Maya Angelou

So I read one of Maya Angelou's books Letter to my Daughter and I just felt like sharing some of her wisdom. I love Maya's writing and I feel like this book and the quotes I'm going to share are just perfectly wonderful and uplifting. I'm sorry there are so many but I couldn't help myself!

"Be certain that you do not die without having done something wonderful for humanity."

"Never whine. Whining lets a brute know that a victim is in the neighborhood."

"We may act sophisticated and worldly but I believe we feel safest when we go inside ourselves and find home, a place where we belong and maybe the only place we really do."

"That day, I learned that I could be a giver by simply bringing a smile to another person."

"My mother, Vivian Baxter, warned me often not to believe that people really want the truth when they ask, 'How are you?' She said that question was asked around the world in thousands of languages and most people knew that it is simply a conversation starter. No one really expects to be answered, or even wants to know 'Well my knees feel like they are broken, and my back hurts so bad I could fall down and cry.' A response like that would be a conversation stopper. It would end before it could begin. So, we all say, 'Fine thank you, and you?'
I believe in that way we learn to give and receive social lies. We look at friends who have lost dangerous amounts of weight or who have added ungainly pounds and we say, 'You're looking good.' Everybody knows the statement is a blatant lie but, we all swallow the untruth in part to keep the peace and in part because we do not  wish to deal with the truth. I wish we could stop the little lies. I don't mean that one has to be brutally frank. I don't believe that we should be brutal about anything, however, it is wonderfully liberating to be honest. One does not have to tell all that one knows, but we should be careful what we do say is the truth."

"We need to have the courage to say obesity is not funny and vulgarity is not amusing. Insolent children and submissive parents are not the characters we want to  admire and emulate. Flippancy and sarcasm are not the qualities which we need to include in our daily conversations."

"I maintain an attitude of gratitude. If I insist on being pessimistic, there is always tomorrow.
Today I am blessed."

"All great artists draw from the same resource the human heart, which tells us all that we are more alike than we are unalike."

"What do I think of my country? What is there, which elevates my shoulders and stirs my blood when I hear the words, the United States of America: Do I praise my country enough? Do I laud my fellow citizens enough? What is there about my country that makes me hang my head and avert my eyes when I hear the words the United States of America, and what am I doing about it? Am I relating my disappointment to my leaders and to my fellow citizens, or am I like someone not involved, sitting high and looking low? As Americans, we should not be afraid to respond."

"I find relief from the questions only when I concede that I am not obliged to know everything. I remind myself it is sufficient to know what I know, and that what I know, may not always be true.
When I find myself filling with rage over the loss of a beloved, I try as soon as possible to remember that my concerns and questions should be focused on what I learned or what I have yet to learn from my departed love. What legacy was left which can help me in the art of living a good life?"

"If we tolerate vulgarity, our future will sway and fall under a burden of ignorance. It need not be so. We have the brains and the heart to face our futures bravely."

"Many find themselves happy, without being able to explain the emotion. I think it is simply that they feel generally important."

"Make a difference
Use this degree which you
Have earned to increase
Virtue in your world."

Soooo......

So yeah, I haven't updated in months... I just don't have a very exciting life but I am leaving for England in like a day so that is actually worth posting I guess:) I also got a job working with mentally disabled children for the summer and if you have talked to me at all recently, you know how much I hate it, but sometimes I think that's just the pessimist in me... Yes it has some serious challenges, I mean most of these kids are completely dependent on you for everything, even changing positions, it's pretty sad really and I think that with the whole 'first real human job' thing it just made it hard for me to appreciate the good times I've had at this new job. I've met some really great people, my coworkers are amazing and are always there to help this poor soul, and the kids can be so sweet that I have a hard time not loving and cuddling them all day. One of the kids is my little buddy and he always comes to sit on my lap or play with me or just fall asleep on me (that's my favorite:) He's just so cute, it makes my gushy maternal side, that I'm always trying to squash down, come out, but I guess that's kind of natural for this type of job, right? Anyways, I just thought you guys should know I don't completely hate my job:)

Also I just wanted to say how much I miss this this summer:

Yes, this is the worst picture I could find

I miss my sisters! Yes, I live at home, and Megan still lives there too, however, Kathleen does not and she is always the one to get Megan and I off our butts to go on some grand adventure. Last summer was amazing, our parents were gone and we got to go and do anything we wanted, it was a blast but now Megan and I work all the time and Kathleen lives forever away, it's lame, but I look forward to our next visit with Kath, and the adventures it should entail:)

Ballet, Bangs, Dance and cookies

Yay! Another lame post! I hope you're all as pumped as I am.
In February Megan and I went to see the Ballet Cinderella performed by Ballet West in Salt Lake. It was dang good. The drive home is another story, but we won't go there....


Program for the Ballet, yes those are two men in the pink dresses

The ceiling at the Capital building

Megan has a gift for making pies, I could eat them all day everyday.

Megan's delicious pie!

So since it was march that means tons of dance performances. On the 16th we went up to Salt Lake for the Parade, which actually had nice weather surprisingly. Then we went out for some food before our next performances. We danced at two retirement homes that night and then my dance class decided to go out to Village Inn for some dessert. It was a lot of fun just hanging out with all of those girls, they're so much fun.

Me and my best friend Hannah

Our class minus Krista

We found a new way to wear our dresses

Bangs! I decided a month ago that  needed a change, I haven't done anything new with my hair since 5th grade so I guess it was about time:) To be honest it was really scary, I almost had a heart attack when she started cutting off all of my hair, I kind of felt like those people on What Not to Wear when they just start chopping away. But I really love them, they're so much fun and I think everyone else appreciated the change:)

I also made gingerbread cookies for the first time. They were really good, if I do say so myself:)

Shamrock shaped 'cause that's how we do!

The blob! this is what happened to the extra dough... Megan says it looks like Greenland

Me and the blob. Ignore the fact that I look certifiably insane, they were just that good

Obligatory landscape picture

I love living near Utah lake, it's so gorgeous!

Catching Up

It's been a while my friends:) So christmas happened, as did New Year's and the start of a new semester at school. It's been a lot of fun. Christmas break was a blast. I got to hang out with my sisters, and we saw a billion movies including Lincoln (which was amazing, I may have cried), The Hobbit (Also awesome), and Les Mis (sort of a let down but whatever, you can't have everything in life).
My friend Hannah and her sister Molly came for my very first sleepover.... yeah I know. Anyways it was so much fun and I hope they don't think I'm too crazy.
For New Year's we went to my aunt and uncle's cabin, that was a blast. I had so much fun skiing, sledding and just hanging out with all of my family. Kathleen also got a new car, which was awesome, I think she really enjoys having one finally.

Together at last

Sleepy Will

Cute Cousins

We made this in a day...

Showing us their new christmas presents

Snow!

Lots of snow!

The infamous obese valentine Barney outfit



The Cabin!!

Snow shot at the cabin

Scenery

Awesome tv

Good times

We also made this in a day

Guess what! We don't have lives.

Hurdles are dangerous things

Beautiful

January was lame as always but I loved the snow. February has been fun, just the other day we went back up to the cabin to celebrate my cousins birthday and yesterday I went and hung out with Hannah again which was super fun and we also had another birthday party for my other cousin Evie. I babysat her and her little brother not too long ago, I love playing and hanging out with those two, they're so funny. Cute story: I had put them to bed when Will came back out and told me he had something to tell me so I went back up the stairs and he looked up at me and said "I just wanted to tell you I love you." It made me so happy:)
Well I hate blogger more than life. I hope you didn't think this was I complete waste of time like I did.

An Embarassing Tale of Obsessions

I decided it was time to come clean and release my thoughts on those little, and other times, not so little, obsessions. This may get pretty dang creepy, just as a forewarning.
Let's start it simply, shall we?

Irish Dance (Yay!):

I just love it. I have no idea how to describe the joy it gives me to dance. I love the friends that I've made, the steps that I've learned and the difficulty of trying new things. Hard shoe could be considered my significant other, no joke. I try and go down to the basement twice a week and practice those steps. I love hearing the syncopation of the music with the sound of my feet. Someday I hope to possibly join a competition school so that I could just see how well I'd do in that atmosphere. Fun stuff.

Knowing everything on a certain subject:

Yes. It's very weird, but just something that I love to do. I love having the internet at my fingertips, if ever I want to know anything I just type it in and bam, I know all. For example last week after that horrific shooting I googled other previous shootings including Columbine and Virginia Tech. If that doesn't make you depressed I don't know what will. I ended up reading both of those wikipedia pages. I also look up actors like a crazy person, my sisters can attest to the obnoxiousness of this. Ask me anything about almost any actor and I could tell you. I know their names, pasts, other movies they're in, etc. It's disturbing. See? I told you this would get creepy.

Volleyball:

 I love this sport. For the past few years I've usually played setter, but I've decided it's one of the worst positions. Your whole team depends on you, and 99.99% of the time you must touch the second ball, it's crazy but I loved it. Now I've found a new position that I enjoy much, much more, rightside. It's way more fun than having the stress of the setter and I actually get to hit! Yay! But sadly I didn't make the team this year and after having two years of the world's worst club teams I decided it was time to quit the whole institution (not to mention it's possibly the most expensive sport out there). It's been hard to get out of the constant volleyball mindset, last year it was one thing after another, now it's nothing. There are days where I'm aching to get back out on the court and touch some balls or go down to the sand courts with a friend but there's a stunning lack of availiable, willing people.

