Ramses Is At The Par-tay

Lauren's wedding was a success! 

Stand out moments for me:

1.  Playing with the babies in the visitors center for two hours.  I haven't had to watch all three of them at once before then, but it was seriously so much fun wrangling them from here and there.  And in all honesty, I cannot wait until I can do that with my own kiddos day after day.  Seriously, in an ideal world I would have a house full of babies right now.  {Remind me of this in five to ten years when I'm worn  to the core.}

2.  Seeing Lauren so happy once she came out of the temple was so special to me.  It's something I've been wanting for her, so needless to say that was pretty important.

3.  The opportunity to just talk with my momma in car rides back and forth from the venue {and delivering flowers to neighbors afterwards} was so needed for both of us.  Love her.

4.  The entire Fielding side of my family came down for the wedding, so after Lauren & Brandon had left for the night all of us ran back to the dance floor.  My cousin Alex was the DJ for the night and all of the girls are hard core dancers so it got puh-retty crazy for the next two hours.  Although the true highlight for me had to be seeing my aunt trying to sing "call me maybe" to me, and watching my {new} cousin Hillary cat daddy.  The best.

Props to my amazing momma who pulled off an amazing party!

Our Jidges!

Saturday.  The best day of my life.  Thus far.  Kind of.  Okay so maybe like the third best day of my life.  My celeb-stalking-disneyland-lovin-contest-winning friend Skyler {shoutoutttt} filled us in about the free tickets to the So You Think You Can Dance Salt Lake City auditions!  So off we went...

While waiting, Erika was reunited with "Ringo Starr", who so kindly gave her a custom Ringo calendar.  His daughter Britney tried out at the auditions with "jazz-burlesque" and Nigel had him come on stage tell us what he was all about.  A good man, that Starr.  Even inspired that catchphrase of the day: you're a starrrrrrrrr.

We were seated in the back section of the floor so that we would be right behind the judges heads.  The cameraman that would come up and down the aisle looveeed Lindsay so hopefully we get some tv time!  It was incredible to see the behind the scenes, the process, the real time, i mean everything about the auditions.  The energy was just awesome--- booing the judges, giving high fives to the dancers, man.  One solo was so neat, the guys grandma used to be a dancer, so Nigel had her come down and sit in his chair to "critique" her grandson, who then, of course, whips out the most amazing number.  Tears in my eyes people.  Tickets to Vegas, Nigel flirting with the moms, amazing solos, hilarious commentary between Erika and I...  Oh man.  After a couple of hours we suspended for lunch.  On our way out we were able to tell multiple dancers how amazing they were, and even sat next to one of the amazing ones {Melissa?} at Olive Garden.  Oh, AND Robert!  We passed Robert whilst crossing the street.  He was there to help with choreography with Courtney.  I know right?  A dream.

Alright so guess where we sat after lunch...  THE BALCONY.  Guess who we talked to?  And made faces with?  And tweeted at?  And laughed with?  And clapped with?  And flirted with?  And gave nodes of agreement to?  THE JUDGES.  This is where we sat for the thirty or so solos.  Can life get better?  I submit that it cannot.

Other highlights: seeing Ryan from season 6, telling Robert we loved him and him loving us back, Adam Shankman doing rock on back to Erika, Lindsay tweeting Nigel that we were in the right balcony {and him giving creepy eyes to us the rest of the time}, Nigel making an inappropriate comment and then copying my reaction back to me whilst shrugging his shoulders, high-fiving LeRoy {he's getting air time I guagrantee}, Amber {she's going far people!}, Nigel's bitter remarks about his ex-wife, Adams happy remarks about girls "barking up the wrong tree" {poor Erika}, and of course so much more.

One thing I was surprised at was how genuine everything was.  You know when you watch it on tv, and you see a clip about the kid with the sad story, and think it's cheesy and what not...  Not here.  Here, it is so real.  And so incredible to see everyone truly support one another.  BEST SHOW IN THE WORLD!  I mean, before each solo the judges talked to the dancer for a good seven minutes each, that says a lot.  I don't know if I can wait any longer, the season needs to start!

After the auditions I got to see my cousin Brynlee in her last Cougarette concert.  She's amazing.  All these dancers man.  So jealous.  Then it was off to Park City to a hot shower and king-sized bed.  I'm livin' the life people.  La-ivin-the-life.

