HiiiiiYAH!

Last Sunday, Sara and I were at ward prayer talking with Lenny, Casey, and Jake about the most random stuff ever. Somehow we got on the subject of the game Ninja. If you've never played it, go google how to play. It's so much fun. They guys were talking about how they wanted to play with a HUGE group of people. They wanted to break the world record for the biggest game of Ninja ever played. I totally agreed that would basically be the most legit thing ever, but secretly lodged it in the back of my mind. Great ambitions guys…no way it's going to happen. A few days later I get an event request on Facebook titled: Biggest Ninja Game Ever Played. Whoa. It's going to happen. Lenny legitimately sent out an invite to everyone he knew and wanted us all to do the same. The time: 8:00-11:00, January 28th. Saturday night. I was so excited that this was happening! I responded and then went on my merry way. Saturday rolled around and I almost forgot about the Ninja game! There was a boy's basketball game at 7:30. Why oh why did they schedule it tonight?! This is lame. I even ran into Casey and Lenny at the caf and they desperately tried to get us to play with them. After the game. After the game. After the game. We went to the basketball game, and thank goodness we did! It was one of the most intense games of the season! We won 79-75 in the last few seconds. It was so much fun. The game ended so, as we promised, we headed to the Flag Circle to see this record being broken. We walked over there and I think there were probably a total of 25 people. 35 if you counted the ten people who showed up after the game. (We needed over 100 to break the record) AND they weren't even playing ninja! They were playing a totally different game and some people were just sitting around. Odd. So instead we started playing our own games. We played Bang a few rounds and then someone decided to start another game of Ninja and off we went. Finally we got more people to come and play. I am terrible at that game. Horrid actually. I usually get out after the first few times and I hardly EVER get anyone out. Oh well, practice makes perfect I suppose. After a few rounds of ninja we decided to play missionary tag. Something about that game scares me. Every time I ran I would shriek as I ran to link arms with someone else. Maybe I was scared of being "it." I hate being "it" because it's a terrible job. The first couple of times I got away but in the process probably ripped some people's arms out of their sockets and caused permanent ear damage to anyone near me with my "horror movie appropriate" screams. Then came the time that Preston tricked me and I totally was tagged. You sneaky Preston! I started running and chasing whomever and was thinking that this was going to be a pain. Then I got someone! I was so excited I almost forgot to link arms with someone else. I basically jumped to the nearest person and gave their arm the death grip. After a while of missionary tag we were told that the lights in the little circle had to be turned off. Did that end our party? Of course not! Because what's better than a game of Ninja with thirty people? A game of ninja in the DARK with thirty people!! We didn't get very far until someone got hurt. Got it…Ninja in the dark…bad idea. We eventually disbanded and each went our separate ways. A few of us headed to the beach and chilled there and played Catch Phrase until it was pretty late and we decided to head back to campus. All in all, a productive Saturday night. Maybe next time we'll go for the world record for real this time!

Time For School! Time for School! -Finding Nemo (Jan. 9)

