Halloween

I generally love Halloween. I love the idea of dressing up and little kids in costumes having the best nights of there lives filling their little pillows with sweets. I love the amazing smells of fall and of Halloween sloppy-joes and cheese fries cooking at the parents house. I love carving pumpkins and not getting the smell from my hands for a few days. I love getting together with friends and watching a good scary movie to get the adrenalin going. But if there is one thing that drives me crazy it's those people who think they can change themselves for one night. "That's what Halloween is all about". It breaks my heart to see those good girls I know who have amazing values every other night, compromise themselves for 'just this once'. Dressing like a slut for one night could maybe get you a guy... but is that the kind of guy you want? What about one who respects you for who you are? So girls, respect yourselves. Respect yourselves and earn some respect this Halloween season. Sorry for my ramble, but I feel it had to be said. Other than that, I'm super excited for Halloween and to go to some parties, watch some scary movies, and then go home and take my sister trick-or-treating Monday night :) 'Tis the season. Make the best of it!

General Conference

General Conference is so amazing. I've never really appreciated it fully until now in my late teenage years. I regret that it has taken me this long to realize how important it is. In living prophets we talk about how the words of the prophets and apostles are just as important, if not more important, than the Book of Mormon or any form of scripture for that matter. With that in mind, I went into this conference with a different mindset to listen to all the sessions and really see what the Lord wants me to know and what He wants me to do in these latter days. The experience is unlike anything. I got so much more out of each talk in each session of conference. 

The one that hit home the most though was President Uchtdorf's talk on the Forget Me Not's given in the General Relief Society meeting. This talk filled my soul. Literally. I was going through a pretty hard time with school and nothing seemed to be going right. Then Uchtdorf said not to get caught up in looking for that big rose and forget to notice the beautiful forget-me-not's along the way. I need to enjoy life for what it is. I need to take time to appreciate my little successes along the way. And be grateful for what I DO have. I have so much. I have friends who know the Gospel of Christ and inspire me to do good. I have a family who loves and supports me no matter how well I do on a test, or how many boyfriends I've had in my life. Most importantly I have a Savior. The Savior of the world who knows and loves me. My Savior who has died for me and will stand by me at the judgement seat. I know of His Gospel and as long as I stand on those grounds, I cannot fall. So I have decided to enjoy my little moments and to try harder in this life. Just skating by won't cut it and it won't bring me very much happiness either. Today is the day I stand a little taller and be a little better. 

Lastly, I am learning this song on the guitar. It doesn't really relate to this blog, but I'm kind of in love with John Allred's version of it and it's my new favorite song to play :)

Some may find it odd that I would do a blog on General Conference. To them I say:

 "And we ^atalk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we ^bprophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our ^cchildren may know to what source they may look for a ^dremission of their sins." (2 Nephi 25:26).

Let us never forget who we are as Christians and as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. 

Epic Weekend

I'm SO obsessed with her voice right now... it's ridiculous. I thought I was over this He is We trip. Apparently not.

This weekend was like an epic win in and of itself. I went home for a bit on Friday and this happened: 

So cute.

Friday night we went to a dance party at the king. The DJ was suffering at first, but before you knew it, it turned into a pretty sweet night! Just gettin' my dance on in the middle with friends and some attractive men of course. haha Pretty fun!! After the dance we just messed around a little and played ultimate and went on a Rancharito's run. The boys all got stuff, but I wasn't feelin' a breakfast burrito at the time. I just wanted to go to another dance! Maybe this weekend :)

Saturday came and Camie and I hit the pool. I don't know why I enjoy hitting the pool so much. Even though that's the place where I lost my sunnies. They were pink aviators and I miss them a lot... After we went to the pool Camie went to work and I got ready for the football game! Then Annalise and Harumi came over!! We made Daily Grace's funfetti brownies and obviously, with us cooking, they turned out delicious! 

The football game turned up unfortunate, but at least we got to make awesome food. Hopefully this week will go better my men in blue. 

Saturday night was quite the night. We went up in the canyon with Charlie and his friends and did a bonfire with some random people, so that was pretty sweet. THEN on the ride back. Oh my goodness. Completed my whole life. So there I was jamming out to the music and singing it to all the cars we were passing when who should I sing to next??? BRANDON DAVIES. Yes, that freaking attractive man from the basketball team...(who was kicked off last season for some wrong choices...but forgiveness is key right??) And he gave me a little cute wave with a corny smile, so I did one back and kinda laughed to myself. And then 5 seconds later I realized who I just car-flirted with. Brandon freaking Davies. So great. AND he was driving a shiny black SUV. So hot. Anyways, that pretty much completed my soul and now I can die happy. 

EPIC WIN. 

