Like I said in a previous post, January has been kind of a blur of craziness and stress (that's an understatement, fyi) and I've never been more ready to kick a month to the curb. Although a lot of it is exciting and (still) developing, uncertainty has never been my cup of tea. So when Max surprised me the other night by casually asking, "So what would you think about taking off this weekend?" I couldn't help but think I married a mind-reader.

We resorted to the Magic 8 Ball last night, (we're still getting used to planning vacations without parents, I guess) and thanks to the answer "yes, definitely..." our plan actually solidified itself. And I packed 6 movies just in case.

Bed & Breakfast: I am coming to you.

Atticus Finch.

"They're certainly entitled to think that, and they're entitled to full respect for their opinions... 

but before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. 

The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience."

-Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

Once the leaves started changing colors, and the sun became a little bit more orange than yellow, Saturdays weren't our favorites anymore, but Sunday nights were. Fall is a favorite in so many ways, but so many of my reasons is simply because of home. Growing up, we had our ritual Sunday night walks, Sunday night movies, and best of all: Sunday night snacks like cinnamon and sugar toast, and marshmallows, and hot chocolate.

It somehow became a tradition along the lines that the first movie we'd always watch together as a family during the season was To Kill A Mockingbird. It was always my dad's favorite, and naturally, became one of mine too. My eyes always sting when I see Atticus sitting outside of Tom Robinson's jail, with his lamp, in his chair, reading his book. It just said so much. I always felt so much. I still do.

This movie, (and most especially), Atticus Finch has and always will be an out-of-the-ball-park-sort-of favorite; and with my dad in town for the weekend, Max gets to join in on the Christensen tradition and I just couldn't be any more excited for my Sunday nights again. Happy (conference) weekend!

september.

It felt like summer sort of came to an end this weekend, (even if it technically lasts a few more days) so we unofficially kissed our summer goodbye; we did nothing that exciting, really, it just felt sort of final with all the rain and the leaves beginning to change colors.

I'll miss our summer months, all our free time for outdoor movies, temple trips, and the few bike rides we went on, (Max doesn't seem to share the same sort of affinity towards beach cruisers that I do, unfortunately,) but I'll mostly miss our long, summer afternoons. It was all so perfect, and it all went by too fast; but truth be told, I'm welcoming the new season with open arms. Fall is great. So we bought pumpkin(and the like)-scented candles this weekend, only because Max insisted, and it seemed sort of deserving... Official and all.

ryan lochte and michael phelps in vegas.

 

Our weekend in Vegas was a weekend well-spent. Cirque du Soleil was insane, (if you aren't a Beatles fan, this will convert you... Blackbird has to be a new favorite.) Eating at Senor Frogs deserves an entire post - like I was an 18 year old on Spring Break, (plus the food was amazing!) And sitting by the poolside watching Michael (Max) and Ryan (Austin) re-play the summer Olympics (Ashley and I being score keepers) we really had a blast. We napped, we ate, we dressed up, we talked for hours about politics (Romney'12) and walked around Louis Vuitton, as if we could afford the $410 sunglasses -- we forgot about home and and just had fun with our friends. We could travel anywhere in the world, but that's always good enough for me.

And lets just be honest: the best part about Vegas is the water show in front of the Bellagio.

(PS. Unbroken = Ended up being one of my favorite summer reads. Louis Zamperini's story is unreal.)

puzzles and shirley temples.

I have so much fun just sitting next to Max, not even having to say a word. This past weekend I had to work relentlessly on a small family project, so Max sat next to me content (for most of the time) watching conference, and trying (read: failing) to teach himself how to braid my hair.

A few weekends ago we drank shirley temples and I tried guacamole for the first time. We held hands as we walked through the grocery store, picking out a Reese's Peanut Butter Egg, a Snickers Egg, a Butterfinger egg, and a plastic orange egg filled with Sour Patch Kids. We held hands on the drive home and talked about what we'd do tomorrow.

We sometimes just sit at McDonalds, swinging our feet underneath the stools. He knows what to order me without asking, and he laughs when my eyes water after I take my first drink of a diet coke. Afterward, we'll work on our (never-ending) puzzle. I don't like that part of the night as much, but I think Max does.

Life with Max amidst school and work sometimes can be really simple, but it's the most special thing I've had (in so many ways) the last 22 years of my life. When we hold hands on long drives, and I answer his questions about what I would do if zombies took over the world (for the tenth time), and he watches Titanic with me (for the tenth time), deep down I always catch myself thinking: I am in love with the best of friend I've ever had. And I wouldn't trade that for anything else, not even if it meant I'd never have to work on a puzzle ever again.

it's finally friday

"Let us not give up on the Lord, his blessings are eternal."

