I love it when I wake up in the morning and I don't feel like P. Diddy

Because i'd rather feel like Laci. 

19 reasons why this year was one of my favorites! (in no particular order, because that's way too hard)

19. I got a job last summer being a maid. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done but it taught me that I could do anything for 4 months. 

18. I started keeping a blog the last couple of months AND a journal. Yes, I am that cool. 

17. I dated... A LOT. 

16. Tyler Porter gave me one of the greatest examples I could ever ask for and went to serve the Lord for two years. 

15. I started school at BYU-Idaho!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woot Woot!

14. My mom started the Nurse Practitioner program at WSU.

13. I got to see my younger siblings gain testimonies in things like prayer and faith. 

12. I grew my hair out! SUCH a big deal to me. I want long hair. Like EXTRA long hair. It'll take me another year or so but thanks to prenatal vitamins, I have a good start. 

11. I realized that teaching children is my calling and that Special Education is the perfect fit. 

10. All my clothes from middle school and freshman year? I still fit into those. Take that, girls who never even got hips until senior year. I had mine in 6th grade... 

9. I had fabulous roommates at school who taught me that first impressions aren't always accurate. 

8. Julianne Fullmer and Kileigh Martin became some of my dearest and nearest friends. Honestly, I wasn't even sure I knew how to be a friend before them...

7. Thanks to facebook stalking everyone in my entire graduating class, I noticed I was one of the few people who didn't gain a single pound- not even the freshman 15. 

6. I worked super de dooper hard in school and was able to keep my scholarship for next year. Free college rocks! Can I get an Amen?

5. I learned that it's okay to miss my family because that means I have good relationships with them. 

4. Brooke Porter got to pass on to a pain-free, peaceful life. 

3. I learned how to make beautiful hair flowers for about a dollar, instead of like 15. 

2. My mom and grandma remained cancer-free. 

1. I grew to really love myself and be grateful for my many talents. 

FACT- This year will be even awesome-er. 

Tip- To make hair flowers- Buy the ugly kinds at the dollar store and take them apart. Glue the petals back together how you want them and use old fashioned, glitzy buttons for the center. Then, just hot glue a plan metal clip to the back with a piece of ribbon holding the top part in place and the walah! (wow, never tried to spell that word before...) there's your flower. I have about a million of them. Now if only floppy hats would come back into style...

Eternal Perspective

Brooke Porter single handedly taught me how to make a friend, how to be a friend and how to forget the difference between a blessing and a trial. 

Lather...Rinse... Repeat!

So here's my problem. Ya um lather, rinse, repeat? I tend to do that with everything. Let me explain. 

One time Julianne and I thought it would be a good idea to make a batch of cookie dough and eat it ALL RAW while watching a movie. We got way sick and decided quickly it was one of the worst ideas we had ever had. Well guess what? I did that again, last week. Only this time Julianne wasn't there and I ate most of the batch all by myself. It wasn't so much lather rinse repeat as eat, barf, repeat. 

This other one time when I was 15, I decided to dye my hair red. Since it was really dark brown at the time, when I tried to turn it red it just went purple. Like really, really purple. And apparently I forgot about this event because I just did it again. My hair is now purple. Dye, Cry, Repeat. 

And now I'm following shampoo directions again, only with voldemorts (is that how you even spell it? I'm not a Harry Potter fan so I wouldn't know... All I know is the 'he who shall not be named' part, and in this case, they who shall not be named, are boys). Don't I ever learn? This particular voldemort, I've already been "acquainted" with. Things didn't end well. Too bad that doesn't matter because he knows he's just a joke and a smile away from making me date, break and repeat. 

Tip #6? or something? I'm going to stop numbering them because I can't remember which number I'm on. Use sharpies to paint your nails instead of finger nail polish. Just paint a clear coat over it and it'll stay for a supa long time. 

What would you do (oooo) for a klondike bar? (You know... like the commercial)

  I'm not sure I would do anything for a klondike bar, because even though I've seen that stupid commercial about 142,489 times, I don't know what a klondike bar is. It might be ice cream. I had the theme song of this bar stuck in my head yesterday as I waited for 4.5 HOURS outside of the Apple store at the Gateway for the iphone 4. That seems crazy right? Wrong. There were people there that had waited for over 24 hours. Those were the really nutty people that had forgotten to reserve their iphone and had to wait in the other, much slower, line. If I was the one actually getting the phone, I think I wouldn't have waited. For those of you who aren't apple freaks, the orders are so backed up for the iphone 4, you probably couldn't get one until the end of July unless you got yours yesterday. The phone wasn't for me though, it was for my grandma. My 64 year old (I think?), gone through chemo and kicked cancer's sorry ass (that evil disease deserves such language), tough as nails, most popular lady in provo, tea party thrower grandma. I would do a lot for her klondike bar. 

  My Mom is coming tomorrow night! My whole family is actually! Minus my Dad. If you haven't met my Dad (which Mom, since you're the only person who really knows about this blog, you have), you would agree that he is a little awkward and intimidating to meet at first. He's very organized, though you wouldn't know it by looking at our brown room. He's also very methodical, heaven forbid someone puts dishes in the right sink. My Dad is also extremely service-oriented, which you would find out within the first 10 minutes of meeting him. He's done a paper route with all of us kids since I was 9. Half the time he felt too bad waking us kids up that early that he'd go and do it by himself and then just pretend like we did it. He's remodeled half our house it seems like and has a habit of painting a room or something when my mom goes away for vacation and he can't go. I think me and my dad have one of the world's best moments ever. I was playing basketball at one of the camps at Gonzaga and we were all lined up for this girl to take her foul shots. It was a 1-1. I looked up and saw my dad standing over the track terrace and winked at him. He winked back and smiled. The girl missed her first shot and I ended up getting the rebound. The end. Seems so simple, but I think that image will be burned in my mind forever. My dad made it to almost every single one of my games. He did a lot for my Klondike bar. 

I've had a lot of free time this summer, due to the fact that I don't know very many people in Utah and only work 25 hours a week. I'm grateful for the 'slow time' i've had lately, although it is way out of my character to not be busy. I've learned a few things: Good habits are essential, and the hardest part of acquiring them is just starting them in the first place and also, that if the people you love aren't happy, you won't be either, so you might as well help fix their problems and worry about your own some other time. Go stock up on your ice cream. 

Tip- I heard this when I was standing in line for the iphone. To stop a bloody nose, hold a piece of onion up your nose. The smell from them is supposed to be a natural coagulant. 

Funnies

Today I went to my grandma's house. Unfortunately, I left my red cape and goodies at home but I think she loved me just the same. I love visiting her because along with her comes all of my adorable cousins that live with her and live next door. There's 8.5 all together and each one is a hoot (nobody says that word anymore- hoot). Little kids are medicine, I'm convinced. Most of my cousins think I'm super cool because I can drive and wear high heels. And you know what? That's good enough for me. I wish that's all it took for BYU-Idaho to think I was awesome too... maybe then they'd give me my scholarship back... 

Tip #4 For beautiful hair, let a child run their hands through it once a day. -Audrey Hepburn 

My Clock

There are certain things in this life that I would die for. Like family, my religion, my dreams, and Lindt Milk Chocolate truffles. There are also things I live for. Like family, my religion, my dreams and Lindt Milk Chocolate truffles. To get through the long days and short weeks, though, I have a whole other list. Everybody has delightful little surprises that either make or break their moods. 

These are things that I adore (I love that word...adore)

The smell of fresh cut grass

When someone (besides myself) remembers May Day

Fingernail polish

Boys playing with my hair

Concerts

Tulips

Unexpected Compliments (both giving and receiving)

The Fourth of July

Statistics

Kids with miss-matched clothes

Indie headbands

These are things that I strongly dislike (my mom still doesn't let me use the word 'hate')

The sound of hangers sliding on clothing racks

Shaving my armpits

When people try to be too cool

The freckle I have on my philtrum

Lemons in my water

Hypocritical people 

When people don't smile back when you smile at them

There's a jillion more things I could add to both lists but I thought I'd just give you an idea of who I am. I'd like to think I'm 'one of a kind' and in a way, I am. But i've recently decided to give up on the notion of trying to ALWAYS be the different one. If I conform in some ways, then so be it. If I don't conform in some ways, then so be that too...

I like Lady Gaga and sing to graves in cemeteries. Sue me. 

Tip #3 This isn't a joke or a tip... but it still made me laugh. A lady I was helping at work the other day had on a shirt that said "I'm not a gynecologist... but i'll still take a look!" 

The Way We Do The Things We Do

I have done many, and I mean MANY, strange things in my life. I have different motives for doing all of them and at the time, the acts themselves seem justifiable. Like this one time. I was getting ready for class one day and decided to wear a blue cotton dress, sweater tights and heeled boots. The combination looked super cute in my tiny apartment mirror (that we had set on the ground, slightly tilted up to make anyone looking into it look 10 lbs fatter), but I had forgotten one thing. Cotton dresses stick to sweater tights. So there I was walking around campus with my dress glued to (and in between) my legs causing my outfit to look extremely unflattering. I went to the library and began to study when finally I couldn't take it anymore. I went to the bathroom and took of the tights. The only problem was I had a wadded up ball of sweater in my hand and nowhere to hide it. I wasn't about to walk out with it in my hand like it was no big deal. I usually don't get embarrassed, but I hate drawing attention to myself and someone was bound to notice. Clearly there was only one solution. I walked out of the bathroom and slipped back into my seat. About an hour and several table partners later I looked down, only to find one of the feet of my sweater tights draped over the side of my boot. Yep, thats the solution that I thought of and it obviously didn't even work. I laughed (drawing more attention to myself) as I pulled the rest of the tights out and stuffed them in the front pocket of my backpack. I thought of this story today when I was putting on yet another pair of sweater tights and another cotton dress. I'm happy to report I did not end up making the same mistake twice. I decided to share this story because I was thinking yesterday about how worried we can be what someone else thinks when chances are nobody would ever notice. I was willing to stuff tights in my boot so that I could walk twenty feet back to my seat because I didn't want someone to see that I had changed my hideously unflattering outfit. Why do we do the things we do? I think the only answer is the simple one. Because we just do. 

Tip #2- Never shoe shop in the morning because your feet haven't swelled to their normal amount yet. You might end up unknowingly buying the wrong size.