Partners in Crime

I will go to great lengths to make my apartment look festive for the holiday season. I’m not usually the girl in the apartment that even cares if the apartment is decorated, but that has change this year. Last night my roommate, summer, and I went out and found a bench for our front porch and a bail of hay to decorate with. We found the bench and bail of hay on the side of my boyfriends apartment complex. We first attempted to fit the bench in the backseat of my car, but if you know my car it is just not big enough for such things. So that is when we involved my friend Jake who had a vehicle large enough to transport the bench for us! We Love our new bench and it loves its new home! This bench truly brings people together, we meet our neighbor because of this bench and then today she brought us cake over! What nice neighbor girls! I had a nightmare last night that one day our bench will just disappear one day… EASY COME EASY GO I guess! My hope is that it lives out its life if front of APT 10!

Bench in the Car with summer and I

Oops!! I swear we did not just steal this awesome bench!

We like drink Hot Chocolate!!!

Last saturday I took a random trip up to Idaho Falls and this is what I came home with! Do you just love this gigantic pumpkin as much as I do? Its so cute!

Watch out, our apartment is SCARE!

Just me as I am

I have been all over this last year mentally and physically. WHAT AN ADVENTURE!!! I am currently living in Logan, UT finishing my BA in Family Life Studies at Utah State University. I have loved my experience being here at USU this past year. I have made so many friends and been lucky with amazing roommates the past two semesters! My ward and bishop are the best in the valley. WHAT? It is true! ;) I work at a pizza place called Fredricos Pizza. Its’ yummy and the work environment is nice; its closed on Sundays, nice perk. I’m currently enrolled in 16 credits and it keeps me busy with papers and group projects that are never ending. DON’T worry I find time for fun… This is ME we are talking about…I don’t know how to stay seated for too long! First Day of my LAST year!!

I love these amazing ladies!!

I have at times wished I was different, but really I don’t want to be anybody but myself. I love my wild, crazy, weird, random, free spirited self and I don’t want to every change that part of me. This past weekend I was out of control, energetic and I guess I can now understand why someone might think I’m drunk …cause I have no filter at times. :) I love this quote by Dr. Seuss, “ We’re all a little weird, and life’s a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness in compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.” I just love this because I’m going to find me a man that shares mutual weirdness with me, and it will be LOVE!

Life is wonderful and I’m grateful for the gospel… Living the gospel to the fullest invites a wonderful spirit to life. Life is not always easy because we will have trials, which are inescapable. The gospel does not take our problems and hard times away but it can give us hope and happiness. The Lord is in every detail of our lives and we can know his plan for our lives if we just pray. Prayer is power, and I love as I continuously pray I gain a stronger relationship with my Father in Heaven and what he wants me too do. Answers come to our questions in the most unique ways to each of us. I have been concerned the last few months with a decision I have been trying to make and the answer came over time, through conversations, songs, and a feeling of peace. I’m learning to trust the lord because I’m so much happier when I do! “Let your hope make you glad be patient in time of trouble & never stop praying”-Romans 12:12

Look, I'm cooking more! Lintel Tacos and Fried Zucchini!

BASKETBALL SEASON 2010-11

Not until I started attending school up here at Utah State did I start watching and getting into college sports(Basketball mostly)! BYU-I didn't have much to offer in this area so its so nice to be here at Utah State!
I wanted to post some picture of some of my favorite games!

Against BYU... WE lost :( but it was a close game! 78-72

Always have to add a picture of Jimmer, Wesley and Green!! Some of my favorite players!! They were Jimmering Jimmer!!

Tia Wesley being Freaken awesome!!! Plus he is so HOT! I just heard his little brother is going to BYU though. NOOOOO! If he is anywhere as good as Tia, and or cute, he needs to come up to USU!! SERIOUS! Well I do like BYU too, so I guess it could be worse!

Preston and I at my most favorite Basketball games I have ever been too. They gave us these fun blue gloves; when we clapped it was so loud! I found it beyond funny to see everyone with blue gloves on, it was great! This same game Wild Bill dressed up as Pot from Beauty and the Beast and we sang I'm a Little Tea Post when Nevada throw their free throws! SO AWESOME!!! It was Just a sweet game all around! plus, WE WON! 81-67(does that surprise you though?)

