Happy St. Patty's Day!

LUCK O' THE IRISH TO YA!

So, maybe I should reconsider that goal of blogging more, I guess this could be considered once a month so not too shabby!

It's March! Ack! Time is flying by. I decided that March is the last month I have to relax before chaos sets in. April is traveling month-I will be in Vegas and St. George-should be fun and exciting! Then in May I am going home to see my sister graduate high school, then she is coming here for a week in early June to visit. YAY! I'm super excited about that. I have been trying for 2 years to get some family visits and she's the only one willing to travel. Ugh. But I'm stoked to show her how fun Utah can be :) Then it'll be July which means a big fat roommate wedding and me moving. Luckily, I found a place to go. I'll live with another friend and it's literally down the street, so I'm pretty happy about that. I just hate packing and moving :(

So I started a Tae Kwon Do class last night. It's half peer pressure and half adventure. I've never really been into Tae Kwon Do, but my masculine bff George is, so he encouraged me and my feminine bff Heather to give it a try. Last night was our first class. The first two classes are simple self defense, then it gets into the real Tae Kwon Do stuff. We walked in and I have to admit, I was a bit terrified. I'm more of a rule breaker than a rule maker by nature and as I was reading about the class, I was like, really? There seemed to be a lot of rules and proper-ness to it. It seemed a bit extreme at first, but I guess it's all part of the art. As we got into the self defense though, it was way more fun. It's empowering to learn what your body can do and especially that you can protect yourself by just using your body. Interesting. We'll see how far I get until my free spirit needs to fly :) I am so thankful though for Heather and George. Whenever we do things together I am always the worrier and 100% of the time, I protest. I usually don't want to do adventerous things, things I've never done because they terrify me. But Heather and George are so great about coaxing me into just trying, then I end up loving whatever we do and love them even more for getting me out of my shell. It happened last summer with wave runners, then this winter with tubing, and now with Tae Kwon Do. Ah, I love my bffs!

In other news... I finished a book! Ha ha, can you believe it? I love books, I love the storylines, characters, deep hidden life messages that we can learn, but I rarely read, and even more rarely finish a book. The last book I finished was the last Twilight book at the end of '08. But I am fascinated with books and libraries and I was at the library one day and saw this book, 1001 Books You Should Read Before You Die. Intriguing. So I picked it up and realized that there were about 101 books in there that I'd heard of and wanted to read at some point, so why not now. Why not now? Because I have the attention span of a ...SQUIRREL! haha. Really, it's so hard for me to really get into a book. So I found one that was a little more updated and shorter-I started at 230 pages and I'll work my way up from there-it was Serena Williams' memoir, On the Line. It was pretty great. She is an amazing athlete and uses a lot of self motivation. It was a great book and I finished it!! Wahoo! So from there I was on a roll, my next book, Barbie & Ruth chronicled the life of Ruth Handler, creater of Barbie and CEO of Mattel. This woman was quite the powerhouse. She built Mattel ground up with her husband, created Barbie, was a breast cancer survivor and then went on to stand criminal charges for fraud. It was quite the life. And I finished that one too! Yay. So now I'm onto Michael J. Fox's memoirs but they are moving at a quite slower pace. Hopefully soon I'll give report on those :)

All in all life is good :) Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Uh-Oh...

It's February! Valentine's Week! What! When did that happen!? Ok, in keeping with my new years resolution to blog more here we go....

Saturday morning as I was on my way out the door for work-early, way too early-this is what I saw.....

Someone heart attacked us!! It was amazing, actually almost scared the begesus outta me because I was like 'what in the world...oh...hahaha...' We have no idea who did it either and they must have done it early cause my roommate came in about 12:30 and I was out the door a little after 7 am. Totally made my day!!

So work on Saturday was looongg...I watched about 6 Jr. Jazz games and since I was just supervising I didn't have a whole lot to do, so the scorekeeper and I played a little game of would you rather.... His would you rather almost made me vomit in my mouth-Here you go...Would you rather lick chocolate syrup off your grandmas back or peanut butter off your grandpas feet? HAHAHAHA! Gross!!! So..what's your choice? I chose chocolate syurp because I like that better-but gross. just gross.

