So Long...Farewell!

Obvious Fact Of The Day: When you're getting ready to leave everyone in your life for 2 whole years...those people are going to want to get some quality moments with you before your departure. This indicates your popularity within the human race.

So today was Logan Hedin's farewell. We are buddies from EFY this last summer at the Sandy Institute and oh man I love that kiddo! He lives in Salt Lake so I don't get to see him a whole lot...but when I do it's always a fantastic experience! For example, the last time we got to play, we went to the South Towne Mall with his brother Adam and our friend Aimee. It was basically a mini EFY reunion. We mostly just walked around in the stores but I guess Adam and Logan wanted to get a new cologne or something so Aims and I basically forced them to go into Victoria's Secret and we all tested out some different smells. Sometimes I love Vikki's scents...but sometimes it's way too much for my nostrils! Anyway, we had a blasty spraying each other randomly and unexpectedly. I actually think Adam won the contest for "who could wear the largest variety of smells at one time". Uh...lucky him! After that we went to this shop called "Tie One On" and as you can imagine...it sells ties! Logan told me to pick out a tie I really liked so he could buy it. Something about how if a girl picks it out and she really likes it, chances are that other girls will too. To an extent I guess that's pretty smart, but I'm kinda a smarty pants so I tried to pick out the ugliest tie possible. We had a lot of fun with that...especially once we found this horrid black tie with bright orange shapes all over it. Yikes. Anyway, those are the memories shared with Logan sauce.

So after I arrived at Logan's church house, I found a spot in the back and saved a seat for Aimee. Logan was way busy greeting all his other close friends and family that had come to hear him speak so I figured it would be better for me to just wait my turn at the end since he's so ridiculously popular! :) Anyway, Aimee got there right before the meeting started so we got to catch up a little bit before Logan spoke. We tried really hard to get him to laugh by making funny faces and things but I think he was trying to avoid looking at us for that very reason. And honestly I don't blame him...I hated it when my mom would do that to me when I gave talks! But yeah afterward I went and waited in the HUGE line to go shake the Elder's hand and give my congrats and thus, Logan invited me to the PAR-TAY at his house. He gave me directions and things but honestly...I kinda suck at remembering lefts and rights mixed with numbers sometimes so yeah I got slightly lost. But then I saw a bunch of boys in white shirts and ties in the middle of the road so I thought that was probably the right one. The really sad part was that they were all hunched over one of Logan's good friends AJ who had just fallen off the back of a car he had been messing around with his friends on. But the most impressive thing ever was that when Logan drove up and saw that, he went straight over to AJ and gave him a blessing. He didn't ask what happened or anything until afterward. I could just tell that he cared so much about AJ's well being and had such faith that God would take care of him. So after they got AJ into an ambulance and things, I got to hang out with Logan for a little bit at his house and then a few hours later, he drove down to Riverton to hang out with just me without all these other people wanting his attention...which was so sweet of him! We didn't get to hang out long, but I loved getting to see him just a little bit longer before he leaves me for 2 years!

So yeah those were the events of the day before us Cedar Civillians headed on back to our wonderful land of college and crazies! Who doesn't love a 3 hour drive? Seriously.

Saturday Is A Special Day...

Obvious Fact Of The Day: When you tell me that food will be at any given event, that increases the chances of my attendance by about 75%. When warm, cuddly, fleecy blankets are involved at this same event, chances of my attendance jump to 100%. I'm so there.

