"If it doesn't sell, it isn't creative."

For my Media Writing class, I created a long print ad for a product I love (Jamie and I had a lot of fun!):

I'm Thankful!

I am so grateful for a wonderful family, fun & awesome friends, my health, my opportunities in life for education and privilege, being a member of the LDS church, peace, faith, and forgiveness.

This past Thanksgiving, I got the really unique and awesome opportunity to go to Southern California, where 3 sets of siblings who grew up in Connecticut together got to celebrate together.  David & I, Nicole & Vinny, and Kylee & Gator had such a perfect holiday:

Bring Tha Noize!

My friend Rori and I are throwing a party this weekend.  A GANGSTA party.  'Cuz, you know, we're so gangsta...................... hahahahahahahaha!  Word.

We really ARE throwing the party, but I find the whole thing rather ironic.  I mean, we had to get help from the good ol' world wide web to sound legit (check it out-- it's pretty hilarious!)!!!

Anyways, take a look at our Facebook event and come if you can!  Dress up gangsta to dance to our music and take home our prizes!!

Peace out, yo.

I love to see the temple...

I went to two sessions of stake conference this last weekend.

Highlights:

-Perception doesn't change the way things are, particularly in God's plan.
-"Come unto Me" is an often and open invitation
-"Wherever else you think you may be going, I invite you to come unto Him." -Elder Holland
-If we are not worthy to enter the temple here, we will not be worthy to enter the Celestial Kingdom- one is symbolic of the other.
-Family: the essence of why we're here on Earth.
-When we say qualifying for the blessings of eternal life, we mean qualify for the blessings of family.
-If we go to the temple for ourself, we may lose benefits.
-We are all children of God, but what are we doing to become children of Christ?
-Giving up your agency will actually give you more agency.
-The opportunity to face adversary is evidence of God's love- it allows us to learn what He wants, loves what He loves, etc.

We are the champions!!!

Our apartment pretty much rocks at winning ward contests:

Every apartment in our ward started out with 2 mini pumpkins.  We could only steal one at a time.  Final count= Us: 25 pumpkins (not all pictured).  Second Place: 13.  Entire Windsor Building: 3.  Boo-yah.

We won our own mini-trophy and box of shamwows at our ward's pinewood derby.  Ramone (our car) did us proud :)

Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn.

Some updates of my life:

I finally got the name plate for my office!!!  Yay!!!  I love my job :)

Elder Uchdorf spoke at BYU for the CES Fireside.  Some of the highlights:

"Discovering who we are is part of this great adventure called life."

Shakespeare rewritten: "Knowing that I am a child of God, what need I do and be to live up to this potential?  That is the question."

"Once you commit to being married, your spouse becomes your soul mate."

"Inquiry leads to truth... Asking questions is a precursor of growth."

"When you look at your reflection, look beyond imperfections and doubts to see who you really are- a divine child of God."

It was AWESOME!!!

 

 

 

It's been a beautiful autumn (surprisingly!!) here in Provo.  The weather has been beautiful and the leaves vibrant :)

Thought of the Week:

"The game of life is the game of boomerangs.  Our thoughts, deeds and words return to us sooner or later, with astounding accuracy." -Florence Shinn

Boo!

Some pictures of my life recently:

Homecoming

My roommate, Jamie, and I made blue waffles instead of going to the Creamery to get blue pancakes.

Then, we watched (and collected lots of candy from) the Homecoming Parade.  Here are a couple of my favorite floats:

 

The students on Condo Row put on their own parade this past weekend!  Short description:  THEY HAD A FLOAT!!!  The end.  (Not really.)  But I was impressed with the fact they actually found one (and the giant wooden contraption has just been sitting on the street since).  There were tons of costumed people on top of said float that chucked Twinkies at us cheering masses.  In addition to the pastry hauling celebrators, there was a guy playing bagpipes, Pacman (chased by ghosts, of course), Michael Jackson, a parade queen on top of a scootered couch, lots of costumed ninjas fighting in the middle of the street, scooters, motorcycles, etc.  They basically went around the block about 5 times to loud music and our cheers, then raffled off pineapples, and started a dance party in the middle of the street.  Oh, did I mention this was all at noon on Saturday?  It was pretty awesome.

Speaking of Halloween, here are some more pictures!!!

Friday night- I hung out with good ol' Connecticutians.  Us girls dressed up as single ladies and went dancing.  At one point, the DJ (who we knew) kicked everyone else off the mini-stages near his table so we could get up and dance to our song :)

Saturday night: Can you guess who we are?

... Got it?

... We're CLUE characters!!!!

We attempted to go trick-or-treating.  Becca, Rachel, and Annie brought us to their old Bishop's neighborhood, which happens to be gated.  We actually got in, but we only got 3 (king-sized!) candy bars because we went too late.  But then we went to the WLC dance (got lots of candy from there!), a dance at a blue house (it was PACKED-- I'm pretty impressed I didn't outright fall over in my heels), and rounded out the night watching A Nightmare Before Christmas at home sweet home.

Rise and Shout, the Cougars are Out

I'm back at school!!  (And have been for about 2 months now... did I mention I'm not the most consistent blogger in the world?)  Anyways, I'm still in Regency, but I have 5 brand new beautiful roommates: Annie, Becca, Jamie, Olivia, and Rachel.  Here in pictures is a quick summary of the year so far:

I went to a humongous party with Olivia, my beautiful room-roommate.

 

 I've been playing on an intense roomie intramural volleyball team.

 

 I went on a super fun triple date with Kylee and Nicole.

 

 We made hot air balloons out of hanger bags, straws, and candles.

