Arcadia #12

(A very bad picture of our complex that I found online. The window on the left is our apartment.)

Tonight at ward prayer, it was our apartment's turn to introduce ourselves and do the spiritual thought and payer. We took turns reading three [interesting, more or less] things about one of the girls in our apartment and had everyone else guess who it was. My facts were fourth and my name was guessed first for the three previous. I guess they thought it would be cool if I had driven a 12 seater van to school everyday. Too bad that was Arianna. Although everyone was wrong multiple times, it was fun to hear my name guessed a lot. People know who I am! That's always good.

Personal note: I actually have become quite the social butterfly this past school year. Yay me!

Anyway, when my first fact was read (I live on a farm), there were some people who knew right away. My second fact was that I'm taller than my mom. It confused some people because you would think Arianna because she is so tall. Tricky, huh? My third one was that I've never been to a school formal. True and very shocking to some people. I never had that much of an interest in them and my high school's dances was like watching people have sex with clothes on. Don't need to see that! I did go to my stake's modest prom, so I didn't completely miss out on the experience.

Anyway, today was a good Sunday. Chas is one of Arianna and Manju's home teachers and they came over today. He brought his guitar and played a little for us. I also watched The Proposal to get a jump start on Valentine's Day. I love love love this movie. It's so cute! Betty White's character as Grandma Annie (aka Gammy) reminds me so much of Mimi (my great grandmother). Though she's ripe with age, I hope she sticks around for a long time. I don't know what I'd do without my Mimi.

I'm so excited for our FHE pink elephant gift exchange tomorrow. I'm also making cupcakes. I really wanted to do red velvet (duh, it's my fave and v-day), but I made them last time I did cupcakes for FHE. This time I'm doing chocolate and using the pink striped baking cups I got for Christmas. The baking aisle at the store last night was CRAZY! almost all the cake mixes (the normal flavors anyway) were gone and I had to ask for help to get frosting because it was too high or too far back on the shelf for me to reach. I hate having to do that. It's embarrassing.

I think that's pretty much it for now. I will post tomorrow about FHE. I can't wait for someone to unwrap mine!

Dollar Store Escapades

(This is false advertising in Utah because when you buy one item, you can't just fork over a dollar bill. You need a dollar and seven cents. Liars.)

For FHE on Monday, which happens to be Valentines Day (aka single awareness day), we are doing a pink elephant gift exchange. Arianna and I went to Honk's (a dollar store) and found some things that screamed pink elephant. Arianna found a basketball shaped alarm clock. Then she decided to buy a picture frame that holds three photos. She's going to put pictures of herself in it. How funny is that? She'll probably give the clock to Rylee to use since she didn't go with us. I found these guns that are similar to an airsoft gun. The gun comes with a police badge and you can stick your picture in it. I figured the guys would have fun with them (I bought two so they can shoot each other, one just wouldn't be fun).

While checking out, I saw something that is THE definition of a white (in this case pink) elephant gift. A PREGNANCY TEST! Yes, for a dollar. I bought it and received a lovely look from the almost elderly cashier. I almost didn't buy it because Arianna said she wouldn't when I asked her opinion. I understand what she was saying. It would be hilarious if a guy got it; however, if a girl picked it, it could awkward (especially on v-day). Plus, not everyone has the same sense of humor that I do.

While in the middle of doing my dishes, Chas and Joe came over to ask us to go elephant shopping with them. We told them we had just gone. A few minutes later Chas came back and said we should still go with him. I said I would after I finished my dishes. Chas, being the amazing guy he is, dried while I washed. While working as a team, I got his opinion about the pregnancy test and whether I should use it as my gift. Chas loved it! He thinks it's a pretty sweet idea. I decided that I would just do it and use the guns as a real gift to give them afterwards. Arianna decided to go with us, even though she said she was going to do homework the rest of the night.

I just wanna say Chas' car is like an instant party. We had music blaring and he had cookies and cheez-its in his car. There are three seats up front so we just sat in a row. We went to the Dollar Tree. They have a better selection than Honk's. We had fun in toy aisle trying on alligator hats and playing with other things. Well, I was the one mostly playing. Chas settled on women's deodorant and one of those sleeping eye mask things that said beauty rest on it. What are those called?

By the end, Arianna and Chas thought I was going a little crazy with all the stuff I was finding. I REALLY love the Dollar Tree. It was obvious they thought it was time to get me out of there. We piled back in the party mobile and stuffed our faces some more and had fun making fun of lyrics to all the random songs on the radio while trying to find a good station. It was a fun night, but I ate too much junk food today. While in the car we actually heard a commercial where a little girl said something like, "Junk food is junk...it puts you in a funk...something something punk." How ironic.

Kicked To the Curb

Our apartment has been facing a little drama lately. When you attend BYU or live in BYU approved housing, you sign the Honor Code saying you will live according to certain standards. Breaking any one of the rules or guidelines has consequences. In this case, one roommate is getting evicted. It's a big deal. She gets to stay until April (the send of the semester) and then she has to leave. If she continues to break rules, she will get kicked out immediately. The rest of us our like management's little watch dogs. On Tuesday, three of us met with our bishop to talk about what's been going on and what we've seen. One other roommate already had talked to him the week before and that is what got the ball rolling. There have been incidents where rules have been broken before (like curfew, when guys can no longer be in the apartment), but we haven't said anything because we didn't want to cause problems. The latest one was a big one and we decided we couldn't stay quiet anymore.

The Honor Code may not seem like a huge deal, but it is. Because certain rules have been disregarded by one person, our whole apartment is kind of suffering. We don't feel comfortable in our own home. I hate feeling like I can't go everywhere in my own home because I don't want to see something. We've noticed that the spirit isn't here and it is affecting us. That was one of the biggest things for the bishop. He knows we shouldn't have to deal with these kinds of things because of where we are at.

I think this is ridiculous because you know what you can and can't do when you sign the Honor Code. If you don't want to follow the rules, don't live in BYU approved housing. It sucks for her, but we're happy because we like the location of our apartment. It's the time to think about where to live next year and we were waiting to see what would happen before signing new contracts. Our apartment is upstairs (we don't want to hear people above us and we don't want people walking by to be able to see inside; even when the blinds are closed you can still see inside a little in the downstairs apartments) and right next to the laundry room and the stairs. We like it so we are going to stay, now that things are being taken care of.