to make me happy.

alright, time for another list of things that are good to my life.

1. driving in the rain.
2. sleeping in on weekends.
3. spending all saturday in my jammies with pinterest and a movie.
4. it's almost october... meaning haunted houses, corn mazes, etc.
5. leggings and tights.
6. my new sheep skin blanket.
7. skyping mom and dad.
8. not dreading work days now that i've started at somewhere new.
9. music music music. driving and music.
10. general conference is coming. finally.
11. aleisha is coming to visit in 11 days!
12. free lunch everyday at my new internship.
13. i will never get sick of washington trees.

so, life is pretty good.

i almost died.

yesterday i was driving out on the town with my new friend, steph. we were trying to find our way back to my house when my phone died, therefore, my gps stopped. we pulled over into a parking lot while waiting for my phone to restart. it told us to head south on the road... well, how were we supposed to know which way was south? so i turned right and ya know what? it was a one way street and the way i was going was not the right way. a car was coming right when i turned onto the road. luckily, it was a two lane street otherwise i would have hit them head on. that second lane saved my life. and so now i better learn these washington roads.

three weeks.

alright, so i've been in washington for 3 weeks now. i'm not homesick yet! i really love it here. it's so pretty. i've posted too many nature pics on instagram, but i just can't help it!
look at this place!

Especially when it rains...

so, there are some notable differences here compared to utah.

people drive quite slow and are really nice on the road. the freeway is 55 mph in oregon. it's cause all the liberals live there and you know, they gotta protect you. here in washington it's 60 mph mostly but when you drive more north it goes up to 70, so kinda slow. and people don't go over the speed limit really. maybe 5 over. people will always let you in if you need to switch lanes and they'll make room for you. this is so different from utah where people won't let you in. so, it's nice. i'm usually a pretty stinkin fast driver, but here it's so pretty. it's nice to drive slow and tree watch.

at church, their emphasis is missionary work.
'bring a friend!'
'invite someone new!'
where in utah it's,
'get married!'
'marriage is a blessing!'
so very different.

everyone drinks coffee, obviously. i'm like weird that i don't. it's whatevs.

there are churches on like every corner. but they're all different. the church of god, new heights church, lifepoint church, living hope church. this church, that church.

there are kind of a lot of attractive men here. so, that's a change.

there are beggars everywhere. but, i don't associate with them. rude, i know.

i've already made a lot of friends in my short time here! thank heavens people are normal here, unlike idaho. rainy season is starting. and while it makes the trees look gorgeous, rain makes me anxious for some weird reason. i always get kind of tense when it pours. so, i guess i'll have to get used to that!

 

katie jo

I have this sister named Katie. She is the middle child and is right above me. Right above me in many ways. 

Some of my favorite memories with Katie start from a wee young age of the single digits. Back when we shared a room. She was the best story teller. Most nights she would tell Lindsay and me stories. She would give us a synopsis of three different stories that she would make up on the spot and we would get to choose one story for her to tell. We loved the mysteries. 

 Katie and I used to go on bike rides all the time. She would ride on her big purple bike and I would follow her on my little pink bike. We would ride around the neighborhood, stopping at the neighbor's mailboxes to fill our bike tanks with gas. Cheapest gas I've ever gotten.

We were cute...

Years and years later, we transitioned from riding bikes and getting free gas at mailboxes to driving cars and spending four bucks on a gallon of gas. 

We both went to Utah State where we would go to dinner together weekly, usually at Panda Express and then we'd grab a small bite of ice cream at Coldstone. In the dead of winter. Now for anyone who knows Katie, this is quite significant. Katie thinks any temperature under 80 degrees is cold.

I would have to dub Katie the Snapchat queen. Her snaps really are the funniest. I would love to post some but I won't for fear of retribution.

Fall 2011

Katie's really good at calming me down when I'm stressed. She helps me realize my problems are nbd. So, that's a good thing. Katie is also very blunt and confident and even once told me that "any man that marries into this family will be marrying up".
So, there ya go. We're a pretty neat bunch.

life lessons: shoes

I have a thing for shoes. I have a really big thing for shoes on men. I would take a less attractive man with good shoes over a more attractive man with horrid shoes (in theory). Why? Because the shoes make that less attractive man way more attractive. And also, shoes say a lot about a person. I have shoes ranked in order of horridness to hello-ness.

