Roommates

They say that roommates will make or break your college experience. I am a walking example of this.

My roommates in Idaho were nice, but we just didn't click. We didn't really have anything in common and our opinions and thought processes were just different. This contributed to me not liking my time in Idaho. Granted, occasionally we'd get along really well and have a freaking fantastic time, but usually we were just co-existing. They got along great, I just inhabited the empty space left over.

Amanda Ashton, however, got along great with me. I really liked her, but she left about a week and a half into the summer term to become Mrs. Amanda Fry.

Anyways, here in Provo, I have three roommates: Iris, Leilani, and Lizzy. They're all great, and I am really enjoying my time here! Here's a little bit about each of them.

Iris

Iris is from Chicago, IL. She graduated from DePaul, and then moved out here with her long term boyfriend Nicholas [he's cool]. Her and Nick are both from Chicago, and they have been dating since January [they're way cute together]. Iris works for a cupcake company that does cupcakes for special events, mainly weddings. She works from home, so we usually talk a lot. Iris is super nice and will often give me rides to my job interviews, and important places so I don't have to walk there. She likes the color yellow, cooking, running, shopping, winning at Catch Phrase, and being possessive.

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Iris:

Leilani

Leilani is Hawaiin, and graduated from BYU with a degree in Biology. She works at a law firm down the street and is hoping on going to Law School here at BYU. She's dating Kofi [who's really cool too] who works up at the MTC. Like Nick, Kofi's over here a lot, so I've developed some friendships with my roommates and their other halves. Leilani likes dark colored clothing, high heels, painting, operas, and sexy dances [actually, all three of us like that last one].

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Leilani:

Lizzy

I don't really know a lot about Lizzy. What I do know is that she's majoring in Elementary Education and that she's gone most of the time at her internship. When she's not there, she's either locked in her room [literally] or out with her friends.

What Nick says about Iris (and visa versa):

What's Iris's favorite food?

Nick: Tortillas del Guero con carnitas

Iris: Yeah... pretty much.

What's Iris's favorite past time?

Nick: ... Shopping.

Iris: Ditto...

Nick: Does that even work?

What's Nick's favorite car?

Iris: He doesn't care about cars.

Nick: What I have a favorite car!

Iris: No you don't. Okay, maybe the Honda Pilot.

Nick: What? No, we talk about this all the time.

Iris: We have not established a favorite car.

Nick: It's the Jeep Wrangler!

Iris: Fine, a four-door Jeep Wrangler.

What's Nick's least favorite thing to do?

Iris: Sit at a Mall.

Nick: Good job.

I did this all while Nick, Iris and I were sitting out in our living room at like 1:00 am, listening to Nick study for Chemistry. Fascinating.

Actually, it's kind of fun to sit here and listen to the two of them. It's really sweet.

Well, I should probably go now. It's getting late and my body's screaming at me. I shouldn't have taken that three hour nap today. I think I'm going to end up getting back into my mid-day nap habit. I finally broke it after I moved down here to Provo, but I figured it wouldn't last long seeing as I don't really have anything to do all day.

Hopefully not for long.

xo-

Bailey

What a week!

Boy, I have really been slacking on this blog. I apologize for my lack of updates, and I promise to take more pictures and post more about my time in Provo.

This last week has been very hectic. I've been beating down the doors of local businesses and restaurants looking for a job, only to be turned down again and again and again and again and... you get the picture. I have to admit that this has been quite the downer, especially when two of my friends got jobs on their first try, but after many a pep talk from my beloved mother, I'm back on the streets, and now on the internet.

Last week it seemed that everything that could go wrong did. I fought a lot with people that really didn't deserve my anger, and people that did. I was relentlessly pestering people for something to do, and it resulted in me spending a good portion of the weekend alone.

Conference was great, as always, but having no one to watch it with on Sunday was not. Saturday, Claire came over and we watched it while we did her clothing. I got pretty sick that day, but still decided to go visit Marie Christensen that night at her party. It was really nice to see her. She's such a stinking sweetheart, and I cannot be grateful enough to have met her.

