Happy birthday Taryn! :)

Today is my little sister's 16th birthday.. She's getting so old :)
Happy birthday to her!! :)

She and I are pretty tight, I really miss her a lot. Favorite memories with little Taryn:

1. One time she and I were in the car and laughing at EVERYTHING (we get into moods like this) and she was talking about a motorcyclist and what his face would look like if we hit him.. Something really weird and random but it played out in our heads sooo funny. And we cried because we were laughing so hard.
2. Sitting next to each other in church and having evil looks thrown our way by our parents because we talk too much.
3. Sitting next to each other in church and trying to give each other dead-legs inconspicuously.. HAHA!
4. One time she and I were sitting on my bed and she was near the foot of the bed and I pushed her and she flipped off the bed backwards. It was hilarious...
5. We used to scare each other (like hide in the hallways and jump out and scream). It was so fun.
6. Christmas Eve, Wade would be trying to sleep but she and I would stay up all hours of the night talking.
7. Playing with her pocket polly's or whatever those things were called.
8. Playing house and her always being reluctant to play. But she did it anyway :)
9. Sleeping on the trampoline and getting scared witless in the middle of the night.
10. Camping out in our garage in Idaho or in our camp trailer in Lakeside (inevitable it-- mold in our camper hahaha).

So many more, but I'll stop there. I love my little sister and hope she had a FABULOUS day :) <3


Back to my normal posts:
I had a really great week! On Wednesday I mostly just did homework and stayed at home, it was a low key day. I took Sarah back to Wal*Mart (she had lost her keys :( sad day) but we didn't find them anywhere so that was unfortunate. I then "helped her look" for them at her apartment, but really we just talked and hung out and had tons of fun. That girl and I are hilarious together. I laugh sooo much when we're together. We watched a movie, joined occasionally by Bert (who is more studious than I am). We also made french fries and I accidentally dumped like, half of her oil in the pan. The fries were good, and it gave us a reason to make donuts on Thursday!

Mk, so this picture is awful.. But it makes me laugh, a lot.

That brings me to Thursday, we made donuts! I don't really remember what I did before that. I had one class and wrote an essay (my english class was cancelled-- woohoo!). Originally I went over to Sarah's to watch a movie at the park with her and her lovely roommate (one of them anyway) Gabe. But instead we made donuts.We got pretty talented at them. Here is one:

This is a snail donut!

After making and eating and sharing the love, Bert invited me to go watch Scott Pilgrim vs. the World with him, Brian, Amy, Ariell, and Kirsten. That movie is super good. I really enjoyed it.
On Friday I went and helped serve at the Institute lunch. Afterwards I went shopping with Sarah, Becky, and Victoria. We went to Super Target! Then Sarah and I went to Wal*Mart (again) to buy long sleeve shirts. Its sooo cold here! (Ha, I'm such a desert dweller now).

Sarah and I looking at potential Halloween costumes. I LOVE Superman. Just sayin.

After shopping I went to Nicki and Lauren's apartment for a bbq! It was a blast. Lauren is an amazing cook. She made this delicious dip (actually two different kinds of delicious dip) and a 3bean salad that was super tasty. We also made pie (like, six people made the pie- it was so fun!). Here is a picture of a piece of the pie:

This was dished out by one of the attendees, Patrick. The 6th piece is the hardest ;)

Also, here is a picture of the rest of the pieces, with Lauren modeling:

Isn't she lovely?

It was soo much fun and very uplifting. Everyone there had a firm belief in Christ and there were some excellent discussions about the Gospel. After the BBQ I went to Sarah's apartment (I basically live there it seems) and watched part of How to Train Your Dragon with her and her roomies. Bert came over a little later and then he and I went on a walk (tender moments.. awwwhh).

On Saturday I participated in a flash dance thing. It was super cool. The Arizona Assurance Scholarship program coordinated it. Becky and I did it together. Here is a link to the video of us performing it: Flash Dance!. My little blonde head shows up quite nicely eh? Hahaha.

Here is Becky and I at the practice for the dance.

After the dance performance I watched the parade and ate Panda Express (which I really regretted, I feel like that was my first time eating legitimate fast food since the beginning of the semester, well, except Taco Shop). The parade was awesome, I LOVE marching bands. They are wonderful. After the parade I went and worked the Game Day Grill with my friend Bethany! It was really fun, I gave out brownies so it was a pretty simple job. Once that was over Bert and I went to No Anchovies to watch the game (which UA won-- of course) with Derrick, his girlfriend Jen, her friend Angela, Jenkin, ... boy, Amy, and Brian.

