Sizzlefest 2010

Blog brought to you by Janae...commentary by Laura

What is Sizzlefest 2010 you may ask. Don't go googling it (seriously...don't..I did, it's not good)just let me tell you all about it. So it was a little campout for the three singles wards around here. They all met to leave on Thursday around 3:00, but Laura and I decided that we were way too cool to ride the buses up with everyone else cause you know we like to make people think that we have other important stuff going on kinda like playing hard to get you know. We want people to think they have to work to be our friends. So we began our own journey up there at 6:00.(promptly) We had the time of our life jammin out to Rascal Flatts and just chattin away about life. So halfway into our road trip Laura starts freakin out cause she forgot to shave her legs. Honestly you could barely tell and who cares cause we are going camping. (not true, the hair is black)The next 30 minutes of the ride was her just stressing inside about her legs. Next thing I know she comes walking out of the gas station with a cup of water, shaving cream, and razors. So she casually starts shaving her legs as we are driving through scenic Idaho. (all of our roadmates driving down the road thought I was so cool and feminine with my freshly shaved legs)



We finally arrive at camp at 9:00. It was dark by then and everyone was up at the concert so we set up our tent and headed up to the concert. It was pretty amazing a little guitar and some rappers.





We creepily sat there. No one knew we were there cause it was dark. The concert and ended and people began having a little dance party and socializing like normal people do. What did we do? We went and laid in our tent like creeps for 2 hours as we listened to everyone socialize. (is it just me, or is that not the funniest thing ever!?) The next morning we woke up and helped with breakfast. We were a big help and cut up 6 bananas. We then played some soccer aka we basically just stood there because there was lots of people. (speak for yourself Janae...these girls already know I have mad soccer skills...no need to downplay it) After that we had a few workshops. Where we learned about being optimistic and making the most out of life and the challenges we face. We also learned how to make music with spoons. Then the fun really began. The world's largest Slip N Slide! So fun! We probably went down it 20 plus times. We were like little kids in heaven. It never got old and it was a great workout walking up that hill all day. See pictures below for details.
















In between the Slip N Slide action we also helped with moving rocks and building a pavilion. Aka Laura passed back the nail gun back and forth and I stood there and hold wood, but someone had to do it other than Dave he had been doing it all day. Laura also participated in in some bow and arrow action. (i'm a natural)We had dinner and then had a talent show. Billy did some comedy and it was HILARIOUS...(freaking hilarious..comedy central worthy...no, more than that...he made Kortney and Rosey seem like bumps on a log)



There was some other weird talents done and we just couldn't help but laugh at the thought of what non members think of Mormons doing crazy things like that. (seriously, on a friday night we are around a camp fire listening to a weird guy sing a jungle book song, with a stuffed monkey on a drum stand dancing for us..mormons are seriously the weirdest!) That is what makes us awesome though. After the talent show they had another dance party and a bonfire. There were some adorable kids there that were up there for a family reunion. They were busting moves right and left. Laura loved them and was mad at herself for liking them since she says she normally doesn't "like" kids. (in fact today i was just saying how i didn't really like kids, yet i want to be a stay at home mom one day, i'm hoping that my love for my own children will override my general disgust for the little brats!) We were social and stayed up there for a bit until this random kid Cole came up that night and needed some help getting his tent situated. So we go down to where the tents were and this random wind storm had blown some of the tents over. Like the hero's we are we helped some people get there tents back up. Laura got injured with some fiber glass slivers. The thought of those still makes me cringe. Sounds so painful. (it was, but i'm a super hero, it was all in a days work) Four hours later we were done helping Cole set up his tent. He was so particular about how it was set up. (he freaking drove me crazy!) Luckily our tent hadn't blown over thanks to our dear friend Hafid who had secured it earlier that day. (he's so ticked when we don't wash our hair!) Did I mention we stole our roommate Michelle's tent from her and made her sleep with some other people? We felt bad, but there was no way we could fit three people in the tent.




We woke up the next morning and we looked beautiful. (Janae forgot one small detail, I woke up with her head in my armpit...she's so creepy) Nothing like stringy hair and natural beauty. We had breakfast and then had a fireside. Sizzlefest was then over and the rest of the suckas had to wait for the buses to come pick them up in 2 hours. We had our own car which meant we hit the road and got the shower 3 hours sooner than the rest of them AND watch the USA soccer game. Which was so sad. Anyway it was an amazing and fun weekend and we made some new friends. We are still recovering and have been taking random deep sleep naps yesterday and today. (dude...being social is so exhausting!

Wow! One of the best nights of my life!

Ok, so have you ever felt the spirit so strong that you just can't smiling. Oh man, I don't think that even does it justice...I can't even think of a good way to explain how I feel right now. Um....there is a song (if I'm thinking of the words correctly) that explains exactly how I feel "I'm so excited...I just can't hide it!" Only my excitement is a spiritual one.

