Crazy Socks & Writer's Block

Last night, news broke that Jake Wykstra had been killed in Afghanistan. I'm not going to pretend that I knew him very well. I'd met him. He was in my seminary class. He hung out with all the skaters. He intimidated me though, I don't know why. He was always happy though and smiling. I remember finding out a few months ago that he'd gotten married and I was happy for him! I read all of his wife's sweet messages about how in love she was and how she couldn't wait for him to come home. But he's not coming home. My heart broke for her. I can't imagine the pain and sorrow she must be feeling right now. All I wanted to do was hug Sammy closer, so grateful for the men and woman who serve who make it so that I can be with him. I felt scared. What would I do if I were her? I found the blog "The Moments We Stand" a few months ago. I've been reading along every week as Ashlee tells about the story of her life, how her husband was murdered by his ...

I've always wanted to do book reviews and help someone find a book that they never would have found otherwise and fall in love with. I also noticed that companies will send free samples of things to bloggers to get their opinion on them. These samples are usually reserved for those big bloggers with hundreds of followers. Today I am stating my case as to why the magical book people out in the world should send free books for me to read and review. (Preferably YA) ;) I could fit a whole lot more books on there! 1. People have read books I've recommended on my blog. My friend Bailey  read and fell in love with Divergent  and told me she tried it out because of my many, many posts on the subject. Then, Lauren  mentioned seeing all of Bailey's tweets about Divergent and read it herself . I feel as though I indirectly helped her read the book, and anyone who reads it because of Lauren's post about it! Just last week my friend Bridget  posted about reading Divergent ...

I get goosebumps like crazy. All the time. Whenever I am feeling the Spirit, I get goosebumps all over. Whenever I see something beautiful, I get goosebumps. Whenever I feel intense emotion, I get goosebumps. And I love it! I love getting a physical reminder that life is beautiful :) I get goosebumps when cars let me merge in the most crazy of situations. I get goosebumps when people tell me the plots of plays or musicals. I got goosebumps SO good when Kathy played this video  for our primary class. They might not have been listening but I was and was covered in goosebumps. I got goosebumps when one of my favorite authors Meg Cabot announced she's writing more books for series that ended years ago, and all my favorite characters are getting married. I get goosebumps when someone plays with my hair. Then, there's the other goosebumps. Goosebumps when I'm cold. Goosebumps whenever I THINK about touching neoprene or the sound of a napkin rubbed on bread crust. Th...

This weekend Sammy and I built our bookcase! I have been waiting for this moment since, well, we bought the bookcase. I just wanted this puppy up and to put all of my books on it! I thought it was going to be a lot more stressful than it was. We actually understood the directions, and it was so much fun! I had no idea Sammy knew how to build things and such but he did such a great job! I love his Superman shirt! While Sammy nailed in the nails, I read his entries from my journal when I was 14. It was quite entertaining. All I talked about was crying, trying not to cry, boys, boys, boys, my hair, silly friends, boys. HAHA! It's funny because everyone in my journal that I mentioned, something crazy ended up happening just a few years later. I had a whole entry on what my perfect man would be like, and Sammy met all the requirements. :)  We couldn't figure out how to get us both in the picture. As soon as it was up, I got my books on the shelf! I alphabetized everythin...

(I forgot to post this awhile ago. So I'm posting it now :)) And relating to this weeks F word- Fruitful! There's only a few more weeks of school left, and some friends from out of state are already returning home. With a wedding coming up and finals, it's been pretty crazy! But, I've had some time to catch up with a few people home from BYU. They were very interesting conversations filled with boys, some school, books, and more boys ;) One thing in particular stood out to me, and that was their stories of how religion and school went right hand in hand. Biology lessons would be related back to the gospel, math, everything. And that's something I think is very cool! I love seeing the ways that religion and "the rest of the world" can go hand in hand. I'm going to school in Colorado in the middle of downtown. There is an array of everything down here and I love it, well, most of it. There's also a lot of weed present. My campus and BYU have a ...

