21! 21! 20..1!!!!!

p.s. I know I look grey in this picture. It's the lighting, I swear!

Yup! That's right! I am now 21 years of age! Ah!!! Crazy! I've always thought the "do you feel any older?" question was stupid. Of course I don't feel older! It's only been on day since I was 20. It's been a gradual progression from 19 to 20, so it's not like suddenly, bam! Older. But since I've turned 21 I feel weird. I don't like saying that I'm 21. It sounds weird in my head, so I refuse to say it out loud. Ok, well I don't refuse! I just avoid saying it. I'll get used to it. It just seems like I shouldn't be this old. I mean, my next birthday is 22. That's just so weird to me. I don't know. All you older people (as in older than me, not OLD! don't get your panties in a twist) are probably sitting there thinking "Oh Alyssa. So young! Thinks 21 is a big deal", but you know what, right now it is. I'm sure when you turned 21 it was a big deal then for you too. Ok, I'm done with that.

So on my birthday I woke up and had to go to work at 7 am. I couldn't get anyone to take my shift. It's ok though. I could always use the money. Then I had my classes and was done at 12:20 pm for the day! Glorious! At this point, Deborah and Morgan came up to campus and picked up me, Kaili Dan, Kailee Jade, and Desiree and the six of us went to the Olive Garden for lunch! Yummy in my tummy!!! So good! Since I used to work there, the people insisted on singing to me and I was moderately embarrassed. Then I went home, opened more presents and watched some GLEE!!! Deborah and Desiree gave me Season 1, Part 1 for my birthday! I had to restrain myself from screaming in the restaurant because I was so excited. Anyway, then I went and tried to renew my Driver's License. Well after being told that my little, laminated birth certificate no longer counts (I had to go get a new, big one) and being treated like an idiot, I went back home a little upset. But it was ok because then we went to Nancy's house and made me dinner! I brought Desiree, Deborah and Laura with me but Deborah was called into work because her lame replacement forgot to come in. Anyway, she made us a delicious spaghetti dinner with meatballs and mushrooms, salad, garlic bread, and she even got me a cake and Aggie ice cream! Thank you, Nancy!!! After dinner we watched The Bachelor, where to our horror Vienna remained for another week, and after another quick TV show, went home and went to bed.

It was such a fun birthday but I think one thing needs to be acknowledged. This is the first birthday of my entire life that I haven't spent at least part of with my mom, who I also share my birthday with (and my Grandpa too but I got to see him when Abuelita and Grandpa took me and Alex to dinner earlier in the week). It was weird and a little sad but I guess it had to happen sometime! Anyway, that's my 21st birthday! It was so fun and it's great to know that now when I go to the WAC tournament in March, I can book our hotel room (a big issue we had last year haha). Thanks to all my friends and family for the birthday wishes. I love you all!!!

This is my life

School started last week and so far so good. I dropped my Developing Societies. Yay! I walked in the first day and thought "yeah, no. This is not happening". So it's not. The rest of my classes are going well. I like them, I think. haha So far Physiology is good. Right now we're doing a Chemistry review, which I love but he's going soo fast that I even started getting a little overwhelmed on Thursday, even though I've had multiple Chemistry classes, so none of this is new to me. I can't imagine being the people in my class who have never taken Chemistry. They must be going out of their minds already. My teacher is way funny though and he takes time to answer questions, which I appreciate. Even though I don't usually ask questions, it's nice to hear other people asking so that things are repeated for me. I think I'm really going to like this class! My only class that I'm really unsure of is my Motor Learning something or other class. The teacher is super weird. We've spent the last two weeks listening to her ramble on whatever she wants (not class related at all!) and listening to the class introduce each other. We're still not done with that, as we have around 60 students in the class and the football players really like to ask a lot of follow-up questions, so we're continuing with that on Monday. I hope none of this is on the test. ha ha We also have a lab for the class where she teaches us the basics of different sports and athletics in general. Today we had to do four different tests: a vertical jump, a horizontal jump (for lack of a better word), a speed test and an agility test. I did alright but wow was it a work out! I went to work out right after class and was already so weak. Yikes.

My work schedule is pretty good. Right now I'm in one of the less used labs and nobody has come in yet at all. I get off in a little over an hour. I guess people still have time to come in.

A-Team started last week with the opening banquet. I really think we have a great group this year. All the newbies seem super nice and outgoing and friendly. I look forward to getting to know all of them better and becoming good friends with them, as I know will happen after being on A-Team for two years now. It's so great! I can't wait for the first retreat, which is February 12-13. They are soo much fun! And although class has been lengthened to two hours this year, it went by really fast and we have a snack break in the middle. Perfect. Tonight is the first staff sanity, A-Team Bowling. Somehow I happen to miss this every year, so I'm excited to go tonight and see what all the fuss is about!