STEW!!!!! This is our coach Stew! This is how all of us fans felt when we lost to Idaho. We just couldn't get our game together that night and we lost to an unranked team...After that game we were out of the ranking for a few weeks. I was so mad! This game was the only one we lost in our tournament.

Awesome game played at St. Marys 2/19/11 and it was a nail bitter. At half time we were down by 10pts. Tia Wesley took that court over and started scoring like crazy we won 75-65. St. Marys was ranked 23 and usu ranked 24 so we both were in for a fight to keep in the ranking!

Congrats AGGIES!!!
Utah State’s men’s basketball team won its third-straight outright Western Athletic Conference regular season championship and fourth-straight league title overall without even playing as New Mexico State, the WAC’s second-place team, lost at San Jose State (72-70 OT) Wednesday night [Feb. 23]. With the loss, NMSU is now 14-14 overall and 8-5 in league play.
Read more... http://www.usu.edu/ust/index.cfm?article=48822

USU has its last home game TONIGHT night against the one team we lost to in the WAC tournament. Don't worry we will cream um' this time because, I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN!!

I'm sad Basketball season is coming to an end, but its been a great one!

USA Today/Coaches Rank School Record Points Prev
1 Duke (19) 26-2 746 5
2 Kansas (1) 26-2 708 1
3 Ohio State (4) 26-2 699 3
4 San Diego State (3) 27-1 672 6
5 Texas 24-4 667 2
6 Pittsburgh (4) 25-3 664 4
7 Brigham Young 26-2 593 8
8 Purdue 23-5 562 11
9 Notre Dame 22-5 506 7
10 Arizona 23-5 461 13
11 Georgetown 21-7 437 9
12 Wisconsin 21-6 428 10
13 Florida 22-5 397 15
14 Villanova 21-7 377 14
15 Connecticut 20-7 312 12
16 Louisville 21-7 278 16
17 Texas A&M 22-5 254 17
18 Vanderbilt 20-7 242 18
19 North Carolina 21-6 236 19
20 Syracuse 23-6 183 20
21 Missouri 22-6 161 21
22 Kentucky 19-8 134 22
23 Utah State 25-3 109 24
24 Temple 21-6 85 25
25 St. John's 18-9 73 33
Last Updated: Mon, Feb 21 2011

Valentines Day!!!

Happy Valentines Day!! It has been a beautiful day today! It was 50 degrees with a mild wind blowing; It was a rather enjoyable wind!  I woke up and had a text on my phone from a wonderful woman I admire so much back home.  She just wished me a Happy V-day and said she missed me! It really started my day off well! When I got home from school I found a little ziplock bag of goodies that a family friend dropped off.  Maybe an hour later I received a balloon and bag of goodies sent by my Grandparents!  Both gifts were very unexpected and very sweet!!! Once I read the little message my grandparents wrote  me I was about in tears just touched by the small acts of kindness 3 amazing individuals did for me today which made me feel special and loved! I'm so grateful for family and friends that have sent me texts or valentines today to make it a wonderful Valentines Day!!



I thought this to be very fun to read...My ASL teacher emailed this to the class!


Happy Valentines Day!


I have overheard some of you in class getting all depressed about V-Day, calling it S.A.D. (Single Awareness Day). So, you don’ t have a steady sweetheart, or even an unsteady sweetheart, YET. You know that in all likelihood, you are going to be married one day and probably it will happen before you are 35 years old. If all works out, you’ll be married for at least 50 years. If you are married earlier, you’ll have even more than 50 years of Valentines Days with the man/woman you love. Given that perspective, these single times you are experiencing are RARE and fleeting moments of freedom.
You have very few Valentines Days left as a free man or woman.


You will one day soon be sharing a romantic evening with your loved one and a two-year-old who is setting the napkins on fire with the romantic candle you put in the middle of the table for a little ambiance. Before you know it, you will celebrate Valentines Days with your sweetheart, a six-year-old, a four-year-old AND the two-year-old, watching them have food fights over the romantic candle and yelling the first words of all children born after the first one, “ MINE! And I’ M TELLING!”.  Yes, there are babysitters, but it isn’ t easy to find an unattached teenager or college student willing to baby sit on Valentines Day, plus it makes you feel kind of horrible leaving your children on a special night, so before you know it, you make Valentines Day a family affair. If you are smart, you will have at least one Valentines Day that is shared just between you and your significant other prior to marriage and childbirth, and if you are really wise, you’ ll have five or six. Being observant of Utah traditions, however, my guess is that when you find that significant other, you’ll set the wedding date shortly after you meet him or her, get married, and you’ll forget about birth control and have a child within the first year of marriage and one or two every years after that. Being aware of those odds, you should savor these S.A.D. Valentines Days. As you are savoring, here are a few ideas for how to spend that evening:


*Send some Valentines to others who fall into that “ single” category. Send them anonymously or admit to it. Do this the old fashioned way – get some construction paper and glue and try to remember how you cut out perfectly-shaped hearts with blunt, child-safe, scissors.
*Make Valentine cookies and deliver them to your neighbors or to the employees who are working the night shift at places like convenience stores, grocery stores and fast food restaurants – I’ll bet even you are having more fun than they are.
*Send a Valentine or “ slip” a Valentine to a guy or girl from one of your classes or apt. complex that you think is cool, nice, cute, sweet (insert other descriptors as appropriate). It will take some planning…slip it into his/her backpack. Leave it on the lecture podium in one of your classes with his/her name on it and the teacher will have to call him/her up to get it. Slip it under the door, etc.
*Cut out a ton of hearts from construction paper and go glue them all over someone’ s windows and doors or on their car.
*Invite friends over for a movie and popcorn. Hand out invitations to students in your class, your apt. building or dormitory, inviting them to meet someplace that night and have pot-luck dinner. Rent a funny movie or even a popular cartoon.
*Offer to baby sit for someone who has high-maintenance children.
*Make some Valentines and take them to people in an Assisted Living Center or who are in the hospital. You can ask someone at the front desk of the assisted living center to direct you to those patients who do not have family members that visit often. Take a balloon, flowers, or a card and visit with them.
*Write a letter to some of your old elementary school or high school teachers, telling them why they made a difference in your life. You can probably get on the website of your old school and find their email addresses on the faculty list.
*Make a Valentine for your Sign Language teacher telling her how wonderful she is and remember to include money or chocolate or both.
*Study ahead or finish a project for a class that isn’ t due until later in the semester– naaahhh --- you can come up with something better than that.
*Do something absolutely crazy and embarrassing so that you will have good story material for your next assignment. (You have to sign your most embarrassing moment story soon, so there you go!)


See, now aren’t those of you who are “spoken for” and have dates totally jealous that you are going to miss out on all of this single fun??! ! 

I was the prettiest wall flower there!

I asked a few other guy friends if they would like to go to the dance with me and they said “no”.  They didn’t want to go dancing!  OK Well They’re LAME!!! I didn’t bail (Honestly it took a lot of effort not to ditch and do something else) and just went by myself.  I did come up with way cute outfit to wear, so I did want to dress up and show it off! It turned out to be a lot of fun even without a date!  The girls in my Chapter were wonderful and made sure I was included in everything.  We had dinner at our advisors house; the chicken enchiladas were so tasty!!  After we went over to the dance; and I danced for a while, then I realized that they were giving dance lessons so I went and checked it out!  The guy instructing was one of my friends so I ended up staying with him and helped him teach people how to swing dance!  It turned out to be great fun! I’m almost glad that I didn’t have a date cause then I could do whatever I wanted!! NO STRINGS ATTACHED! Here is a picture of those from my IWA Chapter that went to the dance!

SPUNKY?

My last haircut I got at the beginning of Dec grew out, so I  needed to get it trimmed.  lol well let just say I just made the apt and did what I have been really wanting to do to my hair for some time now! It was a good feeling!

What do you think of my new look?

Wingman needed ASAP

Last semester I joined IWA (Institute Woman’s Association)- Deseret Chapter.  I have one of the best chapters ever, I’m not bias’s either! The girls are so sweet and wonderful to me and have become some good friends!  Every Wednesday night we get together and do something as a group!  Last week we each brought things in that “our hearts delight in”.  I brought in a picture of, me and Carson, orbit spearmint gum, and a picture of my family!  After we went out and got Aggie Ice Cream, YUM; I got Aggie Blue Mint!!

Anyhow, last semester I was asked to be the 2^nd councilors in my chapter’s presidency; I accepted of course!  Well if you are interested to know, the 2^nd councilors are over the dances that the IWA puts on.  YEAHH!!! If you know me, I could careless for dances.  I would rather go out and play Frisbee, watch basketball game or just play games in general. 

