my (dream) christmas list

i don't really expect to get any of these, at least not from someone else, but these are the things i've been drooling over.


amazing rainbow glitter kate spade watch: $225

 i haven't even worn a watch in years, but i would go back for this kate spade masterpiece. i almost started a kickstarter campaign a few weeks ago to see if i could get my friends and family to donate to the cause of me getting this watch that embodies every thing i love about life. that one little sentence up there--"this item is currently not available"--breaks my little glitter-loving heart. find me one of these sold-out beauties and you'll have it forever.

one direction "our moment" perfume

i became a directioner this year, somehow. it just came on all of a sudden. anyway, i smelled their new perfume at macy's a month or so ago, and i'm pretty much obsessed with it. it reminds me of some scent i wore in my youth. so yeah, i really want it. i'll probably end up buying it for myself at some point. plus, the topper is a crown so...yeah, i'll be getting it.

TIME magazine subscription

i've been meaning to subscribe to TIME for over a year now--it's 30 bucks for one issue every week!?!--and it just hasn't happened. every time i remember that i want to do it, i think, oh, i'll start it next month. or, oh, i'll start it at the new year. so i just haven't ever actually done it. it's one of those things where i'll keep a window open on the subscription page for a few weeks and then eventually come to the realization that i'm not going to do it anytime soon and just close out the window. if somebody else got me the subscription, i wouldn't have to put myself through that mental anguish anymore. do it for my mental anguish, people!

one of these from society6:

can you sense a theme in what i like here? sheesh.

and...that's all i can think of right now. thanks in advance for your thoughtful gifts!

things i like about winter*

*since winter is sometimes such a hard season to like

freshly fallen snow that glitters in the sunlight

christmas everything

family time

fires in the fireplace

hot chocolate

snuggling under warm blankets

winter church outfits that include hosiery

thinking about new beginnings/resolutions

my birthday is coming up

not as much sweating going on

crisp mornings (though i do prefer temperatures above 10 degrees...)

sweaters & socks

holiday meals

spending more time with the ones you love because staying in the house together is infinitely more appealing than the alternative.

i think winter sometimes gets a bad rep, and i'm at fault as much as anyone else. winter can be warm if i want it to be :)

starting the season: the messiah sing-in

who am i kidding, though: the season actually started weeks ago. technicalities.

when i was a teenager, our stake in california performed selections from handel's messiah a couple christmases in a row. it was so fun learning the crazy choruses and then singing as a congregation about the birth and life of the savior. the messiah is an amazing piece of music, and i love hearing it performed.

a lot of communities host messiah sing-ins, where an orchestra or symphony plays and the audience sings the choruses, with performances by featured soloists. for years (seriously, years) i have been looking into the sing-in at abravanel hall, but i either miss it by a few days or we have some set-in-stone prior engagement that night. this year, even though the performance fell on the day we got home from an exhausting trip to disneyland, i convinced my mom and sister to come with me.

it was the perfect way to start the month. the music was beautiful, the setting was wonderful, the company was splendid. some of the choruses were new to us, but that was just motivation to learn them better for next year. in a nutshell, i will totally go again.

this picture taken illegally during the performance...

thankful {part four}: sunsets

if you've seen my instagram feed, you know i have kind of a thing for sunsets. i'll let you in on a secret: the sunset pics i post on IG are only a small portion of the sunset pics i actually take.

i just can't resist!

is there anything more beautiful than a sunset? is there anything more majestic than the sky? i submit that there is not!! the sky is constantly changing--what you see in one instant is completely different than what you might see in the next. it's awesome!

so, basically, i take a lot of pictures of sunsets/the sky in general. pretty much whenever i can, i take a picture of the sky. i'm outside and i'm like, it's so beautiful! i'm grateful for the beauty of the sky. it's so simple, but so grand at the same time.

the only thing about sunsets and the sky generally is that it's really hard to really capture their essence in a picture. but you know that doesn't stop me from trying anyway :)

