13.1

Wooooohooooo!!!!!! I can finally cross something off of my New Year's resolutions list that has been on there for three years: Running a half marathon!

Tricia and I signed up for it in the beginning of June, but since I'm an idiot I didn't start really training for it until two weeks ago. Yup - two weeks. Idiot? Yes. But in the end, I made it! And I definitely couldn't do it with my brother Brad running right beside me. Since Tricia got injured and couldn't run the half, Brad stepped up and said he would do it with me. Though Brad is a much faster runner, he ran the whole way with me. He was always saying that I needed to go my own pace and to not let him try to pressure me. Even when my back was aching and I needed to walk, did he complain or try to tell me to start running again? Nope. Awesome brother? Check.

AND when I was having major issues with part of my costume and needed to scavenge for discarded pants on the side of the road (like a hobo), he stood in front of me while I quick-changed so the other runners couldn't see me. Or the man who was watching the runners just standing off to the side. Haha.

All in all, awesome weekend. Tricia and I carbo-loaded at Brick Oven (awesome). After quite the ordeal of actually getting into our hotel room, we fell asleep to 'Whose line is it Anyway' only to wake up at 5:30 AM to meet Brad and get on our buses. Only to find out that we would wait in our car for another three hours, and THEN get on the bus to get to the start. But we did have some great entertainment. We watched this, and this (obviously)since I was a party rocker for my costume. Well, half of one. Since I ditched my leopard print leggings at about mile 1.

But, like I said. Very fun race, and fun to do it with family and to just hang out with them for the weekend! I'm thinking that another half-marathon is in my near future - let's just hope that I actually train for it this time!

Yoga.....ish.

Seeing how I am not in school this semester, my schedule can be very, very boring. And there aren't many things that I look forward to. But I get excited for Thursday nights. Why, you ask?

Because Thursday is yoga night.

I know, I know. Me doing yoga? I never thought I would live to see the day. Though at one point in my life I used to be able to do this:

.....ish.

I now look more like something like this:

.....ish.

Though I may not be the most flexible person on the planet (believe me, I would be in the circus if that were the case), I look forward to Thursday nights. I can just relax, breathe, focus, and do some weird poses that supposedly make my body stronger. And believe me - I am sore the next day.

Moral of the story, I'm doing yoga and really enjoying it. And hopefully I get better. And hopefully I can do more when I am a student again. Yippee! (Who would have ever thought that I would say something to the affect that I want to go to school...)

Meanwhile at Lee's:

{While I was working}
Customer (pointing to a magazine): Hey! Aren't you that girl on the magazine? You look like her!
Me (pointing to the same magazine): You mean that girl?
Customer: Yeah.
Me: You mean that girl who just got out being in jail for four years for murder?
Customer:....Yeah.
Me: Nope. Not her.
(Customer walks away).




Grrrreat.

I dreamed a dream in 8th grade...

*Warning* If you don't like Les Miserables, stop reading NOW.

(A conversation from a couple of weeks ago):

Me: "Hey Mom. Will you get a movie for me from your Netflix account?"
Mom: "Which one?"
Me: "Les Miserables....mmmmmmmtheonewithnickjonasmmmmmmm......"
Mom: "What?"
Me: "It's the one with Nick Jonas."
Mom: (hurtful laughter)
Me: "He's the only person I knew of, OK Mom?! Stop laughing. Stop. Laughing."

Yeah, I said it. Nick Jonas. What's it to you? In my life I've heard the music from Les Miserables. You know the ones: 'On My Own', 'I Dreamed A Dream', 'Bring Him Home' - but I've never known the story. I mean, in 8th grade we had try-outs to sing solos for our 'Les Mis' medley. I know - pretty cool. And I got a solo for 'Bring Him Home'. I was cool enough to get a boy's solo. Once again - I know. Unfortunately She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (not to be confused with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named) who was a member of my 8th grade choir was mad that she didn't get a solo, so my director canned the whole thing. I was ticked. To think that that would have been my singing debut! Missed opportunities...

Anyway. We have a songbook at my house with the music in it and I love to play the songs that I know, but I've never ventured to try the ones that I didn't know. Well, my best friend Mandy was up for the weekend and we were just hanging out at my house, when I decided to play the piano. I know - I'm a music nerd. Feel free to call me that to my face. My friend asked me to play some songs that I didn't know of and (surprise, surprise) they were pretty. Just like the rest of them. Hence my interest to watch the movie.

