christmastime

what a wonderful christmas break. we:

acted out the nativity scene with the myres family for the millionth time.


enjoyed our first married christmas together. tommy and i bought each other instruments without knowing it--i got him a violin and he got me (us) a piano keyboard! (and a dictionary, which is what i'm holding in this picture--i really did want one.) i am just SO excited to have a keyboard!

went on a walk on the beach with the family on christmas day.

all in all, it's been a beautiful christmas break. we're leaving on wednesday to drive up to utah and spend new year's eve with tommy's family, possibly go skiing, and get ready for yet another semester. ha.

15 Things You Should Know about Laura Alyse Murphy Leininger:

1. Alyse can never keep Jack Johnson and John Mayer straight. She can tell the difference (I think), but she can never remember who is who. Kind of random since they are fairly different styles.
2. One time Alyse and I were walking down the Walk of Fame. We saw Bill Cosby’s star and Alyse said, “Wait! Is Bill Cosby related to Bing?” Hmm… She has a hard time keeping Crosby and Cosby straight. Not to mention the fact that they are different races.
3. Alyse secretly likes it when I sing Boyz II Men to her. Even though she usually tells me to stop, I know she secretly really likes it. Same with Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
4. The only man that I consider a threat to me is Jude Law. Alyse finds him very agreeable. Good thing he’s an immoral person and he’s no match for my statistical prowess.
5. Alyse can probably beat me at basketball—I haven’t dared play her one-on-one, so I’m not sure, but I wouldn’t put money on me.
6. Alyse is actually a decent cook, though she tells everyone how horrible she/we are. Mostly we just don’t have time or cooking ingredients. She makes a mean grilled cheese.
7. Although kids aren’t in the near future, Alyse loves kids and they love her. We volunteer watching some special needs kids and that is where I realized she’s going to be a great mom. Also, we volunteered in Nursery and now she has a new boyfriend in the ward. His name is Chance and he’s two. He’s probably a bigger threat than Jude Law, on second thought.
8. Alyse’s blog isn’t really an anti-blog.
9. Alyse really likes part-Asian babies.
10. Alyse has an instant six-pack body. She can stop exercising for months, do sit-ups one day, and have a six-pack the next day. Not that I’m going to let any of you see her six-pack.
11. Alyse has the most beautiful hair. No surprise there. I just wanted to make it known that I am a big fan of it.
12. Alyse is a passionate person. She isn’t high-strung or high-maintenance (thank heavens), but she is passionate about what she does, whether it be writing a paper, training for a half-marathon, or getting pumped about the U2 concert. I love it.
13. Alyse is SO hard-working. She honestly puts in her best effort for anything worthwhile. Also, she is very determined to succeed. She has spent dozens of hours on her writing sample and statement of purpose for grad school applications. She also took her statement of purpose to several people to get advice and feedback so that she would be giving her best work. I almost turned mine in without having anyone look at it, but luckily Alyse stopped her work to fix mine.
14. Alyse is very humble, more than she knows. She always thinks she’s going to fail a paper or a class, only to get something ridiculous like a 97% (see her previous post). She is an amazing person with amazing talents, but sometimes she is too conscientious of ways that she can improve and doesn’t fully realize how wonderful she is.
15. I love Alyse.

--Thomas Jeffrey Leininger

UNC-Chapel Hill

so i submitted my first grad school application yesterday. it was due yesterday, and i finished it about 4 hours before the day was over. YES.
but the important thing is that it's in.

unc is really the place i want to go the most out of anywhere else we're applying. tommy would be going to duke and we would have to compete when our schools played each other in basketball. and i think i did a pretty good job on my application--i got a 97% on the research paper that i turned in for my writing sample and i spent who knows how long doing it.

unfortunately, unc has a 9% acceptance rate.

yeah, right.

dear santa

what i'd like for christmas this year:

books books books
new scriptures
running shoes
running clothes for cold weather
a piano
piano skills
no homework OR to get into grad school (one or the other)
for sarah to come home
a coat rack for our front room
lifetime supply of honey bunches of oats
a few new shirts
boots that aren't ugly
world peace

but santa, whatever you can do out of that list would be great.

