LIFE! I'M LIVING IT!

What a life! I cannot believe summer is drawing to a close, but there is still so much of it, and I feel very strongly that not a single second has been wasted. Here's a recap of recent seconds:

I went to ZIONS! There is a canyon within that is so cool and so coveted that you have to get permits the day before to go in and they only give out so many, but the dad of the girl who invited me got permits for 8 of us and we went joyously galavanting in the Subway!!! IT WAS AMAZING! There were pools and boulders and caves and narrows and water and tree branches and rapelling and all of the wonderful things that are great about canyons and it was SO gorgeous. I had so much fun, and we spent the rest of our stay in her paradisical cabin in the midst of these beautiful towering aspens. It was so great! (Sorry the pics are not so good, i screen shot them off facebook and that's as ambitious as i got) (No matter, even a high quality picture would have failed to do this place justice!)




Talk about wonderment! Following that joy, I met up with the Carters and Mom and Bum in Monroe, where we participated in a series of wonderful activities, all organized and put on my none other than CJ!!! Mom and Bum ran in the Milk Run, mom placing 2nd in her age group and PRing,a nd Bum WINNING her age group!!! YOU CAN WIN IT!! I was SO proud!

Here are some action shots of CJ calling out raffle winners, which was expertly done and cleverly performed, so I loved every minute of it.
There are no words sufficient to describe the perfect feeling of contentment while laying on the grass at the Monroe middle school football field, little kids running around like free birds and all of us waiting for the fireworks--which proved to be phenomenal--while the sun set quaintly upon us. It was definitely Monroe Magical. The Carters were excellent hosts. Did i mention there are 6 of them!!!? SIX!! That's a whole family, people! And every last one of them is wonderful and dear to my soul.


Upon returning to Provo, we experienced a series of torrential downpours, which left our already moist city in a state of overflowing liquid.
Recognize this parking lot? It is the one near Buy Low and Wyview and my friend, not knowing it was so deep, drove his car through it and got completely botched :(

In other news, and speaking of news, 2ft. Prosthetics was on CNN!!!! As in, we made national news! The story can be found in the post beneath this one.

We are also looking to form several promising partnerships with other non-profits and some great PVC manufactures who think our idea is really novel and great and would be willing to donate PVC to us for research and development. Woot for Grounds, where I got the hook up in the first place!


Easily the highlight of my week was the galavant Kim and I took into the mountains on Friday night-- we brought hammocks and ran up into Rock Canyon a ways and set up camp for the night. I slept in a hammock!!! It was so so so wonderful and free bird.
In the morning we got up and ran farther up the canyon and beyond and it was a run that easily rivals some of the most beautiful i have ever done in my life! It was GORGEOUS and i was 100% more endeared to Utah than my already growing endearment. 20 miles in paradise, and I was still able to go to the driving range for my first time that night and whack the heck out of some golf balls.

Also exciting is the approaching ward activity we have, which has been in the works for weeks. It's a 3 day boating trip, but I wanted to think of an awesome name for it that we could just use for ads and announcements and general bonding of rallying around a cool name. I thought, but I entirely attribute this idea to CJ- she suggested I make a descriptive sentence of the activity and take the first letters to make a word. My president Allie and I then came up with

Most
Epic
Boating
Adventure with
Tribes
Entertainment
Food and
Love

or, as now commonly known and thrown casually around the YSA 18th ward,

MEBATEFL!!!

It is a glorious thing, which i love, and I am in charge of advertising, which has been the most fun thing ever--today at church I wrote MEBATEFL! on a bunch of little slips of paper and put them in all the hymn books on the hymn we were singing. Hahahaha, what a joyous surprise!

That's all. Sorry if this post was overwhelmingly excited or joyful, but it directly reflects my state of existence at this time, so onward!

Oh yes, and one month till THE ASCENT!!!! Much excitement!

We're On TV!

KSL came and filmed for a special they did on THE TEAM (aka 2ft. Prosthetics!) Watch it at this link:

2ft. Prosthetics on KSL

Woot! Friend us on facebook, follow us on twitter, check out our website and support THE TEAM!

More to come on a fabulous, adventure-filled, joyous Monroe endearment weekend!

Just for Fun

I love everything about blogging. I love doing it myself, I love reading other people's blogs, and I love that every person's blog is so different and true and wonderfully distinct to its author.

