 |
| Kalli Mackay & me at a football game. |
Through all of college I have lived with the same roommate. Kalli Mackay. She is one amazing girl. Her cookies are DIVINE and so is her heart :) We have had the best experiences living with each other and she encouraged me whenever I would get down. She is one of the most selfless people I know and one of the biggest BYU fans I know! I asked her to write about our experience together in college and she went above and beyond my expectations! She worked very hard to write down her memories of the past 3 years we have lived together and I have titled them “Kalli’s View.” Thanks a MILLION to Kalli for putting so much effort into my project. I LOVE YOU KALLI!
Freshman Year
I finally got all packed up and the day finally came for me to move into my apartment. I was going to be roommates with one of my high school friends Kalli Mackay. I didn’t know it then but I was SO lucky to have her as my roommate. Trenton was moving to school on the same day. I remember getting all unpacked and our parents left and then bam. I was supposed to be a grown up. What?! I remember Trenton text me and said it was weird to be on his own. We quickly got used to living only one block apart and spent all the time we could together.
We had some rocky times during that semester but with him preparing to go on a mission and me realizing that my sister, boyfriend, and brother were all going to be leaving within 2 weeks of each other, there were bound to be rocky times! Going to class was a blur that semester. I remember getting a 70 on my science test and thinking that my life was over. I never got C’s on tests! The next day I showed up to class and our teacher explained that he was curving the grades. I ended up with an A. I LOVED college! I made it through that semester with straight A’s somehow and ended up being awarded an academic scholarship which paid for my tuition for a year. Such a HUGE blessing. Heavenly father knew I needed the financial help and he has helped me continue to receive that scholarship to this day with hard work and sacrifice.
We had some rocky times during that semester but with him preparing to go on a mission and me realizing that my sister, boyfriend, and brother were all going to be leaving within 2 weeks of each other, there were bound to be rocky times! Going to class was a blur that semester. I remember getting a 70 on my science test and thinking that my life was over. I never got C’s on tests! The next day I showed up to class and our teacher explained that he was curving the grades. I ended up with an A. I LOVED college! I made it through that semester with straight A’s somehow and ended up being awarded an academic scholarship which paid for my tuition for a year. Such a HUGE blessing. Heavenly father knew I needed the financial help and he has helped me continue to receive that scholarship to this day with hard work and sacrifice.
 |
| The day Trenton opened his Mission Call. |
 |
| Mickenzie & Trenton in the MTC together. |
Trenton got his call to the Oklahoma, Oklahoma City mission. Mickenzie was called to the Arizona, Tucson mission. January through February of 2009 flew! They were both gone by February 11th and my life was completely different after that day. I was basically on my own! My relationship with Kalli started to grow from this point on. It was hard having Trenton gone but she would help keep me busy and laugh at all my ridiculous jokes to keep me happy. We would go to the gym a lot and work out and I’m pretty sure I needed those endorphins to make it through that semester!
My calling that year at school was ward librarian. WOOO! I had to go to church 3 hours earlier than my scheduled meetings and sit in the tiniest room that no one on campus knew existed for an hour and a half. It was great the first couple of times. By week 3 when no one had showed up it started to get boring. People would pass by my little window and say “We have a library?!” and I wanted to yell, “Ya, how about you come use it sometime!” Well after a full semester of faithfully going every Sunday I had one visitor....and I didn’t even have what they wanted. Failure!
I made it through my first year successfully and decided to move to Sandy, Utah where my best friend Cristine lived. She had a nice basement apartment and her Sister and Brother in-law lived upstairs.
I started looking for jobs and found one working at a clothing store in the mall. I took it because I was desperate but it was only part time and wasn’t going to keep me very busy. So I continued to look. One of my good friends, Sadie, found a job listing online and sent it to me. It was a customer service representative for a stroller company. Yes, a stroller company. I thought it was a joke but it said it would pay $10 an hour and would only be part time. So I took a chance and sent them my resume. A few days later I got a call to come interview. I was super excited because I was SO sick of job searching. So I got dressed up and said a prayer before I went inside that I wouldn’t mess it up. I had a short interview with a lady named Mary and she seemed very nice then she asked if I minded meeting with one of the owners of the company. WHAT? I was super nervous but he came in and was way down to earth. Then I met with the CEO of the company and found out he was Hillary Weeks’s husband. She is an LDS artist who I had on a lot of my EFY cd’s. The interviews went well and Mary told me on my way out that she would be seeing me again. I went home on cloud 9 because I was actually going to make money!
