Sad news. The nurse from the famous V-J Day photo died on Tuesday. She was 91 years old. The story behind the picture--she didn't know the sailor who grabbed her and kissed her. What a kiss from a total stranger! I would be okay with that! This photo was deemed the best "kissy" photo of all time by the girls of Colonial Apartment 501. And we were pretty much the experts on kissy photos and movies.Last weekend I had the unique opportunity to have a makeover done, and it was for FREEEEEEE! (reference to Bedtime Stories). 
Mom entered me into a contest, and I won. I guess she wrote something about me, but she hasn't let me read it yet. The stylist was Audrey Lynn Fuller, who my mom used to babysit, though she is now Audrey Pentico. I was there for three hours in which time she cut and styled my hair, did my makeup, and gave me a heavenly facial. It was a little nerve-racking at first, but I warmed up to it.
I am very happy with the results, although it means I have to wake up earlier in the morning to do my hair and makeup. I haven't been so good at that this semester.
Mom entered me into a contest, and I won. I guess she wrote something about me, but she hasn't let me read it yet. The stylist was Audrey Lynn Fuller, who my mom used to babysit, though she is now Audrey Pentico. I was there for three hours in which time she cut and styled my hair, did my makeup, and gave me a heavenly facial. It was a little nerve-racking at first, but I warmed up to it.
I am very happy with the results, although it means I have to wake up earlier in the morning to do my hair and makeup. I haven't been so good at that this semester.I had another unique experience just yesterday. I received a phone call from a student from the University Relations Department last week, and she invited me to Tuesday's devotional luncheon. The school hosts a luncheon every Tuesday before devotional, and it's only for a small group of people. There were about ten (randomly selected) students there, along with a woman from the University Relations Department, Kevin Miyasaki (the Dean of Students), President and Sister Clark (BYU-I president), and Elder and Sister Winkel (former member of the Seventy and the devotional speaker). 
We sat around a big table and introduced ourselves. It was pretty intimidating to be sitting in the company of these seemingly untouchable "celebrities" and sharing my life history. President Clark then asked for questions. The conversation immediately turned to... you guessed it... dating and marriage. What else? That's all we talk about at BYU-Idaho! Actually, the conversation was really good. One girl said the she is frustrated because guys just want to hang out, and she wants to date. She asked what she can do to encourage boys to date instead of hang out. One of the Winkels (I don't remember which one) said that it's okay to refuse when boys want to hang out, but that we also need to say things like "How about we just go on a date instead?" and not give them the option to fall into the hanging out rut. It makes sense, I guess, but easier said than done. Sister Clark, however, said that the most important thing we can do is be happy. 
I thought this advice was great. She went on to say that boys are attracted to happy girls. She encouraged us to not sit around and wait to get married, but to pursue education and careers, and marriage and family will fall into place; of course she also cautioned us against getting totally consumed by education and careers. I guess what I appreciated most about her advice is the fact that she didn't meet and marry President Clark until after she had graduated from BYU. It gives me hope, and it reconfirms my decision to continue working for my degree and career.
We sat around a big table and introduced ourselves. It was pretty intimidating to be sitting in the company of these seemingly untouchable "celebrities" and sharing my life history. President Clark then asked for questions. The conversation immediately turned to... you guessed it... dating and marriage. What else? That's all we talk about at BYU-Idaho! Actually, the conversation was really good. One girl said the she is frustrated because guys just want to hang out, and she wants to date. She asked what she can do to encourage boys to date instead of hang out. One of the Winkels (I don't remember which one) said that it's okay to refuse when boys want to hang out, but that we also need to say things like "How about we just go on a date instead?" and not give them the option to fall into the hanging out rut. It makes sense, I guess, but easier said than done. Sister Clark, however, said that the most important thing we can do is be happy. 
