New Life, New Hope, New Joy He Brings

Heard this song on my way home from work last night. Reminded me of the Holidays back in Provo a few years ago with Malpal. We LOVED to blast this song and sing at the top of our lungs. How about a repeat of that when I fly out there next week??

No Way Josessica!

Last night while working super hard I looked at my phone to see a text from my bff saying "leave work and bake with me." Only because I had been wanting to bake something pumpkin did I think this was a great idea! Who cares about making money at work, when you can bake delicious treats at home with a friend. Right???

So we rendezvoused at my house an hour later. After perusing through recipe books and Food Network Magazines we gave up and went online to find the perfect pumpkin treat.

This is where Rachel Ray sometimes comes in handy. The other times she's just loud and makes weird recipes with hot dogs...

Cheesecake-Filled Pumpkin Cupcakes

We read the comments and saw that the frosting was no bueno so I just whipped together some cream cheese frosting and it turned out great. You can never go wrong with cream cheese.

{My friend thought she could steal one before they were frosted.}

{the final product}

I'm saving mine for my lunch tonight at work. Can't wait.

and they call it pumpkin love

I love fall for two reasons. First: I love jackets, coats, hoodies, ponchos... you name it. I love layering. Second: I love pumpkin!

Pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin cupcakes, pumpkin bread, pumpkin bagel with pumpkin shmear, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cheesecake... i.e. I love anything that has pumpkin in it. Last weekend while in St. Louis I tried the pumpkin pie concrete at Ted Drewes. It was a slice of pumpkin pie mixed in with vanilla custard. OMG. If only it was around all year I would probably fly to St. Louis on a weekly basis just to eat that. I had it on Friday night and I am still thinking about it. Even after getting the pumpkin milkshake at Blue Plate Diner yesterday, I couldn't erase the delicious memory from my taste buds. I must go back. Soon.

Moral of the story. I wish November could last forever.

Road Trip!

I live for these things. Taking a drive through the Southern states this weekend. I love my job.

OMG! OMG! OMG!

It's BAAAAACCCKKK!!!! My life will officially return to normal when I watch tonight's season premier of Gossip Girl. I have been waiting for this day for sooo long. So many unanswered questions. It's a good thing my new schedule starting in October has Monday nights off so I can watch GG! I will miss GG nights at the 3030, but I hope to quickly find a replacement.

Although I am a little nervous that I am over television. I haven't turned on the tv in a LONG time. Over 2 months probably. Except for my Monday night Bachelor Pad at Kelli's, I don't watch the tube. My life is too exciting right now to sit on the couch.

Nothing will stop me from watching Chuck Bass. Thank you CW.



p.s. I am also excited for Life Unexpected. Did anyone else watch that last season? I thought maybe it wouldn't make it to a second season, but I'm glad it did. It's filmed here in Portland so it's fun to watch.

Listen to the Music

Last night while pulling up to my driveway I remember Coldplay "Clocks" playing on the radio. When I turned my car on this morning, guess what was playing?!? "Clocks" What are the chances? Well unfortunately they are great, because the radio keeps playing the same songs over and over again. While it's fun to hear Wilson Phillips often and remember Aric Johnstone and the Walner brothers lip syncing to "Hold On" at an assembly in high school, it gets kind of annoying that the station can't pick other songs. I usually listen to 101.9 these days. I love getting to hear new music from Portland bands. But when I turn to other stations like 103.3 and especially 100.3 I hear the same music over and over. While I loved California Girls when I first heard it, after the 3,000th time, it's gotten pretty old.

Why are these stations not playing some old school hits? They don't even have to be that old. What about all the top songs of the decade? We've had some pretty good music over the years. At what point does a station determine that they will stop playing a song cold turkey? It seems like they play it 50 times a day and then all of a sudden you never hear it anymore. I should be a radio DJ. I would be so good at it. I need to get a new iphone hookup for my car so I can just be my own DJ.

In other music news, I just found out Hanson is coming to Portland at the end of the month and I REALLY want to go. Who wants to go with me? September 22nd at the Wonder Ballroom. Has anyone realized that they've come back? They're album, The Walk, is actually pretty good. Grooveshark them next time you're getting ready and you'll love it.

Steal of a Deal

Fresno Groupon has a great deal today!

$40 for $100 worth of Clothing and Accessories from Shabby Apple!

I love Shabby Apple. It's a bit over my budget right now though, so this groupon is perfect!

You can buy 2 of these so you pay $80 and get $200 SA buckaroos! Sweet! PLUS they are having a 20% off sale right now. Not sure if that will work with this deal yet.

To get yours click here

Happy Shopping!

Life is Rough

Dear KION,

I really wish I could have said yes to your offer. You made the decision tough. But ultimately I had to go with my gut. My heart is in PDX. I can't leave this place just yet. I already left it back in 2004 and it was rough then. I didn't want to have to go through another heartbreak. I hope you'll understand. I am so lucky to have been your top choice. Good luck.

Sincerely,

Just another college grad who decided her major isn't really what she wants to do anymore.

Do It Yourself

This is going to be my next project! I stocked up on pocket v necks a few weeks ago for easy summer wear. And now all I need are a few fun skirts to go with them. I have been shopping around for some, but with my non existent funds, it's hard to feel good about buying any of them. So I am going to try this out! I'm off to the fabric store!

For a tutorial, go here.

Oh What Do You Do In The Summertime?

