My Friends!

This is my gang I hung out with in highschool, well except for like one of the boys, but that's ok. Now, all the boys are on missions, one boy is in the Navel Academy, and I really only see one of the girls regularly, but I have been trying to stay in contat with the girl I don't see much anymore. Anyway, my friends are awesome, and I miss them all!

I have had a request from my Cousin, Willie, to update my blog everyday, even if I just blog about how well I slept the previous night, allthough I haven't even really been sleeping well lately because I feel like I can't get my mind or myself to relax. I am up to this challenge. The only challenge is that my week is so busy, yet I still feel like I have nothing to blog about. So if I ever have some way random blog, that makes no sense or is just pointless, you will know why. I realize I may miss a day here and there, but I will try my best to please Sir William.

Ranting.....

I haven't blogged forever.

We went to the first Utah home football game today. We lost 12 to 20, against Airforce, but it was still fun. Do you know Matt Osiada (I don't know how to spell his last name) from the Utes football team? He was our starting runningback this season, but he broke his tibia and fibia (the two leg bones of the lower leg) at our first game within the first minutes of the first quarter. He is out for the season which stinks for us. Anyways, he is in my health class, which is pretty cool. We were learning about stress management yesterday, and my professor asked us what kinds of things stress us out in our daily lives. Matt Osiada said, "Brokens legs" stress him out. It was funny. There are like 5 football players in my health class. They are huge.

Luke Nevel is extremely tall. He sat kind of by us at the game.

My junior swimmers, 6th graders and younger, stress me out. They are the biggest group of complainers in the world.

I'm really into the Goo Goo Dolls right now. They are awesome!

I miss my friends that I don't see much anymore.

I finally decided on a math minor.

School is good, but extremely tiring.

Gilmore Girls and Hannah Montana are the best tv shows ever!

What The Shrek?

Emily and I had and interesting Saturday night. We decided to make some more of our medley music videos. We had some technical difficulties, as you will encounter in one of the videos, but all in all they turned out pretty well.

Lunch, Hammock, Study

I enjoyed a nice lunch at school today, by myself of course. But I was quite amused by what happened. If you are familiar with the U of U, there is a very large grassy region by the union bulding. It is covered with tall, old trees, and it provides for a nice lunch area and reading. Well, today as I was eating, I glanced acrossed the way a little and saw a student fussing with a large blanket-like material. I thought he had brought a blanket to sit on while studying or whatever. I went back to reading. A couple minutes later, I look up again and the blanket material is suspended in the air between two trees. It was then that I figured out this was not a blanket. This student had brought a hammock to school with him to set up on the trees so he could take a nap in. It was the coolest idea I have ever seen! Man, I'm jealous.

Summer Lovin`!

Today is my last official day of summer vacatioin. I go back to school on Monday. I guess I'm ready to go back. At least it will get me away from the pool a little bit. (I'll still go to the pool everyday for work.) But I've actually decided that I have two pretty sweet jobs. With coaching swimming, and lifeguarding, I get to dress casual any time I want. I can wear flip-flops, sunglasses, shorts, heck I even get to wear a swimsuit for lifeguarding. What more could I ask for? But anyways, back to school. This semester I am taking psychology, health, environmental studies, and intro to visual arts, and for Institute I am doing the first half of D&C. Have you ever noticed that the last three letters of Institute are "UTE?!" I'm still not quite ready for school yet though. There are a couple more things I must get to be totally ready. This morning, I was up at the U with one of my good friends, getting ready for school. Being up at school made me excited to get started with it again.

I've had a pretty awesome summer. I've had fun in Yellowstone and Jackson Hole, camping, and backpacking. And of course, I've pretty much lived at the pool most of the time. But, I got a pretty nice tan from being at the pool so much. I really have had a fun time this summer, and for my last party of the summer, we are going to watch the premier of High School Musical 2 tonight, followed by a new Hannah Montana!

I Can See Clearly Now The Rain Has Come!

Wahoo! The four-month long fight is over. Megan and I are finally friends again. I am so happy! I didn't have a recent cool picture to put on here, so I though ya'll might to see what I call "Sweaty, hot, Lauren after her morning jog." It makes me laugh!

6 Months!

My best friend has now been out on his mission for 6 months!

Party Like It's Yo Birthday!

Emily had a little friend birthday party last night. It turned out to be a big success with some weird costumes from Nedgie Wedgie, some cool party hats, and a major water fight. We also had some "Tattoo Art By Lauren." Above are pictures from the wicked awesome party.

Weird Addiction

This summer, I have become addicted to chocolate soymilk. It is so good. I have shopped around in attempt to look for the best deal on chocolate soymilk, and it has come to my conclusion that Target is the way to go. Not only do they sale chocolate soymilk, but they sell it in "light," so there are less calories and fat and stuff like that. Plus, Target seems to have one of the cheapest prices, and if you buy the soymilk that is not a real brand, it is even cheaper.

Onions Make Me Cry

I was up at Park City this morning to coach a swim meet. When I stepped out of my car, I was taken in a fancy by how cool the morning air was. Down here in the valley, the mornings have been so warm. I am usually up by 6:00 a.m. everyday, and the temperature is usually in the high seventies. I have forgotten what a cool morning feels like until this morning. It wasn't cold, cold, it just felt really cool compared to the valley. It was a nice change.

This evening, my family and I had a little BBQ/picnic for dinner. I was chopping up some freshly picked onions, and, oh my gosh, I almost cried! Boy they were good onions, but the burning sensation in my eyes from the onion fumes were brutal on my eyes. Luckily I was the only one in the kitchen at the time!

