Zac Efron

He's cute, right? I always thought so. And then I saw 17 Again. Hello!!! He is a bit yummy. Heather's friend Amber came up with a brilliant name for him. But my mom does read my blog. And I don't want her to get upset at me. I apologize to my male readers for this post.

xkcd

Funny. For the nerd type. Ya know.




I felt like this today...
Tiff, I'm glad you will understand this.
And this is ending...NOW! School starts Monday, after all.


xkcd.com

I've been a bit lonely of late. I blame leaving home and family for this. Or hormones. Whatever. On the brighter side, I promise to do a bit better blogging starting now. Because I've been a bit of a slacker of late. But I am about to start my fourth semester of college, which means there will be lots to blog about. Oh school. I missed you. Sort of.

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The Rest of the Road Trip

Oh the road trip.

It had a few unexpected stops. Meaning the car broke down 10 miles out of Cheyenne on Saturday evening. But I can't even tell you how wonderful it all turned out. We called the local bishop to ask about a mechanic, and he invited us to stay with his family. They had the cutest children and twin 4 month old baby boys. Heaven!!! I am so impressed with the kindness and generosity of complete strangers. And, once again, I am so thankful for the church that I belong to.

We finally straggled into Provo late Monday night, where we were welcomed by the incredible Alligood family, once again. And it was good.

Balloons

Yes yes yes please.

Young Love

Yesterday, my brother and I had a wonderful opportunity to visit with our grandfather in Georgia. I haven't seen him in years, so I was quite enjoying myself listening to his stories, and then he began to tell us about the time that he and my grandmother ran away to get married. And it was cute and romantic. They drove through 12 states, stopping in each, to try to get a marriage license because my grandmother was only 16 or 17. And her grandmother had the police looking everywhere for them. But they didn't stop until they found someone to marry them. To me, it sounded like a movie. And I loved it. Never mind that they were later divorced. Or that they both later married two wonderful and amazing people that have loved and cherished them for years. For a moment, I was caught up in their young romance that brought about the most wonderful man who married my mother. And it was good.

Road Trip: Days One and Two

Number of

miles driven: 667

skunk smells: 7 {mostly in Tennessee. Of course.}

skunk stories shared: 8

relatives seen: 6

pictures taken: at least 50

hours spent on the back porch: 5

fruit snacks eaten: 7

fruit snacks that I sang to: 3

weird looks that I got from Dennis: 124,503,490,368

romantic stories told: 1

incredible pictures found of my dad when he was my age: 1

video chats with Kenzie: 1

phone calls to/from Momma: 11

times we listened to the {500} Days of Summer soundtrack: 3

stops for gas: 2

stops for the bathroom: 3

wrong turns: 1

Vampires and Fuzzy Things

Miss Mary called us today. Apparently there was a hamster on her house and she wanted us to confirm this/get it off. So Momma and I go over. And it looks like a hamster, way up there. And it wasn't a hamster. It was a bat. See? I love bats. They are cute.

Oh silly, you won't be going anywhere without us.

I have been dancing a lot lately. Fun dancing. Really silly and obnoxious and embarrassing dancing. And then my brothers keep singing a song about a Weekee Wachee Washer Woman who is washing her clothes and picking her nose and doing that sort of thing. So I dance. And, apparently, my dancing isn't appreciated. Because Samuel announced that he hopes his wife doesn't dance and sing as weird as I do.

Just wait, Little Brother. Your wifey will be just as obnoxious. Or else she simply won't fit into this crazy family. You know, the one with the singing shark. And the Spongebob and Hannah Montana marathons. The ones that have picnics on the living room floor and sleepovers in the family room. The ones that crawl into mom and dad's bed late at night. And the ones who are constantly, constantly talking.


You silly goose.

Here are some pictures from our last beach trip.
Sorry, Tiff. I couldn't help but share just one.

Quote of the Week

"Wait, Heather is a guy?"
~Sean
I'm not sure why this question had to be asked. Sorry H-face.

Banana Oatmeal Pancakes

I found this pancake recipe, and it was amazing. I love it. And besides wanting to share it with everyone, I was too lazy to write it down and knew that I would always be able to find it on my blog. Enjoy.

• 1 cup uncooked rolled oats
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons dry milk powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 2 cups milk
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
• 1 banana, mashed

1. Place the rolled oats into the jar of a blender and blend until the texture resembles coarse flour. Whisk together the blended oats, whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, brown sugar, dry milk powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl; set aside.
2. Whisk together the egg, milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla. Stir in the mashed banana. Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and stir just until moistened. Let the batter stand for 5 minutes.
3. Heat a lightly oiled griddle over medium-high heat. Drop batter by large spoonfuls onto the griddle, and cook until bubbles form and the edges are dry, about 2 minutes. Flip, and cook until browned on the other side. Repeat with remaining batter.

