I'm a Real Mormon Now!

So Brian decided that we needed to go see the lights on Temple Square. I was like

"I've never been down there to see them."

And then we concluded that I am a bad Mormon for never having seen them.

So it was hilarious running around Temple Square, I think I'll just post the pictures and funny quotes from throughout the night. ENJOY!

 I throw snow in Brian's mouth
Brian: Ewww grossssssss! That's so gross!
*literally 1 minutes later*
Crunch Crunch Crunch
Me: Brian, are you eating the snow?
Brian: ... Yeah...
Me: You just said that was gross!
Brian: Well, yeah, it is. Here open your mouth!

P.S. that picture -> is supposed to be of the angel at Christ's birth....

 So first we eat at Little America and it was DELICIOUS! The funny thing was that the waitress comes over and basically asks me what we want and every time she comes back she addresses me instead of Brian. Brian was complaining to me about how I'm like commanding her to acknowledge me with my presence and I'm like "That doesn't make any sense, I am not!" and then she comes over with the check and puts it right next to me!!! I was willing to ignore it but as soon as she walked away Brian says "WHY? WHY would she do that?!" Admittedly I still can't explain that one...

Me: Oh my word my boots have no traction I could just slide around.

*silence*

Me: You should push me.

Brian: *sigh* ok.

 Me: Ok I totally know how to get back! We uhhh get on the tram...

Brian: Ummm yes.

Me: It's intuition. This thing you get as a woman.

Brian: Yeah ok, but you're going over to the wrong tram... we need to get on the other one.

*silence*

Brian: Good thing I have man's intuition!

Brian: Well ok, so it's snowing. Are you still good for going to the lights.
Jessie: Yeah, I'm fine.
Brian: Are you sure? ... It's not indoors.
Jessie: Wait the lights on Temple Square is not an indoor event?
Brian: No, so if that won't work I could tie you up and leave you in the woods, what'dya think?
Jessie: (quietly) ummm no I'm good with the lights.
*Later in the night*
Brian: Well I still haven't tied you up so that's still an option...

We ran into Andrew Bird (who's getting married in like a week)

Brian: Oh hey, thanks for the invite. NOT!

Andrew: Dude, wanna come?

Brian: I get this feeling we should kiss.

Me: Sometimes I get this feeling I should do crystal meth but then I think 'ehhhh better not'

*silence*

Me: Unless it was the Spirit...

Look we found the Hungarian one!!!

Looking at (and listening to) a choir that was singing in the main building...
Brian: Ok, which boy is cutest?
Me: Brian, they're a high school choir. They're like 15! And none of them are that cute.
Brian: Wow, that's harsh!
Jessie: Well you find one!
Brian: Ok... oh wow no you're right....

At the Christus:

Brian: Ok Jessie, no making jokes right now.

Jessie: Ok.

Brian: Oh my gosh, that kid just fell in the plants around the Christus!

 So the picture above won't rotate but I think you can figure out how it's supposed to be and the one to the side was taken by a really nice, slightly crazy man who was missing some teeth. The one below really sets the tone of the night

Me: look, everything's so nice and spiritual. Like me.

Brian: Look what I can make with my hand!

It's hard being so spiritually advanced sometime.

Ok maybe that's not exactly how it was...

So as you can see from some of the pictures, there were nativities from all around the world. Brian walked up to this sign and started cleaning it off saying:

"I wonder where this one is from. 'Please enjoy nativities from the...' oh"

And then a woman came up who looked like she could have been from where the nativity was from and we decided that she was from 'the sidewalk'

I Try Really Hard to be Feminine

I thought about wearing a skirt today and then looked down...

It looks like someone caned me right in the knees. Parker and I have been working on our climbing form so I try to keep my hips as close to the wall as possible and this is what results! I pull my leg up and it goes right into a rock. And yeah I'm excited to get up the wall so I don't really look for it as well as I should... But I sure look good while I'm doing it! Right? I'll just never be able to wear anything that goes to the knee again...

So, I'm Very White...

Latin Dancing!

Nadine's a PRO!
Which makes sense as she is a 

Sultry Mexican Woman.

(as we appropriately appointed her)

It was really fun but I had no idea what I was doing!

