Boxing Day

Happy late Boxing Day everyone!
While many of you might not know exactly what it is (and I didn't either), I took the liberty upon myself to use the ever so reliable Wikipedia to educate you fellow readers.
Boxing Day refers to the day following Christmas. Where the origin of Boxing Day came from though is a mystery. In England, it is said to be from the presents that were given to the servants the day after Christmas so that they could have a Christmas of their own (after their owners celebrated first, of course). Other rumors come from England as well that on Christmas people would put money for the poor into a box and the next day it would be opened and given to the poor, thus making the next day Boxing Day. In Ireland, it is celebrated as the day of St. Stephen, who died for his belief in Christ. 
Most people who celebrate Boxing Day attend or watch horse races, fox hunting and spend time with their family.
What did my sister and I do?
We literally packed ourselves in boxes.

Cocktail, Mocktail

What do you call a bunch of BYU students gathered sipping non alcoholic cocktail drinks? A mocktail! Scooter had an end of the semester mocktail party. Everyone dressed up, gathered around the piano, sang Christmas carols and enjoyed mocktails. Scooter personally made all the drinks, ranging form peppermint twists to Shirley Temples to Bloody Mary's to margaritas. 
What was one of my personal favorite parts of the evening? Hearing a little girl around the age of 8, whom I believe was Scooter's little sister, talk about the difference between mimosas and other cocktail drinks. Oh the children of the future. 

 After the mocktail, we went bowling in our formal wear. It reminded me of a high school prom. You get dressed up, go to the party and then go and do an activity afterwards in your nice dresses. Mo and I looked just plain ridiculous with the bowling shoes and dresses. The guys actually didn't look too shabby, especially with their matching hats and canes.

Snow Day

My roommate Rachel loves snow. So when Provo finally got hit with its first really big snow storm, we braved the cold weather and couldn't resist doing a photo shoot. It was in the middle of finals and we needed a break. We spent about an hour outside, but I think it was time well spent. It's too bad that Katie wasn't there for pictures, we know she would have enjoyed it. But it's a good thing that it snows a thousand times during winter here in Utah so that we can do it again. 

There came a point where we turned this into a model photoshoot. I love my roommates, especially Marina for being crazy enough to take her jacket off in the 30 degrees of cold. She's from California and could handle the cold. I'm from Utah and hate the cold. There's probably a thing or two she can teach me.

These two pictures right below of the three of us were definitely my favorite pictures we took. Lacking a photographer, we became very grateful for self timers on cameras The first one was just cute and fun but for the second one we wanted to have falling snow in this picture. I pressed the timer button, grabbed some snow and counted down for when the picture would take. Only somewhere I lost count and ended up throwing the snow 3 seconds too early. So if you look closely you'll see snow all over Marina and Rachel. 

See here's the about when the modeling pictures started to happen and winter jackets taken off, like it was spring time. 

Also Marina and I decided to make snow angels. We made them on the driveway, although I'm still not quite sure why we decided to do them there. But it was great. I felt like a 10 year old kid again and completely forgot about the finals I had to take later that day and the rest of the week. Best stress relief, ever.

Anatomy part 2

So on my last post, Anatomy Pt. 1, I made anatomy seem kind of like a horrible class. Have no fear! Here I am with part 2 to my anatomy class. The short and simple compilations of the great moments in my anatomy lab.

One day, my anatomy teacher pulled out her teeth. Yes her teeth. She only has 9 of her own teeth, the rest are fake and two of them have "crowns" on them to make them bigger. I must admire her for thinking so highly of us as her students and showing them to us. Even our other TA didn't know they were fake. Oh this was a moment that I wished I had a camera with me, as the looks on the students faces (and both of the TAs) were priceless.

There's this really smart guy in my anatomy class, you know the one who always sets the curve really high. While learning about arteries in the body, we came across the gonadal artery. He asked a question to our TA.
David: Okay so I have a question. I've heard this word before but I'm not sure what it is. So what are your gonads?
Our anatomy TA then explained to him what they were (they are reproductive parts, for those who are also wondering). At this point in the class many of us were laughing, but the cherry on top was what one of the not so smart kids in the class said.
Kid I Can't Remember His Name: Dude, even I know what the gonads are. I've known probably since I was 4. 
My friend Jared refers to this story as the Bible story of David and the Gonad.

Every single food has been related to some sort of the body. I went to an open lab and there was a TA there who was telling us the story of when he first took anatomy. He said after every single one of his labs, he wanted to go eat some steak because looking at the muscle reminded him of meat.

