grateful for 2011.

2010 was full of learning. Last year was definitely the most difficult year in my almost 23 years but... it was also a year filled with blessings. With hard times come blessings. Trials are blessings because in an odd way trials remind us of all the wonderful things Heavenly Father has blessed us with. I have learned that if you do not look for the good then you will literally drive yourself crazy. When times are hard we have to try and find the good in the situation. Of course this is definitely easier said than done. I have been able to reflect on some of these hard times and recognize when my Savior's arms were wrapped around me and holding me up. I am grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord in my life. My goal for 2011 is to be better about recognizing the hand of the Lord in my every day life. Yes, life is not always sunshine and roses but we can try to focus on the sunshine and roses.

Day 4 of christmas crazy

Day 4

Monday, Dec. 20

The rain has not stopped since my last post. Streets are flooded here in southern California. We were saved from Christmas caroling because of the treacherous rain. Mom at Thanksgiving time that we would be caroling Monday AND Tuesday before Christmas. Today, my brothers refused to go out singing in the rain. I told them that we wouldn't have to really be out in the rain. We were gonna drive from house to house. duh. Still there was no getting these bums off of their bums. My mom and I said that we would carol in the rain. No problem! I guess we all know who the real girls in the family are... my three brothers. (Dad kinda has a real excuse... he is a little bit of a cold. oh... and he is old. love you dad)

P.S. - We had to sign another box of Christmas cards because mom decided we didn't have enough. There were a few too many groans for two more dozen cards. Merry Christmas!

holidays with the sagiao family... my family

Hello everyone!!! Yes... I am alive. I survived finals and am back home in beautiful sunny California... except wait... it has not stopped raining since I got home. Whatever. It still feels great to be home. So with my countdown to Christmas... I will be providing all of you with some fabulous entertainment. Each day til Christmas I will post some crazy holiday adventure we have had. Coming home is always a great adventure. I LOVE my family but we are one crazy family. We often joke that we could be an awesome reality tv show. So here it begins but... I must catch up on a few days.

Day 1 of being home (technically I was not quite here because I was driving but I cannot pass up the opportunity to tell this story)

Friday Dec. 17

My family attended our church Christmas party. They host a dinner for all the families then they have a nice Christmas program with music and Christmas readings. As they start to begin the program, a group of teens comes and sits directly behind my parents. The teenagers were taking and being rude during the program. My mom turned around a few times and asked that they please be quiet and listen. They ignored my mom each time. SO rude! My dad then turns around and said "Hey you all need to shut the HELL up. Did you hear what I said?" Yep. Merry Christmas dad told kids to shut the hell up during the Christmas program. Awesome. There was complete silence from those kids for the rest of the Christmas program and they all lived happily ever after.

Day 2

Saturday Dec. 18

I had officially been home for about one hour and my 16-year-old twin brothers were each suppose two chop two romaine hearts for a salad. I called them down to do their task and then they looked at me as if they had no idea what to do. I said "mom called and asked that you two cut the lettuce for the salad." Hunter was going to start first and then Cody would come and do his. The twins are adolescent teenager boys and can't do anything in the same place at the same time without a brawl. Here is the convo:

Hunter: How do you cut lettuce?

Danielle: With a knife.

H: Well.... I've never done this before. What knife?

D: Use your brain. You're 16.

H: Ok... I guess this green knife that mom uses for the lettuce.

D: Great idea.

H: How much do I throw away from the end?

D: Really... if you ask me one more question about the most simple task in the world I am going to scream. You are so much smarter than this.

H: (Grumble)... 3o seconds pass... What do I put the lettuce in?

D: Scream

It is now Cody's turn to cut his 2 heads of lettuce. Before he even begins I say:

"Please do not ask me any questions on how to cut lettuce, just get to it." He says that he has never cut lettuce before. I tell him that everything that he needs is on the counter and to look at Hunter's finished project for an example. Geez... video games are ruining the minds of America's youth. Yes I admit, I could have had a few more patience but... I had just driven 10 hours all by myself and had taken 6 finals. My patience were running on empty.

Day 3

Sunday, Dec. 19

Christmas cards. This year mom decided that she wanted everyone to sign their own name in the Christmas cards. Cool. No big deal, right? Wrong. Definitely a big deal for our family. I am pretty sure that my twin brothers asked about the following question about 10 times:

"Are we gonna sign all of the cards?"

