loving these

these albums have been on repeat in my car for a good two months now. I realize that two of them are country. so sue me. buy them now, I'm serious. you need these songs.

Taylor Swift:
1. Mine
2. Never Grow Up

Brandon Flowers:
1. Hard Enough
2. Crossfire

Lady Antebellum:
1. Love this Pain
2. Perfect Day

Pretty soon I'm only gonna be listening to this:

good thoughts

I just remembered a phrase I used to use in every

single one of my prayers growing up:

"may we have good dreams not bad dreams, good thoughts not bad thoughts."

I wish my concerns were that simple now too. Here is my good thought today.

"With any major decision there are cautions and considerations to make, but once there has been an illumination, beware the temptation to retreat from a good thing. If it was right when you prayed about it and trusted it and lived for it, it is right now. Don't give up when the pressure mounts. Certainly don't give in to that being who is bent on the destruction of your happiness. Face your doubts. Master your fears. Cast not away therefore your confidence. Stay the course and see the beauty of life unfold for you."

--Jeffrey R. Holland

Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence

Liahona June 2000

brain dump

I can't help it, I am terrible at blogging. I always read others blogs though,

so it makes me feel like I don't need to call dear friends like Shauna Lewis because

I constantly feel like I've just been updated on what's new in her life.

(not an excuse.)

I seriously can't wait to be done with school.

Glory glory hallelujah.

Taking 18 credits your senior year is not recommended.

I still have no job- esthetics in Utah is mostly a joke.

You people are cheap. I have had one appointment in two months.

I love having Andre' in my ward, and having Holly close.

Nothing like having family nearby while you're in school.

I went to Disneyland two weekends ago, haven't been forever.

I loved it. For so many reasons. If I ever move to LA, I will be a season pass holder.

It's getting cold in Utah again. I shouldn't be able to complain,

seeing how it is the middle of November and we haven't even REALLY seen snow,

but I hate it. I do not do well.

My North Face fleece and my UGG boots are

going to be the only thing you see me in until next year.

Too bad Bethers isn't here to be hating winter with me.

I have not gone shopping, even once this semester.

Okay once, and I bought these gems:

I don't regret it at all, and I wear them with everything on the days I'm not wearing my UGGs.

I cannot wait to have a real grown up job with real grown up paychecks.

But just because I'm not shopping does not mean I'm living under a rock.

I could really use these items:

I've really gotten back into chicken soft tacos from Del Taco recently,

not sure why but I think they are really really good.

I miss my friends, even though most of them live in the same complex as me.

Amazing how that seems so far sometimes. I could really use

more of them in my life. Also, I want to be back here:

I can't stop watching two movies:

1. How to Train Your Dragon

2. Sleepless in Seattle

How had I never seen How to Train Your Dragon before? That movie is hilarious, action packed, and an all-around good time.

Aidan and Ethan can't stop quoting it:

Aidan: "I have beefy arms! I have beefy eyes!"

Ethan: "Ha. ha. Beeth eyes!"

Hilarious.

It is almost the holidays. Richelle has been lighting her christmas candles,

has her tree up already, and has been listening to N'Sync Christmas on Pandora.

It makes me want to be home with these crazy peeps:

And it's a fact that I have the cutest nephews inthe entire world. Seriously.

stress

if there is one phrase that I possibly overuse, it is this:

I. am. stressed.

Or any other sort of variation. That stresses me out. I'm stressin. Mostly I'm kidding, but enjoy making things semi-awkward and uncomfortable.

This week, midterms stressed me out. But not as much as they normally do because I am beginning to not care. I just need a job.

Two nights ago, I could not stop watching the show Hoarders: Buried Alive. These people are crazy, and watching them live in these types of conditions stressed me out. I spent the entire day cleaning.

Midterms ended, I stopped staying up late to watch stressful television, and woke up and started watching TLC's A Baby Story, and I Didn't Know I was Pregnant.

What the freak?

Like I wasn't terrified enough already of growing a person inside myself, people go on national television to share their awful, stressful experiences. These people are crazy.

All of this stress has caused me to become sick. Which is how I'm going to spend the rest of my fall break from school. Awesome.

At least my room is clean, I'm not pregnant, and I dominated my midterms.

breakthrough

sometimes, I surprise even myself.

between me, Meggers, Bertolli and Richelle, the last thing we need is an excuse not to date somebody. Seinfeld said it best:

She had man hands.

