Silver medal.

In other words, being second best.  In the world of baseball and any other team sport, it means losing.  Yeah.  The Dodgers have been doing that a little bit too often lately.  Let's just say the Dodgers are 1-4 for the five games I have attended this season.  The starting pitchers have been excellent, but the offence is another story.  To illustrate, earlier this month one of our pitchers gave up one hit in eight innings and we still lost the game 1-0.  Pathetic.  The offence has been so bad lately that I find myself cheering for every hit like it was a home run.  After one of their losses, I heard one of the hosts of Dodger Talk say the Dodgers got the silver medal.  It makes it seem less bad.  But I still have faith.  There's a lot of baseball left to play.  And they won tonight!!!!!!!!!!  So much losing makes winning so much better.  Ha.  However, I'd still rather they win more than lose.  Jerry Sands hit his first career grand slam too!  It was great!!!!

The other day, the video highlight on the Dodger homepage was captioned, "Barajas jacks a solo dinger."  What?!  It was obviously a video of his home run.  I just found it entertaining that this caption out of context would be utterly confusing.  I do not understand why someone felt the need to use that caption instead of the simple "Barajas hits a solo home run."  Ha.

The last game I went to was last Thursday against the Giants.  The Giant's starting pitcher had a record of 0-6 coming into the game.  It was the bottom of the ninth.  Dodgers were down 3-0.  The starting pitcher was still pitching.  Losing is one thing.  Losing a complete game shut out by the starting pitcher who has not won a game during the season and is a Giant is quite another.  Also, losing when there are obnoxious Giants fans in your vicinity, doesn't make me very happy.  Anyway, we're down by three.  Bottom of the ninth.  Bottom of the lineup.  The first two guys up to bat get out.  Barajas is up and hits a little blooper that falls right in between the shortstop and the left fielder.  Man on first.  Still two outs.  Sands (the one who hit the grand slam tonight) gets up and doubles to deep center.  One run scores.  Dodgers still down by two with two outs.  They take the starting pitcher out.  Hallelujah.  At least if we still lose, it won't be a shut out and the pitcher won't have pitched a complete game.  The Giants bring in their closer, Wilson.  He's the "Fear the beard" guy.  Supposedly really good.  He proceeds to walk the next two batters which loads the bases.  Two walks!  In a row!  (I was on the edge of my seat/standing the entire time.)  We finally get to the top of our lineup.  The count is 2-2.  Jamey Carroll hits a line drive to right field.  It's dropping.  It looks like a hit.  This could potentially tie up the ball game.  But no.  The Giants' right fielder makes a diving catch to end the game.  Brutal.  We were so close.  

Yes, my blog is turning into a commentary on the Dodgers.  Sorry.  It's summer.  In other news...

Summer Goal #1:  Finish the rest of my Bath & Body Works blazin' blueberry cosmic cool body splash.  That's what it's called.  Not lying.  And the name is not capitalized on the bottle (side note directed at grammar Nazis out there including myself).  I received it as a gift for my tenth birthday.  I have at least a third of it still.  I think it's time to finish it.  Let me know if you could use some.  I'm very willing to share.  :)

Summer Goal #2:  Get Grant to say that he loves me.  He's my two-year-old brother for crying out loud!  Shouldn't he love me?!  He tells my dad all the time that he "just loves [him] so much."  But when I ask him if he loves me, he says no.  In fact he often says he hates me.  Ha.  What a kid.

I babysit two precious (most of the time) kids from my stake for about two hours everyday.  The four-year-old boy (who is in the Darling Duckling preschool class in case you were wondering) really likes numbers and telling me exactly how much different people (most often family members)/things weigh.  Don't worry, he has no concept of how much they actually weigh.  He also likes to tell me the ages of his family members.  One day he said, "A long time ago my dad was 20.  Now he's about 21."  This is probably one of those "you had to be there" moments, but if you know the kid, it would be hilarious.  The things that come out of his mouth.   

