New (OLD) Adventures! Part 2/3...and then some

So....back when I posted the other post about my family I had already experienced other fun adventures, and I'm not sure how it happened, but I never actually posted about them. So I'd like to take this opportunity to post about them now.

Adventure number 2 was the grand experience that I had of going to California with some of the

best people I know ever. I sure love them. A lot.

We set out for our adventure very early in the morning on Thursday. By early I mean midnight. We got to California about 8/9 in the morning and went to Seal Beach. It was a rather beautiful day. We spent a bit of time walking up and down the beach:

We ran away from the waves:

We walked the...oh what are those things called, the wood thing that extends out into the ocean and people were fishing off of it, and a boat can dock on it, is it just called a dock? A pier? I don't know, but we walked up and down it, just had a grand time.

The sun came out to play and...well I don't know what the others did, but I slept, out cold (the shirt was to keep the sun out of my eyes, it did a great job):

(can you say "farmer sunburn"?) It was a beautiful sleep. They slept too and read and who knows.

We traveled up to our hotel, got ready, and went to Downtown Disney, which wasn't as cool as we had expected, and we were all exhausted. We found some cool things though. A telephone booth...I don't have the picture of all of us fitting into it, but there is such a picture somewhere...

A lego store with awesome things built:

The sun did wonders on the back of our thighs too...so, well walking around that night, and for the next week or two actually, was painful.

The next day began our Disney adventures.

(Sharla looks SO excited...)

I hadn't been to Disneyland in years and it was SO much fun. Especially with these people. We spent Friday in California Adventure (which I had never been to). Saturday we were at Disneyland the whole day, and it was a blast.

We made cool Mickey/Minnie hats

Amy was trying to break into this place and it set all kinds of electrocution stuff off...trouble Amy...

We were sitting on this bench waiting for Carie and Erica and this little girl named Sophia totally became our friend. She was the "bus driver" and she bossed us around and everything. She had theories about why the trolley wouldn't move like there was a fork underneath that was keeping it from going. It was hilarious.

Pretty sure that Amy and I set a speed record for the teacups...just saying

Carie and Sharla imitating the funny caterpillar behind them...

Oh Friday night we went to an Angels game. I have no loyalty to the Angels necessarily, which was good because they lost horribly, but it was fun to be at a pro game.

Sunday was full of driving, we got to see some of the beautiful coast...this is sure a wonderful earth we live on. Monday we checked out a random museum and flew home. Overall it was a great trip. I'm so glad that I went.

I'm not totally sure what this had to do with anything at the museum we went to, but it was there. I'm a pretty fierce hockey player...

As for adventure numero tres....I'm not sure where I got the idea that there was an adventure number three. But let's be honest, every day is an adventure in my life. Ah, I moved! That was an adventure. Right after we got back from California, we had two days to be out of our apartment. I moved to south Provo where I am in the nicest place I have lived in for a real long time. Here are pictures of my room:

An example of me pondering at my desk. It was the second piece of furniture that I bought.

I have since bought an actual nightstand, so no worries, my laundry hamper is out of sight...

It's kind of fun to have room for my piano in my room, then no one knows when I play it :)

...I still haven't necessarily finished putting the room together. I am lacking some cute wall decorations...if you have any that you want to give me, let me know.

Everything is going great. I love my new ward and situation down here. I love work still. I can't believe that I'm coming up on a year of being at Alpine, but still love it a ton. I think I'll be there for a while more still. We've had more adventures at work, from ice skating to the zoo, and we're going to Wendover this next week. It just never ends!

Steve and Janae are getting married this week! And I'm so excited for that!! The family is driving here on Thursday and then we'll drive to Washington Friday, wedding Saturday, then return to Provo. My poor family has to finish the drive to Mesa the next day. It will be great fun!

Yes as always, life is great!!

New Adventures! Part 1

So...I still haven't written about either of my trips which were both tons of fun. Here are a couple pictures that tell the tale a little:

I got to spend lots of wonderful time with each of my siblings but it was especially fun to be with Will after having him gone for two years.

