Random Dancing... in Wal-Mart

Remember my last post?

The one about the boxes, and how they are much to small to pack in?

Well I needed to find a solution to my packing problem so Kenz and I went to Wal-Mart again :)

We went early this time to ensure getting the best boxes!

While we were waiting the Wal-Mart radio was playing.

Now music isn't music if there is no one dancing to it, right?

Oh I tell ya what, we gave that music the best two companions it has ever had!

We danced until the cow came home and then some!

We created crazy moves and repeated great moves from "Friends" and "Seinfeld".

Finally the moment came when I received my first big box.

"Eh, I just need one right?"

"Yep!"

and then we were on our way home.

I just hope that the box will suffice!

If it doesn't we just get to have another dance party :)

Yesterday was the famous study day here at SUU.

HAA.

I played soccer with some of my friends and some people I've never met before.

Everyone was so nice and funny.

I have a fear of the soccer ball.

One time I kicked it and somehow it bounced back and hit me square in the face.

I had a red mark for awhile.

So my fear is legit.

But everyone just kept encouraging me and passing me the ball and they were so nice even when I lost it.

I had a great time and I actually got more confident kicking the ball.

Thank you great friends :)

I also got a kick bum tan line, WOOO!

Kenz and I went to the institute choir concert last night.

They were great as always.

They sang "I Hope They Call me on a Mission" 5 times.

In different languages of course.

It was really cool.

They sang "Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride" and our friend Adam was wearing a ski hat and was jamming out.

That song was a blast!

They also did "Army of Helaman" which is my most favorite song EVER.

Yes I teared up, I always do.

Afterwards we went to the rock wall.

I was working on the zebra route, it's not really called that, but I call it that.

I have been having a hard time with it because I'm not tall enough to grab the turtle hold, again that is my name for it.

I have to kinda jump for it.

VERY VERY scary.

But I just decided I was going to get it, I was really solid I hopped for it, and grabbed it.

I went up to the next hold and got that too.

I started yelling "I got it, I got it!"

and out of joy I jumped down.

I looked up and to my dismay there was ONE more hold on the route that I'd missed!

AHHHHHHHHHHHH

I could have gotten it too, I was so close!

Next time.

GRRR next time.

Any who finals week starts Monday.

Wish me luck.

Ten four, over and out.

:)

Packing Box Humor and other fun things...

This school year is coming to a close and I'm starting to think about packing my junk up and shipping it and myself home for the summer.

I came to school with only one tote and two duffel bags.

I guess you could say I'm a light packer.

Those very few things managed to get my stuff here with out a problem.

The issue now is that my belongings have multiplied like bunnies!

I do not have the proper packaging to get my stuff home now.

A short trip to Linn's should have fixed my problem.

I went in and asked if they had any packing boxes and they said I'd have to come in at 6 or 7 am.

HAAA yeah... no thanks I will just throw my clothes in the car without a box if I have to.

The cogs in my brain started moving and I decided that Wal-Mart might have some boxes and they stalk at night.

I can stay up late for boxes but I cannot wake up early for them.

It's a college thing, don't worry about it.

We went at 10:30 with high hopes.

First I had to chase down the Wal-Mart man...

"come back! I want you boxes!"

That was a dangerous run, the isles created horrifying blind spots.

A cart came out of nowhere almost hit me head on.

Could have knocked my noggin clean off my shoulders.

But I was brave and I made it to the Wal-Mart box man before he could incinerate my beloved cardboard cubes.

He let me take as many as I wanted.

As Kenz and I walked away we opened one of the boxes to see how big it was.

Jaws dropped to the floor right then and there.

"Are you kiddin... I can fit ONE pair of jeans in this thing."

All the boxes were the same.

Maybe the size of two cereal boxes.

Yeah I don't know what's up with the shipping companies but they really believe in that whole "the best gifts come in small packages" deal.

Each item of my clothing is going home first class style, in it's own personal box.

