Snow play

One time... It snowed a lot in Provo. And I feel like the older I get, the less people there are who are willing to play in the snow with me. I grew up in Texas, so on the rare occasion that there was snow, it was a BIG deal, and everyone and their mom was outside playing in it. So I feel like I still have that mindset, and this week I was determined to play in the snow. Luckily, Matt (probably reluctantly) agreed to go gallivant with me so our adventure began!!

First we went to rock canyon to sled. I had bought a cheap plastic round sled a couple months earlier for our last snow day when me and Ariel built a snow slide on our front porch, so that is what we took. I have NEVER been sledding at rock canyon, but one time Krista went and she came home looking like this:

So.... I was just hoping we wouldn't die. When we got there, I was reminded of how childish this activity was because of the fact that me and Matt were the only adult-aged people there who didn't bring small children with us. Apparently sledding is a kid thing. I made Matt go first, and he did fine, and then I took about 6 1/2 minutes to mentally prepare myself and then accidentally lost my footing and just started careening down this freaking steep hill of death! I lived though, and it was fun. We went a couple more times, then had a competition to see who could roll a ball of snow down the hill the farthest (I won), and then we went down together which was scarier than heck because we are both too big to be on that sled together, but luckily an obnoxious asian pre-teen encouraged us via taunting and we did it! But seriously, that guy was obnoxious. 

And THEN THE REAL FUN BEGAN! I don't know why I'm making a whole blog about this, but it was cool enough and we have good pictures so just bear with me. THIS IS WHAT WE DID!!! We went back to my house and filled up ketchup/salad dressing bottles with water and food coloring and determined to go and vandalize people's front yards (aka, write in the snow). It took us awhile to figure out what exactly to do with it, but eventually we made our way to the park on 4th north and started making a "treasure map" aka, a bunch of dotted lines going around the park with little "activities" or messages along the way. This is how it went:

(This is hard to read, but its next to a BBQ and it says BBQ raccoons for dinner)

(This one went underneath the monkey bars. And then my bandaid dropped into the snow so I buried it and put an X over it, hoping someone would think that was the "treasure" and dig it up... excuse my immaturity)

 (Part of the treasure hunt included going up the stairs and down the slide)

(Just in case you weren't 100% sure what yellow snow was... and unfortunately we couldn't find the yellow food coloring that day... :(  )

(lava)

So while we were doing this, there was a family with 2 children at the park, and they were building a snowman when they got there but strangely left once we started drawing. The two kids were swinging on the swings during most of our treasure-hunt creation, and the little girl was FREAKING OUT that we were doing it. "MOM, IT SMELLS LIKE THEY ARE MAKING A FIRE!" (Because yes, child, if there were two hooligan college students being arsonists, they would be spreading gasoline in the SNOW where it could  easily be lit) "MOM THEY ARE BEING SO RUDE" "MOM THEY ARE PUTTING UGLY COLORS IN THE SNOW". And my favorite moment was when she came up to me and stated, "You are SCARY." Which made me want to cry, because no one has ever said that to me before and meant it. I asked her if she wanted to squirt some colored water in the snow, to try and lighten the mood but she shook her head and said "No WAY" and ran off. So at the very end of the scavenger hunt, as a tribute to her, we made some fire.... that kind of looked like a flower.

And then the part you have all been waiting for: the actual treasure:

Yay! A cool rock!

Then we decapitated the children's snowman (Don't worry, they already had left)

Also, it was my turn for dinner group so we went home and made some delicious quinoa!

...NOT.

And afterwards, we had a fun little DG conversation compliments of Ryan Moser. Thanks buddy.

Last night I had the craziest dream!!!

This is a true statement. Recently, I've been retelling my dreams, and it was suggested to me that I should keep a "Dream Journal." I feel like the only point of this would be to make myself laugh really hard, but this is a still a good reason, so I'll probably end up doing it. However, I'm an awful journal-keeper so today its just goin up on the blog.

January 16, 2013
I watched Star Trek for the first time, and subsequently had bizarro dreams about outer space and aliens. Naturally, it mirrored that of the acclaimed Dcom original, Zenon, Girl of the 21st Century. If you missed this super awesome movie when you were 10 years old, here's the link to Protozoa's hit classic, Zoom, Zoom, Zoom, or if you want to watch the whole movie (thank goodness its online), go here. It's zedis lapidusly awesome!

 January 19, 2013
I had a weird dream about my best friend Brig... that I won't share here, haha. But my other dream was that my family and I lived in Japan, and one day there was a HUGE tsunami that wrecked everything. We were scavenging through our ruined house, and tried to get into our bathroom, but there was something blocking the door. Eventually we kicked it down and found a dead japanese man in a hammock. It was pretty gross, so we were about to leave when I had the thought to go check it out, and lo and behold there was a little Japanese baby girl clutched in his arms! We pulled her out and were super happy to have this little child! So we called up the Japanese government and informed them that we wanted to adopt this child, and they said, No way, Jose, we're putting her in the crappiest orphanage that Japan has to offer, and we will come get her in the morning. So that night we decided to escape to Germany so that they couldn't take her away from us. It may or may not have involved jumping across a giant green ocean on large pieces of floating tofu, and flying over a cement wall with chicken wire at the top, like you see in prison. Once we got to Germany we all donned superhero identities and robbed a Museum. And raised a Japanese child.

January 20, 2013
I was a secret agent on a cruise to France. I was very sneaky and told the bad guy following me that the ship left at 6pm, when it actually left at 5pm! HA! He totally missed it, and I sailed away to the beautiful country! Later in the country, I was riding an over-sized bicycle being chased by the villains and totally biffed it, scraping my appendages but no breakages. My secret agent team happened to be a group of children that I was simultaneously babysitting (weird), and we were running out of food and starving so we snuck into an abandoned grocery store at night and pilfered supplies for the rest of our mission. Unfortunately we were found out, and had to shove the cashier boy out of the way so that we could scan our own groceries (for some reason, suddenly it wasn't deserted, and there was a cashier there), which was obviously 10 times faster, so that we could get away in time. On our escape, they caught up with us and captured us, but that is when I woke up. The next day I totally biffed it in real life on the ice... premonition.

January 21, 2013
This was an awesome dream!! After months of trying to convince my family, they finally agreed to take a family trip to Uganda!! I was so stoked! We got to the Entebbe Airport, which strangely looked like Grapevine Mills, the mall that I grew up going to, and ate some McDonald's (there are no McDonald's in Uganda in real life, btw). Then we trekked through the jungle where I showed them all the cool places I lived while I was there! On our taxi ride to church we were chased by a pack of wild dogs, but luckily we drove fast and ran into a shelter on stilts that we climbed up into until the dogs went away. Then we ate some pineapple (Pineapple in Uganda is WAY better than Pineapple in the US, btw#2). After getting back to the village, I ran into my best friend from my childhood, Alyssa Call, who was wearing some sort of caveman dress and was hopping around on her knuckles like Tarzan, building a house out of bamboo. This seemed natural enough to me in the dream, so I helped her out. And then her little sister came and bit me. (This is something that always happened in real life- Alyssa's sister liked to bite. I called her jaws.) But mostly, I just went and relieved the best 6 weeks of my life in the place that is so close to my soul!! Uganda!!

January 22, 2013
Today (the 23rd) I had to teach a resume workshop for my job, and I was pretty nervous about it, so naturally, I dreamed about work. I was driving the IT minivan around in the snow- a recurring theme in my dream, is that whenever I am driving, my breaks NEVER work. Its always like I'm driving on ice, and I glide around. It is super freaky- trying to get to a work meeting. I remember being really happy, because I was able to park in the service vehicle spot which was freaking awesome. The meeting was underground and we were all sitting on beanbags. It was really cool- and the sorting hat was there. Above ground was my house, which they were re-modeling to be geometrically circular and neon-colored. I didn't really like it. I also had the ability apparate and disapparate (Harry Potter), but only while I was on a certain portal point. At some point there was a blizzard/tornado and I had to get to my elementary school to meet with my former 5th grade teacher because I was in an alternate universe, and I needed to get back, via the children's books that my teacher wrote. I was driving the IT van back to the school through the blizzard/tornado and cars were flying all around me and their doors were being ripped off. I finally made it and accessed the classroom through one of those eye scanner things, found the books on the shelf, and then the characters within came to life, and I was automatically in a different cartoon-world. Like toontown at disney world. Then it just got super bizarre... I was flying, or using a jetpack... Don't really remember...

February 2nd, 2013

I was in the Urgent Care center yesterday and got put on some weird drugs, so I blame that on the insane dreams I had last night.

My first dream is that I was on this like reality TV show that was all about learning how to do hand-to-hand combat. Except nobody got like "kicked off the island." Instead every week, someone DIED. You basically got trained by this long-haired hippie guy whose family got killed by ninjas when he was a child, so he devoted his life to learning the art of warfare and then decided to force people onto his TV show to be the "ultimate warrior" or whatever. It was super scary. Throughout the week, you just got trained by this guy and then every Thursday there was basically this exercise where everyone was given a weapon and then put in different parts of this dark maze-like structure and then as soon as someone killed someone else the game was over, and it just repeated itself week after week. It was like the real life version of Agatha Christie's 10 Little Indians (Which I read in 6th grade and also gave me nightmares). And then one time we were all having a group breakfast together catered by this hibachi sushi ninja cook guy, and it was really gross. Somehow I escaped, but then got roped into ANOTHER reality TV show (did I mention I hate reality TV shows?) where everyone was put into groups of four and the game of the week was that you had to dive to the bottom of a swimming pool to grab an assortment of objects, and the group who got the most objects won. But on our team it was me, one of my co-workers Michael Jeppessen, a mentally handicapped guy I went to elementary school with and this random goth girl who refused to get wet. So we were pretty disadvantaged haha. And we lost. But the creators of the TV show kind of recognized that it was kind of unfair, so they gave us a prize, which was that they sold all of the objects that we had fished out of the bottom of the pool, sold them, and bought a one-dose cure for cancer, and then brought this boy from Zimbabwe who had cancer, and they let us feed this cure to him, which was really cool in the dream and everyone was crying and emotional, but it was obviously really bizarre. After I woke up and was contemplating this part of the dream, I wondered... What if there was a reality TV show-type class at BYU? So like the class would start out with 14 students, and every week one of them would get kicked out of the class, and the week they got kicked out corresponded to the letter grade they got; so the winner would get an A, the runner up would get an A-, B+, B, etc etc. Kind of weird concept, but I think it would actually be really cool, except for the fact that half of the class pretty much fails the class. Oh well.

