Christmas/Flannel Parties

All right. I know this sounds extremely lame---but if you go to Erika's blog, the last 5 or 6 posts are all about my life. Mybyu.blogspot.com. There are even pictures! Although, I think there will be a lot more pictures on facebook.

I'll just give a little description of tonight.

We went to a Christmas party at the same house that my freshman ward had the talent show at! It was awesome and I even saw one of the members of my old bishopric (his parents own the huge mansion house and his daughter was one of the hosts for the party). It was incredible and such a beautiful house. Once I get tagged in some photos on facebook, just click on the album title and you'll be able to see the whole album, not just the pictures with me in it. I also saw Chrissy What-Ever-Her-Name-Is-Now from Benton Harbor and met her husband. At one point my friends and I were walking through the crowd and (I was at the end of our little line) and this guy stopped me and said "Hello pretty girl, what's your name?" I recognized him from one of my classes and seeing him from HumorU comedy, but I didn't say that. So I talked to him for a little bit and that's how I found out about the daughter of my bishopric member hosting it. So later I went up to her, pretended not to know who she was, and then she pointed out where her dad was, so I got to talk to him! It was great to see him and to reminisce a little bit (he talked about how incredible our ward was and how all the other bishoprics were jealous). It was great!

After the party, we changed into our new flannel shirts and took some awesome rockin' group photos. I think Erika wanted to take some cool group photos with the automatic setting on the camera, but it just turned into goofing off. We had a great time and now I'm sitting in my apartment wanting to go to bed but not wanting to find my pajamas or wash off my makeup but also not wanting to think about the horrible homework I will have to do. Ugh. At least my exam isn't due until 2:00 on Wednesday! That gives me time to stay up all night and do it or to get it done Monday. Most likely the latter.

Anyway, visit Erika's blog for a preview of the pictures and then the others will be on facebook soon I'm sure.

Well, I must be off to bed---but Christmas is in the air (I had my first orange in a LONG time tonight and it reminded me of Christmas morning! Yippee!! Also, it helped me identify with Laura Ingalls when she gets to eat the orange--I never really appreciated that scene until tonight and now all I want is a juicy, savory orange but I need to stop talking about it cause I can't have one. I'll just go drink a glass of milk).

I feel in a very talking-to-family mood right now, but sadly, it is very very late everywhere else where my family is, so I should go to bed too. We can talk soon enough. Love you all!

Thanksgiving Break

We got back yesterday from Idaho after a rather long car-ride which invovled an hour long detour through Odgen trying to find a Bajio that we never actually found. But because of this detour, we were in the car during the last quarter of the football game and we were able to listen to the end! It was pretty hardcore---BYU was up pretty well until the fourth quarter when Utah suddenly started scoring---and so the game went into overtime at 20-20. Utah then scored a field goal on their possession making it 23-20.....and then BYU scored a touchdown!!!! Hooray! So the game ended 26-23 and we sent those Utes packing! It was great! Then we went to Bajio and we were the ONLY people there---it was wonderful, didn't have to wait in line! Then we all went home, and Sarah and I have had a great time so far being the only ones here and even decorating a little tree that Aunt Sylvia gave us.

So: the week. Let's see if I can remember everything.

Tuesday: we left about 2:00 and made it to Idaho just in time for dinner. The company included Grandmother, the Turleys, Uncle Gordan's brother and his family (the other Turleys), Aunt Amelia and Max, Uncle Owen, and us. After dinner.....hm, I have no idea what we did after dinner.....oh yes, we talked for a bit, listened to Brian and Aaron play together on the guitar, then we played dominoes and then had some AMAZING blackberry raspberry pie that Aunt Amelia made and then watched Angels and Demons.

Wednesday: Started the morning with waffles that tasted very much like Dad's. Then we debated about where we were going to go that day, and basically drove around Rexburg doing different things and meeting up with the other Turley family and eventually realized that the hot springs were closed until after Thanksgiving. So we went to Mesa Falls. It was kind of a long drive (this was the day that we wondered if we would do anything on this trip but drive. The roads were a bit scary up in the mountains, but we made it safely and the view was beautiful!
This was where we stopped to overlook the valley and have a massive snowball fight and I may or may not have been pushed to faceplant in the snow a few times. That was not fun. But pictured from left to right is Mary Beth, me, Brian, Sarah, Sandy Turley, Robert Turley, Gordon, Sylvia, Brett Turley, Erik Turley, Aaron, and Nicole Turley.

The view overlooking the waterfall was also breathtaking--everything was so frozen! It was exactly like Chronicles of Narnia.There was a rather unfortunate incident above the falls, however. Amidst the fun and the snowball throwing and the leaning over the rail---Brian's camera fell out of his pocket. It was a very sad occasion.



We took the long and treacherous drive back and then that night we made pies, I discovered I was getting sick, and I really can't remember what we did that night. Oh wait, it was Max's birthday so the Cliffords came over and we had an amazing dinner of lemon chicken, cous cous, broccoli, and then an incredible red velvet cake. It was amazing. Then after that, I don't know what happened. Just a second, coming back here. Brian and Aaron had a plot to manipulate their dreams by creating a dream soundtrack with sound clips from all sorts of movies: fight sequences, romance, epic battles, all sorts of things. While they were trying to get a clip from The Return of the King, Brian, Aaron, Mary Beth, Sylvia, Gordon and I all ended up cramped in the bedroom just watching about a half hour of the movie because we all loved the part. So they put it together, but I don't think it actually worked. Then that night, Brian, Aaron, Mary Beth, Sarah and I stayed up talking for a while.

Thursday: Thanksgiving. Oh man, this is so hard to remember! I knpow we started cooking pretty early, cause we were planning to eat around 1. Oh, cool thing of the day: I discovered that I sometimes like yams. Aunt Amelia made a yam souffle that was incredible. I liked it a lot. I think a lot of people had that realization about themselves and their relationships with yams.
The potato line.

I'm trying to think if we had anything out of the ordinary for Thanksgiving--there were two turkeys and a ham---also a million people there, lots of which I didn't know, and I was feeling pretty sick and tired cause I hadn't slept well, so I was rather overwhelmed for a bit. The missionaries were also over, so one of them (who knew both families of the Turleys from having met them in the temple in San Diego and then happened to serve in Rexburg) gave his conversion story (for about half an hour....but it was okay). Then we played outside for a bit--oh Scratchy! There was this adorable almost grown up black kitten named Scratchy that everyone loves. He is actually very cuddly and will suffer being held for a long time--I decided that I may indeed like cats. But he has his name because he likes to play a lot and when you are holding him and he is in a playful mood, he will play cat and mouse with your hand, which is rather fun!!! He is actually really gentle, cause when he bites it doesn't hurt at all. The only thing that is prone to being painful is when he grabs for your hand with his cute little paws...which have little tiger claws on them. I got scratched once, but if you wear gloves or long sleeves, there's nothing to worry about. He is so cute and just likes to play and he bites very gently, just kind of grabbing your fingers and hands with his mouth but not biting down at all. So cute!!!! We all miss him a lot :( But anyway, that night, we went out to the sanddunes (after driving a bunch again....we got lost. Brian said he thought that Aaron had no idea how to get there, but he was pretending he was...haha) Anyway, we had a big bonfire and then set off Sobe bombs! You take Sobe bottles, fill them about halfway or 3/4 with gasoline, poke a little hole in the lid, set them in the middle of the coals in the fire....and then book it away. Then some awesome fireballs happen! The first one was pretty full, so it kind of exploded a fireball, but with the second we poured some out, so the bottle shot flame up and then it turned into a fireball...like a dragon! Then we went back, played some fun games, ate more pie, and maybe watched a movie? Can't remember, but Sarah says we may have.

Friday: We began the day with birthday waffles--the Bahr family tradition. Aunt Amelia made buttermilk waffles and then you basically make a sundae out of it! Ice cream, sprinkles, whipped cream, and hot fudge and caramel sauce! So good....then Sarah and I played the piano and had some musical time, and then we set up the Christmas tree with Aunt Sylvia and Mary Beth. Furniture was rearranged and then Karl, Marie, Daniel, Ben, Joseph, and Matthew all came and we went shooting at the dump! We even went skeet shooting! It was my first time and I liked it a lot! I hit three out of six, and had lots of fun...wasn't even sore the next day, haha! Then we got very very cold, watched the boys shoot Uncle Karl's very cool gun which I know how to say but not how to write. Our toes got cold and we were excited to get back in the car...but we had fun! We went home, played more games (these are mostly Psychiatrist and Smerf/Fargle...which we will definitely have to play over Christmas break!), some more dominoes while we listened to Brian and Aaron write a song (which will be stuck in everyone's head for the next month--unfortunately, we only know about two lines of the lyrics and then the tune....it's rather frustrating.) We then watched Wolverine, and then talked for a while.