Speaking of Christensen, Marcus came to Provo!!! For those of you who are like 'Marcus who?', he was an Elder that served in my ward for about six months earlier this year. He has to be one of the coolest Elders I have ever met in my life, and I knew that I would definitely be keeping in contact with him when he finally came off his mission.

Well, Monday night, we finally saw each other again! It was actually really funny. Neither of us had any money, so we decided on cooking dinner at home ( my cooking skills have gone through the roof since Idaho) around 5.

At about 3, I was walking back home from campus after making a withdrawal from my bank account, and as I headed down 700, towards University Ave, a very familiar car came speeding up the street. Anyone can spot Marie's car a mile away because of the giant billboard on top (kind of like a taxi sign), so I knew who it was in an instant, or I thought I did at least.

Lo and behold, as the car drew closer, I discovered that it wasn't Marie, but rather Marcus driving. I could do little about the fact that I spotted him, so I just stopped in my tracks and watched as he recognized me, pointed, and then continued to drive one. I Spun around and laughed as he hit the brakes five times before deciding it best to just keep going.

Three seconds later, I got a phone call and we laughed about the coincidence.

Finally, at five, he showed up and we were able to start dinner. We had to take two trips to Smith's (BECAUSE THEY DON'T BELIEVE IN PUBLIX OUT HERE) because I forgot three things the first time we went. My memory will never cease to amaze me.

After a wonderful dinner, we played Catch Phrase with my roommates.

Now, I need to explain our apartment's Catch Phrase obsession before I continue. Iris, Leilani, and their boyfriends began playing Catch Phrase about a month ago, and it quickly developed into a high stakes feud. Of course, being single, I was left to ref the game for the four of them. After a while, I got restless, and we decided that if I could find a legit Catch Phrase partner (or a boyfriend) that we could start playing guys against girls.

The coveted Catch Phrase Board

This turned in to a sort of audition phase for any boy that came over. No one could date me, or be friends with me, unless they were good at Catch Phrase (or at least that's what the guys said because he'd be playing on their team). The first guy I brought home failed, therefore I was forced to cut contact with him... just kidding. He just wasn't allowed to play the game anymore.

The second was Marcus. Now Marcus, regardless of his being a post-mission newbie, rocked the game, and helped the guys ALMOST win. Of course, they're nothing compared to the girls team. This resulted in the boys buying the girls ice cream... but Marcus has yet to do that, so, Marcus... if you're reading this, you still owe me ice cream.

After a long and totally awesome night, I went to bad much happier than I had been in a while.

The next day, I got a call from a daycare I applied to earlier last week. They wanted to interview me! So today, I went in for my interview, which went fantastic, and I was informed that I would come back on Monday and teach a lesson to a Pre-K class so they could see how I interact with the children. So, I planned my lesson today (it's on Chameleons) and I'll get the supplies later this week.

Right before my interview!

If all goes well on Monday, I'll be one of the new Pre-K TEACHERS at the daycare. That's right! I'll be a teacher!!! How awesome is that!? I'm praying hard for this opportunity! I thin it would be a wonderful addition to my resume.

Well, that's been this week so far. I'm still looking for a permanent Catch Phrase partner, that my roommates must approve. So far, Marcus is in the running, and he even earned his name on our scoreboard. Maybe one day, someone can get up on the board for good.

I'm in institute now, and my roommate Iris leaned over and typed you all a message.

'vbgfngfhgfmzrjyrgn xoxo iris'

Isn't she just a doll?

Alright, I hope everyone at home is doing well. I miss you all and love you very much! I can't wait to see every on in December!

Oh! I forgot! I get to go to Idaho in about a week and a half! I can't wait!!!

-xo Bailey

Wuthering Heights.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book, I must admit that many aspects of it drove me up the wall. I don’t know what it is about the narcissistic characters that drew me in, but I wasn’t able to put the book down. I found myself turning page after page late into the night, and pondering on the events in my free time during the day.

With most of the story being told from the point of view of the house keeper, Nelly (she relays the lover’s story to the new owner of Thrushcross Grange, Mr Lockwood), the reader never really gets an in depth look into the character’s minds.

This left me with many questions. What was Heathcliff’s driving force behind his deeds? Why was Catharine so selfish? Did she really love Edgar? How would Edgar Linton remain with Catharine for so long? How could he forgive her? Why were children so selfish and spoiled back then?