I started looking for jobs and found one working at a clothing store in the mall. I took it because I was desperate but it was only part time and wasn’t going to keep me very busy. So I continued to look. One of my good friends, Sadie, found a job listing online and sent it to me. It was a customer service representative for a stroller company. Yes, a stroller company. I thought it was a joke but it said it would pay $10 an hour and would only be part time. So I took a chance and sent them my resume. A few days later I got a call to come interview. I was super excited because I was SO sick of job searching. So I got dressed up and said a prayer before I went inside that I wouldn’t mess it up. I had a short interview with a lady named Mary and she seemed very nice then she asked if I minded meeting with one of the owners of the company. WHAT? I was super nervous but he came in and was way down to earth. Then I met with the CEO of the company and found out he was Hillary Weeks’s husband. She is an LDS artist who I had on a lot of my EFY cd’s. The interviews went well and Mary told me on my way out that she would be seeing me again. I went home on cloud 9 because I was actually going to make money!
They called me the next day and offered me the job. My first day on the job was nerve racking. I hated talking to people on the phone that I didn’t know. Which is ironic because that is all my job consisted of! I quickly got over that fear and found out it was hilarious! You never knew who you were going to get. Tons of pregnant moms were angry they weren’t getting their strollers the day after they ordered them or I even had a mom call me WHILE she was in labor to order her stroller. I loved working with Mary she was a really fun boss who I became friends with really quick. I looked forward to work every day which was new! The mall job wasn’t quite as exciting, in fact all I did was write Trenton letters because no one hardly ever came in the store and I could only clean it so much before I ran out of ideas!
 |
| On a hike in St. George |
 |
| Fishing! |
 |
| John Schmidt Concert. |
Cristine and I had a blast that summer. We did almost everything you could do in the Salt Lake area. There were a lot of days were we were both at work all day and so the only time we got to go outside was for a quick run before it got dark. We ran almost every day that summer (except Sunday of course). We decided to run a 5k that summer and it was a lot of fun. We got to do it through lavender fields and the best part was we got a t-shirt out of it! We also loved to go to St. George. I developed a deep love for that place that summer! It is one of the most relaxing places I have been yet! We would lay by her pool or go on hikes or head over to Nelson’s for ice cream. I LOVE sun, so it’s only logical that I would LOVE St. George!
 |
| Our 5k run through the lavendar fields |
 |
| At St. George Temple |
 |
| At Salt Lake Temple |
Cris and I tried to go to the temple once a week that summer. We were so close to so many that we couldn’t pass up the opportunity. We were closest to the Jordan River Temple so we went there the most often, but we had the chance to go to Draper temple, Salt Lake Temple, St. George Temple, and others I probably forgot! It was a neat experience to go so often. As a youth we went maybe every 3 months. I know that going to the temple so often helped me get through that first summer without Trenton. I earned enough money that summer to buy my first car. After a month of rigorously looking for the perfect one for my father I picked out a 2004 Chevy Malibu. I was ecstatic! I was scared to have a loan but I knew it was time for me to grow up and start getting things on my own. It’s still running wonderfully! That summer was amazing and it was really hard to go back to college and leave Cris behind. I had grown up a lot during that summer and found out more of who I was and what I could do on my own. I am grateful I had that experience.
Kalli's View:
During our first Halloween as college students we had a ward Halloween party. We were supposed to dress up and after contemplating many ideas we decided that the best would be the Flintstones! So we went to Wal-Mart and got all of the cloth that we needed and proceeded to make these awesome outfits with duck tape, scissors, and cloth. They were pretty good looking outfits for people who had never really done something like this before. We might have struggled with getting the right proportions for some people, but we did pretty well. That night we met Chester the Molester, Adam and Eve (who by the way were not very modestly dressed), Mario Bros, and many others. Ashley and I used to go up the steps inside of the Snow building to our class listening to our IPods and occasionally catching ourselves singing to the songs that we were listening to. Trying to drive stick shift and on occasion succeeding but more often than not forgetting to let the emergency break out. Then wondering why the car kept dying all the time.
We met our good friend Cherisse during the winter 2009 semester; this is where a great friendship began! On February 11th tragedy and happiness struck... Trent left on his mission. This would begin a long, long, long process of letters and waiting for the mailman, but it was good because that is what he was asked to do and he was excited to go! One winter semester night after Trent left we were bored and decided that we wanted to watch a movie. We had a friend, Dallin Millard, who had several movies(by several I mean enough to wrap around the world once). So we called up Dallin and he said sure come on over and pick a movie. After trying to decide which of the 700+ movies would be the best to watch we started the trek back to our apartment. Only this would be no ordinary trek. As we crossed the street about a block from Dallin's apartment there came two boys running in the same direction as us only on the opposite side of the road. As they ran past us they noticed that we were both in shorts and flip flops (not smart thing to wear during the Rexburg winters). One shouted at us from across the street, "Hey, you two look cold." Calmly and coolly Ashley responded with a, "No we are fine." While I in the meantime, am in a state of panic because we are very much alone and it is dark out. Being the generous boys that they were brought up to be one yelled back, "Are you sure? You can have my pants!" Ashley again with the response, "No, but thanks." Then off they ran, with us laughing at their absurd comment .
