Okie NOT out of Water...

Last Saturday our singles branch spent the day at the lake! We were out on a boat for about 4 hours, and I waterskied for about 7 minutes. Only one of us (not me) had ever skied before, so needless to say, everyone took a good chunk of time. Unfortunately, due to my mad skills, I got up on my second try and made two good runs before passing my life jacket to someone else.



This photo was taken by one of the girls on another boat. She must have caught me between all the awesome tricks I was pulling!

Big News!

Due to my lack of hobbies and abundance of horrifying dating stories, I've created a blog (mainly for my own therapeutic purposes) dedicated to the sharing of past experiences. The link to it can be found in the righthand sidebar for anyone looking for shameless mocking of the opposite sex.

Everything's Up to Date...

I spent this last weekend in Kansas City! What a lovely adventure it turned out to be! Let me tell you about it. I would have included some pictures, but can you believe I forgot it?!!

Friday after work around 2pm I set off for the great journey. There is very little excitement to this portion of the story apart from a power steering incident in the middle of a roundabout. (The road turned but my car wouldn't.) I stopped for a large Diet Coke about 1/4 of the way there, then again 3/4 of the way there to get rid of it.

My brother Andrew took me to a baseball game Friday night(the Kansas City T-Bones: an independent league) and luckily for us it was Elvis night!! Apparently that means that an Elvis impersonator would serenade us between innings. The T-Bones pretty much rocked it. The Omaha coach was thrown from the game for some inappropriate outbursts and nagging of the umps, which was quite a little show, and some guy got hit in the face with a foul ball. What a game!

Afterwards we headed to Dave and Buster's (where I had the best salmon I've had in my life...and I've had some!) We decided to play some Hot Shot (that arcade basketball game where the hoops are linked so you can compete with each other.) As it turns out, I'm not bad at it! A large, black fellow and his lady were playing with us for the first few games. After I won the first game he said, "Oh no! I ain't gonna let some little blondie white girl beat me." He did win one, but I think I won the rest. Andrew wasn't too bad either. ;o)

Saturday morning was supposed to be spent getting ready for a bridal shower that afternoon, but since I was staying with two bachelors, a grocery intervention was in order. We ran to Wal-Mart for all the food we would need for the weekend... and a hair dryer, since I had apparently not brought mine. I was still able to get ready for the shower and get where I was supposed to be on time. (Note to self: Google Maps does not always take road closures into account. Be ye warned!)

The shower was a lot of fun. The girl that threw the shower seemed to feel the same way about them as I do. The games were simple and short... food and presents were the main focus. I learned at this point that there will be 8 bridesmaids in this wedding. EIGHT! (Note to self: Elope.) I still haven't found a dress for it.

Saturday night was an 8 stake singles activity involving inflatable games, an outdoor dance, and BBQ. Sound weird? I thought so, but it was actually a lot of fun. I ran into a few folks I already knew and had a good time. We went out to Denny's afterward (which took forever and a lot of wrong turns to find since none of us were from around there.)

Sunday was lovely. I went to Andrew's ward (after he left me directions since he had meetings beforehand.) I learned a valuable lesson. If you want your new shoes to be noticed, you shouldn't wear them where nobody knows you. The big debut won't get the attention it deserves! One girl did comment on how much she liked them, but it wasn't quite the same. Not a lot of excitement in this portion, except for when my sacrament cup sprung a leak and dumped 50% of its contents onto my skirt before getting to my mouth.

After church, we headed to the visitor's center in Independence, MO to check out the Reflections of Christ exhibit that was in town. Very cool. Then home to make snacks and for the gathering that evening. Andrew had invited some of his friends over to play games while I was in town. Lots of fun! I found out that he's taught them to play Pit, which a few of them seemed pretty excited about. I hoped the fact that I won wouldn't keep me from making friends.

Great trip! Had a fabulous time. I think I've told you just about all of it. Except of course that my car stopped functioning somewhere near Riverton, KS on the way home and had to be towed while Mom and Chris came up to get me, meanwhile I waited inside the Spring River Assembly of God with Pastor Gretta. The End.

Rises and Falls

I'm a big fan of So You Think You Can Dance. That's not actually what this post is about... I just thought it would make an interesting opener. Anyway, one of the dances they draw on that show is the Viennese Waltz. This dance is known for its rises and falls. Today I must have drawn the Viennese Waltz.

I woke up as usual at 4:53am, said my prayers, rolled out of bed (in that order), and headed for the shower. I'll skip ahead a little. I got to work just as the world's most beautiful sunrise was occurring. I would have alerted you all, but I doubt you would have appreciated it.

I soon remembered that it was payday! Sure enough..there in my box were my checks. With my checks this week, however was a lovely yet official letter informing me of a small raise in wages and commission rate, as well as a short note of gratitude for pulling some extra weight. Oh, the fabulosity of being appreciated!
Naturally the rest of the morning went beautifully as I was now in a remarkable mood. At one point we received a marketing call that also happened to be my friend Derek. Serendipitous.

On the way home from work (lunch time) I stopped by Subway for some $5 footlong action. Of course, my absolute favorite sandwich is not available at that price, so I paid an extra $1.50. While the stranger in plastic gloves was preparing my toppings, I noticed two young police officers at the table in the corner.
***Important Interruption***
A few months ago, a woman that works out at Curves tried to set me up with her friend who is a police officer. This never occurred as he expressed (without knowing me) that he was completely uninterested in going out with me. Since this incident, I try to look painfully attractive around police officers.
This was difficult in this situation as I was in cutoff sweats and a t shirt with yesterday's hair nastily tied back, but I did what I could and put a little sass in my step on the way out.

