I truly used to wish that I was Ashley Olsen. My best friend Sara told me that she even used to pray at night and ask that she could wake up to be Mary Kate. (and if for no other reason, that is why we are still friends eight years later.)

I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but my Olsen obsession lasted a little bit longer than what was probably normal. In the seventh grade my friends and I performed in the Spring talent show and made up a dance to this song (which should be noted, involved karate kicks) only because we heard it in Mary Kate & Ashley's movie Holiday in the Sun. And although it's been quite a few years since that time, I have recently discovered my newfound love for their little sister Elizabeth.


She is beautiful. And her hair. I covet her hair. After my last disastrous hair appointment, I'm printing off this picture before I go in again and will be asking for this and exactly this. I love it so much I will probably want the exact same thing on my wedding day.

And PS. I never really watch the Oscars, but last night I did catch this. I almost cried, she was so sweet during her acceptance speech.

image via

don't carpe diem

Chances are, my days of motherhood are still a few years away. At least lets hope. I have a few things to work on, mainly cooking. I even got this email from my mom the other day after we heard about a girl on the news who only ate chicken mcnuggets for her entire. life.


Oh Kelsie Lou, it's time to eat more like a grown-up. I will be very proud of you if you will eat something new each week.

I don't want to be a grandmother to malnurished children with scurvy. They will be on the news as the orphans of the arrested

woman who only fed her children turkey and cheese. You could get life for that.....and if your in prison you will automatically

be excommunicated, your husband will most likely divorce you and you will be homeless when you get out as a ninety year old woman.

You will also be pennyless. You will end up living in Liberty Park and most likely you will be stabbed to death.

So PLEASE, to save yourself these miseries, eat like a grown-up.


It's a family joke that my children will grow up malnourished or that I will start turning into turkey, but when the boy you're dating includes a box of chocolates with a box of Vitamin C -- you know its probably time to stop eating turkey and cheese for every meal. He even gave me a bread basket for Christmas one year. What is wrong with me?

Anyway - the point of this post was actually to send those of you reading this somewhere else. I ran across this blog through another blog (can't seem to remember where though!) and laughed out loud and even related, despite not being a mom. And I can bet when I actually do have a family of my own, I'll relate a whole lot more.

Closer to Fine

Don't Carpe Diem

both via Momastery

A lot of you may have even ran across this blog before, but I like it mostly because of her honesty and humor.

Now time to make an early lunch. Happy Wednesday!

honeymooning.

I have a huge midterm less than 24 hours away, but that is about the time when my mind decides to procrastinate my stress and studying, and plan a dream honeymoon instead?

#1. Disneyland. And most likely my favorite option of all.


The Disneyland suite includes being taken to your room by a Disney Prince/Princess of your choice, being sprinkled with pixie dust (most of you might say whaaaat? but I love that) and you even get a delivery of milk and cookies to your doorstep! Love. It. All.

#2. Treehouse Point.
Like 99% of all Pinterest users, you've seen these. And they look awesome.


#3. Last but not least, Turtle Bay.

I've vacationed there with my family a few times, (and sneaking into the pool during my freshman year of college was always a lot of fun too!) But this place feels like home in some ways, and the beach cottage views at sunset are probably to die for.

Thank you Google, Travelocity and Disneyland.com for making my life today so much more fun and useless at the same time.

the 90s.

Thought Catalog (which I love) published this article (below) which I love, love.

Things 90s Kids Will Have to Explain to Their Children:

-Topanga was at some point in human history considered not only a legitimate first name for a human being, but the kind of name that would inspire in malleable teenage boys a life-long infatuation. Topanga, in our day, was leading lady name-material. Topanga (pronounced Tah-payne-ga, for those who will have only ever seen in it written down) is the name of the quintessential girl-next-door who will live, along with Feeney, in our hearts forever.

-At some point, we carried around little plastic eggs with tiny screens on them — in these screens lived our hearts, our pets, our raison d’etre, our very own Tamagotchi. We loved them, we listened to their tiny electronic screams of malnourishment, and we occasionally forgot to pick up their poop for long enough that they died a tortured, poop-filled death. They were perhaps our first foray into the life-consuming world of electronics and self-absorption, later to be fully manifested by Facebook.

