One Day I Moved to Provo, UT

THE HAPPY VALLEY!!!

Approximately 60 weeks ago, I moved to Provo, UT. I was 22, slightly depressed, and going nowhere in life. Well, I thought so. 

One night, I was at FHE and my friend Kira decided to inform me that her sister, Miranda, was in need of a roommate. This was a normal conversation with me and the Johnson family. Miranda had been trying to get me to move in with her for the last 3 years. This time was different though. At the time, I was feeling stagnant... or depressed. I don't know which. Some of my best friends were about to get married, others where leaving for Rexburg to further their education, or some of them were about to graduate college. *pity party ahead* Me on the other hand... not dating, dropped out of college, and working a part time job in retail. I'd hit rock bottom. I don't really know what my parents thought of me. Honestly, I didn't want to know. I felt like a failure and that was that.

Back to my story.

I quickly text Miranda that night and asked if i could live with her. That next week I had to try to come up with a plan to see if i could even support myself. I spoke to my parents and they gave me their blessing. I spoke to my manager and she gave me her blessing by telling me that if things didn't work out, then i could go back, no questions asked.

October 4, 2013, I packed up my car and started driving to little ol' Provo, Utah. The place where marriage hungry, straight lace, uptight people moved. Sammi and Cassidy were my road-trip buddies. Sammi and I had originally planned to visit our friends in Utah. Now, instead of going back home with her, she'd be dropping me off. Stephanie and Emil were nice enough to let us crash in their tiny apartment for the weekend and drive us to SLC to go see conference.

It was the most terrifying thing I'd ever done. I quickly found a job, eventually made some friends, who became my Utah family, and started a new journey. That's where I am now. If you ever wonder what I'm doing, just read a post or two and meet the people I'm with day in and day out.

One Day? More Like 1,095 Days Later...

Hello friends!

It has been exactly 1,095 days since my last post. Yes, I really did the math. even then, my last post was a guest post from a friend. Anywho, last time i posted something, it was about my 21st birthday. Well, I am now 24. I'm both more and less mature than when I last shared details about my life. I've made some adult decisions and made some childish mistakes... Lets be honest, i don't remember the mistakes, I try to black out those trying times in my life.

Moving on, I just wanted to say hello again. I updated the look of my blog. I rewrote my silly "About Me" tab. Changed the font and color of the text. I'm basically a new person.

Lets add a picture... because who doesn't like pictures?

One day I went running

(Hey everyone! My name is Rachel and normally I blog over here. Maggie asked me to “tell about a really good/fun/fantastic/life changing day”. This is my attempt at that)

One day i went running.

It was August 27th. I know, I know, it was forever ago.
The day was cloudy and misty in San Leandro. Not exactly the conditions I had been anticipating. I was wearing a tank top and shorts. Lucky me. Thankfully I was excited because I was about to run my first half marathon. But I was nervous because I was about to run my first half marathon. What if I fainted? Or threw up? Or got eaten by a shark? Or had a foot cramp? The possibilities of tragedy were endless.

Thankfully the closer I got to the race the calmer I became. By the time the countdown for the start arrived I was geared up. I was freezing but geared up. Sometimes I wish I had brought my camera with me on the actual race (like Zooey Deschanel in Yes Man) so I could remember better, but I think I remember it pretty well.

I remember the unexpected smell of black licorice as I traversed the trail. I remember the eternally long bridge with a bicyclist slowly cycling behind me because it was too narrow for him to pass. I remember the girl in the green tutu. I remember the soggy marshes. I remember when the first runner passed me on his way back (I was on mile 4 while he was on mile 9). I remember trying to drink at the halfway station and getting most of the water down my front because my mouth didn’t want to do anything but breathe. I remember hesitating to pass people after I had been tailing them for a while. Were they getting slower or was i getting faster? I still don’t know.


It was exciting. It was exhilarating. It was exhausting. By mile 11 all I wanted was to be done. So I started speeding up. I passed the girl I had been tailing for the last 4 miles. I remember thinking “the faster you go the faster you’re done” and “finish strong”. So the closer I got the faster I ran. Until I was at the park where we had first started; and then I started sprinting. As I closed in on the crowd they roared with applause and cheers by the sheer awesomeness of the feat I had just accomplished (or because they cheered and applauded everyone who finished. You decide). As I crossed the finish line I quickly slowed to a stop. A stranger took the timing device off my ankle and my parents ran to greet me with hugs. I was sweaty and dirty and my legs felt like jello. But I was finished. I had done what I had set out to do.

And it wasn’t 100 miles. Or 50. Or even 26.2. But it was an accomplishment. And I’ll never forget it.

One Day I Went to a Football Game... (profesh status)

Kelsey is right. I've been slacking. My last post was three months ago and I have at least five drafts just waiting to be finished. Let's cut to the chase.

