Cupcakes and Stars

Yesterday I savored my vaNIElla cup cake with the knowledge that a dessert would, probably never taste that good again. Why? Because I knew I had helped a wonderful family and therefor, I could eat it guilt free!

At 9:45 in the evening, my beautiful cousin, Aria, came and picked me up. We went to the grocery store to pick up tortillas by her parents request. At the store, we saw about half of her high school. Apparently, Reams is the place to be.
As we were getting into the car, Uncle called and asked us to pick up pitted prunes.

Delish.

We decided that we didn't want to go back in there and see everyone again (especially while carrying pitted prunes) and so we went to Allen's instead. We had absolutely no idea where to look and so we had to ask someone. Note to self: they are by the canning supplies. But we could only find dried prunes-- is that the same thing? Well that's what we bought.
Afterwards, we went to the local 7-11 where Aria got a Dr. Pepper and we couldn't pass up the oppertunity to buy 50 cent High School Musical tatoos. Unfortunately, I did not get Zac Efron.
We then went back to her house to drop off the groceries. It was there that I was able to talk to my 12 year old cousin about his sumer so far and 'Remember the Titans' as well as watch my Uncle eat the dried prunes like candy.
Next on the schedule, we drove back to my house in the time which I had my first sip of Dr. Pepper. (Don't tell ma mere et mon pere. Hush! Hush!) WHAT HAVE I BEEN MISSING? Now that truly is delish.
When we arrived at my house, we got some blankets and laid out on the grass as we gazed at the stars while talking about the gospel.

This is how summer should be.

FGF 2

So yesterday was Feel Good Movie Friday. Oops. But what can I say? I had to tell you all about The Sweet Tooth Fairy which I hope you are all going to! Also, I'm a firm believer in, "It's the thought that counts."


"Jane Austen's greatest love story was her own." Oh my goodness. How divine! Becoming Jane is a movie full of love and well, disappointment, but it's the way that the disappointment gets handled that can be beneficial to our own lives. Becoming Jane taught me so much despite the fact it's set in 1795. Please check out the trailer here! If you wait until after the trailer, it also plays pretty, pretty, PRETTY, music. (I get goose bumps every time.)


And now, here is some trivia, courtesy of imdb.com

Kate Winslet, Natalie Portman and Keira Knightley were also considered for the role of Jane Austen.

Anne Hathaway learned to play the piano and worked with a dialect coach for the preparation of this movie.

Up to 300 extras were used in the ballroom scene which was visited by John O'Donoghue, the Irish Minister for the Arts.

The final film role of Ian Richardson.


James McAvoy had to wear three inch lifts throughout the filming of the entire movie because at 5'7 he is shorter than his 5'8 leading lady Anne Hathaway.

During the shooting of the opening scene, the piano that Jane plays was not working. The sound was later matched to Anne Hathaway's fingering.

The house used to portray the Austen home dates from 1747.


Cast member Maggie Smith is a patron of the Jane Austen Society.

Shooting in Ireland during the spring and summer is always tricky since the weather can change within minutes. The cricket scene for this film was especially hard to shoot and edit for this reason; the light was different in nearly every shot.

Two shots from the beginning of the film, used to set up the town, were done in England. Every other foot of film was shot in Ireland.

We see Jane starting to write a novel called 'First Impression'. This is the first draft of what would become 'Pride and Prejudice'.



ps. happy birthday nie

Happy Birthday NieNie!!!

Friends!

As many of you know, I love NIENIE dialogues. She is the reason I even started blogging and guess what? It is her birthday tomorrow!

Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear NieNie...

And guess what else? The CUTEST little bake shop, The Sweet Tooth Fairy, is throwing NIE a birthday party! Check out this link for information on when and where. I am most certainly going to try my absolute hardest to be there.

Now the question is, will you???

