home loving and a happy memorial day

So Saturday I may or may not have had a quarter-life crisis.
It lasted less than an hour (they always do around here...)
And we were off to the races.
By the races I mean retail therapy.
I mean, I think it was already planned by my cute mother...
(I mean, you don't shop while you're at college.... so when you come home...it happens)
but shop we did, and cute they (our purchased items) are.

Sunday was better, as Sundays always are.
Memorial Day in a home ward is so different than a college ward could ever be.
The veterans stood up and were recognized... two of them spoke.
They spoke of real things.
One spoke of how the gospel has helped him,
the other recognized all of those who defend us.
Of all the millions upon millions of people who have lived on this earth.
How lucky we are to be the small fraction of those...
who live in a free country
at a time when we have every opportunity

another favorite part of home is daddy's Sunday school class.
he's my favorite teacher ever, and not because he's my daddy.
we just speak the same language, you know?
we talked about scriptural military heroes.
Moroni of course...

Other things I'm loving about being home??

dad's old rodeo t-shirts

and puppy love.

With Captain Moroni, dad, and these little guys in my life, 

how could I ever need anyone else?

hi, i'm impulsive.

 So, my roommate and I have a summer goal list.

On it, as you can see, is listed "BE IMPULSIVE"

the rest are... in progress 

(to be blogged about later....for the most part)

Sooooo... let me tell you a quick story.

Thursday morning my only class was cancelled. 

So I set no alarm, woke up, read for a while,

studied a little bit. 

Then realized, if I'm going to do this for the next four days....

I would much rather do it at home. 

So I hastily packed bags, threw my camera gear and blankets in the car.

Went to a review at 5pm, took a test until 7pm.

Then left.

Just like that.

 This is my I'm feeling so good about leaving face.

(I don't think it was looking quite so lively while driving at 4am but that's a different story...)

So here's a few instagrams from the drive. 

Or at least the half of the drive done in the daylight...

 Finally back in California.

Back to my kind of mountains.

 Long road ahead.

and wow, it looks like I'm off the road... weird. 

Promise I wasn't if that's any consolation.

 sunrise. 

haven't been up for that in a while.

 Back to the valley, with fields as far as the eye can see

 Windows down and feelin good after the nearly-all-nighter.

 good old barns in the red, white, and blue fashion.

 and the casino....

ohhhh the casino.

 Still running on 3 hours of sleep, 

but high on love.... and a runners high too!

and of course being back home means having Jess back.

platforms and boots.

vanilla and chocolate.

marilyn monroe and audrey hepburn.

sweet and salty.

stringy and stalky. 

reunited. 

if only for a moment.

thank the good heavens.

Be impulsive ?

(oh, and take a roadtrip too...)

CHECK.

have you ever thought to be the poem?

some people are good with words.
they can make you feel things.
they can make you feel happy.
or sad.
or convinced.
or any number of other emotions.
I, however, don't happen to be that person.

you see, I don't write.
entry level college english was like my worst nightmare.
that's why I chose a business major.
that's why here I post pictures and write in short sentences.
...and choose to nearly always ignore proper grammar.
I'm not always good at expressing myself except in rambling.
and sometimes I'm convinced it makes sense only to me.
so I blog for me more than anything
because if I was convinced to change the world with my writing
i wouldn't attempt.

I've learned a lot recently.
about me.
about life.
about really doing things for yourself
and someday, when i feel like my ramblings suffice, I'll tell you all about it.
until then, I'm just here.
living life and writing down bits and pieces.
I'm glad you read them.
I love you, I'm sure.

If you cannot be a poet, be the poem.  ~David Carradine

the "fun" ones

When you grow up in a church community, you get invited to everybody's bridal shower.
(and birthday party, and wedding reception, and baby shower too for that matter)
Because of this, I've been to my share... and more as I get older.
And many of them (think back on the church community feel), have been attended with my mother.
My mom is always the fun one. Always has been, always will be.

She's the fun sister, the fun mom, the fun aunt.. just trust me she's always down to party.
So when it comes to bridal showers she (naturally) always is the fun gift giver.
(...because what fun is a bridal shower if the bride doesn't blush as deep as the little pink gift bag she's delving into....right?)
So, mom, I am proud to say... I have become the fun gift giver.
On that subject, Saturday night we hosted a bridal shower!

