I Hate Christmas... :-)

Well not actually all of Christmas but I HATE when people start decorating for Christmas as soon as Halloween is over! What ever happened to celebrating Thanksgiving? I personally like Thanksgiving, nothing is better than eating tons of turkey and pie. So I have decided to boycott Christmas until after Thanksgiving is over. :-)

I will not...
1) Listen to any Christmas music and if Christmas music comes on the radio I will change stations
2) Watch any Christmas movies even if there is nothing else good on TV
3) Hang up any Christmas decorations
4) Buy any Christmas presents (you get the best price on gifts the day after Thanksgiving anyways...)
5) Change my Autumn blog theme to a Winter or Christmas theme
6) Shop at any store that has already set up for Christmas... ok so this is basically impossible since every store already had done this... but I WILL NOT enter the Christmas aisle :-)

Homecoming

Our BYU Homecoming day started off pretty early at 8:30 am (that's really early for a Saturday). Brian's coach required all of the long distance guys to run the 5k that BYU always puts on during Homecoming, the Cougar Run. So I got to wake up bright and early to go over to the track and stand there freezing. Since Brian didn't want to pay the money ($15) to be an actual participant, he just started with all the runners and stopped right before the finish line. So I only got starting pictures of him running...

Brian warming up

Starting stance (Brian and Kyle were standing sideways to be funny)


Brian and Kyle after the race. Our friend Kyle, who was a national champion in track last year, is now a professional runner so he ran it and won the $150 dollars.


Brian and I (he has his eyes closed but its the only one we got)

After that we headed to the Smith Field House to print off the tickets that Marah had emailed to us for the TCU game. Brian can sometimes get into games for free since he is an athlete but this one was sold out so we both had to get tickets. Luckily, Marah and some of her friends went to Zion's so they gave us their tickets for free! Unfortunately I was stupid and failed to make sure that the tickets were actually attached. So we ended up only having one ticket. After I was mad at myself for a while we finally got another ticket from Kado (Brian's roommate).

Before the game we went to Brick Oven with Brian's MTC friend Jake and his wife Sabra. Jake's Dad, sister and brother-in-law (Emily and Bush) also came along. I love Brick Oven, they have the best pizza and root beer.

After that we carpooled to the game. It was quite funny. We found out that there is scooter and motorcycle parking right next to the stadium. Plus when you are on a scooter you can weave in and out of traffic and never get stuck in lines. So Brian drove my scooter and Jake drove his motorcycle. They first dropped Sabra and I off. Then drove back and picked up Emily and Bush. Then Brian was sent to go pick up Jake's dad. Which was HILARIOUS! My scooter is pink which is funny enough when you see two guys on it... but throw in the fact the Jake's dad is a big guy... makes it even funnier. Dave had fun though and enjoyed all the cat calls he got.

Our seats were actually pretty decent (21st row in the endzone) and we were really excited when BYU stopped TCU pretty hard on the first play. I turned to Emily and told her that we might actually have a pretty decent game... I am pretty sure I must have cursed the game... I should have knocked on wood or something. Cuz BOY WAS I WRONG. The game was terrible. I was soo embarrassed, especially since it was supposed to be the best game of the week. We left early because we wanted to beat the crowd and I was just getting mad, haha.

BYU setting up for another terrible drive, haha

Trying to be happy even though BYU is losing


Dave, Emily and Bush enjoying the game


Happy cuz we are leaving the game

So we did our little carpooling thing again and then headed over to get some more food at Red Robin. After Red Robin we were still awake and ready to do stuff. So we went and bought some GINORMOUS pumpkins, seriously they were so big that the scale wouldn't work. So they just let us buy them for 5 dollars each (which is how much the 30 lb ones cost which is the highest the scale can read) and we rented "Land of the Lost". I barely watched the movie cuz I was having so much fun with the pumpkins. They didn't end up turning out so well just because they were sooo thick and hard. But we still had fun. I forgot to take pictures of the pumpkins, but we carved more later and they turned out much better. I'll post those in the next post. :-)

Brian Wants...

Brian thinks that since I posted about my "want"... it is only fair that I post about his want...

So here it is!


