I loved the Princess and the Frog movie.



I'd just like to say that I think that young Frank Sinatra makes a good looking sailor...





And Gus Pike might possibly be the love of my life.






Good to be home. I feel more like myself.

Steven is my funny friend. He makes me feel hilarious. We both hail from the YAY AREA and know a lot of the same places...even some of the same people, but we never met till LDSBC. We've become a good team.

The other night we were at our friend Jan's house. I pushed him over while he was tying his shoe and as I tried to run away he swung his arm at my ankle and missed twice as he fell. You know when you think something's over and its not? So as I was strutting away laughing, I hear a big "Ooooof," turn around just long enough to see his arm swiping the air, and then I'm flat on my butt with this shocked look on my face.

It was HILARIOUS, but no one thought it was as funny as we did. The funniest part about it was that afterwards, whenever we looked at each other we'd start cracking up. And when we were trying to explain it to everyone we had to full-on act it out!

KINDRED SPIRITS, I'd say. Now I know what Anne Shirley meant! Someone just ON THE SAME PAGE. When good songs come on, we're the only two that bust a move no matter where we are. Good ol' Steven Salas. Home slice.

Okay. I'm 3 finals, 2 papers, and 3 resumes away from home. Home stretch!!! I'll be home alone a lot I think, but at least I'll be there. I feel bad for some of my international friends who only get to go home every 3 years or so. I don't know if I'd be able to do that. Sorry Mom and Dad, but even when I'm married and moved far away I'm either going to be home for Christmas or else on the phone with you sobbing all day long. I love Christmas. I love my cousin Krista. This time of year reminds me of her cause she pretty much dies for Christmas all year round.

I can't wait for the John Denver and Muppet Christmas CD, cookie decorating, Whitney Houston's 'Joy to the World', pumpkin bread, Scrooge, my buddies Bing and Frank crooning it up, Muppet Family Christmas, candy leis, Polar Express, tree decorating, White Christmas, wrapping presents, Uncle Lloyd showing up out of nowhere, Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat, good ol' Jonathon Toomey, Cookie Queen, Santa window stickers, Nativity, Hymns, hot chocolate and cider, ginger snaps, Nutcracker, my counters job, Fred Astaire telling the Santa story, Heat Mizer and Freeze Mizer, December sunsets, midnight presents, Grandma, Grandpa and Grandma, Harry Connick Jr, AND best of all NO SNOW! So that was a bit of a run on sentence...but I know you know how I feel!

Thanksgiving was fun and simple and just...fun. We had it with a small group of friends, and everyone chipped in. Our entire Thanksgiving dinner for 8 costed $40- $5 each! Mashed potatoes, gravy, turkey, jello, stuffing, yams, rolls with cinnamon butter, pumpkin and apple pie with cooool whip! It was nice we all had each other. THAT'S what I'm thankful for this year...not being alone! Love them.

I’m a sentimental person. And I get attached very easily. So these past few years as missionaries leave me left and right…that’s kind of a problem for me. These guys that I’ve grown up with, gone through my hardest years with, built my testimony with- they have a wonderful job they know to go do, while I sit here and have bit of an identity crisis. Of course it’s not REALLY a problem, it’s quite a blessing. But it is hard to see them each go with that one purpose, while I sit here and wonder what I’m doing with my life. Have I ever mentioned that I’m a whiner?

I was very lucky to see Andy one last time before he left for the MTC. I walked around Temple Square with him and Michele the Monday before he reported. It was a good, bittersweet walk, but the strangest part was saying goodbye with a handshake. WEIRD! I have a lot of memories with him. People thought we were brother and sister a few times…I have no idea why. I never thought I looked Chinese.

I have been thinking how lucky I am to know them, though. To know so many spiritual guys, not just worthy, but WILLING to give up two years of their lives in the service of the Lord is a rare thing even in members. I’ve had my lonely times in Young Women’s almost always being the only one my age, but I always knew that those boys were going to be my lifelong friends whether I liked it or not. It’s been hard seeing so many people come and go in the gospel, but they have all always been consistent. That has done a lot more for my testimony than they will ever know. So thank you, mothers of these boys, for giving me friends that took a stand in the gospel when I was too nervous to. All the times they’ve tiptoed around my feelings and let me think I was always right…I couldn’t have found better friends if I had made them up myself!

Life with them around has been good. Home without Andy won’t seem quite like home, but then that’s how it was when Lester and Mckay left. And Jordan and Scotty and Boz and Marcos. Then in a few days I'll be saying goodbye Jared. But they will all change the world one testimony at a time!

From this:

To this:

To THIS!

I'm really thinking about it now, believe it or not...

After a great weekend with my sister in Idaho, I thought coming back to Utah would be easy after having a break. But it's been a hard week. I came back to some sad news. I got a call that the bishop of my singles ward here in Utah passed away. He died of a surprise heart attack while riding bikes with his son. Bishop Bastian wasn't more than 55 or so, and had been my bishop since I came to this school 2 years ago. It's been hard for our tiny ward here to function without him. Being in charge of a singles ward is a huge thing to deal with I've realized, but on top of all the responsibility he took for everything, we could always tell he truly did love us. I miss him already.

Death is a strange thing to deal with. I'm so thankful for my knowledge of the Plan of Salvation, it's such a comfort to KNOW that we will see each other again someday. But even with that knowledge it's hard to go on here without someone. I think of Bishop Bastian's poor wife. Sister Bastian is one of the strongest people I've ever known. It was less than 2 years ago that the Bastians lost 2 of their children in a car accident. But they always had each other as their anchor through that trial. Now that she's without him on this Earth...I can't imagine how close someone needs to be to Christ to get through something like this. Through this I've realized how strong YOUR OWN FAITH has to be. Rely on each other and help each other, but also be able to stand alone if you must. That's something I'm dealing with right now on a much smaller scale.

