The Merriest Place on Earth

Before too much time passes I decided I better post 

about Disneyland.

Over break I had the privilege of going two different days. 

One day with just my sister Miriam,

and another day with my mom, Daniel and Miriam. 

It's crazy to think that the last time I was in Disneyland I was in 7th grade,

marching down Mainstreet with the Sullivan Celtics Marching Band!

(that trip was so much fun.)

I can't believe it's been that long!

(I have been to Disney World twice in the meantime, though

so i can't complain :)) 

It was especially fun to go now because they already had their Christmas decorations up 

and changed their tagline from "the happiest place on earth" to 

"the merriest place on earth." 

(a pretty hefty claim, if you ask me!)

But, I'd say it way pretty merry :)

Sadly, I don't have many pictures because a lot of them are on my mom's camera

so I'll have to add those later....

but here are a few:

Me and Mim...she looks like she is wearing Matterhorn as a hat ;)

I think this was taken after the Snow White ride . . . that ride has always scared me.

Right before Star Tours.

So...you know how everyone loves the Buzz Lightyear game/ride? Well....apparently it doesn't like me so much...(Daniel's score is the one on the left....the other is...well, mine. hahaha)

This is the new Toy Story game/ride [In California Adventure]. It is WAY more fun (than Buzz Lightyear)...maybe just because i am actually decent at it ;) I had to take this picture because I actually beat Miriam and I thought it wise to get some photo evidence :) ...Daniel creamed us both though. haha

Overheard at Disneyland:

[This first one I heard while I was waiting for the Aladdin show to start. [the show was fantastic by the way] The girls behind me were probably 12 or 13...DEFINITELY old enough to know better....]

 Girl 1: "What's our country again?"

Girl 2: "Sacramento." 

Mom : "Our country is USA, dear. The capitol of California is Sacramento."

 Girl 1: "ohhhhh ya. ....cuz when I was filling out that paper it asked for my address, so I put it, but then it asked for the country and I couldn't remember so I just left it blank! haha"

(a minute later)

Girl 1: "What coast do we live on again? East Coast? South Coast...?"

Mom: "East Coast, dear,"

[Next to the Tea Cups:]

Mom: "How about we do the tea cups?"

17(ish) year old son:  "NO."

[After Star Tours:]

Little girl: "Where did that spaceship take us, mommy?!

I want to go back to Disneyland!!!"

  

Spot the Mormons. 

This is a popular game I like to play whenever I'm, well...not it Utah. :) I used to play it all the time when i worked at In-N-Out...and at Costa Vida...and at the Hampton Inn...hahaha.

Okay okay, so I play this game a lot. 

  It's a personal fav :)

At Disneyland though,

it's hard to tell because you don't really talk to anyone, 

so instead it turned into

"Spot the families with BYU paraphanilia"

Monday (Mim counted, I was still in Utah): 15 (families)

Tuesday (Mim counted, I was still in Utah): 12 (families)

Wednesday: 10 (families) 

Friday: (13 families)

(obviously there were much more than that, but those are the ones we saw.) 

Overall, it was a fun trip! 

It was great to go to Disneyland, 

but really it was just great to hang out with my family!

(mock if you must, but I'm serious :))

Now i just have to get through the next 15 days...

...that doesn't seem so bad, does it?!

Thanksgiving.

This wonderful sign was made by the lovely Hadley. (Crooked hand-turkey courtesy of Madi :))

I was lucky enough to be able to come down to my Aunt's

in Southern California and spend this Thanksgiving day with lots of family! 

It's been great!

I'm already dreading going back to reality on Monday

(and back to my 12 page essay due on Tuesday...boo.)

Though there's lots to tell about the past few days...

I'll mainly just focus on today. 

First off. 

Meet: 

The Table.

Sarah "The Camera Loves Me" Jensen.

Mckay "I just want some Jello" Gordon.

Miriam "I'm going to hate this picture anyway" Flinders.

Campbell "Jazz Hands" Gordon.

Hadley "The Thinker" Gordon.

Madison "I'm not as innocent as I look" Gordon.
(bwahaha. she's gonna kill me for that one...)

And me: Hannah "I'm in love with that orange cup" Flinders.

There were some great times during dinner,
(is it still considered dinner if you eat at 2:30?)
including a spontaneous Justin Bieber performance:

(this one's my favorite)

 

Some delicious food:

and don't forget the centerpiece grandma made!! 

Is that a banana?!

Some particularly memorable conversations include:

--brainstorming and deciding on the nicknames you see above :)

-- "Are you going black shopping with us?"

and a crowd favorite:

"That roll-that roll-that roll!!....the dog licked it!!"

 

After the food settled, 

it was time

FOR PIE.

so many choices!!

It wasn't hard for me to decide though :) Pecan, Cream Cheese (a homemade cheesecake) and KEY LIME of course!!

 Overall, it was a great day! 

I'm thankful for family.

For good food.

For the opportunity I had to come spend this holiday with my family and extended family. 

