prop 8 stuff's great

So I've been tensing up and my whole body has been sore, my head has been throbbing and my throat is swollen.

I've been stressing.

I have done no homework....

I've been stressing all day and I'm making prop 8 phone calls tonight.  Everyone is receptive, though.  GOOD DEAL!

General Conference and... blood poisoning?

So I loved General Conference!! Loved it!
It was a great way to end a stressful week of midterms and FIVE essays. FIVE!
All of it was amazing.

But last night... wasn't.

I'll copy text that I typed to my friend. The punctuation and spelling will be in "chat format" (hey, that rhymes!) which basically means in no way is it presentable to the public. :)

But here it goes!

so i took this shower on friday, right?
went to eat, and then when i was walking out of the cannon center my foot hurt REALLY bad
and i didn't know WHY!
so i looked at it, and there was this sore on my foot
and i was like, "UGH that's gross!! I got this from the shower!!!" bc warts and fungus transfer in moist places like showers, right? right.
so then sat. i wake up, and by 9:00, it's kinda swollen
uh huh?
uh huh. and then by 10:00-ish, the bottom of my foot
is ALL swollen, and red
and i couldn't walk
it, okay, it wasn't like the WHOLE bottom of my foot, but around the sore
and it was spreading from the left side of my foot (underneath my pinkie toe)
to the right side, in this kinda line thing (so underneath my big toe)
...no...but wait!
so then i watched conference
and after conference, like, the SIDE of my foot was swelling up kinda too. in spots. teri's mom said it looked like it was an infection in my veins, because that's how the redness looked--not like, swollen broken foot, but just raised, painful, vein-spreading things
and THEN
i went to walmart
and after i got back from walmart, i looked at it, and it was spreading across the top of my foot
and up to my ankles
and that kinda was freaking me out
because i was watching it spread
conference was for church, byw
btw*
and then we asked teri's dad, who works at a hospital, and he said it looked like blood poisoning
and i was like, "AHHH!! I'm going to DIE!"
and so i started drinking tons of water, idk , to clean my system or something, and we watched a movie, and by the end of the movie, it hadn't spread anymore, which was good
and then this morning i woke up, and it's still kinda red on the bottom, but you can't really see it on top of my foot or by my ankle, and it's a lighter reddish color
i seriously almost started crying last night, though
it was stressing me out
but it's okay
well, what's weird
is... okay
i think it was spreading so quickly because my blood was circulating more from walking around walmart and stuff
and so when i laid down and watched a movie
and then went to sleep
i didn't have much blood circulation happening, so my body was able to fight it

CRAZY story, eh?

As of today, a day later, it's still a little swollen, but it's SO much better.  The irritated redness is now just a slight flush of pink, and I can really walk around just fine (occasionally it hurts if I step wrong, but really, it doesn't at all).

I'm just so grateful!! Whatever it was, however serious (or not) it was (or wasn't), I'm just glad it's over.  Thank goodness!!

Other than that, life has been amazing!  I've been attending social things like plays, studying in the library, and watching movies!! It's been fun.  I really enjoyed this weekend, when I got to spend the night first at my friend Chelsea's dorm room and then at my friend Teri's parents house.  We slept in her room in a REAL bed.  It was so wonderful!!  It was also really nice to eat real food as well as to participate in family scripture study!!

GOOD STUFF!!!

AHH!

So life has been going crazy, with midterms and essays due every day (not an exaggeration, sadly)... and I've had no time!
There was even a point when I stayed up until after 2:00 in the morning because I got homesick (yes, my first real homesick wave)... and then I had a math test the next day...
OKAY
so here's the story.
I woke up Friday morning, tired as usual, more smelly than usual, and in definite need to take a shower. I looked at the clock, expecting about 6:21 or something, and after I did a double take and focused my eyes EXTRA HARD... I realized the clock read 7:48.
AHHH!! My class started at 8:00! So I rolled out of bed, changed my pants, put on a sweatshirt, and left. Smelly and completely a mess. I made it to class in 7 minutes and actually showed up early. Miracles, miracles.

That story is not the point for my post, however. I wanted to give you guys all access to see my life!! really...

Let's hope it works!!!

BYU-08

(if not, go to http://picasaweb.google.com/o0bazookabubbles0o/BYU08)

Sunday the Seventh

I had the realization I was actually a college student Friday night. I was attending the "Blu-au" for Helaman Halls kids (a huge party with blow up slides and food and dance and a 150 player twister game..) and something weird happened and I turned to my friend and said, "We're in college."

