THIS BLOG HAS MOVED

This blog has moved

2010-08-08T23:58:00.000-07:00

I got married and moved my blog. Please read on http://hollisandmichelle.blogspot.com/ for further updates!

Fireworks!

2010-07-24T10:33:00.001-07:00

Friday morning, I send Hollis to the store to get milk. When he returned, he immediately called my name. "Michelle... you know what happens when you send your husband to the store to get milk and we're in Utah and it's the day before pioneer day?" I knew that he had purchased something besides milk, and I might have guessed it. Fireworks! He was so excited that they were sold right there in the grocery store. So he spent 2 dollars and purchased 24 fireworks. We set them off that night outside his parent's condo. We had fun, and so a lady who also watched from her balcony.

"Red Rock" Park

2010-07-22T10:32:00.000-07:00

On Thursday Hollis and I spent the day going around St. George. We hung out with my cousins in the morning, and then we went to "Red Rock" park where I have always loved going. It's like a giant rock playground. It's technically called Pioneer Park, but I think about 30% of the parks in Utah have this name. It's just up on the red hill on the north side of St. George.

Hollis, of course, loved it. He's part mountain goat, or so he tells me. Apparently when he was in scouts the boys called him gunky or something - it's a cross between goat and monkey. He ran and jumped and climbed. It was awesome to watch.

I also took Hollis through my favorite tiny canyon narrows. We got about halfway through and Hollis thought it was the end - he started hiking back down. I informed him that it continued up. He wondered how we could fit. It's so narrow that you can't easily turn your head around. You can face one direction - sideways - and you have to stay that way for extended hiking periods (okay, so like 25 or 50 feet - not like miles or anything). Hollis didn't know if he'd fit, but I thought he would. And he did. It was magical :)

We found this bright yellow and white golf ball. Hollis and I entertained ourselves for at least 15 minutes by trying to toss the ball into a hole and get it to stay there. Finally Hollis just climbed up the wall and placed it in a hole.

You can see how awesome the wall is. Hollis just wanted to climb everything. I won't be surprised if we return sometime with climbing gear.

Hullinger Haven

2010-07-17T10:24:00.000-07:00

Hollis and I began our first married adventure by driving to Utah. On our first day driving, we drove through bugs so thick that it sounded like it was raining. You can see how the front of Smurf (the car) grew a fuzzy beard... of bugs.

It's pretty gross. We got some of it off at various rest stops along the way, but we need to do a good cleaning when we get home.

And this is where Hollis and I spent our honeymoon:

It's actually on Hollis's grandpa's property near Hannah, UT. Hollis's Grandpa (named Hollis Hullinger) bought some property a good while ago, and the family uses it to come hang out and play. Hollis's aunt and uncle weren't able to make it during the reunion, so Hollis and I
got to use their camper.

On Friday, we played in the river, going tubing down with the Bohon kids.

(Top L to Bottom R: Max, Ruben, Henry, Jonathan, me, Daisy, Hollis sitting in a chair with Oscar and Henry in a boat, Henry, Max posing with a random second cousin walking in the background, Hollis (a hottie :) and finally Hollis pulling Daisy, Oscar, and Ruben to shore at the end of a tubing run)

Henry was very cute, playing with the water. I also enjoyed my camera's waterproof feature, and took this picture of Henry by partially submerging the camera.

Now my husband is quite hilarious. I took several pictures of him jumping into the river and below are my favorites:

"Michelle, I'm posing!"

This might hurt...

Oh! Cold? Pain?

Wet.

And cold. Definitely cold.

I had a ton of fun, and I didn't even have to use bug repellent. There weren't any bugs!

Hat?

2010-07-11T22:11:00.002-07:00

We were sorting through our wedding presents, and we got this awesome collapsible colander. However, it also happens to look like an awesome warrior hat when you wear it on your head! My lovely husband is modeling it below:

Hiking with the fam

2010-07-07T10:14:00.000-07:00

I went hiking with Dad, Heather, Simon, Brian, Melinda, Uncle Rick, and Grandpa. It was fun because I got to use the new camera that Hollis and I got from my parents. Oh, and the hiking was fun too.

(L to R: Melinda, Heather, Simon, Brian's leg, Dad)

There was also this nifty feature - taking panoramic photos! I've never had a camera that did that before. Here are some of my favorites:

Oh look! Suddenly Mel has a twin!

And we all know what would happen if suddenly there were two Brians to tease us new couples:

Oh, but what if there were THREE Brians?

Hiking was fun. I only got three mosquito bites. One was on my face, so I put a band aid on it so that the swelling could go down by my wedding day. I don't want a swelling on my face for all those pictures!

Engagement Pictures!

2010-06-21T10:34:00.003-07:00

Hollis and I have a hard time being "serious" when taking photos. So we went through several attempts and took probably about a thousand pictures before we got ones that we both liked. Well, we actually liked several of them, but I thought it would be nice if the pictures we sent out you could see both of our faces.

But on a blog, we can publish all the ones we liked! (Don't worry, there aren't thousands.)

Cleaning Out, Part II

2010-06-12T12:23:00.000-07:00

I had to clean off the pictures of my other phone too! Here is what I gathered (and it took me on another trip down memory lane - just this time I didn't have to stretch my memory past Thanksgiving 2009). I also discovered that I divide recent time into three periods: Before Dating (BD), after dating, but before engaged (ADBE), and Engaged (Present). Okay, so I don't really use those abbreviations, but that is how I divide time in my head.

Before I started dating Hollis, he send my roommate and I this picture:

Apparently we both worry to much. It actually came at a perfect time because I had been worrying a lot about various things (I had just finished helping organize a huge service project, and that had been stressing me a lot). So it was good to get a friendly reminder. Even if it was a picture of grafiti at a bus stop :)

The week just before Hollis and I held hands I discovered a knack for injuring myself. Okay, so I didn't discover it then, but I broadcast it for everyone to see. First, I bruised my ring finger knuckle playing the whip in band class. It was swollen and discolored, and did not want to bend. Then I nicked my first finger slicing yams for Friday Friendship Feast at the Seattle Institute. I put on a band-aid and kept slicing. A few slices later I sliced into my third finger. It bled so much that I had to get help getting the band-aid on. I went to the library, kind of hoping I could ask Hollis for help, but I chickened out and asked our friend Carole instead. This is the picture of my hand after bandaging up the two fingers and taping the remaining fingers together to support the bruised knuckle.

I visited Hollis at work once, and took this picture as proof that spring was coming early to Seattle. This was after Hollis and I started dating, but before we were engaged, so in February sometime, I think.

One day after Hollis and I started dating, Maren and I were going on a walk. We saw a plane that had a banner following it that asked "NAME, Will you Marry me?" and it totally made our days. And I also wondered if I would be marrying Hollis.

When Hollis and I went to Wenatchee in February, he made fun of my over-large coats. He said we could both fit in the coat. I didn't believe him, so he just went and proved me wrong.

Also when I was at home, my brother Brian stole Hollis's phone and decided to be a little photographer. He's so adorable that way. And he took this ridiculously adorable picture of us! Well, I like it.

Right after Hollis and I got engaged, I felt like I should go wedding dress shopping, but I didn't want to. I really didn't care much what I would be wearing, so when I was shopping with my friend Lora, I found this white dress at a thrift store. I sent a picture to my mom and told her that this would be my wedding dress. Part of me kind of wishes that I had done that. I feel think it is very classy. But I only kind of wish I had. I like my dress a lot. I'm just struggling to make peace with the veil right now.

Looking at this picture makes me want to go back to the thrift store to see if they still have it. I might buy it now just to have it. Maybe wear it at the Utah open house (we aren't hauling my dress down to Utah I don't think. Maybe...? Bah. I'll decide... next week? Oh boy, wedding is sneaking up on me!)

I went home one weekend and ended up going to Costco with my mom and with Hannah my cousin. She is so adorable, and since she didn't get posted in any of the cousin pictures I posted last time, I figured I'd post her up now!

Way back in Spring 2009 my mom and I visited University of Washington to make sure that I really wanted to go there. I felt really good about my acceptance, but I wanted to walk around campus and view it as a prospective student. I met with my faculty advisor, Steve Kerr, and really enjoyed the sunny day. I felt fantastic about attending, and loved the beautiful trees.