And then I was going to school at a really over-sized BYU, and me and Brig and Aaron were in this weird sewing-costume-class together, and Brig and Aaron both made each other sweaters for the class and then tried them on while I took pictures, and Brig was modeling** it off in the same seductive way that he acts out females when we play "Time's Up" together. Some girl made me a sweater and it had holes** all over it so it was awkward to wear. And the instructor of the class was borderline gay. Go figure. I remember randomly dropping one of my classes and enrolling in some random geography class, and when I walked in I happened to know every single person in the class. But they were all people I knew from different places in my life. Brig, Aaron, this one random guy I sort of dated freshman year, Alyssa Call, this one girl my best friend dated in high school to make me jealous, etc etc. And I had to ride a trolley to all of my classes. And then BYU turned into outer space, and everyone had weird sailor- moon / star wars powers and were shooting each other with laser guns.

Third dream, one of my best friends from Washington, Whitney, was getting married (which is ironic, because she's getting married this next weekend), in a giant field, and I was babysitting children** / working on my sewing projects from my 2nd dream, and her wedding colors were like lime green and periwinkle, so my mom made me this really obnoxious colored lime green sparkly dress that I had to wear to it. And the entire family from the cosby show was there at the wedding... I remember that during the middle of it I realized that I had a staff meeting for work that I had to go to, but then I didn't actually have to because it was President's Day weekend and there was no work. So I missed the actual wedding part of the wedding coming and going to the nonexistent meeting. And then somehow I was in charge of a bunch of miners who were drilling rocks on this giant cliff. And there was a lightning storm that broke pieces of rock off and fell down the cliff and crushed a bunch of people. And then I was a superhero and there were 3 other superheros with me that were going from job interview to job interview, but we didn't know we were all applying for the same jobs, so we got really mad at each other for ruining each others' chances of getting the job. I don't know exactly what went down but there was a lot of really bizarre stuff. But yeah. super weird. Its always interesting taking drugs when you sleep! Your dreams are insane!!

The point is... I have weird dreams. That is all. Go watch Zenon, its awesome.

Whirlwind Whimsical Wedding Weekend (AKA: "The Bittersweet")

Well, it happened. Believe it or not. Krista got married. The day was filled with smiles, laughter, tears, joy, bittersweet-ness, pulled pork, window markers, crying children, downpours, umbrellas, chocolate nuggets, slideshows, seeing old friends (some happy to see, and some not so much, haha), tarantulas, space heaters, anxious in-laws, cuddling, brownies, bouquets (which I didn't catch... because it didn't get thrown haha), and just utter bliss. By the end of this weekend, I felt like I had gone through every single human emotion that existed. It was exhausting, but just happy at the same time.

A fore word: this picture is a summary of my life for the last 6 months (Don't take this too seriously, just laugh, because it makes me laugh too)(also, after I've written this, I've realized the foreword is really long, so you're more than welcome to skip to part two. I'll put it in bold.

For those of you who don't watch the TV show House, this is a still of House (the main character) (left), Wilson (center), and his girlfriend Sam (right). House is a single, sarcastic, old man, and he and Wilson have been roommates/best friends for like... EVER. And now Wilson is dating Sam and is going to ask Sam to marry him. So House is kind of having a rough life right now. And yes, House and Wilson are last names. I don't know why they don't go by their first names. 

Pretty much, Kris and I have been best friends for the past three years. And/or married. So when a BOY walked into her life, I was not so happy. Actually that's not true. I was pretty sure he was going to get botched, because Krista had a mission call, and this is typically what happens to boys that try to schnike Krista when she is up to something. So it was pretty chill until I saw that it was actually going somewhere... Then things got a lil cray cray. 

Anyway, Billy and Krista began dating. Maybe a week after she got her mission call I realized that she was definitely NOT going on a mission, haha. I was undecided about how I felt about it. I mean, Krista was MY best friend. And all of a sudden some boy is taking up all our time? What the heck is that all about? 

That summer I went to California for about a month, just cause I needed to go "find myself" (See this blogpost for how that all went down.). Emotional crises and identity moratorium were daily part of my thought process. I was experiencing a long confusing period of heartache, and I had three roommates who all had significant others, so I was a little bit anti-love at that point (ha). So I drove off by myself to beautiful, Carlsbad, California. While I was there, Krista and I talked a couple of times, and she sent me a letter just saying how she was doing, what she was up to, etc. etc. Kris was so good to me, because she knew that I was very sensitive to all things PDA, love talk, and relationships. But she did mention: "One thing I know for sure: I LOVE Billy Hiatt and I want to marry him!" That's when I knew for sure it was going to happen. Krista doesn't just throw these things out. She and I knew it way late (in comparison to Billy... who knew like on the first date), but we knew it. One question burned in my mind: Who the heck was this Billy Hiatt guy??