what i've learned this semester

among other things:

-i cannot multitask.
-i really like my english classes, even when i hate them. and i really really hope i get into grad school.
-if i don't exercise semi-regularly, i become oscar the grouch.
-never again take the evening section of university chorale.
-i'm a semi-closet feminist. go read the feminine mystique... you'll become one too.
-feel free to split your infinitives.
-the hot water in our shower lasts for less time than i usually take for a shower.
-icelandic is very hard. eg veit ekki. eg heiti alyse. eg mun tala ekki islensku gott. that's about all i've got.
-question authority.
-i am lucky.
-U2 ROCKS.
-for some reason, i now like hot chocolate. (i didn't before.)
-i like being taken seriously.
-i want to learn how to cook better.
-no matter how hard some people* try, they still cannot write good poetry.


*namely, me

i love love love love love this

this is my dream. i want to be a part of a large choreographed dance number in a random place like this someday. yet another thing on my list of things to do before i die.

ten things you never knew about thomas j. leininger

10. he loves junior mints.

9. he knows all the words to almost any boyz II men song (don't ask me why, or how).

8. he actually gets excited about statistics.

7. if he could, he would have a cup of hot chocolate every day (and he has been doing so lately).

6. he can bench 900 pounds (true story, i swear).

5. his biggest pet peeve is when we're driving home from the library late at night and the pedestrians hit the walk button at that light by the tanner building. and the light changes to red for one person to walk by on the (almost deserted) road. and we have to wait for the light to change back to go.

4. he loves the musical seven brides for seven brothers, especially the song "bless your beautiful hide." for a while, that was his ringtone for when i called.

3. my ringtone for when he calls is "butterfly" by crazy town, because he knows all the words to this song too (again, don't ask me why).

2. he always makes the cookies for me when it's my turn to bring them for the writing fellows cookie jar. and makes our lunches every day. and likes to try and make dinner without me helping.

1. it's his birthday today, and he's a quarter of a century old. the big 2-5. duhhhhappy birfday tommy!

saddest news ever

we were supposed to go to this concert on friday:


but it was postponed until february . . . because elton john has the swine flu.

worst. news. ever. we (i) had been looking forward to this for AT LEAST eight months. and now we have to wait four more.

my mom said that she doesn't feel bad for me. whatever. i felt bad enough for myself.

the daily universe

in following the example of barret d. lybbert, i decided to protest something published in the daily universe. in fact, a plethora of somethings.

for example:
-this front-page article about twilight, of all things, which was published today.
-this front-page article about finding a hot date in the library, from earlier this week.
-this front-page article about whether or not you should wait for your missionary, also from earlier this week.

i am well aware that the daily universe publishes many well-written, informed articles about campus activities. i am also well aware that students are responsible for writing the articles. but why on EARTH do they write such ridiculous, practically offensive articles about such shallow, unimportant topics? and then have them be on the front page?

this is the letter i sent to the daily universe. they may or may not publish it. but i am just sick and tired of reading stories about things like this, and knowing that others who read this judge the BYU community by what they see on the front page. not all of us are concerned with such infantile issues as those.

Dear Daily Universe,

This semester's front page articles have been absolutely insulting, and today's article about the opening of New Moon is the final straw. Earlier this week, there was an article about whether or not girls should consider waiting for their missionary. And another article about romantic encounters in the library. How much can you insult the intelligence of the BYU community? Unfortunately, The Daily Universe is the only news source for the majority of BYU students. Even more unfortunately, they don't actually get any news from reading it. Would it hurt to actually cover national and global events instead of giving a two-paragraph snippet on the back page? What about actual events that are happening in Utah, Provo, and BYU? I understand that The Daily Universe is mainly a student-run newspaper and that obviously, it is difficult to come up with topics to cover, but there are opportunities all around us that would be must more informative than these topics. Isn't BYU's motto "Enter to learn, go forth to serve"? How are we to do that if our own newspaper only gives us stories about the most ridiculous popular trilogy of this year? I fail to see how these main stories are in any way newsworthy or of any interest to a somewhat educated audience (which, ostensibly, a university of students should be). Don't talk down to us and underestimate our intelligence, and don't continue to represent the BYU community in such a shallow, naive way. I for one am ready to see some articles about real stories and real issues.


