Good Old Elementary School Days

This past Monday I had the wonderful opportunity to play ultimate frisbee twice. Twice! In the morning I played because a friend invited me, and at night we played for Family Home Evening. Now I'm not one to complain about everyone being active, but I just have to ask, what's with this game? It really is all the rage here in Provo and I can’t figure out for the life of me why it is such a big thing.   Don't get me wrong, I think it is fun to play every once in awhile, but wouldn't go so far as to play it every chance that I get.  I can't help but wish that others wanted to play other sports. 

In elementary school we had it right.  Certain sports were all the rage for a little while and then we'd move on to the next one. Sidenote, I was the most popular person in second grade due to my skills in rock, paper, scissors. Literally no one could beat me, and don't even ask how that is possible in a game that is part luck. A change in game popularity saw me fall from the top of the totem pole in popularity to near last in mere days. All because my rock, paper, scissors skills were no longer needed ever again.  I blame my lack of friends in elementary school on that.

Anyway I digress. We would rotate from basketball, to kickball, soccer, to tag football, foursquare, to jungle gym playing. The only thing that was always in fashion were the swings.   And here we are with college students from all over the world and the only thing we all will play is ultimate. What's wrong with having options? Maybe I should start a club where we play a different sport every week. We could even sneak in a match of Quidditch or larping one evening.  I've included that definition of what LARP is for those who don't already know.

LARP:  a form of role-playing game where the participants physically act out their characters' actions

New Year's Eve Failure

Because of the fact that all of my friends in college seem to be out of state every New Year's Eve, I always end up just hanging out with the fam bam. Not that it's not fun to do that, but when one's a senior in college and has spent every New Years with their family, one begins to feel a bit like a loser. Especially since the year before I ended up going to bed at eleven.. somehow I still have my dignity intact. This year I was determined to go to a party and experience a real college New Years Eve. Luckily, I actually had some friends around who also happened to h ave mad connections. We set forth to Lindon where all the cool parties are (that's where the rich people live) and commenced to participate in all the fun and gaiety that is expected on such a night.

Three minutes before midnight I realized I had to use the restroom. Figuring I had time, I hurried to the bathroom. When I went to exit said bathroom I twisted the door handle... nothing. Not too alarmed I twisted again.. still nothing. The door handle wasn't budging at all. Repeatedly I twisted and tugged but to no avail. Full panic ensued as I realized it was close to count down, I didn't have my phone on me, and here I was stuck in a bathroom like some helpless tw0 year old. Frantically I kept pulling but I could hear the people outside counting down.. 3, 2, 1.. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I screamed in horror which brought me back to reality. I realized I'd just had a mini day dream and as luck would have it, it was still 2011. Being the problem solver I am I decided to try just pulling on the lock to escape from the bathroom prison. Instantly it came free and the door opened. I calmly pulled myself back together and joined my friends with a minute to spare. Crisis averted.

It's a Christmas Miracle!

This year the amazingly talented Stephen's family had me for Christmas. For those of you who are having doubts on the type of talents you have, you may not want to read any further because Cassity and Daniel did a fantastic job, and may make you doubt your self worth even more. Just remember, the Stephens are notorious at being awesome.

My roommate, Erika and I were really excited to put what they made for me on my wall, so I forgot to take pictures of it before. But here is the entire ensemble (I already owned the necklaces, hat, and red purse. Shout out about that styling hat.. I won that!). I think Erika was mostly excited to have all my necklaces easily accessible.

Here's a closer look at the mirror. The forget me not was the theme of President Uctdorf's talk this past General Relief Society meeting. One of my favorite talks of all time so I was super excited about it. Cassity says that it's also a note to not forget my keys.. as if I ever lose those.

The second gift I got was this fantastic purse! I absolutely love it. I have to say, Daniel knows how to pick out a good purse, he must have practice or something. And then the flower was added to the purse by Cassity.

She also crafted these cute flowers. Love them as well! There were three, but mom lost one of them. Looks like she needs a mirror saying forget me not too. Daniel you want to get on that?

This photographed really poorly.. or maybe I'm just bad at taking pictures of really small objects. That's probably it. Either way that is a real forget me not flower. Carole, Daniel's mother added this portion when she found out the theme they were going with.

Needless to say, I loved all of my gifts! Such talented people. It's like they read my mind as to what I wanted because before Christmas I was thinking to myself how I really hoped my person would make me something to stick on my wall. I was also hoping for something that would make me more styling. Look at that, wishes really do come true.

What a Christmas miracle!

