My Own Path

Update

2011-11-16T19:19:00.001-08:00

Just a little update on the Lazy Man Iron Man - Here's what I have left as of today which I have to get done by Saturday:

Run 5 miles
Bike 8 miles
Swim 25 laps

Oh my gosh I am so excited!!! I can totally get this done!!! Also, my other exciting news, today Kelsey and I were running and I was able to go for 2 miles straight, walk .5 a mile, then run another mile on top of that! I know that sounds super weak for those runners out there but you have to know that I have NEVER been a runner. I have hated it my whole life so the fact that I can even go half a mile is saying something big. It's so exciting to be slowly getting stronger and I can tell through my running. I hope I can keep this up!

Lazy Man Iron Man

2011-10-25T21:50:00.000-07:00

After much convincing, I finally got Kelsey to do the Lazy Man Iron Man with me that the school is putting one. It's this cool program the Wellness Center is putting on (they do it every semester) where you have a month to complete the requirements of an Iron Man. This includes:

Running 26 miles

Biking 112 miles

And swimming 2.7 miles (sorry you can't see it very well but that's 2 . 7 not 27)

We just started it yesterday and I already have 25 bikes miles and 2 running miles out of the way. I am so excited to do this program because it is forcing me to work out everyday and you get a free T-shirt when you finish it! Wish me luck and I will keep you updated!!

I CAN COOK!!!

2011-09-16T16:48:00.000-07:00

I want to be able to cook. I don't know why this urge has suddenly become apparent but I really want to have this ability. So what did I do to solve this? I bought a crock pot and stole my mom's cookbook "101 Things To Do With A Slow Cooker." I've been pretty excited to use it because it has everything you could think of from pork meals to hot chocolate. Yesterday I decided to do my first try at a crock pot and I think it was successful! I picked chicken fajitas (I know, what a shocker right?) and doesn't that just look delicious? All I did was put some chicken, peppers, onions, and salsa in and let it cook for 5 hours. How easy! It turned out a little soupy though I think because I added too much salsa. It's hard to modify a recipe for a 2 quart crock pot. Anyways, stay tuned for my next adventure!

A Tiny Rant

2011-09-15T06:31:00.000-07:00

This morning at work, I was shooting the breeze with a coworker when we got to talking about graduation. We discovered that we are both graduating the same time and while I was excited, my coworker immediately says, "You better find a man!" Really? I mean really. I can't tell you how many times I hear this phrase and how angry it makes me especially since I am almost done with BYU-I. It was fine a few years ago but it seems that at the ripe old age of 21, I have become a spinster. I just want to let everyone know that although I am not married, engaged, or even in a relationship, I am happy. I mean I am TRULY happy and honestly feel like I am doing everything right in my life. The decisions I am making and the direction I am going all feels good and I am not concerned. It's not like I don't have any friends or aren't out making new ones; I have been out every night since I got back to Rexburg doing things with friends and making new ones! It just can often feel like everyone thinks I am going to die at 22 and need to be sealed so I have to get married to the next available man immediately. I know what I am worth and I know what I want and won't settle for less even if it takes a little longer than everyone else. I mean come on, isn't that just my style to do things different from everyone else? What's the title of this blog anyways? Okay, so I am done with my rant now and I don't mean for this post to sound angry but when you see me next, please don't ask me when I am getting married; I promise you, when that day comes, the world will know! :)

The Manhole Story

2011-09-05T21:49:00.000-07:00

Most people know the manhole story. I mean EVERYONE does when I say that. I am not joking on this one but there have been times where I am eating dinner with the missionaries or a sibling's friend and the story will come up and the visitor will bust up laughing. How they found out... well I just blame my mother.

Anyways, for Labor Day, my parents, sisters, and I headed out to spend the day at Long Beach so of course we had to visit the famous manhole for memory's sake. I decided that I needed to post these pictures on my blog along with the story so here goes.

Summer of 2009 I brought my best friend, Christine home, with me after the spring semester at BYU-Idaho. She is from Idaho and so obviously doesn't really get to go to the beach that often so we took her out to Long Beach for the day. It was a girl's day at the beach with my mom, sisters, Christine, and I. We hit up all the classic spots like the Astoria Column, laying out in in the beach, chasing seagulls, and walking through the town. To get back to our car to go home, we were at the other end of town so we decided to walk along the boardwalk. On the way there, we passes a random manhole in the middle of nowhere. Everyone walked pasted it and with me in the back, I decided to walk on it because it looked closed. Oh how wrong I was. I stepped on and the next thing I knew, I was on the ground in a lot of pain with a manhole cover smashing my legs. I luckily didn't land inside the hole but did manage to fall with my legs inside and me sitting on the edge. I can't tell you how much that hurt! So what do I do? I call my loved ones for help. What do they do? Laugh and yell for a camera. I just wanted to hurt them all because I am crying and stuck with sewage on me. Finally, my dear little sister Danielle grabs the cover and helps me out. I wasn't able to walk back to the car so Kaylynn and my mom ran back to get it (reality is that they just wanted an excuse to laugh hysterically without me becoming more mad). Christine and Danielle tried to be nice but I just wanted to get cleaned up and go home. After waiting on the ground for a little while, my mom shows up with the van and backs in to the spot to "make it easier for me" although they were really just making fun of me and acting like it was an emergency. We had ibuprofen and wipes to help me out then I laid down in the back and fell asleep because I was furious at this point. Mom and Christine were grateful for this because they spent the next 3 hours getting home laughing. The WHOLE time!!

Well there you go world. There's my story of falling in the manhole. It's a classic tale that helps me win two truths and a lie every time I play. I gone back every year since then and want to post the pictures to go with so here they are:

Year One: 2009. Don't be fooled by my smile. Lots of pain but I knew these would be on Facebook.

Year Two: 2010

Year Three: 2011. You know what I like about these pictures, it documents my hair color of the year!

My New Song

2011-03-24T12:32:00.000-07:00

It's amazing the things I miss because I am not in high school where there's a new fad every week. I have to rely on my sisters to keep me up to date. Danielle told me about this song a little while ago and I can't seem to get enough of it. It's called "Rhythm of Love" by Plain White T's. It's not their normal singer which I kind of love and it's just so stinkin cute. I definitely recommend listening to it :)

Addicted

2011-03-24T11:47:00.000-07:00

So I have recently found the website stumbleupon.com. It's probably the coolest thing ever. You go on and put in a few settings like what you are interested in then click Stumble in the top left corner and it just finds cool things on the web that you might be interested in. Matthew just laughs at me as I find new things that I have to share with him because he is the only one up after work that I can tell. So there's a game that I found that I can't seem to stop playing. It's called Drench and is super simple. There are six colors and you just have to click on them until you clear the whole board. It's hard to explain so you just need to try it here to understand :)

If I Could

2011-02-17T12:41:00.000-08:00

If I had enough money at the moment, these are the things I would buy. I can't get them now because I really need to save for school but if I could...

TOMS black wrap boots along with

the original blue ones. For each pair of shoes that you buy from TOMS, they donate another pair to a child in need of shoes. That's a pretty good deal if you ask me.

