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!