Winter snow and summer smells...

hello there!

I really need to be getting to bed so I can wake up tomorrow for my 8 o clock class, so I will have to make this short. I just wanted to report on at least one recent happening: It snowed Saturday/Sunday. We got about 3-ish inches, I'd say. SNOW. Seriously. What the heck?!

At least, though, they were friendly flakes (as outlined a couple posts ago) and it was very pretty. So Kent and I went out and had something of a snow fight. Not a snow-ball fight, because there were few actual snowballs involved. Except, well, he mostly threw them at me, until I dropped a bunch of snow down the back of his shirt and considered us even. And then he pushed me into a (deeper than expected) puddle-- I was only wearing flip-flops because I didn't want to bother with socks. So then I guess we were even, even though I still think I won the whole ordeal.

ANYway. I shall quickly recap my weekend: on Friday, I went home and took a nap and then erin picked me up to babysit for the evening. I got pizza and watched the boys and played outside a little bit with will and put them to bed and it was an overall successful babysitting experience. I got up on Saturday morning and took a test at the testing center-- GRRR. Then Erin picked me up and we went to Roberts and then McDonalds (Or Old McDonald's as Will calls it) where he ran off into the play area and was so excited to be there. He came out for food though, so he must have been really hungry. But anyway-- about 10 minutes after he disappeared into the playarea, erin and i can hear a little boy going "Ow! Ow! Owwww!! Stop it!" and quickly figured out it was will. He was being trampled by some bigger kids and got knocked over and just started bawling. But he was up in the world of plastic bubbles and we had to convince him to come down the slide before he could be comforted. It happened another time after that. Sad. Poor guy. He was so excited to go play and then just got himself knocked over and trampled and came out bawling.

Then we went to The Quilted Bear and then Erin brought me home. Kent came over and we talked for a while and then went out to dinner and then went up the canyon to a bonfire some of his friends were having. It was a cool (weather-wise) night, and cloudy, which made star-watching impossible. But it was fun. Well, it was fun for the 15-ish minutes that everyone else was there-- we got there just as the whole thing was ending. But, the fire was going long enough for me to come home smelling like camp fire. I love that smell. Seriously. It reminds me of camping and girls' camp and just general outdoorsy-ness and I love it. I am tempted not to wash the sweatshirt I wore, just so I can smell it for a little longer. That smell means summer has come.

Another smell that means summer/spring is off to a start is one I smelled while walking from class to class a couple weeks ago. There was this annoying mechanical buzz in the air and a whiff of something meeting my nose-- I couldn't place it, until I looked over and saw LAWN MOWERS!!! Cut grass-- there is a smell that means winter is over! It was wonderful.

Of course, Mother Nature decided to trick us with some snow on Saturday night and Sunday night.... Doesn't She know April Fools' Day is TOMORROW?? I think Her joke was just a couple days early. Poor timing on Her part.

Anyway. I think I'm off to do my reading for English and then I shall go to bed.
I have pictures of the snow to put up, but I will have to do that tomorrow/some other time.

I hope you all are enjoying yourselves and having a lovely last-day-of-March.
until again,
mollie

p.s.- tonight my ward rented out Spring Haven Lodge. It was one of the coolest places ever. :)

pictures and random (not pineapple) tidbits

hello there--

I know-- it seems so soon to be hearing from me again, but what can I say? I've got a lot of homework to avoid. It's mostly just the fact that I'm feeling like my advance effort isn't paying off, so I have no choice but to live in panic mode for meeting deadlines-- I seem to do better that way. Which stinks.

I only have a few things to say, but this time I have pictures, so hopefully if you get bored with the text, you'll at least have something to look at.

