cha-cha-changes…I MOVED!

when i was in elementary school, i really, REALLY wanted to be the new kid. i don’t know why, i just did. i thought it would be fun!  new school, new friends, new look — not that i didn’t love my own, i just wanted something different.

so now i am the new kid over on blogger. i was in the need of change — i always get this way at the start of the school year! most of the time i just chop my hair off — and decided to start all over. except for the fact that i moved all my archives over there too but…that’s besides the point ;).

anyways, go take a look :). the url is: http://www.brookestapleton.blogspot.com — it’s called ‘simply us.’ it’s only sort of lame, i know.

182 days//the great soda challenge.

this past year, a large diet coke (with cherry, or vanilla, or fresh lemons…or a diet pepsi, if you must!) has become an extension of my arm. my body just doesn’t look right without it! the big plastic cups from gas stations and grocery stores filled to the brim with the dark, beautiful goodness are my favorite accessories! better than over-sized watches and chunky necklaces, even! (reason: i feel like they make my mannish hands like miniature and girly…no, seriously! i have always had this theory that god gave up on my extremities ;)

anyways, that said: i’m going off of it. i think? jeff bet me some fancy boots (or maybe a new watch? or perhaps the right to name all 26 of our kids whatever i desire?) that i couldn’t stop drinking it till my birthday (…in 182 days, precisely). or could? whatever…if i stop, i get boots or some other such thing.

so, will you cheer me on? and not tempt me? (or maybe just pat me on the back when i fail in like…a week?)

…i’m going to regret this.

cinco de mayo!

*i meant to publish this on the actual fifth of may, but seemed to have forgot? forgive me?happy cinco de may…o! can i just tell you about my morning? i woke up with every intention to go to the gym and then waited at a stop light for twenty minutes as provo city marathoners panted on by me and my car. seeing the runners so tired was motivation…to crawl right back into bed. being exhausted just looked so…exhausting, you know?

a few bowls of cereal and a nap later, i was ready for another try at the gym. i hurriedly threw on some workout clothes and ignored my emerging food baby as i ran out the door–who was going to see me, right? i saw that there was a zumba class about to start and sprinted in there, hoping that no one would notice how late i was…or my food baby. right as i walked in, the instructor finished some long-winded explanation about waiver forms and consent and…wait, why are there cameras?!

i ignored it all and took my place right in the back of the class by the wall. i figured no one would see me…wait, WHY ARE THERE CAMERAS?! as the instructor began the routines (it should be illegal to look that good in orange spandex…!), i began to feel like someone was watching me and self-consciously body popped along with the class. then i realized that i was standing right in front of the camera! i asked the girl next to me and she said that it was a cinco de mayo zumba party and that they were filming for the club’s website!

great.

me and my food baby weaved our way into the middle of the class and hid from the camera for the rest of the hour. why do i always have the worst luck?

also the zumba class is so funny. there is this one girl in it who i think is a reencarnation of the greek god narcissus. she hardly ever follows the instructor and instead trails off on hair whipping and body rolling tangents…which makes me trail off on staring and oh-my-gosh-is-anyone-else-seeing-this?! tangents.

…i’m making fun of her now but in actuality i always try to strike up a conversation with her after every class. we have basically nothing in common besides that we both like water? i was desperate for conversation…i just want to be friends…

…and scene!

phone dumpage.

one: morning walk to work in the wee hours of the morning (…before 11 o’clock…) which i dread, dread, dread (but on the upside, isn’t utah pretty?)//two: trying to capture my frozen nose and eyes and breath while hiding the fact that i am taking a picture of myself but instead just looking like i am about to sneeze?//three: basketball game half-time show where women 50-90 came out and danced and DID THE SPLITS! (it was actually really disturbing…yikes)//four: dinner at the firehouse because a fire truck hit my roommate’s car!//five: the yummiest salad on the planet earth, or at least i’m almost sure//six: manicured!//seven: breakfast of champions. don’t you judge me!//eight: i bowled a strike (maybe if i say it nonchalantly it will seem like it’s happens often?)//nine: watching the snowman before running up the stairs to open christmas presents per always.