For the future Mrs. Morgan Frei

And to make it more fun, the cute bride is gluten free, 

so we had a little challenge on our hands :)

But who doesn't LOVE a challenge?

 when you're in college, you just make it happen! 

so we made the cake in a pie pan.

went swimmingly if I do say so myself.

 Chex mix (always a hit) courtesy of Mama Veater.

 

Caramel Corn from Our Best Bites.

[double on the caramel please!]

 Gift Tables with lace

 Macaroons from Lindsay Rae.

And gluten free Betty Crocker cake mix

[With Miss Lizzy's white chocolate cream cheese frosting...divine!]

Oh, and.....

[Remember the blushing and pink bag I mentioned earlier?]

Nailed it.

Other fun things this weekend?

making pizza.... an "earth" pizza

fitting for the rapture, no?

kickball (and battle wounds to prove it)

mini golf. 

classic chick flicks.

The grass is green on my side of the fence.

-tay

The joys of Easy-off.

There comes a point where you can't handle the state of the kitchen anymore.
Even if you do the dishes every day after school....
So today I deep cleaned.
I didn't even wait to go buy rubber gloves.
Which means that the "WEAR GLOVES" insignia on the easy-off was ignored.
My hands may suffer....
But my heart is happy.

Spring cleaning is fabulous.

story time in the magic living room.

So one time we were sharing stories in our living room. 

We had a guest, and they had shared a story (a story of the slightly incriminating sort)

....so the rest of us felt the need to share, and it turned into story time. 

When it came to my turn, my roommate immediately pointed out that I don't have any incriminating stories to tell....nope, not one.

Today I saw a quote that said:

"Dear Jane Austen, Mr. Darcy ruined everything"

But maybe that isn't it.
Maybe he saved everything. 

Saved girls from settling.

...because, you know, they often do. 

Saved me from having incriminating stories
and waiting for what love is and should be. 

Maybe I shouldn't share these sorts of things. 

After all... I'm not fully aware of who all is reading this. 

But I mean let's be real....

"What do kisses mean when given out like pretzels?"

-Spencer W. Kimball

Things I like:

I have two musically inclined roommates, who play so I can hear.
Birkenstocks.
Heels.
Hiking.
Flowers. Today my favorite is Matthiola (stock).
My floral design class.
My bike. and riding my bike. and getting to class in five minutes on my bike.
Photography.
Boys. weird, right?
Friends.
Sunshine.
Letters.
Country music.
Pandora, right now I'm diggin the Priscilla Ahn playlist.
Facebook, but not facebook chat.
Intramural kickball (yeahhhh team Jimminy Kick It!), but not turf.... sliding to third is no fun on turf.
My new shoes (blogged about yesterday). I quite possibly may have blown my hair dry in them.
Short hair.
Tall boys.
Stars, especially the Coarsegold kind.

movies, shoes, friends....perfect day? pretty close.

Can we all please ponder for a moment on the fact that my mom is 

SO COOL.

pictured below is a small reason for this cool factor.

here's the reasoning for her coolness [in this case]

1. she buys me shoes.

2. she's got great taste

3. not just "mom" great taste...bold, wonderful, any-age type of great taste.

[let us all ignore that some of her great taste has obviously surpassed me as I am wearing a bleach-stained sweatshirt, black jeans, and blue flip flops....]

Second, last night we went to see Thor. 

Well, let me preface this.

In the afternoon I got a text message that said something about hot, shirtless, Australian men from another planet at 9:40pm. I don't know about you, but it somehow caught my attention ;)

I just had to attend.

And honestly, I thought it was great! Entertaining, and I didn't always know what was coming... especially the end, which I was semi-peeved about... but we'll save that for later. Gotta love sequels. Natalie Portman is darling and Chris Hemsworth... don't get me started. I'm no fan of long hair or the whole mountain-man facial hair thing.... but I was just fine to watch him for an hour and a half on the big screen. Just fine. But back to the movie critique up there, just a disclaimer, I'm pretty easy to please. As long as a movie is entertaining and not sleazy, I'm a happy camper.

So take my raving reviews with a grain of salt if you will.

So moral of the story [or of all the stories]:

I just may have a celebrity crush.

I love shoes... but that's not really any revelation

& apparently I love ellipses...

some thoughts for today.

So we have new roommates, have I told you that?

And I don't think we would have ever lived together if not for the random move-in

but I'm so glad we are.
and our kickball team rocks.

