Highlights of my Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

There were so many things that I loved about today...

Such as eating tons of things that weren't healthy

And then going on a short jog to work at least a little bit of it off

And walking by the ballroom to hear one of the advanced ballroom teachers playing the Doctor Who theme music for the students to dance to

And seeing all the costumes... here were a few of my favorites:

Aang (complete with the bald head)

a Na'vi
The Powerpuff Girls

Professor Trelawny

a pencil (so creative how the girl did that one...)

a Storm Trooper (a legit one... it looked like it was straight out of the movie)

Dr. Horrible
The Sexy Sax Man (if you don't know who he is, check the video out here.)

Jessie and Buzz

Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots

A man being attacked by blackbirds (I was cracking up! I know the guy, he's in my class... I wish I got a picture... the costume was so creative!!!!!)

Zelda
The three blind mice
Flo from Progressive
Various Disney Princesses... Rapunzel was my favorite :)

And my favorite: a LEGIT-looking Jack Sparrow

Not only did he look like Jack, but he also walked/ran/talked/acted/etc. like Jack.

Once again, I was cracking up.

He was a hoot to watch.

And there were many more that I can't remember... or am too lazy to remember...

And then I ended the day with an episode of Once Upon A Time with the roomies

And s'mores with the FHE group

And homework on the laptop
And ate some (more) cake in the late evening hours

Oh yes... and did I ever mention our ward party from Saturday evening?

Well, that was fun too. I got to dye my hair.

Check out some pics.

Devon the cowboy, about to get some sugar

How precious...

Three of my best guy friends at this complex
Doug, Fred, and Matt
(aka Dementor, Mickey, and Captain Planet)

Da back o' my head

Our Bishop and his darling wife

Roomies forever!!! <3

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Don't get spooked by ghosts.

Whoo-hoo November...

And goodbye to my favorite month. Oh October... see you next year!

If Disney princesses were real...

We've grown up watching the classic Disney Princess cartoons. We've grown accustomed to their animated figures and not-so-realistic proportions. So how would these Disney Princesses look if they were real-life girls?

A graphic design student named Jirka Vaatainen explored using real models and photo manipulation to create many of the princesses in the form of picturesque art. I loved looking at them and seeing his creativity. Below is one of my favorites, Jasmine. So realistic... and you can see the other ones here. Hopefully he'll add others really soon, like Snow White, Cinderella, Tiana, Rapunzel, Alice, Tinker Bell... we'll see! I personally think that he could have done better on Belle... but maybe I'm just saying that because I have high expectations for my favorite princess!

In other news, how many times have you played Sardines in your life?

I admit that I haven't played it often...

But I think that my all-time favorite Sardines experience just happened yesterday

In our Fine Arts Center here at BYU

For one of my classes.

The whole class period, we just played Sardines

Throughout the whole second floor of the HFAC.

We played about 5 rounds... and I was hiding for one of those rounds

And the spot that I picked to hide in was by far everyone's favorite.

It was so great, that we just had to get a picture.

Elevator. Classic. Took some people quite a while to find me. Beat that!!!!!

Peter Parker

I know it's a little late in the evening... but I just wanted you to meet someone.

This is Peter Parker.

He is the pet tarantella of a guy in my complex.

He is also my friend.

Okay, not so much... but we get along well enough for me to hold him.

Oh spiders... so misunderstood...

(and I am so strange... there, I admitted it publicly haha)

Stars and Naps

Two things:

First of all, I finally got back up to Provo Canyon yesterday evening! Granted, it was already dark (which defeated the purpose of seeing all the trees and walking around) but it was fun to be outside and stargaze! It's been a while since I've been able to do that - you can't see the stars very well in the city. I found myself gazing at Saturn a lot... it's so bright, your eyes just keep getting drawn to it. I've seen the rings of Saturn before! Gotta love the power of telescopes...

Secondly, I have really enjoyed my homework so far today: take a nap. Take a nap over the weekend and then report how you feel afterwards and the rest of the day. So, once I realized that there was no way BYU was going to lose our football game (we won 56-3) I zonked out on the couch. And it felt great. I love having a good excuse to take a nap other than "I'm tired". Now I can say "It's for an assignment!"

Best homework ever...

It's a Wonderful Life

Can I just say that I've been in a great mood for the past 24 hours? I suppose there are multiple factors for this, one of those being that I don't have any homework left for tonight other than memorization for an acting scene... and another reason being that there's a new Psych episode tonight. Factor in bread sticks, friends, the wonderful temperature, afternoon naps, getting accepted to my major, and the fact that I started a great new class today, (among several other things) and maybe you can start to see why I'm in such a good mood.

The proper question to ask is: can life get better?

Never mind, that's not a proper question.

Because the only answer is "Oh yes it can!"

A better question is: how can I make life better?

Think about it.

That's something I'm working on... making the great life I already have even better by the day. New friendships, opportunities, challenges, discoveries... they all work together to make each day a new adventure. And it certainly is a wonderful life!

It's Official!

