Bad Girlfriend??

My roommates don't seem to think that I'm the best missionary girlfriend ever, and I don't see why. He's been gone a whole week and two days, and I've only been on like 6 dates. I lost count a little while ago. I think 6. But hey...that's less than a date for every day he's been gone so I think I'm doing pretty good!! :) My roommates are pretty jealous though, that not only do I have a boyfriend but I get more dates then all of them combined. The ones who are engaged don't really count, which is half the apartment (yup...3/6), but the other two are jealous. To be honest, they are all driving me insane - right now I'm so annoyed with boys that I don't even want to look at one. Why can't they EVER be happy just being friends?

I went to a western themed dance last night, and it was fun but it was slightly awkward because I didn't really know many people at all, and there was like one slow song, which was really disappointing because I like slow dancing better than the awkward dancing where you just stand in awkward little circles with your awkward little friends and make awkward little dance moves that don't make any sense. But whatever. I'm over it. I suppose it's better than dancing with a short guy with bad breath and B.O. that asks you what color your toothbrush is. That actually happened to me once...no joke. I did ride the mechanical bull (I think maybe they should call it the maniacal bull), and totally owned it. I don't know exactly how long I was on there but I think it was more than 8 seconds. So I owned it. I borrowed my home teacher's cowboy hat because he wouldn't let me get on the bull until I had one, so I yelled and waved it in the air while I was on the thing. It was pretty exciting, I wish I had a video to put on here, but you'll just have to imagine it I guess because I don't have one. My belt buckle is pretty sweet, no? We made them with cardboard and aluminum foil.

Oh and I am so excited!! I don't know for sure if this is going to work out or not, but I'm excited anyway. I met this guy at the dance that has a band, but they need a bass player...enough said. I hope it works out because I want to do it so bad. But I suppose if it doesn't, I'll get over it. Eventually. I'm pretty optimistic about it, because bass players are really hard to find and I'm going to be around all summer. So we'll see. :)

Elder LaDuke

Well, my wonderful, amazing, handsome boyfriend is officially gone in England to be a missionary. He left yesterday morning at around 11:00am and got into Preston sometime around 8:00am their time. At least he was supposed to, I really wish that he could at least call his family to let them know he made it, and they could tell me...it would just be nice to know. But rules will be rules and you really just have to trust the Lord with something like that. Not to mention that if he didn't make it, we would probably know very quickly. It's hard because I'm so used to having constant instant gratification when it came to knowing where he was and how he was doing, and now I have to wait for a letter. But hey, at least it's England and not Tonga or something! Letters only take about a week. I don't know how long packages take, but I don't think he'll get many from me because a small one that's more than 5 pounds or so is about $50. Ouch!! I've heard, though, that pictures are something that missionaries absolutely love, so I will have to stick to that most of the time. Anyway, I am hanging in there!

His MTC address is as follows (I sure hope I have it right):

Preston England MTC
Nicholas Allan LaDuke
England Leeds Mission
Temple Way, Hartwood Green
Chorley, Lancashire
PR6 7EQ
United Kingdom

Fun Times in Happy Valley

So, Mother...you think that what David puts in his hair is bad. Take a look at this! That blue glop is nasty, thick, gross gel. This is what we use to put in pin curls. Yuck. We use this stuff for practicing everything - curls, color, highlights, etc. I'm starting to really kind of dislike it...

So I think that something from my dad rubbed off on me. Whenever I do the dishes here, I have to also wipe the counters, clean the back splash, scrub the stove, sweep the floor, take out the garbage...just doing the dishes is never enough. :P The first week that I was here, my roommates came home and found me washing out our garbage can. They were kind of confused and said I must get really bored being home alone all day. The truth was that when I took out the garbage, it sickened me to see the mold and mildew and old food all stuck to it, and the smell... :X So of course, the knowledgeable thing to do was to wash it, right? I guess my roommates just aren't as domesticated as I am, or something. ;) I think it's kind of funny too how some of them absolutely hate doing the dishes, especially if the dishes aren't theirs. But they way I look at it, is if there are dishes that need to be washed, then they should be done. I honestly think it is worth it to spend 15-20 minutes cleaning things that aren't mine in order to have a clean apartment. It's also actually really relaxing for me. But that's just me. Another thing that I think is kind of amusing (sometimes) is how everyone leaves lights on. It's not cool to pay the bill for our electricity, but I can't help laughing when I come home, and I see the kitchen light, dining room light and living room light all on with no one in any of those rooms. I turn them all off and go into my room. I come out 10 minutes later, and they are ALL back on, yet again with no one there. ??? For real, people...is it that hard to keep the lights off?
P.S. My parents probably wonder why I didn't show these traits when I lived at home...

