Cute!

So yesterday on Groundhogs Day, we celebrated the birth of our dear friend Sarah Clayton Nowell. She is now considered old, 21. And because Hillery is a wonderfully thoughtful friend she planned the THE cutest surprise, lanterns. If any of you have seen Tangled, those kind of lanterns. If you haven't seen it then just think of mini hot air balloons. We went up to first dam on your way to Bear Lake. There is a small pond and a quaint deck over the water.  As we were lighting them Sarah's face was priceless. Much like a child who is partaking in the goodness known as Christmas morning. As the first one was released we all stared into the beautiful night's sky and watched as this serene moment took place, if I could of have seen everyone's face I would assume they all the look much like unto Sarah's, of a smile from ear to ear.
Now not all of the lanterns were as successful as the first one. We lit wax that dangled at the mouth of each balloon they took quite some time. One was lit and was released but dropped and hit the ice. We all assumed that it would be extinguished, but we were wrong. It picked itself up and took off and flew gracefully in the dark sky. Another was lit and released and as it floated up it hit some power lines, causing the wax to fall and thus the balloon, as a whole, plummeted from it celestial ascent. One was released and like an earlier one it hit the ice. This time Hillery ran to retrieve said lantern, she went on the ice. We were all screaming, none more passionately than me, for I did not want my dearest Hillery to fall in the frigid waters. After much coaxing, she departed thence from the ice.
E'en though we were unable to light all of them, the wind was strong and very cold, it was a splendid experience. Hillery has so far done the most serene thing this year I feel should be nominated for the Carol Channing Serenity Moment of the Year Award. All those in favor please manifest.

Thank you Hillery for a Whaley serene moment.

This is not a picture from the event last night. Just a disclaimer.

Spontaneous Snowball Fight

Today was the Sabbath. During church it started snowing. Fab-u-lous! It kept snowing and snowing and just wouldn't stop. Later there was the fireside, which during one speaker he talked about how 10 infants from one family died. And before that he spoke of way sad end of life stories. I was actually more disheartened after the fireside then before. The purpose was to inspire us to do Family History, I left not inspired in the least. Any who we, apartment 4, were in charge of doing ward prayer. We decided to introduce ourselves by picking various Apples to Apples cards for each other. For Jeffrey one of mine was Whoopi Goldberg and mystical. One of his for me was Helen Keller and Mad Cow Disease.  Nathan put cabbage and Rosa Parks for Ben. He in turn put neglected and lemons for Nathan. The ward pretty much thinks we are the bees knees, the holy grail, THE Shiz.
On our way home we ran through the snow and down the hill. We are not sure exactly how it started but we assume Ben started it and then Tina threw one. Who really knows? But all we do know is that a mad chaos ensued. Snow was flying like crazy. People were getting hit in the face and getting whitewashed. It was pretty much the finest thing one could do in church clothes. People started joining in from the 3rd floor and from there about every window and door at this complex was hit by a barrage of flying glistening frozen H2O balls. I cannot fully describe how this was but I will attempt. Imagine you are on a deserted island and a talking, flying monkey comes out of the bushes and says "You my friend have fine taste in horse's shoes." After saying so you both proceed to perform a Viennese Waltz as the native islanders pelt you with a cooked goose and mercury from his planetary alignment speaks these words "there's no place like home, there's no place like home.' While tapping his 2 shiny ruby moons together. That pretty much describes how wonderful that snowball fight was.
Afterwards we had some cake for Cassie's birthday, she's 21 and can go into bars now. It was a splendidly spontaneous Sunday.

Most the people threw a snowball like a Whalesch gentleman.

Corndogs, Bananas & Gummi Bear Brownies

Today was Friday, great evening. My good friends Travis, Josh, Garrett and Alyssa, and new friend Abbie. We started the evening with fighting a weebler in Trav's vehicle. For those of you who don't know what a Weebler is...neither do we but Josh fought it. In his own words "It bit my butt." As we were entering into Trav's 4 wheeled metal trap, he warned us to be careful of the (Wii. Weasel,  or Weebler), it's subject what you heard. Anyway problems, solved.
As we entered the Institute for the snacks at the Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band concert. We found that the free ice cream, the reason we went, would not be served until later. We sat patiently through some fun songs. Then came on The I Love Corn Dogs song. After hearing the greatest love song towards a piece of fake meat stuck on a stick that I ever heard. We found that the ice cream was being served in the foyer. They had bananas out to make them sundaes, but bananas are icky. Anywho, Garrett took the liberty of writing Ben's number on a banana peel to give to a girl. Ben found his prey, a beanied blonde. He approached her and we all dispersed through out the room to partake in this glorious moment. After some walking lessons from me, he was ready.  He went up and said "You're so cute, it's driving me bananas." And he gave her the banana. And he walked away. I take no credit for his exit, not at all what we rehearsed.
We got home and ate the Gummi Bear Brownies Nathan made for us. We played some rounds of Apples to Apples then on to Just Dance 4. During one of the numbers Ben gets a text from...Banana Girl. Nathan said when they get married they should name their children Banana 1 and Banana 2. I hear bells... As we participated in the One Direction song I got a little to into it and hit the light and felt a sharp pain in my eye. Thankfully there was no
glass in my eye. Tonight was so great. I loved it.

