happy happy happy

i went camping yesterday with some friends and had an absolute blast. i LOVE camping. the group was a bit random, but that just adds to the excitement. they were all really awesome. it was fun getting to know them better.

anyways. can i just say how much i love being outdoors??
it makes me so happy :) it's peaceful and just amazing.

i don't know where i'm going with this post. it's a little choppy, but that's ok, right?

i want to express my love for this beautiful world that we are so very fortuate to be a part of, and the chance i have to enjoy its beauty everyday. i love my Heavenly Father and Savior so much. i'm grateful to them for allowing me to enjoy the beauty.

it is simply amazing.

DISNEYLAND

coolest hat ever :D i wasn't able to buy it because it was expensive, but i did get a picture of me wearing it ;)

shelly and i got bored while standing in line so we took pictures. so glad she came with me. she is the nicest person ever!

my ticket for disneyland! don't i look thrilled???

it was such a fun day!

biking.

this summer has been filled with biking, and here are some pictures:

my brother's growing up. i can't believe he's 13!

i went to disneyland last week while on a road trip to california with some random people. it was fun! bekah's old roommate, shelly, was in town so she was able to come with us. when we were in the van about to leave for cali, we all decided that this was very unlike us. we hardly knew any of the people so at first it was weird, but by the end it wasn't bad at all. plus, i'm not outgoing and it takes me a while to warm up to people. but i'm working on it.
disneyland was awesome! my friends have always told me how amazing it is, but i didn't know what they were talking about. now i know :D

more pictures to follow ;)

here i go...

i am currently writing a paper that's due in one week. it's for one of the classes i took while in italy. it has to be five pages, which isn't bad. but it's summer and i don't feel like writing it... i'm trying to finish it in the next few days. i'm going to california on thursday and i want it to be done by then. i'm super focused :) well, actually the opposite is true but i want to be focused. it's always difficult at first. i wish i was better at writing papers. it's something that doesn't come easy to me. i enjoy it once i get my juices flowing ;)

here i go!

another day :P

bekah and i went biking a couple days ago and it was fun. my legs are very, very weak and i can't go very far. but i enjoyed it nonetheless. as i mentioned in a previous post taking goofy pictures is our calling in life.

i plan on going biking regularly the rest of the summer. maybe by the end i'll have sexy, strong legs ;)

(i doubt it. but here's to hopeful thinking.)

i love...

rainbows :)

biking in the sunshine

my family

reading

tennis

guys that look attractive with beards and bow ties

little kids that are always smiling :D

happy people

being happy

sharing love

being friendly (even though i need to work on this)

healthy foods

challenges

so basically, i love it all ♥

we like to be goofy.

my family is crazy, and we love taking pictures. well, goofy pictures that is ;) a crazy pose is preferred but if we're not in the mood to be wild, then it's ok, too.

i know i'm truly comfortable around a friend when i can take goofy pictures with them... just sayin'

i like to kick my brother... but don't worry, he told me he likes it when i kick it. we like to try for unique poses each time... sometimes we fail miserable. (so what if we liked the kicking one the best?)

i am the king of the world. and by the way, i love rainy days so i had so much fun taking these pictures. the air was crisp, the ground soft, and the temperature was just right.

talk about my perfect day. no worms were hurt in the making of this picture.

this one's a bit blurry but i like it nonetheless.

if crazy/wild/weird/goofy pictures are the only result of my summer, i'll be content.

just kidding. hopefully it'll have more to offer.

fingers are crossed.

peace and love.

life in the summer.

so i've been home for almost a month and it's been an interesting stay. i've been trying to stay productive because i don't have a job and i don't like wasting time. my parents have been putting beks and me to work with projects around the house, which i don't mind half the time. i've been trying to exercise and eat healthy (which has been a challenge for some reason.) the hardest thing to deal with is living far away from things when i don't have a car. i feel trapped at my house, and it doesn't help that gas prices are so high. (what's up with that? it adds to the situation is not a good way.) at times like these i just want to live by myself in a city where i can take the train or a bike to my destinations. also, since i've been home, i've been trying to become the person i want to be. the person i really, really, really, want to be. at times it feels like i can't change but i know i can. i can be whoever i want to be. (but being myself, too, of course ;)) it's so difficult overcoming personal habits; it takes so much focus and constant attention. but i feel like if i can at least get a little bit better at some things, i'll have so much control in my life; it will help with so many areas in my life. kind of like the dominion effect i suppose. so that's what i've been working on. not too exciting. i just need to stay positive and remember i can do anything with hard work.