I am now a Theatre Education Major at Brigham Young University! Whew! I can heave a sigh of relief... and then start right back up again with my new block class that starts tomorrow. No breaks for me!

I feel like even though my 9-hour-a-week class is over with, my workload is only increasing because I'm starting to get assignments from other classes that are more hefty and demanding. I'm up to the challenge though!

Bring it!

Also, the credits I receive from the class I just completed will put me over into being a "Junior" (credit-wise). Thank you AP classes... I'm gonna be a super senior for a couple years, thanks to them hahaha!

Finito :)

I am finished with my Exploration of Teaching block class!!!!!
And now all there's left to do is wait around for the next +24 hours and find out if I got into the program.

It was such a good feeling to hand in my Teaching Unit today though. All of a sudden, a huge load has been taken off my shoulders. I am certainly not complaining about that, but I really am going to miss my class. It's good that I've made new friends within my potential major, and they are all super awesome!

In other news, I was just listening to a preview of Michael Buble's new Christmas Album that's going to be released on the 24th. It was getting me in the holiday spirit, and we still have 2 months to go! I should just enjoy the current month. It's my favorite, after all. Just looking out the window reminds me of that... seeing the mountains dotted with red oak trees... Yep. Great season.

I also really want pumpkin cookies.
Very badly.
Those remind me of home... of Mom... yum yum!
And it's the best if you add in chocolate chips.
Pumpkin bread is good too.
And, truth be told, I don't mind getting a Pumpkin Smash Jamba Juice. It's just strange to taste pumpkin in liquid form. I suppose that's what it would be like to get Pumpkin Juice in the Wizarding World though. (Wow, huge nerd moment haha...)

Fresno Night!

My application, as of yesterday morning, is turned in!

Now I only have to wait for Tuesday to find out if I made it in!

And all it cost me was 40 hours without sleep.

Well, I took a 20 minute "nap" in the early evening, although I wouldn't call it sleeping because I was never truly asleep.

And this nap was taken at the apartment of my friend Haley Garner.

What was I doing there?

Having a FRESNO PARTY!!!!!

Some of us Fresno people finally got together for dinner and whatnot.

Homemade enchiladas, Creamery ice-cream (Earnestly Chocolate!), and plenty of talking. We didn't quite get around to watching a movie like we were planning on doing, but that's alright. Talking is a better way to spend time with friends when you haven't seen each other for a while.

In any case, it's nice to have my application out of the way. My classmates and I had a breakfast party at our teachers' house yesterday morning when we turned our applications in. It was lots of fun. Awww, I'm gonna miss this class... not gonna lie...

My TMA 276 Family :)

And today we had a cleaning check, I had some Panda Express, I watched BYU win a football game with some friends, and I'm sitting here trying to focus on revising my Unit Lesson Plans that I have to turn in on Monday when I have my Exit Interview for my Teaching class. But, as always, I find ways to get distracted... but thankfully, I already have all my lessons written out and whatnot. I just need to revise. It won't take long.

In any case, I was looking at the bright red trees on the mountains today and all of a sudden I really wanted to go back up there to spend some time. Even if I were just by myself (but obviously that wasn't going to happen because I don't have a way to get there other than my own two legs...) So Donnie and I decided that we'd find the time to go up there during the upcoming week before the colors start disappearing or the weather takes a turn for the worse. Something to look forward to :)

Application Week

Hello blogging world.
So this Friday is the day that I have to turn in my application for my major.
Which means I feel a little stressed at the moment.
Which means I won't be blogging much this week.
So much to do... and yet I still find reasons to procrastinate.
Such as posting on my blog.
So no more until I have officially turned in the last piece of work for my block class on Monday.
Only one week...
I can make it!!!!!
Until then... I just need to remember to breathe.

Parades and such...

Today I got the wonderful opportunity to be in this years' Homecoming Parade.
I sang with 13 other people from the A cappella club representing our club choir Audacity.
Over an hour of walking and singing.
It wouldn't have been that bad if I hadn't been sick earlier in the week...
So my voice gave out on me very quickly.
But I stuck with it!
And it was very fun. I saw tons of people I knew along the route.
And before the parade began, I got to go around and check out the floats.

 "Tree of Life" float... haha!

The float owner told me I could take a picture up on the float. I wasn't going to pass that offer up!

An advertisement for the "CaroLlama" that takes place at Christmas

 I LOVE the horses on these wagons! So cute...

And then after the parade, I got to go visit the canyon behind the Provo Temple with some friends.

Believe it or not, it was the first time I had been up there.

I've been to a couple other nearby canyons... just not this one.

And it's only a ten minute drive away!

It was so pretty at this time of year!

I love nature!

We found this stick that looks like a duck... YES, it's natural.

All in all, a very fun Saturday.

Ended it with homemade chicken noodle soup,

a little bit of piano playing,

and a movie with friends.

Oh, and we won our Homecoming Football Game.

That's a plus too.

HAPPY FACE!

Hundreds of Cakeballs

Evidently, I have a sense of "expertise" when it comes to cakeballs.

So my services were recently called upon.

My aunt's neighbor had never made cakeballs before...