Eventually I had to come back to Provo for Summer's wedding, and to earn money since I just escaped my life for about a month. I was determined to find out who this Billy Hiatt was and make sure he was worthy of marrying my best friend! That weekend, bum got married and there was Roy-family bonding including snails, pizza, noodles, lingerie, mattresses, Dark Knight movie nights, nail painting and joy. I was so happy to be welcomed to this intimate family gathering and bond with people that I loved so much. I love the Roy family! They are my second family. The weekend was great. It hit harder to me what Krista was about to go through when bum walked out of the temple and it freaked me out haha. 

Anyway, I started slowly getting to know Billy Hiatt. From the outside he kind of seems like a punk. If you facebook stalk him (as me and Krista used to do often), he is into planking, mohawks, sticking his tongue out in pictures, and dirt biking. But I was impressed with his . He was nicer to me than Krista was sometimes haha. He's like a pineapple. Hard and spiky on the outside, and the insides you can put on pizza. Just kidding, sweet and gushy on the inside. However, I still kind of was bitter for stealing my best friend.

And then they got engaged... blah blah blah. You can read about that here. 

There were some rough things that happened between then and the wedding. A hard death in the Roy-Hiatt family made for several tearful conversations between me and Kris. Through these conversations I really came to know how much love Krista had for Billy, because she was literally willing to do anything for him. She told me once that our friendship had meant so much to her more than ever, because she tried to model her and Billy's relationship after our friendship. That was probably the best compliment I've ever received in my life! Many times Krista was over at my house doing her laundry, sleeping on my couch, and I knew that we could still be friends after she got married. So it started getting easier. 

The crowning moment of it all is probably when I interviewed Billy for Krista's bridal shower. I asked him about 40 questions about his and Krista's relationship for the Newlywed Game, and filmed then. I want to like... post one of them on here, but I feel like Krista might think thats not cool so I won't. haha. But without giving you an example, I will just say that I really felt how much Billy loved Krista! He said such tender kind things, and he really knew her. I had my doubts, but they have really grown together and know each other on a deep level. Anyway... Bridal shower = great. One week later, it was wedding time!

Now that I've finished the "foreword..." which ended up being really long... Let's get to the actual wedding weekend. 

Part 2

The wedding.

Thursday, October 11th:

At around 7, we headed up to Billy's house with a car full of food, drove up to the cabin Sundance and had some good ol' rotisserie chicken for dinner. And sunny D! Everyone was up there- Lindes, Carters, Perez's, Willis's, Roys, Sister Roy's grandparents, nieces, nephews, BRENDA, and me! It was quite the party. The kids went to bed, and the sisters, me & brenda went down to the basement to paint our nails and open lingerie presents. The Roy sisters are looopy! I headed upstairs to make stickers for the chocolate nuggets for the reception while the sisters had the "talk". Eventually, we went upstairs, Jamie was curling hair at 1 in the morning, Brenda was sleeping on the floor, and Aly was CRACKING up at everything anyone said. (Don't worry, we picked up Brenda and put her in a bed). Me and Kris hopped in bed (For the last time!), and she kicked me all night... so I don't think I'll miss slumber parties too much haha. A word on the Roy grandparents: they are SO GREAT. They TOTALLY remembered who I was and were so happy to see me- HA!

Friday, October 12th:

We all woke up in a scramble. People were running around like CRAZY. All the hair that Jamie curled the night before had gone flat, so she curled like 4 people's hair. She's a CHAMP. Children were eating "marshmallow cereal," Krista was just kind of skipping around, LaDon was... sleeping... We were all getting dressed in our brown-and-carolina blue outfits, etc. Outside it was sprinkling. We had arrived last night in the  dark, so we didn't know what it looked like outside. AUTUMN WONDERLAND. Fall leaves everywhere, gray skies and sweeping long roads and driveways. It was beautiful. Krista and the parents left 3 hours early (which is a good thing because Krista forgot her marriage license at home so Brother Roy had to quickly drive to provo and get it). Eventually the rest of us packed up and drove to the temple. The Linde kids were asleep so I chilled in the car with them while everyone else went inside the foyer. While Aly and Daniel were sleeping I wrote Kris an email because she was getting married at that very moment!! When the little buggins woke up we slowly walked to the temple because they were quite slow and I could not carry both of them. It was pouring outside and all of us were soaked by the time we got to the temple. We chilled in the foyer until all the Roys came out, and we were laughing and having a good time and the temple people were probably mad at us because we were so loud haha. Finally, we all went outside to wait for the newlyweds!! We all gathered around the entrance, and because the temple was under construction, there was only one open entrance and people kept going in and out to do temple sessions and I was freaking out because what if they were walking in the same time Kris & Billy were walking out and they ruined all the pictures. But they didn't, so it was fine. Eventually they came out and it was bliss! They are such weird hooligans haha. I hugged Krista and immediately started bawling. I don't know why exactly, but don't worry, it was only the first time of like 7 times that I cried that day. Every bittersweet feeling I had ever had about my best friend getting married simply turned to utter joy. I was SO happy! Because she was so happy! I hugged Billy too and he gave me this weird grin... whatever haha. And all the little children went up and hugged them and it was cute I guess, but the point was, they were married!! (Some good pics) They started taking pictures and I got to hold up the back of Krista's dress cause the ground was wet and gross, so if you see a picture of all the family members on the temple steps, I am in that picture crouching like a gremlin behind Krista holding up her dress haha. Eventually, screaming crying children forced us to leave the temple as Billy and Krista went to take their pictures on the temple grounds. And then it REALLY started pouring. We all headed to the church where the luncheon was going to be at... yada yada yada, ate food, Krista's brother-in-law LaDon bowled over their poor aged grandmother (which prompted the modified-version-Christmas-song rendition of "Grandma got run over by LaDon!"), Andy spun kids around like airplanes, I chased kids with feather dusters, we ate ridiculously good brownies, and I got to talk to Bruce Newbold, his wife and his daughter who all know my mom's side of the family in California. Then we all drove to the Hiatt's house to get ready for the reception... I didn't know this about the roys, but they have some weird fascination with wrapping stickers around chocolate nuggets for receptions. Go figure. I mean it was fun, but it wasn't THAT fun? Me and Krista took a nap on the couch with CharlyAnn, and then we left to go set up for the reception!

IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL. It was at Billy's uncles backyard in Lindon, and it was so pretty! I got to set up one of my projectors and speakers to play the slideshow that CJ and Eric made, with Billy's weird mexican music, and I ran into so many dear friends (and some not so dear- haha!). We ate pulled pork sandwiches and tons of candy, and all got wet in the rain. And I wrote some good embarrassing stuff on the back of Billy's truck which I won't repeat here. The most tender part of the whole night was when Krista & Billy were leaving. And we just kinda saw each other, and looked at each other for awhile, and Krista started CRYING. If you know Krista like I know Krista, Krista does not CRY. like EVER. She's not an emotional person, but one thing that will almost certainly make me cry is if my best friend, a non-emotional person, is crying. So I started crying, and we were crying, and hugging, and smiling, and Billy was probably thinking "craaaazy" and I was just SO HAPPY! Contrary to what I thought I would be feeling before, seeing my best friend getting married, and seeing her so happy, did not make me feel sad about not getting to be around her so much, but it just brought me great joy and hope for her future and for mine. I love Krista! And I love that she is married, because she is so happy, and I am so happy for her!  Everything else that happened that weekend is  of lesser importance. I went back up to sundance and had such a tender conversation with CJ and Char, whom I look up to as older sisters, since I had none. They promised to give me "the talk" before I get married - haaaha. That'll be good. Went bowling with Brig, Aaron S., Wendy, and Aaron G, had brownies with Rach and Chels,

OH YEAH, I forgot about this part- Brig & Aaron, and everyone else threw me a surprise birthday party!! Did not even see it coming. We were planning on just going to Aaron's house up in South Jordan, but it turned out being a surprise party with me, complete with pizza and cake, and a cool homemade banner, haha. I have the best friends ever! We had crazy fun playing pool and ping pong and basketball and who knows what kind of shenanigans... eating streamers and singing T swift really loud? At dinner they all went around the table and said what their favorite memory of me was. This is more precious than any present I've ever gotten!

Anyway, that's really it. My story of the events of October 12th. And before. And after, haha. 

Summary: I have been so blessed to have these people be in my lives. They have all touched my life for good, and will always be dear to me in my heart, even though life has us grow older, and apart. 

California!

Once upon a time I went to California with my 2 best friends! And it was so great!

Our friend Conner got home from his mission and Aaron, Brig, and I decided it would be fun to go down to LA and do some hooliganizing while going to his homecoming. BEST DECISION EVER. But soon we decided that it might not be a good idea, and I wasn't sure if I would get to use my car... so the trip was canceled. On Brig's birthday I found out that my car was indeed available so Aaron and I made this for Brig for him to open on his birthday and we surprised him! SCHNIKE!

Friday was the worst day ever, as I had to go get my car fixed, and get it lubed, and then take my last final. I accidentally grabbed the wrong textbook to study with, so I didn't study, had to take the test, botched it, got a parking ticket, lost my apartment key and got locked out for 30 minutes, and then my dad called telling me I needed to take Rachel's car instead, which also needed to be lubed, (this happened 1 hour before we were supposed to leave). So I hurried to jiffy lube, got it fixed, packed, and then we headed up to Bountiful for Rachel Jackson's wedding reception... which was completely in the dark because the electricity went out. It was great to see everyone, and then we ran to get Wendy's with Kris & Billy. At this point it was snowing pretty hard, but we took no heed! We left around nine, and hit 4 different snow storms where we had to go less than half the speed limit, which was pretty miserable. At 2 am, Aaron and I switched, and he drove until we got to beautiful California!! (Brig just slept the whole time)

CALIFORNIA!! Never in my life had I been so excited to get to that warm, sunny, beachful, blissful, second home of mine! Finals were over, and in a few days I was headed home! We got to Grandma Layne's house and all just passed out. Around noon we headed down to the San Diego Zoo! It was so cool! My favorite was probably the 4 inch pygmy marmoset. TOTES PRESH. Other highlights: there was a monkey that came right up to the glass to look at us, and as soon as the next people came over, it ran away! Me and Brig were looking at a lion, when I said "Last time I came to this zoo, there was an old lady with a walker, and the lion turned around and peed all over her" Knock on wood. The lion then proceeded to turn around, and spray... I screamed (although not as loud as Brig) and we both bolted and just barely got out of range before it relieved its waters. So, the zoo was great.

