40 days and 40 nights

So lent is ending soon- which means I will be able to get back on facebook after a seemingly short 40 days. I have to admit, I really thought it would be harder to give up facebook. That's why I gave it up in the first place, really. I wanted to sacrifice something that I felt an unnecessary connection too. And I am proud to admit that I haven't even missed it. I almost don't ever want to go back on it. Yes, I know, that's crazy talk! haha. I will be going back on facebook- but now I feel like I won't be so attached to it. I can use it to simply keep up with a few people, and leave it at that. I'm definitely not going to check it every single day. And when I do check it, I want to keep a time limit on it. Not sure how long yet... I'll have to get back to you on that one. Either way, I'm glad that I decided to celebrate lent this year. A lot of people have been giving me grief because I'm not catholic. But who cares? I feel like sacrifice is a huge part of life, and if the catholics have something in their religion that can help me learn to sacrifice something important to me, then good on them. I think I'm going to start doing lent every year in fact. I'd like to try giving up sugar at some point. Who knows how that'll go... it would probably be much harder than giving up facebook. Well I've got pictures to share with everyone! Here are some of the things I've been doing while away from the computer :) Once again, these are not in order. Blogger really needs to fix their way of adding pictures into a post....

We went on a picnic at the park. In the park, there is a memorial to soldiers- so there is a monument and this tank. I'm not even sure if its to a specific war or what.... but we got some good shots on it!

We also took some adorable pics just around. Here is Shelly and I



For FHE the other night, we had an Asian culture night. We had a potluck, which of course included fortune cookies!! Nick and I got the same fortune! "No one can take your happiness away from you" So true. The fortune cookie always knows...
This is just us hanging out on a Sunday night. Levi, Evan and I. Oh la la!
Our ward threw a gold party. We all had to wear gold. Taylor (wearing Elise's grandmother's shirt) was the MC of the event. And Elise's jacket was SO rad!!
So there you have it. Pictures, my thoughts on facebook, and now it's that time. Peace

Family, Fun, Etc.

What have I been up to since my last post, you ask? Well a lot actually. I feel like I have been on the go go go! On Wednesday, my wonderful family flew into Salt Lake. I went up to meet them for lunch and shopping at the gateway. Sadly I didn't get to spend more time with them that day since I had to go to work. After work though, I went back up to SLC to spend the night. The next day we had breakfast and then headed to temple square to look around and see the sites. On Friday, my parents rented out a tumbling gym. I invited some friends and we played like crazy for a couple of hours. It was so much fun! Here are some pictures to show you the fun we had:

After the tumbling gym, we headed down to my grandparents farm. It was once again a very relaxing time. We had a load of fun. We went and saw "Diary of a Wimpy Kid." I was pleasanty surprised that I found it funny. I guess middle school boy humor just gets me! haha

Sunday was full of fun as well. The choir performed "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross." I had never heard this song before we started to practice it, but it is very beautiful. You should give it a listen sometime if you have never heard of it either. After church we went to Sunday FHE, where we had a lesson and tacos. The lesson was great and the tacos were delicious. Then the rest of the night was filled with the typical word games, singing around the piano, and general socializing. What a great week and a great weekend. This next week should be a good one as well. :)

Care to Dance?

Well this past week end was full of fun. On Friday night I went to my friend Jacq's wedding reception. It was a super creative and fun reception. For food they had little mini chinese carry out boxes with stir fry, a quesadilla bar with multiple salsas to choose from and then a mashed potato cocktail bar with lots of different toppings for your potatos. Very unique if you ask me. The decor was also nice and the atmosphere was light and fun. After the reception my roommates convinced me to attend an institute dance. I was skeptical because I feared it would have bad music, lots of young freshmen, etc. When we got there it was like a flashback to 2004. Seriously. Everything about a youth dance from when I was 14-18 was at that dance. There were people in costumes, brownies and water jugs in the back, the occasional slow song where couples get together and discuss the typical questions such as "what's your major?" or "where are you from?", and of course the random couples that have felt that magical spark and go to roam the halls one on one as opposed to dancing the night away with the rest of the crowd. Although this might sound like I had a bad time, it was actually quite fun. The music wasn't terrible, and for the most part danceable. And that's what really matters. Levi and I (seen below) did an amazing dance number to some typical slow song.... I'm not quite sure which one at the moment. Either way, it was fun, and I didn't regret going. I also found out that Taylor and Evan have a love for the backstreet boys, which just makes me love them more!