Happy first day of school! For the…14^th time. Who cares, it's still new and just as exciting. I wake up bright and early at 6:45. My goal was to get up at 6:30 and make it to the cafeteria by 7 so I wouldn't starve for the rest of the day. I was still going to do my best to make it to the caf because I really wasn't looking forward to being hungry through all my classes. I get ready as quickly as I can and look at the clock. It read 7:15. I debate on whether or not I can make it to the caf, but decide it probably isn't the best idea because I don't know exactly where in the stake center my class is, and I most definitely don't want to be late. Looks like I'll have to be hungry for the rest of the day. I walk over to the stake center and in the door I went in for my class last semester. I wander up and down the halls looking for my class but none of the doors read 110. This, I decide, is why you go early to figure out where your classrooms are. I went to the second half of the building and the classroom happened to be the last one I looked in. Isn't that just my luck? Good thing I left my room on time and still had 5 minutes to get settled. Kelly Retallack and [Annalese] were already sitting in there. I glance around to see any other familiar faces. I knew almost all of them. Krista, Leilani, Tyler, and some other kid who I don't know were already there. Leticia walked in and I knew this class was basically going to be the best decision I ever made. The fun didn't stop there. Jared, Emily, Billy, Brandon, CJ, Chance, George, John, and a ton of other people came in. I knew this class was going to be good, but not this good! Someone asked if anyone could play the piano and usually I feel like holding out as long as I can or wait until someone else volunteers me first. The second one happened before I could even think about holding out. Someone said I could play, and they asked me if I would play the hymn for today. Which basically means: will you play the piano for the rest of the semester? I agree and class gets underway. It's going to be a lot of fun. Kelly and I book it across campus for our Psychology class in the CAC. We get there in about 6 minutes, and are shocked to see we made such good time by just walking. Our psychology teacher just got asked to teach at the last second and she seems really cool. It makes me nervous. She'll probably be way cool and her tests will kill me. Yipee. Her husband is coming back to school from working in the television business. Turns out he played one of the voices of the guys on Yo Gabba Gabba! She's like famous!!! So so cool. Psychology ended super early and I have about 40 minutes until my next class. That can only mean one thing: FOOD! But first, I want to find my next class. I have no idea where it was so I figure with 40 minutes to spare, it would probably be a good idea to take 5 minutes now to find my class instead of 5 minutes when I'm actually supposed to be in class. I easily find my class in the next building and head to the caf. Brenda, Casey, Esther, and Hannah are already there. It was great! I got food and sat down with them and just started talking about our classes. Hannah said she had her communications class at 9:50 and that it was her first class of the day. I immediately tuned back into the conversation and asked her if she just said she had communications? She said yes and I freaked out and told her that was my class too! We had a mini celebration and then I asked what she had after that. And she replied "Oh I dunno…some world class" and I'm like world music cultures? To which we both gave each other a super weird look and started freaking out again. Two classes together in one semester! It was going to be a blast. We leave the caf and head to class. We run into our friend Katelyn Macbeth and found out she was in our communications class too! Our teacher is this really cute Asian lady. It seems like it's going to be a really fun. It ends early so Hannah and I head to chill in the Aloha center for about 20 minutes before World Music Cultures. After 20 minutes of being bored we decide to go to class. There are some pretty fun people in that class, especially Taylor Ballard. I walk out knowing that it's going to be a ton of fun. Afterward, I finally have a break for about an hour and a half! I head back to my dorm to work on some stuff and took a little 10 minute rest. I jump up and run to choir, because I don't want to be late on the first day! I walk in and there are a ton of people in there. Some are old faces, but mostly there are a lot of new people. It feels weird and I'm not really looking forward to going through the audition process again. After about 5 minutes we're given a form to fill out. I fill it out as fast as I can hoping we can get to some fun stuff but we're told if we're a returning student we can leave after the form's filled out. I'm secretly grateful because I don't really want to be in class until 2:30. I get done at 1:30 and as I walk back to my dorm, I have the most brilliant idea I've ever had: beach. I haven't really been since I've been back and I'm dying to go. I call Hannah to see if she wants to go with and within 7 minutes we're headed to Hukilau beach. We get there and it looks absolutely beautiful. We get in the water and it's colder than usual. But it's January 9^th for goodness sake. It's still pretty warm. We end up running into Alyssa, Katelyn and Sara there too! We swim around for a little while and then leave because Hannah has class. I sat in my room and got a head start on my homework for the first time in my life. I realize…I really am looking forward to this semester. Day 1 was pretty great. New adventures are around every corner, and I can't wait to find them all.

There's No Place For Home like the Holidays

I had two wishes for Christmas. The first one: That I get to come home for Christmas. The second: Snow. A lot of snow. Well…at least one of those wishes came true. I did get to come home. My mom told me that I brought the sun with me; therefore, no snow. Ridiculous. Oh well, being home for two weeks has been absolutely wonderful!!! I definitely have a new appreciation for the things I have at home. Like my own bathroom. Ok, so maybe it's not my own but it's better than sharing it with two million girls. Although sometimes one brother is worse than two million girls. Just kidding!! I'm also grateful for my dog! My dog is my cuddle buddy. I think I missed her just as much as I missed the rest of my family. Another thing I was so happy for was real food. There is something about legitimate, home cooked, food that is one of the most heavenly things on this planet. My mommy is so good to me and she fed me the best food the whole time I was home. It makes it much harder to go back to not so great cafeteria food. I am so very grateful for my home ward. Something about the feeling in your home ward is awesome. I realized just how much I am loved by so many people around me. I am so grateful for my BED!!! I love my bed. I never realized how uncomfortable my bed in Hawaii was until I fell into my bed at home for the first time in three months. It was the most amazing feeling ever. Those are just a few of the things I am so appreciative of. I did a lot while I was at home. A lot of sleeping that is. Jet lag seemed to hit me super hard and killed me back in Utah. It wasn't very fun. I also got the chance to hang out with my friends! Some from high school and even some from Hawaii. It was a ton of fun to be able to see everyone again. Christmas rolled around and it was awesome to be able to see a whole bunch of my extended family. It was so wonderful being able to see them for the holidays. I missed my Grandma's cooking too! My momma was taught really good from my grandma, that's for sure! New Year's came and it was time for resolutions! I think some of the main ones involved people. I want to be nicer…to people, blog more…for people's benefits, write letters…to people. You get the idea. Soon after the New Year it was time to say, yet again, a see-ya-later-Utah type of goodbye. It's never very fun. But it's like the song says! There's no place like home for the holidays, so no matter how far away you roam, when you pine for the sunshine of a friendly face, for the holidays you can't beat home sweet home.