Aimee's Adventures

2011-05-22T14:27:00.000-07:00

For those of you who used to follow me here at this blog, you should now follow my married blog. We've had it a while, but it appears some of you haven't switched over. So, do it :)

Its blahblahberrett.blogspot.com

also, check out my cooking blog.

Its likemother-likedaughter-food.blogspot.com.

2010-05-30T23:37:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I forget to blog, or journal. And I realize that is bad. I'm missing pretty momentous things going on in my life. Its the last 27 days of my single woman life. That's huge. Also, Nate and I have been dating for one whole year, that's pretty impressive too, huh?

Tomorrow is Memorial Day, which means no work. Though actually I never work on Mondays, except for last month when I watched Baby Zoe. I love her so much. She even knows me now, or at least my face. I could come in and Anthony would be holding her and she'd give me a big grin. Though I do think she still saves the largest smiles for her parents, but really can you blame her? Nate and I are going to go to Maple Lake in Payson Canyon tomorrow. We're going to go fishing and pack a picnic and I plan on taking lots of pictures.

Usually picture taking is my way of not allowing my life to pass by without documenting my memorable memories. But with my normal camera out of function, I now have to carry around the less convenient clunker camera. But I promise I'll take some tomorrow, clunker or not.

Also, I really hope we catch some big fish. You see, that's my only wish. ;)

Friday

2010-05-21T05:25:00.000-07:00

I love Fridays because:

-- its my early day of work and I'm done by 11:00.
-- every other Friday is payday and I love checking my bank account and seeing that money.
-- its Friday. I get to get hang out with Nate late and I don't have to wake up early in the morning. AND I don't have to work for another two days which is kind of fantastic as well.

Today is Friday. I'm not really sure what we are going to do with ourselves. I just know we won't be painting cause Nate is absolutely sick of it. I know I have to work at Legends. Fix Stanley's tire. Babysit Zoe. Shower. Clean my room. But then I'm free for the weekend. What a glorious feeling.

Idaho

2010-05-17T16:04:00.000-07:00

We were able to have a fun get away trip this weekend to Idaho. Dain, Rachel, Nate and I. We stayed in northern Idaho Falls with Rachel's family. We went fishing all day Saturday. I got pretty frustrated because there were a few hours where I didn't catch anything. But I tried to enjoy the sunshine. Eventually I caught 3 fish. We all got a little sunburnt, but I feel great today, and I can't wait to have it turn into tan. Nate and I were able to go to Grandma Brinkman's for lunch/dinner on Sunday afternoon. Uncle Curtis was visiting so it was fun to see him too.

It was a wonderful weekend. We hope we can do it again sometime soon.

PS. I've been failing at taking pictures lately. It doesn't help that I can't find the charger for my small camera. So I only took a few pictures unfortunately. Just know that it was beautiful up there. But here are a few :

rainbow chip

2010-05-07T23:09:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, on days when I catch up on a lot of blog reading, I think about things that I could blog about. But then I realize that most of those things aren't really things that anyone cares about reading, except maybe my mom. But still, they are usually things I want to write about, so I can remember my thoughts.

I was showering today and I think my roommate was doing laundry at the same time. But I had no choice, I had to shower anyway because I needed to be ready. The water temperature kept fluctuating which was pretty obnoxious, it went from scalding hot to freezing cold.

*I absolutely love rainbow chip frosting. So much that I might actually consider it a weakness of mine. One small serving, only 2 tbsp is 140 calories. Wowzas. I could just eat that stuff straight. But, its especially good and graham crackers and is totally one of my favorite treats ever.

*Survivor: Heroes vs Villains has become one of my favorite shows. Its so fun because Nate and I enjoy watching this one together. And last night his roommate, Tristram, even watched it with us and I think he's hooked too. Its so good and so unpredictable. I love it. In last nights episode, two of my least favorites got voted out and they had no idea it was coming. They were trembling in their shoes when they heard their names read, and then bam, sent home. It was totally glorifying.

*I started tracking my calories about 6 months ago. I can't say its really helped, cause my weight has pretty much stayed the same. And I'm sure some days I forget to add things, so I under record, and some days I probably add to much of something making me go over. But I still feel good about myself for doing it. I'm definitely more conscious about what I eat even though sometimes I just can't help myself and I completely divulge myself. Like today for instance, I supposedly ate about 800 calories more than I'm supposed to, about 160% of the amount of sodium and carbs I'm supposed to have, and about 400% the amount of sugars I'm supposed to have. Holy cow! I guess its good that I'm keeping my weight steady when I have random days like that. My excuse for eating so much sugar today is that Nate and I went and saw Iron Man 2 in theaters tonight, and I've been getting up around 5:45 every morning this week (yes I have been going to sleep early) but still, I'm exhausted, so I munched on candy to stay awake. The movie was really good though, in case you're interested to know.

*Oh my gosh, I just looked at my calendar, and I totally missed it (since its officially Saturday now). Friday was 50 days till my wedding. I can't believe its already down to 50. (Which is still insanely far away) but this engagement has been flying by. And I can't weight to marry my sweetie in 49 days or 7 weeks exactly (if you remember that its Saturday).

That's all I need to write now. I think I had a few things I thought were blogable when I was getting scalded in the shower earlier, but I can't remember them now and I want to post this entry. THE END.

favorites

2010-04-18T22:14:00.000-07:00

here are a few of my favorite engagement photos. this is only a few of my favorites. i really like so many of them. i like all of them. you can see all the full versions here. Which is your favorite?

2010-04-14T17:20:00.000-07:00

A few years back President Packer said Nothing happened in Sodom and Gomorrah which exceeds in wickedness and depravity that which surrounds us now.

Slightly disturbing huh?

until

2010-04-12T06:58:00.000-07:00

5 more classes...
one final computer assignment...
a German movie...
a 10 page paper...
a 'material file'...
and 5 final exams...
till i'm done with this semester.

i can't wait.

then only one more semester to go. and i'm done with my undergrad/bachelor degree FOREVER

2010-04-03T07:48:00.001-07:00

often when i look at other couple's wedding pictures i get teary eyed. i can't wait to take my own.

we'll be taking our engagement pictures in about a week and a half, as long as the weather is nice that day. but we don't know where to take them yet. any suggestions?

why is it...

2010-03-23T10:29:00.000-07:00

why is it that i live day by day through my school assignments? i find myself regularly saying, once this ___ is done then I will feel so much better.

for example, tomorrow i am giving a referat (a presentation) in my german class and today i am telling myself, once my referat is over with tomorrow i will feel so relieved. i will be able to focus on my other school assignments, like my 450 final paper, and my 473 final project. but why is it that i can't bring myself to work on those big projects today? they'll probably affect my grade more than this silly german presentation will be able to improve (or hurt) my grade.

and then i find myself saying, and then after that, and after that, and after that, then final exams, and then i'll be out of school for 4 months. then, well then, that'll be so great. i'll feel so peaceful. but then, actually, i'll be planning the last details of my wedding. but the plan (and goal) is that it won't be quite as stressful.
working 40 hours a week and planning a wedding doesn't seem like it'll be quite as bad as working 15 hours a week and taking 15 credits and planning a wedding, right?

maybe i should try living for today instead of living for when my school projects will be done. and maybe i shouldn't procrastinate my school assignments to the last minute causing me to dread them with all my heart. good idea?

2010-03-15T15:06:00.000-07:00

I can't wait for the day when I can go running or go swimming and then just lay out and soak the sun into my skin and eat a Popsicle and listen to my Ipod and not have to worry about any other cares in the world. This probably will never happen, but a girl can dream, right?

Today I went for a run and I was thinking about how nice it would been to come home and eat and shower and relax and not stress about having classes the next day, or the dozen projects that I have to finish before the semester is over. And winter classes are over in 4.5 weeks, and then finals finish just a week after that. But, then I'll still be working 30-40 hours a week and finishing up all the wedding planning. So actually, even then I won't be CARE free.

But its probably better not to be completely care free, right? I mean, its good to have things and people that I'm concerned about. Even if it does mean that sometimes I'm stressed beyond belief. And then even little things stress me out, like today I freaked out about not having Nate's birthday present even though the tracking device said it was already delivered. Not a big deal right? I checked the mail after I got home from campus and it was in our mail box, which means I definitely didn't have any reason to stress out about that.

I'm just glad that the weather is finally warming up. And I'm praying we don't have any more surprise snowstorms like we did this last Saturday. The temperature on Wednesday is supposed to get up to 62 degrees, which is almost warm enough for shorts, and is most definitely warm enough for flip flops. And Nate and I are going out to eat tonight, thanks to my dear mother. And even if I do have to work in an hour, and I haven't done any homework for tomorrow, life is still good. Scratch that. Life is beautiful.

The Birthday Boy

2010-03-11T21:14:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is Nate's birthday. He will be turning 22, which means we will no longer be the same age (until my birthday in August) he said that he can "call me young as long as we are not the same age (fortunately that's only 5 months out of the year).

Here is a post on "our" new blog that I wrote about him. I'll probably still update this blog too. Especially when its not in concerns to Nate. We'll see...

Happy Birthday Lover. I hope its the best!

Registry

2010-03-03T22:10:00.000-08:00

Nate and I registered at Bed Bath and Beyond on Saturday. It was so much fun! Nate was totally dreading it before we started, but once we got there I think he really liked it. I think he enjoyed the idea that we can pick what the colors of our house will be and the fun and nice things we will (hopefully) get.

Nate ended up having to go into work late Saturday night, and I was so obsessed with registering that I stayed online chatting with him and we were sending links back and forth. It was fun, but it made me pretty tired for 9:00 church the next morning.

We've heard we should register somewhere else, but we can't figure anywhere else that we'd really want to register. On Tuesday we went to Target and today we went to Sears. They both have a few things we might like, but I don't think its enough to make a whole registry there. Any ideas of where else we should register? Or should we be okay with only BBaB? Maybe that way we can make sure we get the things we really like the most. At one point we talked about registering at a sporting goods place so we could get camping and fishing stuff, but I don't know what store we would pick for that either. They don't have Cabellas in VA or CA.

Anyway, of course you will all be getting me a lovely wedding present (just kidding) so you can check out or registry if you want. Just type in our names or our registry number which is 11561841. I love looking back at it and getting so excited to get gifts! Is that selfish of me?

4 things

2010-02-15T22:14:00.000-08:00

this morning i talked to my mom for about an hour and a half. she told me that she loved being able to talk to nate (along with my dad) on monday (when he asked them permission, to ask me to marry him). she said she asked him why he wanted to marry me. his four main reasons were:

1. because we connect spiritually. he said that with some people you can just feel that there is a deeper connection. more than just a physical and mental connection, but a spiritual one too. even though he didn't go on a mission he believes that the Lord put me in his life now for this purpose and he needs to take advantage of it. he is looking forward to us being able to grow together spiritually and have experiences where our testimonies both grow.

2. because i am a hard worker. he said that he is glad that i work hard now. even though i don't have the best job, i still do the best i can with what i can. because i don't depend on my parents to pay for me, even though i could if i really needed to. because being a hard worker now will prepare me to be a hard worker when i am a mother and at home with our children.

3. because i am intelligent. he said that i don't ever give myself credit for actually intelligent i really am. but he loves that we can just talk, about anything and everything and we can have a good conversation. he said he's dated lots of girls that weren't very smart and he couldn't do that with, but he can with me.

4. because i am beautiful. he said that beauty is the first thing to draw someone in. its the thing to make you walk across the room to see someone, and to keep coming back.

it made me cry as mom was telling me these things, and it even made me cry again as i'm sitting here writing them down. i'm so in love with this boy, and i'm so lucky to have him love me back.

2010-02-13T08:18:00.000-08:00

I started this post on Thursday...Nate told me that he'd tell me one thing that he loved about me a day until we're engaged.

1. my eyes
2. my hands
3. my butt
4. my lips

When we were at the park he began with, I guess I'll just tell you a bunch of things I love about you now, because this is the end of the list... (something like that). He pulled that precious little box out of his pocket and I still don't think I realized what was going on. A few seconds later the tears started dripping out of my eyes. He picked that location because he'd gone there a few times in the past couple months (late at night, after we'd been hanging out) to pray and make sure that WE were right.

He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him and, well, I said YES. I was so excited I didn't even give him a chance to put the ring on my finger. I stole it out of the box and put it on myself.

can you tell how ecstatic I am?

2010-02-13T00:06:00.000-08:00

I'm getting MARRIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-02-06T23:20:00.001-08:00

i saw "friendly man #1" again on thursday.

it easily made my day.

