Tonight On This Week's New's

This week has been ridonculously wild.

• We have a new apartmentmate who goes by the name of Richard. He is very much welcomed. He is clean, considerate, and has even made me my favorite dinner.
• Monday Morning I went to Kneader's with Whitni and Marissa to enjoy some all-you-can-eat delicious french toast!
• I no longer have a school gym membership and am currently membershipless, so I've picked up running. I ran half an hour Monday, two hours Tuesday, an hour of hills Wednesday, and half an hour today. 
• After running I went to my first BYU lacrosse game and watched the madness. It was a lot of fun!
• Monday night I watched Super 8 with the Englands and had some more of some treats I made
• Tuesday I began Spring Term classes. I have only one class, definitely a first and looking forward to the break.

• 

  Treat #1
  

  

  Treat #2 Ice Cream Pie. Super simple. Let ice cream melt a little, stir in crushed up candy bars, stick in pie crust and freeze. Yum!
   

Tuesday night I went to my first NBA game with Uncle Wayne. It just happened to be the biggest game of the season. Jazz vs Suns. Whoever wins secures an 8 seed in the playoffs. We had first row balcony seats with no one behind us, either. Awesome! Slightly further away from games than I was used to in Pep Band, but insane nonetheless. Speaking of insane, the fans were insane. Speaking of fans, the Jazz have a lot of them. Speaking of jazz, Junior and I went to one of Greg's Jazz Synthesis concerts a few weeks ago. You may ask what we had as a snack. Oh, just a little Alex Boye Sandwhich. So... The jazz won 100-88, so all but the 15 Suns fans were happy.

Alex Boye

 Wednesday's News: I received half tuition for this upcoming year!!!! Working hard is finally paying off. So excited = ) I have literally filled out hundreds of scholarship applications since my high school years, and had all but given up on the hope of receiving this. Early birthday present. The joys of attempting to learn for free instead of pay! 

This morning (Thursday) I started work at Sawtooth Software at FIVE a.m. Somehow I am still alive... went 12 hours during the day without eating. I'll have to get used to this, but I'm excited. Thrilled to be working at my first professional job! I am doing Market Research Analysis and Customer Support for coding issues in web-based surveys using conjoint analysis. From what I can tell I will be working with huge online surveys for giant companies such as google, ebay, and toyota.

I also went to my friend's (Dani and Mimi) wedding reception. It took me 75 minutes to make the 40 minute drive, and I got lost for a minute, but the good thing about Utah is I just drive toward/away from the mountains. Within 2 minutes of putting away my directions, I located her street. I've never actually been lost... just head in the general direction you want to go. There were tons of people there and adorable nieces and nephews!

Harvey Unga

I'll also throw in a picture last week. Just studying in the math lab with my bud Harvey Unga.
Did I say math lab? I meant stud lab! Fellow nerds unite!!!

Oh, how I miss the snow!

and home...

There's no place like home!

Adult Playground

Every Tuesday and Thursday morning this semester I got to play around in this jungle gym. Please note that I couldn't do a cartwheel prior to this class (and probably still can't very well). So if this looks easy to you, it's not, or at least was quite an achievement for me.
When my mom came to visit she was sweet enough to capture some fun on the camera.
After landing on my head roughly (haha) 90 times attempting backflips on a normal trampoline, I did one in here!

Once I did that, Don (assistant to the teacher) told me to do a double backflip!

Then I had to try a little less-coordinated double frontflip

This next one is called a "kip." There are many forms of it. This one being the most basic, but difficult for most people the first time. It took me four class periods to get it.

We even took some photos of Greg P-Barring

and... the man of the hour, 79 Year Old Don! Still doing flips, spinning around bars, and showing up us beginners!

Not my proudest moment by any means, but my mom was here so I figured I would ask coach to spot me until I got this down again. Funny that she got it on camera. Sometimes you knee yourself in the hand while doing wall flips.

 

Sometimes this turns into a third degree sprain in your finger.

 ...and sometimes three weeks later you can still do this

(The ligaments on the right side of my finger are torn)

Notice I took this with my teeth, since I don't have three hands.

Courtesy of the Weight Room

Done with exams! Four exams, the shortest was 3 hours. So hard. Large curves expected.

Anyone Surprised?

