I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu.

A few years ago, Kris and I were talking about a rumor we heard that soda is better in Mexico. This led to many plans of road trips to Mexico just to drink a Pepsi. Years later the Todds went on a cruise and Kris brought back a Mexican coke. After a few more months, we were in the same state as each other, and the coke, and finally drank it. It was a "check off the bucket list" and sort of simultaneously started my "bucket list". (BUT I am creeped out by Jack Nicholson and refuse to watch The Bucket List or call my list a bucket list.)
My 'Life's to Do' list has formed and grown since the Mexican coke in 2009, but I have not had many more checks. Haven't been to Australia or read Les Miserables or had a willow tree in my backyard. But this summer another was checked! Seeing Wicked! I have been wanting to see Wicked since my sophomore year of High School when we sang a medley of songs from the musical in choir. I have been listening to the music since then and trying to figure out the story line. When Kris was going to be in NYC and I was going to visit her, I knew Wicked needed to be involved. It was AMAZING! There were multiple important points in the plot you do not get from just the CD. It was so much fun and we had a lot of fun before it started taking pictures and singing the songs!

 Drinking Mexican Coke June 2009

Wicked May 2011

 

I added 'wear stilettos in New York City' so that was another check.

One thing I never planned on doing in my life was to serve a mission. It may not have been on my list but that is where I'm headed now. So there is now a whole 18 months for Heather to out blog me! (Although I don't think that counts as her winning). I think its good for me to get out and do things I haven't done before whether I have to add them to my Life's To Dos as incentive or almost literally am pushed to by Heavenly Father. So I'll be back in 18months. I'll end this with my address and a video from the night seeing Wicked (Kris is the singer of our friendship... I'm the one that knows the actual lyrics of songs).

 MTC Address (Nov 16- Dec7ish)
Sister Nicole Kathryn Swanson
MTC Mailbox #352
GA-ATL 1213
2005N 900E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

General Atlanta Address/ Packages
Sister Nicole Kathryn Swanson
Georgia Atlanta Mission
112 Governors Square Ste A
Fayetteville, GA 30215-4085

Pictures of you, Pictures of me

Well I think that my goal of writing more than Heather isn't quite a lost cause but that's thanks to her. It has been so long since I wrote a blog that I don't think I'm really fulfilling that goal...
A lot has happened this summer that I don't even know where to begin. I love pictures though and I'm thinking this will just be a picture blog recap of the summer.

I spent time with family and getting to know Kyra and Clayton.

I went to NYC and visited Kristin. Walked through Central Park, went to the Met, ate at great restaurants, played in the Harry Potter exhibit, bought street food, went to the Manhattan temple, and most importantly went to Wicked!

(She said this picture could never be on facebook... this isn't facebook.)

I worked at PPLMontana

Kaden and I worked really hard....

I helped pick out a wedding dress for my best friend and then watched her get married.

I visited friends

And more friends

And I found the adapter card so I can upload pictures from my phone and now have classics like these on my computer.

It's My Life

Life is interesting. Mine isn't too exciting but then again maybe it is to some.
I am now gallbladder-less and enjoying drinking milk. The first gallon that I bought since being back I finished in a week all by myself. Well, technically six days. I missed it and it tasted so good! I'm conserving my current one a little more so I hopefully wont have to buy a gallon every week.
The semester isn't looking too bad right now and hopefully it stays that way. Thursdays and Fridays I only have two classes so they are my study days. Real exciting. But yesterday I was able to witness a girl in the library that was knitting and then a minute later I looked over and she was leaning sideways asleep. or fainted. Its very difficult to tell in the library! Recently along with studying, I have been working on my applications to three different internships. One in Missouri, another in Indiana, and the last in Tennessee. So hopefully this summer will be spend somewhere cool, for free, earning money, and see if I really want to do research for the rest of my life. If not, I guess I will move on to plan B... when I decide what that is.
Weekends are pretty exciting in our apartment though. Kerissa can stay up later than 9pm and... we watch wedding videos on the blog Iris and Light (this happened tonight and last sunday). Oh sometimes we sing Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer and then have a heated discussion about what the last echo is supposed to be. Pretty fun stuff. But great roommate bonding time! I do get out every once in a while too. Don't worry mom! ...and Josh... and Andelynn!
Last week I found out I have a whole in my chest. I was showing Kerissa my gallbladder battle wounds for whatever reason and she asked, "Do you have an innie?" I of course thought she was talking about my bellybutton, but no she meant my chest. I guess it is abnormal to have a little hole thing in the middle towards the bottom of your sternum. huh. I seriously thought everyone had that. Although, that probably explains why I claimed I had an extra set of ribs all my life, as the hole does make them stick out awkwardly. See mom, something wasn't right! I was just blaming my ribs instead of my sternum. It is called Pectus Excavatum. I've lived with it this long so obviously I'm not going to die, its just interesting.
So that is pretty much it. I'm realizing I'm more abnormal than I thought, I live in the library when not home or in classes, I watch cute videos and listen to music waiting for a boy to come sit on my bed while I'm doing homework(Josh for some reason said this wouldn't happen), and trying to decide between writing my papers how I want or how my puffed-up professor writes (she is perfect and all should write as exactly as she does).

Not much but hey, it's my life and I'm enjoying it!