This particular post is to inform you that I recently finished sewing a dress for myself. I got the material in Japan... actually... it was on the flight between Japan and San Fransisco when I realized I was covered in a billion blankets that probably would go to waste, so I tucked them away to America for a better future.

Anyway, when contemplating how to let you all know about the adventure that was making and wearing such a dress, I could only think of the dear, dear blogs I love so much.

So, please enjoy the following posts, and know that anything that follows is all in good fun and tender appreciation for the (all too recognizeable) authors of the blogs I so love to follow, and faithfully so.

PROJECT!

So this week has been crazy. Sarah got some obscure ailment that no other child has ever had, but she is still running around and is a good trooper. Poor kid. Even though both my roommates stayed up most the night and I was busy making a life size 3D cross stitch of campus for our apartmet, I still finished this PROJECT!




(Image and product courtesy of Continental Airlines)

I picked up this great deal off an airplane and decided to make a dress out of it. I threw it together in 2 hours and had only a few problems with the stitching on the hem.

It only took me a little longer to piece the scraps together for a matching dress for Sarah!

I found a great clearance deal for some leftover restaurant napkins and I think I will use them to make matching shirts for the roommates next week!

Thrift and Trend: Blue on Blue

I'm all about saving a pretty penny and lookin' pretty while I do it, so I recently added this little beauty to my closet:

(Bag: Leftover from old roommate, Ribbon: shniked from Colorado, Dress: made from Continental airplane blankets, Shoes: borrowed from roommate)

Today's tip: wear clothes that can be fashionable and functioning--now every time I travel, I can slip into this and be sure to stay warm and cozy on the flight.

Mmm....naptime.

xoxo Studenty

New Dress

I will not actually make this blog for another 6 months.

Love, Charina

Quickrundownbeforeevenmoreexcitingthingshappen!

Like CJ, I have found myself in a catch-22 of having so many things to blog about and therefore having not enough time to give them all the glory they deserve in a blog because then I keep doing awesome blogworthy things! But they can't go neglected so before anything else happens, here is what has:


I worked Stadium of Fire! This is Brad Paisley, terrible picture, but I was so close to the stage and it was SO awesome!
The more important part is that I was so close to the fireworks- I literally could not have gotten any closer than I was and the show was PHENOMENAL! I don't know if I just didn't have a lot of great firework shows in my past, or firework shows in general just fade out of my memory so each new one always seems better than the last, but this was the best I've ever seen.
It was so fun to clean up, running around LaVell Edwards Stadium in a XXL Grounds shirt at 3 in the morning under the magical lights of the football field. I love Grounds, and I loved the Carl's Jr. breakfast sandwiches I ordered then got to eat.


A few days later was the joyous Freedom Run, for which I somehow gathered 30 or so people from my ward to run and another 20 to volunteer and it was WONDERFUL! So many people just experienced the joy of blissful running!!!
I was the only girl in our group to do the 10k. I was 30th woman overall and we were all in the top 100 of 1200. Not too shabby, eh?
It was great, and afterward, our crowd only grew as we added people through our activities of parade, breakfast at my house, swimming, and then a break before fireworks at Thanksgiving Point. It was a very great Fourth.
A few days later I went to the SCOTTISH FESTIVAL!!! Who even knew such a thing existed, and, now that you do, you may rightfully ask... why?

And then you can ask... who? Who thought of this crazy culture!?
There were just hundreds of these burly men with bulging muscles and brawny physiques, just meandering around in SKIRTS! Not to mention, their athletic events are straight from the neandrathals. The objects included: take a pitchfork and chuck this bale of hay some 16 feet in the air over a polevault pole, take this large tree trunk and just chuck it through the air (not even like a javelin, just like a scoop of water from a stream but much, much heavier), and take this 60 pound weight and chuck it behind you and over a bar, only to land not but 2 feet from where you (and your vulnerable skull) are standing. I only hope I could describe those images sufficiently because it was SO FUNNY and SO BIZARRE. I was laughing my head off the whole time.
I went to the get a white purse picture with a bag piper and somehow managed to find the most flaming gayish one there. Hahahaha it was so funny.

A few days later I went to visit my dear Becky at her job at the Utah Lake toll booth. Just thought I'd let you know that she is still as joyous and wonderful and free bird as ever.

A few days later, our dear, curly haired, ballrubberband ponytailed, crazy, tall and lanky, friend/sister/neighbor Sarah aka Sarahho aka Bob aka Firefly aka Ben aka BlueBeard received a MISSION CALL!!!

