TODAY I THINK THAT:

Embrace each day with an enthusiastic welcome, no matter how it looks.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Be happy

Just a reminder to everyone having a hard day! I love you! Turn that frown right upside down and smile that frown away!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Having Each Other


I'm pretty sure I have the coolest job of any 20 year old girl I know! I am so blessed to be able to work and learn with amazing, established business people! I am able to be a part of something bigger.
2-3 years ago I don't think I fully grasped what it meant to be a part of something bigger. I was in Jazz Choir and unlike the year before I didn't have any solos. I was really annoyed and constantly the thought would cross my mind. Why am I even in this if I don't get to have a my own part? What is in it for me? It's not about me. It's about the big picture. It's about the music that happens when everyone sings their best. It mixes together to make beautiful music!
That's what I'm doing right now. Though I don't have a big part I do my job. And the stars of the show do theirs and all together it makes a beautiful product!
This is the way of life. It's not only at work or in a choir but it's in everyday life. We build relationships and communities up and we give what we have and when everyone works together it makes music!
This is what God intended. He intended for us to build relationships and he intended for us to build each other up to be our best. There is no other way to progress on our own. We need each other!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Favorites

My Favorites:

  • Color
  • Plants
  • Home
  • My hilarious family
  • Mom's stories--and dancing
  • Dad's interesting facts
  • Jessie's laugh
  • Dallin's attitude
  • Adam's personality
  • Bekah... mini-me. What's not to love?
  • Dairy Queen Pumpkin Pie Blizzard
  • Music
  • Laughter
  • The clinking sound ice makes against a glass.
  • Africa
  • Growing
  • Learning
  • Potty Jokes
  • Meeting AWESOME people
  • Thanksgiving Turkey and Ham
  • Accomplishing tasks
  • Curling my hair
  • The Wilkins Family
  • The Nethercott Family
  • The Fellows Family
  • The Millett Family
  • The Iverson Family
  • The Ball Family
  • Jillian Huffman Quiller
  • Jaime Nelson
  • Newly Weds
  • Older Married Couples that are still in love.
  • Photography
  • Adobe CS4 Software
  • When I'm in the mood and have time to read.
  • Living!
  • The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
  • Wonder
  • Stars
  • more to come!
  • pepperoni
  • good food

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Void's

I'm filling my voids with uselessness. I need to keep moving forward. I need to fill my time with things that are meaningful and productive. Sometimes, I just go through these periods of time. Where I daydream about what I want to do with my life. How I want to start a business, how I want to travel all over the world, how I want to be that girl that doesn't care that things aren't perfect. I look at other peoples lives and think, "Wow, they have the perfect life. I want what they have." But I can't live their lives. I need to live mine. I don't want to live this life dreaming about what it could be, how I think it should be. I want to live my life. Not just dream it.


It's funny how sometimes you can have someone around all the time and you don't realize how much they mean to you and how much they do for you until they are gone. When they are gone you have this funny weird emptiness. A lot of times it's not necessarily a person that you take for granite. It can be an experience a place, etc. When these things exit your lives they leave voids. Voids that you can try and fill with shallow meaningless things. But these things are don;t have the capacity to fill the voids in our hearts. These voids that are almost impossible to fill by yourself. Do you need another person to feel complete? I don't feel complete. I feel like their is something missing and I'm not sure if it's a person, a process, or a pathway that I'm missing but I think that I need to fill my void's with positive things. Then eventually I will find my pathway, which ever way it takes me. I need to wake up. I need to talk the talk and walk the walk. It's time to stop dreaming and live.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

California Dreamin'




These pictures are the start of my summer vacation! It was a blast! My family came up to pick me up from school and then we headed up to Jackson Hole, WY. Of course we had to stop around Driggs, ID to get a good picture in front of The Grand Tetons! There were many jokes made while passing by these tetons. If you can only imagine. Ha ha ha! Up in Jackson Hole we went to a dinner a show program. I honestly cannot remember the name of it but it could be compared to Medieval Times. But this was Medieval meets Mountain Man. It was definitely a blast. While we were finishing up our dinner the show began and out came...BuckWheat? I think was his name. Anyway, he was looking for a lover and Lucky me I got to be the lading lady of the night. Buckwheat proposed and just as we were about to marry he ran off chasing some Native Americans. So, I guess you could say I left my heart in Jackson Hole, WY. Ha ha ha... Actually I'm over it, he really wasn't so cute. It was so good to spend time with part of my Family. I love them so much!
To make my summer even better! My dear friend Juel came to visit with her two roommates, Francheska and Megan. They were such fun girls to have around. We, (My mom, Bekah and I) took them into the city of San Francisco! And it was quite the adventure... There were so many tourists there! We of course started them off with a warm bowl of Clam Chowder! Which was delicious. Then we headed over to the Cable Cars, but as we approached we noticed the line of DEATH! It was so long! So we decided to walk! WE walked from Fisherman's Wharf all the way to Union square. If anyone is familiar with the area... that is a long hill-y walk. However, we still managed to have a great time and we were able to ride the Cable cars back to Fisherman's Wharf. We hit up all the necessary Hotspots and finally got back home at 1:00 a.m.


L.A.!! Was such a BLAST! I headed down there with my good friend Sharyl. We went to spend little Jaime Nelson's 19th birthday with her! The first day and Jaime's birthday, Jaime wanted to go to the Beach. So we header over to Laguna Beach! It was so much fun we took too many pictures and tried so hard to get a tan which just, never really happens for me! ha ha. Anyway, afterwards we ate some lunch at a mexican restaurant and we decided to tell them it was Jaime's birthday. So as we were finishing up out comes a free birthday Flan! The only problem is that none of us liked Flan. I felt so bad though. They brought out this free flan to be nice. So I ate the flan and regretted it immediately afterwards. It was worth the stomach ache though. They were trying to be nice the least I could do was eat some of their Yucky flan, right? Anyway, so we were walking around and we saw a sign for Henna Tattoos! We all decided to get one! Sharyl got one on her foot and ankle, Jaime got one on her wrist, Heidi got one on her hip and I got one on my neck. After over an hour of not moving my neck so that I wouldn't ruin my henna tattoo, the stuff fell off and underneath was a very light henna tattoo that resembled a rash. It was ugly and it was very upsetting! Unfortunately, I couldn't go get it fixed since the Henna shop was an hour away. Oh WELL!! We live and we learn!
The other days of the trip was mostly centered around the Mall! ha ha ha! We had a blast we Jaime's family and went swimming for a long time one of the days. It came time to part and Jaime and her family went to Lake Powell while Sharyl and I went to CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE! She has a cousin that works there and was able to get us in for free! We had so so so much fun and after a few hours we had done everything we wanted and decided to head out! The problem was that we didn't want to go home yet. So we bought a map and chose a beach to go to. So we took the 5 to the 90 to the 1 and landed ourselves in Santa Monica California! Ahhh... It was beautiful! We just sat down on the beach and looked at the people surrounding us. Oh my heavens! Santa Monica has the most interesting people. The Homeless people are the best! The Homeless man who took the cake though was hilarious! He walked down onto the beach and dropped his trash back of aluminum cans down a few yards behind us. Then continued towards the water. He stood there for awhile arms out beckoning the waves towards him as he moved around with the water. Soon enough a huge waves came and engulfed him! he came floating, back up, to the top of the water and did not move for a while. Sharyl and I were almost positive he was dead. ha ha ha but sure enough he popped up and repeated that a few more times before coming back up and collapsing in the sand. He then rolled around covering his body from head to toe in Santa Monica Beach sand. And you know what!? That's the way to do it! If you're going to be a beach bum you might as well live it up to the fullest. Yunno? Anyway, After people watching and after the traffic died down we continued home again not returning until around 1:00 a.m. It was truly a perfect trip.

I am sad that summer is over but excited to start working and get back into things!






Tuesday, July 14, 2009

The End of My Childhood...

