Farm Show

There is this AWESOME tradition in Pennsylvania called the Farm Show. The easiest way to describe it is that it is basically a state fair, except that it's inside and it's in January. Except it's waaaaaaay cooler than any normal state fair.

So naturally I had to go.

It is always the second week in January. I had been home for Christmas, came back to Virginia for New Years, and then went back home the next weekend. Good thing it's only a few hours away, right?!

Since this isn't the type of thing that you usually do by yourself,

I decided to bring some friends up with me! We spent two nights at home, took a tour of Hershey Saturday morning and then headed off to the Farm Show!! Seriously, it is probably the biggest building I know of. It's HUGE! I should've gotten a picture. Oh well. I did get

a few other pictures from the eventful day though!

The whole group that went. Although I think we only spent this time, and maybe 5 other minutes total together the entire afternoon... I told you it was a big building. Lots of places to get lost.

My brother and I are sooo cool, huh? (Mom, sorry we weren't more dignified)

I spent the majority of the day saying that I wanted a John Deere t-shirt. Did I get one??? No. But I did see this awesome hat.

This is a sculpture made out of 1000 lbs. of real dairy butter. It took over 10 days of sculpting. Don't worry, it'll be put to good use. I thought using it for rolls would've been awesome, but they power a local farm with it. That works too I guess...

Can you guess what kind of animal this is? If you guessed a rabbit, you'd be right.

This was my favorite sign of the entire day. And let me tell you, there were some other pretty awesome ones.

Anyway, it was a great day full of milkshakes, funnel cakes, pulled pork, lots of animals, and plenty of other things to look at. It brought me back to my childhood. I'm glad we were able to go this year!

A little bit of History

Alright, I figured since it's been so long since I've posted, I should fill everyone in on what's been going on in my life for the last two years. I'm going to backtrack just a little bit though, because it's easier for me to do it that way. I graduated from BYU in April of 2010 (Go Cougars!) I had an internship that summer and had every intention of moving out to the DC area at the end of the summer.

BUT...

that just didn't feel right, so I stayed in Provo for an extra year. I can't believe that I ended up doing that, but it was definitely the right thing for me. The fall of 2010 was really hard for me, as EVERYTHING changed in my life, and so it was good to be around my best friends and people that I knew and loved. I just wasn't quite ready for an entirely new adventure yet. I learned a lot about myself in the next year and had many adventures, some of which I may mention, most of which I probably won't.

I finally moved out to DC in August of 2011. I didn't have a job, and didn't know anyone other than my two brothers and sister-in-law. It's been a grand adventure so far, and I've done some pretty fun things already. It'll be fun to see what happens in this new stage of life!

New and Improved

Ok. So it's been a loooooooooooooooong time since I've updated this thing. Well, this lack of updating is (hopefully) going to change with this new year!

I've decided that my life is just too boring, so I'm going to go on adventures so that I will actually have things to write about. And maybe I'll post things about the happenings in my life over the last year and a half.... just maybe though.

Anyway, start looking for an updated look and hopefully more posts more often. Although, if I write again in the next year and a half it's more often than it has been, right???

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and let's get on to enjoying the new year!!

Project

So I have two roommates getting married on Labor Day weekend. Yay!!! It's so exciting, but it'll be a crazy hectic weekend. Let me take you through the tentative schedule that I will have that weekend.

Thursday 2nd:

-Pick up Kaeleen and Ellisha from the airport around 10:30, drive back to Provo

Friday 3rd:

-Drive up to Salt Lake for Heather and Brandon's wedding at 9:40 I believe

-Take pictures probably starting around 10:30ish

-Finish taking pictures and go to the luncheon

-Probably hang out in Salt Lake all afternoon until the reception (there's no need to drive back and forth from Provo multiple times that day...)

-Reception from 7-9

-Leave straight from the reception to drive up to Seattle

Saturday 4th:

-Drive all through the night and get to the Seattle Temple hopefully by about 10 or 10:30 so we're there when they come out

-Pictures for Ellisha and Jake's wedding

-Luncheon

-Drive up to Ellisha's house for the reception later that night

-Reception (i'm not sure when yet)

-Either stay at her parents house or drive down to some friends house that just moved to Seattle

Sunday 5th:

-Go to church in the morning

-Explore Seattle for a bit (as much as we can do on a Sunday)

-Drive to Jill's house

-Spend Sunday evening with Jill and her family

Monday 6th:

-Play with Jill!!

Tuesday 7th:

-Drive back to Provo

Doesn't that sound like such a fun weekend?! I'm actually really excited, but it's just going to be a lot of time in the car.