We quickly found out why everyone dreaded winters in Rexburg, your nose hairs froze, your cheeks turned bright red, your lungs hurt from the frigid air, and many other things that you would expect with -30 degree temperatures. During the winter semester we became better friends with an apartment of guys that were pretty fun. One day in a class we heard about how a girl dipped cotton balls into chocolate and then took them to some guys that she knew and they ate them. We thought this was a pretty good idea so we decided to try it. As we dipped the cotton balls in chocolate and then put them on the plate to harden we found out that the bottom of the cotton balls were showing. She we covered the bottom in peanut butter and put some sprinkles on top to add to the decor. We set them on a plate proud of how delicious they looked. Our roommate Heather was in charge of driving us to the boys' apartment and keeping the car running so we could hop in and drive away quickly if we needed to. We hopped out of the car trying to act like everything was normal and not to bust at the seams with laughter. Cherisse and I had a pretty hard time not laughing. We knocked on the door and handed them the "truffles." We were about to leave when they invited us to stay, thankfully we came up with a quick answer that we had to go and see Joelle, which was partially true we just weren't going to see her till later. We scampered out the door before they could ask us anything else and laughed all the way back to our apartment about how clever we were.
Kalli's View:
Then we graduated and what were we to do? We both had the same track and the people that we were going to live with originally had a different track than us. So we decided that we would room together. Little did we know this decision would be the beginning of a great adventure.
We decided that we were going to live at La Jolla apartments. The day we moved in Ashley went up first, and when I arrived the first thing I see is her hanging out the window trying to clean the window seal because it was disgusting. Unfortunately, so was the rest of our room. So we cleaned and then got unpacked and said goodbye to our parents. When school started we quickly realized our mistake with living at La Jolla: it was too far from campus! Walking at the least 15 minutes every day got old real fast. Trenton and Ashley I remember had to walk all the way up to the Ricks for a class and that was about a 25 min walk on a good day. I remember numerous occasions where both of them would be bookin’ it from Trent’s apartment just to get to class on time.
Our after school activities consisted of volleyball and basketball (only on rare occasions though). Thanks to our lovely friend Joelle Driscoll, we were able to play on a coed volleyball team with our friends. It was a blast! Most of the time Ash and I would walk to Trent’s apartment and then we would head over to the Field House to play. The best part was Ash and I would start our I-pods on the same song at the same time and then dance all the way to Trent’s apartment. Yeah we were a little crazy. Lots of stuff happened that first semester with our new coed volleyball team (we didn't even do that bad considering we had people who had never played before).
During our first Halloween as college students we had a ward Halloween party. We were supposed to dress up and after contemplating many ideas we decided that the best would be the Flintstones! So we went to Wal-Mart and got all of the cloth that we needed and proceeded to make these awesome outfits with duck tape, scissors, and cloth. They were pretty good looking outfits for people who had never really done something like this before. We might have struggled with getting the right proportions for some people, but we did pretty well. That night we met Chester the Molester, Adam and Eve (who by the way were not very modestly dressed), Mario Bros, and many others. Ashley and I used to go up the steps inside of the Snow building to our class listening to our IPods and occasionally catching ourselves singing to the songs that we were listening to. Trying to drive stick shift and on occasion succeeding but more often than not forgetting to let the emergency break out. Then wondering why the car kept dying all the time.
We met our good friend Cherisse during the winter 2009 semester; this is where a great friendship began! On February 11th tragedy and happiness struck... Trent left on his mission. This would begin a long, long, long process of letters and waiting for the mailman, but it was good because that is what he was asked to do and he was excited to go! One winter semester night after Trent left we were bored and decided that we wanted to watch a movie. We had a friend, Dallin Millard, who had several movies(by several I mean enough to wrap around the world once). So we called up Dallin and he said sure come on over and pick a movie. After trying to decide which of the 700+ movies would be the best to watch we started the trek back to our apartment. Only this would be no ordinary trek. As we crossed the street about a block from Dallin's apartment there came two boys running in the same direction as us only on the opposite side of the road. As they ran past us they noticed that we were both in shorts and flip flops (not smart thing to wear during the Rexburg winters). One shouted at us from across the street, "Hey, you two look cold." Calmly and coolly Ashley responded with a, "No we are fine." While I in the meantime, am in a state of panic because we are very much alone and it is dark out. Being the generous boys that they were brought up to be one yelled back, "Are you sure? You can have my pants!" Ashley again with the response, "No, but thanks." Then off they ran, with us laughing at their absurd comment .