So one of my best friends got her mission call! So crazy and exciting! Sister Deborah R. Teuscher is going to the New York, Rochester, Hill Cumorah Visitors Center, Spanish speaking mission (mouth full eh?!). She leaves April 21st (I'm pretty sure. somewhere around there) and I know she will be great! Even though I will miss her lots and lots. :)

Aggies won on the road yesterday at Fresno State, CA. It was a good game and the boys have really stepped up there game a ton in the last week and a half. Tomorrow they play Idaho and then are back next Saturday in the Spectrum to take on San Jose State. If the boys keep up these excellent improvements, I have no doubt that we have a huge fighting chance to become the Regular Season WAC Champs for the second year in a row and go on to defend our spot as all around WAC Champions at the tournament in Reno. What an awesome turn of events!!!

Overall, I'd have to say I'm pretty happy. I am such a lucky girl! I have such a wonderful family, amazing friends and a life that I absolutely love with the Gospel at its core. What more could a girl want??!! A birthday, you say? Well butter my buns and call me a biscuit! I have one of those coming up on Monday! The big 2-1!!!!!!!! I LOVE MY BIRTHDAY! One of the best days of the whole year. Especially since I get to share it with my beautiful Mom and my Grandpa (her Dad). Yup, life just can't get much better than this.

10 Years and Counting!

First of all, I need to say...HAPPY 10TH ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD!!!! This also means that it is the 10th Anniversary of the five of us becoming a family. While it's been quite the roller coaster experience, I believe that we have all become better people and a stronger family. I love my parents and the way the chose to raise us. While yes, they are strict and had rules that other kids thought were absolute jokes, I see others who were raised in a much more care free way and I definitely prefer my upbringing. I was raised to be proud of work that I do, to fulfill all commitments I make, to be dedicated, hard working, disciplined, and value family time. I think all of these are amazing characteristics to have and I am soo lucky to have the parents I have and that they were wise enough to bring up my siblings and me in the manner that they did. They not only teach us when situations necessitate learning but they also lead by example. I couldn't have asked for a better family.

School started this week and I think I have my schedule where I like it. I dropped Developing Societies. I figured, if I didn't like Sociology 1010 what makes me think I'll enjoy Sociology 5650?! And since I have a lot of spare room for classes next year, I just figured I'll take another class that will fulfill the same requirement then. It also made a tiny bit of room in my schedule so that I can now take an Institute class, which makes me very happy. I am taking Pearl of Great Price from Brother Maughn, who I took from last semester. I am very excited for it! I also have a very good work schedule. I am an incredibly lucky girl. I have such a good life and I am loving every moment of it!

Great news! The Aggies won their away game on Wednesday at Nevada!!! It was such a good game and both teams really played so hard! We ended up going into overtime and won 79-72. It was a well earned victory and now increases our ranking in the WAC. Tomorrow night, we host Boise State. I'm not too worried because this year, they kinda suck to be honest. They are 0-5 I believe in conference play and since we are at our home, the poor Broncos don't have a chance. That will mean that we will win all three of our games this week. What a good way to start off the semester! I knew they had it in them! (hopefully I don't jinx us!) Now if they keep this up, we may still end up with a very successful season. Go Aggies!

Spring 2010 Semester is almost here!

Well, this is pretty much it. My last day of break before life is almost back to normal. I know I still have the weekend but I have a work meeting tomorrow morning at 8 am after which I'll probably go purchase my ridiculously expensive textbooks and then Sundays are always Sundays. Yup. I just got an email reminding me about the mandatory staff meeting. Ugh. Why they have to be at 8 in the morning on the only day I get to sleep in all week is beyond me. So yeah, the end of our month long break is coming to a close very quickly. This week has also been interesting because I have worked every day and so far I have work out three days. Yay! Maybe I'll make today the fourth but right now I'm totally not feeling it. However, it's not like I have something else super important to be doing. ha ha Tonight Deborah and I are going to go to a movie. Probably Leap Year. Another chick flick I left out of my little list the other day. It has Amy Adams in it, which so far is a good thing, so I hope it will be cute and entertaining. That's all I can really ask for with this level of predictable chick flicks. But you know, predictable has never been a turn off for me when it comes to chick flicks. I still find them super cute. So it should be fun. It's good to have connections! :)

I'm trying to find something meaningful to blog about and am totally stumped. Hmm...I'll talk about the classes I'm taking this semester! Not super meaningful but something! ha ha
Ok, I am taking Evaluation in Physical Education, Art Symposium, Human Physiology, Developing Societies, and Motor Learning and Technology in Skill Analysis. I'm not gonna lie, I'm really not very excited for my classes this semester. None of them sound remotely interesting, except maybe Physiology but that one's gonna be soooo hard! Yikes. Should be interesting to see how this semester pans out. But for once, all of my classes are directly going toward a credit I actually need! So that's great! As weird as it might sound for that to be an accomplishment, I have actually taken a handful of classes that don't help me toward graduation either because I have already completed the requirement that class would count for or I just flat out don't need it. After this semester, I only have 17 credits worth of classes to complete! Crazy!!! Plus, I'll be spreading them over all of next year, so somehow I have to make 17 turn into 24 so I can be full time both semesters. So if one of my classes doesn't appeal to me this semester maybe I'll just wait til next semester to take it. I'm really not rushed at all. It's weird to think that if I had known what my major was going to be all along, this could be my last undergraduate semester! WOW! But I'm actually just fine doing four years instead of three. I mean what's the rush?!