Yesterday in a phone interview for a job I was asked what I do when I'm not working. I'm pretty sure my future employer is not the only one who would like to know. I am frequently asked that question by friends and family. I'm done with school and have no job. What do I do everyday?!?!

1. Traveling. I have all this free time, so I am taking advantage of it. I have gone on a lot of fun trips in the past couple of months. From last minute trips to Utah and California to long awaited trips to Spain and Hawaii. I love to travel! There's nothing better than packing up and leaving for a few days. As long as I don't have a job, I will keep filling my time with fun (yet cheap) trips!

2. Running. Well at least that's what I used to do apparently. With all the above traveling, it is hard to stay on a steady running schedule. I am supposed to be training for a half marathon coming up in a few weeks. But can't seem to get back into my long-run groove. I wouldn't say that I love running yet, but I do love the escape. Hopefully Portland is done with it's monsoon rains so I can get back onto a good schedule.

3. Reading. School killed my love for reading. Textbook after textbook of boring material from boring GE classes made me never want to pick up a book again. But while in Hawaii, my friends and I had a little book club. We'd thought it would be fun to all read the same book and discuss. I wasn't too thrilled with the book choice so I skipped reading for the first few days. But as soon as I was forced, I was hooked. Now I find myself going to the library once a week to return a handful of books for a new handful of books. I love my new library card! Right now I am really into Jodi Picoult books thanks to Lindsay. I love her style of writing!

4. Baseball. It's baseball season. I have nothing to do. So now I can concentrate on it 24/7. I am able to catch a lot of the rare Cardinals games on TV out here. And I have been able to catch 2 A's games in Oakland already. In a few weeks I'll be going to St. Louis to catch a few Cardinals games at Busch Stadium. I. Can't. Wait.

5. Baking. I'm still making lots and lots of cupcakes. My grandma usually calls me about once a week to make an "order." So that gives me the opportunity to make a new kind or test my new decorating skills. I have been given a few fun decorating books recently so I have lots of ideas to try. I usually try and find something that will go along with my Sunbeam lesson every Sunday. Sometimes it's easy, and sometimes I have to really stretch to justify taking cupcakes to them all the time. I just got a few new accessories for my KitchenAid and can't wait to break them in. When I was in San Francisco last week I found myself spending a long time in Sur La Table. I don't know why, since we have one here. But I wanted to get everything in their baking section!

6. I'd never thought I'd say this but the Singles Ward. I thought I would just stick with the home ward and I would be good. But a few months ago I decided to try out the Canyon Road ward and had success. Love the people there. Lots of fun activities. We had an Amazing Race through Portland last week. Guess who's group won? That's right, mine! I've got the blisters to prove it. (I wore new shoes... and we literally ran from point to point) Yesterday we worked on floats for the Rose Parade. I got to cover a Native American's shoe with Walnuts. Now I must go to the parade to see the fruits of my labor. I am enjoying the singles ward and I'll take back almost every negative thing I've said about it in the past. The saying is true, don't knock it till you try it.

7. If I had a pool, that would cover #1-6. That's all I would do. Brings me back to my days at King Henry. When all we cared about was going to the pool and happy hour at Sonic.

Why Do They Hate Your Bags?

Read this:

http://news.travel.aol.com/2010/05/13/aol-mystery-flyer-southwest-airlines-report-card/

I travel a lot. I love going places. And my preferred way to get there is and has always been Southwest Airlines. Actually, when I was really young I did like TWA. But they're not around anymore and I probably only liked them because that's really all I ever knew.

I had an experience while traveling on Southwest Airlines that I will never forget. I was about 7 or 8 years old. I was traveling with at least 2 of my older brothers to go visit my dad in St. Louis. Being the youngest and a sister I was teased all the time. And this didn't stop in the air either. So after awhile one of the flight attendants noticed me traveling with my brothers and asked me to come to the front of the plane with him. His name was Buddy. He was really nice. I am not good with names at all. So remembering his name tells you how great this experience was. He had me sit down on the flight attendant's seat and he began fixing a bowl of ice cream for me! It even had chocolate syrup on it. Not only did he give me ice cream, but I am pretty sure one of my brother's came up to the front with me. So he had to sit there while I enjoyed a treat. :) I have always been a little uneasy about flying. It used to be 8 times out of 10 I would get queasy during the flight. So I would dread flying. (Now it has gotten a lot better) I swear for the next year after this experience I looked forward to flying! And I always looked for Buddy after that. Still do.

What company hires genuine, nice people like Buddy? I am convinced Southwest Airlines does not hire anyone that has ever been in a bad mood. Because it's rare to find an employee that isn't smiling, helpful and genuinely interested in making your flying experience magical! As I sit down in my seat on a flight I look forward to seeing what fun things are in store. Have you met a Southwest flight attendant that does not sing and dance? And who doesn't love their bags fly free commercials right now?

Why do they hate your bags?

As I read this article, I kept getting goosebumps thinking that I may have a chance to work for this company. May 27th can't come soon enough.

Don't Leave Without Me

Do you ever find yourselves making the best purchases on items that caught your eye on your way out of the store? It's almost as if they are calling after you to say, "Wait, don't leave without me!"

