99 ways to prove I am still breathing

The List-
This is probably going to seem long and boring, but I am mostly writing it for me. I have to put it on the internet, because that means it is forever and not going anywhere and that I actually have get to accomplish it all. I sat down and made my bucket list. It took me a long time to think of everything I wanted to do in life but here it is in no particular order….

1. Swim with dolphins
2. Ride in a private plane/helicopter.
3. Go whitewater rafting
4. Vacation at Martha Vineyard
5. Be in Time Square on New Year’s Eve.
6. Ride on a train.
7. Get my bachelor’s degree
8. Learn a new hobby
9. Completely finish sewing a quilt.
10. Go to the Galapagos Island.
11. See Niagara Falls.
12. Go to all 50 states (current count 24)
13. Get my master’s degree
14. Throw a coin in the Trevi Fountain in Rome.
15. See the Eiffel Tower
16. Visit the Coliseum in Rome
17. Go to the Acropolis in Greece
18. Take a cruise.
19. Meet someone famous
20. Ride in a hot air balloon.
21. Build a house
22. Run a half marathon.
23. See the Macy’s day parade in NYC on Thanksgiving.
24. Go horseback riding along the beach
25. Visit the pyramids of Egypt.
26. Go to Disneyworld
27. Go Skydiving
28. Go parasailing
29. Go Scuba diving.
30. Attend an Olympic event
31. Get completely out of debt.
32. Get married in the temple.
33. Have a family
34. Complete a scrapbook
35. Swim in the Great Barrier Reef.
36. Attend a murder mystery dinner party
37. Be on a game show.
38. Learn to make Sushi.
39. Eat at a 5 star restaurant.
40. Ride an elephant.
41. Leave a $100 tip for a struggling waitress
42. Milk a cow
43. Go through a castle.
44. See Mount Rushmore.
45. See the Mona Lisa painting at the Louvre.
46. Go through every Smithsonian
47. See a play on Broadway in NYC.
48. Visit the Coney Island Boardwalk.
49. Climb to the top of the Statue of Liberty.
50. Throw a dart at a map and go wherever it lands.
51. Write 5 things I am grateful for everyday for a year.
52. Send my parents on a vacation.
53. Go to Atlantis
54. Try a Baked Alaska dessert. (I even got them to light it twice for me. Haha)
55. Make a difference in at least one person’s life.
56. Go ice-skating at Rockefeller Center.
57. Own a 1964 ½ Mustang Convertible in powder blue.
58. Buy a piece of Tiffany & Co Jewelry
59. Help build a Habitat for Humanity home.
60. See the lighting of the National Christmas Tree
61. Donate a large sum of money to my alma mater.
62. Name a star
63. Take a stroll through Central Park.
64. Donate my hair to locks of love.
65. Adopt a child.
66. Write faithfully in my journal every week for a year.
67. Visit the four corners.
68. Fly first class.
69. See the Liberty Bell.
70. Feel completely fit.
71. Visit the Hershey Chocolate Factory
72. Go to Disneyland.
73. Visit Cape Cod
74. Build a dollhouse (think Gilmore Girls style)
75. Put a lock on Lovers Bridge in Paris.
76. Put my foot in every ocean.
77. Own a classic antique.
78. Work for /help start a non-profit organization.
79. Visit Waikiki beach.
80. Visit (possibly climb) Mt. Kilimanjaro.
81. Ride in a gondola in Venice Italy
82. Ride the world’s tallest roller coaster
83. Take a vacation with just my best friend
84. Spend time working with inner city kids.
85. Redesign an old house (like 50-100 years)
86. Have a water balloon paint war.
87. Go zip lining
88. Go cliff jumping
89. Visit Rio de Janeiro during carnival
90. Visit the Great Wall of China.
91. Go on a safari.
92. Go jet skiing (I honestly can’t believe I never have before)
93. Throw tea into the Boston Harbor (shh don’t tell)
94. Go snorkeling in a shipwreck.
95. Become a vegetarian ( I just want to try the lifestyle for a couple months to understand it better.)
96. See the Sydney Opera House, Australia
97. Visit The Taj Mahal, India
98. Ride in a cable car in San Fransico
99. Take a carriage ride around Central Park.

