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About Me

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I was born in Mesa and lived in both Arizona and Utah. I attended four different high schools and moved back to Mesa my senior year. I love to travel and explore; I studied abroad in England, Scotland and France and had a blast. Music and writing drive me. I am a hard worker, when I am motivated to be. I am a passionate girl who loves people. I love friends but I also love my quiet time. Most importantly, I love to Love. I am a writer, an educator, a learner, an explorer and yes, a Mormon. I am blessed and I love my life. I am currently serving a mission for the Lord through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Italy until January of 2016.

My motto

My Motto
Love and Be Loved

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Love and Loss

The famous poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson once wrote:
I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.
His words speak so true! Once a person has loved, they always have that memory to hold with them. But if you never get that chance to love something or someone, you don't have anything to go back to when you need it. 
Lately, the words of this poem have been running through my head with all the different things happening in life.
Things that I miss:

  • Riding my bike through the back streets in Utah to watch the sunset.
  • Being the youngest person in a group of older people.
  • Sitting on the roof outside my bedroom at night.
  • Easily writing my own masterpiece every week.
  • Having someone I can talk to at any random moment needed.
  • Children.
  • An organized bedroom.
  • Hiking the steep, rocky trails along the Wasatch Mountains.
  • Cool summer nights.
  • Not having to ask for a hug from someone.
  • My pillows.
  • Cameron Earnhart.
  • Singing.
  • The spontaneity of youth that seems to have slipped away. It's still there, but I feel like someone has tied it down.
  • Utah- my sister, her family, the landscape, my friends whom know everything about me, the mountains.
  • Being myself.
  • Deep conversations with a friend.
  • Living in my memories.
  • My brothers, who were at one point considered "cool" by me.
  • That time in ninth grade when I didn't have to go to school. I thought I was the best I could be, I wrote everyday, I truly enjoyed myself... for a few short months.
  • The way things used to be.
  • I miss a lot, a lot more than I can say.

Things that I Love:

  • Watching the sun rise when I run in the morning.
  • Being surrounded by so many attractively incredible members of the male species ;)
  • Being happy!
  • Ice cream on the weekends.
  • Driving in the car.
  • My sisters.
  • Books and bookstores. (Does any body else get an overwhelming feeling of happiness when they walk into a bookstore?)
  • 60 degree weather in the winter!
  • Occasionally sleeping in on Saturdays. 
  • My dog, Buddy.
  • My parents.
  • Little children.
  • Smoothies and delicious bread or rolls.
  • Learning new wisdom.
  • Spontaneously doing something adventures!
  • Remembering good memories.
  • Laughing and smiling. I love my smile!
  • The Gospel of Jesus Christ.
  • Music!
  • Riding my bike in the breeze as if I were flying.
  • Going on trips and exploring new places.
  • Cute things I can snuggle.
  • Deep conversations with a friend.
  • People watching.
  • (Optimistically thinking) I love who I am and I love my life. There are so many things I could list that I love!

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Icepacks

I wanted this blog to help me write better and get all my thoughts out to people.
So far it's not working.
I just can't seem to get my thoughts comfortable for people to hear. But one day, it will come.

Recently, weekends are my only free time. During the week I go to school, have cross country practice after school, come home to shower, do homework and eat and my day is basically over. Three days a week I even get up at 5am to go run with the team.
I love it!
Things are going really well.
Strange, though. It's a very peculiar feeling. Things just feel... weird. Adjusting to new friends (when it feels like I've know them for a really long time, when really I hardly know them at all), socializing with people, getting used to my surroundings, going to a new school and trying to get to know people and let them know me. Yeah...It's somewhat overwhelming on my brain. I don't know any other way to describe it.
Not that this is important but the climate is so different. I am always sweaty, hot and never feel clean. It's a new concept to me.
Oh and irrigation: flooding the grass with water. It doesn't make sense.
Anyways...
Today, we had our first Cross Country "invitational", which was a team fundraiser. We were given 30 minutes to run around the track and put in as many laps as we could. We had people who pledged a certain amount of money per lap. Since my hamstrings and IT bands have not been happy with running, I couldn't go as far as other kids. But I managed to push out seven somewhat easily painful laps! By the time our first meet comes around, I think I shall be somewhat wonderful.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

