We Tried To Kill Ourselves?

Last spring semester we seemed to have a lot of time on our hands, and we got bored really often. Although we were able to entertain ourselves with cooking, decorating, and annoying each other, eventually those things just did not cut it. The next logical distraction we decided on was doing stupid, dangerous stuff to see if we could get away with it unhurt. That ended up completely consuming us for weeks. At first we were content with chopping potatoes or onions in different, funny ways, but the worse that ever happened was just a little skin getting cut off of our fingers, which is never a big deal since we would do that all the time normally on accident. Soon, that got to be boring as well, and we had to come up with something else. Larissa’s new favorite pass time had become leaning over the railing and seeing how far she could get without actually falling over the edge. Kelly didn’t really find this attempt of survival as enjoyable as Larissa since we were on the third floor of our apartment complex, and she was pretty sure Larissa would slip and die one day, and made Larissa stop. So once again, they were back to ground zero.
One day as we were bored beyond belief and talking about childhood memories, Kelly mentioned that she had Bugles one time when she was young and had a severe allergic reaction to them that had landed her in the hospital. Larissa was sure they’d hit the jackpot when Kelly had told the story. This is it! This was bound to keep us entertained for at least a few hours! Excitedly, Larissa made Kelly come to the store with her, so that she could buy Bugles. Just to stay on the safe side she called Alex (our medic friend) to make sure that he didn’t have anything going on that night so that if we needed him we would be able to get a hold of him. He was quite curious as to why we were wondering, but we figured we’d just let it be a surprise... especially since we knew that if we told him, he wouldn’t have let us try it. Larissa bought the Bugles and we rushed back. Once they got back to the apartment Larissa opened the bag and hurriedly shoved them at Kelly. Hesitantly, but excitedly at the same time, Kelly bit into a Bugle, slowly chewed, and carefully swallowed. And then we waited. ….nothing happened. Ok well maybe it needed to be more than one Bugle we thought, so Kelly continued to munch on the Bugles while Larissa hovered over her, hoping for something amazing to happen. 45 minutes later, with still nothing exciting happening to Kelly, Larissa lost interest in hovering, and they settled on watching a movie while Kelly continued to munch on the deadly chips.
In the end, nothing ended up happening. Whatever allergic reaction Kelly had experienced when she was young apparently went away as she got older, because she ate that entire bag of Bugles, and didn’t even swell up a little bit. Not only that, but Larissa was out 3 bucks since she had bought the bag. We eventually decided that the distraction we should probably focus on a bit more was our homework, and we stopped trying to kill ourselves, although it did make for some fun memories nonetheless.

We decide we want to be busy and productive this semester?

