Flashback Friday 80

Today we go back to April 2005. Our ward did a temple trip to Salt Lake City. It was my first time inside of that temple. Ward temple trips are great. Not only did we go to another temple, but it is a great experience to go to the temple with the ward, good friends and family. Two of my best friends were there (Steve and Nate) and that was really special to do service like that with them. I have so many great memories here in Provo.

Here are some pictures from that day.

With my roommate at the time, Tammy.

With my good friends Kelli and Shauna.

Then we have the whole group that went.

Confessions of a Brunette on the Internet 133

There has been a lot of karaoke this week. I went on Friday with a group (mostly girls) to a place in Orem called "Callie's Diner". I sang "I think we're a lone now" by Tiffany. Our group was mostly girls and a couple of guys. One of them I didn't know, but we are not friends. We even hung out tonight. Already decided we are going to be adventure buddies. Other than that, the diner was ghetto and full of.... interesting people. While sitting at the table talking to Joel, I kept seeing this older guy at the other table looking at me. I brushed it off thinking maybe I was just imagining it. When some of our group got up to sing, they asked me if I would video tape it and I said I would. While I was sitting and video taping, that guy came and tapped me on the shoulder and asked me if the guy that was sitting next to me earlier was my husband. Joel? No I said. Then quickly realized I should have said yes, but he then knew I was single. He tells me he thinks I am so beautiful and wants to get to know me. I say thank you and tell him I am video taping... meaning I can't talk. I go back to the table, My new guy friend gave me a hug and I asked him to sit by me and protect me. ha ha. Later I got up to pay and creeper guy came up to me again and tapped me on the shoulder. Asking me for my name, he didn't know my name and just wanted to get to know me. I told him I needed to pay and then he asked me if I was leaving, I said I still needed to sing. I got away again. As we were leaving I thought that I would be able to slip out the door without him noticing, but as I was walking out the door he was motioning me to come over. I pretended like I didn't see. Ugh. Why can't cute normal guys hit on me? I guess I should feel flattered that out of our big group of girls, he picked me out. Wait.... no.... I'm not. Lots of people there got a kick out of it though I think. Applebees karaoke is so much less ghetto. First of all, I had the best salad there. Go figure, I usually am not a fan of their food. Second of all, guy in the green suit showed up again this week. He is always entertaining to watch. He was sitting by himself at a booth. When I asked him why he was a lone he said all of his friends left but he wasn't a lone because he had his teddy bear there with him. Which.... he did. James and Josh also performed again. There was a good crowd that night, but our group was all a little grouchy. I think we just all got there too late. Still a good time though. Best part about karaoke is that you never know what you are going to get.

Saturday I wanted to shop for some decorations. I decided to take the drive up to SLC to go to TJMaxx Home Goods.  It is always taking a chance to go there because you never know what you will find. You could drive all the way up there and come back with nothing. Luckily for me, it was worth the drive. I found a cute rug for the living room that I love AND a new picture of the kitchen. I didn't realize it at the time, but it is actually a real painting signed by the artist. It was originally priced at $350 and then it was marked down when it went to Home Goods and then because of a chipped frame (which my dad easily fixed) I bought it for $50. What a steal! It is HUGE, beautifully framed and a beautiful picture that matches my kitchen perfectly. I bought a few other things there... but I feel like I scored.

Been hanging out with the family a lot up until Monday. It was really fun to have Lori and her kids in town. I always wish I could see my family that lives far away more than I do. It was great to have them here and I am sad that they are gone... but it will not be long until I see them again. I took some pictures  of my sisters boys. I still need to go through and edit them, but I think I got some really cute ones and I can't wait to share them.

Tuesday we had our Relief Society activity. We did a little hike to a waterfall and then rappelled down the waterfall. I was pretty excited about this activity. Allyson and I had been talking about rock climbing and rappelling for a while. Anyway, more girls showed up than I thought and then each girl took a while to get the courage to lean back and go over the edge and only one could go at a time,  so by the time it was getting to my turn and there were still a few that wanted to go and it was getting dark and I needed to be back by 9... well... I didn't get to go sadly. I am hoping Allyson and I will go again so I can do it. I think everyone that went had a great experience though and were really excited that we did that type of activity for Relief Society. That made me happy. I will have to think of more equally exciting activities for the future. :)

Last night I went country dancing after Institute. It was the first time I had gone in like a year and a half. I had not been back since my last date with Dance Crush. It was pretty fun, just because I love dancing. However I mostly just danced with the guys in our own group. They are good and that was fun, but I really was hoping to meet some new guys. Besides the guys in my group, I only got asked to dance by 2 guys. One of them was an older man from Argentina. He wanted to get a lot closer than I wanted to. His hand kept slipping toward my butt and he kept trying to move my hand that was in his hand to on his shoulder. When the dance was over he wanted to dance with me again. THANK GOODNESS it was a line dance song. PS he also had really bad breath. The other guy that asked me to dance I was actually happy about. He was cute. We had nice conversation... but let's be honest, not many guys ask for your number or on a date because they danced with you once. Oh well. I tried.

Speaking of trying to branch out and meet new people... anyone have any cool guys they can set me up on a date with? Seriously.

I'm doing well on my Netflix TV quest. Last I reported I was watching "White Collar". I finished all of those seasons on Netflix. I like it. Yesterday I watched season 1 of Downton Abbey. Today I watched season 2 of Downton Abbey. There has been a lot of hype about it... now I know why. It is a GREAT show. I was totally hooked right away. It was like watching Pride and Prejudice. So great. There were moments in my office where I was crying over the show. So great. Now that I have finished that I am thinking about starting "How I met your mother" because I have had a lot of my friends tell me they like that one. I have not watched tv for so long though, I have so many shows to watch that I don't know where to go next. I have never seen "Prison Break" or "24" or many other popular ones that I feel like I should watch. Guess we will see. Seriously loved Downton Abbey though, it was like watching a really long movie. So good.

Photo of the Week 131

Paddle Board

Random craft

So in the kitchen... I have had these little candle holders with mirror's in the back. Had them for years. Because they are in the kitchen and stick  out off of the wall, people tend to run into them. More than once one of them has been knocked off of the wall and broken the mirror. The first time it happen from my old roommates boyfriend (now husband) and he felt bad and ended up replacing the mirror even though I told him not to. It was sweet and we had matching candle holders once again. A year and a half ago or so, my roommates had a bunch of people over and one of their friends did the same thing and knocked it over and the mirror broke. However they did not replace the mirror or even say sorry for that matter. It stayed on the wall with no mirror for a long time. Pretty tacky if you ask me.

Well, my friend Rachel had this cute idea. She is just full of cute ideas. She told me I should cover the back with burlap and write "love" on it. I happened to have extra burlap from my South Africa craft. So one night I pulled it out and did it and got rid of the mirror in the other one. Now they are matching and I think it is a cute way to display. I love re purposing stuff that I already have. It is like getting the satisfaction of getting something new.... but you didn't have to buy anything. Plus you get to use your skills and be crafty. :)

Max

So many friends have come and gone out of my life, but it is really interesting to see which ones remain in my life no matter what stage of life we are in or where we are at. About 8 years ago I met Brad, Nate and Steve and at the time... never would have thought we would have stayed in touch all of these years.  I'm so glad that we have though. They mean so much to me.

We have been there for each other through all the life changes.

When Steve got his first job in San Francisco after graduating from college, Nate and I road tripped out to see him.

When my engagement ended, they were there to comfort me on the phone and tell me I was too good for him anyway.

When Brad got engaged, we all got a phone call.

When Brad got married, we were all there.

When Nate got engaged, I was one of the first friends to know.

When I went home to Santa Barbara for a visit, Brad and Steve came to see me.

When Brad and Lauren moved to Newport Beach, we all got a call. We later all met up there for the 4th of July. Also got to be there for Brad's birthday which is the next day.

