In September

This month has FLOWN by. the first couple weeks were pretty standard. nothing too exciting. but once i got into the swing of things it picked up. a little. 

as i mentioned before...I went to a Mormon Tabernacle Choir Concert.

It was absolutely incredible.

On Wednesday our ward FHE brothers took us out for swing dancing and ice cream! they are the sweetest! 

randomly, that same night one of my friends was in town. So he tagged along! He's a goof.

Thursday afternoon my room mate and I went to the temple with our next door neighbors and some other friends. I LOVE the Rexburg Temple, it's gorgeous! I love that I can walk out my front door and see it on the hill. I love that i can walk there twice a week so easily. It is blessing my life SO much right now.

Thursday night i got some devastating news, and i was just....a wreck. I was so angry and sad and confused and i wanted to go home, but i knew i was being selfish and irrational by thinking those things.

But when Brandon answers you WAY too late at night, just to give you the perfect advice, it makes things a lot easier. i love that boy, he is my best friend. I miss him SO flipping much.

also, I've been praying REALLY hard to be at peace with everything that's going on. 

You know those times when you're so stressed you think you'll scream at a moments notice?

Yeah that's been me the past few days. 

But thankfully, I have a heavenly Father who knows exactly what i need to take my mind off of things.

It will be better.

Friday Night we threw a super fun Surprise birthday party for our roommate Donna, It was stressful to put on haha but once it was started, it was worth all the tedious planning. She's such a sweetheart!

This morning i went with some friends to the sand dunes to clean up trash! haha weird service project, i know, but it was really really really fun. And we got almost a whole bag of trash!! (there was almost 400 kids, so the trash was hard to find. )

My shoes - well, Mallorie's shoes - were TOTALLY full of sand after like ten minutes. haha

Mallorie, her room mate Anne, our friend Sam and I had a dang blast quoting movies and dancing around and running up the dunes and posing like we're in Egypt all morning.

When we were done cleaning, we met at a park for lunch. there was a play ground and we may or may not have indulged. we're all 18.

the lunch was great, sam had 6 sandwiches. and we rode back in a random guy's truck. But he as cool. and I'm safe, haha so we're good.

After we were back, Mallorie helped me trek ALL over campus (literally) several times to find art work for my media hunt for Beauty and Creativity class. All my pictures are a bout as attractive as this one. I was imitating a cartoon. My teacher is going to be a little scared.

He prolly should be.

Sam came over for midafternoon gossip and then all us girls went down to the I center for the General Relief Society broadcast!

SO.

FLIPPING.

GOOD.

but really. I feel like so much of it was just for me. I needed it. and it made me ridiculously excited for General Conference. You should watch it with me!

After that, My room mates and I went grocery shopping and i spent the most money i have ever spent on food in my life and i almost cried on the way home because college is so expensive.

and 

THEN!!!!!!!!!

One of our FHE brothers (they're not actually our brothers, they're just boys we were assigned to meet with for Family Home evenings on monday nights and we call them our brothers as a nickname.) got his mission call! Grant will serve a mission for our church in  Nashville, Tennesee!! He leaves January 2, 2013 and I am SO excited for him! 

He's such a great guy. He's going on a date with my Roommate Meredith on Friday ;)

teeheehee...

There were a ton of people there! my roommates, our numbers, Sam, our FHE boys and some other friends from the ward all huddled in our living room to watch grant read his call.

I love my school, guys.

And i love this whole experience.

And tomorrow is Sunday, which is always amazing. 

Things are good.

Even when there are hard things, there 10 times as many good things.

we just have to look.

math hurts

sorry for all the short posts. I have no boy, money, or car in my life. so there's nothing to really write about.


