Happy Birthday

Have you ever wondered what the simplest thing was that would make my 21st birthday the absolute best?

This, my friends is it:



I love me some Jelly Bellys.

Also, I know I have been kind of MIA the past month in the blogger world, but I promise that I have a list of ideas for posts and I will return shortly. Apparently living at home and not having a job is really making me busy haha.

Move over HGTV

I have been living in the same house for 2 years now. And, for the last 8 months, I technically should have been using the downstairs bathroom. But, I hated it so much I would just stick with the upstairs one. Now that we have new roommates I thought it was best if I moved down to the bathroom I was supposed to use. But not before making it awesome!

Here is the Before pic:


Let's start from the beginning as to why I hate this.
-Ugliest shower curtain known to man.
-Sick purple color
-You can't really see it in the pic, but the walls were super uneven from everyone trying to plaster holes.
-The "white" is really dingy looking
-The wood cabinets have hopefully seen better days, they look really beat up when you are up close
-The random white wall
-No toilet paper roll holder
-No towel ring for a hand towel
-That sick weird pipe thing by the ceiling
-Really ugly, dirty rug

Ok, now here's what I did:
First, I sanded down all the walls to get rid of all the residue of other people trying to fix the problems
Then I sprayed and orange peel texture all over the walls
Then I removed a lot of the caulking
I painted the fake wood cabinets black
I painted that weird pipe by the ceiling with KILZ anti-mold paint
I painted the walls that purply red. 3 coats
I painted the baseboards
I re-caulked everything
I installed a towel ring and a toilet paper holder thing
I hung up a new cute shower curtain with a clean liner
Laid out the rug
Hung up the hand towel
and VOILA! A new cute bathroom! I really like it now.

Gym Rat

On January 18, 2010, Melodie, Sarah and I "changed our lives." We finally got gym passes to 24. I have not regretted it once. Whenever we don't have anything to do, we go to the gym instead of shopping or watching a movie or something. It's really great. Some of my favorite things about the gym include but are not limited to:

*Watching the Biggest Loser while doing cardio for 2 hours.

*The man who wears jean cut off shorts (which are unbelievably short, mind you), a tank top and a curly pony tail.

*The time Sarah and I were on the stair climbers and I look over and she is running up the stairs. I thought she was just really working it, so I was way proud of her. Then I look over again and she is hunched over on the top of it laughing. It turns out the machine malfunctioned, and started going ridiculously fast, and she couldn't hit the button to stop. So, she had to jump on top of it to finally turn it off. We were laughing SO hard!

*Right after this story happened, Sarah left the machine because she had just run up a million stairs at such a fast pace, and I couldn't stop laughing to myself. Then I would laugh even more thinking about what a dork I looked like laughing to myself.

*When I climbed 100 flights of stairs

*Listening to an unbelievable great mix of music

*Going to the yoga classes and being able to do the hard poses

*Being able to lift more than the boys sometimes

*Watching the girls that just stare at the boys the whole time. Puh-lease.

*When I biked a dang marathon

*Seeing the girls that come in all dolled-up. You know this is a gym, right?

*Trying out all the new machines

*The time the old man came up to me and told me I was on the machine backwards. No, actually I'm not. Thanks.

*Seeing the results of working out so much. Yes, I am starting to get a six pack, and my biceps are huge. I love it.

Anyway, I have been so happy ever since I got a gym membership. I recommend it to EVERYONE. In fact, if you want to try it out, let me know and I can email you a 24 day pass for free. It's seriously the best.

M-M-M-Monkey

So on Wednesday, Michelle and her kids came with Jared up to campus. It's spring break so they went to the Bean Museum and the Eyring Science Center and what not. Michelle asked me if I wanted to meet them for lunch somewhere, so I went and found them on campus and we went to Carl's Jr. Michelle had coupons for Carl's Jr. so naturally that was the place to go. So, we get there and go into the play place section to eat our food so Heber and Jack could run around while we ate. As we were all eating, I hear "Egh!" come out of Jared's mouth. I look up to see what made him make this noise, and then instantly I gasped an "Uuh!" Then Michelle, wondering what it was looked up and gave a good "Agh!" What was it that was making all of us freak out? Well, the play place cage thing was right next to our table and about a foot away from our table was a tiny little boy. He had his hands up on the cage and his jaw dropped open and his big, big brown eyes staring at us. This little boy looked so much like a monkey that we all were shocked when we saw him. He just sat there and stared at us for a good thirty seconds. Meanwhile, we were all dying laughing because we totally thought it was a monkey when we saw him. He didn't change his expression at all. He just kept staring and then eventually gave an awkward smile and turned away.

I cannot stop laughing about this little kid. Even while writing this, I have had to take a break because I am laughing too hard out loud. The other night, I couldn't fall asleep because I was laying in bed and laughing out loud thinking about the little monkey boy. It's too funny and it just needed to be shared.

Major Changes

Ok. Let's rewind to the end of February.

I was busy practicing for my audition for the School of Music. I filled out applications, wrote essays, wrote resumes, and made a DVD. It was a ton of work, and felt a little bit like deja vu seeing as it was the third time I was doing this. I went to the audition and did alright, but I didn't think they loved me as much as I had hoped. Then the next day I had my interview. It went OK, but when I left I could just tell I wasn't going to get into the program again.

Then all of March went by, wondering if by some miracle I got in, freaking out that I wasn't ready to be rejected again. I looked at all of the other majors BYU had to offer for when I found out I didn't get accepted, and found a lot that I thought would be really fun. But, still hoping that maybe I would get into the program.