 

That night, Grandma took us out for Mexican, gave us flirting tips, we visited the Sheermans, and we all passed out while watching Home Alone. 

Sunday arrived!! We got up semi-early and drove up to Manhattan Beach, stopping in Redondo Beach to meet up with one of Brig's old investigators. We were reunited with Conner Gillette! We surprised him! Except, Brig was in the bathroom when Conner found us, so we had Conner hide and surprise Brig after he came out. Which he wasn't too happy about. Conner's talk was KILLER, and then we all headed back to his house for some Hawaiian Haystacks and socializing. And a bird pooped on Aaron.

(Preston Hatch - Aaron Gillette - Me - Conner Gillette - Brig - Aaron - Dallin Gillette)

That night we hit up a cemetery in Simi Valley and the Los Angeles Temple & Visitors Center. They had a sweet collection of international nativities. I found one from Africa, Brig found one from Thailand, and Aaron found a navajo one. 

We stayed at Grandpa Layne's house that night in Santa Ana. Sunday night would have been boring, but it wasn't, because we just stayed up joking and laughing with each other! Brig and Aaron are hilarious boys! I never am bored when I am with them and we always have so much fun! I have been blessed with hilarious, caring, and good natured friends!

DAY 3: We (And when I say we, I mean I) made a bunch of pancakes and fed the Russells, and then we headed up to the LA Science Center: biggest waste of money ever haha. We hit up the traveling Cleopatra exhibit which I thought was pretty interesting but Brig & Aaron thought it was really stupid. We also learned what an asp was, and where it bit Cleopatra. Aaron and I fell asleep in the IMAX movie about Egypt that we saw, and we ate a bunch of fruit snacks. Afterwards, we made a quick trip to China town where it smelled like urine and old people. Brig used his haggling skills to buy a weird panda scarf, and we didn't eat any eggrolls.

After getting back to Santa Ana, we hit up Downtown Disney, stayed a long time in the LEGO store, saw the fireworks, and then saw Wreck-it-Ralph! (And stole some 3D glasses out of the recycle bin)

And then took pictures of ourselves brushing our teeth...

DAY 4: We woke up, packed up the car and headed straight to Huntington Beach! It was SO COLD. Some highlights: This guy came up and asked if we could take a picture of him in the ocean, and he saw that I was wearing a BYU shirt, and it turns out he was Mormon! Kinda cool. I got to fly my super cool kite that I bought in San Diego this summer! Except for a seagull got caught in it at one point which was kind of sad/ funny. I dropped my iPhone in the ocean, and it lived! We ate a bunch of nacho doritos! And Aaron and Brig got to go to the beach on the west coast for the first time EVER! 

And then we left for home, where it snowed SO MUCH. Also, Aaron and Brig found this weird waterfall urinal at some random gas station in the middle of nowhere. 

And here are some good pics of them sleeping

In summary, 3 college students took a weekend trip to California, went to the zoo, the beach, and a children's science museum, drank kool-aid bursts, ate fruit snacks, and went to church. There was no drinking, no partying, no frisky-behavior, and no drugs. I'm pretty sure if I told that to anyone outside the BYU community they probably wouldn't believe me. 

And it was the best time EVER. 

Rough.

Rough weekend.

The past couple of months have been some of the most spiritually stagnant months I've ever lived. I don't like it. There has been bitterness in my soul, heartbreak, doubts, frustration, hurt, loneliness and loss. And the past couple of weeks I've really tried to start the uphill climb back on my way to doing better at everything I've been kind of slacking off on... scriptures, prayer, temple attendance, etc. And I feel a lot better. But I think HF is just wanting to make sure I'm serious about it, because this weekend was ROUGH.

Three semi-minor car bumps/accidents, family squabbles, sickness, physical pain, awkward moments, reflection of  things lost, and heartbreak reprisals. Just plain discouragement. Questions bouncing around through my mind, Why does there have to be contention here? What's the problem? Is it really supposed to take this long to get over someone? Am I really that incompetent of a driver? WHY AM I SICK WHEN I GOT THE STUPID FLU SHOT?! Why didn't I get this job- didn't I do my best? How am I going to pass this class? Why can't I stay awake through this class? I really need to learn the material! Haven't I been doing better with my scriptures and prayers? What am I not doing right?

Yet in these really hard moments there have been little shining reminder moments. The biggest is probably that I am alive and unharmed; as is my car for the most part. Good friends, providentially timed conference talks and scriptures. Devotionals, testimonies, christmas lights, ice cream, cafe rio, 17 miracles, hugs, smiles, and sweet, sweet memories of beloved relatives. Life could be better, but then again it could also be much, much worse.