Starry Boyfriend

"Starry Boyfriend." I read this word on a friend's blog, and thought it was good diction to describe the perfect boyfriend. It kind of made me chuckle.

I Need Super-Model Skills

Have you ever posed for a picture that you thought would look really good or cool or funny, but ends up looking retarded? And then the other person or people posing with you look perfect? Photography is an unfair subject I say. I guess it could also be the effect that this picture was a result of being stuck inside at a swim meet that was delayed by lightning last night. Hmm.

Love Them Mountains!

These pictures are of the small backpacking trip my dad, Emily and I took over the weekend. I am kind of a mountain freak, so I had oodles of fun. Emily had a really difficult time with all the bugs. She was positive that she was the only person in the entire Uintah mountains being attacked by flies. Anyways, we did alot of mosquito swatting and we even went fishin'! I can't wait to go again. Here are some videos I took of the trip as well.

Favorite TV Shows of All Time

In my 19 years, I have watched some pretty good shows on television. These are some of my favorites:

Recess


Arthur


Looney Toons (Bugs Bunny)


Full House


The Brady Bunch


Most of My Favorite Nickolodeon Cartoons


And my current favorite tv show, Gilmore Girls

Lazy, Crazy, Hazy Summer Days

Hiking was one of our favorite family activities in the summer. We use to do alot of it. And we always wore these cool, crazy-colored wind breakers. Most of our hikes were in the Uintah mountains, which don't seem to get too warm in the summer.

Basically anything with the word "swim" has always appealed to us, even if we had to swim in a dinky little pool in our backyard. It was still fun! But poor Emily was too young in this picture, and had to sit back there in her stroller. He he he!

This is me, trying to make my way out of Grandma's pool. It's funny that this pool seemed soooooo deep to me when I was little. I remember thinking that sharks lived at the bottom of the deep end.

Swimming at Grandma's in the summer, has always been a cousin favorite. We still have swim parties, just not as often as we use to.

This is the house we lived in a long time ago.

I went visiting teaching today. The lady we were visiting was telling us about the crazy things her kids have been doing this summer. It all brought me back to those lazy, crazy, hazy days of summer when I was younger. Our old house was in a circle, or coldisack (however that word is spelled). We were constantly outside playing with all the other kids in our circle. My best friend, whose name was Michelle lived in our circle too. Maddie was best friends with her older sister, Amanda. We had some theory going that Maddie and Amanda were the witches, and they became active whenever the dark clouds were out. Michelle and I were the princesses, and we became active whenever there were pink, sunset clouds. We liked eating raspberries off of Amanda and Michelle's raspberry bush. We loved jumping on the trampoline with sprinklers underneath. We loved riding our bikes around the circle as fast as we could, or until one of us wrecked. And of course we loved playing barbies. We did lots of crazy things, such as throwing pebbles at passing cars. (This however was not the best idea, and we got in trouble for it.) Sometimes we would pick grass, and make little bird's nests out of the piles we had picked. I remember one time, I snuck 2 eggs out of our fridge, and layed them in our grass. I had Amanda and Michelle convinced that they were turtle or chicken eggs, so Amanda cracked them open to check. On of our favorite things to do in the summer, was to set a tent up in the backyard and sleep in it. We would always get so excited and hyper while my dad would set it up for us. But Natalie usually chickened out and ended up sleepint in the house. And if we were not doing one of these mentioned crazy activities in the summer, we would be found swimming at Grandma's pool with our cousins!

RTOTD (Random Thoughts of the Day)

*Eighty-Eight degrees sounds so much cooler than 90 degrees, even though they are only 2 degrees apart.

*I often wonder what inspires Nedge to blog about some of the topics she blogs about.

*What if what we want in life, really is not what we want at all?

*I think seasons 2 and 3 are my favorite seasons of Gilmore Girls.

*I love the sport of swimming and I feel like I am never going to get away from the pool.

*I have recently become addicted to chocolate soymilk, and I really need to go pick some up from Harmons.

*It is funny to call "Harmons" "Hormones."

*I don't know.

*Why is the rum always gone?

Kiss The Tree!

In some of the recent comments ya'll have left me, Kristen mentioned a little phrase about "Kissing The Tree." I have had requests to further explain this, so here it goes. When I was in 10th grade, we watched this movie about bullies in my health class. It had actual footage of kids being bullied at recess. My favorite scene dealt with a group of girls. This group of about 5 girls were bullying another girl. They grabbed her, walked her toward a tree and began yelling "Kiss the tree!" They forced her head towards the tree, and made her kiss it. Well, I took this scene as something hilarious, and I began to make fun of it. It has been a little inside joke with the original rebel miamaids of the Prairie 8th ward for quite some time now. The next funny part of this, is that Jeff Tree's last name is "Tree." This makes it really funny to say "kiss the tree," if you know what I mean.

Love or Infatuation?

Lately I have found myself stuck pondering the thought of love and infatuation. Infatuation is a more a short-time obssessive crush on someone, while love is more of a long-term thing. But can infatuation lead to love? Is it ok to be infatuated, but inside really hope it does not lead you to love someone? I feel like love an infatuation are the most commonly mixed up emotions of people my age. What happens if a person becomes infatuated AFTER they have allready been in love? I think it is a scary feeling for that person, but perhaps it is a feeling that they long to have once again. I feel so naive. If only I could run in to a Love Doctor, then maybe I would not feel so confused or scared of what the love or infatuation outcome may bring. And now, a quote from the Beatles: "All you need is love. All you need is love, love. Love is all you need."

Two Jeff's? How Can It Be?