 

the above picture through my rose-colored sunglasses

thankful {part two}: family ties

i am really grateful for my family. it wasn't in the plan to be living at home, especially not for as long as i have been. but it has actually been pretty great. i'm grateful that we like each other as well as love each other--we like spending time together. i'm grateful that my parents were willing to let me stay here while i figured out what i was doing and then, when i did kinda figure it out, they still let me stay.

i'm grateful that i was raised in a home where the gospel was a central theme. along with that, though, my parents taught common sense and common courtesy and real life skills that i think a lot of people my age lack today. i'm not saying i'm perfect or that i know how to navigate every possible life situation, but i'm pretty sure (based on my own experience...) that my siblings and i have a leg up on some of our fellow youths, and that's a direct result of our upbringing.

i''m grateful for each of my siblings. meredith, who is my best friend, my only former roommate i still talk to regularly, the person who knows all my weird idiosyncrasies and random thoughts. bergen, my fellow reader, the one of us who is truly thoughtful and selfless in so many ways, the middle child who IS LOVED AND APPRECIATED (seriously, berg. we love you.). and carter, my hilarious brother, a dedicated future missionary, my basement buddy. we all have a ton of fun together--there's basically no one else i would rather go to disneyland with :)

my family is awesome, and i am so lucky to be a part of it.

thankful {part one}: faith

it's that time of year again, my favorite time, really: the month of thanks leading up to thanksgiving, which leads up to christmas. i'm this close to listening to christmas music, but i'm holding off for at least one more week :) so, in the spirit of thanksgiving, i'm doing my annual series of thankful posts. (hopefully this year i'll be more consistent and not remember in the last week..)

to start:

i am grateful for my faith. this is way more all-encompassing than just one little blog post, but pretty much everything great in my life boils back down to my belief in a loving Heavenly Father who wants to bless His children and see them happy. i know He knows me and knows what i need and what i am worried about and the desires of my heart, and i know He answers prayers. i am sorely lacking in many ways, but i try to raise my voice in thanksgiving when i can for all those amazing things that i have because of my beliefs.

happy november! more thanks to come!

bring on the fall

as much fun as summer is, i'm always ready for fall by the end of august. i'm tired of the heat, i'm kind of tired of wearing sandals, and i'm especially tired of being sweaty all the time.

fall has so many great things, so many things i love. cooler weather, changing colors, football season, new tv. writing that last one made me think that i've written a post of this sort before, but i'm going to keep going anyway.

this fall is a little different than every other fall before in that, for the first time in twenty years, i'm not starting school. this is the first september i can remember that won't include a first day of school, new supplies, fresh syllabi, interesting classmates. instead, it will include (hopefully soon) a new neighborhood, fresh roommates, and interesting coworkers.

spring is supposed to be the season of renewal and rebirth, but fall has always been that for me.

summer of fun/love 2013

via

via

this is going to be my last summer in provo, so i've got to make it count. and, berg is living with us, so we should be able to have some fun.

• have picnics. 
• outdoor movies.
• concerts concerts concerts. from taylor swift to the rooftop to stadium of fire to the twilight, this summer should be filled with some pretty good live shows.
• camping.
• boating.
• ride front runner to salt lake.
• seattle trip.
• lots and lots of smores.
• have parties/celebrate life.
• road trip at least one more time.
• use the pass of all passes to its fullest potential. 
• get a tan.
• write something worthwhile.
• bbq.
• dance like no one is watching. 

this is all i can think of right now. anything i should add?