Most of these are answered in the end, when the story comes together and the mistakes of the parents are forgotten by the children. Only the happy ending makes up for the puerile behavior of half the characters throughout the book.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a good love story. The language is a bit hard to understand in parts, as some parts of the dialect is written in heavy accents, and their verbiage is a little old-faashioned; but it is a very agreeable book, and I would delight in reading it a second time.

-xo bailey

There can never be enough food.

This week I made a new friend! Yeah!

His name is Christian McCall, and he's pretty cool. We met through Marie Christensen and ended up hanging out a few times. I thinkI mentioned him in an earlier post.

Anyways, Cristian and I are really good at a few things:

1. Talking. You can't shut us up.

2. Arcade games. 1,262 tickets in under an hour.

3. Finding car crashes.

4. Country dancing.

5. Cooking.

6. Eating.

So, here's the story.

I went to Nickel City with a few friends on Friday night, and invited him to come along since we were short on people and he's a pretty cool guy {like I said}. So, he came and we owned everyone at the games, and took home some stuff that I'm going to send out to my sister, Sophia. Well, neither of us had eaten so we decided to go to dinner, and invited everyone to come with us. No one wanted to because they had previous plans, so we went alone and made it a date. Chili's was fun {we enjoyed harassing the waiter} and then we went up to the top of some mountain because I had never seen the city from up there a night. After an hour or so of spotting all the police lights in the city, we decided we should go home.

On our way down the mountain, the car in front of us came to a stop a little ways down the road. Confused, we slowed down, and, to our surprise, found a Ford Mustang flipped completely over on the side of the road. It was messed up, and we were sure there would be no survivors. We jumped out of the car and Christian talked with the people in the car in front of us while I called 911 {Mind you, I sounded like a COMPLETE idiot on the phone with them because I had NO idea where we were}. As I did my best to help the dispatcher out, the others looked into the car and called out for any survivors {just incase}. No one was in the car!! We figured they had been ejected and began to search the surrounding woods. Nothing!

Finally, the other car decided to go down the road and see if, by some miracle, the driver and passenger were walking for help. They left us with one of their passengers who could perform CPR, and took off.

Not fifteen minutes later, they came back, followed by a cop car. Turns out the driver was fine {not a scratch on him!} and that he was the only one in the car. With the cop's permission, we left and headed home.

How's that for a first date?

Saturday, I got my hair done by Marie {she did AWESOME} and really enjoyed myself. While I was going through the process, Claire texted me and said that she really needed a friend, so I decided I'd go over to her place when I was done.

When I got there, I found out that she was having some guy troubles and that one guy in particular was really persistent about hanging out with her, alone {yeah, he turned my invite to come along down. Jerk}. Normally, I'd be okay with this, but she had been out with this guy the previous night and had gotten really bad vibes from him. She was not interested in him at all, and was scared to hang out alone. So, we decided that we'd just make it a double date so she could hang out with him to make him happy, and still feel safe. So, I called Cristian up and ran it by him and soon enough we were at my house deciding what to do.

After so negotiation, we chose to make dinner and some fun drinks. Jeff was still on his way, so we just planned the menu without him, figuring it'd be okay. Once he got to my place, we ran the food choices by him {Salad, Pasta with some homemade sauce, and a pastry dessert} he okayed them and we went to the grocery store.

While grabbing the items on our list, we noticed Jeff wasn't very enthusiastic about anything, and was constantly returning without the stuff we asked him to grab. Cristian and I knew something was up, and as soon we found Claire and Jeff, we discovered what it was.

Apparently, Jeff is 'lactose intolerant' {but he failed to mentioned that when we told him the menu}. So, he persuaded Claire into leaving Christian and I and going out to 5 Guys with just him. I was mad. I knew she didn't want to hang out with him alone, but she also didn't want to say 'no' a fifth time {earlier that day she told him 'no' many times, but he was very persistent}.

So, they dropped us off at my house and christian and I were left to cook all this food for the two of us. Once again, it turned into a date.

Don't get me wrong, it was a ton of fun, but I was miffed that we spent all that time planning and shopping for food to get ditched. The food was great though, and I had fun talking and getting to know my new friend better.

