MOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

So this Wednesday I got to something that I have ALWAYS wanted to do!!!

I milked a Cow.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know it seems kind of silly, but I really have always wanted to, and now I finally have!

Durk has some friends (well, they're mine now too...), Curtis and Allison, who are dating, and Curtis's family lives on the edge of town. They have a few animals (a dog, cat, chickens, and 3 cows). They have a bull, a Jersey milk cow, and a little baby calf...SOOOOO cute!!! When I found out that they had a cow, and that they milk it by hand, I reallllllly wanted to go and milk it. Since they'd been wanting to anyways, we decided to go on a double date to milk the cow!

We went over to Curtis's house around 6:30, suited up in coveralls...

(Allison and I in our coveralls...)

(Me, Durk, Allison, Curtis...I felt like the odd one out in my blue)


...then we headed outside to get ready to milk.


This is me meeting the cows:

This is the bull. I don't remember his name.

Everytime I turned away he would try to eat me.


This is Isabelle, the calf.

She was so cute, and had the cutest little moo ever!

I liked her a lot. :)

Then we brought Betsy in and milked! I actually did really well!

I've always heard people talk about how it's harder than you expect, but I didn't think it was bad at all!

Granted, I wasn't amazing at it...I wasn't as fast as Curtis (who's been milking practically his whole life.),

...and I missed the bucket a few times,

but overall I think I did pretty darn good for my first time!


After we finished milking, we put some of the milk in a pan for the cat, and some more into a bottle for Isabella, and I got to feed it to her!

She downed that bottle SO fast!

After she finished the bottle, they told me to let her suck on my fingers. I was a little nervous about sticking my hand into the mouth of an animal like that, but it was actually really cool. Calves don't have teeth on top, and their tongue covers up their bottom teeth when they suck, so it didn't hurt at all. It just felt funny to have her suck on my hand. For whatever reason, I didn't expect my hand to be slimy when I pulled it out, but cow spit mixed with fresh milk makes for a pretty slimy mess (sorry, no pictures of my slimy hand)!

The only thing that I didn't do was taste the fresh milk. I'm kind of ok with that though. Most people say that milk fresh from the cow is soooooo good, but I really like my milk cold, so I didn't know if I'd like it or not. Anyways, we strained it, took it inside and then strained it again, then came back into town and ate, hitting up the free stuff and discounts on our starving student cards.

All in all, a SUPER fun date night!

Yep, that's me!

Ok, so honestly, these aren't the most flattering pictures of me (because most of them were taken mid-sentence) , but they're still pretty cool! These were taken at our recent RecSports closing ceremonies, which were held in the Hart Auditorium. The stage and everything was set up pretty much like devotional (only they don't decorate with balloons and posters for devo...), and it was really cool to see it all come together. I was asked to conduct the meeting, which is what these pictures are of. Kenny (one of the other asst. directors) and I were laughing at how these really look like I was a devotional speaker or something. In any case, they're just kinda fun. :)

Oh, and on a slight side note with that, for those who don't know (and I'm pretty sure that most of you do because I think I've told everyone who looks at my blog...), I interviewed and was accepted to be Student Director for RecSports next semester!

Playing Catch-up...

I know this is ridiculously late, but better late than never, right? Since I haven't posted since, oh, August, here's some random pictures from this semester so far...

I have some more that I don't have on my computer yet, including pictures of the awesome Halloween box Mom and Dad sent, so I'll try to get them up soon...now that it's almost Christmas.
Hopefully I'll have some Thanksgiving pictures soon too. An entire week (and 2 days) off was soooooooo nice, and Star Valley (WY) was a blast!!!

These first few are actually from the end of last semester...it is my pride and joy of my pranks so far! We decorated one of our FHE bro's car on the last day of summer semester. Yeah, he wasn't actually getting married (hence the term "prank"). Needless to say, he wasn't quite as thrilled as we were, but he never did get us back...

And yes, I realize that we did go a little more than over the top, but that's what happens when you have that many hands pranking at once. And don't worry, his car was fine, although he told us he's still finding glitter in there! I know, it's terrible and mean and awful, but it's also hillarious and totally awesome!