I went to Nordstrom Rack today to do a return. I told myself I would only return, not buy today. But as I was walking out of the store I passed through the home accessories and saw this:

$22 is a little steep for me right now, so I almost walked away from it. Then I remembered I had american Express gift cards from graduation and my birthday still. Oddly enough while running my errands today I thought about what I would use them for. I had to stop and get a bunch of essentials at Target and thought of using one then. But I thought that was way lame to use a gift card for boring stuff. But I still hadn't decided what items I would allow myself to purchase with these cards. As I was walking away from this stand it hit me that this would be the perfect way to spend one! Because I would have loved to get this for my birthday! So thank you to my mom or grandma or the others that gave me an Amex/Visa card. Whoever wants to claim this gift to me, THANK YOU!

I already have visions of cupcakes and cookies to place on this all the time. I am just going to leave it out on my counter in my kitchen and always have it filled for visitors ;)

p.s. This Rack only had one available. If anyone sees one in another rack let me know. I kinda want two for entertaining purposes maybe? Online they are $35, but at the Rack they are only $22. What a steal.

Also I went online to look up more stuff from this company. I want all three of these! But mostly the cake stand. Or mostly all of them.

{photos courtesy of Rosanna}

Catastrophic Failure

I am a big fan of Gmail. I love discovering new and exciting (to me) things about it. When I realized you could actually move emails into a folder instead of just labeling them. Loved that. Love the color-coding. It helps a lot in folders with too many emails. I love the chat function. It is the simplest way to video chat with someone. Today I found something new with Gmail that will really save my life...

A common mistake I make while sending emails is I forget to add the attachment. I have done it multiple these past few months when I have sent my resume to an employer. I tell them in the email my resume is attached and then once I hit send I realize I forgot to attach it. Then I contemplate which would be worse: sending the email again with the attachment and an apology, or just forgetting about that job because they probably think I am incompetent now anyway.

Well just a few minutes ago I almost made the mistake again, expect when I clicked to send I got a popup (like the ones that say you are sending an email without a subject line...) that said, did you forget the attachment?

Genius!

Then while checking my local library for some good books I came across this funny page.

I was trying to put a hold on a book and something went wrong. But instead of it just being a failure and telling me to try again, it was a "catastrophic failure" sounds scary. I x'd out of the page immediately before my computer blew up. (after stopping to press function F8 to take a screen shot first, of course) I am excited to encounter another problem on that website to see the different levels of failures. Unless they just consider everything that goes wrong to be catastrophic.

I love the laughs technology brings me on a daily basis. It's the simple things in life...

Out Of Control

For my 24th Birthday I went skydiving in Hawaii... I know. I'm pretty cool. These were my final words before the jump.

Giveaway

Want this KitchenAid? I can't tell you how much easier and more fun it is to bake now that I have my Kitchenaid. Everyone that bakes a lot should have this in their kitchen!

Start following this cooking blog that I am obsessed with and you could be a winner! Just Cook Already will choose a winner when they get 1,000 followers. So go there and follow them! And if you win, you have to share with me ;)

Craving

I can't wait for a little Red Mango in Orem in a little over a week. Oh and graduating. :)

Always on Vacation

I get newsletters from alwaysonvacation.com every week sent to my inbox. I don't actually read them. In fact I delete them right away. I don't know how I got signed up for them, but I am too lazy to unsubscribe. But every time I do receive an email from them I smile. It is so fitting for me to be a recipient of a newsletter from this website. As it seems I really am always on vacation. Especially right now in my unemployed stage of life. I have all the time in the world to do whatever. I may not have the unlimited funds I would like, but I make do.

On Tuesday I returned home from the most amazing trip to Spain. It was my first time traveling to Europe and I am in love. Everything was perfect. (sans the food in Spain) I will show pictures later.

Next week, on Wednesday I will fly to Fresno for some birthday celebrations. I am excited to make cupcakes for Ava's birthday party. I went to the library yesterday and came out with a few more cupcake/cake decorating books.

From Fresno I fly to Las Vegas for a few days, before I head up to Provo for my graduation. It will be a fun gathering of many family members and friends. I am excited!

A few days after graduation I will hop in a car (or two) with 6 of my friends as we make the trek to San Francisco. We will do a day in the bay area before flying to Hawaii!

I will be in Hawaii for 7 days. One of those days will be my birthday! Second time celebrating my birthday in the Aloha state. Me and 6 great friends relaxing on the white sandy beaches of the North Shore sounds so amazing right now. We are all stoked out of our minds and can't wait for April 27th to get here. I can't wait to get my hands on some delicious papaya :) This time I think I will skip trying to smuggle it back into the mainland.

Upon return, we will do a few more days in San Francisco and then it's back to regular life here in Beaverton. Hopefully I will get my butt into gear these next few days and I can have some work lined up for me upon arrival.

But right now I am just enjoying this time I get to spend with the people I love most.

Holiday in Spain

In 2.5 minutes (really more like after my 13 hours in an airplane tonight and 8 hours in London) I will be taking a holiday (Easter) in Spain. Leaving my wings behind me. Drinking my worries down the drain. And flying away to somewhere new!

See ya in 10 days!

Peace, Love and Luman

Let's Ask

Thursdays Tidbits of (T)Wisdom:

-Yellow polish does not look good on my toes. I have been wanting to do yellow (like taxi cab yellow) for a long time now and decided I would do it today at my pedicure. Wow did it look bad! Good thing I had pink as a backup. And I am loving this pink. (Pink Flamingo I think. Or maybe it was Flamenco)

-Tomorrow I will be taking the longest flight of my life. I hate flying. Going to Hawaii a few years ago was a killer for me. I don't know how I will do the 10 hours to London tomorrow. I might need to enlist the help of drugs.

