Comida

I can't think of too many things I love more than food. Maybe my family, friends, and possibly a really good pair of shoes. But they have to be REALLY nice shoes. All I know is basically nothing can beat a nice piece of Cheesecake Factory lemon raspberry cheesecake. I could eat one piece of that fruity delicacy every day and never get sick of it. ever.

For most women, when they think of comfort food, they think of Ben and Jerry's. I think of grits and eggs. I do love ice cream, but when I need something to make me feel better, those grits fill that hole in my heart. I don't even know why I loev them so much, but it probably has something to do with my family being from the south. I don't know too many people in Maryland who eat grits too often. They're missing out.

I bring up this topic because what do you think I made for myself when I was feeling homesick and sorry for myself? And what am I having for dinner tonight?

It's breakfast for dinner time! it's basically the best idea ever. Breakfast is the best meal of the day, but also the one most skipped. Which is why Brooke and I are fixin up a whole smorgasboard of breakfast foods! We've got french toast, eggs, cinnamon rolls, strawberries and (at least for me) grits! yummy. We're having Sam, Reed and Adam over tonight too so it should be really fun!

french toast!!

A Needed update

Well, it's certainly been a while since my last entry, about 7 months actually. So I would say it's about time for an update. My mom and grandma found out about this blog and keep telling me I should keep writing in it... so Hi Mom and Muzzie! I hope you like this entry!!

Let's see.. so much has happened since February. I graduated! (Thankfully my parents even let me live after seeing the not so great grade I got in psychology fourth quarter. Hello senioritis) Before that I took a little road trip to Utah to see Rachael graduate and then I headed up to Idaho with Muzzie and Pawpa to visit my college, oh yeah, did I mention I'm going to BYU-Idaho? I'll have more on that later... I visited in April i think and we got caught in a snow storm. it was crazy but I really liked the campus a lot. I also had a blast with my grandparents even though all of the rock formations got a little old. I must say that I am a true East Coaster. I got pretty sick of all of the brown, gray, and dark green out west. In fact, I was giddy once we got out of Colorado and into Kansas. The west does have it's own kind of beauty, but personally, I prefer color, and a little humidity never hurt anyone.

This summer I worked at Kids Adventures (again) and it was so fun! I took a whole bunch of pictures and even though the kids sometimes drove me nuts, I still had a fun time. In fact, I think all of the staff members had more fun together than the kids did.

But, there was one experience I had that was a little terrifying that I don't think I could ever forget. Our bus driver Scott is pretty creepy and I don't think he brushes his teeth. They were always covered in this weird filmy gunk. He was a nice enough guy, but he thought he was a staff member and he just had a creepy feeling about him. One day at the pool, I brought a kid under the umbrella to grab some money for the snack bar. While I was waiting on the kid, Scott walks out in his bathing suit telling me about how he got his sunburn. He was with another camp and he didn't feel comfortable asking any of the staff members if they could help him out, but oh, because he's so comfortable with KA he decided to ask me if I could rub some sunscreen on his back. Well what was I supposed to do? say HECK NO and run away? (i really considered it... but you can't run on the pool deck) so I gave in and said fine. BIG MISTAKE. I rubbed it in and he went down to the pool. Meanwhile, I was left frozen in place, staring at my hands. I don't think I moved for a good 2 minutes. what had I just done? The poor kid I was with gave up on me and went to the snack bar. I speed walked to the bathroom and washed my hands at least 3 times. I would've settled for one but there was barely any soap in the dispenser. perfect. I couldn't look Scott in the eye for the next week. But then the next day he decided to ask if i could rub some sunscreen on his face. I told him he could do it himself and I would tell him if he had any white stuff left. then I ran away.

I also got to improve upon my photography portfolio this summer. I took Rachel Sabin's engagement and bridal pictures and I took family portraits for Rach and John and their puppy Samson. Rachael and John paid me in frozen yogurt and the Sabin's paid in cash... I'm still not sure which way I liked more. I think all of the pictures turned out well and it was fun to perfect my photography skills!

