Busy Book by Auntie Lisa

I am a novice crafter/sewer (as will be evidenced by the pictures of the finished result), but I am learning. My parents actually gave me a brand new sewing machine the night I finished this project, so hopefully I'll become a pro and the next one I make will be 10x better. But for now, the busy book/quiet book I made for my adorable nephew, Mr. Pierson:

Cover

Paint palette: the "paint" splotches are velcroed on, so they can be removed and rearranged; there is a paintbrush in the pocket on the opposite page for fun imaginary painting

my personal favorite: chicks and the barn

open the eggs and SUPRISE! little chicks!

open the barn and WHAM! cow, chicken, and pig

finger puppet barnyard animals

Hungry? Check the refrigerator. 

fruit can be removed and placed into the bowl on the opposite page

tree with removable leaves and ice cream
additional scoops of ice cream can be found in the ice cream container; scoops are attached with velcro

I predict this page will be one of Pierson's favorites; a car track complete with a car, truck, slugbug, school bus, and  *big blue* truck

monkeys and bananas (beads) that can slide from tree to tree

better check the mail, there's a letter from the best aunt ever inside :)

the admittedly creepy page: the face; other eye, nose, and mouth options are in the pocket on the opposite page; again, everything is velcroed on

opposites attract? the toolbox and counting flower

hammer, wrench, screwdriver, and saw....I think

blast off!

rocket to the moon

It was a time consuming project, but not all that difficult (once you let go of perfectionism and accept imperfection). Crossing my fingers that he loves it!

Fame

My cousin just texted me to inform me that I am a youtube superstar. Check me out.

Confessions of a Clean Carpet Enthusiast

For sharing a tiny apartment with 5 other girls, our apartment stays fairly clean. We do have one major problem: HAIR. In the shower drain, on the rug by the vanity, and all over the floor. Gross, I know. Be happy I didn't take a picture of the hairballs we clean out of the showers daily. 

This weekend we received a gift from the apartment manager that has significantly improved the hair situation: a brand spankin' new Dyson vacuum!!! Our last vacuum was old and didn't really work. Then it conveniently disappeared. When we told the manager, she offered us one of only three new vacuums for our apartment complex. Needless to say, I am completely in love with our new vacuum. My obsession has led to our floors being vacuumed daily. Megan laughs at me because I get really excited about the floors now. 

I can't make all my roommates shave their heads, but I can vacuum the floors as often as I like. Do you know what that means? I can sit on the carpet without worrying that I'll get hair on me! Best. Vacuum. Ever.

Livia. Like Olivia without the "O"

Today is this cute girl's birthday. She is ELEVEN years old! Can you believe it? It seems like just last Christmas I was begging Santa to bring me a little brother or sister, but it's been eleven years since I got my Christmas miracle.

Boy oh boy was I excited to be a big sister. I always had clothes laid out in case I needed to get up in the middle of the night to meet my cute new baby sister. I was so excited.

I still remember when Grandma and Grandpa woke me up super duper early to go to the hospital to meet Liv. It was still dark outside. Josh and Joe didn't come because they wanted to sleep, but I could not wait another second to meet her!

From the minute I first held my baby sister, I claimed her as mine. I even brought her to school for show and tell.

And now she's growing up. I would still bring her to school for show and tell, but now she could probably carry me just as well (if not better) than I could carry her.

Oh Livia. She is my favorite. I'm sure I made her life infinitely more challenging by begging for her to have an "L" name (she will  have to explain for the rest of her life that her name is Livia not Olivia). Happy birthday to my favorite girl. 8 days until 3 weeks of sister sleepovers!

B-38

Okay, epic fail on the blogging lately. Life is busy. But I didn't want you to miss out on tonight's adventures. Welcome to a normal, run-of-the-mill, average, totally ordinary night in B-38.

Sometimes we dress up in Chloe's clothes when she isn't home and take pictures with her stuff (see facebook for more).

And sometimes...well, sometimes we bounce.

Watch Me Grow

By reading this blog, you get to take part in watching me grow and progress. EXCITING! My newest adventure? Learning to play the guitar! So far I know four chords: G, D, C, and E Minor. I can't exactly transition smoothly or strum prettily...yet. The goal is to learn Hazy by Rosi Golan and impress Chloe when she comes home from Thanksgiving. We'll see how that goes.