After lunch I got some painting done, then headed out to enjoy some sun. The pool was about 104 degrees Celsius (slight exaggeration) so I planted my floatation device awkwardly in the middle of the grass and took in some vitamin D for about 15 minutes before realizing how ridiculous I looked/felt. Nobody could really see me, but I'm sure the angels were snickering. Mom had the idea of washing the cars since I was in my bathing suit -- Genius.

After a shower and some serious primping, I headed out in my newly-washed, shiny car to visit with a few friends before catching a show. This would be a good place to interject that my hair looked remarkably awesome for such a humid day. The visit was lovely and long overdue, but did make me late for the show. I got to the theatre about five minutes into the movie (Up) but did not let this deter me from getting a Diet Coke. The fact that this theatre only carries Pepsi products did, however. I settled for a mediocre beverage then headed in. Cute flick.

All available options for activities after the show seemed unappealing for one reason or another, so I stopped by the store and headed home. Something must have happened at some point because by the time I pulled into my driveway, half a bag of miniature candy bars was missing and had been replaced by empty wrappers. Don't look at me!! I don't know!

Anyway-- I realized that after all that preparation I spent the evening in the dark. I hate wasting good hair.

Very Superstitious

So I was sitting here gazing at my lame, out-of-date blog wondering what I should write next when I noticed it was 11:11pm. Here's something some of you may not know about me: I am a compulsive wisher. A flood of thoughts came to my mind and I thought I would share with all of you (as unlucky as it is) the first ten in the series of things that I wished.

I wished:

1. that the back bedroom of my parents house would paint itself so I could move in.
2. that I could afford not to live in my parents house.
3. that I would get a new job that paid more.
4. that my current job would pay me more so I wouldn't have to get a new one.
5. that I didn't have to get up so early for my current job tomorrow.
6. that I hadn't had so much caffeine that I was still awake at 11:11pm.
7. that I had MORE Diet Coke right this second.
8. that more Diet Coke really could solve any and all of my problems.
9. that I had MORE Diet Coke right this second.
10. that I hadn't looked at the clock in the first place and had gone to bed so as not to waste any further time on this nonsense.
11. ... I only promised ten.

My Favorite Men

I was clearing off the memory card in my camera today and found a few photos of a couple of my favorite guys. I definitely thought they were worth sharing with the world! World... you're welcome!

My dad:

Wittling his waistline with an Amazing Hoop!

With hairy feet from the Shire....

My nephew Seth:

Cute as a bug!

There's a face I miss!!

And "that's how it means!"

YSAs looking for ECs in AR

So last weekend we had an 11 stake young single adults conference at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. I will proceed to tell of the heights and plights of the weekend.

Friday:
I took Friday off and spent the morning getting the house ready to be left alone, and the rest of the day preparing every needful thing for the trip. Around 4:30, my friend Dallas showed up to carpool and we were on our way (after stocking a cooler with caffeine free Diet Coke!)

After taking a windy path through podunk Oklahoma and getting caught in traffic just outside Springdale, we finally made it to our hotel in time to change quickly and get to the Sheri Dew fireside ten minutes late.

Following the fireside was a dance. Luckily, I was feeling extra cute with my curly hair. Danced some. Met some folks. Got back to the hotel late, but had plenty of time to get in our pajamas and make a Taco Bell run.

Saturday:
Saturday morning we had to be dressed, cute, and down at the University by 8:30 for all the opening what not. Sheri Dew then spoke again to all of us (but much was repeated from the night before.) The most enlightening part of that meeting was when a YSA asked how they should decide on a career and the stake president suggested that your career is not what defines you. I liked hearing that.

After the morning fireside we went to a workshop, lunch, then another workshop. The first workshop we chose was entitled "The Woes and Wows of Dating." I must say I was more woed than wowed. Not that it was bad... just very disjoint and not actually applicable to dating. oh well. Lunch was wonderful, of course (aside from the perfectly good cookie I dropped on the gym floor. I may have eaten it anyway. Don't judge.) The next workshop was about Unity and was actually pretty good!

We had three hours of freetime which we spent playing volleyball with "new friends." Lots of fun. Met some more people. Then our branch met back in the gym to "decorate" for the dance that night. The gym was HUGE and nearly impossible to decorate with our cliche theme -- Luau. I think we pulled it off nicely, though.

Then dinner. Then getting cute again. Then another fireside (which was wonderful). Then another dance! This dance was much better ventilated than the first, and much better attended. Met some more people.

Of course we stopped at Wendy's on the way back to the hotel.

Sunday:
Sunday morning we had a testimony sacrament meeting at a fancy hotel in Fayetteville. What we didn't know is that the testimonies would be by invitation. Naturally I was one of the 15 out of 600 that was chosen to share my testimony in front of EVERYONE. (I'm not good at sharing feelings, and I'm REALLY not good at speaking publicly. Naturally it was horrifying.) I felt a little embarrassed, but I suppose it went just fine. I was proud of myself to getting up at all.

After that meeting we had two more fantastic speakers, then were given sack lunches for the drive home. Since our stake has no YSA representatives, Dallas and I were asked to attend a meeting afterward with the reps from all 11 stakes. Hopefully we'll be able to have more joint activities in the future.

GREAT weekend (even though it produced a boring blog.) Learned a lot and met lots of folks. (Plenty of new Facebook friends...even if I didn't meet the love of my life! :o) )