Feelin Crafty ;)

So Danny (AKA Elder Dawson)'s birthday is coming up, and I (being the most awesomest friend ever) decided to be all crafty and embroider on the back of a tie for him!:D He's super obsessed with angry birds, so I freehanded the main bird from it. Shout out to my super amazing mom who helped me out when needed:) Here are some pictures of it:

The colors are kind of distorted in these pictures...the actual tie is not as royal blue, and is much brighter. But I'm very content with how it turned out!:) yay for me being all crafty;)

I also realized I haven't posted any pictures of my smash book yet! It's coming along quite nicely:) here's the first page in my book: 

Here's one of my favorite pages, my summer term roommates!:

It's been really fun to make and I'm excited to continue!

Have a smashing day:)

Sweet Reunion, Sad Goodbye

This past week has been some of the most fun I've had all summer:) I got to go home and be reunited with so many amazing people! I sure missed them! 

(Continue with caution...millions of pictures ahead)

First off, I got to be reunited with my buddies, aka my nephews:) I sure missed seeing them so much, they are just the sweetest little guys ever:) I got to watch them and play with them a ton since my sister's staying at my mom's house until her new house is ready to be lived in. It was so nice seeing them so much.

But really...look at this little guys face...I'm pretty sure I'm in love.

This kid melts my heart..so much. We spent forever taking millions of photo booth pictures on my laptop the other day, it was a blast:) He's such a sweetie...and a crazy man at the same time ;)

I got to be reunited with 2 of my closest friends, Danny and Jed.  We watched Les Mis, which, of course, made me extremely happy and filled the craving I had to watch it, as you know from my previous post:) Pretty much these guys are crazy.  And I love them to death.

I was ECSTATIC to see my Jarmans again...pretty much they make me super happy.  It's awesome because these girls are those kind of friends that I really admire and look up to and try to be more like :) They truly are amazing. Love you guys:) 

My home is breathtaking. The view and the sunsets are absolutely amazing:) It was so nice to be home:)

Oh and that's me. :)

And by the way, Emily is really good at chalking. Me. As a mermaid. ;) :)))

We like to party.

We also like to go sing karaoke at pizza places :) It was awesome being able to sing one more duet with Danny before he left for his mission.

And Tanner rocking his Hercules songs, of course. :) (Tanner's the one with the microphone, not the baldy up close ;) )

I got to be reunited with my bestie, Chelsgurl! ;) Haha, we like to be silly and make fun of the hand-on-the-hip pose. Love her:) And my photo-bombing friends..

Wait a sec...this guy is from BYU! Yep, but we got to play not at BYU since we live super close to each other! So I got a reunion after a couple days with my fhe bro:)

I had to say goodbye to my best friend Danny as he left for his mission.  He is seriously such a fantastic, crazy, hilarious guy! We've had so many good times and I was super grateful I could be in town for his farewell and saying goodbye to him before he left for the MTC. I'm so proud of him for choosing to serve a mission, he's gonna rock it in Taiwan!:)

 When we have sleepovers, we be legit. ;) For one of them we slept in a tent in the backyard, partied on the roof, and "celebrated" my half birthday. 

Obviously when it's your half birthday you make half of a cake.  It's only natural.

I also like to steal souls.  Like Jed's.  ;) #gingerprobs

 Even though I only got a week with these amazing people, it's nice that I can come home occasionally to see them.  It's so great having such incredible friends that I legitimately look up to.  I wouldn't trade them for the world.

The End of the Very Beginning

Well! Summer term is coming to a close! I head back to my lovely home tomorrow evening. This summer honestly went by so extremely fast, but I'm glad it did at the same time. I am so excited to spend some time at home and up north Wisconsin. This 2 week break before fall semester starts will be great:) 

Tonight we took some family pictures as an FHE (Family Home Evening) group.  What a cute little family we are ;)

 My roommate Laurel and I have gone out on many occasions to take pictures of the sunset...boy are the sunsets ever gorgeous here. Breathtaking.

This was the sunset tonight.

 I sure do love that bell tower:) It makes me so happy every time it chimes, especially when it plays Come, Come Ye Saints :)

I was feeling kinda artsy today..I even climbed a tree to see if I could se the sunset better...oh and feel free to compliment me on my tan line...yes I am a ginger with a tan, be impressed ;)

Another "I feel artsy" shot.  I found this really cool white wall as my background.

