An Update!

Okay folks, whoever reads this... I really have no idea who you are, but if you get on here every once in awhile, you might wonder where the likes of Alyssa Kristine have gone.... and well, in the land of school, cross country, working, volunteering, and trying to sleep somewhere in between, blogging is RARELY in the cards :)
So where to pick up? We will start with SCHOOL!
Senior year has started out great, and in the past month I have developed some very good answers to 2 questions various adults pose to me...
1. "How is senior year?" To which I reply, 148 days (as of Sept 26) left til I graduate! (but who is counting? haha I have plotted in my agenda a countdown til May 22.... the day that has a shining beacon of light descending upon it)
2. "What are your plans for next year?" Oh. My. Heck. Let's just say I get this question at least 2 times per day, and while usually I want to tell people I am planning on running away to the circus, I usually rattle off the colleges I am applying to: BYU, BYU-I, BYU-Hawaii, Utah State, University of Utah, and University of Montana. This response is so robotic I think I can get it out in like 5 seconds, so usually people tell me to repeat it. Ha, wow.
Don't get me wrong though, I do enjoy talking about the future, various plans, and, hey, turning 18 in 6 months :)
Anyways, senior year at Timberline is excellent! My schedule is as follows-
AP Literature- we analyze poetry.... I dislike it.
Seminary- Seminary co-president. Wooh!
AP Spanish- En el dia de bloque, yo creo en espanol por todo el dia... pero sin embargo, me lo encanta :)
Psychology- easy class- we watch movies allll the time
AP Statistics- I can type numbers into a graphing calculator at the speed of light!
Government- oh, it is like kindergarten, really. Obama 2008!
So, my year is going to be semi difficult... I just couldn't bring myself to fill my schedule with ceramics, study halls, and off campuses when I was choosing classes last year, but oh, some days I wish I had them!
On to the next topic.... CROSS COUNTRY!
This is without a doubt the funnest high school sport. I love it! I get along with my whole team, which is mostly comprised of sophomore boys who talk about hyperbolas and gravity laws during long runs, but nevertheless, we have tons of fun! We have a race every week, and I've been competing at the varsity level... but don't let that fool you... I think our team has maybe 15 girls altogether, so Varsity is pretty easy to get onto! Our meets are all in the country, and so this is awesome, to be able to run through the fresh air, feel the sweat run into your eyes and burn, :) and everything else that adds up to be XC! Next week Varsity Boys and Varsity Girls are traveling to Bend, OR to compete... I will have to try to write more frequently and post pictures about that!

The most hilarious picture you will ever see of me running. It is SICK!

Next up is HOMECOMING!

Homecoming was really fun this year! I went with Matt Loveland, and for this, I think pictures will explain what happened a lot better than words... haha

This is how I got asked.... a snowman in my front yard!

This is how I replied... by smearing peanut butter alllll over Matt's car.. it was supposed to say, "It'd be nuts to go to Homecoming", but my letters all melted in the sun!! :O)

The girls in my group

The entire group

Me and Matt

However, this isn't even the funnest part about homecoming! The funnest part is the HOMECOMING GAME! This year we even won, which is quite the accomplishment for THS. Oh, and let's just say it was probably because of all the spirit coming from these girls....

Okay, okay well actually this was us after we lost our Powderpuff Game...
We try not to dwell on it. And whenever a junior speaks about the defeat, well...
let's just say that they learn better. :)
Really this is the homecoming game!

Yes, as a matter of fact that is a tramp stamp on our mannikin's butt!

THS- WE DA BEST! :)

But anyways, it was really fun! And I think that is enough for one post :)

GIRLS CAMP

So today my mom posted a blog about potato chips. Then, she asked me why I haven't updated in awhile, and I thought.. hum my life can't be so boring that I can't beat a potato chip entry. :) So, I figured, "hey. I might as well write about good ol' GC 2008!" And so this is me, writing about Girls Camp. And posting pictures. Cuz really, who wants to read about things when they can just look at the pics? Not me, thats for sure. :)

This was during Skit Night... I was supposed to be a nice version of a Stake Leader. I played the part pretty well. :) This nice gangster pinching my very firm glute is Sarah Blazzard. :)

This was our camp band, Slightly Sacreligious. I am on the end... and totally was the brain who came up with the idea for a camp band to serenade the girls during the first day of camp

Britni, Me, and Sarah one night..

This was us rafting the Payette River. I talked in a southern accent the whole trip, and our guide totally believed me, Janie, from Southern Alabama :)

Just me and some of my friends before we hit the river!

Again, some friends.. and that guy in the back was James, our river guide. We all thought he was, oh, maybe 26? Yeah, when we found out he was 33 we were all a little creeped out...

