Summertime

It's summertime! Which reminds me of a Louie Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald duet... and also,

Which means:

• I survived finals week.
• I graduated from Snow College.
• I already miss it, but I'll love it for life.
• Unpacking has been a whirlwind.
• New goals.
• AND... drumroll please
• A whole batch of summer projects!

My thoughts?

Finals week was like a plane wreck. I thought I was flying along just fine, it was GORGEOUS outside, perfect tennis weather and suddenly I realized I was chained to a desk inside my stinking little airplane, and headed for a crash landing. I studied for Spanish an hour before the test and suddenly felt this nauseous "I think I just forgot everything I ever learned" feeling. Luckily, I think I did okay on all my finals after all, but I was literally working until graduation day on essays, tests, and training the new publicity girls! After the wreck, you come out into the sunlight and look around to see who survived. Those poor engineering and music majors. Rest in peace.

Speaking of plane wrecks though, please enjoy the following clip from my new favorite show "Leverage":

Graduation was longer than the two years we spent at Snow lovely. They had breakfast for us, a march through campus and under the bell tower, all the teachers greeting and clapping for us as we entered the AC (plug for SC teachers, THEY ROCK.) a nice ceremony (apparently someone snuck in beach balls, but I must have been too sleepy to notice, sad!), and a nice little lunch for everyone and families after. If I can say one good thing for Snow, it's that they sincerely care about students. I could say a million good things about Snow, but I'll leave it at this: best two years of my life thus far. You move on and do great things from there, but you will never have another experience like it.

May I just mention that while we may look classy and it may be tradition... I just think the attire for graduation is the weirdest! Haha, that morning we had this conversation:

Martha: If we run there, maybe we'll lose a few pounds and look really good for graduation.

Me: Yes. Since our gowns are so... form fitting.

Martha: We look like whales.

Hahaha, I love that girl. I'm so glad we both survived.

This is my beautiful campus and my gorgeous friend Sam, one of the most amazing girls I know.

Unpacking. Like I said, pure insanity joy... However, it's giving me the opportunity to organize all my stuff and simplify my life. You know how some people are born with a gene that makes them incredibly organized and tidy by nature? You must understand one thing about me. I am a mutant. Meaning, I am not one of those people. There is a method to my madness, but I refer to it as organized chaos. However, it's going on the goal list. I am determined to become organized. If not by nature then by hard work and self-bribery. I'll post pictures when I'm all done with my whole room.

Here's my list so far.

Summer goals and Projects:

• Become a more organized person - as previously stated.
• Learn to do my hair - yes, I can handle a flatiron and a ponytail, but my little sister is showing me up with all these cute dos. Braids. I will conquer braids first. Oh! Today I learned to do bow hair... sounds weird, but I like it :) 

Cute right? Haha I'll try it out. If I look like I'm 5, I'll ditch it.

• Revamp my living space - thank you pinterest ;)
• Hike. Ultimate Frisbee. Tennis. amap (as much as possible!)
• Fix up the moped. Mike, my brother, gets credit for this. He came up with the idea and he will likely be doing most of the fixing (he's so great!) Why get a car when I can drive this baby? Maybe when she's all finished, I'll break a bottle of sparkling cider and give 'er a name.

Ain't she a beaut? This is her former beauty and hopefully what we can restore her to.

• Find housing in Provo and register for my last few classes at BYU. Housing has proved more difficult than I expected. I spent a whole day with Blondie (you know who you are) up in Provo and found either dingy, pricy places or nicer, way pricey places, non-social. Woot. One place I researched even had posted "Home of the Marriage Guarantee" on their website. What? Wait, WHAT?! Oh dear. Hahaha. Oh. Dear. As far as classes, I'm excited to dive headfirst into advertising, continue with Spanish, and take religion classes.
• Check off a few things on my bucket list. There is one that I know of for sure, but it's a secret. It's happening in June and I can't wait! I'll tell you all about it, after it happens :)
• Gardening. It could be my worst enemy, but thanks to another brilliant idea from Mikey himself, we are having a family contest. We each get our own box to plant and care for. At the end of the summer we'll see who has the best produce. Funny right? But the competition is good motivation.

 Don't be fooled by the fact that it looks like Mike is working hard and we are just damsels standing around. We dominated that weedy box we are standing by. Let the planting begin!

