Glad This, Glad That.

As I am sitting here failing to do my homework, I am thinking about my two weeks of junior year accomplished. I always forget how sore I am the second week of school and I sometimes wish I could remember this horrible feeling so I don't do this to myself ever again. YOWIE! So far though, school is going good, and as the past few weeks have gone by, I have been thinking about things I am grateful for, because I really am one lucky girl. I've been trying not to complain so much. I have been working on picking out the good in each situation, and not dwelling on the past so much. The past is the past and nobody can't change what happened, you can only learn from the result. I can't help but think of Pollyanna when I act upon this idea. When things aren't going so well, I like to play "The Glad Game" because "If you knew how to play the Glad Game then you could find something to be glad about too" -Pollyanna.

My personal Glad Game:

#1. I recently had to switch my Land Cruiser with my dad's Ford Five Hundred to save on gas. I love both cars, but I feel REALLY safe in the Land Cruiser. I am afraid that in the snow, the lack of four wheel drive will come to a disadvantage, and I'm gonna get stranded in the snow somewhere coming home from work or school. Sad thing is, I see about 20 Land cruisers a day now. It haunts me because I am SO SCARED for the winter in a smaller car (stop judging me, I openly admit I am afraid of winter driving ok? I had a bad experience...) Nonetheless, I am glad I even HAVE a car. Think of all of the things I need it for. I'm very grateful and glad for a car. Pray for me in the winter...Thanks.

#2. I am convinced I will never have to have a twin bed of my own again. I am glad Saje didn't mind switching his queen for my twin. Long story. In a way I am grateful for two things here: Saje and my new Queen bed. Muahahaha

#3. I am glad I have friends in lots of different places!!! It's a small world after all.

#4. I'm glad I don't have any psychopath roommates.

#5. I'm glad that I can relax on weekends and on some weekends join the Muss for Utah football games. I love me some football.

#6. I'm glad to have power, air conditioning, and the money to pay for such things.

#7. I'm glad that Slurpee's make my day ten times better even when I feel like I hit rock bottom. The excitement of wondering which flavors they will have and combining all my favorite's never gets old. Quite frankly, $2 never tasted better.

#8. MY CELL PHONE SUCKS. I could sit and complain about it for an hour at LEAST. BUT, since this is the glad game, I am glad that I have ways to communicate even if my phone does drop the call every 5 minutes.

#9. I'm glad that I listen to the Book of Mormon every morning before school. It pumps me up. Ps. Ammon is super Bad A.

#10. As much as I want to get married, I'm glad I'm not right now. I am expensive (sorry future husband). Thanks mom and dad for my recent dental work, medical care, feeding my hungry poor college student belly when I can't help myself, helping me when I come across serious ruts and need some support, giving me good advice, letting me release my stress, and supplying me with a great vacay house when I visit. At this time in my life, I'm glad I have helpful hardworking parents who love me and help me when I desperately need it.

The Glad Game makes me so happy :). Wanna know what else makes me happy? The past few weekends I have done some things I've never done before.

Saved By The Bell themed party. My new romper with a short jacket was a HIT. Lisa Turtle would be SO proud. I went with a group of people but my friend Amy and I helped each other with our outfits.



MY FIRST RODEO!!! Isn't my date super cute?!? Saje and I met up with his brother and his date for the Box Elder County Fair (the oldest fair in Utah). I LOVE THE FAIR!! #11 of the Glad Game: I'm glad for fairs (that includes fair food like scones, turkey legs, and funnel cakes.) I secretly wish I was a Rodeo Queen.



The University of Utah is now in the Pac 12!!!! Now our teams will play all the schools that my siblings attended (ASU, CU, and BYU). We'll see who picked the better school... Lets hope they can pull it off! GO UTES!

I saw Katie my fellow AZ Ballet Dept. friend at the tailgate.



Saje got me some super sweet free red Budweiser glasses at the tailgate. Here I am sporting my free Diet Coke and my new Budweiser shades.



"We're up to snuff: we never bluff.
We're game for any fuss.
No other gang of college men dare meet us in the muss."



My life rocks.

This next thing I've never done before might be the greatest part of my post. Last night My friends and I had a Tri-Date bonfire. Kelli sadly went solo cause her date bailed last second, but she was awesome and came anyways. We made smores and banana boats. I'd never heard of banana boats either. I tried it, it was only alright, I'll probably never do it again. I think that is mostly because it did NOT look that fantastic. You open the peel, stuff it with mallows, chocolate chips, and peanut butter, wrap it in tin foil, and set it by the fire. Here is the most successful banana boat. Everyone else's looked like turd instead of vomit.





After the bonfire, Kelli and I had a camp out in her back yard!



Look at this gem....It's like, nice job picking the only sunny part of her backyard to wake up to. My outfit is called a uni-lazy. It is the best thing that has EVER happened to me. It works better than a sleeping bag. It has pockets, and it even has a butt flap. #12 I'm glad I have a uni-lazy. It keeps me warm whenever I want and I can still be mobile.



My last thing I haven't done before is something that hasn't really happened yet. Next Friday night, I won't be available. I'll be hangin' with my gang.



I've only waited for this moment for 8 years. I HOPE THEY PLAY MY FAVORITE SONG!! I'm freaking out. I CAN'T WAIT, THANKS SAJE!

One last thing I'm glad for: #13 Putting on old pants and finding what you thought was lost chapstick. YES!

Wrapping up Summer

Thought #1
I am getting anxious/stressed for school to start again! I feel like I have so much to do and not enough energy to do it! All I want to do before I go back to SLC is tan, tan, sit around, tan, hang out with my best friends, and take a few random ballet classes. So yeah, I have time, but I'm lazy. In my defense, I deserve it because during the school year, I don't have time to be lazy!!!!

