Monday, December 19, 2011

Hello!!!

Long time, no type - lots of things to be updated!
I went to Las Vegas with my friend Hailey for Thanksgiving! Her brother, Stillman White, plays for UNC's basketball team, and she had an extra ticket to the Vegas Invitational. It was so much fun! While we were there we got to see Phantom of the Opera in the theater at the Venetian - you haven't really seen Phantom till you've seen it at the Venetian. It was amazing!! Just mesmerizing :D
Isn't he cute?!

Bubbles!!!! (fish from Finding Nemo lol)


Arriving at the MGM Grand

Lions at MGM Grand

Phantom of the Opera!!

Hailey and I after in the Venetian after Phantom

UNC vs USC
Coach Roy Williams

If it wasn't for the flash, this would be such an awesome picture!


Found Sesame Street!

Don't mess with me

Cinderella!


Bellagio lights
MGM Grand!

Why yes, that is a castle in the middle of Vegas :D

The basketball games were Friday and Saturday night. UNC won the first one against USC, but lost the championship to UNLC (yay!!). They were both really good games though. Now if only I could grab a ticket to a Duke/UNC game, then my life would be complete!! I tried to convince Stillman to grab a ticket for me, but apparently his family have already claimed the tickets...like family is more important than me! Lol ;)
Now it is December! I cannot believe the year has gone by so fast! This year has been crazy, lots of milestones in my life. Graduating from college, moving to Utah - one crazy year. I'm excited to see what next year brings!! I am headed back to NC for Christmas on Friday!!!!! I'm so excited to see everybody, and to get a bit of warm weather before I face the very long winter ahead.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Update, finally!!

So a lot has happened since I last posted on here.
1) I went camping in Moab! And though I still feel as though I was not made to go camping, I had a really good time :)
2) I am not volunteering at the counseling center at East High School! I am hoping this will look wonderful on my resume and help me get into grad school.
3) I visited Angela in California!!! It was so much fun!!! I flew into Vegas, and we drove straight to her house (which is very cute!). There we had a wonderful dinner made by Angela, and watched Rango (really odd movie). Saturday we woke up early and drove to Las Angeles, where Angela bought me a facial and a body wrap; it was soooo amazingly relaxing!! Thank you Angela!! After the body wrap, we went to a Wolfgang Puck restaurant (so yummy!) and then went to the very first cupcake bakery in the United States. There, Angela and Eamon bought $80 dollars worth of cupcakes!!! Yes, you read right, $80!!! I still think that's completely insane, in a very loving way ;) Sunday, Angela and I went to a Max Brenner restaurant where we  had amazing chocolate drinks and very tasty food!! After, we walked around the Caesars Palace, and I found an absolutely gorgeous citrine ring at Tiffany's. I was sad to leave, it was a fantastic weekend :)
4) I accidentally dropped my cell phone in the toilet about 2 weeks ago, and so I now have a new phone!! I got a Samsung Infuse (picture below). I had a blackberry torch, but it was a bit too fragile to be my phone - I need a phone that can take a beating lol.


5) I bought a sapphire ring!! It is so gorgeous :) I got it at Kay Jewelers, and I just love it :) Next will be citrine, though sadly not the one at Tiffany's lol.
6) I have applied as a non-degree seeking student at the University of Utah for next spring! I should hear back soon, hopefully they'll let me in so I can take a couple classes :) Grad school is the next step! So excited!!

I think that's about it for updates, hope you're all doing well!!

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Happy Birthday Madeline!

Saturday night was Madeline's birthday party - it was so much fun! She invited three friends over, but three grandparents, two former nanny's and Hannele's boyfriend were also in attendance. For the party, we tie dyed shirts, made duct tape wallets, pinned the smiley on the smiley face (see picture below), had pizza, had tie dye cake (quite impressive if I do say so myself), opened presents, and hit a piñata. Over all it was a great day, and Madeline had a wonderful birthday!! Here are some pics, enjoy! :)

Party decorations


 For this game, each person has their own smiley. The person who places their smiley closest to the smiley on the face is the winner. 

Piñata
 Very proud of this tie dye cake :)
 Close up
 Madeline decided to fix my computer's boring decoration by adding a few more stickers :)
 Madeline and Maya, about to tie dye t-shirts!
 I got a little excited about the swirly candles lol...

 Birthday table!!
 Making duct tape wallets
 Grandparents
From left to right: Kenzi, Madeline, Maya, and Sarah in the back
Playing with presents after the party :)

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Tie Dye Frosting: Attempt #1

   Last night, Hannele made amazing homemade frosting; it had the texture of pure silk, and tasted soooo gooood!!! I am forever ruined; after having homemade frosting, I will never buy frosting from the store again! Anywho, she made the frosting so we could practice making tie dyed frosting for Madeline's birthday cake on Saturday. She made green, purple and blue frosting - the frosting looked great after we did the design! I think the cake is going to be pretty epic :) After we finished practicing with the tie dye, Hannele, Madeline and I ate the left over colored frosting. After eating the rest, we noticed that all of our mouths were dyed blue! Hannele had put a bit too much of the blue dye into the frosting - Madeline's mouth was the worst, even her teeth were dark blue! Enjoy our colorful pics! 

   Ps, I am putting the frosting recipe on here as well, you guys have got to try it, it is amazing!



Our attempt at tie-dyed frosting; I thought it turned out quite nicely :)


 I think Madeline wins in the blue tongue contest :)

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAROLINE!!!

This has definitely been one interesting week :)

  This weekend Madeline and Hannele left for Elko, Nevada to visit family. This allowed me to stay in Provo for the weekend! It was great seeing Grandma and Grandpabill again, they always make things so much fun! I practiced some cooking skills on them while I was down there. I made pork-chops with home made breading, and cooked spiced apples. It actually turned out to be quite good! Grandpabill was disappointed; he was hoping to tease me a bit about my lacking cooking abilities. But in the end, all he could say was, "Dang it, you can cook." I took this to be a very high compliment, it pretty much made my day :)

  While I was in Provo I was also able to visit with cousins and friends. I met up with Mac and Kelly for lunch on Saturday at the Creamery on 9th. I was not only excited to see them, but also to go to the Creamery; it was my favorite place to go while I was attending BYU. It was fun catching up, and chatting about life, school, and family. We agreed to meet up once a month, or as often as I could make it down to Provo.

  On Sunday I went to church with Josh. His ward was just formed, so no one knew anybody else, which was nice since I didn't know anybody either. Sacrament was just amazing, the testimonies coming from these college students were so inspirational. Josh has such a fantastic ward, I wish I could go with him every week! Later that day, I met up with Hannah. It was great seeing her after so long! Even though we haven't seen each other in over 2 years, our conversation picked up as though no time had passed. I left early Monday morning; although I had an amazing weekend in Provo, it was nice to come back to Salt Lake, and get back into my routine with Madeline.

  Tuesday was a very surprising day. I stopped at Whole Foods to do some grocery shopping for the family. Just as I finished parking, a man walked up to my car and knocked on my window. He said he noticed my front bumper (which was messed up from earlier this year when someone hit me in a parking lot), and he said his business was fixing bumpers, and he would be able to fix it right then and there for $220 if I wanted. I was a tad skeptical, so I said thank you but no, and turned to walk into the store. The man stopped me again and told me he had the tools in his car, and he could have the bumper fixed up so that I wouldn't have to tape within thirty minutes. I told him I wouldn't be able to pay the $220, I even pulled out the "poor college student" card. He then looked at the bumper, and said, what about $120, if you don't think it's a good job, you don't even have to pay. I took a moment to think about it at this point. I hadn't brought my car in to be fixed because I knew any dealer would want to replace my bumper rather than repair it, which would cost at least $900 for the bumper and labor. All the bumper really needed was new bolts to hold it up so the crack in the middle wouldn't get any worse. I caved, and said ok to the $120, and the man got to work right away.

  In a little over 15 minutes, he came to get me so I could look at his work. I was absolutely amazed! He completely fixed both sides of the bumper, AND filled in the huge crack in the middle, AND fixed all the scratches on my doors! Still being skeptical, I messed with bumper, testing its strength and I looked under the car to make sure everything was still there. I couldn't believe it, not only had he fixed my bumper, but he took care of the crack, and all the scratches - definitely worth $120. I honestly felt bad only paying him $120, but that is really all I could afford. The man graciously took it, thanked me many times, and then went back to his truck. I feel like someone was looking out for me, because earlier that very day I was getting a little nervous that my bumper was going to fall off soon.

  The rest of this week is going to be a little crazy. Madeline is turning 9 on Saturday, and is having a huge party that night. Hannele and I are working to get everything ready for Saturday. I never realized how much goes into a birthday party, they can be quite nerve wrecking when you are trying to make sure everything turns out exactly right. Hopefully everything will go well!!

  To end this very wordy blog post, I would like to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAROLINE!!!!! You are awesome!! I hope you have an absolutely amazing day, and I hope you commemorate your 22 years with a big celebration!!! Wish I could be there to give you a HUGE hug!!! But until then...


  LOVE YOU!!!!!!!

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Look at that cool laptop!!

  This past week has been pretty great! I went to see Temple Square with Hailey, it was just beautiful! I can't wait to see it around Christmas time; I've heard it's breathtaking. I also stopped by a mall in town known as The Gateway. This place is huge! It's an outdoor mall, and honestly, it could be it's own town. It is massive. It is so much fun to walk around in there, you can find anything and everything you could ever want!

  This weekend I'm headed to Provo to see Grandma and Grandpabill. I also have dinner plans with Mac and Kelly, so I kind of feel like I'm going to a mini family reunion! I plan on practicing some dinner recipes while I'm down there; hopefully they will go well :)

  The job is still going very well :) Madeline is such a great little girl, we have so much fun together! This past Friday, Madeline, Hannele, Adrien (Madeline's friend) and I went to watch Tangled (one of my favorite movies right now!) at the Capital building. We brought a picnic for dinner before the movie started, so we got there a little early to make sure we would have good seats for the movie. We sat on the grass and watched the movie on a huge screen in the front of the building, it was a wonderful night. Madeline also decorated my laptop for me with butterfly paper stickers! I think it looks better than any laptop cover I could buy, I love it!


Thursday, August 25, 2011

Just call me Julia Child...

   Yesterday was my first day off from work, and it was just wonderful! I dropped Madeline off at her first day of third grade with Hannele, and got memberships to a gym (yay!) and Costco. After, I got to see a friend of mine from Wilmington, Hailey, who just happened to move to Salt Lake City as well! We went to lunch at a really cute, little restaurant, went to see Green Lantern at the dollar theater, and then got messages at Massage Envy (I have a membership and had some extra massages saved up over the past couple months). After the massages, I dropped Hailey off at her apartment and headed back to the house. One of Madeline's friends, and her family came over and made us dinner. It was a really fun night!

   Today was my first day cooking dinner. I was a little nervous at first, but as soon as I began, I had a lot of fun! Tonight I made spaghetti with a squash/zucchini/garlic/tomato sauce. All of the vegetables were grown in Sue's garden, and they were absolutely delicious in the sauce! I was really pleased with how dinner turned out, and am very excited to cook again!!


                                          Cooking...


Hannele is on the far left, Madeline (her daughter) is 
           in the middle, and Kenzi (Madeline's friend) is on the far right J