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.