My 23rd Birthday

I'm 23 years old...how in the WORLD did that happen? How is that even allowed? I think I still feel very much 19 so its super weird to me to be this old. Of course, then I spend time with a bunch of 19 year-olds and realize there's no way I could be that young haha.

My birthday was GREAT! It was definitely one of my favorite ones I've ever had. I went home on Thursday night for a long weekend, since I only had one class each on Thursday and Friday. I'm glad I got to spend such a long weekend at home with my family! I absolutely love spending time with them and the older I get, the more that's true.

Friday I picked Gracie and her friend Katelyn up from school, and Sidney found out she didn't have class that night so I picked her up from the frontrunner and we all went to the Mrs. Cavanaugh's chocolate factory tour! I read this post and thought it would be fun to go do, because a chocolate factory! Need I say more??

It was pretty fun! I guess on Fridays they're not as busy but we had a great time and got a bunch of really good chocolate samples and also bought some more afterward. I think we all had a fun time and it was cool to see the history of the place and also find out how chocolate is made!

Friday night we went out to dinner at Settebello's in Farmington Station Park for some thin oven pizza. It was absolutely delicious and they even put extra basil on mine (anything with basil on it and I'm sold!). I was so grateful to my parents for taking me there, they are the best!

Oh and behind the story of Gracie's cute hat...we had like a 45 minute wait before we could be seated, so we went next door to Claire's because they had all their $2 clearance and there are always some fun finds. Gracie really wanted to buy something and I told her I'd only get her something if it was $2 (I seriously am such a bargain shopper and only like buying things on clearance!), but everything she wanted was more and she couldn't find anything she liked. Eventually she was crying because she didn't want to leave without getting something and I probably should have just said no instead of trying to make her happy. But man, I love that girl so much, as frustrated as I was haha. But the really nice Claire's employee tried helping us out and she found that cute hat for $2! So kudos to that employee, she made my day for how helpful and sweet she was, especially since my sister wasn't being the nicest and neither was I. Good customer service can definitely go a long way :)

Also I'm a nerd and took this picture because it was the last one of me being 22 haha.

Saturday was the actual day of my birthday! Yay! It was General Conference so from 10-12 and 2-4 we watched that and it was wonderful! We have fun conference traditions where my mom wraps a present for each apostle and the first presidency and when they speak you get to open them. Usually there are snacks inside which is fun. Gracie especially loves it. We also do fantasy general conference (like fantasy football but gen conf style ha!) and often end up guessing everything miserably wrong. ;)

In between sessions I opened presents from my parents. I got a hard drive, which my dad used to clean off my computer and change the operating system so I could get Adobe Premiere Pro and have more space on my computer--so great!, a cute coat, The Devil Wears Prada, a Marauders Map (came a week later, but SO COOL!), and a bike!! I've been wanting a bike on and off for a while so I'm pretty excited for it. My mom did a fun scavenger hunt so Gracie and I went around the house finding clues and then eventually found the bike in the basement. I'm way excited for it!

That night we went grocery shopping at a favorite bargain grocery store, and then met up with all the girls (my grandma, my aunt Zildy and her kids, and Zildy's friend Leah) since the boys were at Priesthood session and went to Leatherby's for ice cream (it's delicious, you should go sometime), and then went shopping at DI. Those are our normal conference traditions and I love them so I was totally cool to keep 'em going.

Then that night we got home and watched SNL to end my birthday! It was great :)

Sunday we watched more conference and then a ton of relatives and friends came over for the second session and for dinner. My cousin Alex's birthday was on Monday and it was the first time in probably like twelve years that we got to celebrate together! So that was really cool and I was pretty excited about that! My mom made an awesome cake and we had our silly procession and opened presents. Whataday. Twas wonderful.
(fun gifts I got from people--cuz I like to remember!: some delicious ferraro rochers from Alex, a scarf and earrings from Sidney, an old BYU sweatshirt from Carina which I can't stop wearing, candy from my roommate Olivia (sneakily dropped off at my house on my birthday!), a cute sweater from my grandparents, pretzel m&ms! and a scarf from Cee Ryle, CD covers from Jasmine, a scarf--and something else I am trying so hard to remember-- from Zildy and fam, $$ and a card from my WY grandparents, cards from Courtney and my sweet aunt Ruth in Texas, and an amazing Ford Anglia replica with Harry and Ron inside made entirely of legos from my friend Andre! Gah! People are the best and so so nice!)