(it's pretty much the best to google random phrases like "summer fun" and just see what images come up. you just have to make sure your search terms aren't scandalous :))

this christmas

i'm doing this out of order--new year's report before christmas report. but better late than never, some people always say.

this christmas break has been...pretty great. basically, i've just been bumming around with the fam, occasionally leaving the house for a shopping or lunch trip.

we're a pretty good looking group, right?

on sunday night dad made us all go caroling to the neighborhood. i grumbled quite a bit, which i regret now. it was fun to visit with ward members and to squish in the car together, especially since i wasn't the one who had to lap-sit the whole time :)

on christmas eve we ate our delicious dinner of mock chicken legs and mashed potatoes and asparagus, then we opened our pajamas, then we gathered in the basement to watch white christmas. i've said it before, and i'll say it again: i love that movie. all us kids slept in the basement and then woke up at a leisurely hour for presents and breakfast, and the customary photo on the stairs and in front of the tree.

this year i finally--FINALLY--got catch phrase. i've only been wanting my very own game of catch phrase to offer the game night gods for years and years. now it's all mine! and, i got another jeopardy! desk calendar, which brought me almost unlimited joy in 2012 and promises to do the same in 2013.

and that was pretty much it. we received a surprise gift from mom and dad, we watched tv and napped together, we had a delicious dinner with friends, and we thought about the Savior. we listened to christmas music nonstop for three days, and i was still a little sad to see it go. it was a great christmas!

a new year's tasting party

since i had a really awesome outfit for christmas this year and i wanted to have an excuse to wear it again, i proposed that we have a family cocktail party, black tie style. we got out all of our little tasting dishes from nana and purchased a new set and planned the menu and shed a few frustrated tears and chose our ensembles and had an elegant candlelit soiree. though, if i had been thinking a little more clearly, i would have gotten the twinkle lights out. next year.

dinner is served! clockwise from top left: tomato soup with grilled cheese croutons, chili with mini cornbread muffins, sweet and sour meatballs, and bacon-wrapped lil' smokies

and for dessert? mousse parfaits, cherry cheesecake, and cream puffs and chocolate sauce

and then we all changed out of our clothes and laid around until the ball dropped, but it was still great. happy new year again!

resolution for 2013: goal setting and keeping

my posting has been a little light for the month of december, so i planned to load up today, but new year's eve festivities got in the way. but, those festivities were pretty fun, so it's all good. more on all of that and christmas and everything later.

but, for now, another resolution, maybe the last one i'll put on my blog. i've been thinking a lot about self-discipline lately, and one resolution i can work on related to that is making and keeping goals more effectively. some who know me know i'm pretty bad at sticking to things, and i want to be better about that. so, in 2013, my goals will be set and they will be met.

happy new year! it will be a great one, especially since i'm ringing it in tonight with the ball drop and grey's anatomy and in the morning with the rose parade. see ya, 2012!

resolution for 2013: doing good

for the past couple weeks i've been thinking about resolutions for this next year. for the most part, a lot of my resolutions are the same. graduate, exercise more, do creative things. but the other day something occurred to me that i hadn't really thought about before.

dad asked meredith, and he's asked each of us at various times, what good she did that day. she had an answer, but as i was pondering the question for myself for that day, i wasn't sure if i really had an answer.

so, one of my resolutions is to do good everyday. i guess it's my iteration of "do a good turn daily," but i would like to focus more this year on looking outward and not being so wrapped up in all my stuff. i want to be able to say that i did something good each day, since a lot of the time these days i feel like i'm just leisuring my life away. and yes, i'm verbing leisure.

i want to be more like these people, who are so quick to serve and forget themselves. 

mid-december

you know the magic of the season is in full swing when you are scatting "sleigh ride" in the car and you reach over to turn on fm100 and what do you happen to hear in real life? yeah, "sleigh ride".

also when you get a gorgeous royal purple top for FIFTEEN DOLLARS at j.crew without even trying.

yeah, christmas is magical.

it's beginning to look...

christmas is finally in full swing in our apartment. i mean, i've been listening to christmas music since halloween, but now it's officially okay. i just spent about an hour compiling all my christmas music and filling out my holiday music library. it just wasn't complete without the contribution from celine dion. and really, what collection of music isn't complete without a contribution from celine dion?