These are just because they last forever and would be great for hiking and anything outdoors. Plus, you can wear them on campus!!

My Newest Obsession

2011-02-06T22:06:00.000-08:00

This song is my new love! Okay so I love everything Train sings but this is my newest. I have been spending my drives to and from work singing this at the top of my lungs! I can't get enough of it!! If you see me driving anywhere in the near future, likelihood is that I am listening to this song and will have no idea you are there because I will be singing like there's no tomorrow!

New Favorite Song

2010-12-19T08:48:00.000-08:00

This is my new favorite song called "Shake Up Christmas" by Train. I highly recommend listening to it. It will for sure bring you some Christmas cheer :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-8VCL4uSUc

New Blog

2010-12-12T11:29:00.000-08:00

Okay so here's the deal, I have changed my mind on the picture-a-day thing while here at Russia (don't panic) because I want to make it a year long goal. As I've been here, I've come to realize that I have absolutely no pictures of the rest of my life which I find to be very unfortunate so I am going to work on that by taking at least one picture everyday for a year and seeing what comes of it. I made the mistake on this blog of making it very unorganized and seeing as I want to print it after the year mark, I made a new beautiful blog - lisasyear.blogspot.com. I hope people will continue to follow me there. I've reposted all of my Russia pictures there and will keep posting on that one instead of this one. I might use this one for thoughts but I am unsure at this point. Anyways, I hope to hear from you all and am so grateful for everyone's support while I have been here!!

I'm Going to Miss Russia

2010-12-07T08:17:00.000-08:00

12/5 - I am woman, hear me roar!! I'm not sure if you can really tell but this is a ton of snow that's not been shoveled in a long time. I managed to make it through this in heels!! It took a long time because I was walking a long way but I did eventually make it and didn't fall once!

12/6 - I am going to miss these kids so much! For some reason lately, they have decided to sit super close to me when we are doing store. I feel like they've figured out that I am leaving soon so they are trying to get in as much time as possible before then. It just breaks my heart knowing I have to leave them!

Getting Low on Time

2010-12-04T12:26:00.000-08:00

12/2 - Lovin my wool socks! They keep me so warm and although they make make me look a little ridiculous here and there, it's okay because I just may make it out of here without any frostbite!!!

12/3 - This was my arts and crafts lesson for the week. We colored popsicle sticks and I glued them all together then we put glitter on. Took a while but it's all done and we are going to use them for the end of the semester performance they are putting on as decorations.

12/4 - Sveta (she's behind me eating) taught us how to make my favorite Russian dish today, pelmeni. It's like ravioli with meat inside and then you put sour cream on top. I can't wait to make it for my family back home!

Wow! It's December!!

2010-12-01T09:05:00.000-08:00

11/28 - So much snow!!! It's here for good no was of a few days ago :(

11/29 -Sometimes it can be just so beautiful here! I think this was a sunset but it was only like three in the afternoon

11/30 -Natasha is my girl. She's the one in stripes here. After having an awful time with 90 minutes of roudy kids, we get to store and two girls didn't get prizes. They both completely burst into tears along with lots of screaming. Natasha did get a prize but gave it to one of the girls and then sat and patted Paulina's head to make her feel better. It made me want to cry because I appreciated her help so much!

12/1 - Class was outside today for an hour. I am pretty sure that is the dumbest, most irresponsible decision I have ever heard in my life. Class outside isn't so bad except that this was the first time since it's snowed. Now remember that we have like a foot and a half of snow and the temperature has been around 15 degrees or so if we are lucky. These children (22 of them) were all bundled up but had already been playing outside for an hour when we got them. Apparently it's a new rule that children here have to have 40 minutes of Russian classes then 2 hours of outside time in the mornings. Anyways, they were so frozen that they would come up to us in tears because their hands were so cold from their wet gloves. We tried our best to warm them up by rubbing our own hands around theirs but it didn't really make that much difference. We started trying to sing songs and do some teaching but it got to the point that I made the executive decision for all that we bag any sort of learning and just have the children run around to keep them warm as best they can. We had fun despite feeling like we were suffering from frostbite. I hope we can figure out a way to change this and have class indoors - this is just stupid and it makes me furious to have these children suffer (I'll step off my soapbox now)

3 Weeks!

2010-11-27T12:07:00.000-08:00

Here's a week long one... sorry!

11/21 - These are two of the four missionaries that translate for us. The one on the inside got transferred so they came over to talk to Ray and talk to us

11/22 - I am thankful for this knob right here. It controls the heat in my bedroom. Russians like it much warmer in their homes but I don't :S

11/23 - There are so many stray dogs here. Nobody pays to fix their dogs so there's an excessive number of wild ones all over the streets

11/24 - The start of the blizzard

11/25 - There are also a freakin ton of pigeons here. They seem to stick together when it's cold out

11/26 - Thanksgiving feast!!! We all managed to pull together and have a fantastic feast while still in Russia!! It was delicious!

11/27 - Sveta took us to Catherine the Great's palace. It was very beautiful and very cold!

4 1/2 More Weeks

2010-11-18T08:01:00.000-08:00

It's so crazy to think that the end is so close. I've been lucky to have only had a quick phase of homesickness right after the week long vacation and now I am back in routine. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm ecstatic to go home and see everyone again but I will enjoy my last few short weeks left.

11/14 - Sveta taught us how to make a most delicious borsche. I can't wait to make it for my family! Oh and just as a side note, those are Kailin's pants I am wearing. I completely forgot how much I miss sweatpants!!

11/15 - I came home and Masha and I broke out the markers and colored for like two hours!!! It was so much fun! We also grabbed our flashlights and played shadow puppets :)

11/16 - Man, I wish someone would do this for me! Then I wouldn't do my hair for like a month! Anyways, I came home from school and Masha had her hair like this. I first just said, "Cool hair, Masha" then I had her come back so I could look closer and comment "REALLY cool hair Masha."

11/17 - I was deep cleaning out my room and realized that I forgot to take a picture of the package my mom sent me. They told us to make sure there's pictures of Christ so no one will open them but Mom went a little crazy. Not only was that one on the bottom taped on, there was also one on the bottom of the box and more loose in the package! Made me laugh :D

11/18 - So we got to Whitney's apartment and after waiting for a while, the elevator door opens and the lights are out. Talk about scary! Do we trust elevators in Russia with no lights? We decided to risk our lives and did it. This is the outcome. P.S. We lived.

Still Going Strong

2010-11-13T11:29:00.001-08:00

11/9 - Russia has an excessive amount of manholes and it makes it very difficult to avoid them for someone who has fallen in one. This particular spot has about six but only four are shown - it's ridiculous!!

11/10 - My uncle Jim died on Wednesday and my wonderful co-teachers pulled together and got me some flowers and wrote me a card. It was so nice of them!! Oh and the water jug was Natalie's idea :)

11/11 - Dear Sun, I love you very much but am rather confused as to why you are here in Russia. Don't get me wrong, it's wonderful to wake up to you but you do realize it's Russia? Much love, Lisa

11/12 - Just another everyday type of picture. These are my keys. That's a magnet on the left that everyone uses to get through gates and doors to their apartments. It takes three doors with the magnet and one with the key to get into my apartment!!

11/13 - This is a memorial for the 900 Day Siege here in St. Petersburg where the city was blockaded for 900 days. Look it up, it's incredibly fascinating and will make you so grateful for what you have!

Week Long Trip

2010-11-08T10:58:00.000-08:00

Okay, you better get ready because this is going to be a long one. Being gone for a week and a half is hard on blogs!

10/27 - Good morning St. Petersburg! Getting pretty chilly there!

10/28 - This is the arts and crafts project we did this week. I think the green one is my favorite :)

10/29 - This is one of my favorite students, Natasha. She's super smart but also a little sassy which makes it fun! We were playing dress up here for class.

10/30 - The first full day of our vacation, in Estonia. This was at a restaurant we went to called Old Hansa. It was as legit a medieval restaurant as you could get. Wonderful!

10/31 - Halloween. We had to celebrate it so we used anything we could find to paint our faces and messed up our hair then just ran around Tallinn with everyone else that was dressed up

11/1 - Made it to Finland and the temple housing. This is right after I learned the water was safe in Sweden and ran for the sink to drink from the tap for the first time in two months!

11/2 - This is on a little island just out from Helsinki. It was incredibly beautiful and quiet. What a perfect getaway from Russia!

11/3 - Another oven outside? I don't understand why this keeps happening. I was pretty excited for this picture though because I think I look like a legit backpacker!

11/4 - IKEA in Stockholm!!! The largest IKEA in the world

11/5 - This is at a little park called Skansen. Super cute and full of old Swedish culture. I saw this cannon and asked Kailin to take a picture of me with it. They were shocked when I just got down and knew exactly what I wanted

11/6 - The Stockholm temple. It was great to get to do baptisms here. They asked if they could say my last name the Swedish way - I just loved being where my family comes from!

11/7 - Kelsey and I on the plane. I just love this girl!!

11/8 - Umm... wasn't it just sunny in Stockholm? We came home to a snow storm!

I Love My Boys

2010-10-26T09:31:00.000-07:00

I am just so in love with all of my kids. They can be little turds at times and know exactly how to push your buttons but they also just crack me up. Sometimes there are those days where you are frustrated with all of the kids and about ready to give up for the day but then you turn and see one doing there own thing. You ask what they are doing and they have done something ridiculous that ends the bad mood and all you can do is laugh and take a picture. Here are two of those moments:

10/25 - You've all heard about Bogden. Well, he likes to sit right next to the teachers and yesterday we were drawing spiderwebs with markers. I turned to talk to him and he shows me his now black fingernail with this over-joyous face of pride. Oh Bogden... you make me laugh.

10/26 - For prizes today, the kids got those little capsule things that you stick in water and after a while they melt and expand into a sponge. They were all playing with their capsules and I was busy doing something but when I looked up, Rydion had it up his nose. He immediately took it out and laughed but I wanted a picture so I made him stick it back in. He loved it!!

Another One

2010-10-24T11:04:00.001-07:00

10/22 - The first legit snowfall. It stuck until about noon the next day. I know you can't tell what this is, it might actually be sideways, but that's up the street from Whitney's apartment

10/23 - I just love this picture!! We had a Halloween party for us teachers and our host families. There weren't many people there but it was still lots of fun! I was a pumpkin and Kailin was a forest elf

10/24 - These are the tights Mom sent me. I love them!! They are so soft and fun. I told Kailin this morning that they are so comfortable that it was like putting on a cloud for church this morning :)

Shame To The Family Name

2010-10-21T11:38:00.000-07:00

Dear Mom,

I can't even believe I have done this gross atrocity. It's one of the worst things I have ever done. Please be the one to break the news to Dad so I don't have to. What I am about to tell is one of the most embarrassing things I will ever say... I bought a flap hat. I know!! Don't make me feel any worse than I already do! Please accept my deepest apologies. I love you and hope to still hear from you.

Lova,

Lisa

10/21 - Okay so here's the real story. For years now my dad has bought awful hats with the flaps over the ears. We call them flap hats and all of us girls make fun of him for it. So it's been colder here and I decided I needed something to cover my ears. I bought some headbands at first but then realized I needed a flap hat. I'm weak.

Best Invention Ever

2010-10-20T10:02:00.001-07:00

10/20 - So I went to the mall yesterday and bought these headbands. I thought they would just keep my ears warm but the longer I wear them, the more I realize they are one of the best things I have ever bought! They are like head bands but super long so they can pretty much cover your hair without looking stupid. Definitely going to buy more tomorrow and use them on my bad hair days!

Working On The 8th Week!

2010-10-19T09:59:00.000-07:00

Can you believe I am already on my 8th week in Russia? I sure can't! It's really crazy but I am so grateful for all of the time I have been here and all of the people I have met!

10/16 - We didn't have any plans for Saturday so we all just kind of went off and did our own thing. Kailin, Stephanee, Ray, and I ended up going inside the Church on Spilled Blood. The inside was amazing! The whole interior was mosaic :S

10/17 - Whitney had never seen Anastasia and we all decided that was unacceptable since we are in St. Petersburg so we started watching it on Sunday.

10/18 - So connected to our classroom at one of the kindergartens is a bathroom with three little toilets for the students. We don't know where the normal toilets are and since it was nighttime, there wasn't really anyone around to ask so I got desperate and used the kids one!

10/19 - Us four decided to go to the mega mall with our morning off. There's a few free buses available to take and we just assumed they all go the same route. Today we learned they don't and ended up in a completely opposite direction. We ended up taking the metro to get home!

I Am Russian :)

2010-10-15T13:06:00.001-07:00

10/15 - This outfit is all over the place but it's actually the most Russian outfit I have! Leggings, boots, jacket, scarf, and umbrella: musts of Russia. Truly, I get less weird looks from this outfit than I do walking around in tennis shoes, jeans, and a Columbia jacket :S

A Video

2010-10-14T08:24:00.000-07:00

Today's post isn't a picture but a video. We are doing musical chairs this week and the kids LOVE Michael Jackson. I thought I would post a video of them dancing and playing to him:

10/14

I Was Lazy...

2010-10-13T10:20:00.000-07:00

I am so sorry for being so incredibly behind. I truly didn't notice until yesterday that we are already halfway through October. Where has the time gone?!?!?!

9/30 - Yes another Bogdan picture. I just can't help it. This kid is too cute to be true. He likes the tall chair and everytime I told him to sit up for a picture, his eyes would get bigger as well. This was the end result :)

10/1 - Our new Institute friends! We met them that night and they invited us out to a sushi bar. They were so much fun and it was so nice to get out!

10/2 - We went to a palace called Pavlovsk (or something like that) and this was the private garden. Kailin and I thought it was appropriate to be drinking tea in it!

10/3 - The two girls on the top left and the second one in from the left on the bottom are from ILP in Moscow and came up to visit for the weekend. They were super cute and didn't want to go home. This was right after watching the first session of conference.

10/4 - The never-ending escalator down to the metro. You truly can't see the bottom from the top. We timed it once and it takes 2:50 minutes to ride. That's quite a while!

10/5 - Ok so this picture wasn't actually taken on this date but I know I was with these two lovely ladies this day and I just love this picture. This is Kailin, Kelsey, and I. I can't get enough of them!!

10/6 - Sarah and I had a morning off and decided to hit up the Hermitage since it's free for us and she hadn't gone yet. I was so excited to find there was a Rembrandt room and that this painting was in it. I love this painting. It's called "The Return of the Prodigal Son."

10/7 - Relay races in class where we had balloons in our legs and ran around a cone. Jengish was hilarious because the balloon was about the same size as the space between his legs!

10/8 - Moscow! We made it! This is behind Red Square with St. Basil's on the right and the Kremlin on the left.

10/9 - The crazy market in Moscow where you can get things for really cheap by bartering. I had never done it before but let me tell you, it gets a little addicting!

10/10 - The pearls I bought at the market. I bought them for someone else but I am trying to convince myself that it's alright to keep them considering it's one of my biggest dreams to own pearls.

10/11 - I didn't have a picture for this day but we started watching Fiddler on the Roof for FHE which I have never seen before. It's taking a few sessions to watch it since it's long but I am enjoying it so far

10/12 - St. Petersburg... where even torn down old buildings can be beautiful

10/13 - On of my students, Meesha, gave me this as a present. It's a branch. It was sweet, right? :)

Wow! I am all caught up! Sorry I took a little break there. It's just been so busy lately with traveling and getting so many things ready for the rest of the semester. Please forgive me. I will try to do better!

I Hate Coming Up With Titles

2010-09-29T12:11:00.000-07:00

Another update :)

9/27 - Sometimes you don't get across the street fast enough and have to just chill on the median :S

9/28 - This is outside our Russian class university building. It's a little ghetto outside but pretty cool

9/29 - So there's actually nap time in Russian schools. This room is lined with beds and although we teach in this room, we had never actually pulled the beds out. Today, Kelsey and I decided we needed to pull them out. They are pretty cool!

Another Great Weekend

2010-09-26T09:33:00.000-07:00

Oh St. Petersburg, you are wonderful. I can't believe I have been here for almost a month. It's just been flying by!! Still three months to go but I already feel like it couldn't get any better. Actually I tell myself that after every weekend because we always go somewhere fantastic but each Saturday brings something new and just as amazing as the last!! Oh the stories I will have when I come home! So to keep my photo of the day going, here's four more days worth. Sorry that the weekday pictures are a little lame. It's busy, busy, busy during the week but on the weekends, I have too many pictures to choose from!!

9/23 - This is on the walk to our other kindergarten. It's not all like this but it gets a little ghetto sometimes! We do have the option of taking the bus but decided we wanted to walk while it's still sunny and nice out

9/24 - This is Kailin and I on a random bridge in a park somewhere in the city. We all went to go explore and ended up here taking tons of pictures. I asked Sarah to take this picture and although Kailin wanted to sit up straight, I told her to slouch because that's natural. In the end, Sarah told us to sit up so that's what we did. Turned out great!

9/25 - The Gulf of Finland. So beautiful!!! We spent Saturday at Petergoff and there's a wall blocking the wind of the water from really effecting the park. You can't tell what's over it but once you climb up, a gorgeous gulf is waiting for you. It's such an amazing experience!!

9/26 - Okay so this is a random picture but I forgot to take a picture of what I wanted and this was my last minute option. This is my wonderful R.E.I. water bottle. It keeps me hydrated :) This is another reason why I love America. Although the water is not always tasty, you know it's always safe and you can have it anytime. I miss that so much!!

Another Week

2010-09-22T08:24:00.000-07:00

Update time. I know my pictures aren't always terribly exciting but it's hard when the school week only brings teaching. I hope this will do for now :)

9/18 - We went to the ballet at the Mariinsky Theater. This is probably my favorite picture I took. That box is where the tsar used to sit!!!

9/19 - This is my apartment building. I am the twelfth story up in the middle section there.

9/20 - Okay so this is a random picture but that's through the elevator shaft twelve stories up!

9/21 - This is their "sausage." It looks and tastes just like hot dogs. I hate to break it to you Russia, but you can get that dirt cheap in America!!

9/22 - Funny story. We got locked IN the school today. We teach 4-6 and apparently they didn't realize we were still there so the door was locked. Luckily, we found another way out.

To Mother

2010-09-17T21:42:00.000-07:00

At Mom's request, here's another update. I guess it's been a while and the best way for me to catch you up is to do it with pictures.

9/12 - What an absolutely gorgeous morning! What a great way to welcome a glorious fall day!

9/13 - This is Marsha my host "sister." She's six and very cute!

9/14 - Sarah and I were walking to school the other morning and heard a cat meowing. We couldn't figure it out but finally found this cat in a tree. I was totally surprised because who knew that actually happened in real life!! We didn't know the number of the fire department (and would have felt rather silly calling them as 20-year-olds) so we just left and decided if it was still there when we walked past again, Sarah would climb up and get it :)

9/15 - Okay so I know I've blogged about Bogden before but I just can't help it. He's just so stinkin cute. He's such a ladies man and we all love him!! Just imagine his face constantly puckered to come kiss you. It's too funny!

9/16 - This is the mask I made for drama that scared all of the kids. I think it got scarier throughout the week with it getting more and more ragged.

9/17 - We went to some random makeshift amusement park. I had to get a picture with Yoda of course :)

I'm in Heaven

2010-09-11T08:11:00.000-07:00

Our adventure for this weekend was going to the Hermitage Museum. INCREDIBLE!!!! I still can't wrap my head around the fact that I saw a bunch van Gogh, Da Vinci, Renior, Monet, and many other's paintings! It was just a total dream. I am a humanities minor and just love art so it was such an amazing experience. I am sure I was thoroughly entertaining for others as I had my jaw dropped the entire time! Here's my favorite picture I took:

9/11 - This room was breathtaking! I kept saying that this is what heaven will look like!

It's the Weekend!

2010-09-10T06:13:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a couple days but there really hasn't been much to post; I have just been teaching and that's not so exciting. This weekend will be good though because we are going to the Hermitage and who knows what else. Here's a few pictures to keep you going:

9/8 - The kids at my other kindergarten - they are the most wonderful children!! (Anja, Lylitta, Igor, Meesha, and Grisha)

9/9 - Random picture but this is the wallpaper in my bedroom. It's puffy and makes me laugh!

9/10 - The boy is Bogdan. I need to get a better picture of him because he is already famous for being a lady's man. SUPER cute and always comes up and kisses our hands!

My Kids

2010-09-07T10:33:00.000-07:00

Today was my second day of school and it went really well! I had some extra time at the end so I decided to get a couple pictures of them.

9/7 - Four of my kids (normally around eight at this school): Veronica, Natasha, Alina, and Rodion

Bathtub...

