'Tis the Season

Christmas break has been great!

I had a lot of fun playing with my friends as we finished up the semester; it was a really great one for me. Really awesome. ^_^

BYU went to Vegas for our bowl game, where we played against Oregon State. And we trashed them. It was an awesome game, which was fitting, because the game was actually on my birthday. What a place to turn 21 - Vegas! All the opportunities! I'm kidding, of course, but it was a good birthday all the same. :)

After the game I came home for the holidays, and on Christmas Eve it snowed! Typically if it snows at all in Texas, it doesn't stick for long if at all, but it kept snowing and stuck around all evening and into Christmas day! Believe me, this is a big deal. First of all, it's my first white Christmas (that I've been old enough to remember), and second of all, it's apparently the first time in I think 80 years that that's happened here! How awesome is that?

Christmas was awesome, as it always is. There were less people around this year, but I love being here with my family.

Even sugar was dressed for the holidays with a gingerbread man on her shirt - she's so adorable in that thing! (I'm actually still amazed that Dad tolerated her wearing a shirt.)

One of our family traditions on Christmas Eve is playing Christmas songs on all our instruments. In this video Cody, Chanelle, and I are playing Frosty the Snowman. Yes, the brass instruments are considerably louder than the flute (particularly the trombone:).

Thanksgiving

This week I got to come home for Thanksgiving break. It's been so fun to be here with so much of my family. I couldn't ask for anything more. ^_^

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I'd like to list a few of the things in my life that I'm truly grateful for:

• The awesome country that I live in
• My friends in all areas of my life
  
• My roommates, a.k.a. the best roommates in the world
• My job and the amazing people I work with
• My family; I love them more than anything
• Being able to see some of my family at school and in Provo
  
• The church I belong to; it brings me happiness
• The opportunity I have to serve as a missionary for my church

My life is greatly blessed, and I am so grateful for the things that fill it.

Band Practice

So, at band practice today, we worked on part of our show that we're doing joint with the University of Utah band. The U game is on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so a small group of people (myself included) won't be going to the game because of Thanksgiving break and the traveling that goes with it. So while most of the band was learning drill and practicing the new tune we're playing in the show, the small group that's not going to the game got to stand around on the sideline with nothing to do.

Half of us ended up playing a game called Ninja Strike for the first hour of rehearsal. Then we stood around talking and watching/listening to the band for another half hour. And then we split up for sectionals to work on our new music, and those of us who aren't going to the game don't have to pass it off, while everyone else does. So I just got to leave!

One hour of Ninja Strike. Half an hour of standing around talking. Go home. Best band rehearsal ever.

Mission Call

After a very long week of waiting for my mission call to come, it came in the mail on Thursday!

I wanted to open it with my family, so I had to wait until the time that worked best for everyone, which turned out to be 8pm Thursday night. It was a long day, but the time finally came.

Though the original plan was to open it at Jeffrey and Debbie's apartment, we decided that afternoon that we would all just come to my apartment for the event. So the crowd ended up consisting of Jeffrey, Debbie, Trevin, as well as my roommates Jessica, Serena, and Lyssandra (plus Mom, Cody, Chanelle, David, and Sammy all on the phone). With great anticipation (to the point where I was actually shaking a little), I opened my call. I had to cover up the lines and just go one line at a time, or I know my eyes would've skipped ahead. :P So I opened it and read it, and...

...I'm going to BOISE, IDAHO!!

And no, I'm not kidding. Though I do think it's hilarious that out of all the missions there are out there, I got the "joke" mission. (Thanks, Singles Ward.) Not that I mind; I'm really excited to serve in Boise. It's going to be amazing. I report to the MTC on February 3. Which is just perfect - it gives me about a month and a half at home before I leave, and I still get back in time to go to school again in Fall 2011.

So, that's the exciting part of my life right now! ^_^

Passing the Time

The past month has been pretty awesome. My job and coworkers are awesome. My ward is fun. My roommates rock. Overall, life is good.

A couple weeks ago I was playing Capture the Flag with some friends from my ward. Jessica and I mostly went to hang out with people, not necessarily for the actual game. So we were kind of expecting to be sitting in jail for most of the time. But we ended up finding a stick and a tennis ball and tried to hit it in the dark. Fun stuff. The second round, on our way being led to the opponent team's jail, we ended up climbing a tree. The poor guy taking us to jail didn't know what to do with us. But it was a lot of fun, and we ended up having some visitors in our tree.


Last weekend we had a tri-ward dance, the theme being "Old School," meaning you could basically wear something that represented any decade you wanted. Jessica and I made up a lot of our own dance moves, and we had fun dancing with a bunch of people. It turned out to be quite the workout, too.


