Holy Cow!

This is my 200th post!! It's crazy to think that I have felt the need to write or document things this many times. I don't really have anything to write about so I will just share a couple videos I made. 

I've been watching a lot of vloggers (video bloggers), particularly British ones, on YouTube lately and it's really entertaining to just watch them live their lives. Maybe it's because I can live vicariously trough them since my life is going nowhere right now or maybe it's just their accent that draws me in. Either way, it prompted me to film a few of the adventures my roommates and I have gone on. I'm finding I really enjoy editing the videos, even though it's kind of a lot of work. It's been nice having projects to work on as my job search continues. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Break 2013

On Wednesday, after 13 hours in a car, I was home! It was so nice to be home for Thanksgiving this year, the first in four years. I'm sad I didn't get to see everyone though. Since it was a surprise that I was coming, some family made other plans and I wasn't able to see all my siblings. Luckily, I'll be back for Christmas in 21 days. 

This Thanksgiving was pretty special because we had eight Oregon State football players and 2 of their girlfriends join us for dinner since my cousin is a freshman on the team. My younger cousins had a blast playing with them and they were very entertaining. They were very friendly and enjoyable to have around. We had a lot of food, but they didn't eat as much as you would expect since some of them had the Civil War game (Oregon State vs University of Oregon) the next day and the ones that didn't play had to watch their weight. We played a game of Spoons with Fred, my cousin's roommate, and they all went swimming after dinner. It was a great day.

Yesterday was the Civil War and sadly we didn't win, for the sixth year in a row. We lost by one point, which is almost worse than losing by a lot just because we were SO CLOSE. It was fun how the family kept looking for my cousin and the players we had over the day before on TV. We saw them a few times. It was pretty exciting. 

I had also spent over an hour on the phone with Verizon. My grandma was on the phone for a while and we found out they had made a mistake and wanted me to change my phone number because of it. I was going to go along with it just because I didn't want to make things difficult for Nana, but I didn't really want to change my number. I took over the call and after over 2 hours on the phone between the two us, we finally got it resolved. Working at a call center has its perks because I definitely knew how to get them to fix it our way. I still have the same number :)

Today I spent most of the day shopping with my aunt and sister Sunhee. She has her first formal dance next week. She is in Jr. High and growing up so fast! We went to seven different stores before finding the dress. It was hard because she is small so it was hard finding the balance between something that fit but looked her age and not too childish, but we did it. One of the highlights of the day was watching her try to walk in heels for the first time. I would compare it to watching Bambi walk. She went with some cute wedges since they give her the height (oh the curse of the short Asian genes) but are still comfortable and she can actually walk in them. 

I spent most of the evening held up in the craft room making Christmas decorations for my apartment. They are so cute! I'll post pictures when they are finished. Now I'm just finishing a movie and then I'll be off to bed so I can get up bright and early for the trip back to Utah. To sum up, it was a great (albeit extremely short) break and trip home.

*Actually posted on March 11, 2015 but I used the date I wrote it. I think I just forgot to post it.*

My Life As of Late

Because I've let myself get behind yet again, I will keep it short by catching up in picture form.

This was my pumpkin for Halloween this year. Didn't actually carve it, but I like how it turned out. Maybe one day I'll see the real thing.

If you didn't already know, I've got a huge thing for polka dots. I got this sweater at Forever 21. I'm a huge fan of their sweaters. It's one of my favorite clothing items in my possession.

My friend Jensen and Porter are becoming close friends. 

Amber and I decided to have an all nighter one Friday night and both had our first Monster Energy drink to help us stay awake. I lasted until 5 AM , which is pretty impressive since I usually go to bed before midnight for work and my internal clock is set to make me tired around 10.

Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream!! We made shakes and threw in some chocolate chips. We also added a few spoonfuls of eggnog  ice cream too. YUM!

I just had to put this here. It's too perfect. Love Emma Stone. Love Easy A.

Amber and I decided to chalk our hair on Saturday and I messed around some more on Sunday. It's a fun and non permanent way to add color to your hair. I really liked the look of the red in my hair.

Fast forward a few days...

I DYED MY HAIR!!!

