Who knew you could box up happiness?..No I'm not talking about a Happy Meal.

Yesterday I was cleaning off my dresser and decided to go through this box:

A dear friend gave it to me a year ago for Christmas and I decided to put my precious memories in the box throughout the year. You can only imagine all of the fun stuff I collected during 2010--Notes from my Relief Society girls, numerous cards from my mom and best friends (some for no reason and some marking memorable days), wedding announcements, magnets, belongings of my grandfathers who passed away, newspaper clippings, pictures and memorabilia from my involvement in last year at BYU-Idaho and events I helped with.

Going through the box sent me on a crazy trip. I laughed, cried and mostly just enjoyed the time I had to reflect on all of the great memories I have from last year and the good people I have in my life who have taught me great lessons.

Today in church our lesson was on Elder Utchdorf's talk, "Of Things that Matter Most"... These are some of those things :)

The day I used all of my arcade tickets to buy a slinky at Boondocks.

One of my friends and I have been talking about getting a little group together to head to Vegas for a weekend. So fun, right? Well after my little trip to the arcade at Boondocks last night, I've realized that if we do go, I'm really going to have to prepare myself.

Usually if I know that I'm going to love something so much I just won't start because I know that in the end I will get myself into trouble. It's like eating carbs and sweets or taking on watching that new show on Bravo that you'd love to watch but you know that you really don't have the time....

Anyways, last night we decided to go to Boondocks for some NAT (niece appreciation time) with Regan. We started with the Go Karts and then went on to Laser Tag (which btw is one of my favorite things to do I've decided. I was so hardcore last night...granted, I was playing against a bunch of trash talking little boys but I kicked there butts and made sure they knew it).

Next, it was on to the Arcade. Normally, I'm not into all the games and spending money to play them but there is just something about playing a game and watching all of the tickets come out. Here's where boondocks gets ya: They give you a $5 money card in the package you purchase knowing that the money is going to run out super fast and that you will be so addicted to a certain game by the time your $5 card runs out that you will HAVE to load more money onto the card. They are good.

Of course I was hooked on a game that was $1.00 a play. Get this.. you only push A button. Just one. I wasn't the only one addicted to it. This little girl, probably 7 yrs old kept swiping her card and playing over and over again. I couldn't help but wonder where all of her money was coming from. Whatever. She was a show off. I would only get 4 tickets most of the time and of course she would get 20 or 35 each time. There was one time she almost got the Jackpot. Needless to say, I was making a scene.

I spent like $10 and only ended up getting 123 tickets. That's it. It may seem like a big number but it's not when you have to have at least 100 tickets to get anything semi-cool. But even a 23 year old woman who works hard for her money was still excited to turn those tickets in for a Rainbow Slinky and 5 peace sign temporary tattoos.

Sure, I could have gone to the dollar store and bought a slinky for $1 but where's the fun in that? Nope. Instead, I am the owner of a $10 Slinky. Don't worry, I love it. I've been playing with it ever since. In fact, it's sitting on my lap right now.

Moral of the story is... I WILL go to Vegas but I WILL be sure to have a certain amount set aside to gamble and that will be that!

I remember!!

The last few days I've had some much needed routine checkups from a few of my "doctors." aka: long distance BFF's.

Want to know what's funny? ...The dreams I've had based on the emails and phone conversations we had the previous day just catching up...that's what's funny!

I'm not sure where they come from but when I wake up the next morning I remember why we are besties.

curious?

The deats can not be explained via blog however it includes girls fighting over boys, tanning, partying in exotic lands, old-OLD crushes, and the cast of Jersey Shore. Don't ask.

Slowly but surely.

"Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known."

"...A River knows this: There is no hurry. We shall get there someday."

--Winnie the Pooh

Golden Globes

If you missed the Golden Globes last night... I'll give you a little recap of some Red Carpet pics you missed. These aren't just a list of my faves. Some are and some well....aren't at all.

I will say that I noticed the trend on the Red Carpet to be all about the Pinks, Tans and Nude colors for the dresses and it worked. See for yourself at TMZ.

Emma Stone not only rocked the Blonde hair but she had a very classy look. Loved the accessories on this one :)

Sandra Bullock. Always beautiful.

Maria Menounos...gorgeous.

Helena Bonham Carter? Sad thing is she totally rocked the look! It's so...Helena. She's not even wearing matching shoes and the hair? kind of love it. Maybe not for Red Carpet..but awesome.

Catherine Zeta-Jones..what ARE you wearing..turf?

And for the Men:

Zac Efron.

Mark Salling aka "Puck"

Johnny Depp dressed awesome as always!

Just go with it...it's more fun.

Today I had a phone call to my office from Raphael, the accounts payable dude at one of the hotels I book with in Florida. He is the nicest guy with a super thick accent and a passion for what he does--collecting money. My money...no, my company's money.

A conversation that should have taken a maximum of 2 minutes to take down my CC number quickly turned into an 5 minute conversation about weekend plans and Jack Daniel's. Wtf, Raph?... I don't even drink. I just remember laughing hard at something he said about taking my money and him being a "bad boy" (clearly just being nice and caught off guard) and all of a sudden we were talking about drinking. Idk. He brought it up but you know I just went with it... It's not lying...it's just more fun. Plus, you know I'm saying all of the things that he was thinking.

