11.11.11

I titled this post 11.11.11 even though I did nothing significant whatsoever on 11.11.11. At 11:11 PM on 11.11.11 I was killing zombies, but that story comes later.

This week has been great! Monday night for FHE our group played wallyball in the Hart. It's like volleyball, except you can use the walls (minus the back wall). We play them in the courts where they play racquetball, and it is a blast every time I play. Only six of us showed up to play, but we made it fun with just three on three. I had a couple sweet plays with my feet that I am rather proud of. Keaton would be delighted to know we even played "Smeagol style" for a few minutes. Really it was just a great time for all of us to act like goofy goobers and hit a ball at each other.

I'm one of the activities coordinators in our ward. My partner and I planned a ward skating activity for Tuesday night. It's too bad we made all the arrangements before we checked the weather, because Tuesday night was cold!!!! I showed up at 6:20 so catering had someone to meet when they showed up at 6:30...

Here's the thing; nobody showed up until 6:50! Including the skating rink employee! Hello people...I have a ward of almost 200 that will be here at 7, and you think we can set this all up in 10 minutes? Ooober frustrating. We quickly set up tables for the hot cocoa and doughnuts and pretty soon everyone arrived. We skated from 7 to 8:30 and it was so fun! Even though it was a whopping 27 degrees, we were able to have lots of fun playing tag and taking pictures.

Ultimate Frisbee practice...brrr

gotta look hot for YSA ward activity for sure ;)

The coordinators

nailed it!

I voted for mayor and city council and went to the doctor that day as well. I was the 333 voter! The doctor said my hand was going to take time to heal up, but that in the meantime I should stop using it. I told him that was unacceptable because there are two weeks left in the season. He told me, "Well good luck!" I'm happy to report that it is basically healed now, so no big deal. Oh, and when I was driving the company car that day, it got a flat tire. Of course when the temp drives the company car everything goes wrong. Turns out my boss knew it needed fixed but left it in the parking lot looking compatible for me to drive. I parked the car at a company on 2nd East and walked sheepishly back to our office to report the flat. People were nice about it, but I still felt like an idiot! Here's a picture of my hand at it's peak bruising stage:

There is a nature park in Rexburg  I like to go to often. I've been going there at least once a week either after work or during my lunch break to just walk around or read my scriptures or something. I've really been eating it up because pretty soon it will be all snowy and I won't want to go. Here are some pics:

A grandpa with his two grandkids feeding the ducks...precious!

Thursday was a big Frisbee day. I had practice, and since our season is almost over I took turns meeting with each girl and I basically gave them each their own personal motivational speech. They loved it! I love my team. We are all just a bunch of underdogs that are exceeding expectations! After practice I tossed with my Frisbee friend Brett at the I-Center for an hour. I had another rec dodgeball game and it was rough! We totally lost. I'm horrible at dodgeball. My throws have no mustard on them; they get caught every time!

When I got home, Bill, my roommate's volleyball coach (6'6" cute RM) texted me and asked me to get ice cream with him. I got cute super fast and we went to DQ. We had our dessert and then sat and talked there for almost an hour. We went to his apartment after that and played this board game. It's a zombie board game that is surprisingly fun! That was really fun to hang out with him. He is a very nice guy, and he's a lot of fun.

In other news, I totally got a straightener, and my hair is *fantastic these days. I LOVE it. Check it:

sometimes I like to take emo pictures of myself.

Friday night I had tickets to a mystery dinner put on by the university. I asked a friend I met from the summer break to go with me, and we had a lot of fun! He was the right kind of guy to ask because he was getting way into character. The setting was a 1950's theater and the characters at my table did such a good job. The inspector had a cool accent, and the two girls who played the actresses were acting like total snobs...it was great! I picked the right character for myself: Sandy, the girl who takes people's tickets and smiles at them. When the girls would say something snobby to me, all I knew to do was laugh and that fit my character description. Lucky!

The idea of a mystery dinner is someone is killed, and throughout the dinner we act like our characters and get letters with instructions to try to find out who the murderer is, so we question each other throughout the whole thing. It was a lot of fun, and the best part was dressing up. I bought lipstick and wore bright red nail polish and everything! My roommate helped me do my hair. it looks a bit like Princess Leah...but hey, we tried!

those heels make me 5'10" and make my legs look fan-freakin-tastic

That night I played the zombie board game again with Bill and his roommates. I came so close to winning! It is a really fun game because you think you have a plan, but everyone has cards that hurt other people. I thought I was about to win but then all these cards were played that killed me! It was a lot of fun.

