Letters

The AWESOME journal I got from Janet!

Dear Aunt Janet, I know this is a week late, but THANK YOU for the AWESOME giraffe journal and chocolate covered almonds! It helped me get though the craziness of finals week.

Dear Winter 2013 Ward Friends, It's been strange the past couple of days with all of you leaving. Thank you for the fond memories and the good times. It's been wonderful getting to know you all and I hope you will keep in touch!

This is just some of the bonfire crew. Many of the others had left by this point.

Dear Bonfire Crew, We rocked that. Period.

Dear Finals, Thank heavens you are done and that I can now breathe for a couple of months. It's been great, but I'm glad to not be seeing you for another 8 months.

Dear John Campbell, Thank you for the impromptu Subway lunch date. Good luck with "real" life, and have tons of fun in China!

Dear Amy, You betta' take tons of pictures and email me about your adventures in Europe!

Dear Alex, You also betta' take tons of pictures and be ready to tell me all about your adventures in Guatemala once you get back!

Dear New Roommates, I think that this is going to be quite the splendid experience, living with you all. Let's make it a party!

Dear Ryan and John, Thanks for chatting, and even more, for always being willing to chat. I love you two!

Dear Theobalds, Thank you for the fantastic hospitality and the AMAZING food. It made for a very enjoyable afternoon.

Dear Scott and Ryan, You two are going to be some of the best dads in the world someday. How do I know? Because this is what happened today while we were eating dinner at Amelia's house:

I counted while they were chasing you for the whole 20 minutes or so. There were at least 6 of them (little boys, I mean.) While they were tackling you, I turned to Emily and said: "It reminds me of how Joseph Smith was known for playing around with the boys in the town." Yup. You'll be pretty dang amazing fathers with pretty dang lucky kids.

Dear Carson, I'm thoroughly enjoyed talking to you on the car ride home from Amelia's farewell. It was so good to really talk to someone who really listens. You're an awesome friend.

Dear Ems, Thanks for running and talking and cleaning and walking and chilling and laughing and understanding with me. You're an amazing sister, and I'm glad we can be neighbors!

Dear Summer, I'm totally ready to rock this. Let's get this awesome, goal-setting/achieving, hard-working, super-partying, fun and amazing summer started!

More pictures from the bonfire:

The lovely Emma Pister and I!

Stephen, Amy and I

Drew, Gentry and Audrey

Sultry faces, anyone?

Fort Building

Once upon a time my sophomore year of college, my roommates and I built a fort. Now. This was not just any ol' fort. This was a living room sized fort. This was huge! We used command hooks to hang ropes across the ceiling and a zillion blankets. It was big enough to fit our couch and entertainment center underneath. After we finished building it, Jeremy joined in on our girls night and we watched "Red" together. It was quite the splendid evening.

Because we put in so much hard work and effort, we decided to leave the fort up for the rest of the week. We had people come over to the apartment for no other purpose than to check it out. We even had strangers, who had seen the extravaganza through our window while they were eating their Slab Pizza out on the patio outside our door, knock on our door and ask if they could look at it. It was a wonderful, delightfully happy time of life.

Upon building the fort, we decided that we needed to make rules for it. We grabbed four pieces of paper, and Amelia scribbled them down while we shouted them out. Upon cleaning out our apartment to move to another one in the complex, I found those four papers and it reminded me of what a splendid time we had had that year. The rules we made-up are as follows:

RULES of the FORT

1. Thou shalt not touch the ropes or the Kitchen!
2. Thou shalt not make-out...too much.
3. Thou shalt be ambiguous.
4. Thou shalt do no homework while in the sanctity of the fort.
5. Thou shalt not leave they brushes unattended.
6. Honor the blankets and the pillows that thy days may be long in the fort.
7. Thou shalt not covet they neighbor's blanket.
8. Thous shalt EAT!!
9. Thou shalt eat happy thoughts.
10. Thou shalt keep the girls' night HOLY.

Let me explain the inside jokes...

1. Morgan Kitchen was one of my roommates. the Kitchen is a reference to her.

2. When one of us left the apartment to go somewhere, instead of telling them to remember who they were, we would usually yell out "Don't make out too much!" (We were all seriously dating and madly in love with at least three men each at the time. So, of course, this piece of advise was very useful.) 

5. Upon moving into the apartment, Morgan and I discovered that we had the exact same brush. Several days later, Amelia went to the store and happened to buy the exact same brush. The joke was that Morgan and my brush had made a baby. Being that we didn't want any more baby brushes, we decided it would be a good idea to have a rule about not leaving brushes alone in the fort.

9. I told Amelia to write down: "Thou shalt think happy thoughts." Obviously, she was a little hungry at the time, because what came out was "Thou shalt eat happy thoughts." I think her modified version is quite perfect.

We've all moved on in different directions now, but it's nice remembering those fun and crazy times that we had together that sophomore year, like the time we built a fort.  

Letters

Dear Scott, Thanks for letting me come chill with you this evening. I quite enjoyed the company and the guitar music.

Dear Alex, Thank you so much for your wonderful note!!! I can't WAIT to hear about all the fun you have in Guatemala!

Dear Amelia, The apartment isn't the same without you here. Just thought I'd let you know you're missed.

Dear Paige and Anna, I finally wrote you two letters! They should be in the mail by tomorrow!

Dear Emily, I'm so glad that we got to go eat lunch together and to wander around the bookstore this afternoon. We make a pretty great team, you and I.

Dear Jacob, We WILL be hanging out sometime soon. Promise.

Upside-Down

Thought I'd share the short story that I wrote for my Teaching Writing class. Here it is!

Frowning Frank didn't know what his parents were thinking when they named him. There were many other lovely adjectives they could have chosen to go with his name. He could have been Friendly Frank or Fabulous Frank or Faithful Frank or Funny Frank, but no—they named him Frowning Frank.

            “Its tradition!” they had told him when he asked about it. “You’re father’s name is Cranky Carson, you’re grandfather’s name is Grumpy Greg and your great-grandfather’s name is Moody Mathew. You should be proud to be part of such a great tradition.”

            But he wasn't. Honestly, Frowning Frank did try to be proud to be part of his family tradition, but in Label Town where everyone behaved according to the personality trait their parents had given them, he couldn't help but wish that his family had different traditions. 

            Every day Frowning Frank went to school, envying all the Happy Henrys and Laughing Lauras who got to smile and crack jokes in the hallways and on the bus. Frowning Frank wanted to be a part of all the laughing and smiling and all-around happiness, but he found it a nearly impossible to when he had to keep his mouth down turned at all times. It just wasn't fun to have to always frown. Besides that, no one really wanted to hangout with Frowning Frank. They said he wasn't fun enough. 

            One day during third period math Principle Peaceful Patricia came into class. With her was a tall, lanky girl with curly blonde hair, clean cut clothes and square glasses. Frowning Frank didn't recognize her.

            “This,” said Principle Peaceful Patricia, motioning to the girl next to her, “Is Heather. She’s an exchange student from Boston who will be joining your class for the next several months. Does anyone have any questions for her about herself or where she's from?”

             Frowning Frank stayed quiet. It was one of the benefits of sitting in the back of the classroom: he didn't feel pressured to say thing if he didn't want to. He also wasn't tempted to smile or chortle when he sat away from the rest of the students. Talkative Tessa, though, raised her hand enthusiastically from the front of the room.