Lisa Marie

It's About Time I Got Some 'Help'!

2011-08-17T23:35:00.015-06:00

Tonight was the best night I have had in a bit, and I really needed it! A few girls in my ward wanted to go see 'The Help'. I haven't read the book yet, but the previews looked good, and Jess adores the book, so I wanted to see it. So Andrew and seven of us ladies trucked over to our Cinemark to see the 6:40 show.
I was absolutely hilarious, because anyone who walked into the theater would definitely be able to tell it was a chick flick. There were groups of ladies sitting together, and I only counted three men in the entire theater (including Andrew). We even sat behind a group of eight ladies that all came together, and their ages must have spanned two or three generations. It made me laugh, because that is what my college girlfriends and I will look like in a few years!
Anyway, the movie just captured me from the very start. I didn't know the characters or their stories, so I found myself wanting to hurry up and see what would happen next. It was like I wanted to watch the movie at double speed so I could see what happened to everyone. Halfway through the movie, I knew I wanted, no, NEEDED to read the book! I kept leaning over to Jess and telling her how good certain parts were, as if she weren't sitting right next to me. I gasped in shock, laughed, and cried until my 8 squares of toilet paper that I brought along with me were soaked. I knew I had mascara streaming down my cheeks, but I didn't care.
After the movie was over, I had a craving that wouldn't go away- I wanted chocolate pie. For all of you that have read the book or seen the movie, you know how crazy that is, but I wanted it. So I stopped by our local Village Inn, and what do you know?! It was FREE PIE NIGHT! I grabbed my slice of French Silk, headed home, went immediately into Jessie's room, and grabbed her copy of 'The Help'.

If you need me, I will be curled up on my bed. And I may not answer phone calls. Sorry!

Why My Nephews Are the Coolest- Exhibits A & B

2011-08-12T23:15:00.031-06:00

I have the sweetest nieces and nephews. I'm serious. I love them each to PIECES!!! Today I was reminded how much I miss them when I got a voicemail, and Jess told me a story about Colorado.

Jess and Andrew went up to Denver a few weeks ago to see Sarah, Todd, and fam on their vacation. Yeah, I'm more than a little jealous, but I had already committed to house/dog sit for my boss, so I couldn't tag along. Jess told me the funniest thing today. They had been hiking one morning, and when they went back to their cars, J.C. popped into Jess' and Andrew's car saying, "Man, I need a break from my parents". He then proceeded to plug into his iPhone, and play away. Can't you just see that coming from J.C.? I can even hear the inflection in his voice. What a cutie!

He is so dang cool.

And then I also had the most wonderful voicemail from Braden today! I saw I missed a call at work, and had a voicemail. When I saw it was from Ashley, I wanted to hear the message right away, in case it was an emergency. When I heard Braden's voice talking to my phone, I almost burst into tears right there. There is just something so special about hearing your family say the words, 'I love you!'. When it comes from a child, it just melts your heart into a little puddle.

I love you so much, buddy.

What can I say? My family is amazing! :)

What a Relief!

2011-08-10T22:14:00.000-06:00

I am DONE with my prerequisite courses!!!! I took my final for my last math class today, and I really couldn't be happier. I had an awful teacher and honestly didn't get much instruction, but I am confident that I did well in the class.

And now I move on to my COHORT! I will be taking classes at 8 a.m. But I just figure that I will be going to work by that time when I am out of school, so I might as well get used to it.

I am ready to start this last leg of my Bachelor degree!

Meet Wicket!

2011-07-14T12:34:00.001-06:00

This is me with my new friend Max. After meeting him, I decided I was going to change his name to Wicket. Some of you may know who Wicket is. Yeah, I'm a nerd. But don't you see the similarities?!

I want a dog!

I FOUND THEM!!!

2011-07-13T13:16:00.002-06:00

I found those pics that I thought were erased from my computer and my camera! WOO HOO!!! I will get some updates with pics here soon. I'm just so happy I found them!

Ouch!

2011-07-09T12:22:00.001-06:00

Remember how excited I was to be the sole owner of my car? That was until today, when I had to finish replacing my tires and get an oil change. A whopping $300 later, and it was hard to remember that elation I felt at owning my car.

Look for that silver lining . . .

And Then There Were None

2011-07-06T23:11:00.001-06:00

Sorry for the weird and cropped pic, but my blog is public and my information is correct on my checks! :)

This is it, folks. The LAST payment for my car! It's a little more than usual, but it feels so good to send this baby off. I own a car now. It's mine. All mine. I love that I can consider it an asset instead of a liability. I tell you, I am slowly whittling down my expenses, and it feels so darn good!

Quickie post

2011-07-05T22:54:00.000-06:00

During the course of the day, I caught myself thinking '_____ is one of my favorite things in the world'. I thought I would share a few of those things, since they will give you an insight into how zany of a person I am! These were really my thoughts today.

"(some of) My Favorite Things In the World!":

1. Red Mango frozen yogurt with blueberries and strawberries
2. Catching up with a good friend
3. Sitting outside, but in the shade of a big huge umbrella
4. Vacuum tracks in the carpet
5. Ice cold milk
6. Having a roommate that is related to me
7. Thunder and lightning storms while looking out over the valley
8. The songs "Valleri", "Calypso", "America", and "Sound of Silence"

and MOST IMPORTANTLY . . .
9. My mama, who loves me so much that she worked her tired little fingers to the bone to make me the apron I was so excited about. She even express mailed it to me so I could have it as fast as possible. She also included a few little 'surprises' that really made my day. Thanks, Mom. I love you!

Isn't it cute?! I had to take a pic in the mirror because I don't have any roommates right now to help me out!

God Bless America

2011-07-04T23:11:00.001-06:00

I should learn the words to that song. I only know about half of the first verse, how sad is that?

Today was a glorious Fourth filled with food, friends, and fireworks. Can't get any better than that! I was in Salt Lake for the day, and spent some time with Lindz, her sister Erin, and their Westie puppy named Boo. It's not good to have pets around me, because I will ignore everyone else and just play with said pet. Proof of this was pointed out to me when I spent hours playing with the puppy and her plastic toy replica of a foot. My friends know that feet and I don't really get along. Well, this dog licked my toes, bit them a little, and then had me play with her plastic foot toy for around an hour. Yeah. I'm a sucker for pets.

Moving on . . . one of Erin's friends invited us over for a barbecue, and we jumped at the chance for some grilled food. It's one of the best things about the summer- grilled ANYTHING! We whipped up some chicken kabobs, sliced up some watermelon, and headed out the door. I was utterly shocked at what met my eyes when I saw the food table at this 'barbecue'.

Now, this is how my family (and most Midwesterners) roll at a barbecue/picnic:

Corn casserole, chips, mustard potato salad, baked beans, sandwiches, KFC, mashed potatoes, maybe a few carrot sticks, a veggie tray that doesn't get eaten, you get the idea. Hearty, filling, not-so-healthy options. When I scoped out the food table at this BBQ, it looked like everyone had brought a salad with weird stuff in it! I think everyone there had watched their favorite Food Channel chef and used a recipe from their show. It was so fancy and gourmet!!! There was salad with spinach and fruit, white potato salad with feta, rosemary, and fennel, Quinoa, cucumber salad, pepper salad with 5 kinds of nuts in it, homemade granola cookies, homemade grain chips, ginger ale with fresh mint in it, and that is just for starters, I can't remember the rest!

There was a long line for the barbecue, so I ended up just loading a plate with all the different salads (yes, I tried them all!), and getting my veg on. I am not very adventurous in my food choices normally, but I have been trying to branch out. Most of the salads were pretty good, and the white potato salad with feta and rosemary was AWESOME! Even though the food was out of my league, I still had a great time. It was mostly people from the single adult ward, so the age range was a little higher. But I met some great people and had some good laughs (along with some amazing food!).

After the non-BBQ (I didn't even get to eat anything that was grilled!), we headed back to Lindz's house and set up camp on her front lawn. They live just across the street from the park where the fireworks were being set off. We literally had the best seats available. Aerial fireworks were legal for the first time this year, and Lindz's neighbors really went to town with a great show before the Big Show. I felt a little ashamed of the small fountains, sparklers, and morning glories that I brought for us to use. But, Lindz and I had a great time playing with sparklers with the kids next door.

I kept trying to get a photo of me spelling my name with sparkler. Yeah, it didn't work, but I had fun attempting. And no, I didn't burn myself or set anything on fire! There was only one rogue ember, and we took care of that really quickly!

We really did have the best view of the Big Show. It was a great end to a great day. I love the fact that we celebrate all the wonderful things about our country on the 4th of July. Although it may not always seem like it, there are a lot of blessings and things to be grateful for that come from being a citizen of this amazing country. God bless America and keep her safe!

Lessons, Legolas, & Lockwood!

2011-06-26T23:08:00.001-06:00

So this week was a good one. Oh, don't worry, I don't have any pics to go along with it (see previous post). Bummer.

But, I can still do a type-up of the fun things that happened, right? You won't be bored, right? Right? RIGHT?! WAKE UP!!!

This week was the last week of my first block class. It's a math theory class, and I have not enjoyed it too much. I've met some great people, but the teacher is disorganized and doesn't teach very well. Let's just say I have learned a lot of things NOT to do in my future classroom.

But I digress. I was going to demonstrate why I don't like this class. Exhibit A- our test schedule for this last week. We had a test on Thursday last week, a group test on Wednesday of this week, the final for the class on Thursday, and our big project for the class due sometime between all those. Yeah. I was not too happy. Study groups, nights in the lab, no bueno. Three tests and a project due in a week. What was she thinking?!

Exhibit B- we have a guy in our class who asks a lot of questions. He doesn't do it to annoy, but he just needs clarification on lots of stuff. The teacher has gotten frustrated with him a few times, and has taken to ignoring him when he raises his hand. A lot of the class grumble when he raises his hand, too, but for heaven's sake, we have to get USED to this! We will be working with kids. Yeah, kids. Oh, but I forgot. They are the best listeners in the world, and never ask the same question over and over, right? Sure, it might be annoying to answer questions from the same person over and over, but don't IGNORE him! That's completely rude!

I will complain/compliment her more depending on what grade I get in the class. I will find that out on Wednesday or Thursday, so stay tuned. :)

On Tuesday night, I decided I needed a little break. What's that you say? The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Extended Edition is playing in a theater near us? And Jess and Andrew are going? And it starts after class? Done.

I had never seen the extended version before, but I loved it! This movie has a special place in my heart for a few different reasons, a LARGE and very ATTRACTIVE one being Orlando Bloom. I was hoping the extra 40 minutes of film included scenes of him fighting, running, looking hot, talking, using his elf- and archery skills to help the Fellowship, more running, more fighting, and more looking hot. Alas, the extra scenes seemed to include everyone BUT him. Slightly disappointing, but I still thought it was excellent.

After taking my tests on Wednesday and Thursday, I decided I wanted/deserved/needed/was going to cry if I didn't get away from school and the house. There is a community theater around here that does outdoor musicals in the summer, and they were doing 'Singin' in the Rain', one of my favorites (Isenbarger children, cue Mom singing "Good Morning" to us when we wouldn't get out of bed). My friend Moka wanted to see it as well, so we headed over there to watch. Besides a few bugs, it was a fantastic evening, and the show was so much fun to watch. They even rigged up an actual rain shower for the 'Singin' in the Rain' number! Lots of tap dancing, singing, and laughing later, the show ended with me still smiling. It was a little different from the movie, but that is to be expected. Moka and I laughed about a few small mishaps, dialogue mess ups, but overall, it was fun to watch, and that's all that matters, right? Oh, and it helped that their Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont were so funny. I think that if there were a role I would ever want to play, Lina might be it. Her nasal voice was spot on, and she had the audience in stitches with the 'caaaaaan't stand 'im!' part.

So, now concludes my little update. Hope you're awake!

Import Fail

2011-06-26T22:40:00.000-06:00

So, I was importing a whole bunch of pics into my iPhoto, so I could do some picture uploading. I uploaded the pics and when the computer asked me if I wanted to delete the imported photos from my computer, I did something I've never done before. I said 'yes'. I figured they were imported and things would be just fine to get rid of them.

WRONG!!!

My iPhoto application for some reason randomly shut down. I couldn't believe it. It hasn't done that before. So I relaunched the application and guess what . . . the photos are gone. They are gone from my computer and gone from my camera. I had some great pics, too!

SAD DAY!!!!

Challenge Extended

2011-06-26T22:28:00.000-06:00

So, I challenged Sarah to get a post on her blog this weekend. She rose to the challenge, and I am trying to as well. Just for the record, so this idea my family has that I'm a hypocrite goes away, here is the post I sent her:

Lisa Isenbarger
The family has all updated their blogs. I think it's time for us to do the same. Challenge extended!

Thursday at 1:32pm · · · See Friendship

- Curt Isenbarger For real. Waiting on real posts from Sarah, not arts & crafts. ;) Love you!

You Shouldn't Say 'April Fools!' When . . .

2011-04-01T00:28:00.001-06:00

. . . you're getting fingerprinted by the State of Utah in order to be able to teach. Or when you are getting a background check done by the State for the same reason. No bueno. They won't laugh.

Watch Out . . . I'm On My Way!

2011-03-30T00:20:00.002-06:00

Wednesday's are REALLY long days for me. I'm up at 7:30, gone at 8:30, and after a full day of class, faculty meeting, work, and more class, I'm usually home by 7:30. Nice.

It WOULD be a Wednesday when I get my letter from the El Ed department telling me if I got into the program. It WOULD be a particular Wednesday when I have to come home later that night because of some class stuff I had to do on campus. I WOULD find out that the letter was in my mailbox FOUR hours before I can go home and look. Yeah. Just my luck.

I drove home slightly faster than normal because I was so excited and wanted to get to the mailbox. I ran through the front door, dropped my bag, grabbed the mail key, and was back out the door in less than 15 seconds. And YES, I did take a slightly longer route to the mailbox because there were people in my ward right on the way to the mailbox and I didn't want to get distracted and make polite conversation with them. And YES, I did walk faster than normal to said mailbox. And YES I was quite out of breath when I got there. And YES I did rip open the letter and read it right there.

AND YES, I GOT IN!!!!!

Life is good.

Holy Holi!

2011-03-26T23:10:00.008-06:00

Today was the Festival of Colors!!!!

This is my absolute FAVORITE way to welcome Spring. I mean, who doesn't love getting insanely messy while dancing around and throwing brightly colored rose-scented cornstarch on each other while listening to Indie rock and stories of a Rolex monkey and burning a witch (Yes, all I could think of was Monty Python when they were talking about this)?! No, really. It's madness, and I love it.

Check out this vid. It depicts how amazingly fun the Holi Festival is. And, a guy from my freshman ward wrote the music! Crazy connections, huh?

Thanks for the vid, Lindz!

Okay, so the pics are pretty much the best way to get an idea of what goes on at Holi. It is a constant cloud of cornstarch and color. Check out how messy we are!!!

This was during part of the color cloud. I put away my camera pretty quickly so it didn't get coated.

Thank heavens for the masks!

Yeah, people would just throw color on you at any time. Nice timing, dude with the hat!

I like the clean scratch mark in the middle of my forehead. Nice.

The group minus Moka and Anne, who we couldn't find! We were so darn messy!

Jessica and Andrew. This was the only good one I could get of them. Dang you, Andrew!

Mindy was so excited that her vacation was at the exact time of Holi. And check out our white teeth!!

Hannah and Heidi, this one's for you!