On Saturday it was my roommate, Emily's birthday. We threw a musical themed party. We had showtunes playing the entire time and enjoyed each other's company. Some spectacular dancing also made the night just ever so magical.

On Sunday I spoke in church. My topic was "Maintaining enthusiasm in the gospel." Interesting, I know. I opened my talk by poking fun at myself and noting the irony of giving a non enthusiastic person this topic. I was afraid at first that no one would find this funny, but fortunately everyone laughed and it was a great start to a hopefully great talk. It was also pi day on Sunday, so of course we had a pie party at our house. Lots of people, lots of pie, and lots of fun. That is all for now.....

Project Life Pics

So I have been doing this thing where I take a picture a day. It is called project life. I have done very well with keeping up with taking the pictures, but then I feel like I don't put very many on my blog. So here are some pics! They aren't necessarily in order...

Some guys in our ward had a birthday party for Ginger, the mannequin. When they moved into their house, they randomly had 2 mannequins there. One of them being Ginger. Here is Shelly with the birthday girl.

We went to IHOP for national pancake day. You got a free short stack in hopes that you would donate money to a charity.

Elise and I went on a walk around town and stopped by the Bollywood Market that just opened up a few blocks away. Lots of Indian spices and foods to explore!

FHE this past week was an art show. We wore all black (well most of us did...) and snapped at all of the exhibits. Such a classy family I must say...

And finally, this was my outfit for the cinderella ball. I got it at Target!

So there ya go! Enjoy!

My Life Really Is a Musical

Well it was a good weekend. On Friday, I went on another walk with my friend Adam. This one was a lot longer than our typical walks. We walked from my house down to the river trail and walked on that for a while. And it takes quite a while to get to the river trail in the first place. It was a really nice day with good conversation, so in general a good time. That night I went out to dinner with my old roommates Heidi and Michelle. Michelle graduated in December and moved back to AZ. So she came in town, and we all went out to Macaroni Grill- our traditional place. So that was a good night. On Saturday I worked during the day. After work I went to a wedding for my friends Heather and Alejandro. It was a beautiful ceremony with a reception immediately following. They are such a fun couple! So I'm glad I got to go to that. On Sunday we had break the fast after church. I didn't eat much though because my friend Shelly and my roommate Emily had planned on making pizzas from my food network magazine. We made breakfast pizzas, and boy were they delicious! They had bacon on them and then you cracked on egg on top and baked them. Very good. Simple as well, but very good. My friends Levi and Taylor then came over and we watched the CES fireside while making crafts. We all hung out until it was ward prayer time. After ward prayer we all played games. Everyone slowly left for the night until it was only Elise, Evan, Taylor and myself. And then the most incredible thing happened. Evan was playing the piano and Taylor was showing me his blog that he just started. Evan then turns to Taylor and asks him why he didn't know about this blog. Taylor says its because he had just started it. Evan doesn't accept that, however, because it had been 4 whole days since the first post. He then begins to play and sing a song about how Taylor didn't tell him about this blog. And he was so good at being serious! And he sang for like an entire song! Then all of the sudden Taylor stands up and joins in the song too, singing about how sorry he was for not telling Evan about his blog. The words were rhyming and everything! Elise and I just stared at each other, not knowing if this was really happening or not! I was laughing so hard, I was literally bawling. Not just crying! They continued the song for like 5 or so minutes and then ended with a dramatic finale. And then we all went back to normal conversation. So as my title suggests, my life really is a musical. And now you can all be jealous. That is all.

On Repeat

I have this quirk, if you will, of discovering a song that I really like and then playing it on repeat about 1,000,000 times. I have been listening to "say say say" by Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson for the past half hour on repeat. No joke. I realize that this quirk actually is very telling of how the apple does not fall far from the tree. My father does the same thing. He always has, and it drives my mom crazy. Sometimes I think that I can't listen to a song this much, but then I ask myself "Why the heck not?" If I want to listen to a song on repeat for hours on end, why can't I? So what if I eventually become sick of it? If it's that good of song, that wouldn't happen anyway, right? So I went through my itunes just now and categorized the songs according to play count. Here are my top 10 played songs:

1. Bang Bang (feat. Adam Levine) by K'naan. This comes in at a whopping 192 plays

2. Dangerous (feat. Akon) by Kardinal Offishall. Play count: 164

3. Share it With Me (Smile Future Remix) by Family Force 5. 153 listens

4. Evacuate the Dancefloor by Cascada. coming in at 105

5. Party in the U.S.A. by Miley Cyrus (yes I know...) 96 times

6. Mad by Ne-Yo. 95

7. Bulletproof by La Roux. featured 89 times

8. Down (feat. Lil Wayne) by Jay Sean. big ole 85

9. Human by the Killers. also at 85

10. Shake It by Metro Station. Shakin 83 times

I do have to admit that I'm a little surprised by a few of these- such as Evacuate the Dancefloor and Human... but hey itunes doesn't lie! Of all of these songs, those would be the two that I would put in the "I'm tired of that song" category. Say Say Say is currently on its 13th play. And yes- this is my second blog post in one day. Amazing what no facebook will do to you. (it's been 2 weeks!)

Piece of Elise and I have made some goals

My roommate Elise and I went on a long walk yesterday and came up with some goals that we want to accomplish this semester/summer. I figured blogging about them is a good way of keeping track of everything we said. Hopefully I can remember at least most of them. Because we made a lot.

1. Go camping

2. Eat at Communal- a cool new restaurant on our street

3. Take a roadtrip to CA

4. Hike the Y

5. Build an amazing fort

6. Have an extremely classy dinner party

7. Go try new, undiscovered restaurants around Provo and then blog about them

8. Have a real Tickle Panty party- what is this you ask? I'm not sure either.... (think slumber party)

9. Go to an outdoor concert

10. Make a movie/short film

11. Learn the Single Ladies dance... oohhhh yeahhhh

12. Have a tie-dye party

13. Go sit out in nature and paint a landscape

Wow we made a lot of goals.... I know I'm forgetting a lot of them. Elise, maybe you could help me out here? Well either way- its going to be a fun next few months. Of that I am sure. If you have ideas of other fun ideas, let me know and we will add them to the list!

Another Week Lies Ahead

Well I've started the week off right. I've been trying to get up earlier as a goal. And today I woke up around 9:30. Trust me, this is early. I got up and then went on another superb walk with my friend Adam (cupid shown below). Once again it was a gorgeous day and enjoying the world and nature felt great. Wish me luck on getting up early the rest of the week :)

This past weekend was a pretty good one. On Friday night my roommate Elise and I went party hopping. haha If you can even call it that. We went to my visiting teachers house, where she was throwing a birthday party for her little sister. Afterwards we went over to our neighbor's house for a dance party. It was mainly swing and salsa dancing- and therefore a lot of fun.

On Saturday night, I went and saw the Princess and the Frog at the dollar theater on campus. I had already seen the movie, but it was just as enjoyable the second time! It is such a good movie with fantastic music! I would definitely recommend it to ANYONE. And of course it has a good moral! haha what Disney movie doesn't, right? Afterwards we had some friends come over and we watched The Office. Which is always a good time, or at least a good laugh, :D

Sunday was a busy day! It always ends up that way. My ward is a very social ward on Sundays, so there are always plenty of things to do. After church I made dinner with my roommate and neighbor. We couldn't decide between breakfast food and Mexican food, so obviously we decided on breakfast burritos. And boy were they delicious! Later that night, there was a waffle night. I went to that. Although I didn't eat any waffles due to my full of breakfast burrito stomache, it was still fun to socialize with everyone. Ward prayer followed that. I've never really been a huge ward prayer person, but for some reason this ward has good ones! So I find myself wanting to go to them, which is always a good thing. After ward prayer we had drink night. Here I am with my friend Taylor, enjoying a strawberry daquiri I believe.

After drink night, we returned to my house to have a boggle night. I have been quite successful at winning boggle every time we play, but I was finally defeated by the honorable Levi last night. It was close, but he finally won in the end. Trust me, I will beat him next time! ( I guess I have to let him win sometimes, right? Just to keep things interesting). Well that's all for my weekend update! Here's to waking up early and being productive! Cheers!