BLAST to the PAST

Oh blast. I should probably be using my time wisely while everyone and their dog went home for the 3 day weekend by writing my Huck Finn essay. But alas, I’m not. I’ll blog instead. Now this is going to be far more interesting and entertaining to me than to you. So for all of you who have been bugging me to update my blog, I’ll do another one soon. :)
I love pictures. Like a lot. I can sit and look at old pictures for hours, and that is not an exaggeration. I love pictures and the memories that come with it… Probably because I’ve had the coolest life ever and have had many a good and awkward times that are hilarious to look back on.
But anyway, I was looking at old pictures yesterday and it got me thinking… you know how everyone has “the awkward stage”? Well, mine was ridiculously long. It was strongest from 8th grade to the end of my sophomore year. But let’s be honest… it even went past that… like to my first year of college. Haha, I’m awkward.
But these are my thoughts on this:
In 8th grade there were lots and lots of changes in mine and my families’ lives. Things were changing left and right it seemed every day and there was a lot to get used to. Plus, I was 13.. That’s just an awkward time of life for everyone, especially girls. Looking back, I kinda distanced myself from everyone. So not smart, but I did it. I had my friends that I had since elementary school but they were all changing and meeting new people and they were just my “school friends.” I never wanted to do anything on the weekends. The weekends I was home I felt like I was free, so I just wanted to stay home. The weekends I was at my dad’s we usually did some type of activity, and for some reason I didn’t think I could do things with my friends, I don’t know why I thought that. But I did. Yet the world kept spinning…
In 9th grade it was pretty much the same. I was still getting used to all the changes that happened the past year. I don’t have too many memories from 8th or 9th grade. I was just going through the motions of life. I became extremely shy and never talked to anyone. Luckily, I was blessed with an exceptionally great attitude. It’s almost harder for me to be miserable than to be happy.. It’s nothing I do, it just happens. So I never really felt sad, down, or anything really.. I was kinda emotionless. I’m emotion retarded. I liked going to school and had many a fun times with the people there.
I pretty much only had one real friend up to this point. Kymber Renee is her name... I can't thank her enough. I don't know what I would have done without her. I love her guts still to this day! I say she was my own real friend because.. well I don't really know what I mean. Ya... I don't know... Even though I didn't really talk about my life with her, she was still there for me, just to be a friend. I knew other people and we were friends when we were together, but we didn't try to get together. Does that make sense? I guess I don't know what i'm trying to say..
My sophomore year I became closer to Zoe and Mia - These 2 girls saved my life. We spent a lot of time together and I realized how fun it was to be with people again. I could be myself when I was with them and I loved it. We had other friends too, but I was definitely closest to these two. I don’t even know how I got to be so lucky to find them when I did. Even though I was starting to find myself, I was still awkward. Also this year I had the greatest seminary teacher ever, Brother Goodman. He was so good at bringing in the spirit into my life every day. I felt so many prompting from the spirit and started to have a better relationship with my Heavenly Father. This helped more than anything, especially with my stupid knee injury this year.
Oh, and besides the fact that I was emotionally and socially retarded for so long… my hair was also ALWAYS plastered to my head from 8th to 10th grade. I know. DISGUSTING. Haha, but it happened. And I only wore makeup when I felt like it… which was not very often.
My junior year was the best year of my life up to that point. I LOVED it. I met many more people and we had a great group of friends. Rachel Hicks and Jake Paterson were my heroes this year. I loved being with them and my true self came out a lot more than it had in a long time. We could have a good time no matter what we were doing. They all influenced my life quite a lot and were great examples to me… Now many of them our on missions, how sweet. Plus, I became a lot closer to Matthew. It was the year after he graduated before his mission and he honestly became one of my best friends.
My senior year was fun as well. It was like a continuation of junior year... only way different. Our group of friends that we would hang out with every weekend changed. But it was all still good. I loved my life and the people in it. Even though this year wasn’t as good as junior year I did NOT want to graduate.. haha don’t know why, college is SO much better. My junior and senior year I was at school and work from 6:45 to 5:00 everyday. Then I would come home and do homework and go to bed. I was out with my friends every Friday and Saturday night… so, unfortunately, I still wasn’t very close to my family.
Then I came to college. I would say more… but this is already extremely long and I’ve talked about it before. So I’ll just quickly say… it’s been the best 2 years of my life. I've grown SO SO much. I love it. I love everyone I have met. I love learning from people. I learn from everyone. I love my family more than anything. I have the greatest friends ever. People amaze me.
I came here to get away from my awkard past - just for a little bit, so I could find myself. I'M FOUND! I'm still quiet sometimes... i'm still too loud sometimes. But that's just me. I'll probably always be a little awkward.(Just jopefully not as much as from 8-10 grade... you be the judge:) ) But you'll just have to get used to it! I'm me!
Hahaha. My life is just plain awesome!! :)
Now, if only Huck Finn was as fun and entertaining to write about as my own life… :)

More than a comment per minute!