The family in front of the D.C. temple. It was an absolutely gorgeous night. After we had a beautiful week all week long. Only one nastily hot day that I wished I could have just used a mobile swimming pool to keep me cool. Pretty sure I sweat out all of the water in body...I'm sure you wanted to know that too...

Jeff and I in front of the Washington Monument. We got to go to the top of it another day.

Me in front of...well obviously, it's the White House. Had to get one of those pictures.

Mike and I in the backyard of ...well it was some old built home in Georgetown after dinner one night.

This was on the hot hot hot day. We were standing outside the building, that I can't remember the name of right now where the Constitution is...We were so awesome with our little fans. Good thing Mom brought them...

We toured the Capitol Building, (which was awesome! It was so amazing to learn about the lives these men/women that founded our country lived. I have no doubt that they were inspired and guided in creating this land of freedom. We went to the homes of many of the founding fathers and I LOVED learning about them.) And I loved being with Mom.

My wonderful sisters and I outside of Mt. Vernon. I miss being with these two gals.

Exciting random quick 20 minute visit with one of the neatest people on the east coast that doesn't belong to my family. I loved visiting with Meagan whom I hadn't seen for months. We had a good visit! :)

We saw lots of wonderful things and met lots of fun random people that, as always, were astonished at the size of our family and that we weren't beating up on each other. We had one tour guide who talked about it for the first five minutes of our tour and then as a couple of other tourists joined us for the tour, she had to say it again. It was so fun to spend so much time with my family, it has been years since I've done that. We've grown a lot since then too. It was so fun to have Janae be there with us.

But it couldn't have been possible without Dave and Nikki, and all the work they did to get ready to have us be there. And all the work they did when we were there. I sure have the best older brother and sister in law...and they have the cutest little girl :) I loved spending time with her. We probably we entertained by her for more than half of the week's time.

Love them...

And her :)

I've got friends in all places :)

So, pretty much I don't know where to start because there have been about five different things in the last month and a half that I have meant to post on that I haven't, which means that, knowing how long it takes me to say some things, this could be a super long post. But I'll do my best to consolidate it all. Through the experiences of late I have felt so amazingly the love and support of good, good friends who have been angels in my daily travels.

On June 28th, 2010 I went under for a surgery that has changed life as I have come to know it for the last 6 years. It has been quite an experience, the last six years that is. I began having acid reflux symptoms at the beginning of my sophomore year here at BYU and it has progressively gotten worse. There have been periods of not so awesome pain, and others of sweet relief which often came I know only because the Lord hears and answers prayer.

I was officially diagnosed in December of 2005 and since then have tried a handful of different prescription medication and doses to treat acid reflux. As I tried lots of different medications and lifestyles to lessen the symptoms of the disease, nothing ever fully worked, and eventually temporary relief subsided.

This past fall I decided that it was time to quit living with it as it was and seek more professional help than just a family doctor. Through a good friend I was able to quickly get in to have a test done that would have otherwise taken extra appointments and expenses. At that time, the doctors shared the good news that I didn't have any damage done to my insides but they increased my medication yet again and suggested that I consider having a surgery done called a nissen fundoplication.

The medication was working great so I decided to wait, but just as all the other times before, that particular medication quit being effective for me and I decided to go forward with it. So this is a picture of what they did to my stomach:

The flap of skin/muscle, called the lower esophageal or cardiac sphincter, inside my body didn't work to prevent food and acid from having a hayday up and down my esophagus anytime they wanted. So what this surgery did was tighten that passageway. I now have six cute little incisions on my abdomen where they went into me.

My wonderful mom flew up and spent a couple days with me, my superb roommates and friends entertained and watched out for me. I was on a liquid diet for two, almost three weeks and so many people were willing to get me whatever would make me happy. They were all so good to me (not that they aren't always...) Friends at work helped out so much so that I didn't feel too horrible about leaving them with my job.

I'm reflux free now for the last four weeks and two days. I still feel quite a bit tired now and then and my incisions are tender to the touch but overall I'm GREAT! I'm eating almost completely normal (I just can't have hard, sharp foods like chips) now and eating has never been such a wonderful experience! I feel so blessed to be able to have had this work for me, and that everything has turned out perfectly so that it could happen.

