Paperback Writer

Thanksgiving

2009-11-21T21:01:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of posts, I'll be better. I have lots of exciting things to post too!
Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Birthday!

2009-09-23T18:01:00.000-07:00

For some reason going off to college, I didn't really think much about my birthday. I just felt for some weird reason no one would do anything about it but I had a fabulous day! The night before I slept horribly, you would have thought it was Christmas day the next morning or something! I woke up to me door all decorated by my floor!

I went to my Book of Mormon class and ended up getting out early because the Prophet was coming to speak at devotional! I wasn't planning on going to the Marriott Center because my class is fairly far away and I knew it would be crazy crowded. But since we got out early, I decided to head over there and I was so glad I did! I ended up sitting fairly close the the floor a little to the right behind President Monson. Devotional was awesome, he talked about all the presidents of the church that he knew and for each he said their favorite food, hynm and a way in which they lived their life. I loved sitting behind the teleprompter because then I could see when he went off the teleprompter and just started telling his own stories! You should definitely watch it online, it was very, very funny!

Another exciting thing about devotional was that I got to meet my Board reader friend/blogger/photographer extraordinair Chillygator! I knew she would be there, and I thought I had spotted her, when President Monson came she whipped out her big beautiful camera and I was sure it was her! After devotional was over I went down and talked to her, which was way fun, I felt like I was meeting a celebrity, ;) My first real life Board friend! Hopefully if she ever stops traveling the world for a weekend, we'll go on a photo adventure! ;) And Dough Rey Mi can come too, because I called her right after and she was jealous. :]

(taken with Chilly's beautiful Nikon D700)

I went back to my place for lunch, and back to my last class which also got out early! My sister Elaine surprised me with a pedicure which was so great, because I've never had one before! It was way fun, and I love showing off my pretty pink toenails! I don't have a picture of that because who really needs to see a picture of my feet? ;) We went and got Tucker and Sheldon and went to Legends for dinner! It was really good, and I was definitely full afterword. I got to open up presents and I got lots of awesome gifts!

My friend Andria visited me monday to give me a bag that is perfect for my sunday stuff and a blank notebook! Yay! My friend Liv gave me and iTunes gift for the first Rooney cd, which I've been wanting for a long time and yesterday in the mail she sent me a way cute Wilderness Explorers Scrapbook from UP! It's super cute, I can't wait to fill it up, and it came with a magnifying glass which I'm really excited to use sometime. :) My brother sent me an iTunes giftcard (still deciding what to use it for, Pushing Daisies soundtrack maybe?) and a super awesome bike camera mount that he made! My mom sent me a big package of some movies and stuff I'd been asking for. She aslo sent me some food, some cute Disney artwork and a new Shannon Hale book. I finished it in a few days, and I liked it! My mom on the other hand would definitely not like it, it is definitely very different from the other books she's written. I also got a cute package from my friend Ginger, with a ton of glowsticks and a burned cd that had music that we danced to at Disneyland, so that was way cute and nostalgic.

When I got back from Legends, I found my door even more decorated than before! Alyssa had put a cool Hatter drawing on my door, and her roomate made awesome newspaper snowflakes!

My floor came and sang to me and brought me cupcakes! They were so yummy, and I probably had 3 or 4 every day until they were gone! :) Probably not the healthiest thing ever, but it's my last year as a teenager, I have to live it up somehow!

And a random picture, I finished putting up all my pictures on my wall! I really don't like how they are organized though, I want more of a collage look, [like these] but that's hard to do when the pictures are all the same size, I don't have frames, and I don't have a budget. If you guys have any ideas let me know!

I'll end this extremely long post now. My birthday ended up really great! Things are going well here. My first midterms are next week, but I'm not too worried, I think if I put in the effort to study things will go well. Hope all is well in Cali!

Freshman Life

2009-09-13T15:34:00.001-07:00

Hi everybody! Sorry I'm so late but I thought I'd give you an update from college! My Mac is weird to blog on so I've been trying to figure that out so here are some recent pictures! We picked up my sister to have her help me move in. Tucker helped carry stuff too!

I thought I had soo much stuff but I have definitely already have a list a stuff I should have brought! I wish I had more movies and books, and also my scrapbooking stuff! I brought my scrapbook but not any of my stuff. Silly. Tucker also helped by drooling on my stuffed animals :)

Here's the view from my window! I don't see it too often because I don't have the bed by the window but it is still nice to look at sometimes!

Here's my bed and stuffed animals, I wish I would have brought more of them too!

Here's my desk and all my stuff!

Here's a typical meal...just kidding! I've only had a Hot Pocket for dinner a couple of times so far, and I took a picture because I was so excited because I've never had one before! :) I really like the Cannon Center, it's so nice and I love having a bunch of choices. I love having Dining Plus in general, it's so nice to have a little magic money card that I can swipe almost anywhere and get almost anything whenever I want. If you guys come visit me I will definitely take you out to lunch, because I love sharing and taking people to lunch!

Here's my little clothesline of pictures! It's small but it turned out cute. It fell down one night but I've got it pinned really good now. The walls are pretty plain otherwise but when I get some more prints I am going to stick those up on the wall too.
So those are all my pictures things are going pretty good! My classes are all good, I don't hate any of them. Choir is probably my favorite, it is so amazing. I'm excited about the music we are singing, how good we already sound and having a class with my cousin!

College is definitely awesome because it doesn't feel like school. It's like a warped version of summer, I have so much free time. It's been so fun to hang out with my family. I LOVE having my sister close and being able to do stuff with her every week. It's really awesome and I think it's helped me not be homesick. I love seeing my cousins and hanging out with them!

Dorm life is good. I like having my own place and being able to do whatever I want. My roommate and I get along really well. We are not buddy-buddy we but still do stuff together and get along fine. I know quite a few people on the floor, but I'm not really friends with anyone yet. That's definitely not complaining though, because I know it will happen eventually and I'm just biding my time, and besides, college is pretty awesome!

Hope life is treating you guys good wherever you are. I'll try and keep more updated on the happenings here in Provo! :)

Wallpaper Part II

2009-08-16T22:24:00.000-07:00

I started this post before I left so I'm finishing it now so I can get you all caught up on BYU stuff!
* * *
I conquered a little more wallpaper this week! I got all behind the kitchen sink done, which took a long time because of all the little areas. I also started the last big wall in the corner.The edges are hard because they varnished over the wallpaper. They decided to torment me by randomly painting sections in the middle of the wall! In the end, I got a large portion of that wall done, but I'm not going to try and put a picture in here because it's a little harder to arrange the pictures on my mac than on my home computer. As some parting words on my last post about wallpaper, here are Rachel's Rules on Wallpaper.
1. DON'T EVER PUT UP WALLPAPER!
If you really must put up wallpaper for some unexplainable reason then the rest of these rules are for you.
2. Please, only one layer of wallpaper at a time. If you already have a layer up, take it down before you put another one up. Multiple layers of wallpaper is recipe for disaster.
3. Similar to #2 is: Take your wallpaper down before it is hundreds of years old! Then it just becomes glued to the wall, a pain to take down for whomever is currently living in your house.
4. Do NOT paint, or varnish or anything of the sort over wallpaper. Anywhere. You think it might not really be a big deal if you get some on the edges while painting something else, but that just adds an hour of work for someone else later!

So ends the Summer of 2009 Wallpaper Saga! :)

New Blogging Machine

2009-08-16T22:51:00.000-07:00

Here's my computer for school! My older brother was super nice and shared his old Macbook Pro with me! It's mine for as long as I need it! My transition to Mac has not been bad at all, in fact I've already caught myself trying to pull Mac shortcuts on PCs. :) Transferring my music and files is still a work in progress, it definitely takes some time. I'm enjoying my own laptop with my own backgrounds and carrying it wherever I need to, or emailing from my bed! I don't think I'll mind doing homework on this too much!

Summer Projects

2009-08-01T16:13:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago I was wandering around my house looking for something to do. I started picking at the only wallpaper that is left in our house, by the computer. Pretty soon, killing that wallpaper become my mission for the day. It sounds a little crazy, but when you're busy scraping wallpaper there's not a lot to think about except how much you hate that wallpaper!

This is a little after I started, these were the two layers I was taking down.

Yay! I figured near the end I could rip one layer off in big pieces!

Here is the one section of the wall I finished! There is still lots more left, but the computer and desk are in the way so that will have to wait a bit! It makes me so happy to look over and see a clean wall!

Help!

2009-07-22T13:04:00.000-07:00

Hey all you cratfy types out there! I'm trying to think of ways to decorate my dorm room. It needs to be cheap, colorful, easy to take with me or get in Utah, and not labor intensive! Any ideas?

Classes

2009-07-16T23:50:00.000-07:00

All registered! My current schedule:

American Heritage

Book of Mormon

HEPE

Geology

Choir

Intro to Interior Design

I'm thinking about changing the last one. I had such a hard time picking that last class. Everything was full, nothing fit my schedule...it's not like I dislike the class but I'm hoping to find something better. Thinking about taking Psychology. I have a feeling I'm going to have a hard time picking a major when all (the few) majors I am thinking about don't have any classes you can take without being accepted into the major!

College is in the air...

2009-07-11T12:29:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting here doing nothing, I figured I might as well update my blog! Of course I can think of nothing interesting to write about. Gone are the days when I would spend all day thinking up blog posts (now I think in Facebook status updates).

Next Monday (or Sunday night at 11) begins college registration, and I only have 3 classes picked out! I'm sitting here wishing someone would tell me what to choose. It's like roomate anxiety all over again.

"Will this class be fun? Is it going to be too hard? I'm going to be too busy with my friends to do work! How late is too late? Is this teacher better or this one?"

Bleh. Making decisions we all know, is not my strong point. :) Hopefully I will try and post any more interesting things that come up!

Forever catching up!

2009-07-01T12:38:00.000-07:00

I'm definitely not as good at blogging as I used to be! I'm all graduated and well into summer now! But rather than talking about that I'm just going straigh into what's happening now!

I had a chance to go swing dancing this week! It turned out really fun, a little awkward and good practice for college. ;) I went with my friend Pretzel* to meet one of her friends and a couple other people. They didn't get there until probably an hour and a half after we did, so it was a lot of waiting and not knowing what was going on! They finally arrived and taught us some steps, and it was off to dancing! The basics are simple, but it definitely gets tricky when your partner tries to pull some fancy moves on you!

One funny story from the night: I danced with *Sean and noticed that he had some intense stare-age going on. I'm not good at making eye contact in normal situations (let along swing dancing) and was definitely looking every place possible, except his eyes. When we finished I told Pretzel about that, she said she noticed it too. When she danced with him again, she mentioned it. He laughed and replied that he was in debate, that's why and then said "Yeah, I think it made Rachel uncomfortable" I got a really good laugh out of that. I guess I'm an open book!

So I had good practice remember people's names, making conversation, and being as un-awkward as possible! Another funny thing I noticed is that when I get stressed about awkward situations I scratch the top of my nose!

But all in all, a very fun night, that I might do again sometime. Maybe. Dancing is great in books and movies, but no exactly my preffered way to meet people in real life! ;)

*names changed to protect the innocent

BYU Updates

2009-05-12T20:20:00.000-07:00

Just a few updates on college! My room selection went fine and I will be living in Helaman Halls, in the hall I wanted! (cousin tradition! :] ) My roomate and I have been talking on Facebook (thank goodness for the internet! I'd be freaking out without it!) and she seems really cool. I'll think we'll get along great! I've also been super blessed to get a scholarship that will cover tuition! This is really going to help me a lot, especially since I don't have a job yet, and will definitely be needing the help. If I can keep my grades it will be able to help me all through college! And...yup. One more AP test on Thursday that I keep forgetting about. Haha, not a good sign! ;)

Dresses

2009-05-12T19:53:00.000-07:00

It's Prom season! And you know what that means...dresses! I'm not going to prom, but I thought I'd use this chance to show off my favorite dresses that I'll never be able to afford! First up, probably my most favorite from Anthropologie!

I think with a little black sweater it would be perfect! I looked at my local Anthropologie but I couldn't find this dress to see it in person. The next one is also from Anthropologie.

Just a little longer and it's perfect! This last one is one that was on Pushing Daisies...yes my love for that show continues! ;)

Two screencaps so you can get a good idea of what it looks like! Perfect!

Pushing Daisies

2009-04-01T17:10:00.000-07:00

I just finished watching Season 1 of Pushing Daisies, thanks to my brother's Netflix, and can I just say how much I love it? Enough that I even had to blog about it! I'm so sad that this show was cancelled!!! Season 2 doesn't even come out on DVD until July, so I'm going to have to practice some serious patience before that rolls around. But really, people! If you haven't seen this show yet, go buy it from Target! It's on sale for 15.99 right now, which is a great deal for 9 episodes!! My icon folder is being flooded with Ned and Chuck icons...* sigh *

Catching up...

2009-04-01T16:12:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it's been over a month since I've blogged? It feels like that was just a while ago! What's new? Lent is almost over! Hooray hooray! I've proved I have self discipline, but really I just miss being in contact with people. I'm behind on the latest happenings, and I have a bunch of pictures I need to share! Speaking of pictures, I'm sure you would enjoy some random ones from this month...

Walking to Disneyland

Making a Chocolate Chip Cake with Chocolate Chip Frosting (and sprinkles) with college friends.

Cruising around after choir concerts

Finding random playground at the beach at nighttime!

That's a pretty short summary of some of the things that have been going on this month. Playing at that playground was one of my favorites. Last Saturday night we were cruising around (blasting our music and dancing as we normally do) when we decided we would go to the beach! We were delighted to find a playground right next to the parking lot, and that entertained us for quite a while.

In other news, I was sick this week, for the first time in a long time, but I'm feeling much better now. In fact, I seem to have gained more energy to do things (like blogging, and baking, and maybe some homework too!) Enjoy your week everyone!

Lent 2009

2009-02-27T15:33:00.000-08:00

Hello all! It's Lent again! This year I decided to give up Facebook, the easiest 'hard' thing I could think of. I had even forgotten that this was what Tangerine gave up, and she was the first person to get me into Lent. Surprisingly, there have been a few people who think I can't do it, but I'm not worried about that. I don't miss it much, except for updating my status, which I have found I miss a lot. I think I'm going to keep a draft of all the status updates I would have done, some of them might be pretty funny! And that doesn't defeat the purpose, right? ...Right?

Profile Picture

2009-02-27T16:03:00.000-08:00

I guess instead of Facebook I'm taking up my time with blogging! I just noticed my profile picture is broken. It was link from some Disney website, and it's definitely time for something new. Something that fits my almost college freshman, photography lover and learner and still the Disney addict like always! :) I guess I should do a picture of myself, but after a couple years of keeping my Board identity a secret, it's weird to think of putting a picture of myself here. Here are a few of my options, please please give me your opinions!!!!!

One of my 52 weeks self portraits that I thought was boring but got an awesome comment from Chilly on!

Classic!

From my Family Reunion last summer!

I totally can't find/think of any other good pictures, especially ones I am not in. Hm. We will have to see about that.

YAY!

2009-02-12T21:28:00.000-08:00

Quick post tonight but exciting news!!!

I got an email from a friend saying she had heard of someone finally being accepted for BYU, so I used my cousins trick and signed in to check the directory, and I was in! I double checked with my status and it's been changed to accepted even though they haven't emailed me yet!

So I've been accepted to BYU!!!!!! YAY!

New Year's Resolutions...in Febuary

2009-02-09T11:26:00.000-08:00

Yikes! It's hard to find time to post regularly. Sorry! Well I've had these resolutions since the beginning of the year, so I thought I'd share them now, so I can check back in next year on how I did.

1. Say morning prayers

I've alwasy had hard time with this but now I'm buckling down by giving myself a reward! If I say my prayers every morning for a week then I get to buy a song off iTunes!

2. Being kinder to my parents

This one's actually going pretty well. I've been working at not snapping at them when I'm upset, and answering in full sentences! Yay Teenagers!

3. Being productive!

Um...the internet sucks up a lot of my time. Example: now. This one still needs some work :)

4. Smile!!! My cousin is really into it, and it's definitely a good thing to work on!

5. And in my photography portion I have...52 weeks of Self Portraits! The best way to get better is to take more pictures, so that's what I'm doing! You can view my attempts at creativity at my photo blog here.

Christmas Presents

2009-01-15T16:06:00.000-08:00

This year, as I was coming up with ideas for gifts for friends, I came up with a 'perfect' idea! Since one of my friends literally has everything (especially any gift I tried to give her), I'd make her a present! Even better it would be cheaper than buying something! Little did I know that what it lacked in cost would completely be made up in effort! I decided to make her a Joe Jonas doll! I know, I know. You're all thinking: "Pw, really? Aren't you a little bit old for the Jonas Brothers? And you certainly you could find anything better than them!" Sadly, that is a completely different post for another time. Regardless, my friends are huge Jonas fans. I decided to go for a specific Joe Jonas from their Lovebug music video, pictured here:

(Just so all you nay-sayers can compare how my final product turns out, alright?) Anyway.

After searching quite a bit online, I found a pattern here. All the fabric I found in remnants at Joannes for a total under 10 dollars! And then began all the crazy work! All this was going on at the same time as my cupcke pops, in that insane week before Christmas break! Friday was the traditional friend gift exchange. We all hung out in the afternoon and gift exchange was put off until about 8 o'clock to give my dear mother to slave over finishing these dolls in the back room while I...talked. And did other stuff. Obviously, all the help from my mom was a HUGE gift to me, I definitely wouldn't have been able to finish these dolls without her. But enough talk, onto pictures!

There are a few differences between the two (the buttons, the arms) But all in all they turned out pretty well. Thankfully my friends appreciated all the hard work I put into them.

Academy Awards

2009-01-15T15:50:00.000-08:00

I just thought I'd let you all know that my brother is so cool, he let me eat the head of his official chocolate Oscar.

Yum.

Christmas Tree Pops

2009-01-10T21:11:00.000-08:00

Yeah! I finally made it to Christmas posts! The week before Christmas was absolutely insane. I had two essays due, tests, choir concerts, and my dad had surgery. And since that wasn't enough, I decided to go all crafty and add two (way more intense than I realized) projects! First up was Bakerella's Christmas Cupcake Pops! I spent about two afternoons making these. Wednesday, up until I went to my choir concert, and Thursday I spent decorating. I ran out of candy melts, so I think I still have about 7 tree shapes in the freezer...oh well! Onto pictures!

Cupcakes being molded into tree shapes.

Lollipop sticks in and ready for decorating!

One nicely finished tree!

The finished project!

The whole project wasn't really to difficult, but it was a little time consuming. The hardest part was decorating each individual pop. You dip it in the candy coating, then try and get all the excess off, make branch shapes on it, and put sprinkles for ornaments on it, all in the two seconds before it dries. But everyone said they tasted good and was surprised at how pretty they looked so I'm thinking it's worth it (maybe on a less stressful week next time though).

Books of 2008

2009-01-06T14:37:00.000-08:00

Last year I randomly decided to keep track of all the books I read. And surprisingly I acutally did! So here's my list of books read in 2008, ones denoted with an asterik I was re-reading. (P.S. I can't be held accountable for any extremely teenage books I may or may not have read...more than once)

Books Read in 2008

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

Bella at Midnight by Diane Stanley

The Fairy’s Return and other Princess Tales by Gail Carson Levine

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynn Jones

*Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder

Austenland by Shannon Hale

Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Emma by Jane Austen

Rebel Angels by Libba Bray

The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray

*Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins

The Host by Stephenie Meyer

*New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

*Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Grey King by Susan Cooper

*Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

Cathy’s Book by Sean Stewart and Jordan Weisman

Cathy’s Key by Sean Stewart and Jordan Weisman

The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis

*Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith

Wren to the Rescue by Sherwood Smith

*The Host by Stephenie Meyer

*The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

Beauty Sleep by Cameron Dokey

Silver on the Tree by Susan Cooper

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

*Austenland by Shannon Hale

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The Kingdom Keepers by Ridley Pearson

*Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale

*The Two Princesses of Bamare by Gail Carson Levine

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

*Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynn Jones

The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde

*Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

*Enna Burning by Shannon Hale

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

*River Secrets by Shannon Hale

*Mississippi Jack by L. A. Meyer

Ever by Gail Carson Levine

My Bonny Light Horseman by L. A. Meyer

49 books in all, only 16 that I've read before! Woohoo!

Happy 2009!

2009-01-05T18:50:00.000-08:00

For my first post of 2009, I'm still scrambling to get caught up on other stuff! One more Thanksgiving post and then I'm done with that! :)My cousin Jewel and her mom and dad were nice enough to take me to the American Girl Place with them, at the Grove. I don't know very many other people who had American Girl dolls when they were younger but I grew up with them. Their books are so fun to read and the doll outfits are adorable, I can't even pretend I don't love them. Here are some of my pictures!

Love this dress, and would totally wear it if it was in my size.

Same thing with this coat.

They had displays of all the different dolls and each outfit. I have Molly and this display just made me drool. So cute!

Me at dinner with my doll and her special chair!

My cousins doll, it looked just like her even down to the purple glasses!

My dinner! Really big and pretty good.

My delicious and beautiful desert! That's pudding in the flower pot. :)

Even in the bathrooms there were surprises! Doll holders in the stalls! How awesome is that? So awesome I had to take a picture. :0)

So I had a totally fun day and hope to go back again soon!

Thanksgiving 08

2008-12-25T14:53:00.000-08:00

Now that I'm on break it's time to back post a little! For Thanksgiving Elaine and Sheldon and Tucker came up and we had a blast! We played lots of board games, including PowerGrid, Wasabi (one of my favorites) and a very long game of Axis and Allies.

My sister and I made fondant since it's something I've been wanted to do for a while! (That's what too much Bakerella and Cake Wrecks can do to you) The fondant wasn't too hard to make, but it sure is not as easy as it looks to make those crazy beautiful creations!

There's my practicing photography with an epic cupcake shot! :)

I made the Kermit (aka Alien) one and made sister made the other three. Definitely not as easy as expected but it was fun to do and now I can say that I've worked with fondant. Speaking of which I think I have like a pound of it left in the fridge...

BAA

2006-12-12T17:36:00.000-08:00

So, I'm going to procrastinate homework now.

A long time ago (last year) while I was a new Board reader, I equated The Board with it's fan blog BAA. (Board Addicts Anonymous-no longer in service) I think I liked it because it came with a cute little BAA mascot sheep. For a YW activity to a pottery place, where we got to glaze plates. I think we were supposed to do like a "It's your special day" plate or something like that, but in my addicted state I opted for "A Tribute to BAA" instead. Here is the result. I remembered this after today's Question 31397.

The sheep is supposed to be jumping over the stars or something. I sent the pictures to the Board right after I made it but they never replied, probably because it didn't really have much to do with the Board, and I don't think I even wrote that much in the email anyway. Oh, I am so going to have dinner on this tonight!