More October festivities (part 2)

So, as October was incredibly busy, (Conference, girls mask night, 2 concerts - 4 awesome bands, Real Game, Jazz Game, Cookie night, Thriller, Pumpkin carving, and all the Halloween festivites... I'm laying low for November (just my sister's wedding and a 5K on Thanksgiving day... Oh, and Twilight!). I'm using this time to get my blog caught up with October! But I'm breaking it up because there's just too much.

FIRST for the SECOND post! REAL!!

We went to a Real Soccer game and we had awesome seats. Almost dead center along the field! It was really sad because I had been sick for awhile so I was used to it and had a blast. Ally however was in the "huh, my head is not here" stage and she looked so sad!! In this pic, she is bravely putting on a smile...

Another really sad part for Ally, they through dice down and one hit her in the head! Now, these weren't normal dice - they were probably 5 Ft big and weighed ALOT. I hit the corner wrong and bruised the snot out of my hand. It hurt so bad. So Ally got hit right in the head. The guy behind her told her it was time to sue but that's not Ally. But all in all, it was a really great night.

Here's the first Real score (ally, thia and myself), and the second Real Score! 2-0, sounds good to us!

Afterwards, we were HUNGRY so we went to Belgian Waffle House and ate ALOT of food...

And this was how we felt after!

The very next day, we went to the JAZZ game! I got free tickets from a misshap on July 24th at the Bees Game so me and Thia and Dave and....oh wait, this is where I got ditched 3 different times from 3 different guys; the last one was at the last minute and I couldn't find anyone else! (I'm not embarrassed about being stood up repeatedly, THEIR the ones missing out!) But I did have a funny story with the Real and Jazz game. The night of the REal, I was getting on the elevator to go home and there was this guy that just randomly has been popping up for the last year. I first saw him last year and we cheated while playing Bingo at a H4 dessert social. Didn't see him again for 2 months and then ran into him at volleyball, ran into him again at the YSA Summit and then again at Softball. Now, here he is on the elevator. Turns out he's working on the 6th floor (I'm on the 5th). So weird. Anyway, we walked out to the parking garage and were talking and he said, "Well, I gotta get going." And I said, "me too, going to the REal Soccer game tonight." and he said, "I am too!" and I was shocked but we laughed about it and he got my number so he could text me at the game. I said, "Well, not only am I going to REal tonight, I'm going to the Jazz game tomorrow night." and he said, "ME TOO!!" and then I thought he had to be kidding but he wasn't!! It was so funny.

Anyway, we got dipping dots!! So good, so good! There aren't as many fun pictures of the Jazz game because, it just wasn't as fun as REal! Seriously....

At the end, we tried to do the "Biggest Loser" jump on the bench. Yep, I'm pretty cool!!


Well, until I have more time to get the rest of the OCTOBER stuff on here, this is it for now!!

Slumped??

So, I realize I haven't blogged for quite sometime and my good friend Anika just did and I think I'm feeling a bit inspired by said friend. :)

What to write about?? How about October since I basically skipped it (blogging-wise that is). Did you know fall is my favorite time of the year? Well, now you do so don't forget. But this October has been incredibly busy and I'm either feeling worn out or just....slumpish?? Yeah, slumpish. I know it's not a word but it fits how I'm feeling. Don't get me wrong, I've thoroughly enjoyed all the many things I've done. I don't know why I feel like this poor beat up person and honestly, not liking it. Maybe if I blog about the things I've done and relive it through the many wonderful pics I have, then I'll get more excited for more adventures that are coming. I think that's a great idea!

Let's see, where to start. Well, conference was just stinking amazing! Woo hoo for later day revelation! My mom called me and asked if Thia and I would like to go for a canyon drive between sessions on Saturday. We brought our camera's but were a little disappointed because most of the leaves had already changed colors weeks before and they weren't as vibrant they normally are in early October, plus the one day of snow we got killed some them, but it was still really peaceful and fun to be with my mom, sister and best friend/roommate on this wonderfully spiritual day. Plus, conference was REALLY good! :)

How about our girls night! Good times. This may have been in September but I don't care; my blog, I'll do what I want with it. Wait, it was after conference so it WAS in October. HA! Take that. Anyway, we had a nice taco salad dinner with lots of laughs and then did facials and went the whole nine yards with cucumbers and everything. Word of advice, if your going to eat the cucumber after, make sure to use REAL avocado masks. We didn't, gross. But it was still a REALLY fun night and next time, WE WILL USE REAL AVOCADO!! :)

As one of my birthday presents, my wonderful friend Thia bought me a ticket to the Mayday Parade and The Academy Is... concert! Two incredibly FUN bands and what a great show! I ran into my friend Andrea there too! (Notice all the exclamation points? Yep, I'm feeling excited just thinking of all this good fun.)