Today in my Family Proclamation  class, we talked about the sanctity of life. Our bodies are so amazing! We can learn and grow and do really cool things! I thought this video was AWE INSPIRING. Watch and be amazed that you began like this.

Kissing Rugby

Oh yes, you read that right: kissing rugby. Rules: one person sits in the middle of the room. A person of the same gender guards the sitting person. A person of the opposite gender tries to get through the guard and kiss the sitting person (on the cheek). The guard tries to kiss the attacker (again, on the cheek). First to kiss wins. It gets a little crazy.

Now personally, I don't like the idea of giving away even cheek kisses in a game. My kisses are special. They mean more than winning. But that's just me. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that I've only ever kissed one person. And I loved him. That being said, I didn't feel like it was morally wrong for others to play the game or for me to watch. In fact, I found it quite entertaining.

After almost everyone had gone home, Megan and Leland had a rematch. Megan had lost the first time they went against each other, and she wanted to prove she could win. Since there weren't any other girls around to be the sitting person, I got peer pressured into participating. I made Megan promise to win so that I wouldn't have to get kissed. And I held my hands on my cheeks so that if Leland won, he would only be kissing my hand.

Well, Megan lost. My favorite part of the video is the very end when Megan says, "I'm sorry, Lisa."

The things we do for our best friends...

Walking on Sunshine

This has been (in one of my favorite phrases from junior high) a stellar amazing week! I figure I can do an end of week post now since tomorrow officially starts the WEEKEND! Wooooo!!!

Monday was average and absolutely wonderful. Added bonus: we (roomies and I) watched multiple episodes of Parenthood

Tuesday was spectacular. We (again...me and the roomies) went to Salt Lake to see a pre-showing of Savior of the World. It's this amazingggg musical about the events leading up to Christ's birth and following His resurrection. Such a testimony builder. Loved, loved, loved it!

Wednesday was (obviously) the best day ever. See yesterday's post for details. Elder and Sister Oaks, President and Sister Samuelson, and Daryl Hoole. Yeap, BYU is fantastic.

Thursday. Oh yes, today was equally wonderful. After a longggg and busy day, I was able to attend a ward health and wellness activity. We ate yummy, healthy food and danced the night away. btdubs, I rock at xbox Just Dance. Now to end the night with more Parenthood with the roomies :)

Life is GOOD!!!!

Mormon Celebrities

*insert explosion of excitement here*

There are certain persons in the LDS culture that are "famous". These persons may be completely unknown to the general public outside of the church, but to me they are so much more of a big deal than Hollywood celebrities (FYI, writing this like I am cool, calm, and collected is killing me - in actuality I'm squealing with excitement). Tonight, I had the opportunity to meet multiple Mormon celebrities. Eeeeek!!!

Because I have the best major in the entire world (Family Studies), I was blessed to be informed of tonight's School of Family Life Distinguished Lecture by Daryl Hoole.

She is an accomplished author, loving wife/mother/grandma/great-grandmother, and an amazing speaker. She was so funny and such a good teacher! Sister Hoole's lecture was entitled "The Home--An Apprentice Shop for Children". I learned so many good mommy tips. Gosh, she made me so excited to be a mom. 

After the absolutely wonderful lecture, I gathered my courage and went to meet the Mormon celebrities. I got to the lecture early, so I was sitting super close to "the celebrities". After a quick prayer for courage, I waltzed right up to President and Sister Samuelson (BYU president and his wife) and introduced myself. They were the sweetest people ever! President Samuelson shook my hand and then proceeded to hold my elbow the rest of the time we were talking. I normally don't like people touching me, but since there were a lot of people around it was nice to know he was focusing his attention on me for those few minutes. 

Next, I met Elder Dallin H. Oaks. He is an apostle of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Just like in Jesus' day, we have twelve apostles - and tonight I shook hands with one of them! TWICE! I shook his hand once, and then a few minutes later he reached out and shook it again. I'm pretty sure he didn't remember shaking my hand the first time, but hey, I'm not complaining. He can shake my hand as much as he wants. I was able to tell Elder Oaks and his wife how much I enjoyed the fireside they gave earlier this semester. They are just the cutest. I love them!

Before I left, I was also able to meet Daryl Hoole. She is such a sweet lady! She was so glad students actually came to the lecture because she was worried it'd be all old people, haha. She said to tell my professor to give me an 'A' for coming. 

