Dana's Show

Logan and Anna's Wedding Party

2010-05-02T20:15:00.001-07:00

This is a lame post. My blogger upload won't do pictures right now. But a brief update: Logan and Anna are now married and all my siblings in addition to most of their spouses and all of the nieces and nephews made it out for the big event!
We started a great new tradition: the "DOGGiN runs" complete with t-shirts and all. Thanks mom, you're the best! The course was marked with bananas...yes real bananas so if you saw a banana you needed to turn that direction. Needless to say some of us missed a couple of turns. Haha, I'm pretty sure we'll be calling this tradition the banana runs now.
It was so great to see everyone!

Time with the Fam

2009-12-22T13:19:00.000-08:00

Erin and Ryan have been living in Lehi so they have had Logan and I up to dinner a few times. Its been so fun to have family close.
Logan, what a great Uncle!

I Love her so much!

Cornbelly's Corn Maze

2009-10-21T19:39:00.000-07:00

Last time we went to visit Erin and Ryan (aka babysit Kherington), they mentioned this corn maze and of course they knew about a discount for the tickets :) Michelle happened to be coming down that weekend so we headed to the Cornbelly's Corn Maze with her friend Sharee, Jamie Turner's brothers (Jamie was one of my favorite leaders in Young Womens), and Mandy and her friend Joyce. What a blast. Seriously.

spencer, Me, Michelle, Sharee, Nathan

This is us in the middle of the corn maze....We decided to go without the clues and just guess all the right turns. Bad idea. We thought we were doing super good because we came up to these stairs and thought it was the exit of the corn maze. Wrong. We were pretty much at the furthest point from the exit. But, one plus was that the stairs led up to a bridge so we knew very well how off we were. I admit we kinda cheated getting back. We hopped down under the bridge and made a B-line for the exit...trial or no (mostly no). After cutting through all the corn stalks we were free! In my defense, we were never told not to do that so its not technically cheating. We didn't want to run out of time to do all the other fun stuff :)

This was one of the many attractions...wooden planks to put your head were all over. I forgot to mention that the corn maze was just the biggest thing there...not the best. There were lots of other great things on a grass field outside the corn maze.

Michelle and Sharee, making up for lost time...separated by freshman year at college.

More amazing things that made this my most exciting weekend thus far:

This is the best bike ever. I want one.

It was so fun for me to get to hang out with Michelle! I was home all summer with her, but I didn't feel like I ever got to see her. Between working 45-60 hour weeks and going to Single's Ward things and her trying to get in every last minute with her buddies before college, we didn't have much time together. Anyways, long way to say I missed her and LOVED the corn maze with her :)

Great Day

2009-10-02T10:52:00.000-07:00

This fall has been nothing but great so far. I'm loving being back in provo, hanging out with my friends and starting out my new school. This week was super hard with school cause I took my first tests not knowing what to expect. I've been waking up at 6 to get things done before school, mostly continuing my cramming sessions but sometimes going for runs. But now I'm on my weekend cause I don't have school Fridays. My schedule is pretty good, I do start at 8am Mon-Thurs but it hasn't been to bad cause I'm coming from flagging all summer and I had to wake up early for that. Its funny I never thought I'd miss flagging, especially being so happy here, but there are times when i miss those people. Haha, I've been in contact with on of my buddies from work and he assures me all is well. Also my boss randomly called me today and told me he met with the Kokomo residents (the street that I stood at the top of just about the whole time I was on the job). He said they were planning to plant flowers and discussing that...then the residents started asking why I left and how I was doing. He told them I was a good employee but headed back to school. Made my day :) So then my boss, Greg, said that the crew I usually flagged for started saying they missed me too. I'm flattered, these guys may be a little rough around that edges but they are super nice!
Here is me in my glory days, haha. This is from one of the times my mom sent siblings with frozen treats for the crew :) what a great mom! And so nice of Robin and Tricia to come visit too. And yes,I often rocked the ponytails.

BYU football is back..

2009-09-26T20:44:00.000-07:00

What a great start we had with Oklahoma..then a bummer with Florida State. Hopefully the rest of our season will be great. I love sitting with a bunch of my friends from freshman year..so great to see them. A lot of us live in the colony together so thats fun too!
First Home game of the season! Florida state...ugh. Fun to be back in the stadium though.

Michelle came to visit! She came to the game with Sharee and my friends :)

Babysitting..love it

2009-09-25T23:00:00.000-07:00

Now that Erin and Ryan have a baby and are still living in the area, I get to babysit! Well, i've only done it twice so far but she is adorable. The first time she came over to my place and chilled with me awhile. A couple friends came over and got to try to entertain her...it was funny. Of course we took a stroll in her stroller.

This is time number two. I went up to Lehi with Mandy and Kim to watch Kherington. Once again, we did the stroll around the block. A foolproof method of calming her down :) Erin and Ryan got us some pizza and made peanut butter bars...my FAVORITE!

Days in The Colony

2009-09-18T11:34:00.000-07:00

I absolutely LOVE my apartment complex...its called The Colony. First of all, all of my roommates are amazing so that helps tons. Then there is everyone else in the colony that are super nice. We've got a pool that we have definitely gotten the use out of in this first month. Its been a blast!

This is Kim and I on one of our many days at the pool. Too bad its turned from an awesome summer straight to winter :( Too cold for the pool and the hot tub closes in the winter too. Oh well, good days.

Mandy, oh Mandy. I absolutely love this girl. I'm so so glad we're living together, wouldn't have it any other way!

This is the worst part of my semester so far...my printer wouldn't work. I went to Sam's Club and bought a pack for $70 and it still didn't work. So frustrating. Luckily I have and amazing sister and brother-in-law who got a new printer and gave me their old one :) Life is so much better.

This was our first ward activity...the them was 1920's but Kim and I didn't have anything for that. Acacia's costume was AMAZING though. We learned a couple 1920's dances and then had a normal dance party. I had so much fun!

Trip to OHIO!!

2009-05-08T12:18:00.000-07:00

Right after Finals, I got to fly out to Ohio and spend time with Bren, Brenna, and Eli. Elise's sister Canda got married so she flew out to Utah with baby Ezra and I went to Ohio :) They are very funny kids and I had a great time with them!! Unfortunately I didn't get to see baby Ezra but I'm glad I got to go out there.

Since I was out there, I got to Visit Kirtland. I went on a mini tour and also watched the little movie about the saints' lives there. If you're wondering about the picture of cement blocks connected, I just thought that was cool because the Saints worked together to build that Temple.

I also got to go Visit Kim in her small hometown of Wadsworth, Ohio...its a suburb of Akron. Anyways, she took me to her favorite places to eat including: Casa Mia for dinner, Bedingers for ice cream, and Bob Evans for breakfast. Then she drove me around her town showing me where she grew up. One of the best parts was going through her picture books, it was so fun to see her!

Easter Festivities

2009-05-02T14:57:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth's family came down for Easter to her Grandma's house where they hold a huge Easter BBQ so some of the roomies went too.

For Easter Sunday, we went up to my Finley Grandparents for dinner. One of my roommates, Kim, came up with me too :) Yes that is Tricia in the pictures too. She is graduating early and was in Utah for about a month stay with me and Erin and Ryan.

MOAB half

2009-05-02T14:50:00.000-07:00

I ran the half-marathon in MOAB with my sisters :) Of the 7 girls now in my family 5 of us ran it. The other two were pregnant at the time in their third trimester so i guess you could say we excused them. It was good for me because it got me to get into shape. I started training right after Christmas and it was good going on long runs with friends.

