A Whole New World

A few days ago, at FHE, I sat on a magic carpet and flew across the sky as I sang a love duet with my one true love!

Okay, so maybe the carpet was an empty trash can, and maybe my one true love was slightly tone deaf and not exactly Arabian (okay, not even remotely Arabian! We're talking about a white boy with blonde hair and a very American name, not even close to exotic, but I digress :) Oh and he wasn't my true love either.... I feel like my story is slowly losing it's credibility.... :)

Basically what happened was this: After FHE, Kacee told some of the guys in our ward I could sing, so they asked me to sing something for them. What do you do in a situation like that? I mean you have to take into consideration your audience, what type of music they'll appreciate and which song shows off your skill!!! Would an opera aria be appropriate or would I lose the attention of my audience within the first few measures?!?! Would a pop song be too mediocre? Should I settle for Broadway!?!?! Oh the dilemma! I'm actually kidding. :) You may have noted how I hyperbolized the situation just for fun, but I think its best to clarify so you don't view me as an attention hungry music snob :) So if you did catch my sarcasm and didn't need this lengthy disclaimer, I apologize, you can simply skip over it and move onto the next paragraph! :)

 None of these thoughts went through my head at all, I simply didn't know exactly what to sing on command! It's hard being put on the spot you guys! So, my lovely not so Arabian street rat who actually isn't a poor beggar (though he is a poor college student, so that could technically be the same thing.... :) grabbed a recently empty garbage can on wheels and began a rousing rendition of "A Whole New World."

How could I resist! He lifted me up onto the garbage can and began to push my across the gym floor, as we sang our love duet. And then, just as our song reached its peak, he gave the garbage can a strong push and attempted to jump on with me. Alas, our vehicle was not as stable or well made as a Magic Persian Rug from the Cave of Wonders. I don't know if it was too much weight or just that the weight was not distributed evenly enough, but whatever the issue, something went amiss and our garbage can toppled over, sending both me and my Prince to the gym floor. Thank heavens we weren't flying over the pyramids of Egypt of the Great Wall of China at the moment of our crash. We were closer to the ground so the fall was not as disastrous as it could have been. :)

So just a word of caution: Magic Carpets may be more expensive then a garbage can with wheels, but they are definitely a notable investment. Crashing in the middle of a love duet totally kills the mood if you know what I mean :)

~Keep Smiling~ :)

Fooled Me Once...

So remember when those guys came over and we thought they were our home teachers so we let them in... at 11:00 at night...? (We live in Rexburg, and we're kinda naive so we're not exactly the most safety aware bunch of girls.... :) 

Anyway, if that instance doesn't ring a bell, go look back a couple blog posts. :) Why am I bringing this up you wonder? Well, last night after Family Home Evening, I went running with Kacee, and then got back finished up my homework and was ready to go take a shower and go to bed when Vanessa comes in and announces that our real home teachers have arrived. It's only 10:00 at this point, and you have to understand here at BYU I, no one is in bed by ten... and I mean no one! So really 10 and 11 o'clock are normal visiting hours.

I walk out of my room, go sit down on the couch and say hello to our real home teachers. They looked vaguely familiar, but I attributed it to the fact that I'd probably seen them in church on Sunday... or something like that. I mean, BYU campus is only so big right? :) As my roommates start to congregate towards the living room, Vanessa and I proceed to tell our home teachers the hilarious story about how some guys showed up professing to be our home teachers just a few night previous! We finish the story, chuckling at the irony of it all, and then wait for Anise to sit down so that our home teachers can give us their message. 

Anise looks them up and down and then says quite boldly: "I know you guys! You've been here before!!!" 

Our home teachers look at each other, obvious surprise written across their faces.

"Anise, they're in our ward, of course you've seen them before!" I laugh, rolling my eyes in a very knowing manner.

"No, they've definitely been here before, they came over the first time pretending to our home teachers! This one is Travis and this one is named Steve!" Anise is insistent!

"You met them at church on Sunday!" I declare.

"No, they were at our house, and we had the backflip competition!"

