7 Things

The number 7 will be a common occurrences in this particular post. It's been 7 months since I last posted. And there have been 7 significant evens.

This past weekend I went down to Utah for CANADIAN THANKSGIVING. While down there I met up with my friend Christina's family, her brother was blessing their baby Carmen. This summer Brittany and I spent a week at the Taylor house hold. We loved it in Tyler!! The Taylor's are so much fun. Anyway this past weekend we went to the baby blessing and reunited with them all. Christina, Benjamin, Brittany and Myself have so much fun together, he are some pics from our togetherness.





For Thanksgiving Brittany cooked at TURKEY. Yes her first one ever, and it turned out fabulous. To prepare she watched a many of youtube videos, and paid close attention to what some great chefs do! It was a delicious turkey, so succulent. Stephanie made heaps of salads that we to die for! Everyone brought a little something, we had so much food left over!! Definitely had a great time!! Here is the gang:



3 Weeks ago I had the pleasure of travelling back to my home land...aka Canada for my friend Ben's wedding! We left Thursday night drove all through the night, and came back sunday night! I had so much fun!! It was almost a year before I had been there and I just forget all the goodies Canada has to offer me! We got Bubble Tea, Tim Horton's, shopped at Value Village, and I just loved being there with my friends. Renee let me live with her for the weekend, and I loved sharing her bed with her. She is the best!! Here are photo's from the wedding!!





Now...Flash back to summer. I was super lame this summer and didn't take any pictures at all!! All these photo's send props to Renee Comfort. She documented my first Rexburg summer. I loved being here in the summer, met some really great people had a ton of fun!! Played human rubber band a lot, bridge jumping, Rigby lake, Camping, , weddings, Frisbee, slacked a little too much in school (yikes) But loved life!!





No summer is complete without a Steph and Karl dressup night. I was sitting at the computer and Stephanie was just standing behind me looking like this for about ten minutes till she had to tap me on the shoulder. Naturally I jumped at the startling man standing behind me! I quickly had to join in on the dress up. The pink stuff is this zinc sunscreen that I am sure was expired it was greasy and was kinda hard to remove, but we do love to dress up. So I don't really care. haha

My friend Miklya's sister Caitlin got married this summer!! She was such a beautiful bride. We went to the wedding reception in Lindon. It was so nice, outside, sunny, great chocolate brownie dessert, and a dance to follow!! I love wedding functions!!





For CANADA day a bunch of us got togehter and made POUTINE yum! and watched Strange Brew. Poutine is soo good. Even though this wasn't real, it certainly satisfied my tastes!!

For the 4th of July Renee, Jenae and I all painted our nails patriotic colours, we then headed to IF to witness the fireworks!! It was a fun time. 4th of July is one of the biggest holiday's here I am betting. I love celebrating holidays!!!






Michelle Brandley was at school in the summer, didn't hang out with her much which I regret she I always have such a good time with her. Such a funny lady!!! Anyway Brittany and Stephanie came to visit me one weekend and we of course hit up DQ because that's what we do here in Rexburg.


This is us playing or rather posing in the human rubber band. We had so much fun playing this at porter park on days that were beautiful. Seriously hours wasted away. It is such a fun game, dangerous but fun. Susceptable to brusing but fun. Probably only allowed for ages 14 and older to play with. We let one boy probably around age 10 play and he got smacked to the ground, probably got a concussion poor boy. But we warned him. After that we didn't let anymore kids play.


The picture above is a group of us playing the whip cream game. You put a dollop of cool whip or whip cream on your hand then flop your hand up to hopefully catch it in your mouth...the result is a creamed face...and you stink like rotten milk after. But enjoyable none the less.

So that about sums up my life in seven months. Lets see I am pretty sure there were about seven events that kept me going. Currently it is fall semester here at BYUI. It is personally my 5th semester. My how time has flown. I will prbably be graduating Winter of 2012 which is just crazy to think about. I actually need to start thinking about my life (I like to have plans FYI). Here are some photo's from the first couple nights back...SAMMY's famous pie shake shop opened up, they have held many events, this was one concert that a bunch of us went to. I love my friends!



