Thing I love...

Here is a list of thing I love, especially at the moment:
1. Painting my nails lemon yellow
2. Eating picnic style dinner in front of a movie with my parents. This week it was Chinese food!
3. The smell of Barnes and Noble...and Barnes and Noble in general.
4. New dresses
5. Listening to musicals with my mom. This week it was Carousel and 1776.
6. Doing fake ballet around the kitchen to the Carousel overture (one of my absolute favorite pieces of music of all time)
7. Buying books on CD for the road trip!
8. Planning our stops on the road trip!
9. Anticipation of good things to come
10. Watching movies just for the amazing costumes. This week: BBC's Daniel Deronda
11. Ikea fries/Walking around Ikea, furnishing my future house in my head.
12. Seeing a huge herd of the tiniest baby turkeys follow their mama across my front yard.
13. My sister! Happy Birthday (a day late) G! Love you so so much Schmoopy-Linus!

Choices

Most of the time
when you scream "I hate you!"
what you mean to scream
is "I love you so much I can't stand it!"

-Dallas Clayton

Out on the Open Road!

Awesome Thing #757: Taking Your Shoes off on a Long Car Ride.


About 46 days until my amazing road trip! My parents and I will be leaving about the 3rd week in July, and driving across the country, stopping in several amazing places, like The Kirtland Temple, Chicago, Mount Rushmore, and Yellowstone National Park along the way. We'll be stopping in Utah, meeting my sister and brother-in-law, and enjoying my brother's performance in Singing in the Rain (shouldn't he have been born in that era? He was born to wear suits and fedoras), and partying at my sister-in-laws baby shower! Then it'll be off to California with G and Josh, to see some beautiful sights, and eat some amazing food! (Our food adventures are already planned, it's just how my family rolls) I seriously can't wait. My mom and I just stopped at Triple A to get our maps, and our routes planned and stuff. We keep saying "Let's leave now. Can we leave now?" Road trips are one of my favorite things of all time. I've driven across the country to Utah with my parents several times, and loved it every time. Except this time we're going not going to be going through Nebraska or the American Bermuda Triangle, or No-braska as some friends call it. I cannot wait!!!

(I would organize the photos better, but blogger is somehow incompatible with the internet at my house, and they come out as a big mess of internet code, which I find completely indecipherable)

Any takers?

I'd kinda like to dance and slide around and fall in love in a bowling alley...anyone want to come along?


I also wouldn't object to having that song sung about me...I also wouldn't mind HIM singing it.
I mean, I DO have that same yellow sweater as Lucy!

Woohoo! It's time for more awesome things from my favorite blog 1000 Awesome Things!

#863 The Perfect Egg Crack
It makes you feel like you actually know how to cook, even when you're just making scrambled eggs, or a brownie mix. It gives you a special edge of "kitchen expertise" even when you really have none.
#860 When the vending machine gives you two things instead of one
After living, almost solely, out of vending machines for an entire school year, this awesome things is extra awesome, though it rarely happens. Also, this one time, on the 2nd floor of the Wilk, next to the Native American Beauty Queen pictures, someone played "Vending Machine Santa" and left a bag of doritos in the bottom of a vending machine. I snagged it before class. That was awesome
#858 The other side of the pillow
The perfect cure to not being able to sleep. Even if it doesn't help you sleep right away, it definitely helps you feel better.
#857 Getting the big corner stall in the public bathroom
I always head for this one first.
#854 Crying
If I'm having a bad day, or if I'm just watching an embarrassing chick flick for the 100th time and crying like clockwork, the minute that he steps out onto the baseball field and "Don't Worry Baby" by the Beach Boys plays (ahem, no movie specifically) it just evens me out, and makes me feel better. Best stress relief there is, in my opinion.
#853 When your microwave pops microwave popcorn perfectly
My love of popcorn should make this self-explanatory.
#852 The smell of the coffee aisle in the grocery store
Oh man. I love the smell of coffee so so much. I think it's one of the best smells in the entire world. I'd add the smell of Dunkin Donuts to this.
#848 Old folks who sit on their porch and wave at you when you walk by
I want to be one of these.
#843 Getting out of the car after a really long trip
Streeeeetch. This makes me excited for my cross-country road trip!
#838 The smell of freshly cut grass
#837 Pushing those little buttons on the soft drink cup lid
I always do this. Always.
#834 Building an amazing couch cushion fort
#833 Pouring a drink where the bubbles go right to the top but not over
#832 Finally having your ears pop back to normal long after a flight or swim
#830 Salt
I think I like salty things more than sweet. I'd way rather have a bag of cheetos than a bag of starbursts.
#829 Smiling and thinking of good friends who are gone
I think the blog was referring to those friends who have died, but I'm thinking more about friends who I'm far away from. I know, it's not the same, but this is my modified Awesome Thing List. Whateva.
#828 Remembering what movie that guy is from
Oh my gosh. THE best feeling. Anyone who know me, knows that when I can't remember this, it drives me absolutely insane.
#813 Museum gift shops
You have to stop in. I mean, where else can you buy commemorative rocks and CDs of cultural music from Native American to Celtic?
#810 Returning to your warm and comfy bed after getting up to pee in the middle of the night
#807 That one really good pen that never gets lost
If it writes really smoothly, you've got a winner. Most of the time it's from a hotel, or a doctor's office, advertising some kind of new medication that you hope isn't for anything embarrassing.
#804 Gym pain
Oh man, knowing that you've worked hard? The. Best. Actual physical evidence of your hard work. Gym pain generally leads me to delusions of fitness, leading me to give myself an extra snack or something. One step forward, two steps back.
#802 Watching something download really fast
Oh my gosh. I would have never thought that someone else would find this as satisfying as I do! I remember when I had dial-up internet (Oh man, I'm such a child of the 21st century... embarrassing) I would wait for hours for a movie trailer to download.

Here are some that I've thought of, myself!
#1 When you hear about something once, and then hear about it several times that day or week.
This happens to me ALL the time! It's so crazy! You have to wonder if it would have happened anyway, and you just wouldn't have noticed, if you hadn't heard about it the first time. This happened to me last week, when on two different medical TV shows, the mystery illness ailing the patients was Familial Mediterranean Fever. I mean, really?
#2 Songs with lyrics that apply directly to you
Even if it's a sad song, maybe especially if it's a sad song. It always makes me feel a little bit better. Well, worse. But I get to have a nice little wallow and pity party for myself when I hear those songs!
#3 Delicious snacks that are ALSO healthy
I am a committed eater of things that are not good for me, but are wonderfully tasty. I'm not a picky eater at all. I'll probably eat anything that's put in front of me, but in terms of snack foods, I tend to go for those things saturated in salt, or glowing with the wonderful magic of artificial cheese. But it's marvelous to find something that I actually eating, that won't kill me by clogging my arteries. Lately it's been edamame heated up in the microwave, and almonds dipped in honey. Delicious!
#4 When you look at the clock, and it's exactly 11:11
Get your wish ready!
#5 The little notification for a new message/email/blog comment
So exciting! The potential! It could be anything! This also makes me a total child of the 21st century again. ugh. gross.

I loved loved loved this movie. Go see it! I also discovered my parents' secret trekkie past. It was fantastic!

lazy blogging

ok I know that posting mostly videos isn't really blogging, but I like to share my discoveries. Even if people probably don't watch them. I also am afraid that if I actually blogged I would sound whiny and ungrateful, and I would regret it. My life is absolutely wonderful, sometimes I just get a little bratty, and whiny. So here are videos. Love you all!

Wonderful.

I missed Youtube while I was living on BYU campus. Needless to say with my jobless solitary life, I have been making up for lost time with good ol' youtube. I have recently completely fallen in love with this song "Run Away With Me" from the musical "The Unauthorized Biography of Samantha Brown." I first heard it at the BYU Senior showcase. The guy who sang it did an amazing job, and I totally loved the song. When I got back I looked it up on youtube, and found a few performances of it. I absolutely loved these two. The actor in me really loved seeing the different interpretations of the song. It's a really good acting piece, as well as being a great song. I think the guy in the first video, Michael Arden acts it amazingly. The momen he snaps into character is so cool to see. He brings this wonderful vulnerability and absolute honesty to the song. This one just blows me away.

The guy in the second video, Aaron Tveit has a great voice, and maybe sings the song a little better, but doesn't act it quite as well. But it's still a great performance.

I

I love this song, and I love Ingrid. Of course.