Bowling Dreams Crushed

Three months ago I bowled a 208. Don't believe me, just check the picture.

Impressive right? I thought I was destined for greatness. Never mind the fact that I'd never gotten a turkey before, or that my normal goal in bowling was just to get to 100; I was good. Real good. Maybe even professional team worthy. I even had the perfect bowling name. Kelso. Doesn't it just strike fear in your bowling heart? But then I got nervous and never wanted to go bowling again. I mean when you bowl that good, there really is no going back. Last week for FHE we went bowling and even though I insisted I was content on just watching, my loving FHE father bought me a game. How kind of him. I got up for my first bowl, and I could feel the tension in the air, since I'd stupidly announced to my whole FHE family what I'd gotten the last time I had gone bowling. I picked up the ball and threw it down the lane.. gutter ball. Shaking it off, I bowled again.. another gutter ball. In the end I bowled a measly 67, crushing all dreams of becoming a professional bowler. Please note from the picture below that on my fifth frame I only had 14 points.. also note that I didn't lose.


I may be bad, but at least I'm not the worst.

Interesting Encounter

I'm so desirable. No really I am. If you don't believe me just ask the forty year old man who circled my car three times on his bike one day while I was getting out of my car. Just as I was about to head into my house he says "Excuse me miss, please tell me you're not married." I had a slight moment of hesitation trying to decide if I should tell the truth of my singlehood or lie to him and go through the repentance process later. I chose repentance. He gave a downhearted, "Oh Ok," and pedaled away. As I was walking away I couldn't stop wondering what he would have said had I said no. With such a bold question to begin with would he have proposed on the spot? Asked me to jump on his bike with him and ride away into the sunset? Or maybe he was looking out for his son and wanted to set us up. In the end this just means I should've listened to my shoulder angel.

The Good, the bad, and the ugly

The Good:

My roommates and I successfully played our first prank of the year. With nine of us in one house you'd think that we would have done something sooner. Apparently we were all too lazy. Guess the cold does that too you. Anyway, I was the brainchild of said prank. We'd seen the movie Eagle with a couple of boys (side note it may not be worth the dollar to see). They'd left us a gift the week before after we watched it, so we decided to return the favor with this..

Can you tell that's a rat? We found it at Walmart for five dollars. It makes car noises. Pretty sweet. Anyway you'd have to see the movie to know what the jokes about. Just know it was really funny. Oh yeah and then we flossed their car.. in all black. Don't worry we were conspicuous. I was the guard and would whistle when people came close. In case you are wondering why floss one of the guys thinks it's gross if you don't floss at least three times a day. As such we gave him a lifetime supply.

The Bad:
I got the idea for the prank while reading my scriptures.. Apparently when I think my scriptures my mind drifts to Channing Tatum (he's the main character in the movie) and dead rats. I started laughing so hard I was crying.

The Ugly:

We found this car at Walmart parked a good mile away from the store. Of course we decided to park by it. That's what mature college students do. Unfortunately we got finished at the store before they did. We still felt funny.

And this.. gotta love roommates

I'm Converted to the Orb Nation

I've done some pretty cool things in Provo (even if I can't think of anything off the top of my head). But this tops them all. Have you ever been to Rock Canyon Park? You remember those big hills that gives you a thrill when on sleds? Well I went down those hills in an orb.

What's an orb you're asking? This is an orb.

Sound terrifying? Crazy? Absolutely weird?

Try all three.

I'm a little, all right, a lot terrified of things like this. I used to pretend roller coasters made me sick so I wouldn't have to ride them, I wouldn't go on the crazy steep slide at Raging Waters until peer pressure got the best of me, and no one could ever get me to go down those water slides at Magic Waters. Because of this it might surprise you that I willingly volunteered myself.

The ONLY reason I had enough courage to go on was because I thought "How many people can say they've gone down a hill in an orb?" Also I made a pact with my roommate that we'd go down together and that sealed the deal. There's no turning back from those sorts of pacts.

So they strapped me and my roommate in the orb, sealed the ball and down we went. It. Was. Hilarious. I was laughing uncontrollably, all while rolling over, again and again, and again. Might I add that we were getting some pretty good air each time we rolled over. At the end when we finally rolled to a stop (thirty seconds later) I was laughing so hard I couldn't unstrap myself. This coupled by the fact that we had landed on our escape route made for some pretty amusing strugglings witnessed by my entire ward. Oh well. It was the one of the best rushes I had experienced, so I took it in stride.

So what are you waiting for? Go buy an orb today! Then invite me to ride with you.. you'll be my best friend forever.