102

2010-02-05T22:40:00.000-08:00

one-hundred and two things I love:

my cat Pipin
my puppy Natasha
my mama
my padre
my brother anthony
his wife jana
their baby, zoe bean
my boyfriend boog, Nate
my cannon powershot
my nikon d70
my lappy
sleep
german (the language not my class)
wiener schnitzel
gelato
german chocolate
vienna
austria
and germany
and all of europe
traveling
taking pictures
nate's smile
pizza
yozone
yoasis reunions
macey's
24
the office
reading blogs
blogging
trying new recipes
facebook
exercising
shaved legs
plucked eyebrows
eyeliner
eating
texting
vienna reunions
summer
cake
birthdays
christmas
babies
zinnias
the internet
pictures
headbands
getting flowers from someone
graham crackers and frosting
lake powell
extended family
cousins
grandparents
aunts
and uncles
being an auntie
scheduling my calendar
craigslist
raspberries and cream
being tan
the Greindl's
clothes just out of the dryer
green beans
sugar cookies
cookie dough
rainbow chip frosting
stanley
my ipod
john mayer
colbie caillat
taylor swift
switchfoot
new music
smarties
"stealing" smarties from macey's
peanut butter cups
chocolate
hot chocolate chip cookies
farr's icecream
clean sheets
ride's home after work
money
friends
white teeth
whitening strips
stuffed animals
earrings
the scriptures
picture frames
white boards
getting an A on a test
clean carpet
a clean house(/apartment)
the beach
fires
fishing
catching a fish
and cleaning it
finishing and turning in big assignments
waking up without an alarm

I thought this was a fitting post for my 102nd post. Sorry that I forgot to monumentalize my 100th post. and sorry if there are any repeats on this post. or if you got bored reading this.

tired

2010-02-03T09:43:00.000-08:00

i'm tired of this weather. and ready for spring. too bad the groundhog decided that we have 6 more weeks of winter.

i'm tired of school. going straight through spring and summer, although it seems like a good idea, may be the death of me. come june i'll finally have a break, cause i'm only taking spring classes this year. can't wait.

that is all.

<3

two men.

2010-01-27T09:26:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I talked to two of the friendliest and happiest men alive.

Man number 1 walked by me in the hallway of the Wilk. He said "good morning" and I asked how he was doing. He responded and asked me the same. As he walked ahead of me he wished me "an absolutely fantastic day". He then paused at the door and opened it for me. I watched him in awe as he continued to say "good morning" to every person he passed and to wish many of them to "have an absolutely fantastic day" as well.

Man number 2 works at the information desk in the SAB with his wife. I stopped to get a poster of the BYU men's volleyball team and he began to tell me about how he and his wife have been to over 860 BYU football and basketball games. One year they were honored by the basketball team as the fans of the year (or something like that). And they got to travel with the team to Australia. We talked about BYU sports a little longer, and then he asked me what grade I was in school, and then if I'd found a rich man to marry. He said CTR stands for 3 things: Choose the right, Choose the rich and one more I can't remember right now. I told him that I've found a good boy that may be able to provide that for me. And he said "good. But remember, the most important thing is to be happy." He then told me that everyday that they are alive they choose to be happy because they aren't dead yet.

I hope that I can learn to have such a happy disposition as these two men.

2010-01-25T16:43:00.000-08:00

McKinlee is going to be such a wonderful missionary. I was able to go to her farewell on Sunday, and man, the spirit is so prevalent with that girl. Her talk was so amazing, and got me crying, a lot. I think a few of the tears were out of jealousy that she is returning to Germany/Austria and maybe even Vienna itself, but I know another good chunk of those tears were because I know how GREAT she is going to be.

Ps. I donated blood today and one of the questions was: "have you been out of the US or Canada in the last year?" and I had to answer "no" and that broke my heart a little bit, to remember that it ACTUALLY has been that long.

Yoasis

2010-01-18T09:15:00.000-08:00

this was so great. definitely one of my favorite things to do.

self improvement goals:

2010-01-13T17:47:00.000-08:00

emotional:
-be more rational and patient during IR
-fall more and more in love with Nate

financial:
-pay my tithing twice a month (after each pay check)
-save as much money as possible

mental:
-get at least a 3.25 GPA each semester/term
-graduate in December

physical:
-exercise for an hour or more, at least 2 to 3 times a week (most likely running or biking)
-bite fingernails less (don't bite them at all)
-floss teeth every other day
-don't pick at my split ends

spiritual:
-read scriptures more
-attend the temple at least once a month
-read my patriarchal blessing at least once a month

2010-01-06T21:39:00.000-08:00

ps. i didn't go running today :( instead i took a 2 hour nap. oops.

any ideas on how to motivate myself to go running in this freezing weather?

2010-01-04T18:13:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the first day of classes for Winter 2010. I had 3 classes today. CHum 210, Rel C234 and Germ 303, which computes to, instructional application programming, LDS marriage and family, and advanced German language 2. It was actually a good day. I think it will be a hard semester, but hopefully my being busy will just make the time till warm summer go even faster.
Yesterday I saw a mother speaking with her young children. Telling them that "mommy used to go to school to become a teacher, but then she stopped". Her little boy responding "because you'd rather be a mommy?". It was adorable anyway. It made me think of when I was a little Girl Scout, probably a daisy or so and we were interviewed on a tape-recorder. The question was "what do you want to be when you're older?" and in my cute little innocent voice I responded "a mom"
Yesterday I got a raise for a dollar twenty-five more than I've been making. That's right, lady's and gentleman, I am officially a student manager at Legend's Grille. Of course it comes with a few more responsibilities and I'm forced to work a Saturday closing shift, but that extra cash each pay check will make it totally worth it. I think I'll finally be able to save a little money, instead of just spending all that I make.

Today was my second day of class. Now I have gone to all of my classes for the semester, except one that is only 2nd block. I definitely think the semester will be do-able. I may have to work a little harder than I'd like to, but I think I'll manage. I'll make Nate go to the library with me if I have to.
Today was my second day of work too. It was funny today because one of my coworkers asked if I was a legitimate student manager now and of course I responded yes, but throughout the shift he kept calling my 'Manager Aimee'. And since I am a manager I am responsible to make sure people stay on task and I even have to assign people to do the yucky prep jobs, like pressing burgers. That part might take some getting used to, because I'm not usually a huge 'take-charge' kind of girl.
Today Nate and I are making burgers for dinner. It'll be good cause it'll remind me of summer fun. And it'll be tasty too because we're putting brown sugar bacon on the burgers. We've only tried that once before, but it was maybe the best burger I've ever had.

Tomorrow is Wednesday, my third day of classes, and no work tomorrow. I'm excited to finish my day tomorrow at 1:00. Hopefully that means I'll spend the rest of the afternoon catching up on the reading assignments I've already missed (because I didn't have the books yet)
Tomorrow I want to exercise. I was doing so well last semester until I got sick and then with the freezing cold weather it was really hard to convince myself to walk on campus to use the track or a treadmill. So I haven't ran in at least a month :/ But since I finish classes so early tomorrow and I don't work tomorrow, I don't have a good excuse anymore.

...

2009-12-29T21:19:00.001-08:00

I really want to write something special since I have so much free time and should be able to think of something clever. But I just can't seem to:

1. I love my niece Zoe Noelle Garrett. I've loved seeing her pretty much everyday since she's been born, and she's already grown so much. I will be a little sad when I can't see her as often cause we're all much busier with work and school resuming. Today I got to hold and cuddle her for a bit while she was sleeping and I absolutely loved it. I have so much love for this child, I can't even how much greater it will be one day with my own.

2. It's about 2 days and 12 hours more till I get to see Nate again. I'm picking him up from the airport. 2 weeks apart is WAY too long, and I hope I never have to do that again. Though we have had fun being able to SKYPE with each other each night.

3. I watched the Hannah Montana movie tonight and I really liked it. It was a little cheesy, but the plot line was decent, and I'll confess I love singing along to her music. It even made me cry, though that's not to hard to do, but it was really good, really sweet and touching.

4. My parents were wonderful to get me a knew camera for Christmas. Of course I don't NEED one, especially since I technically now own 4 cameras (but one of those is film and in a drawer at home, and another is here in my apartment in a box somewhere). But its a nice Nikon SLR camera. Its a few years old, but my mom got it for an AMAZING price at work and I love it and I'm so excited to see the masterpieces I'll be able to create.

5. Its snowed way too much today and as far as I know its still snowing. I know, its not as much as the blizzard that was on the east coast a week and a half ago, but its about 3 or 4 inches now and its cold and wet. And I finally made my first snow angel of the year, but that's about the only good side of the snow. I'm ready for it to be March and to welcome in the spring time and welcome back Mr. Sun.

Sorry, it definitely wasn't a creative post. But that's my life, not creative, and these are my thoughts for now.

stress

2009-12-10T16:48:00.000-08:00

Last night I was so stressed about my presentation this morning. I had pretty much finished my paper, but I took it over to Nate's to proof read it. I felt bad for him though cause there were so many linguistic terms he probably didn't really know what I was talking about. Nate and I watched the 2nd half of Two Tours and we were planning on finishing at 10 but we didn't finish till 11. Nate walked me home and I just started crying because I did NOT want to work on my presentation. I am so bad at speaking in German, especially when something needs to be memorized, and EIGHT whole minutes long. I prepared it last night but worked on the memorization this morning. I was able to give the whole presentation aloud to myself as I was walking to school, though I'd forget some parts and have to add them later so the ordering was a little skeewompis. I gave my presentation and I don't think I was even that nervous. I had my notes in hand, but I only had to look down a couple times, and not because I couldn't remember a word or a concept, but just because I needed to be reminded what was next so my ordering would be better.

After I gave my presentation of course everyone clapped. Then my teacher mentioned that some of the presentations might be good preparation for a question on the final. I reread my paper in between classes and made a few last minute corrections and turned it in. My teacher was in her office and said that I did a great job. I asked her if it was too short (cause normally I speed rush everything when I am in front of people) and she said no and that it was perfect. As I left her office she again stated that it was a good prep for the final. Isn't that wonderful? As far as she's hinted at me I think there is going to be a question on the final relating to German's development from a synthetic to an analytic language (my topic). I really hope there is because that would make me very comfortable since it is a group final and we each only have to contribute some, I can now contribute to that question since I'm currently an expert on said development.

Anyway, last night Nate was so sweet and was telling me how unimportant the presentation was, in the scheme of things. And how unimportant even our grades our. We'll look back on our grades in 10 (maybe less) years and think how silly it was to become so stressed over something so irrelevant to our life. He said what really mattered is that we are in love. What a sweetheart. I was still crying and dreading my presentation, but it was so sweet of him to say and to help me feel a little better.

Now that classes are done, even though I still have 5 finals to take (3 in class and 2 take home) I feel so much better. My paper is done, my presentation is done, my homework assignments are done, and actual classes are done. Lovely. Lets just hope I don't get too stressed next week when my brain actually focuses on the finals.

the christmas season...

2009-12-05T09:34:00.000-08:00

Melissa and her husband had a Ginger Bread Housing making party. This was our result. We didn't realize how much our "house" looked like a train until Anthony and Jana pointed that out to us. Oh well, it was still really good, and tasty too.

Nate and I with our "ugly sweaters"

Dain and Nate looked like such creepers with their whole outfits. Truthfully, their sweaters weren't that bad though.

boog.

2009-11-29T20:20:00.001-08:00

This week I discovered that, well,

Nate is my booger, and I picked him.

Tomorrow is our 6 month anniversary. Any cute, cheap, and healthy ideas of what we should do to celebrate?

mixed feelings

2009-11-23T07:27:00.001-08:00

i love the christmas season. i love getting and giving christmas presents. i love eating christmas treats. i love being with my family. and i'm super excited to meet that little niece of mine.

but, i'm dreading be away from the boy for 2 whole weeks. he says we'll text and call and skype a lot, but its not the same as being together. especially on christmas and new years.

so, if you're going to be in provo for christmas break, lets play, cause i may have quite a bit of free time...

In 6 days

2009-11-19T08:49:00.001-08:00

I'll be at home!! I'll wake up in my own house. Though, not my own bed. But, I'll get to play with my cute fat cat and my sweet sweet dog. And eat my mother's delicious cooking. And enjoy the warmer weather.

If you can't tell, I am SOOOO excited! That's all.

Counting down the days... till THIS.

My Beach.

My Temple.

My Puppy.

My Pier.

My Papa.

and, My Mom.

The Book of Mormon

2009-11-12T11:01:00.000-08:00

Dain created this website for a couple of his less active friends. He invited Nate and I to join and since then has invited a few others too. We are all going to read the Book of Mormon by the end of next year, and this website allows us to post our comments and thoughts about it, and read the ideas of others.

He said I could invite anyone else to participate, so if you want to join you are more than welcome too. Let me know if you have any questions about it.

Ps. I am really excited to read through the Book of Mormon again, I don't think I've read all the way through since seminary (senior year?)...

feeling crafty.

2009-11-09T09:23:00.001-08:00

**Elise and I went to this Bi jou market on Saturday and got completely inspired to make our own hair things (clips, bobby pins and headbands). Nate was a little offended that I let him/made him take a nap on Saturday so that I could be crafty with Elise. We went a little crazy with lots of ribbon, lots of flowers, lots of hot glue.... but nothing was expensive and we've still got lots of supplies left.

**The lighting in my room is awful right now so these pictures don't rock, but here are a few of them that I made :)

For a cute baby that may be in the family soon :)

blue flowered bobby pin.

I wrapped the headband with brown ribbon and put the flowers on.

A white stretchy (party) headband w/ pink flowers

this may be a little big for my head, but i think it'll be cute.

Nate suggested I wear it with a sun dress, though that may have to wait.

white bow.

**So, there you go... I didn't take pictures of all the headbands I made for the Zoe. They may be too big for her new born head (I have no idea how big baby heads are) but hopefully they'll fit her sometime as a young child.