-Though on the surface, they are the exact same thing in every conceivable way, whether you liked The Backstreet Boys or N*SYNC said more about your character than all of the terrible macaroni art you could ever make for your child psychologist. Essentially, liking *NSYNC meant you liked Justin Timberlake, as he was clearly the Seabiscuit in that race from the get-go. You even liked him with his terrible, icy-blond mini-fro. Liking the Backstreet Boys gave you a bit more of a cultured palate, as there was no clear Diana in those Supremes. Nick was kind of the wholesome, if northern-Florida-redneck safe choice (save for his humiliating younger brother, Aaron). Brian was the shy, sensitive type. AJ was the hottt, dangerous meth addict. Kevin Richardson was mute with sexy, sculpted facial hair. No one liked Howie. Choosing between the two groups was like choosing between two beloved children, but once that line was crossed–there was no going back.

-“I wanna really really really wanna zig a zig ahh,” has a meaning, and all true nineties kids know it, but we must never share it. Like the Illuminati, it must remain between us, the keyholders. With great power comes great responsibility.

Is it sad that I still feel like the 90s were basically yesterday?
When did I get so old?

via

to my friend who works the graveyard shifts:

(but before you die, come visit me in new zealand!)

rain rain go away.

The rain after a glorious weekend,
the melt-your-brain studying for finals morning, noon and night,
10 minutes late to a final this morning... 10 minutes late to a final? might as well have worn a sign on my forehead: most worthless student ever.
and most especially... the fact that I completely erased everything on my hard drive. think: five hundred thousand videos and pictures... gone. I hyperventilated, and then I sat on my bed in a state of denial, completely emotionless for an hour.
In other words, the start of this week hasn't been so great.
And I'm still in a state of denial.

Luckily, there have been a few things that have cheered me up despite the rainy weather and my significant/tragic loss, so I thought I'd share just a few:

-Another one of our "Eat Pray Love" nights has been scheduled for the weekend. We experimented with this idea a few weeks ago, and all this simply means is: we ate, we prayed (well, we basically just blessed the food) and we loved our love movie of choice. Usually we celebrate the end of winter semester by tagging suicide rock, but the rainy forecast might call for a rain check, which is fine when you have nights like these.

-I just found out that Josh Hutcherson will star as Peeta in the upcoming movie trilogy: The Hunger Games. I'm already in love with the character, now I'm in love with his face.

-A YouTube classic. It's funnier after the sixth and seventh and eighth time you watch it.

-Gah. I spent more than I should have, but I just fell in love with my summer swimsuit. Anthropologie, you can do no wrong.

-Three Cups of Tea. I call it, my first reading book of the summer! (even though spring semester starts in a week and I have another 6ish weeks of schoolwork to go)... regardless, the name will stick. Has anyone else read it? In some ways it reminds me of The Kite Runner -- but I think I might like it a tiny bit more. An English Professor recommended it last semester, and I am thoroughly enjoying it already.

-Oh, and lets not forget: we have a holiday to celebrate! Easter Sunday in my book means a fancy brunch of some sort (and by fancy I mean blueberry muffins and orange juice), and maybe even a new white summery dress. I'm mainly looking forward to spending time with friends and family; I think we might even make a trip up to see The Spoken Word on Sunday morning, which is always a special Sunday thing.

-And finally... a new kindred spirit has emerged in my life. We kind of have a funny past, but after he told me we could go see JB in theaters again tomorrow night... well, now we're friends forever, I say.



So perhaps losing one gabillion memories isn't as bad when you can at least look forward to making another bajillion more. Either way, lesson learned.


photo

japan.

After seeing this on a few of the blogs that I follow, I decided although it's a "bloggers day of silence," I had something I wanted to say on the subject of Japan.

One week ago, I woke up to missed phone calls and several text messages asking about one of my best friends* who is currently serving an LDS mission in Japan. Needless to say, I think I said about 17 prayers by the time I jumped out of bed and ran to the television to see what was going on.

Although I have since learned that my friend is safe and is far out of harms way, my heart aches for the many, many victims who are still hurting. Only a few weeks before the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, I remember watching the news after an earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, and although my parents (who currently live on the North island in New Zealand) happened to be in Utah visiting at that time, I remember the overwhelming feeling: "What if?"

Years before that, my grandparents had been living in Thailand during the 2004 tsunami, and although I was only 14 at the time, I still remember the phone calls between my mother and her brothers and sisters, anxious to hear about their parents safety.