Things like these make being at BYU super fun. :)

In other news, I'm still waiting eagerly for my mission call. I just found out that my call was actually put in the mail today! I'm hoping that I'll get it within about a week! I'm just so excited. Thinking about leaving for a mission for a year and a half is sometimes a scary thought, with everything that will be so new and different and with everything that I'll be leaving behind for that time. But I'm excited to be able to go out and share the gospel. I've found so much joy in it, and I'm glad that I have the chance to give even just a piece of that to others. And now that I know my call is in the mail at this moment, it's all I can do to contain my excitement! I'll definitely be posting again when I find out where I'm going! ^_^

Things That Have Made My Day Today

• Downloading Owl City's album Ocean Eyes (and getting it cheap using Amazon store credit)
• Eating a volcano double beef burrito from Taco Bell for lunch
  
• Watching this video
• Finding out that they're remaking my favorite generation of Pokémon games for DS
  
• Seeing a good friend from work who I haven't seen in over 3 months
• Seeing someone on campus wearing the Red vs Blue shirt that says, "It's not pink. It's lightish red."
  

Back to the Grind

My last few weeks at home were awesome. I had a lot of fun with my family, and got to see David and Sammy (and of course, Ashton and Hannah) a couple times before I left. I didn't hang out with a few of my friends as much as I would've liked, but hey, nobody's perfect. Also... Chanelle turned 13! It's just insane! My little sister, and baby of the family, is now a teenager. She is growing up so much faster than I was prepared for. :P (And even more recently, Cody just turned 18. Crazy, I tell you.)

This is how Ashton says "Cheese!"

Me, Chanelle, and Ashton. He's got such a cute little grin.

And adorable Hannah. She's a pretty happy baby.

A week before school started, I had marching band. And don't get me wrong, I love marching band, but that first week is killer. We have rehearsal from about 8 in the morning until 10 at night, with breaks for lunch and dinner. Not only that, but it's a 30-minute walk from my apartment to where we practice. Needless to say, I didn't do much that week besides eat, sleep, and marching band.

Sarah got married on the 28th... will the insanity never end? I was lucky enough to get out of band rehearsal that night to go to her reception. It was sweet. :)

Once school started, band became much easier - only two hours a day, three days a week. Classes are another story... but all in all, things are going fairly well here. My job is awesome, and I frequently hang out with people from work and play games until the late hours of the night/early morning. Not to mention, my roommate Jessica is awesome. We met at work during the Spring term, and living together is really fun. On top of that, our other two roommates, Serena and Lyssandra are also super fun. We all get along, we all love being crazy and having fun... what more could you ask for? :)

Preparations for my mission are going well; I've done everything I can do, and now I pretty much wait until it can all be submitted in early October. And then I have to wait for the call to come. :)

I have my moments that feel like I'm riding an emotional rollercoaster, but things are going overall pretty well. And that's what life's all about.

Mission Prep

So, I've recently decided that I want to serve a mission. This is news to some, and old news to others, but now it's official. For those who are unfamiliar, I would serve as a missionary for my church for 18 months, most of which would be spent in whatever location in the world that I'm called to. It's been on my mind from time to time for the past few months, and I've decided that it's something that I want to do. As I'm working on the paperwork, I'm getting excited about the whole thing. ^_^

But the preparation stage has its downsides.

Today I had my physical examination, most of which wasn't that bad. But I had to have a couple shots, as well as get blood taken. And anyone who knows me really well knows that I absolutely... hate... needles. Call me a baby, but I just can't stand them. *cringe* Needless to say, it wasn't the most pleasant experience. My mom can testify to that, too; I was very dramatic about it afterwards. :P

Aside from that, things are running smoothly- I'll be receiving my passport in a matter of weeks, my dental stuff is done, and I have most of my paperwork done; now I mostly just need my interviews. I'll be leaving for BYU in about two weeks and I'll be up there for Fall semester, and then I'm hoping to leave for my mission in January. Time sure does fly! :)

Vacation and Reunion

Alright, so I'm not the best at updating regularly during the summer. But hey, it's been a busy several weeks.

Finals went alright, and it was really nice to get it all over with and out of the way. I had a lot of fun with the friends that I made during the spring term, and I'm looking forward to hanging out again, but I'm now thoroughly enjoying life at home. I've had a few babysitting jobs since I've been home, which I enjoy.

At the beginning of July, we left on family vacation. We first visited Poppy Jake in Utah. While we were there, we visited Temple Square, which was very cool. We got to see the Salt Lake Temple and the Conference Center among other things. The temple is so pretty.



In the North Visitors' Center on Temple Square we went to see the Christus. It was so cool, the walls and domed ceiling were all covered in stars and everything, and the statue of Christ was standing tall in the middle of it. Being in that room is so peaceful and the spirit is very strong. It was a great experience.


