my work.

I took some pictures of my little workspace. This is where I work during my internship. I edit articles and write some too. Can I tell you? I love it! I even personalized it with a calendar and some pics!


my little pass that unlocks the doors!


My workspace!


Just getting ready to leave for the day


I love driving down this road. It's one of my favorite places.

who am I?

As posed by my adorable sister, I want to answer this question: who am I?

This question is very broad; I could respond with many statements about myself. However, I'm going to answer with what comes to mind first.

-Believer in dreams
-Hopeless romantic. Let's be honest, I love chick flicks. I get butterflies a lot.
-Journalist. Not only do I write publicly, but keeping a journal has been very important to me for the last five years. I love, love, love writing in a journal.
-Daughter, sister, aunt, friend. Family is everything.
-Always looking towards the future, sometimes missing out on the present.
-A leader, or at least I try to be.
-Employed (hoorah!)
-Firm in the gospel. Can't imagine myself without it.
-Trying to accept challenges in life
-Wannabe photographer, always wanting to experiment.
-Holding out for a fairytale.

Now it's my turn- who are you?

birthday celebration.

Mom and I celebrated my Great Aunt Jeannie's 90th birthday today. I had never met her, and I didn't really talk to her that much tonight. But, it was still fun to see her. She was so small though! The fun thing was that I met some of my mom's cousins who she played with growing up. And then I met their kids (who are my second cousins, I think). And, I discovered that like four of them had gone to SUU, and two had been ambassadors! What a small world! Anyway, here is a little collage from the day's event.

click on the picture if the images appear too small

p.s. I finally changed my blog background to a more timely one. Plus, it has an owl on it! Whooooorah. Hehe, punny, huh?

park city.

Yesterday, mom surprised me for a Park City shopping extravaganza. Okay, it wasn't really an "extravaganza" but I had a gift card to Gap that I'd been wanting to use, and this has been somewhat of a tradition for the past four years. Except last year we didn't go, hence the surprise factor.

We started out at GAP where I found an adorable grey-striped (I love that color..) 3/4th sleeve shirt for $8. Mom found these darling pj's. I wish I would've bought a pair. Pants and top for $10! They are sooo cute.

Then we walked around the other stores a little bit, and found some fabulous deals at Aeropostale!
We also stopped by the OldNavy outlet, and found some other bargains.

After we had shopped ourselves out, we drove down through old Park City. It was crazy with the Sundance film festival going on. Lots of traffic! But the lights were very pretty.

For dinner, my mom and I went to Olive Garden! What a delicious, fun dinner.

It was a great great day!

short hair

so, i was playing around. and THIS is what I would look like (i think) if I cut a LOT off my hair. What do you think?? I like it...kinda...scary.

BEFORE

AFTER

love the owl.

i love this owl necklace given to me by bff for Christmas.


ps. sorry for the post overload :)
pps. you can't really see the vest here, but it was a $4 DI find. Love thrift stores.
ppps. I really should change my blog background since it contains snowflakes, christmas trees, and "christmas" birds. But I love it.

make your own here

who plays bingo?

we do.


Here is a picture I'm putting in my Sterling Scholar Portfolio.

Carl is the one on the left. What I love about Carl:

-He is so funny!! He hardly makes sense, but I get some great laughs. Examples:
"Don't cry about it David. We don't want to give you a baby bottle or change your diaper."
"You can't win if you can't dance."
"Shutup grandma." (says this when he hasn't won Bingo yet and a lady does)
"Be quiet, be quiet. It's my turn. It's my turn now." (whenever he hasn't won yet)
"Be quiet, shorty." (said sometimes, in regards to David)
"Lookee here, sweetie. That's my parents. My dad died in a nursin' home and my mom, she died in a chair." (He has told me this on each visit to his room, while showing me his pictures)
"I got myself a new wallet." (he ALWAYS says this)
"Yep, I gotta go to work tomorrow, but then I'm off." (obviously doesn't have a job)

On the other side is David. They are actually roommates. David is so short! But, he knows how to play Bingo quite well. And he always encourages everyone. My favorite "David" sayings?
"Ooh, one more there! Only one more." (he will start saying this when he has three or four on a game of Blackout)
"Bingo Ray!" (he always calls the announcer Ray, even though his name isn't Ray)

I normally help Carl, so I remember a lot of what he says. Anyway, I'm so grateful that I have been able to volunteer here this year. Every time I go, my day is always changed for the better.

want an update?

Too bad if you don't. I'm giving you one anyway!! :)

This week has been tough! I have felt quite busy (hence the lack of blogging). My AP Lit teacher decided to crack down and give us loads of homework, along with two final exams. I also had a *surprise* exam in AP Gov. It was supposed to be this Monday, but we had a sub on Thursday, and he forgot we hadn't finished the notes yet, so he told her to give us the test. I'm not too worried- I think it'll be fine once we tell him that we hadn't even gotten through the notes yet!

I've also been deciding my second semester classes. I'm not sure what to take!! I might be doing an internship, but I haven't heard yet. I also might be taking a web development class (nerdy, huh. Jenni, let Zach know) instead of my Photo 2 class.