1) I have been writing about how my WS teacher is weird, but haven't been able to come up with a specific example, until about a week ago. We were talking about single-parent homes and how this affects children, and one of the girls raised her hand and said "I think my mom did a great job with us. And she used to say that it was lonelier to be in a marriage without love than to actually be alone." My WS professor interrupted her next sentence with "Oh yes, because your father walked out on you when you were two, so you must not remember much of him, if you don't mind my saying" and then she nervously laughed and the whole class was just kind of like "Holy crap I can't believe she just said that!" So I have been wondering if this is just my opinion, but this past week our professor was 10 minutes late so we were all sitting around talking and everyone seems to have the same opinion of her. She interrupts people, and always makes the discussion focus around her and if you're not saying something in line with what she's thinking, she'll cut you off and call on someone else. And she says random, uncomfortable things like "Oh yes, because your father walked out on you when you were two... if you don't mind my saying"...

2) Last Saturday, Erin and Bryce were going to dinner with some friends on the same day they had scheduled Will to go to an Easter party at my grandma's new assisted living place. So Erin asked me to take him, which I did. It was sad to see my grandma there, but Will had a blast. He is really funny around new kids, but once he got warmed up to the place, he didn't want to leave. He behaved himself very well through the egg-hunt and we got matching tattoos on our cheeks. It's sad that there aren't any pictures, although the nurses at the place took a few with Will, me and grandma. Maybe they'll circulate at some point. As I said, it was fun, but I am glad that I can give Will back at the end of the day.

3) After the Easter party, Erin and Bryce went out with those friends and left their kids (the baby had gone out with them earlier) and their friends' child with me. The friends' child Max was quite quiet (looks like a typo, but isn't!). So when Will started screaming as he is wont to do, Max started crying. In order to pick up Max, I had to put down Sawyer. Sawyer started crying. In order to calm Max down, I gave him one of Will's toys to play with and Will started crying. This happened three times throughout the couple hours and trying to hold all three of them at once wasn't working, though that's all they each wanted. Oh my goodness- it is at these times when I really notice my lack of a third arm.

4) My twin is getting married this summer, in case you haven't read it on her blog (which you can see by clicking on the side where it says "My sister Megan".) Does that mean we're growing up?! I hope not! I'm not ready yet! On the bright side, I get to be the maid of honor. No, Megan hasn't officially asked me, but I considered myself asked when we were born together. AND, it might mean I get to go home this summer, which wasn't originally going to happen. So that's happy.

5) I think I may have developed an allergy. I don't want to be allergic to things! I never have been before! But, for the past three days, I've had a runny nose with sneezes and watery eyes. Sounds like an allergy to me. Maybe it'll go away? I'm still holding out hope.

6) Today was Easter and we had Easter dinner (with Kyle and cousin Liz) at Erin's along with an egg hunt with Will. It was quite fun. Which reminds me! OH MY GOODNESS I LEFT MY EASTER BASKET AT ERIN'S!!!! SAD! I'll have to call her. Will stole my camera and captured the picture of Kyle with his mouth open and all. He also snapped one of me, which I refuse to post because it was hideous. Maybe someday when I feel more secure. :) Will got CARS tattoos which he shared with me. And the picture of Sawyer with the picture in it (follow?) well, the picture is of Erin when she was a baby. I'd say they look pretty similar. He's a cute little guy.

7) I have three quizzes and three papers to take/write this week for school and I think I might explode. :(

8) I went on a date last night-- bowling and smoothies and a movie. It was much fun.

8a) I just might be dating a boy named Kent. (yes Megan, I do feel like the pot calling the kettle black.) For anyone who's wondering what that is a reference to, Kent is almost 27. And I gave Megan a really hard time about dating (and now getting engaged to!) Chad who's almost 28. And yes, as it has been rumored, Kent has red hair.

9) I hope you're all having a lovely day/week. Tomorrow it's supposed to be 65 degrees out and I'm beyond excited. I think I am going to love the summer here, when the sun won't set until 9 o clock. Sunlight and I are good friends-- as long as he knows not to burn me. (Yes, I just made the sun a man.)