i picked my annual peck of ornaments from the sparkly selection at walmart, then we trimmed the tree. it's been a couple years since we've put up my cheap tree, but it has sentimental value, you know? we were sorely tempted to go for a real tree this year, but i didn't want to wait any longer, so up the fake one went.

i made an awesome christmas decoration!

the lights are strung, the mistletoe is positioned, the tree is trimmed. the cheesy christmas movies are playing. and now, the snow is falling. bring on the christmas cheer!

thanksgiving redux

because we were partying it up at disneyland on thanksgiving day, we didn't have a thanksgiving dinner, or even a world-famous disneyland turkey leg. tess didn't really have a sufficient turkey dinner either, so we decided to have our own.

people, i roasted my first turkey yesterday. it was awesome. well, truth be told, it was a little dry, but it was a learning experience, alright? but it was cooked, it didn't explode, and i removed all the gross bits with no difficulty. i felt pretty accomplished.

we also had real mashed potatoes, yams with brown sugar and pecans, stuffing with sausage, dinner rolls, and pumpkin pie bars. and delightful dinner conversation, of course.

obviously i wouldn't have traded that thursday at disneyland, even for mom's thanksgiving dinner. but it did feel like something was missing. good thing we are competent and creative people. happy thanksgiving once again!

another long night

last night was another one of those nights when i went to bed, not necessarily at a decent hour, but whatever, and then after half an hour of tossing and turning, i decided to just be up for another few hours or so. i don't know why that happens sometimes. by all accounts, i should always be tired enough at two in the morning to be able to fall right asleep. but that's not always how it goes. but last night i at least ended up being kind of productive in my nocturnal state.

stuff i did from 2:30-6:00 am last night:
read a chapter from alma. a really good chapter, actually.
unpacked from california, which might be some kind of record.
went through my dresser and closet for clothes to give to d.i. and clothes to put in my summer bin.
watched a movie.
researched jack nicholson, christian bale, and charles manson (why i did that, i'm not sure. creepy.) on wikipedia.
drank about 40 oz. of water.
watched an episode of parks and rec.

and then i woke up at 10:30. and i'm starting to feel the effects. but it's kinda too bad i typically need/want more than four hours of sleep each night, because i could probably get a lot done. although, let's face it, it's not like i don't have time enough in the day to get things done and it still doesn't happen.

but anyway. i'm off to the store to stock up on christmas supplies. i can never resist the decorations!

thoughts and observations from my trip to california

 i can't believe the trip is already over. it was great, though it definitely wasn't a relaxing trip. but it was a ton of fun and i still love my family, which is sometimes a feat after a ten hour car ride :)

but here are some thoughts, in no particular order.

this is not me in a skirt, in case you were confused.

--i rocked a skirt at disneyland all day on saturday. it was awesome.
--i satisfied my craving for clam chowder in a bread bowl (memo to self: it wasn't that good; don't spend the ten dollars again.). but i gained a new, last minute craving for this amazing-looking hot roast beef sandwich that will be calling my name until i visit the magic kingdom once again.

--visiting new temples is the best. it's always interesting to see how different each temple is and especially how different each temple is from the provo temple. and it was great to meet up with family and friends at the newport beach temple.

--world of color at california adventure. see it for sure. i saw it from the back (meaning, without seeing the accompanying video), and it was still amazing. i die over anything rainbow, so i was freaking out over the displays of color.

--sibling hotel room: lived up to all of my expectations. looooooooooots of laughter.
--hot tub conversations with strangers=always interesting.
--we still know how to work the parks like pros. and, in case anyone is wondering and for my own future reference, disneyland is not that crazy over thanksgiving. we didn't typically have to wait for anything longer than 30 or 35 minutes.
--cars land is awesome and the new cars ride is great. maybe one of my favorite things, though i'm glad i didn't stand in line for 2 hours.
--i did not choose wisely at miguel's, which is a serious bummer. you have to take advantage of miguel's when you get it, and i did not.
--meredith had the flu for most of the trip, which was even more of a serious bummer. the flu is the worst and i hope she gets better soon. out sibling hotel room wasn't as much fun without her.

