twinners!

The other night, one of my friends that had just gotten home from a mission was going through some pictures with me, hearing more stories than he wanted to I'm sure. (Beware of asking what somebody has been up to for the last 2 years) At one point, we were pretty much rolling on the floor at some of my "twin" pictures I have with people...and non-people

It seems like the longer we stared at this, the funnier it got and the more and more resemblance we saw

wedding re-cap

Wow I have been to a lot of weddings lately! (meaning receptions) I know that a lot of times I joke about how there's so many or what a pain it can be to go to them, but let's be honest: they're pretty great! I secretly love them a lot a lot! The dress, the rings, the cake, the emotions, the friends...all of it is so excited to me! With each of these last weddings, there were at least a few tears shed at each of them. I can't even tell you how happy I am for my girls that they got such great guys that match them perfectly!

Brooke here, has the cutest engagement story I have ever heard! So I'm posting that in honor of the love theme but know that my version might be slightly off and the way she tells it is SO much cuter! The essence of it is that they were at the lake to do a bonfire and it was still just the two of them down there. He was unloading the truck and came back over to her with a yellow rose. She wasn't expecting anything because he'd given her the "your ring still isn't ready for a week" speech. When he took it over to her, he started talking in third person. He told her how when he went to buy it that day, the saleslady asked what it was for and he said hopefully his fiance, he was wanting to propose that night. The lady launched into a speech about how yellow roses are for friends and so he needed a red one to make it romantic. He laughed and said that the yellow was perfect because he was giving it to his very best friend.

U put the U in Undateable

Adaiza sent me a text that had me laughing way hard today: "So a couple of hours ago I saw that guy that kept asking you out that was in your institute class haha the one that got you back stage with colbie....." I've had some extrememly interesting dating experiences!

The boy that took me for ice cream and talked about his ex...the WHOLE time. And then called her walking back to the car, to see how her job interview had gone. The scum that ended up being married and I worked with his sister-in-law. The fellow that sat in his truck outside my apartment while me, Adaiza and Shay drove around for 2 1/2 hours waiting for him to leave. The piece of work that told me I could lose some weight. The joke that took me to a movie, got up in the middle, went to the row in front of us and laid down. And text me that I should come join him. The grin that purposed with fireworks going off for summer games. The cheapo that made me buy my own dinner. The voice-sound-alike that made me snort all night trying to laugh that I was talking to Napolean Dynamite. The cocky little guy that took me to a haunted house and got mad that I wrinkled his shirt when the chain saw guy jumped out. The wreck that rear ended a car on the way to the movie and we had to walk to his moms. Where we hung out...for almost two hours. Trust me, I could go on!

However, none of these winning males even COMPARE to ol' "J"...what a character this boy is! He sat by me on the first day and told me that he wished he had a date night open for me cause he knew "a few great movies that had to be about to hit redbox." The next week Colbie Cailat was coming to town. He asked me to be his date, I told him I already had tickets with friends, he insisted he could get us backstage to meet her after because he was doing security for it.

The whole concert he sat there texting me what song would be next, asking what other singers I like, how cute we looked dancing along, seeing if we were having fun, that he could hear us yelling and calling to see if I was feeling any better because I was super sick that whole week. I was trying really hard to stay patient but if you know me at all, you know this isn't exactly my kind of guy...

We had gone to lunch the day before the concert as a "thank you" type of thing. I was sick, we were both busy so he deemed it an appropriate gesture and that after that he'd feel okay to get me back stage. As I went to leave and meet up with my friends again for our sleepover (4 of which from out of town), estatic to tell them the story, "J" jumps in front me and asks what I'm doing now because he's got some family stuff he could use some help with. I tried to stay polite but may or may not have lost patience at that point when he literally wouldn't move his arm from in front of me. He let me by with a "Well you owe me then." I thought nothing of it.

The next week, I was at work and my phone goes off with a text from none other than "J". He apparently picked up on my feelings to him because he no longer asked, but insisted that I go to the temple with him for our first date that coming Saturday. Looooooong story short, he blew up on me after I repeatedly insisted that I couldn't and left me alone after informing me that he was shocked and disappointed that I'd put work before the temple.

To make and even longer story short, for the next month I had great run-ins with him. It got to the point where I switched my class. My second day at a different one, he walked down the hallway and just HAPPENED to glance in the door. My heart dropped and I honestly thought I'd crapped my pants. He came and sat by me, turned his chair to face me and just stared at me. After 20 minutes of me not turning my head towards him, he finally huffed and left. And text me immediatly after....

J informed me that he wasn't pleased with my behavior lately. That he was sorry that he left but he had other things to do today. How he was glad that my salvation wasn't as far off as I had implied it to be. He wrapped the glorious thing up with how he hoped "that one day I would find a man on my own level that will be content with my faults and love me anyways."