Oh to be dancing in a bank with a cute man.

Because I love Zooey Deschanel. Because I want to be Zooey Deschanel. Or because I want a boyfriend as cute as Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Oh yes.

This is me. Hopefully my new apartment will be as homey as the last one was.

Two Things

1. I stayed up late watching Rebel Without a Cause instead of writing my talk for tomorrow. And it was good. Because I love love love James Dean.

I know. Smoking is gross. But he still looks cute with that hat.

B. The only reason I would ever cut my hair would be so I could wear a hat. Because they are cute. But we all know that people with long, curly hair should run in the other direction.

Hmmm....

Super Powers

I was talking with my brother about super powers and which ones we would choose. Matthew chose Super Strength. Which makes sense, because he likes to work out and stuff. Dad chose flying. It took me a minute to think of mine and another minute was wasted mocking Spiderman (because if I could pick a super power, it would most definitely be spider webs that shoot out of my wrists... Right.) But I finally settled on Super Speed. Flying came very close to winning, but because the only benefit would be the awesome factor of being able to fly (and because I have complete faith is a team of scientists out there somewhere that are inventing a pocket sized flying machine for me to use), I chose Super Speed.Oh Clark Kent, you sexy beast.

Pros:

~I could go to BYU and still work/live anywhere I wanted. Friends and family are no longer missed.

~Wake up at 7:50 am be ready and at class by 8:00 am. No more getting cold waiting for the bus.

~No more car problems. I would save on gas and insurance.

~Skip the traffic jam of sudents that emerge between classes.


Cons:

~Impact with a bug could kill me.

And that is the only bad thing I could come up with.

Irresponsible Yearnings

Remember this swimsuit? The one that I don't really need, because I have six others, but I am desperately in love with nonetheless? Well, it's on sale. For $150. Which sounds like a lot until you remember that it was originally $248. What does this even mean? Please remind me that I am a poor college student and that $150 will feed me for more than a month. Or buy all my textbooks this semester. Or pay for 1/2 of my month's rent. Ugh.



.via Anthropologie

15 Books

Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes

1. The Little Prince (because I was just looking at the perfume :)

2. David Copperfield (I didn't like this one. I am still not good friends with Mr. Dickens)

3. Peter Pan

4. Little Women

5. The Life of Pi

6. A Great & Terrible Beauty

7. Eight Cousins

8. The Secret Garden

9. The Chronicles of Narnia

10. The Hobbit

11. Persuasion (Possibly my most favorite book of all times. I can't count how many times it's been read.)

12. The Scarlett Letter

13. The Iliad

14. The Prince

15. Anne of Green Gables


Thanks, Mindy! I enjoyed thinking of these. Almost all of them have been with me for a long time. We have a history and a romance that has never died.


.I don't remember where I got this image, but I know it was on Flickr somewhere!

Stretchy Wallpaper

Have I told you how much I love wallpaper? I think it is lovely. Old-fashioned and delightful in every way. Not the whole house, of course. All that paper sounds fire hazardous. Like a library or something. But framing it? Genius. Like a book shelf.

By the way, are you ok with the new stretch thing? I was getting tired of all my pictures being cut off. And then Tiffy showed me Minima Stretch. And my life was saved. Now I don't have to make my pictures smaller. Because I hate any kind of extra work. Keep it simple, people. Keep it simple.
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Because It Can Always Be Worse

Some mornings, this is me. But then it would always be worse.

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Annie Leibovitz

Have I ever told you that I think Annie Leibovitz is a genius? I can't help it. I've been pouring over her images for the good part of an hour. Curse you inspired artists!!!


Some of her incredible achievements include the following

Romeo and Juliet with Coco Rocha as Juliet and Roberto Bolle as Romeo. The full story is in the December 2008 issue of Vogue. (I found it here)


Her Vogue shoot with Drew Barrymore as Beauty & the Beast (found here)


Natalia Vodianova as Alice in Wonderland (found here)

This fascinating shoot titles Killers Kill, Dead Men Die that includes all the famous people you can think of (full article here)


And of course, the Disney shoot that includes everyone else. Here are my absolute favorites from that one (available here)
(Ok so the last one is technically not Disney... I still love it!)

David Archuleta

I told you I was for reals.

And that he was tiny.

Something Funny

Oh Jay Leno. You do make me laugh. Especially when you ask silly girls, "Who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.?" and they can't tell you. But they know in heart beat that it is SpongeBob that lives in that pineapple under the sea.