Rachel and Brant The Hardings

All summer I had been thinking about what to pack for college. What an experience. Ithought I had all the basics down for Idaho (only 2 pairs of flip flops. that's nuts.). Mostly jeans, socks, about 1000 sweaters, skirts, shoes. Then I got looking in my closet and realized that I forgot my snow boots. what a rookie mistake. I did remember all of my headbands, though!! It shows where my priorities are.

Move in day at BYUI was on September 7th. I'm in Lamprecht Hall and I'm loving it. I share a room with Amber and an apartment with Amber, Brooke, and Megan. We all get along pretty well despite our differences. Brooke and I put up a movie quote wall, which actually takes up the entire wall. we plan on expanding it, too. Whenever someone comes over, we make them name at least 4 quotes on the wall. We also have posters of Jacob Black from Twilight, The Jonas Brothers and Zac Efron. It's nice to know that there will always be some hot guys in out living room!! haha I also put up some pictures that I took/ made in high school and hung them up around the apartment to give it some personality. I think it looks pretty good!

Most of our awesome quote wall

I am really liking my schedule here. I have 6 classes. Writing for communication careers (my major), Women's Glee (This class sounds really good on paper, but the teacher drives me crazy. thank goodness Brooke is there with me. All the teacher does is works with solfeg syllables, which i think are stupid so Brooke and I basically sing our own tune in the back), American Foundations, Psychology, Community vocal performance (it's basically Broadway singing class, which is a BLAST!! the teacher is such a firecracker), and Book of Mormon. The classes aren't too hard, all I have to do is keep up with the work which isn't too bad.

Me and Adam lighing Brooke's cake

Since being here, I've managed to make some really awesome friends, but no dates yet. lame. But like Elle told me, I do have four years for that. I don't think my dad minds too much either since I'm at "BYU-I do". Me and Brooke have managed to go to a whole bunch of really fun parties since arriving here. My favorite was probably an 80s party because we got to dress up in really fun outfits! I wore my black hooker shoes to the party and didn't take them off the whole time. I was pretty proud of myself until the time came to walk home. I had to practically roll home my feet hurt so bad. but at least I looked cute! haha

Before the 80s party! The impromptu water fight... I lost.

Last week I took a road trip to Provo for conference weekend, which was really fun! We got a last minute ride from my friend Barrett's sister Colleen. I had never met her before but she was so cool! the traffic on the way down was killer though. It took us about 6 hours to get to Provo when it usually takes about 3 1/2. And it didn't help that we all had to pee REALLY bad. like, since passing Pocatello. Somehow we made it to BYU and sprinted to the nearest bathroom without wetting ourselves. Me and Brooke managed to get some nosebleed seats at the BYU game and it was so fun! My friend Matt came up to sit with us, too. We stayed at Rachael and John's place and got lots of kisses from Samson as well as the occasional paw in the face.

At the BYU Game!

Rachael and John were nice enough to give me and Brooke tickets to the Sunday morning session of conference which was amazing. I got to hear the MoTab sing Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, which is basically one of my favorite songs ever. It was so moving and it was so beautiful. I might've fallen asleep for some of conference on accident, but I didn't miss President Monson's talk. He talked about his birthday presents and "warm fuzzies". He is such a cute old man!! And a great Prophet, too.

Our view at conference

After spending all that time with people from back home, by the time I got back to Rexburg, I was feeling a little homesick. It didn't help that it rained most of the way home and by midnight it started snowing. This would usually cheer me up except for the face that it was OCTOBER 4TH. I am just not ready for all of this cold and snow quite yet, which made me miss Maryland even more. Since being out here, I've realized how AWESOME Maryland is. I was really lucky to be raised there. But by Monday after I got to spend some time with my friends I was back to myself again.

Oh by the way I got a calling a couple of weeks ago that keeps me pretty dang busy. I am the relief society second counselor. how scary! I hope I can get everything to work together and that I won't become too overwhelmed with school work and my church calling. I love my committee, though so I have a feeling that we'll have a great time together. I also am anxious to get my patriarchal blessing. I never got around to getting one at home, and I really think it would help me at this time in my life.