When Maren and I were out walking, we found this quote on a rock wall:

I love it and think we could all benefit from this little gem.

Cleaning Out, Part I

2010-06-10T11:07:00.000-07:00

As I am getting ready to marry Hollis, I have been cleaning out everything. A de-junking of things and memories that I have accumulated over my 23 year life. I started with a de-junking of my computer (see blast from the past post) and re-installing the system software. Then I moved onto my phone.

My current phone is one I got a few years ago. I have had two phones since then, but they have both recently died, so I returned to my old phone. And there were old pictures there to greet me!

The first picture is one that I took of my dad when I was playing with my first camera phone ever (fall 2007). It was a cold weekend in Provo, and my parents were down visiting. I love the shot because my dad's face is in focus and everything else is blurry. And he was asking me what I was doing walking backwards. I love it :)

Remember how I said it was cold? Well it snowed at the football game that weekend. BYU had dominated, and it was very likely that we would win, so many "fans" left. The true fans (myself included, obviously) stuck it out and LOVED the snow. I mean, our fight song states: "We will fight, day or night, rain or snow."

The year before this I waited through a 40-minute long lightning delay and was much colder then because I was soaked. But it was a ton of fun. Oh, I love college football!

That Christmas (2007) I ended up hanging out with my little cousins most of the time. They were running around like crazy, and I joined them for a while, but got tired. So I sat on the couch and took pictures of them. They are so cool. And all good friends. My cousins are cool like that.

Bottom right picture, L to R: Nat, Brian, Tory, Melinda, Sarah, Rachel.

Then I skip to Summer 2008. Apparently I didn't take any pictures between those times. My boss on BYU grounds crew was pretty awesome. So awesome in fact, that when he found a ring of dry grass, he proceeded to gather sticks to spell out his name (Lloyd) and then posed with it. Actually, I can't remember if he gathered the sticks or if one of us on the crew did, but we sure had a blast.

When I went home to visit in July, my brother proved to be just as funny as ever. He mowed the lawn in a bulls-eye pattern. This was a fairly common thing; he had a bow and arrow he loved to shoot from the deck down into the grass. Then a while later I looked out the window to see this:

Apparently the grass circles weren't enough! He went into the garage and found a can of paint so that he could make a more distinct pattern. Brian was 11 at the time. He painted a "Hi" in the grass after I took this picture. We were all extremely curious as to what my dad would say when he saw it. My dad is very particular about his grass (a trait that used to annoy me, but now I am grateful for because he trained me well). Well, as soon as Dad got home, Brian grabbed him by the hand and towed him to the deck; "Look what I did, Dad!" We all crowded around the window that we cracked open so we could hear his response. "Oh. That's nice Brian. Where did you get the paint?" Whew. No blow-ups there. :) My dad explained to Brian that he should not just get paint or tools on his own; he needs to ask permission first. And then he asked Brian to not paint the grass again. And Brian hasn't.

Also while I was home, my family went to Ensign Ranch for the day. My mom and sister Heather were certified to supervise the rock climbing wall, so we played on that for a while. My cousin Alyssa was really bored. She just wanted to go play on the giant slip-n-slide that they have there. She just looked so adorable with her helmet on too big and wearing the inflatable tube around that I just had to take a picture.

At the end of July, I went to a chemistry teachers conference in Indiana. After the conference, my friend Mary and I went to Purdue. I was thinking about applying for their chemistry teaching masters or doctorate program (it's really good). While visiting a lab, this comic was posted on the wall (they printed it out from xkcd.com).

I think it is hilariously funny, probably because it is kind of true.

For some reason or another, during Fall of 2008 Heather and I went up to Salt Lake. Maybe we went to the General Relief Society broadcast. I think that was it. When it was over, we had someone take a picture of us. The picture is dark, but I like it anyway.

Temples are beautiful, no matter where in the world they are.

That winter (2009) I went to St. George quite a bit. While I was there, I was at a person's house who had this fridge magnet:

It made me laugh, so I took a picture.

Mini Update

2010-06-08T22:26:00.003-07:00

Life has got so busy at the end of this quarter. I can't believe that it's over this week. Crazy. And i'm moving on Friday to the apartment where Hollis and I will live. It's kind of exciting. But I don't have a summer job. I'm hoping something will turn up. The biggest problem I have is that we're going to be gone a lot: two family reunions, three receptions (ours), two or three weddings (not counting ours), and a week in Utah for family visiting and honeymoon, and them another week in Mexico for honeymoon Part II.

But before all that I need to study for my final that is tomorrow morning. But I need Hollis to get off work so I can go home and study. Because I'm waiting in the car for him so he doesn't have to wait for the bus in the rain. Aren't i so nice? He's now ten minutes late getting out, but I suppose i can survive. Oh! Here he comes!

Blast from the past - 1 year ago

2010-05-29T21:10:00.004-07:00

I am currently cleaning out my computer (ug... the stuff that builds up in these contraptions in a couple of years!) and came across this delightful little video - me graduating! Yep. I'm a college graduate. It's a nice reminder as I'm finishing some projects and getting ready for the quarter to be over.

Enduring to the End

2010-05-29T00:15:00.003-07:00

I was reading in 2 Nephi 31, and verse 6 made me think: "And now, my beloved brethren, I know by this that unless a man shall ^aendure to the end, in following the ^bexample of the Son of the living God, he cannot be saved."

The way we endure to the end is the way we should live our lives: by following Christ's example. I've always thought of enduring as a passive experience. I can endure, or stand strong. It occurred to me that simply sitting out and stubbornly refusing to do wrong isn't enduing to the end. To truly endure, I need to be actively following Christ's example; I need to be actively doing good.

Why I am excited to marry Hollis

2010-05-23T23:12:00.003-07:00

I am getting married. Yep. And I am very excited. There are several reasons why, and, among the more obvious ones (such as his amazing looks and great personality ;), there are a couple more that I wanted to share.

The biggest reason is the temple. I get to marry Hollis forever. I know that the relationship we are building now is designed to last through all ages of time. And we both plan on being together for that long. It's fantastic! Only sometimes do I start to understand how lucky I am to know that I get to build something that will last. Hollis and I are building the foundation of our family, and that foundation can be strong.

Because Hollis and I will be sealed together, our children will be born to a forever family, and we get to be their parents forever. Maybe this doesn't excite everyone, but I am so happy that I get to do this. I know that our Heavenly Father is happy with our decision to marry and start to build our family.

Invitations, anyone?

2010-04-25T10:51:00.002-07:00

I spent most of last Monday designing our wedding invitations. And here it is:

I am looking at places to get it printed and have requested samples from a site, so hopefully I'll have this printed soon and we'll be getting the announcements and invitations out!

And we took engagement pictures (real ones), but they are on Hollis's computer and I don't have copies of them yet. But when I do, hooray another post!

Hollis fixed my ring

2010-04-23T18:21:00.002-07:00

Hollis made me a beautiful ring when he proposed, and I love it. But it is really quite big, and I was running close to breaking it. And then he surprised me with this beauty:

I had heard a rumor about it - somebody didn't know that I wasn't supposed to know anything about my ring and asked me if it had come in yet. Oops, well, so I knew that it had been ordered. But I didn't know when he would give it to me, which was just about where I had been anyway - I knew he was getting me a ring, but I didn't know when I would get it. And now I have it. :)

Hollis took my other ring and said he would fix it. And then he returned the "fixed" ring... it was the new one. I love it.

Wedding Dress!

2010-04-12T10:37:00.000-07:00

I have my wedding dress! And I didn't even have to go dress shopping to get it. (I have been dress shopping a lot with friends, and I really didn't want to go through it myself. You can't find anything you like, and then when you do, it costs a ridiculous amount of money. And then you just get it off Craigslist anyway.)

Well, my mom was looking at the Provo craigslist, and found a dress that looked my size and a style I like for $200. My sister is about my size, and she was living in Provo, so she went and tried it on. She sent pictures back, and before she could even get home, we had called her to tell her to buy it. But I had to wait for the dress to get from Utah to Washington before I could try it on.

Then my dress made it to Wenatchee. My sister Natalie wanted to try it on, so she did.