And I know taking pictures of yourself is very seventhgrade-myspace-esque.....

But I was brave enough to wear a hat last week.

and that was a big day.

Someday I'll blog about being bold.

It's a new goal. 

And it's coming, slowly but surely.

Happy Night.

I will be here... writing biology papers on genetic risks for cancer.

mmmmmmm. 

-tay

on feathers and such.

1. Blogger is having serious issues. 

2. On that note, it permanently deleted my post that included....

[by permanent, I mean it may magically reappear....but it's been gone fore a while]

my feather.

mostly, it's lime green. 

and glowed in the blacklights at the dance party we attended last night. 

it's fun, and i'm enjoying it :)

3.

today I got another haircut. shorter this time [although you may not be able to tell]

I keep getting more bold, at this pace it's gonna be gone before we know it.

I just think it's fun to play with that's all. 

And I can. So why not?

From me, loving life.

-tay

on hearts and choices

Sometimes people hurt your heart. Some people even break it.
Friends, role models, loves.
Lots of people really.

And you know what? you're going to be ok.
Because all things must fail, but charity,
Which is the pure love of Christ, never faileth.
He will never leave you, nor will his love.
Never is the strong kind of word that I love.

I never have to be sad for long.
Someday I will get married, and I will never have to give him up.
When I have children, I will never stop loving them.
I never have to stop learning.
I never have to stop growing.
My world never has to stop expanding.

Most nevers, you see, are choices.
Most everything is a choice actually.
So make yours.
And if your heart hurts, never let it stay that way.
And if you are unhappy, choose something else.
Choose who you want to be, and be just that.

Today I am happy.
I made my choice a long time ago.

To my hero.

This one is for my mother. 

Who I couldn't imagine life without. 

For putting up with me before I realized how much she meant.

And still sometimes afterward. 

For driving me to social activities, because she realized so much more than I did, 

the meaning of good friends.

For being patient with me because I'm not the most attentive phone conversationalist.

But mostly just for loving me.

and never letting me doubt it.

I love you mama. 

Sorry your real present isn't on time,

but I did make these for you :)

More spring adventures.

That, down there, is what my fridge looked like at the beginning of this week.

And that is pathetic.

so pathetic that it's blog worthy.

[please note that none of that is edible food...thanks]

Never fear, mom! I went and got real food :)

in other, less pathetic realms of my life..... 

Every afternoon this week has been spent outdoors.

 

Even though outdoors means "The Reluctant Mr Darwin"...

which wasn't exactly on the summer book list if you know what I mean.

But there's fun things too I promise.

like re-creating canon center meals. 

with chicken cordon bleu, frozen vegetables, and waffles. 

all the reasons for the freshman 15, together on one plate.

isn't it beautiful?

and cookie parties with really cool english people... and people going to England.

and engagement ring cookies to match. 

or as it was so lovingly called in class today...

en-gag-ment.

And crafts!

like an earring holder with a finger-painted DI frame.

and experimenting with new hairstyles.

and going to the temple that I love so much.

and sitting on the benches outside the temple. 

soaking up sunshine and the general splendor.

and finally, we come to the reason for the current, crimson nature of my back

the roof..... ;)

with it's privacy and girltalk and... proximity to the sun?

 

Just some more reasons I love spring semester, that's all.

Jess and I decided we should give up the front about our blogs being based on our lives individually..... because let's face it. It's more like the adventures of us, together. Literally, I see her probably every day. Yesterday, for example:

we ate JDawgs on the grass.

 and watched Tangled in 3D.

and took a picture with a flash in the dark theater. 

They all hated us. But I felt great about it :)

 

 Mostly we have to get in every sister adventure possible before she leaves for New York. 

I love her. Way to be the best person I know Jess.

Also, watch this. Greatest thing I've ever seen.

And in case you haven't seen it.....do.

Sometimes I wear glasses, massive sweatshirts, and vans all day long.

Unfortunately there are the kind of shoes that can't even go to DI.

They just need to go in the trash.

But I can't seem to give them up!

I got rid of a lot of stuff today, but you best believe these were not in those bags. 

Oh, and that sweatshirt. 

It's a department of statistics sweatshirt. 

Reason it caught my shoppers attention at DI? 

The front says I'm statistically significant. 

For those of you who have take stats:

funny.

And those of you who haven't-

still funny.