Zoe made me laugh tonight...

We were doing the wedding scene where the Russians come in, destroy the celebration, and everyone runs away. I was running up the hill with my family and we were right behind the Rabbi and his two little girls. When we got to the top of the hill, Zoe turned around, screamed at herself, "Don't look back! Oh no, I looked back! Now I've been turned into a pillar of salt. Noooo!" and immediately formed a little lump that I guess could resemble a pillar of salt. Then I heard her dad jokingly remark, "Well, now we'll have something to put on our french fries." That little girl knows her Bible stories. And, that's my favorite story of tonight's rehearsal. Actually, it's not. I really laughed harder when Golde threw Tzeitel's "baby" in the well without knowing that the well actually held water. Hmm, I need to start a book of all these funny things that happen.

What happened to the matchmaker?

Last night at rehearsal we were watching all the matchmaking going on onstage when Steve (who, by they way, shares our affinity for Dave) turned to us and said something to the effect of, "You girls are so blessed to be living in this time. You don't have to worry about some old guy being like, 'Hey, I like her. I think I'll arrange a match.' "

Steve is so right. We really are blessed to be living in this time and place. Not just because we can choose who to marry, but because of all the freedoms and rights we have. I love my life.

We also had a Dave movie party last night at rehearsal. We tried to have one, anyway. It was a little hard, but fun. If you don't like the movie Dave, I would not suggest hanging around Steve, me, or my little sisters and cousins at rehearsal, because we just quote it the whole time. We even incorporated some of Dave's move into the dream. It's great. Everyone should come see it.

The 29th of August!

My brother is coming home in just a little over a month. I can't believe it. I'm so excited! I want to swing dance with him again. I want to tell him how I really feel about everything that has happened these past two years. For some reason, I can't communicate my true feelings through emails.

I almost feel like these two years have gone by pretty quickly, but at the same time I feel like Nathan's been gone for ages. It's going to be strange having him home again-I can hardly even imagine it.

Thinking of the time my brother has been gone is making me realize just how long two years really is. It's a long time. How am I going to get through another two years? Hopefully they'll be busy and fun, and very fast. I may need some distractions, folks.

Actually, I think I'm going to be okay.

My Boyfriend

He's cute, right? Hahaha. Good memories of movie parties...

Things we do that make us laugh. Hysterically.

Late at night when we're the only people awake, Kar and I will put in a DVD and pause it at random places. Sounds dumb, but it's fun.

Last night we stayed up late taking turns drawing pictures of the cast of Fiddler on the Roof. The pictures got kinda crazy. It was fun guessing who everyone was.

At night (I'm noticing a trend here) we tell each other funny stories that happened to us during the day.

Another fun thing to do is point out a random character and call him your boyfriend in movies with funny characters. Like Narnia.

Catching snippets of Katie's jokes up at girl's camp.

The other day at piano Cameron was trying to turn on a touch lamp by blowing on it. That made me laugh.

Sometimes, we just laugh hysterically and can't stop. Those are the best/worst times.

(keep in mind, this is stuff that makes me laugh when I'm really hyper and tired. So, not all the time.)

Funny that you don't realize just how much you love something until it's gone.

Great. Anyway.

Apparently, I look like a really tall fourteen year old.

Jan and I are getting back into Irish! It's so weird to come back to it after a few years. We had our first practice for the stake dance festival, and it's going to be so much fun. I really missed Irish dancing!

I started drinking milk. My grandpa even brought me some Ovaltine to put in my milk to make it taste better. Wasn't that nice of him?

I'm planning a family reunion. The hardest part so far is getting all our extended family to commit to going. I mean, who wouldn't want to come to a family reunion in Disneyland? But I'm working on getting everyone "on board".

Another random memory

I just remembered this the other day, when my sisters were talking about it. It's one of their favorite memories of our vacation.

Setting: outside the gates at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Year: 2005
Main characters: Security guard and Random Woman

So, there we are outside the gates, taking pictures and just looking in awe at the White House (I mean, the President is in there. Too cool.), when we notice something moving in the bushes on the other side of the gate. Upon close inspection, we realize it is a big, burly guy (probably full of true grit) who is holding a big machine gun, just standing there looking scary. This slightly scares my younger sisters, but my dad clarifies that he's just there guarding the grounds, making sure nothing happens to the president. He also says that there's probably guys like that hiding all over. Plus, we've all seen Dave, so we knew that security guards are really cool guys named Duane who just look scary because they can't wear sweaters, which make their necks look too big, but they might try wearing sweater vests once in a while. ****

And onto the story.

As we're gazing at the White House, imagining the President in there is not George Bush, but really Kevin Kline, who is just impersonating the President and getting away with it-even fooling the first lady-we notice a little bit of commotion to our right. So, we walk down a little bit, and we see a Random Woman approaching the gate. "Excuse me!" she calls. "Excuse me, sir!" Her face is now kinda poked in between the bars of the security fence, that's made to look like decoration. The security guard retains his composure, but he's probably thinking, 'Who is this Random Woman that is talking to me?'

RW proceeds to ask him questions about what he is doing there, what he's holding, and why. I don't think the awesome security guard really answered, he probably just grunted and nodded a little bit. But then, she started asking him for directions to the nearest metro station. We thought that was a little weird. Apparently, so did the security guard, who retreated a little farther into the shadows. I don't exactly think you're supposed to strike up conversations with those guys. But that might just be me.

****
Dave: You ever think about wearing a sweater? Make you blend in more.
Duane: Sweaters make my neck look too thick.
Dave: Even a sweater vest? You could wear a tie.
Duane: You think a sweater vest would look good on me?

(Everyone should watch Dave!)