Calling All Debtors

It's time to collect. I'm down to the last two weeks of my job, and I'm done being generous.

So, any of you who've ever owed me any money for anything: it's time you pay up.
That means, if I ever paid for lunch and we said, "You can pay me back later," --later is NOW.

If I ever paid for our groceries together, it's time you pay me back.

If I ever went to the store and asked you if you needed anything and came back with milk, eggs, chocolate, underwear, pantyhose or ketchup--you owe me.

If I've driven you ANYWHERE and you've failed to pay me for gas, now's the time.
For those of you who've been my roommates, think back to all of those times I bought toilet paper or dish soap when it wasn't my turn; or when you were out of eggs or salt and you used mine--I'm collecting on that, too.

If you've ever borrowed clothes or books or movies from me, I expect compensation; even if you just wore my coat to get the mail because mine was on the nearest hook, you owe me.

If I've ever given you clothes or earrings or shoes that I no longer wear, those were not just donations. Pay up.

If I've ever babysat your children, --and I consider holding or entertaining your child (even if you're nearby) babysitting-- that was not free labor. Pay me for that, too.

If I've ever edited a paper, or a job application, or a resume or even an email for you, that is also not free labor. I had to pay for this education you're benefitting from. And I'm still paying for it.

The economy sucks and I've got student loan people stalking me. You may say, "The economy is hard for us, too!" But suck it up. You owe me, and I'm collecting.

Me Monster

So ... along with most of Southeastern Idaho, I'm going to the Brian Regan concert tonight! Lisa John set me up with her cousin Scott, so we've got us a little double-date going on! I'm so excited! Brian Regan has been a HUGE part of my college career. I've found reasons to quote him several times a day. Here's one of my favorite Brian Regan clips that has become more and more applicable to my life recently. If people only knew how stupid they were being! (myself included!)

Enjoy! (assuming I can make it work)

Silvester Boys

I've been looking at my blog list, and there are sure a lot of "Silvester Family" blogs. My cousins aren't very original in blog naming, apparently. It's a guessing game as to whose page I'll arrive on at the click of my mouse. But, in spite of their prevalence on my bloglist, there aren't nearly enough Silvesters in the world.

Grandma and Grandpa had seven sons, who in turn had eleven sons. That's roughly 1.6 third generation Silvesters to every second generation. Not much of an increase. Those eleven sons have also added to the Silvester lineage. There are now six fourth generation Silvesters. For some reason, this generation has produced a lot of girls. That's weird. By tradition, Silvesters don't often do girls. Kate, Brenna, Ellie, Avery, Maggie, Olivia, and yet-to-be-named Trevor's offspring won't do much to perpetuate the Silvester name. So far, this task lies in these boys:

Aaron

Forrest

Sam

Max

Colby

Harrison

Cousins Ben, Brock, Shane, Neal and Jamison have yet to reproduce. There's still hope for more Silvester boys. Although, does that prospect scare anyone else?

Then there's this kid who throws the whole thing for a loop. He actually has the audacity to go by "Silvester" as a FIRST name.

Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor's Food

I wish I ate better. I really do. I wish I could cook. I wish I cared enough to even try to cook. I wish I had time to care. I wish it was a priority to me. I wish I had the money to buy food to cook.

Yesterday, I was at WinCo, buying my weekly box of chocolate chip muffins. That's all I have one box of six muffins. Big spender of $4 and some change--and healthy eater, to boot.

The lady in front of me caught my attention. She had this bag on her shoulder:

I noticed because this is the very bag I've been coveting since I walked away from its pricetag in Portland back in November. I can walk away from the pricetag, but I don't know if I can walk away from the bag.
The woman seemed to fit the kind of person I'd LOVE to be. Casual, but put together ... dark framed glasses (she probably plays the guitar, too) and a grocery cart full of this:

And a whole lot of other similar, healthy, organic, yummy foods. Over $200 dollars of it, to be exact. And, as the checker was ringing her up, bike bag lady pulls out a few of these:

... and one of these ...

and several of these:

I don't think hers had these names on them ...