Then I give them a closer look, and realize Anise is right!!!! These are the same guys who came over a few nights previous, pretending to be our Home teachers and I fell for it.... again!!!!

When our real home teachers actually show up, we probably won't be so trusting! I can totally see an interrogation happening in our living room! We'll ask them the name of our bishop, what ward we're in, the stake we're in, who gave a talk on Sunday, what was the Sacrament hymn, who's the ward organist! And if they get one question wrong it's OVER!!!!! They're impostors!!!! Say goodbye to the trusting girls in 306! Experience has left us bitter and cynical! 

Fool us once, shame on you!!!

 Fool us twice.... 

...well, shame on us, but we won't trust you ever again, so your loss! :) 

Though, I must confess, our fake home teachers are really good fake home teachers! :) They came over today and helped us clean the apartment for cleaning checks, so at least they take their fake job seriously. :) 

~Keep Smiling~ :) 

Note to Self:

Dear Alina,

Next time, don't take four slices of pizza!

and if you're going to take that many pieces, don't go running afterwards!!!!!

THINK about your legs!

THINK about how they will feel in class tomorrow

as you walk (or drag yourself) across campus!!!!

Though I have to admit,

Taking that extra slice home with you for lunch tomorrow

was a pretty good idea...

Sincerely,

Me :)

Kacee and Me after running... we are BABES!!!! :) 

Note our matching BYU-I shirts! :) 

~Keep Smiling~ :)

Social Saturday

Today I woke up late... like really late. I'm not going to say what time because it's a little bit embarrassing... but hey that's what you do on Saturdays when you're in college (and you've stayed up  super late the night before, and stayed up super late the night before that and the night before that and the night before that... anyway, you get the idea... :) Well, actually in my defense I woke up at 7... I just went back to bed at like 7:30... :)

Anyway, so I woke up with all sorts of plans to clean the house, get ahead on my homework and have a nice relaxing Saturday. Well, that plan went out the window when my roomies and I got spontaneously invited to go hike the Civil Defense Caves. At 2:00 we all piled into our friend Troy's car and headed out of Rexburg for a few hours of fun.

Troy with all of us lovely ladies! :)

This picture could be a little deceiving...Don't worry, we didn't drive for 45 minutes in the bed of a truck... :)

Toni, Troy, Kacee and Me (I didn't realize this picture was being taken so I look a little bit scared...)

Our whole group!  I actually don't know who half of these people are...I mean I met them, but it's a little hard to recognize people when you're introduced in the dark... :) 

Kacee and me, with Hannah photoboming us... and if you look in between Kacee and me, you can kind of see Troy creeping. :) 

Once in the caves, we splattered the rocks and our clothes with glowsticks and then played a game of hide and go seek! It was sooo cool! It almost looked like we were in outer space! 

We got home around 5:30ish. Plenty of time to do dishes and clean up our apartment right? Wrong! At 6:00, Kacee and I got picked up for a double date to go see the movie Planes. It was a great date and the movie was super cute! After that, we returned home, and hurried to clean up. Of course the reason we decided to clean up was partially motivated by the fact that guys are coming over to our apartment tonight to watch the football game between UVU and BYU. 

It's been quite a social Saturday! Thank heavens I got my homework done yesterday and didn't procrastinate! 

~Keep Smiling~ :) 

Sammys and Stalkers

Last night I got back from a date at around 10:30 at night. I was so tired and sooooo ready to crash (it's been a long week you guys :) I said goodnight to my date, walked into my apartment and was a little surprised to find my roommates pulling on their shoes and getting ready to walk out the door.

Turns out that there was a block party going on down by Sammys (a top notch milkshake place) and they were all heading over there to have some fun! I sat down on the couch, told them I hoped they were going to have a good time, but I was tired, thank you very much and I needed my beauty sleep- so no I would not be joining them!

Kacee put her foot down. She sat on the couch, leaned toward me and told me quite plainly that we were having roommate bonding time and that yes I was going wether I wanted to or not.

I didn't really have a choice. I slipped back into my coat, pulled on my shoes and headed out the door with my roomies. Yes I was exhausted and yes I definitely feel the affects of last nights partying this morning, but it was worth it!!!!

