oh christmas tree.

We may very well be one of the ONLY people with a Christmas tree in Tahiti. Not too many others do I don't think. This was stuffed in the garage of our house and we managed to force it together and throw some of the rad decorations on it that were already here as well. We also brought some of our favorite ornaments from home. One of my very, very favorite family traditions is that we buy a new ornament each year to represent something significant of the year. (i.e. a darling Mr. & Mrs. Claus for when my parents were married, something for when the kids were born, a thing for a new house, moving etc. etc.) This year it was, obviously, moving to Tahiti and the mish. We went shopping for that yesterday and we now have two options for what we're going to use, and that is still under discussion. Hmmm... But anyway, that's me putting up one of the yearlys. 

 

Okay, we thought this was hilarious. We went to Carre Four and they were selling this "snow powder." Since they can't have the real thing I guess that's as close as they're going to get! I was half tempted to buy it. But not really.

 

Gotta love our family felt advent calendar. Every night we sing a Christmas Carol and put up the next corresponding ornament. It's crazy, in years past sometimes we've found our schedules too busy to do this with consistency - but now that it is one of our only Christmas-ey things in our lives we've found ourselves clinging to it. It's been really fun to do as a family, and I've really loved singing the Christmas carols. (Especially since we don't sing them in church until the WEEK before Christmas! How SAD!!!)

 

 

 

We also did a gift exchange in YW/YM. (Which was interesting on my part but it all ended up working out. Stupid language barrier. Can't we just all GET ALONG?!) And this is what one of the guys gave me. (If you're reading this Mike this is what the flower thingie looked like.)

 

Christmas is definitely different without snow, and without family. But we're doing the best to make it our own and have a great Christmas just the same.

a filler.

Sorry I haven't blogged in a really long time. Let me show you a few of the things we've been up to on our island.

 

My mother and I ate poisson cru all by ourselves. Like, we just went into the fridge and got it out and started eating it for lunch. I also made sushi. We're becoming strange people. And notice the large pile of plates in the background, that was us preparing for a large stake presidents dinner.

 

Um, we had Thanksgiving. But, I already talked about that and I really want to get this awkward moment over with while you guys are still wondering why I'm posting about Thanksgiving nearly a month after the fact.

 

This came from a Temple worker dinner-ness that we went to. Great food.

 

We had new missionaries come...

 

...and old ones leave

 

We had toe problems. I bruised mine playing basketball (I think) and my mom dropped something on hers. It's pretty funny. 

 

Oh, and now I'm on vacation from school/seminary. It's grand. Have a great holiday season everabody! 

grammies anyone?

Okay, so the 2008/2009 Grammy Award nominations came out last night! Kinda exciting! And some slightly off the wall-ness. Here are my un-asked for opinions! (You know you're excited....)

 

RECORD OF THE YEAR:

Chasing Pavements - Adele

Viva La Vida - Coldplay

Bleeding Love - Leona Lewis

Paper Planes - M.I.A.

Please Read the Letter - Robert Plant and Allison Krauss 

 

Basically as long as "Viva La Vida" got a nomination I'm happy. I'm slightly surprised (yet not in the least disappointed) that "I Kissed a Girl" missed the cut. I'm also a little surprised that Rihanna's "Disturbia" or possibly "Take a Bow" didn't make it on either. She had a good year. But I was PLEASANTLY surprised that Adele got in a few nominations especially this one for Record of the Year baby! I love that song... :) And "Bleeding Love" has won the hearts of many, and it deserves a slot. As for Allison Krauss... dude she's freaking won TWENTY-ONE grammies! It's only tradition that they go to their favs.

  

ALBUM OF THE YEAR:

Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends - Coldplay 

Tha Carter III - Lil Wayne

Year of the Gentleman - Ne-yo 

Raising Sand - Robert Plant and Allison Krauss 

In Rainbows - Radiohead

 

Good Choices. Not gonna lie I enjoyed Radiohead's album. And although I'm not so into Lil Wayne... I've heard a ton of buzz about his album- and he did get the most nominations las night with eight. So that's cool I guess. And Ne-yo's "Year of the Gentleman" is sweet R&B goodness. p.s. Applause for Coldplay again. Woot!

 

SONG OF THE YEAR (songwriters):

American Boy - Estelle and Kanye West 

Chasing Pavements - Adele 

I'm Yours - Jason Mraz 

Love Song - Sara Bareilles 

Viva La Vida - Coldplay

 

Sweet. Good choices. No complaints. Lovin' that Adele is gettin some buzz. And still lovin' that Katy Perry hasn't made it in here. Pretty cool that Sara Bareilles got in there too.

