Memory Lane

In case you didn't get the memo, I'm going on a mission! It's actually in the very near future--four days to be exact! AHHHH! I don't really know what got into me, but for some strange reason, I feel the need to blog one final time before I leave.

I'll be the first to admit that lately, I haven't been the most emotionally stable person. At times, anything can put me over the edge: saying goodbye, listening to music with sentimental value, looking at old pictures, you even start me talking about my roommates, you better hope that I'm dehydrated, otherwise it'll be a long time before I'll stop blubbering. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I can't do anything without breaking down, usually I'm very put together, there have just been a few choice times when I've gotten a little emotional.

Anyway, in the preparations to leave, I've had all sorts of opportunities to get nostalgic as I've thought about those golden times in Provo. Here are a few of those.
Halloween 2009: We were: Colonel Sanders, Wendy, Ronald McDonald, and Jared (the Subway guy). We thought we were oh so clever. The best moment of the night was when Mary ran out to the car in that garb claiming that she didn't have a red wig, so she put on a shower cap and pretended to be Ronald, just after he got out of the shower... and that's why she's my best friend.

Halloween 2009: yes, we had 2 costumes. This time we were Bert, Ernie, and Big Bird. Once again the award goes to Miss Mary Mack for her creative combo.

If you are ever making a music video to Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On," these are the sorts of outfits you should wear. That's what we did & let me tell you, it was a big hit. (Note: Mary's face is priceless in this picture)


The posse (minus Matthew Todd Winterton) on our camping trip. Note to reader: We are not fat, we are simply layering due to chilly weather. Note to self: you can never wear too many pairs of socks.


These are the dear boys who put up with us--well not the girl--that's Lanae, but she puts up with a lot too.


My favorite Sammi Sammi Poo Poo Face-- she probably thought she was living with a couple of crazies freshman year with me and Mary as roommates. But look, it's a BYU housing success story!

My favorite Lanae is a performing missionary now in Nauvoo!

Best part of this picture: Mary's dad in the background--Hi there.


Someone had a really brilliant idea for me to look at Lanae, Lanae to look at Mary, and Mary to look at me. But we all know that Mary is not one to conform-no! She decided to try to look at both me and Lanae....at the same time...

Kranky Franks- Home of the Danger Dawg- is a legend. We've been trying to get everyone over there for lunch for ages. Guess what, as you can see from the picture--it finally happened. We were elated--and were probably the most excited group that's ever been there. It was pretty good.


We are all incredibly cool people. I hope that you know that, even though this picture might suggest otherwise, just remember: We are really cool. Okay, that was more just a reassurance for me.

Becky and I decided, on one fateful night to have our own little Mexi-fest. It included: drawing on our own mustaches--no those aren't real, you sicko--eating rice, and hitting a fake pinata- that was tied to the ceiling fan- with an umbrella, in silence, so as to not wake up the couple that was spooning on the couch. May I repeat: we are really cool individuals.

Our flamingo, Froo Froo, was kidnapped, so naturally, we had to dress like secret agents (wearing war paint?) to rescue him. I do believe that our agent names were Suda, Lyla, and Natasha.

Don't be confused, this is not Kevin Richardson, made famous during his time as a Backstreet Boy, this is Mary Vance. Cool huh!

I came across this lovely picture one day and decided that it would be a really good idea to try to imitate it.

Mary did too.
I think it was a fairly successful endeavor.

This is chalk on our faces. Yep.

This one time, we bought two fish. Their names were Donny and Marie. Then Marie died and we buried her in the front of Liberty Square. Then a boy swallowed Donny...whole...alive...gross.

I'm pretty sure that Dave was a gopher in another life. That's all.

In our group of friends, we are real advocates of cardigans. And it shows.

I love these girls. We had so many good times together. I am so sad that things will never really be the same again. Everything is changing. But I guess that that's what goes along with growing up. So we'll see where we all are a year and a half from now when I come home and possibly decide to pick up the old blog. I'm sure that while I'm gone I'll miss lots of their adventures, and probably a couple weddings, and pretty much everyone's graduation. But I am also really excited to do something completely independent of everyone and nearly everything that I know now. I am excited to have my own adventures and grow up to be my own person. We'll see. I'm excited to see who I am in 18 months.

The Countdown is Over!

So i have a little bit of exciting news. Today, I had a day full of ups and downs. The downs included studying all day and then waiting in a 40 minute line only to take a really hard test that I think I did really badly on. The ups, on the other hand far out weigh the downs. I GOT MY MISSION CALL!
Here's the story: I turned my papers in 8 days ago and usually it takes 10 days to get your call, so I wasn't really expecting it this week. It didn't come yesterday, so I didn't want to get my hopes up for it to come today. When I walked up the driveway, I saw something big and white sticking out of the mailbox. When I lifted up the flap and saw that it had come from the office of the first presidency my hands started shaking and I nearly broke down into tears. I went inside & my roommates were all freaking out. We basically screamed for the next 5 min straight-- and I am now a little hoarse. The next hour was filled with making lots and lots of phone calls.
After lots of build up and crazy nerves and prayers in my mind and nearly exploding for an hour, everybody was there & we were ready (let's face it, I had been ready to open it from the second I saw it in the mailbox)
With cell phones in my face and everyone staring at me anxiously, I tore open the letter and pulled out the contents. I won't lie, I didn't wait to read up to the part that said where I was going, I definitely skimmed the letter and saw my assignment and was so shocked. Then I read through the opening. It said:
"Dear Sister Tutt, You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Italy Rome Mission."
I can't believe it. I can't believe just how right it feels, and how when I read it I was surprised, but at peace at the same time. It is just so perfect. I can't wait to be there and to experience every aspect of it-- the people, the place, the church there, the language. I know that it'll be the hardest thing of my life up to this point, but I know that I won't be alone. It's going to be amazing.

COUNTDOWN!

I have decided that I need to do some serious catching up here. I'm afraid that the 6 people who actually read this blog are starting to lose faith in me--not that I have ever been very good about posting, but hey, I figure that now is better than never at all.

Let's see here. Other than the fact that i am a quarter of a year older since my last post, lots of craziness has been going on. This is a countdown of some of the highlights from the past few months(aka the events that i feel like posting about and/or have pictures from).

3. Christmas Around the world. It is a tradition for the BYU International Folk Dance Ensemble to do a big Christmas performance in the Marriot Center every year. This year was the 50th anniversary, so naturally it was quite the production (it was a gala event--that was for you kris). During the week of the show, I think I spent a total of 40 hours in the Marriot Center for the set up, tear down, the 4 shows and 2 dress rehearsals. It was exhausting-- in the best way possible. My favorite thing was the energy and complete chaos that basically defined the backstage scene. This is my favorite memory:

I was in a Ukrainian number towards the end of the show. The costume I was in consisted of 8 separate pieces (two head pieces, tunic, two skirts, vest...you get the idea). After that dance- which was only about 45 seconds long- I had to run through the tunnels around the stage to the dressing room where I had nearly no time to change out of that costume and put my American square dance costume back on and change my hair from a bun to half up for the finale. If you had been in the tunnel right after that dance, you would have seen a deranged looking girl-named Suzanne- sprinting down the hall whilst tearing piece after endless costume piece from her body (for all those who are concerned, i was wearing a leotard underneath, i mean i'm at BYU here and as we all know, modest is hottest). Chaos. Complete insanity. Best times ever.

My incredibly lovely bruising from the lifts in the square dance. There is a reason why those near and dear to me often call me Bruisy Suzie.

(disclaimer: I have had my blood tested multiple times, and no, I don't suffer from any dreadful diseases)

My team. We were in three different dances for the opener: Belgian Flag, Korean Fan, and Israeli. I was in the Israeli dance & got to wear the most comfy costumes ever!

About half of the Kozachok girls. The directors made this group up out of two girls from every team. Definitely the best part about the ensemble are the amazing red boots. I'm pretty sure that in the folk dance world you can do no wrong while wearing the Urainian boots of glory.

Me. Mary. Jessica- she saved my life every time I had to do the impossible costume change by having everything ready for me every time I came careening down the hallway to where she calmly helped me change.

Mary was in the Filipino dance. Basically, she and I are soul mates, even though I'm Ukrainian and she's from the Philippines. Nope, nothing can tear us apart, not even our diverse cultural backgrounds that we adopted for the week. Ok, that was super cheese-bomb.

Yes, we were rocking the sassy country girl costumes. The layers of poofy slip totally took me back to my primary days, all I was missing were the huge bangs to go with the dress.

I am so glad that I've had the opportunity to be involved with the Folk Dance team. It is such a tight knit group that gave me an opportunity to meet some amazing people. However, due to the fact that I'm going on a mission in the spring, and moving up in the Folk Dance program would require me to postpone my leaving, it doesn't really make much sense for me to continue dancing with the team. I'm just really happy that I got to finish my folk dance experience with the Christmas Around the World shows.

2. Dinner Dance- as the closing social to the semester, the Folk Dance club always has a big dinner dance. This year's theme was the 1940's. There were some interesting moments when 1. the zipper on my dress began to malfunction--ya shady, I know. and 2. when a certain kid on the team tried to get me to cha-cha with him--it didn't go over to well & I ended up feeling a little...wierd. Good times in our lives huh?

From the more recent past...

1. MY MISSION PAPERS ARE IN. Yes, just in case you may have misread those capitol letters, I just turned in my mission papers. Let me tell you, it's been an interesting process. There have been a few unexpected--but not entirely negative-- obstacles along the way, including my complete inability to commit to any decision. However, I know for a fact that I am supposed to go and so I am. That's all there is to it. For now, I am simply concentrating on not letting anything--including my own doubts and rationalizations-- get in the way of leaving.

The story behind this picture goes as follows: I was finishing the final part of my paperwork and I realized that I needed to upload a picture of me "dressed and groomed according to missionary standards." I couldn't find any on my computer that looked semi-ok, so I had to take one. I needed to look like a sister missionary so obviously the quickest way to do that is to put on a cardigan--except that I already wear them all the time. It totally helps that my shirt under it looks like its one of those Jody dresses from 1999. So ya here it is.

The real countdown is on. In 2-3 weeks I'll know when/where I'm going. Any guesses as to where I'll be called to go???

best cardio workout ever!

(warning, after rereading what i'd written, i felt that i should put a disclaimer. i'm in a pretty sarcastic mood right now)

these days, i must admit that i walk around campus every other day looking pretty wilted. i mean, what's the point of attempting to look attractive when you pour sweat for three hours spread out during the day? my outfit on mondays, wednesdays, and fridays consists of a tee shirt, my lovely folk dance skirt (which I might add, goes between my legs whenever the slightest wind blows--quite flattering), and black leggings under the skirt, with a limp ponytail to top off the whole look. the truth is that i really don't care anymore. i will admit, however, that it is pretty pathetic that someone in my tap class referred to me as the "girl who always wears the black skirt"--really? come on! it's not like i would wear it all the time if i didn't have to. but that's okay, i suppose, it does have it's advantages. it is really comfy, and i like to imagine people thinking as i walk by, "wow, she must be a dancer, i bet she's really good, otherwise she wouldn't look so hardcore." unfortunately, what's probably running through their minds is, "dang, she wears that every day, does she own anything else?" (i would just like to take this moment to clarify that i do have a fairly normal and extensive wardrobe).

so then, you might ask, why is suz providing this enormous explanation about her often sweaty and haggard appearance? well, unknown to you, my innocent reader, this has been a thinly veiled intro to an ode to one of my more favorite things: FOLK DANCE!!!
umm... this is my team. we are the 10 wilk team (owing to the fact that we meet at 10 in the wilkinson center-- uncanny how that worked out). the group is made up of mostly freshmen and boys straight of their missions. that is code for me feeling incredibly mature and non-awkward compared to everyone else. but it's so great. i love it. we have such a party working on our variety of dances. for our big show, we're doing an isreali dance, a square dance, a korean fan dance, and i'm in a ukrainian dance as well. so i'm super excited for that.

moving along, this past weekend was homecoming at byu. as tradition demanded, the folk dancers (including yours truly) got to dance in it. theoretically, this is how it was supposed to work out: all the teams were supposed to do the bollywood dance, then the wilk teams would do the french canadian dance, then the rb (richards building) teams would do the scottish dance (and this was to repeat until the parade ended). this is how it actually happened: bollywood, bollywood, french canadian, scottish, bollywood, bollywood, bollywood, french canadian... you get the point. in the end, we danced for over an hour straight--while having to pretend that we weren't tired at all. cake, right? wrong!

so that was my workout for the day. it was pretty intense, but the good news is: we got popsicles at the end. it may not sound like it, but i actually had so much fun. my poor partner looked like he was about to die about half way through (i was like: buck up buddy, none of us are ever going to let you live down passing out in the middle of the parade)--it's okay, i didn't really tell him that.

my dear friend evan, managed to take some fairly incriminating pictures of us. i can't complain about mine, i just look extremely excited to be there (this is what i call the "oh hey!" picture)
lanae was really happy to be there. she pasted her jr. miss smile on and was good to go.

and then there's mary. i haven't decided if she was laughing really hard or crying at this point. i think she was just choked up a bit that she would never get to do that dance ever again (after doing it 17 times that morning alone).

such a good morning. there's nothing like a good bit of cardio to get you going- i would know too, this is coming from ms. i-wear-sweaty-clothes-all-the-time-and-must-repulse-the-poor-girls-who-sit-by-me-in-my-class-after-clogging. i love my life, seriously.

some sort of a record

the fact that i am posting after posting earlier this week is epic! here is a little info on our new housing situation. finally, after a ton of delays, we are finally moved into our house all the way. when we moved in, mary and i were delighted to find that the sink in the kitchen above our bedroom was leaking! so, we ended up not being able to move into our room for the first week and a half of school. then, we got tired of waiting for management to replace the carpet pad that's missing in half our room and we moved in anyway. so here is a bit of the end result.

is this not a fantastic contraption?? oh, i made it, i felt really crafty.

due to the fact that i am the only one of my roommates with a sewing machine, the duty of making the curtains fell upon me. so with the help of big lots, i made all the window treatments.

our glorious kitchen. ps: the place mats were a killer find at d.i.- only $.50 each. boom, roasted.

another glorious find at d.i. origionally, mary & i were going to use old records in the decorating, we ended up changing our minds, but had to keep this one because it's such a crack up. now we get to start out each morning saying hello to our dear friend mitch.

my half of the room

mario's side.

just a couple of crazy kids doing what we do best--laughing hysterically at ourselves. i'm really glad that mary & i found each other all those years ago, cuz we are the only people who laugh at ourselves.

the highlight of my week was going with my fiavorite sister whose name is amy to the keith urban concert!!! i just have to say that it was amazing, and i loved it.

amy and i got a picture with the man himself! ok, actually it's just a cardboard cut out of him, but admit it, you did a double take when you saw the picture.

brace yourself, the next two pictures are going to go down in the ugly face hall of fame--let me just say that amy has a very flexible face.

after we took these we were laughing so hard and i felt bad for the poor middle aged & somewhat boring people next to us, becuase i think we were a little too flamboyant for them.

the man himself, not in his card board form...

here's a little proof that we are somewhat normal individuals. it was such a fun concert and i loved it!!!