Just a little ray of sunshine

Just a little ray of sunshine

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Trip down memory lane...

So I just posted about Backstreet Boys, right? Well the same night that those handsome men came to my mind I went through a series of thoughts about my younger years. I seriously could not stop them, one thing led to another, and before I knew it, it was 3 am. I must admit though that I had a lot of fun thinking about old stories! Here are some tidbits from the good old days that may or may not interest you:

1. In 2001 (crazy that that was 10 years ago), my family took the most awkward family photo in all history. My mom's hair was so blonde it was almost white. My hair was slicked back in a pony tail, probably wet b/c the thought of blow drying it hadn't even crossed my mind, with awesome braces on my face. We took it against a white background. I was wearing a white skirt so it basically looked like I had no lower body. And our dog Bounder, the dog from Hades, was in the picture and he most likely had a really awkward haircut. Wish I had a copy of this gem. But to get a sense of how the awkwardness continues with our family photos, feast your eyes on this sucker:
We were supposed to color coordinate, but everyone besides myself was too lazy. Dan is in his pajama bottoms. Enough said.

2. Speaking of laziness, at one point in time my sister and I shared a room, probably when I was about 5. You're wondering how that relates to laziness... well she definitely took advantage of me and made me take off her jeans for her everyday. Back when the baggy jeans that were tight at the ankles were in style, if you remember. What a bum.

3. I remember how technology used to be. Back when we could only listen to music if we had an actual CD and used a discman (you probably forget what this is, check it here ) or a stereo. And my brother used talkboys. When we didn't have cellphones and if friends wanted to call me, they had to call the house phone. I miss those days - technology has gotten way too advanced in my opinion!

4. My family lived in Japan when I was in elementary school. We shopped at this market and they sold octupus in a container there just like you would find hamburger meat in a container. My siblings found sincere enjoyment out of coming up behind me and scaring me with this octupus. Rude. I have still not fully recovered. Along the same lines, there was the time that my dad wanted to order a full on lobster (still looked like it would from the sea) and I started crying so he couldn't. Sorry dad.

5. When I was in Kindergarten one time I was playing on the playground and I thought I saw my friend so I tapped him on the shoulder and it turned out he wasn't my friend. I remember running away scared half to death. Heaven forbid I touch a stranger!

6. My Kindergarten teacher was obsessed with Winnie the Pooh. This is pretty much all I remember about Kindergarten. Because of this, that year I became obsessed with the song "Return to Pooh Corner" and listened to it alllll the time. Fast forward to Senior year of high school when I remembered this song and I started listening to it a lot and couldn't believe my K-12 experience was over. It was a bittersweet time.

7. My family also lived in Hong Kong when I was in elementary school. I remember one day waking up in our house and saw that it was raining down the hallway. In my house. I rubbed my eyes and opened them again because I sort of thought I was dreaming. Truth be told, I wasn't. It did in fact rain through the roof into our house. That house also flooded a lot with all the typhoons. Which reminds me of the crazy weather guy that would walk out and represent the weather. When a bad typhoon was in the forecast, he would walk across the screen and blow away into the air. Literally. HA so I always thought if I went outside during a bad typhoon that I would really blow away and never come back. To this day, I still don't know that that really would have happened....

8. In fourth grade, I was walking around downtown Hong Kong one day and I saw my teacher across the street at a bar. I was so scarred to find out that my teacher actually had a life, and a bad one at that.

9. My best friends in Hong Kong happened to be my next door neighbors, Leah and Ali. I would go over to their house all the time and we would hang out up in the loft they had created in one of the bedrooms and we would make awesome dances up to Christina Aguilera and Backstreet Boys songs. They also had a maid and their maid would make us ice cream shakes all the time. Talk about awesome.

10. I used to write notes back and forth with my best friends in middle school during school. They were really ridiculous notes full of "hehehe" and "bff 4 lyfe" - good thing I grew out of talking like that.

11. In Kindergarten, I lived right across the street from the school. For some crazy reason, I took the bus almost everyday instead of just walking across the street. Probably because my mom was lazy, haha JK. But I remember there was a boy that often sat across from me on the bus and he would cough so much I seriously was afraid he was going to die. I hated that dang bus ride.

