CrAzY EiGhTs

8 TV shows I enjoy watching when I have time and would like to chill:

Not a very good representation I'm sure... I haven't been really into TV since before my mission. 1. Gilmore Girls
2. The Office
3. Dharma and Greg
4. Basically any family based reality show on TLC when I'm at someone's house that has cable
5. Jeapordy
6. Animaniacs
7. Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends
8. The Amazing Race

8 things that happened yesterday:
1. Washed my hair (no - not an everyday occurance anymore!)
2. Woke up early
3. Took my final exams for my Human Resource Management and Hospitality Accounting 2 classes
4. Found another roommate to join my apartment in January!!
5. OFFICIALLY FINISHED SCHOOL FOR THE SEMESTER!
6. Had an Office Season 3 party at my house
7. Took apple cider to a friend at school
8. Had a wrestling match with my roommate Airline

8 things I am looking forward to:
1. Getting my grades!
2. Spending 10 days in Colorado for Christmas
3. Applying for graduation
4. July
5. My trip to New Zealand with Ashley Peterson
6. Winning more dance competitions
7. Paying off my school loans
8. Having a family

8 things I love about fall:
Nearly everything my sister does...
1. Walking outside and smelling the air
2. Cozy clothes (I love sweaters!!) and finding your gloves in the pockets of your coat the first time you put it on for the season
3. Peppermint and Sleepytime tea
4. Knowing that Christmas is just around the corner
5. Watching the leaves change colors
6. Playing in piles of leaves
7. Pumpin EVERYTHING!
8. Corn mazes.

8 things on my wish list:
1. A husband
2. An ipod
3. A trip to Uruguay
4. New clothes
5. Slightly thicker hair
6. Insurance. Or at least enough money to get my cavities taken care of.
7. A horse
8. The right kind of screws to put my desk together (I can't find them ANYWHERE!)

8 people I am tagging:
1. Heather Davenport
2. Jessica Alleman
3. Kate Smith
4. Chelsea Beauchamp
5. Open for the taking!
6. Ditto
7. Ditto
8. Ditto

Playtime!

With the unusually warm weather lingering around the Southwestern part of the United States (meaning - Las Vegas), one can't help but think that it constantly feels like Spring Break! I'll admit, it has been awfully difficult to focus on my schoolwork when there are so many other things I want to do. First of all, there was birthday after birthday that needed to be celebrated, and what better place to celebrate than in my house?

We got to dress up,

eat food,

watch people jump out of cakes,

play twister,

and basically go a little crazy.

Then of course, came the crazy festivities of Halloween. What more can I say?

I am officially dubbing November as "The month in which Melissa photographs the best." You'll soon see why. This month has been a blast!

I went hiking up at Calico Tanks inside Red Rock park with several friends from my ward (it was actually the first time I'd seen the tank completely dry),

celebrated my one year mark of being home from my mission with my good friend Emily,

threw a bachelorette party for Dot,

played outside of the institute building while avoiding my homework list,

and most recently won a dance competition against other single's wards in the valley by mixing hip-hop and Polynesian dancing into a form I like to call "Hip-nesian."

Yeah, life is good.

There's only one of me!

This is interesting...

We've all heard of those common names that are owned by nearly half of the population (example: Jane Smith, etc), so I ask: How original is your name? Using this neat online website you can find out! And I am pleased to say: I am the one and only Melissa Hellewell. It's a good day!

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 1 or fewer people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Update On My Crazy Life!!

So, I'm not the best at keeping up with my blog. This is obvious. So, in an attempt to catch everyone up on the past month or so, I decided to do a condensed "Reader's Digest" version of my life. Ready?? Okay!

Kicking off our school year was an area-wide dance hosted by my singles ward. The theme was "dress your favorite decade" and featured music from the 50's through the 90's. How convenient that most of our ward members chose the 80's!!

The semester picked up extremely quick and I found myself swamped with a ton of homework, but was also busy moving for the second time since school let out in the Spring. But this time I was moving into MY apartment! I had always just rented a room from someone, but this time I decided it was time to sign my own lease and take responsibility for finding people to live with me. The hunt had been long and hard, but I had found 2 roommates, and decided on a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom condo about 2 miles from UNLV. Too bad they BOTH bailed out the day before I signed the lease.