I would like to make 3 exceptions:

1. I like organized dances such as, going to a swing club.  I know what I’m suppose to be doing out on the dance floor. 

2. I also don’t mind dances, too much, if my girlfriends make me go.  When you are with your girls you can just dance and move and WHO CARES!

3. If you are going to the dance with a boyfriend or such.

So this is my problem… I asked the one guy I felt comfortable enough to go with to the dance, and said he was already going with someone else L LAME SAUCE

Now I have to make some choices:

1.     Ask some random guy (Or NOT)

2.     Go stag

3.     FIND a WINGMAN

4.   BAIL *(too bad I can’t its my calling to be there)

The only problem is #3 is a very good option, but I doubt I could get any girlfriend to come to Logan this Friday.  It doesn’t help pretty much all my girlfriends live out-a-state …

Well, I’ll let you know what happens…

((If you think up any brilliant ideas let me know!!!))

He's been there

I heard this quote the other day and I really enjoyed it.  On night last semester I was having a really hard day, so I called my mom up to talk.  I was telling my mom how hard i felt my situation was and she just didn't understanding.  I finally just got off the phone with her because it just made me so mad, and as I was crying in my bed I heard a voice say " Jesus understands".  Its so true, he understands exactly how i felt, he has walked my path.  It was a reminder that we can always turn to our older brother Jesus Christ!

This is sister Cheiko Okazawki - former RS General President- from her book "Lighten Up"

"We know that on some level Jesus experienced the totality of mortal existence in Gethsemane. It's our faith that he experienced everything- absolutely everything. Sometimes we don't think through the implications of that belief. We talk in great generalities about the sins of all humankind, about the suffering of the entire human family. But we do not experience pain in generalities. We experience it individually. That mean Jesus know what it felt like when your mother died of cancer- how it was for your mother, how it still is for you. He knows what it felt like to lose the student body election. He knows that moment when the brakes locked, and the car started to skid. He experienced the slave ship sailing from Ghana toward Virgina and the gas chambers of Dachau. He experienced napalm in Vietnam. He knows about drug addiction and alcoholism.  

There is nothing you have experienced as a woman that he dose not also know and recognize. On a profound level, he understands about pregnancy and giving birth. He knows about PMS and cramps and menopause. He understands about rape and infertility and abortion.
His last recorded word to his disciples were, "And, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." (Matthew 28:20) What dose that mean? It means he understands your mother-pain when your five-year-old leaves for kindergarten, when a bully picks on your fifth-grader, when your daughter calls to say that the new baby has Downs syndrome. He knows your mother-rage when a trusted babysitter sexually abuses your two-year-old, when someone give  your thirteen-year-old drugs, when someone seduce your seventeen-year-old. He knows the pain you live with when you come home to a quite apartment where the only children who ever come re visitors, when you learn your former husband and his new wife were sealed in the temple last week, when your fiftieth wedding anniversary rolls around and your husband has been dead for two years. He knows all of that. He's been there. He's been lower than that."

 

Simplicity is Beautiful

The morning clouds were so beautiful as I was walking up the hill to campus this morning. They gave me strength to keep pushing on and reminded me that I can do anything I put my mind too. My day was stressful and a bit overwhelming, there were moments I felt sad and alone and all I wanted to do was scream… I pushed through. I went to my 6:30 Yoga class in the hopes it would clear my mind and relax me. As I was walking to my car after yoga I had one of the most enriching experiences… All I felt was happiness resonating inside of me. The air was crisp and cold but to me it felt warm and comforting; I felt as if I was nestled in safe arms on a summer night. The walk that seem to take forever on cold days like today, ended all too fast. I wanted more time to take in everything I was experiencing and feeling… I’m thankful for the simple lessons God teaches us in a single moment. “The gospel of Jesus Christ is beautifully simple and simply beautiful.” I’m thankful for such a beautiful world to live! I know God is always watching out for each of his children because of this experience!

Garrett & Conner

Since one of my families I usually work for on Thursdays just brought their new, adorable baby girl home I got the afternoon off! I used the free afternoon to my advantage! I called up Garrett and Conner's mom and asked if I could practice my Photography! (they are another family I work for) So this is what I came up with!