Some End of Summer Lists

Things I'm kicking myself for not doing this summer:

1. Eating an Indian Taco

2. Going to Elitches, Angostura, or Bellmont

3. Peteing with Jazlyn

Things I feel like I will DIE without in college:

1. tent

2. stationary set

3. floating pool chair

The best things to happen to me this summer:

1. Being the first person to go Peteing (besides the original Pete of course)

2. Becoming best friends with Hannah and Violette

3. Going to Bishop Castle!

Things I absolutely NEED to buy with the money I don't have:

1. Owl City's The Midsummer Station

2. The Hunger Games on DVD

3. BYU All Sports Pass

My biggest secrets from this summer:

1. * **** ****** ******* ** ***** ****

2. ** ****** ** ********

3. * ****** ** **** ***** ****** *** ** ** ****

(Well they are secrets, so I can't ACTUALLY tell you! Sorry)

What would YOU add to these lists?

Can't Stop Watching

You know those times where you are so tired that everything is hilarious? Well I found this on the internet last night during one of those times. 

I watched it over and over and OVER.  The more you watch it, the funnier it gets:

At first its just funny because he doesn't see that the wall is glass and runs right through it

but then you notice that he ran right past a door that was already propped open for him

and finally you see that after he runs through the wall a big piece of the window falls on him and knocks him to the ground, like the window is getting its revenge.  I think that is my favorite part, even though the guy probably got hurt. Sorry for laughing at you dude, but thanks for being so funny!!

Girl With The Pearl Earring

Somebody told me that I looked like the girl in "The Girl With The Pearl Earring" by Vermeer.

What do you think, Twinsies??

I think my earing is a little too small, and my nose is a lot too big.

Icing on the Cake

Is there a better way to end your summer than being at an awkward dance entirely spent ignoring and avoiding your ex, and then a long car ride home where you get to listen to a 14 year old talk about the 6 girls that he has kissed before even getting into high school?

Um, maybe washing my face with sandpaper. Or eating this:

Can I go back to BYU now?

Noodles

See that giant gaping gash on my shoulder? That is the mark of betrayal!!

I have a friend who is always trying to convince me that her super soft, suuuuuuper cute cat, Noodles, is evil.  I never believed her because Noodles is so nice and always curls up in my lap when I sit on the   couch and plays with my hair and does everything other cute thing you would expect the perfect cat to do.  But the other day I was just sitting on the floor, minding my own business, (not even moving!) when out of nowhere something attacks me, viciously sinking its claws and fangs into my pretty little shoulder!

IT WAS NOODLES! HOW COULD SHE DO THIS TO ME!?!?  My entire perception of reality was shaken- if Noodles is evil, does that mean that Becky isn't my best friend? Is the United States even a country? Is the color blue REALLY blue!?
The truth is, I don't know.  This encounter has left me physically and emotionally scarred.  I fear that I will never be the same again...

P.S. 

I REALLY love this song and just fell in love with the video too. I watched it three times today. It makes me want to get up and dance :)

In case you wanted to stalk me

Its Wednesday! 

woo! Why is that so exciting? because Wednesday is Activity Girls day! I planned a whole activity all by myself (well, I had some inspiration from the internet) but I'm pretty proud of it. We are going to be holding our own Olympic games.  The girls are going to pick countries, design their own flags, and then wear their flags as they compete in the bendy straw javelin throw, paper plate discus, and blindfolded straight walk and a few relay races. Then they are all going to win gold (treats!) either gold frosted cookies or mini Reeses if I get lazy.

In addition to that awesomeness I also get to visit one of my friends who just got some sort of convoluted surgery on her ACL! She of course will be super excited to see me because I'm the coolest person on the planet. I'm also incredibly humble.

BUT the best thing about today is that

tomorrow is Thursday!

And that means that a new episode of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries will be posted! I seriously look forward to this every week from the moment I finish watching the episode on Monday. This obsession is probably unhealthy. Also, tomorrow is the rubber check race at the fair :) and free breakfast,  and dinner, and snow cones, and watermelon. AND the fair dance, but I never go to that so its not important.

aaaand I have to write a ten minute talk for church on Sunday, I should have known they wouldn't let me escape to Utah without getting up there in front of everyone again (if any of my LDS friends reading this feel like giving some feedback on what you normally do to prepare for a talk it would be greatly appreciated and you might move up the scale on my favorite person chart!)

but after Thursday comes

FRIDAY! 

and Friday means seeing two of my favorite people!
Bannah Harrett and Ciolette Varlson (names changed to protect identity). Here is a picture of us at camp:

mustaches also added to protect identity

There is a youth activity on the church ranch around these parts that includes good old fashion ranch work, a hay ride, service, a dance, testimony meeting... the works! and its an overnight, so that carries over to SATURDAY.