Following our stop in Utah, we proceeded to Idaho to visit Nana Raine and Poppy Ralph on my mom's side, and after a few days with them we all went to the Ball Family Reunion.

The Reunion was tons of fun; the house everyone stayed in together was huge and very nice, and I had the chance to see a lot of relatives that I haven't seen in years. Jeffrey and Debbie came for a couple of days. It was great to see them again while I'm not in Provo. We took family pictures, went to Bear Lake, had a skit/talent night, sang karaoke and just had fun together.

Mom and Dad. (Aw, cute.)

Me and my awesome cousin Brianna.

Jeffrey and Debbie singing karaoke.

Dad, my cousins Jesse and Dan, and uncles Mark and Troy.

That last picture was a hilarious synchronized swimming skit performed by my dad, cousin, and a few uncles. It was put on Youtube (The Ball Family Swimmers), and I suggest watching it and letting the hilarity ensue. (My dad's the one in the back with the red cap in the picture, and the last one to enter in the video. He makes me so proud.) :P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xMSeD2hh7Y

After the reunion, we went back to Utah to visit for a bit longer with relatives from my dad's side of the family. We got to see Trevin, Jeffrey, Debbie , and of course little Knightley once again during our stay in Utah, which is always a treat.

Debbie and my adorable nephew Knightley.

Our trip was unexpectedly extended due to my cousin Jason's death, sadly, and we stayed for his funeral. Jason was a really cool guy, and very loving to everyone. I didn't know him as well as I could've, but it was hard to see him gone, and hard to see the impact it had on everyone. But as much as he was loved here, I know that he's doing Heavenly Father's work now.

After all was said and done, I had a lot of fun seeing and spending time with family, and the trip was a great experience.

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

...well...I'm leaving soon enough, anyway. Spring term certainly does go by fast. I have 6 more days of actual classes, 2 days of finals, and a total of 12 days until I go home. I feel like I just started a month and a half ago. Wait... I did. Insanity.

As different as it is keeping up with classes that move twice as quickly, it's awesome how soon these classes will be over. Especially technical communication. I'll say three words about that class: I hate papers. And guess what? Two weeks from now, I will never have to take another English class again. Ever. Sure, I'll have the occasional paper to write in a few of my major classes, but it's different. I'm excited, anyway.

And speaking of excited, I am so excited to go home. See some friends, be with my family again... it's gonna be just awesome. And did I mention how excited I am to go home? :)

A few weeks ago, Mom was kind enough to buy me a new outfit "for Easter," even though it was well after Easter when I got it. But I promised I would post pictures of it, so here they are. Aren't I cute?

A full view of the outfit.

And a closer shot.

Little Things

A lot of the fun in life is just finding those little things that make us happy. Here's one of mine.

Whenever I'm walking somewhere and someone's coming from the opposite direction, I usually firmly designate myself to one side or the other of the sidewalk (or hallway, etc.). When I do, even from a distance, it causes the other person to automatically drift to the other side, whether subconsciously or not. When I take my position early on, the other person will go to the other side. This is one of those little joys in life, for me - knowing that I have that little bit of momentary power over another person. (Especially when they're about twice my size, 'cause heaven knows I'd lose a real fight to them.) :)

Women's Conference

A couple weeks ago, Mom came to Provo for BYU Women's Conference. It was awesome! Her flight was supposed to arrive on Wednesday (the 29th) at about 1:30, but due to a string of events, some of which weren't even related to each other, she didn't get here until about 6:30. And almost the entire time, she was sitting on a plane. Not even in the airport. I felt bad for her - the only things she really could do to take up time were read, go to the bathroom, and talk to me on the phone. Which was fun, but it did end up using a lot of battery power from my phone. :)

So I picked her up Wednesday evening, and we stopped by Jeffrey and Debbie's apartment to see them and Knightley, which was great. Eventually, Mom and I left, and grabbed some food at Taco Bell before going back to my apartment. Luckily I have that extra bed in my room, since no one else is sharing it with me, so Mom got to stay with me!

On Thursday, I didn't go to any of my classes (any meaning Calculus), and instead went to Women's Conference with Mom all day. The opening session was amazing! They had some entertaining stuff. But the best part of it was at the end of that session, when they had all of the women standing up and singing together... it was incredible. I started crying right away. It was a great emotional and spiritual experience.

The workshops that we attended were about replacing fear with faith, making the most of an empty nest, and not neglecting your gifts. The second one, while the least relevant to me of the ones that we went to, was co-taught by Nana Raine (Mom's mom). And it was really good. Even I was able to take something from it, though the general idea of the lesson doesn't really apply to me yet. Nana did a great job.

