a birthday wish

rach and me.

today is my dear friend rachel's birthday. i thought i would say a few words about this her today.

rachel and i first met about 2 1/2 years ago through a mutual friend. i was drawn to her in an instant. she is a remarkable person full of joy and love. she is always positive and has a very lovable laugh.

she has been the kind of friend i've needed for a very long time. she's helped me through a lot and has always been a shoulder for me to cry on. we've been through some interesting times together from country dancing nights to herding a group of our little flesh eating vulture efy kids. i will always remember how much fun i have with this girl.

here's to you rachel. i wish you a wonderful 22nd birthday. may it be full of friends, family, love, and of course cake (please eat some for me since i can't...). i love you girl to the end. thanks for everything. you deserve the best.

another home for me.

italia.

this past spring i had the amazing opportunity to travel to europe on a study abroad with byu-idaho. i got to see so many new places that i never imagined i would see in this life. my favorite by far was italy. there are so many things i miss about this place.

- i miss the smell of fresh baked bread

- i miss the gellato that will never be as good here in america as it is there

- i miss your pizza that wasn't american pizza

- i miss your history

- i miss the people...they were so nice

- i miss the feeling of being able to do anything because i was somewhere new

- i miss my friends

- i miss the nuns

- i miss the culture

- i miss the chocolate

- i miss the san lorenzo market

- i just miss you italy

one day i hope to be back. italy taught me so much about life. it taught me to be grateful for the many blessings i have been given. it taught me to appreciate the art that i was seeing and to realize what the artists went through to create it. they sure didn't have mac computers to do all that back in the day. most of all it taught me how to love something that i've never known before.

day 3...

i must admit this cleanse has been hard! i didn't realize how much sugar i was consuming until i did this little cleanse of mine. it's usually at night that both my mom and i get out the ice cream and party. i must say the nights are hard! i find myself wanting my sugar fix. I have found a few solutions though to help this sugar monster within me.

• chocolate cherrios...they sound gross, but they are actually not too bad
• fruit...which i love anyways
• vitamin water. love.

sugar, you will no more be a temptation to me.

booyah.

as for other things...found out the price for my gym pass...yikes, probably not going to happen. i will have to do some more researching and what not before i make a final decision. i might just have to resort to running outside in the 20 degree weather...maybe? if that's the case, i will have to put my running shoes by my door so i trip over them every time i get up in the morning.

started my job today as a communications intern for a marketing company. i'll be doing some part-time design work for them. i'm terrified! i sat in the office this morning to sign papers and go over a few of the projects that i'm going to be taking on...holy crap. never thought i would be more terrified to step into the real world as i was today. i kind of wanted to get out of my chair and just run. to quote the song that is ironically playing...

it sucks to grow up.

funny how life does that to ya.

then again, life goes on.

Day One Report

So I did pretty good today. There were a few times I wanted to reach for the Dr. Pepper in the fridge, but I resisted. I did shove like 6 M&M's in my mouth earlier today without even thinking about it! I don't usually do that anyways. I was at church talking to some friends and before I knew it my hand was going towards my mouth with little chocolate candies in it. Well, I guess the beginning isn't always perfect right? Hopefully it wont happen again and I'll be smarter! Otherwise day one has been a success. Only 29 more days to go. Oh boy...

30 Day Cleanse

I'm a big fan of the Ellen show, and over this past month she's been on this sugar cleanse. This is usually the time of the year that I feel sluggish and somewhat crappy. I owe thanks to all the holiday snacking that seems to continue on through til May. Especially now that I'm home, my Mom has goodies out everywhere so it's very tempting to just snack away all day long.

I've decided that I'm going to do a 30 day cleanse myself. Starting tomorrow, Sunday February 21, I am going to refrain from eating any candy, cake, cookies, or drinking pop. The pop will be a hard one since my family is huge on that and it's always in the house. There was one point where I had gone almost a year without drinking any soda. Let's see if I can get back to that!

As far as the fitness goes, I'm working on trying to get a good deal with Life Time Fitness. Hopefully I can get a cheap membership or else I'm going to have to find a creative way to exercise while living in the frozen tundra.

Goodbye sugar!! Hopefully I wont need you when it comes to junk food after 30 days.

Baby Announcements

I had the wonderful opportunity to help my friend out with making some baby announcements of her little guy! It was so fun being able to create this announcement. Here are the finals I made for her:

This is the one my friend chose to use! I was so excited that she liked all my designs. It helps :)

Finally Here.

So, I've been wanting to create my very own blog for the longest time now. I've been managing my family's blog, which turned into being just mine, but I wasn't able to switch the URL to something that belonged to me. Well, since I got a new email, I decided it was about time I start the long awaited blog of mine.

A little about me. I'm a young, single adult who strives everyday to make something of myself. I am currently living with my parents and younger siblings while off-track from school. I guess some could say I'm a struggling (starving) art student who is trying to make it in the design program at school. Art is a brutal major, yet I love it with all my heart, just like I love my iMac computer.

I sent my best friend off on an 18 month long mission for our church back at the beginning of January. She's serving the Lord in the South and is loving it. I sure do miss her a lot. I have never had to give up someone who I talked to constantly about everything. She was my go to person. That first month was like I was stuck in a cloud everyday. I was surrounded by family and other friends, which helped immensely. Nothing though would bring my best friend back. It's been almost 2 months and things have been getting better and better each day. I can't believe she's already been out for that long. I'm crossing fingers that time will pass by faster then it did in January. Of course, being home with nothing to really do isn't helping!

I've made a decision to accomplish a few things while living at home for these 5 months. Here's what I want to do:

- Learn how to play the guitar

- Read the books on my bookshelf that I have yet to touch

- Design at least 8 new pieces (I've already got 1 done!)

- Pick up running a.k.a. get into shape

I'm going to use this blog as well the track my progress on those things. Hopefully this will be motivation for me to get crackin' and stop sitting on the couch watching non-stop NCIS episodes! I do love my NCIS though...maybe on occasion?

Here's to new beginnings! I sure do love them.