cookie monsters

I love my nephews more than any other nephews in the whole entire world. This is a very bold statement. But it's true.

I didn't realize how much I missed these little faces while they were out of town for two weeks until Andre' and I went up to Jaclyn's for dinner on Sunday.

Since Andre' and I are trying to get rid of every single crumb in our cabinets before we both leave for the summer (seriously, where did I pick up some of this food? I will never ever eat that box of pasta roni. let's be honest.), Andre' brought up his baking remnants to make chocolate chip cookies with the boys. So many things wrong with this scenario.

(don't worry, Ethan's actually not angry. this is his "cheese" face.)

1. Andre' in the kitchen--not cooking, but baking.
2. two little boys under the age of 3, cooking with their cookie illiterate uncle.

There was flour everywhere. Andre' had the white powdery stuff all over his shirt. Aidan wanted to do everything, Ethan wouldn't stop eating the cookie dough, although he was very willing to share.

these cookies are way too big. a few casualties, and then Andre' gave up all together and made pizookies. (is that what they're called?)

we love each other.

currently...

my life is crazy. I think I like it that way. TBD.

I got hired at J. Simms Agency in San Diego for a summer internship.
I leave soon. Like really soon. And then I don't come back until August.

I was voted Vice President of Digital Communications for PRSSA at UVU...holleratchya.
Anything for a resume.

Started running again. This was very short lived. Maybe this had to do with running 5 miles
when they told me to do 2. Whatever.
They are making me wear a Kobe Bryant calf sleeve.

Started packing up my stuff...my new address is Slate Canyon Storage Units.

Since beginning to pack up said stuff, I no longer have television. Trying to not get distracted during finals...instead I stay up til 2am watching The Marriage Ref on Hulu. GOOD STUFF.

If not on Hulu, I am playing Words With Friends. Never not playing Words With Friends.
Maybe I shouldn't play this game--some of said friends only play four letter words.
I don't think any less of you, promise. Kind of.
Other friends, that will remain unnamed probably cheat at WWF.
Raj is a word? No. He is the guy at 7/11.

Did NOT run in the Salt Lake marathon, and neither did Megan.
My leg is still a bum, and she missed the sign up date.
The universe obviously did not want Megan to compete without me.
Our friend Janae however, did run it. In 3:20. First in her age group.
We did the math...that's a 7 1/2 min/mile folks.
She's insane, and my new idol. (just kidding, I still think the church is true.)

Went and got my hair cut with Megan and Benita in Pleasant Grove at our friend Hilary's...and simultaneously learned that PG smells because there is a poop plant there.
When they stir it, it smells. Go figure.

Facebook in fact, makes terrible suggestions. It suggested I become a friend with my ex boyfriend's fiancee.
Facebook, get real.

Riding on beach cruisers with no gear shifts uphill is probably the equivalent of an hour long spin class.

Megan and I learned that our favorite Pizza Factory meal is approximately .50 cheaper on the lunch menu...now we go at lunch.

Arizona soft drinks are only .78cents. Crest is $1.38.
If we lived in Arizona, we'd be approximately 50% richer.

I still love teeny bopper music. JoBros, Miley Cyrus, and Justin Bieber have dominated my summer playlists three years in a row. Who cares?

My bestest Beth comes into town to graduate this week. I love her. One day, we will own houses in the same cul de sac.

I somehow managed to escape doing laundry for the past four weeks. The last time I did it was right before New York, and then the consecutive weekend trips didn't help.
(My life is really really hard.)

the best thing I've ever read six times is featured here.
Subscribe to his blog, and then get him a job. You won't be sorry.

Finals are coming up. Again.

easter bunnies wear stretch pants

This past weekend was so fun.

Since I haven't been in town one weekend in March, why would I start now? It has been crazy.
New York. Check. San Diego. Check. Arizona. Check.

I got back from San Diego with Brittany realllly late Monday night, and then left after class on Thursday for Gilbert, AZ. We all piled into Benita's car
(Benita driving, Megs in the front seat, and Court, Lola and I in the back).
All snuggled in.


We left around 5:30pm and arrived in Paige, AZ just around 11pm I think.
We stopped other places, but Paige gets an honorable mention because Maverik provided us with the most delicious ice cream cones EVER.
That's right Benita. EVER.

(Benita insisted on wearing a snuggie the whole time. It was really weird.)

I may or may not have purchased Hot Rod for $7.99 too. That's a steal.
We pulled into Gilbert around 2am and I don't remember much after that...
until we ate lunch on Friday at Oregano's.

Okay. New favorite restaurant. Megan and I have our staples...but if Oregano's was here I'm sure it'd be one of them.


