Sunday Six

My lovely older sister Shantel generally does a blog post every week called Friday Five. It just sums up the week nicely with the five main highlights, the five most important things that happened that week. I really love this idea, because even if nothing huge happened it is still a good way to remember the little things. I dropped the ball on this one because it is Sunday not Friday, so since I missed the cut off I just decided to go with six things instead of five. That way there is still alliteration in the title, and that is really important, right? 

1.  First of all my boyfriend Blake has been out of town since last Saturday. Every year his family goes to California to visit their relatives and to just have a fun vacation. I wasn't able to make the trip, and I have missed him so much while he has been gone. I obviously have been surviving but it is super lame when your best friend takes off without you for a whole week! Thanks to modern day technology I was still able to talk to him on the phone a ton, and we were even able to Skype a couple times. I am just really excited for him to get home tonight!

2.  Since Blake has been gone his roommate Josh, has been feeding the fish, in our fish tank. That way I wouldn't have to drive all the way to his house, in South Provo, every day just to feed them. I did however have to check on the tank a couple times in the week just to make sure the certain levels, temperature, salinity, alkalinity, etc. were safe and normal.

 When I first arrived at Blake's house on Tuesday the first thing that I noticed was that the Feather Duster, that we had just bought, that previous Friday, had moved all the way on the other side of the tank from where we had placed it. I was confused because they are only supposed to move a couple inches tops and that is just to get better positioned in the current. I then noticed that there was a little Hermit Crab on it and it was eating the parchment type layer off of the tube. When we first got it this is what the Feather Duster looked like, all covered in the first layer which is sort of tan and looks like paper.

 I was pretty upset at that little Hermit Crab, mainly because we had just gotten the Feather Duster, and I didn't want the Hermit Crab to hurt it. I called Blake and based on everything we read I don't think that the hermit crab was bothering the Feather Duster to much. If it is really threatened the Feather Duster detaches it's crown (which is the feather duster part) from it's body. I really hope that the Hermit Crab stops because it is kind of freaky, you can almost see the worm through the clear part of the tube, and I don't like it. We are just going to keep an eye on it and make sure nothing bad happens.

Other than that our new corals are doing awesome. The Cinnamon Polyp opened up, and the Hammer Coral looks more at home than ever! After filling it up with some more water, and making sure the levels were fine I left hoping that the Feather Duster would be okay. I guess we will see next week if the Feather Duster has survived!

3. On Tuesday night I was fast asleep in bed. I was in a very deep sleep the type of sleep where you have the weridest dreams, and sleep so soundly. A little after 1 o'clock in the morning there was a pounding at my door. Since I was in such a deep sleep it was hard to tell what was in my dream and what was real. I have a sliding glass door in my room, so for a second I thought someone was outside trying to come in (totally freaked me out). Eventually I woke up enough to realize it was the Branbury maintenance man outside my bedroom door.

 Apparently the 3rd floor had a flood (shocker) and it was leaking down through the apartments. Luckily (<--sarcasm), I was the only bedroom in my apt that was threatened by this flood/leak. Concequently he made me move all of my stuff out from under my bed, which was a lot since it was up on cinder blocks for extra storage space, and pile it on one side of my room. The carpet under my bed was soaked and there was mold growing up against my wall.

I am not a rocket scientist but if there was mold already there, I figured that it wasn't just from the flood that had happened that night, something probably had been leaking for a while. I was exhasted and since I had to wake up early in the morning I just went into the spare bedroom in our apt and fell asleep there.

The following morning I got a call from the Branbury office asking me to move into the epmpty bedroom, that I had slept in that night, indefinitely. They were not sure how long I would be unable to live in my room. When I got home from work that night, there were holes cut out of my wall and fans placed on my carpet.

Turns out not only did the water from the 3rd floor leak down through my wall, but the pipes from the bathroom next to my bedroom have been leaking since I moved in. They have to fix a bunch of stuff even before I have the option of moving back in. I have had so many issues with the Branbury it is so wild that I have had to deal with two flooding issues in less than a month. Oddly enough I still love it here, and I would take having to move into a spare bedroom to avoid mold and soaking carpet a million times over versus my last apt complex that charged me 150 dollars for trespassing on the other side of my shared room!