First, the ugly tennis shoe. If you wear these on a daily basis that's an automatic three strikes. These are only acceptable at the gym or when hiking. They are never acceptable with any jeans under any circumstances. Don't go there.

Next, the nice looking running shoe. Okay yeah, these are good looking shoes fo sho. But they are for sporty activities or a casual day with basketball shorts. They just don't compliment jeans and jeans don't compliment them.

Chucks. These were so a thing a few years ago. But now only musicians with tattoos, nose rings, and girl pants wear these and it's just horrid. There are some men that can pull them off. But it's still my number 20 choice.

TOMS. These shoes are super cute for girls. But they look a little silly on men. Like slippers. There are versions of TOMS that have laces. Those are mucho a better option.

These Puma's are okay. Like, I won't hold it against you if you wear them. But I won't do a double take.

High tops will toootes get a second glance from me. 

And a third and a loooong fourth.

Vans are excellent. Men that wear these just have style. Yesterday I was sitting in institute and a guy came in late. I looked back but could only see his feet. He was wearing these and when I saw his face, lo and behold he was hawt. I knew it from the second I saw his shoes.

These strap puma's are just as good as vans.

If you wear any shoes like the following, I will automatically be attracted to you. Looks or no looks. It's just a thing. These are pretty much 10/10. 

So you see, it's important what you put your feet in. If you wear the ugly tennis shoe, people won't date you. Okay that's not true, but I won't date you. So if that's not a threat, then go ahead and wear them.

top 5.

I used to always say everything was in my top five favorites. Like if someone asked me if I liked a certain movie I would say, "Yeah, that's probably in my top 5 favorites". This was the case for pretty much any topic, and I didn't do it on purpose. At that moment, it really was in my top 5. But it got me to thinking, what really is in my top 5?

Top 5's...
(Please note, these are subject to change upon me getting sick of them, just changing my mind, and etc. However, many of them have been on or close to on this list for quite some time and many will never leave this list).

Movies
1. Never Been Kissed
2. Mean Girls
3. House Bunny
4. She's the Man
5. A Walk to Remember

Bands
1. The Icarus Account
2. The Civil Wars
3. Sing It Loud
4. Mayday Parade
5. Parachute

Books
1. Harry Potter 7
2. Divergent
3. The Hunger Games
4. Harry Potter 6
5. Catching Fire

Activities
1. Boating and everything that goes with it
2. Playing guitar/piano/singing
3. Getting/making/eating food with friends
4. Dance parties/throwing themed parties/anything to do with parties
5. Singing in my car

Places
1. Home (duh)
2. Logan
3. On a boat on water
4. Lake Powell
5. Bath tub

TV Shows
1. Malcolm in the Middle
2. What I Like About You
3. Sabrina
4. The Bachelorette
5. The Bachelor

Foods
1. Cafe Rio
2. Chocolate covered raspberries
3. M&M's
4. Fresh strawberries/raspberries/cantaloupe cut by my mother
5. Homemade enchiladas

So, anyways. There you go. I just learned a lot about myself. Gee wiz!

moved to washington. brb.

On Thursday morning, Carlee and I headed out from Utah and drove the twelve hours to Vancouver, Washington where I will be living for the next half year. The scenery was quite barren and dead looking up until the last two hours. Even so, we had a lot of fun. We had some really goods chats and ate lots of m&m's and pop from McDonald's.

We arrived in Portland and decided to drop by the Portland Temple real quick. It was pouring rain. Pouring. It's a beaut, that temple. 

Friday morning we left early and drove to Astoria, Oregon. It was a cute little old coastal town, like straight from the movies.

 Next we drove down the coast to Cannon Beach. It was rainy and soooo stinkin pretty, that drive. And I'll prove it.

Cannon Beach was gorgeous too. It was cloudy and overcast and the waves were crashing so hard and loud against the beach. We saw the famous Haystack Rock.

I could have stayed there forever.

