July: Month of Action! 3rd Weekend

The third weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the one I'd been looking forward to for months. Because you all should know, HARRY POTTER CAME OUT!!!!

My supervisor at work really doesn't care for anything that isn't reality, but he's a pretty cool guy anyway, and he'd been teasing me all week about Harry Potter. He asked me to wear my costume to work on Friday and called me "Gryffindor" all day. I didn't have the heart to tell him I'm a Hufflepuff (how Hufflepuffish of me. :) ).

If any of you know my sister, you know that we had a kick awesome party before the midnight showing. For very complete details about what we did, read this. But I'll sum up with: we hunted for each horcrux, ending in a slaying of Nagini; we had a Honeydukes corner, lots of good Hog's Head food, and there was a prize drawing in which I won the grand prize: a Harry Potter lego set! But I traded it with a little boy who'd won a movie poster. I collect movie posters anyway, plus I'm pretty sure he'd get more use out of the Legos than I would (some of my sisters are still bitter).

Then we headed over to the theater, my sisters and I dressed up as the Holyhead Harpies in quidditch robes Camilla made. There were so many fantastic costumes!! I will share my favorites:

Let me say this about Harry Potter: real literature, and I'm talking literature, not books, inspires something deep within you, not just you, but in everyone who will allow it. This is not because it whacks you over the head, but because it harnesses the essence of humanity within its characters and situations. Harry Potter may be fantasy, and it may be modern, and it may be easy to read, but that does not make it mediocre. Trust me when I say there is enough intelligence left in humanity that mediocrity will still never sell as well as brilliance (although certain book series that shall not be named are cutting it way too close). Harry Potter is true literature that will stand the test of time to inspire, uplift, and challenge readers for decades to come. It is the stuff of dreams, even the stuff of myths. Thank you, J.K. Rowling. Thank you for sharing your genius.

July: Month of Action! 2nd Weekend

So the second weekend, on the 8th, was one of the best nights ever!! The Karaoke Cafe, where my friends and I often go to sing our hearts out and have the greatest fun, was having an 80s party. So I went with my sisters Camilla and Sarah, and my friends Rachel Fishetau, Rachel Lund, and Rio Zirker. It was so awesome!!

They had a costume contest, so you know I got all into that. I actually made it into the final round, but a kid dressed up as Prince won. I am happy to admit his costume was way better than mine. It was pretty legit.

All in all, we were able to sing a bit, although we weren't able to sing together as a group as much as we wanted. I personally sang: "Jessie's Girl," "Shot Through the Heart," "Sweet Child O' Mine," and "We're Not Gonna Take It." That was pretty fantastic. :)


Then on the 9th I had a wedding reception of a dear, wonderful friend, the older brother I never had, Mark Shepard. He married an awesome, sassy girl, Kirstin, whom I am a big fan of. They got married on June 18, but had a wonderful (I'm sure) 16 day honeymoon in Hawaii, then came home and had their receptions. :)

 

I guess that weekend wasn't quite as adventure filled, so since the next one is, I'll spill into the next week on this post. :)

On the 12th, Kristan and I went to get our vaccinations for Peru. Normally people don't get very excited about shots, but when they are crazy South American diseases and they mean that you are one step closer the the adventure of a lifetime, they are awesome! Plus I've got kind of a sick things for needles, as in I like donating blood and plasma and stuff. I know.

So we got Yellow Fever shots and Typhoid pills full of live bacteria!! Whoo!! For some reason I think it's awesome to be blood-full of exotic diseases...maybe it makes me feel dangerous?

Well, more on the next two weeks later!

July: Month of Action! 1st Weekend

For some reason, July has been incredibly busy. I seriously think it's been weeks since I got a full night's rest. I had made all these goals about finally being good at this blogging thing and keeping it up, but July kinda swept away in a frenzy of adventure! So I will try to quickly recap.

The first weekend of July, I took Kristan up to Rexburg to introduce her to the concept of BYU-Idaho. We got there on Friday night, too late to go to the play we planned on seeing because there was an insane traffic jam between Idaho Falls and Rigby (it took us an hour to go 3 miles). So instead we rounded up some of my friends, former roommate Laura Denton, former FHE brother Keith Rose, and favorite literature friend Remington Jarvie and went up to the sand dunes. We rustled up some random wood and bark and Laura, the wilderness survivor, made a fire. Laura and I analyzed everyone else's personalities, and it was quite delightful.

