Bandies

So last weekend I went to Logan with my band (you know, the CHHS Marching Grizzlies. Because they will always be my band) to watch them perform at the Bridgerland Invitational. That has always been my favorite competition (well, besides Red Rocks in St George...) and I had work off so I decided to go! I rode the bus with my friends and it was just like old times. I love all of those kids to death. They crack me up!
I sat with my other best friend, AnnaBomb (see also: Anna, Kristianna) and it was spectacular! We took lots and lots of model pictures in the wind and chatted with the cool kids sitting around us! Everyone knows that the bus ride TO the comp is the best part of the day. (With the ride home being the worst part of the day)

 Anna, Garrett, and I

She's cute... :)

We stopped at the ever famous Walmart in Brigham City and Joseph bought the spirit pumpkin for the season! (don't ask. Band kids have weird traditions...) And I had the honor of naming it! I was so excited. :)

When we got back on the bus after Walmart it was "quiet focus time" so I read for one of my classes while everyone else pretended to go over their show in their heads. Ah whatever, at least it was quiet!
When we finally got to Utah State University I got all excited because there were band kids galore with instruments, uniforms, and awesomeness. I love band kids. Love them.
My band started doing warm up and stuff so I went and chatted with the band moms. I also love band moms. They rock. :) Eventually it was time to go into the stadium to watch the performance. I hadn't officially seen their show yet so I was super excited. They were doing Music for a Darkened Theater, the music of Danny Elfman. It was pretty cool, I have to say. I'm really proud of how hard they have been working. They have a lot of new kids in the band this year and they seem do be doing pretty well. It's still early on in the season and I know they are only going to get better! :)

Man, I love those kids

After that I watched a few more bands and then went back to the bus to greet my friends and go eat food. Yay for food! I felt so awkward for a minute but it eventually went away. Again, I love band moms. Especially Copper Hills band moms because I actually know them :)
When linner (lunch/dinner) was over everyone went back into the stadium to watch the 5A bands. I loveeee the 5A bands! They are so big and cool and awesome and ahhhh. Plus, Bingham competes in 5A and it feels good to know they probably aren't going to win anything because American Fork is boss. It just proves that Bingham doesn't always win EVERYTHING... :) haha just kidding. I love the Bingham band kids. They were usually pretty nice!
When it was time for awards everyone was just standing and waiting for the drum majors to come out so naturally we started doing the wave...in different tempos... hahaha marching band kids FTW.

Garrett and I waiting for awards to start

Locker buddies reunite!

Since CH is CH they didn't win anything and everyone was all sad, as usual. I wish they would think, Hm, this sad feeling sucks. Maybe I should work harder to be better so I don't have to feel so crappy when we don't win anything next competition... But that doesn't usually happen so whatevs.
We got back on the bus, separated according to gender. (stupid Jordan School District and their rules) and Anna and I fell asleep on each other. It was precious.
When we got back to the school I was really sad to be leaving. I love my band and it was so good to see everyone again. No one even said anything bad about me going to the competition with them so that was really nice. I love feeling like people want me there!
I had a really hard time when I graduated and this summer when I realized that I would never be going back to Copper Hills Band. On the 4th of July I felt horrible that I wasn't doing parades or anything. I missed all my friends and playing my clarinet. It has been such a huge part of my life and I hated letting it go. But, now I'm feeling better about it. I'm in college now and I really love it. I miss high school a lot and I wish I could go back every single day, but I can't. And I've got to live with that and just be thankful for all of my really good memories.
So, thank you Copper Hills for letting me be a part of you for a day. It really helped me. You guys totally rock :)

I'd Rather Die Than Live In Provo

Because, I'm a UTE.

But, my best friend lives in Provo because she goes to UVU... So every now and then I have to go to Happy Valley to see her. So worth it. :)

It was a Tuesday and I drove down (ON THE FREEWAY [I've driven on the freeway four times in my whole life] during like rush hour :/ It was awful) to her cute little apartment after school. Thankfully I had been there before so I didn't get lost or anything. She was standing outside waiting for me and I got all happy because I love my best friend. Duh.

So then she took me on a tour of her home :) Her bedroom is adorable and has about 10 pictures of me in various places. Because she loves me. Duh.