-I dream about the Cardinals on an almost nightly basis. 2 night ago I dreamt that we landed seats on their charter flight after a game. I was in heaven.

-My ears don't like to be pierced. They are extremely infected. But I read somewhere that I shouldn't take the earrings out. If I did, the infection would stay in my ear when the holes closed up. So now I try to cover my ears with my hair when I am close to people.

-I vacuumed up a worm today. I was vacuuming downstairs by the back door and moved something out of the way only to find a worm was living under it. I panicked and just ran the vacuum over it. I don't think that was a smart idea...

-I am excited to be free from cell phone contact for the length of my trip. I opted out of getting my phone prepped for european travel. I just decided to go without it. It's quite liberating.

-I vacuumed my room and washed my sheets for the first time since February. Sick. Now I will have clean sheets to come home to in a few weeks.

-I still haven't watched this week's episode of Gossip Girl. I didn't watch last week's episode until Sunday. What is wrong with me? Am I just too busy? Doubt it. I guess it's just not the same unless I watch it with the 3030.

-I am currently fighting a speeding ticket from Tillamook County and I will cry if I don't win. I don't have $200 to pay for speeding for 2.5 seconds.

-I want to go skydiving on my birthday in Hawaii. I will only do it if I find at least one other person to go with me. The reason for wanting to do it on April 30th?? You get a free t-shirt for risking your life on your birthday. That's worth it, I think.

-I can't think of anything else at the moment. And I need to get to the mall before it closes.

I'm In Love

I didn't think this was possible, but I have grown more in love with the Northwest. It's just so beautiful. In my humble opinion the Northwest is God's gift to mankind. He gave us a little taste of heaven on earth. A few weeks ago the trees started blossoming, and flowers started to bloom. Our long driveway is now lined with colors! This is my favorite part of spring. I love driving around and seeing all the flowers growing.

Yesterday I took a trip up to Seattle to check out the city with the help of a friend. I could not have chosen a better day to go. The weather was just perfect. Not too hot and not cold at all. It was in the 70s the whole time. It finally cooled down a bit around 8. I felt like I was in San Diego where it's like 68 degrees every day. One of my favorite things to do is eat outside at restaurants. It makes for a calmer meal because when you're inside the noise level is so high that you have to talk louder to the people at your table to hear each other. Plus who doesn't love sitting outside and letting the sun kiss your skin? We had BOTH lunch and dinner outside. What a treat!

The best way to explore a city is to walk, I think. So we did a lot of walking around. We even got halfway over a bridge and decided to park at the end and walk over it. The skies were so blue, so it made the view so much better. Everywhere I looked, I was in love with the view in front of me.

I have always said that after a few years of a career somewhere else I want to eventually come back to oregon and live. But right now, I don't really want to leave. Although, I will have to live in Seattle so that I can be close to a baseball stadium. Of course.
This is the best picture of the view I got all day. I need to be better and bringing my camera out for pictures. And this was even at night, so you can't tell how beautiful the day was. Plus the fact that it was blurry. We tried to hold the camera steady enough, but my little camera couldn't hack it.

We went up to this neighborhood on a hill. It had the coolest houses! We decided we should live there someday. Especially in the house in the bottom left corner of the picture. It was huge! And had a huge yard- in the middle of a city. One thing I know - I need to have a big yard when I have a family. My backyard growing up made my childhood 500 times better. Especially the days that we mowed a baseball diamond into the grass and played wiffle ball.

Moral of the story. Northwest = best place to live. Especially Beaverton.

Baked With Love

I haven't blogged about cupcakes in a long time. That doesn't mean that I have stopped making them. Because if anything, I am making more lately. Ever since I got my new kitchenaid mixer, baking has been a thousand times easier and so I love doing it more. If that's even possible.

A few months ago my grandma asked me to make some cute cupcakes that she could take to a friend who had just adopted a baby girl. So my first thought was pink. After looking through my "bible" (my Martha Stewart cookbook) I decided to make little piggies. Obviously they didn't come out as perfect as Martha makes them, but they still were pretty dang cute! I used mini m&m's for the eyes and bubble tape for the ears. I made a ton extra so I could take them to my sunbeams the next day. I don't think they had anything to do with the lesson. But of course that particular Sunday the other teacher decided not to show up so I had double the number of kids and didn't have enough cupcakes. So I had to wait until after church and deliver them instead.

The last week I was in Provo I decided to make the s'mores cupcakes from the cookbook. I searched all over for graham flour the whole summer and finally found some at my favorite place in Provo, Sunflower Market! So all semester I planned to make these cupcakes. But I never had a special occasion for them. Since the marshmallow cream is torched, they had to be eaten right away to be able to fully enjoy them. Well I tried making them in December and failed miserably. Miserably. But once again, this kitchenaid has saved my life. I could not live without it. I tried them again to make them for my grandma's send out cards party. They tunred out a thousand times better. They are so fun to torch too!

Bill and Heidi came to town last month and we celebrated Jenna's birthday while she was here. She loves strawberrys so I decided to try out the strawberry cupcakes with strawberry butercream frosting.

It all started with some fresh strawberries.

Then we put them in the yummy batter.

This is the finished product.

Rebekah helped me frost some of them.