I should steer away from watching Mormon Messages at work because I always cry and that's always asking for an awkward situation when you're sitting at a front desk. But this video I loved, like I do the rest, and I wanted to share. Am I the only one who has a countdown to General Conference weekend? Nothing gets better. Unless you add Cadbury eggs to the mix.

And it's Friday - which means date night, which means holding hands and ice cream and sitting on the sidewalk talking about nothing in particular. And tonight we have an adventure scheduled in the grand old Salt Lake Cit-ay. I'm excited.

too much to say.

4 blog posts all put into one:

#1. The ceiling underneath the kitchen table.

Last weekend, Max and I decided to re-create our own version of the Sistine Chapel ceiling underneath the kitchen table by taping construction paper and lying on our backs to draw a masterpiece! I am proud to say that our artwork turned out to be something that would make even our (potential) children's children proud. Combining that with Italian music, French phrase books (no Italian language books lying around unfortunately,) and eating eclairs... Am I allowed to take credit for all of it? Because I'd like to. For some reason, eating take out pizza underneath a kitchen table was about as romantic as any five star restaurant that I've ever been to... and I hope it always stays that way.


#2. Life books.
No Sunday afternoon should ever go by without working on a life book, listening to golden oldies, followed by a long afternoon nap.


#3. The Cooking Corner.
After three attempts, I mastered the art of cooking on a George Foreman Grill. Since this discovery, Max and I have made at least 3 of our cooking shows we like to call: M2K in the Kitchen. This past weekend, we decided to go with Japanese cuisine (Max's choice) and since I terribly dislike sushi, we created dessert sushi rolls by using Little Debbie Swiss cakes, cutting them in half, and putting a Swedish Fish on top. Voila! And then I bought cupcakes.

(no pictures were taken of the following event... thank goodness)

#4. Quadruple Date Night.
I've learned that the once beloved classic skating (and the even more beloved: "snowball") is now only for forty year old men re-living their glory days and people who most likely do drugs. One more sad unfortunate truth is that all 10 of us young able-bodied adults get tired after only 30 minutes of impossibly trying to skate like we used to in middle school. It was kind of pathetic, but Michael Jackson and the YMCA made it worth it.

#5. The disease.
I have cytomegalovirus. Another word I like to use for mono. The doctor advised that I should forgo caffeine, which will make my parents all too happy to know that the diet coke (or what they refer to as "cancer-inducing-chemicals") sitting in my fridge has remained untouched for four days. That's a miracle.

a sunday recipe.

The recipe for a perfect Sunday:
- 1 bag of chips + salsa
- 2 baby turkeys (only $2.50 at walmart! scorrrrrre.)
- 24 pack of diet coke in the fridge
- 1 90s chick flick movie. (and being able to guess all 90 minutes: annoying girl rock band? check. some bad boy transformation? check. silver eye shadow? check. (my detest for this 90s fashion fail knows no bounds.) and finally...the entire plot revolving around the senior prom? check.)
- 1 love plant still in bloom

And last but not least: this talk is absolutely amazing. Holy smokes amazing. Have I emailed it already to friends and family? Yes. Have I read over it three times since yesterday? Yes. Nothing better than all of the above, and reading over the quote below:

"Anne Morrow Lindbergh wrote of the need to “shed my Martha-like anxiety about many things, … shedding pride, … shedding hypocrisy in human relationships. What a rest that will be! The most exhausting thing in life, I have discovered,” she said, “is being insincere. That is why so much of social life is exhausting."

Elder Maxwell is always worth reading; he is so eloquent and so, so smart -- but something about this talk really impressed me and encouraged me to be better.

And that's about it. Because on Sunday, as Kylie says, we deserve to treat ourselves like royalty. And I guess with a whole week of school ahead, and Monday in the morning, I'm more than okay with that.

the bookstore is my friend.

A boy doesn't have to fight a war to be a hero, he can say he doesn't like pie when he sees there isn't enough to go around.
Edgar Watson Howe


My favorite part of our trip to the bookstore last night was looking over the book The Art of Manliness. It was worth purchasing alone for the list, "100 Books Every Boy Should Read" in the very back, but after I read the quote above, I was won over -- and all it read after that was: buy me.

Other books purchased:
Skeletons at a Feast - by: Chris Bohjalian
Mrs. Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - by: Ransom Riggs

I bought both of these after reading only a few pages (so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!) but I always feel the need to purchase books that I'll actually read after spending money on textbooks that I'll probably only use once this semester.

