a night on the ASU campus

Over the weekend our two-year-old officially became a Sun Devil. Well, she officially got a picture with the mascot, so that counts right?

We've been trying to do more on-campus activities and take advantage of everything ASU has to offer before Sam graduates. So we went to ASU's Night of the Open Door over the weekend, and it was such a blast. The event was designed to showcase different departments on campus and the innovative and hands-on learning that takes place every day. We strolled through all the main walkways doing the fun activities, trying the food, and stopping traffic to show everyone the letter "E" that a certain two-year-old found on the sewage grate. You know, the usual.

We got to leave the twins at home (thank you Lorell for babysitting at the last minute) and go with just Claire. She was in heaven to have the undivided attention of both parents, and honestly, we were in heaven to have a night out that involved zero bottles, zero diapers, and zero pacifiers. 

 ^^She dragged her balloon puppy all over the house the remainder of the weekend, so I think we can safely say it was a hit.

 ^^You guys, I could barely bring myself to upload this picture. EEEEESH. I do NOT like snakes. (Here's something horrifying: they put these two rattlesnakes in the same cage in hopes that they would mate and preserve the rare albino color of the larger male snake. Alllllso this is a dad and a daughter. Apparently this is a regular thing if you're a snake. Just one more reason to be creeped out by them.)

 ^^Inaugural picture with Sparky the Sun Devil. Claire was surprisingly cool with a large person dressed as a devil giving her a high five. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Have you downloaded the Sun Devil Rewards app yet? It's totally free and the best way to stay connected to ASU. As you go to events, you can enter secret code words and check in on your social accounts to earn pitchfork points, which can then be redeemed for fan gear, tickets, and more. 

As a special thank-you for reading along, I have a secret code word you can enter into the app for 400 free pitchfork points. You need 500 points to earn free stuff, and you get 100 points for downloading and connecting your account on the app, so enter my code and you're automatically there! The code is LOVEMAROON and expires on March 2, 2017. 

Thank you to the Sun Devil Rewards app for sponsoring us in this great night out. I received compensation in return for this post, but all opinions expressed are my own. Check out the app here, and go Devils! #SunDevilRewards

recreating the picture: 24 years later

The second I saw the picture, I knew. We had to recreate it.

My dad graduated with his masters degree from BYU in 1989. This is a picture of him and my mom at graduation (she had one child and I was a tiny secret in her belly).

So this weekend, at graduation, we tried to recreate the picture. Basically the same place, same angle, same pose, but years apart.

I love looking at this and comparing all the little details. What we're wearing, the people in the background, the quality of the picture (I edited mine to have a slight vignette effect). And I can't help but wonder if I'll have a child one day that recreates this picture. What they'll look like, their clothes, the people in the background, and how awesome photography will be then.

What do you think? 

Have you ever recreated a picture?
Would you ever?

Parking Stinks, or What I Learned In College

Last week I got an email from one of my best friend's moms (hi Mary!) asking my advice for her young women's church group, who are graduating and going off to college in the next few months. "What's your advice?" she asked, and I immediately thought parking stinks. go ahead and plan your whole college career around the fact that you'll never have good parking.


Then, due to the fact that I generally try to sound like an intelligent person, I started thinking of something else to say. This morphed into a few hours of solid introspection, and the email became more about how to find yourself and develop as a person, and nothing to do with college at all. I wrote and wrote and wrote, and finally pared it down to three mostly related paragraphs, because, after all, who wants to read all about my personal conversion into whatweliketocalladulthood?


So here are my three pared down paragraphs. I could say 5,000 more things about 5,000 more things, about dating and marriage and marrying and how to recover when you bury your mother at 19 years old and ex-boyfriends and how to sleep when your roommate burns incense that gives you headaches. But I'll save those for 5,000 blog posts to be published later, or maybe never at all.

1. There's going to be a girl on your hall who gets asked out every Friday and Saturday night, and weeknights too. There will be a girl on your hall who has more cute clothes than you, more free time than you, more money than you, more ANYTHING than you. I spent a whole semester trying to be like THAT girl, and it got me nowhere. People don't like me-pretending-to-be-that-girl. People like me.

