The Aspen Grove Saga

Most of you know..

Aspen Grove decided to hire me after all,

 so I'm headed there for the summer.

Hopefully I love it, or don't hate it terribly.

Its funny, because I gave a talk on faith in Church on Sunday and a large portion of it was on my summer plans and Aspen and getting the job. A girl came up to me afterwards, she was just visiting the ward that Sunday, but she told it was her roommate that dropped out of Aspen Grove at the last minute. For a month, she just felt like it was the wrong thing to do, but she didn't want to back out of her commitment. She decided she needed to though and quit this week. So when Aspen called me, (for many of the same reasons as that I girl) I intially said no. My mother and sister and roommates, and their mothers and my brother and the mayor, and my brother in laws ex-girlfriend's mother thought that it was stupid that I said no. I really did want to work at Aspen instead of the school, so I called them back and asked if I could take the job! They had already offered it to someone else, but if that girl said no I got to have it! So I waited for an entire day, and got the job! I do believe it was meant to be!

Also, I really do believe this is what I'm supposed to do, but  I'm just real nervous about how all of it is going to go down. I'm also a little sad I don't get to stay with my parents, brother, sister and brother in law, niece, and grandparents. I also am going to miss out on a family reunion of epic proportions on the Lewis side. On the positive, I get to be nearer to my other brother, and sister and brother in law, and some of my other best friends.

So there are mixed feelings, but I thought I should update all of you (Russian) faithful followers, even if its sort of a ramble!

The Studio -- Summer Style!

This is just going to be a quick post about my recent adventures.  Stacey keeps leaving me alone for the weekends and each weekend she's gone I get new friends (although don't be fooled I miss her tons!). These new friends of mine are quite the adventurers so I'm turning into an adventurer as well... So here's a quick post of adventurous pictures. 

Adventure One:

Last week, a new guy in our ward offered to give us a ride a to Church, of course we accepted. This new guy decided we should leave a HALF HOUR BEFORE church started -- this was so new to us girls who usually on a good day leave five or ten minutes before the opening song.  We got ready so early in fact that we decided to do an in impromptu photo shoot. This is the best of the best. The old Studio 24 has been changed by our newest roommate Jessica -- in the yellow -- and we are so happy to have her!

Adventure Two: 

We have been meaning to make these shirts FOREVER! Now we are official members of an exclusive apartment! Its so fun to be exclusive you know?! Fan shirts can be purchased for a small price much later, after we've made these shirts super cool. We wore them to Ward Basketball -- and man did we look official! 

Adventure Three: 

I went to cheer on one of my friends in their intramural soccer game! They were loosing before I came, but thanks to my support they were able to tie it up 3-3 at the end! Way to go team! (I'm not sure if they have a team name.. but I was there!) My pickle juice was much appreciated! 

The Team Huddle! 

Adventure Four: 

I went to my very first concert! It was a free concert for an up and coming band that is in the final round of a contest that would give them a record deal and a cover on the front of Rolling Stone. They are pretty good and definitely worthy of a five-star rating! Vote here today and everyday till Friday -- on every browser and computer! 

My new friends! 

 The lead singer of the Fictionist! So good for the 'space rock' genre!

Adventure Five: 

My roommate Lauren took pity on me and took me along with her gang again, and it turned out to be SUPER fun!  

We first stopped by the Purple Turtle in PG, where their small shake is huge (and it was!), and their fries were pretty great too! 

Lauren, Dave, Elyse, and I!
(this picture was about the 50th reshoot -- its hard to aim a camera!)

The group headed over to Trafalga in Lehi, where we played mini-golf for a short time and rode a carousel for a long time. The guy running the carousel was from Alabama and he sang songs the whole time. We decided to join in and when we got off the ride (almost 45 minutes later), we had attracted quite the crowd of young'uns.  One stopped my roommate Lauren to say "That was SO fun!" She high-fived him and we were on our way!  

Our Wild Ride! 

The gang at Liberty Land! 

I will try to be safe in all future adventures, assuming that my last two weeks in Provo are adventure-filled and fancy free! 

Fire and Ice!

The weather in Provo has been hot and cold, sunshiney and snowy, delightful and dismal -- you get the picture -- so I decided to do a post to match -- that also happens to match my life recently! 