All right well this entry is almost novel length, but I'll try to actually keep up with it from now on!!

-Julie

My Second Family

On monday of this week, BYU began informing the prospective studints of their collegic future. I figured, with my luck I would be the last one to find out. I recieved no notification on Monday, but then tuesday rolled around. I was in digital art when I got the e-mail telling me to check the website. I was terrified.

I was shaking like a leaf the whole period. Greg wanted me to go to the site right then, but I had promised myself that I would read it at home. It turned out that Brooke got the same e-mail as well. We both txted every mormon person we knew telling them that we're just minutes away from seeing our future. 

We both snuck out of school before third period and ran to our cars. While i was walking, all I could think of were things like, What if i don't get in? How am I going to react? I haven't said a quality prayer in forever. What if God is mad at me? I haven't kept a journal. I rarely do personal scripture study. Is that going to keep me from going to my dream school? Me and Brooke met by our cars and wished each other luck and promised to tell each other as soon as we find out.

Well, I got home, ran up to my computer, brought it down to the kitchen so my mom could be there with me, and I went to besmart.com to see my fate. My hands were shaking. I logged in, and this is what I saw.

Denied. My heart shattered. It sunk to the pit of my stomach and turned to mush. I began to cry.  knew crying wouldn't change my acceptance. Nothing would. I failed. Everything that I had been working so hard for the past 4 years down the drain. I was rejected to the school I had always dreamed of attending. 

Needless to say, I didn't return to school that day.  I spent the next few hours feeling sorry for myself, laying on my mom's lap and watching cooking shows on TV. I didn't dare touch my phone because I knew all of my friends wanted me to txt them telling them the verdict, but I was far too miserable at that point. 

After my sulk session, I finally got up the nerve to pick up my phone. 12 new txt messages and 6 missed calls (every single call from Brooke).  I found out that she was going through the same thing as me. 

we were the rejects. Every other txt was from my friends saying sooo??? and what does it say?? and good luck!!

I cried again. My friends were all expecting to hear the best news, and I really didn't want to tell them I was rejected. I told about 3 people and hoped word would just spread. I was right. I got so many txt messages saying how sorry everyone was that I didn't get in.

Brooke came over later so we could commiserate, and Maggie came by with muffins for us. Elle ased if there was anything she could get for us, and Kaile and Emilee convinced us to go out for some ice cream.

 When we got there, they had invited the whole laurel class and our leaders to come and support us. It was such a comf

ort knowing that 

my friends and leaders would be there for me at such a hard time. They truly are my second famiy. 

I haven't had to deal with a whole lot of adversity or rejection so far in my life. Some of the most traumatic moments in my life so far were not getting a part in Seussical the musical when they were going to England to perform, and losing the class of

 2009 class elections by less than 25 votes... twice. I'm sure looking back on things, they won't seem as important as they did when they occured, and hopefully this event will go in that category as well. I still got to participate in lots of SGA events and I got a break from all of the

 tedious play practices and I saved a  whole bunch of money by not going to England (but I still would've rather gone). 

Hopefully this experience is just a blessing in disguise. And I'm REALLY hoping. I guess i'm just not meant to go to 

BYU my 

freshman year, at least. There is a better place for me to be. So now I'm

 going to be looking more into Snow college and BYU Idaho this weekend. Hopefully i'll love one of them as much as I already love BYU.

winter sports

I went to my first school basketball game for the first time in... my whole high school career last night. i LOVED it. it was so fun!! i was missing out all of these years when I avoided the games. it was INTENSE. but I have to say... I still love football more. The whole envoronment at the basketball game was soo diffrent from that at the football games. it was pretty laid back, which was still fun. we ended up winning in overtime. At the end of the game, I wanted to go congratulate some of the players like I do at the football games, only i wasn't really friends with any of the players. With the footbal players, I give all of my friends hugs and high fives after the game.. but that didn't happen at the basketball game

 because they would think i was crazy. 

After the game, a bunch of us went to the QO hockey game. I've been to the end of one i think sophomore year, but then none after that. It was so cool though! like football on ice... with a smaller ball (puck) and sticks. I hink my favorite part of all big sports games is just cheering. I get so into the game, and i don't care what i sound like, i scream my guts out. it's awesome. I can't wait until i have kids and i can be that crazy soccer mom at the games,yelling at the refs and cheering all of my kids on. it's going to be great.

more lists

I love lists.

i don't really know why but i do.. making them is so fun. I know i've already made a 100 things about me but then later on i remember things that I can add to it later. So i'm thinking as i remember good things to write, i'll just add them to another post.

101. I love to watch the monkeys at the zoo. especially when they fight with each other

102. I would love to meet the man I will marry right now.

103. I love to watch TV shows on my computer

104. I want to one day be a creative director for a company. Or at least get to design things for an  ad agency

ANYWAYS

sitting, waiting, wishing

So I was thinking today about college and stuff, just as any other high school senior does when they're zoning out of who-knows-what during school hours. While i wasn't learning, I got to thinking about my choices for college, the situations I would be put in, and everything along those lines.  The college that I've always dreamed of attending is BYU. Not BYU Idaho or BYU Hawaii. Just the original BYU. This past year has been so stressful with just waiting for responses from colleges. It's honestly terrifying. Now I just can't focus on any work because all I do is worry. what if i don't get in? where am I going to go then? will i like it? what if my friends don't get in? how am I going to afford this? 

I have gotten into Snow college and BYUI, so 

at least I have some schools to fall back on, but I have no idea which one I will go to.

I think the most upsetting thing about me going to college somewhere across the country, is leaving my very best friend Elle. 

I know girls all have like "a thousand" best friends, I say it all the time. And I really do love all of my friends, but Elle is.. my person, i guess. We say we're attached at the hip because we never EVER leave each other's sides. We really get each other. We're practically t

he same person, and she has helped me grow soo much throughout high school. 

We both make insanely funny faces, we talk in ridiculous accents, we watch stupid movies, we laugh at the stupidest jokes, and have fun doing some pretty lame things. We love to read "air" books (have no substance) and we both do theatre.  there are more... but i just can't think of them on the spot.

unfortunately, well... it's actually great! but... sad. She was lucky and talented enough to get into the Tisch program at NYU for next year because sheis a phenomonal actor. The only bad thing is, we're going to be on opposite sides of the country for the majority of the next four years of our lives, at least. I don't think I'll be able to find a replacement for her in Utah or idaho... or even the whole country.

i'm just glad some genius invented Skype. It's the best program everrr!! you can video chat with anyone around the world!! it's going to be the basic means of communication between me and elle, and we can even make faces at each other through the computer!!!

college is going to be tough, but thank goodness for modern technology.

P.S. only 22 more days till i hear from BYU!!

New Years Resolution

So as one of my new years resolutions, I chose to keep a journal.  My friend brooke was my main source of inspiration on this because she was looking back at her journal from the year before and loved reflecting back on everything she had said. I figured it was worth a shot.

so, I wrote one entry in a real journal. 

that's it. just one. 

I got really busy and lazy and felt like i really don't have time to write down everything that I want to say in a journal. Well, thanks to Brooke again, she convinced me to make a blog. And one day I hope it will be as amazing as my young women leader, and friend, Kristi. Whe i agreed to make one, I thought that I could just get away with onen or two posts a month, but I've now decided that I'm actually going to try to put some effort into this thing and actually use it. 

My is, by the end of the year to be able to look back at my very first entry and see how much i've changed in a year. I have already changed in just the past few months and so much happens your second semester senior year. I can't wait to see how everything turns out!

-Julie

100 things about me 2009 edition

At my youth group, we decided to follow in the footsteps of one of our leaders and make a list of 100 things about us. 

