The Evans Sisters Shake a Leg

Well I got this idea from Allison's email and I couldn't help make one of all our sisters! Even though none of us were ever superb dancers (or at least I never was) I think we can do the Charleston quite well, don't you think? Besides, this gets me excited for the holidays, and I love the holidays with our family!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

D.A.M. # 6

Elevatorism - n. --- A system of belief which states that, if there is an elevator in the building you MUST use it, no matter what floor you may be traveling to.

You would be surprised how many people out there adhere to Elevatorism. It doesn't matter if they are going one floor up---which may take like five steps---they will wait for the elevator, climb inside and take the split second ride up to the next floor. As many of you know I am not one to jump at the chance to run (or walk) up anything...least of all stairs. I will almost ALWAYS use the stairs if I am simply going one floor up however. Five to ten steps is not going to kill me, besides it is more courteous, more efficient, and yes...usually quite a bit faster...to simply take the stairs. I have been witness to elevatorism on a frequent basis this semester because I often go back and forth between the basement and the fourth floor of the JFSB here at BYU. I usually take the elevator, even though it irritates me to do so. It irritates me because I usually have to wait as the elevator travels from the fourth floor to the basement...stopping on every floor. When it arrives I quickly get in (for those who don't know me well I have an irrational fear of elevator doors, and so always have to hurry over the threshold for fear of being crushed) and press the fourth floor button. As I travel upwards from the basement I once again must stop on every single floor. People inevitably get on at the first floor and get off on the second. I don't think I'll ever understand why...except that perhaps our society is becoming increasingly lazy. What really blows my mind are the people that stand with me while waiting for the elevator. Sometimes we will stand there for literally minutes. I will have decided to run all the way up to the fourth floor and changed my mind several times before the elevator arrives. We get in the elevator together and they only ride to the next floor. They wasted minutes just standing there!

Now, if there is anything worse than riding the elevator up one floor it is this...riding it DOWN one floor. I mean come on, down? I jog down all five flights of stairs to the basement quite often, and I am one of the laziest people I know!

I think it is time to take a stand against Elevatorists. If there is anything I have learned in school it is to beware of isms, and Elevatorism should not be an exception!

Pre-Halloween Fun

Fall

Fall always takes me by surprise. One morning I wake up and the breeze is a little bit cooler, the air feels a little bit crisper, and everything in its own way feels just a little bit different. The hillsides suddenly change color, almost before my eyes, and I know that winter is coming. Sometimes I hate the cold, and thinking about the coming of winter makes me a little sad. Walking to school in blizzards has never been fun. But then I stop and remind myself that really, I wouldn' thave it any other way. As Mark Twain said,
"No land with an unvarying climate can be very beautiful. . . Change is the handmaiden Nature requires to do her miracles with. The land that has four well-defined seasons cannot lack beauty, or pall with monotony. Each season brings a world of enjoyment and interest. . . And I think that to one in sympathy with nature, each season, in its turn, seems the loveliest."

Surprise at Ken's Kash

Well, my life is pretty boring now that I am in school, but something kind of interesting happened today, and since I have nothing else to update you on...here goes. Today I went to Ken's Kash with my mom. My hair was a wild mess, I was wearing no makeup and I was wearing a dirty white jacket four sizes too big. I figured I wouldn't see anyone important. I walked into Ken's Kash, and for those of you who don't know, Ken's Kash is the one and only store in Oakley and consists of about three aisles worth of food. I have many good memories there, and I could do a whole post just on Ken's Kash, but we'll have to save it for another day. Anyway, I walked in and caught a glimpse of the woman checking out. She was tall adn blonde. I turned from the counter. Wait a second, hold up! I stopped and turned back towards the woman who was now standing at the door about five feet away from me. It was KATHERINE HEIGL! My mouth was probably hanging open in shock, and I stood there stupidly staring at her. She and the guy she was with walked out as my mom walked in. I took a step back, knocked a package of tylenol off the shelf, and scrambled to pick it up.
"That was Katherine Heigl" I told my mom in a frantic whisper.
"Who?"
"She's like a big star," I said. We walked out of the store and pretended to look at the "Lost Cat" sign posted outside of Ken's Kash, while I wagged my head in the direction of Katherine Heigl climbing into her car.
Apparantly she has a home (or more likely a mansion) up in the valley. Like I've always said, "Oakley is the best kept secret in Utah" but it looks like the secret is starting to leak out!

Last Hurrah

So I've had my last hurrah before school. That's right, school started yesterday, so it's back to the old grindstone. I'm sure I'll still have some fun, at least I'll certainly try!

Geez Jared, you couldn't even get me a diamond? Oh well, I look pretty happy anyway.


Sorry Dan, I just couldn't help myself!



Holding on for dear life!

Africa Revisited

So I just finished reading "Out of Africa" to commemorate my trip to Africa last summer. I also figured that since I have been to Karen Blixen's home in Kenya, that I ought to at least read her book! I guess I can't really say it made me homesick for Africa, but it made me miss it all the same. I hope someday I can return. I also finished a little video of our safari in Kenya and although putting the slideshow to the song "The Circle of Life" might seem a bit cliche, I just couldn't help myself :).

Bambi Meets Old Blue

Tough Stuff

I like to pretend I'm tough stuff. I like to think that just because I grew up in Oakley and was outside more than I was inside, that I could survive in the wild if I needed. My mom did drag me on long and strenuous hikes in the Uintahs when I was just a kid and I think I picked up some survival skills there out of necessity. After falling off a cliff and hanging on literally by my fingernails to a projecting rock, weathering raging thunderstorms in a light backpacking tent, and even getting lost once or twice I feel that I might know better than some how to survive in the rockies. I also did a lot of camping and hiking in southern Utah and would hope I know a little bit about surviving in the desert. Just to prove to myself that I am not a complete idiot in the wilderness I took a couple quizzes and was pretty darn proud of my results. I scored 10/10 on the rocky mountain survival quiz and 9/10 on the Moab desert quiz. Let's see how you fare! (You'll have to copy and paste the links, sorry)
http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/manvswild/quiz/rocky-mountains/rocky-mountains.html
http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/manvswild/quiz/moab/moab.html
and here are some pics of my adventures both in the Rockies and in southern Utah.

Ding Dong the Bells are Gonna Chime

Janie got married on Aug. 1st. There goes one more of my best friends. They seem to be getting a little scarce these days, at least single ones. That aside, it was a beautiful day and it was great to see how happy Janie and Grady were.





Kalai came to sing at the wedding, which was totally awesome. We got to hang out with him a bit afterwards and he is a pretty funny guy.

Showers, Tennis, and Lakes

My good friend Janie Rydalch is soon to be Janie Pace. I love weddings, drinks all around! No, but really, I do like weddings because it gives us all an excuse to get together for showers and stuff. It is always so fun to get together with all the girls again. I wish everyone could have made it to the shower, but here at least are the fabulous five who lived for one incredible semester in AG6. I'm so glad I have such wonderful friends!

Although my tennis skills are near pathetic, I still like to go play whenever I get a chance (Mark, we still need to have that lesson, I have improved in ping pong under your tutelage, let's see what you can do with tennis). Kati, Abby, Annie, Todd, and I all went last week to play some rousing games. I think the other more serious tennis players thought we were pretty crazy when we started playing "around the world" but come on, with skills like mine you just can't take it too seriously.



And summer is never complete without our regular trips to rockport, and even finding a little dead fish down my swimming suit when I returned home after this particular trip will not deter me from going back to cool off from the summer heat.

All the Pretty Horses

I can't remember a time when I did not love horses. I grew up around horses so when I wasn't actually riding them I was pretending that I was, and if I wasn't pretending that I was riding I was pretending I was the horse itself. I loved horses of every color, black, chestnut, white, grey, buckskin. Horses galloped through both my waking and sleeping dreams, and I found horses doodled across all my notebooks from school. When we sold our last three horses before my parents moved to Mexico I was devestated. I was in school when one of my teachers (we all know each other well since it is such a small community)pulled me out of class and handed me a check for the three horses. He assured me they would not come to get them until the evening, but when I returned from school the fields were empty. I thought the grass looked lonely as it swayed in the breeze. All I could think of was that I did not have a chance to say goodbye. Not to Sundowner the clever and often naughty little pony, or May who despite her lazy and cold manner I had come to love, or even to Shaker with his crooked feet and homely face who loved his ears to be scratched. It has now been five years since a horse of my own as been in these fields and earlier this summer I convinced my mom to buy a cheap horse that I had discovered. He has turned out to be more of a project than I bargained for. Despite the fact that he is nearly unrideable and has been christened "Bucky" as a result, it still feels good to have a horse of my own. Here are a few pictures of my years with horses.

Quotable Quotes

So I just finished reading a funny little book entitled, "The Mouse on the Moon." Contrary to what you might think, it is not about a mouse at all. Instead it is about a tiny country named Grand Fenwick that makes a rocket fuel out of wine and makes it to the moon before the U.S. or Russia. While this might sound like a zany plot, I did discover some fine quotes from love to politics whithin the yellow old pages. I thought I would share a few.

Talking about a single young man of twenty-five......"He's emotionally immature. He still thinks of himself as the most important person in the world--the one who has to be suited in all things. That is the attitude of the perennial bachelor, who by his nature is emotionally immature."

Talking about the nature of politics..... "Governments are elected so that nations may prosper while really not knowing what is going on at all. That is the art of successful government. Nor can governments carry on their business effectively with each other by telling each other frankly what are their policies and objectives. Good heavens, what a monstrous handicap such an arrangement would prove. Deceit, my dear boy, is the very lubricant of the machinery of international diplomacy. It is by subterfuge that the whole mechanism works smoothly."

And of course, true love..... "I don't mind dying as dying. But since dying would entail not seeing you again--then I am afraid."

The 4th of July!

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays, probably becuase it is such a big deal in Oakley. I love the Rodeo, the Parade, the Town Program, and of course our Family Reunion at the Ranch. This year was a real old fashioned 4th of July becuase we have horses again at the Ranch, I played my violin in the town program, attended the rodeo, and Rich and I rigged up a new rope swing. Sigh....the glory days are coming back.

Kati and I giving the town folk a good ol' fiddle tune.

Kati, Abby and I had a grand time at the Rodeo. The new rope swing works fine!


And here is a little taste of the Rodeo for ya. As they say every year..."If you're not livin' on the edge, you're takin'up way too much room."