It was profound... let me tell you.

Also Friday night, after dancing on the Helaman Quad, I had a huge decision to make--which dance to attend?? There were so many!! I ended up going to a dance up by Heritage Halls (it was packed, but free) and then afterwards my friend Chelsea and I went to our friend's apartment and played music. The guys there had an amp set up with their guitars and keyboard plugged in. They even had a drum set, but it was too big and we couldn't fit both us and the drum set in the room, so the drums had to leave. It was amazing, though.

I think that's something I like (and hate) the most about BYU. I absolutely love how everywhere you go there are opportunities to play music!!! Everyone knows everything and is so talented and you can either just play along or sing along or even just enjoy it on the sidelines. It's amazing. EVERYONE is talented. The only downside is I often feel very inferior--but the fun of being able to just randomly sing a song in full harmony or play a song where everyone knows the chords FAR outweighs the inferior feeling.

Other than that, I've been practicing responsibility. It's much harder to be disciplined when living "on your own" and I also just can't make decisions--ever. I ended up dropping out of two classes, and adding two others. I'll be starting guitar classes--who knows? Maybe I'll be good at it--maybe I'll be horrible....
I ended up NOT joining choir. As much as I love singing, I just didn't feel that excited for joining choir at all. I made it through the Preliminary Audition, auditioned for the Women's Chorus Director, made it onto the Callback list, attended one day of callbacks, and then didn't attend the second. It seemed as if every con outweighed the pro--and I just wanted my freshman year to be one where I could slowly adjust, not be thrown into a huge commitment. Of course, I'll probably regret it at some times because I'll be sad that I'm not IN choir, but then I'll remember that taking choir would have pushed out many other possibilities--like guitar class, for example.

Today I attended a regional Stake Conference at the Marriot Center, and I was shocked when the whole room stood and quieted down and PRESIDENT UCHTDORF walked in. I had no clue he was speaking at it!!! Other speakers were Boyd K. Packer (he's got a great sense of humor) and Sister Ann Dibb (General Young Women's 2nd Counselor and President Monson's only daughter) and Elder Marlin K. Jensen of the Seventy. All of their messages were so powerful and inspiring--I'm very glad I went. I'm also glad I got a SEAT... there were 135 stakes in attendance.

THOUSANDS of people.

And amazing enough, I saw the Medleys in that whole mess!!

Today I ate lunch with David Standring, and we laughed about crazy people like James and Daniel--it was great. Like a little piece of home. I've been slightly ripped off, here. I can't talk about my family so much, because no one knows who the heck they are!! It stinks!! I've tried to explain how wonderful my family is, but I just end up babbling.

WHATEVER...

So I like my classes, I have tons of homework, and in fact should be going.

However, if you call me, I will always love to speak to you!!!

My love,
Cebre

Rise and Shout!! The Cougars Are Out...

It's been a while since I posted. I'll try to catch up.:)

As of right now--I'm sick with something. It starts out with feeling very cold in the morning with a runny nose, and then an extremely sore throat in the afternoon. Miraculously, my voice has been here for the two choir auditions I did. Miraculously. I don't know if I'll make the choir-- my tone is nice and my range is awesome, but my pronunciations aren't round--in fact, they're "country-western". Ouch. That makes sense, though. I've never had any instruction. Hopefully she'll still consider me, me and my country voice.

Two thursdays ago (August 21st) I began the Late Summer Honors Program. I enrolled in the "An Intro to Space, Time, and Relativity" class, and I ended up loving it. The girls were (are) amazing!! They're basically the closest friends I have here at BYU (so far). I found the pianos, located in the lobby and the basement, and I've been playing as often as possible.

My class was really awesome. We went to class every day except Sunday up until Tuesday (we had our final on Wednesday) for three hours every day. My professor's name was Dr. "Mad-Eye" Moody. I loved the class especially because of him--I could just tell he loved his students. Of course, I was always asking questions and rambling off on tangents, but people didn't hate me for it. In fact, my friends have been telling me they MISS my random outbursts of joy and confusion. Good thing...
When not in class, we played games and shopped and did HOMEWORK. UGH. Both Thursday and Tuesday night we had dance instruction--line dances and swing dancing--which I already basically knew. It was really fun, though. We also had a dance Tuesday night, and I have to admit that I totally expected the dance to be "lame" because "nerds don't dance."

