thoughts on thursday

attending a dance party  the other night really reminded me how much i love dance parties. it has been way too long since i've danced with such abandon :) one of the downsides to my sugarhouse life is that there aren't nearly enough dance parties. like, zero, that i know of. dance parties are great, people.

attending a dance party the other night also reminded me why i love provo. so many of my good friends are there, people that i don't see all the time but that really know me. it was good to be back adn have one of those classic provo nights, where you are surrounded by fun people and just living the twentysomething life.

i'm getting worried that being at work is actually making me sick. i feel fine when i'm at home and the first hour or two at work, but then i just start feeling gross--feverish, headachy, weak, dizzy. what the heck? probably what this means is that i just need to go to the doctor and get a real diagnosis for a real problem, but that's a little scarier than thinking that my job is slowly killing me :) so maybe one of these days i'll make it to a qualified physician's office and find out what's really wrong with me.

i started getting birchbox last month, and it's pretty cool so far. each month they send you samples of various beauty and health products to try. then if you want to buy the full-size version, you can find it on the website. i don't plan on buying a ton of the full-size products, because some of them are definitely higher end than i need, but it's fun trying out new products. this month i got a mini nail polish, black eyeliner, and a delish granola bar with maple syrup and pumpkin seeds. awesome, right?


a couple weeks ago, i bought if you wait, london grammar's debut album. i'm OBSESSED with it. wikipedia describes it as "trip-hop", which is kind of amazing, and it is that type of hard-to-define music that is also really beautiful and catchy. give it a listen, if you are so inclined.

and there you have it! thoughts that mean mostly nothing :)

preparing for italy

in case you were still in suspense and don't follow me on any other social media, carter opened his mission call a couple weeks ago and is going to the italy rome mission on august 6th. let me tell you, we are all pretty stoked about it.

we've been scouting out the italian restaurants around town, learning italian phrases here and there, and fielding advice and info from many different sources. carter's future mission president's wife has a blog, and it has been fun to see the missionaries who are there now and to get a little taste of where carter will be living for two years. when he is there, we'll be checking the blog religiously to get a glimpse of our cute anziano beesley :)

last week, in a hotly contested instagram battle, we won the right for stately type to design italy-themed t-shirts (results/top design still pending). we recruited a bunch of carter's friends people to vote and blew those other yahoos out of the water. viva italia!!

sources say that there's a good chance that the rome italy temple will be completed while bud is there serving in italy, which is awesome and will (already is) generating tons of interest in the church. pope francis, carter is coming for you ;)

mostly we're excited to start planning our return visit to italy, after carter is already home. because we all know that's happening!

any suggestions for our italy prep bucket list? any ideas are welcome!

hasn't quite hit me yet {part two}

this week, my little brother carter's missionary papers were submitted. obviously, this has been a long time coming--we've been talking about him going on a mission basically since he was born. but now that it's actually legitimately close--like, on the horizon--i'm trying (and mostly failing) to hold it together. last week he posted his mission picture on instagram, and when meredith showed it to mom and i at chipotle, we both burst into tears

the four of us siblings are pretty close. we're close enough in age that we still have similar interests, and moving to utah when we did kind of forced us to be friends with each other in a place where we didn't start out with too many friends. and, as much as this pains me to say, it probably helps that we're all still single. it will definitely be interesting to add new personalities to the mix. someday! :)

but what i'm really trying to say is that it is going to be hard to send my little buddy out into the mission field. i know he's going to be an amazing missionary, and i know that is what he's supposed to be doing and i wouldn't have it any other way, but there is going to be a pretty big hole where he should be. it will be super weird to be three sisters without the pesty little brother. and who knows what my parents are going to do with an empty nest! (well, semi-empty, of course ;))

tonight mom called me and said that a certain apostle wants to hand-deliver carter's call, which he assigned today. so, it's happening! next week we'll know where he will be laboring for the next two years. i'm basically a mess. i started writing this at work and had to postpone until i got home because i was bawling at my desk. but while there are a lot of tears now (and i'm positive there will be a ton of tears when he leaves), i'm excited for him and the great things he will do. godspeed, elder!

