little buddha

Ghosts of Valentine's Past

2012-02-14T17:17:00.004-07:00

I'm one of those people who likes thinking about where I am today and where I was a year ago. I've always been a little bitter about "singles awareness day." Reflecting on the last few years, I realized that February 14 has been a pretty good day the last few years, whether it involved a special someone or not. Not to live in the past or anything, but let's highlight a few of those...

2008

I don't have any pictures of this day, but if I did, they would have been taken at a "make-out" party in Logan. Yup, make-out party. There was a table set up by the front door with little cups of Listerine, mints, and gum, a "make-out" closet, and an evening of kissing games. I'm afraid to say that I did not participate in any of the games, but I thorough enjoyed watching everyone else.

2009

There was a special someone this year, but he wasn't around so I went to hang out at sister Whit's house. Long story short, I ended up getting duct-tapped to a pole right outside someone's front door and made a couple good friends out of it.

2011

Skip ahead a year to the best V-day ever! It started in Shenzhen where I got on a plane and flew to Changsha. To celebrate the day of love I went to a romantic dinner with Chambrey, Jacob, Richard, and our new friend Michael at the fine dinning restaurant of Pizza Hut. I'm not sure I've ever laughed as hard as I did that night. I have never and probably never will meet anyone like Richard. This is the night I was introduced to his strange allergies. Peanuts, meat, alcohol, fruit of the apple family...name it, he's got it. Michael turned up his charm a few minutes and Richard watched and took notes so he could practice flirting in the future. The five us squished in a cab on the way home and Chambrey's personal space was violated. Richard looked at me and said that I look exactly like a girl he's in love with and petted Chambrey's long locks in envy. One of the funnest nights I can remember!

G-Free Treasure

2012-02-04T00:15:00.000-07:00

This is a story with a happy ending. It starts in an office one Thursday morning with the snow, lightly falling to the ground. In this office, there was a girl conducting health assessments, who loved burgers. After an unfortunate turn of events, the girl stopped eating gluten and could no longer eat her beloved burgers and fries.

If you haven't figured it out yet, the girl in this story is me. I've passed by the "4 weeks" date when I was supposed to give gluten another shot. The problem is that I've been feeling so good that I'm scared to try gluten again. But the burgers. Oh, the burgers! After a morning of testing peoples cholesterol and suggesting the stay away from bacon and burgers I was set out to find myself a bacon cheeseburger. I'd heard a rumor that Astro Burger had gluten free buns and french fries.

Rumor confirmed.

Hello new favorite fast food place

No Astro Burgers, Thank you!

CA

2012-01-26T13:37:00.000-07:00

What did you do last weekend? I went to California. My Rachel (yes, my Rachel) moved to California while I was in China so it had been almost a year since I last saw her. Stacie and I bought tickets a couple months ago then called Rachel on Christmas and told her we were coming. It was great. Our trip included Laguna, LA, San Diego, finally meeting Andy, food, and more food.

Anyone going to San Diego should stop at Hash House. It's breakfast worth the over an hour wait and feeling full for the rest of the day.

Hollywood from the Griffith Observatory

We love Andy

A Really Good Day

2012-01-18T17:36:00.002-07:00

I finally feel like I can breathe again. Yesterday was January 17, which was kind of a big deal. I was told I would be getting an e-mail at 6 PM that said whether or not I had been accepted to Teach for America.

I got it :)

I'll be moving to Phoenix, Arizona to teach secondary math. Can I get a whoot?

Woah.

2012-01-16T14:51:00.002-07:00

Jaw dropped.

Bye Bye Wheaties

2012-01-11T12:40:00.001-07:00

After much debate and a holiday season full of delicious baked goods I've finally decided to take the step I've been putting off for a long time. I frequently have problems with my stomach and don't feel good most days. Celiacs disease was ruled out, but there was still the possibility of a wheat sensitivity. I was sick of feeling like crap so two weeks ago I gave up gluten to see if it makes any difference, and I'm having mixed feelings about how things are going.

Pro: I've felt better for the last two weeks than I have in a long time.
Con: No more wheat.

I was told to try it for 3-4 weeks and see if it makes any difference in how I feel, but so far it's looking like I'm going to be a gluten free girl. Goodbye cake and cookies. Goodbye hamburgers on normal buns. Goodbye asiago cheese bagels.

I'm still learning what foods are ok to eat and what restaurants to go to. Any advice and recipes are welcomed with open arms!

Two Thousand Eleven

2012-01-03T00:07:00.000-07:00

Here are some of my favorite photo's/moments of 2011...

Disclosure: I stole most of these pictures, but at least I was there when they were taken :)

Brooklyn Bridge

Nahant, Massachusetts

Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Tiananmen Square
Beijing, China

Greatest museum exhibit known to man
Beijing, China

Li River
Guilin, China

Longsheng Rice Terraces
China

Zhangjiajie, China

Class 371 at Yongzhou #1 Middle School

Lingling, Hunan, China

Lake Powell

2012, bring it on.

TFA

2011-12-23T09:59:00.001-07:00

I have been extremely hesitant to post about this little something out of fear that it doesn't pan out. Kind of like relationships. But the suspense is killing me and making me a little antsy and I can't keep it in anymore.

In October I applied for Teach For America. This is a program that allows you to teach in a low-income area for two years while working on your Masters. Which brings up another little update. After almost four years of school and one year of looking for the perfect job in wellness or sports med, I've returned to the original plan. Teaching. I changed my degree from Elementary Education to Exercise Science my Freshman year, but now I'm back at it.

Back to TFA. I applied because it was a free application. Thousands of people apply and I thought "there is no way I'll get this." I was invited to a phone interview and thought that was pretty cool, but still, no plans on getting accepted. Then I got invited to a final interview at BYU. This final interview was an all-day event that included teaching a sample 5-minute lesson, a group interview, and a personal interview with one of the recruiters. That was on December 1 and I have to wait until January 17 to find out whether or not I was accepted. If I don't post on January 17 that I'm moving to New York, DC, Seattle, Boston, Phoenix, Colorado, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, or the Bay Area then I didn't get accepted and I've crawled in a whole to die.

eyes EARS mouth and nose

2011-12-13T13:53:00.001-07:00

Dear following of about 8 people,

Have any of you ever had the terrifying experience of thinking you've lost your sense of hearing? I am afraid to say that I have and it's something I wouldn't wish on my greatest enemy. The other day, I was walking with some friends from The Pie to my car. Or maybe it was a football game....the details are a little fuzzy. Anyway, I was listening to my iPod while we were walking and was suddenly inspired to say something that was probably deep and profound (because I'm a deep and profound person.) My friend Alec and his wife were right in front of me and there were kids in a playground to the right of me. I grabbed Alec's arm to get his attention and started saying my extremely important thing, but nothing came out. I could feel my vocal chords moving and knew I was talking, but there was no sound. John Mayer was no longer singing in my ears so I knew the volume on my iPod wasn't too loud. I screamed, "Alec, I'm deaf! I can't hear anything." I saw his mouth perfectly form the words, "No you're not. You'll be able to hear in a couple minutes," but for some reason that wasn't exactly reassuring. I continued screaming more, but other than the kids playing in the park next to me, I couldn't hear a thing.

Wait a second. There are kids playing in a park next to me and I can hear them. I must not be deaf after all, but what's going on. This is the point where I slowly started to wake up and realize I was listening to "Kids" by MGMT in my Boston hotel. False alarm! I still have my sense of hearing.

But it really was a terrifying dream. I'm still slightly asleep so this post probably makes no sense whatsoever. Horrible grammar? Most likely. Bad spelling? As always. But how could I pass up a chance to actually post something. And something as electrifyingly horrible as losing your sense of hearing?

Boston, again.

2011-11-12T09:13:00.000-07:00

This week brought another trip to Massachusetts for work. I was definitely excited to be back in my own bed Thursday night. Here's how the trip went....

We left Wednesday morning for Chicago. I don't know if there's no direct flights to Boston, or if the guy who books flights just hates us, but we always have a layover in Chicago. The flight there wasn't bad at all. We had just enough time in Chicago to grab a snack wrap at McDonald's and board the next plane. My coworkers son came out with us so they could stay and visit her sister. By the time we picked up all the luggage, dropped off her son, got some delicious dinner from the Cheesecake Factory, and checked into the hotel, it was 1:00 AM. We were up 4 hours later to head to work.

Work. It was a very successful day. No problems with the machines, no angry people, and no computer problems. Of course, an assessment can't be perfect so one thing had to go wrong. One of the participants sat down and told me he doesn't really like needles or blood so he was going to look away and to let him know when it was safe to look again. The second the needle hit his finger, his face got pale, eyes rolled back, and he fainted. When he started shaking and we thought he was going to have a seizure I was a little worried, but then he luckily woke up. The guy was a good sport and laughed it off.

My flight was three hours after we finished working. Plenty of time to get to the airport, right? Wrong! Boston traffic is terrible. I was running through the airport to make it to my gate, but found out the gate had been changed when I got there. It was about 5:30 and my flight was scheduled to leave at 5:35. I ran to the right gate to find out my flight had luckily been delayed. Unfortunately, this meant I'd be cutting it close to my connecting flight in Chicago.

When the plane landed in Chicago, I ran to a bus that drove me across the airport to where my connecting flight was. *Note* Avoid connecting flights at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Huge airport, really inconvenient. Lucky for me, this flight was also delayed for 10 minutes so I was able to make it.

I finally landed in Salt Lake and was happy to be home where nothing else could go wrong. But wait....my luggage never showed up. Turns out it was left in Chicago. It did finally show up at my house yesterday afternoon and now I have two more days to recover before I'm on the road again. Moral of the story: Don't fly United. (Or do, if you plan on showing up late to the airport.)

Race Re-cap

2011-10-31T11:30:00.000-06:00

It's time for the re-cap of my Halloween half! The race was on Saturday and started just about Sundance in Provo Canyon. It went down the canyon and ended at the shops at Riverwoods. I was really nervous for a few reasons.

1. It was not only my first half, but my first race!
2. It's mostly downhill and I wasn't sure how my knees would handle it.
3. I was in Boston the week before the race and knew I wouldn't have enough time that week to get some good training in.
4. I hate running.

