it's worth the wait the whole year through

these videos were just too funny to wait! santa was very good to us this year, but i think hayley loved her pony the best. :)

[front view]

[back view]

more pictures to come. hope you all had a very merry christmas :)

once upon a time...

i came home from my first semester of college and was helping kendle make thousands of cookies for a reception for some weirdos. nicole was over helping and she was telling me about this one lady who came into the hospital who looked like she was being beaten. her sentence went something like this... "i called protective services because it looked like she had been beaten." i responded by saying, "oh good." naturally i was referring to the first half of the sentence. well, kendle laughed at me for saying it [yes, i know how it sounded]. i turned around to spit my tongue out at kendle, and come to find out, she was holding a hot cookie sheet right about at my ear level behind me, moving cookies from the sheet to the cooling racks. here is the result...


yes. i was burnt in my ear with a cookie sheet. how many people in the world can say that?! :)

and yes. it looks like it's oozing, but that is just the burn gel, cross my heart!

may he rest in peace

when we walked by kate's car to go to dinner, this is what we found...

farewell, willis. king of the snow people. your body will decay... but your spirit lingers on and your human friends find solace in the loss they have sustained.

willis

i stayed outside while it was snowing of my own free will to play in it. true growth, i know. :)

[this is willis, our new friend.]

snow attire

i think i am getting the hang of dressing for the weather, and i must admit... it's a little fun. :) (these are for you kendle!)

a few of my least favorite things

julie andrews was crazy when she said a few of her favorite things were snowflakes that stay on her nose and eyelashes.

[but it sure is pretty :)]

oh, the weather outside is frightful...

ok, not really. y'all should be very proud of me... i am dealing very well with this latest development. i can truthfully say that is it really beautiful to look at. it was even a little warmer today than it has been the last few days. it was coming down pretty hard while i was getting ready for church. luckily it lightened just a tad for the actual walk there. the hill was a beast in the snow and it was, indeed, icy at the top. but i can officially say i made it to and from church my first time with snow without falling on my bum. yes, i slipped a tad, but i am proud of myself and y'all should be too [especially you, dad. whenever anyone talks to me about it, i say, "it's pretty" cause i'm trying to have a happy attitude about it :)]

[while it was snowing.]

side note: this is the tree right outside our window. tiff and i are making it our personal christmas tree and i have to say, the snow does make it look a bit more christmassy :)

[after church when a lot had melted]

finally

i come home tomorrow :)

the daily universe rocks my world

so, i know my last two posts are about the daily universe, but seriously, today was grand. :)

front page headline: dear john... what 'waiting' for a missionary entails.

every missionary can tell which letter in the mailbox is special. maybe the stationary smells suspiciously like perfume or there might be lipstick kisses inside. but it isn’t these extra touches that make the letter special; it’s the signature at the end, and the girl it belongs to, that makes the missionary’s heart skip a beat.

::

no. the front page was not about how the D.C. sniper being sentenced to execution. nor was it about the ft. hood memorial service today. it is about how to wait for a missionary.

i won't put the whole article on here, but y'all should read it (click here). best. day. ever. :)

a new-found love

i have also started reading the op eds and letters to the editor in the daily universe. it can't get much better than this :)

Mind Your Manners

BYU students would be surprised to realize just how annoying they really are.

The well-mannered person attempts to make those around him or her as comfortable as possible in every situation. This extends to any occasion where two or more people occupy the same breathable air and/or are forced to see, hear, smell, feel, or (in rare occasions) taste one another.

Even if I never acknowledge a fellow classmate, I still enter into a social relationship with him or her and am responsible to uphold my end of the social bargain, which we have come to term “etiquette” — pulling our legs in underneath our bodies when we sit in a heavily trafficked hallway, attempting a second time to park between the lines, using words such as “excuse me,” “thank you” and, above all, “please.”

But I am not an altogether accepting and charitable person. I am annoyed to the point of silent screams by some of the most benign actions and events: Vacuum-sealed men’s jeans, faux-hawks, bare feet in class, flat-brimmed sideways hats, girls’ loud laughter, texting during lectures, unsolicited guitar players (especially when accompanied by singing), grading on attendance, phrases like “more simpler,” and peppering every sentence with “like.”

Yes, I am cantankerous, but my own social inadequacies aside, this school has a serious problem with etiquette. Please attempt to think of the others with whom you share this fine institution. If we were all to spend more time looking out for the comfort of others, we might just find a little more comfort for ourselves.

Author name withheld

::

and here are the responses:

To the author of “Mind Your Manners” (Oct. 29), BYU is the last place lacking etiquette. I recently returned from the former Soviet Union, where common courtesy generally doesn’t exist — frowning faces, pushing and shoving on buses and constantly being cut in lines.