 

BEST NEW ARTIST: 

Adele 

Duffy 

Jonas Brothers 

Lady Antebellum 

Jazmine Sullivan  

 

Okay. THIS was surprising. Where the heck is Leona Lewis? You got her on for Record... yet you can't give her the best new artist? Weirdness of my life. And it was pretty surprising that Katy Perry didn't make it on here again. And PLEASE. The Jonas Brothers? They are not grammy material, give me a break.... Duffy I'll agree with as well as Adele (of course!)

 

Those are the important categories. I won't get into all one-hundred-and-ten... (That's a lot of awards! I wonder who, like, makes 'em!) Anyhoodle, it should be interesting! Who knows if anyone out there cares about the grammies anymore but... I think it's pretty sweetness. Happy Thursday everyone! (I guess now it's best to wish you a happy Friday... since it's Friday in most other places around the world. Oh well.)

we will miss him.

 

Thank you Elder Wirthlin, who died yesterday, for all that you have done for us as members of the church. Thank you for all of your outstanding talks, your strong testimony and wonderful example. We will all miss you. 

i need to stop being surprised and I know it.

I don't know what it is that keeps giving me electric shock when I look at the calendar and it says the first of a new month. I just need to cope with the fact that it is now December and yes, Lauren, you HAVE been in a fairy tale island for almost six months. Deal with it. 

 

I'm actually here to talk about alarm clocks. We had a humorous experience happen this week, so I thought I'd share it. We've had muchos troubles with alarm clocks in this house of ours. And my mom had been using an annoying contraption that made some sort of dying cat sound to wake her up in the mornings. Not pleasant. In Utah, my mom used her clock-radio thing to wake her up every morning. So... we decided to get a few adapters over here so we could hook that up for her to use.

 

Well... it wasn't explained very thoroughly that there are voltage issues when transferring most American appliances. We weren't aware of this before because we have several "American-type" outlets that we'd been using. (for straighteners, hair dryers etc.) Well, we plugged in her beloved clock-radio and POOF. 

 

And then the smell.

 

Yeah, we kind of fried it. Anyway long story short (Too late!) we went and got her a new 1,200 franc (12.00 approximately people...) clock-radio at Carre Four. Brought it home, plugged it in, no explosions, things were fine. We set the alarm for 5:00 am to wake up for seminary schedule the next day. 

 

My mom woke up the next day, came out the living room feeling slightly more tired than usual... to look at the clock and see that it was actually FOUR in the morning... Throughout the day the clock progressively kept getting faster and faster than the actual time. By 8:30 the clock read 1:30 in the afternoon. I mean, I've seen clocks that slow down as they get older... but I've never seen one that speeds up! It's like on hyper speed or somethin'. It's still wiggin me out. But anyway. Has anyone heard of this weird phenomenon before? We're STILL in search for a new alarm clock...

so i'm generic. what're you gonna do about it.

Today is Thanksgiving.

 

(Actually, where I'm at it's just a happy Thursday. I still had to wake up at five for seminary. Go figure, I think that Tahitians would LOVE any chance for a big feast and more vacation time.)

 

And the main reason I'm in here blogging is because we just finished cooking and all of that delicious smell-goodness is just too tempting. So this is merely a distraction so I don't have to keep telling my mom that nothing in the kitchen is worthy for serving so I had better just eat it all....

 

But I just wanted to quickly post a few things that I am grateful for. 

 

1: Air Conditioning. 

 

2: www. I honestly don't know what we would do without the internet. Whether it's converting ounces to grams or emailing relatives I am so grateful for it. It's been such a tremendous blessing to keep in easy contact with family and friends.

 

3: LDS Missionaries. Those in our mission as well as those everywhere.

 

4: Our house keeper, Marguerite. We feel so blessed to have been guided to choose someone with such capability and willingness. She has turned into such an asset, and is such a sweet spirit.

 

5: That we were able to find a turkey for Thanksgiving.

 

6: Music. It brings such joy to life.

 

7: (obviously these are not in order...) My Family. Yes, that's a broad term, but I mean it in the broadest term possible, yet I think of each individual as I type this. (Does that make sense?!) I'm especially grateful for my dad. He is such a strong person and is always working so hard for what he was called to do. Most of the time I can't see how he does it - I swear he's moving at hyper speed he's constantly on the go getting things done. I'm grateful for my mom (aka my missionary companion) She's been such a friend to me as we embark on this journey together, every step of the way. I'm grateful for my siblings, Brooke and Adam, and brother-in-law Rich for seriously being the coolest older sibs ever. (And I'm so grateful for Brooke's adorable children who I miss so stinking much.) I'm grateful for my grandmother, and all of my aunts, uncles and cousins for their prayers, emails and support that they continually give us. And this family business extends to the not-quite-so-related family of the Conrads... cuz I love you guyz and you're practically family:)

 

Obviously I could list more, but today I'll list just a few. Happy Thanksgiving everybody :) Don't go too crazy on Black Friday.

