Happyness

I just read a story about the movie "Singin' in the Rain." When writers Betty Comden and Adolph Green showed the famous Gene Kelly dance to Leonard Bernstein he stated, "That scene is an affirmation of life."



Don't you just want to sing along? Gotta love Gene Kelly.

Cosmic Craziness

I played this game last night called "cosmic keep away." It's just "keep away" but more fun. The ball is electronic and you wear these things around your palm that have sensors in them. They are all a different color and when you catch the ball, it can tell which color touched it. When you start the game it tells you who is on which team by calling out the colors. There are also variations of the game. One is where you have to just keep it away from the other team for as many passes as possible within a certain amount of time. Another is the first team to get to 20 passes wins. Therefore the goal of the game is to steal the ball from the other team and make more passes before they do. The only downside is that there are only enough sensors for six players. I can see this game getting really rough so we shall limit the number of boys who get to play at one time. I also think this would be really fun to play in the pool. You can find it at Walmart for $25 by Nerf or Hasbro. They are both pretty much the same. I highly recommend this new game.

July 20th, 1969

40 years later and I am still awed that man walked on the moon. I think space is so facinating to learn about. Trivia: Who was the third man on the Apollo 11 mission?



Answer: Michael Collins. Everyone forgets him. They usually remember Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.

Man this makes me want to watch Apollo 13. Kevin Bacon. YES.

My Grandpa

My grandpa's name is Francis William Foster. He lived from 1913-2007 and died at the age of 94. He was pretty quiet when I knew him but I remember he liked black licorice, Victor Borgia, and doing crossword puzzles. He was probably one of the most intelligent people I've ever met; he even knew how to read Latin. Grandpa was short because his mother was given drugs either when she was pregnant or giving birth that stunted his growth. He was born in Vernal, UT and attended BYU, graduating valedictorian of his class of 1935. During his college days he climbed a tower where a bell was hanging and carved his initials in it. That bell is now known as the victory bell and hangs in front of the Marriott Center. Grandpa was also the first person to take pictures inside of Timpanogos Caves. He worked at Hill Air Force Base for many years. When he and my grandma met it was on an actual blind date. They each had friends that were blind that were set up so my grandparents assisted them on the date and that's how they met each other. On their honeymoon he tried to save my grandma from a spider, jumped on the bed and ended up getting folded up into the wall! He always liked his peanut butter spread to the edges of the bread for his sandwiches; because of him I make them this way too. I remember going mini golfing and Grandpa offering a quarter to whomever got a hole in one. He always had quarters. Grandpa loved his children and grandchildren a lot. I hope I can live as long and as good of life as my grandpa.

My aunt found this picture in a BYU Alumni magazine a few months after he passed away. We had no idea this picture existed so my family was pretty surprised to find out about it. It is on the steps of the Provo Library when my grandpa belonged to the press club at BYU. (He's the little guy in front).

Harry Potter and the Movie Premiere

Where were you last night at 12:01 AM? If you are cool you were watching Harry Potter 6. I attended the premiere at the SCERA theater in Orem. It was a modgepodge of people in my crew-Kira, Austin, and Erica from WA, Kim from the ticket office, and Rachelle, Chris and Taylor from the ward. I wore my new Harry Potter t-shirt to display my Harry Potter pride. 12:01 the previews started and I've got to say I was really annoyed when all the girls started screaming during the Twilight preview. It makes me want to watch those movies even less. On a scale of 1-10 it would be a negative 7. About an hour into the movie the power went out! The theater manager came out and said the theater would have to be evacuated if the power did not come back on within 10 minutes. I almost had a nervous breakdown. Thankfully the power came back on and we got to finish the movie.

Kim and Me

The movie was good. I wasn't as happy with it as I was after the 5th one. I have read the books a ton so it's hard for me not to compare them and be upset about what they left out. The movie on the whole felt really rushed to me, even though it was 2 1/2 hours! Altogether, it wasn't my favorite, but the did do a really good job.

Things I did not enjoy: Ginny hitting on Harry a lot, not seeing all the memories in the Pensive, not showing Snape teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, they showed too much of what Malfoy was up to (in the book Harry doesn't really know), the death eater's attack on the Weasley's house at Christmas (not in the book), the way they showed Harry watching the death of Dumbledore, and not having a huge battle in Hogwarts/Snape running away without much of a fight.

TC Crew

Things I did enjoy: The Weasley Wizarding Wheezes, Luna Lovegood, Draco Malfoy, the young Tom Riddle (did you know that he is the nephew of Ralph Finnes, the guy who plays Voldemort?), when Ron eats the chocolates laced with love potion, when Harry drinks the Felix Felicis (hilarious), when Ron is poisoned and then says "Hermione" when he is unconscious, the quidditch game, the attack on Malfoy, and the wand tribute to Dumbledore after his death (also not in the book).

I also enjoy how they keep the same background characters because people like me will notice if they are not there. For example, Neville Longbottom. No lines really in the 6th movie, but he was still there. During the movie I was getting kind of drowzy towards the end. When the Inferi attacked Harry everyone in the theater screamed, which woke me up and made me scream. I missed a few things toward the end. So I'm planning on going again, but when I'm more awake.