2010-09-06T11:10:00.000-07:00

Okay so today was my first day of teaching and I think it went pretty well overall. I teach at two different kindergartens for about two hours each. It ends up being about 14 hours a week. So the first school went awful!! I showed up and the book I was going to read to them wasn't there so I had to change my whole plan on the spot. Also, there were a ton of kids where it was their first time at school so they all just started sobbing! It was terrible but we made it through. After that, we all had lunch and got a physical done by the school. I was the first one in and all it was was checking our heart and lungs with a stethoscope and she checked our skin by having us take our shirts off. Really no big deal but when I came out, our school coordinator, Alla, had me explain to everyone else what it was like. I told them that first we had to take all of our clothes off then I couldn't hold it any longer because Alla busted out laughing! The other's weren't as amused but she loved it! Next we were off to the second school. It went about 3 katrillion times better than the first! No crying and the children were really good about participating! Also, I had made a new plan and so the new lesson was much better.

My picture of the day is kind of random but I didn't know what else to take. It's a picture of my freakin ENORMOUS bathtub. Truly, the first time I went to take a shower I didn't get my leg up high enough and hit the top! I was having a conversation with a teacher about it and when I came home no one was here so I thought it was perfect.

9/6 - I don't think you can really tell by this but it's huge!! Compare it to the door I guess :S

What to Say?

2010-09-05T08:05:00.001-07:00

I don't even know what to say. There's so much! I guess I can just give a brief overview of the last week as best I can. So I flew in Tuesday night and was taken to my host home (I think I wrote about that in my last post). Wednesday, I met my teaching group. They are all pretty cool and I think we will get along great. After meeting them, we took the metro to the university we will be having our Russian language classes at (we get five weeks worth free and have to pay if we want more). The metro is insane!!! It's the world's top metro system and I can tell why - it goes 344 ft below the ground! After you buy your token, you go in and take the most incredibly long escalator I have ever seen down to the trains. I would take a picture but it's illegal to take pictures of the metro. Maybe I can somehow sneak one. Anyways, the most I have had to wait for a train is like two minutes; once it gets there, you get on FAST because the doors will close on you if you aren't quick!

Thursday, we went to one of our schools for a lunch of pasta with nothing on it, bread, and "premium" sausages which tasted like hot dogs to us. It was great! :) After that, we were pretty much free to do whatever we wanted but Sarah, Ray, and I went back down to the university to pick up everyone's passports because they needed them to register us for the class. It was kind of fun to take the metro with just us three.

9/2 - Very wet Russia!

Friday, we spent just about the whole day preparing for teaching on Monday. I am teaching at two different schools but just kindergarteners. Random fact, Russians don't wear shoes indoors so we all got slippers to wear in our schools! That night, we had balini night. Balini's are just like crepes but in Russia. I brought over my huge jar of peanut butter (my whole group thanks you majorly Mom!!) and we put that, Nutella, and bananas on them. Delicious!

9/3 - Balinis

Saturday, we spent a lot of the day preparing for school as well but around 3, we decided we needed to get out and see a few sights. We headed out with some directions and saw the Church on Spilt Blood, the Hermitage, and the other places around there. Quite a nice break I would say!

9/4 - Church on Spilt Blood

Sunday, we obviously all wanted to go to church. The only problem was that the directions we were given from the previous teachers were awful and we only had the mission office's phone number which they wouldn't have answered. So what did we do? Got on a bus and tried to figure it out as we go! Our directions told us which bus to take and to get off at the next stop after we saw a purple sex shop (yeah that's right; there's a lot of those around here). So we got off and started heading in what we thought was the right direction. After wandering for two hours, all of us in heals stopped while a couple others went on. Some more time went on and we were going to call it quits when the others texted us that they found it! Two hours late but the next service was starting in 45 minutes! How lucky! We got there and there were two elders and a sister willing to translate for us. It was a branch of about 75 people but just as strong in their faith as any ward. It was amazing to hear all of their testimonies, with it being Fast Sunday, about how they love the church, President Monson, and the new temple dedicated in Kiev. Such an amazing meeting!

9/5 - Random picture I know but this is my new cell phone my host family gave me to use. Notice the Russian letters above the English.

I am in Russia?

2010-09-01T06:57:00.000-07:00

Okay so sorry I haven't don't any pictures but I have been flying the last couple days and then got here and crashed so I will make up for it now.

My first day flying was very long! I flew to Phoenix, then Philadelphia, then Frankfurt, then here in St. Petersburg. Apparently just one other girl and I were the only ones to fly here alone! Everyone else was together! I can't believe it! Luckily, they have been really nice and accepting of "the new girl," or at least that's how I feel. I actually had a complete meltdown in Germany. It's just so scary being alone in a foreign country where you can't speak to anyone and just feel like the village idiot. I made it here fine though. I live with a couple, Alex and Nastia, and their daughter, Marsha. The father is the only one who speaks any english and even that is not all that much so it's pretty hard being home. Luckily, there's another girl in my group who lives just a couple floors down so maybe we can hang out a lot or something!

Anyways, here are my pictures for now:

8/30 A life-sized version of the Liberty Bell in the Philadelphia airport made out of Legos

8/31 That's Ireland down there!

9/1 The view from my bedroom!

Picture of the Day

2010-08-29T20:11:00.000-07:00

I don't know if anyone reads this, I like to think so, but I have decided that I am going to start doing a picture a day while in Russia. I will try my best but can't actually guarentee it will happen. Anyways, so I am heading off to Russia in the morning and took a picture of me with my tickets and passport. Seven tickets!!!!! Wish me luck! Next time you hear from me, I will be in Russia!

P.S. Please excuse how awful I look. I am very tired and just took a shower.

My Dear Nephew

2010-08-21T20:00:00.000-07:00

I was trying to feed Connor one day his rice cereal and this was the outcome. I just thought it was too cute to not share :)

Oh Gosh! It's Coming!

2010-08-14T12:03:00.000-07:00

Russia is coming FAST!!! Luckily, I am pretty much ready for it and can now hit the excited point. I went shopping today and got most of what's left and now I can just focus on packing and the last little bit of summer :) I can feel the stress leaving me and the excitement come in!!!! It's going to be great!!

Scared

2010-07-25T23:12:00.000-07:00

Okay so not gonna lie, I am starting to get absolutely terrifed about the idea of going to Russia! What was I thinking deciding to go to a country I know completely nothing about and live there for four months?! I'm not going to back out or anything like that so don't worry, I am just starting to get a reality check now that school is out. Hopefully after I do some research I will begin to feel better. I know my fright is also because I am missing friends from school and know I won't see them for nine months so I am just a mess of emotions right now. Please just pray for me!

On to a New Beginning

2010-07-11T16:58:00.000-07:00

The end is nearing. Only two weeks left of the semester and I am not sure how I feel about it. It's just been a weird semester for me. I've been super busy with classes I don't really like, a really early job which I love but prevent me from getting much sleep, and a calling that can be a little overwhelming at times. I feel like I didn't really have time to have fun. I've had some good times here and there with Kelsey, but overall, I have been more busy this semester compared to others. I kind of feel a little bit like I have been missing out on summer. On the bright side, I think this will be my hardest semester and in two weeks, I will be going home with no job for seven weeks and can enjoy summer for a little bit.