I don't really care for scary movies. I don't really care for movies at all. Tonight I was a wimp and didn't want to be in the cold, for it was in the 20's. Plus I was tired because this week it seems that I didn't receive shut eye until the wee hours of the morning. And I had to get up before 6 am today.
So, when someone invited me to watch a scary movie, outside (in the FREEZINGNESS), on piles of hay, (well really there were 3 truckloads and 2 couches of people... next to the hay)my immediate reaction was HECK NO! But, after some peer pressure, I gave in and I went. And it was actually really fun, even though we got all the way out there and realized we forgot the dvd player.... so it was after 11 before we even started the movie (and the movie was just plain dumb... I wouldn't reccomend it.. it was like the haunting of connecticut or something like that).
anyway... moving on. i got home just after one to see my lovely roommates and paige and cavin chattin it up. i was no longer tired, so i joined the conversation. for some reason the song "big green tractor" came up and we had an immediate discussion/argument, because that it a song that rachel does not admire. paige posted a quote that i said and cavin's comment to that as her facebook status. pretty soon we were all commenting on that... we went from talking about tractors, to paige, to mesa, to socks, to pants, to enlgish, to misspelled words... and other things too. But want to know the gross part? In less than an hour we had 71 comments!! it gets worse... we were all sitting in the same room as we were commenting on the above mentioned status. It was kinda funny, but mostly just plain wrong.
oh and I must now leave this computer.... I have just been informed that we're taking Paige to Jili's. I love adventures! Maybe I won't sleep tonight.... oh well!

It's a MAJOR crisis!

I have wonderful roommates, wonderful roommates indeed. Unfortunately, we all have a problem.. and it's the SAME problem. You see, we're all in the land of confusion and only see haze and uncertainty ahead of us. We don't know what we want to do with our lives... not a single one of us. Where should we go to school? Should we travel and explore another country or culture? Mission? What do we want to major in? Will what we want to do be practical and useful? The list seems to go on and on.

So, as a result of this current predicament, we have many conversations about this... some are helpful, some are just plain funny.

Here's a little background info on our current standing:

Kate: Has planned to be a nurse since highschool. Last semester she was in the second semester of nursing school and realized it just wasn't for her. So, she's thinking of going to BYUI, but what to major in? Her parents say she should be a librarian because she LOVES to read. They also want her to look into fighting fires this summer to earn money. As for a major, she has no idea.

Rachel: Has 2 loves. English and Spanish. Right after she graduated the idea of being a nurse was put into her head. That's been her plan on and off since then. This semester she's taking an English class and LOVES it. It just clicks better than anatomy and all those other nursing classes, although those ones seem to be more useful. Personally, I think she should double major in Spanish and Enlgish and become a translator... or a crossword puzzle maker. But will that be practical? Sometimes the world says no. And where to go to school? Or should she take a semester off and go teach English or nanny or do something to gain cultural experience?
Hannah: Has never really had a plan. I've thought of a few things... child life specialist, counselor, social worker, human relations, or something around those lines. The brain is fascinating to me, so are social interactions and stuff like that. So, got any ideas for me? :) I just don't know what direction to go, or where to go to school. Money is also a huge stress for me... I think the current plan is to take a semester off to work next fall, even though I really want to go to Ecuador to work in an orphanage.

So those are our stories. Also, this week we have been privileged to be in the presence of Paige Hicks, as she's been staying with us. Yesterday she drew us pictures... each one depicting our futures. They were HILARIOUS! I'll even share them with you!

Kate: The fire fightin' librarian!

Rachel: The Spanish Translating Nurse!