Arial

From ages 2-8 I lived in Glendale, California- about 35 minutes away from sunny LA. Attached to our little house, was a little pool. That little pool was the reason I lived for those 6 years. During the school year, I was in that pool every Saturday. During the summer, well that's another story. I think the pool was a daily occurrence.
I put on sunscreen today. Sunny memories came rushing to me and oh it was bliss. Where are the days where I could swim a little, eat a popsicle, get back in the pool, pretend to be a mermaid, and then eat another popsicle?

up where they walk, up where they run, up where they stay all day in the sun...

yep that's me.

Jump On It is a place here in Utah, absolutely full of trampolines.
I am TERRIFIED of trampolines.
"So why did you come to the party?" asked one of my friends.
For the social vibe of course!!!!

Well thankfully I did not die or anything via I am writing this right now. But trampolines scare me because I don't want to... fall, fall off, fall on someone, or have someone fall on me. That sounds legitimate right? Well apparently not, because everyone around me was doing front flips and back flips and they even had little boards attached to their feet so it would be like skateboarding... (I think that's the idea.)

I think America's Funniest Home Videos did this to me. Have you ever seen that show? I mean, have you ever seen the trampoline clips. I cringe just thinking about them.

Please enjoy this youtube video of AFV trampoline clips. Occasionally there are subtitles (in a foreign language) and red lettering that comes across.

PS a word to the wise: don't jump on trampolines, eat sun chips, and then jump on trampolines again. Gross.

Papa Day

Yesterday was Father's Day and I failed to blog about it. Goodness me. Better late than never Dad, I love you.

Dad's in the middle.
Don't the 80's look like fun?

I love you because...

1. you give me mints every sunday
2. your goatee is multi colored
3. your hair style has never changed in all the years i have known you
4. you have a restaurant chain named after you
5. your name is SO cool!!!
6. you are theatrical
7. your clothes. i like your clothes
8. i don't know a harder worker. seriously.
9. your car makes a cool sound
10. you play hymns from your laptop
11. you play 10 songs every sunday on the piano
12. your ties are awesome for rolling
13. you let me borrow your jeans whenever i want to be a gangsta
14. you love your siblings
15. you love your parents
16. you love your in laws
17. (subconsciously) you love your pets
18. you love your daughters (that's me!)
19. you love Mom
20. you're you

You know when people say, "I have the best Dad in the world!" Well I have the best Dad in the world. Thanks for everything Paps. You're great great great.

This summer, I have found it very hard to blog. I have come to the realization it is because I am not at school. I am most certainly not complaining but high school is crazy enough to write a book. (or fill a blog with many many entries for that matter)
And so on that note, here are random things I did today:


I made an EPIC music video with Mary today. I was a gangsta. Can you even picture that? Here is the link. Enjoy!


It rained today. Scratch that. It POURED! And I was at work. So I got soaked. The end.

I watched He's Just Not That Into You again and I got the book today. I am insanely excited to read it tonight. Are you pulling an all nighter, reading under the covers? Why yes, yes I am.


After eating nearly an entire bag of chex-mix (minus the pretzels) I am now moving onto fat free vanilla ice cream. (I cannot stand ice cream! Gross! It's because of the cream. yuck. So my compromise is the fat free stuff. I can barely taste the creaminess and all is good) There is something about rainy weather that makes me want to curl up on the couch, watch a chick flick, maybe with a box of kleenex, just in case, and eat junk food. check, check, check, check.

I decided to start season 2 of the office today. I am so sad because Jim and Pam aren't together in that season! It is too strange. It's fate that they're together.

I found something I wrote the other day from 2007. All it said was, 'When I grow up, it would be fun to have a pug named Aida.' I had completely fogotten about that! But I still like it. Except I would name it Aida, Juno or Gigi. Isn't that cute? Are you a pug hater? So many people are and I don't know why! They can't help their little squished faces!

How can you say no to this little guy?

And with that, I must say goodbye.
Goodbye.

FGF 1

Feel Good Movie Friday!!!! I am aware that it is Thursday but I am just too dang excited to start the tradition, so here we go!!!


To be quite frank, I feel so completely dumb for posting this post just after I posted an entry on my celebrity crush but sometimes a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. So basically, I just watched He's Just Not That Into You. Wow. LOVE IT-- for so many different reasons.

