Thursday, February 28, 2008

*NSYNC Love

Okay it’s confession time. I love *NSYNC! There was a time in my life that you might even dare to say that I was obsessed with them… Let me elaborate. I don’t exactly remember when I fell in love with them, but I distinctly remember my friend Christie bringing over their first CD and listening to it in my basement for the first time and I was jealous I didn’t have my own CD. She went to a concert of theirs that year and invited me. I still remember it was $10. I realized the concert was on my dad’s birthday so I declined and didn’t even bother asking my parents. Only to talk to my mom about it later and have her respond with, “Are you kidding me? You should have gone!” I was really disappointed.


My love grew as my friend Jordan Mecham and I bonded over their music and good looks. My celebrity crush was JC Chasez (From *NSYNC) for the longest time. Hers was actually Josh Hartnett but in order for us to obsess over *NSYNC she has a closed second place crush of Lance Bass (also in *NSYNC). We knew everything about our celebrity crushes and talked about them as if they were our best friends. One year we even threw a birthday part for JC. His birthday is August 8th. We decided to eat Chinese Food because it was JC’s favorite. I didn’t even like Chinese food at this time but I made myself eat the entire meal with chopsticks because I was convinced that’s what he would do if here were there. After lots of practice and thinking of JC every time I got a lot better at using them. This actually turned out quite well because I know how to use chopsticks now, a skill that has impressed many dates. Our Birthday party also consisted of watching Indiana Jones (His favorite trilogy) and playing the *NSYNC backstage pass game that we had to borrow from Jordan’s little sister. Of course the party ended with a sleepover so we could gush over our *NSYNC crushes!

Another fond memory I have is finally obtaining my ever coveted Larger than life *NSYNC poster. Ever since I saw it in the Barnes and Noble window display I wanted it. It was a advertising poster for their new CD and it was huge! You couldn’t buy the posters you just had to call the store and beat all of the other little girls that wanted it to put your name on it. I remember frantically calling so many stores and the one that I finally got it from was in Twin Falls (hours away from where I lived). A family friend had to go pick it up for me. I loved this poster so much when I got it! I hung it on my wall and it stayed there for a long time. When I moved away to college, Bryan moved into my room. I couldn’t bare to let him take it down so for the first year I was at college Bryan had to have a poster at least 5ft x 5ft on his wall of the *NSYNC boys! This is what it looks like. (My favorite, besides JC, is the creepy grandma on the right side)


Well I have only been to one concert of theirs, but it was amazing and I have collected anything *NSYNC I can get my hands on. I have a box at home filled with my treasures. Recently I received the crowning piece to my collection. Thus the reason for my post.

Last week I get a text message from Jon and it says, “Hey you love nsync and stuff right? So do you know all their names?” I responded with “Of course! Names, birthdates, favorite foods, what do you need to know?” The rest of the details of the conversation aren’t too important, what is important is that Joey Fatone (From *NSYNC that recently took second on Dancing with the Stars) was skiing at Wolf Mountain with his wife and daughter! He had rented skis for his daughter from the shop where Jon works. In defense of Jon’s manhood, he didn’t even know who it was until the ticket ladies came and told him. I couldn’t believe it Jon had conversed with one of my adolescent idols. The good news of the story doesn’t stop there. Jon managed to get Joey autograph and surprised me with it! I know you all wanted to see it so here it is…


Joey Fatone wrote my name… and I’m pretty sure it says Love, Joey Fatone. We’re pretty much BFF now. To make it even better it’s on the back of the snow report for that day. So, I’m not obsessed with *NSYNC anymore but I will admit this was a pretty exciting event. I mean come on… it’s Joey Fatone! So thanks Jon for the autograph- you’re the best! I love my life!

Hill Air Force Museum


A few weekends ago I was awakened by a telephone call from my dad and he informed me he was coming to Utah and invited me to lunch! What a fabulous surprise! We ended up spending some time at the Hill Air Force Museum before we went to lunch. My dad loves airplanes and knows so much about them. We walked around and looked at hundreds of planes and he knew them all without looking at the signs and could tell me all about them. There was one that I noticed he was calling it a “Warthog” and the sign called it a “Thunderbolt” I pointed out the difference so my dad was really bugged and asked the guy at the desk what was going on. It turns out all the really pilots and everyone call it a warthog when the technical name is the thunderbolt. Good to know my dad is in the circle of pilots. My dad loves the SR71 here is a picture of him by the engine.