On BYU’s campus, I have been pleasantly surprised at students’ polite and open nature. I can count on hearing “Thank you” when I hold the door open, and I can count on others holding the door for me. Nowhere else can I make eye contact with a complete stranger and get a smile and a casual “Hi.” If I am bumped in the hall, an instant “Sorry” follows. Students are willing to share notes when I miss class or to study for exams together. BYU is full of people willing to help and make life more pleasant for others.

If someone has a problem with current fashion trends, that is his own problem, having nothing to do with etiquette. As far as things like texting, guitars or laughter go, this is a college campus — you’re going to have to live with it! Perhaps the author would find more “acceptable” peers in a rest home.

So, in defense of the BYU student body, I would like the author of “Manners” to point out a university where the students are more polite than here. As far as I am concerned, there is no greater place to study than BYU and no better student body to be a part of than ours.

Thank you, “Mr. Manners” for giving generalized opinions about the entire student body at BYU and giving us another example of how narrow-minded and biased these letters are.

Just because my friend Akira slurps his soup doesn’t mean he’s socially challenged; he’s showing his love for the food just as he does in hometown, Tokyo. Clearly the way my Australian professor adds funny phonetics to the English language is a social blunder. “Excuse me” never came out when I bumped you rushing out of class today — sorry, I had just heard my brother was in an accident.

I apologize on behalf of all BYU for dressing according to the Honor Code, but still somehow offending you. I’ll give you an extra pair of my tight jeans if it will make you feel comfortable. Don’t wear them with flannel though, you might have “Mr. Hipster Hater” from a couple weeks ago calling you a poser.

I love the cultural and social diversity here at campus. I learn a lot about everything in life from imperfect people who come from distinct backgrounds. So as long as everything is in harmony with the Honor Code and the gospel, let us be us. And quit wasting time trying to stop this — there are much better things to give opinions on, like how Englishmen are clearly manlier than Americans because they like getting hit without pads on.

overload

this week's police beat was hilarious! good thing too cause the last couple have been ultra lame! so here goes...

October 24: A boy in a gorilla suit was reported attempting to scare girls in Wyview Park. Officers located the monkey man, asked him to go home and he did.

October 31: Six individuals were reported throwing something wet off the Tanner parking structure. The substance was determined to be soup. The suspects were instructed to clean up the mess.

October 26: A caller reported a male behaving suspiciously in a parked car. Officers investigated and the suspect was simply taking a nap.

October 27: An assailant approached a female near the Clyde Building and grabbed her buttocks. She yelled at him, telling him that was sexual harassment. The suspect smiled and walked off. The suspect was reported as a stocky, 5-foot-6 Hispanic male, in his mid-20s, with black hair and a buzz cut.

hope y'all enjoy these as much as i do :)

all hallow's eve

so halloween was really fun! thursday night we went to a corn maze. it was so dang fun. i had never been to one before. i didn't even know if tucson had one. so i googled it and found out that we do. it's just more than half way to mexico... hence never going. i haven't gotten the pictures yet but i promise i will blog them this week :)

these are my halloween decorations mom sent up for me! everyone loves them! how could you not?!

my boots came! you can't see them in the picture very well but i promise they are stinking cute!

so, this was thursday night before the corn maze. kate (the one in the middle) had all of this halloween stuff sent to her so we made the candy necklaces, made candy skeletons, and practiced catching candy corn after tossing it in the air. let's just say, i still suck. haha

i was completely done with my necklace so i was tying it off. yeah... i dropped it. i cried.





kate's mom also sent halloween costumes for all of us. we were bugs. this is the night before halloween. it was really late but i wasn't ready to go to sleep so i curled my hair and put on tons of makeup to practice. i don't have the halloween night pictures either yet but it was tons of fun! they had a haunted house in the clyde building on campus. it really wasn't that scary but i'm kind of a jumpy person. (y'all know how i react when someone is standing outside the bathroom door when i come out? yeah well i was worse going through the haunted house. haha)

then we went to the cannon center for the dance. a lot more people showed up than i thought would so it was tons of fun. they even had a hay ride. to where?... you might ask. yeah... it was around helaman halls. it was quite thrilling. haha after the dance was over it was late but no one was ready to sleep. so we watched young frankenstein. oh how i love that movie! :) anyway, all in all it was a very fun halloween! and now it's november which means i could be coming home this month :)

it came :(

the snow. it's here. well... it was. it didn't stick (thank the heavens) but it was still dang cold outside. i'm terrified of it!! anyway, i stopped crying long enough to take these pictures just for you adrian. :) what do you think?

we met cosmo

that's right. we met him. and we got a picture with him! :)

my birthday weekend :)

it's pretty here

fall is my new favorite. i always knew i would love it, but seriously, it's awesome! it's so pretty. :) the colors are pretty, it's when my birthday is, it's when kendle, nicole, devin, and zac came to visit. fall is perfect! :)

random story... last night, it was about 11:30 and i was reading my scriptures when a girl in my hall (claire) started yelling, "there's a duck in the hall! there's a duck in the hall!" so everyone ran out of their rooms to see the duck. it ended up in the elevator room and we just shut it in there. so apparently outside of the door there was a sheet with duck feathers and poop. so... the boys did it.

wednesday happiness

october 6:

a bike was stolen from a woman at her home in provo a few months ago. she found it at the tanner building and stole it back. she left a note for the thief to give her a call, but she did not receive one.

