An ode to Tressa

One of my favorite people in the whole entire world is this wonnnderful girl by the name of Tressa. I love her! She is now on a mission for our church- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and while I miss her terribly I have no doubts that she is where she is supposed to be.

You mayyy be surprised to know that my glowing compliments are derived from a mere two weeks of knowing her. Thatttt is how fabulous this girl is. She is awesome. I want to beee Tressa a lot of the time, actually. But, as I cannot possibly do that, the least I cann do is share my favorite post from her blog (I invite you all to enjoy this fantastic webpage) with you all. Also, here is another one I enjoy :) Ehmm....

Warning: May Cause Side Effects!

This semester, my wonderful sister has been trying to teach me the art of flirting. It hasn't been going well.

So far I have read Flirtspeak and Surrendered Single with particular emphasis on the flirting chapters. Deborah has also given me numerous proven tips and secrets to flirting. I usually remember these tips after I say goodbye to the boy. 

Despite my difficulty I have found this process very educational, and I am amazed at Deborah's skill. There is one tip that I absolutely love, and use daily.

Tell yourself, you're hot!

Deborah said, "If you think you're hot, then you'll walk differently, and pretty soon boys will think you are too. Just walk down the hall telling yourself, 'I'm so hot."' So I have. I really have.

I walk down the hall and think to myself, "Wow. I'm hot. I am so hot. I'm beautiful and gorgeous!! Cover Girl's got nothing on me! I am so good looking. It's almost illegal how hot I am! I'm burning up I'm SO HOT!" Pretty soon, I'm almost giggling because I'm so excited at my new found hotness. It's awesome.

However, I have been experiencing some side effects. No, it's not excess boys hanging around me. It's dancing.

This week I've been blasting my roommates "Booty Shakin' Playlist" (That's really what it's called dad.) and shakin' my umm... refer back to the playlist title.

Anyway, the point is, all of a sudden, I've started dancing around the apartment, not worrying who is looking. This is very weird. Usually I have to be in a very good mood to dance the way I've been dancing. I'm jumping and grooving, and shaking my... hair around. 

My roommates have expressed some concern, but really I can't be that bad because I am just so hot. 

Wow, I love being HOT.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

"Our tolerance and respect for others and their beliefs does not cause us to abandon our commitment to the truths we understand and the covenants we have made."

- Dallin H. Oaks

"Things turn out best for people who make the best out of the way things turn out."


-John Wooden

Fairytale romances are even better in real life

One day of my senior year of high school I was sitting in my Anatomy class and we got seat changes. I ended up in the back, next to this girl named Mariah. I had always known who she was, and we were nice to each other but we didn't know each other too well bc we hadn't had any classes together since like, Elem School. Over the course of the class I am delighted to say that I became more and more pleased with our seating arrangement, and one day Mariah told me a story I have never forgotten. Ehm. It is, as I recall, this....

      Mariah's Grandmother lived in Europe during WWII, I think even in Germany. She had to work in a forced labor camp, but she was a supertrooper and survived! After the war was over and Europe was re-building itself, she ended up living with this nice family who had a farm. Onee day this American soldier was driving his little tank along and knocked over their fence!

      Mariah's Grandmother went out and huffily said to the strapping young Yank, "You know you're going to have to fix that don't you?"

      To which he flashed a cocky grin and said....

"Only if you go on a date with me."

      Mariah's Grandmother was quite taken aback. Who did this handsome man think he was? He had just knocked over her fence! And he expected her to go on a date with him? Seeing her indignant look, he quickly threw in a roguish wink for good measure, and so of course she had to say yes. And then they fell passionately in love and got married!

I love this story. I have told it so many times haha :) Because it is just so beautiful! I mean, the setting is Germany, post-WWII. That is nottt a happy time, and yet love was found! It is so wonderful!

