Playing House

Yesterday was Sunday.The day before that was Saturday. I promise this isn't turning into a bad Rebbecca Black song, sometimes I just have to remind myself of the day, or I start thinking it's Wednesday when it's really Friday.

 

So, yesterday was probably my favorite day of the week: Sunday.

Church during the 7 week break is at 10:00 am, which is the PERFECT time in my mind. Spring semester we had it at 1:00 and it was....not ideal.

We all came to church, which we have in the Barrus Concert Hall in the Snow building on campus, and the lights were out. Only a couple of them were on, but for the most part we were sitting in the dark. We started sacrament meeting late because some people were trying to figure out the light situation.

We started in the dark, and after the sacrament was passed, one of the technician guys there figured out how to get the lights on. I was actually kind of bummed because it felt cozy, but the testimonies that were shared were great, nonetheless.

 

Gospel Doctrine and Relief Society were both really good this Sunday. In Relief Society, we talked about the Priesthood, and the duty of women to help men uphold their priesthood duties and how we can encourage them to use it.

We came up with a little list of ways that we, as women, can help the Priesthood holders to use their priesthood:

-Allow them to be gentlemen

-Allow them to "provide"

-Express your gratitude for them exercising their priesthood

-Respect their priesthood

-Treat men as men, and they will become men

 

After church, I headed home to make dinner for Matt! I decided that because he was going to be leaving for a few days to Moscow, Idaho for a conference it would be nice to make dinner for him so he had one less thing to worry about before he left. I had this dinner planned out since Thursday and I was really excited to get back into cooking. I've missed it, and let's be honest, I never really had any time or room to cook during the semester.

Being a poor college student, I was kind of dreading buying the fruit and other produce needed for this dinner, but I guess I went on the perfect day because I bought all THIS for only $22.

 

*Red potatoes, Olive Oil, Bananas, Lemons, Kiwi, Cucumbers, Romaine lettuce, raspberries, blackberries, peppers (not pictured), and carrots (not pictured).*

 

I made Pan-Roasted Chicken with Lemon-Garlic Green Beans and Potatoes. I was a little bit worried about the lemon-y-ness of the whole thing, and I was right, it was VERY lemony.



 

 I also made a green salad (A lot of it...I like salad): romaine, cucumbers, orange bell peppers, carrots, and celery.

 

And for dessert: FRUIT PIZZA! I was really excited about this one, but I accidentally cooked the "dough" a little too long so it didn't turn out the way it usually does, but it was still good.

*This is my own recipe. If you want it, don't be afraid to ask!*

 

 We ate outside in The Willow's courtyard because there wasn't a third person in my apartment (Honor Code), but it was a really nice evening, so it worked out.
Once we started eating, I automatically started making changes and improvements for the chicken dish for next time. I'm my greatest critic. Matt swore to me that it was really good. He agreed with me that the lemon was really strong, so that's something I'd change, but he ate it like a champ.
We ate, and talked, and laughed.
By the time we brought out the dessert, we were both so full, that we could only do a small amount of damage to the fruit pizza. We kind of sat there laughing at the enormity of it, but our friends Megan and Amanda came and ate it with us. We spent about two hours with Amanda and Megan talking before we went back to Matt's apartment.
Overall, dinner was good and fun, but I definitely have some recipe mending to do.
We had a nice evening: we ate, talked, wrote letters to missionaries, I helped him pack and "press" his clothes for his trip to Moscow.

Oh, they all awarded me "major wife points" for the dinner. I guess I'm wife material!
 Good to know!;)

Milkshake Friday!

Today is Friday, people. FRIDAY. I, however, thought it was Wednesday...I guess I just have a really bad case of Summer Brain.