I don't know how many of you know this but it's my birthday on Saturday! That's right Jul 18th Which means I haven't updated this blog in, Oh, 5 months? Call me a Slacker if you will. But just so you know, I have an excuse. I'm just a child, I'm only 19 years old, still a little teenager. But, as of Saturday, I will not be able to use this
excuse any longer. I will be an Adult. 20 years old people!
What does it mean to be 20 years old?
1) Well it means that at family dinners I will now be considered a "Quazie". A term my Uncle came up with to describe anyone that is no longer a child but still not quite an adult. I have been waiting so long to be able to sit with the
big kids at Thanksgiving Dinner and Christmas Bru
nch! I can't wait to sit with the big kids.
2) According to Rexburg Mormon Culture I must now decide whether I would like to start working on my Mission Papers or Start Finding my "E.C." (One of many mormon acronyms; standing for 'Eternal Companion') When I return home and people realize my age they will ask, "So, Annie are you dating anyone?" Depending on my response the post questions will either be, "Oh really?! Well, Are you guys planning on getti
ng married?" (it won't matter if I tell them I've been dating for 1 week or 1 year) or the next question will be,"Oh you're not? What are your plans now? Mission?" Phew... this is a lot of pressure!
3) Means I will go from looking like this to looking like that...
Yikes! Apparently that's what I'm going to look like when I'm old. Dang it! So much for aging gracefully.
4) I have to be responsible. I can no longer blame my mistakes on my age.
Anyway, I'm not 20 yet so I can blame the lack of length on my age.

Friday, February 6, 2009

My Room














This is my bedroom! I am very proud of it. I tried to upload a video of it all but... it just didn't work when I tried to put it up.

I made these paintings real quick like yesterday when I didnt have school! It was my project for the day! So Fun! 
The other project I worked on recently is the bulletin board.  I bought a thick Poster and covered it in burlap then I found cute green ribbon that matched my bedding. That helped brighten up my room but really, it just wasnt enough! So I bought Paint and some  cheap canvases at Walmart and I painted away! I didn't do anything that took too long just something fun quick and easy! My favorite is the one that says enjoy on it. Doing things like this makes me realize why I'm an Art Major.  I know what you're thinking.  ha ha really Annie, These Paintings aren't Art Major Material! But really doing this made me so relaxed and made me miss my Art classes that I'm not taking this semester! I'm just that much more excited for next semester though!  Lately, I haven't been sure if I wanted to stay an Art Major or not. But now I know that I'm doing what I love and I'm going to keep going down that path.

Monday, January 26, 2009

ROOMIES!


These are all of my roommates!  Life has been very interesting living with 5 sometimes 6 other girls.  We are all very different people. I have roomed with Jillian, (the girl on the right in the second picture) since last Winter Semester of 2008. She is an amazing roommate and person! Unfortunately, she is leaving me next semester to go and get married. Oh well! Good for her! 

Stephanie is a nursing major, (she is in the middle of the second picture) because she is a nursing major we don't see her very often. She studies day and night.We love it when she comes out of here room though. She's very soft spoken and it surprises me every time but she is a sassy young thing.  She also like to recycle! GO Stephanie! 

Kirsten is our local, (second from the right in the first picture) well sort of, she is from Idaho Falls which is 30 min. away. She went to cosmetology  school already and now is attending BYUI, for fun! I think it's pretty cool! She just sent off a missionary and tells us lots of fun stories about him.

Melanie is a fellow Northern Californian. (pictured dead center of the first picture) She is from Dixon, Ca and has grown up on a ranch her whole life. The first light I met her she was amazed at our disposal in the sink. It was awesome! She is a super fun girl!

Adrianna is from Atalanta, Georgia! She wins the sassy award for our apartment by far! She loves to watch movies and is a business major. She tells it like she sees it and sometimes its pretty harsh...watch out! haha no she's cool!

Jeena or Jersey! Is our adopted roommate number 7. She is also from Georgia but has also lived in New Jersey and France. She speaks fluent French and is currently teaching me the language!  

These are my roommates! We are an odd bunch.




Friday, January 16, 2009

Dilbert


Today at school I had a mini stalker for about an hour and ten minutes.  We'll call him Dilbert. Anyway, Dilbert usually sits by me in one of my classes.  You know how that works, people stake their territory and don't like change.  Well today I got to class a little bit earlier because apparently when I have a lot on my mind, I tend to walk faster than normal.  Weird.  I know.  Anyway today someone took Dilbert's seat. So Dilbert got a little frustrated when he walked in and someone else was peeing on his fire hydrant. Whether the hydrant was me or the seat... hopefully we'll never know. I don't think I'll ever understand dogs... i mean... men.  Anyway I'm getting off subject.  So we're just sitting in class and my new next door neighbor writes me a little note informing me of Dilberts persistent stare.  He wrote, I think he likes you.  I said, No no, he just wants his seat back. I ignored poor little Dilbert for the rest of class, I avoided eye contact and rejoiced when I found out he wasn't in my group.  There were three reasons I avoided him. First, If it was true that he was staring at me then he was probably contemplating asking me out. Which I did not want. Second, If this was the case... okay... I'll admit... I was being a bit shallow but come on... Dilbert just isn't very attractive. Third, He's super annoying. He reminds me of a person that likes to talk really loudly when on their blue tooth in the grocery store. That drives me crazy. Anyway, class ended and I'm sitting down packing up my backpack as I look up I see Dilbert. "Dang it Dilbert!" I thought, "Cut me some slack!" So I look up and smile. Dilbert follows me out of class and then I check my pocket for my cell phone. I had never been so happy to lose my cell phone before. I told Dilbert sorry but I had to go back and get my cell phone. Oh but no worries! Dilbert to the rescue! "I'll help you look for it!" he says. Unable to find my cell phone we continued on to my next class. I talked about how mad I was that I couldn't find my cell phone wanting to steer the conversation away from anything that might involve my plans for this weekend. Dilbert says, "Well, on a lighter note, how would like like to go out tonight?"... Yeah lighter note for you buddy! He totally caught me off my game though. I agreed to go out and told him where to pick me up and said don't worry about getting my number though, I lost my phone. So Dilbert smiled in success and left me, a phoneless, gameless girl going to her Geology class. 

I've never been the type of girl to go on random dates. I like to go on dates with guys I'm interested in, (imagine that), I've done this whole, just for dating sake thing, once before and it didn't go very well. Hopefully this time it will be better. Maybe it could be good. We're always told to give people a chance. So that's my goal. I will give him a chance. To make my self feel a little bit better though...I'm not getting all dolled up.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

The Sea of Bitterness



Yesterday in my Doctrine and Covenants class we were talking about the meaning of names and my professor, Bro. Petersen, asked if anyone knew the meaning of their name.  Many people raised their hand giving wonderful answers, "My name means Beloved one.", "My name means Beautiful Song Bird.",  "My name means Grace of God."  All these answers made me laugh as I thought back to when I found out the meaning of my own name...
Some of you my not know this but my given name is actually not Annie, it's Marianne.   A couple months ago I became obsessed with babynameworld.com, babyhold.com, babynames.com, etc.   I loved finding out not only what names meant but also names for my own children in the VERY distant future.  Doing this made me curious, "I wonder what my name means."  Wanting the meaning to be exactly right and very meaningful to me I used my given name, Marianne.  Waiting for the results I was anxious! I was thinking, Marianne is going to have such a beautiful meaning.  Annie probably wont be unique.  The result popped up on the screen MARIANNE: Origin: French; Meaning: Sea of Bitterness.  WHAT! Why didn't my name mean The Beloved one, Beautiful Song bird, or Grace of God?  I was a little upset, how could my parents name me THE SEA OF BITTERNESS?  Quickly, I looked up the Meaning of Annie. ANNIE: Origin: English; Meaning: Gracious and Merciful. Phew... That was better.  I then laughed, recognizing that I had been BITTER about being named Marianne, only proving the meaning of my name to be correct.  I remembered back to when I was young and I would write at the top of my papers, Marianne Annie Sevy, I did this out of bitterness, because I have no middle name either. AW MAN! Maybe my parents did name me correctly!
Back in my Doctrine and Covenants class I raised my hand thinking, "Ha ha, I'll show them." Bro. Petersen called on me, "What does your name mean?" I asnwered,  " The Sea of Bitterness." Everyone broke out in laughter and so did I. Bro. Petersen sat down on the piano bench in front of me looked at the ground in laughter and asked, "And how does that make you feel?" "Honestly, I'm a little bitter." Everyone laughed again and so did I!
Well, hopefully the meaning of our names doesn't determine the meaning of our lives. But, if they do, I'd better hope that I live up to the name Annie. Which is who I am!