So our last semester up at school was kind of a boring one. Well, not boring necessarily, but very chill and…laid back. Basically we had no lives whatsoever, and you can really only spend so much time on Facebook. So as we were talking about this, we decided that we were not going to let another semester go by with us just sitting at home all day, especially since this is Maquel's last semester. At the beginning of the semester we did our best to make sure we were making plans to do stuff. We knew we wanted to see the school play, have a Halloween party, and be more involved in our ward and in school in general.
Of course once we make a plan, we go full force to make sure we fulfill that plan. As soon as we got to school we started planning a Halloween party, and joined a few activity committees for the school. It was perfect at first, the committee meetings were about once a week, and the Halloween planning was a perfect distraction that could keep us busy for hours. We were soon both called to be on the night Relief Society committee which is also bound to keep us busy.
Too soon however, it seemed like all of our plans and activities came into action all at once, got a little out of hand. All of a sudden we were busy with something every single day, and we didn’t have time to sit at all, let alone sleep. For the month of October Larissa has 2 weddings and 3 receptions that she has to make sure she gets to throughout the month, and of course her birthday as well. We went from sitting at the apartment all day trying to think of something to do, to running around trying to get commercials scripted, filmed, edited, approved and submitted, posters and fliers to design, meetings to go to, Larissa’s birthday to figure out, and a party to plan.
As we were focusing on our party, we decided to make a trip into Idaho Falls to buy stuff for it. What was sure to be an exciting adventure turned into a well…mess. We got a little too caught up with the ideas of decorating, and food, and games, and prizes…and let’s just say our budgets for the rest of the semester has been greatly diminished thanks to this party. Luckily for now we have the party almost completely ready, and all the stuff for it bought, so hopefully it won’t take up too much more time. It’s in 3 days, and then we can cross that off our list.
For Larissa’s birthday we went to Fong’s, since Chinese is Larissa’s ALL TIME favorite, and then we went and saw Inception afterwards. Maquel made her a super delicious angel food cake, and got her Swan Princess, and a cute stuffed dog that we decided to name Odin. It was a great day, and we were both thankful that we could cross it off our list of things to do as well.
The show that we’re helping with on campus is Magic Moments, which is basically a Disney talent show, and the show isn’t until December, so that’s bound to keep us busy for the entire semester. (We highly encourage any students at BYUI to audition for this, because it’s going to be amazing. And if you don’t audition then you’d better buy tickets to watch the show, or else) We got tickets for the play we wanted to go see, but only had one day that we could even consider going, because all the other days we had meetings of some kind going on. To add to our crazy mad schedules of busyness, we also have a friend Alex, who is currently in Europe with a school group and we decided to decorate his room as a welcome home/happy birthday surprise since he was away for his birthday, and for whatever reason, trying to figure out how to get into his apartment to decorate, and WHEN to get in proved to be a lot more difficult than we ever thought would be. We did manage to get in and decorate though, and we’re both beyond excited for him to get home and see it. Although we’re really thankful that we’re staying active and busy this semester, we’re wishing we had just a day, no…just a few hours of down time that we could enjoy just sitting down and maybe watching a movie…it’s not going to be happening anytime soon though. For some inexplicable reason we’re incapable of ever doing anything in moderation. We are either bored to death with nothing whatsoever to do, or else we’re so busy we have to schedule and plan every moment of every day to make sure we get everything done.
We’ll be sure to let you know how the party and show turn out…if we survive that long.

We Spend A Friday Night Getting Chased By Zombies?

It was another wonderful Friday night in boring Rexburg and we were trying to figure out what exciting things we could come up with to keep ourselves entertained. We bounced ideas back and forth from renting a movie, making some kind of new dessert, going to the haunted house or trying to find some friends to hang out with. It looked we were about to succumb to the Redbox idea when we got a text from our friend Bryce saying he was in town. He came over and kept us pretty distracted with all the fun applications he has on his phone. We quite enjoyed the app that you can use to call someone, but make it show up as someone else’s number and it disguises your voice too. As entertaining as it was, it didn’t keep us distracted for too long. We grew tired of calling each other over and over again trying out different voices, Bryce then showed us possibly the most amazing app ever created in this world…The Zombie Run (insert dramatic music here).