Much love and missing-ness to you all,
mollie
p.s.- I changed my background, so it should have a sunflower design on it (apparently some computers don't show it.) Anyway, if you want to view the pictures without weird sunflower-ness showing through, just click on them and they'll come up in their own window. Just FYI.

long (awaited?) update

ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, gather 'round for the next new and exciting chapter of my life...

so i'm mostly just writing (no, i don't feel like capitalizing my Is. It's my blog. and my pinky is lazy.) because I'm avoiding other things to do. Well, not necessarily other things i need to do, but other things i should be doing.

i am currently sitting in the basement of the SWKT because i just got out of class at 6. i've been on campus since 7:50 am. AM. and then at 6:15 i get an email saying my psychology group wants to meet at 9 pm. ... fabulous.

so anyway. back to the post. i guess i'll start with the pictures in the old update.
~ the first couple pictures of my hand are a result of an outing with kent. this was quite a long time ago. we went to this rec. center that had all sorts of things: pool, racquetball courts, rock climbing, basketball, ice skating, gym things, etc. well, we were standing in the gym with the other people that went and kent picked up a medicine ball. wondering how much it weighed, i asked him. and he, instead of just telling me, threw it at me. It weighed 25 lbs and as much as i like to pretend i'm not a stereotypically weak female, i am a stereotypically weak female and i tried to catch it, but it pinched my finger between it and my knee and [the ball] fell to the ground. my finger hurt but i didn't think anything of it, until i looked down and thought it was bleeding. so we stopped. and, the camera doesn't focus on it for some reason, but the red spot is a series of tiny little raised red dots. it's kind of weird. like someone took a red ball point pen and just drew on me for a while. it hurt a lot. my knee developed a lovely purple-ish brown bruise which was, admittedly, one of the coolest looking bruises i've ever received. And just so you know, kent was very apologetic, and he brought me a get-well card and ice cream a couple days later when i still hadn't healed. it stayed on my finger that way for a couple weeks until i had a dream that i (gross, i know) peeled it off. and then the next day i did. (even grosser.)

~i think the next pictures are of the dress. i got a new dress! My roommate Katie's mother sent her some clothes in the mail that she got on clearance and this dress happened to be included. It didn't fit katie, so she said i could try it on, and when it fit, she said i could keep it. A free dress. With polka dots. It was seriously my lucky day. I couldn't bring myself to take it off and i finished my laundry in the basement of my building wearing it at 11 pm. a polka dotted dress. seriously. and i usually avoid halter-top style dresses at all costs, but i have to say this one worked out. Seriously. A free polka dotted dress. One of the best things ever

~pictures of me and ashley (my roommate from last year). Ashley and I have been trying to catch up with each other for a while now and finally a couple weekends ago, we made plans. I walked to her apartment (fine I'll capitalize. It's bugging me.) and we caught up and talked for quite a while (we're quite good at that...) and then watched a movie. It was fun-- I miss her! Old friends are great things.

Alright, that addresses all the pictures-- now I'm just going to offer random tidbits from the time of my last substantial post and now.

~I went to Rexburg to visit Megan. Mom was here and wanted to drive the car up to Megan, so I went with her. Our cousin Liz came along and we made a weekend out of it. We saw Megan play in a Sousa concert on Friday night and then went out to Frontier Pies (my first time. and they didn't have the pie I wanted so...) Anyway. I went to the bathroom and was on my way back to the table when I rounded the corner and practically ran into a group of guys wearing suits (not an oddity in Utah/Idaho-- they're probably Mormon). One of them looked at me and gave me a two hand-gun salute and said "Hey Miss Dickerson!" all friendly-like. Not knowing what to do, or how to explain that I wasn't actually her, I quickly said hello and slid around the corner and told my sister to go talk to them lest they think she's rude. (Now that I think about it, I was wearing her clothes...) She took me back around the corner with her and these guys are like "Oh my gosh there's two of you!" ... That's one of Megan's and my favorite parts of having each other visit-- showing each other off like a freak-show. Awww. (p.s.- Megan and Mom took pictures at this event, but I don't have any. Sorry)

~On the Saturday of our visit, Megan was in a recording session for the day so Mom, Liz and I headed off to the Museum of Idaho to see their Egyptian exhibit (after waking up to driving snow... Provo was 50 degrees that day...). We drove all the way up there, and we were about 500 feet away from the museum. All we had to do was cross train tracks. Well, of course the crossing guard went down and a train came and we were stuck there. We waited for about 40 minutes and then just turned around, drove down the road, crossed at the end of the train, and made our way back to the museum.

