August 25-2 great study breaks

first and foremost-i hate the cpa. i'm taking audit on thursday and am super nervous about it. please keep your fingers crossed for me...

to break up the misery of studying i took 2 great study breaks today. the first was a wonderful lunch with this girl:

It was so great to see her!! We were roommates before she went on her mission and had all kinds of fun. We lunched at Guru's and chatted and caught up on life. Love it. And this picture of us from about 4 years ago.

The second study break going to see these guys in concert. Oh my. They are so talented and so wonderful! Check out their song Will He Dance. It's my favorite! It was fun to be able to go to one last concert before I take off for NYC (in almost a week! ah!)!

Tomorrow it's back to studying for audit...ugh.

3 reasons I like Mondays

this is me and sister after the SL Half in April

It felt like all I did today was study. audit, audit, and more audit. I'm about ready to poke my eyes out. Hence, no picture was taken today. Instead you get 3 reasons I love Mondays:

1-It's letter day!!! Mondays are the days we hear from Rissa! I anxiously check my email pretty much all day until her email comes. I love love her letters and I'm pretty sure that I get weepy every time I read them...She is so great and I love hearing how she's doing and all about her mission!

2-Monday morning spin. Such a great way to start out the week. Even if it is a 6am...

3-It's the beginning of a brand new week? The first two are the real reasons I love Mondays but I felt like 2 wasn't enough...

August 22-Provo Farmer's Market!!

Today me, Kathryn, and Megan took a trip to the Provo Farmer's Market. We rode our bikes out there and it was a good time! I made me feel like a little kid again!

I had been wanting to go to the market forever but always seemed to forget about it Saturday mornings. It did not disappoint. We saw all kinds of fun crafts from headbands to hand bound books to wood carving things. And then there was the produce. I saw all kinds of vegetables I didn't even know existed-purple king beans? lemon cucumbers? There were people selling animals even! I was a little bit tempted to buy a chicken...and upon actually thinking about it realized it was a terrible idea. I ended up buying some red, yellow, and orange cherry tomatoes and a huge bag of wonderful, fresh basil!

There was also all kinds of wonderful food to eat there! We came across Belgian waffles, crepes, Hungarian roll tube things (I don't remember what they were called), tamales, empanadas, BBQ, real tacos (like mexico street tacos...yum!), and I'm sure other stuff I'm forgetting. Of course I had to get a taco. LOVE those tacos!

All in all-it was a great trip to the farmer's market! I definitely will be returning next week!

August 21-The Great Migration, part I

I have started moving things home to SLC. There's nothing like moving to make you realize how much stuff you have. Ugh. Part of me wants to just get rid of all of it and start afresh...ha ha ha

August 20-Antelope Island

Thursday I took a trip out to Antelope Island! Even though I've lived in Utah all my life, I don't think I've ever been out there. It actually was a lot of fun and quite pretty!

The sunset on the Great Salt Lake

Me in front of buffalo! Real ones!! I kind of wanted to touch one but this was as close as we dared to get. When we were going into the park we were talking about buffalo. The lady at the entrance overheard us and made sure we knew that they were bison and not buffalo. Maybe I just don't know anything about animals...but aren't they the same thing?!?

This was one of my favorite pictures of the night. Since we couldn't get close enough to a real one to get one, we decided to get on the statue instead. Caroline gave me a boost onto the buffalo and then Matt picked her up and put her on. We were laughing so hard we almost fell off the buffalo...love it.

Me and Caroline successfully riding the buffalo...after we had already gotten on we noticed a small sign saying not to touch the statue...oops

It was a fun excursion out to Antelope Island! I suppose that's one thing I can cross off my Utah bucket list.

And congrats to Rachel who guessed the place! It is Capri, Italy!! We took a day trip there while I was on study abroad and I fell in love with it!! Such a beautiful, amazing place! If you ever get a chance to go there-do it!

one of my favorite places...

my camera battery died so i didn't take a picture today. instead i'm posting a picture of one of my favorite places. the first person to guess where it is just may get a special surprise...

August 18-we're on our way to a CPA!

I PASSED REG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

one down...three to go

I actually made some progress studying for Audit today...I'm taking it a week from Thursday....ah! As Peter Olinto would say...I am on my way to a CPA!

August 17-FHE

For FHE we went up the canyon and roasted marshmallows. Yes, a s'more for each hand is definitely necessary. And yes, I roasted my own marshmallows, thank you very much.

August 16-Scenes from a Sunday bike ride

We rode past this incredible garden and saw this ENORMOUS pumpkin! The picture doesn't quite do it justice.

The owner of the duck came out while we were looking at it and assured us that he was friendly and would let us pet him. When I tried he nibbled at my toes and started to chase me...did wonders to alleviate my fear of any and all birds...

We are so bike-y...

Not pictured...

*me nearly falling off my bike

*the cows...yes, cows

*the cowboy riding one horse while leading another on the road right outside my house

who knew we were living in the country?