This astonishing game is quite simple. It’s a GPS program that finds where you are, and you pick a destination where you want to end. You then decide how many zombies you want, and how fast they can move. Once you have all of these option selected, you push start…and run from the zombies. Our first go around Larissa was driving, and we were going from our apartment to Wal-Mart’s parking lot. Let’s just say there was a LOT of screaming from Kelly telling Larissa to turn at the last minute, Bryce encouraging her to speed quite a bit, and freaking out about the zombies getting closer and closer. (Kelly would like to deny the screaming about last minute turns, she did try to plan ahead). By the time we got to Wal-Mart all of our throats hurt from yelling so much, but we made it alive without any of the zombie’s eating our brains. It was an amazing game, and Larissa wanted a chance to be the one yelling and not driving, so we played again and Bryce drove the car back to the apartment. This proved to be much more difficult though because he doesn’t know the town nearly as well as we do, and it turned into a lot more yelling than the first time as we were trying to explain to him how to cut through the parking lot and take the back roads. We did make it back to the apartment alive, but just barely. As we were laughing about how amazing this game is, we knew we had to play at least one more time, but this time it had to be on foot. We changed into our leather jackets, because you have to wear leather when running from zombies, and we headed up to campus. We decided running down hill would definitely be easier than trying to run uphill, so once we got to the top of campus we set the game up. We soon realized our fatal flaw in this plan as soon as the game started. Bryce had a hold of the phone, and he didn’t know campus at all, so we were basically just running blindly. He panicked and quite literally threw the phone to Kelly for her to take control. Kelly, with her amazing hand eye coordination, almost dropped the phone and had to juggle it a bit too get control of it. Once she had the phone we had to stop and reset EVERYTHING. Sadly a good share of them were literally right behind us, so we took off down the hill yet again, screaming and pointing at unseen zombies. As we were dodging around buildings trying to avoid getting our brains eaten we realized another error that we hadn’t contemplated, we both hate running...with a passion. But there was no going back now, we had to get to the destination point without losing our brains, we were not about to surrender to the fake zombies. After what seemed like an eternity, we did finally get to the destination point without running into to any zombies. We stayed there for a few minutes enjoying our victory and trying to catch our breaths, and then decided to play one more round on the way back to the apartment, but realized it was nearly impossible since there was really only one way to get back to the apartment, and of course that’s where all the zombies were. Sadly, we did all get eaten that time. The zombies were just too powerful, and we were exhausted. We tried one more time, making sure the settings were easier. There were very little zombies and we made them move very slowly. We made it back alive, though thoroughly worn out and extremely sweaty.

Bryce left us to go hang out with other people and we were content to finish the night sitting on the couch watching a few episodes of The Big Bang Theory trying to cool off from a thrilling night of avoiding the deadly invasion of zombies. We’ve decided one of us now has to buy an iPhone just so that we can have this application, because who doesn’t want to run from zombies on a daily basis?

We Make Brownies?

It was yet another boring day in Rexburg, and we were desperate for a distraction from our endless piles of homework. Our sweet tooths were starting to go crazy, so, we decided to cook! Cooking is always our answer to distract ourselves, because it takes time to make whatever it is we decide to attempt to make, and then even more time to eat it!!! So as we were looking through all the possible desserts that we could make and we realized we had a problem. You see, living on the third floor of our apartment complex our apartment was always super hot. Turning the oven on seemed like an unbearable option because our apartment was already smolderingly hot and that would only make it worse. But we refused to give up our dessert idea, mainly because by then we were both crazily craving brownies. After trying to figure out some way to endure the hot oven, Larissa got a bright idea. She remembered that she had had those cute little microwavable brownies before, and they were really good. As she passed this thought to Kelly, we both agreed it was a brilliant idea that solved all of our problems. We would simply make the brownie mix, and put it in a cheap version of a Tupperware container, and pop it in the microwave for a bit. First of course we ate as much of the mix as we possibly could until we started feeling sick. Then we dumped the rest in the Tupperware container. We really had no idea how long we should let the brownies cook for, so we just set the timer for like 10 minutes and decided we would keep an eye on it. At first it was pretty exciting to watch, because it kind of looked like the brownies were growing and then boiling. After awhile of having our faces shoved up to the microwave window it started becoming less exciting to watch, and so of course we got to talking. Well about 3 minutes after we got distracted we glanced over, and realized there was smoke billowing out of the microwave. Oops. Of course our gut reactions were to open the door and get the brownies out of there… what we hadn’t thought through was that opening the door then allowed the wonderful burned brownie/plastic smell to escape the microwave and invade the entire apartment. Once we cleared the apartment of the smoke as best we could, we took a closer look at the brownies and discovered that they were indeed completely burned and rock hard. Not only that, but they had actually melted the Tupperware container into the batter making it literally impossible to get the brownies out. We tried soaking it, but soaking charcoal doesn’t break it down. We had to throw the whole thing away, container at all. Once that was disposed of we tried to come up with some ways to mask the horrible smell. Nothing worked so we did the next best thing we could think of… we put all the fans in the front room, opened the doors and windows, and left the apartment for the rest of the day. Yes we know…denial.
Not only did we have to endure that unique smell for the next few days, we also had to go out and buy chocolate to satisfy the annoying craving that sadly still hadn’t gone away. Kelly is sure that if we tried it again and actually watched the brownies the whole time it would work... Larissa is a little more leery though. She has no desire whatsoever to smell that smell ever again. Stay tuned to find out who wins that battle.

