I skipped Halloween

This is my new buddy Amy, who is going to be my buddy until Christmas comes! I am so excited because I get to work with just her (and her sidekick/best friend) because Amy's interpreter just had a baby and I was chosen to love her just as much until the interpreter can get back. On Halloween we were both princesses at school, she however was Cinderella, which was cooler as I think anyone would agree. 

Many people were mistaking Chris to be Jack Sparrow, to which he would politely reply "no. I am just a pirate." I don't get to spend a whole lot of time with him, so in the 30 min we had lunch, I think I heard him say that to 3 or 4 people. He was a great pirate. 
Everyone gets a chance to become an add for the library. You get to pick a book that goes with your costume and then they post them around Halloween.
I was awfully thirsty during work, lucky for me there was a beverage passing by. 
The Wolfpack, they usually make my day, everyday. 




Brandi and I bonded on Halloween. Brandi's interpreter also left to have a baby. So she has a sub now. On this day however, Brandi's sub had to get a sub. Well by the time I arrived, the sub's sub hadn't come yet, and that put a cramp in her ability to communicate. It was so cool to walk in and have her run up to me and give me a hug and not let go of my hand and just love me to death. If you had no way to talk to someone, you would be scared too. It made me feel pretty good, and I think I learned a big lesson that day about how even the smallest contribution I make, is a bigger deal then I could have ever thought. Who knew that one day, just because I could sign, I would be the most important asset to someones life for a few min. 

Adventures with Jack

This weekend was especially exciting because not only did Jack come, but my grandma and parents were here too. So we all had the opportunity to go to the game. If you will look below, you can see that the tickets we had were amazingly great, yes we were on the floor. 

Here you can see how our shoes rested next to the court. The players actually could talk to us or fall into us. 
This is after the game, Jack decided that his little brother would think that we were pretty dang cool.

Jarom tried to catch a ball, missed, and then the guy handed it over to him because he didn't need it. That was pretty amazing.



I didn't know if it was against the rules to be taking pictures, since it seems that everyone around us was too cool to be doing the same thing. You see we have some amazing family friends that are important to the Jazz and they wanted to make sure we had a good time. I love the stone family very much. 

part of the half time show was the bear having three little bears follow him around and imitate him. This included stomping on the foot and squeezing the bumb of the refs on the court. 
in the end, one of them didn't want to leave the court, so the mascot had to chase him down and carry him off the court. 
The bear also wore stilts and golfed. 
This man would stand behind the hoop for foul shots and swing his rubber chicken around. It's hanging down between his legs. 
Well the Jazz won and we had the time of our lives. Outside the dressing room, I bumped into one of the clippers players and he turned around and said excuse me. He was also a little sweaty so I don't plan on washing that part of my body, ever. We also got basketballs that the entire team had signed which was so cool. 

You know how the security is usually kinda pushing and demanding. It was so fun to have them treat you like you were the most important person you have ever met. We got to be around the "secret" parts of the arena, and nobody cared if we lingered around. We are so lucky!

Picture tag

I wanted to play too. Here is my sixth picture in my sixth folder in picasa. This is the air pump my family owns for our camping airmattresses. That is clearly bird poop on the pump, as I am sure you are all assuming. 

Cold Urticaria-it's real

At work I can look up information about every student in the school. As the term comes to an end I get a lot of questions about grades. Well today on one kid's record it had the little medical symbol, so I checked it out and the kid has what is called Cold urticaria and a little note that says "allergy to the cold, this is for real, look it up" So I did:

Cold Urticaria (essentially meaning "cold hives") is an allergy where hives, or large red welts form on the skin after exposure to a cold stimulus. The welts are usually itchy and often the hands and feet will become itchy and swollen as well.Red welts, wheals, or hives that vary in size on the skin or mucus membranes. They may or may not itch. Hives can last for a few minutes or a few days, and vary from person to person. Also a burning sensation occurs. During a severe reaction, hypotension, which can be life-threatening, can occur. A serious reaction is most likely to occur if the hives occur with less than 3 minutes of exposure (during a cold test).

