tender mercy...
Today I went shopping with my mom for an outfit for her to wear to our family pictures. We found her a super cute shirt and cardigan right in the nick of time.
thankful for...
I'm thankful that when I was walking around the house without my glasses on this morning, I noticed a dark spot on our dark carpet and decided to check it out instead of walking over it with my bare feet. And just to be clear, when I don't have my glasses on everything that's more than 2 feet away from my face is blurry, so the fact that I even noticed a spot is saying something. It was a spider. One of those huge, brown, hairy ones. I'm thankful that it didn't grow. For some reason I always expect them to when they're already big and scary. I'm thankful that there was a clear cup nearby that I could put over it and a screwdriver to weigh down the cup so he couldn't walk off with it. The clear cup is nice because I can check in on him to make sure he hasn't escaped (because obviously it would run straight inside my bed). However, I am not thankful that no one has volunteered to release this thing into the wild or kill it for me. I have to walk in a big U when I go in the basement to avoid accidentally knocking my trap over and having it jump on my leg... Otherwise that cup is going to be there until December 9th when I get back and have convinced myself it's safe.
made me laugh...
While we were taking family pictures today, we were trying to get baby Lola to smile. Rachel told us she likes the song "When you're happy and you know it." Immediately Mom and Sarah started singing at the same time. Baby started laughing and gave us some really cute pictures. Later the photographer sang a solo when taking a picture of our whole family to get her to smile again. It made all of us laugh, not just the baby.
I learned...
I learned that butterflies have tongues. Big, long ones that curl up when they're just relaxing and uncurl when they're sitting on my hand licking my ring.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Sunday, August 14, 2011
When life hands you lemons...
I just want to say that I love my new background and I want everyone to love it as much as I do. I know it's one of the basic ones from blogger....but it's perfect. One time in high school I was at Grey Whale and saw a CD (maybe a sticker?) that said "When life hands you lemons, paint that shit gold." When I took Living Prophets they handed out a questionnaire on the first day of class. Everyday when we got to class the professor would read someones answers, we'd guess who the person was, and they'd say the opening prayer. I wrote this as my answer for "Favorite Quote". Needless to say, I never had to say the opening prayer.
I really did find it inspiring though. I still do. Maybe because I like painting. And I like gold things.
I really did find it inspiring though. I still do. Maybe because I like painting. And I like gold things.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Gardening
After digging out grass, picking out rocks, assisting my dad while he built a box, finding dirt and peat moss, collecting bricks, unloading and arranging bricks, graphing out the space, hanging wire, planting seeds, making my plants name tags out of spoons, weeding, killing around 50 snails, and getting eaten by mosquitoes on multiple occasions... I've grown THIS.
I pulled that longer carrot and almost died; I was so proud. It's only like 4 inches. My lettuce, peppers and cilantro didn't make it, along with the marigolds (that were supposed to attract praying mantises to eat the grasshoppers). I did everything I could. I even read books before starting. I followed the directions on the back of the seed packages exactly. I went to a free gardening class on campus between classes one day. I sprinkled snail killer. If I'm lucky I'll get a zucchini before London. I can't help wondering if gardening is really worth it.
Those huge plants are the tomatoes we bought out of desperation. My beans are growing but haven't produced a single bean. The garden looks beautiful though. Maybe I shouldn't have treated it like an art project.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
I see London, I see France...
Because I am going on a Visual Arts Study Abroad this fall through BYU!
We will be living in London with some weeklong trips to Scotland, Paris and some other sites around England. I am registered for 12 credits while I'm there. I'll be taking Creative Writing, Mixed Media (painting/collage), an advanced art class for my BFA where I’ll work on my own 3-D projects, a walks class (where we literally walk and see the city), and a religion course that will be taught by a local institute teacher. And since it is a study abroad for Art majors we will be spending a lot of time going to Museums and viewing architecture and gardens.
I leave on August 29 for 3.5 months but my only hold up is that I haven't earned the full $10,000 to go. I received a $2,250 grant and $1,386 in scholarships and have paid almost $2,000 just from working over the summer. I got a federal loan for $2750. But I still owe $1,350 before I leave.
The great thing about being a Visual Arts major is that I can offer original prizes for anyone who wants to donate to my semester abroad. Whoever places the biggest donation will receive first pick from the artwork I make while in London and then on down the list. I plan on doing a lot of sketches of places I travel and assemblage work with found objects. I will finish works when I return (clean up, make frames, etc.) and have each piece delivered before Christmas.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Denver
(Pictures coming......to make this post even longer)
thankful for...
