Calling all Wildcats....

....best day/weekend of my life. Ever. Forever.

One of my best friends Ashley from back home flew up to visit me this past weekend. Love her. She's pretty great. Loves clothes, chick flicks, and lip gloss almost as much as I do. And since we were in Salt Lake, my friend Adam, who came with us, suggested we go visit East High (after singing the entire HSM3 soundtrack to me in the car). I could have fallen in love with this stranger right then......haha. For those of you that know me, you can only imagine my ecstatic state.






Sharpay's parking spot was still even painted pink!







We took our Wildcat uniforms off long enough to also make the rounds to Temple Square......




Sang one too many Taylor Swift songs in my Bug...




Went to the SL club Studio 600 for the glow party...




Overlooked the city...





And ate at Cafe Rios (a must to any Utah newbie).




And an added bonus, I received some flowers in the mail...thanks Cole :]




Did I mention it was the best weekend of my life?? Come back ASH!

I love Provo.

Sooo...life in Provo has been treating me splendidly :]

I've had the pleasure of spending lots and LOTS of time with my cute nephew Cason. I even was trusted enough to take him for an entire afternoon. It was fun :] We ate ice cream and went and visited a campus pond where the duckies were more than friendly....as evidence by these!

(FYI: this wasn't zoomed in AT all...)





Cason loved the "Baby! Duck." Almost as much as my camera. I tried to take the typical one-handed pose of the two of us..



...only for him to grab my camera with his chubby hands and be the photographer for a change. His shots:



Not too shabby :]


So I had the moment. I'm talking about THE moment. The one every BYU student (female at least) has when they are walking home from a class and they are just overwhelmed with the beauty of campus and the mountains. Lauren confesses to even have cried....and so she doesn't get mad at me, I guess I'll admit I welled up too.

Can you just comprehend this gorgeousness for a second? I mean, seriously??





There's something about this mountain air and lush greenery that lately has just inspired me to feel....what's the word....unstoppable.

I love Provo.

It's Polish! Oh, it's Swiss?

So this term I'm taking a Sociology class. I love it! It's really fascinating, though I'd NEVER want to be a sociologist. They seem too negative.....although due to my attitude about my homesick life right now, my mother would probably tell me that is an appropriate field of study for me. Hah. Okay, moving on. The best part about this class is not that the professor is really young and fun and witty, but that my good friend Blake Faulkner (as in the B-trifecta), is in it with me!

The first thing I glanced on upon receiving the syllabus in the class was a gigantic "CULTURE DAY PROJECT: DUE MONDAY, JUNE 29th".....Ummm, is she kidding me?? It's my first week of college and I already have not an assignment, but a project? Ridiculous. But I guess that's college. Especially the part about not having my mom to help me. Just kidding! :] Poopala. (That's mom's word for shoot...in case you didn't know.) The professor then went onto explain that we could bring in any cultural artifact we wanted, or perform something cultural..... Oh perfect. Lucky for me I counted my Dutch water clog moccasins as part of my ten pairs of shoe MAXIMUM when packing to come up here....not! But then, a beautiful realization popped in my head. I now have my second mom who is all domestic-y around. So I decided I would make, or rather Lauren would make (again, just kidding!), a cultural food. "Great idea," I thought, "then all the kids in the class will like me too." My professor even granted me a partner, good ol' FaFa (that's what Blake decided I should call him after meeting my nephew who calls me WaWa).

My next step? Find a dish to make. We decided on "bolle dune", which might as well have just been spelled "poaklshdf;aekjhlkchajlksdjhfe." But hey, it's Polish. Oops, I mean it's Swiss. (Thanks again Ben for correcting me before I had to deliver my class presentation.) It translates to "ONION/cheese pie". Sounds yum. I know. If you are the bite-into-a-raw-onion-and-have-four-more type of person. I was starting to think maybe my classmates wouldn't like me after all...

Anyhow. Turns out Lauren wasn't going to help me.....much. (I know, how dare her...I guess no one can replace mom..) She's in the middle of packing...more info on her blog. So Blake and I began cooking. Don't I seem so independent now? Course, I still had to use Lauren's kitchen.

This is Blake and me being all "domestic-y":











Lauren didn't want Blake to feel like he was losing his man-gnity (man dignity), so she lighted a match. Apparently that helps when you lose it with onions...








While our onion bliss was cooking in the oven, Lauren, Ahlin, and Luci kept us company...and helped Blake discover the only jar of Nutella on Earth....(he claims it's pretty popular...but I'm not that gullible. It's probably as popular as my Dutch water clog moccasins).



Case loved it.




Alright, I've dragged this on long enough. Here's the finished project. Turns out I am quite domestic-y. Oh, and it's pretty good. The daring classmates in my class even concurred.

For all you still out there..

Ok, I know. I'm probably the world's worst blogger.....but in my defense, my mother has practically been doing all my blogging for me. So, check out hers; she's a lot more witty than I am anyways! In the five months since my last post (I thought the gingerbread houses were pretty great), I went to two proms, got a couple of awards (got to love being a senior!), suffered through the evils of an English Senior Exit Project, won a cheer competition or two, attended my fair share of banquets, made some memories with my best friends at home, graduated High School, threw a grad party, and as of last week moved onto college! It's pretty exciting stuff, I must say. Here's a picture recap.



My dear Colie got prom king :]











My last day parked in my SENIOR parking spot..






Goodbye Great Oak High School. You've been too good to me....blessing me with so many amazing opportunities, great teachers, and wonderful experiences, all of which I don't believe I'm truly worthy of. Thanks for the best four years! The Wolfpack will live on in my heart (is that too High School Musical of me?) forever :] Oh, and we're all in this together..haha.


On to more mature things! This is my roommate Andy. She's from Texas and is probably one of the kindest girls I've ever met. Oh, and she's clean...which is as good as about five million bucks in my book.

And this is what I call my B-trifecta. (B-rad, Blake, & my dearest Bow-short for Bowman) I'm sure you'll be hearing a lot about them in the future...

Get your engines ready!

Gingerbread house competition. Sound fun? I thought so. Enough to make it a double-date occasion! It turned out to be one of the most fun activities I have ever done. B-fleck and I brought our dates, Tim and Eric respectively, and let our creative juices flow within our pairs as long as they related to the themes that we drew out of a bowl. Ours was beach. Theirs was valentine. How much easier could you get? We had to race to the store to buy our edible products and make sure that they fit within our $10 budget limit. Then, the gloves came off and the mess began! 

It was so fun, not to mention so cute to see the boys coming up with their own little details. Eric thought it'd be a good idea to add a treasure chest and volleyball net to our beach bungalow escape. In full, it made the entire house! Good call Geisse. Oh, and our competitors did an amazing job. When our time limit was up, we had neighbors come over and judge the finished products. Both teams got Jamba Juice giftcards as a prize. Thanks Fleckensteins for hosting such a fun night!