i know it's not really a big deal. and even if nothing happens, it feels good to get some steam off after this long and stressful week and make a statement. alec, tanner, and annalise, at least, all agree with me. it would help if the daily universe invested in some truly competent editors, too (who will ever forget the "Twelve Apostates" incident of winter semester?) . . . but i didn't think i needed to go that far.

first snow

good-bye, fall. we had a good run this year. i love what you did around these parts; you did wonders with the decor. i really enjoyed spending time with you. let's do this again next year.

i'll miss you.

random fact of the day

did you know that in iceland, they believe in thirteen different santa clauses? they are all brothers, and they come one by one, the thirteen days before christmas, and are known for stealing things and causing general mischief everywhere they go. kids hang their shoes out their windows and if they were good, they get small presents from the jólasveinar (yule lads, as they're called) every night, but if they were bad, they get a potato.

because i know you're dying to find out what they're all named, you can look here, if you want.

i know this valuable piece of information because i did a presentation on icelandic holidays in my icelandic 101 class on friday. they also celebrate beer day on march 1, in honor of the 1989 lifting of the 79-year ban on beer. this makes me proud of my 1/4 icelandic heritage.

halloween

fun things we did this halloween season:

-a married FHE pumpkin carving activity with five other married/engaged couples from our old singles' ward (but some hooligan vandals smashed our pumpkin on halloween night, probably because we weren't home to give out candy... and we never even took a picture of it.)
-a married ward activity at the church (where we are in the picture)
-made yummy mummy dogs and halloweiners with grandma and grandpa murphy (seriously. check it out. grandpa's idea.)
-played monopoly with car, pj, whit, and josh (whit and i tied for first place after the game had been going for 3 hours. we didn't even want to quit.)
-made caramel apples
-watched hitchcock's rear window and thoroughly enjoyed it

happy halloween amigos. bring on the holidays!

U2 concert!

while i'm blogging, i might as well post about the amazing vacation that we took this week. monday afternoon, we left provo and started driving to arizona for the U2 concert. we stopped down in st. george and stayed with tommy's aunt bettie and cousin jacqui and had a lot of fun with them. then tuesday we drove the rest of the way, had dinner with the rasmussens, and then went to the CONCERT!

this is how excited we were about going to the concert, after driving 11 hours to get there.

tommy bought a shirt with bono's face plastered on it. plus, one of their band members has gray hair! it was kind of funny how old they all are..

the stage was pretty cool... bono kept calling it a spaceship they designed for their concert.

it was just so nice to be able to leave school for two days and leave the stress of provo behind. and we really loved being able to see bettie, jacqui, and the rasmussens! it was fun to be able to hang out with them. we went to denice's spin class with her on wednesday morning and almost DIED before we drove the 11 hours back up to provo. we also got to drive over the hoover dam both ways, which was pretty cool.

some might say a 22-hour road trip is a bit extreme just to see a concert... but it was more about the experience, anyways. and we LOVED it. i'd do it again, too.

NEXT UP on our list of fun and exciting things we're doing: billy joel/elton john concert, november 20th. be there or be square.

the leininger manor

welcome to the leininger manor, as tommy sometimes likes to call it. otherwise known as our humble abode, located at XXX XXXX, provo. (you didn't think i was going to put the real address online, did you?) anyways, here are some pictures of our apartment--i know my mom has been wanting to see the finished product. it really is just all one big room, with the kitchen on the left and a living/dining room adjoining it. i didn't take any pictures of our bedroom because the giant pile of laundry would probably terrify most of you.

the thing that i am probably MOST proud of is our curtains in the second picture, which grandma murphy so kindly helped me to make during conference weekend. and we also only just put up those pictures above our fake fireplace this week. finally everything is set up!

birfday

two posts in one day! what is going on? oh yeah, i have a take-home midterm to work on. so i blog instead.

