to be oneself is a most noble quest

pierside pistols powder puffs are pretty AND passionate people

pierside pistols.

this is me dancing. i don't even know who took this picture.

i love my roommie.

sara & nicole.

yep. we're related.

i got the hottest cheerleader out there. what what!! except he's not even smiling.

my neighbor christi. next to the tree in our courtyard. bomb.

i wish that youtube would let me embed this. seriously so cute. and fab song.

you know you are tired when you can't even enjoy the fact it's friday.

i'm breaking the WoW big time.

4 hours = not enough.

this will be the death of me.

and what a fabulously FAT death it will be.... mmmmmm delicious.

movies i'd like to be watching instead of wasting time at work waiting for my boss to sign & return paperwork i gave him 3 days ago...

1. men riding motorcycles naked. enough said.

2. so depressingly lovely that you can't stop watching it. period piece. fabulous. bring tissues.

3. come with your imagination. my favorite scene is when he sees her and time stops.

4. highly unknown. 6 stars out of 5. soundtrack = amazing. john cusack, need i say more?

my roommate jeni only owns three pieces of the nativity; the three wise men. they are her favorite.

i love this time of the year bc we get to reflect, and eat, and rejoice, and play, & drink outrageous amounts of hot chocolate. we give & receive gifts. we hear songs sung of snowmen & santa & the birth of our Lord & Savior. what great blessings we have! what amazing gifts we have received!

and after this week, the three wise men are now my favorite, too.
.
i looked at them last night, kneeling in adoration of the Christ child, bringing the best they could bring, honoring Him. what humility those men must have had. what dedication, to have SUCH a desire to see the Christ they waited for so long to come, that they traveled miles, days, perhaps years, to see him.
i guess i feel like i come empty handed sometimes. like nothing i can give is nearly enough for what i receive in return. we had a christmas concert on monday for FHE, and one of the songs played was little drummer boy. never before had the words sung so true to my heart.

despite all my faults, and the little i feel i have to offer, if it is my best, it is enough.

every year on christmas eve, we read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. and every year my lil tender hearts strings get pulled. maybe it's the fact we read it as a family, or its late at night by the time i'm finished and my eyes are tired. either way, i have a hard time keeping the tears from streaming. the story is touching and feels so real!

it is full of imperfect people trying to understand the wonder of Christ's birth, his mission and the gift of His life!

i love imperfect people, being one myself :)

"Well. It was the best Christmas Pageant we ever had. Everybody said so, but nobody seemed to know why. When it was over, people stood around the lobby of the church talking about it. There was something special—they couldn’t put their finger on what.
Now, whenever I think of the Christmas story, Mary is always going to look a lot like Imogene Herdman—sort of nervous and bewildered, but ready to clobber anyone who lays a hand on her baby. And the Wise Men are always going to be Leroy and his brothers, bearing ham.
When we came out of the church that night it was cold and clear, with crunchy snow underfoot and bright, bright stars overhead. And I thought about the Angel of the Lord—Gladys with her skinny legs and her dirty sneakers sticking out from under her robe, yelling at all of us, everywhere:
Gladys: Hey! Unto you a child is born!"

ummm.. i confess as it drove away i kinda sorta maybe cried.

good memories with Andrew the Red Rocket:

the first time i saw Andrew it was outside our LV house. it was love at first sight. my mom saw my face & was pretty sure that i had found "the one." me and kelli took it for a spin "around the block"...all the way to richard's.

remember when my mom told me to not go on any road trips in my new car, and 2 weeks later i drove it to Brian Head to the Christensen's without telling her??

that one dance party to hellogoodbye in the continental parking lot with BIG and michelle "my bunny lives over the ocean. mish, it's my BONNIE."

sneaking off to grandhaven @ 2AM with nate king. phone call to melissa..."um. i'm not coming home, so don't wait up."

logan canyon to bear lake with anne. "yeah, so... i dont wanna go to work today."

sleeping in the back seat in logan canyon... that actually is not such a great memory, but it made me realize a few things... i don't think anyone really knows about that.
logan to las vegas- best time 6 hrs 45 min
las vegas to SLC- best time- 5 hrs 5 min.

las vegas to CA. with no a/c. in august. that was a fun one. and i STUNK afterwards, too.
countless night drives, dance parties, road trips, laughs, blaring music, chauffering, smiling & thinking. Thanks, Andrew, you were the best I ever had...cue vertical horizon.

Best Car Ever. The End.

i once owned a pair of black, neon green & pink rollerblades. (if the colors alone don't suggest that they are my favorite, you don't know me.) i think those blades got more use 6-8th grade than any blades to have come before. easily 4 times a week they could be seen strapped to my little tan pre-teen legs each summer.
rarely do i do anything alone as an adult, so as a teenager, i did practically nothing alone. so, naturally, these blades had blade buddies who rolled just as many miles as they. this second pair of blades were strapped 3 times a week to the feet of my bestfriend bethany. more often than not, we would wear matching blue & pink tank tops, with matching blue & pink bandanas.
can more infinite coolness be found elsewhere?? just try it.
at the garage sale where we sold all the rest of our stuff, before i was most rudely up rooted to las vegas, they promised, as they handed those most precious 4 wheeled beauties over for probably $10, to buy me new ones when we moved.
i don't think my parents know this, but i cried over those stupid blades. i remember being very lonely one day after we moved- one of many to come- and just wishing i had my blades; something familiar, something loved with many many tender memories attached. not yet had my mom fulfilled that desperate promise of replacing them someday. i wept bitterly- emotional attachment to inanimate objects at its finest.
my very next birthday, a large square K2 box was given to me, with some really nice expensive rollerblades held therein.
i'm pretty sure my mom is fully aware they have been used probably 3 times. i kinda resented them. how dare these silver & red shiny things think they could replace the crappy, plastic, beat up, blister-giving, blades of my adolesence???
before today.
today i bladed with my roommie nicole to bolsa beach & back. in the sunshine, next to the surf, gliding merrily along the ocean. we laughed & danced to our ipods. it was amazing. quite possibly the best two hours spent on a saturday thus far.

we sold those blades when i was 15. i'm 23. and i finally am not bitter.
thanks, mom for the nice blades. i appreciate them.

it snows at disneyland in the christmas season.

i love my life.

I not only want to listen to this song on repeat today, i kinda wanna live it, too.

verde.

i like it. so sue me. i have this green ring so that i wear green everyday. it's my thing.

the color just really makes me happy, actually.

yesterday i stood making hot chocolate

(can you say THANK YOU for boys with microwaves, which our apt is sadly lacking)

and realized, my black pants, blue shirt & gray sweatshirt sans my ring made me greenless!!

i felt kinda naked.

hmmmm.

I HAVE NOTHING TO BLOG ABOUT

actually i do. but my mom thinks i write too many personal things on here sometimes so i try to tone it down.

so i'm not going to blog about that one fantastic time at chili's with my boss where i fainted. yesterday.

the end.

OH AND FOR THE RECORD

am i the only person in the universe that didn't blog about thanksgiving?

does this make me ungrateful?

or just having a relatively uneventful thanksgiving?

for the record: i adore my life. all of it. and i'm grateful for it. this includes stealing down comforters, gchatting at work with erika like everyday, chocolate monkey mix by archer farms, my uber fabulous family, my crazyface roommates, friends, romans, countrymen... meredith snuggling up & shouting funny things at 12 am, sand on the floor of my car signifying my proximity to el oceano, and for forgiving people who love me despite myself.

thank you. thank you.