Can I have your attention please?

Dear Gabe, Russ, Bryant, Ronnie, Jason, Aaron, Loyd, and anyone else under the sound of my voice that has previously called us "the freshmen."
Marissa officially stated, on the record, today that we are no longer the "freshmen" because we are making the move to VP. And we all know that whatever Marissa says, GOES!
Any questions may be addressed to the boss herself.
Thank you for your time.

Making the Big Jump!

Well ladies and gentlemen, fellow fans, avid readers, all...
Times have changed in the past two years, so much that it has come time for the "freshmen" of BA3 to make the move across the street to be VPers. Now as much as Marissa continues to tell me that we don't belong over there, I do feel it is time for a change. But that doesn't mean that we aren't going to miss our humble abode over here. I think its time to do a shout-out to good old Banbridge #3 and the good times we have had here.

Of the original four rommates, only Camille and I are holding out. Kasie and Kaylin are both married (rest their souls). But we can give credit to our location for Kasie's marriage (her hubby was in the ward and in our FHE group...lovely, lovely). And we ourselves can take credit for Banger and Kaylin's wedded bliss.

That year, our true freshman year, we met a lot of the people that we are still friends with. We were introduced to the "pit" in VP 11, the amazing parties that JRP's were, and became addicts to Dare Yahtzee. This delightful little game even led me to give all day foot massages and to Kasie and I sleeping in her car, Stitch. Our roommate bonding was done over the classic Indian movie, "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai" complete with dining room table dance moves. Ahh...good times. We were welcomed into the ward with an attack on the apartment by the VP 17ers (I think Russ headed it up). They put TONS of shredded up tests all over EVERYWHERE. We still find those little things to this day, I swear it. And they broke our vacuum.

That summer was celebrated by the famous trip to Atlanta. We all remember that like it was yesterday, so we won't delve much further. We also spent a lot of time that summer watching movies on the GK, which has also been central in the plot of our college lives.

Our sophomore year brought Stefani and Christina, who fit in remarkably well with Camille and I. We made that year fun with countless bonfires, trips to Mona, and all nighters up to the Spanish Fork hot pots. We hit every BYU homegame as roommates, spent numerous nights at Denny's at four am, and did an occasional Cardio Salsa tape together when we felt outta shape. Steffy and I developed our own after-game body slam that served us well as we played flag football on the ward team and Christina and I made some pretty hot music videos (blackmail, seriously). Best of all, we mastered the art of doorbell ditching all of AG and VP all at once without anyone ever suspecting a thing! Now, thats skill.

Billsey joined the crew while I was in Ecuador. Now we have all spent the summer apart. Everyone has been out on amazing summer adventures while I have been strugging through summer school (yuck). Camille is teaching water-skiing at a youth camp in Michigan, Kylee is a white-water rafting guide in Riggins, Idaho. Stef is at home in Rockford, and Christina is preparing for her upcoming wedding!! I can't wait to reunite with everyone. It's been pretty weird to live alone, although good in some ways. I know if the dishes are not done, its my fault. I know if the ice trays are not filled, thats also my fault. But, I think its time for some more roomie bonding soon. Although we will no longer be inhabiting "our" apartment, I'm sure we still have some adventures coming. So...BA3....I salute you for all the good times! (Can I salute an apartment????)

Gabe Appreciation Week

While I am not the creator of "Apprecation Weeks" and I have no authority to overthrow Ronnie as the chairman, I am going to do it anyway because I feel like our dearly departed friend Gabe deserves an appreciation week. We all know that Gabe has left us to pursue a career in far off New York City and while we are definitely proud him, he will surely be missed. So I propose that everyone in blog-land throw out their appreciations for him as he settles into his new life.

Here are my personal top ten reasons why Gabe rocks:
10) Gabe is a slurpee eating machine. He can always be relied upon when a slurpee run is needed.
9) Gabe doesn't care when I sit on his chairs on the GK and act like they are mine.
8) Gabe is always down for a good game of hearts. Even though I shoot the moon more than he does, he is still a champ.
7) Gabe fixes my computer every time it is messed up (which is often) without ever complaining. *who is going to do that now??? volunteers would be appreciated*
6) Gabe shares his Italian Ices.
5) Who can forget Gabe's incredible piano playing skills in Atlanta? Never have I been more shocked at his hidden talents.
4) Gabe offered to let me ride on his scooter (and even drive it).
3) Gabe is always up for an adventure and is always in the middle of the greatest parties.
2) Gabe looks like "Where's Waldo" and sometimes even acts like him.
1) Gabe is a reliable, loyal friend who can always be counted on. I'm going to miss you Gabe!

