Thanksgivin' Break

So this year for Thanksgiving, I brought all my roommates along with me. Except for Julie. She went home.
It went much better than I thought it was going to go! The first night we just hung out at my house. Had Papa Murphys pizza, cause it's the best, and watched a movie. Wednesday night I ditched them all and hung out with my friends. (Rude, I know.) My roommate, Emily, went to go visit her friend in Midvale. Said she would be back at midnight, called me at 1 in the morning because she was seeing signs for Antelope Drive and Lagoon Amusement Park! Oh boy was she lost! Thursday was Thanksgiving and the whole fam-bam-ily was here. Steven maned the kitchen and everyone else was either his slave or we didn't see them until it was time to eat.  We also had our traditional Day Family Leg Wrestling Tournament! Emily, my roommate, won the female bracket. That was funny. We spent Friday night downtown seeing the lights and meeting David Archuleta. no biggie....
I did not want to go back to Rexburg after this though. I realized that I really missed West Valley and all the people in it. But, I went back anyway. So, enjoy some pictures! :)

Mustache Monday

 So, there is this place called Sammy's. It's a restaurant and they sell shakes and sandwiches, mostly. There is one in Provo as well, so you may have heard of this place. For some reason, the signature thing about Sammy's is the mustache. You can't look anywhere in that place and not see a mustache. Either it's drawn on a celebrity on the wall, on a wooden potato hanging up or a picture of Sammy himself. Anyway, every Monday is Mustache Monday. If you come in on a Monday night wearing a mustache, you get a grilled cheese sandwich for 80 cents. (I just realized that keyboards don't have cents signs. hmm...)

So, for FHE we bought some mustaches, courtesy of Emily, and we headed off to Sammy's. One of the boys took Jessa's that she refused to wear and the other took the thing that is on Julie's eyebrow. The other two boys didn't want to come, because they are lame.

Everyone that saw us knew where we were heading. "Sammy's?"
"Hey, I like your mustaches!"
"Grilled Cheese at Sammy's!" They all knew it. And they liked it.

Rexburg 
                   and it's traditions......

Did someone say Eleven? Eleven. Eleven!

We had quite the most epic day on Friday, the eleventh of the eleventh month in the eleventh year of the 21st Century. We did so many eleventy things. You wouldn't believe. Mostly it was Me, Julie, and Laura, but we some others tag along trying to be as eleveny as we were. Here is a list of things that we did. collectively.

1. Made 11 circles in the round about
2. We each made a wish at 11:11 on 11-11-11
3. I kissed the time on my phone 11 times
4. Laura turned the lamp on and off 11 times
5. I did 11 crunches
6. Julie did 11 heel clicks
7. We each ate 11 candy corn (see picture)
8. I touched 11 cars in the parking lot (see picture)
9. Julie honked at me 11 times
10. So I screamed 11 times
11. I rang our next door neighbors doorbell 11 times
12. Julie knocked on our window 11 times
13. Someone whispered in the window and that something to do with 11
14. Laura knocked on the railing outside our door 11 times
15. I touched 11 railing rings
16. Someone stomped on the ground 11 times
17. Slothed. Not sure what that means, but I put it on the list
18. I hit a water bottle 11 times on Julie's head
19. We did 11 lunges
20. 11 high fives happened
21. Someone whistle out the car window 11 times
22. Julie yelled "Alan!" out the car window 11 times (At first I thought she was talking about my brother, but then they showed me the video.)
23. Laura rolled her window down 11 times
24. Laura opened the dumpster at "Jack in the Box" 11 times
25. Julie threw 11 snowballs at us
26. Someone did something with 11 rocks
27. I touched 11 trees/bushes
28. Laura touched the antenna on  Julie's car 11 times
29. I hit my head on the window of Jack in the Box 11 times
30. We each took 11 steps to the car
31. 11 blinkers
32. We stared at the guy in the car next to us for 11 seconds. He was eating a taco and had no clue he was being watched
33. We held our breath for 11 seconds
34. We did a Chinese fire drill. Not 11 times

I don't really know most of these people, but hey were cool. :) 

