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Sometimes it's funny things like this that remind you just how small the world is.

Since coming to SVU I have been called as the Relief Society Activities Committee Chair. Which means it is my job to plan, with my committee, fun and wholesome activities for girls who live in a certain area. (the 5th ward area).

I was browsing pinterest and had searched for something like "friendship activity". Which just pulls up any pin that has been pinned with a comment that says friendship or activity. So then I was getting all of these like quotes about friendship and weird stuff. I kept scrolling, looking for something brilliant to pop out at me and then I was like "WAIT!" I scrolled back up a little and there is a picture of Emmy. Emmy was the student body president my first year of student government in high school and she sort of took me under her wing. Her dad was also my orthodontist and knew my mum from high school and I helped her mum out with some stuff when I was a freshman. Long story short I love Emmy and think she is wonderful. So there on my computer screen- out of like a bagillion pins is a picture of Emmy.

Of course I click on it. and it links to a blog of a family that lives right by me and who I totally know. and they for a mutual activity had played a game and Emmy was there and had her picture taken which was then posted on this blog which somebody then saw and pinned to Pinterest and then I found it while randomly searching in Virginia.

And that people is a small small world. And also go Mesa for repping it on Pinterest.
I didn't use that idea... but we found a good one and our first activity is tomorrow night. I'm off to hand-out flyers to remind the girls- again. We are hoping for a great turn-out and buckets of fun! Wish us luck! ;)

-ALC
P.S. I learned its Birming-gum, not Birming-ham.

EBM

The mailman finally came. And he brought my big white envelope with him.

I didn't think it would be a big deal to wait until that night when everyone could gather, I mean the call was the same no matter what time I opened it. And I would know THAT night, so no big deal to wait out the afternoon.

Oh my gosh I thought I was going to die. It was right there. Sitting on my desk next to me. It would take 15 seconds and I could know.

BUT- I waited. Alyson's self-control for the win. I knew there was a reason to only eating 1/4 of a truffle at a time. And all those times of teaching myself to wait finally paid off.

I have never done something so exciting in my life as reading that letter. That's what it was- pure excitement.

It was a little (super) hard to not be able to open it with my family. It meant we couldn't all huddle around the computer after and research wherever I was going, and I couldn't be there to share the excitement with them and my daddy couldn't hug me and Mum couldn't read the paperwork with me... but I am so grateful for my friends that were able to be there with me and be excited with me! Especially Jill who got to facetime! We skyped in with the family so they were able to watch it though from what I hear the internet wasn't working and I was green. Oh well the call was the call green or not!

Luckily one of my friends was able to video it so that anyone who wants to watch it and didn't get to can. Excuse the weird iphone filming. Also I don't actually open the call till like 4:02. Everything before that is just talking and you can skip it. (that is if the video file I am trying to embed will work)

That was extremely difficult. Appreciate the hour I just spent getting that stupid video to post!!

So EBM it is. That stands for the England Birmingham Mission (the missionaries there call it the "Earth's Best Mission. Get it?) and I am Ecstatic.  Its amazing how I love Birmingham so much and I have never even been there.

Pretty much I know nothing yet, math homework and a nap (I could not fall asleep until like 2:30 in the morning the excitement was too much) took precedence over research. But when I find stuff out I'll let you know.

This is my mission. It's huge, the whole red area is mine. Coast to Coast.

I also think while I am there I should pick up an accent. That would be cool.

If you want to learn more about where I will be living click here. More about the church I am serving a mission for here.

-Sister. ALC

A BV Birthday Bash

Tuesday was a special day here in BV: we had no school. Actually the rest of BV had school, just not SVU. It also happened to be Jordan's birthday which worked out very well for celebrating!

We took over the 2nd floor lobby and watched Harry Potter and had pizza.

Jord has some very advanced taste buds and requested white cake with white frosting. (Who has a birthday without chocolate cake? Its not even possible!) Gramzie Nansi has this amazing frosting recipe we all call "Fluffy White" frosting and can actually just eat it from the bowl and not on cake. I was in charge of cake and decided to go bold and make Fluffy White for the occasion.

Anyone who has made fluffy white will know how finicky the recipe is. and my last attempt at making it for Mum's birthday didn't end up so well for me. Gramzie is always in charge of making the fluffy white but then she went to Myanmar for her mission and I had to step up and claim my rightful place as a Hobbs by conquering the frosting. Anyway the last time I made it was a year ago and now I am older and wiser.