A super hard thing about the last couple months is watching everyone around me play sports and not being to join in the fun! I've missed playing this summer so very very much. I've decided that it isn't the smartest thing to take yourself out of the active picture during the middle of the summer. At the same time I have enjoyed watching my friends play. They sure are wonderfully good people! How I LONG to swing a bat!!

A huge question that has been on my mind has been where I'm going to live next year. Just for everyone's information, I found a place and I'm rather excited about the adventure I'm about to have. More info to come on that one soon as I get moved in and stuff, I'll post pictures I suppose. Again it was the help of a friend that led me to where I'll be. Yay for friends.

A wonderfully fun experience I had the other week was my younger but far from little brother coming home from his mission!!! Steve and I decided last minute to venture home. Not trusting our loyal but appropriately named "Putt-putt" car, we rented one and left after I finished work on Friday evening. We drove late into the night to arrive home about 1:30am Arizona time.

It was SO wonderful to be with my family and friends in Mesa. (Being at my home ward on Sunday made me realize how many wonderful friends I have. While Provo/Utah has become my place of living in the last couple years, Mesa will always have the people I belong to. I love that blessed place.)

It was marvelous to be with my cute brothers and sisters. I miss them so much when I'm here in Utah. Yeah I have Steve here, and he is pretty great, but I still miss the other 7. Will got home on Saturday evening. I could've stayed another week with him :) I sure did miss him.

Speaking of my wonderful family. Exciting news is getting to have a new sister-in-law in just a couple months. I'm soooooooo excited for Steve and Janae! I sure like her A LOT!

Lastly, to end this novel, I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited for my upcoming trips that start in one short day from now! I'm going to be flying to DC to see Dave and Nikki and Hallie with my family (-Elder Ben Merrill). I'm so excited for have us all together. I'll for sure write that one up. And then just a couple days after we get back, I get to leave again with my awesome friends, and go play in California!

LIFE IS TRULY SWEET, FULL OF GREAT FRIENDS AND GOOD STUFF!

The end of the story

Well, I'm back in P-town. Every part of Denver ended up being an adventure. Here are the pics:

This is me being ever so excited to embark on our forever long trip to Denver. Little did I know what was in store for me...

This is my boss being super excited about our trip. I sure like him and am grateful for him often. He is one of the reasons I love my job. He is just a good man.

The gorgeousness of this earth out in the middle of nowhere. This is probably my favorite picture I took and it doesn't compare to what my eye really saw. It was just the beginning of all the clouds we saw for the next 24 hours straight of rain. blah.

Monica was our ever faithful driver. She brought many laughs the entire trip. While we don't necessarily agree on the appropriateness use of a handful of words, she is a pretty fun gal to have around. We bonded a lot us two in the front seat. She was even subjected to some of my Grandma Andersen's stories. Twenty hours in the car together, plus almost three full days of being together is quite a lot...

These are the people from Mission Health Services, the corporate of the place I work for. There are five "sister" homes owned by this place.

These are my fun friends from the great Alpine Valley Care Center. Kenzi (far left) is an awesome CNA and Monica's daughter. Then Rod is our maintenance man. Good soul that boy. Then Monica, and Kay (I spent the most time with her because we shared hotel rooms just the two of us twice and we also got to be bed buddies our last night), then Bruce, and me.

This is the one and only Eagle Diner in Eagle, Colorado. On the way home we stopped at the gas station across the street called Loaf n' Jug. I'm telling you this town is priceless. They also have a Kum n'go gas station... oh boy.

My last picture is of Monica and I at the Cheesecake Factory with our socially/politically correct napkin bibs. A huge thing in the culture change movement is to promote the dignity of the Elders. Part of that is not having them wear "bibs" or "clothing protectors" while they. (We're working on getting rid of them at our place). Well Monica and I felt like it was good to model the Cheesecake Factory's napkin size as a possibly replacement to our clothing protectors.

