Feels Like Home

So my apartment finally has some homey touches to it. After Kristin moved out, the living room had almost nothing in it. Christina has a bookshelf and a dish chair that she put out there and those were the only things that didn't come with the apartment. It looked so empty. Not anymore!

Marjorie and I went to D.I. to see if we could find anything to spruce it up. We got a DVD player for $15 (she paid) and a t.v for $10 (I paid). Oh, and a wall decoration for two bucks. We didn't find anything to put the t.v. on yet so it currently resides on a plastic tote bin covered with a curtain. We hung Marjorie's curtains and some circle mirrors she had, as well as a few other wall hangings. We got one more cheap one at Big Lots (I bought it) and it looks great in the living room.

It finally feels like a real living room. I'll put up pictures when it's complete (t.v. stand, more wall art, etc).

BYU RUGBY

Today was the last home rugby game and Senior Day. We played the Arizona State I haven't gone to any games this season so I was dying to go to this one. Ally went with me because she's never seen a real rugby game (only in the movie Forever Strong). We got there early enough to get good seats. I forgot how good their music is before the game (and during half time).

They started off with the Haka, which was fun to watch. I din't see them do it at all last year. They got right behind the ASU players and were shouting in their ears. Ally said their uniforms made them look like sailors. I said that would make them the most muscular sailors I'd ever seen.

We played so well, which isn't a surprise. We're undefeated right now. During the first half, we had 40 something points and you could tell ASU was starting to get a little ticked. Let the violence increase! They became more aggressive. During the second half, we even got in a little fight. A player from both teams received a yellow card and had to sit out for 10 minutes (we were happy we didn't get punished alone), which was the rest of the game. The announcer was the best. He told them they had 10 minutes to think about what they'd done. Only at BYU. When one of our players missed a conversion (similar to a field goal), which we'd like to believe he did on purpose out of pity to the other team, he said, "That was embarrassing." The [Polynesian ?] accent made it that much better. Everyone laughed at that.

We won the game 80-0, despite the fact that the female ref had no idea what she was doing. There were a lot of unhappy people who thought she shouldn't be on the field and that she was having a female power trip due to so many bad calls.

The weather was crazy today. It just confirmed my hatred towards Utah weather. It a bit last night so I thought it was going to be cold today. By the time it was time to leave for the game, the sun was out and it had warmed up. It was warm until the game started and then the sun disappeared. During half time, the sun made a brief appearance before becoming MIA again. During the second half, the wind picked up and it started lightly snowing. I was freezing for the last 20 minutes of the game.

One thing I enjoyed at the game was listening to this girl behind me. She had many witty comments and she was just funny. I think they could tell I was eavesdropping because of my laughing. When she started taking pictures she said she felt like the team mom, but she'd rather be dating one of the players. I thought that was pretty funny. And true. There are a few decent looking beefy men on the team. There's also a lot of good looking guys that go watch rugby. Now I know where to go to pick up guys next year (if I don't already have one).

Yesterday was Thursday, Today it is Friday

Well, technically it's now Saturday (If you don't already know the days of the week, Rebecca Black can teach you with one of the worst songs ever written here), but I'm not asleep yet so it's still Friday for me.

So the activity tonight was fun. It was nice to get to know people a little better and refresh names from Monday. We were split into teams based on the color of our name tags. We just did a relay with eight different tasks: water balloon toss across the pool, sing I'm a little teapot with the actions, one item scavenger hunt (draw a slip of paper from a cup with something on it to find), walk like a gorilla around the clubhouse, make a paper airplane and make it into a garbage can, find Hershey kisses buried in flour without using your hands (meaning your face), walk around the pool with an egg on a spoon, and break an item free from ice. My team came in first! Our prize was we got to get dessert first, which was cupcakes and strawberry shortcake. Both were delicious. The funniest part by far was watching people getting covered in flour. After the activity, some people stayed and played S.C.U.M. (you play with a pool table).

What the cupcakes looked like on the stand.

After we cleaned up, a group of us decided we didn't want the fun to end. We came up with getting a movie from Redbox and pizza from Papa Murphy's. We did the family deal (family size pizza, cookie dough, cheesy bread and 2 liter drink), another large pepperoni, and a free medium cheese because one guy has a starving student card. There was seven of us that planned this, plus a few roommates, and some people that came just to eat. We ended up with five pieces of pepperoni (Two of which I plan to eat cold for breakfast. YUM!), two cheese and one slice of cheesy bread. Not bad, huh? It was the guys. We watched How to Train a Dragon (it was the only movie left to rent) Such a good movie. I've seen it a couple times already and I still like it. Thank goodness for peripheral vision, because I saw something moving on the pillow next to me out of the corner of my eye and it turned out to be a spider. I jumped up and ran to the kitchen while one of the guys killed it for me. Needless to say, everyone laughed at me.

