Shots, Shots, Shots, Everybody!

Part One: The Beginning

-I'm officially the best visiting teacher, since Emarie and I communed with our teachee over Nutella shakes this week. 

-I took a chem test. Yet again, my anxiety was not caused by the difficulty of the test, but my own boredom. 

-I wrote a French paper on biomechanics. It provided a good challenge for me and hopefully for my teacher who has to read it. 

-It was Back to the Future day this week, so we've been marathoning all three of them. Also, Nike is coming out with self-tying shoes. If only they were done last year, in preparation. 

Emarie Swenson & Christian Covey, sitting in a tree. 

Part Two: The Middle

Under the guise of roommate pictures / ice cream, we got dressed up and took Emarie out on Wednesday night. Once in the car, we told her that we had a surprise and she needed to be blindfolded. I disoriented her with my excellent driving skills. Then with my excellent golf cart driving skills. Then we dropped her off under an illuminated tree with her boyfriend and a large bouquet of roses. Now they're engaged. En fin. If you want more details, let me know. Then we really went out and got ice cream and took pictures. Because I'm not about that life.

Sarah, Lyndsie, Sodium Methoxide, India, Autumn

Part Three: The End

I went to Boom Shakalaka, the basketball opening social, with my best friend, Lauren. I like her. She is a wonderful human.

#BYUBoom

A bunch of people from my Glenwoods ward invited themselves over for pumpkin carving.

Lauren, Lauren, Carter, Taylor, Nadine, Mikesell, Megan, Jessica, Amanda, Me, Chels.

Guess who won? Welcome to Kuzcotopia.

 I went to an Elder Ballard fireside, which did not disappoint. He gave his usual dating advice: Men-Wake up! Women- Quit wandering around looking like men and wear some lipstick every now and again. Naturally, everyone that I was with offered to take me to CVS after to pick some up. Little did they know, my mom bought me a whole makeup kit several years ago for Christmas. Have I used it? I plead the fifth.

Proof that I own lipstick.
Which was quickly wiped off.
You know me.

 Sunday was Stake Conference and I had some extra time in the morning (and very little milk). So this happened:

Made breakfast. #domestic

Did my hair. 

And taught this yahoo how to Snapchat. Hello, McFly!

Quality of the Snapchats are still questionable.

Look Up Brock, You're In the End Zone

This guy's face is all over campus.
Makes me smile every time.

Sometimes you go to Vegas on your designated bimonthly food shopping day and when you get home, you have nothing to eat. If you’re lucky, you might just have an older brother that loves you and also needs food and has a yellow car with lightning bolts on the sides. That’s real. While shopping at Smith’s, I told Derek I was looking for a few things that I hoped were there, but that I’d really only ever seen at Macey’s. Derek, with wisdom bequeathed by his premature birth status, says, Why didn’t you ask me to go to Macey’s then? I would have said ‘No’, and we would have come here anyways, but at least you would have tried! Cheers to brothers that always got my back.

Remember that position that I accidentally applied for and won? Turns out I’m a member of the RMATA, a council of student athletic trainers in charge of planning the national convention and advocating for student rights and all that. I had my first conference call this week, since all 13 members are spread out throughout the western US. (Our group is called District 7, and, like the Hunger Games, each district has a specialty. Ours is ultrasound).

I still go to school and clinicals and work every week. Also, cranking on my Lazy Man Iron Man. I conveniently planned one of my runs to drop by the Farmer’s Market at the stadium in search of delicious fresh bread, but alas, there was none. Which is ok, because I wasn’t entirely sure how I felt about running home whilst toting several loaves of warm bread.

I ate lunch with some old mission friends, Addy Bentley and Alisa Hulme. This appointment was several weeks in the making, which is mostly my fault. We claimed a booth as our lunching spot of choice and decided that Alisa and I should actually start a booth. Alisa will make ads with her beautiful handwriting and I will give terrible, but funny, dating advice.

Then, because I had previously driven Derek to the airport and had his car, I drove up to Logan. I chilled at Hannah’s apartment watching French television with her roommate until she finished rehab. And by that I mean strengthening her peroneal muscles to hopefully avoid ankle inversion because she tore the best ligament and now there’s only two left.

We chilled and then went to Chili’s for dinner with my old comp, Sierra Koyle, who happens to be another injury case for me to observe. Good company, good food, mediocre service: Welcome to Chili’s. Did Hannah and I get in a fight and spill a large glass of water everywhere? Yes. This is why we can’t have nice things. Hannah and I got ice cream and watched an episode of Chuck before I headed back to Provo.