Today I had to get my butt out of bed early (well, early for a college kid on a Saturday) and get started on making my Personal Progress quilt. For those of you that have no idea what that is, it's a Young Women's thing we do in my home ward. We have to do experiences and projects listed in a Personal Progress book to help us develop better qualities in the 7 value areas: Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowledge, Choice and Accountability, Good Works, and Integrity. To some, this may sound silly, and to some it may actually be silly...but for me, well, it's helped to mold me into who I am today. It's helped me become a stronger individual with standards that I know I can hold to at all times. Because in all honesty, when you're suddenly out on your own with no parental supervision and virtually no rules anymore...there's no one to monitor your daily activities except for yourself. So for me, this program has given me the practice at maintaining my standards, which has in turn kept me from making stupid moral mistakes (more than I can say for some friends that I have recently become rather disappointed in). Anyway...whenever I finish an experience for any of the 7 values, I get a quilt square of the color of the value I completed. Faith=white, Divine Nature=blue, Individual Worth=red, Knowledge=green, Choice and Accountability=orange, Good Works=yellow, and Integrity=purple. So my morning and part of my afternoon was spent sewing all my squares together into a really cute and colorful quilt. :) It's soft and cuddly and reminds me of all the work I put into making myself be a good example for others. Of course, sewing it was a project in and of itself...mostly due to the extensive pinning combined with eating delicious treats and having some lovely conversation. Well anyway, after I finished my blankie, I headed over to Sammi's so she could work her magic on my hairs. And the woman never lets me down! I go in looking ridiculous and I come out looking like a diva of sorts! Ha ha I KNEW there was a reason that she's one of my bestest buddies! Ok, well there's more reasons than her magic touch to my appearance...but it's seriously such an extensive list, I won't go into all those reasons! Anyway...after that, I went over to surprise Russ Russ (yes, again. I enjoy not telling him when I'm coming home for the weekend. It's exciting) over at his homestead. See, I have to get more and more tricky every time I do these things because otherwise there's no point in surprising him. So this time, I just texted him and said "Whatcha up to?" like I always do. He told me he was just finishing up his dinner with his fam damily. Perfect! :) So I drove on over to his house and texted him again (since the conversation kinda died down) "So whatcha up to now?" to which he said he was just chillin so I asked if I could call him and just talk for a minute. Of course he said yes so I exited my vehicular unit and called the boy! As we just kinda talked about nothing in particular, I walked up to his front door and rang the doorbell while he was speaking to me. He told me to hold on because there was someone at the door (like I didn't know that already) and so I waited patiently as he opened the door. Oh boy was that boy surprised to see me!! Yes, I am ultra sneaky and fantastic at surprising. :) He had no idea whatsoever that I was in town this weekend. It was wonderful. So I chilled with him and his family for the remainder of the evening...which was actually pretty fun. Crazy, eh?

Homeward Bound!

Obvious Fact Of The Day: 3 hour drives are really long. Yeah, I told you it was an obvious fact.

So...the ballroom team lists were posted today. You guessed it....I MADE IT!!!!! Holy, I didn't think I would make it at all! But shocker...I made it onto the Intermediate Team! Oh man I'm so dang excited! Sadly, Desi and Kylee didn't make any of the teams and I didn't really recognize any of the other names on the lists...so I suppose I'll have some friend making to do. But geez I just can't get over how excited and surprised I am! AAAH this is crazy sauce! I'm not even that good! But apparently I'm not that bad either! Ha ha this is the best news I've gotten in college land! Hmmm well I'm about to head off back to Riverton for the weekend with Kylee and Desi because Logan's farewell is on Sunday. Lucky boy gets to go to the Merida Mexico mish. But I'm really gonna miss that kiddo. Ope! Time to leave! :) Riverton, Utah...here we come!!!

Having Quite A Ball In The Ballroom!

Obvious Fact Of The Day: When I'm already smiling at you, it's unneccessary to tell me to smile...because I'm already doing it.

Well, if I wasn't having fun in math, it'd be my own fault. For today anyway. This is mainly due to the fact that Armstrong is one of the funniest math teachers I know. And I've known plenty of those...most of which have been funny. So this is quite the honor. He's got some fantastic math jokes, and even some fantastic non-math jokes. It's all sorts of entertaining. I'm ok with that being my only Thursday class. It's well-spent! So after all my classes, I went to ballroom tryouts with Desi and Kylee. We mostly just went to have fun...and it was a TON of fun! There were over 100 girls trying out and probably about 60 boys trying out. We did the basic steps for the Cha-Cha, Waltz, and a mini Jive routine. It was pretty fun to watch all the kids that were on the team last year teach and just do it...they have such confidence and energy! It's so cool! I think my favorite one to learn was the Jive. It's really bouncy and has personality so I just had a lot of fun practicing it over and over...even though it got super tiring! Desi and Kylee had a bit of a harder time remembering the order of the different moves, so I helped them go over it. It's times like these that being in Guard for 4 years really pays off! All the routine changes at the last minute really help train your brain to learn and remember anything that gets thrown at you under pressure...and this was definetly one of those moments! Ok, three of those hours. Ha ha. Well when the actual try-out session started, they had the boys dance with girls that were on team last year and vice versa for the girls for the Cha-Cha and Waltz. I got to dance with this AMAZING (and really good looking, might I add) dancer, Jose. His advice to me right before we started dancing was to smile. But here's the thing...when I get nervous, I smile. It's just a natural reaction for me. Hence, that was a really short conversation (although it may also be due to the fact that his good looks combined with his crazy dance ablity was pretty intimidating). So yeah, I'm pretty sure I didn't make it on any of the 3 teams because there were so many amazing girl dancers...but oh well! At least it was a fun experience! :) After that, Iron Man was being shown on the MultiQuad, but Desi and Kylee and I were all way too pooped to go home and change and then come back. So we just said hi to some buddies on the way home and called it a night.