And she proceded to load all $200 dollars worth of organic cheeses and all natural ice cream into these bags. Wow. This woman ROCKS! I bought this EXACT bag in November with every intention of using it:

Clever AND economical. Why don't I use it? I have good intentions. I just don't often follow through. I found myself idolizing this woman. I coveted her food, her canvas bag with buttons sewn on, and her bicycle purse. As I stood there with my muffins, wondering if I should leave the line to snatch a bag of Cheetos from the shelf, I realized I needed to be just like her.

And then ... she proved me wrong. As the cashier handed her the receipt, the following exchange occurred:

bicycle bag woman: "You didn't get me the discount for bringing my own bags."

Kind cashier: "Oh, we don't do that anymore. We haven't done that for a couple of months now."

bicycle bag woman: "That's a ridiculous policy! What? There's no incentive for saving plastic?!"

Kind cashier: "I'm sorry."

bicycle bag woman: "Is there someone I can talk to about this?"

Kind cashier: "Umm ... I can call a manager, but he's--"

bicycle bag woman: "--Yes. Call your manager. I'd LOVE to talk to him about this."

Umm ... ugh, lady! Isn't saving the planet enough reward for your efforts? There has to be monetary incentive, too?

I paid for my muffins, and as I was pulling out of the parking lot, bicycle bag lady was loading her canvas bags into her Subaru Outback with the ski rack on top, accompanied by flustered young manager who apparently had more business to discuss than could happen inside the store.

I no longer want to be just like her. She's mean!

Here's another quick "coveting food" dilemma. I hate the food network. Seriously. Hate it. I can understand why people like it, though. It gives great ideas to the people who are likely to implement them. I am not likely--neither is mom. But mom still likes to watch it. Rachel Ray was on last night while mom and I were eating microwaved potatoes. I asked, "Why do we watch this?!! Rachel ALWAYS has better food than we do!" She changed the channel.

There's snow in my pie!!

We sat on opposite sides of the table to write on the same "nice note." That meant that half of what was written was upside down!
Kyle's Valentine says: "I give you my potato!"

Kimball, me and Rachel first thing in the morning! This is when I drooled on the floor!

Rachel slept in the hide-a-bed and forgot to pull her cell phone out before the bed got folded up! The couch was ringing!

Dad, Isaac and Kimball on the new property the family bought in Spokane.

Kimball, Rachel, Lacey and me. Railroad posers.

Da brothers. Don't marry them. That's a rule. Tyler, Kyle and Isaac. Really, somebody should marry them, eventually. Maybe that rule's only applicable to some of us.

The girls being friends on the new property. How awesome would it be to build a house here? It's BEAUTIFUL!!

And we like to throw rocks off the railroad tracks into the river. Rachel, Kimball, Lacey and Tyler.

Kyle, Rachel, Kimball, me and Lacey at the Spokane Washington Temple. Kyle, Rachel and I did baptisms there!

The chocolate box says, "I'm all in knots over you, Valentine!" Kimball's in knots over me, apparently.

Isaac loves his siblings. Really. He does. But there must be something really funny in that book! Isaac, Kimball, Kyle and Tyler.

Dad's reading Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon

Apparently this is the scripture table. Everywhere you looked in this house, you'd find a set of scriptures! I love that this is the way they LIVE! It's fun to be surrounded by the word of God!

Kimball was preparing her talk before church. Somehow she made sense out of all this mess!

After church, we had an impromptu sing-along while Kyle played. I'm signing the words to "How Great Thou Art."

Did I mention that the whole family's musically talented? And Kimball and scowl and play beautifully at the same time! The sound and the facial expression really didn't match up.

We were in the dark car. I told them to brace themselves for the flash. Apparently that's Kimball's "bracing myself" face.

Brimball. Goobers.

My Valentine

So, Valerie asked New York City to be her Valentine, leaving James to petition Nebraska. I haven't heard yet how that worked out, but I staked my claim on Spokane.
That's right, ladies and gentlemen. Spokane was my Valentine. And oh, what a day we had together!
I spent the weekend with my best friend Kimball and her family. Kimball's been home from her mission for a week now, and we're back to being "Brimball" ... along with all of the craziness that comes with it. NO reservations!
Kimball's family were ALL my Valentines. There were 9 of us at the house all weekend. Dad, Mom, Lacey-24, Kimball-22, Isaac-20, (19-year old Ryan is on his mission in Jakarta, Indonesia), Tyler-18, and Kyle-14. Rachel Frongner and I were the visitors, but Dad introduced us to everyone as his other daughters. We're all family!
I thought I'd tell the story of the weekend through our "table cloth quotes." In my previous apartments, we'd always have a vinyl tablecloth and we'd write the funny things people say on the tablecloth in permanent marker. Those of you who've lived with me know all about this. It wasn't 20 minutes into the weekend where we started collecting tablecloth quotes!

