camping. on steriods.

i'm never one to back down from a party. especially when i can be the hostess.
or so i thought!

after getting out of the bakery today with 15 loaves of bread, 65 hamburger buns, and spending my arm and part of a leg getting hamburgers and enough oranges to feed an army... i started to wonder at my sanity of agreeing to get food for (at least) 50 people to go camping this weekend. 
hmmmm....
i'll give you my answer when i get back. 
good news: i got 4 free loaves of bread today!

my shopping list for the night:
think bulk and you've pretty much hit the nail on the head. 
that and enough food to feed 50 people for 3 days. i don't know about you, but it sounds like a costco run is in order! and winco. oh winco, i love you! you make shopping for parties so much easier. 

other news:
i was feeling bipolar the other day... and this happened.

this.

to this.

i figured it was far too long since i had been a blonde... and that it was time to bring it back. (not to mention i was ready for a new adventure in hair! yes, i did it all by myself. well... with the aid of my younger sister.) 

hopefully i'll stick with this one for a while. i've decided hairstyling is an expensive hobby. and i'd rather keep my hair...

whatcha got in there?

22.

what's in my purse right now.

23.

favorite vacation.

(you thought i was going to say jerusalem right?)

but i have to say that the best vacations have been the ones with my family.

pizza face is josh. (fyi)

24.

something i've learned:

life. it is a crazy thing. and it doesn't always go the way that you want it to.

(but there is ALWAYS a reason for what happens.)

(are you noticing that i'm just trying to finish this???)

25.

do the shuffle. on my ipod.

dead girls dance - oberhofer

whoa - we the kings

we are pilots - shiny toy guns

what kind of fool am i? - rick springfield

beautiful disaster - jon mclaughlin

time awaits - the kooks

mockingbird - rob thomas

behind the sea - panic! at the disco

joy to the world - three dog night

never grow up - taylor swift

26.

my dream wedding...

just go look at my pinterest and you'll get the idea...

but we can't forget this place!

like pretty much ever other mormon kiddo, i've grown up singing the words to the song - 

"i love to see the temple, i'm going there someday..."

and i am.

someday.

(currently workin on the dating/boyfriend part right now...)

27.

around town...

oh little town of rexburg, how still we see thee lie

(but for once... not under 10 feet of snow!!!)

pic courtesy of wikipedia. ha.

(i think i'm missing my summer/fall/warm/decent weather right now...)

potato fields outside of rexburg.

sand dunes.

please tell me you are jealous and are coming to visit me soon!

(my evil plan is workinggggg!)

28.

something that stresses me out.

handsome men.

i just don't know what to do with myself around them...

;)

29.

(almost done!!!)

3 wishes.

wish 1:

that i could marry superman.

dum-dum-de-dum...

wish 2:

i could have hair like this everyday.

wish 3:

to spend all day in bed.

no homework.

no alarms.

no deadlines.

no stress!

30!

we made it folks!

(this pic makes my nose look HUGE.)

to wrap this up (finally)... and hopefully you haven't been bored to death...

5 good things that happened to me during this challenge:
1. i got over sharing pictures of myself.
2. it got me writing.
3. consistency? not. at. all. (but it has motivated me for the next time i decide to do something like this again!)
4. it actually got me blogging! part of the new year's resolutions... to write more diligently. we'll see how it goes!
5. i tried to think outside of the box. maybe it worked, maybe it didn't... but baby steps are what we're working on!

i'm gonna get over you.

this is my happy thought for the day. :)

i want her clothes. and her hair. 

so we tried an experiment today, and made super yummy pumpkin crunch granola. 

(this is like pavlov's dog... i say a food, and you start salivating. muahaha!) 

looks pretty delish don't you think?

(we did make a little subsitution and just used honey instead of all the agave-necter-health-nut stuff... i mean, we are poor college students after all!)

so i told you about my dream yes?

of running a half marathon.

tomorrow is the 5-mile run.

and guess who is a little scared.

