If I Never Left

I would be completely happy.

Y'all, I have fallen in love.

I thought I would never be able to love any other mountains other than the Appalachian mountains. Given, I still love the Appalachian mountains the MOST, but the Tetons are now a close 2nd. They are BEAUTIFUL! And to prove it to you, I will show you some pictures, though they don't do them justice.


This was on our ride to Wyoming.
Though this is not the Tetons, it was still rather pretty.

Oh how I have missed the greenery!

Green, green, green!

The Grand Tetons!

A close view.
Yes that is snow.

So pretty that I had to show them twice!

Even closer from the campsite.

We were right next to an overflowing river.
It was beautiful.

And there were trees!
LOTS AND LOTS OF TREES!! (I was a happy camper!)
And yes that is snow at the bottom of the picture.
Those trees were extremely tall, I felt right at home.

The river ran through the camp grounds.

I feel Aaron would have loved this.
Trees fell to make natural bridges that Nikki and I crossed several times.
And had a cute little waterfall.
At night we had skits and a bonfire.
And it was amazing!

We got to explore, have a devotional, eat s'mores and I had my first roasted Starburst.
They were so good that I ate 10 or so of them. =D
And then David threw marshmallows at me from across the campfire. I couldn't see who it was and I was mad at first, but later he told me it had been him and then Nikki and I helped him throw marshmallows at other people.

This morning I woke up because the smoke alarm went off (we were in a lodge, fake camping I know, but no cellphone service nonetheless) and the girls who actually heard it decided the rest of us were not allowed to sleep since they couldn't. =/

Have I ever told you that I HATE being woken up by people?
Well now you know.
I think it is because I'm already NOT a morning person, so I'm not happy, but if I set an alarm then I have no one to be mad at for waking me up but myself. But if other people wake me up, then I blame them for ruining my peaceful slumber. I promise if you ever wake me up, I will glare at you the rest of the day.

In other news- we had a delicious breakfast of eggs, hash browns, pancakes, fruit and BACON!
After breakfast Nikki and I played Frisbee with David, Kendal, Drew, Yazan (sp?) and some other people who came in and out. It was fun and I actually did well, though I throw better with my left hand, odd huh?

We then did a service project. My group set up tents, though it was more of setting up 3 tents in the same spot but the first 2 didn't fit the frame so we put up and took down several tents. Afterword we had a lovely lunch and went home.

I was really sad to leave. Mostly I was dreading civilization and having cellphone reception. If cellphones weren't so vital in communication, I would probably throw mine out. I loved being able to leave it off for a day or two.

Anyway, off to polish up my talk (I'm speaking tomorrow in church) have a great night!

Caprisun is not
as good as I remember
and anything less than
2% milk is gross.
What happened to drinks
with REAL flavor?
Meg

Last Night With A Family Of Misfit Girls

Not really, but we are all quite unique in our own ways. but before I get too deep into the sentimental world of my roommates, just a quick story of my ego and confusion.

Alright so yesterday Cacia and I went to the store to get tubs to pack stuff away and we come back to Rachel being the only one home and asleep. Cacia starts working on her present for Alisa and I help some but mostly I am bored and hungry. So Drew and I decide to hang out.

We were going to go to a movie but none of them started until 9 and we had an hour to kill. Me being moody and craving stuff wanted a BURGER! Considering I have had only ONE burger this semester....and I had already been to Sammy's before. So we decide to go to this place called "Big Jud's" 15 minutes out down this never ending road until you feel like you're in the middle of nowhere, but you're sort of in a neighborhood.

But I digress, we end up getting this 1lb hamburger that is HUGE, like 10 inches long and we split it. The more impressive part is we ate the whole thing, and THEN got ice cream on top of it. Now here is where my ego comes in, I ate just as much as Drew and he is 5'10" and twice my weight. Heck yeah I am a fatty! But my confusion is WHERE DOES IT GO????????? I look at myself and my stomach doesn't even so much as blurp out a bit. I have no clue.....this mystery intrigues me! I have no idea where it goes or how it fits in me and if you saw that burger, it looked bigger than me. All the same as we were leaving it was snowing like crazy and Drew has a stick shift so we had to drive crazy slow but that's ok because we still had our ice cream to eat anyway. We ended up missing our movie but we both had homework so we both went back to our apartments. But it was fun and I still can't believe I ate half of that huuuuuge burger.

Back to my darling roommates.

Cacia is the ball of energy, she is hyper and always bursting with joy. Even when she is angry, she seems happy! I am not kidding. I was sitting in my room the other day and I hear her say "I am so angry!" but in a tone where you would think she just found some cookies. All the same, I love being around her because then I am bubbly too.

