catch up

well i've failed at blogging as often as i wanted to. the last few weeks have been crrrrazy though. it feels like i have been working all of the time, i had mid terms to worry about and i've still tried to be somewhat social. work has been fun and i've already paid my parents back for china (sweet, i know). mid terms sucked to say the least...i didn't check my scores until just recently...i shouldn't have checked them at all. i don't even want to talk about it. being social has been a little exhausting but quite fun. 


the most fun socializing perhaps occurred on the ccrt 2011 that took place over presidents' day weekend. cedar city reunion tour 2011 was the most fun i've had in a long time. it's amazing how easy it is to be with my amazing girls taryn, michelle, rachel, andrea, kirstyn and sadie. meg is on her mish and was missed but we know she's doing such a wonderful service and we love her for that. we all piled in my mothers mini van friday evening and headed to cedar. rachel made us itineraries that included a packing list, brought a bag full of goodies, and kirst and andrea made us a few playlists. we didn't listen to one song on the drive down because we were too busy chatting and catching up. the last time we were all together was june or july i think. time just escapes us ya know. it doesn't matter though. we are bosom buddies through and through. we don't have to talk every day to still love each other. when we do get together it's as if nothing changed, we pick up right where we left off. i truly enjoyed myself and loved spending time with my girls. i was also able to visit other friends that i haven't seen for a long time, much too long. i really am so grateful for technology and that it enables me to stay in touch with friends even if c can't physically see them as often as i'd like. i guess there is a something worthwhile about facebook and texting.


a few things happened while in cedar city. some i'm not quite as proud of as others. that's life.

• i gained a few lbs because of how much food i ate (costa, pastry pub, dq, pizza factory, spaghetti and garlic bread, wendy's, wingers, who knows how much diet coke and diet mountain dew...i know what your thinking and yes i really was only gone for three and a half days...)

• i didn't sleep. at all. but i had people to see and things to check off the list. and when i did sleep it was on the floor or a creeky box spring. sacrifice.

• i became infected with bieber fever. we went to see never say never and my goodness, that justin is a cutie. and more than that he's truly talented. after being given a gift like that from god i wouldn't expect him to be doing anything else. what can i say, i'm a belieber. he's put in so much hard work already, i wonder how long his little 16 year old body will be able to take it. i'm sure he'll be going strong for a number of years. i won't complain. maybe i'll still be single in a couple years when he turns 18. sure justin, i'll let you choose me to be the lonely girl at your next concert.

• i met a zebra named marty. scipio is a crazy place folks. who just keeps a zebra next to a gas station? i'm pretty sure alex, gloria and melman were pretty worried about where marty had disappeared to. the next madagascar to come out will be "madagascar: marty lost in scipio, utah"

• i didn't touch my homework. that was expected though.
• as i was touring good ol juniper i visited my freshman year room with mich and the other girls' rooms on a200, kirstyns room, my ra room and tys' room. every place brought back a flood of memories. it was so great. 
• watched a fair share of gossip girl episodes. that was also expected. 

i love love loved ccrt 2011. it brought back so many good memories. it made me indescribably happy. it rejuvenated me. cedar will always have a soft spot in my heart. love you c^2. 

i miss them.

it has been seven weeks. 
i can't believe it's already been that long. 
what if they've forgotten me?
i definitely haven't forgotten them.
i can't stop thinking about their dirty little hands, 
or their green snot runny noses, 
or their cute uniforms and unisex clothes, 
or their sweet mullets, braids, bangs and awful haircuts. 
basically i'm really close to driving to salt lake, buying a plane ticket to china, and staying with my kids for forever. i just got a qq. i'm hoping that i can video chat with my friends and little kiddies soon. until then i'll just look at their stinkin' cute faces via pictures on my computer. i have thirty other students that i love and miss just as much but their pictures will have to join a later post. 
i love you kids. don't forget teacher camille.

madi (ended up being mich's student but i still loved her...and her green snot)

tyler (also became one of mich's. he was a punk but there was a soft spot in my heart for him from day one)

austin- he's one of mich's but he was up there on my list of favorites.

tyson-this kid was all smiles all of the time.

james- i cried more with james than any other person in china. we had something special.

mick-he lived in our building and would often wake us by knocking on every
door in the hallway before finding ours..."teacher camille! teacher camille!"

emmy- this was one of two pictures i got of her smiling. so adorable.

sam- he left about half way through the semester. maybe it was because he wore his pjs to class...

jessica-she was rach's but i loved her to death.

blake- he would often massage my hands to make them warm and scratch my back out of love. i love him.

jordan- she was amazing. she would teach me chinese while walking to class everyday. we had a special connection.

ashley- she was a pill sometimes but how can you not love that face?? she loved stickers, like the rest of the kids do.

birthday hugs from my favorite kids :)

celeb sighting number one

one of the perks of working at a fancy restaurant is that on occasion you get the opportunity to serve someone famous. today was that day for me. well i guess i didn't serve him but i definitely made sure that his water was never half empty. because i live in provo i don't have the privilege of meeting too many famous people...especially famous rock stars. blake lewis enjoyed lunch (for quite a few hours might i add) with a few friends at la jolla groves today. my good friend and fellow back server sean heath was brilliant (and gutsy enough) to go up to him and introduce himself. i followed like a little puppy dog and was lucky enough to meet him and get a picture.

don't mind my lame stance. i'm so awkward in pictures...

thank you la jolla groves. i hope that you will give me the opportunity to meet many more celebs in the future at your fine restaurant. chris pine? brad pitt? hayden christensen? gavin degraw? channing tatum? jude law? matthew bellamy matt lanter? please?!