Saturday morning, we went with former FHE brother Travis Moffat and Remington to hike R mountain, a large hill with an R painted on the side. It was lovely fun, and Remington had a jolly old time throwing rocks down the side of the mountain.

After that I met up with former Jacob Lakers, Laurel and Alison Greathouse and Brianna Malone, along with Travis, and we went to Rexburg's new waterpark, Rexburg Rapids. Don't ask me why Rexburg has a water park. It's a good idea for 3 months of the year... (I didn't get pictures :( ).

Then we went to dinner with Travis and his roommate Cory, as well as some other friends, Daina Nielson and Maryna Polonska. After that we met back up with Remington, and we decided to do the most reckless and dangerous thing I've ever done in Rexburg! Let's just say I'm glad I'm not a student anymore, otherwise getting caught would've been a lot more terrifying. :)

On Sunday, we went to church with Laura and then to dinner at Remington's; he made us egg rolls. :) That night I met up with more former roommates/friends, Bethany Hirsh, "Dello" DelloStritto, Mike Wilson, and Michael McCormick and we played games.

The next morning was the 4th of July, and we went to the Rexburg parade with Laura and Remington, and Brianna met up with us. My favorite part of it was the little Phillipina woman who joined us, Early. She was so awesome. Also, I got a picture with Darth Vader. :)

After that, Kristan and I headed back to Utah to have fireworks in Morgan with our family and Aunt Sandi. Which is always lovely. I really like the fireworks in Morgan, because from Sandi's house you can see a lot of different people setting off their personal fireworks in every direction. So you get a pretty sweet show. I'm not the hugest firework fan, but this year was pretty spectacular.

So it's become clear to me that it's impossible to make this short. So there's my first weekend of July. I will break up the rest of July by weekends and continue this blog post in a moment. :)

June 25, 2011=Crazy

So I meant to write this sooner...once again I suck at this updating thing. But here it is.

So June 25th was probably the craziest day of my life thus far, and I really need to document it correctly. I left the house at about 10:15 a.m. (thank goodness it was that late of a start) and drove to the Bountiful temple where my friend JoNeale Graves was getting married. Just a word on JoNeale: we've been friends for 22-23 years. She is one of the most incredible people currently on the earth. We've had so many adventures together, and our friendship only gets sweeter and richer. In over two decades, I'm sure we've never had a disagreement. We've kept in close contact through her living in the Phillipines twice, me living in Germany and Arizona, and going to different colleges in different states. Best friendship ever.

JoNeale's ceremony started at 10:40, but the Bountiful temple was so packed with weddings that rumors were going around that pretty much all the weddings were delayed about 15 minutes. This was not good news for me. Finally I found JoNeale's family coming out of the ceremony (she has 11 siblings - 8 brothers and 3 sisters). Then JoNeale and her new husband Jon came out. They looked great!

JoNeale is super chill and not into formality so they weren't taking pictures for very long. Since I had pressing matters to attend to, I only stayed to take lots of pictures of JoNeale and her family and one of us together. :)

Then I sped away from that temple and went straight to the Salt Lake temple where my friend Larina was getting married. Her ceremony started at 11:40; I left Bountiful at 12:20. I am not afraid to admit I took a 45 mph road at 80+mph to get there. I got there right after Larina and her new husband Josh got out of the temple, so a little later than I would prefer, but still on time! A word about Larina: we've been friends since 7th grade, and we have been huge supports to each other through all the drama of teenagehood, college, her mission, and everything we've ever been through since we met pretty much. We have been temple buddies for a long time too. :) She and Josh were SOO happy!! :)

Afterwards was Larina's luncheon, which was delicious and I got to spend some time with my other excellent friends Laurel and Rachel. :)

 

Then I had to leave the luncheon a little early to go to a meeting for my trip to Peru in August!! So excited!! We talked about getting our vaccinations, planned out our service to two Peruvian villages in the Amazon jungle, and also talked a little about going to Cusco and Machu Picchu!! WHOO!! I'm just stoked out of my brain. August 3-17. Come back to my blog after then for more details. :)

Then I headed straight to Larina's reception at This is the Place Heritage Park. It was a beautiful reception. Got to catch up with some old friends. Definitely fun. :)

 

But alas! I had to leave the reception early too, in order to make it to the PTC performance of RENT!! It was brilliant! Rent is probably my favorite modern musical. I love it for so many reasons. I should probably write a separate blog for it. But that was my crazy July 25th. 12+ hours straight of awesome happiness. :)