On the night before Mandy's farewell for her mission, I got to my parent's house and the movie was here! Knowing that I had to get up at 6:00 AM to drive to American Fork, I started the movie at midnight and made it until intermission. Then I crashed. Just like the barricade....

After I got back from Mandy's farewell, I started watching the second half of the movie. Mom came in and said that she wouldn't watch it because it wasn't watchable. But she came in towards the end and we had to go through the WHOLE 3-hour movie to watch all of the songs, because according to her, the other parts are "boring". Oh Mom. We then had to go through all our *new* songs that we had discovered in our songbook and go through them. All in all, I think we had that movie on for about 5 hours that day. I was in Les Miserables heaven.

Watching that play just took me back to performing in High School: the rush from the audiences cheers, the adrenaline right before you go on stage, the excitement in the air right before the curtain drops - I love it all. And watching that just took me back.

Oh, to be a perfomer. I think I would love it.

Here are some of my favorites. Now mind you, I have been listening to Les Miserables for the past three weeks and love almost ALL of the songs. But these were the ones that I just really love! And half are songs that are all new to me. Sorry that these are just the links. I tried to upload the videos and it took FOR-EV-ER.

This one is really cool - it has the original London cast mixed with the 25th Anniversary cast.


I may or may not have listened to this song 8 times in a row. Yes, it is over 7 minutes long. Enjolras' voice is so good.


This one is amazing! Definitely one to listen to.

And last but definitely not least, this one. Seriously.

Oh the places I would go....

....if only I had the money.

I've recently joined Pinterest. Not sure that this is such a good idea - I hear that it's very addicting.

Which I understand now. It's like a whole new facebook, but only pictures. picturebook! (copyright pending).

One of the many boards that I like to look at are boards where people post pictures of where they want to go, and it has awakened a sleeping giant! Going to Mexico was just the start....I want to go so many places. I thought to myself today, "Man, I wish I were a Kardashian so I could be loaded and go anywhere I want." I'm not really sure why I had to choose a Kardashian, but that is not the point.

Here, drool over some pictures:








Seriously.

My Mom and I made a promise to each other that in 2014 we would take a trip to Europe. So, when you are reading this Mom (which will be after I tell her that I've made another post), I hope you realize what you have gotten yourself into! I'm seeing some mighty fine places that we need to hit up. (Mom: 'hit up' means 'go to.')

"And now, Harry, let us step out into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure."

Harry Potter.

Two words that, honestly, have been such a large part of my life.

I have such fond memories of Harry Potter.

-Listening to my mom read it to me in 5th grade when she was my teacher, and the on-going argument as to whether Hagrid was pronounce Haaa-grid or Hay-grid (Eat that, Allison Tait!), and always just KNOWING that my mom pronounced it right. Which she did.
-Going to the Lehi Library and looking at the newspaper clipping that showed Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint, and being so in awe of them. And then thinking it was SO COOL that we were all the same age.
-Watching the first movie and being so jealous of Hermione.
-Watching the second movie on VHS with my dad and having nightmares about a certain basilisk.
-Being one of 24 others in Mrs. Dubois' 6th grade class reading 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.' And then acting certain parts out. Man I loved that class.
-Being so mad at my Dad for reading Book 4 first. Who does that?!
-Feeling pure hatred for Delores Umbridge. Literally typing this, just makes me so mad. My parents and I listened to this audiobook on our way to California and I had clenched fists many-a-time...
-Watching 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets' with Allison and my parents in the tiny Brigham City theater the night before my dad went to the hospital (not planned).
-Being so heartbroken when all of the 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' books were all sold out, only to get a copy from my own Harry Potter Fairy on the doorstep :)
-Picking Brad up from his mission and seeing EVERYONE reading Book 6 in the airport.
-Trying to read the last book while my sister Allison, my mom, and my dad were all trying to read it at the same time. I have distinct memories of my mom hiding the book so no one but she could find it.
- Listening to 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' on the car drive up to Canada. Best idea ever. I remember getting so excited to drive anywhere so we could listen to more parts of the book.

I could honestly go on and on....these books have been a part of my life. I am one of the people who goes to every opening night (even in Mexico) and dresses up. When people ask me "If you could be in ANY movie, which one would you be in?" I always reply, "Besides Harry Potter, right?" These books are just so...(excuse the word)...magical. Every time I read them I just get caught up into the adventure of it all. The fight against good and evil. These books just have so much heart to them. I always get so angry at people who don't read them just because 'everyone else is.' They are missing out on so much.