And now with the falling snow, (you're three weeks too late and not necessary anymore in my humble opinion) I plan on keeping company with my new books and my desire to do anything but get out of bed until I absolutely must.
Happy weekend!

image via

it's a great feeling.

Life got brighter, and somehow, the world suddenly got brighter, too. You know how this is? You’re walking along, and then the sun comes out from behind a cloud, and the birds start to sing, and the air is suddenly warm, and it’s like the whole world is happy because you’re happy. It’s a great feeling.
- Gary D. Schmidt

Laughed out loud several times this morning as I read The Wednesday Wars at work (thanks to Mandy for the recommendation!) I feel like Holling Hoodhood summed up life the last little while, even with the freezing cold temperatures (like 8 degrees?) and the falling on ice part of my Monday morning.

Weekend in photos above.
Don't know if anything is better than catching snow on your tongue, making chocolate covered Oreos, and watching the Christmas Devotional at the conference center with some of your best friends, (one of them who happens to be really cute, too).

november 1.

1. A weekend getaway in Park City = perfect. Apple pie, fireplace games, Halloween movie re-runs and wearing bathrobes over our clothes is all I could have asked for.

2. Hopefully I attended the last college Halloween dance party ever. I'm ready to graduate from college (soon) and college dance parties for life now.

3. Why is it more fun to read books from the library in a bookstore instead of the library itself?

4. My sister and her husband adopted a baby puppy named Boston into their little home, and he is pretty much the only thing I ever think about. Cutest thing in the world.

5. Did you know that next Friday will be 11/11/11? Which means you can make a wish at 11:11 on 11/11/11? You can times your luck by five. And if I said I waited my whole life for that day, it wouldn't be far from the truth.

a sunny disposition.

I hope it stays sunny this weekend, so a red boat and pink swimsuit can become a part of my plans. In the meantime, I have to go get some blood work done this afternoon (not so fun) and I can't eat until then (even more not fun).

At least my mom agreed in going to get a tigers blood snow cone with me afterward. I'd have to say that the one good thing about Spanish Fork (besides the horse on top of "Western Wear and Saddlery") is the island of palm trees around the snow shack.

One day I plan on writing about my adventures in SF.

In the meantime, though, I thought I'd share this video. I love it so much I watched it twice.

down by the banks.

It's a summer Sunday in June, (because for once there are no clouds in the sky, and not a chance of rain,) and I'm trying to decide what hurts the most: my arms, my back or maybe my neck. Thanks to tubing, and thanks to Kyson being the co-captain of the boat (enough said) I feel like if I were to actually get out of bed, I might just fall apart. But that's a good thing.

And do you ever have those moments when you feel like everything in the world has changed? But then when he already knows that you'd rather be listening to the Beach Boys, or you're holding hands because you're a lot more like sisters, you realize that a lot really hasn't? Even though it still has? That was like yesterday.

And as for all the days before that:

I've been MIA because who really wants to sit at a computer typing when it's a lot like summer outside?

Actually, being MIA is mostly because finals start in a week (wasn't it just April?) and I have to try and discipline myself and devote some of my time to studying.

And my mom is back - which means our bedtime somehow happens to be at 2 AM even though we tell each other every morning we can't keep doing this.

(and then we talk and talk and talk, and we do it again)

And there are strawberries in my fridge. So if I'm not studying, I'm eating, and if I'm not eating, I'm bike riding, and if I'm not bike riding -- I'm wishing I was, and I'm probably still studying.

So I still think fall is my favorite, but when it's sunny and warm outside, then I let summer win.

(photos from a few weeks ago, thanks to kylie. if i could put the month of may in a nutshell -- that is what it would look like)

sunny with a high of seventy five.

After trying the cinnamon pull apart bread at Great Harvest the other weekend, (the newest contender for the best dessert I've probably ever had) I decided to make my first loaf of bread - and not just any loaf of bread - but a cinnamon swirl loaf of bread.


I was hoping that it would put my mothers homemade bread to shame (nearly impossible) - so it was unfortunate that the dough tasted better than the actual bread. Regardless, I would give myself 7 out of 10 stars. 5 for trying, 2 for using less sugar than it called for (which is why it tasted more cinnamony than sugary) but 1 star for trying to be healthy. 7 stars.

--

We also discovered La Jolla Groves the other weekend (on a bike ride, of course) during one of our trips down to the Riverwoods. When we noticed the twinkle lights in the windows and the lemons hanging from the trees, we knew we would have to try it out.