I learned that Christian:

1. Likes the color blue

2. Is loud like me!

3. Mountain Bikes

4. Long Boards

5. Is 2nd out of 4

6. Has a nephew

So, after dinner and dessert, we put in 'She's the Man'. About halfway through it, Claire returned to my house alone {she was doing laundry here} and relayed her night to us. It went exactly how I thought it would.

They went to 5 Guys where two of Jeff's friends joined them. She spent most of the night getting hit on by all three of them, and when she protested to go home after dinner, it was suggested that they could make her stay if they wanted to {she didn't drive, he did}. They boys wanted to get her this drink {which is pretty much like liquid marijuana} and make her 'relaxed'. Luckily she got them to take her to my place before they could make and irrational decisions.

No more Jeff for Claire.

That pretty much scared her enough to ignore his pursuits for good. She ended up staying and finishing the movie with us before I sent them both off for the night.

I'm really enjoying Provo, and hoping and praying that I get a job. The search is proving futile, but I'm trying not to give up. I know the Lord will bless me for my efforts.

I miss everyone in Florida so much and I can't wait to see them in December {I come home the 12th}!

xo-

Bailey

First Week in Provo, Utah!

This week has been simply AMAZING! I am so happy that I moved to Provo! I can finally be close to some of my best friends!

I got in late Sunday, after a quick reunion in Layton with a mutual friend of Rebecca and I: Malan Berg. It was so goo to see her! She's the cutest thing ever, and I hope that I'll get to see more of her now that I'm out west!

Once that was taken care of, we arrive in Provo around 10:30 pm, and unpacked at Claire's apartment! It was so good to see her! I have missed my best friend so much; a year is just too long! Since that night, we've hung out every day! We even went that same night to see Alice Runmey on her birthday! Another friend that I had missed for too long!

Monday, we went to her grandparent's house and had a wonderful dinner! Her grandparents are so sweet and her family is so much fun! It was a blast playing in the yard with her three cousins {9, 7, & 4; all boys} and just chatting with Beth, her sister, and their Aunt.

After that, I would switch off between Alice and Claire as they went to classes. I even had the chance Tuesday night to see Kendl Hansen and Marshall Gibson!

Saturday, Claire and I went to the Cocoa Bean, a small cafe which specializes in non-cafinated hot drinks and jumbo cupcakes. It was sooo good! I got a mint flavored 'frappe' and a mint chocolate cupcake and Claire got a raspberry cheesecake cupcake! I definitely found a new favorite food shoppe.

I also had the opportunity to meet Elder Christensen, a missionary who served in my ward, 's sister, Marie. She's seriously the sweetest person I have ever met! And she's SO much fun to hang out with!!! She cooked me dinner, and I met her awesome roommates who also were way fun and super nice! After that, we gathered up a few boys from the neighboring apartment and headed over to a country dance where I got thrown around like a sack of potatoes! What an experience! My love for dance was rekindled and I spent the night learning awesome moved with Christen, a boy we invited! He's super funny and super sweet! I'm glad I'm making friends!!

Sunday brought about 'Regional Conference', where my roommates and I {who are super awesome and all graduated} drove up to the Marriott to listen to Elder Holland, Sister Beck, Elder Snow, and President Packer all speak! It was so amazing and spiritually uplifting! It's so interesting to see everyone act so natural about Apostles of the Lord come and visit the campus! That night we listened to Elder Scott give a wonderful fireside on marriage; though, afterwards I felt really single. Two of my roommates have long term boyfriends, so my singularity is often shoved in my face, but I cannot complain. They are super sweet about it and I think I'm really going to like living here!!!

Well, I'll try and take as many pictures as I possibly can now that I'm finally here in Provo! For now, the ones posted are all I have! I've got to go now and see Elder Dunn, or rather, Aaron Dunn since he's off his mission now! How cool is it to see all of these missionaries that served in my ward! Elder Christensen comes home soon as well! I cannot wait to see him!!

xo-

Bailey

Cooking Experience!

Sorry it's taken so long to update my blog! I left my camera cord in Florida and just got the package my mom sent today. What fun is a blog without pictures?

