falling

for

fall

For the past few years I have always said that my favorite view in the whole world is when you are at the top of the over-pass on 200 North, (by my house) looking west; out at all the trees in the summer.  Seriously if you haven't ever stopped to enjoy that view, you NEED to! The trees are so lush and there are so many in West Kaysville. I love it. But driving home from school this morning, I discovered that nothing is prettier than the fall colors through the Logan Canyon. AH gosh they are to die for. Rich burgundy, red, green, golden mustard. It was so pretty. I love fall! 

Boots, scarfs, head bands, knitted sweaters, layering. :) 

Can't wait for hot chocolate.

I'm definitely falling for fall.

FIRST'S

Today I'm going on my third week up at USU, the past 2 have presented a ton of FIRST'S for me. On the FIRST day of school my classes started at 9:30. My professor has a British accent, and he dismissed class 40 minutes early... keep in mind that class is only 50 minutes long haha. I'm still not sure what the criteria for that class is... My second class is math. Intro to Logic and geometry, it's a lot more confusing then it sounds! I've always been okay with formulas, but now the whole purpose is to figure out WHY the formula works. My entire class has 1 boy in it... I guess that's what I get for going into El Ed though. On this schedule classes end at 11:20, it's great! This was also my FIRST day of being 19 years old. Yup, my birthday was on the first day of school! But I have the best family ever, my mom and sisters drove up from Kaysville, brought me flowers, cake, presents, and took me to dinner! 

They made my day! Plus when I got 'home' (or back to my dorm) My friends got me a present and flowers and cupcakes and balloons they seriously made my day pretty special. I love em!

The FIRST Sunday I stayed up here was my FIRST time going to a singles ward! The rumors are true... sacrament meeting has never been so quiet in my whole entire life! You could hear a pin drop... and if you had to sneeze or hic-up it felt like the entire congregation would just stare you down. Other then that I have really enjoyed going to my ward, the kids who go are there because they WANT to be. Mom and dad aren't here waking us up in the morning and threatening us if we don't go to church. I love the spirit that that brings! Everyone has such good input and in all my classes everyone participates willingly. I'm going to learn a lot I can already tell! And I made my FIRST Sunday dinner all by myself :) (mom sent me up with a pan of dumplings she had already prepared, I just had to pop them in the oven) but still everything else was on me! I felt pretty accomplished... I might become future wanted-wife-material someday after all! (After I get over my issue with raw meat) 

I attended my FIRST USU game as a student, being in the student section was so much fun! There is a lot of spirit going around. And last Friday USU beat Utah for the FIRST time in 15 years I think?? That was probably one of the funnest games I've ever been to! I'm developing some school spirit myself... It's definitely contagious. GO Aggies! 

I packed up some of my new-founded school spirit and sent my FIRST package to Mehico! Elder Carver is already going on his 4th week living across the border! On account of me being a new student, and an Aggie an all, I sent him a little 'Utah State' package. This is a learning experience but I found that if I keep his packages under 4 lbs, they are actually semi-affordable. Now I just have to pray that it gets to him, and the Jesus stickers I put all over the box will scare off any thieving Mexicans! 

This week he will be gone 3 months, time is starting to pick up! I'm just happy that he is having this experience, I know he's learning so much! He loves it! Mexico and the people. He says it's definitely as hot as people say and he sweats 24/7. So far he's only been sick a few times and had only one pit-pocketing run-in. If you asked him what his favorite food is, I guarantee it wouldn't be menudo (cow stomach) He has his first baptism on Saturday. I'm so proud of him and love hearing from him! 

Also, TODAY marks my little sister ALivia's FIRST day being 12! It's her birthday today! Let me just say some things about Livi,She is an angel. Always the one to jump up and help someone out! She is peaceful, she has always just done her own thing and is SO organized with everything! She is kind, sweet, and funny. She is one of a kind! She definitely has her own personality and is so quirky and cute! She has attitude and you'd be surprised how feisty she can get sometimes haha (probably why I've been told my whole life that she is a mini-me) I love her stinkin guts! She is BEAUTIFUL. Drop dead gorgeous. I'm jealous of how naturally pretty she is. And I can't believe she is 12! She is going to love Young Womens so much and she will add such a sweet spirit to the lives of all the girls she's going to meet. She has always been one of my best friends, and I miss her a lot! I hope she has the best day today, cause she deserves it! :) 

SO delighted.

