The Circus

I somehow have made it 22 years and never been to the circus. So when my roommate saw a tiny little sign that the circus was coming to town we HAD to go! We were so excited! Once I rode an elephant but that was about as close as I have been to the circus.
They even had white tigers! I have never seen a white tiger before and it are beautiful! They even have them jump through a ring of fire!
They had tight rope walkers that were pretty amazing!
They even had a black bear!
They saved the best for last: the ELEPHANTS! I have a dream to one day ride an elephant in Sri Lanka someday.

I am not sure why but I love elephants but I do and I was very pleased to see all the tricks they could do! After seeing all of the animals at the the fun things the circus has, I wonder why I went to college and didn't just join the circus? Well I can't drop out now so I will enjoy doing what I do but I will make sure the circus happens more often!

On the Home Stretch

I am two weeks in to my LAST SEMESTER of college! I can't believe there is actually and end and it is actually near! From today is is actually 97 days away! I never really thought this day would come to I don't really have an actual plan for what is next. I know where I will be for the summer and I know I will be doing an internship in the fall. These internship programs are definitely teaching me patience. I won't find out where I get accepted or where I am going until the second and third week of June. I have always been a planner, especially a long term planner. Even if it isn't a sure thing I feel safe in having some kind of plan. I do know that I will be living in at least 3 different states in the next year and that is definitely exciting! But for now I am going to try to get past the senioritis and focus on the home stretch!

Dreams do come true!

I think about it every day, wishing that someday it would happen. Well it finally has. I made the choice and I said YES! So..the end of April or first part of May, we haven't decided the exact day yet, I will be...
I am moving back to this beautiful place! I got a job yesterday and will be there the end of April! I didn't know if I was ever going to make it back but there was no reason to be in Provo anymore and I might as well get a job where I want to be. So earlier this week I was looking up internships and thought about nanny jobs. I guess having a big family comes in handy for experience sometimes. I had an interview an hour after I applied and less than a week later I was offered a job. The family is very nice and accommodating and they are having their very first baby in March. It is a little girl and I will care for her three days a week. It is not very hard to watch a newborn and I am excited to spend time with this cute little girl. But most of all I am excited to be back in the city of my dreams!

Holiday Cooking!

I love to cook! I love to bake! I love to can! I even don't mind doing dishes much as long as I enjoyed making something with those dishes. I don't have much time to cook during the semesters and my kitchen, which is semi mobile and moves with me and semesters or years go by. So when I go home I like to get creative or at least cook things I don't have time to. My sister also likes being in the kitchen as well and over the holidays we cooked a lot and love to all be in the kitchen together. There are a few of the fun things we have made recently. Let me know if you want any of the recipes!
My sister's perogies from scratch. Pasta as from scratch too! (She's amazing!!)
Yummy bruschetta!
My brownie batter pancakes! I am secretly not really a fan of chocolate but if you have to eat chocolate this is a way to go!
Again my sister's pasta from scratch. It was a special kind of pasta but I don't exactly remember..but it was really good!

Post 21 No Junk-food Challenge

So I just finished my 21 day No junk-food challenge and... I LOVED it! The first couple days were hard because one, I realized all my snack stuff was on the list and two, I think I was having sugar withdrawals. I don't eat a lot of sugar anyway but since it was Halloween time and there were loads of candy everywhere! So after the first few days of getting used to the idea of not eating pretty much any sweets I really started to enjoy it. I could tell I felt better when I didn't eat all the junk and you know what? I actually noticed that after about a week and a half or two weeks I was losing weight! My exercise regimen hadn't changed. It mostly consists of yoga and a run or two a week. So without any change in that and just a slight change in diet I was definitely losing weight! I was pleased with that and I was feeling even better and could focus more! So in all the only thing I would change would be to get healthy snacks to replace my habit of bad ones. I liked how I felt so much that I decided that I want to do this for 21 days out of every month. I think it is a little unrealistic to do it every single day, especially the white bread part. (I think the hardest time I had during the whole thing was going to Texas Roadhouse and not being able to eat the dinner rolls, it was moderate torture!) So I am going to start every month and if I need to take a day off here and there it is okay as long as I get my 21 days in somewhere during the month. And if I get them all done early I will have a whole chunk of days at the end. Hopefully how good I feel during the first part of the month will help me stay away from the junk the rest of the month. So Beka and I won the costume contest at the party we went to on Halloween so at midnight of the last day of our challenge we stayed up until midnight so we could eat our Snickers bar! Enjoy our midnight pictures with the candy bar!


*Disclaimer: These pictures were taken at midnight and we were just excited to be finished and not concerned about looking great!

Birthday Number Twenty-two!

I can't believe I am 22! I had a pretty great day. Being in school the third week of November seems to be a midterm week as well. It is the week before Thanksgiving so it seems to always be filled with school work. This day was no different. I woke up at 4:30 in the morning to get up and work on a paper. It was due that afternoon and I had been so busy with other school assignments I just started on it. I worked all morning and took a little break to go to lunch with Beka at the Skyroom. It's the nicest place to eat on campus and you get a free meal for your birthday!

Then I went back to work and finished it as quickly as I could so I could go shopping for a new outfit! I got done and Beka and I went to the mall and spent a while there and then picked up some things at the grocery store for the fondue party later. Beka was kind enough to make me a cake and we decided we should just use all the candles I had in the drawer. It made quite the flames!

It has been a year full of wonderful times and better than I could possibly have imagined! Thank you to all my wonderful friends who joined me for the party and all of those who have made this last year better than I could have ever imagined!
The whole day ended perfectly, 22 hours later! :)

21st Year in Review

The last year has been an incredible year! I have been so blessed with so many opportunities and experiences I couldn't possibly cover them all. So in celebrations of being 22 tomorrow I will list the top 22 things that happened in the last year:
1. Women's Conference (I just realized I haven't blogged about it so I will be doing that soon!)
2. Becoming an aunt to Traygen James
3. My best friend leaving on his mission.
4.Two of my best friends getting married.
5. Moving to Washington D.C.!
6. Interning at Children's National Medical Center
7. Outer Banks, North Carolina
8. Seeing Wicked at the Kennedy Center
9. Starting my final year of college!
10. Seeing Les Miserables at the Kennedy Center
11. Fun Halloween Costumes!
12. My sister visiting me out in D.C.
13. Traygen's baby blessing.
14. Talking to my brother via Skype on Mother's Day
15. Speaking at Women's Conference
16. Meeting various general authorities
17. Learning lessons and loving my patients at Children's.
18. Meeting my nephew for the first time.
19. Having lunch with the government relations director of Occidental Petroleum at the Oval Room.
20. First trip day trip to Denver (Hopefully it will be the next place I call home.)
21. Jimmer!
22. Living the best year full of countless opportunities and blessings. Some days I think I could not be more blessed and each day brings more