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?

Top Five Reasons You Should All Be Jealous of Me

1) I am in 80 degree weather when you are freezing your little butts off
2) Ecuador has amazing fresh fruit! I am loving the mangos especially
3) this keyboard has funny little symbols... instead of AT sign I have this " and a colon is this ¨¨
4) I ate avocados today.
5) I am working in the baby orphanage tomorrow and I learned to make clothe diapers tonight!
love ya all!

Christmas Traditions

Although every year the details are different, my family pretty much sticks to tradition when it comes to the holidays. As a youngster, I remember always being preoccupied about what I was going to get for Christmas. But as time passes, its the memories and time with my family that I really remember, not the gifts I got. There are usually some pretty funny stories and adventures as we go and this year was no exception.

Dec 24: Christmas Eve is always spent with my dad's side at our family cabin in Island Park. My dad has a huge family-most usually come for Christmas so we have a really full house at the cabin. Thats what I love about it though, there is always a big fire going, games to play, movies to watch, and tons of food to eat. We spend the day snowmobiling around the cabin area.

This year, my cousin Sarah and I spent most of the day together. We have found common ground in that we have both hit the age of 20 and are unmarried (a big shocker for our family). Sarah is hysterical and really adventurous (watch out everyone, she is coming to BYU next semester!) Sarah and I decided to take a little trip on the snowmachine and I was kind enough to let her drive. That turned out to be a mistake. She hit the gas full throttle before I had hardly situated myself and we were off. I was clinging on for dear life. The whole time I was thinking of the headline that would appear in the paper the next day when someone finally found our bodies..."Death By Snowmobile!" or something of the like. No, really I returned safe and sound except for the huge goose egg that I have on my forehead from when we came to an un-known pit and caught some major air, subsequently causing me to land on top of Sarah and jam my helmet into my head when we returned to the ground again.

After the cabin, we head to my grandma's house were we have the traditional nativity scene with the kids all dressed up in elaborate costumes followed by the "state of the family address" by my grandfather. He is quite the rambler and his speeches can be quite lengthy, but this year we got off early with just a 20-30 min talk. Everyone then moves downstairs to open our presents. Ever since I can remember, they have always been arranged in a snake around the room with the youngest opening their presents first, all the way up to the oldest.

Dec 25: We spend the day at my Grandma's on my mom's side of the family. Even though she is currently on a mission, we still use her house as a gathering spot. We typically start with a HUGE meal that is easily consumed in 10 minutes. Everyone's favorite part of the meal is that we absolutely have to have candy canes in our diet 7up. Although everyone really hates it, we do it anyway just to keep the tradition alive. For presents, my uncle acts as Santa and some of the littler kids are his elves, delivering all the gifts under the tree.

This year we were in for a real surprise. My grandma had shipped all of our gifts from Nauvoo and they all arrived looking like they had been run over by an 18-wheeler. However, they all had written on them "Homemade by Grandma with love". The anticipation was killing us of what they could possibly be. My grandma is not crafty, nor is she domestic in any way. So as everyone opened their gifts from Grandma, we discovered that they were hand-knitted scarves and hats. No one can figure out how she made them, but she did... The funniest part was that they were all completely un-matching, really quite ugly combinations. Everyone was laughing so hard by the time we were done opening them, a few people were even crying. My brother, aunt, and I were quickly voted to have received the ugliest of the scarves. Mine looks like it was a piece of carpet from the 70's. Its blue and my hat is yellow and green. Go figure! My brother's scarve changes color in the middle. It goes from a brown kind of scheme to a purple scheme. We figured that they must have run out of yarn and not known the difference. Pretty funny. My aunt insists that her neon blue scarve coupled with a gray and black hat is the worst. Its a toss-up. The gifts were definitely made with love though, and thats what counts!

I love the holidays!

You Know You're Back in Idaho When...

* The big news on the front page of the paper reads, "Salmon Residents Fed Up With Deer in City"
*There are three obituaries in the paper instead of three pages (which is unfortunate for me, since I like to read them)
*Choices for the day's activities include hookey-bobbing and/or spinning cookies
*A radio contest asks for caller number 5 instead of caller number 93 or 107 or 200
*A visit to the mall to finish (or start in my case) your Christmas shopping that is supposed to last one hour lasts three because you see so many people you know that you have to stop and talk to
*Drivers are still going 10 mph over the speed limit even though the roads are snowy, icy, and wet
*The only person you can find to hang out with is your brother
*There is a store in the mall dedicated to John Deere and multiple cowboy apparel stores
*You see liscense plates with numbers such as 3 (that's my grandma's-really) or 77 (saw that one today) instead of the long letter-number combos.

That's all I could think of/noticed today...I'm sure more will come to me later...

The Countdown Begins

I have finished all my classes and actually wish I could take some finals today. I started cleaning out my room and de-junking my stuff in the apartment. I went to the post office and had my address forwarded to home. I talked to my cell phone provider and put my plan on a three month hiatus. I gave away a truckload of clothes to the DI. I think this means I am really leaving.

As excited as I am to go to Ecuador, I have actually been putting off doing all these little things because as soon as I start, my departure is reality.

Ecuador... here I come in 21 days!

Frankenstein vs. The Horse

Within a matter of 15 seconds tonight I was told that I look like Frankenstine and then a horse. I can't decide which is worse.