Christmas Holidays!

I love Christmas and I'm so sad that the holidays are coming to a close! I've had so much fun this Christmas so far. I've visited my friends in Drumheller, gone home to Cardston for Christmas, went to Vegas for a couple days (details and pictures later once I have a cord to upload all my pictures) and now I'm in Utah at Erin and Darrin's with my family! I kind of feel like a jerk for being so concerned with what my friends are doing and not paying as much attention as I could to my family who I only get to see a few times a year. I'm hoping to pack in all the family time I can now, especially since there's only a few more days until we head back to cold, cold Canada (but to make all you Canadians feel any better, it's pretty dang freezing here too. Vegas was warm, though!). Tonight for New Years, I'll be going to the house of my aunt and uncle, Wilf and Laura, who live not in Utah as well. I'm excited to bring in the new year and see what kind of exciting things will happen this year! So much has happened, and I'm sure so much more will happen as well.

So if I haven't told you before, MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

My First Race!

So a while ago, my roommate, Anne, decided to sign us all up for a 5k race. She wanted to get a big group of us to go because it was cheaper for a larger group, and being students, we aim for anything cheap.We signed up for the Salvation Army Santa Shuffle which was to take place on December 5th. So the day finally arrived! Unfortunately, the day before the race, a huge blizzard blew into Calgary and made road conditions extremely crappy. As Anne and her sister were heading to the race, their car got stuck and they weren't able to make it. Luckily for Tamara, Catherine and I, we only got stuck a few times and were able to power through in her Buick. Jenna and her sister showed up in a different vehicle.

We started at around 10:20. We were supposed to start at 10:00am but, as you know, weather conditions were bad and we ended up being a little late. However, we kept on going, I ran ahead to see how well I could do and it ended up that we passed a whole bunch of people (probably because they were walking). But after 5.8km, we all made it to the finish line! I think my time was around 30 minutes (the time clock froze) and Tamara made it about 35 minutes. Jenna and Catherine showed up at around 40 minutes I think. Afterwards, we got free Subway subs and lots of treats. Yay for running!

GLEE!

So I've been watching this new show on TV lately called "Glee". It's in its first season and so far, it's sooo good! It's basically about this Glee club who are forced to get a new Glee instructor after their original one was fired and how it all works out. I love it because they redo a lot of popular songs, both new and old, but they all still sound original. They have a really talented cast as well. My favorite character, I must say though, is Artie the paraplegic. He's just so hilarious! Plus, he used to be in a boy band called NLT (Not Like Them) so he's a super good dancer and singer. It's ironic though because he's confined to a wheelchair and can't do any actual dancing. Oh man!

Kevin McHale as Artie in Glee



Kevin McHale in NLT (Not Like Them)

I SAW IT!

Yup, I saw New Moon last night. So good!!! Although the acting was better than the first, some parts were still pretty hilarious. AND OOH JACOB. Can Bella crack her head open in every scene so Jacob can rip off his shirt to stop the bleeding?? I'm pretty sure this movie pushed me way over to the Jacob side of things. Those are just my thoughts though. Think what you may...

Preference!!!

Last night was Calgary's YSA preference dance. It was tons of fun!

I ended up asking a guy named Eric who was in my ward to go with me. I had never spoken to him before, he was just on a random list of guys who hadn't gotten asked yet. My roommate, Jenna, and I decided to ask someone to preference so we just went and asked them! I was so nervous but it ended up working out really well!

Before preference, a big group of us and our dates hung out at one of their houses and we each were allowed to spend $4 on dinner that we would all combine into a big dinner. After we did that, we drove a short distance away to a park to go ice-blocking. It was so much fun! We tried to make a large train of us to go down the hill, but that ended in disaster haha. But we had a bunch of races, a bunch of wipe-outs (I have the bruises to prove it), and a bunch of dirt-stains all over our clothes. Good times!