26

last week was my birthday. i celebrated with shopping, eating out, seeing the secret life of walter mitty finally, and going to a byu basketball game. it was a good day, kind of quiet. i'm glad i got to spend it and the rest of the weekend with my family.

as my lovely little brother kindly pointed out at my family birthday dinner last week, if you round up, i'm 30. which, thanks, carter. i still have four years of my twenties left! sheesh. but somehow 26 does feel a lot older than 25, for some reason.

but, i am determined to make this a great year. a couple weeks before my birthday, i was looking back on the past year, and, even though a lot of things have changed, i don't feel like i've actually done that much to improve myself. well, i guess that's not entirely true--i'm always thinking about that, and i think i did an okay job. but, as far as my list of 25 things to do when i'm 25 goes, i didn't do too well.

let's revisit:

1. save enough for a big purchase (car? new computer?)
2. go on a spontaneous trip
3. go to an avett brothers concert
4. get a big girl job
5. learn to sew and now i have a sewing machine! happy birthday to me :)
6. start learning a language which i need to pick up again...
7. receive a master's degree
8. go somewhere i've never been
9. west coast road trip
10. record something
11. go to the temple
12. publish something
13. learn to ride a bike...i guess
14. consolidate  moving twice will do that to you!
15. read the standard works
16. go to a fancy party
17. family reunion--aspen grove 2013!!
18. read classic novels--i've got a running list
19. read c.s. lewis
20. make a piece of art to put in my house
21. eat something new every month--let's face it; i go to the same places and eat the same things. i need some variety up in here.
22. write and send a letter at least once a month
23. hike the Y
24. go legit camping
25. choreograph a song for zumba

so, 8 out of 25. it's not great, but it's something, i guess. this year i don't know if i'm going to make a list like this, but i'm definitely going to try to make it a really great year. 26 is going to be great!

year in (p)review

This has been a pretty eventful year—both in the sense that it has been full of events and that is has been full of personal growth. I guess that’s pretty much all you can ask out of a little ol’ year, right? So I thought I’d give a little run down of what has happened in 2013 (in the briefest of detail—ain’t nobody got time for more than that) and a sneak peek into what I hope will happen in 2014 (not to be confused with my resolutions—those are in the works and will be coming over the next week or so). And away we go! 

Year in Review

Took a couple classes that were actually pretty interesting (it seems really weird to think that I was in classes this year…that feels like a lifetime ago)

Tutored ACT English and Reading at Sylvan Learning

Job searched

Job secured

Job started

Lived with both of my sisters

Did a ton of Zumba and Just Dance

Listened to so much great music

Moved out of Provo

Moved home

Moved away from home

Moved to Sugarhouse

Went to Taylor Swift

Went to Hanson

Went to Kelly Clarkson at Stadium of Fire

Saw a bunch of really good movies

Wrote in my journal a lot

Got an iPhone

Went to Disneyland on two occasions

Welcomed a missionary home

Hit the Peaks (Seven Peaks, that is)

Bought a car (sheesh, I almost forgot that, the biggest thing!)

Blogged on and off :)

Became a homemaker/DIYer/crafter (who am I kidding—I was already one of those)

Read almost all the standard works—all that’s left is the New Testament!

Read a bunch of books, too many to keep track of

And, without further ado: 

Year in Preview

Go to One Direction (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) (I am a teenage girl, I know)

Send off a missionary brother :(

Have an awesome time in Sugarhouse

Go on at least one epic trip, hopefully more. But maybe not more.

Sew my Shop Hop quilt

Finish The Great Bedroom Redecoration at Logan Avenue

Basically be a dating machine

Create lots of art. In a lot of arty ways.

Finish the Book of Mormon at least once

Progress at work

Keep a faithful thankful journal

Get a TIME magazine subscription and actually read TIME

Have a bunch of parties

Just generally have an awesome time

This has been a good year, overall, with many ups and downs. I haven’t really mentioned any of the downs here—no one wants to hear about my identity crises or breakdowns. All of it translates to good things in one way or another. Onward and upward, my friends. Adventure is out there!