And she sent me the picture. I loved the dress even more! About a week or so later, my parents came over to Seattle and brought the dress for me to try on. It fit well, but we didn't take any pictures so Hollis won't see me in the dress until my wedding day.

The past few weeks

2010-03-30T09:28:00.002-07:00

I haven't done much the past few weeks. Why? Well, I came down with mono and didn't feel like doing much of anything. Before I knew that I had mono, I was wondering why I didn't want to make any plans or buy a dress or anything. But now I know.

Anyway, I'm mostly better now, so hopefully you'll get to read all about my exciting wedding planning. :)

Yes, I really am engaged.

2010-03-05T10:50:00.002-08:00

And this is how he asked me.

On Sunday, Hollis asked me if I would like to go out to a fancy dinner with him on Tuesday night. Half of my brain was immediately thinking, "Proposal! Engagement! Yay!" while the other half was working very hard at ignoring the first half. I managed to say "Yeah, and we should dress to match because it's more fun that way!" Because it is.

So Tuesday came along. We'd decided to go with black and green - mostly because I wanted to wear my "little black dress" that I'm currently borrowing from my sister Nat. Hollis had made reservations at a restaurant called Anthony's in Kirkland. It's right on the waterfront with a view of Lake Washington. Dinner was really nice, especially since *someone* had given us a gift card to the place. (Hollis was trying to throw me off and said his friend Kyle "happened" to give him a card to Anthony's, but really my awesome, incredible, amazing roommate Carrie Marie had given him a gift card.)

After dinner we went down to a park on the water front. As we are walking along, I see that the park mostly consists of a large gazebo that is conveniently empty. The park was mostly deserted, which I think was because it was raining (not that hard though). As we get closer, Hollis comments, "I think someone is playing music," and I notice that there is music playing. He starts dancing as we walk along. I also notice that there are candles set up inside the gazebo, but I pretend that I don't see them.

Then Hollis comments, "Oh, look, candles." As if they just happen to be there. We walk into the gazebo and have a dance party. There were three songs that played that were of the peppy variety, and we had fun dancing to them. Though I couldn't dance as intensely as I wanted because I had just finished eating dinner, and I can't dance on a full stomach. But I had fun.

Then, when we were both quite winded, Hollis (pretending that he didn't know what songs were on the playlist) said, "I hope the next one is a slow song." And then our song started playing. (Yes, we have a song - "Leaving on a Jet Plane.") I didn't know that we had a song until it began to play. And as soon as I heard it, I realized, "Hey, we have a song." And I also realized that I was actually going to be engaged.

So we danced and Hollis sang in my ear. And then, right after the third verse, he gets down on one knee and proposed. I just about cried. I didn't, but I almost did.

I said yes, and Hollis pulled a ring box out of his pocket, and inside was this beautiful ring he had made:

You see, I had a dream the week before that Hollis had proposed to me with a ring that was of lower quality than a paperclip, and he had purchased the ring. In my dream, I was frustrated because he'd spent money on it. So Hollis made this ring and informed me that it was better than my dream ring - it was made from a paperclip!

One final note: Carrie Marie and Maren, two of my very good friends, helped set up the candles and the boom box with music. And then they hid in the bushes and filmed the entire thing. And both of them got very wet, but they are awesome!

Allen was right

2010-03-03T09:57:00.005-08:00

So a few months ago, right after Hollis and I took some fake engagement pictures, Allen said something along the lines of, "Well, this will be really awkward in four months when you really do get engaged." And we laughed at him. That was silly, we weren't even dating! Nor did we think that we were interested in dating.

Surprise.

Three and a half months later, we're engaged.

(Hollis made this ring from a bead and jewelry wire and a paper clip.)

Allen really was right.

Weekend in Wenatchee

2010-02-16T11:55:00.002-08:00

Over President's Day weekend, Hollis and I went to Wenatchee to go skiing and visit my family. Our friends Owen and Lora came too. Hollis and Lora had never been skiing before, and so Owen and I were pretty excited to see them learn.

I knew Hollis would be good, but he surprised me. He just started zipping down the mountain way before I thought he would! He is a stud.

After a long day of skiing, Lora and I had amazing hair. So amazingly beautiful, Hollis just had to take a picture of us.

The next day (Sunday) was Valentine's day. I wanted to show Hollis, Owen, and Lora some of my favorite things about Wenatchee, so we went down to the Loop Trail by the Columbia River. I think it's absolutely gorgeous, but Owen and Hollis were missing the very green Western Washington vegetation they are used to.

We found this random cement thing, and we took pictures by it. This is Hollis successfully "leaning" (see the movie "While You Were Sleeping" for a complete definition).

Before we left on Monday, Hollis was making fun of my overly large coats. I like my coats to have sleeves long enough to keep my arms completely covered. Hollis insisted that we both could fit inside one of my coats.

Apparently we do fit.

Punk Rock Concert

2010-02-06T12:00:00.002-08:00

Yes. I went to a punk rock conert. And yes, I did enjoy it.

Bowling for Soup came to Seattle. Allen invited a few people to come with him to the concert. Cassie, Allen, Jon, Hollis, and I carpooled to the venue. Jon was so cute - acting like a 12 year old little boy because he was so excited to see one of the bands that was opening for Bowling for Soup: Moneta! He yelled their name out about every five minutes or so. Allen captured Jon's excitement:

(L to R: Jon, Hollis, Me)

At one point, Jon and Hollis decided to have a contest. They agreed that they would walk into the bar area and not talk to anyone. But they would set a timer on their phone to find out how long it would be until a girl talked to them. Jon entered the bar area. He finally came out six minutes later, victorious. Hollis set his timer and strutted into the bar area. He was back very quickly - 45 seconds in, a man talked to him. Fifteen seconds later, a female said hi and touched his arm. He said hi back, felt victorious, and returned. I'm so proud of him :)

One of the bands that opened, Feverclub, played a number that they wanted us to slow dance along to. Hollis and I were happy to oblige.

After the song, the lead singer pointed to us in the crowd when she was thanking people (us) for dancing. We later went up to the band in their booth to tell them we liked their show. They totally remembered us. Said we were awesome. :)

My Man Hollis

2010-02-03T12:43:00.001-08:00

Yep. That's right. I have a man.

Though it's been tempting, I've resisted acting like this stick figure.

(xkcd.com)

Of course, you should replace the word "girlfriend" with the word "boyfriend." But I completely understand that little stick guy's desire to drop the fact that he has a girlfriend into every sentence. I don't, but I often want to.

The fact that we're dating isn't a secret. In fact, the Institute was kind of buzzing about it for a tiny bit (not everyone, but, well, lots of people). Apparently there were several people who thought we should be dating (Allen Brand wrote a post on his blog that mentioned us - we're two of the four people he mentions).

This is a picture that Allen took of us. Apparently he thinks we're adorable. (To quote his caption on this picture, "Let's check: yep their adorableness just made me throw up a little."

Also, apparently Hollis and I don't really do "normal" faces in pictures. Not much anyway. These are two recent photos of us. I'm so glad that we learned how to smile properly. How else could we so fantastically refuse to conform?

And yes, the expression on my face is intentional.

Tacoma

2010-01-22T19:25:00.002-08:00

Wednesday night Hollis sent me a text - When are you out of class tomorrow? Do you want to come to some museums in Tacoma? And of course, I said "YES." I love museums. And they were free that day.

So we went. There was this glass museum - we watched someone sculpt a glass vase. Then we went to a bigfoot exibit in the museum of natural history. The group of us then went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Afterwards, we ran all over this stone fountain because it was fun. Layne and Hollis ran and skipped on it before dinner, and it looked like so much fun, so we did it after dinner too!

(L to R: Hollis, me, Layne)

Tacoma is fun, but it did smell bad (just like people say).

Warm and Sunny Seattle

2010-01-20T14:09:00.003-08:00

Can you believe it's the middle of January? It's so fantastically warm!

And yes, I know my face is kind of funny. It was really sunny.

Service Project at Seward Park

2010-01-19T13:30:00.000-08:00

The University of Washington sponsors a day of service every year to honor the memory of Martin Luther King. As the member of the institute council in charge of campus relations, I had the opportunity to be a group leader for UW. I signed up for a service project at Seward Park. We were supposed to be planting trees. I signed up for that project so that we wouldn't have to pull up any nasty pokey bushes. But the week before the project, the design changed: we were now pulling blackberry bushes.