 

Any who, I woke up today feeling kind of gross. Allergies have never bothered me until the last couple months or so. I woke up feeling like I didn't want to do much, but I got a text message from my sweet, sweet Baby Spice (LOWIN!) saying that one of our new roommates was in town and wanted to meet me! That got my sick self out of bed and dressed quickly! Coley, one of our new roommates came with her Dad and her sister to see the apartment, and wander around town. They offered to take me to lunch, so onto Pizza Pie Cafe we went.They are a super sweet bunch and I think Coley will LOVE our apartment. I felt like I was cheating on Lauren, Haley and Nahiomi because the four of us go there ALL of the time together. It was weird to be there without them, but good nonetheless. I miss those girls so incredibly much!

So I did a bunch of boring and stressful "grown-up" stuff today, and I was still feeling kind of sick, so I took a nap and woke up craving a milkshake. I drank some almond milk, because that's the closest I had to a milkshake. Yeah, that was a joke. I thought about all the places around here that have really good milkshakes, but all I was coming up with was McDonald's, and if you know me at all, you know I don't eat McDonald's, so other than that, my Summer Brain was drawing a blank. I texted Matt around 9:30pm and asked him if he knew of any good milkshake places.

 

Me: Know of any places around here that have really good milkshakes?

Matt: Sammy's and Shake Out, but I dunno any now... :) Um...can I ask why?

Me: Didn't even think of those! I just had a craving but I didn't realize how late it is.

Matt: Bums, we can make 'em if you want!

 

Of course, He would think of that! We went to Broulims, bought three different kinds of ice cream (Vanilla Bean, Beaver Tracks, and Strawberry), went back to his apartment and started experimenting.

 

 Being the nerds we are, we had to analyze each different  milkshake by taste, texture, and consistency. We also made a mess, in the process.

 

Realizing, we forgot to buy chocolate ice cream, we made an experimental Beaver Tracks milkshake with added cocoa powder, sugar (because we added too much cocoa powder), caramel and chocolate sauces, and it turned out to be... "interesting" was the word we used.

He was gracious enough and willing to take some pictures for my blog, after I told him about my daily blog entry, so here we are in all our milkshake glory:

This picture just shows how awkward of a human being I am.

 

haha, Just kidding guys. Here is our best picture. I use the term "best" lightly, because my phone's camera is...less than satisfactory.

I think our photographer was getting a bit annoyed with my phone, hence the blurriness. My apologies.

 

 

And so was born, Milkshake Friday.

 

:)

 

Enjoy my song of the day, while you're here! This is Ben Rector's song

 "Dance With Me, Baby." If you've never listened to Ben Rector, you should. And if you like HIS music, listen to Joshua Radin and Christ August. SOOO good!

 

Here ya go!

 

 

 Remember: Don't forget to Sm;)e
(See what I did there?)

 

Apparently, something was absolutely hilarious. Probably Matt pulling some sort of shenanigan.

 

 

Something About the Water.

Today at 4:26pm, Matt texted me this:

 

Matt: Monkey Rock?

 

So, in my head, I was thinking, "What? Is that supposed to be some kind of funny catch phrase?" It took me a couple of minutes to realize that he meant Monkey Rock, as in the waterfall! We talked about going last night but it started raining (see yesterday's blog). I've never been to Monkey Rock and Matt and his brother both looked at me like there was an alien behind me when I told them that little fun fact.

I quickly replied.

 

Me: ALWAYS! When

 

Matt: Now.my brother can come pick you up. I'm with my coworkers

 

Me: Okay!

 

Matt: Sorry about the late notice!

 

Me: Oh, no worries. I mean I was only saving the world, but I can put a hold on that...

 

A joke, of course. David, Matt's brother picked me up a few minutes later as I was running around my apartment looking for everything I might need. I swear, if my head wasn't securely attached, I'd lose it.

 

So, we went to Monkey Rock! ON A MOTORCYCLE! I was a little bit excited about that. I had never been  on a motorcycle until today and it was awesome! I've been converted.