That night, Mom and I went grocery shopping. Which was awesome - it was like Mom wanted to buy me the whole store. Practically everything we saw, she offered. There are sometimes benefits to being a poor, starving college student. Then we went to Jeffrey and Debbie's again for dinner, which was great. The next day, I went to classes, while Mom attended the rest of Women's Conference. Afterwards, we did some quick shopping in the BYU Bookstore, and went to Jeffrey and Debbie's place again. We all had pizza for dinner. ^_^

On Saturday and Sunday, we stayed with Aunt Carisa. It was fun. I love staying there. We got to chat with some relatives, stay in a really nice house, and have a good time. Mom and I left late Sunday morning, came back to my apartment for a while to pick up a couple things she forgot, and left for the airport. It was hard to see her go, but I'm so glad she came. I want to go to Women's Conference with her every year. It's awesome.

Knightley and his great Nana Raine.


Mom and Tawni, while Carisa weasels her way into the picture.

Knightley and Mom, or his Nana Jake. So cute. :)

Starting Over... Again

Well, finals for Winter semester ended last Wednesday. Sarah and I stayed in our apartment until we had to move out, which turned out to be Saturday at about noon. We ended up waiting until Friday night to pack everything. Times like those make me wonder... how do I have that much stuff? And how did it all get here?? Needless to say, with that and not packing very quickly, we were up all night. Literally. After we packed everything, we still had to do our final cleaning checks before we moved out. And by then I was exhausted, and not very enthusiastic about cleaning.

It turned out that our manager was not very strict on our cleaning checks (though they said they would be), thankfully. Then we finally got everything moved from our apartment into our cars. Of course, it started raining that morning. Right when we're moving out... perfect timing.

From there I went to Jeffrey and Debbie's place. They graciously let me stay with them for a couple days, as I couldn't move in to my new apartment until Monday. It was a lot of fun. Trevin came over on Saturday night, and we had pizza and played Scattergories (which I came in close second both times we played, might I add). On Sunday I went to church with all of them. Four babies were blessed in their ward that day! Insane. I ended up helping Trevin in nursery for the second and third hours, which was a lot of fun, though I'm not sure how badly they needed my help. Apparently there were not as many kids there as usual. But it was fun.

On Monday I moved into my new apartment. It's built for six girls in one apartment (three bedrooms, two in a room), but there are only four other girls, plus myself. The others were all here in the winter, I think, so I ended up getting a room to myself. Which is nice. And the apartment is definitely bigger; I guess it kinda has to be, to accommodate for six girls. It's not bad.

School for Spring term started today. I only have Calculus on Tuesdays, for two hours. And today it was really easy stuff, so not a bad day of school. Tomorrow I have Technical Communication... we'll see what that class has in store.

Of Pizza and Plastic - The Sequel

So, a few weeks back, I bought some English muffins, cheese, and pepperoni to make mini pizzas. Which are just delicious.

I put a couple mini pizzas together, and stuck them in the microwave. I leave the microwave to do its business, and hang out on my computer until they are done. When I hear the beep, I go out to get my mini pizzas... and there is smoke everywhere. Apparently I had microwaved it a lot longer than I thought I did. (Note: the smoke alarm didn't ever go off. Maybe last time it went off we had unplugged it or something.)

So I made my way to the microwave, opened the door, and more smoke came out. It was bad. Charlene came out of her room as well, and came to see what happened. She got up on a chair to see in the mircorwave, and started laughing immediately. Once she got the microwave plate out, I saw that the mini pizzas were 100% charcoal black. We opened the front door and some windows, and took the plate outside. Charlene and I went to work on cleaning up the mess I had made. I started scrubbing the burn reside out of the microwave, and Charlene was outside throwing away the rock-hard mini pizzas. When she lifted up the plate, the pizzas stayed on, as well as the parts of the plate that were underneatht them. Those parts were completely melted. It was hilarious.

We successfully cleaned everything, but the smell of smoke lingered. I hoped it would fade in time, especially when we'd leave the door and windows open, but it still pretty much always smelled like smoke. After a few days, I bought an air freshener/odor remover because I felt bad. I think it helped, but now when you use the microwave, sometimes it still smells vaguely like smoke. It was quite the experience. And very funny.

This is what it looked like after Charlene lifted off the plate.

Laugher Is The Best Medicine

My Doctrine and Covenants class today was awesome. Just not for the reasons that it normally should be.

So Trevin and I have D&C together, which is always so much fun. Today he had a pen that had a piece of plastic missing where the two halves of the pen connect together. So once while he was holding it, the pen just fell apart in his hands. Randomly. Which I thought was just hilarious.