Then we sat around talking and Trevor decided to show us a magic trick with cards. After that we each stuck a card on our foreheads and tried to guess which card we had after asking three yes or no questions. One guy, Phil (we were at his apartment and I'm not a huge fan of him...he's funny, but he doesn't know where or when to stop. He's also kind of arrogant.), was asking questions that made it obvious he already knew what he had. We were trying to figure out how. I figured it was the microwave since he was standing across from it. I tried to see if it worked, but I'm short so I could barely see. I already figured that my card was heart. It was already my third guess and from the reflection in the microwave I could tell it was a higher number. I knew it was either a six or an eight so I went with eight. I was right! Everyone was shocked that I got it. I admitted I did cheat a little bit, but not completely since I couldn't clearly see in the microwave.

People still weren't ready to go home so we talked some more and watched some YouTube videos. It was around midnight when the group finally broke up. Today was such a good day, except for the fact that it was SNOWING. Hopefully the weather is a little nicer tomorrow (it could be cold, just without rain or snow) because Ally and I are going to the last Rugby game. 

Finito!

It's done! My cupcake stand is completed. I like it a lot. Obviously it's not perfect, but it looks good enough for me. Here are the pictures. Let me know what you think :)

You can kind of see the wrinkles I mentioned on the top tier.
They don't look too bad and you won't be able to see them
when there are cupcakes on the stand.

I can't wait to use it tomorrow!!

Jamba Day

Today was a Jamba day. I texted Ally asking her if she wanted to get Jamba Juice and that I'd buy since I still had gift cards from over a year ago. The weather was so nice and it just felt like the perfect day to get a yummy smoothie from Jamba. She had to return something to Target so I tagged along. I have to say that I'm proud of myself for not buying their cheap movies.

After Target we made a pit stop at Jo-Anns before going to Jamba so I could get the supplies to make my cupcake stand. Tonight I started working on it. The paper I used is frosting with sprinkles so it's very fitting for a cupcake stand. I wanted something that would look good with most decorative cupcake liners that I'd use and I think the paper I picked will. I also bought yellow and green ribbon and pink sewing pins. When I glued the paper to the cake boards, it looked smooth, but got some wrinkles as it dried. Normally, I would be upset by this because I get a little OCD when it comes to my crafts and projects. Actually, I think the wrinkles add character and texture and I like the way it looks. Plus, it's a homemade cupcake stand so it's okay for it not to be perfect.

I'll post pictures tomorrow once I've assembled it and the tiers have finished drying. I used modge podge for the top of the paper because I didn't want the paper to get ruined by grease from the cupcakes. The bottoms of cupcakes get greasy if the liners aren't foil lined. I would hate to have all my hard work be wasted after being used once. I'm pretty pleased with the way things are looking so far. I'm going to use it on Friday. There's a ward activity (the flyer said, "Looking for a future date?") for getting to know each other since there's new people and I'm making cupcakes. It's just going to be a fun little get-to-know-you activity. I can't wait to display cute little cupcakes on cute little cupcakes stand that I made. I'll be sure to take pictures of that too, so you get the whole experience. I'm so excited about this. No surprise there, huh?

Words to the Wise

I really love the way my blog looks now and I really wanted to post something. So... here are more things I learned and liked from conference. Enjoy being enlightened or just refresh your memory.

Russell M. Nelson

• Our faith now becomes part of our posterity's faith later
• Parent's bear the primary responsibility of strengthening the children's faith
• Obedience allows God's blessings to flow without constraint
• Unfailing faith is fortified through prayer
• President Monson said, "...Fear not. Be of good cheer. The future is as bright as your faith."

Richard J. Maynes

• Learning, teaching, and practicing the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ in our homes helps create a culture where the spirit can dwell
• Parents are responsible for teaching their children in love and righteousness. Parents will be held accountable  before the Lord in how they perform their sacred responsibilities.
• We should do everything in our power to establish a Christ-centered home

Dallin H. Oaks (I really loved this talk)

• Desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions.
• The desires we act on determine our changing, our achieving, and our becoming.
• Righteous desires cannot be superficial, impulsive, or temporary. They must be heartfelt, unwavering, and permanent.