Ha. I enjoy phone calls from Raph.

Lady Danville

Lady Danville was one of the opening bands for Dashboard at their concert last night at In the Venue downtown SLC. LOOOOOOVE them. I mean, just look at them. They Rock.

Here's the thing... they only have a few old tracks on Itunes. But they have some great tracks out there. If you "like" them on Facebook you can totally download a couple of their songs for free! Download Spoon and Cars (note--it says the S word..ooops.) Click here to check it out!

Oh and if you go to their Facebook page you will also see this picture from last night. The drummer took this during the concert!!

Where's Waldo? Well... Cole is seen clear as day in this pic. Julene and I are right next to him but we're a little bit shorter. Surprise?

Clue: Cole's wearing green... we're on the left hand side on the floor. Love it. Seriously though, they're worth checking out!

Thank you Dashboard.

Last night I stood in line in the cold for an hour to see this beautiful man:

CHRIS CARRABBA

It was the 10 year anniversary for the release of their "Swiss Army Romance" album. He played all of the greats and sounded just as great live. Here's a taste:

I can't even count how many times Hyrum and I drove around singing entire albums at the top of our lungs. Awesome.

I will post more vids to my fbook :)

Bachelor....Shock and Awe.

The women on the Bachelor never cease to bring on the shock and awe factor to ABC. Why do I like the show? I really don't know. Maybe it's all of the back biting, jealousy, drama and fighting over one man. Ridiculous. It could be the fact that half of the people aren't really there for the right reason.... regardless of what they all say.

Recap of the shock and awe of tonight's premier episode:

Vampire girl. omg. For reals, she has fangs. Embarrassing. And he kept her on. Most likely for ratings and to keep the Twihards watching. No shame in that ABC, I suppose.

The girl who thought it was a good idea to slap the kid when she first met him. Honestly don't know why he kept her on...it was straight up rude. I would have asked her to get back in the Limo. No joke.

The "Fashion Marketer" who hopped out of the Limo to greet brad in the ugliest hot pink WEDGE shoes I have ever seen. Missed it live? They kind of looked like these:

I wish I was joking. I still can't get the image out of head. It was probably the highlight of the night for me. Really lady, you're a fashion marketer?? PUH-LEEEEEASE!

I'm not sure where they find these women but I'm pretty sure that I know men with more class and fashion sense then some of these girls. Just sayin'.

Once again...Shock and awe. Will watch the entire season and still have favorite picks? Absolutely.

Side note: I kind of miss the "On the Wings of LOVE" song. However, ABC did treat us with Seal's "Kiss From a Rose." cheesy goods.

Welcoming 2011

Growing up, I never really understood the term "Happy New Year" and the celebration that went with it. I mean, every other year I've been so content with the happenings of the ending year that I never really wanted it to end because that meant change. Sure, I'd go to the New Year's parties, light my fireworks and cheer when the clock struck midnight but I wasn't ever truly happy for a new year (except for 2006 when it was the year I was to graduate High School of course.)

This year, however, I'm ready for the new year.

To say that 2010 was a huge year for me is an understatement. I graduated with a Bachelors Degree from BYU-I, moved straight to SLC with no idea of what I was going to do(huge step for me), got my own apartment (three moves and three singles wards later), started paying bills for the first time and landed a great job as a Meeting Planner for Franklin Covey (which is a great step toward reaching my future goals). On top of that, I gained a brother-in-law and a teenage niece, found out my sister is expecting a baby, and as a family we welcomed home our Returned Missionary from Canada!

In the midst of all of these good/great things, I can't help but think of all of the time I wasted not truly living. After a draining and rocky start in 2010, I sort of shut myself away from making new friends because I didn't like change. I wanted things to be the way the were back when... Now I find myself in this place where I only know a handful of people outside of work and yet I keep saying, "once Cole gets down here it will be better.." or "i'll start going to activities and being social once I get into my new place/ward in February."

Well, I've been an idiot. I let the bad that happened outweigh all of the good and I sat around waiting for things to happen. News flash. It doesn't work that way, dear. I am ready for a fresh start.

Wow, this post isn't going the way that I expected it. I didn't think that many good things happened in 2010. Morale of the story is, I guess I now understand the term "Happy New Year" and why we celebrate. We can forget about the heartache we've been through and the people we've lost and reflect on and celebrate the things we've accomplished, the people we've met, the places we've been and the lessons we've learned!... and boy have I learned a lot of lessons.

With that said, go ahead and make goals. It's not just cliche. We make these goals not to fail at them but in the attempt to make the next year the best it can be. To be and do better. I have made my list. Here's a few:

1.) Not purchase bottled water unless absolutely needed ie: in a foreign country or at a concert where it's a must. (I know this one sounds silly but I've been to the landfill and almost had a panic attach seeing all of the plastic up in there... don't trip--I'm not going "green.")

2.) Get back on track with working out and cutting out the carbs... Started last week... If I did it for two years before, I can do it again!

3.) Start being social and make some freaking friends around here!

4.) Enroll in a class of some kind.

5.) Work harder at serving others.

I have more but that's just a little taste...phew, well.. I'll step off my soap box and just say-- "Happy New Year!" :)