This picture is kind of hard to see, but it is really cool. Elder Larsen's sister e-mailed it to me today. This is Jeff Larsen, on the left, and Jeff Tree, on the right, at the MTC. This picture was taken back in about February, when both Jeff's were in the MTC at the same time. Cool, eh?

"The Horror! The Horror!"

My phone fell into the pool this morning. It is not working, but I am letting it dry out. Oh my lanta, I hope it will work again!

The Promised Hiking Technique Video!

In my last blog, I promised that I would post the hiking video Natalie and I made in Yellowstone. Here it is! Natalie is the star of this hot one!

Howdy Partner: Yellowstone and Wyoming!

My family and I just got back from an excellent vacation. We went to Yellowstone and to Jackson Hole Wyoming. Everything was awesome! Our vacation began on Thursday, June 7th, which happened to be my birthday. Our first major stop was the Idaho Falls Temple, pictured above. It was pretty, and we were able to use the clean bathrooms in the visitor center. The above picture includes Emily, my grandma Stapley, Maddie, Ben, and me. My dad and Grandpa Stapley were taking our pictures, and my mom and Natalie were wandering around temple grounds.

When we got to Yellowstone, we saw lots of animals. We saw like a buttload of buffalo. We even got stuck in a stampede of buffalo. There was a huge herd of them trying to cross the street, so we had to wait for about 30 minutes for them to move. We also saw deer, elk, a fox, geese, ravens, and we even saw a grizzley bear with 2 cubs, and chip munks. We also saw Natalie, she was quite the little animal.

This is me in the car, driving through Yellowstone on my birthday.

My sisters and me at Old Faithful.

There were all these cool painted buffalo all over West Yellowstone, Montana.

This is my famous "licorice smoking" picture. I think this was taken on Friday, as we sat through buffalo crossing traffic in the upper loop of Yellowstone.

Yellowstone lake was ginormous!

You are now looking at the Grand Teton Mountains in Wyoming. I love Wyoming! I always have, and I hope to live there someday.

Ben, Maddie, Natalie, Emily and I on a trail above the Yellowstone River.

These cowboy boots were the coolest decoration ever! This was at the Bar J Ranch in Jackson Hole, which was really neat. I want to live there so bad!

This is a picture of the Grizzly bear we saw in Yellowstone. You can't see them in this picture, but there were 2 baby cub bears following this mama bear. It was really cool to see a wild bear with her cubs!

This is a the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

These cowboys here are the Bar J Wranglers. They are a cool cowboy band in Jackson Hole Wyoming. They are at the Bar J ranch. When you go to this peroformance, you get a HUGE western dinner. I had BBQ Beef, and it was amazing! Then you get about an hour and a half of this hilarious and awesome western band. This was my kind of vacation!

I had a blast, and I wish I could go back. Before I end this blog, I have to document some conversations that happened on our trip:

Conversation 1:

Grandma Stapley: "I just wish I knew where we were."

Grandpa Stapley: "Well, we are in Yellowstone."

Conversation 2:

Ben climbs into the car

Maddie: "Ben you smell like a port-a-potty!"

Ben: " A port-a-potty?!?!"

Lauren: "Ha ha ha!"

Conversation 3: (this conversation occured many times with various members of our family)

Dad: "Look, there's a beaver dam."

Lauren: "A beaver what?"

Dad: "Dam."

I have a video Natalie and I made in Yellowstone on proper hiking technique, but it is not ready to put on here. I will put in on my blog tomorrow, so make sure you come back to watch it!

Marry Poppins For a Day

I have been so tempted, all day, to find an umberella and see if I could fly away in the wind, like Marry Poppins. It has been so windy today. When I was coaching my swimmers today, I thought I was going to blow away! There seriously could have been a tsunami in the swimming pools. At practice today, we video taped the swimmers' freestyles. Throughout the summer, we do this for every stroke for every swimmer. With this, the swimmers are able to watch themself swim, to see what mistakes they are making in their strokes. I remember being video taped when I was on the swim team. It really helps with technique, plus it is fun to see what you look like when you swim. Anyways, I got to be the camera girl. The wind was blowing like crazy, which was making the camera go crazy in my hands. The lane lines in the pool were being blown and swayed by the wind. It was quite the experience. The most exciting part was when I had to go chase the KYAT team roles when the wind decided to take them for a little ride.

Congratulations!

I just wanted to publically congratulate my bestest and favorite Natalie Edge (also known as Nedgie Wedgie) on graduating from pre-school....I mean high school today. Nedge is super awesome, super nice, super cool, super spectacular, and any other thing super you can think of.

I also want to wish my friend ShayLee good luck. She joined the Air Force and will be leaving shortly. We were able to go to her goodbye party tonight. I have known ShayLee since kindergarten. We were in the same class and I have pictures to prove it. It is way cool to see friends begin to make huge career decisions or mission decisions in their lives, yet it is soooooooooo hard at the same time when they end up having to leave for a while. Good friends are hard to find, harder to leave, and impossible to forget.

Summer Fun????

I have recently noticed that I have no life whatsoever. All I do is go to the pool. And after the pool, I come home and watch Gilmore Girls. I have been working a lot of double shifts lately, and I began to wonder why. I have never been one to be ok working a double shift. I think I have gone completely crazy. I've been out of school almost a month, with zero friends, since they are all still in high school, and I think I have reached the limit on the "Month Of No Life" scale. I'm not complaining about not having to stress over classes or homework. It has been nice to be away from school. But I have discovered that I really have no hobbies anymore.

I was inspired to make a "What I'm Going To Do This Summer:" list, by my sister's blog. But, not only do I have a "what I'm going to do" list, I also have "what I'm not going to do" list.