We got a little goofy but had so much fun. I have also decided to be a silent stalker of the lead singer of Academy Is, I already suck at stalking because I don't know his name or where he lives and it's already been about a good month but I DO know that he has this one look and when he gives it, HELLO! Thia wanted to win him over with this look:

Then for Ally's birthday, Thia and I got tickets for Plain White T's and Snow Patrol. We drove all the way down to Provo and were stinkin excited but alas, we had to wait for a very long time.

At first we didn't mind:

But then we had to start entertaining ourselves...

And after waiting FOREVER, Plain White T's came out said they almost canceled because the singer lost his voice but they were going to sing because Utah made them big... they played 3 songs (but good songs).

Thia was so excited, she hit her head... Twice. Ally was nervous, I thought it was funny. :)

Then Snow Patrol took the stage!! They played FOREVER (which made up for Plain White T's).

There's was much dancing and happiness

End result, satisfaction!



More things to come...October had much more good things to offer (like Thriller/Real/Jazz and of course, Halloween!) but this has taken much time already and it is time to rest! :) Maybe this is why blogging regularly is a good thing. I will have to try that in November. :) So to all who reads this, and I know there isn't many, GOODNIGHT but not goodbye to October. We still have some catching up to do.

This month has been sort of.....crazy?? If you think rollercoasting is crazy than yes, it was crazy. I've been feeling really good about turning 30 but there's been many things trying to get me derailed. If I could control these things, I'd be so much happier but since they are not, I've been struggling to control what I can and that is how I react to such things. I know that time will pass and these things will do what they will and I'll figure out how to be happy regardless because that is just my nature so now I will focus on the fun and good things that are making the ride enjoyable.

1) I turned 30!! Woo hoo.

This was a spectacular day and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I woke up feeling good, got to work and they decorated my desk! I've never had my desk decorated before. It was really nice. Kyle made me cookies and they were really good! Then my mom and sister took me to Chili's for lunch and we got free ice scream! Why does food always taste better when it's free? When I got back from lunch, there was a cake with "sparkle" candles sitting on my desk. What a nice treat!! They tried to get everyone to sing happy birthday but the phones are crazy and it was hard to coordinate so the important people sang before I blew out the candles, then 3 people came while I was eating my scrumptious polka dotted cake and then when I was done, I got song to again. WOW. Talk about feeling special.

When I got home from work, I was on the phone with my step mom and we were actually in the middle of a serious conversation but I noticed there were gifts hidden around my front room and they were numbered. I saw an 11 and an 8... I knew that my friend Thia was behind this (because she has a key to my apartment and it was her handwriting). I decided to see if there were instructions or more presents hidden in the other room so I started walking in there and two people jump out at me screaming. One was Ally, the other was Ally. As I was preoccupied with my serious phone conversation and unaware of their cars in the parking lot (they hid them up the street, so sneaky), I was totally freaked out by them being there and started screaming which I don't normally do. It was the best birthday surprise EVER!! They had hidden 30 presents throughout the living room. :) This was so great because I love scavanger hunts and I love presents and together, FUN!!!

I was organizing the presents and was getting ready to open them when my beautiful sister walks in with this gorgous cake!

We opened up the presents which were so perfectly picked for me. I don't know if you can tell but present 3 and 8 wasn't wrapped so well. One's a bucket of popcorn, the other is a broom. I love this!! They got me a candle, a scarf, lotion, PUDDING (3 different kinds), licorice, the movie and soundtrack to Xanadu which if you haven't grown up with it then I'm so sorry-you totally missed out, a soduku book, toilet paper (I so love the humor of my friends), sunflower seeds, oatmeal, some swedish fish, coupons to ZUPAS (makes everything better), a Strawberry Shortcake Ice cream bar that I LOVE, a car wash, tickets to the Academy Is and May Day Parade concert, 2 cd's, AND THIA IS MOVING IN!! This was the best because I've known for the longest time that I needed a roommate but it never felt right (for a whole year) and I've been stressing about it big time and then she says she's moving in and it's so GREAT!! Here's my face when I read the card that said she's moving in....

Yep, I have the best friends in the world. It's true.

Then we had to hurry because we had friends meeting up at the canyons. When you go up to the canyons to have a weenie roast, it's smart to bring more than 4 roasting sticks. It was such a good day!!

