BYU!

I am back at BYU! The summer was so fun spending time with my family in Texas, visiting Fossil Rim (a drive-thru zoo), getting sneezed in the mouth by a Zebra (actually that part wasn't so fun), spending 5 days in San Diego with my Grandma, and being reunited with my roommates!! The other day I made an "A-Z Me" something I used to do back when I was in Achievement Days. Here's my A-Z!:

Airplane barf bags! Yes, I collect them!
Birds!!! I love birdwatching! Barn swallows are my favorite!
COUGAR!! I go to BYU! And I love it! Alot!
Dr. Seuss is a genius! I quote him all the time!
Elise is my name! Aka Leesie, Pants, Leesiepants, and Eli
Flower Mound Texas is my hometown!
Glee, 24, and House are my favorite shows!
Harry Potter is my life!!
Invisible children is my favorite!
Japan is my birthplace! I can never be a US President! :(
Kangaroos are one of my favorites! I am going to Australia before I die!
LDS! I am mormon!
McAllister! I am proud to be a McAllister and i love my family!
Nuns! I love love LOVE nuns!
Orange is my favorite color!
Piano! I love to play the piano!
Quiet in the library! I love to read!
Roommates! I have the worlds greatest! Krista Rachel and Chelsea!!
Soccer, snowboarding, and swimming are my favorite sports!
Traveling is my favorite! I want to go EVERYWHERE and see EVERYTHING
Uganda! I will go here someday!!
Vehicle- i have a honda accord named ranger!
Work! I work in the Open access computer labs! Come say hi!
X-cellente! Wonderful! Awesome! (my friends are _______)
Yeah... i was going to put something here but i forgot :(
Zebra- one time at fossil rim, i held my sister Brooke out the window and a zebra bit her. oops! and I also got sneezed in the mouth by one. sick. sick. sick.

I've also been making a lot of goals for myself... especially since I'm back in college. I've heard it helps to write them down and share them so you and others can keep track of how you're doing.

• NEVER have leftovers. If I make something one day, and have leftovers, I have to keep eating it the next day and the next day until its gone before I can make anything else.
• Read 1-2 chapters from the Book of Mormon every day.
• Exercise for 30 minutes every day, and do 50 crunches a day.
• "Eat out" only once a week. (unless its for free :) )
• One dessert a week, serving of fruit and vegetables every day
  
• No more than $80 spent on groceries a month
• Homework has to be done the day before its due.
• Pay a full tithe on gross income, pay a fast offering every month.
• No name calling, even in play
• NO TWIRLING HAIR!! or picking at nails
• Write in journal once a week
  

Summer Summer Summer!

So I finished up spring semester at the Y, taking 2 civilization classes, classic civ, and greek mythology (both GEs). And I loved them both!

We sold the house, and then they backed out, and then we sold the house again, and then they backed out again, and now we are just waiting and praying for everything to work out!

We flew down to Dallas on July 10th, and we have just been partying it up ever since! Partying it up meaning, swimming, watching TV, and sleeping. There isn't much to do around here when you're in temporary housing haha! But the moving trucks came yesterday, so we will probably move into our house in the next couple days, as soon as we get most of the house unpacked.

Not quite sure when i'm heading back to BYU. I had a job interview yesterday with the Open - Access computer labs, and I'm hoping and praying that I get it. Whether or not I got that job is the deciding factor in when I go back, because if I don't get the job, I have shifts at the cougareat on Monday the 16th. Otherwise, i will fly back later. The next week i get to go visit my grandma Layne down in Carlsbad!! CALIFORNIA HERE I COME!!

New Birds!

1) Barn swallow saw this little guy over by Pizza Pie Cafe. He's beautiful!
2) House Finch- I've actually been seeing these a lot lately, they're not as cool, but still fun.
3)RING-NECKED PHEASANT!!! I've seen the same one twice- once in my backyard, and once as it wandered across the street into the church parking lot. I had no idea how big they were!! Apparently, they do get hunted, which is sad.
4) Scrub Jay. Wicked cool. When i started first learning about birds, there really is no "blue jay" bird. There are different kinds of jay's like Stellar's jays, and this one- the Scrub jay. Saw him at the JFSB on campus. Beeeeautiful bird.

What do you say to taking chances?