Saturday night was pretty unexpectedly fun too. We decided we were getting a group of friends together to go to Boondocks-it's like a big arcade and they have laser tag and go carts- lots of fun stuff. Well about 30 minutes before we leave I find out that my roommate's boyfriend was planning to propose while we were there! Yeah, talk about shock. So I was pretty giddy but couldn't say anything to her the whole night (Bummer!) So we played around for a couple hours, it was way fun but so much funner because everyone was in on it and she had no clue. We always joke about it, him proposing, her getting a ring, etc, so when we first got there we were standing around where the prizes were and she was like 'ring pops, there George you can propose with a ring pop' haha. We all just looked at each other and smiled and she of course thought she was so funny-hahaha! I love suprises. So finally at the end of the night we were all turning our tickets in and George had talked with the managment at Boondocks and had given them the ring box and flowers and they put the ring box in with the ring pops and so he's like 'ok, babe, what do you want- I'll get you a stuffed animal, whatever you want' and of course she wanted a ring pop so he's like ok, I'll take that ring pop right there (the big ring box) and then they gave it to him and he drops to one knee and proposes! Ah, it was so cute to watch!! And of course I am sooo happy for them and way excited for her! So then of course she said yes and they brought out the flowers for her. Ah good stuff. So then we went back to our friends house and had a cupcake cake in celebration.

This picture we took before he proposed. It's so cute cause he looks nervous and she has no idea of what's about to happen!! hahaha. Love it!

The ring box in with the ring pops. Other people kept looking at it like what in the world. :)

Thr ring! AH! I totally gave my approval :)

CONGRATULATIONS GEORGE & HEATHER!!

So yeah, way exciting weekend! Now the diet starts since I have to get into a bridesmaid dress and look hot for the summer wedding! Yay! So much more to come-my lesson on balance this week, a new calling and Valentine's Day-my second favorite holiday!!

: : T h e W e e k e n d : :

: :The Weekend in a Nutshell : :

:: Friday started with applebees and ended at the dance club in Salt Lake. I think I'm getting too old for them...Lame!

::Saturday-work early (too early..) home, looong nap, Teen Mom marathon on MTV and then off to see New Moon-YUMMMmmm....

::Sunday-sickness set in, not feeling church :(,

Rest, Rest, Rest,

::Monday-Visit to Mr. Dr. and lots of drugs and more rest :)

::Tuesday-all better and back to work and the daily grind....

Lesson Learned

I teach Sunday School at church every other week. I absolutely love it. It's the most perfect thing for me because I love to teach but I'm not that passionate or knowledgeable about too many things, so I study the lesson, get passionate and knowledgeable about it and then teach it to the class. I love the class too-they are way funny and make really good comments so I end up learning a lot and we have discussion. I hate it when you are in a class and its just the teacher talking the whole time. So I hope I don't do that.... Anyway, so on Sunday I was teaching and the lesson was on the creation and how God created everything we have for us and the earth was created by Him, and so on. Well, it had been an especially rough week for me, I even thought about not even going to church-I really felt like crap and didn't want to teach but knew I would end up going-and I learned the biggest lesson from...my...lesson. It was towards the end of the lesson and I was just bearing testimony that what we were talking about was true. I was saying "I know that God created the earth for us, I know that He cares about us and He loves us sooo much, we are precious to Him" and inside my head there was distinctly the thought "Yes, Amy, even you. You are precious to Him. He loves you." Wow. It was weird but way cool at the same time. I learned such an important lesson-sometimes we need to heed the words we teach others. He does love us-all of us (yes, even me!) and He gives us little tender mercies at just the moment we need them. I am thankful for that and for the opportunity I have to "teach" Sunday School. :)

P.S. It's 5:00 on Friday so can I get a WOO HOO for the weekend!? And I'm going dancing tonight-sooo needed :D

BFF's

I love these two! Heather is my roommate and George is her boyfriend. They've been dating for about six months now and I don't remember life without George. We are like the three amigos, we do everything together and I love it. I just adore these two and couldn't imagine not having them in my life. And, today is George's birthday!! Yay!

Happy 21st Georgy!

hahahaha...

...so have you ever mis-typed a web address? Unfortunately, I do it all the time...I end up at www.blogpsot.com the mega site of Bible studies at least three days a week because of my fast paced fingers. It reminded me of a time that I was talking and typing and intended to check my email but instead of typing hotmail I typed hot male. Haha, don't do it...I don't remember what came up, I just remember covering my eyes and shutting the web browser as fast as possible. :) haha makes me laugh.

inspire.

Last year for a New Year's theme one of my friends chose a one word per month to focus on. I loved that idea because I love words and how one simple word can have so many meanings. I have a word for the day. inspire. I was just inspired.