The funeral is tomorrow. We are going to go and it's going to bring our ward closer together. I pray for his family,and I love this gospel. It's gotta be true.

Im visiting my sister in Idaho this weekend and I'm realizing how different it is from living in Salt Lake. I always thought it would be pretty similar, but I feel like they do just....better things here! If I were at my apartment in Salt Lake right now I would probably be sitting on the couch with my friends complaining that it's a Saturday and we have nothing to do. But HERE we are doing crafts...and baking...and carving pumpkins!!! They MAKE fun here instead of waiting for it! Thats how I want to start being.

Okay for anybody who has seen the office...or anybody who likes jello...or pretty much if youre at all Mormon...here is little gift we gave my lovely cousin Natalie as a "Welcome to the BC" present!








AHAHAHAHAHA. College is good times.

I'm leaving soon to go back to Utah. I can't decide if I'm happy or sad. Or both. Long summer. Long year ahead. I have to get better grades this semester. A lot on my mind. Hmmmmmmmm...

So I'm officially not a teenager anymore. I'm old. And to celebrate my oldness this year we went to the very old fashioned Stanford Theatre to watch one of my favorite classics ON THE BIG SCREEN! Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck! I've always loved that movie, but seeing it in my red lipstick and polka dot dress, sitting in such a huge theatre, on a broadway like stage, with the real red velvet curtains and the balconies ... it was just indescribable! I was smiling so big it hurt my face.

My favorites have always been Audrey Hepburn movies and the Fred and Ginger musicals. Right now I own about 6 of the 9 movies I think they made together. So in between movies (it was a double feature) we discovered an AMAZING room in the theatre full of all the huge old posters of the all the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers classics! There were newspaper clippings and old pictures of filming....AH I JUST LOVED IT ALL SO MUCH.

The next movie was with Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche called Midnight. It was just a cute little screwball comedy/love story. I really liked it. It was just such a great night. My mom, 2 of my sisters, and Melody came. We got all dressed up, and took tons of pictures. It really felt like a 30's night out to the theatre!






I wish I lived back then. An evening I will never forget. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!

Usually I like my job for the most part. But today I hate it. HATE IT!!! Because today my family is going to Auntie Kathy Reiman's crazy summer pool party at her house- and of course I have to work. All the cousins I havent seen all summer are going to be there, aunts and uncles I haven't seen in months, and tables and tables of fooood. I can't find one single person to take my shift for me. And to make things worse somehow ANDY IS GOING. With my family, to MY family party INSTEAD of me! How did this happen to me???

Something a lot of people don’t know about me is that I have a keen interest in ART HISTORY. I'm even considering it for a major, even though it probably wouldn’t end up bringing in a lot of dough in the long run. However, the whole starving artist idea has always kind of appealed to me though, so that’s okay. I took an amazing Art History class one semester at LDSBC. It's hard to describe how much that one class ended up influencing my life and the way I see things now. To be able to understand Da Vinci's Last Supper and works of other artists on a purely spiritual level was a precious thing to me and something I REALLY want to be able to remember and keep in my life. It's like the ultimate form of expression of...anything! Love, hate, peace, chaos. I can't explain any of this without 12 paragraphs of pouring my heart out. So I'll just say…..a painting can really build a testimony if seen the right way.
Every beauty which is seen here by persons of perception resembles more than anything else that celestial source from which we all are come.
-Michelangelo

I've always been a big fan of American Classics. Things like Coca Cola and Big Band swing...those types of things. AND BASEBALL. I loooove baseball. Don't know much about it, but I do know that I have spent many happy times there at that ball park, through all of it's name changes! When it was Pac Bell Park I remember sitting with Uncle Dave chomping on a burrito as big as my head. When it was SBC Park I remember sitting with my cousin Jared screaming in French at the opposing team.

Tons more games and tons more memories. And now, with the name AT&T Park, I will always remember sitting in the same old nose bleed seats with my friend Lauren and our Dad's, cheering at the top of our lungs for THE FIRST NO HITTER GAME IN 33 YEARS!!! Jonathon Sanchez pitched the first Giants no hitter game since 1976 and ended it with a score of 8-0!!! AND I WAS THERE! I know people say don't be part of the crowd, but tonight I was ecstatic to be part of the crazy screaming fans streaming out of that ball park and onto the streets of San Francisco.
I definitely suck at playing baseball...but watching it is my favorite American pastime. If it can bring such a strange city together, even for just a few hours, then THERE IS STILL HOPE FOR THIS ENTIRE STRANGE WORLD!

So there's this kid that I love named Luke. He's a good looking guy, a dapper dan man for sure, and for this week he is my one and only BEST FRIEND! Our 3 three crazy sisters are at girl's camp this week, and I'll admit I was pretty bummed that I was the only Hanaike girl who was not specially invited. But Luke decided that I need to stop being such a crybaby, and he started helping me feel better. We've been watching movies, going out to breakfast, staying up all night, and best of all...we had a Christmas Party!!!!! Yeah, here in the middle of July, we broke out all the decorations and lights, watched movies and drank some major hot hot chocolate while singing Jingle Bells at the top of our lungs. And so now...I can't wait till they go to camp again next year!!!!!!

Ah ha ha here I am, a blogger. I'm a Myspacer, a Facebooker, I even used to be a Xanga-er, if anyone even knows what that is. But, NOW I'm legit! I hope I can keep up with this blog when I return to Utah in a few months. It'll be my link back home. So...more Hillary to come! I may end up blogging about 4 or 5 times a day...I really don't have much else to do this summer!