What did You Say Your Name was?

So this post probably won't mean much to people outside my family, but oh well, what can you do?

Apparently when I was a little girl, when I was asked what my name was, I would proudly proclaim "Debbahs!" When people would repeat "Debbah?" (usually a little bit confused and wondering what the heck my parents were thinking when they named me) I would say, "No! Debbahs!" This cycle would repeat for several rounds until one of my parents or sisters would save the poor unsuspecting soul and explain that my name was brenna. When they asked "Brenna?" I would excitedly say, "Yes!"


I don't know what was going on with my little toddler brain, maybe I was dropped on my head or the paint on our walls had lead in it or something, but to me, Debbahs=Brenna. My siblings still to this day call me Debbahs. (Even the ones who weren't born at the time.)


Well, my bro-in-law was in some random place in Maine buying mice to experiment on, and he came across this store.

Being the nice guy he is, he not only got me a picture, but purchased a sucker that proudly declares "Debbahs." I couldn't believe it when I got his package; I think I laughed for a good five minutes, all while being joined in one by one by my family members as they came to see what I was freaking out over.

I have never before had a desire to visit Maine, but now I am very tempted to visit good ol' Bar Harbor. Anyone want to join me? I hear they have great maple ice cream!

-- Debbahs ;)

You Better Belize it...

So my family (minus Erin and Abe :( ) just got back from our annual family vacation. This year's adventure took us to Tobacco Caye, Belize.

Tobacco is a small 5 acre island in the middle of the ocean. It was a fabulous 10 days filled with dives (16 to be exact), snorkeling with a manatee, snorkeling with dolphins, over 1,000 pages of reading (new Twilight book= anticlimatic and a little bit lame), laying around in the hammock and lots of glorious sleep.

Now that I am quite a bit browner, a little bit blonder and used to the unbeatable Carribbean lifestyle, it is time to return to the normal routine.

You Know, I have to wash my hair that night...

So there is this kid in my complex, who, bless his heart, is just super-socially awkward (Family: Think Patrick W-esque). He tries really hard to be "cool," but there is just something about him that gives off the "super weird-- avoid if possible" vibe.

Well, I seem to have caught his eye. From the time I moved in, he made it a point to come and talk to me at every function, ward prayer, church, activities FHE, etc. I always try to be polite, and so I always talk to him, but I quickly realized that he never remembered anything we ever talked about. This seems pretty odd to me, since I have obviously caught his attention enough for him to seek me out at each function. Every conversation (at least once a week since May) we have goes something like this.

B: "Oh hey ----"
----: "Hey, how's it going?
B: "Good. How are things for you?"
....(Awhile later)---"So, are you still in school?"
B: "No, I actually graduated about a year ago"
---: "Oh really?! That's cool. So, where do you work?"
B: "Oh at UW, just down the street.."

The conversation usually continues on about whether or not I like it, usually has a "So which apartment to you live in again?" thrown in there and other things that we talk about EVERYTIME.

Last week, he sat next to me and started the usual conversation with me. After about 35 minutes (no joke) with him staring at my "smartness" aka: not my face, he said, "So, your name is stephanie, right?"

"Ummm.... Not quite." Luckily, it was about this time that Matt came over, grabbed my hand and started to talking to me. The kid left shortly after.

Well, yesterday, he came and sat next to me in Sunday School. After talking to me througout the duration of class, he said, "well, we should hang out before you go out of town." I hate when guys say this, do they really want to hang out or do they want to go out on a date? I hesitantly said ok, but warned him that I was super busy at work and would probably be working late. He then assured me we could go for just a 20 minutes and get ice cream. At this point, I started to panic. He asked me if my number was in the roster, to which i lied and said yes (They STILL haven't put out a new spring/summer directory) and tried to leave. He then said, "well, just in case, can I get your number?"

I was very surprised that he was doing this. I think he is about the only person in the ward who doesn't seem to realize that I am dating someone (who also happens to be in the ward). I know I should have said, "Well, I don't think my bf would like it if I gave you my number," but like i said, I was taken back and panicked, plus, he didn't make it clear if it was a date or not. At that point my other friend came up and said she needed my number. I laughed and said, "Oh wow, everyone wants my number right now," as I jerked my head in the kid's direction hoping she would get the point and rescue me, but she didn't, so then I just said, "Oh man, we have to go to relief society!" and then followed the example of Joseph in Egypt (it was right after Sunday School) and ran away.