Amy, Brian, Chanda, Bert at No Anchovies :)

It was fun but REALLY crowded so Bert and I ducked out early and went to Taco Shop. I ate, again (it was like my 3rd dinner that day... but it was so good.). Then Bert and I went to a park and walked around. There was a pond/lake there and I was so happy. I miss seeing large bodies of water. He and I went on the swings and climbed on some equipment and sat on a fake turtle and looked at the stars (I never understood why city people were so fascinated with the stars in Lakeside, now I get it.. The city definitely blocks out space at night). Then he went home and I went home and talked to my mom for an hour on the phone.

Today I got up and wrote an essay (because I am a slacker). I went to 3rd ward instead of my own. Amy was playing organ and Kirstin was leading the music. Also, Sarah said the closing prayer. It was nice. They had a musical number- four guys singing (I knew half of the guys-- Noah and Chris, they are Bert's roommates) and it was wonderful. I love male voices. The talks were also good, they were about tithing. After church I went to Amy's to hang out with her, Jen, and Derrick. They're such wonderful people. Jen had to go back to Phoenix unfortunately, but I was happy to have met her.

I've decided I want to learn to play the ukulele (this is because I have no talents and too many people already play the guitar, the piano is too hard to find to practice and I love Jack Johnson and Zee Avi and so many wonderful people play the ukulele). I want one for my birthday (Dad or Wade or Mom.. eh-hem..). And then I am going to learn to play. Maybe I'll find out I actually do have a secret talent. :) hehehe.

On Thursday Derrick is going to make sweet and sour chicken, I can't wait. I love Asian food.

My friend from Lakeside, Abbey, is going to come down next weekend for Halloween! I'm super excited! She is thinking about moving down to Tucson, which would be awesome. I figured out what I'm going to dress as! Bethany, Sarah, Lindsay, and I are going to be Things 1-4. I'm pretty excited about it.

That is pretty much all that is new here. I'm just hoping that I'll get my warm clothes delivered to me (Dad.. eh-hem). :)

Stay warm!

Chanda C.

Trying to Focus

Today was a stressful day.
I met with my advisor. She was really nice. But I still have no idea what I want to do with my college career. Well actually, I want to drop out. But I don't know what I am going to do. :)
I came home from class and tried to figure out my schedule for next semester. I think I have it planned. I'll be taking Psychology 200, NATS 104: Nutrition,Italian 101, Theater 100, Classics 329: Art History Cinema, and either aerobic dance or badminton. Or both. It will be 17 credits. I think 5 of them will be honors but I can't quite remember (this semester I had 10 honors credits, ridiculous). Sarah and I are going to do Aerobic Dance together and I'm hoping someone will take Badminton with me :)
I'm pretty excited about next semester. I can't wait to see how I like psych. I also am excited about theater and my PE classes :)

Last night I washed Luna. She hates baths. But she looks so cute when she is wet. Like a grumpy little rat. Haha. After I brushed her she gave me the silent treatment all night. But now she is soft and clean. I'm really glad, she was smelling really bad. She gets so funny after she gets bathed. She was running around like crazy last night, I tried to get some videos but they aren't very good quality. Here is a picture of LunaBug:

She looks a lot better now. :)

I've been working on a personal mission statement, right now I need help with the wording. My options are:
a) Optimistically loving others and expressing that love daily through making decisions congruent with God's teachings.
OR
b) Loving others and expressing this daily by being optimistic and making decisions congruent with God’s teachings.
Same basic idea, but I am trying to figure out which sounds better.

My sister turns 16 this weekend. I feel so old. It doesn't feel like I am old enough for my little sister to be 16. She'll be driving and dating and growing up.. Agh. I can't even handle it. This year is just bizarre. This Thanksgiving will be the last one for forever that the usual people will be there. (The usual people: Monte (who will be leaving on his mission this summer, yikes!), Evan (who will leave before Monte gets back), Derek (who will leave before Evan gets back), and my family (and by the time Derek gets back some of them will probably be married. Ridiculous.)). I can't even wrap my mind around the idea. People are just growing up and moving on and it is hard to imagine how different everything will be. But it is good. Its life. Our family will just grow and grow and then we'll all be happy together (them with their families and children and me with my million dogs ;) hahaha).