He's a regifter.

She's a two-face.

She's got the jimmy legs.

She's a virgin.

She just took credit for my salad.

She's one of these low-talkers.

He's a high talker.

He's a bit of a close talker.

She's bald.

She went out with Newman?

She's too tan.

She's too good.

She wasn't my type.

and we can definitely add our own to the list.

he wears gloves. he's not funny. he has weird friends. he made me eat vegetables. he made a double comeback. his heart just isn't in it. he likes bad music. he had a booger in his nose. He won't chew gum. He wears gargoyle shirts. He has baby hands. He has a weird laugh. He only wears free t-shirts.

But recently, I've grown.

Me: I hate his jeans.

Richelle: Jeans are fixable.

Me: You're right.

Richelle: How bad are they?

Me: Awful.

Richelle: Yikes.

Me: I've met plenty of guys with good jeans and bad attitudes.

Maybe there's hope for me after all.

keaton andre'

Keaton Andre' Anderson

was born September 21, 2010 at 5:12 a.m.

I know everyone says this, but I really do have the most darling nephews in the world. And he is just barely 24 hours old here, and he doesn't even look like an alien.

THAT is good baby-making.

I wasn't able to go to bed until 2:00a.m. Monday night

(thanks for nothing Professor Barron, your class is really terrible.)

and then woke up to Holly banging on my bedroom window thirty minutes after I'd gone to bed. We picked up Andre', picked up Wendy's, and headed over to the hospital. After a series of VERY fortunate events (I will spare you the details which my sister did not do here) bebis Keaton arrived safe and sound, breathing on his own, at 5:30.

Later that day, I played single mom to two munchkins, had a sleepover, watched Wall-E, made breakfast, and drove a minivan. and I would do it all over again. maybe.

P.S. I named him. After my high school crush/boyfriend Keeton Little, while we were having lunch at Carl's Jr.

Oh, memories.

(I can't remember if we actually "dated", which is probably not a good sign. but we did kiss. that is all that matters.)

you learn a lot about yourself from roadkill

I'm serious. I think it says a lot about a person when it comes to animals and death.

Recently, my friend ran over a squirrel on the freeway. It wasn't his fault- but he apologized to the little squirrel whose resting place is now the I-80.

When I was 15, my friend Elizabeth and I were at Bucks Lake, CA for girls camp. Girls camp...is a different experience. It probably even deserves a post all by itself. I even had a bear encounter once. But that year was different. We were infested with squirrels. They were everywhere. They were eating our trail mix, nibbling our toes, causing havoc in the camps. You get the idea. These things are nothing short of really obnoxious.

Elizabeth and I woke up one day, and we decided we had had enough. While laying on our bags for sleeping one morning and listening to N'Sync, a little dusty grey squirrel perched himself up on a tree stump, eating some kind of stolen goodness and stared at us. I was protecting my candy bars with my life, and Elizabeth decided to take a different approach. She grabbed a handful of small-to-medium sized rocks, and started chucking them at the squirrel. With her very first rock, she hit the little sucker square in the temple, knocking him to the ground. He never got up.

Now what I mean in learning a lot about yourself is this: we both laughed. Hysterically. The poor little squirrel never even saw it coming, and we took some sort of sick pleasure in ridding ourselves of one squirrel- even though there were thousands of the things left.

But this summer was different. While I was living in San Diego, I lived at my friend Brittany's house, which is across from a park. Every morning on my way to work, I saw bunnies. Not the ugly jack rabbit kind- but the cute little Peter cottontail bunnies with white fluffy tails. One morning, I didn't see the bunny in time. I killed him. Flat on the road.

"NOOOOOOO! What are you doing little bunny? Why? Why did you throw yourself in front of my car?"

But the bunny didn't answer. I felt so bad I had to tell someone, so I called my friend Nick, looking for some sort of comfort. He just told me it was probably somebody's pet. Clearly, these types of incidents cannot be avoided. But why me? Why my tires? All that was left of the little guy was a tuft of fur on Auburn Ridge Way. The only thing I learned from this experience is that at least I know that I'm a better person than I was at 15. I wonder if Elizabeth is too.

Sorry everyone, Easter is cancelled.