There were so many things that I wish I had pictures of that happened, or even that there was a way to capture and share what I experienced. There were definitely some way too fanatical people at the conference. Some of the large group sessions, my co-workers and I would look at each other and, knowing the other person was thinking the same thing as us, just smile and shake our heads. Some people are just extra special and different. :)

Then there were the two dinners with friends. I got to catch up with a dear friend I haven't seen in five years, and I'm soooo grumpy at myself for not capturing that one on film. It was so, so, so good to see her again. She is amazing. Then to see good ol' Kristen Anderson-no longer Anderson. Oh happy friends.

Then the millions of funny moments. All my new friends that I met on 16th Street. There is this place in downtown Denver that the whole street doesn't allow cars on it. They have pianos sitting out, and artists, and street performers, and bicycle rides, and fun friends all over the place. Bruce, my boss, and I played chopsticks on the piano. We were so good, we shut up the street performers. Next stop, Carnegie Hall.

So yes, the trip was marvelous, but it is so wonderful to be back home. I had a weird experience while there. Everyone would ask where you were from. My whole life I have said that I am from Mesa, Arizona. I still say that. I feel like I am just visiting Utah...but I do believe I might almost should actually be saying I'm from Utah...yikes.

An Addendum

I was reminded that I didn't share about some other friends. And I also remembered I forgot a story that has been a huge part of my experience here :)

The most exciting news is that I have a bunch of England rugby players running around the same hotel as me! They aren't too shabby to look like at, they are wonderful to listen to talk, and they don't smell too bad either ;). (Happy Carie?)

The second thing I forgot was a fiasco I had last night trying to warm up some dinner. I didn't want to worry about getting dinner so I saved leftovers from Saturday in our cooler. So yesterday evening I went to go warm them up, there is not a microwave to be found at all. So I went and found a worker. He goes and looks, doesn't seem to see one, so he said that he'd radio someone. Which he did as I stood there next to him. This was there convo: "Hi, I've got a lady here that would like to warm up some food, do we have somewhere she can do that?" "No, we don't. Where are you?" "I'm upstairs. We don't have anywhere where they can warm up food??" "NO. Are you talking about this in front of her? Stop. Come find me now." ...yikes. Anyway, so this 4 star hotel I'm staying in doesn't own a microwave. I guess people are too ritzy to need to warm up food that normally stay here...

Okay, it's time for more classes I suppose...

Adventure in the Mile High City!

I'll post pictures when I get back because right now they are upstairs, and I am downstairs, and the elevators take eternal amounts of time. So they will have to wait. I'm just proud that I have taken pictures period. I need to take more.

But truly this has been an adventure. It all began yesterday at 1:30, we left beautiful Alpine Valley Care Center so gently situated on Alpine Dr in Pleasant Grove, Utah. Little did we know we were about to have the drive of a century and experience every type of season possible within ten hours.

We took the route through Price and weather was pretty good. It was overcast and a little sprinkle would happen here and there, but nothing we couldn't handle. Every now and then though, we would drive right through a heavy pour, it was like we were swerving in and out of a nasty storm. It was pouring so hard we could hardly see out of the windshield. Well upward and onward we continued, and pretty soon the storm was constant. Not so bad that we couldn't see, but constant so that our wipers had to be on almost full speed. That started about five pm.

It was about the time that I started to drive actually. We headed ourselves into the canyons of the Colorado mountains and there were sooooo many huge puddles of water. We were definitely hydroplaning in different spots. There was one point where the road had nasty potholes in it. A little Toyota red truck was in front of us and hit a pothole so hard, he lost control of his car for a minute swerving back and forth as his car hydroplaned for a good fifteen, twenty feet. For a moment I thought we were going to slam straight into him.

It would have been a not so happy experience if that were to happen...I'm grateful for the gentle whisper of the Spirit that prompted peace and what I should do. Thank goodness all was well.

We stopped for dinner at a small diner in Eagle, Colorado. Wow, what an experience! They were out of half of their main courses and our waitress talked very loudly and with a slow ...stringy? voice. I'll have to imitate it for you if you want, just ask. It was a true 50's diner though decked in awesome fashion. Besides that fact that they took forever to get our food, forgot one of my co-workers' order, didn't have a lot of the food, and the waitress' voice, I recommend the stop.

We continued our trip through the mountains, the rain never stopping, except for when it turned into a crazy snow storm. We could barely see twenty feet ahead of us. Since when does it blizzard in June????

We finally arrived and got situated in our hotel at about eleven, oh happy day.

The purpose of my visit is the most wonderful Eden Alternative Annual Conference. In short, the Eden Alternative is an approach to long-term care that is devoted to proactively fighting against the plagues of helplessness, boredom, and loneliness that are so common among those that are aging. In some ways, I feel like these people are a little fanatic about something that seems so much like human nature, to treat our wonderful wise sages of the world in a respectful loving way, but you'd be surprised how many of them are treated. There is much culture change being attempted in the field of long-term care. So...that's why I am here. (there are some real um...you could say tree hugger type folks here, bless their hearts(that's why I changed my background of my blog. Eden is represented by trees and stuff I guess))

Today we toured three homes in the area that were (maybe they weren't because one of them reeeeeeeeeaaaaaaally was a sad place to be) supposed to be examples of good Eden transformed homes. I've met a lot of interesting people from all over the world today, and had the opportunity to talk about things that only those that work in long-term care really understand and problems and solutions. So it's been neat. But by far my FAVORITE part has been meeting my new friends. I LOVE OLD PEOPLE!!! From Dora from Buenos Aires, to Bea, and Sid (I'm now his sugar for the day), and Miranda, and Goodam (a Norwegian name of a lady I met), and Joy, and Vivian. My favorite thing is looking into their eyes. I love seeing them as my brothers and sisters. It's soooooo awesome.

So the next two days will be full of classes, which should be good to learn from others' experiences. And then a drive home....I hope the weather is more happy then.

The thoughts of Mel for your reading pleasure...

I hope this isn't too boring of an entry. I just have been thinking a lot lately, so this might be more of a serious entry than anything like the stories I tell lately, but here are the thoughts...

This past weekend Dave and Nikki came from out east to say hello. It was soooo fun to have my cute little niece here and to get to know her a little better. And it was fun to play with Dave and Nikki. My parents came up too so they could spend some time with all of us. Probably one of my favorite parts of the weekend was spending one on one time with my mom. Oh how I love that woman. I think that one of the saddest things about living so far from home is living so far from my mom. I love talking to her and just hanging out with her. During one of our little chats we got to talking about experiences I've had since coming home from the mission two and a half years ago (I can't believe it has been that long). Mom made a comment about it being a hard couple of years. Life can just be hard sometimes. I won't go into super amount of detail about the experiences but it got me to thinking about the opportunities for growth that I've had over the past years.

There is a man at work who is in his early 70's. He had a stroke a number of years ago and his left side is basically completely out of commission. In the last six months he has gained 50 lbs. making him reach an almost immovable friend at over 300 lbs. He constantly acts very rude, demeaning, inconsiderate of others, and negative. The world owes him everything. He waits for people to wait on him and push him wherever he wants to go even though he is completely capable of moving himself (but that ability is diminishing with the more weight he gains and the less he moves). He sleeps almost all day every day. But he talks about the day that he would like to leave the nursing home walking. Looking at him is very sad for me. I think about a few good talks we've had, they've been uncommon but have occurred, and it is so sad to see how his actions will NEVER lead to his goal. He has been dealt a hard hand. I can't imagine not being able to move one side of my body, or losing a spouse years before it is your time to go. None of that sounds fun to me. But can you be happy?

I think of another friend at work. She is...I don't know how old, but likewise had a stroke losing the use of the right side of her body, her dominant side. She has a very happy demeanor, always has a thank you and a smile ready for anyone who offers her service. She always asks with a please and is patient. She works hard to do things on her own and only asks for help when she has tried to accomplish the task by herself. She lost her husband a year or so ago, a hard experience for her. What makes her so different from my first friend?

Both of them have the knowledge of the restored gospel. They both have "testimonies" of it. They have similar situations, but why such different reactions? I guess it would take actually personally asking them to know their own reasons for their method of response, but as I've thought about my responses in the past two years to hard situations, some of which it was hard for me to choose the right response originally, I know what does help to reach the happiest outcome.