Also...coming soon. Karl's famous pumpkin carvings...Each year I carve a masterpiece of a pumpkin. They take me about 6 hours to complete..yes I am hardcore. The past two years I have done these:


(fall 2009)

(fall 2008)
Get excited for fall 2010!!

Oh The Place's You'll Go!

This post was inspired by 1) my background it was called "the places you'll go" and 2) Dr. Suess's book "Oh The Place's You'll Go".

As most of you know my family moved to Perth, Australia July of 2009 because of my dad's job. We were so excited because this is a once in a life time opportunity! And it was a very good career move for my dad. So the family came here and they loved it! Life here is slow paced, really relaxing. The beach is really really close by and there are beach bums every where!

So "Oh the place's I will go"...My mom gave me and my sister this book when we went to college because you never know the places or experiences life will bring you. I never thought in a million years that I or my family would be living in Australia! So I took advantage of the opportunity and took winter semester off this year to come home and relax after a pretty stressful semester. When I got here I knew it would be hard to leave. Because I love the sun, and the beach, and really the life to come with it. I once told my dad that if I could I would buy a boat before a car. He told me that it was stupid because how would I get the boat to the beach? DUhhh....FRIENDS. I am guessing if I could find a friend to tow my boat to the beach they wouldn't hate lounging and playing in the water with it. Anyway that is just info about who I am aka I love being in the water and playing!

There have been positives and negatives of being here. I don't mean to be a negative nancy but the hardest part for me was not having the close friends that I had back at school. Granted there are singles wards at school, but I didn't think it would be THAT bad down here. There was NO singles ward. The singles were dispersed among the family wards. Some had 10-12 other aka mine had 5. The singles here were not young either well the ones in my ward. The other wards are like 30-45 minutes away, and just never had the chance to meet them. Anyway the singles in my ward are a little older 25-30 and working or finishing up school. not really the crowd I would hang out with. So that has deff been hard for me. I have REALLY REALLY learned not to take friends for granted. Life keeps throwing these learning experiences at me it's like one thing after another every single time! I am just thinking, I have learned!! Everything has stuck with me, obviously I am not getting something though! All I can say is THANK GOODNESS for facebook, through this wonderous invention I have been able to keep intouch with many of my friends whom I have missed SO much!

POSITIVES of being here! There are billions of things I have loved about being here that I possibly could not right all of them down, cause my fingers would fall off and my chance of getting carpal tunnel would porbably increase by 75%. So to name just a few...1)Home cooking!! Even though I don't eat out THAT much at school my meals are nothing like my moms! I have loved just having the family eating dinner together and socializing with them, and eating delish meals that I have loved for a long time!! I certainly do not look forward to having to cook again (the stove and me aren't best friends yet). 2) Doing laundry. I have the BEST MOM EVER!! When I come home from school she does my laundry for me, and I am so grateful for that! Even though it is a small thing and if she asked me to do my own I wouldn't mind, it is so sweet of her to do it for me even though I am almost 20. I love her for doing that!! THANKS MOM! I have ABSOLUTELY LOVED living in the LAND DOWN UNDER. It is unreal here. We live a short two minute walk to the beach and it's pretty private. I am going to take a video of walking there so you can all see! I have loved the sunny weather and skipping winter for once in my life! I will be going down to the beach right after this to soak of the last days of the sun before I head back to the ICEBURG. I have tried surfing a couple times, not as easy as it looks! Waves should be getting a bit bigger soon so hopefully I can get a good ride before I go!

There are only 7 days before I depart this blessed land for another blessed land. I am so excited to be going back to friends and half excited for school.

I just saw a ghost!

After my shower today I put on a mask to rejuvenate my skin ahah. While waiting for it to dry I sat in my towel on my bed on facebook. My friend Brett posted a picture on facebook about his experience with WOW - mainly that it ruins lives. He looked so hilarious in it, my eyes filled with water from laughter. I though to meself..I mean myself I shall take some pics of my ritual of after the shower. Because everytime I shower I sit in my towel for a good hour. One day I had a mask on and my sister Katelyn says "Are you okay?!? You look like you've seen a ghost!" Hence the name of this post.

BALI BELLY

This past week was SRPING BREAK for the kidlets, and well the rest of the world. Instead of lazing by the beach for a week the family decided to go to BALI! Bali is in Indonesia incase you didn't know. And it is one of the shortest flights out if Perth (only 3 hours) so seeing that we have never been and will only be in Australia for a couple years we thought we should take advantage at how close we are to many places in this part of the world. So off we went.


We stayed at a place called Seminyak Suites, we had our own villa which had an outdoor kitchen/living room (pictured above). Each villa also had its own private pool (pictured below). I loved this part of it. I love to swim and just being in the water, so I swam every night and spent lots of time in the pool!


We went to a Hindu Temple where we had to wear colourful sarongs because we were wearing shorts (below)




This temple had hundreds of monkeys. They liked to find garbage and eat the last crumbs of some left over pringles (above). There was one teeny tiny baby monkey, and he was so cute!! He had the biggest eyes, and was a little camera shy. He came out from under his moms belly to peek out see everyone! (below)


Another day we took a little drive to this place where they had a fish spa. Basically you put your feet into this tank of these small fish and sit there for twenty minutes. These fish eat dead skin - which when you think about it is SO disgusting - it tickles a little bit at first but then you become desensitized to it haha. After twenty minutes you are done and your feet are so soft!! I would recommend doing this if you ever get the chance the way your feet feel is well worth it!


Next up was Bali Safari and Marine Park. When we got there we were hungry so we ate some food. It was SO unbelievably cheap just like everything is in Bali. They had several different counters you could order from ie. Chinese, Western, Italian. I got Pad Thai, every chance I get I eat this delicious dish! It was only $4.00!

Here we took a family (well minus me cause I was taking the picture and Brittany cause she is at school) picture infront of this HUGE elephant cave sculpture.


At this park we got see elephants bathing! So funny, you could feed them carrots, the little kids loved this!


In Bali the streets are VERY crowded and there really is no such thing as road rules there. A two lane road can easily turn into a 3 or 4 lane road. People were packed on there like pickles. (I say pickles cause they are packed tighter than sardines you'll catch on). Cars faced ongoing traffic at times waiting to turn around, if you wanted to pass someone just cross over onto oncoming taffic no worries. It's not AS dangerous as it sounds because driving over there although a thrill is pretty safe. People are in no real hurry and therefore are patient so it not like Germanic speed racing down the road. There is no public transportation system so everyone and I literally mean EVERYONE drives a motorbike. They are cheap and small easy to manouver through traffic.






Dad picked up some rice while we were at a restaurant. Rice fields are everywhere in the countryside. Rice is a staple crop here and eaten with pretty much every meal. I have seen pictures of rice fields but didn't know what the actual stem looked like, so here it is.


We went to a DVD store and got about 50 dvds for $50 bucks!! There are only a couple that aren't great quality but all the others are great! Everynight we lounged at home and watched some of the movies.


We had dinner at the beach the last night we were there, unfortunatley it was cloudy but still nice nonetheless. As we ate dinner this is what we looked out onto. I loved seeing kids playing in the sand, and people walking along the beach. While we were waiting for dinner I decided to take some pictures of the kids at the beach. I love them in black and white, and how they turned out, so natural looking.








This was our seafood meal, complete with king prawn, lobster, fish, crab, and mussels (i tried one mussel, but didn't like them enough to eat the rest) I loved the LOBSTER though.


Bali was a great place to visit! After a week we were ready to come home. While we were there we got a massage every night! A full body hour long massage there is only $20 dollars. I slept so good!! My body was so relaxed and my muscles were so loose. That was one major reason why I was so sad to leave, those twenty dollar massages were a luxury! But it is good to be home for a short two weeks before I go back to school!

Coming Soon

I don't know how many people read my blog, but for those of you that do I just want to let you know that I am not neglecting my small corner in the cyber world. I need to get a few more pictures to show all you some of the great things about where I live. Sadly I will only be living here for 10 more days, then I am back to the USA. Standby comrades.

March Movie Madness

Anyone that knows me, knows I love movies! I like all genres too, wether it be fantasy, action, independent films, etc. So I thought that for a blog post I would comment on some of the movies I have seen lately, and just some movies that I love.


Valentines Days wasn't a bad movie. I loved that there were so many actors and actresses (well known) ones in it. I like some of the stories in it. Some parts were a bit of a surprise those of you that have seen it know what I am talking about, those of you that don't I suggest you go find it. I would tell you one thing I love about the movie but again don't want to ruin it for you. Cute movie though, I found it a little slow. So I am not going to recommend seeing it and I am not going to say don't go see it. Up to you!


I actually read this book in the summer time and loved every minute of it. The movie was an excellent portrayal of the book. A couple details were different but all in all amazing. The character Henry and Claire specifically were casted so perfectly I couldn't have chosen anyone better. Some tears were shed not on my part but in the theater. Cute book, cute movie, go see it.


Stardust is a fantasy movie for sure! I love it cause it isn't all frilly and stuff, there are some deffinant dark parts to the film, and there is action and whit and funny, the story line is interesting and different. It came out in 2007 but I will watch it again and again for sure!


I love this movie, it was so well done. Brad Pitt just did a great performance as a Nazi Hunting American. Christopher Waltz is actually nominated for an academy award for best supporting actor. His role was "Jew Hunter" and again just did an amazing job. It is set in Nazi occupied France during WWII. I would HIGHLY recommend seeing this movie.


The Guardian is a movie that I will probably love forever. I first saw this movie when I was in Lifeguard training so I could relate that much more because my training was intense but not nearly as intense as USCG training. I loved this movie for a couple reasons. One - Aston Kutcher is a total babe in this movie (he trained for 8 months swimming etc) and he is just jaw dropping. Two - the movie is just genuinly good and it's about becoming a US Coast Guard and that to save a life you must sacrifice everything. The USCG motto is "So Others May Live" I think that is just amazing that in the worst storms people go out to save lives and are just so selfless and they truly are amazing people.


I loved Sherlock Holmes!! It was funny, whitty, dark, just a fun movie. I would also recommend this movie if you haven't seen it yet!


The Blind Side - Such an AMAZING movie. I can't believe the life Michael Oher had. The Tuhey's were so loving to him and just gave him such a good life. It was a touching story and I hope that it wins an Oscar. Sandra Bullock did a great southern accent ahaha, but it was just such a great movie. Seriously every movie that is on here I would recommend seeing.


Now obviously if you listened to ANY of your friends you would SHOULD have seen Avatar by now. The graphics were just awesome!! I loved the different take on the Pochahontas story. I actually didn't realize that it was Pochahontas until my mom mentioned it. This movie is supposed to be the first of a possible trilogy. So until then I can't wait for this to come out on DVD


I just saw this movie last night actually and I was a bit surprised, the preview made it look like it was going to be cooky and wonky I felt, and it was just different than what I thought. I LOVE Tim Burton, I think he makes great movies. Helena Boneham Carter, Jonny Depp and Tim Burton are a great trio and are found in many movies together (Sweeney Todd, Corpse Bride). All in all I thought the movie was O.K. Not my favourite of his work but still up there. There were some funny parts definatley such as "I love my fat boys" and "hello Um" the costumes and make-up were amazing. I would not not recommend and I would not recommend if that makes sense. Don't want to be held accountable if you didn't like it. Advice - read reviews.

Anyway hope you enjoyed my little movie critique. Let me know if you have any movie that you would recommend me to see!
Till next time xoxo