Happy Birthday, EZ

Erin is 25!!! I'm so jealous she has a two month head start on me...I can't wait to be 25! I think it's a good solid age--a whole quarter century old!

This is a day late, I know, but still had to post one of my favorite pics of Erin and me in honor of her birthday:
We were both "working" for Events Staff on campus and loved every minute of it! This is us being hard core and intimidating. (I know what you're thinking...you wouldn't want to come across us in a dark alley.) When we were feeling especially hard core, we'd pop our collar. Scary, I know.

As I was trying to find this picture the other day, I found so many pictures of Erin and me from school...many of those pictures will never find their way off my hard drive! I think we might have played more than we should've!

Hope you had a fantastic birthday, Erin!!!

Out for the weekend...

...we're headed here this afternoon for a little camping adventure! Still haven't packed. Oops. I'm crossing my fingers I have everything I need...

Provo Dress Code

Katie and I and a couple friends met up at a boutique last night in Provo to check out the handmade goods scene...we clearly didn't get the dress code memo. I think we were the only 4 people that didn't have on a hippie headband, a mini skirt and leggings, and crazy platform sandals. Apparently hippie headbands are the cool thing to wear in Provo...
Most of the girls looked like the girl in the lower left photo...tight headband with a big UGE mushroom-poofy thing going on with their hair. I didn't quite understand, so I thought that I'd try the "look" out today at work:
Umm...not so much. Not for me.

Yellow

This home makeover was on design*sponge this afternoon and I think it seriously made my whole day! I wish that my room looked like this...Things I love about this bedroom:
• hardwood floor (someday, someday...)
• yellow bed frame
• collage above the bed
• simple night stand
• bold colors against neutrals

Sweet

I was kind of in an odd mood today; not quite sure why. (Perhaps it was the crazy cold and snowy weather?? Have I mentioned I'm ready for spring??) We had a ward activity tonight for Family Home Evening that I was kind of unsure about attending, but am so glad that I did! Several of the girls in my ward teach elementary school and some of them teach children with disabilities. A carnival was organized for the families of these sweet disabled kids to attend and each of the Family Home Evening groups put together a booth for the carnival. Our group put together a cake walk and it was a total hit! The kids loved running around the circle dancing to the music and winning the cupcakes when their number was called.

It was so fun to see the kids' eyes light up when they came into the gym and saw what had been put together for them. It was a sweet reminder that among all the craziness in the world, there is still so much good. These little kids had so much love to give and gave it freely...something I need to be better at.

What a sweet experience.

Love for Eric.

Love for Eric Carle, that is. I love all the holiday logos that Google comes up with! I'm trying to think of all the things I can google today...

86 Layers.

I opened up a file at work this afternoon and discovered that the document had 86 layers. 86! I didn't know that an an 86 layer Illustrator document was even possible! I think in school I'd have documents that would have a few (5 or less!) layers. I tried to get a screenshot of all the layers, but the list was too long, but this was most of them. It's almost Friday, right?

(click the image to see *most* of the layers!)

ps...this is a total nerdy, designerly-type of post. My apologies.

Busy Week, Busy Weekend

First, some claireification...I've had several people ask in the last few weeks if this little bug is my baby. I wish I could claim her as mine, but she's definitely not! She belongs to these fine folks, making Claire my niece. Just wanted to set the record straight on that one! :)
Last week ended up being a busy week, but being busy is good. Friday (the 13th!) Brittany and I met up with Brian, who was in town for the weekend, at the Gateway in Salt Lake! It turned out to be quite an eventful night. We were evacuated from the IMAX theater because the fire alarm went off and waited across the street in the cold while they figured out why the alarm had gone off. (Image 1 and 2, below) While we were outside waiting to go back in, the police came out with a guy in handcuffs...turns out he was being arrested for counterfeiting money! We ended up getting a refund on our tickets because it just wasn't worth waiting for waiting around for another show to start. Brian and I saw another man get arrested as we made our way back to Provo..kind of a random night!

Met up with Brian for breakfast at Magleby's Fresh on Saturday morning...unlimited French Toast or Pancakes for $5! Fantastic deal and so good. It was such a beautiful day, so we drove the Alpine Loop, ran some errands, test drove Brian's dream car (way fun, Image 3, below) and fixed my bike...I'm excited to start riding it now that the weather is *finally* starting to cooperate! It was so good to see Brian for the weekend--BYU Idaho friends are the best!And finally--time for the crafty goods winners! The first five commenters: Stacey, Britt, Rachel, Audrey and Danielle! I'm not going to put a timeline on when the goods will be done (because life can be unpredictable!), but they will be done soon...I promise! And for the wild card, Shellie's name was drawn! Yay!! Congrats to everyone! Don't worry, there will be another drawing soon, so be excited!

