Happy Birthday Allyson!!

Fondue.... yummy!!!!

Last night, we celebrated my friends birthday by having a Girl's Night Out at The Melting Pot! We just ordered 'cheese and chocolate' - and it was SO yummy!

Allyson - the birthday girl! The big 2-1!!!


Jenne, Janna, and Danielle
[PS - no pictures of my half of the table cause I was struggling yesterday! haha]


The dessert! We got 'The Original' chocolate dipping - which had crunchy peanut butter in it - AMAZING!! The cheeses were also good, but we forgot to take any pictures of the cheese because we were too hungry!

Very fun and yummy night!

the moving part is over...

Saturday was moving day, and thanks to my wonderful friends, everything went very smoothly! Between 9 people, 2 trucks and 5 cars, we got it all done in about 2 hours. My new place is now nicely decorated with cardboard boxes and piles all over the place! I bought a couch and bookcase that will be delivered on Saturday, which will help with all the unpacking and arraigning! My bedroom is pretty liveable, and so is the bathroom. I still have a few more loads of new dishes, pots, and pans to wash before the kitchen is unpacked. And then it's time to decorate! Hopefully I'll get everything set up and decorated before Hawaii - so stay tuned for pictures!

After a quick trip to IKEA, a few friends and I headed downtown to see the Sand Sculptures in Pioneer Square (with a name like that - you'd think I still lived in Utah!) They were pretty amazing!
The details and everything were amazing! After the sand sculptures, we hit up Nordstrom's Anniversary Sale! It was great - I got an amazing red pea coat, and now wish that it wasn't July so that I could wear it! I think after a little bit, the boys realized that Nordstrom's probably wasn't the best idea of ways to spend the evening! But I'm glad we went, and can't wait for it to get cold enough to wear my new coat!

Overall, it was a great weekend! Now if I can just survive this upcoming week of craziness!!

New apartment. New adventures.

If last night was just a glimpse of what's to come.... I'm not sure that I'm going to survive living by myself!

So, yesterday, I left work a little giddy about my new apartment! I got to the office, had to sign a zillion pages of paperwork! I did a walk-thru with one of the managers just to make sure everything looked - but since I'm the first one to live there after the remodel, everything is brand new! After she gave me the keys and left, I couldn't help myself from doing cartwheels in my new living room! I had to run a few errands, met up with my friend Megan, and the two of us headed off to the grocery store to pick up a few essentials. It was a little difficult trying to decide what to make for dinner when I didn't have any pots, pans, plates, bowls, utensils, nothing! We decided on a frozen pizza - and made sure to get one that we could stick right in the oven - seeing as how I didn't have any cookie sheets. We bought some paper towels, and some soap to wash the glasses that I had bought about 15 minutes earlier!

On the drive back to my new place, I realized that I didn't have a knife to cut the pizza with. Megan and I agreed that it wasn't essential that we have a knife, so we continued home! After carrying in a few things, we decided to let the pizza cook while we unloaded the stuff that I had packed in my car. So I turned on my oven while giving Megan the grand tour! I could smell something a little funky, but didn't really think much of it, until I started back toward the kitchen, and realized that it smelt like something was burning.... and sure enough, I look in the oven, and there's FLAMES! I freaked out for a second, then hurried and turned off the oven and opened the door! Anyway... me, being the brilliant one that I am, didn't check the oven before I turned it on, and since it's brand new, it still had some cardboard in there, the instruction booklet and some other paperwork - which caught on fire pretty quickly when it turned on! So - Megan and I we laughing pretty hard - but still trying to figure out what to do about the flames in my oven! I didn't have anything in my kitchen besides the pizza, some OJ in the fridge, and the box of cereal that Megan had just bought. So I turned on my sink, and started cupping the water in my hands, and 'throwing' it into my oven! It was pretty funny!! Once the flames were out, we pulled out the manual and the bottom of it is partially burnt!! We managed to get all the paper and plastic things out of the oven, and then turned it up as hot as the oven would go, and left the oven door open to try and get rid of the little puddle of water in the bottom of the oven. We managed to eventually cook our pizza, and get it out of the oven without too much drama! I remembered that I had some scissors in one of the boxes that I had brought in, so we literally cut the pizza! It's probably one of those things where 'you had to be there' , but Megan and I had quite a bit of fun!

A little later, Sheri and Diana came over too. Sheri had made a cute little cake (from scratch!) She even frosted it and wrote 'Welcome Home'! We had a fun evening of girl talk and laying on the floor of my empty living room!

I can already tell that this whole living-by-myself thing is going to be quite an adventure! And I couldn't be more excited!

This year needs to slow down!!!

I can't believe it's already the middle of July! What is happening to 2008?! I have really been slacking off on my blog posts, although I'm not sure how many people actually read my blog, so I'm not sure that many people really care. Life has been really good lately, with lots going on. It's interesting to sit back and look at life and where it takes you and the experiences we each have. Here's a little catch-up of the last few weeks!