So I love reading others' blogs and some days when I'm bored and curious (an interesting mix..) one blog will just lead to another and soon I'm reading someone's blog who I don't even know, but I know someone who follows their blog who knows someone who commented on that blog-and so on. Well, along this trail of blogs I have seen a button of NieNie numerous times. It seems that everyone has this button, everyone is reading NieNie, what is it with this blog? Then, this morning I was reading in the Utah Valley Magazine and they list the best things to do in Utah Valley-places to eat, shop, best bloggers-that's where I saw her. Her name is Stephanie Nielson. She blogs on http://www.nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/ and has a tremendous story. From what I got from a quick google search, she and her husband were survivors of a plane crash. They survived but not without injury, she was badly burned. It's funny because she doesn't inspire me because she survived a plane crash, but reading her blog, I was inspired by the simple things that make her happy and the raw sense of life she has. She is refreshing. I'm hooked. I highly reccommend reading her blog. She's inspiring. :)

Other January news-my schedule has been crazy busy lately due to basketball starting up again. Now a few days a week my schedule is as follows...work from 9 to 5:45 then grab dinner and basketball scoring from 6:30 to 9 or 10:30. I complain about it being so hectic but really I wouldn't have it any other way. I love to be busy and I love both my jobs and am just grateful to have a job so no complaints here, just sometimes....it's exhausting. Good stuff though. Last night we had a Wii party. It was a blast. I'll have to get pictures developed to post--that's right-developed. I still use a film camera. Ha ha yeah, we were in Wal-Mart and I asked a worker where the film was and he just looked at me with a blank stare. I guess I need to get with the times, eh. Anyway, our most favoritest Wii game is Just Dance. Seriously, everyone should play it-it is amazing :)

2010

Whoa, has it really been 3 months!?! Ok, New Year's resolution numero uno-blog more. :) It's been a crazy life lately, but good as always. I cannot believe that 2009 is gone, and that 2010 is here. CRAZY! But there's lots to catch up on, so here goes...

::FAMILY:: So I went home for Thanksgiving. It was great! I love home and my family and Thanksgiving so this trip was destined to be all good. My first day was spent helping my dad prepare for Turkey Day and then being the 'moral support' to my little sister getting a tatoo. Now I don't support tatoos but I do support my little sister. She turned 18 that Monday and had decided to get a tatoo, she'd been talking about it for a while and had planned it out and everything, and she's a pretty responsible girl (this is the same sister who got a 32 on her act..) so I told her I'd go along to be supportive because I knew it would hurt like h-e-doublehockeysticks... And it looked like it did. I was pretty proud of her though because I'm a big baby when it comes to pain but she took it well, we just had to keep talking to her to keep her mind off it. Fun stuff. Then it was Turkey Day with all the family. My parents are divorced so every holiday is a day full of each side of the family-First it was dad's side, then mom's. It was nice seeing everyone and getting full and just relaxing. Aaahh...So nice! Then Friday we did a little shopping and I met up with old friends. Saturday the whole family went to eat at Red Lobster for Michelle's b'day. YUM! And Saturday night we partied with my aunt and uncle playing poker--who knew I could play poker! I whipped them all! And then Sunday I flew back to Salt Lake. Whew. Oh and did I mention-I had a horrible head cold the entire week.....Yeah, fun.

After Michelle's Tatoo

Mom and Michelle on Thanksgiving

Me and Ali on Thanksgiving

::FRIENDS:: So this was my roomate Heather and I's first Christmas in our apartment. It was soooo fun! In early December we ventured out to get a REAL Christmas tree and totally succeeded. We got the best Christmas tree there ever was! And we decorated the whole house and it was all sorts of fun. We also got to do a couple other Christmas-sy things-We got to go to a Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Concert with Natalie Cole and we saw the lights at Temple Square and at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi. Fun stuff. Christmas Eve was the best, Heather and George (her boyfriend) got home from her parent's house around midnight and I had dozed off on the couch so when they got home I woke up and we were like little kids, we decided that since it was after Christmas we could legally open all of our gifts. :D And thats exactly what we did. Heather and George had gotten a Wii so we stayed up playing that until about 3 am. Best. Christmas. Ever. :)

Our Stockings

Oh Christmas Tree!

::2010:: I'm pretty excited about 2010. It's even more excited that we're starting a new decade. Wow. And, 2010 marks my 10 year anniversary of being a member of the church too so thats pretty amazing to me. Where did that time go!?! Also, I am kind of obsessed with resolutions. I looove making them. Keeping them the whole year through is another story. But I've made a few already.... 1-Blog more. 2-Date more. 3-Get fit Haha, thats it. There's other things I started doing last year that I just want to keep up, like going to the temple weekly, and working out but hopefully those are already habits and not resolution material.

I think thats all for now. :) Happy New Year!

Emotionality of Hair...?