I've also babysat a few of my favorite kids this past week. Isn't he adorable?

And, I'm [very] happy to say that this week: I have done my 100 crunches/10 push-ups a day, and actually, ever since the first day I've been doing between 100-125 crunches. Tomorrow is my lovely day of rest, and then on Monday? 200/20. I can definitely feel a difference. I've also been doing the "no-sweets-on-even-days" and it surely has helped! The first day off was really tough because I've gotten so used to eating sweets. But now, it is much easier to resist them, and on odd days, it is easier to decline them if I really don't want to eat it (I think I used to feel obligated since it was something good, even if I wasn't hungry). It has also helped that I've been drinking more water. If you ever think you're hungry, just drink a big glass of water! It normally fills you right up!! Oh, and I've discovered a love for homemade fruit smoothies. So delicious, and pretty healthy (like Jamba juice). I have made them twice this week with bananas, vanilla yogurt, strawberries, and orange juice (and ice). It's delicious!!

Well, I better go finish my load of English, and guess what else? I have to do my Sterling Scholar portfolio today!! :) Wish me luck- 24 pages?! Yikes!

thanks for reading my blog.

loves.

new years resolutions..

I'm not sure I "believe" in them, per se. Or maybe it's just that I've never made any that I have followed through with. This year, I have a few categories of my resolutions. The winners are:

Fitness
1) First, I'm working on my abs. Let's be honest. I used to have a pretty fit body since I ran cross country and track. Then, I had an injury this fall and I chose not to compete anymore. And since then? I sort of lost motivation to..exercise. On an occasional whim, I would go for a [painful] run, or once I pulled out my old Taebo dvd, and had to dust off the case a little. So, I came across this workout a few months ago, and saw it today on a different website. Here is the breakdown:

week 1 : 100 crunches/10 push ups
week 2 : 200 crunches/20 push ups
week 3: 300 crunches/30 push ups
week 4 : 350 crunches/35 push ups
week 5 : 400 crunches/ 40 push ups
week 6 : 450 crunches / 45 push ups
week 7 : 500 crunches /50 push ups

i figured, 100 crunches?? Easy! Well, not so easy when you haven't done them in four months! I can tell this will be a good challenge!!

2) Workout with Taebo [moves] once a week
Today, after crunches, I did a few little Taebo moves. So, I decided to do somewhere around 30 minutes including abs.

3) Go to indoor track. After my plantar fasicitis last fall, I'm a little nervous to pull out the Asics again. But, I think I will try and run a few times.

Nutrition
1) Less icecream. Tough! I eat it SO much, but I need to cut back...sigh.

2) More veggies & fruits. I love apples (I eat one a day for breakfast), but this year...more yummy salads. And fruit smoothies sans sugar. I made a delicious one today!

3) Holl and I decided to do a "no sweet " thing. Of course those never go well, but
she had an idea to not on sweets on even days (unless it's a holiday). And, that means on odd days, we can't just binge either! Also, we decided since we talked daily (literally), we could do checkups on each other. She is joining in with me on the abs workout, and we decided if we ever needed each other, we could just call. I told her she will be like my "nicorette patch" to get me off sweets.

Personal
First, if these are personal, why am I sharing them with you? Well, if I put them where a lot of people can see (ok I'm stretching it by saying "lot", but still), it's easier to follow through.

1) More meaningful journal entries. I write daily, but mostly about boys...I want to write more important stuff down as well. Last night I had a meaningful entry about my hopes and dreams- that's way more fun to read than "He flirted with me." Right?

2) Better attitude about sunday school. I feel out of place in my now-adult sunday school class that I attend. I swear everyone in there (with the exceptions of my mom, Celeste, and a few other young mothers) is going to die soon. Anyway, I am just ready to be in a singles ward, or at least in a ward where not everyone is decades older than me! I did learn some from the lesson on Sunday though, so I just need to suck it up.

3) More focused scripture study. I know that even reading "a verse a day" is important, but it shouldn't be that case everyday. Sometimes I just find it hard to stay focused when I have so much else on my mind!

4) Be a better friend; laugh more at the little things; have lots of game nights!

School (could be classified as "personal")
1) Don't get senioritis too bad, too soon. I'm already feelin' the little bugger.

2) Figure out my classes, and find JOY in them!

3) Don't like too many boys, especially best friends or boys who are already in a relationship (I'm always a sucker for these ones)!

Future
1) Decide where I want to go to college.

destination:

I want to travel. And travel. And travel. I have such a great desire to SEE THE WORLD!!

And I don't want to say "places to go before I die" because I'd rather see them sooner than later. So, here are six places I want to go in the next twenty years!

1) Boston, MA (preferably in the next five years)
2) Nuku'alofa, Tonga
3) England
4) Africa
5) NYC
6) Washington DC and Virginia- I love history :)

and, here are a few places I want to live in my life:

1) NYC- the city life.
2) Nashville- to bring out the country singer in me :)
3) Boston, MA- Here's a great place for my passion of writing