Improptu Temple Journey

So, today, Suzy was monumentally stressed out. SOOOO, she went to the temple, and I tagged along. While she was inside doing baptisms, I sat outside with my journal in the dark and watched a PHENOMENAL sunset.

As I sat there, I was suddenly overcome by an almost giddy sense of excitement oddly enough... NO I'M NOT GETTING MARRIED. But all the sudden, I was just really excited to go through the temple and see what it's really all about. It was kind of a crazy and unexpected experience. But it made me super happy that my family has been sealed in the temple for eternity. I think it also has possessed me with a greater desire to go to the temple more often, and to make sure that I am always unquestionably worthy to be there.

That's about all I have to say about that... I'm just glad to be here when I am.

Also, I found this stick. When I look at it, I feel that it's just the epitome of what a stick should be. I mean, when you think stick, you think this. In addition, it's also deliciously smooth.

"I FOUND A STICK!!!!" Name that movie...

Update on My Life

This is the Rexburg temple that I can see from my window. Beautiful.

Hello! I live in Idaho. I go to BYU-I these days. I haven't blogged for eternity because I keep forgetting to take pictures of things that I do, and nothing has changed there. I just figured(hoped) that people were giving a rip about my daily activities. So here comes a major updating session.

I got out to Salt Lake City last Saturday, September 4th, also known as Nate the Great's birthday. It seems like whenever I'm at Shell's house we have a party... not that I'm surprised. It was great to see Nate and Shell's family and to see Ben and Beck for the first time in forever! We had quite the blast.

This is a cute boy who had a HUUUUGE 50 pound grasshopper on his "bike." And it was fearless. I waved my hand around it to get it off, but it just looked at me. So I had to flick it. With my FINGER. It left an average sized crater when it hit the ground.

Splinter in the foot.

After some incredible ribs, Dutch oven potatoes, and watermelon, it was time to open PRESENTS! Nate got a really cool lazer-disk-helicopter-shooter thing that not five minutes after the first launch got tangled in the lofty branches of a tree. It took several broken branches, one broken broom handle, and multiple shakings to extract it.

And what's a party without some good old fashioned Rocket Balloons?!

So, after ten rounds of Memory, three episodes of House, and birthday cheesecake, we wrapped up another fantastic day at the Waite house.

The next morning, Ben, Beck, and myself set out to Idaho to meet up with the Reinhart's. For those of you who might not know, Samantha Reinhart is my best friend in the world who moved out to Idaho the summer between my sophomore and junior years of high school. It was indeed a joyous reunion.

I spent the night at Sam's on Sunday, and the next morning we set out for BYUI. We arrived only about 25 minutes later (NICE) and ran up to my room to throw all of my junk in it. [Back story: I was REEEEALLY dreading living in on-campus housing because this summer at BYU, the dorms were really tiny and there was ONE bathroom for about 30 or 40 girls. Also, my roommate was interesting.] It's great! It's DEFINITELY more of a kitchen-less apartment than a "room." There are three bedrooms (with a fridge, freezer, and microwave for two girls per room) a big bathroom with seemingly infinite storage space, a hallway with closetS, and a small living room in the front with a couch and love seat where the olda boys can come party with us. Oh and they do party...

After the initial exploration, we did a Wal-Mart run. Never, in all my years as a Wal-Mart shopper, have I ever seen a store so PACKED. Every aisle was jammed with college kids and their parents stocking up on everything from Ramens to toilet paper. It was also at this point that a gnawing in my stomach that had been there since that morning grew to a nearly undeniable need to barf. It was NOT good. Fortunately, I denied the urge and didn't hurl my cookies.

That night I went to bed early so I could better fight my sudden illness. Around 10:30, after I had been asleep for about two hours, my roommate, Susannah Sheuermann, and her parents walked in and turned on the light. After my assurance that I was perfectly content and awake, they started unpacking all of Suzy's 14 thousand boxes. As I sat there, groggy and probably covered in dried pukish drool, I met my roomie for the first time. I'd just like to say that she is absolutely PHENOMENAL. Her family is from Eden, UT, though her "mum" is from England. She has three very handsome brothers, and she is currently an art major, though she's probably going to switch to horticulture. She's absolutely fantastic, and I haven't yet found one thing that I don't like about her.