Also on the bright side, I am getting excited for Russia! I fly out on August 31 and get back December 21. It will be so nice to have change and go travel the world like I have always wanted. I think that's my thing right now. I want change. Maybe it's because I dyed my hair a little while back but I am feeling like I need to move on to a new chapter in my life. I am not going back to Mallard Landing anymore, I won't be in Rexburg for two semesters, I am thinking I want to find a new job when I come back up here, and Christine will be married so I am out of a roommate. All of these things just make me ready to move on and see what I can do and excited for what's to come. I really don't know what I am going to do about them but I think that's the adventure in it and I am excited to work it all out and see what's in store for me. So cheers to a new start!!

Gotta Love FHE!

2010-05-25T19:09:00.000-07:00

Every semester that I go to school, I tell myself that my FHE group can't possibly get better than the one before. And every semester, I am wrong. My current FHE group is great! We have just my apartment and one other apartment of guys that are really great. Here's some pictures from FHE two weeks ago. We went to the ropes course up on campus.

Christine on the swing

Pulling the swing to get it up high

We kind of matched :)

Almost there

Yesterday, we decided to play pictionary with shaving cream on the counter. I think we made it through one round before it got a little crazy!

We all look so nice to start!

Yeah, Christine actually started this! Chad looks a little scared (he was next!)

The end result

I just love my roommates! :)

After the war

I am so excited for this semester! There's going to be some pretty grand FHE's!!

Ultimate Chef

2010-05-25T18:51:00.000-07:00

My ward calling is activities chairperson and that can be pretty scary. I get really nervous before an activity because I don't want everyone to think it's stupid. Luckily, all of them have gone super well! Or at least people tell me it's going well. Here's our latest activity from last Saturday. This was so cool and turned out way better than planned!!

Everyone split into their FHE groups and were given chicken, rice, pineapple, and coco puffs and were supposed to make a main dish and dessert using those. They also got a secret ingredient that was either BBQ sauce, peanut butter, marshmallows, or Mt. Dew.

Two guys from my ward super excited to marinade their chicken in honey, mt. dew, and something else

One of the groups

A winning dish. Pretty impressive huh?

The two winners! Best overall and most creative

It was a really fun activity and everyone that went seemed to really enjoy themselves :)

Cheers to a New Semester!

2010-04-18T14:54:00.000-07:00

So summer semester has begun again. I AM SO EXCITED!!!!! This semester is going to rock! I haven't met all of my roommates yet but I can't imagine there will be any problems so that's just awesome! My classes I am a little nervous for but I have had two blessings now that have told me that it will all be fine and that I will do well. Here are my classes:

Anatomy and Physiology II
Geography 101 (retaking to get a better grade)
Math in the Real World
Advanced Writing
Family Foundations

Then there's the part that I am most excited about! I was called to be Activities Chairperson for my ward!! My mind has been reeling since with things that we can do! I met a bunch of people at church today and they all seemed really nice so I can't wait to meet everyone else. Plus it's the summer so it's going to be nice and we can play outside all the time! I have thought of things like bonfires, tubing, water balloon war, Sports Wednesday (meet in the park and play a different game every Wednesday), and many more!

That's about it for now. I will keep you all updated!

The Rest is Still Unwritten...

2010-03-21T12:44:00.000-07:00

While mowing the lawn yesterday to take advantage of the glorious 70 degree weather, I was listening to my ipod and realized that Natasha Bedingfield speaks to my soul. Her song "Unwritten" is how I have been trying to live my life and gives me the motivation to keep with my Russia plans. It's officially my favorite song :)

Russia!

2010-03-11T21:32:00.000-08:00

So I just had to leave a little note to tell everyone that I am for sure going to Russia!!!!!!! I made it into the program and now have to go through a bunch of paperwork, physicals, and stuff like that and then I am on my way! I will be there from mid-August to mid-December (home by Christmas). I will teach children English about four hours a day and then have the rest of the time to do what I want. I will also get to live with a host family so I will get to be totally immersed into the culture.

I talked to my representative and she told me that since Russia is so close to Europe and all of those countries, I will be able to go to places like Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Ukraine, and a whole bunch of other places! My passport is going to look so cool!!! She also told me that I can go to church in a Russian branch in St. Petersburg and have the missionaries translate for me and that I can also have my records transferred over and get a calling! How cool is that!! Oh gosh I am just so excited!

I will keep you all posted

Russia

Finland

Sweden

Time For Another One

2010-02-18T22:31:00.001-08:00

Since I am home now and work in the evenings, when everyone is gone, I get really bored. I have yet to figure out what to do with all of my spare time and I am sure once I do figure it out, I will be back at school! So what I decided to do today was google wedding rings randomly enough (there's no guy in mind just as an FYI). I learned that I absolutely ADORE pearl rings! Here's a couple that I especially loved:

Choice #1
Choice #2

To go with the ring, I also found a dress I am in love with. Keep in mind that there would have to be some modifications for the temple.

I know it's not the traditional dress, it's shorter, but I still love it! Just remember that I don't have anyone in mind, I was just bored :)

For some real news, I am planning on going to Russia for four months in the fall!!!! There's a program called International Language Program that teaches children in China, Mexico, Russia, and Ukraine how to speak English from volunteers like I would be. I don't have any interest in China or Mexico and Russia seems really exciting! I still have to convince my dad of it but it's only $2520 for everything except spending money and I am super pumped to do it! Pray for me that everything works out. I am hoping to go to St. Petersburg or Moscow and I would teach for about 4 hours a day then see the city the rest of the time. I would also be living with a host family so I would get to really know the culture. So cool!

This One is for Robin :)

2009-11-24T15:55:00.000-08:00

Update time. Too bad there's not really all that much to say. I guess I will just put up some pictures to show off my most recent adventures.

My mom and Grandma came up to visit me at school for a weekend, October 22-24. It was so much fun showing them that part of my life and all of my friends!

This is when we went to Mesa Falls one morning. It was so beautiful!

Random homework break where we found some old makeup and decided to show it off. I love this picture! The lipstick was still there the next day at school!

Another random homework break but we had glowstick hat kits and put them together. :D

Our trip to the Hawk Nelson/Skillet concert in Boise on November 5. It was so worth the four hour drive to get there!

Along the drive. This is pretty much the only thing that makes Idaho worth living in! jk!

Hawk Nelson! Skillet was pretty great too!

We went to a little pizza joint afterwards with a few friends. I would have never thought I would be eating pizza at midnight in Boise with no jacket! It was fabulous!

That same weekend, our good friend Josh came up to visit. He's really great and we had tons of fun (and I am hoping him and Christine will get married! shhh!). This is when we were waiting for Christine's volleyball game to start.

And last but not least, here's my roommate Amy's half birthday party. Kelly, my FHE brother, decided it would be grand to push her head into her cake that they made for her! His timing was perfect!!

Well, I think that's pretty good for now. Just a few shots of what I have been up to. Other than this all, just studying away to keep my grades up. Especially LOTS of anatomy homework! Luckily, I have all A's and B's. Hopefully the rest of the semester will go as well! :)

Let the Buttload of Work Begin!