**I wore my brown headband with 3 flowers to church on Sunday and to my enrichment commitee meeting and one of the ideas for enrichment was making flower hair clips, and I mentioned how Elise and I spent hours doing that on Saturday, so they admired my headband and made me incharge of enrichment in 2 weeks. Though I don't love taking charge, it should be a really fun activity. I get to go out and buy all the supplies and decide exactly what we're going to make. Fun!

wants

2009-11-03T12:04:00.000-08:00

i want new boots. actually i just want new shoes in general, but boots seem like the perfect shoe to get with the chilling weather. my current pair of boots are a dark brown color, and i absolutely love them. but i want more. i either want a lighter brown color, like a reddish brown, or some cute black ones. i would actually love the cowboy boot style. if you know of any good deals let me know (cause it takes a lot to get me to actually spend my money). but i would love some new shoes to keep my feet warm in this upcoming snowy weather.

i want this semester to be over. i actually really like my classes, but i'm completely ready for a break from them. plus, i want to be done with these silly things called tests and projects and quizzes and hw assignments. if i could just learn and go to class with out all those unecessary things i would be happy. plus i'm excited for my classes for next semester (though we all know once those actually start i'll be ready for the end of that semester too). and there is one more completely selfish reason i'm ready to be done, but i feel much to silly to write about that, or actually to even think about it. okay here goes. i'm excited for nate to get new classes and for the girls in his current classes to STOP texting MY boyfriend... see, completely ridiculous of me, right?

i want to know why i have this bump on my hand, palm side, just under my ring finger. actually, its not even visible, and i totally forget about it after a few days, but occasionally i start playing around with my hand/that finger and i feel it again, and i wonder. does my bone have a bump there? is that normal?

i want the weather to stay like this forever. its absolutely beautiful, temperature wise, if only the leaves were still colorful on the trees. i won't complain about the loss of leaves though, as long as this weather stays and we can postpone the snow as long as possible.

i want my hair to be long and my teeth to be white. my hair is getting longer, and i love that. but because i haven't had it trimmed in so long (hence it getting longer) its really unhealthy. i'm getting a trim over thanksgiving break, and that should be great to get rid of those split ends and keep it growing long and beautiful again. and i'm working on whitening my teeth as well. i've got crest white strips, stronger than anything you can buy from a store apparently, cause they're straight from a dentists office. and my teeth ARE getting whiter, but their also painful in the process. the cold air outside hurts them, and they just feel funny almost all the time. apparently that will stop when i stop using the strips, but until then, i'll keep on trying to make them as pearlywhite as i can.

Food Poisoning...

2009-11-01T09:37:00.001-08:00

..or whatever I had yesterday, is the absolute worst thing my body has yet experienced. I've had food poisoning once before, but I think I threw up more yesterday than I did. 12 times in 12 hours.

But I'm proud to say that I ate food around 9 last night and it is still in my stomach. AND I haven't thrown up since 3:00pm yesterday. I even was able to sleep completely through the night. Now that I'm awake and up my stomach hurts a little, and I feel weak, but its probably cause of the 3 pounds I lost yesterday. So, I'm eating some applesauce on toast. Go BRAT diet.

And, it showed me how sweet my boyfriend actually is. He came over first thing in the morning, left and got me pepto bismal and a dozen pink flowers. Left to play football, and because he saw me he forgot to eat breakfast and consequently got a migraine. But after resting for a couple hours he and Dain came over and gave me a blessing and he brought me some pink gatorade so I could get a few nutrients in me and hopefully not throw it up. He went home and changed and came back and was so sweet and just cuddled with me. Left for an hour so I could take a 2nd shower of the day, which felt so great on my achey body. Then came back over to help me walk back to his place. We went to the store and got me some chicken noodle soup, apple sauce and apple juice and watched a scary movie together. It was a good day. And I definitely think I'll keep him.

And since I was sick yesterday of course we didn't dress up, but at least Nate and I have our costumes for next year now. :)

5 months

2009-10-30T09:19:00.000-07:00

Friday, was our 5 month anniversary. Nate and I have been official for exactly 5 months. Isn't that exciting?

I was going to try and list some of our favorite memories, but I'm kind of lazy right now. So it looks like that might have to wait till our 6 month.

Its been a really good 5 months. Since my longest relationship ever was 6 months, Nate likes to tease me and say he is just trying to beat that record, so I may only have a little over a month with him left, but it'll be a good month at least ;)

Here's to 5 months together, and many more to come. Cheers!

Robi

2009-10-23T16:54:00.001-07:00

Here is a link to an article about it... http://universe.byu.edu/node/3395

Life

2009-10-23T07:18:00.000-07:00

Last night when I got home from Nate’s I got a text from Kelsey confirming that I had been in the ward with this guy Robison Sundell. He was in my FHE group over the summer, he was my son, and I became good friends with all the boys in his apartment. I asked her why and she said because he died last night in a long boarding accident.

I was doing fine until I called Nate and told him I started bawling, and I called Mom and was bawling then too. Its just crazy for me to think about how fleeting life actually is. And its especially crazy because on my way to class yesterday, I was on the phone with Nate and I was late to class, but I passed Robi, and I only had a chance to say hi to him, quickly. I hadn’t seen him since the middle of August and he died on the day I saw him again. He was in the hospital on life support for at least a few hours last night while they were waiting for his family to come and officially say goodbye to him, but he didn’t have any brain activity the whole time.

I texted a couple of the boys that were his roommates in the summer, to ask them about it. They said "at least he went out doing what he loved." Again, I just can’t state how much we need to make the best of our lives, today, because you really never know what can happen.

10 minute mile

2009-10-21T17:14:00.000-07:00

I'm officially really out of shape. I went running on Monday for the first time in who knows how long. I went for about 25 minutes, but walked about 10 minutes, I'd run a few blocks then walk a couple then run again.

Today I ran again. Twice in a week, that's good at least, right? I'm going to try going Friday too and getting a 3 a week routine down. I ran a lot faster today, and stopped less too. I ran the same distance in about 20 minutes today.

I looked up how far I ran, 2.2 miles. That's pathetic how slow I actually am, and how out of breath it actually makes me. I'll get better though, with time. Too bad its getting colder though so it'll actually make the breathing part harder. I might have to run on the indoor track sometimes too.

Anyway, regardless of how slow I am, I'm proud of myself for going twice already this week. And I'm determined to keep it up. So, here's to getting into shape. :)

Forever

2009-10-15T07:54:00.001-07:00

So, we all know how great the office is. But did you watch last weeks? The second part. You can find it here.

So, Chris Brown's song "forever" came on, and it showed flashbacks of Jim and Pam getting married on the boat. They eloped. They ran away from all their friends, because they hated having their wedding revolve around other people's agendas. They looked so completely happy. And they're only acting.

It made me cry. Not a lot, but a few tears definitely dripped down my face. I think I wiped them away in time so Nate didn't see. I just couldn't help it. I want that happiness.

Someday.

I also loved when Twitch and Comfort hip hopped to this dance on SYTYCD. You can check that out on youtube sometime.

looking forward to..

2009-10-09T17:04:00.000-07:00

*Halloween. Nate and I are planning on going as Princess Buttercup and Wesley from a Princess Bride. I'm excited, though we still need to find our costumes. I'm also excited to carve a pumpkin and eat lots of candy. I really want to go to a corn maze this year too.

*Thanksgiving. Nate and I are driving to California to spend the holiday with my family. I'm excited to show him my home, the beach and why I love SD so much. If anyone is headed that way for Thanksgiving and wants to go with us to save on gas that'd be awesome.

*Christmas. Actually pretty much just for Zoe's birth. I can't wait to be an auntie and spoil that little girl like crazy. Two weeks off of school will be pretty nice though. I haven't had a two week break since last Christmas.

*Graduation. Who cares if its 14 months away. Once it happens that'll be so great. I won't HAVE to go to anymore school. Except then I'll have to start working full time somewhere, and hopefully I'll be able to find somewhere good to work (we this economy). And I still (kind of) want to get my masters in Communication Disorders, or get my TESOL certificate. Either way, a bachelors degree will be very exciting. And after graduation I'll finally get to start real life.

*Love. Life.

*What the future holds. I'm excited for tonight to see my lover boy again. I'm excited for Thursday when my L2 paper will be finished and turned in. I'm excited for this weekend. I'm excited for holidays. I'm excited for the snow to come and then to be gone again. I'm excited for this summer. Especially THIS summer.

*Every future second of my life.

great.

2009-10-05T16:25:00.000-07:00

remember this r problem i'm having? well, its still going on. and after taking the key board apart and cleaning it all out, nate discovered it must just be a short. he took my computer to work with him so he could check it out and make sure. so i'm here planning on buying a new keyboard for my computer, 30$, not too bad, but i hate spending money. and nate tells me not to order it yet because he's going to talk to dell and see if they'll fix it. so. get this. he said he was a little rude to them. oops. but he convinced them to fix it for me. plus they're going to fix my touch pad which is pretty crappy, tighten the hinges on my screen and replace the cover to my cd driver. isn't that amazing? what a sweetheart to get them to do all those things for me. i feel a little bad that he was mean to them. but it'll be worth it. so they're sending me a box in the next couple days. then i'll be computer less for 10-12 days, yuck, but, then it'll come back working like new. yay. nate says i owe him big. any ideas?

"r"

2009-10-03T20:30:00.001-07:00

the letter isn't working on my keyboard right now and its really obnoxious actually. the numbers 4 and 5 aren't working either. but at least i can use the function 'u' and 'i' key and get those. each time i want to type an 'r' i have to use 'control v' to paste. so buggy.

i'm trying to think of ways i can get around typing with that letter. different words i can use, words to increase and exercise my vocabulary. its just not working at all, there are way too many words that use that letter. i am typing sentences and they are coming out like this... "the lette <> isn't woking on my keyboad ight now and its eally obnoxious actually."

see what i mean? how do i get around that?! good thing i have a techy boyfriend huh? hopefully he can fix it!

fall -- winter

2009-09-30T09:28:00.000-07:00

last weekend i went with my mom and dad for a drive up the canyon. we stopped at sundance and rode the ski-lift up so we could enjoy the leaves so more and then we hiked down from the top. it was absolutely beautiful. fall may just be my favorite season.

today it is practically freezing cold. it is rainy and wet and cloudy and cold. i am wearing rain boots and a scarf (!) and a sweatshirt. no more flip flops and short sleeves, i guess. the high today is supposed to be 52, the same tomorrow. there is a chance of snow. i guess winter is coming early this year. i hope it doesn't stick around until april.

see the snow atop that mountain!

aren't we cute?

2009-09-20T14:46:00.000-07:00

aimee is....

2009-09-12T22:09:00.000-07:00

saturday september 12.
aimee is exhausted.
aimee is a boring girlfriend. she sleeps all the time. and can never figure out fun things to do.
aimee's burp just tasted like sushi.
aimee NEEDS to do laundry. she hasn't done it yet since living in this apt. too many clothes?
aimee found a hole in her jeans today. she must need a new pair.
aimee hears music. and people. loud. outside somewhere.
aimee went fishing today. twice. -- we didn't catch nuffin. "what're they bitin' on?!"
aimee has the best boyfriend ever. and. she loves him.
aimee is bedtime. beyond, actually. only 11:16pm.

sunday semtember 13.
aimee is church.
aimee is finally doing laundry.
aimee has lots of hw to do today.
aimee ate the best burger for lunch. lots of meat. and brown sugared bacon. delicious.
aimee gets to eat lots of dessert tonight.
aimee is ready for a nap. see? she always sleeps.

the end.

Contest

2009-09-02T09:39:00.001-07:00

Vote for me again!!! PLEASE?!

http://www.brickfish.com/agarrett88

Boondocks

2009-08-29T09:13:00.000-07:00

Last night Nate and I were going to go to the Thanksgiving Point Gardens, but after all the administrative things got done we weren't going to be able to be there very long and it was getting dark. So instead we decided to go miniature golfing, we looked online and found boondocks up in Draper and headed there. Its right off the freeway actually, you know when you're driving to SLC and you see that large fake red rock arch on the right side of the road? Thats where it is.

Making sure he's got the right stance.

Mini golf was so fun. To start off I was doing pretty poorly and was losing to Nate by a few, but I slowly started improving and caught up to being just 2 behind. And then a couple holes later we were tied. We stayed tied for a few holes and then on the 2nd to last hole I got a hole-in-one and Nate scored 3, which put me two ahead. The last hole, is the kind where you lose your ball, and we both got it in one (cause thats the only option unless you hit the ball backwards.) Which means... I won the game! It may have helped me that somewhere along the line Nate forgot his score and guessed what it was somewhere in the middle, but that's his own fault, so I won fair and square.

Grumpy that he lost.

Next we turned in Nate's 10$ all got 43 silver tokens to play arcade games with. We won a few tickets, but our favorite game was this African Safari shooting game (I should've remembered the name), we played it twice and of course Nate won both times, but I've never shot n actual gun before, so that's a good excuse right? We ended up with 98 tickets, but decided we wanted to buy a couple more prizes so we got 4 more silver tokens with a dollar and got 29 more tickets. So, we bought two fun dips, two dum dums, a laffee taffee and a green popper. And oh man, the popper is so much fun. Nate made me have it pop off my head (he did it first) and he took a video of it and it kind of hurt, but it was so funny.

We bought a pizza and a box of hot doughnuts from Krispy Kreme. Yum Yum Yum. It was a great night.

grades.

2009-08-26T17:31:00.000-07:00

I got an A- in intro to the English Language (ELANG 223)

I got a B- in German History and Culture (Germ 330). Isn't that GREAT? A B- in Deutsch? Okay, so thats not a great grade, but I fully expected a C something in the class. And I got better than that! Just think the first test in the class I probably got a 60%, and each test grade improved from that point on, only a bit, but enough for a B-. Thank goodness.