This also goes for the rest of my apartment mates. Heather Kirby is from South Carolina and is super sweet. Rachel Klopp, her roommate, is from Ohio and has a beautiful voice. Joyce Tram is "from Vegas(old man voice)" and is just in general one of the coolest girls I've ever had the pleasure to meet. Her roommate, Ally Bjarnason(bee-yarn-uh-son) from California, cracks me up like no other. It's amazing how fast we've gotten so comfortable with each other. From the way we act around each other, you would never guess that we've known each other less than a week.

From left to right: Theresa, who sleeps at our house sometimes, me, Rachel Klopp(brown hair), Ally Bjarnason, Joyce Tran, Heather Kirby, and Suzy Sheuermann (pronounced Sherman).

I'm looking EVERYWHERE for a job. I've applied endlessly online, and walked up and down Rexburg putting in applications. There is one place though that Suzy's parents actually suggested to me: Melalueka. (Which is apparently a big Nu Skin rival.) Suzy's mum, Amanda, is a rep for this company, which means that she just tells everyone she knows about it and gets paid big bucks for doing it. This saintly woman called the REGIONAL MANAGER of Melalueka and let me talk directly to him. She put in a VERY good word for me, and I'm hoping to hear from them in the next week. IF I get the job, I'll be working in a call center placing orders and such, whilst making $8.15 an hour starting off, which already is almost a dollar more than I made at Ingles after two years.

Well, now on to the first real two days of school. The first day of classes, Rexburg experienced record breaking rain fall and a high of FORTY-SEVEN DEGREES. Not pretty.To save you the uninteresting details (which you can get if you call me), my favorite class is definitely going to be my Personal Health and Wellness class. That is, it will be my favorite AFTER our mile and a half run on Tuesday morning. Heh heh... (I suspect that the last time I ran 1.5 miles was in seventh grade track.)

I made the Women's Choir! Apparently, that's a really big deal. Me and Suzy just stumbled upon audition sheets while we were exploring one day and thought "Hey, what the heck," so we both signed up. There's a PRE audition before you can even go into the audition itself. Big deal. I'm listed as an alto 2, which means I sing below bass because I have a manly voice. It happens I s'pose...

This weekend, I took an undocumented trip to the Blackfoot, Idaho fair with the Reinharts! It was a blast. I even won a panda bear who is holding bamboo.

In closing, I'd just like to say an embarrassing thing: I absolutely LOVE it out here. This is embarrassing because I came thinking that I hate Idaho, it's a knock-off school, this is going to be so dumb, for heaven's sake these people can't even wear flip-flops, but now I'm having issues finding things that I don't like about this school. Hooray!

This is me being thrilled.

PS - Birthday

Love,

Your Secret Admirer

Ward Home Evening

I'd just like to say that I am a proud member of the best WHE group in the cosmos. While some of my friends come home from WHE grumbling that everyone in the world deserves permanent wedgies and eternal torment, every single activity my group has done has been SO STINKIN FUN.

Exibit A- Bowling

While bowling may seem like a cop-out activity, I'm here to assure you that even potentially boring activities are ridiculously enhanced by our group. I don't have photographic evidence other than what's on facebook (and I don't know how to get them from there to here) so just use your imagination.

We did a trick game, where every turn we took had to be awesome. My personal favorites were down the back, piggy-back, and spin-flip-somersault-under-the-leg bowling. Excellent.

Exibit B- Skating

This is the place we went. A little sketchy, yes, but also a little cheap. Two dollars.

Again, no substantial photographic evidence, but this was so fun! I got REEEEEALLY sweaty, which I used to think was normal, but that was before I realized that people in Utah don't sweat while socially interacting. Weird.

Me and Kailey Trussel at Sonic afterward. Three of the eight people that came had NEVER BEEN TO SONIC. This picture was taken minutes before Kailey took a huge drag of slushie only to spray the ENTIRE table with it after I told her that a boy in my kindergarten class turned out to be gay. It was incredible.

Exibit C: Hardcore Parkour.

