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.

Great Deal on Mani-Pedi!

For those of you who live in the Portland area, get this great deal. I have no idea how good this place is, but I'll pay $20 for a manicure and pedicure anywhere!

Click here to buy yours too! You have until midnight tonight to buy it. But you can redeem your mani-pedi anytime between now and October 26th! You know you want your toes to look great once summertime comes!

Oh Canada

I am having a blast up here in Vancouver! This place is so much fun! So much excitement all of the city. I am so glad I decided to come up here. Here are a few pictures of what I have been doing/eating so far. I "talk" more when I get back to the U.S. (I love how that sounds!)

I Don't Sleep, I Dream

Sidenote: I love when Kelly Ripa complains about there being no break in between football in and baseball season. Apparently she could do without all the sports topics that Regis brings up in the morning chat on Live. Just days after the Super Bowl was over, Regis was talking about pitchers and catchers getting ready to report to Spring Training in Florida or Arizona. I can't believe this time is here already. Even though last Winter feels like forever ago, I still can't believe it's time for baseball to start up. This begins 9 months of pure bliss for me. :)

Do you remember all your dreams? Lately I have been having some pretty weird ones. Like one NIGHTMARE that keeps happening over and over where a kid from school (elementary through high school) is stalking me. He won't go away. And he keeps attacking me. For fear of him somehow seeing this I won't divulge too much information about him. But it needs to be said, that I haven't thought of this kid AT ALL until I recently saw him here in town. I see him at a place I have been frequently going to. After the second nightmare, I haven't been back to that place. It creeps me out that he is the one giving me nightmares. Is there a reason why we have nightmares anyway? Is it a shift in our normal daily routine that urkes our mind so much to want to scare us while sleeping? When you wake up for one, are you like me and can't fall back asleep for fear of having the same dream? Sometimes I try to think of something real hard so that I can dream about it. But that never happens.

Well last night I had a great dream. Well one of the many dreams I had. While getting ready for bed last night I decided to put on my Cardinals pjs that have been in my drawer since last November when baseball season ended. Actually, probably since last October when the Cardinals season ended. I thought nothing of it, except that it put a smile on my face knowing that baseball season is here! Well apparently my sub concisous loved it too! And I had a dream about being at Opening Day in St. Louis again. Last year was so amazing. It was a wonderful experience and opportunity to finally be at the first home game and in the case of last year's season, the first Cardinals game of the season!

I woke up so excited for this season! I am anxious to see how the team does this year. I hope Waino is bueno again. And I hope Carp is still on his game. Last year those two were amazing. One of them should have received the Cy Young Award... But that's a different post... I hope Freese can work through his whole drama and secure his place at 3rd for the season. I am interested in seeing what Big Mac can do with the hitters. Tony has a lot of faith that he can do it, so I hope he can prove all the haters wrong. I am excited for another wonderful season of Albert Pujols. I still go back and watch this commericial all the time. It still gives me chills. Matt Holliday did great things for our team last summer when he joined it so I hope he can continue that this season. How many web gems can Yadi get this year from behind the plate. I was watching Baseball Tonight the other day and they showed like 5 highlights last year from catchers and one of them was Yadi. I just love that guy. :)

Here's my nephew. And A's fan. Recognizing greatness when he sees it. Now we have him saying that the Cardinals are the best team in baseball. In fact he called me last night to tell me.

Long Live Lumie

This weekend I was so proud of some of my Provo friends. All those years together and I finally rubbed off on some of them.

Mallory actually flew in an airplane to visit a FRIEND (no relatives here) and go to the All-Star Game. Wow! This is big time for Mal! Not only did she take a trip to another state by plane, but she did it for a major sporting event. :) I am so proud of my Malpal!

This weekend is a 3-day weekend at BYU and when Ty's weekend trip with his roommates fell through he hopped onto a classmate's road trip to California. Deciding at the last minute to go he had to shuffle some things around, but decided it was all worth it when he took in the view from their beach house in Oceanside. [EDIT] I just found out today that this trip was even more spontaneous than I had really thought. He was invited to go on the trip at 9 am on Thursday morning. With classes, and assignments left to do for the day, he thought he wouldn't be able to go. But after calling them around 11 am he decided he ought to go. So by 11:30 he was in the car and cruising I-15 to the Happiest Place on Earth. Not only was he following my example with a spontaneous trip, but he's going with complete strangers (minus his friend from class) PLUS he ignored his responsibilities ie. class... That is SO me! Go Ty!