We quickly found out why everyone dreaded winters in Rexburg, your nose hairs froze, your cheeks turned bright red, your lungs hurt from the frigid air, and many other things that you would expect with -30 degree temperatures. During the winter semester we became better friends with an apartment of guys that were pretty fun. One day in a class we heard about how a girl dipped cotton balls into chocolate and then took them to some guys that she knew and they ate them. We thought this was a pretty good idea so we decided to try it. As we dipped the cotton balls in chocolate and then put them on the plate to harden we found out that the bottom of the cotton balls were showing. She we covered the bottom in peanut butter and put some sprinkles on top to add to the decor. We set them on a plate proud of how delicious they looked. Our roommate Heather was in charge of driving us to the boys' apartment and keeping the car running so we could hop in and drive away quickly if we needed to. We hopped out of the car trying to act like everything was normal and not to bust at the seams with laughter. Cherisse and I had a pretty hard time not laughing. We knocked on the door and handed them the "truffles." We were about to leave when they invited us to stay, thankfully we came up with a quick answer that we had to go and see Joelle, which was partially true we just weren't going to see her till later. We scampered out the door before they could ask us anything else and laughed all the way back to our apartment about how clever we were.
Sophomore Year
I moved back to college and instantly became good friends with my roommates. Hollie and Jenna had known Kalli from classes but I didn’t know them. Within a week we felt like we had lived with each other for years. We are still roommates today and never even argue! We were all kind of in the same place in our lives at that point and we helped each other through the semester.
 |
| Jenna, Lawren, Me, Kalli, Hollie |
I remember that semester being particularly hard for me because I spent most of my time working online (for the stroller company) or working on homework. I didn’t allow myself to have much of a social life and I didn’t realize how much I was missing out on. I prayed and fasted at the end of that semester to be able to have a better time at school. To get everything out of it that I could. Kalli suggested that we move to a different apartment building across campus. I was really nervous about the move and wasn’t sure but I did it anyway because the other girls were and I didn’t want to get left behind!
It ended up being a very good choice. Our ward was amazing and we lived SO much closer to campus. Our Bishop and his counselors were more like our dad’s than our leaders! They were way down to earth and made you feel welcome. The whole ward was very inviting and I got a lot more involved that semester and made a lot of new friends. The time flew by and before I knew it the semester was over. Heavenly Father and answered my prayers yet again. I was thankful that he was aware that I needed a change and that he provided a way for it.
That summer I moved back home to Rupert to live with my parents and work at a garden center there. It was mostly to save money up for the coming year so I wouldn’t have to pay for rent or food! I didn’t have many friends that were home but Kalli was going to come home too so I felt a little bit better about it. The first week I got home I started my job and learned to love plants! It was much different than my office job. Actual physical labor! I felt out of place for a few weeks but quickly got into the swing of things and kept myself busy all the time! I had that job and still went home and did my online job for the stroller company as well. For the month of April and May I was working up to 10 hours a day. Which is probably good because if I hadn’t been I would have been bored out of my mind!
My parents decided to remodel their home that summer as well. When I say remodel, I mean completely redo. The only area of the house that was useable was my bedroom and our bathroom. That tested my patience! Not having a kitchen, a living room, or air conditioning is very trying! I found out that the best diet in the world is to not have a kitchen. We had to grill everything or have pb&j all summer. Popsicles were my new best friend. One day I was so hot I even laid in the freezer to cool off.
I worked hard all summer and got to take a trip to St. George with all of my close friends. Two of them were engaged to be married later in the summer. It was weird to see everyone growing up and it made me miss Trenton even more! Writing letters was getting old!
I worked hard all summer and got to take a trip to St. George with all of my close friends. Two of them were engaged to be married later in the summer. It was weird to see everyone growing up and it made me miss Trenton even more! Writing letters was getting old!
  |
| Joelle & Tyler July 30, 2010 |
Joelle got married in July and it was so fun to see her go through that experience. She is a wonderful person who will make a wonderful mother someday. August 18th my sister returned home from her mission.
We were so excited to have her back. Specially me because it wasn’t just me and the parents anymore!
We hadn’t told her of the renovation to our home so when she saw it she was pretty surprised! She woke up the next morning to construction workers swearing through her window! What a great way to be welcomed home! A few days after she got home I helped a boy named Trevor Baker surprise her. He had served in her mission and went home a year before her. His mission president told him he should write to Sister Bessire. He heeded the council and they wrote for the remainder of her mission. I had never met him but I knew my sister liked him so I helped him plan the perfect surprise. They were very happy to be together and the rest is history from there!
 |
| Mickenzie & Trevor after their Engagement |
I ended the summer by attending Karee’s wedding reception. She was gorgeous as always and it was fun to see her all dressed up for the big day.
The end of that summer was good for me because I knew I wouldn’t have to go through another one without Trenton being home.