:)

police beat

october 1:

a bicyclist, riding on a sidewalk, was headed east on campus drive when he was struck be one of byu's campus electric cars. he receives minor injuries.

:)

what do you do when no where on campus carries it?

you make your own! we really wanted to do face masks the other night but no one had any. so we went to the creamery, no luck. we walked all the way to the creamery on 9th, no luck. we went to the bookstore, no luck. people told us the only place within walking distance that might have carried in was macey's (the grocery store not the department store. confusing, i know.) but if you knew this area at all (which i don't) you would know that macey's really isn't in walking distance. it would take hours and hours.

so, we googled how to make your own and came up with a list of stuff that we could buy at the creamery. yogurt, honey, and oatmeal. but it happened that the creamery only had strawberry cheesecake yogurt and brown maple oatmeal. but we did it anyway! and it worked surprisingly well! i kinda liked it! (but don't eat any of it, it's not so tasty. haha)

this is me and jessica. the strawberry on her forehead made me laugh so hard i made her leave it on! doesn't it look lovely? :)


and this was another trip to the temple. the sunset was pretty. :)

only at BYU

my favorite from today's police beat:

a hot air balloon was reported floating over campus. the officers responded and confirmed that there was a hot air balloon, but as BYU does not own the airspace no action was taken.

:)

disappointment

pre-game happiness.


i was so excited for the first home game. it was a bummer. but its alright i guess. (not really, i'm just trying to make myself feel better. haha) it was hard to get seats together so we broke up into groups. this is kate from florida.

mid-game happiness when we still had a shot at winning. after that the pictures aren't so cute. i was sad. haha

another temple trip

on the way over it rained pretty hard on us. we figured it was a sign that this trip was gonna be just as bad as the first one. (not the actual temple part, you understand. the trip to and from.) anyway, we went with different people and it went much much better. we were never shot at. we were never sprayed by sprinklers. we were never ditched. in fact, it was fun. here's a picture. the sunset behind us was beautiful! (we were walking into the rain.)

anyway, that's all. just thought you would like to know. :)

ps- the office was on while i was there :( it was worth it still. but i watched it today. i wanted to pee my pants. it was HIL-larious! ya'll should watch it! :)

police beat

i am so excited for these. they are the reason i came to byu. (not really but i love it :)) anyway, my favorite for this week was this one:

september 6: two male subjects were knocking on doors in the female area of wyview park. they identified themselves as missionaries. when the police arrived the two male students said they thought it was a novel way to meet girls.

the police beat brings joy to my soul. oh byu... :)

good things

it has been brought to my attention that i'm only blogging the weird things about utah. i'm just trying to set the scene for you all! (cause it is weird here! haha)

but, fun things really have been happening. for instance, as i am typing, there is a band of banjo, accordion, guitar, etc., players walking up and down the hall right outside my door. it's not really good, but it's amusing. haha

anyway, friday night, we went to humor u. it was HIL-larious! it's a stand-up comedy performance. the humor is only for mormons/byu students but it was dang funny! they said they do like 8 shows a year and i am going to every one. haha

saturday afternoon, we went to the smith fieldhouse to watch the football game. the game was not all that exciting cause we basically dominated 54-3. but it was fun cause we sang the byu song every time we got a touchdown. it was fun! here's a picture of the group of girls i went with before we met up with the rest of the group. we didn't take pictures after that for some reason...


then later that day, we went to the byu hockey game. it would have been nice to know beforehand that our team kinda sucked. it was still fun though! i did forget a jacket and it was a tad chilly in the ice rink. and we sat right by the penalty box and the guys reeked. it was not very pleasant. haha and there was this one guy, #77 from utah state, every time he took his helmet off, he would run his fingers through is his long, sweaty, greasy hair. it was disgusting. i think i threw up in my mouth a little.

and the girls from utah state were nasty. they had foul mouths and kept trying to talk like they knew what was going on (when clearly they didn't) just because their boyfriends were on the team. i admit, i don't know hockey very well, but i even knew more than them. girls are stupid. haha

anyway, i really am having fun. the weird experiences still kinda outweigh the good ones but, i swear, the good ones are happening! :)

the temple

so my friend alyssa and i were invited to do baptisms at the temple with these people we didn't know. but we figured it would be cool since neither of us had been there yet. so we were supposed to meet at the cannon center at 7 to walk over. we get there a few minutes late and no one is there, so we figured they left us. so we booked it up to the temple, and when we are in the little park thing across the street from the temple, the girl called and was like, "where are you guys?" and we were all, "almost at the temple" and then she was all, "oh. well we're just leaving the cannon center. we were late." you think? but it was really no big deal.

