Playing Catch Up

So here's a little post to catch you up on what I've done since the last post. My family came up, as I mentioned before, and it was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed seeing them. I miss them a lot. We drove all around Utah and parts of Idaho visiting family members and attending a family reunion.

My parents surprised us and took us indoor skydiving in Ogden! It was soo cool. I have to admit, I was nervous at first but I ended up having a lot of fun. What a neat experience.

On a side note, Brother got his mission call! He's going to the Cochabamba, Bolivia mission and leaves November 3rd! So crazy! I am very proud of him!

This is Heidi, Kaili and me on our first hike of the Wind Caves this summer. We actually ended up hiking it at night a couple days later. It's a Logan Canyon favorite and always a good time. It's so pretty up there! I love Logan Canyon and want to go on more hikes before the summer is up.

This last weekend, a group of friends and I went up to Bear Lake for the day. This is some of the girls building a sea monster. It ended up being pretty cool if I do say so myself. After playing at the lake we went to La Beau's for dinner and then finished up by hanging out at the Knighton family's cabin. It was a great day!

So far this is probably the best summer I've had since I've been up here. I'm having a lot of fun but also balancing it out with work and other responsibilities. Life is good and I am happy! :)

Tots looking forward to family time!

So the fam is coming up to the great state of UT tomorrow. It's going to be a family packed week! I'm pretty sure we're going to see every family member possible in a 5 hour radius. Lots of driving. Should be fun.

I'm just hoping we don't revert back to childhood with the three of us squished in the back (now that we all take up more room since Christian is taller and Emi and I now have hips) and fights breaking out periodically. haha

Probably will. :) Yay for family vacations!!! More to come next week with updated pics

p.s. for all those who read anything I write, you need to know this. I have recently started using "tots" as a shortened version of "totally". So it's pronounced like "totes" but it's just "tots". Get it? Ok good. Now you'll all know what I'm talking about

Wrong side of the bed

You know those days when you wake up and for no apparent reason, because well, you just woke up and nothing's happened yet, you are mad, irked, pissed off. Well, that was me today. It's such a frustrating feeling because I don't know what to do to make it better. All I know is that I'm mad and nobody better get in my way today. My first relief came when I was in the shower (sorry...TMI) and when I opened my shower gel bottle two little bubbles floated out. It made me laugh a little and I literally felt some of the bad mood melt off. Crazy what little smiling and laughter can do for you. I don't know why I'm telling the www all of this but here it is.

Tonight I'm going to the new A-Team movie because, well, I'm on the A-Team. Obviously not the same one as in the movie but it wouldn't be right if us A-Teamers didn't go see this movie together. So we're going to the midnight showing (ba! not excited for that. I'm getting old) and we're wearing our A-Team shirts that we have for Connections at the end of the summer. We're going to look like crazy fanatics but really, we're just the A-Team too and we happen to have shirts that say so. That should make tonight fun and give me something to look forward to that will cheer up my weird mood. Maybe after work, I'll take a nap... :)

Mon Parapluie

This is actually one of the pictures up in my apartment. Keep reading to understand.

So as has been the case for the last month or so, it was raining pretty hard when I woke up. Now, I don't mind the rain. I actually like it a lot! Especially since over the weekend I was even treated to some thunder and lightening! Rainy weather makes me want to go eat at La Madeleine back home. or Great Harvest here. Anyway, so as I was walking out of my apartment to make the 15 minute trek up to work I opened my umbrella and...it wouldn't open. I tried again, it wouldn't open again. I examined it and well what do you know?! It was bent. I have absolutely no idea how it happened but my umbrella (mon paraluie!) is broken! So I threw it away in the nearest dumpster and now I have to go buy a new one. Good thing I had on my new rain coat! Not quite the same as an umbrella though. However, I'm going to have to wait until after my next paycheck (on the 10th!) to buy a new one since I have next to no money. Paying for things when you're poor really sucks! :)

To go along with this post our apartment has a theme! Like, the decorations in the living room/kitchen area. Can you guess what it is?? Parapluies! It just kinda happened that way but it's all coming together very nicely and I am very excited for when it's all put up. Maybe I'll post pictures? Is that too much info for potential creepers? By the way, all the decorating creativity is coming from Kaili and her mom and sister. I have zero decorating creativity.