Stress levels

I think I sometimes unnecessarily stress myself out. My long lost roomie Camille got me addicted to what we called "planning our lives." This would consist of taking time every Sunday afternoon to sit down and schedule the upcoming week down to the hour of the activities and homework that we would pursue. Well I decided today that it was a good idea to not only plan this week, but to plan the rest of my life.

It turns out I got into my major this week, so I set out to determine exactly the course I need to get to that magic graduation date as speedily as possible. Someone needs to tell me not to do these things! So pretty much if I want to graduate on time I have to take 16 or 17 credits each semester all the way through. I can do that, right? But then I get thinking about how much time I am going to have to spend studying, on top of balancing work and social life (what social life?). And not to mention how much its going to cost. It gets a little overwhelming.

Life is for having fun right? It is for just going with the flow, letting things happen as they come, RIGHT, RIGHT??? So there is no need for me to worry about graduating when it is still 2 school years away! RIGHT?!?!?! Why am I so ridiculous?

McCann's the MAN!

So remember my obsession with Brian McCann? Well I went to two Braves games in San Diego this weekend. The two games I saw were incredible, the first a 15-12 win in 11 innings and the second an 11-3 route. I couldn't have been happier... except of course with the relief pitching. Anyway, I got THIS CLOSE to Brian McCann and I didn't even have anything for him to sign. I was too flabbergasted to even shout my undying love. Darn it. I learned a few things about him though, Including:
* He is actually very friendly. He is one of few Braves that stopped to sign autographs and even continued doing it when the kids asked even though he told them he was going to get into trouble for missing his batting turn.
* He has one heck of a good booty. He did some booty dances in between throwing mock pitches with his teammate and buddy, Jeff Francoeur. I of course, loved it.
* He is as awesome a player in real life as he is on TV. He hit a home run, just for me. It didn't quite make it to me though, despite his best efforts. A kid below me got it...
* He likes to stretch.
* He looks good behind home plate.
* He can't run very fast, but we love him anyway. He is a bit chubby afterall.


Isn't he just the greatest? The rest of the team is not that bad either.

They actually hit 8 homeruns between the two games that I saw. A Padres fan in front of us was telling us that Petco Park, where they play, is known for being unfriendly towards homeruns. And by that I mean, not many homeruns are hit there! So that was pretty cool.

A few records were even set while I was there. Andruw Jones hit such a long one that it was the furthest home run hit in that park. Chipper Jones extended his hitting game of extra base hits to 13...today he actually extended to 14, which ties the major league record set in 1927. So hopefully he will beat that next game.

Nobody probably cares about that stuff, but I guess the moral of the story is that I love those Braves.

Traditional roles and the dumb old Braves

I think it's pretty sad when I would rather spend my Saturday night sitting at home watching the Braves lose than doing anything else. I told everyone that I talked to that I wasn't leaving my apartment until the Braves game was over even though they were down 6-3. Then, when they ended up losing the game, I was so upset I didn't want to go anywhere after that either.
While I was watching the game, Gabe came over and was watching with me. I was educating him on baseball, the rules of the game, the players, ect. He commented that traditionally women tend to get upset over men's constant wanting to watch sports.

Clearly this is not the case with me. I would go so far to say that I am as big of a fan of the Braves as ANYONE and that I know just as much about baseball itself and specifically Atlanta to rival any guy. I am not in the least bit ashamed of it, but I do think that I have gone a little bit crazy lately. As we all know, and people can rub this in my face, the Braves are not doing so hot this year. This is a source of great pain for me. I get so riled up during the games that I have to stop and tell myself that nothing is going to be accomplished by my yelling at the TV and at the players. Ridic. They can't hear me, nor do they probably care. BUT DANG IT....WHY CAN'T THEY JUST WIN!?

I don't care who you are though, there is something so hot about a sweaty baseball player! Oh, so hot...! My current favorite is the catcher, Brian McCann (who SHOULD be headed for the All-Star game). Dang, that boy is great. Take a look...

Well, I think so. Stefani was watching a game with me a few weeks ago and upon seeing him for the FIRST time ever, she made the following comment: "Wow! He has gained some weight!" That has nothing to do with anything, but I just about died laughing because of it. I am going to two games in a few weeks with my dad and brother as a last little vacation before my brother heads off on his mission. I would die happy if I could meet Brian McCann, or anyone for that matter. I will do whatever it takes.

Wish me luck.