Basically, tonight was just the greatest night ever. I am on cloud nine. Some people are concert people. They love to be front row and reach out and touch the hand of their favorite musician. Me? I'm a Mormon. And I like Mormon celebrities. Spiritual giants. People I can trust even before the very first handshake.

Dear Toilet

Dear Toilet,

I would like you to know that you are not a fountain. I know you've had a major identity crisis today and decided to grace us with your flowing waters all over the bathroom and hallway floor, but really. We love you just the way you are: a toilet. Don't worry, we understand that you are going through a rough time in your porcelain existence. We will let you (and the apartment manager) hash things out. Until then, I would really appreciate it if you'd at least keep the outpourings of water contained to the restroom.

With love,
Lisa

SO MANY TESTS

I had so many tests this week. And papers. It was very very very busy. Unfortunately for you, that means I didn't have time to blog about the ups and downs of this week. I thought about trying to remember everything that happened, but I quickly gave up. My week's worth of brain power is all used up. So, let's skip straight to the weekend...that's the best part of the week anyway, right?

Friday night = date night. Kevin and I went to Divine Comedy (BYU sketch comedy group that our pal Stacey is in) with Megan and Stuart. It was super duper funny. Afterwards we went back to their apartment for hot cocoa. Kevin had bought some ski stuff at DI, and since it had been snowing all day we decided to try it out...on the lawn outside of the apartment complex. The flat lawn, haha. It was silly, but quite fun.

Speaking of the snow, it snowed a lot. A lot a lot. More than all last winter combined (granted it didn't really snow at all last year...) The snow was so heavy that lots of branches and trees fell down!

I don't know why snow is trying to steal the Thanksgiving season. Snow should definitely wait until after Thanksgiving. But don't worry, Thanksgiving is in full swing for me. The snow hasn't fooled me into skipping turkey day. We even had a delicious ward Thanksgiving dinner tonight :)

I made this Thanksgiving sign for work and I am oh so proud of it:

Hmm... what else? Oh! I went to the Men's Chorus concert tonight. It was absolutely fabulous. And a cake exploded in our oven. The two are in no way related; I just wanted to tell you both. THE END.

Falling in Love

I fell in love with the temple all over again yesterday.

My ward (church) went to the Mt. Timpanogos temple yesterday and I fell completely, head-over-heels in love. All temples are beautiful, but this one is especially spectacular. The glass work in the windows is amazing; it is iridescent and changes shades of blue, purple, and green. I loved the interior as well. It is absolutely perfect. I can imagine heaven looking exactly like the Mt. Timanogos temple.

There was an hour and a half wait (I love how busy the temples are here!) so my roommates and I had our apartment scripture study on the temple grounds. I can't imagine a better way to spend a Saturday than at the Lord's house with some of my favorite people studying the Word of God. Yesterday was pure bliss.

Dances and Dates

Okay, the title of this post is a bit misleading. But Dance and Date doesn't sound as good as Dances and Dates. Anywayyyyy, this has been a fabulous weekend.

On Friday, we scrambled to put together Halloween costumes for a dance. We've known we were going to this dance for at least a week, but we still waited until the last possible second to make our costumes. And by last possible second I mean we didn't even finish our costumes until an hour after the dance started. And by finish I mean I didn't even really finish, it was just at an acceptable level of could-pass-for finished. Sadly, the sequins did not make it on my tail feathers. But don't worry, they will make it on there for Halloween.

Mexican rancher and a peacock

flamingo and peacock

The dance was so so much fun. I shook my tail feathers and had a blast. By the end, I was simply exhausted. We were dreading going back to our apartment because we were all so tired and we knew the house was a wreck (putting together costumes = craft stuff covering every surface of the entire apartment). Thanks to some awesome teamwork, we cleaned up in record time. And then of course we watched Parenthood.

On Saturday night I went on a double date with Ben and Richard and Karlin. Little piece of Lisa's inner shy side: dates make me nervous. No matter who it is. I get so freaked out. Not in a bad way, I just always think it's going to be super awkward - even though I don't think I've ever been on a super awkward date. Anyway, it was not awkward haha. We had a lot of fun. We carved huge pumpkins and made homemade root-beer and roasted pumpkin seeds (yum!).