New Roomies! When I moved up to the dorms two weeks ago I already knew 3 of the 5 girls I'd be living with. But since living together is a new thing for everybody I made all the girls a little home-welcoming gift.

IBC cream soda

straw

gum

sucker

nail polish 

"I am 'SODA' lighted to be roomies!"

Let me tell you, living with five other girls (your same age) definitely is a new experience. It has it's ups and downs (lack of sleep) and all of us are going to get to know each other on a whole different level! Even those of us who were already best friends. We've already laughed, bawled, been sick, and yelled together. They've already seen me at my worst haha and I'm grateful they are forgiving. Not to mention, mother nature has a way of making things interesting, we all seem to be on the same schedule, (if you know what I mean) haha so that's gonna be fun! But honestly I couldn't ask for a better group of girls! 

week at a glance

Monday:

•  work from 4 to close & good old family night!

Tuesday: 

• I got my new computer!! Which I am very extremely grateful for, and excited to take it to school! :) 
• Later Tuesday night Andrea (Jordan's mom) took me to dinner! She wanted to take me before I move out, which I thought was very thoughtful. I've never really had any one-on-one time with her before so it was fun to get to know her a little bit better. She let me choose where we wanted to go and we went to Costa Vida (in honor of Jordan going to Mexico!) haha plus I had been craving it all day so it worked out perfect!

Wednesday:

• We woke up and got ready, then took a little road trip with my mother, and two youngest sisters. We went up to Logan! Ava and Livi wanted to see where their big sister was moving to! (I am the oldest, so this whole moving out-college thing is new for everyone in my fam!) We showed them my dorm, and went to the book store and purchased all but one of my books! It actually turned out not being as bad as I expected it to be, cost-wise and even how many there were. Go used books people! We got a few other supplies, and then just walked around campus for a little bit. 
• Right when I got back from our little day trip to Logan I went over to my friends who had snatched some free tickets off some guy for the Josh Gracin concert! So we headed out to South Jordan to their county fair. The opening girl who was singing  was Jana Kramer, I didn't recognize who it was at the time but once we got there and she was up on stage I about had a heart attack! I have a confession to make, I have been overly-obsessed with the t.v. show One Tree Hill. It's my one weakness for dumb silly fake drama. But something about that show had me addicted to watch all eight seasons within a couple months on NetFlix. And some of the seasons I even have watched twice. ANYway, I didn't put two and two together but Jana Kramer plays one of the main characters on the show! A girl named Alex Dupree!! I had absolutely NO idea! The girl who sings 'Why you wanna, show up in a, old t-shirt that I love...' was my favorite actress on my favorite show!! I was thrilled once I made the connection. I seriously obsessed over her and thought she was one of the prettiest people I had ever seen on this whole planet. The whole point of me being so excited about all this is... I GOT TO MEET HER!! It was the highlight of my week. She is definitely just as pretty in person! AND she told me she liked my outfit! haha I wanted to ask her if she wanted to hang out sometime! Anyway I was pretty excited about the whole thing so I had to share :)

So, here's me and my new BFF Jana

At her concert! (i totally didn't even care about the main band, once I found out who the opening was! sorry Josh)

Thursday:

• Woke up and went into work for a few hours to help get some shipment out.
• Got a few last minute things to send to Jordan. He FINALLY leaves for Mexico MONDAY morning!!! WAHOOO! :) I'm very excited for him. AND that I get to talk to him on the phone!! After TWO months. I'm stoked :)

he sent me this shirt from the MTC, he's already got me reppin his country!

• We are now just getting ready to head up to Eden with The Brown family. We are spending the night at their cabin and then playing on the lake all day tomorrow, it should be way fun! I love family time.   

