Halloween Fun!

I love holidays. They give me an excuse to dress up and decorate. I love the traditions that form with holidays. For example, for seven years now (I missed one year because I was on my mission), I've made a graveyard cake around Halloween. Three of those years I made it with one of my good friends/roommates, Katie. Unfortunately, I was sick this week and so I had to take extra precautions when making and decorating my graveyard cupcakes (I did cupcakes this year because my mom sent me some really fun cupcake wrappers). I made sure to wash my hands and use hand sanitizer anytime that I handled the cupcakes and wrapped one my of scarves around my face so that I wouldn't spread my germs by breathing on them either. My roommates and I ate them as we carved pumpkins. I'm so grateful I have roommates who get into holidays as much as I do (or are at least willing to go along with my ideas).

I hadn't come up with a costume idea for this year's Halloween. I had been playing around on amazon.com and found a mask and cloak that I absolutely loved, but also absolutely out of my budget. On Friday afternoon, I was leaving to go to the mall to look at ideas for Christmas Cards (yes, I know it's a tad early, but I'm so excited for Christmas this year), and my roommate, Shelece, was talking about getting dressed up and doing something. I reminded her that I had no Halloween costume. She said we'd figure it out. So, I went to the scrapbook store, looking for ideas and after that was done, I figured I'd might as well look for a quick, easy costume while I was at the mall. They were doing trick-or-treating at the mall and so it was super crowded. My first thought was to find some silky looking p.j.'s and a tiara and go as "sleeping beauty." However, the P.J.'s were just out of my budget as well. So, I stopped by one of my favorite stores, Mariposa, that is going out of business and they had a huge sale going on. I thought maybe I could find a white formal and match Shelece, who was going as an angel, since formals were $30. Alas, I couldn't find one that worked. Still working off of Shelece's theme I thought, what if I went as a demon? I went looking for some devil horns and found a pair at Claire's for $2.40. I then went back to Mariposa and found a red formal skirt my size that was 75% off. I got home and Shelece and I got all dolled up and took some pictures. We then went to the stake Halloween party. It was decent, not too much to do, but it was fun to see friends and the costumes people were wearing. Overall, it was an enjoyable evening. I never would have imagined myself being a demon for Halloween, but that's what happens when you put a costume together in 20 minutes. :-)

An Eventful Weekend

Many things happened this weekend. My roommate Shelece is turning 21 this month and so we threw her a black, white, & pink mocktail party. We had a good turn out and it was great to see friends and people in our ward. On Saturday morning, I went with some guys to the Salt Lake Temple. It was a really neat experience to do a session there. Afterwards, we met a friend for lunch at the Pie. It is so delicious! That afternoon, our Relief Society hosted a fondue party for the girls to have a chance to get to know one another. Then that evening, Shelece and I went to Divine Comedy, a comedy troupe on campus.

What is a party without food?

The Birthday Girl!

From the left: Me, Becky, Noah, Jeff, Amber, Brandon & Katie

Cheers to a successful party!

After going to the Salt Lake Temple, we met Taylor and went to the Pie.

This is the boys with our massive pizza (23")!

From the left: Dennis, Richard, Taylor, & Brandon

FYI: Here is a good mocktail/punch recipe:

2 tablespoons or cups of ginger ale

2 tablespoons or cups of cranapple juice

1 tablespoon or cup of apple juice

St. George

I went to St. George for an internship. I helped out at the Huntsman Senior Game.

We stopped at In-N-Out Burger just outside of St. George

Us with Dr. Gray, our internship supervisor

Jessica, Kim, Brittany, and me

We got free movie passes and so we went to go see the movie "Fly Boys"

Me, Brittany, Jessica, and Katie in front of the St. George Temple

Me, Ryan, and Jessica

We helped the department of Public Health with a survey.

In order to get people to take our survey, we had an incentive of $5 and a full-size candy bar.

People seemed to more excited about the chocolate than the $5

Birdman was a game that Jason (top right) introduced us to.

It created all sorts of mayhem and strange looks.

We stayed with Brother and Sister Mae.

It was wonderful. I felt like I was staying at grandma's house.

Mission Reunion

I went to my mission reunion last week. I was amazed at how many people I knew. It was wonderful to see many of the missionaries that I had served around.

Holland and Me

We never served together but he was the one that I reported Joy to the World referrals to.

We went on a date up to the outlet mall the following week.

Frantz and me. We served together in Christchurch my last shift.

Robinsons and B. Hatch. The Robinsons were the amazing senior couple serving in our district down in Southland.

Yay for sister missionaries! Me, B. Hatch, Broczek, and Frantz.

Broczek was the mini-missionary that covered Christchurch for the last week of the shift that I went home.

President and Sister Finnigan are wonderful!

Herpel was my last zone leader in Christchurch. He was a great help my last week of my mission.

Me with my mission "dad", Jensen

Former NZWMissionaries doing the haka

Randomness

Photo Shoot

Me, Shelece, and Ashely showing our school spirit

Shelece and me at the homecoming football game

Game night! Pit = Good Times

The giant slip'n'slide at the ward social was really fun. I had just wacked my head on my way down, so that's why I'm not smiling

The pirate themed RMYL opening social was really fun. Check out the awesome balloon animals!