On Monday (because it needed to already be ready on Tuesday for the party) I borrowed somebody's kitchen because I live in a kitchen-less dorm. Cake making went swimmingly. Then came the frosting.

We thought she had a hand-held electric mixer but she did not. See an electric mixer is quite imperative for fluffy white because you have to whip the egg whites until they're stiff. So we tested with a blender but blenders don't whip egg whites very well. The girl who's kitchen I was borrowing had to leave for a meeting. So now here I am, in this strange kitchen with some very blended egg whites but none that are whipped.

So I did what any rational person does I consulted Google (Jord is always harassing me for consulting Google too often, then I consulted it to make her cake, thats funny.) Google told me I could easily stiffen the whites by hand using a whisk and a bowl. So I watched some youtube videos to perfect my technique and found myself a whisk and got to work whisking.

15 minutes later my whites were not stiff. I decided maybe the blending had compromised the structural integrity of the white or something. So I washed the bowl and started over.

This time went much better. When you pulled out the whisk the egg white peak could hold its shape and not tip over. So pleased as punch that my frosting was not lost I moved on to step two.

Step two is mixing some other liquid ingredients together and adding them to the whites. All I ended up with was soup. So I thought maybe it just needs some more whisking. So I whisked and I whisked and I whisked all to no avail.

Eventually I was forced to abandon the frosting attempts and  move on. So I got my cake and walked home and possibly cried.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do about frosting the cake. Luckily Sam has a car and was on call for an emergency trip to Wally-World for *ugh* canned white frosting. if I couldn't think of a better solution fast.

THEN I was walking to the institute building (which has a kitchen) for home teaching and I thought "The Institute kitchen will have a hand-held electric mixer" AND they did. So I went and met with my home teachers then I stole the Lord's mixer and took it back to my dorm where I used my popcorn bowl (fully cleaned) and my last eggs and tried for the 3rd time to make this darn frosting.

It worked.

It was not as fluffy as when Mum or Gramzie makes it but it was fluffish and tasted good anyway. I made a batch and half per Mum's instructions so Sam and I grabbed some spoons and ate the rest out of the bowl (which is the way Fluffy white is meant to be eaten). I frosted the cake and washed the mixer and took it back to the church house and all was well.

Lesson learned from frosting making: a whisk does not stand a chance against an electric mixer.

 I forgot to get a picture with the birthday girl until I was already in my pajamas and in bed so I told her we would stage a picture, but I forgot to do that too. So imagine a picture of me and Jordan right here with huge smiles!

I had to wrap the present in copy paper because what college student has wrapping paper on hand? Present wrapping could be my career though. Look at how cute that is! 

The finished product, completely edible frosting.

 Oh I can taste it now!

I love birthdays. They are the best. And so is Jordan so Happy Birthday to her!

-ALC

A PSA

Here is the PSA: We (meaning I and you by association) HATE the Buena Vista Postal Service.

Today was supposed to be a post about where I was going to serve my mission. But my call has NOT COME.

Fortunately to keep me away from the edge of actual insanity he did finally decide to bring my Valentines day package. 3-day priority mail my butt. But its here! Also on Friday I got 2 other packages and my letter had come earlier. My Mummzie got me a new cat5 cord. The wifi here is virtually non-existent (remember?) and if you want to have a hope of doing online homework in a timely fashion you're connected with a cat5. So I have one but its about a foot long and confines me to my desk for any netflix streaming or skyping or homework doing. (listed in order of importance) This one is long enough I can take my laptop to my bed. Now I can blog with my pillows and my new ice pack (the other thing Mum mailed to me) in my warm sheets with my hotchocolate (courtesy of the valentines package). Its going to be a dream.

Don't get me wrong though. I still hate the mailman.

-ALC

Here Comes the Sun

da-da-da-da....

And I say it came too early. The sun needs to go back down, the moon can come back up, and everyone can go back to sleep. And by everyone I mean myself because Sam gets to blissfully sleep till 10:30 on Thursdays while I am up at the crack of dawn.

I actually found the sun yesterday, I woke up and walked to classes in the FREEZING rain- then I was done and went back outside and the snow was melting and the sun was shinning and it was beautiful! I was waiting for the mailman to come so I found myself a location with cell service, and a lawn chair, and I plopped down right there with the sun shining on my face and txted Jill. (Jord walked by, she thought it was weird that I was still wearing a coat, but the air wasn't warm- just the sun on my face. Its not warm enough to pack the coats away) I took a picture of the sun so you would know I was not faking it. I always tell the truth!