If all of that was really long for you...sorry! I have a habit of writing a lot. But below you can see my whole 23rd birthday in 23 seconds! woot!


As a last afterthought, do you ever look at yourself and think how much you've grown? Obviously other people do it all the time.. "I can't believe how much you've grown!" "Wait, you're how old?! That's crazy, I remember when you were in diapers!" But looking at these pictures and writing this blog post I can't help but think the same thing of myself. I'm 23?! What? I definitely don't look it, but I still see myself and think how much I've grown, probably because I know myself the best. It's weird, I have grown a lot. I don't really know where I thought I'd be when I was 23, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't where I am now. But here I am, and boy am I pretty happy with it.

I'm 23!

Lucky

In the midst of everything that goes on in life--school, work, relationships and heartbreak, events out of our control, and random happenings--I'm so lucky and so grateful to be best friends and roommates with these girls.

I moved in with them at a really hard time in my life...I was still dealing with my eating disorder and I'd just gotten out of a really crappy roommate situation that had kind of thrown me into somewhat of a depression. And while they didn't really know that any of that was going on, at least not to those extremes, I knew they were there for me. I'd come home and they'd ask me how my day was and on weekends whoever of us was there would hang out and have fun together. Every Sunday we took whatever we had in our cupboards and made something delicious together. After we'd all get home from school on weekdays, we'd all be in the kitchen together making our separate dinners and discussing how our days went. Late nights were spent talking about more serious things like boys and other topics that didn't leave our bedrooms. When I spend time with these girls and look back on all of the fun times we've had together, I think of love and I think of happiness.

When I spend time with these girls, my bad days turn good and my scowls turn to smiles. Whether it's celebrating one of our birthdays (today we celebrated Kelsey's), throwing a huge party, or just staying in for a movie, being with my roommates makes me happy.

I'm seriously one of the luckiest people in the world to have friends always there for me whenever I need them. After the end of this summer, we'll all be going our separate ways...two getting married, two moving away for jobs or internships, one still in school, and one not in school but still trying to move forward in her life (me). No matter where life takes all of us, I'll look back on these days as happy ones, mostly because I got to be friends with these awesome girls.

P.S. I Love My Coral Blazer

I love this outfit! The blazer just makes it and I especially love the touch that the ballerina necklace (above) gives it. Plus I love the oxfords, the bag, the color scheme. And the blazer. Did you know I really love my coral blazer? Just so you know..I love my blazer :)

Wow, I look so happy in these pictures! I love it! I just love how happy I am these days because it's wonderful and it shows. A year ago was a different story...but I'm happy now!! Soooo happy!

One thing that makes me happy is that my birthday is tomorrow! What?! I'm gonna be 20 and it's still freaking me out. At least I have a year to get used to it, right? I got to go home for the weekend to watch General Conference and celebrate my birthday with my family! It was so fun. Saturday we watched conference and I also played with chalk with my sibs, Gracie and Cee Ryle. Oh and during conference they announced that they were going to rebuild Provo Tabernacle into another Provo temple! It was awesome news! Then in between conference sessions we went to the Cheesecake Factory, which was super delish. We'd never been there before but were definitely satisfied! And yes, they sang to me. ;) That night while my dad and brother were at priesthood session, all of us girls went thrifting with my aunt, grandma, and cousins, which was pretty fun. I got some good stuff including a purple blazer, a men's shirt in a pretty mustard yellow color (I'm gonna refashion it into something like this, this, or this), a skinny gray belt, some white Keds, and the book Deception Point by Dan Brown.

On Sunday we watched General Conference again and celebrated my birthday! My relatives came over and we had cake and ice cream and opened presents. Gracie and I picked raspberries from our raspberry bush too. :) Man I love that little girl soooo much! Oooh, but guess what I got? A new camera! EEEE! It's actually my dad's old one (not that it's old) that I use every time I go home and my parents gave it to me, so I'm pretty ecstatic! Its a Fujifilm Finepix S7000 and I can't wait to take lots of fun pictures with it! 

Gracie got me a Dorothy barbie! :)

Happy as can be with my new camera!

The Minnie Mouse cake my mom made! She always makes ammaaazing cakes :D

best friends :)

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend and I wouldn't have wanted it spent any other way! My family made me feel so loved for my birthday, and honestly, that's all that I really want for my birthday--to be loved! (although I'm definitely not complaining about the camera..haha) As for my real birthday tomorrow, I truly have no idea what I'm doing besides the usual school stuff! Hopefully something lots of fun. Of course I do have two papers due and a test to take this week so who knows. ;)

Oh and this is random but does anyone have any ideas of what 5 girls can be for Halloween? We're trying to figure out a costume for our department at work and I would gladly take any ideas! Thanks!