 

• Lastly, make friends. If you'll believe it, it's actually pretty hard transitioning between home and college sometimes. At school, you are literally surrounded by people your age. I hung out with the lost boys (an apartment in my ward, I am Wendy) almost every night and had a blast with all the SBAs. Suddenly, I am home. I am LOVING being with the fam. However, it's going to be a new adventure making some new friends. Thank goodness for the cool singles ward out here.

• Oh, and blog more. Haha. Thanks for reading!

Stuck in an Elevator...and other back to school excitement.

Welcome back world! Yes, I realize it's been a while... (Forgive me, and get over it please.) This year will be different, I'll be blogging much more whilst here at Snow College, YEAR 2! Sigh...don't you just love going back to school?! If you don't, don't answer. Believe it or not, a sizable group of nerds like myself really do. This year particularly I'm excited because:

• I made student government as last year ended and we've been getting ready for the year all summer. Now that it's almost here, we are finally getting to the action! I'll admit, it is so much more intense than I could've known. As "communications chair" I am in charge of publicity, technology, and of course, communication. It's one of the few specified positions on the team and while I feel qualified for my duties, sometimes I can't help but feel a bit intimidated and overwhelmed. However, I have learned SO much about leadership and about myself this summer. Especially something that I've probably heard several times in my life, but never paid any attention to: "Leaders aren't born, they are made." I had a total lightbulb moment when I finally got this and realized I really can be a leader. It's a work in progress...
• School supplies. Who doesn't love nice, fresh school supplies?! (Again, if you don't, don't answer.) Especially sharpies, post it notes, and clean notebooks. (And possibly the lack of homework invading the nice, clean files?)
• Moving in! I find it refreshing! I also enjoy the independence that comes with living on my own. It's not as easy having to wash all my dishes by hand, cook for just myself, and adapt to 5 more girls (and less alone time), but it is super rewarding knowing that I can take care of myself and having the responsibility all up to me.
• This year I am absolutely DETERMINED to become a more organized person. Here's the thing, I was born with some pretty cool talents in my opinion, but innate organization was not one of them. Ironically (and thankfully!) Mom has it. She's taught me how to think practically. I'm working on it.
• Ephraim! There really is no place like it. Ephraim has all the best qualities of a quaint little town AND an energetic college hotspot. I love it, I love it, I LOVE IT!
• School. Surprised? Don't be. I'm sure I'll be eating my words sometime this year when I'm ready to take a flamethrower to my homework, but honestly, I love to learn! I can't wait to wake up and learn something every day! The same goes for all the life lessons that come with college and growing up.
• My roommate, Cortney who was a stranger to me last year before I moved in, but has since become one of my best friends. We will be rooming together again and continuing our adventures and 2 am talks. She is adorable, I love her guts. She's got a missionary out, due to come back in March. I do believe we'll be counting down the days. (I'll admit, I wasn't much of a believer in waiting for a missionary before I met Cort and I could definitely never put myself through it, but I support her all the way and can't wait for a wedding this time next year!)
• People. People my age again! And...boys! Close to my age ;)
• New beginnings and new goals. I've always "made" goals, but this year my biggest goal is to follow through on them. When I do, big things are going to happen! Oh it will be great.

Okay, STORY TIME!

Snow College has been around for a while right? Many of the buildings and such are nice and renovated, but the most exciting stuff is the classic old things around campus. So on a campus tour with half of the student government yesterday, one of the girls on the team mentioned an old elevator in the Social Science building. 7 of us piled in and pulled closed the gate (yes, there was a gate instead of doors) and started rising. Halfway up, one of the guys decides to show us how you can open the gate and the elevator will halt, close it and it will start up again. Can you guess what happened next? Right :) We closed the gate and the elevator didn't budge. Various reactions followed, demonstrated by the following quotes: 

"You are in so much trouble, I hope you get arrested." 

"Stop breathing, we'll use up all the air!" 

"Unless we all weigh under 100 pounds, we are definitely over maximum capacity" 

"Write a note on the wall saying 'stuck in the elevator, 8/16/11, love the sbas'" 

"Let's pray!" 

"Time for a rock-paper-scissors tournament" 

and mine: "I'm checking this off my bucket list!"

Half an hour later, the maintenance guys freed us. They did not appear very pleased. Not that I blame them a bit. I was sorry for their inconvenience. However... I'll never forget the day we got stuck in an elevator! :D

Wildfire

It's one of those questions. The kind you ask when you've got nothing else to talk about. When you're on a hike or a long bus ride.