italy!

hello! so i was able to spend some time in italy the last couple weeks, and i have to say that it was AMAZING!!! i would put more pictures up, but uploading can be difficult at times so i'll stick with just these.

i was able to see great artwork and architecture. the transportation was awesome; i became bffs with trains. (i wish the united states had them...)

i couldn't have asked for a better trip. ever.

it changed my life.

i think i left my heart in italy.

family.

what would we do without family?


i just got back from camping with my family. it was fun, crazy, horrible, epic, awesome and boring at times. my family is pretty cool but just like every family, we have our problems. dealing with these problems allows us to become closer. it's not easy to overlook issues that arise, but all we can do is take each situation one step at a time.

my dad just found out he has MS. this came as a shock to my family, but we have become closer after hearing the news. we're dealing with it the best we know how. that's all we can do. faith and prayers go a long way, too.

here's to news that makes life complicated, and hoping for a uneventful future.

hmm

what's on my mind...

• camping tomorrow with my family! i'm so excited.


• hoping that some guy will look past all my weaknesses and see something in me.


• hoping that this summer will be great.


• wishing secretly that i could be a little bit better around guys.

well, that's all.

life is pain.

will it really be ok?

i don't know why i'm struggling so much now. what did i change in my life that allowed for these feelings to resurface? i am drowning... i'm losing my desire to keep fighting. the surface is getting harder to see; soon i'll be lost permanently. what is the point of fighting? how can i find the strength to swim? or where is it to be found? the pressure is building up, which is adding difficultly. what now? what can i change? who can i ask for help? who can pull me out? is there anyone out there? does anyone care? so many questions.... where are the answers?

love it.

don't look down.

hello. i'm surviving finals week and as of right now i have one more final. yesss. one more and then italy! i honestly can't wait. the only thing that's standing in my way is packing. packing is not fun.

so much has been on my mind... things i've struggled with for years and things i just can't seem to overcome. but i don't want to be that person anymore. i can change my way of thinking and get over this bump that i'm constantly stuck out. i can become the person i want to become. this thing i struggle with is quite simple but i just can't do it. i honestly feel so trapped. i've tried many things but nothing seems to work. what it comes down to is ME. other outside things will not help my problem. i am the only one who can fix this. i need to stop it before it becomes worst. i need to find the strength from within. find the power.
i am going to stop this. really. just watch me.

moving on and out.

get her done.

i have a presentation tomorrow that i'm really nervous about. but by 9 it will be all over and hello carefree week. just kidding, i wish it was carefree but it's not. oh well. i just want it to be over :S i'm hanging in there.

;)

we are so fortunate to live in such a beautiful world. i don't think we realize just how lucky we are. every night there's a beautiful sunset; each morning a gorgeous sunrise. the sky in general is so pretty, and it's there for us to enjoy.

wow.

i love it.

i do a horrible job trying to capture the skies beauty, especially since the photos taken are from my camera phone. but they are still pretty :)

bluebirds

things i know:

• life is funny


• life is ridiculous


• life is hard


• Jesus Christ is always there for me


• i have the greatest family ever


• bekah is best twin/sister and i love her to death


• i have to get over myself and help other peope


• i want a huge garden when i'm older


• drawing faces is hard and i'm horrible at it


• the semester ends in 3 weeks


• i'm not ready for the semeser to end


• i'll be in italy in a month


• it's friday!!!

dang.

i cannot believe it's April. where is my year going??

thinking about dogs.

i want a border collie that can play fetch.

border collies are my favorite dogs. i remember seeing one while camping with my dad and sister at a national park when i was 9. the people next to us had one that they would play fetch with. i remember thinking to myself, i want that kind of dog and i want to teach it how to play fetch. i love how much energy they have. playful dogs are the best.

i also love the idea of having a dog and taking it on walks to parks and playing fetch.

well, anyways. i've just been thinking of dogs as of lately. i am going to definitely have one one day. and it will be able to play fetch :)

is it weird...

... that i could play with a magnifying glass all day??

yeah, i'm a little weird. but aren't we all in our own little ways?

i like...