Over the weekend I drove with John to Denver, CO to see Grace Potter and the Nocturnals and The Avett Brothers Perform at The Red Rocks Theater. I'd never heard of either of these bands when John bought the tickets back in March but after watching them perform live, they have both become favorites (especially The Avett Brothers).
We had some time to kill in Denver before the show so we got some lunch at The Hard Rock Cafe. It was the first time I'd ever been there but the 7th Hard Rock John has been to. We also drove around the city and had ice cream sundaes in front of a beautiful cathedral.
The day of the concert, July 9th, was our 1 year first kiss anniversary.
tender mercy...
We got out of the concert at 11pm. Sat in traffic waiting to leave the parking lot until 12am. Got on the freeway, stopped at the first exit with a gas station. It was super sketchy. The Gas Station was up this hill that was surrounded by trees. No one was inside and one of the windows was covered with cardboard. It was straight out of a horror movie. I was motivated to drive all the way home that night because I knew I was going to get as far from that building as I could.
We got back on the road just to get off on the next exit with a Wendy's. We weren't sure if that would happen anytime soon, so we settled for a McDonald's, got a snack (sugar, caffeine), said a quick prayer and were back on the road. It wasn't 15 minutes later before John asks, "How tired are you?" I wasn't very, so he pulled over so I could drive.
I hate driving on the freeway. I take Main to Spanish Fork and State to American Fork and haven't had a need to go further than that until we thought Denver was a good idea. But I definitely didn't want a sleepy John driving me home at 70mph, so I got in the drivers seat.
Everything was running smoothly for the first 5 minutes of my drive. I knew I wouldn't fall asleep because my nerves were wide awake.
I caught up to a truck following a semi. They kept braking so I went around them. The lines on the road were almost nonexistent so I was really having to focus to stay in my lane. Then it started raining. I have never driven in such darkness. There weren't any towns around so I couldn't see anything other than the tiny bit of road ahead of me that my headlights could light up. The rain even made those worse.
I was leading the way until 2 deer came up on the edge of the road. I freaked out and stepped on the brake not realizing the semi had caught up and was right behind me. He went around me without being rude or honking and I decided it was a better idea to follow him. I was feeling stupid for being such a terrible driver.
The truck had brighter headlights so he could drive faster than I could, he obviously had more experience on these roads, and most importantly, he had bright red lights all over his back, so I could follow those instead of the faint lines on the road. This was the biggest tender mercy.
I followed those red lights for almost 200 miles. In that time I was ordering John to play upbeat Beatles songs so that I could sing along. It helped me not be so nervous and kept me awake. I never took my eyes off of the red lights. I would stick my hand out and John would hand me M&Ms and my Coke when I needed them. We passed a lot more deer but none of them jumped in the road, another tender mercy.
The truck driver was really courteous. He would quickly get over if we passed someone stopped on the side of the road and he knew that I was following him. I'd see him brake and know that there was a bump in the road before I came to it. The red lights would disappear and I knew the road went down hill. He swerved, so I swerved, not seeing the dead deer in the road until it was a couple feet away from me. The darkness wasn't so powerful when I could read the road so far ahead of time.
It started to rain really hard and without thinking I slowed down and was then focused on catching up to my truck, which made the time go faster and kept me even more focused on the truck instead of how heavy my eyelids were.
Eventually we started passed city lights again. And my trusted truck took one of the exits. By then the rain had slowed down and the lines on the road were easier to see. There were even cars coming the other direction that revealed the twists and turns of the road ahead of me. I blew my truck a kiss and hope he's blessed for saving our lives that night.
We made it back to Grand Junction at 5am full of gratitude. My hands were stuck in a fist from clenching the steering wheel so hard for so long, and my voice was scratchy from my hours of nonstop singing. We quickly fell asleep, and woke up just as quickly for church 4 hours later.
made me laugh...
When we were leaving the concert we heard a guy shout out to his friends, "Ok, everyone have keys, cell phones, jackets, cameras..." John busted up laughing and said he was the best DD anyone could have. He was so on top of things!
John shimmying to MIA.
On the way to Denver John pointed out a sign for a town called Silt, CO and we thought it was a goofy name for a city. On the drive back to Grand Junction from Denver, I didn't have a good idea of how much time was passing while we were driving because I was so distracted by other things. So I was reading the names of the towns remembering when we'd passed them earlier in the day. We came to that city sign and I yelled out "Slit!" because I knew we were getting closer. We both busted up because I couldn't even read the sign right.
I learned...
thankful for...
