california girls.

This blog post is being written in the lovely city of Laguna Hills, California.

It's beautiful here.
The ocean waves are breathtaking (even if I've seen them only at night so far).
The air is humid, but not overly sticky.
There are great stores like Trader Joes and Whole Food Market that offer many delicious options.
There are more malls than I can count.
Rebekah and I have already had some adventures (my first mountain biking experience, taking a shot with slack lining, and going for runs up neighborhood hills) & there will be more in the next few days that I'm here.

We're going to the Newport Beach Temple on Thursday & I can't wait!


My summer vacation is going by way too fast!

I've taken a lot of pictures. Don't worry. I'll post them next week because for now? It's time to go play.

solar eclipse & brick oven pizza

This summer has exceeded my expectations thus far. I'm having a great time meeting new people, enjoying not having the "cliques" you see during the school year, and having adventures nearly everyday.

On Sunday, there was a solar eclipse and the best place in the world to view it was practically my backyard. We drove about 15 minutes away to Kanarraville, a town that has a few more than 300 people and doesn't have a gas station. We saw quite a few cars from Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, and California. Dedication. It was a cool experience though, and one that won't happen again in my lifetime. Check out awesome pictures here.

The group of us watching the annular solar eclipse in the "sweet spot"

Then on Monday night, a few of us cooked pizzas in a friend's adobe brickoven. It was delicious. Definitely the best way to eat pizza!

My pizza getting ready to enter the brick oven.

Cooked & ready to devour. A chicken, artichoke, red onion, pepper, olive pizza? How can you not think that looks divine?

I have a summertime bucket list and I'm already crossing off items. There are adventures everywhere I look and I don't anticipate that stopping anytime soon. On Saturday I head to California for one week with one of my best friends, Rebekah. We're staying at her house, swimming in the ocean, and having a lot of fun in between :) I can't wait for this little summer vacation!

a year ago & a need for change.

I found a photo today on my laptop and it is crazy that this was just one year ago -- I was getting ready to embark on an adventure to Granada, Spain. Anywho, crazy how things can change in a year, right? 

 Me -- right before Spain. I am liking the bangs! And the haircut ... but I'm trying to grow out my hair so I can finally do braids again. Aye aye aye.

Me -- yesterday. After seeing that I'm kind of rockin' the first pic, I definitely need to do something with my hair.

Any suggestions? 

Where'd you go? I've missed you so.

This past week was full of adventures ... namely, being potentially homeless, packing everything, house hunting, having prayers answered, finding a great home with a big attic room, meeting great new people, and enjoying Cedar Summer adventures: 

       --Tiki Shack trips, morning running, kickball, weeding the garden, great new roomies, bowling, summer kickoff BBQ, watching Maverick on a screen projector in a ghost town, Ultimate Frisbee, finally seeing We Bought A Zoo -- seriously, you should watch it, starting 2.5 jobs, summer institute in a packed room, etc. I guess it was kind of a big week. 

It's been a busy week. But now that cleaning, moving, and unpacking have finally happened, I will have more time to enjoy all the fun activities around. Seriously, there is something going on every night! Now, for some photos: 

Here is my adorable attic room. How I love it. Seriously. And I share it with one of my best friends, Amanda. BONUS! 

Tiki Shack Run with a great group of #CedarSummer folk. Can't wait for more fabulous adventures! 

I can't wait for all that's ahead this summer ... it's going to be a good one, folks. 

music monday.

Maybe you thought I forgot about music monday. Maybe you didn't care if I ever posted another song again...but, either way, I'm posting some today. A very random assortment, might I add. Here we have:

"Good In Goodbye" -- Carrie Underwood

This song is off her new album and is basically a perfect song to describe my breakup last fall. I especially love the chorus:
"As bad as it was, as bad as it hurt, I thank God I didn't get what I thought that I deserved. Sometimes life leads you down a different road when you're holding on to someone that you gotta let go. Someday you'll see the reason why ... sometimes there's good in goodbye."

"Go Your Own Way" -- Fleetwood Mac (I have to thank my friend Sam for introducing me to this music). 

I'll be honest. Of course I'd heard of Fleetwood Mac and I recognized this song when I heard it, I just didn't put the two together. 

"This Is Home" -- Switchfoot

A little bittersweet since I'm not moving home for the summer, but a great song nonetheless :)

Happy Monday! Any new tunes? Send them my way, por favor. 

breaking bounds.

With graduation that happened this weekend at SUU, I was talking to my family about how I will be graduating in a year from now and how strange it was that I could have been walking today with many friends (who I will miss terribly, FYI).
But, one of my sisters said something to my mom about the fact that all 5 kids in my family have graduated (or will, in my case) from college. Not too shabby ... so that made me think: I wonder what the statistics are for people who graduate that come from single-parents or are raised in a divorced home (like I was).

Care to see what I found? If not, that's understandable...these stats were interesting to me, but I'm kind of a nerd ;) Research for fun once school is done? Weirdo.

• 47.5% from divorced homes go to college
• Less than half that attend college graduate. 
• 35.9% of daughters in single-parent families do not plan to get a college degree.
• Teens from non-intact families have lower scores on math, science, history, and reading tests. (I graduated in the top 2% from high school and have a 3.94 currently in college)
• Teens from single-parent families are more likely to have low achievement scores, lower expectations for college, lower grades, and higher dropout rates.

So, what does all this mean? YOU CAN DO IT.  Whatever "it" may be. Don't be a statistic. Who says you can't run a marathon or you can't get a master's degree? Who says you can't live in a foreign country? Who says you can't fall in love or you can't take a chance? Only you can do that.

Guess what? If I can break these statistics of someone who grew up with a single-mother, you can certainly do anything too. You just have to believe in yourself. Cheesy, but true.

That's all. 

summer, summer.

I haven't blogged in a week. To me, that seems like an eternity. I am thrilled to say I passed my comm theory class, finished my senior thesis successfully, and am just one final away from being completely done. Finals week is providing a nice break before I start two jobs next week. And a break before the joy of moving this weekend!

I can't believe I'm really living here this summer. It's a definite first. I will miss so many things up north and I'm trying to not focus on that. Instead, I will think of the beautiful things about a summer here:

--Snow cones from the delicious Tiki Shack
--Bike rides
--LONG summer walks
--Hiking
--ZIONS
--Living with Amanda!
--Sleeping on a trampoline in the backyard
--Trips to St. George and Vegas
--Utah Summer Games
--Trip to Cali with Rebekah!
--Shakespeare Festival (including Les Miserables!)
--Southern Utah in the summer will most likely be BEAUTIFUL.
--Swimming in Sand Hollow
--New experiences, new friendships, new challenges, but hopefully wonderful memories too!

It's coming. I hope I'm ready!

Oh, and I am loving this song lately: