early bird

I guess I can't say I got up early if I didn't go to bed. I'm working nightwatch cause I traded my sunday morning shift so I could go to church. only half an hour to go and I'm outta here!

the weekend was good, after work on friday I went by damon's and we painted a mural on the wall (i'll have to put up a picture later) and then watched slumdog millionaire (which was great!)
had to work saturday but I got off just in time to meed up with damon, nate, and joe, and scramble out to the HOLI festival of colors. traffic out there was horrible of course, but nate was a sweetheart and dropped damon and I while he went to park. damon threw me over a fence and we made it to the crowd right when they color fight began. good timing. we stayed a while, the place was packed (derek said 15000) and so of course it turned into a mosh pit. and a crowd surfer fell on me. and I got a broken finger out of it. my first broken anything! haha. afterwards damon and I went to austin's, who bbq'd carne asada tacos (my food of the year) and then caught benjamin button at the dollar theater.... a long loooooong movie.

church was great, then I went to insta care to get xrays, and then took a good nap and went to hang out with derek for a while before work.

I love weekends like that. filled with fun but not all extraordinary plans and great people. I'm so grateful for good friends. my best friend boy derek is always the best conversation and advice giver and its nice to have someone like that to count on. haha, he made me listen to that (stupid) country song, 'you find out who your friends are', I hate that song, but he's still on his country kick and watching him sing and act out songs is hilarious. I don't know what i'll do when we end up living indifferent places- he mentioned a possibility of it and I started crying like a baby- thank goodness he's used to that too.

anyway... this is a long one- sometimes these are more for me than anything, so I guess I can write whatever I want.

I probably better go, the girls are waking up...

i have so many posts.

this is post number 136. also the number of my favorite hymn. coincidental? i don't think so.

things are good, i still have no idea what i'm gonna do with my life, but going one day at a time has been a positive thing for me lately. 

spring has continued to be elusive, but right now it's probably mid-40's and sunny, so that's a great stride. i don't want to go to work. 

i love the people in my ward. and the people i've met through the people in my ward. why is it that it always takes me this long to get to know them? (hello, freshman year?) i'm a time waster when it comes to getting to know people. i put it off and am not interested until i just blindly walk into something and then realize, duh, why didn't i find these people before? as usual, my only friends in the ward (besides jenn) are guys. that's just how i work, i guess. in the last 2 weeks i've made friends with a group of guys who have serenaded me, baked me bread, made me sunday dinner, let me watch the office and sports center on their dvr's, spooned with me on the couch, taught me how to change bike tires, given me nicknames, let me color on their wall, kept me occupied during church... why are guys so much easier to get along with? no gossiping, no drama. so nice. 

i miss home- the weather and my family and my sweet friends there (TARA!!! update your blog!!!)

i'm so so excited for summer.

oh my goodness, i love my days off. i've decided i need to go back to school and get a teaching certifcate so i can have off summers and weekends and holidays and spring break and everything else off... because i love NOT working. in my time off this week i've been to the gym (every day!), played human hungry-hungry hippos (longboards and baseballs), eaten about a million oranges, learned how to fix a bike (ok i only held the wrench while he fixed the bike), was serenaded by not 1 but 3 hot looking men on both guitar AND eukaleili, went to the temple (best feeling ever: changing from street worldly clothes into all white and feeling so peaceful and happy), celebrated a birthday, had lunch with an old roomate and her baby (who had a blowout at the restaurant, haha), signed paperwork on a cute condo contract, and i still have today! yoga tonight, more playing, i love it.

i've been looking at the pics from the wedding (confession: i didn't do any skin or serious retouching before i gave them to tasha's dad... oops) and from home and i realize... i nEEd that Nikon prime lens. i'm just not happy with the way the tokina shoots and the files are always a little blurry. i guess it just proves that spending more money on glass gets you way better pictures. at $450 it was a steal for a prime (2.8) lens, but i want the real deal. i'm determined to have it by the time i go to china, so i have to really buckle down and start saving and shopping for some deelz.

i also want a d3... i'm hoping that by christmas it will be lower n price because of the d3x and possible new cameras coming out, but i want that 5:4 cropping ratio. i don't like how long and skinny other sensors shoot. i don't like when my prints get cut off.

(this probably is completely boring and non-sensical to everybody. i'm just ranting about my crap)

and home...

(so these are in reverse order of how they actually happened)

Benton (Paul) played at SXSW at (The Belmont) and he was (great.)

another SXSW band in another SXSW venue. through a window. SXSW is awESOme. you just walk down 6th street and every single building corner curb has a band playing on/in/around. it's great.
rudy's just for (the best thing ever) dublin dr. peppers and creamed corn 
he likes to drive a looooottttt!

jake and my mom

way to not have your eyes open...

yeah he's huge and all.

i love fair food.

sexiest singer ever. deepest voice ever. i need to find this.

so touching...

bull riding is the best. THING. eVER.

that there is a buckin' bronco!

tag team what?

you can bet that when i have a 5 year old, he won't be in soccer or t-ball...

he's great at blowing out candles.

what of the 3 main meats did tara eat? all. 
took him a while to figure this out...
best party idea ever. the kids don't even bother you.

wedding pics...