Yup, that is right, he wants a 1972 Ford Ranger. While this is not the exact truck he is looking at it, its pretty dang close, except the one Brian is looking at is a bit more covered in rust.

This truck has been sitting in someones driveway with a for sale sign for over six months. So Brian figured that he could probably talk the guy down in price. So he called the guy up and set up a test drive. Man is that beast scary! It does not have power steering and does not have power brakes... So Brian would have to slam on the breaks and crank the wheel as hard as he could in order to turn and not hit anyone. It is a pretty sweet truck and would be much better to go camping in rather than Brian's Accord.

After the test drive, I walked away so that Brian could do the negotiations. The guy had it posted for $1,200 which is a bit ridiculous considering we found trucks just like it but in better shape for cheaper on KSL. I think the guy has some emotional attachments to it since it was his uncle's to begin with. Brian talked the guy down to $800 dollars but he decided to walk away.

About two hours later the guy called and said he sell it to Brian for $600 but by then Brian had looked some up on KSL for $600 that had power steering, good brakes and no rust. So he turned him down. I think he is hoping that the car will sit there for another few months and the guy will decide to sell it for $300- $400. I do love the truck but I'll admit that I'm glad he didn't get it since we are both pretty poor... haha.

I Want...

Isn't she just the cutest thing you have ever seen!?!?!?! I saw her a few months ago in a town called Goshen on my way to camp at mirror lake. I thought show was a very beautiful color (i love that the tail has a little red in it too) and I wanted to stop and buy her... Luckily I have self control and tend to be very careful with money so I didn't.

However... I was checking out KSL.com the other day for fun and looked at the horses for sale. She had just been put on the website an hour before I got on! I think it's fate... :-) Now I just have to convince myself that I can afford the $500 (by the way $500 is really cheap for a horse)... which I probably won't be able to... but a girl can dream...

Look at that cute face... it just screams "buy me" :-)

Brian Survived Too :-)

The Tarantula they found on the trip...

So since Brian is actually an RMYL major he was able to take the survival class that I took, and it counted as credits in his major... not fair. Luckily he left on the weekend that I was absolutely SWAMPED with tests and homework, so I missed him but at least I had stuff to do.

He left on Thursday night (which was a bummer because I bombed my physic test that night and would have enjoyed some comfort from him). They also got to make the very long 8 mile walk to their camping spot that night. He was lucky enough to know about this walk in advance ( I didn't tell him), he got to drive one of the vans so he had to know when to stop. He said that night was the worst because it was freezing and they had no shelters.

Brian on the trip, towards the end (you can tell because he is super dirty)

The next day they were woken up at the crack of dawn and given their only food for the day, oranges. Brian was the first person to get his figure-four trap done. He wanted to be the first person to get his fire by friction done. So he skipped doing the the tension trap and worked on getting his fire kit together. (you have to make the bow, spindle, base, and support things all over again). Brian was much better than me at doing fire by friction. He had his fire going in about one hour and it took me about 6 hours, haha. Then he proceeded to finish his last trap. He got all three things done before most people had even started on the fire. The teacher then had him go help the other kid start their fires.

Brian's shoes he made

Instead of being fed that second night like my class was, they were taken out to spend the night alone. They also had their shoes taken away when they were dropped off. Brian had about an hour to build a shelter so he basically just made his tarp into a tent. Even though they had to spend two nights alone I still think his class was easier. This is because they were told to come back to the main area the next morning. My class got to spend the night together but then we were alone from 5am that morning to 12 pm the next day. That's a long time to be alone.

The bunny they ate

When they were all together that morning, one of the girls showed up with a bunny that had just been killed by something. Brian and a few of the kids in the class decided to eat it, GROSS! He said it was good and he didn't get sick... but still... might as well eat road kill. While they were meeting together they also got to have that large meal where you have to kill the chicken and whatnot. Brian's group ended up being the group of four instead of three so they didn't get as much food. They did cook it a better way than my group did. They roasted it on a spit and we just cut meat off the bone and made a stew. I think warm meat off the bone would be much yummier. :-)

The group cooking their chicken

After lunch they had to go back to their separate spots for alone time. Brian worked on his shelter and gathered wood for a fire. He then realized that his friend in the class, Tyler, was only about 500 yards away. So then he went over and hung out with him until it was bed time. I thought this was very unfair, since I spent over 24hours ALONE and I'm a way bigger wuss than him.