The Spoons Controversy

While I was staying at Chelsea's house in Utah, it came to my attention that the spoons she had for normal eating were the size of a large spoon. This bothered me, because I couldn't fit the whole spoon in my mouth when I ate! According to her, however, you eat putting only the tip of the spoon in your mouth.
I bugged her about it for a while, but now I am over it.
But I'm curious, what do other families use?
Chelsea and I had a tie: 3 agreeing with her, 3 agreeing with me.
Who do you agree with? Is the large spoon normal or is it large? Is the normal spoon normal or is it small?
Just for kicks =)
So below is a picture of spoons, and at the bottom of the page you can cast your vote.
(This is nothing against you Chelsea or your habits. I have learned to love your spoons)
                                         Baby    Small     Regular    Large   extra-large/serving

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Observation

Hello friends.
It has been nearly two months since I have posted anything, and I apologize for anyone wanting to hear form me. I've been so busy doing nothing! Seriously. Like sitting around and walking around pacing the house kind of nothing. I just haven't been able to write and complete and post a blog.
Anyways, in basic words, life in Arizona is going well. I am completely not used to so many people! They are everywhere! I went for a drive last week in search of somewhere peaceful and away from the world with a pretty sight. And where did I end up? Back home. It was rush hour. Lane-to-lane traffic in both directions on a six-lane road and I would have had to drive forever to find what I wanted. 
Note to self and visitors: Southern Arizona (where I'm at) does not have easy get-aways; at least not yet.
As for the heat, it's hot. You get used to it though. It's really not as bad as I thought. Going running at 8:30PM after the sun went down for thirty minutes and coming home COMPLETELY dripping in sweat....OK, that is taking my getting used to. For the most part though, I love it. And I can't wait until the beautiful weather this winter! (You Utahns have no idea... muah haha) 
The kids:  are awesome! I am already loving the people I have and will be meeting. I had a welcoming get-together party this past weekend and I asked a friend I met right away if he could invite some people. He said he got it covered, and I was like OK, maybe 15 people tops will show up. Oh was I wrong! 50! No Joke! Some came and went, some stayed the entire time, some came just before everyone left, but in total I met at least 35 people that night, and don't ask me their names, 'cause I don't know. I do know that I was very happy to see and later on at school I will maybe recognize a few kids. Best part is, every single kid was a member! (Maybe a few weren't) And they were all seniors! This area is huge. There are so many kids and such a good balance of LDS members, it's nothing like Utah, it's the real stuff down here. 
As far as I have noticed, and I might be entirely wrong, it seems as if the teenagers in this area are real. They go on dates, group dates often, and they even have a brain! Shocker. It's so awesome!
I feel like I fit right in. It's a little hard though, for me. A lot of the kids say they're in choir or drama and other extra-curricular activities. Me-not so much. So that makes me want to get into to stuff, and with my parents and their lame attitudes, there's hardly any hope. 
Like guitar or piano, voice lessons and paying the fees for Xcountry and choir. 
And I haven't got a job yet! It's very discouraging. How am I supposed to save up for life?
Well I guess that's all. School starts in two weeks, TWO WEEKS! I don't even believe it. August 10th, it's insane. I am so NOT ready to be old but I am SO ready to be done with school! Mesa High school is going to be awesome. My dad graduated form there, so do the math how old it is and all the school spirit there is.
I shall be awesome this year.
TTFN! 
This is a map of Saratoga Springs in Utah to Mesa in Arizona.Map

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Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Vacation at Home

Time to catch up! It's been two months. 
When it was time to move, my parents went without me while I stayed to enjoy half my summer in Utah, at home. That first week of June there were three days left of school, so I stayed at Chelsea's house for a week to spend some last days with friends and wrap things up. Then, I went to the home of my amazing sister Lisa and her husband and my almost-like-siblings three kids for the rest of the time. Somewhere in there I left for three days and stayed at a hotel in Salt Lake City with Chelsea and Layne for Chelsea's sweet sixteen. It was awesome! 
SO. I've been trying for nearly a month to post this blog but I can't seem to do it. I deleted everything I had previously written, and now I am going to give simply pictures and captions. All the details before were just too much. In a separate post sometime down the path of time, I'll share about camp. As for now:
Going to Earthfest (a concert with about 8 different smaller bands)
Daily Healing
While posting a blog from Chelsea's computer, this came up. We laughed! It says: "Chuck Norris broke the law of physics. He was left off with a warning." 
 
At the hotel for Chelsea's birthday. Aren't we fabulous? (You couldn't reach the toilet paper form the toilet, so I think that why we decided to be in the bathroom, to show that off. Only, you can't see it, so we modeled instead.)

I spent a least eight hours making these notebooks into journals as a gift for every girl and leader who went to camp. I had a hard time parting with them. They made me so happy :)

Brandon, Hayden, Alyssa
And lastly, 
My favorite person in the world. My sister and me.