Last Bits BYU

2009-05-02T13:45:00.000-07:00

We went to the hunger banquet at the WILK. It was really cool to learn more about the conditions of people throughout the world. By admission, certain percentages were classified as 'poor,' 'middle class,' and 'upper class.' Accordingly, everyone got to sit and eat as people in that class really do. So yup, we were poor and sat on the ground. Then we got to share one small bowl of beans and some chips for the four of us. It was a great experience. From left to right is Christine (great new roommate that came Winter Semester), Elizabeth, Kim, and me.

I made sure to get good use out of my All-Sports pass and went to the majority of the Basketball games. This group of girls are the ones that I will be living with in the fall...kinda. We are all from freshman year and will be living in The Colony within i think 3 different apartments. I can't wait!

This is my ward from the Riviera. We had some good times, but I'm definitely looking forward to moving South of campus.

We had some great friends over for Kim's Birthday party. Around the same time, Kim was in charge of taking her sister's Engagement photos so I went to help and then they took some of us...haha

The following are from the Festival of the Colors...i forget what religion its for but pretty much there is a lot of singing and trowing colored powdered chalk at people. Loved it! I wish we could have gotten there earlier but next year we'll just have to leave earlier...definitely worth it!

To spice it up during Final's week, we participate in Spirit Week. Created last year in our Freshman ward. We've loved every Final's week since! This featured day is HAT DAY :)

These are the very girls that made freshman year so great...this is the Freshman reunion at Brother Wade's

Elizabeth has a family member that is sick and to show her support she set up a time to donate blood and invited anyone who wanted to do it with her...it was the second time giving blood for me and thought i'd have no problem. Wrong. I guess I got up too soon from the bed. I started eating the free snacks and then I started feeling very warm, started sweating, apparently got very white, and started loosing my hearing. So, I got to lay on the ground for awhile. Great experience. Before this, i was thinking of making some extra cash by selling my plasma. I'm not so sure about that anymore.

I will now say goodbye to BYU education. Now, on to Dental Hygiene!!

Pay it Forward

2009-04-27T16:55:00.000-07:00

Lucky you! The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
- What I create will be just for you.
- It’ll be done this year. {might be a little while}
- You will have no clue what it’s going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry or maybe even some creation I haven’t even invented yet. I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. I may even sew something for you. Who knows? Not you, that’s for sure!

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog.

My 25 Random Things

2009-03-10T14:13:00.000-07:00

Below are 25 random things about me. I would like to tag Lani, Elise, Robin, Erin, DS Dixon (hahaha you know who you are)

1. First and foremost I’d like to say that I never thought I could fill out one of these things because I consider myself to be a relatively normal person…but then again, don’t most people consider themselves to be normal?

2. I have my fair share of pet peeves, but when asked about them I can never remember what they are aside from one: When people drive on the freeway and go back and forth from the gas to the break over and over, creating a rather unpleasant trip for the riders…a whiplash effect if you will. And even if it isn’t that forceful of a transition it is still annoying because it’s a waste of gas.

3. I truly do enjoy running, especially now that I do not competitively run…but to get myself started I need an ultimate goal. This time it is the Moab Half Marathon coming up in just two weeks now!! As a side note, I’ll mention I ran a half marathon once before back in my prime of high school XC training. But never have I run more than those 13 miles. Tomorrow I plan to change that with my last long run before the big day: 14 miles…barely, but still more than 13 J

4. I can honestly say that not a week goes by that I do not make some reference to my favorite movie ELF. This generally comes in the form of quotes, but occasionally I will refer to what people are wearing or to a look-alike.

5. I do not enjoy getting my hair cut. This is most likely because I’m too cheap to fork up the money for a good one, so I’m usually left disappointed. I feel like every time I cut my hair, I’ll try to do something to it that it needs to be longer for.

6. I am from a family of eight children; more specifically I am the second to youngest. I couldn’t have had it any other way, I feel sad for those that came from a smaller family because I love my big family.

7. I like to run my own ship, but often ask for advice…I don’t like being told what to do, but in all actuality I do use other’s opinions a lot (Exception to the rule: I always to what D says)

8. I talk to my mom more than I EVER thought I would, sometimes even twice a day! It makes for a great walk to and from school. She basically knows everything about my life.

9. I am currently enrolled in many fluff classes because I don’t need anymore credits. My two favorite are gymnastics and skiing. My ultimate goal for gymnastics is the splits, but by the looks of it now with 7 weeks left it doesn’t look like that is going to happen. I’m getting closer though! Skiing was much more fun than I ever imagined and am seriously contemplating how to find a cheap pair of skis…we’ll see.

10. I do not particularly enjoy being placed in social situations to make new friends. I know it is good to occasionally branch out, but I much prefer to spend time with the good friends I already have.

11. To contradict #10, here is this story about my childhood: When I was about four or five, I was in awe of my big brother Bren. He was riding his bike to the beach and I wanted to go too but my mom said no. After Bren left, I snuck out of the basement sliding door and followed him. I didn’t make it very far (about a third of a mile) before I couldn’t see him anymore. So I stopped at the top of a hill and waited for about an hour. In the meantime, an older couple had left and come back from a shopping trip. They saw me still there and took me to their house. I was apparently very willing to go with these strangers, especially since they gave me an apple juice box. So I guess I used to do well with strangers.

12. I like to make food, mostly desserts but now that I’m living on my own dime I have cut down greatly on that. I don’t like plain rice and chicken all that much since its really plain. My favorite thing to make is taco burritos. They’ve got a lot in them, they’re super quick to make, they’re toasted, and they have a high satiety factor (I just learned that word in my Nutrition class today so don’t be sad if you don’t know what it means, I’ll tell you: it means it leaves you full longer.) They also are topped by what should be known as the world’s most versatile condiment: Greg’s ranch dressing found at Costco.

13. I enjoy watching movies, even by myself…I suppose you could say I’m comfortable enough with my self esteem level that I don’t need someone to watch with me. Not that I don’t enjoy watching movies with other people, because I like that a lot too.

14. On a similar note, TV is very addictive for me. Once I get started it is very hard to stop. But since I’ve been at college I don’t watch hardly any. Over the summer I did find two new favorite shows though: Just for Laughs Gags (Canadian show-yes I have branched out into other countries) and Wipe Out (a hilarious outdoor obstacle course that is basically impossible so you watch people crash and burn).

15. I am known for saying things (whether they be a twist of the truth or a complete lie) to people in order to get them to react a certain way. A select few people have the honor to be treated this way by me: My mom gets it the most, then my siblings and my closest friends. No worries, I almost immediately afterward tell them the truth.

16. I was Annie in the play in “Annie” when I was in sixth grade. Don’t let this simple fact fool you though. I am no actress and needless to say, my voice has changed a bit since then.

17. The one sibling I talk to the most now is the same one that I fought with the most growing up…Love ya Tricia J She really is a great sister!

18. My summer job of choice is Flagging. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this term, I stand by/on a road and flip the “stop” “slow” paddle in efforts to prevent collisions. This past summer was my first time doing it I met some definite characters.

19. I once made fun of my 17-year-old sister for folding her boots over and tucking her jeans into them, so that approximately 6 inches of sheepskin are showing…and now I have a pair of those very same boots in a different color and wear them the same way. In my defense, I had no idea how wonderfully comfortable they are and how much more convenient it is to have them folded down.