Me, playing the role of Bad A stake leader

Dang it feels good to be a junior leader. :) The "Hard Hat Women" of 2008

Us assembling for Slightly Sacreligious' final performance. :)

Overall, camp was a fun experience. It was fun to have both of my sisters there with me for my final year of going to Girls' Camp, and wow. I felt so old! I just kept remembering how when I was a first year, only 12 years old, and I would see all the junior leaders, and just stare at them in awe. "Wow they are SENIORS! They are almost 18!" Are the only thoughts that would run through my mind during that first year when I would be graced with a Junior Leader's presence. :) And what can I say? Now, I totally understand what it is like to have awesomeness radiate from every pore in your body as a JL. :) But yes, overall, camp was a good experience, but I am glad to be moving on to another chapter of my life where we don't sing about what makes hippos smile and be awakened to Stake Leaders banging pots and pans together. :)

ANTONIO

Yes, yes... the time has come. I have been with so many others, and none have stuck with me for more than a few months. The love always fades... either they "die", just get lost, or I just get bored with them... and so on Monday when I had enough with the last one, I met Antonio... the BlackBerry. No, no I am not talking about MEN in any way, shape, or form. (for my luck with them is even worse than my luck with phones :D) I am talking about the new love of my life.. the one that will go with me everywhere, let me press all the buttons, and keep me company in the long hours of the night. *sigh*

Okay, you can all stop drooling now! Before I go any further, just let me explain why I named my phone Antonio. First off, ever since I was young I have liked to name things... I was always Felicia in house, I frequently had to write new stories because I had thought up the perfect name for one of the characters, and so on and so on. When we purchased my truck, I knew he was Rusty... right away, and after only a few days of buying my cruiser, Rico Suave basically named himself! (for it is an unwritten law that all cruisers must possess Hispanic nomenclature!) So anywhoo, when I got Antonio, for a whole day he was nameless... in fact I didn't even know his gender, until I was bored at work, and then it it just came to me.. dang. Naming my children is going to be cake!
You may ask, Why the h-e-double-hockey-sticks does this girl need a phone with GPS, internet, e-mail, bluetooth file transfer, music player, and such... and the answer? Well... I don't really know.... You see, my upgrade was due, and I just thought, what the hay... let's do it! While getting to know a new phone is a little stressful, Antonio and I are having fun getting to know each other... and while his buttons are a little misshapen, his powering up time a little slow, and his transfer rate unpredictable, we all have our kinks, don't we? :)
... I have 14 days to figure out if he has a place in the next 2 years of my future or not. Oh the pressure!

Sunscreen Kills?

Today, we decided it would be fun to adventure to the pool in Pocatello, Ross Park, to try to get some "color" as my aunts Julie and Annette kept saying (and kept making me laugh :D) So, we went, and at first, I didn't worry about sunscreen, cuz how would I get "color" if I blocked all the UVB rays? :) Anyways, after about an hour, I decided it was time to slather it on. I got out my cute little travel size sunscreen, and as me and my cousin put it on, my aunt Annette chimed in, saying "You know I heard that the chemicals in sunscreen cause cancer?" I was thinking, um... come again?! Sunscreen protects us from the sun! You know, S-U-N-S-C-R-E-E-N, its kind of literal... haha. So anyways, she went on to tell us that the chemicals in it aren't good for your skin, and I just let it go in one ear, out the other. (My father is a proud sunscreen addict, and tries to make me a user, too. :D) Anyways, when we got home, I got on the computer to check out this fascinating tidbit. (But had to reposition my butt frequently from the pain of getting ROYALLY FRIED). Anyhow, this is the link to the site, and I thought it was interesting... and my conclusion?
eh... we're gonna all die anyways. :)
But here's some pics of us livin it up at the pool!

before our "color" :) Brynlee, Lex, and me

hey look! it's us getting some sweet vitamin D! :)

Aunt Annette, Aunt Julie, Lex, and Me

uh... the product. UVB KILLS!
...but so does sunscreen

IDAHO FALLS

So, here I am, waiting for my cousin to get off work, and loving how every summer, Christmas, and other random holidays, I take over her bathroom, (but she steals my mascara, so I don't feel too bad) hog the bed, (and the covers... I get yelled at every morning for it :D) and take over her computer. :) Nothing like living the good life in IF! So anyways, I figured I'd put some pics on of what we have been doing! Enjoy

Morgan, Me, and Lex at the fireworks

Lex and Rob


Me, Ryker, and Lex on Sunday

Me, Lex, and Chayden. I look excellent with facial hair

I painted Chayden's toenails. :)

doing tricks on the trampoline!

our friendship star :)

building a house of cards!
(we were NOT bored)

poor Rob had his wisdom teeth out.. he was loopy and tired

me and Lex driving in the her Trib.. so safe. :)

COLLEGE ROAD TRIP!