12. When I was in 3rd grade, I used to watch Saved By The Bell - the college years episodes. I remember watching one particular one that was full of romance. I went to bed one night like a giddy little school girl so excited to see my crush the next day at school. His name was Yuh Yuh and he was Asian. I love me my Asians.

13. My Grandma Bobbye was sick in the hospital a couple years ago. We visited her in the hospital a number of times and on one occasion she called me a little s***. Oh grandma!

14. Aol Instant Messenger used to be ALL the rage. When I opened an account, I wanted my screen name to be something like "cutechick" just like every other girl. My bro Josh insisted I have a cooler screen name than that. As a result of his suggestion, it ended up being "fluteplaya329". Real cool Josh. Pathetically enough, I remember days when I would sit at our desktop computer in middle school and high school for hours on AIM. I even had a secret boyfriend that I would talk to strictly on AIM. I never met him in real life, but boy did we have intense conversations on there. I was so cool.

15. We used to have a dog named Emi. My mom went out of town one time and I got home from school one day to find out that my dad let her outside and LOST HER. It was the worst thing ever. Calling my mom and telling her was horrible. Bad memory.

16. My first real boyfriend was PJ in 9th grade. I hate to admit that we would go to the mall together and mack in department stores right in front of the workers. Those poor workers. Since then I have learned to be a bit more private with my macking. ;)

17. I used to be obsessed with this song "Everyday is a Winding Road" - I can't remember who it's by. Some song from the 90s. I made a recording of me singing it once and listened to it later. Lets just say I've gotten a bit better at singing...

18. Not only was my sister Rach lazy back in the day, but she was also sorta wimpy. When we stopped sharing a room, we continued to go get in each other's beds in the middle of the night when we got scared. She may deny it, but she came and got me far more than I got her - and she was in high school. ;) But I still love her.

19. My grandparents on my mom's side live in Tennessee. We used to go visit them every few years during the summer and I used to always go outside at night and catch fireflies in a jar. Good times.

20. When I lived in Hong Kong, our house was right on the ocean. Titanic had come out right before we moved there so I was obsessed with huge boats. I would always take my telescope and use it to look out our huge windows and see if I could find ships as big as the Titanic. Sometimes they seemed almost as big! Super fun.

21. I used to email some of my cousins regularly. We would write back and forth - I did it with Thane, Jess, and Amy. All at different times. I wish I still had the emails saved, it would be a lot of fun to go back and read them. Love my cousins!

22. When I was in elementary school, I decided to join Girl Scouts just to wear the uniform because I thought it was incredibly fashionable. If you know me well, I am sure that does not surprise you at all. Some things never change. I ended up hating it and it wasn't worth the uniform. I stopped after 2 weeks I think.

23. I used to take school SOOO seriously. In third grade, I would get weekly assignments and finish them right at the beginning of the week. In fourth grade, I had to do this complicated penny project and I cried to my teacher that it was too hard and I couldn't do it well enough. Fast forward to high school when I would skip school so I didn't have to turn in homework assignments... ha.

24. When I was in 7th grade, I went to lots of school dances. I wanted to wear hoops SOO bad because I had other friends that wore big hoops. My mom thought they were too sophisticated for me at that age but I snuck out with them and wore them anyway one time. Sooo rebellious.

25. In elementary school, I accidentally spilled a whole bottle of nail polish remover all over our kitchen table. I didn't even know what to do and I remember being SCARED to death to tell my mom because I knew I ruined the table. I thought she was going to kill me. Luckily she was feeling Christian that day and spared my life. ;)

This post is already plenty long so I'll have to post again in another while to tell you about all my other crazy shenanigans. I know my three readers are probably sick of reading by now!

Stay tuned.

Friday, December 23, 2011

Backstreet's back, alright!

I happen to love music. It sort of makes me tick. I don't think I could live without it. Well I guess I could, but it would be a sad life. For the longest time, I have gone through many phases of listening to music as I fall asleep. Probably not good for me, and probably why I have crazy dreams, but what can you do. I like it too much. I tendto get stuck on certain songs and will listen to them over and over. And over. It drives some people nuts, but it never gets old for me, especially if I like the song enough. Every now and then, I switch it up, and the other night was one of those nights. I was thinking about what I wanted to fall asleep to and BAM. I had the greatest idea to listen to....