Happy New Year!!

things that are making me happy right now

in the spirit of choosing happy:

slowly putting together my room. it's kind of amazing, actually, how closely it's coming to what i envisioned. and it's almost done, i promise.

having catered lunches at work. it's pretty great, you guys.

getting to know people around these parts.

new perfume. it's nice to have a new scent once in a while.

frozen. loved it!

do-it-yourself and crafting projects. this is related to getting my room all gussied up, but for other reasons, too. and it's really fun.

family time, which includes going home mid-week for dinner and just dance. i'm pretty lucky.

roommates who are involved and want me to be involved, too.

sisters.

two days off this week :)

finishing the old testament!!!

extra time thinking about the savior, his birth, life, death, and rebirth.

i really can't complain ;)

okay, i'm back

so...i guess i took a three-day hiatus from that whole post-everyday thing, yeah? it has been a crazy crazy week! i feel like i've been running around pretty much non-stop. news from this week so far:

i went to my new ward on sunday and it was good. this was me:

except without any daddy warbucks-type character. though that would have been kind of cool.

my bed came on monday, which meant that mom came early to help me put up my pictures and such. this was me:

i actually really do love it though. i'll have to have a room tour post when it all gets done. i was excited to learn last week that the unparalleled tyler walke has volunteered his services in building me furniture for my new room. ladies, revisit this as soon as possible, please. how is this guy still single?

last night, i went to the foxhill ward christmas party at my old stomping grounds, the joseph smith memorial building. it has been seven years since that first summer i worked as a banquet server. crazy! how did i get to be so old?? anyway, the food was lovely, the program was lovely (if i do say so myself, since i had a role...)--it was a good time. it really has been fun to be at home and back in the home ward, even if i am still in that "i'm not a girl, not yet a woman" phase (so many multi-word/phrasal adjectives happening today!)

most exciting news of today: i got my salt lake county library card. it feels good to be a library-goer again. i feel like i've been doing barely any reading these days, and i was starting to question my own identity. who am i if i'm not reading. it's been something of an existential crisis. but now that's all solved, because i once again have a stack of books waiting for me, most of which i probably won't read but that's just that.

i have about a million posts planned that i just haven't gotten to yet. aren't you all just dying to read about my christmas list and my thoughts about one direction? well, be patient, my dears--there are still twenty more days in the month.

moving out/moving in

everything has been pretty close to the surface over the past couple days. i'm not entirely sure why--every so often i have a couple days where i just want to cry, and pretty much anything will make me cry. combine that with moving to a new place on my own and "leaving the nest" (again), and i've been having a rough go of it.

the good thing, though, is that i know it's going to be okay. even if i don't make a million friends right off the bat or become the social butterfly of the ward or even have everything figured out, things are going to be okay. remember how i have to tell myself that multiple times a day, still?

but overall, i feel pretty good. my space is coming together, and i love all of it. i'm sleeping on an air mattress for the time being (a very comfy air mattress, though) and there are still boxes surrounding me. but it's great. it's going to be great.

special thanks to my family, for so many things, as always: for being here to help me move, for being there to console me, for being the best.

so it's on to new adventures. this sounds so melodramatic, which it probably is. but it feels like a big deal to me right now. so bear with me. i'm sure it will be a fun adventure :)

thoughts on thursday

too many things swirling around in this brain of mine today to try to pare it down into one coherent post, so you get my disconnected thoughts today.

this week, i found the match to two different pairs of earrings. in both cases, i was overjoyed. there is almost nothing worse than losing just one earring--worse, even, than losing one sock--nobody cares, really, whether your socks match or not. and in some cases you can just buy another pair of the same socks and no one's the wiser. it's pretty weird, unless you're some alt-rebel-hipster type, to wear two different earrings. needless to say, i am glad my earrings are all back together.

driving in the snow=the worst. i'm glad i came out of the mess on tuesday with my body and my car in one piece. and my sanity, after it took me hours to get home.

i missed my post last night because i began the packing process, and because we made an exciting trip to hobby lobby to gather materials for my room. it's weird--for all of my college life i've had a lot of stuff to move around with me. tons of books, school notebooks that i save because i might need some random piece of paper or information again, that odd assortment of furniture that i collected as each new bedroom or apartment lacked some essential item of storage or decor. now, i'm obviously getting some different stuff, since this will be my own room and it doesn't come with any furniture, but i'm also trying to pare everything way, way down because 1) this is a time of reinvention, you know? and 2) i don't want to keep lugging it all around.

two movies i watch last night while packing and throwing junk away: monsters university and the way, way back. both were great. i've been waiting to see the way, way back for months and was never in the right place at the right time--it didn't disappoint, even though steve carell (spoiler alert) was kind of the villain. and you can never go wrong with pixar :)

i think i'm going to get this comforter set. i am insanely excited about it. things are happening!

tonight is my late night at work, so i'll probably get in another amazing, life-changing post today. in the meantime, more moving-day preparations!! (for some reason, i'm feeling an "insert-evil-laugh-here" kind of comment. insert as you wish.)

