Stupid Deer! I have chased them away at least 3 times today and at most 20 times this past week! They are becoming tamer and aren't as scared of me when I come chasing after them, it's starting to get really annoying! Anyone else having problems with deer?
I was looking through pictures from my freshman year and I began to notice a recurrence in the pictures...and people say that college students never sleep :) Notice that many of them are Katie and Chelsea, there generally wasn't a night that they or someone else was asleep in our kitchen/living room, either us or Erin though for some reason I didn't see any of Erin sleeping :(
Girls are constantly under attack in today's world, they are told they are too fat, too skinny, their lips are too big, hair too blonde, any way to make them have a very low self esteem. Who made the decision of what we should be and why do they continue to have the power to make us feel like they should decide what we should look like? I don't know but I am sure sick of it!
I love this commercial from Dove and know that we have the power to make a difference, help someone UNDERSTAND and KNOW that they are PERFECT the way they ARE!
This morning while I was in the shower The Killers came to spray the house for bugs, I didn't really think anything about it. But later I went into the bathroom and found this spider in the bottom of the bathtub. I kind of freaked out thinking "what if they had sprayed before I was showering?" I had no clue where the spider came from and probably would have screamed for a good long time if the spider dropped dead on the top of my head...notice the cotton swabs? Yeah i threw them at the spider to make sure that it was dead, and it was rock hard dead! At least we know the spray worked :D
On Tuesday before I got to Korrin's house I made a stop at the Woodburn outlet mall, the first store I walked into was Van Heusen, there was signs everywhere saying HUGE SALE!, I walked through the store not really seeing anything that I liked when I saw a super adorable sweater and it was in the right size! I took it up and got 50% off and I also got a headband 70% off! Next I went to Lane Bryant- because of course you know I had to find a dress to match my new sweater :D I was looking through the dresses and saw this cute pink dress and was holding it up to myself trying to decide whether to try it on when this lady walked by and told me that the color looked really good on me (I guess that was the decider :D)...I tried it on and LOVED IT! It was already marked down from it's original price and then I got 50% off of that! All in all I would say that it was a pretty good day for my shopping! :D
Just the dress.
Dress with the new sweater.
I wasn't really sure if you could see the ruffle detail on the sweater so had to show a close-up.
Tuesday night after the movie we also went to Target and I saw these super cute shoes...they were in the clearance section and were marked down to $12.99 and I thought that, that was a good deal and then when I got up to the checkstand and it ended up being only $9! How did I luck out so much? I don't generally go out with different colored shoes, I stick with the blacks, browns, and blues but I absolutely fell in love with these shoes and was happy to have them cheaper than I was planning on. :D
Wednesday morning Korrin and I decided to go see our good friend Jill, in the last year she has moved to a new house and neither she and I had been to her new house- but we headed off with instructions on how to get there and were gone. We pulled up the road and saw her house and what we assumed was her driveway, I was about part way up the driveway when we realized that it was the wrong one, as there was no way to turn around I started to back up...at the very end the driveway curved really sharp but I didn't see that so I pulled myself into a ditch. The car wasn't really in the ditch but the tire was hanging over it :( Korrin and I thought that we should put the car in neutral and then try pushing the car out, we quickly discovered that, that did not work :D Next I called my brother Nathan and asked him what he suggested to do. We put Korrin in the driver seat and with the help of a guy that was passing by we were able to push the car out of the ditch, Yeah! Oh the things I do with my day off :D
Tuesday I took Mom to the airport and then I got to go hang out with my good friend Korrin from the stake. We hung out for awhile and had dinner with her family and then went and watched All About Steve---it wasn't my favorite movie, it had a lot of language that I thought was unnecessary and there was also a couple of scenes that we didn't really like. But after the movie we went to Dairy Queen (for being a college town there wasn't a ton to do at night) and had fun...we both got the special blizzard of the month "Oreo Cookie Jar," it had Oreos, Cookie Dough, and Fudge- we kind of felt that it was an overload of chocolate when the edges were caked with the fudge. Despite the disappointments in the movie and our blizzards we still had fun.
I thought that the frosting detail on this ice cream cake looked really cool...not a lot of hard work that went into it but still cool non-the-less.
A blurry picture of Cool Corn! (Korrin)
The cups all had these funny things on them and of course I couldn't resist and had to take a picture of the different ones that we had. This one says: "My wife doesn't know I stop for a blizzard on every bike ride."
"I know Grandpa can't resist my "Can we get a blizzard?" look!"
