We're Just So Irresistable

Need I say more?
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Tuuuurkeyyyyyyy DAY!

I'm thankful for...
(My Top Ten)

...Eh-hem...

1. Jesus Christ
2. His Gospel
3. My testimony of it
4. My family and friends
5. The opportunity for education
6. Agency
7. A free country, with free enterprise, freedom of religion, free speech
8. Modern medicine
9. Technology
10. Toilet paper

I hope you all had a very thankful, very filling Thanksgiving and I also hope you do not go bankrupt and insane over the weekend trying to find Christmas gifts for everyone.

Date!

Soooooo I went on a date on Friday night to Twilight. I actually liked the movie a lot more than I thought I would have. :) The date was really good until the last bit. And ya know "All's well that ends well"? Well I guess you could say that that night proved the opposite correct as well. :(

So on Saturday night I had another date with a different person. Good thing! I know! Saturday's date was with Brady and it was one fallen-through-funny-surprise after another. :) We doubled with his roommate, Steve, and his girlfriend, Analise. (I hope that's how you spell it...) The date was supposed to begin at 7 p.m. when Brady and Steve were to be back in Logan, but at 6:53 Brady called to inform me that Steve was not yet at his house and wasn't answering his phone either. Ope! But then during the conversation Steve called Brady.

The date ended up starting at about 8:20, with Brady giving me a really pretty rose and apologizing that it wasn't my favorite--an orchid. We went to Olive Garden (another subtle hint Brady picked up on--I exclaimed in chemistry lab on Monday that I've been craving Olive Garden for a month), told embarrassing stories, Analise interrogated the waiter, talked about puberty, ya know, the usual, hahahaha. It was a really funny dinner.

The after-dinner-activity ended up not happening on this particular night because the date had started late and the dinner probably lasted longer than expected as well. We went back to Brady and Steve's apartment to watch a movie and make Skookies. While Brady and I made the Skookie preparations, Steve and Analise fell asleep on the couches and I got brownie mix on Brady's face. I followed him into the bathroom and wouldn't let him out until he's eaten the entire spoon of brownie mix off of my finger, hahahaha. When we walked back into the hall, I honestly can't remember how this happened, but we both fell backwards and were on our backs in the hall for at least half an hour making each other laugh and waiting for his legs to go numb, LOL. When they finally did, I got up and put the Skookies in the oven. While Steve and Analise continuted to sleep, Brady showed me a sweater he bought (btw, he was wearing my second favorite type of outfit--collared shirt under a sweater!) and showed me funny things on the internet about a guy he knows who got arrested 10 days off of his mission for racing on I-15.

We continued to make each other laugh and make funny noises and take crazy pictures until we finally woke up Steve and Analise. They were both a bit zonked and out of it and we ate one of the Skookies, with ice cream on it, off of Analise's lap, sitting in the hall, with spoons, hahahaha. Steve then took the drunken Analise home, or rather to her sister's house in Nibley, while Brady and I took more funny pictures. When I finally decided to get up, I had a hard time doing so. He picked me up by the elbows, hahaha, but didn't make it all the way to the door and we fell into a chair in front of the projecter. Whoever said "The Spirit goes to bed at midnight" was only right some of the time--not this time. It was two in the morning but we had a really neat conversation and he told me even more about his mission--the two years I'm pretty sure I have almost memorized. Brady's a really, really neat and good person and I like his stories because they're not just good but he tells me what he learned from the experience he just told me about. After he finished his story, I got up and put on my coat.

He came out of his room with a backpack and after my quizzical look and question, he said, "My keys are somewhere in here."
"Nice excuse," I thought, remembering there was still one surprise left.
He told me about how he hadn't yet decided if he wanted to save it until another night or not. . . so when we got to my apartment parking lot. . . and he didn't turn. . . I was kind of surprised. I wasn't sure how I felt about this--I was perdy tired by then. But I went with it. He'd put a lot of planning into the date and he'd done so well thus far, I decided not to ruin it for him. We drove to North Logan and started going up, up, up. I recognized it as the very place Trevor had taken me the night before to look over the whole valley, because he knows I love overlooks. I thought to myself, "It'll be interesting to compare and contrast this night and last night. . . "

He stopped the care and told me how it'd been slightly awkward to buy what was in his backpack. This dumbfounded me. He brought out a lighter and I didn't know why a lighter was weird to buy. He said, "What goes with a lighter?"
"I have no idea! Candles? (But that doesn't seem likely...)"
"Nope. Feel inside the bag."
I did and then contorted my face and started laughing hysterically.
"Are you KIDDING ME, BRADY?!?!?! Hahahahaha!"
He started laughing really hard too.
"FIREWORKS?!?!?!"
"Hahahaha yup!"
"Brady! It's three in the morning, we're on the side of a mountain in North Logan, and we're going to light off fireworks?!?!?!"
"YES!"
We got out of the car laughing, after deciding we'd only light off one, and it'd be the smallest one. He set it down and lit it and we ran back toward the car. As it shot its sparks all over the place we were so afraid it'd start screaming and wake up the people living right below. Luckily it didn't. When it stopped we both had the random, funny urge to run toward the smoke that was sailing away and smell it. The smell of the Fourth of July!! Yummy!

