Back to Blogging

Soooo...I haven’t blogged for a month. Haha. Here’s my life summary for the past 30 days…

That night was the party I’d been planning for over a month. It turned out to be a huge success. I decorated when I got back from work, putting cobwebs all over our back patio, setting up a banner, and hanging lights all across. It looked really pretty and I was happy with the result. I made a lot of food for it and had little signs for each of the food items. I had to go to work at 5 so my roommates helped me with making the rest of the food which was great. Party guests started arriving at 9 and by 10 pm, our back patio was super crowded. I was going back and forth replenishing the food and I had to keep pushing my way through everyone because there were so many people there. Someone in our ward brought over gigantic speakers so the music was blasting and everyone was dancing. It was seriously so fun! All the people that came (and out of those people, a lot of them I didn’t know because they were friends of friends. There were some of my friends I saw later in the pictures who I hadn’t even seen there!) told me they had so much fun. Successful night? Yes. Party throwing can be really stressful sometimes and the day of the party when I’m getting everything ready I tend to get super stressed out and wonder why I’m even throwing a party. But then it happens, it’s so fun, and I remember why throwing parties is one of the greatest things ever.

November came and was a busy month. Most of it was spent being busy with school, but the good parts were with family and friends. I went to my really good friend Sam's mission farewell. This girl is one of my best friends and as much as I'll miss her, she's going to do great in the California Palo Alto mission! I went with Lauren, another one of my really good friends, who also just got her mission call and is going to the California San Fernando mission! :)

(l to r): me, Sam, Lauren

The Nutcracker came around again, and this year my sister Sidney was the only one in it. At one point in life, Carina, Sidney, Cee Ryle, and I were all in the Nutcracker and I’m pretty sure that year drove my parents crazy. Sidney did awesome though, she had three great parts as a Snow, Reed Flute, and a Waltz. She’s seriously a gorgeous dancer, so much better than I ever was, and I can’t help but be proud of her and be happy whenever I see her dancing. She definitely comes alive on the stage.

Thanksgiving was a wonderful and much needed break. My dad’s side of the family all came from Wyoming so we had a full house of cousins and aunts and uncles. It was the best. We spent a lot of our time making a music video to none other than Gangnam Style of course (which almost has a billion views on youtube!). On Thanksgiving day we got the whole family, adults and all, outside to dance. Haha and our yard happens to be right on the edge of the road, so cars passed by as we were dancing to Gangnam Style. Our neighbors might think we’re crazy…oh well. You can see the video here.

We also spent Thanksgiving just hanging out, going to temple square, and shopping on black Friday of course.

My roommates and I had a little cookie making/tree decorating party with a few friends. We also made a nativity reenactment haha (sorry for the blurry photos).

I went to the Killers concert with Chelsey and some other friends. It was a really great concert—everything you’d want a Killers concert to be and more.

Bridal Shower for my freshman roommate Kelly!

A little over a week after Thanksgiving, I went on a quick 3-day trip to Boston and New York. We got to fly standby since my aunt works for Jet Blue. It was the BEST. I was in Boston over the summer and just love the east coast, so going back for a few days was heaven. Boston was spent hanging out with family and shopping, mostly. My favorite part of the trip was our day in New York. We did so much fun stuff. This is something that definitely deserves a post of its own so I’ll write more about it later.

Kelly’s bachelorette party, spent painting nails, giving each other massages, eating yummy food, and talking about boys of course.

After that it was basically finals week. In the midst of all the business, I got sick with a cold on the first reading day. I get sick a lot, so I wasn’t surprised, but I still will never get used to the unpleasantness of being sick. Thankfully the worst of it was over by the time I had to start taking finals (which are now done, yay!!!).

No pictures of this either, unfortunately, but I got together with my best friends last weekend. It was the best because we hadn’t all been together since April! We keep in touch a lot though so it felt like nothing had changed. We’re going to be starting a blog together here soon, and I’ll let you know when it’s up. Right now we are planning everything about it and still trying to figure out a name.

Last week my roommates and I hung out (the first time all of us have hung out together this whole semester, sadly) to celebrate finals. We went to the mall and got tons of cute clothes, ate at Pizza Pie Café, and finished the night by watching Step Up Revolution. I love my roommates. I’m seriously so lucky to live with the coolest and nicest girls ever.

That’s the update and now that school’s done for now and everything is caught up, expect more regular posts. Blogging can be so much work sometimes! Love it though. :)

Random Thoughts

- I have been reading like crazy this summer. A little while ago I discovered an amazing app on my ipod touch called iBooks and then I discovered an even better website where I've downloaded all my favorite books. So now wherever I go, my ipod goes, and I find myself reading everywhere. It's pretty much the best. I have 70 books on there and they only take up 0.1 GB, so it's awesome! Whenever I finish a book, there is another right there waiting for me. Maybe one of these days I'll write a book post to share what I've been reading. Also, it's time for me to start reading Harry Potter again...round number 12... ha ;)

- I saw this on pinterest and now I really want to do it. This is an amazingly cute idea to used Christmas lights year-round!


- Lately, I've been missing ballet. Like, a ton. I've been dancing around the house more than usual (my uncle laughs because every once in a while I'll just be standing there talking and then do a grand battement--basically a kick--out of nowhere. It's just so natural to me!) and I've been watching tv shows about dance, namely Dance Academy (netflix) and Bunheads (new show on ABC Family). So I decided I'm going to take a ballet class in the fall! I haven't taken one for about two years, but I'm totally ready and excited for this. It's only 3 days a week which is good, I did a class that was every day freshman year and it was too much. I'm not an amazing dancer by any means, but I'm ready to jump back into it. I'm only at school for another year, so might as well take advantage of the classes offered.