President Uchtdorf

• Those who diligently seek to learn of Christ eventually will come to know him
• If we ignore the promptings of the spirit, they become less noticeable until we can't hear them at all
• Selfless acts of service and consecration refine our spirits
• By becoming the answer to some else's prayer, we often find the answer to our own - I've actually noticed this in my own life
• The most effective way to preach the gospel is through example

Paul V. Johnson

• "No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted." ~Orson F. Whitney - This was the second time this quote was shared during conference. Repetition = important. It may not seem like it when you're dealing with things, but afterwards you realize that it's true. This is something that I struggled with for a long time. Now I'm grateful for the opportunities I'm given to grow, even when they are difficult or painful.
• We need to remember that "after much tribulation come the blessings" (D&C 58:4)
• We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13) - I know for me, having a testimony of the atonement and knowing that Christ has been where I am gives me the strength I need to overcome whatever come my way. 
• Whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day (Alma 36:3) - We need to have faith. We need to "trust in the Lord with all thine heart" (Proverbs 3:5, yay for scripture mastery)

Silvia H. Allred

• Loving and serving one another is the essence of discipleship in the Church of Christ
• When love becomes the guiding principle in our care for others, our service to them becomes the gospel in action
• The pure love of Christ is expressed as we give selfless service

Change...

I finally decided to use the new template designer for blogger. It's been around for awhile, but I've put off using it because I wasn't sure if I'd like it or not. Well, I used it and right now I'm regretting it. I don't like the way my blog looks now and I can't change it back (they don't offer the simple template I was using anymore). I like how there is more variety in the fonts I can use, but I'm still frustrated with the overall outcome. Now I'm probably going to keep messing with it so it will most likely look slightly different each time you look at it. I might even get a new background and just change the whole thing like I did last year. Ugh...whoever said change was good was stupid. Not really, I'm just unhappy with the way my blog currently looks.

28 Minutes Later...

So I'm back editing this post to say in less than thirty minutes my heart is now once again at peace with the way my blog looks. *sigh of relief* Yay!! It might seem ridiculous to you how I got worked up over something so trivial, but I would like to be pleased with it's appearance since it represents me in way. I like the background a lot and I kept some of my green. I love how it pops and looks great with the yellow-ish gold and gray. I can now agree that change is good, it's just we need to learn how to adjust to those changes. Even changes that seem bad. It's all about our attitude. If we learn to embrace changes positively and with optimism, we'll soon see that things aren't so bad after all. This may not work for everything, but I'm sure does for most.

Slightly Annoyed

So, you would think that after a roommate has moved out, they wouldn't call you up at 11:45pm to ask to borrow something of yours. Well, that's what I thought and apparently I thought wrong. Manju called to ask if she could borrow my iPod dock because some of her friends were having a party. I probably should have said no, but I didn't. I mean, Manju's a nice girl and all, but because of how things are in her culture she sometimes does things that we would consider rude or unsanitary. Curious? I think I've mentioned before about how she's used my pots and pans without asking. That doesn't bother me as much as when she uses metal on them (they're non-stick so this ruins them) and how my biggest pan has this crud stained on it. My pots & pans were bought last summer so in less than a year of use, some already look a few years old. Yeah, I'm still kind of peeved about it even though there is nothing I can do to change it. Here't the unsanitary part. She used to rake my washcloth that I use to clean my dishes and use it to clean her desk and shelf in our room. I once even saw her use it to wipe the kitchen floor. Then she put it back in the sink! Luckily I saw so I knew not to use it, but how many other times had that happened before I saw it? Gross. She did this during the final cleaning check too. She took a new rag I had just put out and wiped down her side of the room and washed the kitchen floor, with chemicals. She still put it back. Call me dramatic, but I could have died! Okay, maybe just gotten poisoned, but still. Like I said, she's a nice girl and I enjoyed rooming with her, but I'm not going to miss her too terribly. Let's hope my iPod dock returns home safely and in proper working condition.

On a happier note...
Marjorie and I got out new roommate, Christina (I'm not sure if this is how she spells it yet). She seems nice. definitely different than Arianna, Rylee and Marjorie. It will be interesting to see how things go. She was coughing a lot today, you know, that deep cough. I really hope I don't get sick from her. Sharing germs is not the kind of roommate bonding I have in mind.

All the new people moved in today. Apparently they all know each other from their last ward, or most of them do anyway. We did FHE as a ward tonight and we did the typical introductions and played "Do you love your neighbor?" which was a lot of fun. Everyone sits in a circle and there's one person in the middle. They ask someone if they love their neighbor. If they answer no, then the people on both sides of them have to switch places while the person in the middle tries to grab a seat. If they answer yes, they say, "but I I don't love people ..."(wearing jeans, can speak a different language, etc). Whatever they say, anyone that it applies to has to switch seats while the person who's it tries to get a seat. I pretty much fell on one of the new guys while trying to get a seat. Embarrassing first impression. Luckily, I wasn't the only one falling on guys. Ally basically landed in a new guy's lap. You can see why we're friends. From how FHE went, I can tell this is going to be a fun ward. Maybe even better than before. We'll see.