The hives are a histamine reaction in response to cold stimuli, including a drastic drop in temperature, cold air, and cold water. There are many causes for cold hives, most are idiopathic (meaning they have no known cause). Some rare conditions can cause cold hives, and it can be useful to test for these conditions if the cold hives are in any way unusual.

So we all decided that it's very important that our room have heat, which it really doesn't. strange huh?

The Wedding and Such

We finally made it to the day that Council Bluffs would be married! Wow, a little while ago it seemed like so far away. Here are a few of my favoirite highlights of the day. 

The Classic Jumping Picture

This was a picture of the temple while they were getting married, upon request I have about 50 different pictures to pick from for the new Bluffs Family

I apparently am really squinty 

Right before a kiss, I mean, we don't ever see them kiss so I don't have a picture of that

We then had a chance to go and play with some ropes that Jack brought. Because of a lack in wild animals to rope running around, we found a willing handicap sign to rope. We all were able to successfully rope the sign, it never went to fast for us. 

Then we went over to Becca's Aunt and Uncle's house to hang out with them and Uncle Scott took on the challenge. He did pretty good. Good enough that he was able to scare his son around the yard. Poor Ben. Oh and the cat Pumpkin, I don't think he had a chance either. I have a video of both bellow.

Spirit Week

Don't we all remember how fun it was to be in middle school when you had dress up weeks? Well this year for work we had some really good ones. It started out as Super Model day. So instead of reading like they were supposed to, they modeled for my camera. I guess it was so fun they wanted to keep it going. 

Some weren't really that into it

Some misunderstood what models actually do

This was blast from the past day. Those shorts really are shorter than you think. 

Pirate day, the monkey shirt is because that is the only "pirate" thing that she had

The next thing it a real treat for all. For super model day we had some entertainment. Some of you will recognize it from the musical stylings from Nacho Libre. good stuff. 

Quick note: I really have issues with people talking during class, and CRUNCHING on things, it's loud and obnoxious. But I am more irritated when I am getting the "can you knock that off" stare for TYPING in class, I could shove my pencil up his nose...

Oh My Miss Jenny

My visiting teachers came over yesterday, which was fun. However it was funner that they were freaked out by miss jenny. Unfortunately I hadn't redressed our friend. Right after they left, I decided that it was time....after all it is october and halloween is upon us...

He kinda sits in a dark corner. The plan is to leave the blinds open one afternoon and miss jenny in the middle of the floor of the dark apartment so it freaks people out as they walk by. I am excited because she looks great with his face painted green. 

I used my Miss Western Idaho dress, which I couldn't believe fit around the waist. I had to pin the top on because as we all know the body of a man doesn't mix with the dress of a woman. I also used some of the old face paint I found from the good ol' ninja rap days. I feel like our apartment has never been so festive!

Carson's Funeral

A while ago carson died, yes this is a sad thing. But...I think it was my fault. I was careless with the temp. of the water-I think. Moments after we cleaned the bowl, he died.

This picture really is of him dead, even though he is at the bottom of the bowl. It was kinda weird, I mean not only was he at the bottom of the bowl, he was stiff-even the fins. They stopped flowing like he was petrified or something. It was weird. 

Lucky for all of you, we had a cerimony at my aunt's house with my cousins Hannah, Emma and Logan and my aunt Laureen. 