I hope that I have a love story that is so spectacular that my granddaughter will tell it to the girl sitting next to her in her Anatomy class and then she will go tell the world of it :) Because love isss something that should be proclaimed from the rooftops, and it is so, soo amazing that love stories like this exist, because that, my friends, that means that reality can be so, soo much better than any movie :)

Much as I hate to admit it....

I am a hopeless romantic.

I am serious. I realized this just now actually, when I listened to "I'll be your hero" that is a song in some Disney movie that I have never seen and never had any intention of seeing until six minutes ago when I heard this song for the first time in just about a year. Wow that was a lot of words. Ehm. Basically hearing this song made me remember that I happen to be in love with Sterling Knight.

IS HE NOT BEAUTIFUL?!

Like, ohmigosh how wonderful would it be if there was this beautiful boy who was suchhh a jerk and you hated him and it was kinda like Elizabeth and Darcy-esque and then one day you just like, yelled at him and slapped him or smashed a still-wet painting on his head or something and thennn ran out but you were so mad that you didn't see where you were going and this car almost hits you but it doesn't because he SAVES you? But you declare (after the shock has worn off) that just because he saved your life doesn't mean he isnt a jerk. Because he is. And you go out to lunch with your girlfriends and they all say with assuredly that he is madly in love with you but you don't want to believe them because he's a jerk right? And then you slouch home and plop yourself onto your couch with your Ben&Jerry's and watch some TV and its like, some show that you randomly turned to and its actually the news and he's there and it shows him saving your life and he is interviewed later but he is obviously distracted bc he keeps looking over his shoulder to make sure the paramedics are treating your unconscious self with care but then once you are safely inside the ambulance he faces the camera and says something like, "look, I did what any fool in love would do." and then runs over and climbs into the ambulance with you and insists to the hospital people that he cover the bill because secretly HE IS A PRINCE?! But he doesn't want anyone and esp you to know and then he stayed next to your bed until you woke up from your 2-hour coma?? And once he saw your eyelashes fluttering open he hurried away?? And then you're sitting there like, ohmigosh what have I done? And you hurry into the office the next day and are like, "where's Sterling?!" And the catty receptionist that always liked him and therefore hated you informs you smugly that he has gone back to the England because that's what he's the prince of and you're like, NO! and hurry to the airport and run through security and leap over barriers and such until you finally see him ABOUT TO BOARD THE PLANE and then you're like, "Sterling!" and he turns and he is just SO BEAUTIFUL and he's like, "Yes?" and you're like, "don't leave!" and hes like, "why not? there's nothing for me here." and you're like, "no! you're wrong!" and hes like, "whaaaatt??" and you swallow bc you're really nervous about rejection but then you push those feelings aside and are like, "because! I love you too!" and then it's like, slow-mo but not really bc it's real life but it feeellllsss like slow-mo bc you don't know what he's gonna do but then!! you guys kiss and get married and you become a princess and your husband is THIS GUY??!?!?!! ---->

And yes, I did just come up with that off the top of my head. That is the power of Sterling Knight and these ah-mazing lyrics to that wonderful song. LISTEN TO IT.

I'm no superman

I can't take your hand

And fly you anywhere

You wanna go, yeah

I can't read your mind

Like a billboard sign

And tell you everything

You wanna hear but

I'll be your hero

I, I can be everything you need

If you're the one for me

Like gravity, I'll be unstoppable

I, yeah I believe in destiny

I may be an ordinary guy with heart and soul

But if you're the one for me

Then I'll be your hero

(Could you be the one [x3]for me)

Then I'll be your hero

(Could you be the one [x3]for me)

Then I'll be your hero

Searching high and low

Trying every road

If I see your face

I'll barley know, yeah

I put my trust in fate

If you will come my way

And if it's right

It's undeniable yeah

I'll be your hero

I, I can be everything you need

If you're the one for me

Like gravity, I'll be unstoppable

I, yeah I believe in destiny

I may be an ordinary guy with heart and soul

But if you're the one for me

Then I'll be your hero

(Could you be the one [x3]for me)

I'll be your hero

(Could you be the one [x3]for me)

I'll be your hero

So incredible

Some kind of miracle

And when it's meant to be

I'll become a hero-o

So I'll wait, wait

Wait, wait for you

Yeah I'll be your hero

I, I can be everything you need

If you're the one for me

Like gravity, I'll be unstoppable

(Be unstoppable)

I, yeah I believe in destiny

I may be an ordinary guy with heart and soul

But if you're the one for me

Then I'll be your hero

(Could you be the one [x3]for me)

Then I'll be your hero

(Could you be the one [x3]for me)

Then I'll be your hero

Super empowered right now

Mkay so last night I was talking to my friend Joey and I complained about a certain someone who perhaps is my least favorite person in the entire universe. I just don't like her. I had always thought that my dislike was extremely acceptable and even that it should be shared and transferred to others. I stilll feel very justified, but definitely a little ashamed about it. Because this is what Joey said....

"Love and tolerate everyone. That's my motto."

So now, that is my motto too. I was talking the other week about all the things I was going to do when I got home, so I think a list here is in order. Ehm....

~ Be as nice as possible. My mom always says, "be nicer than necessary." so maybe that too.

~ Learn one song on the piano. Preferably that pretty one that I've always wanted to learn. Yes. That one.

~ Skype Heather, Kelly, Paige, and Kathy regularly. As in monthly at least.

~ Get a good job that I enjoy and will make me a better person

~ Improve my flute playing

~ Write letters to my missionaries each week or every two weeks

~ Write letters to DK and Dubbs to inform them of their spectacularality

~ Have shot glass parties. No not with real alcohol. I just love my shot glass is all!

~ Play the Kinect with my Daddy dearest. Today we played four games of volleyball and it was so much fun!

~ Become a master chef. Make dinner at least once weekly.

~ Visit Gina six times. Very do-able. Shut up future lazy self.

~ Go camping! I should write a blogpost about this because I am so friggin obsessed with the great outdoors. For now, you should just read about Blue Knob State Park, Pennsylvania, aka hello the most wonderful place on Earth!

~ Get ten more Disney cups as gifts for BYU-I friends

~ Smile more (even though, I am practically always smiling. I should really write a blog about this condition....stay tuned.)

~ Be nice to everyone and have as nice thoughts as possible

~ Pack light for school

~ Practice and polish flute regularly. Put on concerts for Mommy! She loves my flute playing :) It is so flattering!

~ Go all out for holidays. Not just Christmas because I alwayss do that. I really want to be listening to Christmas music right now. Instead I'm listening to "Where them girls at?" by David Guetta ft Nicki Minaj and "Pretty Girls" by Iyaz and okay, my friend Paige is in this song twice. No not literally, but its like, "And I heard ain't nothing like a Cali girl but you'd better have a lot of cash....And I know ain't nothing like them Lon-don girls 'cause they know how to party oh!" So basically this song was written about Paige. Nothing about Baltimore or DC girls though. Umm rude. We're important and cool too!

~ Read The Economist cover to cover. My parents totally got it for me for my birthday. Best parents ever! And not just because of that. I totally went on a walk with them this morning (they forced me out of bed) but it was fun! I really like talking to my parents. They are more like friends now, which is very nice I think :)

~ Read an encyclopedia. I don't careee if you think i'm a nerd. I LIKE encyclopedias. In fact, here is what I said about them once to my friend Paige....

"When i was a but a young lass, and had to look things up in encyclpedias for school assignments and such, i would have but one wish in my heart, and that would be if only i could stay there forever, just reading..reading..readddin​g from that wealth of knowledge. it was a wonderful thing. i loved it. but of course i could not, and would have to go back to class. i would put down the encyclopedia, but it was never too far from my thoughts. i dreamed of a world where i could just sit and read one to my hearts content, and at last such a world is available to me! the worlddd of my off-track :)"

~ Become an animal expert. Maybe I should just tackle one animal at a time. Last night I learned about Bull sharks, River sharks, Ganges sharks, and saltwater crocodiles. They are scary! All of them. Megh.