The purple one on the bottom left is the one with melanoma. I wish  I would've
taken pictures of us actually dyeing them so you could see everyone, but I forgot.
I only remembered to take a picture with my phone at the last minute. 

After FHE, Marjorie, Ally, and I dyed eggs. Ally's roommates Jane (new) and Katelyn joined us and we invited a a guys apartment (all new guys) to also join us. They came over under the impression we were doing an Easter egg hunt, but they had fun dyeing eggs . Some turned out very interesting. We were drawing on them with sharpies, crayons, and putting on rubber bands. One of the guys, Chris, he drew melanoma on one of the eggs. Melanoma. Really? The other guys are named Chris (yes there are two and no I'm not sure about spelling this one also looks better than the other), Brian, Patty (Pat, Patrick, whatever you want to call him;he reminds me of Joseph Wiest-looks and personality), Sky (he's super tall), and David. They're pretty cool. I mean, we wouldn't have invited them to join us if they weren't.

The eggs were to wet to hide them so we skipped the hunt. Patty, Sky and Chris (good looking) went to Walmart. Ally, Marjorie and Jane went over to their apartment to watch a movie with the three remaining guys. We watched The Italian Job. Great movie. I really should buy because I've watched it multiple times and it never fails to make me laugh. We actually realized while watching it that the "evil" guy's mustache is crooked. Or maybe it's just his mouth. while we were leaving, we noticed there was a hiking boot left outside their back door (the Sparks apartments are townhouse style and have two doors) filled with pretzels and cheese-type stuff. Random. Walking back to my apartment I have to go past their front door, where I saw the other boot! Also filled with a cheese like product. I couldn't see any pretzels. I had to laugh at that and text Ally.

Anyways, it's been a great day. I also I made lemon poppyseed muffins with a lemon glaze early in the afternoon after hard boiling the eggs (it was my first time and I'd call it a success even though there were a few mishaps that I'm not going to tell you ;) ) . Delicious! I think they played a key role as to how my day was good and just kept getting better. Food can do that you know. Never underestimate the power of food. Food is magic. I love food. Ok, I'm done. Hope eveyone had an enjoyable Monday like I did, which is rare (because it's a Monday and Mondays are just meant to suck).

"Loneliness is the ultimate poverty." ~Abigail Van Buren

Ever since my roommates left me on Friday, I've been lonely and extremely bored (Ally and Marjorie both went home for Easter weekend). I miss having Rylee and Arianna around to talk to. The apartment is too quiet. Marjorie, who is going to be my roommate in the fall, is living in Arianna and Rylee's room for the summer. We will get a new roommate tomorrow; I believe her name is Christina. She will be in the private room. So all three of us will have our own rooms for the summer. It's kind of weird having my own room. My room is so empty. I don't like it. I hate looking at the ugly empty bed, though it does provide a nice place to fold laundry (of course, I put a blanket down before setting clean clothes on a disgusting old mattress). 

There are a few people that are staying for spring/summer like me. Church today was interesting. There was maybe 25 of us and we all stayed together for all three meetings. That was a first for me. It was kind of nice though. I can't wait to see all the new people move in tomorrow. There was only one new guy today and a couple girls.

Tomorrow, Ally and I are going to dye eggs. I don't know if we're still going to ask new people since they are just moving in. I probably would be willing  if more had moved in yesterday. I will be sure to post pictures of our beautiful eggs tomorrow.

I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter Sunday!

Clean, Clear and Under Control

Anyone who knows me can tell you I'm not a fan of cleaning. I like the feeling when everything is clean and organized, but I'm not a fan of the process it takes to get there. Lucky for me, I've spent the last two days cleaning and getting ready for the "white glove" cleaning check our apartments do at the end of each semester. It's been a long and somewhat grueling process, but I'm finally done and I passed!

To prepare for this arduous task I went to Walmart a few days ago and bought some cleaning supplies. Usually I can get away with just using baking soda to clean, but it's "white glove" so I figured I should buy the real stuff. I also found these cute gloves to help motivate me in my future cleaning endeavors. They're really dish washing gloves, but I'm going to make them my bathroom cleaning gloves. The best part about them is that they're green!

Here's what I did:

• vacuumed the apartment
• cleaned the windows, window sills, the tracks, and the blinds
• cleaned the vent/heater, which was very dusty and I cut my finger on it
• cleaned the baseboards
• vacuumed the couch- there are no attachments so I had to lift the vacuum (even held it sideways at times) to clean the couches and cushions
• my room- I swear it looks better now than when I first moved in...let's hope it stays that way. 