Jenna loved them. It was also Valentine's day weekend, so I took them to my sunbeams at church. When Spencer's brother picked him up after class he exclaimed, "You got cupcakes again!?!?!" It made me laugh.

Because it was Valentine's Day weekend, and Adrianne came out for the weekend, I wanted to send some cupcakes back to Provo for some of my friends. Once again, this batch was a rebake. My very first cupcakes that I made with the Martha Stewart book were the Chocolate Marshmallow cupcakes. The book says to mkae them jumbo, but they didn't turn out very well. Plus the marshmallow cream for the filling was gross. So I decided to give them a try again. This time I made them regular sized. They turned out great! And then I covered them with a chocolate ganache and my mom (who has better writing with frosting skills than me) wrote Valentine and I love you on all of them. It took me hours that night to get them secured perfectly for travel the next morning. But it was so worth it. I am glad I could send a special treat to some people in Provo.

A favorite cupcake in our house is the flourless cupcakes. They bake like normal cupcakes but when they cool down they fall into the liner. And then you put a scoop of Tillamook Vanilla Bean ice cream. It's a delicious combination. I got these huge cupcake liners in my stocking this Christmas, and they are perfect for this recipe.

mmm. chocolate and butter.

turns into this.

and then poured into the egg mixture.

to make these yummy and easy treats.

Two weeks ago the sunbeam lesson was on flowers and trees, so I wanted to make some cute flower cupcakes. I decided this a little too late on a Saturday night, so I raced around town before the stores started closing to find the supplies I needed. I didn't find exactly what I wanted, but they still turned out pretty cute.

On Monday it was Howard's birthday and we had a bunch of people over for dinner. I was in charge of the cupcakes. Of course. He loves cherries and chocolate. So I made the black forest cupcakes sans the alcohol. These are very chocolately cupcakes that are then cut in half after baking. They are brushed with marishino cherry juice on each side. Then a handful of cherries are put on top on the both half. Followed by some pastry cream (think cream-filled donuts) Then I put the top back on and cover it with a layer of chocolate ganache. They were a hit. I don't really care for canned cherries, so I didn't actually have one.

There's still more yummy recipes to try. I picked up a few cupcake books from the library, so I keep adding to the list of recipes I need to try.

I Need Some Papaya

Despite the fact that it actually has been quite warm here lately, I want to be here instead...

Someone please take me there. For my birthday? OK!

Is It April Yet?

10 hours and 23 minutes (at the time of post) until the Cardinal's first Spring Training game...

Can baseball season just get here right now???? I need games, games, games! I need the 9 texts a day for 401 updating me of the Cardinals games. I usually get annoyed with the texts when I am at the game, but now I would appreciate them anytime!! Just start coming please...

I have already looked up trips to Seattle, St. Louis, Boston and San Francisco to catch a series or two. Why do I always go to the same ballparks? This isn't helping me reach my goal of going to all of the Major League Baseball Stadiums...

I am liking the fact that the Mariner's Opening Day is a week after baseball starts. Seeing as how I will be traveling back into the country on April 6th, most likely with an empty bank account, it will be semi-impossible to catch the Cardinals opening day... So second best is Seattle, right?? I am a little worried for the Mariners that their 2nd and 3rd home games of the season they are already offering half price tickets. Is it really that hard to get fans to come? By the way, on my birthday (April 30), the Cardinals are giving away Cardinals Snuggies... If that's not a sign that I have to go, then I don't know what is! Done and done!

I am excited to see the Cardinals this season. We dropped a few, picked up a few and had a few struggles during the off season. But doesn't everyone? I am cheering for Freese no matter what anyone says. I am excited to see Pujols, Yadi and Holliday back in action. Let's get a Cy Young from Waino or Carp this season. Good riddance to Ankiel (or HGH) and Thurston. I'm surprise LaRussa let go of his man crushes. I wish I could go to Jupiter right now.

April-October/November = PURE BLISS! And I can't wait for it to begin!

Get ready for me, St. Louis! I am coming!

p.s. I am in love with the first picture that comes up on the Cardinals home page right now. It's McGwire and Freese in the batting cages... It makes me smile everytime :)

Let's Link Together!

I've fallen into the trap of yet another online social networking site. This one will hopefully help me get connected with a job! PLEASE!!

LinkedIn. I have heard about it for a few years now. In fact, I remember in my sports broadcasting class my teacher was about to leave BYU Broadcasting to pursue a different field. And I think he was trying to get us going in that direction also, because it seemed like our lectures were a lot of business and not so much sports. And this was my second time taking the class (I loved it that much. Seriously) So I remember a lot less business and a lot more sports the first time around. One lecture he showed us all the great things about LinkedIn. At the time, I never thought I would jump on the bandwagon.

But here I am. One of LinkedIn's newest members. Thanks to a friend who persuaded me tonight. And then of course minutes after adding my dad, he sent me an email telling me it was a great idea to join. Glad I got your approval...

So if you're on LinkedIn, add me to your network. Let's get me hired!

Click here to connect with me

America's Attic

After posting about my friends' fun, spontaneous trips I decided I needed my own. I had been wanting to visit Emma in Vancouver ever since I knew she was going to be working the Olympics. Duh. Free place to stay. (Thanks Emma!) Short drive. Not only new city to explore, but new country as well. Yes, yes, and yes. Well seeing as how the last time I had a passport was when I was 10 years old, this brought about a slight problem. I applied for one about a month ago so I can go to Spain in March (!!!!) but I didn't think it would come in time. Plus, I was babysitting for some people in my ward while they were at the beach all week, so that eliminated one available week to go.

