the big 24

wow... i am 24! time just seems to be flying on by. it is so crazy! well, the birthday festivities started out on saturday night when my favorite (and only) sister took me to macaroni grill. it was so yummy. sadly i had to go to school on my birthday and give a presentation, but luckily it was pretty easy. i took the day off of work so i was free after noon. of course it decided to snow like crazy so i couldn't go do as much as i would have liked to but i bought myself a new dvd player and did some shopping. then i went to cafe rio for a salad... yummy! i just hung around the house all afternoon and got the new dvd player set up. i received "andrea themed" birthday text messages throughout the day from hayley and they were so great. crazy how well hayley knows me. there were twilight pictures, a big red ford truck, a disney princess, brad paisley, dwight from the office, wicked, and chocolate texts. it was so wonderful! hayley instructed me to be free after 5:30 and she showed up with 24 beautiful roses. they were red, pink, orange, and yellow and they looked just like the flowers at the cullen's house for bella's birthday in new moon. (yes, we are obsessed). she also brought me an edward poster to try to persuade me back to team edward, and some twilight chocolate. we love us some twilight! hayley took me to my favorite restaurant, p.f. chang's, and jordan met us there. the three of us had dinner and it was so incredible! danielle (my b.f.f. in new york) called me as we were leaving and oh how i wish she could have been here for the fun! i went home and ended the night watching my current favorite movie "the proposal." it was such a fun and great day! then the next day i got a birthday cake at work and this weekend i am going out to lunch with my aunt and cousin. i am going to drag out these birthday festivities as much as possible!

new moon

if you know me you know that i am obsessed with twilight. and i think that obsessed is a bit of an understatement. knowing this, if you would like to read something very funny see my posting on december 14, 2008 when i did not like twilight. here is the story... i was anti-twilight. i was not going to read the books, see the movies, and i thought it was so dumb that everyone was in love with a vampire. i reluctantly saw twilight with my friends in december and did not enjoy it. i thought terrible script, terrible acting, and weird story. my friends hayley and danielle convinced me to see it again because they were sure i would like it the second time. so i went again in january. i did not like it. when it got to the dollar theater (around march) i went to see it one more time with hayley and she told me to just laugh it and not take it so seriously. i took her advice and laughed so much and fell in love with edward. i borrowed the books from hayley and danielle and read through all four very quickly. i was totally in love with edward. i freaked out when the first new moon trailer came out and followed everything twilight. i even bought a hard cover set of the books and read them again this fall. hayley and i made countdown chains to the opening of the movie and they had how many days til the movie and a quote from the book. obsessed, right? well, the day that i had been waiting for finally came! hayley and i went to the 12:14 showing of new moon and i loved it! we got in line around 8 and sat outside in the freezing cold with about 2500 other fans. we had tons of blankets and hand warmers and tried to stay warm while waiting for the moment. i don't want to give anything away but i really liked the movie. i also changed from team edward to jacob. well, i think i am team edward for the books and team jacob for the movies. jacob is hot! this is hayley and i waiting for the show. i cannot wait for june 30 and the release of eclipse.....

"engagement" pictures

i was given specific instructions that i was not allowed to publish these pictures on facebook and i promised i would not so here they are on my blog! no, i am not engaged. and no, this guy and i are not dating. we will also never be dating (so don't suggest that we do). but, last winter we both bought these shirts (from different stores) and they are almost exactly the same green waffle shirts. this is the first time we have ever worn them on the same day and i just so happened to have my camera with me and couldn't help myself - we needed "engagement" pictures. here are my favorites! the second picture should give you and idea how he felt about the experience.

green jello

calling all office fans... october 16 is national boss's day, but my boss has the day off so we celebrated with him today. he loves, and i really mean loves, the office, so we decided to play a little prank on him today. yesterday i took his stapler home with me, i put it in green jello, and then brought it to work with me and put it on his desk while he was eating lunch. when he saw it he just couldn't stop laughing, and he of course had to walk around with it to show everyone. it was the greatest thing ever and i am so doing it again! here i am with my beautiful creation.

aida

last weekend i went to st. george with my friend hayley to see "aida" at the tuacahn. i just have to say that this was probably my third favorite performance i have ever seen in my life. the first would have to be sitting in the front row center for "wicked" in new york, and the second is seeing "the lion king" in new york. this production of "adia" rivaled any broadway quality show i have seen. it was so well done and the story was so moving. hayley and i loved this show and i cannot wait to go back to the tuacahn to see another show. they are doing "tarzan" next summer and i will definitely be there.

