Martin Luther King, Jr. Present Day

No, that is not a typo. I didn't randomly put the word "present" in there by accident. It is MOST DEFINITELY on purpose. Let me explain. Over Christmas vacation, my brother, Steve, and I were sitting around watching basketball (that's a lot of what we did that week. It was FANTASTIC!) Some commercial for a really expensive car came on or something like that, and here's basically what our conversation went like:

Steve: "You should get that for me for Martin Luther King Present Day"

Me: "Excuse me?"

Steve: "It's the perfect gift to show how much you love me."

Me: "I don't love you that much..."

So a little bit later, towards the end of the game, Martineau came out and played. We were, of course, watching a BYU basketball game, and Martineau is one of the deep bench players. He pretty much only plays when we're up by so much and even then it's usually only for the last few minutes.

So because I refused get Steve a car, he decided to ask me for something more practical:

Steve: "I now want a Martineau jersey for Martin Luther King Present Day."

Me: "Done."

Steve: "Wait, I don't ACTUALLY want one..."

Me: "You should be more careful what you ask for."

So, I got him a Martineau jersey. Of course I couldn't buy one (he's a really deep bench player), so I made one. And we couldn't find a basketball jersey that was his size, so it's a soccer jersey. But it's the thought that counts, right??

Look how happy he is with his jersey! I've gotta be one of the coolest sisters EVER!

We actually ended up having a Martin Luther King Present Day triangle. Steve was telling our friend Bekah about what I was doing, so she decided to get me a shirt. I'm now officially a "Langley Ward Girlfriend."

And so consequently, Steve completed the triangle and got Bekah a Jimmer shirt. Because no one should be without a Jimmer shirt...

Bowling Shoes

Ok, so I LOVE bowling. I'm not great or anything, but it's just so FUN! A little over a year ago, I started bowling almost once a week with a few friends out in Utah, and it continued with different people all through the summer. Once I moved out here to DC, I kinda stopped going. I just got so busy trying to figure out life that I forgot about bowling. Anyway, I've started bowling again, so I finally broke down and bought bowling shoes. I figured it would save me money in the long run.

Nerdy?? Yes. Do I care? Not at all.

I'm excited about my shoes. They're cute, huh? :)

BYU vs VT

One of the saddest things about living on the east coast is that I can no longer easily attend BYU sporting events. I was able to go to one of the football games against Idaho when I was in Utah for the weekend in November. That was super fun! The game was ok, but it was just so fun to be back in LaVell Edwards Stadium and soak in the atmosphere of BYU sports. But that was just a wonderful coincidence that there was a home game the weekend that I was there.

So when my brother Steve and I saw that there was a BYU basketball game against Virginia Tech AT Virginia Tech, we decided that we just HAD to be there. Although I love BYU football, I love BYU basketball even more. It's my team, and I feel so invested in their success... or failures, as it has been more than I'd like to admit this season.

Anyway, our sister Sharon and her husband Johnn moved to Blacksburg in August so that he could start a PhD program there. So we even had a free place to stay! So we each took 2 half days off of work, and headed down! It was a pretty easy drive, and everything went smoothly (it was a good thing Steve was there, I'm useless when I'm tired.) Our Mom decided to join us as well, since 3 of her children were going, so it ended up as a family event.

The game was kinda messy, but we got the win, against an ACC team, which looks good. And there were a bunch of BYU fans there, which is always great! There wasn't a BYU section, but there was definitely little pockets spread everywhere around the arena. I just loved seeing the Blue interspersed with the Orange and Maroon.

Steve and I do a lot together, so you'll probably see him in most of my posts... That's what family's for, right?
It was fun to be able to see a BYU basketball game in person. I've definitely missed the Marriott Center this year. I hope something like this can happen more often in the future!

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?!