Anyway, let me talk about this project that I have. So I am not much of a sewer. My mom has helped me make a lot of stuff, but basically she puts it together and tells me what to sew. It's been a great experience, but I don't really know how to read a pattern and what all I need to do and don't need to do. For Ellisha's wedding, she wants us to wear yellow and purple. I don't have anything that I really want to wear, so I decided that I'd like to make a yellow skirt and just buy a purple sweater. However, I couldn't find a pattern that I really liked of a skirt, so I decided to make a dress! I have no idea how I'm going to do this..... I will most definitely need a lot of help. But I'm super excited to see how it turns out! I got this golden yellow colored fabric and it's this really cute dress pattern that basically has a pencil skirt with a top. I'll have to include pictures once I actually start it. I will probably be calling my mom a lot in the next few days to get her help, but practice makes perfect, right?

Yay for weddings and yay for sewing projects! It's all very exciting!

High Expectations

Has there ever been something that you have really looked forward to? I'll admit, I tend not to get my hopes up very often. I just have had a lot on my plate recently, so I've been more serious about stuff than normal. I just graduated and had to decide whether to stay in Utah or not (I'm staying, at least for the next year), where to move, what to do for work this next year and other things as well. But anyway, I haven't let many things get my hopes up.

There was an exception this summer though!

And then my hopes were shattered and thrown all over the ground.... Haha, ok. Maybe that's a little drastic, but still, it was close to that. The last few years, Provo city has played these movies at Rock Canyon Park every Monday in August. Every time that I have gone, it has always been these old movies. Whether they were classics or just old movies that were entertaining, it didn't matter. It was cool to go and sit on a blanket with friends and watch this old school movie. Last summer they played Ten Little Indians, Arsenic and Old Lace, the Man Who Knew Too Little, and The Nutty Professor (the 1963 version). I also remember them playing Charade, but I can't remember if that was last year or a previous year. It was such a cool tradition!

Who would want to change that? Apparently, old movies weren't good enough for Provo City anymore. They decided that this year, they're going to show Romantic Comedies. Don't get me wrong, I love cheesy romantic comedies. I probably love them more than a lot of girls. But that was why I loved the movies in the park. It was something different from what I normally watch! I'll still go, most likely every week, but it just won't be the same. It'll still be fun to go watch a movie in the park and cuddle up next to a cute boy, but I would enjoy it so much more if they were movies that I hadn't seen before....

I guess there's always next year!

Making Decisions

So kind of in response to my last post (which was awhile ago, I know), I have kind of made up my mind as to what I'll be doing this next year! Yay!! I still don't have a real job anywhere, I mean come on, this market is horrible for college grads!

Even though I have no real job, I do have a place to live. :) It makes me happy to know that I will at least have a roof over my head this next year. And I talked to my current boss and if I need to, I can stay working at Miracle-Ear. It's not a good job for a college grad by any means, but at least it's a job and it will provide some type of income. That made me feel so much better when I found that out!

Now I just need to really try and find a good job for the fall... That's going to be the hard one. Any suggestions of what I can do or where to look?!

The future is looming over me!!!

So I've been thinking lately about my attitude on life. I don't think that I'm quite as excited as I should be for the things that are coming up. In a few weeks I'll be graduating (yay!) and will possibly be done with school forever!!! I don't want to say definitely, because I mean really, you never know, right? And then after the summer is over, I get to try something new for a change. Work and no school. Should be exciting, right?

I gotta be honest, it does sound exciting at times, but I think I'm pretty scared. If people say that they're not scared when they graduate and move away from college, I'm not buying it. I think that that may be my problem. With my impending graduation, I have people asking me almost daily what I'm going to do with my life. The scary part is, I HAVE NO FREAKING CLUE!!! I really don't know quite what I want to do. I am not usually an advocate of big change, especially change such as this. I may be moving away from Utah for good, or I may be staying. I might stay on the west or I might go back to the east. I just don't know! I wish that my future would just be handed to me. That would really help my situation a lot.

I had a friend who recently told me that I'm not excited about anything anymore. That made me sad to hear. I don't think that I've always been like that. I want to be the carefree person that I've been in years past, but I don't know quite how to be that person. I've had a lot of things happen in the last year that has weighed me down, and one of the major ones is this graduation. School is such a safety zone. I've been doing school basically ever since I can remember. I don't want to do school just because I'm comfortable with it. If I go back to school, I want it to be for something that I truly love and because I want to progress in life.

I guess this sounds just a little bit whiny. Ok ok, it sounds really whiny. I am just scared of what the future holds. I try not to show it that much, but I guess it's coming out to those people that know me pretty well. I'm going to try and do my best to just be calm and accept things as they come. That won't be too hard, will it?!

Memories of my Dad

I am definitely not the best blogger. Much of the reason why I have not written for many months was because of my Dad. After an almost five year battle with cancer, he finally was overcome and passed away on November 13, 2009. About a week and a half before that, he was admitted into the hospital with the Swine Flu. Isn't that ironic? Who knew that he'd be a swine flu victim. I certainly didn't think that!

My dad was first diagnosed with Prostate Cancer during the last few months of my senior year in high school, in 2005. There have been many miracles in preserving his life. The odds were never with him. If there was some rare side effect of a treatment, he would almost always contract it. It was amazing the fight that he put up. After a few years, he was finally in remission for the prostate cancer, but he was found to have an even more deadly one, multiple myeloma. This is one of the things that he eventually died from.

