Tuesday, February 21, 2012

My brother...

... makes it really hard for me to like him most of the time. However, days like today make it really hard to NOT like him. He got a Netflix account, and has since been 'collecting' movies. Around 2am this morning, he texted me "...I got a surprise for you. I'll give it to you later."

He made me guess. After about 10 minutes, I had narrowed down that it was a DVD with cartoon characters. He said he had got me the Care Bears Movie, and the Swan Princess I, II, and III.

Oh boy!

Saturday, February 18, 2012

3 Reasons...

... Why I will name my first daughter Rachel.

1. That was my Bubby's name. She was the strongest, most accomplished, popular person I'd ever known. I could only hope that my future daughter would have all the same strengths and determined personality that she had. Including a love of hats and a desire to attend musicals with me.
Bubby with the Scar statue outside of the Mandalay Bay Theatre for the Lion King in Las Vegas.

2. I <3 Rachel Berry on Glee. I would hope my daughter would have the desire to sing, and sing passionately (fingers crossed that none of my children will be tone-deaf).

3. Rachel McAdams is my favorite actress. I loved her in The Notebook, Mean Girls, and The Vow (among others), but seriously, The Notebook is my favorite movie (three-way tie with Titanic and Gone With The Wind). Her character was educated, beautiful, and had a fire in her heart. Plus, true love conquers all!


All right, future Rachel (aka the Mini-Linz), you have some mighty high expectations to live up to, but fret not my darling, I will do my very best to set the most accurate depiction of example.

My constant obsession: Sophia Grace

I love this kids, she rocks my sox, while I dont think that it's appropriate for an 8-yr-old to rap "Super Bass" (especially when she looks back on this footage some day and realizes exactly what she's saying). I thought she was highly amusing the first time Ellen DeGeneres had her and Rosie on the show, and even moreso the second time. She really outdid herself with "Turn My Swag On," especially her freestyle about meeting Nicki Minaj and her adventures in the US.



Sharing is Caring

I'm embracing a lesson that I've learned from one of my favorite classic cartoons: The Care Bears!


I'm sharing my love of the Care Bears. Grumpy Bear is my favorite, and not just because I love the color blue, but because he is a contrast to me. Emma nicknamed me Bouncy, which isn't necessarily the opposite of being grumpy, but it's not too bad.


Anyway, here's to being grumpy, and here's to the Care Bears (whose movies I still own, in the form of old school VHS; both the first original movie and the sequel).

Reception Reunions!

Hooray for weddings! It means you get to see all your old friends :) Ever since high school, I rarely attended weddings or anything mission-related, however, since my DC adventures ended I decided to change my pattern.

Since my return, I have attended 2 homecomings and 2 receptions. First was Kari's homecoming in December, second was Carolyn's reception at the start of January, third was Elise's homecoming mid-January, and today was Cami's reception.

Let me tell you, as I waited for familiar faces to arrive tonight, I had the irrational fear that none of the girls from high school would remember me. Warped, am I right? My fears were for nothing, because they all remembered me!

The highlight: seeing Emma! Not that I wasn't completely ecstatic to see Kari and Elise, but I haven't had a chance to chat with the Ems since Carolyn's wedding dinner. I also get to see Sarah, Amanda, and Chelsey. I would say it was nice to see Hannah, but apparently she's so scared of me she literally ran away when I stood next to her to refill my water cup. Whatever, people do what they want to do.

Regardless, it was an amazing reunion filled with good conversations and desserts. And Cake! Let us not forget about the cake!

I asked Elise to take a shot of me and Kari, so she shot herself first. We cracked up! Which produced the smiles for...

... this picture. 
Her method threw me off, but it worked, and I realized that she is in fact a photographical genius. 
Way to go Lisey!!

Me and the Emster, 
I won't lie and say that knowing that she was coming didn't heavily influence my decision to officially attend the reception. I'm so very glad I did :)

Filing Taxes...

... is a major pain. This year I tried something different and had H&R Block prepare mine for me. Lucky for me, between state and federal I am being refunded over $400, which is great because it cost $140 for them to file electronically for me. Overall, not a bad experience. I think I will definitely use them next year.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Valentine's Day

Last year, my Valentine's Day ended quite unexpectedly.

This year, my coworkers went out of their way to make it a sweet holiday. Carolyn gave everyone a pink rose :) and Whitney brought yummy pink cookies in the shape of lips and a bottle of Martinelli's sparkling cider.


Lastly, I was psyched to see Glee Project winner Sam Larson on Glee!


Overall, my Single's Awareness holiday wasn't half bad.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Hello Pinterest!

Ohhh Emmmmmm Geeeeeeeee! How have I gone on this long in life without knowing about Pinterest?????



One of my DC coworkers always mentioned it in passing with our Deputy Director, but I never really inquired about it's nature or purpose. Luckily, fate hit me over the head (as it always seems to do) and now I officially have a new interest.

So far, I have created 4 boards: Future Digs, True Colors, DIY Crafts, and Fairytale Nuptials.

Future Digs contains ideas and inspiration for what my future loft apartment will look like. It also has furniture and color palette ideas, and even a few feng shui tips.

True Colors is purely a collaboration of small elements and interests that I believe make up the majority of who I believe myself to be. It consists mostly of quotes, objects, and colors. Someday it will be complete ;)

DIY Crafts contains cools ideas of stuff I would very much like to make (which is ideal, since I have never been the scrapbooker-type). Its purpose is to serve as a creative outlet when I'm not at the Bridal Shop or babysitting the kids.

Saving the best for last, Fairytale Nuptials is my dream ideas for my far into the future wedding. Need I say more? Seriously, need I?

I can already see this addiction to yet another social media outlet as a productive way to spend my free time, and hopefully tap into my creativity so that the juices may flow into each and every aspect of my life.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

It's that time...again

So, during the Summer of 2010, I took the GRE to apply to grad school. I was graduating early, and my mom suggested that I just go for it and apply. After thinking all summer, I hastily decided to apply for the U's Political Science Grad Program. I didn't get it, but then when I was interning in DC, I decided that I really wanted to stick with Communication.

Flash forward to last week, I was researching Utah schools for programs to see if I was interested. Believe it or not, BYU's Masters of Mass Comm looked the most interesting. Don't get me wrong, I'm still applying to both the U and Westminster, but for some reason, BYU is calling to me.

In order to qualify for their program (and the U's), I need to retake the GRE and improve my score (especially verbal) by about 200 points, and to beef up my writing score by 1.5. Rather than paying $600 for a prep course, I decided to prep on my own, with lots of books from the library. I figure, a new book every month, with 8 months to prepare, I should be 10 times better off than I was last time.

Yesterday, Mom picked up my first prep book for me while I was working, and I just began skimming through today. Good news, all of the fill-in-the-blanks one word verbal questions I answered correctly. I do need to memorize more words though, because the two and three-answer fill-in-the-blanks had me pretty freaked out. As nerve racking as test prep is, I would much rather retake the GRE as opposed to the LSAT like some of the other DC Interns did when we were back east.

The idea of doing this again doesn't scare me, because I feel that applying for grad school feels more right at this point in time than it did back then. If I don't get in anywhere, I suppose it will be time to redraft another chapter in my life. I hope that grad school is included, but it isn't the only part of the plot I'd like to see play out.

To conclude, as I continue my test preparation, I will incorporate my verbal words into my posts from now on!