real life monday

I promise I had great ambitions of blogging

but my laptop is on the fritz.

and it may or may not have died yesterday. I've been too scared to check. 

this may be a temporary good thing because now I have to go to the library to study for my 2 midterms this week and catch up homework that I have been procrastinating. 

another motivator? I didn't do so hot on my last 2 tests.

and when I say not so hot, I mean really not so hot. 

(my Japanese self was ashamed)

so here's to studying, trying to improve my grades the 2nd half of the semester, writing my scholarship essays, and living in the library.

oh and rediscovered this song the other day when getting new music for my workout playlist. 

it's a great song to just get up and dance to.

it's been hard to restrain myself when it comes on while I'm at the gym

enjoy :)

have a fantastic week!

hopefully I'll be back to write something exciting

but most likely not.

although at this point, having a working laptop would be dang exciting.

My mama

 

hurray for moms who:

root for their kids 24/7

tell their kids to go outside and play

believe in teaching healthy eating habits

aren't afraid to tell their kids when they're being dumb

but also letting them dream big

who are willing to travel the world with little kids

work hard in the garden to provide fresh veggies for their family

trust their kids to make the right choices

take backtalk from their teenage daughters and still love them

who have big almost 10 pound babies and live to tell the tale

work their tushies off so their kids can go have fun 

are honest and not afraid to talk about "touchy" real life stuff

who stand up for their children

make breakfast and school lunches every day

drive to countless ballet classes and rehearsals 

let their kids be independent in their own way

love their kids enough to enforce consequences 

who have the strength to blend two cultures from opposites sides of the world

want their kids to have the gospel in their life

save kittens that were abused 

follow their own dreams even if they've been put on hold for a while

take pictures so that their kids can look back and remember their childhood

drag  their children out of bed to read scriptures

help their kids with homework {until the math gets too hard}

teach of the importance of family

But mostly, yay for my mom.

Happy Birthday Mom! 

You just keep getting younger and younger every year ;)

You've taught me more than I could ever thank you for. 

Hope your day was great. 

Love you!

V-day

so I'm a little behind...woops! either way though, my day of love was great. I started the day out by a quick early morning trip to the gym and then headed to work

work was full of "happy valentines days!" and cookies, chocolate, and cream puffs

{basically I threw my work-out and healthy eating plans out the window}

after wrapping up some homework, a fort was built and chocolate lava cake was put in the crock pot 

 Ben&Jerry's Karamel Sutra was bought

and an amazing episode of once up a time was watched 

{we are obsessed and sometimes shout obscene things}

and then we were surprised by some boys in our ward who stopped by later to recite poetry and cheesy jokes

overall a great day! and I didn't need a man to make it wonderful

although if my man went to 7/11 at 8 o'clock at night on valentine's day and asked if they sold flowers, I'd rather take the fort and chocolate cake

just sayin'

*I stole these pictures from Kylee.

flicks, failures, and foolery

Went to see The Vow with some of my favorite neighborlies and old roommate and it was goood. I felt like the movie lacked a liiiittle something but the girls on either side of me cried so maybe it's me that's missing something? A heart?

Either way, we snuck in a solid amount of popcorn and cookies and had a grand time.

On Saturday I went to my first bachelorette party. Fun stuffs. That night we decided to go on some DI adventures and attempt a pinterest diy. Note to self: it's probably a good thing to read the instructions carefully before attempting something. We're going to try again but it's safe to say that the first try was a complete failure.

Oh and remember how I said Provo was acting like spring? Well Provo pulled a fast one and I woke up to two inches of snow. Aaaand it hasn't stopped snowing since. Lucky for us females, the men walked home from church early to get their cars to drive the ladies home.

We wrapped the weekend up with waffle/breakfast foods potluck, a game of settlers of catan, a great skype session, and the usual sunday night mingling. Sorry homework, but I'm not really sorry that I neglected you. But I might feel otherwise tomorrow.

*Carly went home for the weekend, hence the absence from the snow pictures...we missed her.

wise words

I took her advice on how to be happy this morning and went to the gym
it felt great.

{not wanting to shoot anyone was a bonus}

and since Provo is acting like it's spring

I'm going to walk to the grocery store and then do some homework outside.

enjoy your weekend!

reflections

As I've been at work this week, I've listened to so many who are about to travel the world. Hotel reservations in Paris, rail passes for Germany, flights to New Zealand, study abroads to Russia, you name it. I get so excited for these people, most of whom are just a name on a page. I get excited for all the amazing sites they will see, new things they will learn, and the new people they'll run into.

Traveling is a beautiful thing and some days, I just want to go jump on an airplane and fly to Mongolia or Turkey or anywhere. But I'm here, at school, and it's winter. Lately though, I've been great with that. The other day I read this and I began to think about the little things that bring me joy. But rather than think about material things, I've been trying to recognize the little things people do. I love that the roommates ask how my day went and how they will listen to me ramble on and on about whatever I need to talk about. I love that the girls from upstairs invited me to go with them to see a movie today. Carly and I came up with an exercise and healthy eating plan and I love that we're supporting each other through it. I love the feeling of seeing someone I know on campus and smiling at them or saying a quick hello.

As I've thought about all of the little things people do for me, I've realized that I want to be like that, too. This past week I've tried really hard to do something for someone at least once a day. And I've discovered that doing that makes my life that much better.
Yes I would love to go to Ghana or Haiti and do humanitarian work and feel like I'm saving the world. But I can do good every day by doing just a little something for someone. Live with the intention of asking yourself at the end of every day

What did I do for someone else today?

Hurray for big girl pants and big girl jobs!

Today was a great day

because

I GOT A JOB!

Okay so it was more like yesterday that I got the phone call that made me jump and skip around and shout Yessss! at the top of my lungs.

But TODAY was the day that I was officially made an employee, met the co-workers {and everyone else in the building}, and got the grand tour. The staff kitchen is definitely going to be a perk. {now I don’t have to sneakily use the one on the top floor of the library..}

I also made myself salmon {the good northwestern kind} with lemon juice and whole wheat pasta with pesto, tomatoes, and parmesan for dinner. YUM.

And now I'm warm and cozy sitting in my bed blogging when I should be doing homework. 

Do I have a paper due and midterm tomorrow that I haven't studied for? Yep.

Life is GREAT.

Oh and guess who's going to a Groundhog's Day party tomorrow and eating biscuits and groundhog gravy?

This girl.