20. Since I was very little, I always went grocery shopping with my Dad. It was our thing, and Michelle (my little sister) would usually come too. I considered this a great bonding time; however once I got my license, Dad was out of the picture. It was now Michelle and Dana bonding…but as part of my retribution from being ditched by my dad, I would throw a few things into the cart of my choosing. This was especially rewarding since I was on their debit card. Don’t go thinking I’m a bad person now, I didn’t do it too much…. Or how bout this, my mom knew very well that I did this, so it was no secret.

21. I was unbelievably lucky upon coming here to BYU because a found a great bunch of friends I love to be around and who I plan to know and stay in contact with for the rest of my life…yes, this means more than Christmas Card friends.

22. I enjoy playing basketball but I have never been very good at it. I sometimes like to just go down to a gym or an outdoor court to shoot around. Putting me in a pick-up game is often a mistake though because I do much better with set plays.

23. My favorite car is and has been for the past few years a Mini Cooper, even though I have yet to drive one, let alone ride in one L

24. I have the biggest sweet tooth out of everyone in my family, by far. In fact my dad told Kim (one of my roommates) that when I left home for college the number of sweets in the house went down significantly. It was not unusual for me to make a large batch of cookies on Sunday and have them be gone on Wednesday. I cannot take full responsibility for their disappearance, but I think they make a great snack.

25. Lastly, something very few people know about me: I am about to be a college dropout. Well, not really. I just found out that I have been accepted into the Utah College of Dental Hygiene in Orem, UT. I’m excited to finally get started in classes that will truly pertain to what I will be doing for a career. The great thing about it is that I still get to live with my friends J Even though I am about to go into more debt than I ever thought I would go into for school, I am so happy!!

A New Beginning

2009-03-06T12:54:00.000-08:00

So much for trying to catch up from the past three months...it is too daunting a task for me so I will just start fresh with a little story. A few days ago was a very eventful day. Due to this story's long length, I will break it up with some unrelated pictures.

As part of my road trip to San Diego, we walked down the pier downtown and found this bird guy and he started putting these birds all over me...he kept telling me to stay calm, ya right!

It was a Wednesday, which has always meant skiing day every other week this semester. But the first block is over, and so is my ski class. I had lots of fun and still have a season pass up to Sundance so I"m not too sad about the class being over. I wasn't exactly attached to the people in my class, not because they were annoying. I just don't like skiing in a big group. I think it is best to ski with one or two other people. Anyways, that is all beside the point for this story (I suppose I should just go off on tangents like that...my way of catching up I guess).

Whoops #1: Christine's little sister was over and made this out of the Jenga blocks and I lightly brushed by it, knocking it down.

So my itinerary for this particular Wednesday consisted of my New Testament class from 10:00 to 10:50. Then I was going to walk straight to the temple, go on my run, take a quick quiz online, and sell my plasma. It was a great day I had planned out. After class, I decided to grab the car because Logan had parked it near my apartment for my use since he is gone for the rest of the week. I drove up to the temple in the warm sun and gentle breeze, got a great parking spot, and thought of what I needed to grab. All I needed was my temple recommend, right? So I got out, hit the automatic locks, and shut the door. NOOOO. I was wrong. I did need more that my recomment, I needed my keys. BUt what was done was done. My keys could be seen in the car, along with my cell phone and I was stranded at the temple.

Whoops #2: I was using that spoon you see to scrape the excess melted white chocolate out of a bowl and spoon it into my mouth when there was a knock at the door. In my excitement, I ran into those shelfs and they all cam tumbling down.

Amazingly, I was not too stressed out about it and I decided to go along into the temple. It was very relaxing in there, I'm glad I decided to go still. I then checked for a hide-a-key under the front, but had no such luck so I walked the mile or so home. I had no phone, so I wrote my mom an email asking what to do and then went on my run...looked like selling my plasma was not going to be on my agenda for the day after all.

Friends from freshman year celebrating Valentine's Day :) It is now officially a tradition since we've done it two years in a row now

My running route for the day ended up going up and around the temple, second visit of the day. After my run, I made some taco burritos for Kim and I and proceeded to call my mom and dad. Surprise! Mom and Dad are both on flights to watch Tricia play in her last National tournament. After chatting with Erin, I called AAA to see if I had an account. Nope. Then Erin had gotten a hold of my Dad who said we had a Chevron accound. I called them and guess what? Our account had been cancelled Oct 2008. Great. Final Free Option: metal hanger. Apparently it has been done.

Friends from freshman year at a surprise party for Sara Michael!

Erin picked me and Ryan up on her way home from work and I unraveled my sole metal hanger. This was four for four seeing Ryan and Erin (Sunday: dinner at her place with Logan too, Monday: Doing my laundry at her place, Tuesday: dinner at my place with Logan and Dad too, Wednesday: had to do something to see them again), definitely set a record for consecutive days. Hopefully I have not worn our my welcome. Another record set for the day: three times to the temple in just one day! Amazing.

We went skiing up at Deer Valley since we were able to get really cheap life tickets. I got to go of a bunch of little jumps with Diana while Alison and Kayla learned from their friend.

Remember by prime parking spot at the temple? Perfect for the public to view me trying to use a hanger to unlock a car. Yes, my car. But they didn't know that. It didn't end up mattering all that much because we were quick to learn that the rubber seals on the Malibu are very good, too good. I was on my way walking to the front desk of the temple to ask about the possibility of a Security person helping me, when Erin and Ryan called after me to come back.

On our way back from our ski trip we saw this frozen lake and decided to walk on it

Ryan found the long lost hide-a-key which was placed there when my family first got this car. Since this is the internet I probably shouldn't release its whereabouts, but I would have never thought to check there. It took a couple of minutes to open up since no one of its existence and it had not been touched since it was put there. Ryan saved me a call and a bill to the Locksmith; I really owe him and Erin. I started repaying this debt with one little fun size Butterfinger crisp bar a piece. They were on sale a couple of weeks ago so with my sweet tooth, naturally I bought them.

All the sisters, except missing Elise

I think the best part of the night was when I got home and talked to kim. After telling her the story she said, "At least you didn't have to call the Goldsmith." Gread day, a blessing in disguise I suppose. I now know where the hide-a-key is...not htat I intend on ocking my keys in again.

The whole family minus Bren and his family

WARNING: Lots of Catch to Follow

2009-02-01T16:14:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving, Bren and Elise were in Town so we had a get together at Erin and Ryan's apartment. She made some really good food :) For actual Thanksgiving Day, we had dinner with my Finley grandparents and Bren and Elise came over later with their kids. It was great to see all of them!

In the photo on the top, from left to right is Elise, Bren, Ryan, Erin, Me, Logan, and Kellie. In the photo on the bottom, from left to right is Eli, Elise, Grandpa Finley, Grandma Finley, Mom, Logan, Dad, Bren, Brenna, Me, and Michelle.

In the photo on the top is Grandpa Finley and on the bottom is Mom and Grandma Finley.

Post Halloween Fun

2008-11-19T15:04:00.000-08:00

School has really picked up, coming closer to the end of semester. I have been working on my Dental hygiene application to the Utah College of Dental Hygiene and I almost have everything submitted. I really hope I get in! The next step is an interview sometime in December.

This is at the last home game of the season!