As you hopefully know, the summer olympics were actually this past summer and they were awesome. I got my volleyball release and was in a constant state of panic, hoping both the male and female beach vb teams made it to the finals. I even got my sister Kathleen sucked in, we probably lost our voices screaming at the tv. It was awesome.

Misty May Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings

These guys are pretty much my heros, they were absolutely incredible. I'm a little sad that they will be retiring from the olympics now, but they had a great few years.

 

One Direction (You knew it was coming):

What can I say? They are just awesome. Go ahead and judge. I'm not sure what it is about them that I like so much. I won't deny that they are attractive but they are also hilarious. They're an interesting group of boys with very different voices and they can always make me laugh. (What can I say, I'm the ultimate creep). Even though they live halfway across the world I feel like we could be great friends (I think I just barfed in my own mouth from the cheesiness I just wrote). Anyways I just think they are extremely talented boys with incredible, individual voices. I feel like I'm being constantly blown away by the boundaries and records they break. I've only been a serious fan since this past July but holy cow! I have dug myself into a serious fandom hole, and I'm not sure I'll be able to get out.

 

 

While I'm rolling myself into a cheeseball, I just want to say that I would love to meet these guys someday, they're probably at the top of my list of people to meet. I hope that if I do I will have the self-respect to not scream like little girl and that we can have a normal, human conversation. Have you ever thought about what you would talk about with a celebrity? I obviously have, I think it would be so much fun to just talk about random things that have nothing to with their job or my horrid, boring little life. When I meet a famous person I want to meet them, not just the face that they put on for the cameras. Can I also say that I am giving them credit to me coming out of my depressing, shy, little shell? I had no life and pretty much no friends, and now I've decided it doesn't matter, if people don't like me for me, they can get lost. Wow. Let's move on shall we?

 

 

Baking:

 

My delicious, homemade chocolate chip cookies



 

Oh how I love to bake! Not only do I love to bake I love eating baked goods! (This is probably why I could lose a few pounds). I have a thing for making unhealthy, sugary but ridiculously delicious food. I would say my specialty is cookies but I've been dying to try some other things, but if I do cakes or anything like a cake I'm going to need a personal frosting decorator because this girl has no hope whatsoever in the art industry. But Someday, if you're lucky you can taste these delicious morsels of mine:)

 

Well That's all the obsessions I can think of. I hope you're not completely creeped out, besides if you even made it this far, you deserve a medal! I wish you luck in all of your endeavors and apoligize for this psychotic post... for the record it is midnight. Toodely oodely!!

 



Thanksgiving Break!

I know Thanksgiving was kind of forever ago but what the heck! This year we went to Moab, which was fun but we did miss our dearest sister, Kathleen :( and since it was so long ago I can't really remember much. I think we saw Breaking Dawn and Skyfall while we were down there, but only the latter is really worth seeing... Anyways, we also went mountain biking, that was a ton of fun, but sadly there were no exciting crashes, I blame this on Kathleen's absence :) We got there on thanksgiving day so we went to the Sunset Grill for our thanksgiving feast, but I felt we missed out on the Fotheringham's annual pie fest. And now I must apoligize for this extremely lame post and hope it didn't waste too much of your precious time... But here's some pictures!!

I just love the endless blue sky that's interupted by these rocks and shrubs:)

Somewhere near the top of the Klondike Bluffs

Megan and I keeping it real.... sexy!

Petrified sand dunes

We were just down there!..... somwhere?

Just keep moving along...

Monitor and Merrymack

We struggled getting all of us in, so I look just a tad special

Driving by the rocks near the Colorado River





 

All in all it was a great weekend, and it was nice to have such warm weather. I'm Thankful for the time I get to spent with my family, they are such wonderful people, and I'm super grateful that Kath gets to come for Christmas, can't wait sista!

Witches Night!

 

Last night was so much fun. Me, Megan, my mom, and my aunt Becky went with my mom's dance class to Gardner Village to witches night. There were a lot of weirdos, but I'm sure we fit right in:)We even got to show off our awesome dance moves! And as always, here's a billion pictures:

 

Me, Becky, Megan, and My mom

Megan and Becky showing off:)

Me and my seester!

My mom's dance class

The fairies from Sleeping Beauty with a couple randos.

I love these guys!

Labyrinth anyone?

Megan and I at the pumpkin house