 

Monkey Rock is BEAUTIFUL! Matt and David wanted to touch the rock behind the waterfall, and so touch the rock we did. It was a bit difficult to go against the current, but we finally found a spot that we could easily get behind the fall. It was really cool to be behind the fall, a little bit difficult to see because of the water running down the rock into your face, but other than that, it was fascinating.

*That's Matt up there...you can't really see him, but that's him unknowingly photo bombing my picture.*

Matt taught me how to skip rocks, because, again, he looked at me like there was a alien invasion happening behind me when he found out that I could not nor have I ever skipped rocks before. I know, I know: WHAT?! I just never learned. It was pretty embarrassing at first, but Matt and David kept coaching me, and I wouldn't say I'm a pro BUUUUT...I finally got the hang of it.

 

We went to Kiwi Loco after and then we decided that we were all pretty hungry, so Matt and David went home, changed, went to the store, came back to my apartment (after I had changed and tidied up a bit) and Matt made us biscuits and gravy! We then watched Top Gun, because I had never seen it...I know! So many "firsts" for me today. It was good! Kind of sad, but good! I enjoyed it!

 

It was a pretty awesome day.

I would have put a picture of David's awesome bike, but I forgot to take one while I had the chance...darn.

ANYWHO, that was my fantastic day! I hope yours was just as splendid!

Enjoy my song of the day!
It's country! (RIGHT?!)

 

 

 



Rain in Rexburg

It doesn't happen too often, but there was a beautiful thunderstorm tonight in Rexburg.

The quote "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass; it's about learning to dance in the rain," come into my mind.

 

So we did. Tonight, we danced in the rain.
 

 

 

Excuse the corny HSM3 song, but, it fit the mood.

This I Believe

This is just a random little post because I didn't blog about my week on Sunday, like I usually do.

I found this little jewel when I was looking through old Facebook messages. I had sent it to my sister in 2010 in the middle of my sophomore year of high school. It was an English assignment for my english class. We had to write about what we believe. Well, I'll just let you read it/ Presenting, words of wisdom from my 15 year old self:

 

The greatest failure of all is giving up on yourself, your dreams, and your talents. You are you for the reasons that you have different opinions, dreams, hopes, and talents. Letting go of all those things because you’ve faced a trial, heartache, and/or rejection is the greatest of failures. Believing that you can’t, wont, or don’t want to achieve much in life is part of that failure.

There is nothing more unique and beautiful than the passion and love that someone has for a dream, talent, or hope. The most crushing, painful sight to see, is someone give up on themselves, their dreams, and their talents. Your dreams and hopes can take you to extreme heights beyond your imagination, but only if you let them and don’t give up. Giving up means backing into a cold stone of fear that sheds no light on your dreams. If you doubt yourself and your dreams, then you give permission for others to doubt you also.

“I have a dream…” are the famous four words of Martin Luther King Jr. He had a dream, just like everyone that has lived, now lives, or will live on this earth. I have many dreams, that seem impossible to achieve, and at many points in my life I became so discouraged by what others said, I didn’t believe that I could achieve them. I believe that dreams are just imagination until you make them your reality. Being someone who has known since I was three years old what I want to do with my life is hard because sometimes I have no support from friends, family or myself. I often surround myself with ideas of ‘what could be’ and ‘what if’, rather than ‘what is’ and ‘how to take the next step’. In the hopes of fulfilling my life long dreams, I’ve been through so much heartache and rejection that often times have made me lose sight of what I wanted.

Giving up is easier than believing in yourself, but believing makes you stronger. It has definitely strengthened me

Shelly Long said, “If you don’t quit, and don’t cheat, and don’t run home when trouble arrives, you can only win.” Don’t quit just because you feel like the trials you’ve faced are too great and that you can’t succeed in what you love to do.

 

 

One Amazing Weekend in Montana

There are only two weeks of school left! TWO! Which is good and bad. Good because I can finally get out of the classes I hate and take a little break. Bad because now I'm stressing out about everything that I have to do before the end of the semester.So. Much. To. Do.