Any way, my existence in Rexburg, Idaho was short lived, and I now reside in lovely Provo, where I will be attending Brigham Young University in January, 2011; however, much occurred in my life since the last update.

For one, I took up cooking! Yeah, me, hater of all things dealing with the oven, am now an avid 'chef'. I guess I needed something to take up my free time I usually spent waiting for Rebecca and Travis to get off work. After calling my mom for some recipes, I headed over to the grocery store to get my ingredients and begin learning to fend for myself.

Among the said recipes was shepherds pie,

black beans and rice,

baked ziti,

beef stroganoff

and spaghetti.

I even invited some friends over to feed them, and often took my leftovers to my neighbors, or fed my roommates.

Such enthusiasm!

[from left to right: Mark, Chris, Travis, Marco, Rebecca]

Look how happy they all are!!

No one complained! Everyone loved my food!! I was so happy to know that I could bring happiness to my friends through food!

Then one day, while meandering through the BYU-Idaho Bookstore, I came across a cookbook entitled 'Sandra Lee: Weeknight Wonders'. Intrigued, I invested the twenty some-odd dollars it cost, and left, hopeful of the future. It wasn't long before I was cooking straight from the book! With the hep of Rebecca and Travis, we cooked a whole new kind of shepherds pie along with a delicious eclair like dessert that we shared with Andrew, one of the Malott's tenants {they manage guys housing}. To my surprise, all four of us thoroughly enjoyed the meal, as did mine and Andrew's roommates!

Unfortunately, I was to caught up in the excitement to remember to take pictures, but I promise that the next time I make dinner, I'll post it!

Beautiful flowers that Mark got me!

Aside from the cooking, I met tons of wonderful people who really helped enhance the BYU-I experience. I miss them all terribly, especially Rebecca and Travis, to whom I am eternally grateful. They have been such a wonderful support system through my trying times away from my family! I love them so much, and cannot WAIT to see them again!!!!

xo-

Bailey

[wo]man's best friend

I seriously thing video chatting is the greatest thing that has ever been invented. I think Skype is the only reason I'm not on a plane back home right now. Okay, that's not true. I love being on my own. The freedom is great and the responsibility isn't that bad... yet. Luckily I've only had to deal with a max of six credits, but I know that once I get into my full time schedule in January things might get crazy. I'm super happy that I'm moving to Provo in a week because I'll have my best friend Claire and Alice and Kendl all there when I have like a stress attack or something. As much as I like Idaho... I just couldn't live here forever.

I was reading my friend Max's blog, and he started talking about how much he missed his dog. It made me really sad because I miss my puppies soooo much. Every time I see dogs for sale on the side of the road {you wouldn't believe how common that is here} I have to stop and pet them to get my built up petting I've been holding in out. It's a bit pathetic, but for not it will have to do. My roommates and I actually found some super cute puppies for sale... only 10 dollars. We sat there for thirty minutes weighing the odds of hiding a puppy under our bed in our apartment. I was seriously considering getting one, but then I wasn't sure who would take care of it when I went home for the holidays. Plus, I didn't want to risk getting kicked out, although I'm pretty sure we could get away with it.

Abby, my baby

costello, the great

See how precious these dogs are? I seriously couldn't ask for a better set of dogs. I'm not sure how I'm coping without them. I miss their little faces so much.... My mom likes to put them on skype whenever I call and let me talk to them. It's so silly because I'll call out their names and their floppy little ears will perk up, and they'll look around, excited. It's funny because they don't understand that I'm on the screen, so they're never quite sure where to look. They'll run around excited until they can't take it any more, and flop down on their little bed, exhausted. My mom and sister say that Abby, the girl, has gotten really sluggish. The first couple of weeks she would just walk around the house like she was looking for something, before resorting to just following my mom or Sophia around. They think she misses me. I miss her too.

But, enough about my dogs. They're not all I miss. I miss my friends as well. I can't wait to see everyone when I move to Provo!! ONE WEEK!!!!! I get to see Claire!!!!!! I haven't seen her in forever! I miss her so much. She's my best friend, through thick and thin! I'm so happy that I'm only three streets [THREE STREETS] away! I remember when I had to go out to Nebraska to see her! Now I only have a short walk! I am so thrilled!!!