Saturday we played the Spartans for our Frisbee game. It was windy as heck. By far it was the worst weather I've played in. It started out extremely windy, and then the hail started. We set a time cap (so we weren't stuck there for 2 hours like last time) and time ran out with the score 3-3 so we called a tie and went home. I had three assists and three knockdowns, so I'm glad I was still able to get work done in that blasted weather!

Laying out for a disc...if I would've caught this, we would've won! But it was too far ahead of me. It was almost a point into the wind which would've sealed the deal. No way was the other team scoring into the wind. Blarg

that's me in the middle, fighting for possession!

the weather 30 minutes after my game

sidewalk on campus, downhill from the upper fields where we play

I was able to go to the temple that afternoon, and it took a good two hours. It was nice to have chill time in the temple. I love the Holy Spirit I feel there every time I go.

Saturday night we had stake conference, and it was a really good meeting. I went by myself because none of my roommates were going, and it's not like I have many friends to go to conference with. Almost all my FHE brothers are engaged, and the ones that aren't were working and stuff, so I was semi put down about that. I mean...who wants to go to church meetings alone? Whatever...I went early so I could get a nice soft seat, and it paid off because one of my Frisbee friends Brett from the spring (6'2" cute RM...;)) was there. His roommates skipped out, so he was alone too! We sat by each other and it was a surprisingly good time. For one thing, the stuff they talked about was great. I took lots of notes. They talked about preparing ourselves for our meetings to set the tone inside ourselves to invite the spirit in, and then they really emphasized the importance of being worthy of and sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Ghost and how the Holy Ghost is a gift God has given us. For another thing, Brett was being way funny and he had me laughing almost the whole meeting!

He went to Broulim's with me after so I could buy a roast for Sunday dinner, and then he came over and we played a game of Settlers! While we waited for our third person to arrive, we played Pictionary with the two of us. He's a really good artist...I'm just horrible at guessing! You should've seen me try to guess "night light"...ridiculous. He also tromped us at Settlers. He prolonged the game to try to get as many points as possible because Chad and I were so far behind. I had six points at the end of the game, all settlements and victory points. Those games are miserable! But it was still a lot of fun...that doesn't make any sense. Whatever.

Sunday has been great. We had stake conference again and Brett sat by my roommate and I. Someone's phone kept going off seriously, like every three minutes. It was a substantial "beep beep beep beep" noise at regular intervals. Brett and Lauren were getting so annoyed at the noise, and I just wanted to know where the heck it was coming from! It sounded so close to us, so every time it went off we did our best to turn our heads with, "Seriously, if you're going to text, turn your stupid phone down" looks on our faces. An hour into the meeting, it went off and Brett whipped around to the guys sitting behind us and asked, "Is that your phone?" They both said no, and he turned back around to me and asked (for the 10th time), "Are you sure that's not your phone?" I told him I was sure and he sat there with this perplexed look on his face as he tried to figure out whose phone it was. Then...like a light bulb, he got this "Ah-ha!" look on his face and then said, "Wait...is it my phone?" He pulled his phone out and turned it off...and there was not another "beep beep beep beep" noise the rest of the meeting.

Maybe it was just really coincidental timing, but I teased him for the rest of the time about how it was very likely that it was his phone that was making him so mad the whole time, while he blatantly replied, "You can't prove anything." So funny.

My home teachers came by on Sunday. One of them has his own bee farm thing, and for a treat he let us try honey that his bees made. It was the best honey I've ever had!

Sunday night was a lot of fun at our apartment. I made roast for dinner, and we had seven boys over!  Seven boys and three girls? Yes I feel great about that. Lauren, Thea, and I were the girls and then I invited Chase and Conrad plus Brett, Bill, Travis, Eric, and Winston. We devoured my roast and enjoyed mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, and rolls. I made peach dessert, and then we played Pictionary! Brett and I were partners and we rocked the house! After that we watched How to Train Your Dragon and went to stadium singing.

So basically that was my week. This week is Frisbee playoffs, so I'm totally stoked! I'm very nervous to be driving now that the weather has turned icy. I'm not worried about my driving...I'm worried about the other idiot drivers. I've driven by at least three car accidents already. Oh my...well, that's all I have to say about my week. I'm hoping to get a bunch of Frisbee victories this weekend, as picture below.

All I do is win win win no matter what!

Need a Laugh?