2. Do the optional stuff - the memories I cherish the most are the times in which I did the extra things. I went to the party, I did the service project, I attended the devotional, I took the weekend trip. It's easy to say to no something optional, especially because nobody's checking up on you like at home, but this is a time in your life to say yes! It's a time to explore new things, have new opportunities, and make new memories.

3. My first semester at college, someone told me "this campus can be as big or as small as you make it." It's true. If you go around saying hi to nobody, making no new friends, sitting by yourself in class and waiting for someone else to get things going, you'll feel lost and lonely among a gigantic campus. On the other hand, if you initiate social activities, get to know your professors, say hi to everyone, and go to your ward activities, you'll feel like the campus is a small, tight-knit family. You choose the type of experience you'll have.

4. Parking still stinks.

Oh, and if you're lucky, you'll meet your best friends

What advice would you give an incoming freshman?

One thing to remember above anything else?

About BYU Stereotypes

Today, I'm going to my last undergraduate college class ever. {Ever, people!} It will be so weird when I walk out of my very last final on Wednesday.


Lest I get all cliche and in-love-with-my-alma-mater on you, I'm going to stick to my main topic, which is looking at BYU stereotypes. I don't want to offend people or make anyone mad, but rather just to share my thoughts about the people at BYU.


{But first, a quick plug to this university of mine: it's where I met my very best friends, had amazing adventures, went through the hardest thing in my life, found true love, got married, got an education, was mentored by amazing bosses and professors, and worked for the past four years. How can you experience so much growth and not get a little attached, right?}

Anyway, back to BYU.


Here are some stats:
I've met 600 BYU students through my wards here.
I've met 250 BYU students through my work.
I've been in classes with probably a total of 1,000 different people.
And I've personally mentored over 200 BYU students.


That's a lot of people.


Sometimes it cracks me up when I hear things about BYU. They're all Molly Mormon there, nobody's a true Mormon there, they're always singing and happy, they're just going through the motions, they're all homophobic and conservative, they're just there to get married, etc.


I know it's not worth much, but I'd just like to add my personal thoughts about this:

I know people at BYU that are really Mormon. I also know people here that are the farthest thing from "Molly Mormon" as you get. I also know people who aren't Mormon at all, but who are Muslim, Jewish, agnostic, and Unitarian.


I know people at BYU that are straight. I also know people who are gay, and people who are lesbian (and they're all really good people). I know people here with closed minds, and those with open minds. 


I know people at BYU who are extremely conservative, and I know people who are extremely liberal.


I know people here who maybe do not spend enough time on their personal health and appearance, as well as people who are obsessed with their image and appearance.


I could go on and on, but what I'm trying to say is that BYU, like any other place, has the full spectrum of people. I personally believe that people find what they're looking for. Like any other place, I chose to seek out the good and have a positive, growing experience here. And that's what I did.

via

So I guess before you make up your mind to stereotype BYU - look around and ask if BYU is really the only place you can find people who are ___________. My guess is you'll say no.


BYU really is full of amazing, diverse people and ideas - and I'm really going to miss it.


P.S. If you've heard any stereotypes about how bad parking is during fall/winter semesters - that one's totally true :)

Peer Dementors: The Coalition

A bunch of people at work got together and made an intramural kickball team. They wear bright green shirts, and have a blast out on the field. Also, they're undefeated, which is kind of a big deal for a intramural college team. They're going for the championship (and the coveted champion t-shirts). 

They're such a fun group of people. Can you tell?

(I had way too much fun applying filters to this last one.)

Go Coalition!

DONE

(Linking up at Crowley Party.)

nipping at your heels

This is the time of the semester that really starts nipping at my heels. Is anyone else feeling this way? Projects, papers, assignments, homework, tests, and all my practicum stuff. Not to mention I have an interview for my very first real-life teaching job on Monday. Nerve-wracking. And what should I wear?


Not to mention, I found two spiders in my bathroom this morning. Two! And it's not even 6am yet. Which is another thing. Waking up at 5:30 every day is not necessarily good for the soul.


But. I have so many good things going for me. My sweet husband is at the top of that list, as always.


