monday & 2013.

1 mid-morning email conversation with my best friend.

2 episodes of Gilmore Girls. 

3 institute classes.

4 photos in a photobooth with roommates.

That sums up my first Monday of 2013 in Cedar City. 

& it feels good to be back. 

roommate hunting.

Today, I went in to chat with my landlord about the lease on my house. I've shared a room all semester, but my roommate is getting married in December. Apparently, I have to find a roommate or my rent goes up. I asked how this could be, when I signed a contract. Oh, the contract ends in December. I still don't understand how it is my responsibility, but I'm so excited to start roommate hunting. NOT.

If you know of anyone looking for a nice, close-to-campus, super affordable home in Cedar, let me know!

the roommate bakers.

Amanda and the vegetables from the backyard garden!

With zucchini, tomatoes, and squash out of our ears, Amanda and I embarked on a baking journey on Saturday.
First, we used zucchini for brownies. Yes, brownies. And they are delicious. You can't even taste the zucchini, so don't stick your nose up at the idea.

Then, we made zucchini spice bread. Also delicious. In turn, I was way too excited for fall after the smells filling our kitchen Saturday afternoon.

We had buckets of tomatoes. Salsa? Good idea. After a quick trip to the store for a can of black beans & a can of corn, we made a variation of "cowboy caviar" & also a spicier salsa with jalapeño peppers, but also peach. They were both delicious. And now they are both gone.

Finally, we cooked up a spaghetti squash for dinner. I had never had it before ... um, yum! Who doesn't like veggies? You are really missing out on some finer things in life.

Hours of baking, chatting, and laughing with one of my best friends ... and some great food too? It was a perfect Saturday. Amanda is moving to Las Vegas in the near future (to be with her sweet fiance), and I'm embracing all these last, little bonding moments before she leaves.

This might be a tangent from being Betty Crockers, but I feel so lucky to have such a great friend & roommate. It's those nights that, even when I intend to fall asleep before 11, we end up talking until midnight. It's those half delirious comments. It's the little heart-to-heart conversations we have that make me realize how blessed I am for having amazing friends.

And sometimes, it's the moments when you have a friend who will mix up recipes, not measure everything exactly, and allow you to substitue wheat flour for the white flour :)

cowboy caviar & jalapeno/peach salsa

trying out the zucchini brownies. yum!

i might become a hermit.

i have my own room.

and i might become a hermit now.

it is so nice to come and go whenever you please, listen to music you want when you want...

but, i need to remember to be social! my new roomies probably think i'm a shut-in because i've been on the phone all day talking to my cousin/best friend Hollie who I haven't talked to all summer (because she's been off being an awesome EFY counselor).

we've already talked twice today ... probably for three hours now? yeah, we had a LOT to catch up on.

So, sorry new roomies. I'm really not anti-social. I just needed some Hollie time.

The end.

time of my life.

all these pics were taken on the same day. can you see my happiness? yeah. spain is amazing. life is great. my roommate...couldn't have asked for a better one! we have such fun times together (buying cacahuetes bañados en chocolate, "pring-less", chocolate loafs, peanut m&ms, ropa, and zapatos..) and we keep saying how strange it will be to not be around each other 24-7. she has taught me so much and i love learning about her life! we are both silly and crazy and have crazy families too, but it makes everything much more enjoyable. alex is such a strong, incredible person! she is a great example too. we have a little book of quotes from this trip that none of you would laugh about...but anyway, we have fun together. the end :)

juicebox.

"You're my assistant. You're supposed to back me up and go get me juiceboxes whenever I want. Now go get me a juicebox!" -- quoted from one of my favorite movies, kicking & screaming.