Looking back I'm so grateful for everything that has happened in my life and the lives of the people around me so that I could learn, by experience, to be where I am at now. About a year and a half ago I wrote an email to a friend in Canada who was having a rough time. I knew her through the mormon.org chats that I was doing for the MTC. What I wrote then, I feel describes very what I feel this morning as I write this:

Lots of things happen in our lives that we don't really expect, and we might often look at our situation and wonder why on earth it happened to us at the time and the way it did. I have found in my life that when those things happen, I am left with one beautiful constant. I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and its restoration. I love the understanding that I have of my relationship with my Father in Heaven because of the restoration. I understand that I am really His daughter and that He knows and loves me so much, and I feel that love every time I read the Book of Mormon and the Bible and go to church and go to the temple. And so even though I'm not sure what is going to take place in my life coming up here soon and how everything is going to be accomplished, I love the peace that always comes from the gospel.

(Funny that that paragraph applies just as much right now as it did back then when I was still in college and didn't know where I was going to do my internship.) I continuously feel so blessed whenever I think about the hand of the Lord in my life. Yeah, there are a lot of stressful things going on around me, but inside I feel a deep peace and great love. So that is the first thing that has made all the difference in those moments of exhaustion, not knowing what to do, and confusion. It makes me think of a quote from Elder Groberg's talk years ago on love. He described a time when he was physically drowning. Check out the whole talk because it's one of my favs, but this what he said:

But swim I must if I wished to stay alive. Every time I complained I found myself underwater, so it didn't take long to quit complaining. Things are how they are, and complaining doesn't help. I needed every ounce of energy to keep my head above water and make it to shore. Having earned my Eagle Scout Award, I was a pretty confident swimmer, but over time the wind and the waves began to sap my strength. I never quit trying, but there came a time when my muscles simply would move no more.

I had a prayer in my heart, but still I began to sink. As I was going down for what could have been the last time, the Lord infused into my mind and heart a deep feeling of love for a very special person. It was as though I could see and hear her. Even though she was 8,000 miles away, the power of that love came rushing across those miles and, penetrating time and space, reached down and pulled me up—lifted me from the depths of darkness, despair, and death and brought me up to light and life and hope. With a sudden burst of energy I made it to shore, where I found my shipmates. Never underestimate the power of true love, for it knows no barriers.

A second thing that I thought about when I was thinking about all this stuff going on and what has helped me to stay afloat, positive, and in the end helped me to make the best of the situation are the people around me. I'm a pretty lucky/blessed gal. I have the best family, the best friends, and the best influences in the people that surround me. Without them, I would not be where I'm at. There has not been a day go by in my life that I haven't thought of those around me, and their example of faith, and used it as a pattern for my own choices.

The next thing I thought about was service. One of my new favorite songs is "Smile". I LOVE going to work and making people smile, they make me smile. They make me smile so much, and it makes work and everything it brings with it so wonderful. There is no real description for what it feels like to serve. Random thought to help explain: Last year we had a service project with the stake at a woman's house that had sooooooo much trash in the backyard. I worked for about an hour, then met the woman on her front porch. It was amazing to me then how much love I felt for her. Of that experience I wrote: As I drove away I thought about the great love I felt for those people we'd been serving, the love I felt from the Lord, the beauty that I saw all around me...I just felt like I was going to explode with happiness. I decided that service truly does ignite the soul with a passion for life and that it is a pretty happy thing.

So service makes life amazing. Real service though, done with the right intentions.

I guess those are the main three things, the Lord's constant, merciful love and peace, those around me, and service. I'm so grateful for opportunities to grow :)

I should add a little update though on what's happening. I turned 25 the other week. That's odd.

I have surgery scheduled for the 28th of June and I'm really excited about it! It's going to hopefully correct something that has been giving me pain for the last five and a half years!! I have acid reflux disease and have been on a myriad of medications and tried a ton of different methods. So at the end of June I get to have my stomach tied...the only sad thing is that it should reduce me stomach size by a 1/3 :(

Work is going great I enjoy it very much.

Come the fall I don't know where I'll be, if anyone has any suggestions let me know :)

Okay, that's all for today!