- Only two more weeks in Boston. I'm not really sure how I'm reacting to this yet. It's sad, but I am excited to see my family and friends again. I literally cannot believe how fast the summer flew by. But it's been a good summer, so far. I've really been cherishing it and having a blast here. I love the east coast.

I guess that's all for now. Nothing else is popping into my head and I better get some sleep so I can wake up for church in the morning. That's another thing, I've been sleeping in SO much! Guess I still haven't fixed my habits of reading late into the night...haha oh well, gotta go!

Interactions

Do you ever see people that you once knew, talked with, or had a class with, but you’re not really friends with anymore? It happens to me seriously all the time! It happened today at work where I saw a girl who was in my ballet class fall semester of Freshman year. We didn’t talk to each other a ton in that class, but it was every day, so you recognized everyone in the class, if not knew them by name. I just remember one day this girl and I ended up being stretching partners.

Anyways, today when I saw her, a thought popped into my head thinking, “I wonder if she would recognize me…and I wonder if people that I always recognize remember me too?” I should have been braver, but all I did was ask her if she was finding everything okay and then she was like, “Hey, how are you?! You were in my…”

“Umm…ballet class?”

“Yeah, I think that was it!” The question I’d had in my head before was answered. We had a short conversation after that of how she was graduating in April and had just finished her Senior Showcase, and then I helped her with info about a dress. Basically nothing special happened, yet I left that chat with a warm, fuzzy feeling and a new resolve.

I sometimes tend to think of myself as invisible, that I observe and remember everyone around me, but no one even pays attention to me. But thing is that people are people, and they have feelings and memories. If you recognize someone else, chances are they probably remember you too. So why not say hi and be the person that remembers and notices? We all want to be noticed and paid attention to; it’s a natural human desire. Even if they don’t remember or need their memory jogged a little bit of how you know each other, they’ll feel flattered you noticed them.

Because these situations happen to me all the time, I’m going to try and change how I act in them. I’ll say hi to the person I remember, because if they were in my situation, I’d want them to do that too. It doesn't mean I'll walk away with a new best friend, but I will walk away feeling happier. :)

Human interaction is one of the greatest things we have in this life, and let’s face it, the more you have of it, the better you will feel.

Never Say Never!

Black and brown...you know I really used to hate the color combination, but I love it now. I'm always wearing my brown bag (pictured above) with everything, especially my black dresses. And then I wore the belt on top of the black as well. I don't know how..but somehow it works, and I like it :)

Also this bun updo thing going on. Ever since I had stopped taking ballet classes I hadn't worn my hair in a bun in so long and I didn't want to. Maybe it was the fact that I missed dance but I was just trying to cut it out my life completely, because buns are really a ballerina's look...or it also could have been the fact that buns are uncomfortable and not necessarily attractive unless you're in a black leotard and pink tights. ;) But now here I am wearing these messy buns on top of my head at least once if not twice a week. And I love them. And they're not the typical tight ballerina bun, so I like it. These buns have popped up all over campus this fall! I like to call it the "blogger bun" considering it's popped up all over the blogosphere as well haha.

And then this dress...it's DownEast Basics and its actually the first clothing item I ever bought from work, even though I said I'd never buy a DownEast dress because they are so expensive (and now I have other reasons for disliking them as well...) and I said I'd probably never buy something from the bookstore. Yet here are these pictures, and here is the dress. And, well..I love it. :)

So lesson learned folks, you can never say never!



P.S. If you really want to hear my reason for why I dislike DownEast Basics so much these days, I might tell you...if enough people click the "like" button at the bottom of this post. It's a dramatic reason really, but a reason nonetheless.

Me and My Cool Sibs

Let me just brag about my wonderful siblings for a moment. There's five of us me, Carina, Sidney, Cee Ryle, and Gracie. Carina, Sidney, and I have all taken ballet since the beginning of time (okay, since we were each 5 we started taking and I quit senior year of high school but then I took classes here at byu), Cee Ryle does gymnastics, and Gracie has started gymnastics and is gonna start ballet in the fall. And she's cute anyways.

Well, I went to Carina and Sidney's ballet recitals this past weekend and it totally made me want to dance again. I really miss it so much and it's something that I'm truly passionate about. I just LOVE to dance more than anything. Probably more than fashion too (or maybe the same).

And so there's this thing called The Ballerina Project on facebook that is super cool and they have all these different pictures of ballerinas everywhere! Go check it out, it's amazing! So I decided to get my siblings, my dad's camera, and the tripod and go take some super sweet pictures. And we did. My sisters and I were going to take pictures with our pointe shoes on Sunday, but it rained so we couldn't. :( Another day I suppose.

But anyways, here is the result! (I'm in the green, Carina's in the blue stripes, and Sidney's in the purple--and hopefully you know that Cee Ryle's the boy in the blue ;))

Sorry for the photo overload but I just love all the pictures so much! And I love my family more than I can bear! The weekend was one of the best and just so fun. I'm so glad that I have siblings who are also my best friends and who I can have so much fun with! They are absolutely wonderful!!!

enter the CONTEST!!! Thanks :)

and also, I keep forgetting to tell you that I got a pinterest a while ago! So follow me! And if you have a pinterest, then tell me what it is so I can follow you too! :)

Oh and Carina loves making movies with everyone and she's pretty good at it! These are two of her videos that she's made. One of them is an infomercial that is way funny and the other is a scary movie trailer (which I think looks pretty legit for her limited materials).