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.