So let me explain. Tonight I went to a fireside by Alex Boye. I've heard a few of his songs and he's pretty good, but this was incredible. You all know that I pretty much have ADD. I can't sit still for very long and I get easily bored. Not this time. This fireside was just under 2 hours long and I could have sat there for 3 more hours. He only sang 3 songs (which were incredible)and he talked the rest of the time. There were times I was rolling with laughter, times I was in complete shock and times when I was near tears. There were definitely moments when I swear he was speaking straight to me.

Because I'm so excited I wanted to share a little bit of what I learned. First off, we are what we think. Whatever occupies our minds most often, that is what we become. It's an amazing concept but it's true. It's in the scriptures, it's something I've briefly thought about before, but nothing I really thought enough to put into practice. In 2 Nephi 24:24 it says (this is the Lord speaking) "surely as I have though, so shall it come to pass..." Now keep in mind that is the Lord, but we are commanded to become like him. And we can. It doesn't have to be in the next life, but it can happen in this one. Now comes some of my personal moments..the big "ah ha" moments that came to me during this fireside. First, it brought me back to my mission when we were told that miracles we experienced and miracles that happened in the lives of people we taught were dependant upon our faith. We literally had the power through our faith to change people. To change our circumstance. It worked. I remember vividly times when I put it to the test and really focused on what I knew were righteous desires. Now why couldn't that work for us in normal everyday life? It can. Alex shared a story of a race he ran, he had serious surgery and was in a body cast for about a year when he was in Secondary School. All of his friends were running track and he wanted to join them so badly. Everyday he would watch them and he run himself (in his head only). Everyday he invisioned himself winning the race. He eventually had the cast removed and he challenged the reigning champ to a race. No one thought it would be close, there is no way he could win after all that time of not running, but guess what..he won. He won because he thought of it everyday. He saw himself winning, he practiced in his head and that was enough. He also shared a story of a guy that was a POW for 7 years. When he finally was released the first thing he did was play a round of golf with his buddies. He beat them. He hadn't played golf in 7 years but he beat them. When they asked him how he did it he said it was golf that kept him alive. That everyday for the last 7 years he invisioned himself playing and winning. And he did.

So, time for application, I want to become an interpreter right? I can't possibly walk around signing everything (how wierd would that be?) But I can go through the motions in my head so it becomes 2nd nature. This works in every aspect of our lives.

Another thing he talked about was how we attract what we are. Whether it be in a spouse or a friend, etc. If you want to meet someone who is angry, just be an angry person and you'll be sure to find another person who is angry. If you want to meet someone who complains, just complain about everything, he'll come. If you want to meet someone with a strong testimony, someone who isn't a jerk, someone who has their priorities right in life, someone who laughs a lot and knows how to life and love life, then you need to gain a strong testimony, stop being a jerk, get your priorities right, laugh at things and learn how to live and love life. You will attract that kind of person.

Let it go. This one was a real eye opener for me. If someone walks away from you (whether it be a boy, a friend, an acquaintance, even an enemy) let them go. It's not worth it to have them in your life. Don't try to talk them back into your life, they chose to left, let them go. Let grudges go. If you had a bad day or said something stupid, just let it go, don't dwell on it. If you often get down on yourself and pitty your sad little pathetic life, let it go. You shouldn't let those things decide who you are. Until you let them go, they will control you. They will be who you are.

Sorry, this is just about a novel. I'm writing this more for me than any of you really. It's pretty much my journal entry. I'm going to print it and put it in my journal (the same journal I haven't written in since a few months before I got back from my mission).

There is one more thing I want to share with you. This was the most amazing part for me. When Peter walked on the water, as he was walking to Christ he said the stupidest thing ever "Lord, how is it done?" (or something close to that) At that precise moment he began to sink. The Lord responded and said "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst though doubt?" Peter was doing just fine until he asked "how?" That's when he lost his faith. I think we spent so much time wondering how will meet our FEC, or how we'll get get through a tough day at work, or how we'll teach that lesson at church, or how we'll even talk to that boy (yeah...B), you know what I mean. We need to stop asking HOW. Just do what you know you should be doing and don't worry about how.

So that's it folks. It was incredible. I don't really want to stop feeling like this, but I know tomorrow it'll start to fade, I'll get distracted..and I'll have to come back and read this to remind myself.

I used to love to blog

My password for my SLCC login is actually an expression of my love for blogging..weird I know. They did this weird change with what was required for a password, and since I just started blogging and loved it I thought it was appropriate. Well...clearly my love for blogging has dropped considerably. I can't believe how long it has been. So much has happened, yet nothing is fresh on my mind enough to be witty. I'll try my best but I don't promise to entertain you..so just be nice and keep reading, pretend like you are interested, it will make my day.