Yesterday Sarah and I went to Wal*Mart again. She bought shoes for her friend on a mission. We had so much fun! There was a singing skull in the Halloween aisle and we had a dance party. Way cool. We also found randomly named pumpkins. And took a beautiful picture of us in masks (but her phone won't send it :( boo)). I've had so much fun hanging out with that girl. She's wonderful and I am so glad we've become friends :)

I like a boy (duh). And Taryn asked me yesterday about him. So I decided to clear the air. I like him. That's the end. I have been thinking a lot. I'm kind of a needy person. Actually, I'm really a needy person. And I'm working on that. I think I can be very independent, but I tend to cling to people (just ask my mom, I call her all the time saying I just need a hug, hehe).
This whole like but not date thing is an interesting situation to be in. I love and hate it. I'm learning a lot. And that is the whole point of life.

I can't wait for the rest of this week. I have TONS of homework, but I also have some exciting plans. I am going to a BBQ with Bert at Nicki and Lauren's. That will be SOOO fun! :) Also Bethany is planning a pumpkin carving party (I've never actually carved a pumpkin..). And Amy is hopefully going to cut my hair. I also hope to do something tomorrow (watch Glee. Read: I'm not a gleek, I have friends who are. And it is fun to watch). :)

Anyway, I'm going to go watch 30 Rock. Yay procrastination!

Peace,
Chanda C.

Reunited. Almost.

Jane was found! Exactly a week after I lost her, in fact. I had just gotten a rental car (which I am in love with by the way) and I got a call from the police saying that she had been recovered and I could pick her up at Gary's Towing. The next day I went over with my wonderful uncle Stephen and picked her up, she was disgusting. They had been smoking in her so ash was everywhere, along with cigarette and cigar butts and all sorts of trash. They stole my steering wheel cover, which was unfortunate. They also stole my jack and switched all of the tires. However, they did leave me with an extra radiator and wheel rim in the back. They hadn't lost my license plate- big plus for me. Stephen valiantly offered to drive her home for me while I drove his van, she ran out of gas on the way back and he lost power steering and the brakes. I am so glad I wasn't driving at that time. The night was quite an adventure, having to buy a gas can and getting a bit lost trying to find the yard that Jane was kept in. But it all worked out, we ate dinner at Taco Shop (delish) and made some good memories.
The next day I took her, with the help of the lovely Sarah and brave Derrick, to an auto shop that works with my insurance to have her looked over completely. They pointed out marks in the door where she was pryed open and said that they have been seeing a lot of Hondas stolen lately. Great eh? I'm praying for the best right now (either the repairs will be WAY less than $500 or WAY more.. and that I will find $500 somewhere, hehe). The man at the repair shop said I was the most honest person he had ever met, he kept asking about the different scratches and dents and I told him that most of it was probably already there and that I really couldn't remember but I didn't want to abuse my insurance company. I'm hoping my honesty will get rewarded and I won't get ripped off. (A girl can dream right?)
So now I am still driving my rental car, which is a Mazda 3 and I want it to be mine forever. Its so so nice. I suppose I will just have to enjoy it while I can. For now I am just waiting to hear what the insurance and auto shop say. *cross fingers* I also am going to be looking into buying a steering wheel boot, now that these hooligans have stolen my car once and know where it is parked all the time I don't really feel safe about just keeping my doors locked. Rude people.

In other news, I had a great week! On Saturday night I went to Tucson Meet Yourself with Lucia and her brother Neal. It was so so neat! I ate pirogi and chinese buns (which are disgusting). I tried to polka with my friend Matthew and we watched some people tango. If you are ever in Tucson during TMY I highly suggest going. I saw a karate demonstration and someone ripped a phonebook in half. And this other guy broke through five bricks with his hand. It was insane. After TMY, Bert came over and we made pizza, which was delicious. After that he and I walked over to Amy's house and we watched Anchorman.. That movie is pretty special.
On Sunday I went to Sarah's and we made apple pie- it was super tasty. We ate it with mint chocolate chip ice cream which sounds like a weird combination, but it is so good. After I made pie with her I went to the JACK JOHNSON concert! It was WONDERFUL! I want to marry that man.. Nevermind the fact that he is happily married and has been for like 17 years. It was so great. Here is a picture of the girls I went with:

They are Lauren and Nicki.