BACKSTREET BOYS.

Call me crazy, but this old school band will never get old for me. It was one of my very first CDs I got. I got it for Christmas one year and I honestly may have cried when I opened it I was so excited. Every few years I always remember them and will listen to some of the classics and their slow songs again. Some personal favs include:

Spanish Eyes
Shape of My Heart
Drowning
Need You Tonight
Perfect Fan

Man, these songs come on and the memories flood and it just makes me happy. Bring back fifth grade please, when I looked like this...
In case you are unaware, I am the one on the left. With my eyes closed. You might wonder why I didn't pick a better picture, possibly one with my eyes open or something, but back in that day I only kept eyes open in 20% of pictures. So this is about as good as it gets. And don't even ask me about my ninth grade school picture....

And yes, I have listened to Backstreet Boys while falling asleep in bed every night for the past few nights. Can't help it!

What's your old school favorite band that never gets old?

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Quote of the day

I was asking Bennett about what happened today that was the craziest, the silliest, the funniest, etc. He kept saying "I don't know" and wouldn't really answer me so this is the resulting conversation...

Me: Are you a man of few words?
Bennett: No
Me: Then start talking to me!
Bennett: You have to be kidding me...

...man, what was I thinking that the little tyke would want to talk to his crazy aunt meg??

But he still does. And that's why I love him.

Stumped by a 4 year old and a 2 year old

I am currently spending my days in Crestwood, KY with my sister's family. Which means I have been playing a lot with a certain two nephews of mine, Bennett and Liam. They are some of the funniest little boys ever! Meet them.
They are partners in crime. Last night we were playing hide n go seek and they were being pretty loud and hiding in really obvious places - however, as the great aunt that I am, I still pretended I couldn't find them at all and they would just laugh their heads off. We tried to teach them the true ways of the game so Gram (my mom) tried to suggest to them some better places to hide.

Gram: "Bennett, come here and I'll tell you some places to hide!"
Bennett (within total hearing distance of me, the finder): "I already found one, I'm under the curtain!"

We couldn't help but laugh. I don't think he fully understood the concept of the game. :) Well then, Gram did in fact give them some pointers and I seriously searched the upstairs for them and couldn't find them! I thought I looked everywhere and they weren't making a peep. Those boys! Sad to say that I was stumped by my own nephews. Lo and behold, I found them in my sister's closet.

The past couple days have also consisted of playing Dragons. This always consists of me being a human looking for dragons (Bennett and Liam) and within moments of me finding them they breathe fire on me and kill me. And then I have to lay there. Forever. Covered in a red blanket to symbolize my blood. Awesome.
What crazy things do your nephews make you do?

Monday, December 19, 2011

Pathetic.

This one time I may have participated in a conversation with a few good friends from my ward on facebook on the Enclave wall. And we may or may not have exchanged 130 comments. Within 30 minutes. Considering I have admitted this, statistics show that my odds of getting married in the next few years have decreased by 265%. And maybe another 78% thanks to the picture below.
Sorry Enclave for the repercussions I know you experienced because of this. Direct quote: "wow I just signed on facebook and my head almost exploded" - I only hope that the young man who spoke these words can someday forgive us. To Heather Brown, Sean Burton, and Joe Morris - I still loved every minute of it.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Tis the season of Christmas parties

I don't normally go to a lot of Christmas parties. I think that's why I'm hardly in the Christmas spirit once I'm actually home for Christmas and it's like a week away. Which is always a bummer. This year though has been quite out of the ordinary as I have been to 6 Christmas parties. Yeah, that's right, 6. To make things even crazier, 4 of them were back to back, one after another, each night. So you better believe I have had the chance to get in the Christmas spirit earlier this year!

Party #1: Heather's home ward Christmas party.
This shindig was closer to the beginning of December. Kim and I joined Heather because we thought it would be fun to dress up and eat good food. Heather had played up her home ward Christmas parties to us because the food was to die for. So we ventured there with her and one of the first things we did was take a couple pictures at the photobooth, as you can see above. What Merry Tacular means, we still have no idea. So fill us in if you know... Anyway, after checking out the food we discovered it was not to die for this year. Have no fear, it still ended up being an awesome party because something happened that we also did not expect to happen at all. There were actually single RMs there. Shocker, I know. We spotted a few and Heather's mom somehow convinced the bishop's wife to make them come over and talk to us. We were expecting a quick hi, but thanks to the pizza Heather's parents ordered since the food was a bust, they actually hung out with us the rest of the party. They were fresh off the mish, which means they are younger than me (that is a very very strange concept I have come to accept recently) but seriously we were dying laughing the whole evening. They were hilarious and definitely good company. The next night we even had a game night with them and I won't explain the game, but lets just say the phrases "booty drop" and "I'm gay" were playing through my head that Monday at school. I promise it was an appropriate game. ;)

Party #2: Our actual ward Christmas party.
This occurred on a Monday night for FHE. They served dinner, but we combined with another ward and so it took like half a freakin hour to get food. We definitely sat at the wrong table and got served close to last. My stomach almost started eating itself. We enjoyed some great Christmas musical numbers from fellow wardies too and then made gingerbread houses. I consumed my entire body weight in candy since gingerbread houses are not my expertise. Don't judge me. As you may or may not be able to see above, we created The Burroughs from Harry Potter for our house. Yes, we are that awesome.

Party #3: Shindig that a random wardie through the last day of classes
It was at this party that I discovered the true talents of my roommate Heather Brown. This party consisted of socializing, food, mistletoe (of course), cookie decorating, and making snowflakes. First, we made snowflakes. I failed. Heather succeeded. Then, we decorated cookies. I did mine in two minutes and ate it and Heather created two masterpieces. Epic fail for me. Great success for Heather. Above we have the picture of us posing with her cookies! Perhaps one day I can learn the special ways of Heather Brown.

Party #4: Ugly Christmas sweater party thrown by another wardie on Friday night
sI don't like looking ugly so I opted out of going in an ugly sweater. Just kidding, I just couldn't find one. Sadly. But don't you worry, Sean sported a sweatshirt that could have fit my 4 year old nephew as you can see above and below we have Thongvun in a truly authentic ugly Christmas sweater that he himself created. Lovin the creativity guys. We partook of some delicious food and then watched The Polar Express after the party. I do believe that was the pivotal moment for me getting in the Christmas spirit. :)

Party #5: Awkward Christmas Party thrown by Rachelle and Brian, the lovely couple to beThis party was definitely a hit. Not only was it great to see Rachelle and Karissa and catch up with them, but there was also great food and tons of awkwardness. We did a White Elephant gift exchange and Ryan and I scored some great awkward gifts. First we opened some stool softener, to find out there were only mints in it. I would have been happier if the stool softener was still in there myself. Feeling jipped, since that was actually just an extra gift in case someone didn't bring one, I was happy to be told we could open the last gift on the table and have that instead. Inside there was a mirror, which ended up being a creepy Halloween mirror with a face that appears in it when you press a button (great Halloween decoration if you ask me). There was also a blow up Spiderman and we won't talk about the awkwardness associ
ated with that one. You can use your imagination. There was also a piece of fine jewelry and an inspirational stamp. I was quite pleased. The gift we brought was actually the first one to be opened, probably because of this:
Pink flamingos. Doesn't get much more awkward than that. At least that's what Ryan and I thought. They had an awesome blow up snowman which we all decided to take pictures with at the end as you can see. Sweet.

Party #6: Mzungu African Christmas Bash thrown by Aubs

I didn't get any pictures on my camera from this party, but it was a great final celebration after finishing finals. I love catching up with my Africans (that is, those that I went to Africa with, but who's being technical anyway?) and eating great treats. We also did a white elephant gift exchange and Jen and I totally forgot and remembered right when we got there, so blow up Spiderman and Inspirational stamp had to be regifted. Luckily they were still in my car from the week before! The best gift of the night is a toss up between the sweet reindeer hat that Jenner got that sang and moved or the giant fortune cookie that Whit got that apparently had been used back in the day to ask Aubs' sister to a dance. Blew my mind. We got to reminisce about Africa at the end of the party and it was such a fun time.