4.  Every year Mountain Works, a climbing gear shop (which is awesome) helps to host the Reel Rock Tour. They sell tickets a couple months in advance and the premier of the movie is shown at UVU in the Ragan Theater. It is always a good time. A theater room, completely sold out, full of every sort of climber you would think of.

The climbing community in Utah Valley is so awesome! Everyone is very friendly so I love going to these types of things since you are sure to know a majority of the people in attendance. I went with my good friend Merto and the film was super awesome! Reel Rock is always broken into four short films with different stories. This year was so cool, I especially loved the one called Spice Girls, which was about bold climbing, and very inspiring to women!

5. General Confrence weekend! One of the best weekends of the year. I always look forward to General Conference. I love listening to the talks and getting the answers to all my questions and prayers, as well as just listening to the word of god from the Prophet, along with all the other leaders of our amazing and true church.

My roommates are not LDS so luckily, on Saturday, my sister Shantel invited me to her house in Lehi to watch Confrence with her husband David and daugher Lydia.

They are so awesome to always have me up to their house. Lydia was just so darling, she was wearing a cute bow, pink pajamas with a unicorn on them, and brown winter boots, the best combanation! I love the Peaden's becuase I always have fun. They had confrence bingo, which is the best game ever invented. You just put a treat on the square and when they talk about that subject you get to eat the treat! It was awesome and so delicious! I don't know if I say it enough how blessed I am to have family so close!

6. Ever since I was one and half I have had a best friend named Lauren Larsen. We have been best friends practically since she was in the womb. My mom baby-sat her older brother David, and when Lauren was born she became a part of our family right away. That little bald girl was a riot! Every day was a new adventure for us, and we spent all of our time together. She was a year younger than me so we were not in the same grade in school but the second the bell rang that signaled the end of the day we were side by side, and during the summers we were inseparable!

It is funny how we were so close as friends because we couldn't be more different people. Lauren absolutley loves the lime light, I am pretty sure her first college play was when she was 5 years old, and she definitely didn't stop there. She also loved playing dress up and getting all fancy in necklaces and scarfs. I however can't get up in front of a large group of people without dying of fear and seemed to always be  the tom boy compared to her. Despite her being an extravert and me, being an introvert, while growing up, we were still best friends.

When I first found out Lauren got engaged I was so happy for her! It is the weirdest thing to grow up, and get older. I moved from Ephraim when I was twelve years old and Lauren is my first childhood friend to get married. It was a lot different to me than when my high school friends got married, because I have known her since before she could walk. 

When I first saw her in her dress I completley lost it and started crying. I am so excited for this little doll to spend the rest of eternity with the love of her life. They are so darling together and I am just happy that she found her perfect guy. 

Canning Apples

I have had one true love my entire life, ever since I was a little kid I could always count on Apple Crisp. This delicious dessert is a family favorite and every Sunday that my wonderful cook, of a dad made Apple Crisp it was the best Sunday ever! One of the main ingredients for this delightful treat is obviously apples, and the apples that we use (that make it taste so good) are  home canned apples. This leads to having a Saturday of canning most years around September.

This weekend was one that my sisters, and I have been waiting for, for months. It is apple canning time! Saturday morning I woke up and drove to Morgan I took the more scenic route so I could appreciate the beautiful fall colors, the rolling hills, and mountains.

When I arrived in Morgan my family already had everything set up to start canning they were just waiting on my sister Jenna, and my mother to get back from the grocery store, with lunch. After they had gotten back and we had eaten lunch we started working right away.

My little brother Jacob was on his homecoming-day-date so he couldn't make it. I can't believe he is old enough to be a senior it blows my mind! It seems like just yesterday that he was twelve and lighting things on fire in the middle of the street. 

 Since Jacob was gone and my twin brother Matthew is on his mission, the only people in attendance for canning were my oldest sister Shantel, her husband David, my second oldest sister Jenna, her husband Kevin, and my Father. I love spending time with my family, it is one of my favorite things to do. We have been very blessed to be so close growing up and I love how we have maintained that relationship.