Quote #1:
Context: A few members of Kimball's family are sick. They're blaming Kimball for bringing home some foreign disease from Australia. We were talking about this as we were making sleeping arrangements for the night.
Brooke: "Did you bring bugs home from Australia? Germs? Cooties?"
Kimball: "Yep! Wanna go share a bed?"

Quote #2:
Context: Apparently I have a drooling problem. We often wrestle and sit on each other, and I always have to be careful to not drool! It's kind of an ongoing joke with us. Saturday morning, we woke up to greet Rachel and Lacey who'd arrived in the middle of the night. I was excited and in the middle of my sentence, I totally drooled onto the kitchen floor.
Brooke: "Oh! I just drooled! Dat's gross!"
Kimball: "You're like Targhee!" (my dog)
Brooke: "Yep! Sorry. Whenever I get excited, I salivate!"

Quote #3: When I surprised Kimball at the airport last week, she freaked out. She backed up and ran into an airline pilot, and then tackled me while yelling: "What are you doing in Salt Lake!?" We were rehashing this story about how she wasn't a very reverent missionary.
Kimball: "Yeah. Aren't missionaries supposed to present 'quiet dignity'?"
Dad: "'Quiet dignity' and 'Brooke' don't belong in the same sentence!"

Quote #4:
Context: Rachel has always made fun of the way I scratch my nose. I don't think it's weird. I've always done it that way. Apparently, I'm the only one, and it's turned into quite the object of mockery! So, my nose itched. I scratched it. Rachel mimicked me and expected Kimball to do the same. Rachel kept hinting to Kimball to follow suit. Instead of scratching her own nose, she turned and did it to mine! I flipped out and yelled,
Brooke: "You can itch your friends and you can itch your nose, but you can't itch your friend's nose!!"

Quote #7:
Context: The first month Kimball and I were roommates, I passed out onto the kitchen floor, convulsed and bashed my head into the floor, splitting my eyebrow open. Kimball sat on the kitchen stool and watched the whole thing. She never got off the stool. Our roommate, Jeniel came running out from her bedroom to help me. Kimball never got up. That's now a funny story we like to tell about how she's always been there for me. When Kimball and Rachel were roommates, Kimball had her wisdom teeth out and got up in the middle of the night and passed out. What nobody else knew about that story was that she'd gotten up to go to the bathroom and woke up on the floor in a puddle. She'd told me, but nobody else. During this conversation I said,
Brooke: "Kimball wet her pants!" And Kimball seemed pretty embarrassed that I'd let that slip. My response: "Sorry. Was I not supposed to tell? That was two years ago! Secrets have a two year expiration date! I can't be expected to hold them in for any longer!!"

Quote #6: Kyle had made a heart for Valentine's Day to decorate the door. He wanted to write, "I give you my heart" in French, but couldn't remember the French word for "heart." He ended up writing: "Je te donne mon pomme de terre!" Which means: "I give you my potato!"
We were preparing for dinner and dad was taking potatoes off of the cooking skewer things and putting them on a plate that Kimball was holding. One potato totally exploded!! Kimball screamed then yelled: "I give you my potato!!!! The potato exploded on me!!"

Quote #7: A whole lot of funny quotes surrounding one particular event--It's a Madsen family tradition on holidays to go around the dinner table and everyone says something they like about each other.
Mom: "Does anyone know what they like about Kyle?"

Dad: "I am amazed that wherever Kyle goes, there's not one, but a FLOCK of girls!"
Kyle: "I like that, too."

Lacey had zoned out for a minute and jumped in out of nowhere: "I love Tyler cuz ... is that who this is about?"

Moving around the circle, Kyle and Tyler were always the last to come up with their "reasons." And they often got skipped. We were on Isaac, and we thought everyone was done but apparently Tyler and Kyle hadn't gone yet. I was next.
Lacey: "I love Brooke because ..."
Tyler and Kyle in unison: "I like Isaac!!!!"