When Nate got married, Steve and I were there. Brad wanted to be there and couldn't make it out... but we all pitched in on a gift together.

When Nate went to Law School in Arizona, we got together.

I think you get the idea. Well in October Brad and Lauren had a baby girl they named Sofie. I have seen lots of pictures of her, but I have yet to meet her. Hopefully that will happen in the next couple of months when I hopefully go out to Boston to visit Brad and Steve while they are there going to Harvard Business School.

Nate and Emilie have also been on the east coast while Nate was doing an internship and taking the bar in a couple of different states. They had a baby boy, Max, in December that I had not met... until now. Nate and Emilie just recently moved back to Utah because Nate got a job at Adobe. He actually is going to be working with a couple of people that he worked with on our team at Novell. (PS Nate and I worked together at Novell for a few months if you didn't know).

This last Thursday was the day I got to meet Max for the first time (now 8 months) old. I was excited. I know my nieces and nephews that I don't get to see often are a little shy at first with me because they don't see my often. I figured it would be the same with Max. Not at all. I opened the door and gave Nate and Emilie hugs and then Nate told Max to go to Aunt Tracy and he came right to me with a big smile on his face. I loved him right away. How could I not? He looks so much like Nate too. What a cutie.

We all played and talked for an hour or so and then they left. I am happy that Nate and Emilie moved back. I look forward to spending more time with them. I also love that even though Max is not really my nephew, I love that Nate still refers him to me as Aunt Tracy because we are that close of friends. I love it. I treasure these friendships. I'm excited to see what the future brings to our little gang.

Marinating in Awesomeness

Something that I miss about being a youth is all the motivational talks that the youth get to help them want to become better people. I mean.... occasionally we get those talks, but you know...

Anyway... last night we were lucky enough to get to hear from John Bytheway. For anyone that hasn't heard him before, he is easy to listen to. He is funny, gives great analogies that everyone can understand and relate to, and I don't know anyone that hears him speak and then doesn't want to make good changes in their life. You leave wanting to try and be a better person.

What did he talk to us young single adults about? Well... he started out talking about how he made chicken once on a date and he thought it was the best chicken he had ever tasted. He didn't realize he was such a good cook and then his date (who is now his wife) told him the reason why the chicken was so good is because he bought marinated chicken. It had been soaking in flavor. In this analogy, we are the chicken. :) What do we choose to marinate ourselves in?

He told us to surround ourselves with greatness and marinate ourselves in awesomeness! I mean, I am always trying to do the right thing and be a good person, but sometimes I forget how much things influence me. What do you read? What do you watch? What are you listening to? It all influences you to be the person that you are.

There were a couple of things that he brought up that really stood out to me. One of the things he said is that we are the average of the 5 people that we spend the most time with. Does that make you think of what 5 people you spend the most time with? It makes me think that. What kind of people are they? How do they make you feel? Do they make you happy? Drag you down? Are they positive? Negative? Do they make you want to be a better person? I hope that I am the type of person that people would say is happy, positive, fun and am really there for them. This is so true though. When I am around negative people, it makes me more negative and really brings me down and the same when I hang out with positive people. Maybe something we should all be a little more cautious about.

The other thing that he talked about that really stood out to me was when he was quoting Sheri Dew. Sheri Dew was quoting something from a Relief Society Broadcast and the lady she was talking to had said that she didn't remember that part or had missed that broadcast. Later something was brought up and that same lady had mentioned that she had heard that from the Oprah show. Sheri asked her when she had time to watch Oprah since she worked during the day. She told Sheri that she taped it everyday. Sheri then pointed it out that she had time to tape and watch Oprah for an hour everyday but she didn't have time to watch a 90 minute broadcast from our church leaders and prophet once a year? How sad! It made me think of how I'm spending my time. Am I cutting out the things that are really important for media that is not important?

