Two Hundred

I've started a couple posts recently, but haven't uploaded them because my last post was my 199th published post and I wanted 200 to be something special. I finally decided to write something and get it over with. So without further adieu, I give you my

For those of you who've been reading since the beginning, I thank you. We've been through a lot together here on the blog. You were with me when I used to talk about boys and how stupid they were. When I went on my trip to Australia you eagerly anticipated the days when I'd post pictures. Hey, remember when I created my 101 things to do in 1001 days? It's over now and I think I may have gotten like, half of them done...  And oh my gosh! You were there when I went on my first date with Joe (!) back when I called him Johnny.

There are so many memorable moments. I'm just going to put a bunch of labels at the bottom of this blog post and you can feel free to browse through them at your own leisure. 

Thanks for reading everyone! And here's to another

I don't plan on ending this thing any time soon, so I'm sure we'll get to 400 :) Who's with me?

74. Shake an Apostle's Hand

Who? Richard G. Scott.

When? April 15th, 2011

I went above and beyond on this one, folks. Not only did I shake Richard G. Scott's hand, but I hugged him too!

He came to Lethbridge for a YSA fireside* and when it was over, me and my friends, Shirls and Wendy, waited in a tiny hallway as he finished a meeting with the Stake Presidency*. When he came out he greeted us and I had the biggest, stupid grin on my face as Shirls told him about my goal to shake an apostle's* hand, then my uncle (who was there because he's in the stake) told Elder Scott that I'll be getting married. That's when I got my hug and Elder Scott told me that he hoped I would be very happy.

You know, in the church the apostles tend to be glorified as these out-of-this world men, but really, they're just like me and you except they have serve as special witnesses of Christ. I loved meeting Elder Scott because you could tell that he wasn't trying to be anything special, but at the same time you could tell there was a special spirit about him. I could feel the love he had for me and all the other YSA there as an extension of the love that Christ and Heavenly Father have for us.

If you ever have a general authority visiting in your area and you have a chance to meet them, take it! Because it is totally worth it.

---

* - YSA? Fireside? Stake Presidency? Apostle?? What is all this?

It's mormon lingo. We have our own little language within the church mostly comprised of acronyms. YSA stands for Young Single Adults and it is comprised of the unmarried members of the church between 18 and 30 years of age. A fireside is when we all gather at a church building to listen to counsel given to us by leaders of the church. A stake presidency is comprised of a man and his two counselors and together they govern over a body of members of a couple thousand people grouped together in congregations of about 400-500. An apostle is one man of twelve who is at the very head of the church with the prophet and his two counsellors in charge of them all.

14. Keep My Fingernails Coloured for 3 Months Straight

I don't have much to say about this one except, DON'T DO IT!!

I had to end this goal early at two months because my nails got so weak and brittle. I have a feeling they'll be recovering for a while.

So, moral of the story: If you love your nails, DON'T keep them coloured for two months straight. Maybe just a week or two. Besides, the polish gets pretty chipped by that point anyway and nail maintenance is such a pain.

Alright I feel bad for giving you such a short entry today, so I am going to share with you one of my favourite comics that I found on deviantArt. enjoy :)

67. Go Horseback Riding in the Winter

This one was so much fun! My friend, who we shall call Small, invited me and Johnny out to her farm for a visit. So we went and had a blast. Going out to the farm made me realize what a city girl I am, but it was still great. The weather was perfect: there was snow on the ground but it wasn't too cold either. I feel like this is more something I should show you rather than tell you, so here are some photos from the day:

Here I am with my horse. Can't remember her name for the life of me. I think it was something like Maggie, or Pepper? I have no clue.

Here we all are on our horses. We rode around Small's pastures and checked on the cows and we would have stayed out longer but our horses had had enough and became incredibly difficult to urge forward. It was still a good time nonetheless.

101 revisited

I don't know how many of you have been keeping track of my 101, but I figured it was about time that I gave you an update. In case you haven't noticed I've made quite a bit of progress: 17 of the goals are now complete and 7 goals have been started. I don't think I'll write an entry for every goal that I've completed, but I will write a few. Here is the first of a couple installments to come in the next few days (or weeks, depending on how much time I have)

66. Find 5 restaurants I've never been to and eat there

#1: August 21, 2010:

Johnny and I went up to Calgary for the day and before we came home he took me to this all-you-can-eat sushi joint. It was delicious! Johnny ordered 1 of almost every kind of sushi they had. We had to eat 36 pieces of sushi! By the end of it, eating had become a chore and I'd decided that if I never had seafood again it wouldn't be soon enough (but we're still planning on going back, ha!). There was also a BBQ in the middle of the table and Johnny ordered a crap-load of Korean BBQ meat for us to grill. It was pretty cool, but again, way too much food. And apparently, ladies, men are under the impression that we are incapable of grilling food properly over a barbecue. Bah! Who cares about cooking food over hot coals anyway? That's what stoves are for...