P.S. I love my blazer!! haha, I had to ;)

Another Birthday Has Come and Gone

Wow, life has been CRAZY the past two weeks. I've been so super stressed, I've hung out with friends a TON, and my birthday happened!! Here are lots and lots of pictures from my fabulous birthday weekend.

Jenna and I threw a double birthday party! It was fun..although it was mostly her friends that came. But ya it was a blast just to celebrate and be with lots of people. After the party that night we went to my friend Jake's house with the group (Me, Jen, Em, Miranda, Mike, Jake, and Court) to see Prince of Persia. I kept falling asleep on parts, not because it was a bad movie, but because I was SO tired. I feel like I didn't get a ton of sleep last week. :( Oh well.

The bookstore did a ladies night where there were lots of authors, drawings, and Jericho Road came! My family came and met me here to pick me up and take me home (finally!). This is Jen and I with Jericho Road.

For my birthday dinner, we went to Brick Oven. It was delish. I looooove pizza. :)

On Saturday and Sunday I watched General Conference with my family, which was so great. Serioulsy I wish we could have had like a week of conference because I feel like it went by so fast! Carina was kind enough to take my outfit pictures for me and then we also just got some other fun sister pictures. Oh how I love my sisters! They are my best friends ever. :)

Me and my best friend in the whole wide world. I miss her. :(

Sunday we celebrated my 19th birthday! It was super fun. I got many presents and there were lots of relatives there to help celebrate. I felt sooooo loved which definitely helped because I've been feeling really alone during these past weeks at college. It's getting better though. :) This is me, my sibs, and cousins with all my many presents. People really must love me if I got this many haha!

A CARRIE UNDERWOOD PILLOW!!!!! Best present of all by far. :)

Other presents I got:

• lots of super cute clothes (which you can see being worn here)
• $$$$
• The cutest boots ever
• A Carrie Underwood poster
• two barbies (a ballerina and Mulan)
• ballet silly bands (see a picture here)
• Gum
• Lotion
• a cute cup and mug set with a 'K' on it
• a New York calendar
• Jewelry
• a Piggy Bank
• Scarves

I told my mom I wanted either a Carrie Underwood or a ballerina cake so she got a ballerina barbie and put a picture of Carrie Underwood's face on it! It was pretty funny. And also a very yummy cake.

This is crazy me with all my Carrie Underwood stuff--my shirt from Stadium of Fire, my new poster, my awesome pillow, and I was even listening to Carrie Underwood music as this was being taken. Ha! I love it.

This is a picture of me and my awesome roommate Megan! I seriously love her. And I thought this picture was funny. We went out to Wendy's for dinner on my birthday...yum! Also, I went shopping at Pac Sun with Jen, Em, and Miranda and had SubZero ice cream (which is absolutely delish!).
Yeah. It was a pretty good birthday. I'm 19 now. Sweet... :)

Other fun things happening in my life right now:

• Still haven't been asked out on a date this year (now I'm trying to see how long I can go ha)
• I won a bag designing contest on Define My Style! So now I get to design my own bag and get it made for free. Cool, huh?
• I'm seriously thinking of changing my major from English to Family Life. Wow, I never thought in a million years that this would happen and right now I'm really confused about it. So we'll see what happens.
• I've been hanging out with the same group of people (Jen, Em, Miranda, Mike, Jake, and occasionally Court and Jesse) for a while. Last week we hung out like every night and it was super fun.
• Me, Chelsey, and Kelly are throwing a triple birthday party this Friday! It'll be super fun. (I know, 2 birthday parties. But it's not my fault! If it had just been me I probably wouldn't have had a party at all haha)
• Next week at Enrichment I have to present my fashion blog and help organize a fashion show! I'm so super nervous but it should be fun. This is what I get for having my roommate as the relief society president...
• I'm reading the Hunger Games series which is SO GOOD. Read it if you haven't already. I don't care how old you are. Read it!!
• Glee is great. So wonderful. The end.

So I decided that I will just update this blog every Wednesday and maybe other days too if I feel like it. But I want to make sure I post at least once a week, so expect posts on Wednesdays! But that's all in my life for now..so I will be sure to post later!

Also, I would still like to add that like before that "some people" really are just the biggest jerks in the world. Honestly. People need to grow up and stop being mean to other people who did nothing mean to them. :( That's all now.