catching up.

May. 

May was a blur of chicken soft tacos and encouraging pinterest quotes.

And ridiculous amounts of cake pops.

It was a time of much ice cream. 

I had a difficult time digging myself out of the rut I was in, but fortunately, I knew exactly where to turn. I kept my scriptures close by, and as I slowly climbed out of the rut (with a whole lot of help), I grew stronger. 

My best friend came to visit me, and I planned a trip to see him as soon as I possibly could.

June. 

I needed an escape, so I left. I scheduled off work, and headed out of the state with plans of kissing every single boy I met along the way. It was going to be a fun trip.

Somewhere along the way, I realized that I didn't want to kiss anyone for a while. Except some cute babies. 

I stayed with my best friend Dylan. We went on adventures involving exciting voyages across the "sea" in ye olde canoe and trips to get horchata and bean burritos in the middle of the night. 

And listened to some fantastic music.

(Yellowcard)

By far, my favorite part of the trip were the moments when we turned up the music, rolled the windows down, and sang our hearts out just like we used to do. I don't have a single picture from the night I spent star-gazing with my best friends Dylan and Rylea, but something about it was magical. 

It was a much needed vacation, and I came back ready to conquer the world. Boys were the least of my concern. All I needed were my scriptures and a good group of friends. I arrived home on a Monday. Just in time to make it to my very first FHE in the single's ward. 

I felt awkward at the activity until Josh Davidson recognized me and invited me to dinner with their group of friends. I felt loved & accepted by a group of kids that I didn't even know. It was wonderful.

July.

I made friends. I stopped being anti-social and started making plans. Fun plans.

I started that whole dating process again. Dinner. Movies. Fireworks. You name it. I now have a little stash of awkward first date stories.

I drank out of this cup:

I got a new job. 

I quit my old one. 

I went back to Vegas to babysit, and some cute boys came to bring me home. 

I even convinced one of them to kiss my friend while we were there. (ooh la la)

I checked kissing while watching fireworks and on a rooftop off my bucket list. At the same time. 

August.

I needed to go down to Salt Lake for some reason or another, so I somehow managed to convince this kid Allen to hop in my ridiculously hot car and drive there with me so I didn't have to drive alone. We had a few extra minutes, so I suggested we go exploring. We tried to take pictures, and as you can see, they turned out REALLY well. 

I'd go 1 - 2 - 3! And his eyes would automatically shut. (Not that mine were much more open) 

On our way back, we yelled over the roaring of the 70 mph wind rushing through my windows. My car was lacking air-conditioning. We didn't have a choice. 

He complained about how he was never going to find a worthwhile girl, and I complained about how I was frustrated with boys. 

(oh, irony. I love you.) 

At some point, we discussed how we were both friend-zoned. MORE than friend-zoned, he added. "More like SISTER zoned."

Later, I found out that I got a scholarship, meaning I didn't have to pay for school. I cheered. I cried. I registered for classes.

I dragged Allen along to explore my campus, and my car broke down. You can see how happy I am about it in this picture. 

While we were waiting for the tow truck to show up, we talked. We discovered that my front seats were perfect for taking naps. We played Uno.

 We "made out".

It was great fun. 

...

On the first day of school, I found my cousin Hayli at my grandparent's house. She came with me to class, and then I took her to Ogden so she could go on a date. 

My buddy Allen (The one that "sister zoned" me) showed up to hang out with me in Ogden while she was on her date. 

I'm not sure what it was, but something changed that day. Not in a hit-you-in-the-face kind of way, but in the subtle thought in the back of your mind kind of way. 

My friend Taylor had a nice way of putting it:

Dinner, a random piano, and an extreme amount of arcade tickets later, I knew I was in trouble. 

Proposal Story!!!

 I love you all!! Thanks for all the congratulations! You guys are the best!

vlogs and blinding bums and chicken feed shoes.

Mwahahahahah!

Today was an interesting day at work. First of all, someone decided to put up a bunch of fake spiderwebs to replace the ones that I just knocked down. Had I known they WANTED spider webs, I would have just left the old ones up. Then, they spread bloody gauze and limbs everywhere. It was extremely unsanitary. 

It was supposed to be a "haunted" wedding, so it was almost fitting that the power went out right before their ceremony, meaning that the old creepy barn I work in was extremely dark on the inside, and they had to conduct their ceremony by candle light. That means that the music that they had planned to use while the marched down the aisle wasn't going to be able to play over the speakers. 

They improvised from their Tim Burton plan and just had the guests hum the funeral march as they walked down the aisle.

As I was cleaning up afterwards, I kept finding plastic spiders and thinking they were real ones. I was tough though, and stepped on each and every single plastic spider I encountered without screaming. 

Overall, it was a pretty fun night. 

Dates and Schedules.

I almost dread getting asked on dates by boys that I actually might want to go on dates with. Why? Because trying to find an open spot on my calendar is pretty much as difficult as pulling teeth (which ironically actually had to wait an extra month and a half due to the fact that I don't have an open spot in my schedule til November.)  

I can before 1:46 on Friday, and if you're willing to drive an hour out of your way, I have a 32 minute lunch break on Saturday that we can meet up for! Oh, oh, oh! And if you're willing to do a Thursday afternoon brunch, I can squeeze you in between classes! 

No? Monday I have FHE and Halo night. Tuesdays I have School and then institute. Wednesdays are pretty open as long as you're willing to go to work with me or take my brother on our date. I have school on Thursdays, and then a cute little empty spot on my calendar after school ends that usually gets filled with something or other. Fridays and Saturdays almost always have weddings. 