Halloween in the Iceburg

Happy Halloween everybody! Our FHE group met Monday night to plan the next activities we'll be doing, and I made these cookies that were divine and I found them blog-worthy. =] My FHE brother Justin dressed up as a UPS man (Trisha--do you remember when we ate dinner with you and you asked him what his dream job would be and he said a UPS man?), but other than him there were no costumes! Halloween is so fun though; people get really creative with their costume ideas.

At work I sat and contemplated what I would be for the longest time! At first I thought I'd be a Frisbee player, but then I thought, "I'm already a Frisbee player-duh!" So I came up with several options, consisting of Katniss Everdeen (credit to Mitzi for the idea), Hermione Granger, mad scientist, Princess Leah, and finally settled for rock star. I ratted my hair into oblivion, put tons of makeup on, and I even painted my nails green! I wore skinny jeans, a ripped up t-shirt, converse shoes and waltzed around with a guitar hero guitar. I looked a bit like this:

We went to a dance party at Southgate at 8:30 with my friends. Later we got texts that the party tuned into a huge grind-fest with booze and drunkards! Lame...people seriously get a life. There was a guy dressed up as a kissing booth and he ended up kissing like 30 girls over the weekend.

From there we romped around Rexburg for a bit, including a lap around the stadium and a breeze through Walmart. They were giving out free candy there, so we sort of trick-or-treated! We came back to our house and watched a scary movie. There were guys dressed up as zombies outside our apartment who walked by and started banging on our door and scaring us! That was funny. =] Enjoy the pics from our adventure.

the Christmas section is up folks!

running a lap around the track in our costumes

This is a sucker, not a cigarette

Grace and Lauren dressed as tourists

The roommate

Tuesday I had a rec dodgeball game. Chase and I are on the same team. We play two 20 minute halves and play as many games as we can in that amount of time. We played 13 games total and won 10 of them. =] Go team Nuke!

Go Chase!

can't touch this

I got their best guy out once, but that was only because he fumbled my throw...oh well- I still got him!

Wednesday and Thursday at work it was my job to call the mayors and county commissioners in the south/central/east Idaho area to have them RSVP to a luncheon for next week the East Center is putting on. I ended up calling Dad which was funny.

Moving right along...Friday night my team played the Vikings. Last time we played them we lost 10 to 5 or something, but we learned a lot and I prepared my team with many motivational speeches about how they are so beatable. The wind was blowing  from the southwest, and it progressively blew harder as the game progressed.

By half time the score was 2-1 to the Vikings. One of their points wasn't even a real point, but they got it according to a stupid foul rule. That communicated to me that they were scared of us and I felt great about it. If we were just any old team, they would've let something stupid like that slide. But we're not any old team, and we were a threat to their undefeated record. The second half we lit it up defensively coming back with 3-3 score. With two minutes left they had the wind with them but our defense was the best I've seen yet and we held them off. A turnover happened mid-field, I picked up this disc and rushed it up the field. My girls picked up on it and we scored into the wind!!! The score was 4-3 with two minutes left!

Before we pulled to them (kicked off) I gave my team a serious pep talk. It went something like this: "We are winning this game right now! I want to see you girls go hard for two more minutes!!" We were able to hold them off! For them to tie they would've had to score into the wind as well, which they did not do! When time ran out I was euphoric!! We had just beat the undefeated team!!

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I could've cried I was so happy. The best part about it is their team is loaded with girls who have competitive experience. Really only three or four of my girls have experience. They had like, one new girl maybe. All others have played before and are excellent players. I am so proud that my team of newbies was able to take them down!! I've got six girls who had no competitive experience before this season. Right as we finished the snow began to set it. Looks like the next two weeks of Ultimate are going to be frigid! But I have my eyes on the championship.

I think I look like a cartoon in this picture

I love the way my earing and CTR ring are blingin' out in this pic

Of the four points we had, I had two assists, and I had a record ten knockdowns. I was lighting it up defensively because I couldn't do a lot offensively. They put their best defender on me, so our team used excellent teamwork to get this win.

There were a ton of injuries as well! One of my players almost got a concussion, one girl on the Vikings got hit in the mouth by the disc, another girl got hit in the face by my hand (oops!) and my hand currently looks like this:

blue fingers and knuckles

look how black all my knuckles are (these pics do this injury no justice)

nice comparison picture

cleated!

On one possession, they had the disc and they had the wind with them. They had a blitz up the field and my girls were not there to play defense. They had several girls headed down the field to help get it to the endzone, so I ran as hard as I could to the endzone and split the two girls there. The handler tossed a nice put to one of the girls in the endzone, and so help me, I was not going to let her catch it if it was the last thing I did! I ran the disc down with the other girl, and before she could get it I laid out and knocked it down. As I came down, I brought the girl with me, and we tumbled to the ground. I tucked my head into my right shoulder and brought my left hand up. Her cleat rammed into my hand, but it was either my hand or my face, so I'm very thankful! 

This happened with fifteen minutes left in the game, and honestly I didn't think a thing about my hand because the adrenaline of getting the disc AWAY from their endzone was my number one priority. On another injury timeout I happened to look down at my hand and I saw that it was seriously bulging. That was when it looked the sweetest, but I couldn't take pictures because my camera was lost. After we won it continued to swell, and it got HUGE! I have better pictures on my phone for how swollen it was. Everyone was asking if it was broken, but I can move all my fingers and clench my fist so I'm pretty sure if I had a broken anything I couldn't do that. And I am a big pansy about pain so I'm pretty sure if something was broken I'd be crying. I'm also typing this post so I'm confident that things are intact. The layout was totally worth it because we won, so I feel great about it. The swelling has gone way down, and I'm hoping it will be better by this weekend for our final regular season game. 

Saturday morning we woke up to this! Winter is here people! Not really...I'm confident there are still Indian summer days on the way. But this weekend has definitely been cold!

I went for a walk in the afternoon and went up to the temple. I got some pretty cool pictures of the sunshine as it came out for the first time in a few days.

I love America!

I want to get married here folks! That night I went to the Acrobats show. These crazy Asian people do these acts with their bodies that are insane! I have a ten minute video of a guy progressively stacking chairs up to the ceiling of the Hart auditorium, and then holding himself up with one hand, his body horizontal, with the chair on a tilt! It was insanely unreal. I had a short video to give you all a taste but it won't work. Fail.

That night our friend Bryson threw himself a birthday party that we went to. He is a super fun guy and he's also a really good guy, so we love him. I stayed for a bit and then played a game of Settlers. I only had three points by the end of the game, and you start out with two! It was a rough game for me and I was happy when it was over.

Today has been one of the best Sunday's I've ever had. It was fast Sunday, and I was able to have so many good insights. New goal; be full of gratitude! When I am full of gratitude, I am happy. In Sunday school we seriously had one of the best discussions about trials. We can't understand the hard times other people are going through, and we most certainly are in no position to judge them for how they handle the things that are apparent to us. We never know the things that are going on in other people's lives that are between them and the Lord. I met a girl who is going through her parent's divorce (her father is leaving their family for a Russian harlot, and he's served in many church callings previous to this disaster), her best friend doesn't want anything to do with her because her jealousy has poisoned their relationship, and she has an abusive boyfriend who's on a mission! He will write her the most inappropriate things and it breaks her heart! But she's in love and we all know how smart we all are about our situations when we're in love (AKA, not smart at all). She has school and all the stress that comes along with that on top of everything else. Let's be mindful that everyone has different experiences, and pray that we can all come out of our trials closer to our Heavenly Father with increased knowledge to benefit us in future endeavors.

We also had a fireside tonight by President Packer. What I love about him and Elder Holland is they both just say it how it is. They are specific and straightforward with their counsel. He talked about the atonement and repentance, and he encouraged us to repent. Throughout all of my meetings today I've written about five pages in my church journal. I fasted for help and guidance in my personal life, and I know the Lord really blessed me with some insights and tender mercies today. I love this gospel with all my heart. My neighbor criticizes my mom because he says we use the gospel as a "crutch."
But what he doesn't understand is the gospel is an integral part of who I am. It's the blood and guts, the muscles and the tendons! It is who I am. I know the gospel of Jesus Christ is the plan our Heavenly Father has provided for us because he loves us with all his heart, and he wants us to be happy! He knows that the only way for us to be truly happy is to follow this plan, even when sometimes we take steps to follow His plan and initially we feel pain. We must have faith that good news is on the way. Be patient. The Lord is on our side! I know the Lord is mindful of us in our trials. Jesus Christ knows exactly what we're going through. We must remember that the atonement is for us. It's not just for our neighbors! It is for YOU. Let the truth of the gospel change your life.

I love my family and I love my life. Sometimes life is hard, but my blessing far outweigh my struggles. I believe with all my heart that the Lord has wonderful things in store for those who are faithful. May we all be able to stand in front of our Savior and hear, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." ♥