Kalli's View:
Fall 2009 started out quite interesting. Ashley and I decided to live with two new roommates Hollie Dewey and Jenna Morris. We were still in good ol' La Jolla. We also made a new friend that semester Lawren Whipple who was our roommate. She was shy at first but we slowly brought her out of her shell! The best were late nights, at like one or two, when Lawren would walk into our room fully dressed in her jeans and shoes (by the time school was out the rest of us put on sweats immediately).
While the weather was still good we would run at Nature Park as roommates, or we would head over there on Sundays to take a walk and silly pictures, or to feed the ducks. As Fall 2009 came to a close we decided to move. We went to Kensington, signed a contract, and Ashley and I met our new roommate Sara. She was ecstatic about the four of us rooming with her. Needless to say, it was an adventure all on its own. So we packed all of our stuff that we could and left it on the beds in Kensington and went home for Christmas. I have never seen so much random stuff packed in two cars before.
Winter 2010 arrived and it was exciting to be in a new ward. We met our FHE brothers one of the first nights that we were here and we became fast friends. It was nice to have a new change of scenery and to meet new people. Our new favorite thing was playing wally ball (volleyball in the racquetball court rooms). We played a lot that semester. We also discovered a new treat... Oreo truffles :) They were delicious. We made them several times for our friends.
In return for all our nice deeds they stole a poser from our apartment. One night Ashley and I went to their apartment to get it back since we knew they had it, but we didn’t know where. We walked into their apartment and sat down to talk to them. After about 15 minutes we realized that the poster was actually hanging on the wall right in front of our eyes. I grabbed the poster and proceeded down their metal stairs of death (these really were like a death trap, they were metal, rickety, and slick!). Right as we excited the door Jared said, "Be careful going down. Don't slip." And right as he said that I proceeded to fall down the stairs and cut my hand. Ashley reached out to grab me but couldn't do anything about it. Luckily she didn't fall down as well! That could have been really bad. We trekked home with a plan in mind to get them back.
We devised a plan we thought would be brilliant. We decided to write on their car windows and saran wrap their cars. For all of you reading this, writing on the car windows when it is freezing outside and after it has just snowed is a really bad idea! It doesn't work! And then we ran out of saran wrap, we were really prepared…no not really. So it didn't work as well as we wanted.
To show us how much better they were at pranking than we were they decided to turn all of our furniture, drawers in the kitchen, the table, the coffee table, and everything else upside down in our apartment. Ashley was talking to Jared on the phone while walking home with Hollie. When they opened the door Hollie shouted, “What the H!?” which was followed quickly by Jared and Ryan’s laughter over the phone, and they continued to tell Ashley and Hollie that they were sitting in our parking lot watching the entire thing.
After they turned our living room and kitchen upside down we decided that it was time to start locking all windows and doors. The perfect opportunity to get them back approached. They were going to feed us dinner one Sunday and we volunteered to bring treats. We decided that we would make shaving crème Oreo truffles. We put shaving crème and Oreos together in a bowl. It smelled absolutely terrible, not to mention that it was men’s shaving crème so the smell was ten times more powerful than women’s. We put them outside to see if the smell would somehow go away, but it didn't. So we made do with what we had and hoped that they wouldn’t notice the smell that permeated out of the truffles. We also didn't want to waste our delicious white chocolate on the nasty truffles so we softened some rainbow confetti frosting! The frosting looked absolutely revolting and the truffles didn't even look anywhere near appetizing! Hollie passed around the plate of shaving crème truffles after our delicious dinner. Both Ryan and Steve ate the whole thing, and rather quickly. But as Jared took his first bite he knew something was wrong. One word came out of his mouth, "Soap." He walked to the garbage can and threw his truffle away amongst the laughter of all us girls (by the way we had all been trying really hard to hold it in the entire dinner). Ryan and Steve both made sickened faces as they realized their mistake at eating the truffles. They told us that the treats tasted a little funny but they didn't want to say anything to be rude. What nice boys! Luckily we had some normal truffles for them to eat afterward to get the taste out of their mouths.
A few weeks later after locking our doors and windows every day so they didn't have a chance to get in and do anything to our apartment, we had FHE. As we were sitting in the living room at the boys' apartment we realized that neither Jared nor Ryan were there (in case you didn't know this is a big hint as to what was going on). We asked where they were; a little weary of our apartment being dismantled by the two boys since we had decided that we didn’t need to lock it anymore. We were told that they were just grabbing the pizza and should be back any minute. As we sat there and time passed, it finally clicked. They had done something to our apartment! That is where they were! Just as we realized this Ryan and Jared walked into the apartment holding the pizzas. Their roommate Jeff, who wasn't in on the pranks, asked what had taken them so long. They smiled and said there were a lot of people at the pizza place. We all knew that they had done something to our apartment, and it was the first time in weeks that we hadn't locked it. Ashley and I stayed for a while, not really caring what they had done, but others of our roommates were a little upset so they decided to go home early. We tried to get them to tell us what they did, but with no luck. Finally we consented to just figure it out when we got home. As we walked into the door of our apartment string was everywhere! It was as if we were in a maze. It was interesting trying to get through it and figure out where the string started. Finally we decided to just cut it and go from there. Our movies were all over the floor. The item that perplexed us the most was a bowling ball, covered in Crisco, sitting in our toilet. Thanks to our handy-dandy roommate Christy we were able to get the bowling ball out with no trouble, much to the boys’ dismay!
