Black and White and Red in the face

My brother is marrying a delightful girl and I was sooo excited to actually be invited to the wedding! I like their photo it's delightful. I think this is the one they chose...

Too bad it's in black and white because in the color one Joshua looks like someone kicked in in the face because he has a red mark right down the center of his face. Bahaha! He looks like this guy from Home Alone, sans spider.

I'm sure it was Mallory who kicked him in the face. She is going to be a great sister-in-law for sure!

Clap Your Hands

I feel good on my inside and it is showing on my outside.

- I've been to the temple twice in the last month to do baptisms for the dead. SO NICE!!!

- I got promoted at work..yay for benefits.

- I get to drag my little brother around with me to the YSA activities. I love having him with me.

- I have really good friends that I can be completely honest with.

- I basically have the best family in the world. Try to tell me otherwise and I'll punch your face.

- A lot of my family is working out and it makes me happy...I'm not so much, but I'm still happy that I can go with them when I'm not lazy and have family fun time.

- A lot of my resolutions are being completed.

- I'm slowly figuring life out.

- My patience has being paying off.

- I truly do have the best family in the world and I love that they are stuck with me forever!

I am happy and I know it and my face is showing it!

Do I look weird?

This commercial makes me laugh EVERY time I see it!!!

I had to at least try to be as awesome as this guy. You should too and then share it with me.

Also, I dyed my hair. K, thanks, bye.

24 is a Bore

I've been 24 for a few weeks and already this year of my life is bumming me out. I just don't think I have anything that will top the excitement of last year.

Let's take a look back at a few of the awesome things I did last year...

* I performed in Cinderella. Not only was I singing and dancing (waltzing!), but I got to do puppetry and dress up like a bunny footman!!! SOOO MUCH FUN!!!

* I wrote a thesis. What, what?!? That's right, I wrote a thesis and it was printed on 100% cotton paper and bound with my name on the spine. It took me forever researching and writing. I even pulled a few all-nighters to make it all wonderful and delightful. So now you can go to California State University, San Bernardino's library and find a book written by me. Oh yeah, it's called 'Influences of Morality in Theatre for Children'. Yeah, pretty awesome.

* I went to the Oregon Shakespeare festival and saw 6 shows. My absolute favorite was Julius Caesar. It was the best! I loved the entire experience. Also, the actors weren't too bad to look at either...


* I did an internship where I Assistant Directed/Stage Managed the Jurupa Stake's production of The Trail of Dreams. If you haven't heard of it, or if you weren't tricked into coming by me it is a totally awesome pioneer musical written by James Arrington, Marvin Payne, and Steven Kapp Perry. Totally legit. We were able to make a recording of it so if you ever want to see it...trust me, it's worth it.

* I GRADUATED!!! What is awesomer than that? I am now Master Merle. Ah yeah. I graduated from CSUSB with a Master of Arts in Theatre Studies: Theatre for Young Audiences. Holy mackerel. Now what? (I dunno.)

* My sister and I did a Survivor 5k Mud Run! It was the funnest thing ever. When I get all of the pictures I'll try to do a post with them. They are pretty humorous. This mud run was dirty, exhausting and SO MUCH FUN!!! When we crossed the finish line, in 1 hour and 9 minutes thank you very much, I was ready to sign up again. We climbed, swam, ran, slid, crawled and more through all of the obstacles and it was so great.


So yeah, those are some pretty big and amazing things that went down and all I've done so far, at the age of 24, is learn how to crochet (I'm pretty good at it too. I hope everyone wants crocheted doo-dads for Christmas). I sound like I went from 23 to 83. Yuck. I need to go skydiving or something. Any suggestions in making this a year of awesomeness?

Tangled

I have not had my hair cut (except for a few trims) for about 3 years. It was time. So I talked to one of my friends at work about cutting it all off and donating it to locks of love. The next day (today) I went over to her house and it all went down. I was/am so excited about my new short hair. I loved my long hair, but I got tired of it and in a couple of years I'll have it back again so no big deal.

In all we cut off and are donating 13 inches. HOLY MACKEREL!!!

Locks of Love,
Merle

Merle meets Templeton

Little Miss Merle Girl
Got in the shower
To wash all her cares away.
She soon saw a spider
Way up in the corner
And said Templeton would be his name.

Little Templeton was daring
And certainly brave
But had little sense in his brains.
He came down to see Merle
Against all her warnings
And soon was hit be some sprays.

Little Miss Merle Girl
Wept for her new friend
Because he was stuck to the wall.
He was now octopalegic
And she couldn't help him
She would be late to work at the mall.

Little Miss Merle Girl
Went to the bathroom
To check on her friend in the shower.
He wasn't there anymore
But crawled up beside her
Presenting her with a flower.

"Little Templeton Sir,
How are you here?
I saw you held wet to that wall."
"Little Miss Merle Girl,
Evaporation dear.
Got me back on eight, no time at all."

(I'm now friends with a spider named Templeton!)

That Squirrel Called Merle

So this past quarter for school I have been super busy and it's mostly because I was in the show Cinderella, which I loved! I had such a good time playing dress up, dancing and making so many friends. Seriously, I love to waltz. It's kind of the best. Why did it ever go out of style? Sad.

Anyways, since I was part of the ensemble I got to run around doing different roles and having fun. All of my characters were different levels of cluelessness, which is always quite amusing. Also, since I had experience during puppetry I got to manipulate the cutest squirrel ever put together at the beginning of the show and work the horse that pulled Cinderella in the carriage to the ball. Since I got such an amazing job I also got to dress up as a Rabbit/Footman. Which is basically all this post is about. I loved being a bunny! The outfit, the dance, the extra arm (so people thought my hand was behind my back instead of in the horse's head, shhh...) I loved it all. Except for my upper lip being worn and torn by the whiskers. That wasn't as fun, but it got better and wasn't as bad towards the end of the run. Anywho...I wish everyone could have seen it, but here is the cutest picture I've taken in a while... (maybe ever?)