I'll take a 3.2 for my 6 credits. Thats better than my cumulative still. A little pathetic, I know.

Maybe with a little luck and faith I'll still get into grad school someday.

Miss Quelsey

2009-08-18T21:49:00.000-07:00

This is dedicated to Kelsey Groom. I feel like I need to write about her. I haven't seen her since April. We'll text or FB though. And today, when chatting on FB, (well we're still chatting) but so far we've typed the same thing (well, about the same thing) at the same time, twice.

1. Apologizing for not seeing eachother this last weekend.
2. She asked if Tolson was home, and I asked if she knew that he was home.

So weird. No wonder we are twins. =)

This girl and I have been through so much together. Good and Bad. From living next door, to being roommates, traveling to Idaho, to Brian Head, Freshman Academy, Liberty Square, and especially we have both been through a lot of boys together, and a lot of heart ache from boys.

I love you QUELS, I hope we can play again soon. I miss you so much!

accepted

2009-08-15T09:54:00.000-07:00

"i really like your family" -- nathan berrett

i think they like him more than they like me actually. but i'm just glad they all like each other.

only

2009-08-04T19:08:00.000-07:00

excitement: it fills my soul.

1. Only about 2 hours till I get to see Nate. That means I get to see him tonight.
2. Only 3 more days of classes. 1 Test. 2 Finals. Then it will officially be my summer for about 2 weeks.
3. Only 3 days till I get to see my mama. She's going to take me shopping, and help me pack, and we'll laugh together.
4. Only 8 (or 9) days till I get to see my papito. He's gonna teach me how to change my own bike tire, since it seems that is a regular necessity.
5. Only 13 days till my birthday. Then I'll be 21. I can no longer be told "maybe when you're older" cause I will finally be a "grown woman". I like to think I'll still be a little girl inside though.
6. Only 2 days till we find out if its a boy or girl. I think I'm almost as excited as they are

2009-07-29T10:40:00.000-07:00

Nater is gone. To farmington tonight. To Nauvoo tomorrow. Till Tuesday. So. if you are my friend, and if you're reading this you must be, lets play sometime. puhlease?

2009-07-27T06:36:00.000-07:00

The fireflies were going CRAZY at the park last night.

I love the music in the background, it seems as though they are dancing, though I think it was just dinner time.

Good Eats

2009-07-26T12:05:00.000-07:00

We (Nate and I) ate WAY too much this weekend. I know I said it before, but we really need to cut back, not just because of our growing stomachs but because of our shrinking bank accounts.

Friday we went to macey's and got icecream. Don't tell anyone, cause they'll run out, but the icecream there is AMAZING. Especially the shakes. But they are a little rich. But cheap and HUGE, and delicious. We only got cones yesterday. But the pb cup shake, well they put 8 WHOLE peanut butter cups in there, that alone costs about as much as they charge for the shake. Try it sometime.

We got a pizza from Walmart. Took it to Nate's and cooked it. Very meaty, and manly (but good for me too) and great.

Saturday afternoon we went to the Farmer's Market in the Pioneer Park. And they have FREE samples of some really yummy things. My favorites were the japanese beef, and honey butter. There are cool crafts and pieces of art and other cool things there as well. Go. We'll probably go again and again and again. Before it ends in October.

Then we went to Los Hermanos. Not the best Mexican food I've ever had, but fresh just made chips. And the food was still really good. Just nothing will beat "my rosas". But they gave us so much food. I got a beef burrito, and it came with rice and beans. Also they get points for the freshness factor, the food was burning hot, as was the plate.

We took a nap. Because we felt so exhausted from eating so much food. Hah! What a terrible excuse. But you know how eating too much makes you sleepy? Just like Thanksgiving.

That night we went to Nicolitalia with Dain, Trist, Emily and Brittany. Nate and I shared a medium pizza. But it was the perfect amount for the 2 of us. They also have pasta, and calzones there. We got a meaty pizza again. Why get anything else, when that is so good. Well, it was delicious, anyway. I'd definitely recommend it, if you're looking for good, not too expensive pizza.

And lastly, the two of us went to Maestro's on Center Street. We each got 2 scoops of gelato. And let me tell you it was DELICIOUS. I don't know if it would compare to all the Italian Gelato I've had, but it was at least pretty darn close. I got raspberry and amaretto to see if it compared to the deliciousness Claire and I partook of in Florence. Nate got coconut and pineapple. They all tasted so fresh. The pineapple especially tasted like I was biting a pineapple, which is my favorite fruit, I think. Anyway, it was very yummy. It wasn't TOO expensive either, not as cheap as our 3 huge scoops for whatever like 2.5 Euros in Venice, but decent nonetheless. We'll probably make it a monthly occurrence to go and I think you should too.

summer nights.

2009-07-23T22:48:00.000-07:00

even a minute away and my thoughts rush back to him.
the couple embracing across the street distracts me for only a moment.

the wind blows my hair onto my face. it tickles me.
music plays in the background as i listen to the wind ruffle the leaves.

i love the feeling of these warm summer nights.
the temperature outside is the perfect combination of cool breeze and hot dry air.

i wish summer would last forever, but it seems its already coming to an end.
more than a month till fall classes. till reality.

but we'll love life till then.
and we'll continue on even after.

this is paradise.

Memories

2009-07-22T16:49:00.000-07:00

I feel like....

Bomb Dot Com. Peeps.

7x7

LOVING life.

McFlurries.

Our first round of 7x7. In London, at the Guy Fawkes celebration.

Our second round of 7x7. On the way home from Germany.

McFlurries in Dublin. and EVERY other city we went to.

Bath House in Budapest.

Quantum of Solace. At least a week before it was out in the states, in Dublin.

We woke up early to eat breakfast. Went back to bed. And got up a bit later to eat breakfast again.

Relaxing on St. Charles Bridge in Prague.

At the Austria - Turkey Game.

Windsor Castle was one of my favorites in London.

weekend

2009-07-17T07:51:00.000-07:00

The weekend could not come any sooner.

This week has been VERY stressful to say the least. Especially yesterday and this morning. But its all coming to a close and in about 3 hours I'll be done with school again till Monday.

What a glorious thing the weekend is. I hope its as relaxing and fun and wonderful a planned.

wonderful things of unexpectedness

2009-07-13T17:02:00.000-07:00

I love these treats

1. A very unexpected introduction occured on Sat. I met Claire's wonderful mother! And another dear friend of Claire's. She's great. And I wish/hope I can be better friends with her.

2. A very unexpected wall post appeared on my FB Wall. She was my Best Friend/Nextdoorneighbor from Bennion. What a lovely surprise. She's doing well. I wish I could go up to SL to see her.

3. A very unexpected friend add on FB. Maybe for a more sneaky purpose. But I still feel completely special that I'm friends with him. Hah!

4. A very unexpected chicken arrived at my house around lunch time. With the cute Nathan. Rotiserrie Chicken from Costco is the best. What a delicious treat.

excitement.

2009-07-09T16:45:00.000-07:00

Number 1. Anthony and Jana invited me to go with them, on Aug 6. to the doc appointment to find out if its gonna be a bambino or a bambina. Which also is wonderful news, that I'm going to be an auntie. The baby isn't due till December, but hopefully school will keep me busy enough till then that I won't be too anxious. I can't even imagine being the parent, that would definitely cause a lot of anxiety.

Number 2. I entered a picture in an online photo contest. I doubt it will win, but its still very exciting. I'm still in the 5,000s, but thats out of 40,000. And I've only voted for myself twice. You should vote for me! I decided to enter 2 more today, just to see how they do as well. See what type of photo people like best. Vote for any of them, or all of them. You can vote every few hours. PLEASE?!

Number 3. Its almost the weekend. I've got a lot to do tonight still. Including a German oral presentation to prepare. Yuck. But after 12 tomorrow I'm free again till Monday. We don't have anything planned yet and that might actually be fabulous, cause then we can do whatever we want.

Number 4. I'm getting tan! I'm tanner than one roommate with an Indian father and another with a Guatamalen mother. The cons of that are that one day I will probably get skin cancer, and it shows how white and pasty my stomach/everywhere else inappropriate to show is.

Number 5. We went fly fishing yesterday. Nate doesn't have it totally down yet. Which means I can't actually fish really, cause if he can't do it how could I? But, we caught one that was probably 17 inches. And sadly missed 2 huge fish that each broke the line. I really want to buy myself a bait pole and prove I'm a Utah resident and get a license. We'll see...

Number 6. I took my second Deutsch Kultur Geschichte Test today. I didn't do amazingly on the first one, but I felt really good about this one. I found a good group of guys in the class to study with and I definitely think that helped. Hopefully I did alright, I started the test after and finished before a few people in my class. But I can't imagine writing any more, my hand is killing me, plus I would hate to be in the testing center any longer either.

Number 7. Elise and I signed a contract for fall housing! Actually the contract will be F,W,Sp and Su. But we might try selling the spring and summer contracts so we can find a cheaper deal. We will be living in Strattford 204, in Condo Row. I am thrilled that I will be living so close to campus. It will only take me like 10 minutes (max) to get to classes instead of the current 20. Plus, I'll be living about 1 minute away from my sweetie, instead of the current 8.3.

Number 8. After signing our contracts I went into the Twilight Zone, just to check it out a little, and see if there was any tasty treat for me to snack on. And guess what I found?! Milka bars! Oh my gosh, even though they're more expensive than a regular candy bar I decided to buy two, a normal milk chocolate and hazelnuss. They actually weren't that pricey considering when they weren't on sale at Billa they were about one Euro. They cost about 1.70, but thats only a little more than 1 Euro with the exchange rate. I've eaten about half of the milk chocolate bar, and it is absolutely delicious. Let me know if you want a bite :)

sleep

2009-07-09T08:45:00.001-07:00

i fell asleep during the movie last night. a couple different times. but i even said goodbye when it was over.

but for some reason i woke up about every 30 minutes last night feeling like he should still be there. and feeling like i was missing something. and had missed my alarm. at 3:30 in the morning. of course i hadn't slept through my alarm. and when the alarm time got closer i woke up more frequently. until i turned it off and got out of bed.

worst sleep in a long time. i'm not sure why.

i hope everything is okay.

choose an emotion.

2009-07-06T16:26:00.000-07:00

"every women's dream" -nate

staring off into the distance.

my hair looks brown again. :( i swear its getting blonde.

yawn.

tiger. "wait nate, how is tiger an emotion?"

asian. sorry.

haha. just the two of us.

Nater Bater

2009-06-29T17:09:00.000-07:00

He is a complete goober. This video cracks me up so much. He took it himself :) I just watched it about 12 times while waiting for it to upload. So great.

a Linguist

2009-06-25T12:20:00.000-07:00

- an expert at making linguine
- a person who speaks several languages fluently
- a specialist in linguistics (the science of language, including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and historical linguistics.)

The closest I am is probably being the linguine expert. I'm pro already with spaghetti noodles, so I'll just have to try these ones next. Then I can pass all my classes with flying colors. ;)

No, I don't speak 12 languages, I actually only had to take ONE foreign language. I choose German. Its now a minor (passion) of mine.

I'm learning about all those things. I'm taking a syntax class in the fall and a german phono/morpho/syntax class. It should be quite difficult. My ELANG class right now is wonderful, I may be the only person in the class who has learned any of this information before. Woot.

a sunday afternoon

2009-06-23T18:01:00.001-07:00

it was blissful. the weather is finally warm again. for a while at least. we went to the park. threw a frisbee around and relaxed. i loved it.

:)

He gives me faces like that a lot.

"artsy foot picture"

camping

2009-06-21T09:00:00.000-07:00

we went camping this weekend. in tabiona. it was beautiful there. we forgot a few items to make the food better (including ketchup), but it was still enjoyable. we made a fire. we cooked polish
sausages. and a mush of bacon, carrots and onions. i froze as i slept on the hard ground. but only
woke up 3 times. around 6:30 elise climbed in my sleeping bag and we spooned. but it was so
warm.we ate eggs and bacon for breakfast.we went fishing. nate broke his pole on friday, so we
caught the fish with just line and a hook. we caught 4! i pulled one in with my bare hands and the
line. i cleaned 2.5 fish. nate taught me how and i did it. i cut them open, pulled out the guts,
broke the blood along the spine, cut off the fins, and scaled them. i even had to bite off a piece of
the fin that wouldn't cut off. i felt like a total mountain woman. it started to pour, freezing rain.
we hurried back and cleaned up the camground. we drove home. we smelled like mud, wet, fish,
and fire.

what a wunderbar time it was. ganz geil :)

Eliseeeeee and I

See, it was beautiful.

I don't think Dain loved us being on his car.

River. Blue Skies. Fishing.

Dain teaching Elise to fly fish.

LOVE.

The fishie I caught. A good sized one too.

Fish kissies :)

My mountain man.

The catchings of the day.

Cleaning the fish.