We Chase a Lightning Storm?

Earlier this semester we decided to have an adventure to the drive inn. We learned that there was one just here in Rexburg, which was a lot more convenient then going all the way into Idaho Falls like we used to, so we decided to go check it out. The movies playing were Night and Day, and Shrek 4. We weren’t too excited about the movies, but excited to buy snacks and get out for the night. Once we got to the drive inn we got an amazing spot right up front, and got all settled in. Well as we were waiting for the movie to start we realized that a lightning storm was coming in. We’ve had a lot of lightning storms this summer because it would be so hot during the day and cool down so much at night, so this really shouldn’t have been anything new. However as the lightning storm got closer we realized just how intense it was. Almost every three seconds there was a flash coming from some part of the sky. By the time the movie started the storm was almost to us, and we couldn’t even really see the screen because the flashes were so bright. Before we knew what was going on the storm was directly over us, pouring rain and sending lightning all over the sky. By this time we were completely distracted by the storm, and had forgotten about the movie entirely. As the storm started to pass we debated about whether to follow the storm, or try to figure out what was going on in the movie. At first we did stay at the movie and try to catch up on the plot, but we soon realized that it was hopeless and decided to chase the storm to try to get some videos. At first we just kind of followed the storm, not really paying attention to where we were, until we started paying attention to the signs around us and realized we were a lot closer to the border of Wyoming than we should have been and only about 30 miles outside of Jackson. We were a little worried at first, but decided to turn left (because the totally solves everything) and kept going on our way. We got in a minor argument when Larissa told Kelly to look for a street to turn on, and Kelly decided to say something right as we were passing the sign, not giving Larissa enough time to slow down and turn. Kelly then refused to help anymore because Larissa obviously wasn’t listening to Kelly anyways. Eventually we turned around and took the turn that Kelly found and ended up finding a couple good spots to stop and get some awesome videos and decided we should probably start heading back. Well about that time we realized we really had no idea where we were, or how to get back on the main road, so naturally we decided to drive around aimlessly. Eventually we came across a sign that said we were in Driggs. Great, we’re in Driggs!!!! The only problem was that we didn’t actually know where Driggs was in comparison to Rexburg. This really bothered Kelly. Larissa has lived here her WHOLE life….and she doesn’t know where Driggs is?! Surely we must be completely lost in some other universe and would never find our way home! Kelly’s freaking out resulting is Larissa’s freaking out, and right when we were both on a verge of a brake down, we found the highway. Just like that, right in front of us. We turned left, which again we figured had to be the right way to go, and soon saw the sign that we were over 45 miles outside of Rexburg. Oops. We got back to Rexburg mildly annoyed with each other, but safe none the less. Although it was a lot of fun, and we did get some amazing videos, the whole getting lost part was not the best idea we ever had.

We Decorate?!?!

A new semester means a new chance for decorations, and we LOVE decorations. It has become a tradition with us that we try to come up with the best decorated apartment on the floor, and we strive to achieve it. Fall semester we had a hot man wall. It was pretty awesome until the boys got offended and so we had to move it into the hallway (and it is still in the hallway for you girls that ever need a pick me up  ), and created a quote wall instead. Winter semester we added on to the quote wall, and everyone loved reading the quotes and trying to figure out what they meant, even though they were usually wrong and we would never tell them what they quotes really meant, it was still always fun. So as we were starting our spring semester, we knew we had to do something amazing. Larissa had gotten online and found some cute decorating ideas with scrap book paper, but we knew that wouldn’t be enough, that was too easy. Once we met our roommates and talked to them, we decided to duct tape the walls in colors that would match the paper. We were going to have the coolest apartment EVER. Well of course we made the scrapbook paper a big deal and it was really quite stressful trying to make sure that all the colors were completely random, which probably took about an hour, and then trying to tape them onto the wall was a lot harder than we had planned on. In fact, the rows ended up being crooked, but by the time we noticed, we were so sick of the paper that we just left it like that. Once the roommates bought the duct tape we went to town on the rest of the walls!