While we were canning we established a system and quickly accomplished the task with a few set backs while we waited for some of the glass jars we needed to be to be cleaned all the way by the dishwasher.

After that was all over with, we finished with a little over 50 bottles of apples which means so much apple crisp! This brings so much joy into my heart, one thing that does not bring joy into my heart is my Subaru Outback. A few days ago my breaks started making weird grinding noises, so I tried to drive it as little as possible until I could come home and have my wonderful Dad (who is a great mechanic) take a look at it. We ended up having to replace the driver side rear rotor and both rear break pads.

The driver side rear break pad was down to the metal so that is why we had to replace the rotor as well. This is a picture of the passenger side rear break pad compared to the new one we got.

My dad really is such a blessing in my life, not only because he helps fix my car, but that definitely is a plus!

In other news, my sister is expecting!!! I am so excited for my new niece to get here! Jenna is due in January which is also when my brother Matthew gets home from his mission, so January is the best month ever. 

Jenna's husband Kevin recently had a birthday, last Saturday. Since they live in Idaho we were unable to spend that special day with them. They luckily were in town this weekend so we celebrated it then! On of the best parts about other people's birthday's are that everyone else gets to have cake and icecream! HAPPY (late) BIRTHDAY KEVIN. 

Jenna and Kevin left early Sunday morning. It really was so good to see them. The rest of the day was filled with church, a linger longer, and quality time spent with my family. With this weekend gone and over with I can definitely say that I am looking forward to canning apples next september!

Our First Corals

I have a love/hate relationship with this past Friday. I love it because Blake, my boyfriend, and I finally got coral in our saltwater tank! We have been waiting to do this for a long time, and finally our tank was ready for it! I hate it however, because Friday was the last day that I got to see Blake for one week and a day. Blake is in California, with his family on vacation, and I know it isn't very long but it is still lame! :)

After work Blake came and picked me up at my apartment. He had just come from the saltwater shop in Orem, because he was getting water from them. He informed me that they were having a buy 1 get 1 half off sale on frags, and I love a sale, so we went back! Frags are just "fragments" of corals. They are small baby corals basically, and eventually they grow and get bigger. 

The shop Aquatic Evolutions had so many to choose from but Blake and I had some idea of what kind of corals we wanted to start out with, and that helped us narrow it down pretty quickly. Sean, the owner of the shop really was nice to us and let us stay a little later after closing just so we could make sure which corals we wanted. Sean is an awesome guy!

After debating between a few types we decided to get three instead of two, and the winners were..... drum roll please... Hammer Coral, Cinnamon Polyps, and a Feather Duster. They are all sweet! When Sean picked them up from the tank they got afraid and kind of shrunk up. When we got back to Blake's house we let them  acclimate  in the water for a bit.

This is what they looked like when they were afraid ( those scary-cats) while they were acclimating.

Hammer Coral 

Cinnamon Polyp 

 Feather Duster

I understand that they look disgusting like this, all shrunken up and stuff, at least I think so, but trust me they are cool. The Hammer Coral, and Cinnamon Polyp are on little platforms called plugs, that way you can place them in the rock easier, you just put the plug in a little hole and eventually the coral will just grow around and cover up the plug. 

Blake being the best boyfriend ever, let me put the first coral in the tank. I picked the Feather Duster which is awesome. It actually isn't a coral at all but it is a worm. Weird right? The worm makes a kind of paper tube around it's body to protect itself. It has tentacles that are attached to it's head, which are what it is named after because they look like a feather duster. It uses them to eat by collecting floating organisms, like plankton. When it is afraid it can retract it's tentacles back into the tube where it is safe and if it is really freaked out, or if a fish bites off any of it's appendages, it can detach them and just grow it back later. 

This is our Feather Duster after it got use to it's surroundings and stopped feeling so threatened. I think it is so cool!

Blake put in the Hammer Coral, and the Cinnamon Polyp. Eventually the Hammer Coral became brave and went back to normal, flowing in the current. Unfortunately the Cinnamon Polyp still was stressed so I didn't take a picture of it. I will probably update this when I get a picture of when the Cinnamon Polyp actually looks normal. 