"When I'm sad- I get a blizzard. When I'm happy- I get TWO!"
I don't generally do much with my days off except work with Mom on the house projects so it was nice to go out and do something different- and to see good friends!
I haven't always been very good at sharing the gospel and what I believe with others, at least not so much with lots of words- not that I don't want to but when it comes to putting myself out there it kind of scares me and it also makes me aware of how much I really don't know. This past week though I have had a couple of chances to share with others.
Thursday night my best friend Elise came over and hung out with me and she chose to watch The 2nd Singles Ward as she didn't remember seeing it (when we were in High School Elise's parents went to Mexico for a couple of weeks and she stayed with us, on Sunday's the only movies that my parents would allow her to watch were the one's made by LDS people-such The RM, Best Two Years, The Singles Ward, etc.). For those that haven't seen it there comes a part where the two main characters are preparing to get married and the bride-to-be's parents aren't LDS and many conversations come up in the movie about the Temple, marriages, and other parts of the church. Through the conversations in the movie Elise started to ask me questions, at one point she asked me about marriage in the Temple and how it is different. I explained to her that most marriages they say "Till Death Do You Part" (her sister got married a couple of weeks ago so she understood that) but that we believe through the Temple covenants that you make we believe that your marriage continues on after death...I was able to then tell her that because of the covenants that my Mom and Dad made they know that they will be together again when my Mom dies and this is not the end. When I was done explaining that to her she told me that she liked that a lot better that the other one was kind of depressing. Throughout the movie Elise asked several other questions and we were able to have conversations about them. It was such a wonderful feeling for me to be able to share with her, she hasn't always been the most open to any religion and I wasn't always sure if I could share with her, but I was so grateful to be able to answer some of her questions.
Another experience that I had happened tonight, I was at work when there was a lull when I didn't have any customers. One of the managers (Gary) came up to me and asked me what I knew about Mormon history, he had been reading several books lately and they had refered to something that he thought was pretty cool- I hadn't heard about what he was asking me but I hope to research it and be able to go back to him with the answers. He also said that there were several things that he was impressed with the church with, one thing that he mentioned was the encouragement to have food stored, he said "I don't have 30 days worth but my wife and I do store some," it was so neat to be able to discuss with him why there are good reasons to store food, especially when Gary is not generally one that I have any form of good conversations with.
For those of you that have seen my room recently you will know that this is a big deal, I have packed up all things that I want to save but am not using them right now and all of my stuff is in the closet. For those that have asked no I am not going anywhere right now and no my Mom is not moving quite yet, but my Mom wants to be prepared for when she is ready to move- she wants my stuff to be all together so that when the time comes she doesn't have to deal with it except to say "put it in the van." (I took down all of my posters and glow-in-the-dark stars, that was probably the saddest part, making the room bare and not really looking like mine)
My cousin Ned was here this past weekend working on the siding, while he was here he also put in a new faucet in our kitchen sink! We are super excited because it is beautiful and it even has a spray hose thingy that works!
Mom ordered a new laptop (she had a mini one but this is her FIRST REAL Laptop), she was a little nervous with ordering one not really sure if she needed one but since she has ordered it she has been very excited to have it come. Yesterday she made sure that we would be home by 4 to make sure that we would be here when the UPS man came, but sadly it didn't come, but... today at about 4 minutes till 4 there was a knock at the door, a nice man with a special Dell box. I have hidden it (not very hard as you can see), but I can't wait until she gets home to come and find it...hehe as I am typing this she is pulling into the driveway!
Robin (from work) and her husband Neil invited us over for dinner last night, they made some yummy tortellini with Alfredo sauce, cheese garlic bread, and carrot salad with a yellow cake dessert. It was an enjoyable evening with yummy food and good conversation.
Mom kept on wanting to take a picture of us but I wasn't very good at following directions (she didn't take the other 20+ versions that I gave :D)
I can't believe that it has been 8 years, I remember the morning when it happened I had fallen asleep on the couch the night before, my Mom and Dad woke me up to tell me about it and that some boy from my class had also died in a car crash on the way to Newport. It didn't really mean anything to me at the time, I had no clue what the Trade Towers were and was a little disappointed that they had woken me up to tell me that. But now as I have come to understand it, I realize that I should indeed care and that it should mean a lot to me- but also that I should remember those and Find Hope in my life just as this man has done.