No pictures, just blog!

So, totally being honest, today was a rough day. I woke up ok but then all sorts of things started bothering me. Issues I've forgotten about that I really need to deal with, things I can't stop thinking about but should. I felt like I couldn't control my thoughts! And THEN I got ready for work. I get to work and I'm feeling so bad about myself and I find out, our programming that controls 90% of what we do at work is down and nobody knows why. Perfect day for this to happen. But somehow I get through that and I'm thinking, I'm going home and not doing a single thing! I'll watch a movie or read a book or go to sleep. And then I thought about how badly I wanted to go to FHE and thought, 'Ok Heavenly Father, if I'm supposed to be at FHE then you just let me know and I'll go.' and you know what? I get a call from my FHE "dad" and he says, "Angela, I'm just calling to invite you to FHE tonight." How stinkin crazy is that?? That's stinkin crazy. Anyway, we end up playing ultimate frisbee and I had a blast. Got all the frustrations out, met new people, bruised the crap out of my hand but hey, we got the frisbee back so it was worth it. Did I mention I molested my friend, (sorry ang). Anyway, just goes to show that sometimes, God sends people to get us out of our poor me's and makes us enjoy life!

Cancer doesn't sleep, why should we??

So, here is my second post. I know, you've all been waiting around just pacing back and forth and saying to yourself 'I hope Angela gets on and blogs today'. Well, THIS IS FOR YOU!!

Warning: I'm feeling a little sleep deprived and this will be a really LONG blog.

The American Cancer Society does a walk for the cure every year and since my mom is a 5 year survivor of breast cancer, it means a lot to me when I can get involved with these things. My best friend in the whole world (that would be Thia) sent me an invite to do this walk and I agreed. To be honest, wasn't really sure what I'd be getting into when I agreed but happy that I did. We walked ALL NIGHT LONG (lost count of how many miles but I know it was well over 20). We're supposed to do the walk on a team and we're supposed to have one person on the track at all times. I decided to do the entire night regardless if someone was on the track or not. Why would I do this crazy thing, you might ask. Well, the answer might be too simple but it is what it is. BECAUSE I CAN. I once said that I could walk forever and not get tired and this was the perfect opportunity to show myself that I actually can. I never sleep and and lets face it, such a great cause. Why should I not?

Before we can start
I get there right after work which was around 7 and I was feeling a little bit anxious. There was a lot going on and some of the activities started way before I got there and I was having a hard time getting a hold of my friends so trying to get settled in was rough. I found my beautiful friend, but Thia wouldn't let me put my bags down at our tent because she's got a surprise. She takes me over to the track and this little baggie is sitting on the curb with my mom's name and a personalized message to my mom from Thia which she had already emailed me a couple of days before. I thought, "ok, it's a bag, maybe somethings inside?" so I look and there was dirt. I was confused. Thia donated to have this bag of dirt in my mom's name. Again, confusion. Was there a plant inside - no, so why was this dirt special?? My first thought was, you paid to have this bag of dirt with my mom's name on it? That was a silly purchase. We could've just made our own bags.

But I decided to not think about it and said thank you, went to our tent, put my stuff down and sulked. Yep, I sulked. I was tired, my body was already hurting from not getting enough rest for the last 3 weeks, I've felt sick this whole week, a lot of things were going inside my head, work has been incredibly hard for me the last week and I just wanted to go home. But the survivors did their walk around the track, then the families joined them and then the teams did their walk as a team and we were off! Stacy and Thia were by my side and then who should show up but sweet Jenn Palmer (I know she's married and I love Clint but she's still Palmer to me, he can be mister Palmer). Jenn just got done with her first trimester of pregnancy and she's been super sick so to see her there meant so much!