So try it out we did! And in my most humble opinion? It smelled like lemons, we were allowed to order off the kids menu, and the water boy was super cute. 8 out of 10 stars.

--

And I saved the best for last, because the last is the best of all the game.


This drink machine has become our treat machine. We stop by every day on our way home from the gym, just so we can pick from 3,029,482,093,852,093 different sodas off the touch screen menu. And okay, there are actually only 101 options - but still... One hundred and one. From one machine. It's like the drink machine of the future. Our children will be a part of this sugar revolution. I am convinced Willy Wonka was the brains behind it.

And best of all? It's at Cafe West -- aka my home away from home. So it's kind of like fate again.
10 out of 10 stars my friends.

The end.

just to be alive.

I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.
-Agatha Christie

i like this.


and i like that i might maybe even meet david beckham tonight, too.
(one can dream right?)
maybe he'll at least blow me a kiss from the soccer field.


happy weekend!


[via ridesabike]

weekend itinerary.

Did I really survive finals week?
Mais oui! Mais oui!
(I've spent all day texting people strictly in French and considered posting this blog the same way too - but that was too much work for a Friday afternoon)

Anyway, my plans over the next few days will now simply include spending an afternoon with my grandparents, making more and more cookies, a chocolate rose ceremony (we have those when we kiss people) - mind you, I will be the one throwing the celebration, the honorary member who is the reason we're celebrating is actually somebody else...
No comment.
I'll be attending another wedding reception for my 7up brother (I plan on explaining my 7up gang one of these days), trying to get through the first half of Atlas Shrugged (anyone else read it? Or anything else by Ayn Rand for that matter? I'm kind of really liking it already) And best of all: packing sunblock and swimsuits for my Christmas vacation in summery New Zealand.

And just so the internet can share my exquisite joy... I rocked my finals. Like...never been more proud of myself than I was last night. You can even ask my mom, I spent at least an hour on the phone with her (while sitting in standstill traffic, which couldn't even bring me down) talking about the cute boy who helped my presentation, and the A+++ I got on it afterward.

Now I can officially say: It's the most wonderful time of the year.

twinkle lights and such.

no matter the occasion,
the cupcake tree always makes everything look absolutely charming.
and when we added the twinkle lights, candles and homemade party hats,
i imagined that if i was little again,
that's exactly what my tea party would have looked like too.

why must the weekend always end?

cinnamon rolls and mozart.

When I was younger, my dad came up with a rule that I never (ever) fully appreciated until this morning. Back to the days of Backstreet Boys, Nsync and Mandy Moore, I remember the very first CD I ever owned was:
"Aqua: Barbie Girl."

I was ecstatic. Even thinking about it now gets me excited. This was the first CD I ever. owned. It was a huge deal. And although it was only the single, I think that it is the one song I can remember listening to more than any other in my entire life, with maybe the exception of My Heart Will Go On. (Don't even deny it -- if you were in the third grade, you would have been a huge Celine Dion/Kate and Leo fan too -- even if you weren't allowed to see the movie for another seven years.)

Anyway, the same day I received the Barbie Girl CD, I remember my dad explaining his new brilliant rule: Every time I was ever given any sort of CD, I would promptly be taken to the store to purchase one classical music CD of choice as well.

Looking back, this isn't surprising. I remember instead of listening to Radio Disney on our way to school in the mornings, my dad somehow thought his two daughters would benefit more from listening to Classical 89 (really, what was he thinking?) --
But mind you, I was only eight, and my sister only six. Eight years old and knowing the difference between Rachmaninov and Pachelbel? For those of you who don't know my dad, let me just say that this rule of his explains him perfectly.

Anyway, back to the original meaning of today's message: This morning, with the rain falling outside my window, cinnamon rolls cooking, all while sitting next to the fireplace and actually finding the time to read out of pure enjoyment, (whaaat? even during the middle of the semester? today has been a miracle I tell you!) -- I was also able to voluntarily pull out one of the many classical CD's I've accumulated over the years, and listen to it while eating breakfast.

My parents always told me I'd thank them one day, and so I guess this happens to be one of those days -- because as all the BYU football go-ers walk past my window, I wave and say enjoy the football game, but today I think I will enjoy Mozart.

On My Way to CA.

Kite flying, book reading, beach playing.
Best friends, no money, and a weekend in California is all I really need after this (semi-stressful, yet still successful) first week of school.

I'm starting the weekend early.

dear tomorrow,

please let me sleep in as long as i want.

and please let me have blueberry muffins for breakfast at noon.
and please let there be a lot of sunshine.

that's all.