I am a lady from Mars
And I can unscrew the stars
I can be anything that I see

I can do anything I want to
I can do anything I want, anything my heart tells me to do

I can be anything that I see
I can do anything I want to

Playing Mommy

So I've thought for a while that I've thought that I when I have children, I want to have five of them. In the 15th hour of what will be a 16 hour day of babysitting five children...I still want to have five. As the parents don't get home for at least another hour, I have some time to kill. As hard and challenging as today was, it was still fun. Of course living in my own little return college student life with no schedule wasn't really beneficial for my somewhat rusty babysitting skills. I've also never baby sat for this number of children before. I don't think I did a very good job. Their lunch was late, and they didn't really like it, and so they told me they were starving for dinner, which I proudly got to them ontime, and they ate almost none of the huge feast of frozen chicken nuggets and fries that I made. These kids were so fun though. When I first got there, the youngest child, a 15 month-old girl smiled and immediately put out her arms for me, and refused to budge from my side, almost for the rest of the day. On the tour of the house, I was a little shocked to see a somewhat disturbing rubber skeleton doll in the two-year old's bed. The mother explained that this was Fred, and the little girl had felt sorry for him, thinking he must be so cold without skin, and rescued him from the Halloween decorations. Later in the day this same little girl was running around with her shirt around her hips, calling herself a princess. We also spent a good portion of the day hiding under her blanket from differently colored monsters who were coming to eat us. While we were waiting for them to leave, I tried to teach her to give butterfly kisses, and her understanding of it was to kiss me, with her lips, on my eyelashes.
Most of my babysitting experience is with children young enough not to notice when you make mistakes. A 8 month old baby, when you hand her a bowl of applesauce doesn't look disdainfully down at it, and say "Why is this in a baby bowl?" The oldest of the children, noticed all my blunders today, no doubt, but is at the age of discovering tact, or he just didn't care that much. But 6 year old really let me have it. It was seriously so funny. It's a little nervewracking coming into a family situation and trying to understand and recreate daily routines and rituals, like meal times, and bathtimes (oh boy THAT was a fun one, and then it actually did get fun) for the optimum comfort of the children. The kids really did try to help me though. They were sweet about helping me find things. And I got taken advantage of horribly in the dessert, and bedtime department, per tradition for babysitters.
And though trying to get an exhausted, and therefore, at the height of terrible two-ness, two year old to see your point of view and do what you want them to do, while juggling an exhausted, and therefore exceedingly cranky baby, can be really hard. I did it. And I may not have done everythong right, but it was a lesson in patience, and perseverence, and seriously, these kids are just so stinking cute, and so sweet, so even when they were being brats, it was still okay. Today make me excited to have my own little world of chaos someday. Should be a challenge, should be hard and will be wonderful. Today was a day of learning, and growing, and really, I just love kids. It was definitely a test, and while I don't appreciate being slightly taken advantage of my the parents (16 hours, really? They didn't mention that) It was still a good day. Hard, but good. And those are the best kinds of days aren't they? Tomorrow could be one of those days as well. I'm doing Primary Singing time for the first time. Slightly terrifed, but hopeful. Whoo!

Things that make me happy at the moment.

1. Prayer
2. My bed (more specifically, my amazing mattress)
3. Pickles, and chopping them up and putting them in tuna. YUM!
4. The tarp outside my window. I can go to bed and wake up listening to the rain on it eveyday. It's like waking up inside a tent when it's raining, only a little bit more comfy, because of the aforementioned, amazing mattress.
5. Crying at romance movies (and TV)
6. A new haircut
7. My new ruffledy dress
8. Making money by sitting at home in my PJs and talking on the phone
9. Finding life lessons in the Alice in Wonderland play at the middle school right now
10. Planning possible road trips with my parents

happy, happy, happy!

yes. I stole this from Taza. whateva.

...It's marvelous.

Make new friends, but keep the old...

Yep, that's right. I got out my barbies today. Dressed them up. I feel no shame. Is it clear that I am bored enough yet?

Awesome Things

I don't know if any of your are familiar with this blog 1000 Awesome Things, but this blog, in itself, is awesome.
Here are some of the things on the blog, that I agree are especially awesome:
#995 Finding money you didn’t even know you lost
Oh man, finding a $20 in your old jeans? Best feeling ever.
#992 Being the first table to get called up for the dinner buffet at a wedding
#973 Sleeping in new bed sheets
Glorious. Especially if it's summer time, and the sheets are cool, and especially, especially if you've just shaved your legs.
#966 Living with someone who doesn’t mind killing spiders
Oh man. I've got to find me one of these. My dad is the spider hero of my life back here in CT.
#959 Planning for snoozes
Haha, I set four alarms in the morning, starting at least half an hour before i actually have to get up. It makes no sense really. The BEST thing ever, is when you forget and set your alarm on a weekend, or a day you can sleep late, and you jolt up, thinking you have to be somewhere, and then you can just smile, and lay back down and conk out.
#954 Rain hair
Only good on those rare occasions when it looks like what my friends and I call "movie rain hair," you know the kind. It's the kind that gets you kissed.
#946 The first shower you take after not showering for a really long time
For the people who know me, I am a compulsive shower-er, but on those rare occasions (Pioneer Trek: 1 week, 1st year of girls camp: 1 week) it's close to being the best feeling ever.

