New Mexico

I was invited to get away for the weekend with Mori (friend), who decided that we were going to drive down to her hometown - Farmington, New Mexico. The drive was about nine and a half hours long on the way there. We came across some difficult people and weather the entire way there, but we cranked the music, ate probably more than we should have, and had GREAT fun with each other.

You are probably wondering why I took a picture of some random car driving down the street. This car was filled with some woman who seriously could not drive safe to save her life. She was swerving everywhere, speeding up, going turtle speed, and not staying in her own lane. We passed her to get away from danger, but she insisted on staying near us, because she started going much faster and went back into our lane. When she passed us, she nearly drove our car off the road. No matter what we did, this lady kept very close. We eventually went extremely fast to get away from Simon (license plate name).

Mori decided that since she was really tired, she should drink an energy drink to wake her up. Not only did she eventually get really hyper, but the energy drink started making her sick. She decided that she should finish the drink anyway, even though she clearly was made very sick by the drink. I took the drink from her and decided to throw the can out the window (I have never littered like that before.) to prevent her from getting even more sick and throwing up everywhere. When I rolled down the window and attempted throwing the can out the window, while Mori was driving about 65 miles per hour on the freeway, the can blew back towards me and soda went everywhere (on the car and me). We both could not stop laughing at how wrong that went. I felt as though I was being punished for littering.

The first morning that we were in New Mexico, while I was finishing getting ready for the day, Mori’s sister (Amanda) and her kids came over. While attempting to entertain the children, Mori decided to trap me inside this stretchy ball thing, which turned out being the newest fashion of the 21st century.

The second day we were staying in New Mexico, we decided that we were going to venture out with her family’s rhino (four-wheeler) and have fun being crazy on the ride. Mori decided to drive the rhino, which was sometimes really scary when she nearly ran into rocks, trees, and other avoidable objects. Haha, she was much fun to hang out with, and the thrill of having my life on the line during the right brought a new definition to the word EXCITEMENT. We were driving around for about two hours and finally decided that we should head back before we seriously froze to death. Our hands were extremely numb, and our noses were bright pink. Once we arrived back to Mori’s house, I walked into the bathroom, where I saw her attempting to warm her hands using the blow dryer.

Getting some ice cream at Cold Stone was almost a daily activity for us while we were staying in New Mexico. I always get sweet cream ice cream with cookie dough mixed inside. I am ALWAYS finding myself eating WAY too much ice cream that my stomach should have.

Mori and I found some light sabers, where we started play fighting and putting on some type of show for her family. In the picture above, I am pulling a "Charlie's Angels" look for the camera, and Mori looks like she is going to light saber my head. We had great immature fun play fighting around the living room.

In the picture above, Mori's father made a fortune teller and was revealing my future for me. He was asking me what colors and numbers I thought were lucky of the choices.

Notice the very SAD face that I have showing in the picture above. Mori's father told me that my fortune was, "Your mom looks like a baseball bat." He was hinting that I was going to look like a baseball bat when I got older. That was very sad news, but I was able to find some optimistic thoughts during his explanation. The good thought was that my mother looks NOTHING like a baseball bat right now and hopefully never would. (haha)

The infamous rhino riding could never left out of this post...

For those of you who know what happened and for those of you who have no idea, I am going to give you the most adventurous story and greatest life lesson. Mori's family owns a rhino, which is somewhat like a fourwheeler with a steering wheel, seatbelts, and half a roll cage. We went out rhino riding on Saturday afternoon and again on Sunday morning. Who knew that we were going to have such a crazy adventure out there. We had TONS of crazy fun on the rhino on Saturday afternoon, and we both came back in the best moods. After a hard night that night, we decided to ditch church, and Mori came up with the idea that we should go for another rhino ride. Mori was the one driving and was being a ridiculously INSANE driver through whoops going up, down, across, and sometimes we had no idea where were were. The seatbelts got really uncomfortable when we were going through the harder trails, and we decided that taking them off would be much less painful (or that is at least what we thought would be less painful). Mori was having the time of her life making me laugh and by scaring me with going fast and such. She was nearly running into trees and the sides of mountains. There were a few times where she completely lost control and we ended up going in some unintentional directions. We decided that we should probably head back to her house pretty soon and on the way there, we came across a dirt (pretty much MUD) field that she found perfect to fishtale and doing donuts with. It was fun for the first ten minutes, but after that, it seemed much more painful that exciting. The rhino was turned too sharply when doing the donuts, and about seven or eight minutes of Mori being unconscious, she woke up and found that I was not moving either. She came over and shook me, making sure that I was okay, and I woke up not too long after that from not being conscious either. At this point, we had realized what we had just done - crashed her parents rhino. Not only had we flipped the rhino, but when Mori was ejected through the rhino and thrown on the ground to the other side, the rhino landed directly on top of the right leg, which hurt me very badly. No matter how hard Mori and I tried, we could not get the rhino off me. The field that we were driving through was right by the main highway, where some people pulled over to make sure we were okay. The first person that responded was a random medical doctor just passing through the area on the unintended road that he decided he should take. I have no idea what would have happened if the rhino was wrecked in the middle of nowhere. Another family ran over to see how they could help us. The doctor told me that because I was feeling tingling up the leg and could not move it and walk either, that I should see the doctor immediately, since that could mean that my main artery was hurt (very serious). Mori and I knew that we had a long drive ahead (ten hours back to Overton and her going back to Cedar), and once the people drove me back to Mori's house, I decided that we should get going back to Nevada. I never went to the doctor, but I received a blessing by President Robison when I got back home. President Robison is one of the most powerful, amazing priesthood holder that I have ever met. I was on crutches for about five days, but I was able to walk again when my knee popped the day after I received the blessing. My ankle was really sore after that but healed when given some time.

