summer thus far.

1. the mud run.

this is, without a doubt, one of the most intense things i've ever done in my entire life.

10K run - 6.2 miles

two 5 ft. walls

mud pits

crazy steep hills

crossing a freaking river

army crawling through muddy water with marines yelling at me

and all of this was done with some of my bestest friends ever. marissa and i ran most of the way and made it in an hour and 18 minutes. my toenail is now black, my muscles were all basically immovable the next day because i was so sore, and i caught the worst cold of my life that i'm still trying to get over a week later... but it was so so so much fun and i'm so glad i did it!

2. hanging out with my bestest buddies.

yes. life is good in huntington beach, california. marissa and i spend every waking moment together at home and work and its been super fun having a best friend with me all the time! whether its renting a movie and just chillin at home with a tub of ice cream or sneaking into a local complex to go in their jacuzzi and having to run from the cops 2x....(ya its happened... haha), we have a great time no matter what we do and i love her so much!

3. teaching swim. (this isn't one of my swim kids haha)

ok. so i basically have the best job in the entire world! i teach kids how to swim. they are so hilarious and fun and cute i sometimes can't even believe it. like the other day. i was teaching a girl, and she is one of my best swimmers and she stopped swimming mid pool and grabbed the side....
(me)- "why did you stop swimming?! i know you can make it across the pool. try again"
(her)- "but miss alissa, i'm trying so hard! can i at least tell you why i didn't make it all the way?"
"of course. why didn't you make it all the way?"
"well..... i was trying to blow bubbles out of my nose.... when... a BIRD came!.... and .... he distracted my nose!"
i was honestly laughing so hard, and so was her mother, that i was practically crying. i love my students. they come up with the craziest stories, i've been invited to tea parties, birthday parties, asked to come over and play, and told by a mom that one of my favorite little boys asked her to buy him yellow swim trunks cause he heard that was my favorite color and he thought i would really like that. i have the best job ever.
ps. if you need swim lessons... amberswimschool.com - look us up! marissa even travels to your pool if you have one! :)

summer '09. best yet. i have a feeling there is so much to come!
love you all!
<3

Rock climbing, Dance party, welcome to college

First of all, I'm feeling kind of cool lately. Let me tell you why. This is me rock climbing, on real rocks, in the middle of Moab desert for the first time ever. It was soooo fun! I was really nervous because the guys that took me and Francie and Brianna (Francie's cousin) were super rock climbing experts and I just really didn't want to look like a pansy/weakling... but I totally didn't! I loved it!!!Second. This was advertisement picture for the amazing dance party me and my roommates threw! To tell you the truth, sometimes these things work out and sometimes they don't and we had not planned very far ahead, it was more of on a whim, so we weren't expecting a giant turnout... we were wrong. We borrowed a strobe light from my sister Katie (Thanks again kate! I love you!) and got a pretty sweet playlist going, and waited for it to start. People came slowly at first, but soon there was absolutely no exaggeration, over 50 people stuffed in our tiny living room/kitchen/spilling out the door... Some nice boy brought his sound system over for us to use and it was amazing. It was getting really intense, everyone was having just a great time and we were all dancing and having a blast. Then... two guys decided to kick a hole in my wall... that was kind of no good... but they said they would fix it/pay for it so that's nice of them and we're ok with it. then... the cops showed up. hahahaha I still can't even believe the cops showed up to break up MY dance party.... they were cool for the most part. They threatened to fine us $500 for being too loud, but I talked with them and everything worked out just fine. IT WAS AMAZING! How much more legitamate can you get?! A college dance party, just packed... ending with a hole in the wall and the cops?! O man, sometimes I just don't know how life can be any freakin cooler!!



And lastly. My roommates and I went to the "Hunger Banquet" a little bit ago. This was especially wonderful for Marissa and I because this time last year two nice boys took us on a double date to the Hunger Banquet for our first date with them and now they are on their missions and we just miss them and write to them a ton. So this is how it goes. Everyone buys tickets and based on the roll of a die, gets put into an income group. These groups are based on the percentage of incomes in the world. So like 70 percent were super poor, 20 percent were middle and the top 10 percent were rich. The rich got amazing dinners like Tucanos, with a 5 course meal, the middle got pizza and we- the poor kids- got a small plate of beans and rice that we had to share among 6 people sitting around us. It's a really cool experience and makes me so so grateful for everything that I have in life (even when I think I'm super poor trying to make it through college, apparently I'm not cause I still eat food and am not starving).

Basically I'm loving life in every aspect right now. Don't need a boy, making new friends, going on cool adventures and just living life! Finals are just around the corner, but they'll come and then be over and I can go home to sunny california and enjoy the summertime!

Love you all!

I MADE IT!!!

So the other day I walked home from school, it was slightly chilly (meaning about 20 degrees) and I was pretty tired. I walked into my apartment, and there, sitting on my table was a letter. Addressed to me. Which is kind of cool because letters are just super fun to get and I love them. So I picked it up and noticed it was from BYU's Department of Education and it was thick. I looked at my roommates who I'm sure were just waiting for me to freak out and they all smiled and told me to open it. And I did. I MADE IT IN!!! I'm officailly part of the Elementary Education Program at BYU and I start my classes in the Fall! I'm so so excited :) It's starting to feel so real. I was talking to a girl at my work who is in the program right now and she was telling me about the classes I would be taking this Fall and it sounds absolutely wonderful! I am so excited to be a teacher in a few years and cannot even wait to get started!!!

The Latest....

Well, I decided I'm slacking again...sorry. This is the latest in the life of Alissa :)

The other week President Monson came to BYU for a fireside and my roommates and some good friends all got in line at the Marriott Center and listened to his talk. It was amazing. I love these kind of experiences I get to have going to BYU.

New update. I got glasses! Crazy. I know. I feel like a nerd somedays. Other days I feel very studious and proud of them :) I'm still getting used to my eyelashes hitting them every five seconds and I do everything in my power to make sure that when I have to push them back up my nose when they slide to not look like steve erkel. haha
And this is a new update.. I'm dating a nice boy named Austin. Andrew and Kelli set us up on a blind date and it has been going well :) ps. This picture is from when he made me dinner the other night - super sweet and it was waay good...- so we're both sitting at the table and I'm leaned over so its kind of a weird angle. but I like it anyways :)

Well, that's all for now. In the next few weeks I'll find out if I made it into the teaching program at BYU so I'm sure I'll update then too :) love you all!
<3

Happy New Years everyone!!! And what a crazy year it has been. I was trying to think of the craziness of everything that has happened this year...



-I finished my freshman year at college and started my second year-I was blessed to find the most amazing girls to live with up in Utah. I couldn't ask for better roommates


-I have stayed in contact with all my good friends that have been there for me throughout life

-I've tried things I had never tried before (cooking adventures, motorcycle rides, gluten free bread, cookies, you name it!...octopus... ya. beat that. and I would like to submit that I enjoyed each one of those!)

-I've been places I had never been before (welcome to....IDAHO! haha)


-There has been sadness and joy, heartache and butterflies

...

o and so many adventures I can't even begin to tell you.. :)

I just feel like this was an amazing year. I've learned so much from everything that has happened and I wouldn't trade any of it for the world. I know that I'm never alone and that life goes on no matter what happens. Boys can leave, grades can plumet for a test or two, life can get stressful... but life goes on and if I let them, these things that seem crazy and feel like they can't be fixed... make me stronger and give me wisdom for the future. So here is to 2009. I hope to try new things, visit new places, meet new people, be grateful for the blessings in my life, and be the best version of myself always. no regrets. :)

And I hope the same to all of you! I love you all!

<3

life...

