My Good Friend JR

 Where do I even start with this girl?  Me and Jessica have been friends for as long as I can remember. My family moved into the house we live in now when I was six months old and her family had been living in the house across the street from ours way before that.  My whole life I've tried to be as good as she is.  When she did pre-school, so did I (even though that made me do 3 years instead of the average year of pre-school).  When she did spanish immersion, so did I.  When she won the hope of america award, so did I.  And the list goes on.  I loved growing up next to her.  We made countless movies together, we had tea parties at a neighbor's house, we rode bikes, we sold pictures that we colored for candy, we "survived" off of fruit in her backyard, we broke into each others houses, we went on trips together, and much more.

Now she's going on a mission and if I continue to follow her footsteps we will not see each other for three years (our birthdays are two years and a month apart and she's leaving a little over 6 months after her 21st birthday).  I'm going to miss her a lot.  But as she reminded me we've spent two years apart before, one year when her dad taught at princeton when she was in 4th grade, and the other year when I was in Spain and she was at BYU.  I know our friendship will survive the time apart.  We have too much history for it not to last.  

Here are some pictures of our childhood...

Weren't we just adorable? I love Jessica's sweater

Hogle Zoo

My 10th Birthday
She surprised me by decorating my room

Pioneer Day 10 years ago
I don't know why we wanted to be Maori for the kids parade

2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake

Toys R Us in New York

Going to see Beckham at the Real Salt Lake vs. Real Madrid game

Fun with a Cookie Monster Cake from Macey's

Preference my sophomore year (her senior year)

Laurels Lip Sync.  We were the spice girls

Stewart Falls before Spain

New Years 2012

 This is a video my sister made of Jessica and I dancing.  To be fair, we've gotten better over the years

Thanks for being such a good friend Jessica.  Sorry I posted the video but I figure it's been long enough that it doesn't matter as much anymore.

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Rain and More Rain

This past weekend I went backpacking.  It was a blast.  We got to our destination, set up camp, ate some mountain house lasagna, and relaxed a bit.  I was reading in our hammock (that Izzy, our dog, carried in her pack) when the rain started.  So I quickly jumped into my tent.  By that time it was already 8:30 and time for bed so I changed into warm tights and fell asleep.  I'm not quite sure what time it was but late in the night the rain started to come down hard.  All night long.  Until about 8:00 when I woke up.  I ate oatmeal and hot chocolate and then started to pack up camp.  Right when everything was packed and we were ready to go, the rain started again.  Perfect timing.  By the time we got back to the car we were soaked, but we had fun!

Packing up

Alvaro, my host brother from Spain

Izzy looked adorable all weekend with her pack

I had my favorite hiking pants, shoes, and socks on

I know my pack looks short, but I promise you it was wide

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Ride, Eat, Ride, Eat, Ride

The 7th of July was the tour de donut.  Yes, you read right, donuts.  Let me explain... the tour de donut is a bike race put on by the rotary club.  It's a 21 mile ride that's split up in three laps of 7 miles. The first 7 miles my mom met up with me and I really didn't push as hard as I should have.  Then come the donuts.  After one lap, you get off your bike and shove as many donuts as you can into your stomach.  Every donut you eat is three minutes off of your time.  The tricky part is the time is still going while you're eating, so you have to be fast to make it worth it.  I personally ate four donuts on the first lap and my dad ate seven.  Then you ride another 7 miles and eat donuts again.  I was on my second donut when one of the volunteers asked how many I had eaten (they marked the number on your bib).  I told him it was my second but I was going to eat one more, so he put three down and walked away.  The problem was, after the second donut I hit the wall.  So the last donut was painful.  And then came the last 7 miles that didn't seem to end.  Overall, I ended up eating 7 donuts which got me 2nd place in women general A (or women under 35).  And I got a cool trophy with a silver donut on it.  Probably the best race I have ever done.  My dad, who ended up first in his age and ate 10 donuts, also said it was a blast.  Definitely a keeper.
Just to gross you out, the overall winner ate 33 donuts for a total time of -22 minutes.
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My Summer Has Started

I've finally reached the point where I don't just sleep after work!  I think my mono is finally gone!  But it is a possibility that I have more energy because I took a few naps in the library at work.  We're gonna go with the first statement though.

So this week my brother and my dad went on trek and my mom and two sisters went on a road trip to see the track and field olympic trials in oregon.  By the way, my cousin Jill won the shot put and she's headed to London to place.  This left me all alone.  But I was never bored.

Tuesday: Jessica's bridal shower

Wednesday: hiked up battlecreek canyon with Annie.  We realized that there's not much to see after the falls.  Made peanut butter cup cookies. Ate dinner with the Ransoms

Thursday: Early morning testing got canceled so I marinated some chicken instead. I made island chicken, a fantastic fruit salad, and just a regular salad.  Karli came over to eat it with me and then Ladd, my brother-in-law, came over later and so did my grandma.

Friday: Again, no early morning testing so I went on a run before work. Watched Jill on TV. Slept until the spanish girl, Silvia, showed up at our house. 

Saturday: Hiked Squaw peak with Annie. Made cinnamon french toast. My dad and Weston got home and we went to Taco Amigo, I think Silvia liked the name more than the food.

Pretty eventful week.  I think it's more the hiking that's making me believe it's summer again.  Annie and I still have our walk from American Fork to Provo along the bonneville shoreline to do and we're looking for sponsors to meet us along the way and feed us.  If you're interested, please call me.

