Gameday and Heartbreak

Guess Who's Back... Back Again

On Friday of last week Zach and I decided to go to Tucson a day earlier than originally planned, and it was worth it. This could quite possibly be the last time I go to Tucson for the rest of the semester because there are no more home basketball games #crycrycry... but we all know I will make up some excuse to get back there again someday.

When we arrived "Friday Cookies" had already started with Kenzie, Jenny and Jonathon. Usually Friday cookies (at least last semester) only consisted of cookies and party... this time around there were way more things to snack upon the people brought like licorice, SO MANY McDonald's French Fries (s/o to Boss man bing), pizza, sour patch kids and moooore. 

We played some games, like an awful attempt at a riff off and also Andy's dope charades game (it needs a name but I haven't discovered it yet), but mostly we were all just hanging out and discussing everyones lives.

The party was progressing late into the evening and a few of us (Abby, Kara, Brittany, McKenzie, Zach and myself) were going to line up for College GameDay at 5 the next morning... so I decided I was going to call it an early night. But of course I cannot skip out on a good conversation and an update on my daughter's (Kara) life when she came up to Steph's room to update me. Kara is so awesome and so real and just the greatest girl, I would never choose sleep over her haha. I did still manage to get to sleep before everyone that was sleeping over downstairs though so I call that a success. Big shout out to Steph for letting me sleep in her bed!

So 4:30 rolls around and I wake up, and wake up Zach to start getting ready... and by getting ready I really just mean changing my clothes and brushing my hair and calling it good. Then we went and woke up the sleepy girls downstairs. Abby was already awake and getting ready #queen, Brittany quickly got up to start getting ready, Kenzie took a little bit longer, and Jenny didn't get up at all. We left a little bit late but it was all good because we agreed to stop at Circle K for some breakfast and energy and also to meet up with Kara. Then we got in line in the cold.... we were all kind of miserable but we had good company. At one point we were smart and all shared Kara's blanket in a huddle (but really Kara is the smart one for bringing a blanket in the first place). 

The doors into McKale opened at 7 am, so we were waiting in the cold outside for like an hour and a half. We got to see Maddy Truman a couple times (who gets photo credit for the non selfie picture you will see below) and because she is Arizona's biggest fan and won court side tickets to the game that night she let Zach use her catcard to get into the game, bless that woman's soul. During the time we were out there I was also given a task from Chastity to hand out some posters that the Daily Wildcat made, so that was a good time.

Now enjoy some pictures during our freeze and suffering:

Eventually it was time to start pushing and shoving our way into McKale. We got ourselves good enough seats and then we still had another two hours to wait before the show started. All of us pretty much were knocked out once we got inside (except for Abby and Zach). I wish I had pictures of all of us sleeping, but i unfortunately do not. Instead here is a picture of us awake in our seats:

And a picture of our view:

Once the show started we really weren't close enough to be seen easily on the television, but a cameraman came to our row and Abby and Kara got on TV! That was all I needed out of Gameday.... at least one of us to get on TV. Overall it was a super fun experience, we got free t shirts, Abby got a sign thing, and Kara and Abby are now famous. I am glad I convinced those youngins to join us on this adventure.

Once the show was over we all went back to 1320 and went straaaaaight to sleep.

I woke up only to go to lunch with Chastity... that's love. Her, Zach and I went to mine and Chastity's classic Smashburger. We caught each other up on our lives and all the lives of the Daily Wildcat. The past few times I have gone to Tucson everything has been go go go so I hadn't had time to see my girl Chastity, so I made sure I made time for her this time around, because it had been WAY too long without her.

After lunch Chastity came over and hung out with me for awhile longer before she had to go. 

Eventually Rory and Derrick arrived in Tucson and them, Zach and I walked over to the game an hour and a half before tip off (which is when we usually go) to meet up with Alex and Andrew. Usually when we leave at that time we get into the lower bowl of Zonazoo just fine.... WOW not this time. I should have guessed that since this was the UCLA game it was going to be PACKED.... well I knew it was going to be packed, just maybe not packed that early. We didn't even make it into the normal section... we were in the highest part of zonazoo! I had never sat that high before in McKale. Luckily there is no bad seat in McKale so it didn't ruin the experience... WHAT DID RUIN THE EXPERIENCE IS THAT OUR TEAM WAS UNABLE TO MAKE REBOUNDS IN THE SECOND HALF AND COST US THIS VERY IMPORTANT GAME. Oh it was such a struggle game... well a struggle second half honestly. Luckily brought it to a fairly close game so they couldn't have blown us out... but it was definitely a hard loss. And poor Kadeem Allen... if only he could have made that final three to win us the game on his senior night. It would have been perfect. But all is well, I think that in order for us to make it to the Final Four in March Madness we needed a tough loss to get the fire burning in us. It will happen people, mark my words.

After the game and after staying to watch the Senior Night ceremony for Kadeem Allen we all went back to 1320, Zach and I packed up our stuff and made our way back to Mesa with Rory... if only we could stay in Tucson forever.

Bear Down Zachary

Turns out I may be going to Tucson a little more than I would have expected next semester BECAUSE Zach got in. to UA... WITH A SCHOLARSHIP! I am super psyched for him to have gotten a scholarship as a transfer student, I didn't even know that could be a thing. He still has to wait to hear from BYU (he finds out tomorrow) before he makes his decision, but he is quite smitten with the UA, and so am I haha.

Reactivating Trevor LOL

So my dear friend Trevor works on Sundays and is often unable to attend church because of it. Zach, Rory and I were approached on Sunday because of Trevor to see what we could do to help him. Trevor is actually quite solid besides the fact that he can't make it to church sometimes, so in an effort to "reactivate" him, Zach, Trev and I went to FHE for the first time since I moved into the ward (I needed to go because I am now FHE week 1 coordinator and i figured I should show up the other weeks as well... even though it interferes with my precious Bachelor time). We should have seen it coming but we were all separated for the game we were playing hahah and no one knew who Trev was, I got a kick out of it. I was pleasantly surprised that I actually had fun, especially since we were playing Signs... which is a game that easily stresses me out.

After FHE we all went to Frys because Trev had never been to the "new" one right next to his house, so we gave him a tour. Him and Zach ended up finding this hot sauce that they both love tremendously for only 80 cents. They were both shocked to find it at Frys at all, and then when we went back to Zach's house we discovered that Thane has a GIANT bottle of that hot sauce in the fridge and Zach had NO IDEA, it was quite humorous. 

Dying In Mesa

My fun vacation of not having a full time job is actually killing me now. I am so ready to be working LITERALLY anywhere. Zach started working again which means I can't just spend every minute of everyday with him haha... so I am dying a little bit of boredom here in Mesa... if you couldn't already tell by the length of my blog posts getting shorter and shorter.... I am just hoping and praying for something good to come my way #fingerscrossed.

But with all my free time I decided to be productive on Wednesday and go to the temple to do some initiatories. I have quite a few names that I have found on Family Search that needed them done, so I finally made my way over to the temple to do that. Now I am super prepared whenever I go do an endowment session. 

I also did something for my calling yesterday. Since it is now March I am in charge of the first FHE which is coming up on Monday. Luckily the Bishop and Brandon (my co chair) had already started planning what to do... a bonfire! So the Bishop took Brandon and I out to this vacant lot that he owns right at the south rim of the National Forest by the Superstition Mountains to check out if that would be a good spot for a bonfire. I loved it, and I loved that I didn't have to plan much. So all you meridianers better be excited and come to the FHE on Monday.