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 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.

thoughts on thursday

for the past few weeks, i've been going to water aerobics a couple times a week with mom. i am, by far, the youngest person there, since probably most people my age are either at work or school or getting ready for one of those at 8 in the morning. just another aspect of this funny time in my life. but water aerobics is pretty cool. it's exercising without really realizing that you are. probably the best moment, though, was last week when we warmed up to a version of "mmmbop"--i'm fairly certain i was the only one who knew the song. rec center water aerobics: always a good time.

now that i have a job, i'm all of a sudden in the market for a car. it feels weird. so many things are happening! pretty soon, i'll have my own medical insurance and my own car payment and i'll be living in a place where i probably won't know anyone. life is crazy. but back to the car: i really wish i could get a little suv, but i don't know if that will happen. so yeah, that's going on. i'm looking to become a car owner.

i'm listening to the new avett brothers album on npr's first listen as i type. can i just say that it is one of the greatest saddnesses in my life right now that i most likely won't be able to see them anytime soon? so good.

i got this book/kit from amazon last week. i like to doodle, and i would love to be able to do some hand lettered, hand doodled art projects. since i had just gotten the kit the day before, my notes from conference are the most artistic they've ever been.

i downloaded the app duolingo earlier this week and now i'm learning how to speak french. on my phone. so far it's pretty cool, and the lessons get pretty advanced as you go along. i'm kind of excited about it. anybody want to speak french with me when i can actually hold a conversation? maybe next i'll try to master german.

last week the last season of the office went up on netflix, and, naturally, i watched it in about three days. and i cried in probably a third of the episodes. it's still really bittersweet that it's over, even though the ending was perfect.

why haven't i made this my cover photo yet??

i'm still deep into the old testament. i'm hoping things spice up a little bit soon, because numbers and deuteronomy and joshua, while informative, were pretty dry. but i will be vigilant!

i also need to recap conference, which was amazing. coming soon! in the meantime, life is still good. happy thursday!

big news

as some may know, for the past couple months (really actually the past year or so), i have been on the job hunt. this was made somewhat harder by the fact that i want to teach and love to teach yet don't have a teaching certificate as of yet. so, the age-old question remained: what can you do with an english major?

job searching isn't easy. you don't feel that great about yourself. you see "now hiring" signs everywhere but none of them attached to a job or place you want to work. only a handful of the applications you send out lead to interviews, and a surprising number never garner any type of response at all. i like to think of those application out there in the nethers of the internet, waiting to be evaluated. i'll probably hear from them in a few months. how do you get a first job, the job that will help you gain real field experience, if all the positions require you to have prior experience? i don't know; i guess i was a little late to this game. i mean, i did a master's program partly because i wasn't ready to go out into the world and leave my little provo life.

i got the job!! and i don't take flattering selfies...

anyway, all this is leading up to the announcement that I GOT A JOB! i heard yesterday, and it's all very exciting for me. i will have a salary! plus benefits! i can once again become a functioning and independent part of society! i'm pretty sure my parents are even more excited than i am ;) i am really grateful that things worked out the way they did and that i have Somebody looking out for me. many somebodies, actually--i have been overwhelmed by the support and prayers of so many friends and family members this past little while.

i will be working at the salt lake/global campus of strayer university, which specializes in career-track online education for mostly adult students. i will be an admissions coordinator, so i'll be working with recruiters and students, helping them get situated. i'll get to know the ins and outs of this kind of higher education. i think it will be pretty cool. i start october 21st.

i still want to teach at some point. i think i'll end up getting my certification in a couple years. or maybe seminary? i would love to teach seminary. so we'll see. for now i am glad to be employed once again. there goes #4 on my list of 25 things to do this year.