I also get to see Alice! She's another one of my best friends! I can't wait to live closer to her as well! I've been skyping her and I'm so glad that she's enjoying Utah!

And Kendl, my friend from birth! That kid's so funny! I can't wait to be closer to him!! This is going to be the best decision ever! I am so excited and happy!!!

That was then

This is now

That's about it. I'll give you guys a fill in on my last few weeks in Idaho as soon as I get my camera cord back from Florida. It seems I have forgotten it at home. Silly me. So much has happened! I LEARNED HOW TO COOK!!!!

xo-

Bailey

Rexburg

Three weeks. Three whole freaking weeks in Idaho. This is the longest I have been away from home, & even then I was with family or at a camp when I was gone. Not now, oh no. Now, I'm all by myself {sort of}, living in Rexburg, Idaho. I have four roommates, three [well, now only two] classes and a heck of a lot more free time than I imagined. I usually spend it at home, watching Friends or Criminal Minds or whatever else is lying around, but I do go out often.

Usually when I go out it's with Rebecca Malott and her husband, Travis. We'll find a couple more people to take with us, like Andrew, Mark, or Kevin and we watch movies or drive down to Rigby Lake and swim. I'm a lot tanner now than I was back in Florida, which amazes me. Of course, it'll only last until winter, which is just around the corner. Rexburg is infamous for its long winters, another reason why I'm hoping I can move to Provo, Utah in the next three weeks.

I've only been here in Idaho for three weeks {like I said earlier} and I've already gotten into trouble. Thanks to my adventurous friend Melissa and Amanda. They decided to take Kellie, Sam, and I over to some abandoned town in the middle of a bunch of fields. Of course, back in Florida such things do not exist, so I was naturally stoked to go.

After about a fifteen minute drive, we parked at a little gravel patch of the side of the road where some trees and a lone swing stood. Apparently years back a little child {the owner of that swing} died when he ran out in front of a car. Now the swing sits there, haunted. The five of us gravitated towards the swing like tourists to Disney, and took turns getting our picture taken.

It was pretty cool. After our little photography session, we trekked through the back of a near-by field to a dirt road which lead up to some super neat abandoned houses. With our cameras at the ready, we shot everything. It wasn't easy though, we had to walk through weed up to our necks, and {sometimes} heads, but the end result was worth it.

While we were there, we ran into another group who was taking senior portraits with some girl. They brought in this awesome yellow and green chair and just left it there while they went to get the girl changes so, I made sure to get a good shot of it. The whole feel of the little town was simply amazing, and I can't help but wonder who lived there back when the buildings weren't so dilapidated.

After a bit of walking and picture taking, we decided to head back. This is where the story gets interesting. About half way back down the dirt road, a guy on a four wheeler came riding up to us. He asked if we had permission to be on the property {no, of course not} and informed us that we should get of and that there was a deputy parked towards the front. We hastily agreed and continued on our way. Much to our dismay, not thirty seconds later, said deputy came speeding up the dirt path, stopping only feet in front of us.

He stepped out of the car and approached us, asking whose car was parked at the front and what we were doing here. Melissa said it was hers and that we were only here to get pictures. The officer then said that we were on private property, to which we rebutted with the fact that we had not seen the sign since we had cut through the field. Apparently, in Rexburg, walking through a field is ILLEGAL. It's known as a criminal offense! So there we stood, all five of us, criminals.

He quickly took down our names, birth dates, and drivers licenses before walking back to his car and calling up the owner of the plot of land. We couldn't help but stand there and laugh at the horrid luck we had. So many groups of kids from BYU-I had come here before, yet we were the ones who got caught.

Once the owner came, the officer spoke to him for a good five minutes before sending him on his way. Luckily, he had talked the owner out of pressing charges and decided to send us beck home {not before he clarified for me what exactly a 'field' was}.

Since then, I am proud to say, have not walked through another field; however, I'm scared to freaking death to walk anywhere but the sidewalk. I don't even walk on the weeds in the cracks of the concrete.

Needless to say, I am enjoying my time here at BYU-Idaho. It's a lovely school and the scenery is breath taking. I would love to live in a place like this, only with a little bigger of a population.

xo-

Bailey