The last little while has been so much fun, but while I recount the last few weeks I'll probably be jumping around so please bear with me. The leaves are changing colors which is sooo beautiful against the clear blue skies with scattered puffy clouds. (thats the one thing i don't miss about Irvine is the smog) Unfortunately though with the change of temperature and leaf colors means that all the flowers that were in bloom at the beginning of the semester are starting to die and now almost dead. Luckily, the temperature drop so far has been really mild (knock on wood). It only snowed one day last week then the temperature came back up for the most part. Its nice being able to get by on just a sweatshirt or sometimes a coat over whatever I am wearing that day.
I love the beautiful scenery here
The night after my last post my roommates and I had a girls night with our friends in the apartment on the other side of our floor in our complex. We ate ice cream, cookie dough, and pop corn while laying on the couches and watching Pitch Perfect. Literally Pitch Perfect is like the designated movie at this school. Like holy cow. EVERYONE quotes it. And im pretty sure my roommates and I have watched it at least once a week since we have gotten here. It is great. Later that weekend we all went to the General Women's Broadcast in preparation for General Conference. I loved the meeting and took so many notes. It was really cool being there with all of my friends and learning together.
Girls Night
Jen and I in the I-center after the General Women's conference
Last weekend was general conference and that was so great. It was different being away from home and having the responsibility of watching it on my own. I ended up watching the majority of conference alone in my apartment (except for saturday afternoon session and the end of sunday afternoon) as Ellen was down in Utah with her family and Jen and Shaeli were at our friends' apartment. Surprisingly I really liked watching it alone. It was nice to have the peace and quiet along with the spirit that accompanied the meetings. AND I only slept for the second half of one of the talks. I was so proud of myself haha But all in all conference was amazing. During the sunday afternoon session the rest hymn was Called to Serve, and due to the power of that song I could not bring myself to sit at home in my apartment singing BY MY SELF. Yeah. Im lame. Haha So i run to the apartment complex next to ours to where my roommates and friends were to sing with them. The cool thing about that was that when I ran back and forth between the complexes, you could hear conference echo throughout the complex because everyone's sound was up and had their windows open. It was so cool. My friends and I also decided that due to the purely inspired themes of General Conference, there was a definite manifestation that times are changing and the Lord is hastening his work. It makes me so excited for life and to serve a mission, and can feel the pressure to become the best me I can.
Next is cooking. I don't cook too much because I have a meal plan (which the food up here is AMAZING for that), but when I do, it can be a bit frustrating. On friday I went to the store to get ingredients for misc baking and things that I could cook and on the Saturday between conference sessions I decided to make snickerdoodles (Sister Gassin's snicker doodles) because my roommate Jen had been craving them all week. They turned out really well but it is so dry up here and it affects the cooking a lot and makes the dough not as moist. Luckily, they turned out really well and everyone loved them so thanks Sister Gassin! Then on Sunday I decided to make homemade Mac'n'Cheese (a double batch) and invite people over for dinner. It was the 3 of us (Ellen was still in Utah) and 5 of our guy friends because the macncheese makes a lot of food and we definitely wouldn't be able to eat it all by ourselves. I don't know whether it was that no one had had a big homemade meal in a long time or I'm a really good cook but everyone loved it. I also ended up making chocolate cookies which were also really good if I do say so myself. I plan on making Leslie's Chocolate Chip Cookies soon because I've been craving them and now have the recipe >:) i'm stoked.
This week has basically been game week... and well i guess it won't just be this week. It'll probably be the whole semester. Basically Egyptian Rat Slap is the designated game of Ricks Hall apts 284 & 285 and whatever guys are over from Lamprecht Hall. We basically play every night. Its great. And then when we get tired of that game we play Nertz! :D My favoritest game ever in case you were wondering. BUT my roommate makes us play by the DUMBEST RULES EVER. For her your nertz pile is only 13 cards instead of 15 and whatever is left in that pile is -2 per card and if you get nertz you dont get +5. It is lame. (sorry Ellen but it is haha) But don't worry, we do study and do homework together (and maybe talk a bit) in the living room before we get pulled to starting a game.
My roommate has Dr. Pepper cards! I thought of Matt and they're the sister to my moms Mountain Dew
Work has been great. I always have loved working in the theatre but its even cooler cause now I'm getting paid for it. Currently we're working on lighting our show "Dancing at Lughnasa". The set is really cool cause theres the house and we're using real sod for grass. Its pretty awesome.
Hidden Mickey with a ParNel? Dancing at Lughnasa set from the catwalk
Yeah that is real sod/grass
On Monday for family home evening 3 FHE groups all got together and we went to "the dunes"(which is a bunch of sand dunes about 15 minutes out of town after you get out of the fields) and had a bonfire. Well it was supposed to be a bonfire but it ended up just being a normal fire but it was still fun. We roasted marshmallows, starbursts, sour patch kids, and just about anything and everything that you can put on a stick. Then a bunch of wrestling matches broke out which was pretty entertaining.
Part of our group at the dunes Our awesome fire