We're just so dang attractive. Yep.

Also, I love the little Jason pictures on the side hahahahaha

We sat in her room for a while and chatted about life and school and people and such. Eventually we got all hungry and whatnot so Elise made me dinner :) We had alfredo and noodles and cinnamon raisin bagels :)

 So, I died laughing. Died. 

That face kills me.

 Because I like to document everything....

I'm pretty proud of Elise and her cooking skills!

She's so grown up :')

While we ate dinner we watched Friends because Friends is awesome. We just talked and laughed and had a really good time! I always love hanging out with my best friend even if we just do little things like eat pasta and watch TV. I'm very thankful to have her in my life. And even though she lives far away now I can still talk to her whenever I need to. Plus, she comes home every weekend to hang out with me... :)

She's just great. I love her.

Would You Like to Hear a Poem?

So this one time... actually a lot of times... my family bottled tomatoes. For as long as I can remember we've done tomatoes. Even when my parents first got married they did tomatoes. We LIVE off of them. I don't know how I would cook anything if we didn't have delicious tomatoes year-round.
Now, I know what you are thinking. Ew. Tomatoes are nasty.
And you, my friend, are probably right. Because you've never had a home-grown tomato ;)
*props to Challenger School for that excellent song*
Those things they have at the grocery store that they call tomatoes are indeed not tomatoes. They grow them under a light and pick them when they are still green so that they have time to "ripen" while being shipped. And ultimately have no flavor.

Ya know, these...

Anyway- since real live tomatoes are AWESOME we bottle them every summer. We have our very own supplier called Mr. Rushton who lets us come pick as many as we need from his massive tomato patch. We've been going there forever and I love it! Even though you get SO dirty it's fun to see how fast you can pick and how big you can find them :)

This year we only had to get 6 bushels (about 270 pounds) so Kaylee, my dad, and I set out to pick. We got done in 45 minutes which I'm pretty sure is a record. Go us.

After you pick, you wait until Saturday morning to can them. Except last year we started on Friday night because we had so many to do. Thankfully this year it wasn't so bad and we got them all done in one day!

Saturday morning you wake up at about 7:30 and put on your Old Navy flag t-shirt from a few years earlier since you pretty much can't wear it in public anymore. Then you find your happy place and set out for the garage. We usually start with whole tomatoes because they take the longest to cook and it's nice to get that out of the way. Plus they are way easier than juice. So we scald, peel, stuff, salt, seal, and cook those bad boys until they are ready to be put into storage. Since my family is pro at tomato canning, we all have our specific jobs that we just do and everything runs nicely. Sometimes we have disasters like exploding steamers or salt-less bottles but for the most part things work out.

Kyle and Natalie came over to help this year so that was fun!

They told us about their honeymoon to Alaska and it was really good to see them :)

When whole tomatoes are finished you begin the juice process. That involves washing, cutting, cooking, juicing, scraping, salting, pouring, sealing, and cooking again. It's hot and messy and hard. This is the part where you get tomato stuff ALL OVER YOU. By then everyone is starving and we eat tuna fish sammiches and discuss what cooker is with what timer and my dad is always worried about how things are going to work out. :P

Thank goodness for the KitchenAid juicer attachment :)

The chit-chat in the garage is always nice. We listen to music, sing, recite Challenger poetry (hence the title of this post. Inside joke from last year), and laugh about how silly we must look. And then we embrace it by taking pictures like this. :)

When the last bottles have been filled and are waiting in line for the cooker, we start clean up. I hate clean up. ( hahaha this year I had to go to work at 4 and we got done around 2 so I accidentally slept through clean up. I went inside for just a minute and ended up waking up 30 minutes before I had to go to work. So I hurried and showered and spent the rest of the day making smoothies for people. It was a long freakin day but it was a lot of fun!) You pretty much just bring everything inside and wash it all before it becomes impossible to remove the tomato remnants. And when that is over, you stand and admire all of the beautiful bottles. 

Some of the juice :)

I love canning tomatoes. It's so much work but so rewarding. I hope that one day I can do this with my own family :)

The One Where I Become Obsessed With Friends

How can you not just love them?

I know I do!

I'm so addicted.

Thanks sis ;)