Happy 4th of July!

I had a great weekend, how was yours? I had Friday off of work so instead of sleeping in I went with Marissa to see the hot air balloon deal for Provo's Freedom Festival. It was pretty sweet. And we ran into Julia, Scott, and Maren from the old ward. We hung out and then went to get Kneader's all you can eat french toast for breakfast. Delicious! I then had a most relaxing day. I napped, made an awesome sandwich for lunch, strolled the freedom festival and saw some pretty cool stuff. Dinner was a BBQ in Bountiful for my cousin Eliza's birthday and then I went to my good friend Kira's birthday where we played the card game scum, I did a Happy Birthday interpretive dance with my bubble wand, we had bubble races, sparklers and set things on fire like flour and hand sanitizer. The only low point of the weekend was all of the crazy people camped out on University Ave the whole night. I don't get it, it's just a parade. These crazy people started saving spots at like noon the day before. You'd think they were giving away money or something. We also had two port-o-potties placed in front of my apartment complex. Lovely. Anyway, just having all those people outside made me nervous. Then I went to a rockin' dance party and went to sleep.

The next day I was awaken by cannon fire. Yep, it's true. Then I went out to watch the parade, and had a pretty good view. I didn't even camp out. I chilled some more, went swimming, did another BBQ where we played croquet, and then went to watch fireworks. Fireworks were a lot of fun but kind of lacking. Afterward, we had a ward bonding massage session and then I sat in traffic for awhile waiting to get home. Melanie kindly came with me and we rocked out to Beyonce and Hannah Montana (I cannot get enough of Beyonce's "Halo"). I also celebrated by watching the movie 1776 about the Declaration of Independence. It's rather corny but it does have a young Mr. Pheney from Boy Meets World portraying John Adams. I felt rather patriotic. After all of this, I still have 5 boxes of sparklers and one entire cake to use up.

I love the 4th of July! It's the middle of summer, BBQs are awesome, you can swim, or do anything to celebrate our nation's independence. My favorite part is fireworks. Here is my confession: It has long been my secret desire to watch fireworks with a boy. I think it would be one of the most romantical things ever. It hasn't happened yet but someday. There you have it.

I love being American and having the chance to live in this free country and all of the blessings that come with it. I am proud of the United States' heritage and that we get to celebrate!

Happy 4th!

Washington Girl

I am a true Washingtonian. Besides all the rain the state is also known for great agriculture. Apples, cherries, alfalfa, wheat, asparagus and probably more. Living so close to great food has affected my tastes. I am kind of a snob about apples. (PS. they stink in UT). And I am craving Rainier cherries. Last year my sister brought a huge bag home from work from a lady who lived on an orchard. It was like three pounds for free. I haven't seen any in the stores yet. Just the Bing variety-named for Bing Crosby, because he is from Spokane WA. Maybe a farmer's market will have them. Rainer cherries will be the perfect compliment to summertime!

Summertime

This has been waiting a long time to get put up. I should be asleep right now but I need to get this out there...

To do this summer:
Reading program at the Provo Library
Farmer's Market
Sunflower Market
Go to a rodeo
Watch fireworks
Color Me Mine
See Harry Potter at midnight
Watch ABDC
Write my play
Work on photography
Find a concert to go to-Shaun Barrowes/Truman. (Although I would love to go to Bumbershoot in Seattle Sept. 5 & 6 to see Eric Hutchinson and Jason Mraz.)
Go home/see Stephen before he goes to med school
Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house
Go iceblocking
See "Singing in the Rain" at Hale Center Theater
Go to the Hogle Zoo in SLC

To read this summer:
Sense and Sensibility-Jane Austen
Emma-Jane Austen
Northanger Abbey-Jane Austen
Persuasion-Jane Austen (I thought I'd finish all her books)
A New England Yankee in King Arthur's Court-Mark Twain
Everything is Illuminated-Jonathan Safran Foer
In a Gilded Cage-Rhys Bowen
A Royal Pain-Rhys Bowen
Royal Flush-Rhys Bowen
Murder on Waverly Place-Victoria Thompson
Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince-J.K. Rowling
An Unlikely Friendship-Ann Rinaldi
Serendipity-Louise Shaffer
Among the Mad-Jacquline Winspear
Birds of a Feather-Jacquline Winspear

To see this summer:
Center Stage 2
The Ballet Shoes
Iron Man
The Tale of Dexpereaux
Noah Wylie Librarian movie
Confessions of a Shopaholic
17 Again
Hannah Montana: The Movie
The Proposal
Night at the Museum II
Star Trek
Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince
500 Days of Summer
The Ugly Truth
Adam
Sherlock Holmes-(Doesn't come out until Christmas but has Jude Law as Watson).

Feel free to borrow any ideas or suggest some...I hope I get them all done, it would be a great summer!

Stay Tuned

Sometimes I get these random visions for party themes and then I have a great time organizing them. For example: Cookout-Freezout (this one didn't happen), Pi day (three years running), my 20th birthday dance party complete with zebra pinata, Salad Palooza, Cafe Rio party, 21st birthday Luau, Jenn's Bachelorette party, and 22nd birthday Pannini party.


Currently working on: garden party, Jenn's farewell party, and Harry Potter #6 Release party. Going to be out of control. I love planning.

Salad Palooza

20th B-day dance party

Monica's 20th b-day, I make good ambience

21st b-day Luau

"Pi" day 2008

Jenn's bachelorette party

22nd Paninni b-day

UP

I went and saw "UP" today and loved it! I don't think Pixar can do anything wrong. One of the funniest moments was during the credits when I heard a guy in the theater say, "Oh, are you supposed to wear the glasses?!" I giggled at the thought of him struggling through the whole movie and wondering why it was blurry. And since when did movies get so expensive? I paid eleven dollars to see this movie. I guess it was to pay for the 3D glasses but seriously, I only do the dollar theater. Except for Harry Potter. But go see "UP", very good.

Unrelated: I can't wait for Fall Semester so that all of my ward moves out and I get new peeps. I know this sounds uncharitable but there is so much drama going on with all the people that have been in the ward forever. And if you know me, I don't do drama.

Apologies for excessive use of italization, Or is it italisization? Whatever.

Don't...

...Eat peanut butter toast in bed.
...Agree to babysit mosquitoes for the weekend.

Trust me.

"If the good Lord had intended us to walk he wouldn't have invented roller skates."

This line from Willy Wonka explains how I feel about transportation today. I only have a bike. So I get to ride it everywhere. School, work, the grocery store, etc. Now while I am thankful that I have a bicycle and don't have to pay for gas and insurance, get exercise and don't pollute the environment, it is getting really old. This is my second summer getting to work on my bike. Most of the time it's ok, but then there are the days where I'm too tired to ride my bike home or I can't buy all the groceries I need at one time because I can't get them home. Or like today, where it rained and made my bike wet which doesn't help it's performance. Now the chain is doing funny things, the brakes squeal when I press them and the seat keeps slipping down which makes it hard to pedal. I shouldn't complain. At least I have a bike and I don't have to walk. But I just need it to not rain anymore. At least until July when I get to borrow my sister's car for 2 1/2 weeks.