This year I was super excited because we had some first-timers with the group! Lindz and I had always wanted to go to the Festival when we previously lived together, but because neither of us had a car at the time, we weren't able to go. But, I knew this was the year we would get to do it. We gathered a whole bunch of friends (Brian came from California, and Mindy came from Nebraska!) and went with some people in my current ward. Over the course of the few hours we were there, we got separated from the other part of our group, but that didn't stop us from having fun. Yes, it was even fun when I inhaled a handful of pink powder that had been thrown at my face. It took a minute to gag and cough all of it out, but that's all part of the fun, right?! :)

So after we met up with the group and got a few pics, we all decided we were famished and needed to grab some grub, pronto. Sonic was the agreed upon spot, so we all headed off in our colored glory. I have to say, even with sheets and blankets covering the seats, I still have a pink car. Yeah, not so happy about that.

I love this pic of Danny. It's just hilarious to see a guy with a red face wrapped in a girly blanket and ordering from a Sonic drive thru. Love it.

Once we got to Sonic, it seemed like the temp just dropped. We all huddled together and ordered massive amounts of food. We really were famished. Some people even managed a round 2. I think Jessica said it best when she told us, "It's kind of like how you're so hungry and exhausted after church. We were at a religious festival, so I think it is just like that." I love that girl. Here is a shot of our table before some people got more food:

And there was another table next to us completely filled with bags as well. Oh, it was amazing. All in all, it was a great year for the Holi Festival of Colors, and I'm pretty sure we will be going again next year. Anyone want to join us?! Pencil it in for the end of March, 2012. You will NOT regret going!

Drum Roll, Please!!!

2011-03-20T22:20:00.000-06:00

It came.

Game on!

What a GREAT day!

2011-03-19T14:00:00.004-06:00

My Professor Plum costume. I had too much fun with it!

In the immortal words of Princess Bride, "Let me 'splain. *pause* No, there is too much. Let me sum up."

Today was pretty much a blast. I saw BYU kick Gonzaga's trash, went to a Clue party with an amazing costume, and welcomed the Cougar basketball team back home from their win.

I watched the second half of the game over at Jessica's boyfriend's sister's (how do you like that?!) house. They had some people over and it was such a fun time. We had the TV on the BYU game, and the iPhones on the Pitt game. Add to the mix two babies, a toddler, and a HUGE golden retriever, and you get the best party ever! It was so fun to watch the game with people who were as excited about BYU as I am. Plus, everyone on the BYU team had a stellar game. The shots were just falling for us. So much fun to watch!

I had also gone to the house to get the finishing touches on my costume for our ward's Clue party. I decided to go as Professor Plum. I had a few items that I had borrowed from friends, and I snagged a mustache from a local costume shop. Overall, I think it turned out well!

For the game, the ward reserved the Maeser building on BYU campus, and it was a PERFECT location for this! It's one of the oldest buildings on campus, so it has a wood paneled auditorium with a stage (ballroom), a small library (obviously), a game room (billiard room), and rooms with comfy furniture (lounge). Some people dressed up as characters, others came in their normal clothes, but we split up

into groups and played the game amongst ourselves. There were challenges in each room that we had to complete; things like naming books of literature from clues (king of felines, Prof. McGonagall, and a place to keep clothing = the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe), having us solve logic puzzles, play a game of two truths and a lie, etc. I was paired up with another girl in our ward dressed as Prof. Plum, and we tore it up! We were able to find out the murderer, room, and weapon first. Never mind that we cheated a bit . . . :)

After the Clue game and some photo ops with other ward members, I headed home, fully intending to try and finish some homework. Yeah. That didn't happen. Jess let me know that she and Andrew were headed out with Andrew's roommate Dan to the Provo airport. They had found out that the BYU team was going to be flying in at 12:30 that night, and we decided to go cheer them on.

We got to the airport around 11:45, and found out the team was landing pretty soon. We got a prime spot in the building to see the guys. They walked right past us! Jess decided to take pics and I did the video. Unfortunately, the guys came through pretty quickly, so it was hard to get good pictures. But check out the video of the gauntlet of fans the guys went through!

After the team went through, we headed outside, fully expecting the guys to already be on the bus home. To our surprise, they were hanging out beside the doors, signing autographs and taking pictures. With a LOT of help from Jess and her mad skills, we got some great pics:

Us with Kyle Collinsworth (he just got his mission call to Russia, Cole!) and Stephen Rogers.

Jackson Emery- defensive specialist.

Noah Hartsock. A lot taller than I thought.

Charles "In Charge" Abouo. The poor kid just kept looking around for his bags, and tried to take pics and sign autographs in between.

Logan Magnusson.

It was such a blast hanging around with the players and reveling in the win. Someone even drove by in a huge suburban that had BYU flags all over it, honking like crazy. It was nice that the guys spent some time with the fans. All of them played really well, and it was great to be able to cheer them home. Unfortunately, Jimmer was nowhere to be found since he had a police escort get him right out of the building. It's all right, though. On the way home we decided that we would do this again for the team at the end of the next game- win or lose. Anyone want to come?

A "C" Dinner!

2011-03-16T22:25:00.000-06:00

One of the counselor's in our bishopric just had a baby. Her name is Clara Luna Lesue. How cute is that? I immediately thought of a sleep aid medicine when I heard her name. Too funny!

Anyways, I took them a meal tonight. During the day I had texted Bro. Lesue a few times to get some meal ideas. He told me that the girls had been wanting some 'kid food'. So I went to the grocery and grabbed my favorites from my childhood. I decided to give the meal a letter 'C' theme, so their menu was not particularly healthy, but it was fun:

Chicken nuggets (Dinosaur shaped ones- EDUCATIONAL!!!)
Chocolate milk
Carrots
Corn
Chips (technically, potatoes are a vegetable)
Chocolate candy (Reese's Peanut butter eggs, to be exact! And I gave the parents a heads up beforehand so they could snag the chocolate and hide it before the kids saw it if they didn't want them to have it)

I'm going to be a terrible mother . . . with really hefty kids . . .

A Great FHE and Pi Day!

2011-03-14T22:09:00.011-06:00

Today was a day that I have been needing. I went to FHE tonight and our group spent the time visiting a widow that lives on a street near us. Her name is Amy, and she insisted we call her that. One of our FHE members had seen her outside shoveling the snow from the last snowstorm and he stopped to help. Oh, she is 90, by the way. Ty struck up a friendship with her, and he brought our whole group to her cute little home. We brought pizza and drinks, and had a lesson with her. She told us about her life, but then she bore one of the sweetest testimonies that I have ever heard. There were quite a few misty eyes in the room, with mine being the most watery. I'm such a sap!

After FHE, one of the girls in the ward threw a Pi Day party. When I found out there was a pie competition, I knew I had to enter my family's famous Hershey Pie. It is served every year at Easter, and some random times in between. It's one of the most delicious (yet simple) things to make. Mom, you taught me well on how to make them, and I took the top prize at the party! The Pi Party was just a blast, and it was so good to catch up with old friends, and make a few new ones.

I will definitely be going to bed full and happy! Goodnight!

Fun Fact:

Pi= 3.1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223172 5359408128 4811174502 8410270193 8521105559 6446229489 5493038196 4428810975 6659334461 2847564823 3786783165 2712019091 4564856692 3460348610 4543266482 1339360726 0249141273 7245870066 0631558817 4881520920 9628292540 9171536436 7892590360 0113305305 4882046652 1384146951 9415116094 3305727036 5759591953 0921861173 8193261179 3105118548 0744623799 6274956735 1885752724 8912279381 8301194912 9833673362 4406566430 8602139494 6395224737 1907021798 6094370277 0539217176 2931767523 8467481846 7669405132 0005681271 4526356082 7785771342 7577896091 7363717872 1468440901 2249534301 4654958537 1050792279 6892589235 4201995611 2129021960 8640344181 5981362977 4771309960 5187072113 4999999837 2978049951 0597317328 1609631859 5024459455 3469083026 4252230825 3344685035 2619311881 7101000313 7838752886 5875332083 8142061717 7669147303 5982534904 2875546873 1159562863 8823537875 9375195778 1857780532 1712268066 1300192787 6611195909 2164201989 3809525720 1065485863 2788659361 5338182796 8230301952 0353018529 6899577362 2599413891 2497217752 8347913151 5574857242 4541506959

And that is just the first 1120 digits. . .

Park City and the Blind Dog

2011-03-08T14:15:00.002-07:00

The Weyman family plus Granny Slash

Today was a little hectic, but SO great because I got to see the Weymans! I left work a little early and headed through the canyon (best drive ever, by the way. That canyon is so gorgeous!) toward Park City. Aunt Sissy, Uncle Ned, Elizabeth, and Robert were all up at the Park City Mountain Resort for their yearly ski excursion.

Since Robert's birthday was just a little while ago, I stopped by Jess' and my favorite place for cupcakes, the Cocoa Bean Cafe, and snagged some of their AMAZING cupcakes. How can you go wrong when some of the flavors are Grasshopper, Better Than Whatever, Death by Chocolate, Snickerdoodle, White Chocolate Raspberry, and Snickers?!

Oh, and by the way, these look small in the picture. Trust me, they are huge, and you have to eat them with a fork!

After we chatted for just a little bit, we headed out for a delicious dinner at the Blind Dog restaurant. I had never been, but I can tell you, they had the best creamed spinach I have ever tasted. Yes, you read that right- creamed spinach! I was planning on just moving it to the side of my plate, but decided to just give it a try. I'm not ashamed to admit that I scraped my plate clean of spinach before I ate anything else.

Dinner was just a blast! Elizabeth and I sometimes had a hard time hearing people on the other side of the table, and when that happened, we just looked at pics on Sissy's camera, laughed, and chatted. Some of the interesting things to come out at dinner:

Sissy and the tale of the 9-foot Christmas tree. She called home and had Ned measure the ceiling. When he told her it was 8 feet 4 inches, she just assumed the tree would work anyway. The pictures of the family in front of a fake tree that has its top squished against the ceiling are hilarious!
Elizabeth's habit of mixing up different sayings. During the telling of a story, she said she was so embarrassed that she was 'beet red as a tomato'. In true Isenbarger fashion, I pointed out that I was so glad that she wasn't as beet red as a beet- that would have been too red. We all had a good laugh about that one.
Robert forgetting to tell our family that he got engaged. Elizabeth and I were looking through pics when she pointed out Karen and called her Robert's 'fiance'. I was a little caught off guard since they were just dating at Curt's wedding last summer. Apparently Robert had gotten engaged a few months ago and forgot to tell us! That became the joke of the evening. Anyone up for a trip to Boston at the beginning of October?

What a fantastic evening! Even as I was driving home, I kept thinking about how it is such a blessing and privilege to be related to such amazing people. They are great examples of humility and goodness, and I am so glad I got to spend some time with them. Love you, Weymans!

A Terrible Breakup

2011-03-07T22:44:00.000-07:00

I have decided to observe Lent in order to rid myself of a nasty habit- drinking pop. I have found myself getting mad headaches if I go a day without caffeine, and to me that is no bueno. I would like to be in a place where I don't reach for pop every time I get thirsty. It's something that I have wanted to do ever since I noticed that my teeth feel weird, my mouth is dry, and my stomach growls after I drink it. So, I am going to observe Lent and give up pop for forty days. Wish me luck!

To my boyfriend, Dr. Pepper, we need to take a break.

Music can touch the soul!

2011-03-05T20:23:00.000-07:00

Today I was looking over YouTube for a video that Jess and I have been searching for for years. I came across this recording of Le Nozze di Figaro, and the chills just started running up and down my spine! I was playing the very beginning (starting at :28, and going to 1:00), and Jess came in my room and told me that this section of the opera is what made the Marriage of Figaro her very favorite opera. I have to agree that this is an INCREDIBLE section! And, I have decided that I have a HUGE crush on Gerald Finley (the Count). He is the best!

Ohhhh. That crescendo gets me every time! I can't even explain how this part makes me feel! Mozart was truly a musical genius with his works. Check out the harmonies and mix of music in the rest of this act. SO GOOD!

Jimmerisms

2011-02-26T19:03:00.000-07:00

I was a doubter. I thought he was a one trick pony. But boy was I wrong!

Today BYU swept #4 San Diego State University in basketball. On their court. And SDSU is no team to sneer at. It was a great game, and the entire BYU team was on fire! Abouo had 18 points, Hartsock had 15, Emery had 14. The guys were on FIRE!

But my favorite thing has been to read some of the 'Jimmerisms' that people come up with. I try and stay away from the sacrilege, but some of them are really hilarious. My favorites:

- Why did Jimmer cross the road? Because he was tired of crossing over Tre'von Willis.
- And Jimmer dwelt in a tent.
- One time the BYU basketball team was walking on the beach. They looked back and there was only one set of footprints.
- While playing Scrabble, if you spell the word 'Jimmer', you automatically win . . . forever.
- Double Jimmer all the way across the sky!
-Jimmer has more crossovers than the US-Mexico border.

Oh dear, people are clever!

Hell Froze Over Today

2011-02-26T15:38:00.002-07:00

Four months to the day . . .

And I'm getting another post up. I'm sure no one will read it since you have all given up on me and my blog! I'm sorry! I never was good at journal keeping. And it seems as if there isn't much going on in my life that is interesting for people to read. Oh well. Let's get a few updates up.

The Isenbarger's Know How To PARTAY!

2011-02-23T14:47:00.010-07:00

Today Jess and I threw a bridal shower for our friend, Amy. She and our friend Chris are getting married on March 19! Amy has always been such a fun person, and always comes to our get togethers. So we were really excited to throw this shower for her. In true Isenbarger fashion, it was a *little* over the top. Our spread included: chex mix, chips and salsa, veggie pizza, rock candy, little smokies, cheese ball and crackers, strawberry napoleons, and Lisa's Best Bubbly.

Yeah, we go a little overboard sometimes. . .

In fact, we spent so much time on the food and getting ready for the party, that we didn't have time to get ourselves ready! Let's just say that Jess and I weren't at our prettiest . . . But we had a good time. We played a memory game with pictures and stories from their courtship, watched a chick flick, had presents, and played the bubblegum game. We videoed Chris' responses and played them for Amy and the girls. We asked amazingly easy questions like, "What was the name of Chris' childhood pet?", and "What was the name of the elementary school that Chris went to when he was nine?". Honestly. Who wouldn't get those answers right?! :) After a wad of fourteen Dubble Bubble pieces, Amy's jaw was sore and hurting. But we had a great time watching her try to chew!

It was a fun time with the chicas in the ward. Amy got some great presents (you're welcome, Chris!), and was sent off into married life with a great party. Congrats, Amy and Chris, we love you guys!!!

Praxis: Consider Yourself Rocked!

2011-02-10T15:38:00.000-07:00

Today was a pretty big day. I took the exam that has been the focus of hours of study for the last semester. All told, I probably studied about 40 hours for this dang test. Thankfully, a lot of material was online so I didn't have to take a class or spend tons of money preparing.

I took the test at noon, and felt really nervous walking in. But I kept telling myself over and over, "I'm prepared. I've been preparing for this for a long time. I can do this." It was a pretty lengthy test, with 120 questions. I just buckled down and took it one question at a time.

After an hour and a half, I finished with a passing score! UVU requires a 150 for the program, and I got a 177. BAM! I felt so amazingly good walking out of the testing place. I was so excited that I went home and finished my El Ed application immediately! Now I just have the group interview on March 25th, and then the waiting begins . . .

Thanksgiving Dinner!