I'm very glad my roommate Sam enjoys this movie just as much as I do. We quote lines from many movies — but this one definitely is more quoted than others. This pic was taken at the Institute Opening Social. so.much.fun.

anyway, back to work. But I wanted to share that picture and quote. Go watch the movie. Now.

dangerous grounds.

i am writing this on dangerous grounds. on the off chance that the person who i wrote this blog about might...actually read it. but, i think i'll tell you the story of my night anyway.

tonight, a mentalist came to town. i went to this mentalist my freshman year. it was so crazy and mind-blowing and i could not wait to see what happened this time.

i went with a few friends from my ward and my roommate, lyndi. during the pre-show, we tried to take pictures, but had little success.

and as i was looking at them, i couldn't help but notice that i'm laughing. in almost every single photo.

but, that just made me realize something. this kid? he makes me laugh. a lot. and i really enjoy his company.





we had to write down a question as part of the whole mentalist thing and then the mentalist would "read our minds" and figure out what we were thinking. my question basically asked what the boy i was sitting next to thought about me. too bad the mentalist didn't pick up on my thoughts!

have you ever been to a mentalist? what is your opinion?

spontaneity.

1 tank of gas + 2 pb & honey sandwiches + 5 miles of walking + lots of "um...no thank you"s + being spontaneous = great road trip :)

yes, my roommate and I might have driven to Vegas, walked around for 7 hours on the strip, and driven back in the same day.

Worth it? Absolutely. Now it's time for bed but I will update soon with more glimpses of this spontaneous road trip! :)

tis the season.

As my roommate Lyndi said, "I've had a perma-grin all day."

Yes, it seems like I have not been able to wipe the smile off my face for quite some time now (besides the final newswriting story due tomorrow, ward christmas party tomorrow night, my stats final--eek--on Tuesday, 3 finals on Wednesday, Relief Society Activity Wed. night, final Thursday, White Christmas party Thursday...and everything else going on). I credit that happiness to these people/things:

Subject 1: Caleb. AKA "Landlord Boy". I've quite enjoyed spending time with him lately and getting to know him better. And I found this picture taken at the ward temple trip Saturday particularly pleasing! What I've noticed about Caleb is that he is always serving others. What a great example!

Subject 2: My roommates + Kelly (our surrogate roommate). These girls have brought so much happiness to my life, especially in these last two weeks as I've been stressed with school ... and life. We have so much fun laughing and joking with one another! I don't know what I'd do without them :) Subject 3: The temple + Christmas. This picture includes TWO of my favorite things: the St. George Temple and the Christmas season. I had the great opportunity to look at lights last night and feel the "magic in the air." I truly love this Christmas season! And I like this picture.

almost monday.

It's been such a fun weekend. Tomorrow we don't have school, which means I will be doing a lot of homework and studying (since I haven't all weekend!). BUT, these last few days have been a blast. Here are some things that occurred:

-made delicious cookies with great company ;)

-watched Titanic with my fantastic roommate

-remembered why I love A Cinderella Story (Chad Michael Murray)

-went boating, tubing, and cliff-jumping with some pretty awesome people (see above pic)

-wrote two songs with an incredibly-talented so

meone (and they're wonderful, I'm not going to be modest about it. I LOVE them.)

-picked up Ben & Jerry's at 1 a.m. from Walmart to celebrate our song writing :)

-got called to be the 2nd counselor for Relief Society in my new ward

-went to a fabulous fireside with roomie and a walk after

It's been a great weekend! Seriously. I've smiled a lot. And that's always a good sign! :)

until next time,

{c}

monday blues.

Ok, let me start off by saying each and everyday since my haircut, I've felt very cute. Sounds conceited, right? I'm not trying to be. I'm just being positively honest. I feel like a completely new me, with no more doubts about my long, thick hair weighing me down and having no shape. That Cheri is gone! :) And even when people have told me they were jealous of my long hair, I don't regret it. A "Cheri-Haircut" first!

Now, onto the title of this post. All the sudden, I realize the semester (and life) is weighing down on me! With little over a month left in the semester, I've lost much motivation for my classes. I know I need to kick that habit.

-10 issues left for the paper. Today I had an excellent talk with our advisor, who made me realize, even with all the stress, working for the newspaper does make me happy. While we were talking about all the options, I was excited to get to work. And when he told me he was "thrilled" about potential story ideas I had, I immediately wanted to get started and make him proud! Hopefully the final 10 issues will be the best yet. If only I knew what to do about next semester.

-English...such an uncontemporary English class. Podcasts, narrated slideshows, PDFs? I've loved not writing "papers" per se, but ... the podcast project is approaching deadline. And I feel so far behind.