What a keeper, right?!

(I can easily say this is the most stressful picture I've ever gotten)

DSC visits

Right now I'm in the library. Weird right? Even weirder fact is that I'm at the DSC library. Dixie State College...I didn't even go here when I was a student! BUT when you come to visit and your last day is their first day, there are compromises to make ;)

So many memories being back down here! Like, INSANE! Especially since it's the first day of fall 2011 semester and it was just 3 years ago that I had just moved down here and had no idea where my life was about to go. Good freakin times! Every where I go in this town, we have memories there! So so so much happened and I grew and changed and fell in love and had my heart broken and nearly lived and should have died and went through an incredible number of "firsts" that St. George will always have a little place in my heart, even with how much it's changed everytime I come back. I learned a new way of living down here.

It's time to get a Mt. Dew, meet up with Pier and go visit our buddy Jared before we hit the lake. I don't want to go home back to real life, and I always have a hard time leaving St. George anyways. But ALWAYS fun to come back!

and yes I flipped off the fountain on my way past it! That's one St. George day I don't care to re-live....

see you in 24 Provo! (and yes I was in the library a whole 15 minutes and didn't get kicked out! A Dixie State first for me)

literally a LOL

Remember this joyous night?!

H.I.L.A.R.I.O.U.S.

Long story short? We were dressed up like this (it was a GREAT idea at the time) and went running around dear ol' St. Geezy.

When we left the basketball courts, a guy may or may not have broken his ankle. And his team may or may not have talked to us, ignoring their buddy laying on the court in pain.

Here's to hoping that I get some fun/crazy/slightly mental but MEMORABLE roommates again! It has been far too long since these awesome days!

a few thoughts

I have five weddings within one week. Five.

I have officially been back in Provo for over one year. Crazzzzzy! My atttitude towards living back in "Cougartown" has flipped almost a total 180, in a positive way.

I think it's safe to say that I've grown up quite a bit in the last year since returning to the 801. For example...I have a check book, I occasionally enjoy a good sandwich and if you catch me on the right night I just might have a "This is how I feel..." talk with you. I know, look out! Baby steps. Baby steps.

Dear Provo People...I'm super sad for you that you have so much down time and get bored enough to the point where talking about my personal life becomes your priority! Instead of talking about why I may or may not be going on a mission might I give you some recommendations? Hike the Y, Stewart Falls, Bridal Veil Falls or even Timp. Go to 7 Peaks. Run through your sprinklers. Have a movie marathon. Live on the edge and wear a bikini to a BYU pool. Register for classes. Lay on the floor and stare at the ceiling. Anything! However, should you insist to continue to talk and give your opinions on my life, please take some extra time to make sure your texts are going to the right people.

Jake: I thought you just went to a wedding....

Me: I did. I go to a lot of them! I don't mind though cause I actually love weddings!

Jake: So when are you gonna have yours?

Me: I like weddings, I don't like marriages.

Tuesday=Law and Order SVU Marathon days. Never fail. I can honestly say that I look forward to this every single week and as die hard as I am for always going and being outside and doing stuff..you better believe that when Tuesday comes around, I'm on the couch in pajamas watching Elliot rough somebody up. Probably for 7 hours...

"I do NOT understand! How the ____ do you live in China for four months but you've never gone to a freakin garage sale?!" I laughed at this much harder than I should have.

I have been fortunate enought to have seen more people in concert this summer alone, than most people will in their lifetime.

Tanner/Channy vs. Ceej/Jon in volleyball? We dominated that game.

We floated the river last week. Let's be honest...I was a little nervous! I'd heard tons of horror stories as it was but throw in a fast moving river that's 100% full. Good news: we all lived. And we were CRACKING UP the whole way down.

When I was just 14, Julie Cornwell played a song for us that her brother wrote right before he went on his mission. It's adorable! He's essentially talking to his future wife, having no idea who she is but how he already loves her so much. I've had the CD for years but this week it's been on constant repeat in my car. If you've ridden with me for over 2 minutes, you've probably heard at least part of it. Or if you're Jess/Jon/Kirk you've probably had to circle the block with me while it finished playing...

The other night I helped Zach, Daniel (not to be mistaken with the other roommate Danny) and Adam move a coffee table down the road. Literally...everybody grabbed a corner and we walked down the middle of the road.

When I was at Wal-Mart the other night I saw that m&m's were on sale. $1.50 for a huge bag that's usually around $4.00 so naturally I bought nine. Not even a nice number like five or ten....NINE big bags of peanut butter m&ms.

Remember how I ate out so much in St. George (and it's a small town) that the guys at Panda Express and Cafe Rio knew my name/face/car/health conditions/major? Well...let's add the Provo Les Schwab guys to the list. So. help.me. if i have to buy any more tires!