... pictures of the moon.

the quality of the picture isn't very good, but it was taken with my phone.

i love, love, love moon.

the best is when the moon is so bright that a flashlight isn't necessary at night. every time i see the moon, i always have to take a picture. it doesn't matter what i'm doing or who i'm with. sometimes it's barely visible in the picture, but i know it's there :)

i just deactivated my facebook account. i feel like i need a break from being connected to a network where people don't need to really know people they're friends with. People share so much about themselves and it makes it easy for other people to find things out about them without putting forth the effort of talking to them. i think facebook is great, don't get me wrong, but i'm going to take a much needed break from it.

there is also a freedom that comes from not having it. i don't know how to explain it, but i know it exists. i wish i lived in simpler times. times when technology wasn't such a big part of society. i love technology, but i feel like it's making life too easy for people. i don't know what i'm saying really. this is a quote from the movie Easy A:

"Whatever happened to chivalry? Does it only exist in 80's movies? I want John Cusack holding a boombox outside my window. I wanna ride off on a lawnmower with Patrick Dempsey. I want Jake from Sixteen Candles waiting outside the church for me. I want Judd Nelson thrusting his fist into the air because he knows he got me. Just once I want my life to be like an 80's movie, preferably one with a really awesome musical number for no apparent reason. But no, no, John Hughes did not direct my life."

this is such a random post and it probably doesn't make sense. but that's ok.

but overall i just wish that life could be different. that's too much to ask so i'll just live with how it is at the moment.

woohoo!

happy friday :)

so my spring break has begun! my friends and i are going to see the new movie beastly today and we're all so excited! the movie was supposed to come out last july but it was pushed back for some reason. it's finally here!

i've started watching the x-files. can i just say how much i love the x-files?? haha i love how crazy the episodes are and getting freaked out isn't so bad either. my parents used to watch it when i was little while i was trying to fall asleep. the x-files used to freak me out. there were nights i couldn't sleep because i couldn't forget about what i had just watched.

but now i don't mind so much.

i actually think some episodes are quite funny.

i mean, how could you not?

spring is here!

i love spring. i wake up to the sun coming through the windows and the birds singing. i have never loved spring so much. i'm enjoying the sunshine more than i have ever had. flowers and trees are blooming making it gorgeous outside. i wish i had my own little garden to grow flowers in. someday i will have one and it will be amazing.

here's to the future :)

rainy monday's....

... are the best. or is it the worst? i have had quite an enjoyable day, but the only downside is that i'm sick. i don't know what i have yet. i feel horrible.

but anyways... I found this quote, which i absolutely love.

"Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it."
- Groucho Marx

i need to remember that i have the power.

i am the only person that can make myself happy.

i've been thinking about yogurt...

i just saw that there is a new flavor of yogurt called black forest cake. eww i think i just threw up in my mouth a little. seriously, why do they have to make cake-flavored yogurt? if you want cake, just eat cake.

it's a little...

i have to keep my life focused.

snow!

yes, it's snowing out, and i love it! i really miss snow. i can't consider it winter until there's white stuff on the ground. really, i can't. without snow, everything is just so plain looking and gross.

below is a picture of the house i'm living in at the moment. my housemates are awesome :)
it's a fun place to live.


i just love the snow!

just quotes because i love them.

"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith." - F.D.R

"He who has health has hope, and he who has hope has everything." - Arabian Proverb

"There is nothing noble about being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self." -Hindu Proverb

"Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it."
- Helen Keller

"Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today."
- Thich Nhat Hanh

"Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value."
-Albert Einstein

"To know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, that is to have succeeded." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
-Mark Twain

got to say.... hmm?

i'm trying to figure out what i want out of life. yes, i do want to be happy. but happiness, i believe, can come from so many different things and i believe i can be happy doing multiple of them. i just need to pinpoint which ones i really want to do. this is difficult. i mean, i am dealing with the rest of my life. it's true that i could always decide on a thing and if it doesn't work out, i could always pick another thing. hmm but i don't want to do that. i'll just have to keep looking at the options.

i found a hike in Nepal i want to do. i'm saving my money so i can go in a couple of years :) cannot wait.

passes the time.

my phone has the coolest picture editing ever. i like to see how crazy i can get pictures, and i have to say, it's fun. i can waste an significant amount of time doing it. but no worries, i don't.

it looks like my sisters are on a different planet, no?