Dear Readers,

It was kindly brought to my attention that it has been a large period of time since I have entered the recent happenings of my life on this thing. Truth be told, Carie told my life almost in complete truth. My life pretty much consists of eating ice cream, working, hanging out at the apartment pretending like I'm working on my grandma's journal (although I am ecstatic because I just recently finished the part when she was a missionary, which means I'm almost done...almost), wrestling Carie to the ground (she wasn't fully honest in that one because I do win, if I don't have mercy on her first), watching Amy do P90X(...I've found that you can't get fit just by imagining yourself doing it, just in case someone was hoping it would work for them), and eating more ice cream.

Our regular season of basketball has finished and we're awaiting the beginning of the tournament. I've reflected on my actual ability to play basketball recently and have decided that...well there are other things that I'm better at than basketball.

Work continues to be entertaining as it could ever be. It's amazing that I get more popular the more odd that I am.

Example 1: Every week we have what we lovingly call "Rhythm Band". My boss plays the piano really, really, really, really loud and all the residents have maracas and tamborines that they, very loudly, bang to the beat. Most definitely not the most pleasing sound to the ear. Well add to that sound, me singing at the top of my lungs the old time songs of "In the Good Ol' Summertime" and "I've been working on the Railroad". The louder I sing, the louder they hoot and holler.

Example 2: I've started a new tradition of dance parties. If you think having a dance party with your roommates is fun...come hang out with us some afternoon. I've never considered myself one with dancing skills, but they think I'm alright. I continue to love bringing joy into their lives. Nothing lights up my day like seeing them smile.

To add to the joy are the funniest conversations that one could ever imagine. It's like talking to child by funnier because their sentences have nothing to do with another.

Example 1: Lester...oh how I love this man. Two quotes I've heard in the last week spoken aloud to no one in particular, he was just speaking his mind. "Happy Christmas, We love you, down to the barrow of the little baby's shoe." "And if you're Scotch Irish you have to say that you're ancestors were from the bottom of the sea of Galilee!"

Example 2: Eileen, I don't even know how to describe this one by writing it, so if you want to hear about Eileen, just call and ask me.

Example 3: Ruth, oh Ruth. One morning I was walking past her and she just starts laughing and says in her very low raspy voice "OH BOY! That's funny" "Well good morning Ruth! Are you laughing at me?!" She nods. "Oh boy" "What's so funny?" "I just thought I'd see if it would fill the bucket." Later that morning she is sitting staring at her pearl necklace in her hands. "Hey Ruth, what are you doing?" "Oh, I'm just trying to figure out if these are fish."

'Nough said.

Let's see...I've been sick lately, as in the last three days, I've been sick. It knocked me completely out for one day, and made me a grouch for the other couple of days. Bless my roommates' hearts for dealing with me. They are awfully kind. But don't feel bad for me or anything, I'm still living and who doesn't get sick now and then...

In the next week and a half I have to finish my great-grandma's missionary journal so that I can give it to my family at our annual Legacy conference...which I'm very excited about...and I think that pretty much gives all an update on my life.

The end.

a look at the life of Mel...by Carie

This is Melanie's life, in a nutshell...according to Carie:

• Eat ice cream with Carie

• Shoot hoops at Carie's work

• Go to church on Sundays and compile her grandmother's missionary journal

• Play basketball for the BYU 69th ward women's basketball team

• Hang out with Lester, Aloha, and Eileen at work
• Clean the apartment, the dishes, and the bathroom
• Started her own plumbing business last night (named after Smelly Mel's Plumbing in San Fran) by fixing our kitchen sink
  
• Look for updates about Hallie on Dave's blog
• Eat ice cream with Carie
• Play wii with Amy (ask her about wii basketball, it's her favorite)
• thinks about updating her blog
• laughs at Carie daily (and then denies it)
• watch Amy do P90X
• ponder
• Attempt to wrestle Carie to the ground
  

Feel free to add anything you know about Mel to this blog. She'd like to know what you think of her and your first memory of her. And, if you have an embarrassing story, please share. I'd like to hear those ones.

Thanks everyone! This was fun!
Love,
Carie (her favorite and most wonderful roommate EVER)