Nicki's fabulous boyfriend Riley bought her the tickets, he's a great guy.

Wednesday night I hung out with my friends (Sarah and Bert mostly, also Ariell and Kirsten). We watched Glee and went to the turtle pond and really did absolutely nothing together. It was fun. Definitely made some good memories. It was Sarah's first time eating at Taco Shop. Mmm.
Friday morning I was woken up by Lucia because a cockroach had ran into my room. Disgusting. It was huge, like, the size of Luna. Just kidding about that but it was really big and super fast. Lucia and I were freaking out more than a little and trying to capture it and it was running and hiding and we tore my room apart and finally managed to trap it under a jar. We named it Hitler but still couldn't figure out how to kill it (although we discussed several options, like lighting it on fire). Eventually I just put books on top of the jar and went to the Institute lunch, which is awesome. After lunch Sarah and I rode the bus to my house and she got to meet Hitler and Luna. We went and picked up Derrick and brought him back to my apartment, and he finally managed to kill Hitler. Almost. He smushed him. And then we drove Jane to the car doctor. When we came back, Hitler had moved like 5 feet. Not okay. So Sarah resmushed him. Now he is dead. Halelujah! Sarah and I went grocery shopping after the cockroach ordeal (and after eating ice cream with Derrick) and we had some good times in Albertsons. We bought 8 containers of frosting and like, 10 cake mixes (really good sale and we split it with Amy too). The look on the checkout counter guy's face when he saw it was priceless. His name was Caleb. I'm excited to eat cake now. After dropping Sarah off to go to the YSA activity I went over to Tammy's to eat dinner with Tammy, Stephen, and my aunt Wyndie who was visiting Tucson for the cross country meet. Then my mom showed up! :) I had been asking her to come so she suprised me. I was really happy. It was a good suprise. We went to Golden Corral and had a lot of fun. I also did laundry, which was quite necessary (it had been 2 weeks).
Then on Saturday, Sarah and I went Costco shopping! We got Naked (hahaha, the juice) and ate some very tasty samples. We also bought 10 lbs of oats which was pretty exciting. After that we went and ate lunch with my mom (Taco Shop, again-- this is becoming an addiction). We drove her around campus a bit and then she had to leave. It was a good visit, but definitely too short. Then we picked up my friend Becky and went to the mall. I got a pair of shoes for $4 at Payless. Steal. They're rather light colored so I am a bit concerned about wearing them, I am considering spraying scotch guard on them so they have a bit of a chance at staying light blue. After the mall Becky and I dropped Sarah off and went to my apartment, ate dinner, and then went and picked up Bert and went to Dracula. It was pretty great. Really cheesy, but the costumes and technical stuff were incredible. I had never seen or read anything about the original Dracula, it was really good. After Dracula we went and grouped up with Amy, Ariell, Kirsten, and Sarah and went to hike Tumamoc Hill. We got halfway up and decided it was high enough. Here is a picture of us:

This is the group. Left to right:
Sarah, Ariell, Kirsten, Amy, Chanda, Bert, Becky

And here is Becky, me, and Bert. The lights from the city were so pretty!

After the hike Becky came back to my apartment and we stayed up ridiculously late talking about life. I really enjoyed it. Then we woke up this morning, had cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and I dropped her off and went to Ward Conference. Then I came home and have been working on homework. But took a break to write this. I've had a fabulous week and I'm hoping it keeps up. Hopefully next weekend Amy will cut my hair, that will be exciting and I'll make sure and post about it.

My plans for this week are pretty limited, but I'm loving the spontaneity of doing random things with various people without preplanning. :) I'm wishing I had a camera so I could document more of my life, maybe I'll start saving for one.

I should get back to my homework now, keep it real.

Chanda C.

PS. Why don't cats carry change? Because they don't have any pockets! HAHAHA!

So much to tell!

So, it has been almost years since I wrote. Ridiculous.
I would like to say that I have been busy.
Really though, I just haven't written.
YouTube, Facebook, Bones, and MLIA have taken up the majority of my life (after schoolwork of course).
I've been having lots of fun!
Highlights:
I've made new friends! :) I would like to put pictures up of my friends and I doing all the fun things we have done, but, I don't take pictures. I have a few (thank you Facebook tagging). Here they are:

We went to a mountain! (I'm not sure which one..)