Saturday: We got up, had lunch, then got ready and packed up all our stuff, said goodbye to Scratchy, then found some photo albums and stayed a bit longer looking through those. But we got on the road at 2:00 sharp and headed home.

Now I need to go get ready for church. It was a wonderful vacation and we had so much fun--unfortunately, now it's time to work hard and study and be diligent little students--but only for 3 MORE WEEKS!!!! HOORAY!!!!

Happy Almost Thanksgiving!!

Today I went with Ruth to the store to get supplies for our pre-Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday. We were going to be in and out in about and hour---we went over our time limit by 50 minutes. It was a rather exhausting shopping trip! But we sure got some delicious food. One of my favorites is the eggnog--both regular and pumpkin spice. Mmm....so good. I'm excited to drink it tomorrow! I was just going to bring mashed potatoes, but then becuase a lot of people haven't said what they're bringing, Ruth and I just decided to fill in a lot of the rest. In addition to mashed potatoes, I'm bringing Dutch Apple Pie, Grandma's Jello Salad and some eggnog. Hopefully the salad will turn out better than the last time I made it....but I want to make some really good mashed potatoes--anyone have any good advice of how to make some killer mashed potatoes? I got red potatoes and I want to leave the skins on--so if anyone has some delicious ideas, they would be greatly appreciated!

Last night I went to the Salt Lake Temple with a bunch of people from our ward. It was really really fun and I loved being in the temple and seeing how beautiful and peaceful it is.

I am so excited for the holidays! Thanksgiving will be a lot of fun, but I simply can't wait for Christmas. Ruth got me some air freshener spray stuff that is apples and cinnamon and it just makes me so excited to come home and be with my whole family!

Persogenics

Our bishop's wife teaches a dating class and for the past couple weeks has been talking about persogenics...it's this personality/communication test that basically says what type of communicative personality you are and then you can kind of see what kind other people are and then you therefore know how to approach them. It's pretty interesting---there's a test that you take, and you should take it!

My results were:
How you view yourself: Expressive/Dominant
How others view you: Expressive/Expressive
How you work: Expressive/Analytical

See how you score, and then I will try to remember what we talked about how to approach the different kinds of personalities--although it should just list it somewhere.

http://apps.persogenics.com/App/App.html

just copy and paste it...i still have no idea how to make a link

I love Ellen

So, I have this crazy test I need to take tonight, and I've been studying for it all day in the library. But somehow, I was taking a break, and I came across this!! I liked it and I thought that with our family's affinity for this song, you would too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7yqVD_3i0o&feature=related

The Same Drill (New News)

Well, after a fabulous day in Park City on Saturday, there are once again wonderful pictures....which I do not have. So in the meantime, I shall describe our adventures with detail and you can look at Erika's blog for about four pictures (mybyu.blogspot.com).

We (Adam, David, Colin, Erika, and me) started out the morning around 9:00 am and headed off to Park City, which the kind of help of Julie, David's GPS system (she had a few faults, but we were very forgiving. We started out at the outlet malls and went through almost every store there was (probably not true, but it sure seemed like it---we started out going in every store and then we realized that these stores weren't even the ones we wanted to see and that by the time we got to the good ones, we would be burned out--so we skipped a few). It was actually quite fun to shop with the opposite sex, because you get good opinions on your own clothes and also have quite a large influence on what boys choose to buy. I was very pleased with my turnout--I've already worn it all! I got a pair of jeans and two shirts from Gap (one a long sleeved, cream, light sweater thing and the other a light orangeish shortsleeved turtleneck--both good for wintertime) and a beautiful white pea coat at Old Navy, one which will go with both black and brown!!!

At the outlet mall, we met up with another friend Ashley, and then we left and headed off to lunch. Because the place the guys really wanted to go to was closed, we followed our noses and ended up at this quaint diner called "Road Island Diner". I was soooo excited, cause it was like a real, old-timey diner! It was pretty fun and rather delicious (the burger's outside was crunchy!), although my food came about a half hour after everyone else was finished with theirs and it put me in kind of a bad mood and I asked the waitress if I could get it for free. She was obviously new and didn't really know what to do and went to find her manager thinking she could probably get it half off. Then she came back about 15 minutes after that saying she couldn't find the manager and all she could give me was a free desert.


So, I asked for the $16.00 ice cream sundae trough.



At her reaction, I felt bad, so instead asked for the $5.00 Death by Chocolate, which was still pretty good---there's a picture of that on Erika's blog (also a picture of our table and my food all by its lonesome and my incredibly forced smile). We all shared it and then left and headed up to David's family's cabin.

When we arrived at the cabin, there was melting snow on the ground and the inside was frigid. We shivered around for a while as we waited for the heat to warm up the house. We then took a short nap (I think we were in some kind of stage of hypothermia--I was so cold and all I wanted to do was sleep, haha!) We slept for a little bit, and then David, Colin, Erika, and I went for a little hike while Adam and Ashley slept for a while more. We went out and said hello to the horses that graze on their property (they rent out grazing I think) and one of them started to lip the white sweater that I was wearing...that was Adam's. I felt pretty bad about that cause it left a greenish-brown dirty spot right in the middle of his sweater, but he said it wouldn't be hard to get out at all. Hopefully he was right. He hasn't said anything about it. We then left the horses and hiked a little bit more up the mountain. We were hiking as the sun was setting, so we wanted to get some pictures of us and the valley, and the way we did it was hang the camera on a tree branch, turn the timer on, and then all group together! David almost fell down the mountain a few times trying to get back from the camera in time (steep slope combined with snow), but we all survived and took some fun pictures. After we walked back, we made some hot chocolate and 5 year old popcorn and sat around for a bit. Then we said goodbye to Park City and drove home.

It was a really, really fun day and so great to go on another little mini-vacation. It makes it so much more enjoyable to be in school and in the same place all the time if you do get to get out every once in a while. I think we are thinking of hitting up Bryce Canyon before it gets too cold, and then going back up to the cabin in a few weeks and actually staying there (since David's aunt and uncle will be there and it will therefore be Honor Code-acceptable). Then Thanksgiving in Idaho (Erika wants to go to Yellowstone) and whatever other wonderful places we randomly decide to go too. I'll somehow get pictures of this weekend and get them accessible, cause it was just so much fun! Anyway, I need to go to bed.

Also, I'm reading Mere Christianity right now whenever I have time to. It is really interesting and makes me think a lot (also makes me realize that I actually am growing up with my fun-reading is quite theological-ideological and rather unfortunately reminds me of my Engl 252 readings...) But I like it a lot so far, I just wish I had more time to read it. Maybe I'll just sit down tomorrow and read it through, cause that way I'll be able to connect it all better.

Also, I just checked Erika's blog and she has about 3 (or maybe 4?) posts about our trip...just a heads up.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day today (whenever you read this) and that you find some way today to be spontaneously fun!

Ugh.

This morning I went to lunch with Ruth and Jordan and their friend. It was lots of fun and Brick Oven was delicious.

The day has gone downhill from there.

New roommate problems have arisen which are making me miserable, emotional and never wanting to be at home. That pretty much sums up all of my feelings right now and how much my day (and the past few days) has sucked.

I'm also pretty stressed out with homework. I have a big test today that I don't know if I'm ready to take and thinking about it is stressing me out. Also, I have a ton of reading to do for tomorrow. Which I will have to go home to get. Which I don't want to do, because even when my roommates aren't home, I'm not associating my apartment with home-ly happiness.

So, pretty much, I am not happy at all right now. I do love being able to go hang out with my friends at night, which makes me feel a lot better, but it can't last long enough to make it all better.

Ew. I feel horrible right now. The good thing is, tomorrow is another (hopefully better) day.

St. George pics

When I left Erika's apartment at the wee hours of this morning, she was posting a picture/video blog about our St. George trip. I just clicked to see it, and nothing's there. I'm sure by the time you all read this though, she should have a pretty good documentation of our trip. I tried once more to make a link, and we will see if it works.

Well, it's not working. I fail at making links. Her blog is mybyu.blogspot.com.

