13 Going On 20

That's right. For all of my sisters in denial, yesterday was my 20th birthday, not my 13th. A lot has changed for me in the past year including that I started school again and decided on a major; I also moved out and received the taste of the independence that goes along with that. I enjoyed having dinner with the family at Red Lobster, and I really appreciated the call I got from Allie and Wesley. Thank you to everyone for making my day special. (And thanks mom for making cheesecake for me!)


Friday night, Torrie, Sarah and Amber took me out to the Olive Garden for dinner. Afterwards, we went to my apartment and watched the American President. (No one had even heard of it before!) Torrie and Tasha slept over too.

Torrie bought me flowers because "every girl deserves flowers on their birthday!" She also got me a wall saying for my apartment that reads: "Cherish yesterday, Live Today, Dream Tomorrow".


Amber got me a soft chair to go in my apartment since she couldn't afford to get me a couch. While we were watching The American President, I was the only one on a chair with everyone else on the floor. :)


Sarah got me a tanning pass. I'm actually not exactly sure why since I have never expressed a desire to go tanning. I am afraid of getting skin cancer. I might save it and use it in the winter though on those days that are just so dark that I start getting depressed.


And Tasha and Nathan got me some shelves so that I can finish unpacking all my books, etc... that I still have accumulated in the corner of my apartment.

Thanks again, everyone, for coming to celebrate with me. I also appreciate all of the gift you guys gave me and the card from mom. (Allie, I haven't gotten your card yet.) I am very grateful to have such a great family and I am so glad that we are all so close. I love you all!

Fun in Cedar (Part 1)

This is only part one, since I have only finished half of my film, but I thought it would be nice to show some of what we were up to.













It turned out to be a really fun weekend. The plays that we saw were excellent. (Coriolanus, Twelfth Night, and King Lear.) We also added in waiting up until midnight to get Harry Potter, and reading it every chance that we got the entire weekend. It hardly left my side. We only have to overlook the fact that AS SOON as we got down to Cedar, some idiot back-up and hit Allie's car, and that mom's car broke down on the way home.

Babysitting Kami

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALLIE!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALLIE!

I would like to start off by saying how amazing I think that you are! Who else goes to take a 9 hour exam on their birthday, I ask you! Thank you for always being there for me when I need someone to talk to. Thank you for understanding me, and then giving me the space to learn the lesson for myself.


I would also like to add, I am very glad that I managed to save these pictures of you before you went crazy and deleted your MySpace account. Of course I noticed! I love having several ways to stay in contact with you. I loved being able to check your MySpace and Pensieve for all the latest news of what you have been up to.



Thank you for letting me take your Bridals. I really hope that they turned out how you wanted and that there were some that you liked. I had a lot of fun with you, and if you want to, we could go again and take some more if you want more. I'm not scared.



I am so excited that you are coming up to visit tomorrow and I am so happy that we are going down to the Shakespearean Festival together this weekend. I always have so much fun with you! Thank you for adding me to your tradition of going to Cedar every summer and fall.


And, of course, I hope you FINALLY had a good Harry Potter movie theater experience since the movie freakin' ROCKS, just like you! :)


So Happy Freakin' Birthday! I love you! And I know that you aced your exam! (aka O.W.L.)

Late 4th of July Pics!

Here are the pictures that I took on the 4th of July. Sorry they are late!

Excited, Frustrsted, Flattered, Amazed, Irritated and Grumpy

Well, Tuesday night was the midnight showing of Harry Potter! I was so excited to see it, although I have decided that I get way too frustrated with everyone coming to me saying, "What's the plan? When are we meeting? Are we doing anything before? What are we doing after? What are we doing? What are we doing?" Just because I bought everyone's tickets doesn't mean that I have the entire day planned out! We got to Megaplex 12 (my new theater for midnight showings since they do reserved seating and I don't have to wait in line ALL day) and there were people EVERYWHERE! They completely filled up the main lobby, the area outside the theater and even groups of people were on the stairs and all down them. The consessions line was all wrapped around where it is inside and then went out the front door and was outside too! It was CRAZY! There were also plenty of people dressed up, although some didn't realize what movie they were going to see, since they were dressed up as Jedi Knights and Pirates.