2010-11-26T15:47:00.002-07:00

Thanksgiving was the big holiday for our family this year. We had everyone home, and it was the loudest bash ever! Such a great time. I always love hanging out with them. Some people go on vacations to exotic places when they get time off of work. I go home. It's the best vacation anyone could ask for. Don't believe me? Check out these pics and see what I mean:

It started out with a visit to Clarks Hill restaurant. BEST ONION RINGS EVER!!!! And I don't like onion rings that much. Mom and Dad found this little gem and took Jess and I out on their anniversary. Don't worry, they didn't pay. :) Can I just say that I have the best parents ever? It's the truth.

Nine Irish Brothers: Round 1. This is the owner, Jerry. We told him how much we all love his restaurant and how it is a family tradition for the kids to come here every time they are in town. We also discovered one of the best appetizers ever on this trip. Nine Irish Brothers Pots O' Gold. Hollowed out potato skin, sauerkraut, corned beef, and a slice of swiss cheese on top. Add some thousand island for dipping and you've got an amazing bit of food, people!

Jess and I were trying our best to get on PeopleofWalmart.com. We tried and FAILED! How could they not want us?!

After a *slightly* stressful round of family pictures (we got kicked out of our first and second spaces and settled on another fireplace scene), the kids took a break at Arni's. They have some great pizza and some AWESOME salads! Green onion, swiss cheese, turkey. That's what I'm talking about!

JC, you become more like your mother each time I see you. And that's a good thing. :)

Gorgeous ladies, just gorgeous.

Seems like Curt & Cole have similar tastes in wives: petite, beautiful blondes with bangs. Love you, ladies!

Addie proved how much of a girly girl she is. Here she is checking out People's 'Sexiest Man Alive' edition with Aunt Emily. And she wasn't just looking . . .

Watch out, Matthew Morrison! Addie is coming for you.

As for dinner, Sarah made the BEST stuffing I have ever tasted. And coming from a Stove Top lover, that might not mean that much, but the fact that it was Braden safe made it all the more delicious. Oh, and Sarah broke that wooden spoon right after this photo when she tried to stir the stuffing. It was pretty hilarious.

Have I ever told you how much I love fried turkey? I'm kinda like the dad on Christmas Story. Turkey fiend. This Thanksgiving was heaven for me. We had a fried turkey, and two different roasted turkeys. Yeah, Dad went a little overboard.

I have to say that the food was especially good this year. And most of it was safe for Braden with his milk allergy. Yay! I think he liked the food, by the by.

Rick was ready to bust a move on that plateful of food!

Pooma and Judy sat at the Bad Kids table, away from the adults. Pooma is usually the ringleader when it comes to trouble. Don't believe me? Check out that mischievous smile!

Addie couldn't stop eating the bread. Here she is with a huge mouthful of the stuff!

After dinner, Trin shared some stories, poems, and drawings with us. She is quite the little performer.

I have the cutest nieces and nephews. Seriously.

And the tryptophan kicks in!

The ladies in the family all made little hot chocolate ornaments. Miss Vanessa found the craft online. Isn't it cute?! Although Jenny thinks hers isn't as nice as she wanted it.

Here we all are, hard at work.

Love this!

Cole and Emily cornered Jessie, serenaded her with a rousing rendition of 'Happy Birthday', and then pulled out the ultimate gift: an exclusive edition of her favorite story, Beauty and the Beast.

This was the funniest thing I saw all vacation. Addie was picking her 'ickies' out from her toes. She likes to have clean feet. And then she went to go get the 'ickies' from her mom's feet. EEEEEWWWW!

See what I mean? So cute, yet SO gross!

The dogs found the best seat in the house. Don't you worry, Boompa gave them little tidbits here and there. Even he knew that we wouldn't be able to finish THREE turkeys.

JC said the potatoes were his favorite ever. I think we will need to make this recipe again next year!

This Thanksgiving was the first time ALL the kids were able to make it together to Nine Irish Brothers! We finally were all there and had a heck of a time. Since Curt failed at 'downs' last time, and we kept trying to convince him to eat more by goading him, "Kyle could do it!", we decided to let Kyle have 'downs' and show Curt how it's done! This is round 1.

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

And FINALLY, round 5! Kyle ate it ALL. Take that, Curt. You are one Salty Dawg.

I think Todd liked his sandwich.

And the couple's pictures begin. Curt and Vanessa.

Cole, Emily, and . . . a bottle of malt vinegar?

Sarah and Todd (with his mouth full).

Kyle, Ash, and of course, Cole in the corner. He always get us with that!!!

Awww. :)

And last but not least, the single ladies. I wouldn't take a couple's pic with Jess and she was trying to convince me. I think I look like I'm about to kill her here.

The whole gang! What a great end to the trip!!!!

REALLY?!

2010-10-26T21:40:00.002-06:00

It's snowing outside. And my car slid in the road on the way home from school. It's freezing. What happened to last weeks 70's weather?! It should NEVER snow before Halloween.

Really?!

Oh, and I finished my Hogle Zoo post. TONS of pics. It's a marathon post, but there is something in it for you if you finish!

Hogle Zoo with the Kiddos

This Is Halloween, This Is Halloween!

2010-10-16T23:51:00.002-06:00

Jessica had the great idea to get a bunch of friends together to go on the Heber Creeper Railroad for some Halloween fun. We have wanted to do that for awhile, so we made a night of it. After going to Ogden in the morning for a session in the temple (for our Utah Temple Trips 2010!), we came home and frantically started shopping, cleaning, and cooking. We went to Walmart and split our shopping list between the two of us so we could get our groceries faster. We were in and out of there in 20 minutes! I think it was my fastest Walmart trip ever. After coming home Jessica started throwing together chili, and I cleaned up around the house. Between the two of us we managed to get everything done before people came.

Quite a few people showed up beforehand for chili and a scary movie, so we had a full house. I don't normally like chili, but I will say that Jessica's may have converted me. It wasn't too spicy, and had a good taste. We also popped in a classic Disney Halloween movie- Watcher In the Woods. I had never seen it before, but it was so CREEPY! There were a lot of people who had seen it before, but loved it. It was gun to see something a little different for Halloween. Even if it was a little older, it still was a good movie to watch, and you can bet we turned the lights off for it! There were some jumpy moments, but no one spilled anything on themselves, thank heaven!

After the movie we headed up the Provo Canyon to Vivian Park. The train was waiting for us, and there were creepy people running about, scaring unsuspecting people. We got on the train (which was decked out with spider webs and black and blue lights), and started our journey. There was a narrator over the speaker who was telling of some of the scary things that have happened in the canyon over the last hundred years or so, and out the window we would catch sight of some scary things. We drove past a cannibal camp, a ghost bride, a zombie girl that had fallen down a well, some electrocuted convicts, and an old lady ghost. Then . . . the train "stopped" working! By this time, we had moved from an enclosed car to the caboose, which was an open-air car with benches. We were able to see things a little better from there.

The group that went to the caboose

While we were waiting for the train to be "fixed", the creepy people came on the train and ran about scaring the passengers. We saw some of them coming, but one sneaked up behind me and I almost jumped off the train when he spooked me! My friend Joe managed to grab me, but I was pretty freaked. Here is a picture of me with the headless spectre.

You weren't supposed to see me, but the person taking the picture couldn't get a good angle with the poles on the caboose.

All told, the ride was about thirty minutes, but I had a lot of fun. We were all joking and laughing, and were a little bit cold when we were done! Here is a picture of the entire group that went:

Like I said, they are a fun bunch. We headed back to our place for hot chocolate and chatting. We were laughing like crazies until 1 a.m.! I'm getting too old to do that, but it was too fun to pass up. What a great way to kick off Halloween season.

Utah Temple Tour 2010- Ogden

2010-10-16T00:41:00.010-06:00

This morning, Jess and I got up a little early and headed up to the Ogden temple to do a session. They are closing it for renovations for a long time, so we knew we had to get it done quickly. It was built exactly like the Provo temple, so it was nice to know exactly where to go. We had a great session, and as we were leaving, we asked a family to take our picture. As we found out, their son was leaving on a mission soon, and he had received his endowment, but wanted to go to the temple where both his parents had received their endowments, and also gotten married. It was fun listening to their story, but the Dad was definitely glad to see the temple get a face lift- he kept talking about how ugly it was! We laughed together, and then Jess and I stopped by a few historical sights on the temple grounds. After visiting those, we headed back to Provo, stopping at Denny's (our favorite) for lunch. I wanted something quick, but not fast food, and we ended up sitting in the restaurant, waiting for our food for almost 45 minutes. We didn't have much time, so we scarfed our food down, and booked it to Provo.
Another one down, ladies and gents! Just a few more to go in Temple Tour 2010!

It's Just A Bunch Of Hocus Pocus!

2010-10-07T00:34:00.000-06:00

Tonight we had our monthly Relief Society meeting, and we had a scary movie and popcorn. We went to the clubhouse and snuggled up in the comfy chairs to watch Hocus Pocus- it isn't Halloween time until I've watched that movie! Jessica had never seen it, so it was fun to hear her laugh out loud every so often. Afterward, I sang along with the closing credits and serenaded everyone with a rousing rendition of "I Put A Spell On You". Believe me, it was bad. So, I will just let you see the pro do it. Happy spooking, everyone!

Jane Austen Night!

2010-10-02T23:07:00.001-06:00

I think I gained ten pounds just looking at this yummyness again!

Every Saturday during the Priesthood session of Conference, Jess and I host a Jane Austen and decadent dessert night at our house. The last few times we have had a hard time deciding which movie to wathc, so Jess and I came up with a survey to help us. Each girl wrote down their answers to questions like, 'Which Jane Austen movie character has the best/worst hair?", "Which curate is the best?", and "Which proposal was the best?". Then we discussed and mooned over the answers. As it turned out, the movie choices came down to Persuasion and Mansfield Park. Mansfield Park won out and we started the movie.

Here are some of the ladies discussing their surveys. We laughed and debated for 15 minutes!

That is when Jess and I pulled out a little game for the ladies- Jane Austen BINGO! We made bingo boards with spaces made up of cliche Jane Austen moments that are in all her movies. Things like "Getting caught in the rain", "A musical performance", "going to a ball", and some more creative ones. The best ones were:
1. Improper behavior (running, yelling, not being married by 16)
2. A close up of a hand
3. Longing glance toward an object of affection
4. Cinematic interlude of walking
5. Meaningful thought or conversation in a carriage,
and the one that created tons of shouts of "BINGO!"-
6. Someone takes to their death bed

We had a blast, and used peanut butter M&M's for markers. Oh geez, it was fun. And I think everyone got a Bingo at least once. We even had two girls get a blackout (they have every space on their boards marked out). SO GREAT!

We had a little time left over afterward, and some of the ladies hadn't gotten enough ooey gooey loveyness, so we popped in the Young Victoria. Another fantastic flick! It was just a night for period dramas.

And the whole time we were gorging ourselves on the most amazing desserts! We had Swiss Cake Roll Cake, Texas sheet cake, cheeseball and crackers (thanks for the amazing recipe, Mom! The girls LOVED it!), Chocolate Mousse Trifle, among other things. I made a recipe that I recently found, and is definitely a keeper! They are Strawberry Napoleans, and they are fantastic! A pastry layer, then vanilla creme, then strawberries, pastry, creme, strawberries, pastry, chocolate sauce, and topped with a whole strawberry. Deliciousness, I tell you!

This was a night for the books. Heaven on earth!

Timp Fires

2010-09-19T23:02:00.005-06:00

There is a pretty large wildfire that is burning in the hills behind Herriman, Utah. It was set accidentally by some National Guard soldiers that were practicing with machine guns, and a shot ignited the dry grass by them. It was so dry that it got too big for them to stop it. My friend posted this on her Facebook page. Her friend took it of the Mount Timpanogos temple at night. He entitled it "Heaven & Hell". It's beautiful!

I hope the fire is stopped before it gets to any homes. I will be praying for those families.

Hogle Zoo- The MARATHON post!

2010-09-06T22:13:00.062-06:00

All right, walk up o the start line. Make sure your eyes and fingers are stretched out, warmed up, and ready to do some SERIOUS scrollin'. This, ladies, is my MARATHON POST! If you make it to the end, there might be something fun headed your way . . .

On your mark . . . get seeeeeeeetttttt . . . . GOOOOOOO!!!

I FINALLY MADE IT TO HOGLE ZOO!!! After 8 years of living in Utah, you'd think that I would have been to the zoo in Salt Lake, but this was the first time I was able to make it up! Jess and I had wanted to go to the zoo with the kids, and it was such a blast! We were able to see quite a few interesting creatures, and I LOVED the bird show. But lets just look at some of my fave moments, shall we?
The Elephants

We went to the Elephant show first, and got to see an adult elephant and a baby elephant do some tricks. The show was really informative and fun, and the kids kept wanting to stand up to get a better look. I couldn't believe how BIG those guys are! They just towered over the ten foot fence. I just started rethinking my goal of riding one in the future.

The Carousel
I took pictures the first time the kids got on the ride. They had so much fun! Just look at the smiles!

Addie didn't want to get off at the end, she was having so much fun. Even Jessie got to ride one!

The Bird Show:

I have never been to a bird show before, so this was my absolute FAVORITE part! The birds were just sitting in the trees at first, and then one of the staff came out to spray them with water. I don't think this guy wanted her to stop:

Oh, and then they had the birds swooping over our heads to get pieces of meat on stumps and things. It was SO neat! Addie loved the amazon parrot that was near us.

**Phew! You've made it to the quarter mark. GREAT job! You're starting to work up a sweat, aren't you?**

Then came the biggest eagle I have seen! They had him go around, picking up meat from stumps and there was one directly in front of us. I can't remember exactly what type of eagle he was, but he was HUGE!!!

After this, they brought out a Bald Eagle. They even had a bird pull a string to unravel the American flag in the background. So fun!

Then they brought out a donation box and had birds flying around to drop money into the boxes. I had no idea that birds were so smart! Braden was brave and handed the bird some money for the box. He didn't startle or anything!

**Bravo! You're halfway there! Check your watch to see how your pace is, grab a cup of water, guzzle it down, and toss the cup over your shoulder. Keep up the pace, though! You can DO this!**

The Monkeys:
When we entered the park we kept hearing this loud whooping noise. Turns out, it was the monkeys and they were having a good old time! I kind of, maybe, just a little bit, encouraged them by whooping back. Hey, don't judge me, it was for the kids!

And this one kept coming to the glass to make faces at Addie and Braden. I only got my camera out in time to snap one picture. :(

Fun Photo Ops:
We were walking around, and they had a large scale that you could step on. It listed things at different weights like, "You are as big as a baby elephant", "A flock of geese weighs about this much", "you weigh as much as an adult donkey!", etc. We wanted to do the scale, but none of us wanted to be the last one off or on. That way people could tell how much we weighed! :) This is us jumping on really quickly:
**Three-quarters of the way done. This is the home stretch. Keep those eye and finger muscles moving!**

And then there was the Isenbarger Gorilla family picture. Too cute!

We capped the day off with another carousel ride (I got him on his favorite- the blue frog. How great of an aunt am I?!),

**ALMOST THERE!**

and an exhibit of scary creatures. This bird stood like this so long that I thought he was stuffed- then he decided to swoop down to the bottom of his cage and scare everyone.

Last but not least, fruit bats. They were all snuggled up together in the crook of a tree. Now if they would just stay up there, I don't have a problem with them. When they fly around, that is when I put my foot down!

It was a great way to spend the day, and I will admit, I fell asleep EARLY that night. That stuff WORE me out!

WOO HOO!!! You made it across the finish line! You can fall off your chair, to the floor, and get your breathing even again. Make sure to cool down your fingers and eyes, and walk off the fatigue. I know, it's hard work going through marathon posts like this! Now, leave a comment on the post saying you finished, and you will get a surprise. No, really! I have something for you!

