jordan elizabeth

very last day. tragic!

2009-06-14T08:56:00.000-07:00

okay. this is a picture of me and my parents in London at Trafalgar Square when I was little.

today i made it my mission to go take this picture! My grandparents have this picture hanging in their house, along with pictures of my other aunts and uncles in the same position at the same booth. so..its super hot today. and super humid. not a fun combination. but sam and i set out in trafalgar square in search of this telephone booth. we had the original picture on my ipod to make positive certain that we had the right one. so we ran around sweaty trafalgar square for a good 15 minutes trying to find it. we finally realized that a new tree had been planted when they redid the square and it hid the telephone booth and the street sign and the monument. so. here is my attempt at the picture. sad. but i promise its the same booth. i was so disappointed!!

today was also the day that i picked to wear flip flops all day... nasty huh?

classic telephone booth... :] so fun.

most of the group went to st. pauls cathedral for a choral eucharist today. it was a really neat experience. i really enjoyed seeing the choir. the little boys were so adorable! this place is so amazingly beautiful inside. i wish they let us take pictures! its so pretty.

this time tomorrow i will be landing in atlanta! USA here i come!

last few days of london! :[

2009-06-12T07:49:00.000-07:00

Today we went to see the Trooping of the Colors. This was so fun. It was basically a huge parade of all of the Queen's soldiers and horses and such. Plus the Queen made an appearance.. aaaand the Princes :] It only happens once a year! And it just so happens that it was today! score!
We got up at 630 this morning and went down and stood there for 4 hours to get front row. Pretty awesome.

prince harry and prince william :]

Queen Elizabeth
More prince william :]

Abbey Road :]

Delicious treat at Maison Bertaux

More delicious treats at this cupcake place in Chelsea called LOVE. So cute.

At each bus stop, it lists the important places in the area. At the bus stop at the top of our street it lists "Brigham Young University". The Centre is even on the map!

Upon the Avon! :]
"Cooks Alley"

Anne Hathaway's House

Shakespeare's birth place

Harry Potter...There was totally a line in the middle of Kings Cross Station to take pictures with this sucker.
Saturday excursion to Cambridge! So fun.

Punting down the river in Cambridge.

Tea at the Orangery at Kensington Palace. So fun!!

President Gordon B. Hinckely said "No one can be in London long without developing a love for that city." I have truly come to know this. There are so many words that I could use to describe this city - magical, magnificent, beautiful, exhilarating, spectacular, enchanting, charming. But also strange. There are a lot of things that are strange. But I embraced them. They are what make this great city great. I have loved my time here. I believe that I am coming back to the states as a different person. More cultured, structured, independant, confident, directed, aware, and just changed. It has added a part of itself to me. And I love it! I dont think that the true beauty of this place has hit me until now, the day before i leave. My professor's wife gave me a card yesterday with a lace bookmark from Kensington Palace. In the card she wrote, "I hope that this bookmark will someday remind you that you once lived next door to Kensington Palace." I'm not sure what it was about that that made me step back and realize the magesty of what i have just experienced. Today was kind of an emotional day, as silly as that sounds. Sam and I, after the Trooping of the Colors, went to all of our favorite places for the last time. It was so sad! We walked around Covent Garden for a few hours just enraptured in the amazing place that it. We walked down Portobello Road for the last time - there is no place on earth like Portobello. Even just riding certain tube routes for the last time was bittersweet. Of course there are things that I'm excited to get back to...getting married in 2 weeks, not sharing a room with 8 girls, having my own space. But a piece of my heart will always be in London.

shower

2009-06-04T09:52:00.000-07:00

okay. so people have been asking me what was so scary about the ride that we rode at Brighton Pier. so. to give you the full effect..i googled some pictures. this, my friends, is The Booster.

what these pictures fail to show you..is that the freaking this swung out OVER THE OCEAN. it was on the very very edge of the pier. so it went over above the water. it was terrrifying.

okay. so there are 3 other girls in our group who are engaged. a group of amazing girls (headed by brooke..who wants to be a wedding planner) thought that it would be fun to throw us a bridal shower! so they kept the whole thing a secret and planned it for weeks. it was seriously over the top. it was so so amazing. we had DELICIOUS food (one of the girls wants to go to culinary school - blondies, fruit pizzas, amazing salad, curry chicken salad sandwhiches, suer yummy chocolate cake) played some super hilarious games (ie. the question game. "if your fiance was a tube line - which would he be and why? or "if your fiance was a harry potter character who would he be and why?" ) seriously hilarious and got some fantastic presents :] (one of the girls used to work at Victoria's Secret). it was so much fun. every one in the centre except a few girls were there. we had so much fun together. we laughed and sang and just had a fabulous time. these girls are so fun. ive been so lucky to make such a fun group of friends. i haven't been able to get any pictures yet, but HERE is the link to brooke's blog..complete with pictures!! :]

Centre, Brighton & Bodium.

2009-06-03T11:01:00.000-07:00

These are pictures that I definitely should have posted long ago. This is the beautiful London Centre. This is the street that we live on - Palace Court.

The Centre!
Where we eat dinner..

My favorite room in the Centre. The Drawing Room.

And this is the classroom! Its kinda weird to go to class right up the stairs from your bedroom.

Last night me and Sam were bored so we decided to go to a show. There was a group of people going to see Jersey Boys, but we didn't know if we really wanted to see that. So we decided to go look at a half price ticket booth and see what kind of deal we could get for something else, and then go to Jersey Boys if we couldn't find anything. None of the ticket booths had anything, but the Mama Mia theatre was right next to Leicester Square where the booths were. Some other girls from the Centre said that they had gone to try to get student discounts but that Mama Mia didn't have student tickets. We decided that we would take a chance and just see what they had left for the night. The show started at 7:30 and we got to the box office about 7:10. We asked the guy if he had anything for that night, and he said that he had student tickets for row B in the very centre right behind the conductor!! SCORE! it was seriously so amazing! we sat in 90 pound seats for 27.50. and the view was amazing!! there was not a single person in front of us. and we weren't looking up at all. we were so close to the stage that we could see the people spitting when they sang (kinda gross...but so cool that we were that close). It was SUCH A FUN show. After it ended the cast came back on stage and sang 3 of the songs from the show and everyone stood up and danced and sang. It was so much fun.

Today we went on our weekley day trip. We went to Brighton and Bodium Castle. We were supposed to go to Canterbury but a girl from the group was late to the bus and we were 45 minutes off schedule so we had to skip it. Kind of a bummer. Anyway, Brighton is definitely one of my new favorite places. I absolutely loved it. It was this super cute beach town. The pier was so fun. Sam and I rode a ride called The Booster. It was scary..really scary. it was this big long arm thing that swung us in circles upside down and sidways and up super high over the ocean. I really wish we had taken a picture!!

While in Brighton we also went to the Royal Pavillion. It was a palace that King George IV built. It was all decorated in an Asian style with dragons and such everywhere. it was SUPER over the top and ornate and detailed. it was super cool.
The last stop was Bodium Castle. It was a really cool castle with a moat and everything! It was fun. We went in to a room that was full of bats! It was nasty. The castle also had these things called murder holes..where if someone got into the castle, they could dump hot oil on them from the ceiling. It was pretty neat. It was one of my favorite castles that we have gone to so far becuase it wasn't turned into a museum or a tourist trap. It was simply the ruins of a super cool castle. There wasn't any restoration or remodling or recreations. It was just the castle. i liked that a lot. We also had fun with the stocks.

With Dr. D!

hah is was super sunny.. :]Up in this tower the stairs stopped..like there literally were no more stairs..but they still put a sign on the step that said "no further access". seriously funny.
Sam and I ended the day right - with dinner at Nandos. My favvvvorite restaurant in London.

oh. my. gosh. twilight.

2009-06-02T04:05:00.000-07:00

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

hehe.
new trailer.
you KNOW youre excited.

whole bunch of pictures from the last 2 weeks!

2009-05-31T13:13:00.000-07:00

there has been so much going on. it is crazy!! 2 weeks from tonight will be my last night in london! it's so weird to think about. I remember just like it was yesterday when I was writing a post that said basically the same thing except it was that 2 weeks from then was my last night in america! so weird. so much has happened...but it seems as though I have more or less settled into my life here. So nothing seems noteworthy enough to write about..yanno? So, so much for my plan of faithful blogging..but I have been pretty faithful with pictures..eh? So, here ya go.

one night we came home and i accidently broke the door handle....it just plain fell off!
then we went on the london eye :]

oxford

blenheim palace on the train at blenheim

after finishing the blenheim hedge maze! so much harder than you would have thought...
Afternoon picnic at Hampstead Heath. It was really really pretty up there.

All of our fresh fruit and veggies and bread that we bought from Borough Market. Definitely my favorite market in London. It was DELICIOUS!

Playing dress up at the V&A. What better way to spend the afternoon?? This hoop skirt was hilarious.

Then we went to SCOTLAND for the weekend! super fun!
Our first day there we decided to hike up to King Arthur's seat. It was basically a death hike. Straight up a mountain. and it was SUPER windy.
This picture is extremely unattractive. But I didn't know Sam was taking it. and I think that it basically sums up the unhappiness that i was feeling. :]
finally up at the top! very very high.and windy was no joke. it was so so windy.
okay. i sucked up alll of my pride.and posted this picure. i have 2 sweatshirts tied around my waist...my pants look like they are pulled up to my belly button...(they arent..) and the look on my face is sheer death. seriously..it was not the funnest experience of my life. if i didnt have a fiance i so totally wounldn't have posted this picture. but! becuase i do. i figure that everyone can get a laugh out of this like we did. ha.

edinburgh castle.
(this picture was actually at sterling castle...thus the change in wardrobe..)

then we went to this BEAUTIFUL place called inchmahome where we took a little boat out to an island in the middle of a lake that had the ruins of an old old priory on it. i loved it! it was so so pretty.
william wallace monument...
300 steps to the top!
Its that tiny building in the distance on top of the hill...which we had to climb up in order to get to the monument. super fun...

our whole group on top of the wallace monument.

With a real live, legit, scottish bagpipe player in front of the National Gallery of Scotland.

:]
One night in Edinburgh we took an "Haunted Underground Ghost Tour" through the underground vaults of the city. It was fun! Not scary at all...but really interesting to see all of the underground city.
On our last day in Edinburgh we went to the Royal Museum of Scotland. It was probably one of the coolest museums that we have gone to so far!! It was sooo interactive. It kept us entertained for hours! it was fantastic.
There was one room where you could drive a race car through a simulated course. It was seriously so much harder than it looked!
There was another room where you could dress up like vikings or scots!

Scotland was fun. I liked it. But it was so nice to come back to London! We only have 2 more weeks left and tons to do! If the internet in the centre will cooperate...I will try to be better about posting!

26 days.. :]

33 days.

2009-05-25T00:15:00.000-07:00

not that im counting..

4 weeks.

2009-05-23T15:26:00.001-07:00

okay seriously...ive been here for 4 weeks!
time is flying by. i only have 3 weeks and 2 days left. it is crazy. im definitely getting excited to go back though.

in the last 4 weeks..here are somethings that i have become grateful for.

1. sinks. normal sinks. with normal faucets. here, the hot water comes out of one side, and the cold water comes out of the other. you can just FORGET getting warm water to wash your face in. its a joke. and. the toilets here dont flush. it takes a good 5 or 6 tries. it is absurd.

2. living on the top bunk sucks. thats the only way to put it! my ladder is non existent...so climbing into bed is a joke. and theres a huge gap between my bed and the wall, atleast a good few inches. so stuff falls down all the time. and there have been countless mornings when ive woken up to find my blankets on the floor...gah. im so excited for my big beautiful ikea bed that we're buying when i get home!! yayyy!

3. having a car...public transport systems are fantastic. they really are. but its so annoying to have to take 3 different trains and walk for 15 minutes to get somewhere that is just a few minutes drive away. plus the tube is always packed and sweaty and there are lots of wind tunnels..gross.

4. cheesy gordita crunch & chicken quesadilla. enough said??

5. hello yougurt. me and greg went there alllll the time before i left. corner of university and state. oh my gosh. its heavenly!! love it. miss it. bad.

6. sunshine. i have come to ADORE the days when there is actually sunshine here. its mostly cloudy. and rainy. and windy. not so fantastic.

7. i miss my phone so bad. so so bad. i miss texting google. and chacha. seriously..thats what i miss the most. not texting everyone else isnt so bad. but not being able to text google!! its tragic. it also gets hard to meet up with a group or find someone if they get lost cuz you cant just call..

8. i miss being able to get to church in 10 minutes. here i have to take a 30 minute tube ride with one line change, pay 5 pounds, get on an overground train for another hour, then walk a few blocks to get to church. about an hour and a half each way. that means my church experience lasts 6 hours. and costs money. church was definitely something that i took for granted.

9. free refills! and free water. seriously restaurants over here are crazy. there is no such thing as a free refill. and water is a rare occurrence. we went to one place that tried to charge us 2 pounds for a baby size water bottle. when we asked if we could get tap water they told us that "they dont do tap water". faaabulous. customer service overe here is basically a joke all together.
10. and of course. i miss my boy. we get married 5 weeks from today!

but. of course there are several things that i have come to love.

1. wagamas and nandos. two of the most DELICIOUS restaurants i have ever been to.
2. parks and trees everywhere. ginormous huge parks. central parks all over the place. love it.
3. having homecooked meals twice a day. i love having a big breakfast. and a hot dinner every night. soo yummy.
4. digestive cookies.
5. markets. i discovered borough market yesterday. my absolute favorite. we bought fresh tomatoes and raspberries and bell peppers and peas and apples and juice and chocolate and fresh bread. oh my heavens it was simply divine. it was so so so good. and there were samples. it doesnt get better than that.
6. there is something kind of exciting about living with your professors. definitely weird when youre in your pyjamas eating breakfast and in comes your english teacher. but its kinda fun. for a little bit at least. tonight we needed some medicine, so what do we do? oh just go upstairs and ask the teachers wife. she hooked us up. it was awesome. have a question about your homework assignment? no biggie. just ask your professor at dinner. haha. i love it
7. living with 40 girls has a lot of disadvantages. just take my word for it. but there is something so fun about it at the same time. everyone kind of congregates in the kitchen about 9 or 10 and we all talk or watch movies or do puzzles. its kind of fun.
8. beligum waffles. enough said. seriously heaven.
9. the history and the amazing architecture. london is beautiful. every single building has a beautiful mysterical ancient full of history kind of look to it. i love it. i love riding the bus and just looking at all of the beautiful buildings.
10. shows. I LOVEEE being able to go to shows. it is definitely one of my favorite things about london.

today was fun. we woke up and got breakfast at portobello. then we went out to hampstead heath for a picnic with all of the food from borough market. it was so much fun. we ate then fell asleep in the park. it was glorious!

everyone in the centre is sick. seriously almost everyone has a cold or is just getting over one. cant breathe or swallow or sleep. its rough. but i think my nyquill is setting in!! yay!

pictures. update to follow.