St. George

As soon as my friends put up pictures of our amazing trip to St. George, I will either re-post them here or (morel likely) direct you to Erika's blog again.

We began the trip at approximately 5:30 in the morning. After collecting everyone (Adam, Colin, Erika, and me) we started heading south, although we had a brief detour to the Wal-Mart in Springville so that we could get supplies. This stop lasted longer than we planned on it lasting because we were all kind of wandering around aimlessly picking out random food and hopelessly trying to convince each other to get different foods. But eventually we got off and on our way to St. George!

We took turns driving (except for Adam, who was virtually asleep any time we were in the car--we were beginning to think something was wrong with him) and made it to St. George about an hour before the temple closed for the day. It is a really beautiful temple, the first to be finished in the West! It is really, really blindingly white and it was such a beautiful sunny day that it almost hurt to look at the brightness of the temple (Well, for me, it did hurt, cause my eye was reacting really weirdly to my contact and it was rather painful and I wore Erika's sunglasses most of the time we were at the temple). We weren't in for very long because it wasn't very busy, but it was a wonderful experience to be inside the temple and to feel the Spirit and the power of the wonderful things that were happening. We then went to the Visitor's Center and watched the Joseph Smith movie (which, because of my eye, made it so that I was crying the whole time--my eye was already constantly watering and hurting, so anytime there was a moment that was in any way slightly spiritual, sad, or sweet, I just started crying hardcore! But it was very good.

Then we went and changed into hiking clothes in Bed, Bath, and Beyond and went to In-n-Out, which was not as magical as an experience as I thought it would be. First of all, my stomach was doing weird, extremely painful things to me because it thought it wasn't getting food when in reality it was at the moment and so that was not very fun, and also (and partially because of that I think) the food wasn't as amazing as I had heard--Burger Supreme is pretty good too, I think. i was a little upset that the 5 bucks I'd invested in In-n-Out was wasted cause I barely ate any of the food! But that was my thing with In-n-Out. I think everyone else enjoyed it.

Next we drove to Snow Canyon, about a half hour away from St. George (after getting lost a couple of times) and had an amazing time!! We made a list of all the trails we wanted to go on and then got ready to start them (even though everyone was saying how tired they were and how they just wanted to nap--I got them all to come out by taking all the food in the car and putting in my backpack and walking away, haha. But we started out on Jenny's Canyon, which I wasn't expecting that much out of because it was described as as a half-mile, easy, children-friendly walk. We walked on this little sand path for a while and then (surprise) ended up in one of the most beautiful, coolest holes in the rock ever! The trail went through this canyon thing that had huge, red rocks on either side which rose up to almost meet at the top. The rocks were lined with cool ledges and holes and all sorts of fun places to climb around and get covered in red dirt. We played there for a bit and found this ledge up on the rock where we all laid down and thought about taking a nap, but then we got up and decided to find the Cinder Cone trail.

We drove up and down Snow Canyon for about a half hour looking for the volcano that we were supposed to hike up and then be able to look down into the crater. We were pretty excited, but the more that we drove around, the more direction and consciousness we lost :) We eventually found the cinder cone, but couldn't see a trail up it, so...we went back to the center of the canyon and to the Lava Flow Overlook.

Once parked there, we had another repeat of everyone else wanting to sleep and Elise getting out of the car and walking a ways before everyone else got out of the car, but were they sure glad that they did! We walked about a mile (?) across this plain thing covered in igneous rock and all sorts of desert plant life and then climbed to the top of a big red, lava rock. It was one of the ones where it looked like the lava just bubbled on top of itself, so we basically had steps to climb on and it was very cool and pretty high (which Erika and I--both terrified of heights--discovered after sitting on an edge for a bit and then throwing wheat thins off the top to see how high it was--we retreated rather quickly after that). We then sat for a while eating grapes (on which Erika said she could taste the pesticide, since we neglected to wash them, but I couldn't tell a difference between the pesticide and the dusty dirt on my fingers, so it didn't really matter. They were very refreshing to eat, however, but most of them ended up being part of a grape fight that was fun, felt a little bit like paintball, and ended up being quite messy. But we had a grape fight on top of a huge lava flow. It was pretty monumental.

Sometimes I just couldn't believe that we were in a place like that and how incredible it was that there was this much space and that these rocks were this big! It was so cool and so much fun to get away from school and stress and to have a little roadtrip, attend the temple, and play around on rocks.

I'm hoping that someone puts up pictures soon so that I can show you all how amazing and beautiful it was.

Oh, also, Mom, I put in my old kind of contacts today and had no problems at all. I don't know if it's because I had more sleep (although I left them out for quite a while yesterday before I put them in) or because they are just less painful. I'll give them both a few test runs and see what happens.

Anyway, it was an incredible exprience and I can't wait for the next adventure that will now most definitely happen.

Finally, this school week is kind of over! I had a ton of homework and one midterm already (two more to study for this weekend though). However......

I'm leaving Provo tomorrow! A couple of friends and I are going to St. George! We are going to leave before the sun rises and get back after it sets; we have to leave early because we are going to go to the temple and it closes around 11--and then we are going to hit up Zion's National Park with the possibility of mountain biking (I'm not too sure on that one) and hiking and all around having fun! I am so so so excited--but I will have lots of homework to do on the drive. And tonight. Which I had better get started on. Anyway, I'm off to work on about a million hours of homework to see how much I can get done--look back here for an update on St. George! (although I will probably talk about it and then tell you to go to Erika's blog for pictures, haha :)

Names

Today in my 252 class we talked about the significance and ideology of names. People often name their kids with names of people or figures that they want them to aspire to be like and it got me to thinking about how good of a job Mom and Dad did naming us. First of all, they are beautiful names! Rachael Diana, Mary Elizabeth, Ruth Margaret, Elise Rebekah, Rosalind Clarissa. Just look at how beautiful those names are! I thought a while about every one of them and I just think they are the perfect names. Also, they are all really strong women in literature. So kudos, Mom and Dad.

However, I just looked up all the meanings of the names online somewhere. It was pretty cool and I just like to do that with names.


But.......


Elise is a short form of Elizabeth. I'm not sure Mom and Dad thought that one all the way through. :)

Okay, so here is the deal. I have had a pretty fun weekend this week, and I was going to put up pictures all about it. However.....my friend Erika has such a wonderful, picture-filled blog that....I could just forward you to her. Although I would like you to comment on here, if you feel like you need to comment. So, here is her blog again.... mybyu.blogspot.com--hopefully that works. There are a few days that she covers in her posts, I think there are like three or four that are about our adventures, so just scroll to where you see pictures of me!

More towards the bottom, there are pictures of a night when we tried to hike the Y. The last picture of the post is how both Erika and I felt about hiking the Y. She was very excited. I was....not. But we made it to the first switchback and then sat and talked for a while, walked up a little bit more cause we were cold, took more pictures, and then came down. Not very successful in the hiking part, but it was very fun.

Saturday we had an awesome time at the ward social. In that post, you see me feeding Erika ice cream blind folded---we weren't too good at it. I couldn't just pull off bite sized pieces, so I just ended up putting the whole bowl in her face, and she said it froze her teeth so she couldn't eat any more! We also did pudding pictionary--that first picture of the post is me with my beautiful portrait of Captain Moroni and the Title of Liberty. That then evolved into a huge pudding fight, which was lots of fun and kind of gross when it dried. Luckily, there was a ginormous slip 'n' slide--SO MUCH FUN! I loved it a lot and got almost cleaned off by it, but went down it so many times and so forcefully that I was horribly sore all over my body yesterday and am still a little sore today!

After that we went to the game Saturday night. What a let down. However, I did have lots of fun with the people in my ward. Also pictured is the free hotdog I got from the kid in front of me! He was very loud and would turn around and say something to us every once in a while, and at one point, he announced to the whole stand that he was going to go get food. When he was going down the stairs, I shouted after him, "Bring me a hot dog!" Which, he wasn't really meant to hear, and but his friend did, who called after him of course, and to my embarrassment, they had a loud shouted conversation about how I wanted a hot dog and that he needed to get one for me. Well, he did come back with a hot dog and red vines (both of which I ended up sharing most of) and the hot dog was very delicious! It was nice of him, and rather shocking to all of us that he had actually gotten it.

