summer [over]

It seems like just yesterday I was writing about how horrible my first day of college was. Remember that? Cause I sure do. Worst day of my life so far.
Tomorrow I start my second year of college. Uhhhh WHAT? I can't believe how fast time passes and how fast things change. I sure hope that this week goes a whole lot smoother, cause I don't have a cute guy to bring me a Blizzard after a crappy day. He's most definitely married now. Ha!

This morning I got back from a much too short visit to Kansas to see my sister Kristin and her family. We went to the Keith Urban concert (which gave me an excuse to fly out there), went to see The Help, made a visit to the Farmer's Market, ate at Bobo's, saw a sweet Lego exhibit, did some shopping and ate a lot of junk. It was the perfect ending to my summer and it was so fun to see her and her family and their cute new house.

BUT now it's back to reality and it's now the day before the first day of school. Even after 14 years of first days, I still feel the same nervous/excited/dreading feeling I get every year.
"Ohhhh back to school, back to school...to prove to dad that I am not a fool. I got my lunch packed up, my boots tied tight. I hope I don't get in a fight! Ohhhh back to school....back to school.....back..to...school."
Here goes nothin'.

Concert #1: Brad Paisley

This is THE cutest video of all time...and I believe I am going to see this guy (minus Andy Griffith, add David Archuleta) tomorrow night.

It's okay to be jealous.

The News.

Guess whaaaaat guys?! I'm almost positive nobody reads this, but for whoever does, I thought I'd share some exciting news. I made it into my first real art show outside of high school! Cool, eh? The Williams Fine Art Gallery put on a competition for the U and out of it they are making an all student art show in October. I entered 4 pieces and 3 of them will be showing at the gallery in about 4 months! I'm suuuper excited :) That's all.

"All I know is, if you don't figure out this something, you'll just stay ordinary, and it doesn't matter if its a work of art or a taco, or a pair of socks! Just create something... new, and there it is, and it's you, out in the world, outside of you and you can look at it, or hear it, or read it, or feel it... and you know a little more about... you. A little bit more than anyone else does."

-Holly Kennedy (P.S. I Love You)

"[Growing] up is hard to do.."

Last week I texted my brother and said, "Guess what...you've been graduated for 10 years." His response? "Shutty." How weird is that?

I was just thinking about how I've been graduated for a whole year and how crazy that seems. This time last year seemed like the most stressful thing EVER. Studying for AP tests, taking AP tests, filling out scholarship applications, applying for different colleges, recovering from the drama of prom, planning out my summer, and deciding which school to go to. I thought deciding which school to go to was the hardest decision I'd ever make. Uhhh what did I think deciding a major would be like? This is my dilemma now....a year later.

Right now I'm an Art Education major at the U, and it's hard but I love it and love everything I've learned so far. Do I really want to be a high school teacher...?

Since I was like 10, I've wanted to be a cosmetologist. Lately I've been thinking about being an esthetician. Forget my scholarship at the U and go to SLCC?

I had a conversation with a friend the other day about how being a wedding planner would be completely rad. Forget my year full of art classes and switch to a major in Family and Consumer Studies?

SO MANY CHOICES. Growing up is complicated.

Summer of Concerts...coming soon.

It all started with the King and Queen, George and Reba. Probably one of the best concerts I've ever been to in my life. I bought my parents' tickets for my mom's birthday, and my sister in law bought my brother tickets for his birthday. So even if you think I'm a loser for going to a country concert with my parents, it was a blast.
Starting on July 2nd at the Stadium of Fire with Brad Paisley and David Archuleta, that will begin the summer of concerts. The week after that, July 9th, is Kenny Chesney...the king of concerts. A month later on August 6th is Tim McGraw. Then a couple weeks later I'll be flying out to Kansas City to go see Keith Urban with my midwestern sister :) I literally cannot wait for this summer to start.

