dearelder.com

My best friend is on a mission. She left two months ago and is leaving the MTC for St. Petersburg, Russia this very week!!!

She's the Sister on the left. Isn't she adorable?

I have been VERY grateful for Dear Elder these last two months. Alyssa and I have been best friends for a very long time and it's been really hard not having her around. I write her very very frequently, but this week I have been writing even more than usual. After this Sunday letters are no longer free and same day delivered, so I'm taking advantage of the system.

Do you see all these Dear Elder confirmation emails? Yes I have sent her four letters since last night...one of them was definitely sent at 1:54 AM. (it was important!!!!!!)

Thankfully, Alyssa wrote this week and said that with the new church policy she will be able to email me from Russia every week. Don't make fun of me, I cried when I read that. I was SO happy. Hearing from her only once a week right now is hard enough...don't know how I would have/could have possibly gone months without hearing from her. Thank goodness for technology!!!!!!

It's a Match!

Tinder. For all you married/taken people in the world... Tinder is a lovely iPhone app that pulls up pictures of people in your area. You can either "like" or "reject" people after looking at five pictures of them. If two people "like" each other, they are notified and then can chat through the app. I downloaded it about a month ago because my friend told me it would give me a good laugh. The first thing it gave me was a killer confidence boost. All these boys who I thought were WAY cute thought I was cute too!! Woo! Then I started feeling creepy and creeped out all in one. A few of my matches started talking to me...and I just didn't want to talk. That's when I realized that I was in it more for the confidence boost than the actual dating.
Sometimes super awkward things happen on Tinder. My roommate matched with a boy in our ward that she hadn't ever talked to. They started chatting and connected that they were in the same ward. Then at the next ward party they didn't speak to each other and it has been awkward ever since.
Other times boys ask you for your number and you text a little. I have yet to gone out on a date with a Tinder match, but I've sure seen some cuties. I hope I don't meet my husband on Tinder....that would be the worst story to tell.

Sometimes I enjoy my little Tinder communications, other times I go through phases where I delete the app completely. Either way, I think Tinder is silly. Its like one more way for boys in Provo to be lazy and not ask people out. Come on ya stinkin boys, man up and ask us (NOT over Tinder).

The news, again!

I was watching KSL 5 news the other day and heard a very interesting story about a new drug testing policy in Davis county schools. I grew up in Davis county I started paying attention! They are trying to drug test student representatives randomly (officers, cheerleaders,drill team, athletes, etc.) I think this is a brilliant idea. I know of a lot of people at my high school (and a few teams in particular) that had a lot of problems with substance abuse. Our drill team was pretty much known for their drinking, drugs, and sex and the football team wasn't much better. My senior year, it got to the point where our drill team girls were coming to school and even performing at games under the influence. Other schools would yell at them/ our school collectively and make fun of this widely known problem they had. I don't know why our school never drug tested, or kicked anyone off of the drill team. I was a cheerleader in high school and we would have been kicked off so fast if we had any of those kinds of problems. I think drug abuse is a big problem in high schools everywhere and I would definitely be supportive of random drug testing, especially among student representatives.

Musica

I realized this weekend that the type of music somebody listens to definitely can help you decide what type of person they are. I went on a date on Saturday, and it was really fun! Except that he kept playing hard core rap in the car and it swore a ton. He apologized for it once but then let it keep playing. I wish I would have said more and forced him to change it or something, but I didn't. When I got home and started telling my roommates about the date I realized that after he listened to the bad music I just started feeling like he wasn't somebody that I would be interested in going out with again. And it's definitely because of his choice in music. I may be judging him too quickly and maybe I'm about to miss out on getting to know somebody pretty great, but I was turned off by his choice of music. I know that I will always be more careful with what I am choosing to listen to because it does tell you a lot about a person.