Also, SOAR starts on Thursday! Let the boredom, lecturing, crying, happiness, nervousness, difficult parents, apathy and overachieving begin! haha

Happy Rainy Day!!! :)

picture found at http://www.dann-online.com/Gitman/Sweaters/Umbrellas.jpg

Selfish List

http://cdn.thefrisky.com/images/uploads/selfish-061609-main.jpg

This is going to be a very selfish post so watch out! I'm going to write an "I want" list.

I want:

• Enough money to pay off my loan from last year, pay for school for next year and pay for my school year rent. Roughly $13,000! yikes!
• A couple of cute cardigans
• Some cute, new shirts that are a little dressier so my wardrobe stops resembling that of a 15 year old
• A new dress and/or skirt
• The energy to work a lot and play a lot...and the time
• To go home to Texas for a while
• The motivation to get into shape and drop some lbs
• A computer that functions properly
  
• To know what I'm going to do after graduation next year
• To know what I want to be when I grow up
• To travel the world
  
• A vacation

So yeah, that's what Alyssa wants. Right now I just have to be content with being super poor and not being able to do most of those things. This time of my life is definitely a waiting game and being a slightly impatient person, that doesn't sit too well. But I guess patience is a virtue so I should probably develop that. Yay for being a poor college student!

On a happier, less selfish note, my high school best friend Stacey Robin Lehman married Joe Bolke on Monday! It was so great to see them and be a part of their big day. I've known them both for a long time and I couldn't be happier for them. I knew Stacey back from middle school and then I ran cross country with Joe in high school. Well I was the one who got Stacey to join the cross country team, which is how they met, so...I'm claiming them as a matching making victory. Unintentional, but still successful :)

Congrats Stacey and Joe!!!

Retreat and Brother

So I've realized that while my blog started out as a a place for me to express any thought I want it has now turned into a sort of online journal. Of course, I don't put everything on this blog that I would put in my journal! But I do tend to talk about my life a lot more than anything else. Which is fine by me. I don't know why I just ranted about that. Beauty of the blog I suppose; you can write about whatever the heck you want! :)

Well the point of this post was to talk about A-Team Second Retreat that took place last week. It was soo much fun! I love it every year and I am so sad that this was my last year. I brought my camera to work so I can put pictures up with the post. enjoy:

We play a lot, a lot of volleyball

hung out in the sunshine

Made a fort!

Ate more food than is definitely healthy

Smiled for the camera

Smiled again

Had a bonfire and told scary stories....green canyon!

had a modified "breathing orange fire" competition

played safely by the fire

and took lots and lots of pictures!

So there's a little taste of Retreat. I seriously love the A-Team! They are my best friends up here and I wouldn't have survived life away from home without them.

So Christian turned in his papers and it totally freaks me out. I know I don't see him very often but for some reason the thought of him being totally gone for two years scares me. I know it's a good thing and I'm so glad he's going but it doesn't change the way I feel. I am going to bawl when he leaves. I'm so selfish and such a cry baby. My poor brother....has to deal with his crazy big sister.

Ok I'm going to stop now because the pictures made this a super long post. I'll talk about my summer goings on later. Peace!

Free at last!

I'm done! I took my Physiology final this morning and I am now done with this semester! I still have to worry about work, packing, cleaning and moving but not school. My third year of college is over. That is soo crazy! Time flies huh?

Overall, I would call this a successful school year. I got a new job that works really well for me and that I can continue to work at this summer and next school year, I repeated and mastered classes I had previously struggled with, I made the Dean's List one semester, I didn't kill any of my roommates, and I made lots of new friends that I love! I have also grown up a lot and experienced some valuable good and bad times.

pretty flowers blooming on a tree on campus

I found this poem on another blog that I occasionally read. I thought it was fantastic and wanted to share it. This poem talks about something that I constantly have to remind myself to do: take risks! It's okay to take risks. Sometimes, it's necessary for growth and progression. Here it is:

TO RISK

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out is to risk involvement,
to expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self
To place your ideas and
dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss
To love is to risk not being loved in return,
To live is to risk dying,
To hope is to risk despair,
To try is to risk failure.
But risks much be taken because
the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The person risks nothing, does nothing,
has nothing, is nothing.

- William Arther Ward (1921-1994)