accomplishment

i made tofu last night for dinner... and you know what? it was delicious.
this is the first time [ever] that i've made good tofu, and it will not be the last.
because...

i♥tofu.

freedom.

i just want to be free. free from all present cares and the anxieties of life. we all know life can be stressful. ha. let me tell ya i know all about stress. (i just hit my elbow in my desk while writing this. it hurt. a lot. i'm definitely going to have a bruise there tomorrow.)

back to the free part... i would love to travel right now, but i don't have the money or time to do so. someday i hope this will change. ahhh to travel... i love new places, experiences, and people. (of course i'm quite shy, which makes meeting people a little difficult, but i'm working on it.)
this summer i want to go on a week long backpacking trip. how fun would that be? i think awesome is the right word choice here :)
my plans for the summer are currently unknown... who knows what could happen.



a few days ago i wrote my small and improvement needed list of things to do before i die. the majority of things are funny, but they are things i want to do. if people think they're stupid, well, i don't care. it's not yours, it's mine. another thing, this list is meant to be extended over time.

here it is:

go backpacking in new zealand, europe, australia, and thailand.

have dreads for 3 months. (i don't care what people say about them being nasty.)

have extremely bright red hair for a year.

be vegan for a year.

obtain a weight in the XXX's

run a half marathon.

go to victoria falls. swim to the edge.

travel to egypt.

learn to surf in hawaii.

go on a african safari.

pet a lion, tiger, and giraffe.

i think it's a good list, no?

right now...

... i'm thinking that guys suck... a lot.

yep, that's all i wanted to say.

puzzles

smile if you love puzzles :)

i have a new love for puzzles; this love developed over christmas break. well, i guess that's not true... i've always had it, but it became more prominent over break. when i was younger i received a puzzle for my christmas present. it was the coolest one ever because it connected with the puzzles my sisters had gotten. it was a beautiful national geographic picture puzzle with lots of animals.

my mom hates puzzles. she told me why she doesn't like them, and i have to say, it's funny reason.

pizza!

when i was home for winter break i made pizza. i'm proud of it actually ;) it was quite delicious, and my family thought so too.

my dad liked it. can you tell?

ham and pineapple, my favorite.

half veggie, half meat.

i love love love pizza.

shout out to isaac.

i have the cutest little brother ever. for christmas he gave my sisters and me itune gift cards, and he ended up getting a package of three. he wrapped the gift by himself. i love how he wrote his full name and just our initials. he is truly the best. he turns 13 in about a month! a teenager? what!

i miss him very, very much.

what i'm thinking right now...

my life isn't perfect. it may suck most of the time, but overall, i'm happy to be alive.
i've been struggling with some things as of lately, and i know they will not entirely go away. i may not have control of those certain things, but what i do have control over is my attitude. these issuses may cause me much pain and suffering, but if i look at the wonderful things in my life and try not to focus on the bad things too much, i will be happy. i will be able to make it through.

i have decided it's time i improve myself. for some time now i have not been happy with some habits i have, and it's time to change them. i need to focus on each day when it comes, and i can't think of the future too much. if i work on changing my habits day by day soon they'll become habits. it'll be a slow process, but i know it'll be worth it. everything worth while in life takes effort. this i understand.

here it goes!

"hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly, hold fast to dreams, for if dreams go, life is a barren field, frozen with snow" -Langston Hughes

:D

i'm back in virginia! i arrived two days ago for the new semester, which began today. i had three classes: intro to social work, econ, and intro to drawing. i am so excited for intro to drawing! hopefully i learn a lot! can't wait ;)

bekah and i wrote out our shopping list tonight. we moved into a house before break so we get to cook! we are so excited :)

i am ready for this new semester.

it should be fun!

2011!

i can't believe it's 2011. last year went by so fast, and to think i turn 20 soon! wow!

this is a picture of my dad and brother helping a lady that got stuck in the snow. what a great start to the new year :D

i didn't do much to welcome the new year. i stayed home with my parents and sister. we did a puzzle and listened to the beatles. oh how we love the beatles. really, they are awesome.
my mom knows every song. she sang along, and i loved it! my parents are so amazing.

i've been thinking of some resolutions, and i've come up with a couple. i completed the majority that i set last year, which surprised me! that's good news for me. the resolutions aren't that major, but they're just some things i need to overcome.

i'm hoping that this year goes well for everyone!

happy new year!