Let's be honest, concerns 1 through 4 (mostly 3 and 4) prevented me from ever even signing up for the race. I quit before it even started. It's a good thing I did though. I must've known I was going to be sick that morning and not able to run the race anyway.

We'll give that Thanksgiving 5K a shot instead.

Mylo Xyloto

2011-10-30T15:09:00.001-06:00

I like to consider myself a Coldplay fan (that's an understatement.) A few days ago I was thinking of my favorite band and how they haven't put an album out since 2008. That's a few years too long. I got online to search and see if there was going to be a new album in the near future. Apparently I'm a bad fan because they released a new album last week! I'm going to go sit in the corner, with my nose against the wall, in a dunce cap (and listen to Mylo Xyloto while I'm sitting there.)

Bah-ston

2011-10-30T14:57:00.001-06:00

Remember that one time I went to Boston? Well now that I'm in bed with strep instead of in the car on my way to St. George I have a few minutes to post some pictures.

I fell in love with the east coast. I've been to New York a couple times (and love it) but Massachusetts was completely different. We were there for work, but had plenty of play time in the evenings too. After work on Monday we went into Boston where I met my boyfriend, Kilted Colin. Ok, maybe he's not my boyfriend, but we did have three baby dolls together that I helped him juggle on top of a unicycle in his street performing show. That was fun.

Tuesday night was probably my favorite. After work we went to Salem where we walked around, shopped, and went on a walking ghost tour around Salem. I'm pretty sure there's a ghost in one of my pictures. I had some delicious chowder at Rockafellas to top of the trip to Salem.

Notice the possible ghost in the bottom right corner

Samantha!

Wednesday was a rainy day and the only thing that makes a rainy day better is a cupcake from Mike's Pastry. Delicious.

Cupcake had a photo shoot. Red velvet....Yum

On Thursday I found my dream home/town. Nahant is a a little peninsula that's not far from Boston. There are sailboats all around and cute little (or huge) colorful homes that you'd find right out of a movie. I plan on living here one day, probably after I become rich winning the lottery.

It was a tad windy on the beach

On the Road Again

2011-10-24T21:13:00.000-06:00

I'm beginning to feel homeless. Two weeks ago I was living it up in Casper, Wyoming. Last week was spent falling in love with Boston and the North Shore area. Next week I'll be working on my tan in St. George between jobs. Surprisingly, of all those jobs the one I'm the most excited for is this weeks. Logan.

I love you Logan. See you soon :)

Southwest & Northeast

2011-10-16T23:03:00.001-06:00

I can't sleep. This is extremely inconvenient considering I'm going on four hours of sleep & have to be up for work in less than five hours. Curse you jet lag.

There's an alarm clock going off in the room next to mine. Its been going off for about 30 minutes so I'm pretty sure no one's even staying in there. And now Wicked is playing. This night just keeps getting worse!

Enough of my complaining. Today's flights were quite the experience. Despite the pilot almost crashing the plane when we touched down in Boston & being extremely bored with no television, I would recommend flying Southwest on your next flight. Here's why: the flight attendants.

Our first one was hilarious. His little oxygen mask/floatation device schpeel was better than Tommy Callihan & Richard's. My favorite part was, "if you have two kids that's your problem, not mine. Pick the one you love more & help that one with their mask." Or at the end, after a round of applause, he said, "thank you for clapping, but I have a couple divorces under my belt so I'd appreciate you stuffing money in my shirt & pockets as I walk down the isle." Our flight attendant on the connecting flight sang when we took off & landed. Yes. Sang.

It was a treat. As much as I loved this day, I would really love it if the alarm would stop going off so I can fall asleep & have it be tomorrow.

I DIY

2011-09-29T17:36:00.002-06:00

Crafty is the last word I would use to describe myself. With a work schedule that is not consistent and no more school I find myself with lots of leftover time. My Dad found an old frame while cleaning out my Grandpa's garage that I've been staring at for the last two weeks. Today I had a lightbulb moment. Since no blood was drawn, there were no burns, and I finished the project, I think it's safe to say that I was crafty.

Take a nice, old, dinged up frame.

Use a stain marker to fill in the marks.

Staple a piece of screen to the back. Cover up the edges of the back with felt. Bing bang boom. You have a new, tangle-less way to store your earrings.

Next weeks project is to make a glass-covered photo montage on my desk. Cross your fingers for me that this project will go injury-free as well!

(Notice the DIY tag. I never thought I'd be able to put one of those on my blog)

Name Change

2011-09-27T16:04:00.000-06:00

Recently the topic of how I don't like my name seems to keep coming up. I actually love my name.

Elizabeth Margaret

If you ask me, it sounds kinda cool. But no one calls me by that name. Just Liz. Let's go back 10+ years...

There were four girls named Elizabeth in my grade in elementary school. We went by Liz, Lizzy, Beth, and Elizabeth (that one was me.) In 5th or 6th grade a new girl moved in and her name was Elizabeth. I was forced to either share that name or pick a new name to share, so I picked Liz. It sounded cool to me. Around my senior year of high school I didn't think I really fit the name Liz. I started going by Elizabeth at Utah State, but my teachers decided they liked Liz better. Every "new" place I go I introduce myself as Elizabeth and everyone assumes "Liz."

There are some great people I know named Liz. I just don't think it fits me.

Fun fact! When I was born my name was Elizabeth and it stayed that way for a while. When I was about five years old I asked why I didn't have a middle name and why it couldn't be Margaret like my mom and grandma. A few phone calls later and my name was officially changed to Elizabeth Margaret.

The End.

Delete

2011-09-23T00:50:00.005-06:00

de-friending on Facebook = the ultimate dis

I'm pretty bummed. I had this great post of some funny/random drafts I never published. I deleted the drafts, then noticed that the new post didn't get published and was deleted with the drafts.

[angry noises]

So that's all I have.

de-friending on Facebook = the ultimate dis

Where the Sagebrush Grows

2011-09-20T12:16:00.003-06:00

It's amazing how fast you can accomplish things when you actually sit down and do it. You know that email that I've been meaning to send to work, asking for a new job, that I just didn't have time to sit down and send? Apparently it only took about 5 minutes.

Or how about that book I checked out from the library about accounting and Quickbooks that I've been meaning to read so I can start to actually do all the work my brother has for me? Well, I actually still haven't done that yet and am not looking forward to it.

Anyway, I'm up in Logan today with the Asian Chicken Platter (see below) and decided to actually do all these things I've been putting off and it turns out they're really not that bad. Maybe I should work on being more productive everyday.

This picture has absolutely nothing to do with post, but I love Tracy and I love China

Acoustic Chills

2011-09-18T23:57:00.000-06:00

You know those little things that make you smile and give you goosebumps? This post is dedicated to one of those. My friend Shelby was visiting from Vegas last weekend. On Sunday morning we went Music and the Spoken Word at Temple Square, which brings me to that favorite thing that makes me smile and gives me goosebumps...

There is nothing quite like the silence in a concert hall at the end of a song. When there's a large crescendo then all the performers stop at the same moment. All you can hear is that final sound echoing off the walls and ceiling. I always get nervous when I can hear the finale coming in the music and worry that someone in the audience is going to ruin that perfect silence with an applause...

But everyone held still on Sunday. Take the Choir, Orchestra, and Organ at the Tabernacle and you get perfect bliss.

Love.That.Sound.

I can count to 70

2011-09-15T19:41:00.001-06:00

Today was day two of (possible) half-marathon training. It went so much better that I can't even wait to get home to blog about it. Good thing I have a couple minutes to do it on my phone before community Spanish class starts!
The great debate was treadmill or track. When I walked in the gym a zumba class was going on in the middle of the track so obviously that meant track. I started off with a few laps around the track then took off running. It was a miracle! I went 3 miles without stopping. I'm pretty sure I've never run that far without stopping (sad but true.) The grand total running was 3.5 miles. Definitely an improvement from yesterday's two miles.
Can I get a whoot!?

(PS, 70 times around the track = 4 miles)

13.1

2011-09-14T14:51:00.002-06:00

I enjoy exercising. In fact, I enjoy it almost as much as I enjoy eating peanut m&m's. I like going on hikes, riding a bike, dancing, and taking classes. I love the feeling of a stiff, sore body the morning after lifting weights. I hate running. I do it when I have to (like when living in a foreign country and it's the only option,) but even then I hate it.

Yesterday, I was talking to my friend Ryan (refer to the picture of us freezing our butt's off in Times Square below) and he mentioned a Halloween half-marathon he's doing. I was saying that it sounded fun and he asked, "why don't you do it with me?"

Ummm...because I hate running.

I gave him a long list of reasons why I can't do it, including the fact that it's in 6 weeks, but he shot down every excuse I had. The big one is that I'm not sure my knee's can handle it. We made a deal. I train this week and next then see how my knee's are doing. If they're feeling good, I'm doing the race.

The first run today sucked. I hated it and may not have consistently ran the whole time. The worst part of it is that my knee's felt fine. That means no backing out yet. Any encouraging words or tips to make running less miserable would be greatly welcomed. Six more runs until I decide whether or not this will be worth it.

In case you were wondering, the condensation on the lid of my hot chocolate froze. That's how cold it was. I vow to never go to New York in the winter ever again.

Imagine That

2011-09-13T17:43:00.003-06:00

6 people

3 drums

2 guitars

1 bass

shakers

and a cherry on top (aka a xylophone)

What are all these things? They are the essential items needed to create the most spectacular sounds of free style in a park. Last night, they were mixed together and it was beautiful. Topics included, but were not limited to muenster cheese and Olympians, T-E-R-E-S-E and her J-E-E-Eeep, glances exchanged, coke (the carbonated form) shared with strangers, rollerblades in the house, and Hitler. I'm still not sure where that last one came from.

Award for the best (or maybe I mean worst) free stylers goes to the Sansom girls. What can I say, we are gifted.

Try NOT to smile

2011-09-11T00:14:00.001-06:00

Nothing makes me happier than dance. I found an adult jazz dance class that I went to this last week and I can't wait to go back next week. I could spend an entire day watching dances on youtube.