We were sad, but we went anyway! This picture is the "we're-going-to-be-pulling-blackberries-and-dominate!" faces.

(L to R: Jon, Hollis, Maren, Laura)

Maren didn't seem to have the intimidation face down. Just the "Yay! I'm excited to be here!" face.

To be nice, our group (the Latter-day Saint Student Association) volunteered to provide lunch for everyone. I had Maren head up the lunch-making committee and asked four people to help her.

(L to R: Hollis, Maren, [can't see her face], Jon)

The project coordinator told me that there were going to be 150 people there (our group composed of 32 or so). I prepared for 200.

Yes, that is a lot of lunches. The only problem was that there ended up being about 250 people there. We had to get creative and some of us went without lunches so we could get the last several people fed.

During lunch there may or may not have been a spontaneous dance party. We did get one non-Mormon to join us.

Institute Olympics

2010-01-11T13:15:00.000-08:00

Our winter opening social came pretty quickly - the first Friday of the new semester! We had lots of planning to do, and we really wanted the activity to be fun for everyone involved. This was the awesome sight that people saw as they entered the institute:

(L to R: Maggie, Maren, Brad, and me)

These wonderful people were there to greet people as they arrived and give them their name tag. Each ward was a team, and the name tags were color coded by ward.

I was in charge of the first event - human curling. We structured it as a cross between bocce ball and shuffle board, but with office chairs. There was an X on the ground that was the target.

(Maggie trying to wiggle the chair closer to the target)

Sometimes, the chairs were so close that precise measuring was required.

(Jon and I using our bodies to measure the distance)

Next came speed sock skating. I thought that I was going to be schooled by the boys that I was racing against. However, I was the least massive, so my inertia didn't carry me wide. I was able to keep my feet better and I schooled the boys!

Our institute director and full-time teacher raced against each other. It was absolutely hilarious! The race was a close one (you can see them at the finish line here). Hollis declared, "And the winner is... everyone who just watched that!"

(L to R: Brother White, Brother Knowles)

The next event was razor scooter/nerf gun biathlon. Instead of participating in that, we choreographed our dance routine for the synchronized donut eating contest.

(L to R: Hope, Carrie, Me - Maren is the pink arm you can see behind hope)

Our performance was... well, not nearly as cool as we thought it would be. But not bad. Funny.

I stuffed TWO donuts into my face. It was pretty disgusting.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-03T10:36:00.001-08:00

I got back from Wenatchee in time to go to the YSA New Year's Dance. It was so much fun. Carrie, Hollis, Maren, Rhea, Lizzie, and I went in a large group.

(Carrie and Me)

(Maren and Me)

I had a blast dancing! There were six of us in the group. We ate dinner together and decided to drive over in the same car. It was awesome. We had to do four people in the back seat, and I double buckled with both Hollis and Maren (as my parents taught me to). Hollis was really happy to be going to a dance with five girls.

Fun with family

2009-12-24T12:47:00.000-08:00

I went home to Wenatchee for Christmas. One of the first things I did was go skiing with my family. I forgot to bring my contacts to Wenatchee, so I had to ski with my glasses on under my googles. The first two days I went, I just used my regular goggles, and I ended up with a large dent in the middle of my face. Also, the top two pictures below were my attempt at getting a self-portrait of the group I was skiing with (Tory, Nat, and Brian). I was too zoomed in, then I cut off most of my face... you know how it goes.

Also, it should be noted that my brother, sister, and cousin are AWESOME. Look at them posing for the picture I was taking. I can still hear Brian pretending to fall.

I also read several books over break. About ten I think. I love breaks.

Institute Closing Social

2009-12-19T12:04:00.002-08:00

We held our closing social during finals week. We wanted something fun, but low-key, so we made gram cracker houses and covered them in Candy. My house had a lot of candy on it, and ironically a lot of it was chocolate. (For those of you who don't know/remember, I don't like chocolate, so it's kind of weird that I was decorating with it.)

There was also a movie playing (A Christmas Story). Carl was sitting on a couch all by himself, so Hollis decided we should go and snuggle with Carl, so we did.

(L to R: Me, Carl, Carrie, Hollis)

I look pretty smug about it. My face cracks me up.

When we were cleaning up, we arranged all the houses on a table in front of this pseudo-stained glass mural that the senior couple missionaries made for the institute. If you look carefully, you can see that the house in the middle is two stories tall. It was the most epic gram cracker mansion that I have ever seen! This picture really doesn't do it justice, but I didn't bring my camera, so I'm stuck with the pictures I stole off facebook.

Also, during clean up, Hollis and I were putting candies back in their bags so we could use them again sometime. Hollis decided to help me with the M&M's, but in as awkward a way as possible. We were laughing about it all by ourselves, when Jon, the institute president, yells from across the gym, "STOP!" and runs over with his camera. Naturally, everyone else looked over and witnessed our cozy kitchen display. It was really funny.

After we cleaned up the inside, we all went outside and Jon, Hollis, Carrie, and I smashed our houses into the ground! It was strangely satisfying. And then there were two houses left, and Hollis and I decided to attempt a high-five with the houses. As you can see, we were successful.

The four of us house-smashers are proud of our work.

(L to R: Carrie, Hollis, Jon, Me)

Yeah, the sidewalk was plastered in frosting and crumbs and candies. But we swept it up and threw a lot of it in the dumpster. The clean-up wasn't all that annoying, and it was totally worth it. :) I love institute.

Hangin' around the 'tute

2009-12-15T12:05:00.000-08:00

I spend a lot of time in the institute building at UW. I help my friend Maren with her Chemistry, and I love it. Sometimes, just for fun, we both sit in the same chair. And Hollis caught it on camera. I was helping her prep for her final.

Decorating for Christmas

2009-12-13T12:04:00.000-08:00

The last week of classes at UW I had a band concert. Only Maren was able to come and watch me play percussion. I had a lot of fun, and Maren stayed after to help us clean up. However, I got home to find that Carrie had a Christmas tree!! Hollis was over helping decorate it. Check out the crazy amount of ornaments we have on it!

Naturally, the ornament packing became robot arms for me. And the arms later evolved into a sword fight.

Slow Dancing on a Sunday Evening

2009-12-12T22:06:00.000-08:00

Some girls in my ward hosted a "Hot Chocolate and Slow Dancing" party after the First Presidency devotional. A lot of people showed up. They were playing Christmas music, I think. We were all talking so loud we couldn't hear the music. And so many of us were dancing! It was awesome.

Hollis tried to dance with every girl there. I don't know if he succeeded, but I do know that he (and his mustache Raul) made most every girl smile huge smiles. I loved watching their faces when he danced with them. He really cares about people, and this makes them happy.

When we weren't busy dancing, we girls were sitting on the couch just waiting to be asked.

(L to R: Carrie, Laura, Maren, Me)

My friendly fake fiancé

2009-12-12T13:59:00.000-08:00

Nothing like starting a friendship out by going and taking engagement photos! I discovered this wonderful fellow by the name of Hollis, and he loves doing completely random things, just for fun. We are sending announcements to our friend Kathy who is serving a mission for our church in Denmark. She is a really good friend to both of us, and we think it would be hilarious to send her an announcement, just to see if she believes us.

For your enjoyment, I've included some of our best shots. We're pretty amazing.

One funny thing is that my mom and grandma still get asked at church if I'm getting married. Or they get congratulated. Oh well. It was completely fun and 112% worth it because now I have an awesome new friend!

No pigs allowed

2009-12-11T09:22:00.002-08:00

My roommate Hannah and I were walking to the blood donation center. We walked past an elementary school. In front of the school there was this sign. Not allowing pigs is a reasonable request. But why such a request needs to be made is a mystery. And why pot-bellied pigs are the only pigs forbidden is also a mystery to me.

Thanksgiving with the family

2009-12-01T13:27:00.001-08:00

I got up really early on Wednesday morning to go and try to catch an earlier flight than the one that I was booked on. I made the flight, so I arrived in Las Vegas several hours before my siblings did. When my dad met me at the airport, he said, "Do you want to shoot some guns?" And naturally, I said yes. So we drove to this gun store, paid too much money, and got to shoot the standard issue military weapons. Our targets were terrorists. We also go "free" t-shirts included in our package. So we posed with our targets - we are awesome marksmen! (well, sort of.)

I discovered that I share a talent with my dad - I can sleep just about anywhere. I was tired, so I lay down in my grandma's rocking chair. I was completely comfortable and was able to completely relax... despite the fact that it looked like I was just about to fall off the chair. It was so impressive that my cousin Sara had to take a picture of me.

I slept for about 20 minutes.

Baby Orden is walking! And still ridiculously cute. Zoom in and look at his face. He's smiling a cute little smile.

The day after Thanksgiving we took a family trip to the temple. It was the first time our entire family has been in the temple together.

L to R: Dad, Brian, me, Nat, Mom, Heather, and Simon (Heather's boyfriend)

Weddings and such things

2009-11-16T13:15:00.000-08:00

My friend Kari got married this past Novemeber. We've been friends since the 7th grade. When I went away to college as a wee freshman, I was so nervous to move that far away from home that I begged Kari to come with me. She also wanted to go to BYU, but she didn't know why exactly. Kari was not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when we moved to Provo. We were roommates freshman year, but then lived with different people over the following years. Kari decided to join the LDS church during our sophomore year. Now, three years later, she married Mike in the Draper, UT temple.

Kari is the eleventh roommate of mine to get married. I've had 32 roommates so far, so only 34% of my roommates are married at this point. :)

While I was in town for Kari's wedding, I made sure that I took the time to play around with my old cover band. This summer we played a couple of songs for our ward open mic night, and we were pretty good. We were actually pretty bad when we were playing together this time around, but it was still really very fun.

Flag football in Husky Stadium!

2009-11-14T22:14:00.003-08:00

Every Novemeber, the Young Single Adults (YSA) for our church have a big flag football tournament. And we play football in the HUSKY STADIUM. Yes, a real football stadium. It was so exciting for me.

Our football team was called H1N1 and our motto was "Get Infected!" It made us happy. For warm-ups Jon led us in jazz-er-cise. Also, my roommate Emily and her boyfriend Taylor made all the girls in our house a sign with our names on it. After my team was eliminated from the tournament, I recruited people to run around with me with the sign to cheer on our other roommates. It was so much fun! And not that cold. It didn't even rain! :)

Sweet chairs

2009-11-08T15:45:00.004-08:00

I'm pretty sure that this was in the Salt Lake airport. There were these awesome chairs that had plugs for your laptop or cell phone. Best waiting area ever.

Folk Dancing

2009-10-28T18:52:00.001-07:00

For one of my classes, I had to go to an event as part of the Seattle Fandango Project. This even was basically a dance. And everyone was invited to participate! I found myself up on stage before I knew it. (I'm the one in the blue shirt.)

My beautiful room!

2009-10-24T17:59:00.002-07:00

It was sunny today and my room was wonderfully happy! I love the colors!

Homecoming in Wenatchee

2009-10-18T14:41:00.000-07:00

I went home for my birthday because my little sister was marching in my high school's homecoming football game. Our team came out on the field - they looked good. You can see the band in the background in their red rain ponchos.

Before the game the band did a little pre-game show.

My sister is so cool!

After the game, I tried to get a picture with the scoreboard in the background. WE WON! And that doesn't happen very often. Also, I wanted a side-by-side comparison of my sister and me. Before the game one of Nat's friends came up to me and thought that I was Natalie. It was really funny.

"Real Fact" #10

2009-10-14T23:24:00.001-07:00

A new tidbit of information, supplied couresy of Snapple:

Who would've thunk?

Menace to Society...

2009-10-10T11:32:00.000-07:00

So our new friend Tyler turned 25 this last week. His roommate Steve thought it would be a blast to throw a "menace to society" party for him. This phrase comes from something Brigham Young reportedly said about how any man who is twenty-five years old and single is a menace to society.

However, we wanted this party to be a surprise. I had asked Tyler what kind of cake he would want, if he were to have one in a hypothetical situation. However, I was pretty sure he knew we were making a cake for him. So Carrie and I made him one for his birthday on Wednesday.

I'm pretty proud of it, especially since this is the first time I've ever been able to fit the entire word "birthday" on a cake. We gave the cake to Steve and it was just at his apartment when he got home. Heh. After he invited us over Thursday to eat the cake with him, I was pretty sure we'd thrown him off the scent of his real party that was in the works.

I made a "secret" facebook event, and we invited several people. The official story was that Tyler was going to come over and watch "Rudy" with a few of us.

Carrie and I went CRAZY on his "real" cake. We thought this "over-the-hill" candle was hilarious.

We used three funfetti cake mixes and 5 1/2 jars of frosting to get this amazing creation!

The day of his party arrived. Even though Carrie and I acted a little strange on Friday night, he didn't suspect. I was waiting outside to text Carrie when he got there so everyone could get quiet and turn the lights off. He walked in and was totally surprised!

This is Carrie and I showing off our amazingly sparkly and happy creation of a cake!

Oh, and we all dressed up as "menaces" aka gangsters. Steve and Carrie even bought Tyler a bandanna and a sweater so he could be gangster with the rest of us. :)

Conference Weekend!

2009-10-05T22:14:00.001-07:00

For Saturday's conference, we went to the University Second (U2) Ward's bishop's house. They had three TV's set up for watching conference, and it was awesome. After the morning session, we went and played in the backyard. They had this awesome climber. Carrie and I enjoyed it.

For Sunday, Carrie had invited several people to watch on the projector screen at her uncles' house. I spent the night over there and helped her clean it all up. These pictures were taken at the lunch we had (we barbequed chicken!).

Tyler and Me.

Heather (in white), Amit, Tyler, me (I love food!) and Coralee.

The afternoon session was good - but I was so tired that I actually missed half of it. It looks like several other people slept through it too. If you were like me and fell asleep, you can watch the recordings of conference here!

We went to a park after the afternoon session. There was this tower thingy there. Tyler walked over and climbed it, which made me wonder if I could climb it. I got up really high and then I got really scared. I made myself touch the metal thingy before I slid (slowly) down).

See how high off the ground I was?

My new room!

2009-10-01T16:19:00.001-07:00

So my room originally had one red wall and three white walls. But I got to paint it! So I panted the walls yellow, blue, green, and ORANGE! I've been waiting a LONG time to get to paint my walls. And now I finally could.

This is me painting my walls and enjoying the freshly painted walls. :)

Next time that it's sunny, I'll take pictures of my room now that it's full of my stuff and decorations. :)

First days in Seattle

2009-09-30T15:00:00.004-07:00

I got a tour with the institute. It turns out that there is this awesome troll under a bridge somewhere. He's eating a VW bug.

And the library at UW is so big that they have these signs posted. Just in case you get lost.

And the crazy diversity here - our LDS institute booth set up right next to the Secular Student Union. On the other side of us was the Jewish Experience, and on the other side of them was the Muslim Student Union. :) It was pretty awesome.

The Golden Gate Bridge

2009-09-14T14:18:00.001-07:00

I found this picture on my phone. It's proof of how windy and foggy it is in San Francisco. But look how happy I am to be there!

Kulik River

2009-09-11T22:31:00.001-07:00

Our last day fishing was AWESOME! We had to leave early, just like normal, and get on a plane and fly to the river. The amazing thing about the Kulik is that it is only 1/2 mile long. And we were able to fish just about the entire day in one spot.

This is my grandpa and I wading to shore after getting off the plane in the morning.

The first "real" fish I caught was a rainbow that had previously broken it's back. can you see how it looks humped? The rainbow stripe follows the hump. Somehow this little guy managed to survive breaking it's back, and is still around to show it.

In this daddy-daughter picture, my dad has a bigger fish than me. It happens.

And this is my beautiful rainbow. In front of some beautiful land. While I'm kneeling in a beautiful river.

There were so many bears! I saw at least four different mammas with their cubs. And one juvenile, and at least one big male. They were so fun to watch! And they weren't threatening at all. We take a lot of precautions so that the bears won't associate humans with food. We eat only in the boat (so all the crumbs fall into the boat which we pack out with us).

