one down, five to go.

i had a week off of school.

so {of course} i traveled to the mecca of young mormons: provo.
it was a week well spent with friends and family brother.

highlights include:
-throwing mashed potatoes.
-getting way too into super mario brothers 3 (supernintendo style.)
-mocktails?
-jersey sunday, every sunday.
-80's night. 'nuff said.
-dancing in parking lots
-grocery shopping at 2 am (you gotta do what you gotta do.)
and obviously we partied hard. all week.
oh wait... except for the two days that i was throwing up. cool.

...but besides that, it was a superfantastic trip all around.
remind me why i left there?



errr... just ignore the ginormous fingers in this picture. some people don't know how to use a camera.
and the fact that i look nasty in both this pictures. whatever.



also, just fyi, i started a tumblr.
if you dont know what that is (cough cough parents), it's basically a blog of just pictures that you like.
hello tumblr, goodbye life.
anyway, check out my new alias and new obsession here.

plans

"when one door closes, another door opens..."
  
there have been so many closed doors lately.  many i have closed myself, but others have slid closed without any warning.

i'm leaving BYU.  i dont think ive ever actually written that on here-- i'm not going back there next year.
...maybe its just the "freshman year experience."  maybe its just the dorms and the huge, beautiful campus.  i think it could be the extreme school spirit- that feeling at the basketball, football, and volleyball games.  its definitely the people i met, and even the people i didn't meet.  it might be the seasons (winter sucked, but spring was cool), or the college-town feeling, or even the professors.
whatever it is about BYU, im really going to miss it.

for a long time, i didn't know where i was going.  more doors closed.
but now, some have opened.

i'm going to an ultrasound school in phoenix- back in the valley of the sun.
back where i can watch my little nephew weston grow up, where i can visit my parents, where i can stay tan and blonde, where the drivers dont annoy the heck out of me, where it doesn't snow, (where it doesnt even get cold,) where i am familiar with my surroundings, where i am home.

huzzah!
(ive been saying this lately. i dont know why... and yes, i know its weird.)

so here's to new beginnings, open doors, and the unknown.

new town.
new school.
new friends.
new scene.
new boys.
new life.

1108

i will miss it.
last wednesday night was our last night there, and we decided to leave a little scavenger hunt hidden around our room for the next people that live there.
(we will send them a letter telling them where the first clue is.) 
this very blog post is part of the scavenger hunt-- we wrote the url for it on the clue.


to the future occupants of 1108:

here are the pictures.  the people who lived in 1108 before us were our friends stephanie and mccall, and this is the picture they took there the last week they lived in it:

we worked very hard to re-create this picture on our last night there. here's our interpretation:

sorry we both kinda look like major creeps. (i promise we're not.)
hopefully, one of you has blonde curly hair and the other has straight burnette hair so you can re-create this too!

as far as your next clue:
look in places similar to the last clue- you may have to get down and dirty again.
p.s. try the third one.

hope you guys have a fantastic year in 1108 and you love it as much as we did!
feel free to add us on facebook:  me & angela

april showers, may flowers, and being done with finals!

despite the damp sidewalks and shallow puddles, even the plants seemed happy as i walked back to my dorm today.  the flowers {yellows, oranges, pinks, and whites} which cover the trees here shined brighter than normal against the darkened sky of a rainy monday, and they cheered for me, and with me.  

have i ever mentioned how beautiful the spring flowers are?

they cheered because i'm done, done, done with my finals, and i was making my last walk back from the testing center.  they cheered for me because i finished early, and i may have even gotten an a in physics.  they were loving the fact that my hair was curled, my mascara fresh, and my clothes summery, even during a dismal finals week. they were jealous of the fact that soon i'll be back in arizona, where even the rainy mondays are warm, and every tree has leaves.  they cheered for my flip flops, bright cardigan, and happy face amongst all the somber college students i passed.

i cheered too.

on another thought, this post needed a picture.  this is in the hall of mirrors in the palace of versailles near paris, france.
the first thing we did?  take a "myspace" picture in the mirror.
obviously, we are very mature.

"we'll never fredette"

last saturday, i was a part of something amazing:

the last byu basketball home game.

(of byu's best basketball season ever)

it was incredible.

people camped for days- tents went nearly all the way around the marriott center

the atmosphere was indescribable

byu brought breakfast to all those waiting in line early saturday morning

senior videos for jimmer fredette, jackson emery, and logan magnusson + "drop the sheets" introduction

face paint

insane student section

many-a "you got jimmered" (and other) chants

massive student section flash mob dance (during a random time out)

lots of emotion (i almost cried when they took out jimmer and jackson at the end)

we killed wyoming with 100+ points...

and won the mountain west conference

confetti everywhere

awards, cutting down the net, mwc trophy, speeches, and lots of love all around.

(2 images above borrowed from kara)

(yes, they let brandon davies participate! the crowd showed him mad love and cheered just as loud for him as they did for jimmer!)