-Housing. I love my roommates, and we've all seemed to finally figure out how to get along. But sometimes, I just need some quiet time (which is why I'm currently at the library). I've loved sharing a room, but am very excited about having my own next year!

-FHE. One word? Volleyball. I have never been good at it, and had no desire to play it tonight. But, wanting to have the team/ward spirit, I started to play. And, as it was my turn to serve (which I already knew I was horrible at), I hit the ball....which didn't go over the net. But at the exact same time, my bracelet broke apart, and all the beads flew across the floor. Gotta love getting involved.

Well, I need to get to some real work, so if you've made it to the end of this long blog post (I've tried to keep them short, but this one got out of hand), I have to say "thank you" to my amazing, beautiful sister-in-law (i hate the "in-law" part, she is my sister) for the kind post she wrote about me today. it made my day!

Another thing that made my day was thinking that The Blind Side comes out TOMORROW, and listening to my recently purchased Lady Antebellum CD. I haven't listened to country in quite some time, it was nice to go back to my roots :)

off to homework land.

bye!

look at me,

i'm sandra dee.

hope you enjoyed the pics from the awesome evening.

1. roommate sam + a glimpse of our apartment

2. me pulling in a boy with suspenders

3. me, being kissed on the cheek by two boys

4. the roomies: brooke (jan), sam (marty), me (sandra dee).

ps. people showed up! it was great fun. we danced to chuck berry, buddy holly, elvis, fats domino, and listened to some grease music as well.

superheroes!

There was a superhero institute dance Friday, and some of my roomies and I went as ... ourselves (except Kira, who had a superman shirt), because we had no other costumes, and wanted to be creative. I loved how matchy we were.

One boy at the dance saw me and said, "I didn't recognize you! Your hair is so big." I told him where I come from, my hair was actually quite toned down. It was great fun.

new semester,

It's a new semester and today, my roommates and I had our FIRST roommate dinner. It was #1 delicious, and #2, awesome. We went around the table and (no matter how cheesy it sounds) one-by-one said what we liked about each other. :)

At church, I was feeling in the mood for a game night (plus I got such fun games for Christmas) so I went crazy and invited lots of people. It was such a success! We played Catch Phrase, Fleurk (the best game ever!), Love tap (or something like that), Honey I Love You, and Fruitbasket. It was so fun. I love game nights and will most likely be having them more often on Sunday nights. It's a perfect way to socialize with a lot of people!
Some photos:

{random pic from the 80s dance with roomies}

{all of the roommates @ dinner}

besties' birthdays

as a primary song goes, today is such a special day...it's birthday time for TWO. (i changed the words)

19 years ago, two awesome girls entered the world.

one is my dear cousin, mentioned earlier here. Hollie and I used to talk on the phone, on AIM, and via snail mail all the time when we were younger and lived across the country. When I found out I was moving to Utah, getting to know Hollie better and hanging out with her was one of the "pros". After living here 6+ years, I'm SO grateful that we have been able to get to know each other better. Hollie is selfless, genuine, classy, and caring. Happy birthday "poochie".

the other is someone i met less than 5 months ago. any guesses? It's none other than my roommate Sam. I don't even want to think about what would happen if we hadn't ended up in the same apartment! Read about our adventures here, here, or here. Sam is hilarious, beautiful, a superb listener, and a one-of-a-kind storyteller. :) happy birthday "debra".

pet peeve #2

bugged by:

--plates of food, cups, and utensils in MY room because of my roommate
--salt & pepper shaker (for the aforementioned plates of food which have long seen their best days)
--an empty carton of icecream by the roomie's bed (going on day 2 for that one)
--the funny smell that ensues in our room because of roomie's habits.
--the fact that I have never seen my roommate take out the trash in our room nor vacuum it.

LUCKILY,

--my side is clean
--I care that the room smells and do what I can to make it better (ex. Have a Scentsy candle to mask the smell)
--Trash bugs so I take it out.

PS. Sorry these last posts haven't been too happy! It's nice to get out my frustrations though on my blog :)

What bugs YOU?! Come on, fess up!