*I'm thinking of maybe doing a little video tour of my apartment for y'all once everyone is moved out and the place looks really clean*

This evening after my cleaning check, Chas invited Rylee and me to go fly kites. We went to the same place we flew the plane. There was another guy there by himself so I helped him with his while Chas helped Rylee. The guy couldn't remember my name. I told him three times within five minutes. He also called me Mary and Meagan/Meghan (however you like to spell it). Those aren't even close to Wendi. Is my name really that hard to remember? Chas told me I was nice to help him with his kite and that the guy should've gotten my number. Um...One: he couldn't remember my name and Two: he wasn't the best looking (not that looks are all I care about, but they help). The wind didn't last for very long. We rolled down the hill a few times and then went to Macy's (it's a grocery store) for ice cream. They have the same kind of ice cream as King Kone back in Albany. They're just as big too.

Rylee is leaving tomorrow morning. Since she just started packing tonight, I decided to help her out by doing most of her stuff for her cleaning check. She wouldn't let me do all of it. She's planning on staying up all night so I'm going to with her. When she's done packing we're going to watch a movie. 

I actually stopped writing this post for a while because Alina called me. She said she kind of had a problem and needed my advice. It was a boy problem! She's 13...she shouldn't have boy problems yet. This boy likes her and asked her out over Facebook. Her friends can tell he likes her and one of them asked him if he liked her (she doesn't like him like that), which gave him the impression that Alina likes him back. Alina wanted help on how to reject him without being mean. 13 and already a heart breaker. I can only imagine what the future is going to be like. I told her there is no nice way to reject a guy so she should just do it. Alina is just growing up too fast! She's going to call me tomorrow to let me know how it goes and I look forward to it. I even told Rylee why Alina called me (while Alina was still on the phone) because I thought it was just too cute and funny to keep to myself. 

*I looked the kid up on Facebook (I'm not a creeper, just a protective older sister) awhile ago because he commented on of her statuses saying he need to talk to her. Alina wrote back asking what he wanted. He said it was really important and to give him her number. I asked her about it. She used her friends phone (because she didn't want him to have her number) only to find out the important thing was that he wanted to say hi. Ah...little kids are so cute sometimes.* 

Anyway, it's been a little stressful and frustrating having to do so much cleaning, but I love the satisfying feeling and being able to see all my hard work. Last night I even washed all my bedding (comforter included). I love sleeping in a clean bed and I love how it smells clean. I just love when things are clean. If only they could magically become that way without me having to sweat, get cut, and smell like Windex & 409. 

Spring Has Sprung!

So it finally feels like spring in Provo. There have been a few sporadic nice days, but it's been consistently warm out lately so I feel like spring is here to stay. I really hope there is no more snow until winter, but it is Utah so there are no guarantees.

It was my last day attending the BYU 232nd Ward and not just because it was the last Sunday of the semester. They have reorganized boundaries and changed names. Now all the student wards are called Young Single Adult Wards. I now belong to the Provo, Utah Young Single Adult 250th Ward. Isn't that a mouthful? My first though was how to put that on a tithing slip. Today after church Ally and I went on a short walk because we just didn't want to be inside. I love looking at all the trees that are covered in blossoms and seeing all the pretty flowers popping up everywhere. Another thing I'm loving is having the windows open! It's such a small thing, but it brings me joy. I was reading more conference talks while laying on my bed and the breeze felt heavenly. Seriously, I'm loving it it like no other. I'm really not cut out to live in a place that has as much snow as Utah.

I don't have nice curtains that move in the breeze, I have plastic blinds.  I find the
sound they make when they move surprisingly nice instead of annoying.

Another thing that has made me happy recently is that my Scentsy warmer is working again! I finally ordered a new light bulb. It's been out of commission since October, so I'm glad to have it finally filling making room smell good once again. Not that my room smells bad without it.

Other random things that don't have to do with Spring:
-Rylee's brother texted her the other day saying he liked my blog. I don't know him. He Googled her name and my blog popped up. Apparently he liked what I had to say regarding Rylee. Hearing this actually made my day. I just love when people read my blog.
-Yesterday was the five year anniversary since I was confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Woo-hoo! It was nice to reminisce about what a time that was since it took so long for me to get to that point. Being LDS had made such a huge difference in my life. It was one of the best decisions I've ever made. Not that I'm saying anything about people that get baptized at eight, but I like how I was older. I mean I would have at eight if I could have, but because I was older I feel as if I appreciate it more. I understood everything and I can remember that day pretty clearly.
-Ally and I are planning on dyeing eggs the day after Easter because we want to do it with other people, but it's a bad week with finals and moving. We decided to do it that Monday and maybe invite some new boys that move in to join us.
-I figured out why that Asian celebrity post has gotten so many views (it's gotten 371 since I wrote it and has helped my total page views to reach over a thousand). The pictures I used are really good ones and a lot of girls have the same taste as I do. The pictures I used are one of the first to come up when they are searched on Google, so the page views are just going to keep going up. I'd like to believe that maybe one or two out of the hundreds that look at my blog for the pictures might actually read the post too. It's wishful thinking, I know. But a girl can dream.