get a big girl job: check.

that one time we saw hanson and it was amazing

i have been a hanson fan for a very long time. back in 1997, i kept hearing this catchy song, and then the djs would talk about these three brothers with long blond hair from oklahoma. i had to get in on that action, and eventually i was a full-fledged fanson. i got their first album, middle of nowhere, for christmas. i got their tour video for my birthday. i collected posters from j-14 and tiger beat and hung
them up in my room. i tracked their television appearances, from snl to good morning america to sabrina the teenage witch. and i've loved them ever since. i have every album, including their brilliant christmas offering, snowed in, and i've still never gotten
to see them live.

when i was younger, it was never really an option. they were pretty huge at one point, and we weren't really a concert-going family. then, though i was still a fan listening to the music they put out every couple years, i wasn't thinking about going to a show and being able to actually see these guys that i had loved for so long. i mean, as a boy-crazy preteen, i stayed up late in my room pretending i was a recently added member of hanson--asked to join because they were missing a beautiful dancer to spruce up their live performances. and also obviously zac was in love with me.


all of this is leading to the fact that, after 16 years of devotion, i finally got to see hanson live. i still a little bit can't believe that it actually happened, but my sisters and i bought tickets, went on the walk, and saw a hanson show--on berg's birthday, of all things! i could write so much about the details--how almost everyone in the audience was a female in her mid- to late-twenties or early-thirties (except for those random older people that creeped us out), how we met a hanson fan from slovakia, also a
first-time concert-goer, how i couldn't hear the next day, how everyone sang along to every song. it was seriously a dream come true for me, and i know how silly that sounds. after so many daydreams, i was a tiny bit sad that all of them are married and therefore not looking in the audience for a potential mate, which was always the way i envisioned getting into the inner circle, but i got over it ;)

in a word, it was great. amazing, even. nay, fantastic. no, more: exceptional. i might go so far as to say it was the greatest concert i've been to, and i saw taylor swift from the pit. for me, this concert was perfect. and i would go again in a second. thanks for going with me, sisters! thanks for being born, berg! and thanks, hanson, for still being my favorite band of all time. fanson forever.

we "took the walk"--we met up with zac and taylor a few hours before the show and walked a mile around salt lake barefoot. they do this before every show--they donate a dollar for every person who walks. and this is how close i got to zac. close enough to give him a little pat on the butt, if i had wanted.

family life

a couple weeks ago, we played mom to two different families. being a single person living in an apartment complex full of single people, i don't get to be around kids all that often. and while sometimes kids have meltdowns and it isn't easy, being around families of little kids is really fun.

something i noticed with both of these families is how there was a definite and visible focus on the gospel in their homes. they read scriptures, say prayers, have family home evening, make family goals, talk about modesty. i think about parenting a lot, as is probably evident, since i think the challenges facing kids these days are really scary and unique. so it's cool to see how modern families are working to combat these challenges.

it's also interesting to see how different families can be. different things work for different people, and that's fine. you need to do what's best for your family, your situation. 

another observation i made: i want my home to have a nice big common area, with lots of couches and chairs, so the whole family can sit around. for some reason some houses don't really have that? it's weird when the only place you can really sit is in the bedroom. although, probably when i'm a mom i won't have a spare minute for such things as reading. but it would be nice to have a place where we can all be together.

basically, the week of nannying just made me long to be a mother. does that sound weird? yeah kinda. but oh well. holding a baby is the best. bathing kids, playing games with them, eating together, driving around--all of it is pretty great. good thing they can be forever, right?

girl's trip summer 2013: tuacahn

i've been saying for years that i want to go down to st. george and see the shows at tuacahn. we saw south pacific down there one year during girl's camp (girl's camp at a condo with a pool is pretty much the only way to go, by the way), and i loved it. i've wanted to go back ever since, to that amphitheater nestled in a red rock valley.

so, after a week at aspen grove, we decided we needed a vacation from our vacation, hopped in the car, and headed down to st. george, tickets to mary poppins and thoroughly modern millie in hand. i love both of these movies, and i'd been reading the mary poppins books in preparation, so i was pretty psyched.