November 6th was my 21st birthday... Yay! My family decided to take me to a Raider game. I know what your thinking, Why do they hate me so much, right? Well if you have the mentality of its-the-thought-that-counts, then it's not so bad. You see, the fam is a big football/raider fan. I took one for the team and stuck it out so i could spend my birthday with them. I got to see my lovely cousin who i haven't seen in months. I got to eat delicious food that my parents made (okay, so i get that everyday). I was able to have the tailgating experience with friends and family. I even saw people I haven't seen since high school. I'm not gonna lie, it was a little weird that my uncle hangs out with people i know/knew. But what's new?

There was only one person missing... Norma. That little ray of sunshine is in Texas. I had the crazy older one, i was just missing the awkward younger one.

This is us pretending to hug her. Yea, I know. We're weird.

Anyway, tailgating was pretty fun. I made lots of new friends. The game itself was interesting. It was going good til the last quarter, then the Raiders completely lost it. What's new, right? My favorite part was half time. Apparently it was military appreciation day. Have y'all seen the show Coming Home? Google it. All I'm gonna say is be sure to watch it in March. I was there when it happened. Yes, i was a smidg emotional. It was great. What wasn't great was the 2 hours it took to get out. I'm not a fan of crowds.

That's it for now. I had some fun. Next is a Niner game with the other side of my family. The End. :)

One Day I had a Sister from Catalunya...

I'm back! Things have been super crazy the last two months. First I had an exchange student from Spain. Then i went to girls camp for a week as the Recreation assistant. Now I'm just having lots of fun because i finally feel like summer has arrived. Now lets get back to Miss Ivet.

This is Ivet.

She was our exchange student this year, and can i just say, she is just amazing! Funny thing, today is her birthday. So here is a birthday shout out to her.

I helped out alot with her class. I went on some of her trips, played taxi, and took her places i wanted her to see. We went to places like Sacramento, SanFrancisco, Yosemite, the Oakdale Cheese Factory, and Sausalito. I also met some of her classmates whom i just adore.

She's super awesome. We taught her how to make rice crispies, oatmeal, and pancakes. She taught us how to make something called "tortilla de patata" (It's pretty much a potato and onion omelette). She really loves fruit and (all) baked goods.

She's wonderful and I will always remember our great times together. :)

One day I Went On A Roadtrip...

It's really quite horrible that I don't really know how to start this blog. I've already erased the first sentence about 5 times... Vicki's roommate, Cheyenne, went to Hawaii. The thing is, when she left she had to leave from LAX. Vicki, being the nicest person on Earth, volunteered herself to drive her roommate to LA. When Vic was telling Bre and I about this plan, we thought she was crazy for wanting to go by herself. Vicki eventually called and asked if i wouldn't mind driving with her so she wouldn't be alone. I, of course, gladly accepted.

We got to a late start due to a last minute crisis with Vic's roommate but we eventually hit the road around 8pm. We went down I-5 because you really can't go wrong when your going straight. Around 1:30am, Cheyenne asked Vic to look up directions to LAX from her smart phone. Vicki grabbed Cheyenne's phone and spoke into it saying, "destination LAX." I know, you'd think that what she said was correct... Wrong! Here is where is all begins...





We're following the directions from Cheyenne's phone and we think all is going well until her phone says, "You have reached your destination." We were a bit confused. We looked around and we didn't see any planes, we saw a plethora of homeless people, and we saw a bunch of buildings that SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN THERE! At this point Cheyenne gets a little frustrated and she gets her phone and asks for directions to the Los Angeles International Airport. Around 2:30am, we finally get there. Task #1 was officially accomplished.

Our next step was to find our way to Vic's cousin's house. We didn't have directions, my phone was dead, and Vicki didn't want to call her cousin because it was so darn early in the morning. Well now, let me tell ya. That's not exactly the best situation to be in. We kinda get directions from Cheyenne's phone which was dying (still not the best idea) and we're off!

As we're driving, I'm feeling a bit uneasy because I don't know where I am and I'm super tired. Anyway, I'm assured by Vic that she knows exactly where we're at and we'll be there in 30 minutes tops! About 45 minutes later she's angry because we hadn't found our turn-off yet, but soon after we see the huge sign that says Santa Ana so, we go in that direction. Once we hit San Clemente (Google it), I told her to stop to get gas and to turn around because i don't want to go any more down south. We head back up to Anaheim, pull over and finally call her cousin. To skip the rest, we finally get to her cousin's house at 5:45am. I know that for sure because i called my dad to let him know we arrived safe and he told me he was already at work.

  

So that's my story. And that's only getting there. I didn't even mention what we did while we were there or the drive back. Maybe that can be a part 2 to this post. It was a unique experience and i wouldn't mind going far distances with my friends again... I know Breanna and I are trying to plan one for this summer. :)

PS. all these pictures are from the way back.

One Day I Spent The Day With Maggie... (Kelsey Edition)

Hello my fellow Maggie followers! My name’s Kelsey Marie from Daydreams Of A Silly Girl and I’ve been asked to guest post in Maggie’s blog! Yeah! It took me a while to decide what I wanted to write about (is it just me, or does guest posting make anyone else really excited but nervous at the same time???), but I finally decided to write about the one and only Maggie! What better way is there to spend my time guest posting on Maggie’s blog than to write about her??