This post is exclusively for Curt & Pooma

2010-09-05T13:24:00.001-06:00

That is all. Oh, and check your voicemail.

Fall Means FOOTBALL!

2010-09-04T23:18:00.000-06:00

And boy, did I have a day saturated with it! I woke up this morning, thinking that I would be lucky to watch a highlight or two with all the homework that I should be doing. And then I went out to the living room and got SUCKED in to the couch! I literally could not move.

This is how my day went:
10:30- Illinois vs. Missouri
2:00- eat a quick lunch and watch some highlights for the day
2:30- Jessica comes out and we watch our favorite football movie, Remember the Titans
5:00- Head to Iggy's Sports Grill to watch the BYU vs. Washington game with Jess and Hannah, drink some good Strawberry Daiquiri's with lime, and some yummy potstickers. Burgers, meh.
9:00- Watch The Blind Side with Jess. She hadn't ever seen it before.

Could this day GET any better?! I submit that it cannot! I love football. It completes me. Time for bed so I can get some rest after such a busy and tiring day. ;) G'night!

Happy Birthday to my MAMA!

2010-08-28T23:18:00.000-06:00

Today is Mom's birthday. Jess and I were able to call a little earlier in the day, since we were headed to Lagoon for some fun. She informed us that she was going to a bridal shower, and then might be going out for dinner.

I immediately thought, 'WHAT?! My Mom deserves a better day than that!', but then I found out that she was headed to Outback (it's her own personal Disneyland- she LOVES their croutons), and I knew she was going to be all good. Great food and family, it doesn't get much better than that.

I'm sad I couldn't spend the day with you, Mom. I love you and hope you have a GREAT time tonight! Eat some of those amazing croutons for me, all right?

lAgOoN aWaRdS!

2010-08-28T17:26:00.000-06:00

Ok, so it's no Six Flags, but I had a lot of fun today. Best of all . . . it was FREE! Jessica's office took their employees and their friends to Lagoon today. We got there early so we could get on the rides while there were relatively small lines, and rode every roller coaster in that park that didn't involve spinning (we both get sick, and didn't feel like hurling in an amusement park). So here are the awards to sum up the day:

BEST ROLLER COASTER
My favorite would have to be the Spider, since your car moved around with the motion of the coaster, so there was a little spinning, but it wasn't enough to make you sick. It was cool to be facing forward at one moment and then backwards the next. Nice work, Lagoon!

BEST WATER RIDE
Better than the 24-second long Log Flume Ride, the winner is definitely Rattlesnake Rapids. It's that water ride where you are in the big yellow boats and you go under waterfalls, over rapids, and under bridges. My favorite part had to be the fact that Jess and I really wanted to go on the ride, but we didn't want to get wet, so we kept moving seats as the ride progressed. At one point, Jess even hit her bum on the railing while trying to avoid the rapids. I haven't seen the bruise, but she says there is a small one there. Nice.

WORST RIDE
Hands down, this had to be the Terroride. Now, I don't usually like to be scared, but I know Jess likes the thrill, so I agreed to go. I didn't need to worry. Jess and I rode the entire ride without screaming once. No, really. Even when the ride takes you to a completely black room and all of a sudden you see car lights and a loud horn beeps. . . we got nothing. And the ride took approximately 20 seconds to go through. Yeah, when the ride was over, Jess and I quickly agreed that it was uber lame, but we wouldn't let people know it. So as the doors swung open, we hooted, high-fived, and hollered like it was the greatest ride ever. And no one called our bluff. Ha!

WORST PAIN FROM A RIDE
For Jess, it was the Rattlesnake Rapids ride, but for me, it was the twisting and jerking that my head and back got on the stupid Mouse Trap ride. The car takes you to the top of the ride, where you are flung from side to side through a course of hairpin turns. I am surprised that Jessica wasn't squashed from my being thrown against her. Yeah, my back is hurting me a bit!

BIGGEST LOSS OF BREATH
This came from a ride that took you to the top of a 50-foot tower, with nothing but a seat strapping you to the ride, and a heart-stopping sudden free fall where you are bounced up and down a few times. The worst part was not knowing when the ride was going to drop you the fifty feet. Jess and I agree that the one that shoots you straight up was better. You at least had your heart remain where it should be instead of catapulting to your throat.

BIGGEST WASTE OF TIME
Even though the Mouse Trap ride was the worst, this award goes to the ~~fabulous~~ ride, The Bat. Jess and I were able to walk onto the ride with no wait, and that should have clued us in. It's one of those rides that you sit in a seat and a bar secures you in, but your feet hang loose. We had a laugh at the sign that let us know that if we put our feet up on the seats in front of us, our legs would break off and go through our necks. Nice. And then we embarked on a 15-second ride that left us wondering, "was that REALLY IT?!" We literally asked that twice when we pulled into the station again. I think we went over one 10 foot hill and the rest was just on a flat track. Biggest waste of time, ever.

It was fun to get to go to Lagoon on someone elses dollar, but I think my next park will have to be Disneyland. That place is FUN!

Final grades are in!

2010-08-20T18:38:00.003-06:00

And guess who has a 4.0 for the first time in a REALLY long time?! I think Elle Woods said it best in Legally Blonde. Yeah, that's right. I'll say it again.

"ME!!!"

I feel pretty darn good right now. Now if I can only keep the ball rolling through the Fall. And for my reward? Jessie and I are headed to see B.O.B, Jason DeRulo, Iyaz, and Auburn in October! Woo hoo! Tix went on sale today and we got a killer deal.

YAY FOR GOOD GRADES!!!

With all the weddings going on in my family . . .

2010-08-08T22:34:00.000-06:00

I had a friend post this on her blog. This will be what my parents, and my sibling and their spouses are doing when they are married for 62 years. Enjoy!

Reality Check

2010-08-04T00:02:00.001-06:00

So, I'm not sure if there is something in the water where I live, if I'm just an old fart that remembers things better in her old age, or I have turned into a geek, but I'm doing really well in my classes this semester. I was kind of reveling in the grades that I received on the recent tests in both classes, and feeling smug that a girl had the highest score in my math class. Then someone in my math class stabbed me with the red-hot poker of reality. He simply said,

"Yeah, well we are in a class that 9th graders take."

Balloon (aka my head)- deflated. I completely shrank inside. And outside a little bit. My shoulders hunched over and I felt my stomach bottom out. 9th graders take the math class that I am in right now. A 14 year-old child. Pffff.

Then I remembered that a 99.8% is still a high A. And it's higher than his grade.

Take THAT, you pessimistic peon! Hyah!

Tasting a legend

2010-07-29T00:14:00.000-06:00

Today is the day that Kit became a true Zoobie. She FINALLY had her first J-Dawg! For those of you who do not know what a J-Dawg is, check out the article here. Who'da thunk? But I can personally endorse these wonderful hot dogs. They are fantastic! Jessica and Kyle introduced me to them last year, and they changed my life. Just look at the expression of pure bliss!

Yum. I'm salivating just thinking about it.

Sweaty Hugs Are The BEST!

2010-07-26T00:04:00.007-06:00

As Kit found out tonight. I knew Kit was coming to stay for a few days, and I had to burn off some extra energy that I had, so I went to the gym at our place. Kit wasn't due for a few hours, so I thought I was good.

Keep in mind that this was the first time I had exercised in awhile. And by awhile, I mean approximately 2 years. And I decided to go full blast and do an entire workout on the elliptical (I'm an over-achiever). :) So, 45 minutes later I come crawling back to my apartment, looking like I had just come from a wet t-shirt contest at a bar.

Lo and behold, Kit is perched on my bed with a silly grin on her face and giving me the I-decided-to-surprise-you-and-give-you-the-wrong-arrival-time-aren't-I-SO-cute? look.

But I got her back. She had to hug me. HAHA, Kit! The joke is on YOU!

P.s. I'm glad you're here.

Addie's Birthday Party

2010-07-24T15:14:00.003-06:00

Last night we celebrated Miss Addie's birthday with a great party. The theme was elephants, so there were cute little elephant decorations on the walls along with a three-tiered cake Ashley made that had marshmallow fondant elephants going around each tier, and Addie's name on the top one. It was seriously SO cute! Props to Ash and her creativity!

Addie had a lot of help opening her presents with Braden. I think he played with the toys as much as she did! In true girl fashion, Addie's presents were usually pink and featured babies. I think she got a total of ten baby dolls, and she cooed at each one! It was the cutest thing to see her eyes light up, her cute little smile, and hear her coo in excitement. Oh, she is such a cutie!

We enjoyed cake and Ashley's new amazing treat- chocolate ice cream made with coconut milk so it was safe for Braden. It is to die for! After that we got our swimming stuff out and went to their pool. We had a ton of fun running around and swimming. I tell you, those kids LOVE the pool! Addie was chilling in her float and splashed around, while Braden chased me on his pool noodles. He is pretty darn fast!

Happy birthday again, sweet girl. I love you and am so glad you are a part of our family!

I am a world record holder!

2010-07-23T14:47:00.001-06:00

Today at BYU, they had the Cougar Cooldown, which was essentially BYU attempting to break the world record for largest water balloon fight. Jessica, Kyle, and I all went to the fight, and we partied it up Isenbarger style- being loud, dancing all around, cheesing it for pictures and videos, partying it up with Cosmo the Cougar, and grabbing a local celebrity newsman- Big Buddha for a photo op. He was busy, but we convinced him to take a quick picture with our group. However, Kyle then closed his phone without saving the picture (I think that also qualifies as 'Isenbarger style')! :) Love you, Kyle!

We all were on the Orange & Blue (like that, Mom?) team, and we were throwing balloons at the Pink & Green team across the way. After grabbing plastic bags filled with water balloons, Jessie led us up to the front of the line and right in the middle. We had a great view of everything going on, and I tell you, we were READY!!! We had to wait a few minutes for everyone to get balloons and get ready, and then the INSANITY BEGAN! I was pelted so hard with water balloons that I was throwing them blindly. A lot of balloons hit the ground and didn't break right away, so we lobbed any extra ammo right back at the Pink & Green team. Jessica got her sunglasses knocked off three times, I got hit in the face twice, and we couldn't see a darn thing. IT WAS GREAT!

Here is the three of us after all was said and done. We were absolutely soaked! Sorry about the poor quality, I didn't want to risk my camera getting ruined. Nevertheless, I hope you can tell that we are wet to the bone.

So here are the stats:

Previous record held by Kentucky University: 119,000 water balloons and 3902 people
BYU's record today: 120103 balloons and 3927 people!

Woo hoo! I have a list of things I would like to do over the course of my life, and break a world record is one of them. This was a great way to accomplish that goal, too!

Miss Addie Turns 1!!!

2010-07-20T23:39:00.002-06:00

Today is a very special lady's birthday. Isn't she adorable? Happy birthday to my cutie pie! I love you, sweetie!

2010-07-19T14:35:00.019-06:00

Missing you especially today, Grandpa. Thinking about all the fun we had together. A few things that I miss most on days like this:
1. The Apple Orchard Picnic
2. Recliners with body imprints in them
3. Jumping higher than telephone poles
4. The rope swing over the ravine
5. Going into the wood shop and smelling clean wood shavings
6. Thick glasses and striped polos :)
7. Sports on TV 24/7
8. Grandpa hugs and kisses
9. Holidays at the house
10. Grandpas laugh
I hope you and Boompa are having a ball. Love you and am happy that you are healthy.

Another birthday!

2010-07-16T23:25:00.000-06:00

Happy birthday, Keelay! I'm so lucky that you and your family live out here by me. Thanks for all you do. Love you!

New Spice

2010-07-15T15:54:00.001-06:00

I don't know who came up with this, but brilliant. I think my favorite part is the guy that is under the tree at 0:18. HILARIOUS!

Dat's dat Dat Dragon!

2010-07-13T22:47:00.000-06:00

Today is Cole's berfday! I'm so glad to have you back from Motherland Russia, Cole. I missed you.

Pioneers

2010-07-11T22:56:00.000-06:00

Tonight was the Stake Musical Fireside, and the topic was all about pioneers. There were four different individuals that had converted to the Gospel that got up and bore their testimonies. It was a pretty touching experience. We heard each of their different struggles and how they came to the church. I'll admit, there were a couple of different times where I got a little misty.

One gentleman pointed out that everyone has pioneer heritage, it just might not have been during the time of the actual trek west. He invited us to think about the pioneers in our lives and see how they have influenced us.

My pioneer heritage started with my Mom and Dad. They both converted to the Gospel and committed their entire lives to living its principles. And I know that has made all the difference. I can't even count how many people have told me that I am lucky to have the parents I have, as if I'm not already aware of that! :)

Mom and Dad, thanks so much for doing what you did. You stuck with your convictions and raised an amazing family. You have been trailblazers for all your kids, and I'm glad to have your examples to draw from. LOVE YOU!!!

Are ye ready, lassies? It's the PAYSON SCOTS FESTIVAL!

2010-07-10T22:03:00.003-06:00

This morning when I was looking at the newsfeeds that my friends had posted on Facebook, I saw that my Scot friend, Robert, was headed to a Scottish Festival. This had me immediately scrambling around the internet for the event he was talking about. I have always heard that Scots games are so much fun to watch, and when I saw the word 'FREE', I was sold. I promptly headed into Jessie's room with a, "So there is a free Scottish Festival going on today in Payson. Just sayin'."

We texted a few friends, and Britni, Aubrey, and Kendra decided to tag along with us. It was so much stinkin' FUN!!! Let me show you what I mean.

We started out at all the booths first, and ran across these little beauts. These are tartans for harlots.

Then, as we were traipsing along, we ran into MY KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR!

What a hottie. After that we headed over to the athletic events in the north field. We saw some very interesting games over there. First was the pick-up-a-sack-with-a-pitchfork-and-toss-it-over-a-tall-pole-that-they-would-raise-each-round-until-no-one-could-pitch-it-any-higher-game.

Yeah. Then we ran into the I'm-a-hottie-and-I-can-throw-a-hammer-really-far competition in which we found my Scots-Hottie. He was quite a looker. He shows up again and I got a closer look. Just be patient, I'll get to him!

Then there was the My-rock-is-the-biggest-and-I-can-toss-it-the-farthest-RAWR! competition which this Scot is demonstrating. Oh yeah, please forgive the braided lady in front. It was crowded!

Ahhh! Manly men. Only REAL men run around throwing rocks in skirts.

We decided we were getting a bit hungry, so we headed to the food tents. Fish & Chips, you say? DONE! Jess and the girls grabbed the grub while I sat in an endless line to get homemade root beer and cream soda. But it was worth it!

Hearing the constant wail of the bagpipes from the pipe and drum competition, we all thought it would be fun to watch the groups compete and eat our food.

It was as we were swiggin' said root beer & cream soda, and chowin' on 'dem fish & chips, that we witnessed a child throwing up over the side of his stroller. I'm sorry, did I say 'throwing up'? I mean, throwing up like a fire hose was turned on! The poor kid just kept going, and his parents promptly left. Our appetites gone, half our food uneaten, we sat and tried to enjoy the rest of the pipe and drum competition. Oh, did I say 'enjoy'? Whoops. I meant we were chastised by one of the drummers and were told we needed to move. It wasn't as bad as I'm making it sound. We all got a pretty good laugh out of it. Even one of the judges was yukking it up with us. The girl got over her drama, and we watched a few more bands play.