I saw a bumper sticker the other day that read, "Land of the free because of the brave."  How true.  Thanks to all the unbelievably courageous men and women out there who put their lives on the line to protect this great country.  I will be forever grateful.

I'm sure you've all heard of the recent tornado in Joplin, MO as well as all the other tornadoes in the Midwest.  These poor people.  There were something like 47 tornadoes in the United States on Sunday alone.  Anyway, I was listening to the news on the radio and they were talking about the Joplin tornado and how the 200 mph gusts were "stripping homes from their foundations and the leaves off the trees."  I don't know about you, but the "stripping homes from their foundations" gets the point of major destruction across pretty well.  The whole "leaves off trees" part is not extremely necessary in my opinion.  I'm almost positive people could care less about the leaveless trees when they don't have a home.  Just a thought.

That's all.  :)  Sorry for this being painfully long.

The dentist.

First of all, I am not aware of anyone who likes going to the dentist.  I'm sure some people don't mind it, but does anyone actually like and look forward to going?  I highly doubt it.  OK, maybe it's kinda fun when your a kid because you get to pick a toy and play video games.  But once you don't get a toy, it's not fun.  Perhaps we could look forward to the new toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss they are supposed to give you.  But guess what.  Today when I went to the dentist, they asked me if I needed any of that stuff.  They didn't just hand it to me.  Lame.

Another reason I am not particularly fond of going to the dentist is cavities.  I hate them.  As soon as I am aware of an upcoming dentist appointment, every small pain in my mouth makes me think I have a cavity.  I don't mind getting cavities filled, I just don't like the idea of having a cavity.  Luckily, I was blessed with killer saliva.  I am a firm believer that whether or not you are prone to cavities is largely based on genetics.  For example, I have had one tiny cavity in the 19 years of my life and I don't do anything extraordinarily special to my teeth.  I brush my teeth when I wake up and floss and brush my teeth before bed (if I don't fall asleep first).  Not brushing my teeth does not keep me awake at night.  And I only started flossing since that cavity which was only a few years ago.  But other people I know brush/floss their teeth just as much, if not more, than me and they get cavities all the time.  Thus, genetics is the answer.

My latest obsession is gas prices.  I love to compare them from station to station.  And it makes my day when gas prices drop.  I am happy to report that the price of gas at the gas station closest to my house has dropped ten whole cents since I got home!!!!!!!!!!!  It was $4.29 per gallon when I got home and today it is only $4.19!!!!!!!!  Whoever thought that gas at $4.19 would be something to cheer about.  In fact I got gas last night at a gas station on the other side of town and it was only $4.17!  What a bargain!  :)

That is all.  I hope that you all don't get cavities and that you find cheap gas!  :)

Grant.

Earlier today I was carrying two pairs of earrings to the car.  I realized in the car that I had lost one of the pearl earrings (don't worry, they were fake).  When I got back home I looked for it a little as I walked back up my driveway.  After searching through my bag  to make sure I hadn't lost it in there, I asked my siblings if anyone wanted to help me look outside.  Grant volunteered.  He ran to get his shoes on.  While he did, I went outside and searched where I had walked as well as I could.  I went back inside and Grant said he was ready.  I told him I had already looked and I went to my room.  He then came in saying he found it.  He had in fact found a pearl bead but it wasn't the earring.  Already thinking he was adorable and quite intelligent for finding a pearl bead, we decided to go look outside again.  As I was getting my shoes on, Grant told me my shoes were awesome.  That kid's a keeper.  We walked down the driveway and searched again.  At the bottom lying in the middle of the driveway in plain sight, he found the earring!  How I missed it the two searches before, I have no idea.  Anyway, Grant is great.  And super cute.

Displaying his most recent piece of art.

He also draws on his stomach.  :)

Fathers and sons.