~ (I'm trying to write my post in convenient increments. Be happy.) In this museum, there was a sign that said "No food/drink" at the door. Mom and Liz and I were walking around and noticed this old volunteer guy following us. I stopped to look at a statue when I saw this thing out of the corner of my eye and turned to meet the gaze of the old man about 8" from my face. Trying not to jump back in surprise, I offered a nervous smile and said "Hello" to which he responded "Are you chewing gum?" I had no idea what he was getting at and hesitantly said yes (thinking... "They sell it at the store-- you can get your own..."). Without saying a word, and without moving back or releasing me from our staring contest, his arm moves and he's got a tissue-paper bag thing that he has pulled up to my chin. I look down and see a colorful assortment of slimy wads of gum. I look at him and then look back at the bag and realize I'm supposed to be doing something. "Oh. OH." I say and then I awkwardly fumbled the gum out of my mouth into his little bag and he walked away without a word. There were no signs about gum-chewing. I am a gum chewer (sometimes-- when my jaw doesn't hurt-- which has been happening more frequently lately.) But I am also an obedient rule follower. I don't like getting in trouble, especially not in public. I would have spit my gum out if I had seen a "No gum" sign-- or I at least would have tried to conceal it better. That's a first- I've never been asked my a complete stranger to spit my gum into their personal bag of gum collection. Apparently volunteers at the Museum of Idaho don't have much to do... (p.s.- I could understand a little more if I was a kid with ice cream or a lollipop or something or even a piece of gum. But I'm clearly not a kid under the age of 12-- you'd think I could be trusted not to stick my gum on their glass display cases...)

~ I was walking through campus the other day and saw a girl wearing the same shoes I have-- my favorite red ones. She was also wearing the same coat I have. (I wasn't wearing the shoes or coat at the time.) She was on the phone, but I stopped for half a second and contemplated talking to her. I bet we could have been good friends.

~ A while ago, Sean took me out to dinner and then we went to the BYU Orchestra concert. It was a lot of fun. I love those kinds of things. And we got dressed up, which was fun too.

~I recently heard that due to the expenses involved in my London trip, I will not be coming home this summer unless for some unforeseen emergency, etc. Sad. :(

~My boss said they'd be willing to hire me full-time for Spring semester, which is part of why I'm staying here. 40 hours a week at $8.25/hr. That's better than most things out here.

~I love my job. I had a 20 minute phone call from a lovely man somewhere in Utah (from the Area Code.) He was very nice and understanding and I felt all knowledgeable.

~My co-peer mentor from last semester got called on a mission! What will I do without her?! She taught me all I know! :P

~Spring is the time of engagements and weddings in Utah. There're 6 couples in my ward/at work and 2 that I know of who were friends from last year who are getting married. There's something in the air...

~I am getting bored of updating and really wish I didn't have to be on campus until 10 pm and then walk home...

~I believe I wrote about my English paper that I got a 92 on, and how excited I was because if I really tried I could do really well. Well, knowing that I need (well, I don't need to) to raise my GPA by .01 this semester, I decided to give the next one my best shot. I wrote it in advance and then edited it, and then edited it again. I thought it was pretty solid, and I thought it was way better than the first one. Got it back today. Got an 87. What the?! ... This used to happen in high school- I'd spend forever on an essay and turn it in and get a lower grade than when I skipped lunch to write it in the library the hour before it was due. Boo. Talk about discouraging. How is one supposed to conquer procrastination if doing things in advance gets worse results?!

~I think this is going to be one of my longest posts ever.

~I found a place to live for next year! It's a condo-- it has a living room w/fireplace, kitchen/dining room, 2 bathrooms, laundry room, and 4 private bedrooms. It's a 5 minute walk up to campus, which beats the 15 minutes I walk now. It's S of campus though, which means there's less stuff around (restaurants, etc.) but oh well. I'm thinking it will be a good change and I'm excited. Hopefully I'm not disappointed. (p.s.- housing at BYU is a royal rip-off.)