Out in the street, they had cordoned off an entire block. Live music was playing and it was an all out dance party! Inside, people were talking, relaxing and just enjoying the one night where curfew is pushed back to 1:00 AM instead of 12:00.

Looking at the title of this blog post, you are probably wondering where the "stalkers" come in...

...Well this is actually my favorite part of the story. See, we met some guys who professed to be studying "Stalking" as their major. Now this might have been a creepy encounter had we been at a state or community college or if the guys weren't recently returned missionaries that looked about as creepy as cotton candy. (cotton candy has no creepy connotations correct? I was considering choosing a cat or kitten to compare them to but then I remembered how black cats are considered creepy around halloween time... so I chose cotton candy instead. Did you notice how the first part of that sentence had a lot of alliteration in it! I really like alliteration, it makes me happy... but anyway, back to the story) So they were about as creepy as cotton candy but they said they were going into stalking, and that the college of stalking was called the Creepcademy. We laughed and joked about this for awhile but then things started getting really funny when they began to demonstrate their skills.

I have never laughed so hard in my life! They hid behind walls, stood awkwardly close to random strangers and illustrated the effort that goes into perfecting a creepy gaze. It was bizarre, totally hilarious and probably one of the most fun things I've ever done in my life! (It also probably helped that I was slap happy and super tired... :) After we said goodbye, they got our phone numbers and texted us the following picture:

Is that creepy or what!?!?!?!!?!!?!?!? I mean where do you even find a picture like that!?

So you guys, even the stalkers here at BYU I are top notch! I mean, they were first rate guys! I think it's probably because they are majoring in it so they have more training on how to do it right. Most schools don't offer stalking as a major, so they get stuck with mediocre creepers. We like to do things right here at BYU I, even our stalkers are awesome!

~Keep Smiling~ :)

Work it Out

So my workout clothes made their debut tonight at the BYU I-Center.  That's right ladies and gentleman, I went running with my roomies :) I feel great and full of energy! And I look pretty fine in my BYU blue shorts and grey t-shirt. Really, grey isn't my color, but for the BYU I-center I'll make an exception. :)

I ran, I breathed in, I let the sweat pour down my face and I loved the pain! I lived for the pain!!!!! And then...
... I stopped after about 3/4ths of a mile and walked.

But strolling along the track gave me more of an opportunity to peer down below and take in the view of the boys playing basketball. And what a view that was! :)

And then we walked home, and Kacee pulled out the cookies... and what she said as she scarfed down a chocolate chip made me laugh: "You guys, I have a really good body! I deserve it!"

So we went running and then ate cookies... probably a little counterproductive... :)

~Keep Smiling~ :)

Success!!!!

Okay, so our sign worked! Remember how we wrote on our window "Will Date For Food" ? Well tonight at like 11:00 what do we hear? A knock on our door! Anise opens the door and in walk 4 guys... Of course it's 11 so none of us are cute, all of us are in our PJ's and we all pretty much look like we've been studying for the past few hours because... well... we have! Anyway, in walk 4 guys, saying that they saw our sign and were interested!

So, I'd like to attribute our success of the evening (luring in 4 guys to our apartment... that sounds creepy actually... ) to our lovely and cleverly worded sign, however it's more likely that it was a matter of miscommunication or misdirection, or an inability to navigate BYU-I campus...

See, they thought they were making visits to ward members, and while we are ward members, we aren't their ward members. They thought we were in 19th ward, but we're in 89th so... better luck next time guys! However they did get free cookies, a backflip contest and the opportunity to converse with some seriously cute girls in their Pj's... you know, see us in our natural element! :) Only at BYU-I right? If I was anywhere else, I probably wouldn't let in any strangers, let along guys after 9:00 at night. (but it actually wasn't me who opened the door... and maybe opening the door up to random guys even at BYU-I isn't such a good plan...but I digress.)

~Keep Smiling~ :)

Take on the World

Yesterday, I woke up at 6:15, confident and ready to take on the world. I had prepared the night before to make my first day of college go as smoothly as possible.

