Saturday, June 21, 2008

Stories From the West Side

Alright, so when the fam gets together, we love to tell stories. Alot of them seem to be of everyone's darker days. But still all of them are way hilarious and we all love to tell them repeatedly. By now, no one really takes offense cause the stories are so old. So I've decided that I'll write like an annual post sharing these great stories in a segment I like to call, "Stories from the West Side". As for a first post, I'd like to start off with a classic, and of course it's about me (alot of the stories seem to be about me). When I was younger, I had a "wild" imagination. I also loved to play dress up and pretend I was someone else. One day, I decided to put on a show for the family. So I decided to dress up as "Jaque", a french dude. I put on a cute little tight outfit, cut out a mustache, made a microphone out of a foil ball and a knife, and made a stage in the living room. I think I most likely got the idea from a movie. But then, I would pretend to leave the house so that when "Jaque" came and left, I'd come back and pretend like i had no idea who Jaque was. Well, when i left, i would make tickets for my show and leave them on my porch that told my family to go in the living room. Then "Jaque" of course would make his grand entrance. "Jaque" was super talented. He would sing while he did the tango with his assistant (a bear), and a rose in his mouth. He also had a wicked french accent. But he always left the crowd wanting more, and I to this day have still never met "Jaque" yet. I just have this pic to remind me of his days.

Friday, June 20, 2008

My Basketball

I miss my basketball so much!! Man, I miss the intensity and competition you can only get on that court! It's a beautiful thing. But what I also miss is my team! All my girls know how to have a good time, and can work it on the court. They are balla's for sure. I had the chance to go to the Mesa, Colorado tournament that the alta team went to. I had an awesome time bonding with the team and gettin to know them more. It was a bit hard to sit on the bench and watch the games however... For those of you who know me well, know that I can't stand sitting on the bench! (but guess i am used to it) But it was great watching my team play. They did great! We struggled at times which was super hard to watch. But somehow we seemed to pull through it. Hopefully by the time season comes around, we will have worked out our kinks. If we do that, then we will most certainly be unstoppable. Anywho, in this tournament, we placed first in the league, and second in the entire tournament. But in my opinion we should have taken it all. The last game though, man, we just didn't show up to win, or play for that matter. One of our many kinks. But we got these ribbons, and a plaque that we decided to put up in our coaches room at school. So be sure to take a peek when school starts. Ha ha. (I got ribbons too!)


Well, now time to talk about my fun little trip, and show how much fun the Alta squad is. lol

Let's start off with the roadtrip. lol Stephanie Stohel is my GIRL! Many good times with her. I rode with her in her car with her sister driving. The rest of the car consisted of younger ones, but they are just as much fun. We've got Julia and Marin. Man it was cramped (we didn't have enough cars so we had to cram people in ha ha who was the planner?), but super fun.

Grabbin the bull by the horns! Oh, and Stohel just had to ride her horsey.







Yep, always ready for a picture.











My team is a bunch of creepers. I think this pic proves it...





We were busy most of the time checkin out the Hotties! It was a coed camp.

Next, we have clips of our wild dance parties. I mainly like the second one because of McCall.

Lastly, I had to put these clips in. Becca saw me juggling and wanted me to teach her how to. This is how well she did. Very funny. She struggled a bit.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Things to Ponder

Well, today has been, how shall I say, an interesting/weird day. Many things came up in my mind that I have been pondering all day! So here's the list of things to ponder:


1- At the store today, I was in line at the check out and the cashier lady was helpin a women out. As the lady was done, you'd expect to hear from the cashier, "Have a nice day!" or something to that extent... No, this lady whips out a, "happy new year!"... WHAT?! the women, as she walked away, put on a confused looking face and i don't blame her! Then the next store i go to the same thing happens again!! Where am I? Who says "Happy New Year" in the middle of JUNE!!! Now many people say, well what if it's the Chinese new year or somethin like that... How do you even respond if that is the case? "You too"? or my favorite, "and a happy year of the rat to you!" This totally reminded me of an episode on Seinfeld where Jerry complains about people who say Happy New Year's late.

2- Now, i will admit, i am one to try and text while in the car. I confess, but most of the time it's at a stop light. I am really not that talented. But today, i saw someone really talented! Now picture this....A guy was driving with his knees, A bagel in one hand, what appeared to be coffee in the other, and his cell phone pressed against his shoulder. He is truly gifted!
PLUS
3- On this one, I was putting groceries away. Seems simple enough. But then i got to a can of Pineapples. On the label it said, Pineapple Chunks.... Yeah, made me sick to my stomach. Could the companies not come up with any other word than chunk to describe their food? i don't know about you guys, but that just sounded awful to me.
In the end, i guess i am not the one to judge. I've done some weird things in my life as well. But once again, these are just things to ponder.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Back From Camp?