Hanging out at mix'n'mingle after ward prayer

Birthday, Chili's, Ice Cream, and WALL-E

My birthday was earlier this week. It was the first time I've ever had to go to school on my birthday. It was the first day of summer term. I'm taking a statistics class and another psychology class. I don't often throw myself a birthday parties. I have to admit I always felt weird. I felt like I was saying, "Come, bring me presents!" However, I decided to throw kind of a low key one. College students are poor and can't really afford presents, so I didn't feel so bad. Last week I ordered a cookie dough delium ice cream cake from Coldstone. I was so excited. I went to go pick it up about a half an hour before the party (I wanted to pick it up sooner but we had no room in our freezer). I went to the counter and one of the workers told me, "Umm... our cake decorator is M.I.A. and so your cake isn't ready." All they had were cakebatter ice cream cakes. I thought, "This was the only thing I was looking forward to about my birthday." She said that the store in the next town over could give me a medium round cake for free. Luckily the stores were only 5 minutes apart. I rushed over there to pick up the cake and bought a cookies 'n' cream cake as well. By then it was 8:50 and the party started at 9:00. I rushed home and was a little flustered at first, but things went well. We could have used a bit more cake, but oh well. Still, it was good to see friends and I got my cookie dough delerium ice cream cake. :-)

On Wednesday, Sam took me to Chili's. We went all out. I notice that it is only with Sam that I ever order apetizers. :-) I had the chocolate lava cake for dessert and it made me so happy!! We then went over to the mall and looked at wedding dresses. We're so silly together.

On Thursday, we make sculptures out of ice cream. It was all wonderful until our Relief Society President decided to start throwing ice cream at some of us (I guess that's why the flyer said come in old clothes). Although it was very messy, it was also very fun.

On Friday, I went to go see WALL-E with a girl that I Visit Teach. It was such a cute movie! I loved it. Probably one of my top 5 favorite Disney movies.

This Month so far...

I seem to write in my blog at the beginning and at the end of the months. Here is what I've been up to:


My old roommate, Katie, had a birthday earlier this month. I went over to her apartment to drop off her gift and enjoy the sherbet pie that she made. It's crazy to think that she and I are the same age and she's going to have a kid next month! I'm so excited for you, Katie.

I was put in charge of Sunday Dinner Groups. People could sign up and then I mix them up so they get to know other people in the ward.

(Random side note: Jeff, the guy in this picture, totally reminds me of John in how he acts and speaks)

Ice Skating for FHE

I was the slowest skater out of our "family." I guess there are setbacks to growing up in such a warm state.

Katie and I wanted to catch up and have one more girl's day out before her boy comes along. We went to Mimi's Cafe for lunch earlier this week.

My buddy, Scott, and me being silly at the June Birthday Bash. It was at Russell's house. We had a BBQ and watched "Cars" under the stars. In this picture, I thought we were suppose to pretend to be going fast, but Scott looks like we are just putting along and I look like I'm about to take a bite out of his shoulder.

Charlie and Amparo took me to the Cheesecake Factory. It was really fun to catch up with them. Afterwards, they took me to Cost Plus World Market so I could stock up on Tim Tams and Cadbury Chocolate.

(If you haven't noticed, I've worn my jean skirt a lot recently. I really need to go and buy shorts.)

We took this picture just for Nate. We just hope that he doesn't gag at just a picture of peas. :-)

An Amazing Weekend

On Friday night, I went on a date with Josh, one of the players from the Utah Scorpions. We went with John and Jaylynn, people from Josh's ward. We coasted down the canyon in wheelchairs. It was really fun. One of my top 10 favorite date activities. However, I still am recovering from it (very sore shoulders).

From left to right: Josh, me, John, and Jaylynn

On Saturday afternoon, I went and played four square with Garret, Missy, Angie, and Tyrel. I keep hoping that if I continue playing it I'm going to get better. I think it's going to be a long road... :-P

Saturday evening was the stake activity. There was heaps to do (yes, heaps, I still haven't gotten all the kiwi out of me). Probably one of my favorite stake activities. :-D

May Highlights

It's been a busy month. School has kept me on my toes and I have to admit I'm already starting to get a little weary of all the reading. I've heard mixed responses about the first semester back after the mission. Some say it is your most productive semester, while others say it is pretty rough. I think I'd have to agree with the latter. Last weekend, I volunteered at a national quadriplegia wheelchair rugby tournament. Four teams came to compete: Utah Scorpions, Sin City (Las Vegas) Skulls, Northridge Knights, and Denver Harlequins. I ran the shot clocks and helped out at the refree table on Friday. On Saturday, I learned more about equipment. I learned how to change a rugby wheelchair tire and how to get a bent axle out of a tire. It was awesome. I came home absolutely exhausted at the end of each day, but had a lot of fun.

Last night I went to a ward activity. We had a party for all the May Birthdays. We went up the canyon had a bonfire (well more just like a fire). It has been really cold these past few days, so we basically had to dress for winter up there. Despite the chilly weather, we still managed to have a pretty good time.

Updates since last post:

-I dropped my research and analysis class and added family recreation