Yeah I don't know what I'm going to do about packing.

Burn my clothes maybe?

If you have any solutions let me know.

I am considering cutting the boxes up and taping them together into one BIG box.

But that seems somewhat sketchy if ya know what I mean.

I know the title of this post says "and other fun things"

but I think that is the only fun thing I have to share right now.

So I guess I fibbed.

Sorry bout that!

Oh and Natalie it was so nice to meet you today!
I'm glad you came up to me and said hi!
And thanks again for all the nice comments you leave me :)

Have a good Monday Y'all! :)

Believe in Yourself

I found this friendly note in the Hymn book today.

Oh thanks so much Dove chocolate.

You didn't have to send encouraging words to me for me to fall in love with you.

But you did and now I only love you more.

This is something I need to do more.

Believe in myself.

Simple words, yet so profound.

Everyday walk through life with courage and the knowledge that even when you cannot change your circumstances, you can change your attitude towards them.

Every experience, good or bad, has something to teach you.

I received this thought provoking note and then went on to sing the hymn.

Before I go on with the story, just know that today was a bad singing day.

First in sacrament meeting we sang a song that no one knew.

Most of the time the people that know how to a sing can carry the rest of us amateurs through the unknown.

Not this time.

At one point so many different notes were being sung all at once.

Kinda sounded like a train wreck which I found quite humorous.

Luckily the next time that part came along the good singers knew what they were doing and pushed us all along.

But not before I got some good snickering in.

 

The second song mishap occurred in Sunday school.

Kenz and I started singing, pretty loud too, and realized we were the only ones.

.....

We went to the stake fireside tonight.

So amazing.

We will have to come back to that thought.

We were singing yet again another song I didn't know.

For some reason I was anticipating a high note coming on, I belted it while everyone else went low.

Kenz chuckled and I said "oh crap you heard that?"

Then we both laughed.

The closing song was True to the Faith.

At the end of the first and second verses you sing the word No!

Well it changes on the third and fourth verses.

You sing Yes!

On the third verse kenz let out a very big NO!

Then it was my turn to laugh at her :)

Now on to the fire side.

One thing I want to remember is this:

At any time you should be prepared for anyone to ask you why you have such great hope and be able to give them an answer.

My answer to that is Christ.

I have hope because Christ lived and paved the way for me to get home.

It's so important to know what we believe and have it planted firmly in our hearts.

I know I get discouraged and struggle and I'm thankful for my friends and family that remind me where to turn to for hope.

Because home is where I want to ultimately end up.

and I mean my heavenly home.

It is vital to remember that I want that above all else.

Tonight the choir sang Army of Helaman which is my favorite song.

You can listen to it mixed with As Sisters in Zion here.

One last item of business.

One of my great friends Andrew James has been called to serve in the Indonesia mission.

I'm so happy for him :)

Have a grand Sunday!

  

Random Threw Up Here

Lots of thoughts to think and lots of tid bits to share.

Kenzie's birthday was on Wednesday.

We had a parTAY!!

I surprised her with an Elmo pinata... regrettably I did not get a picture :/

I bought it at the local Mexican trinket store.

The lady asked if I throwing a birthday party.

Yes was my kind reply.

She asked how old the person was turning.

19 I said with a smile.

Ohhhh this one is for three year olds she told me.

Then I laughed and bought it any way.

I went to Marks early to decorate and got roped into cleaning too.

Luckily I don't mind cleaning.

Andrew and I blew up 25 balloons and wrote on them.

I didn't get a picture of that either.

"Yay a pinata!!"

Andrew tied us up... need I say more?

My school is better than your school.

Want to know why?

I walked out of class on Friday and guess what stood before me?

A fort made out of boxes.

How cool is that?

Oh and it gets better...

You could paint your hand print on it.

Now you agree, my school IS the best, huh? :)

Other than having a rad fort...

we had live music, which fascinated me.

You know what's weird?

Even watching people put the stage up and do sound check fascinates me!

It's all so fun and wonderful!

Speaking of music and the love thereof.

My sister went to the Imagine Dragons concert in Chicago and took this epic picture.

I made this in my agriculture class the other day

I must say... I done good.

They are now selling poop in the library!
I took a picture of the sign but accidentally deleted it.
Here is a photo of the product.

it's called poopoopaper :)
Best thing EVER!

We also went camping in St. George this weekend to celebrate a year of greatness.

I think that was enough randomness for one night.
Peace.

Stay Calm and Count to 500

Kenz turned off Friends and said "ready to go to the gym?"

I let out a disgusted grunt and she began counting "1..2...3.."

Not wanting to get out of my comfy bed I continued "...4...5...6..."

She picked it up where I left off "...7...8...9..."

Then a light bulb flicked on in my head "can we count to 500 before we go to the gym?" I half begged.

And the counting continued.

We each took turns saying three numbers at a time.

You would not believe how hard it is to count to 500 and how much it will make you giggle.

It was a tongue twister and I found myself repeating the same number a few times, which resulted in more laughter.

Yes, I know how to count I promise, I go to college you know.

As we were counting I wondered if our roommates could hear us and what they were thinking.

My thoughts then trailed off to a weird place... I started thinking "Hey we should do this every day and time ourselves. Yeah. That would be fun!!"

Needless to say, the gym wasn't as bad today because I kept thinking about counting to 500 and how enlightening it was.

I'm just glad Kenzie is as crazy as me.

I've been very blessed to have her as my roommate.

Speaking of blessed... I'm going to let my heart explode on this page.

I hope that is ok.

Thanks!

Last night the winds raged and stole every ounce of sleep from my eyes.

I woke up {ha not! you can't wake up when you never fell asleep} and the day started out real poopy.

I got my math test back... BLAH!

I failed my agriculture quiz {don't worry mamma my grades are doing well still}

and I got lost trying to go to my communications meeting, BIG miscommunication there.

 I was bummed out!

Then two things happen today that changed everything.

One it rained and two in institute we talked about trials.

Those are the VERY things my blog is named after.

Dane in the rainstorm of life.

The first time I thought about starting this blog was a time of great adversity.

I was going through so much and I thought if I could set aside a happy place in my life I could find peace.

I wanted to write about trials and how they are beneficial.

I thought "well gee if I have to go through this heck hole then I should help others so they don't have to do it alone."

NO ONE and I mean NO ONE should ever go through life feeling alone.

Oh that thought kills me.

If you ever feel alone you aren't.

There is a God and he loves you so much, and if you don't know if there is a God just try to talk to Him and you will come to know for yourself.

Why do I love the rain so much?

It's a metaphor for me.

The rain represents trials.

Now ponder this, rain gives life to the earth.

It turns withered plants {your faith} green.

It can drown your dreams or it can lift your soul and wash it clean.

The outcome is completely up to you.

When there is no way around the stormy day choose to dance in the rain.

I don't know if that makes sense but it's how I feel.

The rain is Gods promise to me that he is there for me through every step in my life.

I walked peacefully to institute with a smile on my face and a prayer in my heart.

The topic for discussion today was "Trials of Faith."

I was overwhelmed with such peace as everyone participated in the class discussion.

I learned so much and I will try to sum things up and share it with you.

I learned that trials never stop, they will continue through out life.

That may seem daunting at first but in reality it is such a blessing.

Think about it, you haven't become the best you can be through your easy experiences, your true character has been shaped by the struggles.

The struggles make you strong and beautiful.

I know mine have.

I know that I am so much more compassionate because of what I have been through.

I love people so much more than I ever could if life was easy for me.
There is so much hope that is gained through the growth made possible through trials.

The magic of the day didn't end there.

As I was listening to the lesson I had a thought come to my mind.

That thought was: "My calling on this Earth is to show love to people."

You know when you have thoughts and you're like "nahhhh not me." and you brush it off.

Well I was in the process of brushing when I had another thought... write that down.

and so I did.

After my gym work out my sister called me and told me about thegirlwiththewhiteboard.

There is this girl who goes to different cities and writes inspirational messages on a whiteboard.

She talks to multiple people and day and listens to their touching stories and then she turns around and shares them on her blog.

I got off the phone with my sister and looked her up, I read a few posts and cried tears of joy.

There are people out there like me, crazy enough to think that they can make a difference.

I tell you what, those crazy people DO make a difference.

I was inspired so much by this girls project.

I had the impression today "your calling on Earth is to show love to people."

I was overwhelmed by that thought, I didn't know what to make of it or how I would accomplish it

and then my sister called and gave me the miraculous idea of getting to know other peoples stories and learning to love them.

Nothing in this day has been a coincidence.

I am so humbled, Gods hand is truly at work in my life.

My eyes water as I write this and I hope that you have felt something.

I hope that in life you will find a passion and follow it.

This is me trying to follow mine.

Always believe and dream big.

Photo by Angela Smith

and dear reader... I do love you and appreciate the time you take to read my posts.

You are important.

Let Me Sum It Up For Ya.

Holy busy life of mine.

The past few weeks have been a little on the wild side.

I've been suffocating under an enormous pile of homework.

No big deal.

I love finals time... NOT!

Ok let's think happy thoughts now.

Spring time is here and I love it.

I wake up every morning with little birdies chirping next to my window.

It is beautimous I tell ya. Down right beautimous.

Now that being said, it can't be spring time without family pictures...

Family pictures are always a great time of laughter.

This is what my family photo shoots look like: Mom has to plead with the whole fam to get together and put a smile on for the camera, which is much harder than it sounds. 

And when she does get us all in front of the lense everyone turns into planet of the apes.

There's never a  picture where everyone looks decent.

 Either someone is yawning or picking a wedgie, the list goes on.

It's halarious, I love living in a zoo.

No, really.

I do.

But since I'm 300 miles away this year I didn't get to experience this joy with my family.

So Kenz and I took our own spring photos.

Pictured with us are Consuela Bosifious {tricycle} and Spring Blessings.

If you Don't know who Spring Blessings is you should study up on my last few posts.

She's basically a really creepy wooden doll.

PS don't take any of the following pictures seriously, they are meant to be taken in with a grain of salt and a belly full of laughter.

We are acting like our brains are full of thoughtful thoughts.

Sometimes I am creepy... it happens.

Hanging on for dear life. That face is real emotion, I felt like I was going to die.

This one is refrigerator worthy.

Consuela Bosifious peeing on a fire hydrant.

Frolicking through the meadow... or campus...

And the classic High School Musical jump. Even Consuela Bosifious jumped!

 Other  adventures go as follows:

We pranked Mark back by turning his toilet water to jello.

Good in theory not so much in execution.

We were boiling the soon to be toilet water and one of Marks roommates walked out, he politely said hello and asked how we were doing.

"we are well thank you" was my reply, which caused Kenzie to laugh a considerable amount.

Then he left.

Very causal. He didn't even question why we were using his stove.

Good thing we basically lived there last semester or else it would have been weird... haa haa.

We tried to fly a kite while riding our tricycle.

Epic fail.

The string got caught in the tires and the whole thing exploded.

Ok... it didn't explode, but it broke into a million pieces.

What did we do with all the fragments?

Why, we put them in the bed of someones truck of course.

Then I made a comment that I want a truck one day so I always have a garbage can handy.

We also took another bike trip to Wally World,

because who doesn't love bruising their bum cheeks and setting their thighs on fire.

It's such a rewarding feeling!
Oh and something you all may need to know one day:
Wal-mart's tire and lube does fill up bike tires...
for FREE :)

That Awkward Moment When...

You wonder when everyone started saying "that awkward moment."

You and your roommate build a rod out of crayons and tape to flip the light switch off because you're both scared "Spring Blessings" will kill you if your feet touch the floor.

The crayon wand doesn't work, so you try hangers, and that fails as well, then you get the idea to just push the bed over to the light switch.

That awkward moment when...

The only thing that makes you get out of bed in the morning is your fear of being left alone in the room with "Spring Blessings".

The awkward moment when...

You praise yourself for making it across campus in one song just to turn your music off and find that with each footstep you sound like an elephant. Clunk Clunk Clunk.

That awkward moment when...

You cut your ten page paper into several and I mean SEVERAL pieces so you can better organize it, after taping it back together humtpy dumpty style you start revising it just to find you put it back together EXACTLY how it was in the first place.

When you let out a sigh of relief because HEY you switched the last few paragraphs, it wasn't all a mad waste of time!

That awkward moment when...

You don't notice the elevator coming to a stop and someone walks in on you dancing.

Having jelly on your math homework.

That freakin SCARY moment when...

Your shadow starts walking faster than you.

My friends it is possible, it JUST happen to me!

The last 24 hours in a nutshell.

Boom roasted.

April Fools Madness

I'm a hardcore pranker.

I live the life of a serious practical jokester.

The holiday of fools is defiantly on the list of my top three favorites days.

The cogs in my brain started turning yesterday.

I came up with the plan to duct tape my roommates into their room.

I told Kenz and we immediately thought of ways to pull it off.

Our first order of business: we needed to make our way to Wal-Mart and pick up some duct tape.

Lately, a'hem, YESTERDAY we decided to try to be Eco friendly.

 Or more honestly, save gas money so we set out on a bike ride at 4:30 pm.

We had one bike and Consuela  Bosifious {our tricycle with no handle bars}.

Our adventure into the fiercest winds Cedar has ever seen took three hours.

Along the path we saw big trash bags tossed to the side of the road.

We played CSI and investigated them.

We waved to many strangers and made people laugh.

Consuela Bosifious is very people friendly.

No joke, one car even slowed down and filmed me... which was awkward... haaa haaa.

Kenz and I both wore hats into the treacherous wind.

We had to chase Kenzie's hat down a minimum of five times;

one time it happened in front of a bunch of cute priesthood men BBQing.

We made fools of ourselves running, screaming, and flailing our arms all about.

We then proceeded to have a 'Napoleon Dynamite' like conversation:

"So uh, do you think they saw that?"

"Yeah I think we should go ask them out."

"Yeah they probably think chasing down hats is like... hott."

"Yeah I bet they tell everyone in their quorum about us."

When we made it to our destination we chained our bikes to a pole and purchased 4 doughnuts and a roll of hefty duct tape.

The ride home was much easier, the wind pushed us the whole way home.

No peddling required.

Random fact:

While we were waiting for night to fall so we could play our humorous joke we watched The Guardian.

I saw most of the movie about six years ago on a road trip.

But we got to where we were going before I could see all of it.

I never knew how it ended.

Like Phoebe from Friends I was sheltered from the sad ending.

Tears welled in my eyes.

BEST MOVIE EVER!!

Watch it, you will feel a lot of respect for the Coast Guard.

Around 1:30 am we started cutting strips of tape.

around 1:35 we ran out of tape...

Oppies.

We only had 15 strips and needed 55.

A midnight Wal-Mart trip was in order.

We took the car this time, we are not insane enough to bike there in the dark.

When we got home the rommies were still up.

We watched some TV and took a nap to kill the time.

We got up at 4:00 am and completed the prank on Ali and Madie.

This morning Madie said she got up to use the restroom and when she opened the door and saw the barricade she just poked the tape and went back to bed.

Success!

Oh and I convinced Kenzie that the "Spring Blessings" girl has been moving around all by herself the past few days.

Double success!

Shout out to my Aunt Reeda, Happy Birthday!! :)
I hope it was a good one.
You are awesome and I love you :)