Week in Review

"I have a knack for telling you what’s inside my head
But only ‘cause you’re asking for it"

I absolutely love Maren Ord's music. Obviously she's not a super well known musician because I'm sure many of you are wondering who in the world she is. It really doesn't matter who she is, but I love her music, and that is where I got my opening quote. It's kind of the entire reason I even blog . . . hahaha so anyways, here we go for the past week.

I got my bed set up in my room on Tuesday, and now that I have a big obstacle in the middle of my room, it hasn't taken very long to fill it up with random belongings . . . simply said, my room at the moment is a mess. I'll hopefully have it cleaned up by this weekend when my family comes home, and then I'll post a picture. I enjoy how it has turned out this far, the only thing I'd change is my brown furniture. It doesn't exactly go along with the blue, green and white surroundings.

This last week has also brought crunch time of the completion of my Sterling Scholar portfolio, which is due tomorrow. I honestly don't believe it's worth it, but I had a good time doing it. I probably would have had more incentive to do it if I was more passionate about my selected area, but oh well. Interviews are to be held on April 8th, and then I really don't have to worry about anything else! That is such a good feeling, you have no idea. I have to admit though, my favorite part of the entire process has been getting my letters of recommendation from various people. My boss, Dallin, wrote a pretty decent one, then Benj wrote me an AMAZING one, to say the least, and Phil came through at the last minute to write me one that I hope will do wonders. I'm so glad they all were so willing to help. Lori and my mom looked over my portfolio Friday night and fixed everything to make it seem professional, and then Nan did a final look over earlier today, and it really is final. It feels so good to have it completed, finally.

Today was Ward Conference, and I loved it. The bishop, Pres. Burr and Pres. Monsen all spoke in Sacrament Meeting and the choir sang "How Great Thou Art". Sunday school wasn't anything super exciting, Brother Oldroyd subbed and we had a huge class, and he gave us the Easter lesson again. YM/YW however, was a combined lesson on dating, and it was probably one of the most long, boring, and pointless lessons I have ever been involved in. They had everyone write questions about dating on a paper and hand them in, and then attempted to answer them. It was basically like they hadn't prepared a lesson at all. Talk about Lame. Seriously. But, the good thing was that last night was the General YW Meeting (I got to go to it last year and be like half a football field away from Pres. Hinckley . . . most awesome thing ever!) and the talks were AMAZING. Not. Even. Kidding. I especially loved Pres. Eyring's talk, it was just amazing. Something I really needed to hear. Makes me even more eager for General Conference next weekend.

So yeah, thats basically my week, nothing too exciting happening, but thats how it usually is. This week should be fun though, I don't know why. Oh yeah! It's because theres a Math Competition at Snow on Tuesday, a possible jazz band concert at Snow that night, and State Jazz either Friday or Saturday. Then all, or most, or something like that, of my siblings are coming down for General Conference and thats sure to be a party, guaranteed!!! I'm pretty much stoked! Updates throughout the week, I promise!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention it snowed today, and not just sprinkled, it let out a storm, we got at least a half an inch. Seriously. And April 1st is Tuesday . . . I don't think Spring is ever going to settle down to stay.

Spring Break! Part 2

So my wrist and fingers are really stiff right now, which means I don't have enough patience, energy, or capability to type a whole bunch! That means picture time!!!

The rest of my Spring Break has consisted of finishing my room, going to church, chillin' with the Singletons, going on a walk, and soon will include going to sleep to finish off the weekend. As of last night I only have 3 more episodes of Lost Season 1 which is awesome! I'm excited to move on to Season 2!

Here are some of the latest pictures of my new and improved room! Enjoy!
New Carpet!!!!! Snazzyhuh!

Puttin' in the Baseboard!




Can you tell what my favorite colors are? I think its basically because I'm amazing!

I'll post some more pictures tomorrow when I have my bed in. How exciting!!!!! Bam!

Spring Break! Part 1

Spring Break started Tuesday after school, and I can honestly say this has been the most entertaining Spring Break I can remember.

Tuesday was the State Math at SUU, and it was a party with JD, Alex, Alan, Sam, Heidi, Courtney, Kyle, and everyone else that went down there. "BAM" was the key word of the day, and after Alex bought a home made loaf of bread with strawberry jelly and butter, we had all the pizza we could eat, and waited for the prize drawings. With our fake names like Stephen Kuella, and Katrina Stamos, we believe that fate was against us, and we didn't win anything, but Mr. Johnson won the camera for the faculty, so it was worth it. The entire way home, I was reading the chapters in Tale of Two Cities that I hadn't read yet so I could take the test for AP English and pull a decent grade in that class. When I went up to Mrs. Teeples room to take the test, she asked me to go into her house and check on the meat she had cooking for the Fathers and Sons banquet that night. After I finished the test (Which I aced, by the way) I went to her house, and walked in, expecting to see nobody, but her husband was right there in the kitchen and it freaked me out. The meat wasn't cooked at all, and as it turns out, none of th rest of the meet was cooked at all either, so I actually helped figure out a problem for my mom and Mrs. Teeples, it was a good time.

The rest of the night I spent cleaning up my room, getting it ready for the new carpet we were expecting to get within the next 2 weeks. The next day, however, would prove to be more exciting.

We left home at 5AM Wednesday morning because Trenton was scheduled to go in for surgery at 7 that morning. We got to the Surgical Center right when Trent and Manda were checking in and we chilled with them until he got called back. After an hour, I had to leave with my mom to go to my Physical Therapy appointment, which ended up being my last time going to see Mr. Bagley. I go see Dr. Richards on Tuesday, and we'll see how things turn out after that.

When we made it back to the Surgical Center, Trenton was just waking up in the Recovery Room, so Tommy and Manda were back with him. A few minutes later, Trent was out on a wheelchair ready to go home. We followed Manda back to his apartment and chilled there for the rest of the day. It was crazy. Trenton is soooooo loopy on drugs; I don't know if it was the anesthetic or the percocet, but he's insane. He made sure to tell us how much he loved us and how much he appreciated us, and he kept asking us if he was annoying us. He just always had a lot of random things to say too, and it was really funny. He started shaking a few times, and that was scary, but he came out of it after we fed him some food. My mom brought us Wendy's and he loved his Frosty (I had to spoon feed him). He still got loopy whenever his latest dosage of percocet kicked in, and it was funny. Thats how it was for the rest of the day Wednesday and Thursday. Tommy helped him after he crab walked to the bathroom, and my mom helped clean him up. I found him another sweet pair of soft shorts, and we had a good time. It was sad when we had to leave.

While we were at Trent's house, me and Tommy had Guitar Hero play-offs, and it was a blast. Brandon played with us a little, and Justin brought some intense game when he stopped by. Wednesday night Brandon took us over to his house and we played RockBand, which I enjoy way more than Guitar Hero, for shizzle. I did pretty good at the drums, on easy of course, and Tommy played guitar while Julie sang. It was a party. I really can't wait to move up there this fall.

Anyways, thats the main part of my excitement thats happened so far this Spring Break. I went to breakfast with JD and Emily this morning, and we had the best biscuits and gravy anywhere, found only at JR Munchies. Bueno yum yum! When I got home, the guys were here putting in carpet, so that will be done in a few hours. Here are some pictures of them putting down the padding. Its crazy, we stayed up until 12:30 last night pulling up carpet and padding and staples for this! I hope its worth it!

Stay tuned for Part 2!

The Results are In!

So, I just got home a little more than an hour ago, and I'm super tired because today has been such a long day, but its been so much fun!

We were woken up this morning at 4:30 by Elysha turning on the lights and saying "I totally called it, the toilet is flooding and its 4:30 in the morning." Basically me and Kammi stayed in bed because we were so tired, but Elysha, being the good girl she is, put out towels and tried to clean up most of it. She had just gotten back into bed when our phone rang with a guy from the front desk asking if something was flooding in our bathroom. Apparently, it was leaking into the room under us, and they had called complaining. So the guy brought us more towels, and then called us again to tell us to not use the toilet. What a morning!

We got back to DSC at about 7:30, and once the doors were unlocked, we claimed our spots and got ready for rounds. Since I was doing Impromptu, I had 3 rounds to get through, and then we'd see who broke into finals. My topics were: joker, "When people start to tell you that you can't do anything, you kind of want to try it.", and Gun Control. My first speech was incredible, the second was decent, and the third, I felt so scatterbrained and lost and that I didn't make any sense at all.

Finally, postings for finals came up, and I had made it into the final round, but nobody else had broken. I was weirded out, because it was a fluke I was even put into Impromptu to begin with, and then it was a miracle I had made it to State, let alone break into the final round! Kammi, Garret, and Matt came to watch me, and my topic was awesome; "Does reality TV have a basis in reality?" and I worked it. I talked about Survivor, Big Brother, and CSI. I enjoyed it.

Then we had a forever wait until awards. . . I was so nervous. No joke. We still had no idea how we had done in PF, so it was nerve wracking. Finally they told us to move into the Ballroom, and they started announcing it. First Congress, then Spar,then Oratory, then PF . . . Matt and Nash were finalists with all 3 Juab teams (Joe and Ariel, Scott and Whitney, and the 2 girls), one of the Grand teams (Zephyr and Tessie), and one from Layton Christian that didn't seem like they were supposed to be there. Joe and Ariel got 3rd, the team from Layton Christian got 2nd, and the 2 girls from Juab took 1st, which is lame because every time me and JD have gone against them, we've beaten them. I was so excited for Matt and Nash though! They ended up taking 6th overall, not too bad at all.

Then they announced awards for Extemp, LD, and finally, Impromptu. I knew I was a finalist, so I wasn't shocked when Benj announced my name to go up on the stage, but as soon as everyone was up there, he said, "In Third Place, from Richfield . . . "(This is the point where my face screwed up, and I went into shock) ". . . Lauren Bytheway." What. The. Face? I took 3rd in 2A Impromptu when it was a fluke thing I was even in Impromptu to begin with. Talk about crazy! The girl from Manti took 2nd, and David from Grand took 1st, and it came down to the final round completely. I was given a 2S, 1S, 2S in the original 3 rounds, but in the final round I was given a 1S, 3E, and a 5E. Pretty much, the 5E brought me down and I could have taken 2nd, which is disappointing, but its still cool. I'm pretty pleased with myself.

I am disappointed with PF though, not only for obvious reasons, but for the sole reason that we didn't beat Joe and Ariel. They're the only ones I wanted to crush the entire time! It's alright though, after our round with them, they were still talking to us, and it was cool, so no real hard feelings between us at least. Matt and Nash may be in a different situation with them. hehehe.

We finally got home around 9:15 after a long cold drive back into the snowstorm. We kept ourselves entertained by laughing really hard and watching Happy Tree Friends; it was basically amazing.

Anyways, thats my exciting news for the day, and I'm super tired so I'm heading to bed. I hope you enjoyed my news!!!

State Speech

Party! I'm in St. George right now for State Speech and I'm having a rockin' good time! Today was focused on Public Forum. I'm feeling really good about it, me and JD went against 2 teams from Layton Christian, and then the legendary Joe and Ariel. I honestly believe we gave them a run for their money in the round, especially because it was the first time they had debated me and JD Borg, but we'll find out how we did tomorrow.

Benj has been super happy. Not even kidding. . . Dallen, Matt, and Garret said they saw him skipping down the hall and he was scaring me like crazy when we were at Denny's. Its been a party, and its a good sign he's so happy. I like it when he's like this.

Anyways, tomorrow is Impromptu day, and I'm pretty excited, it will be fun. I'm definitely having a better time this year at State then I did last year, and thats saying something!!!

I'll fill you in on details tomorrow!!!!

(d)oodles of laughter!

Oh my face . . . so basically, besides laughing at Melvin, Kymie, and Ben, this is what I did at work today. It might be the reason I didn't get any completes. . . oh well, it was a good time!


See if you can guess who anyone is! Especially if you work(ed) there.

". . . Another Pleasant Valley Sunday . . ."

Today has been an awesome day. It did have a rough start, but overall, it turned out to be amazing.

I had to get up this morning at 8 so I would be ready to go to BYC at 9, but it really felt like I was getting up at 7 and I went to bed at like 1 so it was a beast, but I got up and went to BYC. It was kind of bittersweet, it was my last one because I'm being replaced. Its all good though, we don't really accomplish too much there (at least, I don't.).

After the meeting got out, I went home, and I swear I experienced one of the funniest moments of my life. I had some cereal for breakfast, and my dad was like, "Is Tommy ready?" so I went to go check on him. I got to his doorway and he was on his compy, so I asked him, "Hey Bucko! Are ya ready to go?" He didn't really answer, he held up his hand as if to gesture to give him a second, and then the funniest thing happened.

He let out a sneeze, which was followed by the all classic, "Crap."

I nearly busted a gut laughing. He got up and he showed me his tie, covered in whatever came out of his nose, and then he asked me if I could tell something happened. I continued laughing and told him to change his tie. It was seriously, so, so funny.

After that I had to calm down and go to church, which wasn't bad at all, Stahlie sat by me in Sacrament Meeting again and we had fun drawing pictures. I had a blast in Sunday School with Melanie and Emily because we're just pretty much cool like that. This funness continued into YW and we were all having a party the entire time. Ahhh, I love days like that when I can just laugh and have a good time and nobody chews me out. Mainly it was because Nan was the teacher and she's cool like that.

After church, I went home and started the rolls in the oven because we were going to the Singletons for dinner, and it was our job to bring the rolls. While they were in the oven, the phone rang, and I totally expected it to be the Singletons asking where we were, but it was none other than by brother Trent!

He asked for my mom, but she was at a ward conference in Koosharem, so he asked to talk to my dad. I didn't think of it much, but when I heard my dads responses to whatever he was saying, I was in shock. "How'd you manage that? . . . Did they put it in a cast? . . . Why did you pass out? . . . Are you on crutches?" Basically I was like, what the face? As soon as my dad got off the phone, I was like, what happened? Apparently Trent was in the bathroom this morning and he passed out, knocked his ankle against the toilet or the tub, and fractured the little bone right above your ankle. Oh man, where did that come from??? It kinda made me laugh, and Manda said she laughed at it too. I don't know what we're going to do with that kid. He sent us a pic and his ankle is HUGE. I'm sorry I can't show you.

Hahah, Anyway, after that we went to the Singletons and had a party there. Dinner was delicious, turkey and potatoes and rolls and mmmmm, then we played pool, and I tickle tourtured Stahlie, then we watched Nan's little brothers music videos. Then, it was time for choir, and me and Nan were having a party trying to figure out what we were singing. For shizzle.

After that I had a nap to try and catch up on my sleep, and I've been working on homework and scripture reading. Its been an exciting day to say the least. Hopefully this week will be as interesting with Region Jazz and State Speech. . . its gonna be interesting!

Get Lost . . . In Saudi Arabia!

Tonight was Relief Society for my grand old ward in G-wood, and the people in charge invited a family who lived in Saudi Arabia for however many years to come and tell us about their experiences while they lived over there.

It was pretty sweet; the whole Cultural Hall was filled with souveniers and memorabilia from Saudi, and as a special treat, all the YW were invited to help put on a fashion show of all the dresses they collected while they were over there. Basically, they're amazing. As soon as I get pictures of us in the dresses, I'll post them. Me and Shelbs were twinners and totally worked it in our amazing dresses, I swear we could be on Project Runway or something. It was a party!

After we finished modeling, we got to eat some of the "authentic" cuisine and it was interesting. The main dish was this chicken/rice thing that was really good, except for the raisins that came along every once in a while. Then there was this "salad" that was so full of cilantro, it was worse than the stuff at Cafe Rio. . . not that I'm ever going to eat there again. . . Anyway, they had this pita bread that was DELICIOUS that I ate with olives and cheese, and then there was some hummice, and date bars, but dates don't appeal to me, and I had already had one, so I passed. The hummice was strange, so I didn't eat much of it, but I did try it! They also had this awesome juice that was like Zuko on Steroids! For shizzle!!!!

*Shelby promised me that she'd share the Zuko when Cory sends it home from the Dominican Republic. I'm pretty much stoked.*

So, funny note with the cheese, it was just regular cheddar cheese cut into slices, and we had been snacking on it before we had to go do our little fashion show, and after we were finished eating dinner, Shelby went and got a stack of like 5 pieces of cheese, took a bite and came up to me with crazy eyes and said, "I have cheeeeeeese!" and took another bite. I was trying so hard to hold in my laugh, it was so funny. Then Emily looked at her, got big eyes, and said, " Eww! That's gross; thats like 3 days servings of cheese!" and that just made me more hysterical. It was a good time.

Right as one of the guys was demonstrating how the Muslims prayed, I got sent to go pick up my brother from Study Sessions, so my night of fun was brought to a sad sad end. It was a blast to see what they had to say about Saudi Arabia, and I got some sweet pictures of me looking emo with all the make up they put on us for the fashion show. Enjoy these rare pictures. . . . then more people will call me Emo besides Justin! hahaha

Haha, thats the best emo pic I could do . . . I basically rock at life! (The necklace is compliments of Amy, from France!)



I'm so tempted to put some sort of emo lyric at the end of this post, but I won't. I think it'd be more entertaining to put something seriously funny, but alas, I'll put the lyric I've had on my mind all day.

" . . . Life is a Train, Filled with Pleasure, Filled with Pain; Hey Conductor, Take me Away! . . ."

PS- I'm getting a nephew!

The Beginnings

"I don't know who I am yet . . . but I know who I wanna be. It's an adventure, finding the real me."

So, I'm starting a new blog. I've been doing pretty decent in keeping one, but everyone seems to have one on this site, so it should be easy for me to keep in touch better on here. I hope everyone enjoys it.

One thing you may or may not know about me is that when I blog, I try to entertain. I start and/or end with lyrics from a song I'm addicted to, and I try and tie it into my life in a somewhat entertaining way . . . or at least, I'm told they've been entertaining.

Other than that, I really don't have much to say. I enjoy life for the most part, and I tend to have a good time. Feel free to leave comments, I know there isn't too much to comment on, but let me tell ya, its coming. I promise. ^_^