pinteresting

Every once and awhile I go through some killer Pinterest addicted phases. It doesn't happen often, but I'm in a phase right now. I go on every time I have physical science because it's so boring. I love Pinterest! I think it's incredible that there is such a place where everyone can share their creative ideas and steal good ideas from other people. But there is a point where it's a little bit too much. The other day my 10 year old neighbor stared posting things for her wedding. Her wedding that wont take place for at least 10 years probably more. I think Pinterest is great, but what can a ten year old really do with it?!?! That was a little too much for me...especially when I realized that I had just repinned something a 10 year old put up.

i love technology

Technology is great. Today I realized another great reason why. My best friend is on a mission and I write her lots and lots. It would be REALLY nice if I could send her a text, give her a call...things like that. It makes me realize how lucky we are to have the technology we have!

Today I especially wish that Miss Alyssa Eyring had technology. It's really frustrating that I can't write her and hear back immediately, especially when another friend has given her false information about me that I would really like to clear up. Pretty frustrating when your best friends decide to tell other people confidential information, or even made-up information about you.

and that is why technology is fabulous.

Harry Potter has come to Hogwarts!

This weekend I watched Harry Potter 7.2 with my family. I am such a Harry Potter nerd. Here are the reasons why I love it so much... (and my love for it only increased when we got to read the Harry Potter and therapy novel for class)

1. Harry, Ron, and Hermione remind me of my group of friends in high school. We had a pretty good group of guys and girls and we just did everything together! Sometimes we were frustrated with each other, but most of the time we just had the greatest adventures! I love when I can relate to characters in books.

2. They destroy Voldemort but you don't even know it until the very last second. I hate those books/movies where you totally know the whole time that the good guys will win. Then you don't even have to get stressed about the ending because you just know all along that it will be the perfect fairytale. When I read Harry Potter 7 for the first time I remember not knowing what was going to happen, and I loved it! Even this weekend watching the movie it was almost like I could forget what I knew the ending was and it got intense all over again!!!!

3. There are so many different relationships that are SO REAL. Harry and Snape don't get along but you don't realize until too late that its just because Snape was so in love with Harry's mom. Of course he would be rude and jealous! I also love Harry's relationship with the Dursley's. It definitely helped me to realize that dysfunctional families are OK and that good people (like Harry!) can come out of bad situations. Harry's relationship with Sirius Black makes me happy too. Really anything involving Harry makes me a happy girl.

4. I also love that the movies didn't ruin the books. Obviously I was a book lover long before a movie lover, and the movies just made it that much better. I'm the biggest fan.

There are like 100000 reasons why I love Harry Potter so much, but those are just a few.

The only thing that I really don't love about Harry Potter is that Ron and Hermione end up together. I think that Harry and Hermione would be a way better match. But then I guess Ron and Ginny couldn't end up together and everyone has to fall in love, right?

For Thanksgiving break my family took a cruise out of Florida, but before we sailed away we DEFINITELY made a good stop at Universal Studios. I could have lived in Harry Potter land ALL DAY LONG. I even bought myself my own wand. 13 and 3/4 in. Nature Curved Oak with the

aca-scuse me?!

This weekend I went up to my friend Meg's cabin in Midway. We had the best time ever catching up, playing games, eating lots of treats, and we watched Pitch Perfect. I've been hearing about Pitch Perfect FOREVER but just hadn't gotten around to seeing it so I was excited that the girls wanted to watch it.

I thought it was HILARIOUS. I laughed out loud so many times. The story was entertaining, funny, cheesy (but more making fun of acapella groups than real life cheesy)....However, it was terribly crude. The whole movie was full of sex jokes and inappropriate humor. There were so many things that they could have taken out so easily to make it more appropriate. This movie has seriously been the big thing for so many weeks and now that I've seen it I understand why. I couldn't stop watching it because it was so hilarious. But so inappropriate. It's always so frustrating when you find a movie that is so entertaining, but so raunchy. I vowed I'd never see it again because I felt yucky after.....but I'm sad that I vowed that because it was so good!

...and this is what Satan does to me. Makes me love something that I just can't love.