All of this is all part of what you are marinating in. It is food for thought is it not? It was a great talk and really made me think about my life and where I am at and where I want to be. What kind of person I am and the type of people I want in my life. I really want to serve more. I want to smile more. I want to be the type of person that people can count on and look up to. I want to be that person so that I can attract that person to marry. This was a good reminder that all the little things do make a difference and I need to pay attention.

Thank you John BTW for reminding me to surround myself with greatness and marinate myself in awesomeness. :) I'm thankful for a fresh start and excited for the good things happening in my life and also excited what this next year has in store for me. It is going to be a good year.

Rich's Birthday

Rich has become one of my closest friends in the ward. We have really bonded since we both has similar thoughts and feelings (being a blue personality) and really confide in each other. Rich doesn't like people knowing about his birthday but I found out a month or so ago when it was and marked my calendar. It was on Tuesday, but we celebrated on Thursday. Rich knew I was going to make a cake for him, but he didn't know I was going to invite people over. I hope it was a pleasant surprise since I just invited all of his closest friends.

Rich is obsessed with Star Wars, so it only seemed right for me to decorate his cake with Star Wars. It didn't compare to the cake my sister and I decorated for my nieces Star Wars Birthday party, but it still turned out alright and he liked it.... which is all the matters.

We just pretended that all of the candles were lightsabers and we actually listened to "the death march" while we lit the candles. No joke (that is actually Rich's ringtone on my phone) it was funny.

Thank you Rich for being such a dear friend, I need people like you in my life. You are awesome and I hope this is an amazing year for you.

Flashback Friday 79

Today we are going back to August 2004. My niece Reanne (who is now almost 10) we little and we took her to Disneyland for the first time. It was just me, Lori, Kristy, Jess and Reanne. It was for sure a different experience than going with a group of friends since we had a small child with us, but it was so fun to see her see Disneyland for the first time. I also remember everyone commenting all day on how cute she was. Which is totally true. :)

I love Disneyland and am ready to go back! My free tickets are calling my name.

Confessions of a Brunette on the Internet 132

So today I looked up at the mountains. I have never been so upset to see the trees changing color. Trust me... I LOVE fall, but I love fall when it is time for fall... and that time is NOT YET! It is not even September yet. The leaves are allowed to start changing at the end of September. End of story. I guess I should start gearing up for a long cold Winter.

This last Sunday was our first Sunday in a real church building for church instead of church on BYU Campus. It was wonderful. I didn't have to hike a mile in heels to get there. Just drove up and walked in. Sat in an actually chapel instead of a classroom. No microphone problems. It was awesome. All the jokes that day was about our "new adventure" in the real building. Love it.

My tongue hurts so bad this week. I think I get this from my dad... where I randomly get these sores on the sides of my tongue. I don't know how to get rid of it and it really does hurt.... like all the time. I'm not sure if it is a deficiency of some kind or what, but I wish I knew what to do to get rid of it. If anyone has any ideas... I'm all ears.

I have enjoyed having my house to myself this week... but I forget how lonely I get though. I like my a lone time, especially when I should be being productive, but I also get lonely really easily. I like having people to talk to.... or just to be there.

Today I was on a cooking kick as soon as I got home from work. I made cake that I couldn't eat for my friend Rich's birthday, I made granola.... it was great. The house smelled great. I forget how much I enjoy cooking... I just never give myself the time to cook. Especially since my parents moved here, because I used to cook and invite people over for dinner on Sunday's... but I should just do it on different days. I will make that a goal this next year.

So because of the Olympics, it had been a while since I went to karaoke night. Josh, his roommate James and I decided it was time to go again. Besides us, we had a completely different group than we usually do. It wasn't like last time where half the people at our table got up to sing.... I didn't even get up this time. Sad, I know. Josh and James did though... and they are a hard act to follow both being comedians and all. Josh did The Thong Song and had everyone laughing. I helped James pick his song. I suggested he do "Copacabana" by Barry Manilow. I thought he was do a funny job at it....and boy did he! He was dancing and singing his heart out so much that he was sweating at the end of the song. He also had all of Applebees laughing and cheering. Seriously.... one of the best things I have seen. It was so funny.... so funny that I was laughing so hard that I was crying. Thinking about it now still makes me laugh. Since Tuesday was such a success, we are going to go again this next Tuesday. Even though we had a big crowd that we got to go, I want to try and get our original crowd back.... because our original karaoke crowd gets a lot more excited. I was like the only one singing and dancing a long to the songs this time. No bueno. ha ha. Can't wait for next week.

Hunger Games is out on DVD. I bought it. Can't wait to watch it again. Love those books and the movie.

End of the summer brings the start of a new school year. People moving in and out and time that I make some new goals (which I also do at the new year in January). I guess I'm really goal oriented. Rich and I have talked a lot about how this is going to be a good year for us. We are going to make it a good year and started coming up with some good goals (including more service). I love having new goals. I feel so much better. I also love cleaning and reorganizing. I think I will start working on that too. Just call me a neat freak that I love that sort of thing. Ha ha. Oh... and speaking of reorganizing... I just heard of this app on your iphone or ipod touch called StyleBook. You can have your wardrobe in this app and it helps pick out outfits for you. Dream come true. I want it. I don't have an iphone or an ipod touch. Sigh. Don't have the app, but it does make me want to go through and organize my closet. Mmmmm maybe this weekend.

Photo of the Week 130

The Mountain Life. All of my cousins on my dad's side came to visit and the ones from out of town were staying in this large cabin up past Sundance. We went up one night to hang out and I also took a few pictures.

The Patio

I think most people that know me know that I love to decorate and make my house a home... a cute one. This goes for the outside as well as the inside. I love spring/summer/fall because I get to have a little bit of a garden on my tiny patio. If you remember last year, and the year before that and so on, my patio has pretty much looked the same besides the flowers that I get from year to year (except my perennials). Well... this year I decided to switch it up and do something different. I am SO glad I did.

First thing I changed was the cinder blocks. As you see in my past posts, they used to be lined up against the fence and I would grow sun flowers in there. That was cute... but I found something on Pintrest that I loved and wanted to try out. Here is what I did instead this year.

Next I took out the shelves. Kind of tacky when you really look at them. Instead I copied my friend Ali in my ward that hung lattice on the fence and then hung plants off of that. Yep.... that was a good decision. LOVE it. Like... a lot. I think it adds so much character to the patio.

Also new for me this year... I actually planted things that I could use. I planted tomatoes, peppers and strawberries. The strawberries are small... but they are pretty good.

Also planted HERBS!!! I planted sweet basil, thai basil, mint, parsley, thyme and cilantro.

Then of course I still had to plant some flowers, because I love having flowers.

I also added some lights this year. Love them. Found them at Target.

Oh and my sister gave me this cool tree.

I added some cute little things.... like these coca cola boxes and I painted some bottles also painted a couple of the pots. I added an extra chair and my mom gave me these shelves to put some of my plants on.

Overall, it is a fun change. Loving it.

Star Wars Kid History

Although it didn't happen last year, it is tradition in our ward to have our FHE groups each make a movie and then have a movie awards night. So far... the groups that I have been in have done an amazing job putting the movies together. My first movie in this ward was Pimp my Bride. My second one I don't have a copy of, but it wasn't that awesome.... just re telling/acting out bad dating experiences. Third one we did The Office which I thought was great and the last one I was in before this one was Single in South Provo... a musical of Mulan cover songs which I think was the best out of all of them.

This year we decided to copy another idea. This time.... Kid History. Never seen Kid History? You can watch my favorite episode here. Since my nieces and nephew were pretty much the only kids we knew near by, they were the lucky chosen ones to be the kids to tell the story. I knew they would be up for it to because they are cool like that and they love Star Wars. We didn't take much time at all on this video.... not like we have in past years. Nobody really did (which is kind of sad). That being said, they were all pretty funny. I think this is pretty funny. Grant really cracks me up in this.