I went through with it anyway, and have been happily living in my new apartment since the beginning of September. I have since found other girls who need a place to live, so Jen will be moving in as soon as she gets a few hours away from lesson planning (she's a teacher), and just today, Airline, a newly baptized member of my ward said that she wants the other room and will move in in 1-2 weeks!

Because school had been (and still is) driving me crazy, I decided to take an hour or two every week to do something just for me - so I joined a Polynesian dance group! It is super fun! They hold practice twice a week, but because of my schedule I can only go on Thursdays. I'm learning quickly, which makes me happy to see that the "natural talent" many people have said I possess hasn't dissappeared. We're starting to learn a lot of new numbers to hopefully begin performing and competing in local events. Sorry... no pictures yet!!

Fastforwarding now... I was blessed to catch a ride up to Utah this past weekend with one of my home teachers (Ryan) and his father on their way to conference. We left with plenty of time to get there, so we took a small detour and stopped to tour Cove Fort on the way.

We went on a little guided tour, and then headed further North. We dropped Ryan's dad off at a friend's house near Mapleton where he was staying, and then Ryan and I left for Provo to meet up with our respective friends. Still arriving too early, we thought it would be a fun idea to go up to the MTC and volunteer to be taught in the Teaching Appointment center (formerly known at the TRC).

We went in and got our nametags, walked to the center and then discovered we didn't have enough time to stay for the entire rotation, so we left. Bummer. Although it wasn't totally pointless... thousands of memories came flooding back just from the smells of the place - the laundry room smell, cafeteria food... it was fun.

I got to attend my mission reunion on Friday night, stayed with my former mission companion Ashley, and drove up to SLC Saturday morning while listening to the first session of conference on the radio. I was so excited to hear that my sister's mission of Cordoba, Argentina is getting a temple! Ryan was also excited for the temple being built in the country he served in - Italy. He screamed out loud multiple times.

Saturday afternoon allowed me my first opportunity to see a session of General Conference live. We sat in the highest level of the conference center, but were in the front row of our section. It was so cute to see all those primary kids try not to wiggle inbetween performances! They actually didn't do too bad...

I stayed with my little sister that night, and even got to go see the Musical "Seussical" that she was performing in out in Magna. I was extremely tired from the lack of sleep I had gotten over the past 2-3 days, but actually really enjoyed the show - I didn't fall asleep once!!

Sunday morning I met up with a group of friends from Las Vegas, and was able to attend another session of Conference in the Conference Center. We once again sat in the highest level, but this time we were dead center! Very cool! We had lunch at my sister's, caught the next session in the JS Memorial building, then walked around temple square a bit before piling back in the car to drive back to Las Vegas.

It was a fun trip!!

I was tagged!

Heather Davenport (previously known as a Despain) tagged me on her blog page, so I willingly submit my answers to the following questions. Enjoy!

Where were you 10 years ago?

Ten years ago I had just started my Sophmore year of High School - It was the year I didn't have many extra-curricular activities; I had dropped Choir and was no longer in Westernairs, and my parents didn't let me try out for the musical or color guard because my grades hadn't been too good... I did however get to do the Fall play (Spoon River Anthology), and I designed the choir T-shirt.

Five things on today's to-do list?

Like Heather said, today is over. But as for tomorrow...
1. Attend Jorge's Baptism
2. Homework/Reading
3. Pack my room
4. Move in to my new apartment!
5. Bust a move at the YSA Decades Dance (dressed as Cher in the 80's - of course!).

A Snack I enjoy:

Real fruit popsicles are my current kick.

Things I would do if I were a millionaire:

I'd probably drop out of school, pay off my loan, travel anywhere I wanted to go (New Zealand, all of Central and South America, Europe, the rest of the 50 States I haven't been to yet...), buy a sweet house somewhere in California and hang with the stars!