So last night was the fathers and sons campout for our ward as I'm sure it was for a million other wards out there.  So what do the girls do while the boys camp?  They go to a Dodger game.  :)  So my mom, Becca, Leah, Jimmer, and I went to Chavez Ravine to watch the Dodgers take on the Diamondbacks.  I wore my new Kershaw jersey t-shirt which was especially fitting since he was pitching.  Seven scoreless innings and eleven strikeouts later, it was clear I'd picked an excellent night to debut my new shirt.  :)  In case your wondering, this is the guy I'm talking about.

He's great.  He currently leads the Dodgers with 64 strikeouts.  The next guy has 42.  And did I mention he's only 23?  He's married.  Don't worry.  Anyway, to my dismay they only let him pitch 7 innings despite the fact he had only allowed 3 hits and they had all been in the first inning.  The bullpen proceeded to make things interesting by giving up 3 runs in two innings.  Luckily we still managed to win 4-3.  

And afterward we got to sit on the field and watch fireworks!  In case you were wondering, Jimmer loved his first Dodger game.  He was happy pretty much the whole time.

Well that's about it.  Hoping for another Dodger win tonight.  :)

Ok fine.

I'll admit it.  It's over.  The Lakers are out.  Good thing it's Dodger season.  :)

Other random news...

I have not found a real job, but I have a whole bunch of fake jobs.  Meaning:  I deal with a whole bunch of kids. Luckily they're cute.  :)

Justin, my brother, informed me tonight that he sang a solo in the primary program last October!  I can't believe I missed it!  He's so brave!

I was looking through a box of old pictures recently and found a picture of my first grade class.  It was in this little cardboard frame/folder thing that had spaces to fill in your name, age, favorites, etc.  A few of my favorites were interesting.  My favorite entertainer was Michael Jordan.  Haha.  I don't remember liking basketball back then, but maybe I did.  It did say under "Activities" that I went to some basketball clinic.  Then again, all of my answers are in my dad's handwriting.  So it could also be that because my dad likes basketball anything basketball-related was on the forefront of my dad's mind when I was asking for ideas as we were filling it out.  For my favorite movie, I listed Grizzly Mountain. What in the world?!  I don't remember anything about this movie, so I looked it up.  That must have been the movie I had seen most recently.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but one of my absolute favorite things in life is waking up before my alarm clock.  I know many people hate it because they are unable to fall back asleep once they are awake.  Luckily that has never ever been a problem for me.  I love waking up and knowing I still have more time to sleep.  It's the best feeling.  The worst feeling is waking up and feeling like you just shut your eyes.  Thus, when you wake up before your alarm, it sort of makes it feel like you get to sleep for longer.  Yes, I'm weird. Example story:  Once during freshman year some of our friends snuck an alarm clock into our room and put it up on this bizarre shelf thing right under the ceiling.  That description makes zero sense, but if you've ever lived in Helaman or seen it, you'll understand.  Anyway, of course they set it to some time early in the morning.  When it went off, I would have slept through it if it hadn't been for Amelia climbing on my desk trying to retrieve the alarm clock.  Was I angry?  Nope.  I was just happy I could sleep longer.

That's about it.  See ya.

It ain't over til it's over.

Don't count the Lakers out yet.  Why?  Cuz Kobe said so.

Livin' the good life.

Summer is simply fantastic.  And here is why...

1.  Baseball everyday (except Sunday).  And that is NOT an exaggeration.  Whether it's the Dodgers or one of my sibling's games, there is baseball going on every single day.

2.  Mangos.  (The plural form of "mango" can end in -oes or -os in case you were wondering.)  A member of the cashew family.  (Who knew?)  I guess they've recently been on sale at some grocery store so my mother has been kind enough to keep us stocked.  They are delicious.  With baseball and mangos every day, life is pretty close to perfect.

Haha.  I guess that's it.  Remember, baseball + mangos = happiness.  :)

Oh and don't you worry.  I have not given up on the Lakers.

Just because.

Yes, two posts in a row.  You are probably thinking that I must have something better to do with my life currently.  Besides writing missionaries, I do not.