"If you're house caught on fire, what would you save?"

In second grade, it was probably my teddy bears? My jewelry making kit? My barbie guitar? Once I started filling journals like wildfire, that became my standard answer. I don't know how I would save all of them, but I'd have to find a way.
Anyways, it was just one of those questions. But last night, it suddenly became more when an accidental fire started at Camp Williams just over the mountain. I noticed the smokey look of the air yesterday afternoon. Sarah came running into my room telling me to come look out her window at the sun, which had changed color because of the smoke and was covering everything in a glowing orange. There was huge smoke billowing up, but that's as much as I saw. I left to come back to Snow and gawked at the view of the sun on the drive home. I could look straight at it, and it was red. Like looking at Mars.

Down in Ephraim there was smoke too, from an ongoing fire in Beaver. It gave me a headache. I don't remember in what order everything happened after that, but Mom called and told me not to worry and that she'd call me if there was any more news. She called soon after to tell me they were going to Grandma's, a mandatory evacuation had been issued. She said not to worry about the house, that it was probably just because of the smoke and we weren't too close to the flames, but they could see them coming down the mountain from where they were by In-n-Out Burger. I turned on the 10:00 news and watched the same clips show over and over while wind-blown reporters tried to explain the chaos that had taken place just previously as everyone evacuated and Mayor Mills declared Herriman in a state of emergency. My best friend sent me a text in despair, she and her family had cleared out and didn't know if they would come back to a house or ashes. I'd just opened my scriptures to any spot and found myself in John. I knew it wouldn't make things better, but it was all I could think to do to send her John 16:33, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."

Update: This was last week. Since then, there were three houses devastatingly burned down by the fire, but the chaos finally settled and the Herriman population returned to their homes.  My heart goes out to those who lost their homes and those who couldn't sleep from worry. I'm grateful for the firemen who worked all night to conquer the beast and the many prayers offered. Lessons learned: you separate the important things from the things you thought mattered when they are all threatened. Also, we need not fear anything, even death, if the Lord is looking after us, because in his plan there is much more to life than living.

All Growed Up

Disclaimer on the title real quick: I'm not actually all that more mature now than I was approximately 2 weeks ago, however I am...(drum roll please!)
A COLLEGE STUDENT!

The craziest part of everything so far is just the fact that the past 2 weeks have seemed like much, much, much longer. I guess I've adjusted pretty well. I can feed myself. I did my laundry without ruining anything. I have made my bed every day (which is honestly crazy for me, ask my mother). I'll even admit, though it's been two weeks, I am in love!

(He he he, for all of you concerned best friends, aunts, and possibly Mom ready to call me this instant and demand to know with whom, put down the phone and keep reading.)

I am in love with this place!
I love Snow College, I am convinced it is the greatest place I could go right now! (No thanks Harvard, I'm taken!) And I love Ephraim, it is such a small, lovely town. And I love life.

(And for all of you best friends, aunts, and possibly Mom who really were hoping for a boy story, don't worry, there are plenty of hunky Badgers down here ;) )

PICTURE TIME! (And story time after that! Stay tuned...)

Mom, Dad, and Sarah took me down and helped me get all settled in.
Great big hugs and then they said goodbye.

As I began unpacking and organizing everything, I found a bunch of notes they'd left all over. In my pots and pans, jewelry, fridge, everywhere! Is there anything that makes you feel more loved (and surprised) when you are suddenly all alone than finding a love note in your underwear drawer? :) 4/6 of Apartment 9. Lindsey, Shakell, Nikki, and Martha. It was the day of the first football game and we went to Walmart for paint and spraybottles. This is the before picture!

During...
Rayel, our resident cowgirl: "This is a stick up!"And after! If you can't tell, we are splattered in blue and yellow paint all over. It was fun while it lasted. The very odd tan lines we had the next day (and the blue streak I could not get out of my hair ) were slightly less-enjoyable side effects.Martha and Cortney (aka Stewart. Get it?) Throwing pizza dough in the air.
We are quite the little chefs sometimes!
The Stewart cooking show. Sunday banana bread!
Martha told me that you test spaghetti by throwing it against the fridge. So we did :)I got a little ambitious one evening... thus: The whole Italian dinner!
French bread (to be dipped in balsamic vinegar and oil) +
caesar vinaigrette salad + citrus chicken + grapes + spaghetti and Prego =
YUM!

