happy thought

today wasn't particularly amazing, but wasn't particularly horrible...i did have a second that made me smile...whilst walking to my car after my last anatomy lecture of the semester, i discovered that it has been a LONG time since i've been outside while the sun's been setting..i'm usually at work or in class..
just brought a smile to my face, and i thought i'd share...

story of my life...

sadly, this is me...every day i go to work..(especially the punching of small animals)

recent comings and goings..

it would appear as though i have some catching up to do...so i'm going to start at today and go backward (i know, where's my sense of chronology?)...so today i went to an orthopedic specialist...basically, my knees/hips have been really bad lately (for you anatomically-minded people, my iliotibial tract was too tight, and that equated to bad news for the joints)..so i figured i'd get them looked at so i can start running again...one of the recommended treatments for today were cortizone shots..one in each hip..
slight confession: i'm not the biggest fan of needles to begin with..but stick one in each hip joint, and i'm definitely uncomfortable..the worst part was that an assistant brought the syringes in about 20 minutes before the doctor came in to actually administer the shots...and they just sat there on the table, taunting me...it was like they were saying to me, "run from the room crying like a child..go on, do it"..and i'm going to say that i was fairly close to doing it..anyway, the side effects currently include a feeling of someone taking an axe to each of my hip sockets...to sum up, i'm thinking that it might be a LONG time until my next encounter with this particular form of medicine...

so along the same lines, the last couple months, i've done a few 5ks...the most recent being on thanksgiving day...in 7 degree weather...one of the most miserable experiences of my life (and that was just getting out of the car)...luckily, i have friends that are just as crazy as me...the 5k before that i ran with my older sister...my sister-in-law-to-be (aka my brother's fiancée) was supposed to run with us, but sadly had injured her knee playing soccer and couldn't participate...but she came to cheer us on, as did my mom, brother, brother-in-law, and adorable niece...the first 5k i ever ran was technically a 6k (not entirely sure why, but i wasn't about to argue), and i ran it solo..it was a surprisingly fun race-i just put my ipod and ran until they told me to stop..in other news, i feel that my younger brother deserves a shout-out..this kid is brilliant, athletic, and quite the popular hombre...basically he shows me up in every way possible, so i like to brag about him every now and then...so a couple of weeks ago, he got academic all-state for high school football..i'm pretty dang proud of him:) while we waited for him to receive his award, the only way to distract my fidgety niece was to take pictures...
and finally, a shout-out to my youngest brother...following in the footsteps of the rest of my athletic brothers, he is 12 and his team is already taking the pee wee (i think?) championships, going undefeated all season, then traveling to vegas for a tournament and doing pretty well...go terminators (and yes, i'm aware that black and brown don't go together..i think that gives me more points for being uber supportive, don't you?)
and that's about the extent of my life for the past three months...a lot of family hang out, and a little bit of trying to not get buried by school in the meantime...and so far, it's been pretty successful...the count-down to the end of the semester is now at 13..let's hope i can make it...

in honor of school starting and summer being over (...sigh..), i decided to catch up on life..i've always been the person who thought school was a total drag and is only in life to be tolerated..this semester, however, i'm finding myself with a different attitude..(possibly because i do NOT have mono this semester, and for once i'm not retaking classes from when i did)..regardless of the reason for this attitude adjustment, i'm 2 days in and not wanting to start crying when i think about going to class in the morning...granted, it is day 2..but it's a definite precedent for me...i only have 4 classes, the most difficult/intense being human anatomy and statistics (yikes), but i'm feeling semi confident that this semester is going to be a good one..check back with me in a couple of months, and hopefully i'll give you the same answer..in the meantime..

college football starts on SATURDAY..call me a tomboy, but i am so excited..i love watching football almost as much as soccer, and i can't wait to see byu this season..also, with the whole going-independent-next-year announcement, i'm excited to see how this season goes and what goes down next year..bummed that i can't actually GO to the game this weekend, but..stoked for the beginning of the season anyway..go cougs..

ok so i'm not going to lie, i don't personally know anybody in the military, and nobody in my family has been deployed overseas since WWII, but...i saw this video, and i was in tears 2 minutes in...i have so much respect for all of those people who are leaving their families and going and serving our country...