I feel kind of bad, but i didn't really know what else to do. I guess it didn't phase the kid (or hurt his feelings) too much though because he came and followed me around at ward prayer that night.

Sang as They Walked and Walked and Walked and Walked and Walked...

I drove to my parents' house today and saw several people walking around dressed as pioneers (and even a handcart of two!). I think it might be fairly safe for me to say that this is probably the only place that people not only own pioneer dresses, aprons and bonnets, but they actually wear them.

Gotta love the big UT! Happy Pioneer Day!!!

PS-- (can you have those on a blog?) Claire and Kristen, do people dress up as pilgrams where you live? What about sail around on old-fashioned boats while wearing their Puritan garb?

The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music

I love playing the piano. I don't remember my life before I played (I learned to read music the same time I learned to read letters). Since I moved away for college, I have experienced serious withdrawals.

Well, I went to my older sister's house the other week and she was excitedly assembling her brand new clavinova (nice digital piano). Apparently one of the local piano stores was going out of business, and they were able to get a stellar deal.

Not wanting to be one-upped my sister (totally kidding!), I was immediately tempted to go and make a purchase of my own. I soon began to think through things though, and my extreme cheapness got to me, and I decided I better not make any rash decisions. (While there was a great sale, it was still a good amount of money for my nonprofit salary.)

After about three weeks, I still had that nagging desire to purchase my piano. Although I am still in a very transitional stage of my life, I wouldn't have a chance to get such a great deal, and who knows how long it would be before I could "tickle the ivories" of my very own piano?

So, I bit the bullet and did it! Sadly, I decided it wasn't worth setting it up when I have to move in a month, so it just sits in its box at my parents' home. I'm really hoping that wherever I end up next month has room for my new baby! Despite only being able to admire its box, I have yet to regret my decision (even though my bank account is quite a bit lighter). Hurray for my piano!

Oh Miley!

So I thought I would let everyone know what I did with my Miley Cyrus tickets. I obviously didn't attend the show since I was at the beach. Instead, I sold them to my sister's father-in-law. I never got around to trying to sell them for the "big bucks," and he kindly took them off my hands the night before I left. I tried to sell them to him at cost, but he generously even paid me a a nice little "bonus."

Surfing USA

So for the 4th of July, I went to the beach in California. We got off to an early start at 4 freakin' AM Wednesday and had smooth sailing until right after we entered California when we were stopped for "road blasting." Now, I've never really heard of blasting the road, but all I know is they shut down the Interstate for reasons we couldn't see/feel/hear. As annoying as being at a complete stop for that long was, it was kind of funny to be walking around on I-15 and playing frisbee in the median. After an hour, people started piling back in their cars, and we once again headed out.

Our next stop was Matt's almond farm. It's funny to me that people still live on farms because its such a foreign concept to me, but it was fun driving around on all the tractors and seeing such a different lifestyles.

Shortly after our tractor tour, we headed off for the final 2 hours of our journey. We arrived at the beach house and immediately headed to the beach. I was really surprised by how different this beach was from any beach I've been to. The water was FREEZING, and I couldn't believe all the waves. It was still great to be at the beach though.

The next morning, we put on our suits and decided to take the boogie boards out. I've never really done this before, but thought, "Hey, how hard can it be?" Boy, did I underestimate the skill of boogie boarders. Let's just say after I got over the initial shock of the what felt like 30 degree water, I didn't exactly "catch any waves." The end of my boogie boarding experience was when I had a major wipe out and somewhere along the trying to come back up for air with the cord wrapping around my neck, broke the boogie board in half. When I realized what I had done, I felt bad for breaking the board and dejectedly walked back to shore. It was then that I was met by shocked faces saying the boards are essentially impossible to break. The boys even decided to try and break the board more, and they were unable to do so. I then told everyone that I just wanted to show them what would happen if you got on my bad side, i think it served as a good warning.

The rest of the weekend was filled with eating, parades, sleeping in the sun and fireworks at the pier.

It was a great weekend and a much needed break from crazy work. I love the beach!