I've always been against dying my hair until I go gray because I love my hair and it's to expensive to keep it up after you start. I'm too low maintenance for that and I'd rather spend my money elsewhere. After chalking my hair, I kept thinking about adding some color to my hair permanently. I only wanted to do the ends so I could cut it if I didn't like it without being bald and it  it was cheaper. I looked at pictures online and ws deciding between red and purple. Amber, my roommate, is a red head (and I somehow managed to convince her to do it too) and purple was one of the few colors that would work for her so I went for the obvious choice. I regret nothing. I was terrified to do it myself because like most girls, I'm pretty attached to my hair and I was sure I was going to manage to screw it up. When we were buying the dye, we had to admit to the employee at Sally's Beauty Supply that we were clueless. She told us what to use and then I went home and watched a few youtube videos and then went for it. Since my hair is dark, I had to bleach it first so the read would show better.

Then it was time to add the red. 

Took this at work the next day. Rockin' the red and the polka dots. 

i love it. I Love It. I LOVE IT. 

I got so many compliments and people were surprised I actually went through with it. I was surprised I went through with it. One worker even serenaded me with Alicia Keys' "Girl On Fire". It was great.

I think a lot of people have been getting the itch to do something different with their hair because Jensen wanted to shave his hair.

It's been said that the first cut is the deepest. In his case it was the hardest. Its the shortest his hair has been in a long time or maybe ever.

Finished. He doesn't look too pleased.

He likes it. I did pretty good if I do say so myself, although its not that hard to just shave a head. 

Lately I've been in a crafty mood. I made these using cheap canvas, scrapbook paper and thumbtacks. i put some cardboard in the back so the thumbtacks would stay better and not just be poking through. 

Live. Laugh. Love.
Not a fan of the way the L turned out on love but I didn't want to fix it.

I made this banner for Thanksgiving. I'm the process of making a different one, also for the upcoming holiday, but since I'm moving at a snail's pace it may have to make it's debut next year. Sad.

Isn't it pretty?

Well, I think that's about it. Of course other things have happened, but I don't have pictures documenting them and that's okay. I'm getting better at taking pictures because it is nice to have the memories captured, but it's also good to just live in the moment and not worry about collecting the moments on film (or in most cases these days on phones). Life is for living and that's what I'm doing.

BYU Homecoming 2011

Yesterday, Arianna, Rylee and I woke up and walked up to the Creamery on 9th. They were serving free blue pancakes before the parade started. They were really good. We even had the option to add chocolate chips. Heck yes! We put them in between pancakes and the melted. It was a good thing they were also serving milk. We actually went through the line twice. The woman in charge of the chocolate chips recognized us, but it was ok. They had more than enough. She recognized us because she commented on Rylee's pearl necklace the first time we were in line. Being the awesome friend I am, I told her they were from Rylee's fiance. She asked when and where the wedding was. I've decided it's my job as an honorary bridesmaid to tell people Rylee's good news since she too quiet about it. Don't worry, she likes it. She told me so.

We had great seats for the parade. We sat/stood on the curb. All the little kids were so cute! It was fun watching them when the parade participants threw candy. I even got in on the action. I left all the tootsie rolls for the kids because I'm not really a fan, but  I was all over the saltwater taffy and Jolly Ranchers. I even scored a BYU bracelet (like the Livestrong ones). I was really hoping to score a t-shirt, but I'm never good at catching those and they never throw them in my direction. Arianna laughed at me because I was pretty fast at getting the candy I wanted and some of the kids seemed a little confused about what I was doing. It was like  I was stealing from them. She justified my actions for me by mentioning that I was the same height as some of them. I thought it was funny. And kinda true.

Rylee's fiance, Daniel, is the trombone player on the far right.

COSMO!!!

Ballroom Dancers

Christina was in the parade. We cheered really loud for her too.

We were planning on watching the football game tonight, but it wasn't being shown on any of the t.v. stations we get. Instead, we watched the end of the Ohio State game for Arianna and then Monsters Inc. on the Disney channel. It was fun. None of us had seen it in a long time so we really enjoyed it. I also made banana bread. It was a good late night snack.

Today was a good day.

Concert In Colorado (Warning: Long Post)

So we left Saturday morning at 4 A.M. Since I hadn't gone to sleep yet, I was extremely tired. I was awake in the car just long enough for Janessa to run over a poor duck. It was raining pretty hard so it was hard to see. It rained most of the way to Denver. I felt like such a bad road trip buddy because I slept for so long. I was much better on the drive home with a little help from my good friend Dr. Pepper.

We got to Denver in ten hours instead of eight (due to the rain). We bought lunch at Wendy's because it was right next to the venue. I recommend their Asian Firecracker Wrap or salad. It was delicious. We had to change out of our traveling clothes in the car (don't worry, no one saw us) because there was no public restrooms anywhere nearby. We arrived at the concert venue extremely early to increase Janessa's chance of seeing Joe Jonas before the concert. Also, it was general admission seating so we had to be towards the front of the line. I waited in line for a total of 7 hours. Janessa stood out back by the tour buses for 4 hours, in the rain, hoping to catch a glimpse of Joe. She met his keyboardist and he said that he wouldn't come out because of the weather. A singer's health is everything you know so he couldn't risk catching a cold. Fifteen minutes after she joined me in line, Joe came outside and met with some of his fans. Poor Janessa. She also barely missed getting a VIP pass to meet him. It just wasn't her day.

While I was waiting in line, there were two guys talking to everyone in line. They are in a band from Kansas called The After Party. They're following the Joe Jonas tour to promote themselves. I talked to Alan, the drummer. Brandon, who plays bass, was at the other end of the line. I was listening to my iPod and he asked me who I was listening to. I proudly admitted it was Justin Bieber. He told me about his band and asked if I'd like to hear one of their songs. He passed me his iPod and I listened. I liked what I heard. I bought their CD and got it autographed by both of them. Janessa and I took a picture with them too :)

Brandon, Me, Janessa and Alan

I wish I had looked a little cuter or at least had makeup on, but I'm the kind of girl that chooses comfort over cute. Also, I figured I didn't need makeup because I wasn't trying to impress anyone and I didn't really care that much about those performing, except maybe Jay Sean. After meeting Alan, I kind of regretted my choice. The other two members, Andy (plays guitar and is Alan's twin) and Kenny (vocalist) were in another city doing their own promo stuff.

This is the song Alan had me listen to.  I love it and can't stop dancing to it!

Since we had such a great place in line, we were able to make it close to the stage easily. How close? Second row baby! Well, Janessa was second row. During the concert I kept getting pushed further away from her and my original spot. She kept looking back to make sure I was still there. I get easily lost in a crowed.

There are pros and cons to a general admission seating concert. 

Pro: You can get close to the stage if you're fast enough. 

Cons: You get shoved since there are no seats. You get stepped on. If you're short, the people behind you think it's okay to use you as an armrest. No joke. Kinda pissed me off. Camera straps hang in your face. There are multiple people invading your personal space bubble and you get way closer to strangers than you would like to.

Okay, so it looks like there's only one pro. I think I will stick to concerts where you pay for you seat and everyone stays where they're supposed to. Or maybe I'm just not cut out for concerts.

JoJo opened the show. I haven't heard anything about her since she was in the movie Aquamarine. I may have forgotten that she existed. I was never a huge JoJo fan in the first place. This performance didn't do anything to change that. She dropped the f-bomb when her keyboardist messed up on her new single and her outfit was awful. 

She used to look like this.

Now she looks like this, an angry rocker. Dark hair does not suit her.

Jay Sean was next. I loved him. He is amazing live and he's got some beat boxing skillz! I forgot he had an accent. When he talked I was in heaven. He also took his sun glasses off during a song and every female in the room melted. He was so cute! He also told us we could download his new album for free! Want it? Just click here. 

Then it was the moment everyone besides me had been waiting for. Joe performed. Everyone went crazy and the pushing increased. I'm not really a fan of his music, but his looks are acceptable. I knew a few songs he sang from his Jonas Brothers days. 

During his final song, he had about 8 roses that he was throwing out to the audience. If I had been a little taller I probably would have caught one. But I'm not. So I didn't. It's not like I really cared anyway. The girl next to me caught one and the girl behind her grabbed it too. I think they were friends, but they ended up fighting over it and the coveted rose was destroyed. It was like a bridal bouquet toss gone wild. Times 100! I thought I was going be like one of those people who gets trampled to death during Black Friday. 

When the concert was over, we hung out by the tour buses hoping they would come out. We even went to a back ally to see if it was Joe leaving in a black SUV with tinted windows. It was his band/crew members. He had already left to board a plane to NJ for a family weekend (we knew because Janessa is his follower on twitter).

Jay Sean waved and blew kisses to us from his tour bus before leaving. Most of the people had cleared away by now (there were only six of us left) so JoJo came out and offered us her extra box of pizza. We couldn't take pics, but it was nice of her. Janessa and I hadn't eaten since we first got there at 1 P.M. and it was now almost 11 P.M. 

