First Day in Europe

thankful for...

I'm thankful for the cute old man that took me to my connecting flight terminal in Houston. He was headed to Guatemala and made sure that I was in the right spot before he went to get lunch.

tender mercy...

Xanax. I had the most relaxing, peaceful flight because of Xanax. I took two and was out like a light for my first flight. On my second flight I just stared at the movie screen. I watched Lincoln Lawyer and Backup Plan and some 30 Rock, while drinking Ginger Ale. I was even brave enough to unhook my seat belt to go to the bathroom.

When we got to the Centre I was super hot and sweaty from lugging my suitcase around. The London airport was a nightmare. I got off. Found a couple other girls. Got my suitcase. Easy peasy. Then didn't know how to get to the center. I got 50 pounds out of the atm (which is $82), when I only needed 10 pounds. I went to buy my Oyster card and couldn't tell them why I needed it or where I was going. 2 employees were trying to help me and finally another student just told them what I needed. Then I basically ran through the gate. It didn't open. I hadn't swiped the card I had just made a big deal to buy. I know the girls thought I was an idiot. Then there weren't elevators, so I had to carry my 50 lb suitcase, my 40 lb carry on and my 20 lb backpack up 2 flights of stairs. It wasn't fun.

We got to the Centre and unpacked. Then went on a 4 mile walk through lots of parks, to Buckingham Palace, and to see Big Ben. Then rode a double decker bus home. The red ones. I rode on the top.

zucchini bread

I made chocolate chip zucchini bread out of the zucchini that I grew in my garden! It was humongous. And the best part is that it surprised me. I didn't know anything was growing and one day I looked under one of those huge zucchini leaves and there it was! I measured it at 22 inches, but I like referring to it as my 2 foot zucchini. I made 2 batches of bread and had 2 bags left over that I put in the freezer!

family pictures

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

• 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.