So these aren't any exciting pictures. I wish I had spent a tad bit more time taking pictures of the things I did while in Utah, but this is what I got. I loved every bit of it. When I got off of the plane in Phoenix, I walked out to walk out the gate to get my baggage and I stopped when I saw my parents and wanted to turn back and pretend I got kidnapped or something. I didn't want to be home! I knew I would miss Utah a lot. And I am. However, I love that I have had the chance to meet new friends and hang out with them already. 
So far, so good.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Rambles

One thing I have learned I put out to Karen Lee (Chelsea's mom) as well as through my experiences regarding work. If you have homework, you should stay up and COMPLETE it before you ever go to bed. It should be priority. At one point in my life I do remember this being the case for me, maybe in seventh grade and early tenth grade when it actually mattered. However, "hard work" hasn't exactly been a strong teaching/learning point in my family and thus I have had to train myself to know of the importance of work and that if you don't work, you don't get anything. It's a very basic concept in which I should understand, and yet after 200 months of life it does not click in my head. Imagine that. If you had any idea the burden this is for me... well, I don't think anyone but maybe my siblings would know. But even then, they aren't the youngest as I am.
I've been thinking a lot lately. My brothers need to get married and them and my sisters need to have more kids! I love having kids around, it's miserable and lonely being the only kid at home. Even when they say "I'm going to bite you" or "you're a meany" or "I don't want to play with you" or when they are evil, rude and LOUD, they still send off a vibe of love. It's nice. And when I don't get love, where else do I go? Guys don't exactly run down the street with their heart in their hands awaiting my approval. So these are some reasons why I want to get married and why I need to have kids:
  • Babies make you joyful :)
  • A spouse can give you wonderful input and help that no one else can.
  • You get lots of cuddles, snuggles and hugs all the time!
  • You and your spouse WORK as a team, you help each other grow. 
  • It is the only way to teach someone what you know that you, yourself had never been taught.
There are at least three more really good reasons but I can't seem to explain them. Get inside my head. Or don't. It's a pretty scary place. I started writing a story about this once, I'd like to make it a book. It would be certainty exciting without a doubt. But that is a topic for another day.
Now, I must go pee and clean my teeth before I cry myself to sleep in snuggles with Mr. Teddy. I spent a lot of money today, and now I am emotionally recovering from it. Mainly from the action of going shopping. I despise it. Shopping puts me in an angry and depressed mood 2/3 times. Try to figure that out! I just plain don't like it.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Strange

     This past weekend we packed the entire house, loaded the truck, cleaned, and moved out. "Late" Yesterday morning my parents left with the cats and dog in the car, while I stayed at Chelsea's house and we went to school early. NO FUN! The whole weekend I felt nostalgic in everything that I did. The past two nights, I slept most awfully and now I feel the world is surreal. Today was the last day to step foot EVER in Westlake High school... 25% bitter, 75% sweet.
I am quite upset with myself. I needed to have a 15-30 line poem memorized for a stupid TMU (test, you have to take and pass every test with 80% or above to pass the class) as well as write a satire essay on a political cartoon. Due to my insane tiredness and amount of being over stressed, I didn't do it, broke down and gave up. FAIL... There's just one more thing to add to my summer of fun to-do list.
As for everything else, I hope my parents are enjoying themselves. Hopefully my sister Liz will help put my parents in their place =)
I have more to write, but at another time. I also will add some pictures someday.

Friday, May 27, 2011

The Beginning of the End

I created this blog a week ago but as you can see I'm just now getting around to it. In case you didn't know, I'm moving on May 31st. Actually, my parents are. But still, I have to go through the process of packing boxes with them and let me tell you, I hate packing! I love to have my things out and accessible and on display for my world to see. And putting my stuff if boxes completely defeats that idea. I need clear boxes. Oh yeah, that would be smart. Anyways, I have to go to school next week for two days after memorial day. Seriously? I really truly passionately DON'T like Westlake High school. Not one bit!!! For quite a few reasons. So while my parents move I will be at my dear friend Chelsea's house for a week. And then I will spend two weeks with my sister until the 20th when I'm going on a camping trip. Some day a few days later I will be flying home... To Mesa, Arizona where my parents and I are going to be living with my sister (she is 18 years older than me) long enough for me to graduate and for my parents to find their long lost brains.
The purpose of this blog is for people to maybe understand what I think. Funny right? My brain is completely IMPOSSIBLE to understand! Sometimes I think so much that I can't even comprehend what I'm thinking.
It's worth a shot.
Also, being 700 miles away from my fellow Utahns, if you want to see all the random aspects of my life, here it is. It will all be right here for ya. Read it and weep, and keep in contact.