The race
After we got Jenn settled, her and I started our race. Thia and Stacy stayed at the tent to run the games our group was in charge of. Everytime we went past my moms "bag of dirt", I felt really special, like she was actually there. It was making sense why Thia did it. I have to say too, I love Jenn. I haven't gotten to see her for so long and it was so great to walk the mile we did. Then Stacy and Thia joined us and can I just tell you, I am so blessed with my choice of friends and the fact that they choose me back?? WOW!! So after a long while, it's getting dark and Jenn, who hadn't eaten a lot before the race, goes on store duty and guess who should show up to take her place? Brandon. He walks around the track with us for a couple times and it's starting to get dark when they tell us that all walkers need to come to the main stage for the Luminate ceremony. I'm thinking, HUH? We go to the main stage and Jenn shows up just in time! They give each of us this light thing and start playing this video of cancer patients, survivors and people who lost the fight. These are all the names listed on the bags! I am trying so hard to not cry at this point. We light our "bulbs" and they tell us to GO LUMINATE! Thia and I put our lights in my mom's bag and it was the brightest bag out there! I was so proud. As we were 'luminating', guess who shows up next?? LYLE!! I love all this support. We went back to the tent and at that moment, they announce PIZZA! I was so hungry. Thia's sister went out on the track for our team and we the rest of us enjoyed a moment together! We had only been on the track for maybe 3 hours at this point and being able to rest a minute, I realized my feet where cramping, I was getting blisters under the balls of my feet and my legs were stiffening. My goal of walking the entire night was going to be a lot harder than I thought. Then Brandon leaves and I go back on the track.

On my own

Walking by myself was pretty awesome! I naturally walk pretty fast so on my own, I got to go at my pace. I turned up my music and took off! There were 3 things that made me LOVE being out there.

1) Every time I walked by my mom's bag, I would get this huge smile on my face because the people in my life are represented in this bag. People who are given trials and work so dang hard to over come them and they allow me to be a part of the sorrow, pain and more importantly the hope and joy that comes from them and these people are always there for me!

2) On more than half the track, you can clearly see the Draper Temple. It wasn't very far from us. How can you NOT put things into perspective when the temple is involved. I got to do a lot of "clear" thinking about my life, goals, and things I want to pursue. I also had a constant reminder that having a goal like this would take more than my ability/strength. I thought a lot about the pioneers trekking it across so many thousands of miles. Seriously, I could do this!

3) This is MY time to enjoy the night. I do not sleep and it's frustrating being awake when I know I should be sleeping. Finally, I get to enjoy physical activity under the stars ALL NIGHT LONG. It was peaceful and beautiful and physically exhausting and I love that!

Because of the pace I kept, I got to pass people quite a few times and I watched them start out strong and then struggle to complete their laps. it was awesome to see them pushing it for this cause. There was this one really cute old guy that was moving very fast and he was actually passing people left and right. The first time I passed him, I was shocked he was moving so fast and it took me awhile to get pass him. The second time I was admiring him because, LOOK AT HIM GO! He had this determined look on his face and he was booking it! The third time that I caught up to him, I told him that he was amazing. He told me his daughter died last December of cervical cancer; she was only 40 years old. He said he had to get 40 lapse in before he could go home. He actually jumped up to my speed and we conversed for about 2 miles. We talked about the strength of his daughter, the world today vs the world that he grew up in and he even brought up the pioneers (he wasn't mormon) and it was really fun to hear his story and then to share mine with him. After awhile, he had a scheduled stop so I went on alone. This is where I started to struggle.

Now you may be thinking, this is a really long and boring story. But there is a point to it and I'll make it in this next segment. :)

HARD TIMES

As I was walking, I wanted to take a picture of each hour I had been out there but couldn't do what I wanted to do in the picture without someone else holding the camera. I started feeling really alone. When I hit 1 AM, I decided I would take pictures anyway marking each hour I had succeeded. Well, 12-1 went really fast. As I got closer to 2, it was getting harder. I was starting to have a hard time lifting up my feet, the blisters were throbbing, my hips were aching, my abs were cramping, I was having a sharp pain in my left inner thigh, and I was having a hard time walking a straight line. I decided I would slow my pace but it turns out, all the people on the track were part of a team and the people were taking 30 minute to hourly rotations with their team members so everybody on the track was freshly rested. As someone would start to pass me, my competitive side would kick in and I wouldn't want to slow down. Being a Howard can be a curse sometimes. So I thought of all the reasons I was out there, I thought about how it would feel accomplishing this task, I thought of the struggling people and how they don't get to rest from cancer, I thought about how Satan tells us we can't do things and how God can make anything happen (even help you from pulling muscles) but it was no good; my body was SCREAMING much louder and it was telling me to QUIT. I said this silent prayer because I needed help. I was getting close to our tent, I could see my pillow in my head and it was inviting me to stop in and say hi; I looked at the tent and looked back at the track, then at the tent again and I started slowing down and then I look again at the track and low and behold, my very best friend was walking the track just ahead of me. So I caught up to her and on we went for 4 more hours - taking pictures of each successful one. :)

Finally resting for our 7:00 picture, we made it!!

GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS and he helps carry us when we've gone as far as we can on our own and our legs are about to give out on us. I walked for 6 hours and then was pushed along for 4 more. We are never alone.