Leave Provo for this view? Duh!

This makes me feel that there is still a part of me left in the frozen tundra of Provo. I miss my friends.

LONG LIVE LUMIE!

Today I was thinking about all the things I want to do with my friends, especially once Annette gets back from her mission. And I realized I will have a full-time job by then (hopefully) and won't be able to take the time off. It's so easy to skip a class here and there. But work, that's a different story. Oh well. I always figure out a way to have a great time whereever I am. Good thing I am so much fun!

Please Don't Stop The Music

I love getting new music! My friend has been sending me a few gems here and there that he heard on Pandora. And I've never been a big fan of Pandora. I guess I just never really understood how it works. But because he has been finding a lot of good songs on it, I thought I would give it a try. So now I am Pandora's newest fan. I love that I can put in an artist or song that I love and it will play me music like it. So then I find more music to love. Genius!

So last night I typed in Duffy. And now today I have 15 new songs in my iTunes because of it. First of all, I love the song Warwick Avenue. I only shared a room 3 times while at BYU. First was the dorms. But that was only for a month and a half. My roommate moved out in the middle of October and they never had to put someone else in my room, so luckily I got to have my own space for the rest of freshman year. Then sophomore year I shared a room for a semester. I was living with 5 other girls in a very small space and I couldn't handle it anymore. I am someone who needs her own space. Some place to escape to. So I moved out at the end of the semester. And then 3 years later I moved into a huge townhome/not really a townhome. And I shared the basement room. It was 3 times the size of every other room I've lived in so I figured it would be great. And it was. My friend Maddie moved in and we had a grand ol' time. :) Right, Maddie?? Well back to the reason for this tangent. Because I was in the same room as someone who loved to sing I got a great taste of good tunes. Like the trolley song from Meet Me In St. Louis. and another good one, Warwick Avenue by Duffy.

I can play this song on repeat for hours on end. It's so great! So I asked Pandora to find me more music just like it. And it pulled through. Here are a few songs that I am currently loving:

1. Daydreamer - Adele
2. Little Things - Lily Allen
3. 4 And 20 - Joss Stone
4. Free Me - also Joss Stone (she's just great!)
5. Don't Wait Too Long - Madeleine Peyroux (I LOVE her voice!)
6. Saturdays - Holly Brook
7. 1234 -Feist
8. Nothing Ever Hurt Like You - James Morrison

Music has the power to brighten my day! I hope you love these songs as much as I do!

Ted Drewes

Lately I have been wanting a treat. I have been running outside or going to the gym every day (minus Sundays) since I last posted about running! Go me! So I deserve a delicious refreshment. I always get the urge when I am out running errands, because we all know how boring they can be sometimes... So I try to decide of a good place to stop for a treat. My go-to sugar pick-me-up used to be Cold Stone. Oh man. Cake batter ice cream with gummi bears and graham cracker crust. I got that every time I went. I remember Mal and Craig even brought it to me after my surgery two years ago. It was the first thing I ate and it tasted soooo delicious! It always does! But for some reason I don't really crave it anymore.

Excuse the bad picture of me. We had just spent a few hours at Six Flags.

And it's probably because I spent a couple months living in St. Louis, only a few miles from the best treat ever. Ted Drewes Frozen Custard. Nothing compares. And nothing feels as good. But the problem is, once you pop, you just can't stop. Once you taste the amazing goodness of this delicious treat you'll want more. And unfortunately this is what I want right now. I want a strawberry shortcake from Ted Drewes. Or mint flavored custard with crushed Oreos. I wonder if they deliver...

I just thought of Ted Drewes because I had seen a friend on Facebook become a "fan" of it. And I don't usually do the whole fan thing. Unless I really LOVE it. Like Anthropologie. :) Well I could not pass up this opportunity to become of something that I really do LOVE.

When Kelli came to visit me last year in St. Louis, I told her I would take her here. She sounded a little hesitant, but I know she fell in love with it instantly. I am pretty sure that seeing how many people were outside standing in line at 10:30pm was a pretty good indication that they were good. This is the crowd that they get all the time. There never really is a good time to go. It's always busy. Kinda like my other love, Sprinkles. :)


Who wants to take a trip to St. Louis with me??