Next, this was our I-Team group from the beginning of the semester. The guy standing behind and to the right of me (wearing glasses) was my partner, Davon. Way cool kid...born in 1990. He told me I was "as old as time"...

He rad though, totally a stud, and will make a great missionary :) As a matter of fact, he sends his papers in a week before me. Who knows, maybe we'll end up in the same mission...

These are two of my roommates, Bridget and Whitney. They are actually my roommates. My house has 4 bedrooms, but sleeps 11 girls, meaning that there are 3 to a room in three of the rooms, and 2 in the fourth room. Yes, the rooms are plenty big enough for 3, and it's really fun-I love living in a house with so many girls! It's a par-tay all the time! There's always a friend to talk to, and lots of luuuuv to go around!

Bridget, Me, Whitney

Bridget would kill me for this one, but I like it :)

This is from a date I went on with my friend James. We went mini-golfing in the Benson building on campus. So much fun!

The first one is our "game face" picture. The second is our "golf clap."

These are the Jack-o-Lanterns (Jack-a-punkins :) we carved as an FHE family! The first is the "Anime cat", the second one is a mix between a classic jack-o-lantern and a hillbilly pumpkin, and the third one is my pride and joy, our "Happy Halloween" pumpkin! All of them were free-handed, with mostly just kitchen knives. What can I say, we're pretty darn good...er somethin :)

And last, but not least, here are some pictures of Halloween night itself. The studly (albeit rather goofy) man I'm with is Indiana Jones...aka Durk Simkins :)

I was some sort of farm girl/cow girl. I kinda threw the costume together last minute, but it turned out pretty cute! I've decided that deep down, I really am a country girl.

(Note the freckles. They aren't real, but I kinda wish they were)

So I actually started this post a whiiiiiiiile ago, but couldn't ever get the video to upload right. Hopefully it works now!
This is from a choir/symphony concert I sang in earlier this semester. It was Men's and Women's Choirs and Sinfonietta. A friend of a friend was recording it from the audience. Don't know how legal that was, but...
It's a little weird to see myself singing/waiting to sing on camera. I think I have kind of a funny look on my face; it's me trying to have a "live," face with a little emotion in it, but it still looks goofy to me.
It's kind of a bummer that I'm in the Women's Choir here but no one from home gets to ever see/hear me perform, so this is fun (if the video works!)

This song is called "Ezekial Saw De Wheel." I also have a video of "The Spirit of God," which was awesome, but I haven't been able to get it to download (upload?) yet. As soon as I do, I'll post it!

Summertime...

Here are some pictures from my summer break at home!

One of my favorite kids on the entire planet! This is little Samuel (Sam and Suzan's little guy)

And here are my other favorite little people!

(pictures from our trip to Indiana to see Joseph, Wendy & co.)

"Aunt Say-ee" and Aaron

Outside with Benjamin

Right after Joseph finished his triathalon!

Bedtime bottle and stories :)

At the park...

...and in the car!

And this is one of my all-time favorite pictures of Aaron with "Mommy-pappa"

Go Fish!

For the 4th of July weekend, a group of us went to my friend Kelsie's house in Boise, ID (well, technically they live in Meridian). It was SO fun! We went down to the river on Friday and went fishing for a little bit. We threw everything back, but I mostly just like to do the actual fishing - I don't like to eat fish (I think they're gross). But guess what? I caught 3 bass!!! For those who know the story, this is a huge deal for me! The last time I went fishing, I fished off of a pier for 5 hours, and all I caught was a stupid seagull. Needless to say, I was pretty proud of myself this weekend!

Someday My Prince Will Come...

Boy, and when he does... :)

This was our AWESOME Enrichment activity last night! Our Bishop's wife, Sis. Tolman, used to work at a bridal shop in IF, so she was able to let us come in after hours and try on dresses! It was fun because the group was small enough that we all got to try on dresses at the shop. SO MUCH FUN!!! I honestly felt like such a princess!





After we got done at the bridal shop, we went to the Tolman's house and Sis. Groberg (in the center of the back row, wearing red), who is currently the Matron of the Idaho Falls temple, and dear friends with our bishop and his family, came and spoke to us about the temple. It was wonderful! She talked a lot about the importance of us keeping the temple as a center focus in our lives, that it will help us better learn and understand our true purpose and identity. What a wonderful night!!!