Ok, so it's been like a month and I'm currently procrastinating studying for my finals so I decided I should give an update or two....

school. stressful. intense. crazy. amazing. sooooo much fun! I seriously love it up here at BYU and can't imagine myself anywhere else right now. I am meeting a lot of new friends and although finals are here and stressing everyone out, they'll be over in a few days and everything will be happy again.
I'm getting ready to apply for my major in January so I'm way excited about that. I have a few big decisions I still have to make about whether I want to do an internship or student teaching...believe me, I've made so many pro and cons list it's ridiculous. haha I'll figure it out though. :)
I signed up for classes for next semester and I'm way excited. I'm finishing up my generals, but I also got to take a few classes that are just for credits and for fun....like my voice lessons. I'm way way excited about those. And I'm taking a Sociology, Humanities, Statistics and 2 Religion classes. Lately I've been on this quest to be a more culturally well rounded person and I'm trying to focus on things that I like to learn about and things I want to be good and knowledgable concerning in order to be...well, basically a worthwhile human being haha that's the goal. haha

Another thing, I am seriously having so much fun just going on dates and hanging out and making a ton of new friends! For some reason, in the last few weeks I've met a TON of new people and I love it. They're all way cool and fun to be around and I just love it! My roommates and I have NERTZ nights every Sunday and we have a huge group people come over and we have soo much fun! It's one of my new favorite things for sure :) Man, I love my roommates. They are the most awesome girls in the world! We have so much fun together always and they always just make my day. Like the other night, we decided to have a hard core study session. We would study for 45 minutes, then go to the living room and watch 15 minutes of cute scenes from our favorite chick flicks to keep us sane, then we'd go back and do it again. It only lasted about an hour and a half, then our 15 minutes of cuteness turned into the whole movie of the Notebook... haha but we just go with the flow and it's amazing. These girls are the best ever. <3

That's basically life right now. Going to school and having so much fun! I should probably go study for the 4 finals I have left...
5 days til I leave for California and just relax for 2 weeks!! I won't even get started on how excited I am for that! haha

peace and love.
<3

Teaching the 4th graders

As you may know, I'm planning on majoring in Elementary Education and I'm so excited. I get to apply this January and start classes ( if I'm accepted) next Fall. This means I get to take all my pre-reqs and such right now, including my cool physical science class. For a large part of our lab grade we were assigned specific topics and each partnership got to teach today for 2 hours at a local elementary school for the 4th graders. It was soo much fun! My partner Lauren and I were assigned the different states of water and how heat energy and temperature affect them. We wore cool tie dye shirts with our name tags Lauren made for us and some homemade water drop earrings...mine are colored index cards cut in the shape of a drop and scotch taped to regular earrings haha but it works :)
We've been planning this for weeks and had to do it in front of our class about 2 weeks ago and revise and make more creative and all these things adn today was the real deal. We started out our lesson passing around 3 different balloons, one frozen solid, one as a water balloon and one just blown up (supposed to be water vapor) and let the kids hold them and tell us the differences. We then explained the molecules in each and how far apart they were from each other and then the correlation of that with heat energy and how fast the molecules move in each of the different states and the temperatures at which each state is formed.
Then came the fun part. We had different color masking tape on the ground in various shapes. (the colors of the tape matched the colors of the balloons..) and had the kids pretend to be the water molecules and we had a molecule dance party!!! It was so much fun! When they were a solid they had to stand really close together and barely move at all due to lack of room and as I-the heat energy- touched their shoulders they got to move faster until everyone was touched and they got to change states. They moved to the next biggest shape and and acted like liquid molecules, then the biggest shape and got to dance their craziest. It was so fun to watch them and, when they were too shy to dance themselves, to jump into the shapes and dance with them.
It really made me so so excited to teach in a few years. Ya, a few years. How crazy is that?! If I get into the program I'll be teaching in 3 semesters. I'm so excited. And I was stoked because I want to teach 4th grade so this gave me a good insight into what it might be like :)
Here are some pictures and such. First of my partner and I, my cool outfit, the balloons and our cool shapes for dancing. I couldn't take pictures of the kids cause apparently thats illegal or something but I guess I got what I could haha :)