It's definitely the holidays! Hope the rest of you have been able to get into the Christmas spirit too. 5 days till Christmas! Now I am at the ultimate Christmas party of all, with none other than my family. Just waiting for the rest of em to get here through for the real partying to begin! Cheers.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Conducting mishaps and panic attacks

I have two stories for you in this blog post. Get ready to laugh. Or cry. Or maybe neither. But hopefully just laugh.

Once upon a time, I got called as the ward chorister in my ward. I switch off with another girl and it's pretty awesome. I only have to do something every two weeks and people know me. Case in point:

Random wardie: "Have we met? Oooh wait you lead the music don't you?"
Me: "Yeah... that's me"

So the music coordinator texts us each week before it is our turn to remind us and make sure we can do it. Since I've mastered the whole every-other-week concept, I usually anticipate her texts. Last Sunday it was supposed to be my turn and Sunday morning I realized I hadn't heard from said girl. I texted her just to make sure things were straight and asked if I was supposed to conduct. She said it was Kathryn's week - you see Kathryn did it, then we had Thanksgiving so some random person did it when the numbers were small, and then instead of me doing it, to keep the rotation the same, she said Kathryn was going to do it. I guess I lost my chance to conduct Thanksgiving week. Bummer. Ha... no I really didn't care. So there I am, sitting in sacrament meeting last Sunday and the meeting is starting and Kathryn is not up there on the stand to conduct. Bishopric member announces the first song and she is still not up there. I look behind me and make eye contact with the other pianist and through facial expressions and mouthing we communicate this to each other:

Her: "what's going on?"
Me: "Is the other girl here? It's her week"
Her: shrugs
Me: "Should I go up there?"
Her: nods

So I run up there as the intro is almost nearly complete. As I do Joe is standing up as if he's about to cover for both of us and is relieved when he sees me. I turn around - no stand. No book. I look over at him and he gives me his book. I don't know the page number. I'm flipping through right as the entrance is coming...... the pianist has to stop and wait for me. I say sorry out loud to everyone and they all start laughing. I got the page number from Bishop and turn there and we start over.... I didn't hear the end of it and kept seeing people that day who would just laugh or say how great I was up there cause apparently my face was pretty red - little do they know it was all part of the plan. ;) The best part of it all is that the other chorister was there the whole time. AND I was the one who went through the effort of checking beforehand and yet I'm still the one up there getting embarrassed making a fool out of myself. The end.

Moral of story #1: Even when you get called as the ward chorister and the music coordinator tells you it's not your turn... IT'S STILL YOUR TURN.

Fast forward one week.

Once upon a time, some mean men in my ward tried to scare me and my roommates by leaving a cardboard cut-out of Jacob from Twilight in front of our door outside our apartment. Scare us, they did. And for like a whole week straight too, even when we knew he was downstairs in our apartment. All of us would gasp everytime we saw him every. single. day. This may be sad, but it's true. Here he is pictured below.
Well after church today we saw him sitting out on the swing (well, I guess laying would be the technical term - he's pretty stiff) by the guys' apartment that gave him to us in the first place so we stole him. We put him this spot where you don't see him until you go all the way into the living room, but then you see him outta the corner of your eye RIGHT next to you. You're probably sitting here reading this thinking, what girls go out of their way to scare THEMSELVES on purpose? Well, we do... and yes we are weird. Don't ask why we decided to do this. Aaaaanyway, I am upstairs and I hear Heather screaming bloody murder downstairs. She sounded as if she was having a panic attack - I became quite concerned because the screaming was not stopping either. Like the nice roommate that I am, I went downstairs to assess the situation and she starts laughing and I'm asking what happened and she's not answering. I walk fully into the living room, see Jacob out of the corner of my eye, and hyperventilate because I think it's a real man and ... well, I peed my pants. Okay just kidding, but then it all made sense - SHE was freaking out b/c of him and decided to make ME freak out too. And it was our plan in the first place to do all of this.... and who has been scared so far because of it? Us. Not Laura or Kim. Us! The end.

Moral of story #2: We hereby call ourselves.... CRAZY!

Thursday, December 8, 2011

RIP Squirtle

A few nights ago, this little guy decided to pass on....

