After serving an honorable 2 years, he's HOME!!!

I am so so so so so SO excited that my baby brother Tyler is home from his mission! It's been a crazy busy day for our family. My parents and I got to the airport around 9:30-45isih and Ty's plane was scheduled to get in at like 10:15. While we were waiting, Mike and Michelle and Rachel showed up (Rachel is the cutest baby in the world!!!) and then Jenn and her kids showed up.

When Tyler finally came down the escalator, I got so excited. I got a ton of pictures, but I'll have to post them later cause I'm pooped. I've spent basically the entire day with my family and it's been awesome. I do have to say, though, that my absolute favorite part of the day was when we went to breakfast after we picked Tyler up from the airport. We went to IHOP and had breakfast there as a family. The best part about it is that it was EVERYONE in our immediate family!! I was sitting in the middle so I got to see both sides, but on the boys' side it was Dad, Mike, Tyler, and Zehn and on the either end it was Mom, Jenn, Sasha, Rachel, Michelle, and me. For the first time in two years, I got to spend a morning with my whole family. Jenn and her kids were there, Mike and Michelle and Rachel were there, Tyler was there, and so were my parents. I wish I'd been able to get a picture with all of us at breakfast, but its kinda hard to do that when you're trying to control a 1 1/2 year old girl, a 3 month old girl, and an almost 7 year old boy.

I'll try to post some pictures of yesterday soon.

First Mad Cow Disease, then the Avian Bird Flu, now the Swine Flu?

What is with all these diseases being contracted from all these animals? First we had to worry about the mad cow disease. Then, a couple years ago, it was the Avian Bird Flu. Now, the pigs are getting in on it. Why don't we just spread the wealth to all the farm animals- horses, sheep, geese, and on my grandpa's farm, emu's. I am not trying to sound like I am making a joke out of it because I am taking it seriously and aware that it has the potential to turn into another possible pandemic. I just think it's so weird how all these crazy fatal diseases are being contracted through farm animals. The depressing thing is that they are saying that the people in Mexico that got it were in their 20's, 30's and 40's. I guess the best thing we can do to prevent ourselves from getting the Swine Flu is do we do to keep ourselves from getting infected with any other kind of sickness- washing your hands, not touching your face, etc.

I made it onto the Collegiate Dance team!!!

Tonight were the auditions for the Collegiate World dance team from 6-9 (they actually only lasted from 6-8). We learned small chunks of a Scottish, Russian, and clogging dance and I've gotta tell ya, I wasn't exactly that great at performing them during all the times we performed in groups for the judges. I decided before I went into the audition that I probably wasn't going to be that phenomenal at dancing, so I was going to make up for it by being really expressive with my dancing. Apparently it worked because I made it onto the team!!! I was absolutely dreading the results because I didn't want to get my hopes up, but I also didn't want to disappoint myself in case I did get on the team.

That's one of the things I hate about competing to get on a team or being in a beauty pageant. The performing part is great, its the waiting for the judges to make their decision part that nearly kills me. Oh well, I was thrilled to get the congratulating email from the director, Jackie, saying that I made it. I'm really excited for these dances. I can tell right now that the clogging dance is going to be a blast and I'm looking forward to learning the rest of the Scottish and Russian dances. I love learning about different dances around the world. In fact, I'm actually not only on the World dance team now, but I also am taking a beginning world dance class as well. So yeah, I can officially say now that half of my classes I am taking right now are dance classes. :) Surprisingly, I am spending more time in the Kirkham than I am in the Hinckley this semester. lol Go figure!

Just when I thought I was going to avoid getting the 'marriage' talk this year...

Well, I made it through the Winter semester successfully without ever hearing a full-on talk specifically about "finding your eternal companion," but I guess I couldn't go for too long before getting it. We had the first devotional of the Spring semester today and President Clark spoke on that exact topic. It was really funny- when he said what he was going to speaking on, 3/4 of the Hart auditorium (and I'm sure in the Taylor and the Snow as well) gave a huge groan. He said "I see you're familiar with this topic." It was a wonderful devotional, though. In fact, it was probably one of my favorite devotionals that I've heard here. It was really sweet- President Clark even read a poem he wrote for Sister Clark that he'd never read to her before and when he told the audience/congregation that, we all went "awwwww". Haha. It was cute. After reading the poem, Sister Clark walked over to President Clark and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Again, the audience went "awwww" (I've never been in a devotional when the audience has "aww"ed so many times!) and President Clark's face went red. It was adorable. But yeah, I guess I couldn't hide from the topic forever. It's a topic that is commonly used for talks geared towards people my age since we are at the prime marriage age, at least among the LDS community.

My dance friends are leaving me! :(

First of all, can I just tell you how
much I hate White Glove? Every semester, I always think it won't be as bad as the year before, but it's always the same. And I also decided that it doesn't matter what your job is in the apartment- they are all equally time-consuming. I had the living room because I am going to be in this same apartment next semester, so I thought that cleaning it wouldn't be that hard. No, I was wrong. Cleaning blinds takes FOREVER! If I had time, a hose, a front lawn, and it wasn't raining, I totally would have just sprayed them and let them air-dry. Unfortunately, I had none of those things. Oh well. My roommates and I managed to get the apartment clean eventually.

So I didn't think the end of this semester would be this hard, but I know so many of my friends are graduating and I don't know when I'm going to see them again! Some of my closest friends were seniors this semester and now they are leaving. Two of them are guy friends that I met through dance and clogging. One of those guys was one of the TA's/helpers for my Advanced Clogging class and he was always so willing to help me with my clogging. I didn't mind it so much when he was trying to help me because he could tell I was struggling with the steps and he was trying to help me as a friend helping another friend. He made me feel equal to him, even though he's a lot more advanced at dancing than I am. It was so weird whenever he would help me because every time he would go over the steps with me, I just felt like it was him and me on the stage practicing. He made me feel so at ease because he was so patient and I could tell he wanted to help me. We have become genuinely good friends and I am going to miss seeing him around campus. I know some people in my ward and various friends around campus in different majors that are graduating this semester, too. I know a few people in my major that are getting ready to student teach too, so its only a matter of time before they graduate as well. I guess its kind of like when you're in high school, only the friendships you make with people in college are often a lot deeper than the ones you make in high school. I'm so close to graduating, but I'm just a little behind, so I'm watching all these close friends of mine prepare to graduate and go out into their various fields and I'm just realizing now that I may never see some of these friends again. :(

Where did the good Disney go?!

I want to know what happened to the Disney channel where the viewers actually learned something from the shows that were on it. Shows that had good substantial values about realistic kids. No offense to the shows on it right now, but they aren't realistic. The shows that are on there now are what I call cotton candy. They're fun to watch and have sweet stories, but there's only so much a person can watch before they start losing brain cells.
Lets review the shows of the past- the ones about normal families with realistic lives:
Boy Meets World
Lizzie McGuire
Even Stevens
Life With Derek (I think that one might still be on, actually)
Naturally, Sadie
The Proud Family
Smart Guy
Sister, Sister
There were lots of other shows that were good, but these were just a few. I'm just so sick of Disney overusing shows like Hannah Montana and High School Musical (that movie needs to DIE!) Ugh!!! Why can't Disney think of new ideas of shows where the main characters have to deal with real situations that have a moral to them? Allow me to list some of my favorite DCOMs of the past:
Susie Q
Wish Upon a Star
Tiger Cruise
The Thirteenth Year
Quints
Motocrossed
The Luck of the Irish
Double Teamed
Tru Confessions
Going to the Mat
Like I said, those were just some, but they had real substance to them! I still love Disney and all, but I'm getting seriously sick of the cotton candy shows they are showing kids now.

Spring is in the air

With the weather getting nicer and the month of March beginning to wind up, spring is beginning to bloom. I don't know about other colleges, but here on the BYU-I campus, there's one main thing that pops into my mind once spring is in the air: let the engagements/relationships begin. I dont' know if I've just been oblivious or more accepting of relationships this semester, but it has been seeming like more people I know are in relationships or getting engaged. I have one previous FHE brother who I thought I overheard talking about how he has a girlfriend, I have a current FHE brother who I thought had broken up with his girlfriend but today I saw him holding hands with a girl (we said hi to each other; we've become good friends), and I don't even want to think about how many girls in my ELED classes are engaged or married. One of my clogging/dance friends is in a relationship right now too.

I'm not going to lie, this whole lack of dating thing is getting old. I know the solution to getting asked out is being more social, but I have been really social this semester! Up until the last couple weeks when I was doing stuff with family and then giving myself a weekend of downtime, I have done something with friends every single weekend. I have a few guy friends, but I don't think I've actually been on any dates this semester. I suppose it might be a good thing right now because I have been trying to do my best with my classes, so that has kept me really busy. Maybe this semester is meant for me to make more guy friends or make myself noticed so that during the summer semester, I might get asked out? I dunno. That's just my theory.

This seems to happen every year to me, actually. Every year around March or April or whenever the snow starts to melt and couples seem to have multiplied, the idea of a relationship and seeing couples on campus makes me irritated. Then again, maybe its the closing of the semester and the stress getting to me. I've been more stressed lately with deadlines, tests, and assignments due, so that may also be a contributor. In any case, maybe I'll get lucky sometime soon and get asked out by a great guy that I get along with really well.