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Three More Friends Leave

I feel like this picture says it all about James

I went to my friend's farewell a couple of Sundays ago and as I was sitting there listening to him speak my friend Sharissa leaned over and said, "I can't believe our little James is all grown up."  Exactly what I was thinking.  Where has the time gone?
I first met James on the bus ride up to Lagoon for science day in 8th grade.  On the way home, my friend Karli and I, and somewhat Mireya, became good friends with him and his friend.  The next year we had AP human geography together, along with the rest of the gang.  James kept the whole class laughing.  Sharissa and I used to tease him by giving each other looks and pretending to have conversations.  James would try so hard to understand what we were saying.
That year we also became better friends through track and science demo team.
The next year we started high school and we stayed friends. He took me on my first date the day after I turned 16 and he also took me to prom that year and I had a blast.

Our junior year I was in Spain and James was one of the only ones that actually sent me letters.  They always entertained me.  One time he asked me if I was the only white person in Spain.  He's been teased plenty since, but really, that's why we love James.
When I got back James had become too cool for me.  No, he's still my friend.  It's been way fun to see him change through the years.  He still catches me by surprise sometimes with the things he says and I love him for it.  You will be a great missionary in New York James.

This past Sunday I had two farewells to go to but I only went to one.  The one I didn't go to was for one of my friends that I made at college.  I wish I could have gone, but it was a little too far for me to go (ok so it was only 30 minutes away and I know that makes me look like a bad friend but I had seen him a week before).

Mikey and his step sister at bowling.
Yes, I realize it's creepy I stole this from facebook but he needed a picture

Mikey, you will be missed especially this upcoming year when bowling starts again.  Thanks for being such a good friend and good luck in Chile.
The next one was for my good friend DJ.  DJ is one of those friends that you keep for years and years.  He's been with me since second grade.  Almost as soon as he transferred into Señora Petrie's spanish immersion class we became friends.

I'm in the front center and DJ's two to my left in the blue shirt
And yes, out of all of these years, this is the only picture I have of both of us

In Jr. High we had some good times in Señora Silito's class but once he gave up on spanish we sort of lost contact for a while.  However, senior year rolled along and we once again had a class together and DJ became my study partner.  We made bets on the outcome of the end of the year tests and I won so he bought me costa vida and an apple pie.  He's basically the greatest.  Even this past year when he was 3 hours away, we stayed in contact.  Every time he came up to visit his family, we would go get ice cream and we would talk about my bubble, calculus, and his tutoring.  Once school ended we attempted to have a harry potter marathon but we only got to number 4.  And then I got sick and now he's leaving.  But it's alright because when he gets home I fully intend to start on number 5.  Since this is a monster post, the last thing I want to say is (as cheesy as it is), those Filipinos are lucky to have you DJ.
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A little bit disorganized

My life has been a disaster lately.  Normally, I tend to focus on one aspect of my life at a time.  Last summer I focused on my social life.  I hardly worked and I spent everyday either training for my triathlon, hiking with Annie or just watching movies with friends.  Once school started I almost entirely dropped my friends and I focused on school (to be fair, a lot of them moved away).  Now I'm just kind of floating around.  This spring term has really messed me up.  The classes I took really didn't require me to study, so I didn't spend a whole lot of time focusing on school.  My friends are either gone or busy, so they're not taking up a lot of my time either.  I have another triathlon coming up but since I've been terribly ill for the past month, I haven't trained at all (which is actually a big deal because it's next saturday and since I'm still weak I can barely run 3 miles).  I do work but it doesn't take a lot of brain power so I'm not putting a lot of effort into working hard.  Basically, I'm lost.
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The Kissing Disease

Yes, I've had mono for the past 2.5 weeks and it's been horrible.  Spring classes are already fast paced, but add work and mono to the bundle and they seem impossibly hard.  That aside, I do have to say that I only missed three classes and I got in all my homework on time.  But let's start from the beginning...

A couple weeks ago I went and saw the avengers with my friend Carson.  It was a friday night and it was a blast.  I went to bed that night with a lot of plans for the summer in mind.  The next morning I wasn't feeling my best but I had promised Karli that I would hike stewart falls with her so I made the trip despite my illness.  When I got back I felt very achey and fevery so I took a nap.  That was also the day of the national rugby championship.  When I woke up from my nap, I still didn't feel well so I stayed in bed while my family went to watch the game.  By monday I thought I would feel well, but my symptoms had only gotten worse.  Because I had a spanish presentation that week, I went to school anyway.  On wednesday I finally went to the doctor because four rather painful lumps had appears on the back of my head and I had a severe headache because of them.  Within one minute, the doctor diagnosed me with mono.  So I got a B-12 shot and I was on my way.  I thought that was the end of it so I agreed to go to St. George with my sister that weekend, and that's when my sore throat started.  I honestly thought I was going to die.  But after lots of advil, vitamin C, B-12, excedrin, and an allergy pill, I went to Zion's with my sister and hiked 8 miles.  Let me tell you, they aren't kidding when they say mono makes you tired.  Within the first half mile my body was done.  It was awful, but the view at the end was nice.
So then I got home and school was no longer an option.  Swallowing was excruciating.  Hey!  I lost five pounds!
Thursday I got home from work and my mom brought me a juice press.  After I drank it, I went to sleep and I woke up at 4:30 the next morning.  My throat felt raw, but not swollen.  So now I'm just tired all the time, but I feel much better.  I was even well enough to go to my cousin's baptism on saturday where I met his primary teacher, Sister Kitty Butt.
And that's my story.  Long, but I have nothing else to do right now.
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