2009-05-21T09:37:00.000-07:00

Tower of London!

Oxford! Seriously, now i understand how JK Rowling came up with such ingenious ideas as common rooms and great halls. They totally exist!! All of the colleges at Oxford have common rooms and dining halls and stone hallways and such. It was crazy! We saw the famous "harry potter stairs" that lead to the great hall..but the great hall where they filmed was closed. bummer.

promise someday ill write a good update. someday.
here are some leftover pictures from polperro and tintagel.

Accomplished.

2009-05-16T14:25:00.001-07:00

PS.
I would just like the world to know.
As of today, I have gone 3 solid weeks without diet coke.
Without any soda for that matter.
For ANYONE who knows me....you will understand what a big deal this is.
:]
Hurrah for me.

Bath.

2009-05-16T11:10:00.000-07:00

I loved Bath. it was number 2 on my favorite list. It was the most charming, beautiful, quaint little town I have ever been to. It was in the middle of some green, green hills. It was so so beautiful. I loved it. When the sun came out - it was just heavenly. When we first got there this morning it was cold and raining. We went into Bath Abbey. It was probably one of my favorite churches that we have gone into. It was quiet and beautiful. I couldn't hear the storm that was happening outside. I loved it. Someone was playing the piano, and it was just pretty sounding. Some of the Cathedrals and such that we have gone into haven't been all that impressive to me, or maybe its just that they didnt have any special meaning or significance to me at the time. But for some reason this one did. I loved it.

The Roman Baths were amazing! I seriously was enthralled the whole time. It made me want to be an archaeologist! No joke. I want to excavate things! It was fascinating to me. I loved it. It was originally a huge, huge complex with several buildings and large gardens. It was seriously SO awesome. The remains and ruins and such that they are excavating are so cool. So cool. The water in the Baths hasnt been touched or treated or anything since it was last used in the 1700's (ish...) so it was this nasty disgusting green color. And it was steaming. Just to add an effect. Haha. It was so awesome. I loved it.
We got to throw in pennies (or pences? I guess...) and make wishes!

Now for an explanation of the pictures. At the end of the tour you can taste the water. It is hot minerally, sulfery smelling water. Seriously disgusting.

After the Roman Baths we went to the Fashion Museum, where we looked at tons of dresses spanning hundreds of years. It was super cool. We got to try on corsets and hoop skirts!! So fun.

Next we went to another one of Jane Austen's houses. We met Mr. Darcy. Score. It obviously completed our trip to Bath.

It was a really fun weekend. This coming week we are going to The Tower of London and Oxford! I'm super excited. Wednesday will be our half way mark! So unbelievable. It is flying. But at the same time it feels like we have been here forever. Everything that was once so thrilling and exciting is becoming common place. Kind of weird. But I like it!

I get married in 40 days! So crazy. Absolutely so excited. We finally finalized our honeymoon tonight! I'm quite excited :]

Cornwall weekend

2009-05-15T11:58:00.000-07:00

Last night was pretttty fun. We hung out in our hotel room and just acted like silly girls. This morning we went to Exeter Cathedral and walked around a bit. It’s got some beautiful stained glass and painted ceilings. It was pretty. Then we headed to Jane Austen’s house. It was so cute! It was really cool to see the way people used to live. Everything is so small! But at the same time it’s got a beautiful simplicity to it. Then we headed back to London! It was nice to get back. Tomorrow we are heading out to Bath. I’m super excited! It will be a fabulous day!
Lots of pictures to come. :]

night at the pier after our hour long walk in the rain.. :]

polperro! amazing town.

Got stuck climbing up the cliffs at Polperro
Exploring caves at Polperro.

Tintagel. And the deathly stairs carved into the side of the mountain that we had to hike up to get to the top.

King Arthurs Castle? In Tintagel.

Cornish Pasty!
On the coach. Always on the coach.
Land's End.
Porthcurno

These are old pictures from Lion King!
Sad face because of the annoying teenagers in the row behind us.

polperro.

2009-05-13T22:56:00.000-07:00

So much for my faithful blogging every night. I'm just too tired when I get home!!

Okay so Tuesday was fabulous!! We had class in the morning (which was awesome by the way. It was British Mysteries. I love it! Our teacher is awesome, and our class discussions are fun. This week our assignment is to read Sherlock Holmes - which I've never read before! And surprisingly - I really like!! Its pretty fun to read) After class we headed to The National Gallery. It was so amazing. I absolutely loved it. I love seeing paintings that I have studied in class and written papers about. I love knowing about the artists lives and the stories behind the paintings and the things that are interesting in each. I really love art - I never really had a huge appreciation for it when I would see it in a text book, but to see it right infront of you is definitely thrilling.

Tuesday we also bought tickets to go to Bath on Saturday! We got a discount because there are 4 of us going. We have to be at the train station a littttle earlier tan I would have liked :] but it will give us the whole day over there. I'm super excited. For lunch we found this cute bagel/sandwich place. It was a TOTAL disappointment. I swear, we have the WORST luck with restaurants. The only good one so far has been Nandos. We always pick the worst ones. So we ordered water - which we have come to find out is pretty taboo over here. The lady brings us mini bottles of Evian water and tries to charge us 2 pounds! Not even full size!! lame. So we asked her if we could just have tap water - which apparently "they dont have". Then she was upset at us and took a long time to bring our food - which really wasn't all that good. Going to restaurants over here is such a weird experience. It's so different. There is no customer service anywhere it seems! And nobody cares about presentation - the food may taste okay but 9 times out of 10 it wont look appetizing or pretty. you can FORGET the garnish. it's non-existent :]

Tuesday night we went to Lion King. It was pretty cool! Not quite what I was expecting...But it was a fun show. The colors were FANTASTIC! I loved them. And the costumes were really interesting as well. I was a little disappointed with Simba...his voice just wasnt powerful and he kind of sounded like a girl..and the choreography was a little off as well...for example in the song "I Just Can't Wait to be King" the little Simba gets down and starts doing the worm...yeah...a little weird. But it was a fun show. We experienced - for the first time - good customer service while we were at this show. It was amazing! we sat in front of this group of teenagers for the first half. They were talking on their cell phones (no joke), talking to each other and just being flat out obnoxious. So we went to the usher at intermission and asked them to tell the kids to be quiet. Not only did they do that, but then they moved us to better seats! It was amazing!

Wednesday we went left for our first weekend trip. Our first stop was Polperro. It is my absolute favorite place that we have been. Before I left, my entire family was telling me how amazing Polperro was and how it was their favorite place. now I can join the club! Its a teensy little fishing village. We climbed all over the cliffs and hiked up the side of one of the hills. It was so so much fun. I'll put on pictures as soon as we get back to London. We were going into all of the shops in the town. At the last shop we went into, these little watercolors int he back caught my eye. They're so bright and cute. I loved them! Of course, I had to buy 4 of them. My first souvenirs! Exciting. They're so so beautiful. I love them. I think I'm going to frame them and put them in our bathroom when we get our new apartment. I'm stoked. When we got back on the bus I remembered my mom telling me that last time she was in Polperro she bought watercolors too!! It made me laugh. I wonder if they're the same!

We stopped for the night at a place called Falmouth. Our hotel is right on the beach. It's super cool. We went for a super long walk last night in the pouring rain. It was fun though - we saw a pier that had a hundred or more yachts and sail boats. There was also a navy ship. It was pretty sweet!!

Today we're off to Tintagel. It should be a fabulous day!!

kew gardens and wicked.

2009-05-11T13:25:00.000-07:00

kew gardens. beautiful.

our friend mister bear.
more kew

wicked!! so amazing. amazing seats at student ticket prices. half off. amazing.

still just pictures. the internet at the Centre sucks. so I can never post. plus we're not doing a whole lot that is exciting. but ill get better. :]

les mis & the globe

2009-05-08T15:51:00.000-07:00

romeo and juliet here we come. and dont be deceived by how it looks sunny...im not sure what was up with the flash, but it was BITTER cold. it was freeeezing! no good.
at the globe!
on the millennium bridge

hot dogs outside of the british museum :]
they were actually kind of gross...and i have more than half of mine to the birds. haha

china town...where we got gross chinese food. bummer.

les miserables!

i dont know why i always do this silly pose where i make fists and lift my shoulders up. sam so nicely pointed out that i do it in every picture. weird.

anyway, off for another adventure tomorrow!

huge update.

2009-05-07T00:28:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning we got up early and walked over to Portobello Road Market. It was so fabulous! It was super fun. We got there a little too early, so things were still getting set up, but we missed the huge crowd, which was super nice. We got delicious pastries and fruit salads for breakfast. SO yummy. The fruit over here is delicious!! Especially the berries. I get them wherever I go. Mmm.

Next we headed to Greenwich for the day. It was really neat. We took an over ground train to get there, and it was cool to see that part of London We walked around the Royal Naval Academy and The Queens Palace – which was LAME! All we got to see was the front entry. But first we had to walk up like 5 flights of stairs, so that we could look down at the floor….like I said, lame. The Royal Maritime Museum and the Royal Observatory made for a fun afternoon. They were both super interactive which was fun!

Coolest part of the day – we took a boat ride down the Thames to get home from Greenwich!! It was absolutely fabulous!!! I loveeeed it! It was cool to see a new view of the city. It was one of my most favorite activities so far. For dinner we went to Nandos – another one of my favorite London places. It is a chicken restaurant! Obviously, it was the perfect restaurant for me. They have a delicious chicken pita that they are famous for –which definitely lived up to its reputation. I loved it.

Saturday night we walked all around the city in search of a treat, as we usually do at night. We heard that a shop by the London Eye had yummy waffles so we went down there, but the waffle place was closed. The Thames and the London Eye and the bridges and stuff was really pretty at night. It was a fun atmosphere. We ended up at this place in Leicester Square called Ciaos. We got the most fantastic ice cream desserts – which you can see in one of my last posts. It was a super fun night.

Sunday we went to our first day in the London wards. there are six other girls that go to the same ward as me. It took us about an hour and a half to get there. most of the way was on the over ground train which was so neat. I love looking out the window. so super pretty.
Sunday night we played games with a bunch of the girls in the Centre. it was a blast.

Monday we had our first excursion to the countryside. it started at the glorious hour of 5:30 am. we got the on the coach and scored with the last row. we drove out to Stonehenge, which took about an hour. we got to go early and go inside the ropes and touch the rocks, which is super cool! no one else gets to do that! honestly though, Stonehenge is totally not all it’s cracked up to be. I mean, its amazing. it really is awesome, but it’s small and cluttered and really doesn’t look like the pictures. but it was fun.

Next we headed to Wells, where we went through the Wells Cathedral. We learned all about how towns and cities and such are classified in London. A “Hamlet” is a place that has either a church or a pub. A “Village” and a “Town” both has a church and a pub, but a town has more people. A “City” is classified as a place that has a pub and a cathedral. it made me laugh that the places were based on churches…and pubs… haha. It was freezing today. absolutely freeeeezing! We got hot chocolate and muffins at a small bakery in Wells. Delicious!

Our last stop was Stourhead. This was a beautiful garden and mansion. It was in this garden that they filmed the famous raining proposal scene in pride and prejudice. It was beautiful. But I might have appreciated it more if it had been sunny. There was a cute little pond in the middle, with a grotto. which was my favorite part of the whole thing. It had little waterfalls and statues of goddesses and secret tunnels. the floors were made out of stones and they had patterns in them. the walls and ceilings were just cut out of the stone. it was awesome. they also had stone forts and bridges all throughout the garden. it was pretty fun. on the way home we made a stop at King Alfred’s tower. you can read about it under the pictures of it. it was over 200 steps to the top, and it was just a tower. in the middle of the forest. for no apparent reason. stupid. but it was pretty. it reminded me of north Carolina. and my boy. :[

Tuesday we started off the morning by getting student discount tickets for Les Mis!! We ended up in the 10 row for 28 pounds. it was so excited. we spent the rest of the day walking around the theatre district. it was fun. we came home and spent a few hours at home before the show started. Our seats were amazing!! no one sat in front of us so we had a straight shot to the stage. it was PHENOMINAL. I had chills the whole time. It was amazing. I loved it. We walked the whole way home singing. it was awesome.

We also got told today that because we have all been such good sports about the lack of hot water, we get to go on the London Eye for free!! Our director is going to pay for us to go. Which is awesome because I don’t think that it is something that I would pay to do. I’m super exited.

This morning I woke up to two terrific surprises. First – hot breakfast! We had amish oatmeal for breakfast – it was basically an oatmeal cookie…baked into a loaf. we put fresh raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries, on top and then dumped cream over it all. it was seriously amazing. the BEST surprise was a bouquet of roses from my boy. Seriously, how cute is he?? It almost made me cry. it was so sweet. I miss him so much it is ridiculous.

We basically spent all day today sitting on the bus. Hah. we had class this morning. After class we went to Covent Garden to do a little shopping :] it was fun. We went to Thortons and got amazingly delicious ice cream cones. We walked around for an hour or so and then we decided that we were too worn out to do much, but we didn’t want to go back to the Centre. So we got on a bus! The first one that we saw. We spent the next 2 hours seeing the city from the top of the bus. it was fabulous. we road that bus until the route ended, then we got on the tube towards china town for lunch. we ate at a so-so restaurant, but it filled the craving that we had. then we hopped on another bus that was in the general direction of home. it was the perfect day. I have the funnest friends. we seriously had the best time, just sitting on a bus talking. my aunt wrote on my facebook wall after looking at all of my pictures and asked me if there were more than 3 girls that came on study abroad. hah. it made me laugh. well, there are. and they are fabulous. but us 3 have so much fun. and I love it.

scenic pictures from the last few days.. :]

stonehenge. stourhead. wells.