Umm... no we just want your name on 10 of the cards. Duh. We are are gonna sign all of the cards. The one asked if we could just sign one of the cards and make copies of the signatures and place them on the cards. Really? Then we wanted the names in order from oldest to youngest BUT it became a little too complicated for some of our brains because we were not sitting in order from oldest to youngest as we were passing our cards through the assembly line. Yep. Small little bickering sessions broke out during the Christmas card signing because someone's name was in someone else's place. Oh... we are so joyous this Christmas season.

Merry Christmas.

P.S. my family REALLY does love each other. I promise.

paint party 2010.

Last night, I went to probably one of the most awesome parties I have been to in Provo. Paint Party 2010 was epic!!! Anna, Alyssa, and I went to the paint party in our white shirts and black leggings and rocked it! There was tons of dancing, prime people watching, bangin' black lights, and loads of paint. We had so much fun and basically I am going to let the pictures tell the story.

Me, Anna, and Alyssa. I love these girls!

All pretty and ready to get our paint on!

Paint squirt guns!

P.S I was not trying to be a slut, but there was a lot of pushing, pulling, shoving hence the stretched out shirt and revealing shoulders.

We had a freaking blast!

black lights + paint + friends = AMAZING

diet coke and kindergarten.

Every Tuesday morning I volunteer in a local kindergarten classroom. I love it! It is so fun to see how excited all these little kids are to learn. This past Tuesday I was getting ready and since school has been rough I have been slacking on my Recovering Diet Coke Addict(RDCA) program. I really have been doing quite well. I have come a long way from having numerous 12-packs under my bed freshman year in the dorms. Hannah was a witness to the madness :) Anyways on Tuesday I really needed a pick me up because I looked so haggard from my lack of sleep. I did not want the teacher to think I was on drugs or hungover because if I saw me that's would be the first thought to pop into my mind. So I went and grabbed my 2-liter of Diet Coke from the fridge. I went to grab a glass, but there were no clean ones. So... I took the 2-liter with me back to my bathroom and continued doing my make-up and hair in my underwear while drinking straight from the 2-liter of Diet Coke. It was quite a sight. My RDCA sponsor would have been so disappointed... except I don't have a sponsor. Maybe I should look into getting one?

I sparkled.

Last week I had 4 midterms, 3 quizzes, a group paper, and a marketing presentation today.

It is ok though because I came out victorious. I got a 100% on my finance test, which was exciting. I felt ok about skipping my ethics class to study for it. It sure did pay off!

*By the way... I am pretty sure that skipping ethics class is probably a very unethical thing to do. My behavior toward my ethics class was slightly reflected in my ethics midterm. I missed 3 of the multiple choice, which may not sound like too many but there were only 15 multiple choice questions work 4 points each. Lame! Oh well I survived and I get to go home to California in a week!!!!!

Today my group gave our marketing presentation. One group has presented each week since the start of the semester, so since we were group 11. There were a lot of previous groups to compare us to... so the pressure was on. I was really blessed to only have to give the introduction and define our topic at the beginning. I get VERY nervous with group presentations. Public speaking does not really scare me. I can get up in front of a group of a million people all by myself and say whatever... no big. I think that the group aspect is what gets my nerves going because the group is counting on you to do well.

Anyways... after each group gives their presentation the other members of the class give positive feedback and then make comments on things the group could work on. So, at the end Professor S. was asking for some positive feedback. After about four comments, Professor S. said "What about the introduction?" I figured this was his transition into what the group could have worked on. He looked right at me and he said "You sparkled." I thought is he serious? He was like you did. I said thank you and was trying not to laugh. I kind of thought that he said "I sparkled" just to boost my self-esteem because I think I was a little shaky. I felt like I really did not do that much nor was it spectacular. A sweet guy from my ward is in my class and when he and I were talking about the "I sparkled" comment tonight at FHE he made me realize that I needed to accept the compliment. The sweet guy from my ward did make a good point that the professor does not give out very many compliments after these presentations. Thank you sweet guy. You are correct and I need to eat some humble pie.

Random moments.

1. I went to Zumba at the gym. The instructor had pieces of her hair fall out while she was teaching. Yes, the plural is correct. She had hair extensions fall out twice. You know you're getting a good work out when hair starts flying.

2. I got a jury duty summons. I swear I get these ALL the time. I know that there are plenty of unemployed people in CA that would love to earn the $15 a day. Can we please send them jury duty?

3. If the government wants to create jobs, then they should not allow people over the age of 60 to drive and provide free taxi service for old people. These old people are becoming a hazard to my health and I am sure many others around me. Today there was this old man driving so awful I was screaming. He was going so slow and not staying in his lane. So, I would speed up to get away from him, but then he would magically reappear. He almost hit me like three times. I could NOT get away from him. This old man needed the government provided free taxi service.