Alisa is a worrier. She is probably the smartest of us all school wise but she is always worrying about where things are, when to get them done and all that. She also is kind of spazzy and freaks out easily which adds greatly to our entertainment. Between her and Cacia, the laughter never stops.

Rachel is straight up hilarious. If there is a joke to be made, Rachel is always on top of it. She has taught us all how to laugh at ourselves even when we are stressed. She is easy to relate to, so no worries about having deep conversations. She covers both funny and serious, which is pretty awesome.

Keely is the day brightener and kind of the glue that holds us together. She is our sanity when we all think we are going to go crazy from lots of pms and school work. She is the one that reminds us to breathe and have fun as well. Without her, I think we would all go insane in a bad way.

Nicole can be quiet at first. Like me, she doesn't open up easily but when she does, she is a blast. She is goofy and fun and has the cutest clothes ever! If I could, I would steal her wardrobe in a heartbeat. I could probably fit a good bit of it too. All the same, she is fun and just a joy to have around, reminding us, it's okay to let loose and be silly sometimes.

Sadly, tonight was our last night all together. Cacia and Alisa leave tomorrow. I am going to miss these girls immensely. They have taught me a great deal and I have been blessed to get along as well with them as I have. Though in moments of mood swings, we can all get under each others skin, at the end of the day, it's the chats at 1am about heaven knows what that makes it all worth it. Tonight all of us except Keely (She has an early class tomorrow) hung out in Alisa and Cacia's room and had a grand old time, bonding over whatever weird things girls can come up with at 2am. It was fun as ever and I am glad I got to share this semester with them. I am going to miss them but I know this will not be the last time I see them. They will always be in my hearts, sisters from across the country, I love these girls and they are my family here.

Eat a burger
Stay up late
Laugh your head off
Embrace the crazy
Meg

It Finally Happened

I got sick

=[

So what did I do? I went to bed and slept and now I feel mostly better. I think I will take some medicine and go back to bed.

But in other news

I just remembered I have German Chocolate!

I think I'll eat it tomorrow if I feel better.

I met a guy named Jordan at Devotional today from Matt Hiatt's ward. He lives next door to Matt, small world huh?

And Drew came over and played our N64 for a bit. I realized I am SUPER rusty at Mario Kart =[
But considering I can't remember the last time I played video games, I don't feel so bad.

And I'm watching the movie "Elf" for the 50 bazillionth time because for some reason, Nicole has somehow missed it the past bazillion times.

But I think I am going to make hot cocoa, I think it will warm my soul and make me feel happy

Any maybe write some letters.

11 Days until I go home!

Laugh
Joke
Have fun
Meg

Tis The Season To Sing To No End

Sorry I haven't posted anything in awhile, my life has been more than usually dull this week but today has made up for it all. Though I will back track to Friday night for a moment. Friday night my roommates and I played Quelf. (Yes that is a real game and from what I understand, it is much like Curses) I have never played that before though. All the same Quelf is a board game where you each pick a character and then take turns rolling a die. You go that many spaces and whatever
color you land on, you draw that color card. There are Green, Yellow, Purple, Red and Blue cards.

You are not allowed to read the green cards, someone has to read it to you, they'll tell you to do something or ask you a true/false question. Some cards are "Classified" which means no one else can read them, but otherwise someone else can read the card and often the card will tell whomever the 2nd reader is to do something as well.

The yellow ones are weird, I'm not quite sure what the point of them is, mine always said the same thing, just to sit there quietly and move on. (Oh also, if you don't do what the card says you have to go back however many spaces the card says).

The purple ones are crazy and random! You have to act out or do something. Like splash water on your face and then sing "My bonny lies over the ocean". Or you have to act something out, or people have to do something while you do you thing. Like one was where the person had to pretend to be a cowboy and people had to pretend to cry or pick their nose (but you can't tell them that they are supposed to do that, you just have had to play the game before to know, or they tell you after for next time you play).

The red ones are for everyone and will make you say things. One we had was different ways to cook eggs. You go around the circle until someone can't think of anything and then they pay the penalty (go back spaces).

The blue ones are weird. They are either community, for everyone, or for you. Examples for one person: Cacia and to sit on her hands, and talk like a preacher. Nicole had to ask her foot permission to speak if she wanted to say more than 3 words, or keep one hand on the ground when not her turn. Group Examples: If you're character was on the same spot as another character, you had to hold hands with that person. You mad to make a noise that you think your character would make whenever you move a square on the board. My favorite was if you made eye contact with someone you had to say "Trippy".

Basically that game is AWESOME! Except I am not very good at it but that is ok =]

Anywhooooooo today was good. I went to bed at 10pm last night! =D And didn't wake up until 11:30am this morning. But I needed it because the night before I didn't get to sleep until 4am because my throat was killing me. =/ I am doing my best to not get sick from Cacia and Alisa. But I felt much better this morning and now I'm just kind of congested but not too bad, just an icky cough.

