....I'm Retarded

SO, I'm still figuring out this whole blog thing. Today, Tammy had to show me how to add "stuff" to the side of my blog, and I'm still trying to figure out how to post pics in my blog (Tammy helped me the first time, lol). You would think that since I work for an internet security company that I would know how to work all of the blog tools, but oddly enough I seem to be blog retarded. SO, please have a little patience with me, and I will try and get some awesome pics and posts going on. I have a lot to post about my trip to Washington last week, so stay tuned!!!

Real life realizations...

So, today I happened upon a facebook page of someone I know very well, or maybe I should say knew. I was so excited because this person and I haven't really talked in a while. But when I got on this person's page I realized that she has changed a lot from the person I used to know. We used to have carefree sleepovers, and stay up late talking. We laughed together, and, of course, even cried together. We hit our high school years (well I did first. I'm older by about 2 years.) and we didn't have much time to talk or hang out any more. I could even venture to say that she was one of my best childhood friends. Anyway, today as I got on her page I realized that we have gone in completely different directions. Things that are most important to me, don't even seem to be on her list anymore. To be completely honest, I was completely shocked. I was literally speechless and thoughtless. It's funny to think about where your life takes you, or where you take your life, and to remember how you got here. Today, I realized that even though I'm not exactly where I thought I'd be by now, I am so grateful for the choices I have made, and the life I have today because of that. I realized that no matter how bad you want to, you can't make someone else's decisions for them. I highly doubt this person is even going to read this, but I wanted to acknowledge how grateful I am for those long nights and giggling sessions. For the endless games of "banister sliding" and the amazing "soap racing." You have made a mark on my life that I will never forget, and I hope that I can always be there for you no matter what.

So much to write, so little time...

So much to write about, so little time... Ahhh, life is crazy, isn't it? Well, I'm going to try and do a quick overview of the last 2 months. Starting on the activities of July 18th. Well, first of all, I'm still working at Sec Met full-time. I like it for the most part, and it pays me well, so I really have no complaints about that. I'm also still doing Landscaping with my bro., and I love that. I just like feeling that I'm physically accomplishing something, even if it is just mowing lawns. Now, for the fun stuff. The 18th of July was a blast. Suzy and I got a group of people together and we had a party at her house. We played Twister, Curses, the M&M Game, drank "Mock-aritas", threw M&M's at each other, and then crashed in the living room to watch National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets. I had a blast. I love playing games and just having fun, so it was a great night.

Saturday, we got a group of us together and had dinner at Cafe Rio then we went and watched Batman. At dinner, it was just me and five guys, so you can imagine what kind of conversation happened there. Luckily, other girls came to watch the movie with us. We had a group of about 15 for the movie. I have to admit that I liked the movie, but it was a little too dark for me. I guess I just don;t like seeing the dark and disturbed part of humans. I just have a hard time with it. I must say though, that Heath Ledger did an amazing job as the Joker. I was quite impressed with his acting skills. All in all though, it was a very fun night.

So, on the 23rd I got my hair cut. Now it really wasn't that much, just about 4 inches, but I pretty much freaked out. I liked it at first, then my sister reacted to it, and then I started thinking that it was too short, and I felt like I had made a mistake. I have to say that I was being a ridiculous girl. I'm one of those girls that hates the girls that give us a bad name, but I acted like one for a night. Anyway, to make a long story short, I love my hair now. I love the layers, and the cut, and it's actually kind of nice to have it a little shorter.

On the 25th I went to a Bee's game with Blaine and Greg. I forgot how much fun it was to go to a real baseball game. The atmosphere is so cool, and I would so much rather be at a live baseball game, then watch it on TV. This was also the day that I realized that I will probably never understand men. They say girls are hard to read, but I say that they are just as confusing. At least most of them. Oh well, you live and learn right?

On the 26th Mona had their celebration, and I participated in the Talent show. I, of course, sang, and I ended up taking first place. It was a good experience, and I love performing in front of people. That night we had fireworks, and I have to admit that for such a small town, we sure put on a good fireworks show. Although, I bet that a large majority of our town budget pays for that. I don't care though. At least not right now. I love fireworks, and I love Mona so it was a good night.

The very next morning I went to register for American Idol (YAY!) It was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. I was expecting a huge line for registration, but I just walked in, and then got my papers and left. On Tuesday, I woke Up at 3 am (ugh) in order to get to SLC on time, by 5am. I really wish I had slept in longer because I didn't even need to be there that early, even though they told me I had to be in line at 5, liars... Anyway, I waited until 3:45pm to audition, and let me just say that it was a great experience, but I will most likely never do it again. I actually have a little less respect for Idol now because of the way they treated the whole situation. It was a lot of fun though. I got to do some really cool stuff, and now I can say that I did it. No regrets!!!

We had a party at Blaine's in Mona on August 2nd, which was a blast. Obe fo the things I love doing is watching movies outside, which is one of the things we did at Blaine's. It's just fun, and in Mona you can see all of the stars above you ahhh... Just thinking about it makes me happy.

Now, I'm not certain if this is my favorite activity this summer, but it has to be at the very top. Suz, Crow, Clay and I went to Lagoon on the 8th. It was a blast. All of us went on the Skycoaster, which is the ride that pulls you up to the very top, then you pull the rip cord and fall straight down. SO COOL!!! I then talked Suzy into going on the catapult with me. That ride is so much fun. They strap you into this big red ball then shoot you into the sky with 3 g's of force. It is so much fun. I have some pics, but they don't really give you the whole experience. I ended up buying the video of us, but its on old school VHS so once I get it moved to DVD, I'll put it on here so everyone can see how funny it is!

On the 16th I got a group together and we went to Applebee's for dinner and then we went to Trafalga. We raced on the GoKart track, and of course I lost. Suzy tried to cut me off, but she came in too soon and I totally t-boned her. We were stuck until one of the guys came and helped us out, but we both lost pretty bad. We also went to the batting cages and hit 50 pitches each. Well, lets be honest. I probably only hit about 20 of my 50, if that. The light above me wasn't working, and honestly, Softball isn't my favorite sport. I used to be good at it, but then I stopped playing when I was 13 and started playing tennis.

Anyway, back on track, I sang in my ward on the 17th since I moved into a new place. It was kind of a "goodbye to you" kinda thing. Lol! I am really going to miss my bishopric though, and the stake presidency. They are both great!

I started moving out of apartment on the 27th, and let me just tell you all that I have way more crap than I realized. Moving took forever, and I had to put a ton of stuff in storage. I love my new apartment though, and my roommates seem pretty cool. Two of them are volleyball players just like me, which is so exciting!!!

Well, that's my synopsis of the last two months. I promise that from now on I will post more often. The reason I didn't before is because I didn't have internet at my apartment, but now I do, s I promise to post at least once a week!!!

Summer...

So, I've decided that I absolutely love Summer. Not because of the weather, ugh... But because I seem to have so much more fun in the Summer than I do during the other months. Now, I'm sure there are a few things that make Summer more fun. The most important thing is that Suzy, my best bud, is home for most of the Summer, so we get to play, A LOT! We do some of the craziest stuff, but it is always fun. The second most important factor is that I don't have to stress about school or homework, or any of that. I just go to work, and then I can do whatever I want. It's so nice...

Anyway, I just thought I would write about some of my Summer adventures today. So, I've already briefly talked about our work Summer Party, but I failed to mention how much fun I had. I was allowed to bring a guest, so of course I brought Suz. We started out with dinner, then I performed, then we had a raffle, which of course I didn't win a thing, and then we started to play. The party was at Veteran's Park in Provo, and they have these 2 huge water slides. One of them is called the Water Gator, and the other is called the Slide Winder. Me and Suz raced a few times, but the best was when I had the great idea of doing a train. At first, my plan was to go down the slide and then stop myself and wait for Suzy, but then I thought I would ask the lifeguard to see if we were allowed to double. I asked her, and to my surprise she said going down in twos was fine. It was so funny, because I was like a little kid again. We tried going faster by pushing ourselves, we laid down, we sat up, and we probably went on the slides about 40 times. It was so much fun!