2009-05-04T15:14:00.001-07:00

well its late again
and i want to blog so bad - mainly so that i dont forget things, but i will be so dang tired tomorrow. so here are some pictures. we went to stonehenge today. it was cool!! but honestly, not what i was expecting. it was kind of small..but our group got to go inside the ropes and touch the rocks, which not everybody gets to do!! so that was super awesome. then we went to wells and stourhead. it was a super fun day. i love the english countryside. it is so different from london. it is my new favorite place. i love it. parts remind of a little of north carolina :] it made me think of my sweet boy who is back there. ill write soon about our fabulous adventures!

kay seriously, i suck at climbing on things. so i think these picures are hilarious. maybe no one else laughs, but i laugh out loud every time. so at first i couldnt even get up...

then once i got up, i got stuck. if you can get up close, my face in these pictures is seriously hilarious.

this is at stourhead. this is the place where the raining proposal scene was filmed in the newer version of pride and prejudice. again i was trying to climb onto something and rachel thought that it was entertaining enough that she should take pictures...

stourhead is actually a huge garden built around a huge pond. it was beautiful!! this was inside the grotto. our favorite part of the garden. it was sooo beautiful! more pictures tomorrow. :]
this is at the bishops palace at wells. i was pretending to be a princess...but not so much pretending. it just comes naturally :] hah

last we went to this massive tower in the middle of the forest. it was 210 narrow steps to the top. and it was just a tower....for no particular reason. weird. it was quite the walk. i almost died. sam had to push me up the last few. but the view was beautiful.

more pictures and more details soon!! (but all anyone really cares about is pictures right? ha)

the weekend.

2009-05-03T15:48:00.000-07:00

so this is a little scattered
theyre pictures from our fabulous weekend
i dont have time to write
we're off to stonehenge and stourhead at 5:30 am
its 12:05 right now
so ive gotta get some sleep
i promise a good post soon!!

sidenote

2009-05-01T14:17:00.000-07:00

grades were posted.
i got straight a's and a- 's this semester
my gpa was a 3.89
SA-WEET huh??
i was so excited.
i definitely found the major that is right me

hyde park & kensington gardens

2009-05-01T08:15:00.000-07:00

getting on the lions at trafalgar square was definitely a two man job. but it was totally worth it. probably the highlight of my day in fact.
this is successfully on top of the monument at trafalgar square. it was a feat. it took a running start.

after trafalgar square we went to the national portrait gallery. it was really neat. i especially liked the contemporary gallery. it was really interesting to look at all of the different styles. its interesting to go to galleries and museums with a group of people because each person gets such different things out of each piece. it's fun. i like it :]
next we went on a MASSIVE walk through hyde park and kensington gardens. (and saw the peter pan statue) it was super fun. but hot. we stopped in the middle and fell asleep. i got a huge-o sunburn. it totally hurts. major bummer. note to self - no more impromptu naps in the park. but all in all - i think it was worth it? hopefully. my freckles are SO bright and freckly. its crazy. ive never seen them like this. i kind of dont like it. but i'll deal.

in front of kensington palace. in a few weeks we are going to do the tour with our fine arts class. it was super pretty and im excited.

waiting for a bus. another daily occurance.

it was a super fun day. completely exhausting. but it was fun. we walked so so so much.
tomorrow we are off to portobello road and greenwhich for a long adventure. im so excited.
updates tomorrow :]

here are pictures from Kensington Gardens & Hyde Park.

these are from last night's little adventure to little venice. it was so cute. there are also pictures from St. Mary's church which was on the little venice walk. it was beautiful and old. i loved it. i have recently developed a love for old churches.

ps. notice the TK Maxx. totally TJ Maxx, guess they just didn't want to be toooo American. hah. it was so funny when we saw it out of the bus window.

thursday

2009-04-30T13:48:00.000-07:00

today was very pleasant. we went as an entire group to westminster abbey. it was beautiful! we got a guided audio tour which was super neat. there were SO many tombstones and graves and memorials. i have never seen anything like that! we were talking in my fine arts class about how in america, we think that something is old and has history when its 100 years old. this abbey has foundations that go back to 616 ad. it was so crazy to me. we talked for a while with one of the priests, he gave us a history of a few of the items and graves. it was really cool.
after the abbey we went on a walk around the thames and past the london eye. we tried to go to a pub for lunch but they would accept our id's and didn't believe that we were old enough. bummer. we settled for a pizza hut instead. in our prep class back in provo our teacher told us that going into american restaurants in england would be a whole new experience. take into account the following picture.

yes. its true. mcdonalds is the epitome of "western civilization". wonderful. anyway, our teacher was SO right! it was crazy. the pizza hut was full of business men in suites. you could make reservations! and it was cleaner and nicer than any pizza hut back home. it was crazy. there was this place that we went to a few nights ago before the play that we were going to where, under the dessert section, the menu offered "American Style Pancakes with Ice Cream and Maple-style syrup". first - what is maple "style" syrup?? second, since when did pancakes become dessert?
anyway, after lunch we went on another walk through the mall (not a shopping one..but like..the governmental sort of district..) it was really neat - there are pictures in my last post.
after dinner we headed over to little venice. it was a short little walk and it was so cute! there is a canal and a ton of river boats. it was really fun.
i have the funnest friends. we have a blast together. we all think alike (to a certain degree) and we have all fallen into our certain "roles" that we play in the group. ray, for example, has become known as "the mum" because...well she sort of acts like the mother figure - keeping us on time, giving us hand sanitizer so that we don't get swine flu, reading the maps, ect. we have so much fun.
we already have a favorite treat here in our little section of london. its a hole in the wall belgian waffle stand. the guy who runs it is adorable and the waffles are DELICIOUS! seriously the most amazing thing i have ever eaten. tonight we talked and made friends with him and he gave us 1 pound off of our treat! lucky us.
one super funny thing that happened today - we were walking down the street by the parliament buildings, and this british man was walking next to us - he looked very important and business like. anyway, as usual, rachel was reading to us out of our london walks guide book. after we walked a little ways we came to a stop light where we parted ways with the man. before he left he turned to us and said "cool accent." haha. a british man thought that an AMERICAN had a cool accent. that's a first.
heres pictures!

reading the london walks book. always reading.

the thames..even though you can't see it. promise it's there. doing self take and actually getting the back ground is a talent which we have not yet mastered.

big ben and parliament :]

after being followed for two blocks by some gangsters..

little venice. one of my favorites. it was so quaint. and cute. and calm. atleast when we were there...

mostly westminster abbey

2009-04-30T09:56:00.000-07:00

here are the sights from today
more to come tonight!

regents park

2009-04-29T11:56:00.001-07:00

my bedroom at the centre

sights

st james park

alrighty.
so today we had another class - European Fine Arts. it was weird to go to class just upstairs from where i sleep and eat. very weird. but the class was great. its another excuse to see the sights of london and get credit for it. fabulous. tomorrow we go as a class to westminster abbey. im super excited.

after class we went on a walk through regent's park. it was super gorgeous. there were trees and flowers everywhere. there were also a ton of people. especially joggers. i don't understand how there are always so many joggers! in the middle of the day in the middle of the week! so bizzare. doesn't anyone work? guess not. there were also a TON of birds. it was kind of disgusting actually. we got a little lost so the walk to a long time, so when we were done we got back on the tube and came back to our side of town. we went to a super yummy shop called pret a manger and got some lunch. it was super delicious. we came home and did some homework after that. it's kind of starting to sink in that we actually have class and have to do homework and such. but its fun.

tonight we went and got belgian waffles from a little tiny shop down the road. they were DELICIOUS! wow. definitely a new favorite treat. it was so super good. i have now been exactly 6 days without diet coke. sort of dying. no joke. its rough. oh boy.

it was sort of just a chill day so that's about all i have to report..haha but here's a bunch of pictures from the last few days!!

rainy day

st. regents

our serious londoner faces. everyone here is so serious. all. the. time.

rainy day in chelsea

we're basically tube experts

rainy day along the thames. i look tanky cuz my purse is zipped into my jacket :]

home of james bond :]

sherlock holmes giftshop

top of a double decker bus

"STOMP!"

delicious lunch from pret

getting home from the show

more sherlock holmes museum

london.

2009-04-28T16:49:00.001-07:00

wow! it has been a long 4 days. its weird that ive only been here for 4 days. our days are so long and so intense that everything blurrs together in one big clump and time seems to stand still almost anyway. here is a major recap.

SATURDAY

friday moring just flat out sucked. lets leave it at that.
so the flight to new york wasnt that bad. it went by pretty fast. i fell asleep for lots of it. then we just watched tv. then the flight to london was brutal. we were in the plane on the runway at jfk for over an hour before we took off. which was super fun. my tylenol pm had almost worn off by the time we actually took off. fabulous. the plane from new york to london was freeeezing and bumpy so i didnt get much sleep. i officially hate flying over night. it's terrible!! but I survived. :] the customs lady gave me a really hard time coming through. she made me answer a whole bunch of stupid questions like who i lived with at home and who was paying for my trip and what my major was and when i was going to graduate. it was brutal. it took me a super long time and she asked a ton of questions. we got our bags and realized that delta was in terminal 4 and the other girls that we were supposed to meet to get on the shuttle were in terminal 3. so we had to go all the way across the terminal and down 2 super long escalators and then get on a train to take us to terminal 4. whew! when we finally got there… our shuttle wasn't there. rachel and i ran around the terminal trying to find him (i was the one that had reserved the shuttle so it was my job to find out where he was) for seriously 15 minutes. we tried to ask the information desk but they were no help. they were actually kind of rude. but whatever. we finally found him. well he found us. he was half an hour late. when we went to get on the shuttle bus we all went to the wrong side of the car and just stood there. the driver got a good laugh. driving to the centre was fun. it's so pretty here. and so so so different. there are tons of old buildings and houses - i love them!! most of them are super tiny. and it’s so green here! its lovely. side note- London drivers are NUTS! when we got to the center we got divided up into rooms. on the first floor there are 8 girls, the third floor has 16 girls, the fourth floor has 18 girls and the fifth floor has 6 girls. you would not believe how many stairs there are in this place. it is ridiculous. ts ridiculous. for that reason im glad that im on the main floor. :] anyway, so after we got unpacked and everything we went on a walk around the neighborhood. its a fun place. there are tons of shops and restaurants around. theres a starbucks on every corner just like in new york. it was really sunny and we did a ton of walking. we walked around the neighborhood then we came back to the centre for a delicious dinner. after that we went out to buckingham palace, big ben, westminster abby and st james park. we walked forever. blah. it was good though. the weather is beautiful during the day when the sun is out. but the minute the sun goes down its freezing. that night we found out that we have no hot water until atleast the end of next week. a boiler blew up so they had to order a new part. lame. so, at this point, I haent showered since Thursday night. cute.

SUNDAY

we walked to church through the park on Sunday morning. it was amazing. it was about a 20 minute walk through a gorgeous park on a gorgeous Sunday. I loved it. i almost fell asleep in church so many times. the jet lag finally hit. i slept perfectly all nigh on saturdayt once i actually fell asleep but i was still so tired. after church we walked home slowly then we went to the london history museum. we got off the tube at a few wrong stops and walked around a lot so it took a while. it was super nice weather again. the museum was mostly boring but there were a few really cool things from the roman times. when got out of the museum we saw a london boy scout parade...even though im pretty sure that they werent quite called boy scouts. it was fun. we got lost on the tube. a great adventure. that night we met with the stake president who gave us our ward assignments. I found out tonight that my bishop here is going to give me a temple prep class and my recommends!! they will be signed by a london bishop and stake president. that's pretty cool huh? I'm kind of stoked. my bishop is this super young guy. He's probably like 30. his wife is from minnesota. they met while she was on byu study abroad. hahah. they have a 5 week old baby girl who is super adorable. tonight we went over to west end. we weren't quite sure what it was but the bunk bed told us to go (so on the wood between the two bunks i guess it is kind of tradition to sign your name and semester and what your favorite part was and give advice to the new people in the center. so we spent a long time reading the bunks this afternoon cuz its hilarious. so we've got a few good ideas of stuff to do. hah) anyway. we got on a train and a group of boys followed us into our car. they sat the entire train ride staring at us. owe get up to get off at our stop and they totally follow us. so we faked them out, pretended to get off and waited until they were off then got back on. personally i think it was super tricky. so we went on a few stops and our super great west end adventure turned out to be lame. there was nothing there. probably cuz we never actually made it to the real wet end. we just eneded up on some random street. when we got on the tube to come home another group of boys were yelling mean things at us in the station. like..hitting on us by calling us rude names. it was annoying. everywhere we go we get cat calls. its funny.

MONDAY

Monday it rained allll day. we went on a walk called the "walk of the stars" where a bunch of famous people lived down in chelsea. we saw the old hospital and where a bunch of authors lived. we ate a a cute sandwich shop. it was owned by italians. unfortunately, we paid with pounds that were expired apparently so we had to find different money to apy with. he chased us out of the store onto the street. not so cool. then we found a bus stop becuase it was freezing and we didn't know where a tube station was. the bus was fun i guess. more exciting almost than the tube. we changed our clothes and then went out to the v&a for the afternoon. we saw a baroque art exhibit and the jewlery room and the cast room. then it was time to get home cuz we have to be home every day at 4:45 for "evensong" where we get announcements and have a prayer and stuff. dinner is usually super yummy here. that night we went down to leicester square to see a show. we ended up getting cheap last minute tickets to stomp. it was super fun.

TUESDAY

finally updated! I am proud of anyone who read that entire post. as if anyone actually cares that much. but I didn’t want to rewrite everything so I basically took emails that I had sent to greg and my mom and coped and pasted them. thus the intense length. don’t expect that every day. haha. anyway. today was our first class. it's gona be easy. after class we went to the sherlock holmes musuem. we rode the bus down there which was super fun. it took like 40 minutes but it was cool to see everything - which you totally miss on the tube. we sat up top which was cool. its super scary though. the buses get so so so close to the other buses. like inches away. once we got off the bus it was a pain getting to the actual museum cuz we kept getting lost. then the museum cost money and we didnt want to pay so we ended up not even going in. but it was okay. then we went to the cabinet war rooms and the imperial war museum london. both were awesome. the cabinet warm rooms are where Winston Churchill basically planned out and directed ww2 during the bombings in London. it is underground rooms and dorm sort of rooms. there is a kitchen and living quarters and map rooms and strategizing rooms and whatnot. one day everyone that was living slash working down there packed up and went home. but left everything there. exactly the way it was every other day. then they locked the outside doors and never came back. so everything was found in perfect condition. papers still in stacks, tacks still on walls. one commander even left his sugar cubes in his desk in an envelope – and they are still on display. it is basically exactly the way it was found. even all of the chalk boards and calendars and clocks are just the way they were on the day that everyone left. it is super super cool. in the imperial war museum we went to the holocaust exhibit which really was cool. tonight we went to a play as a group. we saw a view from the bridge by arthur miller. it was kind of dumb...but whatever. we had to go and it was free. so last nigh i took my first cold shower. it was so cold that my head hurt within seconds. and i saw my first mouse tonight . they get stuck on these pieces of paper that have mouse trap glue on them. so theyre alive and trying to jump around, but they're stuck on sticky paper. it was shrieking and yelping and disgusting. I have almost gotten hit like 5 times already. its hilarious. the taxis come speeding around the corner of the opposite side of what you would expect. and the buses practically drive on the sidewalks. its ridiculous. but it makes for a good laugh.

anyway. pictures to follow. promise.
it gets annoying to have to take a pcture on two or three cameras every time we take a picture so we’ve kind of developed a system where only one person takes the group pictures then transfers them onto our computers. so I don’t actually have the pictures yet. haha. but soon!!

love story.

