EFY 1999: A Season For Courage

In 1999 when Ally and I were at the ripe age of 14 we decided to do what most LDS teenagers do for a week every summer.... go to EFY. We had very high expectations of our week away from home: late nights, freedom to run around as we please, cute boys, and of course everyone's TOP priority at age fourteen to learn more about the gospel. Well, our week went a little bit differently than we expected, EFY was full of rules, nerdy boys, mandatory dances, gross food, and early nights followed by early mornings. By Tuesday we were sitting on our prison cots wishing that we could go home. I distinctly remember Ally saying, "It's only Tuesday and I hate this, how are we going to last until Friday it seems like we've been here for a month and it's only been two days." We were spiritual giants at a very young age! After what seemed like an eternity Thursday finally rolled around and we decided that our EFY experience needed to end right now, Ally called her Mom and somehow convinced her that she needed to pick us up early (keep in mind Ally's the baby in her family and has a very "special" relationship with her Mom!). Soon the Zollinger's red Suburban rolled into the parking lot and I felt like I had never seen such a beautiful sight. We loaded our stuff up and were on our way back to civilization! To everyone's suprise we never ventured back to EFY.

Until a few summer's ago I thought I had gotten nothing out of that long 4 days spent at Rick's College, but I was wrong. It was a Sunday and I was living with Ally in Provo when I stumbled upon my EFY 1999: A Season For Courage CD, I popped it into my CD player knowing it had never been listened to. I don't know what it is about that CD but I fell in love. It stayed in my CD player for months, I listened to it everyday. Yes, at the age of 21 I was listening to EFY everyday of the week and loving every minute of it. Ally and I had opposite schedules that summer so you can imagine my shock when I turned on the CD one day and Ally knew every word to every song, she had been listening to it too. To this day we still listen to that CD often! Now that it's all said and done I'm glad I went to EFY, it was worth it to get that CD if nothing else. Thank you EFY for bringing me so many hours of joy these past few years, I will never forget you and the torture you put me through to get that CD!

Beck Beck's Tag Tag

Geez Beck, you sure set the bar high on this one. I’m gonna have to come up with all sorts of crap in order to compete with this. Well here goes nothin’. I hope I don't let you down.

1-Becca is a hard core teeny bopper. She may be 22-years-old but she'll forever be a crazy teenager at heart. She loves the Olsen Twins, watches movies like: Bring it on, Cinderella Story, Step Up, and She's the Man. She listens to pop music like: Jesse McCartney and Hilary Duff. She watches: Laguna Beach, The O.C., and One Tree Hill. She's not afraid to like what she likes and be who she really is, no matter how 'immature' or 'uncool' that may be.
2-Becca is a neat-freak! She's not just your run-of-the-mill clean up after yourself sorta gal. One night, when I was probably 10, Becca and I were sleeping in her room. But Becca thought the bed was messed up, so she made us get out of bed, turn on the 'How To Make Your Bed Song' and make the bed. And then very, very carefully get back in the bed to sleep. Uhhhh...
3-Becca has been rape kissed. My cousin's neighbor and Becca went out to dinner a few days before he left on his mission. When Becca dropped him off he forcefully grabbed her face and laid a wet one on her. She just sat there like a dead fish and looked straight forward in her seat. She later said the kiss tasted like his dinner. Siiiiiiiick!! Poor, poor Becca.
4-Becca is terrified of moose. She is always very tentative in the wilderness because she is afraid of a moose coming out of the trees and attacking. This past weekend at the cabin, we were at the lake and I thought it would be funny to act like I saw a moose and start running. I yelled moose and turned to run, Becca's face looked completely horrified! She went to push Ashley out of her way and then I burst out laughing! It was priceless to say the least.
5-When Becca sneezes, she screams. It's not just a little noise, I'm talking a full on scream. She claims she can't help it. Whatever the problem is, when Becca sneezes, you know it.
6-Becca is a very powerful bowler. Let me elaborate. Instead of rolling the ball down the lane, she hurls it 5 feet in the air. Why? I do not know. All I know is she knocks those dirty pins down like crazy. The only problen is, when that ball hits the wood floor from 5 feet in the air everyone turns and stares. She's quite a woman.

So there ya have it. I did my best. 6 things you may not know about Becca. She may be a little quirky, but that's why I love her. HOLLA IF YA HEAR ME!!!

The Tag

As I was making the rounds through the blogs today I saw that we had been tagged. Holla, because I was trying hard to think about what our next post would consist of considering we are just a few simple ladies with no babies. I've really had to brainstorm ideas to blog about, thanks to Kate it hasn't been too difficult. Well, Kate and I decided that we would do each other instead of ourselves. So here goes nothing.

6 Things You Probably Don't Know About Kate:

1. She has a million nicknames. I'm not talking two or three I'm talking like 20 or 30. Granted the Christensen Family is known for Nicknames (thanks Dad) but I think Kate takes the cake for the most. Here are a few: Keke, Gat, Gatlyn, Gatskie, Keeklyn, Cookie, K, KK Mommalay, Cinderelly, Katelyn Cinda Marie Gonzolas Ortega Fuentes Christensen, Lady, Priddle, Prid, Sue Sue, etc... You'll realize that most of these aren't even real words and the Spanish words thrown in there are thanks to Hal.