My dad has been telling me about planes since I was little. I have pictures of myself in front of different planes all throughout my childhood. My dad loved to take pictures of us kids on the toilet, sleeping, and in front of planes! It’s always neat when he tells me stuff but there is so much to remember that I don’t remember even 1/10 of what he tells me. A few years ago our family went to “Fantasy of Flight” in Florida on my birthday. We were walking around the gift shop and there was a model airplane of the Spirit of St. Louis (Flown by Charles Lindbergh to complete the first non-stop solo transatlantic flight.) He asked, “So What kind of plane is that Molly?” My dad ALWAYS asks me these questions and I usually have no idea in the whole world what kind it is, and this was the case now. So I looked at the plane and on the tail it said “Ryan” so I said half jokingly, “Oh, it’s definitely a Ryan.” I’ll never forget the look on my dad’s face. It was as if every dream he had ever had in the whole world had come true in that instant when I had correctly identified this plane. That look was shortly followed by a look of total shock. You see my dad was standing on the other side of the plane and couldn’t see the writing on the tail and thus he thought I was the coolest daughter in the world. I was equally as shocked by my correct answer but managed to utilize my years of acting lessons and played it off like I knew what I was talking about. For a solid hour my dad kept going on and on about how he was so impressed and proud. Finally I had to start laughing and tell him the truth. It’s been a family joke ever since. But I will say I have a knack for guessing the names of planes. We had another occurrence at the museum and I guessed the name of this airplane without looking. My dad immediately said, “Oh okay where is that written?” I love my life.
The plane that I guessed the name of.

My dad in a fighter jet.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Valentine's Dance

The institute had its yearly Valentine’s Dance a few weeks ago. It was the same day as Nate and Aubrey’s wedding. Nate and Aubrey are on the folk dance team and they started dating this year and got married February 8th. To make the story even cuter they were both president of the folk dance team once. So, according to tradition the folk dancers all perform the Israeli Wedding Waltz. So the Folk dance team danced at the wedding and then headed off to the dance.


I went with Jon. Here is a picture of us and I'm in my SILVER SEQUIN SHIRT!

I’m totally surprised that I bought it. I actually just tried it on as a joke at the store but then I loved it. Maranda took one of her best friends from high school, Preston. Well all had tons of fun just dancing around and being silly.
Me, Jon, Maranda, Preston

Maranda and Preston


Nikki, me, Jeanette


This is probably my favorite picture from the dance Brook and DJ line dancing.

Everyone dancing in a circle.

Brothers?

I walked around at the dance and took fun pictures of people dancing and captured this gem of Brody.

As I looked at it more it reminded me so much of Jacob and I couldn’t figure out why until I went back and looked at my pictures from last year. I found a picture that was much the same that I had taken of Jacob a year ago at the Valentine's Dance.



Interesting, what are the odds? They must be brothers… Love You Two!

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope you all have a fabulous Valentine’s Day. I hope it was full of love! I love all of you! Isn't this picture of a rose so awesome? My date for the Valentine's dance gave it to me (I'll post pictures from the dance soon). I took this picture and it turned out so good! Anyway, I’d like to tell you all about a special Valentine’s gift I got this year. My Grandma Bean (My dad’s mother) only has one darling grand daughter. Thus, I’ll admit it, she spoils me. Since I’ve been away from home at college, she has sent me care packages every few months for no reason at all except that she’s awesome and she loves me. Most of the packages include hygiene products (soap, razors, gum, etc.) we’ve started joking about them as my “dating help packages” because after receiving one such package I had two dates in one day. I love my life! But the packages also include treats and special knickknacks especially for me.

Since Valentine’s Day is never very eventful for me she never fails to send her single granddaughter a special Valentines package. I received my package a several days ago and have displayed my stuffed animal on the table and started in on eating my treats. To my surprise another package arrived in the mail a few days later. The card read…

Dearest Molly,

After I read your blog sight I felt so sorry for you and your holy socks. If I had known sooner your desperate need for socks, I would have put them in your earlier package.

Love Always,
Grandma Bean

And inside the package was a pair of adorable Valentines Day socks! She’s so funny and cute. I forgot to mention that my Grams put all these packages together in the days before she had to go into surgery, bless her heart. So thanks Grandma, You are the best. I love the socks. I wore them today for Valentines Day! I hope you are recovering well. I love you!


Thank you all for continuing to read my blog even when it’s just about my sock update!

Who is this handsome man?