Just as another update on the tank, a few weeks ago Blake said while he was looking at the tank he saw a worm come out of the rock. I never had seen this worm so I thought he was being crazy, even though it is not uncommon for "hitch hikers" to come into your tank in the live rock. A couple weeks after the first sighting, Blake saw the worm again! This time he took a picture of it so i could see.

It is kind of hard to see in this picture so I zoomed in on the worm.

This freaks me out and I do not want it in the tank! After doing some research on it and asking around we are pretty sure that it is a Bristle Worm. The only thing is that some of them are good for your tank and some are bad and eat your coral. They have traps for them, but we will just see how our corals do, that way we will know if the worm is actually bad for the tank. 

It really was so awesome that we have coral in our tank now and I am stoked on that, but I still hate this Friday, because Blake wont get back for a whole week! Hopefully it goes by fast :) 

Joe's Valley

Last Saturday, on September 21st, a group of my friends and I loaded up our cars with climbing shoes, chalk bags, crash pads, and food and headed down to Joe's Valley, in southern Utah. For the last couple of years I have heard over and over, about how amazing Joe's Valley was for bouldering. Bouldering is just what it sounds like, climbing up boulders, this means you don't use ropes or quick draws, you just lay out crash pads, so if you fall you don't get injured.  Joe's Valley is a pretty well known climbing area, but this summer I never made it down there since summer is not the best climbing season for southern Utah, it is so hot! 

Anyway, Blake my boyfriend and I drove down with Teancum Bryant, Merto Asuncion, and Merto's old mission buddy Eric Johnson, in Merto's trusty Outback (which is newer than mine and much more reliable). Our other friend Jonny Wilson drove with Aaron in Jonny's truck, that way the four crash pads we had would fit! 

The first couple areas that we warmed up in were really fun. The climbs were interesting but bouldering is  a lot harder for me than sport climbing. The moves are way more technical and powerful it is wild.

Unfortunately later on in the day the storm clouds rolled in and the rain started to fall (and hail). Quickly we all found cover where we could. Joe's Valley doesn't have very many trees that are good cover in the rain, so we found shelter in the rocks. Teancum quickly fell asleep, which was weird. I just like this picture because it looks like he is sucking his thumb :)

Blake, Eric, and I found a little cave between the rocks. 

Everyone else ended up under a ledge!

This is Stoich, he is cute and an amazing dog. <3 I love when he comes on climbing trips because he is very well trained and adventurous!

Merto ended up getting bored under their ledge so he built his own shelter with a crash pad.

The most funny thing that happened while it was raining, was Stoich got restless and wandered up on the rock that the crash pad was laying on. The picture above was taken from my cave so I watched the whole thing unfold. Stoich being the adventurer he is, walked right out on the crash pad. The one side was not supported by any rock, so when he walked on top of it, the pad started to fall, the look on his face was so priceless. I yelled out his name to stop, but to no avail (since he is a dog and doesn't know what I am saying), he tumbled down along with the crash pad. Luckily even though he landed on a bunch of rocks he didn't get hurt! 

Finally the rain stopped but the rock wasn't drying out very quickly. The bad thing about Joe's Valley is in the rain sandstone isn't very good to climb on. This is because, while wet, sandstone becomes a lot weaker and breaks a little easier. Eventually it dried out and we moved to a different area.

I was pretty tired at this point so, I did a couple problems, then just played with Stoich, the dog. There were a bunch of cows walking up and down the dirt road next to the boulders and Stoich was growling at them. I was trying to convince him to get closer to the cows, just to see what would happen. He was to afraid though, that dog is all bark and no bite. 

Honestly, I think the hype about Joe's Valley might have ruined it for me. I thought it would be a lot better than it was. It could have just been the weather though so I am looking forward to going back and seeing if it is as amazing as people say! Maybe it will be!

CLAS Ropes Course

Very recently I have moved into a new area in Utah Valley. For the last year I have been living in Orem, but at the very start of August I moved back down to Provo and I couldn't have been happier with that choice. There really is a huge difference between just normal student housing vs BYU approved housing. I definitely learned that the hard way, one year full of pregnant roommates (yes that is plural), threatening letters full of expletives along with miss-spelled words, and literally living in a pig sty (okay not literally but some of my roommates were pretty messy). Anyways the moral of the story is  I love living at my new apartment in Provo.