Story Time! For all of you who saw my perilous statuses on Facebook, don't worry. I am alive and well. It's just crazy, but despite Ephraim being such a small town, it sure is a dangerous place. Actually, there is a slight possibility that I am just a dangerous girl. You can take the girl out of the city, but you can't take the ditz out of the girl!
Monday- Institute stomp: An over-excited Boot-scootin'-boogier took an ignorant jump onto my ankle.
Tuesday- Riding my bike across a cross walk: Lady in the Red Car was cruising down the road, swiftly approaching. I thought she would stop, but 3 seconds before collision, I realized she had no idea I existed. I swerved left and rode away unharmed besides a considerably rapid heart-beat.
Thursday- Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband concert at the Institute: (P.s. The best concert I've ever been to! For free too!) Getting the audience involved, Mr. Shupe announced that we were all going to do a super fast version of "Head-Shoulders-Knees-and-Toes" I did head. I did shoulders. When I went to knees, I was suddenly shocked in pain and utterly confused. I had bashed my face on the chair in front of me and my mouth was numb. I felt for my teeth, praying they were still there (Whew! They were well in tact.) Besides being dazed, I wasn't seriously hurt, but my lip did swell up quite attractively!
Friday- Tennis club practice: Aware now of my apparent curse, I was very careful. I was pegged in the arm with a ball, but only once, and given the circumstances, considered it lucky.
Saturday- Cooking in the kitchen: Open cabinet corner meets forehead. No blood though!

Really these things happen to people daily, but maybe I got a little paranoid after the first few. However, since then I have been rather well. (Still a ditz, but not an injured one!)
Loving life! More stories coming soon! Hasta luego, adios!

The Last Hoorah!

Last Tuesday, in fact THE last Tuesday before college, my favorite girls and I had one last fiesta, shabang, as Candice put it, hoorah. Hoorah! Jenica, Kim, Candice and I traveled to Park City on our last trip as girls and our first as adults. Normally the idea of four freshly-18-year-old girls out partying on vacation together unchaperoned could seem... a little dicey. However, we are girls with standards! Molly Mormons and happily so. Granted, we did stay up until ehemcoughcough4:30am..., but it was so worth it! Choreographing synchronized swimming routines, watching movies, talking, talking more, more talking, some sleeping, breakfast buffet, getting all dolled up, riding the alpine slide, and shopping! And more talking. And taking LOTS of pictures! GoodNESS, I love these girls! We had a simply grand time, the best!

Checking into the hotel, Kim, the smiliest girl I know!Food! We are not wimpy girls with bird stomachs.
When we are hungry, we are HUNGRY!

On our way to the alpine slide, Candicanakie and I took a
little detour to a gorgeous spot for a quick photoshoot.This one was my idea. It IS supposed to be this way. Kind of artistic don't you think? Like those Greek statues with no arms...

It was the most exhilarating thing!
I laughed and screamed the whole way down!

Incredible Idea: While we did go shopping at the outlets a bit, the prices were still not our piece of pie (p.s. very rich people live in park city, therefore very rich people shop in park city). However we still left with tons of adorable clothes on account of a clothing swap we instigated. We all brought bags of the clothes we didn't want anymore, didn't quite fit us, for whatever reason we wanted to get rid of. Magically, we all loved and fit each others' so we all left with bags of "new", cute clothes without spending a penny! BEST IDEA EVER. I highly recommend it.

P.s. Apparently, it is a surprising fact to the rest of the world that Mormons can have so much fun with so little alcoholic consumption, zero in fact. We were crazy enough with our apple juice boxes and hostess cupcakes :)

Super Nanny Nikki

I've been working this summer as a nanny for three adorable little rugrats I am happy to call my next door neighbors. Hannah, Hunter, and Harlee. It's turned out to be quite the task! You see, unlike flipping burgers or filing papers, babysitting requires you to be a full-time superhero. First, you must grow an extra appendage (preferably an arm) so that you can pour milk on cereal, comb hair, and vacuum simultaneously (and maybe a fourth for tickling or shaking a warning finger). Then you have to battle near-death experiences around every corner. ("Get off, he can't breath! That Kool-Aid is on the edge of the counter!") And a super nanny must be prepared with Disney bandaids and coloring books at all times.