The back of Brian's shelter

When it got dark Brian went back to his shelter and headed to bed. He said he fell asleep for a bit but was then woken up by something that was walking around his camp area. He got up and realized he had a pack of coyotes right close to his camp. I would have crawled into my shelter and hid... he decided to make his fire bigger. He said whenever he would try to go to bed the coyotes would start howling. So he would just stay by the fire and keep it going. Finally they left so he went to bed.

Brian's shelter

Brian slept in until about 10 am and was worried that he had missed the call from the teacher to come back in. So he hurried and picked up all his stuff and headed over to Tyler's camp again. Tyler said he hadn't heard the call either. So they sat at his place for a bit and then finally got bored and head to the main area. The teacher showed up and little later and they got to eat lots of sandwiches and had sacrament meeting.

The whole class in the teacher's shelter (Brian is in the very middle)

They didn't end up leaving until about 5... I had planned on him being home around 3 (like I was) so I had planned a dinner with Nicole, Peter, Marah and Bethany. I kept postponing the dinner waiting for him to show up. When I had just given up waiting, he finally came home! We then enjoyed a lovely chicken recipe that I had gotten from my sister.

The picture Brian took before he left so he could remember me... I look terrible haha.

Humanities...

Humanities is a waste of time, waste of a class and waste of a major...

I'm not even taking the class and I hate it.

I think there should be some rule set by BYU that if you are on a class field trip for 4 days and your stupid humanities professor assigns yet another essay the day you leave and its due the next day after you get back... that you should be given an extension so you girlfriend doesn't have to sit home writing the stupid thing... and trying not to pull her hair out... GRR!

Seriously who cares what the artist was or wasn't thinking when he did that brush stroke??? Maybe I would care if you had a way to prove that's what he was thinking... like his personal journal...

Until then I will just think that Humanities is just a crappy major where all you do is speculate and gain no real knowledge.

BYU students are slightly insane sometimes...

So the other day I was reading in the Opinions section of The Daily Universe. I like to read them and laugh at the stupid things people feel they need to write in and inform the school about. I then stubbled across this gem... Decoration Discretion... Oh my gosh!!!!!!!! If I knew the guy I would punch him in the face.

Here's the article...

I have noticed many “cute” Halloween decorations being put up around campus. It takes no imagination or knowledge of paganism/witchcraft to see the holiday’s clear roots. Other holidays are much more cryptic in the origins of their symbolism, but at least they have some ties to Christianity; not so with Halloween. However, I started to think more about Halloween when I came across a quote from “Power of the Witch” by Lori Cabot, founder of the Witches’ League for Public Awareness:

“We encourage them (local businesses) not to decorate their stores and windows with images of repulsive-looking witches with pointed hats, riding broomsticks and cackling through broken teeth…We also discourage images of ghouls, ghosts, Dracula, vampires, Frankenstein and people with their bodies ripped apart. We point out that there are plenty of colorful Halloween images that are not offensive and that do not play upon society’s fears and pollute the minds of children and adults…encouraging their children to do mischief.”

In the eighth century, the Catholic church instituted All Saints’ Day on Nov. 1 as a part of an attempt to de-paganize and Christianize the people. Looking at our society, I would say this valiant effort has ultimately failed. As believers in Christ, I think we should not be more extreme in our observance of Oct. 31 than the Witches’ League. I think we all need to reconsider our attitudes regarding Halloween and the glorification of evil.

Marshall Coe
Lehi

Can you believe this guy!?!?! I'm embarassed... so much for college students having higher intellects. Apparently this guy needs to really move out of Utah and see what glorification of evil really is. I feel bad for this guys kids... they are only gonna be able to celebrate Presidents day, Easter (without the easter bunny and egg hunts, of course), Memorial Day, 4th of July and Thanksgiving (but they won't be able to eat that much food cuz gluttony is a sin).

If you would like to read it and comments made by smarter BYU students click here