Well I get home on Friday to see that my passport had arrived! So of course, I start looking at flights to Fiji and Amsterdam... So typical of me. But it's like when you turn 21 and you have this sudden freedom that you didn't have the day before. Even if you're not going to use the freedom, it's still the fact that nothing is stopping you. That's how I felt when my passport arrived. So of course Sunday I began contemplating the idea of going to Vancouver. And there I was... Monday morning... in my little red Honda... driving up north. As I said before, the drive was beautiful. Loved it. That is until I reached the border... Story time!

Disclaimer: My Canadian brother-in-law should not read the first part of this. Thanks :)

This whole border thing is new to me. I was too young to remember my experience of going to Mexico. Please, I was just so excited that the PHX airport that our layover was in had an arcade room... Plus our flight was delayed. And then when we got there our bags were missing... It was a horrible experience. So driving up to Canada I didn't know what to expect. Though, I for sure didn't expect to be treated like a freakin criminal.

I pull up to the border and hand the man my passport. He seems to be about 5 years older than me so I thought in my head that I got lucky. This should be simple. He asked me a TON of questions. Ranging from my employment (sad) to where I was staying, how much money I had available to me, and what's my favorite major league baseball team... (just kidding... i wish) I thought things were going well. But then after about 10 minutes of questions, he hands me my passport back with a yellow slip and tells me to proceed to the left to park and go inside the building for some more questions. I ask him if this is normal, and he says they just want to make sure I am really staying where I say I am and if I have enough funds just in case I get stuck up there.

Whatever. I pull in and notice that "SWAT teams" are searching the others cars. They've got all their stuff out of the car, looking under the hood, under the car, every little crevice. It felt like I was watching one of my law and order shows. I walk inside and get asked the same questions over and over. So bugged at this point. I was making such great time. And I wasnted to get into the city before it got dark. At this point, it didn't look like that was going to happen... So after a million questions again he searches my wallet for money, me, and then takes my keys to search my car. 20 minutes later he comes back, gives me my keys and tells me I'm good. Well DUH! I am too stupid to smuggle anything into another country. Besides when I am lying, you can definitely tell. Although I did want to smuggle Kelli in because she didn't have a passport. But my mom said it probably wouldn't be a good idea to have a criminal record while job hunting... As I hand my yellow slip back to the man I tell him "I hate Canada" and "Thanks for making me feel like a criminal." I should have probably thought about the gun in his holster before saying that. But thankfully he just took me as another "Stupid American." and let me on my way.

I arrived in Vancouver just a short while later. Got into the hotel relaxed for a few minutes. Changed my clothes and went out to EXPLORE! I was hungry so I asked the hotel concierge where the best food was. She thought I was going to ask where all the Olympic stuff was going on. Nope. Don't care about that. But on my way I walked right into it.

All this was taking place at Robson Square. The games were being shown everywhere in the city. Every TV was showing CTV's broadcast. Even the sides of the buildings were showing the games. Before going to Vancouver I had watched about 1 hour total of the games. Now, I couldn't escape it. You always knew when Canada did something good, because cheering would irrupt in the crowds. "Oh Canada" was sung so many times I feel like I know the words...

This is more of the crowd at Robson Square. And the magician doing some hat trick that he talked up for about 10 minutes. I didn't feel like waiting long enough to actually see it.

My yummy nutella and banana crepe! After having no luck with the food search, I happened this crepe cafe. I had to wait awhile for this, but it was definitely worth the wait. In fact I went back every day after that.
I walked around downtown for about 3 hours waiting for Emma to get off work. Right before I met up with her I found the torch. It's funny because everything Olympic that I saw, I happened upon. I didn't have a map of anything. I just walked all over until I found things. It was great.

Emma got off work at midnight and I met her at the IBC. We got into a van full of NBC workers and rode up to Grouse Mountain. We had to take the gondola up to the actual mountain. That's us in the gondola.
After all that walking I didn't think I was going to feel like ice-skating. But it was actually a lot of fun. Grouse mountain is also where the Today Show set is during the Olympics so it was fun to be up there. Doing the "Olympic" thing. :) It was fun meeting all of the people Emma works with. I think broadcast people are more fun than anyone else... Is that true? We skated for awhile, until someone got "hurt." Then we headed back home. Meredith and Al were arriving while we were leaving and I thought to myself, "I will never have a job with a horrible sleeping schedule like that." I hope.

The next day I explored the city while Emma was working. I wish I had had a friend with me though. Especially when I wanted a picture by this Vancouver sign. I am always so weary of asking complete strangers to take pictures of my in front of things. It always turns out bad it seems. Like this. So I asked for picture with the Vancouver in it. This is what I got:

Great.
At least this one was better. There was a line to be able to see the torch without the fences in the way. But I didn't feel like waiting in any lines, so this is what I got.

I really wanted to rent a bike and ride it around Stanley Park. But because of the rain, the rentals were closed. Apparently the rain will make you melt... One lady said, "You want to bike in this rain?" I said, "Ya. I'm from Oregon." Oh well. It was better weather the next day so I considered renting a bike, but I figured I could always come back and do that another time. It wasn't going to go away when the Olympics were over. So I HAVE to go back sometime and do that.

That night after Emma got off work we went to what seemed like the only bar that was open and serving food. Alex met up with us too. I interned with him in St. Louis. And he was working for NBC also. It was fun to talk with him. Now that the Olympics are over, we are both living the unemployed life. great.
The last day I was there, Emma and I did a little exploring before she went in to work. This sign said please don't feed the bears. They're fake. Weird Canadians.

This is at Robson Square again. I was trying to fit in with all the Asian tourists...

I said goodbye to Emma, went back to the hotel and got my stuff and took off. Interestingly enough my stop at the border going south was smooth sailing. He asked me 3 questions and then handed me back my passport and said have a nice day. I love the U.S.A!

Even though I basically hate Canada right now, I loved Vancouver. I will definitely go back again someday. It has the northwest feel that I love. Everyone is so "green." I love it. Especially after being in Utah for 6 years, where finding a place to recycle was like finding gold at the end of the rainbow. Thanks again, Emma for a fun trip!

p.s. if you made it this far, wow. you must be bored right now!

I Want To Rock 'n' Roll All Night

I signed up for my first 1/2 marathon! It was kind of fun to mark that it was my first on the questionnaire. It is the Rock 'n' Roll Seattle Marathon.


Driving up to Vancouver through Seattle on Monday was just stunning. I am so proud to be from the Northwest. We have the most beautiful scenery. On Monday it was a gorgeous 60 degrees and sunny with not a cloud in the sky. I wanted the drive to last forever. On the way back down south on Wednesday I was driving through downtown Seattle right before sunset. The sun reflecting off the water and onto the buildings was picturesque. In fact I searched through my purse for my camera with one hand and one eye while using the other eye and hand to watch where I was driving. There was one specific 30 second stretch of the drive that I wanted to capture. Unfortunately on this particular occasion I was sporting my big yellow purse. Finding one small thing in a big huge bag is difficult at anytime, let alone while driving in rush hour traffic. So I have no beautiful picture to show. But just imagine it with me. As I passed downtown I found myself checking the rear view mirror every few seconds to catch one last look.

After seeing this I have had a new found love for Seattle. I would love to live there someday. a. It's close to home. b. There's a Major League Baseball team. (even if they are in the American League...) c. there's a NFL team. d. There's water. e. It's green. d. It doesn't cost an arm and a leg like San Francisco (my other dream place to live) I could go on and on...

So with this new found love I decided to check out marathons in Seattle to do this year. And immediately I found the Rock 'n' Roll 1/2 marathon and new this is the one. It's June 26. Perfect time of the year. Not too hot, not too cold. Beautiful scenery. Fresh air. What more could you ask for?? Ok, maybe a friend to run with?? Kelli, get on that!

Go here to sign up.

I am excited for this new challenge!

Get Your Popcorn Ready!

I have a list of things I need/want to blog about. And I think, when I get time, I will. But I have all the time in the world these days, so I don't know why I am not blogging. Sometimes it just seems so tedious. But I have so many thoughts. I wish I could just convert my thoughts to written form easier... hmm...

With all my extra time lately I have been seeing a lot of movies. While meeting up with friends in Vancouver this week they were asking what I do these days. And this is what I said to them. I wake up and say to myself, "What can I do today?" "Are there any good movies I want to see?" "What time should I go to the gym?" "Can I take a trip to the mall and just look?" This is literally what my day consists of. Oh and actually trying to remember what day of the week it is so I know which of my favorite shows are on at night. Tough life...

Reason for this post? Besides to make all you busy people jealous of my life? I have beef with a few movies I saw recently. If anything please read my review on Up In The Air. I recommend it completely to everyone. It was good enough to see multiple times.

First: Dear John. If you haven't seen the movie, don't keep reading this. Skip down to the next picture. First off, I was waiting for the part in the movie where she travels to Italy and finds an old letter to Juliet and responds to it. Ya. Wrong movie. I got the two confused. I thought the overall movie was ok. I only read the first few chapters of the book, a long time ago, so I didn't expect much. My main problem with this movie was the cast. They needed to choose better people that age better. Amanda Seyfried will always look like she is 15 years old. So please don't cast her as someone over that age anymore. Channing Tatum wasn't any better playing his older self. I kept getting confused at the end of the movie when they would show Savannah and John 3 years later and 5 years later. They looked like they were still 15. It didn't look realistic. I was really bugged by this. And what's with the ending? Where the heck was that random meeting? I did not fall in love with this movie like the rest of the world did. I don't care to ever watch it again.


Next: When In Rome. Another typical chick flick. I went with my grandma to see it on opening night. And as we were walking out of the theater she said that next time we should wait a week or two to hear if it's a good movie or not. We definitely could have saved ourselves a few dollars if we would have waited. We made that mistake awhile ago with Leap Year. Saw that on opening night and was dissapointed too. But I guess we are expecting too much from these chick flicks. They are all the same. You know that the girl will end up with the guy in the end. Especially when the movie shows significance on the "meet cute" of the two. You know within the first 15 minutes of the movie what is going to happen in the end. Plus Napoleon Dynamite was in When In Rome. That was dumb.

Now on to the movies I loved!