YouTube

I had an epic win this week. Look back one blog post and watch "All about Us". You see that amazingly attractive man in the video? Yeah, we're friends on facebook now. I like to call him YouTube man. Let's just say posting comments on youtube videos can payoff sometimes. So yes. Take a look at his beautiful face and check out how epic I am. Be jealous. Very jealous. Thank you.

just some videos

Epic Win

Yes, I changed the name of my blog. The other one was just bugging. Also, people say "epic fail" all the time. Why don't they say "epic win"?? That is so much better. So that is the new name of my blog. Epic win. AND most of my life is an epic win so it's quite appropriate. Here's a picture representing my epic wins in life.

byeeeeeee

I say goodbye to two great friends this week!!!
One is ky who is heading back down to SUU :( The school is just so far away... it's dumb. haha no offense. But really. It's bittersweet. I wanna get back to school really bad, but I'll definitely miss everyone while I'm gone down there! (shh we all know I come home every 2-3 weeks anyways). But here's me and Ky!

The other is Carson is leaving out for two years!! He's been an amazing friend to me and I will definitely miss talking to him a lot. But I know the mission is the best place in the world to be right now and only wish that I could be heading out somewhere right now to serve the Lord too! Good luck Carson!! You'll do amazing things out there for the people of Brazil!

BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Powell song

We'd listen to this ALL the time on the boat when I was out with the guys :) At first I was like, hmm gangsta music...but it has grown on me! Now every time I hear, "we could be anywhere in the world, but we right here" I think "mmmm Powell :):):)" and sunshine. It's fan freaking tastic.

Alicia's wedding!!

I can't believe it. My good old pal Alicia Torres is now...Alicia Cravens. It's crazy to think that one of my good friends from High School is now a Mrs. All of us are just in fear thinking, who's next?! haha I can tell you one thing. It will not be me. I am totally not ready for that quite yet. Some people just are I guess! I am very happy for Alicia. She's met the man of her dreams, David, and will be very very happy!! Here are some awesome pics celebrating my great friend Leeshy :) congrats girl! Love ya!!

Alicia, Me, Bree....and Andy...in Balboa California!!

Choir was quite the event. This picture makes me laugh...really hard.
I'm on the left, then leeshy, then lisafer, then BREE!! haha Bree's face gets me every time
"Blow Gabriel Blow!"

this is on the choir trip. SUCH an amazing week.

Alicia and I at graduation

with the lovely couple at the reception :)

Aww...Leesh looked absolutely beautiful coming out of the temple!!
I will never forget these girls wherever we end up going in life! 

Summer :)

So the past few weeks are REALLY feeling like summer. I participated in the following amazing activities:
    -Demolition Derby
    -Scofield
    -Lake Powell

It was absolutely incredible. I just loose my breath in happiness when I think about it all. The Demo Derby was WAY sweet!!

While down in little old Fairview Utah we also did a huge teeter totter.... 

And played in the river...it was pretty cold. But we put our heads in! 

Scofield is this random lake in the middle of nowhere. But it's a blast! No cell service, no people, just my fam and I having the best time ever :) I was so happy that my older siblings could make it out there because it was just a blast! We played cards on the private dock there and whenever someone lost in "scum" they had to jump into the lake! The water... freezing.... but it was a ton of fun and I even got some wakeboarding in before Powell!! When the boat broke we just went behind the jet skis and all was well :) It was a very fun 2 days. 

Now the grand-daddy of all the trips in the world: Lake Powell. The people who told you Disneyland was the "happiest place on earth" lied. Powell is the real happiest place on earth. 

I am just so cool. PS this was only my 5th time skiing ever.
Lake Powell made me love skiing. Before I would just wakeboard.
Or...attempt to wakeboard well. 

Brent, Donny and I happy as ever. Cuz we are in Lake Powell of course. We had fun :)

This is the crew. With the GIANT bonfire we set up in flames.

I am...such a nice sister.

I also did a backflip off the houseboat...unfortunately there are no photographs...

we went to rainbow bridge. Cool eh?

I jumped off that cliff. Some dumb boys made me do it. Ok and I kinda wanted to.

Me being a ham. 

I swam in the water. It was nice :)

these guys make me laugh :)

same with this guy.

Ok pretty much all the guys. It was sooooo much fun and I'm so happy I went and made some friendships stronger or made some new ones. Going with these guys was an adventure....but a very very good adventure. :) Love you guys!! 

Bradford and Ness. Pretty much the best brother and sister-in-law right there.
Thanks so much for inviting Tay and I! It was WAY worth that 6 hour drive leaving at 4am!!! :) 

Oh and...of course I went to the Harry Potter premier at midnight :) It was...the most amazing movie I've ever seen... I went in the theater acting like a creepy death eater (obviously) and scaring little children as they walked past, but I went out just dumbfounded and in love. They portrayed the book quite well and after seeing it that night, of course I had to see it a second time in theaters and i hope to see it a third! 

And here's the second time... a drastic change...I know! 

All in all life as we know it is grand and I'm loving it!! 

All I really want is a j.dawg right now.

^ it's true... anyways... 

Don't you just love when family comes to town?! I sure do! Michelle, Chris, Zach, and Caroline flew in this week and we just had a wondrous time :)

Quel and Z-MAN!!