overall, the trip was pretty laid back, we did what we wanted, hung out by the pool, did a little bit of shopping, and saw the shows. while i love mary poppins, it's not quite as entertaining as a comedy like thoroughly modern millie. both were great, but i think we all enjoyed the second night a little bit more. we lucked out, though, that it wasn't boiling hot--but we were right under the handy-dandy misters for portions of the performances.

then, on wednesday morning, after a filling breakfast at cracker barrel, we made the drive back home, where we slept for two nights before embarking on other adventures (more to come).

i'm so glad we finally made the trek to tuacahn for our girls' trip, especially during the summer when they were playing these two lovely shows. i love you mom and sisters! (and a special shout out to the littles, who so kindly let us stay at their home.) who's in next year for the wizard of oz and joseph?

aspen grove 2013

last week, we had a family reunion at aspen grove, a byu family camp up provo canyon. we went to aspen grove 15 years ago when i was 10, so it was a coming back of sorts. the first day, i realized that i remembered almost nothing from that long ago experience at camp, which meant it was almost like i had never been before, though i think coming back as an adult made the experience a lot different anyway.

i could write a huge long post about every day and what we did and what we ate and the fun we had and the things that maybe weren't so fun and how much i miss everyone and how i didn't expect to. but i'm not really in the mood for that, so how about just the highlights and maybe a few pictures?

things about the solomon family reunion at aspen grove 2013:

this is berg, btw. not me :)

--i pretty much lived in the arts and crafts cabin. i just wanted to paint! i made a bowl and a round box, and i also made my very own wood pen, which took me right back to middle school wood shop, which also meant things kept going wrong. i was always having issues in wood shop.
--the food situation was not looking good after the first couple meals--dry enchiladas for dinner, eggs and toast for breakfast?? no thanks--but things really started to pick up around sunday lunch, and pretty soon i was sold.
--our little cluster of cabins played games every night, and those were some of the most fun times for me.
--aspen follies, one of the few things i do remember from our first outing at aspen grove, were hilarious. 
--i somehow ended up sleeping in our cabin's little loft every night, and let me tell you, those things were not made for a grown person. the actual sleeping was fine, for the most part, but getting in and out, up

and down the ladder caused me a certain amount of dread each day. anything for the experience, right?
--it felt weird to be older than the staff, which is made up mostly of byu students. have i mentioned that sometimes i feel really old?
--i love being around kids, especially when they play games with me or imagine their own fairy worlds or come around and give everyone random hugs.
--even though our cabin quarters were tight and our stuff was everywhere, it was fun to be with the family all week. and it really wasn't that bad to walk down to the communal bathroom everyday. it felt like we were the only ones using it anyway, since we weirdly never saw any of the other families who were supposedly using it, too.
--the aspen grove schedule helped to get me into a better sleep schedule. i was super tired at night, but i also didn't want to miss breakfast, so i was up at 7:30 each morning.
--even though our family reunions are getting further and further apart, i am glad we have them. we celebrate nana and bopy's 75th birthdays this year. i 'm grateful for them! it was so fun to reconnect with everybody again, aunts,
 uncles, cousins, cousin's kids alike. should we start planning for norway 2015?

a full fourth

this year, the holiday was dedicated to spending time with family and generally having a lot of fun. we went to the north salt lake fireworks extravaganza, like always, and they were amazing. a little girl in our ward, and one of mom's best friends, ruby, sat by me during the fireworks show, which made it all even more entertaining :) can we add some kids to our family already or what?

on the morning of the fourth, we crawled out of bed for the annual foxhill ward fourth of july breakfast. the food was plentiful, and we had a beesley family first when five of us, everyone minus dad, performed the star spangled banner. i think this could be the beginning of a wonderful and successful career for the star spangled beesleys.

that night, we headed down to provo for the stadium of fire. how we convinced dad to get us tickets for that, i still don't know, but it was awesome. sure, it was hot, and we were packed into the bleachers like shoes in my suitcase, but we still had fun. at least, i did. as the concert approached, i started to get more and more excited to see kelly clarkson. i don't consider myself to be a huge kelly fan, but i realized, in the days leading up to the show, that i know a lot of her songs, and most of them i actually really like. so her set was pretty great--i knew every song, and she even played this duet, originally sung with jason aldean, that we are obsessed with.