1. I love sweatpants but I never wear them to school
2. My mom loved to use the play name Julie when she was little, which is how I got my name
3. I love my pink room... especially when it's clean
4. at the moment I have a spoon sitting in my purse
5. I love tote bags and umbrellas
6. My older brother broke my favorite umbrella, but I still use it.
7. I LOVE raspberries
8. I hate being cold
9. I love having hot chocolate any time of year
10. I love J. Crew but can never afford to buy anything full price... nor do I want to.
11. I'm addicted to facebook
12. I have an innie belly button
13. I am participating in a "biggest loser" competition with my friends... only none of them are actually trying
14. I love tissues
15. I just got my first nosebleed yesterday
16. I can't live without gum
17. I love photography
18. I hate wearing tennis shoes
19. I love socks, but don't like wearing them or taking them off
20. I only eat cooked onions
21. I love salsa but I hate peppers
22. Last year, I only wore sweats/pjs to school 3 times
23. I love mugs
24. I hate to throw things away. What if you may need them in the distant future?
25. My favorite dessert is the lemon raspberry cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory. anyone have the recipe?
26. I hate Popsicles and lolly pops
27. I love fudgecicles
28. I would pass up chocolate for fresh fruit
29. But if i had the option, I would eat them together.
30. My least favorite candy is Mike N' Ike's
31. My favorite is Take 5
32. My nickname is Julie Bug or Buggie
33. I have really bad balance
34. I love football, but I am terrible at all sports that I've tried
35. I love to read books people put on coffee tables for decoration
36. I love cheese and fondue
37. I love southern food, which is fitting since my parents are from New Orleans
38. I only have 4 cousins
39. I have never wished I were an only child
40. I've never gotten in a big fight with my parents
41. I can't live without my ipod
42. For the longest time I thought I hated yogurt... I was wrong.
43. I love the color yellow
44. I just bought a bright yellow rain slicker at good will and I LOVE it
45. Now all i need is matching wellies
46. I always indent when I'm writing
47. I love musicals
48. When my family first got a dog, my mom made us sign a puppy contract promising we would take care of him
49. I never walk my dog
50. I love wavy hair
51. I hate basements
52. I need noise
53. I am a very heavy sleeper
54. I have had headgear
55. I once belly-danced with a sword on my head
56. when I was young, I stuck a bead up my nose. It took the doctor a very long time to get out.
57. I have ridden in an electric car
58. I once swam with dolphins
59. I love to look at the pictures in Vogue
60. I love window shopping
61. My favorite magazine would probably be a home furnishing one
62. I love to watch cake-baking competitions
63. I make killer deviled eggs
64. I'm just recently learning how to BBQ
65. I want to live in North Carolina when I grow up
66. I want a yellow house with a white wrap around porch and green shutters
67. I got a Nikon D60 for Christmas
68. I can develop my own film
69. My favorite season is summer
70. I love soup
71. I hate it when there is no soap in the dispensers or paper towels
72. Push sinks REALLY annoy me
73. I love chocolate & vanilla pudding
74. I love the honey mustard from Red Robin and the milkshakes from Cheeburger Cheeburger
75. I love fettuccine Alfredo
76. My favorite love story movie is the Notebook
77. My favorite movie of all time is she's the man
78. I went to a Jonas Brothers concert this summer
79. I met the lead singer of the Fray
80. I hate damp gloves
81. I love almost anything baked
82. The one thing I can't make is a good homemade cookie
83. I love to do theatre
84. I am terrified of heights
85. I LOVE olives
86. I hate ricotta cheese
87. I am secretly afraid of highways
88. I can't live without my cellphone
89. I love to get dressed up
90. I skipped homecoming this year to go to my best friend's little brother's bar mitzvah
91. I can't live without eye-liner
92. I love fake nails
93. I love breakfast foods
94. My favorite "road trip restaurant" is waffle house. no contest.
95. I love the drink Naked
96. I am so much like my Dad
97. I turn pink & purple when I get cold
98. I love big carrots but hate baby carrots
99. I love salads
100. I hate bananas, but I LOVE banana bread