That face, though.

Saturday I had an early work meeting, during which this video clip was played. Did I cry? Yes. I don’t cry at church, but get me to a sports game, and the Spirit hits me in the tear ducts with a jackhammer.

I got to hang out with some of my favorite people for the Utah football game. I tried to simultaneously study chemistry and it went fairly well. The Utes had this trick play they wanted Britty to run and we all knew it was a bad idea, but they ended up running it and Britty got burned pretty bad. It could have cost them the game, but Britty came right back with some sweet plays, Booker helped out, and the Utes ended up with the W. All’s well that ends well.

In other news, I’m trying out a new video series. It’s kind of like a Vlog of old mission stories, recorded with appropriate dramatics for future posterity. The first installment is complete, but I want to see how a few more turn out before I decide if I want to go public with them.

What Happens in Vegas

Did I mention that for ward prayer a few weeks ago, my apartment introduced itself via accordion rap? If not, I should have. It’s gonna be a thing. Motivation was scarce to be found this week; I think a product of my anxiety over my impending Vegas trip. I am not a fan of traveling. Nevertheless, I did work. For example, wrote an entire essay in French in an hour between classes and my scheduled appointment at the writing lab for that same paper. 

Going to Tanner's wedding made me actually think about what I would want to do if I ever got married (this is obviously after I turn 46 and am allowed to date). I wouldn't make people wear dresses all weekend. That's for sure. 

Temples: I love them. Even if I have to wear a dress. 

There was a nice family dinner on Friday night where I ate Zupas and drank my body weight in water. The bros, Roger, Sara, Ben, and I all drove down together. We were all of Tanner's extended family that could make it, so we really had to represent. The Pace family sang some Elvis and Tanner sang a French song. People gave speeches where they just talked about how cool they are. Who doesn't love a good ego stroke? (Jarrod. Pretty sure I heard him mutter, Get me outta here!)

Grabbing our snacks after the dinner. 

Jarrod drove all us older cousins to the lights. I knew it was going to be rough when I tried to get out of the car and both video screens came down on my back and then suddenly I was washing my hands in my own blood. Vegas has beautiful architecture, fun recreations of iconic places (including Paris-even smelled like France since people could smoke inside the building), and lots of stuff to do. And if you get bored of the Bellagio water show, there's always naked ninja mud wrestling to entertain.

Porter, Sara, Greg, Roger, Tanner, ME, Cooper, Derek

Real France is better. But this is ok, too.

I want my family to come to my wedding. So did Tanner, but we accidentally left Cooper at the hotel. Oops. Also, not sure how you can make it through your own sealing without crying or saying a few snarky remarks. Tanner officially christened Derek as next wedded, which is a real relief since he was saying it would be me all Friday. Derek actually has a serious girlfriend, though. Dodged a bullet there. 

Wedding Selfie. All I wanted all day. (Besides some shorts.)

Waiting for Cooper to take family pics. Courtesy to Ben. 

 After eating a lunch at Mama Pace's house, we all headed back to our hotel for an afternoon movie shoot with my new shotgun mic. It does seem to pick up sound a bit better, although I think it'll be more noticeable outdoors. (There will be more where this comes from, especially if Corbin stops being busy and Emarie and Christian stop scheduling family firesides in our planned shooting times.)

The reception was fun because we got to dance like typical Hutchins lunatics in a world of vanilla, although, again, restricted by wearing a dress. Porter and I really bonded over a game of 20 Questions, including What is your ideal spouse? and What are you most self conscious about? He even let me drink out of his cup, unlike Jarrod who was put off by my 'lipping'. He was also put off when Tanner put his head under Ammie's dress to get the garter. Which, frankly, was uncomfortable for everyone. Let it be known that I did NOT ruin their sparkler send-off. And that I enjoyed some contrast therapy in our hotel's pool/hot tub with the fam.

Go, live your dreams. Hope you can find a T Swift that plays the trumpet.

 We all need a little more Uncle Jarrod in our lives: 15min before we were going to leave for church, he comes to check on us and was completely baffled that I was still wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Almost as baffled as I was when my old friend, Kevin Rigby, got up to say the opening prayer in Sacrament meeting. He's a great guy, working as an accountant, and living in Vegas with his wonderful wife, Rachel.

The best tabler we know.

Then a van full of some of the best people I know drove home, listening to Ben's new book including dopplegangers of some of my other favorite people.