The best random thing that makes me happy is that this is my 100th blog post!! I've put a lot of thought and time into my blog and I'm glad it's been successful (even though it's not famous or read by tons of people).

The Revolution Continues

The Food Revolution that is. One of my favorite shows is back for it's second season: Jamie's Food Revolution. When the show first aired I had no idea who Jamie Oliver was, but now I'm a huge fan! I love what he's done for his own country and I love what he's trying to do in ours. For anyone that doesn't know what I'm talking about, it's a reality/documentary type show where a famous chef (Jamie) tries to make healthy changes to school lunches, lifestyle changes for families, and just tries to make the public more aware of the obesity epidemic and how to prevent it from worsening.

"I wish for everyone to help create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again, and empower people everywhere to fight obesity."  ~Jamie

I love when Jamie does his dramatic demonstrations to get his point across. On the second season premier he was talking about meat and being aware of where it comes from, because there could be AMMONIA in it! I know I can't explain it well enough so I'm just going to let you watch it. It's not the best quality, but it works.



His second demonstration was to show how much sugar is consumed in a week from flavored milk. I really hate how flavored milk is in schools. It's not necessary. Yeah if you took it away, milk consumption will go down. But if there isn't really another option, eventually they'll take it. If you start the school year without it, it wouldn't be as traumatic as taking it away in the middle of the year. Also, all the new kindergarteners wouldn't even know about flavored milk. Start 'em off right! Anyway, for the demo he filled a school bus with the sugar which ended up totaling 54 tons and took over a half our to pump into the bus (which obviously overflowed). One of those little cartons of flavored milk has more sugar than a can of pop and a can of pop has 12 teaspoons of sugar. You can watch this demonstration below.

Jamie Oliver is one of my heroes and he has convinced me to never let my future children eat school food. If they want it like once or twice a month when they're older then maybe I'll let them, but not while they're younger. I never ate school food in high school and I greatly cut down on how often I bought it in middle school because I realized how gross it was (even though I qualified for free or reduced lunch). Sometimes they had good food, but more often than not it looked questionable. I get turned off when my food doesn't look like it's supposed to.

I probably didn't explain that meat process very well and I left out a lot of what was covered in the episode. I HIGHLY recommend this show! If you don't watch t.v. you should make an exception for this. It's very educational and something all parents or future parents should see.

Whoa!

I know it's my third post today, but I thought this was interesting so I had to share. I checked my blog stats (something I do frequently now out of curiosity). Today my Boy You Look So Fine post with the pictures of good lookin' Asians had received 70 views TODAY! Just today. Making a total of 87 this week and 90 since I posted it. How crazy is that?!? I wonder what is so special about today. They aren't even all Asian countries.

The countries are:

• United States
• Philippines
• Malaysia
• Indonesia
• Australia
• India
• Peru
• Vietnam
• Bolivia
• Russia

Google led them to my blog for the pictures of Kim Bum, Dennis Oh and No Min Woo. No one wanted my Lee Min Ho. That's okay, that means there's no competition. I hear he's looking for a girlfriend.

I Love Old Men

Not in a weird way, but in that aww...what a cute old man kind of way. The way you love your grandpa kind of way. Why am I talking about old men? Because a little over a week ago, I had the opportunity to listen to some very special and profound lovely old men of God. I'm referring to General Conference. For anyone that doesn't know what I'm talking about, feel free to find out here (yay for a possible missionary opportunity!). Anyways, I love conference. It may not appear that way when I happen to fall asleep every time, but I really do. Even with enough sleep the night before, I still have to fight the ever increasing weight of my eyelids as I watch. Which brings me back to old men. I think it's their voices. There's something so soothing about listening to old men talk. Am I the only one that feels that way? It's sad that I miss out on some great insights, inspiring words, and important  life counsel when I lose the fight with my eyelids. I am getting better though, I stayed awake for more conference this time compared to October. Lucky for me they put the talks online and have the conference edition of the Ensign.

I've started reading the talks online, including the ones I was awake for. I missed some good quotes because I couldn't write fast enough or I lost (or was in the process of losing) the head bobbing battle. You know what I'm talking about. So just a heads up, future posts will probably be conference related as I read and find things I like and want to share.