The title refers back to a story from my childhood. I went through a phase where making videos was simply awesome. We still had the huge video camera that was about 3 times as big as my head and took real size videotape. I didn’t really like being in front of the camera, and with good reason, that was one of Molly’s super ugly stages. Poor girl. But, Bryan was probably about 5 years old and I loved to make him do silly things and videotape him. He was still pretty submissive and would do whatever I told him to including willingly putting a rubber band around his face so it help his nose up like a pig and crawl around snorting. I specifically remember one shot I zoomed in right on his face (I had no concept of how far is “too far” to zoom in) and the shot is right up his rubbed banded nose he is just grinning from ear to ear, fully unaware of the blackmailing potential this tape would have later. So back to the title… In another shot I had him hold up his scrapbook and go through the 8x10 pictures of him and I made him say, “Oh, my! Who IS this Handsome man? Oh, why it’s me!” To hear adorable baby Bry say it is totally priceless. He’s a great actor. If you ever come to Idaho you’ll have to watch the video.

The reason for the post is to showcase that handsome man once again. Here is a picture that my Mothey sent me from the dance he went to on Saturday. Look at that Tux! Doesn’t he look great? He’s growing up so fast, and let me warn you, he’s funny too! (As demonstrated by his idea to take this picture).


I also thought that this picture would be a prime way to introduce to you a little more about the “Mason Family Way” for those of you who are unfortunate enough to only know me and might not fully understand the family yet. This picture is taken by our front door. That’s right, we have “May the force be with you,” the famous quote from Star Wars, on the inside of our front door. And it has blessed many that have crossed that threshold. We think of it as the Mason’s version of “Return With Honor” or “Remember who you are.” It makes for a lot of laughs and unsure looks from first time visitors. I still remember when my Mothey was trying to decide which saying to put up there. She’s not really in to Star Wars herself, but she suggested it and I immediately knew there would be no other quote that would make me as happy as that one would. And I wasn’t let down.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

This one goes out to Brook...

Brook recently left a comment on my blog which reminded me of another funny getting scared moment. I could probably start my own blog with stories about this alone but anyway, here’s the story. So a few weeks ago, the institute had it’s winder leadership conference. It’s an overnight at a hotel in Sherwood Hills with great speakers and awesome learning experiences… and bonding experiences. So most everyone wanted to swim, Brook and I however, decided to pass and take pictures of people jumping into the pool. We might as well have gone swimming when a couple of boys came and hugged us while they were soaking wet. Thanks guys! Anyway, a dance party started later in another area of the hotel. Brook and I were going back to fetch everyone from the pool to come join us. On our way to the pool we were walking down a narrow hallway (like in a normal hotel). Then all of the sudden a boy jumps out of his room and yells “Boo!” Brook gets scared and attempts to hide behind me, what she doesn’t realize is I was not going to be of much help. I was freaking out, screaming, the whole bit. I ended up pretty much football tackling her and we ended up in a pile on the floor. Both of us so entangled I don’t know how we got up. Sorry we didn’t get a picture.

One twist that makes this scare a little bit more intriguing than the usual scare and scream (besides the fact I almost killed Brook) is that as I was falling I distinctly remember hearing myself yell, “I hate you!” at the top of my lungs. As soon as the words came out of my mouth I was astonished. I don’t really love being scared but I had never really hated anyone for scaring me before, and it wasn’t the case now either. I can't really ever remember yelling it at anyone in my entire life. I don’t know why I involuntarily yelled it at the top of my lungs now. As I looked to my attacker I realized, I had no idea who it even was. Neither of us did. He just decided to scare some random girls out of the blue, and boy did he get a surprise. I had screamed "I hate you" at am complete stranger at an institute function. I apologized and tried to explain that I didn’t really hate him and I didn’t know why I had said it. It was to no avail he was laughing too hard.

This post is dedicated to Brook, my most faithful blog reader. I love you so much girlie! For everyone else... Brook is an amazing photographer and a link to her blog is on the side bar so please go check it out, she's all around amazing.