"I don't care how poor a man is; if he has family, he's rich"

according to this quote ^^, i shouldn't be a poor college kid anymore....all jokes aside, my family really is bomb...this weekend was so much fun...it was basically the last time we'll all be together for a really long time--my oldest brother, his wife savvy, and my unfairly adorable nephew braden will be moving to south carolina so bob can attend law school..while i'm stoked for them, i'm going to miss them like crazy...at least now i have an excuse to go back east for a visit, right? first on the agenda this weekend were the dreaded family pictures..and, setting a precedent for our family, they went off without a hitch..i think we're going to have some really good-looking pictures when we get them back from the photographer...since they were taken out at a childhood landmark (aka wheeler farm in salt lake), a few of us stayed and visited the farm with our niece and nephew...when it got too hot, we headed back home to my parents' house, where we had an AMAZING barbecue (courtesy of the pro chefs bob, my dad, and my mom) to jointly celebrate the birthdays of padre, drew, and braden...after that we headed out to the real salt lake game (the ride to which was improved dramatically by the reading of a letter i had gotten right before leaving...). it was a great game, and we had a lot of fun..mostly because bob is hysterical to observe while watching a soccer game...my younger brothers (jono and drew) apparently are unaware that smiling IS allowed in pictures...the game finished off with some pretty legit fireworks...the next day being sunday, we went to church and then hung out for the rest of the day..had another barbecue-esque dinner complete with ribs and salmon, followed by 3 types of cake for the 3 different birthday boys...missy and i are great cake decorators...we insisted savvy let us decorate braden's cake (we're allowing her, however, to make the cake to celebrate his actual birthday in august)..after that we all had to say goodbye, with missy and andrew going back to centerville while bob and sav headed back to lehi...i'm going to miss them so much...
luckily, my weekend didn't quite end there...monday morning, bob, savvy, braden and i went out to eagle mountain and did some target practice with the shotgun that bob's apx buddies gave to him as a going-away present...needless to say, i'm going to need a lot of practice until i become a sharp shooter...or swat team member...
however, i got pretty dang good at loading the gun...and braden looked adorable with his little earmuffs...though he didn't like keeping them on for long periods of time...all in all, a great weekend with some amazing and fun times with my family..i can't wait until we're all together again...until then, just call me annie oakley...without the red hair...

so i was at work the other day, and on my break i sat down to watch the tour de france...and in the 45 seconds i was sitting there watching, i stumbled across yet another place i want to see when i visit france next year(the plan is to go to paris for study abroad with byu in april...that is, assuming i can somehow afford this trip and they actually accept me into the study abroad program..right now i'm not worrying about assumptions..). This place is called the Château de la Brède in Gironde, France..this castle is the birthplace and home of the philosopher Montesquieu..brilliant man, that's for dang sure..this place is right outside Bordeaux, and about 300 miles from paris..which is perfect, because i will be in prime location to go there...and honestly, this is another one of those places that a person would have to be insane to not want to visit...i mean, seriously? look at this castle..
so i am planning on adding this to my already long list of sights to see in france...maybe i should just move there for a year or two...i'd get a lot more done that way

not to be an elitist or anything, but any person from byu better think this is as funny as i think it is...

happy birthday, america...

i think that the 4th of july is my favorite holiday...after christmas, that is..i mean, this holiday is all about relaxing, swimming, and celebrating freedom and a country that is unique above all other countries on earth..anyway, this 4th of july was a great one...i didn't have to work (always a plus), and it was one of the last times my whole family will be together (except for dave) for a long time, what with bob and sav moving to south carolina in less than a month..so the morning of the 3rd (the official celebratory day, seeing as the 4th was sunday) we headed up millcreek canyon for the annual rees family 4th of july picnic..normally i dislike extended family functions because the only two questions i hear directed my way were, "so where are you going to school" and/or "so when are you getting married?". fortunately, this year that was avoided, and i was actually re-introduced to my extended family (a much needed activity for me, who seems to have forgotten everybody--no offense intended). plus, there was great food, provided by the amazing cooks in my dad's fam..the whole fam, excluding dave (in new mexico for an internship) and mi madre..
both my adorable niece AND nephew..can't get any cuter than that, eh? (i'm just going to go ahead and assume that you agree with me, seeing as disagreement would signal insanity..) that night we had a barbeque, followed by fireworks in kaysville...complete with gorgeous sunset...
after that great day, the ACTUAL 4th of july had a little less mellow, though no less spectacular fireworks at the simmons' residence..teenagers+pyrotechnical displays=massive amusement...
however, ms. rees and ms. simmons are no less amusing with a camera...
see? told you..so to top off my weekend of no work and ALL play, my good friend kalen and i headed up to willard bay to work on our tans and go out on his uncle's wave runners...needless to say, i loved it...one of the funnest i-didn't-know-this-was-a-date-until-i-got-there dates of my life..it was great, and i became a pro at whipping kalen off said wave runner..unfortunately, today i cannot move my entire upper body..hopefully there are more 4th of july's equal or surpassing this one...

reminds me of a toby keith song...[for those who are lost, go listen to 'next thing on my list']

i was thinking the other day about all the things i want to accomplish before i die..and i decided that there are a great number of activities that will never actually happen unless i make a list of said activities..that being said, here is my own personal "bucket list":
1. travel to paris..there are so many things i want to see there...the eiffel tower, versailles, the louvre, l'arc de triomphe..i could go on for days..seriously, who in their right mind does NOT want to go to paris?
2. play the guitar..and not just play it, but play it well..i'm talking like writing-my-own-songs well..
3. visit hawaii, the cayman islands, jamaica...and several other places with beaches..(and go on a cruise to these destinations)
4. run a marathon..or at least a half, so i don't seem overly ambitious..
5. as part of #1, see the mona lisa in france (and thousands of other paintings/works of art)..
6. see the phantom of the opera in las vegas, and les miserables and wicked on broadway..
7. own every disney movie (on dvd) that i watched as a child..i know, good luck, right? stupid disney vault..
8. learn french (better), spanish (better), and italian
9. travel to europe--especially italy, england, france (of course), spain, and germany..i want to ride gondolas in venice, eat gelato, see big ben and the men in furry hats that never smile, see castles from the 1100s...and etc.
10. go bungee jumping
11. go sky diving
12. go scuba diving
13. own a bullet bike...(though my mother might kill me first..)
14. learn how to sew (for reals...not just putting buttons back on...)
15. learn how to tie a tie! you'd be surprised just how difficult that is for me..why i'd ever use this particular skill is irrelevant..
16. visit every temple in the united states
17. go to lake powell
18. ride a horse on a beach
19. be able to read and understand les miserables and the count of monte cristo in french..
20. own a pair of jordans (superficial, i know...but seriously..)
21. drive an obscenely nice car on the autobahn in germany..mmm
22. become a physical therapist
23. be a mom..without the minivan..(yes, i stand by that declaration in my early youth..i will never own a minivan)
24. see all of my kids married in the temple
and finally...
25. be able to answer these two questions with a positive response: 'have you found joy in life?' and 'has your life brought joy to others?'

ok so some of these bucket list ideas may be a little far fetched...maybe i'll never drive on the autobahn..but..the majority of them are realistic things that i want to accomplish..they are not, however, arranged in this list in priority order, because they are all very important..so, enjoy..

"Running is the greatest metaphor for life, because you get out of it what you put into it"...wise words from...oprah..

we've all heard of buyer's remorse, right? it's when you make a purchase (usually a very impulsive one) and you eventually regret the decision..for me, said buyer's remorse appears usually when i'm getting in the car leaving the store..clearly i am a very poor impulsive buyer...at the moment i'm not experiencing buyer's remorse, however..i would like to call this decision registrar's--wariness...i registered for a 5k, as part of my attempt to get myself back into a semi-decent shape that doesn't resemble anything round...anyway, i call it registrar's wariness because, for the time being, i don't regret this decision...i'm just wondering if i possibly was a little overambitious in signing up so impulsively...however.....if i end up looking like this after my get-into-shape initiative, i will be satisfied that my "registrar's wariness" will have been worth it..

life as i know it...

something new to go with the new blog, i guess...i'm going to try the whole "this is what's going on in my life" thing...granted it might be a total disaster, but i'm going to give it a shot...this last weekend we celebrated addie's first birthday...and just for clarification, no, addie is NOT my child..she's my gorgeous sister's...i can't believe addie's one already...it's been a crazy first year! she's so adorable, i can't even stand it...

