A lot of Firsts

I participated in a triathlon on Saturday. (300 meter swim, 11 mile bike ride, 5K run.) It was awesome. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be, but I really enjoyed it. My bishop is a personal trainer and owns a gym in Orem called Elevate. I was actually on Jeffs & Jeffs Justice League team, but I got to race alongside team Elevate. My bishop has a client who in 2007 weighed 396 lbs. he got gastric bypass surgery and lost about 80 lbs. in a month, then plateaued because he was still sendentary. Then he started working with Rich my bishop. This guy was literally on his deathbed with illness. Rich told Brian that he would do this triathlon. Brian said "screw" you. Well Brian completed this triathlon. I was standing next to him in line to get in the pool for almost an hour. I didn't find out all of this until the end of the tri and I had no idea what he had been through to get to place. I was so impressed. He was such a nice guy. I am always amazed how forgiving the human body is. It can do the most incredible things no matter how it's been beaten up. Joanne has a clipping from a magazine on her refrigerator that says "if you can walk from the couch to the kitchen, you are not too old, too fat, or too slow to run." After seeing Brian do that whole thing - and I was almost literally next to him the whole time, because he and Rich passed me on the bike ride, and I passed them again during the run- I truly believe that. It's really cool how they did this too. Rich has a treadmill with a big bar over it that you can attach a harness to, and put a runner in. Joanne did it once and Rich turned up the treadmill to almost 20 miles and hour, and since she is was the harness she wouldn't fall on her face. So Brian got in this harness and they lifted enough of his weight off of him so that it was like he weighed 80 lbs. He ran on 80 lbs for a week, then they bumped it up so that 85 lbs of weight were on his legs. They did this until his legs were strong enough, and he lost enough weight to run on his own. Anyways, I just thought that was a cool story.

Joanne took this picture, and it's the only one I have. So even though I look dead sexy, here it is.

The first day of my senior year. I sent Nat a text today and told her about my first day of school, and she asked if I got a picture in my new clothes and backpack. I thought I was so original.

In separations class, we got to separate m&m's. BYU is rigorous.

And these are my dirty feet after trail running last weekend. In case you needed to be appetized.

The Ending of an Era

The era that was exactly two weeks long.

So I thought Jeremy and Jandi were coming back from Disneymaniaworld on Monday. So I have my stuff all over their house Sunday night and I invited some friends over to watch a movie on my last night in the mansion. We're sitting around it's about 6:30, we're trying to pick a movie and just chatting. I had this urge to check my phone, which I tried to ignore, since everyone I invited over (which was about 20 people) (just kidding) was already there. I walked downstairs to get it anyway and there was a text from Jandi that was about 15 minutes old: We finally landed! We're on our way home!

"Um... guys... my cousins are on their way home, so... um"

"we should probably go"

"yeah"

At this point I assigned my three friends each a room to tidy up and get my stuff out of. I was picking up stuff wildly while they were taking trips to my car with armloads. I looked like a vagrant leaving their house. At one point my friend said "Oh you're cousins went to Cottonwood too?" "Um, no..." "Why do they have this Cottonwood blanket?" "Oh!! grab that and put it in my car!" It took us 35 minutes to get everything out of the house. I still managed to leave some airborne, bob pins, seasoning, a chocolate bar, and the Mean Girls dvd in the player. Unbelievable. Jeremy and Jandi couldn't have been nicer about my less than satisfactory (awful) house sitting habits. (I love to party.) They laughed with me tonight about how I was their second choice to house sit anyway (Josh Riddle was the first, Jeremy said-- yeah right.) And how they couldn't believe they didn't tell me when they were coming back. I'm glad those two both have a good sense of humor. And I'm glad they let me live the good life for a few weeks.

Mallory the House Sitter

A couple things first:

1) Happy anniversary to Brain and Cathy, and Mom and Dad. If it weren't for you and your nuptials I wouldn't be here, or have very many friends.

2) That id that I paid 10 dollars for wouldn't work anywhere on campus for a week and half. So I went to the office where I bought it and told them my scenario. The girl said I'll just print you a new one. (?) "Do you want a new picture?" "no" so she prints me one in like 5 seconds and I walked out. They made me ten for the first one, when the girl could have probably fixed that problem with a few mouse clicks. And I was still so mad I decided to keep sticking it to them with my angry face picture. When I get tired of my picture, I am going to go back and tell them it stopped working. I'll let you know what happens.

Last Tuesday, Jeremy and Jandi went on a Disney adventure with all of the Shorts' family. So they asked their favorite cousin to house sit. They live in a pretty rough neighborhood so my services have been of great use. After I got the run down of chores I would need to take care of while they were gone, Jandi said "so you can just come move your stuff in on Tuesday" to which I responded "is it ok if I don't sleep here every night?" (Um I have a social life at the Riv) Jandi said that was fine. Then I realized how much awesomer it is to live in a house than at that hole I pay for. I don't know how I am going to go back to the Riv. I can do my laundry. My roommates don't leave rotting messes in the fridge, sink, garbage, etc, etc. I can go to sleep whenever I want. The hot water has yet to run out on me in the shower (even with both shower heads going, yeah that's right, they have two shower heads. It's like the Celestial Kingdom.) I get to park my ride in the garage. Did I mention that Jeremy the lawyer has an HDTV? um yeah. I'm bragging for them now. It's hard not to get excited about this kind of thing when you are poor poor poor and living in a dump :)

So I'm just here to tell you what a champ I am at watering the lawn, and feeding the beta, and how I am living like a queen until Monday. Thank you Jer and Jandi. Seriously.