 

 

Tuesday Night, I thought that I was absolutely *brilliant* for thinking of the idea to pull an all nighter so that I could finish all my homework for the week so I could go to Montana. Haley (H Spice) , Lauren (Baby Spice) and I went to Walmart to stock up on energy drinks (which I'm NOT supposed to have, fyi.) so that I could last the whole night.

 

That was possibly the worst idea I've ever had. I woke up Tuesday morning at 6am and didn't go to sleep until Thursday morning at 2am.

 

 

On a brighter note, I had the best weekend ever! My roommate's boyfriend invited us to go with him and his roommates and friends to join them in Montana to celebrate the 4th of July and to go boating. We left on Wednesday after our classes, and headed out on a 5 hour car trip to Missoula, Montana.

 

The ride up, I was in a truck with Richie, Scotty, Vince, Haley, and Lauren. We were definitely a little bit squished, but it was the best car ride ever. We had so much fun laughing and making fun of Vince and Haley, mostly. I was really kind of nervous that it was going to be really awkward, but the guys were so incredibly nice and easy to get along with that it wasn't weird at all. We got to Richie's house in Missoula at around 7ish that night. His parent's home is absolutely beautiful. 

 

 We got to ride one of his horses and that made me so happy since I haven't ridden a horse in about 5 years.

(Shout out to Baby Spice for this picture)

 

 

Richie made a campfire, we made s'mores, laid on the trampoline and watched the stars. There were so many shooting stars that night!

 

 

The next day, we woke up and Richie's mom had made us a huge breakfast. We met up with the people who had come up after us and stayed 5 minutes down the road in Frenchtown, at Kolby's hosue, at a river that we went floating down. There were 9 guys, and 5 girls:

Haley

Lauren

Kaylee

Lacey

Me

Richie

Vince

Scott

Garrett

Tom

Brady

Kolby

Ben

Rory

(German pancakes!PS. They're not really from Germany!Shhh!)

 

It took us 3 hours to float the river, and I lost my sunglasses, but it was a lot of fun and definitely worth it. After we floated the river, we went to a BBQ at  Kolby's house and then went to a firework show at the mall. Just a side note: Very interesting people live in Missoula, Montana.

 

 We went to BDubs after that; it was my first time ever. So here is an obligatory, "food pic".

 

Friday was the day! We packed up the trucks and cars, drove an hour and a half to Lake Mary Ronan! This lake is absolutely GORGEOUS...and apparently the warmest lake you'll find in Montana. We went tubing, jet skiing, rope swinging, wake boarding and did a little bit of swimming. At one point, we had two tubes attached to the back of the boat, and some of the guys and I got really brave and decided to start switching from tube to tube. I got hit in the face with feet, knees, hands, and the other tube a couple times, but it was all just so fun.

Garrett helped teach me how to wake board, and even though I only stood up for .2 seconds, he still encouraged me to keep trying.

(Shout out, again, to Baby Spice for her amazing ability to edit pictures)

 

That night, we did some more star gazing, I gave about two hours worth of massages, and we slept...very horribly. Haley, Lauren and I slept in a tent and we had to sleep...very,very closely to keep warm. It only lasted about 20 minutes.

Saturday, we were getting packed to go, but then we decided to go back on the boats for a little while...which turned into two and a half hours. That's the good thing about being on vacation: You can do whatever you want.

 

When we got back, we got dressed, took a nap, went to dinner at a really weird looking "Mexican" restaurant. It was really good Mexican food, but you would have thought that it was a southern cooking type restaurant.

 For more pictures of the weekend, take a peak at Baby Spice's blog here:

http://comewithmetorexburg.blogspot.com/2013/07/week-11.html

 

 

So, something I learned this week, more than ever, love the life you live. Don't pass up on any opportunity to take a 'nothing weekend', or even a day. Life is short and can throw you for a...ride. I say this because as we were on our way back from the lake to Richie's house, we got into a little bit of a...hard situation.