Backpack- Check!
Notebooks- Check!
Camera- Check
Cell Phone (just in case someone wanted my number... or my mom calls... :) Check!
Pencils- Check!
Pen- Check!
Schedule- Check!
Map of Campus (which apparently works better when it's not upside down... I figured that out after an upperclassman helped me out... :) Check!

After ensuring everything was the way it ought to be, I walked out of the door, confident and ready to take on the world!

Mission Prep was first. I walked into that class, confident and ready to take on the world and then when Brother Broadhead asked us to pull out our scriptures I started feeling a little less confident and ready to take on the world.... I mean who forgets to bring their scriptures to Mission Prep!?!?!?!?!?!?  Obviously I do!!!! But it wasn't the end of the world and the rest of my day went a lot smoother.

Confident and ready to take on the World

Roomies Confident and Ready to take on the world

And speaking of roomies, last night at apartment prayer, we were all sitting around trying to figure out who was going to pray and no one was volunteering. This was our conversation

Hannah: Ok, who needs blessings?

Everyone looks around and says nothing, waiting for someone else to volunteer.

Anise: Ok, who wants a hotter husband?

Kacee: I'LL SAY IT!!!!! 

So that's how you get us girls to do things, throw in a "hot" guy and we're sold! 

~Keep Smiling~ :)

Cousins....?

So I was at a dance on Saturday night, PARTAYING it up and having the time of my life! (Because that's what you do at dances.) The thing about BYU-I dances is that rather then everyone standing in a circle and dancing around, it's like a mob. Seriously everyone crowds to the center of the floor and jumps up and down (so there was a lot of whipping hair in peoples faces, bumping elbows, stepping on toes etc.) After about an hour or two of this craziness, I decided to take a breather. Pulling myself from the crowd, I noticed a girl off to one side leaning against the wall. She looked nice, so I decided to head on over and maybe make a new friend.

We got to talking, exchanging small pleasantries as we discussed the school, the majors, the dance and other such things. At one point she asked where I was from, I told her, and then asked where she was from. When she said Star Valley Wyoming, I commented that my Dad grew up their thinking that maybe her parents knew my Dad or his parents (for it's a small world after all right? :) She asked who my Dad was, and after I told her she looked at me with wide eyes and exclaimed. "Oh my Gosh! I think we're related!!!!"  (The world just got a lot smaller!)

So yeah, I found my second cousin (or at least I think she's my second cousin... How does it work if your parents are cousins? Does that make you second cousins or third cousins, or second and half cousins once removed...?) Isn't that crazy?

This is me and my cousin... I looked better earlier on in the
evening, but this is what I look like after hours of jumping
up and down....

See! This is me at the beginning of the evening BEFORE
I got all hot and sweaty! :) 

~Keep Smiling~ :)

Awake My Soul!

I woke up this morning at 6:30 because we have church at 8! Maybe 6:30 isn't the crack of dawn or anything, but it feels a little early for someone who hasn't slept much in the past few days (Thank heaven Sunday is a day of rest! :)

I entitled this post "Awake My Soul" not because my soul has to be awake and functioning at 6 in the morning, but because I read something in my scripture study that really made me think about what it means to have ones soul be awakened! It's Sunday, so I feel like it's only fitting and right that I take a moment to divert my attention from all the fun and excitement that's been going on in my life recently and really have these Sunday posts be a lot more spiritual in nature.

I was reading in 2nd Nephi chapter 4, and basically the gist of it is, Nephi lamenting the fact that he is still susceptible to sin and weakness because of his flesh. Nephi, even though he was a prophet of God, someone who received revelation and talked with the Lord, still felt he was not as good as he could be, not reaching his full potential. But then, I love how he turns the conversation right around and says:

"Awake my soul! No longer droop in sin." 

(vs. 28)

I think our souls, or our spirits, are the better part of ourselves. I think it is our souls that want to do good and progress and draw closer to Christ because that is the part of us that remembers Christ and can recognize the happiness that comes when one is spiritually progressing and becoming better. In the scriptures it says that the "natural man is an enemy to God" (Mosiah 3:7) meaning that our flesh, or the natural part of us, is weak. That's the part of ourselves that is susceptible to sin, while our souls are the part of us that hunger and thirst after righteousness. 