Thought #2
This summer I successfully finished 9 credit hours. I'm never taking summer school again, but it was worth it because now I only have one more Gen Ed to do in the Spring! You guessed it, the only classes I'm taking this year are dance related. THIS WILL NOT BE A BREEZE!!! People keep saying, "Oh you are just taking dance classes? Well your junior year of college will be a breeze then!!" It's like... Have you ever danced in college? It will still be a difficult year TRUST ME! The only difference is that I don't have to take dumb classes that I don't care about :) I am also taking a swing dance class with Saje, this should be interesting.
End of thought.

Thought #3
I want to do choreography for the first U Showcase performance in October. I need to have it at least the third of the way finished in like 3 weeks. I have a song... but am I in love with it? I just don't know. I need some inspiration people! Get me to a studio...STAT!

Thought #4
I start teaching again on the 15th. YIKES. Wish me luck with choreography this year.. and maintaining sanity.

Ok now for the exciting part (a blog post isn't cool without pictures, sorry. -Thought #5) A few exciting things happened after the best day of my life (Potterthon), that I feel like I need to document.

Right before I went to California and then Arizona I planned a Paint Fight with some ward friends!! We had paint filled balloons, sponges, water guns, and cute boys. Total success.





I have a friend that I worked with at the Corner Bakery who is also a photographer. He heard that I was a dancer and wanted to take some "dancer photo's" for his photo collection. We went to this pretty cool place by the Salt Lake to get some pics. It was only a little difficult working with someone who basically knows nothing about dance, so I brought Kelli with me. Here are a few of my fav's.







Then I was off! My sister Aimee had a birthday bash craft weekend at her house in California. My Mom, Grama, Leslie, and I attended and it was pretty awesome! We watched her kids swim in the mornings and then while they were resting, we made crafts. Taggart is a good swimmer, his back says, "Eat My Bubbles!"



I'm not very good at crafts so I decided to tackle the easiest one. Even then I almost quit. Right now I feel like one of those people who craft, then post it on their blogs all the time. Don't expect any more of these posts. I don't have a ton of patience for crafting, sadly. But what I did craft made outstanding birthday gifts for my best friends!

Magazine Bead Bracelets:
You cut strips of colorful magazine and roll it around a toothpick. Modge Podge the bead so it doesn't unwind, and shine it up with some top coat, clear nail polish. SWEET!



My next craft required sisterly help. I looked through magazines to find cute pictures I wanted for necklaces. Aimee bought clear scrabble tile things from Etsy and Leslie glued the pictures I wanted on the back. Then she glued a little hangy on it so that it could hang on the chain. I made little beaded charms and then put them all on the chains. I love my new necklaces! I made a short one and a long one. I lucked out finding a Broadway themed magazine page and I have Kiss Me Kate, Singing in The Rain and My Fair Lady for the tiles. I wanted a big jumble of charms to hang and I absolutely love the center chain I found at Michael's. I am waiting for Aimee's comment about the finished Broadway necklace... Rachel, if I find another page like that, I'll make you one!





Here are everyone's necklaces



Last but not least... Washer earrings! I just found super cute scrapbook paper and cut it and modge podged it to washers. Then after it dries, I filed down the edges with sand paper. Aside from getting help filing down the edges, I did this one alll by myself! The wiring was a little difficult. I had to try and bend the wire to get it on the actual earring part, make both earrings look the same, and hang right. None the less, I have new cute church earrings!



I made Aimee the best double decker cupcakes ever. I'm not crafty but I'm pretty creative.



Next we played the Favorite Things game. This is where everyone thinks of their favorite thing and brings only 3 of that thing. You could not spend any more than $5. Everybody draws three names. You go around in a circle and explain your favorite thing and give it to the people you drew! Everybody had very interesting favorite things and we were all very happy with our new prizes! Grama's favorite thing was a candle wick pillow, Leslie's was a canned cake, Aimee's was athermos water bottle for slushies, Mom's was a blinged out watch, and mine was nail polish and hand creme. I like this game a lot.





We had a great time Aimee!!!!! I happen to think the birthday girl looks very sassy in this pic...






WE MISSED YOU RACHEL!

Finally I was back to my home in Arizona. I was very excited because my very first best friend came home from his mission! RM Holden Connolly, what a cutie!






I was also stoked because I reunited with my nerdy best friends! I've missed them...

We found shoes that we all wanted to purchase at Walmart. I found foux Shape Up's, and Carolyn had Grama shoes. Alex's were the best...







We had a best friend day and we went and got shellac manicures and pedicures :)

One thing this summer that I was not planning on, was Selling Security! My brother sells Security for Security Networks, and he needed some help at the Home and Garden Show in Glendale. Basically he just wanted me so that I could sell my body. It was the longest three days of my life, but I think Dallin was grateful for my help.



My last activity this summer was ALLLL RM Holden's idea. Did somebody say NERF WAR?!? His siblings bought him Nerf guns and bullets that had Velcro at the ends of them. Holden had sweet Nerf shirts that the bullets would stick to so you knew when you got shot. We played in a stake center and had all the lights off and just had glow sticks so we knew who to shoot. Our team PWND all three times we played. Can you tell just how awesome our team is?? TEAM JUSTICE!



Alex's ammo looked like udders :) :)



Anyways, I leave back to Utah the 14th and I get a new roommate next weekend! August 22 is the first day of school... "Yaaaaaay" - Baby Mama.