(In fact, that's exactly how I spend a lot of my afternoons and why I find myself up all night.)

Lauren Froderman is my all-time favorite dancer on So You Think You Can Dance and this is my all-time favorite dance. I can't help but smile every time I watch it.

Numbers

2011-09-10T23:11:00.005-06:00

Are you the type of person who doesn't function unless you feel like your life has broken into complete chaos?

Because I am.

Give me three exams, a project, and a job and I will somehow manage to check off everything on my list, plus have a little fun. Take away school and work and suddenly I can't function. There's one item on my "to do" list everyday and I barely make time to do that. All that wasted time on facebook and playing sudoku on my phone is really filling up my days.

Side note about me. I love numbers. There's something so satisfying when you get a math problem right or when everything fits together. Like in tetris. I love that game too. I remember staring at y=mx+b on a math test in 8th grade and not being able to recall ever seeing the equation before that exact moment. After staring at a big red 30% at the top of my test I swore I would never do that bad in math again. That's probably when I fell in love. When I close my eyes at night all I see is a blank 9x9 grid and the numbers 1-9 start filling in until I complete the sudoku in my mind.

Back from my tangent. In all my free time these last couple weeks I've had plenty of time to sit and miss China. Pretend you miss it too and enjoy some of my favorite pictures (most of which are compliments of Chambrey.)

The Buddha

2011-08-29T16:43:00.003-06:00

Welcome to my blog. I'm going to try to be better about posting now that I have officially said goodbye to my China blog. Speaking of my China blog, you might be wondering why I am so obsessed with Buddha. Here is the story....

When I was 11, my brother came home from his LDS Mission in Lima, Peru. The first conversation I remember having with him went something like this, "you know, you really turned into a brat while I was gone. You should try to be a little nicer." The second conversation went like this:

Todd - We need a nickname for you.

Me - Ok, what is it going to be?

Todd - Hmm...how about Buddha?

Me - Why Buddha?

Todd - Because you had a little Buddha belly when you were a baby.

Me - Ok. Well, what am I going to call you?

Todd - How about Flipper, because I like to wear flip-flops.

Me - That's the dumbest name I've ever heard. (I guess I really was a brat)

Flipper didn't stick, but Buddha did. Along with Buddha, I also go by Elizabeth, Liz, Lizzie, Lizard, Lizard Breath, Pipsqueak, Little Liz, Libby, Libster, Ribby, Piz, Lizzer, and Lizzie McGuire (not happily). I know there's more, just can't think of them now.

Feel free to call me whatever you like, just no Lizard Breath or Lizzie McGuire.

Please & Thank You.

Love, The Buddha

You Are Electric

2011-08-28T22:48:00.004-06:00

It's the end of the world. At least it feels that way. If I had a camera (grrr) I would be attempting to take pictures of it. The extremely slow speed of my phone is not cutting it. I feel like I'm caught in the middle of one of those glass balls you put your hand on in a science museum to see the electricity. I'm pretty sure lightening is striking every two seconds all around me.

It's insane.

Hello Blog

2011-08-24T22:24:00.004-06:00

It's me. Liz. You probably don't remember me since I've done one post in the last six months. Well, last night my good friends Charleigh and Cheyanne put on a little show at Why Sound in Logan. PS - they did awesome.

On the way home today I mentioned that I've never been to Promontory Point to see the original Golden Spike. I was with Carson and he'd n

ever been there either so we decided, why not?

I'm sure you're curious, so here's some fun facts I learned (or probably actually re-learned) today.

The original golden spike is not at Promontory Point, but is on display at Stanford University. That was a let down.
The Jupiter was a wood burning engine that I believe came from the west. I was really disoriented there so I'm not exactly sure. If it wasn't west, it was east.
The 119 was a coal burning steam engine that came from the east (or the west.)
Carson can't compete with the 119 engineer's mustache.

The Central Pacific Railroad progressed by about 8 inches a day through the Sierra Nevada's
Someone from Hitler, Germany visited the National Historic Site sometime in the last week

Two thumbs up for trains

Word.

2011-08-05T12:47:00.002-06:00

Hi there Mom and Dad and the three other people who may or may not read my blog. I'm back from China! But that's old news. New news is that I got a job. I'm working for a corporate wellness company and complete health assessments on our clients employees. I've been working in Evanston, Wyoming since yesterday morning. The last 32 hours have looked something like this:

State Fair: 1
Sleep: 6
Work: 21

Only 1 more to go.

Without the Girl

2011-02-14T17:56:00.004-07:00

Hi Everyone! It's Whit, Liz's older sister who everyone always thinks is younger (just saying). Buddha (as I so endearingly call her) sent me an email and asked me to write a post on her blog. As I was reading the email and logging-in I realized that the most horrible song had surfaced in my iTunes shuffle. Without the Girl by Daniel Bedingfield. Ew! Bad...so bad. But it is what my life has come to be...without the girl.

I am without the girl to tell me my outfits don't match, teach me the same song on the guitar for the 7th time, listen to me rant about this or that, clean the shower & toilet half of the bathroom, tag along with me everywhere, stink up my bedroom, overeat with me, watch Bachelor/Glee/Modern Family with me, scratch my back at church, face the difficulties (or not so difficulties) of living with your perfect parents, yada, yada, yada.

Yes, life is grim without this girl, but there are two things that keep me going:

1) The 159 link long paper chain I made which is adorning my walls and ceiling

2) kneehowbuddha.wordpress.com. As it turns out, Blogspot is blocked in China (out of Hong Kong I guess), so little buddha will be blogging about china life from Wordpress instead. Check it out to get your daily dose of your favorite girl you're living without.

Hong Kong!

2011-02-09T20:31:00.002-07:00

I made it to Hong Kong! I'm alive, but not well. Stupid cold. I think a train got in my room while I was sleeping last night and ran me over. Don't ask me how it happened, I just know it did. Yesterday, we rode a cable car to the peak of Hong Kong while the sun was setting. It was pretty neat. Today we are riding a tram up to the giant Buddha and I am so excited for that! Once all the smog clears up, it is beautiful here! I just talked to Megan, Luke, and Jack on facetime and Jack Jack said it doesn't look like he thought it would. It's a city surrounded by this crazy green jungle, not "more red and gold."

Ok, I can't think straight, I'm all drugged up and sickly, but enjoy the Hong Kong update and I'll see you all in Shenzhen!

再见, Zàijiàn, Goodbye

2011-02-05T13:18:00.005-07:00

By 8:15 PM on Monday, I will be in Hong Kong. I'll be there for a few days then I'm moving to Lingling in the Hunan province to teach English at the Yungzhou Middle School No. 1. Right now I am feeling happy, excited, nervous, terrified, and nothing at all. Good thing is the most dominant feeling is excited. I'm really hoping that I'll be able to blog while I'm over there, but there's a good chance I won't. China blocks a bunch of websites and one of them is blogspot. I know there's ways to get around this, but I'm not too computer savy so I'm still working on figuring them out. Keep looking here dear readers and hopefully in a week or so I'll have a new post up! Facebook is another one of those websites that is blocked. Please send me an e-mail at liz.sansom@gmail.com so I have your addresses in case I can't get Facebook and blogspot to work. I'd love to hear from anyone and everyone.

再见

Brooklyn We Go Hard.

2011-01-30T23:27:00.005-07:00

We Go Hard.

Oh Jay-Z, I love your home. I loved it last week when I went with Todd, Kelly, Brandon, Seneca, and Ryan. I loved it when we went to the Burger Joint, Serendipity, and Magnolia's Bakery.

I even loved it when it was a balmy 11°, plus wind. Apparently, it was even cold enough for my hot chocolate to freeze on the inside of my cup while waiting in line for two hours for tickets to "Jersey Boys."

I loved "dancing" on the BIG piano, but actually jumping up and down in place because I was so excited I didn't know what to do with myself.

There are so many great things about your home, but my two favorite things are walking across the Brooklyn Bridge and riding the tram to Roosevelt Island. Call me crazy.

Missing you already. I hope to see you again soon.

This is Probably Not Even Worth Reading.

2011-01-17T20:47:00.003-07:00

I am aware of the fact that I've been terrible at this whole blogging thing lately. Maybe it's the fact that I don't have a job and am not in school anymore, but it just seems like there is nothing to write about. My days basically consist of me waking up really late, working out, reading Pride and Prejudice, and maybe running errands for someone who actually has a life.

Some people {cough cough, Bryan} have been commenting on my lack of blogging, so here you go.

I only wish this picture was as good as the picture of you posted in the Smokin' Blues Kitchen.

King Kong

2011-01-01T19:44:00.002-07:00

This one is dedicated to you {king kong}, I hope the nightmares haven't taken over your dreams quite yet.

Anyone who has served in a restaurant knows that the job comes with terrible nightmares. You wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat trying to remember whether or not you gave table 44 the dessert they ordered and realize you completely neglected table 63. It's not your fault, the hostess shouldn't have sat someone there. It's not even your section.

Then reality hits and you realize it was only a dream.

I worked for three days at Savannah's BBQ before I moved back to Salt Lake and am still suffering from the nightmares. In last nights dream, I forgot to wear my shoes to work. Luckily, I had an extra pair of shoes in my purse. I was about to put them on, when I managed to drop them and they fell into the drain under the dishwasher. While fishing out my shoes, one of the hosts told me I had a table in the 40's. I finally recovered my shoes and went out to the dining area to realize that there were three tables sitting in the 40's. The hosts wouldn't tell me which table was mine, then when they finally did, they also informed me that I had four other tables. I started running to all the tables trying to take their drink orders when I realized the menu had completely changed and we were now a Mexican restaurant.

At that moment, my eyes flew open and I found myself lying in bed with my heart racing.

I hate serving nightmares.

If you want to get married....date me

2010-12-30T01:18:00.004-07:00

Remember that one time when I was dating the guy I talked about here? Well we decided it wasn't going anywhere right around Thanksgiving.

Tonight I found out that he got engaged on Christmas.

Hmmm....weird.

