photoshoot

yesterday we took publicity photos for footloose and annie so a few of us got into hair, makeup and costume for the first time.  80s fabulous...

erika, tino, troy, veronica, casey, alexis, tim and i

a few of the orphan girls. adorable.

roomies

grace.  she is one talented 12 year old.  love her.  and love our secret handshake.

kristen and josh (our aussie rooster)

ladies and gentleman, derryl yeagar.  love this man.  

10 little things that put a smile on my face...

1.  ambiance

2.  horse's noses

3.  watches with clicky faces

4.  twinkle lights

5.  palm trees

6.  pink berry

7.  ichatting with benji

8.  folded chips

9.  babies in onesies

10.  the smell of my storage room

footloose fun

yesterday i had a wig-fitting consultation and i got to play dress ups...

here's my 80's fabulous rusty wig

and here's my boylan sisters wig and dress.  love it.

our cast is bomb....

we're really good with shopping karts...

...and we frequent this place.

two people (of the many in the cast) that i heart...

my willard, tim roberts. heart. him.

my roomie jenn aedo

the whole gang at our sunday cookout

one-trip wonder woman

...this is me whenever i get home from the store or any other place from which i acquire a lot of purchases (minus the adorable bags.  maybe sometime i'll have to get me some of those).  in fact, this was me just a few minutes ago when i made a trip to walmart with some friends.

i am definitely a one-trip woman.  i hate making multiple trips from my car (or friend's cars as is currently the case- i'm car-less at the moment) to my house with bags of groceries.  so, i end up muscling all of my bags at once- even if it kills me and my fingers turn a near-amputation purple-y color.  good things and big achievements don't come easy, people! oh, the satisfaction of getting them all in one foul swoop!  yep, can't beat it.  and i will continue to do it... even if it kills me.  

my smetchy...

this is my little sister gretchen.  she is 3 years younger than me.  i call her smetch.  

i don't think she knows it, but she's one of my heroes.  smetchy is such a deep, grounded and intellectual person.  every time i talk to her, it makes me think- in a great way.  watching her live life makes me want to be better- the best version of myself.  she is also hilarious.  she's very witty an she's always making us laugh.  

one of my favorite things about smetch is that she's one of the most compassionate people i know.  she feels so much.  if anyone close to her is ever hurting or sad or excited,  gretchen is right there feeling it along with them. 

smetch and i didn't always get along growing up.  we're very different and because of that we butted heads a lot as children.  but we've started getting a lot closer as we've grown into adults.

this past year, we spent a lot of time together at byu.  i was able to be there through some of her hard times and she was there for me in mine.  

i'll never forget a special moment i had with my smetchy a couple of days before i graduated.  i don't consider myself to be a super emotional person, but one night i was overwhelmed by the emotions of graduating and leaving behind a lot of people that i love to move on with the rest of my life.  not only that, but i was also dealing with the craziness of finishing finals, moving out of my apartment and hopping on a plane to ny for a week only to move to st. george less than 24 hours after my return.  

that night,  i drove over to where gretch was hanging out with some friends.  she came out to my car to spend some time with me.  i opened up to her about all of the crazy mixed emotions i was feeling.  she let me cry and she just listened.  she gave me a hug, told me she loved me and told me what i needed to hear- that everything was going to be ok.  

it seems like a simple thing, and i'm sure you can recall more than one occasion when someone did the same for you.  but i'll never forget that special moment with my smetchy.  

i love you, gretch and i'm grateful that you've become one of my favorite, best friends!

dear mommy of mine...

this is a picture of my gorgeous mommy and me.  what a babe.  it's mother's day today and i think it's hilarious that all of my friends are trying to boast, on facebook, that their mom's are better than everyone else's.  i don't really care to participate in such meaningless banter (especially because i don't want them to face the harsh reality that all of their mothers pale in comparison to yours truly's.) ;)

i love that today is mother's day.  and i feel like, especially because of the chapter of my life i just closed and the new one i've begun, i have some things that i want to say to my mom...

dear mom...

thanks for renting a video camera when we were poor because you thought i was going to take my first steps... even though i never did that day.

thanks for reading little house on the prairie, the boxcar children, eloise, in the eye of the storm and lots of other books to us when we were little.  you always did the voices just right and listening to you read always calmed me.

thanks for teaching us kids to be kind and to respect each other so we could become the best friends that we are today.

thanks for homeschooling me in england when i had a hard time adjusting to a new country, a new school, new people and a new culture.

thanks for caring enough to call the "stupid policeman" when i took gretchen on a 3 hour walk to pick benji up from school and you couldn't find us.

thanks for being a patient mom and for creating an environment of love and acceptance where we all feel safe to be who we are.

thanks for laughing at my british impersonations when i would come home from school in england.  you're the reason i'm good at dialects.

thanks for letting me call you 15 times every time i cook to ask ridiculous questions.

thanks for singing the titanic song in your "singing bush" voice, on command.

thanks for letting me be your only child of 7 who will physically fight back and wrestle you to the ground :)

thanks for clarifying that i can't get pregnant from being mean to my brothers and sisters.

thanks for warping my idea of dating and relationships with your "friendship hill" diagram. ;)

thanks for being so well-read and knowing about everything that's going on in the world... you've inspired me to do the same.

thanks for always being interested in my dating, friends, school and every other detail of my life.

and most of all... thanks for always encouraging me to dream big and for being excited along with me as i watch those dreams become my reality.  

i couldn't ask for a better mom!  

thanks for always supporting me...

it takes a babe like this (combined with a handsome daddy, of course)...

to make a family as beautiful as this...

and lets be honest...

...what other mom could be as classy and yet as ghetto fabulous as my mom?

i win. 

 love you, mom!

my daddy's kind of a big deal...

last week my dad was in ny at the same time i was.  i was singing and dancing and he was... well, at the stock market.  he and his company rang the opening bell for the stock market last friday morning! how cool is that?  yep, my daddy's kind of a big deal.  he's the handsome guy with the white hair 3rd in from the left on the back row.  what can i say?  i'm a big fan.  love you, dad!