I've been on a flag football team this semester...we made it to the final four. Last night we lost our game though :(

Anne just had her birthday and her mom sent her a bunch of movies. One of the them was "A Little Princess." Its been so long since I've seen it! So we had a "A Little Princess" party with girls from last year. Look at all these princesses!

Halloween Spooktacular :)

2008-11-02T20:46:00.000-08:00

I had a blast this weekend! Anne, Alison, Diana, and I dressed up as Whos. These footy pajamas were from Target and I fully plan on using them this winter...they are very warm :)

Anne, Nate, Alison, Me, Shawn, and Diana
AKA: Who, Newsie, Who, Who, Man down on his luck, Who

These are mine and Alison's Hometeachers..glad to know they are spirited!

WHOS!! Don't we look great?!

We had a dress up ward party on Halloween night which was planned out so well. Almost everyone that went was dressed up so well. We had shrek and fiona (the engaged couple in our ward), the incredibles, gangsters, barbie and ken, fruit the loom, cruella devil, penquine, arctic swimmer, and many more. One of my hometeachers, Blake, was in charge of the activity and he planned a really fun scavenger hunt. We ran around provo (no cars allowed) and you had to cound the honks you get cause the counted for points. I was exhausted after running that whole time...and super hot in my onsey. My group got second, but it was a really good scavenger hunt. Then after our halloween party we frosted sugar cookies and ate way too many of them. What a great weekend!

Yummy sugar cookies and frosting, complement of Anne. Here is Daniel, Diana, Me, Emily, and Anne. Daniel is my other hometeacher, I really have made some great friends!!

I have been Tagged!

2008-10-28T16:02:00.000-07:00

I was tagged by Robin (my sister) last week but it was a super busy week...so I'm finally doing it now! Apparently the rules are that you can't clean anything and fix things up before you take the pictures. I can honestly say that I did not clean up for these pictures. I think we're relatively good at cleaning up for ourselves in our apartment.

1. Closet
My closet is the one on the right. I really did not realize how many clothes I had! But I managed to squeeze it all in my room, between this closet and sharing a dresser with Diana.

2. Kitchen
Very clean, must have been a good day. Sometimes our sink gets pretty crowded but I don't think it ever gets too out of

3. Bathroom
This is our vanity area. The counter space is convenient but can get

4. Laundry Room
This is pretty exciting. I actually just redid the set up of mine and Diana's room. It is in the "L" shape now and I must say I love it. Anyways, I suppose I'll call the area under my bed my laundry room although I usually do my laundry at Erin and Ryan's apartment (Thanks!!).

5. Kids/pets...i guess I'll show ya my roomies!

kim watching the Cavs while studying, of course.

Elizabeth..very studious :)

Diana :) gotta love my room roomie

Simply Beautiful Alison

Anne just after sharing candy with us :) She is so nice!!

6. A Place I want to Go
Forever and always I've wanted to go to Australia. It looks so gorgeous there and has a beach...what more could I want? So sometime in my life i WILL make it there. You know in high school went you get sent random mail for being on sports teams? Well there was always one for the Downunder program and I thought that'd be fun, but it was also ridiculously expensive. So. Someday when I am rich beyond belief I will take a long, eventful, and relaxing vacation to Australia.

7. Fridge
Room was fairly tight earlier in the semester but its going well now I think...we are never at a loss for food!

8. Self-Portrait

9. Favorite Room
We decorated our front room so it doesn't look bare. I like it a lot...and we've even got halloween decorations up right now :)

10. Favorite Shoes

I wear these brown ones all the time, but after awhile they make my feet hurt since they are pretty old and have very little arch support...and I really like the white ones too, but having white/keeping white shoes is hard.

Roadtrip to Idaho!

2008-10-23T15:56:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I got away from provo and took a roadtrip to Idaho! Diana drove and Rachel, Alison, and I came. It was a blast!! Since Diana lives in Idaho Falls, we stayed there for the weekend. We got in friday night and took phillip (her tandum bike) for a late night stroll. This was of course after eating her mom's delicious dinner...we were so spoiled all weekend long.
On saturday, we spent the day in Rexburg and I got to visit some friends from home and went to guitars unplugged (a really good talent show type thing).

I just thought this was a really pretty picture from our ride back to Provo.

This is the delicious back of food Diana's mom gave us :)

Diana and I at the Rexburg temple! It is so gorgeous!

We went to these gardens on the BYU-I campus and strolled around.

I didn't realize it when I was taking this picture that the temple was in the background.... But when I was driving around with Diana touring Rexburg, we saw this contraption on the left. Next time we go to Rexburg we want to do that!

Back in Utah!!

2008-09-30T10:39:00.000-07:00

I got to Utah the last week of august, in time to move in most my things and set up for school. Luckily Logan had bought most of my books. To celebrate my birthday, I went to Lehi where Lani and Scott were staying and we had dinner with Erin, Ryan, and Logan. It was so good to see them!!

This is the best picture I got on my way to Lehi.

I got to baby Jacob for the first time. He is sooo cute!!

Andrew just loves Ryan so much, aren't they cute together?

Logan is trying to stay up top for favorite uncle...I kinda think Ryan is winning though.

Yes, that is the pink panther series. Eden and Andrew were pretty much addicted.

Eden drew this for me for my birthday...notice the many hearts around my head? And don't the miss the beautiful spelling :) I most definitely have this hanging on my fridge.

Me blowing my candles out with Eden and Andrew

Here are some pics from the end of the summer. This is me after my last day of work...I was so happy!!

I'm not sure if you can see him, but the guy sitting in the back hoe is Kenny who I mention in my last post.

I figured mom still hasn't gotten her blog up and running so I took the liberty of posting this wonderful picture. For those of you who are unaware, she tore her lateral and medial meniscus. This is especially cool because just today I learned all about the lower muscles, including the meniscus and ligaments in the knee. It really must have hurt to tear her meniscus.

Reese passed out next to mom who was recuperating

Auntie Michelle taking good care of Shaun after a big tumble and some stitches.

Flagging characters and Memorable moments

2008-08-31T14:26:00.000-07:00

In memory of these last five weeks, I will fill you in on the great experiences I had flagging. Let me go back to May. I started going to the Union Hall in Seattle every morning from 6:00 AM to 9:00 AM the second week in May. Logan and I would sit there for those three hours and wait for the jobs to get down to the D list, the list we were on. Pretty much everyday we got through the A list, B list, and very little into the C list. In the meantime, I did nannying again for Ali Bardsley at my convienience, worked the shack, and did some data entry at an insurance research place. So I guess I was somewhat employed, earning a little bit of money. The lady I did data entry for is Julie and she offered to have me as much as I wanted to come in. So I finally decided to stop going into the union in late July and started just working for her. A few days after I got a call from the union offering me a job in Federal Way…which I most definitely turned down. There was no way I was going to commute two hours for flagging. Logan got on a job about a mile from our house and they needed another flagger so he offered me and they said yes!! Now that was what I was looking for. Way close to home and I could ride with Logan. The company is called Dennis and Craig and I soon found out it was a bit of a sketchy one…cutting corners. But that’s beside the point. I met some real characters here and that’s what I’ll try to explain to you, but I’m just not sure if my writing can do it justice.