My cousin Steven is going to Leeds England! (Chinese speaking- WEIRD!) The monday before his farewell, we went to Tucano's for dinner (all 40+ extended relatives of us). It was SO GOOD. but SO MUCH FOOD. Ugh I probably gained 20 pounds in one night... Anyway, I tried some new foods! I am a picky eater but I just decided to try some things just so I could say I had tried them. I included some of the other rarities that I have tried over the years.
Food #1- Chicken Heart. Taste like chicken? No... It was just kinda tough and chewy and slightly tasteless? Didn't like it, but it wasn't excruciating.
Food #2- Quail Egg. This was in the salad bar, and I guess it makes sense to use quail eggs since they're itty bitty, and usually people don't want to take a whole chicken egg at the salad bar, but if you cut them open, they get all gross.... etc. etc. etc. Anyway, it looked like an eyeball, so I was kinda hesitant, but it just tasted like a bland chicken egg. No big.
Food #3- Pig's ear. This was when I was 14 at Youth Conference in Flower Mound. We had like beach side team-building activities, and they roasted an ENTIRE pig, like every body part was still there. I tried part of the ear, and it tasted like greasy 10x overcooked bacon.
Food #4- Horse Jerky. There was a biology presentation last month about horses, and they passed out jerky to us before the presentation started, and we all ate it. After we ate it, they started their presentation about horses and were like, "Oh by the way... that jerky you just ate was horse." PSYCH.
Food #5- Bacon Ice Cream. Introduction to Food Science- DO NOT TAKE IT. Actually its a super easy one-credit course and I'm pretty sure I'm going to get a 100% in the class, so take it, just don't eat the ice cream... He gave us samples, had us fill out what we thought it was, and if we would buy it, then told us what it was and asked us whether or not we would buy it then. SICK.
Food #6- Paper & Grass. When I was a kid... I didn't play 'house' or 'tea party.' I played "Goats." I used to eat grass in our Chicago backyard pretending I was a goat, and sometimes when I was in the family room when no one was looking, I'd open a book, rip out a corner of one of the pages and just eat it. I was a funny child. :)
Food #7- Peanut butter & Cheese Sandwiches. When I was at McKamy Middle School, I made a most important discovery. I had a peanut butter sandwich for lunch everyday in a brown paper sack, and sometimes, I would have those little handy-snack crackers & cheese packs. There was much too much cheese in the packs, and I always had some left over. WHAT TO DO?! I would spread the remainder on the top of my peanut butter sandwich, and it actually tasted really good- good enough that I repeated it for the rest of my 3 years at McKamy.
Food #8- Bird Seed. I was in 5th grade, and I loved making those little bird seeder thingies where you cover a stick in peanut butter and roll it around in bird seed. One of these times I just took a big lick off the stick, and ate the bird seed. I was thinking "Hey- healthy food right? I'll try it" WRONG. sick and nasty.
Food #9- Lemon. Actually, this was a new food for Emily. My four aunts stole her away, and all of a sudden we hear them cracking up at the other table, Emily sucking on a lemon slice. She looked disgusted, but kept on shoving it in her mouth and sucking on it, then looking disgusted, shove it back in, etc. It was pretty cute, but then she rubbed her eyes that had lemon juice on them and she kind of threw a fit. Poor baby.

So where is that fossil anyway?

Once upon a time in Chicago, there was a regional conference for our stake. I was about eight, and my mom was getting all us kids excited, because Dallin H. Oaks was going to be there, and emphasized the point that there was a modern-day apostle that we were going to see. Being a family of small children, we arrived late and sat up in the nosebleed sections. It was after arriving that Nicole (age 4) exclaimed,
"So where is that fossil anyway?"
My mom eventually wrote him a letter telling him of this experience and he wrote her back, and mom put it in Nicole's scrapbook.

Today, Dallin H. Oaks was coming to speak at my home ward's stake conference, and was going to come 45 minutes early to meet people. I decided to go and take my roommates with me and go meet him! It was wonderful! The stake conference was in the Provo Tabernacle (a BEAUTIFUL building), and soon enough, Dallin H Oaks walked in. I wasn't paying attention, because I was holding Emily, and as soon as I saw him, I'm like, "GUYS! DALLIN H. OAKS!" and my roommates were obviously paying attention and had already seen him. So we all jumped off our benches and ran up to shake his hand. He is a wonderful kind old man! But mostly, I felt that he was just another member of the church- the Lord doesn't necessarily call the most grand or extravagant people. He was a simple follower of Christ and just a happy person! As my mom shook Dallin H. Oak's hand, she motioned toward Nicole and told him that she was the one who had called him a fossil. And after all these years he remembered!

Hey Burrito

Today, was a good day (last friday actually). Apparently, like Jamba Juice, Taco Bell has 'secret burrito' flavors. They are named after superheroes like Superman and the Hulk. Conner, Brigham, and Aaron decided made up a new burrito flavor: GREENLANTERN. (I actually had never heard of the greenlantern, but whatever). One day Conner went up to the workers in Taco Bell and said, "I'd like a greenlantern burrito please"
"Uhh... I've never heard of that."
"Oh... to my knowledge EVERYONE knew what the greenlantern burrito is... but that's ok, this is basically what it is- its just a 5-layer burrito with potatoes instead of beans, and guacamole instead of sour cream."
So he gets him a greenlantern burrito and makes a note at the cash register of what a greenlantern is. Then a few hours later my roommate Krista goes up and asks for one, and the cashier said "OH. I know what THAT is! People have been ordering that ALL DAY! (only conner)."
So Friday I decided to try it out for myself. The cashier didnt know what it was, and he charged me extra for the potatoes, but it was actually really good. I felt sneaky :)

I'm sick today

I am sick today! And you know what I was thinking about? Shel Silverstein's Poem: "Sick." I used to have it memorized when I was like 10. Here is the wonderful piece of literature that i love:

'I cannot go to school today, '
Said little Peggy Ann McKay.
'I have the measles and the mumps,
A gash, a rash

and purple bumps.
My mouth is wet, my throat is dry,
I'm going blind in my right eye.
My tonsils are as big as rocks,
I've counted sixteen chicken pox
And there's one more-that's seventeen,
And don't you think my face looks green?
My leg is cut-my eyes are blue-
It might be instamatic flu.
I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke,
I'm sure that my left leg is broke-
My hip hurts when I move my chin,
My belly button's caving in,
My back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained,
My 'pendix pains each time it rains.
My nose is cold, my toes are numb.
I have a sliver in my thumb.
My neck is stiff, my voice is weak,
I hardly whisper when I speak.
My tongue is filling up my mouth,
I think my hair is falling out.
My elbow's bent, my spine ain't straight,
My temperature is one-o-eight.
My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear,
There is a hole inside my ear.
I have a hangnail, and my heart is-what?
What's that? What's that you say?
You say today is...Saturday?
G'bye, I'm going out to play!