An Education: One day while watching a movie, I decided that afterward, I wanted to go see another one. So I whipped out my handy dandy iPhone and check movie times. An Education caught my eye. It seemed like an independent film because I had never heard of it before. It sounded good, so I thought I would give it a try. I loved it! It's a story about a girl in high school who meets an older man. She lived a very sheltered life and this man shows her all the things she is missing out on. She falls in love with him and is left to make a big choice. Carey Mulligan is amazing in this film. She deserves an Oscar for this performance. I don't think anyone is going to see this, seeing as how I don't think it's in the theaters anymore. But I think you should rent it. In fact, I KNOW you should rent it. It's very good. It received great reviews on rotten tomatoes. You may think you know where the movie is going to end up, but that definitely doesn't happen. And then once the movie is over you find yourself thinking, "wow, I did not think that would happen." Plus I love that the movie takes place in Britain. All the characters were cast so well. You find yourself falling in love with David (Peter Sarsgaard) while Jenny does. I cannot say enough good things about this movie. GO. SEE. IT!

Next: Crazy Heart. Maybe it's just because I love country music. Or because I love Maggie Gyllenhaal. Or maybe because Jeff Bridges is such a good actor. Or it could be because I am all about the independent films. Whatever the reason, Fox Searchlight picked a great movie! And I was captivated the entire 112 minutes. I think Maggie is one of the best actresses in really becoming her character. It seems so hard to imagine that these two characters would really fall in love. When she is first interviewing Bad Blake it looks like something would happen between them. And I kept thinking, no, no, no, he's too old for you. But then when it happens it seems so real. And you find yourself cheering for it and hoping that Bad Blake can change his life around to better fit with Jean and her son's life. You see Blake in the lowest times of his life. And you see him starting to turn it around and become successful at everything again. It hurts my heart to think about the ending. I would have wished for a different outcome. I think they both are deserving of their Oscar nominations. I hope Maggie wins. But among the people she is up against, I am not holding my breath. Another must see.

Next: Up In The Air. First of all, I was so excited to see this movie. A lot of it was filmed in St. Louis when I was living there last year. In fact I remember one time a viewer called in to tell us there was a limo being escorted by what looked like unmarked police vehicles around town. So I got the job of calling the police department to find out who was in the limo. We were assuming it was George Clooney. They never would tell us who it was. But I think they were saying they knew nothing about it.
Second, I often find favorite quotes/lines from movies while watching. But in this particular movie one scene fit so well into my daily life that I HAD to pull out my phone and write it in the notes. So Ryan and Natalie are flying on an airplane together for the first time. Ryan hates Natalie at this point because she brought about a new way of doing his job that would mean he didn't have to travel all the time. But traveling was his life, so he didn't like it. So they are on the plane and she is typing on her laptop working on something. Before they show the characters you can hear the typing noises from Natalie's computer. I knew right then that Ryan would say something about it. And I knew before he even said something that this would be my favorite scene. He turns to her and says, "You mad at your computer?" She says, "I'm typing with purpose." Then he says, "What is it that you're working so furiously on." I LAUGHED OUT LOUD during this part. You may not think it's one bit funny. But to me, this is hilarious. One of my biggest pet peeves is people typing too loud on their computers. It BUGGGGGSSSS me to no end. It's on my "In my world, you would be punished if you..." list. See future post for explanation. I am always looking for new ways to explain the banging on the keys... "You mad at your computer?" is just genius.
Back to what I thought of the rest of the movie. I read some reviews for this before I went to the theater. I remember one person said you think you know what's going to happen and then the film goes in a complete opposite direction. While watching the movie I completely forgot about this review. So I kept thinking one thing was going to happen and then it didn't. It wasn't until afterward that I remembered I was warned about that.
Ryan Bingham, Clooney, is a man who travels 90% of his life for a company that fires people for other companies. His one goal in life is to reach 1 million frequent flier miles with American Airlines. You think of him as heartless and so void of any human emotion. You think nothing can phase him. Until the prospect of losing the traveling part of his job comes up. Once that happens, we see a different side of him as he brings along a coworker, Natalie, (Anna Kendrick) along on his trips. She teaches him a lot about love and human emotions. His "one night stand" that turns into multiple meet ups in the different cities they are in, Alex (Vera Farmiga) seems to be the perfect match for him. But he doesn't see it as more than a physical relationship. That is, until he goes back home for his sister's wedding. He realizes that human emotion and attachment are what he has been missing in his life. Then his outlook on life and love change. I don't want to say anymore about the movie because out of all of these, I want everyone to see this the most. It was so good. One thing I really love about the casting of this movie is that they used real people who had recently lost their jobs. So the emotion coming from these characters is real. You feel for them while they are trying to grasp the fact that they have just been fired. Great decision to use that real emotion.
I had not seen it before the SAG awards or else I would have been cheering on Anna Kendrick and Vera Farmiga both to win that night. They did an excellent job. I will own this when it comes out on DVD.

Last but not least: Valentine's Day. This movie was not amazing. But it definitely was a fun one to watch. There's too many big actors and actresses in this to not like it. But at the end a song was played that made me melt in my seat. Literally. I am not kidding. If you can remember, I posted about a week ago songs that I have been loving lately. 4 and 20 is one of them. I had not seen the soundtrack for this movie before I saw it. So it was a complete shock towards the end of the movie when I heard Joss Stone's voice. I DIED. And I will honestly say that I like this movie because of that one song. And it fits so perfectly... AHHH!! I love it.

So there you have it. My recommendations for movies to see and movies to avoid. (or wait until the dollar theater) I am excited for next week. I have plans to see some more films that have Oscar nominations. Like Precious, It's Complicated, Lovely Bones and maybe The Messenger. I refuse to see Avatar though.