On my third week I was reminded yet again how naïve I am. I was walking to my new station when a big red Ford Silverado slowed to my walking pace. He rolled the window down and asked me if I had a light. In my head I was trying to figure out why he thought I would have a light and why he would need to borrow it. Confused I said, “no, sorry like a flashlight?” Then he picked up an unlit cigarette and shaked it asking for a light again. Then it all made since. Of course he was asking a flagger…. My two fellow flaggers, Jody and Dan was big chain smokers. After lunch they both light up and I take out my carrot sticks J

Candy: This was my TCS (Traffic Control Supervisor) and I thought she was really nice at first. She was the one who was supposed to tell me where to stand and flag. After about a week I decided that I don’ think she liked me or log since we got to leave. I felt kind of bad for her because she does this for her life! She is very petite and says “No Doubt” all the time. She gave me a ride in her truck one day and it was silent so she started going on and on about this cheap boutique that she found some really cute boots at in Federal Way. I had been needing some shoes and Michelle and Tricia wanted to go shopping so I decided we’d check it out. My first issue was that I couldn’t remember the work boutique, I kept saying bouquet…. When we got there, I realized that this was definitely a shop right up Candy’s alley. We spent about ten minutes there.

Jody: My first flagging partner on the job. Let me just start off by say that this job was putting in a sidewalk on a two-lane road. For some reason they felt they needed four flaggers.... First thing on my first day, Candy walked me over to where Jody was and told me that Jody was very controlling. It was obvious that Jody could do it by herself and didn’t really want to have to deal with me, but there I was J. The best story about Jody is her nickname. My boss, Stacey calls her Springer, His reasoning being that he thinks she should be on the Jerry Springer show. She has three kids and the oldest, 21 had a kid out of wedlock. So there were some custody issues and she had to go to court. She told all this to me and more on my first week, very much an open book.

Flagger Dan: Logan really butt heads with Flagger Dan. For the first three weeks they were partnered up and I was partnered up with Jody. Dan taught Logan many lessons, for example “keep your head on a swivel.” There are two signs you are supposed to make with your paddle. Up and down means you have traffic you want to send. Swaying Flagger Dan is determined that flagging in a professional occupation. He was very enthusiastic about making large movements with his paddle. Logan wasn’t into it as much. He moved the paddle just a little each way…needless to say it drove Dan nuts. Eventually, Candy started pairing me and Logan up together and those were my favorite days. Every now and then one of us would move the paddle WAY big. I think this is just one of those things you had to be there for in order to appreciate how hilarious it is. I also took up a bit of twirling with the paddle when no one was looking. Or me an Log would have contests to see who could let go of the paddle and touch their feet the most times without letting the paddle fall over. One day I got to be partnered up with Dan and we were within talking distance so he shared with me a few nuggets of wisdom: (1) Slow is relative (2) Control is abstract (3) Acceptance is key. Most of which I agree with but hearing these things come out of Flagger Dan’s mouth was a bit odd.

Eugenio: He is the back-hoe driver (I have been informed that I misspelled this in my last post) and he was by far my favorite. People called him Kenny and one day when I was flagging right by him I asked him how people got Kenny from Eugenio. He is from Mexico and his friends from there call him Geni (pronounced Heny). He didn’t want people calling him Jenny or Jinny so he decided to make it a K and tell people to call him Kenny. I wish I had video of him driving the back-hoe cause he is so unbelievably good at it!!

I realize this is way long an some of you may have not made it all the way down to this point, but I thought I needed to document this very memorable past month.

Oh How Naive I am...

2008-08-24T20:44:00.000-07:00

So as most of you know, I finally landed a relatively long-term construction job for the rest of the summer. All in all I will work on this job for five weeks. It is unbelievably convenient because the job site is only a mile away from my house and Logan was on the same job as me. I wake up at about 6:15 and get down stairs in time to eat the breakfast Logan makes. Then Logan usually packs the lunch for the two of us except for the sandwich.
There are a few special characters that i get to interact with on this job: Stacey (the foreman, yes a man), Candy (the TCS...my supervisor), Jeno (the back-ho driver), and my fellow flaggers Jody and Dan. Candy tells me where I am supposed to stand, and usually she puts me on a side street with very little traffic. Needless to say it is very boring. I generally sing songs to myself and the surrounding "mud crew" (aka cement crew), but seeing how I have a difficulty remembering words I end up humming...
There are four flaggers on this job that only needs two, so me and Logan are almost always the ones that get put on the streets that don't need it. Which is fine by me because then I don't have to pay attention. One day I was assigned the "rock pile" (aka pile of gravel). Pretty much
I stood there with my paddle upside down and would put it up when Jeno came by...which happened three times the whole time I was there. Stacey walked by and told me to come with him so that I looked like I was doing something. That mindset seems to be very much a part of this kinda sketchy company. It doesn't matter if you are actually doing something, but if you look like you are doing something then you are perfectly fine. So Stacey told me to hold his "funny plans." and walk with him while he marked out where the flower beds where supposed to be in the sidewalk. Everytime we made a stop to make marks, he would say "Give me the funny plans." I kept trying to figure out why the plans were so funny, and then it hit me. These construction worked swear all the time. Stacey especially swears in every single sentence although he isn't mad at all. So I guess he actually didn't think those plans were funny...

Season of Birthday Celebrations!

2008-08-10T09:33:00.000-07:00

Now that we are well into the summer, it is time to celebrate lots of brithdays (lots of ice cream cakes..yum!!) First up was Dad, then Michelle, and then Mom.

Dad Cutting his cake

Michelle blowing out her candle...yes one candle. We kinda misplaced our stash of candles so this beautiful candle represents 17 years. Notice her new stylin' haircut :)

Mom's Birthday...the BIG 50!! We've adopted this new way of making ice cream cakes. Very thick crust on the bottom and instead of whip cream, we put more ground cookies on top. Needless to say, it is delicious!

You can see in the very back of the picture mom's gift. It is a digital picture frame...so if you'd like pictures to be displayed on that, email them to me and i can put them on. This is mostly for Lani and Scott and Erin and Ryan because I don't have recent pictures of them. But its also for anyone else who has cute pictures!! It can store lots so don't be shy :)

Listen to these two videos below...the one on the left first.

It had been awhile since we had celebrated anyone's birthdays so we were a bit rusty singing Happy Birthday to Dad. But as you can see from Mom's birthday we made a great improvement!!

Whitewater Rafting

2008-07-10T14:24:00.001-07:00

My singles ward had an amazing Whitewater Rafting trip so I went up the day before with some friends and we camped out in Leavenworth. It was a blast! I know its a bummer, but I didn't get any pictures of the actual rafting.

Beautiful Washington!

Leavenworth is a special little town with signs like this and buildings that look fake.

Our caravan. Tricia following Chase ahead.

Here is Loganm Chase, Ryan, Tricia, and Elizabeth. We're all getting sunblocked up for the 100 plus degree weather it was over there. It was SO HOT!!

Here is Nate, Logan, Taylor, Daniella, and Tricia. Notice the wetsuits, Nate an Taylor are quite the characters! Rafting was amazing of course. I got to jump in the freezing river!!

Bren and Elise in Washington

2008-07-10T13:37:00.000-07:00

It was so great to see Bren, Elise, Brenna, and Eli. They came right after Robin left and it was really good to have people to play with. The weather wasn't too great except for one nice sunny day but we still had fun!

Family picture minus many people..

Like father like son. Bren and Eli sport that cap nicely!

Michelle and Brenna giving me a Beans up!

My flip flops were just to irresistable to Brenna. I found Brenna in my closet trying on my shoes and wrapping herself in that sleeping bag that is behind her. She announced that she was on her way to school and it was so funny to watch!

