Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Adventure Monday

So my roommate Heather has had either Adventure Thursdays or Wednesdays for the last few summers. Last night, however, was most definitely an Adventure Monday. After FHE, a bunch of us got on scooters and painted Provo Red! Ok, so we really just rode around campus, but it's basically the same thing! After doing that, and then eating popsicles, we got some car chalk, and wrote on some car windows. Actually, my friend Jonathan was the one that wrote on car windows while the rest of us watched. While we were doing that, we found a sled and decided to go to Kiwanis park and go "wakeboarding" while the sled was being pulled by a scooter. As the others in the group were doing that, Jonathan and I drove on the grass that was conveniently being watered. As we swerved to miss one of the sprinklers, we hit a puddle and consequently crashed. We are both fine, as is the scooter, but we got some sweet pictures!

So these pictures are not very flattering of me, but you can get the idea of our crash at least!

Here's Jonathan's dirty behind, which is where he fell.

And here is both of us with our dirtier sides towards the camera

Can't you just see the concern on our faces for the scooter named Peanut?!
I love our faces in this picture!
And there's grass stuck in the scooter, if you can't see that closely.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Demolition Derby

I went to my first even demolition derby on Saturday night. I didn't even know that Utah had stuff like that! I honestly never would've pegged myself to go to one of those, but I actually really enjoyed it. It was super loud and I got sprayed with dirt (we were in the 4th row), but it was awesome! It was so cool to see these cars that were completely gutted just crash into each other. The whole point, which I was unaware of earlier, is to be the last car running or the last car to make a hit if there's only a few left. Basically, it was a big version of bumper cars, which I LOVE!

Some of the highlights were:
  • There were 3 rounds of finals, the normal round, the love bug round, and the truck round. I picked the winners of the love bug and truck round, which were a little pink car and a 15 passenger van. My pick for the normal cars came in 3rd, which still isn't too shabby!
  • One of the little cars rolled - the driver was fine, but it was freakin sweet!
  • In the powder puff round, one of the girls had the back of her car on top of another one.
  • Two people had to be taken out by ambulances and one had to be cut out with the jaws of life - kinda scary, but definitely something that I've never seen in real life before.
  • There was a fireworks show at the end! I love fireworks, and so that made 3 shows that I've seen in the last few weeks. Yay for Utah and their abundance of fireworks!

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Dating: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

So my roommates and I are typical girls and talk about dating and boys a decent amount. Ok let's be honest, we talk about boys a lot. Here are some of the conclusions that I've come to during some of our recent discussions:

  • Dating in Provo stinks. Ok, that's really kinda harsh, and granted, I don't have a whole lot of experience anywhere else, but still, it's not funnest thing. Let me explain why I think so. It seems that either people go on a lot of dates, or none at all. The older I get, the worse it seems. I don't know what it is, but many people think that going on ONE date means that they are going to be with that person for eternity. This is not the case. After a few dates, then you can start thinking about forever..... :) I'm totally just kidding. But seriously, going on a few dates doesn't mean much of anything, except that you can get to know someone better and see if you want to continue getting to know them better. If not, then that's fine. It happens to everyone. One of my good guy friends says, "I hate spending money on other people's wives!" I completely disagree, because you need to do that to see if something could work out.
  • The unknown is sometimes the best. So I always want to know what's going on and what's happening, but I was talking to one of my roommates and she doesn't quite agree. She was saying how sometimes the part of the relationship when you're not sure what exactly is going on is the most fun. It's frustrating and confusing and wonderful all at the same time. It makes you really excited to see the person and just wonder what they're thinking. The beginning is always exciting and it's just great to have someone to smile about and look good for.
  • Even the best of people can make stupid mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. I make plenty of my own mistakes. It just seems that sometimes people don't quite think about what they're doing and the consequences of those actions. I definitely have made plenty of those types of mistakes over the last few years and I still feel bad about those decisions. These mistakes don't make them bad people or anything like that, they just make me want to shake them and shout, "What the heck were you thinking?!" I'm not saying that choosing someone else is a mistake. It's not. We all are looking for something special, and there's a better chance of finding that with some people than with others. I am saying however, that some of the choices that you make in finding that person can be a mistake.
  • Even though it may hurt right now, going for what you want in dating and relationships is definitely a good thing in the long run. I was hurt a few years ago and have had a lot of trouble jumping since then. It's not that I didn't have chances, but I was just too scared to get hurt again, because I didn't know if I could handle it. I decided earlier this summer to just go for it. I didn't know how it would turn out, and in the end things just didn't work out. Am I glad that I jumped? Absolutely. Does it still hurt? Most definitely. Would I change anything that I did? Not on your life. I'm glad that I went for it, even if it's just to know that I can.
  • In the end, everything works out like it should. This one is hard for me and I have to constantly remind myself of it. I am a fairly impatient person. While I am working on improving this every day, I still don't like to wait for things. I like to have answers now and sometimes that is not the best thing. I want to know why things are the way that they are. I just want to know! I want things in my life to work out how I want them to work out, and that would not be the best thing for me or for anyone else. After going through all the heartache of dating different people, there will come a time when someone will come into my life who will love me and understand me and with whom I will want to spend the rest of my life. Until that time, I'm learning patience and trying to love life as best I can (and I really do love life a lot!)

Now for my little disclaimer -

Overall, dating really is fun and I absolutely love it. I love getting to know different types of people and having awkward stories (I have a TON of those). Sometimes it's hard, especially when you get hurt, but there's always something to learn and grow from. I was talking to a friend a bit ago and he gave me some really good advice. He said to never look at the negative parts of the relationship, because that's all the relationship will be to you. He told me to remember the good things about the person and the relationship, and look for that in the next person. I think that those are great words of wisdom and I'm trying to do that.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Harry Potter

For those of you that don't know me, I absolutely LOVE Harry Potter. When I was growing up, the books always seemed to come out while I was at youth conference, but oh well. The 6th movie came out this week and some friends and I went to the midnight showing! My roommate Heather and I have gone to a few midnight showings each summer for the last few years, and this was our first one this year. Better late than never, right? It was a great time. There were about 6 of us that went. The movie was so good! It was very comical, which I wasn't expecting, but thoroughly enjoyed. I was a little saddened by some things that they did not include from the book, but overall, I think it was AMAZING! The cinematography was top notch. I don't know quite what else to say, but it was great, and I'm glad that I could go and stay awake during it (I have a hard time not falling asleep by around 12).

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Battle Creek

So I made it back safe and sound to Utah from Hershey. It was a great trip and it was fun to see my whole family!




This is my family with just the siblings. From left to right it's: Sharon, Tricia, Matt, Jon, Mark, Dave, Steve, Karin.







This weekened I went camping with my friend Trent and some of his friends. It was a small group, but was really fun. We hiked for a little over an hour up a canyon and then slept in a field. On the way up there was this beautiful waterfall! It was a lot bigger and cooler than I was thinking it would be.


So in order to get a group shot in front of the waterfall, we had to put my camera on a rock. It was kind of interesting to set up, but hey, it worked.







This is the view from a field about 5-10 minutes away from where we slept. That is Pleasant Grove and Utah lake in the distance. Look at how high we got!



Overall, It was a great night. We had tinfoil dinners with elk meat (my first time!) and then slept under the stars, or more correctly, the clouds. At least it didn't rain on us, right?

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Welcome Home

So I'm at home this week! Yay! I'm sitting on the couch with my sister and sister-in-law and since they both had a blog, I decided to start one. So welcome and let's see if I keep this going.