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just wanted to say that I have never been so excited in my life because I just bought a ticket to go back to ECUADOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have only been away for 2 and a half months, but I couldn't stand it any longer. Kylee is going to go with me and we will be gone from Aug 22- Sep 3. I get to see my baby again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The excitement is killing me. I was jumping on the bed earlier.

Memorial Day Mayhem

I saw the funniest thing this weekend. It should not have been as funny as it was, considering the circumstances, but it was.
I went home for the weekend for the holiday and continuing with family tradition (I would abbrev. that if I knew how to spell it...), we visited three cemetaries to place flowers on every long-lost relative's grave that we could think of. I was driving my grandma's car with my grandma, cousin, and her boyfriend in tow. We were manuevering our way down one of the skinny little dirt roads that they have in cemetaries, I know you know what I am talking about. Anyway, there was a little old lady driving towards us and all the sudden, right before our very eyes, she veered off the path and slammed into a grave! The headstone literally flew through the air before landing a few feet away upside down. The poor little old lady jumped out and stood there looking shocked. We couldn't believe what we just saw. After a few seconds of silence though, we couldn't contain our laughter. It's not every day that you see something like that. Not to worry, we helped the lady out and put the headstone back where it belonged. But it was funny while it lasted.

a bunch of randomness

I have three things to say:

1) Gabe gave me the rights to his blog! Yay! I am currently open to suggestions as to what Gabe should be blogging about.

2) Jason said something funny the other day. It went like this: "Whoa. The freshmen are soon going to be juniors!" (Weird how that happens huh...). I'm not even going to argue the point anymore.

3) RONNIE IS COMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thats all I have today! life is pretty boring, although I must admit its a whole lot better here in Provo than it was at home.

Sometimes the Truth Hurts

One time when I was about 15 years old, I happened to be up visiting my grandparents in Rexburg. I was with my cousin Anneka and my best friend Haylee. Now, you have to know my grandpa in order to fully understand this story, but this is just a classic example of his personality. He was laying on the couch muttering about how we had better get over there and say goodbye to him before he dies (he has been saying this for ten years and he's still alive, no need to worry). So we walked on over to "Uncle Ed", as he is called, because in his own words, he is "too young to be a grandfather." As we approached, he noticed Haylee, who he had never met before. With extreme excitement, he sat up and asked, "Who is your friend? She is BEAUTIFUL!! She should be a model!!" Then, turning to Anneka and I, he said, "And what happened to you two? You are going to have to hope that some man will fall in love with your brains!"

I have always remembered his advice and worked hard in school to salvage any hope that I have for some man to fall in love with my brains. Turns out my efforts were in vain. This week, I was up visiting my grandparents again and I mistakingly said, "that's cool" in response to some story. My grandpa was quick to reply, "COOL??? The use of such a word is only a mark of a very unintelligent mind!"

Turns out all hope is lost for me.

Dear Abby

I am on the verge of writing my trusted favorite columnist. It would go something like this:

Dear Abby,
I have no friends. I am so bored. Please help.
Sincerely, bored in the boonies of Rigby

Thats about it. Maybe I'll try to call Delilah too while I am at it. They always know what to say.
Now I know how Ronnie feels.

On being home...

I'm home now. And by "home" I mean good old P-town. I have not even seen the fam yet, but I am on American (ahem...North American, sorry) soil now so I guess that counts. Honestly I have such mixed feelings about the whole situation. It seems like I spent the last few weeks counting down the days till when I was coming home, but then as soon as we landed in SLC I was bursting into tears. Naturally. I won't get too mushy descriptional of my feelings, but I guess just being here actually means the experience is over.

The first thing I noticed that was different in Houston when we landed there is that there were people driving on a highway with lanes and they seemed to be much more considerate than I am used to. I was also super excited to be able to flush TP in the airport. It caused much more excitement than it probably should have, but then again I was also a little off because of lack of sleep. Speaking of sleep, my sleeping habits are completely different than they used to be. I was awake for almost 24 hours yesterday and then went to bed late last night only to wake up at 4:44 am (my usual time for what my body is used to in Ecuador...) feeling as good as ever. You all know that is definitely not me. I will for sure miss the daily siesta though.

Kylee thinks I talk different. It's weird to drink water from the tap. I'm still a little weary about that. All the old friends to came visit yesterday. That was fun. I don't think they have changed too much.

I think I have changed more than anyone. Well I hope at least. I think I more independent than I was before. I don't care nearly as much what other people think. Serving people really puts things into perspective for me. My experience taught me to love like I have never loved before. Every baby that we worked with is so important to me and I miss them terribly. Spending every day with them for three months, watching them grow, and basically being their careproviders does not make for an easy transistion when you leave.