2009-09-25T11:54:00.000-07:00

So as you all know, I am back at BYU-I for this semester. I am actually staying until April to finish off my AA. Holy cow that is a long time!!! So this semester is going pretty well so far - making lots of friends and having a good time. The best thing I have done so far though is going to the ice caves with a few other friends. The caves are a little ways out of town and you need a truck to get to them because of the bumpy road but if you are with the right group, it's a blast! Christine and I went with a few of our new friends from our ward Kellen, Phillip, and Lane. Phillip drove his truck out going around 30 mph on the really bump parts of the road so it felt like a roller coaster! After going on a bunch of wrong roads, we finally made it. Little did we know, the ice caves would be pretty much full of ice except for the butt grooves from people sliding down them. You have to climb through it all (no space for walking) by laying down on your back on the ice and kicking off the ceiling. Some pretty intense stuff but way worth it! At the end there's a slide you can go down. We also managed to scare another group in the cave by hiding with our lights off and jumping out.

The Caves!

This is at the very beginning of the cave. See where Christine's foot is, that's actually ice we had to step on and slide down but also miss the big hole on the left!! Good thing we had boys there to lift us back up!!!

Kick off the ceiling on your back onto the ice!

Kellen and Phillip sliding through

Oh boys!

So that was our fun last weekend but I can already feel the fun is very quickly coming to an end. I have a lot of homework now with classes like Anatomy and Medical Terminology plus I got a job at a private caregiving facility and I am going to start volunteering at the hospital!! Crazy stuff but I am so excited!

I Forget I Have a Blog :S

2009-08-18T14:32:00.000-07:00

Well it's time to do one of these again. I'm back at home again for the month of August working at Mallard Landing again until I go back for school on August 10. I am super excited for this semester! Last semester was fun on a social level but this semester is going to be fun because of my classes (and the roommates are also going to be great!). My schedule includes College Algebra, Natural Disasters, Medical Terminology, Book of Mormon, Anatomy/Physiology, and an online computer basics class (kind of irronic!). I am finally at the point in my education where my learning is becoming more specialized and I am officially looking for other schools I can go to do my radiology program! Top choice is Portland Community College but I will go wherever accepts me. Stressful!!

Christine came home with me when the summer semester ended and she spent about a week and a half here! We had fun going to the beach, Ikea, Lewisville Park, and anywhere else we could go. Her and Matthew also attacked my car twice while I was at work. The first time I actually saw them do it but the second time, they had Tim drive my car around to the back lot and they filled it with balloons and seran wrapped it with six rolls of wrap! I didn't catch them that time! It was lots of fun having her here and I can't wait to see her in another couple weeks!

Hmm... what else? Tim is leaving on his mission to Michigan on September 16!! I am so proud of him and his desire to go! I am going to miss him SOOO much but it's definitely worth it! :)

This picture is from Prom a year and a half ago but I still like it!

Oh! So I remember a story that I should tell because it's pretty funny and everyone seems to like to hear it. So we decided to take a trip to the beach with the girls - Mom, us three girls, and Christine. We were having a good day with perfect weather! We decided to head back to the car which was a few blocks away near the beach and we could make it there by going on the boardwalk. We hit a fork in the road and decided to go right on a little shortcut. There was a manhole in the middle of nowhere on the path and I stepped on it without thinking because everyone has done that. It turns out that it wasn't secure and I fell in!! I actually just had my legs in it but everyone turned around and started laughing! I asked them to help me out but my mom just started yelling, "Get the camera!!" as I am yelling, "No Mom! It hurts really bad! Help me out!!" As I began crying, they helped me out. I got a really bad bruise on my leg and a scratch on my knee but it's all ok - I am going to have a scar from it!

This definitely isn't the worst it got. The darkest pictures are actually on Christine's camera

so I don't have them right now. Oh and no my leg isn't dirty - that's what it looked like (bruised

all along the front!)

Update...

2009-07-09T16:36:00.000-07:00

So there's only about two weeks of school left and I really should be doing homework but for the first time in a very long time, I feel like I actually have a hold on it and can write on here. So what's happened in the last couple weeks - quite a lot but it just goes by so fast that I can't ever remember.

To start, (sorry it's a downer) my FHE brother, Lance Jensen, died on June 23. He drowned in the Snake River while swimming with his fiancee. (I told you it was sad!) The thing is, after much crying between Christine and I on the 23rd, we felt like it really was his time to go and that we are really proud to have known him. We spent that night walking around Rexburg talking about the good times we had with him and we went to Applebees and spent $19 each! We didn't care about money at that point and I am pretty sure he is still laughing at us about that one! That following Saturday we went to his viewing and funeral with his roommates. It was an excellent day and everything went perfectly. It was one of those happy funerals where people just reminisce about the good old days. Then there was the grave dedication where he was placed on a hill in the sun with a golf course right next to it. He loved golf and we used to make fun of him for his tan lines so it was great! We all left that day feeling like we wanted to be just like him for all of the service he performed and the love he had for others. One thing I will never forget about him was one day on our way to class (we had Herioc Journey together), he was walking with some friends and saw a girl struggling to put a poster up. He stopped walking and helped her out even though he was almost late to class. It was just a simple thing but it made me think that I should be looking for things like that to do. Lance will be missed but we all know he is doing a greater work now. We all have been saying that he needed to go so that he could teach Michael Jackson!!

Hmm so what's next? Oh yeah, Tim got his mission call!!! Everyone knows that by now but I have to tell my story of when he called me. So I called him on Monday thinking he would be home by then from his vacation and he answered his phone and started speaking Spanish. I freaked out thinking he was going somewhere Spanish speaking which is what he wanted but after a few minutes of confusing conversation, he told me that he was still in Provo. I told him to call me the next day. I waited all day for him and at about 9:00 that night, I was at Taco Bell with Christine and Natalia and he called. I picked up the phone and immediately asked where he was going. He sounded excited and told me to guess. Ok so I started guessing random countries then asked stateside or foreign. He said stateside and had me keep guessing. That butt had me guessing for a good two minutes!!! FINALLY, he told me Michigan and that he's leaving September 15! I am so excited for him and can't wait to see him in two weeks!

Well I have more to post but Christine is going to teach me how to drive stick shift now so that I can surprise my dad when I get home in two weeks. Keep it a secret!! :)

In Reality, I Don't Feel The Need to Post, Just Avoiding Homework!

2009-06-19T11:58:00.001-07:00

So I forgot to say a couple things in my last post and I was too lazy to just edit the other one so this is actually a continuation of the post I did like two minutes ago. I forgot to say that about two weeks ago we go to go to a devotional by President Eyring! It was amazing! He talked all about how this campus and the temple are united in purpose and should be taken advantage of by the students. Here are a few pictures from it of Christine, me, and two of our FHE brothers, Josh and Mike. Oh and of course, President Eyring!

Of course we needed a picture of us two! Classic!

Me and Mike

Christine and Mike

Me, Josh, and Christine

This is about how far away I was from him. Granted my camera is fully zoomed in! I really could see him even though you can't tell from this picture.

Here's the screen so people will believe me :)

Some other exciting news - Tim came and visited me in Rexburg!!! He got here Monday night around 10:00 with his sister Jessica. Once they got here, Adam Nielson came over and then us four went to his apartment to sort of watch movies. We were all really tired. So at around 12:30, we decided to go to bed; Tim at Adam's and Jessica at my apartment. The next morning, Tim came over around 7:00 (making me get up! jk! I was ok with seeing him!) and then us four, along with Kaitlin New and Christine headed over the JB's for breakfast. They ended up staying until around three then they had to get to their grandma's and I had to get to class. So I only have two pictures and they are really lame. I just took them on my phone.