Bloody hands and all. I am a mountain woman.

trust

2009-06-18T07:40:00.000-07:00

yesterday, after two weeks apart i got to see claire bear again. and let me just tell you it was absolutely perfect. even with time away from eachother, once we come back together its just it was yesterday. we catch up on eachothers lives, and we spill our entire hearts to eachother. this needs to happen more.

i was thinking about it yesterday, how i could've gone to vienna the year before. i wasn't accepted, but then later i was. but i turned it down. i'm so grateful for that now. there are other people from the program that i'm so grateful are in my life today. but especially my claire. i need her in my life, and i'd like to think that she needs me too.

its so funny to think about how a friendship, a trust, like this was created. over a rocket summer shirt and sharing a bed together. but now, it unbreakable and i trust her with my thoughts, my aspirations, my worries, my heart. and i know she'll listen.

there are few people that i will bear by soul to.

ali always had to pry things out of me, but because she would i knew she cared and i started to give information more willingly.
my mother is the first person i'll call when anything goes awry. she'll tell me she wishes she was here to give me a hug and make it all better.
i promise i'm working on opening up to YOU, its just not what i normally do and i'll have to work on it more. i do trust you. i am trying...

and thank you again claire for letting me tell you all about my life. you're wonderful.

spoiled

2009-06-16T17:43:00.001-07:00

going from 25 hours in two days to less than 4 hours in two days is absolutely awful.

outdoorsy

2009-06-15T16:09:00.000-07:00

i want to write. but i have no idea what i should write about. its been a couple days so maybe thats why i feel like i should. and life is really good. so maybe thats why too.

but im at a loss for words, to describe anything. here's life.

nate and i spent as much time together as possible this weekend. friday we went out to dinner. and he was nice enough to come to a "vienna reunion" bonfire with me. my al pal was there with her scottyface. which was so good. we ate lots of chocolate. saturday we went fishing. nate and i caught 4 fish. dain caught 3. the hurricane came upon us. seriously. we went to my ward activity. to fend off "the sharks". i think it worked. we played with anth and jana. blockus 3D. and ate ihop. i went to church with him. to fend off the jezebels. we ate trout. and brownies. so much for being healthy. meh. at least we're relatively active. i love how much we do outside.

its time to study for finals. i've got 3 tests this week. i'm not thrilled. wish me luck.

we caught ducklings this week. they were adorable. we tried again last night, but i think cause it was sunday they were already full.

our catchings. what a feast.

Nater fishing.

I even caught a snake while we were there. I'm getting braver.

vow to be healthy

2009-06-07T22:42:00.001-07:00

We ate so much food this weekend. On Friday Nate and I went on our first official date, a double, with Elise and Dain, to outback. They all get steak, and I got this yummy chicken with mushrooms (not quite as yummy), cheese and bacon on top. A boy that Nate and Dain knew was our waiter so he brought us a free icecream dessert. We went back to the boys and watched a movie, North by Northwest and ate more icecream and shakes.

Saturday, the two of us went up the canyon and found a little fire pit. We cooked bratwurst, and I stuffed myself with 2, then we made s'mores. The canyon was beautiful and always makes me really appreciate Utah's natural beauty. We watched the Return of the Jedi back at Nate's and first he just made a fruit smoothie, but then later he made a s'more milkshake too (which was sooo good) but i felt so fat after eating so much.

Last night, we just shared a bowl of icecream, while watching the Brave Little Toaster

We've decided we can't eat like that anymore. So starting today, we're not going to eat junk food every 5 minutes. We're gonna eat healthy, and eat less.

Here are a couple cute pictures.

my frosting is disappearing...

2009-06-03T13:57:00.000-07:00

i'm glad to say that even though it is sad that my frosting has been slowly, or not so slowly, disappearing, this statement is purely physical. for now there is no metaphor intended.

rainbow chip frosting is so delicious. and i don't eat it that often. but occasionally i'll whip it out and eat it on some graham crackers. i had it on my shelf first. then next time about a quarter of it was gone. i put it in the back of the fridge and now its over half way gone. keep in mind i've only had 3 graham crackers with frosting.

are they searching every day to discover when i've actually opened the container to learn that its become accesible to steal? i don't get it. because it sat in the same spot on my shelf before it was opened. and after. until i put it in the fridge. because its healthier, and tastes better. meh. i dont say anything cause i dont want to ruin our now established friendship..

but at least life is still full of frosting. at least things as delicious as frosting.

a couple friends from study abroad read their mission calls to us last night. i'm soooo thrilled for them. germany and brazil. how rad is that? needless to say, it was very joyous to see old friends again. especially my kinner who i hadn't seen in over a month.
the weather is still glorious. i haven't been getting the hot face at all lately. which also means i haven't been getting as tan lately. but i'm still pretty tan. scott and zach told me yesterday that i look mexican. :)
spring classes are almost over. which means summer classes cometh. but, i'll be glad to take these finals and write these 2 last papers.
my finger nails are painted purple. which is apparently more acceptable than the previous turquoise color.
the boy still likes me. and i still like him.
elise is home from michigan. and hopefully won't be going back till aug. though she will leave in a few weeks for kelly's wedding! but i'm excited to play with her until then. we're going on a double date this weekend.

well. that's all. i'll have to think of a new place to hide my frosting so it doesn't all get eaten before i get any. but until then, i'll enjoy life's frosting :)

swell

2009-06-01T13:00:00.000-07:00

life. that is.

spring term is absolutely ridiculous. i have a test today and one tomorrow, then a paper due thursday. but only 3 more weeks then i'm fertig. then onto summer term classes. which i'm also excited for. 330 is gonna kick my trash probably, but it'll be so good to speak german again.

the weather has been fabulous lately. i love sitting outside in shorts and a shirt. reading a little. tanning a little. just loving life. and stanley has been treating me so well too. as before, we've really enjoyed our rides our to utah lake. check out how gorgeous this is.

i'm not sure what that annoying splot on the upper left is, but i cleaned the lense, so hopefully it'll be gone in the future.

and the cute boy i've been hanging out with. well, he's just that, cute. we have a lot of fun together.

buggies.

2009-05-30T01:08:00.000-07:00

i've always got the buggies. it takes a while to get comfortable, and so you've got to adjust till you get there. and then you get a random itch on your leg, then your arm, then your toe. bah.

i'm so content right now. i'm sitting outside on my "porch" listening to crickets chirp. and blogging. its slightly chilly, but i've got a blanket on my legs for that. theres an itch on my right AND left thigh. maybe its from bug bites. about 12 bugs flew into different parts of my face today on my bike ride. ashlee and i rode down to utah lake. i wonder how many miles that is? i'll definitely be taking my camera next time. it was soooo beautiful. a gorgeous day, with a curvy trail, grandiose mountains, and a beautiful destination of the lake.

the end. its way past sleepy time.

squirm.

stanley

2009-05-28T16:56:00.001-07:00

i love stanley to death.
we can just go out for a ride.
and its so refreshing.
plus, its good exercise.
i especially love riding/coasting down hills.

last friday ash and i went for a ride with stan and rox to cafe rio. it was delicious. and a great ride.

Stan Stan and I

Ash and I

Ashlee and Roxanne

Yummy Cafe Rio

Mmmmmm mmmm

Roommies :)

here we come

2009-05-23T23:37:00.000-07:00

i'm in california right now.
and its so glorious.
i got so toasted today.
my front side and my back.
i'm excited for it to turn into tan.
and my hair is getting blonder too.
i love love love the beach.
and california.

more to come later :)

better

2009-05-16T16:21:00.000-07:00

BRAND NEW DAY by Joshua Radin

Some kind of Magic
Happens late at night
When the moon smiles down on me
And bathe's me in it's light
I fell asleep beneath you
In the tall blades of grass
When I woke the world was new
I never had to ask
It’s a brand new day
The sun is shinning
It’s a brand new day
For the first time
In such a long long time
I know
I’ll be ok
Most kind of stories
Save the best part for last
Most stories have a hero who finds
You make your past your past
Ya you make your past your past
It’s a brand new day
The sun is shinning
It’s a brand new day
For the first time
In such a long long time
I know
I’ll be ok
This cycle never ends
Gotta fall in order to mend
And it’s a brand new day
It’s a brand new day
For the first time
In such a long long time
I know
I’ll be ok

thank you joshua radin, for singing just what i've been feeling.

2009-05-13T15:48:00.000-07:00

----------------------------------------------------

the clouds in your eyes

down your face they pour

won't you be the new one burn to shine

I take the blue ones every time

walk me down your broken line

all you have to do is cry

This song came on, just after.

I haven't cried since that night.

But I wish I could. Cry again.

I think it would be a nice refresher.

----------------------------------------------------

And I know it's easy to say

But it's harder to feel this way

I miss you more than I should

Than I thought I could

Can't get my mind off of you

And I hate the phone

But I wish you'd call

That's all. Exactly.

My mind likes to wander. Wherever it pleases.

No matter how much I try to avoid those thoughts.

I can't make the call. I wish you would.

I miss you. I really do.

----------------------------------------------------

I’ve been down this road before

So the best thing

I can give to you

Is for me to go

Leave you alone

You got growin up to do

I like to pretend that THAT is a good excuse.

For things not being just the way I want them to be.

At least its what I keep telling myself.

In my almost 21 years of life, I still haven't grown up enough.

I can't make my own decisions.

I can't stop biting my finger nails.

I can't not procrastinate my school work till the last second possible.

There are a lot of things I can't do.

But don't be fooled.

There are a lot of things I can do too.

*I can live in a foreign country, where I hardly speak the language. I can get myself where ever I want and need to go. I can grocery shop, along with any other kind of shop. I can learn to communicate with the people, and I can learn to love them with my WHOLE heart.

*I can take care of myself. I can cook myself food. I can clean my room and apartment. I can wash my own clothes. I can live alone.

*I can attend college. I can enjoy it. I can enjoy learning, and attending my classes. I can get my homework and reading assignments finished on time. I can get good grades.

----------------------------------------------------

The things in my head

You used to admire

In your sundrenched world

I'm talking to you

But you're not listening

I don't know what to do

My heart is blistering

I think I might be the one in the 'sundrenched world'.

But its better to be optimistic, rather than pesimistic, isn't it?

I really don't know what to do with myself.

At this point in my life. What do I do next?

"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming."

Thanks Dory, I'll sure try.

----------------------------------------------------

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19IVl7kbNFY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMtbOwloypE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olz0wPI3eX4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FC6TqsaJ2g

Status

2009-05-09T22:28:00.000-07:00

Aimee....

(on 5/9)
...has the best parents.
...wants to go to the 'fun' concert at the avalon this wednesday.
...is spoiled.
...is excited to ride her new bike. anyone want to join her on a bicycle ride?
...loves joshua radin.
...ate way too food much this weekend.
...is pretending.
...did not take THAT as a compliment.
...loves you.
...is thrilled the baseball team won the series (way to scare us in the 9th today, letting in 5 runs...sike)
...loves flowers. and taking macro pictures of them.
...is glad she's started reading her scriptures again.

(on 5/11)
...hasn't finished all her reading for tomorrow's classes. or the assignment for hum. oops.
...has an interview tomorrow. wish her luck.
...named her bike, Stanley. he's my best man now.
...hiked the Y tonight for FHE.
...burnt her back today.
...loves summer time!
...met new friends in the ward.

(on 5/13)
...'s heart is achey.
...is sad that stanley has a flat. and she needs a ride to costco to fix him.
...loves arrested development
...'s back is itchy. and achey when she gets dressed and wears her backpack.
...has decided to grow her finger nails out. hopefully she can do it.
...has a paper due tomorrow. of course she hasn't started it either.
...misses you.
...loves music again. mostly.

Curse

2009-05-07T14:45:00.001-07:00

it must be true. i must be cursed.
i get something good going and it never gets past THAT. good.
i blame myself, not necessarily because how i am IN the situation,
but for getting myself THERE in the first place.

my PB says it'll happen at the RIGHT time.
i guess i'm just not to that time yet.
i'm probably TOO immature.
i probably need to learn more about MYSELF first.

here i go on a trail of self recognition. SELF CONFIDENCE.
making MY OWN decisions. for myself.
then maybe someday i'll get to THAT time.
unfortunately, it appears its not today.

Best Friends

2009-05-06T22:31:00.001-07:00

I was walking home from campus tonight and because I was thinking about how Alden has a best friend in Rich, it made me realize that I really don’t have a BEST friend. I ran names though my mind of the people who I care so much about, the people who care about me, the ones I trust, and enjoy their company… Claire, Ali, Elise, Alyssa, Bethany, Carlie, Mckinlee, Emily, Kelsey, Scott, Tolson, Anthony, Mom, Dad, (of course there are even more people than these that I love so much as well)… but I can’t name any of them as my BEST friend.

Claire Bear and I have had so many wonderful times. I feel like I can trust this girl with ANYTHING. We went through so much together in Wien, with missing home, and boys, and just all the great times we had together traveling though Europa, hiking in the Alps, speaking German, sharing beds, eating two breakfasts and many more. We still have fun together, but not near enough, of course she's usually pretty busy with that cute boy of hers.

Ali Face was my beloved roommate this last semester, and well, it just doesn't feel as great having this big room to myself as I hoped. Ali was with Scott pretty often, but she'd come home every night and we'd have chats, about who knows what, EVERYTHING.

Elise and I are planning on living together next year. I love this girl! Even though she CAN be a little overwhelming with how excited she gets about some things, I feel like she honestly loves me, and I'm so grateful for that.

Miss Lyss, my dear cousin Alyssa, I've only seen her a few times this semester, which is NOT enough. But I am still so grateful that I can text her almost whenever I want, and get a friendly response.