Whenever someone asked me to dance I was like
"Ok! I can't dance..."

But they took over so it turned out!

It took awhile to get my hips and shoulders to loosen up but then I like to think there was a fire burning on the dance floor right around where I was located. 

Study Break! -Tumbling Gym Edition

So my friend Joe invited me to the tumbling gym last 

night and in the past my experiences with the tumbling 

gym have not been great so I was a little hesitant but went

 just crazy enough studying that I decided to go.

I enlisted my friend Nadine to come with me.
Being intense is kind of just what we do.

My favorite part was probably the climbing wall 

Me and Joe taking over.

I enjoyed the feeling of freedom.

As well as just going crazy from finals!

This is probably my favorite one!

But Nadine is UNMATCHED in awesomness!

POW!

Hahaha I just love this one!

Then we decided to give the trapeze a try

Haha and here's the result: two hands and two feet in perfect form!

 It was really fun! Joe gave us some pointers and toned it down a little so we didn't feel lame and with that combination I ended up doing a double front flip. Maybe it was on purpose... maybe it was just me jumping and giving it all the forward thrust I could. 

Whatever!

It was so fun!

Footprints in the Sand

I have to post this because it made me laugh for a solid 5 minutes.

1) because I hate the footprint story... it never really happened... and people quote it more than what Christ ACTUALLY said... and they quote it like doctrine.

2) the illustration is done about as well as the story.

3) If this was really how it worked then yes, there would be a lot of grooves on my beach.

Enjoy!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

is not where I live! I live in Provo. And Provo can be pretty... not pretty...

But I moved far away (like 10 minutes from campus... 

some people think that's unbelievably  far)

And found this beautiful place to live. 

the fog is soooo beautiful,
you feel like the mountain is about to float away.

A nice B&W

We were both supposed to be on top of the log but
someone doesn't  move fast enough.
It's obviously not me because I move at lightening speed.

I was holding myself up just using the log.

A really nice stream with a path next to it.

For some reason my "pensive" just ends up looking "emo".

This tree didn't stand a chance.
          Getting down in boots with no traction gave it a small victory...

Shadows!

Some really pretty horses. They let me pet them.

All in a days' work.

Reunion!

Nothing will slap you in the face more than having 

an old roommate visit you with her BABY!

Michelle, Sydnee, Me, Kaylene, Joseph, Andrew, Alexis, Evelyn and Nadine!

Here are a bunch of the old roommates with 

the addition 2 husbands and a baby!

It was so fun to visit and play with Evelyn, she was such a sweet and calm little baby! Everything around her went right into her mouth so that was adorable.

It had been about 2 and a half years since I had seen Alexis other than on Skype and it was so great to catch up, they are making their way across the country so it was lucky that they stopped in!

Wikka Wikka Boots Cats

Ok, so first an explanation of the title of this post.

So I turned to Ben and said 

"We should learn to beatbox"

And he was all
"I already gotz that"
And then proceeded to do a little beat boxing:

And then I asked
"How did you do that?"

And without hesitating he said
"You say BOOTS CATS"

And for some reason I thought that was so funny I was laughing for like five minutes

I mean listen to it:

So moving on

We also went out to the canyon and did a little picture taking with Ben's new camera!

So Ben's just getting used to this new camera and we went a little late so there was no light but we got a few good ones!

Contemplating Life

Some Scenery

Everyone Likes Pictures of Railroad Tracks!

I'm Full of Tickets and Information!

Train!

Making This My Profile Picture. Like Right Now.

P.S. It's Ben's fricken' birthday (even though he didn't tell me) 

so if you haven't had a chance, tell him:

Happy Birthday!

So I blogged about S'mores like 5 minutes ago

And now something a little more spiritual because it is Sunday after all...