After going around the circle, I realize that I have quite the reputation at the Madsen household. Their reasons for liking me were off the wall! There was more laughing than anything during all of this.
Dad: "Tyler, it's your turn. Why do you like Brooke?"
Tyler: "I'm trying to think of more adjectives!"
Dad: "There aren't enough adjectives to describe Brooke. We need a thesaurus!"
Mom: "You could just tell her you like her because she's pretty or something."
Thanks, mom, for the cop-out answer.

Kyle: "I like Kimmie because she thinks it's funny when it's not and it's actually pretty lame."
Tyler: "So really, he likes you because you're lame."
Kimball: "I feel all warm and fuzzy inside."

Kimball was explaining why she loves Rachel and was talking about all the late-night talks we all had.
Kimball: "Sleeping was not one of those things we did."

I was explaining why I loved Lacey. I was trying to tell her that I'd want her as my friend, even if she wasn't Kimball's sister. I first met her through Kimball, but then I really got to know her while Kimball was on her mission and grew to love her independent from her sister. But, what came out was: "Sometimes you have a friend and you get to know them, and then you get to know their family, but they're usually like accessories .... but you're not!" Ugh. I don't think that came out right.

Quote #8:
We're all sitting on the couch just bugging each other. Kimball and I are in each others' laps. Tyler comes along with a pen and tries to write on my foot. My hands are pinned and I can't defend myself. Kimball shoves him away: "Hey! Dat's a temple!"

Quote #9:
There were scriptures EVERYWHERE in their house. We used them all the time. Kyle bumped something and a set of scriptures fell to the floor.
Kyle: "Ah!!! The Word of God!!"

Quote #10:
Mom was telling a serious story about a guy who got into a car accident up in the mountains.
Mom: "And some cow jumped in the middle of the road."

Quote #11:
Kimball's been in Australia for a year and a half. She's cold in Washington and there's snow everywhere. We had been to a fireside, got our slices of pie to go and stepped out into the parking lot. It was snowing outside.
Kimball's observation: "There's snow in my pie!!"

Quote #12:
A couple of us couldn't finish our slices of pie, so Kyle took them from us.
Kyle: "I'm the garbage boy!"
But Tyler helped him finish our slices. So, Kyle did the math.
Kyle: "I ate one and two quarters slices of pie!"

Quote #13:
Kyle's a spaz. He really is. And it's really fun to point that out a lot. His siblings give him a hard time, but it's all in love. We were talking about this and Kyle said:
"It's like deconstructive criticism!"

Quote #14:
Kyle, Kimball and I were on the floor in sort of a dog pile. We were all laughing pretty hard. And ... it's inevitable. Suddenly, Kyle says in a perfectly calm voice:
"You drooled on my arm."
We get up, and sure enough ... I wiped it off for him!

Quote #15:
We had a LOT of prayers over the weekend. Family prayer morning and night, as well as prayers on the meals. I blessed both breakfast and dinner on the same day, as did Rachel. The last night, when Dad was trying to figure out who to call on, he said:
"We've picked on Rachel and Brooke EXCEEDINGLY."
In more ways than one!!!

Quote #16:
Kimball picked up some funny words from Australia. One of them is "rubbish." I was upstairs in the shower when she was talking about times on her mission when she felt like "rubbish." Rachel was confirming that by saying that there were times she'd felt like "garbage."
Kyle was trying to make them feel better by saying: "I don't think you are rubbish, or trash, or garbage ......"
Rachel and Kimball: "Aw, Thanks, Kyle!"
Kyle: "But I haven't said anything about Brooke yet!"

Quote #17:
Dad came to wake us up WAY too early in the morning.
Dad: "Rise and Shine!!"
Brooke (still half asleep): "That man needs a snooze button."
Kimball to Dad: "Do you have a snooze button? Cuz I'm supposed to push it!"

Quote #18:
As we're driving, Kimball's reading a marquee sign at a car dealership out loud. It says: "Hey! Did you know we sell used cars?"
But Kimball reads: "Hey! Did you know we used to sell cars?"
What do they sell now?