My anatomy lecture teacher is seriously amazing. She often tells us stories about her life. She let a tree grow from under her floor and she carved it and turned it into a couch. Many people have family portraits up on their walls, but not Rachel. She took a picture of the Circle of Willis and blew it up at least 400 times its size and it hangs on her wall. She also told us a story of when she went to some foreign country (she also mentioned that she went to this country alone and didn't tell anyone where she went for about a month) and the men in a village had massive scrotums so huge that they pushed wheelbarrows to support and hold up their scrotums. 

How many people can say they've seen what a transvestite looks like on the outside and the inside? This girl can. BYU is lucky to have Bridget who was a male formerly, but then had a sex change. Bridget died of brain cancer, but donated her body to science. 

And my personal favorite. The reproductive system. I totally thought I would be an adult during this lab. Talking about things like this don't gross me out or make me laugh. My mom works at a hospital in the labor and delivery area, so for me, the sex talk was a dinner topic. But my TA was just very interesting. He's married and asked the class who was married. Only one guy raised his hand. So he decided that right then and there while teaching us all the reproductive body parts that he would give the guys some sex advice for things to do and not to do while on their honeymoon. It wasn't quite so much awkward as it was just plain weird. I guess I thought how sex works was a common sense thing. 


And one day in our lecture, Rachel brought in baby cadavers for people to hold. One of these cadavers was a Siamese twin conjoined together at the neck. She had split the Siamese twins apart so you could see each distinct organ for each of the twins. Also this same day, she brought in breast implants. 

Oh anatomy how I won't really miss you that much. 

Anatomy pt. 1

This fall semester I was able to take an anatomy class with a cadaver lab. I've never been more intrigued and more grossed out at a single moment than in this class. First two labs I thought, I'm gonna love this class. It was so interesting learning about all the different parts of the bones in the body and even though it was a lot of hard work, I really enjoyed it.

Until the third week. That's when we had our first lab with the cadavers. The smell? I didn't mind so much. I've been on tours of hospital laboratories where they have literally every stinky smelly bacteria and bodily fluid you can imagine. But what I couldn't handle in my anatomy lab was the fact that these were humans. I saw body worlds when I was in my freshman year of high school. I remember thinking these are pretty cool. I wasn't bothered with the fact that the cadavers were humans, they looked like plastic. But the cadavers in the lab didn't look like plastic. They looked like humans. Real humans. The first lab I was so unprepared for the cadavers that I thought I was going to pass out all class. Class finally ended, I washed my hands in the lab room, left for the bathroom to wash my hands again and then...

I puked.
My body literally could not handle it. For the next several weeks it took a lot of self control to not pass out or puke. I finally thought that I was getting used to seeing cadavers. Until the one week when we pulled out the hearts, the most central part of the body. My anatomy TA just plopped the heart and pair of lungs on her lap. I don't think I've ever felt so sick in my life. Even worse than the first anatomy cadaver lab.

So I've switched my major. Goodbye science, hello geography. More specifically tourism studies.

I Love Customers

A few days ago at work this group of several guys came in and got food. One of the men wasn't sure what he wanted and asked me what suggestions I could give him. I helped him decide what to get and he was off sitting down at the table, just patiently waiting for his food.

"Order up," yelled the cooks and I took the food out to these guys. I hand the guy his burrito and taco and ask them if I can get them anything else. The one guy that I had helped replied with, "No but since you helped me decide what to get for dinner, you get the first bite." 

Oh how polite. I've never had any customer offer me the first bite of their meal. 

And this is why I love customers.

And last night the cooks at work were singing Les Miserables. I love the cooks too. 

12/12/12 at 12:12

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said, "Youth comes but once in a liftetime." I would like to add to his quote that not only does youth come but once in a lifetime but days like 12/12/12. The roomies and I took pictures on 12/12/12 at 12:12. We looked like it was midnight and it was finals. But that's probably because it was and still is. 

But we still had to ring it in with a picture. Just don't tell my roommates that I posted this picture, I don't think they'd like that. Shhhhh our secret.

How did you celebrate your 12/12/12?