I am really proud of how well our pumpkin turned out. Best jack-o-lantern ever? I'd say so. And to top the night off, when I got home my roomies wanted to watch Parenthood! I love it when they want to watch Parenthood (which is every single day now that I've got them hooked).

Too bad I never sleep. But hey, I have the rest of my life to sleep...right?

Hodge-Podge

I finally transferred pictures from my phone to my computer (you would think I would do that more often) and I realized there are a lot of things I haven't blogged about! So, here goes. Prepare yourself for the most random blog post ever.

Watching concerts from the top of parking garages is fun.

My apartment is fantastic. We love each other so much! Other apartments don't sit together at ward prayer. We ALL sit together. Even if it means 6 people on 1 couch.

BYU is dangerous.

We can fit lots of people into our tiny pantry. We plan on fitting more in there next time.

Sometimes BYU football is vicious and multiple people from the other team get sent off in ambulances...in the first quarter.

We like football. 

p.s., the guy behind us kept "dropping" his pocket knife in our direction. He said he wasn't throwing it at us, but it was still a little frightening. Eventually his girlfriend took it from him.

There was an oven fire in someone's apartment on the first floor. Firetrucks lined the block. It really wasn't even a big deal, but it was fun and exciting.

It has been a pretty rainy semester (in Utah standards).

But, that means there has also been an abundance of rainbows!

I have the cutest roommates. I came home from classes on the first cold day of the semester to find this sweet little note on the door. Yes, this is real life. I really DO have the best apartment ever.

Megan and I found this little gem in an office at the church building. 

Other happenings: we blew some stuff up in my science class. I have a video, but it would take too long to upload and I'm impatient. Also, IT SNOWED! Don't worry, it all melted. So it is still partially fall. But winter is creeping in.

Life is wonderful.

Here We Go Again...

It snowed today. I guess that means Fall is gone...sad. I rather like Fall. Winter? Eh...we have a love/hate (mostly hate) relationship. It was rough getting up this morning. I was so tired from our Parenthood marathon and  I had an 8 a.m. class and  it was cold/snowy.

I was able to overcome the cold weather and extreme sleepiness and have a wonderful day. I ended the day by walking home with Catherine eating brownies and sipping on lemonade...in the snow. Yeah, my life is pretty amazing.

Parenthood

I am slightly obsessed with the show Parenthood. The obsession started last year and it has only grown. I just love it! It is so relate-able and wonderful and aghhhh it's just the best! I really don't have time to watch shows regularly, but I make time for this one (and Once Upon a Time) every single week.

Parenthood is a very...emotional show. Every episode makes me laugh and cry. My roommates always know when I watch it because I come out of my room with tears. I have begged all semester for someone else to watch it so I'd have someone to talk to about it. I needed someone to feel the deep emotional connection I feel with the characters. My roommates were always willing to listen to me tell them every detail of every episode, but no one would watch it - until last night.

FINALLY my roommates decided to watch Parenthood with me. Oh, and it gets better. They wanted to start with the very first episode. Which means we are having Parenthood marathons every night to catch them up! We will probably never sleep or do homework again, but I am soooooo excited. Yay Parenthood! Yay best roommates ever!

Answered Prayers

Do you ever have one of those light bulb moments? A moment where something suddenly makes sense - even if you haven't been thinking about it lately. Well ladies and gents, I just had one of those moments. And this time it was an intense enough moment to stop writing my Psych paper and blog about it instead.

He is listening and answering. In record time!

I first realized this when thinking about family history. This morning I prayed that I would be able to find family members who need their temple work done. I went about my busy day and I guess I forgot about that prayer. After work, I finally sat down and did some research; two hours later - BAM! 4 names ready to take to the temple. Answered prayer.

Then I started thinking about the whole mission age thing. Remember my first blog post about the new mission ages and how I was a little frustrated that I didn't feel the need to go? Well, I decided that it was really silly of me to be frustrated because I got my "no" so quickly. I should have been rejoicing  that my prayers asking whether or not I should go were answered so quickly! My prayer was answered so quickly that it took me weeks to recognize my prayer was answered.

Basically, today is the best day ever. Receiving and recognizing answers to prayer is 999999999999999x better than getting mail. And I really love mail.

Raindrops

As I thought about my life today, I realized (again) how blessed I am. I am so happy. Nothing extraordinary has happened; I'm just happy. I have been so blessed throughout my life - especially over the last year.