So much of what I see or hear about on the news is scary and unsettling -- but it is especially so when some of the people I love the most have been involved. And although I am incredibly grateful and blessed for the safety of my friends and family over the years, I was especially moved the other night as I watched an interview with an elderly man riding his bicycle around what was left of his home in Japan; when asked what he was doing, he told the cameras he was still looking for his wife and wasn't going to give up searching.

At times we may feel like there isn't much we can do, but I found this website helpful -- and especially for those of you who are bloggers (and even those who aren't) this particular website deemed helpful as well. Sometimes even the smallest amount can go a long way.


--


*read: love of my life.

photo found here

dear blank, please blank.

Having a bad day? Need something to just make you smile? Well, look no further my friends -- dear blank, please blank just made today 10x better.

Some of my favorites:

Dear Noah,

We could have sworn you said the ark wasn't leaving till 5.

Sincerely, The Unicorns

Dear America,

You produced Miley Cyrus. Bieber is your punishment.

Sincerely, Canada

(haha - so funny even though I am in love with him)

Dear Scissors,

I feel your pain... No one wants to run with me either.

Sincerely, Sarah Palin

Dear 2012,

Please disregard all the rumors. You'll be fine.

Sincerely, 1984.

Dear Nickelback,

That's enough.

Sincerely, The World

(amen and amen)

--

and if this glee song doesn't make you want to dance all weekend, you're not human.

all i want out of life.

the
little brown pen probably has the most beautiful pictures i've ever seen.

and after spending a sunday afternoon browsing through the entire website, i have decided that all i really want out of life is a picket fence and twinkle lights,

and maybe fresh flowers on my kitchen table.

--

we scheduled our "celebrate springtime picnic" this tuesday because daylight savings means we get an extra hour of sunshine (and that makes daylight savings okay even though i dread losing an hour of sleep)

blacking out.

I saw this post earlier today on Cup of Jo,
and was reminded of something I saw a few weeks ago on Tyler Knott's website.

I think this idea is so neat,
and the message so sweet.


(almost makes me want to add on my male checklist:

-must be able to write poetry

but I'll settle for at least being willing to read together for now)

kind of really interesting.

While talking over lunch with my new BFF Brittney this past weekend (seriously guys, in the most non-creepy way I can think of stating this: it is so much fun to meet online friends in real life! I'll definitely have to explain more on that meeting later...) we started discussing the popularity and amount of "Mormon Mother/Women bloggers" and I have to ask all of you the same question -- have you ever noticed some sort of trend in that area too?

Being LDS, I can often relate to their lifestyle and am familiar with a lot of their religious beliefs and certain aspects of life portrayed through their blogs (family oriented, focus on motherhood, etc) but it was interesting to see it from another point of view:

Why I Can't Stop Reading Mormon Housewife Blogs

If you have five extra minutes, I'd recommend the link above (it's actually kind of really interesting)

What do you think?

i like.

i liked the way i felt when i read this yesterday;
i hope you do, too.

via.

be deliriously happy.

"Be deliriously happy, 
or at least leave yourself open to be."
- meet joe black
(i watched it last night...again. cried... again.
my friends thought i was so weird.... yet again.)

Anyway.

i think all too often i forget this advice:
just be happy.

because when i think of all the things wrong in the world,
everything wrong with me,
whatever else is wrong with my life -
i seem to forget that i have one and a half million MORE reasons to be happy.

so i'll take this advice, and maybe spend a day or two being "deliriously happy."
i think that's one of the loveliest ways of saying it:
"deliriously happy,"
i think you should try it, too.

(photo via black*eiffel)

Love Looks Good On Me.

"People keep telling me that I fall in love too easily- that I should protect my heart, that I shouldn’t wear my heart on my sleeve… I fall in love at least 20 times a day. I fall in love with the sky and the sun and the flowers and my children. I fall in love with smiles, with music on the radio and with french fries and Dr. Pepper. I fall in love with the sound of laughter, blue jeans, accents… Sometimes I fall in love with complete strangers, especially the ones holding hands and kissing in public. The ones who aren’t afraid to be in love with the idea of being in love either. I don’t mind the pain of unrequited love so much, because I think they’re wrong.
Love looks good on me."
Natalie Anne Erlanson
i think i love that.
and i think love looks pretty good on me too.