First, I wanted to let you all know that there is an AWESOME giveaway going on at  The Flannel Flower . It's a FREE book, and it's about zombies. It doesn't get much better than that. There's even an exclusive interview with the author herself. I secretly hope to be giving away books on blogs and getting author interviews one day ;) So definitely, check it out! (Also, one of the entries is following my blog, so if you already do that, you've got one in the bag:)) On Wednesday, there was a tornado. Actually there were multiple tornados but only one actually touched down, and there was no damage or casualties. Thank goodness! Tornados are one of my worst fears, besides puking. I got a glimpse of the movie Twister as a kid and it scared the crap out of me! In third grade we read a book called Night of the Tornados or something like that, and it was crazy! The kid was involved in like seven! One detail I've always remembered from that book is the character describ...

I've finished three books so far! I'm beginning if I began to shoot a bit too high on my goal of books to read this summer, but I really wanted to have something to stretch for! The Rules. This is that book that I won off of GoodReads which was such an exciting day! And what a great book it was! It was one of my favorite kinds. This picture isn't the cover that my book has but I like it better because it has DNA on the cover and I love genetics!  This was a great twist on the girl with manipulated DNA trying to blend in tale because…. She's half ALIEN! With romance thrown in as well. Which I loved. Ariane also makes a very good point. All aliens or sub human creatures are usually portrayed as ugly in media so that we don't feel as bad killing them. There is a bit too much thinking about doing things than showing the feelings though, which annoyed me. It was a nice bus read though! Now I'm going to hunt down the second book.  The final book in the ...

There's a few blog posts I've written lately that need to have a few updates. Here's the P.S's For my epic fail in reading directions,  Embarrassed  everything turned out alright. I wrote a letter to my teacher explaining what happened, and she wrote back telling me that it wasn't a big deal and I didn't embarrass or bother her, and she could see what I was trying to do. She also wrote me another sweet letter saying she knows she'll see my name in print sometime soon and that I should keep in touch with her. She isn't the kind of person to say things just to say them, so this really meant a lot to me! I have some updates on my  First Kiss . My friend Kate messaged me and reminded me of what his name was, because after it happened I also called her! She then informed me that this man is now in jail for stabbing two people. I know I have no idea about the whole story and such, but I feel so blessed that I was alright even though I was being stupid back...

Our family dog is crazy. Absolutely bonkers. But still so cute! She climbed onto THE PIANO to go through my mom's purse She always snuggles where there is no room and falls off, constantly She prefers water from a cup rather than a bowl Sometimes she'll sleep on her bed.

On Wednesday, we finally got the keys to our apartment! It was so exciting, but a little stressful because I still had a final to finish that afternoon but I just wanted to play in my new home! We'd never seen the layout of the place until we actually opened the door and walked in. It was such an amazing feeling! While Sammy was being responsible and made sure everything worked, I just kept jumping up and down excited about the closets. (There's four! In a one bedroom!) My carpet My sink My closet My tub  I feel so excited having our own place! Yesterday my family helped me move some of my books and food storage in, and I jumped around some more so excited they were there and they approved of where I'll be living. My snazzy moving clothes.  I moved a few things in while Sammy was out and tried to make the place look homey. I found a giant rubber duck and put it in our tub. He went to show his mom the place afterwards, and I texted him asking if he ...

Whenever I hear the word frazzled I think of Ms. Frizzle. So, lets all us frazzled people get on the magic school bus and be frazzled together! I think Ms. Frizzle is a perfect example of what to do when frazzled. So, here's some ideas/tips from Ms. Frizzle and I. 1. Outfit is everything! Ms. Frizzle is known for her awesome outfits that coordinate with every adventure she goes on. Whenever I have a really stressful situation coming up, I always wear something silly. Yep, silly. This works for many reasons. First, I know not to take myself too seriously. Being too serious all the time is no fun, and doesn't help when you're already stressed. Second, people will usually point out whatever it is that you're wearing and will take you out of the moment for a second, and getting out of the moment is important! During rush at work, I always try to wear some sort of crazy pants, shoes or jewelry. Without fail whenever I am about to have a meltdown, a customer will say, he...

I feel like a lot of times when going through blogger, I'm always pushing the boundaries a bit. A lot of blogs seem to always be happy and awesome and they just won this free product from someone and it's great! And then, I'm over here in my little corner of the blogosphere wondering, hey, should I actually write about this? Is this something that you just pretend like it never happens? Am I the only one this happens to? My favorite moments are when I find someone cutting down those walls and sharing what life is actually like. That they have zits. That they don't have the perfect relationship and baby. That they've struggled with mental health. That they're secretly gross like me. (I took a quiz on buzz feed about how secretly gross are you, and I got pretty gross. In the guise of not being fake, I am sharing this fact with you all!) When I find those blog posts, I instantly feel a connection with that person and will automatically follow them on their life j...