A bit later, we were told to put something in our notes, so Trevin starts writing, and the pressure that he put on the pen made it come apart completely again - and not just fall apart, like it did when he was just holding it, pieces of it shot off to the side. (Luckily we were sitting at the end of the row next to the wall.) We both laughed really hard. I just about died laughing, and the hard part was trying to keep it quiet, especially because we were in a religion class.

Then we started playing around with the pen a bit, and making the parts of it shoot off again. After I had a go, I picked up the spring the landed beneath Trevin's seat. I was squeezing the spring in between two of my fingers a few times, when suddenly I accidentally made it shoot out from my fingers, and it hit me right in the eye. It wasn't painful, just startling. And we both proceeded to just about lose control of our laughing again.

I had tears coming out of my eyes more than once from laughing so hard. I know, we were so irreverent. But it was awesome. :)

Did You See The Sky Today?

Talk about blue!

This week has been really nice. Even though BYU doesn't have a Spring Break, and seemingly every other school I know of does. But you know... I'll get over it. At least our semester finishes sooner, in the long run.

The weather has been fantastic the past few days! Two weeks ago, it was really nice outside, then the following week it was really cold... and this week it's really nice again! Though I hear that next week it's supposed to snow. Apparently we're just going back and forth. But for now, it's been so nice and warm... not hot, but very pleasant. I love it.

Last night, instead of our normal 2-hour conducting class from about 7pm-9pm, each student had a five minute lesson with the teacher. We basically had this piece that we had to be prepared to conduct for him while he played the piano, and while we were being recorded (so that we could take the video home and watch it, and write a critique about our conducting). We had to do something similar for part of our midterm a couple weeks ago, and that was terrifying. I shook the whole time. But when I had to conduct for him last night, for some reason it wasn't nearly as frightening (though still kinda scary). It really does help, also. He helps me find out what my weak points are, so that I can improve. Seriously, I have a lot of respect for people who really know how to conduct. It doesn't sound hard, but there is so much to it. I've also realized that there are very few out there who do know. Like in church; frequently the chorister will "know" how to conduct - or rather, they know what the beat pattern is or what the back of the hymn book tells them - but educated conducting is quite a bit more complicated. It's a skill that I think will be nice to know. (If I ever get really comfortable with it. :)

I also had another Country Dancing test on Wednesday, which I think went alright. It wasn't terrible. The thing I love about that class is that it's just what it sounds like - when we're dancing, we always get to listen to country music. It's great.

This week has been an overall pretty good one. :)

Happy 3.14

It's Pi Day!

Yesterday the BYU Math Department hosted some kind of "Pi Day" event in the Wilkinson Center, even though it was technically the day before Pi Day. But I figure they don't ever hold events like that on Saturdays or Sundays, so I got double the fun for having it on two days. There were pie eating contests, which looked like it would make me sick... pie-ing teachers in the face... but I wasn't really concerned about that. There was, however, a contest to see who could recite the most digits of pi. There were prizes for being able to recite a certain amount, plus whoever was the winner would win an iPod Shuffle.

Since Sarah and I know the same amount, I wasn't planning to bother participating, but I ended up giving in and signing up. It was scary though, let me tell you - you get up in front of all the people there, recite pi into a microphone, and if you mess up anywhere the people running the whole thing would blow this airhorn. Needless to say, I was a bit nervous. And by nervous, I mean I was shaking the whole time, and my mouth went completely dry. I also said it slower than I usually do (since normally I just speed through it and it's probably harder to understand), and when I'm actually having to think about what I'm saying, I tend to mess up more easily. I got to a certain point where I stumbled, but after some crowd support, they let me continue. After that point, I was a little thrown off, and didn't make it too much farther before I slipped up. I managed to get through 184 digits, which beat the previous 1st place (which, by the way, was at the time held by someone who "guaranteed he would win").

Not too long after that, Sarah went up, and I was pretty sure she'd beat me. Which she did. At the end of it all, we left knowing 240 digits of pi. And ever so graciously, Sarah is going to split the money with me that we get from selling the Shuffle, since we both know that we both know the same amount. :) I kind of expected us to get it, but thinking about it, I'm almost surprised that there's no one else in the school that would go to that, who doesn't know more digits than that. Not that 240 is anything to sneeze at, but there's a lot of nerds out there. And whoever says that memorizing pi is pointless or a waste of time, is obviously wrong. Not only did Sarah and I earn $5 from our manager at work once for it, but now we've got free T-shirts and stuff, along with a free iPod Shuffle. Yeah.

This morning was the Rex Lee Run. One of those "Race For The Cure" type things to raise money for cancer research. This is my second year participating. I have to admit, when we were first getting started and I saw some people around me with certificate things to honor someone who has battled with cancer, I got a bit emotional. It is one year ago to this day that Nana Jake passed. Now I just want to do what I can to help the cause, for others who are struggling.