 |
| Karee & Josh's Wedding |
The end of that summer was good for me because I knew I wouldn’t have to go through another one without Trenton being home.
Kalli's View:
Fall 2009 started out quite interesting. Ashley and I decided to live with two new roommates Hollie Dewey and Jenna Morris. We were still in good ol' La Jolla. We also made a new friend that semester Lawren Whipple who was our roommate. She was shy at first but we slowly brought her out of her shell! The best were late nights, at like one or two, when Lawren would walk into our room fully dressed in her jeans and shoes (by the time school was out the rest of us put on sweats immediately).
While the weather was still good we would run at Nature Park as roommates, or we would head over there on Sundays to take a walk and silly pictures, or to feed the ducks. As Fall 2009 came to a close we decided to move. We went to Kensington, signed a contract, and Ashley and I met our new roommate Sara. She was ecstatic about the four of us rooming with her. Needless to say, it was an adventure all on its own. So we packed all of our stuff that we could and left it on the beds in Kensington and went home for Christmas. I have never seen so much random stuff packed in two cars before.
Winter 2010 arrived and it was exciting to be in a new ward. We met our FHE brothers one of the first nights that we were here and we became fast friends. It was nice to have a new change of scenery and to meet new people. Our new favorite thing was playing wally ball (volleyball in the racquetball court rooms). We played a lot that semester. We also discovered a new treat... Oreo truffles :) They were delicious. We made them several times for our friends.
In return for all our nice deeds they stole a poser from our apartment. One night Ashley and I went to their apartment to get it back since we knew they had it, but we didn’t know where. We walked into their apartment and sat down to talk to them. After about 15 minutes we realized that the poster was actually hanging on the wall right in front of our eyes. I grabbed the poster and proceeded down their metal stairs of death (these really were like a death trap, they were metal, rickety, and slick!). Right as we excited the door Jared said, "Be careful going down. Don't slip." And right as he said that I proceeded to fall down the stairs and cut my hand. Ashley reached out to grab me but couldn't do anything about it. Luckily she didn't fall down as well! That could have been really bad. We trekked home with a plan in mind to get them back.
We devised a plan we thought would be brilliant. We decided to write on their car windows and saran wrap their cars. For all of you reading this, writing on the car windows when it is freezing outside and after it has just snowed is a really bad idea! It doesn't work! And then we ran out of saran wrap, we were really prepared…no not really. So it didn't work as well as we wanted.
To show us how much better they were at pranking than we were they decided to turn all of our furniture, drawers in the kitchen, the table, the coffee table, and everything else upside down in our apartment. Ashley was talking to Jared on the phone while walking home with Hollie. When they opened the door Hollie shouted, “What the H!?” which was followed quickly by Jared and Ryan’s laughter over the phone, and they continued to tell Ashley and Hollie that they were sitting in our parking lot watching the entire thing.
After they turned our living room and kitchen upside down we decided that it was time to start locking all windows and doors. The perfect opportunity to get them back approached. They were going to feed us dinner one Sunday and we volunteered to bring treats. We decided that we would make shaving crème Oreo truffles. We put shaving crème and Oreos together in a bowl. It smelled absolutely terrible, not to mention that it was men’s shaving crème so the smell was ten times more powerful than women’s. We put them outside to see if the smell would somehow go away, but it didn't. So we made do with what we had and hoped that they wouldn’t notice the smell that permeated out of the truffles. We also didn't want to waste our delicious white chocolate on the nasty truffles so we softened some rainbow confetti frosting! The frosting looked absolutely revolting and the truffles didn't even look anywhere near appetizing! Hollie passed around the plate of shaving crème truffles after our delicious dinner. Both Ryan and Steve ate the whole thing, and rather quickly. But as Jared took his first bite he knew something was wrong. One word came out of his mouth, "Soap." He walked to the garbage can and threw his truffle away amongst the laughter of all us girls (by the way we had all been trying really hard to hold it in the entire dinner). Ryan and Steve both made sickened faces as they realized their mistake at eating the truffles. They told us that the treats tasted a little funny but they didn't want to say anything to be rude. What nice boys! Luckily we had some normal truffles for them to eat afterward to get the taste out of their mouths.