so alyssa and i are waiting outside the temple for like a half hour for them. we finally go in, but it was pretty busy so we got split up from the rest of the group. it was very cool. it's beautiful inside. and we had a really good time!

so after we were finally done, at like 10 o'clock at night, we went outside to meet the group... yeah they left us. so alyssa and i had to walk home... to our dorms... all by ourselves. and, neither of us had our rape whistles with us! it was a little disconcerting. haha.

so as we were walking home... to the dorms... the sprinklers came on, very powerfully i might add. so we ran through and in the second and a half it took we were already drenched. and then we were cold. and then both of our shoes were ripping our feet up. so we were walking back barefoot. (my feet were black by the end.)

an then, some guys drove by and shouted and alyssa freaked out. and then these other guys drove by and pretending to be shooting at us. they even had a machine gun sound playing. and then these other guys were trying to break into the sewer. and then these other guys (like 30 of 'em) were walking around the dorms with guitars and violins and harmonicas singing songs... but not hymns. haha.

anyway, it was quite an adventurous night. despite it all, i really do like it here. i promise. haha

something to ponder

so this last tuesday was the first devotional at byu. president and sister samuelson spoke and it was fabulous! but, as we were walking out of the marriot center, this whole group of people were singing hymns. either i am seeing the only weird people on campus or this is normal behavior around here. i can't decide yet, but i think i'm leaning towards normal behavior... haha. and no, this group of people were not the weirdo, overzealous freshman. they were old. so now that i'm thinking about it, maybe the two ends of the age bracket are the weird ones... something to ponder. either way it's still weird...

kinda funny

so, what do byu students do on sundays? good question. its very odd here. they go outside and read scriptures out loud to each other. they walk around campus singing hymns. and they walk to the temple. don't get me wrong. these are all good things. just weird. (and don't worry. i just walked to the temple. i didn't walk around singing, "i love the gospel. it is the best." i know what you're thinking... People don't actually do that... but i am here to tell you, they do.)

but the temple is beautiful, kinda funky, but beautiful. it's quite a walk. especially in church shoes. (didn't quite think that one through. haha)

ok, i do have a funny story. a bunch of the girls from my hall decided to walk down and i hadn't seen it yet so i went. none of us knew that sunday was the day for all the missionaries from the mtc to go there. there were hundreds! i have never seen so many missionaries! so as we were walking, we said, "hey elders"... just to be polite. we weren't trying to stop and talk to them and ask them for their addresses so we could write them or anything. it was innocent, i swear! it was purely to be nice. and most of them just turned their heads the other direction. finally, one told us that we aren't supposed to talk them at all and that they aren't supposed to say anything back. how weird is that? it just doesn't make sense to me. anyway, some weren't quite so reverent. some made us feel like nuns. but it was fun! and i took a few pictures! (don't judge me, i'm not very good! haha)

to dustin

happy birthday to my favorite brother-in-law!!! :) wish i was there! skyping at your party was a blast though!! :) love you!

i'm here

ok, so... i have been here for over a week. almost a weeks worth of classes is over. they are gonna be tough. but i can do it. :) i know i skyped with pretty much the only people who will read this but here are some pictures of my room. and some other random things, ie. the signs up above! hehe (those are for you mom!)

so this is my bed! how cute is that?! i was gonna blog about it when mom i and did it, but i forgot to take pictures and then i sent it up to utah. but here it is now! mom and i (and when i say "mom and i" i mean mostly mom!) sewed sheets together to make a little duvet cover for my comforter. that way its easier to wash and stinkin' cute :)

this is the window sill. that's pretty much all my stuff... whoops...

and this is the little sink that's in the room. so the room is really tiny, but everything fits really nicely! :)

this is my desk. it's way bigger than i expected it to be so it's pretty nice. :)


these are the shelves in my room. up top is the ski shelf. i guess it's supposed to be used for snow equipment and crap, but let's face it. i don't even have a coat yet. why would i have snow stuff? i wouldn't. that's the answer. haha but it works perfectly for extra little cubbies! :)

this is my dresser/closet. it's little. and full.

case in point. :)

and last, and probably most, these are the cubbies under my bed. there's alot. and there are suitcases and boxes behind them! and yes, my bed is a million inches tall! :)

i am really quite liking it here. it's different. there are pregnant chicks all over the place. and everyone you think looks your age is actually married and barely pregnant. but it's good!

ps- i haven't done laundry yet, and i'm a little worried too. if it's bad, i'll blog my adventures! :)