As I thought about Maggie and all the fun times that we’ve had together (and let me tell ya, there have been a lot!) my mind kept wandering back to one specific day that I spent with her. It was, if memory serves me correctly, in the summer of 2010. Maggie and I planned a whole day to spend together. First, she picked me up on her way to school in Modesto (where we planned to spend the day for convenience’s sake). I didn’t actually go to class with Maggie, but I sat outside her classroom and waited until she got out. Then we went to Subway to grab some lunch for ourselves and headed off to my mom’s work so we could eat with her. Oh that was fun! Lunch with my momma and best friend…yep, our day was off to a great start already!

After lunch, Maggie and I drove to our favorite store (which to the eternal breaking of our hearts is out of business) BORDERS! We had been talking for a while about how wonderful that store is-all the books, the comfy chairs, the smell of the coffee, the calming atmosphere-can you see why we loved that place?? We both agreed it was an amazing store and that we wanted to spend a whole day in the store just browsing and reading…so that’s what we did. We looked around the store for hours-reading parts of good books we liked, checking to see if new ones we had our eyes on were in stock, and picking up random books we never would have looked at. We spent quite a lot of time in the foreign section looking at traveling guides and language translators. We had a blast reading some of the things those books taught and trying to pronounce the phrases in our best foreign accents..

I’m not all too sure what we did after that. Probably drove back home and hung out for a while. But that day is so special to me, not because it was some huge adventure, but because I was with a best friend doing things that we loved, being ourselves, and enjoying each other’s company. That’s what I love about Maggie. I never feel that I have to hide anything or part of who I am. I don’t have to pretend to be excited about something, or happy, or anything else. I can wear my heart on my sleeve with this girl and she is always there beside me no matter what I do. I love my Mags very much and I’m so grateful that I have her in my life. She is one of those rare type of friends that is completely understanding and accepting of those she loves and the love and honesty that flows between our friendship is very precious to me. I don’t know what I’d do without Maggie in my life. She’s truly great and I love those crazy random days we have driving around town listening to country and stopping in stores or anywhere else for no other reason than we are bored and we can.

One Day I Spent The Day With Maggie…and it was a great day!..

One Day I Was in the Dance Festival...

 Tyff's a dancer. With that being said, she was asked to be apart of the dance festival that our Church was putting on. (It's was a free event so anybody and everybody could see.) They also asked if she would be oh-so-willing to help put together a routine for the YSA's to perform. (Her) Accepting this calling, i knew that i would have to support my dear friend with her newest project. (not "have to" like she made me but because i wanted to, just wanted to clarify.)

Did that entire last paragraph make sense? It did in my head.

About 3 months later,  we dance a pretty awesome routine to Ciara's Turn It Up.

Here's how it goes...

                                         Intro... so dramatic

                                         Tyff's solo. She was amazing!

End Pose.  Pretty cool, i know.                                

                                          We felt SO accomplished.

Here is what i kinda looked like. (no bandana)

One Day I Went Camping...

Me and my friends have had a camping trip every summer for the last couple of years.  We go to this awesome (maybe a little dirty) place called the Woodward Reservoir. Here's the breakdown.

We usually leave Friday morning to set up our tents and what not. During the day we go swimming, ride the jet-ski, play games, you get the point. At night, well that's a different story. We start by making a fire (real girls camp type of stuff). Then we get our s'more on. Once we get our sugar high, that's when the real fun begins. At night is when we start the messin around, we create aliases such as "Moon Beam" and "Star Child." We form boy bands that consist of nothing but girls. We dance around the fire to other people's music because we ALWAYS forget to bring a stereo.

Bottom line is, we have fun. I'm currently trying to plan this years trip. Anybody want to join? I'm thinking of making it a mother-daughter trip. (If the mom's want to go)

Here are some pics from years past.

Enjoy ;)

One Day I Got Frustrated...

You know those times when you get really irked and you just want to yell on the top of your lungs because of lack of communication. Yea, i'm feeling that right now. I've been in a blogging funk lately. I've had many things that i want to share but have nothing to say. We'll let's see if this puts me back into blogging...

Okay, so here's the thing. I got kicked off the computer for about an hour and i've cooled off a little.

Today is just not a good day. It started off good but then things took a turn for the not-so-good.

I want to rant so bad but Tangled is on right now and it's at the part where Rapunzel and Flynn (Eugene... does the way rapunzel say his name bother your too?) are sitting on the boat, waiting for the floating lights... Now she's singing and i can't help but to start feeling better. You learn something everyday right? Well i just learned that Tangled makes me feel happy. How cheesey is that!

Back to my post. I know i'm not making any sense but i need to get everything out of my head. I'm not even checking for spelling errors. oh well.

Anyhow. Blogger isn't letting me comment on anybody's posts. Like Rachel's post, Tell me those painting aren't amazing? I love them! Anyway. This post is a whole lot of nothing but it's making me feel better. If people don't read it i won't be offended but if you've stuck around for this much then that's cool too.

I think i just thought of another post. I'm gonna go start on that one now.