~ Make nice with the birdies. Today is going well. They were all mean and acting like I was a stranger when I came home. Today we played like we used to so I think they're starting to remember me if they had actually forgotten, so that's good.

~ Become bffs with Philip when he gets home from his mission

~ Keep my room clean

~ Send a Christmas package to Sam-a-dingle-pop

~ Come up with even awesomer nicknames than the one above. Is it possible? Find out!

~ Read the Bible dictionary. I've always really liked it, so reading it should be fun.

~ Visit Seul at least once up at NYU. Eep!

~ Be a happy helper

~ Pay tithing on time. Blessings! Tithing is seriously one of my favorite gospel principles. I keep waiting to be asked to give a talk about it because I am so friggin delighted by it. It's just so cut and dry- If you pay your tithing you get blessings. That simple! I love it. I alwaysss see blessings from paying tithing. And quite promptly too. It's awesome. I have such a testimony of tithing. I lovee it.

I think this is a nice list. I would get started right away, but unfortunately I am plagued with really weird insomnia because I have been having nightmares! I NEVER have nightmares. I had like, one when I went to college, and even that was weird because it's been years. But I've had at least three since I've been home less than a week. So rude what's up with that. I don't like them. Heather interpreted them for me and I feel a little better, but still. So I'm tired and it's daytime so I think I might nap.

Dear Suitcases,

Close. And be under 50 pounds each or start doing some sit-ups or something because I MUST HAVE EVERY LAST THING that I stuffed so unceremoniously inside.

Dear Paige,

You're such a doll. Thanks for taking all my chicago. Enjoy the cocomotion!

Dear Hermione,

Teach me that shrinking things spell. Immediately.

Dear US Postal Service,

I am your new priority. Deliver all my letters exactly when I want them. Or die.

Dear "defying gravity," "only hope," and whatever else,

NEVER AGAIN will my ears be subjected to such talent. I will not cry.

Dear Soap,

It's nice that you want me to be clean for the next forever, but I cannot pack you. Accept this and stop reproducing so I can finish you off before I leave in less than 12 hours.

Dear AmFounda,

HA! Attendance smah-smendance. SAY HELLO TO A "B" SUCKERS.

Love,

10% attendance and no notetaking. Is this really a college class??

Dear Purseman,

No, you're just a sore loser powerfreak who can't accept other people's opinions, even if they woulddd fit into your 20 minute meetings. So stop dropping my grade by 3% every time I open my mouth and succeed in shutting yours.

Dear Dorms,

Ohhh it's been fun, but I'm so excited to be leaving you.

Dear Sabie baby,

Start working honeybear! I neeeeedd you to feel better so I can drive you around and play with my friends when I get home!

Dear family,

I AM SO EXCITED TO SEE YOU!

Dear dumb youth conference boys who are ruining my homecoming,

Make yourselves useful and fix my car.

Dear Chloe and Elle,

Soon you can sing me songs of joy! Hope you've been practicing! :)

Dear GINA,

he-llooo miss bffaeae! I can-NOT wait to playyy with you! <3

Dear Enemnenily and Dam,

I mighttt miss you a wee bit..

Dear Alyssa,

I LOVE going to the temple with youu!! I'm glad we became better friends this semester :)

Dear Jenn,

THANK YOU SO MUCH for taking all my food :) You're an angel :)

Dear Kathyrn, Jessica, Rachel, and Rebecca,

Aww :( I miss you already :(

Dear Heather and roommates,

Y'all made my life on several occasions. I hope our Death Marks stay there forever. As a warning.

Dear Pat and Dave,

Visit mehhh.

Dear Holly, Heather and Ashley,

Alto party part 2 pleaseandthanks??

