Munch at Brunch

For breakfast this morning, O'Kara and I turned these random ingredients...

...into delicious Lemon Blueberry Scones.

Yum :)

B-O-R-E-D

I've been spending a lot of time on the computer lately, as my phone is broken and I don't have a job.  I'm also a bit of a bum haha.

Anyways, here are some things that I've found that are fun if you've run out of blogs to stalk and you're similarly faced with nothing to do. (Disclaimer: in no way is this list comprehensive.  You don't even have to read it.  Like I just said, it's a bunch of junk I do when I don't feel like being productive.)  Enjoy!:

Go watch TV online (I recommend Psych and Leverage.  Those are just my personal favorites.  But there are about one kajillion options, so I'm sure you could find something to get addicted to!)

See another cool advertisement:



"So You Think You Can Dance" is an awesome summer show.  Unfortunately, my favorite dancer, Alex, got injured, but here is a video of why I love him.  (Okay, I didn't actually take the time to make such a video; I'm just linking you to some of his dances, which are amazing.)

Addicted to bubble wrap?  Have at it!

Like fashion?  Go stare at people in 'weird' clothes from all over the world!!

If you haven't seen this video (and I've recently met people who hadn't), then please watch it and you'll understand about half of the references made in conversation in today's culture:



Check out these live songs from artists you might know!  It's pretty addicting :)  Artists are invited to perform a song on the street, in an elevator, on a bus, wherever, and they are filmed while doing it.  It's super cool.

Get off your computer and go cook up some deliciousness.  Diana's Desserts is my favorite baking/desserts website.

If you want to cool down during this heat wave, go cut some snowflakes.

If you don't want to decide on stuff for yourself to do, then you can use StumbleUpon to bring you to random websites.  You could waste days doing this :P (The homepage makes it look like you have to sign up, but you really don't.  Just click on the big logo.)

Or best of all, if you're bored, write or read a random blog post about all of the useless stuff you do :P

What do you do when you have free time?

Madame Blueberry

Today my mom, sister, and I went blueberry picking (one of my favorite summer traditions)!

My Kids :)

Oh, you didn't know I had kids?  This is awkward... haha, just kidding.  I've babysat Noah and Eli since they were both adopted; we're basically family at this point, but I am NOT their mother.  We had a fun time playing games the other day anyways!

And we've had lots of fun adventures over the years:

We made a Star Wars video...

There were some casualties :P

Did you know Noah was my first kiss?  Way back in YW beehives, when he was only 2 or so, his mom had him go around and give all the young women kisses on their cheek.  When it came to me, the sneaky little ladies man turned his head and laid one right on my lips haha.

These two pictures (above and below) basically describe their personalities perfectly.

Quote of the Day

"Procrastination is the grave where opportunity is buried." -Craig Lowe

Craft is part of the creative process.

Last night my friends, Mollie and Sarah, and I had a sleepover at Sarah's house.  It was way fun :)  We did the traditional pizza, junk food, and movie thing, but we also decided to try some crafts.  I got the idea from Princess Lastertron, who makes beautiful felt and button flower bouquets for brides.  We used directions from Whipup.  And (drumroll please) here are our results!:

I'm On a Horse

As an Advertising major, I really admired this commercial by Old Spice. If you've been near a computer or television since the Super Bowl, you've probably seen it, laughed your head off, and decided to switch to Old Spice body wash in the process. In case you haven't seen it, here's a refresher:



BYU, the school I attend, just put out a brilliant spoof of this commercial, advertising good ol' Harold B. Lee Library. Enjoy!!

Mika and the Monster

My good friend, old roommate, and almost twin (we were born on the same day/year but to different parents), Mika, and I started a band together. We named it "Mika and the Monster" (she's Mika... I'm the monster :P). We've only done covers so far and random acoustic nights. We finally got around to recording one of those covers recently, though, so I decided to share it with you readers! We didn't record a music video so I put a quick one together just so it would be more interesting to watch (although I feel totally full of myself haha). When we get really famous, I'm sure we'll do a better/more professional one that shows more than my face x 4. Here is the first cover we ever did, of The Cranberries song "You and Me."

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

My family had so much fun today!  My dad decided he really wanted to go to a driving range and just hit golf balls; the family was to be included, of course.  Let me make this clear: none of us are golfers.  My 10-year old sister had golfing lessons one summer and that's about the extent of our skill.  However, we have some random sets of golf clubs that we got from who-knows-where and so we loaded those in the back of our van and set off for our local driving range/batting cage/mini-golf place.  We arrived, bought a couple of buckets of balls, and had at it.  I would like to tell you that I'm a natural golfer but I am HORRIBLE... so that would be a lie haha.  That's okay, though!  My dad told us that we were not allowed to criticize or show off.  We were just to hit as many golf balls as hard as we could.  I'm sure the middle-aged men already there gave us a few weird looks.  We were quite the collection of ages, outfits, and skill-levels.  We were noisy.  We stayed for awhile.  And we had so much fun!  I think I almost got it to the 100-yard mark once.  My brother, Adams, on the other hand, hit it so far it landed beyond the 200-yard and bounced further than that.  Yet, despite my lack of golfing skill, I found myself laughing and just attacking that ball with an enthusiasm and gusto that surprised me.

We decided that we needed to stay and try out some of the other fun activities, so my dad bought a few tickets for the batting cages.  I was actually pretty good at this!  My dad told me I might have missed my calling in life because I was whacking those fake baseballs all over the place.  (My theory?  It's all because of my tennis swing, which I wouldn't have developed if I tried softball instead.  And I love tennis about a kajillion times more than softball, so phooey.  But I still thought the batting cages great fun!)  After that, we had a family wide mini-golf tournament.  Favorite moment?  N'Krysta hit the last shot (the easy hole-in-one set up like a funnel) into the bar of the net surrounding the hole, by accident, thus popping the golf ball up and over and far far away.  You had to be there.  My dad creamed the competition, with 2-under par.  I think I came in second to last.  But again, it didn't matter!  I just had fun hanging out with my family and trying new things :)

Major Leagues?  I think so.

America the Beautiful

Jacob (my oldest brother), Suzie (his wife), and I (me/myself) drove from Provo, Utah to Connecticut.  Conclusion?  I love road trips!

It was such an amazing experience to drive across our diverse country.  We saw beautiful trees, plains, rivers, mountains, cities, people, etc. etc.  I highly recommend the experience to everyone who can stand hours and hours in a car.  I'm pretty fortunate; I don't suffer from car sickness, so I got to read books, listen to music, talk, drive, sleep, etc. without any problems except some leg cramping and butt sleeping haha :P  Driving across these states, though, helped forge a tie between me and our country.  It sounds cheesy, but I really do feel more connected to America. 

 The view from our Colorado resort.

Sunset from our Missouri resort.

King Jacob and Queen Suzie are so cute.

Princess McKenna and her new princess friend (Suzie's niece) had craft-y fun.

I'm home in Connecticut now and it has been just plain nice.  I love the sense of belonging that comes from being home.  I love the familiarity of the trees, the humidity, the house, the people, the customs, etc.  I have been changed from living in Provo for two years now; however, at my heart, I am still an East Coast girl.

More updates on my awesome summer to come!