Another Summer adventure was getting to go to the Collin Raye, Joe Nichols, Josh Gracin concert at UVU. It was a blast! Everyone who knows me knows that I am crazy when it comes to concerts and music. I love and enjoy it so much. Anyway, the concert was a lot of fun. We tried to get a big group together so we had Me, Suzy, Blaine, Clay, Greg, Stacy, Emily, Chris, and part of my family was there too. The concert was great, and I've decided that I need to buy more of Josh Gracin's and Collin Raye's music. After the concert there were fireworks, which were pretty good.

I have so many more adventures to talk about, but I will have to do that later on, so I can get back to work. Lol!

Life...

Alright everyone, I apologize for not writing sooner, but I have been extremely busy, and we currently don't have any internet at my apartment. I will give you the short and sweet DL. Right now I'm "Up yonder" in Orem. I'm loving it, and it seems to be getting better and better every day. Right now, during the Summer, I'm working 2 jobs. I work at Security Metrics full-time, and I do landscaping with my brother Brian part-time. In the Fall I'll still be working at SecMet full-time, but I'll be done with Landscaping and back in school.

My family is doing pretty well. Mom and Dad are still in Mona, and my Dad is still pretty much the same health-wise. Mom still works at UVU, which is nice because I get to have lunch with her every Friday. My sister Angie is remarried, and I now have two new nieces, who are both adorable. Skylee is 10 now, which is totally nuts. She's a hoot though. She's kinda at that stage where she isn't a little girl, but she's not a teenager yet either (thank goodness).

My brother Brian and his wife have two beautiful boys, Bryson, 6, and Brendan who just turned 2. They built their own house in Spanish Fork and I love it. Bryson is one of the smartest 6 year olds I've ever known, and since I worked at a daycare I've known a lot. He's quite the athlete too. It was funny because they put him in t-ball this summer, but the coach actually just pitches to him because Bryson is too advanced for the tee. Brendan is adorable. We just had his birthday party yesterday, and he was so cute. He's talking a lot, and is such a cutie, but he's still kind of a momma's boy.

My brother Bill is getting re-married in September as well. His fiancee is a lot of fun, and she has 2 girls and a boy, so I will soon have a total of 5 nieces and 4 nephews. We got to see Zach, 6, this last weekend, which was great, and he is a very cute little boy. I was a little shocked at his bad behavior though.

Alisa is still in Orem with me, and I will live with her for about 2 more weeks. After that I'll be moving into the Glenwood apartments in Provo. I'm really excited for the new experience.

Now, onto me again. Lol. Life has been really good to me lately. I've been working hard, but also enjoying life. This last week was the Ute Stampede down in Nephi. I went with Suz, of course, and I had a blast. We went on the Zipper after the rodeo, and I had forgotten how much I love that ride. I flipped 9 times in a row. It was so sweet! On Friday, my company was having our Annual Summer Party, which was a blast. I'm trying to get ready for American Idol tryouts (YES, I'm trying out) so, I got to sing at the party. It went really well, except the speakers didn't work right, so I ended up singing a cappella, which actually ended up being alright. Well, I have to get back to work now, but I promise all of you that I will write again soon with many more updates. TOODLES!

Volleyball...

Today, I thought I'd write about one of my passions: volleyball. I love volleyball, and how competitive it makes me. I also sometimes dislike how competitive it makes me. I had the opportunity to play volleyball in high school, and I loved almost every minute of it. The only time I didn't love it was when I made a mistake, or we lost a game we should've won. Besides that, I absolutely loved it. I have so many memories from volleyball, from being All-State to making life-long friends. One of my favorite memories is actually an event that took some time to progress. My Senior year of high school I was at the top of my game. I was playing extremely well, and getting recognition for it from my coach and other teams' coaches. I felt great.