Hello again. So, October has been good :) Fun stuff. And November is almost here! (Can you believe it? Me neither!) I love October and November-they are high on my list of amazing months. Good stuff happens in these months. I'm especially excited for November because I'M GOING HOME FOR THANKSGIVING! Wahoooo! I was planning on not going this year, actually. After my trip in May I decided that I spend too much time, money and energy going home. Yes, it's totally worth it, but really, it's exhausting sometimes. And the emotions-ah! Anticipation of going, Being there and splitting time between soo many people (all of whom I love!) and tearing away to come back to my own life here, its just draining. So I came up with a genius (at least in my opnion) idea that after all my trips to go there, my family should come to Utah to see me. *Aaahhh* (Those are angels singing : ] ) Unfortunately, no one-except for my super supportive little sister Ali-agreed with me. 'But it's easier for one person to travel than for five' was my mom's argument. It makes sense but it's not what I wanted to hear, so I persisted. I said I refused to go there until they came here just once. There are so many things in Utah I want to show them. My life, for one, and the mountains, and the malls and the restaurants, everything! I have so many plans for us, so many fun things for us to do together, but they wouldn't reason with me. So, my dad stepped in (he's pretty diplomatic) and said that he would buy my ticket home if I would simply get the time off and get on the plane. How could I argue with that. I'm a pretty independent person and I hate parents paying for things, but this was just too hard to turn down, so I caved. And now I"m suuuppppeeerrr excited! I can't wait to see everyone and spend Thanksgiving at home-where my heart is! ♥ Ok, this post isn't about me going home though, but rather one preparation before I go....I need a haircut! I decided right before I go home would be the optimal time because I want to look good when I go to So. ILL. :)

So...I never had long hair growing up. It was super long and beautiful when I was about 3 or 4-just gorgeous with banana curls and all, but apparently I didn't take very good care of it. I didn't like brushing my hair very much, so my mom told me if I didn't take care of it, she would cut it. For the longest time I kept it short and didn't do much with it. Not that I didn't try, I just have very difficult hair. It's naturally wavy, very thick and sometimes unruly. I love it now, but thats just because I've learned to manage the unmanageable :) (If that applied to every aspect of my life, I'd be a much happier person but thats a whole other subject....) Anyway, so for the longest time I kept it short and then in Jr. High and High School I would grow it out only for a certain period of time and then chop it short. And the coloring, ah! I know some people my age who have never colored, dyed or highlighed their hair. I kind of envy them. I first colored my hair in 6th or 7th grade. I preferred red then. :) But, to get to my point, most of the changes with my hair, chopping it short, coloring it unnatural colors, revolved around emotions; err, rather boys. I didn't really recognize this pattern until February of 2007. Yeah, it took me a while :] I had had this huge thing for this guy I worked with and crushed on him for a while, until in February, right before Valentine's Day I came to the realization that it just wasn't going to work, he wasn't interested. And the first thing I did was went and chopped all my hair off. Granted it was a way cute haircut, but that was the first thing I wanted to do? Weird. Then I traced back the pattern, everytime I wanted to impress someone or show them I was better off without them, I had either cut my hair way short or colored it. Blonde highlights seemed to be an ongoing theme too... Interesting. So what is with this emotionality of hair? It's pretty obvious that women are attached to their hair, but why? And why so much? Does our hair really define who we are? And so now I've been growing out my hair, it's getting longer and longer, probably at the longest I've ever had it, since the 3 year old banana curls (and yes, I brush it these days : ] ) So what does that mean, if anything at all? I'm interested to hear what you think. I've heard from others that they are emotional hair choppers so I know it exists outside my own sphere but why do we do it? Maybe it's one of those unanswerable questions of the female kind, but I was just wondering and thinking about it. Hm....

By the way, I'm planning on cutting it before I go home and this is what I want it to look like.... It's Meg Ryan from the movie The Women (excellent movie, I loved it!) and I love how it can go straight and curly. She pulls it off flawlessly. Just ignore the facial expression :)

September: Lunching and Brunching

So if we are friends and haven't had a lunch date yet, we should. I love lunching! Especially with friends and those I love-what could be better!? And this month I've been so lucky to have lunches and brunches with some really great people. First, Kristine and Meg. These are my girly girls. I think it was around Fourth of July last year that Meg and I learned a statistic that when girls talk among each other a certain "happy hormone" (you brainiacs may know what this is, but to me it's just a happy hormone) is released. So we decided that monthly lunches would help us in getting together to have our "happy hormone" time :) Unfortunately due to schedules and Kristine moving to Idaho these outings have, over time, become bimonthly, then semi-annually. The good news is that we were able to get together this month for brunch on Labor Day! It was such a good time. We met at Mimi's Cafe and got to catch up on a good six months worth of life, jobs and of course relationships (..or lack thereof..) So not only was the company great but the food was fantastic too! I highly reccommend Mimi's for brunch. Okay, next lunch outing of the month: September 11. To commemorate Patriot Day at work we decided to have a potato bar luncheon. Kudos to our manager for such a good idea! It was fantastic. We all signed up to bring either toppings or salad or something to go with our baked potatoes and our boss Kris made the best banana cream pie I've ever had. Yumm! Good stuff. And then there's today. I had the opportunity to go to lunch with my old roomie, Maryvonne. She has been in Southern Utah all summer and spent the day in the Provo/Orem area before heading off to Europe tomorrow! So this was the only time we had and we seized it. We met up at California Pizza Kitchen and had a yummy Italian lunch (my aunties would be proud!) Ah, catching up is oh so much fun! It was nice to hear what she's been up to and hear all about her adventure to Europe. Fun stuff! So, bottom line, lunching with friends is one of my favorite things. It's also one of the things I miss most about home. I miss lunching with my mom! We have the best lunches. In college I would call her on my way home and be like "Meet me at South Side in 15 minutes" and we'd have a nice lunch just the two of us. Good times.

