Impress me, Rexburg.

Another great week up at BYU-Idaho! It has been very busy and feels more like 3 weeks squished into one but I'm loving it. I'm just finishing up my homework that's due for the next four days because at 3:30 I'm leaving to go camping! Woohoo! One of my good friends, Garrett, invited me to come camping with his family on some land they own in southern Idaho. Apparently, there is going to be a lot to do and I'm quite stoked. So I don't have time for a super long post because I haven't even begun packing yet and have a few hours of studying left.
One thing that really stands out to me is how gorgeous the weather has been this last week! Every day it gets to between 70 and 80 degrees, the sun never ceases to shine, and the wind cools you off just enough. And the nights are even more perfect. I can walk around in short sleeves and shorts and am totally comfortable! I never thought that was possible here but I'm SO glad it has happened.

Happy July everyone!! :)

Friday, Friday, gettin' down on Friday...

Oh the happiness that a weekend can bring... oh wait. Not yet. First I have to take two grade-altering tests. Then I'll be ready for anything :) So, Wyoming was great! The whole point of the trip was to get some fireworks that aren't exactly available here in Idaho. But come to find out, they don't sell fireworks in Jackson Hole, WY. So we made the beautiful two hour drive there, walked around the quaint little town for an hour or so and drove back home!
I have learned a great lesson these last couple of days. Wanna hear? Oh goodie. I was able to pinpoint what my major personal trial is at this time in my life and I was so relieved! It might seem strange... and it is. It was a really depressing moment to hear myself say out loud that I know what my problem is (because I really did say it to myself out loud... it was that monumental). But since then, the depression has worn off and I have been so relieved. I am so happy that my trial is what it is and I don't think I would trade it for any other trial of anyone else that I know. It is unique to me and I have grown up learning how to deal with it. It has made me a better person and I know it will continue to do so!
Now, back to the history of Ancient Rome... bleh.

I had the best day. with you. today.

Life is good, everyone! I don't even know where to start! I have about a month left this semester at BYU-Idaho and I really don't want it to end. If it weren't for my family back in California, I'm pretty sure I would find a way to stay all year long. I feel like this really is my home. I have grown so much this semester because I started out completely alone. Luckily, I was blessed with the better roommates than anyone within a five-mile radius. Not even joking. I have gotten to know who I am so well and I'm growing so much, meeting countless amounts of great people, and having so many great experiences! I wouldn't spend these last six months with anyone else, in any other places. Being able to grow so much closer to my family for the first three and a half months of the year, and then growing more within myself than at any other point in my entire eighteen years. Best year ever so far!
And it's just going to keep going!! I'm moving to Orlando Shmorlando all by myself - cue Celine - in less than three months! Expect updates regularly and lots and lots of stories! I've never been so excited to moved a few thousand miles away from everyone I know!
Finally... today. It started with me waking up at 9 to a 75 degree sun shining down through my window, walking a mile to the temple, getting home at 12:30 to get ready for the day, attending one of the best devotionals I've ever been to (link to come shortly), getting a ridiculous amount of compliments, doing some homework that actually taught me a lot, coming home to my lovely roommates, getting a surprise taco bell dinner delivered by some wonderful people right to my door, going to a cold but fun but intense but always entertaining flag football game, and now continuing my horrible late night ritual of wasting time. Honestly, I couldn't ask for anything better and I hope tomorrow is just as great... I'm going on a trip to Wyoming after my classes end so it's bound to be great, right?? :)

when you wish upon a star...

Wow. So it has been almost 4 months since my last post. I am so sorry. Quick overview of my life since January 31st? Let's do it.
-Family Vacation to Hawaii. Imagine spending 14 days in paradise with your 4 best friends. Then times that happiness by a lot.
-Maddi playing mom. During mom and dad's Hawaiian Cruise, I had to play single mom for 10 days. No. I can only pray.
-Grandpa's 75th Birthday Party. One of my heroes just got a year older. And managed to talk about deodorant alternatives in what we thought would be the "special moment."
-Friends. So many adventures, so many memories, so much love.
-Working almost full-time at Old Navy. I have this new-found love for making my own money, especially with a company that I adore.
-An 85 degree day in March. To the lake.
-Walt Disney Museum. For the next time you find yourself in San Francisco and want to have your heart filled and your inspiration meter spiked. I can't wait to meet this man in Heaven.
-Living with and working for Grandma and Grandpa. I would rather spend a night with these two than at any party I could find.
-Countless adventures with my family. I am the luckiest girl in the world. I now look forward to 13-hour road trips so that I can spend time with them. While living at home, I realized that my parents, brother, and sister mean more to me than anything else in my life, ever. I don't think anyone could understand the love I have for them and the desire I have for them to succeed in life. I can't wait to spend days upon days with Tori and Isaac.
-Moving back to Idaho for the Spring Semester. Holy yes.