One that I read today was by President Boyd K. Packer, titled "Guided By the Holy Spirit". One quote from his talk that I really liked was, "If you have been offended, forgive, forget it, and leave it alone." I needed to hear this one after an incident last week. There were some comments in a family newsletter that really upset and offended me. I need to forgive this person because they are dealing with their own pain regarding a certain matter and I need to forget about it. I have no problem with leaving it alone because I don't want to cause problems by saying anything about it. I'm a person that tries to avoid confrontation as much as possible, unless it's really necessary. Then I have no problem (*cough* my mother).

Another thing I liked from his talk came from the title page of The Book of Mormon. "And now, if there are faults they are the mistakes of men; wherefore, condemn not the things of God, that ye may be found spotless at the judgment-seat of Christ." I think more people need to learn this. Bad things happen to good people. Bad things happen to everyone. Don't blame God for these things. Yeah he gives us some difficult roadblocks in our lives, but it's not all him. There are other people responsible. A few years ago when my world was falling apart, surprisingly I didn't blame my Heavenly Father for what was happening. I did think "why me?"(who doesn't?), but I didn't blame him and think how he could let this happen to my family. [The why me was really more along the lines of "why more crap?" (because I've had my fair share), rather than why me instead of someone else. Not that I'm saying other people don't go through as much as me, because I'm not.]

This actually goes with something from Elder Richard's talk. "Opposition is part of our Heavenly Father's plan of happiness. We all encounter enough to bring us to an awareness of our Father's love and of our need for the Savior's help." He goes on to say, "The savior is not a silent observer. He himself knows personally and infinitely the pain we face." This is so true. Confession: I know I'm definitely more consistent with my prayers when I'm going through a difficult or painful trial because I become more aware of the fact that I need more help and comfort than others can give me. It always reconfirms and strengthens my testimony of faith, prayer, and the atonement.

President Packer ended with this counsel: Do a lot of forgiving and a little repenting. I know forgiving people is hard. It's something I admit to struggling with and I'm sure many other people do too. But here's a thought. Which is harder? Forgiving someone or having to repent (admitting your mistakes to God and asking him for forgiveness)? Yes, I can be deep sometimes.

Juicy!

So yesterday for church I wore my new Mary Kay vinyl lip shine (the shade is called audacious) for church with one of my new headbands. Chas sat next to us in sacrament meeting. Before it started, he looked at me and said my lips looked especially juicy. Arianna and I busted up laughing (we're so reverent). That was a first for me, being told I had juicy lips. When we were laughing he said he meant luscious. Like that's any better? We just kept laughing at him. It was both a flattering and embarrassing moment.

I've mentioned my new headbands, but I haven't put up pictures yet. So here they are in all their beautiful glory.

Here's what the flower looks like from the side in case you forgot, except the middle of mine looks a little different.

Do my lips look juicy and luscious? Hahaha!

Super Sunday

So today was one of the most eventful Sundays I've had in awhile. It was our last Sunday going to church all together as roommates (well, minus Kristin) so we decided to end with a bang. This morning, I made German pancakes with fruit and whipped cream for everyone. For dinner, Arianna prepared a roast with carrots, potatoes and onions that cooked while were at church. We also wrapped potatoes and carrots in tin foil to cook so they wouldn't touch the meat because Manju is a vegetarian (something I could NEVER be). We invited Ally and Marjorie (but Ally forgot and made plans to go home) and Rylee's cousin came. We moved the table to the living room and used Arianna's nice plates (she was the only one that had enough matching plates). We made the table look as fancy as we could with what [random] little we had. I attempted to make gravy (no one else wanted to) and it turned out okay. Could've been better, but it was my first time so I'd call it a success. Everyone ate it. There was also a salad. For dessert, Marjorie brought us chocolate chip banana muffins. They were yummy! It was a nice and fun dinner that really made us feel like a little family. I'm glad my roommate situation has taken a complete 180 from last year.

Arianna and Manju's home teachers came over at 5:00. Chas is one of them, he's pretty awesome. I've written about him before. Anyway, I sat in because my home teachers haven't come this semester. I don't even know their names. Well, I know one, but not the other. Chas brought over his guitar and played What a Wonderful World and we all sang along. That was pretty much the lesson. He said it kind of goes with the resurrection. Isn't he a cool home teacher? He may not be conventional, but at least he gets the job done.