Equally adorable is my nephew, braden...he is legitimately the most content baby i've ever seen..i've heard him cry maybe twice...i'm going to miss him so much when he moves to South Carolina in a couple months...he's my oldest brother and his beautiful wife, savvy's son..this picture is from our trip to the zoo..
my summer has gotten off to a slow start, thanks in part to the unendingly bipolar utah weather...i feel like i've moved to seattle, where the rain never stops...i'm still working at APX until i go back to school in august, at which time i will start taking classes for my newly-changed major, athletic training...i've never been one to THINK this, let alone verbalize it, but...i'm actually pretty excited for school to start...

found this somewhere...and liked it..

My bible.

The explanation of why I don’t go out every night fully equipped with my beer, boys, and bad decisions. Why I’m not the loudest, least covered, blondest, biggest chested girl at the party (okay, okay sometimes the blondest). Explanation of why I know there is much more to life than happy hour at my local strip club and of why I choose to keep my top on when someone asks for a photo. Why I know how to strive for my goals, but understand my limits.

Explanation of why I choose to be, and am, a lady.

I know I don’t know it all and I’m ready to learn more. All in time for my 21st birthday. I think this is a monumental time in my life. I didn’t view 20 as adulthood. I viewed it as the second year of my 19th birthday. By 21, I’ll be ready to do it right and as always, do it classy.

“A girl should be two things, classy and fabulous.” —Coco Chanel.

12 things of winter (and apparently, the first 3 months of summer...)

here is my own personal spin on the 12 days of christmas...only i'm changing it somewhat: i LOVE christmas, it's just winter i have a problem with...here are the main 12 reasons that i am totally a summer girl, regardless of how long i've live in utah...
#12: wet hair freezes...up-do's freeze your ears..so even though you don't WANT to get out of your warm bed earlier, comfort and survival necessitate actually doing your hair..
#11: mass boredom..there are only so many activites that can be done indoors, and only a certain amount of time outdoor activities remain fun/safe..after watching a movie every night for 2 months, cabin fever WILL ensue..
#10: windshield wipers that don't work..driving with a pile of snow on top of your car is scary enough..it gets exponentially more scary when there's snow slipping down your windshield, and the wipers are out on holiday..
#9: ice..i trip enough without having to make the sidewalk a slip 'n slide..winter just increases the already high probability that i will end up on my butt somewhere on byu's campus more than once a day..
#8: wet floors (see #9)
#7: too many temperature extremes...outside, it's 4 degrees, and some places you go inside, it's 89 degrees..my body can't deal with that many bipolar temperature fluctuations..it gets confused...then i have to deal with putting on a coat, then taking it off 3 minutes later because i walked inside, then quickly pulling it back on 5 minutes later because i'm back outside..
#6:there is no sun..and if there is, it just blinds you because it reflects off of all the snow...and, it doesn't do anything for your skin...which leads me to #5..
#5: pale skin..winter only perpetuates pale skin(and a LOT of acne, which the summer sun seems to miraculously cure), which has been overcome somewhat with summer...winter just sets you back at square one for having any skin pigmentation ..
#4: shaving...it's so pointless to shave your legs in the winter...i mean, you shave, and almost instantaneously get goosebumps, so your just-finished shaving has become completely useless..and if you're lucky enough to make it through a shower without goosebumps, your luck runs out as soon as you open the front door..and then men complain that girls never bother to shave their legs in the winter..excuse me for being economical with my time!
#3: scraping my car windows..it messes with my personal routine..my schedule for getting to school on time is based on precision...through trial and error over the years, i have calculated the exact number of minutes it takes me to get ready and get to school on time so that i can sleep in as long as possible before i have to wake up and get ready...when winter hits, i forget that i have to add a good 5 minutes for scraping my windows, and it throws everything out of whack..
#2: snow somehow inspires people to park like morons. i can understand not being able to see the parking stalls, but that is no excuse to park completely horizontal to everybody else..
#1: wet pant legs..like i've said before, wet pant legs are the most irritating and frustrating thing about the winter season..it's not like you did anything to deserve wet pants: you didn't pee yourself or fall in a puddle, you simply did the unavoidable, which everyone who has walked outside can sympathize with...you have to have at least 2 pairs of pants to make it through the day, or else your legs are soggy and you are miserable the entire day.
..so these are the things that, were they absent from the whole winter/snow experience, wouldn't make me totally hate winter...but since they exist, i'm not the #1 fan of wintertime..

