the post-elections post

disclaimer: guys i don't write political posts! i'm not all knowledgeable about politics (i'm an exercise science major) and i hate conflict. but i'm part scottish so i have a bit of a temper and i can get cynical and sarcastic. so i'm sure you can imagine that i was pretty much on a rollercoaster last night. true, i was disappointed by the outcome of the election last night. obviously the candidate i voted for was not elected. but that happens. and that's not what this post is about.

this post is about America.

cute self shot after voting

i lived in a foreign country for almost four months. while i was there i gained such a great appreciation for the freedoms we enjoy in the United States. how lucky we are to be able to vote and chose our leaders! and how lucky we are to have good candidates to vote for- instead of just corrupt candidates. we are blessed to not have policemen holding AK-47's on every corner. we are blessed to be able to influence government and its affects in our life. we are blessed to be able to sleep soundly at night, not worrying if we will be rooted out of our homes the next day. we are blessed because we are not in famine. we are blessed because we can practice our religion without fear of retaliation. we have a voice and we can make changes if we don't like the way things are. we are blessed because our government allows for innovation and creativity.



so we may or may not be happy with who was elected as president. but remember this: " governments were instituted of God for the benefit of man; and that he holds men accountable for their acts in relation to them, both in making laws and administering them, for the good and safety of society" (D&C 134:1).

we still have agency. we can choose whether or not we are going to make the most of our life or if we are going to give others the power to control our happiness. we are the creators of our own destiny. we choose if we are going to be happy or not!

Gandhi said "be the change you wish to see in the world." i still have faith in the American people that we can make changes where changes need to be made. i have faith that there are people who will continue to uphold the Constitution and the principles it was founded on. i know that there will always be people who will give help and support to those less fortunate. i know that there will always be the innovators, the creators, the inventors, the care-givers. these are the people who really make up America. and they have not left. i plan to continue to be the change i want to see in the world. do you?

ok wow, that was deep. it's time to get on with life. let's go think about "more important" things! like. . .
- BYU women's soccer team has a No. 1 seed in the NCAA play offs!
- Thanksgiving is in like 15 days
- i have like four more tests before Thanksgiving break
- i still want to find and marry Rupert Grint (or Tom Felton)
- speaking of Rupert Grint, i'm craving a Harry Potter marathon
- this weekend is the last BYU football home game
- it's supposed to snow this weekend and i'm not ok with that
- i'm getting excited for planning holiday parties and holiday food!
- speaking of food, i'm still craving cafe rio
- ok it's time to get back to mega-studying

the best of 10.29-11.4

best text recieved (from Brock): "I have been listening to country music and know how to solve all our problems: alcohol."

best Harry Potter reference (besides the HP party): in group therapy on friday, our therapist was talking about how humor helps with anxiety and then said "it's like in Harry Potter they have those boggarts and Snape comes out and they have to make it funny and laugh at it to make it go away, or the boggart really will hurt them." Riddikulus!

best news received: i got an 85% on my pathophysiology test! my goal was to get an 84% and i got 85%! one of the perks of having no life is that i can get good grades. next test i am setting an even higher goal.

best shopping deal: buying a big box of goldfish crackers from Costco for only $5.50!

aaaand i was supposed to post this on Sunday... now it's tuesday. and the fate of our country will be known in (hopefully) a few short hours. i'm putting off studying by writing this last sentence. if Obama wins i might move to England. find Rupert Grint. and marry him. the end.

ps. another awesome thing about me is that i totes fixed our fuses today! our stove and microwave were not even turning on and i fixed them! my roommate said this makes me marriage material.

baby you're a firework

1. after the Freedom Run. hyrum and i did the 10K and everyone else did the 5K

2. another post-race photo.

3. playing cards and waiting for the fireworks to start

4. fireworks!!!

fourth of july in uganda

last year i was in uganda for independence day. i thought it would be really hard to be away from home on a holiday that my family loves. surprisingly, it wasn't. when you are doing something you love and serving others, a holiday is just like any other day, just a little more special. so we celebrated mzungu style.

soooo excited to celebrate

we had hamburgers and chips (fries) for dinner

please love these faces about to enjoy a delicious hamburger

then we had a dance party. but i won't post any of those pictures as they could be potential blackmail photos haha. but there was definitely some air guitar and maybe even some animal worship....? no, we just re-enacted the Circle of Life with our pup Simba.

supes excited for coke floats (thank you Sarah for photo bombing)(

 i love me coke floats

aubs and me

devin and aubs

apparently something was funny. 

yes, yes it was a grand ol' party.

secretly, i wish i was celebrating there again this year....

thought on tuesday

*waking up at 6:30 to go vote makes you feel very patriotic, until the mid-morning/afternoon slump hits. then you just want to sleep. utah friends, did you vote? i think you should!