Brenna getting some air, what a great dad!

Videos

2008-07-08T22:03:00.000-07:00

Garnica Visit

2008-07-08T21:45:00.000-07:00

I loved having Robin, Shaun, and Reese here earlier this summer. I had to work pretty hard (without showing it) at making friends with Shaun, but it paid off in the end! A little update: He loves me and asks to call me :) Anyways, we had lots of fun playing and heres some of my favorite pictures from their visit. Oh ya, Fred didn't make it out here so that was too bad but we did still have lots of fun!

Yes, I loured him in with my cinnamon rolls...but hey it worked!

Reese wants to be just like Logan..or is it the other way around??? haha

Reese is so cute!!

Shaun and I spend some quality time together in the Burger King Play house :)

Hello Seattle!

2008-07-03T10:02:00.000-07:00

I never really did appreciate Seattle until I was away from it for so long. So, Elizabeth and I went to Pikes Place together to have fun looking around.

This is my favorite view of Seattle from the top of Somerset Hill. My dad pointed it out to me cause he sometimes goes up there on his walks.

Yes. One of the first things we saw at Pikes Place. Quality book, I'm sure.

There were a lot of tulips and fresh fruit walking through.

Attention: This is a real fish, not plastic like you'd think. The fish people attached a rope to the tail so when people walked up to it they would pull on the rope and freak people out. And yes, I did touch it to see if it was really real.

Hannah Montana and Jack Sparrow came with us!! Haha, we found these popular life-sized cutouts and just had to pose with them. We look like best friends right??

I'm Home!!!

2008-07-03T09:51:00.000-07:00

So with my newly found love pranking at school, i figured why stop when I get home? Michelle always asked me to go with her before I went to college, but I was never really into it. This is the beginning to a great night.

First Stop: Albertsons saran wrap isle.

Tasha, Michelle, and I were quite the team!

Teaching Michelle the ways...shes excited really, just a little scared :)

Done!!

All Caught up from School :)

2008-07-03T09:46:00.001-07:00

Alright. I know I've been a disappointing blogger but now i've got everything from school blogged. Thank you for your patients. I had an amazing time as a freshman, I had even more fun than I anticipated. No worries though, I did alright gradewise. I met some really great people, mostly from my floor and my ward. I also met some great guys through my freshman academy class. Its going to be weird that none of these guys will be there next year, but I'm excited to see all the girls from my floor again in the fall. This fall I will be living on the third floor in the Riviera with five friends from my floor. Diana is my roommate, Alison and Anne are roommates, and Kim and Elizabeth are roommates. I am really excited to get back to school.

Catch up Part 5 -- SKYDIVING!!!

2008-07-02T16:57:00.000-07:00

This cost a lot of money...but don't they just look so happy to give it away?!!

Signing my life away

Doing little practice exercise and I passed with flying colors!!

This is Pat. He said he had jumped thousands of times, so I had no problem jumping out of a plane attached to him.

My moral support :) This is Alison, me, and Kim.

The Skydiving Crew: Kevin, Andrew, Tommy, me, Wyatt, Alyssa, Kelsey, and Katie.

Thats right!! This is me in the air :)

We have certificates to prove it!!

We are so cool.

Catch up Part 4

2008-07-02T16:41:00.001-07:00

This is the last Ward Wrap up (the meeting on sunday evenings). From the left there is Phil, me, Kim, Ryan, and Jason.

This is a bunch of people from my ward after the last Ward Wrap up!

With Dining Plus there are many options for locations to eat. The skyroom in the Wilk is one of them but none of us really ate there much so we went there for lunch on one of the finals days. It was pretty good food but nothing super special. I'd say that it is over-rated but it was fun to eat there with my friends! This is me, Diana, and Clarissa.

When i was checking out, I had to take the legs off my bed. As you can see, all of my stuff is on top and i was trying to pull up on the bed frame. Ya, i know this was not my brightest moment. Luckily Elizabeth and Kim helped out. Oh ya, and Alison was on the floor pulling down on the legs. It was truly a group effort.

Yoasis, a frozen yogurt place right by Helaman Halls, opened up a couple months before the end of school. Quite frankly, the yogurt by itself isn't very good. But when you add the fresh fruit it is so good!! This is Jason Orme, Ryan Orme, Will, me, Kim, and Jared Tate.

We had a bonfire after classes were over and just before finals. A few guys had some couched they bought from D.I. so we burned them and then got a bunch of crates.

This is Jason, Kim, me, and Alison on bonfire night!
So...notice a pattern?? Some girls on my floor decided that finalsweek should be dress up week. I am sad to report that I did not dress up every day, but I made this one! It is obviously black and white day :)

Out to eat together for the last time at Legends Grill. This is Diana, Alison, me, Sara Callan, Megan, Kelsey, Jill, Sara Michael, Kim, Elizabeth, and Anne.

Catch up Part 3 -- Hiking the Y

2008-07-02T16:29:00.000-07:00

I hiked the Y many times. This time I went with a group of girls from my floors. There was still a bit of snow but it was really fun!

This is what we like to call Pride rock....enough said.

So Kim hiked the Y with her dad at the beginning of the year and she went upside down on the Y...so of course i had to try it :) It was a bit scarier than i anticipated but it was really cool. I definitely suggest it to anyone who gets up there!

This is Michael Nelson and Jason Orme.
On Dridays, me and Alison only had one class so at the end of the semester we hiked the Y with some guys in our ward and ate some subway sandwiches and pistashios at the top.

Part 2 of Catch up...

2008-05-12T08:08:00.000-07:00

Dorm Life!!

These are my wall decorations that I made during Christmas break. I didn't get the chance to print off very many photos for them. Also displayed on my wall are some BYU sports teams :)

Kinda late in the semester, Jessica and I started our own quote wall.

Me and Jessica snuggled up for a movie!!

Jill giving me a piggy back/scooter ride down to my room. It was a great service.

Our nap time on my bed :) Especially toward the end of the semester, Kim and I would take little naps in the afternoon.

Bike Time!
We were in need of a car late one night so we rode my bike over to Jessica's sister's place (Kerri). I peddled and Jessica sat on my little seat at the end of my bike for the whole way there.
Since it was so much fun, Kimberly took a turn on the way back after we had dropped the car off.

...then Kim took a turn.

Random Pictures

One of many moments shared in Kim's room.

Kara, me, Anne, and Kim enjoy the Canc!!

General Conference Weekend

Kim got ticket to the Saturday Afternoon Session of General Conference, but because of the Solemn Assembly we wanted to get into the morning session as well. We drove up to Salt Lake in the morning with signs and each of us held them up at the corner of the streets. Jessica and I didn't have my luck, but thanks to Kim and Elizabeth the four of us got in to both sessions!

Jessica, me, Kim, and Elizabeth at the Conference Center

After the afternoon session, we went to visit with Grandma and Grandpa Dixon. Then we drove to Heber for the rest of the weekend. Our friend, Kelsey lives there and invited us to watch the Sunday sessions at her house. It felt great to actually be in a real house

Me trying to pet Kelsey's horse.

Elizabeth, Jessica, Kim, and me watching General Conference.

Elizabeth, me, Kelsey, Kim, Alison, and Jessica taking a break in between sessions. I was out on the tramp for like an hour and I got pretty burnt...but only on half my face.