A few weeks later after locking our doors and windows every day so they didn't have a chance to get in and do anything to our apartment, we had FHE. As we were sitting in the living room at the boys' apartment we realized that neither Jared nor Ryan were there (in case you didn't know this is a big hint as to what was going on). We asked where they were; a little weary of our apartment being dismantled by the two boys since we had decided that we didn’t need to lock it anymore. We were told that they were just grabbing the pizza and should be back any minute. As we sat there and time passed, it finally clicked. They had done something to our apartment! That is where they were! Just as we realized this Ryan and Jared walked into the apartment holding the pizzas. Their roommate Jeff, who wasn't in on the pranks, asked what had taken them so long. They smiled and said there were a lot of people at the pizza place. We all knew that they had done something to our apartment, and it was the first time in weeks that we hadn't locked it. Ashley and I stayed for a while, not really caring what they had done, but others of our roommates were a little upset so they decided to go home early. We tried to get them to tell us what they did, but with no luck. Finally we consented to just figure it out when we got home. As we walked into the door of our apartment string was everywhere! It was as if we were in a maze. It was interesting trying to get through it and figure out where the string started. Finally we decided to just cut it and go from there. Our movies were all over the floor. The item that perplexed us the most was a bowling ball, covered in Crisco, sitting in our toilet. Thanks to our handy-dandy roommate Christy we were able to get the bowling ball out with no trouble, much to the boys’ dismay!
For the last few semesters something strange started to happen to Ashley… foot cramps. Yeah, they came out of nowhere. Even more strange is they only happened when we would play wallyball! We would pause the game for just a second until they would go away. It never took very long, except for one time when it seemed to go on for forever. I was desperate to help this time, so I decided to volunteer to rub her nasty sweaty feet (let me remind you this is the only time that I did this). I rubbed her feet, but that didn’t seem to help. In fact, when I pushed on a certain spot on her foot it just got worse. I stopped rubbing her foot and the cramp went away.
The summer before Trent came home both Ashley and I were home. Rupert was Rupert and getting quite boring at some points. We would both go to work, occasionally we would run or if neither of us had to work sit outside working on our tans. Thankfully we had good friends who didn’t have to work one weekend either and they decided they would come and visit us for the weekend. They came on Saturday and we went and floated the river. We tried to fit four people on a tube, but were not very successful. The tube was a little flat which made it hard to get on and very difficult to sit on. Eventually we were all back on our own tubes. That night we played volleyball with some people from Rupert and our friends that came to visit. The boys decided they wanted to sleep on the tramp at Ashley’s house so we all stayed there. When we woke up in the morning it was the strangest thing, I went to get out of bed but as soon as I stood up my ankles gave out because they hurt so bad from playing volleyball and I couldn’t walk. Ashley and I started to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. I crawled over to the laundry room and put my feet on the ironing board. Ashley then rubbed my ankles for me. They felt a lot better after that and I was able to walk again.
Junior Year
I was definitely ready to go back to college after the summer of renovations! I knew going into this semester that I was going to need to be as close to the spirit as I possibly could. Challenges were ahead of me. Bigger ones than I had anticipated but I fasted and prayed before the semester began that I would be able to make it through. I was living with Hollie, Jenna, Kalli, Sadie, and my sister Mickenzie.
 |
| Jenna, Kalli, Sadie, Mickenzie, Me, Hollie |
Challenges arose that semester that humbled me and showed me how much I truly need my Father in Heaven to get through trials that come my way. I remember a few weekends going home and walking in the front door and breaking down because I finally didn’t have to be the strong one anymore. It was hard to see friends going through such difficult times but with the help of Heavenly Father and my Savior I was able to make it through the semester.
One great thing that happened that semester was the girls in our ward decided to make a powderpuff football team and play in the intramural program. I had absolutely no expectations of winning any games.  |
| Our champion football team plus the guys champion team! |
I decided my online job wasn’t cutting it anymore and wanted to do something different but I didn’t know what. Kalli had been trying to get a job in the President of BYU-Idaho’s office for a few months and finally got an interview. She came home from it and said they were looking for more than one and that I should apply. I randomly decided to and before I knew it I was in the office for an interview. Afterwards, I was kind of thinking, what have I gotten myself into? I don’t even know if I want a new job! But turns out we both got the job and started training at the end of fall semester.
Waiting for Trenton to come home was getting harder and harder. The closer it got the farther away it seemed. (Sick joke I know)...Christmas break dragged on and all I wanted was for the month of February to show up on my calendar. Cristine decided to move to Hawaii for three months and so I said goodbye to her and went back to college for Winter Semester. I enrolled in a family history class because I thought it was going to be easy and I was semi-interested. Well turns out it was not easy at all! I wrote my mom’s life history and gave it to her for her 50th birthday as one of my projects and this personal history was my final project. I can’t even count how many hours I spend working on the both of them. It has been good to reflect though and my mom really appreciated the gift that her grandchildren and generations beyond that can enjoy.