(you can't even see the upper bowl here! this was possibly one of the coolest things ive ever done.)

good luck in the tournament boys... we ♥ you!

don't mess with The Jimmer.

in case you haven't heard, The Jimmer is kind of a big deal.
especially around provo.
& apparently some people don't like that very much...
case in point: michelle peralta.
she wrote an angry letter to BYU about "Jimmer-worship" and posted about it on her (public) facebook profile... which was a mistake.
within 1/2 an hour, nearly 1000 comments had been posted on her wall.
all of which are hilarious and worth the time to read.
this has been covered by ESPN, NBC, and basically every other news and church organization.
she ended up blocking and eventually deleting her facebook profile.
read the whole thing here.

a little taste of the comments (most of which follow michelle's "religious" theme):

• “For God so loved the world, he gave us Jimmer.”
• “I noticed in your letter that you accidentally forgot to capitalize some of your pronouns when you referred to The Jimmer. I am sure He doesn’t appreciate that.”
• “JIMMER IS THE GOLDEN CALF!!!!!!!”
• “Whoever said ‘No one is perfect,’ obviously never met The Jimmer."
• “Though shalt love The Jimmer as thyself.”
• “Wow. Glad I finally finished reading this article. Now I can brush my teeth, pray to Jimmer, and go to bed.”
• “On the Marriott Center court. The Jimmer brought a dying lamb back to life, just by nuzzling it. As the onlookers gathered, the lamb sprang to life. The Jimmer then shot it through the netfrom 40 feet, instantly killing it. This was just to prove that the good Jimmer giveth, and the good Jimmer taketh away.”
• “One time, the BYU Basketball team was walking on the beach and they looked back and only saw one set of footprints.”
• "If Jimmer is Nephi that makes Tre’von Willis Laban.”
• "I'm trying to be like Jimmer, I'm shooting from 30 feet away. I'm trying to cross over people like Jimmer does, to punks like Tre'von and DJ Gay. At times I am tempted to cheer for the yewts, then the holy Jimmer whispers into my thoughts saying "love one and other except for the yew. Try to score 50 in all that you do. Be humble but cutthroat in deed and in thought." For these are the things Jimmer taught."
• "Chuck Norris wears Jimmer pajamas"
• "Who can find the Jimmer? For his price is far above rubies."
• "the three nephites who chose to never die chose that only so they could watch jimmer play."
• "jimmer stared at the sun. the sun blinked."
• "for the natural Michelle is an enemy to Jimmer, unless she yields to the enticings of the Holy Jimmer, and putteth off the molly mormon and becometh a fan through the power of The Jimmer"
• "Champions eat Wheaties for breakfast.  Jimmer Fredette eats champions for breakfast."

... and they go on and on and on.

i think that maybe Shawn Bradley, Chad Lewis, and LaVell Edwards said it best in their video:

new roomie!

Angela and i got a new roommate the other day!

he is wonderful & we love him a lot.
his name is Wentworth (or "The Beast"),

and he is a couch we bought from DI.
it took 7 girls about half an hour to get him in the building, down the hall, and through the door...

but in the end, it was worth it.

of course, he is named after this fantastic man....
(wentworth miller)

whom we love, thanks to the best show ever...
(prison break)

which we just finished the other day.
(yep, all four seasons and the movie.)

...it's not like we're obsessed or anything...

2 things that i love?

firefighters & free stuff!
(the reasons why my last couple days have been super cool.)

wednesday night, the fire alarm in Hinckley Hall went off (good work, girls having a hairspray fight).  my awesome friends and i decided to do the most logical thing in that situation... break back into the building (after we evacuated), grab money/coats, and go to Costa Vida.

however, we soon realized that fire alarm=firefighters, so we hung around and got pictures with the guys and trucks that saved our building. 
(and hit up Costa Vida after)

thursday was the housing fair, and one thing that i've learned at BYU is that fairs guarantee free stuff.
so, some friends and i went twice. our spoils include:

(two t-shirts, two pens, a new kind of vitaminwater, & a manicure.  not pictured: popcorn, gelato, and countless pamphlets)

oh, what an exciting life i live!

cool people

last week, condoleezza rice spoke at byu.  i never realized how much i like her until then! she was really funny, really inspiring, and really interesting to listen to.  i am pretty sure that i want to be exactly like her. 

oh, and i want to be an ambassador or something too.

(yes, i may have stolen this from someone's facebook)

another woman i just think is really cool is megyn kelly.  she is an anchorwoman for fox news, ridiculously smart, funny, and super beautiful.  i want to be like her too.
(unfortunately, i have yet to see/meet her)

can you think of any way to be the national security advisor/secretary of state and a successful news anchor?

if you do, let me know.

oh, and i also met a little someone known as jimmer fredette over the weekend.  he's basically king of byu, going to be an nba star, and is super nice.  i may be in love.

(also in this picture: charles abouo, brenda strong, and jessica campbell)

don't jimmer and i make a cute couple? :]

♥

When 2010 began, I told myself it would be the best year of my life.

One thing is for sure: it was a year of change.

My home changed (3 times):

Mesa, London, Provo

I graduated high school and headed to college.

My friends changed with each location:

My family changed with the addition of this little man (I'm an aunt!)

I had to sell my awesome horse Dollar:

 My wardrobe changed:

And I changed.

Let's be honest: I still have a lot of growing to do.

But, with change comes growth, and I did a lot of growing this year.

I began to find myself...

And I've never been happier.

So here's to the best year of my life...

and to topping it.

recap

"The more things change, the more they stay the same."

... it's true.
Since I've been in college, a lot of things have changed:
It's cold here,

friends are different,

my "family" has changed, 

we can have sleepovers whenever we want,

I'm now obsessed with Prison Break,

and I spend a lot more time studying.


But, perhaps even more things have stayed the same:
Suns fans are still "The Best in the NBA,"
(a big group of suns fans in the Utah Jazz Stadium)

Mesa kids still love concerts,

harry potter still rocks,

the temple is still beautiful, 

jungle jims are still awesome, 

Santa Clause still comes around Christmas,

and paint is still fun.

(with or without squirt guns and black lights)

As Asher Roth so eloquently puts it, 

I love college.