What Goes Down...

So, a few weeks ago I had an interesting experience that I'll finally post about.

I was out with some friends on a Thursday night - we went to Denny's, played a board game while we were there, and ended up staying until at least 3:30 am or so. Then, none of us were really tired, and someone needed to buy some paint for something, so we decided to walk to Lowe's, which is between an hour and an hour and a half walk. Which was an exciting idea to me - I had never walked that far before, and I love going on walks. So on our way to Lowe's, we're all walking along and I step on a spot on the sidewalk that apparently had ice covering it that I didn't see, and I completely biffed it. I don't have any idea exactly what happened between slipping and landing, but I ended up face first on the sidewalk. And honestly, for the first few seconds I was just trying to figure out where it was that I hurt myself. It was so cold, I couldn't tell at first..

Anyway, I could tell that I hit my mouth and probably my nose, so my hand went immediately to cover it. And when I took my hand away and looked at it, I was obviously bleeding. It turns out I had busted my lip (luckily not bad enough to get stitches or anything - my lip healed in a few days, but it was swollen for a couple days), and I broke one of my front teeth - about a third off the front, and a lot off the back. After going to the dentist that Saturday, he put some composite stuff on it to protect the nerve until I went in again this morning and got a temporary crown put on it while they start working on one that will match my teeth. At this point, I'm doing quite well, and just looking forward to the time that my smile looks as normal as it once did. :) (Some friends and I have a way of saying that if you slip and fall on the ice here in Utah, then "Utah has claimed you." Until this point, I could declare "Utah has not claimed me!" I guess Utah wanted to spite me, and now my declaration would be "Utah has owned me!")

This is what I looked like the Friday morning I got back. My top lip is really swollen on the front, and the bottom of one of my front teeth is missing, though there was a lot more taken off the back of the tooth when I fell.


This is what I looked like a day or two later, after seeing the dentist for the first time. With the composite stuff on it, it's less noticeable, plus my lip was starting to heal.


And this is where I'm at now. You may not be able to tell in this picture that the tooth isn't exactly like my other teeth, but it looks pretty good, all things considered.


This experience is one I certainly never want to go through again, and I wouldn't wish it upon anyone. Not only was it devastating to me to lose that chunk of my tooth and has been a big hassle, but it's also significantly slowed my walking speed when there's ice on the ground - I used to be fine walking on ice, I might occasionally slip, but I'd rarely fallen. After this, it makes me a bit anxious to walk on ice.

However, that said, there are still blessings to be found in it. Not that I think cracking a tooth is a wonderful thing, but it really opened my eyes to the love and support that I have, especially from my family (both in Texas and up here with me). I'm especially grateful to my mom, who has dealt with so much on my behalf. I really am lucky to be in such a position, and I'm so very grateful.

And then people always take things for granted, and you don't appreciate things enough until they're gone. All things considered, I really do have a lot to be grateful for. It reminds me of a poem:

Today, upon a bus, I saw a girl with golden hair.
I envied her, she seemed so gay, and wished I was as fair.
When suddenly she rose to leave, I saw her hobbled down the aisle.
She had one leg and wore a crutch.
And as she passed... a smile.

Oh God, forgive me when I whine.
I have 2 legs, the world is mine

I stopped to buy some candy. The lad who sold it had such charm.
I talked with him, he seemed so glad.
If I were late, it'd do no harm.
And as I left, he said to me, "I thank you, you've been so kind.
It's nice to talk with folks like you. You see," he said, "I'm blind."

Oh God, forgive me when I whine.
I have 2 eyes, the world is mine.

Later while walking down the street,
I saw a child with eyes of blue.
He stood and watched the others play.
He did not know what to do.
I stopped a moment and then I said,
"Why don't you join the others, dear?"
He looked ahead without a word. And then I knew,
he couldn't hear.

Oh God, forgive me when I whine.
I have 2 ears, the world is mine.
With feet to take me where I'd go.
With eyes to see the sunset's glow.
With ears to hear what I'd know.

Oh God, forgive me when I whine.
I've been blessed indeed, the world is mine!

As A Side Note

My mom told me about a deal at Denny's tomorrow, which ended up leading me to the discovery of a cool blog that makes posts about sweet deals that happen at different places. As a poor starving college student, I'm sure I'll be able to appreciate this from time to time. You should all check it out too.

Of Pizza and Plastic

Friday night! The start of the weekend.

Tonight Sarah and I bought a large pepperoni pizza at Domino's with a Starving Student Card, so we got a good deal on it. We watched Kung Fu Panda while we ate, since she had never seen it before. What a fun movie. The only problem is, I was still so hungry after we finished the pizza...