I was in sacrament meeting today and people were sharing their testimonies and there was a girl who talked about how she got back last year on Thanksgiving from her mission and then I was like "hey, me too" and then she said "and now I work at the MTC" and I thought "I work at a juvy center (which is sometimes like the same thing...)" and then she started talking about teaching her missionaries about the gospel and I thought "I do not do that at work" but then was looking back on this group discussion I led with the girls' unit the other day and was glad that this girl got up because it got me thinking about this:

The group I led was about being the change in your life that you need. We talked about Glenn Cunningham (click here to get to his wiki page, he's incredible) and how he took a horrible situation and made it incredible. I showed it to them like this:

1+2=3

If that's true then it's fairly simple to figure out what goes in the blank in an equation that looks like this:

1+___=3

They all got it right by the way...

Now let's change the equation to this:

Bad Situation + ___________ = Amazing Result

But what goes in the blank here?

We talked about courage, determination, having a goal 

in mind and above all else believing in yourself enough to 

know that you can make the change you need. Those were things that made it possible for Glenn Cunningham not only to walk again but to run at Olympic speed.

And here is where I realized that I DO talk to my girls about the gospel, we just call it "change" instead of repentance. 

In the words of the beautiful and kind of crazy Florence 

(of Florence and the Machine):

I am done with my graceless heart
So tonight I'm gonna cut it out and then restart
Cause I like to keep my issues drawn
It's always darkest before the dawn

Anyone who has ever changed can tell you what it feels like to cut out your heart and then restart. Unfortunately, the entire quote is true and often the change happens just AFTER your very weakest moment. 

As someone who's experienced weakness I can vividly remember myself at my weakest and recall the exact words that came out of my mouth when I admitted defeat. 

As it turns out though, I was admitting humility because the next morning when I woke up and for the weeks following I felt myself progress dramatically. I always thought "it's always darkest" meant scariest or most heartbreaking but it also means deceiving because we can't see clearly in the dark. It's not until dawn that we can see what happened with the light that finally comes. 

Talking to the girls was really incredible, trying to motivate them to realize the responsibility they have over their lives and how to prevent any action that will bring them back to the facility.

And what was more incredible was realizing that I can't preach to these girls about how Jesus Christ can change them but knowing that He will do it anyway.  So for them He will be Courage, Determination or a Goal but I will know that He is Someone who believes in them enough to know that they can make the difference in their lives. 

At the end of the day the equation will always be:

Bad Situation + Jesus Christ = Amazing Result

S'MORES!!

This is how this happened:

Ben and I were going to bake a cake. 

We were limited on time.

We spotted these GIANT marshmallows 

(at the exact same time and had the same GASP reaction)

We suddenly new the answer to our predicament:

S'MORES 

Giant Roasters

The Awesomeness

Trying Hard to Successfully Eat the Awesomeness

And then we thought "If they're already huge 

I wonder how big they really get in the microwave."

For science!

Acca-xuse me.

So the movie Pitch Perfect is hilarious.

Me and Schwieg went to see it a few days ago and it was SO FUNNY

A Favorite Moment of Mine

 But we had a little time before the movie so we did a little window shopping:

I didn't even tell him to pose. This just happened.

And then there were suddenly little hats

Notice the height difference

And now suddenly it's smaller

Thanks to these. Which I almost died in after about 2 seconds.

Yay for new things!

So I got a new hair cut and Ben got a new camera (super nice camera)! Put those together and that means that I have a few pictures of the new hair cut!

Here's a nice one!

 here's an artsy one. 

And here's the yummy Cranberry Bliss Blast 

(or something like that) and tea we were munching on

And this one kind of just happened... 

This next one was super funny because Ben came back from the break and was like 

"I have a surprise for you" 

And I'm freakin' out cuz I love surprises.

When I go over to his place he says 

"So, I know you're afraid of whales"

And I said "Yes"

And he said "Well... I found the smallest whale ever and thought you could start with this one and work your way up a little bit every week until you have a full sized whale and you're not afraid of it"

And then gave me this:

We immediately named him Steve

I was able to hold back for a little bit about the fact that he's 

a killer whale because seriously, 

look at him, 

he's the cutest thing I've ever seen. 

So apparently we're working our way up here... 

but secretly I think I'll just stick with Steve!

Somewhere Only We Know

Ok, Ben showed this to me and I keep having to search for it whenever I want to listen to it and then I thought "Why don't I just put it on the blog... then I never have to look for it..." So here it is! For me and the 4ish people who read this blog... isn't it beautiful?!