Since being up here at school again, I have had a BLAST. To start off with, my roommates are better than I could have imagined. The six of us get along perfectly and have fun whenever we are together. My classes definitely keep me busy and that is great! I'm meeting a lot of new people, which I love, and boys are frustrating sometimes. But hey, what's new?

Oh, by the way, I AM GOING TO WORK AT WALT DISNEY WORLD. Yeah, I got accepted to the Disney College Program for this fall. That means that I will be moving down to Orlando, FL on September 7th and work full-time in the parks until January 6th. Can you say Maddi excited? Yes, please do because I can't seem to wrap my mind around it yet. So, this blog is probably going to turn into a blog for everyone to hear all of the interesting and unique stories I'll have all of the time from my magical adventures down there.

bummer days

I literally just typed out five paragraphs then accidentally clicked refresh. Shoot, dude. Well, the gist of it was that I love my life. Beginning with that In'n'Out trip two weeks ago, I have made countless memories and bonds with people I love than I could imagine. I seriously smile just thinking about things like the movie nights or Shea driving up for the weekend on a whim or the fact that I get to stay with Grandma and Grandpa on Wednesday and Thursday and they're paying me to paint the sun room or friends predicting my future husband or blasting Garth Brooks in the car or long talks or family puzzle parties or bonfires or my mischievous plans or car rides that I laughed the entire way through or Stake Conference alone or my talented cousins who I'm so proud of or my family being incredibly giddy every time someone mentions our Hawaii trip and the fact that we're packing already but not leaving for three weeks. Moral of the story: I am blessed with amazing friends and family who make me want to be a better person and there's nothing more that I could ask for.

fries and a shake, here I come

Welllllpp, today was a great day! I went to church (fricken awesome) where I listened to Blake Drennan give his farewell talk and he did so great! I learned a lot from it and did tear up, I must admit. Then I came home and since it's dad's birthday we made Monte Cristo sandwiches, fresh fruit smoothies, and potatoes. Yum. Then from about 1 until 8 we played games and did puzzles. What a blast... for real.

The weekend was great too! I worked a lot and went out and met some new people and it was quite a success. I am very content right now. With everything in my life. I just have this overwhelming feeling of peace and happiness and I truly have no worries because I know that everything is going to work out. Ahh nothing beats this.

And now I am on my way to In'N'Out with some friends... I suddenly jus realized how hungry I am. ;)

This was taken on New Years Eve 2010 in Sonora, CA - my grandpa is on the left and his brother, Alan, is on the right. We were there with nearly all of our cousins and a lot of other extended family for their older brother's funeral. The three brothers grew up in Sonora and none of their grandkids had ever been there so we spent a few hours after the funeral touring around town and hearing story after story from their childhood. I could have spent days doing just that. It was so fun and interesting and I was smiling for the entire day! This picture specifically was taken in front of a building on Main Street that used to be a barber shop their father owned when they were kids. They worked there, and even lived there at times, and were so happy to share it with us. I am extremely close to my whole family, but these two men have extremely special places in my heart and have given me memories I will never forget.

meet me, the offerer

Definition of me being bored: offering to wake up Tori for seminary at 5:45, then offering to wake up Isaac for school at 7:45, then making Isaac breakfast and lunch, then offering to go to the gym with my mom at 9. It worked out very well, though, and I'm doing it again tomorrow :)

I worked today for the first time in a few weeks and I literally walked around with a smile on my face. I love my job and I offered to take an extra 5 hour shift tomorrow. What a saint.

Sooo here's the deal. You know when you (I'm just talking to the future me, here to pretend I have an audience... haha) have this thing in your head that you think about all of the time. And you know you shouldn't be worrying about this thing anymore because there's nothing sensible that you can do to control it. And you're starting to think about doing somewhat insensible things because you just want to do something about it. And you don't want to bring up this thing to other people because then they would think that you are crazy for still thinking about it. And you have decided the best thing to do is just go on with your life and see where this thing ends up. And you try. And it works. And then something happens and screws the whole thing up. Yeah, that sucks. And I'm referring to more than a couple things here... But I think I have found a quote to stop me once and for all. "There's no point in watching a pot and waiting for it to boil while there is real life going on around us. The only thing that will bring us is regrets and missed opportunities. The water will boil whether we're watching it or not, and we might as well live our lives in the meantime." Okay fine I just came up with that... But it works, right?

