End of an Era

I have been working for the Office of IT at BYU for three years. I have been working here since the first day of my classes at BYU and I can't think of my BYU experience without it. Although I wasn't too sad to end classes for a year and a half, leaving my job is a tear filled experience. I love the people, the environment, helping people on the phone and face to face. Everything about it, the experiences it has given me to grow and to learn and to become a better employee, a better student, and an overall better person. But since my mom doesn't want me to come back after my trip to Kentucky, then today must be my last day.



Good bye many long years of fun, fashion, and fones.

The fourth of Gorillas?

What is more patriotic than a Harley covered in sheep skin, saddle bags, and toting a gorilla topped trailer?

The answer: nothing.

Tahitian me Noni

A few weekends ago Kevin played piano at Tahition Noni. It was a beautiful performance and I got to wander around the gardens.

I decided that when I get back from my mission and especially when I am married and have some sort of land to my name, I want to have a beautiful garden full of trees, hidden benches and retreats and some sort of water source.

Doesn't it sound enchanting?

Kevin was also amazing on the piano.

Funny Face

Sometimes you just have to let loose, stuff your face with cherry tomatoes and let go.

Even if it seems a little scandalous.

Happy food

I love eating food. On Friday I invited my gorgeous friend Autumn over and we ended up making delicious food. Here are our left overs.

Does parsley just make you want to smile?



Kevin's plate wasn't nearly as happy to be finished.

Birthdays and Creativity

My co-worker found out that I like to decorate cakes so he asked if I would make one for his wife's birthday. He wanted pink cream cheese frosting with white icing for the writing. It was a lot of fun and I learned what not to do when making cream cheese frosting. I.e. don't melt the cream cheese beforehand, once you lose the consistency, it is gone. F-O-R-E-V-E-R.

Also, Kevin, with the best of intentions, made an entire bed of frosting leaves for the strawberries. I'm not sure how I feel about them, but they are good, just a little funny looking.

I bet Stephanie was so happy.

Did I mention that it is double layer cake and that I filled it with the cream cheese filling and cut up strawberries. Mmmm, I hope it tastes good. I probably ate at least a cup worth of frosting making this and if that is any indication, then it will be amazing.

Cutie for the pot

Sometimes I forget just how nice Kevin is. Yesterday though I was reminded why I like him so much.

I had to call my internet provider in order to cancel our service as they are charging us an arm and a leg and it is under someone else's name. However, it took a while to go through all of the explaining and transferring from office to office and so I took off my shoes while I was sitting in Kevin's car, kicking them onto the grass while I waited. When I finally finished I shut the door and we drove off to my next appointment.

We drove into the parking lot, I started to get out of the car, and low and behold, MY SHOES WERE GONE! I had left them in the grass and I didn't have time to both go back and get them and run this errand. So Kevin selflessly gave me the shoes off his feet and I walked around looking slightly like a clown until he brought me back my shoes. It was a wonderfully kind thing to do.


Then after my long day at work when I was tired and hungry, he came over with a load of my laundry that he had cleaned and beautiful flowers. He knows that since my floral design class that I have a love of flowers, especially exotic looking ones. So he brought me some myrtus, delphinium and a stem of orchid. Aren't they beautiful?

Autobiography 7: Pig tails

My hair and I have always had to struggle to get along. I am inclined to like it, I want to love the way it curls or the way it falls around my shoulders and the way it emphasizes my face, but it doesn't actually do any of those things, and it is ever so rebellious.

Exhibit A (I am the one in the front):



When I was little my mother would always talk about how it was a rat's nest, but much to my dismay, there never were any animals who came to make it their home (except lice every few years from school). She tried many tactics to get me to brush my nest, but my favorite was once when she bought me my very own brush and said that I could keep it if I would brush my hair until it was "as soft as a bunny".

I struggled with it in Middle School and often we became friends, but only because neither of us had anyone else. It would help me hide myself and I would retreat behind its stringy blonde locks. Like myself, I couldn't look at it too long before I felt ashamed. But it was just part of who I was.

