What the heck, Utah?!

IT IS THE END OF MAY! WHY IS IT SNOWING?!

For the past few weeks we have had some beautiful weather here in Utah. The days were nice and sunny--not hot and cool, but not overly cold. Sure, Utah threw in a couple of rainstorms, just to catch us off our guard, but we pulled through. Then Utah threw a hissy-fit. I don't know why Utah was upset--maybe Colorado was calling Utah names again. In any case, Utah decided to take it out on us. Now we have to wade through this cold, sloshy, STUPID snow! This is just not fair. It's almost June, and we are still suffering from winter temperatures. I want SUMMER!

Please, Utah, have compassion on your poor residents. Be kind. Send us some warm weather for longer than two weeks, if that wouldn't inconvenience you terribly. We promise we'll be kind to you.

Danny was right!

So, my brother-in-law, Danny, told us about an urban legend he had heard of from a nice waitress in California. When you have the hiccups, all you have to do is pour a packet of sugar underneath your tongue. I just laughed at him--I thought, why would sugar help stop the hiccups? It didn't make any sense. Well, today I kept getting the hiccups off and on. They usually stopped after one or two hiccups, but later in the afternoon they just wouldn't go away. I decided to put Danny's myth to the test. I took a packet of sugar (I used Truvia, which is the new sugar substitute) and poured all of it under my tongue. I felt really weird, but as soon as the sugar had dissolved, my hiccups were gone!

Danny, your waitress friend seems to be right. Thanks for passing that on!

English 218

I was so excited for this semester for two reasons: 1) there are far less people on campus during Spring/Summer than there are in Fall/Winter and 2) this was the first semester that I could take the first Creative Writing class. I love writing, and I really wanted to take this class because I felt that I needed a little help to make my writing the best it can be.
We do writing exercises almost every class period. We have begun studying poetry, and for one of our writing exercises we had to write a poem entitled "Happiness". This is what I came up with.

Snuggled deep under the duvet,
I hear the noisy whispers of my
nieces and their brother.
I peek out and see them
coming in. They crawl to
the very edge, peering and giggling--
sometimes they dare to poke the
sleeping bear that is their aunt.
As stealthy as giant tractors,
they climb onto the bed frame,
test the ocean on top of me, and finally
they leap.

My nephew stares at me,
the stare of a little wise-man.
I have tried everything--he
blinked at peek-a-boos,
yawned at tickles, and
turned away from silly faces.
The boy still stares, boring holes
into my soul until
I am ready to tell him my sins
and weep on his shoulder.
I smack my lips together,
and there it is--the soft smile
that turns him back into a babe
of six months.

There they sit,
the oldest sisters,
crowned by their families,
the glow of motherhood surrounding them
like dust shaken from angel's wings.
As they chatter about diaper brands,
potty training, and baby food,
I ache to belong to that secret circle,
while my younger sister begs me to play.
They turn and smile,
inviting me, and even the youngest, in.
We all four laugh together,
recounting memories from
far away places and
long ago times.

Our giant, our protector--
the man who could crush a hopeful
young man merely with his presence
even as he lovingly carries little ones
on his shoulder--bellows a lion's roar
from outside. Suddenly we are
ants scurrying from here to there,
patiently waiting for
the picnic to be set.
The sweet smell of smoked meat
is tantalizingly strong, and
our father stands amid his
smoldering kingdom.

With a the grace of a swan on a lake,
Mother glides around the house.
Upstairs and downstairs she goes,
gliding from kitchen to living room,
living room to back porch and
back again.
The glow of motherhood does not
simply surround her. She is
steeped in it; it comes from her very pores.
She is benefactress, counselor, wise woman,
comforter.

I am curled up in the armchair,
a blanket tucked around my legs,
an open book in my lap.
Everyone is gone, and
I am encased in silence.

So that's it--that's my poem entitled "Happiness". I've decided that it could also be called "Fourth of July". Tell me what you think!

What a Week!

This week has been pretty crazy. It's midterm time, so that means lots of tests to stress out about and a few papers to procrastinate. Also, we don't get a spring break here at BYU so that's doubly hard. Our last holiday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so all the students are either going crazy in the classrooms, or just plain skipping classes (you can guess which group I'm in).
The weather this week (and most of last week) was gorgeous! I was wearing T-shirts all week, and the one day that I did try to wear a light jacket, I had to tie it around my waist because I was getting hot. And then...last weekend it snowed Friday night and all Saturday. Today it tried to snow--but it failed miserable. Now it's just INCREDIBLY windy.

Weather aside...it's been a pretty normal week. Until Wednesday night that is. On Wednesday night, right before I went to bed, the bottom lid of my right eye started to hurt. I didn't think too much of it because I was really tired and I thought my eye was hurting because of that. By Thursday afternoon there was a lot of pressure on the tear duct area and it had become red and slightly swollen, so I started to freak out a little. Today, I went to the doctor and found out that I have a sty in my right eye! That was pretty crazy. So now I'm "nursing" my eye back to health.

There is some other exciting news. My sister, Chelsey, called me today and told me that she is getting a greyhound on April 9! I'm so excited for her. Now both Heather and Chelsey get adorable dogs, and I get to play with both of them. Good times are up ahead, my friend, good times.

Summer Plans

Guess what Ashley's doing this summer.








No, I'm serious. Guess.








Go ahead. I REALLY want you to guess.








Ok, I can't take it anymore. You guys are too slow at the whole guessing game.








ASHLEY'S GOING TO GUADALAJARA THIS SUMMER!








(Excitement prevails, and everyone is happy)

Masquerade

Last night was the best night I've had since my Thai birthday dinner. Seriously. Want to know why? Of course you do! Last night I attended a MASQUERADE BALL!

My amazing mask!

Let me tell you why I was so freakin' excited about this ball. My family and I first went to Italy when I was seven or eight years old (I'm pretty sure I was seven, but I don't really remember...Chelsey and Heather would remeber). The last part of our trip was spent in Venice. Venice was definitely not my favorite part of Italy (my favorite part was definitely Il Burro in Tuscany), but the one thing that really caught my attention in Venice was the venetian mask.

Cassandra and her date, Sterling.

For those of you who know me really well know that I am a hopeless romantic and I love everything from the 1800s and early 1900s. I attribute this part of my personality to my two older sisters who love all things Jane Austen. I've been reading Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Lucy Montgomery, etc. since I was about ten, I have watched movies like Pride & Prejudice and Anne of Green Gables more times than I can count, and I love everything about the 1800s and the early 1900s. So a masquerade ball was perfect for me. I got to dress up in a beautiful fairytale dress, take vintage dance lessons, and--best of all--wear a real mask! I loved every second of it.

This was my date, Geoff.

Cassandra in her beautiful dress and mask.

Take my breath away

Apart from my birthday (which was fantabulous!), these past two weeks have been a pretty low point, for reasons I will not disclose here. Anyways, I went to see a friend in a play tonight (the play was really good, by the way). When I left my apartment at about 7:00, it was snowing REALLY hard. I was completely covered in snow by the time I get on campus, where the play was. I didn't leave the play until about 10:00, and I figured that the snow had stopped. Boy, was I wrong! It had snowed for the entire three hours I was inside, and it was STILL snowing when I left the theater.

As soon as I stepped outside of the theater, my breath was literally taken away. The campus was GORGEOUS! I'm being completely serious when I say that the sight of a completely snow-covered campus was absolutely incredible.

It sounds ridiculous, I know, but the snow made my heart light. It thrilled me that something so ordinary as stone buildings and dead trees could be transformed into a literal wonderland. The blanket of snow made the night peaceful, and I basically floated home.