To Utah

So, the first weekend in November was Melissa's wedding, so I needed to come down to Utah, naturally. Julie wanted to come as well to hang with family that lives in Lehi and her friends that go to school at BYU and UVU. So, the two of us broke off from our roomies and took a road trip! We had a blast! She stopped by the house for a bit and met some of the fam and then she headed south to be with HER family and friends. I visited with my friends and helped get ready for the wedding. Friday was wedding all day. Everything was great! The reception turned out beautifully and the pictures were so much fun! I can't wait to get them back! I will most definitely be posting some of those beauties! :) I don't want to say too much and get all emotional in the world of blogging but I just want to say that I am happy for Melissa and I respect Steven. I love my sister and will miss having her around, especially when I come home for the winter.
The rest of the weekend I sat around and hung out with my friends. :) Saturday was a lazy day mostly, until about 8. Then we went to Laura Lewis's house and played Just Dance! We stayed there for a while. And it was daylight savings, so we stayed there and extra hour! haha! Katie slept at my house and then a bunch of us went to The Music and the Spoken Word Broadcast at the tabernacle. That was really cool. I had never been before. Then we watched 17 miracles at Kyle's house. That movie is so great. I cried basically the whole way through. It was cool to see the stories that I have heard on Trek and see new ones as well. It was awesome to see the story about Sister Rowley and the dried up sea biscuits. Anne Jewel is her name. She is my 4th great grandmother. If it wasn't for that miracle, you probably would be reading an entirely different blog right now. Who knows what things this other person would expose you to!? They may introduce you to Pinterest!
Anyway, after 17 Miracles, we went to Kyle's sacrament meeting. Kyle left to go to choir rehearsal for the University Choir (Or so we thought) and Katie, Joseph, and Josh came to my house. We watched some church movies. Joseph showed him and his brothers off in the Joseph F. Smith living prophets video and they all BEGGED me to show them "I, Nephi" clips. I eventually gave in and they all marveled at how cute I was and how good I did on my solo as just a wee 10 year old. They ate it up! :) They all left and I got ready to head back to Idaho. When all of the sudden, I felt a vibration from my phone it was my brother, Bradley. "Is that Kyle I just saw singing the solo at the CES fireside?" "
"What!?", I said, "Kyle didn't say anything to me!" So then I turned on the T.V. and watched the choir sing the closing song. Sure enough, there was the University of Utah Institute choir. I saw a bunch of people that I know form High School. Kyle didn't even MENTION that his choir was singing at the CES fireside. He just said he had rehearsal and we assumed that it was for University Choir. I guess you know what happens when you assume. If you don't, look it up.
So, my roommate met my family, my last sister got married, I cried, I danced to Michael Jackson, I laughed, I hugged, I talked, and one of my best friends sang a solo in front of the entire world. And I didn't even see it. What a weekend!
P.S. Start the video at 8:18 to hear the whole song. The soloist is Kyle! I'm so proud of him! He is so good!  What a marvelous person and musician :)

Me and Julie at the border! 

Haunted Birthday

So, during the month of October I was in a show called Haunted Romance. It was a combination of folk tales, monologues, folk songs, and a couple of scenes. They were mostly about people dying or the dead. It was a lot of fun. The directors were Omar and Laurie Hansen. Omar is my Intro to Theatre professor. I met a lot of new people and it was just so much fun. It was nice to be in a show again. I miss preforming so much! We had a little band made up of a violin, guitar, bass, and a mandolin. They honestly were super duper good. I did a monologue that Omar and Laurie wrote. It's about a girl, just after the Civil War,  and her betrothed was "accidently" killed by his brother right in front of her. He haunted me and I had to conjure his body out of the grave to reunite his spirit and body. Gruesome, I know. We preformed on the 28, 29, and Halloween. Mrs. Fields and Chuck came to opening night. That made me so happy! So sweet of them.  And my cousin, Jessica who is up here working came as well! I'm glad I did it.
I was just sad that I missed my ward Halloween party. All my roommates dressed up cute and creative. They brought me a haunted house made of graham crackers though. :)

Now, Julie LOVES Katy Perry. 

L-O-V-E LOVES her! 

