March

It's a good life, guys. 

This semester has rushed by in a whir of Preschool and Family Home Evening activities. and food. 

i remember all the food, haha. 

and SNAP, just like that, it's all over and i'm cramming all my last assignments into a 2 hour period tonight before i go to bed. smart. 

I heard that every REM cycle you get in before midnight actually counts as double, so maybe i'll just go to bed right this minute and then wake up at 5AM. 

lol, not. 

Here's some snapshots of my life in March.

also known as a bunch of times that i tried to document the tender little mercies in my life:

I got a new phone (FINALLY. no more 2006 Nokias. holla.) and Sophia took full advantage of the front facing camera. leaving me about a dozen selfies a day that look like some variation of this:

Speaking of Sophia, she's an angel. She works early morning janitorial, and some days she goes out to eat with her co-workers afterward. One morning i woke up to a note telling me that there were donuts for me on the table. and another morning, i literally woke up to the smell of heaven. 

A McGriddle at the foot of my bed. 

one day i was doing homework in the lounge and swiped a pen from on top of the mailboxes. when i was cleaning up my things, i tossed the pen back at the mail boxes, in some blind attempt to walk 3 less steps. 

and it made it. and then i was still too lazy to walk over there, even to take a less grainy picture. 

but do you see it? 

beauty.

one night for FHE we made Eiffel Towers out of Play-Doh. this was my groups. taha. i know, ugly. but it was leaning and we had a time crunch. i think it's cute. 

then we had crepes, and the boys had decorated their apartment with stringed lights, and were playing french music. cuties. 

Rexburg sunsets will always be my favorite. 

Sophia is taking a class where she got to teach a part of preschool for one day, and she got to teach in my lab!! I was so happy! It was fun to have her with me. she was so cute and engaging with the children. 

Stephanie took my clothes out of the dryer, brought them home, and folded them for me one day. 

just because she loves me. 

my bangs naturally turn into Ariel's when they air dry after the shower:

I GOT FLOWERS!

Just kidding. i bought them for a preschool science activity. 

I have an FHE friend named Hunter who literally despiiiises my Crocs. 

SO much so that he actually bought me a seperate pair of shoes to wear when i'm around him, because he hates seeing my crocs that much.

so now i have a second pair of shoes. 

cool. 

and they're purple. 

cooler. 

LOGAN CAME TO VISIT!!!

it was so weird/fun/normal to have her here again. i love that girl. 

i still think we look alike. 

she was a fun roommate last semester. 

Stephanie doesn't. eat. 

not like she can't. 

not like she doesn't want to. 

she just literally doesn't think about it, because she does so many other things. 

i don't understand how that can work, considering i have to eat like every hour to stay sane, but she just genuinely forgets to feed herself. 

So I feed her probably 3 times a week, and Sophia 2 times a week, and on the other 2 days, she eats chips and salsa and an apple and thinks she's nutritionally sound. 

shake my head. 

one night, she was doing like 10 homework assignments at once, and Sophia literally spoon feed her pasta as she worked, because Stephanie genuinely didn't have the time to make and eat dinner. 

I love how much light pours in from the window in my room. i always keep the blinds open during the day. it absolutely fills the room and hallway with pure white morning light, and i love it. 

to the girl in class perusing pinterest

stop it.
you're obnoxious and distracting.

you come to class late immediately get on your computer and refuse to participate in discussion. then you laugh out loud at jokes that you read online. then you loudly pack up and leave RIGHT as the clock strikes 12:30, in the middle of the professor's final thoughts which are often the most poignant, and it reeeeeeally grinds my gears.
It would be bad enough if you were just on pinterest, ignoring the wealth of knowledge being placed before you, but you are incessantly swim suit shopping. While you're clicking through full screen photos of women in bikinis the rest of are trying to unravel the mysteries of Moses and Abraham. Your scrolling through cleavage and lace really isn't helping anyone focus. It's also driving away the Spirit that the professor and those of us who care about the scriptures are trying to bring and bask in.
You're ruining this experience not just for yourself, but for literally everyone behind you. Since you sit in the front row, that's everyone.

So if you could please just STOP that'd be great.

just be respectful, dang it.

The Adventures of Annie and Cude

I love to tell stories during outdoor time in the little fort of the North playground. there's a group of 3-4 usual children who sit and listen to my stories, contributing to the plots and character development quite drastically. Their favorite tales are of a little girl named Annie, who was playing in the woods one day and found a monster. throughout the installments, this monster, who one boy named "Cude" (pronounced like "cute" but with a D instead of a T.) became Annie's best friend, and together they have many adventures, usually trying to undo the mischievous actions of the mean monster, who a girl named "Ripper". Each time i give an installment, i try to let the children tell as much of the story as possible. I pause and let them fill in the blanks, i ask them what certain people said, i ask them who was rustling in the bushes, I ask them their opinion on schemes and plans. These children's minds are incredible! I envy their ability to think so grandiosely at the drop of a hat. To me, it is magic. Hearing them contribute to the story, seeing their eyes light up when i weave their suggestions into the plot, their tiny gasps and concerned faces when Annie's in a sticky spot, that all, is magical. 

Today, Annie and Cude wanted to get to the moon! They wanted to know if it felt as nice as it looked. (an idea from one my girls). I asked each of the children listening how Annie and Cude should get to the moon. one girl said, "They should find a ladder!" A Boy suggested that they "Jump really high on the trampoline!" another offered, "Cude could throw Annie up, and Annie can grab the moon and bring it back down from the sky!" We laughed and laughed as Annie and Cude started to try using a ladder, to no avail, and then outdoor time was over and we went inside. 
I'm excited to continue the story tomorrow. 
i'm also excited to write all these down in detail. 

I looooove my jooooob. 
even though it's not technically a job, because it's a class. i'm not getting paid. in fact, i'm paying to do this, haha. 
BUT I STILL LOVE IT. 

A taste of my own medicine

Today, i was blog stalked.
haha.
I see stats, you know.
And today, beginning around 10 am, someone MAJORLY stalked me. ha. like, went through 150+ posts (not in strict chronological order) spanning several years. in one sitting.

I mean, i'm flattered. because someone spent that much time reading my thoughts all at once.
and i'm impressed, because someone spent that much time reading my thoughts all at once.

but i'm also confused, because who would spend that much time reading my thoughts all at once?
and a tiny bit creeped out? Cause who would spend that much time reading my thoughts all at once?

Mostly just intrigued.
ha.



hey, stranger, i'm placing a lot of trust in you by putting my whole brain on the internet for you to read. I'm hoping and praying that you'll respect that trust by not murdering me in my sleep or trying to steal my identity like Lana Lang's creepy cousin in that one episode of Smallville circa 2006.


Anyway.

well, stranger(s?).
nice to meet you, I'm Melissa. Feel free to let me know who you are so we can be friends in real life.
k thanks, bye.

The 48-hour date

Got your hopes up, mom, didn't I?

it wasn't 48-hours long. just 7. but it maybe felt 48-hours long because we were with the same group of boys all weekend. 

We were together all last weekend, too. Because A) we didn't know anyone else and they are kind enough to invite us over and B) it was a 4 day weekend and 2 of our roommates were out of town, so we couldn't even do a reasonably sized roommate date. 

well then on monday after FHE 3 of us asked 3 of them on a group date for this Friday. 

they all gave an enthusiastic yes, which was a confidence booster. they're all great guys. 

thursday night we (our whole apartment, their whole apartment, and the other girl apartment we're grouped with for Home Evening) were supposed to climb rock walls.
we went to the place, but it was PACKED. so we went bowling, because it was only $3 and we all still wanted to do something. 

I suck at bowling. 

actually and honestly, i hate bowling. haha. i am horrible, and you go up one at a time, so my horrible-ness is only accentuated. I usually try to be funny and do like, crazy trick shots to spare myself some embarrassment. 

I got one strike, though! on my 9th frame. coincidence? I THINK NOT. NUMBER NINE FO-EVA.

anyway. 

i got 49 points in all. woo-hoo-i'm-the-worst-bowler-ever-yay

THEN.

On friday after preschool, i literally RAN home, took a shower, made the worst Lasagna of my life, and curled my Soccer Mom hair (which i actually love.) in preparation for our date with these 3 really cute, really fun boys from across the parking lot. 

after dinner, we all walked up to campus and carved each other out of soap! haha. I think it's really fun, and luckily, this group thought so too. that's not always the case.
It just so happened that "Hook" was playing on a GIANT screen in the next clearing over, and just around us was "game night" which is apparently a campus-hosted event every friday night. lol. and a journaist from our school newspaper tried to interivew me as pasrt of an article about game night because he thought we were just doing a game. lolx2 my date explained the situation, and the reporter was embarrassed and i felt a little bit bad but not really. lolx3. why is carving soap so weird and hard for people to get? 

can we appreciate the genuine concentration on Shaun's face, and in my posture, in this picture:

my date, Shaun, is a Graphic Design major, and i'm me. so we were both way too engrossed in our carving. the others had fun, but this was like, a real competition for us. ha.

My roommate Sophia and her date Travis finished first, and were struggling to stay interested in the rest of us while they waited for us to be done, so they went downstairs and microwaved their soap shavings just for fun.

Soph's rendition of Travis:                                         Travis' rendition of Sophia:

like i said, Travis and Sophia got bored, haha. 

My roommate Stephanie and her date Spencer were almost as engrossed in each others' thoughts as Shaun and i were in our soap.

But they finished not long after Soph and Trav.

this is a sideways (?) me with Stephanie and Spencer's carvings of each other. 

and then everyone got antsy waiting for me and Shaun to finish. 

I eventually decided i was done because i kept messing up, trying to fix it, and making it worse. aka his nose and chin were gone. so i finished and Shaun soon followed. 

He made us show each other at the same time, so then i felt like a 3 year old because his was amazing.

winners. 

my rendition of Shaun. which you can't even see because of the light. 

And his rendition of me. 

holy cow. 

i'm not saying it's a perfect replica, but HE WAS CARVING SOAP and made a human-looking carving. and if i do say so myself, he nailed my mouth, chin, and hair. 

even the back. seriously.

we joked about how flat the Soap-Shaun's face was compared to real-Shaun for about 2 seconds before the rest of the table almost staged a revolution because Hook was almost over and we were still carving soap, haha. i was fine with it. 

 the finished products.

Left to right: Me by Shaun, Shaun by me, "Sophia aka tooth Kool-aid man" by Travis, Travis' Head by sophia, Spencer including his plaid shirt by Stephanie, and Frankenstein's Monster slash 'The Scream' Stephanie by Spencer

Sophia, Travis, and Stephanie graciously volunteered their soap as sacrifices for the microwaves. coolest.  BUT IT ONLY WORKS WITH IVORY SOAP in case you were wondering...

also, we rode in an elevator facing the back. just to let people wonder what the heck we were on. 

then we played a wholesome Truth or Dare. SO MUCH FUN. and i feel like we really got to know each other better. like that Shaun and Spencer assisted a fellow 3rd grader in robbery without their knowledge. Or that Travis would miss hearing himself eat if he went deaf. k. 

p.s. i promise i was happy when this picture was taken. haha. I look annoyed, but i'm pretty sure i was just trying to look cool, calm, and collected and not like i was doing cartwheels in my brain. 

also, as a dare, Travis and Sophia did Yoga and i gained a new set of Abdominal muscles from laughing so hard. 

 when we finished Truth or Dare, we gave the Boys a blatant way out in case they were sick of it, but they brushed it aside and suggested that we go get ice cream instead. i love them. 

Before we left, Shaun found a campus-run compliment box and we all went crazy stuffing it with notes for our friends. Sophia and i laid down on the Ricks Seal, because tradition.

 

                                                                              

                                                                        here Travis almost squished us:

we crept on Steph&Spenc on the walk home

and then all piled in Shaun's car to get Ice Cream!

once we had it, we came back home. we ate more lasagna, ate ice cream, and played Heads Up, but mostly we just talked and laughed and sat pleasantly close to each other on the couch until ten minutes before curfew. 12:50 am. 

am

A.M. 

these boys stuck with us for 7 hours straight. 

the realest homies, every last one of them. 

hooray for best dates and best boys and best roommates.

and no mom, we're not getting married. but if nothing else, we'll have a really close Home Evening group this semester :)

also, 48-hour play = zero homework is accomplished over the weekend. 

distractions. 

happy ones.