It's not possible to love people more than I love the people in this picture. This was in Miami, Florida in June 2010 in a rental van after a week long cruise in the Caribbean. We spent this day driving around, touring different parts of Florida and loving every moment of it. Exhausting? Yes. Priceless? Ohh yes.

red, white, and blue vomit

The job hunt is still on... now in the mix are Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Island's, and Mcdonald's. Please please pleaseeee.

Exciting news - I learned a very valuable lesson today! They way to anyone's heart truly is to find something that they love to do so much that they usually do it alone, and DO IT WITH THEM. Ever since dad's heart attack last year, he has been so good at staying healthy and he usually walks for 45 minutes every day. When I got home, I just started going to the gym because that's where I'm comfortable exercising but today I switched things up and went with him! He usually goes around 6 or 7 in the evening and as he is walking out the door, he'll ask if anyone wants to go with him and no one will reply at all so he leaves without a word. Can you say 'stab me in the heart'? Yeah, so I went with him, and despite the horrific shin splints and having to jog to keep up at some points, I could tell it made him so happy. I loved being able to spend those 45 minutes with him and hearing his past walking stories or just catching up. So, I'm going to try to focus on that this year; spending time with the people I love doing things that they love. Sound good? Good.

I spent like 3 hours last night looking up new songs and downloading them. I just can't get enough of music and I found some great new songs.

What Do You Want by Jerrod Niemann - I heard it at the right time in my life, I guess! Very easy to relate to.

Pretty Girl Rock by Keri Hilson - A little conceited but who doesn't like that every once in a while?

If I Die Young by The Band Perry - I've heard it before, but if you listen to the words closely, it makes so much sense. Brilliance.

Moment 4 Life feat. Drake by Nicki Minaj - Love this woman and she has done it again. Makes me nod my head like a mother in church.

Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not by Thomson Square - So cute, great little love story.

Raymond by Brett Eldredge - Ready to cry? Good. This song means a lot to me mostly because I have spent a lot of time in nursing homes visiting my great-grandparents, at least once a month for my entire life. I have some great and some horrible vivid memories and this song reminds me of the great ones.

Who Are You When I'm Not Lookin by Blake Shelton - Adorable. We all think about it...

Moving from music to pictures...

This was taken in April 2008 at our favorite restaurant in Disneyland!! We went with the Stapleys for a few days and this was the last day. It was one of those vacations where you ate like crap and didn't stop walking the entire time and got 5 hours of sleep each night and didn't care what you looked like because you wouldn't see a mirror until you went to bed at night. And this picture is the result of three straight days of that. Isaac and Sam fell asleep at the table that evening and my make-up had been washed off in a ride a few hours earlier. Uncle Garth and my mom went back to the hotel early on this night because they were tired and I vividly remember leaving the park, walking down Main Street at 1 in the morning eating huge rice krispie treats with red and blue sprinkles and drinking hot chocolate and limping because of the blisters on my feet. My dad, Tori, Shea, Brenly, and I were the only ones to last until closing time and we were so exhausted and delusional, singing made-up songs about how ridiculously expensive the park was and throwing up. Literally. I can't wait to have these vacations with my future family.

scratch that "barely one song" comment...

It's only like an hour since I last posted, BUT I just had an epiphany and need to record it somewhere. At this point, I have learned seven chords on the guitar. Psh, and I thought I can only play one song. Actually, I have now successfully played through Untouchable by Taylor Swift, Good Riddance by Breen Day, Umbrella by Rihanna, and The Best Day by Taylor Swift. Sweet mother of pearl I'm going to be at this all night.

am I obsessed with you? that would be a yes.

So the weekend was great; met some new people, church was awesome, laughed a lot, ended up some places I never pictured at the beginning of the night (totally wholesome, don't fret), almost drove to San Francisco at 1 in the morning, and that's about it.... oh wait. I almost forgot. I crossed something off of my bucket list. Not only that, but it is going to be my claim to fame. Beginning at about 10:30 P.M. last night, I was receiving my first mini guitar lesson from my angelic cousin, Alex. I almost haven't set the thing down since. It's on my lap as we speak. I am in love. Simple as that. I'm not even remotely good yet and I can barely play one song but I'm improving!! And I have had new song ideas running through my head all day long. You can start calling me Taylor Swift soon.

Oh, it's a guitar.

Pic of the day? Yeah, that's it.