For those of us not old enough there was a little room on the side of the Temple with couches, lockers, bathrooms, water fountains, and some vending machines where we all got to hang out. Strangely waiting for Erin and J.J. seemed to go the quickest of any weddings where I was waiting for the couple. Jamie, Kandis, and I had the responsibility of the flowers- making sure they got to the correct people and that they were kept cool with water. They were absolutely beautiful!
Erin's bouquet
The Bridesmaids bouquets
The brothers, parents, grandparents, and grooms boutonnieres.
Erin had two cute little "flower girls" and these are the little halos that they got to wear.
Beautiful Jamie being contemplative
Erin's cousin's daughter...isn't she adorable?
There was two rows of couches...with all of us (cousins, siblings, and friends) we took up one row.
For those of you that haven't been able to tell I Love BYU and am a huge-major-(insert another BIG word here) fan of them. I was super sad to have to work on Saturday but was glad that my brother was able to keep me updated throughout the day via Twitter texts (:D).
I love this video, one of the most recent comments on it was that every time the person watched it, it sends chills down their spine...I totally agree with them.
My brother sent us this e-mail today from someone that was at the game and this was their perspective from being at the game... “Oh yes…. I was there (cue music)
ESPN radio AND all the commentators right outside the stadium - they said on loud speakers right to our faces – ALL four of them – that Oklahoma was not only going to win…. but also beat the spread of 22 points. “It’s going to be a long day for Max Hall and BYU”, “BYU’s defense has never seen an offence like this and simply will not be able to stop them”, “BYU’s young offensive line is going to get a rude awakening this evening”
Then… we took our seats and saw 70,000 Oklahoma fans pack the stadium. Moments before the game, ALL of them stood up, boldly and proudly raised their hands (#1) and recited their poem of champions. The big screen showed scene after scene of championship moments in OU’s history – 3 minutes straight - The OU band was there drumming a powerful, slow and steady beat like they were ready to go to war. I confess… the intimidation worked. It felt like we were going to get throttled…. But then…
Just before the cougars took the field, the giant 70yd HUGE screen faded from red to blue…. and the BYU fans stood proudly to their feet. The mega-tron played the first 2 minutes of this clip…(The first clip with Bronco Medenhall called Today) Every person in that entire stadium focused on every word. Then they followed it up with this one. (The one above--BYU's Official 2009 Video). The players took the field.
Have you got your T-Shirt yet? If not hurry and get them at the BYU Bookstore on campus or order it here. Do it! Do it now!
This is one reason why I am sad to not be in Provo, how awesome would it be to be running in the streets cheering like crazy with your fellow fans or going to the Provo airport at 2 in the morning to greet your players? Once again...BYU, I LOVE YOU!
Quick speech from Bronco Mendenhall at the airport.
I got to go with Erin when she went to get her hair done on Friday morning, it was fun and and neat to watch as her hair beautiful to I don't know what word to use :D The lady that did her was funny and made the time pass very quickly.
Just the dress.
Dress with the new sweater.
I wasn't really sure if you could see the ruffle detail on the sweater so had to show a close-up.
Tuesday night after the movie we also went to Target and I saw these super cute shoes...they were in the clearance section and were marked down to $12.99 and I thought that, that was a good deal and then when I got up to the checkstand and it ended up being only $9! How did I luck out so much? I don't generally go out with different colored shoes, I stick with the blacks, browns, and blues but I absolutely fell in love with these shoes and was happy to have them cheaper than I was planning on. :D
I thought that the frosting detail on this ice cream cake looked really cool...not a lot of hard work that went into it but still cool non-the-less.
A blurry picture of Cool Corn! (Korrin)
The cups all had these funny things on them and of course I couldn't resist and had to take a picture of the different ones that we had.
"I know Grandpa can't resist my "Can we get a blizzard?" look!"
"When I'm sad- I get a blizzard. When I'm happy- I get TWO!"
I haven't always been very good at sharing the gospel and what I believe with others, at least not so much with lots of words- not that I don't want to but when it comes to putting myself out there it kind of scares me and it also makes me aware of how much I really don't know. This past week though I have had a couple of chances to share with others.
Mom kept on wanting to take a picture of us but I wasn't very good at following directions (she didn't take the other 20+ versions that I gave :D)
Erin's bouquet
The Bridesmaids bouquets
The brothers, parents, grandparents, and grooms boutonnieres.
Erin had two cute little "flower girls" and these are the little halos that they got to wear.
Beautiful Jamie being contemplative
Erin's cousin's daughter...isn't she adorable?
There was two rows of couches...with all of us (cousins, siblings, and friends) we took up one row.
Braden being him silly self.