Dear Chels,

Please let's go make David Shea's life. And Keith (is that who you said forever ago???)

Dear Jenna and Zoe,

Can we PLEASE watch "10 Things I Hate about You"?? FINALLY?!?!?!

Dear Molly,

DFSHGIHERIGH FIVE YEARS! Let's do this thing!

Dear Shannon,

Playwithmeallthetimepleaseee.

Dear Sara,

I am much too popular for my good. I neeeddd my bodyguard.

Dear Primary Class,

Sooo excited to see your beautiful faces! I've missed you sooo much! <3

Dear BYU-I,

SEEYA.

Dear Semester,

I am thoroughly sick of you.

Dear Idaho,

Your weather is for CRAP. What the whattt is UP with this wind??? Excuse you. I would likee to go to devo without being worried for my modesty thankyouverymuch.

Dear Roommates,

Holy cow what the crap is wrong with this apartment?? Two of you, thanks for keep me sane. Or happily insane. One of you?? Ohhh what I would do if I had no conscience....


Dear Daddy,
You are the nicest daddy ever! I miss you <3


Dear family!
Y'all so funny! I miss you a lot all the time.

Dear Kathryn,

I LOVE YOU. You are the light of my life :)

Dear Ehm.,

Why are you sucking so much lately? Hurting. Mad.

Dear Gina,

Blahhh I want to be home with youuu :( All I want is to have sleepovers and bake cookies and watch Arthur and make panera/subway/qdoba/chipotle runs with you :( when I have money....

Dear job of the summer,

Please come immediately and be fun and interesting and well paying. I really need you.


Dear JVLC,
Never talk to me again. Ever. No, I really mean it.


Dear dishwasher,
I am so done playing nice with you. You will work, or I will throw you out the window in a fit of rage.

Dear Julie,
Graduate and get yo butt out here. A piece of my heart is missing :(

Dear Sabie Baby,

How I miss you cutest car ever :(

Dear Ricks building,

Oh hayy up there. I'm just gonna be frank, you can either move down that awful hill, or BYU-I can have a ski lift installed, bc I refuse to deal with you as often as I should.

Dear Am Founda class,

I promise I like you, but you're in the Ricks and entirely too early. Plus, sometimes I want to fall asleep in you. But I like the friends I make in there if that helps :)

Dear Humanities,

Thanks for being so interesting and Bro Stephenson, you are so super entertaining :) Your class is the bom.com. Sorry for nodding off like woah last class. And oh heyy thanks for giving me my birthday off :)

Dear all songs I'm obsessed with,

I just can't get enough of your extra terrestrial stuttering. Feel me?

Dear Obama,

Bring back the funding for state parks. I miss Blue Knob.

Dear Shannon,

Hey boo :( You sad, huh? Call me anytime love <3

Dear Shawn Spencer,

I am in love with you. Marry me immediately.

Dear Michelle, Kara, and Paige,

I miss my Winter Semester girls :(

Dear bad hair days that I keep having to deal with,

I will cut you.

Dear time,

Fast forward a year and a half.

Dear Heather, Kelly, and Julie,

I see you so soon! I miss you sisters <3

Dear billionaires out there,

I am the best charity ever. Please bestow your life savings upon me, an extremely worthy recipient.

Dear crystal ball,

I kinda want to know my future. I'll let you figure that out while I find one of you. Be ready. I want DETAILS.

Dear Sam, Matthew, and Cory,

You're almost on your missions :) Cali, Madagascar, and Brazil hollaaa at you boys. I think you'll be wonderful missionaries :)

Dear Self,

If right now is any indication, you need more beauty sleep. I'm sorry, just being honest.

Dear clothes,

You don't mind when I don't match you right? You all like each other yeah?

Dear Ben&Jerry's,

And they sell you at the MC Market whyyy??? I wish I'd never known this. I am a teenage girl!

Dear life,

Chin up, yeah? <3