Summa's Over...

I really should be more committed to this blog...

So summer is over :( Boo! It was one heck of a summer for me. Lot's of new things, meeting new people and making new memories. Fun stuff. Gosh, it went so fast. But now it's almost fall and more new things to come.

::valuable lessons learned this summer::

: work can also be FUN! who knew!

: living in EM (eagle mountain) = good times! (Except for their stinky hard water)

: rock band is for those with musical talent. i have no musical talent....

:4 hours of sleep is not enough for miss amy-even in the summer

: even a stay-cation is worth it. i'll take r&r in any way i can get it

: dating is difficult.....but very rewarding :)

: roots keep you grounded

: friends make all the difference!

;)

Go Cards!

So just a quick blog to show some love for my most favorite sports team ever....The St. Louis Cardinals!! Last week the All Star Game was held in St. Louis and I'm not gonna lie, it made me a little homesick. Go Cards!

Fake N Bake -- Minus the Bake :)

So we have the no bake cheesecake and (my favorite) the no bake cookie, but I've found the no bake tan! On Monday I went and got a spray tan. I am a big fan of being tan, especially in the summer and when I'm trying to attract the attention of a certain boy, but I'm also a big fan of not getting cancer. I have one grandparent who died of cancer and another who is now in remission (way to go Grandma!) but literally cancer scares the begesus outta me. So as I was considering it, weighing the pros and cons I came across the spray tan. I immediately thought of celebs like Jennifer Aniston but then I thought of Paris Hilton and that sometimes orangey glow she has..not so cool. But I decided I would try it anyway, if the worst thing about it is having a Paris Hilton orangey glow then I'm down with at least trying it. So I read about it a little online. I'm always a little cautious about reading about things online because you never know what kind of information you are getting, but I found some good tips: hydrate well a week (..or a weekend...) before getting the tan and exfoliate the day before. This worked well because I researched on Friday and had planned on getting the tan that Monday. So all weekend I lathered up with lotion and made sure to drink lots of water and then Sunday night I exfoliated well. Monday I got to the tanning salon and the attendant was super nice and explained to me what to do. It was a little weird though. So it's just a big booth and you first get undressed, cover your hair with a cap and apply the base cream to your fingernails, toenails and drier spots just for coverage. Then I walked up to the door and swiped my hand across to open the door (it's all motion sensored- how cool!) and got in. The door closed and then started the semi creepy computer generated female voice.... "Door closing" "Please face forward your tan will start shortly" "In 5...4...3...2...1.." (Yes, it really counted down like that, I was like.. Um am I in a tanning booth or a spaceship...??) And then the spray started from bottom to top. There are marks where you should stand so you aren't too close, but it sprays for 15 seconds and I'm a breathing kind of girl so I sucked in a breath....and some tanning spray :( . So then Ms. Creepy Voice says to turn and the spray will start again. For all those who have seen the Friends episode where Ross gets a spray tan (lol-i love it!) I made sure to learn from his mistake and turn around. :) So after I was sprayed down again it was done. I stepped out of the booth and started to dry off. When I stepped out I wasn't totally convinced of the spray tan. I looked down and couldn't see any noticeable difference except that I was wetter oh and I smelled like tanning lotion. So I patted myself dry and proceeded to dress. They say that it takes 12 to 24 hours for the tan to set in but I saw results throughout the day. The only bad thing was my hands. I thought I had generously applied the base cream but apparently I didn't do such a good job because my hands were pretty orange. Not like embarrassingly orange but a darker shade than the rest of me. And that was it, I was done. Not bad. In all I think it's a pretty good trade off for looking tan and not risking cancer. The other pros I saw were how quickly you tan-mine was noticeable after a few hours and how easy it is to do. Some cons though, splotchy spots-not really too obvious, except for the hands, getting the spray in my nose and the price. My tan was 24 but it was buy one get one, so I still have another one to use, but if I were to keep it up, it might be a little pricey. Also, the attendant said it would only last about a week or so, so we'll see. I used the Mystic Tan but I've heard there are others out there too. Hm...not bad :)

ps. In my week of trying new things, I also got a manicure and my color? "Explosive!" But I like to call it, Summer Construction Orange ;)