We were going down the road, Richie's dad driving towing a boat behind the truck, all of us passengers dozing off, when I get the feeling to look up and I see a car stopped in the middle of the road. We only had two options: 1 Hit the car in front of us or 2. Go off the side of the road. Richie's dad took option number 2. We went down the ditch, up the other side. The whole time I was thinking that we were going to flip and right when I thought it was going to happen, a spot on the side of the road, what looked like a driveway with no house, came up in front of us. Richie's dad was able to pull us back onto the road, no harm or danger to the car, passengers or boat. We got lucky. God was definitely in that car. God was not done with us that day.

 

Appreciate your life.

 

(Pigs at Kolby's House! For you, Sir Padre!)

 

 

 

 

Here's my weekly little jam sesh song: (Still Into You by Paramore)

 

 

 

 



Three Weeks, Roses, and Montana!

THREE WEEKS OF SCHOOL LEFT!

 So there's that...

Today I woke up and realized...I have no idea where my I-Card is. This, if you know anything about BYU Idaho, is bad. Hopefully it shows up...SOON.

 

Earlier this week (Tuesday, I believe) I was hanging out at Enea's apartment when I got a text message from Haley telling me that I had a surprise that was "super presh" waiting for me at our apartment. I then proceeded to text her back saying "Is this just a ploy to get me back to the apartment? Nothing in my life right now is 'super presh'?" Well, apparently I was so very wrong. I came home to a single red rose taped to our apartment door. There was also a note taped to it. I don't know who it's from, but I THINK I know. It was the sweetest thing ever.

 

 

 

This past weekend was interesting. I honestly forgot what I did on Friday, but then I realized that I spent 4 and a half hours in the sewing lab trying to finish my project (I haven't finished it yet). After that, I'm not really sure what I did.

Saturday, however, Haley, Nahiomi, Lauren and I decided to randomly get in the car and go to Idaho Falls, because we wanted Chick-Fil-A. We also went to Target to find swimsuits. We really like our time away from...Rexburg.

 

 

 

For about a month, Haley, Lauren, Nahiomi and I have been wanting to have a roommate "sleepover" but it wasn't happening, so Saturday night, while Lauren was at cheer, we got our mattresses and moved them into the living room to have a Girl's Night!

We walked to Scoops (a dollar ice cream shop) to get Krispy Kreme and then we went to Little Caesars to get the perfect sleepover food: (Apparently something the four of us REALLY like...)PIZZA! We came back, ate, had a dance party, did some prank calling (yes, we prank called ex boyfriends), and then watched a scary movie...it was disturbing.

Sunday night, I had dinner with my roommates from Fall semester. I missed them so much. Erica wasn't there because she is serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Georgia Atlanta mission. For the dessert, I made Salted Pretzel Caramel Brownies and left half the pan for my roommates. When I came back, this is how I found it:

My roommates just took forks to it. That's how we eat a lot of the desserts...it was delicious, so that's all that matter, right? Who needs plates?

I can't take credit for the recipe (however easy it is), so I'll post the link for all you recipe hoarders. http://recipesweet.net/salted-pretzel-caramel-brownies/ 

  We went back to The Ivy (the apartment complex that we used to live in) and tried to go to our old ward's Ward Prayer, but we missed ti by half an hour :/

 

Later Sunday night, Enea came over and we went on a mini walk. We sat in front of the Pines, and looked at the stars and talked a little bit. I never realized how pretty the Rexburg sky is at night.

 

This week is 4th of JULY week! Haley, Lauren and I are going to Montana to go boating and all that good stuff with some of Haley's friends. I'm super excited for that! Hopefully we'll get some good pictures to post.

 

 

That's about it for this post. I'm really sporadic with my blogging, but I'm trying to get back to a regular basis (weekly-ish) blogging schedule.

 

 

 

Have a great week! Happy Fourth to everyone!

God Bless!

 

Enjoy one of our songs of the weekend: