Hiking hard core

 My and Le went on a hike the other day. Best/worst thing I could have done right before work. So this "easy"hike, well it turned out not to be easy. It turned out to be like 4 hours of hard core hiking and occasionally rock climbing. Steep stuff. And you see, we're kindof short, so it's hard to get up the "steps" of the trail.(but don't you love how some zooming and cropping makes me look THAT much taller next to her?)
The whole of the hike was spent complaining, sweating, trying to motivate ourselves by talking about Extreme weight loss TV shows, and talking about little snipits of life- mostly like "guess what I saw on pinterest the other day", "so at work yesterday", and "remember that one time when..."
But the waterfall at the end was certainly a victory. And then we had to rush back down, knees shaking, so I'd make it to work on time.

This face is pretty much how our knees felt on the way down.

 Love the gorgeous moss all up the side!

Cranes and families

Let's get a little personal here. I've been thinking about my grandma today. Mostly because in a couple of days- for the first time in a while, and probably the last time in a while, all of my family will be under the same roof. I mean my little family of siblings and parents. And then we're going to be quite spread out. And so I've been thinking about families. And so...
A year or so ago my Grandma passed away. She saw it coming. So before she left she went to each of her children's houses for a goodbye dinner. I'm not sure what went down at the other houses- but my lil' sister had been working for a long time on a paper crane project. The story has it that if someone is given 1,000 paper cranes, they get a wish. So for years she'd been working on these cranes for my dying Grandma. I'm sure most people in her situation would have liked to wish to get better. But when presented with that last crane and when asked what her wish was, she just wanted for her family to be strong. To be strong as a family, and to be strong in the church. That's it.

So that's what I've been thinking about. Being strong as a family. So as the boxes pile into trucks and miles are about to separate us for a while- here's to my own family staying strong and together and staying best friends. Because seriously- they ARE my best friends.

And just because I love videos...some recent memories with my family that I've loved. To some sentimental music...it was basically all I had.

Lots of awkward and some awesome

Awkward:

-Finding out that every night my dad cracks a glowstick and throws it out into the road to confuse people driving by. ...?

-Getting paid $5.25 in pennies by an angry customer for a sandwhich...put it was correct to the penny! I kindof felt like Derek Smeath from Confessions of a Shopoholic- you know, the annoying debt collector who eventually gets paid back in pennies.

-Speaking of work...people on the phones who don't understand directions. When I asked this girl if her address was east or west and she responded with "no...it's not like...an east or a west...it's like a number on a house." People. They make me laugh sometimes.

-A huge chunk of my city poweroutaged/blacked out. And I'm still going all conspiracy theory on it and thinking it's some top secret project of the government that caused it...or something like that.

-While watching my new favorite murder mystery TV shows- Lie to Me...I'm in this super intense part..and I hear this weird noise...so I turn around to look out the window to see none other than my little boy neighbor playing a kazoo and staring at me. For one- ??? and how long had he been there? For two- yes, I fell out of my chair in pure shock/fear. Scared the daylights out of me.

-And final awkward moment is a spider rant from a girl living in a basement...
I fear them. Who doesn't? But it's fine. I live with it. But the other day one got in my BED! So I got a little freaked out- and before killing it I may have given it a speech. Something along the lines of 'this is my one place of comfort and you are NOT allowed here!' because naturally it's okay if they are everywhere else- just not my bed. But then the second time I saw one on my bed- it got away. And I turned into a baby and maybe cried a little bit and refused to sleep in my bed until 2 spider bombs, and 2 different kinds of sprays in various places all over, a complete rearranging of the furniture just to check every inch, and a complete vacuuming. So anyways. Spiders. and I'm sure you didn't want to hear ALL that...but it's my blog, so get over it. :)

And some Awesome:

The fact that I can wear this and I'm pretty sure it's in style even though it's a total 80s way to wear a shirt.

This recipe which I made with my best friend the other day. Yeah...I made the picture extra big just to make you hungry. :)

These cute statues that I found outside a restaurant in Bountiful that I went out to eat at with my other best friend upon her return from AFRICA! We had to meet halfway while she was still in Utah. Man do I miss that girl!

But don't you just wish your local park had these fun statues in them? I do.

And summer Maxi skirts. What's not to love?

