66 Days and Counting

66 days until I leave for the MTC! Crazy! Sorry for the short post. Kind of pointless actually, huh? Oh, and the picture is of my Mom's bruise when she broke her arm. I shouldn't say "broke her arm" that makes it sound so weak. She broke it in two places and then the bone shattered in between those two breaks. It's pretty hard core haha.

Mom's bruise

Mission Call

I'm glad they called me on a mission, now that I have grown a foot or two! Haha

Most people were really surprised when I told them I was going on a mission so I've decided to give a little back story about it.

Growing up I never really wanted to go on a mission. Or rather, it wasn't that I didn't want to go it was just something that I NEVER thought of doing. It wasn't for me. I had no real interest or desire to go. Then in January of 2010 something happened. I had just turned 20 and was going to Weber State. I was finally getting into classes that had to do with my major. I was taking editing classes and . . . I hated them. That's what I wanted to do when I grew up, edit stuff, and I hated it?! And on top of that I wasn't any good at it either. I was frustrated and confused so I prayed to know if I should continue with all these English classes or find a different major. I was sitting in Sacrament meeting in my home ward. The speakers in the meeting were the matron and a guy from the presidency of the Ogden Temple. The matron spoke first. She didn't even speak about missionary work, really. But my head and my heart were only telling me one thing: mission, Maurie. Mission.

No, no, no, I told myself. No. Just no. After the matron spoke there was a musical number. It was a medley of "I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go" and "God Be With You Til We Meet Again". That's when it really hit me: Go on a mission, Maurie. And I started getting teary-eyed. I wasn't sure if it was because I was feeling the Spirit or because I just did not want to go on a mission.

But over the next few days, I just kept feeling like I should go on a mission. But I was confused. I was praying to know what to do about school and that's the answer I got? And I was only 20. I had a whole year before I could even really think about a mission (but I think Heavenly Father told me so early so that I could have a year to get used to the idea of going on a mission). I talked to my parents about it and both my mom and dad had a condition. My dad's condition: Graduate from college first. My mom's condition: Wait until all the boys your age are home from their missions. So when I was getting close to graduating I started thinking of a mission again. I even went to the bishop and lots of things. But I just didn't feel good about it. I was freaking out. I didn't really want to go, I was just going to go because that's what I thought I should do. Plus there was this guy, but that's a whole other story. When I was just about to start on my papers (in March of 2011) I told my Bishop about all these concerns I had and he told me to wait awhile and see what happened. So that's what I did. I graduated and got a job and felt good about not going at that moment. Every day when I drive to work I see what's left of the Ogden Temple. And one day in early September I looked at the temple and the thought of a mission came into my head again and I started to cry. I am not exactly a crying person so it surprised me that I was crying. But I knew it was because I had finally decided to go on a mission.

Long story short (not really) I talked to my bishop that Sunday, by the following Sunday I had all my paperwork turned in. The next week I met with the Stake President and four weeks later (there were two little hiccups with the missionary department after that) my call came.

Uh. . . blog much?

Um, so it seems that I have not been good at blogging lately. Maybe because not much is going on. Or maybe because SO much is going on that I don't feel like I have time. It's probably a mix of both. I've just been busy with work. Even though it's only part time it sometimes feels like it's full time and I've been taking a few institute classes. Plus my church calling keeps me busy. This last weekend felt like a never ending go go go session. I'm so glad it's Labor Day tomorrow and I get the whole day off (and I get paid too, can't beat that). But I just wanted to say that life is good and I am very happy these days :) no complaints from Maurie.