#2: September 26(?), 2010:

The sushi place we went to for dinner in Victoria with the rugby girls. We were given a $12.50 budget and I only went over by 40 cents with a set of prawn rolls and chicken udon noodles for $12.90 - very filling.

#3: September 27(?), 2010:

The other sushi place I went to with Annika in Vancouver. Again, $12.50 budget, I had tempura and some rolls. Satisfied.

#4: October 1, 2010:

Johnny and I were in Vancouver for the Jack Johnson concert and found a little Indian place to eat at called Sitar. The food was delicious. I had the chicken tiki masala and Johnny had the something-something-butter chicken. I can't remember the name, but it's a classic Indian dish that I would recognize if I heard it again. The service was really good at this little place. After we ordered, the waiter brought us a little dish of chip-like things to munch on while we waited for our food. So if you're ever in Vancouver and find yourself on Powell Street around the Gastown area, check out Sitar.

#5: October 2, 2010:

Another sushi place. Metrotown. All-you-can-eat. Really good. 19$ per adult. BBQ eel rolls, prawn tempura rolls, yam tempura rolls, california rolls, rolls with salmon and crab (mmmm), teriyaki chicken kabobs, prawn and vegetable tempura, salmon and tuna sashimi... much better all-you-can-eat experience than calgary. And much cheaper too.

There have been a lot more places that I've been to since the last restaurant on the list and there have been some pretty good ones. Here's a couple of my favourites:

Edmonton - I was up there with the team and we went for dinner at this Greek place downtown (can't remember the name of it). I had their lamb souvlaki and it was amazing. The service was fantastic especially considering the fact that there were 30 of us and when our meal was done we had a belly dancer entertain us. She put on quite the show.

Swiss Chalet - when Johnny found out that I had never been to Swiss Chalet he made it his goal to take me. I really liked it there. The atmosphere was really friendly and I was particularly impressed with the host when he offered to give a woman a free meal when she wasn't satisfied with the one she'd ordered. The chicken at Swiss Chalet was delicious and their sauce was super yummy. For dessert we each got a piece of pie: I had coconut cream and he got the classic apple. I regretted getting the coconut once I tried Johnny's piece - it was to die for!

A Break From Rugby

You guys must be getting sick of only hearing me blab about my rugby business. Sorry, it's kind of taken over my life.

But good news! I have some non-rugby related things to talk about today.

As some of you may or may not know, one of your favourite tongans has had a birfday (Pfft, yeah cause you have more than one). Yes! Me! I've had a birfday! I have left the familiar groove of teenage-hood and have entered the twenties.

You are now reading the blog of a twenty year old. Oh barf, that sounds so boring. Maybe I'll look into getting a snazzy new design as a present to you.

But anyway! You must hear about what I did for my birfday. I mean, I've only been talking about it since Johnny and I became an item.

We went down to Vancouver for the weekend and saw Jack Johnson in concert. It was so awesome! We arrived in the coastal city on Friday morning and spent most of the day in Chinatown and exploring other parts of the city. We grabbed a bite to eat at this little Indian restaurant called Sitar (which counts as #66 on my 101). Then we went back to the hotel, grabbed our things and went off to the show.

If any of you have heard of Jack Johnson before, you'd know his music is pretty chill. So naturally, his concert was pretty chill too (and the fact that pot was being smoked everywhere probably added to the chillness of it all). But he put on a great show. He played a good mix of the favourites as well as some new ones from his latest cd which I love anyway. My favourite part was when he encored with a group of songs he wrote about/for his wife. He's so awesome! I'm just sad that I didn't end up marrying him after the concert. Maybe next time...

Technically the the concert wasn't the end of our adventure in the latest Olympic City, but really, it was. We were staying with a friend of Johnny's who lives in Surrey, an hour outside of Vancouver, so we didn't end up getting to her place until late, late, late Friday night. We slept in the next morning until 11 and chilled around the house for most of the day. We went out for sushi that night, but that was all the excitement we had on Saturday. And Sunday just consisted of us taking a plane home and arriving in L-town just in time for Thanksgiving dinner with my family.

I'll probably upoad some photos. But later. Cause I'm lazy and it seems to take forever. Maybe one of these days I'll take my laptop to school with me and upload photos while I study. Look at me being all smart!

Anyway, til next time,
Peace.

GUESS WHAT

I made the team!

You are now reading the blog of the newest member of the UofL's Pronghorn Rugby team. How do you feel about that? Cause I am SUPER STOKED!!

Do you know what this means?? It means that not only is #95 on my 101 list complete, but #65 (go to 3 University Sporting events) is also going to be completed very soon. Woot woot!

95. Try Out For The Pronghorns

I'm doing it! I'm going out for the University rugby team. When I made the list, I wasn't initially planning on trying out this year because I didn't feel ready. However, my high school coach (who is also the manager of the Pronghorns) contacted me and encouraged me to try out. Last week, I got the go-ahead from my doctor and started going to practices. The first couple days were brutal; I was so sore afterward. I'm still sore, but it's getting better.

So far, I've made it past the first cuts. Today we had fitness testing and I didn't make a total fool of myself. I'll keep you posted on whether I make it. I imagine they'll have made final cuts by the end of this week.

Wish me luck!

15. Learn to Drive a Standard

First, let me give a little background on why I put this goal on my 101.

I've always wanted to go on the show, Amazing Race, and if you've never seen it, it's a reality tv competition where 11 teams of people race around the world and they travel to all these different countries and the winners get a million dollars. In most countries, they're provided with vehicles to get themselves around and they always get standards. And some of the teams lose a lot of ground because they can't drive standards. So I figure if I ever want to compete in the Amazing Race, I have to be able to drive a standard.

Johnny gave me my first standard lesson a couple days ago and I was such a nervous wreck. But I didn't crash and that's the important thing. We just drove around my block and went on a busier street for a bit and then learned how to reverse in a parking lot. I got a cookie ice cream sammich as my reward. Next lesson: highway driving.

23. Read the Book of Mormon in 2 weeks

Okay, so I may have cheated a little on this one. But only because I'd already made a goal to read it in two weeks before I made the list. When we went camping, I decided to have read the entire Book of Mormon by the time we got back.

I've only read the Book of Mormon all the way through once before and I wasn't sure I would get a lot out of it this time around because I'd be reading so fast, but I did. I really liked reading my scriptures every day because it just made my days so much better. One thing that I got out if it as I read was that I noticed all the times when the Lord blessed those who kept his commandments. God had made a covenant with the people that if they kept his commandments they would prosper in the land and His spirit would be poured out upon them. One of my favourite examples of this was in the story of the 2,000 stripling warriors. For those of you who don't know the story, I'll elaborate.

There was a Nephite named Ammon who went among the Lamanites to preach the gospel to them. He converted one of the Lamanite kings named Lamoni as well as all of his people. These people experienced a change of heart and rejoiced in the redemption they could recieve through Jesus Christ. They no longer wanted to sin and made a covenenant with God that they would never pick up their weapons of war and would shed no more blood. This became a problem because the Lamanites who weren't converted were angry with the people of Lamoni for their conversion and so they came down upon the people to battle. Because of the oath they'd made, there were many that were killed. Ammon and his brethren didn't want to see the people they loved slughtered by the Lamanites, so they took them to the land of the Nephites for refuge. The people of Lamoni were kept safe for a while and enjoyed being with their brethren in the gospel. Many years down the road, the Lamanites began terrorizing the Nephites and so the Nephites rose up in battle to protect their lives, families and liberty. The people of Lamoni wanted to help them in battle, but couldn't because of the oath they'd made for fear of losing their souls. However, their sons had not made an oath to God that they wouldn't shed anymore blood, so 2,000 of these young men picked went off to war to protect their people. Because of their faith in God, they were protected and not a single one of them died in battle.


There are a lot more cool stories that I liked, but this was one of my faves.

101 in 1001

Legend:
Black = unstarted
Orangey-Yellow = in progress
Green = complete!

1. Own a cello
2. Learn to make Marie's macapoos (oct 13, 2010)
3. Get my boat license
4. Get my full license
5. Participate in an Aquafit class
6. Read my scriptures everyday for a semester7. Make pillowcase t-shirts
8. Make a beading loom bracelet
9. Drive by myself to Fort Macleod or further (Passengers allowed, just no parents)
10. Purchase the Beatles' Revolver album
11. Participate in the Fort Macleod Triathlon
12. Sing "If I Fell" with Trudy Johnson
13. Become fluent in Tongan
14. Keep my fingernails coloured for a 3 consecutive months15. Learn to drive a standard
16. Sing a solo in church
17. Be an EFY counsellor (2011, preferably)
18. Ride a roller coaster 10 times in one day
19. Replace the camera I left in Tonga
20. Visit Selina in Logan
21. Sing "Come Together" on karaoke night22. Give wake skating a try
23. Read the Book of Mormon in two weeks24. Make a dress or skirt
25. Take a pottery class
26. Go skiing or snowboarding in the winter
27. Floss everyday for a year28. Hold a current temple reccommend (or at least be worthy for one)
29. Learn a new scripture mastery every month
30. Hike to Krypt Lake
31. Go cross country skiing
32. Do my visiting teaching every month for a year
33. Bake a loaf of bread34. Read Edgar Allen Poe's stuff
35. Buy a new CTR ring
36. wear a different pair of earrings every day for a month.
37. Draw a henna tattoo on myself
38. Renew my first aid certification
39. Don't eat chocolate for a month
40. Don't eat McDonald's for a year
41. Bring a book of constellations out star gazing and find them all
42. Try a new flavor of ice cream43. Read "A Little Princess" by Frances Hodgson Burnett
44. Donate blood the maximum number of times in one year
45. Get 100% on another test in university
46. Watch the sunrise
47. Don't watch TV for a week48. Watch the Beatles' anthology
49. Watch Nowhere Boy50. Get a new autograph on my wallet
51. Grow my hair long enough to make a wig. And donate it52. Keep my room clean for a month
53. Save up for a new winter jacket and buy one
54. Draw a picture of Shane Hawke as a superhero and mail it to him
55. Write a letter to Joel Astle while he's on his mission
56. Submit a secret to Post Secret
57. Have some special one on one time with each of my siblings
58. Submit a photo to Jones Soda
59. Get a scholarship60. Bake cookies for someone who needs it and pixie them
61. Send Patricia at least 5 letters while she's on her mission
62. Learn to make Puligi and do it on my own
63. Go paintballing
64. Make a stuffed animal
65. Go to 3 of the university sporting events
66. Find 5 restaurants I've never been to and eat there (October 2, 2010)67. Go horseback riding in the winter68. Read the Old Testament
69. Take a yoga class70. Go skydiving71. Get an autograph from the Mad Hatter in Disneyland
72. Watch A Nightmare Before Christmas on Hallowe'en
73. Read the Chris Stewart series
74. Shake an apostle's hand75. Go scuba diving
76. Make a real flower lei
77. Go to Spruce Meadows
78. Participate in a photoshoot
79. Paint something for Amber
80. Make 3 more Peace Shirts
81. Go bridge jumping
82. Unpack the last 3 boxes in my room83. Swim in a lake at night
84. Ask a complete stranger to dance
85. Learn how to change a tire
86. Learn how to change the oil in a car
87. Attend the church meeting of another religion
88. Complete 3 pull ups all by myself
89. Go ice fishing with friends
90. Buy 3 new colours of nail polish
91. Make 1000 paper cranes (9/1000)
92. Buy a decent set of oil paints
93. Make 3 new Beatles' stencils
94. Go on a double date with Cora
95. Try out for the Pronghorns96. Bring a nonmember friend to institute
97. Have a Big Bang Theory marathon
98. Memorize a Shakespeare monologue
99. Practice my violin at least once a week for two months
100. Participate in the YSA talent show
101. Go to General Conference with friends

Start date: August 13th, 2010
End date: May 10, 2013

Wish me luck!

Where The Heck Have I Been??!

BC, that's where!


Camping at one of my all time favourite places in the world, Kootenay Lake, in a little resort called Bayshore. My family and I camped there for the first time in the summer of 2007 and we've been back almost every summer since then. I love it there. I love the lake; I love Crawford Bay, the little artisan town nearby; I love the fish and chips at JB's; and I love the Riondell branch we go to for church on Sundays. When I grow up, I am going to bring my own family to camp there as well.

The trip was awesome, as expected. My favourite part was that I got to hang out with my cousin Chelsie, whom I've never really gotten to know well before. She's married and has two adorable daughters. She took me and a couple other cousins into town and we had fun searching for the best BC fruit we could find. We all had such a good time.

I have some exciting news. (okay, you may not get excited, but I sure am!) While I was camping I decided to make a list of 101 things to do in 1001 days. A few of my friends have already made lists like this and I've always thought it was a good idea, but never felt like writing one myself. I'll post the list once I finish writing it...