See for yourselves. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu58DPXd90k

Part Two: Temple Square!

Hello folks. Sorry I'm a heathen child that doesn't blog well AT ALL.


The Salt Lake City Temple is definetely all it's cracked up to be. It is absolutely EXQUISITE. The grounds, the visiting center, the fountains... it's all breath taking. Walking around was REALLY fun and definetely fulfilled a dream of mine.

Brother Brigham himself was there to welcome us at the visiting center. His eyes had a tendency to bore into the depths of your soul and make you feel that utter doom was on the way. It was pretty intense.

Along with the "human" polygraph, these fine gentlemen were also there to make us feel right at home. They seemed nice...

This fountain is INCREDIBLE! It doesn't spray all the time, and we got to watch it wake up from it's slumber. It grows for five minutes until your sure that if it gets any bigger it will spill over and flood the whole earth. It's quite the sight to see.

This picture doesn't do the grounds justice. Everything there is BEAUTIFUL!!!!

These are QUAILS. Yes, they do exist. And they like to take dirt baths like chickens.

All in all, this was the best birthday ever!!! Thanks for everything guys!

BEST WEEKEND EVER! Part 1

I am now a full-grown, bonified adult. If I broke your nose, I would be cell mates with convicted murderers and the 911 masterminds.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, I took a THREE HOUR trip up to Roy, first by bus, then by rickety scary trainbus, then by really cold awesome train. It was quite the adventure. Once I finally reached the Roy train station I was greeted by this wonderful sight:

This is a giant shovel. Michelle claims that they're everywhere, but I don't buy it.

Michelle came shortly after I took the shovel picture, and we headed back to her beloved abode. After settling in (which consisted of throwing my stuff in the corner, removal of shoes, and cranking of the black girl music), we made cookies. And by "made cookies," I mean we recreated what must have been mannah from heaven.

This is what I decided to do with the little bit of dough we had left. It started as a smily face, but as I continued to admire my handiwork, it morphed into a bikini. MAJOR disappointment.

After a brutal Skip-Bo tournament, we decided it was time to pick up Nate from work and head over to the party that the all the editors were thowing. This party was at the COOLEST park ever. It was huge. And it had a splash pad, which is an awesome thing that squirts water while you run around. Of course, I couldn't find my camera to document it until we got back in the car to leave. Just trust me on this one.

We took a small detour on the way home because Michelle saw a girl on the sidewalk eating a dipped ice cream cone and vowed to locate the source of her bounty. I got an Oreo Cheesequake blizzard that should probably be illegal because it is so tasty. Nate got a slushy drink think that made him moan for hours afterward from discomfort. Addison hit puberty REEEALLY early.

We got back home soon after, and because Michelle and I are such excellent planner-aheaders, we commenced with the preparation of the Macaroni Salad (capitalized out of respect) while Nate deejayed our black music. Finally, after four episodes of House, we fell asleep. My last night of being seventeen was basically spectacular.

Next morning: HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Addison came down the stairs around 8, so we didn't waste any time with frivolous sleep. We ate birthday breakfast of Cheerios with fresh strawberries from Shell and Nate's thriving garden. Since they were so delicious, we got to go out and pick more (to replace the eight dozen I consumed with my cereal)!

Finally, Doug, Shauna, and Juliann showed up. PARTY TIME!!!

PRESENTS!!!

After the spectacular festivities, we only added to the grandeur of the day. Shell and Nate, me, Shauna, Juliann, Brynny, and Addison (that's THREE car seats) piled into the car and took a quick ride over to the Roy Aquatic Center. It was INCREDIBLE. They had huge slides, high diving boards, toys, fire hydrants that you could spray strangers with, and basically any other component of water fun that's feasible to the human mind. I got good and sunburned and me and Shell got huge wedgies from going down The Water Slide of Absolute Death. Nate and I went down again and had a contest to see who could skip across the water the furthest. I won.

But wait folks! It's not over yet! More birthday adventures to come in "BEST WEEKEND EVER!!! Part 2." Stay tuned!

Caught in the Act

This is Rachel. That is all I have to say.

That, folks, is NINE scarves. NINE.