My Latest Encounter

In my complete disregard for news that is actually kind of exciting, I failed to mention the best part of the basketball game last Saturday.  We had a very close encounter with fame--Elder Nelson.  Yes, the apostle.  I literally almost ran into him.  And when I finally realized who it was, I stopped dead in my tracks, he was looking straight at me, and I'm pretty sure I pointed, stuttered and spluttered into nothing.  

For a better-written story, and a more complete account, please see the blog of Megan Robinson.

What not to do

A few sundays ago, I very aptly demonstrated how not to open a package of powdered cookie dough.  Last time I was home, mom sent me back to Provo with a just add water mix of caramel apple cookies.  And Sunday being the best day to cook, I decided to make them.  The best way to open stubborn packages is scissors.  Some advice:  If you can't get the bag open, just reach for the scissors.  It will save you all kinds of grief, and hours that you don't have to spend shaking powder out of every crevase of your clothing.  

So...I tried for far too long to open a plastic bag with my bare hands.  And it exploded on me.  The end.

Not gonna lie, the pictures are hysterical.  Note the powder even got on the tip of my nose.

Obligatory Blogging

Dear readers,

You are about to read an obligatory blog post.  What is this you may ask?  Well, my life is great right now.  Really, no complaints.  But...bloggable?? That's debatable.  However, since I have a blog, I feel this obligation to post.  I don't know, maybe it's a good thing.  It forces me to make

things that might seem rather mundane kind of exciting.  And you better believe I've been taking my camera everywhere with me secretly thinking, "maybe something cool will happen, I can take a picture of it, and then I'll have something to blog about!"  Since you all know my basis for blogging is pictures, I have finally taken a few and have decided to give you all something new to look at.  Please, lower your expectations right now so that you won't be disappointed.  

This picture is a great example of why I really don't  have much to blog about; too much sitting around and doing...this.  I have no explanation or anything.  My only defense is that boredom and sleep deprivation drove me to it.

Last week was official "Sister Appreciation Week" in the BYU 11th ward.  The boys do their best to keep it a secret, and they do ok but 1) if you were in the ward last year...the whole thing seemed a little familiar. 2) you tend to start to wonder what's going on after a different apartment of guys shows up at your place every night wanting to sing to you and clean your kitchen.  Don't get me wrong, they're good guys but...this isn't heaven.

Anyway, to sum up the week, they fed us ladies dinner on Friday night and then did a talent show for us.  It was seriously entertaining.  And the food was good.  I took my camera, thinking if any night could wield good pictures, this would be it.  Unfortunately, I didn't really get any good ones until after the thing ended.  But, lucky for you guys, I think they are pretty hysterical. It's a series of pictures.  Here's what happened:

They gave me free ice cream!

Macsen came over to Megan and said, "Here, have this leftover ranch."  Megan got really excited. 

About two seconds later, Brian Wood came over to Megan and said,   "Hey, can I take that ranch?"  And she reluctantly gave it away.  So, before we were excited, and now, we are both without our ice cream and ranch (respectively) and...sad.

The next night, a ton of us went to the basketball game.  Thank you to Mike Barney for going ridiculously early so that we could all sit on the fifth row.  The best part of the game was that Brian Wood caught a t-shirt.  But it was a small t-shirt so he gave it to me!  And then Brad caught a t-shirt, but it was a shade shirt, so he gave it to Megan!  A free shirt each--that neither of us actually caught.

This is again at the basketball game.  And it's really not even that great of a picture, except for Jenny's face.  She's the one poking in with the goofy smile at the top of the picture.  Good times.

And this is just the boys playing a good old-fashioned game of speed Yahtzee fifteen minutes before ward prayer.  Hence--the speed Yahtzee.

And that's the latest randomness from my life.  I hope you at least enjoyed the pictures. :)

Remember Lot's Wife

This Tuesday, I almost didn't go to devotional.  We have these weekly at 11 am.  At 10 on Tuesdays I have a class in the Smith Fieldhouse.  Anyone familiar with the BYU campus knows that this building is not really close to any of the key buildings on campus.  In order to go to devotional, I have to walk up a very large number of stairs and then find a building that the devotional is actually playing in and isn't already packed with people.  And then I have to rush back down to the fieldhouse for gymnastics practice at noon.  A terrible excuse, trust me, I know. 