So... On October 24th we celebrated Katy's birthday! We made a cake and played her music 

while dancing around in the kitchen! 

It was super fun! 

The Dunes!

 On the 22 of the wonderful month of October, we decided to go to the Sand Dunes and have an epic bonfire! All my roommates came, except Crystal. She went to Stake Conference instead. haha. Laura Tingey came and brought her friend Sam and Julie's friend Greg came. It was all super fun! We built a huge fire with some pallets that Julie and Hillary stole. We ate candy, had smores, talked, and sang some Disney songs. Julie and I played what has become one of my favorite games. Laura took my camera and yelled out an emotion. Julie and I had to react and then Laura would quickly took the picture. It's a great game. Try it sometime. It's the best. :) Then we left and I made them all watch What's Up, Doc? Cause that's an awesome movie. :) Enjoy some pictures :)

Me and Julie playing my fav. game. and Jessa eating a smore. :)

Laura and me = Tree huggers!!!! 

This is Greg. He can stand on fires.

He's also a magic man and can carry with him. 

This is most of the gang. Sam, Laura, Hillary, Greg's bum, Jessa, and Hillary

October Update

October 9 was our "Roommativersary" We had all been living here together for one month. To celebrate we took roommate pictures, made pizza and strawberry salad, and watched "Singin' In The Rain" It was such a fun day! Laura took pictures for us! For those of you who don't know, Laura is Erica's (my sister in-in-law) little sister. She goes here with me and we have lots and lots of fun together! :)

 Hillary, Emily, Jessa, Crystal, Julie, and me

This is the beautiful Laura Tingey, our photographer

So... we love psych! Every Wednesday Jessa, Julie, and I go to our FHE brothers apartment and we watch Psych! It is just such a brilliant and hilarious show! The premiere was on the 12th and our 'brother', David, made chicken wrapped bacon and grilled pineapple. Way good! We had to have pineapple. If you've seen Psych, you'll understand. :)

There was one night where it was pretty late and Julie and I wanted pudding. So we made pudding. We eventually took our dishes back into the kitchen to put them in the sink and go to bed. I don't really remember how it started, but one of us stuck our pudding covered spoon on the other and an epic battle ensued! We got pudding all over the kitchen. This was just the extra streaks left in the mixing bowl. How did we get that small amount to go that far!?  Anyway, we fought and laughed and got covered in pudding. Can you have more fun than that?

My I-team leader planned a temple trip for the kids in on my I-team. So, I went to the Rexburg temple for the first time. There were so many people there! It probably took a good two hours. We didn't get our clothes for like an hour! Such a long wait! I was so worried that day. I had so much to do! My Ancestral History Project was due on Monday, so I needed to finish that plus all of the other regular homework I had! I almost didn't go to the temple, but I knew that it would calm me down and I would recieve blessings. And it turned out well. I was calm and I was able to finish m project in time. :)

Monday Rant

 First of all, I went home to West Valley this weekend to find a dress for my sister's wedding, so I didn't get back to Rexburg until 11:30 p.m. Then My roommate and I had to catch up because, believe it or not, a lot happens in one weekend. We both had stories up the wazoo! So, It's two in the morning and I have to finish an online test for my theatre class. I finish that after Julie has already gone to bed and I start reading for my Religion class. So....much....reading....So, I wake up from my dozing offness and it is four in the morning so I decided it's time to go to bed. I have a 7:45 class and we just turned in an essay so we had a breakfast party. All weekend, I was so excited for this party and what do I do? I sleep through my annoying alarm that goes off three times, and eventually wale up to Julie's at eight o clock! So I hurry and get dressed, brush my teeth, grab my backpack and go to class. I didn't even fix my hair. That is how badly I wanted chocolate chip pancakes.... Then I got back from that class and I still and to finish my religion homework and do my American Foundations homework. I had to read two conference talks for Religion and write how they made me feel before noon. Then I had to read three different readings for American Foundations and take a quiz before 12:30. So I didn't go to my Intro to theatre class because I looked awful and I was doing homework. We were watching a movie anyway. And I finished my test, which I didn't even get 100% on! :( Luckily my Family History teacher is out of town so no class today, but I decided that I couldn't miss all of my classes today so I went to my American Foundations class all the way in the Hinckley Building which is a 15 minute walk form my apartment uphill. And my legs feel like I have been running for hours because I don't get enough sleep. And now I am siting in the Library doing my Ancestral history project. (grandpawendell.blogspot.com) So, needless to say, I am tired and am trying to wind down from the craziness of this morning. Thank you for listening to my Monday rant. I'll post some blogs later about the past couple of weeks because they have been fun!

Suzie Snowflake paid a visit

That's right! It's snowing here in Rexburg. First snowfall of the season. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I like the snow alright. I don't hate it. It's not all that fascinating to me, either. My roommates Julie and Crystal, from California, think it's awesome! They were so excited for it to snow! A kid in my acting class said that this is the second time he has ever seen snow in real life! I don't know... do I take snow for granted because we have it from October to May in Utah? Maybe I just woke up in a bad mood today so the snow didn't help.(I did wear my cute rubber boots though!) I'm just not ready for it.  I was kinda hoping that Idaho's fall would be better than the Salt Lake Valley's. Maybe that is a fools hope. I heard a rumor that it will only last for a few days and then we will have pleasant weather for a couple more weeks. I hope so. The misery can't start THIS early. I haven't even been here for a month!

Room mates and classes

So, I'm sure everyone will ask me about my room mates, so here it goes.

My room mate room mate is Julie from Murrieta, California. We get along fabulously! We have so much in common and we are great friends! We were just saying the other day that it seems like we have known each other for so long when it hasn't even been a month! We watch movies and have homework parties AND she likes musicals! She even came to my very first audition with me! How sweet is she?

Then there is Emily. She's the oldest. From Minnesota. She is an interior design major. She's great. very sweet. super funny. and we found out today while she was in the shower that she has an AMAZING voice! :)

Crystal is from Northern California and she is so sweet. Super nice and makes GREAT cookies!

Hillary is from Vermont and she is a Preschool Education Major so very sweet and motherly. :)

Jessa is also from Vermont. She is a Political Science Major. She gets things done in the apartment. Such as dishes and vacuuming. Haha. She is the other freshman in the apartment, but she acts older than that!

We all get along pretty well. No fights yet! haha.

My classes?

Well, I am taking English, Intro to Theatre, Family History, History, Public Speaking, and Acting which comes to a grand total of 17 credit hours. I stay plenty busy!

Well, there is some background information for you. Hopefully I get a little more interesting in my next posts!

The door

Well....I moved up to college. BYU-Idaho, if you didn't know. I came up on September 8, it was a Thursday. The first weekend they had plenty of things for us to do. They kept us going and going, I'm guessing to stop us from wallowing in self pity. I am admitting that at very first I wanted to want to hate it because I wanted to want to transfer. Does that make sense? This sounds kinda cheesy, but it was like I had a door on my heart and I was holding it shut. Every time I started to have fun or feel the spirit I would open the door just a little and peek out, then I would realize what I was doing, "You can't have fun! You can't feel the spirit! Then you will like it here and you won't want to transfer!" So I would quickly slam the door. That happened over and over again in a matter of two days. Friday morningish my room mate showed up with her family. Super nice! I was seriously thinking in my mind, "I hope you like emotional girls who don't want to be here, because that is what I will be the rest of the semester." Later, the school had a big assembly type thing to let the freshman know how to get involved. They showed a series of videos introducing the University and it's history. There was one clip that showed pictures of a barren land and the 'voice' of Thomas E. Ricks that one day "there will be a temple built on this land" That hit me incredibly hard. I got all teary eyed and the little door on my heart opened and I peeked out, only this time I didn't slam it shut. Because there IS a temple on this sacred land. That night I prayed that I would be able to open my heart to this great University and that I would learn, succeed, and enjoy myself and for the remainder of the weekend my door slowly continued to open. And now I absolutely love it! I love the spirit, I have met so many amazing people, I love my classes, I love the campus, I love Sunday school. I just LOVE it here! I am so glad that I decided to open my heart and take it all in! Thanks for all the love and support everyone has sent out to me! :)