Exhibit B:


In High School I said good bye to its length. Things look different when your eyes aren't blocked by hair. Your face has to make a name for itself and you are suddenly seen. It was a reverse Samson effect and I suddenly felt power, strength, and flirtatiousness flowing through me. And let me tell you, I was hot to trot. I wore cat ears, clothing purchased from D.I., scarves in the summer, ties, rain boots, and anything else that you can imagine. I was proud and my hair and I finally began to become friends.



It still has its rebellious days when it tries to tell me that it wants attention, maybe a hair cut, some product, or something else to keep it happy. But overall, I have learned to really enjoy my hair and what it can do for my face. Recently my favorite thing has been pig tails. It always reminds me of Penny from the Rescuers, which was one of my favorite childhood movies.


It made me want gingersnaps (which I had never had before) and it fed my desire for small creatures to live in my hair. So now every time I pull my hair back it is not just to get it out of my face, it is not just a hair-do, it is a memory. It is a return to childhood and a desire to be young again, but this time to do it right.

Let the Preparation begin

I have been preparing for my mission for a while now, but since classes ended this week and I took my last final last night, I can now really focus on mission things. I have already packed all my belongings into my room and am in the process of getting them in boxes for storage at my mother's house. I am quite excited and have been reading through Preach My Gospel, the D&C and also watching YouTube videos on the Korean alphabet.

Autobiography 6: A Few of my favorite things

I love a lot of things and the ever growing list is much to big to contain here or anywhere else. Periodically I will make a new list because I love making lists, here's one for now:

• Watermelon, mangoes, kumquats, Croatia, fruit in general
I have always loved eating sweet things and fruit is definitely sweet. On my trip to to Eastern Europe I spent the most enjoyable moments of it gallivanting around looking for fruit trees. My step-mom Natasha understands my love of fresh things and would often make my dad pull off to the side of the road so we could pick pomegranates and olives. (Fresh olives are NOT on this list)

• budgeting, finance books, conferences on money
Something about money and reading about money and talking about money is just titillating. I think a lot of it has to do with how infrequently any of that happened growing up and how little any of this ever happened. I suppose now it is more like a hidden art that I love to learn and to budget and to plan is just exciting.

• taking typing tests and getting paid
While at work one morning one of my coworkers showed me this neat online free typing test and somehow it became really addicting to type things and to try to improve my typing abilities. It also reminds me of just how often I use the back space button, it is definitely my best friend. If I am allowed to use it, I can get pretty good accuracy on things, otherwise I am basically doomed. I also participated in a study where they had us do typing tests and we got paid more for the faster and more accurately that we typed. I got $14 out of a possible $15. Not to brag, but I've got skills.


• going on road trips with good music
There's nothing like an open road with an open bag of snacks and some good music playing in your ears. It's like a movie with accompanying sound track, except, you're IN IT. When I read "Xen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" I remember how the narrator lamented the fact that most people when they go on road trips don't really experience it. He likened driving in a car to watching a movie, although you are driving past things, it is still so disconnected, seen through a square box, without you feeling the wind or the bugs or the proximity of your body to the road. When I go on road trips though, I roll down the window and I let it all in then I blare the music and let it all out again.

• hammocks
One summer when I lived in a house without air conditioning (which has actually happened every summer since I've lived in Provo) I found out that hammocks are a joy. I would go out and sleep in it at night and I loved it. Of course, some how it would always get freezing cold and then the strings would dig into my back. Hammocks though are a great joy, they are like swings, but for adults.


• otter pops
I am addicted. There is no other way to really explain this. I once bought a box of 500 and by the next day there were only green and purple left (I don't eat green and purple). Basically this means that in the course of a day I had somehow consumed at least 450 otter pops. It was amazing. I still don't know how it happened.

• the smell of water on the pavement
Growing up, I loved playing in the rain. There is something very comforting about warm water pouring down over you while you lay down and let it soak all in. Also it means that you can stomp around in the mud and let it squish between your toes and not even worry about it. So now to smell water on pavement brings me back to my childhood and is very nostalgic.

Laughing, but not sleeping

People are not pokeman, you can't catch them all. But sometimes I revert to the antics of a 6 year old and all I want is more. I can't decide so I hold on to everything with all I have. Give it up? Never.