Sunday night visiting

Yesterday after ward prayer Erin mentioned she was going to visit Mountainwood, and would I like to come? Of course I said yes! So we hopped in her car and drove the short distance. When we arrived at Mountainwood, there were no parking spots, so Erin parked in the Moby Dick house lot, saying confidently, "Cookie won't tow me!"

Erin went to visit her friends and I called Alice. We had a very joyful reunion in the parking lot, then we went to the apartment, did the dishes, and talked. It was wonderful! I love talking to Alice because 1. She speaks English and 2. I can be completely honest and open and she understands! I miss talking with Alice, and I miss standing on the balcony yelling peoples names. I also miss having a normal relationship with Thayne. After we did the dishes we decided to go visit the girls in 208 because we could hear they were doing karaoke.

Alice threw open the door to apartment 208 and exclaimed, "Look! It's Natalie!" But as the door swung open, it revealed Thayne sitting on the couch. As soon as he saw me both our faces turned red and he exclaimed, "Oh, shoot! Um...I have to go!" To which I replied, "No, don't worry about it. We'll go." So apparently we can't even be in the same room anymore.

We went back to 214 and started making an alphabet list-we love doing this. The letter J consistently wins, by far. We talked some more, but it was getting late so eventually Erin and I left.

As we walked down the stairs, we saw a tow truck enter the parking lot. This is the conversation that took place.

Erin: Alice! There's a tow truck! Warn the people!!
Alice: I don't know anyone! I don't know whose car it is!
Me: Erin, that's OUR CAR!!
Erin: NO!!!
Alice: RUN!
Erin: I CAN'T! MY ANKLE IS SPRAINED! NATALIE, GO!
Me: I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!
Erin: TAKE MY KEYS! GET THE CAR!

So Erin gave me her keys and I started running to Moby Dick. The tow truck was backing up and lowering the thing to take the car away, so I did some crazy ducking move to get between the truck and the fence, ran to the car ("ERIN! ARE YOU FROM WISCONSIN?!) and tried frantically to open the door.

At this point, the tow truck driver realized his evil plans had been thwarted so he just drove away. It was way funny. And perfect timing.

I am reminded of something funny

So back in the summer of 2004 my sisters and I were in Oklahoma! at the Shell. We had a great cast...the boy with the perfect color of red hair was even there! Anyway, we had fun. One of the stage managers was this girl, and I can't recall her name exactly but I think it may have been Rebecca, and she was down syndrome. Her biggest annoyance was that our cast was loud backstage. Every night in our traditional cast meeting circle she would say, "You guys need to be quiet backstage or I will give you a power-house slug!"

This continued night after night, until finally one night my grandpa said, "Hey! There will be no power-house slugs going on!"

Rebecca, as we'll call her, thought for a moment and then replied, "Fine....then I'll slit your throat!"

Needless to say, we were quiet after that.

Grandpa always talked about getting a red convertible....so we thought it would be exciting, for his 80th birthday celebration, to commandeer a red convertible so that he could arrive in style. Grandpa thought it was fun, but even so...he preferred his own car. Watch the video.

Me: How does it feel, Grandpa?!
Grandpa: How does it feel?....you really want to know?

Another gem, in my opinion

"If I don't seem to need help, it is because I have a better friend even than Father to comfort and sustain me. My child, the troubles and temptations of your life are beginning, and may be many; but you can overcome and outlive them all if you learn to feel the strength and tenderness of your Heavenly Father as you do that of your earthly one. The more you love and trust him, the nearer you will feel to him, and the less you will depend on human power and wisdom. His love and care never tire or change, can never be taken from you, but may become the source of lifelong peace, happiness, and strength. Believe this heartily, and go to God with all your little cares, and hopes, and sins, and sorrows, as freely and confidingly as you come to your mother."

Name this movie

"You may, for a little while, have pain in this...but it will pass. And you will dismiss the recollection of it gladly, as an unprofitable dream from which it happened well that you awoke. Be happy in the life you have chosen."

TMI

So last night I was reading through my journal which documents the past year and a half and it was really interesting to see how I have changed and grown. But there were a few lines I wrote in all seriousness that crack me up reading them in retrospect. I don't know if it's simply because of the perspective I've gained or if it's just because I'm crazy, but...I was surprised at the weird stuff I've said. I will share a few examples. Please, understand that these example are not what my whole journal sounds like. Sometimes I say things that make sense and are very dear to my heart.

1. I don't know if the intent of the email was "sorry I kissed you-I shouldn't have because I don't like you" or "sorry I've been stupid lately-don't 'forget about me".

2. PS: Today I scooped ice cream and sold Scope to Elder Groberg and his wife. It was cool.

3. I can't believe I'm feeling this way. Alice says it's something in the air...it does stuff to people.

4. Today John broke up with me in the middle of the Cougareat. It was awkward...obviously.

And the last quote isn't by me, it's by Gideon...but I sure did tape it into my journal. I wish you could see his awesome handwriting, but you'll have to imagine it.

5. "Have fun in the journey. Make friends, build and strengthen these friendships. Along the way, you'll find that one of these friends means more to you, and that you are inseparable from him. This "glue" comes from the journey, not by packing shoe goo on every date."

Friends shouldn't let friends...

...but unfortunately, sometimes they do. I don't think I will ever be able to recreate the expression that is on my face. This is an example of A. The random pictures I have on my computer and B. The random things we do for fun. I seriously have the best friends ever, because when I'm with them I can be myself. But I can also pretend to be different people...like a pregnant woman.