And ladies and gentleman, here is the list:

1. Not everything works out perfectly in the film. I am not a downer but good intentions end up good and bad intentions end up bad. Karma. Not comeuppance.
2. The movie is intertwined and all nifty. Each character's life knows another character who knows another character... etc. It was brilliantly written and well made if I do say so myself.
   
3. Most importantly, I think every girl can identify with one of the main girls. They're all so completely different that it's hard not to. Here they are:
   

• Anna: guy magnet who learns that is not always a blessing.
• Ben: married. unfaithful. the end.
  
• Beth: she has been in a relationship for 7 YEARS. 7 YEARS!!!! and sue her for wanting to get married. Good glory. Ben Afflek is my favorite by the way.
• Neal: Cannot commit to marriage.
  
• Next is Janine. She is married but her marriage is struggling.
• Mary is a technology expert but that's the only way she ever chats with guys. Never face to face!
• Conor: in love with someone who does not and will not love him back.
  
• Alex: he thinks he's a guy expert and knows everything about flirting and dating.
  
• Last but not least, we have Gigi. She is crazily desperate to find her true love but has simply had no luck whatsoever.
  

Found one you can identify with? I know I have.

Mary, Janine, Beth, Gigi, Anna

So yes. There is the magical list.

If only all men were required to watch that movie, they would understand what us girls have to deal with. Stress, anxiety and an everlasting hope that the guy will call back! I mean, where is the love?! Ummm, no pun intended.

All I'm saying, is that if you are a man or even a woman for that matter... so anyone: you should watch the movie. It will give you a new way to look at things, hopefully for the better. I learned a few things and I hope you do too.

oh! and there is a book too. My sister says that is AMAZING-- if not even better. Can't wait to read it.

Confession

Confession.
It's celebrity crush time.
And the winner is.......


TA-DA!!!!

It's John Krasinski, known on TV as Jim Halpert in my all time favorite show, The Office. I hope he never ever finds this because he will think I'm a huge creeper but say for a minute he does read this, let me just make a shout-out.

Dear John Krasinski,
I am not a creeper.
Sincerely,
Your biggest fan

Now that that is settled I am moving on. I have decided that it is A-ok with me if he marries Pam (from The Office) or me. You know what? Emily Blunt can marry him too. They are dating as of now. Isn't that super sweet???



























Now, I do not have a picture with him and therefor, I cannot post one (since I am one of his choices for matrimony) -- and you know? Actually, I think that proves I am most certainly NOT a creeper. So there.

Puppy Duck

I have a dog. Did I mention that? She is huge and lovely.

Safari

My Young Women leaders are fantastic and I always love their lessons, but today, I loved it a little more. It was on forgiveness. My teacher referenced the talk, The Healing Power of Forgiveness a lot. Please read it. It's amazing.

Anguish is a sad word.

During the lesson, the song Forgiveness from the musical, Jane Eyre was in my head. I love that song. I really do.

I need to read Jane Eyre. I really do.

Jacaranda

Today I went to the dentist. Why is the waiting room so gloomy? I was sitting in there looking around at the worried faces, listening to the occasional drill and thinking about my day when it suddenly occurred to me-- should I be scared of what is about to go down here? It's just a cleaning but my gums ALWAYS bleed. When Dixie the hygienist came in to clean my teeth I told her about my bleeding gums and she responded by saying,
"Well, that's probably because you don't do it enough." touche i guess.
But guess what happened? I bled, I gushed! It hurt.

Oh well though. That was nothing compared to what happened next. She had me swish water around in my mouth and I still do not know what happened but for some inexplicable reason, the water exploded from my mouth right on to my lap.
I laughed.
Dixie did not join in with me.

oh and one last thing. The suction thing that you stick in your mouth is INSANE. The whole time I don't know where to put it and so I tried several places (top, bottom, side to side) and every place I put it, it made weird noises and so I'd quickly move it but it would catch my tongue and practically rip it out. And once I felt like I couldn't breathe and I got dizzy.

Good glory. Who knew the dentist was so dangerous?