Elder Tree

My last buddy had his mission farewell today. Elder Jeffrey Tree goes into the MTC this Wednesday. He is serving in the Tampa, Florida, Spanish speaking mission. He is a really cool person and so much fun to hang out with. Him and Jeff Larsen are my two favorite boys to be with. Both Jeffs are way close friends, so I hope they will see each other in the MTC. (Elder Larsen is in the MTC for about 2 more weeks.) I had this picture taken today at Tree's farewell. It's so much fun to see my friends leave on missions, but now that my 2 best buddies are gone, I am kind of a loner. Well, at least I still have the little boys in my nursery class! :)

Yum, Yum, Yummy!

I got to do the COOLEST thing in my health class today! This is a class all about community health. It is a way interesting class, and I love it! Today we learned about food-borne illnesses, and sanitation for food. My professor had this lotion that we all put on our hands. Then we had to go wash our hands. After that, we stuck our hands under this black light. With this, we were able to see places on our hands where germs would still be able to hide, even after washing your hands. It was way crazy!

My professor for this health class use to work for the Department of Health. If someone became sick from eating at a restaurant, or just had a complaint about a restaurant, she would go and test the food and sanitation of the culprit kitchen. She showed us a bunch of pictures she took at different restaurants, showing poor sanitation, or how some places were improperly storing food. It was actually rather disgusting, and I'm not sure I want to eat out for a while after this lecture. :)

American Idol

Blake Lewis is my favorite contestent on American Idol this season. Hopefully he can make it through to the top twelve! :)

P.S. I hope this video works.

Vacation

Here are my grandparents at the 50th anniversary party. Behind them are all their kids, including my dad. Ha ha ha!

Natalie and I at the anniversary luncheon, drinking the "Hard Stuff."

I'm in Cedar City! It was soooooooo warm in Southern Utah on Saturday. Natalie and I even tried to do some tanning in my grandparent's front yard.

This is why it is a bad idea to fall asleep in the car on a rode trip: If you have siblings, they like to take pictures of you sleeping so that when you wake up, they can make fun of you.

My family actually went on a little vacation this weekend. Last week was my Grandma and Grandpa Stapley's 50th wedding anniversary, so there was a huge party for them this weekend. The live down in southern Utah, in a little town called "Summit." It is in between Parawon and Cedar City.

We had a TON of fun! My cousin, Sarah, took me four-wheeling in the little mountains right next to my grandparent's house. It was WAY fun! On Saturday night, my dad took us to spotlight deer. It was awesome! There were huge herds of deer everywhere! We ran into herds of about 40 deer! We also spotlighted some rabbits, and laughed as they ran around in confusion from the bright light. Yesterday, we went to a little place called the "Gap," where you can see real petroglyphs of Indian writing. All in all, it was a really fun little get-away.

Friends

I love my friends! They are all amazing! I don't really have much to say this week, except that my friends rock! I don't even know why they would let me, of all people, be their friend, but I am so glad that they do!

My First Missionary Update! Yay!

I just received my first update of Elder Larsen in the MTC. His sister provided me with this information, and it just made my day! Ok, here it is:

" First, When Jeff got to his room the zone leaders had placed a scripture on his door to welcome them - 3 Nephi 3:7 (look it up). He says he is having an amazing experience. He sings, yells "Buenos Noches" every night and quotes "The Emperors New Groove" with the other elders in his district. He has made Spanish flash-cards and has lead his district to practice with them while waiting for meals, meetings, and everything in between. He said that "it's fun to walk around looking like a nerd." They have named thier district "Los Torros Locos," (the crazy bulls) and have a cool handshake, and he taught the restoration on Wednesday."

I also got his address for the MTC, and I can't wait to go write my first letter to him! I am so excited right now!

Exciting News!

I found out the coolest thing yesterday! I am way excited about it too! For my whole life, my mom, for some reason, thought that I had "O positive" blood. This fact is now false. Last week, I donated blood for ARUP. When you donate, they test your blood to make sure it is safe and what not. They also send you a little card in the mail that you take with you whenever you donate again. It shows your blood type, and the dates that you have donated. When I got my card in the mail yesterday, I looked at that blood type, and I have "B positive" blood! I have a rare blood, and I think it is SO cool!

ARUP is a Utah blood service. That means that when you donate blood with ARUP, your blood will be donated to someone in Utah. But, ARUP needs approximately 75 people to donate each day, in order to stay up with the need for blood in hospitals. Isn't that crazy? You can learn more at www.utahblood.org

Ch-Ch-Changes!