it was my birthday on monday and i had a lot of fun... tommy made me breakfast and lunch and then my dad was in town for recruiting and took me, tommy, and 11 of our cousins out to dinner at the brick oven. this is the fourth year running that dad has been in town the week of my birthday and that he's been able to take us out to dinner. it was grant's 18th birthday as well, so it was a double bday party. alec, the brother and cousin of the birthday kids, was oh so kind to buy us smashing sweaters at his favorite store (nordstrom's. oh wait, DI.).

and now i'm 21!

running

once upon a time, i was really good about exercising. i would go running six days a week, i felt really great about myself, and i even ran a half-marathon last november with sarah and my study abroad friends.
fast forward. i don't seem to have the time or the desire to go running every day. or any day. it's SO hard for me to want to wake up early to go running. last week, we didn't go running at all. i was so grouchy and irritable all week--until i realized what was wrong. when we finally did go running, all that grouchiness was GONE.
i'm just discovering what a difference exercising has on my mental state. we went running three times this week and i'm promising myself to be faithful this whole year to control my stress level.
also, on an unrelated note, can i just say that I LOVE FALL? i walk around hyperventilating because of the beautiful trees everywhere around campus. i love it i love it. snow, stay away until the leaves are gone!

cooking

as my mom and roommates can testify, i've always hated cooking. i don't want to wait for my food, i just want to eat it right then and get going. my mom used to call me to the kitchen and ask me very kindly to help make the sunday rolls or just a green salad, for crying out loud, and i would put up a fuss and yell and run away and hide in a corner. (i'm not even really exaggerating here.) and since i've been in college, i've mostly existed on a diet of macaroni and cheese, cold cereal, and PB&J sandwiches. tommy's roommates still praise me for my mac-and-cheese skillz, and are shocked when they find me eating anything else.

but in the last few weeks, i've found out that i kind of LIKE cooking. i'm trying to figure out what has changed my anti-cooking feelings so drastically, and i've come up with this reason:

-the world is coming to an end.

or, maybe it has something to do with:

-actually having the cooking supplies that are necessary (like pots and pans and cheese graters and spatulas and sharp knives) and having them be NICE and not trashy.
-having a kitchenaid (this falls under the above reason, but it's such an exciting machine i wanted to include it on its own)
-having the right ingredients and a place to keep them
-having someone to cook for and with (because tommy helps more than i do)
-having tons and tons of delicious-looking recipes and cookbooks that i'm excited to learn how to make

i didn't have any of these things of my own before, but this has all changed with getting married and the wonderful, amazing, generous people who have given us our new kitchen supplies. last week, we made homemade bread, homemade ice cream, a delicious cake, and snickerdoodles. we're eventually going to work our way up to real food and not just desserts. it's been fun. more fun than i ever would have expected. mom, gloat all you want!

sister missionaries

this picture was taken in december, 2008. i miss this.

not even one year later, four of these best friends are on missions. i can't even say how awesome they are.

but this week, after more than a month of an empty mailbox, i got a letter from this sister missionary. and i wanted to share my joy.


she has reached her NINE MONTH MARK. she's HALFWAY DONE!
i try my best not to remind her of how much i miss her in my letters, but it's hard.
i'm really proud of her... she's such a rockstar.
i can't wait for our date at fuddrucker's 2010.

late nights in the library

obviously, we are very productive. (no, seriously, usually we are. it's only about when it hits 11:00 when i get antsy and take pictures on tommy's computer and distract him, even when i still have that paper to write.)




tommy needs more things to do. clearly.

wedding pictures

how can i be expected to do homework when there are at least 1000 pictures like this one to go through? this is clearly far more important. who cares that i have a paper due wednesday that i have yet to start?



and once again, a ginormous THANK YOU to miss kylie nixon for being a magical photographer!

one fine day: saturday in salt lake

i SHOULD be studying for my icelandic 101 test right now, but since i don't want to, i thought i would really quickly update this blog and tell about the perfectly wonderful weekend we had.

this is what we did on saturday:
-went to a session in the salt lake temple, which was amazing. it really was. there's so much happiness there. we got to see the sealing room where grandma and grandpa myres were sealed. unfortunately, we forgot our camera, so we had to make do with using tommy's cell phone to take a picture outside of the temple.