little feats.

the life of brooke at byu is a taxing life. people are always wanting to hang out with me and braid my hair and have tickle fights and i’m like “guys, i have to get stuff done here!” THUS i have become a slave to to-do lists. at the beginning of the day while the lights are still off and avery-dear is still sleeping, i sit at my desk and write down all the things i need and want to do that day (…sometimes; but for the sake of this: i am a ‘slave’)…and then proceed to watch avery sleep for the next hour. only kidding! i don’t have that kind of time, you crazies!

  and normally, almost always, sometimes i cross everything off the list at the end of the day (sometimes i write down things that i have already done, just to make myself feel all accomplished and important).but anyways, this break i have accomplished NOTHING spectacular and that makes my stomach sort of squirmy-like. so i decided to brainstorm all my little feats this break that are yip and pip-worthy…

behold:

1. using y’all casually ad nauseam–making my texan friends proud!
2. eating over 20 apples and finishing off 2 cases of dr. pepper 10 and diet barq’s rootbeer.
3. walking into the high school basketball game and successfully achieving the ‘i’m in college and i’ve learned important things’ stroll.
4. bowling a 47. how is it that i am so bad?
5. watching the whole second season of workaholics and the movie sherlock holmes TWO TIMES.
6. really, really getting into character as the sheep in the nativity play this christmas (family rule: you don’t get out of the play until you’re married–anyone interested in getting hitched?! last night i made a killer quesadilla AND i read a lottttt of cosmopolitan, if you know what i mean…).
7. …making a quesadilla.
8. retelling the same story over and over again about how i won the intramural basketball championship at my university…(and now i’ve told it again!)
9. zumba-ing for the first time EVER…I LOVED IT. it was so, so fun shaking my thing alongside faculty from my elementary school and parents’ moms.
10. going to old navy or ross nearly every single day this break for some random something or other.
11. burning the crap out of my face whilst tanning and then craftily making up stories ON THE SPOT about how i got wind burnt while skiing or am just all heated from working out so hard at the gym.
12. getting told i look all grown’d up from my seventh grade english teacher.
13. avoiding eye contact with lots of people who i kind of, sort of, but not REALLY know from the HS while in public.
14. …and, if eye contact is made, striking up really terribly insincere and inauthentic conversations about high school memories? and their college experience? and how much weight we’ve gained?
15. somehow managing to eat three separate dinners every night.

…and now i am going to write all of these things on a to-do list and cross them out while yipping and pipping.

am i boring you?

hypothetically speaking, it will stay christmas forever and ever if i never shower or change out of my pajamas and continue to down mass amounts of sugar? right? apparently i am testing this theory. i spent the day lounging around the house and skyping these people. the boy on the left, landon, is getting set apart to leave for his mission tonight. in other words, the choppy group skype date where i spent 3/4 of the time staring at my own face on the screen was the last time i’ll talk to him for two years…byeeee landon!

in other news, i snuck in a trip to the gym today and a visit to the chiropractor where he, once again, told me that i was jewish. what? why? the part about the gym really was quite irrelevant but…i went there…

…i walked to safeway with my mom and decided that i like shasta cola and pink lady apples more than honeycrisp. compelling!

furthermore,  i took two baths today! two!

…also i’m left-handed?

phone dumpage.

one: hamburger cupcakes//two: intramural basketball champions!//three: josh’s mission farewell…proud mama//four: BYU christmas cards…”he knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sakes!”//five:NINETEEN bags of coconut m&m’s from the mail//six: pretend-studying. finals are silly//seven: cousin christmas gift exchange…i think there were twelve kids under the age of eight?//eight: submitting an application for a summer job! cross your fingers, please//nine: mockery of my camera obsession.