The vision with the duct tape was to do a plaid type pattern, crisscrossing the tapes and colors. In our heads the idea was perfect, and should have been pretty easy. Boy we were wrong. We realized that the crisscrossing look involved a lot of weaving the tapes under and over the other pieces of tape, and tape isn’t the easiest thing to work with. It took us a week to get the entire front room done, and were very thankful to have it done. It really did look amazing. We loved it, and it was definitely unique. However, as time went on, the tape grew to be more of a trial rather than a prize to show off. Larissa was getting headaches from staring at the bright colors, and every tape that wasn’t perfectly straight was slowly driving us crazy. Finally one day towards the end of the semester we just couldn’t do it anymore, and we ripped all the tape off. The problem is we left the tape up ALL semester, which made it kind of glue itself to the wall. When we ripped the tape off we took a good share of the paint with it. Oops. Now it almost looks like we have stripes on the walls where the paint is gone. We’re going to have to buy paint, and hope that it’s enough that the managers don’t notice too much. Although it really was a fun idea, and we did get a lot of recognition for the bright colored duct tape, the consequences are outweighing the benefits now. Dang.

We Try to Pop Popcorn?

Popcorn! Who could mess up popcorn!? …We can. It was a Friday movie night at our apartment, and we decided we both desperately wanted popcorn. The only problem was that all our microwavable popcorn was all gone, and we’d never made popcorn over the stove, though we’ve heard that it works. We did however have popcorn kernels, because we had made caramel popcorn with some friends a few weeks before. They had made the popcorn, but we didn’t actually see how they made it. But none the less, we decided to try. How hard could it be, right?! Well first off, we didn’t have any vegetable oil, so we used olive oil. Not our smartest move. You see, olive oil is a more expensive than vegetable oil, meaning that it’s a lot nicer. This would usually be good except for the fact that olive oil doesn’t boil like vegetable oil does. At all. But of course we didn’t know this, so Kelly put olive oil in the bottom of the pan, and put some kernels in and let them be. We remembered our friends would shake the pan….but we weren’t really sure why they did that, or how often you were supposed to do that, so we were just kind of guessing. After about 15 minutes of staring at the kernels we knew we had messed up somewhere. The kernels were beginning to turn black, and started smelling funny. Kelly picked the pan up, and told Larissa to get a bag or something to put the burned kernels in so we could try again. Well right as Kelly tipped the pan to dump the kernels into the plastic shopping bag, it occurred to both of us that those were really hot kernels, and would probably… Ya, you guessed it, they burned right through the plastic bag, sending burning hot kernels ALL over the floor. The dance that we were doing was probably very amusing as we were trying to get away from the hot kernels, and not step on any that had already landed. Once we caught our breaths from laughing so hard at our own stupidity, we picked the kernels up and mopped the floor because of the oil, and had to try again. The second attempt wasn’t quite as bad as the first. We got a couple to pop but not nearly enough. After disposing of the second batch of kernels in a better fashion than we did the first batch, we tried again, determined to prove that we can make popcorn. This time it was Larissa’s turn. Kelly couldn’t take the pressure any longer, and stormed out of the kitchen, swearing she would never make popcorn over the stove EVER AGAIN. Third time’s a charm apparently, because for whatever reason it worked. We got the kernels to pop, and the popcorn actually tasted pretty yummy.

We have since then purchased vegetable oil and have made popcorn on numerous occasions, although Larissa still has to make it because Kelly refuses to do more than a couple of shakes. The popcorn idea in and of itself wasn’t a bad idea, but because we were void of any real thought process, we made a HUGE mess. Again not our brightest idea.