A little while ago, I was making some Ramen soup (of course). The cupboards and stove and everything were full of dishes (none of which were mine, believe it or not), so when I finished making the Ramen, the only place I could think to put it was the spot on the stove I had just used to make the soup. When I picked up the pot and put down the cheap plastic bowl on the hot metal grate, it crossed my mind that the bowl could melt a little as it sat there while I poured in the soup. But I went ahead anyway. Then I took the pot to the sink to wash it, still leaving the bowl on the stove. I'm sure you know where this is going. When I went back to pick up my bowl, I couldn't lift it from the grate. I put on a hot mitten thing to pull the grate off while I carefully held up the bowl full of soup. As I did so, I could see the melted parts from the bottom of the bowl stretching from the bowl to the grate, like it was melted cheese. After I pulled it off completely and took off the stringy parts of the bowl, I proceeded the same as usual. I don't care about it much, since I got four of these bowls for really cheap somewhere. The whole ordeal was just very amusing to me. This is what the bowl now looks like. You can see just where it was sitting on the grate.


So now I know in the future, for when I'm dealing with dishes that might actually matter to me - if I think it might melt because I'm putting something plastic and vulnerable on a hot stove that I just barely turned off, maybe I shouldn't do it. And here I thought I had left my "stupid years". :P

Haircut

Today I went and got my hair done with Debbie. I got a few inches trimmed off, a few highlights, and some layers. We went to Dallas Roberts Academy, a hair school... or something like that, so it wasn't as expensive as going somewhere to get it done professionally. And it still turned out lovely.

You can more or less see a bit of the layers in this picture.

You can kind of see the highlights in this one... kind of.

I went in being completely unsure as to what I actually wanted to do, but I really like how it turned out! Nothing too drastic (I'm too afraid... but someday I'd like to do something crazy), but it looks good. If only I were a better picture taker and you could actually tell. :P Regardless, it was a fun experience.

Taken From Rachel

This makes a post two days in a row! I haven't done that in a while. Anyway, a little survey thingy is always interesting to do every once in a while. :) (And for anyone who cares, I did reformat this a little to satisfy my obsessive-compulsiveness. It also makes it a bit more pleasant to read.)

Name: Ashley
Eye Color: Brown
Shoe size: 8, usually
Height: Just about 5'7"
What brands are you wearing right now? Uh... I'm honestly not sure about the brands. Normally I'd be wearing Old Navy jeans, but right now I'm wearing BYU sweatpants instead.
Favorite Number: 13
Favorite Drink: Milk, followed by water
Favorite Month: December - my birthday, Christmas, the holiday spirit... what's not to like?
Favorite Breakfast: Bacon and eggs. And bacon. I also love cereal.
-----------------------------HAVE YOU EVER-----------------------------
Love/Liked someone so much it made you cry? Aside from my family, I don't think so.
Been in a police car: No.
Came close to dying: As a pedestrian in a college town... yes.
Been in a hot tub: Ahh... yeah.
Fallen asleep in school: Yes.
Broken someone's heart: I hope not.
Cried when someone died: Yes.
Fallen off your chair: I'm sure I have.
Saved e-mails: Yes. With Gmail, I keep a lot of my emails.
Ever been cheated on: No, I've never been in a position to be.
--------------------------------WHAT IS--------------------------------
Your room like: Home - Blue walls, awesome blue and brown bed, usually has a lot of stuff that's not mine. School - Messy, cold, but good enough for me.
Last thing you ate: Brownies from an instant brownie mix my mom sent me.
-------------------------------EVER HAD-------------------------------
Chicken pox: Yes. In Second grade.
Sore throat: Yes.
Stitches: Besides the ones in my mouth when I had my wisdom teeth taken out, no.
--------------------------------DO YOU--------------------------------
Believe in love at first sight? Not really.
Like picnics? Yes, depending on the situation.
Like school? Parts of it, yes. Parts of it, no.
-------------------------------QUESTIONS-------------------------------
Who was the last person you danced with? Some boy I don't remember the name of in my country dance class.
Who makes you smile? My family and friends.
----------------------------------WHO---------------------------------
Did you last yell at? I don't know, honestly. I don't yell often.
Do you wear contact lenses or glasses? Contacts. I only wear glasses when I'm on my way to bed and when I get up in the morning, before putting contacts in.
Do you like yourself? Yes. Sometimes I just makes questionable decisions, like everyone else. :P
----------------------------MORE QUESTIONS----------------------------
Favorite song? No way. Too many to choose from.
What did you do today? Had a nice day off... didn't go anywhere or do anything particularly exciting.
--------------------------------RANDOM--------------------------------
Hate someone in your family? No. Hate's a very strong word. I've been really upset at someone, but I couldn't hate them.
Good singer? I'd say I'm average.
Diamond or pearl? Diamond, though they're both pretty.
Are you oldest? No - I'm the fourth of six, in the middle with Trevin.
Indoors or outdoors? Depends. I like them both.
-----------------------------TODAY DID YOU-----------------------------
Talk to someone you like? Yes - I don't usually only talk to people I dislike.
Get sick? Not today. Though I think I still have a very slight cough from Christmas break.
Sing? A bit.
Talk to an ex? I don't have an ex.
Miss someone? Of course.
Tell someone you loved them? Of course.
----------------------------LAST PERSON WHO----------------------------
You talked to on the phone? My mom.
Drove in the car with you? I think Sarah and her cousin, when he took us grocery shopping.
Went to the movies with you? Jeffrey and Debbie - we saw Ghost Town.
-------------------------------HAVE YOU-------------------------------
Been to Mexico: No.
Been to Canada: No.
Been to Africa: No.
--------------------------------RANDOM--------------------------------
Do you have a crush on someone? Yes.
What books are you reading right now? Twilight. And I'm still in the middle of Eldest.
Best feeling in the world? I guess spending time and laughing with people I love.
Future kids' names? I really want to use Jacob for my first boy, for my last name Jacobson. And Ann for the middle name of my first girl, as it's my middle name and my mom's middle name.
Do you sleep with a stuffed animal? Yes! :)
What's under your bed? Home - food storage and some random stuff. School - probably some small things I don't realize are there.
Who do you really hate? I know it's cliché, but like I said, hate is a very strong word. I don't hate anyone.
Do you have a job? Yes, as a custodian at a cafeteria here. It's really not a bad job.
Ever liked someone you didn't have a chance with? Yeah, for one thing, I didn't really have a chance with anyone I thought was cute in elementary school. :P
Are you lonely right now? Yes and no. Always both. But I'm happy.