We celebrated my Grandma's 80th Birthday party!! All us kids (kids including all older siblings up to age 29...) went out and played some basketball!! It was so much fun :) A different day we played some soccer (of course) in the backyard and obviously our BEAST of a team made up of me, Nat, and Ness won. Just like we did on the 4th at Oakridge. So much win. No one can touch our team. haha But back to the B-day party.. we had the BEST cupcakes ever!!! 

They are just...gorgeous!!

Then the other day we headed to the Real game! I love going to the Real games when I can :) Especially when we win!! YES 2-0 RSL victory. And Espindola scored in the the second goal in extra time! It was so sweet. Not as sweet as the USA women's win against Brazil though. That was SUCH the most intense game ever. I loved every second of it. Well maybe not too much. I did get upset when they said Solo stepped out on the pk...and when the other team kept flopping...and when our girl should have gotten a yellow and not a red card...but other than that it was fantastic. Hope Solo saved our BUTTS in the end. Awesome save keeper!!! haha Anywho...the field at the Real game looked beautimous.

And the view coming out of the game wasn't too bad either...let's be honest...this is the best picture my phone has ever taken.

Also I went boating today!! It was a blast and I got up on a slalom ski for the first time on my first try today! WOOO!!! And of course I squeezed in some wakeboarding :) No tube wars today...but we have all of Lake Powell to make time for that awesomeness. Peace!

Fact!

Fact! The subject for this blog was inspired by one, Dwight Schrute.

"In the wild, there is no health care. In the wild, health care is, "Ow, I hurt my leg. I can't run. A lion eats me and I'm dead." Well, I'm not dead. I'm the lion, you're dead."- Dwight K Schrute. 


"Fact! Bears eat beats. Bears. Beats. Battlestar Galactica."- Jim Halpart while thus impersonating Dwight :)


Fact: I'm the best sister/babysitter ever. I babysat for three days and the kids love me more than anything else in the whole wide world.

Evidence:

Me, Marquel, and Hunter dressed up to wake Taylor up in the morning!

I took the kids to Joy luck for dinner!

we hung out on the tramp!

Tay held Hunt like a baby...so I held Marquel like one!

Other fun things we did this weekend included: Cars 2, a trip to Oakridge for swimming, played some soccer, made homemade pizzas, and of course took a hot tub run or two :) 

Fact: I am now crushed.

Evidence: The other day as I decided to grace my brothers with a concert (at first it was me having too much energy and singing dramatically and annoyingly, but then it turned into a real concert) and I began to sing "On my Own" from Les Mis for them. I hit the high notes and sang it wonderfully...so I thought. Not only did they shoot me down, but they told me to stop singing. So there goes two dreams of mine. 1: to form mine and Kylee's band called, "The Jersey Kids" (cuz we'd wear bball jerseys of course) and I'd sing and learn to play guitar and she'd be on the keys. It was going to be wondrous. We would perform along the blvd at nights and become ridiculously famous. 2: To be Elphaba or Eponine on Broadway. You see boys, you crushed two of my dreams! Epic fail. We'll see if I'll ever sing. ever again. haha

Fact: Jersey days are the best. One of my summer goals is to wear my brother's bball Jersey's...a lot.

Evidence: I've already gotten started and had some adventures with Camie and Ali! And of course I wore my jersey when I went down with some amazing friends to camp out and get demolition derby tickets! But those pics will come at a later time when I get them...and after the actual derby :)

Epic Blvd pic is a must. Probably more of these to come in the future!

I often quote Natalie Tran when I do something pretty hard core or when
I just feel cool...and I flex and say, "Bring me a baby to sacrifice!".
Yes, it's odd. And yes, I love it. :)

Yes we had a picnic in the middle of a raging river of death.

the water was really cold. 

We are just so cute. haha I was going to edit this picture...but laziness won. 

Oh and I REALLY love these guys! Thank you Stewart for posting these guys on Markie's facebook wall for me to find :) 

Summer start!

I learned a few things since coming home. I learned that my brother Taylor HATES when I harmonize with music in my car. I also learned that my other brother Hunter missed me <33 Friday night me, hunter, and marquel went and picked up dinner, hot tubbed, and played some lego Pirates of the Caribbean on the nintendo. After our fun night Hunt told my mom he didn't realize how much he missed me until that night. I guess I'm just the best sister ever. haha Being home with family is so amazing. I love them all so much. Father's Day was full of family fun! I hung out with my extended family at my cousin's baby's blessing and then in the afternoon Nat, James, Madison, Bee, and Ness all came out! I just love my family :) We played some awesome games of elimination basketball and just laughed and enjoyed the day! I love it. Then of course we went to Oakridge the other day and it was fantastic weather. I love just soaking up the summer sun! Here are some pictures...

Taylor and I modeled things for Costco...

We kept saying, "we're selling the product!" haha

Hunt and Marquel love me :)

I helped Hunt build a bug catcher thing... I have SUCH the 

sense of fashion. 

Lastly, I miss you kids already and I'll see you during fall semester I hope! :)