Wedding Invites

Yes, I know it is too early to be thinking of such things. Yes, I know that I haven't been on a date in over a year. This means nothing to me. Blame Etsy if you are really desperate. They sent me the email, ya know.
My reasoning is, that when the right man finally comes along, I won't have to have a 10 year engagement to prepare for a wedding. I have everything. 6 weeks and I am done. Ok, it will probably be like 3 mos. but you get the idea. Anyhoo, I just noticed that those invitations are kind of girlie for a Brian and Mark. Are those common last names? Weird.

And while we're on the topic of marriage, I had a kind of interesting conversation yesterday...
Somehow I was talking about cute babies with some friends (surprise!) and I mentioned that I am in love love love with babies. They are just so cute! I said something about wanting to have a baby in the next 5 years. Is that ok? Apparently not. Someone thought there was something wrong with me for wanting to get started on a family soon. For the record, 25 is not old. Not at all. And yes, I do have life plans. I've never made a secret of the fact that basically, I'm on my way to Australia. I want to finish school. 2 years. I want to go to Australia. 1-2 years. I want to meet a man somewhere in there and get married and have a family. 1-2 years. This evens out to about 5 years. I am so grateful for the examples of Emily and Becca and Nienie and C. Jane and women like them who are unafraid to fall in love and have families and babies, some of who have done it all before the age of 25. Because I am not ashamed that I want a family. A big one. And that I want to fall in love with an incredible man and get married.

And there is nothing wrong with that.

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Missing Home

I know that I only have about 2 weeks left at home. And this is a little hard to deal with. For while I'm ready to head back to Provo, to head back to school, I am going to miss my family so much. Every summer I am amazed that I made it a whole 9 months without them.

Some things I am going to miss:

1.The soft sound of Matthew playing the guitar coming from the boy's room late at night

2. Dad's shark singing silly songs

3.The fruit all over the table

4. The million spices in the freezer

5. Tavi knocking on my door until I open it

6. Mom falling asleep on the couch every night

7. Going to the library with Samuel to sit and read

8. The pile of shoes by the front door

9. Getting Dennis and Matthew's voices confused late at night

10. The boys playing the piano

11. The SpongeBob marathons

12. Mom playing Donny Osomnd and Jay & the Americans very loudly and dancing to it

13. Driving to church

14. Samuel's explanations of how cars, knives, planes, etc. work

15. Family prayer

16. Reading scriptures after dinner

17. The pile of blankets in the family room

18. The piles of books everywhere

19. The high, squeaky, cutesy voices used to speak to little animals

20. Mom and dad insisting to sit next to each other, no matter where we are and no matter who it inconveniences

Kisses

We live in a modern society. Husbands and wives don't
grow on trees, like in the old days. So where
does one find love? When you're sixteen it's easy,
like being unleashed with a credit card
in a department store of kisses. There's the first kiss.
The sloppy kiss. The peck.
The sympathy kiss. The backseat smooch. The we
shouldn't be doing this kiss. The but your lips
taste so good kiss. The bury me in an avalanche of tingles kiss.
The I wish you'd quit smoking kiss.
The I accept your apology, but you make me really mad
sometimes kiss. The I know
your tongue like the back of my hand kiss. As you get
older, kisses become scarce. You'll be driving
home and see a damaged kiss on the side of the road,
with its purple thumb out. If you
were younger, you'd pull over, slide open the mouth's
red door just to see how it fits. Oh where
does one find love? If you rub two glances, you get a smile.
Rub two smiles, you get a warm feeling.
Rub two warm feelings and presto-you have a kiss.
Now what? Don't invite the kiss over
and answer the door in your underwear. It'll get suspicious
and stare at your toes. Don't water the kiss with whiskey.
It'll turn bright pink and explode into a thousand luscious splinters,
but in the morning it'll be ashamed and sneak out of
your body without saying good-bye,
and you'll remember that kiss forever by all the little cuts it left
on the inside of your mouth. You must
nurture the kiss. Turn out the lights. Notice how it
illuminates the room. Hold it to your chest
and wonder if the sand inside hourglasses comes from a
special beach. Place it on the tongue's pillow,
then look up the first recorded kiss in an encyclopedia: beneath
a Babylonian olive tree in 1200 B.C.
But one kiss levitates above all the others. The
intersection of function and desire. The I do kiss.
The I'll love you through a brick wall kiss.
Even when I'm dead, I'll swim through the Earth,
like a mermaid of the soil, just to be next to your bones.

. The Archipelago of Kisses, by Jeffrey McDaniel. via Peonies and Polaroids
.image via Le Love

Coin Laundry

How cute is Lisa Mitchell? I think it's her freckles.

Dani Brubaker

Oh Dani Brubaker. You are incredible.

Thanks for the introduction, Tiff.

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