hey! it's baldo! i mean...balto.

what a weekend. where do i start?

friday. i spent three hours in the cougareat with natalie. we laughed. and did stupid things, like eat only ice cream and play invisible ping pong. it was excellent. on our way back to liberty, we met this little guy, named gus-gus.

he loved the flowers i was carrying. he even tried to eat them.

later that night, we decided to make a music video with me, steph, heather, and annie. we went to walmart at midnight to film the video and we ended up dancing with charles abouo at 1 am, what?! yeah. that really happened.

the video will be uploaded on youtube sometime in the near future for your viewing pleasure. just picture it: king charles and sargento cheese. yeah.

saturday i had a little spring cleaning rampage. i washed all of my clothes and my sheets and used clorox wipes on everything. then we went to a tri-ward ice skating party.

love me some ren

cutest roomies evah

then i went to a multicultural dinner with alison and shelby and listened to latin music and pretended to not be a creeper (haha). and then heather and steph and i watched shallow hal...which was an interesting choice of movie.

today we went to church. we ate food. i did a little art project featured below (i'm entering it into an art contest for the french club).

we indexed. we watched pocahontas, and now we're watching balto.
"hey! it's baldo!" "do you mean balto?" "yeah..." -me and steph
"balto is like the aladdin of dogs" -stephanie merrill

oh, the shame of the polar bear who fears the water. no wonder we are shunned by our fellow bear. woe is us.

here's to a good week everyone!

nom nom nommin on some kettle corn

just a few things that i love:

1. jam sessions with steph. little known fact, steph plays the guitar really well. we like to sing together while she plays. last night was the first time that we really sat down and did it though. we sang all about us, firework (sheesh that was hard to sing haha), the world spins madly on (actually the music video for this one is about a little monster, and i kind of love it), wagon wheel (i taught her this one! but not on guitar. ha), from where i'm standing (the one redeeming quality of "i'm reed fish"), across the universe, the two of us, parts of i am the walrus, and lots of other good stuff.

2. the episode of psych last night was AWESOME. i got to watch it with steph at her friend's apartment. when it was over, the guy who was sitting next to me grabbed the bottom button on my sweater (it wasn't buttoned up, don't worry) and started pulling on it. i was so confused, and gave him a weird look, and then he realized that the key he thought he was grabbing was actually a button attached to some girl's sweater. oops.

3. cancelled classes. i have two cancelled classes this week, marriage prep and french. that meant that today i was able to come home between classes and take a nice (and much needed) nap. and that tomorrow i get to sleep in because i won't have class until noon. yeah baby!

4. missionary letters are fantastic. i got one from japan from this kid, and one from north carolina from my favorite sister ever!! it was an exciting day for me yesterday. david even wrote my letter on some classically japanese stationary, which just made it that much better.

best envelope ever? i think yes. i miss that kid.

4. byu blogger meet up! i'm super excited about this. i'm going with my new friend brittany (check out her blog!) and my friend shelby. i'm anxious to see what all is going on; apparently there are prizes and lots and lots of good food (it's at the CHOCOLATE for heaven's sakes! who wouldn't want to go to that?!) and finding out about other people's blogs! it's gonna be good stuff. i just have to find something great to wear. for whatever reason, i feel like i need to be incredibly fashionable for this meet up. you know?

5. i'm excited to go to paris. look for upcoming posts of all the things that i am making goals of doing while i'm there. because believe me, there will be multiple.

in slightly sadder news, the plate in our microwave that is supposed to spin mysteriously decided to stop spinning. which means things are getting burned left and right. like my kettle corn. drat.

extreme couponing + the love that let us share our name

today i made dinner and since only steph, heather, and i were home we decided to watch some tv. first we turned on man vs. wild but then we decided that might be a bit unappetizing, because you never know where bear grillz is going to sleep (in the stomach of a dead camel) or what he is going to eat (probably poop or bugs or rotting animals or something like that). so logically we switched to extreme couponing. apparently tonight is a marathon, and we've had it on for the past hour and a half. watching it is probably as addicting as couponing is for those crazy people. we all decided that extreme couponing is robbery; however, it becomes somewhat acceptable when you are donating your goods to charity. (anything is acceptable when you're donating to charity, right? just kidding.) anyway. it's been entertaining watching these crazy people and their addiction hobby.

(funny story: heather: "couponing isn't a hobby, it's an addiction." me: "yeah! it's kinda like saying 'crack is my hobby!'" *silence* i guess it sounded better in my head.)

oh and ps, i'm grateful for the temple. because of the temple, my family can be together forever. i've been reminded of this song today by some dear friends, and i'm grateful that we will be able to see our loved ones again.

always remember there was nothing worth sharing like the love that let us share our name ♡

ben l'oncle soul

forgive the two posts in one day, but this had to be shared.

soulman by ben l'oncle soulman

even if you don't understand, it's an awesome video.

you need sunshine coming through that window

good day sunshine - the beatles

brown-eyed girl - van morrison

feeling groovy - simon and garfunkel

don't come running - hal

i don't really know this version of the song, but it's the only version i could find on youtube.

you don't actually have to watch the videos. i haven't even watched them, if we're being completely honest here. i'm including these because they scream sunshine and lollipops rainbows and...that's another song entirely. i have included it at the bottom of this post, if you have any interest in watching a delightful 1960s music video.

and since we're being completely honest...I AM SO HAPPY THERE IS SUN.

c'est le printemps, ladies and gents. (it is spring, for those of you non-french speakers.)

well, in my head it's le printemps. i'm not even wearing a jacket, it's so nice outside!

it's also miss ali brand's birthday, which is a cause for celebration. have i mentioned how excited i am that i'm going to live with her after i get back from paris? anyways. this morning i texted her and used emojicons, because i'm cool like that, and the following was our conversation:

i sent her some lovely birthday party tacos! jajajajaja.

so in conclusion to this stream of conscience posting, despite the 7 page paper i have to write today, it simply cannot be a bad day no matter what! it's a wonder what a little vitamin d can do for a person.

so let's all go outside and jump for joy! it's good exercise :)

still being completely honest...i kinda want her sweater...a lot.

PARIS PARIS PARIS

like i said, last night was the first time we had our study abroad prep class.

do you want to know how i already know that going to paris is the best decision i have ever made?

the first thing we talked about was food.  for like a half an hour.

and my professor, dr hurlbut, who was in paris only 24 hours before our class, brought us macarons. straight. from. paris.

we all introduced ourselves and talked about majors, interests, etcetera etcetera. and yes, i did just spell that out.

then we watched a movie on how paris was built.

then we talked about how we're not allowed to smile (which will be hard because, duh, smiling is my favorite). apparently if you smile at a guy on the street, he thinks you are coming on to him. and i'm not really interested in that. ANYWAYS.

then my friend annie and i stopped in the restroom and when i flushed the toilet, it pinched my finger and now i have an obnoxious blood blister. true story.

because who wouldn't want to stuff these in their mouth by the dozen? am i right or am i right?

i tried to upload all kinds of photos that i have been drooling over...but apparently blogger didn't want to upload them.  also we will get to see places like this:

le tour eiffel

le musée de louvre

les jardins de versailles

but don't worry. i'm not excited or anything.

sorry if this is all over the place. i can't keep my thoughts straight, and i just want to be there now!

paris paris paris

in about 20 minutes, i'm starting my paris prep class.

AHHHH. so excited.