Where I'm From

A poem I wrote when I was 18, modeled after George Ella Lyon's poem, "Where I'm From"

I am from camera flashes and bullet trains. From ‘such a tall nose!’ I am from pigtails and polka dots. From cheese under the cupboard and dry oatmeal. Earthworms and seeds below, and purple skies and stars above. I’m from the fox in the bathroom, the fire in the lamp, and “If I had words, to make a day for you.” 10 layers of clothing in 6 foot snow tunnels and an orange swimsuit in the Nelson’s pool. I am from the pet store cage under the crib and goodnight moon.

I am from the swinging fencepost, opening up a passage way to a magical summer apple orchard. I am from power rangers and tinker toy inventions. I’m from pack-it-all-up and move-it-on-out. I’m from a wet pillow case and a floor littered with Kleenex. A weeping willow and a rock fence; alphabet blocks on the TV and a pink bathroom. I am from tall dry grass and crickets singing under pink and orange sky. I’m from Michael’s and McDonald’s, Kirkpatrick, and capiche, Brahm’s and barges. I’m from 5 minute monsoons and mirages on the driveway. I’m from a wooden castle, barefoot soccer games, and piles and piles of trash from wisdom creek. I’m from mud between the toes, and q-tips up the nose. From scores of notebooks with stories and funnies. From joy and laughter, fireworks and a rusty trampoline. I’m from phase 10, ding-dong-ditches, chain stories by the fire place, and gravy with cornstarch.

I am from Pete’s dragon and “You are beautiful.” I am from squeak time and “I love you.” I am from a thousand mile suburban, from sea to shining sea. I am from North Carolina, El Salvador, Rome. I am from Uganda, and bamboo huts. I am from giraffe slobber and ostrich thieves. I am from a balloon and a letter every April 6^th. From baking soda and vinegar bubbles beneath my feet on the sand. I am from the solitary flower growing in the sidewalk cracks. I am a Steed in Nauvoo, and a child of the promise. I am a wizard and a vampire, a cancer patient, and a Nephite.

I’m from puddles. Puddles and numbers. A lot of numbers. I’m from integrals and derivatives, optimization and Pythagoreans. I’m velocity. I’m velocity and acceleration. I’m from I-5 and 228^th, from brake and gas. I’m from Jerome county Idaho. I’m from dirt and striped socks, 8 foot strings of beads. I’m from viva piñata and a blue snowboard. I’m from tears and warm embraces, from heartbreak and prom shoes, from “Leave me alone,” to “Why did you leave me?” I’m from ‘cry me a river,’ and 'walkin’ on sunshine.’ I’m from, “O Lord, I have trusted in thee and I will trust in the forever.” I’m from saying goodbye for good.

I’m from a greasy pizza kitchen and ugly green aprons. I’m from ebullience and identical twins. From oatmeal for breakfast and Raman for dinner… every day. I’m from Route 832 and Sunday dinners at home. I’m from an 8 foot wave of brown slush and a crab named Conner. I’m from “I’m sorry… I have to go flush my fish.” from “yeah… I don’t like that” and, “can I have your number?” I’m from the future and dreams of the past. I’m from a blue gown and cap, a diploma in hand. I’m from a wedding reception in my backyard. I’m from a happy home and classroom of students, ready to learn. But, I’m still from those pigtails and polka dots. 

Cultural Diorama

(This is an assignment for my multicultural education class)

My three artifacts:

• Cultural: Book of Mormon
• Social: Cousin Book
• Ethnic: Cowgirl boots

Label: White-Female-Texan-Mormon-Sentimentalist 

My blog is also my form of journal-writing, so to reflect on each of my artifacts, I will "journal" or tell a story about each of my artifacts.

Cultural: 

I chose the Book of Mormon, because I think its probably my biggest cultural identifier. Everything else seems a little boring. I'm white, I'm from America, and I enjoy hamburgers and pink lemonade. Typical. Growing up, people knew I was Mormon, and treated me as such. Sometimes respectfully, sometimes with distaste. I remember when I was 9 years old, being told by a friend that her mom wouldn't let me play with her anymore because I was Mormon. It was something kind of hard to swallow for a 9 year old. I didn't really understand what the gospel really meant anyway, and to be identified as something viewed as negative to other people probably lowered my self-esteem a bit. Mormonism to me is more of a lifestyle than a religion. It is something that I practice everyday, not just once a week. I've been a member all of my life, and I believe it with all my heart!

I was 14, when I had my "conversion." During a devotional at girls camp over the summer, we were given a journal and a list of scriptures to read. We were all separated and sent to different parts of the camp, so that we were alone and could have a personal experience. I was sent into a woody area with just my camp chair, scriptures, and journal. I remember just sitting in my chair, surrounded by tall, skinny trees, wondering whether or not I could really get an answer about whether the church was true or not. I had definitely tried before, and had issues discerning the spirit. Was it just that the thermostat in my house was on high heat, or was I feeling a burning in my bosom? So I decided I'd give it my best effort. I read the scriptures, trying to drain every bit of meaning and wisdom that I could from them. I wrote in the journal the feelings that I had when I read them. And then, with hope in my heart I knelt down on the dirt and leaves in the shady woody clearing and fervently prayed with all my little 14-year old heart and asked if the church was true. This is the first time that I can really say that I truly felt that I could feel the spirit giving me a yes or no answer. It was yes! There was no bright light, or heavenly beings but I my questions were strongly and undoubtedly confirmed. 

