For Peter...

It just excites me to hear about people who have or are going to read my blog. So this post is to thank you all for reading; specifically Peter who promised to read my blog at 4:00 am this morning at work.

Thank you for being awesome and reading whatever has randomly popped into my head over the past few months...

This may or may not be a test for Peter to see if he actually read my blog...but anyway, thanks everyone! :)

Have a good day at work Peter!

Little things aren't always so little...

Things that added up to equal the best Valentine's Day ever :)


-Deciding to wear festive colors (see red ribbon below...)

-Scott Mosley (cousin) being the sweetest person on the planet and getting Annie and I both a dozen roses!! This was such a sweet surprise to come home to in the middle of the day. I've never appreciated flowers more and I think it's because I just didn't expect them and he did not need to get them for me. My friend says flowers on Valentine's Day have lost all charm because they are expected, so to receive some unexpectedly was so awesome :)





-Honestly, I feel like I was vicariously giddy this Valentine's Day through the couples all around me being so happy with each other. I thought this would have the opposite effect on me, but for some reason I loved watching my brother and his girlfriend have a lovely day, I loved seeing Scott bring flowers for Rachel, which we added to the roses to make a sweet bouquet...notice the picture at the top...and I just loved seeing all the happy couples and flowers around campus :)

-Halfway through my day, I was in the library trying to write a paper (keyword being trying) I got on facebook, it was inevitable, and one of my best friends had written me this sweet note telling me he was so grateful for my friendship and how he was thinking about me and wanted me to feel loved on Valentine's Day especially! It was so thoughtful of him!






-Sierra and Jeremy coming over at night to bring me a flower and talk to me and show me Sierra's beautiful dress :) It was so nice to see them and I just felt loved that they thought of me and came over to see me!


-My friends. After all these nice things having been done for me, I was feeling rather selfish having not done anything extraordinarily nice for anyone myself, so I went around and visited a lot of my friends and it was just so nice to see them and catch up with them all.


This lovely day overall made me realize how incredibly lucky I am to have such a charmed life. I attend such a great school. It is absolutely beautiful, I have awesome friends, I love my roommates, and I am loved by and love soo many people! Ultimately, this was an amazing Valentine's Day thanks to so many people going out of their way to show their love for me. I was so touched!

I'm Turning Into My Mother!

It's happening...It's finally happening. I'm turning into my mother!! But, I hope you read that in the most positive way possible because I am not ashamed or scared or worried or any of the other emotional connotations that typically go along with this phrase. No; I say I am turning into my mother in a proud, almost defiant way today. I am proud that I was able to make chocolate covered strawberries that people thought were wedding-worthy :) I am proud that I was able to defy all odds and get people to come to choir and sound incredible and have fun while doing it. I am proud that people have judged my age to be older than it actually is based solely on said strawberries :). Overall, today was just a happy and proud day for me.

I woke up on Saturday morning feeling the urge to make something for our ward choir (because I have learned that treats are the only thing that get results here), and I also wanted this treat to be Valentine's-ey, so chocolate covered strawberries were what first came to mind. At first I thought they would be impossible because they just take so long and I have no idea what I am doing here in a dingy little run-down apartment with electric stoves that are known to start fires somehow...still haven't figured that one out...but I called my mom and had her walk me through the process of how to dip the strawberries. It sounded doable and I figured the worst that could happen would be them not turning out, which would not be a big deal.

So I set to work borrowing random pots and bowls from my neighbor friends to create a makeshift double boiler. See below :)
I had a fun time at the store finding different kinds of chocolate and chocolate chips to decorate them with, too!





So I spent a while sorting the strawberries to find the biggest and most ripe ones since Utah's fruit supply is desperately lacking seeing as it's the middle of winter...

And then I just dipped them and had fun with it! It was surprisingly fun and my roommates were pretty impressed with the designs that came out :) I was surprised they worked as well as they did, too. I felt like my mom because the only time we ever have chocolate covered strawberries at home are when she makes them for the choir or for weddings.


...but something I have learned here at BYU is that when I say I am turning into my mother because of something I have done, it's always associated with a good feeling and sense of pride. So I guess I just wanted to take the time to thank my mom for teaching me the things I've used here in college :) Thanks, Mom!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I am not one to hate on Valentine's Day. I'm really not, I promise. I have had very nice Valentine's Days the past few years seeing as I have been lucky enough to have people who care about me very much around to make the day special for me. This year, however, I have not been looking forward to Valentine's Day very much considering the one person I would like to be spending it with is far far away and not able to do even so much as call me.

So...I have spent the last few days gearing up for the inevitable challenge this lovely day of reminders that I miss him will be. I have been telling myself, "It's okay, you've been really lucky the past few V-Days; just think about that and don't focus so much on this Valentine's Day...".

Yesterday, I even had friends try to tell me "It's fine, you don't need to celebrate Valentine's Day if you don't want to. Just pretend it doesn't exist!". I don't know how well this will work at BYU...I'm pretty sure the red and pink everywhere will serve as a blatant reminder of this holiday meant to celebrate our love for one another. Not to mention the absurd amount of couples that crop up around this time of year on campus.

But it's okay, today I received a package from my family (okay...just my mom,

if we're being honest) and it was a great reminder to me that Valentine's Day isn't just about the romantic kind of love. It can be for anyone we want to remind that we love! How cute is this package?? My mom must have known exactly how I'd be feeling this weekend. She even sent thin mints! My favorite!! They're soo delicious :) So overall, this Valentine's Day, I am grateful for those people in my life who are just always there for me, even when I don't know I need them to be. Especially my family who have helped me through a tough last couple of months :) I love you all!

P.S. Look! Rachel and I made a cute Valentine's Box for our door for people to drop Valentine's in for our apartment! We are soo getting into the spirit of this thing <3 data-blogger-escaped-div="">

Rachel. Renae. Squires.

This post is dedicated to my wonderful roommate Rachel Squires. I was contemplating writing about my ridiculously short trip home yesterday and the exhausting effects the excessive flying has had on my body, (how's that for assonance?) but I decided that Rachel and her life are much more exciting :)

I have really gotten close to Rachel lately as one of our dear roommates, her "room" roommate, moved away this semester so now there are only three of us in the apartment. Seeing as Rachel and I are always up late on the couch doing homework together we have had many an opportunity to chat about life, and other, less serious, things. She is always here on my right hand ready to suggest what I should write about in this blog, but tonight she settled on herself as the subject and I took it to heart.

Now let me explain Rachel in a nutshell. She is from Spokane, Washington, which I think contributes to her down-to-earth nature and extremely perceptive opinion about life in general. She is absolutely stunning. I mean it, I have heard people describe her as "a 10", "a total babe", "unbelievably gorgeous", and the likes of these descriptive phrases.

She is a spiritual giant. I can't even count the number of times I have walked in on her studying her scriptures or listening to conference talks or church music. There is no one I would rather have gospel

discussions with on a day-to-day basis because she just always presents a very mature and fresh opinion about the things we don't understand perfectly. She also magnifies her calling like no other. She spends a great deal of her time typing out e-mails she sends in mass to our relief society to which she receives only 1 or 2 replies on a good day from the 40 of us girls. Sorry Rachel 0:)

Rachel is known to listen to country when she needs a little pick me up. In fact, just the other weekend we went on a little Garth Brooks trip listening to "Wrapped Up In You" more times than I care to admit. I love having her to help indulge my love of country music :)

I always look forward to Rachel's dinner nights because we never know what we're gonna get. She has cooked everything from Paula Dean's recipe for amazingly yummy stuffed

shells to a creative lemon, garlic, and oniony chicken dish we made up on the fly. She knows her way around the kitchen though, this girl. She even zested some lemons for this chicken dish of hers...that's more than I can say I've ever done. Her eating habits have definitely improved my knowledge of vegetables and healthy food in general. She is a nursing major, so since she is learning all about the vegetables we need to eat, she implements it into our roommate diet. I have experienced all manner of new vegetables this year and I have her to thank for it.