Bethany was definitely my best friend in HS. And I loved seeing her when she came up about a month ago, seeing her and that cute little kiddo of hers. It makes me so happy to receive a random phone call from her, just to say hello. We're in such different places of our lives that its not as great as it used to be, but it STILL is great, and we can always remember our fun memories of PK wangsters, and watching Josie and the Pussycats, and going to Church Dances.

Carlie was my best friend senior year, and its mostly because Bethany left to college, but I'm actually grateful for that, it was so fun. We started to bond jr year when the two of us were sick of being in just one group during lunch, and we'd wander around. This girl has gone though some pretty tough times and I'm really glad I was able to be there for some of them. She's lived in Provo this whole semester and I have yet so see her because both of our lack of an auto.

McKinlee was my wonderful Viennese roommate. She is one of the kindest, most caring people, and even though she has so much going for her, she remains a humble person. I am glad I had German with her this last semester, because even with that I still did not see her as much as I would have loved.

Em, and I are retarded cousins. I am her whale. I'm not sure how we became such good friends, we met at Hunter's baptism originally, but we really BONDED freshman year living in Taylor Hall. She is such a crazy, fun and beautiful girl. And she's finally found a guy wonderful enough for her, and in July she's getting married!

Quels and I bonded on the first day of our freshman English Class. I didn't have my ID yet so she bought me a Jamba Juice. We both polevaulted in HS and even like most of the same music. That group summer semester was so much fun, from those in our ward to those in Freshman Academy with us. I I text her a few times last week with out a single response, and I’m not sure if I did something wrong, but I really do miss her. I wish she was here, and I could talk to her, about boys, and just life, and we could watch prison break together, and eat lots of graham crackers and frosting at baseball games together, and just hang out.

Scott is so good to me. When I needed something for my bee stung foot he took me to the store, even though it was Sunday. I'm so grateful that on that random Friday in February I decided to go to lunch with him and Simon, and since then he bought me lunch basically every Friday of the semester. If we hadn't become such good friends I don't know what I would do, he's seriously like the only person I hang out with these days, and I'm so happy for that, even if we have had some awkward times.

Tolson is my best friend, at least thats what I tell him. And I really do believe he is a best friend of mine, but is he THE BEST? He's on a mission, so the whole writing letters and waiting 3 weeks till he gets it and another 3 for a response is getting kind of old. My bracelet from him broke last week, which breaks my heart a little bit. I kind of feel like I hardly know him since we can't really talk anymore, but he writes me a letter basically every week and I'm pretty sure it'll be back to our "normal" chats about everything when he gets back.

Anthony is the best brother a girl could ever ask for. I know that if I ever need anything I can give him a call. I love Jana so much too, and I'm so grateful he picked such a wonderful wife to add to our family, even if it did mean he and I couldn't be best friends anymore.

Mom is the also the best mother a girl could ask for. She's the only person on that list that I really feel like I could call ANY TIME I wanted and she'd be happy to talk to me. Sometimes I do get annoyed of how many questions for details she asks me and the advise she gives me, but of course its only because she cares so much about me.

Daddio is so wonderful to drive 1.5 hours to and from work everyday, to support our little family. He and I aren't able to talk about everything, but before he was working I would call him up on my way home to or from school, and we would just talk, about our lives. He and I haven't always gotten along the best, but I think its really because I am so like him.

I started writing this as a little pity party for myself. Because well, its true, I don't feel close enough with any of these people to call them my best friends, though at one point I could and would have. And I felt bad for myself because I'm wasting my summer away doing NOTHING. Even as I was writing this, I added at least 3 people to this list that I didn't have, and I know I could add more, but these are people I couldn't live without. And I realized I shouldn't complain about anything, these people are the BEST FRIENDS a girl could ever hope for, they're AMAZING and I'm so grateful to have them all in my life!

dancing cousins

2009-05-06T10:31:00.000-07:00

Highlights and Lowlights

2009-04-27T10:13:00.000-07:00

I went to the Robinson Invitational Friday afternoon. I found myself a good spot infront of the polevaulting. I got to watch the end of the girls vault and a while later almost all of the guys. I had to leave early so I only saw the guys jump to 16' and apparently they jumped 17'. In between the polevaulting I was enthralled watching a lot of the races including the hurtles, 100m, 200m, 1500m, 5000m, etc. It brought back fond memories of HS, and I wished I was still polevaulting, and in shape, and most of all I wished I was still part of a team. Track and Field creates such a bond, and even if you don't know everyone on the team you still cheer for them, and they cheer for you.

I stepped on a bee on Friday while walking across my grass barefoot. I thought I had just stepped on a thorn until the pain started spreading from my toe through my foot. Looking at my foot there was no thorn, but there was a bee on the ground. I hopped into the house on one foot but no one knew what to do, I grabbed a bowl, hopped back outside and scooped some dirt into it. Back inside I filled the bowl with water and stuck my foot in. The pain eventually stopped spreading, though my toe still hurt, I took my foot out of the mud just in time to see a rolley polley on my foot, gross. Saturday night my toe area was really itchy. Sunday it was swollen, red and itchy. Scott took me to the store to get some "After Bite" it still itches occasionally, but it seems to be going down a little.

I went to the BYU vs UNM baseball game on Friday night. I hadn't made it to a game in about a month because of different things, work, friends, school, boy. Needless to say, I was glad to get back to that scene, to catch up with Kelly and to cheer for MY cougs. The game was stopped in the bottom of the 7th, because it was pooring. We were up 11 to 9, and I was hoping they'd call the game. They postponed it till Saturday morning, I didn't make it to the game, but we won 12 to 11.

The world is now accepting Mrs Alison Lalor. That's right, my dear Al Pal is now a married woman. I rode up to the reception in SL with Claire and Jordan. Ali looked gorgeous as ever and so happy. Scott looked estatic as well. I am so happy for them. They make a beautiful couple and I know they will continue to be great together.

Being in SL Saturday night meant I got to see Mr Alden Smith. He met us at the reception and we visited with friends for a bit then he and I jetted out early to meet one of his friends for dinner. The 3 of us just hung out, and I listened as the boys talked about music and movies. He gave me a ride all the way back to Provo, and we listened to good music and chatted the whole way ride "home".

Walking home from church on Sunday, in the rain, I saw a mother duck and at least 9 of her babies. They were adorable. They were running away from me so I couldn't get a great picture, but just trust me. I wanted to catch one and hold it close to me forever.

We had a 25 minute phone conversation yesterday. To some of you phone pros that might not seem very long, and its actually not, but it was a record for us, and I was glad we were able to talk very easily for that long. It would've/could've kept going, but Scott and friends came over, so Alden decided we should say goodbye. Talking to him is so great, but it does make me wish I could see him in person. But we're still working that out...

dandelion wine

2009-04-23T09:05:00.000-07:00

i really need to start taking more pictures because my heart is joyed so much when i do. and maybe i should actually take pictures of the important people in my life too.

i love the focus of this photo. i wonder what people think of me when i'm squatting in the middle of the grass, in somebody else's yard, holding as still as i can to get my lovely macro shot, and then trying to hold the camera really still again while i switch it to regular, for the contrast.

sometimes when i take my camera out people look at me funny. i didn't want to draw too much attention, so this is the best i got. the line wrapped around to the west doors of the JSB and went all the way inbetween the ESC and whatever that other building is, just south of it. it made me really grateful that I was already finished with my tests.

Smiling

2009-04-21T09:47:00.000-07:00

Things that make me smile:

Going running again. Even though I am out of shape and can't run very fast or far. I went last Saturday and again yesterday. Hopefully I can get into the habit and get back in shape.
A cute old man crossing guard. I passed him on my way running south and then north again. I may run that way in the future just to see him again.
Finishing a final in less than 30 minutes. I've now finished two of the three finals I've taken in about 25 minutes each, and I felt good about both of them.
Being told that I'm "hotter than Hitler". Sorry, no explanation can be given on blogger. But what a compliment, bah.
Getting slightly sunburned. This means that its finally sunny outside. And that I sat outside for about 2 hours yesterday, first reading "Charlotte und Wilbur" (Charlotte's Web auf Deutsch), then I fell asleep for about 15 minutes, then I chatted with Al Pal.
Remembering Brother Rossell. That sweet old man is one of my favorites. He gave me my PB, and I always wanted to be sealed by him. It doesn't look like that'll happen, but just thinking about him makes me happy. Everytime I'd see him at church he'd tell me that I reminded him more and more of Grandma G, in my looks and actions. Now that is a compliment.
Getting 9 hours of sleep a night. It doesn't happen too often, and sometimes I worry why my body feels like it needs so much sleep, but if I can get it I might as well take it, right?
Receiving two letters from my favorite missionary. He's my best friend. Reading that he is being a great missionary and he is happy, and also, he loves me.
Going grocery shopping with Anthony and Jana, hearing their excited comments and enjoying their company. But also, getting food again. It'd been about a month since I'd gone grocery shopping and I was in dire need of restocking my shelves.
Being made fun of for wearing a Rocket Summer shirt. Especially cause the sleeve is signed.
Learning that two friends are moving into my ward for the summer. Also combining with another ward for the summer. I'm excited to meet new people.
Going to the new Cannon Center with Elise. Having dinner bought for us by her freshman friend. Looking like freshman again as we didn't know where to get trays, and once we did we didn't know where to start because we were so overwhelmed by the choices. Stuffing our faces with food that was actually decent (especially compared to when we lived in the dorms) and eating enough to make us explode. Also on our way back to the car a couple boys offered to buy us dinner, I'd love to take them up on that another day...
Starting new classes next week. I love learning, and I'm especially excited to have a class with Anthony.
Watching this video. Thank you Kaylie Jean Hancock. This absolutely made my day.
Getting told by a certain boy that I can get him to smile. Though he will claim that I can't get him to "when [I] try to tickle [him]." He keeps trying to pretend his not ticklish though actually he's very ticklish. Especially his feet and lowest ribs. Tickling him and getting him to react, and seeing that adorable smile of his too, I can't help but grin.

Things that make me not smile:

Walking around the Provo Cemetary and seeing that one family had 7 children die on the same day they were born. They had 13 children total.
Losing my dearest roommate. I'm thrilled for her to move into her new place, and to take this next step in life. But I really loved my Aliface and my room is lonely now.
Two more final exams. One is scheduled for tomorrow and the other can be taken whenever. Probably today if I can ever get myself to study.
Not having a good summer job yet. I promise I'm qualified!
Remembering Brother Rossell. He's stopped eating the past couple days, he probably won't be here much longer.
Being made fun of for wearing my (sweet) Rocket Summer shirt.
Starting new classes next week. I'll be taking a humanities class which will probably be killer, but hopefully I'll get great grades since I won't have much else to do.
Watching this video (above). It made me cry. Maybe they were just tears of joy (actually probably mostly), but it really made me miss my beautiful Austria.

this is rad.

2009-04-15T20:34:00.000-07:00

"... the answer is that the air in the vocal tract acts like the air in an organ pipe, or in a bottle. When you give it a tap it will vibrate. If you open your mouth and make a glottal stop, and flick a finger against your neck just to the side and below your jaw, you will hear a note, just as you would if you tapped a bottle. If you tilt your head slightly backward so that the skin of the neck is stretched while you tap, you may be able to hear this sound somewhat better"

Just try it. I never knew it was possible. But seriously its amazing. You make a glottal stop by producing the word uh-oh. and its the "-" in between. And then just flick your neck under your chin. If you move your tongue around to make the different vowel sounds it changes the pitch slightly.

I've been doing it for like 5 minutes now. I probably have a huge red mark on my neck. Totally worth it.

a roller coaster

2009-04-15T19:48:00.000-07:00

that's how i've been feeling lately.
still. life is wunderbar.
i just wish i had MORE TIME.

finals end a week from today. then what? what's next?

Happy Easter

2009-04-12T11:58:00.000-07:00

Today has been a great day so far...

1. I wasn't even tired when I woke up to get ready for church this morning
2. Ali went up to SL last night, which means I got to walk to church this morning. And home from church. And today is a beautiful day.
3. Of course I always have my camera with me, so I took a picture of a few blossoms on my way home from church. I haven't been taking pictures lately, and actually I've really missed it.
4. It is Easter. Though we should always remember the Lord and be grateful for Him. Especially on this day. He was resurrected on this day, that we may also be resurrected one day.
5. We went to G&Gs for dinner. They always feed us way too much, so our stomachs almost explode. Everyone that was in town came. Its always fun to be with family.
6. The "secret" is out. Though it was never really a secret. I was happy to report to family about it, except for the future harrasment I'll be recieving.
7. Scott trusts me. It makes me feel very loved and important. I'm glad I can be there for him, and know that he is there for me also.
8. Only 1 more day of classes. Which means everything is due. Which means after tomorrow even if its not all finished, it'll be too late and time to move on.

That's all for now. Peace. Love.

back to Europa --- this turned into a report of last September.

2009-04-09T09:03:00.000-07:00

I really want to go back to Europe. Don't get me wrong, I'm loving my college experience. And, even with cool experiences like this... I'm sorry, Provo is just not as cool as Austria.

From my first day in Vienna, meeting Jillie at the airport, and then meeting Claire. We ate marvelous pizza that day, and drank our first Almdudlers.

The next day we met the rest of the group. We ordered our first pastries. And they were delicious. We checked into our hotel and were set free to explore the city. We found the rathaus. And the votivkirche (and we thought it was St. Stephen's). We got slightly lost, but knew the general direction back to our hotel and found it. We ate pizza a second day in a row.