Ethnic:

No, being Texan is not an ethnicity. I'm aware (even though sometimes I act like it is). I'm white, I'm American, but within that ethnic group, I identify with being a Texan. I feel very tied to my Texan identity because it is one that I chose. I was born in Tokyo, Japan (my parents both went there on their missions, and then moved there after they graduated from BYU. I lived there until I was two, and I don't really remember it), then lived in Chicago for 6 years. I moved to Texas when I was 8, and did most of my "adolescent developent" there. I then spent my four years of high school in Seattle, my family moved to Provo for my freshman year of college and then moved back to the same neighborhood we lived in, in Texas. Maybe it is because my adolescence was mostly spent in Texas, that I identify with it the most. But really, I think it has more to do with what Texas is.

Here is my association with cowboy boots:

Cowboy boots

Cowboys

The "outlaw"/"freedom"/"carefree"/"lawless" lifestyle.

=The definition of a Texan.

Being Texan is more of a state of mind than a label. Here are several events/memories from my childhood that I hope will accurately illustrate this.

• Street parties with the neighborhoods... pretty much every day. 
• Barefoot soccer in a muddy field right after a rainstorm
• Sneaking out onto the roof of my house to watch the sunset.
• Climbing "Isaac's Tree" every summer on the property of the Episcopal church down the street from my house
• Catching frogs during recess
• Catching tadpoles in the neighborhood pond
• Building mini rafts out of sticks and floating them down Wisdom Creek behind our neighborhood
• Popsicles. Lots of sticky, sweet, messy, dripping popsicles in the summer.
• Having one day of snow a year, and tieing my sled to the back of my moms car and driving down the street.
• Line dancing/ square dancing as a part of our P.E. curriculum.
• Summers at the community pool. Never cold, always cloudy water.
• Barefoot, helmet-less bike rides, almost every day, through my neighborhood, and always down "Sandra Lynn Drive" which was the biggest hill in town (or so I believed)
• Fields of vibrant bluebonnets
• "Happy Birthday Jesus" signs on my neighbors lawns for Christmas
• Making movies with all of the neighborhood kids, a beat up video camera, and a mile-long bright orange extension cord
• Catching tadpoles in the neighborhood pond... and accidentally dropping them all in the grass
• Making a giant city made of chalk for our scooters
• Getting treated to free sonic ice cream cones for a friend's birthday
• Roller skating, tie-dye, and kick ball in the church parking lot
• Digging up clay from our yard and making sculptures and pottery from it.
• Planting a packet of wildflower seeds in our backyard, only to have them pulled up as "weeds" by my dad two weeks later...
• "Yes sir" and "Yes ma'am." Fixin', y'all, gonna, Babe's chicken fried steak, Blue goose cantina, the flower mound, stories of Governor Hogg and the Pecan trees
• "I pledge allegiance, to thee, Texas, one and indivisble" right after the American pledge

Social:

This one was the harder one to think of. I chose the "Cousin Book" because it probably best illustrates how I view my relationships with others. The Cousin Book is something I started doing when I was 12 and stopped when I was 20. My cousin, Curtis, died in March of that year, and I was having a hard time with it, I think because I had never quite experienced a death of someone I really knew well before. I didn't know my cousin Curtis incredibly well; his family lived in California, like all my other cousins, and we were the odd family who moved around a lot. I do remember saying something snarky to him the last time I saw him, which I regretted. We decided to stop doing cousin christmas presents that year, for various reasons, but I think his death was part of it. I decided I wanted to be closer to that part of my family, so I decided to start making this book with written entries from all my family members. Every year around September, I'd send a theme to all of my cousins on my mom's side of the family. It was something simple and sentimental; sometimes related to Christmas, funny memories, favorite vacations, etc. I'd ask everyone to write something, send it to me by Thanksgiving, and then I'd compile them and send everyone a copy for Christmas. Anyway, the reason this is something that represents me socially is because my "philosophy" or what not is all about bringing people together. I love planning things. I love facilitating the creation of new friendships, including my own. I am also a very sentimental person. The best presents one can give me are the ones that have meaning and sentimentality rather than gift cards or fancy presents. I would take a poem or a letter any day over a shiny new toy. 

This is an excerpt from a poem I wrote in the very last Cousin book that I did. It's called "Where I'm from":

I am from the swinging fencepost, opening up a passage way to a magical summer apple orchard. I am from power rangers and tinker toy inventions. I’m from pack-it-all-up and move-it-on-out. I’m from a wet pillow case and a floor littered with Kleenex. A weeping willow and a rock fence; alphabet blocks on the TV and a pink bathroom. I am from tall dry grass and crickets singing under pink and orange sky. I’m from Michael’s and McDonald’s, Kirkpatrick, and capiche, Brahm’s and barges. I’m from 5 minute monsoons and mirages on the driveway. I’m from a wooden castle, barefoot soccer games, and piles and piles of trash from wisdom creek. I’m from mud between the toes, and q-tips up the nose. From scores of notebooks with stories and funnies. From joy and laughter, fireworks and a rusty trampoline. I’m from phase 10, ding-dong-ditches, chain stories by the fire place, and gravy with cornstarch.