Flowers from Brazil

The other day at work, I called home to my dad and this was our conversation...
"Dad, can you throw a burger on for me?"
"Sure. Umm...did you order flowers?"
"Uh, no."
"Well there's some flowers here for ya I guess."
"Really!? Who are they from?"
"I have no idea...but they're here."
I come home and open a package with a gorgeous bouquet of roses from 1-800-Flowers.

Turns out they came from Brazil :)

Trip to Springville

Announcement: my sister Amy and I are now going into wedding cake business.
A few weeks ago, I went down to Springville to help her with a wedding cake for a girl in her ward. Turns out we are pretty dang good at it. At the wedding, she had multiple people ask her how much she charged for a cake. We have another cake planned for June. You can call me Cake Boss.
Also, that weekend happened to be the same weekend as the Festival of Colors in Spanish Fork. My friend Coleman came down to come with me, and we met my best friend Tory there with her boyfriend, Marcus. It was insanity. After showing my dad the pictures, he thought I went to Woodstock.

Minute to Win It

So I'm getting ready for school one morning...late as usual. I'm listening to K-Bull 93 and doing my hair just like every morning. They announce, "Minute to Win It tryouts are coming to Utah this Saturday! Call in now and we'll take the first 3 callers to win VIP tickets to the front of the line!" I think to myself...."That would be the coolest thing I've ever done by far, but I don't have time...I'll make both me and Catherine late. Meh. What the heck." and I called in. I was one of the first three and they told me to get a glass of water and then put me on hold. They put us all on the air, live, and told us we had to gargle the ABC's in one minute to get tickets. (P.S. I dare you to try this....it's harder than it sounds). So even though there was some dumb girl who didn't do it..."What are we doing? We're gargling? When do we start? What's going on?!?" we all won VIP tickets to the front of the line at tryouts. I took my personal cousin, Kate, with me. It was quite the adventure. Right as we parked, we start walking to the building and I realized I locked my keys in my car....great. So we both called our trusty dad's and decided to wait til we were done to worry about it. The tryouts took about 15 minutes and all we had to do was talk about ourselves for 30 seconds....since neither of us got call backs, we think they didn't really like us. But it was still one of the most random things I've ever done in my life and it was a blast.
P.S. Kate's dad came after and rescued us. Just in case you were wondering.

Typical Thursday...

Not for me.

So, today I was thinking. Weird, right? Anyway, I have liked a lot of guys in my lifetime...and somehow a lot of guys have liked me. Most of them have given me lots of good memories and good times to look back on, but there are a few that just make me so mad. Let me tell you a story, just for a good example.
This summer I went out with a friend of a friend, which may or may not have been on the 4th of July. I had a blast! He was so much fun and we had a great time together. So I went out with him again. When I told my mom about it, she said to me, "He just got back from his mission...he's looking for a wife." HA HA HA. Me, marriage? I thought it was hilarious how she would think for a second I would succumb to the white dress. I just wanted to have fun. So we dated for about 3 1/2 months and we had some good times! Then all the sudden he decides to break it off because I didn't want the relationship to move to marriage. Yikes. Dodged a bullet on that one. BUT then he has to be a butt about it and totally ignore me when I see him, delete/untag all pictures of us on Facebook, and be a total jerk to me about it after. That, my friends, just makes mad. Most people say you can't be "just friends" after a relationship, but I see it very possible. He could have been a very good friend, but he had to go and ruin it. Bummer.
I could share lots of similar stories, but I'll leave it at that. I could also tell endless stories of horrible dates, but what if someone reading knows about the date? So I'd just like to share part of the song, "Not for Me" by Marshall Crenshaw:

"Yeah I know what happened last time
And someday you'll wake up to find that
You've be waiting around for something
You'll never see
I don't have to wonder I know definitely
That it's just not for me
So I know what not to do
Cause I learned from you
I feel sorry for you
And I hope that someday I can thank you"

So that's what I want to do. Say thank you to every guy I have ever dated that has either treated me right or been a jerk. You've made me stronger and smarter and I know a little bit more about what to do next time around.