Indoor Football League
Jessica's friend, Drew, got free tickets to a professional indoor football game so I went with Kim, Kimberly, Jessica, and Drew's friends. Before I went, I must admit I had no idea such a thing even existed. It was really fun with these people though.

Kim, me, Jessica, and Kimberly and the Game!

Me and Kim at the Game :)

Jessica driving with Style. It does look like she kinda posed for this but I just had the camera ready when she turned around. Lucky Her!! But really, shes a great driver.

Winter Semester 2008!!!

2008-05-11T21:25:00.000-07:00

I know its been awhile...again. BUT, now that i've made my blog more colorful I think 'll update more often. To make up for all of the lost time, I will share the highlights of my winter semester at BYU.

Awww the Sports

My floor put together a basketball team we call "The Order." This is Sara Michael, one of our very supportive fans. She is obviously upset over what must have been a bad call...

Sometimes she just has to take a moment :)

The Team Dads (Jared Tate and Micahel Nelson) came through for us on a great game. They brought us orange slices in ziplock baggies and caprisons! This is Lindsay, me, Kara, Carla, Anne, Jared, Michael, Sara Callan, Kelsey, Emily, and Diana and Katie are on the floor.

Now to REAL College Sports
This was the last Home basketball Game.

This is our cheering section!! Sara Callan, Kelsey, Jill, Anne, Katie, Sara Michael, Kim, and Alison and I are below.

Cheering on the Men's Volleyball Team!!

Men's Volleyball Fans

Birthdays

Kara's Birthday!! We went to Mimi's Cafe. This is Kara and her birthday cake slice!
Kate, me, and Alison enjoying Kara's Birthday

Kim's Birthday!! A bunch of girls from my floor went to Olive Garden to Celebrate.

And when she got back, her room was decorated. So, the next day when she had all these balloons on her floor, I took it upon myself to create a masterpiece. I stuck all of the balloons to her wall!!

Alison's Birthday!! We surprised her by decorating her room while she was gone.
This is Rachel, Sara Michael, Kelsey, Kim, Jen, Elizabeth, and Emily Grace.

Diana's Birthday!! We also surprised her when she came in the door.

Hangouts

A group of us went bowling at Fat Cats one night and they are just amazing at taking pictures. There is Kelsey, Jared, me, and Claire.

This was a fun group. There is Kelsey, Claire, Jared, Tommy, and me. Apparently Claire and Jared missed the memo of normal smiles...

This is Kim's friend, Natalie, from Ohio. She goes to Utah State and I was very close to going to Vegas with her and Kim for a little weekend vacation. It didn't work out but she is a fun girl.

Valentine's Day
Naturally, on Valentine's day a group of friends from my floor went out to eat. I'm not exactly a huge fan of Valentine's day so I decided to not wear red or pink. But, Kim said i had to have a good attitude so I conformed to the standard pink. Then, I saw that everyone else put their jackets on so I ended up looking like I loved Valentine's day. Oh well. We went to Costa Vida which was very tasty. I'd have to say its very similar to Cafe Rio but Cafe Rio is slightly better.
Laundry
I lived on the second floor and the laundry room is all the way in the basement. Usually i save up my laundry for a few weeks and then do like four loads. This particular day, I had already brought up a couple loads and went down to get the rest. But, i forgot my laundry basket. Seeing how the basked was two floors above, I decided to see if I could carry two loads of laundry up the stairs. I did it!! And i just had to show someone so I pushed on Alison's door and guess what happened to be handy?? Her camera :) haha

Family Home Evening

Below is my FHE group. Right to left is Rob, Kim (mom), Emily, Stephen, Michael, Jason, Wyatt (dad), me, and Diana. We usually went on little outings such as this. We looked around at dead animals in the Bean Museum!!

This is another one of our outings. Ice Skating!! There is Eric, me, Tommy, Kim, Diana, Jason, Wyatt, Stephen, Emily, and Anna.

No matter what this looks like, I am actually holding them up...they are just about to bring me down though.... Diana is a pro cause she uses her own skates and can do the little twirley things and some jumps. It was fun to watch her. Every now and then i would try to spin in circles but that often left me barely catching myself from full body contact with the ice...so i left the fancy stuff to Diana.

As you can see, it was pretty busy on FHE night. This is Kim, Tommy, me, and Diana.

I know, I know. I'm a slacker---Catch up number 2

2008-02-25T13:31:00.001-08:00

S0 I honestly thought that after Christmas break I'd start doing this weekly again but that didn't happen. I guess I'll start with Christmas then. I got a new camera!! So I have all these pictures to share now.

Jessica (my roommate holding the broomstick) and I stayed up for a few hours one night thinking of the pranks we could do to make things more fun cause school was getting hard. So, we started doing this prank. We came up the idea from something that was done to us on of the first weeks of school. I was just sitting on my bed one night and I heard something run into my window. Since I'm on the second floor I thought that was weird so I pulled up my blinds to find a scary Halloween mask floating in the air. It most definitely freaked me out...I think I may have even jumped and let out a little scream.
We do not have Halloween masks so we decided to scare people with their own faces. We find bad picture of someone, blow up their face, and attached it to a broom stick. Then , you connect that broom stick to another broom stick so it can reach the second floor windows. At about one or two in the morning, you go out and run their heads into their window and wait for their reaction. These two faces were our second set of the night cause our first two were sleeping and we didn't want to wake them up. Sara (the one on the left) has had the best reaction out of everyone we have done so far.

Here is me testing out my camera...and my new coat which I wear all the time. Thanks mom!!Shortly after getting back to provo, I was already doing homework. Every once in awhile I take a brake and put on my lion ears.
This is Rachel and Carla when we went sledding. We thought we'd try out saran wrapping each other to see if we went further. It surprisingly worked really well!

Kim and Michelle really hit it off.

When Michelle was here, we went to visit Jaime and this her new addition to the family- Truly Ai Turner.

Erin, Michelle, and I went snowboarding at Sundance.

Michelle made my room a mess...with attitude.

Its been a good semester so far and having Michelle here was so much fun!! If you're lucky I'll update again on Sunday.

Catch up, Oops...

2007-12-18T12:48:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth, Kim, me, and Alison
We went up to Temple Square as a ward and afterwards, we walked around to look at the lights. Natuarally, we took many pictures but I really like this one.Me and Chelsea. I met Chelsea through Carla cause they were friends back in Texas.
Last Saturday there was a dance for Helaman Halls and I went with my group of friends so it was pretty fun.
Me, Chelsea, and Carla.

So sorry to keep everyone waiting on an update of my exciting life!! Really, I'll try to do better cause I know its been about a month and a half since my last post. So I included a little of what I've been up to. A couple weeks ago, I discovered that my friend Sara Callan from my floor is good friends with Canda (Elise's Cousin). Then, I've run into Canda a couple of times since then. I though that was pretty cool cause there are tons of people here at BYU so its kinda shocking when you run into people you know. I'm sure I have more catching up to do since its been awhile but I've got 2 more finals left...American Heritage being one of them and I'm not excited for that. I'll update again soon!!

Week 10/28

2007-11-04T23:49:00.000-08:00

I need to got to bed but I'll show some pictures from this past week. I got through this busy week and have an equally exhausting week coming up. To break up the workload, I'm going to the Jazz vs. Ohio game on Wednesday. These pictures are from the canyon and in them are Me, Alison, Rachel, Kim, Carla,, and Diana.

