Just having some good time paparazzi fun!

So this doesn't quite have much to do with the Photo Challenge...per say... but here are some photo's that I decided to dink around with!

P.S. Photoshop is Awesome!!! :)



before...

after!!!!!

before...

after!!!!!

Before.... ain't she a cutie !

After!!!!!! yep...still a cutie !

I think I found a new hobby!!!! :)

Hooray!!!

And so begins one of my favorite months of the year.

OCTOBER!!!!

Why?

AuTuMN TiMe BabY!!!

So in effort to celebrate...as well as to ensure that I'm actually updating this blog more often... :)

Here comes another picture challenge.

30 things I love about Fall!!

#1

Cooler Temperatures!!
Yes Please and Thank You!

ya like that huh?

Not too Cold---Not too Hot--- light jackets and pull on the cute scarves-Good To Go! :)

Dilemna!!!!!

So with my birthday...just around the corner ;) .... I'm torn between two themes.

With the overall theme being "Menace to Society" I'm torn with the "sub-theme"

the 1920's or the 1940's.

I know right?

With the 1920's I'd wanna have it be very.... Prohibition (promise it will just be root beer C: ) very Gangster-ish style

With the 1940's I'd want it to be Old Hollywood.....

the 1940's is probably by far one of my favorite decades to learn about.

but I'm kinda thinking the 1920's would fit better with the OVERALL THEME.


AHG! When did I decide to make this harder than it needs to be???

September 11, 2001 : Where were you?

It's hard for me to believe that it's really been 10 years... it feels like just last week to be quite honest---yet at the same time, a lifetime ago.

I think that most everyone who is old enough to remember---knows exactly what they were doing at that moment. They don't ever hear the words "9-11" without immediately clicking to thoughts of that day. Things were thrown into perspective and you started to see things in the 'big picture' mode.

Things that seemed to only happen in the movies--was suddenly happening in the real world.

September 11, 2001

I was a Freshman in High School

6am I was in the back seat of a car on the way to seminary.

We heard it on the radio--but we at the time weren't really paying too much attention. It had to be an accident...right?

During Seminary class-it went pretty much like normal.

But as soon as we got to school afterward--totally different story.

By that time the second plane had gone threw the second building... a third plane had crashed into the Pentagon...and a fourth plane had crashed in Pennsylvania.
so it definitely wasn't an accident.

I remember that no one went to regular class that day- we all mostly gathered into classrooms and watched the national news for pretty much the entire day.

I think thats went it hit me. Things were about to change.

Going home after school- I walk in to see my parents sitting and watching it on TV as well.

The days and weeks that followed- were filled with so much patriotism. I remember that everyone put a flag in their yard. Every car had a flag. Musicians were writing songs. Everyone came together so quickly. The high school, every morning, would raise the flag in assembly. There were firesides with President Hinckley addressing it to everyone in the church. It was almost a complete different world. It changed for the better. It made us remember what was important.

Now here we are 10 years later.

A life time ago-yet it feels like last week.

My wish is that we never forget. That we could get back to those days and weeks after---when we were thinking of more important things like friends and family...and not the "next big" "latest" "greatest" "newest"




"The resolve of our country is being tested, but make no mistake, we will show the world that we will pass this test."
-Pres. George W. Bush

7 Day Service......

So really- I might've just realized that maybe I'm in a rut cause I'm kinda stuck on myself....

That's right. I said it.

Bein stuck in a rut means it's all about MUAH! ME! ME! ME! yep. myself #1.

So whatdahyado?

"Forget Yourself And Go To Work!"

"Forget Yourself And Go To Work!"

"FORGET YOURSELF AND GO TO WORK!!!!!"

ouch.

Now with that said- Let the days of serving others begin....

Stuck in a Rut.....again......

So for about the past 2 weeks-- the tale tell signs of "STUCK IN A RUT" have been creepin in....again.....

I work-I school-I eat-I sleep-I work-I school-I eat-I sleep-I work-I school-I eat-I sleep-I work-I school-I eat-I sleep-I work-I school-I eat.......

ENOUGH ALREADY!

So I pose the question...

What do you do when you're stuck in a rut ??