And sometimes you just have to have a sense of humor :) Like these:

• When I arrived at the house this morning, the door was slightly ajar and the kids were not in their usually spots on the couch watching cartoons. I let them sleep in and decided to surprise them with waffles. (Tangent: Is there anything better to wake up to than the smell of breakfast? I love Sunday mornings for that reason, beside the fact that the smoke detector is my alarm clock on that holy occasion. We have a ridiculously sensitive fire alarm that shouts at the hint of burnt toast, well-done eggs, or once even a hair dryer. I kid you not.) ANYWAYS... alone making waffles I kept hearing the house alarm system sound briefly several times and was starting to get slightly apprehensive. However, I finished three beautiful waffles and went to wake the kids up. Hunter...was not in his bed. Hannah...was not in her bed. Nor was Harlee. Anxiously, I suspected they must all be in their mother's bed, but when that too revealed no slumbering children I got worried. I whipped out my (superhero communicator aka) cell phone to call their mom and realized she'd sent me a text. The kids, it turns out, had slept over at our other next door neighbor's house. I scrambled over there and collected them. Whew!
• We arrived back at the house and the kids got ready while I ate a waffle all by myself since they had already eaten breakfast :( I told Hannah about the alarm system and she had no explanation. Just then, it went off again and she said, "That's the waffle iron! Your waffle is done." Oh...Nikki. So bright. Soooo bright. Right?
  
• After nannying, I had the opportunity to babysit 4 more of the cutest kids on the planet. A girl and a boy 6 and 4 and two toddler twins a boy and a girl 2 years old. They are angel kids, seriously. We painted wood things, ate pizza, and played in the backyard pretending we were lions. Little Madison, one of the twins, had a little plastic watering can full of sand and a cup which she filled up for me, I went to take it when instead she threw threw all the sand on me instead. I was totally caught by surprise :)
• Jack, the 4 year old, also sang a song for me about "Cow starts with H" I reminded him that Cow starts with C and he chastised, "Shh! I'm pretending!"

Have you ever read the Amelia Bedelia stories? I thought of her today amidst all my...moments, Hannah even dug out the book and we read them to each other. Honestly, some days I feel hopeless. Sometimes I feel brainless. But then there are those funny things that happen along the way, the times when you feel on top of everything, knowing that you might be affecting these kids for the good, (and the motivation of paying for college) that give you the push you need.

I can't wait to be a mom. Um...well I can wait obviously, but it's got to be the most incredible thing on earth (and of course in heaven to be with our eternal families). Hats off to all mothers, I've only gotten a taste of what you do, but it's definitely a job for superheroes!

Adorkable Blog

Hello hello hello! This is a blog! My very own gee golly :D Kind of nerdy eh? That's peachy keen with me though, I consider myself a bit of a geek. A chic geek? Maybe a dork? Adorkable in fact. However, I looked up geek in Merriam-Webster's dictionary and stumbled upon this shocking definition!

Main Entry: Geek (p.s. If you'd like to be wildly entertained, check out my discovery at the end of this post)
Function: noun
Date: 1914
DEFINITION #1: a carnival performer often billed as a wild man whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken or snake.

Yup. That's me! Um...yikes.



5 other geeky things about me:
1. Although I may appear to be a somewhat disorganized or messy-minded person (I prefer the term "organized chaos"), I absolutely love lists and can't wait to make bunches here.

2. I have this tree-hugger instinct deep inside of me that compels me to pick up litter as I'm walking along in life. Sometimes I feel proud for saving the planet by disposing of that little Cheetos bag moseying about. Other times I feel slightly embarrassed for trying to be suave as I glide to the garbage can and run into a brick wall instead (...not that it's happened in front of cute boys or anything...)

3. On that note, "I'm not much of an environmentalist, but if YOU were a tree, I'd be a tree hugger" ;) How's that for a cheesy pick-up line? Works every time. Or it probably would if I used it.
4. After 18 years of ridicule and embarrassment, I still get a red mustache every time I drink Kool-Aid.
5. I paid a dollar to kiss an alpaca. The only excuse I can come up with is that it was for charity!

Latest Greatest Discovery!: You have to try this. The online Merriam-Webster Dictionary includes a fantastic little speaker next to almost every word to provide the correct pronunciation. Listening to them repeatedly promises laughter especially after 11 pm. Try... bob or psychopharmacology or shindig :) http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shindig