It's FINALLY here!!!

Here is the teaser trailer for Half-Blood Prince!!

14 going on 21

I am so excited to finally be 21!! I feel like I have really grown up and changed a lot in the last year. I have been living on my own now for over a year, and learning all of the responsibilities that come with that. Sometimes it is a little hard, but I wouldn't trade it. I also really feel like I am progressing with my photography. I don't feel like I am the best ever, but I can see the progress that I am making and recognize when I take a awesome picture. I also feel like I have matured and just grown up this last year. Actually, I think a lot of that also came from my missionary friends coming home. It wasn't what I expected at all. That was a little hard too, but I had to stop being in this state of "waiting" and get back into just being me and living my life for now and not later. I also have my moments where I go a little crazy. Sometimes I don't know up from down, or what I want or what I am doing with my life. Sometimes I feel like I am a big puzzle with pieces that can be put together however I want, and taken apart to form something else again later. No right way. But, I feel more happy lately than I have in a long time. I am okay with just being me and defining who I think that is. I think that is where the decision to cut my hair, pierce my ears and buy a bunch of new clothes came from. I feel like I am still finding out who I am, and its okay to not have all of the answers right now.


So, turning 21 was over a week long process for me. It started with the family dinner that we did a week before my birthday and didn't really stop until my actual birthday. I went out with a lot of my friends, played games with my family, and just did a lot of things for myself. Natalie threw me a party on Friday at her new house. The above cake is the one that she made for me.

Here is Natalie making the virgin margartias for my party. (Even though I am 21 now, I still don't want to drink. Plus, technically I wasn't 21 yet at this party anyways.) We had a lot of fun though. Natalie was so nervous to be the hostess for my party. She kept worrying that people weren't having fun or that she didn't decorate enough, or that she wasn't doing things right. I really had a great time though and was really just touched that she cared enough to throw me a party and track down all of my friends to invite them to my party. I don't think that she even knew most of them.

It isn't a party for me without movies, Scene-It and lots and lots of treats! We played Scene-It Squabble (which is the boys vs. girls version) and the girls KILLED the boys! Natalie can usually give me a run for my money, but put me and Natalie on the same team and we are unstoppable!

Cyndi came to my party and also took me out to lunch the day before. It is a tradition of ours to go to Chuck-A-Rama. Cyndi, Wendy and I have done it since we were little. Cyndi and I carry on the tradition. Wendy did come into town and take me out to lunch too, but that was on a different day.

Tasha and Nathan made it to my party too. They had been on vacation anyways, and stopped by long enough to come to my party. (They live in Idaho) I really appreciated them coming and and it was nice to be able to spend some time with them.

After we killed the boys at Scene-It, we watched the Holiday. I brought a ton of movies for everyone to pick from so that we could watch something that everyone wanted to. All of the girls had seen the Holiday before, but the boys hadn't and they are the ones that decided we should watch it. I LOVE that movie so much and the boys liked it too.

I love hanging out with Kennedy. We have awesome conversations and talk about pretty much everything. I think he is my closest guy friend. On my birthday, we went to breakfast at the Original House of Pancakes. Afterwards, I burned him the Dark Knight CD and he asked to borrow Brokeback Mountain. He said that he had heard a lot about it, and decided that he wanted to watch it.

Molisa and Ben couldn't stay for the movie, but I had a good time with them playing Scene-It. They have been good friends to me. They have a house by that elemantary school on Orchard. They always invite me over for parties or dinner,etc... but they know I am busy so they always just leave it as an open invitation with no pressure. It is so nice! I love not having to apologize to them if I can't make it or if I can't stay for very long. They are just people that like having me around but don't take it personally if I can be there all the time.

I think I was WAY more into these pictures than half of the people in them with me. That is okay though. They all humored me and know that I am picture happy. I am missing the one of me and Natalie though....

This is my friend Laura from work. I invited a couple of girls that I work with, but Laura was the only one that wasn't scheduled to work that night and actually came. I felt bad though. She doesn't really know any of my other friends. She came late, and then left early. She brought her boyfriend and her 4 month old baby, but they weren't into Scene-It and I guess they haven't been getting a lot of sleep lately, so they left. I appreciated them stopping by though.

So, I partied with pretty much all of my friends at various times. Eddy helped me get the Saftey and Admissions done for my car so that I could get it re-registered this week. Torrie and I hung out last night and watched Step Up 2. She got me these awesome picture frames for my apartment. She printed out pictures that I had and framed them for me! How cool is that?!? She also got me some new earrings.

This blog is way too long, but I missed a couple of days. Thanks everyone though for making my birthday great! And thanks Wesley and Elisabeth for the awesome new digital camera that you sent home with mom for me! I can't wait to try it out! You all are awesome and I love you guys so much!

In Rememberance

When I was in Elementary school, I had a friend named Chris. I think I can credit him with being my first crush too. Wendy and I both liked him and we were young enough that it hadn't occured to us to mind. Chris was born a day before I was. I was thinking about him today. Chris died in the summer between 1st and 2nd grade. His family had a cabin somewhere in the mountains. He was sleeping, and they had to go somewhere, so they left him home alone. He woke up and went looking for them. He went outside in the shed, and it collapsed on him from the weight of the snow on top of it.

Chris was best friends with Will. They used to play together at recess. They would kick soccerballs up the hill at Oak Hills. I spent my recesses usually being chased around by some of my bullies. There was one day where I say that one of my bullies, his name was Zak, was waiting for me outside, so I hadn't dared to go outside yet. Chris saw me and told me that he would go distract Zak for me so that I could make it outside. I think that is my favorite memory of him.