(A+ for creativity!)

 

 Some people did a bit better than others :P

 

On to a Weekend of Weddings with the cousins!

Amanda got married in the Salt Lake Temple.

 

Amanda and Sam were/are extremely ecstatic.

 

My beautiful mother even flew in for the weekend!

 

Cousins are the best!

 

I love my Aunt Jana.

 

 Then we went to another wedding, where my Aunt Marsha performed the service.

 

 Chad and Miriam are a perfect pair!

 

Mom, Dave, and I drove up to Idaho- I love family!

 

It was also Kylee Bell's birthday recently!  This is her first J-Dawg!!!

 

Then we had a little tooo much fun with my computer camera...

Kramers Connect

I've decided to start a family blog so that my parents, siblings, and I can share our lives' stories easier.  Now I just need to get them on board with the idea :P

Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Si-Do

For those who don't know, I've been singing as an alto in a trio with my good friends Kylee Bell and Rachel Lefoll for years. Unfortunately, our exposure to the public has been limited to the occasional church and funeral performance. However, we've finally had our big break (haha) and we debuted as "The Footsies" in the Hartford YSA Talent Show this past Friday night... and we knocked the socks off of that crowd with our cover of the Wailin' Jenny's song "Long Time Traveller." Later in the show, we performed a more upbeat number, which was a funny version of "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid, called "I Need a Date." I'll try to post the actual video of us singing when I get a copy of it, but for now, here's a link to it on Facebook :)

Tell me what you think!

P.S.

Almost forgot-- I cut my hair! You like?

Long Time No Write :)

So I haven't posted in awhile... mostly because I made each post quite the production of storytelling and pictures. However, as my summer is winding down, I've decided to actually keep this little online view of my life updated so that when I move back across the country, my family and friends can be virtually updated.

This past summer I've spent with my family at our home in Connecticut, which has been simultaneously relaxing and stressful. It IS family, after all! I never was able to find steady employment, as I initially chose to avoid minimum wage jobs, and then it was too late. Instead I've been doing the classic "Odd Job" routine. I've been a part-time janitor in a variety of interesting locations, cleaning actors' rooms, mansions, and the ever-present bathroom; I've been an assistant to my game-inventing neighbor, cutting cards and helping with computer confusion; I've worked on a 200-300 year old farm on the Connecticut River, painstakingly painting details to help restore its beauty; and most often, I've been babysitting my butt (really my mind) off! So, even without an "official" job, I've somehow managed to stay employed thanks to my much appreciated neighbors and friends. (I'm actually about to head off to a new babysitting job-- my dad made me create fliers to advertise my skills (I was rather proud of the tagline I created: "I'm available for when you aren't.") and someone actually called in response to my ad! Huh. Will wonders never cease? :P)

Anyways, I just wanted to reconnect with my as-of-yet lonely blog, with its few posts and nonexistent readers. TTYL!!!

<3

I've Got Mad Skillz... Yo

This past Sunday, I walked into work and was informed that my coworker Matt was looking for me; I found him grinning ear to ear in the hallway holding a pile of baggy clothing. To explain: Matt is from Michigan, and I am from Connecticut. Michigan State and UCONN just played in the college basketball tournament, and we had made a little wager on the outcome-- loser had to wear whatever the winner brought in for the entire day of work. UCONN lost :( Matt decided to dress me in (his phrase) "Michigan Gangsta." It was an interesting work day, to say the least :P (Especially trying to mop in the men's size TWELVE shoes!! (To put it in perspective, I'm a mere size 5 in men's!)) Enjoy my transformation!

Playing Catch Up

The other day I baked delicious blue/straw-berry muffins. I decided to cut the sugar from the recipe and hoped that the fruit would compensate. They turned out tasting somewhat like biscuits, and they were delicious with a little honey or jam! I'm all in favor of experimenting!


It has been a good food week overall- on Tuesday, Nicole and I went to the Creamery and bought the delicious Sundae of the Month: Fried Oreo... Mmmm :)


Exciting news: I FINALLY finished my major advertising project!! This project has been a PAIN!! For my advertising class, we were sorted into groups and assigned a product to do an entire campaign on: my group got Blockbuster.com. I volunteered to put everyone's work together into the book, but I ended up editing and writing a lot more than I was supposed to. (Case and point- I was in the library for SIX HOURS one day working on it!!) Anyways, it was all just one problem and set back after another, including Word deleting my font and the printers messing up, but when it was finally done, I practically danced all the way home! (Speaking of dancing, I LOVE my final dance for Intro to Modern-- I'm not a dancer, but I love our joyous celebration of life and the gospel... maybe a video to come?)

(One of our ads)

(The finished product and I!)

On Friday, Nicole and I went to Dew, a little restaurant near our apartment and drank delicious hot chocolate while it was snowing (yes- SNOWING... in APRIL!!) and indulged in a "molten lava" chocolate dessert and superb creme brulee.... major YUM! I highly recommend it.

We also hung out with our friend from Connecticut- Tito Hardy- this past weekend. On Friday, we went to the BYU men's volleyball game (our first, and the last of the season) and then went dancing. The dance was waaay fun, with great music and high energy!!! It was held at Seven Peaks, of all places! Then, yesterday, we introduced him to Creamery ice cream and watched a movie on our next door neighbor's (The White House) couch :)

(on the dance floor)

(totally tired!!)

This past weekend was also General Conference. I really appreciate this weekend as a rejuvinating boost for the year! I might have fallen asleep at points (cough, cough), but I truly love hearing from our prophets :)

Till next time- I have to go to work!!!

<3