I thought this advice was great. She went on to say that boys are attracted to happy girls. She encouraged us to not sit around and wait to get married, but to pursue education and careers, and marriage and family will fall into place; of course she also cautioned us against getting totally consumed by education and careers. I guess what I appreciated most about her advice is the fact that she didn't meet and marry President Clark until after she had graduated from BYU. It gives me hope, and it reconfirms my decision to continue working for my degree and career.One more month of school. The summer weather is upon us, and to use a phrase coined by my nephew Talmage, it's "beastly hot." I am SOOO ready to be done with this semester! Love it. But must end it now before I die of summer-itis!
This last weekend I skipped out on Friday's creative writing class to go on the Meadow Park Branch Super Activity. It was totally worth it! We met at the church at 5:30 Friday morning to take a charter bus to St. George. We made a few stops on the way down. First we stopped at a gas station in Nephi to have breakfast. While there, Steph and I found giraffe puppets that, of course, we had to buy. Steph named hers Nephi. I named my Lemuel. :) Well, Zoram Lemuel, but he goes by his middle name. I thought I was pretty funny. We then went to Cove Fort. I had never been there before, but it was a great experience. It was run by President Hinckley's grandfather as a fort for travelers to be safe from Native American attacks. We saw the little house where President Hinckley's father, Bryant, lived as a boy, a cute little cabin with a digital "13.00" in the window. I said that meant 13 minutes until it blew up. We stopped somewhere south of Beaver for lunch. (I only remember Beaver because I had a friend from Beaver, and his high school mascot was the beaver, so they were the Beaver Beaver's.) 
Our final stop was at this cute little house, except it wasn't so little, where we stayed Friday night. I slept in a bedroom with my good friends Kim and Sheena, while Steph slept across the hall with our friend Jeannette. It was HOT, but luckily we had small air conditioners in our bedrooms. From our house we walked a couple blocks to the St. George Temple, the whole purpose for this trip. Our branch goes to different temples and we take a picture with a little figurine of Angel Moroni called Meadow Park Moroni. Most of the group did sealings, while some of us did baptisms.
The baptistery was really cool because it was so old. One of the temple workers told us that earlier that day they had had a stack of names come through of royalty. They had the son of some big king, the 85th Irish king, and a name from 130 B.C. How cool is that?!
We sat for a while and talked, and then we went into the theater to see Tarzan, the musical based off of the Disney movie. It was incredible. My only complaint was that it took too long for them to hook themselves onto the ropes to swing across the stage. I think they need to figure out another way of doing that. Towards the end of the play it started raining, which isn't so good for an outdoor theater. I am sad to say that a lot of people left. 
It was probably hard for the cast because it was opening night of the show, and about half the audience was gone before the end. Some of us stuck it out, and I was really glad we did. Washingtonians do everything in the rain! :)
The rest of us went on smaller hikes. I went with Steph, Kim, Jeannette, Brianna, and President & Mama Moyes (all from the Branch) to the Emerald Pools. It was a good hike--not too strenuous but enough to be sore for the next few days. Just as we were finishing our hike it started to rain. We ate lunch and then headed over to the gift shops. I walked around for a little bit, but I was cold and tired, so I went back to the bus. Once everyone was back we left for home.
and the diseased Carl. We also had a mailman and a man named Mustard. Richard ended up being the ex-husband, Mustard was the ex-lover, and the mailman was the ex-fiance. In the end Jeff revealed Mustard to be the murderer. The plot was very detailed. We told the story for about three hours. We wanted to keep going, but a couple people on the bus wanted to watch The Princess Bride. We were all kind of irritated because we wanted to continue telling our story, but we had to stop for the two people who ended up watching the movie. While most of the story was elaborate, the ending was very rushed so they could start the movie. We all got so into the the plot, and we were theorizing what would happen, who the murder was and his motive, we were bringing in new characters and objects, and although we were the ones creating the story, we were still trying to "figure it out." I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. Our story has been quite the Facebook topic, and when Jeff spoke in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday he said, "I'm sorry my talk isn't prepared so well. Carl was supposed to help me write it, but he was diseased or something." Those of us who had been involved in the story busted up. Later, in the Sunday School lesson, another comment was made about Carl. This story will not be quickly forgotten!