Since my nieces and nephew know the story of Star Wars too well.... and we wanted it to be more funny, I had them tell me the story or Star Wars AND Tangled and we mixed the two stories together to make it more interesting. :) Here is how it turned out. Thanks to my nieces Reanne and Sierra and my nephew Grant for being good sports and doing this. Love them.

Couch Surfing

Has anyone heard of Couch Surfing? I have known about it for a few years now, but never thought to seriously about it. If you are not familiar of what Couch Surfing is, you can find out here. Basically you sign up on a website where people who are traveling can come stay on your couch if they come to visit and on the flip side... you can travel just about anywhere in the world and sleep on other people's couches from the website. You can read their profile and contact them and not only is it a free place to stay when you travel... but it is also a way for you to make friends and get the inside scoop from locals.

I have a couple of friends that traveled Europe and I think Russia this way and they said it was awesome. Other than that I have not heard feedback from anyone else that has done it. Like I said I have never thought too much about it until.... today. Now I am seriously thinking about it, to the point where I actually signed up today and have been looking at different profiles of people that I can stay with in Italy. I have also considered traveling a lone somewhere since I can't seem to find a travel buddy to go with me.... anywhere. This could be a way where I could travel a lone but not be so lonely. Anyway.... anyone have any thoughts on this? To answer all of your question that I know you are going to ask me.... Yes, I have seen the movie "Taken". Doesn't bother me.

Troping

I first heard about the Mona pond with the rope swings in the summer of 2008. I went that summer and had not been back since. I'm not big off of swinging off of trees into nasty pond water and not many of my friends went. Many people still have never even heard about it. I for sure is not a secret place though because when I went in 2008 is was crowded... I'm sure it only get's worse as the years go by.

I hadn't heard too much of the Mona rope swings over the years until last year when I became friends with Dave, James and their roommates. Not only did they go there often, but it is a sport to them. They even named it "Troping". This is now a normal term to me, but when I mention it to anyone else they have no idea what I'm talking about. Dave and his friends goes regularly. He has invited me several times this summer but for one reason or another I was never able to go... until today. So I decided to go along and see how serious they really are about troping. It is SERIOUS.

Let me just tell you how serious. If anyone messes with the trees that have the rope swings on it, they fix it. They coach people on how to do it right. When we first got there it was kind of crowded. We set up chairs and sat and watched for a little while while I listened to Dave and his friend give commentary on people's rope swinging technique. They couldn't take it any long and had to show them all how it was done, so they open up their bag that they brought and pull out their own personal rope swing that they brought to tie to the tree. They don't mess around. They waited in line, climbed up the tree (Dave brought a towel to keep up there so you can dry your hands before swinging again) tied up their own rope and Dave did a double back flip off the rope swing. It was pretty amazing. It really is a sport to them and they have been working on their technique for a long time. In fact, Dave who has mastered troping and named king of the trope was trying to help his friend get past his just one flip off the rope.... because that just isn't good enough anymore.

You think after watching all of that, that I am going to go up there and try it? Your right, I didn't. Not only would I embarrass myself, but I don't even like cliff jumping that much anymore, so a swing out of a tree isn't going to be that much better. Nope.... I was totally satisfied leaning back and watching the show... and taking pictures. I like taking pictures, I'm pretty good at that.

It was still fun to go... especially after hearing about it so much. They tell me they continue to go regularly clear into the fall months. Maybe one of these times I will get the courage to do it... probably not. ha ha.

Flashback Friday 78

Back when I was still living at home in Santa Barbara... 2002 or 2003(?) my sister was working at the fancy Bacara resort. She would let us know when cool things were happening at the resort. Well, one day Ranger Rick came and brought some of his animals for the kids. I love animals, so my mom and I went with my sister to the resort to check it out.  We got a picture with the chimp, Angel. :)

Confessions of a Brunette on the Internet 131

What a week. My roommates have been moving out, a good friend from my home stake is staying with my parents, my sister came to town from Santa Barbara yesterday with her kids AND all of my cousins on my dad's side are in town. It has been so fun to spend time with family and see my cousins that I never get to see and my nephews that I don't get to see often and finally able to hold my newest nephew Jameson who is now 3 months old.