What I'm Going To Do This Summer:
*Coach, lifeguard, and do private swim sessions for my swimmers, and hopefully be able to make some good "Tuition and Book Paying Money" for when that time comes in the fall.
*Work Out.......at the pool. I can never seem to leave that place.
*Go to Yellow Stone with my family
*Celebrate my 19th birthday
*Hopefully be able to go coach a swim meet in Boise, which my hotel room will be free for me (sweet)
*Write my missionaries
*Do some hiking

What I'm Not Going To Do This Summer:
*Drugs
*Date
*Have a life away from the pool
*Date
*Sleep
*Date
*Join The Circus
*Date
*Attack my sisters
*Date

Emily and Malivanh: Rube Goldberg Machine

Judy

My mom told me to blog about how my aunt Judy use to sun tan on the roof of their house when they were little. She would always wear a bikini so that her stomach would get way tan. The only problem was that she only tanned the front of her body. The back of her was always white. Hi Auntie Judy!

Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life For Me!

I went to the midnight showing of the 3rd Pirates of the Caribbean movie last night. I thought the movie was awesome! Not only is it hard to get over Orlando Bloom as a pirate, but Johnny Depp was even more hilarious than in the first 2 pirates movies. I would definately recommend everybody see this movie. It is quite enjoyable. I can't say too much, or I'll give the movie away. Instead, just enjoy this lovely picture! Awwww!

Like A Buttload

I have like a buttload of stuff I wanted to blog about today, so I combined it all in one. Anyways, first and most exciting, one year ago today, Jeff took me to senior ball. But of course, one year ago today happened to be a Saturday night. This is our senior ball picture, which I happen to cherish. Elder Larsen is doing well. Him and his companion almost had a baptism a couple weeks ago, but it fell through due to some work schedueling problems. He is having a blast!

Next item of business to talk about is my bloody nose. I took this picture like the day after my bloody nose incident, just to let ya'll no that my nose still looked like a nose. I also wanted to answer some questions that were posted about my nose. First, Nicole's question: We are not quite sure why my nose started bleeding. It must have just dried out. Now to answer Haylie's question: Even though I had to get my nose cauterized, it could still bleed again. Since my nose bleed was such a bad nose bleed, if another good-sized nose bleed happens again, my doctor will have to do some blood tests to check my platelet levels, and stuff like that. I quite enjoyed my 2 hour nose bleed though. Though I was getting nervous when it was still bleeding pretty hard after about 4o minutes, I must admit, it was kind of cool.

My next blogging idea is that Emily and I took glamour shots today. It was very nice outside. Natalie was at YCL meetings and stuff, so I needed something cool to do with Emily. "Glamour Shots By Lauren" it was. Here are just 2 of the glamour shots we took.

Do you want to look like this? Cause for one time only, Lauren is offering 50% off a haircut. Oh, you allready get your haircut at the "Cuttin' Corall?" Ok.....

That's pretty much it for today. I do have some more sweet videos I hope to upload this week. These new videos include a new actress: Natalie Edge, also known as Nedge. These videos are about our tribal gathering we had in my backyard on Saturday night, and they will shortly be coming to a blog near you.

Noses.......What More Can I Say?

I have had quite a few requests to blog about my wonderful bloody nose experience I had yesterday. After much thought and consideration, I've decided to talk about it. Here is the situation:

I was at work yesterday afternoon, just about to give my swimmers a set, when out of no where, my nose began to drip blood. It was coming out quickly, so I rushed over to the lifeguards for some assistance, my hands covering my nose. My hands were beginning to hold quite a good amount of blood by the time the lifeguard got me some paper towels. I covered my nose with a huge wad of paper towels, and began pinching the nose bone to help slow the bleeding. The lifeguards gave me an ice pack to place above my nose to also help stop the bleeding. Nothing seemed to be working. The blood continued oozing out in large amounts, and the bio-hazard bag was quickly filling up with bloody paper towels. Our head coach took over my group of swimmers for me, thankfully. All my swimmers were staring over at me whenever they got the chance, which was quite embarassing. Then, all the little kids began to arrive at the pool for their practice time. They all surrounded me, which was very uncomfortable, so one of the lifeguards proceeded to move them away. After about 40 minutes, my nose was still bleeding quite excessively. I began to feel tired, weak, thirsty, and a little bit faint. My stomach was also cramping a little. The lifeguards provided me with juice and lolly-pops, to keep my sugar levels up. We tried many different tactics, such as shoving gauze up in my nose. Nothing was working. Finally, we called our head lifeguard boss, since she was not at the pool at the time. She told us to stick gause up under my upper lip, because there is a pressure point there. This helped a little. Our boss stayed on call to continue to assist us. I also had to have the lifeguard supervisor pinch my nose bone for me, because my hands were becoming to weak and shaky to squeeze. The lifeguards also applied an ice pack to the back of my neck, to help with the light-headedness, I guess. My fellow coach, friend, and lifeguard acted as my mommy in cleaning the blood off my hands and face, so I didn't look so gross. After about 45 minutes, my sister, who was one of the lifeguards helping me, called my parents. Though we were able to finally slow the bleeding somewhat, it seemed that the bleeding was not going to completely stop for us. So my dad took me to the doctor. When I got to the doctor, I had to wait in the waiting room for quite sometime. Finally, the doctor was able to see me. To stop the bleeding, he put a "solution" in my nose. After 2 straight hours of bleeding, it finally stopped. The "solution" didn't really hurt or sting my nose. It just felt wet. Then, my doctor had me pinch my nostrils shut, as tight as possible, for 15 minutes. After that one of his nurses came in to clean out my nose with saline drops. My nose was so congested with blood, that I could not breath through it until the nurse had cleaned it out. Once it was clean, my doctor was able to look in and find where my nose was bleeding from. He found that both nostrils were bleeding. He then cauterized my nose with silver nitrate. This burned alot, alot, alot! It made my eyes water and it made me sneeze like 20 times. That was a difficult task, trying not to sneeze while the doctor had sticks with silver nitrate up my nose. But, oh, it burned! It was all worth it though. My nose stopped bleeding, and I think my body was able to build my blood supply back up. The gross part is that I have been spitting up blood all day. You probably did not want to know that, but now you do, so ha! The blood spitting is nasty, but I am so glad I am on summer vacation and do not have to deal with any of this stuff at school. That would be yucky!