Look how chubby Jeff used to be! Oh man, I get a kick out of this picture every time I see it! It's funny how much people change over the years. Most of the time, it makes me laugh to see freinds' elementary pictures. Anyways, I just loaded these pictures on for my entertainment!

Kindergarten! Oh my! Let's see what this little rascal will turn into 12 years later......

..... my senior picture. Funnest year of highschool!

Cool Song Lyrics

"Shut-up, just shut-up, shut-up!"

"You are, my fire. The one, desire. Believe, when I say, I want it that way."

"Life is a highway. I want to ride it all night long. If your going my way, I want to drive it all night long."

"Whenever you remember times gone by, remember how we held our hands so high. When all this world was there for us, we believe that we could touch the sky."

"A thousand days, a thousand nights are not enough! Cause I can't hold back the way I feel about my love!"

"We're breaking free! We're soaring! We're flying! There's not a star in heaven that we can't reach. If we're trying, yeah we're breaking free!"

"Let's dance in style, let's dance for a while. Heaven can wait, we're only watching the skies. Hoping for the best but expecting the worst. Are you gonna drop the bomb or not?.......Forever young, I want to be forever young."

"There must be something that we can do. I'll tell you one thing. Let's have a barbeque!"

"You are my sunshine! My only sunshine! You make me happy, when skies are grey. You'll never know dear, how much I love you. Please don't take my sunshine away."

My Song of the Week:

The Best Two Years

Elder Larsen is now in the Missionary Training Center. He went in today at 12:00. Last night, I had the opportunity to go see him be set apart as a missionary. It was a really neat experience to see one of my best friends reach this amazing accomplishment of being able to serve an LDS mission. It was sad to have to say goodbye to him, but I don't think that I could be more excited for him right now. After he was set apart, his stake president asked him to bear his testimony to us, as his first testimony being a missionary. It was amazing! I know he will be sucessful! I can't believe he is finally on his mission. Time goes by so fast.

I am way proud of Jeff! I want these next 2 years to be the best 2 years for him!

Photo Album Fun!

I love looking through old family photo albums. That is exactly what I did today. There are so many funny pictures of my family and me, when we were all younger. I especially love all the outrageously, bright 90's clothing we wore. I decided it would be pretty sweet to try and load some of these old pictures onto my blog. Plus, I learned how to use our scanner today. Neat, eh? The picture above was taken down in Southern Utah, where my Grandma and Grandpa Stapley live.

I just get a kick out of Maddie's mouth on this picture. This was taken when I was about 4 or 5 months old. I'm the little baby on the left, if you couldn't tell.

I've always been a hopeless romantic.

This is what happens when Lauren is stressed out. The "Hard Stuff" comes out, and the glasses come off!

This Rocks!

I think it is way sweet that I am able to download videos onto my blog! I'll probably do this alot now! Anyways, I just like this video.

I'm way super glad it's Friday! I have been so wiped out this week and I don't really know why. Usually I don't notice how tired I am until Wednesdayish or Thursday. But this week I noticed it Monday morning. I woke up dead tired, and went to school dead tired. On about Tuesday, I fell asleep while studying in the Institute building at the U, and I seriously could not wake up. It was crazy! I have, however, come to a conclusion why I had a tired week. Last Saturday, I did not get to sleep in because I had to go help coach a swim meet that was clear up a Skyline! Yuk! At least I got paid for it though. But if I have to miss my Saturday sleep in, it totally affects my energy levels of the following week. To top that off, Jeff and I had our last date before he leaves on his mission, so I was up late Saturday night. Then I went to a missionary farewell for my friend Mike, Sunday morning. So I had to rush there and then rush back to my ward to do nursery. It was a busy weekend. I should probably be in bed right now, but Emily has her crazy friends over, and they are extremely hyper! I think I get to sleep in tomorrow morning, unless for some strange reason Rodants of Unusual Size come to take over my bedroom.

Did you know that Benjamin Franklin was a way wacked-up guy?

I had an interesting dream last night. Let's see if anyone can interpret it for me:

When I was in 5th grade, my best friend was a girl named Brooke. But after 5th grade, she got into dance, and I got into swimming. So we kind of hung out with totally different crowds. We are still friends, but she goes to BYU, so I really don't ever see her. Anyways, in my dream, I was at her house. I walked down her stairs, and she was in the kitchen. All of a sudden, she gave me the biggest hug. It lasted forever. I think that was my entire dream. Then her dad made fun of himself, but I don't really remember what he said.

I'm totally lost about this dream. Usually my friend Nedgie Wedgie interprets my dreams for me, but I forgot to tell her about this one. Anyways, this is WAY random. Aren't dreams weird though? Most of the time, they don't make any sense, kind of like this one. I woke up this morning utterly confused. Wow. Weird.