Icy Part of my life #1:

My super COOL little brother; you may not know this, but my little brother turns one year older -- the big eighteen-- on May 4th! I'm so proud of him, and since he recently had a great adventure he made the blog. 

Isn't he cool!?

Todd and I were the last two at home, and as such we spent a lot of quality time together. It was fun going to high school with him, and also being on the tennis team together. One of my Young Woman's leaders once told me she admired how Todd and I were genuine friends, because to tell the truth we really were! 

Todd and I hiking! -- We are the only children that have down this so far...
benefits of being the youngest I guess!

Sometimes I give Todd a hard time, because we are so different in a lot of ways. But sometimes it works better that we're different. For instance Todd doesn't care that much about which movies we watch, and I really do (same for music). Sometimes I get mad easily (especially when I wake up unexpectedly-- just ask Todd), and Todd rarely ever gets mad! I also tend to be a bit dramatic, and Todd is very mellow. So when I'm freaking out about something, Todd will usually tell me to calm down. It's great! 

Trying our best to be ranchers! :)

He's my favorite little brother and the best kid ever! (and he's single ladies!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TODD!

 In fact, he's so cool that he recently won a popularity contest and didn't care. However, since I'm his sister I cared A LOT!

Fiery part of my life #1:

The popularity contest in question was the junior prom court, which Todd won! I was SO SO SO happy for him. He couldn't care less, in fact Todd wasn't even going to prom. No worries though, because two excited sisters and a mother all came together to pick out an appropriate non-tux outfit, a boutonniere, and to take (and post) these wonderful photos. You may ask why this is fiery -- well my friends -- check out my smokin' little brother! (He's so anti-establishment and above this high school thing that he yawned TWICE while he was up there... He's just that cool!)

Fiery and Icy parts of my life #2: 

Last night I went to a giant pit in the ground at undisclosed location. At the giant pit in the ground, my friends through things. The dry-ice bombs were anti-climatic, but the fiery ones were bomb (pun intended). I don't have many great videos of them, because I was either scared of losing my life (i.e. I was on the edge of the pit), or my camera (i.e. it was safely tucked away in a pocket.) It was a little nerve-wracking because it was mostly guys out there and they were crazy! One exciting thing I did was fire-breathing. See the video below for that too! And concerned sisters, aunts, grandmas, and mothers -- don't worry I was very safe the whole time! -- The icy part of this? It was FREEZING COLD by the time we left -- still fun though .. just cold! 

Made it out of the Branbury -- alive and unscathed! (That's where we met up!)

I drove with Derrick, and because he was in charge of this shin-dig we had all the gasoline with us! Tons  bottles were full! Thankfully, he drove carefully and we didn't die in a fiery car-crash!  

Just so you know, the reason I ducked down after was because of all the powdered sugar in my mouth.. not for any dangerous-I-got-hurt reason. I was super scared of walking over the grate because I was so worried about falling through the holes, so assumed the role of damsel and distress and all my friends were able to help me get around safely!

Pretty cool eh!?

Calm and great part #1:

After all this excitement, a great Fast and Testimony Meeting and other meetings at Church were a wonderful calm in the crazy summer of Frunning! 

Welcome to the Summer of Frunning!

Hello everyone, and welcome to summer!

I realize that some of you may be in school still, but I am done and have been that way for a week.

I have done almost nothing since that time, which would be distressing if I hadn't come up with my summer resolutions! I skipped New Years Resolutions this year, so this is the perfect time and I've even coined a catchy name for my summer:

The Summer of Frunning.

Step One in The Summer of Frunning is: 

Fruit

If you know me.. you know that I am probably one of the worst eaters in the planet. I'm too picky, and WAY to unhealthy.  I don't plan on becoming a no-sugar, no fat vegan this summer, BUT I have decided to incorporate at least one piece of fruit a day into my diet. So far this week, I have had an apple everyday! 

Eating apples is easy to do when you go for a walk, its warm outside, you have your sunglasses on, your hair is done, and you've just picked up three more books from your local library. You all should try it sometime. 