One day I was scrimagging with my team and I went up to block. While I was in the air one of my teammates came under the net, so when I came down I landed on her foot and my ankle had completely inverted. I immediately thought that I had broken it because I heard a very distinct snap. My teammates and coach helped me to the side of the court where I laid there with my leg elevated and ice wrapped around my ankle. At this point I actually started to cry. Not because of the pain, but because the reality of this event had finally hit me. I realized that if my ankle was injured badly enough that I would most likely be in a cast for the next 2 months. Just long enough to keep me out until the season was over. I was devastated. Actually, devastated might even be a bit of an understatement. Anyway, that night I went to the emergency room., and the doctor on staff took an X-ray. He examined it and told me that my ankle wasn't broken, but I had torn some ligaments. He then told me that I would be able to start working back into volleyball after a week, and should be able to play in a game in 2 weeks. I was ecstatic.

I waited a week, doing everything the doctor told me to, and then I started doing physical therapy and trying to run in practice. I was in a lot of pain, but this is something that was worth it to me to work through the pain, so I did. Two weeks passed since I had been injured, and I was planning on playing in the game the following day. When I got home from practice my mom told me that the Radiologist at the hospital had found a break in my ankle bone, and told her my doctor had been informed and expected to see me the following day to put a cast on. I was upset, but determined not to let this affect my season.

The next day I went to the doctor, told him I would not wear a cast and planned to finish out the season. He explained all of the risks I would be taking and what affects this would have on me in the future, and I explained that this was something I had to do. I don't know how I did it, but I got out of that office without a cast, and just a boot. My doctor told me to wear it whenever I wasn't playing volleyball. Anyway, to make a long story short, I worked through the pain, and I got to finish out my season. It was awesome, and I got All-State recognition for it. One of the worst possible things had happened to me, and it turned out to be a blessing and a lesson. It taught me that nothing that's worth having in life is easy to get. I don't think I would've realized what a blessing it was to be able to play volleyball with my team, and that working through the pain was worth it. Throughout all of this I had support from my family and friends, and I grew up a little as well. Even though I never want to go through that again, I am grateful it happened.

Being sick... Ugh

I've officially decided that being sick is absolutely horrible. For the past two weeks I've been extremely sick. It got to the point where I couldn't even be comfortable watching TV. It's been a while since I've been that sick, so I had forgotten how much I hated it. Before getting sick, I was thinking how nice it would be if I could miss work and school, and just do nothing.

Well, I got my wish, except for the fact that I couldn't watch TV or read because I felt so horrible, and it hurt my eyes. The whole time I was sick, I was wishing I could be at work, doing something, which I find completely ironic. I do love work, but I also love having some free time. Unfortunately this wasn't really free time, it was more like designated sick time where I couldn't do anything that I wanted to do.

I got so sick, that I finally forced myself to go to a doctor for the first time in 3 years. I have to be honest though, I really hate going to the doctor. Anyway, I finally went, and he told me I had a sinus infection and Sinusitis. He wrote me out some prescriptions, and told me what I needed to do. I had to go the store and get my prescriptions, which was a huge task for me that day.

I also need to say that Wal-Mart could possibly have the slowest pharmacy in the world. OK, so that is probably an exaggeration, but that is how I felt that night. I waited for almost an hour, while being horribly sick. Anyone who has been through something like that knows what I am talking about. So, I walked around the store, doing my best not to pass out, while I waited for the pharmacist to fill my prescription. I also purchased some Nyquil, and other things to help the rest of my sickness pass as smooth, and pain-free, as possible.

In the process of being sick, I lost a weekend of fun, two work days, which amounts to about 200 dollars lost, and a day of class. I learned that being busy isn't a bad thing while you're healthy, and that I should be thankful for every moment I have, even if it's while working or going to school. I need to remember to be grateful for being healthy, especially since I know so many people who are chronically ill.

Anyway, the whole point of this is to warn everyone to be careful what you wish for, and to be grateful for everything you have!