Did it work?

Following the advice from my 13th ward buddy Kristen, I decided I would attempt downloading a video to my blog, and to my astonishment, it worked! I even got it to work on the first try! Yeah baby!

Wowzer!

I've been so busy lately, that I have not had time to blog in a while. Wow! I don't even know what to write about. Let's see, life is going well. Jeff leaves for his mission in 6 days. My cousin and her husband had a baby on Tuesday. His name is Elliot. I like random things. I kind of have no life. Tomorrow is Friday, yay. I have to go get ready for church ball now.

Help Me!

Bored. At school. With nothing to do. Time, move faster. I want to go home. Natalie. Megan. Answer your phone. Come pick me up. I can't last anymore. Homework for now is done. Brain ain't gonna function no more.

Check Out Those Tan Lines!

Dang! Who is that girl in the green dress with those sexy tan lines? Oh, it's me! And oh, how I want summer! This cold has been cold enough. My face goes numb everyday at school. Plus, I'm whiter than a ghost right now! Seriously, I could blind people with my skin. I was sooooooo tan in this picture. And my swim suit tan lines rock! My skin is now to the point where you can barely make out my swim suit tan lines. But look at Jeff's face in this picture. He is so sunburned, that it looked like he was blushing for a week! Bwahaha! Speaking of Jeff, he leaves for his mission in just 2 weeks from today. I don't know how I should feel. I am so excited for him to be going on a mission! I could not be more happy right now! But at the same time, I feel a little sad. I'm gonna miss the boy! Is it ok to feel a little sad? What if I am beginning to panic? Is this normal? All well, I am so excited for him. Plus, I get to write a missionary now! How sweet is that? I remember in young women's lessons, we would learn about encouraging friends to go on missions, and we would talk about writing letters to missionaries. But I always thought that was all stupid. I never though I would become such good "friends" with future missionary, and actually get to do all the letter writing and stuff. This is so exciting! I don't care how cheesy this all sounds, I am EXCITED for him!

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!

Martin Luther King Jr. is one of my heros in history. I have always been interested in the African American experiences. Throughout Junior High and High school, I have don't quite a number of projects of Dr. King, and other African Americans. Last sememster, I was able to take, for a humanities credit, an African American studies class. I really got into the subject and learned so much about African Americans that I had not known before. And I am now excited to be celebrating MLK day today. I think I fit this holiday very well, because my mom told me that I have an African American butt. This is now a joke among some of my friends. When shopping for clothes, I have to remember the size of my African American butt! Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! Remember how different and how much better America is today because of the influence, dedication, and courage of Martin Luther King Jr.

What on earth?!?!

I met this really nice returned missionary at a trax stop on my way to school this morning. He served his mission in Montreal, Canada. How did I meet him? He thought I looked like someone that he knew, so he started talking to me. People up here at the U have mistaken me for someone they know, or for some type of athlete. Last semester, some kid came right up to my side, and thought that I was his cousin. You should have seen the look on his face when he saw my face and realized he didn't know me. It was pretty funny! I have also been asked if I am a tennis player. This is understandable, based on they way I dress. Another person asked me if I am on the track team here at the University. He told me I looked like a runner. This was cool, considering that I greatly enjoy running. But the weirdest was one day, some guy asked me if I was a cheerleader at the U. I'm still quite confused about this generalization. I look, and act nothing like a cheerleader. I'm not all cutsy, and I'm not cheerleader skinnyness. Most of these experiences happened last semester, but I think they are quite funny. Maybe whenever someone asks me if I play a certain sport at the U, I will just start telling them I am on the football team!

I played our first relief society basketball game last night. I struggled a little. I am use to being in the water. I am going to have to learn to adapt to this on land activity. The most frustrating part was when the ladies in my ward started telling me to go to certain positions. I had absolutely NO idea what they were talking about! Why can't basketball be set up just like water polo? I was so lost, but it was still freaking fun!

Snow! Snow! Snow!

I love snowstorms! I love watching snowstorms! Today, I had the pleasure of spending quite an amount of time walking around in a huge snowstorm! It was so cool up at the U today. It was snowing really, really hard, and it looked so pretty. But I found the funniest thing as I was walking from class to class. I carry an umberella around campus, so that I don't become a walking, human snowman. But there are alot of students who are to "cool" to take care of themselves, mainly the boys. I passed a few boys as I was walking to my classes, who were not carrying an umberella or wearing a hat. They had about an inch of snow on the tops of their heads. It was sooooooooo funny!

Wow, this is random.

That was random too.

So was that!