The Color Run

The Color Run

I found out about the color run at least 6 months ago. I was even more beyond excited when I found out it was going to be in Boise. I watched the website all summer long waiting for the registration to be open. It was suppose to be in early August, but then it was suddenly taken off. I was beyond sad. But alas it was put back on, and it was the last weekend in October. Apparently these people have never been in Idaho in October…it was needless to say a little chilly. It was hard for me to get started running because it was so cold. Natasha and her family also ran in the color run, but she had hurt her back, and ended up having to walk it, so I went at my own pace…to be honest I probably would have anyway. I don’t really do all that well running with others. I had a goal to run it in 30 minutes…I honestly don’t know what my time was because it wasn’t even timed: ( who does that? Haha. At every kilometer in the run there was people there to throw a different color paint on you. Because it was a powdered paint, it was so enjoyable to run through the cloud of dust and get a mouthful of it while running. Haha. Honestly the pictures don’t do justice to show how dirty I was. It took a lot showering and scrubbing to get it off me, I cant even imagine how it was for some of the people that were really covered. Nick and Jaima and the boys came down and cheered me on. They showed up in perfect timing, minutes before I crossed the finish line. I had the boys help me throw my pack of powdered paint, and then they enjoyed running into the festival when everyone else threw theirs. Chic-a-Fila was gracious enough to give us free sandwiches after the race. Hooray! I love that place.

Nice and Clean Before

Good thing this was the happiest 5K on the planet, or I probably wouldnt have appreciated being so dirty. haha

Creating my own happiness....

Sometimes I just need to write…I love writing down my feelings, well in my journal at least. I express myself better in writing than I do any other way. Now writing them down for the world to see is a completely different thing. I am not sure why I have even felt like I needed to write about these topics, but I am slowly learning that it is easier to just listen and not question. I am not even sure it will come across as well as it is written in my heart.

