If everybody else jumped off a bridge, would you?

Apparently I would. Yesterday, for a friends birthday, a group of us went up to Monkey Bridge. Once we got there, we jumped off. This later resulted in a gihuganatmous bumpy bruise, my eardrum almost bursting, and a nasty sunburn. But talk about an adrenaline rush.

When we first got there, the boys of the group jumped off one by one. I knew that if I didn't jump off the bridge soon, I never would. So when another girl from the party stood at the edge of the bridge and asked me to go with her, I did. We counted down from 3...and jumped. 

I thought I was gonna hit the water a lot faster than that...Which was the worst part. I shut my eyes and plugged my nose. I probably shouldn't have done that so soon....cause I was gasping for air when I came up.  I'm happy to say that I did it, but I need to change a few things next time. 

1. Make sure that when you jump off, your body is completely straight. Do not land any other way. You'll get a bruise.

2. Don't hold your breath until right before you go into the water. It comes later than you think. 

3. Make sure you bring sunscreen. That helps. A lot. 

Team Gryffindor.

In high school, I was on the bowling team for 3 years. It. Rocked. And during my senior year, we even got 2nd in State. Nbd.

So you can imagine my excitement when one of my roommates told me that she needed people to be on her bowling team for one of her classes. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my glow in the dark hot pink bowling shoes or my bowling ball, Big Bertha.

Nonetheless, I'm on the team, which is Team Gryffindor. The players are Harry Potter (Lindsey), Neville Longbottom (Brianne), Sirius Black (Jessica), Ron Weasley (Parker), Professor Dumbledore (Adam), and Professor McGonagall (me). We all have matching T-shirts with our Harry Potter names, numbers, and quotes on the back and the Gryffindor crest on the front. We're legit. We're too legit to quit. We had our first game on Thursday and we totally won. 5 points for Gryffindor!

We Are Young. And Fun.

I love Rexburg, Idaho. It's a great place. Small, but great. My roommates are also great. In case you were wondering, everything is great.

Last weekend was one of the best weekends I have ever had. It was completed filled with fun and happiness. By the way, if you haven't seen the movie Jon Carter, don't waste your time. That was the only bad part.On Saturday was my roommate Lindsey's birthday! We all drove up to Idaho Falls. The first part of our adventure was iJump. That place makes you feel like you're 5 years old again. It's just a gihugantamous room full of trampolines. You can't help but try new tricks and laugh your head off as you try not to act as clumsy as you actually are. I failed at that. After that, we went to a restaurant called Snake Bite. Even the name of that restaurant makes me drool. I have never had a better burger and fries in my entire life. So. Good. If you ever take a trip to Idaho Falls, eat a burger at Snake Bite. The next part of our adventure was walking around the Idaho Falls Temple. It is simply beautiful. The flowers were blooming, people walked around with peacefulness and with smiles on their faces. I love the temple.

Well it was just a great weekend. And I think this weekend will be another good one. I hope you all have great weekends too!!

 

I Moved to Chicago.

I think everybody has tricked me into thinking I moved to Rexbug, Idaho when in reality I moved to Chicago, The Windy City. Yesterday was the first day of classes and I'm sure every other girl will agree with me when I say that I made sure my hair looked perfect, and when I went outside it turned out to just be a huge waste of time. In any other normal city the wind usually just blows in one general direction...this is not the case in Rexburg, Idaho. The wind blows every way possible. By the time I got to my first class, it was a rats nest. But other than the crazy wind, Rexburg is so great!

Being able to see my siblings and my niece is wonderful. I've gone out for ice cream with my sister and her roommates, had dinner at my brother and sister-in-law's house, and had an epic failed attempt at a sewing project. I love watching my cute little niece learn new things and look around at everything and try to figure out what the crap is going on. It is so easy to make her laugh, and her smile is extremely contagious.

So far, my second semester is turning out to be great.

Use The Force, Tyler.

While I have been home between semesters, I have been unable to get a job. So I have been babysitting as much as I possibly can. A lot of the time I get tired and have the kids play with their toys and with each other because I run out of the energy to play with them. Yesterday was different. Yesterday was epic.

I babysat three kids yesterday. They. Were. Awesome. The oldest, her name is Alyssa...so that just makes her awesome right there cause she has a cool name.

The youngest, Austen, he's three years old. I played with him while the two older kids were playing upstairs. He and I stayed downstairs because he was chasing the fly that was buzzing around the room. He would point to it while running around in circles after the little bug that was just out of reach. After a little while of this, I called him over to me and told him I was going to take a picture of him. So I held up my phone and he gives me a huge cheesy smile. I didn't even take a picture at first because I was laughing too hard at how stinkin cute he was. Then I finally took the picture and showed it to him. He pointed to it and said, "Cute!"

The middle kid, Tyler, well he's just great. At first he was a little quiet, but then when he got used to me he just wanted to play all day. He played by himself for a little while and then he came up to me and said, "You wanna play lightsabers?" How can you resist a cute little five year old boy who wants to play lightsabers?? So of course I said yes. Before we started, I thought this would probably only last about five minutes before he would want to play with something else...that was not the case. Our battle probably lasted a good half hour. I had the red lightsaber so I was the bad guy, and he had the blue lightsaber so he was the good guy. Let's just say it was an epic battle. We battled around the entire downstairs floor. He'd pretend to cut off one of my legs and then I'd pretend to cut off one of his arms. Throughout the battle, Tyler would thrust his hand to the air in front of me like they do in the Star Wars movies and say, "Force!" The first time he did this I didn't really know what to do...but I quickly caught on. When he did this a second time I mirrored his image and we would stood in front of each other, lightsabers in one hand, and using The Force with the other hand. After a minute or two, both of us would fall down because The Force was just too great for both of us. We did this many more times, and I wished someone had filmed it and sent it to George Lucas. He would've been proud.

A Great Opportunity.

This weekend was a great one. I was able to listen to modern-day Prophet's and Apostles. I was able to hear their direction and guidance for us. I felt so overwhelmed with their love for people and their concern for us. I was taught so many things that pertained to me. Every General Conference, I am always amazed at how it pertains to me and others around the world in their own personal way. I love that our Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, has a wonderful sense of humor and always manages to make the congregation laugh at every Conference. I know that so many lives were touched this weekend and I'm glad I had the great opportunity to listen to these amazing leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. So many things stood out to me this Conference and I loved every minute of it. 

These are some quotes that stood out to me:

"It is never too late to strengthen the foundation of faith." -Henry B. Eyering

"Allow Christ's Atonement to change your heart." -Dieter F. Uchtdorf

"Lives are better and much happier when we turn our hearts to Christ." -M. Russel Ballard

"Remove any of your fear with faith, and let God guide you." -M. Russel Ballard

"Never delay a prompting." -David F. Evans

Sounders Game.

Tonight my wonderful parents and I went to a Sounders game! I have never been before, so I was pretty excited. My mom had made us all scarves of the bright green and blue colors of our soccer team, Dad had his Sounders shirt, and I had a blue and green beanie. On our way there, my parents told me that the Sounders fans were a little different than Mariners baseball fans. I thought to myself, "How different could it be?" But when we walked into the stadium, all you could see in the stands was blue or green, and it seemed like everyone was yelling. Let me just say that the game hadn't even started yet.

It was almost time for the game to start. The announcer was saying each players name of the opposing team, and after each name, a loud "Boooooo!" came from the crowd. Then it was time for the announcer to say the names of each player for the Sounders. Before he did this, every single person who had been sitting down, now stood up. I think if anyone hadn't stood up...they would've gotten shot...These people were intense! Front and center of the stadium was a huge group of people that kind of resembled a pep band to me...only there were no instruments. For the ENTIRE game they were singing, yelling, clapping, jumping, and led the entire stadium in cheers for the Sounders. 

Whenever we made a goal, the crowd went wild. Seriously. Everyone cheered and high fived each other even if you didn't know who the person was that you were high fiving. And when the ref made a call against our team, I was a little afraid for him. People. Got. Mad. To say that Sounders fans are emotional about games would be the understatement of the century. 

Within ten minutes of the game, I would say about 90% of the people around us were already wasted. It was interesting to see grown men acting like they were six years old. The guy sitting in front of us was one of those men. He kept turning around and talking to us like we were best friends. He high-fived us, drank lots of beer, talked to us about how he needed a haircut, and cheered for the Sounders. Actually, he yelled for the Sounders. 

I'm a little embarrassed to say this, but I have absolutely no clue what the rules are for soccer. I used to like to play it in the backyard with friends until I had a bad experience that ended up with a smashed eye and a bloody nose that I thought would never stop. Let's just say that playing soccer isn't exactly a pleasant thing for me, what with my complete lack of hand-eye coordination. So I didn't really know what was happening the entire game until someone scored a goal. But hey, we won!