Where am I now?

In Utah.

Until January.

No, I'm not done with school. Just a little burned out. So my advisor 'suggested' I take a semester off. And since I can't legitimately work in Canada (or do anything else other than attend school), I packed up and moved back home. Home is okay. And it is only for a semester.

But if anyone finds their way out to Utah in the next few months, let me know. I am here. And I am kind of bored. I'm working part-time. And that's about it.

The boyfriend, Jared, is still in Canada. We decided that doing the whole long distance thing would be hard so we sort of left things like we would keep in touch but not really be dating and we should date other people and see how we felt when I got back in January . . .

That plan lasted about two days. As hard as it is to be in a long distance relationship, it's actually harder not to be in one. So we're still dating--taking things slow--and he's coming to visit me in November. In the meantime, thank goodness for video chat. And texting. And blogging. And phone calls. And email. And facebook. And actual mail. 

So apparently I'm dating someone

I know. This is a strange and unprecedented turn of events. His name is Jared, and you may have heard of him previously in such adventures as 'the boy in the beaver suit' and 'the great four-wheeling disaster. We just started dating like two weeks ago, so it's nothing serious, but I thought you all would want to know.

We met:Some time last semester when he came over to my apartment to help Sara-Jayne prep food for break-the-fast. Before that, we had never noticed each other even though we had been in the same ward for over a year.

We went out:Some time in January. I think. As friends. We ate tacos at an awesome restaurant downtown and then watched Pride & Prejudice (his pick). The long one. Seriously. He really likes that movie.

He likes:Sports
Cars
Politics

Probably in that order. He'll watch the playoffs for any sport, but I'm pretty sure he would watch football all day everyday if he could.

Also he's a Republican capitalist. Not a socialist like most Canadians. So I like that.

Things we do together:Play catch
Go to the batting cages
Go to car auctions
Go-karting
Quadding/4-wheeling
Eat at delicious local ethnic restaurants
Ditch out on parties early
Water fight
Couch pillow fight--to the death
Publicly food fight
Text fight
Ransom each other's thefted personal items
Pay for speeding tickets at the courthouse downtown
Watch movies like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Karate Kid, and a documentary about Bo Jackson because it's tough finding shows that meet my rating standards are also interesting to him. He likes Pride & Prejudice and North & South, but Princess Diaries almost killed him.

Things I like about him:If I kick him, he will kick me back. Literally. This has happened.
If he doesn't want to do something, he'll tell me. Not just go along with it to be nice. Like you should have seen his face when I invited him to come with me to watch a social documentary about people living in Siberia. And likewise, if I tell him I don't like something, he doesn't run home crying to his mom.
But he will help me out with anything. He will help anyone out with anything. He likes to help.
Also, we have fun together. Which is my favorite part. I mean, he owns a beaver costume. So that should tell you something. Really I didn't know our first date was a date because I didn't know dates could be fun.

But now I know, and knowing is half the battle.

And then I got hit by a car.

On purpose--I mean, I didn't get hit on purpose, but the driver hit me with intention.

I was standing in the Costco parking lot with RS pres Sarah after purchasing food for an activity. Sarah was putting the groceries in the car (because I am an invalid), and I was leaning up against the back of the car with the cart in front of me.

An old man in a white Cadillac pulled up into the stall behind our car and just sat there with his engine still on.   We assumed he wanted our space or something. But then he rolled down his window and started telling us to move our cart out of his way. Seeing that we only had two items left in the cart, we told him to 'just hold on a minute.'

Apparently he didn't have a minute.

So he just pulled forward, ran into our cart which ran into me, and pinned my injured body against the car.

Then he got out of the car and proceeded with his business like nothing had happened. So a lady who was down a few stalls from us got out of her car and started screaming at him and swearing up a storm. He yelled back at her a little bit, but basically he just got some pots out of his trunk and walked into the store.

Sarah and I just stood there. Shocked and confused. I kind of wanted to pop the guys tires or key his car. Fortunately for him, we are nice people. So we just went home.

But at this point, I'm pretty sure Canada is trying to kill me.

The weirdest date ever

I'll skip to the exciting part here: I was out quadding (four-wheeling) with my friend Jared near his parents' house, which is kind of in the middle of nowhere out past the suburbs.

And we flipped the quad. 

Helmets were involved, so no head trauma. But I was on the back of the quad, and when it flipped forward, I flew over the top and landed on my tailbone. I'm not really sure what happened next. I just remember lying on the ground. Jared kept trying to help me up, but I kept telling him I wasn't ready to get up yet. Eventually, I made it onto my side. Then sitting. Then standing. The quad was okay, so we were going to ride it back to the house. 

But shortly after we started going, I passed out. Like really out. I didn't know where I was or who he was or what was going on. 

So then we decided walking would be safer. It was getting dark. We were a little bit lost. And we were two or three miles from the house. I don't know how long it took us to get back, but it was a long, slow, painful walk. Jared kept asking me questions to make sure I was still lucid. I got most of them pretty well. For some reason I couldn't remember the counselors in the First Presidency, but I think that's okay.

