Babies and Booties and Bulldogs, Oh My!

I went to church with the Merrells - as a third, forgotten child. A short drop and a sudden stop later and I was in California. We always have a good time together - spittin' game and eating delicious food. Even the ham.

MVP & The White Crayon

Christmas Eve included a classic The Santa Clause viewing (sans deek) and yet another feast and the Hennsley gift-opening extravaganza. Shennsley's been dogsitting for a lady, so I got to help out with that. Almost as fun as waking up to Ponce tryna pounce on your face. Almost.

A cat's the only cat who knows where it's at. 

Christmas was full of surprises. Including a llama head that I always (?) wanted and also that Hannah is pregnant and Kevin has a booty. What's next - Derek has money? I have a date? Greg quits the church? Ludicrous, all of it. The Family Christmas Skype was just as crazy as usual, outside of the big reveals. Love these kids. Heaven help anyone near us when we finally reunite. I was introduced to my new favorite holiday movie, Pottersville - about a werewolf. And I played a GOT card game that I didn't hate (mostly because I won 2/3).

The top right is a mirror view of the CT computer
so we could see all the Elder Hutchins' at once.
Somebody with IT experience please come at once. 

I left pretty quick Wednesday morning so I could make it to Flagstaff by night. I stopped to view the Cabazon dinosaurs real quick and got a beautiful recreation of my visit from Moriah after I sent her pics. I also stopped by Swing to get some needling in my shoulders mid-drive, and pick up a kid who needed a ride. Record timing and I hate driving. (Long distances).

Jurassic Life. 

Thursday was a big clean-up day. I cleaned out everything and now have a big sack that can be donated. I also started an electronic clean-out, but it's going to take me a while to finish projects, catch up on CEUs, and clear out my hard drive. Maybe I can get through most of it in the next two weeks. Maybe.

I been tryna stop here for AGES. 

We had dinner with the missionaries where I tried to use the instaPot to make spaghetti. Did NOT work out like Derek showed me. Gonna have to work on that. It snowed mid-dinner and since Flag is terrible at clearing snow off the roads, it was pretty dangerous. I fishtailed once, in a very controlled manner, and got home safely.

Spot the dino. (Hint: it's labelled.)

I kept on with the cleaning out and finishing projects on my to-do list. It's liberating to get some of these things off. And I even worked out. The trebuchet is almost done. Several books are almost ready to be shelved. And I got some free wings and football from Palmer - but riding horses is still on the bucket list. Guess I can't die yet.

Flannels for a trip to Home Depot to
get supplies for the trebuchet. 

'Tis A Goodly Number of Trebuchets, m'Lord

Well it has been a glorious week. I've been crashing at the Brewton's house - which has been lovely and warm and filled with comfortable beds I can sleep on. I love it.

There are no people there - only one nice dog - so I've been able to work on so many projects. I've been writing and reading and working on my mini trebuchet. It's almost done. Don't look too close, and you might be impressed.

New album in the works, lol.

I played basketball and went running on a nice loop and took the dog for walks and hit the gym hard. I made cookies and enchiladas and bread. We watched movies and played games and I kicked people out whenever I wanted.

Greg was driving through to visit David Monson, my bitter enemy and his best friend, in Phoenix, so I convinced him to stop by. We played four hours of Totally Insane and I didn't hate it too bad.

Friday, I drove down to Phoenix myself and reconnected with the Miller family. One sealing, one in the works, two endowments, and a mission call to come. Exciting times. I also met up with my old work buddies. I love them and it was fun to eat their food and tell them how much I loved school in words, angry faces, and rap.

This is the catapult. 

Then I hit up Jacob's wedding reception and caught up with some old friends there, including Braeden, who is now the proud owner of a custom Mustang Bullitt. I'm in love. Becca and I hit up a movie night and saw a few more of the kids.

Saturday involved an early morning trip to the temple before a jaunt out to Tempe. There my friend Peter, whose age I have been sworn never to divulge, has been gutting his new house and it's coming along nicely. What a guy.

Yum. 

Hannah graciously housed me in exchange for playing ping pong with Jacob (and getting smushed - but only 50% of the time). We made treats and watched Last Crusade. I crashed and then went to church with them before the long drive out to California, ending the week at my "favorite place". Derek and Shannon's new apartment with a bedroom, elevator, and only one sketchy alley where I was terrified to drive my car. We watched a little Angie Tribeca and had some delicious food and good times.

Only Two Years Left

I've never studied this much in my entire life. I feel like it was worth it, because I'm pretty sure I did well on my exams, but I was literally going crazy. Like you eventually get to a point where the mantra ihatethisihatethisihatethis is just running through your head over and over as you try to cram more and more into your head with some semblance of sanity.

I'm ready for break, is what I'm trying to say.

The kids.

And I really didn't want to stick around long during our after party. Just long enough for some free food. Then I headed out to the Brewton's, a lovely couple who's dog I'm watching for two weeks. Their house is beautiful and their dog is nice. Ok, ok, I'm ready to move in whenever they are.

Sister Whetton, our Institute lady, is moving and needed some help around the house. Lizzy and I geared up to power wash the house and the barn. We fixed some loose nails around the sides. And between jobs, we found some nice throwing hatchets that we put to good use. (And also permanently damaged due to our immense strength and terrible aim.)