It's a weird feeling, having summer term be over already...I'm excited to see what fall brings!:)

Have a smashing day:)

Blast from the Past

I came across some things that reminded me of awesome memories the other day, one in particular being when I was in The Drowsy Chaperone!  Ah!  What an awesome experience that was. The Drowsy Chaperone was definitely my favorite character I've ever been.  I mean, come on, I was a drunk lady who got seduced by a European named Aldolpho! Not to mention I got to constantly break the fourth wall, which is hardly ever acceptable on stage. PLUS. I got to have short, black hair and dark makeup for a bit...which was actually super fun to try out;) As a ginger, dark makeup has never really been a possibility if I want to look like a semi-functional human being, so that was definitely an adventure ;) 

I found a clip of my main song, "As We Stumble Along" on youtube...fast forward to about 5 minutes for the dialogue beforehand, or to 7 minutes if you feel like watching the song!:) I'm getting major nostalgia here...

Here's the clip following that..yes, this is the clip where I am seduced by Aldolpho...keep watching til the end of his song and you'll see the juicy kissing scene ;) hahaha ;)

And just to indulge you, here are some of my favorite pictures from the show... :)

Reminiscing is fun sometimes..:)

Have a Smashing day:)

When Studying Pays Off

Imagine me studying for Psychology literally from the moment I wake up until 6:30 at night...well, actually, you don't have to because there are pictures for you to look at!  Granted I did wake up at noon...but that's still a lot of studying.  I even found a way to get my online textbook to read to me while I took a shower...hehe. It's a good thing I actually find my Psychology textbook interesting or this would suck even more! ;) 

THE GOOD NEWS is that I got an 87% on the test!! Now I know, I know, it doesn't really sound like THAT high of a score...but it's the best I've done on one of these tests, and I beat my genius of a sister, so I am quite pleased! We even went to Jamba Juice to celebrate afterwards!  So now there's this to imagine:

 I thought you might have a hard time imagining that too, so I decided to help ya out ;) For reals though, it's an AWESOME feeling when studying pays off!:) Now to get through the final!

Have a smashing day:)

My Dear Mother

Recently I've been thinking a lot about my mom and how great of a woman she is. :) Coming to college has helped me to realize how much she has done for me, and I know I can't even fathom half of it.

For starters, my mom is a DANG good cook.  I mean, I always knew this, but you never REALLY think about it until you have to cook for yourself...all the time...and it stinks ;P  Let's just say that I may or may not have burned a dish in the microwave...and almost burned a lid...and questioned why my chicken wasn't cooking after realizing 20 minutes later that I had the wrong burner on...hey, it's harder than it looks, alright? ;P Needless to say, I will forevermore appreciate my mother's cooking much more.

Thinking about a recent conversation I had with my friend about being the youngest of eight children, I realized how awesome it is that I never felt like I was raised by my older siblings or that I wasn't loved just as much.  My mom was definitely busy, being a mother, a wife, a homemaker, teaching early morning seminary for part of that.. and yet she always had time to take care of me.  I remember coming home from school every day in elementary school and sitting at the table while she helped me and my sister with our homework.

I'm also extremely blessed to have parents who help me pay for college...I couldn't do it without them...like...at all. That's all I'm gonna say on that matter for now, thank you Mom and Dad!

I am so grateful that my mom is so supportive of me, both of my interests and of my values.  My mom was there at every possible recital and concert all throughout my life, and she really encourages me to continue.  The other day I was feeling pretty bummed about my voice and my future in the vocal field, and I called my mom.  It was really nice to talk to her and she helped me out a lot.  Along with how my mom is supportive of my values, she encourages me to be the best person I can be and to not settle or sell myself short.  She is SUPER good at helping me make decisions and encouraging me to do what's right.  After all, she's one who engraved such high standards into me to start with:)

Thinking about this and how I probably don't even realize half of what my parents do for me, it gets me thinking about just how much my Heavenly parents have done for me...I cannot even fathom just how much it is..I owe them EVERYTHING.  After all, they gave me my parents here on earth, along with every single other thing I have:)

I'm just so grateful to have such amazing parents.

I love you Mom!:)