*the ladies at the polling booth asked my mom if this was my first time voting. i laughed inside, because my age is like the #1 question i get. i voted in the last presidential election folks. i'm gettin' old!

*kid skipped past my desk singing "if your finger's in your nose, take it out." so this is what they're teaching kids these days.

*speaking of teaching, working at a children's museum has instilled a great respect in me for moms and teachers a like. i mean sometimes i just want to strangle the little monkeys. (sometimes i want to strangle the parents.) you have to have a lot of patient to be with kids all day long!

proud American

coconut lime banana bread c/o somers

*i loathe public restrooms. loathe. there is nothing more awkward than knowing that someone is sitting a few feet away, in complete silence, listening to you tinkle. maybe that's tmi. i'd way rather go in the privacy of my own apartment.

*my coworker Somers is a magician when it comes to food. today she brought to work coconut lime banana bread. and get this, she just made it up! who does that? also, we started really planning our vegas trip- in two and a half weeks!

*i got a job interview at a rehab center in orem!!! please please please bless i get it- and that i have a good shift. and they let me have time off.

*i officially hate my hair straight. did i just say that out loud? yes, i did. i'm washing it tonight and never straightening it again.

*sierra invited me to the soel blogger meet up tonight and i got work off early so we're going! so. freaking. excited. slash i'm nervous because i'll be coming off an 8.5 hour work day.... not exactly my freshest look. but mostly i'm excited to finally "officially" meet sierra (even though we once met when i went to this, i am not sure if that counts).  who else is going to be there?

*i still can't listen to Call Me Maybe :(

*so there's this kinda cute boy at my work and we say hi every day. anyways. . . too bad this job ends on saturday and he is a pretty quiet fellow. update: we just talked for like five minutes. i mean get my number already buddy!

*i'm making peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies tonight. aka manna from heaven. i've also been craving pizza lately.

Sarah and a family we met in the Nauvoo Pageant in '08

spencer and some of his mission besties

*i was going to announce today that i'm going on a hiatus from dating. a sabbatical,  you could say. but i just don't know. i read this awesome post about leaning into discomfort and now i think that maybe i should keep "playing the game" as horrible as it is sometimes. because running away isn't going to change anything. and facing your fears (getting rejected, hurt, etc.) will only make me stronger. thoughts?


*supes excited to go home tonight and watch law & order: svu.  thanks lauren for the recommendation!

where were you when the world stopped turning?

i was in the bathroom. probably getting ready for the day- and putting off doing some sort of math homework. then Spencer came knocking on the door telling me mom wanted us all downstairs right away. being a hormonal preteen i yelled at him that i was busy and it would have to wait. after taking my time washing my hands and what not, i wandered downstairs. it was quite, except for the reporter on the TV.

i watched in horror, as my own Pearl Harbor happened. we watched as the second tower was hit and then the first tower fell. and i knew tons of people had died. i was so scared. i imagined my five brothers fighting somewhere across the world, in a country i had never really heard about. i didn't even know where Afghanistan was. i only knew that some horrible men had killed many people. i knew that our country was under attack. and i wanted to cry.

i did. but not until that night. i didn't want to be at war. i didn't want my brothers to be shot at. i didn't want to feel like i wasn't safe.

i remember feeling like i couldn't take anything for granted.

when you are 11 and your security is attacked, what do you do? i didn't understand what was going on. not really. i just knew that i loved America. i wished i could be in NYC or DC and help those people who needed it. i wanted to be there to hug the survivors- as well as those who lost a family member, coworker or friend in the attack.

i am grateful for the men and women who, on that fateful september day, stepped up to help save lives. i am sure there are many unsung heroes who will only be rewarded in the next life, because they did not live. i offer up a prayer for continued freedom and remembrance of the lives that were lost that day. we must never forget what happened on 9/11/01. let us hold on to our freedoms and fight to keep freedom free!