At that point, Aubrey found us, and mentioned that she had been watching the log-throwing competition in the athletic fields. All of us pitched the rest of our lunches, and we hurried to the field. Only to find the guys had ended that competition, and had started this one:

I don't know if you can see it, but they are throwing a Budweiser keg over the same pole that the pitchfork guys were using. The guy on the left threw the keg 28 feet into the air and CLEARED THE POLE! Crazy, huh? It's also where this little guy

came right in front of us, pulled down his pants, and narrowly missed us as he peed. In public. Simply astonishing. After he made sure he got all of it out, we had a kid sit behind us, hack a loogie in his mouth, pull it out, look at it, and then put it back in his mouth. Not a good day for us to be encouraged to be mothers and have kids. Not good. Oh, and we got an eyeful of this beaut:

Yup. You're welcome! That is the Scottish flag on the back of a bald head. I love it!

The good part of going back to the athletic competitions is that I got a closer look at Scots-Hottie. Yeah, we were all paying him more attention than the events.

He's the one in the back. Woo hoo! He took some sort of prize for the hammer. I would have given him a medal for being a hottie in a skirt.

The afternoon ended (you're ALMOST done reading this blog post/novel! Yeah! Good job for stickin' with it!) with us watching the closing ceremonies. All the pipe and drum bands joined together for a rousing rendition of Scotland the Brave. Check out the chicks twirling their sticks and the overzealous bass drum guy. He was keepin' that beat!

Swimming with Ashley, Jessie, Braden, and Addie in the morning, and an amazing Scottish Festival in the afternoon. What a GREAT day!!!

You Can't Keep A Good Girl Down

2010-07-08T13:45:00.000-06:00

Pooma must have gotten some bad steak or broken up with her murse. Either way, she is out of the hospital today! Woo hoo! I got three texts and a phone call about it. We were worried about our little sick girl on the wagon train. :)

Glad you are feeling better, Pooma. Sure do love you!

Happy Birthday to El Guapo!

2010-07-07T13:48:00.000-06:00

Today is my dad's birthday. He is . . . 33 years old!

Happy birthday to the best father I could ever ask for.

"What can you say about such a man?"

Love you, Dad!!!

She Must Like the Food. . .

2010-07-07T13:38:00.001-06:00

. . . or have a REALLY cute male nurse attending to her! She is a sly one- you really have to watch out for her.

After a hospital stay last week to treat her pneumonia, Pooma had to go back to the hospital today. I have gotten a few texts from family saying that she is in good spirits and is feeling better.

Hopefully it won't be for too long! Get well soon, Pooms! Love you and am praying for you.

My Closet Reeks

2010-07-06T23:56:00.001-06:00

Tonight we had a small get together with a bunch of old friends so Lindz could meet up with them while she is in town (she is leaving for California for 3 weeks on Saturday). I sent out a text, and was able to get a hold of a few people to come.

Cameron, Skyler, Amanda, Vinny, Kyle, me, and Lindz all spent 2 1/2 hours huddled around a bonfire with s'mores, Twizzler's Pull-N-Peel, Starbursts, and Reese's. A pretty good haul, I would say. I'm not kidding you, our topics of conversation contained, but were not limited to:

1. Friends having farting contests with their spouses
2. Embarrassing moments
3. The raccoon that tried to jump on our table and eat our snacks. Lindz thought it was a cat. Right.
4. Obama
5. Arizona's immigration laws
6. Prop 8
7. The Proclamation on the Family
8. Obama (again)
9. Funny moments from our pasts
10. Inside jokes- not limited to laughing about what our families would do if we died today

Can I tell you how much I love my friends?! I had the best time, even though I absolutely REEK of campfire. Lindz and I stuffed our smelly clothes in my closet and shut the door. I just opened it to get my PJ's, and was hit by a wall of campfire. Oh goody. Guess who is doing laundry tomorrow?

A Little BBQ On the Prairie

2010-07-03T18:43:00.000-06:00

Today took an interesting turn as I was driving to do some errands. I was passing a field just south of our neighborhood, and I saw thick smoke coming from the grass. At first I thought it was just a bonfire or someone burning their trash, but there was no one around.

I pulled over and called 911, worried that this might get to be a big problem since we haven't had rain for weeks and the fire was VERY close to some houses. I saw another car pull up and the driver get on her phone as well. Thankfully, the fire department was really quick to respond, and the fire was put out in about a half hour. They gave the field a good soaking as well, just to make sure they didn't miss any ashes or coals.

When I talked to one of the firemen, he said they suspected it was from someone playing with fireworks- there were burn marks on the concrete across the street, and the firemen found what was left of a rocket of some sort.

Gotta love the Fourth of July!

"I'm not dead yet!"

2010-07-03T16:47:00.005-06:00

. . . "I think I'll go for a walk!"

For some of you, you will understand that this is hilarious dialogue from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It just sums up my sentiments about my blog.

I was out of action for a time, but now I'm BAAAAAAAACCCCCCKKKKKKKK!!!! :) Enjoy the whirlwind of updates.

"It's Never Too Late!"

2010-06-24T14:06:00.001-06:00

Today was my first day of classes. I was nervous, I was anxious, and when I saw my jerk ex-boyfriend Shawn in the hallway right before my class started, I got a little angry and resentful. But moving on.

I walked into class and immediately noticed that I was one of the oldest people there. There was one woman who looked like she was in her 40's, but for the most part, it was the young crowd. I couldn't believe it. I had been told that there would probably be a lot of older people- especially during summer term. I grabbed a desk and slouched down, feeling completely miserable for myself.

As the professor came in and started class, I was just going over in my head how embarrassing it was to be sitting in that class. I was so out of place and just had the worst attitude.

Then the door opened.

In walked this man, probably in his late 70's. He had a cane and a rolling backpack, and settled himself in a seat next to the door.

And I cried.

I cried for his courage. I cried for my selfishness. I cried for his strength. I cried for my lack of strength. I cried for his perseverance. I cried for my wallowing in self-pity. I cried for his determination. I cried for my weakness. I don't think anyone else noticed my crying, but I sure as heck remembered a VERY valuable lesson. It's never too late.

A few months ago, when I was contemplating quitting my job and going back to school, I came across an article about a courageous Kenyan student who went back to primary school at the age of 84. I couldn't believe his courage and determination in doing that. I printed off the article, and it now sits right on my desk in plain sight. I doctored it up a little, and added the saying "It's never too late" to the side, just to remind myself to keep going. I look at it daily.

We all experience hard things. We make decisions and accept consequences. I have made decisions in my life that have led me to this point, and by heck I'm going to do it! This has become my mantra- "It's never too late!"

My Poor Car

2010-06-19T14:55:00.040-06:00

I will not be going on a road trip for at least another YEAR!

I just got back from a wedding, vacation to my parents house, visiting my sister, and Kentucky with Popsdiddy. It felt like I spent half my life in a car! Being curious, I decided to Mapquest my trips and see what my mileage was.

Utah to Indiana (by way of Omaha and Iowa City*) 1520.44 miles
West Lafayette, IN to Nauvoo                                     284.90 miles
Nauvoo to West Lafayette                                           284.90 miles
West Lafayette to Champaign, IL                                98.62 miles
Champaign to West Lafayette                                      98.62 miles
West Lafayette to Indianapolis                                    69.04 miles
Indianapolis to West Lafayette                                    69.04 miles
West Lafayette to Louisville, KY    183.40 miles
Louisville to West Lafayette                                        183.40 miles
West Lafayette to Champaign, IL    98.62 miles
Champaign to North Liberty, IA    252.64 miles
North Liberty to Provo, UT 1198.57 miles

For a grand total of:           4342.19 miles

I need a nap.

Incredible experience

2010-05-16T14:32:00.018-06:00

Today I had an experience where you realize just how much the Lord helps you. I teach Relief Society every third Sunday, and I was excited to do a lesson on the Prophets of God. I had a handout ready, and enough material to go for the 40 minutes I usually get.

When I walked into the room, and the RS president told me I needed to end about 10 minutes early so we could do visiting teaching assignments, I thought, "No prob. I'll just skip a few questions and quotes. No biggie". And then I watched the clock tick away as we did the opening prayer, song, announcements, music moment, good news moment, the practice hymn, and the visiting teaching moment. By the time I got up to teach, I had fifteen minutes.

How on earth was I supposed to cover all the prophets in fifteen minutes?! I wanted a minute to gather my thoughts and try to pare down my lesson, so I had the ladies work on the handout I had made- a quiz to match each prophet with a little tidbit life fact. By the time five minutes had passed, I still hadn't made up my mind which direction to take, so I said in my head. "Lord, just let me say what the ladies need to hear".

From that point on, I didn't use ONE WORD of what I had planned in my notes. I used scriptures and quotes that I remembered from different lessons from years ago, and I just kept going.

That was the best lesson I have ever given.

I know that I said what the Lord wanted me to, because I had several ladies come up and thank me for the lesson and tell me which things I said that affected them the most. It's always very satisfying to be able to get your point across and help someone in the class.

After I was done cleaning up, I talked to Jessica about not using a thing I had prepared. She seemed surprised and told me she thought it was one of my best lessons I had done. Then we talked about the wonderful power of God and how he uses us to give His messages.

I wish all my lessons could be like that!

Patriarchal Blessing

2010-05-06T23:19:00.001-06:00

Tonight for my scripture study time I decided to look at my Patriarchal blessing. I haven't looked at it for awhile, and I had forgotten a few things. Additionally, I saw a few details that I have missed in previous times of reading it!

All I can say is that I am SO grateful to have that blessing to help guide my life. It gives me something to strive for- I REALLY want the blessings promised to me. If I am faithful and true, I will receive all of the blessings. I have gotten some of them already, and it's fun to pick them out and see how they have fit into my life.

I know that Patriarch Hammond was speaking for God when he gave me my blessing. I felt the love of the Lord, and the love of my patriarch. I can still remember the prickles running up my spine as some of the words were spoken. The Lord loves each of his children, NO EXCEPTIONS. He gives us wonderful tools like the scriptures, prophets, temples, and blessings to remind us of his love. If we only use them, we can feel His love so much more.

I really needed to read that blessing. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for the prompting!

My first day of Institute (sounds like the first day of school!)

2010-05-05T23:12:00.000-06:00

Tonight Jess and I decided to head to our Stake Institute class. We figured that it was about time we started to go. We are studying the Pearl of Great Price, and I am pretty stoked to get started! I don't know a ton about the Pearl of Great Price except what we read in classes at church, scripture mastery scriptures, etc. I just have never really tried diving into this one.

The teachers got me pretty excited for this class. I think that they both are the type of people that know a lot, but like to hear from those in the class- making it more like a discussion. Woo hoo! Doesn't mean I will ever participate (I'm shy in big groups like that!), but I think it is more fun to hear other people's insights and comments. Yay for Institute!

Afterward I headed out to TGI Fridays to meet my friend, Rachel. We haven't talked for a long time, and it was really nice to catch up. In fact, we were some of the LAST people out of the restaurant! We even sat in my car for awhile and talked. I enjoyed hearing her stories. Rachel is an extremely passionate person, and it was funny seeing that come out . . . about the movie "How To Train Your Dragon"! She is adamant that it is the BEST movie. I love it!

What a whirlwind day!

2010-05-04T23:59:00.002-06:00

Today was kind of crazy. It was good, though, because I needed a day like this.
Work was good. Busy, but good. It wasn't to the point of tear-my-hair-out-now, just enough to keep me busy, and make the hours fly by. I was at work a little late, but as I was driving home I found out that the Stake softball game was at 6, instead of 7 like I thought. I made a few more calls to have some friends come with me, changed quickly, and headed out with Jessie and Keith.
We found the field, and were surprised to see a ton of people from our ward there! It wasn't even supposed to be a huge deal, but there were around 18 players on the team. Well, one injury (she just twisted her ankle), three innings, and an hour later (In church softball, you get a 50 minute time limit), our ward squeaked out a win of 16-14. Woo hoo! We even had someone hit the ball into another field! It was cRaZy!
Next it was on to a birthday party for our friend, Meesh. She is in our ward and wanted to celebrate her birthday by getting heartburn from our local Mexican treat, El Azteca. Now, you all should know that when I moved out to Utah, I HATED Mexican food. My experience with Mexican food had ended in grade school, as soon as my mom made Mexican Luncheon for the first time. Blech! But it's mostly because I don't like tomatoes and peppers. Take that out, and I'm fine. Sicne Jessica has been in Utah, however, I have tried to expand on my too-American-diet of hamburgers, chicken fingers, and fries being what I eat when I go out. Well, I found a burrito that I wanted to try, and I think I amused the lady when I asked her for no pico de gallo, no peppers, and no tomatoes. Yeah, well, at least I'm not as amusing as the lady who pulled up in the drive thru with a LIVE CAT across her shoulders like it was a cape! It was one huge cat, too.
The food was good, but the company was amazing! We had about five tables all put together, and I got to meet some really cool new guys. James, Doug, Craig, and Joseph. Hilarious! James even tried to beat Jessica's Bubble Wrap score. Yeah. Didn't even come close.
After dinner, we headed home with a few peeps to catch the last part of Glee. It was SO MUCH BETTER than last week! It really restored my faith in the show. Rest assured, I will be watching the first part on Hulu in the next few days. New fave quote from Brittany: "I don't know how to turn on a computer". She gets some of the best lines!
Anne popped by afterward, because I had been bragging about how good "Heart & Souls" was, and she wanted to give it a try. We had a great time watching it, and Patrice surprised us with strawberry shortcake about halfway through. Nice! If you haven't seen that movie, though, do yourself a favor and go rent it today! Really good!
So. Twilight. Scripture study. Prayer. Bed. In that order. Goodnight!

Suggestions, please!

2010-05-02T15:25:00.002-06:00

Okay peeps, I need suggestions on a few things:

1. What are some good books that I can read? I'm running out of material and need some help.
2. Where are some neat places to stop on my trip to Indiana this summer? I'm going on I-80, and I think I'm going to stop in Omaha for the zoo and Winter Quarters temple, but I haven't been able to come up with anything else so far. Any ideas?

6 Down, 7 left in Temple Tour 2010!

2010-05-01T22:35:00.000-06:00

So Jess and I hit up the Oquirrh Mountain temple today. We went to a session in the early afternoon, and I couldn't stop marveling at the rooms we were in! All of them had so much attention to detail and decor to make them unique. This temple is also special because our whole family (that was able to, Cole was on his mission) was able to go to the open house this last summer. I loved the layout of the temple then, but going through a session gave me the opportunity to see the rooms while I was performing temple ordinances. I don't know if I can explain it, but it was different. I think that this might be my favorite Utah temple. It was gorgeous!

So that means that we have been to the Salt Lake, Provo, Mt. Timpanogos, Draper, St. George, and Oquirrh Mountain temples. The ones we have left are Logan, Ogden, Monticello, Bountiful, Manti, Vernal, & Jordan River.

We had some random guy take our pics outside of the temple when it wasn't raining, and headed to Olive Garden for lunch. We gorged ourselves on soup, salad, and breadsticks, and then asked our server to box up our barely-touched dinners. We had something for later! Woot! Once we got home we both decided we wanted it to be a low-key evening, so we popped in "Heart & Souls" with Robert Downey Jr. I'd forgotten how much I love that movie! And now it's early to bed since we have church at 9:30 a.m. Have a good night!

My family is so great!

2010-04-29T15:14:00.001-06:00

Today I had a day off of work, so I decided to sleep in. I had be awake for about two minutes when I heard my Skype making noises that someone was messaging me. I got out of bed and saw that Sarah had sent me a message. She was just trying to see if we could chat. I quickly grabbed a shirt to put on over my tank top, and switched my camera on. What ensued was an hour of hilarity, as I met some of Sarah's students, saw how she interacted with them, judged two girls' shorts and let them know they were too short, and just was able to chat with Sarah. She is so great! It was SO nice to catch up and plan some stuff for the summer. It just made me all the more excited to visit the Coleman fam this summer.

Also today, I saw some pictures of Curt and Cole on a canoeing trip. Curt aptly entitled this picture: "Lewis and Clark-Dawg". I LOVE IT! Notice that Curt didn't have a paddle, so he had to use a branch. We Isenbargers sure are resourceful! Guys, I love you, and you make me wish I were living in Indiana so I could have this much fun with you!

Creative Visiting Teaching

2010-04-28T14:30:00.000-06:00

Tonight was American Idol & Glee, so we had a bunch of people over to watch the shows. Both were really disappointing episodes, but we had a great group of people over. Our visiting teachers, Collette & Marietta, were both in attendance as well. They are so wonderful, I can't even tell you. They come every month and leave us with some great words of wisdom. This month, they mostly hung out with us, but when it came time for the "What can we do for you?" moment, Jessie brought up the fact that she wanted to go over oral injections again. She wanted to brush up on her skills, and Collette just finished school a little while ago. So they grabbed a couple of Q-tips, had Marietta lay down, and they went to work. I decided I had to document the moment.

So, there you go!

Goodbye to Banessa!

2010-04-27T14:42:00.003-06:00

Today I had to drop Vanessa off at the airport because she is going home for the summer. I am truly going to miss having that girl live so close to me. She has become a really important addition to our family out here. She loves Braden and Addie, and they definitely love playing with her! I tell you, I'm really going to miss having a tanning buddy, too!(Don't judge me or my hair- it was WINDY that day!)

But she is moving on to bigger and better things- namely, MARRIAGE! She and Curt will be able to spend the summer together before getting married in August. Although we will miss her over here, I'm sure she will have the best time back in Indiana with her family. Girl, you had better keep in touch!

Y'say Somethin?

2010-04-26T15:02:00.002-06:00

This has become Braden's favorite phrase in the last few weeks. If you ask him a question, whether he heard you or not, he likes to look at you with wide eyes and ask, "Y'say somethin'?". It is pretty darn cute and hilarious. Ashley and Kyle have been trying to figure out where he picked it up, but I just can't stop laughing about it.

Tonight was Ashley's birthday party, and I was able to get off of work early to head over to their home. We had a birthday cake with pink frosting and a sunflower made out of marshmallow fondant, courtesy of Kyle. It looked great!

After dessert we had a few games of Wii. Grandma Lu STILL kicks my trash at Cow Racing! I don't know when I will be able to beat her. Braden has also gotten pretty great at sword fighting. We actually tried to beat him, and he would fight back and win. The kid is crazy!

**On a work-related note, today was check-ins, and I have to say it was the EASIEST one I have ever done! I didn't have to deal with any upset people at ALL on Monday- that has NEVER happened. I was actually able to get off of work on time, there were no tears, and I wasn't ripping my hair out! What a relief!

ASHLEY'S BIRTHDAY!

2010-04-21T23:56:00.005-06:00

Today my sister Ashley is celebrating her birthday! Girl, I can tell you that there has been several times in the last few years that I don't know how our family ever got along without you, or even how I got along without you! :) I hope you have a great day filled with fun and laughter. Jess and I want to come visit soon so we can party!

Anyways, to demonstrate how amazing Ashley is, here is a little list of fun facts that you may not know about this awesome woman:
1. She can pretty much whip up any kind of dinner you'd like, improvising with the ingredients she has. Plus she can make it milk-safe for Braden. It's true. I have seen her do this. She has magical powers.
2. Ashley loves her family more than anything in the world (except maybe motorcycles). She has come to the rescue of several family members many a time, and will drop anything she is doing to help. I have seen this first-hand a few times in the last two years!
3. She is an incredible example and mom to her kids. When I babysit Braden and Addie, I am in a constant state of wonderment at how a two-year old and a nine-month old can behave they way these kids do. They are angels, and it's because Kyle and Ashley made them that way.
3. Ashley can sport the short OR long hair-do! Not many women can pull both off, but this lady looks amazing with either style.
4. Ashley can name ANY kind of motorcycle out there. And she is teaching Braden to identify them as well. What a rockstar.
5. She is a very "crafty" woman. In both senses of the word! She can plan some great surprises and keep the secret so you don't suspect a thing, AND she can make some amazing things! Check out her latest craft, Trin was lucky enough to get one for her birthday.It's a cute little bow holder. It is so adorable!
6. Ashley is getting to be quite the accomplished photographer! She took some cute pictures over Easter while we were at her parent's house. This is my faveCHECK OUT THEM SKILLS!

I love you, Ash. I am so grateful for the addition you are to our family. And I will be eternally grateful for the pep talk you gave me two years ago when I was taking out my endowments. I don't think you will ever understand how much that meant to me, but I couldn't love you more.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

updates coming soon . . .

2010-04-20T23:54:00.000-06:00

I just need to finish checkouts and checkins and then my life will be gravy. Life has been very busy with work, but hopefully I will get you some cool musings soon.

The return of GLEE!!

2010-04-13T00:18:00.000-06:00

Tonight was a GREAT night TV-wise! I got home from work JUST in time to get set for American Idol to come on. I was curious to see Adam Lambert as a mentor and see how the week would go. All I can say, is: not bad, guys! I was really only bored by Andrew and Siobhan's performances. Leave it to Siobhan to ruin my favorite Elvis song, "Suspicious Minds". I had to listen to the song five times to restore my faith in how good the song is. Really.

We kept having teaser moments during the show for the upcoming episode of Glee, and we kept getting more and more excited! It didn't disappoint. We had drama, humor, and TONS of great singing! This show rocks my socks.

And the Sue Silvester version of Vogue? I'm a FAN! Check out Nathan from So You Think You Can Dance- he's the white dancer with black hair slicked down. Awesome!

I. Love. This. Show.
A lot. :)

Lazy Day and Stake Conference

2010-04-11T00:01:00.002-06:00

Today was kind of weird for me. Jess and I woke up around 9 a.m. . . . and didn't have to do anything. I went in her room and we talked for a bit, and both of us had no idea what to do with ourselves since church didn't start until 3. So we decided to laze around. We had a birthday lunch to go to at 1, but until then, we were free. So we dinked around on the computer, looked up stuff on the internet, and I rediscovered my love for the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's "Messiah". Jessie showed me the version that she wanted to download on iTunes, and I decided to just see if there was a version on YouTube that I liked. I prefer it sung quickly and loudly. This is a little fast, but close to what I like:

This song rattles your bones and sings to your soul! While Jessie was in the shower, I turned this up full blast on my computer and just sat back with my eyes closed. I had my heart in my throat, goosebumps on my arms, chills going up and down my back, and the music just rolled over me and filled my ears. I got a little emotional, I'm not going to lie! This is a piece to inspire.
Anyways,
We went to a lunch for our visiting teacher on her birthday and had a blast just hanging out with some ward members. It was a gorgeous day, so the windows were open and a breeze was coming in. Smiling, laughing, eating, talking, gorgeous day, can it get better?
Oh, yes.
Stake Conference was a great meeting today. Even though they split our ward and took some of my favorite people for the new ward, I think this will be good. A smaller ward = getting to know people better. At least, I hope.
After Stake Conference we had some people over for a rousing game of Fireball Island. This game's notoriety is quickly growing in our ward. We sent out a text to about 14 people, expecting to have maybe 8 or so, but EVERYONE showed up! Our kitchen table was crowded! It was a great time, and a great way to end the night. We even had people come up to us at ward prayer and ask if they could come to play a game next Sunday. Ha! The fever is spreading . . .

Choose the Sprite when a Coke is placed before you . . .

2010-04-10T01:25:00.002-06:00

. . . just one of the cool attention-grabbers that were used in tonight's adult session of Stake Conference. I almost burst out laughing when I heard that. Cheesy? Yes. That is why I love it.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Today was a GREAT day! I lazed around this morning, since I had gotten some cleaning done on Thursday, and while I was on the internet, who should Skype, but Lindz?! She and I chatted for over two hours. This is how much I love my bestie, people! Lindz and I can be half a world away and we still crack each other up. She even told me more about her plans to move back to the states this summer. I can't wait!

After that I got ready for the day, had some lunch, and ran a few errands. Before we headed to Stake Conference at 7, we got a bunch of people together to grab a bite to eat. I was excited that we got to try something new that most of us had never had before: Smokehouse BBQ. Jess and I split a sampler basket, and HOLY COW! Their BBQ sauce was magic. I almost wanted to pour it on my bread! The place had a very casual and family-friendly atmosphere, we ate off of paper plates, had plastic silverware, and plastic cups. Nice. Definitely not somewhere you'd want to take a first date, but very fun.

Stake Conference came next, and I got to hear one of the ladies from my Relief Society talk on preparedness. She shared a personal experience that really had me thinking about what I need to do to start preparing myself for any kind of emergency that might arise. Then I thought of the food storage Jess and I have in our pantry. And felt better. :) THANKS, MOM!

The after party was at our new Bishops house, where he and his sweet wife got around 20 half-gallons of ice cream out for us to have banana splits! They are so cool, I am SUPER pumped for our new bishopric. They are all so wonderful. They get so excited to be around us and be able to plan cool activities. Maybe one day I will post one of their emails to my blog. Stinkin' hilarious!

Well, gotta head to bed tonight. No church until 3 pm, so I wonder what I will do tomorrow? Hmmm.

The FIRST Bonfire Of The Season!

2010-04-09T01:01:00.002-06:00

For you Isenbargers reading this, say the title of the post like Mom does at Christmas when she reads "the first gift of Christmas!" line in The Polar Express. Tee hee!

anywho . . .

When I got a text from Bryan saying, "Bonfire?" I went from bored to ecstatic in .02 seconds! Jess and I love bonfires, hence the reason we have roasting sticks, extra firewood, camp chairs, a camp light, tons of blankets, an extra sweatshirt, and a supply of s'mores stuff on hand at ALL times! Usually, Jess carries this stuff around in her trunk so we are able to bonfire-it-up at any time.

Just a few highlights of the evening:
1. Introducing people to s'mores with Reeses Peanut Butter cups instead of Hersheys chocolate. *SO GOOD*
2. All of us going through the checkout at Allen's together, just to have the checker inform us that we WEREN'T the first bonfire group he's seen this season. But he couldn't put a damper on our spirits!
3. Kalli getting the idea to melt a marshmallow on a Samoa Girl Scout Cookie. I'm not a fan of those cookies, but others raved about it.
4. Chowing on Twizzler's Pull-N-Peel. I love that stuff.
5. Jessica and I telling a joke that we thought was funny, but others didn't. Whoops.
6. Changing bonfire sites, and instead of putting the small fire out at our old site, David and Jessica decided to carry the half-lit logs around, not wasting any of our wood. Yeah. Jessica carrying fire around = hilarious!
7. Getting to snuggle into a camp chair, wrapped in a blanket, while burning my front side since I was so close to the fire.
8. Making some new friends in the ward. I always love that!

A five hour bonfire. What a GREAT start to the weekend. :)

Now THIS is how American Idol should be!

2010-04-07T00:36:00.002-06:00

Jess and I weren't too interested in watching the results of the Idol show this week, we figured it was going to be obvious who went home- Tim or Aaron.
WRONG!
We got a Facebook message saying that we should watch the final moments, so we tuned in. Only to see Big Mike, one of my favorites, possibly going home! WHAT?! I couldn't believe it. So we watched the last ten minutes, and all Jessie could say, "Now THAT is good TV! This is how it should be!" I agree. Well, here are the results:

Thank heavens the judges were all on the same page for this one. But what is going to happen next week?!

And . . . my Monday ends now

2010-04-06T02:43:00.002-06:00

Look at the time of this post. That is really when I got home from work tonight. No joke. I started at 10 a.m., and am getting ready to fall into bed.

I already told them I would be out of the office until noon. I'm off to sleep! Heaven help anyone who calls me or waked me up before 10 a.m. . . .

Happy Easter, Birthday, Sunday, ALL THE ABOVE!

2010-04-04T00:15:00.002-06:00

Today was such a great day! After watching the morning session of General Conference (which was amazing by the way), Jess, Vanessa, and I all headed up to Ashley's parents house in Heber. Her parents invited us all to Easter dinner, and I don't usually miss a chance to have some of Lance's brisket! It is making my mouth water just thinking about it. We were able to watch the second session of Conference up there, and then it was FEASTING time! I did a lot of that this weekend. :)

Jess and I brought broccoli salad, seven-layer salad, and two Hershey pies, and the rest of the family brought potato rolls, homemade honey butter, mashed potatoes, brisket, green bean casserole, and veggies! I was good and only ate one plate, but that plate had a little of everything on there. LuAnn even took the time to make these cute little rice krispie treats shaped into a nest, and they had jellybeans in them. It was milk-free for Braden, so that was a cool treat. I also think I ate an entire pound of bacon by myself! Everything we had at the table had bacon on it! Dishes that included bacon: mashed potatoes, broccoli salad, and the seven-layer salad. I tell you what, those Weavers know how to EAT! It made me think of this:

Seriously. Love it. Every word is true!

Today is also a very special day for one Mr. T-Diddy. It's his BERFDAY! I have been very blessed to have this guy be a part of my family. Todd, you have been with us for so long, I can hardly remember when you WEREN'T one of us! Well, all I can say is I will be eternally grateful to you for a multitude of things, but most importantly, for being the one to SHOW me how to pluck my eyebrows! No joke! That skill has helped me so much in the last ten years, and it is one of my favorite memories of you. That, and remembering how Jessie met you for the first time. . . :) Oh, I love it!
I hope you have a FANTASTIC birthday, you are such an asset to our family, and I'm very grateful you decided to put up with us enough to become one of us! Love you!

Girl's Night Out!

2010-04-03T23:55:00.002-06:00

Jessica and I have decided that we want to have a tradition for the ladies in our ward. During the Priesthood session of General Conference, we have the ladies bring a dessert and come veg out at our place. We watch a chick flick, and then gorge ourselves on confectionery delights! Oh, and did the girls in our ward DELIVER?! We had an eclair cake, Hershey pie, chocolate dipped strawberries with whipped cream, 3 kinds of chips with 2 kinds of salsa, raspberry almond torte, strawberry shortcake, organic chips (thanks, Meesh! :)), swiss roll cake, and a custard. I'm not kidding you. Each girl brought enough to share, and we only made a dent in what was brought! I couldn't believe how yummy everything was.

After a long deliberation between American Outlaws (major 'hottie actors' factor), and The Importance of Being Earnest (major funny AND major chickie), we settled on a little Oscar Wilde. The next two hours was just filled with laughing and carrying on. IOBE is one of my favorite flicks, and what made it better was watching it with all the ladies!

After the movie got over, a few people had to leave and go to other things, but a large chunk of us decided the night was young and we still wanted to have a little fun. Someone brought a few Doris Day movies with them, and when the girls found out that I had never seen Pillow Talk, but loved Doris Day and old movies, there was no further debate.

I fell in love.

Pillow Talk is now on my top 10 list. I was laughing, I was smiling, I was falling in love with the couple, and I was cheering the characters on. I would give it a definite 5 out of 5 stars. If you haven't seen it, grab a bunch of your girlfriends, a bag of popcorn, and a snuggie. Settle down on the couch, and enjoy the AWESOMENESS of Pillow Talk! Just the theme song will get in your head an leave you smiling. For you doubters, here's a little sample:

Rock Hudson is hilarious! He is trying to get Doris Day to fall in love with the real him- just read the description to try and get another idea of what the movie is about. And fall in love with this movie. :)

Easter Eggs and Sesame Street!

2010-04-02T23:02:00.014-06:00

Tonight was so much fun! Vanessa, Jessie, Ashley, Kyle, Braden, and I all dyed eggs tonight for the Easter Bunny to come. The Easter Bunny has always come on Saturdays for the Isenbarger family, and this year was no exception. Braden has been so excited this past week, asking for jelly beans, asking when we would get to dye eggs, helping Mommy get the eggs ready, etc. He almost didn't come to dinner with us because he didn't want to leave the eggs at the house!

We spent some time laying down newspaper, getting the dyes ready (Ashley got some GREAT ones- the eggs turned out so bright and colorful, and we didn't have to wait half an hour for the color to stay on the egg), and keeping Braden occupied until everything was ready. But we had 5 dozen eggs to get to! We started in on the eggs and got down to business.

Braden picked up the dyeing techniques pretty quickly, and it didn't take long before he had around six cups of dye with an egg in each. He even went around identifying each color and which eggs were his. It was too cute! he got the hang of that metal dipper pretty quickly. I remember that as a kid, it took me years to finally get comfortable with that thing and not spill the dye every time I tried to get my egg out!

Vanessa was the queen of the "double dip" egg, she loved putting several different colors on her eggs. They turned out great! Jessica got into the swing of things when she started making "engagement eggs" for the couples in the family. Basically, she wrote around the outside of the egg, "Cole & Emily" and "Curt & Vanessa". We also made a few "Aunt Jessie" and "Aunt Lisa" eggs. What happened to them is reminiscent of Christmas, and the now infamous smashing of Curt's favorite cookie. The short version: Jessie ruined one of my eggs, so I smashed hers. Juvenile . . . yes.

The evening ended with Jessie reading Braden his new favorite bedtime book, "Pajama Time", the kids getting tucked into bed, and the adults watching old-school episodes of Sesame Street from our childhood. Kyle, being fortunate as he is, has a toddler child that he can blame for buying all the Sesame Street dvd's known to man, but I KNOW that he is just buying them for his own amusement! Braden doesn't get nearly the amount of fun out of them that Kyle does. Cole, we decided that you need to remix some of the old-school Sesame Street songs. Crayon making, the line that made a ton of different colored circles to a tune of "oh's" from a ton of different people, and the alligator sketch- get started. :) *Sigh* What a great night. Oh, check out how little Miss Addie amused herself while we were dyeing eggs:

WHAT A CUTIE!!!!!

April Fools Day!

2010-04-01T20:57:00.001-06:00

You know, even as a kid April first was just a day when I could be a little more mischievous than normal. In fourth grade I pretended to have a twisted ankle and was on crutches, the other years consisted of a few little pranks here and there. Putting a rubberband on the sink sprayer seemed to be our favorite prank as kids.

Today I witnessed an office-full of twenty-somethings turn into elementary school kids. It all started out this morning when my boss, Loren, came in and asked me to go over the reports I had printed off earlier. He told me he had found a mistake in them and I needed to audit them. So I started going over them. On the third, fifth, and ninth pages, there was a picture of a man on a beach, giving a thumbs up, and wearing nothing more than a skimpy mankini and a smile. It also said "April Fools" across the top. I had to laugh, it completely caught me off guard!

But that was just the beginning . . .

Loren had put a whole bunch of the pics in the copier, so all day we were double checking whatever we printed off and trying to make sure none of the residents got pictures in their print jobs. Pretty hilarious. But Loren and Ceec also decided they needed to fool Blake, so while he was gone at a meeting, they left him a message saying he needed to call a Mr. "Harry Lyon", and the phone number they left was to the zoo. They also stapled fifteen plastic cups together, put them on Blake's chair, and then filled them with water. Thankfully, Blake saw the cups before he pulled out his chair, and he was able to dump the cups in the pool. It didn't create too much of a mess.

Blake, Robert, and Brandon decided to get Loren back a little by stealing his keys to his Tahoe and sabotaging the car a little. They almost broke the key fob, and that would have been so terrible!

Since they were hitting Loren's car, I should have figured that I needed to keep my keys with me, but I though I was safe. I walked out of work and saw that my car was missing! I looked around just a little bit, but couldn't see my car, so I went into the office and asked around. Blake and Loren 'fessed up, and I found out where my car was. Thankfully, nothing else was done to it, but I had to give a smile as I was driving off the property. It was a pretty interesting day, and an April Fools I won't forget any time soon!

Happy Birthday, James Craig!

2010-03-30T22:04:00.005-06:00

Today, my man J.C. is turning 9! Really! It blows my mind, because it seems like he was just born. I'm sure his mama would agree with me.

J.C., you are such an amazing guy. You love to have fun, and you never fail to make me laugh so hard by the things you say and do. Remember this last Christmas when we got to spend some time together? That was my favorite part of the entire break- doing logic puzzles, bejeweled, playing games, and having you help me make the chocolate chip cheeseball on New Years. Oh, not to mention the birthday surprise you, Trin, and Grammy gave me- balloon blowers! It's nice to know I will always have a buddy that is ready and willing to watch Star Wars: Return of the Jedi with me.

Enjoy your day, the HUGE Star Wars card from me and Aunt Jessie, and the NERF gun that is your present! I love you, dude.

FeStIvAl of CoLoRs!

2010-03-27T23:09:00.000-06:00

Today was the long-awaited Festival of Colors at the Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork. If you remember, Jess and I had attended India Fest with Shauntelle and Angela back in the fall, but we all have REALLY been looking forward to this celebration for a LONG time. This event has grown so much in the past few years, been attended by so many people, that they had to do 2 different times for throwing the colors! They had over 10,000 people confirm on Facebook that they would go, and the temple projected over 15,000 would attend. My observation- there were 15,000+ at the four o'clock festival alone! I'll show you in a minute.
We all met at our place and carpooled down to Spanish Fork. Don't worry, Jess and I were prepared with blankets to cover up the car seats, directions to the temple, and directions to the parking. Yeah, we were ready! We parked at a local school and shuttled over to the temple. For most of us, it was the first time riding a school bus in 10+ years. Yeah, we got into the ride. We were the "bad" kids at the back of the bus!
The festival is devoted to welcoming in the Spring season, and so they normally dance, sing, eat, and pelt each other with colored chalk. This year was the first year I could go, so I had no idea that people wold be throwing colors early. We would learn soon enough. Joe, Karaleigh, and I were walking to the tent to buy colors, and were walking by a random group of guys when we all got chalk to the face. Here are the results. -------------------->
We ran into Vanessa, Curt's fiance, at the festival, too! Out of all the people there, we kept running into her, go figure! We had already started throwing chalk on each other, so we were getting a little colorful, and while we were taking the picture together, someone turned around and threw a bag in our faces, hence the crazy picture! I love it, though. It really captures the fun we had today.
We headed to the middle of the crowd, and started dancing and throwing colors on each other. I got several mouthfuls of powder, and gagged a few times because they were rose-scented! Gross. I also was spiting green and purple powder for hours.
4 bags of powder later, they started the countdown for everyone to throw their colors and welcome in Spring. I knew that with so many people around me I wouldn't be able to breathe, so a few of us went to the side of the crowd so we wouldn't get caught in the main cloud and not be able to breathe (the cloud gets so bad that people were actually selling masks, & wearing bandannas over their faces!). That turned out to be a good decision because the cloud of powder completely blocked out the sun! There were reports that the cloud of colors was seen 15 miles away! This video is of our group (4 pm) getting our colors on! Check out all the people!

Oh, and I was on the other side of the field, so the dust cloud came STRAIGHT at us! Karaleigh and I took off toward the fence, looking for fresh air. You couldn't even see the people standing two feet away from you! Insane.
We had so much dust on us, that our faces were black by the time we were done! I have colors in places that I never thought- one ear was green, one ear was pink,when I blow my nose it is straight purple powder, I have a purple streak running down my back, and even though I was wearing tennis shoes, my pinky toes are stained- one pink, one green.
A trip to McDonalds for dinner capped off the afternoon, and it was hilarious having so many people look at us and wonder what the heck we had done to be so colorful! We weren't the only ones who were covered, though, so we weren't so out of place.
I had to throw away a tank top, my shirt, my underwear, and one of the sheets I used to cover the back seat of my car. The colors brush off for the most part, but sometimes they stain. It was totally worth it, though! I will definitely be attending next year as well.

Les Miserables and High School Musical Combine!

2010-03-26T22:57:00.001-06:00

Tonight a bunch of ladies from the ward went to see Les Miserables at a local theater. It was featuring an all-high school cast, so I thought it would be a little shaky. Some of those songs are really difficult!
I also was spoiled the one time I saw Les Mis. I was in London last summer and got to see it performed by some of London's finest. That is actually what turned me on to the show- I hate synth in musicals, so I had really looked over the show growing up. When I saw it in London though, I LOVED it!
Anyways, the production turned out pretty well. There were a few moments where I thought I was watching High School Musical, and I think I would have switched some casting, but overall I was impressed. Jess liked it, too. But we also enjoyed sitting next to each other and making comments, like the Isenbarger women do. We rock.
I got chills at the last number, so I looked up the Dream Cast from the 90's on YouTube. This is how I like musicals- loud, emotional, strong, and full. Amazing.

Still some things to work on . . .

2010-03-24T22:48:00.000-06:00

Tonight was "Comedy & Confections" at the Branbury. I planned an activity where a comedy troupe would come from BYU, and a local bakery would provide some way amazing desserts.

Desserts: Win

Comedy: FAIL!

People loved the desserts and were eating those like crazy, but the comedians were kind of lacking in the laughs department. The first two performers were more clever than funny- a guy who remixed songs and could play anything, and a girl with a ukelele and songs about dating weird guys. Meh. The third performer was a girl comedian, and I think it was her first show. Almost no laughs at all. I was doing courtesy laughs and I think people were laughing more at me than her. Last was a black guy who kept making comments about being black in Provo. He was funny. FINALLY! We had a good time listening to him.

Moral of the story, "if at first you don't succeed . . . maybe you'd better not do it again."

Ouch!

2010-03-23T23:03:00.003-06:00

Why, after doing the same thing for over 10 years, does plucking my eyebrows still hurt? I mean, shouldn't I be used to it by now?

I'm going to go get some tissue, and then put some lotion on my eyebrows. *Sniff!*

THIS IS THE BEST GAME EVER!!!

2010-03-21T22:53:00.000-06:00

So, Anne asked me last week if we could get a rousing game of Fireball Island going because she needed a break from school and really wanted to play. I agreed faster than she could blink! We planned a game night for tonight, and invited some of the Branbury oldies that had played before. This game is only fun if you play with people who can really get into it.
Anne made her specialty mint brownies, and I made Hershey & apple pies. What could be better than yummy desserts and a CrAzY game of Fireball Island?! We had 12 people show up, so we got into four teams of three. Over the next hour, we laughed, argued, screamed, shouted, & jumped up and down. It was so warm in the kitchen that we opened the patio doors, and later that night people kept stopping by to see what we had been doing to cause so much noise! No joke, 7 people stopped by after ward prayer, and even more people asked Jessie what on earth we were doing to make so much noise!
The game came down to the wire, and Kara, Chelsea, and V came away with the victory. It was SO close, though! We have already had requests for another game night soon so that people can play again.
Mom, you made a GREAT decision in buying that game for us! It is surely getting its use over here. Kyle & Ash, thanks for lending it to me. There has been no further damage to it, so you can rest easy! :)

Story Time- Customer Service Is NOT Dead!

2010-03-18T21:17:00.003-06:00

I know this is a weird thing to post about, but this is kind of my journal, so bear with me. Sometimes its good to reflect on the tender mercies of the Lord that are shown through the more menial things in our lives. This post is about two kinds of customer service- enjoy!

Any more these days, when I go to stores or offices around town, I have really low expectations on how I'm going to be treated. I feel that the level of customer service has sunk really low in our society. The mentality isn't "How can I help this person, and dazzle them with how far I go above and beyond for them", so much as "How can I get them the heck out of my office as quickly as possible so I can get to the next person". A customer is business, and needs to be catered to in order for them to keep using that service. I shouldn't be surprised by receiving great customer service, I should expect it and get it.

Okay, rant over.

I am trying to save money in order to quit my job and go back to school. This is really hard considering all the bills I have to pay right now, so any money saved is precious. When I found a crack in my windshield, I could see the dollar signs before my eyes. After calling and bidding out the work, no one would do it for under $250. I have a special tint on my windshield that made it uber expensive to replace, apparently. Then I randomly felt like I should stop by a place called Technaglass on my lunch break. Random, I know. When the nice man said, "I can do it for $170 plus tax", my mouth fell open and I made an appointment on the spot! I was extremely excited that I could get my windshield replaced and be able to not dip into my savings.

My appointment turned out to be what made me SO grateful that customer service is NOT dead! The guys welcomed me to the shop, helped me get situated, got me a drink, gave me a status report halfway through, wiped down the interior of my car, vacuumed my car, and then gave me an additional $25 bucks off the work.

GRAND TOTAL= $152.96

I wanted to give the guy a tip for such great service, but he wouldn't hear of it. He just thanked me for my business, and explained all the extras that he includes with windshield replacements- warranties and things like that. He was super friendly and wonderful to work with.

This experience also made me think of the "customer service" Heavenly Father gives us. He knew I needed work done on my car for cheap, knew I was saving money for college, and provided accordingly. I really think that He is watching out for me and trying to provide me with the best "customer service" he can. Thank goodness I have Him on my team! What a great and wonderful blessing.

Visiting The Weymans

2010-03-16T23:22:00.002-06:00

Tonight I headed to Park City with the family right after work to see Aunt Sissy, Elizabeth, Robert, and Uncle Ned. They have a timeshare in Park City every year, and called us up to come visit. I absolutely ADORE those people! We got a little lost trying to find the place, but we eventually got there. :)

Sissy and the fam took us to the hotel's lounge so we could relax while dinner was being made. We chatted and laughed, mostly laughed. She and Robert kept us laughing so hard with their little comments and stories.

Liz decided to make up some chicken parmesan for us, and it was so tasty! We gobbled it up in no time, and she presented us with milk-free Ghirardelli brownies for dessert! They are such considerate people, they bought those especially so Braden could have some. And they were SO GOOD!!!

Just another random highlight from the night, I taught Braden some ballet moves. Braden watched TV while we ate so he could be entertained, and between basketball, cartoons, and ballet, Braden chose ballet. It was amazing! We danced around the living room and even did some lifts. Watch out, Trinity!

tonight just confirmed more than ever that I have been absolutely blessed with an amazing family. The Lord was truly looking out for me when he placed me with them!

Happy Pi Day, Everyone!

2010-03-14T23:16:00.003-06:00

Apparently, "Pi Day" is pretty huge in this ward. Everyone kept reminding us that it was coming up, and we had a plethora of pie parties to go to. I have never even really heard of
"Pi Day" before, but this year it became apparent that it is a big deal now. My Mom did a blog post, Ashley made a delicious apple pie for us when we went over, and Heidi & Hannah threw a huge party with tons of pies and cookies with the pi symbol on them. Way cute.

Today we also got a new bishopric in our ward, and I am pretty excited about them- they seem very eager and excited to be a part of our ward. The oldies will be missed, but this will be good, I think. Now, we just have to see if the rumors about our ward getting split are true . . .