Dear future Husband,
You're gonna be a genius, kay? because i HATE MATH AND SCIENCE. i know, i know, i know. "it's good to be well rounded, melissa" forget that! YOU do my science homework then! i love learning about the body and cells and DNA and how things work. i do NOT like learning about "what is science" "why is the scientific community important in scientific research."

kay. I get it. Science is used all day every day by every tom dick and harry whether they know it or not. and yeah, it's good to have a scientific community so y'all can bounce smart ideas off each other. got it.
THAT'S ALL WE'VE TALKED ABOUT AND ITS THE THIRD WEEK OF SCHOOL.

when can i show off my amino acid table skills?...I memorized that table when i was fourteen, please let me use it. PLEASE. i'm literally begging you professor Palmer.
and ranting about math is just pointless, because i'm never going to understand anything higher than algebra 2. heck i barely passed geometry! that stuff was hard! so, hubby, you're just going to take care of that for me. sound good? great. I'll help them write essays and learn the geography of the world. and i'll fill their minds with my favorite historical facts. even though they'll probably all be geniuses like you and i'll feel dumb for the rest of my life.
well! you know what? I can...uhmm....
well i can do stuff, okay buddy? I can. STUFF. like acts and cast spells and paint and stuff. so, yeah.
you= math science and cooking red meat. I'll eat it! I just can't help but gag just looking at it raw
me= i will literally do everything else. we can share sports, because i'm obsessed with high school football.
thanks dawg.
-Melissa

p.s. you know that whole 'meeting me' thing? would you mind possibly...maybe...hurryin up a little?...not like i'm in a rush to get married or anything...just you know, the suspense is killing me. thanks.

NCMO & Mozart

first, my favorite quotes of the day:
1. "What's that song about the kicks? by like...foster and the machine or something?"
2. "NCMO?! You're disgusting!" "no, no, i am right and you are wrong. what you heard is wrong and i'm telling you the truth and that's it."
hahahaha I love having old teachers, it's kind of the best.

For my beauty and Creativity class - which i dang LOVE - we're having a test on the 99 most essential pieces of classical music. he's going to play 10 at random and we have to identify them. He told us what CD to buy and i thought, 'heck I'll just look them on on youtube instead.'
I bought the CD on amazon for like $5.48 and it was SO worth the 6 bucks!!! I LOVE all the music, i'm surprised by how many i already know, i just didn't know the names. and I love love love iiiiit. just thought y'all should know. also i'm officially recommending the CD to everyone in the world. go gain a bit of culture.

Also my children shall be brain washed with this music.
Happy Monday.

C.O.W.

Crush of the Week
that's what Cow means.

when a boy tells a girl, "hey we should go to the dance on thursday"
is that code for i hate you? or am i just crazy for thinking that he meant, "hey, we should go to the dance on thursday.".....? becaaaaaause, that's what i thought it meant. but then he didn't follow up, so no big or anything. we didn't go dancing, also i saw him at the apartment across from me eating dinner tonight with the cute girls' apartment. sooooo obviously he's moved on. hahaha. that's fine.
just a C.O.W. melissa, just a cow.

MOTAB

Last night I saw the Mormon Tabernacle Choir LIVE, dawgs. they were flipping incredible!

they performed some of my favorite songs, and I LOVED IT!!!

This one knocked my socks off

and the organist did a CRAZY solo! It wasn't this one, but this one is good too

I'm sad that they didn't sing my favorite song though...but it's not Christmas, so i understand

I love them.

Home Sick

I love my family, but i have them forever so i'm not worried about missing them too much.

right now i'm just missin' these fellas.

Big time.

I keep having crazy dreams about them. most the time it's just Me and Brandon being Peeta and Katniss or Luke and Leia in various adventures, last night we were in Catching fire, about to escape the arena. I keep wishing i had celebrated half Christmas with Stephen and thinking of the Christmas swag video. I keep seeing this guy with an arm sling and i think of Jason and I'm DYING to see them. gah Christmas break will never ever ever come fast enough! I've still got a loooooooooot of counting down to do. 

missin the dawgs. 

gotta love 'em.

Follow up

I'm going to preface this with a brief story

- Depareaux, who is in love with my room mate Donna, creeped on this cute guy from our ward (Ron) and asked him to go hiking with himself and Donna. and he assured Ron that he could find someone that would be 'more than happy to go with you'. me. UGH. I did not ask despie to do this, nor did i want him to, and i didn't know that it happened until despareaux told me about it excitedly. GAH! i just felt like despareaux (he reeeeally needs an easier nickname) was making me seem like a dang creep. not only with the mountain thing but also with other events.

Real follow up story:

Ron and Despareaux came to dinner last night. Donna made an excellent pork roast with potatoes and carrots chopped by yours truly. and i made my mom's biscuits. well...i tried. I'm no Brandon Paul, alright? Despareaux Desperate got there first. and we waited for Ron for a few minutes. He was late because he brought us cookies. (which were flipping delicious by the way. he left the extras here and i literally ate ALL of them. sorry room mates, no Weasley baking goods for you!) once Ron got there though, we still had to wait  until the roast was done. So we made small talk, got past the awkward hellos and laughed about things. I blushed when Ron Called me The Henry Eyring of Relief Society. taha.

Various conversations went like this (Me= M, Ron = R, desperate= D,me in my head = H ):

R: so, Desperate mentioned a hiking trip for us, how do you feel about that?
H: AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!! He referenced the trip in a not creeped out way! He wasn't appalled by the idea of spending more than an hour with me! But...what if only feels obligated to bring it up because desperate is right here at the table, expecting Ron to ask me? I don't want him to feel forced into it...
M: *shrugs with great non-committal facial expression* Sure!
R: Yeah? cool! uhh, desperate, do you know how long that hike is?
H: oh no, he doesn't want it to be more than like an hour. he hates me.
D: oh, not too long. just a walk up to table rock, it has a great view of the grand teton. probably about eight hours there and back.
M: *gags on super dry biscuit* EIGHT HOURS?!
R: uhh, eight hours? that's...
M: nope. hahahaha nope. I would die, like literally i would be dead. I can barely walk up the hill to the Taylor building without taking my inhaler!
R: *laughs*
H: YES! HE LAUGHED! I SUCCEED IN ALL THE THINGS!

later, after explaining that I opted not to play water polo Senior year so i could get leads in plays

R: oh, you do theater!
M: Yup! How about you?
R: Yeah! I was in the school improv group too, but i left because uhmm, well...improv can get inappropriate pretty quickly...
H: YES! He's so righteous! and he does theater! THAT MEANS HE SINGS.

other conversations happened, they were happy.
So there were several good signs throughout the night:

1. when desperate suggested a seating arrangement that had he and Donna next to each other, Meredith in the middle and Ron and i right next to each other, i interjected with, "But 'Ron' is already sitting, so let's all just sit where ever we want". everyone moved toward the table t get a seat. Ron got up and Sat by me. "Moving is no problem" he said with a smirk. YES.

2. We could be Ron and Hermione for Halloween. Hercules and Meg is also an option.

3. He said 'next time' he'd make me..uh, i mean us...his spaghetti. THERE'S GONNA BE A NEXT TIME?! I wasn't gonna mention it, but He said it, so it's happening. and i hate spaghetti, but let me tell ya, 'next time' imma be eatin me some dang spaghetti.

4. He invited 'us' to go the dance with him on friday I say 'us' because he was speaking to the whole table, but peter already claimed Donna and Meredith's foot is broken. and that's common knowledge. So who else in the room could he possibly be asking but me?

5. He's ridiculously nice. and he's a great listener. and a dang gentleman and he asks genuine questions and  I'll die if he ever reads this. EVER.


So no yeah, as soon as he left, I ran next door and squealed with Mallorie like a dang little girl. oh wait I am one. and then i texted Derek. and then i spent like half an hour laying on the floor of  my apartment feeling giddy, and guilty, and anxious, and stupid, and childish. because by this time next month Ron will probably be tired of me. or have a mission call. in which cases...I'll be out of the picture! ahhh mormon life.


on a different note, when your History professor notices that you painted your nails a different color over the weekend, you blush. Don't worry, i'm not creepin. He's like 60. Also? My Beauty and Creativity teacher looks like Toby Flenderson, which i'm pretty sure i've mentioned before. But he has red hair and does that teeth thing like Brandon Giles. If you know who that is...haha he builds sets for Madera South Theatre and teaches there too, and when he's thinking, he scrunches his upper lip so you can see his front teeth. My teacher does that. and I laugh because i imagine him with Brandon Giles' beard and then i imagine the beard talking and building sets and having a Facebook page and yeah. I get distracted easily.