My funny story for the day

Okay, well I wasn't planning on blogging about this because I think it's embarrassing, but I feel like I have a pretty good handle on who reads my blog and I figured that most of you know everything about me anyway...there's really no chance you will think less of me for anything I post. So here I go.

On Tuesdays I have to go straight from the MTC to class but, let's be honest, I do not want to wear a skirt all day. So I just bring pants and shoes, change at work, and arrive on campus all incognito (me, work at the MTC? Noooo)! But today as soon as I got to work I realized that I forgot socks. There was no way I was going to wear tennis shoes without socks alllll day because I hate not wearing socks!

After a fair amount of whining and complaining, I reviewed my options with Katie and Heather. I had three choices: A) Buy a three pack of those white socks with the pink toes that would probably go up to my calf, and probably be so thick my shoes wouldn't fit B) Wear my tights all day/buy knee highs, and C) Buy one pair of blue men's dress socks.

Okay well I really didn't want the white socks because what would I do with three pairs of those things?! The only time I wear tights under jeans is when I'm on my way to a show or clogging competition, and I didn't want to make any new memories that might interfere with those old ones, so yes, I bought and then wore men's dress socks all day, until I finally got home at 7:30 PM. I felt ridiculous but comforted myself with the knowledge that no one could even see my socks. And now you, dear readers, know of my sock drama. Never again!

But the comforting thing of the day: last week my RMYL class made up rhymes for everyone's name so we would remember people better. The rhyme my group chose for me is this: Natalieeee...is sexyyyyy. And that's definitely what people call me now. That class is a constant confidence boost. They definitely couldn't tell I was wearing men's socks :)

More adventures from Apt. 214

Okay, so I already mentioned that I was looking through all the pictures on my computer and found some random ones. Well, here is another random blog...about my random pictures (photos courtesy of Suzanne).

So it was January, I think. We had just attended a fun FHE in the RB. We were all in Suzanne's car and when we pulled into the Mountainwood parking lot, we noticed our home teachers Thayne and Ben had not yet arrived at home. We thought it would be hilarious if we parked in Thayne's parking spot because he would come roaring into the lot in his huge truck, find his spot taken, be mad, then we would all jump out of the car and be like, "Surpise! We parked in your spot, hahaha." Or something like that.

So Suzanne parked and we ducked down and hid. And hid, and hid, and still we were hiding. Every time we saw headlights we would get scared and peek out to see if it was Thayne coming. It never was.

But we kept hiding.

Eventually we had waited so long that we were getting bored. We decided to call Ben and ask where the heck they were and if they were coming home soon. I was the designated caller. When Ben picked up I tried to be all cool.

Me: "Hey Ben, I was just wondering...where are you guys? Are you coming home soon?"
Ben: "Well, we stopped at a friend's house for a bit. Why? Is everything okay?
*Now, pretty sure I had just been through a breakup at this time...so I didn't want Ben to think I was having an emotional breakdown or something, because I didn't want them to worry*
Me [really awkwardly]: "Yeah, everything's fine, I just...wanted to talk to you...I'm not like having an emotional breakdown but...I just wanted to talk...?"

Ben apparently misheard what I actually said and instead heard this: "I NEED TO TALK TO YOU. I AM HAVING AN EMOTIONAL BREAKDOWN. COME HOME NOW." So he started to get really worried and insisted that they were leaving their friends' house that instant to come talk to me. Then I started to feel even more like an idiot so I made either Suzanne or Alice take the phone and explain what we had attempted to do. We felt kinda lame, but at least we got pictures out of it! Right?

Okay this was a really long, verbose, and boring post.

Turtlenog!!

So I was browsing through all the pictures on my computer looking for a new "Picture of the Week" and I found the folder of Turtlenog pictures from last Christmas! Enough time has passed now that I can look at these photos with fondness and amusement. I will now post two of the aforementioned pictures.

Picture #1

I love this picture for mainly two reasons...Reason #1: John's head is floating (his turtlenog sweater was the same color as the backdrop). Reason #2: Santa looks way creepy. It's like..."Merry Christmas Natalie, I am about to kidnap you". The way his hands are all jazz hands-y is just a little weird!

Picture #2
I love this picture because our faces are just classic. "Merry Christmas old building and loan! Merry Christmas Mr. Potter!"

I really wish that Alice and I had taken pictures together at the turtlenog party! I do remember that we did an awesome version of our high school musical dance for everyone! We totally rocked that karaoke party. Since we didn't take any pictures together at the party, I will post pictures of us studying for finals...during Christmas time.

Okay, okay...so maybe sometimes we got distracted while studying and ended up using our feet as telephones...yeah I don't really know how that happened. It was a pretty great Christmas season, though. Let me tell you! Alice...if you can hear me...I love you I miss you oh baby oh baby Ikissyoubye.

Love is a great beautifier

"To outsiders, the five energetic women seemed to rule the house, and so they did in many things; but the quiet scholar, sitting among his books, was still the head of the family, the household conscience, anchor, and comforter, for to him the busy, anxious women always turned in troublous times, finding him, in the truest sense of the sacred words, husband and father.

The girls gave their hearts into their mother's keeping, their souls into their father's; and to both parents, who lived and laboured so faithfully for them, they gave a love that grew with their growth, and bound them tenderly together by the sweetest tie which blesses lives and outlives death."

I love this quote from Little Women because it describes my family...not only the physical aspect (five girls at home, one father...and besides that, we have another amazing sister and wonderful brother) but it also describes the emotional aspect of our home perfectly. No, our family is not perfect or even close, but we love each other and our parents and we are all so close. I love my family and am so grateful for each of them. I often wonder how in the world I got so lucky. I can't explain it but I can only hope to live my life in gratitude and emulation of such a home.