Pizza from JoJo...it was Papa John's if anyone cares.

We also had to pee like no other. Seriously, as unhealthy as it is, we didn't pee for like 12 hours. I was hoping the celebrities would pity me and realize I was risking my life to see them, but they never came out. I was even starting to make up headlines for the next day's paper. "Fan dies from exploded bladder while waiting for Joe Jonas." 

The hotel we stayed at was in Fort Collins, which is an hour away from Denver. So we were tired, cold and had to pee, but had to wait an hour to be comfortable again. I think that may have been one of the best sleeps I've had in a while. I was so dead to the world. 

We woke up and met Janessa's cousin for breakfast at this cute little restaurant called Snooze. They only serve breakfast food. It was sooooo good! I ordered the Caprese Benedict: Ripe heirloom tomato slices, fresh mozzarella and poached eggs atop toasted ciabatta with cream cheese hollandaise, basil pesto and a light balsamic drizzle. YUM! We also ordered three little pancakes/french toast so we could all try what they were famous for. We got a Pineapple Upside Down pancake, Blueberry Lemon Bar pancake and Peaches 'N Cream French Toast. Everything was so delicious and their hash browns were amazing. It kept me full the whole ride home.

It was a really fun short trip and I'm glad I got to go. It was a nice end to my birthday week.  I wonder what I'll do next year.

Random Road Trip

In less than 3 1/2 hours I will be leaving with my friend Janessa to go to Denver, Colorado. Why? Because she's obsessed with Joe Jonas and had an extra ticket. She tried to sell it, but none of her friends wanted it. On Wednesday (my birthday) she was desperate and posted about her upcoming trip on Facebook. She said she needed a car buddy and concert buddy and whoever wanted to go wouldn't have to pay for anything. Since I've been in here in good 'ol Provo pretty much all summer long, I jumped at the chance to get away. Even if it's only for two days. I'm excited for the road trip. I've never been to Colorado. I've never been this far east before. I'm not excited about seeing Joe Jonas, but Jay Sean will also be performing and he's cool. But hey, I can't really complain because I get to go to a concert for free.

I'm going to be pretty dead though. I'm really tried, but I need to finish cleaning for cleaning checks. Also, tonight a bunch of us decided to play football after a BBQ some guys in our ward put together. We wanted to get muddy since it rained today. We started in the park, but it was too dark. None of us could see the ball so we weren't really playing so much as running around like chickens with our heads cut off. We moved to the field at a neighboring complex because they have lighting. We were much more successful. I actually don't know which team won.

We ended our game early because a girl asked us if we could hide in her apartment to surprise her friend for his birthday. None of his friends really showed up (there were only six people). Whether he was expecting a surprise party or not, he was definitely surprised because there were like 14 strangers singing him happy birthday. We thought it was pretty fun. I felt bad though because we got grass and a little dirt all over their carpet. They were cool about though because they were so grateful.

I love how random life can be sometimes.

The Big 2-1!

My birthday started at 12:03 A.M. with a happy birthday text from my friend Claudia. I woke up to a phone call from my mom and a couple Facebook birthday messages. Throughout the day I received more messages and texts. At the end of the day I had a total of 51 Facebook birthday messages, 3 texts, and four calls.

To celebrate my birthday, I made Reese's cupcakes and invited people over for 7. Not everyone one showed up at once. It was basically like having three gatherings in one night. I liked it because I actually got to talk to people instead of being surrounded by a huge group of people and not getting to talk to everyone. Everyone loved the cupcakes. As I suspected, despite my mishap earlier this afternoon. My friend Rosi made me strawberry Jell-O shots, sans alcohol, and everyone enjoyed them. It was funny watching everyone get the Jell-O out of the little cups. Some were even drooling. There was some dancing and we played a little Swedish Twister. I was so popular today :) I'm bummed my camera was absent during all the fun. I really suck at remembering to use it.

So, in case you didn't already know, my roommates are awesome! Rylee and Christina got me cute cupcake liners. They know me so well.

Arianna got me a cream filled donut! FINALLY! I can die happy and content now that this dream has been fulfilled. Five years or so ago, I discovered that I share my birthday with National Cream Filled Donut Day. Every year it would be my wish to accomplish eating a cream filled donut on such an important day. And every year I would fail. You would think it wouldn't be that hard, but for me it was. I came close my Freshman year at BYU. My friends came back with a Krispy Kreme box and I got really excited. I opened the box only to be disappointed at the sight of original glazed donuts. What a let down.