Wedding Dress Shopping

So almost a year ago I was having a very bad day due to broken hearts and such. My dear dear friend Josh, (also someone who I had dated previously to this and which also makes this story ten times funnier knew about my hard time and decided to take me to the mall to cheer me up because he knew that I love shopping. (Lately my love for shopping has turned into more of an obsession)
We were walking up and down the mall and we almost reach the very end, but in the corner there is a wedding dress store. I stop and look for a minute and comment about how I liked certain ones on display and couldn't believe people would actually wear the other ones.
I told Josh I was just going to walk into the store to get a better look at one dress that I thought was pretty. He walked in with me. We were in the store for less than 35 seconds when one of the ladies came up to us and asked us if she could help us. I replied very quickly no we are just looking. Then she asked if we were looking for anything special. Josh couldn't keep quiet and quickly replied YES SHE IS. I look at him and my eyes were giving him this message of I am going to kill you. The lady asked what I was looking for and after a few seconds I replied I like lace. Her eyes got wide with excitement as she lead us down an aisle of lace dresses. 
She asked me about certain styles and other questions and I answered them all the while turning back looking at Josh just stand there laughing. I motioned to him to come with me, so that I wasn't fed to the hyenas all alone. He finally followed and the lady pulled out several dresses.
The lady asked if I liked a certain one, and I answered honestly to the questions until she said okay should we get you a dressing room. At that point, I froze. This just got real. I tried to insist that I was fine and that I was just looking and that I didn't want to try on any of the dresses. Josh of course had to speak up and what did he say? "Oh don't listen to her, she wants to try on the dress." I shot a dirty look at Josh as I tried to laugh and play it cool in front of the wedding dress ladies. The lady then asked us how we met and I said I dance in Living Legends and he does the Lighting. She was so excited for us and then asked us when the big date was. I looked at Josh and he stayed quiet. I decided to get back at him for this whole wedding dress shopping trip. "Oh he hasn't asked me yet," I replied. The store workers were kind of shocked and mad at Josh for not taking advantage of the opportunity yet.
The girls teased him and then we were off into the dressing room. Yes I did try on this gorgeous wedding dress. Let's say it was dream wedding dress material. Only about 1400 dollars plus the money for a veil. Pocket change, honey, pocket change.
I came out and Josh had his little phone camera ready to take some pictures.

Thankful

Throughout the month of November, I decided to keep a blog post listing the things I was grateful for each day leading up to Thanksgiving.

1. A warm bed to sleep in when the long day is finally over. After a long day at work I was exhausted and my nice warm comfy bed was there to greet me.
2. Loving friends who are willing to go on fun adventures, even if it does mean being at IHOP until 2 in the morning. A big thanks to Brian for driving even when his car had no gas.
3. A job that pays the bills. It may not be the best job or pay the best but I have all my basic needs covered. I feel that for a college student in a college town, my job is such a blessing to have and to make more than minimum wage.
4. Medicine to make me feel better. Curse being sick. 
5. The blessing of school and being able to attend an LDS Private university where I can learn about things secular and religious. My religion classes are some of my favorite classes I've taken at BYU.
6. A government that lets me voice my opinion. I voted for the very first time today! I still have my I VOTED sticker still on my sweater.
7. A fridge to keep all my food cold (which really consists of the cookie dough I bought at Walmart).
8. Wonderful friends that will put up with me at the mall when I see lots of jewelry. I caught up with CC, a friend of mine from high school, and she loves shopping as much as I do.
9. Grateful for a car to get me to school while it is snowing. Today was the first real snow of the winter. I was not made to live in snow. Born and raised in Utah and I've never been skiing or snowboarding. Yuckkkk. But I am also grateful for the snow. Utah is a desert, believe it or not, and when you lived there 24/7 for your entire life, you realize what a blessing water is in life. 
10. Grateful for coworkers who put up with me being irritated when our computers are offline and customers that are willing to be patient.
11.Grateful for the Gospel and the opportunity I have to go to church every week to be uplifted and edified.
12. Telephones for communication. How lost I would be without my cell phone.
13. Marco when he tells me he still loves me even when I look like death itself due to an early morning final
14. Missionaries who serve the Lord and are continually converting people to the Gospel without a day off, even on their birthdays. 
15. The best guy friends ever. Brian was willing to go with me to see the new Twilight movie, no matter how "not manly" the movie is and even though he was worried he would be one of the only guys there. I think I owe him a manly movie.
16. Musical theater. I had the opportunity to go see my little sister as the lead in the school musical. She did great. I'm so proud of her. I even saw her kiss a boy on stage! Is it true? Is my little sister really old enough to be stage kissing (or real kissing) boys? 
17. People who are willing to listen to me vent after a bad and long day at work.
18. Wonderful friends that I am willing to call my family. Tonight we had a Thanksgiving dinner with all of us and can I just tell you how much I love each and every one of them. Turkey and ham. Mashed potatoes and gravy. Stuffing and pie. 
19. A house. I may have had to clean the house after the dinner, but I am so grateful to be living in a house and not in student housing this year. It has been such a blessing.
20. A day off from school. Cancelled classes is the best thing, especially when you are ready for a break.
21. Friends who come visit me at work. One was my friend Christian, who is brother to Jabari Parker. I mentioned to a coworker, who is a big sports fanatic that he was Jabari's brother. His response? No it couldn't be his brother, he's too short.
22. Family. I finally made it home for Thanksgiving today. I don't think anything can beat spending time at the dinner table with the four loves of my life: Mom, Dad, Carli and Cece. We've been through a lot and we still have even more to face. But we get to face everything together. Ohana means family and family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.