I would like to thank my Nedgie Wedgie for waking me up this morning to make sure I was ok. How sweet is that? Not many friends come to your house at 9:00 a.m. just to wake you up and see if you are feeling better. Thanks Nedgie Wedgie! You made my day!

Fixed!

If any of you have tried playing my videos I posted, and became upset because they didn't work for you, don't worry! I fixed them. Try playing them again. I think I made it so that they work.

Godzilla: By Emily and Lauren

Here is another one of our random movies. This one is an interview with a Japanese lady from Godzilla. Emily is representing the Japenese lady. We had to translate her Japenese into English. Muy Rica!

Nature Walk

Emily and I went on a nature walk in our back yard this evening. We even took a video of it. We made about 4 major motion videos. I will eventually upload them all to my blog, but for now, you should just enjoy this video of our nature walk.

How To Survive

I had a pretty exciting morning this morning. The best part was when I went back to high school. I'm kind of a nerd and I like to go visit my old high school teachers. My favorite to visit is my AP English teacher from last year. She is super smart, and makes her students work super hard, which is good because she really helps prepare students for college. She is a great person to go to if you need help planning out your day. For example: Over Christmas break, Jeff and I went to visit her. She planned our lunch for us. She told us to go to Jeff's house and have tuna fish sandwhiches. These plans never actually worked, because Jeff and I both had other things we had to do. But today, I think I got the best advice I have ever received in my life. This is what this English teacher told me to do today: "What else are you doing today? I think you should squeeze in a little nap. Have yourself a little lunch, and take a little nap. Oh, and have just a little cupcake." How random this was, but I love it! I did have a little lunch, and a little nap, but I didn't have a little cupcake, so that was kind of upsetting.

My AP English teacher done learned me English real good.

What Not To Say On A Date:

I discovered this pretty useful information from a pretty useful link today, and I thought since I have so many dates lined up each week, (notice the sarcasm in my voice) it would be pretty useful to know this stuff. Here's to all my single friends out there:

Say This: What do you do for fun?
Not That: What's your job like?

Say This: You look fantastic, (or handsome if you're a girl with dating a guy.)
Not That: Good to see you.

Say This: Got any cool summer trips lined up?
Not That: What do you want to do with your life?

Say this: How's next Thursday?
Not That: Up to anything interesting this weekend? Want to meet up again soon?

Say this: Where you headed for vacation? What's on your iPod? Read any good blogs lately?
Not That: Can you believe Sanjaya made it that far?

Baby Blessings And Testimony Meetings

Today, my cool cousin Annie and her husband Ross blessed their baby, Elliott. It was a very nice blessing. But it was the most interesting testimony meeting I have ever beheld. On girl got up, and started talking about her brother and all the bad stuff he was doing on weedends. She said that when she saw what she was doing, she was very upset. The question is: what was her brother doing? Then this other girl got up and started asking questions like: Have you ever made someone smile? Have you ever made someone's day? She then told a story of some girl in her math class. The two of them have had a really bad relationship. But one day, the testimony girl decided to compliment the other girl. She told the mean girl: "I like your shirt. It's really bright." The mean girl then smiled at the testimony girl, and testimony girl felt that they were beginning to create a strong relationship. We counted about four people who all said in their testimonies that they just moved into the ward. One of the funniest ones was this lady. She was sharing her testimony when all of a sudden she said, "my husband got me an i-pod with "To the music of my life" engraved on the back. Random! Oh man, I could probably go on forever. However, my cousin Annie and her mom both got up and bore their testimonies. Their testimonies were awesome, and I feel really greatful that I got to hear testimonies from people that I really look up to. After church, there was a luncheon at Annie and Ross's house. It was wicked awesome! I don't think I've ever enjoyed a luncheon so much before! Hope everybody has a great week, and just remember, I like all your shirts. They are very birght!

Who Dat Say'in Dem Cougars Ain't Bad?

We are the champions! Today was the state championship water polo game: Skyline vs. Kearns. The final score was 4 to 3. Kearns beat the crap out of skyline by one whopping point! It was so awesome! I was in charge of taking photos for Natalie. I am so happy that Kearns won the state championship. It was so exciting! Congratulations Cougars!
This is the Kearns girls team just before the game. Isn't it cute how they formed that little circle?

Watching the team win again this year, made me think back to my senior year last year, when we won state in water polo for our first time. Though I have never really been a huge fan of playing water polo, that championship game I played in really means alot to me, even though I bench-warmed most of the game. This is a picture for me and 2 friends at last year's game. I am in the middle with the darker blue cap.

Of all the pictures we took at the game today, this one is my favorite. Natalie Edge in the middle, Natalie my sister on the right, and me on the left. Natalie Edge is a senior this year, and she played amazing in the game. She is going to the U next year, and will be swimming with the Utes. I am so happy for her! And so excited that she will be at my school again!

I Like Big Butts And I Cannot Lie.......

This is what happens to the body during finals week. A student usually gains some ultra weight. You see, during finals week, you have to pretty much study your butt off, even though that does not appear to be the case in the above photo. Studying is a physically and mentally draining activity. In order to keep your body up with your brain, you must eat lots of snacks. Chips-Ahoy cookies are a given when studying for any test. I also found that Diet Coke, with caffine, became a part of my daily diet this week. But then, the body pays for the consequences, which I don't think I need to elaborate on. But, FINALS ARE OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh it is such a good feeling! I am FREE until fall semester starts. Man, I need to go work-out. Do you know how difficult it is to sleep with this butt?

Don't worry, I went on a thirty second diet. See for yourself.

Old Movies

I was trying to find a certain clip from the movie "Bye Bye Birdie." If you have seen it, I was looking for the clip when Kim and Hugo sing "One boy, one special boy," but I couldn't find it. I did find some other good stuff however. I found some sweet clips from "Bye Bye Birdie," "Beach Blanket Bingo," and "Grease." These are all cool, older movies. Don't you just wish highschool really was just a big musical like these movies convey it to be? That would be sweet! I remember being introduced to these movies by my cousins, Annie and Haley, when I was really young. I remember Haley would come over to babysit us, and she would bring "Beach Blanket Bingo" movies. We always LOVED that. I rediscovered my love for these musicals today. I guess you could call these movies "The Original High School Musical."

Bye Bye Birdie - Got A Lot of Livin`


Grease - Summer Loving


Beach Blanket Bingo - These Are The Good Times



Beach Blanket Bingo - New Love
I've always loved this song, ever since I was like 7 years old. I don't know why, it is just really good.

Good Morning!

Natalie and I both have our own bedrooms in the basement. We are basement kids. Our rooms are right next to each other, and some nights I can hear Natalie talk in her sleep, which can be very entertaining, yet very creepy. Anyways, this morning, I did not have to wake up early for school, since this week is finals week. But Natalie had to get up. When her alarm went off, it woke me up. But you won't beleive this: she got up, left her room, and also left her alarm clock chirping away. I don't know how you could leave your bedroom with your alarm clock still buzzing, and I don't know why you would do this. But whatever the reason, Natalie did just that. So her alarm clock is buzzing, and I can hear it. I don't want to get up and go to her room to turn it off, because I am comfy in my bed. I try to fall back asleep, hoping it will shut itself off. Well, I fall back asleep, and I start having dreams about the alarm clock. I had a dream the alarm clock was broken, and no matter what we did to it, it would not shut off. I wake back up. The alarm clock in the other room is still buzzing. "That's it, I've had enough," I tell myself. "I don't have to wake up early, so I want to sleep peacefully." I get out of my bed, put my slippers on, creep to Natalie's room, shut the dang alarm clock off, stumble back to my room, fall back into my bed, and fall back into a nice, relaxing sleep, with a sigh of relief.

Water Beetles

Eww! They are nasty, creepy little creatures. It is water beetle mania down at the pool. Water beetles like to hide in the lane lines of the outdoor pools. They always come out in the spring and fall. Today, as I was coaching, some boys on the swim team found a pretty big water beetle. They put it in a cup of water to keep it. What I hate about these creatures is the fun that all the swimmer boys have torturing the girls. They seem to have some strange amusement of sticking the beetle in a girls' face and listening to her scream. That's just what the discovery boys did. The threw the water beetle at me! Eww, it was so gross. But I don't scream. I have found that if you don't scream, the dumb boys' won't bother you anymore. But who wants a huge water beetle thrown at them? Oh, it about made me want to puke! It is 20 times more nauseating (I don't know how to spell that word) than the bathwater in "Encino Man." Ok, I'm getting sick just thinking about it. I can't believe I uploaded a picture of a nasty beetle onto my blog!

Birthday Couple.....awwww!

"Du-na-na-na-na-na-na, you say it's your birthday!" Today is Maddie's birthday. She is now 21. She is now legal to buy alcohol, and gamble. Man, what a good age to be. I'm pretty jealous. Ben's birthday is next week, May 6th. They are coming down to visit today, and we are going to celebrate both their birthdays at once. Sweet, eh? Ben is turning 23. They are pretty cool, and I'm pretty excited to see them.

Last night was a great Friday night. I actually had an awesome friend to hang out with! We watched a super funny movie called "Encino Man." Sean Astin is in it and it is hilarious. It is a total 80's movie. I would highly recommend it.

Love Fest!

That is the name I have come up with for the "spring crushes" that are happening on the swim team that I help coach. I coach mostly 6th graders and under. They all have crushes on each other, and it is starting to get a little out of hand. They all tell ME their curshes, and they tell me who is going out with who. First of all, I don't care who likes who. Second of all, what the heck does "going out" mean? I have pondered this question forever, and when I ask my swim kids what it means, they can never even come up with an answer to suffice me. But this love fest really needs to calm down. There are way too many crushes that are getting to be more than crushes. And these intensified crushes are beginning to create jealousies in a group of boys who all like the same girl. But the scariest part of all is when 12 year old kids on the team make fun of me and think it's weird that I am 18 and I am still V.L. What is this world coming to? The youngsters of our generation are corrupting! No, I think they are just confused.

I got my visiting teaching done today! Score! And I got it done just in time for those visiting teaching interviews. Double score!

I Love.......

Lately, I've been feeling a little bit down with the blues, as a result of a buttload of stupid stuff. So I am trying to climb my way back up the mountain of happiness. I got this idea from my cousin, Annie's, blog and thought it might be a good idea to do today. So, here it goes:

I Love.....