Around 6:30, I decided to take a nap. I had been running on four hours of sleep. Last  night I was feeling tired around midnight, but Manju was talking on the phone and I didn't want to kick her out. By the time she was done talking (sometime after one), the tired feeling had passed. I tried to fall asleep, but I couldn't. After laying in bed for over an hour, I tried listening to my iPod, but it didn't work. The last time I looked at the time before falling asleep was around 4:30. I'm one of those people where I'm awake if I'm woken up from sleeping, even if I'm tired. I can't go back to sleep right away. Sometimes I can, but not usually. If I'm tired, but don't go to sleep, the feeling fades and I'm stuck staying awake for a while.

 So I fell asleep and I was woken up (by Manju, Arianna told me she didn't planning on waking me up cause she knew how tired I was) to be asked if I wanted to go with them to fly Chas's plane that he made for a class. I had only been asleep for 10 minutes! I have to admit, I seriously wanted to cry because I was so tired and had finally gotten to sleep, only to be woken up right away. I said no initially, but because of my weird sleeping problems (ugh!), I couldn't fall back to sleep so I decided to go. They could tell I was a little annoyed (understatement).

We went behind the temple to the same place we go ice blocking to fly his plane. The steep hills did not make collecting the plane fun once it landed (more like crashed). We had a few okay flights and then Arianna took over the control. She crashed it and it broke. We all laughed, except Arianna. She felt so bad, but Chas had already gotten it graded and he said it was an easy fix so it was all good.

Chas with his dead plane.

What made flying the plane even better was that Chas's friend who also came (and helped build the plane) read President Uchtdorf's talk titled, "Of Things That Matter Most" (October 2010 Conference). Why? Because he mentions a plane [no surprise there :)] so it justified going to fly a plane on Sunday. 

All in all it was a great day, except for being dead tired and woken up right after falling asleep.

Happy Day of Birth

TO MY BLOG!!! Yep, I started this blog exactly one year ago. I really didn't think I would last this long in the blogging world. I figured I would be inconsistent like with writing in my journal, but here I am 94 posts later. I've done a pretty good job at writing often and I'm proud of myself for that. I recently looked back at older posts and really enjoyed it. I got to reminisce on the good and bad times and reflect on myself and how I've changed over this past year. Because of blogging, I don't really write in my journal anymore because that's basically what my blog is, minus the really personal stuff (which is why I should start writing in my journal again). I've realized that blogging has been pretty therapeutic for me during the difficult times I faced and just in general. It's nice to have an outlet for any and all of my thoughts. It's also an easy way to let family what I'm up to without having to explain Facebook pictures over the phone. I'm thankful to everyone who takes the time to read my blog and I hope to keep consistently providing you with something to read.

Look Good, Feel Good

Today I felt like being cute. It wasn't because of a boy, but for myself. There are some days where you just want to look good for yourself because you feel good about yourself. Nobody else's opinion matters. Today was one of those days. I curled my hair, put on my red lipstick sample from last week's MK party and wore my new bow.

For FHE we played capture the flag at a nearby park with a bunch of other FHE families. I was definitely the best dressed. Trevor said I definitely looked ready to play. I got lots of compliments saying I looked cute or nice today. Who doesn't love a good compliment? They boost my self esteem rocket sky high. Claudia asked if I was going for the Grease look today. She said I looked like Sandy when she got her sexy on at the end. Now I really want to watch that movie. I'm amazed it's not part of my collection yet. Yet being the operative word.

Whatya think? Twins?

I didn't stay the whole time because someone had to be home when our MK stuff was dropped off. Looking the way I did, I was the perfect person to leave early. Plus, capture the flag isn't really my thing. Overall today was a good day. I read some things and heard some things that attempted to ruin my good day and ticked me off a little, but talking to Nana (for the first time in like half a month because of all her travelling) made me feel better. I love how talking to family (well, certain family members) can do that. I love my family.

Blueberry Pancakes

Today was the first day of General Conference. Arianna and Rylee are in Clinton visiting Rylee's grandparents for conference weekend. Ally was over yesterday because Arianna hosted a Mary Kay party (there was only the four of us). I finally got my red lipstick! Well it's actually red vinyl lip shine. I like gloss more than lipstick so I went with it. I love how red is just so BAM in your face! I love it and I can't wait to get it on Monday. Afterwards, we were talking about plans for the weekend and Ally invited me over to watch conference at her apartment since she has a t.v. I was planning to just watch it online. We decided to do breakfast together too. We went to the store last night and we decided on blueberry pancakes. Ally was thinking the boxed blueberry pancake mix. Yuck! Are those even real blueberries? I was thinking more along the lines of pancakes with frozen blueberries. Ally has never had real blueberry pancakes before. Can you believe that? How is that even possible? So this morning I went over at 9:30 and we ate blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs and oranges. It was yummy and conference was good. When isn't it?

The apartment is so quiet and empty without Arianna and Rylee. I miss them. Tomorrow will be another great, but quiet day (until they come back).