I also went with a group of my friends that I haven't had the chance to see lately. I took all the pictures I had taken at Ben and Molisa's wedding and gave them to them, since this was the first time I got to see them since they got married back in December. She was so happy to have them! They said that the ones I took turned out better than the ones that there professional took, and Ben almost even paid me for them! I was really, really flattered with how much they liked them though, especially since that was before I had taken any classes about it, so I am even better now. :)





Dad showed up for the midnight showing too! I was really impressed with that, but not nearly as impressed with how AMAZING Harry Potter was! I think that they did an amazing job trying to fit the longest book into a movie. So, obviously, things go fast, and they had to combined things and change some things, but they way that they did it keeps the message of the book. I also loved the whole end scene in the Ministry of Magic. I don't want to say too much, but my favorite scene is when Lord Voldemort is trying to take over Harry Potter at the end. That scene is the best, but closely following it is the confrontation between Lord Voldemort and Dumbledore. I love it! And talk about amazing graphics! Everyone, GO SEE THIS MOVIE! It is awesome!! Even Kjersti will like it, even if she doesn't want to admit it. :)





By the end of the night though, I was grumpy and irritated. Some of the people that came with us from my store didn't understand it, got bored, and talked and text all through the movie. I had been looking forward to it so much that I was really mad that they kind of ruined it for me. It took me seeing the movie again with mom for me to fully appreciate it since some of my co-workers were so dumb about it! There was a part with mistletoe and one of my co-workers said really loud, "It's not even Christmas!" And people two rows away yelled back, "YES IT IS!" They would also be talking, texting and sleeping, and then the whole theater would start laughing, so they would ask me what happened, or what was going on. I was really, really mad at them and I told Sarah that I wasn't going to ever go to a midnight showing with them again since they talked all through Pirates too. She agreed with me.

Update

Sorry again for the lack of blogging. Here is what I have been up to though: First of all, I am still working five days a week and trying to get settled into my new apartment. I am starting to feel like it is home, even though I still haven't finished unpacking. A big part of this is just that I don't have as much shelf space as I did in my room, so mainly the things that are still left in boxes are just the ones that I don't have room for yet. I have really enjoyed listening to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix that I borrowed from mom while unpacking boxes. It makes it so I work on it longer and enjoy myself while I am at it.


Second, now that I finished the second season of LOST with Kjersti, Jay and Geoffrey, I have been trying to make up on spending some time with my friends. My friend Tasha's birthday was on the 28th, so Sarah and I took her out. It was very interesting to me that they still more or less are exactly like they were when we were all in high school together. Sarah relentlessly hit on the waiter, and even left her number with the check. We went and saw the new Fantastic 4 movie, and bribed Geoffrey to come and take pictures of us all together.


One of my goals this year was to re-read all of the Harry Potter books before book seven came out. It has taken me a lot longer than I thought it would since I started back in January, but it looks like I will finish my goal. When I hadn't finished book 5 by July, I decided that I had to finish it before the movie came out. I have only read that one once, so reading it again now is almost like reading it for the first time again. I love them and I am having so much fun with it! I am going to be really sad when they are over. I got midnight tickets to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix! For some reason, the movie is coming out two days before it was supposed to! All the original posters, etc... say July 13th, but I am seeing it on the 11th. And guess what?!? Dad wanted to come! So, midnight Harry Potter with a group of friend from work and some of my other friends and Dad. It should be interesting, and I am actually curious to see if Dad actually comes and makes it all the way through the midnight showing since half the time we have family things he leaves early because he is too tired.

This week, I also went to go see a movie called Evening with my friend Torrie. I liked it so much, that I got mom and took her to see it too. I wanted to go with mom and all my sisters, so if any of you get the chance, go and see it because I think you will appreciate it.


I also hung out with Amber this week. We went and saw License to Wed, the new Mandy Moore movie. We had a good time. She also went shopping. I was actually really good! I didn't buy anything! I have been trying to watch my money since I am now paying for rent and don't know how much utilities will be. I also have to get Sassy re-registered this month. :( So, good birthday ideas for me are either money to help me pay for everything this month, or new things for my apartment. Either one would be greatly appreciated!

Another random thing that happened was that Grandma called dad and told him that she had been praying in temple, and that God told her to give me $500 for school! She then asked dad to match her check. So, last week, Mom, Geoffrey and I all drove down to Provo. I thought it was VERY nice of grandma to help me with school, I just feel bad that she is SO miserable and just hates life. And of course, she made the few jokes about how she had to pay me $500 to come down and see her. It was also the first time that I have seen dad's house. It is interesting and reminds me of a maze with the narrow halls and sudden random turns.

You can also see Mom and Kjersti's blogs about the 4th of July. I took pictures and will post some later after I get the film developed. So, there is the very long explanation of what I have been up to for the last week or so.