I'm thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the joy it brings into my life. 

And, I'm thankful for my camera so I was able to share these memories with all of you :)

(as well as preserve them for the future.) 

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Perfect Evening

Saturday,

I was able to attend the wedding reception

of my good friend 

(and roommate from last year)

Sara! 

The previous friday night 

(11-11-11) 

I was honored to help plan and host her bachelorette party 

(along with Brittany and Christine). 

Christine had the great idea to make it a classy/mocktail party event

and though I'll admit I was slightly skeptical,

(and it was a lot of work to pull off)

  I thought it turned out really well!

First, these are the invitations I made

(with the help of Andrea's boyfriend Jordan..thanks Jordan!!) 

(i removed my address...i don't want stalkers ;) baha.)

Here are some pictures of the set up:

(thank you sooo much Andrea and Brittany for your help!!)

Brittany was testing out how the backdrop would look on the wall.

the almost completed "picture wall". If you know Sara, you know how much she loves her pictures ;)

Andrea definitely has the artistic eye. She was able to help make the place look AMAZING.

and the food and "margarita" tables....

(everyone knows you can't have a good party without good food! ;))

A few more various pictures of the evening...

the whole group!

(It's official. My neck is comparable to that of a giraffe's.)

me and the bride to be :)

don't worry. it's just soda! :)

One of the most memorable parts?

Well,

when the party was over,

Christine wanted to return some of the stuff

we didn't end up using for decorations.

The problem?

We couldn't find the receipt.

  I thought it may have been accidentally thrown away.

The solution?

DUMPSTER DIG.

I thought of a plan.

I got our broom and lifted out one bag out at a time,

(using the broom handle and the loops on top of the bags)

then searched the contents of the bag

to see if it was indeed the trash from my apartment. 

how do you like those "longer-than-the-average-female-gorilla"-arms in action? ;)

We couldn't find a flashlight (with working batteries) so we used the camera flash to be able to see inside the trashcan.

Just like fishin'!

SUCCESS!!!..well, sorta..

After a few attempts

we were able to locate the correct trash!

...but the receipt wasn't in there...

(Christine had it back at her apartment all along. hahaha)

Overall, the evening was perfect! 

and of course I made a wish at 11:11 a.m. AND 11:11 p.m.
(for those of you who claim that 11:11 p.m. doesn't count i beg to differ :))

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"

:)

BREAKING NEWS: GLOZELL IN PROVO

Today i saw the following video posted on facebook:

SHE WAS IN PROVO?!!?!???? OH my. That is soo cool! I totally recognize that girl working at the creamery, too. Man!! If ONLY i had just to happened to be at the creamery on saturday!! [But the alternative of being in Logan with my wonderful sister, Rebekah, brother in law and adorable niece and nephew was pretty awesome too ;)]

Anyway, i seriously cannot believe this right now! i just had to inform all of you. Stephen is going to FREAK out when i tell him, haha.

[if you don't know Glozell already. PLEASE watch some of her videos. She is absolutely hysterical.]

Not So 'Halloweeny'

I didn't dress up for Halloween this year.

not because i didn't have the chance to, 

but because i simply chose not to.

I was actually really excited about not dressing up.

I've always thought Halloween was overrated,

it's definitely one of my least favorite hollidays.

I continued with this anti-halloween excitement--

even as i attended, "Helamanoween."

(Helamanoween was an event I helped staff for work.

I was one of the people in charge--

so i could get away with not wearing a costume.)

Right?

Right.

So...what was the problem?

At one point i caught myself thinking of ideas
for a potential costume next year. . .

I had to stop myself!!! 

This can't be right. 

I DON'T LIKE HALLOWEEN.

Do i?

I suppose maybe deep down, a part of me misses dressing up. . .

(let's face it, my spirit days outfits were always the best... ;))

I don't know at what point i started feeling sad that i didn't do anything Halloween-y.

Maybe it was while i was looking through facebook pictures of other's clever costumes?

(slutty ones not included.)

Or seeing the creativity of costumes at the Helaman dance?

I don't know, 

but i suppose i will have to make up for it

next year.

IN MY DEFENSE. i wasn't a total halloween dud.

Being FHE mom i was able to incorporate some Halloween-ish activities,

which were, well:

"tons and tons and tons of fun" ;)

[Thanks Dallin!]

I also got to do something i've been wanting to do for a while now! 

I put pintrest to the test! 

I actually DID something i found on pintrest!!! 

though, i don't know if my attempt was quite as successful as theirs was....

what did we do???

PUMPKIN BOWLING. 

I decorated rolls of toilet paper like little ghosts. (like this):

[wrapping in seran wrap is optional. . .

i didn't want to waste precious toilet paper!

i am a college student after all. . . ]

Set them up like this:

and then using a pumpkin with holes cut in the side (like a bowling ball) 

we bowled at the little ghosts!! 

(it's hard to see...but it was like this):

SUCCESS!!

 

 We are a happy family :)