Now that my roommates are moving out all of their stuff.... some parts of my house is looking very empty. I need to go buy some new stuff even though I loved her stuff.... kind of fun to get new stuff and have a new look. I hope I can find a rug that I like for a decent price. I just love decorating.

Just started watching White Collar. So far I am liking it. Very clever. One thing I don't like about Netflix is that they don't keep a lot of their shows updated. Some shows they are more than one season behind.... which is lame because I know there is more but I can't get caught up all the way. Oh well... I guess I will just have to go back to some shows later to watch the next season.

So we are now in a new stake. At our multi-stake conference there were a couple of talks given. One of them touched on dating and many things that he mentioned, I talked about in my blog post, Living in the Bubble.  I must have been inspired when I wrote that. J/K but seriously, it is obviously a problem. Besides the dating talk, we found out we are going to be meeting in a church over by the Provo Town Center and our new stake goes all the way down to Mapleton. Did I mention my parents are over the young sing adults in Mapleton? We are not in the same stake. ha ha. Who would have guessed. I hope I meet a lot of new people because of this change. My stake has made a lot of changes over the years that I have been in it.... but I feel like all of those changes have been good and inspired. So I support it.

Lately I feel like I have been a therapist to a lot of my friends. I think I am actually kind of good at it. Maybe I am picking up tips from Dave or something. I don't know, but I feel the ability to actually help people. Not that I have all the answers.... cause I don't. However I feel like I have been single a long time and have dated a lot and had a lot of different roommates and a lot of different friendships and from all of that I have learned so much. So I try to take what I know and help others as much as I can. Maybe I chose the wrong career path. :) Actually... I don't know how I would handle other people's problems that are not my friends. Who knows, but I don't mind being a therapist to my friends. Everyone could use a little therapy in my opinion.

Photo of the Week 129

The Lake life. Another picture from McCall, Idaho.

Summer Opening Activity

I'm a little late blogging about this... but to start the summer off, our ward had a Fiesta activity. Pinata and all. Somehow I got adopted into the activities committee even though I was there for 4 years. So I was part of the crew. I'm happy to help... especially if that means I get to wear a hat as a crew member.

Andrea's Photoshoot

Andrea (cute girl in my ward) asked me if I would take some pictures of her for work. We got together real quick yesterday to take a few head shots. Here are my favorites.

2012 Summer Olympics

In keeping with tradition, it is time for me to blog about the Olympics again because I love them so much. I started blogging about the Olympics in 2008 and continued in 2010.

Where do I even begin? I was so excited for the Olympics long before they ever even started. My whole ward was actually. I decided that I was going to make a medal count poster (which Tara helped me with) and it would be passed around to each house that had signed up to have people over to watch the Olympics. So every night for the two weeks someone would host watching the Olympics at their house and provide treats. So fun to cheer all together, but I only did it for a week.... because I got too annoyed with everyone talking when I wanted to hear what was going on.

It started with the opening ceremonies that we watched as a ward and ate pizza. Sara and Tara even drew the US flag and Olympic rings on people's faces to show Olympic spirit. I was all about that. As far as the Opening Ceremonies go, it had it's cool moments, but overall... I was kind of bored.

Onto the highlights of the Olympics for me.

Hands down my favorite events to watch in the Summer Olympics is Gymnastics and Swimming. I love it all, but won't miss these. The guys were a little hard to watch. Just because they would be doing so well... and then mess something up and it would be over. They didn't even medal. I still loved watching them though. I wish they would have shown more of the rings (not just the individual event) because that is my favorite and they didn't really show it on the team or all around. They also loved not showing us the score which was very frustrating. I got most frustrated with the Pommel Horse. That is the event that really screwed us over. I nick named it the Pommel Horse of Satan.

