A Blogging Extravaganza

My roommates and I are sitting in the living room, talking about blogs, and Annie decided to make one. So then I decided to post on mine. How exciting, I know.

This is one of my new favorite pictures. My brother Ben loves to go bowling, and he is so good at it. He throws the ball in the funniest way..here is a glimpse of him post-throw.

Anyways, so finals are coming up...yuck. Luckily I am only taking three, so I think I will be able to survive. I just can't wait for Christmas Break!

Yes on Proposition 8

Proposition 8 is a really big deal in California right now, so I decided to post some things about it. I am voting strongly Yes of Proposition 8, and it is very important for me for this to pass. Marriage is defined as being between a man and a woman, and I think that should be preserved.

The thing I hear people say the most is that they think "people should just be able to do whatever they want." If you really think that, then should people be able to steal, kill, and rape? There are people out there who want to do those things, so why do we believe in laws against their actions?

Another issue is that Proposition 8 enshrines discrimination in our Constitution.
FACT: Proposition 8 does not discriminate against gays; it simply restores the meaning of marriage and protects it as an essential institution that has benefited mankind since the beginning of time. Every culture in the world understands that marriage is between a man and a woman. Californians from all walks of life and ethnic backgrounds, whether religious or not, agree that marriage is between a man and a woman.
Proposition 8 does not take away any rights from gay and lesbian domestic partners. Gays and lesbians in California can already enjoy all the legal rights and benefits of marriage. The California Family Code says, “domestic partners shall have all the rights, protections and benefits” of married spouses. There are NO exceptions to this. Proposition 8 will not change that.

protectmarriage.com

Six Consequences If Proposition 8 Fails

1. Children in public schools will be taught that both traditional marriage and same-sex marriage are okay.
The California Education Code already requires that health education classes instruct children about marriage. (§51890)
Therefore, if the definition of marriage is changed, children will be taught that marriage is a relation between any two adults. There will be serious clashes between the secular school system and the right of parents to teach their children their own values and beliefs.
2. Churches will be sued if they refuse to allow same-sex marriage ceremonies in their religious buildings that are open to the public. Ask whether your pastor, priest, minister, bishop, or rabbi is ready to perform such marriages in your chapels and sanctuaries.
3. Religious adoption agencies will be challenged by government agencies to give up their long-held right to place children only in homes with both a mother and a father. Catholic Charities in Boston has already closed its doors because of the legalization of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts.
4. Religions that sponsor private schools and which provide housing for married students will be required to provide housing for same-sex couples, even if it runs counter to church doctrine, or lose tax exemptions and benefits.
5. Ministers who preach against same-sex marriages will be sued for hate speech and could be fined by the government. It has already happened in Canada, one of six countries that have legalized gay marriage.
6. It will cost you money. A change in the definition of marriage will bring a cascade of lawsuits. Even if courts eventually find in favor of a defender of traditional marriage (highly improbable given today’s activist judges), think of the money – your money, your church contributions – that will have to be spent on legal fees.
And think of all the unintended consequences that we cannot even foresee at this time. Where will it end?It’s your children, your grandchildren, your money, and your liberties.Lets work together to protect them

Everyone from California, make sure you vote!

What is wrong with this picture?

Ok honestly. This is on the window outside of Blockbuster in Provo:


If you can't read it, the sign says that the there is not a lot of money in the store, and the managers do not have keys to the safe. The sign is about 3 times bigger in Spanish than in English. Is this illegal???

A Tribute

About a month and a half ago, when I got home from Hawaii and was about to leave to start summer school here in Provo, my parents bought me a brand new 2008 Nissan Sentra in the blue color shown in the picture (I need a picture of my actual car!)


It is seriously the cutest car ever. The blue is a fabulous color and the tan interior looks great. It has the keyless entry (which is amazingly awesome) and it has bluetooth (which is also awesome). It also gets pretty good gas mileage, which is the best because I definitely cannot afford a large gas bill. It even has a cute Hawaiian flower sticker on the back window :)

I am sure there will be lots of fun times in my car this fall and I can't wait! But, the car is still nameless. I am waiting for the perfect name to come to me...you can't rush these things.

So I just want to say THANK YOU to my wonderful parents for this tightest car around.


Side Note- The other day in one of my classes, a girl said that her dream car was a Nissan Sentra (not even joking). So maybe she doesn't know a whole lot about cars, but it made my day!

Olympics

The TV in our apartment has been permanently set on Channel 5 (NBC) since the opening ceremonies. The Games have been awesome so far! My favorite event is gymnastics- but I mean, who doesn't love gymnastics? My second favorite event would have to be just checking out the hot athletes :)

Oh Michael and Alexander.