2. She is the Queen of memorizing hilarious movie quotes and dropping them whenever she feels it necessary. Example: as children (lets be honest until we were about 17) we were always making movies, plays, etc... well one day a few neighborhood friends and the two of us decided to recreate Street Smarts (remember that show?) well one of the questions was how did John Denver die? Kate looked directly into the camera and said the only thing she knew about John Denver, "That John Denver's full of shit man." That's right she dropped it right on camera at the ripe age of 12. Immediately her eyes went wide and she said, "turn it off, turn the camera off!" That tape was hidden directly after this incident and is still missing to this day. Holla!

3. She's a dancing queen. Most people don't get to see this side of Kate but she can drop it like it's hot. She loves to dance (as long as the lights are low, there is good music, and close friends or family). What about 80s dancing you ask? That's her specialty!

4. Kate will drop anything and I mean anything for her friends or family. I know you hear that about people all the time, but I think she takes it to a new level. Her priorities lay in family and friends everything else is way down the list. Examples: When I was a senior and Kate was a sophomore we did our fair share of skipping school. I think I was a responsible sluffer while Kate's sluffing was sometimes questionable, but if she found out I was sluffing she was right on board, especially when we headed to SLC to hang out with our sluffing cousins. I would miss substitutes or movies Kate would miss tests and quizes and not think twice as long as we were headed to our house to hang out with Mom or to Salt Lake she would always make it work. Another prime example: the other day I called Kate from Sandy (she lives in Provo) I told her that I had an hour and a half off for lunch and she should come up. She quickly cancelled her previous plans (probably class) and drove the 45 minutes to Sandy. She really will do anything for people she cares about.

5. Kate has a rare and precious talent that she sometimes hides under a bushel. She can make awesome sound affects. She has had a lot of practice growing up with all boys for friends and plastic weapons and cars for toys. Sure I have a great Barbie voice and I can really sound like a crying baby but Kate can make sounds just like grenades being thrown, explosions, and machine guns. It's really amazing.

6. Something that I envy about Kate is she has always known who she is. She has never been ashamed to admit she'd rather watch football than America's Next Top Model, she'd rather play with num chucks than dolls, she'd rather "go sneakin'" than shopping. Sometimes I would lie or pretend that I liked doing something just to impress somebody, not Kate, she will tell you exactly how she feels about something and if you don't like it get lost because she's not going to change for you. She has always been this way and I wish I were more like that.

I heart Gatty

How did I get here?

So I, the older half of two ladies and no baby, had a very weird epiphany today. Have you ever stopped and thought, how in the world did I get here? I had parent teacher conferences today and while I was getting ready for one of the conferences I had this overwhelming feeling of bewilderment. I kept thinking how did I get to this point in my life, I am giving grades to kids, what? I remember being in 2nd grade, vividly even, and now I'm Mrs. Stanton sitting down with parents and giving grades to students. Did I really finish high school, let alone college? It really just hit me like a ton of bricks, I was almost out of breath, I'm sure my eyes were wide, and my face was blank. I really was at a loss. Luckily I had about 8 more conferences to help me forget about my feelings of doubt and confusion. When you are going through day to day life it seems to be going slow, but in retrospect life flies by. I remember coming home from school and watching Saved by the Bell everyday, I remember my Mom getting on my back about practicing the piano, I remember being the V.I.P in my class, I remember my mom telling me to go to bed when it was still light outside, it wasn't that long ago I swear. Don't get me wrong life's great and I'm happy about where I am it's just crazy that now I'm 22 with a career and I don't even know how it happened. Wow!

Our Ragin' Halloween Party

Halloween came again. And what do a bunch of crazy college kids do on Halloween you might ask? Maybe a bumpin' dance party? Or Costume party? Night out on the town? Well, not this crazy group. Instead we went to dinner, bought a bunch of candy and Dr. Pepper and watched The Changeling. Okay, not a crazy costume party but ya know, not bad right? Friends, candy, soda, scary movie. Now, The Changeling is a classic scary movie, my favorite (Kate) in fact. And you would think on Halloween we could all get a little scared from a movie, right? Well, with Ashley asking questions every 35 seconds, "Who is that?" "Is this a scary part?" "I bet he's gonna die." "The ball's gonna come back isn't it." And with Ally talking every 2 minutes, "When is this movie supposed to get scary?" "Gosh, I'm so uncomfortable." Along with her stifled laughs and giggles. How could anyone get into the movie? Remind us never to try and watch a scary movie with Ashley and Ally. Frick! Anyway, Cassie and I (Kate) carved pumpkins the night before and here are some pictures from the party. My pumpkin says HOLLA! and Cassie's has STARS on it. And apparently Ash is too good for pumpkin carving. Well, Happy Halloween ya'll. It would have been a lot more fun if we all hadn't been so completely sober. Bummer. Happy Halloween.