Baking Abilities

For Kurt's birthday a few weeks ago I promised to bake a chocolate cake with a palm tree on top...the tree looked pretty cool, but the cake I made from scratch tasted a little iffy...
Tyler's birthday was last friday and we had a party for him sunday night. I was asked to provide the cake once again and I was determined to make it better than the last one! I decided on a usual favorite, Skor cake (some people know it by a different name which I will not mention because my blog is G-rated) and it turned out so yummy!!! I was really excited and everyone seemed to enjoy it...the whole cake was gone by the end of the night! I've been asked to make it again before the end of July for a certain person who is abandoning us, but I won't mention names :)

Memorial Day

Ok, so it's been a few days since Memorial Day, but I wanted to write about it anyway...
Tradition is that whenever there is a holiday on a monday I organize a breakfast for my friends. The general location is IHop in Riverdale because it is the closest for everyone. Monday there were more people than usual and it was so much fun! We had breakfast and talked for about an hour and a half. It was good to see old friends I haven't seen in a while and to have good times with friends I see all the time. After breakfast I came home and worked for a little bit (not too long because I couldn't stand sitting at a computer on my day off). I really, really wanted to go running but weather was not permitting. So I decided to get ready for the day just when the clouds disappeared...oh well! Later that night I went to a bbq party at Derek's house and it was a lot of fun getting to meet new people and hanging out with Rex and Shina! I got home pretty late and failed to inform worriers of my arrival, but all in all it was a great day!

Girls' Night Out!

At least once a month (usually more often than that) my girl friends and I get together for dinner and awesome conversation. Last night we decided to try Jeremiah's on 12th street by the freeway. The service for a group of 13 people wasn't too great, fairly slow actually, but the food was pretty good and the company was way too much fun! We talked about everything from guys to accidentally running into cars when we weren't paying attention to walking through wet cement. I love going out to dinner with these girls...we have so much fun and it gives everyone a chance to get caught up on everyone's lives. There will be more in the future, but I thought I'd write about last night because it was fun and I wanted to remember it :)

Exhileration

This morning Sarah came over at 6:30 and we went for a run around North Ogden. It was so amazing! It's nice that I actually woke up and got a nice jog in before I had to come to work. I had forgotten how great I feel the rest of the day when I start out running. The last couple of years I've been running at night because I couldn't seem to get myself out of bed early enough to run in the morning before school but now I'm taking the summer off and I have time to run before work. I'm hoping to keep this up during the whole summer and then run at 5:30 once school starts again. It's so great to have my stress reliever back!

P.S.

I got called to be the Enrichment Chairperson in my ward...YAY! Calling number five! It'll be so much fun and I'm very excited :)

Venting

I got chastised tonight for not writing on my blog often so I thought I would write some random thoughts :) I know, I know, my bishop is thinking "I just mentioned, there was no chastisement involved," but sometimes I like to be a little over dramatic! I guess I haven't written much in the last week because I really don't have a lot to write about. I did have some very exciting experiences the last few days so I'll mention them now...
I had the opportunity to photograph two weddings this week! I'm so happy that is what I've chosen to do the rest of my life. I have so much fun working with amazing couples on their special day... I like it a little less when people assure me that it will happen for me someday but I have learned to just brush that off and concentrate on doing my best to make the couple's day remembered. I absolutely love taking photographs and I love working on them days after the wedding. I almost find it theraputic. It's such a nice change from the mind-numbing, boring, annoying job I do during the day. Those are only a few words I use to describe my day job, but I won't get into how much I loathe it right now. This is meant to be a happy post!
Yesterday I got to spend a couple hours serving a few people around the neighborhood and I got to know a few people a little better which always makes me happy. I love becoming friends with people and I like helping out where I can (my mom is probably laughing as she reads this). Then last night I had a really great time on what I think was a date...but I won't mention more because of other feelings and frustrations and people who know people. Needless to say, it was a great week to follow and amazing week. If only I could do what I love more often I would be a much happier person. But we all have to go through some crud to get to the good part of life, right? So I guess the title of this post shouldn't be venting, but maybe just story-telling. Too bad...I'm not going to change it :)

Wow...

The last week has been absolutely incredible. I had the opportunity to go on my third tour with the Ogden Institute Choralaires and Folk Dancers who are AMAZING people. We went to Nephi, Fillmore, and Richfield, UT which I thought would be the armpit of the state but it turned out to be so awesome. I met so many new people and became better friends with them and my old friends. Although there were some ill feelings (something I don't quite understand but couldn't do anything about) I still had such a great time. The time I have spent with this amazing group is something I hope I will never forget. I want to remember every seminary class we sang in, every senior center we visited, and every person I met and performed for. I remember in one class in Fillmore there was a seminary student on the front row who started crying when we sang My Country 'Tis of Thee. It was so touching to see how much these young people care about those who are serving our country. I also remember the cute little ladies I met in Fillmore and Richfield in the Sr. Centers. One lady I met, I think her name was Erma, came to our show that night and I saw her standing with her husband at the very end. I also met a lady in Richfield (I never got her name, dang!) who couldn't come to our show because she was coming up to SLC for a square dancing festival. I had told her that was my favorite part of the Ogden Pioneer Parade and she said she has danced in it before. As we left I got a few friends (most everyone joined by the end) to sing one last song for her and she LOVED it! It was so amazing... I especially loved the families we stayed with. I loved seeing the way two happy parents raised their two young boys and how an older couple can take care of two college girls with such happy hearts. We actually got invited back to Fillmore...wahoo! Our trip to the Manti temple was nothing short of amazing. I had prayed for peace and comfort for some things and immediately felt it when I went in the confirmation room. I started crying and didn't stop the entire time. I stood and listened to everyone else sing 'How Great Thou Art' in the cafeteria because I just couldn't make the words come out but it was still fabulous. To top it off we went to Cove Fort and met the greatest missionaries. One sister missionary, Sister Hansom, loved us so much that she invited us to look her up in Toquerville and stay with them for a day or so. I had so many incredible experiences to end my time with the Choralaires. I am so, so sad to be leaving (I'm almost in tears now thinking about it) but I know that I need to move on and get things done in my life. To all of you who have changed my life, I love you!!!

P.S. The tears came by the end of that sentence :)

A Mile!

Ok, so I'm not officially done with all school related work and probably should be spending my time on finishing the semester. However, I came home from work tonight and immediately started writing. Needless to say, around 9:30 I really needed a break so I went to the gym. It has been 48 days since my surgery and I ran a mile! I wasn't supposed to be able to run for two months after the operation but my toe has been feeling really good and I haven't had pain for about two weeks so I thought I'd try... It felt so good to run again and, although it's not 13.1 miles, it's definitely a good start on the road to recovery. I hope to be running 5k races this summer, the first one possibly in June the saturday before Father's Day (if they didn't reschedule it again this year). Anyway, I'm very, very excited to have my stress reliever back!