while in st. george we also had to make a very important stop.... at in-n-out. wow. amazing. i love in-n-out. it was only my second time going, but i am a huge fan. there will be one opening in orem next month and i have to say that i think i will be a regular there. now, i am not a huge fan of the fries, but the burgers are by far the most amazing burgers i have ever had in my life. yummy. hayley and i had a fun little weekend getaway and i am definitely ready for another one. road trips are so fun and we had a great time listening to 90s music (specifically nsync, backstreet boys, spice girls, and savage garden), playing mash, and other fun games i haven't played since i was in eight grade. it was close to 100 degrees while we are there and i am definitely sad to be back in cold provo.

zucchini bread

at work we have this customer who is just the cutest old man. during the summer he likes to bring us produce from his garden. he normally brings in cucumbers and tomatoes but he called in one day and asked if anyone wanted a zucchini. i have never made zucchini bread but thought i would give it a go so i asked for him to bring me one. this is what he brought me........

notice it is about two feet long. this is not what zucchini's are supposed to look like! i just couldn't stop laughing about how big it was, but thought i would still give it a try. i asked my mom for a recipe and she gave me two and i meshed them into my own. i went over to my friend hayley's to use her food processor to grate up the zucchini. note: i really want a food processor so if anyone wants to donate to the "andrea wants a food processor fund" be my guest. so this massive zucchini grated up enough for ten loafs of bread. and i want to point out that i only used about 3/4 of a inch from the side. the middle was very soft and has massive seeds - remember this is not a normal zucchini. i made a my first batch (two loafs) and they turned out quite beautifully. although i had to keep poking one with a knife to see if it was done. i took the non mutilated one to break the fast the next day and it got all eaten up. because of how much zucchini i had i made another batch and took two loafs to work. this time i tried a different recipe - a paula deen one - and i loved it. and so did my coworkers. i now have enough zucchini in my freezer to make six more loafs so i guess i have a few more recipes to try until i find my favorite.

super cute sunday

during my freshman year of college my wonderful roommate ashley would refer to the first sunday of a new school year as "super cute sunday." i had no clue what this meant so she of course had to explain. she said that on the first sunday all the girls dress up in their cutest outfit and make sure their hair and make up is perfect. why would they do this you ask? because there is some fresh meat on the market (a.k.a. new boys) and girls had to look their best. you will notice that in about a month many girls stop caring as much because they have gotten to know the new people and may stop caring. today was super cute sunday in my ward. i have been here for over a year and it was very nice to see about half of the ward stick around for another year. but as always there were a lot of new people to meet and that was exciting. i haven't had a calling since the beginning of june when i was released as second counselor in the relief society presidency. it has been weird to not have something to do in the ward, but my mother has told me to enjoy the time because it wouldn't last long. i still don't have a new calling, but i was asked to lead the music in sacrament meeting and teach relief society. it looks like there will be some fun new people to hang out, but i am also happy because most of my friends stuck around in the ward so we can keep having fun.

new beginnings

i am back in provo and today life got back to normal. i really really enjoyed having a week and a half off of work and having no responsibilities. but that can only last for so long. this morning i started school at uvu. i am taking ten credits and four classes. i am taking calculus, foundations of american education, classroom management, and multicultural instruction. i am excited about finally taking some education classes and learning more about how to be a teacher. it is a pretty heavy load, but each of my education classes only meet once a week. but my calculus class meets five days a week so my life will now be consumed by math. good thing i love it. i go back to work today and start my new schedule. i will work 12.15 to 6.15 everyday and i will be in school in the morning. taking 10 credits and working 30 hours a week will be very time consuming, but i am excited to be progressing with school! it is really sad, but that is my life now.

yesterday was my day to get ready for school, clean up my apartment, run errands, and relax. i got everything done before i thought i would so i took myself to see "julie & julia" and i thought it was a really cute movie. i love amy adams and she was so cute in this movie. if a movie were made about my life i would have amy adams play me. i realize no one would want to see that movie but, she is my pick. the movie shows the story of two real people: julia child the cook and julie powell the women who wrote a blog about cooking through julia childs cook book. i was not familiar with julia child, but i have to say that the character really annoyed me. the movie made me want to cook and eat yummy food. i am capable of cooking but i don't because i don't want to spend money to cook for one. it is a funny movie and i would recommend it to anyone who wants a laugh!

jakarta trip

it has been like forever since i posted anything! i wanted this blog to be like a journal for me and obviously that isn't working out. i am in jakarta right now visiting my family before school starts again on wednesday. my mom made a to-do list of things that i needed to help her with while i was here and on her list was to show her how to make a post to her blog. for those of you who follow my moms blog you would know that she has only ever made one post - and it was from the last time i was here! since i haven't been on in so long i decided i would do my own post, make step by step instructions for her as i went along, and hopefully that will help her! i have been here for a week and my mom and i have been having so much fun together. i went golfing with my dad and jake for the first time. and i have to say it will probably be my last time. i did not have fun. we have gone out to eat a lot, done some shopping, saw "up" and "the proposal" and watched movies at home. my favorite parts were getting in the pool and sitting outside reading. we have a beautiful backyard and i love being out there. i have tried very hard to get a tan and it just did not work, although i did get a lot more freckles! at least they make me look a little darker. i think i have completed my instructions and hopefully you will see more posts from my mom now.