I had lost my shoes in the fall. Jared found them, but my feet were pretty dirty. So when we got to the house, his mom washed my feet for me because I couldn't sit or bend over. Then he and his brother-in-law, who had been staying over, gave me a blessing. Then we went to the medical clinic.

Let me just say, the medical clinic is a great place for a date. We learned each other's medical histories, I was in a hospital gown, he had to take his shirt off part of the time, and we gave urine samples.

It's a good thing we were already friends.

The x-rays were really painful. They kept telling me to put my legs and hips in positions that my legs and hips did not want to go in. The x-ray table is not soft, and my backside really hurt.

In the end, I came out okay (minus some major bruising and swelling--like my backside is pretty black--that's not the sort of thing you take pictures of, so you'll just have to trust me on that), but Jared has a broken foot and has to wear a boot for six weeks.

We got back to his house around 4am, and I stayed in the guest bedroom because I didn't want him to have to drive me all the way into town and then get home on his own. This morning, his mom drove me home, and here I am. Standing, as I type this. Because sitting is just not my favorite thing right now. And it probably won't be for awhile.

So while, I don't necessarily want to relive that experience again, I can say this about it: 

It was definitely the least boring date I have ever been on. And I hope it stays that way.

The end.

Some birthday festivities

Check out what crashed my girls night birthday party.

By the way, that's a beaver, not a bear. And he did a little dance to 'ABC' from the Jackson 5. So it was pretty much awesome.


Aside from wearing that pink tiara and hanging out with the beaver, I also attended karaoke night at the home of some my ward members. And since I actually moved my birthday party to make way for their karaoke night, they promised me a birthday cake and a birthday song in Spanish--because I didn't want to be sung to.

The big question here, though, is did I sing at karaoke night?

Yes. Yes, I did. Twice.

First I busted out some 1-D with my good fried Kiera (see the institute post below) and her roommate. Then I joined the RS pres (I'm her first counselor) for 'Popular' from Wicked. I always like to try new stuff.

Now back to the birthday cake. The maker of the cake is from Mexico, so he said we had to do this Mexican tradition where the birthday person takes a huge bite of cake using only their face. Of course, I totally agreed to this. So they lined up five people with recent/soon birthdays and put one person in front of us holding a big piece of cake and another person behind us to 'help out.' You can guess how that went . . .

Kiera, who was holding my piece of cake, kindly painted some extra frosting on my face afterward. But I fared much better than the girl whose boyfriend was holding her piece of cake. He really liked this activity. Apparently, boyfriends are mean. I'll just keep Kiera.

Achieving the goal

Last year, I went to the institute graduation here in Edmonton. Because that's what you are in YSA and live in not Utah. You go to a lot of YSA and institute activities. Even the lame ones. That is where all of your friends will be. And they will have food.

Last year, when I went to institute graduation, I had a sudden desire to graduate from institute myself. Of course, I graduated from BYU and finished the religion courses there, but I've had plenty of time since then to also graduate from institute. I just never cared before.

Last year, after institute graduation, my good friend Kiera Johnson and I decided that this year we would both graduate from institute. We also discovered that we both still needed Book of Mormon II along with a number of electives, so we should take Book of Mormon II together.

These things were never spoken of again. But this past semester we both showed up in the same Book of Mormon II class. We usually didn't get to sit together because we weren't very on time. But we were both there. (One time when we did sit together, we didn't really learn anything because we kept distracting each other, so it's probably good that it didn't happen more often.) Last night, we were texting and discovered that we were both, in fact, graduating from institute. (Then Kiera said that if one of us were a boy, this could be our love story.)

Mission accomplished.

This year, Kiera and I decided there must be some power in the plans we make at institute graduation. Like they actually happen. So we should make all our important plan there. At institute graduation. Together.

This year, at institute graduation, we decided that by next year at institute graduation, we will have boyfriends. This is going to happen. It's the magic of institute graduation. Also, it would be nice if the boyfriends were two brothers. Then Kiera and I could become related to each other, and it really would be our love story.

It's Spring in Edmonton!

Alright, so it's been a few years since I blogged. But there's really not that much to say about my life in Canada. Also, if I do have something to say, I use facebook. But I think that most of my friends who ever read this blog, do not often use facebook. So here you go.

Results of the March 21 (first day of spring) snowstorm which caused a 100-car pile-up on the highway. This was really just an addition to the snow we already had, but it made spring seem so much further away.

The snow pile by my front porch.

And by the garage.

More snow.

When I went out to scrape my car in the morning, the snow was above the bottom of the car door. So I cleared out some of it just by opening the door. Also, based on how I'm standing, the snow does not look very high. Do not be deceived. I am standing on about a foot and half of packed down snow which has accumulated over the past six months. Notice how tall I look next to my car. I'm not that tall.

Here I am in some snow up to my skirt. It is not a long skirt. And I am not standing on the actual ground. Just on more snow.

That's our little snow trench/path to the front door. The path itself is about a foot high of packed down snow. But when it gets warm out, the snow gets soft, and sometimes when you're walking, you fall in. Then you are sad.

Snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow.