a text at about 6:40 a.m.

It was Cory. (One of my council members.)

I don't usually wake up to texts but for some reason I woke up to this one.

This text told me my email account had been hacked. 

Fantastic.

I immediately went to my computer and this is what i saw:

ARABIC.

Luckily, i happened to have my gmail account still opened in another window so i was able to switch it back to English without too much hassle.

I quickly changed my password and then I went to Facebook to update my status and inform my friends (100s of which "I" emailed) that I was NOT in stuck in the UK, and NOT mugged, and NOT being yelled at by an angry hotel manager. 

While I was doing this, seriously the freakiest thing happened. 

I saw "myself" chatting with people. 

Lots of people.

Every single one of my FB friends that just so happened to be online! 

"I" would say "hey" or "hi" and then when they responded.

 "I" would say "I'm in trouble. I need help."

Yes, you understood that right. 

I was WATCHING "myself" FB chat with my friends...

 while my hands weren't even touching the keyboard.

I immediately updated my status again informing everyone that my Facebook account was also hacked and the person (thing?/computer? robot?) was NOT me!! 

The next hour and a half (give or take) was spent trying to recover my gmail and facebook.

I don't want to bore you with the details,

(though they are quite dramatic and interesting/creepy if you ask me)

 but just a word from the

 not-so-wise-who-has-recently-wised-up:

DO NOT HAVE THE SAME PASSWORD FOR YOUR EMAIL AND FACEBOOK.

Long story short, the hackers changed my FB password locking ME out of the account!!

 I was able to answer a series of security questions so eventually FB temporarily shut down my account and texted me a security code that I used to reactivate it and change my password.

Meanwhile, they (the hackers) changed the security question on my gmail!!

 "what is your library card number?" 

I don't even have a library card here!! 

(okay, I do. I've used it twice...)

I would never set that as a question!

Eventually I was able to get gmail to also send a verification code to my mobile device, too.

(I'm lucky I had that information programmed into both of those things

 or i literally don't think i would have ever been able to get control of my accounts back)

ONE MORE IMPORTANT THING:

Although I was able to get access to my accounts back, the hackers did a few other tricky (and incredibly scary/creepy things). They created an email address called hannah.flinder@gmail.com and set up my email address to FORWARD ALL emails to that account!! Luckily I caught this trick, BUT the account "hannah.flinder@gmail.com still exists and has ALL of my contacts' information!! 

SOOO: IF YOU RECEIVE A SUSPICIOUS EMAIL FROM ME, BE SURE IT IS NOT FROM HANNAH.FLINDER!!!!!!!!!!!

(I'm sorry for the yelling text. i don't mean to be rude, that part is just really important.) 

Okay, I think that rant is over. 

But sadly my "bad morning" was not.

I had intended to use my precious hours this morning to finish an assignment for my art class (VAEDU360...visual art education for El Ed majors).

But this set back was...well....a set back!

I was still able to get most of my assignment done on time, 

but then I remembered that my teacher told us we'd get extra credit if we brought food! 

If you know me, you know I love a lot of things;

extra credit and food being near the top of the list.

(i don't know if that semi-colon is being used correctly, i just wanted to use one.)

I was quite pleased to discover 

that i had all the makin's for no bake cookies! 

So I made them. 

Then I put them on foil and waited for them to "set."

I waited....

and waited.....

and waited...

You know that saying "a watched-pot never boils"?

Well I guess the same thing goes for "watched-no-bake cookies never set." 

Finally I gave up.

 I rolled up those gooey messes in the tin foil and took them to class.

25 minutes late.

Yes, I was almost 30 minutes late for class..

...because my extra credit wasn't done in time.

Ironic, no?

Well, all in all. Some mornings are good, and some are...less than desirable. 

But even then,

that shouldn't stop us from being

 "merry happy"

:)