I found this picture of Britton and I. This was at the Valentines Day dance the day after I got my first kiss. Please take note of the Pop Top necklace, the many, many, many rasta bracelets, and tutu. Oh, and that eyeliner. It's so funny, when I try to put eyeliner on now, my eyes cry all day. But back in the day I could pile that stuff on like nobodies business! Back to my first kiss. It was awful. Disgusting. I can't even remember the guys name. I remember what I was wearing, my black 3/4 sleeve v neck and a green tank top. I remember it was almost Valentines Day and I'd been 16 for five months. I was in the middle of an unrequited love horror that would never happen, and so when one of the older girls from church gave a guy my number saying we'd be great together, I didn't think much about it. I was flattered to have a guy texting me! When he asked if I wanted to meet at the mall, I went for it. I was under the impression that we were meeting with said ol...

I learned how to make cotton candy a few weeks ago! It was the funnest thing ever! And messy. Everyone warned me when I went to make it that I was going to get super messy which happened. I had cotton candy in my hair, on my shirt, on my pants, all up and down my arms. The cotton candy stuck more to my arms than the stick which was pretty sad. I only got to make the candy for a short times since I was so bad at it. Yet, when I went back inside after making cotton candy, I was clean. My boss asked me how in the world I looked so clean after making cotton candy. I replied that I ate it all. Which I did. And it was so, so, so, good! I wonder one thing though. Who on earth got the idea to take colored sugar, heat it up, and spin it real fast in a circle? I looked on Wikipedia but didn't understand it's answer of the history of cotton candy.  Even though I stunk at making cotton candy, it was so much fun!  I also made this. The bread was burnt and the cheese was cold....

So, I hinted before that there had been a little bit of drama between Sammy's dad and me. Mostly caused by me. That was because two weeks ago, Sammy got a call about our apartment. Because of some little itty bitty line somewhere, we couldn't qualify. Naturally, we freaked out. We had three weeks until we were supposed to be moving in. I stayed calm, saying that this obviously wasn't meant to be and we would find the right apartment. I then got a text from Sammy's mom telling me to call her. She told me over the phone that Sammy and I needed to get married the next day, but we still couldn't live together or anything. I had no idea what she was talking about! That was an awkward phone call. Of course, Sammy was at work for all of this. I then got a text from Sammy's dad saying that if we brought in our marriage license by Monday, we could still have the apartment. Ok, we've already moved the date twice and I've waited so long. My dress was three times ...

They're back! Our rings that is! Two weeks ago we finally went and purchased our wedding bands. I decided to get my ring sized as well. We've only been engaged 9 months. . . I didn't want to be ringless for two weeks! And for good reason… So, I was in my fiction class. Just sitting there minding my own business. Then out of nowhere this guy comes and sits next to me. My roommate told me he had been hitting on her all the time in her math class last year and that he was really weird, but I felt like giving him the benefit of the doubt. He sits in the corner with one of the other girls in our class and doesn't say much. So this was a bit odd. We started talking about Star Wars because I was wearing my Star Wars t-shirt that day. Everyone was asking me if I was wearing it because the cast of the new movie had been announced the night before. Nope, I was wearing it because I was bloated and felt fat and didn't want everyone to see. Anyways. So he's talking to me. ...

If there's one thing I need to work on, it's my focus. Especially since summer is coming! I don't want it to come August and say wow, I slept a lot this summer like previous ones. Also when it comes to my anxiety, I tend to have a harder time in the summers and early fall than in winter when it comes to this. Partly because I have more time to worry about things, and because I feel sick if it's super hot. This summer, I'm going to have Soo much more time on my hands. The wedding will be over, classes will be out for the summer, and I'll be living with Sammy which will drastically reduce my travel time to and from his house ;) This is the beginning of a new chapter in my life and I want to enjoy it! I don't want to look back on this summer and see how anxious I was. I also want to finish a novel and send it off. And in order to do that, I'm going to need to focus. Which, I struggle with. So, I've come up with a game plan in order to get this done. ...