The End is Near...

I just wanted to mention that two weeks from right now, I will be at the WAC tournament in Reno, NV. Well, I'll be on the road on my way there. But I'll be in Nevada. haha I'm soooo excited! My hotel is booked, my all session student ticket is purchased and I'm ready to pack my bags. Now to get through two more weeks of school.

The boys are in Hawai'i today (yup, they are IN HAWAI'I!! spoiled I know) and play at 10 pm tonight. Then next week wraps up the regular season with Monday's game against Fresno St. and then Saturday's game against New Mexico St. It's going to be so much fun but I can't believe this season is already so close to being over! I'm just not going to think about it. Here's to being regular season WAC Champs back to back to back!!!

Winning Team!

Last night the Aggie Men pulled out a 67-61 victory over Louisiana Tech! That's 11 straight wins in a row! I'm pretty sure this solidifies our school as #1 in the WAC! Yay! We're gonna be Regular Season WAC Champs for the 3rd year in a row! I think this means I'm good luck. haha It was a tough game and a lot of mistakes were made (especially on the side of the officials..jerks) but the boys were able to do well nonetheless.

Speaking of Basketball! We are starting to make and finalize plans for going to the WAC tournament March 11-13th! We have booked our hotel and now just need to buy our tickets. It's coming up soon and I'm sooo excited! It was so fun last year and I am looking forward to even more fun this year now that we know what we're doing and we know a lot more of the people who are going...and now that I'm 21 ;) haha jk! I'll be a good girl!

School is going alright. After my teacher added a few points to our test for stupid questions, I ultimately got an 82% on my first Physiology test, which I'm really excited about!!! My other classes are going well too and I think this will be a successful semester. I also got my summer and next school year's housing all signed and settled. Super exciting! I will be living with Kaili Dan Snow, Heidi Norton, and Shana Sanders. Should be a really fun year!

Here's some pictures from last night's game (as well as the one at the beginning). We're so excited to host Wichita State this Saturday for the Bracket buster on ESPN 2 at 10 pm (so late I know!) Y'all better watch it! Look for me on the front row, seat 2, right behind the standing cheer leaders, closest to the center of the court. :)

The Front Row Girls. (Desiree, Me looking gross and tired, Laura)

Heidi and Kaili Dan (seriously, just forget I'm in the picture), two of my roommates for next year

Kristin and Jennie. Super cute, fun girls! They're gonna be sisters! :)

Laura and Kjerstin. These girls crack me up!

The front row girls of Sections K and L. Love you, ladies!

P.S. I'm not talking about the Bachelor on purpose. Jake is an idiot. Enough said.

Fun in the Spectrum

This is me pretending to be our friend, Linda. Linda is the Spirit Squad coach and she sits by us at games while she directs everything. Well, Linda left all her stuff lying out, so I took a picture with it! Silly I know, but fun. Linda saved our lives the night before the BYU game. She slept over in her office and then got up and let us in at 4 in the morning so that we wouldn't be out there freezing all night. Just most of the night. But without her, we would have probably died. It was miserable out there. Worth it, but miserable. So this is my little tribute to her. She gives us a lot of privileges around the Spectrum that most people don't get. Last game we went into rooms that we probably shouldn't have been in but it was super fun! Yes, we girls are pretty spoiled by Linda.


Isn't that just the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?! Well, not quite but close. I mean, how many people really get to see the Spectrum looking like this on a game day? Not many! It's a right and privilege that you earn when you have waited there for hours and hours and hours. I kid you not, we are at the Spectrum more than the teams are on Game Day. It's great being Spectrum VIP! Now you might wonder what we do all day, waiting for the game to start. Well we do homework, we rotate so that everyone can still make it to their classes and to work, we share food, we play games, we watch movies... it all really depends on how long of a wait it is that day. We've become a little Spectrum family. That's what we call it. We fight for our rights (our seats of course) but will defend each other if any newbies come in and try to break the system. It's great. Who would have thought I would make so many friends thanks to Aggie Basketball?!

At this point I'm kinda rambling. There's an away game tonight at Boise State. Some of the Spectrum people are going (named the SOW: Spectrum on Wheels) but I opted not to. It should be a fun game and I think the Institute is broadcasting it, so I'll go watch it there. Then the boys play at San Jose State on Saturday. Next week there are two BIG games at home! Louisiana Tech is coming on Wednesday. They've had a really good season and were number one in the WAC for a long time, defeating nearly everyone. Now we're #1 and we intend to keep it that way. Next Saturday night is the Bracketbuster against Wichita State. I'm a little nervous for this one. Hopefully we can use some Spectrum magic to pull out a big win! The Aggies are doing so well right now. Makes me soooo excited for the WAC Tournament in March! Speaking of which..I still need to buy my ticket for that... :) Oh the joys of Aggie Basketball!

Seriously Jake?!?!

So Monday night is date night with Bachelor Jake. We usually go up to Deborah's family's house and watch it. It's now down to the final four women and much to our dismay and horror and every other disappointed, gag reflex inducing word...Vienna is STILL HERE!!!! This girl is crazy! Why oh why Jake do you keep her around? If it's for good television, fine! She's drama and gives a lot of interesting stuff. At least the other three girls are pretty good. My favorite is Tenley (although thanks to previews we are a little scared for her future on the Bachelor) and my next favorite is Ali. Gia is cute but I just don't see it working out. I love this show! It's so great! Just a few more weeks and we'll get to see how it all ends!!! Next week should be exciting because it's when the ladies get to take Jake to their hometown to meet their families. It's always fun to see why these women are the way that they are. Like I said, I'm rooting for Tenley! You go girl! You get your man!

Vienna (23): The crazy who really should have gone home a long time ago!

Gia: Sweet and pretty but it's just not gonna work out. Sorry!

Ali: She's been a favorite of mine from the beginning. I'd be totally ok if she won.

Tenley: She needs to win! She's the cutest ever!!!

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!