She has been called to serve in the Nicaraugua mission and leaves November 2nd!!! CRAZY!

Also

I am developing a true love for Utah. I camp in its mountains and run up and down and all throughout its canyons and have discovered that it's not Pikes Peak but it is it's own kind of glorious.

My hair is SO LONG! I get excited about it every time.

2ft. Prosthetics is a real, live, growing and thriving organization. Not only am I still a member of "THE TEAM," but I am also what you might consider an old-timer or veteran or person kind of in charge. (Yep, me and my 5 months of membership!) The point is, people want to join and KSL is airing a special on us on July 22nd. Kim is the new president! (Yep, her and her 3 months of membership!) It is very exciting and very joyous.

Stay tuned for more adventures and more updates! (Summer is coming into town, I'm going to Harry Potter, we're going camping, and there's still much summer to be lived!)

Oh dear...

I'm just posting this because I haven't posted for a long time but I have a BILLION good blogs to make and NO time to sit down and perfect them. With that prospect in mind, maybe this mediocre performance of rather awkward spasticness will tide us all over. Why I let myself be like this in public or why my classmates thought I was the one to represent them at this showcase, I'll never know, but enjoy. Dad, for one, I know, has been greatly anticipating this for some time (Haha... sorry, dad...)


http://sloanshowcase.byu.edu/?x=2011winterjones&s=kristajroy

Haha if it's not quite clear, when I walk to the side of the boy cut out, i'm talking from the boy's perspective and same for the girl cut out.

But seriously, be excited for the next string of blogs--you will like them!

Just Another Day in the Grounds Office

We've gotten some pretty bizarre calls in the Grounds Office. Anything from lost keys to struggling ducks to tree donations to rain notifications--you name it, we've got it. Yesterday, however, marked a monumental call.

First, you have to know that we are going through an intense hiring process for one of our administrative positions, and we have all been trying to be on our best behavior and squash any out of control problems, as several professionally dressed and highly qualified applicants--and not to mention the directors of all of BYU Physical Facilities interviewing them--are hanging around our office. This very fact also caused all of us secretaries to want to wear dresses to work on Friday, just to match the atmosphere. The interviews were going smoothly and we were hosting cordially in our dresses when the phone rang. I answered, only to hear a panicked voice on the other end. (Typical, as EFY is storming the campus and some visitor is usually calling to complain about the sprinklers. ) This time, however, the girl on the other end and I had this conversation:

Girl: I was just walking by the stream on south campus and there is a really big snake there!!
Krista (I'm composed. We get animal calls all the time): Ok, we can get the foreman of the area to take care of it. Where is the snake?
Girl: I don't think you get it! This is a REALLY BIG snake. I think it's an anoconda!
Krista: (still composed. We get dramatic calls all the time) (also, eye roll): Ok... can you tell me where the snake is?

Long story short, she told me where it was nestled and I called Gilbert, still thinking he would just go get the little garter and chuck it towards Y mountain. However, not but 20 minutes later (the interviewees are still sitting in the front room), Glibert meandered in, bringing this little guy into our office!!!

IT WAS A BOA CONSTRICTOR!!!!!!!

You better believe we were all freaking out and we closed the door to the front room so composure could be maintained, and all of us, in our fancy dresses, ran to the back to figure out how the heck this happened! A boa constrictor!!! On campus!!!
It was AMAZING!! Snakes are nothing but pure muscle, and I will tell you it's just a little unnerving to have one this big just kinda creeping around you. But it was so cool!

After some brief investigation, turns out that there really was a boa constrictor on campus.

But.

This story is a lie.

And actually, Stacey's husband just happens to be a biology teacher in possession of said snake and he brought Katie in to show us how she is fed.

You knew we looked a little too happy in those pictures, didn't you?

But still, it was funny that we just had those interviewees chilling in the front and we were just wearing dresses and playing with a boa in the back. What the only in the Grounds Office?

Also, this is how it is when a boa eats. Basically, death. (Summer, you may want to not look at this one..)

That's all for now from Provo. Life is great, I work in the best place in the world (boa on campus or not), we went camping last night, and I am going to go work the Stadium of Fire tonight!!!

(Note: This is not one of said professionally dressed applicants. He works in Physical Facilities, and I just couldn't resist)

Happy Fourth!