Soups, pizzas, salads, wraps, BBQ wings, garlic bread, and the largest Diet Cokes I've ever seen in a glass. With free refills and to go cups.
Oregano's: Where Sizes Matters. Seriously.

And here is where we picked up our friend Dustin. So nice to have you.
I know Court was grateful.


Later we went and did some verrry light shopping at the mall, picked up a few things. Matching boyfriend sweats from Victoria's Secret...not a big deal.


then to Swirl It...not sure why but I'm never going to be sick of frozen yogurt or new yogurt places. There are so many. Red Velvet and Pistachio really hit the spot.

Following frozen yogurt, we went to go see Miley Cyrus star in "The Last Song".
Oh my Nicholas Sparks. What would we do without you?
Except...Miley is terrible. She couldn't stop making this stupid face.

(I googled "Miley's stupid face in Last Song". So glad I found this)

Otherwise good though. Predictable, sappy, slightly depressing with a happy ending.
All of my favorite things. Not to mention, Liam Hensworth is DARLING.
I could look at him all day.
Too bad he's a 90's baby. Otherwise we might have a legitimate chance.

Following the most amazing day ever, and all of my favorite things, we played games at Megan's sister's, Lindsay's house. I laughed. Really hard.

"Benita has sagged into last place..."
"Ballerina. Why didn't you pick mine? I put that down, and you DID."
"When I think of Roxanne I think of stretch pants..." Nice Court.
"I don't trust Asian women."
"Red Rover? I would have picked that."
And Run Ruck Run is sweeping the nation...

Saturday we watched the first session of conference. Or at least tried.
TV fail. The channel wouldn't work so we watched it on Megan's bebis Mac screen.

No better way to cheer ourselves up than poolside tanning while it's snowing in Provo.
85 degrees in April. I WILL move somewhere warmer after I graduate.


After a few hours of soaking up some much needed sun, we went back to get ready and met up with the boys after priesthood session for dinner at Brio. Again, so good.


They played more games...I studied for a Free Expression test.
I don't really want to talk about it.

I don't think I can recall a time where I have been so excited about Easters.
I love the candy, love the decorations, love conference...but actually getting excited about Easter has been a while for me.

Megan's family has a tradition for Easter where they attach kite string, A LOT of kite string to your easter basket, and hide it somewhere in or out of the house.
We all have the same starting point, and it was a little bit like Mission Impossible for the first 20 minutes.

Benita went up the slide. Court went across the counter.
I fought with Patches the cat outside for my string.


It was seriously as exciting as Christmas. I hope the Smiths and Barneys don't mind when I steal this for my own kids. Actually, Megan's and my kids will probably be doing it together.

Love them. And I will miss my besties so much this summer.

you deserve to be ultimate punched

1. ward prayers turned firesides without us knowing
(seriously, tell us to bring the diet coke and popcorn, I would not have been as mad)

2. yozone taking away our frozen yogurt sampling agency
(they really do come around the counter and ask you which one you'd like to sample. were they really losing that much money in yogurt shots?)

3. airport buddies - the kind who think just because you sit next to them means you must be interested.

4. waking up at 5am to train clients. (that's for megan. I would never)

5. airport food.
dear delta and southwest airlines, peanuts and half a diet coke does not a meal make.
why must you take the honey out of honey roasted? the salted are just not that good.
times are tough you guys. we're in a recession.

6. cats

7. walking around a soggy campus, and approximately three classes in feel as if you've actually waded through a medium sized pond.

8. tapping

9. heavy breathing dorito eaters in the testing center

10. road bikers

11. standardized tests

iPhotoshop...letterpress effect

I'm going to try and post Photoshop "how-to's"...

how about... on Wednesdays?

I have my reasons, but mostly because iPhotoshop, and you should too.
most of it has been learned on my own, with a few painful classes along the way.
It is the epitome of a love-hate relationship for me.

EXAMPLE:
me & in n out.
me & snow.

You get the idea.

So please enjoy this post, tell your friends, and try it next time you want to make
your invitation just a little bit more fancy.

1. Create a new document in Photoshop.

File > New

Any sized document will work, but for this example I've chosen to just work
on a 5 x 5 in canvas.

2. Change the foreground color of your canvas to an off-white or other light color. For this example, I'm using #cfccc.

Choose background color, and then apply by hitting
Option/Alt + Delete

3. Add Texture.

We want the invitation (or whatever it is you crazy people are doing) to have a softer, more realistic texture. You can find your own here at one of my favorite websites and apply it as a filter, or use a Photoshop texture, which is what I'm doing.