Alumnus

2010-12-21T22:14:00.002-07:00

Last month was a good month that included an excessive amount of blogging. This month...not so good. I like to think I can be clever and witty (whether I actually am or not,) and this month my brain has been empty. Maybe it has something to do with all the studying and sleeping on friends couches I was doing. I would like to make this post more exciting, but instead I'll just give a couple updates.

FIRST - I graduated from Utah State University with a degree in Human Movement Science and an emphasis in Exercise Science. Don't ask me what I plan on doing with that because I have no idea.

However - my second update is that I am definitely going to China to teach English in February. I will be there until the end of June. When I get back, you can ask me what I'm going to do with my life, but until then, that question is off limits!

Oh, and one more side note. If you are on a date and going through all the awkward first date questions, do not answer "laughing," to the question "what are your hobbies?" I'm no dating expert, but I do know what things don't work.

Pequot [PEE-kwat]

2010-12-15T21:27:00.003-07:00

I am stumped. I want to blog so badly right now, but don't have anything to write about. I googled "random blog topics," and was given two ideas.

Days you feel like crap

Famous spies of World War II

I'm afraid there are no famous spies of WWII that come to mind off the top of my head. Therefore, I will not be blogging about them.

The final generated post idea was PS1 or N64. I'd have to say N64. Hands Down.

On that note, I will leave you with pictures of me, Katie, and the kitty cat.

Kitty cat is Patrick's Christmas present, but he doesn't know that yet, so shhhh!

Do the Moo Shoo

2010-12-06T18:09:00.004-07:00

I move home in four days

I take my last final in eleven days

which means

I graduate from college in eleven days

Unfortunately, I don't have a job yet...

Chances are good that I will be moving here to teach english

That is neat.

Jazzle Frazzle

2010-12-02T14:37:00.002-07:00

Here's a double-dose post for you. I'm not proud of the fact that I'm posting twice in less than 24 hours, but this is so post worthy...

Once upon a time, there was a girl. This girl was born and raised in Salt Lake City, you know, where the Jazz are from. She grew up in a family that did not have much interest in sports. After she graduated from high school, she moved to Logan, Utah to go to Utah State University. While at Utah state, she discovered the sport of basketball. It had never crossed her mind that people actually enjoyed watching the sport.

On a cold January night, she was talked into going to an Aggie basketball game. I'm not sure if it was the actual sport or the mass of students acting like they were milking a cow while singing, "The Scotsman," but at some point during the night, she fell in love. Her love only grew from that point on. It started small with college basketball, but grew to a love for the NBA and the Jazz as well, (and I'll be honest, the Nuggets too.)

This brings us to present day, where this girl is on her way to her 22nd year of life, as well as her 22nd year living in Utah. To this day, she still has never been to a Jazz game. Her dear Asian Chicken Platter friend Tracy Barnes called her this morning with news of her early Christmas present:

Two tickets to three Jazz games.

It's going to be a Merry Christmas. It may not have been the desired plane tickets that were mentioned here, but it's probably the next best thing.

Moral of the story is that she is unbelievable excited for her three games with T-boss Barnes this January :)

HFS

2010-12-01T23:00:00.000-07:00

Today was epic. I try to avoid using that word, but it's really the best word I can think of to use.

E.P.I.C.

I've spent the last six months studying for the American College of Sports Medicine, Health Fitness Specialist Certification test. I took it today and passed! All right!

I'm on top of the world right now....if only I could use this certification and find myself a job....

Worse than Gettysburg and Pearl Harbor

2010-11-29T22:27:00.003-07:00

My face is currently under attack. I'm not exactly sure what happened. At some point in the last week my butt chin and between the eyebrows has broken out in a full blown massacre of zits. I would take a picture to prove to you dear readers, but I would rather not ever remember this unfortunate event. I counted the "between the eyebrow" region tonight and we are at a grand total of 14. That's right fourteen! I'm occasionally graced with the zit or two, but have been blessed to be very unfamiliar with the cursed red dot. You can only imagine what this invasion is doing to my self esteem. My old roommate Meo (like the cat,) was able to send that self esteem to an ultimate low. When she saw me tonight, the first thing she said to me was not, "hello." In her thick Vietnamese accent she said, "Leeez, what happened to your face?" I proceeded to run to the corner of the room and hide my face. She continued, "it looks like Harry Potter's scar is on your forehead." Wooopah! That's the sound of me hitting that ultimate low mentioned before.

On a lighter note, we had great weather in Logan today. Nice clear blue skies. It only got down to -6 degrees outside! Fourteen more days....I will survive!

I love ___________

2010-11-25T13:24:00.003-07:00

In honor of Thanksgiving, I'm going to provide a list of all the things I love. I do love my family and friends and a bunch of other things that are very important to me, but I don't feel like being sentimental right now. We're going to talk about material things.

- My yellow ski jacket. I feel super thug in it because it's really big. The bigness also keeps my bum warm. Win-win.

- The color purple. Literally - not the book. I've never read the book. There should be a subcategory for all the things I love that are purple

computer case
backpack
running shoes
sweatshirt
walls in my bedroom
ski hat, which is fully equipped with headphones
you get the idea....I love purple

- My children. They both are called, "my baby." I'll be honest, I love my older baby than my younger baby. I think she's much prettier. Oh and by the way, my children are my violin and guitar.

- This music video. It's bomb.

- The space heater Megan let me borrow. I pretend like it's a fireplace and frequently take naps in front of it.

- boots. Boots. BOOTS! I love boots. Along with that is coats. And scarves too. If winter wasn't so cold, it would be my favorite season for the boots, coats, and scarves.

- The Phantom of the Opera. Have I mentioned that it is amazing! Falling asleep watching it in bed is a favorite evening activity.

- Hot chocolate with hazelnut and mini marshmallows.

- My green curtains.

- "Brass Bed" by Josh Gracin.

- The carpet in my parent's basement.

- My computer. I cried when I opened it last year. I also had one glistening tear when my awesome siblings gave me John Mayer tickets for my birthday. If anyone wants to give me a present that will make me cry this year, plane tickets to the most amazing city would be greatly appreciated.

- Special K Fruit and Yogurt cereal. Delicious.

- Modern Family

- My cream lace tights from H&M

- Megan's skier blanket that I have kidnapped for life. Sorry Meg.

- My running shoes (once again, purple)

All of these are things I could easily live without, but I'm so happy I don't have to :)

Grandpa Tim

2010-11-21T13:43:00.003-07:00

Today at church we sang, "For the Beauty of the Earth." I love that song so much for so many different reasons, but one of them is that I remember singing it at Grandpa Whittaker's funeral. I started thinking a lot about him and remembered this video I have on my computer. It's from our last family Christmas party before he passed away. I hope you can get past my poor filming skills and Jane's overpowering voice and enjoy this video....

There's a new place in town

2010-11-17T18:19:00.005-07:00

The following events occurred in the last month or so in someone's living room:

Savannah: I've been thinking about opening a restaurant.

Bobby: Really, where?

Savannah: I'm not sure.

Bobby: What kind of food do you want to serve?

Savannah: Not sure about that either. Do you have any ideas?

Bobby: Well, there's this restaurant I went to a while back that was really good BBQ. They smoked all their meet and had a stage with live music almost every night. It was a pretty cool place.

Savannah: What do you mean was?

Bobby: At the beginning of October it went out of business. They closed without any warning at all and left all their employees without two months of pay.

Savannah: Do you know if this building is available now?

Bobby: There's been three restaurants that have failed there. I don't think anyone is super anxious to lease the place.

Savannah: Perfect! I think I'm going to buy the lease and open a new BBQ restaurant there. We'll change the name to Savannah's BBQ, but still keep the whole idea. It will probably be super successful like every other restaurant that's been there. If I'm lucky, the meat smoker and all their furniture will still be there so I won't have to put much money into starting it up.

Bobby: .....I'm not sure this is the best idea.

Savannah: Sure it is. Done and done.

I can't guarantee this is exactly how things went down, but I assume it's close to this. I also can't guarantee the names are Savannah and Bobby, but I thought at least Savannah was a good guess. Let's be honest, I can't guarantee any of this, but you better believe that Savannah's BBQ is opening at 71 E. 1200 S. Logan, UT - across the street from Macey's. We'll have to see if this BBQ actually lasts.

Secrets, secrets are so fun

2010-11-15T00:04:00.003-07:00

I ♥ PostSecret. Sometimes, I find my secrets posted there, like this one.

Today, two of my secrets were posted...

Seriously, a whole size bigger!

Gross....I know.

It made me smile :)

two-six

2010-11-13T00:16:00.003-07:00

It was Colten's birthday yesterday/today. Yesterday because technically, it was yesterday, but today because I still haven't gone to bed yet. You read it right, he's 26. We celebrated it the only way you can celebrate beginning your 26th year of life - pheasant hunting EARLY in the morning, pheasant hunting in the afternoon (this time without me,) dinner, then watching Sandlot in a fort.

WARNING LISA! This post contains a picture of a large dead animal :)

Isn't he cute?

Did I mention he likes to hunt?

This is where I brag about his awesome hunting skills,

and the massive bull elk consuming half of his room.

Ok, I'm done.....

Happy Birthday Colten!

"I work too hard and care too much"

2010-11-11T13:45:00.002-07:00

Interviews are possibly one of the most awkward experiences to go through. I absolutely hate interview questions.

What are your strengths?

What are your weaknesses?

What's one thing you would like to change about yourself?

What makes you better than everyone else?

I feel like I'm sucking up to a complete stranger the entire time. Maybe I don't have enough self confidence, but I really don't think I'm exceptional. While I'm in interviews, I always wonder, "how do other people answer this question?" Do you think everyone is giving the exact same answers? "I am a hard worker, motivated, and dedicated. You want me to be a part of your team because I won't give up until the job is done!" It's not like a lie or anything during interviews, but I feel like I'm trying to make myself sound better than I really am. The worst interview questions I've ever had were probably, "do you wear your seatbelt everywhere you go?" and, "If you could build a house out of any food, what would it be and why?" What kind of a question is that! Naturally, I said chocolate, but I don't understand how that applies to being able to teach someone how to waterski.

One more thing to complain about before I'm done. I might lose it if I have one more interview that goes GREAT and then ends with, "Oh, you know what. I forgot to check your availability date. This position isn't going to work for you. Sorry."