2009-04-21T11:34:00.000-07:00

thanks to beth..im now obsessed.
as if the original song wasn't amazing enough.
ive become infatuated all over again.

the original video on youtube was huge and i couldnt shrink it down so it totally cuts off...but its the song thats amazing, not the video.. :]

seven.

2009-04-16T20:50:00.000-07:00

seven days.
that's it.
in one week i will be spending my last night in the United States of America.
wow.

i have one final down. five to go.
gag.
i detest finals.

and.
it snowed 7 inches last night.
fabulous eh?
i just love this city.
or not.

last night my roommates had a bridal shower for me.
it was so fun.
i seriously have THE most amazing friends.
they are such a fun group of girls.
i love them!!
it was hilarious
i havent laughed that hard in a long time.
it was so so so so much fun.
and i got some really fun stuff :]
haha
yay.

greg.

2009-04-12T01:33:00.000-07:00

for our first date, greg and i went to get frozen yogurt. we stayed at the place and talked for over an hour then he brought me home. a few minutes after he had dropped me off, we decided that we werent done talking so, he came and picked me up again and we went to a park and sat at a picnic table and talked until the middle of the night. i came home and katelyn had written me a note that said:

"jord, i was just wondering what some good dates would be for your bridal shower. also, i would prefer if the bridesmaids dresses weren't orange"

we got a good laugh out of it. many nights after that note, we would lay in bed before we fell asleep and be giggly and talk about what if he really was "the one"? this all started out kind of as a joke...19 year old girls being dreamy and silly. but as time passed, the conversations got more and more serious.

i was talking to my friend tonight about how funny it is that when you find the person that you're supposed to marry, you just know. i mean, obviously, it takes time. but when i very first met greg i could just feel that something about him was different. and that sounds totally cheesy. but it is totally true. i honestly just knew. truly, after a few weeks i knew that we were going to get married. (atleast i knew that i wanted to marry him..haha)

in relief society a few weeks ago the teacher told us all to pause for a minute, and think about if we got to go back to the point in our life that we were the very happiest. i honestly thought back throughout my whole life (all nineteen years of it) and i cannot think of a time that i have been happier. not even one moment when i was happier than i am right now. most nights when im laying in bed before i go to sleep, i get overwhelmed with this feeling of how amazingly lucky i am. most times it starts with the question "what in the world did i do to deserve all of this?" seriously, greg is the best thing that has ever happened to me. he treats me in a way that i never could have dreamed of being treated. he is the most amazing man in the entire world..besides my dad and my grandpa...so maybe, the most amazing 22 year old? haha. i love him so much! it is crazy - i didn't even know that i was capable of feeling this way about someone. i love it.

getting on that plane in 13 days is going to be the hardest thing i have had to do so far in my life. it is going to be rough. im so glad that ray will be there to help me..cuz if she weren't there i dont think i would be able to do it. on friday it finally hit me that i was going to have to leave. i was a wreck before i went to work, then i finally got it together...then i bawled at work to my boss for half an hour. my worst fear is being without him. im not sure that im going to be able to do it. it makes my heart hurt to even think about leaving him. people keep telling me "its just 8 weeks and you have eternity" but that's really no consolation right now. it will be the longest 8 weeks of my life.

today we went shopping. he bought me the cutest umbrella and a few jackets for london. he also bought me some shoes a few days ago. he is seriously amazing.

top ten things that i love:

1. he makes me lunch every single day
2. he picks me up for school at my apartment, he drops me off at the door to the building where i work, then he drives to the parking lot and walks to campus rain, snow or shine, and has done so every single day this semester. he also gets the car every single day and comes and picks me up for my building so that i dont have to walk in the cold.
3. he always keeps diet coke at his house :]
4. he always suprises me with treats. and he gets so excited to give them to me.
5. he deals with my mood swings like a champ.
6. he plays with my cousins and is so adorable. they all just love him.
7. he does my laundry.
8. he says the most adorable things, and has the cutest nicknames for me.
9. he is the most self sacrificing person i know.
10. he makes me so happy. its ridiculous.

i love you gregory

wow

2009-04-11T23:13:00.000-07:00

2 weeks from tonight, i will be tucking myself into my cozy little bunk bed with my 13 other roommates in my glorious london flat.

11 weeks from tonight i will be married :]

wonderful

2009-04-09T11:31:00.000-07:00

i've gotten so many nice comments on my last post!! thanks so much guys!! i had no idea that people even read my blog... haha. you guys are wonderful.

i leave in 2 weeks!! crazy.

wanna hear a funny story?
we took 425 envelopes to be printed with a return address for our wedding annoucements. we picked them up, decided to count them, and only ended up with 402. could this whole announcement thing be any more of a headache? sheesh.

another funny story...
i have 14 days left. we're still trying to take engagment pictures. but.. IT WONT STOP RAINING! and yes, i am thankful that it is not snow. but there is no end in sight to the rain. it's kind of starting to be a little bit stressful.

my aunts are throwing me a bridal shower tomorrow night!! im so excited :] yay.

seriously?

2009-04-03T11:25:00.001-07:00

some very nice anonymous person just left this comment under one of my posts. seriously?? why would you think it was okay to do this?

I represent a company that goes through blogs in search of various forms of talent. Writing and advertising potential are two of the main things we look for.
Having introduced myself, let me just say that this is the worst blog I have had to read in as long as I can remember. I try not to judge people personally based on blog postings, but you are the most moronic, vapid person I have ever had to read about. You are what is wrong with society. I shouldn't have to go into reasons why, as they are apparent to anyone with half a brain.
One of your posts in particular stood out to me as I was reading today. Its it is entitled, "deep". You point out what is wrong with yourself in this post, but no doubt you are too dense to notice. I quote:

anyway, as i've been reading..i've realized how silly my blog is.
i swear, everyone else writes deep, inspiring, meaningful things in every post.
i have no such luck.
maybe i'm just a shallow, uninspiring, unmeaningful type of person?
i'm totally an english major..i think i'm kiiindaa good at writing?
but my blog struggles.

There it is. You said it yourself. You are given an opportunity through blogging to talk about yourself, your life, and your feelings, and what do you do with it? Pathetic. As a side note though, what in the world does being an English major have to do with anything? I can choose to major in neuroscience, but that doesn't make me good at it.
Now, if you would grant me one last indulgence, I would like to make just one more personal attack. (then he said something extremely rude about greg)

holy crap.
i seriously almost started crying when i read it.
people suck.

21.

2009-04-03T09:17:00.001-07:00

three weeks from this very moment i will be in the sky on my way to london.
very exciting.

maybe someday when im not feeling so lazy i'll write about the night we went and made tinfoil dinners. but for now, here are some pictures. there's also some of us at my bridal shower :]

alone.

2009-04-01T21:32:00.000-07:00

i'm sitting here trying to study french.
but then i started thinking
and - obviously - have to blog about my oh so interesting plethora of thoughts.

1. i really enjoy being alone. clarification - i really enjoy being in my apartment alone during the day. i hate going anywhere alone. i hate being home alone at night. and i hate being alone when i want to be with someone else...obviously. anyway. im in my room alone right now. my roommates are all gone. and i was just thinking about how i really like to be able to be alone and have quietness and be able to think about things - to not feel like i need to say something to get rid of the awkward silence, to not be bothered by someone's noises. just to be alone. i like it. not that im not SO excited to live with greg..but just a thought. before i met him i was intent on moving to new york and getting an adorable studio apartment somewhere and living some dreamlike sort of solitary life in the big city...like on the movies. anyway. thats that thought. onto the next one.

2. our wedding announcements got printed with the wrong date. everyone thinks. oh it will never be me that does something STUPID like write SATURDAY JUNE 26 on my wedding announcements. obviously i know when my wedding is. whoops. it would be me. i severely struggle i guess.

3. i had the funnest bridal shower in vegas this weekend. i seriously know the most amazing women. i have the best role models and friends..seriously. way better than yours. it was so fun. thank you to everyone who was a part of that. it was a super fun night.

side note - it was in the 80's in vegas...and here i am sitting in the middle of a snowstorm :] oh how i love provo.

4. i go leave for london in 22 days. i get married in 85. yay!

5. i got my first A on a french 102 test. it was so amazing. i screamed out loud in the middle of class. literally. screamed. it was awkward. but i was so excited. i got A's on every single french 101 test except one...then i got to french 102 and sucked. anyway. it was a very exciting day in my life.

6. i found a new musical with which i am obsessed - le roi soleil. and like all of my other recent obsessions, it is in french, but it is oh so good. even cute gregory said that it was better than he thought it was going to be. he is such a good sport about being dragged with me on my french culture activities.

7. im taking engagement pictures in a week..and i have nothing to wear. and no money to buy something cute. im currently taking donations (both of cute clothes...and donations of the monetary sort...)

8. they told me in London prep class on monday that im not allowed to wear my engagement ring while im on the program...because it will get stolen. im super sad. i actually think tears welled up in my eyes. but im a little dramatic i guess. i just love my pretty ring.

9. lets talk about LOST for a minute - little boy ben was the most adorable sweet big hearted boy. he reminds me of my brother benson. he even kind of looks like him. but then jack had to screw things up and turn him into big ben. ew. this show is just way more than i can handle.

10. i have about a bazillion pictures on my camera of fun things that i need to blog about but i never have enough time. i will do it between sessions of conference this weekend. hopefully.

bragging.

2009-03-24T20:12:00.001-07:00

I got 100% on my humanities midterm...
I got 100% on my english midterm...
I got 99% on my other humanities midterm...
I got 90% on my term english paper.

dont worry though
i still suck at french

30 days :]

bracket.

2009-03-21T21:37:00.000-07:00

so.
this year i had a new experience.
i filled out a bracket.
i didnt want to do it because i have no idea about anything regarding college basketball.
however, greg finally got me to do one.
this was my strategy:
pick the team with the coolest sounding name...
siena, villanova, purdue, marquette, xavier, gonzaga, syracuse, ect.
well.
this proved to be a winning strategy (thus far)
as of tonight
I am in first place at 39
greg's roommate sean is second at 33
And greg and sean's girlfriend alena are tied at 26.
quite frankly i amaze myself sometimes.
i am super talented at bracket picking.
obviously.

ps. 93 days until i get married.
33 until london

crazy.

ps again. i picked up my dress today.
its all steamed and clean and pretty.
oh man.
its gorgeous
i love it
but
its been so warm here this week...and one day i was sitting outside on a bench waiting for greg to get done taking a test. i sat there for probably half an hour or 45 minutes.
and at the end of my little sit, i was totally sweaty and gross.
it made me slightly worried for standing in this big ol heavy thing for hours outside at the end of june. hmm...

treats.

2009-03-17T10:07:00.000-07:00

so.
this morning
my ADORABLE love
comes to pick me up for school
and he has a green carnation for me :]
isn't that so cute?
but it gets cuter.
he packed me a lunch (as he does most days)
and in it was:
sprite (green bottle)
green bell peppers
green peeps
and
green sour patch kids.

it doesnt get cuter than that.
he is amazing
is he not?
seriously.
he is adorable.
i love him.

102

2009-03-15T22:21:00.000-07:00

he is my best friend
geez i love him
i seriously scored when he picked me
im so lucky.

we went to a baseball game this weekend.
it was free hot dog and soda night!
it was fun.
i love being with my boy.
i love weekends when i can be with him all day.
i seriously cant wait to get married.
sheesh.
102 days left.

we signed the contract on an adorable one bedroom apartment.
i love it.
i think it is perfect.

everything is finally coming together with our wedding.
i met with the lady who is going to do my flowers (i added purple as an unofficial color...but only in my flowers. and i couldnt be happier. there are so many cute purple flowers)
our invitations will be done on wednesday (theyre so dang cute. we designed them ourselves...okay so actually my very talented aunt designed them. and i love them)
my dress is finally ready (i just have to come up with enough money to pay for it before i can bring it home)
i have my shoes (gold ballet flats. they're adorable)
my bridesmaids dresses are being sewn (by my ever so talented grandmother..they are beautiful)
lover boy has a tux (and he looks extremely attractive)
we have a PHOTOGRAPHER!! (who i am sooo excited about. she is amazing)
the desserts for the reception are coming along (my amazing chef grandparents are making them. mmm so tasty)
we have a place for the reception (a beautiful art museum)
we have a place for the dinner the night before (super yummy maglebys)
greg picked a ring (a super sexy black one)
we went to ikea and bought our duvet and duvet cover (sooooooo cute. seriously. so cute.)
we've picked out an amazing bedroom set (also from ikea..amazing)
i'm having a reception in 2 weeks in vegas (im so excited. yay.)
yay. mmm. so exciting.
noooow im having fun. :]
now that everything is almost done. hehe.

im so not ready for another week to start.
they are starting to drag.
im starting to be sick of school.
but.
i got 100% on my english midterm.
and.
the temperature is supposed to be in the 60's this week!!
super exciting.

hilarious.

2009-03-11T21:56:00.000-07:00

my children better be exactly like this little girl.
we watched this in my french class.
i think she is hilarious.
her mom just posts these videos of her online.
plus, the fact that she is like, 4 and talking in this amazing language..it makes it that much better.
seriously, french has never sounded so adorable.
i love her little lisp.
i love her imagination

Once upon a time... from Capucha on Vimeo.

il mangait les bebes.
heheh
it seriously doesnt get better than that.
i want creative, imaginative, articulate little french girl babies
(with slight lisps)
:]

random

2009-03-07T08:04:00.000-08:00

i have blogged in forever..
so this is going to be a little random.