~I still think Glenwood stinks. I'm learning to come to terms with it though and I think it's a little less awful. It will still be a joyous occasion when I move out.

~My eyes are droopy and I want to take a nap. It is cruel and unusual punishment to have to spend 14 hours on campus in one day.

~There are only 4 more weeks in the semester!

~I did not wear green on St. Patrick's Day. Well, that's not true. I wore green underwear I guess...

~Pie day was on Friday this year! That's not going to happy for another 6 years or something! People here had no idea what I was talking about and I wondered what kind of deprived growing up they had. One of the benefits of growing up in a small town I guess. I was at work and then went to the CougarEat to buy a pie, which I ate at 1:59. And then Sean called and we went out for pie at 10 pm or so. It was quite yummy. Oh Pi Day.

~Kent took me to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat a while ago. I'd never seen it, but I still have some of the music in my head. It was good. I love plays! And I was telling this to Erin and Kent, but I think I almost like the low-budget community theater better. Professional theater is great and I love it, but community theater is just more... unpredictable. In this production, they had a children's choir and there was this little boy (one of two boys surrounded by like 12 girls) who sat on the front step playing with his sleeves and looking generally unenthused about the performance happening on stage. He sang about 1 in 5 words to the songs and at one point he rested his head on his hands and drifted off to sleep. I think there were times when I had more fun watching him than the actual stage activity. You miss out on that in professional drama.

~I went to my co-worker's Junior flute recital. It was wonderful and she played amazingly well and it made me wish I still played a lot.

~Going to the play and the recital (in the same night) made me really long for my high school days of drama and flute. I miss being in plays and I miss playing/auditioning on flute. (Well, not so much the auditioning part... that was scary I guess...) But I miss it. Sad.

~It's only 7:20-- I still have more than an hour to wait.

~I just realized I haven't eaten a real meal all day, except for two slices of pizza at Erin's. I guess that counts.

~I babysat for Erin today while she went to a meeting. Sawyer cried pretty much the whole time but Will was pretty good for the most part. He cleaned up his toys and then we sat at the table and played PlayDoh together and then we had snacktime. He told me his mommy was going to the store to buy him HotWheels. (He was wrong-- Erin says he's been on a HotWheels craze lately). By the time Erin got home, he was getting kind of wild and insisted on running at me with his tongue out and putting it on whatever was closest to his mouth (i.e.- my shoe, my leg, my arm, my forehead.) It was kind of gross. And then we wiped his nose on my arm, which I didn't notice until I went to my Study Abroad Prep class tonight and crossed my arms and felt something gross and looked down and saw a crusty streak of Will-gook across my arm which had dried a lovely dark green. I scraped it off and hoped no one noticed. One of the grossest things ever. Seriously.

~I'm running out of random things to say.

~If I can help it, I will never take 18 credits (BYU's max) and work 10 hrs a week during the same semester again. I might just keel over.

~A couple weeks ago, I turned in a paper 2 minutes before the deadline. I like to procrastinate, but that almost gave me a heart-attack. I will also never do that again.

~I hope I haven't bored you to death.

My life really isn't all that interesting-- that's the problem. But, I try to update every once in a while so you can get a general idea of how things are going, but I don't want to be so general that it's like "yeah, I'm good. the end" so I try to give specifics. Which is why my entries get so long. And plus I type fast, so I forget how long it gets. Anyway. Not important. Just sayin'.

That's all for today,

-mollie

p.s.- I get to change my blog now that St. Patrick's Day is over!! Hurrah!! I was really beginning to dislike the green.

call the wambulance- NOW!

i'm on the verge of tears-- seriously.

i just spent more than an hour writing the amazing, super awesome, perfect post that was supposed to accompany the pictures of my last post, and was seriously hovering my mouse arrow over the "publish" button when my computer froze for no good reason. despite my threatenings of death, it refused to work, and i lost the whole thing.

WAH.

pictures!

so i'm just posting to get the pictures up-- the actual post will come later today. in the meantime, you can use the pictures to try and figure out what the post will be about-- it could be fun.