Tears have been shed over these books and movies, and more will be shed when the realization hits that I won't have anymore books to look forward to, or midnight movies to attend. I will always cherish the memories in my life that are Harry Potter related. Because there are many. I know this is cheesy, but it is all true. I truly love these books, and I am so sad to see them come to an end.

Thank you to Ron - for always being the one who kept me laughing in the books, and now for making me wish I was your super-cool non-Squib girlfriend.
Thank you to Hermione - for being my role model, and for letting me dress like you for more than one Halloween costume party.
Thank you to Dumbledore - for being so quotable. If I were one of those people who had boards in their houses with sayings on them, mine would have your words on them.
Thank you to Harry - for always trying to do what was right for your friends and for the good of mankind, Wizard and Muggle alike.

And lastly, thank you to JK Rowling - for making this all possible.

You have truly made my life magical.

I listened to this in a Relief Society lesson a couple of weeks ago, and thought I would share it with anyone who hasn't heard/seen it. I really enjoyed it!



Also, I got called to be a Relief Society instructor and had my first lesson ever on Sunday. I am still alive!!! Thank goodness. I'm actually really excited for this calling - definitely different than teaching kids, but a learning experience nonetheless.

I was going to use this clip for my lesson "Become As a Little Child," but my computer was being dumb. But I still laugh a lot when I watch it!

Mexico-sick.

I'm homesick...

...but not for Tremonton (Sorry Mom and Dad!). I'm homesick for a little town in Mexico called Tehuacan. Where the streets are dirty and there are dogs everywhere. Where people would look at me funny and then say any English word that they know. I miss almost getting hit by the combis, and eating mystery meat in tacos (it's better to not ask sometimes). I miss bartering for fresh orange juice at the street corners. I miss playing with my little brothers. I miss the place where I wasn't just 'Suzy.'

I was 'Teacher Suzy'.

Can you blame me?



These are my kids at the ILP school. I miss them so much! Benjamin was just the funniest kid - if I turned my back for one second he would be upstairs hiding in the bathroom, or outside playing with something he knew he wasn't supposed to, or finding the kitchen timer and not giving it back (a favorite past-time of his. Why? I'm not sure). He made sure that everyday we our class discussion about John Cena, because I obviously didn't know enough about him. In the video if you listened carefully, you would hear me say "If you speak Spanish you'll go in the cockroach corner." Funny story: That room, lovingly dubbed The Dungeon, was quite the room to behold. Cracked windows, creepy door - the works! Well, since one of the doors in the school is just bars (like unto a jail), all sorts of fun things would crawl into our school. NASTY. It was a common occurrence during the rainy season to go on mosquito hunts with rolled up newspapers. If we didn't do it, we would be miserable for all of class time. Well, one day we went into the room and there were three dead cockroaches on the floor. Gross! We were all freaking out and I think that I may have blocked it from my memory how we got rid of them, because I don't remember it. In the end, one of the cockroaches ended up under a chair in the corner which was then christened, 'The Cockroach Corner.' In ILP, if one of the students spoke in Spanish they had to go sit in The Spanish Chair, but since these kids were older and more sophisticated (obviously), they got a...cooler...place to go when they spoke Spanish.

Needless to say, they spoke English.



These are some of my kids at Discovery. Mikel is one of my favorites!They were so crazy and caused me so much stress and I wanted to pull my hair out at times, but they were always so sweet. They loved doing the activities that I planned and were so sad when I left. Is it bad that I was glad they were going to miss me? Judge.

I found this gem of a picture. I wish I had this boys talent!

"What is this, Horseville? Because I'm surrounded by naysayers. Wordplay!"

Who says I can't run the 5K this Saturday? Well, lots of people might, seeing how I went running for two miles yesterday and it took an embarrassingly long amount of time. But! I will prove them wrong. It will still take an embarrassingly long amount of time (sorry Tricia!), but I will still do it AND look like a champion. Word. It might be the first race of our race series, but you've gotta start somewhere. The bottom is a good place to start, I guess.

Here are some great things that I am addicted to right now:




1) I recently jumped on the 30 Rock bandwagon (thank you Netflix!) and I don't know if it is Liz Lemon, or actually Tina Fey, or if they are one-and-the-same, but I find myself having "Liz Lemon" moments all of the time. Also, I have watched this video a ridiculous amount of times. Please feel free to judge.