All the same, my throat doesn't feel too bad and Rachel gave me medicine to take.

So Rachel, Nicole and I went to church and testimony meeting was good . Houston (one of my home teachers) bore his testimony and talked about how he doesn't like the poem "Footsteps in the sand" It talks about walking with the Lord, and Him carrying us when we struggle. But it is because of a scripture in Isaiah. Isaiah 46: 3-4. It talks about how if we let Him, the Lord will always carry us whether in hard times or not. And I thought that was rather cool of him to point out, how we must humble ourselves to let the Lord carry us.

Then on the way down to Sunday school (Church is in the Manwaring Center, where we had Catherine's reception, sacrament is upstairs and Sunday school and R.S. is in the basement near where the bookstore is at) Rachel wanted to go home but Nicole and I wanted to stay. Nicole and I walked down to the lobby, but stopped to wait to see if Rachel would come, but Nicole decided to go back up and get her and talk her into coming. I waited for them both, and while I did, a guy came up to me and introduced himself. His name is Drew and he's in my ward. He rooms with Colby (another guy in my ward that I met at the beginning of the semester). And then my roommates came, and we went down to Sunday school.

Sunday school is rough because it's Old Testament but it is good. Roll went around and it was pretty amusing. I noticed Nicole Harris reading the front of the list so when it got to me, I decided to read it as well. The first few guys (that also happened to be my home teachers and their roommies) has "single" next to their names. Farther down people put things like happily taken, married with 3 kids, divorced, widowed, living with 3 dogs and I have a crush on someone in this room. No really, people put all of those, it was quite amusing. And no I didn't put anything next to my name. Afterward a bunch of the guys went up to go look at what other people had put, crazy crazy kids.

Relief Society was good. Our president taught and I absolutely love her, she is a RM and you can tell, she is bubbly and full of life. She just brightens your day as soon as she opens her mouth and she taught on knowing Christ. She read a story about a boy that had written his paper on going to Heaven. You have probably heard this story before. he talks of being in this room with a walk FULL of files covering the wall documenting every part of his life. The more he reads of the bad things, the more he wants to destroy the room so no one can see it. Then Christ walks in and pulls some of the worst files and writes His name over the boys, red in His own blood. I had heard this story before but it hit me just as hard this time, and I cried. If you haven't read this story, go look it up, it is AMAZING. After crying my eyes out, my roommates and I went home.

Rachel walked barefoot because her shoes are rather knew and were giving her blisters, but the ground was worse. I came home and relaxed a bit. Houston and Gunnar (our home teachers) were coming for dinner so I knew it would be up to me to make something since the ones who normally cook were sick. Mother being as awe inspiring as she is, gave me the WONDERFUL recipe of Arizona Skillet Dinner, quick, easy, feeds lots and tastes AMAZING.

While starting to cut the onion I got a text from an unknown number and area code saying "Do you not have a facebook?" Being somewhat confused, I inquired whom this person was. Come to find out it was Drew (He got it from the BYU-I directory, which is a wonderful tool to stalk people with, I, myself have found all my FHE brothers from that, as well as my roommates). So I talked with him while making dinner. Sadly I kind of burned the onion whiling trying to saute them and start cooking the noodles. But it still turned out well.

Gunnar and Houston came over for dinner and I must say, I love my home teachers, they are AWESOME. The 6 of us (Keely came back while I was making dinner) had a great time, and everyone loved the dinner (thank you mother for being a genius!). It was all around one of the best dinners we have ever had, just laughing and it felt somewhat like home.

After dinner they gave their lesson. Houston asked if we remembered the scripture he had given in testimony meeting and between Rachel and I , we got it! Heck yes we pay attention in church, felt so proud! =D So he went off that and his favorite scripture, Mosiah 5: 12-13 which talks of service and having the Lord in our hearts. he gave a wonderful analogy of picturing each day like sand on a beach and each day the water comes up and washes everything away and it is up to use to write the Lord's name in the sand, in our hearts until it becomes permanent. I thought that was an amazing thought and just wonderful. Then Gunnar went on to talk of how service can be as easy as smiling and how he is part of this thing on campus called "Fight the Frown". Check out the link. Gunnar is the one in the tie-dye shirt. Overall it was a wonderful message and they left us all with giant grins on our faces. =]

Then Albert came over and chatted for a bit and then I got to talk to Rachel White on the phone. And I found out I got A's on my Portrait of Cacia and Subject Exploration projects!!! =D =D =D

Overall today has been wonderful with games, spiritual messages, a great dinner, making friends, good grades, and family =] Yup, I am happy with life =]

And I hope y'all will fight the frown, and smile wherever you go, pass it along, you don't know whose day you may make. =]

SMILE
Life is worth it =]
Meg