New York Christmas.

Well, I am currently at 30,000 feet en route to good old Utah and can now cross "Have a New York Christmas," off my bucket list.
This last week was a success. I finally got to see all of my family!! It was so great.
On Christmas Eve we arrived to a festive New York City apartment and just hung out and played games, Christmas Day we went to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. The Rockettes are ridiculously talented. Here is a picture of me and my momma at the show..

After the show, we went (or at least attemped to) "America's Tree." aka- The giant christmas tree at Rockefeller Center.. seen in Home Alone 2. One of the greatest Christmas movies. This is the best picture I could get. This place was SO crowded, I barely had time to snap a picture.

After that, we went to dinner at a fabulous restaurant called Five Napkin Burger. I am telling you, there is nothing like New York City dining. As we were eating, I noticed the couple next to us staring near the window. I look over in the general direction and it is freaking Bill Murray eating dinner with friends/family.
The funny thing about seeing celebs in New York, is that no one seems to really make a big deal about it, unless you're a tourist.
Here is a pic of Josh, Thomas, and I at the restaurant..

The weather in the Northeast was quite crazy for the first few days.. blizzard blizzard blizzard. All the airports in the area cancelled all flights which meant Jason's family would not be coming, but we are from Utah and Utah KNOWS a blizzard. So Jason and his family drove right into the storm for 6 hours and made it to New York City. What Chammmmpsss.
Those New Yorkers like to make a much bigger deal about the snow than needs be.
After the first few days the snow stopped, but the chilly temperatures did not. It was freeeeezing!!

The rest of the trip was spent enjoying each other's company and going around the city doing fun New York things. You better bet your ace I went to Levain Bakery, known for the most delicious cookies ever. And they truly do have the best cookies ever. If you ever go to NYC, go to Levain! My brother may or may not have had a cookie-gasm on the sidewalk near central park due to the chocolatey goodness.

I could not have asked for a better Christmas vacation and better people to spend it with. I loved it so much. But I am ready to go home and spend the last 2 weeks I have in Utah with good friends. I have missed my friendies. Shae lover don't worry I am coming for you! 

I also cannot believe 2010 is over. Really? It seems like yesterday I was getting on a plane with my girls to go on our fabulous senior trip in 2009! Crazy how time flies, (cliche?)

Reflecting back on 2010, I don't think there has been a single year in my life where I have changed and grown so much as a person than this one. I do have a sneaky feeling, though, that next year I will say the exact same thing. It was filled with ups and downs, a whole lot of self searching, and a whole lot of wonderful traveling. I had a pretty good year I'd say.. but I could not be happier to be starting a whole new year. Some say New Year's Day is "just another day,"  which it is.. but to me it signifies new life and a new start.. or just improving. There is always room for improvement in life. I am so excited for this new year and what it will bring... one of my good friends is taking a leap and getting married in March, who knows what other weddings will happen this year among my friends, another good friend of mine got the opportunity to be a camp counselor in New York in the summer, and of course.. a biiiig move for me.. happening fairly soon. I could not be more excited. 

I will also be turning 20 this year! Woo, I know I know, not that big of a deal.. but I will officially be out of my teen years. I can't decide if I am relieved or sad.. 

I decided instead of "New Year's Resolutions" I am making some goals I would like to attain by the time I turn 20 in May. 

Inspired by my mother's 50 by 50 challenge, I decided to do the same but a 20 by 20 challenge. I am only sharing it with all of you because I hope that by doing so, it will make me that much more accountable to the challenge. 

Here goes..

-Read 20 Books

-Watch 20 Movies

-Write 20 Letters

-Lose 20 Pounds

So if you'd like to follow me on this journey, I will be updating on the challenge probably about once a week. 

I already finished my first book and my first movie! 

Book-

Movie-

I don't have my full list of movies or books done yet, so if you have any recommendations.. please!!! 

Well I hope all of your New Year's Eve's are fun and safe. 

I love you all. 

May 2011 bring you much love.

christmas cookies.