It's been a while, this I know, sorry for those who may have thought I had dropped off the face of the earth. I kind of feel like I have. Over the past couple of weeks my grandpa's health rapidly diminished. For a while now his liver has been failing him. We were hoping at some point, that he might get on to a donor list, but because he had previously had prostate cancer, his chances were slim to none. Well, he took a turn for the worst and my family prayerfully decided that we would bring him down to live with my aunt and uncle who recently moved to Highland to get some treatment down here. This whole time he has been sick is kinda surreal as we just expected him to get better, he was still in his 60s and pretty young and full of life. The idea was he would be close to Salt Lake and a special doctor named April. I think I have talked about her on my other blog. Anyway, after draining his large stomach from fluid, we transported him down here (to utah). This being labor day weekend, I went home to visit Jack's family so I was in Idaho when he came down here. Before he came there were a lot of preparations to be made, so it seems like so long ago because it's been so stressful and emotionally taxing. On Labor Day, we received a phone call from my mother saying that grandpa woke up that morning and decided that it was time to go and that he thought it would be that day or the next. My entire family immediately loaded up and caravaned down to Utah. Things went smoothly, getting down there. A car accident happened right in front of Jack and I to watch, and that seemed to just add to the intense drive. However, lucky for me, Jack was very good at keeping me calm and happy and I have to say my ride was quite pleasant. Jack and I arrived about an hour before everyone else so I was lucky to have a lot of time to talk to my grandpa before anyone got there. He reviewed specific things he wanted me to do for his funeral, a lot of them having to do with music. He talked to me about his hopes for my future, meaning marriage. He wanted to make sure that Jack was the tallest of all the men, so we promised to size him up on the wall in my grandparents house when we got a chance. The most important thing I want to share a little bit about what what he said about how he knew it was his time to go. He had mentioned that he talked to the Lord, and in short the Lord told him that if he was ready He could use his help. My grandpa agreed to come. My grandpa also talked about seeing his brother and sister, his parents and my grandma's mother. They were all there encouraging him to come. My grandpa shared with us what Heavenly Father looked like and many other things that he said to him. It was a really spiritual experience for my whole family. We each had a turn to talk to him individually and to tell him we loved him. This will be something that I won't ever be able to forget. What a blessing it was for me to be able to have a glimpse at the unknown. I am so grateful that I know my Heavenly Father's plan for me, and even more grateful that His plan includes a family that I get to be with forever. So while this was a really sad experience, I can say that my family and I feel that peace and confirmation that everything is as it should be, and the Lord has us in his hands and we will be together again someday.

Mind Tricks

Today I spent some time reading archives of blogs, you know from a couple of years ago. Every time I would start I would read a couple and start to miss life back then, get mad and stop reading because I am happy for a change. And then I find myself on someone else's blog. Not funny brain.

We used to be close you know, all of us. And we were funny, it's strange how things ended up.

Probably the Last FHE

Last night I was in charge of FHE. We had something spectacular planned, let me tell you. You know the Office olympics episode? Well we mimicked it using yogurt tops and paper clip chains, water races. Except we also did an artistic event with sidewalk chalk, tie tying, and fingernail painting. Given there were only 5 of us, I think we had a good time. We ended up having sandwhiches afterward, like we weren't tired of being together so that was cool.


Here we are at the very end. We all got medals, which wasn't hard because we had good chances. If you can see, we are kinda wet. That is because after the water race around the building, we got rid of it.


This is the winner's podium. I think I am going to miss this prison view, it's been home for so long.
These are cindy's nails at the end of the competition. each face is supposed to be a different expression. Take special note of the thumb, those are pieces of glitter that Bret dug out of the the glitter nail polish and made tears for the little guy.

It may have been more fun if more people were there, but it was pleasant and good. I had a good talk with Adam Alt. He made me feel pretty good. I really miss hanging out with F6 sometimes. It was like they were my older brothers, in a sense I kinda view them like that. I really want them to screen my dates still, have opinions and what not. But all things must come to a close I am aware. However, I have many exciting things to look forward to, in 10 days I am going to Logan, in 17 Jack is going to come visit down here? Maybe? we shall see what's going on, but there has been an agreement that there will be pictures taken. No worries!

Oh that BYU

I got on the internet this morning and opened up MSN and noticed they had a story about both the top ten most conservative and liberal universities in the nation. It shouldn't surprise anyone that we were number one most conservative. but I found the interview blurp kind of amusing so I thought I would share.