Harry Potter!!! (and t-shirts)

If there is one thing I love almost more than anything else (including Burn Notice) it is Harry Potter! As much as I love Harry Potter, I have never gone to a Harry Potter midnight showing before. How is this possible you ask? Well, because I value my sleep. And I don't enjoy movies after midnight usually, because I am so tired. But I decided with this last movie coming out, that I need to sacrifice some sleep to show what a true fan I am and go to the midnight showing. I am going with my sister and brother-in-law and we made these truly awesome shirts (pictures to come soon). Making those shirts was quite an adventure. At first, we were gonna try what my sister Linda did with these Robin Hood shirst she made where you bleach a black shirt. It was proving to be monstrous. We had to cut out all the letters and we only had a dull exacto knife (I cut my finger in this horrible process) and then we tried bleaching on shirt . . . to epic failure. To be honest, I was ready to quit right then. Then we thought about the shirts we made for Halloween. We used this thing my mom calls Stitch Witchery (but is actually called Heat and Stitch or something like that) where you iron on what you want. We decided to do that. It was tricky too, but not nearly as tricky as the bleaching thing. And they turned out so stinkin cute! I can't wait to wear it tonight!

Me from O-Z

O

Outside activity I love: playing tennis (though this technically can be done inside)

P

Pet peeve: extreme PDA and super loud chewing

Q

Quote I love: "Build a man a fire and you warm him for a day. Set a man on fire, and you warm him for the rest of his life."

-Terry Pratchett

R

Right or left handed: right

S

Siblings: four. One brother, three sisters, plus two brothers-in-law. Both named Scott, oddly enough.

T

Treasured memory: getting sealed to my family

U

Unspeakable vow: if it's unspeakable, why would I tell you? Haha (plus I can't think of any anyway)

V

Vegetables I dislike: mostly all . . . I'm just picky

W

What makes me smile: Burn Notice, cookies, funny jokes, good movies, great times with friends, thinking of a song I love and then hearing it on the radio almost immediately after I think of it . . . lots of other things that I can't think of right now

X

X-rays I have had done: one on my middle finger when I sprained it (thanks for nothing Spencer George) and another on my foot. It was hurting really bad, but there was nothing wrong with it so it turned out to be a waste of time

Y

Yummy food I make: blueberry muffins

Z

Zoo animal: Koala bear

As another note, my sister had her baby! Her name is Ella and I really, really, really wish I could go see her :(

Me from K-N

K

Kids: my sister is going to have another baby soon and I am practically dying because I can't be there. I want to babysit my niece and nephew while the new baby is being born. But I especially want to hold this new little baby (Wee Baby Three) and kiss her and smell her and feel her baby soft skin. It's killing me that I'm here. So if you're reading this Brittany and Scott, move back to Utah already ;)

L

Love of my life: Michael Westen

M

Milk preference: 1% but I can handle 2% and skim. I've never really had any experience with whole milk . . .

N

Nicknames: Moe, Moe B, Morrow, Snow White, Mars, Maurinator, Maurberry

Me from G-J

G

Game I love: ninja assassin!!!

H

Hobby I wish I took more time for: arts and crafts, like painting and drawing

I

Instrument I play: piano-ish

J

Job title: page

I just started working at the library as a page. I'm still learning what all my responsibilities are so far but right now I think I mostly just work on shelving books. It might sound boring but I love it a lot so far.

F

Favorite food: pizza

(Am I the only getting kind of bored of this A-Z thing???)

E

Expertise Knowledge of: Harry Potter

Lame, dorky, ridiculous, sad, take it as you will, but I am an expert on Harry Potter. Go on, ask me anything. I will most likely have an answer. (And if I don't, I know I could find it within a matter of minutes).

Another fun fact: my sister Linda recently downloaded all the Harry Potter audio books to our iTunes. My other sister Shelby was listening to all the songs on shuffle and sometimes a few seconds of the Harry Potter books would begin to play. Shelby and I played a game (mostly it was must me) to see how fast I could tell which book it was from. It usually took me three seconds or less. That's how ridiculous/awesome I am.

D

Drink I couldn't live without: water.

Duh. I would have said milk a year ago, but recently I have a hard time drinking milk straight. I can eat it in cereal but just a glass of milk does not tempt me much anymore. Unless there are a few cookies to go with it.