I feel like I've had a lot of things on my mind the last couple weeks. Like a lot. I'm thinking that I need to change up my daily routine and maybe that'll get me out of the rut that I feel that I'm in right now. (Don't worry Britt...I'm still wearing my seat belt. It's the first thing I do when I get in the car!)

Maybe I'm just ready for spring...yeah, maybe that's it.

Two things...

One: last night was such a good night for a few reasons...one reason being that American Idol was surprisingly good! I was starting to think I wasn't going to watch this season because I was bored with the first half of the season, but it seemed like there were more good performances last night than bad ones, which is hopeful, right? Here's my prediction for the top two:
I'm keeping my fingers crossed on this one!

Two: I had applied to participate in the Beehive Bazaar and was pretty sure that my friend Amy and I were totally in...turns out we got rejected! Lame. I had my game plan all figured out for making my goods over the next month and a half, but then the reject email came and put a halt on those plans. Oh well. But there's good news! I'm still in the crafty mood and have lots of ideas for handmade goods. SO, the first five people to leave comments on this post will win a handmade gift by...me! I'm not sure what I'll be making, but it'll be good!**

Oh...and one more thing. They don't call it "Happy Valley" for nothing. Utah made the front page of Yahoo this afternoon...it's something to be happy about!


**update: there's going to be a wild card drawing (inspired by last week's American Idol) for those who comment after the first five!

Spring, where are you?

More snow in Provo tonight...is it spring yet?? I'm under a pile of blankets trying to stay warm and wishing I had one of these right now!

Two sad stories. Story number one happened in Maryville, Illinois...right next to Edwardsville. The pastor who passed away actually lived in Edwardsville. So sad. I'm not quite sure why this story has occupied my thoughts all day, but it has. There's not much I can do from Provo, but I can pray for those who have been affected by this tragedy, so that's what I'll do.

Dad did a good job telling sad story number two. Obama, what are you thinking??

It's stories like these that make the snow not such a bad thing. It's all about perspective, right? Here's to a happier tomorrow!

ooxxooXoXXx

I spent the afternoon over at Katie and Joe and Claire's...nice, quiet, lazy afternoon. Claire's saying "I love you!" in this picture! Ha!

Things I've learned in the last week or so:
• Me + medicine = not good a good combination! I haven't really been myself the last week or so, and I don't really like it! I can't even remember the last time I went to see a doctor, but I went last week because I wasn't getting over my cold. I was feeling pretty anxious about going, but knew I needed to go. The doctor that I saw recently retired and used to live in my parent's stake, so he knew my parents and younger siblings. Crazy, small world connection! I felt better about going to the doctor after making that little connection with the doctor! Turns out I had the flu...a pretty intense case of the flu! I was down-and-out for the count for several days. Still not feeling 100%, but so much better than I was feeling a week ago!
• Those Puffs Plus with Vicks are lifesavers when you're blowing your nose every 2.9 seconds. I highly recommend them.
• I'm so, so ready for spring! It was near 70 towards the beginning of the week, and yesterday we had snow. Boo. I bought myself a beautiful boquet of tulips today to help me get through these last few weeks of winter.
• I ♥ ebay! My camera cord went MIA (surprise...it's always missing!) so I went to to the store to buy a card reader and a battery charger. Card reader = $20. Battery charger = $50. Total = $70. Found the cord I needed that would do both things for...$1 on ebay! I saved myself $69!
• Driving down State Street or University Parkway in Orem/Provo with all green lights is pure happiness. Doesn't happen very often, but when it does, life is good.
• See that little video on the right-hand side? Baby Claire is in it! Katie's neighbor has been involved with making several videos for the Church, and asked if Katie and Claire could help out. Pres. Uchtdorf gave this talk at last October's General Relief Society meeting. It was such an amazing talk and is worth re-reading! There are several other videos on youtube by MormonMessages that are worth watching!
• What about Jason? I think he's a loser. I know he's been on his 'apology tour' for the last week, but still...what he did was so not cool.
• And what about American Idol? I don't know if I have any favorites just yet...I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this season shapes up to something worth following. I am glad Tatiana didn't make it to the top 12 13. (I totally missed that they are having a top 13 until the next day!)

Happy 21st!

Finally! Katie is finally 21! Happy Birthday!

Please ignore the little sickie in the background {me}...I'm so wanting to be done with this flu thing. So not fun.

Love you, KT Bird! :)