I am sorry to say, I only know two people in this picture. The beautiful girl next to me is Ariell and the boy is Bert. :)

This is Bert and I. I think this was on his birthday, but I can't quite remember.

Speaking of his birthday, this was his cake :) I've been told it was delicious (white cake with raspberry filling, buttercream icing, fresh raspberries on top, cookies of magic all around it... good stuff).

This is Becky! She and I have two classes together.She and I were at Hungry Howie's getting pizza after a "field trip" (torture..) that one of our classes took. 

This was the field trip. We hiked up a hill (more like climbing, it was so steep.. ha). This is Tucson!

Those are some highlights of what has been happening. Tons of fun! I need to take more pictures. Last weekend I went to Amy's house (she took the picture of us at the mountain, sad that you can't see her) and ate some wonderful food (made by Derrick, he's the asian in the football game picture). It was so much fun! Wednesday night we celebrated Ariell's birthday, and it was a blast too.

I've also become friends with a guy named Matthew. He's polish. We (Matthew, Lucia, Becky, Becky's roommate Victoria, and I) went to an improv show on Tuesday night. It was so much fun! It may become a tradition.

My friend from high school, Jason, came and visited Lucia and I. It was so much fun! He's going to NAU, it was really nice catching up and hanging out (showing him that UA is obviously the better choice). We went dancing and it was pretty much rockin'.

Last Friday Matthew, Grace, and Grace's friend whose name I can't remember (Stacey maybe?) came over and we watched a movie. They are so funny! I'm hoping to have many more movie nights-- although I think living closer to campus would help a lot, not many people have cars.

Speaking of cars.. Oh cars... I've had my share of car troubles. After the comedy/improv show on Tuesday (around 11:30) I drove Lucia and myself home, parked in my usual spot in front of the office of our apartment complex, and went to sleep. Wednesday morning at about 10:30 I left to go to Institute. But my car was not where I had parked it before. In its place was a blue Honda Civic (for a split second I thought Oprah had decided to give me a new car.. And I was happy. Then reality set in). I walked around the parking lot thinking that maybe someone had just moved it as a prank or I couldn't remember where I had parked it. But it was really gone. I talked to my landlord, thinking that maybe it got towed even though it had the parking permit in the window. But alas, she didn't know anything about it. So I got to call the police and report it stolen. The officer told me that she is probably a crack ride now. Meaning that she either a) got sold to get money to buy crack or b) is transporting crack. Either way, she's having more fun in college than I am ;) heh-heh.
So now, despite the thousands of dollars I paid to not have to do this, I am walking and riding the bus everywhere. Its not too bad so far. I do miss Jane. And I am a little upset that I spent all the money and only got to drive her like 250 miles. That was an expensive 250 miles. But the cursed car is gone from my life now.

This weekend is family weekend and Tucson Meet Yourself. I'm hoping to go to that during the day tomorrow, Matthew is working the Polish booth, but I don't yet know exactly where it is or how to get there. Also tomorrow I will hopefully be making pie with my friend Sarah (she spent 3 and a half months in China this year- wicked cool). I've never made a homemade apple pie, it should be epic.

Lucia cut Luna's hair for me. She looks so cute! She's grumpy right now so I can't get a nice picture of her. But I'm sure I will soon.

This is family weekend at UA. Lucia's dad and brother are here- she made them pork chops and apple compote. The apples smell delish. I already ate (sweet potato.. mmm).

I went grocery shopping and got pretty much everything I need for the next week for less than $20, score. I love Albertsons on Fridays!

Today I got my first English essay back. I got an 85% which I am pretty happy about. It was a close reading essay on Rilke's poems. Yeck. I hate poetry and close reading anyway, put them together and its just depressing. I'm excited about my grade. I added up all of my assigned essays (from the syllabi from my classes) and realized that over the course of this semester I am expected to write at least 50 essays. That doesn't even include extra credit assignments. I find this more than a little ridiculous. I have been doing a lot better than I was expecting with my writing though, other than one paper that I forgot to look at word count for, I have been getting As and Bs. :)

I don't have much else to say- but I hope everyone's lives are going wonderfully! :)
-Chanda C.

PS: I bet a lot of mimes choke to death because people just think its an act.

Hehehe.