Google docs were something I assumed only college students and adults (maybe the occasional smart kid in high school) used.  I stand corrected.  My brother in sixth grade uses them.  For whatever reason, this blew my mind.  Sixth graders can figure out how to use Google docs?  Guess so.

My two-year-old brother Grant is hilarious.  He loves to write (meaning scribble).  He is very good at t, o, and E.  He drew on my mom's bathroom wall with permanent marker.  A few mornings later, he drew all over his sheets and pillow with a ballpoint pen.  During this same writing adventure, he drew on his stomach, back, and feet.  And to top it all off, he drew on Leah's back.  She slept through the entire thing.  We decided he is going to be a graffiti artist someday.  He is quite the character.  He is also very polite.  It's precious.

I attended my first Dodger game of the summer last night.  It was great.  Minus the fact that we lost.  Better luck next time I guess.  At least Ethier continued his hit streak.  He has currently gotten a hit in 27 consecutive games.

Summer is great!  Have a superb day.  :)

Two freeways later.

Back in sunny California.  Here's a recap of the highlights of my last night in Provo and the drive home.

I managed to stretch my finals out as long as possible.  I finished my last final about 3 minutes before the testing center was going to close on Thursday, the last day of finals.  That takes talent.  Ha.  So after I got home I decided to make pizza in an effort to get rid of as much food as possible.  Unfortunately the dough takes about an hour and a half in the bread maker.  So the pizza wasn't ready until after midnight.  I also made scones.  I accidentally used baking soda instead of baking powder.  (It might have been baking powder instead of baking soda...I can't remember...I used the wrong one.)  They were still pretty good.  Finally I made rice crispie treats.  It was quite a night of cooking.  I also accomplished the packing of the majority of my clothes.  I got to bed about 4:30 that night/morning.

The next morning I made french toast to finish off my bread.  Thinking I was going to leave Provo around 7 p.m., I had quite the leisurely morning.  Around 1:30 p.m. I was informed that we were leaving pretty much as soon as I was ready preferably around 3:30.  Ummm...OK.  Believe it or not I think I made it out the door by 4:00 p.m.  This was quite a feat let me assure you.

Oh and I am happy to report that I managed to recycle all my newspapers.  I probably saved an entire forest.  I'm not even joking.

On our drive, I saw a license plate holder on a car that read "Product of polygamy".  What in the world?!  First of all what were they actually referring to?  The car?  The license plate holder?  The driver?  Also, I was unaware that being a product of polygamy was something to be proud of.  I guess I was wrong.

We stopped in St. George for the night at the house of the friend I was driving with's grandparents.  It was located at Escapes at Entrada.  I was already excited considering that Escapes at Entrada is frequently advertised at BYU basketball games.  However, I was informed that the most exciting part of Escapes at Entrada is that it is the place that High School Musical 2 was filmed at.  I was staying in the very place where the golf course is located on which Zac Efron sang his angry song.  I visited the club house, the pool, the softball field.  It was quite the experience.

Guess what.  Have you ever realized that that phrase ("guess what") is a statement?  It's not a question.  It's a statement.  It is a command.  You are telling someone to guess not asking them to.

There are a few billboards south of Las Vegas that are about preventing animal cruelty.  One line on the billboard reads, "Animals are children too."  These billboards have been up for quite awhile.  Every time I drive by I think the same thing.  Animals are not in fact children.  While we should love animals and treat them kindly and with respect, they are not children.  Just thought we should clear that up.

Also south of Vegas are two towns named Jean and Primm.  These establishments are quite small and consist of a casino or two and a few gas stations and maybe some outlets.  You can see the entirety of each town as you drive past.  It takes about one minute max to drive through them on I-15.  My question is, where in the world do the people who work in the casinos, outlets, restaurants, gas stations, and hotels live?  In the hotels?  Do they commute from Vegas?  There are no houses in these places.  It is truly mind-boggling.

Before reaching my home, I saw two Dodger billboards.  They made the trip worth it.  :)