So yep, that's what I've been up to the last week. Glorious college trips. When I tell people I went on college trip I usually get the response of, "college what?" So I'll give you the definition of it.

college trip (co'lle'ge trip)- The act of driving to far away universities, getting escorted around in a golf cart to see campuses, eating sick cafeteria food, and then almost having it come back up when tuition costs and handed over. See time consuming, recruiting videos, and Asian tour guides. :)

My dad and I began our journey at 4:30 in the morning on Monday morning. at...

UTAH STATE

Utah State University is located in Logan, Utah, which is a beautiful little college town. The whole reason we had to get up at 4:30 was to make it to our campus tour at 10:15. Well, with a little help from me driving 79 (only when Dad was sleeping, of course) and only one bathroom break, we made it. First we went to an informational seminar, followed by a campus tour, then a housing tour, lunch in the cafeteria, and then a meeting with an academic adviser. I really liked Utah State, mainly because it was small, everything was close together, (the dorms are literally 30 seconds from the buildings) and the location is absolutely B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L.
The academic advising session was interesting.. right now my future plans are to become a dentist, so to do that I have to major in Biology.But anyways, lets just say this whole meeting was a very rude awakening, and in an instant alllllll my ignorance about the degree being an easy one to achieve had vanished. Between taking Bio 450285, Bio 20348, Bio 29342342, Organic Chemistry, Chemistry 03285, Chemistry 30453, Chemistry 12313, Calculus, and such, MAN I was feeling a little dizzy.

After the school, we drove to SLC to stay the night. We wanted to go swimming really bad outside, so we found the classiest 4 star hotel we could.. the glorious Motel 6! Right when we got inside, a wave of "What the ___ were we thinking?" rushed over us. The place smelled like the shampoo we bathe Griffey in, the carpet was wet, and when my dad pulled down the covers on his bed, he found that somebody had been eating something on the bed, cuz there were crumbs all in the sheets. SICK. We looked at each other, looked at the bed, looked at eachother, and I said, "uh... Dad, should we tell them?" And after some debating, we decided that we would just tough it out.. we figured if we told maintainance they might give us WORSE sheets. Oh sick. So, we hurried to get our suits on, went out to the pool and tried not to think about our ghetto room from Hell.. at the low price of 55$ a night! :) And it didn't even bother me that much.. I just wore sweats, socks, and a sweatshirt to bed. And every time I woke up to find any part of my flesh on the sheets, I would hurry to whip it off. And I think everything worked out, cuz I'm not dead yet!

UNIVERSITY OF UTAH

Located on a hill in Salt Lake City, Utah, our journey at this school began in finding the dang place! However, we finally did, and then we went to a meeting about tuition, scholarships, and such. Then we did a campus tour, and that was followed by me and my dad trying to find the dorms, which are located on a hill up above the campus. Wow. It is like a vertical drive up, and I'm not too hip on this... it would take 5 seconds to get to class, but 30 minutes to get back to the dorms after class! So anyways, the thing I did like about the school was the location, but I am having difficulties getting over the fact that the living quarters are so far away.. and that there is only one closet in each room! (Not good for two girls to share one little closet. )
After this school, we went to Provo to see

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY

BYU is really nice. When we got there we were given a tour via golf cart, which was a nice break, cuz I was feeling like a wimp and didn't want to be walking! But anyways, the campus is nice, the tuition is low, (I guess? Thats what I'm told, however I don't consider 1700 a semester very "low" :D) and they have some good study abroad programs. After the tour I went to Heritage Halls to visit my friends, Emily Scoggin and Jill Terry, who are going to the summer session. They told me how much they love it, so thats good. They all introduced me to their room mates, and we walked around campus and played some serious Catch Phrase. Oh the college life!
After this school, we went to my grandma Virchow's house to visit the family, and seek lodging in her house. :) No more ghetto hotels for us! In the morning I got up early to get my hair done, my miracle worker Teressa, and then we headed out for....

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY- IDAHO

Located in Rexburg, Idaho, BYUI is kind of like another world... full of "living quarters approved for young women", pregnant women, and suit coats. That about sums it up! We went to an informational tour guided golf cart ride, and they gave me a free shirt, which I was pretty stoked about. Pretty sure me and my father looked out of place though... he was wearing shorts (don't faint) and that is pretty much not allowed at the school, and I was wearing some nice purple velour pants... don't judge me, okay? The tour was nice, the campus is nice, and the people are nice. But that is about it... I kind of decided no for BYUI when they told me the boy to girl ratio is 1 boy to 3 girls. That means there are only 25% boys and 75% girls. Honestly? haha

So, thats college trip. I learned some stuff, but I still don't know where I want to go to school.. or how I am going to fund it! :) Oh well, it was fun, and a good experience.