All of the kids in my family got an email on Wednesday night telling us of the gravity of the situation. He had been put into a medically induced coma, and as they reduced the medicine, he didn't come out of it. We all flew home as soon as we could. It was so nice to be there with my siblings and my mom. We all had known that it would eventually come to this, but we never imagined that it would be this soon. He had fought so hard and prior to this sick spell, had been feeling better than he had in a few years. Earlier in the year, around the fourth of July, my entire family, all 25 of us, had gotten together. We were able to take some very nice family pictures and have a great vacation together. It was a wonderful time, and I have some great memories that I will cherish forever.

The last few months have been very difficult. Luckily, I have some of the best roommates and friends. They have been with me every step of the way. I try and remember what I loved about my dad. I loved that I had the opportunity to live in the house alone with my parents for a few years. I was able to grow so much closer to them because of that experience. I love that he was always there for me. He would always say "I love you" when he was on the phone, and I knew that he truly meant it. I love that he instilled the love of music in me. I loved falling asleep to him playing the piano. Because of his influence, I love playing the piano. I love that he loved the gospel so much. He truly loved the Lord and instilled that in all of us as his children. I love that he loved my mom so much. My parents were never super affectionate in front of us children, but there was a deep love that was very apparent. It showed me how I want someone to treat me someday. I know that I will see him again and I am so grateful for that knowledge!

Ski Season

For the last two months, I have had the wonderful opportunity to take a ski class! I figure, what could be better than spending my last semester up on a beautiful mountain? There's not much that came to mind, let me tell you!

So the first time that I ever went skiing, was last year. I know, right? I've been living so close to some of the best mountains in the world for five years, and it took me that long to go. Well, I've repented and am doing my best to correct the situation. :)

My ski class started the first week of school, and ended the last week of February. We would go on Wednesday afternoons and just ski for a few hours. It was so nice to have some real instruction. I finally know at least a little bit of the correct technique. It is becoming so fun and I go as often as I can. I do not know where I will be next year, and so I'm definitely taking advantage of the close resorts while I can! It's just fun to get out and enjoy nature, no matter what capacity you are doing it.

Craziness

So this semester has been really busy! I haven't had the time, or the inclination to be honest, to update this until now. This semester has been a busy one, but it has been filled with lots of fun too. I guess I'll just go over some of the hightlights of the semester so far! First of all, I decided to defer my internship until either next semester or the summer. I did it for a few weeks, and then just got too busy to do everything to my own satisfaction. I talked to my internship director and he said that it would be just fine if I waited until later when I was able to devote more time to it. So I won't have to worry about that until later! It was such a stress off my back and I've been much more balanced since I stopped that.

Second of all, this is such a busy semester, school-wise, that I haven't been able to do as many fun things as I would've liked to. But here are a few things that I've done over the last few months.

I went to a soccer game with my roommate Ellisha and some friends from the ward, Kory and Jordan. I'm not usually a fan of soccer, but this was fun!

Me and Ellisha happy to be out in the Sun!

We also went camping a few weeks into school. The next morning, some of the boys that came biked up to the Hot Pots, but most of us girls just came to camp and have an adventure!

Here are the girls in the group, from left to right: Anaka, Cecilia, Katelyn, Karin, Sarah

So Tyler brought this lollipop thing that had plastic lips on the outside. Doesn't he look great?!

This is me and Sarah. She's becoming one of my best friends! She's just so great!!!

Look who we found the next morning?! Unfortunately, Benj didn't come with anyone and didn't know where we camped. He slept in his car about 50 yards from where we were because he showed up about 10 minutes after we all went to bed. Sad Day!
So here's the whole group the next morning (don't worry, we had two separate tents, one for the boys and one for the girls) From left to right: Rick, Karin, Andy, Tyler, Anaka, Cecilia, Kately, Sarah, Benj. Rick couldn't find our campsite either, we should've given better directions.... :(

I decided to do something different with my hair a few weeks ago. I have never done anything except cut my hair. I've never died it or permed it or anything. I decided to try a very loose perm! It's very different, but I like it!

Here I am with my wonderful hairdressers! Thanks again girls, I love it!

Unfortunately, I don't have a great picture of the finished product, but you can see that my hair is wavy in the next few pictures.

At a last minute decision, a bunch of us decided to go to the midnight showing of Where the Wild Things Are. It was a great movie. Way different than I thought it was going be, but I liked it. We went and got our tickets early and then just hung out at the mall. The four of us that were there at that point decided to get into the photo booth and take pictures with my camera. Here's one of them. I love that both Rick and Ellisha have their eyes closed. It's just great!

Here's a little better picture of the hair. You can see a little bit of wave, right?

It's been a crazy couple of months, but obviously we've made time to have at least a little bit of fun!