Speaking of cookies, I made some delicious snicker doodles last nigt. With all my spare time these days I have been enhancing my cooking skills and it's a whole lot of fun! Sorry to go on this random tangent about cookies when I'm supposed to be talking about a drink I couldn't live without. Oops.

Me from C to Z

C

Chore I hate: cleaning the toilet

Ugh! Gag me now, please. I don't mind cleaning the bathroom, but when it's time to get to the toilet (which I always save for last) I want to scream and run in terror. I loathe cleaning that thing. However, the alternative is to never have a clean toilet which frightens me even more.

And even as I am typing this, I know that the toilet needs a scrubbing and I don't want to do it . . .

Me from B-Z

B

Bad habit: laziness

Too often I will have all kinds of plans for a day, you know, productive plans. Then the day will come and I'll say, "Eh. Nah, no thanks. I don't feel like doing that." So then I laze around the rest of the day and then that night I say to myself, "I just wasted that entire stupid day!" This is a viscous cycle that I have a hard time getting out of.

Me from A to Z

I stole this from a friend's blog (what else is new) who stole it from another friend's blog. We're all little thiefs, aren't we? Haha. It is the A to Z of me. And to make things more interesting (and to just drag it out as long as possible) I'm only going to do one a day. Bahahaha!!!

A

Age: 21.

In maturity, probably more like 17 haha

(This is fairly short, some of the other ones will be longer and potentially more exciting. Depending on you excitability. We'll see, I guess.)

Graduate from college: CHECK!

Remember my Bucket List? One of the things on that list was graduate from college. And ta-dah! I graduated last Friday from Weber State University. I got a Bachelor's of Science degree. I majored in English and minored in Psychology. You see those purple and white cords I'm wearing? Those are honor cords. I graduated Manga Cum Laude (there's Suma Cum Laude meaning a GPA of 3.9 or higher for the goodie-two-shoes, then Magna Cum Laude meaing a GPA of 3.8 or higher for the semi-goodie-two-shoes, then Cum Laude which is 3.6 or higher for the below average goodie-two-shoes, just fyi).

It was a good day. I had to get up early to go to Commencement. Governor Mike Leavitt spoke and his speech was great. Pretty much exactly what I needed to hear. It was about making decisions. After commencement I went with my mom to Costco (weird I know haha) then we got lunch at Jimmy Johns and a cinnamon roll from Great Harvest. Yum!

At 2 I went to Convocation, which was just with my college-the college of arts and humanities. I'm not going to lie, as I walked across the stage with all the other graduates and I heard all the people yelling and screaming (even though I know most of them weren't screaming and clapping for me) it just felt pretty amazing. I think I'd like to become a rock star so I could have people cheer for me every day like that haha.

I was glad I got to see one of my absolute favorite teachers at convocation, Dr. Hogge. I wish I could have seen some of my other favorites, but at least I got to see him. Graduating from college makes you a very serious and responsible person. . .

This is me saying, "What the heck am I supposed to do with this?" hahahahaha as I am still a bit undecided about what to do with my future.

My Awesome Friends

I have a lot of great friends. I love them a whole lot! So here they are (by category) in no particular order:

My high school/married friends:

Amelia, Jessica, Kara, me and Brittany. I think it's so great that even though it's been a few years since we've all graduated, and even though all of them are married but me we still get together every once in awhile and I know that I can count on them. And another bonus, I am now friends with all of their great husbands so the number of my friends has like doubled! Sometimes we have fun with just the girls or sometimes we all party!

My JD pals

Shantel, Megan, and Camrie. I love these girls. Even though none of us work at Johnny's Dairy anymore we still get toghether for our JD girl nights. And Megan is my gang member MC (I0I). Sometimes we go to Firehouse which is of course delicious. And I love that Megan mentions me in her blog. It always makes me smile. I just saw Shantel and Megan for Curved MC's birthday and I hope to see Camrie soon as well

My singles ward friends

I have made some great friends at the singles ward. I know there are a lot of people out there who don't like singles wards but if you go with the right attitude, you truly meet some of the funnest people. And you get to play fun games like Human Rock Paper Scissors (note Jayme's awesome scissors in this picture

My family

I feel fortunate to count my family as my friends. I love them!!!