--las vegas is super sketchy. i know a lot of people from there, and they seem to like it, but i really don't like it. sorry, people.
--the disneyland resort is the best during the holidays. one of the greatest parts of going around christmastime is seeing the fireworks show and the snow on main street. this year, the fireworks show was cancelled for us due to "unfavorable weather conditions" (boo), but the snow and the lighting of sleeping beauty's castle still made the night pretty magical. 
--...i didn't get any grading done..but who really thought i would?
--i'm super grateful for my family and for dad, who took us all to disneyland even though he doesn't really love it.

okay, now all i have to do is get through two more weeks of class and then finals and i'm home free for three weeks! just kidding, it won't really be as easy as that since i still have a lot of work to do. but the end is in sight!

thoughts on tuesday

i think the recurring theme around these "thoughts on..." posts is that they always come out of the days when i am conferencing and therefore sitting around the carrels all day with random snatches of time and no real room for productivity. so, here are my thoughts from the carrels today.

i am obsessed with polka dotted clothes. whenever i am online window shopping and i come across anything polka dot, i have a serious internal debate over whether i should add that thing to my shopping cart or not. a couple weeks ago i bought two things from oldnavy.com--a polka dot chambray shirt and polka dot jeans. and today, these are what i wanted/still kinda really want to get from gap:

this is polka dotted--trust me. you can't really tell here.

those pants are seriously awesome. and i already have polka dot jeans! but i want all of the polka dots!

i am so glad it snowed on friday because that meant that i completely bypassed having to walk on campus in the snow, which is one of the things i most dislike in this world. winter, for me, is characterized by a constant fear of slipping on ice and breaking a leg or a tailbone. though i did have some sketchy moments at the football game on saturday, where the bleachers were almost entirely covered in snow, by the time i really had to walk on campus all the scary ice was gone.

i seriously love zumba. i can't wait until january when i can go two days a week again. i've really missed zumba tone.

a cute outfit and hair go a long way toward making a girl feel good about herself. they aren't the most important things, but they count for something.

i have been listening to the carpenters christmas since halloween and it is so awesome, people. and who wants to pitch in to help me record a christmas album?

okay, that's all i got right now. stay tuned for some more thankfuls.

thankful 2012: day one

i have so many things to be thankful for, so here's the first part of the list (which will by no means be comprehensive). but, i am going to at least start off with some of the important things.

first, i am so grateful for my knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ. so much of the happiness i feel in my life comes from this knowledge.

second, i'm thankful for my family. it's pretty awesome that we can all just sit around talking for like two hours and have more fun than we would in pretty much any other way. seriously, though. when my dad told us we were going to california over thanksgiving this year, i was most excited (i mean, after thinking about the joy of disneyland) about sharing a hotel room with my siblings. it's going to be a blast staying up late and making prank calls :)

third, i'm thankful for my education. there have been ups and downs, but i love learning and i am grateful for these years i've spent at byu. someday i'll be done, and i'll be glad to leave. but provo really has been good to me.

fourth, i'm grateful for my job, and i'm especially grateful that my job is teaching. it is lovely to have money with which to buy things that i need and want, and i love that i make that money right now by talking to my students and helping them to become better writers. i just hope i can figure out a way to do that for the rest of my life.

those are the important things i can think of right now...i'll be back soon with some other thankfuls.

why i like fall: reason #14

hot chocolate.

to be honest, i don't think about hot chocolate in the warmer months. during that time, i'm drinking a lot of chocolate milk, though. so, when it gets a little chilly, i start to get that hankering for a nice, warm, chocolatey beverage. which is why i've been to the cocoa bean for just such a concoction twice in the last week.

mmmmm...the more whipped cream goodness on top the better. also, this picture comes from lindt, so you know that stuff is delicious.