Yesterday we had The Talk from our Bishopric, although it wasn't nearly as exciting as it was last year. More on self-esteem than chastity, and I haven't asked any of the guys if theirs was any more exciting. Sunday night, Harriet, Erika and I ended up floating around to a few guy apartments and then almost stealing a fridge. One of the apartments we were in was pretty nice and we asked if we could have their fridge. One guy said, "If you can carry it to your apartment" (down a few sets of stairs and across the street) "You can have it". Well....we moved it very easily away from the wall and through the kitchen and then we realized we had some problems with the water tube that couldn't actually be unplugged. But they were very surprised that we could move it so easily--I guess they didn't know it was on wheels :) So we had mercy and left them their fridge, but we did manage to steal all of the trophies from their mantlepieces. Hopefully none of them read this. We are excited for the little battle that will probably follow, because we have a few other objects of decoration in their apartment that we are looking forward to stealing.

I need to book it to class now, so have a great day! And don't forget to check out Erika's blog for the pictures of our weekend!

Update! (Kind of)

Dubai, Doha, Rhyadh, Karachi, Islamabad, Teheran, Baghdad, Kabul, Shanghai, Xi'an, Beijing, Hong Kong, Llhasa, Tokyo, Kyoto, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok, Kuala Lampur, and Jakarta.

I've heard of like 5 of these cities, and do you think that I could label them on a map? Definitely not. I have to memorize them before tomorrow morning. This should be exciting (Along with their own countries, but that should hopefully be better. A little bit. Oh man, I know nothing about Asia....I'll have you know I got a hundred percent on the Americas quiz).

Well, this has to be quick because I still have a lot of homework, but I know I haven't posted on here for a while. School is dragging a little bit--mostly cause I have a ton of homework and classes aren't always the most exciting. I like the homework that I have to do (cause it's reading I learn a lot) but class can get pretty boring. And the reading never ends. Ever. Tonight I read the Pardoner's Tale for Engl 291 tomorrow (which is my favorite class--unfortunately, it is also my first class, so after that, I just have to push through 3 boring classes--Engl 252, Hist 202 and Geol 101). New Testament is pretty good (especially since it is my only class on Tuesday and Thursday) but I am beginning to think the upcoming test might kill me. Anyway, so basically, the story on school: boring class and endless homework. Also, the endless homework makes me go to bed late, so I am tired during class the next day. Engl 252 is particularly hard for me to stay awake in, because the subject matter is pretty theoretical, Marxist, and boring, and Dr. Muhlstein's voice is very relaxing.

But you are probably tired of reading about school. Things went better with my roommates today. Some of them have realized what has been the problem and have been making an obvious effort to get along better, so that is good. (I've also gotten a record of apology notes this week! 2 within 5 days!) But it was better in our apartment today.


Have a good day y'all! (as my friend Erika would say)

Today has been a good day! I was actually thinking earlier about what I was going to post about, and I think I already told Rachael most of it over the phone when I was walking home from class. I'll repeat it here anyway.

First (at 9:00 am) was Engl 291: British Literary History 1. When my professor walked in, she looked exactly what I imagined her to look like! Like an older Emma Thompson, but a little bit of Nanny McFee thrown in--but only a little. She went over the class, and it sounds like it will be pretty intense reading and minimal writing (that's the way I like it). My homework for Wednesday? Read Norton Intro (pgs 1-7, 19-21); online "Linguistric and Literary Contexts of Beowulf"; Bede, Ecclesicastical History (Story of Caedmon) (pgs. 24-26); and Beowulf (29-100). The nice thing is, we have take home quizzes to guide our reading, cause we're reading pretty heavy stuff but moving rather quickly, so I have a guide for while I read Beowulf, which I am actually rather excited for, cause I've never read it! I do have to buy that Bede book, and I really don't feel like going back to the bookstore right now. Maybe I'll get it on my way home (I'm in the library right now--I went home, ate lunch, and got my books/computer and almost died on the trek back up campus cause my backpack was suddenly 50 pounds heavier).

Next (10:00 am) was Engl 252: Intro to Literary Theory and Critiscm, which seems very philisophical and theoretical. My professor there reminded me of a shorter, balder Jimmy Stewart cause he kind of talked like him and acted a bit like him. His voice is very soothing, so I'm hoping that the class is extra interesting, cause it was very relaxing to just sit and listen to him talk on the first day of class! I got out of that class about 10 minutes early, so I had time to eat my apple for lunch :)

Then at 11:00, I had Hist 202: World Civilization Since 1500. This class is in the lecture hall in the Maeser Building, which I am very excited for, except today I was sitting in the front row in the corner, so my neck really hurt by the end of class from looking up at the huge power point! We went over the syllabus (which I really dislike doing---we can read for ourselves! and we did it in every class....) and then we watched a slide show of different historical empires from around the world set to Viva la Vida. That was nice. Especially since I was in the front row and could see my professor "dancing" a little bit to the music.

Finally, at 12:00, I had Geol 101: Honrs Intro to Geology. As I told Rachael, I think my professor is older than the rocks we are learning about, but he still seems very sharp and spry and was actually quite funny. The powerpoint that he had introducing the class had at least one joke on every slide, although I felt like the class was laughing a little too hard. Honors suck up students.

So, after my classes and my trek to and from home, I am back in the library and about to start on my homework. I already did my New Testament reading for my first class tomorrow (but I'm going to review, cause it's just so cool! We have an really interesting packet to read from) and then I have already done half of my Geology reading, but I need to finish that up and finish my notes and then I'll get to Mr. Norton!

Tonight we are having a ward FHE at the bishop's house, which I am pretty excited for. Right now I'm in a mood to work really really hard in school and have a nice, balanced social life on the side and get to bed at 11. Oh, also, I quit my job, which makes me really, really happy, but I'm very tired of explaining all the details (I told my roommates and then I have tried to tell any of my friends that bought a card from me, just in case they ever feel ripped off....) Anyway, so if you want to hear the details on it, ask Mom or Dad. I'm glad of my decision to do it, but I'm just tired of repeating the story so many times. It was a hard thing to do, but when I thought about what was important to me and what my priorities were, it was really quite simple. I'm so glad to have the Lord's influence in my life and to have the Spirit as a constant companion to help guide me to do what is right!

Have a wonderful day! Also, I might need Gulliver's Travels! What edition do we have at home?

I realized something yesterday when I was watching the 3rd Pirates of the Caribbean--you know the spy guy that works for Beckett? you may not remember him, but he's always around and has a really thick accent and is really bad? Well, he's from Yorkshire....and so is my little roommate Harriet (well, north Yorkshire). So, if you haven't heard Harriet's accent, it's not the English accent that you think of, like the London one. You can watch that guy in Pirates and know what hers is like!! Although, she says she's from the topmost town in Yorkshire, so hers isn't as "broad", and she also says that people from her area says that she talks "posh" (which is what she calls the London accent that we usually think of).

She's saying now that her accent is a mix between Yorkshire and Geordie (from Newcastle) because she is in the middle of Yorkshire and Newcastle (although closer to Yorkshire)....I am learning so much more about her as I write this, haha! It was interesting when her friends were here and they both have Geordie accents and Harriet has more of the Yorkshire accents. I asked which one was harder to understand and Harriet says that right in the center of Yorkshire is very broad and hard to understand, but so is it in the center of Newcastle. Either way, they are very different from London accents--the Geordie one reminded me a lot more of a Scottish accent.

So, there is your little lesson today...I wish I had something else interesting to say about that, but I don't really....but guess what? I'm playing John Denver right now, and I know that Harriet knows some of the more well known songs, but right now "Wild Montana Skies" is playing and Harriet just got off her bed and left the room, and as she did, I heard her sing kind of unconsciously along with the music "Oh, Montana, give this child a home...."

Ha-HA!

So, this post really fits with the title of the blog.

Harriet and I learned a really fun game last year that teaches you your true laugh. Now, this usually works pretty well and is really funny, but it doesn't work on some people quite as well (Mary Beth and Brian). It also works much better if you're in a kind of excited mood anyway. So...you need two people. Let's say Harriet is person 1 and I am person 2.

Harriet lays on the floor on her back and crosses her arms mummy style, holding onto the tops of her shoulders. I stand over her and put my hands on her crossed arms. Then she breathes in deeply, and then when I say "Breathe out", she breathes out. As she breathes out, I push down on her arms as hard as I can---this forces the air out in what usually is a really crazy laugh.

Well, if you try this, I hope that it works and provides you with a great dose of laughter tonight. :)

(Harriet and I like to do this a lot and it can lighten any kind of mood when you laugh that hard and that crazily!)