Wow... I made it out of camp alive! I braved the elements and beat all those wussy grizzly bears. But for reals, this camp was the most interesting one yet. Probably one of the most memorable ones too. What a way to go right? Here's camp in a nutshell: Driving up a mountain in Kamas and almost gettin chased off by a crazy driver, trying to set up the most confusing tent ever, gettin toasted and roasted at the devotional (thought it would never end), rousing games of spaz and scum, smoking at the fire pit (all my clothes smell like camp fire and my hair), becoming the most annoying ward there (not that hard, and we like it!), serenading by none other than Kent Hercules at night, waking up to TWO INCHES of snow, nakey time, frozen limbs, great food and hot chocolate, getting wasted on "licorice", losing my voice, camp being cancelled, swimming at a pretty sweet rec center in kamas (time to thaw out at the hot tub), camp back on when we get home, great fireside, camping at the koch's with pizza, little rascal's, and scum, and a day filled with crafts, games, dinner and testimony meeting over at a leader's house. Now, i'll let you be the judge, but i think that we can consider it camping. Ha Ha but seriously, we go from hot to extreme cold weather! I was wearing about 6 layers. Now at first, I didn't want to go simply because i would have been the oldest one there by like 2 years and i wanted to go play with friends. But i thought, this is my last year so i should go. This ended up being a great time and i am glad i went. I love all of the other girls and we all had a fantastic time! Here are some of the great pics i took:

Camp the very first night...

Camp the next morning. (down to about 20 degrees)


My fellow gangsta, Shadow. (aka Sara)


Gangsta's unite! (Westside and Shadow)



My Girls...


Rockin around in the back of a car goin 40 mph up a mountain.

Makings of the most annoying ward at camp!

Winter Wonderland!

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Scooting and Blading


Alright, it's the beginning of summer which means many adventures and interesting ones at that. Our story begins when one night, no one could hang out. (Thanks alot guys!) So, Karli and I wanted to do something. We started texting back and forth until we started to get on this random tandem. Here is where Karli comes up with the bright idea of roller blading! Brilliant! Well, we go to Yogurt Stop, and after that we go to my house where lo and behold i have a pair of roller blades! Now, here is where i learn that Karli hasn't roller bladed since she was a tike. (even then it was just in her basement!) Time to relearn Karli! It was a great night filled with blading and scooting (scootering). Enjoy some of the pics we took and videos. More to come, and even better ones!

Karli in roller blades for the first time since she was little!


Ha Ha Give me a break, it's been awhile also!

In this one, Karli is using the classic "Gorilla Arms" technique.

I think I'm perfecting the "Fish" technique in this one....ish.

Scooting is the best! ha ha ha



This video is where the term, "Scooting and Blading" originates. (Sorry for the sidewayness. The commentary is the best part about it anyways.)

Swapped places...





Karli attempts the double scooting!!!

...and just when you thought she couldn't be more talented, she pulls the crossed-double scootering! ha ha ha

Poor Big Red

For those familiar with Big Red, the following news might disturb you. Early Wednesday morning after the Pepperwood Party, a travesty occurred. Unfortunately, Big Red got hit by another ruthless car. The perpetrator, I will not name, but some of you already know him. It happened around two in the morning, apparently after miss Karli left. We were all parked over at my friend Alec's house. It wasn't until approximately 4:15 a.m. that I had found out. I had walked out to grab some stuff out of my car when BAM! I find a little note on my fender. Now, it being four in the morning, you can only imagine how out of it I was. I mean, I probably had no sense at all at that time. So at first, I didn't notice the inhumane act done to Big Red. I took the note, and started reading it inside my car. Here's what the note consisted of:

"Dear Mandi-

DO NOT PANIC! I ACCIDENTALLY backed into your car. Please, DON'T WORRY!!! It's NO big deal, and I don't want you to worry about it. I don't want it to ruin your night (more like not ruin my morning). "

The note then goes on to explain in like 2 more paragraphs about how he is a good kid and how most people would just leave the car. Now, that is true, and I am very grateful that this kid left a note. It's hard to take responsibility for these kind of things especially when you are a teenager and getting insurance involved would jack your rates way up high. Luckily for this kid, we are not going to get insurance involved because his dad is paying for all of it. We have to replace the whole fender, which you can guess how much that will cost. I felt stupid however cause it took me like 15 minutes to figure out what had really happened. I was looking all over my car for this bump. You can see from these pictures, that it is a hard bump to miss and I felt quite ridiculous.


Never fear my dear friends and family, Big Red will soon be fixed up and looking hot as ever! If you feel the urge to pray and fast, you may do so and it would be much appreciated.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Blogger Newbie

Alrighty ladies and gents, my very first post! Woot-woot! ha ha well, many of you have been on me for getting a blog, family and now my friends too! So here you go! We'll see how well this blog thing plays out for me. I will try my hardest to keep it updated. I have a hard time just keepin track in my journal... lol Well, more posts to come, i assure you! Right now I want to go play!!