I paid my london payment yesterday
sheesh
everything that i have been saving for 4 months is..gone.
i officially have no money
at all.
its semi tragic.
but
at the same time
i leave in 48 days.
oooh boy.
its coming up so fast.
i dont even know what to think about it.
i just cant believe it.
48 days from today i will be on a plane to london (that will be departing in approximately 18 minutes)
weird.
i have been waiting for it for so long
its exciting.
really exciting.
but it hasnt really hit me yet i dont think
not in full force anyway
i dont know what im going to do without my boy for 8 weeks.
gag.

i still love my major
i got 99% on the last midterm.
it was exciting to realize (after how terrible my test grades have been in other areas...) that i actually dont suck at school and that im good at something
so obviously i chose the right major.

im going to vegas the last weekend of this month.
and I. CAN. NOT. WAIT.
while some think of vegas as "Sin City" i think of it as the most amazing city in the world...
after london..and new york.
but you get my point.
i love it.
i love the weather
i loveeee the weather
i love the desert
i love the restaurants
i love the people
i love the landscape
i love looking at the strip at night
i love my house
i love my furniture
i love the paint colors
i love the smell
i love the people that are there.
i love my mom
i love my sister
i love cori
i just really really love it there.
and i really really dont like provo
it snowed again yesterday
seriously? it had been so dang nice for a few weeks..i really thought that we had made it past all of that.
gr.
plus...right about now during winter semester..i start going crazy.
but winter semester is notoriously long.
with now breaks
and it is cold
and,
it is daylight savings this sunday
and i have to wake up an hour earlier
(just thought that i would throw that in there with my list of complaints)

weddings,
oh brother.
seriously
way more work than i signed up for
picking out napkins (which i finally assigned to my dear mother..because i frankly just dont care. one little bit)
flowers (Which im actually rather excited about)
dishes
silverware
cups
food
tableclothes

gahh
im going nuts

all of the big stuff is done mostly.
we still have to take engagement pictures
fun fun fun
but we're waiting for the snow to go away first
and we still have to pick a photographer
seriously...if you want to get rich in provo
become a photographer.
you can charge a ridiculous amount of money ($800 for a digital cd of the pictures that you take of me? really??) and people are forced into paying you
because they like your work
and they need pictures
and basically everyone else charges the same
lame

my love took me on a date to PF Changs last weekend
it was a surprise date
:]
i had no idea
he is so dang sweet
he is what keeps me going
seriously.
that is the truth.
i would stop.

one last complaint to add to this depressing blog post
married housing is ridiculous
seriously
im sick of looking for somewhere to live in the fall
everywhere is expensive and small and old
except one place
that i love
but we're kind of running into some problems
basically...we have to provide them with bank deposit statements going back 6 months to prove that jointly we had $1875 coming into our acounts for the last 6 months. $1875 is 2.5 times rent.
why we have to prove that? i just dont know. and. the problem is. we didnt have that much money coming into our accounts...obviously.
why would we have? we werent saving for an apartment that was 750 a month
we were single
and greg hasnt been working
i just dont understand
the other problem that we are running into everywhere is that nowhere (except wyview...and lets face it, i dont wanna live there) will gaurantee us an apartment until june.
which kind of sucks.
i only have 12 days in between getting home from london and getting married
as if i want to be dealing with a place to live
but seriuosly
no where will gaurantee a spot.
and i dont want greg to be trying to deal with it from north carolina
thats too difficult
sheesh
really sick of this.
blah.

google.

2009-02-21T13:18:00.000-08:00

i seriously thought this was hilarious.

Go to Google and do the following:
1. Follow the directions for each question
2. Answer with the first story that comes up.

Q: Type in "[your name] needs" in the Google search.
A: "Jordan needs to stop overreacting" <-- haha

Q: Type in "[your name] looks like" in Google search.
A: "Jordan looks like a man in drag" <-- that is super sad.

Q: Type in "[your name] says" in Google search.
A: "Jordan says "And I like large parties. They're so intimate. At small parties there isn't any privacy.""

Q: Type in "[your name] wants" in Google search.
A: "Jordan wants his name back"

Q:Type in "[your name] does" in Google search.
A: "[pregnant] jordan does nude photo shoot" <-- this is seriously the first one. sketchy
"Jordan does something tasteless - Nobody shocked" <--the second option. sad.
"Jordan does it. So does Britney Spears." <--third option. bummer.

Q: Type in "[your name] hates" in Google search.
A: "Jordan hates her new body" <-- hmm...

Q: Type in "[your name] likes " in Google search.
A: "jordan likes double the pleasure" <--it was talking about michael jordan...and how he went to a basketball game with two hot girls...its not as sketchy as it sounds...

Q: Type in "[your name] eats " in Google search.
A: "Jordan eats?" <-- hehe so funny.

Q: Type in "[your name] was arrested for" in Google Search.
A: "Jordan arrested for insulting Islam" <-- whoops.

Q: Type in "[your name] loves" in Google Search.
A: "Jordan loves to pose." heh

everyone who read this...has to do it :]
seriously funny entertainment.

disney.

2009-02-14T22:30:00.000-08:00

yay for cute disney pictures with the c...
i can't wait to be a cook.
well, valentines day was amaaaazing.
it was so fun
i will write more soon
but i got 4 hours of sleep last night in preparation for our amazing valentines extravaganza
so
i am going to SLEEP!
i love you gregory.

tag.

2009-02-06T10:48:00.000-08:00

you can only answer with one word.
difficult.

Where is your cell phone? - desk
Your significant other? - class
Your hair? - ponytail
Your mother? - vegas
Your father? - calgary :/
Your favorite thing? - disneyland!
Your dream last night? - wedding
Your dream? - london
The room you're in? - dark
Your fear? - dark
Where do you want to be in 6 years? - mom...hehe
Where were you last night? - home
What you're not? - warm
Muffins? - blueberry
One of your wish list items? - dress
Where did you grow up? - calgary
The last thing you did? - test
What are you wearing? - sweatshirt
Your TV? - o.t.h.
Your pet(s)? - None
Your computer? - love

i
tag
ray, beth, leah, chels, dani

humanities.

2009-02-05T23:22:00.000-08:00

in my humanities class we just finished studying baroque music.
im obsessed.
i love it.
i listen to vivaldi all day.
and handel.
and bach.
and pachelbel's cannon.
oh boy.

AND THEN!

today we learned about the rococo period.
seriously the most beautiful art!
i love it.
this is one of my favorites...

Along with these...of course.
i love her dress in this one
it just jumps out
it is so real
and beautiful
and i want one
and how cute is this?! sitting in the middle of a beautiful garden wearing a pretty dress with a boy reading you love letters with a statue of cupid? c'mon how, it honestly doesnt get better.
we only spent an hour on this period.
and i was so sad.
it was some of the most beautiful art!
lots of it was very much over done
but so beautiful
i love it
it is my new favorite era.

THEN
we started talking about classical music
i fell in love
the twinkle twinkle little star song by mozart
12 Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman"
wow
i love it!!
i love my major.

im going to disneyland tomorrow!
im so excited
i need a break from this city..or the lack thereof.
hooray for california! :]

confidence.

2009-02-04T21:58:00.000-08:00

so i have this english teacher who is extremely sardonic..sometimes to the point of rude.
and he acknowledges it.
if you answer a question in class (as i unfortunately tried to do once)
he will immediately tear your answer apart and essentially make you feel stupid for opening your mouth.
i have a huge paper due in his class tomorrow.
it is worth 1/3 of our grade.
i was stressed.
really stressed.
it was a poetry paper.
i suck at poetry...and quite frankly don't like it most of the time.
so.
i wrote a quick draft of the paper and made an appointment to meet with him today.
i showed up to his office and he was already with someone from my class.
i sat outside the door for the next 35 minutes and listened to this boy get ripped apart.
i was terrified.
i even considered leaving and just turning in my paper how it was.
when he was finally done talking to the other boy, i went in to his office
the boy's paper was covered in red
"it's good to be torn apart sometimes yanno?" he said
sheer terror.
i didn't want this guy to read my paper and make me feel stupid. as if i needed that.
so, he read my paper.
after about 10 minutes, a few nods, and a few "good"s
he handed back my paper
the only thing he had circled was one place where i had put a comma in the wrong place
he then said "you are an excellent writer"
and i left
i smiled the whole way from his office to my next class that was a few buildings away.

now
im not bragging
(well i kind of am. but not in a cocky way..)
but yanno when something just gives you an extreme amount of confidence in yourself?
like, you finally realize that you are good at one aspect of your life?
that you are able to excel at something? it just feels good.

i got my itinerary for london today.
holy cow it is going to be so amazing.
some of the things that we get to do are unreal.
i cant wait to blog from london.
there will be so much to write.
i cant even wait.
78 days.
and counting.

2 days until disneyland.
i am ecstatic.

142 two days til i get married.
happy.

anyway,
after my last post, my cute love showed up at my house with a chocolate shake from mcdonalds..i wonder what a should be craving this time?? :]

lots.

2009-01-31T00:51:00.001-08:00

LAME.
tragic news regarding the much anticipated disneyland trip...
IT'S SUPPOSED TO FREAKING RAIN THE WHOLE WEEKEND
are you serious??
lame.
im depressed.
i fear we are doomed to spend our amazing weekend in california like these poor fellows...in bright yellow (or blue) ponchos..freezing cold.
i mean honestly, look at that little boy in the yellow poncho.
does he look like he is having happy fun at the happiest place on earth?
nope.
not really at all.
sad.

EXCITING.
but on the bright side...
I GOT MY DRESS TODAY!!
it's bought and paid for.
yay
so exciting,
i have never been so excited to wear an article of clothing.
hah.

WONDERMENT.
this isn't a word.
but i heard it used once...
in a book or a movie or a song or someting.
so one day when i was googling pictures of london and some of the places that we would be visiting i came across this picture.
i did some research.
apparently it was the castle that walt disney used as inspiration while designing cinderellas castle.
cool huh?
i love castles.
i think theyre amazing.
i could stare at them for hours
sometimes when im bored
(NERD ALERT...)
i google castles.
and read about them
and the people to lived in them
and the crazy things that went on in them.
i think theyre fascinating
and gorgeous
and majestic
and intreguing.
and amazing.
seriously how beautiful is this gigantic white castle out in the middle of the trees on the side of a mountain.
can you imagine living there????
holy cow.
i cant.
it must have been amazing.

LOST.
okay. so, i never understood the obsession with Lost.
i watched a few episodes once.
didnt understand. got confused. stopped watching.
weellll,
lover boy's roommate got the first season on dvd.
and this was our tragic downfall.
we haven't been able to stop watching.
it's pathetic.
im hooked.

CHANGE.
dealing with change is hard.
making new friends.
letting go of other friends.
letting relationships go where they need to go.
thats kind of vague.
but its hard.
the end.

SUN.
i have looooveeeed the weather lately.
it has been sunny
and warm
and sunny
and sunny
and i hear the snow melting
i love the sound of dripping when the snow is melting.
it is probably one of my most favorite sounds.

COUSIN.
tonight i went shopping with my cousin addy. she's turning 16 in two weeks.
in some ways i envy her.
sometimes (only somtimes..) i wish i could be 16.
it's only 3 years..
but it seems like so long ago.
and it seems like life has gotten so much harder.
so different and so much more complicated.
anyway.
i love my cousins.
and my aunts
and my uncles
and my grandparents
i have THE coolest family in the entire world.
seriously.
tonight was one of the funnest nights i have had in a while.
i mean..hanging out with greg is always the funnest night...
but tonight was just a fun night with a girl..i dont have much girly interaction these days
so it was fun
she is so sweet and good and wonderful.
honestly, one of the best girls i know.
she is 16.
and she has life figured out better than i do.
she's awesome.
love her.

CHOCOLATE SHAKES.
random thought.
i have been craving one.
i consider myself a connoisseur (of sorts..) of chocolate shakes.
next to in n out, mcdonalds has THE best chocolate shakes.
they are delish.
like i said..craving.

MOM.
my mom is really sweet.
i love her.
i've been talking to her lots recently
(okay, well not lots..but comparatively to how much we've talked in the past...it's a lot)
lots of emails, texts, phone calls.
trying to get wedding stuff figured out.
she is smart.
she knows how things work.
she's great.

STUPID.
it's 2:22 in the morning
i am exhausted.
i was falling asleep at gregs house tonight
so i made him take me home early
then i decided to write a blog.
it makes him so mad when i do this.
sorry babe.
goodnight!

AFTER-NOTE.
84 days til london.
147 til bliss.

everything.

2009-01-27T11:28:00.000-08:00

Wedding plans are coming along…but honestly, why does it need to be this much work? It is ridiculous. All of the endless counting and list making and calling and reserving and running around and trying on and looking and thinking and seriously now… it is a bit absurd. I don’t like it. Okay that’s a lie. I do like it! I love every minute of it…minus the list making. My mom is a list maker. She is good a making lists. Ever since I can remember, she has always has a notebook, in which she writes EVERYTHING (this isn’t really an exaggeration) and makes all sorts of lists. Me, on the other hand, I suck at making lists. And I think it’s tedious. Gag.

Anyway, I’m going to make the final payment on my dress this weekend…I am EXSTATIC (which by the way is my new favorite word). I seriously love my pretty little princess dress. I’m gona play hairdresser with Leah this weekend and we’re going to try to come up with an idea of how to do my hair…she is great, and apparently has a new idea that she wants to try, so we’ll see how that goes. I’m sure it will be lovely. I decided not to get a veil…cuz it was $160…and really, that’s a waste of money. So – we’re gona rely on having a pretty hair-do :]

My WONDERFUL aunt is helping us with announcements and pictures. My announcements are so stinkin cute. I love them…or what we have done so far. She is a paper genius… She is so good at designing things and making them cute. I’m lucky to have such amazing help.

I think I’m going to do Lily-something-ish flowers for my bouquet. I found some pretty ones on the internet… I still don’t know that. A bouquet is just another thing to hold…I’ll probably end up making Greg hold it cuz I’ll get sick of it. So. Who knows.

Last weekend we went to IKEA – which is possibly the most amazing store in the world…and picked out furniture for our cute little apartment. We picked a gorgeous bedroom set. I LOVE it. And there’s lots of other fun stuff that I love. Yay for having my own stuff…that’s mine…and that I picked and that I love and that’s mine. Hah.

On Feb 5 we are going to DISNEYLAND with ettie & gary & their girls. I CANNOT WAIT!!! Disneyland is my favorite…and with my favorite boy and my favorite little girls..it is going to be fabulous. I hope greg likes and isn’t disappointed by how much I have talked it up …but I don’t think he will be…how COULD he be?! Honestly.

I leave 86 days from today…(notice the picture at the top) and I don’t know how I am going to come up with the money that I need by then…haha. I was looking at my W-4 from 2008, and seriously, I don’t know where all the money that I earned has gone. Absolutely no idea. It’s a tragedy. Shakespeare should write a play about it.

Today at work we got new furniture. It makes our office look small and dark…we now refer to it as “The Bat Cave”. I am Batman and Ray is Robin. We have fun at work. I’m excited to go to London with her. I am convinced that some TV channel should follow us around with a video camera and film our trip. We are hilarious. I think we would make good reality TV. We have amazing adventures here in Provo…in the Bat Cave…imagine what we will do when we are let loose in the middle of London? Hooray!

We went through the Draper, UT Temple open house this weekend. It was so pretty. And there were lots of sparkly chandeliers. The Bride’s room was so pretty. I am so excited to get sealed..for time and all eternity..to this amazing boy that I found. I am so excited to go to the Temple. Yay!