More Snow in Ogden

The snow just doesn’t stop, and I’m loving it. They had to cancel school for Weber State last Friday because the snow was so bad and this last Sunday we had an enormous snowstorm. So I woke up Sunday morning, got myself all dolled up for church and headed out to my car. The snow was coming down in large flakes and was looking absolutely beautiful. I had just barely enough time to get to church for my meeting so I hopped in my Explorer confident that my 4 wheel drive could handle getting out of the drive way without shoveling it. Well the X probably would have been able to make it out had we shoveled the driveway from the last storm, but two storms piled up gave her a run for her money. Still determined to plow my way through the snow, I figured that since the drive way was downhill, I would just keep my speed up and I’d be fine. It worked fine and dandy for quite sometime. Then my car just stopped moving. I couldn’t go back and I couldn’t go forward at all. She was really stuck. With all this snow, this was the first time my 4 wheel dirve had let me down. In fact it's the only time I can ever remember getting stuck in this car. So I resolved that I should go in the house and change and get the shovel. I went to open my door and I couldn’t. The snow was piled higher than the door. I ended up pushing about 5 inches of snow out of the way before I could even get out. So then I ran through thigh deep snow in my skirt and church shoes to my house. To top it all off I even fell in the snow and got covered. It was a little chilly!

Well looking at the pictures you can tell that my car wasn’t going anywhere quickly…


It took Anna and I about 45 minutes to dig it out, but we did it all on our own and my dad would have been so proud of his little girl. Well, maybe not if he had known how deep the snow was that I tried to drive through! It was snowing the entire time and my hair looked like I just got out of the shower and my makeup was all smeared (sorry no picture).

We were laughing the whole time and making the best of it. Also, while we were shoveling Anna yelled from the other side of the car, “Molly, You’ve got to see what’s over here!” I ran around the car to see Anna holding something… Panties! I laughed in shock thinking, “Who in the world would throw their panties on our driveway?” To which she asked, “Well, are they yours?” I was appalled. I wanted to reply with, “Oh yeah, Must have left them out here last time I shoveled the driveway in the buff!” Then I began to look closer. They were my panties!!! What in the world were my panties doing in the driveway? We figured out that in my haste to change my clothes I had thrown on my pants from the night before and I didn’t realize my panties had slipped down into the pant leg. They must have worked their way out while I was digging out my car. I must confess it is a little embarrassing, but I’m glad it was Anna that found them and not the boys that helped us shovel out driveway later in the day!

They had to cancel most of church on Sunday and they sent the boys out to help the girls shovel their driveways. Three boys had showed up to church prepared to dig anyone out that needed it… They wore their snowpants and snowboots through sacrament meeting.

Dan, Troy, and Ben
Me in our walkway

I’m very grateful for the help we had. It was neat to truly spend the Sabbath in the service of our fellow men. Once they helped us with ours we shoveled a few more neighbors driveways and it never ceases to amaze me how good service feels. At least that day, not so much the day afterwards. My back is so sore from having to throw the snow up so high over the snow piles on the edge of the yard! It’s all worth it though went I get to see the amazing beauty all around. I went to school Monday and campus was literally covered with so much snow. I wish I had taken my camera, the glistening white just looks so pure and amazing! What a gift the snow has been.

My next investment…New Socks

So this made me laugh so hard I just had to share it with all of you. I took off my shoes last night and as I began to look at my socks I realized a possible reason why my feet had been cold all day…
I got a good laugh and my roommates had a good time making fun of me. Anna suggested I buy new socks at least every 5 years. I haven’t done laundry in a while and I knew I was getting to the weird socks, but I’m surprised I still have these and even more surprised they didn’t rip to shreds when I put them on. I must have gotten dressed in a hurry that morning, but I swear they didn’t have holes in them then. It was a total shocker to me to reveal such ragged socks at the end of the day. But it must run in the family because this summer on family vacation James removed his shoes to reveal quite the hole. But, I’m pretty sure that hole was there when he put them on! I love you James!

Pizza Rolls

I thought for all of you that enjoy scaring me all the time you might appreciate this story. So one night Jon, Anna and I were hanging out and we decided to make pizza rolls. Jon was in the kitchen and I was in the living room talking to Anna while I was opening the bag of pizza rolls. After I had the bag open, I returned to the kitchen only to be scared by Jon who had decided to jump out at me when I came back in the kitchen. He wasn’t let down by my reaction at all. I screamed bloody murder at the top of my lungs and threw the whole bag of pizza rolls at him (I have pretty good aim because they hit him in the face). Then I proceeded to slam my elbow into the wall before I fell flat on my back. Pizza Rolls went everywhere!!! The laughing afterwards didn’t stop for about 10 minutes. We even took a picture of the Pizza Rolls all over the kitchen. We thought that we cleaned them all up, but there were so many we must have missed some and Maranda was finding random pizza rolls in the kitchen the next day!