I'm ready for school to start! I have my books and my notebooks (although, Rachael and Mary Beth, for some reason I only got a 4 subject notebook for four classes---do you think that with those English classes I will need more note space? I am starting to think I do....)

Not many people are here, so Harriet and I have just been hanging out with ourselves. Last night we went on a walk and ended up going to see Mary Beth's new apartment (which is beautiful!) and we were telling her that not many people are here and that we had dates together the last two nights--baguettes and brie (which was NOT real brie, to our disappointment) the first night and lettuce wraps and french fries the second, both nights with our plastic martini glasses full of juice. Mary Beth said, "Wow, that sounds fun! So...who were the guys?" And we said, "Um......there were no guys. It was just us two. On a date with each other. Two nights in a row." It was funny :)

Yesterday we spent two hours in the bookstore looking at the Mormon artists and their art displays. I think that Liz Lemon Swindle is my new favorite Mormon artist, I kind of became obsessed while we were there. We were looking at all of her paintings and some of them actually made us cry! In the bookstore! It was kind of embarrassing when we were looking at one particular one and both of us were tearing up, and a guy came up and was like, "Are you finding everything you need?" I kind of looked away and we said, "Yeah...." And then, instead of going away, he said, "You know about the buy three get one free right?" And I just kind of started looking back at the paintings, cause I was so embarrassed that he was talking to us when I looked like I had been crying, so Harriet was like, "Yes, we know...." And then he eventually went away. We were telling Mary Beth this later, and Harriet said, "I didn't look at him either the whole time he was speaking to us!" So I guess he just thought we were both rude because neither of us had any eye contact at all. Despite the crying in a very public and crowded place, it was very good and we were both very surprised to have such a spiritual moment in that kind of environment.

Well, I have nothing else really to say, except that I am very excited that it is 8:45 am and I am writing on my blog.

So....I like to laugh...

I decided to change up some things on my blog because I got tired of it...and Rachael says that my laugh always makes her laugh (which is hopefully a good thing...although I think I say enough stupid things to make her laugh at me all the time).

Anyway, still here at home in Michigan, although I just can't wait to start school again! I bought one of my textbooks on ebay today, and I saved a whole 15 bucks! Which means I can now buy a nice, pretty planner, although I was going to do that anyway.

Today I think we are planning on going to lots of stores, although I don't really enjoy that thought because I like to go to stores on my own schedule, not when it is other people that want to go and I am just kind of tagging along. But hopefully I will be able to get some things that make it enjoyable.

I am so so so excited for school to start! I hope that I really like my classes and that I will find something in each of them that makes it enjoyable enough for me to want to work really, really hard, cause I think some of my classes will be pretty intense. And although several of you already know my classes for next semester, I'm going to list them on here anyway.

ENGL 291: British Literacy History 1
ENGL 252: Intro to Lit Theory and Criticism
HIST 202: World Civilization from 1500
GEOL 101: Honrs Intro to Geology
REL A 211: The New Testament

Looking at them, it seems like I'm not in that many classes at all, but Rachael tells me that the two english classes will be lots and lots of work, so I need to be sure to put a huge amount of work into it. Although, with my sudden yearning for schoolwork, that shouldn't be too hard at first. Hopefully, this excitement for learning will last the whole semester.

Also, Michigan is amazingly green and beautiful, so here are some pictures!


Lake Michigan before the waves picked up...

One of the trees that we planted in our front yard when we moved here 10 years ago....it is so huge and beautiful now!

Family pictures in our backyard....

I don't know whether this is a particularly good picture, I just kinda picked one at random....so....


I like this next picture a lot :)

Gr'ma and Papa!
Well that's it, I need to go check my laundry to see if I have clean clothes in order to get dressed.....smile!

Michigan: Trees, Thunderstorms, and Humidity

Whenever I mention to someone whose blog gets a great amount of visitors that she (usually) hasn't posted on her blog in a day or so, she always inevitably says, "Well, you NEVER post on your blog!" First of all, this is because I always end up telling everyone everything about my day anyway, so it is very repetitive, and also because i don't think my blog gets as many readers (which I am completely fine with) as another one who has the cutest kids on earth or another one who never seems to go a single day without having something amazing to eat--which makes me slightly jealous.

So, everyone should appreciate the fact that I am posting now.

I'm home in Michigan (as you all know) and it has been pretty fun being with my family. I am really excited to go camping this week, cause I have been getting a little antsy at night not being able to really go out and do anything, which I had been doing a lot at school the last couple weeks. So, I am looking forward to going somewhere and having fun with my family!

However, the weather is so crazy! Last week, it was freezing cold, and now after the huge thunderstorm that we had yesterday, it has been so hot and heavy outside. I'd forgotten what humidity was like. I think I'm most worried about being able to sleep in the tent when it is so hot outside, but I also hope that we get to spend a lot of time at the beach if it really is going to be this hot.

We are having pot roast for dinner (prolly one of my favorites and the first meal I requested from Mom when I got home) and I am very, very, very excited. Also, we saw Julie and Julia yesterday and now I really just want to cook all the time. Maybe I should get that out of my system while I'm at home and have all the the unusual ingredients at hand.

And now my ma is calling me very loudly so I shall stop doing what others want now and go do what someone else wants.

Latest Parties from Provo

I recently discovered my friend Erika's blog--and it has some pretty good accounts of some of the latest things we did in Provo. So, instead of me recapping everything, I am going to forward you to Erika's blog! Look particularly for picture blogs about the pool party and the Demolition Derby (you're going to have to go back a little to look at the Derby). Anyway, have fun reading, cause it was certainly lots of fun doing!! Erika's blog is mybyu.blogspot.com

Also, I am HOME!!!!!!!!!!! now i have to get back to cleaning the carpets.....

Friends!!!

It's nice to finally get some summer life in to my summer. I've been looking on the BYU network for jobs a lot and keeping an eye on things--this week I'm going to go to the library and see if my newly formed connections can get me a job. Maybe I'll also hunt down the professor that almost promised me a TA job, and perhaps do the same for another professor who I'd like to be an Office Assistant for even though I can't get ahold of him at all. So that's the job front.

I've been having a lot of fun making friends too. I can't really remember if I did anything particularly spectacular during the week, so I'm just going to recap this weekend. On Friday, I got back to my fun-organizing-little-self and organized a bonfire up at the base of Bridal Veil Falls. It was the most beautiful spot ever and we had a lot of fun. While my friends and I went to Macy's to get some makings for banana boats (which everyone loved :) we saw that they had camping chairs (one of which I have been wanting for a long time) for 6 bucks!!! So three of us bought them--they served the purpose and are worth exactly what we paid for them. I think the case is almost completely useless cause it ripped right away and some of the chairs are ripping too---but if I'm careful, mine might last me a while! It's bright green and sitting across the living room looking at me. (It also has armrests and a cupholder!!)

Then we came home relatively early (12:30 am) and all went to our respective apartments. My roommate Sarah and I (sitting in my camping chair, of course) were watching some TV and I was texting our friend Paxton, so he came over and brought his camping chair too. We watched George of the Jungle on TV.

Yesterday I went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House again with a bunch of kids from my ward--I don't think I liked the tour quite as much this time because I didn't realize before how much walking there is through hallways and up and downstairs. I just felt really impatient the whole time to get to the celestial room and the sealing room. But it was still nice.

After the open house, we went to Zupa's for dinner. I got a turkey bacon avacado panini....mmmm!!!! and it had honey mustard on it which was surprisingly delicious. I've realized that whenever I get something to eat anywhere, if there is an item on the menu that includes avacado in the title, I always get it! Yummy.......

Then, I came back to my apartment and got ready to go country dancing! It was pretty fun, although it always gets soooo hot and everyone gets really sweaty. But it was fun. Afterwards, we came home and then my roommate and another friend Eric both went home to bed (wimps) and Sarah, Paxton and I and this other kid that was a friend of Eric went to the duck pond. Sarah is kind of obsessed with feeding the ducks, but she couldn't find any old bread, so she brought some ramen noodles. They weren't such a big hit with the ducks. So we threw crumbled ramen all over the ducks for a while and then decided to go sit at this little theater place and had an impromptu talent show! It was very fun! Then we sat and talked for a long time--it was a beautiful night.

Today I got up early to straighten my hair (which didn't turn out amazing, so I was a little unhappy with the loss of sleep). Then we went to church and that was pretty good, rather uneventful. I don't know if I'm going to Ruth and Jordan's tonight or not--right now I'm stuffed full of puppy chow and chewy chips ahoy cookies (which are surprisingly soooo good!) as our choir's reward for a good performance, although I meant to have macaroni and cheese for lunch. Tonight I'm hanging out with some friends again--Ward Prayer every Sunday really serves as a place where game night can be organized, so it's fun to play games with people every Sunday.

Well, that was a very long post and I hope that everyone has a wonderful week and makes sure to smile!

So, on Sunday, I was walking home and my shoes were really kind of hurting, so I took of my shoes pretty soon. The sidewalks and blacktops were both so hot, so I wasn't surprised when I had blisters on the bottom of my feet from being burnt!!

Yesterday, we were playing Ultimate Frisbee and at one point I was running and felt something sharp under my foot. I thought I had just stepped on a little rock, and then a few minutes later i looked at my foot and my toes were covered in blood. Something had sliced up into my big toe and it was bleeding all over!

So I got home that night, and could hardly walk right because my right foot was so messed up from the blisters and cut.

Then today at work, we were pulling up carpet squares, which were very firmly glued to the floor. I looked at my hand about 45 minutes in and realized that I had a huge blister on my left hand. Two minutes after I noticed it, it popped from pulling up the carpet. About an hour later, I realized I had a blister on my right hand too. Two hours later, it popped too, but both of them left tiny blisters that ooze on and off and really hurt! I am not looking forward to work again tomorrow.

So, basically, I think that I am very injury-prone this week---it will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow.....

Oh my goodness....I am so sick of everything...I need to come home to Michigan and see my family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Books, Blood and Viggo Mortensen

Today, I had both books and blood under my fingernails. I spent four hours picking tiny stickers off books and putting new ones back on them. The stickers dug under my fingernails and it was very painful! Also, on the really old books, some of the binding came off with the stickers and my hands and fingers were filthy.

But, there is a wonderful thing that I discovered today, one of the positive effects of watching Lord of the Rings over and over again. I was listening to my MP3 player and after my break decided to listen to some Lord of the Rings soundtrack. It was amazing, because I could match up the songs with what was going on in the movie, even with the exact dialogue! So basically, instead of being bored to death doing this work, I watched Lord of the Rings. In my head.

Looking at what I just typed, it made me feel a little crazy.

I'm going to the pool.

So, I figure I should post since everyone else has (I almost jumped for joy when I saw that you posted, Rachael---it has depressed me several times a day to get on, click on your website first, and see that it wasn't updated in a week!!!) Anyway, today I had a wonderful time at Ruth and Jordan's. We ate some delicious food (go look at Ruth's blog--I would make a link, but I don't know how, and by the time I figure it out, my computer will have run out of battery) and had some good time together. We had a good long conversation with Dad on the phone (47 minutes!!) and then we tried to call Papa, realized that we didn't have the right phone number anymore, tried to call home and get the right number, but the line was busy. So, Happy Father's Day, Papa! Sorry we didn't get to talk to you, maybe we will try next week when we are back together again. Both of you are wonderful examples of fathers and really actually influence what I see and like in guys here. You have both made amazing differences in my life and I am so blessed and happy to be your daughter and granddaughter. Thank you for everything and we can't wait to be back with you!

Then I went back to ward prayer, when my roommate Kailey and I talked to lots of new people and made lots of new friends. There is a purpose to ward prayer. Then we went and played games at someone's apartment for a while. And I can't write anymore, because my computer is about to die in 5 seconds.

Love you all!!

So, this morning we were cleaning for cleaning checks. At one point, I picked up my phone and noticed that it had been lying in a little puddle of water on the table. Shoot. Now it doesn't turn on, and I am trying to dry out the battery on the windowsill, but it is annoyingly cloudy today and i live in the basement.

So, if you need to contact me...I guess email me. :(

Dosie-Do!

Last night I went country dancing!! It was so much fun--it really is a big difference just from normal church dances. The guys that are there are so confident and really good at dancing so there's no awkwardness-can't-danceness. Except for me, but I got a lot better throughout the night (one kid said he couldn't believe it was my first time). But it is amazing how good some of these guys are and how they just spin and swing and throw you around like you're nothing. There were some pretty interesting parts though--at one point I was dancing with my friend (who is a really good dancer, i think he was in clubs or something, can't really remember) and he accidentally elbowed me in the mouth! I got a fat lip and he felt really bad...but it went away soon. Then there was this other kid i was dancing with, and next to us, a guy lifted the girl in the air above his head and my partner was like, "Do you see that?" and i was like, "um......yes......" and then he did it to me!! It was very scary and I don't think I did it right, but it was fun.

Also, all the boys are very muscular and strong.

Rosalind...you should come country dancing with me when you come out here. I think you will like it.

It was a ton of fun, although it could be very tiring and very good exercise! It was also really fun to have a dance be completely country music! It was so cool to see how many people go and how much fun they all have. So different from the east. Anyway, Harriet just asked me if I wanted to go to the pool before work, so I need to go get ready.

Tonight I am watching Friends with Ruth and I am excited!!!

To The Greatest Parents Ever:

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MA AND POPS!

You are the best parents in the world and I am so grateful to be your daughter. Thank you for having a wonderful marriage and for teaching us to be righteous and good people. You are both such amazing examples and I thank Heavenly Father every day that I am blessed to have you as my parents

I LOVE YOU!

Happy Mother's Day!

Well, I think I talked to three people today that said I hadn't posted on here in a while, and I think it was because I didn't feel like I had anything positive to say. As most of you know, I think, the excitement in my life has kind of taken a big fall, tonight was a big pick-up. First of all, we talked to Mom, and she is coming with Rosalind to visit us!!! We are so excited and can't wait to have both of you here! YAY!!

I had a really fun night with Ruth and Jordan tonight (see Ruth's blog for pictures). We had a really good dinner of chicken crescent rolls and jello salad and then Ruth was so excited about celebrating my birthday that we did it early :) She made a delicious ice cream cake and they gave me a present that had a bunch of wonderful NuSkin products, a big tub of amazing freezer jam, and another mini cake! I am really excited to make some bread tomorrow that I can eat the jam with, cause it is so good!

After that we went on a really pretty drive up Hobble Crick Canyon. It was so beautiful and really nice to be up in the mountains away from Provo.

Well, that's about it, folks! Happy Mother's Day to everyone!

Well, I haven't written on here a lot lately, but I don't have much to say! It's a little warmer here today, but I am sitting by the window as I type and my fingers are getting cold. I am really excited for Conference!!! I am about to make either a rice side or rice-a-roni that I bought yesterday (I just really want rice!) for dinner and then I am going to write a paper and then go the men's volleyball game (according to Jordan they are playing the number one team in the nation). I also took the office skills test today, and I am rather proud of my typing abilities :) My friend Allie and I made dream bars last night, and unfortunately, they are about all that I have eaten today. So I am going to go have some *kind of* real food--oh, I just went with Ruth and Jordan to the NuSkin store and got some great free stuff that I am excited to use.

And the best part...........only 3 more weeks of school!!!!

Life is good. :)

SERIOUSLY!?!?!

a FOURTH Pirates of the Caribbean? oh my gosh.....

The Wrestler (p.s. that's a movie title in case you didn't know)

So, Harriet once went to a rather tough high school. I think that has influenced her fierce fighting habits. Sometimes, when we fake fight, I am always of afraid of actually hurting her, so I play easy. She doesn't suffer from that same weakness--so she is a little more aggressive when we mess around. I usually end up running away after she attacks me.

Tonight, we were outside on the hill that we usually study on and somehow we got to wrestling around again. Yesterday when this happened, I just tried to hold her off until her boyfriend Scott came out and she could beat him up. Tonight---I wanted to show her that I grew up wrestling a girl that had five inches and two and a half years on me. And I usually sat on her.

Our wrestling match ended about twenty feet down the hill with me sitting/lying on top of Harriet, pinning her to the ground and her weakly saying the words that usually come out Scott's mouth: "That's enough....that's enough...." and then we laughed.

But now she knows.

I can take her.

I just got back from a nice looooong walk with two of my really good friends, Rochelle and Jeff. We tried to find Kiwanis Park, but walked a rather twisty way and got lost and so we sat on the grass of a church building for a while--then we walked down a hill--and there was the park. Anyway, it was a really nice night and we had a fun time just talking. It was a beautiful night outside and just too nice to go to bed! So now.....I'm thinking about getting up for my class tomorrow morning and ugh...but then I can come home after my 12 o'clock class and sleep/study in the sun! it will be wonderful.