Tomorrow, I'm moving into my new place! Ok - so I'm going to get the key and do all the check-in stuff. Saturday is the real moving day! I found a cute little one bedroom place - newly remodeled, in the area I wanted! I'm really excited to finally have my 'own' place! Although... I don't own any furniture (besides my bedroom stuff), so I have lots of stuff to buy in the next few weeks! And it's amazing how much STUFF I have! This is the longest that I've lived in one place since I moved out of my parents house - 14 months! I've managed to accumulate quite a bit of stuff in those last 14 months. And unlike when I lived in Logan, I can't easily store stuff at my parents house anymore! But I have some friends coming to help with the moving on Saturday, so I have until then to get everything (or most everything) in boxes!

This past weekend, my friend Megan and I went up to Seattle! She has a friend who is doing an internship up there, so we visited him, and spend Saturday playing in Seattle with him and 2 of his friends... more pictures to come!

(a view of Seattle from the ferry)

Other things going on.... This next weekend (July 26th and 27th) is our multi-regional YSA Summer Conference. There is about 1200 YSA that will be coming, but luckily enough, I don't have nearly as much responsibility as I did for the Winter Conference! And then August 7-9 is our Ward Campout! I'm really excited, although I've never planned a camping trip for 30+ people! It should be interesting! And there's always plenty of other things going on each weekend - people having get-togethers, BBQ's, things happening downtown, outdoor movies and concerts. All sorts of fun and exciting stuff!


I chopped my hair off - about 9 inches. I don't really like the cut, but I do like the color. I'm going in at the end of the month for a trim, and hopefully a style I'll like more! This is not a very good picture at all, but you get the idea! I'll probably keep it short for a few more cuts, then grow it out a little bit. Who knows!!


I'm not entirely sure why I'm posting these - maybe just to see if this link works... but about a month ago, my friend (Andrew) took these pictures of a friend (Matt) and I to model the shirts for his music magazine - Minute Morning. Matt and I had a blast, and were laughing during about 90% of the pictures. I'm not sure if Andrew got many good ones that he could use, but Matt and I sure had a good time! Anyway, someone who doesn't have Facebook should let me know if this link really works :)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2172272&l=515cf&id=11508016

OK - that's all for now! Time to go home and do some more packing and cleaning!

I'm on a roll!!!

Not only is this the second post this month, but two days in a row! Anyway, I took this Disney Princess Quiz, and I'm Ariel!! I'm not sure that I necessarily agree with everything it says (fiesty?!!), but Little Mermaid is my favorite movie, so I was happy with the results! Take the quiz and let me know who your Disney princess is!

You Are Ariel!

Headstrong and fiesty. You have a mind of your own that's full of romantic dreams about the world around you. Exploring exotic places is your ultimate dream, and although you can be a little naive you'll realize that there is something to be gained from your family's wisdom.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

It's official!

I'm officially an Oregonian now - I finally got Oregon license plates!! I decided to spend the extra $20 bucks to get the Crater Lake plates since I'm not a huge fan of the 'tree' ones. I wasn't expecting them to just give me the plates when I went to the DMV, but they did, and as soon as I got home from work , I whipped out my tool kit and put my new license plates on my car!

I'm really bad at updating my blog! Life is crazy busy, but I love it - I wouldn't trade it for the world!! I've been doing plenty of playing - I really have the greatest friends ever! I've been looking for a new job, but haven't had any luck with finding something that interests me. My roommate is going to grad school in August, so I'm going to get my own place - I can't wait to live by myself and not have to deal with roommates anymore! I've been looking at places closer to downtown, and I think I found one that I like! Now just to find a new job, and I'll be set!

Three and a half months.... and counting

On August 25th, me and 5 friends will be flying to Oahu, Hawaii to spend 7 days relaxing on Waikiki Beach!! This is a picture of the condo that we're staying in for the week. I went to Waikiki Beach in highschool with my family, and I loved it. I love 'people watching', and it's even better on the beach! Even though it's quite a ways away, I'm excited for some r&r in Hawaii!!

ekw

One of my friends got some studio lights, so we've been playing around with them. I think he's probably taken over 600 pictures of me in a week! It was almost like having my Highschool Senior pictures all over again! The bottom 2 pictures are ones that we took for a friend of his - she had designed the shirt for her new restaurant (or something like that!) and needed pictures for her website. I'm not going to lie - being a 'model' is alot harder than it looks like! I had a hard time not bursting into laughter the whole time!!

Hoppy Easter!

For Easter, we had a wonderful Easter dinner at my friend, Diana's house! We don't have church until 2:30, so Diana and I decided to have a 'lunch' with a few of our friends. We spent Saturday night making twice-baked potatoes, rolls from scratch, and chicken with ham and cheese. Diana lives in a studio apartment, so we had to rearrange a few things, borrow 3 card tables and some tablecloths, but after we got the table all set, it looked really nice! Diana got some beautiful flowers from Trader Joe's and I made name tags for everyone! Everyone brought side dishes, so there was plenty of food, and plenty of fun times!


(In the picture above: Megan, Andrew, Eveling, Jon, Brittany, Ben, Matt, Diana, and Nathan)

Cirque du Soleil

Last Friday night, I went to Cirque du Soleil. And it was AMAZING! One of the best shows or performances that I have ever been to! The things that the performers could do with their bodies was incredible - things that should not be humanly possible! The show was inside a big tent that they had brought and set up for the shows. Next time I'm in Vegas, I want to see another one of their shows there! It was excellent!

the tents

Diana and Me