Hot Tubbing!!

No polar bear swim this time, but maybe close enough. Kimberly and I decided that since it was cold and snowing, we should definitely go in the hot tub at her apartment. We look pretty goofy in that picture...but oh well. That's okay. We made that sweet snow chicken and devil owl that you see there. There were a couple of other people in the hot tub, and I think they thought we were a little bit psycho and laughing way too hard at them, but that's okay too.
We kept getting too hot in the water, so we did the most logical thing we could think
of - go lie in the snow* of course.
I look kind of like a ghost in this picture and I'm not totally sure how that works, but it's kinda cool. The last picture...we just wanted to show how cool we looked walking back to her apartment from the pool, with our towels and winter coats. Yay for year-round hot tubs!!! :)


* Notice for any concerned parents, grandparents, or other relatives:

We were only in the snow for mere seconds, just barely long enough to take the picture. No frostbite.

Saturday

Last night, I went with Andy, Steph and her cousin Tim to eat and then go to a BYU basketball game. I wasn't really sure if it was going to be fun or not, because I have to say that I am not a huge fan of sports. I was slightly afraid of going and being bored out of my mind and wishing I hadn't gone. But...I figured I should be social and go anyway even though it's not necessarily my idea of a fun night. Most of my Saturday nights are spent at my apartment, so they're not very exciting. To say the least. But contrary to what I was sort of expecting, I had a lot of fun. We went to the Pita Pit, which was delicious of course, and then to the game. BYU won 47-54, but the last few minutes were kind of intense. We were tied 45-45 with only a minute and a half left in the game, so yeah...it was close. Afterward we went back to Andy and Steph's apartment with some of her other relatives and friends and ate ice cream with cinnamon rolls. It makes me laugh how they always invite so many people over to their tiny little apartment, it's so packed all the time. It's a lot of fun

though. Lois and Jeff's little boy Reed always entertains us...last week everyone was making him spin around in circles till he couldn't even stand up he was so dizzy, but he loved it. He also loves to dance. He danced during most of the game yesterday, Steph could hardly keep him from falling over. Then last night he was drinking out of a straw, but he kept dipping the straw in and then taking it out and licking it, getting just a drip or two at a time. Another thing he loves to do is try on everyone's shoes. It is so funny. This picture is of me and my "date", Tim. Andy and Steph wanted to find someone to come along with us and pay for my food. So Tim somewhat eagerly agreed when Steph suggested he come. I called him my "date" but Steph says he was my date, no quotes. However, I disagree with her because he knew he was literally being used for me to
get free food, so he was definitely just my "date". :P Anyhow...it was fun.

Nick, this last picture is for you!!! :D

Enough curlers?

So yesterday, we had to roll perms. It took us (my class) about 3 or 4 hours to finish each of our heads, which was a little bit long but not too bad. I thought it was awful, but I didn't know what was coming today. We had to put in about 4-5 times more curlers than yesterday. It took the whole 7 hours for us to finish this kind.

My fingers were tingling for quite a while after I got home today, I must say that perms are not my favorite thing to do (same as about 98% of the other girls at school).

Second week of School

I'm getting a little bit more used to school now, and expecting it to be mind-numbing so it's not so bad. We did french twists today and I have to say mine was pretty sweet. :) It's pretty easy to do, but we have to do so much back-combing in it, I definitely wouldn't want to be the one taking it out...ouch. We literally make a huge rat nest in the back on the bottom and then just lightly brush the outside to make it look like it's all smooth.



I can't really decide if this dog looks vicious or not. It makes me laugh, because he acts like he wants to kill you and tear you apart into a million pieces, and yet, that tail...
He doesn't even seem so mean in the video, but when I walk by, it really kind of scares me because he barks SO loud. I don't think I've ever heard a dog bark so loud before in my life.

Sunday

We had stake conference yesterday, and it was a little different than I'm used to because our church building has two chapels. So it's set up with one chapel facing east (I think it's east :P), the gym behind it, and then another chapel facing west. The entire thing from chapel to chapel was packed, and there were three screens that they used to project the speaker so everyone could see. It was pretty intense.

After conference, Andy came to pick me up and bring me to his and Steph's place for dinner. They're pretty good about taking care of me, they feed me a lot on Sundays. Partly so they can keep me past 9:00 so I can skip ward prayer, but I'd like to think they don't mind having me around every now and then. We also had Brittany, Roger, Jeff, Lois, Reed and the Leckies over, so as it usually is when I'm over there, it was a full house. We went for a walk to the temple after we ate, and we took some pretty sweet pictures!

Starting our walk

The Provo Temple