Pictures!

I promised pictures would come as soon as one of my co-RAs passed them on to us. So these pictures are of me and the 5 other RAs I work with the most.
Above: Mike, Mindy, Allison, Kristina, Me, Melanie. This is at Spring Haven where we received our first day of training. I'm sitting between the the girls that are in my tri-hall. So... pretty much I work with them the most.

Here we all are (Melanie, Mindy, Me, Allison, Mike, Kristina) at Camp Williams. It's some Army training camp, or boot camp or something like that. We went through some team-building experiences at Camp Williams. The first step though was working together the night before to make our group shirts. They say DANGER: Extreme Chaos. It's in reference to part of the Community-Progression Model which is something that we learn about to teach our residents. Our associate group is constantly in chaos, hence the warning. It's actually funny if you know about the model, which at this point, everyone else at Camp Williams knew exactly what it meant.

The past few days have been incredibly hectic. Almost all of the residents (in my tri-hall atleast) are checked in. Last time I was on duty (almost 4 hours ago) I was only missing 7 from my building, so that wasn't too bad at all. Hopefully when I go on duty again (in 1 hour) I won't have too many people to check in. Between these two shifts I've spent 3 1/2 hours working on publicity for the opening social for all of Heritage. It's been a very full day. I cut out 300 "Y"s with a diecut machine. It was pretty intense. All I've got left to do now for publicity is put things on the doors (they're already made though, so this shouldn't take too long), and make a poster for my hall. Holler!

Meeting Residents...

Some of my residents checked in today. Today is early early check-in day. Check-ins start Wednesday. Early check-ins start Monday, and early early check-ins were 2 hours ago. I've met 4 of my residents now. I knew all along that they would be close in age to me, but it's funny to watch/help them move in and have it really hit me that we are pretty much the same age. We're just peers. One of my residents that has moved in already is one of my roommates. She told me that she liked me and that she could tell we would get along and be friends. Hopefully this is a consistant comment from my residents.

On another note. I'm about to fall over and fall asleep. The bad thing, it's only 7:00pm. Conference guests FINALLY moved out today. I got my building to myself for a whole like 5 hours. In that time I ran around frantically making sure everything was clean, I left things in the apartments, and I made sure they were all locked and had the blinds closed. I was supposed to be done at 5 because that was when early early check-ins started. I finished at 4:59. Ya. My lobby is bare, and my window is not painted, but I have until Tuesday night to do that. I can only imagine what my Monday will look like... after I have 2 4 hour shifts checking early check-ins in.

CRAZY! My residents are coming in the next week, and classes start soon. Who would've thought this day would come?!?!?!?!

Training: Day 1

Saturday I loaded all my stuff into my suitcases and flew back to school. I spent a day and a half running around with Stephanie & her family, since they are here for education week. We went to walmart and costco, and I had many meals with her family. Steph & Alexa even helped me move everything into my dorm, and then helped me unpack (thanks, Steph). I'm mostly unpacked now, but I still have 1 box that is only halfway unpacked. I also haven't put any of my kitchen stuff into the kitchen. I want to wait til the roommates get here so we can decide what to do about kitchen cupboards and such.

Today was the first day of RA Training. We went down to the new Cannon Center for breakfast and an intro meeting, then headed to the employment office to get officially hired by the school. Then we got into vans and headed to this HUGE house. This was where we had our super cool 1st day of RA training. I already LOVE my hall advisor, the other RAs in my tri-hall, as well as the hall advisor and RAs of our associate tri-halls (that would make up the 6 RAs that I rotate working with). We have quite the group, it is hilarious. With my tri-hall and our associate tri-halls, we only have 1 boys building. It's hilarious, that RA, Michael, makes me laugh.

After I get pictures from my co-worker/friend Kristina, I'll post them so you can see the 7 people that I get to work with a bunch.

After about a 12 hour day of work, I'm super tired. I'm so glad that tomorrow doesn't start until 9:40. Tomorrow we're going on a tour of the resources on campus (counseling center, international offices, center for conflict resolution and such...). And then we have a cool sounding meeting about FERPA, the Honor Code, ad Freshman Academy. Should be done by about 5. AND we have a 2 hour break for lunch. It will make up for the amount of time we spent being trained today. Hopefully it will be a low key day. In the morning, 2 of my new RA friends (Kristina and Allison) and I are having a waffle party for breakfast! I'm super excited.