Brownies

Full House

American Idol

Missionaries

Friends that are always there

People that listen

My job

My nursery class

My backyard

Reading Other People's Blogs

Swimming

Riding my Bike

Rascal Flatts

Napoleon Dynamite's Sweet Skills

Blue, sunny skies

Peanut Butter and Grape Jam Sandwiches

Hiking and Camping

Writing Missionaries

Getting Letters From Missionaries

The Gospel

The Scriptures

Walking to Church

To Be Happy!


I've learned some great lessons lately. Every stuggle given to us, is given by Heavenly Father for our own good. He wants us to become stronger people, but the only way to do that is to experience weakness. We have to learn that life always goes on, and we just have to let some things slip away. Keep marching, never give up hope. I've also learned that we are never alone. Not only are there always people on this earth who will listen to us, but Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ will listen to us. They are constantly watching over us, and that is something that I need remember myself. Storms hit everybody. Some are like hurricanes, and some are just a little rainshower. But the good thing about storms is that there are always blue skies that follow the storm. We all just have to learn to keep our head up and keep a strong look-out for those blue skies!

The Fourth, and Hopefully Final, Episode of Constanse:

Constanse was not true to her word. She chickened out when it came time to try to talk to Darla. But the good news is, Constanse has decided she is done with Darla, even though Constanse still hurts inside. She has decided it is not easy to just let a best friend go away, but Contanse is tired of being hurt and sad by Darla, so it might be something that needs to be done. If thier friendship truly was a best-friendship, then maybe Darla will come to her senses and realize that Constanse is a person with feelings. Constanse just needs to stop being a wimp, and break away from the things that hurt. She has realized that she has better mentors, such as the "Double W" who never fails at anything, especially when it comes to being Constans's side-kick through stormy seasons.

The End

*Special Thanks to the Wedgie Woman and the Llama Lady for helping this story to have a happy ending.*

Episode 3: Constanse In Suspense

We continue our story of the broken down Constanse, waiting in suspense. Darla has not yet returned Constanse's attempt to contact Darla. Should Constanse just give up on Darla? Maybe this is more effort than it's worth. But Constanse feels horrible. She truly doesn't want Darla to hate her. Good news: Constanse has been seeking therapy from the Intelligent Llama Lady and Constanse seems to be climbing out of the pits of despair. She feels like she may be gaining her strength back. Her goal is to try to gain speaking contact with Darla tomorrow. We shall wait and see if Constanse is true to her word........

Constanse: Episode 2

Today, Constanse was looking at her special photo album. She saw many pictures of her and Darla. It looked like her and Darla were having a ton of fun in these pictures. Constanse realized that her and Darla have had WAY to much fun these past years to be sad at each other. Constanse has been getting wise wisdom and therapy these past couple of days from the Wedgie Woman. After listening to the advice from Wedgie Woman, and looking at that photo album, constanse decided to confront Darla. Darla is not around today to talk to Constanse, so Constanse sent Darla an e-mail explaining everything. She also sent an attachment of some of the pictures that made Constanse realize that doesn't want to feel sad or lonely anymore. Hopefully Darla will contact Constanse back soon, and hopefully this story will have a happy ending. To be continued...

Constanse

Constanse is very sad. She thinks that Darla, one of her best friends, hates her. She feels like their four year friendship meant nothing to Darla, while for Constanse, it meant the world, espeically since Landon left for a while. Now Constanse does not know what to do. She is very upset and feels like she can't do anything right for anybody. Constanse wonders if she should call Darla, but she is very scared of how Darla might act. Constanse tried working things out with Darla through e-mail, but that only made Constanse more sad. Constanse feels like a loser.

Woot Woot!

So, my American Idol dream has come true at last. Sanjaya was voted off tonight! Hala! At last! I have been so upset that he stayed on as long as he did. Especially when Gina got voted off before him. THAT is when I got really mad. Blake is still the best. And Jordan is my favorite girl now. But my favorite part of this week was when Martina McBride performed "Do It Anyway." She is a freaking good country singer, and one of my favorite country stars. Why don't I make a little list of my favorite country stars? I don't know. I really have no excuse not to, so I guess I will.

1. Rascal Flatts
2. Martina McBride
3. Carrie Underwood
4. Tim McGraw
5. Faith Hill
6. Keith Urban
7. Emerson Drive
8. Kenny Chesney
9. Lonestar
10. LeAnn Rimes
11. Josh Gracin
12. Josh Turner (I love that "Would You Go With Me" song.)

Oh yes. "I'm a country girl, in a country world. It's fantastic. It's not plastic. You can go square dance, and wear some cowgirl pants. I like cowboys. And a yee-haw noise." (Sing that to the tune of "Barbie Girl" if you were a little lost.) Dude, I have some sweet song composing skills!

Speaking of Martina, Here is her music video for "Anyway." It is awesome!



And for a bonus item today, here is one of my favorite Gina performances on American Idol, for those of you blog readers who don't watch the show. Now you can see how good she was!

Impossible Skill

Today, I figured out that there is one skill that I have failed to succeed in attaining. I have failed at "trying to please friend skills." It seems that if I try to make one friend happy, it makes the other upset. And if I try to make the upset one happy, the other friend also becomes upset. I feel like I have ruined at least four peoples' day today, and it makes me feel like crap. But wait, this could be a new skill. Wow, I have "ruining peoples' day skills." Wow, I have achieved yet, another skill. I guess this whole day ended up turning in my favor. Awesome. Well, when life gives you dilemmas, make de-lemonade! :)

Well, here is a little picture to make me smile. Isn't this a good one of mine and Jeff's "backside?" Ha ha! Thanks to Kristen, the supplier of this picture (taken last summer). Just gotta make sure I cite my sources properly.