My Life Would Suck Without You

Yep, that's right, I went to the Kelly Clarkson concert last week! Woo-hoo it was fun times. I wasn't planning on going until the day before the concert when my BFF ever, Mellen, texted me and said that a mutual friend had given her tickets. Yay! I was stoked. I won't claim to be the biggest Kelly Clarkson fan or anything but I do like her music. I especially love to rock out to her newest song "I Do Not Hook Up" (Just ask those troopers I work with, they watch me sing it all day :-]) So fun times! The day of the concert, though, it rained all day and I've heard that that is not usual in Utah. So we were a little worried but it stopped in time for the concert. Unfortunately the concert was outside and our only seating was on blankets on the ground. This would have been perfect for any other day but our poor butts were soaked and cold. :( The wet soggy ground did provide one joy....err...hilarity. As we sat on the hill on our wet blankets we watched others walk down the hill to get closer seats. Well...some people walked down the hill...others slid down it :) It was sooo funny to just sit there and watch crowds of people try walking down the slippery slope and then all of a sudden you see arms go up and booties hit the ground. I felt really guilty for laughing but it just couldn't be helped. I also learned a valuable lesson....Laugh at yourself! It was sad to see those who quickly got up and just acted like nothing had happened. Those that got up and just laughed were so much funner and those who got up and posed like they had just landed a vault jump were the best of all! :) haha Fun times! So after the opening act of "Utah's Got Talent"-it was time for Kelly to hit the stage. She was awesome, such a rocker chick! Uber thanks to Michelle and Mellen for the tickets, it was a rockin good time. Oh and thanks Mellen to for the pics I just stole.... ;)

The infamous hill

I'm in awe :)

Home Is Where The Heart Is...

Warning: Long post to be expected....

So home was GREAT! Here's the recap of highlights...

The "Storm"-I am calling it a storm because I simply don't know what else to call it, but the day before I flew home (Friday, May 8) a big storm hit Southern Illinois. At first they classified it as a tornado, but then as I got home and learned more, they were calling it an in land hurricane and a cycloburst something. I still don't know if they've officially classified it as anything yet, but it was a pretty bad storm. Luckily, there weren't too many injuries and I was still able to fly into St. Louis with no trouble. I spent the first few days of my trip with my dad and his family with no power. There were trees and power lines down everywhere-in some cases, the trees were down on top of the power lines-and so there were about a dozen towns with no power. At first it sounded like bad news, but it really wasn't that bad. The first night my dad just grilled outside, which was ingenius because we couldn't cook inside, the weather was perfect for grilling, and what better way to salvage all the food that would soon be rotten! It was great. And with no tv or computer we just sat around talking all night until it got so dark that we couldn't see each other and then we went inside to candles. It was nice. That lasted a few days, we grilled or ordered out for meals and spent most of the day talking or driving around and I got to use a chainsaw when we were cleaning up some of our fallen trees. Okay, so I only used the chainsaw for about 3 seconds, but it was fun! :) The fun started winding down when I realized just how many things you can't do without power. I was okay with the no microwave and no television but then I was ready for a hot shower and to use my flat iron and the fun ended pretty quickly. :) Good thing we had relatives close by! We spent Mother's Day with my aunt and stole a lot of her power (Thanks Laurie!)

My Dad and I after grilling

The Fam-Speaking of Mother's Day, one of the biggest highlights of the whole trip, of course, was seeing family. It was sooooo nice to see everyone and how they've all grown. Seriously, I almost didn't even recognize my youngest brother Austin who is 14 and must have hit puberty and a growth spurt while I've been away! And there's nothing like being with sisters! ♥ On Tuesday night my sister Ali had a softball game so we went to watch her play and then we all went out to eat as a family. And it was the whole family! That never happens. My oldest brother Michael drove down and we all had dinner together. It was fun and such a great (although a bit belated) Mother's Day present for my mom. On Saturday we had one of my cousin's weddings to go to and it was nice there too to see so many family members I hadn't seen in a long time. There were some of my cousins children I had never even seen! They were all so cute! And the aunts. Oh the crazy aunts! They're Italian and I love them, that's all I can say :) I spent one day with my mom and one of my aunts just going to eat and getting pedicures. Fun stuff! And I was way excited to be home when my sister Michelle got her ACT scores back, she got a 33 that little genius! I'm so proud of her!

Me and the Smarty Pants Michelle

Ali and I after her ballgame
The Girls-They got me flowers! Aw!

Me with Baby Tristan-she's 1 and I just met her!

At the Wedding... "We Are Family..."