Tim decided to play the guitar for everyone. My roommates loved him!! They thought he was so nice and so sweet. And Christine wants me to marry him!

I told you these were kind of lame pictures. Sorry!

These are the cans of pop Tim left for me after I left for class. It's our joke that we are both going to the terrestrial kingdom because we drink caffinated pop but at least we will both be there! When I got up here, I called him and told him that he needed to bring me some pop because I was in Rexburg and there wasn't any. Two and a half months later and he still remembered! It's really cute to me! It's like getting flowers! :D

Well, I think I have stalled long enough and now have to get to homework :S

Good Week? I'd Say So!!

2009-06-19T10:31:00.000-07:00

So even though there has been horrible weather here, monsoons, thunder, and lightning, we have still been able to find some fun things to do around here. For example, I have learned to love water polo and ultimate frisbee! Our FHE brothers have a pool at their apartment and invite us over 1-2 times a week to play water polo or water volleyball. For those of you that haven't tried it yet, it's a must! Really hard but so much fun!

Then there's ultimate frisbee - my new love! It's soccer but with a frisbee and we also play it with my FHE brothers (they are the best!). This last week we played a totally intense full-on tackle game that left us all bruised and sore. The day after, I talked to a lot of the people that played and it didn't matter how in shape you were, that game left you wanting to die because you were so sore! Worth it though.

The reason for that night wasn't actually to play ultimate. Our apartment and the boys decided to have a huge group date because my roommate, Heather, had never been on a date so we set her up with the bishop's first counselor's son, Ethan. Here are the before pictures because since her mom wasn't there, we all felt like we needed to take pictures. It's a must for a first date!

Her first date! How cute! We did her makeup and chose her outfit

We had to test out the timer on Christine's camera - so we decided dancing would produce the best shot! You have to know that we were also creating the music along with dancing to it!

Classic group shot before we headed over to the boy's apartment

Just about all of the girls that were there. The boys were cooking the hamburgers on the BBQ at this point and we were just waiting for it to all get set up

My favorite shot of them all! Best friends FOREVER!!!!!

Overall, it was a really successful night. We ate good, went to the ward softball game, the ultimate. Oh and just in case you were wondering, Heather got a ride home from Ethan (while the rest of us walked!) and they exchanged numbers. Very successful!

Dying Party!

2009-06-03T16:45:00.001-07:00

Christine, Natalia, and I decided to dye our hair yesterday. The plan was that I would have honey colored highlights and Christine and Natalia would go dark on the bottom half and blonde highlights on the top. It all started out well and good:

We decided against a cap for me but when I put it on, Christine just had to get a picture because my hair was really poofy and it just looked funny! We decided to go with tin foil instead.

Gangster! And this is getting ready for the foil. It seemed like a kodak moment!

Waiting for it to dye

Now it was Christine and Natalia's turns. They had a few good moments too :)

After an hour and a half of having my hair in the foil, we decided it was probably done. Now keep in mind that we were aiming for a honey/carmel color. This is what we got! Don't be confused by the smile, I was totally freaking out at the time!

My highlights were BLEACH BLONDE!!!! Totally not what we were going for! There were even some white parts from it being in for so long! After a few "Oh my gosh!"s and "Holy crap!"s I went and washed out my hair hoping that some of it would come out. I felt bad because Christine was the one who did it and I didn't want her to feel bad for ruining my hair so I just smiled and laughed. In the end, here's how it turned out and I actually really like it! I hate the whole MySpace look of these pictures of taking them in the bathroom through the mirror but you gotta do what you gotta do I guess!

Before

After

Christine and Natalia still have to finish their hair. That's tonight's activity!

The Amazing Adventures of Lisa and Christine!!

2009-06-01T21:54:00.000-07:00

So even though my bedtime that I set for myself (11:00) is in five minutes, if I don't write this now, it will never happen. So my mom called me today and requested what I should write for my next blog - about my last Friday night. It was quite eventful! I have to explain first something that has been going on for about a week or two now. There was a concert the other night for William Joseph, some sort of pianist. Well the school put up posters for it and me and Christine think he is really cute! We decided that we needed to steal one of his posters for our room. So since I work early morning custodial, I stole one on Friday morning and brought it home and hung it up on the wall. Ok now fast forward to that night. BYU-I has an International Cinema that plays a movie every couple weeks. The movie playing on Friday was called "Paradise Now" and was about two friends who live in Israel and are called to be suicide bombers. It started out in subtitles which we thought were lame but we ended up getting really into it (highly recommend it!) and have decided to go to the next one which is about Ghandi.

So we stayed there until about 9:30 because there was a discussion about it afterwards. We decided to leave when they started talking about stuff we didn't understand. We headed out and had decided right before we left for the movie to go steal a bunch of the William Joseph posters - one wasn't enough! So we started in the Spori building and only got one there then we headed out for the Smith building because Christine has classes there and had seen some. He managed to steal a few there but headed up to the Hinckley next. It turns out that they don't put any posters up in that building. Who knew! Since we were already up at the top of campus, we decided to try the Ricks even though there are normally a lot of people there. Jackpot!!!! We probably got 10 posters in that one building!Then we took some pictures of us to remember our night:
Next was to the Benson building. Another goldmine!!! We decided that was enough for the night considering it was around 10:15 and we had a ton to carry! As we were heading home, I had a brilliant idea. We were already on campus at night so no one would see us and it's been my dream since I first saw it. We went and rolled down the hill between the Taylor and MC buildings!! This hill has three parts to it and it's pretty steep so it looks super fun. BEST HILL EVER!!!! Me and Christine went flying down it and just the laughed the whole way! We did it twice and decided that we need to take Natalia there another time.

Since no one was on campus, I also decided to do a cartwheel in the middle of the parking lot just because it sounded fun: Yeah I don't really know how I did that! Time for home after that one and time to count up the posters. We ended up with........ 25 posters!!!!! We then took a few pictures with them and hung them up on our walls! We now have lovely wallpaper on some of our walls!

And there's the final product of our theivery! Looks pretty awesome in my opinion! We ended the night with an ice cream trip to Albertsons because no where else is open past 11:00 in Rexburg! Well, that's all for now because it's now 11:30 and I have to get up at 3:30 for work. I only got about 4.5 hours of sleep total last night including the nap after work so I think I should go to bed now! I hope this is good for you Mom and that everyone else enjoyed my crime story! Everytime I call my mom now she answers the phone asking me if I am in jail yet! :)

Me? A Blog? I Guess So!

2009-05-30T22:13:00.000-07:00

So even though I think blogs are for married couples, or people with children which makes them more interesting than me, I thought I would make one since I will be in Rexburg until April. Yes, I am doing the FastGrad program so I can graduate in April with my associates in generals. Shoot me now!! :) No actually I am really excited because I will graduate in April then transfer to another school to do a radiology progam to become an X-Ray Technician! I am hoping to go to Portland Community College to do that. So anyways, now that you all know my story, I hope this works!