I am so thankful for the raindrops, the sleepless nights, the trials of this life. I am thankful for His mercies.

Xaapk and Qhayt

Meet Xaapk (pronounced Zack) and Qhayt (pronounced Cat). They are our apartment pets/produce. Xaapk was left on our doorstep. Poor lil baby zucchini. Well, maybe not so little... Haha, we were ding dong ditched and they left Xaapk behind, so we took him in and gave him a home. We dread the day Xaapk will be made into zucchini bread (but secretly look forward to the yummy deliciousness).

We took our pets to visit some of the boys in our ward and ended up at Apt.21 playing Richard's video game he made in high school. It was pretty intense. They put it on the big projector and we played for an embarrassingly long time. Who knew we were secret gaming nerds? 

In completely unrelated news, I am at work and an old man (I think he may have been mentally handicapped) came up to the desk to ask a question. Then he told me I am a very pretty young lady. He asked if I had a boyfriend, but made sure I knew he wasn't hitting on me because he is probably old enough to be my dad. He said it was very surprising that I don't have a boyfriend because I'm just so pretty. He said a boy would be lucky to have me. He then proceeded to tell me I'm pretty again. And again as he walked away. I should have told him that I have two boyfriends - Willy James and Alfonso. Luckiest Ken dolls ever? Yeah, I'd say so.

***NOTE: I wrote this post almost a week ago but never posted it...oops. Xaapk is no longer with us. R.I.P. Xaapk. I loved him almost as much as I love zucchini  bread. Almost. Obviously not as much or he would probably still be sitting in the kitchen.

Gen Con

Gen Con. General Conference. Four sessions. Plus Priesthood session. Two hours each. Prophets. Apostles. The Word of God. Best weekend ever (until the next one at least).

This was the first General Conference that I felt really spiritually prepared for. In the time leading up to conference, my roommates and I had been praying to be prepared. We studied the scriptures together and tried really hard to have the Spirit in our home. Intentional preparation made all the difference. I think this conference would have been memorable anyways with the mission age announcement, but because we were ready to receive personal revelation, every talk was more meaningful.

Moral of the story? Conference is the best thing ever. Especially when you listen to conference prepared to receive whatever the Lord wants to give you.

Now let's talk about this mission age business. First off, let me tell ya a little bit about the atmosphere in an apartment of 19-24 year old girls during that announcement.

Tears. Lots and lots and lots and lots of tears. Alena already planned on serving a mission next semester (she turns 21 in February), so for her this announcement meant she could leave a month or two early. She was joyous. Greta and Megan were also very tearful. Will they go? To be determined. Chloe plans on serving, but thinks she'll wait until she's 21 still. Me? Well...

Oh course when they first announced the new mission age I wanted to go immediately. I was ready to pack my bags, put on a name tag and serve the Lord. The more I've thought and prayed about it, the less I feel the need to go. I am still 100%  open to serving a mission. Now or later. Whenever the Lord wants to go. If  He wants me to go. It seems like every girl in Provo wants to serve a mission now, and honestly it was a little hard to come to terms with the fact that it doesn't feel like I'm supposed to go on a mission. I just couldn't understand why everyone else felt so strongly about going on a mission and it wasn't like that for me. But, I told the Lord I would do His will. And if He needs me here, I'll stay. Maybe the Lord has another type of mission in store for me. We shall see.

R.I.P. teen years

On October 6, 2012, my teenage years came to an end. That's right, I'm twenty. Weird, huh?

For (at least) the week leading up to my birthday, I reminded everyone every time I did something for the last time as a teenager. This is my last Monday as a teenager. This is my last Tuesday as a teenager. This is my last class as a teenager. Last test, last paper, last FHE, last time going to church, last time falling asleep, last time waking up, etc. as a teenager. My roommates thought it was REAL funny (Haha, just kidding they thought it was annoying. But they love me anyway).

When the big day finally came, I took off work and celebrated in true adult style: I watched General Conference. President Monson made the big missionary announcement about lower missionary ages...maybe I should just do a whole blog post on that alone. I think I will. We'll skip that for now. Between conference sessions Stacey, Kevin and Alan came over to sing me a fabulous song they wrote for my birthday. 

Aren't they the greatest?