The girls on the other hand were amazing to watch. They rocked every body's socks off. They did amazing! So amazing that they ended up with gold which hasn't happened in a long time. It was sad to see Jordyn do so well and barely not qualify to compete in the individual all around. Kind of not fair.

However... Gabby really came through and rocked all arounds and won another gold! She is so cute. She was amazing to watch on the uneven bars. They call her the flying squirrel. However, on the individual events.... she didn't do so great. Leaving with 2 golds is nothing to cry about though.

Next up, swimming. First off, we have so many awesome swimmers for the US that I can't even touch on them all. I will tell you that my favorite girl was this cute 17 year old that is going back to high school this year with some gold medals around her neck. Imagine the conversations with her friends... "What did you accomplish this summer guys? Me? Just competed in the Wold Olympics and left with a few medals.... no big deal". Wow. I kept forgetting she was 17 until she would talk about her crush on Justin Beiber.

The guys were also great. A lot of people were giving Michael Phelps a hard time because he had slacked off and didn't train for the Olympics until like 9 months before. Well.... from what I hear, he wasn't even sure if he was going to compete in this Olympics until then. I'm glad he did. This is his last one, but I still cheered for him and wished for him to win every time. He left with more medals and has now made history for the most decorated Olympian in history. WOW!!! Could you even imagine? I still think he is awesome and am a little sad that this is his last Olympics. I will miss cheering for him. He is an amazing swimmer. I also loved the South African swimmer that watched Phelps for years and was so excited to be swimming next to him that he would give him hugs after every race. He even beat him once. Dream come true for him. So cute.

Our other men swimmers so amazing too. Everyone was beating world and Olympic records all over the place. We have so many great swimmers representing the USA.

I didn't watch a ton of volleyball, but a little... and these awesome ladies are still rockin and winning gold after many years. They are fun to watch.

Track and Field. I didn't get to watch a ton of it, but what I did watch was awesome. It is amazing how fast people can run AND jump hurdles. It just amazes me. I watched our girls win gold in the relay. They were way ahead and almost broke the world record.

Our guys were great too... but of course all the talk about about Bolt from Jamaica. Yes, he is the fastest man in the world and he knows it. He made that VERY clear. I swore if I heard him say his was a legend one more time.... it got annoying that is all. USA came up close those, they still should be proud.

I was also amazed with the guy from South Africa that raced with no legs. His story was touching. That is one of my favorite parts of the Olympics is hearing all the stories about the athletes. Makes it so much more personal.

Besides track and field, the last thing I watched was diving. I first watched the men get silver in synchronized diving, which was awesome.... but then there was individual diving. I was of course cheering for both US guys. They both made it through prelims, but just barely for David Boudia. He was in 17th place (the bubble) as they call it. In the final round... he delivered! He won gold! I could hardly believe it watching him the first night barely making it to the finals and then in the finals getting first place. It was so awesome and USA had not won a gold in the event for a long time. AMAZING!

I loved watching my nieces be really excited about the Olympics too and imitate things they saw on tv and wanting to do Olympic sports. I just love how the Olympics brings everyone together. I have so much pride for our country. I still think I would really love to be at the Olympics one day. That would be amazing.  Once again, I love the Olympics, but glad they are over so I can go back to my life. Final medal count? We rocked!! Most medals and most golds. Take that China!

Along with being excited about the for real Olympics, our ward had Olympics too, with preliminaries and everything. Wondering what the events were that you could sign up for? Well, there were word and math problems, putting together puzzles, 3 point shoot, Nerf gun target shooting, pentathlon of awesomeness (which included things like holding your breath the longest, squatting the longest etc...) pie eating contest, 4 mile run, interpretive dance (which I was a judge) and Just Dance on the Wii which in the Prelims I got 2nd place but in the finals got 3rd. It was the only event I entered. It was pretty fun. We even had a medal ceremony. Love my ward.