A Long Journey

It's here. After 20 months of sleepless nights, studying like crazy, team dramas, countless emails, 163 g-chat status changes, endless interviews, 18 resume edits, 1 half marathon and 2 10K races, trips to Belize, Mexico, Atlanta, and Las Vegas and several visits to Cafe Rio and the Cocoa Bean to make it through..... I finally made it. It was a long journey, but all the pain and suffering was all worth it. I felt right about coming to school and today was the final icing on the cake.



On Saturday we got together with my Manning relatives. It was fun to see my cousins who I hadn't seen for a few years.

Lucky?

When I was 3 I won a giant teddy bear from the dentist office by having my name drawn out of a fish bowl. It was taller than me and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Then when I was 6 we went to Disneyland and I won a golden return ticket with no expiration date. I remember being SO mad that I didn't get an anniversary pin like my dad. But my parents tried to explain to me the value of my prize, I really didn't care because it had no real value to me. I'm sure there were lots of other winning experiences, but none really come to mind. I just remember my parents were always calling me "lucky".

And... I've won again, well 2nd place, which is still really cool. Out of 172 MBAs, I got 2nd place on my March madness brackets. Why luck you might ask? Really cause there was no logic to who I picked, which is why I had Duke winning the overall tournament. I would just like Duke to know how lucky they were to have me pick them. :) What did I win in this situation besides being able to beat 150+ men in a sport they like to think of themselves as experts in? A gourmet dinner for me and a date provided by the person who put together the tournament. Free food that I don't have to cook? I'll take it and consider myself lucky once again. And why am I posting about this? Well.... I will probably never win another March Madness so I'm just going to enjoy the glory while I can.

Moab Half Marathon & 5-mile

This weekend a bunch of MBAs went to Moab to run the half marathon and the 5 mile. I was signed up for the half and then decided that I just didn't feel like training. So I ran the 5 mile with Moroni and Kristan. It was fun and relaxing. :)

This is my favorite picture. Since Luke is so tall, he got quite the angle. I'm there in the blue trying to get Kristan to give me a high five, and Kristan is looking over at me as if to say, "really, you think I'm going to take five extra steps in your direction just to give you a high five when I'm ten feet from the finish line?"The whole MBA gang... well, most of us.

Martha Martha Martha.....

This weekend I decided to go a little Martha Stewart by going to the Relief Society Stake Activity. It was actually really good. We had a great speaker, delicious food, and entertaining classes. I went to a nutrition class and learned that I need to go out in the sun everyday for 15 minutes to get my Vitamin D, my favorite happiness drug. And I got all domestic and made this cute little center piece for our kitchen table.

30 Rock

I don't know if anyone watches 30 Rock, but this quote had me laughing... maybe a little too loud. Kenneth and another girl on the show are pretending to be a couple and to cover up everyone's unspoken question of "why is she with him" he says:

"My wife and I have disparate levels of attractiveness because I'm an inventor"

Oh Kenneth....

Las Vegas Again!

Well, this last weekend I went back to Vegas. Apparently I just couldn't get enough. Our first night we stayed in the Stratosphere, which was nice cause we got to go up to the top for free. :) The view was fantastic at night.

It was nice during the day too!Arvin and Jaron got an unlimited ride pass. After riding 2 of the rides Jaron decided he was done. You can see his excitement in this picture :)So, Arvin tried out his negotiation skills and got them to let Christina on the ride in place of Jaron.
Then we switched to the other side of the strip and stayed at the MGM Grand. Our room was fabulous, and my favorite part was when we got to lay out by the pool in the warm weather. Friday night, Christina and Arvin went to see the Blue Man group, so I hung out with the little monkeys. We went to M&M World, pretty much a glorified gift shop on 4 floors. They had like 30 something different colors so we each picked out 3. Malika then decided that she needed to carry the M&M bag around the rest of the night. I thought it seemed a little heavy for a little 2 year old, but she sure loves her bags. :)
Then we went to the Coca-Cola place where we tried out 8 different kinds of floats. Yum!
On Saturday, we went to the USA Sevens Rugby Tournament. One of the first games was Fiji vs. US. I of course was cheering for the US while the Narayans went for Fiji. Fiji won of course, but only by 2 points. The final score 14-12.

On Sunday we went to see the grounds of the Vegas temple.

Phantom of the Opera

This weekend my friends and I decided to take a trip to Vegas. We bought our plane tickets back in October when we were so ready for the semester to be over (only $25 each way) :). We flew down Friday morning, leaving at 6am. We toured the strip, took naps, and went to see Phantom of the Opera in the evening. My friend Annetta from college came too! It was a fantastic show, and afterwards we ran into Elder Holland, we waited for him at the top of the escalator and he shook all of our hands (I have a feeling he's used to people stopping him like that).

Then on Saturday we played some more and headed to the airport at about 3pm to fly back. It was a very short trip, but fun!