I am thankful!!!

So, pretty much I love to read blogs but I don't always love to write in mine and update. Today, however, people have started to post things they are thankful for on Facebook and on their blogs. Not only do I miss posting in my blog, but I feel like I have so much to be thankful for that it would be a waste not to write about it. Even if no one reads it. I can't guarantee I will do a post every day, but I will try to post about something I'm thankful for as often as I can this month. We really shouldn't be doing it just this month though! Today I would like to tell everyone that I am thankful to be an American. I have been really negative about things going on in our country and how our leadership, I feel, is failing us. On the flip side I would like to tell you what I think of when I think of America...
.Beautiful Washington DC. I went to Washington DC for my first time when I was 20. It was amazing!!! I can't even describe how I felt to finally be in our nation's capital. I think ever American should be required to visit this awesome place. I love the monuments and the museums. It definitely feels like a city that gets things done. It's just a great feeling to be there.
.Together we stand. I know that right after 9-11 people started to spread this slogan, but I do feel it often even now, 10 years after the collapse of the twin towers. I feel it when I attend fund raising runs like the Susan G. Komen run or the Food Bank run. I feel it when I see someone helping someone they don't know. I feel it when some stranger turns in an ipad they found to the lost and found (that happened to someone I know just today).
. I'm free. I'm so thankful to be free to think and do things. I can disagree with the president and I won't get thrown in jail. I'm glad to be able to form my own opinion on anything and everything.

I also love singing our nation's anthem and reciting the pledge of allegiance. There are more reasons but it's almost time for me to catch TRAX so I better stop now. Have a good night everyone!!!

This week=work your ass off week!

It's crunch time. My final for Financial Accounting II is on Thursday night. I am totally pumped. I have the front of my notes/cheat sheet written out. I wrote in microscopic writing, I hope I'll be able to read it when test time comes. I have been willing myself to do my homework and study with reminders of the freedom I will have for the next, short, three weeks. I keep daydreaming about watching Teen Mom, The Rivalry, and having RedBox nights. I am excited to take Photography I this fall. Hopefully I will actually learn how to use my nice SLR. I am not so excited to take Business Stats. My third class will be a communications class with Dave online. Then.......spring semester will be my last semester of my Associate's Degree!!! Oh man I am so excited. I might have to take classes at SLCC beyond that, so I can't totally wave goodbye to the community college just yet. I just can't believe after years of this, that I'm finally almost halfway done! It feels good. I plan to go back to school full time when I start at the U. Maybe not right away, but as soon as I feel comfortable financially. I wanna get this over with, baby! Here's to the next three nights of jam-packed studying and homework. Hooray!!!

Friends

This post is going to be very honest...I am surprised how much I am willing to open up in this blog, but why not? This blog is a journal to me. So I have been thinking about friendship a lot lately. I have had a few friendships in my life that I have decided for one reason or another, had to go. It took me a while to figure out who I was. In elementary school I tried to fit in with the cool kids, which didn't always work. The popular boy in the class (who was honestly fat and not attractive) would make fun of me one week and then was my boyfriend the next. In junior high I started carpooling with a group of girls who I would spend every weekend with. They were so much fun. Our group of 5 was friends with pretty much everyone at school. This continued into high school. We were popular, I would say. We would eat lunch every day together, but there were a few girls at the table who had joined us who would constantly gossip. I was no saint, I made up a few lies in junior high and smoked pot and drank a little in high school, behind my best friends' backs. I ended up feeling so bad about all of these things that I told them all about it. Still, I did them. I don't regret doing this, I have definitely learned from everything I've done. I'm happy to say that I am now one of the most honest people I know. Honesty seems to get more and more rare all the time. Side note, the kid who tried to make my life hell in elementary school came back some time in junior high and again in high school, begging for me to pay him attention. He told me how pretty I was and how sorry he was for all the dumb things he did when we were kids. Figures, right? The girl with gaps in her teeth who you picked on in grade school grows up to be pretty and you suddenly want her. Anyway, between the ages of about 19 and 22, I did some things I am not proud of but not ashamed of either. I waited until I was 21 to sleep with anyone, which I am proud of. I was in my party girl stage, newly 21 (not like I'm super old or like it was forever ago). The girls I was spending time with were obsessed with their looks, clothes, getting drunk, and guys. Shortly after this party phase began, I started seeing someone and I think my priorities changed. Not that my priorities changed from my friends to my new boyfriend, because I didn'tneed a guy to tell me when I could and couldn't go out with my friends. But the phase that I was at in life changed. I was exhausted after talking only about clothes and telling them they weren't fat. This is when I really started to grow up I think. I also had a little falling out with my mom. We didn't speak for about 2 months because I felt like she had disrespected me (we did make up after I felt like she finally understood me and the boundaries I was putting up and have a better than ever relationship now). I wasn't having it anymore. I decided I was at the age where I needed to take control and decide who to keep in my life and who to weed out. I realized I had the power to create the kind of life I wanted for myself. I went back to school. I got a new job. I really started to see that you have to create happiness for yourself. I feel like I move more in that direction every day. I have the power to decide who (and what) in my life is making it better, and who is not. If you are not, you need to go. So how do I know who is a true friend? Sadly, sometimes it takes a while to realize it when someone is not a good friend. When all you have to offer a conversation is the latest celeb gossip, what clothes you just bought, or how cute some guy is, I don't think you are a real friend. When you don't respect my opinion on something and just want to argue, I don't think you are a real friend. When you tell me I'm no fun because I have a boyfriend. When you tell me you will be at something that is important to me and you don't show because you feel like staying home. When you don't stick up for me. When you say you are there for me no matter what but soon prove that to be untrue. It really is rare to find true friends but when you keep only those who are true friends, you will be so much happier.
It might sound like all of the above is me me me (I'm mostly just venting), but I do know that a friendship is 50/50. You have to put effort into every relationship, especially a friendship. Trust me, I am the most loyal of loyal friends. The same things I expect from a friend, I give wholeheartedly. People who know me tell me all the time that I am a great friend but sometimes I give too much. Sometimes I get my feelings hurt because someone isn't willing to give as much as I am. I have a few friendships that are amazing. There are people in my life that help me grow, make me laugh, email regularly from far away, respect me, call for advice, understand me, accept that we are different (and even embrace it), never put a wall up to me no matter what they may be going through in life, treat me like I am family, and love me. I am so thankful for the relationships I have chosen to keep. These are the relationships that make my life a better place. They are rare and all the more special. Thank you to every one of you who belongs in this category =)

My Best Friend Katie!

Katie did a post on her blog about me for my birthday in May. I know it's cheesy, but I am doing sort of the same thing. Mine won't be as cool because I don't have all of my pictures here at work with me. I mostly wanted to tell everyone about my friend, a little bragging time to remind her how great she is and to wish her a happy bday =) My friend Katie is from MN. She graduated from the University of Minnesota. She is very smart and is finally living in Manhattan, something she has always wanted to do. She is a huge fan of Sex in the City, go figure. lol. We met when we were both nannies in Ridgewood, NJ about 4 years ago. Wow, time flies! We have gone on quite a few trips together in that 4 years. NY, Jersey Shore, Philly, Washington DC, Maine, Cali, UT, AZ, and MN to see her home state. I know that Katie and I will stay friends forever. We keep as healthy of a relationship as we can without being able to see eachother. I always know I can call her when I need advice or when I just need a best girlfriend to console me. She is so funny. We laugh about everything together. She made my nanny time in NJ amazing. She was there when I ventured to NYC for the first time ever. She was there when a bum threw up next to me on our way to Philly. She got called Charley's Angels with me. She had sudoku races with me. We experienced our first Bar Mitzvah together. She was open enough to come to church with me (I feel really bad for putting her through that). She broke down in the middle of nowhere with me and Ashley and had to stay on an indian reservation. She sat with me as we took in the breathtaking views of the Grand Canyon. Katie is my very favorite tennis partner. I went with katie to my first and only Yankee's game. She's the queen of quotes. She loves pink. I look forward to her emails and blog posts and chatting with her on the phone. She is brave and ambitious and very independent. She's also gorgeous! I have definitely seen her grow leaps and bounds as a person in the past 4 years. She is a great listener and knows how to give good insight. I miss her so much and wish every day that we lived near eachother so we could go grab lunch or play tennis any time! Katie is a friend that means a heck of a lot to me. Love you katie!! =) Here's to your birthday! I'm forever glad you were born.

My favorite picture ever of the two of us...

=D

Oh my word! I have been so overwhelmed with happiness lately. I think a big part of it is that Dave and I just celebrated our first year together. It has been a year that I cannot put into words. I can try, by using words like exciting, warm, fun, adventerous, new, best, perfect, or simply..........right. Who knew that after a year of dating, it was possible to have had hardly three disagreements (we call them miscommunications. lol), and to become a stronger couple every day? Well, I definitely didn't think it was possible. I thought briefly the other day about my last relationship. Oh boy. At one year we had already broken up once and gotten back together (I caved because I felt so bad for him). We were just so rude to eachother all the time. There was no respect or concern for the other person. It was a very selfish relationship both ways. I will admit I did play a part in it. I think certain people bring out certain things and qualities in others. If you are respectful, you will get respect in return. I can now say that I live that philosophy. I show Dave respect and make sure he is taken care of every single day and he does the same for me in return. He is so loving and caring and I really appreciate it. We are always making sure the other person is comfortable and happy. He means everything to me and I am so happy to spend every single day on this earth with him. We have so many adventures and so many more plans for future adventures. He feeds my fun-seeking, new experience-seeking fire. He means so much to me. It feels so silly trying to type it because it can't even come close to describing my feelings. People can read it, but no on can truly understand that he means the world and more to me.