-watched the joseph smith movie (where i bawled my eyes out, of course)
-bought bagels at einstein bagels for lunch
-went and read on the grass at a park by the U of U for a few hours
-went to the U of U football game with tommy's family. we were probably the only people in the whole stadium NOT wearing red, and we were glad to escape without being questioned about where our true loyalties lay.
-celebrated tanner's and jolysa's birthdays at their joint birthday party in provo with dancing and funnel cakes.

it was a perfectly lovely day.

hiking mount timp at midnight

we were feeling a little bit crazy this weekend, and decided to hike to the top of mount timpanogos on friday night. we started at about 1:30, probably, and got up to the top by 6:00 a.m. to see the sun rise. we went with alec and grant, some myres cousins, and their friends tucker and rex.
was it worth it? it was beautiful, but it was RIDICULOUSLY hard and cold. let's just say it was a great life/BYU experience, and i don't know if we'll ever do it again.





afterwards we went to the cannon center for breakfast/lunch, courtesy of grant myres and his friend rex. thank goodness for dining plus dollars.

summer hungover

i just can't seem to get back into school like i should be. hmmmmmmm... shocker...

any ideas why or suggestions on how to fix it?

senior year, baby.

just married!

sorry for not posting for so long (i know that you were all just on the edge of your seat), but i've been kind of busy. 8 days ago, we FINALLY got married! it was the most fabulous, wonderful day... nothing went wrong. it was magical. the best thing is, we had a fabulous photographer who took some great photos of the event. you should go to her website to check them out and then go ooh and ahh at her other work. i can't really describe the day other than "perfect," so go see the pictures for far better details.

we spent our honeymoon in orange county and san diego. we stayed at the AMAZING hotel del coronado and had a great time: we went to the beach, rode bikes around the island, went to sea world, went to the san diego temple, went PARASAILING (very, very, VERY cool), and ate lots and lots of good food. i don't think anyone's ever had such a great honeymoon.






we are so happy! school is starting tomorrow, though. kind of a buzzkill... but we're having our utah reception this friay and then saturday heading to yellowstone with my family for labor day weekend. the fun never stops! we're each taking a pretty significant load of classes and working, but we're not going to let that stop us from hiking mount timp, taking significant bike rides, going to several wonderful concerts, and having just a wonderful adventure this semester.

so soon!

5 days!

and the weather on saturday should be totally perfect: high of 75 and low of 65 predicted in la jolla, california.

we're checking things off our lists of things to do every day.

we are so excited!

wedding status:

-wedding dress picked up and paid for: check
-utah open house finalized and settled: check
-percent of our things we have moved over to our new apartment: 75
-days till we leave to drive down to california: 5
-days till wedding: 14


-what we are doing today: tubing the provo river with our singles ward! woop woop i can't wait!

ni hao... xiexie

that's about all the chinese i picked up while i was there for two weeks... it is wayyy harder to understand than spanish. but i had a lot of fun! sorry, i would have posted some pictures while i was there, but china actually BLOCKS blogs and facebook and won't let anybody check them. at least, they've been blocked for a few months now. so i didn't have the chance. but now that i'm back i can post a few pictures for you all to enjoy! we had an awesome time hanging out with tommy's family and visiting the sites like the great wall, the forbidden city, and the various shopping markets around beijing.

this is us doing graffiti on the great wall (don't worry, it's just chalk):


working out on one of the exercise machines in their parks everywhere:


taking a ride on a rickshaw:


visiting the olympic stadium--the bird's nest:


it was an amazing life experience.

and now: 18 days until the wedding! get ready!

the "classics"

when i was in high school, i remember reading somewhere on some very official list that casablanca was the number one movie ever made. ever.
a few weeks ago, tommy and i wanted to watch grease. so we went and got a membership at hollywood video. and i stumbled across the "classics" corner... and found it!

so far we've watched these movies, and they were all excellent.





does anybody have any suggestions for other good, old movies that we could rent at hollywood video? this is like a whole new world opening up to me that i never even knew existed. i know that next on my list is the alfred hitchcock movie rear window, and charade, with audrey hepburn.
but of course, those come AFTER seeing HP6.

fun things coming up!

in one week, I will be taking the GRE.

in one week and one day, I will join approximately sixty-five other wonderful family members and have a rockin' family reunion in Mount Pleasant, Utah! (we love Iceland.)


in one week and four days, I will be hopping onto a plane with my beloved fiancee and traveling approximately eight billion hours to go across the world to get to China, where we will meet his awesome family and hopefully have an adventure-filled but totally safe time.


and once we get back on August 3rd, that will mean 19 days until wedding bells are ringing!

GRE

in the spirit of keeping my options open, i signed up today to take the GRE on july 16th. in case you didn't realize, that is only two and a half weeks away. it's the day before my family reunion starts and four days before i leave the country for two weeks.

i REALLY need to refresh my memory on all the algebra 1 and geometry that i learned six years ago.

G4L

hail the conquering heroes... my cousins are back from their missions! alec and tanner, who served in the rio de janeiro north mission and california riverside mission respectively, both returned this last week. it's only the main thing that i've been counting down for for the last two years. we'll all be back at byu in the fall and the myres family will again take over provo!

elder myres is clearly back to being himself again.



now that they're home, i'm just counting down for a certain sister fairweather to come home. 1/3 of the way done!

it's the end of spring term

and i couldn't be happier about it. for some reason, i just couldn't make myself care about my schoolwork at all this semester. luckily, i had the easiest classes i've ever had in college, including marriage prep, grammar, and psychology at the salt lake center.

my two classes in provo were pretty standard, but not difficult... but i don't really know how to explain how ridiculous the salt lake class was other than by showing you this blog post by alexandra, another girl from our class. clearly, the only way to stay awake is for me to do su do ku constantly and tommy and alex to take pictures of each other on their respective computers.

all i can say is, thank goodness it's ending.

and tomorrow, it's off to california! woop woop!

practice engagement pictures

my good friend whitney, who threw my bridal shower, took some practice engagement pictures for tommy and i a few weeks ago. these are some of my favorites. but to see more, go to her blog here. she is great!






when we go home to irvine on friday, my other good friend kylie is going to be taking our actual engagement photos while we are there. she is a rising star in the photography world, let's be honest. check her out.

bridal showers galore!

i had a great weekend--there was a bridal shower on thursday, friday and saturday haha. the one on friday happened to be mine! my good friends whitney and mary jane were stars and hosted it for me, and we had such a great time. thank you to everyone who came! (and thank you muchly whit and mj!)

one of the greatest things was having a mini-Spain reunion: eight of us were there! it was awesome. viva espana!

so excited

tommy and i are going to U2 on october 20th in Arizona, and to see BILLY JOEL and ELTON JOHN on november 20thish in Salt Lake. MY LIFE IS COMPLETE. who said that getting married means you don't have any more fun?? (lots of people have said that, actually...)

seeing billy joel is the number 1 thing on my list of things to do before i die. it even comes before doing a triathlon or learning sign language. i am psyched.

p.s. we ordered our wedding invitations yesterday and they are AWESOME.

america's funniest home video

it makes me laugh so hard! i kid you not. moments like that must make the hard times of having quadruplets worth it. thanks, camille, for showing that to me.

wedding cake

the thing that I am really excited for is our wedding cake in Utah. I know people probably don't usually have a cake at both of their receptions, but the place that we're doing the reception at up here basically gives it to us, so we chose one that kind of looks like this:



well, it's a little bit different. it doesn't look so fat and all the layers will be separated. it's going to be a good-tasting wedding cake. and there WILL be strawberries on each of the layers.

i miss this girl:

why did she have to decide to be so righteous and go on a mission? she ruined all my fun. the philippines are lucky to have her. at least i get to get letters from her. sometimes. i don't think the mail is very reliable where she is.

the wedding dress

i found the dress i like, and it doesn't even exist. at least, i can't buy it, because it's on this too-cool, vintage website that's already sold it. if only i'd known about it a week or so earlier!

i'm really hoping we can have someone make it for me! that would be magical. i really really want a short dress... and i'm convinced that they don't exist in utah at utah bridal stores.