See the red fish I'm holding? That's a sockeye. I caught a lot of those, but usually they aren't fun to catch. The sockeye have reached their nesting grounds, and most of them have already mated. They are just swimming around waiting to die. This is the kind of fish the bears eat. But this sockeye (shown below) fought like mad. I was sure it was a trout because it was so alive, running with my line, swimming all around the stream. But it was a beautiful sockeye! And now my fish is bigger than my dad's fish. :)

This is a movie of a bear fishing. He just jumps in and pops out with a fish in his mouth! It was amazing to watch.

And this is what the sockeye look like underwater.

You know how every fisherman had those awesome pictures of them holding a fish? And you wonder why fish hold still for them? Well, the truth is that fish don't hold still. I snapped this picture of my dad failing to hold onto his fish. This is what I look like so much of the time. :) (don't worry, he just picked the fish back up (it was still hooked) and we took a good picture).

And these cute little guys were my "pet" white fish. They always swam about six inches off my boots. I was proving a break in the current, and they enjoyed resting there.

Heavenly Creek (aka "Hike of Death")

2009-09-10T22:42:00.003-07:00

Our third day in Alaska, my dad and I decided it would be fun to hike into the Headwaters of Brooks Lake. It's a 2 mile hike across the tundra in this trail that has been used for longer than humans have been around. The tundra is so beautiful!

When we got to the creek, we were quite warm from our hike, so the cool water felt good. And while there was plenty of bear tracks, there were no bears to be seen. Probably because there were almost no Sockeye to be found either, and the bears eat the Sockeye. And because the trout eat the eggs from the Sockeye that don't make it into the redd (salmon nest), there were very few trout.

I only caught a handful of fish, but the greylings are particularly cool. They have this dorsal fin that can stand up really high:

The fin is half again as big as the fish!

After lunch, we needed to make a decision: 1) stop fishing sooner and hike back out the way we came, or 2) keep fishing downstream and hike to the lake. Both places were about 5 miles away (straight line distance) at the time we made our decision: hike to the lake. Nobody had ever done it before, and we figured we could handle the extra hiking.

On our way our we found a pocket of spawning silver salmon. Thy were fun to catch and are quite colorful in their mating colors.

After we caught some silvers, we had to leave the riverside and hike cross-country. There was no trail, but we had a GPS and coordinates. And we were INSANE. Tundra is a unique surface to walk on. It sinks when you step on it (anywhere from 4 to 8 inches of give), but it doesn't push back on your foot (it isn't very springy). But when you step off it, the tundra fluffs back up. Hiking across the open (thawed) tundra in waders wasn't very easy. I shoved my fishing rod down the pants because I couldn't carry it. I had to use my hands to pull up on my waders so my feet didn't get stuck. It was harder than hiking uphill in sand. I had to lift my feet twelve inches in the air for each and every step. And it was so hot. And I didn't know how I could keep going. I felt like I would cry when I found out that we weren't even half way there after an hour of hiking. I started counting my steps to keep my mind occupied. I got to 1,250 or so before I got distracted by TREES.

A ridiculous amount of time later (but only 30 minutes late for our pickup time), we arrived at Brooks Lake. HALLELUJAH! I was so happy to be done.

We were the first (and probably last) people in the history of the lodge to attempt (or succeed) in this feat. We just might have made it into the lodge lore :)

American Creek

2009-09-09T22:27:00.001-07:00

My second day in Alaska was awesome! We got into a float plane and flew to a national park. We had a satellite phone in a metal brief case. And our food was kept in bear barrels. I was excited!

My first fish of the day ended up being the biggest of the trip - 25.5"! I was very excited.

This is a fun daddy-daughter picture. Notice how my fish is bigger than his? This day I caught more rainbow trout than he did. It was pretty awesome.

Another beautiful rainbow.

I love this shot that Kate took. It shows off the beauty of the fish.

And this lovely specimen is called a Dolly Varden. It's named after a character in a Charles Dickens' book. It has pink polkadots on its side and it looks like it's wearing orange lipstik. It's pretty awesome. :)

Naknek River

2009-09-08T21:22:00.000-07:00

As a graduation present, my dad took me to Alaska to go fly fishing out of King Salmon. I wasn't entirely sure how much fun I would have, but I was pretty sure I would enjoy myself.

On the first day, I got up and ate the wonderful, cooked-to-order breakfast. Then I got dressed in a lot of layers to keep warm, and off we went into a boat. My dad and I looked much larger than we normally do. I felt like the kid in "A Christmas Story;" very puffy.

This is a TROUT. I didn't know that trout came so big! It was 25" long. The fish is silvery even though it is a rainbow. That's just the coloring of the rainbows in this river. I was so proud of my very large fish.

And this is the smallest catch of the day. I somehow managed to hook a very small fish. I only realized that I had him on when a much larger fish tried to eat this smallish one. I couldn't hook the larger one because this small fish was covering the hook! I believe the little fishy survived (well, he swam away after I released him).

Lots of new posts

2009-09-03T21:55:00.000-07:00

Hey all! Be sure to scroll down and maybe go to the next page. I published some new posts, but backdated them. The newest old one is about my band that I joined this summer, so if you didn't see the pics of our performance, make sure you check it out!

My Cousin's Keiths' Wedding

2009-09-02T22:06:00.000-07:00

I found this picture on my cousin Shay's blog, and I love it! We love to really "fight" over the flowers as they get thrown at weddings on this side of my family. There are always enough flowers to go around, but we love to play for the camera.

Amusing story #2

2009-08-30T05:21:00.000-07:00

I reserved a hotel for last night because my flight left 80 miles from where i was staying at 7 am pm we'd have to leave at 3 or 4 am to make the flight. But then the parents decided that none of us kids could drive me to san fran because we didn't get back from ATV-ing until midnight. So the dad decided to take me. But it took 30 min for him to be ready (?). But then he wanted to give one of us a ride on his motorcycle. So they went for a ride at 12 40ish. They didn't get back until 1 30. And we finally left the sacramento area around 1 40 am. And then the street we were supposed to turn on for the hotel didn't exist. But i texted google for directions from an intersection we passed and we found the hotel at 4 am. By the time i had showered and got ready for the day, it was 4 30. A taxi was coming at 5 30, so i slept for an hour. Blah. I got up 2 min before the taxi called me, got to
the airport, and am now tiredly waiting for my flight. :)

(sent via text to blogger)

Jet skiing and ATV-ing

2009-08-29T00:03:00.000-07:00

Day 2 of our grand adventure in California held the fun of Jet Skiing!

This is me in my suit all ready to jump in the lake. (I'm wearing a life vest; safety girl!)

These two fellas (Curtis and Ryan) are potentially too good of friends. They have broken jet skis before, and to my utter astonishment, I saw them roll a very large jet ski upside down. I think, when they were riding together, that they spent more time IN the water than on top of the jet ski.

This is an awesome picture on our way up to the lake. I just want you to notice the uber-excitement that I feel. You can see it on my face. And contrast my excitement to the calm sleeping of Curtis.

Day 3 of our California adventure consisted of white water rafting. It was awesome, and only Ryan got washed overboard. (It's okay though, we got him back.) I don't have any pictures for that yet, but when I get them, I'll be sure to post!

Day 4 (our last day) was four-wheeling day! I was so excited for this because I've never been quadding before.

I'm the person on the far right with her arms in the air. That shows you how excited I was.

I was expecting a dirt track or maybe a large gravel pit, but this path was incredible! The path just went on and on! There was a dirt road leading to a large gravel pit. And then there was another road leading to another gravel pit. And another road leading to a trail of sorts up, across, and through a creek bed. I was following Curtis until he got popped into the air and his bike kept going while he went up. He landed (luckily) on his feet, but in the creek and got completely soaked. On our way back, he gunned his quad up a steep hill, and ended up popping a wheeling and throwing himself off the bike again, this time into a pile of dirt. He was okay, but had a VERY sore tail bone.

After we all got back from our adventure, we felt very tough. And very dirty. :) Tons of fun, though.

San Francisco and Wicked

2009-08-25T23:38:00.000-07:00

As a "last hurrah" of summer, my friends and I planned a trip to San Francisco. Our first stop: the Jelly Belly factory.

(Yes, that is a toothbrush I'm holding. Remember that I'm a nerd ;)

After the factory, we went to the Oakland temple. It was very beautiful. A lot of the grounds are on the roof! Because we enjoyed it so much, we took a picture.