Friday:

• Play and boat all day at Pineview with the family.
• Head into work at Bohme and close, (my last weekend working at Layton Bohme before I move! WEIRD.) 

Saturday:

• Work in the morning and the hopefully (cross your fingers) get EVERYTHING else I need in order to move out and get started on packing!! I'm telling you, i'm so close, only a few odds and ends left!

The summer schedule is about to change... and quick. Less than TEN days until I move out! I just have to say I have been one very blessed girl and everything seems to be working out pretty great for me right now, and i'm pumped to start this next chapter in my life! 

moment of stardom

Fresh Living-Chic Fashion

Me and a couple of the girls I work with at Bohme Boutique got to be celebrity models for the day! haha not really, but we did get to model a few of Bohme's outfits on Channel 2 Fresh Living.
It was a fun experience, and cool to see all the behind the scenes at the News Station! Plus it was fun to be with Vivien Bohme, she is one of the sisters who owns the company, and for us employees she really is like a celebrity!
 So, if you missed out on me awkwardly standing there and smiling, no worries; I provided a link above to check it out :)

i'm domestic

So there is this pile of stuff growing in the corner of my room. I can't put it away anywhere because it is all stuff that I'm taking with me to college. Mom and I headed out shopping the other day with the sole purpose of finding me a new bedspread for my  new (XL twin) bed I'm going to be sleeping in, in less than ONE month. And...we came home with a whole pile of STUFF. haha you could say we both got a little giddy, honestly who knew living required having so much of it! BUT it has made me more excited :) and a little less stressed that i won't be able to make my small dorm apt feel like home. (but just a little)
So Me and Jenni (my roommate) decided on the color scheme turquoise and red for our room. Well mostly I decided... I'm lucky she was persuadable.  And now I just want to buy everything I see in those colors!
One of the necessities that I purchased to take to college is a laundry bag. I figured it would be easier than a basket since I'll have to be transporting all my dirty laundry. So to make it cuter I made some big fabric flowers to tack on it!

The type of flower I used is probably the easiest method that I know of to home-make any type of flowers.
All you do is cut a strip of fabric however big you want your flower to be
(the longer and wider the strip, the bigger and fuller the flower) 
Thread your needle, and stitch up one side of the fabric. As you go along you just scrunch the fabric, just like if you were making ruffles.

If you scrunch it tight enough it will naturally form into a circle. Then you just sew it in place where you want it :)

I sewed on buttons for the center, or 'bud' of the flower.

Then I just tacked them on to my laundry bag (It's bigger in person, I promise)

and it has back-pack straps on the back so it will be easy to carry around. :)

Also, the whiteboard that I made a while ago? I changed it up a little so it can match my new room! All I did was add scrapbook paper and the flower.

It's the same type of flower I used for my laundry bag except before I stitched the edge of the strip I cut waves onto the opposite edge.

 When I scrunched it up it gave it the 'petal' look.

I'm sort of bugged because I wish the flower wasn't so dang low on the board, like if it was centered a little more on the corner it would be perfect! But I used wood glue on that thing and let it dry while I was at work and it is NOT going anywhere. Oh well :/

Anyway, needless to say I'm excited for everything to come together :)

and

HAPPY 24th everyone!!

It's a great day to be a Utahn and an LDS member.

So grateful for our pioneers, I know we are faced with challenges in our day, but all I know is there is a reason I wasn't born in their time, I hate to admit that I probably would not have been able to make it. But, that's not that big of a surprise to most of you ha. Just thinking about the hardships they went through gives me encouragement to do better and know that I can get through the challenges and trials of our day, we owe it to them. I'm just so grateful for everything they went through! Utah is definitely always going to be home :) And it's thanks to our pioneers for the great place that it is.

oh fedora.

summer is filled with long, hot, beautiful days. and, lets be honest a great lack of the want or energy to do anything with my hair. and not to be gross but even washing it on a regular basis becomes a rare occasion.

thank heaven for hats.