Greg is incredible. I am so lucky. The end.

hamlet

2009-01-26T23:35:00.000-08:00

1. i changed my major to humanities..english emphasis.
love it.
2. hate the snow
3. greg & i are going to disneyland in 2 weeks. the poor kid has never been. tragic. i know. i can't wait to take him there. they aren't kidding when they say happiest place on earth.
4. 87 days til i leave for london :]
5. 151 days until i get married...
6. it's 12:54 am. i have a cold. but I can't sleep. stupid.
7. i am going to pay for my wedding dress on friday..i am ecstatic. seriously the prettiest princess dress ever.
8. i have an obsession with the song "Bella's Lullaby" by Carter Burwell. amazing.
9. i have the best boy in the world. i could write a whole post on him and not run out of amazing things to say. seriously - i. am. THE. luckiest. person. in. the. entire. world. ever. period.
10. I CANNOT WAIT to have my own apartment. with my own dishes. and my own pots. where i can put them where they go. where they only way that they get dirty is when i use them. when the dishes get put away when the dishwasher is clean. when the dishes get put in the dishwasher when they're dirty. i am going crazy. honestly - i guess some people must have grown up not learning to clean up after themselves. it is RIDICULOUS. gahhhhhhh. okay. now that that's out of the way...

for one of my humanities classes we were assigned to listen to this. we had been reading hamlet. i think that this is one of the most though provoking things i have ever heard. it takes an hour. and one needs kind of a previous knowledge of hamlet...but. seriously its so amazing. it's about this lady who went into a level4 high security prison and put on this production of hamlet with the inmates as actors. it may sound nerdy...but im a total nerd. so. there we have it.

http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=218

different.

2009-01-26T23:31:00.000-08:00

so...usually i don't post stuff like this.
im just not into posting churchy things
but
this is beautiful
i love the song
i love the artwork
i love it

adorable.

2009-01-05T22:10:00.000-08:00

i promise i will write more later.
someday soon, i am going to make time to sit down & write everything that has been happening recently.
because, believe it or not, a lot has happened.
however...
tonight is not the night.
i made a goal to go to sleep by like 11ish this whole semester.
and here i am at 11:11 writing a blog.
but i wanted everyone to see how cute this boy is.
seriously. the cutest in the world.
july is not going to come fast enough.
i cant wait for forever to start.
christmas break was so much fun.
we had so much fun with my family.
and his.
he is so awesome with my brothers.
i love it.

okay.
thats the end.

ps. 105 days til london :]

engaged.

2008-11-25T18:03:00.000-08:00

today was the best day of my life. ever.
it started at 4:45 this morning..
when i woke up late.
greg and i were supposed to leave for the airport at 5 am...i was supposed to wake up at like 4:15 so that i could get cute and ready to go meet his family.
that didn't work out so well.
anyway..
so.
we were in airports and on airplanes from 6:45 this morning until 4:15 this afternoon.
when we landed in Charlotte, NC i was amazed by how beautiful it was!!
i have never seen so many trees in my entire life.
it is gorgeoussss!
gregs parents met us at the airport with some beautiful flowers.
it was amazing.
we came home and met his sister and her husband and their baby girl.
it was so fun.
gregs mom then told me that she was going to show the rest of the house.
so she took me to the stairs...
i followed the trail...

the love of my life was standing in the middle of his bedroom, which was full of candles, and when i walked in, he got down on one knee.. it was perfect :]

wow.

texting.

2008-11-19T09:26:00.000-08:00

i just got off the phone with my dear mother.
she called me very stressed out.
she just went to pay our family cell phone bill.
what she saw was shocking to her.
she even called t-mobile to see if there had been a mistake.
the lady at t-mobile said that she had been working there for 7 years and had never seen anything like it.
as of 10 o clock this morning, i have used 8,800 texts this month.
hahahahaha.

plagiarism

2008-11-18T20:25:00.000-08:00

i saw this on someone elses blog.
and thought it was hilarious.
so..i copied and pasted it.
sh.

Starting this spring, BYU will teach a class on how to be a general authority. The class not only prepares participants in becoming general authorities, but it will also help you learn lots more scriptures, including a few about faith, and some about prayer.

Class topics with include:
1. How to select a proper necktie
2. Which shades of dark blue are appropriate for a suit
3. How to lovingly scorn sinners
4. Voice intonation
5. Avoiding loud laughter
6. Avoiding fun
7. How to read from a tele-prompter
8. Food storage myths
9. The two occasions when it's ok to swear
10. Whether or not Steve Martin is a Mormon and if not, what can we do to get him to be one
11. How to cut down a walnut tree you planted and make your very own podium
12. Celebrities we wish had never been Mormon to begin with
13. White hair, gray hair, no hair--It's all good
14. Underground tunnel navigation review
15. Where to find stories of kids falling down wells, or stories about people picking up talking snakes
16. How to donate to Rush Limbaugh
17. Be sure to marry someone better than you, but that talks to adults like they're talking to a kindergarten class
18. Doctors that will discretely remove tattoos - (no one's prefect)

tag

2008-11-15T23:45:00.000-08:00

Use Google image search to answer each question. Post the first image that comes up. Then Tag 5 more people!

First Name:

Middle Name:

Last Name:
Age:

Favorite Food:

Favorite Object That You Own:
Favorite Color:

Favorite Animal:

Favorite Store:

Best Friend:
Celebrity Crush:

First Job:

Bad Habit:

College Degree:
Place That You've Been Recently:
Place You Want To Visit:
(There were two cute ones..I had to put both)

Where You Were Born:
(Haha what a ghetttto looking picture)

What You're Doing Right Now:
I taggg....
Rachel, Dani, Beth, Ettie and Noellie. :]

miley.

2008-11-12T18:55:00.000-08:00

i love miley cyrus.
thats basically all there is to it.
i think she is great.
i'm her biggest fan.
in fact, i think i will name my first baby girl..miley.

i am also the biggest fan of the song "lovebug" by the jonas brothers.
my newest love is my black vw bug.
i love it.
even more, i love driving it while listening to this song.
it is perfect.
this song is so cute.
i put it on the playlist at the bottom of my blog so..
everyone should just stay on this page until they listen to it :]
haha.
it is wonderful.
lovee it.

ps. the whole naming my kid miley thing...that may have sounded like a joke...
but it was totallllly serious.

love

2008-11-03T19:41:00.001-08:00

this is my definition of happiness.

cute.

2008-11-03T19:09:00.001-08:00

disneyland

2008-10-19T22:15:00.000-07:00

this was the most amazing weekend of my life..so far. :]
seriously.
i can't even put it into words.
i have the most amazing friends and the most amazing little sister.
we picked her up in vegas on the way down.
it was so fun.
so so so fun.
there are like 150 pictures so..
if you want to see them..

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=77711&l=67c4b&id=513381998
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=77716&l=b7c9f&id=513381998

yay.
i love my life.

london.

2008-10-19T21:06:00.000-07:00

I AM GOING TO LONDON!!!
I got accepted to Study Abroad through BYU.
I am going for Spring Semester 2009.
I can't wait.
I get giddy when I think about it.
I am ECSTATIC!
euphoric
blissful
overjoyed
delighted
thrilled
elated
rapturous
excited
happy
seriously..can't think of any synonym for the word "ecstatic" that im not feeling.
here is the essay that got me in:

I am thrilled to write this letter of application, as it is the first step in a process that may give me the opportunity to study in London. May I introduce myself: Most of my childhood was spent in Canada. During my sophomore year of high school my family moved to Las Vegas. I received scholarship offers from two universities; however, I elected to attend BYU without a scholarship. I am the primary means of my financial support. I work on campus, twenty hours a week during Fall and Winter semesters and fulltime this past summer. My transcript will indicate that I have received above average grades in nearly every class. My parents and grandparents have traveled in England, and places such as Westminster, the Thames, the Lake District and the Cotswolds have become legendary to me. Literature is my passion. Fittingly, I am an English major. English authors, including Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Jane Austen, Beatrix Potter, and Shakespeare are preeminent among my favorites. I am passionate about the lives of authors. Their history fascinates me. Writing becomes much more personal and intense when one knows the history that molded the outlook and values of the author. I love gaining insight into what events and circumstances shaped each author's life and how their individual histories shine through their writing.

Aside from the general worth of travel, I would benefit from the London experience in three ways. First, I could study authors, literature, and the history of literature more intensely through experiencing the legendary ambient spirit of England and by utilizing the environment in my studies. Second: To be intimately exposed to the general history and institutions that fostered the industrial revolution, the development of our language, and the growth of our Church would be of lasting worth to me. Lastly, I understand that, as participants, we will have the opportunity to serve in the London Wards. England was very significant in defining our early Church, and I eagerly look forward to participating in the gospel effort among English people.

If accepted, I will honestly strive to make a positive contribution to the program: to bring a love for learning, a strong work ethic, and a basic commitment to the educational element of Study Abroad. I believe I can anticipate the challenges of living in a close environment, participating in a programmed itinerary, sharing a room with several girls, washing dishes, working in the kitchen, and maintaining an orderly environment. I look forward to being positive and offering help and friendship. I will do all within my power to make the most of this opportunity.

i know that you all wanted to read that...
haha.
but i am kiiiinda proud of it.
a couple hundred people apply for this program every semester.
and only 50 are chosen
...
and i am totally one of them :]

ps. how funny is that picture? the day after i found out...we happened to walk by a london photo booth at california adventure. i laughed.

mmm.

2008-10-11T14:46:00.001-07:00

k so this is kiiiinda cheesy.
but i love the song.
love it love it love it.
i want to learn how to play it.
and lets face it, the cheesy quotes make your heart beat a little faster...

while we're on a twilight high..
here is the newest trailer..
it gives me chills.

five.

2008-10-10T23:06:00.000-07:00

five is the number of days until the (potentially) best weekend of my life.
my 3 best friends and I will embark on our californian adventure.
disneyland at halloween is amazing.
the beach in october is bound to be amazing.
our playlist of 448 songs to listen to on the way there is amazing.
the fact that we are going to eat at in n out 15 times is amazing.
we're staying in vegas on thursday night, obviously amazing.
and my friends, you guessed it - amazing.
basically.
this has the potential to be..amazing.

besties.

2008-10-08T14:53:00.000-07:00

together we took our first bus ride, of which we both a little scared,

if you think you can handle the two of us... you'd better be prepared.

we've survived the loooong cold winter hours,

sometimes, we even have teleconnetic powers.

we've played on lots of swings and such,

sometimes we study, sometimes not so much

we're not too serious, but we have lots of fun,

we like to wear pajamas that are not two pieces, but rather one.

we tell each other everything,

we like to go to parks - oh what fun they bring!

when it comes down to it all,

whether it is spring or summer or fall,

you'll not be able to find a better pair, no never,

we will be friends forever

we are a brunette and a blond,

with an inseparable bond.

happy.

2008-10-04T10:14:00.000-07:00

lucky.

2008-09-29T16:45:00.001-07:00

life is amazing.
this is my cute best friend katelyn.
this is what i walk in to every night.
she is always doing math homework.
she has so dang much.
it is RIDICULOUS that two classes should require so much.
seriously.

yes folks, although you may not believe what you are seeing right now..
me and katelyn CHANGED A BREAK LIGHT.
ALLLLL by ourselves.
we figured out what the little orange light on her dashboard meant and why it was lighting up
we went to the store and bought the right kind of light (there were seriously 100 options)
we came home, figured out how to get to the burnt out light bulb
we figured out which wires and bulbs to disconnect
and we screwed in the light.
all by ourselves.
we are truly amazing.

this is (collectively) the best $120 that me and katelyn have EVER spent.
for my birthday, me and my three best friends beth brynn and kate
are going to DISNEYLAND!
i am beyond excited.
its ridiculous.
im giddy.
i love disneyland.
i love love love it.
its my favorite place ever.
mmm.
we leave in 17 days.
yay!

well, this is the closest thing that i have to a picture of what is making my life so amazing right now...
his name is greg.
hes a total stud.
he came to my aunts birthday dinner on sunday
it was fabulous.
i loved having him there.
:]

dancing.

2008-09-22T22:24:00.000-07:00

i loveee the show so you think you can dance.
these are my two favorites from this past season.
i watch them over and over again.

romeo.

2008-09-19T19:01:00.000-07:00

you be the prince and i'll be the princess
it's a love story
baby just say yes
:]

adventures.

2008-09-17T16:40:00.001-07:00

first day of school

Me and one of the new roomies Caitlin on our first day! exciting..i know.

Mine:

Katelyn and I went to the copper mine! haha. We went with her sister and grandma and niece. It was surprisingly cool! It's like..one of the biggest open pit mines in the country or something...I don't really know. But..it was an adventure.

Her grandma bought us all geodes. We smashed them with a hammer in the parking lot of the giftshop - something that i'm sure they appreciated. And, of course, i got the dud. It was so sad. It was the only ugly one that wasn't pretty on the inside.

Princesses:

There's this spa in Price, UT that our roommate Nellie's sister works at. We went and helped out with a little girl's birthday party. It was so fun! We dressed up as princesses and then did the little girls hair and makeup, then we had a tea party with pink hot chocolate and cupcakes. It was seriously so cute.

life:

Life in general has just been an adventure these last few weeks. Its great to be living with my best friend! We always have fun...even if it's really not that exciting... Actually, we're totally lame. We hardly ever leave our little bat cave. But its wonderful.

resemblance?

2008-09-17T16:40:00.000-07:00

okay. this website is hilarious. i was cracking up the whole time we were on it. so funny. everyone should try it. these first two are in honor of my mother.
if there was ever any doubt in anyone's mind about how much we look alike, these pictures prove it. i've seen pictures of her in middle, and high school, and i can say with 99% certainty, that she had both of these haircuts. exactly the same.

the last three are just silly, and have really no sentimental value (as the first two obviously do)
however, im really likin the last one.
i have been meaning to cut my hair..
:]
everyone - go try this website.

strike-out.

2008-09-11T20:00:00.001-07:00

So, me and Kate went to a stake fireside this past Monday.
We listened to one of the funniest talks I have ever heard.

stake president:

"This year, some of you will strike out with the social scene. AND IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT. In dating, some of you will strike out, some of you won't even get to first base...(pause...) am i allowed to say that? While you're dating, some of you may not get the gold medal. Some of you won't even get the silver, or the bronze, you will get the paper mache. "

Me and KateLyn like to focus on the "it's not your fault" part. Truly an inspired message.
We also like the idea of paper mache medals..
Atleast we wouldn't have to worry about someone stealing it??

sophomore.