Quote #19:
We're at the doctor's office to get Kimball's TB results. Mom and Tyler are also getting their sicknesses checked. Dad's filling out paperwork.
Dad: "Alright, Tyler. Are you ready for all the questions? Are you male or female?"

Quote #20:
On the way home, I've become a little too attached to the bag of Doritos. I just couldn't stop eating them! We were talking about parental discipline tactics.
Kimball: "My parents didn't ground. They just took away priveleges." As she RIPS the Doritos bag out of my hands.

Quote #21:
Kimball was talking about pushing me around in a wheelchair because I'm a cripple. But she wanted a turn so she could practice for our wheelchair races.
Kimball: " Hey you! Sit on the floor!"

More notes to self:

1 donut and 1 chocolate chip muffin for breakfast is only slightly better on the stomach than eating before 9 a.m. Control yourself.

When searching frantically for your car keys, check your left hand.

If they're not in the left hand either, call your good buddies at the Campus Police department and have them shove a stick through your door frame AGAIN.

Bring cookies to the campus police department.

When I finish Joelle's homemade soup out of her fridge, wash the container and put it back in the cupboard. She'll never realize the soup's missing if there's no sign of its ever being there!

If I know something I shouldn't, don't lie about how I know. What's the point?

When having heart-to-heart/soul-bearing conversations, don't start talking about passing notes in sacrament meeting. (this one wasn't me!)

Bring kleenexes.

"God gave us plastic so we could have a glimpse of what the EVERLASTING is like."

Use that planner that you bought last week and haven't even touched.

Today's agenda: work until 2. Call my neighbor to ask if my friend can live with her (is that an awkward request?). Go home and finish packing. Buy a card. Write in the card. Wrap up a wedding present. Drive to Utah. Congratulate the happy couple, give hugs to a long lost friend. Meet up with my parents. Get facewash and dresser knobs that I left at Grandma's. Exchange for Grandpa's nasty crackers that he made me buy. Catch a ride to the airport and fly to Spokane. Does this all have to happen today? Shouldn't this be spread out a little bit?

Walk carefully. The porch is icy.

Pack my phone charger.

Do laundry ... someday.

I just can't stop smiling!!

So, really ... I had the most amazing day ever in the world. I honestly don't remember ever being SO happy! Like ... true joy. My face hurt from smiling, and half the time, I was just smiling at random strangers!

Let me give you a brief summary of the weekend:

Ran into Alyssa at Walmart before leaving Rexburg on Friday--she lived with me and Kimball, so I got to tell her of my plans to surprise her. She's 6 months pregnant AND is working to adopt a little boy from Africa. Lots of smiles and lots to talk about!

Picked up Lisa and drove to Utah--listened to fun music, Lisa slept, talked a lot, watched Oscar.

Got to G&G's before everyone went to bed--3-year-old Addie was talking a mile a minute about her favorite colors and the Care Bear socks she got at All-a-Dollar. I didn't know the kid could ramble on like that!

Saturday morning, Dad and I left while everyone was sleeping to take my truck to Uncle Bob's garage. Cousin Ben helped me remove the tires and change the starter while I picked up the shiny things he kept dropping. I have an eye for shiny things!

Lisa and I got to meet up with Shmarah in Salt Lake. Somehow, nothing ever changes with this girl. We're just as random and crazy and inhibited as ever! We were dancing crazy in the parking lot and reminiscing about awesome crazy things we did! Somehow, I became the pole for her pole dancing.

Me and Shmarah

The main idea in Lisa coming with me to Salt Lake was so that we could spend some time on Temple Square. By the time we got there, we only had about 30 minutes. While we were walking from the car, I mentioned that my friend Tricia had gotten called to the Temple Square mission and was probably serving there somewhere. Too bad we had no time and no way to track her down. We walked into the Visitor's Center, and guess who's straight ahead of us? Sister Tricia Packer! She's been out of the MTC for less than a week, so she got to tell us of her experiences and practice on us. She was so excited to see me and was just amazing to see her enthusiasm for the Gospel and for missionary work. She was just getting the hang of things and it was fun to have her companion coax her on how to talk and teach us! By the time we said goodbye to Tricia, it was time for me to go to the airport to see Kimball.