1. Brigham Young University (Utah) (Provo, Utah)
"Because of the nature of BYU as a private institution run by a religious group, the school typically attracts a lot of Latter Day Saint (Mormon) individuals," most of whom are "friendly, clean-cut and religious," with an "emphasis placed on education and social interaction." They "never drink or smoke, work part-time and spend weekends either at the library or trying to find someone to marry." As one student explains, "Because of our religion, many students are very preoccupied with marriage and finding their special someone. This also is hard for those of us who are not yet ready to look for a marriage partner or who don't want to start a family right away." In fact, atypical students -- there are some, "usually distinguishable by the way they dress (they try to stand out)" -- can find it "hard to be around this culture." One student writes, "Sometimes I get really frustrated and don't like how close minded and judgmental a lot of the students can be."

Long but worth it

My weekend was incredible, really, I think I could write a fairy tale about it. I think I feel like I stepped out of a different world, like life hasn't even existed while I was gone. Not that I will, but if given the opportunity, I would miss zions to go back. I won't lie, I am sitting here really wondering why I am not there. Becca made jokes about having to send my stuff up there, but right now that seems like a good idea. Here is what my trip was. I got a phone call from a guy named Jack I knew in high school, and decided to go home and visit my family and perhaps catch up with him. In the F6 R22 circle, we call him Jack Jack. Like on the incredibles. The following is a three part description about the whole thing, hopefully explaining the rash decision entry from a few days ago.

Background:

Jack and I graduated the same year from neighboring towns. Thus, our schools would play each other in sports. we also were in the same stake growing up and he asked me to dance a couple of times as a kid. I used to take stats for the basketball team so when we would play New Plymouth,(the town is made in the shape of a horse shoe, it's famous for it or something) he would be playing, and I always thought he was good looking, but you know, I had a lame boyfriend at the time, so I just admired his good basketball skills and beautiful face from a far.

Last summer when he got back from his mission, I was asked to come home and speak to the singles ward. This was last august when there a was a little drama going on in my life about two boys and not knowing who to date. Well during my talk, I mentioned this situation, which may have been a mistake on my part, because I recently found out, up until I said that, he was going to ask me out. and I crushed his dreams or something. :)

Well, while he was on his mission, his family moved to Weiser Idaho, into my grandparents ward. My grandpa has been eyeing him for a while and has been trying to get me to talk to him for months. Jack was kinda dating somebody so I would just laugh and mention that to my grandpa and he would roll his eyes, but he never quit. He attempted to invite him over all the time, and even introduced us once hoping that I would buck up and talk to him. But, I just didn't think he was interested, especially since he was kind of dating somebody else. When I would go home to visit, I would be sure to talk to him and say hi at church, but it was mostly so I could joke around with my grandpa that he was talking to me.


How it REALLY happened:

I was able to go rafting, (see recent post) and he was there. He had sent me a couple of messages on facebook about dunking me in the water and whatnot. so I said hi when we got there. but let's be honest, my confronting boys skills are pretty bad, that is my weak spot, I can't talk to boys that I like right off, it's really hard for me. well, he was going to get my number after we got back, but, I took off too quickly.

so in the car he mentioned it to a guy named Matt (yes I know this matt) and matt tried to encourage him by offering to get it from my sister. So Matt called Heidi, but at the time, CB cannon, Heidi and were at my cabin by then out of cell phone range, so we didn't get the message. When Jack got home he told his mom about not being able to get a hold of me and she said "we have a phone book, call her mom." so he did. My mom gave him my number and he called me. We were in the car coming back from water sliding at my cabin, we took a mini vote in the car, CB and Cannon thought he was really brave to ask me out when I had two boys with me and that it was really admirable. So I said yes. Everyone went back to my house and I went out to dinner with Jack. It was at this point that Jack got his nickname "Jack-Jack" We had just watched the incredibles in the car, and Council Bluffs suggested that "Jack should take me to Jack-in-th-box and then we should go watch Jack Jack Attack together at Jack-in-th-box.

