Birthdays!

Tuesday was Aaron's (not my brother, one of our friends) birthday. When we asked him if he wanted to go get ice cream he said no. When we asked if we could make him a cake he said no. We told him that we were going to go over and bring him something anyway... He said we were welcome to stop by but we were not allowed to bring anything. Too bad. We decided to make him this: 

 Marissa wanted to be in the picture... surprised? 

Today is my roommate's birthday. We decided every girl loves getting flowers on her birthday so they were a must. I need to fix the K since she walked into my room when it was drying and I grabbed it... forgetting it was still wet. Whoops. 

Next birthday up is KC's on Sunday. 

We have a volleyball game Saturday morning at 8:20 am. I then have a basketball game at 10 then we have the football game at 12. Long day? Yes... And I know for a fact I will NOT be getting sleep tomorrow night. I just know I will have a nice long nap waiting for me after the football game.

Haunted Weekend

Friday started out with some volleyball. What better way to start a weekend? I met up with some friends and we played for a couple hours. We later went to a haunted house that Bronte was in. It was pretty scary. Marci and I made two guys laugh by screaming. Oh, and Bronte was probably the scariest. Especially when she popped up and started waving. Pretty scary if you ask me. :)

I went with Marissa, Marci, Stacey, Phillip and two guys that we met playing volleyball earlier that day. After this haunted house we went to a one dollar one that was in a house and put together by the college students that live there. It was pretty dang scary. Definitely worth a buck.

Saturday morning I lined judged a volleyball game and then Marissa and I were off to Rexburg to visit Kyle and Brian Richardson. One of my friends from last year is serving his mission Arimo so we decided to take a picture of the sign for him.

 It was a super small town but we still didn't see two guys on bikes.
We got to Rexburg just in time for Brian's baseball game where we met up with Kyle and one of his friends.  After his game we went to the Haunted Mill.  It was a pretty good haunted house. We then headed back to Kyle's to watch a movie and then play some Play Station.

Sunday morning we headed back to Utah to make it back in time for TJ's farewell talk. He gave an awesome talk, of course. Sherry had people over after sacrament and everything was delicious. Have fun TJ!

After four haunted houses, October is finally over and now it's time to plan Thanksgiving and turn on the Christmas music.

It's raining, it's pouring.

Well, I lasted the week. I finished the week off with my anatomy lab midterm which went really well. I had spent over 10 hours last week in open lab so I am happy it was worth it. When I was done we went up to Sandy and met up with TJ, KC and Joel to watch the movie RED. It was really good and funny.
Tuesday night I had a basketball game. I am SO out of shape. They didn't sub me out the entire first half and I was about to die/throw up. Really bad. We lost by 6 but the game went better than I thought it would. We played our first volleyball game Thursday. Our name is Beavis and Bump-Head. Fits our team pretty well huh? We lost. Really bad. I have played volleyball with half the team we played and I knew that they were really good. Hopefully we are better this Wednesday!
This weekend we watched The Return with some friends. Bronte's mom had sent her down Halloween cake mix and frosting. We made and finished it between the six of us. Sooo good. THANK YOU SHANNON!!! After the movie we had to watch a happy movie, of course. So we watched Nacho Libre since Marissa and I had never seen it all the way through. It was hilarious. ha Loved it.
Saturday morning we wen to the football. Nick had picked us up some panchos so we wouldn't get soaked. It was a good game. Besides the fact that we had the MOST annoying Wyoming fans behind us. We can never go anywhere without having annoying people around us. Oh well, I am just happy we won.  After the game the team walked around the field giving fans high fives. Nick was not going to miss the chance to touch his boyfriend, Jake Heaps.

We ended the week with church, 3 hour long naps, homemade ice cream (made by Marissa with her new ice cream maker) and studying for my Anatomy lecture quiz.

Bull Ridin'

Just to catch up a little... I went into basketball class Tuesday and my instructor let me know he added me to his basketball team. I didn't give him my netID. He was kinda desperate for players so looked it up and added me so if I did still wan to play I would be able to, since we had a game that night.  Too bad the only players that showed up were him and his wife. So, we had to forfeit. Next game is tomorrow night. We will see what happens.
Marissa, Nick and I are all on a volleyball team.  Team name: Volleywood. We should be awesome.
Friday night I had a sleep over at my old roommate's apartment (Kelly). She is an absolutely wonderful cook.  We had tons of fun catching up and spending some time together.
Saturday morning Marissa and I went to play volleyball with some friends and afterward went to the BYU women's volleyball game. We went two hours early just to get free pink shirts for breast cancer.
Sunday morning Chris and Aaron made us crepes for breakfast (thanks to Marissa posting her addiction of Nutella on her facebook). They were awesome. They made us try butter, powdered sugar and lemon juice. They said it was the classic crepe. I wasn't too excited about it because I have always have my usual strawberries/strawberry jam, whipped cream and powdered sugar. It was excellent though.
After church my home teachers came over and made us tacos for lunch. Super good! I was still full from the crepes.  Marissa usually makes crepes small and we both forgot that people make them big.  When we usually have four or five small crepes, we had 4 big ones. Pretty intense.  Before ward prayer I went with Shannon to her grandma's house for their Sunday dessert party.  She made this lemon cream cheese goodness. I will definitely be joining every Sunday from here on out.
Tonight for FHE we went to Thanksgiving Point to originally do the corn maze. The group I was with finished in about ten minutes. Way before anyone else. So, we decided to make our way to the mechanical bull. I have always wanted to try it. So I pulled out my 20 quarters and made my way up to the bull.  The guy was pretty easy on me at first but then decided I could take it. I really wish I would have worn jeans because the pants I was wearing were super slippery. I definitely want to try it again with my cowboy boots, jeans and be able to hold a cowgirl hat in my free hand.
I have three tests this week, a basketball game, volleyball game, line judging a volleyball game, the Haunted Forest and I have no idea what else. Wish me luck.

Times Like These

Last week in my anatomy lab we learned about the spinal cord and brain. For the past few weeks I was losing my interest in learning anatomy because it was just so much memorization and I could NOT retain anything...
In Friday's lab I was so tired from trying to memorize the lower muscles that I was no excited to try to learn about anything. We learned about the spinal cord first. It was pretty cool. But still, nothing that I didn't expect. When we went over to the other TA to learn about the brain I got so excited. Most of the brains in the lab are TA only, which means only TAs are allowed to hold them because they are recently dissected and new to the lab so all of us didn't expect to be able to touch or hold anything. There was a brain that was still in half a skull. It was freaking awesome! All I wanted to do was be able to hold it. I could barely pay attention while she was teaching about it. She was trying to lift up the cerebellum to teach us about the stuff beneath and more inferior. She couldn't hold the brain and lift the cerebellum at the same time. SO she asked if one of us would hold it for her. I have never been so willing to volunteer in a class more in my life. It was awesome.
I thought that was cool. I didn't know what today would bring in lecture.
My professor brought fetuses that were miscarried. I was really nervous at first because I didn't know what to expect. At first she showed us a brain that she had dissected but kept the eyes attached. It looked creepy was so cool. She then pulled out a fetus that was (she guessed) 11 weeks when the mother miscarried. She had made a cut so we could see the little organs inside. She then pulled out a fetus that was really hard for me to see and hold. It was a fetus that had Spina Bifida and also Anencephaly. We were also able to hold conjoined twins that shared a liver. It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience.  Times like this in anatomy make me love the class even more. I know that a lot of other schools don't get the chance to study off cadavers or be lucky enough to have a professor that provides an experience like this for her students. Even though this class consumes most of my study time, is one of the most difficult classes I have taken and seems to be impossible to pass sometimes, it is totally worth it.

Football!

We had our last game of the tournament on Friday night. We lost... We started out with four players but ended with five. We did pretty good, but just couldn't pull it off in the end. I might be joining my basketball instructor's coed basketball team since one girl is going on her honeymoon and another burnt her hand. So, they only have one girl. I'm talking to him today and seeing if they still need me.

After our game Chris and Aaron came back over to play more board games. Someone finally beat Marissa at Phase 10!! I was proud... It wasn't me, but I didn't care.

Saturday I slept in until... 12:45. I haven't slept passed 12 in years! It was so nice. But, half the day was gone. We went  to the football game (it was awesome to finally see Bronte again!! I missed her!!. Also, half the fun of the game was Nick's reactions when good things happened. He was seriously happier than on his birthday.),

 hit up Taco Bell, then went back to my apartment to make some pumpkin muffins (Marissa made them and they were delicious) and watch The Dark Knight. I hadn't seen it before and LOVED it! At first it was hard to see the joker as Heath Ledger but by the end it helped to make it not so scary and just think of it as a strategy movie. If that even makes sense. It was a fantastic movie and I want to watch it again because I know there was stuff I missed.

Since we didn't start the movie until about 11:30 (we were talking to my roommate about her wedding, By the way, Marissa will probably buy her contract and move it with me in the winter) I didn't get much sleep and slept through my alarms and woke up at 10. My church starts at 9. Oops. Marissa and I just went to Nick's ward. We then went to Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner. The lasagna she made was absolutely delicious. I had to unbutton my pants when I got home because I stuffed myself way too much.  Thanks again Grandma!!! 

Now I need to get back into study mode and get ready for my Anatomy lab midterm and write two papers. Lucky me! 

I love my sleep.

I am a person who enjoys her sleep. Who loves sleeping in as late as possible and does not like being woken up before her alarm. Last semester I had to take a 9 am class and could barely stay awake through the whole thing. My roommate has a 7 am class this semester while I have 10 am on three days and on Tuesday and Thursday I don't have class until 1 or later. It gives me plenty of time to sleep in, get some studying in and take a nap. My perfect schedule. I think about my roommate and how bad I would be at having a 7 am class. I would probably sleep through my alarm, fall asleep in class or be so tired that I wouldn't be able to focus. Not to mention look like crap because I would not wake up early enough to take a shower and attempt to look cute.
But lucky me. Next semester I have to take Exploration of Teaching. There is only one class offered. At 7 am. For four hours. Monday through Friday. Awesome, huh?

Ticket to Ride

This weekend was more on the eventful side... Well, sorta. Friday started out with a three hour nap after my Anatomy lab. Perfect way to start the weekend. Chris and Aaron (a couple friends from my last ward) had an intramural volleyball game later that night so Marissa and I went to watch and cheer them on.  Later that night we went to Nightmare on 13th. Before even going inside I smacked my head trying to get away from a guy dressed up with a horse skeleton mask or something and standing on stilts. Marissa and I pretty much peed our pants the whole time while the guys were trying not to laugh at how ridiculous we were being. There were some pretty cool rooms and walkways with moving floors and weird walls, though.  The guys enjoyed scaring us the rest of the weekend because apparently we are the jumpiest most easily scared girls. Hard to believe right?

Saturday I was a good girl and actually watched conference. Well, the morning session at least.  I fell asleep during the afternoon session because I only had about 5 hours of sleep the night before. Marissa and I then made crepes and played some Rummikub (I hate playing Phase 10 with her because she always freaking wins). After eating crepes we headed to FatCats to bowl.  Apparently they have a "list" that the manager was surprised we weren't on since we went bowling pretty much every weekend last year.  We paid for two hours but after the first hour all of us were all worn out, except Brian and Kyle who enjoyed their own lanes for the last 45 minutes.

Yesterday I woke up right as conference was starting, pulled my lap top on my stomach and watched the morning session in bed. Between sessions Chris and Aaron came over to play Ticket to Ride. None of us had really played before besides Chris.  The first game I had no idea what the crap I was doing so kinda screwed up the end for everyone (I tried reading the tips online on how to play but they weren't any help). Oh well, that's what they get. It's a really fun game and if you haven't played it, you definitely need to. Marissa and I are super anxious to play again now that we know how to play.  She pointed out that it's one of those games that you keep thinking of strategies and just want to keep playing, kinda like when we were all addicted to Tetris last semester.  Hopefully this game doesn't consume my life like Tetris did.  After the afternoon session and our Sunday naps, Marissa and I headed over to Selene's to drop off her keyboard stand and.... eat a little bit of Mexican. YUM! Of course, it made me miss home. And, it made me want to make more rice and attempt making tortillas again so I can have an endless supply to myself.  I want to learn how to make Arroz con Pollo like they make it at La Brisa or that restaurant by Aaron's.  My favorite.

Tomorrow we have our next game in the tournament.  We have to win 7 games in a row in order to win the whole thing. Think we can do it? We better, I want that shirt!!! 

Tournament Time

Tonight was the first round for intramural volleyball. During the regular season we never won a game. We play really well but just could never win. Tonight we did awesome during our first game (well, the second game in the match wasn't but that's okay). We won that match and had to play right after against a team that was a lower seed than us and it was going to be their first game. How lame is that??? So, the first game we beat them like 25-12. Awesome, right? The second game we should have won and only lost by I think 2. The ref kept saying the ball hit the antenna when our girl would hit it but it would hit the net and the antenna would shake. We fixed it and guess what? We didn't have any more hits "hit the antenna." We lost that match. It was super frustrating considering how bad we beat them the first game and how we knew we should have beat them.  I don't like losing. And I don't like losing to obnoxious teams. It kinda brought back the competitiveness I had back in high school and all the memories with it. Hopefully our next game will be better. Even though we can't win the tournament and get free t shirts anymore. Oh well.

Rissa Rae

Marissa is the closest sibling in age to me. We were the only two left at home when Nick graduated which meant we pretty much got mom and dad to ourselves. She was a good high school older sister.  She would let me hang out with her and her friends, which was a big deal to a freshman.  We didn't get to play on the same team together which was a bummer. But she always made sure I was prepared to play varsity sports. I would sometimes get nervous going on car rides with her because somehow she would find something to teach me about life. When she went to college and left me alone I was pretty upset. Mom has a picture that shows that perfectly. Now that we are down at school together she gets all the chances in the world to teach, lecture, make fun of and "help" me in life. She's a pretty good sister if you ask me.

 Happy Birthday Riss.