Over the weekend I drove with John to Denver, CO to see Grace Potter and the Nocturnals and The Avett Brothers Perform at The Red Rocks Theater. I'd never heard of either of these bands when John bought the tickets back in March but after watching them perform live, they have both become favorites (especially The Avett Brothers).
We had some time to kill in Denver before the show so we got some lunch at The Hard Rock Cafe. It was the first time I'd ever been there but the 7th Hard Rock John has been to. We also drove around the city and had ice cream sundaes in front of a beautiful cathedral.
The day of the concert, July 9th, was our 1 year first kiss anniversary.
tender mercy...
We got out of the concert at 11pm. Sat in traffic waiting to leave the parking lot until 12am. Got on the freeway, stopped at the first exit with a gas station. It was super sketchy. The Gas Station was up this hill that was surrounded by trees. No one was inside and one of the windows was covered with cardboard. It was straight out of a horror movie. I was motivated to drive all the way home that night because I knew I was going to get as far from that building as I could.
We got back on the road just to get off on the next exit with a Wendy's. We weren't sure if that would happen anytime soon, so we settled for a McDonald's, got a snack (sugar, caffeine), said a quick prayer and were back on the road. It wasn't 15 minutes later before John asks, "How tired are you?" I wasn't very, so he pulled over so I could drive.
I hate driving on the freeway. I take Main to Spanish Fork and State to American Fork and haven't had a need to go further than that until we thought Denver was a good idea. But I definitely didn't want a sleepy John driving me home at 70mph, so I got in the drivers seat.
Everything was running smoothly for the first 5 minutes of my drive. I knew I wouldn't fall asleep because my nerves were wide awake.
I caught up to a truck following a semi. They kept braking so I went around them. The lines on the road were almost nonexistent so I was really having to focus to stay in my lane. Then it started raining. I have never driven in such darkness. There weren't any towns around so I couldn't see anything other than the tiny bit of road ahead of me that my headlights could light up. The rain even made those worse.
I was leading the way until 2 deer came up on the edge of the road. I freaked out and stepped on the brake not realizing the semi had caught up and was right behind me. He went around me without being rude or honking and I decided it was a better idea to follow him. I was feeling stupid for being such a terrible driver.
The truck had brighter headlights so he could drive faster than I could, he obviously had more experience on these roads, and most importantly, he had bright red lights all over his back, so I could follow those instead of the faint lines on the road. This was the biggest tender mercy.
I followed those red lights for almost 200 miles. In that time I was ordering John to play upbeat Beatles songs so that I could sing along. It helped me not be so nervous and kept me awake. I never took my eyes off of the red lights. I would stick my hand out and John would hand me M&Ms and my Coke when I needed them. We passed a lot more deer but none of them jumped in the road, another tender mercy.
The truck driver was really courteous. He would quickly get over if we passed someone stopped on the side of the road and he knew that I was following him. I'd see him brake and know that there was a bump in the road before I came to it. The red lights would disappear and I knew the road went down hill. He swerved, so I swerved, not seeing the dead deer in the road until it was a couple feet away from me. The darkness wasn't so powerful when I could read the road so far ahead of time.
It started to rain really hard and without thinking I slowed down and was then focused on catching up to my truck, which made the time go faster and kept me even more focused on the truck instead of how heavy my eyelids were.
Eventually we started passed city lights again. And my trusted truck took one of the exits. By then the rain had slowed down and the lines on the road were easier to see. There were even cars coming the other direction that revealed the twists and turns of the road ahead of me. I blew my truck a kiss and hope he's blessed for saving our lives that night.
We made it back to Grand Junction at 5am full of gratitude. My hands were stuck in a fist from clenching the steering wheel so hard for so long, and my voice was scratchy from my hours of nonstop singing. We quickly fell asleep, and woke up just as quickly for church 4 hours later.
made me laugh...
When we were leaving the concert we heard a guy shout out to his friends, "Ok, everyone have keys, cell phones, jackets, cameras..." John busted up laughing and said he was the best DD anyone could have. He was so on top of things!
John shimmying to MIA.
On the way to Denver John pointed out a sign for a town called Silt, CO and we thought it was a goofy name for a city. On the drive back to Grand Junction from Denver, I didn't have a good idea of how much time was passing while we were driving because I was so distracted by other things. So I was reading the names of the towns remembering when we'd passed them earlier in the day. We came to that city sign and I yelled out "Slit!" because I knew we were getting closer. We both busted up because I couldn't even read the sign right.
I learned...
- Vail, CO not only exists but is a major ski destination.
- Red Rocks is the best venue....seriously worth the trip.
- Avett is pronounced "A-vet"
- Never drive 5 hours through the night during a rain storm after a long concert.
