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!!