Whale you accept this banana?

Hulk Donuts, they need a little more sugar

So today to celebrate the inauguration of President Obama, Human Rights day (aka Martin Luther King Jr. Day) and no school we decided to make donuts ( and yes, I know, I misspelled donuts, its faster and easier to spell it as such). Where else would we do it at...the Perrenouds. Duh with Stink gone to Japan and Fryin off in Columbia, Mom and Dad need some visitors.
Upon my arrival it was discovered that the donuts were made of wheat dough. It was justified by both Hillery and Carrisa, as well as noted as healthy. Which when they realized that we were deep frying and glazing them, they shocking did not qualify as 'healthy food'. The food was then labeled as nothing food, like water. It does no good and no bad. Except the fact that without water in 3 days everybody dies so its not nothing, nice analogy though. It was also noted by Hillery that Dad does not act like a normal diabetic. And we all know how diabetic acts...wait no we don't what does that mean 'he doesn't act like a diabetic'? Any who I am super grateful to Hillery's mother who made the dough because the girls almost killed the yeast. The could have faced charges and considerable probation if mom hadn't of stepped in to save that poor bacteria.
Me and Nathan were in charge of the glaze to which Nathan put WAY to much vanilla. to counter balance we needed sugar, lots of sugar. Every 30 seconds or so, Nathan would say a little more sugar and would pour a little more. It got to the point where we almost used an entire bag of powered sugar. We then separated into smaller cups to place food coloring. I made some interesting blues and greens, and towards the end Ben made a nice yellow. But Nathan made Hulk Green, it almost was like the holographic stuff of the holographic pokemon cards. Shiny and luxurious it taunted me jovially saying "Haha, you know what? Chewing on pencils does give you cancer!"
So for lunch we had donuts.
We came home from Brig to go to our Home Evening and we went out to Angie's to clean the sink. My group ordered oreos, caramel and blueberry jelly. It was good, got teeth freeze once and Nathan got a brain freeze several times and to win Nathan drank the sink dry. We were the champions! To make our victory ever sweeter then the sugar we just ate, I got the coveted bumper sticker that state "I cleaned the sink at Angie's". Life was great. We came back to finish all the homework that we procrastinated to do over the weekend that we obviously did not do. And that is how we celebrated our celebration of Human Rights.

Donuts for Lunch and Ice Cream for dinner, what the Whale were we thinking?

To get an A in Shakespeare there is only 'One Direction' to go

Well this post has been a long time coming. 3 days, wow such a long time. I missed thee blog. Well if the title didn't give it away I have been doing my Shakespeare homework. I had the task of reading many sonnets and picking one to study and analyze. Then I was to write a sonnet based around my sonnet of choice. I choose 23 where the poet can't seem to say how he feels towards his love, so he writes it. I couldn't decided where to start so I thought to myself "Hey Ryan what interest you enough to spend 3 hours studying about to base a sonnet?" The answer came 'One Direction'. To get me inspired I listened to One Direction for a solid hour. (which is nothing new to me) After many readings of their lyrics I came to the conclusion that I could not write is solely on 1D lyrics so I went half 7 of the 14 lines are from their lyrics. I Shakespereized many of their lines. If you can figure out which lines are theirs and which are mine kudos to you.

I cannot hide this even though I try,
'Cause this love is only getting stronger.
E'en though I might seem like the quiet guy,
I may not stay silent any longer.

Of thee in my head I paint a picture.
I see thee every time I close my eyes.
Life without thee would be such a failure,
Though to thee our love might be a surprise.

Just can't help but feel like we belong,
E'en though my love for thee has gone unsaid.
To prove I'm right, I put it into a song
And I keep playin' it inside my head.

Mi Lady even if I wanted to
Some things just seem to good to be true.

I hope you liked it. I did.
I think 'Whale'iam Shakespeare is the best!