It was around this time that my sister Mickenzie got engaged to Trevor the boy she met while on her mission. I was happy to see her so excited and that she had found someone who would finally treat her well. She basically had gone through the ringer with boyfriends in the past and deserved someone who would take care of her and love her for who she was. And that is exactly what she got!
I tried to keep myself as busy as possible until February 17th....The day Trenton was coming home. Everyone kept asking me if I was nervous or excited or scared. I was just calm. I didn’t know why. The day he got home his parents went to get him from the Salt Lake airport. His mom sent me a picture text of him in the car once they had seen him. I got it at work and tears welled up in my eyes as I realized that Trenton was actually home. That’s when it hit me. I was done waiting. The wall I had put up for two years didn’t have to be there anymore. Then I quickly distracted myself because I didn’t want to be caught crying in the office!
That day I finished work and went to classes and was done by 4:30. I knew he had been released at 2 so I was checking my phone literally every minute to see if he had called. By 5 I gave up and decided to go take one of my midterms in the testing center. I figured by the time I was out he would have called. I rushed through my midterm and still no phone call. That’s when angry Ashley started to come out. Why in the world hadn’t he called me! I know family is important, but come on!
We went for a drive and talked for 2 hours that night. We didn’t leave each other’s sight for the next 3 days except for sleep. We visited all of his family and we would find ourselves in awe that we were actually together.
So I went home and tried to occupy myself with facebook and reading but I couldn’t concentrate at all. Kalli came home and asked if he had called and I said no and she was shocked. By this time it was 8. Then there was a knock on the door. I ran to the door thinking it might be him but I was greatly disappointed when I realized it was my FHE brothers. They wanted to stay and chat but I wasn’t having it. I tried to be cordial but I doubt that’s how it came out. They finally left and I went back to my room to check my phone because I had left it for a whole 3 minutes. I sat on my bed and another knock on the door...I went to open it again and couldn’t see anyone standing there. Then I peered around the corner and there was Trenton. All I could think of to say was...”Oh Crap!” He laughed and picked me up and gave me a big hug and from that point on I knew waiting those 2 years was completely worth it.
 |
| February 17, 2011 (Aka...My favorite day ever..so far!) |
Kalli's View:
Fall semester of 2010 we got really into taking walks or drives at night. Not really like us, but it was good all the same. Sometimes we would go together and sometimes we would go by ourselves. One night at like 10:30 or 11:00 we just couldn’t take being in our house anymore and so we decided to take a short walk/run. Ashley put on her shoes and I put on flip-flops. These were no ordinary flip-flops; they were candy corn flip-flops, sent for me for my birthday from my aunt. We crossed the street and started up the sidewalk when Ashley set into a sprint up this hill (since we were a little out of shape that semester neither one of us could really sprint fast). Ashley started cracking jokes; we started laughing; and then had to slow down to a walk. I was a little behind Ashley at this point and so I decided that I wanted to get ahead, in my tired stage I yelled as I passed her, “I am going to pass you in my candy corn flip-flops!” She stated to laugh, I started to laugh, and it was all over by this point. We walked back to our house laughing about stupid things that we had done. By the time we got back we were in a much better mood.
Winter 2011 we counted down the days until Trenton came home from his mission. Unbeknownst to Ashley, I communicated with him through email about how to surprise her. I kept it a secret even though I wanted to yell from the top of my lungs that he was coming to see her. He called me during basketball practice to tell me that he was on his way up. We decided that she would answer the door when he came. When I arrived home from practice he still hadn’t called her and Ashley wasn’t the happiest camper, who can blame her I wouldn’t be either! I had to convince her to stay and not to go on a drive. Then the door bell rang! But it wasn’t him. She was getting more anxious by the minute and I was really hoping that he would show up soon, before I had to tie her down to the bed. While I was in Kenzie’s room the door bell rang and so Kenzie and I got our cameras ready to film. The rest is history!
Ever since Trenton has come home I have focused all my energy on getting all of my homework done during the week so my weekends can be spent worry free with him. He is a great blessing to my life. He is a strong example to his family and everyone around him. I look up to him for all he has been through and for who he is now. He is one of the most caring people I have met to this day. One of the only people that can make me laugh when I am angry or sad and make all of my problems seem like no big deal. I’m not sure how I made it 2 years without that boy but somehow I did. I look forward to a future with him and everything that life has in store for me. Hopefully I can keep this updated from time to time to complete my life history when I am old and gray and can’t walk anymore!
 |
| Ready to go to Conference! |
 |
| Us, being us! |
To be continued....