ah, my very first post...

i felt compelled to copy and paste this particular post because it spawned the rest of my musings on life:

I'm blogging..for some reason that word sounds like it could be synonymous with vomit...i could imagine some conversation somewhere going something like this: "OMG girls i totally blogged last night!" "Really? Ewwww..that's so bloggable." but since I didn't write the English language, I have to deal with the fact that someone named this activity blogging..

and for the record books, I am not a blogger by nature...nothing interesting happens to me (except for the occasional trip up the large staircase at BYU), but since my roommate Jana insisted on something exciting to read, here goes nothing..

illiteracy in sports..

i recently came to a conclusion in regards to sports....i don't understand how so many people (people of the female variety especially) that know absolutely nothing about any sort of athletic endeavor...I can somewhat understand being disinterested...i am personally not interested in baseball...but at least i know who Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth are...but when it comes to people (like a girl in class last semester) who ask absurd questions like, "isn't Michael Jordan was that one black swimmer guy?", i feel that there is some kind of intervention needed..really, have you been living under a rock for 19 years? you don't have to know about sports to know the greats..or to even appreciate the athletic talent that sports take...but if you don't know the most iconic basketball player possibly ever, i get the feeling that there is obstinate ignorance at work here....that or this girl had legitimately no contact with the outside world for 19 years...i also met a girl that asked me what sport the world series was...you might go ask well go ask someone the function of a steering wheel...i may not know who won the Stanley Cup in 1996, but i at least know that the Stanley Cup goes to the winner of a hockey game..and when i go to a football game with girls, i'd rather not have to explain that "offense" is "the guys with the ball"..and "defense" is "the guys trying to stop them"...there should be a mandatory sports 101 class in high school to save me from questions like these..i feel like that would be more functional than Home Ec.

trial and error...

i will be the first to admit that i'm completely computer-illiterate..i know you should only hear that from people whose birth years are before 1980, but here i am...20 years old, and most complicated thing i can do on the computer is update my facebook status...that being said, my first blog is now dead, mainly because i got sick of attempting to change the settings to my liking..starting over was a better option for me...however, i took the liberty of taking my personally favorite posts from that blog and putting them on here..enjoy...

thank you, mono..

in celebration of the end of everyone's freshman year of college (or sophomore, junior, or senior year..whatever the case may be), i have decided to outline how best to FAIL a full year of college..i like to think i'm an expert at this practice because of my perfectly-timed attainment of mono during my first semester...i guess it was nature's way of saying, "welcome to college..good luck making it."
(for those ambitious people that want to PASS a full year of college, my advice would be to stop reading..now..)
Step 1: start out the year well, doing everything that you've been taught to in school as far as study habits, prioritizing, etc..
Step 2: mid-semester, contract an infectious disease like mononucleosis (or if you're going to be all technical, the Epstein-Barr virus, human herpesvirus 4, etc.) from a person you kissed six months before..
Step 3: sleep non-stop for basically three weeks out of the semester, going to class a grand total of 0 times..
Step 4: withdraw from 3 of your 5 classes, with a signed doctor's note of course..
Step 5:attempt to catch up on said three weeks of class work in less than a week, spending about 50 hours locked in your 9'x9' room..
Step 6:spend approximately the same amount of time studying for exams
Step 7: with the aid of 4 different alarm clocks placed strategically around the room so you are forced to get out of bed, wake up at 6 am for your first final, walk through a blizzard to get there, upon arrival looking quite similar to a lost hobo
Step 8: proceed to fail [insert course name] test..
Step 9:repeat previous step 4 times
Step 10: complete the semester more than a little bewildered about the whole college experience
Step 11: start the second semester the same as the first, only already having mononucleosis
Step 12: complete second semester with steps 3-9

so there you have it...amy's simple steps to NOT passing your first year of college..i hope this has been..er..educational..