After he twirl-hugged me, we ran back to the car and back to Michael Buble who was playing. I'd left my cd in his car and forgotten completely about it and in the mean time he'd like memorized it and has a favorite song, number 6. :) We drove home talking about houses, etc. and that was it! I thanked him and hugged him goodnight and thought to myself, "Well that certainly turned out better than. . . . " :)

Calculus Study Buddies

So y'all have most likely heard me complain about my impossible (and almost imPASSable) calculus class. . . and since this class is tough for me, I figured I'd do what my dad and brother-in-law did to "get through engineering" and get study partners. So who'd I go to? THE ENGINEERS! Of course.

One night, my good friends Sutton and Ryan Toth, whom I know through my roommate Lisa, invited me to study calc with them and I ended up meeting two of their engineering buddies, Ryan Clawson and Trevor Christiensen. After that, Ryan, Trevor and I studied all the time together. I've become really good friends with them since and we've hung out outside of school and studying.

Up to two weeks ago, Trevor and I had really only known each other as far as his tutoring me in calculus would take us. One night, after studying math, Ryan went one way to his car, and Trevor and I went another way--he toward his car, me toward my apartment, which happened to be the same way. He offered to take me home--ya know, across two parking lots, haha--and after he explained manual transmissions to me and we messed around with his Jetta for a bit, he asked, "Do you wanna go for a drive?"

We went up the canyon and looked at the stars, which happen to be better than any I've ever seen--even camping. No city lights. No car lights. I could see all the little ones I could never see in Sandy or in Logan at my apartment. It was a really fun night, probably because neither of us expected it to happen nor did either of us knew what would happen next while it was happening. ;) I'll be honest, I fell for Trevor that night and hoped that he'd do the same. . .

That weekend I went home for my uncle's wedding (YAY! UNCLE BRENT! Too bad I started that blog entry and waited for pictures of the wedding to be emailed to me... but they never were... so the blog entry was never posted... ) Anyway, the next weekend, Trevor taught me how to drive a motorcycle (SO FUN!), which I already blogged about, and tonight Ryan and Chelsea, and Trevor and I are going to Twilight. :)

Tomorrow night, however, I'm going on a date with Brady. Remember him? The guy to whom I pretended to be engaged a while ago? We'll see how that goes. :) We've never really been on a date--we just hung out a lot a few weeks ago. Well. . . I paid for him to go to the Howl. . . maybe that counts?? Hahaha. . . hm. I'll letchy'all know 'bout that later. . . after we actually go out. . .

Anyway, I know I've talked about Trevor to some of you and have kind of talked up his eyes and his smile so you wanted to see him. So I finally got some pictures of him and even though these pictures don't do those eyes justice because they aren't "closing-up" on them, I hope that his eyes and smile are to your guys' liking. :)

P.S. I am NOT to be looked at in these pictures. For obvious reasons. . . except that it wouldn't be obvious if you actually followed that advice. . . because you wouldn't know why they were so bad. . . because you wouldn't have seen me. . . ANYWAY!---

Hot Springs

Saturday night was my twin, Emily Blotter's birthday. After cutting Derrick's hair that afternoon, I headed to the LLC where she and Anike live. We were going to go roller skating in 80's clothes (I know this speaks to you in particular, Ashley!) but at the last minute their across-the-hall neighbor invited us to go with him and his friend to meet their friends at Crystal Hot Springs.
It was COLD when we got there (naturally) and it just got colder when we went out in our swimming suits. But once we hit the bath-tub-temp water, it was all betta. ;)
We eventually migrated to the hot tub, as usually happens, and there met Steve's and Mike's friends. As it turned out, Emily and I ended up hanging out with them most of the night. They were hilarious. We played a game of "WAH!" in the swimming pool with what became a group of about 20--everyone joined our rambunctious group. One in the group, Jeremy, seemed to make an extra effort to charm "Emily One and Emily Two" hahaha and Emily turned to me after he'd introduced his life-guarding-blonde-talkative-charismatic-Jesse-McCartney-like-self to us and whispered, "I don't usually go for blondes, but sign me up!!" hahahaha she makes me laugh so hard sometimes.
By the end of "WAH!" they were done re-chlorine-ing the water slides. . . the freezing cold water slides. . .

After about half an hour of coaxing, Emily, Jeremy, David, Sunny, and whomever-that-beautiful-guy-was got me to go down a slide with them. There were seriously nine of us going down together--three mats connected. We obviously went crazily fast and at one point hit a bump and then a corner and all flew apart. . . somewhat painfully, LOL.

After the wave of water that swept over my head dissipated a bit I found Emily and grabbed her for the rest of the ride. We all landed in a pile at the end. The icy water didn't even affect us (even me!) because the ride was still rattling our brains hahaha. I limped out holding a hip, but later that night at home I found it was my shin that had the inch-high bone-bruise. Yowch. It was bunches of fun, though. :)

Motorcycle Riding!