(i just noticed she has her eyes closed in this one. i have so many similar, and i just grabbed one.. haha)

love black and white

this little girl took her first steps at the reception. she was so cute...

the dance floor...

i know, i know, i'm lazy, you were expecting pictures, blah blah blah.

i'll try again tomorrow. cause i'm off for another 2 days. thank goodness. work has been crazier than i ever thought it would be. aka: the girls are crazier than i ever thought teenage girls could be. 

i'm moving soon. the condo is oh so cute and still in my great ward and cheaper utilities. no jenn. that will be weird and sad but thankfully we'll still be in the same ward and still be having a fabulous summer together. i'm determined to be as pool-minded as she is.

i like a boy, i think he at least feels half the same, we'll see, it's been a while since i've had such good luck with somebody normal. a while like 5 years. 

things are so good, now, if only it would stop snowing and ruining 70+ degree weather, life would be perfectly near perfection. 

Texan till I die...

this trip has been a whirlwind crazy busy thing, but still had everything I love about being home... (almost)

a birthday party out back with beer (ok i had orange soda) and ice cream and burgers and screaming kids everywhere, watching games and sitting around in the smoky heat

running up and down the street with jake at 7 at night, in 75 degree weather, flying his new kite

driving around with the windows down, being hot when you get into your car (so opposite of utah!)

a rodeo with cowboys and bulls and dirt and friend anything and bull riding and girls wearing dresses with cowboy boots and boys in wranglers and cowboy hats. i love the people here

the bluebonnets are starting to bloom

driving to a rudy's just to get a pint of cream corn and a couple of dublin dr. peppers

driving my mom's big truck and feeling like a real woman, and matching every other car on the highway

downtown austin, 6th street, south by southwest and getting to see a provo act at a sxsw venue, walking around downtown with all the hippie cowboy college crazies, bar hopping to hear all the different acts

downtown round rock, the water tower that we used to try to climb, all the old buildings and seeing everyone out going to church on sundays (different churches!)

old family friends that have known me since 3rd grade


... i love it here.
pics to come soon. i'm off to downtown.

3 pic preview...

these are the only ones i've looked at from saturday cause i can't even load them all onto my computer.  my startup disk is full, but i picked up an external hard drive so i can transfer all my pictures from my laptop onto that and start loading and editing again. so these are the 3 we printed out for the reception that night, it was a long day, a good experience.

cali lovin'to

some pictures from my trip to california with kurt and matt to meet hayley. we stayed a day at her house in palm springs and then traveled over to redondo beach where she lived and played on the beach.  good weather, great time...

talk about weird tan lines.

we had visitors the whole time at the beach... they even rode the waves too- the craziest thing i ever saw. also kurt refused to 'surf' while they were anywhere near. 

the men.

kurt trying to squeeze into matt's wetsuit. (there's about an 8 inch different in height there)

he's pondering life. california sunsets are almost as pretty as texas ones.

surfing a sunset

matt talkin' to a seagull

haley and kurt

the great great beach...

about 11 minutes after we arrived in palm springs...

Creighton: (can you at all tell that he is Austin's younger half?)

introduced me to Framing Hanley's remake of Lollypop. i'm obsessed. the song rocks and the music video is hot. i like remixes almost always more than the original.

yesterday i worked out 4 different things/times: cardio, then i did strength training. later i went back for power yoga- the guy was intense, it was practically yogalates. kill me. then i went to visit creighton and his next door neighbors and somewhere along the line 25 people showed up in a tiny king henry living room to do an ab workout video. i am so much more than sore.

today was a perfect day. the kind that gives you hope that winter is over and finally the best time of year in utah- spring- is finally here. (though i heard it's supposed to rain/snow thursday)  i cleaned the kitchen and lounged around picking up the apartment while listenig to my ipod on it's dock with the windows and doors open. this weather makes me want to wear a sassy apron and make hamburgers. the high was 65. it was sunny. and perfect smelling outside. my friend damon and i went for a short hike (he just had knee surgery? not sure why he decided to do this).

i can't wait to go home and see jake.

i'm going to buy salmon for the first time. i love salmon, but who actually cooks fish? me.

and finally? who else watched the bachelor finale last night? ??? ????!?!?!??!  !?! was that a freaking train wreck in slowmo or what? i've loved jason for 2 seasons now, and in 5 minutes he became a big bastard.  and melissa who was my favorite and i was SOOO happy when she won became a blubbering crazy person.  and molly who i was liking but maybe melissa was just ahead cause she's texan, became the girl who likes sloppy seconds.  seriously? break off an engagement and tell her that you're gonna go after the girl you rejected for her and then go make out with that girl 2 minutes (one commercial break) later? how unclassy of all of them. i'm never watching the show again. 

i promise next time i'll put up the cali pics. right now i have to go use the ladies room. and go buy my salmon.

i have a ticket home for Jake's 3rd birthday party. can't wait to be in texas for a few days.

i also just rented this $2200 lens for the wedding i'm shooting saturday. i can't wait to... handle it. it's so sexy, it's a beast and it takes gorgeous pictures.

every time i'm at the gym, i have to see/hear beyonce's "Single Ladies" video, they seriously play it every 12th song on all the tvs. it's the most ridiculous music video you'll ever see: 

but because of the video there are the most fabulous parodies...