Availability date ruining my life: 2

Liz getting a job: 0

it's a pity party

2010-11-02T17:56:00.005-06:00

This is what defeat looks like.

It also involves a cup of creamy potato soup and an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. I am just about ready to give up on looking for a job.

....but, on the bright side, I have turned my bedroom floor into an office - complete with a fire place.

bedroom floor = desk

space heater = fireplace

Also, my toe nails are painted and I still have possession of Megan's skier blanket. Life's looking good!

P.S. I move home in 6 weeks from today

little BLACK book

2010-10-27T18:16:00.008-06:00

I've been noticing so many blogs lately that are based completely on peoples love lives (or lack thereof.) I have this habit of trying to keep my dating life as private as possible out of fear that it will end.

& then when people would ask me about said love life, I'd have to tell them it ended, creating an uncomfortable moment. I guess I feel like breaking out of my little dating shell and blogging about it. This could be because I've been doing homework all day and I want to do something else. It's time for a recap.

Let's start back in high school. His name was Kimball. After a year of being my best friend I thought, "hey, maybe there's more?" That lasted for maybe two months. We're a little better at the best friend thing.

Next there was Brian. I met Brian in a test review for my CHEM 1010 class freshman year. He broke the always-leave-at-least-one-empty-seat-between-people rule and sat right next to me. Then he started passing me notes, and went on to use my favorite pick-up line I've ever experienced. Brian passed me a note that said:

Can we hang out?

Yes

Maybe

Pick one.

How lame is that? But it worked. Every time one of us would have a failed relationship, we'd give it another try. After three strikes, we realized that it's just not going to work. Maybe it's because his hair was longer than mine. Keep in mind, my hair's never been that short.

(notice the long curly locks sticking out the hat)

After strike one, I met Caden. You may remember him, we had a good time. We had a good time on round one...and two....and three...and four....but not so much on five. I guess I learned that if there's five rounds in a year, it probably won't work out. But he did teach me how to cross only one eye. If you're dying to see a picture of him, you can see one here or here.

Somewhere after Caden and strike two, I started dating my good friend Mike. He had some really great qualities, like playing the accordion, which can be seen here, almost killing me on a longboard, and great post-skiing hair. Unfortunately, he had one not so good quality, which was taking a job in New York and moving there. You can only handle so many iChat dates. The End.

(post-skiing hair...I think I have a weird obsession with hair. It seems to be the one thing that stands out in every relationship)

Along came strike three and a few other dates that may or may not be worth mentioning.

Now we're up to date. There's Colten. He's pretty great. He hunts (and I do too now.) He wants to cut a mullet and I don't want him to (yet another mention of hair.) I'm convinced to trick him into wearing peacoats and scarves, because I like that. We're going to stop there. I've already given way too much information.

(he's a great Uncle too)

Will I regret this post? Most likely.

Oh well!

I'm in LOVE with a boy :)

2010-10-27T17:13:00.006-06:00

You heard that right. I'm in love and I don't care who knows it! His name is Donovan Petersen. I wish he was mine, and sometimes I feel like he is.

He has three favorite toys at my house: my fan, the garbage can, and these goggles.

If you can get past the shrill scream, you can see his yellow stomach. Mom, aka Charleigh, and I woke up to him watching How to Train a Dragon in his diaper with a yellow ink pad pressed against his cheek. It took a few baths to get the yellow completely off.

He loved that grasshopper to pieces....literally. A minute later it was in two pieces. RIP grasshopper.

Just another day at the beach...

Look at that face.

How can you not love him?

P.S. His uncle's not too shabby either

Licensed to Kill

2010-10-24T16:40:00.003-06:00

That's right. I'm a Utah Hunter Education graduate. My hunter's orange badge even says so.

It was a long three weeks. I was a little worried there at the last minute when I was getting yelled at for not wearing protective eyeglasses while shooting, but they still let me pass. Any small game animals better watch out for me, cause I'm gonna getcha!

At least....I can, but I still don't know if I have it in me to shoot an animal. If nothing else, Colten's proud of me, so that's good :)

ATTMBFFL

2010-10-17T22:47:00.006-06:00

A Tribute to my Best Friend For Life

Tonight, I'm procrastinating, so I'm going to blog. Tonight, I am also missing Jane, so I'm going to blog about Jane. Once upon a time, I could not stand Jane. She drove me crazy. I hated playing in the teepee, I got sick of playing circus lion on the trampoline, and I never wanted to play mario party with her. That all changed one day. I'm not sure why. Maybe it was because we were both in junior high and had a hard life and no one understood what we were going through. I have loved Jane since then. We moved up to Logan two days after I graduated from high school and lived together until two months ago and I miss her like crazy. I miss....

making rice crispy treats and eating the entire pan during a movie
singing and dancing in our attic

eating on the kitchen floor, taking turns sitting in front of the heater
having a bucket of ice-cold water dumped on me while in the shower
watching Jane make humane contraptions to catch the mice
Jane watching me (in disgust) killing the mice with sticky pads
going to the dungeon together to get our laundry at night because we're too scared to go alone

watching "My Sassy Girl"
trying on 10 outfits every Sunday morning and going to Relief Society late because we couldn't decide what to wear
laughing at each other when one of us would stub our toe on the stove
singing in the car at the top of our lungs
listening to Jane talk in her sleep (every night)
talking to each other in our sleep
cutting each others hair (and doing a poor job of it)

eating sour skittles together until our mouth is raw
making MEGA-BED during finals week

The list goes on. We've had some good times together and I desperately want her to hurry and finish school and move to Salt Lake with me so we can be roommates again.

Love you Janey!

(This picture just about sums up our relationship...special)

Unemployment: Part II

2010-10-12T14:34:00.002-06:00

At 10:22 this morning, I checked my voicemail. I had a message from one of the girls from work. "Hey Liz, it's Jen. Call me back as soon as you can...it's really important." I already knew what was going on, but had to call her back just to see what she had to say. The good news is that I should be able to apply for unemployment! I'm open to any odd jobs anyone may have to offer.

By the way, if you haven't figured it out yet, Smokin' Blues closed. I have the worst luck ever!

Getting HICK-ified

2010-10-06T01:11:00.002-06:00

Tonight was the first night of hunters safety. I have a feeling the next three weeks is going to be highly entertaining, (in the most boring way possible.) The average age in the classroom is approximately 12. Jane, Cheyanne, and I feel a little out of place in there. Colten is nice enough to sit through the class with us, but, in the first 15 minutes, he managed to sabotage me. He wrote me a note, (yup, I'm still in elementary school and pass notes,) and the note made me laugh. My teacher stopped the class and asked me what Colten was writing that was so funny. I hung my head in shame and said, "nothing," then felt my cheeks burning like they did when Mrs. Gross caught me passing a note to Kylie Quinn in 5th grade.

The highlight of the night was most likely when we were figuring out which eye was our dominant eye. There was a little boy sitting in the back, probably 6 or 7-years-old, that was right handed, but left eye dominant. When his mom picked him up at the end of class, the teacher pulled her aside and said, "you're son is left eye dominant and right handed. This means that he will probably never be good at anything requiring hand eye coordination."

That is not an exaggeration. That is a quote.

Hopefully his mom didn't look into it too much. He's a crazy old man and really has no idea what he's talking about. According to him, it is now legal to shoot a pheasant hen, which it's not.

That sums up my first night of hunter safety. I'm the 21-year-old in the 12-year-old class that gets in trouble for passing notes and poor little boy is never going to be good at any sports. I can't wait for Thursday night!

Apples and Cheese

2010-09-24T13:43:00.005-06:00

Quite possibly the most delicious snack.

So good I had to blog about it.

And take pictures.

Smokin' Blues.....Literally

2010-09-21T17:06:00.005-06:00

It was a rough 8 days for Smokin' Blues.

Saturday: I got a call from Bryan and he said that Zach (the restaurant owner,) got in a car accident in Salt Lake and most likely totaled Bryan's Audi.

Tuesday: the semi explosion.

Saturday: the RV caught on fire and burned to the ground.

Zach's really just trying to get our name out there and bring in some more business. I'm trying to get them to pay me to vandalize the restaurant. There's nothing I love more than breaking glass. The good news is that we made the newspaper!

The RV during one of our parades this summer

Click here to see what the RV looks like now....

Unemployment

2010-09-15T15:48:00.003-06:00

I have recently entered unemployment.

Let me explain....last night there was an accident. I don't really know exactly what happened, but from what I've heard, a semi-truck rolled in front of the restaurant last night. After taking out the power line, it exploded twice. We lost all power to the restaurant and it was out all night. The walk-in fridge and freezer warmed right up and all the food went bad. We now have to throw out all the food and start over. Therefore, I am unemployed until further notice (which is probably next Tuesday.) How fun is that?

P.S. I'm a hunter now.

Charleigh and I pre-hunting hike and happy as can be!

Post-hunting hike and hating life.

We didn't catch anything, but I hiked with a gun. I think that makes me a hunter.

Masquerade!

2010-09-08T15:02:00.003-06:00

I'm starting to blog more regularly again. That can only mean one thing: school's back. I'm a pro at procrastinating. Last night at 1 AM, as I was jotting down my goals that I forgot were due today, I made it a goal to not wait until the last minute to complete assignments and study for tests. Well, here I am sitting in the library and I should be studying for my quiz that I have in my night class, but instead I'm blogging. Blogging is my favorite form of procrastination. Other than procrastination, my inspiration for the blog today is Andrew Lloyd Weber. He's amazing, isn't he? iPod's are a great invention. I can be blasting whatever my heart desires into my ears, and no one around me knows! Favorite song to run to? Mariah Carey; All I Want for Christmas is You. Favorite song to lift weights to? NSync; Tearin' up my Heart. Favorite music in the library? Phantom of the Opera. Currently listening to, Past the Point of No Return. That's how I feel about my classes this semester. I hate them! They are so boring, but I've started them. I'm 14 short weeks away from my final day as a college student. There's no backing out now. I have to finish....
Back to my procrastinating, I'm wondering how the library can already be so full! All the computers and rooms around me are being used right now. It's the second week of school. Is everyone super motivated, unlike me, or are they all procrastinating too?
Did I mention I have an awesome brother and sisters? Little shout out to Whitney, Megan, and Todd for buying me John Mayer tickets and not hating me for taking a date instead of one of them. Love you guys :)

You Stay Classy

2010-09-05T13:25:00.000-06:00

Last Friday, my friend Jenny had a wedding reception in Pocatello. On the way home I was 95% positive my bladder was going to explode so I made Bryan stop at a gas station in Preston. While in the process of saying, "I will be so fast you won't know I was gone," I stepped out of the car and put my foot down on the pavement. This was a fatal mistake. I pivoted to turn out of the car and my shoe slipped on the ground and I flew up in the air. Before I knew what happened, I was flat on the ground with my skirt coming up around me. The shrill scream I let out attracted everyones attention. After I stopped rolling around on the ground laughing, I ran into the gas station and as I passed a car full of girls, one of them leaned out the window and said to me "classy." All I could do was flash her a thumbs up and a cheesy grin.