After they sang to us, we kicked the boys out (not really, they knew before they came over that we were about to leave) and went to In-and-Out in our PJ's for lunch. So yummy! When we got back home, Stacey, Kevin and Stuart came over to watch the afternoon session of conference. Conference was so good this year. AH! But I'm doing a GenCon blog post so I need to stop talking about it in my birthday post. Okay, so the boys came over. Hahahahaha, Chloe painted Stacey's toe nail bright pink. He didn't notice until after it dried. Pahahaha it was super funny. Anyway, the boys stayed to watch Studio C with us after conference was over. Studio C is the new Divine Comedy TV show on BYUTV. Stacey is in Divine Comedy, so obviously it was great.

Greta made me a HOMEMADE from scratch chocolate cake for my birthday. It was so good. We had some people over and it quickly turned into a dance party. I really should have videoed it. My pals have some hilarious, er I mean...really good, dance moves.

Basically, my birthday was super wonderful. Now I enter the most life eternity changing decade yet. A decade that will be full of decisions and learning experiences. Here's to the roaring twenties!

Learning Suite Ain't So Sweet

If we are Facebook friends (which, let's face it, everyone who reads my blog is HEY MOM AND GRETA! MY TWO FAITHFUL FOLLOWERS) you may already be aware of my new found hatred towards Learning Suite.

Learning Suite: the new website BYU uses to communicate between professors and students.This is where you find what assignments are due when and is often used to turn in assignments. It is synonymous with "devil" and "Satan in disguise".

Last night I took my first test via Learning Suite. 75 multiple choice questions: saved my work every 5 questions. 2 "short" answers and 1 full blown essay: doesn't save your work at all. I finished the test and was oh so very proud of my killer essay response. I clicked submit. I had timed out.  That's right, if writing an essay takes you over 30 minutes (even on an un-timed test) Learning Suite will not submit your work. Since it was a test and I was typing directly into the test I obviously did not have a backup. Keep in mind that this was very late at night. Needless to say, I was very upset. Tears of frustration upset. UGH. 

Let's just say it was a very late night last night. BUT, here are the positives: 

1. My roommates were all so very supportive. After allowing me to vent off some steam, we read scriptures together. At 1:30 in the morning. LOVE THEM!
2. My professor was pretty understanding. I had to redo the written portion, but he allowed me to email it to him so I won't lose any points because of Learning Suite's dumbness.
3. I JUST SUBMITTED THE WRITTEN PORTION (via email) AND I AM DONE WITH THE TEST ONCE AND FOR ALL!

Take that Learning Suite. You can't ruin my grade OR my birthday week.

Naked Boy Strikes Again

Normally I don't blog twice a day, but this is absolutely necessary. NAKED BOY CAME BACK....NAKED. Again, naked is an exaggeration. He was wearing boxers. The same boxers as last time. That's right: same boy, same boxers, same level of nakedness. Only this time he had the loaner key still so I couldn't even give him a key. Luckily Jay happened to be here (which never happens on a Saturday) so he was able to escort the young man back to his room and unlock his door. Jay is pretty sure he is just trying to seduce me. Note: picking up a girl by locking yourself out of your room naked does NOT have a high success rate. 0 for 2 to be exact.

After that traumatic experience, Jay made some random boy go buy me ice cream like a little kid who just got back from the doctor's office. I'm going to need therapy after this job.

Helaman Halls Front Desk, How May I Help You?

Y'all...my job is insane. Really. I just love it. Not only does my boss bring me food sometimes all the time, but I get to see/hear/do some crazy things.

(1) Today a girl came to the front desk flipping out because she accidentally flushed her room key, mail key, rape whistle, flash drive, and Hawaii keychain down the toilet. You read that right - not "dropped her keys in the toilet" FLUSHED! We're talking they went right down the drain. The toilet didn't even clog. Of course I had no earthly idea what I was supposed to do about this, so I called my favorite hall advisor who also had no idea what to do when a girl flushes her keys and her flash drive with all of her schoolwork on it down the drain. Ultimately it ended in a phone call to the police (yeap...I called the police about a toilet). Still waiting to see how this story will end. In the meantime, I will continue avoiding writing my paper (due on Monday) and tell you more crazy work stories.

(2) Naked boy. Okay, so I guess technically he wasn't naked. Boxer boy. See Sunday Best? blog post for the rest of that story.