Things have been going a lot better with my roommates lately. My roommate and a bunch of her friends that competed/watched DanceSport for a long time on Saturday cheered for me every single time I danced and then we were just really positive to each other. So lately we and I have been getting along pretty well, and it's been nice. I've been feeling a lot more positive towards that group of friends lately, and I'm glad that my attitude is changing.

The weather has been so nice lately and it has been wonderful to just be able to sit in the sun.

Lately, I've been having second thoughts about staying for both spring and summer. I think that I know that's what's smart to do, since I won't be able to find a steady job in Michigan (and I think that I would probably get bored), but I really miss my family a lot and sometimes I just want to be home. Am I doing the right thing, do you think? I think I am, I just need reassurance.

Anyway, I'm off to bed. It feels like Thursday....and it's only Monday.

Oh, we also ran around and played outside a little bit for FHE today, and it was heavenly. :)

Oh, and I decided to change things up on my blog--as you can see. I'm also trying to maybe think of a different title for it, something that describes me more--any ideas?

I probably just saw the best movie I've ever seen: Valkyrie. I tried to restrain my self from outright sobbing during the last 20 minutes and then had a really hard time doing the same thing in the car ride home. It made me want to be brave and to stand up for what I know is right. Did a Tom Cruise movie just change my life?

Right now I am eating a toasted turkey, cheese, and avocado sandwich with wheatable crackers. It is amazing. I love it. And I'm waiting to make myself do laundry and study for my human development test. After class, Harriet and I are going to our friend Kelsi's apartment, where she's hosting a facial thing, which should be fun. Then I'll probably study some more, and then tonight I'm going to go see Valkyrie at the dollar theater (or Seven Pounds, I've heard that's really really good). Anyway, I'm excited for both. But now I must finish my lunch and then study. Good bye!

This will be a rather busy weekend.

Today:
-Do my homework/study for several tests until 6:00
-6:30: Go tubing with my ward at Soldier Hollow!!
-Come back and hopefully have time to get lots of homework done
-Do my laundry at the same time
-Clean my room
-Go to bed at 11:00

Tomorrow
-Get up super duper early tomorrow morning to go to the Draper Temple Open House with my ward!
-Go to a TA review session for my American Heritage class at 11:00 (hopefully--as soon as we get back from the open house)
-Go to practice the Cha-cha at 1:00 at the Dance lab in preparation for DanceSport next week
-Do several more hours of studying
-Go to bed at a reasonable time

Sunday
-Church at a painful 9:00
-Ward Council ?
-Memorize my reading part for our stake musical fireside thing
-Have big run through for the same musical fireside thing
-Hopefully have dinner with Ruth, Mary Beth, and Jordan
-Ward Prayer
-Probably play and relax for a little bit
-Go to bed on time!!

And then next week, I have an American Heritage test, my Book of Mormon midterm, a few Biology assignments due, and then DanceSport on Saturday which I am pretty nervous for! I'd feel a lot better if we were doing the foxtrot or the waltz--I think I like the ballroom dances more than the Latin ones because I feel a lot prettier and graceful, so I think that's more fun than the more playful Latin dances---also, all of the traction has worn off of the shoes that I dance in, and I slip a lot more when we cha-cha than when we do the foxtrot and waltz.

And I'm very excited to have a clean room and sheets.

Oh, and if Ruth or Mary Beth reads this in the next two hours and you have snow gear, could I borrow it? all I have are boots and and coat, and I would really like to have gloves and an earwarmer at least!! Call me!

So......I've made some decisions. *Sigh*

I'm living in the Elms Apartments this spring/summer and in fall/winter.

I've registered for classes for the spring and summer. Would you like to know what they are?

Spring:
Social/Cultural Anthropology (3 credits)
Greek and Roman Mythology (3 credits)

Summer:
Civilization: Literature 2 (3 credits)
The New Testament (2 credits)
Doctrine and Covenants (2 credits)

My spring classes are ones that I've always wanted to take and it finally looks like there are good professors teaching it spring semester. My summer classes actually all fulfill GEs and they look like they have good professors too! (except my Civ class doesn't have a professor listed yet, but I need the credits and the class and it looked interesting)

All of my classes also start after 12 and so I'll have the mornings to work.

Now I just need to get a job.

And decide on a major.

And take this Human Development test.

I'm back...I think sometimes I just don't post anything cause I don't feel like I have anything noteworthy to say. But I do have something exciting from yesterday! Remember my film midterm that I was really worried for? I got a 96! Hot Dog! And the scene analysis essay that was going to be hard? I got full points on it! And my professor said, "Very good analysis". Which is lucky, because we had a write a paper analyzing a scene and because I didn't manage to get access to any of the movies or scenes (the one movie I really wanted to analyze a scene from is all on YouTube, but...we can't access YouTube on campus), I wrote my paper analysis on the same exact scene that I wrote my essay for my test on. So hopefully that won't be a problem. Anyway, that was very exciting!!

Yesterday at FHE we planned out what we're doing for the rest of the semester and next Monday we are going to play badminton in the RB and then go to Legends Grill afterwards! It will be very fun.

And now I really need to study hardcore for my human development test that I need to take today. I am in the library right now, but I really want to be outsidem, cause it is 62 degrees. Did you get that? 62 DEGREES!!!!! It is beautiful--but I looked at the weather for the next 10 days, and it just gets colder. Sad. But anyway, I am going to study so that I can get this over with.

When I first opened up this thing to write a post, Mary Beth, the first thing that I typed was "So..." And I discovered that that is because a lot of the time I'm telling a story of my day or my week and I normally start out telling stories when I talk with "So..." But anyway, I didn't do that with this one!

Anyway, this weekend I will be writing papers all day every day! I have a paper due in my biology class on Monday and then a pretty long paper due in my human development class on Tuesday, and then a midterm in my film class on Wednesday and then after that I have to write a paper for my film class! Ugh. And today I turned in a paper to my American Heritage class (and I was almost late! Scary!)

So that's the excitement of my weekend--it is kind of depressing cause I have nothing planned. Not that I usually have every weekend planned out anyway, it is usually more spontaneous, but it would be nice to have something exciting to look forward too (maybe something exciting will come up today).

So, I got an email today saying that I had got a scholarship for spring/summer! So--here's my dilemma--I have that scholarship, but should I take classes or work during the summer? The minimum credit requirement for the scholarship is 6, but I don't know whether it would be better for me to go to school or work. Maybe take classes during spring and work during summer? Anyway, any suggestions are very welcome. Also, class suggestions would be nice too :)

So, as you have probably heard, I am going to be Mary Beth's witness for her trial thing today. And well...there are some interesting emotions going through me now. I've been nervous for performances (cause this is what this seems like to me) before, but scared out of my wits? Never. And I have no idea why!! There's certainly no reason to be scared...but I'm just kind of freaking out about it. Maybe it's because there will be all law students there, and they're all geniuses, and I'm just the average BYU freshman. Ugh. And the judge. I will be scared of the judge. I just really don't want to make Mary Beth look bad, cause I know that she'll be amazing, and I don't want to ruin it for her. I'd been feeling really, really antsy all day today--it was difficult to sit still for the last 10 minutes of my American Heritage class, and then I went to my 3 hour long film class. That was horrible. So I was sitting in my film class, feeling slightly sick (nothing to do with the trial, just feeling biologically sick) and then I trudged to my biology class. I sat down and saved a seat for Harriet. And then I remembered the trial.

I got up, and walked out of class.

I met Harriet coming in to class, explained to her that I was feeling sick and that I was also worried about the trial and then said, "Have a fun time in class." And she just kept looking at me. So we walked out of the SWKT together. Sometimes, you just can't stand to be in class a moment longer.

So....my plan was to come home, sleep off the sick feeling, and then review the case stuff that Mary Beth sent me. Instead, I ate some cheese and now I'm going to look at that thing until I have to go. I hope it goes well tonight!

So, I'm actually ready early for class today, I don't have to leave for about 20 minutes. And it is snowing outside!! I'm actually not very happy about this--it will be so cold and snowy! Sometimes, I have to get lots of warm clothes on to go to school, and then I just feel all bulky. Oh well, at least I'll be warm.

