"I'm Late, I'm Late, I'm Late!"

Kudos if you get the reference!

Okay, I know this is over a week late... I didn't write a weekly a couple of Saturdays ago because I was in Southern Utah. And yesterday I hung out with my District for a good chunk of the evening, so... You get the email today!

This is going to be way out of order because I'm just trying to remember stuff that happened in the past couple of weeks... :l

1- Temple!

2- Southern Utah trip! :D (Going to be long!)

3- More temple

4- Distribution Center

5- Candy Bomber!

1- I've been able to have some great experiences at the temple! My favorite part may be helping out in the baptistry. There are often a lot of youth that come and it's so cool to see how bright and eager they are. :)  I'm usually the one handing out the towels and mopping up once everyone's done. I really love it, though. It's pretty quiet and gives me a lot of time to think. I was also able to get some good scripture reading in during times when I'm stationed in halls. I wish I could say more, but it's always so hard deciding what's okay to share and what's not... I guess I'll just say that temple ordinances aren't secret, they're sacred. 

2- I got to go with my dad and Makady to Southern Utah! We spent Friday night at Grandma and Grandpa Howard's. That Saturday, Makady and I were up before the sun. We went out and had some fun bush-jumping and hunting for fling in the dunes. She destroyed me at bush-jumping. XDDD  (For those of you who aren't Howards, haha, bush-jumping usually entails just running down a sandy hill and seeing who can jump over the most sagebrush and other plants before reaching the bottom.) I lost a shoe and had to go back for it. She beat me down and also jumped over twice as many bushes. XD

2- We spent quite a while chasing lizards too! Only managed to catch one but we nearly caught several others. There was an especially chunky one hanging out on the wall that kept doing victory push-ups when he scurried just out of reach. XD  At one point, we grabbed sticks to tap the wall above him and scare him down, but it didn't work. He scrambled onto the roof and taunted us from there. 

2- Makady and I also climbed a tree and cawed at the peacocks. The males had their trademark sweeping tails and spent a lot of time chasing the females. XD  When we were in the tree, several strutted by right below us. They didn't look up! And then we'd caw at them and they'd freak out and screech back. 

2- Later in the day, we went over to Uncle Dave and Aunt Shelly's to hang out with some cousins! And that's where Kady and I spent the majority of our weekend. Kiana and I love to write, so we had so much fun just bouncing ideas off of each other and reading snippets of our stories. Kiana's coming up with a new story and I helped create some of the characters. My favorite by far is this sarcastic old lady named Frieda. XDDD

2- Frieda is the handmaid of the main character, Edyth. She's old as dirt and salty as dried beef. XD  She has a habit of muttering scathing things under her breath, then loudly saying something that isn't even close. For example:

Edyth: "Frieda, would you go get me some milk?"

Frieda: "How are you not lactose-intolerant, you bloated cow?"

Edyth: "What was that?"

Frieda: "Of course, I'll get you some right now!"

(That was a favorite at Kiana's house because Howards love to drink milk. So every time someone asked for milk, they were called a bloated cow. XD)

Edyth: "Frieda, would you mind lighting another candle?"

Frieda: "If you wish to burn and die."

Edyth: "What did you say?"

Frieda: "I said of course, we could use more light."

Edyth: "Frieda, will you get the door?"

Frieda: "If my arthritic knees will allow me to rise."

Edyth: "What?"

Frieda: "I said I'd be much obliged."

2- I could go on and on about Frieda. We had many a good laugh coming up with sarcastic quips for her. We also swam in Dave and Shelly's above-ground pool for a bit. I had a little existential crisis trying to swim. My brain kept being like, "NO! You can't immerse yourself in water!" and I spent maybe five minutes pacing around the yard or sitting on the edge of the pool, trying to work up the courage. I kept telling myself that service missionaries can swim, and finally I asked for a countdown. So of course my cousins and sister all start counting with different numbers and I just sprang right in. XD  Turns out, I forgot what it felt like to be fully underwater, and to float! It was fun! 

2- The rest of the trip was a happy blur! Kiana and I had a competition to see who could beat the horror game Granny first. I won, but only because I found the weapons key early on so I could tranq Granny. XD  I also got to read to Makady on the long car rides there and back. And she also read to me for part of the trip! It was awesome. I chose one of my favorite fiction series, Silverwing! It's a series by Kenneth Oppel, who's actually a Canadian author! Super cool books about bats with echolocation powers. I would totally recommend! 98% clean (does cuss maybe once or twice per book, but very few and far between). Slightly dark (Cannibalistic bats, haha), but also great world-building, story-telling, and descriptions!

3- I got to see a new temple on the trip! The Red Cliffs Utah temple. It looks beautiful! There's still some scaffolding on the spire, but it looks almost complete! It's made of gorgeous reddish sandstone so that it blends in with the mountains behind it. We drove past it and took some pictures that I'll try to attach! I've also been able to draw a few things, so I may attach drawings if I can get my phone and computer to cooperate.

4- The Distribution Center was pretty good this week! Lots of friendly people and lots of time to talk with co-workers. We're kind of low on supplies, though, because there's a global shortage on church stuff. :l  I did get to see a couple of people that I knew, and of course I've forgotten their names. XD

5- One of the highlights of this week was that I was able to go to Benton's Elementary School for the Candy Bomber! At the end of the year, they have someone fly over the school in a little plane and drop candy. It's done in honor of Gale Halvorsen, the original Candy Bomber. We all stayed under a pavilion and the plane made three candy-dropping passes. Of course, some kiddos ran out early and the teachers had to shoo them back under the pavilion. XD  We didn't want any kids getting smacked by candy dropping at high speeds out of an airplane. But after the plane did a final pass, the pilot wagged the wings as a signal, so all the kids rushed out to grab candy.

Well, I've had a crazy couple of weeks! Busy, fun times! Hope everyone else is doing good!

Ugh, pictures are still being weird, so only a couple may send. :(