Ok, I can die now.

I'll be honest, I'm not even sure where to start. I feel like a 5 year old on Christmas. I wanted to blog about this right away while I'm still all hyped up so I wouldn't forget anything.

Ok, I went to the Suns game. I had a VIP pass that allowed me access to all the back parts of the arena and whatnot. How? Lindsay and I have our connections :) It was really weird because since we have obviously never had the chance to do anything like this before, we felt a little out of place. It was not at all what I was expecting. We were with Ze and Samara, Leandro Barbosa's trainer and girlfriend. Everyone knew who they were since they go to all the games. WELL, we get in and take our seats. Then we figure out that Lindsay and I are really supposed to be sitting in the opposite end of the arena. Luckily, the people whose seats we were sitting in never showed. One guy did, but he just sat in the empty seat next to us. He actually was very nice. His name was Caliph (ha ha, Lins I just figured out why you asked him to spell it) and he is one of the shooting trainers for the team. Well, my dad, Kelly and Connor were at the game also. My dad got tickets from work but they were in the 3rd to last row in the top section. When we told Caliph, he took out tickets since those seats weren't being used and took another girl's ticket and went and gave them to my family so they could sit closer. And we had just met him! It was so nice. They were sitting in the handicap section and said it was a little weird but at least they could see!
Since we had the special pass, we were allowed to go to the "family" area and get food and all that good stuff. It was cool. I felt important. Ha ha! This is us with Ze during half time.
Our little passes said "Barbosa Guest." Sa-weet!
It was a really good game. We saw Shaq and Steve Nash's wives, they were a few rows in front of us. Matt Barnes' wife was sitting behind us and she was very very nice and really pretty. And his twin boys are ADORABLE! Seriously, so cute. It was a little hard to pay attention to the game with all the talking going on around us and trying to get the fam in better seats. I really only saw the 4th quarter. It was one of those perfect games though. Lots of excitement, and we won!!

Ok, here comes the good part :)
Ze had told us that he would introduce us (finally) to Leandro. We were waiting and waiting and finally he comes out and I started to get nervous. That is totally dumb because he is just a normal person, but whatever. He introduced himself to us and Lindsay even talked to him in Portuguese. Never in my life have I ever desired more to be able to speak Portuguese! He was so nice though, took a picture with us no problem and talked to us a little. He signed our passes and came and gave us both hugs before leaving. It was so amazing. We waited around forever and then more players started coming out. Lindsay is more brave than me so I made her ask to take the pictures! Ze took our camera and said "I will go" and would walk up to whoever it was and say "these are my friends, can you take a picture with them?" It was so funny! I am so glad he did it though!
This is Leandro. He was sitting in the chair and Lindsay said, "Leandro smile" and he did so we took a picture. Definitely the nicest one there.

LB!
This one is my favorite.
STEVE NASH!
I was so excited about this one because he has been one of my favorite players for a long time. He was definitely the nicest next to Barbosa. He actually introduced himself to us and shook our hands and asked how we were and what our names were. It was like a 10 second conversation but I don't even care. Best 10 seconds of my life.
JASON RICHARDSON!
He was surprisingly nice. I didn't expect him to be rude, but when we asked for the picture he said "oh sure!" like we were silly for being afraid to ask.
MATT BARNES!
He was fairly nice. I don't think he cared about taking a picture with us, but he probably didn't want his baby in it. Oh well. Look how cute that kid is!
DAN MAJERLE!
This one was not as big of a deal to me as it was to Lindsay. To be honest, I didn't know who it was until Lins said his name. I know who he is, but I didn't know it was him when I saw him. I guess I'm too young. It was still cool though. He was really nice and I felt bad asking because his hands were full. Then, Ze had accidentally flipped the button to record. So we have two recordings of us standing next to him smiling. Its funny. He was kind and patient enough to wait for us to figure it out.
GRANT HILL!
He wasn't rude, but didn't seem thrilled about it.
SHAQUILLE O'NEAL!
He was so excited to meet us, as you can tell. Actually, the camera flashed twice and he started to walk away after the first one so that is why he is looking away. He is HUGE! I was wearing 3 inch heels and wasn't even close to hitting his shoulder. I know I am short but my goodness! Ha :)
Have I mentioned how cool this was? I hate to use the word "cool" but there really isn't any other way to describe it. Even though some of the players blew us off, they still took the picture and I am grateful for that. I think I will create a Suns wall in my bedroom. Ha ha! I am SO glad I got to have this experience! It was the best day.

My new goal? DIAMONDBACKS! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KELLY!!

Today, Kelly turned 23. Usually when it is someone's birthday in our family, we go to the restaurant of his or her choice. But not today. Today, Kelly decided she wanted a turkey. And that is what she got. I walked in from work and thought it was Thanksgiving because of the smell. I have no other explanation, except that is so her. I asked her why and she said "Because when do we eat turkey? At Thanksgiving and Christmas. I want to have it again." SO, this was her plate:
The card I got her :)
Here is KELLY over the years.

I don't really know, because I wasn't alive, but supposedly she had quite the belly. As shown below.

She LOVES watermelon.

Ha ha ha. I couldn't resist.

Family pictures 2001. I think.