I can't remember what else I wanted to say. Oh well. Apparently its siesta time. I can still have that today.

Lessons from a Nun

The other night we had a fiesta in our house to celebrate ¨National Women´s Day¨ (apparently a huge holiday in Ecuador). We invited all the workers from SVP, including the nuns. The group before us had also had a party with the workers before we came and all they could ever talk about was how much Sor Catalina (the head nun) loves to dance and how funny it was to watch her. So of course, after all the food was consumed and all the games were played, we decided to turn our living room into a dance floor.

All I can say is that Sor Catalina sure didn´t disappoint. Here´s a little picture for your enjoyment as well. Oh yeah, I apoligize for my face in advance.

My Mom

My mom likes Rusty more than she likes Bryant.

My New Take on Fun

Just so you all know, I have been here seven weeks and it has been a long time since I blogged, so I figured its time. (What a random sentance). So every six weeks the groups rotate here, so last week we got a new group of girls and they have really livened things up around here. One girl in particular, named Stephanie, is probably the funniest girl I have ever met. For example, last night she decided that we were going to play card games. That sounded pretty good to all of us so we all readied ourselves in a circle for some intense playing. Aaaaaannnnd....she busted out ¨Go Fish¨ and ¨Old Maid¨. For serious, we spent hours playing these games that I have not played since I was a youngster. Great games, really. If you are bored, I recommend it.

Tonight´s game of choice was jumprope. Right in the middle of our bedroom floor (they don´t believe in carpet here) we had a jump-a-thon. Double Dutch, remember that? Super fun.

The best of all though, is that Ecuador has a sweet tradition that is called ¨Carnival¨ that lasts the entire month of February. What happens is random strangers dump water on other random strangers in the street and call it good. So we have seen a little of this action going on, but we have never as yet participated. So tonight my friend Danika had a brilliant idea that we should get the girls that we live with as they came home from a later shift. We live in the perfect house to do this, so we gathered water balloons, buckets, and such to chuck on them as they arrived home. Let me just describe this to you...we live in a hotel that is like multi leveled...well anyway, there is a roof that overlooks the road. In order to get into the house, we have to buzz and someone has to let us in. So as the girls buzzed, no one let them in, and we threw the bucket of water on them and then continued with water balloons. Soon it turned into a full on water fight with the entire Chicaiza family involved (the family we live with), our driver, some random passerbys...ect. I´m just not so sure the owner of the hotel or the people in there really appreciated us running across the roof a million times and using their hose that was up there to drench whoever was in sight. It was ridiculously fun though, and thats what counts, right?

It´s Official

I went to a real live tea party today!

We had plans to go to a soccer game tonight and everyone was super excited because, as you all know, soccer is huge in South America. In my preparation for the soccer night, I looked like a slob. I put on my Braves t-shirt that Ronnie so kindly gave me for Christmas and threw my hair up (oh wait, I do that every day...) before heading off to my afternoon shift. I had the hospital this afternoon with my baby and it ends one hour after everything else, so we were planning on having the van pick me up on the way to the game. I was prepared.

As I jumped into the van and greeted everyone, I was shocked to see that everyone had put makeup on and were wearing their nicest jeans. They all looked around nervously for who was going to break the news to me. Finally someone piped up that they Angel had ¨forgotten¨ to tell us that we were invited to tea tonight with some super rich ladies who are benefactors of one of our orphanages, so we were going there instead of to the game. Okay, fair enough.

Turns out that we did indeed have tea with the richest 5 ladies in Ecuador with a super nice mansion. I felt so out of place and extremely awkward because of my get-up. And who knew that when they said we were going to tea, they meant that we were really going to tea? I mean, who does that? This tea party was complete with a china set, crumpets, little sandwiches, and some really nasty tea that one of the ladies had kindly made from a tree in her kitchen. When the lady walked by with the teapot after our first round and asked who wanted more, we all sat there in awkward silence, so I took one for the team and volunteered to have a second cup. The entire thing was hysterical for all of us because we didn´t stop fighting over who had to drink whose tea and who had to finish off the sandwiches (the winner ate seven) and who had the most sugar in their tea (pretty sure I won that one).

Gonna cross that one off my to-do list. yay.

oh...ps...yes thats a sunburn.

My love has deepened...