But, just so any of my potential suitors are aware: 
November 9th, 10th, and 11th I don't have anything scheduled. So as long as you're okay with hanging out with drugged up, toothless me, go ahead and give me a call! I will not legally be able to drive though, so plan your life accordingly. 

Lucifer, you're a slime ball.

I have just had a wonderful day.

It was snowing when I woke up, and I looked quite adorable, if I do say so myself. As I was driving to my Grandparent's house to take my Grandma to breakfast, I was thinking about the numbers that they just released for mission papers being filled out. The Spirit filled my car in such a way that I began to leak happiness out of my eyes in the form of tears. Just thinking of the difference that's going to make in so many people's lives fills me with joy! It's happening, guys! Every Nation, Kindred, Tongue, and People! It's happening!

“The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.” - Joseph Smith

My Grandma and I went to breakfast and our conversations drifted between subjects. At one point, we talked about my mom. I'm not gonna lie, guys. My mom is cooler than yours. She's my best friend. We laugh, joke, sing, and fight like sisters, but we've really just got this awesome mother-daughter connection that's kind of had some strain lately due to that whole growing up thing that I seem to be doing.

I like lists, and I like my mom, so I decided to make a little list about the things I love about my mom. 

1 - She knows how to Love. She's got that unconditional Christ-like love that I just can't seem to comprehend. She loves when she's happy, and she loves when she's mad. She'll even love you don't deserve it.
2 - She can't sing. She just can't. But she does it anyway because she loves to do it. I'm always going to have fond memories of the sounds of shower water and Dumbo's "baby mine" echoing out of the bathroom when she washes her hair. 
3 - She's always prepared. Whether it's a trip to Disneyland, or a trip to the grocery store, she's always prepared. Disneyland? She set up cute little snack packs for each of us, and then kept a supply in her fanny pack (I even love that about her) just in case. Grocery store? She's always got a list. And band-aids.
4 - She pays attention. I'm quite certain that when I move out, I'll still be able to call her and she'll be able to tell me exactly where a certain pair of shoes are. She has lost shoe radar. 
5 - She dances in the kitchen. Don't tell anyone. 
6 - She still thinks she's 16. I can't even name the amount of times that I've walked in from spending time with a boy that I might like, and she's pounced with a million questions like, "Did you kiss him?!" And when I reply with an exasperated "No." She's usually just as frustrated as I am.
7 - She makes me sandwiches. I'm 20 years old, guys. My mom still makes me a brown paper sack lunch to take to school with me. That probably shouldn't happen, but I love her for it. 
8 - That stupid jug. If you've met my mom, you know what jug I'm talking about. She carries a water jug around with her everywhere so that she can stay hydrated, and makes me go to the gas station and fill it up with ice for her. I probably would have died of thirst if it weren't for that. 
9 -  Babies. She's fantastic with babies. She covers them in kisses and will just give them all the love in the world. She reminds me on a daily basis that I need to get married and start popping out grandbabies for her so she can kiss them and hug them and smother them in attention and love. I have a feeling that I'm not going to get to see much of my own children. 
10 - She's my mom and she's always there for me.  I remember a time not too long ago that I was really just going through a rough patch in life. She walked into my room and found me crying my eyes out on my bed, and that wonderful woman just held me while I cried it out. Just like old times. 

I just love her. 

Then my Grandma and I started talking about the missionaries and about how I could go on a mission now. 

This is where it comes down to it guys. I want to go. Like REALLY want to go. Like every time the word "missionary" comes up, I start crying want to go. But, I don't know how I could afford it.

So here's what i'm going to do. I'm going to pray and read my scriptures and keep paying my tithing and pray that I can figure out a way to pay for that thing. 

So, I went to class, and it was all fine and good until someone mentioned something about The Church. He was pretty upset about something that he had his facts wrong about, so I tried to correct him. I'm not sure I got him to understand what I was saying, but I feel like everyone else in the class at least has a better understanding of it now.

After school, I came home and found a package on my front porch! It was my new video editing software! I settled down immediately to start installing it. 

Things were just going my way. Secondhand Lions was on TV, and I even got a text that made me rather happy. 

Then I realized that 7:30 was approaching rapidly, and my program wasn't finished installing yet. It pains me to admit the internal battle that I had with myself about staying to play with my new software or going to institute. Staying home won out. I changed into a comfy t-shirt with full intentions of spending the rest of the night on my laptop. I was headed towards what I thought was the couch when I realized that my legs had a different idea. I was buckled into the car without ever consciously changing my mind. 

The second I entered that institute room, I could feel the Spirit. Like we established earlier, I'm one of those girls that cries every time I feel the power of the Holy Ghost, so I was struggling there for a little while. 

The lesson was wonderful. 
My day was wonderful.

And now I'm going to tell you about the power of Satan. 

He loves nothing more than to grab you with those slimy little lands of his and make you his puppet. If you let him, he'll take any opportunity he can get and run with it. He's twisted and creative, and he'll do it any way he can.

He loves taking beautiful days like the one I had and destroying them.
And I almost let him. 

But I didn't. And that's why the post you're reading right now does not even resemble the one I sat down to write. 

But what I do want you guys to know is that I love my Heavenly Father and My Savior, Jesus Christ. They make all the difference in my life, and they can make a huge difference in yours too. 

oh, the distractions of wifi

I doubt I will ever figure out how I went from studying ethical public speaking to watching this, but I've now decided that I most definitely need a baby bear. Anyone know where I can get one?