Now, you don't know belching until you've met Rachel. The very first day I met her she belched like I've never heard before. I have tried time and time again to teach her that it is a repulsive habit that no one appreciates, but she claims that it is unintentional. I am currently in the process of diagnosing her problem with the excessive air in her stomach that leads to her incessant burping and belching, but she refuses to see a doctor for it. You would think my scornful looks 7-8 times a day would be enough to stop her from belching, but they seem to have no effect on her. She is very confident in herself I suppose...

Dates.

Rachel dates like no one I've ever seen. You see, she works with BYU Intramurals which I claim to be the cause of her excessive dating habits, but in all reality, it's really just because she is such

a great girl..."A 10", if you will. Even if you don't want to blame intramurals for her dates, though, you gotta include it when talking about her life because it explains a lot about her. She is very athletically talented. I have not been great about going to her games and things, but she is always on a volleyball team or something with our ward because she is awesome on the court! And when she is not playing she is working with sports which explains her rockin' bod :P

Rachel claims to not have a great voice, but I could listen to her sing all day long. She just walks around the apartment singing her head off and it's absolutely beautiful! It sounds like home to me now :)

Arguments don't go well with Rachel unless you have awesome support for your side. She's quite stubborn and refuses to listen to any less-than-well-thought-out argument which I love about her. She's been known to shoot down a couple people who really thought they were somethin'. It's great to witness, but frustrating when I'm on the receiving end of her impeccable logic :)

Sweat pants are the most commonly used items in Rachel's wardrobe; She's much more productive with her life when she feels comfortable and her favorite state of being is what she affectionately calls, "messy cute!"--this entails hair in a messy bun thrown back, sweats, and t-shirt or sweatshirt, depending on the temperature of our apt. In all reality, it's our way of justifying not getting ready or looking great. We make each other feel better by calling it "messy cute!"

When Rachel has something tough in her life that she has to get through, she turns to a youtube video of a little girl pumping herself up in the morning and quotes, "I like my apartment! I like my house! I like my hair! I like everything! I can do anything good!"

Rachel's stomach tends to be a bottomless pit at about 10:30 at night. She can eat like nobody's business. It's awesome. She'll eat dinner and then eat, and eat, and eat, and eat. She single handledly devoured a whole new box of oreos in less than a week last week. We're working on self-control together, as she kindly always points out my fettish with berry tie-dye fruit roll-ups whenever I criticize her eating habits. (for her own good--mind you)

But overall, Rachel is awesome. She basically makes my life worth living :) She's a psycho, brilliant, hilarious, energetic, talented, and so genuinely nice I just am going to miss her like crazy next year! I really do feel blessed to have been able to live with and get to be such great friends with her this year. I hope she knows what a positive impact she has had on my life this year. I mean, I think she does, thus the humongous post/shrine thingy for her, but in case she doesn't, I hope she figures it out soon! I just love her so much!

What do I write about in a blog...?

So I have avoided the blogging craze thus far. I don't have an out of the ordinary life, I don't have any jaw-dropping, rolling on the floor laughing, hilarious stories, and I don't really have anything specific I want to share with the world. But a few people in my life have recently convinced me that I should start one because I am an English major and:

"Every English major should have a blog" and, I "like to write, so I should definitely have a blog!"

We'll see how this turns out for me...I have no idea what I'm supposed to write about and I don't want to seem "Pretentious", as a good friend described most bloggers. (No offense intended...) I suppose this little blog will just be a description of the little thoughts, little moments, and little things in my life that matter to me. I hope you enjoy following along with my everyday experiences :) Thanks for reading!