3 DAYS UNTIL NYC!!
    5 DAYS UNTIL I SEE ALL MY FAM!
          25 DAYS UNTIL I MOVE TO CALIFORNIA!

My stomach may or may not have just dropped. Wow crazy, I didn't realize I was moving that soon. Oh well, friends.. let's make the best of what I have left here! Those of you who read this and live in North Ogden/Salt Lake area, and I haven't seen you yet.. LET'S GET ON THAT RIGHT NOW! Yes miss Rach Shaw I am talking to you.

Things are so great lately. I am really enjoying spending time at home with family and friends. :) Nothing is better than spending time with loved ones. Okay I'm done being cheesy.

So, today I had a "psychic" reading, if you want to call it that. Before you jump to conclusions and pass judgment, it was nothing like you would think. Psychics do not tell you your future and what exactly will happen to you in life. That's not how it works. They simply tell you things about yourself you may or may not already know, and give ideas of how to over come certain problems you may be dealing with. It's such a cool experience. You can choose to call B.S. or whatever, I don't care. I enjoyed it. From my experience, it was all very true. Some of it ridiculously true. I'm not going to go into detail about the life experiences/problems that were addressed, because as I have learned over the last few months.. A LOT more people read my blog than I thought.

I hope you are all getting geared up and excited for Christmas :) I sure am. I still have some holiday shopping to do, however. It's okay though, I'm just enjoying the spirit of the season. It sounds lame, but it's true. Tracy and I baked christmas cookies tonight! Woo they were delicious, but now I feel a little sick. blech.

Anyway- My posts lately are pretty pointless, but ees okay. Just enjoyin' life :)


love you all.

3 a.m.

I'm officially moved home. Weirddddd.

Saying my goodbyes in St. George was surprisingly easy. I have a feeling come January it will be a different story with my friends here.

Ah, so the boy I talked about in my last post.. my long time crush. Well, we spent 2 magical days together to part ways probably to never see each other again. I think these two days served such an important purpose to me. It showed me that my once broken hearted self is ready to try again.. sometimes that's all you need, just a little kick.

Tonight was such a beautiful night. I got to see all of my favorite people! Betsy's brother's band Mountain Hymns played at Uncommon Grounds.. it was SO great. I loved it so much. Listen to them, they are so great!    http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mountain-Hymns/151180348225811
   If you live in the Ogden area and you still have not been to Uncommon Grounds.. Go!! Their drinks are delish. I promise. Get the vanilla chai with caramel.. you will not be disappointed.

I could not be more content right now. I am so happy that I got to see all of the people that I saw tonight. I have a feeling that this next month is going to fly by while I am home.. let's make it great friends.

malfoy, bug, bieber, and sun.

Beth- here's your update.

Hokay, so... a few things.

First, say hello to Draco Malfoy.

This here is my final for stage make-up. We were supposed to do a photo reproduction with a gender reversal for extra points. So, here is haley as Malfoy. haha Isn't it great? Okay it could have been better, I know.  I mostly just wanted to make her malfoy so I could say "GIVE IT HERE MALFOY" to her in a british accent. haha she has about had enough. she's a champ.

I would just like to take a second to dedicate part of this post to my wonderful long-time friend and current roommate, Miss Haley Humphreys, aka-bug. 

Even though we were only roommates for one month, I feel that in that time we grew so much closer than I ever would have imagined. We have stayed up until 4 am and slept until noon far too many times for our own good, made late night wal*mart runs, and sang as loud as humanly possible. I am so grateful for the fun times we shared, and I am glad we can be friends. You have been such a lovely roommate and I have never had one single annoyance. :) I love you and I'm happy and grateful for the time we had together. 

Alright next up, 

I received the greatest gift that anyone could ever receive for Christmas last night, and it was even for a white elephant. 

are you ready?

12 MONTHS OF BIEBER!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, could life get any better? You'd better bet your ace I'll be usin' that thing.

This was at our Dixie Sun Staff Christmas party. This staff is so funny and I am so happy that I had the opportunity to work with them, even if only for one semester. I will miss you all! 