Summer...

Oh the summertime.. I can't believe it is already almost July- the best season of the year is just zoomin on by! But anyways, this summer I decided to start trying to save for this thing called, "college". Yeah, totally foreign to me and my parents. We don't understand anything about this little process. Scholarships, college visits, FASFA? WTF! haha it's been a pretty interesting journey, and anyhow, my summer so far has been jammed with college prep, which is funny, because all my friends think I am crazy for working 4-5 days out of the week, taking online economics, cramming in volunteer hours, and spending the rest of my time on fastweb.com, applying for every 500$ scholarship out there. Yeah, let's just say its been an adventure. :) Granted, I have had lots of fun, though. But I think my definition of "fun" has become a bit ambiguous.. lets just say the highlight of my summer is going to end up being going to Girls' State, and Utah on college trips next week. Wow. I think most of my kick has been because I have lots of friends that are leaving me for college this year, and I just want to be in the "college mindset"with them, or something. Call me crazy.

In this schedule, I do, however, find some time to have a good ol' time, and lately, that time has been spent at the Boise River. Okay, so if you don't live in Boise, if you've never experienced the Green Belt, if you've never fallen off your tube on one of the rapids, if you've never seen some dumb guy get a few misdemeanors for having an open can, you will never be able to fully comprehend the majesty of the experience, but I will do my best to explain..

Okay, so the river. Man, if you are a River Newb, this little journey can cost you a fortune! First, you pay 5 bucks to park at Barber Park, the start of the river. After you've forked over this, it costs 30+ bucks to rent tubes/rafts/lifejackets, and a little baby roll of duct tape costs 5 bucks, too. (For when you are lucky enough to find a nice hole as a gift in your raft) So after the river, you have to have transportation back to the start, right? Welllll... it costs a small fee to park at the end of the river, too. If you don't want to pay this you can always pay 3 bucks a person to ride the shuttle back to Barber... yeah what a HEADACHE! Anyways, after countless trips down the river, my posse has figured out how to do our favorite thing for GRATIS. (free, in Spanish.) First, we always make sure to pawn a raft off of someone, and this year, my parents actually bought 2 tubes, so this waives the equipment fee. We always make sure to park in some random person's front yard in a gated community near the river, getting rid of parking pains. And last, we are always sure to get out of the river early, use the TCBY phone, and make someone's parents come pick us up. We all think we are pretty smart.

So anyhow, this week, we've gone 2 times so far. And let me tell you, they have both been an adventure. On Monday, Cloey, Diana, David, Will, and I braved the river. Everything went well until we filled up our raft at the river. Pretty sure we had a big momma hole in a very crucial part of the raft. Awesome. This is when we discovered the 5 dollar roll of duct tape for sale! Yep, it didn't even work. So anyways, we decided, eh, oh well, and set off in our raft and with my 2 tubes, and Will had one, too. Everything went well until the 3rd rapid. David and I always almost die when we brave the river together.. on this particular rapid! This time was no exception. On this particular trip, David fell off his tube, and me, exhibiting compassion, tried to wait for him... and was commanded to wait by him. So, I tried to stop, but the current is fast, and it is shallow! So this really did nothing for me but kill my feet. By this time David's tube was waaaay down the river, so I pulled over, and we decided we would just get out and run to catch up with everyone, because they were NOT waiting. So we got out, and, arm in tube, we ran on the rocky gravel path to a place where we thought we could get in and meet up with them. Nope, they were too far away. We ended up doubling on a little tube, using our feet as our "rutter" and arms as paddles. It actually didn't work too bad.. I think we should go into the sailing business or something! :D

Today we went to the river, too. This time me, Cloey, and Diana only really wanted to do the rope swing, so we floated to it, I managed to fall off my tube 2 times, (Cloey says it is just cuz I can't balance my body right.. yeah... uh huh!) and we jumped off the big cement blocks on the side of the river, and then made our way to the rope swing. It was really fun.. we got Diana to jump off it, which was quite a feat, but we did have to ask the police officer nearby to put an ambulance on standby in case she hit the tree. :) The sad story was that on the way home one of my tubes fell out of the bed of my truck, so I drove to where I could flip a U-ie, and SOME SCHMUCK HAD STOLEN MY TUBE! Yep, in the span of maybe 45 seconds, someone had jumped out of their car and taken my tube from the middle of the road. I was extremely angry. Who the ___ would do that? Just writing about it is making my blood pressure spike a bit. But eh, I think I might live. :) But those are my river stories so far. Hopefully they were enjoyed.