I've heard about the whole internal struggle between good and evil, deciding whether we want to feed our spirits or feed our carnal desires. While that is a profound truth, the thing about this chapter that really impressed me was how Nephi calls on his soul to "awake. It's as if he is calling on the better part of himself, eliciting assistance and receiving power from himself.  I think that we each have an internal strength of spirit which, if we choose to call upon, can be amplified by the power of God. God gives us power to overcome our trials and weaknesses only after we allow ourselves to be powerful. By turning to God, we demonstrate our spiritual strength, and then he adds to that strength. He is ready and waiting to come to our aid and lift us up and out of our sorrows, but we have to take the first step. 

~Keep Smiling~ :) 

Five Meal Food Plan

I'm a college student... so that means... I'm broke! This may not come as a surprise to many of you, I mean seriously how many college students do you know that are rolling in the dough?!? All of the sudden I have to buy my own books, my own soap, my own kitchen utensils and my own FOOD! Who knew that I'd have to actually think about what I was going to eat!!!!

This had me slightly distressed for awhile! But then I talked to my roomies about it. :) See,  I have clever roommates; girls who have good ideas on how to navigate college life. Together, we came up with a way to cut the cost of our meals and eat quality food! Sounds too good to be true? It isn't! This plan is absolutely foolproof!

It's called....

...DRUMROLL PLEASE.......

THE FIVE MEAL FOOD PLAN! :)

This is how it works: 

You have five days a week; Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday (and if you're really good you can get in a Saturday ;) and so for each of those days, you get a boy to take you out to dinner! Simple as that!  It's easy, cost effective, fun and you even get a date out of it! :) Smart right? :)

So after coming up with such a clever solution to our problems, the next step was to share it with the world. I mean what good is a plan if nobody knows about it? What do you think we did? We ADVERTISED!!!!!!

If you can't read that, we wrote on our window with window markers: "Will Date For Food! Apt. 306" 

The "3" might be backwards... but I think people will get the picture! So Spread the word!!! The girls in 306 Will Date for food! :) 

And on that note, we had a very nice boy come to our assistance today! For the sake of the story we'll call him Cinder Block Boy, or CBB for short. Some of my roomies bought Cinder blocks to elevate their beds so, since we are on the third floor, carrying up those heavy cement bricks up three flights of stairs was quite a challenge, but not for Cinder Block Boy! He was walking along, saw our pitiful plight and carried not one but two blocks up at at time!!! I almost wish we had bought more cinder blocks, just so he could carry them up the stairs for us damsels in distress! Oh well, maybe next time! We talked for a bit, rewarded his manly efforts with cookies and m&m's and then sent him on his way! But don't worry, we'll see him tomorrow  at church because he's in our ward!!! What Luck! :) 

Maybe he saw our sign... maybe he'll bring us food... :)

~Keep Smiling~ :)

One Word

Some people say a picture is worth a thousand words but these pictures spell out just one word:

FREEDOM

Mom and Me in the Car

My Dorm... after hours and hours of unpacking and organizing

Decor (Before the Lights)

Jewelry On Display 

MY ROOMIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (LOVE THEM) :)

LEGIT Talent Show Concert (complete with lights cameras and everything!!! :)

Hanging out after the talent Show and playing games 

I Spent 20 minutes putting up Christmas Lights 

The Work was Definitely Worth it!

I'll keep you posted on all my adventures :) 

~Keep Smiling~ :)

Our Grand Adventure

Once Upon a time three brave and courageous travelers set off on an adventure, a GRAND Adventure! 

Okay, so maybe it wasn't exactly grand, but it was an adventure!  It’s been a long day, and I mean a really long day! So I guess it's only fitting that this is a long blog post... a really long blog post! Our journey across Washington, Oregon and Idaho began early, long before the sun came up! 