This list also includes the great friends I have met at school including Brianna Kent, Melissa Brown and others :) I wish I could give you all a hug and say thanks for being awesome!!!

The Bucket List

For my stress management class I had to read a book that would promote anti-stressful living. I read this book all about setting goals and accomplishing them. So I've created a new and fully improved Bucket List!!! After I saw the movie I made a really weak bucket list that mostly had stupid things on it. But this book made my list more real and . . . cool haha. So I am going to try and document it when I accomplish things on this list. So, a few weeks ago I accomplished one thing on that list: I . . . MADE A CAKE FROM SCRATCH!

Yes, I created that white thing. My mom wasn't even looking over my shoulder the whole time. I only asked her where the vanilla was and the recipe for the delicious frosting. The frosting was the best part. The cake actually was a little burned but it all got eaten within two days so my family must have liked it enough to eat all of it haha. But the best part was that I made it all by myself!!!

Now you may be asking, what else is on this bucket list of yours Maurie? Well, I'll tell you some of the other things on the list (in no particular order).

• See the Northern Lights (I see them on TV but I just can't believe it, I want to see them for myself)
• Go the Wizarding World in Florida
• Graduate from college (three weeks and that'll be checked off)
• Go skydiving or bungee jumping-either one
• Plant something and help it grow
• Learn to ballroom dance
• Run a 5K
• Invent a board game
• Ride in a hot air balloon
• Milk a cow
• Go to Lake Powell
• Fly a kite (I've done this before but I want to do it again)
• Go to a spa
• Donate blood
• Join a book club
• Go paintballing
• Make bread from scratch

If anyone has any other suggestions, or if you know of a way I could accomplish one of these goals, or if you want to be with me when I check off one of these things, let me know! Let's start living!!!

Valentine's Day!

About five days ago I saw an awesome ad in the paper that Papa Murphy's was selling heart-shaped pizza. No way, I thought! I love pizza and I love hearts! So I put up this on my refridgerator for all to see: So today, Valentine's Day, I was downstairs blow drying my hair. When I came upstairs, this is what I saw on the kitchen table:

Someone noticed my sign!!! Who could have been so thoughtful to remember and then actually take my silliness seriously? They even got it with no pepperonis!

Why, it was my sweet brother of course!

And I got to enjoy some yummy heart-shaped pizza for Valentine's Day. Thanks Ian, it was just what I wanted :)

(And now I'd better go do my homework.)

Day 30(finally)-A picture of you today and three good things that have happened in the past

This isn't from today but it's one of the most recent pictures of myself that I have haha. Again, sorry it's taken me so long to finally finish this blog challenge.
Good thing 1: I am all cleared and ready to graduate with my bachelor's degree this April. AHH!
Good thing 2: I was sealed to my family
Good thing 3: I joined the singles ward. This has been such a huge blessing in my life and I've met so many fantastic people.
P.S. I wonder how well I'll be at updating now that I don't have a challenge to give me ideas . . . so any advice on what to write about if you're interested in reading would be great!

Day 29-Life As I Know It

I've been changing things up but this was originally supposed to be what is in your purse. I didn't really like that one so I'm going to just talk about my life in general. Seems like things can get pretty crazy and busy (yet I still manage to find the time to do silly things like update my blog and check facebook, go figure). School just started up and this just might be my last semester. This is actually kind of daunting to me and not very exciting because I still haven't really decided what to do with the rest of my life. There are lots of things I would like to do. It's just a matter of making a decision. One of those things is possibly serving a mission. That idea is both exciting and extremely terrifying at the same time. I'm just kind of playing things by ear and trying to take it one day at a time. My classes seem pretty good so far though so that is good. I've made friends already! Nights can get busy with meetings for church and all of that, but life is still good. In an hour, I'm going to head to the gym. I love the gym!
This is kind of a random post . . .

Day 28-Something you could never get tired of doing

Spending time with my family! (Sorry that this isn't a picture of all of them, I just like this one)

Day 27-Your favorite movie

How can people be expected to answer this question? My favorite movies alters with the mood I'm in. I'll try to give you my top favorites (but they might reflect the mood I am in at the current moment, sorry). Knight and Day--this is like a Burn Notice movie (and you know how much I love Burn Notice). It has action, suspense, romance, humor, and impossible stunts. I've never loved Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz so much.

The Young Victoria. I'm a girl and, shockingly, I do like romances. This one is sublime.

Howl's Moving Castle--this is an anime movie and like some anime movies, it can get a little bizarre. But at the end it makes me so immensely happy that I cannot even freaking believe it.

Here are the honorable mentions:

P.S. You will note that Emily Blunt is in two of these movies.

Day 26-A picture of you last year and how you've changed since then

So this picture isn't from a year ago exactly, but it's from my birthday last year.
Let's call this my braggy post. How have I changed since last year? In so many ways. My testimony has grown, I've become more confident in who I am, and . . . I've lost over 20 pounds. It feels amazing. I try not to talk about it too much because, well, I don't know why exactly. But I'll talk about it now for a little bit. With every new year I make a new list of goals. And from like 2003 until 2010 every year one goal on the list has been to lose weight. I just wanted to be healthy and feel comfortable with my body. Both of my parents had diabetes and I didn't want to get it as well. I knew the best weay to prevent it was by maintaining a healthy weight but I just didn't know how to do it. Well, in 2009 I joined the gym with my sister. And surprsingly, I found I loved the gym! Working out regurlarly made me feel better physically as well as mentally. But I only lost 5 pounds that year. But this year, in July of 2010, I finally decided enough was enough and I found the will power to lose all the weight that I wanted. I don't starve myself. I just carefully watch what I eat and don't overdo it on the goodies.
And it's amazing! Just from people who haven't seen me in a while looking at me in suprise and telling me how good I look. It does wonders for your self esteem and I keep telling myself I should have done this years ago. I've still got a little ways to go but I know I can make it!

Day 25-A photo of somewhere you've been

After I graduated from high school I went to New York City with two of my sisters.

We saw the Statue of Liberty (but we didn't go in).

This is me at Times Square (sorry, I couldn't figure out how to turn it the other way).

At one of the six Broadway plays we saw and my favorite: Spamalot. I'm so excited because we're seeing it again in February with my dad!

At the huge M&M store. I took this "test" that told me which kind of M&M I am and it said, "You are dark chocolate. Everyone loves you. Anyone who says they don't love you is lying." So then I got a picture with the M&M that I am!

Us with a Rockette. She was really nice but it seemed like she'd had a long day haha.

Day 24-A photo of something that means a lot to you

The Temple!

Day 23-15 Facts About You

1. I've lived in the same house my entire life
2. If all goes as planned, I will be graduating with my bachelor's degree next semester. Major: English. Minor: Psychology
3. I coach tennis
4. There is a skeleton in my garage
5. I love to watch the Jane Austen movies and read the books
6. I used to eat hot dogs in this really disgusting way and now I've vowed to never eat another hot dog. Ever
7. I like to do lists and checking them off
8. I love the church
9. Some of my best friends are my sisters
10. I took ballet for almost two years
11. I was in a group called the Random Republicans. We would pull pranks on our history teacher
12. I've also been part of a Gang (IOI)
13. One afternoon I watched 9 episodes of Monk from 3 in the afternoon until 9 at night.
14. I love doing Sudoku puzzles
15. It was really hard for me to come up with 15 facts about myself haha