Whatta Week

So let me tell ya'll a little story.  It begins with our tortured teenage girl hero person lady thing, Miss Natalie {me}, on Tuesday night.  Laying in that barely comfortable enough to make it uncomfortable dorm room bed.  Tirelessly moving her legs from flamingo to pencil position over and over again while thinking about schooling over the past week.  Missing class.  Failing Physical Science tests...  Sleeping all day and not putting her best shoe forward.  And wearing them without socks mind you, not a good combination.  Finally she looked toward the future as she so often does.  The end of the week looked to be hell.  With a physical science midterm and book of mormon midterm to take, stained glass project to finalize, visiting teaching to do, relief society lesson to teach, ward prayer to organize and buy treats for, on top of mandatory social events including the Harry Potter Premiere, a blasted blind date i was asked on, most likely out of pity, to our housing dance {much like the one put on for Heritage Halls last semester}, and a home cooked Sunday dinner.   The dinner wasn't so much as a chore as it was just another thing on the list to do.  All in three or so short days.  Guys.  I was so incredibly stressed at that moment.  Reading back on this list now seems like nothing.  Nothing hard at least.  Buuuttt being the dramatic {at times} soul that I am I texted my mom, and I quote "I am dropping my classes.  School hates me and I hate it."  Droppin' it like it's hot.  So over it I was!  So finally after muffled curses at the world, as not to wake my dearest Lindsay, I turned around on that bed and said the longest prayer ever to have been uttered from mankind's lips, probably.  The next morning I woke up an hour before my class.  Then I got all my work done, and on it went, finishing task after task until the week was through!  I did it I did it!  Well I didn't do it alone of course.  What appeared to be one of the most dreaded weeks of the semester turned out to be one of the most absolutely fun and incredibly rewarding weeks of the semester!  Funny how life works out, isn't it?

So it began with Harry Potter.

 Over all I was completely overwhelmed.  In love.  I feel like everyone has given their two-cents about their Harry Potter experience, and rightly so, but I will just leave mine with overwhelmed.  In the best of ways of course.

On Friday after taking that wretched Physical Science exam, and slightly improving hallelujah, Linds and I decided to dine at Kneaders.  Home of the best cupcake on earth.  I am dead serious.  People, it is dipped in white chocolate.  Heaven in a mini cake of strawberry goodness!  Now on our walk over to kneaders, we passed some people filming what looked to be a music video.  We smiled, laughed, and it wasn't soon after that thecameraman whose name I still don't know and the star of the show, Phaya himself, invited us over to be in it.  Uhhh what?  Yep, we danced in front of four talented girls for three minutes in broad daylight.  Most.  Awkward.  Thing.  Of.  My.  Life.  White girls we are.  We soon made friends with Phaya, exchanged numbers, and went on our way.  That night, he text us and invited us to be in the other shoots for the video at the bowling alley.  So back we went!  And it seriously was so fun.  We met so many people, I got to stare at the cameraman that much longer, and I learned some ghetto girl dance moves.  That I wish I could perfect...  Blast this white blood in me.

{Linds and I with our new friend Barima [from Ghana!], Phaya [from the Caribbean!] and others.}

After the video shoot we changed from dancing for five + hours and joined our friends up at Squaw Peak.  So beautiful.  Guitar playin', laughing, all that good stuff.

Now time for the dance.  Exceeded all of my expectations!  Made new friends and loved every minute of it, even if the boys didn't pick us up...  I met my date Morgen {who Lauren taught how to surf? wth?}, we ate at Red Robin, shared some lol's, danced the night away, learned about Brad's moves and faces, Scott & Morgan's bromance/LOTR obsession, and even recreated Harry Potter's Puppet Palls while we were at it.

On Sunday Lindsay & I rocked the relief society lesson and looked good doing it.  I got an 82% on my Book of Mormon midterm.  Finally finished my stained glass pattern.  Got treats in time for Ward Prayer.   And got all the other little things done.  Success!!!  Other events include a ferrett, tunnel singing, and lots of rain!  Shout out to mi momma who wouldn't let me drop my classes.

 And Lindsay for helping me wake up every morning.

Now if only the anticipation of easily viewed black mail wasn't to surface youtube within the week...  Oh please oh please mr. film man, spare me from awkward dancing shots!

Events

The semester is wrapping up, and the rest of this week has definitely been evident of that :(.

On Wednesday night Bailey, Chris, David, Rachel and I had a sleepover to celebrate the ending of classes!  Wooo.  One of the movies we watched was The Brothers Bloom, top five {again{.  Now to the important stuff: I had the best sleep I've ever had.  In my entire life.  David's house is full of beds with tempurpedic mattresses.  So despite the fact that we went to bed at 5ish, I was laying on the best mattress on the world under like three comforters and was out in three minutes.  It was amazing.  And right now I'm tempted to steal one.

The next night I answered my prom date James back by making a stop motion video!

 

I only wish the pictures weren't so yellow...  {and pretend you didn't see the second still that wasn't fullscreen, oh and just stop it after the stop motion actually ends, because it's crappy...}

Then yesterday my pappa took me to Lehi to store some stuff at my grandparents.  They are hilarious and I love them.  Afterward we finished off our outing at Japanese Tepanyaki!  It was probably one of the only real meals I've had since being at college.  Delicious.  And now here I am, left studying for my finals.  Awesome.

Yay college!  Oh, and the sakura are blooming!  So beautiful.

And one last thing, guess how long church was today?  just guess.  FIVE HOURS.  five.  I guess that's what happens when you're in a student ward for the last time before the semester ends when everyone wants to bear their testimonies...

I wish I never had to leave :(...