Places I have lived:

Littleton, Colorado
St. Louis, Missouri
Mink Creek, Idaho (If you count a summer nanny job)
Vail, Colorado
Las Vegas, Nevada
Detroit, Michigan (another summer nanny job)
Corona, California (summer nanny job #3)
Provo, Utah (If the MTC counts...)
Colonia Suiza, Uruguay
Salto, Uruguay
Rivera, Uruguay

Now I tag...
Stephanie Pollock, Diego and Mariela Hellewell, Krystin Christopherson, Jessica Alleman, Chelsea Beauchamp and Shelli Armstrong.

The First Time...

This past month has been pretty rough on me. So, in order to try and get through my trials successfully I tried to involve myself in a few extra church activities that centered around our Stake Conference; such things as joining the Stake choir... which resulted in locking my keys in my car at the church.

Anyway, being ever-persistant as always, I kept trying to do the right thing, and talked myself into going to the fireside last Sunday night. I left my house a half an hour before the fireside started - plenty of time to get there, right?

About 3 blocks away from home I noticed a police car behind me at a stop sign. No big deal, I had my blinker on, I came to a complete stop, and wasn't speeding either. I turned on to the next street and the cops followed. And yes, their lights came on. Thinking they were heading off on a call I pulled over. They followed. Why? I had a brake light out. They then took my licence and registration and walked back to the cop car, so I sit and wait. And wait and wait and wait! At one point I noticed them writing on a piece of paper. Great. Then cop #1 shows cop #2 the paper, cop #2 points at something, and cop#1 proceeds to tear off the first paper and start over. So, I wait some more. Finally, after waiting 35 minutes (they kept me pulled over for 45 minutes total) they gave me this:

A traffic citation requiring me to go to court! Seems a little excessive for a burnt out brake light, right?? Not to mention I was a half an hour late for the fireside.

Family Reunion!

For several years now I had been unable to attend one of our family reunions. As a kid I looked forward to reunions because we got to travel (albeit by crowded car) usually to Utah or Idaho, and we had instant friends to play with. I always remember there being a ton of people around - part of the fun! This summer was the Longhurst reunion to be held near Preston, Idaho. I was SO excited to go! I flew up to Salt Lake City and met up with my mom and niece Samantha (Sami) and stayed the night at my Aunt Connie's house in South Jordan before driving up into Idaho.

We stayed in a place called The Moose Lodge where Sami found a friend just her size that she visited several times a day.

We saw aunts, uncles, grandmas, cousins etc, and spent a lot of time talking and playing games.

My mom and Sami talking to Uncle Glen's girlfriend.

Shaeli with her fiancee Levi.

Uncle David's girlfriend rolling a Yahtzee.

Sami trying her hand at a game that Uncle Paul brought, even though it was taller than her!

We went to Downata Hot Springs one evening and spent nearly all of the next day out at Twin Lakes swimming and playing in the water, coating ourselves in sunscreen and bugspray, and several of us even took a turn water skiing until the bilge pump stopped working (during my turn) and threatened to sink the boat and all aboard it. Shaeli and I swam back to shore to lighten the load while Uncle Glen tried to fix the problem before he was towed back in by a kind neighbor.

Eventually it was time to pack it up and say our goodbyes, although some stayed a little longer than others.

My cousing Angela.

Uncle Glen still working on that boat...

This was by far the smallest reunion I have ever attended and was sad to see that so many people had other places to be. I hope more can make it next time!

What exactly do you do??

I am often asked what I am majoring in, or where I work. My responses: Meetings and Events Management with a Minor in Entertainment Management; or Pacific Event Productions. Having given one of these answers most people follow up by asking - what does that mean? Or, what do you do? Since I still fail to thoroughly explain sometimes, I figured I would show you all what my job entails.

Let's say for example that someone wants to throw a party. Now, I don't mean - "Hey, my (son/daughter/niece/nephew/neighbor's dog/etc.) is turning 6 and we want to invite their friends over for a small gathering" kind of deal, but rather corporate parties, convention parties, awards shows, film festivals, etc. In this case, the Disney corporation was in charge of hosting a reception for the opening night of the symphony at the Hollywood Bowl back in June.