I know what some of you are thinking: "WHAT!? Gina gets to go to a YOUTH activity? Isn't she too old for that??" Well the truth is yes I'm too old but its OK because I'll pay for this opportunity in awkwardness. I get to be the crazy old lady college student who is trying to prove to today's youth that she is still "hip" and "cool." And just imagine how excruciating the dance will be! Ok honestly most of the awkwardness is probably in my head, but I'll still feel it! Luckily Ciolette put me on her "planning committee" or something like that so I have a legitimate reason to be there and a reason to be bossy if required lol I recently learned that I like being in charge of things :)

ANYWHO... like I said earlier I have things to do that are more important than blogging, so I'm gonna go do those things now...

How Utah Got Its Shape

WARNING: this post contains a run-on sentence!!!  (actually, there is probably more than one but I just really wanted to write about this and I don't have a lot of time so I'm just kind of writing like I talk which apparently is with a lot of run on sentences. Sorry!!)

So I was sitting in the living room eating lunch when I noticed that some show called How States Got Their Shapes is on and this guy is talking about how Utah became a state and rattling off all sorts of historical facts, and interviewing people and such... well the dude went shopping with a BYU student for food storage, and talked to some U of U guy in Salt Lake, and of course he just had to visit BYU and ask about "dating rituals" (thats really the term he used).  Some girl had to explain DTR and NCMO to the host of the show, oh and don't forget the MRS. Degree.  The guy asking about it seemed like he felt so awkward, but the students were perfectly happy talking about dating (of course). Silly TV show host, thats what happens when you visit the bubble.....

I realize I didn't actually say anything about how Utah got its shape so here is what I got: The Mormons (LATTER DAY SAINTS) moved out there when it was still part of Mexico, and then we won that war against Mexico and the U.S. owned all of that land, so the Mormons tried to form a huge state called Deseret but the government was like "NO" so they drew all of these lines on the map dividing the west and gave all of the silver mines to Nevada and all of the gold mines to Colorado and Utah was left with the space in between them. Thats the short version and if that isn't good enough for you then you can go look it up yourself.

BONUS: While I was writing this an episode about Montana came on. In case you were wondering, guns and gold got them the shape that they have (don't they kind of look like they took a giant bite out of Idaho? because they totally did).

My Favorite Song

THIS is my favorite song. Have a listen!

hahaha, ok maybe not so much THAT song as THIS one (the original):



And this one (my favorite overall):

And I don't even mind listening to this one (it even has a kind of cute video to go with it):

And even this one is almost bearable:

If I can love a song in so many different forms, its got to be my favorite, right? :) I know all of the words and could listen to it for hours and if I start to get sick of it I can just listed to a different version. Isn't it WONDERFUL!??? :)

But seriously, that first video makes me laugh A LOT when they are screaming out the music like a bunch of BA's even though they just covered a Postal Service song. And when they are all head banging together towards the end, it looks so choreographed and boy band-ish. hahaha :)

P.S. I'm pretty proud of the super simple HTML work I did to embed those songs! YOU GO, GLENN COCO!

FANGIRLING: The Princess Bride

A couple weekends ago my family and I went to a family reunion of sorts in Colorado.  To keep myself occupied for the (at least) 16 hours of driving included on the whole trip, I started reading The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure, "abridged" by William Goldman

"Has it got any sports in it?"

"Are you kidding? Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles..."

"Doesn't sound too bad.  I'll try to stay awake."

 its the 30th Anniversary edition

Something you need to know: The book isn't really an abridgment. S. Morgenstern is some made up historian to some made up country but throughout the book the author adds in commentary in places where he pretends to have cut out useless information. I found it very amusing :) my mom just found it kind of annoying. I guess its your own personal opinion! They do this same kind of thing in the movie when they have the conversations between the grandfather and grandson interrupt the main story.

I'm sure most of you have seen the 1987 movie (at least I HOPE most of you have seen it, because it is spectacular and needs to be seen by everyone). For those of you that have seen it, you'd agree that its pretty spectacular right? riiiiiight?

Well prepare to be amazed because the book is EVEN MORE spectacular! 

Ok, maybe that isn't surprising since its a truth universally acknowledged that books are always better than movies.... but still, in the book you get the back stories of the characters: Humperdink's hunting obsession, Fezzik's childhood, the murder of Inigo's father.

And the ending in the book is way cooler than the one in the movie. Its kind of a cliff hanger, but basically the author sets it up so it can end however you want it to, which I totally LOVE. My version is a happy ending :)

BUT the 30th anniversary edition has a special surprise in the back: the first chapter of Buttercup's Baby (S. Morgenstern's sequel to The Princess Bride that Mr. Goldman has so kindly started to abridge for us). It picks up where The Princess Bride leaves off (so kind of getting rid of the cliff hanger ending) but then he tells just a few more stories of their adventures before leaving us in suspense and imagining our own endings and future adventures all over again.

In summary: This book is jam packed with love and adventure (I literally sighed and squealed out loud when reading it, maybe thats because I'm super girly or maybe thats because the book is really good). Its an easy and exciting read, and if you are too lazy to actually read it then you can watch the movie instead and still fall in love with the story!