Happy Birthday To A Fellow Blogger

Happy Birthday Lindsay!

I was thinking about our friendship today and remembered when we first became friends. 6th grade. Mr. Robinson's class (remember how weird he was??) We just clicked from the beginning. And have been great friends ever since. (with a few ups and downs in between. but who doesn't have those?)

I hope you had a really great day. My intentions were to post this earlier today but I have been gone all day. I am sure you and Mark celebrated well. Probably went to Cafe Rio. I am jealous. You never know how much you love something until it's gone. (you and cafe rio :) )


I can't wait for you to come out next weekend. Kelli will come up and we can have a night like old times...
p.s. these are the best pictures i could find...

A Little Something Different

I'm gonna go a little spiritual here for a minute. I am so grateful for the Lord's hand in everything. Today I taught the Sunbeams about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ's love for each one of us. And I truly felt that today.

So right now I am trying to find a job. Who isn't? And it feels like I send out a stack of resumes everyday. The people at the post office in Thriftway are my friends now. I know they look forward to seeing me 2 or 3 times a week. Not only am I desperate to find a job because I want to start my career, but I am also slowly going BROKE. And only slowly because I moved home to save money. And thankfully that is actually helping. I don't spend any money except gas, postage and food maybe once a week. It's wonderful. My parents are so great right now to put up with me.

All week I have been looking forward to today for a chance to fast and ask for extra help at this time. [Let me just tell you that fasting while being a nursery or sunbeams teacher is hard. Well not hard, but it sure doesn't make it easy. Especially when you're serving the best animal crackers ever (the organic ones from Costco!) for snacks.]

I need some guidance as to where I should be looking. My main concern right now is that my personality and drive will not be well-represented on a piece of paper displaying my resume and cover letter. And my DVD, a chance for on air people to show themselves to news directors, only shows my work, not me. When they open my envelope I want them to instantly see that this girl Katie, she's fun, has a love for directing, and would be a great addition to their station.

Yesterday evening I started to feel a sore throat come on. I didn't want to be sick for when my nieces get here this coming week, so I drank a ton of fluids, drank an emergency and tried to get to bed early. Upon waking up I felt the sore throat even worse. My first thought was that I shouldn't fast so that I could drink lots of fluids today. I also thought about not going to church so that I wouldn't get my little Sunbeams sick. I debated it for a few minutes and then decided I would still fast. So among everything else I asked for my throat to feel better so that I would be able to fast. As I was sitting in church I realized the pain I felt when swallowing was gone. And it was gone until earlier this evening. And now it's back almost as bad as it was this morning. But it didn't bother me at all while I was fasting. I know it's small, but it's something that would have kept me from fasting and receiving blessings and guidance that I need right now. The Lord prepares a way for everyone to follow Him!

"...for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." (1Nephi 3:7)

I had a great Sunday. I feel prepared to take on the job world tomorrow. Please someone just hire me.

I Love Costco

This week while stopping at Costco for a routine gas up, we decided to go inside and grab a few things. What was going to be a quick stopped turned into a lunch break! As we found our way to the back of the store I thought I could smell some things cooking and a lot of commotion. We turned the corner and found this!


All the samples were set up in one area. You just went along the row and grabbed what you wanted. We parked our cart and began enjoying all the delicious samples. Pizza, chips and dips, drinks, hot wings, meatballs, pulled pork sandwiches, chicken salad sandwiches, ice cream and blueberries... it was Costco sample heaven! My favorite by far was the chicken salad sandwiches. It was the canned shredded chicken with a little mayonnaise and PESTO sauce on wheat bread. I loved the pesto in it. I am going to have to add that next time I make those sandwiches.

We used our cart as our lunch table.

This wasn't our normal costco that we go to, so we asked the cashier if it's always like that. And he said it's not always clumped together in one spot, but that they do have between 20 and 30 samples out on any given day. He said that Costco has the one of the highest volume of traffic so they sample A LOT. I'll have to stop at this one more often! Needless to say, we left with full stomachs, grinning ear to ear.

But I don't think I have ever left a Costco store with a frown on my face.