Hannah: The Special needs child thing with no "w's" on gradecard! (NOTE** I'm taking a children's special ed class that I wanted to drop, but waited too long, so now I can't drop it without getting a W)

Cause you're hot then you're cold!!... or cold then hot.. then cold.

Thatcher is an interesting place this year. I think it's confused. Really confused.

Last week on Monday we went up to Mount Graham to play in the snow.... fun right? That's what you usually do in January, because this is the month to be cold.

But then something happened to good'ol Thatch. It got HOT. The kind of hot where you don't need a jacket anymore.... what? I thought it was January! So Saturday, 5 measly days after our snow adventure, we went fishing at the Gila Box... in shorts! Arielle and Abbie's mission for this adventure? To get a tan! Yes, in JANUARY! AYE CURUMBA!! We were on the brink of disaster.

You see, I love wearing jackets. I was not ready to give them up for months and months...and months. But alas, Thatcher didn't let me down. It decided to be cold again! Today the high's were in the high 50's with lows in the high 20's! Perfect weather for this time of year!

Now pretty soon we'll start the count down for it to get warm so we can go tubing down the river! :) Maybe we're just never satisfied...

but besides this near catastrophe, life is good. real good! :)

I'm ready!

Dear Thatcher,
In 2 short days I will, once again, be in your presence and as happy as can be! Christmas break was fun and relaxing, but slightly on the long side. My family is sweet and all, but sometimes I can only handle small doses. (I know, I know, it’s bad. But I’m working on it!) So I am gladly awaiting the day when we can be reunited at last!
I’m ready to have friends again! I’m ready to stay up late, doing nothing at all! I’m ready for spontaneous adventures! I’m ready to see my roommates! I’m ready to go into poor, starving, college student mode! I’m ready for anything! Heck, I’m even ready to study and do homework! (Well, maybe)
And guess what you thriving metropolis town of Thatcher? YOU can accomplish all these things for me! You are my hero! As crazy as everyone thinks I am for this, I love you dear town of Thatcher!
So get ready for the greatest semester you have ever witnessed!! It’s the last one I have with you and I’m determined to make it AWESOME!
I’m ready. Are you?!
You have 2 days to prepare yourself as much as you can. Good luck.
Sincerely,
Hannah Gunderson

My greatest fears

I have 3 fears. Well there are plently more, but for the majority of my lifetime these have been deemed "my greatest fears."

1. Car accidents
2. home invasion
3. scorpions


Car accidents: I hate them. I can't even stand to look at them when I see them on the side of the road. They are terrible and sad. One of the reasons why I hate driving so much. I'm pretty sure it's just the thought of getting into a car accident that makes me so nervous, but I do not like any other cars on the road, I just don't trust them. haha. So if i've ever flinched hard core when i'm in the car with you, it's not that I don't trust your driving, it's really not. I'm just weird like that, i'm sorry.

Home invasion: don't laugh at me. This is for real. How scary would it be if you got home and some scary guy was in your house with a gun or worse, a knife. That's creepy. I used to have dreams about this all the time, they scared me so bad. I hated going into the basement at night because I was convinced there would be a person standing behind the door to kidnap or kill me before anyone knew it.
Okay, so that's a little dramatic... but still...if that happened, I still don't know what I would do.

Scorpions: These creatures are evil. I have not found a good use for them yet, I don't like them dead or alive. My house used to be infested with them and we would see 2-4 a week, and that is no exaggeration. They were everywhere. I have gotten my fair share of stings by them as well. They really aren't that bad, but the scorpion itself, terrifies me. They just look so menacing. I don't even like to kill them... I'll make someone else do it. No other bug or animal has ever made me feel this way, way to go scorpion.

I want to be a ninja!

Have you ever seen American Ninja Warrior? It's probably the coolest show to ever exist in the history of television. I've watched 4 episodes now, and i'm hooked. (Once again, something that my brothers and I encountered on a lunch break...). Check it out sometime, it is ridiculously awesome and entertaining! Some people in this world are CRAZY.

And to all you Mesa residents: What's with this weather?! It was 80 degrees on Christmas Day, then 4 days later it's snowing in my front yard! IT'S NUTS!! But I don't mind these highs in the low sixties, high fifties. I'll enjoy them while I can!

Oh and the other day I realized that London Tipton from the Disney Channel was made to make fun of Paris Hilton. I thought this was hilarious. I'm proud of you Disney! I liked it a lot, So I figured I would share my newly obtained informaton.