THEY TOTALLY DANCED!!!

The dance was a blast, and I really really enjoyed it.

The next day, Wednesday the 27th, I began New Student Orientation. NSO was a blast as well!! I met many new people, and it was very similar to another EFY. The first night I was overwhelmed because there were so many people that I didn't know!!! We decided to watch a movie on the Helaman Field--and it was just full of people!! AHHHHH!!!
On the second night there was an Honors Banquet where a live Jazz band performed (AWESOME), and then a performance by the Young Ambassadors titled "A Tradition of Honor." It was meant to teach us the points of the Honor Code with music!!
It was awesome--they started with the "Seize the Day" dance/song from Newsies, and just continued on with the fun!!
There was a live band which played songs like, "Life is a Highway" and the Play that Funky Music White Boy song that I hear EVERY DAY.
THEN Jericho Road performed a couple of songs, and THEN
after the closing prayer...

The band set up again. A girl was being led up to the stage, and the drummer said, "So this guitarist here wrote a song for the love of his life, and wants to perform it for her."
And so the band started playing and the guitarist started singing, and let me tell you, it was the most adorable song ever!!
I turned to the girl next to me and said, "If he doesn't propose to her now, when will he get a better chance??"
After a couple versus and after the third chorus, the verse began, "Down on one knee..."

I jumped up, as did the many other thousands of students in the Marriott Center. "No. way."

Then the drummer put down his guitar, and knelt down, and showed his girlfriend a ring. People were crying and screaming and laughing....

Was there a better way to start off my college career at BYU??

I submit that there was not. :)






OH!! I forgot!! I also went to my first Cougar Football Game!!! Against Northern Iowa. We CREAMED them. They also injured a couple of quarterbacks--it was really sad. Their players just kept getting injured over and over again...

but it was crazy!! I was in my BYU Quest T-shirt, like a fan should be, and we won!!! My football team has never won before :).

Then last night was another dance--this time with all the NSO kids. There was the dance, then "The Dating Game" in the Wilk. Ballroom, some inflatable obstacle courses in the Wilkinson Center, and people were playing volleyball on the side. What an extravaganza!! Funny thing, though, I danced mainly with the kids I knew from Late Summer Honors--it's just so much easier that way.

:)

Greetings!
I have officially been in Utah for, well, two days!
Life has been crazy, as a Standring. Watching Michael Phelps was SO INTENSE!! The whole family, all sons (excepting Garrett) and wives and daughter, was there and it was a blast! In fact, we had dinner last night with the Carver family, the maternal grandparents of the Standrings, all of their cousins, and such. It was a ton of fun!!
And this was AFTER going to the Seven Peaks WaterPark!! It was so much fun!! and not too hot,
in FACT, I got COLD.

I miss seeing GREEN!! The only green here is the grass that they labor to keep watered...

Moving on...

I've moved!

It's quite moving, emotionally, no pun intended. It was sad for me, to say "goodbye, beach" "goodbye, redwoods!", "goodbye..."
It was sad.
Of course it was even MORE sad leaving my family. I love my family, and as I left, I learned how much they love me. It really reallllly touched me.

The drive was interesting. Every time we stopped, I woke up--it was basically a no-stop drive, though. I avoided driving the 12-seater van (which is bigger than a SEMI in my brain) as long as I could, and then finally I got stuck with driving it t 3:41 a.m. PDT. Oh, it was creepy!!! The van was much harder to handle than I was used to, and the road was reallllly narrow. I mean, there was road construction (yeah.) and the HUGE cones were on MY lane, the lane I was supposed to drive in. Bascially, I had to drive between the construction cones and the guard rails... I was just glad there were no semi's nearby.

Finally, that ended, and I was much more comfortable. I had two full lanes to relax in, and the sun started to rise!! I ended up driving for a straight 2.5 hours, which is the longest period of time I have ever driven at once. The sunrise was beautiful.

Today, I slept and slept and slept some more, then I went to the park, came back to the Carver's (Standring grandparents) home, slept, and then went bowling!! I bowled a 111. It was a lot of fun!! I bowled left-handed as opposed to my usual right-handed bowling techniques, and I even messed around a bit, trying to bowl while laying on my stomach. Partway through our game James and April Standring showed up, and at the end Jason and Kendra Standring arrived. We decided to go back to James and April's apartment, and we watched the MOST INTENSE RACE OF MICHAEL PHELPS EVER!!! We were doubtful, and when his lane lit up with the number 1, the cheer was deafening. I'm glad I found people as enthusiastic about it as I was!

As it is 11:11 pm, I should probably go. I have to get used to this Mountain time!! It's only 10 something at home...

Much love:)
Cebre

Blackberries

Today I went blackberry picking, and I don't think I can even express how delicious juicy, fresh, and warm... blackberries are!

I made up my own little jingle to get through the painful process of plucking those plump berries... it's to the tune of "Anyone Else But You" by the Moldy Peaches:
"We're picking berries, they're so yummy...
They feel so good and warm in my tummy!
I can't see why people eat anything else...
oh... do do dodo do doododododooo...."
Over and over again.

Then, Thursday I got A Blackberry. Phone. I like it; I have better service, and I can actually see the screen now! YAY!

Batman and Beauty

So I don't want to go into a full on critique of the newest Batman film, but I will say that I enjoyed it. I was a little bummed that they didn't play the Batman Theme Song, and I didn't like Rachel, but I really thought Heath Ledger did an outstanding job as the joker. It takes talent to turn something evil into something likable. Johnny Depp is the only other person I can think of that really captured the same type of thing. They're not the good guys, but you still like them anyway...
I also enjoyed how the midnight viewing I went to at Mill Creek was not only a block party, but it was like a town party!! There were about 40 people there that I either knew or recognized from my stake, and then at least 40 others from school that of course I enjoyed talking to. Most people were tired during the movie, but I was still buzzing because of all the social action I got to have!! Oh, I love seeing friends.

On a different note...
this is a different and more uplifting movie.

Please watch it.
http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/dsef07/t5.aspx?id=7373&filmno=2

Space case?

I always knew I was forgetful. I mean, there have been many times when I forget what I was about to say, or forgotten to do something trivial. Heck, there's even been a time when I believed I turned in a HUGE essay and I never did. That was strange.

BUT I NEVER KNEW that I could completely confuse dates. Today I went to the ear doctor for a post-post-op. appointment. The appointment was set for 11:20, so we showed up at the office at about 11:21. I decided to let my mom check in, I was going to read a magazine about endangered species...
and then I heard the receptionist say, "Her appointment is not until next week..."

Um, okay.

My mom and the receptionist spoke some more, and I paid some attention. I made a comment about ear drops and the pharmacy, and then my mom and I saw fit to leave.

The receptionist was about to shut her window, and then decided to make one more comment: "...and the appointment on the 21st is at 11:10."

I was not only a week early, but I was also ten minutes late.

"No News is Good News": The Big Lie?

It is, at least pertaining to my life events.

I've been living in ignorance, and let me tell you, the saying "Ignorance is Bliss" also does not apply to this situation!

The bliss is here now that I have full and complete knowledge.

Curious?...








Okay, I'll tell you:). TODAY I RECEIVED $2,500 IN SCHOLARSHIPS! I wasn't completely ignorant... I knew I was receiving them, but I did not know of the amount! I knew I was receiving $250 of that total. Only 10%!!!! Is it not an amazingly grand thing that I was mistaken?

I agree.

Oh, more good news. I received my AP Test Results today, and I got a 4 (out of 5) on my Spanish AP Test!

I am resisting the urge to call my Spanish Teacher and gloat; she once told me, "What makes you think you'll even pass?" I think the biggest reason I'm resisting the urge to call her may just be that I do not have her phone number, but that's insignificant.

Mis oidos (con un accento sobre la i)

My ears need to work much more effectively. The strain of trying to listen is starting to disappoint me.

I became a tad bit sad last night, thinking about my life and how it was and how it is now and how it will be... and just missing so many friends. It was hard. It was a     l o n g     night.

<3

I saw this comic, and fell in love! (That's not "punny", I know, but there was no pun intended, just for the record)

moving on...

So it's taken me MONTHS to start this blog, for one main reason...
I had no clue what to call it! Isn't that horrible? I guess I'm just really bad at decision-making...
Anyway, like the name, mom? :)

This is to update all of you, over there, about me, here! I hope you enjoy my life... I've seemed to for the most part, and because of that I will most definitely be posting little interesting parts of mi vida loca on here.

Much love!
Cebre

oh, and here's a pic of my beloved family.... it doesn't look like me at all. it's actually a horrible pic of me. so avoid that part of it!