Washington D.C. 2005

Christmas 2005.

Thanksgiving 2006.

July 2008

She wouldn't really let me take pictures of her. This was the best I could do.

My favorite Kelly story is one from when she was little and I don't think I was born yet (and even if I was its not like I knew about it). Every night when she would go to bed she would ask for a drink of water. Well, my dad decided he was sick of it so he told her that if she asked for a drink of water that night, she was going to get in trouble. A little bit after my parents put her to bed, she walked out and looks at my parents and says, "milk, it does a body good."

I think one of my favorite things about Kelly is her ability to laugh. When she and I are together we usually act really immature and just have fun. We have our disagreements, of course, but we never stay mad at each other for longer than 60 seconds. I'm glad to have her as my sister. Happy birthday Kell!!

The More You Know, You Know You Don't Know Anything.

Thing's I've learned this week:

-Not everyone knows the difference between "mustard" and "mustered"

-I am "so lucky" to have a poster of Edward (Twilight) in my office. (Yes, someone actually said that to me. No, I am not the one who put it up.)

-When buying a box of paper from Office Max, ALWAYS use a cart. It is heavier than it seems. (My arms still kind of hurt... as pathetic as that is.)

-Do not attempt to carry a box of paper from Office Max to your car while wearing heels.

-Gossiping is hearing something you like about someone you don't- and repeating it. (Thanks dad. I will be sure to quote you in future Sacrament meeting talks.)

-If you poop in a small accounting office before your appointment and it is so bad that it can smelled no matter where you're sitting in the office, an "out of order" sign will be placed on the bathroom door- even if its not true. (I've posted on something like this before. Yep, same guy.)

-Good companion = happy missionary.

-Never yell at the receptionist. 99% of the time, it is not her fault.

-Even if it is her fault, being rude does not make her want to help you. And she certainly will not be in any hurry to do so.

-Adam Lambert from American Idol is gay...? (I am kind of bummed about this one.)


All in a week's work!

Ready & Waiting

I went snowboarding for the first time last weekend- that was an experience. I actually had a lot of fun, though I didn't decide that until after. I fell at the very beginning and bruised my tail bone. It honestly hurt so bad. Still does. Then I was terrified because it hurt even worse every time I fell after that. I would get going and do really good, but I was going too fast and it freaked me out and since I didn't know how to slow down, I would fall to stop myself. I was getting frustrated and every time I fell on my butt, I would sit there for a good 20 minutes before I could convince myself that walking down would take too long. I felt so bad for Lindsay because she refused to leave me so she would just have to wait. Then, finally another friend with us came and taught me how to go down toe-side. This was SO much better because I was able to slow myself down that way. Plus when I fell, I fell forward, not on my butt. I was done after that. I really really wanted to go down again but I knew I would regret it later. It honestly hurt to sit down, which made the bus ride home really fun. I'm still glad I went and want to go again next season. Maybe by then my butt won't hurt anymore :)

My friend Hillary moved to Utah this weekend. We had our last girls night on Wednesday because her going away party was Thursday. I don't know where the idea came from, but we decided to make shirts. We bought men's v-necks at Walmart and went to work.
Hillary designed the GNO, which stands for Girl's Night Out. I just had to clarify because we were asked if it meant gyno. NO! We had to laugh at that, but seriously, who would wear a shirt that says gyno?! The bottom right says CESH which stands for our names: Cassie, Emily, Shannon & Hillary.The bottom says "they have more fun than we do" which is our little saying. It actually came about on our last girl's night when we were taking the pictures with the panty hose on our faces. We were talking about putting them on facebook and Hillary said "we should, so people will see them and think 'they have more fun than we do!'" It was funny and we say it all the time now. As for the top- they all have different meanings. Mine says "Jeremy" in Russian. I sent him a picture and he said I wrote it right. Whoo! Ha :) Shannon's says "Pooter" and I'm not really sure what the purpose behind that was. Emily's says "Woot Woot" and that is some joke between her and her boyfriend. Hillary's says "bologna." The story behind that- she met this Hawaiian boy and his name is Malosi. One of her friends was talking to her about it and said "what's his name? bologna?" or something to that effect. So, I guess it wasn't ALL girl's night. But what else were we supposed to talk about? ;)


As for this kid:He is doing really good. He FINALLY got transferred and is much happier. He was in Ryazan for the first 6 months being in Russia and had a slacker of a companion. Combine that with having no meetings and 10 active members in a city of 600,000 people and you have a really hard mission. Not that now it is so much easier, but he likes the area he is in now much better. The city is called Nignie Novgorod and he says its much cleaner than Ryazan. Plus he and his companion get along really well. Actually, his current companion was his brother's best friend from the MTC. So that is kind of cool. They've had a few meetings that he is really excited about. Hopefully something will come from one of them. There is a really good chance he will go his whole mission without ever having a baptism. His companion who has been out for I think 19 months hasn't had one. It wasn't looking good in his old area but maybe now...? We'll see. Either way, I'm glad he is doing better. You can tell he is so much happier in his emails. He has been out for 9 months now. Crazy!! And p.s.- he was really proud of that jacket. I don't really know why, he is just a dork sometimes. :)