(3) The fight. I'm exaggerating again. It was an almost fight. I forget if I've already blogged about this or not. Long story short, two smaller boys allegedly were talking about one bigger boy's wife. Bigger boy got angry, smaller boys ran to me (as if I could protect them) and then a hall advisor saved me by taking care of it while I hid behind the desk. Man, another exaggeration. I didn't hide. I just stayed behind the desk not hiding.

(4) THE button. You know those under-the-desk-silent-alarm-emergency buttons that no one ever really gets to push but you always really  want to push? I pushed it. No, not for an emergency. Just a test run. They were working on it during my shift one day and I begged the guy to let me push it. It just wouldn't be fair if he had all the fun.

Okay, that's enough storytelling for now. I should really write my paper.

How warm was YOUR shower today?

We haven't exactly had warm water for showers the past couple days. Today was especially cold. The water wasn't just not hot, it was absolutely frigid. I guess that's the price I pay for living in a cheap apartment [totally worth it].

Cold showers make me appreciate hot showers. I am looking forward oh so much to a [hopefully] warm shower tomorrow. Or at the very least, a shower that doesn't feel like I fell into a hole in an iceberg.

Scripture Power

Breakfast. Lunch. Dinner. I feed my physical body three times a day (most days). But what about my spiritual self? How much am I nourishing my spirit? Well, I think my spirit is "eating" better than ever before this semester. Maybe even better than my physical body (how long can one survive on granola bars?)

Breakfast for the soul: Book of Mormon reading correlating (mostly) with the Sunday school schedule. I admit "breakfast" needs some help. Yes, I do it daily, but it's more like snacking. I should "eat" better before I start my day.

Lunch at the spiritual cafe: This mostly consists of assigned reading for my New Testament class. I love that reading scriptures is part of my homework. I'm a little more awake by this time, so I probably get a little more out of it than I do in the morning. But I get most of my good stuff in class. I guess I am just a social learner.

Dinner family style: At church on Sunday, Bishop Harward challenged us to read the Book of Mormon as a ward. He wants us to all read of about the same pace so that we can take time and discuss what we're reading. My roommates and I decided to read together, as an apartment. We're reading every night and we have the best discussions. I absolutely love hearing their insights. We won't finish until the end of winter semester, but so far it has been so rewarding. I love bonding with my roomies over the Word of God.

There is power in the scriptures. Power that helps you not be stressed even when school is crazy. Power to help you find joy. Power to bring roommates together. Power to dismiss contention. Power to make home a little piece of heaven.

Life in a Provo Singles Ward

I love my ward. I really do. The people are fantastic. But let me just tell ya, it is most definitely a Provo singles ward. Today the majority of the ward received callings (I got called as a visiting teacher supervisor). This is not a joke:  our ward has a dating committee. It's a legit calling. For real. It's one of those callings I would like to avoid if possible, but it is a calling. When Bishop Harward asked for a sustaining vote for those called to the dating committee he said, "It's no secret. We want you to get married." Ohhhhhh Provo, the only place in the U.S. where you can be in your twenties and an old maid.

Other marriage/love stories of the day (I'm telling you...Provo single life is SURROUNDED by lovers/talk of how you need to find a mate):

• David and Matt came over to watch the CES devotional with us and before it started David said "Well, who wants to bet it'll be about marriage?" Haha, it wasn't.
• Jeff gave a spiritual thought at ward prayer on love. Kevin said it was because they have to squeeze in marriage/love lessons whenever possible.
• Alan came over after ward prayer to talk to Alena and I about relationships and dumb people.
• A girl a couple doors down got engaged yesterday and came by this morning to show us the ring and tell the story.
• Chloe is convinced I'm going to marry a certain someone in the ward. No, I do not like him. No, I do not even really know him. But Chloe is convinced. She's been reminding me about it every day and every time we see him.

Yes, I definitely live in Provo, Utah in a ward of RMs.

Tender Mercies

Do you ever have days where you are just very aware of how well Heavenly Father knows your wants and needs? Today was a day like that.

Thursdays are supposed to be terrible. It is my scheduled "bad day". I figure if I schedule one bad day a week, I'll know to be prepared to be cranky/stressed/tired and I can be bubbly/happy/energetic the rest of the week. Well, I guess I'm just meant to love Thursdays just as much as every other day of the week, because even though today was incredibly busy, I can't complain about a single thing.

