Buyer's Remorse or 75% of ...Of Course!

Okay so I know that I have been blogging a lot lately but I just feel like I have so much to say. Tonight after the Hills Season Finale of course, I went to run some errands around town. Christmas shopping, returned some books, returned some movies, and WHAT?

"It's the 75% off Night Owl Christmas Sale at Robert's Crafts from 9pm to 12am"

So I spent the next hour rummaging through this most amazing sale and decided I couldn't resist the Victorian Ornaments and in turn just had to give my Christmas Tree a makeover. So I pictured some of my house at Christmas, some decorations old and some new but all wonderful, seasonal, and just much fun.The New "Christmas"sign I bought!

Me thinking that Roberts is the coolest place on earth!

The Old Tree Decor

The new Decorations

Besties Birthdays

It is just so coincidental in my life that I have a best friend and a sister with the same birthday. December 22nd is devoted to the women most paramount to me. It is even so that my best friends Mom (Becca;s mom Chris) has this same noteworthy birthday. So here are a few pics to share with you what these girls mean to me.
I remember when my mom first told us that she was pregnant with Courtney. I wanted a little sister more than anything. I already had three older brothers, an older sister, and a really frustrating (at the time) little brother. So I thought the only thing in my life missing as a seven year old, had to be a little sister to so adorably dote on. She is the best though. I love having Courtney in my life. She can really make me feel guilty sometimes for having hostile thoughts about frustrating situations, because she is just that good. She has the greatest heart of anyone I know and people are drawn to her because of her glamorously natural exterior and her down to earth, genuinely real core inside. She's the greatest and I couldn't ask for anyone better.
Now on to Sars. We met about four and a half years ago though our "Shared" Best Friend Becca Clark. It took us some time to find our own friendship but it came. I love Sarah Geraldine Hammond. If you ever have the opportunity to basically hire your best friend, Do it! I have never in my life had so much fun than when we worked together at good ole' Far West Bank. Sarah is always there for me. Whenever I need a break from life she is right there with a good laugh or a good cry. Whatever the situation calls for, the cry or the laugh, Sarah is the best at both. My favorite memory is a actually a very recent one. Sarah, Beccs, Courthney, and I had the opportunity this year to travel to California for Spring Break and I had so much fun. She is just fun to goof off with. We were riding this roller coaster and these guys were behind us and they were acting so stupid but so funny. Every time we would go around a curve they would yell "Not the SIDEWINDER!" It was so funny and Sarah has the most infectious laugh in the world, it's hard to keep a straight face when you are around her. She means a lot to me as a friend. She will always be there for me and I thank Beccs for allowing us to meet and become such Best Friends.

Always a bridesmaid...

Well Ashley Heather, I think I was cursed when, seven years ago, I with my already married sister decided to sing the song "Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Bride" at the rehearsal dinner when you joined our family. I'm not blaming you as you and I both know my lack prospects is far from fault or placing blame. However I have never felt such parallels in my life to that song from the 1996 hit musical, "I love you, you're perfect, Now change". I'm not complaining, because really being a bridesmaid is a true honor to which I always try and rise to the occasion. As a bridesmaid you are the bride's right hand gal. Yesterday Tyree told her family that the best part about having a bridesmaid and the purpose for that matter, is so she can make decisions that the bride either can't or doesn't want to make. So I spent the better part of Saturday answering these questions; "Okay Am, do you like the chocolate colored tulle quadrupled on the table setting or just doubled?" ...and do you know what, I loved every minute of it. I really should be proficient if or when the time comes to plan my own wedding. I've been involved in five weddings, thrown three bridal showers, and been in two weddings as a bridesmaid, just this year. I only know of one that is definitely happening next year. I love being a Bridesmaid though. I love having the opportunity to make my friends happy and I love being so close to them to see them so happy when that big day arrives.

Merry Christmas one and all!

My sister designed this adorable card for my mom's Christmas card. So cute Jules.

Wolf Creek

"When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is prudent to seek it elsewhere."

...a twist I so liberally altered on a well known quote by Francois de La Rochefoucauld


This week I had the most exciting opportunity to escape the everyday and experience a little Rest and Relaxation. Traci enrolled in the Worldmark Timeshare Club last year as a means to travel around the world and see things she has never seen. Well being good friends with Traci this year paid off big for me because I was so privileged to be invited on one of these trips.
Wolf Creek is tucked away deep in the beautiful mountains of Cache Valley, Utah. We stayed at the Wolf Creek lodge and enjoyed, for four whole days, the quaint town of Eden, snow shoeing, reading all manner of magazines and books galore, watching good movies, sitting by the fire, sipping mint truffle hot cocoa and sparkling cider alike,talking, laughing, and cooking, and we even did some working out at the time share's fitness facility (Shocker, Right?)
All in all the trip was wonderful so full of everything I was in need of for this holiday season. Thank you Traci this was just what the doctor ordered, but you're a registered nurse so it was your prognosis as well.

Tyree Batt Jensen

More pics to come of the reception. Sometimes I feel like Wells Fargo thinks I'm lying to get out of working on Saturdays but I really have had three very close friends and one cousin who got married this year and I was in two of these weddings. I'm telling the truth. It really is just a coincidence that they all got married in the same year. So these are pictures of Tyree's Bridal shower that her best friend, Chrystal and I threw in her honor. We had a lot of fun.

The Menu
Sun dried Tomato Pasta
Fruit and Walnut Salad
Cranberry Splash Punch
Homemade Rolls
Chocolate Chip Cookies


***Thanks to all of my roommates for the outstanding assistance they offered, It would not have been as successful without you. I love you all.

Twilight

If you ever have the opportunity to stay at the Red Rock Casino Hotel in Summerlin, North Las Vegas, DO IT! My brother Lives in Summerlin so I never consider staying in a hotel in Las Vegas but we did because Elyse's Birthday and the Twilight Premier fell in the same week. We picked a hotel with a movie theater because we knew we wouldn't got out of the theater until about 3:00 a.m. We had a lot of fun. I went with Elyse, her sister Kjersten, our friend Taylor, our newly married friend Courtney (whom we never see since her marriage) and her sister in law. We had so much fun. I have now seen Twilight three and a half times, only because we felt vindicated walking into half of Twilight the other night after the huge disappointment that was Four Christmases. I loved Twilight you guys. I thought it was amazaing.
DISCLAIMER: IT IS NOT MY INTENTION TO OFFEND ANYONE, THESE ARE JUST MY PERSONAL OPPINIONS AND THOUGHTS AS THIS BLOG IS MY SOUNDING BOARD FOR LIFE!!!

I really don't know how anyone who liked the book Twilight, could dislike the movie Twilight. I felt like it was precisely in tune with the story, not one character that I can think of, was compromised in the movie. And in fact I feel like Stephenie Meyer did so well with imagery and discriptive wording in her books that it almost takes a moron to not imagaine exactly what Catherine Hardwicke and her film crew depicted. I mean come on what were you expecting? From the Cullen Family to the Swan house and from the vastness of Washington State described in the book to the way Kristin Stewart's Hair was styled, no stone was left un-turned as far as film depiction vs. literary description is concerned. I am now in love with Edward cullen even more than I was when I read the books. Sure they left out a few scenes but it's a movie they had to. And by the way I can't tell you how many people have challenged me on the whole "Birthday Party" scene where Bella cuts her finger and Jasper flips out, that scene is in New moon. It was left out of the Twilight movie because it was in the first chapter of the second book.

I loved it. Thank you for Stephenie, Catherine, Kristin, and Robert. They made my dream into a living picture, and as dramatic as it sounds I am grateful for Twilight.

Catching up with Carrie

It was the busiest week ever. I had just come back from Vegas, having spent time with my family at the Air Show, my roommate was getting married the next week and so her bridal shower was to be held at my house on Saturday, it was my other roommates birthday on Tuesday, I am the Visiting Teaching Coordinator for my ward, so I was trying to crunch numbers with Alexis before all of the students went away for Thanksgiving, and Twilight was released in theaters that Friday and I had planned to go back to Vegas, stay at the Red Rock Casino with my GIRLS and see the movie I had been waiting for since I heard the words EDWARD CULLEN. What is one more huge week altering event?
My parents called and surprised me with Carrie Underwood Concert tickets in the middle of the week. Luckily I had a lot done and was surviving only by the grace of to-do lists. So they finally got a hold of me at 12:30 p.m. while I was working, told me about the tickets, which by the way were for that night, and I was on a plane by 3:00 p.m.
I am here to say Carrie Underwood it worth the three year wait. She is an incredibly talented woman and she sounds the exact same live as she does on record. It was an incredible experience. Thank you Mom and Dad you are truly aware of the things I love in this life. You never cease to amaze me by your generous offerings. I love you.