Me, Sister Packer and her trainer

It made me think about the real purpose of this trip. What a tender mercy it was to be able to catch Shmarah before she left and spend some time reconnecting and just being silly with her. And then another HUGE tender mercy to run into Sister Packer and feel of her enthusiasm for her mission. Yeah, we didn't get to study and learn and see stuff at Temple Square, but this trip was all about the people!

Me and Lisa

I dropped Lisa off at Gateway Mall, and then was about to go the wrong way to the airport, but felt at the last minute that I should go South and went straight to right exit! I went through airport screening with zero problems and went right to the gate to wait for that familiar goofy face! As I stood there, I just could not stop smiling. It wasn't all because I was waiting for Kimball. Earlier, I thought that I was too late and that I'd missed her, but I was totally okay with that. I just felt total joy and peace and excitement about life at the moment, that seeing Kimball was just an added bonus! I looked around and everyone I saw was just beautiful! I was smiling like a goon at random strangers and everyone just seemed so happy! What are so many happy people doing at the airport? Normally it's a stressful place, but that day, it was just awesome!! About 20 minutes after Kimball's flight was supposed to have landed, I got a little concerned. I had checked to make sure I was waiting at the right gate, but she still hadn't shown up. Apparently the guy told me wrong, because I turned around, and about 10 feet from me, I see my Sister Madsen walking alongside an Elder. I stop dead in my tracks, as does she. Then she gets this crazy excited look on her face and starts backing up in shock and runs into a pilot! Then she runs at me to give me a big hug and yells, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN SALT LAKE!!" Yeah. She's kinda loud for a missionary! The whole 15 minutes we were together we just couldn't stop laughing! She's picked up an Australian accent and no longer pronounces her "R's"! We didn't have long, but we were both just giddy-excited. It was perfect! And then she was off to Spokane!

Me and Sister Madsen

When I found Lisa at Gateway, I could not stop smiling. She just laughed at me as I ran to give her a big hug, I was so happy to see her, too! Life was beautiful. It's seriously an amazing feeling! Lisa and I shopped around and had fun picking out crazy dresser knobs and spelling words out of decorative letters ... good things happening.

Me and Lisa and my favorite word! "Laugh ... L-A-F"

Then, I left her there to meet up with a friend and I drove to dinner with my extended family to celebrate Grandma and Grandpa's 50th anniversary. I sat at the kiddie table and bonded with 14-year-old Makay, 10-year-old Matthew and 3-year-old Addie. We pulled all the conversation hearts out of our gift bags and I picked out my favorite. Matthew bargained his peanut butter cup for my black olive. Good times. My family's AWESOME!

My favorite hearts. I had to steal them out of cousins' bags.

Happy 50th Anniversary, Grandma and Grandpa!!

Then we had dessert and Aunt KayLynn's and watched a slide show of family pictures. Grandma gave a speech and made everyone cry. I picked Lisa up at Gateway, we picked up my truck in Provo, then went back to G&G's to harrass Grandpa. He called us "a couple of stupids" because we thought his cracker mix was gross. We talked about how 18-year-old Sydney mooned 3-year-old Addie over Christmas. Lisa got a good glimpse of our family personalities and quite the insight into why I am the way that I am! "It makes so much sense now!"

Cousins Alex, me, Amanda and Grandpa

Me, Dad and Mom

We stayed up late to finish watching Oscar and got to sleep in the big comfy bed! We left by 7 a.m. in hopes to get to Idaho Falls so Lisa could conduct RS ... we were running late. I got stopped for speeding and got a $75 ticket! But the conversation on the drive home was AMAZING! I seriously am so so grateful for good, understanding friends who listen and share and discuss and uplift and support. I couldn't even be upset about the speeding ticket! Lisa texted people and finally got the conducting covered so she went with me to my sacrament meeting that started at 11. Our friend, Kristin was speaking and it was so good to be there for her and hear the awesome messages that seemed to be catered directly to some of our previous conversations. Then the congregation sang, "Families Can Be Together Forever" and I thought about Sydney mooning Addie and Grandpa calling us "stupids" and I got really emotional, realizing that I get to laugh with these hysterically obnoxious people FOREVER! I'm blessed. REALLY REALLY BLESSED. And we've talked a lot about friendships that last. I've got a lot of those, too. I'm excited to be able to enjoy these socialities forever!

Cousins Danielle, me and Whittney