The Cardinals Game!-That was a big highlight of my trip! I love the Cardinals, but unfortunately never get to see them play. Even though I didn't have tickets and I knew it would be a long shot, I had even checked their schedule to see if they were playing at home the week I would be there. Sure enough they were, but the only game I saw as even a possibility to make was a Sunday game and that just wouldn't work out. Well, then my dad asked me about my plans on Friday and said that he had tickets to the game. AHH!! Yay! So we went with my dad's boss and his wife and it was great! We got there early, even got a free t-shirt and went to eat in downtown St. Louis and then got to our amazing seats. It all started off great, I was busy snapping pics of Albert Pujols (see below), we almost caught a foul ball and Colby Rasmus hit a home run, but then.....then the rain came. It started pouring! Luckily, we stayed dry and waited it out in hopes that they would continue the game, but when it finally stopped they said that the game had been cancelled. Bummer! It was still such a fun time and I was happy just to get to go for those two innings :)

Pujols at first base...YUM!

Rain, Rain Rain...Go Away!

Sad!

I think that's most of the highlights for me. It was a fun trip. I want to send apologies to everyone that I didn't get to see though. It's sad but there are soo many people in Southern Illinois that I love and would love to catch up with but there was only so much time and it was already split between all the sides of family. So hopefully to all those people, we will get to catch up soon! Also, I feel like I learned a lot on this trip. First off, I don't miss humidity at all! ;) It's sticky and it makes my hair expand by tenfold. But I also realized how much I love my life in Utah. I started to miss it after just a few days at home, and I realized I'm so grateful for the life I have. I realized so many blessings, I am so lucky to have such an amazing and supportive family and friends and two "homes"! Another thing I learned is that I'm not a vacation type of person. I was looking forward to not having to work for a whole week, but after a couple days I was bored! I played solataire, caught up on my facebooking and watched an entire season of Grey's Anatomy in two days and then I was ready to get to work :) So I think vacations are nice but maybe a shorter one next time ;)

May Day!

Oh Hapy Day! May is here! I looove May! Here are some reasons....

*I get to go home! 8 days and counting....
*Cinco de Mayo-One of the coolest days to celebrate and party
*Barbecues Galore and it's the month of summer kickoff's!
*If you re-arrange the letters in MAY...it spells...AMY ;-)

And some fun facts about May-thanks to the ever so scholarly Wikipedia:
::May is Older Americans Month as established by John F. Kennedy
::It is also Mental Health Awareness Month (this in no way related to my trip home; hehe)
::Both the Kentucky Derby and the Indiannopolis 500 are held in May
::May Day is celebrated on the Roman calendar, in the United Kingdom and in Ireland, but the reserved holiday is actually the first Monday in May.
::In Germany, it is an old custom to plant a "tree of May" to honor someone. Often young men set up an adorned birch in front of their girlfriends house the night before May 01. Aww...

Who knew!?
Happy May! :)

Put The Wand Down!

Ok, I'm finally all moved in now (*sigh of relief*) and so this has been my first week of the 40 minute commute to work each day. Not only is taking the freeway to work exciting but there's construction between where I live and the freeway so it's especially a treat (please note my sarcasm...) This morning was especially eventful.

In the midst of construction, granted it was stop and go traffic, the lady in the car behind me proceeds to "put on her face for the day" i.e. do her makeup in her car. Now, I love makeup as much as the next girl, I'm quite the fan, but I'm also one of those people who believe that getting ready in the mornings should take place at home-not in the car. I gave this lady the benefit of the doubt at first thinking 'Oh I'm sure she just forgot her eyeliner..' But then I noticed how she was clearly not paying attention to driving, and putting her full face on. Yes, all of it. The eyeliner was followed by mascara (which I noticed was the same I use; Maybelline's Great Lash-how could I not recognize that pink and green bestseller!?) then the eyelash curler and the brow shaper and so on. Good thing we were in stop and go traffic because I'm sure if it had been anything else she would have rear ended me. I kept watching her half in disbelief and half in fear that she in fact would hit me. Then as traffic began to pick up I glanced back and she was on her cell phone! I was pretty frustrated but felt relieved when she soon turned. I probably should have prayed for her and the next poor fellow she followed but obviously that wasn't at the forefront of my mind.

Grrr.....

Get Your Motor Runnin....

Okay, so maybe that song is irrevelant but it was stuck in my head :-)