Girl Scout Samoa bars!

Thank you Martha Stewart for having this recipe for me to make on my Sunday Afternoon! :) -with my own pictures added in...

Ingredients

• 3 cups finely ground cookies (12 ounces), such as graham crackers or chocolate wafers, or a combination
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup pecan pieces
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
• 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
• 1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly splash a 15-by-10-inch rimmed baking sheet evenly with water, then line with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, stir together cookie crumbs, sugar, and butter until combined. Evenly press onto bottom and up sides of prepared baking sheet. Bake, rotating halfway through, until firm, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack; cool, about 20 minutes.

3. Sprinkle cooled crust evenly with pecans and chocolate. Pour condensed milk over the top, spreading to cover completely (do not let it drip over the edges). Sprinkle with coconut.

4. Bake until coconut is toasted, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer to rack; cool completely. Trim edges, if desired, and cut into equal-size bars.

They are SO good! And also...not very healthy.

Farmer's Market!

 In a place where Frida Kahlo gets her own cafe and T-shirts (awesome!) what's not to love? In the following pictures you will see homemade candles (wish I would have bought one) a solar/bike powered smoothie maker, myself holding the much sought after lemon spinach, the man who has a piano hooked on the back of his bike (you can never complain about biking to this guy), utensil windchimes/thing, lil' sis, sandals...and you DON'T want to miss those videos! :) Man playing guitar- very animated, olympic cup stackers? (the one on the left is much more into it), and man playing the steel drum.
Basically...I love the farmer's market!

4th of July!

A simple arrangement. Super good tip if you own no cool vases...get a cup and wrap one of your colorful rags around it, and then tie it on with a ribbon...walla, cool vases for free!

And I'm proud to be an American. Where at least I know I'm  free!

I have been WAITING for the 4th just so I could do this! Fruit flag. Blueberries, watermelon, and ice.

This was the epitome of my 4th this year. This arrangement and flag. No really. I worked all night. And during the day I helped some people move furniture around. Felt kindof weird not watching the fireworks and all. And even while I was working, I was just so worried about the fire on the mountain- I couldn't even think of fireworks. 

So please everyone pray for those fires to be put out SO quickly and that no one will get hurt!

and

God bless America!

soapbox about style and fashion and clothes in general

There are a lot of people who think fashion is over rated, and a lot who are a little bit-way too much obsessed with it. My personal opinion is this. The way you dress should make you feel confident in yourself- and that's all there is to it. However you have to do it. I know I'm always a little more confident when I feel pretty. If you think that's shallow so be it. But sometimes I curl my hair and wear heels and a skirt just to feel a bit braver and adventurous and like I'm really something great. And mostly I'm talking about style- finding your own (not the changing of the wardrobe every couple months because the celebrities do = fashion). Finding your own personal style is more important than following trends. (but wait, there's more after these- some pictures of some favorite things about my personal style)

Hello too expensive anthropology outfit- but I can dream right? But I love this- bright colors, skinny jeans, and kind of flowy (is that a word?) shirts.

Skinny jeans. I don't know what I'd do without them. I don't know how to explain it, but it just fits something in my personality.

Because curling my hair seriously may just make me feel more outgoing.

And a terrible self taken photo to put out there one more time how worth it a maxi skirt is.

That's just the thing. Dress however you want! It's fun, it's an art for some people, it's a creative process, and it shows who you are. I read once on a blog that our own personal fashion statement is a combination of people we admire, the person we are, and the person we want to be. And we show it through clothes.

And then there is this thing about fashion. You attract what you dress like. And this goes both ways.

Girls dressing immodestly gets a lot of a attention with this point. The more skin you show, the more you are going to attract guys who are only interested in what's on the outside. It's totally true.

But also it goes the opposite way. If you wear sweats and baggy shirts constantly and never get ready when you go out- you have no right to get mad at the boys for not tripping over the way you look. If you chose not to care about it at all- that's your choice. But understand that it is going to bring you different guys than dressing up would, and they may treat you differently. 

You will be treated how you dress. 

Dress classy and you'll probably attract some classy gentlemen, stay in your exercise clothes and you'll talk to a lot of jocks, dress like a hippy and you'll have some friends who are trying to start their own band. You get my point right? It's simple really. 

But that's what I have to say about that.