two birthdays

let's be real, the star of this picture is my hair.

we might have forgotten to get candles...so we stuck two matches in the cake. haha, it was really classy. and resourceful.

 today i turned 22, and it was my first birthday away from home.  maybe that sounds a little crazy and you're thinking to yourself, "she must not get out much." but the thing is i go to school 1790 miles away from home and i just so happen as to usually be home from christmas time to april. but since i'm trying to graduate asap, i'm at school instead of in ohio.  

so before i flew back out to utah i celebrated my birthday with my awesome parents, mike and georgia, and it was so much fun; they're the coolest parents and i'm glad they put up with me wanting to hang out with them all the time.

the cake was from this awesome bakery in whitehall.  so. good. 

The insanely adorable card kayela sent me. i kind of want to frame it; it's that cute.

birthday swag.

 my actual birthday was so fun, too. i got so many cute texts and voicemails all day from all my favorite people. the text from my dad made me a little weepy! he's so sweet. tonight my adorable roommates made me brownies tonight and they actually bought candles (smart girls) and they were delish.  on friday one of my best college friends kassi is driving up and we're going to see vocal point and eat some chick fil a and hang out so the birthday celebrating isn't over yet! 

bam. birthday brownies. 

shortest break, ever.

my christmas break was only 3 weeks long. usually i'm home from mid-december to mid-april, but i'm trying to graduate as quickly as possible. so i'm back in idaho getting ready to start a new semester tomorrow.

i'm a truly terrible blogger, so i'll just give a quick summary of my awesome, fun, too short break.

1. a couple days after i flew into columbus, my sister emily and i drove to southern indiana to see kaylea and go with her to her ultrasound to find out the gender of trueblood baby #2.....it's a girl! my first niece! we celebrated with puppy chow (natch) and pizza from sports time; they have the best pizza on the planet.

 since emily was flying to phoenix to be with her hubs for christmas, we had to get a picture of us girls! we never see each other enough during the year :(

 2. on december 20th we celebrated emily's birthday! she's 25 now! we went to city bbq; their fried pickles are to die for.

 3. i spent lots of quality time with  hank before he left to spend christmas in az.

 4. i went to a osu basketball game! we lost to kansas, but my adenaline was pumping like crazy; there is no better feeling than jumping on your feet, throwing your hands in the air and screaming when a buckeye sinks a 3.

5. spent christmas at home with my parents, kaylea and her hubs and son.  my oldest brother adam was going to come but he got super sick and wasn't up for the drive from louisville :( 

6. new years eve was spent on the couch drinking martinelli's and avoiding live nye broadcasts because they make me uncomfortable.  

7. celebrated my birthday early with my fam (it'll get its own post closer to my birthday.  jan 15. mark your calendars.)

8. hung out with my parents a ton because they rule and are perfect.  

i'm grateful for mothers

i wasn't able to go home to ohio for thanksgiving, but i was able to spend a couple days in utah with some really close family friends who might as well be family.  

while i was there surrounded by their children and grandkids, i realized how lucky i am to have so many amazing examples of really good moms in my life.

my mom, these family friends i spent time with, my grammy, and my sisters are all so selfless; they do so much for their children and are just awesome in general. they rarely fly off the handle, are so caring, and give up so much time and energy to raise their kids right.

here's a fun little snapshot about a couple of my favorite mothers:

 this is dixie, my grammy.  she is an insanely good cook, absolutely hilarious, and she has sacrificed so much throughout her life for my mother and her sisters.  she's been through some hard times, and because of her i know a young mother can accomplish anything.  

(from left to right)

-emily is really smart, an amazing cook who is always trying new recipes, and she's super thrifty, and that's something i need to learn from her.  

-kaylea is a total babe, hilarious, super giving, an amaaazing baker, and is really calm all the time.  when baby gus is being a pill she's super chill; i hope i can be like that.  

-georgia (my mom :)  is most likely the best mother on the face of the planet; she is also an amazing cook, baker, caretaker, and is so selfless. she also doesn't look old enough to be my mom, yet alone the mother of my 29 yr old brother.  while talking with her recently, i realized she had to bite her tongue a lot when i was younger as to not say exactly what she wanted to.  (i imagine she might have wanted to say "oh my gosh, you idiot, stop making terrible decisions all the time and giving me anxiety attacks.") yet she was patient and gave me loving advice instead. she's so patient, loving, giving, and forgiving; i am insanely grateful for her.  

Diwali 2012

last week end, my rommate tasha, our friend mark, and i went down to spanish fork, utah to go to a diwali celebration.

diwali is the hindu festival of lights. 

saturday night at the hindu temple at spanish fork there was dancing by a troop from los angeles, food, fireworks and music/chanting

we arrived a little late (we kinda got lost) but it was so much fun.

the best part was at the end when we all made wishes on little lanterns and then put our lanterns in the little pond next to the temple.

 at first, we were a little imtimidated by the two llamas, especially since one of them was freaking out anytime someone came near. but the other one was more friendly.  

 once we realized how insanely calm the second llama was, we had a fun little photo shoot with us loving all over him. tangerine (we think that was his name) may look unamused, but he loved it, i promise.

 on sunday morning we went to a baptist church in provo with danita, who graciously let tash and i crash at her apartment.  it was fun; they had a band and the bass player was super adorable.  the singer sounded like the guy that sings for green day.  he had a speech impediment that made "k"s sound like "ch"s.  so, "come worship" became "chome worship". it was a hoot.  

 after church, tash and i napped on danita's couch, and then we picked up mark and headed to salt lake for diwali festival #2.  

before the festival, we went to the cathedral de magdalene just south of temple square and caught the tail end of spanish mass. it was insanely gorgeous inside! it was green and pink and lovely.  

 then we walked down to temple square. i've always felt like the salt lake temple, while gorgeous, was a tad overrated since everyone always gets married there, which is lame, since it has so much history and took 40 years to build.  but now that i've visited it a few times in the past few years i've been out west for school and have learned more about its symbolism, i really appreciate it more.  i mean, it's definitely the prettiest lds temple.

so, diwali festival #2 wasn't as cool, since the hindu temple in salt lake looks like a nursing home rather than a Mughal mansion.  the cultural celebration was pretty much exactly the same as the spanish fork one; all the workers and the dancers were the same. all the workers were white, so we couldn't decide if they were actually hindu or just volunteers. there was a singer who we didn't hear at the spanish fork festival. he was pretty good, but he only played for like 15 mins instead of his allotted 30; we're not sure why, but there seemed to be some drama involved.  so, the above picture was of the skit/play thing they performed.  i guess it was suppose to be really funny somehow, but i guess i don't get hindu humor? it was one of those plays where the voices are pre-recorded like the plays at sea world.  

in conclusion, it was a super fun weekend filled with like 4 different religions!

i am gigi.

one of my favorite movies of all time is he's just not that into you.

 i'm starting to see how now that i'm 21 and am slightly more involved in the dating scene then i was in high school 

-when the drill was "oh, you're cute and we like each other so let's date super exclusively until i don't like you anymore"-

this movie is where i look for go-to dating advice.

multiple times a week while discussing boys and dating with my friends i quote this movie.

a certain few lines from he's just not that into you currently mirror my life:

gigi: So what now? I'm just supposed to turn from every guy who doesn't like me?

alex: Uh. Yeah!
gigi There's not gonna be anybody left. 

oh gigi, we have so much in common.

isn't that so sad, yet so true?! there are usually a few scrubs that you keep in your life just because having no boys at all in your life is no fun, but if none of these boys really like you you're kind of wasting time.

oh, and this quote especially:

"If a guy doesn't call you, he doesn't want to call you." 

soo...if i boy ends a phone call with " yeah, k, i'll call you later this week" yet he never does, i should call him, right? and the second that thought creeps into my head i think of alex and gig's conversation. no, if a boy wants to talk to me, he'll call me. it's easy advice to take until no one is calling you, but i'm starting to realize it's better to just let go and move on.  besides, at the end of the movie alex and gigi get together and they're the cutest couple ever. so, i'll just keep waiting for my alex. 

my day at the BMV.

on friday, my lovely mother georgia and i headed to the bmv so i could finally get an ohio drivers license and possibly get ohio license plates (which are insanely cute and colorful and awesome).

sad to say, i could not get my adorable plates because i was missing some documents. bummer, but i did get to get my ohio license...about four hours later.

this is my bmv story.

first of all, bmvs are always filled with interesting characters. from people who reek of weed to people talking to themselves to people who smell like bodily fluids.  wait, am i in the e.r. of a downtown hospital? nope. just the local bmv.

so, let's start off with my written exam. it was epic. seriously. they ask you 40 questions on these little touch screen computers and you have to get 30 right, and if you answer 11 questions wrong you automatically fail.  i wasn't scared; i should have been.  it was super hard, and i fell for every trick question. also, i didn't study. dumb, i know. it came down to the wire. after answering 29 quesitons right, there were still like 7 to go. i only had to get ONE MORE right. and i missed the first 6. oh my gosh. all the sudden i realized i was one wrong answer away from failing. how embarrassing.  i drive 2000 miles cross country twice a year but i'm about to fail  this lame test.  

anyways, so the very last question was about how far away your car horn but be audible to be road-worthy.  i was terrified and had no idea what the answer was. after staring at it for forever i guessed b. 200 feet.  NAILELD IT. haha. like i said: epic.  i wanted to scream. run around pumping my fist. kiss the lil' wayne look-a-like sitting next to me.  

instead, i calmly walked up to the desk and told them i passed and was ready to get my picture taken.

small problem. since i had let my indiana license expire a grand total of 5 days, (remember? i turned 21 on sunday!) i had to completely start over.

this is what i got at first. a temporary license. see that picture? my hair is huge, but my morale was small. the woman at the desk said that with my temp license i have to drive with someone over the age of 21 at all times. does that mean i can just drive by myself? you know, since i'm over 21? i wanted to ask but i thought that would be a dumb question. although, i still don't know the answer.  anways, i'm informed that i have to take the driving exam again. laaaaaame.  luckily they squeezed me in and i took my test right away.  i felt like haley dumphy on modern family when she had to take her driving test.  i wanted to tell my driving instructor this, but i refrained.  luckily, i passed!! the test was kinda hard though to be honest. i had to reverse through this super narrow path. 

BAM! there it is. $46 and four hours later i had a real license.  my hair is smaller but my smile is so much bigger. 

needless to say, it was definitely an adventure.  

best birthday ever.

my 21st birthday was last sunday.  i gotta admit, i was a little bummed about my birthday weekend since clark was in utah going to school and i've only lived in columbus for a grand total of 2 months; i just wasn't sure what i was going to do for my birthday...

...then this kid showed up.  funny story: i had a job interview in dublin on friday, which is where clark's family lives, so clark called me in the morning and told me his mom had a present for me.  the weather was terrrible that morning so georgia drove me and she hung out at the mall across the street.  i decided i would stop by clark's house after my interview, which lasted over 2 hours.  so we get to clark's house and go inside and talk with his mom and siblings for a little bit, and then his mom goes to the basement to get my present. then clark walked into the room! i froze...i didn't even know what to do.  at first, i told myself it wasn't real, since clark was in utah. but it was real! it was awesome. best. surprise. ever.

for dinner on saturday night clark, my parents and i went to dirty frank's, my favorite local hot dog place that has tofurkey hot dogs and a variety of vegetarian toppings.  we feasted.  i shamelessly ate 2 hotdogs and a plethora of amazing tater tots.  best. meal. ever.

here are all my birthday goodies.  turns out both my parents and clark got me 7 brides for 7 brothers.  which makes sense since i've been talking about wanting it for months. it is seriously the best. musical. ever. and who doesn't love modern family? no one. that's who.  

My cake was too cute to boot.  red velvet with hot pink icing, of course. the "sparkler" candles were slightly terrifying.  as you can see in the above picture, my eyes are filled with fear.  they kept flickering and refused to be blown out.  half funny, half terrifying.  

seriously. my birthday was amaaaazing. and on monday afternoon clark, his parents, and i went to this fancy little italian restaurant that was pretty delish.  then i dropped clark off at the airport.  

i'm so grateful for my family and friends who made my birthday so special and fun!