2008-09-11T17:15:00.001-07:00

i've recently come to the conclusion that i hate it when people don't update their blogs regularly.
simply because i love reading about other people's lives.
so. for all you out there who love reading about my boring little life :]
here's an update.

school - is wonderful. i love it. i work everyday 9-1. it's sooo much better than working all day! me and kate walk to school every morning together because she has classes in the morning. We walk a whole mile!! now, for those of you that don't know me too well...you'd better understand how big of a deal this is. I walk 2 miles every single day!!! i hateee having to walk anywhere. ever. however, when the alternative to walking is waking up earlier to catch a bus for a 15 minute ride.. i suffer and walk. my classes are spread out perfectly. mwf i have french from 1-2. i love love love my french class. number one, my teacher is a total cutie (don't worry, thats not too creepy. well kind of. but he's like 24. and speaks beautiful french. mm.) i looked him up on ratemyprofessor.com. He only had one rating. And it made me laugh so hard. If i didn't know any better, I would have thought that I had written it. Anyone that knows me would probably think the same thing. It simply says, "um, he is sort of a french god." haha. well written. from 2-3 i have biology with kate. its super easy class. my professor, dr. robinson, has it really figured out - he knows that everyone taking his class is simply taking it to full a G.E. which is totally the truth. So his class is super basic and easy. love it. what better way to take biology? monday nights i have a 2 1/2 hour art history class. I like it...it's kind of all over my head. I've only had one class. My professor is a woman who only teaches 2 classes on campus. She talks really fast and uses words that i don't really understand... but it's okay. I'm sure i'll catch on. tth i have french from 1-2, then new testament. I love my class. My professor, Brother Swift, is really awesome. Very interesting class. I was kind of hesitant about taking new testament, but i really love it. then i have history from 3-4:15. its world civilization up to 1500. Kind of ridiculously boring. But, it fills the GE. so i deal. that it! pretty easy semester. I love it.

apartment - egh. our apartment is fine. our complex is super fun, and there is always a ton going on. but our apartment is old...very old. the dishwasher doesn't wash, the water from the showerhead hits me at about shoulder level...(which makes for a very difficult time washing my hair..) the carpet is stained and coming up around the edges, my bed is a matress sitting on top of a piece of plywood inside of a frame that rocks back and forth, our kitchen floor is disgusting and our fridge leaks...it probably seems as though i am complaining... which in a way, i am, but i have typed this whole paragraph with a huge smile on my face. we're at the point where it is all just hilarious to us. me and kate laugh all the time about how funny our apartment is. its quite amusing actually.

men - there still are non. surprise.

fish - i am proud to say that our little pet (Edward Nathan Darcy) is still alive. We're both so proud. our roommates thought that he wouldn't even last one week!! well - much to their amazement, he has stayed alive for 12 days now! He's such a good little pet.

weather - i am very sad to report that it has been getting pretttty cold here in provo. at night, it is freezing. and the mornings are much too cold for the second week of september. not a good sign for the coming winter months.

je suis tres heureuse!

four.

2008-08-31T23:44:00.000-07:00

Rachel put this on her blog - and picked me as a person who would respond!
so..

1. four family members:
cameryn
benson
luke
tay

2. four people who email me regularly :
facebook?
rachel
BYU
John Mayer

3. four of my favorite places to eat:
Taco Bell
Coldstone
PF Changs
IN N OUT

4. four places i would rather be right now:
NYC
London
Disneyland
Vegas

5. four people i think will respond:
ettie
dani
beth
sis. hodson?

6. four tv shows i watch over and over:
one tree hill
gossip girl
dawsons creek
the hills

7. four of my favorite pass times:
being with friends
reading
playing
eating

hooray!

edward.

2008-08-30T21:08:00.000-07:00

so much has happened this week!!

first: WE BOUGHT A PET FISH!! KateLyn and I bought a cute little Betta Fish today. He is purple and pinkish. And we named him Edward. We love him already. He is the best pet ever.

second: KateLyn is back!! We moved into our new apartment. We love it! We have some fun roommaates and this is looking to be a fabulous year. We were Y Group Leaders for New Student Orientation this year. We had a group of about 30 freshman who we were in charge of for the last 3 days. We did everything with them 8-5 everyday. It was a lot of work. But it was also super fun.

third: BYU won their first football game today! 41 -17! Go Cougars!!

fourth: i love fall. It is so fun! I'm excited for my new classes and friends and experiences. yay!

fifth: my roommate from this summer Beth...has NEVER read Pride and Prejudice. Ever. I was shocked. And slightly disappointed. And sad for her. She's missing out on life.

sixth: as you can probably see, our closet is so tiny. That is both my clothes and KateLyn's clothes, crammed into one tiny closet. yikes!!

seventh: I have the most wonderful poster of John Mayer on my wall. Isn't it beautiful?? The only problem is that KateLyn doesn't share my love for him. Definitely a problem.

eighth: My friend Brandon got home from his mission this past week! So exciting. It was wonderful to talk to him.

um. That's about it. :]

donations.

2008-08-13T14:00:00.000-07:00

I'm starting a fund.
its called:

HELP JORDAN BUY HER TEXT BOOKS

I need to raise a total of $680 for textbooks for this coming semester.
(yes, you read that right. textbook prices for fall semester have gone through the roof. its ridiculous. for my french class alone, the books are $350. très tragique. i know.) Anyone who would like to donate, please contact me for further information.

im just kidding...kind of.

school.

2008-08-12T12:42:00.000-07:00

countdown to school: 23 days.
wow.
i can't believe that fall semester is already here!
i move into my new apt on the 25th.
then one week later classes start!
i can't believe that i am a sophomore already!
weirddd.
actually, i am super excited.
im taking some cool classes this fall that im super excited about.
im a taking an art history class (1500 AD-present) that im stoked for.
and im starting french class...! haha.
it makes me nervous to start a language!!
but i have to take 5 semesters for my major so - ive gotta start sometime!
maybe one day i'll become a famous editor and move to paris and make use of my (soon to be) exquisite skills with the french language. haha.
i think that french sounds so sophisticated...
and artsy..
and très chic :]

i love watching the olympics.
i love love love it!!
the men's relay was possibly one of the most amazing things i have ever seen!
i was talking to my dad about it the other day, and our conversation made me laugh:

me: omigosh dad did you see the mens relay? it was amazing!
dad: yeah i did
me: wasn't it the most amazing thing you've ever seen?!?!
dad: yeah it was cool!
me: seriously, i've never seen something that awesome
dad: jord, you need to watch sports more.

haha.

tonight is the womens gymnastics team finals.
im so excited.
this is definitely my favorite event.
i think that shawn johnson is so amazing!
i am definitelyn her number 1 fan.
shes like..4'8"
shes 16
she still goes to normal high school (unlike anybody else on the team)
she has a 4.0
she only trains 20 hrs a week
the rest of the olympic gymnasts train 40+ hrs.
basically...shes amazing.
and shes so fun to watch.
she does everything so well!
im super excited to see how we do tonight.

i can't believe that summer is really over.
15 weeks ago - i was convinced that this was going to be a terrible summer.
all of my friends were going home for the break
i was going to be living in an apartment with people that i didnt know
and working a 9-5 job every single day - ive never worked that much in...well, in my entire life.
and i was just going to be miserable
(okay..im being a tad dramatic..).
well - with the exception of the last one - all of these things were true
and yet, it turned out to be an amazing summer.
my roommates turned out to be 2 of the most amazing girls i have ever met
we have gone on some wonderful adventures.
plus, working 40 hrs a week didn't really suck all thaaaat bad.
rachel, the girl i work with, has become a very good friend.
without her...it would have sucked "all thaaaat bad"

hm.
well.
this has possibly been one of the most scattered posts yet!
au revoir!

profound.

2008-08-07T09:49:00.000-07:00

marcus aurelius said:
Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.
i like it.

100 (plus 3).

2008-08-06T10:37:00.000-07:00

i've seen this done on a lot of different blogs and i love reading them.
my boss is out of town, and i've had a lottt of extra time at work
so.. here goes :]

1. i love books
2. my favorite color is red
3. i am in love with john mayer – his music is magical
4. i love ice cream sandwiches
5. i love driving
6. i love driving even more when the music is blaring
7. i’m scared of the dark
8. i love big cities
9. my favorite store is h&m
10. i hate being cold
11. i like going on walks
12. i love nighttime & stars
13. i like to cook
14. disneyland is possibly my favorite place on earth
15. it is followed closely by NYC
16. i love libraries & bookstores
17. i love one tree hill & gossip girl
18. i’m scared of flying
19. i love boating
20. i hate camping
21. i like talking to people
22. i love kids
23. i hate talking on phone
24. i love getting text messages
25. i love Shakespeare
26. i love Jane Austen
27. i hate camping
28. i want a little puppy that i can carry around in a purse
29. i think cats are gross
30. taco bell is possibly my favorite restaurant
31. my grandpa is my favorite person in the whole world
32. i love watching movies
33. i love the rain
34. i secretly have super curly hair, but never wear it like that
35. i love playing the piano
36. i love anything that is zebra print
37. i like painting my nails dark purple and bright red
38. if i could have any job in the world, it would be to own my own bookstore
39. or if i couldn’t do that, i would be a biographer
40. or if i couldn’t do that i would be a secret agent for the CIA
41. i have a fascination with old buildings
42. i think that feet are disgusting
43. i have an infatuation with mr darcy & Edward cullen and sometimes i fear that no man will ever live up to them
44. i think that las vegas is the most amazing place on the west coast and i absolutely loved living there
45. i love thought provoking quotes
46. i love using big words
47. i love the name lucy
48. my favorite disney princess is belle
49. i used to have a crush on demetri from anastasia (okay, I still do)
50. i love country music
51. i like taking naps in the grass on sunny days
52. i love popsicles
53. i love fires inside fireplaces in the winter
54. i sometimes wish that Hogwarts was a real place
55. i love eating grilled cheese
56. i think that angelina jolie is possibly the most beautiful woman in the world
57. i think fish is disgusting
58. i love getting e-mails
59. i sometimes like arguing
60. i wish that I was more athletic – basically, i suck at sports
61. i like being right
62. i love lotion
63. i love wearing rings
64. when I smile my eyes are different sizes, one is way smaller than the other. it’s really quite tragic
65. i love rollercoasters
66. i love reading biographies and learning about people
67. i want to be someone important when I grow up
68. i like when people tell me their secrets
69. i am a hopeless romantic and sometimes (or all the time..) i wish that i lived in a fairytale
70. i like wearing dresses
71. i love turquoise jewelry
72. mascara is definitely my favorite cosmetic
73. it is followed closely by lipgloss
74. i love flowers – especially lilies
75. if it came down to it, i’m pretty sure that i could eat pizza every day and be completely content
76. i’m scared of the police
77. sometimes I get so lost in my day dreams that i confuse them with reality
78. i watch the history channel, yes, its true. and i love the disney channel.
79. i love chocolate covered raisins
80. i save everything
81. i love holding hands
82. i love getting letters and packages
83. i love dark chocolate
84. english has always been my favorite class and i’ve always been really good at it
85. i have always totally sucked at math and science, and i strongly dislike them both
86. i love card games
87. i love fireworks
88. i love laughing
89. i think that I’m 85% socially awkward
90. i love whipped cream
91. i love sleeping
92. i don’t like milk
93. i like miley cyrus
94. i think that it is very likely that I am addicted to caffeine – in the form of diet coke
95. i love learning and being at college
96. i love cafes
97. i love getting dressed up
98. i love rice – it is probably my favorite food
99. i also love chicken
100. i love old people - i think that they are fabulous!
101. my favorite favorite favorite thing to eat is chocolate shakes
102. i love raspberries
103. i love in n out. mm.

amazing.

2008-08-05T20:58:00.001-07:00

i have the most amazing aunts.
i love them. they are all so cute and fun.
there is one in particular that i've been seeing more of now that i'm up at college.
she is one of the most amazing women that i know.
i love her so much and i look up to her for so many things.
she is such a role model to me.
she is exactly what i think that mothers should be.
she has three little girls - and they are her world.
the four of them are best friends.
they play together, dance together, sing together.
it is so cute.
within minutes of being in their home, you can tell how much she loves them.
tonight i was at her house and something happened that i thought was so cute.
it wasn't really a huge event, or a big deal, but it was just so cute
the littlest girl (age 4?) had been sleeping over at my other cousins house
and when she walked in, my aunt dropped what she was doing and ran over and gave her a hug and told her in a very excited, happy voice how happy she was to see her and how much she had missed her.
it was just so cute.
the other thing that i love about her is how crafty she is.
so makes the most adorable things.
she makes these adorable huge flowers that go in her girls' hair.
and these amazing bags that are so cute.
and now she's making these frilly aprons that are so so so cute.
i love them.
anyway, i just really love her and think she is amazing.
while we're talking about my amazing family...

i have this cousin who is starting her sophomore year in high school this fall.
she is the smartest little girl i know.
she works so dang hard!
that was definitely a quality that i never really had.
school was kind of always easy for me, and i could get really good grades without doing much
(in high school...college is definitely a different story)
anyway, this girl works her tail off.
shes so so cute.
all the boys love her.
and this fall, as a 15 year old...she is taking AP Calculus.
are you kidding me?
AP calc?
i'm a sophomore in college..and i still haven't braved that class.
thats awesome.
speaking of awesome...

i have an awesome grandpa.
i'm sure i've written about him before.
but he is my number one favorite person on this entire planet.
he is my hero in every way and my best friend without question.
my aunt (the totally cute one) is starting a preschool this fall
(which, ps, is going to be amazing. i can't think of a better place to send little kids other than to her house. those kids are really going to have an amazing time)
she is in the process of re-doing her basement.
my cute grandparents have been over there almost everyday for weeks tiling and laying floors and putting together cupboards and hanging doors.
my cute cute cute 70 something year old grandpa is over there til late at night working so hard
i just love him.
so much.
anyway.
i have a pretty amazing family.
the end.

well not the end.
i'm just gona keep going here even though this is basically just rambling.
last wednesday, i was talking with my roommate about how boring this city is
(seriously, not an exaggeration. its terrible)
so, what do we decide to do?
hey - lets go to vegas!
ha. brilliant.
so me and two of my friends left work early, packed the car and took off.
my family has been out of town so my whole house was empty.
we had the weekend, an empty house, a car...it was fabulous.
it was an amazing weekend.
we all slept in too late, spent money we didn't have, and eat so much food that it was probably disgusting.
but it was so fun.
i love las vegas.
sure the strip is what it's known for, but when you get away from the strip, its really an amazing place. i love it.
i love being there.
i love the smell
i love the heat
i love the palm trees and the sand
i love the red rock mountains.
basically, i love it all.
and i had an awesome weekend with my friends!!
they're so fun
and i'm so glad that i stayed in provo this summer with them

okay. thats enough amazingness for one blog.

he's just not that into you.

2008-08-05T13:47:00.000-07:00

he's just not that into you
greg behrendt & liz tuccillo

this book changed my world.
every girl should read it.
it is amazing!
seriously.

best.

2008-08-05T13:37:00.000-07:00

summer is winding down.
it is so weird to me!! only 2 and a half more weeks - then my best friend comes back to provo.

i think that i have the best friend in the world.
let me tell you why:
1. talking baby talk
2. camo onsies from target
3. sleepovers
4. power showers
5. justin timberlake
6. late night walks
7. laundry
8. stupid boys
9. cannon center
10. testing center
11. 9 am econ class
12. library
13. notes
14. creepy spanish stalkers
15. drawings
16. church (relief societ in particular)
17. church bathrooms
18. b.o.m class
19. polisci
20. telepathy
21. secret knocking codes late at night
22. "come turn off my light!!"
23. juan
24. thanksgiving point
25. go girl
26. dance parties
27. mini pizzas
28. rice
29. one tree hill
30. egg sandwiches
31. anthropology papers
32. naps in the lobby
33. the piano room
34. duets
35. basketball games
36. taco bell
37. grilled cheese
38. eyebrows
39. oatmeal cream pies
40. creamery
41. graham canyon
42. early mornings
43. late nights
44. laying in one bed in the middle of the night with christmas lights on
45. sharing one bed in general
46. dollar movies
47. edward cullen
48. pretending to do sit ups
49. letting me into the apt in the middle of the night
50. getting me dressed and out the door in 5 minutes flat.

i betcha i can make the list reach 100.
but im guessing there are only 2 people in the world that understand all 50.
so it would be kind of boring. :]

john.

2008-07-22T17:50:00.001-07:00

WOW! John Mayer concert was amazing. Amazingggg. He was even better live that he is on CD. It was amazing. Apparently, that's the only adjective that describes it adequately, becuase that is the only one I seem to be able to come up with. The concert was at this cool outdoor amphitheater thing that was so cool. So the whole concert was out under the stars. It was awesome. Oh wow. He is wonderful. I He is such a good guitar player! and his voice is...yep, you guessed it - AMAZING!
We accidentally left the lights on when we parked, so our car was dead when we went to leave - we had high hopes that John would come and give us a ride back to Provo on his bus. No such luck. However, we did meet this really sweet lady and her daughter who helped us jump start the car. It was actually a really cool thing. We were trying to jump it and we kept trying and trying and it wouldn't work and we couldn't figure out why. We had been trying for probably 15 minutes and nothing was working, so we were in the decided to take off the jumper cables and put them away, and try to think of a plan B. So we, being the 4 BYU students that we are, huddled on the side of the car and said a quick prayer while this lady was putting away the cables. The minute we stood up, this guy walked over and said "Do you guys need some help?" So he re-hooked up the jumper cables, and we tried to start the car, and it worked. It was awesome. It was a really really neat experience.
Anyway, I love John Mayer. I have listened to nothing but him for the last 24 hours. Mmm!! :]

kayaking.

2008-07-13T00:12:00.001-07:00

so basically, i had the most amazing weekend of my life.
friday night i went on a night hike to stewart falls.
it's this amazing waterfall up by sundance.
the hike was really easy (definitely my type of hike)
but it was so beautiful and so amazing and so worth it.
it was kind of a bummer that it was in the dark...
but it was still pretty.
then today - i did the most fun thing i have done in a long time
(and i am so proud of myself for doing it because anyone who knows me is certain to know that me and outdoorsy things such as this dont really mix that well)
I WENT KAYAKING!!
ha! it was SO fun!
there were four of us and we were in 2 person kayaks.
it was amazing!
it was about an hour and 45 minutes, and most of it was just floating.
it was beautiful.
the water was absolutely disgustingly cold.
there was this one part on the river where there was a bridge and a funny current and the river guides told us to get out of the water for that part because we were bound to tip but....us being the real smart people that we are...forgot and didnt get out in time, and of course - tipped.
it was FREEEEEZING!
but so worth it!
im not gonna lie..i felt pretty hardcore.
it was the most fun adventure i have gone on this summer!

i think that this weekend my appreciation for nature definitely grew.
i really like being outside.
especially at night.
there is nothing more beautiful to me than the stars.
i love them.
i love looking at them and sitting in awe of the universe and how amazing it is.

okay - i lied.
i love being outside in the summer.
i hate being outside in the winter.
actually, i just hate the winter.
when im done with college im going to move somewhere with no winter.
ha.

mormon movies.

2008-07-11T00:13:00.000-07:00

I just have to say that I love Mormon movies.
First of all, lets contemplate the movie "Saturday's Warrior"
What an amazing work of genius art is Saturday's Warrior?
Honestly. I love it.
When I was little I used to watch it multiple times a day.
I would pretend to be the characters.
I had a one piece, long sleeved/long pants, shiny metallic blue body suit that I would wear with a ballet skirt over top.
I knew every dance and every song.
It really is wonderful.
Next, "Charly"
It is wonderful.
Enough said.
Lastly, "Sons of Provo"
Tonight, me and some friends - being the extremely cool people that we are - watched this amazing movie.
Never before have a watched a movie that crams more hilarious "Mormonisms" into a little over an hour.
It was, well - amazing!
Really, when examined in a comic setting such as this movie, the whole culture of Mormons is quite funny.
I love it.

nyc.

2008-07-09T15:06:00.000-07:00

I suck at blogging.
Sorry! well.
i just had the best week of my life.
seriously though.
i went to nyc for a week.
i love that city.
i love it i love it i love it!! while we were there we saw Wicked and Legally Blonde the Musical.
they were both fabulous! Legally Blonde was possibly one of the funniest shows i have ever seen.
i love it.
it was slightly depressing to come back to provo..
alright, it was a lot depressing.
i just love the city!

happy.

2008-05-28T22:09:00.000-07:00

I've decided that I'm happier right now then I have ever been.
I went home this weekend and had a blast.
I love my family so much! They are really amazing.
I had fun with them this weekend! I never thought I'd see the day...
I walk to work every day - listening to Jason Castro..who I love... -
and its sunny and there are birds & flowers and I just love it!
It makes me so happy.
I love being happy.
Its wonderful.

So You Think You Can Dance just started last week.
Its amazing.
I wish I could dance!! Oh wow. If only I had that talent.

There is so much to be done in life.
My friend and I were talking about it yesterday and realized just how much there is to do.
There are so many things to see that will never be seen!
There are so many places to visit that I will never go!
Isn't that sad?
It makes me sad.
We were sitting on the couch today and my roommate asked me "Where do you want to live?"
I told her that I wanted to live in London at some point in my life.
She just laughed at me, then asked again "Where do you want to live?"
I was totally being so serious!! I really truly want to move to London.
She told me that I would never live there and that I was silly.
It kind of made me sad.
Isn't it kind of sad when you realize that there are some things that you want to do that just aren't super realistic?? Hmm. I think so.

I realized today how much of a nerd I am.
I read Pride and Prejudice. Again.
I've now read it..18 times.
Haha! I just love it.
Oh wow.
My high school English teacher laughed at me because of my infatuation with that book.
The day we started reading it I said "I know everything about this book."
He laughed at me and said well lets see you get 100% on the test.
Well, I proceeded to get A's on every quiz and every essay.
Although I didn't get 100% on the test, I got a 98%. The highest anyone had ever gotten.
Like I said. Nerd.
I just really like reading.
Actually, I really just love it.

crazy.

2008-05-19T12:24:00.000-07:00

This is hilarious.
I don’t know why…
But it is very funny.

This is just insane to me.
Keep watching til after the frogs go off stage.
It is ridiculous.

dreams.

2008-05-16T19:08:00.000-07:00

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined."
- Henry David Thoreau

My dream is to one day own a bookstore. I visualize my life being somewhat similar to that of Meg Ryan in "You've Got Mail" (minus Tom Hanks...he's definitely not my type). A cute little apartment in NYC, right off of central park, owning an adorable little book store. I would love that. Last summer I went into this book store in Park City, UT that I fell in love with. It had a little cafe, homemade cookies, muffins, ect., hot chocolate, tea...It was amazing. There were big comfy chairs, a few couches, a fire place., and rows and rows of beautiful books. Every genre. It was amazing.

memories.

2008-05-15T23:22:00.000-07:00

I have always been extremely close with my grandpa - from a very young age I was his side-kick. Anyone who knows me, knows this to be very true. I never remember a time when I wasn't. He is my hero; my best friend. When I was little (okay, it happened until I was a senior in highschool) I would cry when we would leave their house to go back to whatever state or country we were living in at the time. Now looking back, I can see that it was a little ridiculous, but I always felt so heartbroken leaving him. I remember trying to come up with sneaky plans of how I could move there. I remember thinking that I was honestly being rational by asking my parents to let me and my 8 year old self move in with my grandparents. What is possibly my most fond and distinct memory of my childhood is going to school with my grandpa. Because of the memories that I formed during those young years, this campus has a special meaning to me. Certain places on campus cause different experiences to come to me so vividly. I remember it all very clearly.

We would go to his little office.
I would play tetris on his computer.
I remember when he got a new one - it was a blue Apple computer.
He didn't like it as much because he couldn't work it as well.
We would go visit Sharon & Robert.
I remember the pictures that he had on his bookshelves.
They were funny little ones in plastic frames - mostly of me and grandma.
He had all sorts of tubes & cylinders - probably for mixing paint.
I remember the view from his office.
I remember his big tape player with hundreds of tapes.
There was a fridge and a sink - with a big bar of yellowish soap and a big stack of cut newspaper strips for his brushes.
We would make quesadillas on his little burner in his office.
They were always little corn tortillas with a ton of cheese in the middle.
Then we would go to the games center. We would do a round of bowling.
He would always win!
Then we would play skee-ball, and he would give me his tickets.
I would always pick a little cotton bracelet.
I imagine that I had quite the collection over the years.
Then he would take me to the bookstore and I would buy a treat - orange & raspberry sticks.

The campus seemed so different to me then than it does now.
It was such a huge, magical adventure to go to school with grandpa.

love.

2008-05-15T08:06:00.000-07:00

In an English Lit class that I was in last semester there was a poem that we studied by George Herbert that I think is absolutely wonderful. It really meant something to me as we were studying it. It has been on my mind since we read it in class (probably 2 months) and I just think that everyone should read I because I really think there is so much to be learned from it.

Love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-ey'd Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack'd anything.
"A guest," I answer'd, "worthy to be here";
Love said, "You shall be he."
"I, the unkind, the ungrateful? ah my dear,I cannot look on thee."
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
"Who made thy eyes but I?"
"Truth, Lord, but I have marr'd them; let my shame
Go where it doth deserve."
"And know you not," says Love, "who bore the blame?"
"My dear, then I will serve."
"You must sit down," says Love, "and taste my meat."
So I did sit and eat.

I think that they way it portrays our Savior is just perfect.
"Who made thy eyes but I?"
I love it.

edward & expensive things.

2008-05-14T19:53:00.000-07:00

I read "Twilight" today.
the whole book.
cover to cover.
I'm kind of a nerd I guess.
I can't help it.
I would be reading and then suddenly notice that I would have a silly grin on my face.
It happened over and over again.
It's was ridiculous.
It just makes me happy.
Edward Cullen...makes me happy!
I read a book over the summer called Austenland.
Its about a girl who is so infatuated with Mr. Darcy that she can't seem to hold down any other relationships with real men.
I think the same problem may face me sometime in the future.
What if I can't find a man who compares with Darcy & Edward?
What a tragedy that will be.
ha.
kidding.
kind of.

I went grocery shopping last night with my roommate.
Living is so expensive!!
My goodness.
We didn't really even buy that much stuff, and basically stuck to the necessities
(with the exception of dark chocolate covered almonds...I was a nanny last summer in SLC and the mom loved dark chocolate. This family happened to be SUPER healthy - I think most people who know me would be incredibly proud of how healthy I ate that summer - with a veryyyy minimal amount of sugar in the house. So when there would be dark chocolate almonds in the pantry, I would basically be in something fairly close to what I believe Heaven is like. Needless to say, I am now a super huge fan of dark chocolate covered almonds..I love it!)
Anyway...
I was shocked by how much money I spent.
Its ridiculous.
Everything costs so much money!!
College, rent, books, food, clothes!
Shoot!
Plus I'm trying to save for my (hopefully) amazing New York trip this summer.
wow.

It was cold and cloudy today.
Absurdity.
It is may 14.
And it should definitely be sunny.
My goodness.

books.

2008-05-13T20:28:00.000-07:00

Some people love animals, some people love sports, some people love art.
I love books.
Ever since I was little, I have loved them.
I have always been an avid reader.
I just finished reading "The Host" by Stephenie Meyer.
It was amazing.
Not as wonderful as "Twilight" but can that realistically be expected?
I think not.

Though the thousands of books that I've read, I've kept a notebook with all of my favorite quotes in it.
Half of the quotes are from "Pride and Prejudice".
More than a quarter, but less than half, are from the "Twilight" Series.
All of these are silly love quotes that I adore.
My high school English teacher labeled me quite early on in the year as a "Hopeless Romantic". I always seemed to pick out a love story.
I could find the underlying love story in any book, regardless of whether or not it was truly there.
However, amongst all of the silly quotes are a few that are powerful to me.
One that I ran across the other day was from Harry Potter.
(hah, yes, I am definitely a Harry Potter fan. Love them)
Professor Dumbledore says, "It is not our ability that shows who we really are, it is our choices."
I have found this to be true.
There are so many people with great abilities, who choose to waste them.
On the reverse there are so many people who, through the choices they make, become great and powerful influences in our society.

freshmen.

2008-05-13T20:00:00.000-07:00

I just moved into my new apartment for the summer.
It is wonderful.
I only have one roommate, we have two bathrooms, and a huge kitchen.

But, no matter how much I love my new apartment, there are things that I will probably always miss about the dorms.

1. My roommate giving me a report every morning about the interesting things I had said the previous night in my sleep.
2. Our random dance parties.
3. The heater that never worked.
4. The single bathroom that we shared between 6 of us.
5. The fact that when someone from any of the apartments on the top floor was talking, everyone could hear them because of the silly vents.
6. The stupid locks that always made our keys get stuck.
7. The cinder block walls.
8. The card games in the lobby that ended promptly at 11:59 pm when the RA's came around to lock us in for the night.
9. The long nights of no sleep.
10. Prank wars with the boys in our ward.
11. Eating nothing but Rice-A-Roni, Pasta Sides, Bagels, Popcorn, and Diet Coke.
12. Sharing 2 washers between 50 girls.
13. My best friends. Katelyn, Brynn, & Katie.