She's got a lot of work to do, but she's doing it.

I worked a shift at ye olde campus bookstore. It was cake. I forgot how easy those kinds of jobs are. But they also pay less and aren't as fun. Get me some LAT gigs.

I somehow convinced Roger into feeding me with the missionaries, so I got some nice deer (probably) steak. At some point on the way over, the GPS just cuts out, so you've got to follow the antlers to find his place, but it's not too hard. We had the crew over for a bonfire and someone let me be deejay - specifically requesting the Ice Cube song I quoted in my talk last Sunday. (Which was a riotous success.)

Right on target with a broken shaft. 

Saturday was a much needed recovery. I was so productive. I went running. I finished traffic school. I read a book. I did yoga. I practice some new piano pieces. I wrote a book. I read parts of another book. I was going to work on my trebuchet but somebody (aka Jacob Bartholemew Fisher) left his drill at work. And we had a movie night and watched Hitch. Classic.

It's hard to see, but I picked out my Christmas tree (right hand).
It's a tumbleweed called Larry and it's the best AZ can offer.

Runnin' This Shiz, Both Legs Broke

Everyone's going a little crazy here. We had 2 presentations, 3 practicals, and a few written exams this week. (And it's not even finals week yet - but how else are we gonna squeeze in 3 exams per class?) Foundations practical was the most fun because we just got a scenario and had to play therapist for a minute. Anatomy cadaver practical was the most stressful because there is just so much information and not enough time to know everything.

We had to write each other gratitude cards in our clinical communications class, which took FOREVER, but it was real nice to get them back. A little stress reliever. I made people laugh AND cry AND cry from laughing. So, win.

All my free time was spent studying. Usually anatomy, but we did borrow some wheelchairs and lofstrand crutches to practice with. Also I crushed Jake at ping pong and he/Brandi barelyyyy crushed me at foosball. (Which doesn't really make sense - they really should've beaten me by a higher margin.) Then I studied more and got free homemade cinnamon rolls from Mark Moore.

I also finished my ortho clinic with our patient with hip OA and a CAM lesion. She's delightful and I hope she keeps it up. And I got all set up so I can work over break. And I researched some incredible and dangerous things to do, so get ready.

The worst part of the week was our interprofessional development course on Friday afternoon - right after our anatomy cadaver practical. The guy was too happy, the food too scarce, and the information just a one-day repeat of our clin comm class. I love networking, but this meeting had bad timing and was less useful to me than previous courses I've taken.

But Friday night was for relaxing. The institute took us ice skating and I was alright by the end and only fell twice. And all my joints hurt afterwards, but it was soothed with pizza and wings and the presence of Brandi, and Katelyn, and a particularly delightful human named Lindsey. Afterwards, a group of us went to Mason's house where we watched Home Alone and Jake brought cookies and chocolate milk and Mason let me lay down on his v comfy mattress and use his fluffiest pillow (not the one with the reindeer. Moose? lol.)

Bry was baptized on Saturday! It was the cutest thing and I'm so happy for her. And the afterparty was only ruined a little bit by a child throwing up down the length of the hallway outside the room. Then we studied some more. And we had delicious BBQ cauliflower and chicken tacos to celebrate the end of our practicals with Ciera and Erin. The cutest. And then we crushed them at Cards Against Humanity. I like it so much better than Apples to Apples.

Creed II: Must View

The good news is that there's only 1.5 weeks left of class. The bad news is that during that time, I have approximately 3 exams in each of my classes. And volleyball season is over.

This is my morning run. (On the way home.)

I did a lot of studying for a mini exam this week, kind of a preview. Also prepared for some final presentations in video and slide format. Took some quizzes and actually did pretty well. And that about sums up my school life, which actually takes up 80% of my time, but isn't as interesting because all I do is study.

Friday, we had a poetry night and Jake and I wrote haikus about every topic in the bowl. Here are my haikus:

On awkward RMs:

Music is bad and

All the ward girls have cooties

My name is Mason

On gaining weight:

Pure horror comes cuz

My mother bought my meal plan

The freshman fifteen

On getting stood up:

Welcome to Chili’s

Um hey, should we keep waiting?

A table for one

On my FinAid not going through:

Negative dollars

Bank account isn’t happy

No tacos for me

On getting pulled over:

Flashing red and blue

Sweet talking an angry man

Oh, it didn’t work 

On slipping on ice:

SOS Man down 

Can’t even make it to class

Winter slip n slide

On dating:

Where are all the men

I see only twelve year olds

Hello spinsterhood

Saturday was our 3v3 tournament, which was so fun but exhausting. My team did pretty well and ended up winning half our games and losing the others by a point. By game six we were so tired, we were garbage. 10/10 would repeat. Especially the wings/pizza post. Also I bruised several fingers in weird spots.

This is peak adulthood. 

I had an interview for a seasonal position at the bookstore, made enchiladas, and hit up pub night with Brandi and all the kids that interviewed today. Then we met up with the crew to watch Creed II. WHICH IS ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES I'VE SEEN. The sports. Michael B Jordan. The music. Ugh. Critics are raving.