Well, it's official. The Taylor Biking Club that was created at Brent's wedding has officially entered existence. And I am its newest member. Much to my mother and father's dismay, I'm sure, I now know how to drive a motorcycle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Unfortunately there are no crazy and exciting stories. I remember that when I was halfway down the road I laughed hysterically for two solid minutes. . . I think it was because I couldn't shift into second and the poor engine began to vibrate. Trevor, bless his heart, informed me that the engine usually doesn't like to be in first that long and that's why we like to shift about there. . .
Hahahaha, thankfully Trevor likes my laugh. If he didn't, I'm pretty sure he'd be miserable around me because I can't STOP laughing. :)

After he taught me on the 200, he took me on his 450 up the road to the edge of the mountain behind his house. You can't go anywhere on the motorcycle back there, unfortunately. There's a trail that apparently goes on forever, way back to a snow-covered mountain in Logan Canyon. . . 'Citing! But we didn't go. It was COLD! Our poor little handies were numb when we got back. And the helmet hair. . . ah that's always fun, right?

Now I know y'all are dying from my lack of pictures here. . . yes, I brought my camera but I was a slacker. And with all that helmet hair, yer probably glad I didn't take any hahahaha.

The HOWL

Well. . . . . I went! Rachel always told me I had to go at least once to Utah State's famous Halloween party, the HOWL. It was huge! And just kept growing . . . like a bad fungus . . . hahaha just kidding.
There were a lot of bands featured there in different rooms, plus the downstairs comedy and picture-taking and, of course, the dance. It was SO easy to lose people!
It was a fun party, but we left before it was over. Village Inn was open all night because of the whole ordeal and Brady, Emily-my-twin, Anike, Ali (from Jordan), Jessica, Eric, Adam, Emily's cousin and his friends and I went there at about 1 a.m.

Everybody just got milkshakes... except Brady and I. We were starving. When we got back, Brady and I left the LLC and got back to my apartment at around 2:30 or 3 and just collapsed on the floor. Sutton taught me to lay on the floor and put my feet on the couch a few weeks ago... and ever since it has proved a very effective totally-relax-me technique. :) This is the position I collapsed into and Brady did the same a couple feet away . . . . and the next thing we knew my roommates were climbing over us half an hour later when we realized we'd both fallen fast asleep. We picked ourselves up after that and I sent poor Brady on his way. I really felt bad because he had to walk all the way home... so tired... so early in the morning... all by himself...
The next morning he told me he didn't even remember walking home haha. He remembered crossing the two parking lots to get to his house, but other than that.... lol.

I planned on having a good ol'-fashioned sleep-in the next morning... but no. At 9 a.m. a rat-a-tat-tat was heard on my window. Stumbling over to the window, I squinted outside at Brady and his roommate Steve. I couldn't believe they were actually doing it--taking me to Malad, where they grew up. I threw on some clothes and did not-a-thing with my hair and we left. I slept the last half of the way.
I couldn't believe how very small it was! Brady showed me some of the town, the places he's talked about...
Then we went to his house and talked to his 27-year-old sister, Stacey, and 15-year-old brother, Devin. After a while, they all wanted to take showers so, just as Brady had slept while I took a shower the evening before, I slept while he took a shower. Only I slept for much longer than his shower took haha. I awoke to him looking at mission pictures on his computer. We went upstairs then and I met his mom! Great first impression, I'm sure... sweatshirt... crazy hair... wiping two hours of sleep from my eyes... and I openly admitted to her that I felt I looked like a train wreck, hahahaha.

It was cool to spend the day with his family. :)
We had to head back kinda of early, though, because I had a date that night. On our way back to Logan, however, we ran out of gas. On the freeway. In between exits. After half an hour, we got a hold of his parents (who had been at a baptism) and they came to our rescue. After putting gas in his car . . . the car wouldn't start. We drove with his parents to a neighbor's house to get jumper cables. They wouldn't work. At length, they finally did work, but his dad said that if we were to drive back to Logan the car would be dead in the morning. We drove all the way back to Malad and his dad fixed the problem in a couple minutes. Take two! We GOT MORE GAS on the way to the freeway this time, and . . . . MADE IT BACK! :)
So Brady and I talked in the car for a while... and eventually Brady fell asleep. Hahahaha, I snuck out of the car and he never woke up. I thought to myself, "Haha, this is just like when I was a little girl and my mom would sleep with me to put me to sleep and then I'd awake at 3 a.m. to find her gone. I wonder what he'll do when he wakes up..."
About seven minutes later I get a txt from Brady, "What the freak?"
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha
He didn't know where he was, how long he'd been there, or if my being there had been a reality or a dream. (ooo sounds like something out of fairy tale... hahaha)
I told him to come up if he was hungry and he did so I made us sandwiches at 1:30 a.m. haha. :)