We went on a quick tour of the city. I ate my first Austrian Doener. Then we met our host families. Jonathan was quiet and being shy, very unusual for him. Little did I know that as we got to know him he would running around the house naked. And dancing, and singing. And try to pull our pants off in turn.

We went to Bratislava. We went on that ridiculously long tour. And ate that disgusting "chicken of the sea" puffers. And other people had even more gross food. But we cleaned our pallets with ice cream. Walked to the castle. and sat. A group of us, just chilled at the castle, sitting on a wall, chatting, getting to know each other better. And loving "bike man" who walked by in his short shorts probably 12 and a half times.

We went to the danube and went paddle boating. Claire and I decided we would go sailing together some day. With our boys. Whoever that ends up being. It was a beautiful day and I should have jumped in the water. To have swam in the "Blue Danube".

We had stake conference. McKinlee and I got headphones with English translations. Jonathan was coloring and playing games. Acting as crazy as normal. We listened to the German in one ear and English in the other. We watched the end of a "feuerwehr" parade at the rathaus. We explored "our schloss". It was a beautiful view of the city. We went to the rathaus, met some friends and watched a video of the ballet of swan lake.

Then Trevor and I wanted to explore the city. We found a fountain. We bought lunch of yogurt and bread. We hopped on a random Ubahn and got off on a random stop. We found Schoenbrunn. We wandered the grounds for at least an hour and half. And only saw about 1/7 of the gardens.

Our whole group traveled to Melk. To the abbey there. It had the beautiful "beauty and the beast" library. We went on a 20 mile bike ride. Biking next to the donau. I ran into the man and then his bike was "kaputt" I told him I didn't speak German. I ate my first bratwurst. We found a little beach and I had to go into the freezing water. We ate the most delicious grapes straight of the wine. Trevor and Brad decided they were going to start drinking wine if it was that good. We ended the ride at a park. With that wonderful "trampoline". Our legs were broken and dead. At least mine were.

We had dinner with our family. The Schmidl's came. We met Danny, Astrid and Laurin.

We traveled to Mauthausen. It was a foggy day that set the perfect mood. We saw the gas chambers and the crematories. We went to the church at St. Florien. We sang in the catacombs. We ended the day in Hallstatt. The most beautiful little "dorf" I've seen to date.

We went on a tour of the salt mines. We rode down the slides. We hiked in the Alps. To a beautiful waterfall. It rained. We froze. I ate minestrone to warm my throat.

We went to Salzburg. I checked my email and skyped with my parents. We went on a tour of the city, with the sweetest tour guide. We saw Mirabel gardens. We touched the gnomes. We saw a breath taking view of the city. We got wet at Hellbrunn. And saw a fish with a tumoresque bump. We drove to Dorfgastein.

We hiked in the Alps again. In the snow this time. I was wearing vans. It wasn't as cold as I expected, but it was 10x more beautiful. We watched Fritz's son play soccer. Melissa had a worm crawl IN her shoe. We cooked spaghetti. We played Mafia. We played MASH.

We went to a "Thanksgiving Day" Mass. We watched a parade. We ate our first Wiener Schnitzel.

We went on a "short walk" that turned into a hike straight up the mountain. To a cute little alm. I wore flats. We ate scrambled eggs, and a delicious cake thing and hot chocolate and strawberry jam. And I gagged eating goat cheese. And some uncooked pig fat/meat. We fed some rotten apples to some ponies. We rode a train back to Vienna. We moved onto Auf der Schottenring. Into our new house.

That's September for you. I'm not sure why I wrote that all out. When I started this blog post I was planning on just recording a few of my favorite experiences from the WHOLE 4 months. But looking through my pictures this is what came out. You don't have to read it. I guess if you are reading this part you already did. Just know its for me. And it wasn't a pointless post. I feel BETTER now. I'll probably write the other months sometime too....

PS

2009-04-07T15:33:00.000-07:00

*We got mentioned on Newsweek. It's sad that the whole world is so happy to grab at any of the small mistakes we make and publish them. http://www.newsweek.com/id/192866

*The choir devotional was great today. They sang wonderfully.

*I just had one of the longest conversations in ASL of my life. Okay, so it wasn't THAT long, (like 45 minutes) but I couldn't rely on speech when I wanted to. Because he is Deaf. I'm used to signing with fellow ASL students and being able to mouth and talk if we HAD to. Ryan is so nice. Geniunely interested in my life. It was good.

*I ran into Tawny and McKinlee on campus today. I love Vienna friends. I love catching up. I want to play.

*I just planned away the next 20 months of my life. That's almost 2 years. I wanted to graduate next Aug. But there is 1 class that is only offered fall, and I can't take it this fall cause I need another class first. So, I'll probably be graduating, technically Dec 2010, but walking Aug '10. I declared myself a German minor while I was at it.

Good

2009-04-07T09:31:00.000-07:00

I've got few complaints.
Besides the dooming fate of quickly approaching finals.
And a movie projects that isn't done. And is due on Friday.
And a thousand and two papers to write and rewrite for German.
And a final "research" project that is just being started. But is due on Monday. It will be good.
Besides not having a job yet, but needing to find one asap.

I won't be able to handle leaving here.

I still like my classes. Not as much as I did for the first 2.7 months. But they are still good.
I love my friends. Friends, I LOVE YOU.

I love my family. I have the best family.
A mother who worries about me incessantly. And would do anything to ensure my happiness.
A father who drives at least 1.5 hours to work. Plus 1.5 home. To provide for our family.
A brother and sister in law who take care of me. Even when I'm coughing up a lung.

The sun is shining today. Which automatically makes it a good day.
I only have 3 more days of classes. 2 reading days. 5 days of finals.

Its official.

Life is good.

Strep

2009-04-03T16:46:00.000-07:00

I tested positive for strep throat today.

It's better than mono at least.

Right?

I'm on antibiotics now.

For the next 10 days.

I won't be contagious anymore within 24 hours.

I'm anxious for this pain in my throat to go away.

He was such a sweet heart and gave me a blessing last night.

Anthony wasn't in Provo so he couldn't.

Later he even brought me his humidifier to help me breathe.

So I'd be able to sleep.

I slept for 9 hours.

Lovely.

I missed all my classes today.

I guess with good reason.

I could've gotten them all sick.

It's very contagious.

I think I jinxed myself cause last Friday I said it'd been so long since I was last sick.

Serves me right, I guess.

I'm not sure who got me sick.

But I apologize, in advance, if I get you.

It'll be over soon.

Gell?

I heard the wind

2009-03-26T10:40:00.000-07:00

Walking to campus today.
It was so windy.
I pulled my hood tight around my head.
To cover my ears.
But it was blown off, instantly.
I tried to hold the hood on my head.
But decided it wasn't worth it. To freeze my hands.
I faced the wind as I walked suredly to school.
My nose ran. My eyes cried.

I made it to campus, pushing against the strong winds. I decided to stop at the Clyde building. I can get just as much done here and now I don't have to walk all the way to the library. Now I just have to begin my research project for ASL. Deaf Communities. I want to research Cochlear Implants. I'll probably research them eventually anyway.

Sometimes I have the strongest feeling that one of my children is going to be deaf. I will teach them sign language. I will teach all my kids sign even if they are 'hearing', that's not the issue. My question is whether I would get them a Cochlear Implant. Right now I say YES. But the Deaf Community is extremely against it. And I wouldn't want to completely isolate my child. I just would want them to have opportunities. Opportunities to do everything and anything. Anything their heart desires. We'll see what happens.

What would you do if your child was born deaf?

neue musik

2009-03-19T14:16:00.000-07:00

I've gotten a lot of new music in the past few weeks from a couple friends. I got so much I haven't been able to listen to it all yet. But, there is some that I am completely obsessed and in love with.

Artist. Song. Album.
The Bird and the Bee. Birthday. Ray Guns are not Just the Future.
The Bird and the Bee. Ray Gun. Ray Guns are not Just the Future.
Deas Vail. White Lights. White Lights.
Deas Vail. Shoreline. All the Houses Look the Same.
Deas Vail. Anything You Say. All the Houses Look the Same.
Joshua Radin. Sky. Unclear Sky -EP
Joshua Radin. Today. We Were Here.
Joshua Radin. Winter. We Were Here.
Joshua Radin. Only You. We Were Here.
Juli. Geile Zeit. Es ist Juli.
Juli. Perfekte Welle. Es ist Juli.
Juli. Dieses Leben. Ein neuer Tag.
Paramore. Hallelujah. RIOT.
M.I.A. Paper Planes. Kala.
Mayday Parade. Miserable at Best. A Lesson in Romantics.
Elliot Smith. Baby Britain. XO.
Damien Rice. Amie. O.
Shiny Toy Guns. I Owe You a Love Song. Season of Poison.
Fair. Cut Down Sideways. The Best Worst Case Scenario.
Fair. Unglued. The Best Worst Case Scenario.
William Fitzsimmons. Even Now. The Sparrow and the Crow.

Okay. That's it for now. Check 'em out. Tell me what you think.

100 things to do...

2009-03-11T21:37:00.000-07:00

... before I die.

Elise inspired me with her list. She was able to list 100 things. She's already done quite a few of them. She even made it cute by printing out each thing and gluing them on this road map looking thing, on like a tack board. Its on her wall. What great GOALS.

So, I'm going to try listing 100 things I want to do before I die. And I'm going to try (starting asap) to accomplish them. Isn't that exciting? Actually, I was thinking about it in class, I started my list and only came up with about 10. Writing it now I can think of a FEW more. So here's my BUCKET LIST. I'll add to it when I think of more... also, some of these things are subject to change, and/or deletion.

Marriage in the Temple
Sky Dive
Raise a Family
Serve a Mission
Graduate from Uni
Bungee Jump
Own a House
Live in another Country (again)
Shoot a Gun
Slalom Water Ski
Ride a Horse
Run a Marathon (or at least 1/2)
Be Fluent in Second Language
Own and Raise my Own Pet (or a family pet)
Submit Photography in Contest
Visit New Zealand. And Australia
Wake Board
Visit the Pyramids in Egypt
Snow Ski
Surf (again)
Visit the Andes
Have my own Garden (with flowers and trees and fruits and vegetables)
Adopt a Baby
Give Birth
Own a Turtle
Visit all 50 states (again)
Scuba Dive (in the Ocean)
Own a Boat
Teach English in Another Country
Go Skinny Dipping
Kiss in the Rain
Drive on the Autobahn
Go in a Hot Air Balloon
Gamble in Vegas (only a dollar)
Do Family History
Catch a Foul Ball
Sail Boat in the Ocean
Learn to say Hello, How are you, Thank you, etc. in 30 Languages
Learn to Play the Guitar
Go Rock Climbing (outside)
Visit Stonehenge
Visit the 7 NEW Wonders of the World: Machu Picchu, Peru, The Colisseum in Rome, Petra, Jordan, Christ Redeemer, Brazil, the Great Wall of China, Chichen Itza, Mexico and the Taj Mahal, India
See the Northern Lights - Aurora Borealis
Pull an All Nighter
Drive a Motorcycle
Take a Safari Ride in Africa
Send a Message in a Bottle
Own a Boat
Catch a Fish (again)
Punch Someone as Hard as I Can
Recieve my Masters Degree
Have a Legitimate, Full Time Job
Read all the Standard Works: Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, Old Testament and New Testament (again)
Hike Mt. Timp
Learn to Drive Clutch
Hear Sherwood in Concert

That's all I've got. And I even had to look online to get lots of the ideas... I'm sure thinking about it the next few days I'll come up with more. But please, help me come up with ideas. What do YOU want to do before you die? Cause honestly, you're all rad, I'm sure it'd be something I'd enjoy too.

friendship.

2009-03-11T20:52:00.000-07:00

I was almost stupid enough to lose my best friend. I don't think I would have actually lost her. We're way too close for that. But still. For me to do anything to make her upset. It breaks my heart. Also, another wonderful friend was a little upset with me. Though, he'll lie and say he wasn't.

Having people upset with me is my least favorite thing. Basically in life. Its worse than making decisions. That's saying a lot. We're alright now though. We haven't talked about it yet. I think we will though. I hope she understands I would never want to hurt her or her feelings. I love her.

We've been through so much together. We met our first day of school and have been friends since. We bonded instantly. She bought me Jamba Juice. (I didn't have my ID/DP yet.) We ate lunch everyday with our group of FA friends. We were roommates fall 06 and winter 07. We helped eachother with all our struggles. Including with boys. and again and again. We had piles, of grass. We would sit in our room FBing eachother. Not saying a word. Probably laughing occassionally. FB chat didn't even exist. We have 65 pages of wall to wall. We'd go to the library and FB each other there too. We'd stay up till the wee hours of the night. Standing on poles. Watching movies. Sitting on warm cement. Playing soccer in the quad, in the mud. We made lots of other friends, but we were almost ALWAYS together. Especially summer semester. We had some awkward moments, that we will NEVER forget. Especially the one at the grocery store, with Tony, and that lady. Bahahahahahha. We pushed our beds together. We made bunkbeds. We traveled to her cabin together. We cut down a (at least) 15' Christmas tree for the cabin. And a mini one for our room. We decorated for Christmas. We had "christmas" lights for other seasons too. Orange. Blue and White. Etc. She taught me how to snowboard. I probably couldn't do it now though. We ate junkfood together. We ate Wendy's together. One time: 2 JBCs, a chicken sandwhich, and a frosty. We didn't finish. We stayed up talking in our hallway. Laying on the floor with our legs up the wall. Keeping everyone else up because of our noise. Oops. We watched baseball together. And still do. We flew kites together. We had bonfires. With pallets from the Walmart parking lot. We dance together. We dressed up for halloween together. Hannah and Lola. Rockstars.