ALSO, for all of you back in Madera, please deliver this message to coach Donegan:

Y U NO  MAKE BEAKES QUARTERBACK??!

but really, dawgs i have never incorrectly picked out a Madera South QB. NEVER. every year, before the season started, i could always tell ya who was gonna lead the team to victory. erry dang year. and i was always right. even the times when coach was wrong and changed his mind a week or too later, I WAS RIGHT. I AM RIGHT. TAYLOR BEAKES IS THE QB, COACH. STOP KIDDING YOURSELF WITH THIS GREG NONSENSE. gah. sacrificing our record for nothing. and throw the ball! we know what double wing offense gets us! a 0-34 record! and when we throw the ball? a nearly undefeated season. tsk tsk. I know, I'm prideful. but stallion pride till i die, guys. I'm obsessed.

 And stadium singing last night was AMAZING!
OH YEAH! and a highlight i was going to mention:
in my Book of Mormon class, we start with a hymn and a prayer. We also have assigned seats so wherever we sat on the first day, is our forever seat. I luckily sat by cool kids. anyway, so on the first day of class, i noticed that the girls on both sides of me had good voices, and the guy on the end of our row did too. they are rows of four btdubbs. then, on Wednesday, the Boy, Tyler, was playing the piano but myself and the two other girls sounded great, and i complimented them after the prayer. So today, our third day of class, Brother Garmon asked someone to play and she started the introduction. America the Beautiful. YES. I took the Alto, Terri on my left grabbed the base an octave higher, Taya was rockin the Soprano and Tyler was hitting all kinds of Ds in that Tenor part. and let me tell ya, it. was. flipping. incredible. we were the perfect four part harmony and we were LOUD because we were all finally confidant in our awesome groupness. and that song is amazing. It was so cool, my voice caught in a couple places. Brother Garmon came and stood right by us and was smiling hugely. ahhhh Perfect Harmony.
life is good.

Pork Roast

 welp guys i survived my first week of college.
Barely.
the first couple days i was RIDICULOUSLY stressed out. and  i couldn't like...focus. or do anything for that matter. except daydream about cute redhead boys. i did plenty of that.
i've fallen almost completely out of the habit of taking pictures, which is sad. I'll get back into it eventually, it'll just take some warming up!
I'm finally getting used to the campus, although i don't think i'll EVER be okay with the amount of hills that there are. or the fact that i have to pay 4 cents for each page i print. HATE that.
but whatevs.

Jonathan is in my family class! irony.

All week long this shelf has been chillin on the floor. just waiting for a handsome young man to assemble it.

my room mate Donna put it together because she was sick of the clutter. taha.

 My room mate Meredith serenades us with Violin while we do homework

Last night I watched the first half of BYU-Utah game in the crossroads dining center thing thang.. It was wild! and loud! and the jerk in front of us made it really apparent that he was a U of U fan. CHILL, BRO. NO ONE CARES.

and i spent allllll my free time making youtube videos for my little sister Jenae. It's a good life.

and now, i'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of handsome boys who are coming over for a yummy dinner that i chopped and Donna cooked. Handsome boy #1 is in love with Donna. He's also like 5' 2" and looks like Despareaux. but really, exactly like him.

And Handsome Boy #2 will be refered to as ron weasley. poor Ron was kind of dragged into this situation by Despareaux. but oh well, maybe he'll be impressed by our crockpot pork roast and date one of us. Maybe He'll somehow read this blog and know how creepy i am. maybe that would be embarrassing to me. 

maybe i should not even try. hahaha yup, that's what's happening. 

NO. EFFORT. 

startiiiiiiing NOW.

we'll see.

Dear Mom

This started out as an email to my mom to prove that i'm alive and give her some fun facts about BYUI life so far. then it turned into more than that, and i've called her inbetween the times where i have a minute to type. so anyway, here's college:

Hey guys, i go to the best school ever. And I have AWESOME room mates. it's crazy how much i love my classes and the school and the people after just a few days, but i do. Also, there's a guy who looks just like Harry Potter that is dating a girl who lives downstairs so i get to hear him talk all British whenever he goes over there because our windows are always open cause oh yeah it's like 65 degrees here all the time, be jealous. anyway, so i can hear them talking downstairs at the picnic tables. did i mention that they're BOTH BRITISH, cause yeah they are and it's awesome. they should get married. Also, There's a black guy in my Book of Mormon class, his name is mark and i'm going to be his friend because so far I've only counted like 5 black kids so i want to know him. I'm not starving! i have food, and I'm warm at night. it's like, perfect temperature all the time and i finally got my schedule perfectly worked out.
 My teachers are awesome and fun and I love that they are so in love with the gospel. I'm taking a "Beauty and Creativity" class - it's really 'intro to humanities' - and my teacher looks/ sounds just like Toby Flenderson from the office. YES. My Family professor is old and adorable and old. and old. did i mention that?...and I have that class with my brother Jonathan. my book of mormon teacher looks like this but he has a SWEET Georgia accent and I love his class SO flipping much. It's amazing and it's only Wednesday, dawgs. My science class is only two days a week (thank goodness) BUT my teacher is essentially professor Binns. And hey! My brother Donny is that class, what? My American Foundations class is flipping LEGIT and from what i hear, Professor Kivett is the best teacher on campus sooooo, 10 points for Gryffindor. AND, flip you guys, my ASL class is going to keep me on my toes. it's cray. she didn't speak at all until the last 5 minutes of class!! it was so wild!
 what else? devotionals are amazing. the entire campus literally shuts down every Tuesday at 2:00 and the devotionals are optional attendance, but seriously, it's worth it. I GOT A LAPTOP! IT'S ALL MINE! WOOT! :) Happy happy.
I just ate some tuna casserole, i'm wearing a koala sweater i stole from my dad and drinking water from my Darth Vader bottle. yomp.
My roommates and I are getting along swell. knock on wood. no drama yet, just lots of laughing and singing, 'Don't drop that Dun duh-duh' thanks Zane Veater. the apartment is already decorated with my doodles. and our ward seems really really cool. My bishop looks like Clint Eastwood.
No boys yet.
Taha.
for me. My room mate Donna is swimming in suitors.
but you know what? that's coo. i won't be looking for anything exclusive until about February 22....
puttin it out there.
anyway.
despite the lack of boys in my life, i sent my little sister a fifteen minute video giggling and fawning over a cute guy in my ward that i'm stalking on facebook. am i total creep? yep. NO SHAME.

I've called my mom like 346 times each day though. and i have a MOUNTAIN of homework to do tomorrow, but i have no school tomorrow so i'll have pleeeenty of time to do all that and put together a bookshelf. Also? I'll probably watch p.s. I love you and weep. for fun.

There are bells here. it seems like every fifteen minutes. I'm sure they'll get annoying after awhile but right now i love them. i hum along to all the hymns they play and i smile when i can hear them from my dorm. I LOVE that we pray at the beginning - and sometimes end - of every class. I love that every single subject, even science and history, is centered around Jesus Christ. I love going to school with kids who also signed the Honor code and are dedicated to living good, clean lives. Everyone seems so good and kind here, and the campus and buildings are SO CLEAN! (Fun fact:  BYUI is only a TINY bit bigger than Madera South, it just has hills and the buildings are squished together. so i'm used to it taking forever to get from class to class. everyone is complaining about that here. the thing that gets me are the hills. I'm not acclimated at all. but my cute new bike makes it easier!!) no one litters! and people smile at me when i walk past them, guys  open the doors, i watched a couple get engaged. a group of boys just walked around our Hall carrying a laptop and singing One Direction. Everyone wears ugly sweaters. I saw a BYU idaho fanny pack on my first day of school. That will be happening soon, for sure. I love it. and I love going to class and LEARNING. flip, i missed learning! It feels so good! and it's INCREDIBLE to be able to feel the spirit in all of my classes, and to mix the teachings of the Savior into every subject.
Older students have been saying, "oh, you'll get used to it. the rarity will wear off." But I hope i don't get used to it! I hope it doesn't ever wear off! I hope i never get desensitized to the spirit or the traditions here. I cannot believe the effect this school has had on me in just a few days.
GO TO BYU! or BYUI or BYUH or BYU Jerusalem or SVU! JUST DO IT! *cough* Jenae! *cough* it's SO worth it!
I'm lovin' life guys, twenty rocks.

I'm Leavin!

first of all: picture overload.

secondly: I'm goin' to college.