Here are some things I'm looking forward to when this semester's over.

reading books

warm weather

cooking
crafting
running

more books

arizona for a wedding

california for a wedding

oregon for a wedding

sunshine on my eyelids

smoothies
Hebgen

and reading more books still

P.S. Once my aunt and uncle took us out to dinner. It was perfect timing, and so yummy. Thanks guys.

Also, last week my other aunt and uncle got us front row seats at a Jazz game with a private buffet before and at halftime. Sam died and went to heaven. Thank you too, guys.

It's one crazy, busy, sleepless life I live, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Why we didn't make it to class this morning

Last night, when I went to sleep, I had nothing but the best intentions. Really. Dreams of productivity and schoolwork danced in my head. And who needs a comfy bed anyway, right? When there are things to get done instead. Right?


But this morning came so early. Oh, when Ring Tone 5 went off, it was so early and so dark and my blankets were so warm. 


Sam is a riot when he's half asleep, and it didn't take long for us to form our dastardly skipping plan. And then go back to sleep. It was one of those okay let's get up, NO, yes we have to, no we don't, YES, final answer, no final answer, NO YES NO type of moments. You know how those go. 


What can I say, we're partners in crime. Although we probably kiss more than most partners in crime. To prove it: a kissing picture. Can you see the criminal intentions?

{right on the lips. the nerve.}

I mean, it's only Sam's mandatory class that he's skipping. And I don't necessarily have a class that's quite so mandatory this morning. And it's only this education that we're paying for and stuff. And we're usually so good at going to class. And now I'm trying to justify myself to the blinking cursor, which seems kind of silly, but that's how it goes at 8 in the morning.


In other news, the BYU Blogger Meet-up is on Thursday, and I am so stoked about it. Did I even have a dream or two about it? Maybe, maybe not. Regardless, make sure to pay your invoices and we'll see you there! 


And one more mostly related thing: I start full-time with the sixth graders tomorrow. I'm really quite nervous about it. You see, when I taught second grade, that was something. But the sixth graders, that's something else entirely. Let me just say that when I made these bookmarks for the second graders,

 they spent the whole day using them to make chomping noises on the corners of their pages and chomping their knees and fingers and all other chompable objects in the classroom. And I just can't see the sixth graders getting into something like that. But if you don't get into that, what is there in life to get into, you know?

Which is why I'm nervous for tomorrow.

Which brings me back to today, monster book marks, and blogging when I should be on campus. We can only hope that the rest of the day goes like this.

Myself looking weird at 8 in the morning, to provide evidence that I am indeed sitting at my kitchen table looking in a strange direction rather than getting things done on campus:

To all my new blogging friends

First of all, hello! It's great to see your face around here. 


All you really need to know about me is that on the first day of winter semester,


I take backpack pictures with my husband and have horrible self-timer results (seriously, 75% of this picture was the tablecloth),

and then I go on a walk with him,

and then I eat cookies with him,

which were so yummy they couldn't wait 5 seconds for a picture.

Also, I'm obsessed with bell peppers, but that's a different story.

Now you know :)

Feature Thursday: Giveaway Winners!

Just a few things on this gorgeous freezing afternoon.

1. I just got out of my very last class of the semester. Three cheers!
2. My husband has gone to school dressed up for presentations every day this week. He looks dang good walking around campus if I do say so myself.
3. This article captivated me.
4. Winners have been chosen for my first giveaway! I chose them last night via random.org. Aactually, I made Husband press the button. It was just too much pressure for me to handle! You can't mess with fate, you know?! {Jen, remember when we drew names for cousin gifts? same thing}

For the beautiful watercolor portrait done by Corina, our winner is.....

Baby Sister who said 

And the MyMemories software giveaway goes to..... Katie! She said

This almost isn't fair, since Katie and I were roommates and best friends for three years straight. But it totally is fair, even ask random.org, and my husband, and fate himself. We're getting together tonight to play around with our cool new software.

P.S. Still want the software? Looking for that perfect gift for that crafty and cute someone? I can offer you a $10 discount on the software AND a $10 gift certificate to the MyMemories store! Use this code at checkout {STMMMS43822}.

Finally, since Every Good Post Should Have A Picture {rule #4 of blogging, didn't you know?}, here's a snapshot of Sam and I. We were just walking in between shots during our bridals. See what I mean about being handsome?

xo,