We've made so many memories, and I've only listed probably 1/213.7. But seriously. Please forgive me, sincerely. I love you babe. Remember, we've got to stay friends forever. And we'll make sure our husbands are friends. And our kids. So we can play. Perfect.

Sky

2009-03-05T00:08:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a BEAUTIFUL day. There weren't too many clouds in the sky and the sun was actually SHINING. I was on campus studying and so I decided to study outside. Fantastic idea. Kelsey and I went to the park after we both finished some stuff. And we flew KITES. A couple of little girls asked to borrow the kites at first and ended up using them for like half an hour. But we still got a chance to fly them. AND it was wonderful.

Also, I borrowed Scott's hard-drive this weekend and stole TONS of music from him. Which was also a fantastic idea. Anyway. I discovered Joshua Radin. And I'm completely OBSESSED. And especially his song called "Sky" which features another favorite Ingrid Michaelson. Please CHECK IT OUT. Let me know what you think :)

Thoughts

2009-02-22T18:05:00.000-08:00

Claire inspired me. I want to write my thoughts. I don't necessarily think everyone really needs to read what I am thinking about. But, this is a good place to write, and you ARE welcome to read.

I watched Charly tonight, by myself. 2 Things. 1. I need a movie watching buddy, its not as fun watching them alone. 2. This movie ceases to amaze me, on its ability to bring me to tears. Everytime. I think because its so real. I think one of my biggest fears is to have my husband die. I know we'd be reuninted, because I really do believe in FOREVER. But, how hard of a life, raising children alone, having to support yourself...
I learned how to make 'clicks' this week. Seriously though, I did. I love what I am studying. Everything else that all those other people learn about is so boring.
Did you know that every cell has 6 ft of DNA? 6 ft! Its true. But, I kind of am becoming fascinated by our bodies. How can people see everything the human body does, how everything works and NOT believe that their is a God.
Birgit posted some pictures from the Faschingfest, I think it was a ward activity. I wish I could have been there. Matthi is getting so big. So is Jono. I miss those boys (that family) like crazy.
I have brown hair. I think everyone knows by now, cause it has been over a week. But I do. I actually love it. I love my blonde hair too, but I love having change. (At least a little bit). I love the shock factor, I didn't do it for anyone else, but its still fun to hear peoples thoughts and comments about it. Except. I hate the comment "did you dye your hair?"--- of course I dyed it you doofus, I can't exactly just wake up one day and have my hair 12.3 shades darker!
Also, please watch this video. You might not think its funny, but I think its amazingly hilarious. "Why is this happening to me... is this gonna be forever?" So great.
It is 7:40 and I am ready for bed. Actually, I have to watch 2 Nachrichtens, which I WILL do. BUT, I cannot even imagine staying up for 4.5 more hours which would be my normal bed time. What am I going to do with myself for that long?

That is all. Have a wonderful night. Please. And thank you.

Decisions

2009-02-11T14:12:00.000-08:00

In 5th grade my teacher would force us to make decisions. Instead of the normal, "I don't care" or "I don't know" response we would just have to decide upon something. That school year has been the only time in my life that I have been good at making decisions. At the beginning of the school year it was quite a struggle for me. Why didn't he just understand that I really didn't care and I would be fine with either choice A or choice B? Though, if I was really impartial to both choices, and I would be "happy" with the outcome of both choices, then of course I could just chose one right? So, somewhere in that time I was succesful. I was making my own decisions, and not just about things in my 5th grade class, I was even making decisions in my normal life too!

Why can't I just make decisions?! I seriously even hate making the stupid little decision everyday like, how am I going to do my hair today, what shoes do I wear today, usw. So how am I supposed to easily make the other types of decisions. There are the decisions that are still of no consequence, almost as unimportant as what clothes to wear, but then there are those decisions that are actually for something important!

Decisions that actually effect people besides myself. I hate these types of decisions more than any other choices placed in front of me. Even if its something like should we eat at Taco Bell or Wendys tonight? or should we go bowling or go to a dollar movie? COME ON AIM, these should still be such simple things to decide, you'll probably still all be happy no matter what happens. But what if, what if I accidentally choose something that the other person/people hate. That would crush me. Especially because I'm sure they wouldn't tell me they were unhappy with my decision, they would just be so grateful that I finally decided something. Right? That is so pathetic.

I don't make these choices. I avoid them as often as possible. I don't want to risk picking something that the other part of the party isn't okay with. I know its silly. But. Listen to my plea, if I really am neutral with regards to the options placed in front of me (which I SWEAR is the case 90, okay 75% of the time) then can't YOU please just decide because you are much more likely to have an opinion than I am. And, if you have an opinion, I would MUCH rather do what you want to do. Even if I may have been SLIGHTLY leaning towards one option, I'd rather have YOU completely happy. If you're happy, then I will be happy.

But seriously, I've got some big decisions coming up in my life. And they mostly only affect me. But in the long run they could alter the lives of those most important to me.

1. I turn 21 in just over 6 months. Which means I could start mission papers.... NOW. And, I could have them turned in May 9th. 100 days right? That TOTALLY freaks me out.

2. I've finally declared my major. Linguistics. The plan is to minor in TESOL. But really, what I want to do is speech therapy. With speech therapy you have to get your masters degree. a. Do I REALLY want to put myself through 2 more years of school? b. Where in the world would I go to school to get my masters? At BYU you need about a 3.8. I am NOWHERE near a 3.8 c. Do I minor in ComD? Because maybe that would help me get into the masters program having some experience with it... And, do I get a minor in GERMAN?! I feel like I've taken tons of Deutsch classes and that I'm really close to the minor, but in all honestly I need to take like 5 more classes for it. That's like a whole semester. I know I don't want to forget what I know with German, so my only option may be to take more classes.

3. Do I live in Provo this summer? I had an interview for a job today. I'll find out in the morning if I get it. If I get it then I have to stay this summer. If I don't get it I'm hoping I'll get hired at APX, but I'm sure they would want me to stay for the summer as well. I guess that decision is basically made for me then.

Decisions decisions decision. I wish everything could just be easy. And I wish I could know what I'm supposed to do everyday of my life, to head on the right track for school, for careers, for a mission, for meeting my future husband. But I guess that is why we are placed on this earth isn't it? To try, to go forward with faith that it'll all work out. And we'll fail sometimes. But we'll learn from those mistakes. And we'll go forward again.

Can I just say that I am grateful for agency? I really am. Which brings me to being so grateful that OUR Savior came to this earth for us. Instead of the opposition. Satan wanted to MAKE us all choose the right. That way of course we'd be on the right path, the path we were "supposed" to be on.

I just hope I am choosing the RIGHT. But, I know that the Lord will tell me if I start going too far down the wrong road. Thank goodness.

25 things all about me

2009-02-09T13:07:00.000-08:00

I can lick the bottom of my nose. I can lick my elbows. No, its not impossible.
Zinnias are my favorite flower. I’m not really sure why, but I love them. Maybe because when I was younger my mom let Anthony and I each pick a type of flower seed to plant. I chose zinnias, he chose carnations. I think I’ve loved them since.

I got my drivers license when I was 18 years old. My parents bribed me with 1000$ if I waited till I was 18 to get my license. Plus, it saved me insurance money, and the money for behind the wheel lessons.
I’ve never gotten a ticket. It probably helps that I’ve only been driving for about 2 and a half years. And, I’m only home for about 4 months out of the year, which now would add up to 12 months of driving. Plus a little bit here and there on the side with Janthony’s car.
I hate making decisions. Especially when it effects other people. Even if there is something I would SLIGHTLY prefer, I’d rather make sure the person I’m with is completely happy, so I want them to choose.
I hate when people are upset with me. I hate it more than anything. I love making other people happy, and if find out I disappointed someone or hurt their feelings it breaks my heart. I especially am bothered when someone is mad at me for no reason.
My favorite color is pink. Almost anyone can guess that by my lack of other colors when it comes to some of my accessories. I hardly wear any pink clothing though. But yes my backpack, duffle bag, lap top, lap top case, headphones, umbrella, etc. are pink.
I really want to go sky diving someday. It is something I just HAVE To do before I die.
Lake Powell is one of my favorite places on the planet. Its been years since I’ve been there. But those weeks every summer when I was younger are some of my fondest memories. Cliff jumping, tubing, knee boarding, learning to water ski, swimming, washing myself in the lake, getting sun burned, getting bit by red ants, killing rattle snakes, fishing, launching illegal fireworks. It also doesn’t hurt how warm the water is, or that its gorgeous with its looming red rock cliffs. (obviously this isn't me, its Anthony and Shane. But look sweet it is!)
I love going to concerts. I haven’t been to a good one since last year, I think the last one was a Limbeck concert on Valentine’s Day. Though, I have gone to a couple of fun shows at Velour recently.
Someday I NEED to hear Sherwood in concert, because 1. I’ve heard its amazing 2. I love them and 3. I tried once and our stupid tickets had the wrong start time for the concert.
I just counted and I only have 28 more days of class this semester. 28! Don’t be fooled though, it is 73 days till the last day of finals. And honestly, I don’t really care how fast the end of the semester comes. I just want it to be WARMER.
For once in my life (okay, so maybe its happened before) I love all of my classes. A couple of them are killer and hard as heck, but I STILL love them. I love the subject matter of all of them (phonology not QUITE as much, only cause I don’t totally understand it always), I love what I am studying, I love what I am learning and I even love (like?) the people in my classes.
Phonetics is my favorite class. I love going to class and learning about different things that I, or others, do in the English language, and why we do it. I love learning about the different dialects, with vowel variation, or the different pronunciations of . Today we learned about intonation. Did you know that if you give all your sentences a ‘rise’ you will sound like a valley girl?
I take everything I learn in Phonetics, and listen to how people “in real life” talk, and yes, I judge them. I know I don’t speak perfectly, I even say mountain as /maʊnʔn̩/ (both vowels are nasalized) most of the time. But, I still loving hearing the different ways people say things. I hate that some people don’t distinguish between feel and fill, or pin and pen, and other things like that. Stinkin’ vowel mergers.
The people in my family are my favorite people in the world. My parents, Anthony, Jana especially. But I love my grandparents and all my cousins, and aunts and uncles so much too! I love when we have get togethers with all our family. So hectic, and so fun.

My favorite food is chicken enchiladas. I like to eat almost anything with chicken. It is just so tasty. BBQ chicken and chicken parmesan are also on the top of my list of foods to eat.
I tried escargot once. I even swallowed it, though it made me gag at least 6 times on its way down.
I declared my major as ‘Linguistics’ about 2 weeks ago. I decided about a year ago it was what I wanted to study, but I had to take the intro class to make sure, and after it was finished I wasn’t back in Utah till now. My emphasis with Linguistics has slightly changed in the past year.
I want to be a speech therapist. Or an ESL teacher. Or an ASL interpreter. And of course a mother, most of all a mother.
I like to pretend I can speak German. I like to pretend I can sign too. I AM learning though. Or as nicely stated by Braden, I am perfecting the both of them.
I want my future children to be at least bilingual. I just have to 1. Learn better German first and 2. Decide if I can manage to speak to them in German while teaching them American sign language as babies.
I have been to all 50 states, and (I think) 20 countries. I love traveling. New Zealand is on top of my list of places to visit next.
I lived in Vienna, Austria for almost 4 months. To date those are my favorite 4 months of my life. I would love to adopt the Greindl’s (the family who I lived with) and keep them forever. Also, I want to keep the friends I made while I was there forever, those from Austria as well as the girls (and boys) studying there with me.
I absolutely LOVE life. I have almost nothing to complain about right now, so why do it. If you catch me complaining, please remind me that I am so blessed and so happy right now (and always).

Poem

2009-01-23T12:21:00.000-08:00

Okay, so don't totally judge me, the grammar may be completely incorrect on this. But its a poem, so its okay right? I had to make sure it rhymed so some of the sentence structures are probably incorrect. Also, I wrote this in about 30 minutes before class started. I'm actually pretty impressed with myself, it's at least as good as a poem I could write in English. Though I didn't quite finish, for lack of time, I got the 10 lines I needed. Maybe I'll add to it someday.

Also, please excuse the rough translation, I tried to keep the German sentence structure as much as possible. But you should get the gist of it.

Der Fünf-Uhr hebt die Linke Hand The 5-hour lifts the left hand
Fast ist es Abend in der Land Almost is it evening in the countries

Die Vögel fliegen jetzt in den Himmel The birds fly now in the sky
Sie scheinen wie ein großes Gewimmel They seem like a large swarm

Durch die Zweige der Wind überwiege Through the branches the wind predominates
Das Lüftchen schwingt sanftmütig die Wiege The breeze rocks meekly the cradle

Die Sonne geht langsam hinunter The sun descends slowly
Die Schatten, versteckt die darunter The shadows, it hides under

Der Sonnenuntergang hat viele Farben The sunset has many colors
Orange und rot wie eine Feuergarben Orange and red like a flash of fire