#941 The Universal Fry-Sharing Policy
I love french fries. End of story.
#937 The smell of rain on a hot sidewalk
Like summer time.
#933 The first scoop out of a jar of peanut butter
This is amazingly satisfying.
#930 Finally getting a piece of popcorn that’s been stuck in your teeth all day out
When your favorite food is popcorn, this tends to happen alot. and, oh man, it is one of the best feelings ever. Victory dance worthy, even.
#918 When you’re really tired and about to fall asleep and someone throws a blanket on you
Cozy cozy!
#912 Hanging your hand out the window of a car
One of my favorite things to do.
#908 Peeling an orange in one shot
This only happens with those baby, easy-to-peel clementines for me.
#905 Using all the different shampoos and soaps in someone else’s shower
Shampoo buffet, so much fun!
#904 When you manage to squeeze enough toothpaste out for one last brush
Another victory dance.
#901 Flipping through the entire bank of posters at the mall when you need to kill time
#899 The smell of frying onions
For me, this evokes memories of coming home from school, watching Wishbone and Where in the World is Carmen SanDiego? and then coming backupstairs to my parents cooking dinner and listening to NPR.
#896 That feeling you get right after you just vomited
Sweet, sweet relief.
#895 Getting something with actual handwriting on it in the mail
I just love this so much.
#892 Taking your shoes and socks off after a really long day
Barefoot is how I'd like to live.
#886 High fiving babies
#883 Ugly actors
Refreshing. Also Steve Buscemi, enough said.
#878 The smell and sound of a campfire
#876 Taking your bra off after wearing it for hours
Even more sweet, sweet relief.
#870 When you get the milk to cereal ratio just right
#862 The Laugh Echo
When something funny happens, and you remember it later, and laugh out loud again, causing those around you to look at you like you're crazy. The laugh echo happens to me all the time, generally at inappropriate times like, during church, or a test. Nevertheless, still one of my favorite things ever.
Wow there are a lot. So many awesome things. I'll do more later.

Real Friends

I went the the broadcast of Elder Bednar's CES fireside at the singles branch, and after several technical difficulties, I was able to sit back and marvel at the words of a true apostle of God. The talk was so timely and so necessary to our generation. I really loved hearing it. The talk was about how Satan gains power over our generation by encouraging us to misuse, and minimize the importance of our physical bodies. One of the huge emphases of his talk was the dependance on technology that our generation has, and is gaining more and more. This is something that I see in myself, and am worried about, but don't really take the time to address. I have a huge dependance, if not addiction to the internet, and am slowly gaining a dependance on my cell phone. (Ironically I am blogging about this) Anyways, this has also become more of an issue to me since I've been back home. I've been holed up in my house for most of the time, becoming best friends with our DVR, and watching television shows online. I don't have too many friends back here in CT, and am feeling a little school-sick for the ones back in Utah and that one crazy gal in the Holy Land. It's been a little hard adjusting to my new-old life, and I feel as if I've been leaning on movies and television and books, rather than real life experiences. These characters have become my new friends. Sometimes I seem to care more about Agent Booth and Bones' relationship than having one of my own, I swoon at Nathaniel's glances at Cora in The Last of The Mohicans (really though, wow.) and at Dr. Hunt's three word policy to Christina (seriously that one is amazing, AMAZING) and I laugh at the antics of the Doctors at Sacred Heart hospital, and sigh with a smile at the romantic bickering and happy ending of One Fine Day I can't wait to get a job, and start working on the projects my parents have given me (well, I'm not too thrilled about overhauling our rock path, or cleaning the lawn furniture, but still) It's clear that I need something to do. I miss real people.
On a happier note, I got into the next level of acting class, the improv class! Woohoo! I am on my way! I just need to keep working hard, and I might be able to get into the acting program at the earliest next winter, which would be extremely exciting. SO with that carrot dangling, I will press forward with steadfast faith. I'm mixing my metaphors, but I've been ironing and watching Scrubs all day, what do you expect?