Last night was pretty productive. We watched the Mormon Pride and Prejudice (because we told a few of our FHE brothers that one of the new ones looked like Collins from it, and they were very excited to see that--we didn't tell the brother that he looked like Collins, though--there were just a bunch of us that were just cracking up every time Collins came on screen). So we did that, and I got some homework done during the movie as well (and our FHE brothers made cookies, which was very impressive). After FHE, I got some more homework done, and then I decided to go for a run. I ran down to Mary Beth's again, but her roommate said she was at her trial thing (hopefully that went well!) so on the way back, I called Ruth and Jordan to see if they were around, but no one answered, so I just went home. Then I did a little more excercising, took a shower, and then did more homework. And I finished everything that I wanted to have done and even did some stuff that I had planned on doing today!

It took me a while to sleep though, because I took a nap after class yesterday, and then I wasn't able to fall asleep at night! And then, since I got a lot of my homework done yesterday, I won't have as much to do today, so what do you think I will end up doing in my break between classes today? It's a vicious cycle....

Since I still have 10 or 15 minutes, I'll put up some pictures I have that I like.

This is from this summer, Ruth's wedding.

See if you can find our bedroom window.

Our group's final in Pen and the Sword last semester.

Finding a Christmas tree: Rosalind, me, Ruth

The regular hang out group at the dance party in Whitney Hall basement on Friday.
And now it's time to brush my teeth and go to class. Have a good day!

So this weekend has been pretty fun. Here is how it went.

Friday: Harriet, Lauren and I borrowed our FHE brother's car and went to the temple after classes. It was nasty and raining outside, so I was glad that we had a car. We spent a really, really, really long time waiting and finally were able to do some work. But it was especially nice just to sit in the temple and watch. There were some interesting experiences: there was one guy a little bit ahead of us that was an interesting person--when he stood up to go to the font, he started to follow a few girls into the girls' dressing room, before realizing at the last minute what he was doing and quickly changing directions (all of us in the front row had really hard time not laughing out loud, especially when the elderly temple worker said to the boys ahead of us "Okay, go ahead--THAT WAY" and pointed towards the guys' room.) Then, the same guy, when he was baptizing a girl instead of gently bringing his right hand back up, he would sharply snap it back into place so strictly that it would bounce a little bit from side to side every time. And THEN, when he was getting out of the font, he stood at the top and shook each foot over the font, just like a duck!! It was so hard not to laugh.....

But then there were some other really spiritual moments as well. The "chapel" where we waited while we watched people get baptized was playing really quiet hymns on an organ, and it felt so quiet and peaceful (until the ward of youth came in). You couldn't hear what was going on in the room with the font (you could just see through the glass) but you could see everything that was happening, and it seemed so peaceful. And then, the best part of the trip, was when a mentally and physically handicapped lady went up to do baptisms. I think she went often, because they all knew her name and were taking special care of her. She shuffled very slowly and went very carefully down the steps into the font. A tall, rather broad youngish man stepped in too and, with the shorter, white-haired older man that was baptizing, gently lowered her down every time into the water. It was just really, really beautiful to see the time and care that these very different men were taking. I was trying not to cry and I heard Harriet sniff and I looked across Lauren and Harriet was crying--we were talking about it in the car ride home and Lauren was like, "When was this? I think I was reading...." and we were like, "How did you miss that!"

So then we came back and then threw a surprise leaving party for our roommate Krista (if you don't know the details, ask someone else in the family, they might know--I've told it way too many times). After she left, Harriet, Scott, Lauren and I went to the "Knight Games"/medieval fest/nerd party. The best part was looking at everyone that had dressed up and just shaking our heads in wonder. BYU has some weird people. So then we came back at about midnight and there was a dance party in our basement with people from our ward. I was really tired so I wanted to go to bed and I was about to get ready for bed when Harriet came up and asked me in a very pitiful voice to come dance with her, and so I went for about an hour and we had lots and lots of fun. Then I went to sleep.

Saturday: We slept in and accidently missed the rugby game we promised we attend. But the sleep was glorious. Then I mailed some letters and felt very proud of myself. Then we came home and sort of puttered around for a bit until I got bored and called Ruth to see if they were doing anything fun. She was at the store with Kristina, so I ran to her house and talked to Jordan a little bit before Ruth and Kristina came back and we watched the movie Persuasion. It was pretty good, a little weird, with a very awkward kiss and ill-matched lovers. But it was entertaining. So then we talked for a bit afterwards, and then I came home, talked to Harriet for a little bit, and then went to bed.

Sunday: I got up, had a hot shower (a very precious commodity) and got to church on time. It was cold. Then I stayed awake all through church and even made it through Ward Council and most of Hall Meeting (I managed to sneak out during a moment of commotion). Then I started to try to take a nap, and then realized that it would be fruitless to fall asleep when I had to start the rolls soon--and then maybe I'd go to sleep early tonight. So I made rolls, talked to both Rachael and Mom (HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!) and then went to Ruth's for a wonderful pot roast dinner. Ruth did the potroast and accessories, and I had the rolls, and Mary Beth brought these yummy cookie bar things (and they had really good orange juice). So we had a nice dinner, talked (Jordan is still kind of sick) and watched some amazing chocolate sculpting. Then I came home and now I am sitting in Lauren's room waiting for ward prayer in an hour. After ward prayer, I have this rehearsal meeting thing cause our stake is putting on this big music program and I have a reading part in it (that, come to think of it, I need to go learn). Then, after that, I'm going to Carly-from-downstair's apartment to make cupcakes. It will be fun, and hopefully I will get to bed on time, because I am very tired. It all depends on the noise level in the lobby and the kitchen next door on whether that will happen. So that was my weekend.

So, my tests this week went well--I got solid Bs on both of them, so it wasn't incredible, but I was happy with it--considering how hard American Heritage tests and how worried I was for both of them, I did pretty well--and above the class averages.

Anyway, I'm sitting in the library waiting to leave for class and then Harriet, Lauren and I are going to the temple and then we're having a party at our apartment tonight. Yay! it will be fun. Last night I ran to Mary Beth's apartment (RAN all the way!! I was very pleased with myself) and then she wasn't there!!! So then I ran up to the law building (and somehow took a very confusing and uphill route there) and then knocked on the door and was discriminated against because it was after 10 and I wasn't a law student. I wanted to ask the janiter-looking person if he knew about FERPA and was discriminating against me because I wasn't "as smart". So Mary Beth came down and we talked for a little bit, but she had to get back to work, so I ran back home. And now today my legs are rather sore because I haven't ran in a few weeks and I've been wearing heels all day. I'm hoping that we can borrow a car to drive to the temple, otherwise...it will be a long walk.

So, I've been feeling kind of down and homesick lately, so tonight I decided at the creamery that I would buy a gallon of milk and write my name all over it (we usually share milk, and so we run through it rather quickly and never seem to have any--the same with toilet paper). So right now I'm sitting with a huge liquid measure cup full of vanilla milk and it is very nice comfort "food". Well...that's basically been how it has been for the last couple of days, so no new updates there. But....mm, vanilla milk makes it a little better.

Today I had my first test in Social Dance and I think it went pretty well! We tested on the foxtrot, and it was lots of fun! I really, really like that dance. I think the Latin dances are fun (not that we've done a lot with them, we've started the Cha-cha) and exciting, but I think that the classic ballroom dances are so smooth and graceful and it really makes you feel beautiful when you can dance them well!

Anyway, I have to finish up my paper from last night--we stayed in the library until closing, which is always strangely satisfactory and I really like to hear what music they play--anyway, I'm almost done, I just need to finish it, edit it, and then print it and hopefully it will be good! I'm pretty nervous about it, cause it's the first thing that this professor will have graded and I think that he might be a pretty hard grader (although I guess it's really the T.A.s that grade it mostly....but he has a really tough and picky rubric for it).

And then we're actually having the English dinner tonight since last night Harriet and I wouldn't have had time to make dinner with our papers and Lauren was super sick last night and sadly is really sick today! I'm hoping that if it's what Harriet had, then I'm past possibly getting it. Lauren's at the health center right now and I'm just hoping that they don't give her the same medication that they gave Harriet. Apparently, the medicine she got was the same nausea medicine that they give to chemo and radiology patients----super strong meds!! It worked for the nausea, but the side effects were so horrible (she had such bad stomach pains that we thought we were going to have to take her to the hospital) that Harriet didn't want to take it anymore, so she just had to wait the nausea out. Ugh. I really hope Lauren feels better soon.

Well, that's what's happening tonight---then I have my first American Heritage test on Monday that I'm kind of terrified for as well (I've heard they're really hard), but I still feel like after I get this paper in, it will be a relief. So---I must get down to it.