So here came the sun... but NOT THE MAILMAN.

You think its hard anxiously waiting for one package try 4.

It was actually a bummer because two of them were supposed to get here Friday, but then there was the snow storm so then I thought "Oh! Saturday!" Well mail doesn't come here on Saturdays, nor Sundays. Then Monday was Presidents day and USPS was closed, then Tuesday we didn't have classes (more to come) so no mail. I was sure they were coming yesterday. So classes got out and I waited patiently in the sun for the mailman to get here- nada! My packages did not come!!

I hope he comes today.

It Was A Very Cold [lazy] Weekend.

I lived.

Just barely but I did live. Lived it up.

It has been a fun few days with all the snow! I did all the things on my snow bucket list and slept a lot in my warm sheets I got for Christmas.

There was Olympics watching, hot-chocolate drinking, snow throwing, hot-shower taking. And it was fantastic.

Here is some (a ton) of photographic proof that it really did snow.

 There is me- in snow angel form.

 This is the snowman I made. He doesn't have a name but he has feet and he is adorable.

 This is so you can see how deep it was. Almost to my knee in some places.

 I don't know if you can tell but that is a professor. He was just going around on his skis. Cross-Country skiing. Jord says thats a real thing.

These were our little walkways. I only had to walk to two classes. One on Friday and one on Thursday. Which left lots of time to play!

Some of the snow is starting to melt but for the most part everything it still covered and I love it!

-ALC

This is Goodbye

This popped up on my phone today: (like my nice screen shot?)
There is a severe weather alert that goes into effect tomorrow at 1pm. Since I might not make it through the storm I thought I'd say goodbye before then. There was a SWA (severe weather alert) last semester and I lived through that one so my hopes are high for this SWA. Sometimes (all the time) the SWA's are an over-reaction. Last time I was asking Jill if she had stocked up and was ready, she told me she had a car. If we lost power she could use the car heater and charge her phone in there. And her and I were pretty well stocked up on beverages (over-stocked even) so we weren't worried.
This semester on the other hand... (actually Sam has a car so if it gets too cold we can hide in there). I have enough tylenol to last me to the end of time but I ran out of water and cough drops last night, and tissues on Sunday, and pringles last week, and bandaids this morning when I fell down the stairs. Us college kids are ill-prepared for disaster. No flashlight, no extra blankets, no 72 hour kit or year-supply. If it gets bad I'm gonna be in trouble... (Jord has a flashlight. In case of Emergency go to her room.)
I'm secretly hoping Wednesday night we get a TON of snow, so much so that it might just possibly be very dangerous for my professors to drive to school on Thursday.... maybe there will even be too much snow by Wednesday night so I don't have to walk to my meetings in the snow.

Regardless- my snow boots are going to be getting some good use in the next few days. They (and me) are pretty excited. I've got big plans for this SWA: snow angels, snowmen, sledding, snowball fights, snow shoveling...
In case the snow storm doesn't finish me off I have a paper due in Math on Friday and an assignment due tomorrow- those will definitely do me in. So goodbye, I love you all! My will is in the attic in the blue box labeled: "Will Box". See you on the other side.
-ALC
In other news my white bedspread is now a lovely (its hideous) shade of blue. also ignore the weird lobby mirror picture and look how cute my outfit looked for my presentation today. I could run the country in those trousers. Or ruin the country as I texted my Mum...

310 Update

Poor room 310 is sick. Pretty much we were tons of fun and laid in bed all weekend long. Actually I went out Friday night, so ten points for Aly! But now its Monday. Which means its a new week and I decided I am no longer sick, my body disagrees but I don't care.

Friday though there was a shoe emergency (an online shipment came with the wrong shoes!) (Sam not me.) and it necessitated getting out of bed and driving to Charlotte so we could go to DSW and rectify the problem. I was only supposed to go as moral support but you can all guess how well that went over.

At the risk of sounding like every other shoe obsessed female- I needed these. I am going to get married in them and buried in them and the blogging world can hold me to that. (don't hold me to that. New shoes are being designed everyday. You can never know what else is coming along.)