Waking Up In Vegas

Friday night Adam came over and while planning our next trip to Vegas, we reminisced on our last Vegas trip. I completely had forgotten about this video until he reminded me of it. I watched it today and laughed my head off. Here's to Paris! 

Vegas 2012 from Teresa Maria Mendiola on Vimeo.

Luz De Las Naciones

"While I dance I cannot judge, I cannot hate, I cannot separate myself from life. I can only be joyful and whole. This is why I dance." -Hans Boas

Luz de las Naciones: October 26 and 27, 2012.

Adventure Is Out There

Adventure is out there!
But first we have to wake up.

Halloween

Oh how I love Halloween and wish it came more often. Too bad I didn't do much when it came to festivities. But Alex and I did carve pumpkins! He made this awesome Buzz Lightyear. I made a very special looking Hello Kitty. But it was probably the best pumpkin I've ever carved, so I was actually very proud of my pumpkin. I love carving pumpkins with this kid. The last time I carved pumpkins was with him also. And that was two years ago! Why on earth didn't I carve pumpkins last year? I don't know. 

We took forever deciding what we wanted to carve for our pumpkins. 

I almost thought about doing something simple, like a Nike swish logo. But I wanted to look like I was more creative than that. But my creativeness idea and inspiration came from a picture I saw on Google. So I still have to work on being creative. 

The roomies and I all dressed up. Marina went as a hitwoman, but I like to call her Laura Croft: Tomb Raider. She bought actual airsoft guns and I shot one! Yes, I held and shot my very first gun. I went as Snow White. And my personal favorite? Katie went as Bon Qui Qui. Yes bad hair extensions, crazy killer nails, ghetto fab earrings and all. Unfortunately, she used actual nail glue to stick on her Bon Qui Qui nails and they're still on, just a shorter version of them. 

Little Sister

A happy birthday for the little sister! She turned 17 yesterday! She may be young but she sure is taller than me. I can't believe we've gone from this

to this.

So here's to never being able to find my clothes. Here's to finding them on her bedroom floor. Here's to late night movies in bed. Here's to doing each others hair. Here's to little sisters.

The Lord Will Magnify You

Today my mission prep teacher, Brother Brad Wilcox, was late to class. But I was perfectly fine with it when I saw who he brought with him. It was President Russel T. Osguthorpe, the LDS General Sunday School President. Yes it was this man: 

He talked to us about missionary work and how it was "the most rewarding time" of his life. He began to talk about how it is not an easy job to do but that "If you reach out and do everything you can, then the Lord will be willing to magnify you." He mentioned examples of how we can do this in our lives. "It does not matter your personality...He will magnify you." Osguthorpe then mentioned examples from the Book of Mormon, more specifically the example from Alma 26-27 with Ammon. It is a great story where the people are magnified and strengthened for their efforts and their faith in Jesus Christ. President Osguthorpe then related this to our lives telling us that "The Lord will give unto you success. In no matter what it is that you are trying to do. Missionary work, school, carreers, families. He will give unto you success." 

Oh how blessed we are to be able to listen to the wise counsel of modern day prophets, seers and revelators. 

To read President Osguthorpe's talk from the latest General Conference click here

Children of the Corn

Bestie and I went to Cornbelly's last weekend for a corn maze. We had a blast! Every year Cornbelly's has a theme for their corn maze. This year? Presidential elections. At the beginning of the corn maze, you get to chose if you want to go through Obama or Romney. It was so funny hearing everyone's comments throughout the maze saying, "I should have chosen Romney/Obama" whenever they got lost. People yelling "Obama you are so confusing!" Pretty much it was a great night with great people. 

The bestie and I also took a picture trying to look as evil as possible, because we're children of the corn. 

Bestie also posted more pictures on her blog http://samswizzle.blogspot.com/2012/10/double-double.html

The Dance

Little sister went to Granger's Homecoming Dance a few weeks ago.
Here's a question for all readers:
How many people does it take to pin on a boutineer?

Answer: 6 and it still didn't stay. She ended up just safely placing the boutineer in his pocket.