About a week later, he called me during clean checks for a few hours while I cleaned. I promised him that I would call him that weekend to tell him how it went, but I got sick and couldn't talk at all, so I had to call him the following Tuesday. We talked a lot about the rodeo later in the month, and how I couldn't come up at all, and I was pretty disappointed, but I went to bed and called it good. I kind of already knew I wouldn't be able to pull it off with work, and having to take lots of other trips with the group so I really didn't think that I would be able to go anyway. Well the next morning, I went to work and started to talk to Becca about it. It was kinda weird, I just decided to go. I looked up plane tickets, called up Bret and Carrie who were also going the next day. But in my mind I knew that I couldn't go, what was I supposed to do, get work off. Nobody was going to be in the office, I would be leaving my boss stranded, it was late notice, we wanted to take another trip this weekend. But I couldn't get it out of my mind.

I guess I was thinking about it pretty hard because my boss asked me what was up, so I told him and he was like, "I can cover the office when Megan is gone, this will work out, do you have enough money? Here's $100.00." I immediately texted Jack to see if I could get him to come and get me the next day when we rolled into boise around 6 in the evening. Then Bret calls and says "we want to leave tonight" So I ended up working extra so I could finish somethings that I would be missing the next day. And we took off at about 9 and got to boise early in the morning.

I am not quite sure what I was expecting, it was kinda thrilling to think that Jack would want to do something with me while I was there. However, when I called him to tell him I was going to be there earlier, he instantly started to make tentative plans with me for every night I was going to be there.


The real fairy tale:

On Thursday night he came to my house to pick me up, I was supposed to have picked a place to go, but of course I didn't, I was too busy trying to change my clothes and do my hair in the car to think about that. So luckily my dad came to the rescue and suggested the fair, and then to test drive new cars. So we left for the fair, and had a great time. He explained somethings about team roping that I didn't know about, and we had the best hand dipped corn dogs. (or cattails as in accordance with the meeting in the shade) We then went and got ice cream at walmart, came back to my house - ate the ice cream- and sat outside looking at the stars and talking until 3:30 in the morning. It was beautiful, there were so many shooting stars and it was so clear outside, and you could hear the sounds of the country that I didn't realize I missed so much until I was laying there.

On Friday the singles ward had a temple trip so Jack picked me up and we went together. I had a good time, I didn't really know how to act while we were there because, well small towns talk, and if nothing happened, I didn't want Jack to be stuck not getting a date because I made it seem like we were dating. After the temple we drove to weiser and I met his mom, I have met his dad before so that was fun. then we sat outside again and just talked for a while. at one point it looked like there was lightning in the distance, but there were hardly any clouds. we were out until around 2:30. when we got to my grandparents house, my grandpa had just gotten up to go use the bathroom. so he ran into us coming in. I thought it was really funny, here it is late at night, and I don't think I have seen my grandpa that delighted to see somebody. I am referring to Jack because Jack is his favorite person. Obviously, my grandpa has been trying to encourage me to ask out jack for at least 6 months if not longer. The night was so pleasant, it was as though I go outside and sit with Jack every day. Jack has the cutest dog, it's really big, but he is so big he looks like he has to toddle over to you.

The next morning we got up and rode horses up in the hills behind Weiser and watched the sunrise. It was so cool, I don't think I have ever watched a sunrise. I got to ride buck, who was such a beautiful horse. Jack's mom described him as the real version of the Disney cartoon spirit. It made my day. We then loaded up the horses, took them home and helped make breakfast at his house, which was so good. I told Jared about a month ago that I was into breakfast again, still haven't done it yet Jared, but this huge breakfast just reaffirmed that I am still into breakfast. For goodness sake, we even had hot chocolate with whipped cream. Jack's youngest sister Grace made sure that I had it right, because you can't have whipped cream if you don't make the sound effect as you spray it. I think I agree, it was the best hot chocolate I have had to date.

After breakfast, we decided that we were tired and went out under some trees with a couple of sleeping bags along the bottom of the truck bed. We rolled both the bags out, talked for a while and fell asleep talking. We must have been so tired because we were both out for a while. When we woke up we watched the biggest (and most disgusting fish) I have ever seen jump out of the river. It was white and HUGE. That's how we noticed it, because it was making such big splashes.