 

p.s. The reason this is being posted at the end of the day rather than when I first typed it is because I was suddenly busy setting the table and cooking some more for our delicious Thanksgiving feast. More tomorrow. Or sometime anyway.

twilight/i am so bipolar

Once upon a time my sister told me to read this awesome book called Twilight. I did so, and loved it. Then all of a sudden everyone and their dog read this book, became engaged to Edward Cullen, and aspired to become a vampire when they grew up. What did I do? Continue to read the books... liking them less and less for reasons that I don't want to get into right now or all of my readers might just stop reading because I'm a hater or something. I'm not a hater, I just didn't want to be sucked into the abyss of 'team edward' and start fantasizing about being in love with someone who thinks I 'smell good' for reasons other than my shampoo... (Don't get me wrong, I dig the whole story line/vampire thing and Meyer's an insane story-teller/good writer. So as much as I whine... secretly I was excited for the next ones to come out.) 

 

(Actually it could be that I complain because I just hate Bella. Sorry, she drives me crazy. But Edward and his pure awesomeness kind of makes up for her un-awesomeness. Most of the time.)

 

For those that are still here I'll stop dissing your favorite book. Promise. And if you are still here (thanks!) I hope you'll still like me and maybe forgive me someday. 

Anyhoodle. As the fairy tale continues... somebody decided to ship this vampire business to Hollywood. The hype was already there when this was initially announced, but I think it finally got to me once Robert Pattinson was chosen as Edward. People started complaining (including me) about his un-Edward qualities only to realize that this kid is actually kind of hot and a good actor so 'let's just fall in love with him anyway!' and other sorts of blah blah blah. The whole teenage girl obsessed-ness was just a little much. So I didn't have high hopes - I thought it'd be just another teen movie. (No pun intended)

 

{PLUS, unless it's Lord of the Rings or Jane Austen goodness... I'm not always mucha fan of books-to-movies. That's kind of a lie, because actually a lot of my favorite movies came from books. It's just that somebody slaughtered the last three Harry Potter books and I've never forgiven them. (But I still want to see the sixth one regardless. Gives me a chance to critique it to death, explain in detail how many things they messed up to people who couldn't care less while boring them to tears with my nonsense. Yeah, I'm weird.) So basically I was expecting Twilight to be similar-ish.}

 

Anyway, my point is: I actually really kinda want to see the movie. I think they picked the right people for Bella/Edward and the clips/trailers I've seen seem to have a limited amount of cheese. (Very good.) And Robert Pattinson IS going to be good regardless of what I first thought. AND I dig the soundtrack. Totally sweet. But, um, guess what else? It kinda comes out tomorrow. And I'm kinda not in a position to see it for, like, six months. I didn't think I'd be unhappy about this (I was in a depression about missing Dark Knight at the time) but I'm actually way bummed! I mean... I could go see it in French... but that might just ruin it for me. So I don't think I'll be doing that.

 

Since 2006, I have gone back and forth from hating to loving twilight in the space of literally 60 seconds. This is a time where I love it. So, you don't have to hate me, okay? But if the movie blows, I might start hating it again. Hopefully that won't be the case. And peace out all of you people who are at the midnight showing. I'm sick with jealousy. Anyway, after you've seen the movie, please leave a comment telling me what you thought! Yay, nay, go, no go, hot, not etc. etc. (And don't worry silly, I already know how it ends!) And if you feel the need to express your extreme distaste for this post and call me names then I give you permission to do so. If you must. 

things i didn't see

Okay, so... I wasn't there. But that doesn't mean you guys wouldn't be interested in a few pictures... even if I'm not in them... jk.

Woah that's my dad about to drive on the wrong side of the car. And the wrong side of the road. That's messed up.

 

Check out this awesome sign outside the missionary apartments. I love how it says 'no drinking' AND 'no alcohol' (In case you were wondering.. they speak English in za Cook Islands.)  

 

Yes! Auckland! This was taken from Mount Victoria - a pretty-ful shot of the city.

 

My parents (I love seeing my dad in a suit!!) with Elder and Sister Clark - public affairs missionaries in New Zealand. (After all the MP stuff was finished)

 

Beautiful sunset #1... (all these next ones were taken at the same place, yet still so unique. Equal in beauty of course)

 

#2...

  

And #3. (Great pictures Mom!)

I'm happy to report that they have came back safely and are back to business as usual. It's nice to have them home, and it looks like they had a wonderful time!