1.  Growing up I had way bad allergies. I hated summer and definitely stayed inside unless it was raining. Summer = pollen = sneezing and itchy eyes. When I reached middle school my parents and I decided to try out allergy shots. After three visits and 30 injections in each arm per visit, we came to the conclusion that I was allergic to cats, dogs, dust, pollen, mold, grass, and trees. I had shots starting every week which eventually became once a month. Five years later and one episode of hives, swollen and itchy throat, loss of vision, and nurses freaking out, we decided I've had enough mini portions of exactly what my body doesn't want. What does this have to do with anything? Horses.

Have no fear, I no longer look quite this homeless

Apart from the occasional playing in friend's barns and being around the barn and farm at Grandma and Great Grandma's homes, I hadn't been around farm animals or hay too much. I've always kept my distance although my allergies are much less active. Until March 17th I hadn't been around horses for more than 5 minutes. Whitni went with me to volunteer at Hoofbeats to Healing, a therapeutic horseback riding barn set up in Saratoga Springs. I followed her around since she's a regular with this whole volunteering business. I had a great time and now understand why you're so enamored with horses. Thank you for being willing to share with me something you love.  

2. Easter, and you know what that means! Candy, and lots of it!

Space Well Used!

I love me some candy, but apparently I am way slow at eating it and get made fun of for hoarding it. I like buying it, though. If there's a good sale, whether or not I need it is of little importance. Chris loves Cadbury Eggs, so I stocked up! I strategically planned on arriving at the Wilk 5 minutes before they opened so I could scamper in and snag some tasty treats before running to class. I got there as planned, but nothing had any price tags on them. I asked the senorita candy clerk if Easter candy was on sale. Her response, "not until Easter has passed." I stood there and stared dumbly for a minute and then said (very slow) "sooooo... I shooooould come back afterrrrrrr Easterrrr?" Completely confused as though I had missed something. Then the wheels turned in her head and she caught on, freaked out, and apologized. She told me it was 50% off. Bounty = 1 bag rolo's, 1 bag reese's, 3 bags peanut m&m's, and 8 bags Cadbury Yeggs*!

Cadbury Eggs

For my parents with dumbphones and those like myself who lack the willpower to spend hundreds of dollars every year to have a phone that does everything my computer does, scramble is heavenly. This smartphone game is pretty much boggle on your own time and I love boggle! I may or may not have played over 100ish rounds this weekend.

*Yeggs: Eggs, but likely most of them will be enjoyed by a certain Christopher James (Yegge). We'll see if I can get him to hold out a bag or two until the Fall. Then only six months of withdrawals until Yeggs are released. I think he should move to Canada where they are sold year round!

Visit From the Sweetie

My Mom is darling. She is _ _ years old (more than 38) but she looks 38. She's uber sweet.
She came to visit her father, sister, and nieces for ten days and stopped by to say hello!
I told her she had to come before 1:00 because that's when I was shortening my hair, so she showed up around 12:00 and talked for 30 minutes before taking off for a trimming. She likes long hair so I liked having her around for emotional support!

After going to a few classes together so we could lurn, she watched us lose horribly in soccer, then we had dinner and played Settlers! On Saturday we went and volunteered at Hoofbeats to Healing. My cousin Maren is on the board and plays a big role in the organization, so we were able to visit her too. My mom hadn't seen her in years. We had a great time!

 Afterward we visited family in Centerville, Bountiful, and Logan.

This was my first time in Logan. It was beautiful! We went to Bear Lake for some pictures and a good view.

On Tuesday my Mom came down again to see my gymnastics class. She took many photos and videos and played around on the trampoline. She's crazy! 

...and then she was gone. Thanks for visiting!!

Side note: Jackie visited this weekend! It was so nice to spend the day with her and meet her friend Tyler! 

As I was writing this I received an email from my Mom saying "we woke up to 8 inches of snow." I love snow so I replied "Really? Send pictures!!!" "Aha, April Fools! It's 40-50 degrees here and green grass." She got me! Youuuu sneeeeeaky Mom!

A few years ago my Dad won a plasma TV at a work lay-off party (to ease the pain?) They sent an email and told us they won it and would be giving it away because we don't have room for it, the typical answer we would expect. We were disappointed, because our old one was large and well, old. Turns out they were just kidding and informed my brothers it was a joke. I came home Christmas to find the TV in the living room. They thought they had told me it was a joke, but they hadn't. That was a pleasant surprise = ) I'm usually not this gullible...