I am the AXLE

2010-08-28T11:36:00.004-06:00

I went to a wedding last night with two other couples. I was feeling bad for myself and calling myself the 5th wheel, and Bryan corrected me.

"You are not just a wheel. You are the axle."

I feel better about my singleness.

Jack Jumped over the Candlestick Park

2010-08-19T08:26:00.003-06:00

CONFESSION. I never went to Candlestick Park, but I drove by it everyday and I'm trying to be clever and witty with my title. Here's some things that we actually did...

We went to Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 to scope out some great seafood places so...

...Jane and Bryan could eat crab. Our waiter was kind enough to tie the bibs on each of them. He also taught Jane how to crack the shell and thoroughly enjoyed making fun of her the entire meal.

Tuesday morning, we went to the Dodger's stadium at 7 AM to wait four hours for our wristbands and tickets to American Idol. On Thursday we went to the park at 5 AM and waited in line for three hours to be let in the stadium. Once we were actually in the stadium, we waited two hours for auditions to start then another four hours for Jane and Charleigh to get their turn.

After the auditions, we went to Monterey to go to the aquarium and the beach. Later that night we drove down to Carmel so Charleigh could fulfill her life dream of kicking a seagull or pigeon (she's still working on that one.)

We went out to Alcatraz and took an audio tour of the prison. I would recommend it. It was pretty neat.

On Friday we drove out to the Muir Woods to see the redwood trees. We never actually made it to the redwoods, but we did go to Muir Wood and Stinson Beach, which were both beautiful.

It was a pretty fun week and a nice little get away to take before school starts (which happens on Monday.) I enjoyed San Francisco for a vacation, but it's definitely not a place I'd want to move to.

Denver's better.

Fine, Fresh, Fierce, we got it on Lock

2010-08-14T11:44:00.005-06:00

I've taken it upon myself to become a worldtraveler. See, I had to do that because I haven't gone on a vacation with my family OTHER than Lake Powell in a long time. Bless my parents hearts, they are sending Megan and I to England in December to see Morgan and Mackenzie in place of our Christmas presents (and Luke, Jack, and Conners.) My vacations have included.....

Arizona - (I didn't really have any AZ pictures, but we did a lot of rock climbing at this gym one day)

Denver...

...and to a Bronco's game

New York City

Zions

I want to fit in a couple more vacations before England, so on Monday I'm going here with Jane, Bryan, and Charleigh. You could say that I'm super excited. It's going to make for a great week...

SAN FRANCISCO!

P.S. I Love you Mom and Dad :) tee hee hee.

Contemplation

2010-08-01T00:32:00.004-06:00

I have a dilema on my hands. After spending a week with Whitney, Terese, Morgan, and Mackenzie, all I want is long hair. Long, flowing, soft and shiny hair. Hair that I can put in a normal braid. Hair that fits in a ponytail without 15 bobby pins.

(example: long beautiful hair)

I want it. I need it.

Now, there's a problem. I have an addiction to cutting my hair. It finally gets past the awkward, hitting the shoulders phase, then I get bored and chop it. Before I attempt the impossible again, I want to make sure I actually do look good with short hair. I set out on a mission tonight to find a picture of me with long hair and compare it to the short hair look. Here's where we run into another problem. I don't have one. That's right. I'm so lazy that I never even do my hair when it's long. Therefore, every picture of me with long hair has my hair pulled back so it's not even seen.

So that leads me to my contemplation. To cut, or not to cut? Take a look, tell me how you feel. But promise you won't make fun of my sepia photo booth picture. I just like the hair cut, not the picture....

To whom it may concern,

2010-07-13T01:17:00.002-06:00

Dear Creeper,

Consider yourself a lucky man (or woman.) You get a whole blog post dedicated just to you. I am sick and tired of you lurking around my house. Please stop breaking into Jane's car. It's really not very nice. If you want to be our friend, you are welcome to stop by some afternoon. I'm home most days until 3 or 4 and would love to chat and get to know you better. Coming to the house during the whee hours of the night is not going to do you much good. I know you think you are sneaky, but we can hear you out there. I ask that next time you come into the house, you turn the lights off. You know, you're really running up our electric bill.

Now, I am moving in three or four weeks and, although I will miss you, I would really appreciate it if you didn't follow me to the new house. I'd also appreciate it if you would leave Jane and Meo alone. Jane's fierce and she is giving herself a gun for her birthday and Meo is a jumpy, innocent girl. You're really freaking her out. That's not very nice.

Once again, you are welcome to come hang out during the day, but as long as the sun is down, you really need to stay away.

Thank you for your time,

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Margaret.

Hello kitchen. We meet again.

2010-07-13T00:58:00.004-06:00

I have blogging bulimia. I binge then purge. This last month has been a purge spell and I apologize to my dear sweet blog that entertains possibly two people other than myself.

Now that I work in a restaurant, I'm starting to appreciate food more. I'm still almost

the pickiest person in the world, (not the pickiest, thanks to my dad, the man who will not eat

peanut butter,) but I am branching out. My favorite things on the Smokin' Blues Barbeque menu? Ribs and fried catfish. I bet none of you saw that coming! I love ribs. How weird is that? I also love cooking. Many of you, (or just the two of you who read this,) know that cooking is n

ot my forte. I've been banned from the kitchen in past apartments. I once managed to burn a potato in the microwave and find macaroni and cheese above my skill level.

I will now take this time to show off my new and improved cooking ability...

Exhibit A: My macaroons that I made for the aloha party

Exhibit B: The kabobs for Mom's Birthday/Fathers Day

(with help of Whitney during the assembly and Todd for grilling)

Now, let's hope that this is the end of my blogging purge. I'm ready to enter the blog world again.

Au Revoir!

Cat Nap

2010-06-13T18:41:00.003-06:00

I feel like my head has been smashed beneath a hundred bricks and am wondering why my nap had to end

And, oh ya....

....this fine young gentlemen on the right....

....he's coming home this week.

on a scale of :( to :)

I am :)

[Chef's] pet

2010-06-09T23:14:00.002-06:00

Four words came out of Chef's mouth at work today that I thought I would never hear. Even

better, they were directed at me. Those four words.....

you

are

favorite.

Ya....this is huge

Give me warm water PLEASE

2010-06-01T08:34:00.003-06:00

Apparently my teacher and I missed the memo and we're still supposed to be taking a day off. Only four people showed up this morning. I most likely should've stayed in bed rather than making the long rainy trek to the library. How about Memorial Day? Let's talk about some of the good and the bad.

Good: camping in Oneida, Idaho

Bad: boat not running properly

Good: hanging out in an old Volkswagen van while playing the guitar

Bad: forgetting Dusty's dog was tied up to the back of the van and almost backing up over her

Good: listening to the shins while driving in old Volkswagen van (increasing our level of "hippienss"

Bad: eating Burger King

Good: going boating at Glendale

Bad: wakeboarding in freezing cold water with a wakeboard that was too big

Good: catching air

Bad: landing on my face

Good: body being so cold it was numb to the pain

Bad: body not being numb to the pain now and a very stiff neck.

That just about sums it up. Hope you had a good one!

Long time, no see

2010-05-24T09:38:00.003-06:00

I tried to blog one day last week, but it didn't work out very well, so I'm trying it again. It's been super rainy lately and that's left me with not much to do. I've made a recent life decision that puts me one step closer to knowing what I'm going to do with my life after graduation. I'm going to be a personal trainer. What? You may be thinking "Liz, you need to be in shape and healthy if you're going to be a personal trainer." You're probably right about that. I'm working on that one. I've ordered all my books and will hopefully be taking the test at the end of June/beginning of July. After I've done that, you all can come to me and be my ginny pigs! K, thanks :)

Have I mentioned that I love cutting my hair short? I did it again last week. Here's a looksy from my photo shoot in my room in the wee hours of the night.

Also, I found this picture in a box yesterday...

Basically, Stacie and I are awesome....

and always will be :)

Momma Sue

2010-05-09T08:33:00.003-06:00

Today is one of the greatest days. There are three great things going on:

1 - Ali's homecoming!

2 - Birthday celebrations, complete with a surprise dessert from Megan

3 - Mothers Day!

I love having my birthday so close to Mother's Day. I always get to share my birthday dinner with my dear sweet mom.

I love you Mom!

MegaBED

2010-05-04T01:00:00.002-06:00

This is what finals week does to you.

Type I & II

2010-04-28T13:21:00.004-06:00

I'm beginning to think my John Mayer obsession is not healthy. I'm back in the library, listening to John Mayer, and wishing he was my boyfriend so I could listen to him sing all day long. By the way, he is coming to USANA on August 31 :)

It's snowing outside and that makes me mad. April 28 is not the day to snow! Hey, it's Colby LaBaron! I'm creeping out the library window and he's walking by. We used to work together at good ol' Impact Cash. Fun story about Colby and Impact: One day at Impact, we were in the last hour stretch from 6-7. It is impossible to collect any money in that hour so we would watch Seinfeld and play games. The game of the day was between Jake, Hailey, and Colby. Jake wasn't blinking, Hailey wasn't laughing, and Colby wasn't breathing and we were seeing who could last the longest. Hailey lost, making it only 30 seconds. Jake won; he didn't blink for 15 minutes! Even more amazing than that is the fact that Colby held his breath for 4 minutes. Another day, we stacked 41 pennies on the top of his hand. He threw his hand up and snatched the pennies from mid-air. It was incredible.