NOT ME!

i'm gonna dominate this thing.

:D

here comes the sun...

sorry you don't get a lot of me writing today.

i want my lunch.

 st. george monastery in the wadi qelt

this is after we crossed the sea level marker on the way to jericho... and sang 'under the sea' from the little mermaid.

we are that awesome.

 my hair was interesting today.

besides getting up increasingly later, i don't want to come back at the end of the summer with a white forehead, so the bangs are not allowed out of the center.

 i want to build my future house on the side of a ravine.

on a more spiritual note, this is what the area where the good samaritan story would have occurred.

it was hot.

rocky.

and if you took one wrong step, you would fall a long, long way down.

the interesting thing is that these hills would have been a lush, fertile green only a month ago. they are quite brown now.

but this is the "fertile" wilderness!

the grass that dies here is actually used to feed the herds during the rest of the summer. even though it is dead, they still eat it.

yum.

 this is a sycamore tree.

bible lesson:

zacchaeus climed this tree like when he wanted to see the savior pass by.

actually it isn't this exact tree.

but it was still pretty cool.

 we were storming the walls of jericho.

march two, three, four!

at herod's winter palace outside of jericho.

he died a miserable death here...

but we like to practice our crane move too.

just in case we ever need it.

----------------------------------------------

it was SO HOT!

but i love the sun :)

i need thick wool tights. it is 31 degrees and i am in a dress.

today i am able to focus on just about everything but my computer.

unless it meant blogging.

(you should feel very priviledged)

because the whole reason i left the apartment was to study...

it's not going to happen today.

another picture of the hair...

i was told i looked chinese.

yes?

i actually have an asian roommate.

we look like sisters now!!!

i watched megamind last night.

such a cute movie!

i freakin love it.

will ferrell is a genius...

who else can pull of saying "i feel so mel-an-choly" (emphasis on the second syllable there) and still be an evil genius?

definitely not the way that i thought the movie was going to go, but i think it was actually better! and i love how he has theme music for everything.

i think i will come up for a playlist for when i strut around campus.

just because it would be cool.

this isn't in the movie, but i think it deserves some serious respect!

(besides, when i hear it i can't get it out of my head for the rest of the day. a catchy tune like that has got to be forced upon others...)

just watch this one.

trust me.

don't tell me you didn't smile.

not just a little bit?

----------------------------------------------------------------------

people watching is bomb.

and so is trying to do homework in a highly trafficked area.

(homework completion is impossible)

and results in a date for saturday night!

waste of time?

i think not!

it's not neglect i assure you...

i have been incredibly busy this week.

no lie.

i have wanted to write! but there was always something a little more pressing on my schedule... but to make up for it i have an fantastic little playlist of goodness!

to recap the week:

i went home last weekend! (yet another reason i didn't post... i was way too busy having fun with my brothers and sisters at home!) we kidnapped our cousin and brought her home

with us... we really wanted to surprise our parents... but it just so happened that one of the guys we were bringing home with us has a very grateful mother.

i love grateful people. don't get me wrong... but not when they ruin my surprise! (she came up to my mom to thank her for her daughters bringing her son home this weekend... blast!)

so i get a text from my dad. "should we leave the front door open for you guys?" to which i played dumb and pretended not to know what he was talking about... the only thing he said back to me was, "just don't wake me up." thanks dad. love you too.

we had a basketball overload - my sister's team got 5th in state! granted, they are a 1A school,

but that's still good for us! our school got sports my sophomore year in high school, so it's still a new program... we get closer every year though!

finally i got to see one of my best friends from high school...

love this girl!

she's got a sweet little girl with one more on the way - it's incredible how fast time flies! (and here i am... still single and as clueless about life as ever!!!)

so you all know about my obsession with d.i.

i bought some ramekins there last semester, and never got to use any, so carissa and i decided that we were going to be really courageous and make something really great! we narrowed the selection down to 2 things. either souffles or miniature pies. since i had apples that were going bad earlier in the semester, i had cut them up and put them in the freezer. perfect! mini apple pies. bam. done.

i was trying to hide the fact that i parted my hair down the middle.

not my look.

and carissa pretending to have helped make them...

just kidding! love you rissa... i know you were there for moral support the whoooooole time!