So, what is our company's job? Make it happen! For this event Disney wanted to do an "Under the Sea" theme (appropriate, right? Think Finding Nemo), and gave us ideas of what they wanted as far as decor along with a proposed budget. It was fun! We designed and provided all decorations used for the member's only reception down to the napkins and centerpieces placed on the tables inside the Hollywood Bowl itself.

These are just a couple of the tables (we had about 7 colors used throughout all the front boxed seats), with the seashell centerpieces which I helped make.

Our goal of the reception was to make it feel like you were really under the sea:

This is the entry way to the reception, and the front stage area with large jellyfish lamps. You can see the "bubbles" hanging down from the ceiling, and the clear plexiglass cocktail tables that held...

Goldfish!

We also had bars that were filled with large goldfish (Koi??), and others that were covered in fish netting.

To finish off the look we created floral arrangements for the buffet tables and hung more jellyfish from the ceiling.

I had a blast out in Hollywood getting to work hands-on with this event, and also look forward to doing what I really want to do: managing performing artists!

Story Time!

Memory Lane



I'm copying this (minus the picture... that's really my handiwork) from my sister Stephanie, who copied it from our cousin Daniele.
I hope you'll all play!

MEMORY LANE- This is just too fun to pass up. Here are the directions:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember! I guess good or bad, but be nice!!!!!!!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

June Already!!

I was looking over some friend's and family's blogs today and was suprised when I flipped back to my own that it's been nearly a month since I posted anything new! Man am I boring! May was a very busy month for me, but also a very good month. I finished up spring semester at UNLV with final projects and tests galore and was able to breathe a sigh of relief once my final grades came in. I GOT THE BEST GPA OF MY ENTIRE LIFE!! Drumroll please... I got 4 A's, and one A-, which equals out to a 3.94! I guess leaving all of my distractions (like my guitar, sewing machine, crochet/knitting stuff, scrapbook things, etc.) at home in Colorado really paid off! Yes, I missed them, but opted to leave them there again when I visited home last weekend in hopes I can keep up the good work in school this fall.

I got to take a trip out to Los Angeles on the 16th to see my brother Diego's graduation from Southwestern Law School, and I really enjoyed the time with my parents, brother and his wife Mariela. We wandered up and down Venice Beach, ate at a wonderful authentic Argentine restaurant (it was just like the food from my mission in Uruguay - and I even found my favorite brand of Alfajores!), and just relaxed! There always seems to be new and fun things to see and do out there... like visit the store that sells hundreds of brands of sodapop, including ones they don't bottle anymore! I broke my self-imposed "no soda" rule for the weekend and had... well, let's say several! I was also pleased to finish off the weekend by dying my hair dark brown, getting a henna tatoo (it's already gone), and giving myself a nice sunburn. What a good trip!

I flew back home on the 19th, and the next day was the date I had chosen to give myself an early birthday present and went to see Cher's show at Caesar's Palace.

I budgeted my money well in preparation for this special event, and was able to get a VERY good seat, and still not feel guilty about spending so much money on the show. I loved it! What better day to see Cher's show than on her birthday?? I have now seen her in concert/show 5 times, and hope to see her again, but probably not for a while. I even found an awesome store next to the theatre inside the casino that sells a plethora of Cher merchandise, and plan to revisit it a few more times this year. Yay for t-shirts!

I once again packed up my bags and headed out of town on Saturday the 24th to go to Colorado. I realized sometime during the 11 hour drive that I had entered the MTC exactly 2 years ago! I couldn't believe it! While in Colorado I got to spend a lot of time with my sister Stephanie and her family; I took care of her three girls while she was still in the hospital after having her baby BOY! We were all so excited to have him come home - he's a cutie!

Yesterday (May 31st) all of the Elders that started the mission with me were scheduled to arrive home. It's kind of a sad but happy day all at the same time! Sad because the numbers of missionaries that I still know out in the field are dwindling, but happy because I know they all served a great mission and finished what they were sent out to do.