Then the drive home was so beautiful. I was curled up in the front seat of Sams car, still wearing my shoes mind you. (I made the lady check them out while they were still on. Sam was embarrassed when I stuck my foot on the counter) and it hit me that I am so grateful to live here, even if its just for a little while longer (I find out the location of the next 18 months of my life next week!). My pictures are all blurry I am seeing as I look through them so pretty VA clouds will have to make up for the lack of pretty VA mountains. Really though- they're the best.

I'm off to wash me sheets- per my decision to not be sick. (I stole that idea from Jord. I thought it was a good one.)

-ALC

A Trip to the Cafeteria

I'm at a loss for a blog topic. Pretty much I am sick and just lay in bed and that lends itself well to blogging but not well to good stories to blog about. I asked Sam what I should blog about here is what followed: "blog about boys. Never mind, they could see that. you could blog about my messy room I wouldn't mind that. or blog about your middle name. or blog about how comfortable my mattress is." by now I had stopped telling her bad idea. "You never acknowledge me!!" So I repeated back to her exactly what she had said. Now I am being quizzed and I'm not allowed to stop looking at the screen. "You lamp is blue... there are 2 paintings on your wall.... your shorts are blue... your throw blanket is a cheetah pattern..."

We had another great conversation this morning. Sleeping Sam is embarrassed she laughs out loud while she dreams and thinks I'm awesome and is so proud of me for studying in the morning.

Now back to the original topic of this post. I went to the cafeteria yesterday for breakfast (don't worry I promise this is funny) I had an accounting test and needed fuel. So I had a piece of toast.

THEN today I went to lunch and I was making a sandwich and I went to put mayo on my sandwich and the guy next to me goes, "You're putting butter on your sandwich?"

WHICH MEANS WHAT I THOUGHT WAS BUTTER IS MAYO AND WHAT I THOUGHT WAS MAYO IS BUTTER.

Which also means yesterday for breakfast I had toast and mayo. GAG.

Labels people. The caf needs labels.

-ALC

Wing-Dinger Wednesday

Wednesday was a wing-dinger of a day. But a good wing-dinger of a day.

Classes-Meetings-Classes-Meeting-break for a paint war (which I actually ditched to take a nap)-Shower-Meetings-Dinner-Room checks-Meetings (till 12am)-Homework-Bed

Doesn't that even look like a wing-dinger of a day?

Wednesday is senate day, which means I have a few different meetings; but, this Wednesday I added a meeting to my schedule and got to attend a focus group.

Only a select few got to be there so I felt very honored. I feel SO fortunate to attend a school where The Dean other people will sit down and listen to the students. This was the first of many focus groups they were having and I felt my group was the best. Not everything that was brought up can be fixed, somethings are just life, but they still spent 2 hours of their Wednesday night listening. That is AMAZING! Where else can you get that?! and you just feel better knowing the administration is aware that you have a stupid professor who won't let you take digital notes or use digital books. Even if said professor still will not let you.

In other news it has been pouring all day and it melted all the snow I was enjoying.

At least I still have the memory....

-ALC

What 12 Pages of Math Homework Will Do

I just finished 12 pages of math homework. Here is a list of what will 12 pages of math homework will do to you.

1. Use (waste) 2.5 sticks of pencil lead.
2. Wipe you out of lined paper and force you to raid your roommates desk so you can finish.
3. Make you feel really dumb and really smart all at the same time.
4. Force you to sign-up for math tutoring on Tuesday night so you can get #42 and #49 correct.
5. Mess your clean desk up
6. Give you a hand cramp, actually multiple hand cramps.
7. Worsen your headache.
8. Drain the life from your ipod (or ipid as Jord pronounces it)
9. Give you zero steps on your pedometer- scratch that I had to get up for paper. It will give you 5 steps on your fitbit
10. Make your butt go numb
11. Reinforce how to use the Gaussian elimination method to solve linear systems with multiple equations and multiple unknown variables as long as the system is independent and consistent.
12. Wait. Who cares how to do number 11!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
13. Suck the blogging desire right out of you.
14. Allow you to think of at least 50 other things you could be doing with your Saturday night.
15. Allow you to reply the PAINFUL loss you just watched the basketball team experience over and over. (seriously we were winning the whole time, then it was tied, then with .5 .5!!!!! seconds left they score and we lost.)
16. Make you hungry for ice cream and pringles and girl scout cookies really bad! (that might not be from the math...)

Here is what you have to look forward to people. I would also like the record to show this isn't due till Wed. Go me!

-ALC