It even had a cherry on top :)

Now I can say I've done it and I can finally stop obsessing over such trivial thing. I don't even really like cream filled donuts, but I had to do it just for the sake of being able to say I did.

THE BIG MOMENT...Only 5 years in the making.

The Proof. I got laughed at for this one.

I received a package from Howard and Lori. It was a card and and amazing candle. Here's what it's supposed to do.

Here's what happened. I'm making it sound like something bad happened, but it didn't. We just didn't light it right. And yes, that is my precious donut beneath the giant candle. 

I didn't want to light it myself because I was kind of scared so Christina did it, plus she's an EMT. Well, she didn't really do it right or the candle had some issues and part of the flower started melting because the big flame sat there for so long. It was still entertaining though.

I had a wonderful 21st birthday. My new mantra is "I'm legal, single and ready to mingle!" Whatya think? 

Eventful Evening

Tonight, a fairly large group of us went to the hot springs. It was a 2.5 mile and hour long hike to the springs. Kirsten and I got there a little after the first group (I'm a slow hiker). While we were setting our stuff down, there was a man behind us. We thought we were blocking the path so we asked if we should move. Kirsten saw his badge and that's when he told us he was cop and asked that we not blow his cover. He could tell we were BYU students, we could be trusted. There was a certain smell that could faintly be detected through the sulfur and Kirsten (a Portlandian, woo hoo!) recognized it as marijuana. It was a drug bust! He caught the guy and searched through bags. It was the first time I had heard the f-bomb dropped in a while. When that ordeal was over, we soaked for a little over an hour and then headed back down. it was my first time at a hot spring and I liked it. I sat in the perfect spot. It was warm because of a cold stream that ran though. The other areas were too hot. Walking back, it was dark and there was a limited number of flash lights. It was quite the adventure. Sliding, falling, twisted ankles. Let the good times roll!

On the way back, Kirsten, Ally, McKenna and I were all starving. Tomorrow is fast Sunday and we don't have  church until 1 p.m. We decided we would stop at Sonic. Right after getting off the highway and back into town, we saw flashing lights. Yeah, Kirsten got pulled over for speeding. He could smell the sulfur radiating from our skin. He asked where we were coming from and if the three cars behind us, that were also speeding, were part of our group. They were and the only reason why we got stopped and they didn't was because we were in front. Wasn't that nice of the boys, to let the girls get busted?

Luckily, we Kirsten didn't get a ticket. As we started driving again, Kirsten said now she REALLY needed to go to Sonic. It was almost midnight so naturally we got breakfast burritos from their dollar menu and cherry limeades. It was so good. It was a great way to end such an eventful evening. I've showered to rid the stink, blogged and now I am going to bed because I am EXHAUSTED. I plan on sleeping in until noon so I won't have time to think about being hungry.

Sunday Sugar Extravaganza

Christina and I decided earlier in the week that we wanted to have a dessert party. I bought some new cupcake liners (from Etsy of course) and wanted to an excuse to make cupcakes. Christina wanted to make an easy frozen pie that I made a few weeks ago (I learned from Marjorie, who got the recipe off the back of a condensed milk can). It's so good that you have to have other people around or you'll eat the whole thing. Thank goodness I had Christina around when I made it! We chose Sunday, before ward prayer. It was also perfect timing because Marjorie just got back the day before so it was kind of like a welcome home party too.

We basically invited the whole ward and told them to bring a treat if they could. I ended up making cupcakes and brownies (the kind Nana makes) because I figured more people would just come to eat instead of bringing something. I underestimated the awesomeness of my ward. We had more than enough food. The majority of the ward was in our apartment and outside our front door (it was hot inside). Everyone had a great time eating and conversing. We even heard Beth & Cody's engagement story. After ward prayer, most people stayed for the Sunday movie. This week it was The Emperor's New Groove. It was a great night.

I wish I would have taken more pictures, but I was too busy enjoying myself.

These are from before everyone came. So this is just the food my apartment and Ally provided. 

My usual red velvet, but I added my new sugar pearls.

You can't tell how many people were here from the pics, but there were a lot. Most people were in line for food or still coming through the door. These are just the people that had a good seat.