Don't mind my hair. It doesn't much like the coast or rainy Washington. It curls into little ringlets. So basically, my hair won't be straight again for many many months.

Next we went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. We watched people making cheese, sampled a bunch of cheeses, and got some ice cream. It was pretty neat.

We drove around Portland a bit. On Saturday we decided to hit up Seattle. It was only 2 1/2 hours away, by golly! We went to the space needle. It was a whopping 22 bucks to get into! But it was really cool, and how can you not go to the space needle if you're in Seattle? Duh.

 We tried to see Mt St Helen's, but then realized we were almost out of gas. So this is as close as we got. You can see the back of it!

It was one helen of a view.

It was quite a nice trip with LOTS of driving. We drove about 1600 miles total! Sheesh.

So anyways, I think I will like this Washington place.

loganian.

I've been outta Idaho since last Friday. It was a lovely feeling, driving home.

I went to Logan on Thursday to visit everyone before I move to the far away land of Washington. It was so great.

I got there Thursday afternoon and hung out with Dallon all day. That boy is one of my very best friends. I can tell him anything and everything.

We had a jolly time eating lots of food at McDonald's, Pizza Pie Cafe x 2, and Noodles and Co, camping, having a long chat under the stars, jamming lots, making up hilarious songs on the spot about our friends, and saying goodbye three times.

We were camping and I left before him so I could go home. But then I ended up going to church with his roommates and was at their place after church when Dallon came home. We said bye again before he went to church. But then I was still there when he got back. We were like, 'how many times do we have to say goodbye?!' Sheesh. So third time was the charm.

We also created some hilarious Snapchats, as you can see below.

At Pizza Pie, we asked this lady walking by to take this here picture below. She was walking with her little baby and in her mind was like, "Are you serious?!' But whatevs. We got what we wanted.

The first day we went to Pizza Pie with Mark and Kat. Dallon was sitting across from me. All of the sudden out of nowhere a piece of pizza crust came flying and almost hit Dallon and cut off his nose! Luckily he backed into the seat fast enough. It was quite the riot.

I stayed with Katie Carter and dang, that girl stays up late. I used to love staying up until 3am, but, now I'm old and haggard and I like to go to bed early and get up before noon. Preferably even before 8:30. But that did not happen this weekend. It was out of my control! Katie and I went to the pool for many hours on Saturday and got burnt. It was magical. We went to IHOP for breakfast and our server, Warren, was quite the character.

Rachel is always a treat to visit. We just have so much to say to each other always. And she always has lots of old clothes to give me, which I love. I went to Texas Roadhouse with her, Josh (her main squeeze), Bradley Gessell (he's a charmer), his main squeeze, and Tommy Fresh. It was quite nice. I miss all those peeps. Rachel, Josh, and I were there long before the other three and we ate almost four baskets of rolls by ourselves. So.... five for me, six for Rach, and three for Josh. We pounded them rolls.

Jaron and Keaton are also quite a delight. A bunch of us went to Buffalo Wild Wings (Dallon and I brought our Taco Bell cause we were too cheap to buy B Dubs). I went to a dance party with Keaton and his friend, and he promised he wouldn't go off and get girls numbers and stuff. But eventually he did start flirting with girls so I made like a banana and split. I'm not offended though... typical Keat.

At church, Keaton made me bear my testimony, which was good. I was that girl... the one who bears their testimony in someone else's ward. But since it's a new semester no one knew I was a visitor. Phew.

In Sunday school we had to read Preach My Gospel and make a mini lesson and then with a partner we each had to teach our lesson to each other. I read some good stuff, but then forgot to write anything down. Well, I didn't forget, but I just didn't have time, ya know? So anyways, Mark did his mini lesson for me and it was great. And then I was like, 'I don't have one'. Worst partner ever award. Then I realized I suck at doing stuff like that, especially one on one, and so maybe I should work on that? But, I guess that's what he gets for being friends with me. Then after church we talked for a few hours. I was planning on being home by two, but didn't leave till three. So, whatever. I don't mind talking to that fellow at all.

So basically, the moral of this post is that I love Logan and I adore my friends more than they really know. And it was the best weekend evar.