Kim found him stuck by the water filter - sure enough, he was dead. I yelled out, "SQUIRTLE IS DEAD!" for the other roommates to hear. The next day Heather informed me that she heard me right as she was about to fall asleep and sadly shed a few tears. It is a sad sad story. We loved our little Squirtle and he will be very missed.

I just have to say that I have bad luck with apartment pets. Junior year, my roommate Rachael got a goldfish named Oro. I wish I had a picture to show of him, but sadly I do not. He died after two weeks because we never changed his water. Whoops. Fastforward to a few weeks ago when Kim got our turtle. Squirtle died after probably about two weeks too - geez louise I have a bad track record.

RIP Squirtle

Monday, December 5, 2011

Farewell RB and Helaman practice rooms...

This is going to be the first of a few "lasts" posts, since I'm about to say see ya to BYU. With that came my last voice recital this past Friday. I had the pleasure of meeting my voice teacher Tara at the beginning of winter semester during my Sophomore year. I showed up with a sling on my arm, so I'm sure she was thinking "who is this girl!?" but it ended up being such an amazing ride. Voice lessons have been so fun for me, especially with this lovely woman! It's sad that I will never have another lesson with her, but I am just grateful for all that she taught me. I have loved to sing my entire life (ask my mom, I probably came out of the womb singing), but it is one of those things that for the longest time I only did by myself (but in hearing range of my family b/c I couldn't help it). I sang in the shower, during car road trips with that awkward middle school voice (sorry fam), and pretty much wherever else I could get away with it. But I was always terrified to sing in front of people! Heaven forbid I actually share a talent or two with anyone. Well, Tara taught me to let go of that fear and even of the fear of sounding bad. Trust me, I have a number of voice recordings on my ipod with some uuuugly sounds I made while I learned new techniques. That's okay though, because that's how you learn! I didn't know that until I met Tara. I am grateful for what she taught me that my voice was capable of - I will never forget the day I was with her when something clicked and I produced a true belt! (Not to be confused with what you wear when your jeans are too big) That's right, my little, soft voice actually got power! It was a miracle! I love how excited she got for me. She was always supportive, encouraging, and upbeat and made me look forward to each and every lesson. I'm so grateful she wasn't like those piano teachers you get sometimes where you are terrified for your life that if you play a wrong note you will get a beating and have to practice 10 extra hours the next week. I actually performed 20 times better than I ever thought possible in front of her because she gave me that extra boost. The bottom line is she has made the gift of singing become even more real to me and I'm going to miss her. I'm going to miss all the hours I spent in the RB duringlessons and practicing in the helaman halls practice rooms even though I technically wasn't supposed to I'm sure... :D It's been such a journey and I'm sad to see it end, but many good things come to an end, right?

For my last recital, I sang "When Somebody Loved Me" from Toy Story with Summer. It wasn't the most challenging song, but I'm glad I got to sing it with her because we created some beautiful harmonies and it's such a pretty, cute song. We dressed like Jesse (thanks to her mom - she's in high school so has the privilege of getting he
r mom to make her cool costumes still) and it was so fun.

Of course I had to get a picture with Tara too, since I had never gotten one with her from past recitals. You can see her little cute boy Crew in the picture too, staring at me like who is that chick!? Ha
Thanks again Tara for all you've done for me and for being so inspiring. I'll miss you - but I promise to keep jamming on my own. :)

Sunday, December 4, 2011

"We don't take Canadian pennies"

This thing right here..... ruined my life the other day.

Okay so I'm being a little dramatic, but let me explain. I am trying to purchase some medicine the other day on campus because I had a headache. The total comes to 54 cents or something like that. I decide I probably have enough change so I pull out my change and hand it to the cashier. She examines it, for way too long in my book, and then says:

"Sorry, but this is actually a Canadian penny"

Excuse me? What did you say? Canadian? I started to connect the dots. Someone, like me, had been shopping in the lovely US of A and given a cashier a Canadian penny and THAT cashier, doing their job properly, didn't examine the penny for a year and a half so they accepted it. Then that same cashier had the lovely experience of ringing me up who knows how much later and gave me that sweet Canadian penny as change. Of course, I would have the experience of later getting an anal cashier that would deeee-ny me of that cursed penny.

Anyone want a Canadian penny? Don't think I'll be headed in that direction anytime soon....