My life as I know it.

Sometimes I say that my life is boring.

and I'm lying.

Alright, to say that I'm lying is a bit harsh, so let's just say that when I say boring, I am by no means saying that my life is uneventful.
Maybe that's confusing to some, so let me explain my thinking here.

I watch an unhealthy amount of movies, read plenty, and party about once in every...never. There's the boring. But saying that my life is uneventful is something pretty off base, out in left field, or whatever other baseball term you wanna use. I am constantly confronted by small, and large, things that force me to: laugh really hard to myself, scream, cry, care, be happy, sad, or, to put it simply, force me to step up to either the adult plate or the kiddy plate and decide who I want to be and become. Semi-heavy, but true.

Let me just give you a few examples:
-I was driving down 8th North a couple days ago, and a couple of the signs for local campaigns caught my eye. Two in particular: somebody Dickerson and somebody Hornberger. I'm sorry, but how is that not ridiculously funny!? Laugh.
-I burned some popcorn by accident 2 nights ago. Whoops, right? The next day my mom decides that the smell is still there and really awful, so she goes around spraying good smelly stuff in the air. It's good smelly stuff UNTIL you can't breath anymore and your drowning in lemon grass and whatever else is choking you to death. I'm walking up the stairs, stating very loudly and clearly that my mother needs to stop spraying that crap in my room and she continues to spray it about four more times WHILE I'm watching....haha uh, really? Scream.
-Today I went to the mission farewell of one of my best friends, Cameron. For the congregational hymn we sang 'Called to Serve'. Before we start, the chorister asks everyone to stand and then adds, "the last time I lead this song it was at the MTC-so bring it on." It felt like everyone did, and there was definitely a little tug at my soul. Cry.

Hopefully you get the idea. My life is very simple, even boring, but the little things are what count--so I'll be working on lessening the urges to scream..

As for the big, eventful things, let me just share a few.

I forgot to mention this, but of course it's VITAL--
I went to the RODEO a while ago, and it was sweet. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of my full gettup (cowboy boots and all), but hopefully you can visualize a bit better with
THIS as a hint.Next up was the completion of the Temple Tour that Bree and I started at the beginning of the summer. We visited 14 temples total-Every one in the state of Utah and the Las Vegas Temple as a bonus. And in honor of Bree, because she has officially moved to Manhattan and become a New Yorker, here are a few pictures that documented the AMAZING summer we had together.

I love you
because you are beautiful
inside and out,
I can always count on you to be up for Sonic,
you are the most thoughtful person I know,
you like shapes macaroni and cheese,
you're a home body with me,
you love veggies and ranch for a snack too,
I can set me goals high and reach them with your help,
and you make me want to be a better person.
I love you Bree Lena!

Speaking of people I'm going to miss because I love her an immeasurable amount is none other than my sister, Kiera. Thanks for letting me take over your house for the summer!! I was so fun with you as a roomie, and I'm gunna miss going to bed at 9:30 and peeing our pants watching Wipeout when we have nothing better to do.
Or even better, when we DO have better things to do.
You'll always be my favorite middle sister.

And on that note...
HELLO MAMA AND DADDY!!!
I sure do love having you two as roomies :)
I mean seriously, who wouldn't want these two fab people for parents and roommates?!
I love you. A bushel and a peck.

Over the last couple weeks, two of my good friends have gotten married.

Brittney Wilken Holbein (on the left) was married on the 15th. She is wonderful and beautiful and has been a really good friend for a very long time.
Jessica Starley Allen (on right) was married on the 22nd. We are the best of Spanish buddies, as of winter semester, and will continue to be THIS semester.

And just to ease your minds, let me just add that I DO, in fact, know how to pose differently in pictures and I DO, in fact, own a different shirt. Sometimes you just gotta let the chips fall where they may, ya know?

I figured that as long as I was going to Idaho, I might as well make a reasonable adventure out of it. Can I get an "AMEN"?!
So I dragged Cameron along for the ride. We had a good long chat, considering the trip was 4 hours both ways, a rockin' good time jammin' to my music (aka the best must music ever),
a nice little sunflowerseed mishap, confusion

in the Twin Falls Temple
(general confusion and gender confusion [for more info about the gender part, ask Cam], and a little half hour freak out when we were a fourth of a tank in the hole, as in the negative, with the whole gasoline thing.
Whoops?
"Don't solve the problem when danger is better", right All-American Rejects?
Not so much. We ALMOST learned that the hard way. Seriously. Have a looksy!

The final adventure I have documented digitally is quite the tragedy (from his point of view). I'll start from the beginning. First, I am a bad BYU guide person. I took my friend Jaron around BYU campus a little so he'd be a tiny bit more prepared for his freshman year. We went to go get his books, but oh yeah, he needed his ID first to get a good deal during buy back time. SO...we went downstairs to go get his ID card, BUT...his hair was too long and they wouldn't take his picture. (HA! I still think it's funny. Truly, I do.) See picture below.

So we got home empty-handed. Well, not quite. It was happy hour, after all...
Anyway! That night I sneakily asked my friend Amber (who does my hair) if we could stop by sometime soon and get his hair cut so we could finish everything else. And get this, she was available the next morning at 1130. Talk about fate, eh? I told Jaron that I was kidnapping him the next morning around 11--I snatched him and took him to Amber's (where he still had no idea what was going on. But really, it wouldn't be kidnapping or snatching if he did). Then, BAM, Amber says, "Aw, you have to cut off all your hair?" and DING, lightbulb, he gets it. Poor guy.

You've seen the before--so let's take a look at the MID
Mullet's ROCK!! Can I get an AMEN?!
The funniest thing about this phase is that I took a picture and sent it to his mom (and mine), and my sister and I honestly convinced them that this is how he left it. MWAHAHA!
Sneaky, sneaky..

But this is how it ACTUALLY turned out.
Stud muffin? I vote YES.
And look how happy he is with Miss B
(who loves him! and his fish..it's a beta, not a Nemo-just to clarify).

The general update is that I:
-made the best dessert ever last night with my cuz, Heather (Kiera, the J-man, and I like to call
them mystery balls. HA!)
-start school tomorrow
-killed a MASSIVE spider that I found crawling around in my laundry. WHAT?!
-so kindly made Cam clean up the dead spider (I'm sure gunna miss you!)
-am extremely nervous for Spanish
-am also determined to do well in Spanish & school in general, have a social life, and work out
consistently. Bring it on!
-still don't have AC in my car and tend to sweat a lot--just a warning for those of you that ever
want a ride
-feel very busy already and have to go get some things done (yes, that includes homework!)
Already? you ask...
Yes, I say. Boo.

But oh yeah! I got a full tuition scholarship from BYU--Oh. My. Gosh. So things are still pretty darn fabulous. and I'm still completely blown away by the whole scholarship thing! And equally wigging out about how cool it is and how relieved I feel!

Life is still good, and minimally boring, my friends...so don't believe my lies.

-T

P.S. I just read the BEST book I've read in a ridiculously long time. This is right up there with The Secret Journal of Brett Colton, which is one of my absolute favorites.

It's called Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, and I recommend in whole-heartily.