Now I wish this could be one of those stories where I had so much doubt, but it didn't matter and in the end I got what I thought I wanted, but that just didn't happen. Last Monday I found out that I didn't get into the Music Ed program once again. So I set up a meeting with the head of the department that day to talk about why I didn't get in and what I needed to do for applying in the summer. He went over my entire portfolio and told me that since they only accept 12 students a year, my portfolio was good, but not great. He told me that even if I were to apply in the Summer I wouldn't get in. So I sat there in his office bawling while he told me that I just wasn't good enough. Let's be honest, that's a really hard thing to hear and to go through, but I'm very grateful it happened. And I have absolutely nothing against Dr. Broomhead or the Music Ed program. After leaving his office, I ran into the girls bathroom and cried hysterically. I could not even catch my breath. The last time I remember crying like that was when I was little and my mom wouldn't let me play or something (oh, the drama).

Anyway, I regained my composure and walked home, skipping both of my classes for that day. I went straight to my bed and just slept. Then Laura called me and said she would come and pick me up and take me to Michelle's, seeing as I didn't want to hang around Provo that night. So, I went home with her, she picked up some Girl Scout cookies on the way home to help cheer me up. At Michelle's, we had dinner and then I went swimming with all of them and Jake and Laralee's family. It was so much fun, I had completely forgot about not getting in the program.

When we came back, I got online and started looking at other majors to do at BYU. And I started looking into the Music Ed program at USU as my mom told me that my old choir teacher Mrs. Jolley said that would be a great place to go. I couldn't decide if I wanted to do Music and transfer up to Logan or just stay and do something else in Provo. I was having way too many flashbacks of last year when I was debating between BYU and UVU and I just hate having to completely change life plans. It is so stressful and I had no idea what to do. I figured it was going to take me a LONG time to decide where exactly I was going to end up this Fall.

So Laura took me home and on the way home I was talking about the Exercise and Wellness major that I had been researching over the last month and how fun I thought it would be, but I just didn't know if it was exactly what I wanted. As we pulled up to my house, Isaac and Taniel were just pulling into our driveway to come and visit me. Taniel brought me a book about photography for my new camera (another post coming soon). We sat and chatted for a while, and I figured that either my mom or Michelle had told Isaac and so they were coming over to comfort me, but they seemed completely oblivious haha. So I told them the bad news and they talked with me for a while and were very sweet. Then everyone left and I tried to go to bed.

Falling asleep proved rather difficult as my mind was going one hundred miles an hour. I started thinking more and more about my future in college. I realized how much my family meant to me, and how being so close to them helped me. I decided that I could not move up to Logan and be away from them right now. What was I going to do when I was having a bad day and Laura couldn't pick me up with Girl Scout cookies? What if I couldn't just run home and go swimming with my brothers and sisters and have my darling nieces and nephews help me forget that anything was even going wrong with the day? What if I didn't get to have my brother and sister come and visit me and just chat, for no reason? I know there will come a time in my life when I will not be able to live close to my family, but I know that this is not that time.

So, I decided I was definitely going to stay in Provo to complete my undergrad at BYU. One of the things that led me to choosing the Exercise and Wellness major is that I sat in Dr. B's office while he told me that I just wasn't good enough. I have had a lot of heartache over the past 3 years trying to get into this program, and I hated having to hear that I would never be able to do it. Well, I realized that I didn't want to be that person. I don't want to tell people that they aren't good enough, not good enough to be in my program, not good enough to be in my choir, not good enough for the solo, none of it. I want to motivate people. I want people to realize that they are ALWAYS good enough to do the things they want to do.

Also, I LOOOOOOVE music. I always have. Whether it was singing along to the music and dancing in front of the TV so I could see my reflection when I was little, to singing in the shower, to sitting down and playing the piano, to getting banned from Phantom of the Opera for a month since I sang it too much. That was pretty much all I did in High School and it has become so much a part of me. And I'm not going to give up my love for music, but I don't want it to become my chore. I don't want to be in a practice room for 4 hours a day practicing for juries. I want to enjoy it and not make it a stressful part of my life.

So, I went in on Wednesday and declared my major! It was SO simple! All I had to do was sign a piece of paper. I was trying to talk to the adviser for longer because I felt like I had to jump through more hoops, since that was what I was used to. But, I am in the major and I will start classes this Fall. I cannot WAIT! I am so excited for all the classes that I get to take and for all the great things that I will get to learn. It's gonna be a good next few years.

P.S. Sorry this is so long, if you even got to this point haha.

Project Music

Since November 14, 2009 I have been listening to every single song in my iTunes. I put all of my music into playlists and deleted over 1.5 GB of songs that I decided I hated. Now, nearly 4 months later, I am done!

However, I feel like I don't know how to listen to music. Listening to one artist or one album just seems weird to me. I have gotten so used to just listening to whatever was the next in line. I feel like I'm more open to music though, because instead of listening to whatever I want in the moment, I listen to anything. That could be good or bad. Who knows. Regardless, I'm done. And I'm so glad.

After listening to all of my music, I have grown to like a few people that I didn't originally like. Like such as:

The Feist.
She & Him.
The Perishers.
The Format.
The Weepies.

Which is funny because these are all artists Melodie LOVES. She has a great taste in music.

These are the artists that I loved before and love even more:
Regina Spektor.
Taylor Swift.
Michael Buble.
Sean Kingston.
Owl City.
The Carpenters.
Jason Mraz.
Elvis Presley.
Camera Obscura.

Artists that I still can't stand:
Maroon 5. barf.
Pretty much any whiny screamy boy band.
Jack Johnson. Sorry, just not my style.

Crazy Love

If anyone wants to get on my good side or just become my instant best friend, feel free to take me to the Michael Buble Crazy Love concert. That would be just fine with me. I'll even buy you a T-shirt.