Step two in The Summer of Frunning is: 

Running

Again, those of you who really know me, understand my that I despise running. I have never been good at it, and I have always been slow.  I also don't plan on becoming some marathon runner over the course of this summer (or even the course of my lifetime, while marathon running is great.. it is not for me!), I do plan on running a 5K in the fall. My wonderfully athletic and fit roommates are big runners, and I was recently inspired by Miss Cammie Marler's 11 mile run, so I decided that I would jump on the band wagon! I have decided to RUN! I have found my training schedule and I have been running twice this week, as my schedule demands. Soon you may see me as the girl above, running happily with my hair blowing all around. Or maybe (and more likely), I'll just be a girl running slowly but steadily across the 5K finish line with her hair a in a sweaty ponytail, begging for water. Who knows?

Step three in the The Summer of Frunning is: 

FUN!!!!

Which if the picture above is any indicator, shouldn't be much of a problem!
That picture is the result of a prank-turned-flour-war. I highly suggest it!

p.s. did anyone check out the royal wedding this morning. me and one my roomies got up at three to watch it. also lots of fun! I hope you all got the chance to see it too! 

Happy EASTER!

Today I spent my first Easter away from home.

I know. What a big deal!!! (at least for me!)

I didn't want to wake up this morning with no new Church clothes (Lewis tradition), and come home from Church to Mac and Cheese or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, so I decided on Friday to make my own Easter celebration here in Provo! 

First off, I needed a new Easter outfit (probably a girl thing?).  I was able to convince my very pregnant sister to come shopping with me yesterday and got the cutest skirt and cardigan. I needed her enabling powers so it was a great to have her there! (Thanks Dawn! It was super fun!!!)

The next step to my authentic Easter celebration was a great dinner! My wonderful older brother took me over to Wal-Mart, and I got all the supplies! -- INCLUDING A HAM! 

After Church I got the gang together and we all pitched in to make the 

BEST EASTER DINNER EVER! The pictures tell it all:

Derrick and Lauren slaving away making fruit salad. (We had lots of fruit and Jello salads!)

Heather getting ready to make the potatoes!

 My main contribution was the ham! I've never cooked a ham before, so I thought it would be a bigger deal. For all you experienced ham cookers you know its pretty hard to mess up, as I discovered today, but I still felt cool and adventurous making it! 

Step One: Wrap up the ham in tin-foil!

Cook the HAM! Woohoo!

Then I got to slice it!

The group happy to have Easter away from home!

I think over all it was a great Easter celebration! We didn't have many talks in Church about Easter, but thanks to a great new lds.org, I was able to watch this talk this morning, and consider the meaning of Easter with this Mormon Message! I hope all of your Easter's turned out great, spiritual, and springy! 

This week keeps getting better!

 I just bought my TAYLOR SWIFT concert tickets.

So ladies and gentlemen -- on September 28, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. -- I will be listening to the lovely Taylor Swift.. in concert.. with my mother and sisters! I could not be more excited!!!!It will be my first ever concert and I get to see it with my favorite people! WOOHOO!

I looked for best available seats right at 10 when they went on sale and it wasn't pretty, so we'll be sitting in section 139, row 13, in the middle of the row.. Still I hope it will be good... 

Apparently Pre-Sale got rid of any of the super good spots! So we'll take what we can get!

Another Check for my Bucket List!

I thought the most exciting part of my day would be opening the door for Jackson Emery,

then I thought it would be seeing the entire basketball team going down the hall!

Then I got home from the library, and went over to a guy's apartment in my ward,

and got CUT BY A MACHETE.

Here you can see the serrated edge of the machete -- I was rubbing my thumb along the sharp edge which is a little less visible...

and yes the red stuff dripping down my thumb -- is gushing (not to overstate it) blood.

Sorry for the blurriness of the photo, but it was all so exciting!

After the nurse in my ward came over (pictured in blue) and put pressure on if for 

15+ minutes -- it eventually stopped bleeding.

What you can't see in the above photo was the five other people staring at me and 'encouraging' me.
It was nice to be loved, but as most people on here know I cry in ANY stressful situation -- and I was close to crying once or twice. Thankfully, the encouragement was SOMETIMES distracting.

Pray that I won't need antibiotics and or a tetanus shot 

(seriously -- I don't want an ER visit if at all possible).