It's kind of really crazy not having roommates right now. There is a Conference Assistant living next door to me, and I've got some people staying in my building for Education Week, so I'm not alone, but nobody else is in my apartment. It's also kind of lame because after training ended, we all pretty much went to our own buildings instead of doing something together. We were just all too pooped. It takes too much effort to make a phone call or walk a few buildings over. Once school starts and the doors aren't locked until later at night, maybe I'll hang out with Kristina more often, but walking up to her building (the building I lived in last year) and knocking on her door hoping she hears the tapping on the front door, just doesn't sound too appealing.

Well, I think I'm outta here. I'll blog more soon.

And, Paul/Jeanne. I tried to call on Sunday, but your phone was busy, and when I called your cell phones nobody answered. So, I'll try calling Tuesday night so I can talk to the kids.

My new goal in life:

Marry Michael Phelps. Yup... haha! Watching the olympics, haven't we all fallen in love with Michael Phelps? Is he not amazing? So I pretty much love that his daily routine is wake up, eat, swim, watch tv, go to sleep. That sounds like a fabulous routine. In discussing this plan of mine with my good friend Brendan, I realized a potential problem though. I'm afraid of swimming. Remember when I was a young child and almost died in the Springgay's pool? Ya... I don't swim. Maybe marrying an olympic swimmer isn't REALLY the best option for me. But hey, for a few minutes, it was a great lifetime goal. Was it not?

Mail!

I love getting mail. Luckily for me, I'm at the age where half of my friends are gone (or will be soon) on their missions. That said, I have about 5 that I write letters to. It's great. I write them a letter, they write me back... you know how that all goes. I've decided I did something REALLY stupid though. I let their letters pile up. And then, I wrote 3 of them on the same day. Now, that's not really a problem. Until... I get letters back from the three of them, within just a few days of each other. Now I find myself with 4 letters to write to people who already wrote me, as well as the address of another who told one of the other guys to tell me to write to him. I guess I'll just be spending my evenings writing letters for the next few days, and maybe this time I'll space them out a little when I send them.

Also, not only do I get letters from some of the missionaries... but when they email their families each week, I get emails forwarded from the parents of 5 of my friends. It's fun to check my email on Monday's & Tuesday's and find emails from my friends moms. Kinda weird, but also very fun!

But... I do love getting mail! I even requested catalogs to be sent to my new dorm starting in the middle of August so that I'll get more mail, isn't that great?

Also... this summer I have gotten 2 wedding annoucements. For people that I actually know. My RA, Danica got married in May, and Uncle Russ & Auntie Adri are getting married August 16th. It's crazy to see my friends getting married while other of my friends are going on missions. WeIrD!

I've also decided that it will be so weird to go back to school and not have very many guys my age there. Weird, weird, weird. But I guess that's the way things roll at the Y.

Hmmmm!

In exactly 3 weeks and 25 minutes, my plane is scheduled to land back in my happy other home. That means I have only 3 weeks and 25 minutes to endure! Only 13 days left to work, only 2 more Friday nights babysitting, or maybe only one... depending on when we're going camping. Only 2 more Saturday's to do chores. Only 3 more Thursdays to be my "dinner/dishes night", although this Thursday is Mexican Night (I'll explain) so I won't be the only one cooking, and I imagine we'll all pitch in and help with dishes too. Only 36 days til my <3 215 reunion <3 with my loverly roommates from last year.

So Mexican Night... to explain Mexican Night, I need to explain Italian Night. Last week at church, a girl originally from 3rd ward, but who is attending SV with us (Carolyn C) invited me and Jenna for "Italian Night". We had no clue what this was going to be, but later in the week, Jenna and Carolyn talked about what we should bring. Anywho, we went over to Carolyn's house on Wednesday night with the makings for Italian Sodas. She and her sister Molly had made a pizza (more like, they cooked a pizza that they picked up at Costco) and it was amazing. Christi W brought pasta (pasta roni mind you, and man was I happy to see that stuff again :D) and the 5 of us had a fabulous time laughing and eating. Rachelle D showed up a little later and joined in on the laughter, oh... and I guess Carolyn's brother, Spencer, ate with us as well. We had a fabulous feast with our pizza, salad, pasta and italian sodas. Add a fabulous dessert and probably a good 4 hours of hearty laughter, and Italian Night was a success. We decided we wanted to make this a weekly thing til we all leave again in a few weeks, and decided that next week would be Mexican. Jenna & I decided to host it at our house, and boy, are we excited. We want to get costumes and decorations and have it be a full blown party. Pretty much, it's going to be hilarious. I'm way looking forward to it.

Last night Jenna & I crashed a 1st ward ward activity. More like, we went... I ate a few bites of a burnt hamburger, we both ate some chips and we talked to some people. Mom, Brenda says hi. And so do Michelle & Stephen Beecroft. Oh, and Rachel R does as well. Then, we sat with Claire A (she's 16) and decided to kidnap her for the night. We went down to downtown Kirkland and saw The Dark Knight. And man, it's a good thing Christian Bale is so attractive. We were all freaking out. Also, that movie theatre is dumb. They have something like reversed stadium seating... it was messed up. It was cheaper than Bella, and the movie started at a time we could actually handle, so I guess we can't complain too much. It was fun hanging out with Claire & Jenna. Next time, we're kidnapping Claire's brother, Charlie, as well. He was just too young for Dark Knight (he's like 11).

Today I went to the dentist to get 2 fillings. My appointment was at 8, and when I left his office at like 8:45 he told me to go home and go to sleep. So, I did. And when I would wake up randomly, I would check to see if my face was numb still, and if it was I would go back to bed. It got to the point that a little after noon I just woke up and walked into Jenna's room. Then we went and got Jamba Juice. Oh man, I love Pink Star Jamba's. Probably my favoritest ever!

I should probably do my laundry, and take a shower. And maybe find something to do.

Why I Like Sundays

Sundays like yesterday are some of my favoritests ever. Here's how it went down... I slept in until 10:45. Took a shower, ate breakfast, got all ready for church. We got to church, sat with our friends and chatted for a little bit. After church we (of course that means me and Jenna) went to choir. THEN I went to Paul's. I don't know who to give credit to (Paul or Jeanne), but we had some amazing Veal Parmesan (sp?) and garlic bread (which I think they said Bryan made?). After dinner we all went outside. The kids ran around playing, and then decided they wanted wedgies (these kids are kind of odd... they ask for wedgies). After a while, Bryan had to leave, it was fun eating dinner with Bryan again. Eventually Jeanne took Tyler on a drive to get him to go to sleep, and after that she and I sat at the piano. She played a bunch of songs (from the hymn book, the primary book, some purple book, and music not from a book) and we sang them together. I LOVE sing-a-longs. It wasn't quite like the sing-a-longs we had growing up, as our music supply was slightly smaller than mom's music collection. BUT, we sang songs that now always me think of Jeanne and the girls. I love when we sing this particular song that Jeanne's sister rearranged. Paige always comes in when we sing, and she comes and stands by me. It's super cute, and we always end up with our arms around eachother in some way. I love the memories of it.

Pretty much, Sunday was pretty laid back, and we were at the piano for more than an hour. It was fabulous. I can't wait for the first week back at school when my building is empty. I'll have the piano to myself. We'll just have to see if I can find my piano music. Hopefully my Ben Folds book comes in really soon so I can start working on those songs before I get back to school.

So, I suppose this post is to help me remember how much I love Sunday afternoon's at Pauls house, and to remind me of our sing-a-longs. Also, it is to help me remember how badly I need to work on my writing skills. My grammar and punctuation is pretty much awful, I guess I've been out of school a few too many days.

26 days til I go back!

Countdowns

Traci's post made me chuckle a little. All this time I've been counting down til the day I fly away (28.5 days, fyi) and there is something a little sooner that I have to look forward to! How on earth did I forget about Stephenie Meyer's new book coming out? The bookstore at school had signs up in April before I left announcing the arrival of it (Mom, do you remember seeing these signs, and did you think it was ridiculous?). I'll have to work something out to go and get this book as quickly as possible. Probably won't stay up all night reading it like I did with Harry Potter 7, but I'll read it before I go back to school, that's for sure!

I have something else to look forward to. I have 18 days of work left. Three full weeks, and then the Monday-Wed of the week that I leave. I've got two days to run errands and pack and make sure I've got everything taken care of. That gives me 3 weeks to sub for people and to get the sales area of the store all finished. I'm making new price labels for ALL of our products and changing out the hooks that the products hang off of so that the plastic price tag holders are slightly more modern and sturdy. Unfortunately the process of making new labels and replacing the old ones takes long enough without replacing the hooks. Lets just say I get a lot of quality time with my iPod while I'm at work.

One of my favorite things about not being at school right now is that I don't have to pay a dollar to wash and dry each load of laundry. Call me crazy, but free laundry is AMAZING. Also, I don't have to lug my laundry, my quarters, my laundry detergent and my fabric softener down to the basement. I carry my clothes down, and everything else is there waiting for me. I also don't have to set a timer so that I get my clothes before the stupid people who steal clothes from the laundry room do. Christie was a victim of that a few times. Silly girls stealing modbe and shade shirts and camis. Who would've thought?