 

 she was so good, singing her heart out. it was altogether great. i would definitely see her again, and even though it took us about an hour to get out of the parking lot (and even though we had talked about ways to avoid all of that...), i would totally go to stadium of fire again, depending on the performer.

and that was my fourth! happy birthday, america!

on this day

i wrote this on saturday, but for some reason i've been on something of an internet fast since then. but i'm posting it anyway.

four years ago, i flew from salt lake to new york to shannon, ireland.

this is me when i first stepped outside, out into the first blustery day of the trip. this was the first leg of an amazing study abroad experience.

i was afraid, at first, to be honest. i didn't have any great friends going into the trip, it was the first time i would really be away from home, out of the country, and i can always find a million other things to worry about. it didn't help that, in the terminal at kennedy airport, waiting for the flight that would take me across an ocean, my computer inexplicably wouldn't turn on. so, for those first few days and nights, i fretted over whether i would ever be able to talk to my family or how i would upload pictures. i feared that all my worries would be confirmed.

eventually, my computer worked again. i made friends. i talked to my family and posted pictures on facebook. i had an incredible time. a four year anniversary seems as good a time as any to revisit it all, right?

shop hop all your troubles away

every year, a group of quilt shops across the wasatch front hosts a "shop hop." thirteen shops
participate each year, decorating to fit a theme. last year, i somehow completely missed it and was really bummed. so this time, we were prepared.

mom, berg and i planned to hit up a few of the shops, this year coordinating around a game theme. berg and i drove home on thursday afternoon, and as we were getting in the car to head back down lehi way for the first shop, mom said, should we just try to go to all the shops? if you go to all 13, stamping your passport at each, you are entered to win some awesome prizes. since i don't technically know how to sew, i was hoping to win the grand prize, a sewing machine. because i know that if i had a sewing machine to call my own, i would actually learn to sew :)

so we embarked on a two day journey toward shop hop domination. even though i don't actually know how to quilt, i decided to buy fabric to make a quilt anyway.

you can't tell super well from the picture, but the color palette started as navy with some accents (orange, coral, green, teal). i noticed early on that i was picking up a lot of floral prints. story of my life! (one of my friends always points out when i am wearing something floral...which turned out to be almost every day. i'm wearing floral jeans as i type this. i just really like flowers, okay?!) anyway, i love all these fabrics, but there are some that i am obsessed with.

and there was one fat quarter that berg picked up early on that i was kicking myself for not getting. luckily, i found it at quilter's haven in bountiful, our last shop hop stop.

i can never resist a good rainbow.

the first day, we went to 10 quilt shops in about 6 hours. it was amazing. we drove from salt lake to lehi all the way down to springville and back again, stopping in orem, draper, midvale, cottonwood heights, sandy, and sugarhouse. favorite shops (meaning most dedicated to theme and/or best food): quilts, quilts, quilts (where's waldo), elaine's quilt block (ticket to ride), corn wagon quilts (monopoly), and pine needles (twister, but mostly just because i really like pine needles). 

the next morning, we met up with connie, dad's aunt, who is a major quilter, and headed up to brigham city. connie was talking to us about the day before, and when we said that we had been collecting fabrics for quilts we wanted to make, she asked how much we sewed. berg and i were both like, um, never now. but we are determined to learn. we played go fish in brigham, had fun at my girlfriend's quilt shoppe in logan, ate some lunch at the historic bluebird cafe, and then headed back down the mountain. after dropping connie off, we finished back home in bountiful. 

it was a very busy two days, but it was a ton of fun. we saw a million cute things that made me want to be the cute crafty homemaker that my mom is. 

and, best thing! i got a call last week saying i had won a prize. sadly, it wasn't the sewing machine. guess i'll have to shell out for that at some point, especially if i want this awesome quilt to get made.

my prize bag: a couple quilt books, some patterns, a bundle of fabric comprised mostly of doctor/nurse prints, some other squares that are kinda cute, and some kleenex. 

plus, the shop hop got me back into embroidery. 

that little flower one in the top right is my own design :) and please pardon the wrinkliness. now i just need to finish these babies with some fabric. anybody willing to teach me how to sew/buy me a sewing machine?