Mama Mia!

Nothing like a busy day to make the celery grow. I done did alot of stuff today. First I went to school. Yeah, big whoop, I know. Then I came home and had a peanut butter and jam sandwhich with my best friend. Then I had to drive some highschool kids up to Park City for their water polo game (I was Natalie's designated driver). After that I had to rush back down to the valley, and I was late for work....oops! But the best part of my busy day was on American Idol. The gross, skanky girl finally got kicked off! Oh happy day! They almost had to rate American Idol as "R" because of this yucky girl, no joke!

In other random news, I have an item on hold at the library, and I have to go pick it up. I am so excited!

These Are The Days We Will Remember

I went to young womens tonight. Yep, and I am not even in young womens anymore. I had the laurels help me with a little service project I was doing, and then I decided to stay and help them with the rest of their activity. Plus I thought it would be fun to stay and chill with all the cool people in our ward, a.k.a. Haylie Bowler, and no I am not trying to suck up to you Haylie. (Notice the sarcasm in my voice.) It was fun though. I miss young womens. I have not laughed as much as I did tonight since forever ago. So I must publically thank any young women people who may read this. I really needed an hour and a half of laughing tonight, especially cause school this week seems out of control. I'm glad I went. But, this gets me to thinking, I don't like growing up! It's crappy! Right now I am trying to uplift my friends who are sad about graduating from high school in this year, but the truth is, after high school, friends move away to different colleges, boys leave for missions, and all of the sudden, you realize that you have not been on a date for three months, which can be really depressing. Well, all I can conclude with is a couple lines from a Vitamin C song: "As we go on, we remember all the times we had together. As our lives change from whatever, we will still be friends forever."

F.Y.I.

For those of you who would like to check out Natalie the younger's blog, go to n-stapley.blogspot.com. But be aware, critics have rated it "R" for Rebell Miamaids.

Owwwwww, I have a headache right now. Bleh, bleh, bleh! I can't type anymore. Goodnight!

Skills...

This morning, I was doing some homework, and I got myself to thinking about skills. Not just any skills, but my sweet skills. I often think about Napoleon Dynamite's skills. (Isn't "dynamite" a funny word? It sure is.....long story......I won't tell it now.) Napoleon Dynamite (ha ha) has skills such as bow-staff skills, computer hacking skills, numb-chuck skills...you know, skills. From my job as a lifeguard, and now as a swim instructor, I have come up with quite the list of my skills I have obtained, which include:

First aid skills
Finding pressure point skills
Stopping a nose bleed skills
Whistle-blowing skills
Splinting a Broken Bone Skills
Applying Sunscreen skills
Jumping in a swimming pools with clothes on skills
Pulling kids out of the water skills
CPR skills
Rescue breathing skills
Concious choking skills
Unconcious choking skills
Enforcing Pool Rules skills
Obtaining a flip-flop tan like skills
Backboarding skills
Putting on rubber glove skills
Taking off rubber glove skills
Cleaning puke off the pool deck skills
Cleaning "bodily wastes" out of the pool skills
Properly disposing of hazardous materials skills
Giving evil looks to kids in the pool skills
Covering the outdoor pool skills

Wow, what an incredible list of skills I have here. This may sound like a joke, but alot of these sweet skills, I am actually really glad I know. Know what I'm sayin'?

Coincidence? I Think Not!

Maybe this has happened to you: One moment during the day, you are driving down the road, possibly thinking about something you have to do, or whatever else is going on in your life. Then you begin to feel, maybe happy, sad, or frustrated..................ok, scratch this whole imagery, pondering thinkg. I'll make this alot easier for myself. Today, when I was driving down the road, I heard a song that totally fit the moment. I decided that this song, is my song of this evening. If you are interested, I put the lyrics on this blog. I only put the part that struck me in awe.

"It's a long trip alone over sand and stone. That lie along the road that we all must travel down. So maybe you could walk with me a while. And maybe I could rest beneath your smile. Everybody stumbles sometimes and needs a hand to hold, 'Cause it's a long trip alone."

Can It Be True?

I am convinced that American Idol is RIGGED! For those involved with idol, Gina was voted off this week. She was my favorite girl this season, and she was way better than some of the contestants who are still there, a.k.a. Hailey and Sanjaya! I can't stand those two! Sanjaya is just a horrible singer! And Hailey is not only a bad singer, but she is disgusting! The clothes she wears are terrible! They are not modest and she is conveying a terrible message to America. It kind of reminds me of an old episode of Full House, that I watched today. Uncle Jesse was talking to DJ about the peer pressures teenagers face in this world. He told her that he wished she could live in a world where he would never have to fear for her getting into danger. This is so true! (Full House has a buttload of good lessons to learn in it.) Our world is full of dangers and sin. Often they hide in places that are way to easy to find. We need to be careful and always choose the right. And America should choose the right and vote Hailey and Sanjaya off of American idol. I can't believe Gina is gone. Well, everybody better just vote for Blake now. He is da bomb! Melinda is freaking awesome too!

Ride Like The Wind

Over the weekend I got myself a new mountain bike. It is awesome! I rode it to work today. It was such a pretty day outside, so it was a great ride. Well, going to work was a little hard, because I was riding into some strong winds, but after work, the wind had stopped, and it was perfect outside. The valley was clear and the sun was shining. My butt will probably be killer sore tomorrow from riding, but I don't care. It was seriously the most fun I have had in months.

In other words, today has felt like the longest day ever, except that it seemed to go by kind of fast.......if that made any sense to anybody.

Remember the Alamo.