Mission Call

Okay, so I haven't posted in a while.  So, one quick update:  I got my mission call about a month ago.  I'm going to the Chile Rancagua mission, and I report to the Provo MTC on June 24th.  My mission is the one labeled the "Chile Santiago South Mission" on the map.  So, it's a pretty small area compared to everything else.  A guy in my ward went to Chile Conception (just south of Rancagua) so he's been giving me the lowdown on the area.  I'm only going to be there for one winter (yay!), and I'm leaving late enough in June that I get to go to my roommate's wedding in Seattle.  Woohoo!

Alpine Classic

To help get me ready for BYU Dancesport, I went to a competition this past weekend.  Here's some videos from one of our events, and we made it to the semifinals.  I'm wearing my new dress, too, so that's pretty exciting.

New Dress

I don't know how I really came to this decision, but once it was in my head I pretty much ran away with it.  I bought a new standard dress for ballroom.  I got it for a lot cheaper than the one I have now.  Plus, I'll be doing quite a few competitions this semester and I didn't want my pink dress to become too familiar on the floor.  So, this dress was made in Hong Kong.  They sent me pictures for approval, and they'll be sending it off tomorrow.  I should have it in two weeks!  Yay!  I will have to make a few alterations because the current dress does not fit BYU's dress code, but it shouldn't be too hard of a fix.  The company is sending extra fabric so I can do it with the same material.  I'm super excited to try it on!

Dr. Horrible

Thanks to my sister, Jennifer, I have experienced the awesomeness that is Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.  I'll be honest, the first time I watched it I thought it was funny but I kinda wondered why I was watching it.  But, I decided to show it to my roommate and fell in love with it the second time through.  It is now a well-loved commodity in my apartment, and quoting the film is a regular activity among my roommates and I.  We love it!  Thanks Jenn!

For anyone who is interested in experiencing the awesomeness, look it up on hulu.com or visit doctorhorrible.net

BYU Dancesport 2008

All semester I have been getting ready for Dancesport. This meant paying about $80 dollars a month for lessons ($160 some months), and dancing about 20 hours a week. Yes, it would seem my whole life was centered around this one event. I went to some local competitions in the area to get competition practice and such, and my partner and I never got called back in any of our events. This weekend was different. Because we hadn't had much luck before, I went to this competition without any expectations to do well. I was, however, pleasantly surprised and this weekend ended up turning out to be awesome. I competed in eight events and this is how I did:

BYU class 285 Rumba: Danced 2 out of 6 rounds (my worst event)
BYU class 383 Paso Doble: Danced 3 our of 5 rounds (I was competing one level above mine)
BYU class 484 Foxtrot: Danced 2 out of 5 rounds (I was competing up a level and we were one vote away from advancing to the next round)
BYU class 380 American Waltz: I got third place, dancing 6 rounds
Novice Latin (Samba/Rumba): Danced 3 out of 6 rounds. My partner and I decided to do this event three weeks ago. We had three lessons to learn routines and practice while others have been practicing all semester. Let's just say I was super surprised!
Novice Standard (Waltz/Quickstep): Matt and I made it to the semifinals (top 12), so we danced 4 out of 5 rounds.
Pre-championship Standard (Waltz, Tango, Quickstep): We made one callback which was way unexpected considering how we did at previous competitions.
Pre-championship Smooth (American Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot): We made it to quarterfinals (top 24).

So overall, it was a pretty successful weekend. I'm excited to start working toward the next Dancesport competition in March. Yay!

Halloween Awesomeness

Okay, I realize Thanksgiving is the holiday to be celebrating this time of year (and believe me, I am--no classes for five days!!), but I haven't been able to put up Halloween pictures up yet.  My costume didn't end up being too bad, considering I decided what to dress up as while I was walking home from campus Halloween day. Yep, pretty last minute. I borrowed a friend's clothes so they'd be extra baggy. The back of my shirt had a picture of a bull and said "Bull Shirt." If you read it really fast....yeah, it was funny. I went to the dollar store to find some "bling-bling" and I found some fantastic tatoos. A treasure! You can't see any of them in the pictures, but believe me, it was amazing. To top it all off, my roommate had a Miami Ink hat. For those of you who don't know, Miami Ink is a television show about a tatoo business....perfect. All in all, I must say my costume ended up being a success.

Zuppa Toscana Soup like Olive Garden's

My work supervisor got this recipe somehow and gave it to me.  I haven't tried it yet-being a poor, busy college student I don't have the ingredients or time to make it-but she says it tastes pretty close to the real thing.  Hopefully I'll be able to make it sometime soon.  Maybe when I'm home for Thanksgiving...

1 lb. spicy Italian sausage crumbled

1/2 lb. chopped bacon

1 qt. water

2 14.5 cans chicken broth

2 lg. russet potatoes cubed or thinly sliced

2 crushed garlic cloves or 2T minced

1/2 c. chopped onion

2 c. chopped kale or swiss chard

1 c. heavy whipping cream

salt and pepper to taste

In a skillet brown sausage, drain and set aside.   Brown bacon, drain and set aside.  Combine water, broth, potatoes, garlic and onion in soup pot and bring to a boil.  Simmer till potatoes are tender.  Add sausage and bacon, simmer 10 minutes.  Add kale and cream, salt and pepper to pot.  Heat thru or keep on a low simmer till served.