GO TEAM USA!

Dawn has Broken

Last night at midnight, I finished the 4th book in the Twlight series: Breaking Dawn


Of course I have to add my thoughts on it. First of all, I am extremely sad that it is over. But I thought this book was a great way to end. I felt like Breaking Dawn (BD) was written a lot differently than the first 3...I can't explain it, but it just seemed different. Anyway, I loved the wedding and honeymoon chapters (p.s. I now have very high expectations for my own of both haha) but when Bella got pregnant, thats when things got weird. I definitely wasn't expecting it, and it first it just weirded me out. And the section where Jacob was telling the story bugged me. I wanted to know what was going on with Bella and why she was acting so anti towards Edward! (Speaking of Edward, I am sick of his male PMS- but he is still perfect). And then when Jacob imprinted on Renesmee (ugliest name ever?!?) I almost had a heart attack. It was a little disturbing to me, but I started to get used to it. The end of the book was anti climactic! They spent so much time preparing for the Vulturri to come, and at the end its just happily ever after! That was lame to me. I feel like someone important should have died or something to make the ending a little more real. Even though nothing bad happened at the end, I cried. The part where all the vampires were preparing to say goodbye to their mates just got to me. At the point, I really thought that there was going to be a fight and some of the characters would die. But hey, I was wrong.

All I can say now is...I cannot WAIT for the Twilight movie to come out!

12/12/08 baby! I think the whole cast is perfect! (except the guy playing Edward- of course, I mean finding the perfect Edward is literally impossible)
YAY!

a couple of things

First of all, Happy Birthday Dad! I love you!

This weekend was fabulous- so very relaxing! I have to give credit to my teachers for that, since they decided to be nice and give me no homework. Oh sure, I have a paper looming over my head, but I still have a week and a half to worry about that :) And also, one of my best friends ever comes home next month and I am so excited!
We had a ward activity yesterday, in which the most embarrassing picture of me ever was taken. And for some reason I am sharing it with anyone in the world who has internet access.


Oh yes. Part of an obstacle course, and about 2 seconds after this, I completely ate it. Ouch.


Second of all, I decided that I will marry Chris Brown.





I need you boo, oh, I'm into you and no one else but you, what I feel when I'm with you. It's like I waited my whole life for this one night. Cause we only got one night, dance forever. (And of course) He's got tons of friends and nothing but ladies calling!

You should see him dance. Whew. Too bad Rihanna is so gorgeous and I am so white.

I just want to say...

that this.... should be illegal. Versace, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?

if you are wondering how I found this image, I read an article in the online New York Times about how "short suits" are becoming stylish for men. Soon they are going to be wearing man skirts!

Quote of the Day

I was listening to a talk by John Bytheway this morning and he said something really cool:

"Whenever we use another person's reactions towards us as the sole measuring stick for our self worth, we climb aboard a roller coaster with an endless track of ups and downs."

This is so true! What came to mind is how I am when I am interested in someone; I get the perception that my day is only good or complete if the guy calls me or talks to me, and that a bad day is when I don't get exactly what I want from the guy. It can really take over my life! Plus it gets so exhausting and is just not worth it. The way someone acts towards us should never make us feel worse about ourselves. "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."

Chuggin Along

This week was pretty adventureous, I went to work, went to a service project, went to school, got 100% on a sign language midterm (self-cheer!), and Friday was payday, which was beyond awesome.

On Friday I went to see Batman- The Dark Knight...

...which was awesome. It was the only movie I have ever been to where the entire movie theater was absolutely silent the whole entire time. I have never been so tense during a movie in my whole life. There were a lot of amazing stunts, and interesting moral dilemmas that make you think. Heath Ledger was chilling as the Joker. The worst thing though, was that my roommate was spending the night somewhere else that night so I was home alone and was scared to turn my light off haha.

While I was in Hawaii, I found this list that caught my interest. It is the Time Magazine All-Time 100 Novels. I decided I want to read all of them- I love to read, and have read a ton of stuff, but I think I need to branch out to more intellectual books, rather than the little cute and funny love stories I am usually drawn to. I went through the list, and I have already read 7 of them (yeah, not very impressive). I went to the library and I am now reading "Play It As It Lays" by Joan Didion, which will make number 8. It's something I would never check out on my own, and I am excited to read great books from the list. ( http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/the_complete_list.html )

Shout out to my little sisters Haley and Hannah who sent me letters in the mail and I loved them!

Sprunch!

Happy Sunday everyone! I really enjoyed church today, every hour was great! And I pretty much love having church at 1. It is late, but I love being able to have time to sleep in AND take a shower in the morning and get ready.

I go to the MTC on Saturdays to volunteer at the TRC, which it the Teaching Resource Center. I act like an investigator and the elders teach me. They give you a paper that tells you who you are supposed to be and what your background is with the missionaries. I ask questions about the church, stuff like that. It's actually pretty realistic...they even have the rooms set up like a living room.

Yesterday I was a women who was investigating the church with my husband, and we had been taught for a couple weeks by the missionaries but were having problems with the Word of Wisdom. The elders that were teaching us (wait pause for a second- one of the elders assigned to teach in the room I was in was in my ward last year and we worked together! crazy!) anyways the elders teaching us told us to read Alma 36:3. I am sure I have read the scripture before but it had such an impact on me yesterday! I am really glad I go to volunteer there because I always grow from the great lessons the missionaries give!

It is also crazy to see guys that I knew last year, now serving as missionaries in the MTC...can make for a great awkward moment haha!

No class on Fridays

I absolutely love starting my weekend on Thursday nighs. Today I just worked from 10-3, the whole time pretty much typing every single word from a chapter of a book into a word document. Yeah I started to feel the pain.

Major thanks to my sister Emily who gave me her i-tunes gift card, which made it possible for me to buy the new Relient K album! They have been one of my favorites since high school, when I get hooked on the "mmhmm" cd, and the new album has a lot of cool songs- yay! Another song I bought is "Free-Fallin", the live version by John Mayer, which is awesome.

We had a ward activity watching a movie on a projection thing outside. It was pretty cool.

Yes, apparently I cannot let go of Hawaii because I am wearing the Hawaii shirt haha.

Back from Hawaii!

I just got back from Hawaii! I went for spring term at BYU Hawaii with some girls I met in the dorms! So I was a slacker while I was there and didn't post at all! Here are some pictures that highlight my term there:


My friends and I bought these shirts at the Swap Meet- Ok very senior trip-ish, but they were only $3 and we just couldn't resist a photoshoot at Sunset Beach (my personal favorite beach on the island of Oahu) at sunset on our very last night!

Vanessa and I doing the classic tourist hand gesture

Skydiving! The only thing to say about that is AWESOME! And the tie dye was awesome as well, and a little obnoxious to everyone else haha.

Vanessa, Megan and I at Waimea! Super fun beach- and of course we jumped off the big rock. I have to admit, it took a LOT of coaxing from my friends to get me off the rock and into the water!

Courtney and I on THEbus- that's what the public bus system is called there. It was our main mode of transportation (besides when we got lucky and were able to hitchhike- which was a lot) but I swear I spent more time on the bus than in class!

At Bikini Beach! It is right across from the PCC and super close to our house, so we went here almost every day. And it isn't a super nice beach so the tourists stay away and we usually had it all to ourselves!

Our house! We lived in the one on the right. I take comfort in the fact that I will never have to live in a place this gross/run down ever again!

This picture just screams Hawaii! This is at Pearl Harbor

So yes, I miss it. And my fabulous tan is fading, which is oh so sad.

Now I am back in Provo going to school for summer term! I am loving it so far! My new ward is great and all I have to say is I do not miss freshman boys one bit! I just got a job at the religion department doing some top secret projects- haha hardly, but it is fun. My classes are going great- I absolutely love only having 3 to worry about!

"You can't use a headache as an excuse!"

Slowly but surely, finals are approaching. The end of my freshmen year of college is in sight! It is weird to think that a little less than a year ago, this is what I was so focused on.

But, I am definitely feeling the heat right about now. Yesterday I had about a million things to do, job interview, sign language presentation, class, and then I worked until midnight. I had a lab report due the next day...which of course I hadn't started yet. So then I was up until about 3, part of it talking to my roomate and other girls on my floor :)..hey, it's the dorms. So getting up at 9 this morning wasn't very fun. I have no idea how I ever got up at 5 in the morning for seminary. If I get up any earlier than 8 here I am dead. Then again, what would it be like to go to bed before midnight?

Today is Wednesday, meaning mission calls come for boys that live around here. A couple of my friends got theirs today, and it's just crazy that everyone is leaving! Missionaries seem to run the lives of us girls at BYU. Every girl I know has a missionary or has a boyfriend or good friend who is about to leave on a mission. It's so sad :(

But for now, tests are calling. Yes, tests right before finals, which are next week. WTF mate?

It must be time...

Well, I decided to start my own blog. I mean, finals are coming up, and I don't have enough websites to procrastinate on, so I decided to add another one to the list! I have been stalking peoples blogs for forever, so now at least I am slightly legit, right?