Dave and I had a few more adventures a couple weekends ago. We went to one of our favorite summer-time places, Miller Motorsports Park to watch the bike races. They had a concert after the races, Credence Clearwater Revisited. OMG. I. Love. CCR. ok? It was so so much fun. It was so fun to be there with Dave, we seriously had a blast in our ponchos and wet shoes. Ha ha. Here are some pictures...

I'm not sure if the video above works but I hope, for your enjoyment, that it does! I will post pictures as soon as I can from our 1-year celebration. For our anniversary, I made a reservation to rent a canoe but forgot the place wasn't open on Sundays. Oopsie. Lol. So we thought about what else we could do and it didn't take us long to decide on golfing! I had never been but had been wanting to try it. We had a friggin blast. We almost went for 18 holes but after the 9th I decided my hands would be much happier if we stopped. Next time I think we'll do 18, I just needed to be broken in. I loved it. Then we went home and rested for a while and went to see Super 8 (an interesting movie is all I will say). The next day, on our anniversary night, we cooked salmon and potatoes on the grill. That's our very favorite home-made dinner. I remember when we first started dating, that's what Dave made for me to try and impress me. Ha ha. I think it worked ;) Our 1 year anniversary was a success and we are now looking forward to Flaming Gorge this weekend......a long weekend at that! Yahoo!

ABC's Survey. Fun!

Age: 24. I just read in The Help, that 24 is the best age. I didn't think so before, but I'm slowly being convinced.
Bed size: King. Dave and I could sleep just fine on a twin, we sleep snuggled up, nice and tight.
Chore that you hate: Dishes, when the sink is completely full and the nasty food on them has been chillin for days.
Dogs: Little ones. We have a lab, Dave's dog. He is sweet but big dogs are just so...BIG. And hairy. And harder to take care of than a cute little doggie that could sit in your bicycle's basket. Or in your purse.
Essential start to your day: Makeup, hair, oatmeal with sliced up banana in it, and kisses from Mr. David.
Favorite color: Pink!
Gold or Silver: BOTH!
Height: 5’8″
Instruments you play: Viola. The recorder in elementary school. Ha ha! I have always wanted to learn the Cello.
Job title: Receptionist Extroardinaire.
Kids: One day! After Dave and I decide we're so over our free time, staying up late and sleeping in, and traveling. Lol. Jk, I'm excited to have kids one day, but we are waiting.
Live: As much as you can, while you can!!
Mother’s name: Mary.
Nicknames: Jess, Messy, Jessie Beans.
Overnight hospital stays: Nope. Knock on this post.
Pet peeve: Drivers in the fast lane who aren't going faster than I am. People who are rude for no reason other than they are just miserable.
Quote from a movie: "I will fight for you until your heart stops beating." LMAO. Not my favorite ever, but I do love Twilight. I don't care what your fat face says about it.
Right or left handed: Right.
Siblings: Jake. I love him so much!!!
Time you wake up: 5:15 =(
Underwear: Thong da dong! Lol.
Vegetable you hate: Olives. So bad!
What makes you run late: Taking hours to get ready. I'm the worst! I take forever.
X-Rays you’ve had: One of my lungs.
Yummy food that you make: Dave says his favorite thing I make is breaded chicken and rice and the boys I nannied for loved my tacos. My favorite thing I make might be taco chili, my mom's recipe. I love food.
Zoo animal: Penguins for sure!

I'm back!

Whew! I haven't posted in a few weeks. We had a lot of fun in CO. Dave got 5th in all of his competitions which he was pretty happy with. I was a nervous pacing girlfriend during the races, waiting to hear the results. We played beer pong, went to a few bars, ate LOTS of good food and had a pretty good drive. I'm just relieved there were no truck problems. I have had the WORST luck with road trips. I always break down.


I am going to skip some of the lists from this list thing that I'm doing. Some of them I wouldn't have much of a list for. This next one is what's in my purse...here's a list of things you can ALWAYS find in my purse...

.Mace...I think ever girl should carry it, but also know how to use it. If you are not careful it can be taken from you when you need it most and used against you.
.An extra set of keys...I count on losing my keys at least once a day.
.My Victoria's Secret makeup bag my best friend Ashley got me for my birthday I think two years ago...yeah I think it's time for a new one. =>
.My ipod and iphone...must haves.
.Lay it on thick lotion from B&B Works...mmmmm =) my favorite

I am also proud to announce that I will be graduating in the Spring of 2012 with my Bachelors of Science in Business. =D =D =D see these smiles? This makes me very very happy. But also nervous. When I get this degree, I think I will be quitting work and going back to school full time to the U of U for Accounting. If I'm accepted that is... It is all very exciting but to know that in less than 5 months I will be filling out a graduation application....that just makes me wanna do somethin crayzay. Ha ha. I guess our cruise next year will be a bit of a graduation celebration. =) More to come...