So, Happy Birthday Chris. I'm thankful that you were such a good friend to me and I wanted you to know that I haven't forgotten you.

The New Look

As usual, Megan did a FANTASTIC job! I really like my new hair cut. I was debating between cutting it really short again or leaving it long. I settled for somewhere in the middle.



What do you guys think?

Look What I DID!!

And it actually didn't hurt nearly as much as I thought it was going to. I have a hair appointment with Megan tomorrow too, so I guess I'm going for a whole new look.

Today I went and saw Mamma Mia. It was really cute. I really enjoyed it. It is such a girl movie, so it was fun that I went with two other girls. I want the CD now too. Who knew Meryl Streep could sing? Anyways, it was a good day.

Why I Stay

I know I complain a lot about work, but I really do love my job. (Just not always the hours or some of the people.) I really love what I do, so I thought it would be a good idea to show you guys what I do. So, want to see a magic trick? :)

Step one: Pick a flavor, any flavor!


First thing in the morning, I check to see what orders I have for the day. Shown above. (I blocked out the number so this lady doesn't get random people calling her.) And make a list of the cakes that I need for the cake case. Shown here:


I love making lists, so at the end of the day, I can see what I have accomplished. It also helps me so know what I need to do. I start by writing what sizes I need, then what flavors on what kind of cake, what color to frost it and then how I want it decorated. I check it off when I have it built, I underline the color I wanted it frosted after I have frosted it, and then I cross out the whole thing when I am done. Anyways, back to the magic trick!




Okay, so the pick any flavor part comes in right here. All of our ice cream comes in these three gallon tubs, and it is my job to make that into a cake. So, this lady happened to want Mint Chocolate Chip. I grab this tub, let it sit out for a little while so that it isn't rock hard, and then cut it down into workable portions.


I have this little half circle, metal gadget that has a razor in the center and a metal wire on the other end of the circle. So, I take the razor and cut all around the tub. Then I take the wire and pull it through the tub to make the different cuts. See:


Okay, back to the order. The lady ordered a half sheet cake, with the mint ice cream and white cake. And she wants SpongeBob on it. Okay. No problem! The first step is done now,

Step 2: Bring out the cake!



I cut the cake into the right size, and then place it on the ice cream. I get to make circles become squares all the time. Here's how:




I cut off all the extra ice cream with my giant-knife thing, so that it looks like this:


Step Three: Frosting, anyone?



We frost our ice cream cakes with either vanilla or chocolate ice cream. If I need another color, like with SpongeBob, then I have to add dye. Frosting is actually the hardest thing about doing cakes for me. It looks easy, but it actually takes A LOT of practice to be any good at it.





At this point, I have to let it freeze FOREVER! I hate it when people ask me how long it takes to make an ice cream cake. Because the answer is: I have no freakin' idea how long it takes to make just one! It is completely impractical to only make one at a time. Since they are made out of ice cream, and I have to let things soften before I can make it do anything else, I let it get soft, and then freeze it again, over and over. So, I make my list, and on a good day, just build them all, then by the time I'm done building them, I can start icing the ones that I built first because they are frozen enough. Then by the time I'm done frosting all of them, then I can start decorating the first one that I finished frosting. So, remember my cake list for the case? That list translates into this:




Sorry, I know that last one is a little dark, but I think that you get the general idea. The first pictures is all of the cakes in my "Flash" freezer, and then the second two are the cakes in the back Walk-In Freezer because there wasn't anymore room in the Flash. In the mean time, while I am building all of these, I have to wave my hand to pop out SpongeBob.


Which, I think, turned out rather well. So, Happy 8th Birthday Oz! (I took the picture before I wrote on it.) But, that leads me to my favorite part.

Step 4: Abracadabra!














A closer look:








And that is why I stay. Because how much I love doing this out-weighs the days where I don't. I will post some more pictures of my cakes later. This was one day, but there is a lot more that I can do.

-P.S. Thanks to Wesley for giving me this digital camera so that I could take all these pictures. :)

The Dark Knight

I don't think that I can even begin to explain to you how much I loved this movie! It was so awesome! First, I have to say that Heath Ledger was amazing!! It doesn't even sound like him the entire movie, and he gets into character so well that I only stopped once or twice to think about that it was actually Heath Ledger and how sad it was that he died. Can they give out Academy Awards for Best Actor even if that actor is dead? He is an amazing villian. He is very sinister and evil, but I can't help but to laugh at him too because he is so crazy. I thought it was really cool that at the end of the movie, it says, "In Memory of Heath Ledger."





Second, the plot is awesome. I didn't notice that the movie was almost three hours long! I saw the 12:30 showing last night, so I was up really late, but there was never a dull moment. Geoffrey was actually a lot better at predicting what was going to happen than I was since he knows more about the cartoons and the comics. Since all the trailers only showed the Joker, I had no idea that Two-Face was even in it too until he pointed it out to me.




I was a little irritated that they changed Rachel from Katie Holmes to Maggie Gyllenhall, but she did well with the part. I just hate it when they change characters in the middle of things when all of the other characters are still the same. I kind of think that if you have to change the actor or actress for the part, they should be a new person all together, not the old one. Oh well though. It worked.




Last, but not least, the music is awesome!! It is by mine and Allie's favorite composers, Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard! I could tell pretty much right off. It was especially apparent to me at the end though. There is this awesome monologue (I'm not telling you by who so I don't ruin anything) and the music that plays is similar to my favorite one from the Da Vinci Code. So awesome!! I loved it. It gave me chills and it was a great way to tie off the movie.



I'll go again with anyone that wants to go!!