2) Melody Gardot. Or Pinata Garnier as Brad likes to call her. I really like her music and I just bought one of her piano books. Now if I could just sing and play like her I would be set for life.



3) More Korean Pop music! Or K*Pop as we 'in the know' like to call it. I recently ran into one of my good friends from high school and somehow found about our common love of Korean Pop music. I'm still trying to remember how that topic even came up. But she loves it a million times more than me, and gave me a whole post-it note covered in songs that I should look up - and she did not disappoint! My poor roommates have had to listen to this music all weekend. But I know that they secretly love it.

I mean, look at this dance. C'mon!


But really - let's hope that I don't die on Saturday.

corporate juice pimps. and bus drivers with no heart.

You heard me right. I'm talking about YOU Jamba Juice! Whether it be your delicious smoothies, or equally-delicious over-priced oatmeal, I love your product. I'm eatin' what you're makin'. I'm pickin' up what you're puttin' down. I'm mowin' what you're growin'. I'm wearin' what you're sewin'.



Anyway.

The thing with Jamba Juice is that it is mucho dinero and I can only go every once in a while. I don't know what it is about their specific smoothies, but I can never just seem to replicate them! Even with all of the "verified" recipes that I search for on the internet, they just turn out to be a so-so smoothie. So when I actually go to Jamba Juice and get one, it is worth it to me. So today before class, I decided that for some reason or another I deserved a Jamba Juice. So I took the thirty-second drive and ordered my Red Gummy Bear smoothie. (Weird story: I went and ordered my smoothie and the girl said, "Don't you mean White Gummy Bear?" No, I do not mean WHITE Gummy Bear! I said RED. Well, I said that in my head at least. Well the girl turns to her co-worker and asks how she makes it and the other girl said, "It's just White Gummy Bear, but add some red." What sort of red are you adding?! Blood? Crayons? Raw hamburger?)

Eventually I got my smoothie and thoroughly enjoyed most of it, but I looked at my clock and realized that I needed to go to class, so I ran out to the bus stop. As soon as I got on the bus I sat down and took a long sip. So good. Well I look in the bus driver's mirror and she is giving me a knowing look and pointing at the tiny trash can that they have on the bus. The nerve! She wouldn't start the bus until I threw it away. I thought that I might have a Rosa Parks moment, but decided that I didn't want all of the press from it. So, I threw it away. There was still a good 1/4 left!

As I was walking to the library I thought of all other nasty qualities that the bus driver was sure to have... Stealing candy from babies...giving pennies to children on Halloween...taking tennis balls off of the bottom of elderly peoples' walkers ...but I needed to stop. I'm sure that she is a -- nice -- person. Just doing her job of taking her passengers to and from where they needed to go. As soon as I admitted this to myself, a girl came up to me and gave me a FREE peanut butter and jelly sandwich. What the?! Did you see that one coming? Because I sure didn't.

Here is what I take away from this experience: 1)Food and drink is not allowed on buses. Wish I had known that sooner. 2) Don't think bad thoughts about other people. It isn't nice. No one wants to be categorized as the house that no one wants to go to trick-or-treating. 3) Sometimes, just sometimes, what goes around comes around, and if you lose 1/4 of your Jamba Juice smoothie you might just get it back in the form of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Fair trade if you ask me.

*******************
5)Don't go to Jamba Juice with four sandwiches expecting a free smoothie. They don't think it's funny.

flat tires are fun, but that is maybe 0.23% of the time.

The other 99.77% of the time they are sort of crappy. I should have known that something bad was going to happen that day - I mean, I had done my hair and worn my cute boots. A combination for trouble every time. I even had a foreshadowing moment. I had gone to my mom's school to volunteer and I was helping a little boy practice his letters. He was writing a capital D, and for some reason he made the bottom part of the D flat, but a little bit wavy. It sort of looked like the ghosts on Pac-Man. He said, "Teacher Suzy, look! It looks sort of like a flat tire." (No joke, exact words). I said, "Oh yeah it does! That's cute. Alright now fix it." (Exact words once again, though I said them nicely).

Well little boy, I don't think it's cute anymore. Though sitting on the side of the freeway listening to country music looking at the glowing Arby's sign might be someone's idea of a good time, I had other things to do. Like not be late for work. So my great mom picked me up off the side of the road hitch-hiker style and drove me to work! Bless her.

On the drive from Tremonton to Logan I had flashes of me being a person with no car: living in the mountains with dreadlocks, relying on a walking stick, only eating cliff bars and wheatgrass and showering in a stream once a week, being one with my bicycle, plaid shirts and Chacos, recycling carpet - but this dream was not meant to be. My car was fixed the next day.

This is me without a car:

Is this what you really want, Universe? For me to be a Mary-Kate look alike? I thought that was what Ashley was for.

Ultimate Boy Band!

There are so many to choose from. This song used-to-be-and-now-is-again my ringer on my aforementioned smartphone. With a video like this, and a select lifestyle that they are sure to have, who wouldn't want to be in a boy band? And a Chinese one at that!

Oh, and just skip to like 0:09 or something. The first few seconds are...weird.

New Phone = New Hazards.

I am the proud new owner of a smart phone. And let me tell you, it is smart. I'm pretty sure that if it was enrolled in a university it would receive better grades than myself. Purely for it's "Ask ChaCha" app...

But, with a new phone comes problems that I am not used to, such as:

1- Finding the vibrate/silent mode button while in class. Quickly.
2- Realizing that with a touchscreen phone there will not be a keyboard, and to not freak out when I'm in a panic and can't fine said keyboard.
3- Proof-reading texts. Now I like to think of myself as a literate person, and I (hope) that I have fairly good grammar. Unfortunately with touchscreen phones, texting can be quite the difficulty. Here are some of my more recent blunders...

Supposed to send: "I'm so happy for you!"
What I actually sent: "I'm so gay for you!"

Supposed to send: "I'm sorry."
What I actually sent: "I'm dirty."

Supposed to send: "Because I wanted to."
What I actually sent: "Bedside I wanted to." (Also, I don't think that I've ever used the word 'bedside' in my life).

Also since my phone is so 'smart', it has a feature where you can speak into a speaker and it will translate what you spoke into text. Unfortunately it just translates what it hears and makes up it's own spelling. I guess I can't really blame it though - it is a cool feature. But once I sent the wrong version of 'your' (pet peeve). So, I'm probably not going to be using that a lot. Sorry, smartphone.

All in all, I really like my phone, but I think it might have a mind of it's own...which scares me, because what if it turns into that creepy robot from Transformers? (Not an actual transformer, that would be cool). Only time will tell...

"I've made a huge mistake..."

If watching Arrested Development was the only thing that was on my to-do list, I would ALWAYS be able to get everything done during the day.

Two of these things are not like the others.

Mama Lucy and Luisito came to Utah this weekend! And since I don't have a camera, I didn't take any pictures. Oh well! Here are some things that we did:
1- Went to April's wedding.
2- Came home and ate chicken noodle soup. Luisito, Mandy and I all slept in my bed. Which then broke. So I slept on the floor.
3- Ate waffles and rode Shasta-McNasty! Not at the same time.
4- Drove through Sardine Canyon where Mama and Luisito played with snow for the first time! And I threw a snowball right at his face, but missed. But I still put snow down his shirt. Such a great feeling! Now I know why my brothers always did that to me.
5- Stopped at Tricia and Jared's to see them/eat all of their food! I was so jealous because Jared speaks perfect Spanish and Tricia knows a ton...and I don't. But I Luisito tried Mt. Dew for the first time and loved it, so that sort of made up for it.
6- Went to the Cathedral of St. Madeline where a man started a conversation with me like so:
Priest: "I rode an elephant once....."
Me: "....great?"
And really, it became a great conversation. And I would start out lots of conversations like that if I had ever ridden an elephant.
7- Went to McDonald's. We are prime. I got oatmeal - not worth it.
8- Then I said adios and went home.

This is not all we did, by no means! It was so fun to have them up here! It was so great to have my family here see who became my family in Mexico, and see what made my Mexico experience so great. It was sad that Papa and Ricky couldn't come, but next time! Also, thanks to all of my family for coming to see them and partying like it was 2008. They loved everyone - especially the kids!

I have been issued a challenge....

... a challenge to blog. Now usually, when someone dares/challenges me to do something I say - nope. The challenge-issuer will then try to make me feel bad about it, but I never do. And then they forget about it about 10 seconds - 30 minutes later. Think about it: why would I want to eat something I found on the bottom of my shoe? Why would I want to do the gallon challenge, when I don't even like milk? These are the questions that really need to be answered, my friends. Anyway, my brother challenged me to blog. (What the? My brother?). And I didn't say no this time.

So here I am....blogging.