Understanding in Jeans

Well today was no normal Sabbath. Not only was it my first Sunday in the Logan YSA 23rd ward, nor did the frigid temps have anything to do with it. As I awoke this morning at 8:34 for 9 o'clock church. I begrudgingly rolled out of bed and knelt down to pray. This was how my prayer went 'Dear Heavenly Father, Oh crap I forgot church pants. Please forgive me. Amen.' I made the classic blunder of not only forgetting church pants but a white shirt, so I wore a red shirt and dark jeans to church. They were at least dark and most importantly clean. So I was giving the Lord my best with what I had.
Church was fine and good. No one mocked that I wore jeans which sadly shocked me, I guess I assume the worst in people which is probably my second worst character trait behind compulsive lying. Anyway so we find our way into sacrament meeting and sit by Travis and my roomies. We get to the sacrament hymn and I had a beautiful experience. Now usually my blogs are totally comedic and are the bright and humorous star of people days but now I would like to share a spiritual moment I had during church and what I would call more or less a revelation or in better words a greater understanding. During my mission to Uruguay many people did not have the desire or in many cases the finance to afford what we typically call Sunday clothes. What I always told people was come in your best and God will understand. If we go to church with the right intent he is pleased not if we go with the right wardrobe. As I sat at church for the first time in my life in jeans and not a white shirt and sang Hymn 169 'As Now We Take the Sacrament'. The words started to take on new meaning,

1. As now we take the sacrament,
Our thoughts are turned to thee,
Thou Son of God, who lived for us,
Then died on Calvary.
We contemplate thy lasting grace,
Thy boundless charity;
To us the gift of life was giv'n
For all eternity.

2. As now our minds review the past,
We know we must repent;
The way to thee is righteousness—
The way thy life was spent.
Forgiveness is a gift from thee
We seek with pure intent.
With hands now pledged to do thy work,
We take the sacrament.

3. As now we praise thy name with song,
The blessings of this day
Will linger in our thankful hearts,
And silently we pray
For courage to accept thy will,
To listen and obey.
We love thee, Lord; our hearts are full.
We'll walk thy chosen way

I realized for the first time that a true disciple of Jesus Christ has nothing to do with how we appear but how we are. God wasn't judging me for my lack of apparel. He was judging on my lack of scripture study or whatever else I lacked this week. He wasn't fixated how I looked to others but to him. It was a very special moment that I had in church today. I don't want everyone to think oh dear Ryan is just using his blog to talk about how great he is and WAY more spiritual he is than everyone else. That would be absurd because everyone already knows that. I just wanted to share that in case you ever wonder how you seem in God's eyes you don't go to a mirror you go and do what he asks. Serve others, obey his commandments, Pray etc. Then you will see how he sees you.

Today we also went home teaching and ate stuffed peppers for lunch and had pizza with Apt 9. They are awesome. Well today was a really good Sabbath, with or without slacks.

I guess I am just one Whale dressed guy.

 

Fear the Beard of Gandalf

Well for those of you who don't know last night at the Utah State vs. San Jose State game there was a beard-out. Everyone wore a beard. It was great our apartment went all out by making our own personalized beards. Jeffrey had a Fu-Manchu crossed bred with a duck tail beard. Ben went aggie blue with an A painted on. Nathan had a four layered black wild west style. And me? I went with a plain beard that made me look like Hannibal Lector when he has the mask on. But that was fun,  I didn't look so bad with my hipster glasses and my U-State hat on. I also made several extras to give to friends.
We headed out to the game and were outside in the snow for just a few minutes, 30 to be exact. We got in and RUSHED pushing to get the best seats. I was shoving and yelling at Hillery and Sarah to get a move on. We got on the 3rd row, YES! So we are just so pumped to cheer on our aggies when I see a news camera interviewing people then he sees us, me and Nathan, and beckons us over. We get over and I tell him that there is a blue beard. He tells me to get him over. So there we are me, Nathan and Ben being interviewed for TV. I said that made my day, little did I know what was coming next.
The game starts and I felt so right to back in the student section. 32 months away from school and 34 months away from an Aggie Basketball game. I sure did miss it.
Halftime comes and there was a spectacle of children jump ropers, they were very good. They start unfolding the famous people to pass out to the student section. I saw the wisest person that ever lived on Middle-Earth, no not Gimli, the other G character, Gandalf the Grey. I claimed him and my life was forever changed. Gandalf already had a beard but I wanted to comb it so I ask the strangers around me for a comb and nice lad on the 4th row lent me his comb. I look around to show my friends in the other parts of the student section my glorious gift. I saw Carissa and Donny afar off and they were well pleased, like a salmon who has just tasted victory in their short and very pointless life.
I gave the comb back but continued to stroke his magnificence. We got towards the end of the game and winning team losing team chant came around. My heart was full, a TV interview, Gandalf and public shaming. As we left I told my mother to record KSL news. She did and told me they showed Ben and Nathan stroking their beards. I was a little bit upset that I wasn't on TV but it guess I couldn't have it all.
I believe that we whale win, I believe that we whale win, I believe that we whale win.