One of my good friends and I were talking about this not too long ago--and as she is telling me about her "rut" I find myself thinking that I'm pretty much in the same boat. Suprise Suprise-full circle comes right down to 'fellas' 'boys' 'guys' THE MALE SPECIES. Good Grief-Why?!?!

Work Neither of us have fella's workin there.

School Both occupations are pretty well girl dominated

The Ward eh...the fellas seem only interesting in dating 'other girls' or we've been thrown into the 'Friend Zone' ... Hahahaha! How do get to being the "other girls?"

so there we have it.

Full Circle also comes around to TIME.

Never have enough time to do anything. And if we do- we're pretty well too exhausted to do anything.

Feel Like Life is Runnin Away- and there ain't a Chance of Catchin it or Slowin it Down...

There being just not enough hours in the day to get anything done.

I really wanna have time to go and do things with friends and family again.

Find some balance in my life.

But..... How? .....

Hmm......

your thoughts?

Summer!!!! still hangin on.....

When asked how my summer has been--- this year I can say "it's been good."

Why has it been "good" ?

No idea......

Didn't get to take any kind of trip..... unless you count spending most of the month of July working in Price .... ??? I don't think that I will ;)

Didn't get to really have any sort of vacation or any kind of extended time off.....

But still---
it was "good"

I switched jobs and now work closer to home.

Still pluggin along in school.

Nothing too exciting...

Nothing too boring...

just "good" :)

But here we are---at the end of Summer and I gotta say ... it's been a whirl wind summer and I have no idea how August is just days away from being over. But the HOT HOT HOT days left remind me that it's still hangin on....for dear life. Soon enough it will be September -the start of my absolute favorite season!!! Bring it on Autumn!!!

Summer this year really consisted of Friends-Family-Movies-Snowcones-Water-Amusement Parks-Birthdays-Store Opening-Shopping-Summer of the last Harry Potter-2 new flavors of Mt. Dew-Friends-Family-Movies...repeat...
So as you can see my Summer has been "good" :) ... actually GREAT!!!

HipHipHorray For SuMMeRTiMe!!! :) :) :)

Lessons ReLearned: What I "re"learned in Price, Utah

But first----some pictures of the adventures...unfortunately some of the pictures that I took weren't so great....so I had to find and use some other ones......But mainly just for the point

It really was a fun time all around. Kind of a 'small-ish' town.

Really such a pretty place when ya think about it--- Ya got your burnt orange, red, brown mountains and then a lush green valley right smack dab in the middle.

It's almost a split between Greek Orthodox (they had a Greek Days Festival one of the weekends that I was there) - LDS - and Baptist religions....LDS really being more of a minority (which in Utah--is a rare find indeed...probably the only place that you don't see LDS churches everywhere)

They do a lot of Mining around the area.

There is indeed a college in town.

The big thing around there is Dinosaurs...if you couldn't tell from the cop car C; There is a pretty cool Musuem in the middle of town as well as a Fossil Quarry on the outside of town.

Groggs is THE best place to go eat.... just take my word for it.

The second picture---there's this Italian Restaurant that most people absolutely raved about, so I tried to get over there to eat. But seriously I think I only saw the "Open" sign up once. ONCE! and it was a time that I wasn't able to go in. How sad!

Isn't that J.C Penney so cute looking????

One of the things that I found a bit interesting--- the store that I was working at was in a strip mall-ish area... that also had a Smith's. The whole area shared a big parking lot. Anyway- every night that I closed I would look out the window and see all these tons of cars in the parking lot---and a bunch of teenagers hanging around.
In the Parking Lot ????
Poor things had nothing else to do.
One of the girls that I worked with down there who was actually from the area filled me in on what was really going on...
APPARENTLY-- The Smiths parking lot was a big huge meeting place where they would all decide where the hot destination was to be for the night...
so APPARENTLY they had places to go---they just all needed to congregate beforehand.

Two Movie theaters in the town- 2 movies between them....they each only played one movie---Coincidently the same movie most of the time.





But also-----








A very humbling experience.... Coming from a job where I knew EVERYTHING and jumping into a job where I know NOTHING. I had to pull myself back a bit from the building frustration and remember that at my previous jobs...it took me a minute to learn everything there too. I started out at the bottom and worked my way up everytime. I remember on one particular night after a bit of a rough day--sitting alone in my hotel room. Thinking and stressing about everything that went on during the day- I found myself feeling pretty low and my confidence was completely shot if not totally non-existant. It was late and I was exhausted--physically and emotionally. I was starting to miss being home...I was completely drained... completely alone all by myself.

As I'm sitting there-I pulled out my scriptures. I started over with the Book of Mormon and at the time I was in first Nephi....which I'm sure I've read a Skillion times... but this particular night a very 'old' and 'familiar' story came and hit me in suddenly a new way.

When Nephi broke his bow..... totally have read this story so many times and ya gotta wonder why I never picked up on this before.

After his bow had broken-they were unable to get food for their families while they were in the wilderness....and of course this made everyone mighty awnry and they began to murmur against both Nephi and the Lord. They had left the comfort and luxury of their home in Jerusalem. They were all out there alone in the desert-without food...they could have easily died. I can see how things could've been a bit overwhelming...

Catching the hints yet?

So as I'm sitting there reading through this story--- I was 're-Learned' this.

Nephi never once looked to the Lord with a "Pity-Party" attitude. Never Complaining. Always the "Can-Do" attitude.

What does he do??? He Builds A Better Bow! One that probably wouldn't break or loose it's spring.

What I really took from this little experience is this...

Things can always be fixed. Things will always get better. I never have to feel alone. Comfort is always right there waiting for me when I need it.

I can honestly say that my time in Price, Utah was not a waste....if nothing else-I Learned that.

Journal Jar : July 16, 2011

Something that you would really excited over when you were a kid?

I remember, because my Grandma and Grandpa Anhder had a house across the street from us, I remember that I would get all kinds of excited when they would come to the ranch to visit from Vegas when I was a kid. I remember that I always knew they were around when I saw the window blinds up. I'd sure book it over there as soon as I saw they were there...and then totally stick around until the sun went down ..and most of the time even later than that C:

Journal Jar : Monday-July 11

What is your favorite time of year and why?

There are many things that I love about all of the seasons....but don't worry I DO IN FACT have a FAVORITE. But first here is what I like about the other three.

WiNteR: I really really like it the first time that it snows. I've been in Northern Utah now for about 5 years and I consider myself pretty lucky that really the first snow of the season has pretty much waited until Christmas time....pretty much for the most part. C; I love when it's completely white-before all the cars come along and make it turn black with mud. I went sledding for the first time last year....I know- what took me so long right? And it was such a fun time! It also helped having the people that went with me there. C: I also love that seeing as Winter pretty much means "I'm staying inside my nice toasty warm house for a while" I associate it with Family Time. Plus ChRistMas pretty much rocks!!!

SpRiNg: Well so Northern Utah doesn't really get a spring---maybe only about 1 week every 4 weeks. But Springtime in Southern Nevada....heck yes I will C: The tree's are turning green- the animals all start coming back- and FLOWERS! Love the Flowers! Plus it starts getting warmer! LOVE LOVE LOVE!!! You can start going out and doing outside stuff again---

SuMMeR: May as well call this FREEDOM!!! You of course have the 4th of July plus Fathers Day---which translates into---OUTSIDE ALL THE TIME!!! BBQ-Snowcones-Flipflops-Shorts-Tan legs....if you're not Katie-Family Reunions-County Fairs and Carnivals-Swimming-Hiking-Camping-Late Night Playing...you name it, it's all 10 times better when done in the Summertime.

Drum Roll Please....
My Absolute Favorite Favorite FAVORITE season is........

AuTuMN!!!!!!
I absolutely have to choose Autumn as my favorite because there's just something about the air being so crisp. I love how it's mostly still warm enough for just light sweaters or jackets and you can still do everything outside. I love the colors of the trees! HALLOWEEN and THANKSGIVING!nuf said...
It comes right after the blazing hot Summer and it sort of preps for bitter cold Winter. I love taking drives up the canyons during the Fall. I love when school gets up and started again. I love buying school supplies....crazy I know. I Love dressing up for Halloween. I Love going home for Thanksgiving. I Love Pumpkins and home-made Apple Cider. There's something about every other season that I don't neccessarily like---can't come up with one for Autumn. So there. C: