Friday, September 23, 2011

Rivalry

The BYU vs U of U is one of the biggest rivalries in the nation! It's true- I heard someone say it on t.v. once. The football game brings out everyone from fair-weather fans to true blue's and babies to grandparents. Most of all though, it brings out some pumped students ready to cheer for their team.
And now that I'm over the heartache of it, I'll post some pictures :)

Old friends, new friends

Red friends, blue friends

It got a little heated, but I'm glad we could have fun at the game together!


Sunday, September 18, 2011

When the Poop Hit the Fan


I was going to post about that awesome BYU-Utah game (the word awesome was a sarcastic one). Lucky for you, now I have something else that will probably be a little more exciting to read.
Most of you know I have kind of been dating two guys. In a very little nutshell, I was dating one guy and writing another on his mission. The missionary came home about a month ago and I have been spending time with both the guys to see what could happen. It wasn't fair but it wasn't dishonest either because they have both known about each other.
Needless to say they don't necessarily like each other.
So today I was just chillin on the couch with G and guess what happened!
R came walking through my door.
Most awkward situation of my life. Hands down.
I introduced them, and it was civil. R showed me some pictures of his weekend trip then left and G was not too happy.
That's my story.
Good times.


Our true character shows when unexpected situations arise (the quote Brent posted on my wall in light of the situation).

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Neature Walk

The cousin date! Here we have the McCleary quad- Megan, Me, Lexi, Adam. Adam had one of his friends take each of us on a little neature walk after watching the football game.

Here's the whole group!

Our picture inside Hogwarts.

You can tell it's an Oak tree because of the way that it is.

Hide your kids, hide your wives, and hide your husbands cuz they raping everybody out here.

Thanks guys for a fun night! and thanks Rick for carrying me up all those stairs!

Monday, September 12, 2011

Timpanogos

This post is way overdue, but I still want to share!

The Saturday before Labor day, I wanted to hike Timp. I have done it before, but not in a few years. My neighbor from home wanted to hike too, so we got a group together and started driving around 3 a.m. There ended up being only 8 of us when a lot more people said they could come. That is ok though, we missed everyone else, but 8 is a great number of people to hike with.

Lynn and his friend Craig came down with my brother Jake. I drove Hillary, Rick, Autumn, and Tyler. It was Autumn's first hike ever! We threw her right in there!

These guys are champs. They carried their skiis all the way up the mountain. They got their skiing in for September, meaning they have skid every month for the last year!

The only toilet on the entire mountain. What a great view.


The greatest driving range.

When we got to the top, we decided to slide down the glacier instead of hike back down the way we came up. Bad idea Madi, bad idea.

This was the detour...

This was the experience...
Don't try it yourself.

Then we took the wrong trail from the glacier and Lynn had to chase us down and redirect us. It was all I could do to backtrack, we were exhausted after that glacier! Rick literally had to push me back up until we could start hiking down again.

With the aspen trail and the glacier, we added an extra 2 hours onto our trip. Timp-1, Madi-0. Next best thing to playing and winning is playing and losing.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Provo Words


Mom: I should have been more honest when I was dating Dad. If I could do it again I would be more honest, not completely honest, just a little more.
Honesty is the best policy... at least that's what I've heard.

Morganne (to Megan): No offense... but sometimes I get annoyed when I'm talking to you.

Nate & Austen:
Zane. He's going to rule a country someday. "Hi I'm Zane, I drive a Harley.".. Way better than "Hi I'm Austen, I drive a Honda civic."
He ran a tight ship. She runs a tight ship also.
We just became your gay friends, huh?

Marie: Amanda! Hey do you have a nick-name or something?

Adam speaks his own language that only Blake understands.

Smiths doesn't sell alcohol on Sundays.

Brother Waite: There is always a wilderness before the Promised Land.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Facilitated Communication

In the early 90's, a psychologist had a breakthrough in the mystery of autism. He held a common belief that people with autism were really intelligent individuals, but prisoners of their bodies and unable to speak or express what was really going on inside. He pioneered a practice called facilitated communication.
In this process, an autistic child was given a keyboard and a mentor (facilitator). The mentor would hold the child's wrist and help them type on their keyboard what they were thinking. Psychologists, communication specialists, and families were so excited to finally understand their children's wants, needs, and feelings.


Thousands of people flocked to facilitated communication seminars, to learn and to be trained. The testimonials were amazing. One mom was so excited to finally have her child express its love for her. Songs were even written about this breakthrough.
Autistic children started attending regular classes with their facilitators and keyboards. They seemed to understand everything, and got most answers right in math, English, science, and other subjects.
Then tables started to turn and expression wasn't always a good thing. Cases of harassment started popping up all over the country. On the keyboards, kids were typing that their parents or teachers were sexually abusive. Restraining orders and punishments took place even though the perpetrators declared themselves innocent.
Finally, someone decided to test facilitated communication. One test was done where facilitators were shown a picture of one thing (e.g. a key) and the autistic child was shown something else (e.g. a shoe). They were told to type the word associated with the picture. Every time, the autistic children typed the word that was associated with the picture the facilitator saw. Tapes were watched of the children typing and researchers noticed that these children were never even looking at the keyboard when they typed. The whole practice was complete bogus.

It was a good idea, and deserved to be tested, it just should not have been put into practice before being tested. It took people by their hearts. The founder still refuses to say he was wrong. He gave people hope and didn't want to let them down.
"People change their beliefs overnight when it grabs them emotionally."
"Stakes were high because mistakes on either side would be devastating. What if it really worked but wasn't put into practice? What if it was put into practice but didn't really work? (which happened.)"
"It is unbelievable how emotions influence people's conclusions."

Thursday, September 1, 2011

The Cutest Video I Ever Did See


I had to share this! I don't follow American Idol really, but I guess he was a contestant whose fiance was in some sort of traumatic accident. Most of you have probably seen this before, but I just found it on someone's facebook. I don't think I could ever get sick of it! Chris Medina- What are Words.