ITS MOVING WEEK! Whew! Boy is it stressful stuff! I heard somewhere that moving is rated in the top three on the list of "most stressful life events" and I definitely believe that. Luckily unlike my other Provo cohorts, I do not have to try to move during finals....just during a busy work week :) I feel like I've learned a lot through packing and moving though. Here's a few of the highlights. First, I need to de-junk constantly so as to not have to do it all in the middle of moving week. From talks that "I'm going to read....someday" to old clothes I haven't worn since I moved to Utah, it was nice to get rid of stuff I don't need but I wish I would have done it before now. Second, I hate goodbyes! In the midst of the excitement over a new apartment and all I kind of forgot about the people I am leaving behind. I know, I know, true friendships stand the test of time, distance, etc, yeah yeah, but it's hard enough living in Provo and making the time to see friends, now I'll be even farther away. Also, my dear ward friends! Ah, I will miss them so! But I also know the timing is right for me and hopefully we'll all be able to keep in touch. Ok, third, change can be good. As stressful as it has been packing and cleaning and de-junking for the big move, I am sooooooooo excited to be living in Eagle Mountain and living with Heather. Heather is amazing! Over this past weekend and through last night I have been busy getting my room ready for me to move in, which includes not only arranging dressers and bookcases but assemblying them too. I am so lucky that Heather was there-she majored in Interior Design-Yay for me! She was like a pro and without her help, I would probably still be in that room trying to figure out the dresser. IKEA is a great place in every way, except their directions- horrid! Also, we are way excited to paint this weekend. We are doing a red kitchen and have picked a 'Golden Desert' for the living room! Now I just need to settle on a color for my room, but one thing at a time, eh. Okay, I think that's all for now. My official move in date is this Friday. And Saturday starts the paint fest ;) Then we are having a sort of house warming party on the 25th-if you didn't get an evite and wanna come, lemme know! :)

Count Your Blessings...Name Them One By One

I've been feeling very lucky and fortunate lately. So from the oh-so-trivial to the serious stuff of life, I just wanted to quickly re-cap my blessings!

*Family-My family is am-a-zing! I recently elected my mom as the funniest person I know and I'm so lucky and blessed to be able to talk to her often :)

*Spirituality-General Conference was this past weekend and it was soo refreshing! I am so thankful to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and know what I know.

*Friends-AH, what would I do without them! They sustain me day to day, even if I don't see them very often. I am so grateful to have so many friends who are so supportive of me. And to have friends all over is pretty cool too. I was recently asked "What is the first quality you look for in a friend?" I honestly answered 'humor' Thanks for cracking me up guys!!

*My hair-Ha ha, trivial and vain, I know but it's getting so long now and I love playing with it!

*Jobs-I feel sooo lucky to have two jobs that I love going to each day. Some days I am tempted to sing "I ....don't want to work....I want to bang on the drum all day...." but then I realize that I am grateful just to have a place to go every day and earn a living at it :)

*Sports and Sunshine :)-Speaking of jobs, one of my jobs allows me to be outside and bask in the light of the sun and it involves sports, I absolutely love it!!

*Skillz- :-) I have been trying to cut back in different ways, a big one being eating out. This has allowed me to cook at home more and I recently learned that YOU CAN FREEZE FOOD! haha, probably pretty basic, but now I freeze everything.

*Boys- Ok, so they make me crazy, but they provide a completely different point of view. I mean, how boring (and dramatic!) would a world full of just girls be..? So, from my dad to my home teachers to the boys I work with and those that I flirt with....I'm grateful for them ;)

*The Web- By this I mean, Blogs and Facebook. It's kind of silly to be thankful for things such as these but they are one of my major means of communication. I love reading everyone's blogs and seeing what they've been up to. And a number of my extended family members have recently joined Facebook. I'll admit, it was a little weird at first to have my aunts and uncles and cousins that I rarely talk to commenting on my status updates but it's nice and all our family, regardless of distance, can communicate on there. Yay!

Our Current Economic Status: I hate to use the 'r' word, but the recession has turned me into a Recessionista :) I've been panicked enough to try to cut back and save more, both things I should've been doing all along. Also, since I now loathe spending money, I needed work pants and decided to go to our local thrift store, DI. I usually hate thrift stores because just thinking about someone else wearing what I'm wearing kind of grosses me out, but I found two amazing pairs of pants and spent a total of $12 bucks! Woo Hoo! And I believe that hard times bring us all closer, so yay!

So there ya go, a short list from me. I know that so many of these things come and go and most of them could be gone tomorrow. But for now, I am SO thankful for these and ALL the blessings I have been given. :)

Go Jazz!

On Saturday night I became an official fan of the Utah Jazz. When I first moved to Utah, I heard a lot of talk about the jazz, but honestly I thought the "Jazz" was kind of a dumb mascot so I avoided them. Then on Saturday, my ultra cool roommate-to-be Heather invited me to go to a game with her. It was against the Phoenix Suns, yeah, Shaq's team and was the most exciting display of athletic yumminess I have ever seen! I had been running around all day Saturday, driving like a maniac here and there so I was pretty tired and thought, oh man, I'll have to be up late because of the game. Little did I know my energy would be renewed quickly. As soon as Deron Williams stepped on the floor I became a devoted fan of the Jazz! The game itself was great too! (You mean hot players and a good game!? - we hit the jackpot!) The Jazz started off up by twenty but Shaq didn't let that stand, the Suns came back and were eventually up by two with the clock winding down. Then it was tied, sending it into overtime! Yay, overtime! We ended up winning and it was awesome! Woo-hoo! Here's my favorite Jazz player and my choice for MVP of the game-Deron Williams ;) YUM!