Rugby and Volleyball

2010-03-13T23:31:00.004-07:00

It was a GREAT day today. Jess and I headed to a local rugby game with one of our friends, Erick. We endured sleet, snow, rain, freezing rain, blustery winds, and cold during the game, but it was so worth it. Those guys were intense! It was a lot of fun to see them play something they loved so much. I tell you what, though. I don't EVER want to be a rugby player! Those guys have to take some killer hits!
In our attempts to stay warm, we all bundled up in our blankets, trying to keep our ears and noses from freezing. Erick's positioning of his blanket put some amazing tassels on his forehead, and I knew I had to get a picture!Like I said, amazing. In spite of the fact that we were the only white people there and we were freezing, I had a fantastic time and can't wait to see another game next Saturday! Woo hoo!

After lunch and hot chocolate at Denny's, we lazed around and watched a movie (Erick got to pick, and out of all the movies I own, he picked Ewoks: the Battle For Endor. No joke.), while chatting and having a great time. We even watched a little of America's Best Dance Crew, and got to see an incredible number. Check out what these guys did to the Lady Gaga song "Bad Romance". It's pretty amazing.

Really. This group choreographed their own dance. I am completely blown away! We were all open-mouthed by the time it got done!

Three hours of volleyball topped off the night, and I can tell I am going to be sore! I took a few good spills and dives, so I know I will be hurting. Let's just hope it's not too bad that I can't move. :) Gosh, how I love that sport.

Einstein Lives In A Pond . . .

2010-03-12T23:45:00.002-07:00

No, really! Today after work I went to feed the ducks with Kyle, Ash, and the kids, and one of the ducks had two puffs of white feathers sticking out of the back of his head! Kyle pointed him out and named him "Einstein", and it just seemed to fit. Vanessa and I had a blast helping Braden throw THREE loaves of bread in for the ducks to eat. I tell you, those ducks won't starve at all! We even had some Canada geese come over for some food. All in all, I think there were around 100 ducks all clamoring to get us to throw them some bread. It was pretty crazy!

After feeding the ducks, we went to Kyle & Ash's for burgers and IBC root beer. Ash had made up some hamburger patties with some kind of marinade that tasted so good! I really don't know what it was but Ash should open a burger joint. I would be her best customer. :)

I love spending time with my family. They are the most amazing people and I learn so much from them. Thanks for the great night, guys!

Origato, Ladies!

2010-03-05T22:31:00.003-07:00

This weekend I am road-trippin' with some lovelies from my ward. Mindy, a friend from Omaha, came out to visit for a week, and we decided to head down south for a bit. On the drive down, ----------------> Jessie noticed her glasses were broken, and I decided I had the perfect solution . . . GUM! This is the result of my hard work. Nice. This picture also spawned the weekend-long joke of pictures looking like tourists. We decided to throw the peace signs all weekend long. And it was something we never got tired of doing!

Our first stop was the St. George Temple, where Hannah, Heidi, and Mindy did baptisms, while Jessie and I did a session. We were running a little late, so we jumped out of the car as soon as we could, and raced to get changed so we could get in the session. It was such a gorgeous temple, though, we had to stop and get a few pictures. Look at how amazing this place is! <-------------------- As you probably would expect, the baptistry was completely empty, since it was date night for teenagers, but the session waiting room was completely PACKED because of the same reason- date night! Jess and I managed to sneak into the session, while half the people in the waiting room had to wait for the next one. The rooms were gorgeous, and I loved the fact that we were in a jam-packed room with so many others who were wanting to do the same thing, learn and improve. The St. George temple also holds a special place in my heart now because it was the first time I was able to do and say everything WITHOUT any help! It took over a year, but I now have everything down! Woo hoo!

We headed to the Brick Oven for dinner afterward and we had a few more opportunities to look even more like tourists. ------> We all were ravenously hungry, so we wasted no time in ordering and running to the salad bar. If you have never been to Brick Oven, make SURE to get their salad bar- one of the best I have ever been to! LOVE IT! Jessie was also able to throw a few more peace signs to complement our meal. GO USA!!!
<--------------------------- After a rousing time/meal, we all crashed and decided it was time to call it a night. You could literally see each of us hit a wall and start to get really sleepy. It was pretty funny. But as Jess and I were walking out of the restaurant, we saw the motor home that we will be purchasing in our old age. For those of you that don't know, Jess and I are going to hold down the single status for a long time! We decided that we will be the ladies that tailgate with their favorite college team and follow them to all their basketball and football games. We will even have a hot tub and grass- we've planned it all out. Ladies and gentlemen, I present our dream home . . . Watch out, Lisa and Jessie will be ruling the road with this one!

Uuuuuggggghhhhhhhhhh!

2010-03-03T23:23:00.001-07:00

I AM SO GLAD IT IS A SHORT WEEK FOR ME! I am taking Friday off to go on a road trip with some cool girls from our ward, and I can't wait to get going! This is rent week, so it's busier than ever. Can it be Friday yet?!

Basketball with Braden!

2010-03-01T23:05:00.000-07:00

This little guy is going to be a basketball star one day! Saturday I got to spend a little time with Vanessa, Ashley, Kyle, Braden, and little Addie. Kyle had a basketball game for his stake, and Ash was going to watch. So I decided to invite myself along! Vanessa wanted to go wedding dress shopping as well, so we decided to go to the game, grab some lunch, and then head to Midvale. We got to play with Braden and Addie so much, I loved it!

In regards to dress shopping . . . Vanessa didn't find her dream dress, but she tried a bunch of dresses on. I tell you, that girl looks good in ANYTHING! The salesladies kept trying different styles on her, and she looked amazing in all of them! Little punk.

Well although we didn't find "the ONE", we decided to make a pit stop at Ikea for some of their amazing cinnamon rolls and cute home stuff. Vanessa had never been, so I HAD to show her around my playground. I LOVE THAT STORE! Well, needless to say, Vanessa was convinced pretty quickly that Ikea is amazing, and she almost died at the cinnamon rolls. I will agree, they are frickin' life-changing!

Family and Ikea. WHAT A GREAT DAY!

This is for you, Lindz: "Beeesst frieeeends!"

2010-02-28T22:28:00.002-07:00

Today my bestie is celebrating her birthday. Abroad. And I am not there. :(

Thankfully, I have my blog to give a tribute to one of the best women I have had the privilege of knowing. Lindz, you and I have had the BEST times together! I miss you like crazy, but I am so proud of who you are and what you are doing. I hope that next year we can celebrate your birthday over here . . . :)

In the longest run-on sentence/list known to man, I want to just go on about some fun times we have had.

The Youth Conference that started it all, water balloon fights, fun times in Molten Lava and Hooptie, getting grounded and not being able to hang out with you, talking in Seminary, making Bro. Butterfield cry (I REALLY feel bad about that one!), Hooptie breaking down on the way to Tuscola, orange tic tacs and a gas station where we were gonna get killed, driving to your house in a van with no brakes, singing and playing at the pianos at our homes, you making purses for us, "What?" pants, breaking the gate at Girls Camp, Resusci-Annie in the freezer, stealing the golf cart only to have to push it back because it ran out of gas, "I'm just gonna go get the canoes", sneaking out of Girls' Camp with Noah, trips to the Tuscola outlet mall, I Love Lucy, green gogurt and throwing it up, talks in beds, breaking beds, breaking shower rods, sharing music, making you read really fast and stress out with Pirates of the Caribbean, volleyball games at King Henry, living together and LOVING it, oven boxes, fake engagement websites and pictures, recording a CD for Hopson's grandma, skip-bo, your mission, taking you to the MTC, seeing you in the MTC and crying my eyes out, all the mischievous times we had, you talking me through rough times, heart to hearts, going through the temple and having you there, "Magellan!" in low voices, Krista face-planting it on a mattress, slipping on Dr. Pepper, garbage bag sliding, watching movies together, Mansfield Park, boy drama, busting up my back, Mama Shep & Papa Shep- the origins of the nickname, doing crafts together, dinner with Noah and the butter knife, David Cassidy's "I Think I Love You", our own Trans-Siberian orchestra music video, watching Jared fall out of the hammock, the radioactive bushes, the womb, "I'm gonna puke!", "Are these lights going to come on EVERY time we stop?", singing at the top of our lungs to too many songs, "For Good"- Wicked, creative badminton, Ultimate Frisbee, touring Oxford, back massages, back scratches, broom hockey, hockey games, and so many more, I can't even list them.

I love you, Lindz. I hope things are going well and I WANT TO SEE YOU SOON!!!! :) Hope you have a great birthday!

Happy Birthday to Miss Trinity

2010-02-27T22:10:00.002-07:00

Girl, you are too many things! I was looking through my photos from a loooong time ago, and there was one of us asleep in a rocker at Grammy's house. You were just a few weeks old, and I had been holding you and rocking you until we both fell asleep! Too sweet.

Trin, you are such an amazing girl, so tender-hearted and fun. You should hear your Aunt Jessie talk about the stories the two of you have! It makes me jealous that I haven't ever been able to be close enough to you to make those kind of memories. I know you are the sweetest little girl, and I know you will stay that way. Some of my best memories of the holidays over the years have involved you:

- doing each others hair and makeup for Thanksgiving
- ice skating together
- Barbie and the Twelve Dancing Princesses
- playing Bejeweled and logic puzzles with you
- playing on the playground by Grammy's & Boompa's
- singing "Trinity Lynn", "Aunt Lisa", and "Boompa" at the top of our lungs
- doing ballet together and singing

These are just a few! I love you so much girlie, and I hope I get to see you soon! Have a FANTASTIC birthday!

I GOT A TURKEY!!!

2010-02-23T23:06:00.002-07:00

Tonight was a dinner/ fun night for the office staff at The Branbury. I think that we are all getting a little stressed out, so I thought it would be fun to do dinner at my place and then get some bowling in. Loren loved the idea and kind of took off with it, he made us some of the best food I have had in my life! He made a filet mignon with a garlic butter sauce, risotto with pancetta and marscapone, a spinach salad with red onion and feta, and some crazy brownies for dessert. We were all SO full! It's a good thing we had to go to THREE different bowling alleys to find some lanes for us to use. It gave us time to digest all that food.

We finally made it to Miracle Bowl, where their league was just finishing up. We played a few games of pool, Loren kept pumping quarters into this hunting video game, and then our names were called for the lanes. Overall, I was the best bowler of the night, but Dot and I both got turkeys! That's three strikes in a row for all those who have no idea what that means in bowling terms. :) I have only done that one other time, so I was ridiculously happy!

It was really great to bond with the team a little more, and I hope it gives us enough energy to kick off this leasing season with a bang!

Ward FHE Olympics

2010-02-22T23:27:00.000-07:00

So, my team pretty much swept the Olympics. Really. We represented Tonga and KILLED IT!
For FHE tonight, the ward had some Olympic events for the FHE families to participate in. Let's take it event by event, shall we?

Winter Javelin
RESULT: GOLD!
We had to throw a "javelin" (straw) as far as we could, and alterations were allowed. So we decided to attach the straw to some keys for added weight. Boy, did it work! Keith and Mike were able to slide the keys the farthest distance, and blow away the competition. We even hit the opposite wall in the gym! Woot!

Snowball Eating Contest
RESULT: GOLD & SILVER!
This was "Chubby Bunny" without talking. We had to see how many large marshmallows we could stuff into our mouths. Little did anyone else know, but I can fit my entire FIST into my mouth, so I knew I had this one in the bag! We were allowed two people to compete, so Megan and I decided to take it to the next level. Bronze medal- 10 marshmallows. Silver- 15 marshmallows. Megan really packed them in! But even she was no match for the "Mouth of the Isenbarger Clan". I kept packing marshmallows into my cheeks like a squirrel with acorns. the gold medal went to me with a whopping score of 19! I think I should probably be a little more careful about confirming the fact that I have a big mouth . . .

Skeleton & Luge Relay
RESULT: GOLD!
Mike & Megan, Keith & Jessica. How did anyone think they could top the awesomeness of these pairings?! Mike & Megan did the "luge", a relay where Mike pushed Megan on a four-wheeled scooter from elementary school around a large obstacle course. Then they tagged up Keith and Jessica, with Jessie having to be on her stomach on the scooter and Keith used her feet to negotiate the course. Seriously, our team led by a good five seconds!

Hockey Relay
RESULT: BRONZE!
Sarah, Emily, and Jessica snatched the medal on this one, they had to put on a hockey uniform, use a broom to push a tennis ball down the length of the gym, and shoot at the wall. Then they had to push the ball back to the next person in line. We did really well to get the bronze, but I missed most of this event because I was in the hall choreographing and practicing for the next event . . .

Office Chair Figure Skating
RESULT: BRONZE!
Lauren and I spent some time in the hall getting together a great routine that included spins, gliding on one leg, and some amazing team work. We even had a "lift"- Lauren got up on the chair with her arms stretched out to the sides, and I was sitting in the chair ahead of her, holding her under her arms. We were a smash, but in order to be fair, our routine only got us the bronze. Oh well!

All in all, it was an AMAZING night! I had such a blast and I will admit, it is always fun to be the winner. Yay, Tonga!

Lisa Marie

It's About Time I Got Some 'Help'!

Why My Nephews Are the Coolest- Exhibits A & B

What a Relief!

Meet Wicket!

I FOUND THEM!!!

Ouch!

And Then There Were None

Quickie post

God Bless America

Lessons, Legolas, & Lockwood!

Import Fail

Challenge Extended

Lisa IsenbargerThe family has all updated their blogs. I think it's time for us to do the same. Challenge extended!

You Shouldn't Say 'April Fools!' When . . .

Watch Out . . . I'm On My Way!

Holy Holi!

Drum Roll, Please!!!

What a GREAT day!

A "C" Dinner!

A Great FHE and Pi Day!

Park City and the Blind Dog

A Terrible Breakup

Music can touch the soul!

Jimmerisms

Hell Froze Over Today

The Isenbarger's Know How To PARTAY!

Praxis: Consider Yourself Rocked!

Thanksgiving Dinner!

REALLY?!

This Is Halloween, This Is Halloween!

Utah Temple Tour 2010- Ogden

It's Just A Bunch Of Hocus Pocus!

Jane Austen Night!

Timp Fires

Hogle Zoo- The MARATHON post!

This post is exclusively for Curt & Pooma

Fall Means FOOTBALL!

Happy Birthday to my MAMA!

lAgOoN aWaRdS!

Final grades are in!

With all the weddings going on in my family . . .

Reality Check

Tasting a legend

Sweaty Hugs Are The BEST!

Addie's Birthday Party

I am a world record holder!

Miss Addie Turns 1!!!

Another birthday!

New Spice

Dat's dat Dat Dragon!

Pioneers

Are ye ready, lassies? It's the PAYSON SCOTS FESTIVAL!

You Can't Keep A Good Girl Down

Happy Birthday to El Guapo!

She Must Like the Food. . .

My Closet Reeks

A Little BBQ On the Prairie

"I'm not dead yet!"

"It's Never Too Late!"

My Poor Car

Incredible experience

Patriarchal Blessing

My first day of Institute (sounds like the first day of school!)

What a whirlwind day!

Suggestions, please!

6 Down, 7 left in Temple Tour 2010!

My family is so great!

Creative Visiting Teaching

Goodbye to Banessa!

Y'say Somethin?

ASHLEY'S BIRTHDAY!

updates coming soon . . .

The return of GLEE!!

Lazy Day and Stake Conference

Choose the Sprite when a Coke is placed before you . . .

The FIRST Bonfire Of The Season!

Now THIS is how American Idol should be!

And . . . my Monday ends now

Happy Easter, Birthday, Sunday, ALL THE ABOVE!

Lisa Isenbarger
The family has all updated their blogs. I think it's time for us to do the same. Challenge extended!