I have struggled a lot over the past year. I moved to a new town, not knowing anyone. Struggled with my job, I thought it would get easier the second year teaching, but in fact it has only gotten harder. I have struggled with my relationship with the Lord, I lost my faith in Him, and that I was placed her for a reason in this very town and that it was plausible that I needed to go through these extravagant trials. I have spent many a nights crying, and not understanding, yet this only made me angrier at the Lord and draw myself away from Him, when in reality I know He is the one person I should have been drawing closer to in all of this. I lost my purpose. I lost all my hope. My heart has spent many of lonely days not understanding.
Shortly after my birthday this summer, I kind of had a realization. This is going to be hard to explain it exactly. I know that I am not by any means old, but I got to thinking that I would be turning 25 next year. This will be my golden birthday. I have honestly been looking forward to this for years. Why? Who knows, that is just how I am. But this has had me thinking a lot. If anyone would have asked me 10 years ago or even 5 years ago if I thought this how my life would be right now, I would have positively said absolutely not. I never thought I would be 24, graduated from college, have a professional job in a foreign town, single and honestly feeling like I have withdrawn myself from the outside the world.
I have decided that I need to make my own happiness. I have been so focused on a job that is making me miserably unhappy, I have forgotten what hobbies I even like. I am dedicating the next 9 months of my life to my happiness. Some people may take that as a very selfish statement, but there are many areas in my life I really want to work on.
Spiritually- I am working on finding my Savior again. This is a slow process, but I know He loves me unconditionally and is waiting with His arms outstretched for me to accept Him and allow Him to take away my hurt and pain. I have been reading the book The Continuous Atonement by Brad Wilcox. I highly recommend this book. I am only a couple chapters in, but I have learned so much about understanding the atonement in this life. One particular part I am really liked and plan to use as my motto to help get me through this tough school year is “He doesn’t always take burdens away from us, but He strengthens us for the task of carrying them and promises they will be for our good.” I can tell the difference in many areas of my life including my attitude when I let the Savior be a part of it.
Physically- My physical body has been threw a tremendous whirlwind the past 4 years. I went from losing an excessive amount of weight, to gaining twice as much. Most people wouldn’t understand unless they understood my medical, but it has been tremendously hard on me. I have finally decided to take control of this. As much as I have been trying to lose weight, I have finally decided it is more important to be healthy and happy, as long as I am still making an effort than be discouraged that I am not losing weight. I finally understand what foods will make me sick…not always but I trying to understand. I am finally accepting the fact that I can be in control of my body, and that I don’t have the metabolism of a 12 year old. My roommate and I always argue about why I am such a healthy eater and try very hard to limit junk food; comparatively I have never seen him eat anything remotely healthy. It is almost depressing. I finally understand I would rather miss out on the deliciousness of Oreo’s (seriously a weakness) then end up on my couch curled up because my stomach hurts so badly. I have learned the importance of allowing myself to spend time on me instead of school. I am trying to channel that time into the gym. I love going running, I am not near as good as it as I would like to be, but I am not giving up. I am hoping to run a half marathon by next summer. Keep your fingers crossed on that one.
Socially –Honestly I am not a social person. I am such a homebody it is depressing. I am perfectly content with spending time with myself. I like to have a wing woman to do things with. Throughout college this was easy because I always had a roommate, or a friend or my sister who was always willing to go along with my craziness. I always had someone to go to church with. I think this is why I struggled going for so long this past year is because I didn’t know anyone, and I wasn’t making it appoint to get to know anyone. I am trying to change that. It is hard for me to let me to let people into my life because I have been hurt so many times. I am truly making an effort to try and get to know people in my ward. This is huge for me. Honestly it takes everything in me to go to FHE or institute, or anything involving people I don’t know.
Personally- I really didn’t know what else to label this. I really want to spend the next year rediscovering my hobbies. I used to love to scrapbook, I honestly can’t even remember the last time I finished a page, and my poor sewing machine has been terribly neglected…it is probably collecting dust. I want to travel a lot this next year. I have always wanted to go to Europe when I was 25 for my golden birthday…I think this goal just might happening sooner than planned. As of right now, it looks like I will be going to Paris in February for some training, and then to Italy and Greece in March. (Both trips free). I couldn’t be more excited. I am living by the quote “Travel is the only thing you can buy that makes you richer.” I am also working on remembering my good worth, what I like about me, and what I have to offer other people as positive qualities.
Education- When I graduated from BYU-Idaho I wasn’t going to get a teaching job, I was going to go get my Master’s degree, but plans change. I have had a lot of talks about this with my mother and my bishop lately and I think I need to start working on this now. I am not happy with my job and I think that they only way to change this is to continue my education. I am working on getting ready to take the GRE and then apply to Grad schools…the question is where and what I want to go into. Change is good…I just have to keep telling myself this.
Dating- This is a huge struggle for me. Honestly I don’t date much. My mother always says I just intimidate people with my beauty. Of course a mother would say that. I think it has a lot to do with my shyness, and the fact I unfortunately dedicate myself too much to my work. I had my heart broken pretty bad this year… honestly the circumstances were weird, we dated on and off for the past three years and then suddenly I get a text saying he was engaged. It took a good long day of crying but then I was over it, we both knew it was never right between us, and it would have never worked, but it still hurt. I was recently listening to Lady Antebellum, they seriously have a lot of songs help me get through this year…I didn’t even know I liked them that much, but I have decided this is going to be my new song, "Ready to love again" I am going to put myself out there…yikes.


Now that I have written way too much and way too personal, but let’s be real the only person who will probably read this Brockton…. Who still owes me a toaster, and probably Mal. haha

Neglect...and Summer

Dear Blog,
I know you have felt neglected over the past 6 months  I would too if I was in your position. I promise I have been thinking much about you, in fact I had even wrote a nice long note, then the pompy compy decided to do a little update a –roo and decided not to save it. I promise I will work on this madness, and be better.

Anyhow back on the ranch. I can’t believe summer is already over. I even woke up and pull the covers over my face this morning because I slept with the window open and my nose was so chilly. Frowny face on that one. Anyhow here is a very brief update of my summer.

Sold apartment kind of on accident and decided to move back to Boise.

Attended my first official PTE Summer Conference.

Went to Spokane to visit family.

Brought back an abandoned kitten…turns out he is a clepto. Haha. (Cher got sick and we had to get rid of him:(

Next weekend went to Utah to visit some old roomies.

Had an enjoyable 4th of July in Boise (which included a very interesting liberal parade. :/)

Two days later left for my first trip to Florida.

Spent a week in Florida, got sick, went to Disneyworld, enjoyed the nice
beach, had some swollen ankles all week, and of course went shopping.
Came back to Idaho to proceed to catch a flight to Denver 14 hours later.