Great news! Only THREE more hours until my dear little graveyard shift is over. Sad thing is there's a good chance I'll take a quick 2 hour nap and get back up. Hike the Y, float the river, bike ride in the canyon, laundry, pack....who has time to sleep.

I'm house sitting this week.

I still mess words up sometimes when I'm tired or super stressed or not paying attention or sometimes just because. A really funny one the other day was "For all makes and models...." "Don't you mean like intents and purposes?" ooops.

I am obsessed with change lately! Outfits, furniture arrangements, blog style, blog title, blog picture, perfume arrangement (???), nail color, toe nail color, apartment location and hair.

For lack of finding my "before" picture, this is essentially what my hair looked like in May...
...as of yesterday this is what it now looks like.
-7 inches, +some purple/red and a darker brown.
and I love it!

my China dears

August 13th and August 19th are big days. The 13th, Rachel Holt is marrying Mr. Utterback in the (Salt Lake?) temple for time and all eternity and on the 19th it'll be Miss Shelley Henricksen a the Mt. Timpanogas Temple marrying Landon Cook. I love both of these girls SO much! The irony in Shelley's date is that it's 2 years EXACTLY from when we left for China, which I where I met both Rachel and Shelley.

I can't even explain to you what kinds of times I've had with these girls! Rachel was the first one that was a facebook add and we chatted for about an hour, 4 hours before we were flying out. When I actually got to the airport and was waiting to check my bags, Shelley and I got talking and realized that we were going to the same city. We've had cake fights and dance parties and shopping trips and sight seeing. Tears and laughs. We partied with philipilno rock stars in Beijing. We rode trains for over 52 hours at a time. We did house visits. We tried to choose tea from juice. We named kids and talked about friends at home. We made music videos and bed dances and lived through one of the craziest experiences that any of us have ever gone through.

(literally 10 minutes after meeting Shelley and about to go through security)

I couldn't be happier for both of you! After all of our "board talks" and what we wanted in guys and husbands and what's really important, I'm so excited that both of you are ending up with awesome guys that are worthy of you. And can't wait to get to be a part of your big day :)

real life Grey's

A few weeks ago, I got into a fairly intense arguement with one of my friends who insists that he hates the show Grey's Anatomy for the mere fact that: "People in medical jobs are too high stress to actually be friends like that! That's too fake..." Realizing (while at work on the graveyard) that today is exactly 1 year since working at Beehive, I couldn't disagree more. I had some great "work friends" in St. George too but here's a few of the Provo people that are more than just work buddies.

Brian...definetly not a friend actually but always good for a laugh! Stole narcotics and tried to blame it on others, fell asleep with the door propped open and my personal favorite...flooded the laundry room. Dear Brian, I wish you the best with "life" but do. not. miss.you.
So so so so so happy that the morning shift kicked their note writing habit.

Dearest Cherish! She was a blast to work with which was good because we worked together a LOT! We mainly bonded over boys. She was dating a douche bag and I've had my fair share of them so we loved to laugh over our stories. We were both in school and at about the same point, so it was good to have somebody on my level in that area.

Homegirl moved back to Nevada a few months ago but I still miss her

Lindsay Grimm! The friend that I do the most "activites" with outside of work. We have the same adventurous spirit and on snowy days in January and February we'd get super excited and make elaborate plans for all the fun things we'd do in the summer! Check. Moab, Causey, Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw...MANY good times with Linds! We also were the movie junkies.

Freakin Hil-Bug! SO much fun to work with, as the picture above so clearly demonstrates. We could turn anything into a laugh and a good time. Including the night I forgot about biscuits in the oven, burnt them, tossed one at her jokingly and she grabs 4 with a war cry and chases me into a residents room while chucking them at me. Or when she sprayed me with the hose. Or when we did ballet in the front room. Or when we explored the attic. Yes, it took us 40 minutes just to get the stairs down but we did it. Or when we tried to teach room 2 Marco/Polo. working with her was the best on bad days cause she easily made them better!

(Or the day she thought she threw a tube of eye drops away) hahaha

Ol' Kim! My sister trained me, but Kim was the first "real" employee I met here.

Kim is easily one of my very good friends. And she'll try to deny it but I'm her bestie! Kim is awesome and has been such a blessing in my life. We've talked about ironic wedding situations, calls to stake presidents, body functions, she's helped diagnose me, we've cried in the laundry room and the hallways and the dining room and the kitchen and the office. Kim's the first person I ever told that I was going on a mission and she was there when I opened my call. She helped me find STUPID Los Hermanos in Lindon even though it took 17 phone calls and she even saved me a seat and ordered for me. Kim is great for giving me perspective. Kim is motivated and one of the most focused and hard working people I know.