I have an 8 o'clock lab on Thursday mornings. Yuck. But, I made it to class on time. AND we finished our homework in class. WIN.

My next class of the day was World Religions. My professor is very Korean. Sometimes it makes me chuckle to see the way he writes on the bored. He writes in English, but sometimes it looks like a foreign language because of the way he forms his letters. I'll have to take a picture of the board sometime. Anyway, I just really like that class.

Work today was pretty great. We had a staff meeting and those are always pretty entertaining, then, Jay brought me a chicken sandwhich for lunch. Evidently Arby's was giving them away as a promotion. Seeing as I don't have time for a hot meal (or any meal really) on Thursdays, the scrumptious sandwich was definitely a tender mercy. Especially so since I had to work late and didn't have time to eat before my evening class.

My Psych220 class is two and a half hours long. That is a very long time to sit and not fall asleep. Tender mercy? Mucho attractive boy in the class. Do I ever plan on talking to said boy? No, he's not my type. But he definitely makes class a little better just by his presence. Also, I am in a really good group for a group presentation in a few weeks. Big plus. To top it all off, we got out of class 15 minutes early.

On my walk home from pysch it was just starting to sprinkle. I didn't have an umbrella with me, so I walked real fast. Not long after I got home, the sprinkle turned into rain. Oh the tender mercy of getting out of class early enough to make it home before the downpour.

Following the rain was my favorite tender mercy of the day: a HUGE double rainbow! I couldn't get a picture of the whole thing because it was too big! Both rainbows were complete. I could see from end to end. Absolutely breathtaking.

Due to yet another tender mercy (the Lord helping me finish all completely, absolutely, neccessary homework yesterday) I was able to spend the remainder of my evening at Divine Comedy auditions with Megan, Greta, Chloe, Alena, and Kevin. It was hilarious. And free. Two of my favorite things.

When we got home, somehow it turned into a dance party. Yeap, B38 is the place to be.

Basically, I love my life. I am so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who blesses me in ways that are personal and that help me feel His love.

Jam Sesh

Yet another blog post that I am writing to avoid doing homework. This has to stop. But not tonight :)

Last night we had cake for Megan's birthday (cake made by yours truly, and everyone loved it. man, i am GOOD at making cake out of a box). We invited some guys from our ward and ended up with quite the party. The boys from B11 wrote Megan a birthday song and the party turned into a big jam sesh. We did this German techno where you layer sounds and even had rap crew battles. Such a blast.

In other news, I cranked out an 8(?) page paper today. Due tomorrow. The question mark is because the 8 is questionable/maybe-probably-okay-for-real-more-like-seven. AND I finally did my laundry. I still had clean clothes, but the amount of dirty clothes piling up was getting ridiculous. I hadn't done laundry since I came back to school. Whoops :) On the bright side, I have enough clean clothes right now to clothe a 3rd world country.

Okay. Homework time. For real.

Star light, star bright

On Sunday night Megan, Greta and I were sitting outside of our apartment looking at the stars. Except you can't really see many stars with all the light pollution. Solution? Drive up the canyon and look at the stars from up in the mountains.

I just love how spontaneous my friends are. Megan and I were set on going 10 seconds after we thought of it. As soon as Greta knew we were serious, she was in. Chloe and Carine immediately joined in the adventure. One thing led to the next and eventually we had a group of about 15 people who put on warm clothes, grabbed blankets, and ventured to the mountains with us.

Megan, David, Greta and me

 It was very chilly and rocky, but we had a blast! We played our new favorite word game and told lots of stories. It was so much fun to get to know people better. I already love the ward so so much. I was SO glad to find spontaneous people. The kind of people who drop everything to go to the mountains and look at stars are my kind of people.

the crew

Stuart, Greta, me, Megan, and David

Oh, and did I mention Carine was here this weekend? She made a quick weekend trip to Provo before she leaves for her study abroad in Paris this Wednesday. It was great to see her - we are really going to miss her!

Megan, me, Greta, and Carine

I wish I could figure out how to put into words how much fun we had, but I dont even know why it was so much fun. It just was. Some of the group went home early, but some of us stayed until a little after 2 a.m. when we finally got too cold.

This has definitely been a weekend to remember. So many fun things have been happening, but I don't have time to blog. In fact, I really should be doing homework right now...

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to two of my best friends - Megan (my roomie) and Jessica (my LDBFF)