Lastly, Aggie Basketball update. The boys have really had a tough time on the road lately. Their performance has been less than admirable and definitely much less than what they are capable of doing. We are 0-2 in WAC play and 10-6 overall. Their record isn't nearly as good as the one they had last year but as long as they get their act together and be the team we all know they are, I know Aggie Basketball will still have a very successful season. On Monday, we host Hawai'i in our WAC Home Opener. I can't think of a better way to start off the semester and give the Aggie men a chance to redeem themselves. GO AGGIES!

oh yeah...17 days til my birthday! YAY! :)

Deja Vu!

Last night I saw the movie Deja Vu. What a trippy movie! Who thinks of these things?! I really enjoyed it but I'm not gonna lie, something about it freaked me out. Maybe the whole somebody is secretly watching you thing or the terrorist thing but it did. I still have a little knot in my stomach that I had all night. I know this because I didn't sleep well. But I really did enjoy it as a movie! I don't know. Me and my imagination! haha One good thing about the house being full again for school will be the sense of security of having lots of people home. Always makes me feel better.

I don't really want to talk about Aggie Basketball right now. Let's just say they're not playing to their ability. They can do sooo much better!!! Hopefully, this is a huge wake up call and they'll go back to being the amazing team I know they are.

Hmm...speaking of Deja Vu...isn't that the weirdest thing? As you probably know, Deja Vu is a French term. Deja means already and Vu essentially means seen. So already seen. But funny enough, it's not used (at least in English) to mean "oh I've already seen that before" but the feeling that you've seen it, been to the place, remember that smell but you can't explain how, when, where, why. Why do we have these occurrences? Is it because we just have a really bad memory or is there something more behind it? I've always wondered if there's a reason that I am supposed to be having deja vu. I like to think that everything happens for a reason, even if we don't understand it. So the idea of deja vu fascinates me because it's one of those unexplained things that nobody has a definite answer for. Whatever. I'm just rambling at this point but if you've had deja vu before, you know what I mean!

I don't know if this would be considered a form of deja vu or if I'm just weird (probably the latter) but sometimes I see people and I feel like I know them and if I really did get to know them, we'd be good friends. Every time I've gotten to know someone that I've had this feeling about, we always click right away and become good friends. Weird? I think so. But at the same time, kinda fun! Maybe it's a premortal, "Saturday's Warriors" twins, kinda moment. Or maybe I just make an extra effort to like these people because I think I'm supposed to. Whatever the case may be, I consider it my own unique kind of deja vu!

I just did a little internet research on the term Deja Vu and this is the definition I found: the illusion of having previously experienced something actually being encountered for the first time. The term was coined by a French psychic researcher. Oddly, there is an opposite occurrence called Jamais Vu which means "never seen". Yes, it's when a familiar situation is not recognized by the observer. So there you have it! A little more on deja vu than you probably wanted to read about. Peace and love!

p.s. 20 days til my birthday!!!

Holiday Fun and Entertainment Update!

Here I am! Back after a couple weeks in Salt Lake with my family. I have one more week until school starts and will be working every day, Monday through Friday next week to pick up some much needed hours. I have really good hours though, so it works out pretty well! I had a lot of fun with my family! Along with family parties and get togethers, we also went skiing, went to Temple Square for the annual viewing of the lights, ate at the DELICIOUS Roof Restaurant, and played a lot of "Cut Throat". haha It was so nice to be able to spend so much time with my family, since I only get to see them a few times a year.

Just wanted to mention one of my new favorite TV shows: GLEE!!!! I just started watching it with the last episode of the season and love it. The songs are fantastic, the cast is funny and I've decided to marry Finn. He is beautiful and his voice makes me melt. That is all. I'm just really sad that it doesn't come back til April! Probably a good thing. One less thing to distract me from studying!

As a huge fan of chick flicks, I also wanted to put an unofficial plug (since nobody is paying me to say this...I should work on that!) for two movies coming out this year: Letters to Juliet and Valentine's Day. They both looks super cute and just my kind of movies! You should go watch the trailers on YouTube. I even hyperlinked the names to make it easier for you. You'll probably fall in love with them too.

Oh! I just discovered this one too! When in Rome. Comes out the soonest out of all of them. haha

Tonight the Utah State Men's Basketball team play the New Mexico State Aggies in New Mexico for the first Conference game of the season! Woot! So exciting. Hopefully they can do well and show that we are here to keep our title as WAC Champs!

That's my life as of now. Signing out! Also, Happy New Year! 2010! WOW!!!

p.s. 23 days til my birthday!!!!!!!!!! yahoo!