Springtime Pictures

Well, here are some pictures of some of the fun things I've been up to lately.


My roommate Stacy, who was in my dorm freshman year at BYU and then was my sophomore roommate at Park Place, got married in early May! In the picture are four of the six of those original Park Place roommates... it was a great reception and Stacy looked great!


A friend invited us to spend a night at Spring Haven, this lodge owned by BYU that is in the mountains. Beautiful! Here is a view from the pond.


Making some s'mores...


It was like summer camp at Spring Haven... gotta love the bunk beds!

Kevin and I playing in the slide at Spring Haven... fun!

Fore!

So... I'm once again attempting to learn to golf, for the first time (for real) since about age 7. Back in the day, I had a cute set of golf clubs and a pink golf bag and I was a member of the "Zero holers" golf group at the local golf club in Mequon. I was a little Tigerette Woods in training.... ha. However, at my young age, golf didn't seem as interesting as soccer, baseball, swimming, and all of the other summer activities I was into. Thus, I somehow got off the golf train. Anyhow, it didn't bother me much to not be a golfer until the end of high school, when I realized that golf was actually a pretty cool sport, and I had no skills.

So, I signed up this spring term for golf. Four times a week, (and I only get 0.5 credits for this class), I go to the small putting green and practice area near the tennis courts at BYU and practice with my fellow novice golfers. It's been a lot of fun! My teacher, Garrett, is really cool, and I've definitely made some friends in the class. It's funny, I'm hearing a similar background story... "I wanted to be able to play with my dad/husband/friends...." and here we all are, excited, maybe for the first time, and despite our earlier lack of interest in the sport, about golf!

I'm finally taking up one of those "adult" sports... you know, the ones in the class with tennis, jogging, lawn bowling, fishing... the sports that you can do without developing large bruises and without needing a team of 10 to play with. I used to find those sports boring, but now I'm realizing that it's not easy to gather 10 people to play soccer with, and sometimes, I'm not in the mood to come home bruised and exhausted (even though I love soccer/basketball/etc.). And... I think that whole aspect of enjoying the walking and being outside part of golf is more appealing, since you can talk with people while you play and enjoy the outside without running around all the time.

Anyway, we went for the first time to play the executive course with members of the class at The Reserve at East Bay. It's one of those courses where you play 9 holes and all of them are par 3 or 4. I got a 56 on 9 holes, haha, not exactly impressive. But, the girls I golfed with and I had fun! One of them was a girl who was actually an RA when I was a freshman in Taylor Hall, and we haven't run into each other in at least 3 or 4 years, but we both happen to still be at BYU and are in the same class. The other girl is from Mexico and she's on the tennis team at BYU. She definitely kicked our trash, since her tennis skills totally help her in golf. She also had the cutest ways of expressing her golf "anger"... instead of American sounding moans or "Shoot!" or whatever someone would say, she said "Aye!" and "No manches!" (which means "no way") and "A huevo!" (meaning literally, "To the egg!" but it translates to a cheer or expression like "yeah!"). We definitely enjoyed picking up on new ways to show our frustration or excitement with some new slang.

So, that's a little on my golf adventures. Next weekend, Dad and Mom are coming into town, and Dad and I will be going golfing, where I'll really get to test my new skills with a more experienced golfer. A huevo!

Spring Term = Great

A quick facebook update... turns out the boy I thought was engaged ISN'T engaged. A novice facebook user, he accidently clicked "Engaged" and didn't realize it. Phew, I don't know why I'm relieved, but for some reason, I am. Another glory of facebook, misinformation. Some people put a false relationship status as a joke and others do that on accident. Once again, better to find out from the actual person! Haha.

Anyhow, it's SPRING term at BYU. I LOVE spring term. It lasts from the beginning of May to late June. Here are a few reasons why it's so great:

-the weather is perfect (not too hot as it gets in summer, but definitely be outside weather... which means studying outside instead of in the library!)
-the campus is less crowded (even though that means some of my friends aren't around... it also means that there are smaller lines, more parking spaces, which isn't too shabby!)
-you take fewer classes (although it's usually about the same amount of credits per time... since the term is half as long as a semester... it's nice to have only 2 or 3 classes to worry about instead of 4 or 5... and 7 weeks doesn't allow you to procrastinate or get behind... you just have to keep up!)
-there's a more social atmosphere (with a summer-y feel in the air, it's just more relaxing, and a lot of people are just working around here in the summer, which means more spontaneous and fun summer stuff going on... camping, swimming, bonfires, movies, etc.)

The fun goes on. Ahhh.... I love it.

Facebook as the Source of Knowledge

So, for those of you who aren't facebook users, I'll give a brief explanation. www.facebook.com is pretty much the most popular social networking website for college-age people. It's pretty awesome in many ways. You create a "profile" and then you add "friends" from finding other people you know on the site. Then, you can post information about your life, pictures, videos, write comments to each other... it's so convenient, cause it's like having all of your friends in one place. And, you can set up your profile so that no one but your own approved friends can see your profile, which takes away that whole creepy internet stalker thing.

So, anyway, most college students, who have facebook, check it pretty frequently to see if their friends have updated their profiles, if they've gotten any emails, etc. Why would we care to look at other peoples' profiles? Because when you don't have time to individually call all of your spread-out friends across the world, facebook becomes your fountain of information about your friends' lives.

Let me demonstrate: Today, I found out that a good friend (who I dated a little while I was in Spain) is ENGAGED! Whoa! Definitely a surprise. I've found out about many a friend's relationship through facebook. Steve and Tanya from high school are getting married. Awesome! Thanks facebook! Even my own friends found out I was dating someone out here through facebook, and when I posted it on my profile, I got a flurry of messages on my "wall" ("Congrats!" "In a relationship? Oooh!" etc.) Now, for those who don't like this sort of attention, they keep their facebook profiles sparse. You don't have to post anything you don't want other people to see, including your picture. But, it's pretty fun to read other people's profiles and to look at their pictures. It was especially fun when I was in Spain and could see photos from all of our trips. It was an easy way to stay connected with people that I met and don't see on a regular basis.

I still love facebook, and I wish all of my friends had it (hint hint). It's just so convenient and a nice way to let people know what you're up to in your life (your job, pictures of good times, etc.), especially those you don't see often (like high school friends who live across the country). And it's really not creepy, unlike some websites. But, after finding out from facebook that a boy I dated (not too long ago) is ENGAGED, and I have no idea with whom, it made me realize how crazy it is sometimes that our source of finding these things out is the internet! Wow. The modes of communication are changing, folks.

That is all. :-)