Spent a week in Denver at Culinary training. So fun…and exhausting.

Went to my first Rockies Game…and it was POURING rain.

Come home to find out my parents are moving.

Had a birthday… yuck I sound so old now. Haha.

Go to Pocatello to look from them a house…oh ya and stop by Twin to find me one.

Move all my junk. Haha

Go back to Boise, for several days to help my parents pack.

Took Kristy,and Natasha on their first (and probably last) very eventful float trip down the river.

Wento to Starlight Theater and saw Legally Blonde with the fam.

Sat through two very long boring days of assessment training.

Went the Spirit of Boise hot air balloon festival. So fun.

Now back to school. 

That pretty much sums everything up in short terms. Basically it was a super busy summer, with lots of traveling and not a lot of studying as I had planned. Haha.

Dear Twin Falls.....

Dear Twin Falls,
I have officially graced you with my presence for six months. What an interesting six months it has been. I have learned many lessons, and many new adventures. By all means Twin Falls was one the biggest changes of my life. Moving to a new town, not knowing a single sole, starting a new profession which I thought I was ready to handle, boy was I wrong. I have had many tears since being here, it has brought many new challenges and many new heartaches, but I know I have learned from all of them and I cannot deny that this is where I was supposed to be this year.

Why I don’t love Twin Falls:
• They have no shopping. Seriously I know that makes me sound materialistic, but I love shopping and they majorly lack that here. Sorry but TJ Maxx and Macy’s just aren’t cutting it. I miss Hobby Lobby, Ross, MAC make-up, GAP & Urban Outfitters, just to name a few.
• There is an excessive amount of smokers here, I noticed it but never said anything to anyone, but then my mom mentioned it as well so I knew I wasn’t crazy.
• The small town culture is just so completely different than the city. It is hard to explain without being in it.
• It makes me sad the lack of confidence my students have. Seriously it amazes me how many times I here “oh we’re from Jerome, we can’t read, or write, or spell or whatever else insane I can possibly think of.”
• I have been involved in more high school drama than when I was actually in high school… which I am not a fan of drama as it is.
• Mostly why I don’t love Twin Falls is because my family isn’t here.

Now I am not a pessimistic person so I must point out a few positives that I have found about living in Twin Falls:

• It takes me less time to go from my apartment in Twin to Jerome approx. 13 miles than it takes me to get from my parent’s house to Old Navy where I worked in Boise which was only about 6 miles.
• People are more grateful here, because a lot of them don’t have near as much as I have been blest with. For instance I am the advisor of a club and our national competition is in Florida this year so I was talking to my students about going. Literally they were more excited about getting to ride on a plane than anything else. I was shocked about that pretty much none of them had been on a plane.
• I truly know that my administration cares for me and wants me to succeed. They are constantly checking on me and making sure I am doing okay, where when I was in Boise I don’t even think the principle knew I was teaching at the school.
• There are so many unique features to the area. Like Shoshone Falls and the canyon and Twin Bridge, which I love being so close to all of them and have really always loved.
• I know this is one again going to sound materialistic and selfish of me to say, but I like being a young, cute, fun teacher. Basically they all think my over excessive amount of clothes (I haven’t worn the same outfit to school twice yet) are weird, but I know they secretly like them, because most of them are country kids who are very simple and plain. . My sister has always told me I was a trend setter because I was never afraid to try new things.
• I do love being only 2 hours away from Boise instead of 5, it makes it so much more convenient, yet the down side to that is that I go to Boise a lot more often than I probably should.

Reasons to own a toaster

Evidence A:Yes that would be my stove top, and yet you might wonder what that has to do with owning a toaster. Well let me tell you… So once upon a time I wanted toast, so I made some eggs and toast for Sunday breakfast. Since I don’t have a toaster I improvised and used the broil feature on my stove. That was all fine and dandy, and I sat down enjoying my breakfast. Well shortly after I kept hearing this popping noise. I thought maybe I left the oven on, so I went over to the oven and low and behold I actually left the stove top on, and had set the cookie sheet on top of it. Needless to say this was the result. The worst part is that it was touching the corner of the countertop and kinda burnt it. Needless to say it still didn’t prompt me to go buy a toaster… I do have a birthday coming up in 5 months. haha

Shoes, Sheep, Shopping and Seafood!!!

