Because it's Utah... Utah!

Apparently I am destined to write only blogs about Utah. The only other blog I've written was about the Shakespearean Festival last year. Anyhow, so that I get the reputation of "non-blogger" off my back, I thought I'd post a little virtual tour of my life at the moment.

First, this is Darby and I on our first day. She suggested we take a picture and I'm glad she did. I have trouble remembering to take pictures, and as of right now Madelynn has alluded all cameras. She's pretty crafty. I'll have to work extra hard to get a picture of her.

Here is a picture of my room, now furnished with a poster of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and a much smaller one of "Singin' in the Rain". I decided to splurge and buy them so that I didn't have to stare at my blank wall anymore. By the way, I just barely cleaned today. It isn't usually that nice and organized.

Up next is my calendary for the month of October. As you can see, all of the blues are assignments due in a class, the greens are tests, and the black is anything that has to do with class that doesn't fit into the other two categories. I'm pretty busy except for the strangely empty 15th. I'll have to have a party then or something.

These are all the dishes I finished washing just a few minutes ago. I was going to do a before and after shot, but frankly I just forgot about it until after they were already finished. I really hate having to wash dishes. It's probably the worst thing about living in this apartment. That and the spiders. We have a serious spider problem.

And finally, here is a picture of the mountains outside our house turning colors. It is very, very beautiful but it makes me nervous. I know that once the colors of the trees start changing, it's only a matter of time till it gets cold. I hate the cold. Still, I can enjoy it for now.

That's all I have right now. It's time for me to do some muchly avoided homework. I have to write a 4 page paper on tragedy and drama for my western humanities class. I'll try to take my camera to school and take pictures of my school life as well. Hope everything is great in Nevada. It's awesome up here because it's Utah!

Under the Desert Sun

Okay, okay. I probably know what you are thinking . . . what happened to that tree? To be honest, I have pondered this very question myself! But to make a long story a little shorter, it was me. I happened. I came, I saw, I chopped! After that I chopped a little more, then a little more, then I must admit a lot more until the final result which is what you see in the photo. 

So, now that you know the answer to your first question, you may be asking; "WHY"? This question my be somewhat more difficult to answer. And in light of the horrific amount of ridicule that has already been heaped upon my aching shoulders, I would rather not answer your inquiry outright. Thus, I feel it best to give you several scenarios and then let you decide-

Scenario #1 - In my advancing years, much like the memorable Don Quixote I had a lapse in judgement, and perceived the tree to be a monstrous giant that was attempting to destroy our home. In full regalia, I attacked and defeated the gruesome beast by hacking its limbs into useless kindling!

Scenario #2 - The large and spreading branches of the tree had finally nearly blocked out the sun in our front yard. Missing the rays generated by the yellow orb that we circle yearly I maximized the sun's efficiency by minimizing the ray blocking branches to the max!

Scenario #3 - During a summer breeze (and you need to know breezes in Las Vegas are similar to hurricanes in many of parts of this fair land) earlier this year, the main trunk of the tree splintered and broke. This left me no choice but to top the tree off, leaving only branches that had been growing outward from the main trunk, rather than upward. Being the typ

e of desert tree that it is, and as demonstrated when the main trunk broke, the branches that were growing out could no longer support their own weight, and were beginning to break as well. In an attempt to lighten the load for these branches, it was necessary to totally cut what was left away.

Scenario #4 - Being a big fan of Homestar Runner, I was hoping that if I made my own stick, that maybe, just maybe Strongbad would meet me by it. After all; "What is it you don't understand about meet me by the stick"?

So, it is in your hands now. I'm sure the ridicule really won't be abated much by 

my explanations, but at least I tried.

P.S. - Strongbad helped me draw a picture of the tree before it met its untimely demise.

Not the best I've been.

Our whole team has been getting sick this week/weekend. And now it's my turn. Yesterday I got really sick during 7th period, and now I'm sitting at home. So I decided I'd post a few things about this weekend when the Cross Country team went to Laughlin.

I feel that my race overall was really good, and I'm really excited about it. I haven't been doing the best lately, and it felt good to get back on track. So here are a few pictures from the weekend.


This is on the way up to Laughlin. Coachie kept trying to get a picture of me smiling, so I did this. She got kind of mad.


This is me on the way back from Laughlin. It probably doesn't look like it, but this was really comfortable.
This is Me, Brooklyn, Sydney, Alexa, and Katie sitting by/in the jacuzzi Friday night.
These are the people I sat with at the buffet. Unfortunately, I was the only one who didn't know there was a picture being taken.
This isn't us at Laughlin, but I found this picture, and this is the day we had a water balloon fight after practice.

Ward Split

So our ward got split this past week, and it kind of sucks. They didn't do much to the Silverstone Ward, but they cut a lot of our Iron Mountain ward and made it into a new ward called Shadow Ridge. As all of you know, I'm very boy crazy. And now all the boys in my Sunday School class are in the new Shadow Ridge ward. Plus, there are no new boys coming into my class.

But that's not really the reason I'm so sad about this. Most of my Young Women Leaders are now in the Shadow Ridge ward, and I also got released from my calling. It sucks because I really liked our Young Women leaders and I really enjoyed being President while it lasted.

But, lots of things are changing, and I'm OK with it. Sometimes changes are for the better.

Caitlin's School Year.

I know I'm like the only person who ever posts on here anymore, but I'm going to write about my week anyways. So I started school last week, and so far it's been alright. I like most of my classes and most of my teachers, so that's always a plus.

My Spanish teacher kind of reminds me of Donny Osmond, which may seem weird, but true. I'm mostly understanding that class so far, and I'm very proud of that because last year my Spanish 1 teacher was.....less than competent.

I'm also taking Broadcast Journalism, which is a really fun class. Today we actually filmed for the first time so that's always exciting. I think I'm going to like that class and learn a lot.

Cross Country so far has been alright. I had trouble the first couple days of practice out in the heat, but I eventually got used to it. I'm really improving, although my first race wasn't the greatest. Actually, to be completely honest, I sucked. My second race was much better, and I felt like I did a better job. The past two work outs we've done have been really tiring. I'm really sore and my energy is completely drained by the end of the day. In spite of all the tough stuff, I'm excited for this season.

So my upcoming year so far seems pretty exciting, and I'm really looking forward to it.