4:45ish (I think, I can’t be exactly sure since I didn’t look at a clock) Mom called me and I woke up and then kind of drifted back off to sleep. Then she called up at me again. I hurried to get ready and finish off some last minute stuff. See, last night I kept remembering things I had forgotten to do as I was lying in bed (like grab my white jeans from the dryer, pack my guitar, bring my computer....exc.) so rather then get up and grab a piece of paper and jot down some reminders, I picked a pen off the floor and scribbled notes on my hand for me to decipher this morning. I’m so glad I didn’t get ink all over my face while I slept and I’m glad I didn’t forget anything (or at least I don’t think I did... but that’s the trouble with forgetting, you don’t remember you’ve forgotten until it’s too late!)  

This is my handwriting when I'm tired. Can you Read it?

5:30- On the Road!!! HERE WE GO!!!!! I looked back at my house and considered getting sentimental for a few moments....but then got over it :) 

7:00ish- Some guys driving by us started to check us out! Not even kidding! One of them was leaning out the window and staring into our car to get a better look. I mean I know we are some seriously cute babes, but really they didn’t have to be so obvious! :) We invented a phrase for when people check people out on the Freeway, such exploits are now called “Road Checks”

Rachel and I PARTAYING it up in the car! 

8:53- Stopped at Selah Creek Rest Area, which apparently has very good facilities. My mom gave it four stars (four stars out of five that is :) And she even was considerate enough to explain her rating, so just in case you were wondering here’s the breakdown: 

Restrooms- 5 stars

View-3 Stars 

Final Score- 4 Stars 

I didn’t realize that a view was a necessary component when deciding upon a Rest Area, but I guess one should take all things into consideration. :) Sorry Selah Creek, you could have rated a 5 if only you hadn’t built your facility overlooking a field of sagebrush. 

Here are my Moms words exactly: 

“I give it a three because it could be worst. At leasts it’s a clean view, nature just can’t help being ugly when it’s the desert”

So if you’re even near Yakima, stop by Selah Creek, as far as rest areas go, it’s top notch! 

9:10- Stopped at an Arco gas station because we have what my mother calls an “optimistic gas gauge” which means basically that our gas gauge is broken. After driving 3 1/2 hours the little needle still rests “optimistically” on “Full” and rather then brave the dangers of guestimating how much gas we have left, we believe in being safe over sorry! (Mom says she really doesn’t want to break down on the road 2 hours from civilization) 

11:35- Stopped at Deadman Pass Rest Area

Don’t be put off by the foreboding name, (or the grammatical error: Deadman pass should be Deadman’s Pass, my mother pointed out that it needed to be possessive, but I digress :) This delightful spot scored a 5 out of 5 as far a Rest Areas goes. You thought Selah Creek Was Good? Here’s the breakdown:

Restroom-5

View- 5 

Final Score- 5

The view was picturesque, the grass luscious, park benches kept up and all in all a lovely place to stop. The only complaint was that the bathroom only had three stalls, so it wasn’t perhaps as capacious as it could have been, however you could interpret such architexctual   design as a an attempt to make ones experience more private. 

12:00- I made myself a sandwich

12:30-I made myself another sandwich 

12:35-Rachel and Mom wanted me to make them sandwiches 

12:44- We passed the 45th parallel, meaning we were halfway between the Equator and the North Pole

3:05- Stop at Snake River Rest Stop

This one was the best by far! It was even equipped with an adequate amount of bathroom stalls! With a beautiful vista overlooking the Snake river, a wrought Iron Fence and an indoor entrance, this bathroom exceeded expectations. It makes Selah Creek Rest Area look quaint at best. The Results:

Bathroom- 5

View- 5

Final Score- 5

The only complaint: The entrance to the freeway is a little abrupt. But the Pros far outweigh the cons! 

4:00ish- Stopped Real quick at Costco to pick me up Shampoo, Conditioner and a CAMERA!!!!! It’s a Nikon and I love it!!!! :) (Thanks Mom :) 

Shampoo Conditioner and Camera From Costco :) 

6:08- Twin Falls Idaho Rest Stop

The only Rest Stop I choose to actually use and it’s the worst rest stop of them all! It was also the only rest stop that I had a camera at so I couldn't take pictures of the others! It only rates half a star, we considered giving it a zero but since all the facilities worked we figured it was important to be as objective as possible.