Week of October 21

2007-10-28T18:04:00.001-07:00

I went to the Preference Dance of Friday and it was pretty fun in the scheme of dances I have attended. The girls I hang out with are amazing!! Other than that, I tried to study hard this week because this coming week is going to be REALLY hard. I will pretty much have to lock myself in the library.

This is Kim, Alison and Me after the Preference Dance: Kim is Deb, Alison is Richard Simmon's client, and I am a Pirate!

Diana, Kim, me, and Alison on our way to pick up Cafe Rio for our dinners :) Matt, me, Carla, and Curis after dinner
Me, Alison (she tends to close her eyes during pics), Kim, Rachel, and Carla
Me, Alison, Rachel, Diana, Carla, and Kim in the "Burrow" (Kim and Diana's room) where we always hang out...we took that couch from the Mez but they haven't notice yet...

On our way to pick up Cafe Rio!
Me, Alison, Kim, Rachel, Carla, (and Curtis who wasn't supposed to be in the pic)...oh well
Kim and Me (and kim's date "Napolean" is behind us: they were in perfect character)
We had a huge group of 22 people (two couples left before this pic...including Diana :(

Week of October 14

2007-10-21T23:05:00.000-07:00

Rachel and I
Anne and I
Rachel, me, Kim, and Rachel Davis
Diana, Kim, Me, Alison, and Anne The first three are from the football game against Eastern Washington who got creamed. It was super cold so i left after the third quarter and it started to snow!! I'm pretty sure we got a good two inches. I was so cold that I jumped in the shower just for the warm water. The last picture is from my first rugby game. It kinda looks like we were just on the grass by ourselves posing but I promise the game is behind us. I'm going to the preference dance with a guy named Matt and am still taking suggestions as to who we should go as. Thats about it for the week. Bren, I heard about the indian's loss cause Kim was pretty bumed about it. I'll fill you in next week.

Week of October 7

2007-10-14T17:45:00.000-07:00

I think I already told you about General Conference at Erin's house but here are some pictures of us making breakfast. The first one is Kim and I working on the french toast. The second one is Alison, Diana, me and Carla all working in the kitchen.

I spent the first half of my week studying for American Heritage and I guess I did well comparatively. Then, starting Thursday I had tons of fun! A bunch of girls from my floor got together to do some aerobics...80's style.

We got cool BYU wrist bands-me and KimFrom left to right: Kim, Rachel, me, Carla, and Alison

This is me and Carla

On friday, I went up to Salt Lake to the volleyball game. It was a bargain: $10 for a bus ride, shirt, pizza, candy, and drinks! When I came back from that, I went to watch a movie with some people from my freshman academy group...but someone came to tell us to stop so we just told some stories till pretty early in the morning.

Saturday was my ward activity of games and country dancing. It was fun for the first hour or so but I am pretty bad at it. I did get flipped a few times which was pretty scary but fun.

This weekend was also stake conference and the talks were all good. I have a Book of Mormon test coming up this week so I was studying it with some friends. Thats about it!

General Conference Week

2007-10-07T16:36:00.000-07:00

This has been a very hectic week. I had a lot of big assignments and tests so I didn't get out much. For FHE we went to Chiles. My leader's dad owns the italian restaurant Maggianos so we got free appetizers at Chiles since Chiles and Maggianos are somehow connected. It was alright but I'm not sure I'd pay to go back there. I'd rather go to the Olive Garden.

My friend Diana and I are on Erin's volleyball team and we are in tournament right now and its lots of fun. If our team and my roommate's team both win this next game, we will be playing each other for the championship. That would be interesting.

For Conference today, I invited some of my friends over to Erin's to have breakfast and watch it on the T.V. It was nice to make my own meal for the first time in awhile. I basically stayed at Erin's house all day (even after my friends left) today but it felt good to be by myself and get some stuff done in my church classes.

Conference was really good. I payed attention much better than usual because I'm in the Living Prophet Class.

I have an American Heritage test coming up and I've heard the tests are pretty much impossible so I've got to study really hard.

I don't have any pictures from this week so I'll add some from my east coast trip.

Week 9/23

2007-09-30T21:19:00.001-07:00

Still, I don't understand how to write next to the picture I'm talking about. Oh well. This first one I believe was taken on Wednesday. There was a chance of snow in Provo but it only snowed in the mountains. I couldn't believe that it happened already, in September! This second one is the first snow AT SCHOOL. There were actual flakes for about a half hour here in Provo on Saturday afternoon but it didn't stick. It was soooo cold. I think I need more clothes that are warm because bundling up uses up all my clothes. This last picture is to feature my latest purchase. On the floor by my bed you can see my $6 toaster!! I used it tonight to make a delicious toasted turkey and cheese sandwich with a ranch spread. I think it was a great investment. Erin took me shopping for a few hours on Saturday (before the snow here). Today I went to the MTC to do the phone calls for like two hours. It was kinda nerve racking at first but then it was fun. Pretty much everyone's phone went to the message machine but occasionally I actually got to talk to someone. The best news of all this week is that I did very well on my Biology test. I studied tons for it all week and it actually paid of! Now i have to catch up on all my other classes because I focused so my on biology.

COLLEGE!!

2007-09-23T21:24:00.001-07:00

Some people keep telling me to update my blog so here ya go. I've been having a blast here at BYU. I went to Freshman Orientation and was in my Freshman Academy group throughout the entire thing. It was so good because I met lots of people. I met this girl named Anne from my Freshman Academy group and she is roommates with my roommate's friend from back home. My roommate is Jessica Parker and she couldn't be more amazing. We get along so well and we definitely relate to each other. She has four really close friends here and one in Salt Lake doing the Extension program there. I hang out with them sometimes but I also do stuff with the girls on my floor. I haven't been doing so great on excersizing and those vending machines have been very tempting...so I've decided to set a few guidelines. (Like I can't have three ice cream cones from the canon center in one day like I did a few days ago.) I've been pretty tired lately cause sleep hasn't been high up there on my priority list. I'm thinking I might be a little lactose intolerant because I've been having a lot of dairly lately and I didn't feel very well last night. It was a good thing though because I finally sat down by myself and understood my biology and american heritage reading. I've been doing fairly well in most of my classes but I'm still trying to make sure I set time aside for each of my classes. It is tricky trying to fit everything in. I am on the Activities Committee for my ward so if you have any ideas for ward activities that you think would be inexpensive and fun please let me know. I guess we don't really have a large budget. I still don't understand how to outline these blogs but I'll try to attatch some pictures.

These are some friends of mine from my floor. We are at the Legends grill which is amazing! So far I've tried the pizza, sandwich, burger, and cookie. In order from left to right is Kim (from Ohio), Rachel, Carla, me, and Diana. My floor gets along extremely well and we do tons together.

This is what my RA put on my door for my birthday. I didn't want to tell anyone cause I thought that would be weird but after this, of course everyone new. It was a really fun day.

Summer has Begun!!

2007-06-24T18:39:00.000-07:00

I have finally graduated from high school!! I had a few days to relax from the grad party and all the activities that come with graduating and then off I was for work. I've started working at Talking Rain beverage company for twenty hours a week in the mornings. This leaves me time to work the snack shack, nanny, and work the concessions at swim meets. This past week was my first week of this work and overall it went great!

I don't understand how this blog thing works but I want it to look as good as Robins.

My friend Kelsey Fairbanks is an amazing clogger and she started teaching. She had a recital so I went to it because watching people clog is so much fun. This is Brittney and I on the church stage eating our refresments.