Along with my new apartment I got a new ward, 137th Provo, and it has been really amazing so far. I love how wards can become so close like a tight knit family. They help turn strangers into brothers and sisters. I haven't lived here very long but I am looking forward to getting to know my ward better.

For family home evening, on Monday, my ward, along with one other ward, got to go to CLAS Ropes Course. Thank you activities committee for coming up with this idea, because it really was so much fun! If you have never been to a ropes course before it is just a park like area full of team building exercises, some are just obstacle courses where you have to figure out how to get your whole team from point A to point B without touching the ground, or random things like that. The only things they had available to us, though were the "high ropes" which include a zip line, rock wall, giant swing,  and a thing called the leap of faith.The whole point of it is to over come fears, build communication, and gain self confidence. It is a really cool idea and such a blast to do!

Blake my boyfriend, Sean his brother, and I got there just in time to miss the instructions, which I am sure were really important and informative. This lead to some confusion as everyone broke up to go to the various stations. After observing everyone putting on their harnesses we decided to flow suit and grabbed our harnesses from a box sitting on the ground. One size fits all harnesses, while being a good idea, are the most uncomfortable things in the world on top of being semi tricky to put on. Eventually I mastered the art of putting it on and we jumped in line for the zip line. 

It was so much fun! You just clip into a rope, and start climbing up a pretty tall, wooden pole, as you get belayed up from the top. When you get to the top, the girl working that station just clips you into the zip line and then you are good to just jump off of the platform. It feels like you are flying through the air, it is awesome. The zip-line we were on was long enough that you start to go pretty fast. At the end of the run there are people waiting for you and you think that is where you are supposed to stop, but then you terrifyingly shoot past them. Which kind of freaked me out. After that part you start to slow down, stop, then coast backwards to the spot where they stop you and help you get unclipped. 

After the zip line I helped belay my friend Kaci on the rock wall. I am pretty bummed that I left my phone in the car so I actually didn't take any pictures! But just to give you a visual I took some pictures off of their website so don't be weirded out by the random nouns! :) 

 Towards the end of the night the lines for all the stations calmed down so we went over to what they called the leap of faith. For this station you got to use full body harnesses instead of just the regular ones. I was pretty happy about this because full body harnesses are way more comfortable than our one size fits all! How the leap of faith works is you climb up a tree to a plat form. 

Once you are on the platform you jump off as far as you can, trying to get a ring (in the picture it is a handle) that is hanging in front of you. Since you are attached to a rope the whole time it is really safe. 

By the time that Blake, Sean, and I got to this station though, it was already pretty dark outside. They had one light up in the tree, across from the platform, shinning on the ring so you could see where to jump. Sean went first, there was an option to wear a blind fold just to make it that much more challenging and of course Sean was going to pick the hardest way because he is awesome. When he jumped for the ring be almost grabbed it! I was next but I am not as daring as sean so I skipped out on the blindfold. Climbing up the tree was no big deal but once you get onto the platform it is like you are in your own little world. 

Everything around you is pitch black except for the blinding light shinning right in your eyes and the outline of the dark ring in-front of you. You can't see the ground or anyone around you and I will be honest I was terrified! It was the weirdest thing, I have been a thousand feet off the canyon floor rock climbing on multi-pitches, but 25 feet off the ground completely secure in a harness, attached to a rope, with a competent belayer, was so scary to me! All I wanted to do was get off the platform so I didn't even jump for the ring, I just did a sad looking little baby jump off the platform. Holy cow, was it a relief to get back on the ground!

Blake followed after me and like his brother took the challenge of the blindfold. When he was up at the top he just jumped and grabbed the ring. Hello, what can this boy  not do. He is seriously amazing at everything he tries. So naturally I had to do it again. Even though I was still shaking from the first attempt. 

Once I got to the platform for the second time I had the exact same feeling, my stomach dropped and I just wanted to get off the platform, unfortunately it was my second try to I had to have something to show for it! I lunged at the ring, and missed pathetically! :) It is okay though I at least feel good that I tried again and that is all that matters right?

Even though I got scared out of my mind the ropes course really was so much fun. I almost would like to go back and try the leap of faith in the light just to see if it scares me as much! All in all it was a fun night, full of friends, and conquering fears, definitely a success! Thanks again to Provo 137th ward! :)

Happy Birthday Shantel!

When I graduated high school in 2011 I was pretty confidant that I was going to Utah State University for college. When I got my acceptance letter I was jumping for joy, and made a huge deal of it. One reason I was so excited was because my sister Shantel and brother-in-law David are pretty die hard fans of USU. To prove their devotion to good ol' Utah State they had an A as a cake topper at their wedding and Aggie blue as one of their wedding colors. If I was talking I would say they tried really hard to brainwash me to go there, but they would probably say that they just encouraged me to make the "right" decision :). Even though at the time they lived in Lehi and not Logan where USU is.

  

A bunch of events happened that summer and for some reason I changed my mind and made the final verdict to come down to Utah Valley University instead. UVU, is located in Orem, Utah, which was one of the best choices of my life for many reasons.

One reason being because Shan and David lived in Lehi (at their old apartment) and that was only 20 minutes away from where I was living. I have been so blessed to have immediate family living close to me. When you move somewhere new it is always so nice to have someone there for you. That way you aren't all alone, and that is what Shantel was for me when I first moved down to Orem. Shan and David always put forth so much effort to make sure I knew I was welcome at their home anytime.

This is Shan and I at her old apartment in Lehi, Utah.

I am so grateful for Shantel and David, at that time in my life and espeically now. They are constantly having me up for dinner, and always being there for me when I am homeless, need to vent or, just in the mood to tell them my ridiculously long, and detailed stories. They always give me the reaction that I want and that is why you tell people stories right?! 

This is one of my favorite pictures of me and Shantel. My mother, Lori, upon finding out Shantel was pregnant, well over a year ago now, thought it would be the best idea in the world to buy a giant castle for her future granddaughter. Who was a year and 9 months away from being able to actually play in it (since she wasn't even born yet). Shantel and I were so excited over easter break of 2012 for the cool pink castle that we set it up anyways!

When I found out Shantel was pregnant with Lydia, my niece, I could hardly wait, and the amount of love I felt for that little unborn girl was indescribable! With me feeling that way, I can't even imagine how Shantel felt. I didn't have any nieces or nephews at the time so that 9 months dragged on for eternity. This is Shantel when she was pregnant. I am pretty sure she is about 6 months along!

Finally Lydia arrived. I have loved being able to be so close to the Peaden family and the chance I have had to spend time with Shan, David, and Lydia. Family really is so important in the grand scehem of things and I count my blessing every day that I have been able to build this relationship with them.

Lydia really is the cutest little girl.

Shantel has always been the best oldest (see how I put oldest and not just older, you are an amazing sister too Jenna) sister to me no matter what I say about my childhood experience. I have been so blessed to have been close with  with my two sisters Shan and Jenna growing up. We always were good friends despite the normal sister fights, when it comes to sharing clothes. I hontestly am overwhelmingling grateful for my all my siblings and the love we have for each other.

 

 This past weekend was Shantel's birthday! On Sunday, September 15th. Unfortunately her husband David was out of town for work, but that Friday before Shan's birthday Blake, my boyfriend, and I went up to the Peaden's house for a little surprise birthday celebration, prices right status. Shantel is amazing at knowing the prices of objects. You could say, it is because she is an amazing coupon/bargain shopper (which she is), or she might have just inherited it from my Grandma Walker who won an episode of the prices right way back when. Either way she demolished Blake and I in the prices right games we played and she won all her birthday presents! This was a very good thing becuase I bet she would have had something to say if Blake or I had won any of her presents. :)

On her actual birthday that Sunday, we went up to Morgan, Utah where my parents live and spent the evening eating dinner, opening presents, eating cake, and catching up with everyone. Shantel and I were even matching with our stripped maxi skirts! 

Family relationships really are so important and I always hope my family knows how much I love them, and that I have a testimony of eternal families. Happy Birthday Shantel and thanks for being an awesome sister! :)