Then, we headed back to the same house we were at before to get ready for preference. After we had all gotten ready, we all left in separate cars to get to the chapel. Eric and I carpooled it. When we got there, it was all winter theme (it actually reminded me of the types of high school proms that you always see in the movies) and they had a little photo-booth set up where you could get your pictures taken. The dance ended at 12 and then we all went our separate ways. Oh what a night!

P.S. Thanks for letting me borrow your dress, Erin!

Here are some photos!

A BACKSTREET TRIBUTE TO ANDREW- Love Anne

So...preference is coming up. My roommate, Anne, asked one of her really good guy friends to come because she knew they'd just have a good time. She still wanted to find some creative way to ask him, though, so she was planning on writing him a funny poem or something. But they went to school together in Grade 6 and danced to a particular Backstreet Boy song so I spruced it up a bit so she could use it to ask him. This is what I do instead of writing an essay!

To the tune of "I want it that way"


A BACKSTREET TRIBUTE TO ANDREW CUCOU
Sung (potentially) by Anne Woznow
Written by Stephanie Olsen

Friday, it's dance time
Won't it be sublime
But we'd be so great
Will you be my pref date?

And we'd be so cool
Kickin it old school
Give it to me straight
Will you be my pref date?

CHORUS:
Tell me why
I'm writing you this lame song
Tell me why
It's taking me so dang long
Tell me why
I really need to concentrate
will you be my pref date

And be go way back
Further than 2 Pac
Check it, or checkmate
Will you be my pref date?

CHORUS

Yes I've been slackin on my temple trips
Yes I know that it's been a while
YEAH
No matter the distance, I'll make it someday
Just give me a little smile!

I fit in my shirts
Your tickles now hurt
Will you, will you, will you, will you...
BE MY PREF DATE

Yeeeaaaahhhh

Ain't nothin but a dance
Just give it a little chance
I hope you appreciate
Will you by my pref date?

Will you be my pref date...???

October, You Sly Devil!

OCTOBER IS OVER ALREADY? SERIOUSLY??

Besides my mass of schoolwork and lame midterms, life in Calgary has been a lot of fun! There were a lot of fun YSA activities in October. We had an Improv acting night, a pumpkin carving night around Halloween (Tamara, my roommate, and I carved a wicked spider) which had so many cool ideas, and just recently we had a Human Battleship FHE activity!

We also had the privilege to hear a CES Broadcast from Pres. Uchtdorf who gave an awesome talk. He always incorporates good stories in to his talk. He even dissed Shakespeare! Shakespeare!! " 'To be or not to be is not the question.' If I were to rephrase this I would say, 'Knowing that I am a child of God...' ". SO GOOD!

Speaking of being a Child of God...nothing says Child of God like a zombie! With the wondrous Halloween festivities, another roommate of mine, Jenna, and I went on a Zombie walk on 17th Ave in Calgary. The purpose of it was to raise food donations but Jenna and I forgot...oops. But that's ok, we looked pretty gross.

Also, on the day before Halloween, Anne and Jenna (2/3 of my roommates) went to Lethbridge with two other friends to go to a dance since Calgary is lame and decided not to have a Halloween dance this year. It was super lame for the first hour with whole 10 people that were in the gym but it got fun within the last hour or so. The costumes were awesome! Some guy was even dressed up like Inspector Gadget. He had an antennae on his thumb that he could pull out to talk on the phone. He had a retractible arm and a propellor on his hat. AND he walked on stilts the whole night. Talent? I think so.

I dressed up like Cleopatra for Halloween

You can't really see too much of my costume, just mainly that awesome double chin.

Anne dressed up like Medussa...

AND Jenna dressed up like Poison Ivy from Batman. She did an awesome job.

It was a good night!! On the actual day of Halloween, we had the missionaries over, made them carve a pumpkin for us and gave them a crap-load of treats. Nothing say "Return with Honor" like Type 2 Diabetes! Enjoy, Elders!

Brian and Sarah came to Calgary on Halloween to come to an LDS Halloween party at a rented out restaurant. I don't think they really enjoyed themselves too much since it was mainly a dance and Brian's not much of a dancer. I hope they had an OK time though!

But anyways...it's November now...sigh. Here comes the pain!!