FINALLY.

But i've done a ton of stuff since my last day of work.

so here's a jumbled mess of the the past two weeks. 

Once I stopped working, things just got weird.

I think i was just convinced that as long as I was working, I wouldn't actually be leaving. 

but then Travis left. and then Jason. and then Brandon. and then the Dish Boys. and then Derek. which pretty much killed me. 

and once i was home all day, i just wanted to be GONE. 

not that i don't love Madera, because i absolutely do. but you know? I'm just itching to move on!

so in the past two weeks....

I saw some movies. Diary of a Wimpy Kid 3: Dog Days (Hilarious in a 12-year-old-boy way) and The Odd Life of Timothy Green (beyond adorable. i recommend it to everyone) on the same day. haha

and well, my friends and i are just weird. yeah.

I met Jenae's Devil swine. she's in love with it. Jonathan named it Bacon.

I rode Go Karts for the first time! I kept screaming, 'I'm the best!' in Toad's voice and Oscar got in trouble for playing bumper cars

I played mini golf for the first time! and i WON! woot!

I also went to the Harvest Festival for the first time! and won a cake walk! double woot!  The Harvest Festival is definitely the thing to do in Madera this time of year.

and i spent a lot of time bowling, singing, running around and being wild with these guys.

And I had to say goodbye to Stephen...also not okay.

we celebrated My grandparents 61st anniversary and my Grandma promised me her wedding dress 

*faint*

 I LOVE IT.  

the end. 

I witnessed Jenae lose her best friend/parasite sty 'Steve'

NAST.

Aaaaaand I babysat my favorite kids for the last time for a while

Enzo tells me every time i babysit that he's my boyfriend. and i giggle cause he's just so dang cute.

 We Bernie sometimes. okay, every time.

and we played tether ball. i got whooped by a seven year old.

But she's my favorite, so i'll forgive her.

I also went to school to say goodbye to all my favorite teachers and Knight my cousin teddy as the next MSTC president. I took a picture of this sign because i colored one of those things on it a couple months ago during a long rehearsal. yomp.

 I also made a quilt. which i've been planning since freshman year. all, well most, of my Madera South shirts! i flipped the corner so you can see the underside. Purple, of course. 

It's deffs not perfect, but heck i'm proud of it! :)

I also went to one last Stallion football game. well. we all know that's a dang lie, hahaha there is no way i'm  gonna NOT see another one. pfft. i BREATHE Stallion football. Biggest fan uhmm, ever. Heck, I was selected by one of the local TV stations as the fan of the week! and I don't even go there anymore! 

old habits die hard, i guess.

I cheered for my little dawgs Trey and Taylor!

Look at trey! he's HUGE! he's almost as tall as me! and he's Buff! what the heck?!

 Super un-attractive picture of all three of us, but whatev.

I dang love him. go taylor! He is the QB, I don't care WHAT t'all say! you just watch. Coach will open his eyes and see that Taylor's the one. I've never been wrong about QB selections!! EVER. soooo, sorry greg Rodriguez, TEAM BEAKS FO-EVA!

La Puesta Del Sol Warriors for VIDA!!!!

oh yeah and I forced Travis to take a good bye picture with me because i love the kid. haha but this was the best i got. notice the orange jersey. He's just too cool for purple now. 

woah guys, we've got a hot shot college QB over here! sarcasm hand. don't get a big head!

so yeah. that was the past two weeks. Last night i deleted almost 200 people from facebook. 

It. felt. so. good. 

hahahahahaha i just went down the list...delete delete delete. neva goin see you, neva goin see YOU, neva goin see YOU. EVA. AGAIN. BAHAHAHAHAHA

I loved it. 

ahhhhh, the freedom. 

peace out Madera! You've been good. I'll be back, For sure. like in 3 1/2 months. that'll be awkward. taha.

ANYway....

I am STOKED to be gone and gosh, to just move ON with mah dang life!! ever feel like you're completely stagnant?and like, you're never ever gonna progress? that's me right now. I've read like a BILLION books and written a billion letters and i've packed zero things. 

goose egg.

that'll have to change real fast.

Here's to waving goodbye to childhood!

Next stop: BYU-I (do)

taha.