Another thing I love about being here, not at school, is teryaki. I just haven't found decent teryaki at school yet. Here I go to Yummy Teryaki, or Joy Wok often to get my teryaki chicken fix. I LOVE teryaki. Probably my favoritest ever. I'll be so sad when I go back to a place with no good teryaki. If anyone knows of good terytaki in P-town, let me know. This is really important for my well-being.

A question... and the last post I'll post tonight.

As I wrote the post about me being the best aunt in the universe, I realized I had no clue how to spell the name Kami. What are the most popular ways to spell Kami? Kami? Cami? Camie? I have no clue, and now it's really starting to bug me. I might have to call the office tomorrow and ask them how said massage therapist spells her name.

Also, spelling the name Kami has nothing to do with me being the best aunt in the universe, just to clarify. My lack of spelling ability does not change the fact that I am the best aunt in the universe.

And, while I'm thinking of aunts, tomorrow is Auntie Adri's birthday. So, although Auntie Adri pretty much has no way of accessing my blog (that I know of)... Happy Birthday Auntie Adri!

*for those of you who don't know Auntie Adri... Auntie Adri is marrying Uncle Russ next month. Uncle Russ was the uncle of one of my roommates, Allison. Russ was an RA in Helaman, and he came over for dinner a lot. After he and Adri started dating (oh, and Adri was an RA in Helaman also), Adri came over too. My whole apartment called Russ "Uncle Russ" because that was what Allison called him. When they were starting to plan their wedding (officially engaged or not) Adri said we should call her Auntie Adri. I jumped on that one as fast as I could, although Allison just BARELY started calling her Auntie Adri. I thought it was really cool. I love my Uncle Russ and Auntie Adri!

A to-do list

At school I found that I got a lot more done if I talked through my to-do list. That in mind, Christie and I regularly told each other all of the things we needed to do. If Christie wasn't around, Kelli and I would talk about our lists. Sometimes as I explained the tasks to one of them, it helped me figure out if it was a top priority or not. I also figured out that if I told somebody what I needed to do, they would sometimes ask me how a particular task had gone. It was like when you go on a diet with a friend and you check in with each other regularly to see how you are progressing.

After I would talk them through, I would number them on whatever paper I had written them down on, and then rewrite them in order. It was kind of a long process. I found that if I spent some good time making my list, it motivated me more. That and I figured I wasted 30 minutes figuring out what to do, so that was 30 minute less time I had to accomplish everything. Also, I really just like writing down lists of things I need to do. In a notebook that I hope is in a box in Provo (I only hope that because I can't find it, I really wish it was here) I have this huge long list of all sorts of things I need to do. However, that might have to be another post for another day, like a day that I actually have that list in front of me. It has a bunch of good lifetime goals, goals for the summer (whoops!), goals for next year, goals I want to accomplish before I get married... just a bunch of goals. Well, I suppose that the things on my to-do list are my goals. I don't really know why I started typing goals instead of 'things to do'. Actually, I probably did that because goals is significantly shorter than 'things to do'.

I decided that if I post my list of things I need to get done, I might actually do them... for fear that you all will laugh at me if I don't get them done. Also, I have a bad habit of losing my list of things to do.

I need to...
-vacuum my bedroom
-do my laundry
-pick up my piano book at the music store (yay for ben folds!)
-pay my tuition
-pay my $1 fee at the library... woops
-do my 4th RA Assignment (it's already a week late...)
-do my 5th RA assignment (it's due in a week... and it's the last one)
-work harder on my Geography class (independent study is a beautiful thing)
-figure out what to make for dinner on thursday, or find out if i'm really in charge of cooking since there are 5 extra people here
-call the two girls i'm supposed to call for my church calling
-schedule my visiting teaching, which shouldn't be so hard since i live with my companion, and 2 of the 3 girls we visit are girls i talk to on a regular basis
-think about writing letters to my friends that are still in the mtc (namely: brendan c and chris)

that should about do it for now. oh. i decided that simple things like getting sleep, eating, showering... didn't need to make that list, although those are things I do as well.

also, the other night when I talked to Allison on IM for a while, she told me that she could hear my voice as she read some of the phrases I said, like when I said "go for it" or "holler" and similar phrases that frequently come out of my mouth. I'm finding that this post is pretty much just typed exactly how I would've said it. If it's kind of hard to follow sometimes, or just has really bad english I apologize. On my blog atleast I write the way I talk, and sometimes I just talk funny.