I had a little pre-job interview on Monday for a job in Seattle. I made a fool of myself and have pretty much kissed that job goodbye.

Welp.....the regulation of insulin in the body is calling my name. A-river-darchi

Kerfoodle

2010-04-23T10:16:00.002-06:00

Dear Lisa (and anyone else reading this),

You are amazing. I can't believe you're taking the MCAT today! Good Luck. You dominate my life.

Enjoy me in my weirdness :)

La dee da dee da

2010-04-22T01:33:00.002-06:00

Finals start in 11 days. I'm going to ask you a question. Have I started studying? The answer to that is no. I'm wondering why I'm still up smelling like a barbecue. I'm making a resolution to be better starting tomorrow! Finals are about to get dominated by me.

Good/Exciting news! Today I paid for graduation. It's official! I am all registered to graduate December 2010. Then what's next? I'm thinking moving back in with the coolest people I know, Mike and Sue. I think they'll let me live there free of rent. Pretty sweet, huh!

(Must Read with a Thick Souther Accent)

2010-04-19T00:55:00.003-06:00

Well shoot ya'll. Not one gosh dern person applied fer my personal decision maker job offer. Ain't that a boot in the gut. That just means I'll have to keep on truckin along this dirt road on my own.....

At work last night, I discovered (yes Ryan Beckstrom, I discovered,) that talking with a southern accent makes life better. Try it out.

Oh ya. Slight change in plans. Spending summer on a lake water skiing everyday would get pretty boring. Therefore, I'm staying in Logan for the summer to go to school and work at Smokin' Blues BBQ.

Gosh dern knee!

log fog blog.

2010-04-12T17:46:00.002-06:00

Decisions are stressful. I hate decisions. I'm in a blog funk. No idea what to blog about, but the good news is that I am still alive. Just not blogging. Maybe something will come up later or pop in my head and I'll blog about that. Until then, I am accepting resume's for people to make life decisions for me. Please send them to liz.sansom@gmail.com. Thank you.

Childhood Secret

2010-03-30T23:30:00.004-06:00

While looking at postsecret, I noticed that someone sent in my childhood secret.

Sometimes, I still wonder....

Las Normas de Baño

2010-03-30T22:16:00.005-06:00

I've recently realized that all of my pet peeves are located in the same place.

The Bathroom.

Plan on meeting an annoyed and bitter Liz if you do one of the following:

Hair in the brush. I'm not one of those people that is disgusted by a stray hair, but when I pick up my brush and it is full of hair - especially hair that is not my own - I gag a little bit. Hair belongs on your head. Not in my brush.
Leave the toilet lid up. Not just the seat, but the lid too. I have a habit of dropping things. I've already dropped my phone in the bathtub. I would hate to drop it in the toilet too. And finally....
Squeeze the toothpaste bottle from the middle. When dispensing toothpaste, one should always push from the bottom of the tube. It prevents wasting any of the toothpaste

Doing the last one

is like asking for trouble. I once saw an infomercial for a toothpaste dispensing machine.

Maybe someone should buy me one for my birthday. I would most definitely use it. Visit https://www.buytouchnbrush.com/ to learn more about the greatest invention ever.

Who Needs Doctors?

2010-03-23T21:03:00.006-06:00

Just minding my own business in the library, when someone attacked me with a knife! They stabbed it into my side, right around my 8th or 9th rib. I didn't provoke them or anything. BAM! No warning whatsoever. Ok, so someone may not have just stabbed me, but it feels like it. Like any person concerned for their health, I quickly jumped on WebMD to use the symptom checker. After pointing to the areas that hurt and answering a series of questions, I was advised to immediately check myself into the hospital. I ignored the warning and was given the diagnosis. I am suffering from one of the following ailments: pulmonary embolism, broken ribs, a muscle strain, or fibromyalgia. It's most likely fibromyalgia. WebMD says that fibromyalgia can cause trouble sleeping. I've been sleeping excessive amounts lately and never feel satisfied. I am so grateful for WebMD. Do you have any idea how much time I just saved myself from doctors appointments. Who needs doctors when you have WebMD?

P.S. I'm listening to John Mayer right now and he is incredible. He is an amazing guitarist. Probably the only person on earth who is BETTER live. His concerts was one of the best nights of my 20 years. Enjoy.

A Dream is a Wish your Heart Makes

2010-03-21T21:15:00.003-06:00

If that is true, my heart is wishing for a life of rebelion. I had a dream the other night that I was with my two friends Jeremy and Kade and we decided to break into someone's house to steal some stuff. Who knows what, we just wanted to steal something. Apparently, someone was home and heard us. I escaped on a motorcycle, but Kade and Jeremy were not so lucky. After cruising around for a while, I decided to head back to the house to see if I could find them. I went inside and there was a party. I found the boys hanging out with the guy that lived in the house. They had befriended him and he was so generously letting them smoke some of his weed.

According to a dream dictionary, I have unrealized and unfulfilled dreams. I also have a hard time letting people in and desire freedom and adventure. Another website told me that I am mindful of watchful eyes right now. I am independent, but vulnerable and lack protection. The smoking of weed is a sign that problems exist in my life.

I also have work nightmares almost every night. Those are the worst! Last night I dreamt that a woman told my boss that I was being rude and I should be fired. She left me $203 on a $202 check and I was furious. When I asked her why, she said I was making fun of her by limping around the restaurant. I told her that I have arthritis and always limp. At that point, she apologized and said I should probably avoid my boss. Sometimes, I dream that I forgot to give someone their food and I wake up in panic. Serving nightmares are terrible. I wish them on no one!

The Countdown

2010-03-18T16:20:00.002-06:00

I move home in 50 days.

Ali comes home in 49 days.

I am thrilled :)

I would like to dedicate this to LISA

2010-03-17T10:25:00.003-06:00

What to blog about today? I got a text from Lisa last night that said it's my turn to blog now, so I guess I better do it. Warm weather is coming, which makes me happy, but that means spiders are coming too. I don't like spiders. Remember that one time I had a panic attack during class because of a picture of a hobo spider? If you don't remember, ask me the story. It was humiliating. My house is so welcoming to things that just shouldn't exist. Fall and spring brings gigantic spiders and winter brings the mice. Last night I found a large spider. It wasn't quite gigantic, but it was a jumping spider, which might be worse than a gigantic spider. Everyone in my house is out of town for spring break right now so I was running around the kitchen with my j.crew skull boots, screaming, and trying to kill this spider. Currently he's smashed on the kitchen floor somewhere. I would clean him up, but I'm sure there's a mouse that was able to outsmart all the traps and will be more than willing to eat that spider up.

Last night at work, we had a guy named John Nemeth preform some jazz music. After, his guitar player came and talked to me and this girl Shae that I work with and asked us all about mormons. He had never met one and was absolutely fascinated by us. He told us that his nickname is Smokey and with a name like that, there's no way he could be mormon. Smokey likes weed too much.

It's time for me to go get ready for my double at work. Whoot whoot! Spring Break '10 at Smokin' Blues.

Whoops

2010-03-03T13:03:00.002-07:00

I went for a little trim this morning, and this is the outcome. I'm still not sure how that happened.

I am NOT catholic....

2010-02-25T23:33:00.002-07:00

...therefore, there is no reason to participate in lent. I love cadbury easter eggs way too much to say goodbye to candy. I made it eight days though. That is quite an accomplishment.

Welcome back into my life candy....I missed you.

PS...here is the video of our flash mob. The filming is pretty shaky and it isn't nearly as good as the real thing, but you get the idea.

#32, check

2010-02-24T13:23:00.003-07:00

I accomplished #32 on my bucket list today - participate in a flash mob. What is a flash mob? Check out these video's. There's some more that are pretty awesome. We did a freeze on in the student center on campus. There was a huge group wearing her campaign t-shirts and we all froze at the exact some second. People were walking up to us and trying to get us to laugh and move, but we had to hold whatever position we were in for three minutes. It was pretty sweet. Hopefully we can get a dance going for later this week.

I like New York Pizza

2010-02-11T14:30:00.004-07:00

I got home from New York Monday night and it was amazing. I loved it so much and don't know why I didn't go sooner. This was a pretty big deal. It was my first time traveling somewhere alone. The trip didn't start well. I was waiting to go through security when I realized that I was missing one very important article of clothing: my coat. Bad idea considering the east coast had severe winter storm warnings. The day before I left, I was talking to this girl Amber that I work with (oh yeah! I finally got a job as a server at a BBQ restaurant called Smokin' Blues) and she said "whatever you do, don't talk to anyone you don't know and don't carry bags with you because you'll probably get mugged." When I got there, Mike and I walked to the subway and bought my metro pass and he told me, "make sure you walk around with a purpose because everyone here is trying to get from one place to another as soon as possible. If you look lost, people will notice and that could be a bad thing." It's safe to say that after Amber and Mike's advice, I was freaking out.

While Mike was at work on Friday, I wandered around Broadway and Times Square and checked out all the stores. In one store, this lady was determined to sell me a coat. She said "what are you doing without a coat," and threw one on me, then went to tell me it made me look very sexy. She then went on to ask me if I was from France because apparently I have a "French kindness" about me....ok. After hours of shopping, I found myself a coat and met up with Mike at Grand Central Station. That night, we took a stroll across the Brooklyn Bridge then wandered around Brooklyn for a while.

Saturday was probably the highlight of the trip because I accomplished one of my life goals and finally saw Phantom of the Opera. I have been wanting to see it since I was in 6th grade and Stacie came home from New York and told me all about Phantom. After the show, we went to the Top of the Rock and checked out the city from up above. It seems like it goes on forever. It's definitely bigger than Salt Lake.

I'm not going to keep boring you with every detail of the trip, but....ya. It would've been nicer if it was 40 degrees warmer, but I'm just happy I got to go.

Times Square

If you squint, you can see The Statue of Liberty out there.

It was way too cold and windy for a boat ride.

Party in the NYC

2010-02-03T23:23:00.002-07:00

Aside from all being in New York, what do Central Park, The Met, and The Statue of Liberty all have in common? I will tell you. I'm going to each of those places this weekend!

28...

2010-01-26T16:10:00.001-07:00

...equals the number of jobs I have applied for in the last three weeks.

Why is this so hard!!!!!

A word for the wise....

2010-01-22T15:44:00.003-07:00

If you're going to get juju hearts, make sure you buy the ones that are the real deal. Kroger juju hearts, although cheap, do not taste right. It's more cherry medicine taste. Gross.

Camp Vega

2010-01-12T16:00:00.003-07:00

I moved to logan two days after I graduated from high school, and that was kinda a big deal and scary for me. Other than that, I've never really done anything out of my comfort zone...until now. I would like to introduce myself as the newest waterski instructor at Camp Vega. What is Camp Vega? I will tell you!

Basically, it's a camp like the one on Parent Trap, complete with everything from tennis to equestrian lessons. I'll be there from June 10 - August 15. I'm freaking out a little bit, but still super excited. If you'd like to see where I'll be all summer or want to get rid of your daughter age 6 - 15, go to www.campvega.com.

My office for the summer

Overhead view of the camp. It's pretty incredible

Are you cool enough to play this?

2010-01-04T16:33:00.003-07:00

Ever since I found out Mike plays the accordion, I've been trying to get him to play it for me, but he never would. He got a job in New York and right before we were headed to the airport to drop him off, I convinced him to play for me and a couple other friends. This pretty much made my day.

Life Lessons

2009-11-06T17:09:00.005-07:00

Some life lessons I've learned over the last six months:

1. Be careful on a sewing machine. Despite how ridiculous it may seem, it is possible to sew through your fingernail and out the other side.

2. Nickel Cade is always a good option for a party, whether it be a birthday party or a bachelorette party. Plus, it has awesome prizes you can win.

3. My eyes can do fun tricks.

4. I love my cousins. Especially the ones that can flex their neck meat like Todd.

5. Tracy can fall asleep anywhere.

6. I can't cook. I've completely given up.

7. If you are on your way to Oakley and pass a sign that says "Welcome to Wyoming," you have taken a wrong turn somewhere. No need to worry! In order to get back on track, find a random road going southeast. This road will eventually turn into a dirt road. On this road, you will find an old abandoned house and cows. After about an hour, you will end up in Coalville. From that point, continue on to Oakley.

8. 80's dancing is a must.

9. I have the best siblings in the world and Nate is really bad at taking pictures. (Thanks for dinner Todd!)

10. Never let Jack have a superman ice-cream cone.

11. When I feel my life is threatened by a little snake, I can run faster than an olympic gold medalist.

12. Mouse snap traps do not work. The sticky traps are the way to go. Poison helps too.

Gushers and Blood

2009-09-21T23:11:00.003-06:00

Today I had one of those moments where you wish that you were dreaming or that you could just disappear. Monday's are long. They start with class at 7:30 AM and end at 10:30 PM. Whatever I grab on my way out the door in the morning is what I have to eat for the day. I grabbed an apple and some gushers and called it good and took off for nutrition this morning. In my physiology lab, we did blood typing and each pricked our finger to figure out what each of our blood types is. After having my blood drawn so many times and sewing through my own finger, blood and needles to not bother me at all. I was a little nervous to prick my own finger, but it wasn't too bad. A couple minutes after, I realized that it was extremely hot in our lab. I could feel my face getting red then started sweating. A few minutes later my head started to hurt a little bit. I looked at my friend Rhett to mention that I wasn't feeling too hot and when I looked at his face it started getting blurry. Next the black dots started appearing and eventually I couldn't see anything at all and my head was spinning. I mentioned this to Rhett and he looked at me and I could make out a very concerned face through the black dots and blur. He asked me what I had to eat today and informed him of my nutritious diet of an apple and gushers. Anyway, I had to sit down so i wouldn't pass out and started eating a granola bar we found to get some food in body. I was so glad that Rhett was with me! If it would've been anyone I didn't know, I would've been too embarrassed to mention the fact that I felt like I was going to faint, which probably would've resulted in me fainting. Luckily no one else in the class noticed that I was pale and sitting on a chair in the corner of the room eating a granola bar, but I wanted to disappear or wake up from my horrible dream. I didn't even get to find out what my blood type was becuase all my blood samples dried up by the time I could function.

Moral of the story: eat food if you are planning on testing your blood type. It will be very beneficial.

Do you believe in ghosts?

2009-09-13T22:05:00.003-06:00

I always made fun of my roommates for one summer because they were convinced our apartment was haunted because they would hear noises and we saw a flashing light down the hallway one day. They were into the whole ghost thing and even did bloody mary in the bathroom one day.

I'm afraid that I am like them now. I'm convinced my house is haunted, or at least there's some guy sneaking around the house and getting inside through the dungeon somehow. It all started when the wind was blowing Friday night and keeping me up. I kept waking up during the night and thinking the wind was someone outside. Then there's the random creaking sound the house makes. Finally to top it off, we've got the flashing lights I keep seeing outside. Am I paranoid? Possibly. I like to pretend bloody mary found me. Or maybe the girl Jenny that lives in the bottom of Lake Powell that Todd created. She might be mad at me for spitting my toothpaste in the lake last August. I heard putting mattresses in front of doorways will keep ghosts out. Maybe I'll just do that until Jane and Brittany come home.

A Trip to the Zoo

2009-06-19T01:19:00.004-06:00

I decided it is time for a new post after almost two months, so here we go. The problem has been that there is nothing going on in my life to "blog" about. But this weekend I did go to Logan for a fun little excursion. Today, Jane, Shelby, and I were sitting outside aggie ice-cream with a carton of aggie blue mint and three spoons and we were watching all the kids at EFY. It was their free time so there were tons of them there. We enjoyed reminiscing on the times that we went to EFY and realized that it hasn't changed at all. There was the group of four boys who thought they were hot and they were walking around with their top button undone, the tie a little loose, shirt untucked, and the sleeves rolled up. Then there was the short boy that everyone thought was kind of obnoxious, but he thought he was really cool as he threw is arm around one girls shoulder and said, "you and I need to have a little chat." She then rolled her eyes and followed him away from the group. Then there were the girls who you know woke up around 5:00 AM so they would have enough time to shower and put on more make up than I even own in hopes of finding a cute boy to escort them to their classes. But my favorite person to watch was the 15 year-old girl who had a crush on her councilor and was shamelessly flirting with him by talking and laughing at a volume much louder than was necessary. She also had mastered the art of flipping her hair. We felt like we were at the zoo as we sat there on the grass with our curly afro hair do's, stained shirts, and ice-cream, watching and studying the teenage animals. I started to wonder if we really looked that small when we were their age, which I'm sure I did when I was a solid 5' and 85 pounds. It was extremely entertaining.

Epic Weekend

2009-04-22T22:33:00.006-06:00

Since I'm going to be moving home the next two weekends, last weekend was my last weekend in Logan until school starts again in the fall. Therefore, it had to end on an awesome note, and it did. It started off with the Logan Gallery Walk, a bunch of art gallery's set up all over downtown Logan. Some of the art was really lame, but some of it was awesome. After that, I went to Firehouse and ran into one of my best friends Laura and her new fiance. Basically made my day to find out they are getting married because they are two of the coolest people ever. Then I went up to a big dance on the quad (or, as Laura's mom called it, the square) on campus with a bunch of my friends.

On Saturday morning, I got to go to little Rachel's piano competition and she was a rockstar. I wish that I was as good at the violin as she is at the piano. Naturally, when she was done playing, we had to walk across the street and get a few scoops of Aggie ice-cream. Delicious! Saturday night, Caden and I went on a big group date to our friends house/farm. We went shooting and I got a bunch of mud in my hair and perfected the art of eating sunflower seeds. Justin's farm is the funnest place ever. They have every farm animal you can imagine, plus some cool random ones. There were puppies, goats, pigs, cattle, horses, a zonkey, a zebra, and a camel. Yes, that's right. A zonkey, a zebra, and a camel.

After chruch on Sunday, Caden and I went on a walk and decided it was perfect weather to go to the lake. So we made a little picnic and drove up to Bear Lake. That place is completely dead right now. There wasn't another person in sight on the beach. We raced, had handstand contests, and had a competition to see who could keep there feet in the freezing cold water longer (which I won).

We ended the day with a little motorcycle ride through Logan on his new bike. It was an awesome weekend. You should be jealous.

Secret's out!

2009-04-01T09:25:00.004-06:00

I've been keeping this secret for so long and it's finally out! Will finally proposed...it's about time considering half the wedding's already planned! I am so excited for them. They're getting married May 16 in the Logan temple. Congrats!

The true purpose of satin pie

2009-03-31T14:06:00.005-06:00

Lately, I've found myself with a lot of spare time, so I how do I spend that spare time? I will tell you! Cherish, Jane and I made a late night run to Walmart at 10:30 last night for some chocolate pie. The pie was disgusting, but we couldn't let those $4 go to waste.... I don't think I need to say anymore. You'll probably figure out what we did from the pictures.

Downside to growing up

2009-03-23T09:29:00.002-06:00

The weather on Saturday was amazing! I was running around in shorts and happy to have a little warmth and sunlight in the ice-bowl (aka Logan.) My friend Megan and I had an epic idea: let's enjoy the sun and go swing at a park. So we headed over to Adam's park and started pumping our legs to take ourself to a little place that I like to call memory lane. I have to admit, I was proud of myself when I looked over at the five year old next to me who could not get high on the swings at all as I was close to flipping over the top of the swing because I was so high. About five minutes later, a harsh reality set in. I'm growing up and swinging has become extremely hard on my body. I have never been so motion sick in my life! And it was from something so simple. Luckily, I was not alone in this and Megan joined me in lying in the grass for a while to wait for the world to stop spinning. I wish I wasn't growing up. Swinging is way too fun to miss out on, but I don't believe it is worth the motion sickness that then follows.