check one off the list

i have accomplished one of my goals for the year already.i'm quite proud of myself for doing this. procrastination has yet to stop me from finishing all of the things on it. i suppose some will say that i should have waited to finish this particular goal until the summer of this year... but i, along with my little sister, was too anxious and needed something fun to do this weekend. 


ashlee, my sweet mother and i had a legitimate harry potter marathon that began late friday night. the schedule went as follows:
11:30 pm ordered pizza and cinna stix from dominos
12:00 am began watching harry potter and the sorcerer's stone
2:40 am started harry potter and the chamber of secrets
5:20 am turned on harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban
at this point we had snacked on candy, licorice, drank soda, ate caramel popcorn and tried to consume anything else to keep us awake. we made it through most of the movies so far but i personally really failed during the third one so i watched part of it again while making/eating waffles for breakfast. 
9:00 am repositioned ourselves on the couch downstairs as we turned on harry potter and the goblet of fire
(for some reason my mother thought it was appropriate to undecorate from christmas while watching the rest of the movies. i guess this was fine because she was being productive and i didn't want her to feel stressed later because she didn't do it. but i truly love being able to just sit, be lazy and fully enjoy being snuggled up in a blanket while watching a show. or six.)
11:45 am started harry potter and the order of the phoenix

all three of us had a sugar overload from the last 12 hours so we made a fruit plate and enjoyed that along with salty chips and popcorn for lunch. so healthy, i know. we also topped it off with our favorite dessert, hagrid's hash (a chocolate cake, pudding and cool whip and toffee trifle). i guess all those apples made our sugar induced head aches go away and we were ready for some more.

2:30 pm began harry potter and the half blood prince
unfortunately we weren't the most clean after vegging for two days so we took a short break to shower, freshen up and get ready to go see hp 7 pt 1 in the theater. we headed to five guys for a tasty burger and fries (smash of course got a grilled cheese) which was apparently the place to go in provo on a saturday night. we saw a couple from our stake, calli's wonderful parents and siblings, and jake and cindy ellis. good thing we took a break to become presentable and normal looking.
6:40 pm we were spoiled with the big screen and surround sound while watching harry potter and the deathly hallows pt 1

this marathon was very enjoyable. i was able to spend time with my wonderful mother and sister and i watched some of my favorite movies of all time. i can't believe how much i like harry potter and this weekend has caused my love for it to grow even more. something about the constant triumph of good over evil, or the wittiness or sometimes cheesiness of the dialog, or ron's facial expressions causes that love for harry potter to be there and to bring me joy. now i patiently wait for the deathly hallows pt 2 to come out july 15th of this year. until then i hope to reread all of the books and once again be engulfed into a world where anything is possible. 

day two in the life of blue

this week i started a new chapter in my life. i started school at brigham young university.yesterday was my first day of classes and although i'm not taking very many i was really quite nervous. here i was, starting at a new school on a campus that is much bigger than the one i came from, and i felt like a little freshman again. a few days before class i dragged my little sister around campus to find my classes and i felt like she knew more than i did. but despite my nerves my first day went alright and nothing went wrong. i made it to all of my classes, and successfully weaved in and out of the hundreds of students that were wandering around campus, just like me. i was so distracted all of the time because i couldn't stop people watching. i don't know why i had this vision of what byu would be like in my head, but it was there and it was crazy. byu was completely different than what i thought it would be like. turns out i like it there. 

maybe this year...

each year comes the time to make new years resolutions. i have always at least written down a few things that i wanted to "work" on. but the last few years i have taken it a little more seriously. my list consists of a few repeats and a few new ideas. it consists of quite a few different things but variety is good and i hope that having a variety will help me accomplish at least a few of these...ok lets be real. i want to accomplish all of them and the first step to doing that is telling myself that i'll be 100% successful. so here are my goals that i will do in 2011.

-work out daily-

-make it into the byu music ed program-

-blog once a week-

-make a book-

-be in a play-

-read the BOM twice-

-learn the guitar-

-have a legitimate hp marathon-

-save more than i spend-

-pray with a sincere heart-

-read at least 5 books-

-learn a new song on the piano-

-take advantage of the time i have with family and friends-

this is quite the list for me. it's a little lengthy and some of these things will be difficult for me. but i'm up for the challenge. positive thinking...

one.one.oneone

i celebrated the new year by sweating more than i have in weeks, having no control over my body, and being pushed and shoved against people that i didn't even know. no my night did not include alcohol and no it did not include drugs. it was all due to an overpriced dance at uvu. although i was mostly miserable, it was really fun to be with my girls and ring in the new year in a way that i might not ever experience again. after that party we enjoyed our first meal of 2011 at my house around 1:11 am. waffles and pancakes were on the menu and we enjoyed probably a few too many until the wee hours of the morning. unfortunately we were unable to capture any of the night with a camera. we didn't take one single picture and i regret that entirely. hopefully this next year i will be better at taking pictures. 2010 brought many great memories, experiences and new friends. i'm hoping that 2011 will do the same. i feel like this year might not be as eventful but i guess we'll just have to see. i'm hoping that it will go by quickly and painlessly. i have yet to make my goals for this year but you know that when i do they will most likely include one about eating better, one about working out consistently, one about establishing good study habits, and one about being more selfless. those seem to be pretty common but are good none the less. i hope that this year i will stick with each one and be successful in accomplishing them. last year was great and lets hope this will be greater.

finished up being an ra at suu

met tyson jenkins. what more can i say?

cedar city with the girls

awesome summer festivities including a hp party

teaching in china

traveling all over china