Ty I don't have pictures of, but he's AWESOME! One of our residents put it best when she said that we were like a really funny brother and sister. Ty is so easy going and mellow, which is a definete plus in a job that can bring nothing but crazy and chaos. Ty is a hard worker and he's honest. Ty is hilarious! Not as much as he thinks he is, but he is pretty funny. Like Kim, he always asks about life and when I say a name, he makes the connection. Ty is great at giving advice and the male perspective to my life which I have needed.

Long story short...I freakin love my job and the people I have been able to work with!

crazy.stupid.love

If you haven't seen this movie yet, it's a must! (You'll be proud to know that neither Brit or myself shed a single tear). There's one part in there where Steve Carroll is talking to his 13 year-old son. The boy is a romantic but had his heart broken so he's spouting off a bunch of negative things that Steve knows he doesn't believe so he calls him out on it. It made me think of what I would say to my own 13 year-old self, knowing what I know now....

"i should have fought for you"

I think I'd tell her she doesn't date as much as she thought she would in high school, but she has a blast anyways and doesn't regret a minute of it. I'd warn her that she has a terrible night with somebody she should have trusted that scars her for many years. But she'd be happy to know that she uses it for good later. I'd tell her to always keep thinking things are "cute" even when her friends laugh about it. I'd relieve her favorite date to her over and over and over again. Beaming, every single time. I wouldn't tell her how to kiss, but tell her that she laughs trying to learn. I'd tell her she gets to know some amazing people! She doesn't know that some of them turn out to be not-so-great as we thought they were, but that we learn a lot about life and ourself through them, so they're important anyways. I'd tell her to be grateful everyday that her parents never let her grow up too fast. I'd sit and cry with her on the bathroom of her apartment, the night of her first honest heart break. I'd even hold her hair when she starts to throw up. She'd laugh when I tell her about her first kiss. Really really laugh.

I'd tell her that she has a few too many sad wake up calls that life isn't a fairytale, but that she loves it all the same. I don't think she'd be too surprised to hear that she has trust issues. She'd be glad to know that once people are in, they're in! And that they probably mean the world to her. I'd tell her that she'll doubt it for a while, but she still wants to be a wife and mom more than anything in the world. She still believes in true love. She has crazy, sappy day dreams sometimes about finding a boy that sends her flowers and comes over to surprise her when he knows she's having a bad day. She still hopes for a boy that opens her door and call sher for no reason at all. She'll laugh when she tears up when a boy calls her beautfiul instead of 'hot' or 'sexy'. She'll still believe in the boy that makes her laugh and loves to travel. The boy that likes to take walks but still go for drives.

Dont' worry 13 year-old Chantel...life has some crazy curveballs headed your way and even though there are MANY times you don't believe it, you'll realize one day that you still believe in that Crazy, Stupid, LOVE

a few funny stories

Despite all of my apparently depressed posts lately, life really has been great overall! To say that I've been busy would be a huuuuuge understatement. I don't even remember the days where I was home longer than 20 minutes or slept more than 4 hours a night. I was printing out some pictures tonight and found a few that made me laugh and sum of "life as of late" a little bit....

I went to leave work one night and it was DOWNPOURING rain! I found this little guy cuddled up under my car, whimpering like crazy. Naturally....I couldn't leave him there so he got to come have a sleepover for the night.
Saw a new temple that I think is GORGEOUS! And now get to cross Washington off of my "states to visit list."

Kodiak, is a massive dog that I'm sometime scared of. But I was scared FOR HIM this night when we lit off aerial fireworks and he felt the need to charge them.

Lenzie and I went hiking in AF canyon which was an adventure on it's own. We were not only in a 4-wheel drive vehicle, but in her little Ford Focus. As you can see...we not only had a hilarious drive and relaxing walk around the lake, but caught 4 fish.

Yogurtland....a great new favorite :)

Boating for Andy (or Andel?)'s birthday! It was great fun....for what I remember of it.

Not a funny story...but said goodbye to this girl. Tonight is a night where I tried to call her and it made me miss her lots. Take care of her for us Czech Republic!

I not only hiked the Y, but hiked it alone. Right as I was about to turn around, I came around the corner and tehre it was! With everything that's going on in life right now, a million and one analogies were running through my mind and it made it that much better that I didn't quit. I'm still obsessed with how green Utah is this year.

SUPER last minute trip to not only see Harry Potter P.2 but we got to see it with no lines, and at 8:30....before the midnight showing! It was SO much fun to walk out and see how excited everybody about to go in for the midnight showing was. And all of the CRAZY CREATIVE costumes out there!

Rodeos have definetly been a BIG part of this summer! This night was a night that I was mature and was able to truly see past being hurt and move on. It was awesome.

Like I said...rodeos have been a huge part!

(My friend called me and my sister rodeo whores after our latest one...it made me laugh!)