SHOES
I seem to have this knack for finding ugly clothing and yet finding a way to make it unique and original, I absolutely hate having the same the clothes as other people. Basically if I see someone else wearing a piece of clothing that I own, I basically will not wear it again. I also have a love for shoes, eek they just make me so happy. (Typical girl. Haha) I found these two lovely pairs of shoes that even I can’t seem to find a way to pull them off. Haha. Aren’t these beauties? The sparkly death heels ( i am pretty sure they were like 6 more inches that you cant see under my pants) as I refer to them and clown snow boots. Sometimes I wonder what is going through designers minds when they come up with these things.





Now these on the other hand I LOVE… and well bought. I just these little beauties and couldn’t help but buy them. I text a picture to Mallory with the caption “aren’t these the cutest ugly shoes you have ever seen?” she responded and asked if I was actually going to wear them or just display them. How dare she ask a question like that… these must be worn. Well they do sort of look like old man shoes, but I only paid $5.98 for them. STEAL!!!!



SHEEP
I love making cake pops! I just think they are so fun. For Christmas I got the lovely little cake pop book I have had my eye on for months. EEK I was so excited. So of course the first creative ones other than original cake pops I decided to make where SHEEP. Haha. Love it. Needless to say of course they are way more work than they are worth, but at least they taste good, and very addicting to make… and eat. Haha. This is what they were suppose to look like…


This is how mine turned out… Not as cute, and I got bored so they didn’t get faces. As least they tasted good. Haha.


This here little sheepy, I sent to Mallory and said it was hers because he had been “sheard” bahaha. Basically it cooled to fast before I could get the beads on… and possibly legs. Haha.



SHOPPING
I am beginning to hate grocery shopping. Seriously I do it A LOT!!! Not even for my house, my fridge is basically empty. It is all for school. This is a pretty typical week of what my shopping cart looks like. You should see the looks I get from people. Ya people this is all for me, I can eat 8 tubs of Cool Whip… in a day. Sick!!! It is even worse when I have to go to Costco. One guy was like I think there should be a record set if you can fit that all in your car… oh it will fit, and there was extra room, I am a pro at stuffing my trunk with groceries. Haha.

SEAFOOD
I hate fish. I just had to throw that out there, but I do love shrimp and crab. My mom was in town this weekend and Nick and Jaima happen to be in town as well, so we all went out to dinner for Jaima’s birthday. I ate some crab and shrimp and I think they made me incredibly sick. Ugh I laid in bed that night almost in tears because my stomach hurt so bad. Not only did I have awful service at the restaurant they served cheap crab that made me sick. That did not make me a very happy camper. :(

Little Muffin

Oh my goodness, I am a horrible blogger. Well it doesn’t help that I still don’t have the internet in my apartment (it is more a matter of being too lazy to get it set up than anything else) and I usually just want to go home at night instead of blogging. Hmm where to even start-oh of course CHER.
I am sure you are all wondering about my little muffin Cher…. Well turns out she is actually a HE. My bad. Haha. I think he just wasn’t fully “developed” when we checked and I never bothered looking again. I am still not sure how to explain the whole Gilmore Girls obsession. Haha. Actually I took him home over Thanksgiving (he hung out all day at school with m, my students loved it….I tried to keep him in the closet but of course word gets around. haha) and the family all fell in love with him- well all except Brockton. I decided to leave him up there until Christmas so he wouldn’t have to do as much traveling. When I went home at Christmas I knew there was no way I could bring him back to my apartment. He loves having the other animals there to torture. Literally those poor little critters, they don’t have much tolerance for him. He would have gone crazy at my apartment all day by himself. Haha. He has some new funny character traits. He is very much a cuddler, Cher loves my mom, and purrs a lot. He likes the sideways karate chop the dog. It’s actually very entertaining. Haha. He also tries to sneak out the front door…the little bugger. I love him as crazy as he is. The fam is trying to change his name to Ginger… I told them he has already been through a sex change and couldn’t handle a name change too.
Wow it is amazing I can write so much about a kitten.
Guess what I have parent teacher conferences next week, so I am sure you will get a lovely little post then. Bwahaha.