...and it was gooooooooooooooood.

we did a little variation on grandma opal's apple pie (an allrecipe recipe that we made for thanksgiving this year... it has a very yummy carmel inside...)

while i was making the carmel, i got a little too much help from a guy in my ward. yes. i know how to make carmel. you have obviously not had my carmel corn before. yeah, that's right... just step away from the saucepan and you won't get hurt... so the carmel didn't get as done as it needed to. nevertheless it was still a success!

i wish i had a recipe for this one... but we basically just threw some of my frozen apples, 1/3 cup of sugar, cinnamon (i think i was aiming for like a tablespoon... but it kinda spurted out... so i'm not quite sure on that one) and a little nutmeg.

i did actually find a recipe for the crust, since i didn't want to be left with tons of crust...

we mixed 1 cup of white all-purpose flour with 6 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of col

d water. i don't know about you, but it was pretty intense in the kitchen when trying to figure that one out... ;) we used the extra crust and cut out little strips to make the cutsie lattice-look on the top.

to put it all together:

i used a bowl to cut out a circle (which still ended up being too big... i just squashed it around when i put it in the ramekin.) and then filled the crust with the apple mix. i rolled out the

leftover pie crust and cut it into little strips and laid them on top of the apples to make the lattice, and then poured the carmel over the top of the pie and threw it into the oven! voila! we threw it in the oven on 375 for about 20 minutes.

pros: you eat your pie. you don't keep going back for more slices because everyone just gets one. (i like this plan...)

cons: it runs out. no more pie. this is when you give a puppy dog look to the person sitting next to you and hope that they are merciful and give you a bite.

yada yada yada... the week continues.

not much else happened... except... drumroll please!!!

i cut my hair!

i used to have bangs.

a very low point in my existence.

picture this: (and maybe you can relate...)

young girl

shy

mayyyyyybe a little on the "fluffy" side...

didn't have a whole lot of confidence

and hated her curly hair

she had bangs...

that probably should have belonged back in the 80s.

she had them for several years. (think 3rd through 8th grade.)

and she would go through what she likes to refer to as "hair dispensations"

a year of braids.

a year of "some up/some down" (whatever that half-ponytail is called...)

and several years of ponytails.

finally, she decided that she had pretty hair (and - get this - she liked her curl! hallelujah!)

so she grew the bangs out and vowed that she would never ever ever ever have them again.

she was true to her word... until yesterday.

what do you think?

good choice?

she thinks so.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

so grateful for aubree.

the amazing hair stylist that didn't mess up my hair.

(nice to know that i am so optimistic, huh?!)

a lot of randomness for your wednesday

i know what it's like.

i've seen it played out a few zillion times.

you're waiting for that magical day when someone makes the connection and recognizes who you really are.

maybe they'll first catch the sparkle in your eye.

or perhaps they'll marvel at your insights and the depth of your spirit.

someone who will help you connect the dots, believe in yourself, and make sense of it all.

someone who will understand you, approve of you, and unhesitatingly give you a leg up so that life can pluck your ready, ripened self from the branch of magnificence.

well, I'm here to tell you, your wait is over.

that someone, is you.

~Mike Dooley

isn't it true though?

i was reading through one of my journals, and i found that quote.

oh how i love quotes!

i always seem to find ones that speak right to my very core. that make me want to be a better

person, and that give me the boost that i need to...

i'm pretty sure that this is my favorite saying of late.

with all the stress of an upcoming study abroad (even though i am extremely excited! ...it is still nerve-racking and i just love to worry about stuff anyways), applying for nursing schools, dating, not dating, making friends, going to class, homework, and trying to stay sane by

cooking... i just have to remember to keep movin' on!

we had an experiment tonight... we started out with a potato soup, and just kept adding stuff from the fridge that needed to be eaten. so we ended up with a very interesting (but very yummy!) soup. and we decided we needed bread to go with it, so we hopped in the car and drove down the street to maverik to get a $1 loaf of french bread.

keep calm and carry on!

i've decided that life is ok, and stressing about stuff will only waste energy.

energy that i need! (to have awesome nacho-libre themed parties like tonight!!!)

we even made a paper-mache luchador-mask pinata!

it took serious skill.

(yes, i am the idiot that painted it... don't laugh)

oh, and i did mention we dyed our hair?

here is a picture.

of the blue.

i had to make sure to hide the hair when i went to the testing center today. they don't look too kindly on those of us who express their individuality through our choice of hair color. it does not look as good as my roommates - she is super blonde so it turned bright blue. mine looks kinda green.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

i am thankful for sleep

and airbourne

and for the hours that i did not spend worrying about parties,

because hanging out with friends is always a success!

i shouldn't be allowed to post this late

...but i am going to anyway!

i guess you'll just have to put up with the ramblings of a fatigued mind.

whatcha gonna do 'bout that, huh?

i love to collect things.

this might seem odd, because i also don't like excess.

i simply like the little odds and ends that i have.

the random dishes

the books from thrift stores

the insane amount of clothes in my closet

(all of which i wear... so i can't condone getting rid of any of them!)

...i probably could get rid of a few of my shoes...

i wonder what it would be like to be ascetic.

i honestly don't think i would survive.

i think that every single one of my dishes in my cupboard has come (1) from the dollar store or (2) from D.I... which, let's face it, is one of the coolest places on earth. the unfortunate part about living in a college town full of poor college students is that the good stuff is always gone. really fast. CONSTANT VIGILANCE! as mad-eye moody would say. my roommates and i have found some of the cutest things there, hidden inside of other things, and buried beneath piles of junk - voila! you find a gem. my sister spends hours looking at clothes... yours truly is drawn to the books and the dishware. yes. i am pathetic and should probably get counseling.

which reminds me - i got the cutest mustard-yellow dishes there the other day!!! not really the cutest... but i love the color! it makes me happy just looking at them.

:)

the only down-side is that there were only two. not that i needed a whole set or anything like that. but it would have been awesome nonetheless!

(i promise that one day you will see these amazing dishes! i am still currently missing my camera though... that means that (1) my room ate it (2) my car ate it (3) someone "borrowed" it and probably won't ever be returning it or (4) i lost it. which would make me very sad.) i will definitely have to send out the search parties tomorrow... or maybe just decide to clean my room for once! where is my mom when i need her???

i found this little gem yesterday. which made my morning this morning even better when i "accidentally" slept in until fifteen minutes before my class started. which resulted in messy hair thrown into a bun/no makeup/sweatshirt day... i must have been shinin' real bright! har har har... (and you wanna know the best part about the whole morning?)

murphy's law loves me.

super-cute guy right? the one that i've only talked to like two times (ever)... not that i wouldn't be 100,000,000% ok talking to him more...

on the one morning i don't look cute, and i don't have time to shower or have time to get ready - who else would i see? and looking very fine driving a white truck. wowza.

and he honked at me! followed by a wave. eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

(squealing and happy dance ensued)

but still no number.

fail.

possibly followed by a few tears...

mom says i'll have to work on that. (and how may i ask, can one accomplish that? without resorting to ridiculous amounts of facebook stalking?)

and moving on... (i'll keep ya posted on the boy developments... mayyyybe...)

this is what i feel like on a daily basis.

people say they like curly hair.

they do not realize that curly hair has a mind of its own.

but i love my hair. even though it drives me crazy sometimes.

kinda like a boyfriend... but this looks better. ;)

----------------------------------------------------------

i'm grateful for chocolate

banana-cranberry sticky buns

pretzel rods

...

and GREEN APPLES!

(if i haven't told you how i am obsessed with them... just wait...

there will be more on this later. i promise!)