Choose Filter > Texture > Texturizer

I'm going to keep the Canvas texture, but I've changed the scaling down to 87%,
and the relief scale down to 3.

Play around with the options until you're happy with the texture.
Burlap works well too.

Press OKAY.

4. Add type to your canvas.

Bold, thicker fonts work well for letter press, but as fonts are VERY expensive,
websites like these offer free fonts for downloading.

In fact, I'll use the font RiotSquad from dafont.com, but any other Retro type fonts
tend to work well too.

Choose a bright font color, so you'll be able to see the letter press.

I've used blue #396dcc.

5. Add an "inner-shadow" to your text.

On the layers menu at the bottom:

fx > inner-shadow

Change the color of the shadow from the default black (black is much too harsh for this the effect you're going for), to a color a few shades darker than your original color. The effect should be subtle.

Change the opacity to 70%.

Hit Okay.

6. Add texture.

Since the last filter you applied was the same for the paper, you can hit
(on a MAC) Command + F

or

Filter > Texturizer

(You may receive a warning message asking you to rasterize the image, hit OK)

7. Finish.

For finishing touches, I ran the dodge tool over the center of each letter, with a highlight effect.
Feel free to try other finishes, until you get the look you want.

Let me know if you want a specific tutorial, we'll try to get it on here!
And if I don't know it, I'll learn it. For you.

Merry Easter!

Dear San Diego,

thank you for being 75 degrees every time I come.

thank you for allowing me to take naps on the beach in both February and March
while it is snowing in Provo.
thanks for feeding me fish tacos, frozen yogurts, and the best Diet Cokes I've ever had.


if it's not too much to ask, please let me intern here this summer. right next to here.


I've been in Provo for THREE summers in a row, and I am tired of seven peaks.

it's pretty clear I'm meant to be here.



so please. before I sound like I'm begging.

Love, me.

an affair to remember

Wow. So many things happening lately.

I spent March 17-20 of last week in New York City, on UVU's dime. Holler.
The Communications department picked 7 students with stellar resumes, obviously, to go to NEW YORK and meet with public relations professionals at the top of their game.

We flew into Newark, NJ via a nonstop flight with no food. Peanuts only. Really Delta? And half a Diet Coke. Apparently we're in a recession. It's a good thing I'm always packing protein bars.


We checked into the hotel, none other than the Marriott Marquis in Times Square. NBD.

I met up with my good friends Ed Felix and Casey Lewis that night to go to dinner, so fun! It's possible that Thai food tastes better in SoHo...but not as good as Siamese Hut.

Thursday was ridiculously busy, but went a little something like this:

Starbucks. Nonfat Chai Tea Latte. Check.

Meeting with Rachel Cohen, Director of Multi-Media at SVP Worldwide.
She was darling.

Subway. Check.


Meeting with Maneesh Goyal, President of MKG Productions.

My dream job. Enough said.

Meeting with Kathleen Huddy, Textiles Director at Good Housekeeping.
She was so on point. So sharp and exactly what an editor should be.


Ate dinner at SushiSamba in Union Square.

Went that night to go see In the Heights on Broadway with Ed..featuring Corbin Blue. Aaamaaaazing.

Dessert at Amy's Breads. Eat the monkey cake. Seriously.

Friday.
Meeting with Randy Herbertson, co-owner of SeeSaw.
Again, another one of my favorite appointments. Nothing quite compares with talking to people who are doing what you want to do, who also happen to be the leaders in the industry. Such a thrill to be able to pick his creative brain.

also spent a lot of time with this talented young lady. she is such a hard worker and I'm sure she will succeed wherever she goes! But Kaiti, as much as I love you I'm not much of a cuddler at 4am. Stay on your side of the bed!

Meeting with Mark Newman of Hunter Public Relations.
Super informative and he was so down to earth.

And finally, we met with Ahmad Corbitt, the Director of International Affairs in New York for the church. And we got to speak with four UN Ambassadors. I asked a question. In the microphone.


Dinner at Carnegie's Deli...dessert crepes at the Creperie..and a poetry slam in the Lower East Side. Thanks Ed. I'm pretty sure I was one of three white people there. I did learn that "purchasement" is a word in Brooklyn, courtesy of Mahogany Brown.

Saturday we checked out of the hotel, did some shopping, some Central Park, and Ed and I stood in line at the ShakeShack for an hour.
But it was sooooo worth it.


It went by so fast, and was an absolute blast. I loved every minute of it, and was so grateful for the experience and the connections made there!

I came back even more excited to graduate this year, and even more senioritis. Am I allowed to have that already?

Get me graduated and back in Manhattan.