Here's a picture of (most of) the staff.

Well, 2 finals to go. Yay! :) I am going to soak up every last minute I have here.

Errbody is starting to leave :( My buddies Vince and Tyler headed home earlier today and bug is about to leave in a few minutes. awwww
But for now, I gotta go say bye to bug. :(

Re:stacks.

First off, please read Tyson's blog entry today. It's something important that many times we overlook because we hear it time and time again.. but I really appreciated his personal story on the issue. Please read it and spread the word.

Second, last night Betsy, Haley and I went to poetry reading at Twenty Five Main. Main Street in St. George is very short, but it is the cutest thing filled with art galleries, restaurants, and novelty shops. Twenty Five Main is a quaint little cafe famous for their cupcakes. They host poetry reading on Thursday nights, and can I just say it is the greatest thing. I loved it so much!

One poem really stood out to me, I wish I would have been brave enough to ask the girl for a copy.. but I didn't. I remember it was called, "A Material Existence." She basically talked about how the world has become so reliant on unnecessary things. "Girls are supposed to wear their hair long, you can't have short hair." "Plump your lips with this gloss, extend your lashes with this." "You're not skinny enough, you're not pretty enough, you're not tall enough, you're not short enough."
I wish you could all hear her read it.. it is so much better/more powerful when read. It just really got me thinking, why? Doesn't it get exhausting trying to impress everybody all the time? Can't people see the natural beauty and happiness in the simple things? I'm not trying to preach by any means.. because let's face it, I'm just as guilty as the rest when it comes to caring about material things.
But I can tell you that I have begun (or at least tried) to start detaching myself from stupid petty things, one by one.
In the end of the day, who cares where your shirt is from, whose name you're wearing on your back pocket, if you drive a BMW or a Dodge Neon, If your car contains a sweet stereo system or a simple cassette tape player, if you spend your weekends boating, camping, riding 4 wheelers, and playing with all your toys, or if you spend the weekend at home watching movies.
WHO CARES?
I have known a few people in my life who have money and nice things, and like to show it. These people are always the most annoying people to be around.. that's why I usually don't stick around and form a friendship.
In the end it's who you are, not what you have.

Anyway, I'm sorry if I may sound preachy. It is not my intention, I just really enjoyed her poem and the message behind it.

Classes are OVER! I don't have class for a whole year. How weird. I am really looking forward to this break I'm giving myself, although at times I am sure I will miss school. It's fine, I'll just be spending all my free time at the beach. no biggie.
Speaking of San Diego, I have been having so much fun here these last few days that I hadn't really thought about it for a little bit, until yesterday when I woke up to an e-mail of my flight confirmation, one way. It was just weird, it kind of actually hit at that point. Good luck Jenna.


If you listened to the Bon Iver song I posted the other day and liked it, you will LOVE this.

patient. fine. balanced. kind.

Time is winding down here in St Geezy! Crazy. Of course things start getting SO fun right when it's just about the end. Funny how that works.
I will definitely miss it here for certain reasons.. but I am looking forward to spending time with family and old friends for the next month before I move to San Diego!
Also, my New York Christmas is rapidly approaching! One more thing to cross off the bucket list. If only I could fall in love with a stranger there, that would be perfect.

I am looking forward to spending a good solid three weeks at Uncommon Grounds with Tracy Hutchison and Paige Sjoblom. Yep.

In my newspaper class today, my advisor was telling us about how she had a horrible prank played on her while in college.. A kid she had been dating took all the tires off her car and put them on the roof, along with crisco on the door handles covered in freshly shaved pubes. Apparently it didn't end well.
So...

Haley (my roomie) and I decided to play a prank on our guy friends that live with us. It was kind of a lame one, we moved everything from the living room (plants, tables, chairs, etc) into their room. They didn't think it was very funny. Lame prank, I know. But we wanted to do something.
They got us back, ten times worse.
I came back to this tonight.........

Watch your backs boys.

Okay, I have a new musical obsession. Bon Iver. Marry me, please. Listen to this song, if you are a cool human being you will enjoy it. Apparently I am way behind on thinking this song is cool.. so you may already know it.



Life is good. :)

I am officially

A Blogcritic! Yay.

Okay so it's not that cool.
But I decided that since I will be taking some time off school, it would be smart for me to keep doing something to sharpen my writing skills. It's not hard to become a blogcritic, but it will be good practice for me. The website www.blogcritics.com is a website full of thousands of articles and reviews on pretty much every topic. I will be writing random things for the site, I haven't really gone through all the rules I have been e-mailed yet. I am super excited and I will be posting all my articles. Those of you who are writers yourselves, or just really anyone, PLEASE feel free to comment/criticize, I need all the help I can get to become a better writer.

Errbody be preparin fo finals week. I love my cove buddies.

Meet Franky and Tyler.

two of the greatest people ever.

Franky is the tender, quiet kid on the left.. except when he talks its pretty loud. You can pretty much hear him talking from anywhere in our house, but it's fine.. because everyone loves him.

Tyler is one of my best friends. He is so hilarious.. there's really not much more to say besides that he is awesome.

Meet Vince.

This looks like an engagement picture...

Ok but seriously- probably one of my most favorite people of all time. He is literally the FUNNIEST kid ever. I'm pretty sure he doesn't ever think anything he doesn't say. Always bustin out the most random jokes.

Meet Josh.

He lives off top ramen and burritos. 

Is hilarious

and one of the most chill people ever.

Meet Shari.

Bad-ass.

She didn't know my name for the first 3 months I lived here, but still always talked to me.

She wears a "tool" necklace with a peter on it.. if you look closely you can see she is wearing it.

Mat and Cristhian

Mat doesn't really live here, but he pretty much does. Sweetest kid ever.

Cristhian is just a tender kid from Peru. love him.

Daniel- on the far left.

He doesn't live her either, but basically does.

Great artist. A man of few words. Amazing dancer.

This is only some of the people that live here, I will try to get pictures of the rest. They are the greatest. haha 

little things.

I woke up yesterday and had the sudden urge to go running.. not a usual thing for me, so I decided I better take advantage. I began running and listening to my favorite songs on my ipod, which are NOT your typical exercise "pump up" tunes. I realized that running is SO much better when you just take it how you want.. don't force yourself to run if you don't feel like it, it's OKAY to walk a little bit here and there. Enjoy the outdoors and the experience, instead of focusing on how many of last night's cookies you are burning off.
Enjoy the little things, like a run with your favorite music, a hot shower, warm towels fresh from the dryer, a good night's sleep, a cup of coffee, a good joke, or anything that makes you smile.

As much as I always complain about St. George and being here... now that I'm in my last weeks here, I'm starting to realize all of the little things I will truly miss..
Starbucks Sundays with Betsy- aka. Church.
getting in touch with my inner ghetto here at Dixie Cove.
Jerkercising- Betsy and I made up "jerkercising" it is basically just doing the reject for as long as you can.. it is a great workout.
Going to swig with Haley and Vince to get ourselves a Dr. Pepper.(Swig has the greatest dr pepper)
Waking up at 2 p.m. on the weekends with nobody else awake yet.
Midnight walmart runs.
Dance parties.
My public speaking class- our entire class became friends since we spent so much time talking in front of each other.
Walking by bedroom #3 and stopping to break it down for a minute. (They always blast rap music)
Sawyer's perma-smile.
reading by the pool, the same crew walking by asking if I want to get high with them, and I turn them down, every time, but they continue to ask. haha
Josh's signature top ramen and burrito lunch.
Taylor, my super-liberal atheist friend.
hanging out with Vince and complaining about no sleep because everyone is too loud.
being a true starving college student with literally no money for anything.

I love this place, but all good things must come to an end. As much as I love it, I don't think I could last another semester here.. my grades would definitely prove the lack of sleep and studying that goes on here.