....for Coke.
Since everyone seems to be bringing up food randomly, I thought I would mention to you all that I have an absolute sickening addiction to the coke that is found here in Ecuador. I´m pretty sure that we did not try this kind while we were at the coke factory. It kind of tastes like Tab, but I am not going to lie to you, I think it might be better than the coke in the US (Ok Ok, it IS better than the coke in the United States...) The greatest thing about it is that it comes in 3 liter bottles that we buy at the corner store for $1. My friend Eric is just as addicted as me, so we buy these bottles every few days and go through them like water. The first time I realized that I had had a liter and a half in one night, I was kind of frightened, but now I have come to terms with it. The funny thing is, we are started to convert people who claim they are ¨pepsi fans¨. The last time we went to the store, two people were like , ¨oh and uh...could you pick me up a 3 liter as well?¨
Coke is a universal way to unite people. That´s all there is to it.

Oprah

I suddenly have a new obsession...Oprah. A girl here brought the best of Oprah for the past 25 years and believe me, those 8 disks have provided more entertainment than anyone could have asked for. Every spare moment we have, someone pops in Oprah and pretty soon the majority of the 17 house members are glued in front of it. Who knew? I surely did not. I dare say I have never seen an entire episode of Oprah in my life before this. The disks belong to a girl that is leaving in 3 weeks, so then I have no idea what we will do for entertainment.

Whats more is that Oprah is a great person. She may be my new hero.

Fears

So the plugs here in Ecuador are especially challenging to get things to plug into. The other day I went to plug in my alarm clock after I had unplugged it to use the blow dryer and the outlet kept sparking.

This reminded me of a huge fear I had as a child. I was deathly afraid of fire. So much so, that I thought that I was going to burn the house down by plugging things into the wall and creating sparks. Therefore, I never touched an outlet for probably two years. I remember making my brother plug in the vaccuum for me. It was like a little game we´d play, I´d stand there and wait until he came along and then I would make him do it for me. It was like our little secret too, nobody else ever knew that it was him all that time plugging in the vacuum cleaner.

Good thing I have moved on now and I fear more rational things, such as speaking Spanish to natives, getting killed in a van/bus collision, and finding my true love here and becoming a señora in Ecuador without my family here to see it.

Baños

Every Friday we have the day off, so as a group we take field trips to sites of interest around Ecuador. This morning we woke up at 5:30 am to board a bus that would take us to the tourist town of Baños. After a three and half hour bus ride, all of us were more than ready to get moving with the day´s activities.

All but two of us had decided that we wanted to go waterfall repelling while we were there. I for one love adventure. I love things that are thrilling and cause a rush. I have been repelling before, but in a waterfall...now that´s something different. After squeezing into the tightest wetsuits humanly imagineable and getting a quick lesson in Spanglish about what we were to do, we set off in a rickety blue 15 passenger van. The scenery in Ecuador is absolutely beautiful by the way, and driving up a mountain towards the waterfalls gave us a great view.

The first waterfall was 40 feet and the second was 120! The first seemed like cake when we saw the second, it was pretty much a blind drop! It was really breathtaking and quite the thrill. I like to just jump right in, so I was the first to go on both drops. It was so awesome, definitely one of the funnest things I have done. On the first one, we also took time to slide down the side and jump off. Good times, oh how I love water! The jumping was not my most successful art though, It looked as If I were about to hit the rocks and die, but luckily I did not!

Oh and by the way, I have found my new love. His name is Paulo and he was one of our guides. I´m not usually one for the latinos but, ohh wow this guy was good lookin! Hmm...too bad we are not supposed to even be looking at boys and too bad also that I will never see him again. I only wish his name was Jose.

The bus ride home was almost as fun as the day because for the entire 3 and a half hours, we sang kareoke. Talk about stepping out of the comfort zone...but by the time we were done, we were having a full on dance in the aisle of the bus and everyone was going crazy. You all know that I can´t carry a tune to save my life, but I was up there going at it more than anyone! Haha! Oh man, the things that I do when I am tired. Anyway, it was a great day and that gives you something to read about my Ecuadorian adventure since day to day activities probably aren´t too interesting to ya´ll. Anyway, have a fantastic life EVERYONE!!!

Wishes DO come true

I´d just like to take this moment to thank Rusty for wishing a South American virus upon me. After only 7 days in the country, I have the beginnings of a parasite. I have been useless for three days and finally saw a doctor today. She gave me some shots and I have a million pills to take as well as lots and lots of pedialyte to drink. However, I should make a full recovery in another 3 days or so. But, the saddest part for me is that I don´t get to go to Guayaquil tomorrow to the temple. Oh well, we win some and we lose some, right?