- The US Mint is in Denver.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Summerfest
thankful for...
Last week I went to the Orem Summerfest with John. As soon as we got there we scanned to see what our dinner options were. We ended up with 2 quesadillas, 3 sodas, 1 giant scone, and 1 funnel cake. Carnival food makes me sick every time, but is so worth it.
For some reason I wasn't really into the whole Festival thing (we skipped out on the parade even though we had a great view thanks to the Orrs) that day and was just going to convince John we should watch a movie instead. We were standing on the edge of the park deciding what we should do with the rest of the night. It was 8pm. Fireworks started around 10pm. Instead of me convincing John to leave he ended up convincing me to stay. We split up and he waited in the ticket line while I waited in the Ferris Wheel line. Apparently we looked approachable because while we waited everyone was coming up and asking questions to us specifically...
made me laugh...I looked over at John and saw this. He found this Orem Police sticker badge on the grass. I'm not sure why I found it so funny :)
We saw a few friends while we waited. The line was so long and slow. It was one of those things where you don't think you're moving at all but after 2 hours we finally did it. We got to the front of the line after shooing away 2 different groups of smooth talking line jumpers, taking a lot of pictures and writing fake lyrics for songs about carnivals.
There was a little Asian girl in front of us with her grandma (who I don't think had ever been on a Ferris Wheel before, because they were really excited). Every time the Ferris Wheel went around this Asian couple down on the grass waved really big and had huge smiles. They were waving at the little girl and grandma, but the ride went so fast that it looked like they were waving at us every time. I could NOT stop laughing! It really made the experience.
tender mercy...
We were the first ones on the ride so we went around really slow at first while everyone else was let on the ride. And then we were the last ones off so we went around while everyone else got off too. Before the ride started to slow down something really magical happened....the fireworks started. Yep, we had waited in line for 2 hours. The odds of getting in that line in the right spot so that we'd be on the ride with the best view of the fireworks is so crazy. We wouldn't be able to plan that if we tried. Especially because the ride only lasts 5 minutes anyway. We kissed at the top for good luck.
I'm really glad we decided to stay. It was even better than the time I went to the Orem Fest with John 3 years ago...which I thought was pretty great.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
work.
tender mercy...
Sometimes I'm really happy that my sister works in the mall with me. So when my least favorite customer comes in to work and repeatedly asks me to make my register do impossible things and then loudly asks for a manager while interrupting my explanation of why there isn't a button that lets me bend the promotion rules for her....I can take my hour lunch and walk to the other end of the mall with a steam trail behind my ears to go vent to someone who'll listen and relate.
thankful for...
I'm thankful that Sean and Tiffany are getting married in 2 days! It is the first thing on my list of fun things I'm going to do this summer and I'm excited to be there when they start their new family and have another sister!
made me laugh...
I went to work with my Dad on Thursday. On our way to the house in Pleasant Grove, he noticed a sign that read "Bump Ahead" and obviously read it "Bump A Head" and started bumping my head with his hand (which was pretty funny by itself). I managed to look out the window and saw a huge speed bump. I told him there really was a bump (while we're still going full speed and I was still a bobble-head) about .3 seconds before we hit it. The truck lifted up in the air and all the tools in the back jumped up and crashed back down really loud at the same time that we crashed back down. We were both a little shocked. We got to the house to find that all of the boxes had opened and the tools were everywhere. It didn't take too long to sweep back into piles though.
Sometimes I'm really happy that my sister works in the mall with me. So when my least favorite customer comes in to work and repeatedly asks me to make my register do impossible things and then loudly asks for a manager while interrupting my explanation of why there isn't a button that lets me bend the promotion rules for her....I can take my hour lunch and walk to the other end of the mall with a steam trail behind my ears to go vent to someone who'll listen and relate.
thankful for...
I'm thankful that Sean and Tiffany are getting married in 2 days! It is the first thing on my list of fun things I'm going to do this summer and I'm excited to be there when they start their new family and have another sister!
made me laugh...
I went to work with my Dad on Thursday. On our way to the house in Pleasant Grove, he noticed a sign that read "Bump Ahead" and obviously read it "Bump A Head" and started bumping my head with his hand (which was pretty funny by itself). I managed to look out the window and saw a huge speed bump. I told him there really was a bump (while we're still going full speed and I was still a bobble-head) about .3 seconds before we hit it. The truck lifted up in the air and all the tools in the back jumped up and crashed back down really loud at the same time that we crashed back down. We were both a little shocked. We got to the house to find that all of the boxes had opened and the tools were everywhere. It didn't take too long to sweep back into piles though.
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