Bathroom- half a star

View- No stars

Final Score- half a star 

On top of the horrid view, smelly restroom, an empty soap dispenser, flies stuck on a string of tape dangling over one of the stalls, and an overall rundown appearance, we had a run in with a chatty drunk man leaning against the “Welcome to Idaho” sign who could barely stand up straight.  Such behavior would not be tolerated at rest stops like Snake River or Deadman Pass! 

The "Welcome to Idaho Sign" Before the Drunk man was leaning on it. 

7:58- Rachel does a Roadcheck! 

We drove by a boy driving a car packed full of luggage and mom commented that he was probably driving to college like us. I asked what he looked like and following conversation took place: 

Mom: I don’t know! I can’t look at people when I’m driving! 

Rachel: Yes but I can!!!  

Rachel was checking out the future options at BYU-I, it never hurts to plan early! 

8:10- We arrived at our hotel! Time to unload and get OUT of the car!!!!! :) Mission accomplished ladies and gentleman, we arrived safely in Idaho Falls. 

And then here are some of my favorite quotes from our trip :)

Mom: “Look at that sign, “Fruit and Antiques”... what does that mean, that they have antique fruit because that just doesn’t sound very good!” 

Mom: “We have an optimistic gas gauge”

Alina “It’s Magical!!!” 

Mom: Throw this away

Alina: No I don’t want to

Mom: Would you like to walk to Rexburg?

And so in the end the weary travelers finished their journey and we all lived happily Ever After! 

The End... 

... At least until tomorrow :)

~Keep Smiling~ :)

You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone

Have you heard that song from Pitch Perfect? The Cup song where Anna Kenderick does that cool clap/hit hand routine with a cup (that's probably why it's called the cup song :) While I haven't actually seen the movie, (so I can't condone or condemn it:) that song is running through my head right now, over and over and over again. Maybe it's because it's catchy, but I think the more likely reason is that soon I'll be just that... gone! The Chorus goes:

When I'm Gone

When I'm Gone

You're Gonna Miss me when I'm gone

You're gonna miss me by my hair 

your gonna miss me everywhere oh

You're gonna miss me when I'm gone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmSbXsFE3l8

I included the youtube address so you could check it out if you really don't know what I'm talking about or if you just feel like watching it again :) Anyway, you can see it's cute, catchy, fun to listen to, cool instrumentals and very, very relatable right now. 

Where am I going? I'm here now so where is "gone"? Ladies and Gentleman, "Gone" is Idaho, BYU Idaho to be exact and I'm gonna be gone tomorrow morning bright and early! Here I come college!!!!! 

"My bags are packed, I'm ready to go, I'm standing here".... Okay so maybe I'm not leaving on a jet plane with John Denver, and maybe I do know when I'll be back again, (Christmastime probably, if not at Thanksgiving)  but I am leaving! Dang it! Now that song is stuck in my head!!!! :) 

Sorry to be so long winded, you're probably wondering what the point of this post is, (and I promise there is one :) so I shall cut to the chase and try to cut out anymore wayward song lyrics that are swimming through my head :) The point I'm trying to make is that while I am leaving and saying goodbye to a lot of old things (like free meals and free laundry and free living basically) I'm saying hello to a lot of new things (like FREEDOM... and 25 cent laundry and not eating because I'm broke... but I digress) I'm turning a page, I'm starting fresh! In fact..."this could be the start of something new!" Alright, I know I'm getting really tired when I'm reduced to High School Musical song references! I'll just stop now :) 

I can't wait to be gone! I've been waiting to be gone for a very very long time! And hey, it doesn't sound like such a bad place to be! Though I do hope you miss me, at least a little bit when I'm gone :) 

And now comes the real dilemma! Since everything is packed up in the car, including all my bedding, how am I going to sleep tonight....

....obviously I didn't think that one through.... :)

~Keep Smiling~ :)