So today is Fathers Day. First off, my dad kinda rocks. I got him socks. (That's true...didn't even plan that rhyme). Church was pretty good today, although I want to kill myself because I missed Elder Oaks. Apparently he came and spoke in the other singles ward while we were completely clueless to that and chilling in Relief Society. And then I'm told him went into one of the Sunday School classes...the one right behind the one that we went to. Dang it. Elder Oaks came in the building, hung out for a few hours and left without me even knowing he was there! I'm sad about that.

So B is adorable. I love that I'm giving him a code name now. Yet I still haven't had the guts to talk to him. We went to a bonfire last night and I had a few opportunities, but I let them slip by again. Janae is so ticked and I'll forever be single I'm sure because I'm so chicken. Not that me talking to him would make me un-single, but I think it maybe just is some sort of a test. A test that I'm failing miserably. On the plus side we met a new kid today and he's cute. I know, real shocker there. (considering we went through the ward directory yesterday and I think there was a total of 1 cute guy in the ward..it was rather depressing). Oh my goodness...I sound like a freak. I'm glad this is a private blog, but just in case something is leaked private (because we're basically like a CIA operation) I need to make a little disclaimer. We really aren't as hopeful nor psycho as we sound. We don't usually fall in love with people we just barely met, nor do we stalk anyone...not a single soul. It just makes for good reading! Get off my back dude!

Let's see...I went to visit old people at Highland Cove today with some people from the ward..no, he wasn't there, but I went anyway. I'm such a faithful little girl. It was a riot. Old people are hilarious! Friday we decided to be social and invite some people to go see "Star Trek" for this outdoor movie thing. We got rejected by a few handfuls of people. Where'd all our friends go? Even Ko's brother rejected us. (BTW we invited him to the bonfire thing on Saturday...slam, another rejection! Don't worry Ko, I'm not going to crazily text your brother daily....I can only imagine how crazy he thinks we are, but we may keep inviting him to things. It's about time we met this phantom Ben) The movie was ok, I'm told...me and Janae both dozed off occasionally. We didn't have a huge crowd with us, just Ali, Awkward Aaron who dreamily laid his head next to Janae's, Dan the Man and a few other people with him and Daniel and a friend of his. There was a huge group from our ward in front of us, but a very clicky group, we talked to 2 of them (the nice ones) I think they felt bad for us when they first saw us because it started out with just the 3 of us (see, we don't even care, it's only embarrassing because they are embarrassed for us. It was cool though, Janae got engaged to Aaron. Bad news though, the next day Aaron reverted back to his awkwardness. Janae cried, she's still crying.

One final thought, I'm super excited to do some missionary work. Not with just the normal crew like Theang and Rina and such, but someone new. I haven't been doing awesome at praying for opportunities but after today's PMG lesson at church I'm starting fresh. Who shall I share the gospel with next? Janae is going to share it with Suros (however the heck you spell the kids name)...I'm behind. Peace out sistas!

Wonderful Sabbath Days

I love the Sabbath! Such a wonderful day. Very rejuvenating and helps renew life's perspective! Not to mention the church is true. By the way, have you heard of radio.lds.org? its fabulous, all sorts of things to listen to! Check it out sometime...

so I am back to liking Space Cowboy...why did he have to sit by me at church today? why did he have to come over for dinner? why did he have to be nice and funny and easy to talk to? I don't get it...I would probably marry him tomorrow if he asked..he is just that kind of guy, that I am not worried about...but it creates more clarity in my life in a weird sort of way. Does that make sense?
It's interesting how we have feelings, not just feelings like I like him, but feelings that I like YOU and I can feel, because I am human. how sad to never feel.

Oh and I am back into family history yet again..I found all these names today from this site. It's amazing how much work there is to be done. Very overwhelming! But its very exciting, and I hope to keep finding names.

That's all for now, have a great week!

Life.Is.Good

I just wanted to take a moment to say hi and to say that Life is Goood!!!!! Everything is following into place...I feel great about everything, I feel great about being here in Houston, I feel great about where i work and what i am doing, I feel great about the people I am meeting and experiences I am having, I feel 100% assurance in life. Laura, thank you for sharing that talk on "timing" so many things he said hit home! Life will definitely take its twists and turns, but as long as we are committed and anchored in putting the Lord first and always remember him, and live a life where we are able to hear the promptings, then everything will be a-ok! Keep having faith and hope! Love you and miss you both! xoxoxo

I want free cake balls

Janelle is doing a cake ball give away....and I want to win, posting her blog on my blog is a requirement...but you should check out her blog anyway if you haven't already. justeatitcakes.blogspot.com