Once upon a time there was a Girl

Girl had a Brother who was in law school. One day, Brother called Girl up and asked her to help him with his Moot Court (fake court) Competition. Girl was to play the part of Jessie Spano, a regional manager for Burger Heaven.

Girl was a little worried that she wouldn't be able to memorize all her lines, but with much help and encouragement from Brother she decided she could tackle the part.

Girl was shocked by the story! She couldn't believe that sweet Zachery Morris was on trial for steeling from one of her Burger Heavens.

After reading the deposition, girl knew that Zachery Morris should be put away for life! Okay, maybe not life but he should at least have to pay back the $20,000.01 that he stole.

After much rehearsing and reassuring, Girl and Brother went into trial/competition on Thursday and came out successful!

Girl was able to remember all of her lines and didn't let the other side scare her. Brother, with confidence and a firm hand, controlled the whole courtroom. His closing statement caused the whole room to sit up and listen and he literally made Mr. Zachery Morris squirm in his chair during cross examination. After, Brother, Ms. Kelly Kapowski, Ellen, and Girl went out to celebrate.

Girl went home later, and being much exhausted from all her weeks activities laid her head down on the pillow and CRASHED.

Brother will go on to compete today at 3:00. Good luck brother, hope you do good so I can reclaim the roll of Ms. Jessie Spano next week!

(I'm so sorry that I don't have pictures of Kenley in action, he really did an amazing job!)

Camping in New Hampshire

This past weekend was the big New England YSA camp out. I have never been much an EFY or church camp out kind of girl but I decided to give this one a shot. Juliet, my roommate, and I packed up our stuff and headed out the door at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday. Sitting at the train station I seriously felt like I was in the Runaway Train video. We looked like we were taking off and never coming back. Okay, not really . . . but kind of.

(Sarah)

(Juliet)

We caught a ride with some of the coolest people. Our car was packed full but was so much fun. We talked about all kinds of interesting and crazy things. We were all coming form different backgrounds (marketing, medicine, social work and legal) which made it all the more fun.

About half way there, Jason, the driver, asked if we minded taking a detour to get some ice cream. Of course we were all for it. Who doesn't love ice cream! Two hours later, with our stomachs full we hit the road again.

(Juliet, Jason, Bequis, Brad and Sarah)

We ended up getting to the camp ground a little late to help with the service project so we ran straight for the water.

We originally planned to take two canoes and split up a group of us who wanted to go, but a bigger boat opened up, so we all jumped in. There were 6 girls and 1 guy (lucky guy right)! It was the funniest thing ever. We had canoe paddles instead of rowing paddles, so we spun in circles around the lake for quite a while. It was hilarious.

(Ali, Chen Ying, Juliet, Sarah, Kara lee, Katherine, Sean and Emily(in another boat))

We ran into lots of friends out on the water. They were coming to check out the packed boat that didn't know what they were doing.

(Emily and Claire)

When we ran into this big group of people, we found ourselves in a bit of trouble. Ami, the one standing, decided that he wanted to join the fun in our boat, so he jumped right in almost completely dumping us over. I think he just wanted to hear all of us scream, and scream we did!

Ami soon returned to his own boat and we were on our way. We stopped off at a little island to explore a little and with some new paddles, we had a nice enjoyable ride back. The girls sat in the front and the back while Sean paddled us the whole way. It's so nice to be a girl sometimes!

(Ami, Carolina and Christine)

(Sarah and Ali)

After proving my strength to Ali we were off to try our hand at Archery

(Adrienne, Chris, Ashley and Juliet)

Juliet was a natural! She hit the target every time! I on the other hand need some serious practice. I think I maybe hit the top of the target once.

On our way back from Archery we ran into our carpooling buddy Brad. He took us back to his platform (they looked like world war II hospitals to me) for some much needed bug spray and some sleeping gear.

(Silvia, Jason, Brad and Joann)

When we arrived at camp, Juliet, Bequis and I were assigned to sleep clear out in China. We were about a mile from the rest of the camp right by the road! We needed to go build our tent, so that's where we were headed next, when Brad and Jason offered to help. They were so awesome! They took care of us the whole time we were there.

(Jason and Brad)

After the tent was secure we were off for some food and a talent show. I just want to stop here and let you all know that the food was not good. We ended up skipping lunch because #1. we were late and #2. It was a big bowl of tuna fish that you had to spoon on a piece of bread YUCK! For dinner we had sloppy joes which weren't too bad but still weren't great. I know that camping is a roughing it kind of thing but seriously people tuna fish in a huge popcorn bowl!

There were so many people that they ran out of space in the mess hall, so we found a place to eat out side.

After dinner we went to a talent show right next to the lake. It was beautiful! I would have enjoyed it a whole lot more however, if I wasn't swiping daddy long legs off of everyone in front of me. I am not sure what was going on but they were everywhere!

(Back row: Emily, Casey and Meg / Front row: Juliet, Justin and Liz)

When the talent show finished up, we hung out around the campfire for a few hours. I met some of the most interesting people. I had no idea that my ward was so diverse. I met people from all over the world and really had a great time.

That night was not so fun. Bequis, Juliet and I walked the mile to our camp site completely freaking out. The tree coverage was so good that without your flashlight you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. So, with your flashlight it looked like you were walking into endless darkness. We kept freaking ourselves out.

We tried to sleep, but at 3 in the morning when we all started stirring because we were either way to cold or way too uncomfortable we realized that sleep was just not going to be an option. We got up, re-situated and tried once more. Once we said goodnight and the tent got quiet again, we heard a strange sound. It was an owl hooting (is that what you call it?) out side our tent. It went on and on and on. Then suddenly, we heard another one. Yep, that's right folks, we found ourselves right in the center of an animal planet special! Bequis said it best when she said, "I'm not a hunter, but I would shoot those birds!"

The next morning we looked like THIS! Any cute boys that we met the night before didn't have a clue who we were the next day we looked so mangled and sleep deprived.

Oh well, we had a great time and can't wait for next years camp out!

(This is what one fun filled day and no sleep will do to you!)

The Swell Season

This is me Happy! And why am I so Happy? Well . . .

. . . because of these two!

Last Friday I got a call at 7:30p.m. from my awesome friend Liz who had an extra ticket to go to their show. I love, love, loved their movie, Once and can't get enough of their music. I was so excited! I ran as fast as I could to the T station jumped on the train, switched to another train and about 40 minutes later found myself sitting in the arena enjoying one of the most powerful kinds of music, raw emotional folk! If you don't know their music, go check out the soundtrack to Once. I am positive you will love it!

The day was pretty hectic, so when I got home at 1:00a.m. and realized I hadn't eaten anything since 12:00 p.m. I decided to order some pizza. My roommate and I were up until 2:00 a.m. packing for our big camping adventure (see next post).

I love how into the music he gets! It reminds me a lot of Damien Rice. Oh, and one of the greatest parts of the concert was when they brought a guy up on stage who they saw singing for money out on the street. The guy was so good and was absolutely thrilled to be playing for such a large crowd.

Buy me some Peanuts and Cracker Jacks. . .

This past weekend, my good friend Liz invited me to go with her to a Red Sox game! We had such a blast! Liz had won tickets through a work lottery, so our seats were awesome.

We sang "take me out to the ball game" and "Sweet Caroline", ate a fenway frank, drank a coke, and even did a little dancing. We had so much fun, even though our team lost big time! 8 to 1 Blue Jays. Boo!

I learned a new and interesting thing at the game to. Jacoby Ellsbury (a player for the Red Sox) is in my ward. Okay, so he's not active and I highly doubt they have all of his information, but he is in our ward directory.

After the game, Liz and I wandered down Newburry street to do a little shopping. We hit up all our favorite stores and had an absolute blast. It was a day well spent!