We then decided to go change some siphon tubes since we were in the area for it. However, we didn't have any boots or anything so we had to do it barefooted. Now, I claim to be from the country, and it's true, I live out with the farmers, and I have swathed hay and moved pipe, but I have never done tubes. I don't really know anyone that uses them. At least not the people I hung out with in highschool. So Jack starts to show me how to set them. Now for those of you that don't know what a siphon tube is, I have tried to create a diogram for you. The pipes use presure to naturally suck water from the ditch to the feild. We learned about it in physical science. I remember this because there was a test question with a picture and it was confusing. Anyway, naturally Jack tells me that the easiest way to get the water up is to put your hand over the tube making a kind of straw for yourself so you don't have to put your mouth on it. you then suck as hard as you can and put the pipe down before you suck up the water. It was really hard and I had him show me several times before I tried so I could get it. After a short period of time I turned around because I couldn't get it, by that time he was way behind me and yells "just suck harder" so I did. and I got a face full of river water. it went in my mouth, up and out my nose and eyes. I am sure it was the funniest thing, and had it been on film, it would become the next big thing to watch on you tube. Of course, that is NOT how you get the water through the tube, you use the palm of your hand and create a suction that way. I got him back by slipping and falling and punching him in the face. All totally an accident. We then went back to get cleaned up and had dinner with his family. They left and we cleaned the kitchen up a little and then went to see batman. He hadn't ever seen it so it was fun for me as it was my third time. He then took me home and once again we talked for a while outside, and again he got home really late.

On sunday after church he came over and ate a whatever's left in the fridge dinner, arm wrestled me (of which only proved that I am the biggest weakling there is) and then he doctored my foot and got a sliver out of it from the day before using his pocket knife. He cleaned me all up. Jack is doing his pre-med stuff right now, so it was kinda weird because he was like my own little personal doctor. He even talked to me in a calm voice and just kept going until it was all taken care of no matter how much I squirmed.
He then took me to boise to meet up with bret and carrie. After he drove off both of bret's parents told me how atractive they thought he was, and that they approved. It wasn't until I finished telling the car about my weekend that it hit me that I missed him already. Becca, you had good reason to fear sending my things up, because if I had a choice right now, I wouldn't be here for sure. For those of you that like it, I will be providing both rootbeer and oatmeal and more details.

$137.00, Boise, Stars, one hundred dollar bill and 2 days of missed work

The funny thing about this picture is I found it thinking I was going to find something clever about making rash decisions, and then this came up. Let's interpret for my situation, and then let's open the picture up for discussion.

I just made a rash decision. I couldn't be happier about it. I am very happy with my life, living in provo, around people. The phrase I used with Becca was "citified."

Well my new decision that will effect my weekend directly is to go back to my roots, wranglers, and ropes, animals and crickets at night. Cowboys and pure outdoor entertainment.

Basically what happened is, I woke up this morning, called Jack Jack, and now I am going home until sunday, for no reason. I kind feel like this picture, like I am disappearing for a few days, and the rest of the world is going to be put on hold until I am ready to resume.

Rafting

This weekend Council Bluffs, Cannon and I went on a rafting trip in Riggins, Idaho. At the last min, Emily couldn't go, so we brought Mandy Trejo in our ward with us. We had so much fun! The trip was with my dad's singles ward, so there were about 145 people that went, so several boats were on the river at once. The above picture is my favorite of all of them. I dropped off our disposible camera earlier today, so I am excited to see those pictures. These are my favoirtes of the 30 pictures that the lady on the river bank was taking. I will make them all available for viewing when I get the other picture CD back from walmart tonight. Like most of my pictures, they will be located on the sidebar with a link. With the four of us was my dad in the red hat on the right, the stake pres. daughter Jaunee in front of him. Jeremy our guide is in the very back. To the left of him is my sister Heidi and then the girl in front of her is Mackenzie. I would like you to pay attention to everyone's individual face and body position. I have a ho-ho for the person that can give the funniest caption to any of these pictures, for any one individual person.

After the river, went to my cabin and went watersliding. we have several pictures and videos of that too, but since I am at work, those will have to be added at a later date.