Our group
Top row, L to R: Curtis, Sydnee, Alexis, Jesse
Front row, L to R: Me (Michelle), Kiera, and Ryan

And here we are at THE Golden Gate Bridge. It's one of those things on my bucket list to cross the bridge. And we did. And because we were a carpool, we didn't have to pay the $6 toll!

On our way back from the bridge, we went down the famous windy street (Lombardo?). This was also on my bucket list. It was fun (slow, but fun). I can't believe that people actually LIVE on this street. They really do.

And that is Alcatraz Island. I want to go there. We just didn't have the time on this trip.

Right after visiting the warf, we had to book it to get to Wicked on time. We girls all changed in the car while we were driving there (the boys just looked out the window). I made a mad dive out of the car at a stop light (across a person) so that I could try to get the will-call tickets. I needed the billing address of the girl who bought our tickets, and luckily she showed up right as I needed it. We walked into the theater about 7 minutes before it started. It was cutting it close, but we made it!

And in case you can't tell, I was so excited to see the show. It was my second time seeing Wicked, and I LOVED IT! I highly recommend it.

Amusing story #1

2009-08-25T21:21:00.001-07:00

So I purchased my plane tickets a few weeks ago for this San Francisco trip. It was cheaper to fly into Oakland instead of San Francisco, so after checking the distance, I booked a flight to Oakland. I thought I let the trip organizers know where I was planning on flying into, but somewhere something got lost in the translation. On the day of my flight, after flying from Wenatchee to Seattle, I call my ride to confirm the pickup location and time. Turns out that they aren't staying in San Francisco or the Bay Area at all. We are staying in SACRAMENTO.

Sacramento, California is about 87 miles from Oakland, or a 3 hour round trip (with good traffic).

I was frustrated and tired, and I got to stew about the confusion for the entire flight from Seattle to Oakland. I only had to wait for about 90 minutes for someone to get me. The family we were staying with drove down to pick me up. I was VERY appreciative.

Life-sized Jenga!

2009-08-20T00:13:00.004-07:00

Today at work my dad had Heather and I sort through the model boxes. We dumped out the models (teeth models), but saved the boxes. Heather stacked them like Jenga, so I played three rounds with myself. It was kind of fun; I want to play with a group of friends someday.

All the looking at models made me wish that i could see my teeth before treatment. So heather helped me find my chart and then my models. :)

My teeth (L to R): age 7, age 12, and age 13-present.

Working for Dad

2009-08-17T18:36:00.003-07:00

I told my dad I needed a job. So he hired me to sort files - X-ray
film in one box, patient info in another. Luckily my sister is
helping me and we have a story to listen to.

Broken Glasses

2009-08-16T18:38:00.001-07:00

Last December, my glasses fell off my head and landed on a backpack
2.5 feet away... and snapped in half. I was shocked and extremely
sad. Those glasses had lasted me 3.5 years and had been through a lot
with me... and then they died.

I was sad.

Summer in Provo

2009-08-16T00:04:00.000-07:00

This post is a bit late, but it has some good pictures from the end of Summer.

My sister has taken pictures with every set of roommates she's ever had. So at her insistence, we took roommate pictures.

Charlene (bottom center) was our adopted roommate. She didn't have any roommates, really, and our fourth roommate was living at home and was really busy. So Charlene adopted us. Or we adopted her. Basically, she lived in our apt. We even had sleepovers!

L to R: Charlene, Heather, Michelle, Eve

Heather and I in our nice new shirts that we bought from a story called Cozy in Provo. We love the shirts! This picture is from our cousin Trina's wedding.

On our way back to Provo from Trina's reception, our cousin JD flew in from basic training. His parents had just picked him up from the airport, so we met them just off a freeway exit. I was so happy to be able to see JD! Heather and I left for Washington the next morning, and I'm staying up here, and JD is going to be going to Missouri for more military training, so it might be a while before I get to see him again.

Real Band

2009-08-13T00:03:00.001-07:00

I joined a band this summer! Surprise! I never thought I'd join a rock band of any sort at any point in my life, but then my friends decided that it would be fun, and I realized that it would be. We were very informal, just playing asking to play "real band" whenever we wanted to. We called it real band to distinguish it from another favorite game, Rock Band. Scott owned most of the instruments, and he bought a really nice PA system, and so we had all we needed to give a rocking performance!

The band decided to go early 90's with their styling, but decided that I, the token girl, should go 80's. So I did. And I looked awesome! Side ponytail, bright colored makeup and clothes, and of course, the off-the-shoulder look :)

L to R: PJ (bass), Jeff (guitar), Nick (vocals), Scott (guitar), Michelle (keyboard), Jon (drums)

My sister recorded a video of our performance. However, the only copy is on facebook, so you have to have an account (and maybe be my friend) to see it. But most of you reading this have both, so it doesn't matter much. But when I get around to it, I'll post the video here. We sound pretty good! ;)

And it should be noted that during our performance, the cops got called. Apparently somebody didn't appreciate our music, and so they called the police instead of asking us to turn down. Turns out it's illegal to have an amp outside without a concert permit. We were just having an open mic night for our ward FHE activity (a monday-night activity we have with our church). It was kind of funny, but it was okay because we were done playing before the police got there. Everyone else just had to be ridiculously quiet.

My chemistry study buddies

2009-08-12T10:57:00.003-07:00

These is a self-portrait that Jordan and Curtis took of themselves
when I left my phone unattended for just a tiny bit of time. We were
in the computer lab where we did a lot of our studying. These two
boys were my best friends, but the one on the left (Jordan) had to go
and get married (see post: "My best friend's wedding").

Baby Orden again

2009-08-12T10:56:00.002-07:00

This picture was just too adorable. I couldn't resist posting it. :)

Babysitting Baby Orden

2009-07-25T21:17:00.003-07:00

There's this cute little guy that I watch and play with all the time.
His name is Orden and he is ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE. I thought I'd put up
some of the pictures from my cell phone that I've taken of him. They
are in order from youngest Orden to oldest Orden (today).

This is Orden when he was just a month old. He's sleeping/drooling on me.

This was sometime during the winter. After Orden went to Brazil to visit his grandparents. When he got back, he didn't remember me and was old enough to cry about it. He got over it quickly (I gave him food :)

Sometime this spring. I think when we went to St. George for Keith and Sara's wedding. Orden is so big! He can drink out of a big people cup!

And Orden, sleeping on my shoulder again. I love this kid.

Orden decided to try his luck at my single's ward BBQ. He was easily the most popular fellow there. And he had a blast! He laughed so hard and giggled so much that I knew he'd crash hard when we got home (he did).

Yum! Michelle's Phone! (That's what he's thinking in this picture.)

This is how I check to see if he's asleep when I'm holding him. I don't want to move him until he's solidly asleep, so I take pictures of him with my phone to see if he's just sitting and staring or if he's sleeping.

Bath time! He thought the running water was so cool.

And today, on the swing. Look at that adorable smile! And his happy giggle. (You can't hear it here, but you can see the giggle on his face. Trust me, it's a happy one.)

Marketing Analytics - What are they?

2009-06-30T10:55:00.000-07:00

So I recently got a job with Vault Analytics as the Public Relations Specialist. It's a lot of fun; I actually enjoy it. I never expected to have a job like this in my life, but when Curtis and Ryan asked me if I'd work for them, I was excited to do so.

I just created my first article page:

Winning with Marketing Analytics

Ryan wrote the content and Curtis posted it to Vault's blog. You should read it. Especially if you've ever wondered what exactly marketing analytics are.

My Best Friend's Wedding (one of them)

2009-05-01T12:01:00.001-07:00

My friend Jordan Smith got married to the woman of his dreams last
Saturday, and I FINALLY got a picture with "my" boys. Right before we
all go our separate ways.

From left to right, we are: Troy, Curtis, Me, Jordan, and Nokes
(Ryan). Jordan and Curtis were my two awesome chemistry study
buddies :)

So then this one day I graduated...

2009-04-26T23:30:00.001-07:00

They tell you that this one day will come... But it was kinda
unexpected somehow.

I was a bit excited to be graduating :)

You should notice the hot shoes I'm wearing... my sister Heather bought them in Spain (for herself, but they fit me!).

Me and my darling little brother. He's wearing a REAL tie! I bought it for him the day before.

He really wanted to be graduated too. And he's still adorable.

Look at him! Already graduated from college and only 11! I'm proud to be the sister of such a genius (or such a joker ;~P)

We're a cute bunch, I think. Natalie, Brian, Me, and Heather

We're making a Y, in honor of BYU. Notice their BYU T-shirts and the Y on the mountain in the background.

The Merrills and their surprises

2009-04-16T23:14:00.002-07:00

So today we Merrills showed our true colors and our love of surprising each other. I bought plane tickets home about two months ago to surprise my entire family by showing up when they "knew" I couldn't be home. I asked my friend Kari's parents to drive me to my house.

Three hours later, my mom and sister caught an earlier flight to Wenatchee than the flight they were scheduled to be on. Ironically, they ran into Kari, and hitched a ride home with her parents too. The funniest reunion of them all was my mom and sister and I all looking at each other and asking, "What are you doing here?"

Making a movie

2009-04-13T13:01:00.005-07:00

My ward made an AWESOME video spoof of the trailer for the movie Taken. Enjoy!

I did all the filming and editing. Scott Smoot did all the sound and wrote the initial script. Nick Andersen directed and told us what shots to get.

Photos from Football, Fall 2008

2009-02-17T15:34:00.002-08:00

I'm running behind Rachel... to help her, somehow....

You can see my face just behind Sheredith's (the quaterback's). We're blocking for her so she has time to thow.

Rachel ran the ball for us a lot.

Ready...

...set...

HIKE!

I'm trying to run down a girl on the other team and pull her flags. (Notice the yellow flag on the field. It becomes important later.)

She was really fast.

I stopped running here because I thought I had her flag...

... but I'd just pulled a towel she had tucked into her pants. :(

The girl went on to score, but there was a flag on the play (see earlier photo) and it was called back.

Jaime sort of tackled the girl once. It was only a 5 yard penalty.

Me chasing down another girl.

Our offensive line :)

We ended up loosing this game, but we played this team again in the semi-finals where we destroyed them! It was awesome :)

Photos from Ultimate Frisbee, Fall 2008

2009-02-17T15:11:00.002-08:00

I'm in the blue shirt and red shorts

Playing sports with my glasses MIGHT just be why they broke....

My life after graduation....

2009-02-08T00:16:00.001-08:00

I found this comic (xkcd.com) and it pretty much sums up my future
plans...

... I'm the blonde girl.

Skiing with dad and Brian

2009-02-07T23:51:00.007-08:00

A bit ago, my dad and brother became concerned with my welfare at college. So they decided to make a sacrifice and drive down to see me. But they also just happened to bring down some ski gear, and so they just couldn't pass up the opportunity to ski while they were down here.

That's their story anyway. I think they came down to ski; the fact they got to see me was an added bonus :)

Here we are, at the top of a lift somewhere at Alta ski resort. It was really cold to have my face out, but other than that I was warm.

Here am I, awesome me, showing how excited I am to be skiing with my even more amazing little brother, Brian.
And this movie just goes to show you how awesome of a skiier I am. If you look very carefully, you can see that I get a bit of air! I went off a jump! I'm pretty much amazing.

This movie is of my stud of a brother going off a jump. He shows me how you really do it. (Though according to him, that was a wimpy jump, but I call it amazing. Especially when you realize that the first part of the jump he is trying to keep his balance, and somehow manages to do it! I don't know how he landed that, but he did because he is amazing!)

First day of teaching

2009-01-20T21:20:00.002-08:00

I mostly successfully taught my first day at SFHS. It was great! :) The first class was a little slow in that the students still seemed awfully quiet, so the lesson didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would. The second class was much more talkative, and we almost ran out of time! But all in all, a good day.

Academy Awards

2008-12-07T00:41:00.003-08:00

This is the cast of our award-winning show: Provo Hills. We took Best Picture, Best Character (Jon Doxey), and People's choice!

The ward provided food--Costa Vida catered, so we all got delicious free burritos or salads. It was quite yummy. And I looked absolutely amazing!

Intramural Championship

2008-12-05T09:28:00.003-08:00

During this season, we developed a rival team: the tie-dyes. I don't know if they were aware that they were our rivals, but they were. We played them three times. The first time, during the regular season, we were losing at the beginning. But their team was so annoying, we couldn't bear to loose. So we stepped it up and beat them! It felt good.

Then the tournament came. Both of us were coming off two victories. The game started, and we just couldn't do anything on offense. We couldn't catch; we couldn't run. Luckily, for the most part, they couldn't do anything either because our defense is rock solid. However, they have this one really fast girl. She would try to run it, but we could usually stop her. But one time, our middle defense person missed her flags. Then I ran into one of their players and missed her entirely. Then our safety fell down. Despite the fact that I chased her down the entire field, she still scored. It was their only score of the game; they won.

So we went to the losers' bracket of the tournament. And we won our next two games. The tie-dyes lost their next game, so we were to play them again. We planned our attack. We knew their defensive weaknesses, and we planned to take full advantage of them. We knew who their fast girls were, and we shut them down. Every pass they threw got intercepted, and we ended up winning dramatically: 30-7. It felt so good. That win was good enough for us to take 2nd place.

Provo Hills

2008-12-04T21:36:00.003-08:00

This week our FHE group made movies for the Oscar Night we're having this Saturday. We did a spoof of a TV series called "Lagoona Beach," but called our show "Provo Hills: The Real Utah County"

Intramurals rock

2008-11-11T23:20:00.002-08:00

We won our second flag football tournament game today. Neither of us scored in the entire game, so we had to go into overtime. The other team got the ball first, and we intercepted it on the third down. Then we got the ball, and scored on our third down. Actually, they intercepted our first third down pass, but there were penalties on the play, so we got repeat third down. We scored, but in the process, a girl on the other team fell down and twisted her knee. So we won, but felt bad cheering about it. But we still won.

In full swing

2008-09-15T22:57:00.003-07:00

I just started my last semester of classes of my undergraduate education. It's weird to think that soon I won't have classes anymore (until I go to graduate school, that is). But because it is my last semester, I have a TON of classes that I'm taking. I'm taking 17 credits (you only need 12 to be considered a full-time student) and I'm working "15" hours per week (right now I'm clocking in around 8 to 10 hours, so it's not too bad. And I haven't yet had to do homework on a weekend. But that's been my policy my entire college career thus far.

In school-related news, I took the GRE on Friday. I scored quite well--well enough that I should be able to get into the graduate programs that I'm interested in.

And in college-related news, BYU's football team is now ranked #14 in the nation! And last Saturday we STOMPED the UCLA team! 59-0!

This is us after we recovered a fumble--the first of three we recovered! We scored about 7 seconds later. Yeah. That's how we do.

This is a great shot of one of our players scoring. Again.

This picture is actually from last week's game against University of Washington. We beat them 28-27. We could have played better, but did alright. Our quarterback man is awesome! Go Max Hall!

And this beauty shows Jan Jorgensen blocking the PAT Washington (UW) tried to kick to put the game into overtime. But we BLOCKED their kick! It was awesome.
Yeah. I love college.

MTC crew happenings

2008-08-27T21:48:00.002-07:00

Today I got to work 1.5 hours late because I had to wait for the carpet cleaner guy to get to my apt. He was on time, I think, but I had scheduled him to come an hour after I was supposed to be at work, so that's why I was late.

When I got to work, the crew had left me the 48" mower, which was wayyyy nice because I wanted to use that machine. The grass was so wet that it caked onto the mower and left trails of "cow pies" that had to be shoveled up.

I also got to drive the tractor because I was repairing sprinklers. I repaired THREE without any help! It was great to see that I had remembered what Lloyd had taught me the year before.

Kirk out.

Family Time!

2008-07-03T08:57:00.002-07:00

I went home for the month of July--"home" meaning I spent a month with my family. Soon after I got home, Natalie, Brian, my dad, and I (and a couple of brian's friends) went to the demolition derby in Waterville.

This is Natalie's face :)

Natalie's other face.
My face :o)

After we amused ourselves by taking pictures of ourselves, the actual derby started. It was great fun, and there were fireworks afterword.