Welcome to 2009

I've been putting off posting a new entry for quite some time now, so I guess now is as good a time to do it as any. (Now that we're over halfway done with the month of January.) I'll try to run through the major points of what's going on in my life:

- BYU lost a very frustrating bowl game against Arizona. Very. Frustrating.
- Allen High made up for that - when I found out (while I was at BYU's bowl game that we were already losing at the time) that Allen won STATE, I was elated. The bowl game didn't really matter to me in that moment. My high school is AWESOME. I'm just super jealous of everyone who got to be there. (Cody was there with the band! Coolest thing ever. And yes Rachel, I'm looking at you. You know. Virtually.)
- Got home the night of the 21st, and slept on the couch. (Which doesn't bother me much - those couches are comfortable!)
- Woke up to realize I was 20. (And suddenly sick, as a matter of fact.) I've been anticipating being 20 for a little while now, but it's still mind-boggling when I really think about it.
- Had an awesome birthday - I got some great presents, but the best part was definitely having the whole family home.
- Had our usual Christmas Eve festivities, which include snacking on delicious foods, watching A Claymation Christmas, reading some stories we always read, and all of the kids playing Christmas tunes on our instruments together. (My horn had a crisis just beforehand, but with some help from Jeffrey, we were able to take care of it.)
- Christmas was great. Everyone gave and received some pretty cool stuff, and we all had a lot of fun together.
- I also had a lot of time to see my two nephews! Ashton is adorable, has grown so much in just a year, and was starting to walk when I was there (he's fully walking now). Knightley... well, let's just say, pictures of him don't do him justice. He's so super cute. I love them. ^_^
- We all got to spend a lot of time together before people starting leaving. It was definitely the best part of the break - being at home with my family, everyone being there at the same. Even though it meant that I slept on the couch and the floor half the time - I would sleep on the kitchen tile if it meant the whole family would be together for the holidays. I absolutely loved it all.
- I also got to spend some time with friends. It was great, though I didn't get as much time as I assumed I would allow for that kind of stuff.
- On the plane ride back, on one of my flights I sat next to the cutest little girl! Her name was Lily, she was two years old, and we played for the whole flight to Albuquerque. (Her dad seemed really nice about it all.)
- I got back to Provo on Sunday night (January 4th), and school started the next morning.
- Classes are all fine so far, and I'm hoping I can handle it all the whole semester.

I'm coming to enjoy being up at here more than I did at the start of my college years. (Not that I necessarily enjoy the actual school, homework, and test part of it.) I really appreciate the opportunity I have to be at BYU, and I love this school. I love every chance I get to be back at home, but I am grateful for the time I have here as well. I hope 2009 has a lot of opportunities, and I'll do my best to make it a great year.