And she wanted to have tons for her art exhibition that took place this evening.

So two days ago... Wednesday... I went to her home to lend a hand.

Six cakes, all of different flavors.

The cakes were already baked when I got there.

Five hours-worth of mixing, ball-forming, freezing, dipping, and decorating...

And we only got 4 of the batches done.

They finished the other 2 batches up the next day without me.

Here's some (poorly lit) shots of my handiwork:

Red Velvet, dipped in vanilla bark, topped with pearls.

The ones towards the back are a little messed up...

[They were the experimental ones]

German Chocolate with coconut

Yellow cake with sprinkles

And there was carrot cake, dark chocolate cake, and lemon cake

Unfortunately, I was unable to get a shot of all the cakeballs

Before people ate them

But here's what the centerpiece looked like by the time I got to the exhibit:

This whole thing was filled up. LOTS of cakeballs.

The exhibit itself was very nice.

Cyrene Swallow definitely has artistic talent!

This piece, "What You See, I Found In Me" was by far my favorite.

Here's the description Cyrene had with this painting:

"This is an oil painting. The idea is:

We women are not our challenges, disorder, stress, or emotional state. We are our God given spirits and individual talents. Remember to be true to you and what you've been given. The idea I had for this composition was to have the woman in the ocean reflecting back on what she had forgotten about herself. The child on the beach represents her and what she had thought she lost in her life journey. She is finding herself again and taking time to reflect and remember. The artist is painting what she sees. She sees the woman as she is with her talent and not her faults. She sees her as beautiful and at peace. There are symbols in the waves of the beach contrasted with the calm water in the artists' painting. It is later in the evening, symbolizing later in life or wiser and more experienced. This painting is very personal to me and symbolizes some discoveries through my own life.

I love her work.

Very colorful and evokes wonderful feelings.

To see more of her work, you can check out her website.

I love art.

And cakeballs.

Just saying.

Happiness... in Cookie Form

I have found that happiness can be found in the form of a cookie.
Actually, I've known that for quite a while.
I just like finding a new source of happiness every now and then.
And I found one yesterday evening!
Basically, they're Recess Peanut Butter Cups... in the form of cookies!!!!

Happiness indeed.

Too yummy.

These are about the same level as no-bake cookies, pumpkin cookies, and red-velvet cake balls.

That's how good they are!

No joke.

Conference and such...

Happy Conference Weekend!

Is it just me, or did General Conference rock even more than usual this October??!? For those readers who may not know what I'm talking about, my church has a semi-annual world-wide Conference held in April and October. We get to hear from the apostles and prophets of the Lord, and then some.

Let me just say that I love our prophet, Thomas S. Monson. He's got a bit of a comedic side! I absolutely LOVE his facial expressions and stories! You can watch his message here and hear/watch the rest of the speakers here. Take the time. He's wonderful... great speaker, great sense of humor, great love for the members of the church.

One of my favorite moments of this conference was finding out that there would be a second temple built in Provo where the Provo Tabernacle used to be before it burned down back in December of 2010. Fun fact about that event: when firefighters were going through the rubble of the building, they found a picture of Jesus Christ... the silhouette of which was not burned. So cool. The video/article is here. A Christmas Miracle for sure.

So... we had a super filling breakfast on Sunday morning.

Tons of yummy stuff.

I was very full.

And THEN I went to my aunt's house for the afternoon session and dinner.

We made chicken roll-ups.

My Grandma's recipe.

I love those things so much.

And I got to watch Conference with my 5 cousins: Jimmy, Jaden, Jordon, Chris, and Eric.

They were surprisingly well behaved, given the fact that they're super hyper boys.

And they all adore me as much as I adore them.

This is Eric. The youngest. So cute.

Jaden made the cutest comment at the end of the session. President Monson got up to speak, and I commented that I had seen him before in real life when I went to Conference back in April. Jaden's eyes got really big and he said, "President Monson is real?!!" I laughed and responded that of course he was, I had seen him with my own eyes. Jaden said, "Wow... now I'm going to tell that to my Primary teacher next Sunday. She'll be so surprised to hear that he's real!"

I love children.

So innocent.

And I love Conference.

A lot.

King Kong Kone

So my roommate Donnie and I were having a... competition... to complete a certain... objective... and we decided the competition would end at midnight after the last day of the month. Today is October first. Neither of us reached the goal we had agreed on. Which I figured would happen. I was not very optimistic about it from the get-go. I will offer no further details on this objective. If you want to know, ask me...

The punishment for failure?

Buying a gigantic King Kong Kone from Macy's grocery store.

And eating it in one sitting.

No breaks.

No saving any for later.

I have never had so much soft serve ice-cream at one time in my life.

And that's not even all of the ice cream... there was another few inches on top of that, plus the cone (which was thick and filled with ice cream as well). I just forgot to take a picture until we had eaten most of the top off. You can see some of the cone in Donnie's hand.

So much ice cream... and yet I still love it. Very much.

That, and seven-layer bean dip.
And chocolate.
And clam chowder with sourdough bread.
Maybe I should save the list for another post...