What did you think of HP 6?

Thoughts of Today

Michael Jackson-May you rest in peace. He had a strange life but was a great entertainer. I wasn't particularly connected to him in any way, but I do appreciate the influence he had on music and the world in general. My favorite Michael Jackson memory is hearing my brother impersonate him and sing along to the song "You are not alone" with all the key changes. And all of the jokes people made about him dangling his son Prince Michael II (Aka Blanket) off a hotel balcony. My favorite songs include: "She's out of my life", "You are not alone", "Beat it", "The way you make me feel" and what would Halloween be without "Thriller"? I'm looking forward to the biographical movie or Lifetime original movie that is sure to come soon.

Social Security Number-Did you know that it is possible to predict your SSN? These guys developed software to predict it using your date and place of birth. It's pretty accurate. My SSN starts with a zero because I was born in Connecticut but I didn't get mine until I was three so it shouldn't be too predictable. As you go west across the US the first number increases. In Washington, all the kids I knew that were born there, their number's started with six. Cool huh?

Summer-I love it. I love being able to be outside until late because it's so warm. I love that I had FHE in the park and ran around in the grass barefoot. I love that it stays light outside until after eight o'clock. I love the produce that comes in season. I love having no school and not having to worry about doing homework. I love smaller wards, summer dresses and sandals. I love the sunshine on my shoulders and swimming. Summer is pretty much amazing!

Girls in my ward-Some girl, who is either mad at someone for not asking them out or mad at boys in general for not asking them out, decided to post flyers on all the guys door's in my ward. They included a quote from Elder Oak's famous talk about dating and told the guys they need to stop being boys and start being MEN by asking girls out on dates. There were two other quotes along the same line. I found out about this yesterday and I was embarassed for the girl and sorry for the guys. It kind of upset them. There are a lot of guys in my ward that have a lot to offer and any girl would be lucky to date them. If this note thing ruins things for anyone I will be upset. This girl needs to chill out, it's not all about dating (although we're told all the time that it is...).

Family-Dad, Stephen and Jillian are coming to visit in a few weeks on the way to take Stephen to school in New York. I am so excited.

The End.

PS. There is a young Australian guy who works where I work. I love his accent.

Happy 4th of July!

I had a great weekend, how was yours? I had Friday off of work so instead of sleeping in I went with Marissa to see the hot air balloon deal for Provo's Freedom Festival. It was pretty sweet. And we ran into Julia, Scott, and Maren from the old ward. We hung out and then went to get Kneader's all you can eat french toast for breakfast. Delicious! I then had a most relaxing day. I napped, made an awesome sandwich for lunch, strolled the freedom festival and saw some pretty cool stuff. Dinner was a BBQ in Bountiful for my cousin Eliza's birthday and then I went to my good friend Kira's birthday where we played the card game scum, I did a Happy Birthday interpretive dance with my bubble wand, we had bubble races, sparklers and set things on fire like flour and hand sanitizer. The only low point of the weekend was all of the crazy people camped out on University Ave the whole night. I don't get it, it's just a parade. These crazy people started saving spots at like noon the day before. You'd think they were giving away money or something. We also had two port-o-potties placed in front of my apartment complex. Lovely. Anyway, just having all those people outside made me nervous. Then I went to a rockin' dance party and went to sleep.

The next day I was awaken by cannon fire. Yep, it's true. Then I went out to watch the parade, and had a pretty good view. I didn't even camp out. I chilled some more, went swimming, did another BBQ where we played croquet, and then went to watch fireworks. Fireworks were a lot of fun but kind of lacking. Afterward, we had a ward bonding massage session and then I sat in traffic for awhile waiting to get home. Melanie kindly came with me and we rocked out to Beyonce and Hannah Montana (I cannot get enough of Beyonce's "Halo"). I also celebrated by watching the movie 1776 about the Declaration of Independence. It's rather corny but it does have a young Mr. Pheney from Boy Meets World portraying John Adams. I felt rather patriotic. After all of this, I still have 5 boxes of sparklers and one entire cake to use up.

I love the 4th of July! It's the middle of summer, BBQs are awesome, you can swim, or do anything to celebrate our nation's independence. My favorite part is fireworks. Here is my confession: It has long been my secret desire to watch fireworks with a boy. I think it would be one of the most romantical things ever. It hasn't happened yet but someday. There you have it.

I love being American and having the chance to live in this free country and all of the blessings that come with it. I am proud of the United States' heritage and that we get to celebrate!

Happy 4th!

Washington Girl

I am a true Washingtonian. Besides all the rain the state is also known for great agriculture. Apples, cherries, alfalfa, wheat, asparagus and probably more. Living so close to great food has affected my tastes. I am kind of a snob about apples. (PS. they stink in UT). And I am craving Rainier cherries. Last year my sister brought a huge bag home from work from a lady who lived on an orchard. It was like three pounds for free. I haven't seen any in the stores yet. Just the Bing variety-named for Bing Crosby, because he is from Spokane WA. Maybe a farmer's market will have them. Rainer cherries will be the perfect compliment to summertime!