april fools

i looked out the window and what did i see...................

this is a joke, right?! i was sure that the snow was some kind of april fools joke. i guess not since it is supposed to snow more this week! it is april!! i think snow is pretty but i hate to leave the house when it is out there. ugh.

new york

this last week i went to new york with my friends hayley, danielle, and rachel. we had a blast! i was most excited about seeing musicals and especially to see "wicked." we had been planning the trip for two months and i was always bugging hayley about getting wicked tickets. they were really expensive (like $200+) so they finally convinced me to just do the lottery tickets when we get there. how it works is you show up to the theater two and a half hours before the show and write down your name and how many tickets you want (two max.) and then two hours before the show they draw names and give out 26 tickets total. and then each ticket is $26.50 and you get to sit in the front row. we went wednesday afternoon and there were well over 100 people there. none of us were drawn and i decided i just couldn't risk it so i called ticketmaster and bought a ticket for thursdays show. we didn't win the lottery on thursday, but then on friday hayley won! so i saw wicked two nights in a row! it was amazing!!!! while we were there we also saw "phantom of the opera", "the lion king", and "the fantasticks." i think "phantom" is one of the best shows ever and i loved it. "lion king" was incredible. we all cried during the opening song "circle of life". everyone needs to see this show! i really liked "fantasticks" because i played the lead in it my senior year in high school. it was so awesome to see all these shows.

while there we did a ton of things. just to name a few we did the nbc studio tour, radio city hall tour, empire state building, and top of the rock. we ate at serendipity and that was a lot of fun. my least favorite thing was going to the bodies exhibit. not a fan. and we sat on the runway at jfk for an hour and forty-five minutes before we took off. other than that it was so fun!

he's just not that into you

"he's just not that into you." powerful words for a single gal. i have seen the sex and the city episode that started the phenomenon. i have read the abridgement of the book. and now i have seen the movie. the abridgement is amazing. there are powerful phrases such as, "if you can find him, then he can find you. if he wants to find you, he will" and "men don't forget how much they like you. so put down the phone."the movie takes the concepts of the movie and illustrates them in real life... like if a guy doesn't call you, it means he doesn't like you. duh! i saw the movie the day it opened and it was packed. every single girl was there, and many girls dragged their boys along with them. there was much laughter, and nods in agreement because we act just the way the girls do in the movie. it was awesome!
my friends and i decided to make it a double feature and go see "bride wars" after. it was my first time sneaking into a movie and it was kind of exciting! i saw bride wars the week before and i don't know that is was good enough to see twice in one week, but it sure was good!

tumbling gym

last night i went to a tumbling gym with some of my friends. we had fun jumping into the foam pit, attempting to do back flips, and jumping on a really bouncy trampoline. now this foam pit was pretty big so there were two lines to jump into it. one side had a trampoline to jump on to get into the pit. the other side had someone holding a big cushions and then you run into them and both fall into the pit. my friend ryan thought this would be really fun so he asked to hold the thing and i ran into him. so i am sprinting and go straight for him and what happens.... his knee cap hits me just above my knee! ouch!!!! we fall into the pit and he says "did our knees hit?" oh yes ryan, they did. and something, possibly his face or hand, hit my mouth. luckily that pain went away pretty quickly. my knee was a little sore for the rest of the evening but didn't look bad. but then i woke up this morning to find it hurting and looking like this...... ouch.

happy new year

so i had just about the longest new years eve anyone has ever had. sarah and i left our house in jakarta at 6.30 am on dec. 31 (which is 4.30 pm on dec. 30 in utah)... we went to hong kong and ate at burger king. we then spent 11.5 glorious hours on a plane where i watched a ton of movies and sarah slept the entire time! and i honestly couldn't name all the movies i watched because i was so tired! we then go to go through the (not so) lovely l.a. airport where we walked through scary long white tunnels by ourselves. sarah kept saying things like "this is what happens at the beginning of scary movies." thanks for that sarah. i got to eat some more "healthy" food in that airport (thanks c.p.k. a.s.a.p.). after a four and a half hour layover in l.a. we were finally on our way to utah! we got there at 7.30 p.m. and my wonderful friend danielle picked us up and took us back to good old provo. when i got into my apartment it had been 28.5 hours since i left the house in jakarta. this is not what i call fun. danielle was having a glorified hang out session at her house that night and wanted me to come over. i went and was so tried the whole time! me being the loser i am left the new years eve party at 10.45 and was in bed asleep when the clock struck midnight. stupid jet lag.
but now it is the new year! i decided to start it off by sleeping until 12.30. that wasn't really the plan, but it happened! i have lots of plans for this new year....... hopefully you do too and everything goes great!