 So, this past Tuesday, the devotional was Elder Holland.  He is hands down my favorite apostle.  I think I like him because everything he says just seems to be dripping with power.  He's one of those pulpit yellers and hitters and what can I say, I like his enthusiasm.  So I realized, at about 10:45, that I needed to watch it.  Dreading my walk back up to "upper campus" I left my class.  I don't know why it took me so long to realize this, but as I was walking out of the building, I remembered that there are like three TVs in/near the athletic training room where I spend all of my time.  So I parked myself in the doctor's office waiting room, seconds from where I had had class, with my lunch. :)  And I sat there, by myself, for the entire devotional.  I don't know if word has leaked out yet, but I really think this is the best devotional I have ever heard.  It's called "Remember Lot's Wife" and focuses on forgetting the past and moving on to the future.  It's not like I'm stuck in the past or anything, but this devotional really spoke to me.  I wanted to put a link of the written copy up here but turns out BYU makes these devotionals kind of hard to get a hold of.  So here is a link to an mp3 file of his talk.  If you can find the time, or even if you can't--read it.  It's awesome.

Remember Lot's Wife

Christmas in Photos

I've decided that for my Christmas post, I'm just going to do a whole bunch of pictures with captions as needed.  And, mind you, these pictures are not necessarily in chronological order.  Believe it or not, it's super hard to move pictures around to where you want in this thing (or I just having beat that learning curve yet...) so I'm just going to leave them be where they want to be.  Enjoy!

We laid around and did nothing.  Opening those presents can really take it out of you...

Santa brought us a hotdog tube.

Jen got sick.  On her birthday.  And apparently Brian had something in his teeth...

We made gingerbread houses.

We built the best snowman I have ever seen.

And this is all that was left a few days later.

Adorable children slept in our basement.

We went to the Jelly Belly "factory".  Again.

We went to Chicago.  It was windy and cold.

We listened to this hamster sing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" with a lisp about 40 million times.  Anything to keep children happy.

I rode on a train!

I also went to five movies.  I love movies. :)  And I forgot to take a picture of my tickets but don't you worry--I still have all five.  And there you have it.  The summary of my two weeks of relaxation.  And now, just like that, here I am again.  Buying books and back in the library!  

Deja Vu

Molly and Kirby's mom, Suzanne, came out to Provo the last few days of the semester.  It was super fun to have her out there.  Not only did I enjoy the residual effects of having a mother around, but she also supplied us with crafts!  When Molly, Kirby, Brian and I were younger and crazier, Suzanne used to always pick up little crafts that became ornaments to keep us out of trouble.  So this year, for old times sake (and for a flat out good time) Suzanne came prepared with 

ornament crafts.  Thanks for the blast to the past!  

Ok, this video is really obnoxious I know.  I watched it the other day and thought it was hysterical mostly just because of Brian's antics.  But really, posting the video was just an experiment because I've never done it before.  The consensus is: it takes too long. 

Back to 4th Grade

Jen gave me some good incentive to not leave all of my finals until Friday.  Kirby, Brian, Suzanne and I all accompanied Molly and Jen to school!  A day in the 4th grade.  It was fantastic.  I would have posted this earlier but I thought I lost my camera before break.  But---I didn't!  However, it was in Jen's car these past two weeks so I didn't have pictures to go with the story.  And who wants the story without the pictures?  I mean really, do you guys even read what I write?  Thanks if you do, but know that I totally understand if all you do is look at the pictures.:)

  We arrived at the school just in time for the school-wide assembly.  Each of the grades performed a cute little Christmas song.  The fourth grade sang "I'm gettin nuttin' for Christmas" with some edited lyrics to fit their daily lives.  For some reason, I was given the privilege of playing the piano while the kiddies sang.  The performance was my second time seeing the music.  The combination of my sightreading and anxious fourth graders singing too fast made for a pretty interesting rendition.  But it was fun anyway.  

Jen turned my pages.

Let's face it; the best part of being a teacher is all the sweet presents your students give you!  Granted, most of the time these gifts are tacky statues, mugs or cheap candy.  But sometimes, just sometimes, you score and get a magnetic dry erase marker holder and eraser! Lucky dog.

Molly is a rockstar.  We all know that.  But I have never heard so many nine year olds scream so much.  They love her.  It was absolutely insane.  But hey, I'm not complaining because in being one of Molly's back up singers for the snowman song meant I got to share in a little bit of the spotlight.

This is Molly and the entire fourth grade.  I wish I had a picture of this so I could prove it to you, but while Molly sang a couple songs for the kids, I saw two girls near the back of the pack bawling.  Just bawling.  

And this is Molly literally being mobbed by fourth graders.  I was honestly slightly scared for her life.  And honest to goodness, she actually ended up on the floor and the other teachers had to pull the kids off of her.  That's why I've chosen not to be famous, it's too dangerous.

After the assembly, we had lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon helping Jen out in her room and participating in her classroom Christmas party.  Ah, to be a kid again...