Mistake #1 - removing the seatbelts

Mistake #2 - doing donuts

Mistake #3 - riding on the Sunday

Mistake #4 - not going to see the doctor

Mistake #5 - not regretting that the accident ever happened

Don't get me wrong, we made the mistakes of removing the seatbelts, doing donuts, riding on the Sunday, and not going to see the doctor, but we had TONS of great fun spending time together and being able to express our CRAZY selves.

I learned something very important while I was on that trip with Mori, which you are probably figuring would be that rhinos are not meant to spend doing donuts and stuff like that; however, I learned that everyone has things are unique about them. Those things make them different from every other person out in the world, and when we focus on what makes everyone the smae, we stop realizing what makes them special. I want to thank Mori for being an amazing friend and being there for me during some hard times. I hope she knows that I had SO MUCH fun with her while we were spending time together in New Mexico. I cannot wait to see her again soon. I also learned that communication really is the MAIN KEY to any friendship, because without that, the relationship cannot survive.

YouCam

A couple months ago, when Jamie Turner was visiting home from college during her Winter Break, she showed me the program on her computer called YouCam, which I never knew came with my computer as well. The program allows people to take pictures of themselves using the webcam attached to their laptop. Here are some pictures Jason and I were having some fun taking with the program and then editing them with my new Paint.NET application:

Jason was trying to copy the face that I was making. He was very adorable while taking pictures with him, very creative.

One thing that I really love about my three brothers (Jordan, Jason, and Cody) are that no matter who they are with and what they are doing, whenever I look at them and say, "Kiss me..." they come over and smooch my cheek. They have never minded when their friends were around or whoever might have been watching.

I hope they know how much I love them now and always would.

Not very long after Jason and I were finished taking some pictures, Michael decided to take some with me using the YouCam program as well:

This look that I was giving in the picture above has always been my "signature look" with pictures (everyone says).

Side Note: I was not wearing any makeup that day and was very reluctant not to put these pictures on here; however, I cannot hide the true "Summer" forever. (haha) I probably look about three years younger than I really am right now, but hey, maybe when I am older, I would really appreciate looking three years younger.

Another picture taken with Michael later that day:

Brothers

Several times each week, I babysit my two little brothers (Jason and Cody) while their parents work during the day. On February 11th, I decided that playing around the playground, and then taking some pictures at the Overton park could be exciting. Michael had some fun playing football with the boys.

Cody James Simmons (Age 5)

Brian Jason Simmons (Age 7)

They had very much fun posing for pictures and coming up with many creative ways to get some really good photos.

Before we had already left for the park, Cody came over and pleaded towards me that he could be the first one to get his picture taken.

When we were taking Jason's pictures, he was very entertaining and creative with his facial expressions and positions.

I really enjoyed spending the afternoon with my brothers and taking these pictures of them. I hope they know how much I care about them and want to them to always be happy.

College

After doing much thinking about the future, I eventually decided that Psychology would become my college major. I have not chosen anything for my minor already but have been thinking very much about Sociology to accompany the Psychology major or maybe Photography, which really interests me very much. I thought about the schools I could actually attend and finally decided to apply for Southern Utah University. I submitted the application on January 12th and received an acceptance letter on January 14th for the Fall 2009 semester.

I received another letter from Southern Utah University on January 27th informing me about being offered the scholarship called "Nevada WUE." I am planning on applying for some other scholarships and financial help.

Important Dates
- class registration: April 6th

I am very excited to attend Southern Utah University starting with the Fall 2009 semester. I realize how much hard work college might really be and am very anxious to begin studying Psychology.