I'm A Freshman! ...I Mean, A Freshperson.

Obvious Fact Of The Day: People have been called Freshmen for ages. Freshgirls sounds like something my mom would say when A.) we needed to look "fresh" for some event or B.) we were being "fresh" with her. So Freshperson...sounds like something an idiot would say if they didn't know what gender you had been assigned to.

So...we all know you're not reading this to hear about the boringness of my classes. You're here for the social stuff. You want to see lil baby Ariel grow into not-so-lil baby Ariel. I can't make any promises, but I'll do my best to see that it happens. So after classes, and my wasting-time party with myself, I headed off to my Freshman Board meeting. Man, the LoveSacs in the SUUSA office are so comfy! I dig it. Anyway, Liz (our boss woman) is hilarious! I love that girl! She started off the meeting by explaining that we were no longer allowed to call ourselves members of the "Freshman Board." We now have to go by the "Freshperson Board" due to some sort of unfair gender something or other. I don't really know...I was laughing way too hard. So that's the new joke for the Freshman Board (hereby shortened to FB). Don't you feel cool and like you're on the inside? Because you are. And don't you forget it! After that party of a meeting where we didn't really get much accomplished...there was a Freshman Success class in the Lightning Lounge. Basically this guy talked to us for an hour about loans and credit and staying out of debt and then we got all the free pizza we could eat! And seeing as how I'm a poor, starving college student...that was a fantastic deal for me.

Goin' To The Bish-hop!

Obvious Fact Of The Day: When you approach the Bishop instead of him approaching you, he's gonna take that as a pretty good sign that you're willing to magnify any calling you may end up having. And he'll see to it that you have one.

So I don't know what it is about Tuesdays...but they're relatively un-eventful. I basically just went to class and then wasted time all day. I don't really even know what I was doing with my time, which most likely isn't a good thing. I definetly should be using my time more wisely...but seriously folks, I don't have a job yet or any other extracurricular kinds of activities to be involved with yet. Wasting time is the only way I can entertain myself right now! So anyway...I arrived at my appointment with B. Reed (it's funny cuz that could be an abbreviation for Bishop or for Bart...which is his name. Awesome, I know. My Bish is so much cooler than yours. It's fine.) promptly at 7:40ish. Now Bish is an awesome guy. He's super friendly and just...rad. What was cool is that even though I had never really talked to him at all before, he seemed to know a lot more about me than most people. It was an intense feeling. He was asking me the general questions about my family and things to get to know me...but for some reason, it seemed like he knew the answers to some of those questions before he even asked me them. It's things like this that help me realize that God knows who I am. I'm just glad that He's telling other people good things about me! Ha ha. Now my main goal was to go in as the fantastic person I was and come out as the fantastic person I am plus one Temple Recommend. Instead, I came out as the fantastic person I am plus one Temple Recommend and a calling.

Cedar City 5th Ward...say hello to the best FHE Ma you will ever know!

Labor Day...Minus The Labor Part.

Obvious Fact Of The Day: If I hear a Snare or Quad, or even a Bass run, I'm going to run around like a chicken without its head looking for the Marching Band that goes with it, in hopes of spotting a Guard somewhere nearby.

Well, Desi and Kylee are still home for today, so it's just Marcia beans and I! We awoke today with the intention of going to the PE building to work out...but it's closed due to the holiday. Hence, we decided to just run around the block. That's when I heard it. The glorious sounds of a Marching Band not far in the distance. Boy was I running then! Turns out that Cedar High School is right up the street from my house...except it doesn't have a Colorguard. How sad. I was so excited for that possibility...but alas, it was not so. So after that disappointment, Marcia and I headed home and ended up having an 80's movie-thon. I couldn't believe that this girl had never seen Pretty In Pink before. The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles...I can understand not having the fortune to see those...but Pretty In Pink is a classic! EVERYONE has to watch it! It's a must! So yeah that pretty much ate up my afternoon...but in a good way. Top Ramen, Cream Soda, and 80's movies are where it's at! Don't you forget it!