Ben, Roger, ME, Sara, Greg, Derek. Studs, one and all.

The Most Popular Kid

My life really is great. Last Sunday our stake had a special fireside with Tad R Callister himself. Flashback to the MTC when I got to meet him in the flesh and shook his hand for far too long. He spoke about the Book of Mormon, quashing any theories about its origin other than that Joseph Smith  translated it by the power of God.














After practicing post moves at the gym for an hour, I saw Le Petit Nicholas, a hilarious French film. A boy in Nicholas' class gets a new brother and tells him about how his parents were acting weird beforehand and then disappears, as if his parents got rid of him. Nicholas sees the same signs in his own parents when they come up with an idea to get his dad a raise at work, so he has to convince his parents to keep him. I ran into Joshie Boy  and so we enjoyed the film and our juice boxes together.

Thursday is my favorite day of all the days. We had a mission reunion and I was on time and got front row seats and everyone was dressed like missionaries. I was seriously in heaven. PRoney spoke about how in order to be happy we need to love everyone and keep the commandments and how we need to look for opportunities to improve peoples' lives, since we are no longer missionaries. While everyone was standing in line for crepes, I got a tour of the house from Sister Roney (along with a bunch of mission swag) and I love her. Then I talked to everyone there (and confused them by bringing my brother along instead of a lover). Once most people left, I talked to President Roney all about my life and I love him. I stayed there until 11:30 and then exited via his balcony tube slide. I love everything about this night except that it ever ended.

A couple of my teachers messed up their scheduling a bit and so I ended up having 2 tests scheduled for Friday through Monday. Which would have been great except I have AT Clinicals until 6 on weekdays and GC this weekend. Since the testing center closes at 6 on Monday for FHE, I had to take my both tests Friday night. Ugh. But I'm pretty smart, relatively unphased by testing, and they didn't go too badly. Then I watched BYU football crush UCONN (my hometown!) with some friends and Greg's old ZL. Then I caught up with my lovely roommate, Emarie, for the first time in ages. Then I made this movie for Derek's birthday.

Mom came an hour earlier than planned to pick me up, but it was good because my phone was lost and no alarm set that morning and I still needed to pack for the weekend. We watched conference on Derek's huge TV and then shared a meal at Tucanos in celebration of family reunions and birthdays.

Greg hates watching conference with us because we make jokes or comments on occasion. Sorry not sorry. After the second session, we drove to SLC, dropped the boys off at PH and visited the mall. Where we ran into my Canadian mission daughter, Sarah De Oliveira! I like her a lot. She hung out with us for a while and helped us eat some cheesecake. I wish she lived closer.

After sleeping on the most uncomfortable beds and having Weeny K knee me in the butt several times, we went to the morning session at the Conference Center. If you were worried about us arriving on time, don't. We were there before security. That's real life.

We had lunch at Granny B's house (although Papa Bear would have been perfectly happy to let us die of starvation during the afternoon session). We ate a thousand pies and I came home with at least seven of them. I'm expecting to be voted most popular kid in the ward next Sunday.

Also we found this car stethoscope.
Let's hope it's never used on humans.

In light of our continuation of work on our Family History board game, "Guilt", here's a story for you: Derek and I both hate olives. Least favorite of all of the foods ever. So this one time, our Mom (knowing that even at that young age we contained an inhuman amount of hatred for these small, variously colored food poops) proclaimed that we each had to eat one olive in order to get dessert. Naturally, we threw them on the ground while her back was turned. Bowler that I am, mine bounced off the baseboard and rolled neatly under the fridge, where it may or may not have remained until this day. Derek's hit my mom in the foot. She then picked it up, thought it was mine, and made me eat it. Derek got off scott-free and ate his dessert unabashedly. Until tonight, when we made him eat a small fruit that bore an uncanny resemblance to these atrocious excuses for nourishment. #suckstosuck #karma

And here are some messages that I got from conference:

Lawrence, Cook, Hales, Eyring, Clark: Ask, what do I need to change? Then be disciplined. Set goals to improve. Roneyism: Make a specific 20 year plan, goals to get there/be the person your ideal spouse should marry, use all your backbone to get there. 

Holland, Renlund, Nelson, Monson, Rasband: Love people like a mother loves her children. Raise a sin-resistant generation. Roneyism: Love is the key. Look for opportunities to spark people everywhere and always. 

Stephens, Keetch, Uchtdorf: Rules/commandments/gospel are designed for our happiness. Roneyism: If you want to be happy, love everyone and obey the commandments.