Mascots.

Fox Sports decided to rank the top 10 worst college mascots and the top 10 best college mascots. I thought it made sense. Lets see if you agree.

Seattle.

I got to go to Seattle this weekend. Quickest trip of my life. Drive home Friday, continue to Seattle.... wow, really? LONG DRIVE. Get to Seattle, talk to Sean, sneak a peep at baby Noah (precious, as my dad would say "so little"), and go to bed. Seattle. I love it. Really. I don't care that it was raining nearly the entire trip. I really enjoyed it there. I got to see so much cool stuff. The Locks, Experience Music Project, Pike's Market, and other great things. We went to Ivar's for some fish and chips and clam chowder out by the water. It was really yummy, and fun to be outside seeing all the seagulls come eat the extra food. Pike's market was cool because of the beautiful flowers, people throwing fishes, so many random people playing instruments on the side of the street (including a saw), protesters, and just fun things to buy. Experience Music Project was really cool. It was neat to read about how music has developed in Seattle, see the different items from bands that developed in that area, look at the history of the electric guitar, and see Jimi Hendrix's history. Did you know the first rapper in Seattle was Sir Mix-a-lot... baby got back. Okay, I thought that was interesting. They also had this AWESOME guitar sculpture. Favorite part of that little adventure was the sound lab. You could learn how to play all these different instuments and then there was a "jam room" where you could go record stuff. Sean, Eric, and I went in there and rotated instruments, the best song we recorded? "Part of Your World" from Little Mermaid, Sean on bass and vocals, Eric on the drums, and me on the piano. We also made some delicious carmel popcorn and Cincinnati chili, A+. But really, the best part of the entire trip I got to hold my precious nephew. Noah Ervin Edmunds. He is so cute and just a sleeper. The reason we went up was for his baby blessing. His blessing was great, and it was nice to be in Seattle with my family.

Dear Madness,

Well. I first want to start of by saying to all those who thought my bracket was wack... look who is in the final four. VILLANOVA. Not to brag or anything, but I am feeling pretty good about that. Okay. Moving on. I was so lucky to get to go to the first rounds of the NCAA games in Boise. My dad is on the Idaho Board of Education, and since they were held at BSU, he got some tickets. My seat was INCREDIBLE! Center court, 6 rows up. Really, doesn't get much better. I got to see two sessions, four games in total of the first round. We were going to go back for the second round, but decided we should probably just relax.

The games I got to see are:

• Utah State vs. Marquette
• Missouri vs. Cornell
• Xavier vs. Portland
• FSU vs. Wisconsin

It was so awesome. I loved it.

Clubs.

Well. A few weeks ago BYUSA Clubs went on a nice little retreat. Drive to Salt Lake, Tucanos, shopping excursion, water fountain, U2 light show, lots of cops, chocolate things... just to name the key points of this trip. I am so lucky to work in the clubs area with these great people. I have learned a lot from them, and made friends that will last forever. Let me show you a few of them and the reasons why I love them so much...

heat.

I just really want to share this with everyone because I am so proud of myself. I usually wake up, shower, blow dry my hair, straighten it. EVERY DAY. So my hair gets lots and lots of heat damage. And I have been saying to myself, "Deidre, your hair is frizzled.." and it makes me sad. So this last week I have been going to the gym every night, coming home, showering, putting some gel in my hair, and wearing it curly. So I haven't used heat on my hair all week. And I am excited for when I do it straight again to see if it looks healthier! Ha. Thank you for listening to my pointless story.

Honor.

I work at BYU Alumni, and today my boss asked me to start looking out for "inspiring videos" that we could compile on one disc for the different Alumni Chapters to watch in meetings and things. I watched there old disc and there was one video that I loved, so I wanted to share it, the message is good.

bridals.

I was asked to take Miss Cortnee Lavigne's bridals. Here are a few.

Top Song.

My friend tagged me in a note, and I thought it was pretty cool! You can find out what the top song was on any... birthday, anniversary, you name it!

Top song on October 6, 1988 (the day I was born): "Love Bites" by Def Leppard

What's yours?

sidewalk chalk.

What an art.

ya know.

I am not eating candy until after the pageant. I am only sad because of these treats.

Miss Falls Valley.

I've done it again. I signed up for another pageant. Miss Falls Valley is a mini pageant to be held on April 3, 2009. I know what you people that know my pageant history may be thinking. Things like:

"Deidre, you are crazy."
---
"Remember how last time you decided you were done with pageants? And now you are doing another. I don't understand..."
---
"I think Deidre might be addicted to pageants!"
---
[insert your own quote here]

Well. The truth is. You are right. I am crazy. I did say I was done. But I am addicted, so I had to do another. As for your other comments, let me know... and I will respond accordingly. I feel really good about this one, and I know I have a lot of support from people around me (inside and outside of the pageant bubble). Here is my pageant to do list:

• Shorten talent. ( How do they expect people to perform a whole climatic talent in 90 seconds?)
• Pick a platform.
• Get skinny and toned. (riiiiiight..... this one is always a work in progress)
• Decide which dress and swimsuit.
• Figure out how to do pageant hair since I chopped it.

If you can somehow help with my pageant checklist. Let me know. There is a possibility of four crowns to be given out at this pageant, and whoever gets one will compete at Miss Idaho in June. I really hope I make it there. In all honesty, I want to win. I would love to be that role model, I would love to be that support to girls who have ever questioned anything. I want to be a woman that promotes service and shows there are so many opportunities out there. Some people will listen to me and look at my example when I am just an "average girl", but being crowned would give me that voice. It would give me a bigger opportunity to promote what I am truly passionate for. That is why I am competing again, and that is why I hope to continue on to Miss Idaho.

For those of you who don't know my pageant history, let me give you a brief overview:

July 2007- Miss Magic Valley. Platform: Teaching Respect to Youth. Talent: Song/Dance. Everything went really well. I got lots of compliments, but I found out double talents are not the best choice (judges don't love them.)

July 2008- Miss Magic Valley. Platform: Young Voter Awareness. Talent: Tap Dance. In the preliminaries I won talent and interview. I scored lower in swimsuit, which is my weakest point. I was the 1st runner up to Miss Jessica Starley.

October 2008- Miss Tri Counties. Platform: Young Voter Awareness. Talent: Tap Dance. Really, not so into it. I was a little disconnected. I scored high in talent and interview. But they only announced the top three, needless to say. I was not one.

Now it is time to pick it up, and wow everyone at Miss Falls Valley.
Pray for me.

Dear March Madness,

Well. As we all know (if we watch sports) it is March, so that means the basketball brackets come out and people begin to talk about how "their team" is going to win. Today, I was invited to three different bracket competitions. One was with BYUSA, one comes from an "in-house" BYU Alumni competition, and one was a friendly offer from a co-worker to join his yahoo bracket competition.

I have gone through and re-done and re-done my bracket since the teams were announced Sunday, and I finally decided. I have my bracket finished. Now every bracket I make will reflect the ones I handed in today.

Sorry to say, BYU is not getting past the second round, it happens though, right? My final four is:

1. Wake Forest
2. Connecticut
3. Villanova
4. Oklahoma

Judge me if you want, but that is what I was feeling when I was filling out my final bracket. The championship is: Wake Forest vs. Villanova. Winner? Villanova. Tijs (my co-worker) said to that, "I am just not feeling like it is Villanova's year." We shall see Tijs, we shall see.

I'm just watching out for the underdog. But ya know... If you have any insight, let me know. If you want to let me join one more pool, let me know. If you want to join the BYUSA pool, click here.

edited.

dressing up.

Mallory and I decided to have roommate picture night.

These are a few that actually turned out of the 200 we took.

pictures.

I got the honor of taking senior pictures for Miss Kaity Pearl. Here are some of my favorites!

inspiration.

Okay, well... I just posted how I didn't have anything to post. I now have received some inspiration (you know who you are).

I just haven't really taken the time to thank everyone for all they do for me. This semester has been crazy and I have just been go go go go go and up and down and happy and sad and everything in between. Really, I sound almost bi-polar. But I promise, I'm not.

This post is more about just thanking everything who has taken the time to talk to me about anything and everything. A really thought provoking conversation now and then has opened my eyes to everything around me. I have had so many opportunities and I am so lucky for the people in my life. I just hope they all realize how thankful I am for them and all they do.

So thank you for your friendship.

Thank you for taking the time to care.
Thank you for offering to help with my laundry.
Thank you for making me lunch.
Thank you for calling just to check on me.
Thank you for your text messages to let me know you thought about me.
Thank you for asking about my life.
Thank you for wondering how my day was.
Thank you for offering to go with me so I wouldn't have to be alone.
Thank you for wanting to anything and everything so I could be better.
Thank you for being my friend and my family.

something needs to happen.

I am in the blogging mood.

Everyday after I check my e-mail, I go to my blog so I can write something and then... imagine crickets. Really. I have nothing to write about. I open and close new posts each time being like "OH YEAH!!! I can write about this because it was so funny when it happened and everyone will love to hear about it." But then I start typing and I am like, "Really Deidre?... No one wants to hear that story." So I delete it and then sit around thinking about what else went on that I could write about.

Obviously, after sitting around for a few days I have thought of the campaign. Worth while, right? Right. But besides that, my life is like an old dusty shelf. And all I can think of to write is that I have nothing to write. Congratulations everyone, you now get to read about how boring my life has turned.

winning.

Well, here are some photos from the final day of campaigning with James and Leo.

James, showing his support.

Outside campaigning in the WIND.

All the signs I made. I feel like they are pretty good, yeah?

It was so great to be a part of the campaigning experience. Fun and exhausting. Really, I have never been so tired. On Friday it was announced that the 2009-2010 BYUSA Presidency would be let by Elise May and Landon Hansen. I think they will do a great job. You can read all about it here.

Following all the announcement and everything there was a post campaign party for all the teams and everyone who wanted to come at Alpine Village. The Broken Hearted Rounds performed and we celebrated elections and Nat Haward's birthday. Good times? I think so.

elections.

This week has been really crazy.

Elections for the new BYUSA President and Executive Vice President have been going on all week. Active campaigning started early early Monday morning. I have been the campaign manager for James and Leo's team. It went really well. We had quite a few volunteers. A lot of blue. Met handfuls of new people. And we were pegged as the least annoying campaign, which I was happy about.

After campaigning Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from 7:30 until 5 on campus and then knocking doors until about 10:30 in different complexes, the preliminaries ended. My team's journey ended there with 14% of the votes.

The top two teams have been campaigning now. Team orange, Brooke and Andrew (ending with 30% of the votes) and team red, Elise and Landon (ending with 25% of the votes). They are both working hard for votes, and you can tell they both want it and are ready to work and do their job.

Today we will find out who wins!

this kid's got jokes.

I think most people will enjoy THIS.