August 15-goodbye denver, hello real soccer team!

you get three pictures from saturday because i couldn't pick just one. it was my last day in denver. in the morning, allison and i went out for brunch. i love brunch! we went to this adorable place called snooze right down the street from allison's apartment. it was so yummy!! after brunch i packed and we were off to the airport. sad. next besties weekend: NYC style!

i love to travel. i love airports. but i really hate the actual flying part. luckily i only had to endure an hour of flying to get back home.

saturday night my friend megan invited some of us to go to a real soccer game. little did i know we would be getting VIP treatment! we got to go to a sweet dinner before which also included a pre-game chat from one of the real soccer people (i'm not quite sure who he was). we had A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. seats. i'm talking about front row, center field (is that what it's called?), plush, comfy seats. seriously-that is the way to do a sporting event! even more exciting-we got to meet a bunch of the real players after the game. let me just say that i am definitely a soccer fan after saturday night! thanks megan for a fun night!!

me with chris wingert!

we love soccer!

August 14-Denver Day 4

friday we went out to the denver temple. having never lived outside of utah i never realized what a production it can be to go to the temple. i'm used to living 5 minutes from the provo temple and being able to walk in pretty much whenever is convenient for me. it was fun to see and spend some time in the beautiful denver temple!

some random thoughts

*what happened to summer? it got so cold this week! i had to turn on the heater in my car this morning. boo.

*i am really starting to hate the sound of Tim Gherty's voice

*why is it that when I have to study all kind of other things sound so much more fun...like deep cleaning the frige? or cleaning my room? or catching up on the blog?

one last thing...remind me again why I want to be a CPA?

Denver-Day 3

let me just start by saying it's a good thing we did some exercising, because we definitely ate a lot. i suppose that's what vacations are for though right? we worked out in the morning. i ran a very slow 4.5 miles...i think my half marathon in september might be the end of me...after our workout we took our time getting ready and i actually took a short hour and a half nap. then we headed out on the town. we walked around the 16th street mall for a while and then had dinner at this fantastic trendy restaurant called lime. it was such a fun place and the food was SO good! i love mexican food. love it.

after dinner we went back to allison's and got her bike and took it back into the city. we saw a late showing of Julie and Julia, which i just loved! i would just love to go to culinary school-especially in france (or italy...). perhaps if this whole accounting thing doesn't work out...

Denver-Day 2

i have discovered that you can back-date blog posts! love it. allison had to work during the day so i hung out at her place-slept in, did a little reading, and even less studying (which i'll be paying for dearly next week i'm sure...). when she got home we made dinner and went out to the Rockies game. allison lives across the street from the stadium so we literally walked across the street and were there. we bought tickets from a scalper ($10 for both! yeah!) and had a great time watching the Rockies beat the Pirates.

after the game we walked into town and went to the cheesecake factory. we got this. it was AMAZING. i definitely recommend it. it was a wonderful way to end Denver-Day 2!

Relaxing day in Denver!

Today we just took it easy and had a nice, relaxing day. We slept in, ran some quick errands, ran a not-so-quick run at the gym, went to the grocery, and made homemade pizza! Yum! Allison had to work in the middle of the night (she works 3 am-3 pm...) so we called it a night early so she could get some sleep before work. Hooray for her not working the rest of the week and here's to some fun Denver adventures ahead!

Denver here I come!

Me at the airport-ready to go to Denver. Get excited for some fun Denver pics to follow!

I love Sunday

Today was a great sunday. Church was great. I baked and it was great. I went to a fireside-also great. And game night. Great. In all of the greatness I left my camera at home charging-so you get a picture of my fam the day we dropped sister off at the MTC!

Tomorrow I leave for a week in Denver with one of my besties! Can't wait!!

random thoughts...

*today's pictures are of the mountains. driving back to provo i decided to take the long way and they just looked so beautiful. i think i will miss seeing the mountains every day! i took these pictures while driving. yes-i am a hazard on the road. good thing my driving days are numbered (24 left to be exact)

*day 2 of YSA summit was great-they had some really interesting classes with great speakers. i opted out of the saturday night dance-a decision i feel great about

*i saw star trek tonight. surprisingly, i loved it! although i still don't think i'll ever actually watch the tv show-the movie was wonderful

*i have misplaced my favorite black dress and my favorite movie. i have searched everywhere and they are nowhere to be found. boo

*i no longer have to sleep with those horrid plastic eye covers-hooray!

*did i mention i move in 24 days? ah!

YSA Summit-Day 1...among other things

Today I:
*finished Audit lecture #2-two down, 3 to go and 3 weeks until my next test. I think I'm in pretty good shape considering I did 5 lectures the week before the test for my last one. Still keeping my fingers crossed hoping that I passed
*did laundry
*went to Costco-I seriously love that place
*went "back to school shopping" (even though I'm not going back to school-thanks Express friends and family day!)
*had a mini Team Hufflepuff reunion at Chilis
*went to the first day of the Salt Lake YSA Summit...or as I like to call it EFY-YSA style. Remember how much I loved EFY? Yeah...not much has changed.

Lara and I at The Summit-just for the record, she loved EFY just about as much as I did...

Happy Thursday!

Today was a great day full of friends and fun...

For several days (actually just since Sunday) we have been planning a girls night out and tonight was the night! We went and got gelato and had a wonderful time chatting, laughing, and picture taking. After several hilarious failed attempts, this one ended up being the best shot of all of us...

Sure do love these girls and am going to miss them so!

Every month our relief society has flower arranging enrichment night! Melissa is so talented and always has a fun project for us to make. Today we did flower cones-so cute and such a fun thing to make as a gift! I am always amazed with how easy Melissa makes it look and am always reminded at how NOT crafty I am.

Me, Tracy and Christina with our finished products

6 years later...

Tonight I went to dinner and a movie (Monsters vs Aliens-which was quite funny) with two of my favorite friends Lara and Laura. We go all the way back to the days of Helaman Halls. Freshman year we definitely had a "posse" and were pretty much inseparable.

I just love these two.

This picture is from freshman year, taken at one of the many trips we made to the mall. Saturdays in the dorms consisted of sleeping until at least noon, shopping, and cafe rio. Oh those were the days...

Golfing!

It was such a lovely evening tonight that me and my friend Marta decided to take a trip to the driving range. I kind of love golfing-even though I'm not too great at it. My first time golfing was in a class tournament in the jr. core. One of the guys in charge was in my group and told me that I could play-even though I'd never golfed before. Even though I was terrible, I actually could hit the ball and had a lot of fun. And my team won! (with my contribution of a 10 yard drive and a sweet putt-the boys were really good) I took a golf class the next year and got better. I haven't taken advantage of my non-employed summer and haven't been golfing nearly as much as I should have. I can hit the ball straight but can't hit it that far (according to my teacher, there's nothing I can do to hit it further, I can't hit far because I'm a girl. true story. he actually said that.). It was a fun time at the driving range and I actually had a couple of pretty good hits.

(check out that great golfing form...ha ha ha)

another cooking disaster.

i actually did take a picture today, but i just realized that i can't load the pictures from my camera onto my computer. oops. today i baked. i found this recipe for these amazing sounding lime coconut cheesecake cookie bar deliciousness and decided to make them for an FHE treat. bad decision. the filling was good but the crust was yuck and hard. and then the recipe called for frosting on top of the cheesecake. obviously-that is a bad idea which i should've recognized sooner. but i guess you live and learn. perhaps my cooking ability was a fleeting thing and i've lost it all? i sure hope that's not the case.

oh yeah. the picture of the day was me cracking eggs and ending up with egg all over the counter. i maybe got a little too excited when i was trying to crack them open...

**update: here's the picture...

All at Sea?

I didn't take a photo of anything today-although it was a great one: wonderful church time; fab dinner cooked by roommate; ever so delightful chat with some fav friends; and an entertaining evening of delivering nice notes. I decided since I didn't take any pictures of said events, I would tell you the origin of the name of my blog.

Several years ago while watching Jay Leno (who I miss-seriously, Conan is yuck) I saw a performer who just blew me away. He was a little english lad who could play the piano like nobody's business and had an AMAZING voice. I of course fell in love and went out and bought his CD. I kept tabs on him and anxiously awaited the day he would come do a concert in SLC. When they released the dates of his US concert the closest one was unfortunately in Reno. I bought tickets, convinced my dear friend Mika to go with me, and we road tripped it to see him perform. Hands down, the BEST concert I have ever been to. He was great on TV and CD, about a million times better in person. The best part of the night: I got to meet him!

Anyways...the title of my blog: All at Sea is my favorite song (yes, I do have 1 song that is my all time favorite). I couldn't think of anything clever or cute to name my blog so I just went with the song title. I decided to google "all at sea" and see what came up. In addition to several references to the actual song, I found this:

All at sea

Meaning

In a state of confusion and disorder.

quite fitting, don't you think? Anyways-that's the story of my blog title. Listen to the song-you'll love it too. Perhaps tomorrow I'll do better at taking a photo of the day...

A photo a day...

so once upon a time i decided that i was going to take a photo each day of the summer and then make a book out of them. i think i ended up taking pictures about half way through the summer and then kind of dropped the project. i have decided that august is going to be my photo a day month of the summer. i've hardly taken any pictures this summer and figure that's a decent way to make up for it. although-i kind of forgot that it's august already. and since it's midnight, technically it's aug 2nd so i'm already behind. oops. so i dropped the ball on the 1st but i'm going to post the picture of me post-lasik. check out the hot plastic eye covers...

fyi-short story: the surgery went great and i can see 20/20 now! hooray! long story: i may have taken a bit too much valium and almost passed out in the middle of the surgery. talk to me if you want the story...and i apologize for the sick looking picture...and sorry about the underlining. don't know how to get rid of it.