Oh right. It's Summer.

Summer? What is that again?

sum-mer

1. The usually warmest season of the year, occurring between spring and autumn and constituting June, July, and August in the Northern Hemisphere, or, as calculated astronomically, extending from the summer solstice to the autumnal equinox.

2. A period of fruition, fulfillment, happiness, or beauty.
(http://www.thefreedictionary.com/summer)

Aww... Summer. Yes. (If this were a movie, insert frolicking children running through a meadow.)

Hold it! Stop the tape! (yes, you just heard the "tape stopping" sound in your head)
Welcome to adulthood. Frolicking is done ONLY after 5pm and on Saturdays.

Funny how my personal definitions of summer have changed over the years.

Age 0-3: Same as the rest of the year
Age 4-6: The only days spent inside were rainy days. Even then, it was rare. And my playmate/sister didn't have school.
Age 7-11: Summer was great but I loved school. Summer almost seemed too long. I was ready for school start in mid-July.
Age 13-17: Half my summer was consumed by "Pageant" and the other half by summer jobs.
Age 18-22: My summers became longer! (May-August + no "pageant"). However, the stress of finding summer jobs was greater.
Age 23: Oh right. That just happened. 23. Real life. Real job.

What's so different about this summer compared to last? This summer I actually have to track and report my vacation days. Don't get me wrong, paid vacation days are great! Problem is, I only have so many of them. (**Sigh**)

So. 2 weeks of summer have already passed. And what have I done with it?

Spent every moment possible with this girl before she leaves! 

(June 5th, Portland, OR Mission)

Had sleepovers with my mom, among Women's Conference classes.

Turned 23. (Oldie.)

Played in the mud a little bit...















And waterskiied!
This is how we waterski in March, April, May & October:

• Full wetsuit
• Gloves
• Watersocks

The only thing missing is a beanie.

Here's some Hokulia Shaved Ice to toast to a fabulous-use-up-all-my-vacation-days summer!

Letters

Dear Sunshine:
I am so glad that we have been able to spend more quality time together lately. My skin has desperately needed that bit of color that you so willingly provide. However, I wish very much that you would rise earlier in the mornings (I know, it's hard for all of us to do), but I really love it when it's light outside when I run. 6:00am would be ideal. Thank you.

Dear Clean Eating:
We don't have a perfect relationship but when I'm good, you make me feel so great! And boy, there are so many options for delicious meals:

1. Celery with homemade natural peanut butter! So delicious and incredibly easy! (And we all know how much I love Peanut Butter. After having REAL peanut butter, I can never go back to the store bought kind. Seriously.) Celery is also wonderful with homemade hummus.
2. Yummy Lunch Salads: Lettuce, red peppers, chicken, carrots, celery and oil & vinegar dressing.
3. Cucumber Salad! My favorite! Cucumbers sliced, red pepper, chicken, 1 spoonful of plain yogurt and seasonings! (I used black pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder.)
4. Stuffed Red Peppers: red pepper stuffed with cooked and seasoned barley, topped with mozzarella cheese and broiled in oven until cheese melted. Tomatoes added on top. Could also put in cooked chicken or beef with barley.

Some of my other favorites have been: hard boiled eggs, Peanut Butter Quinoa Bites (sweet enough for me without agave or chocolate!), green smoothies, Plain Whey Protein Isolate (add to oatmeal, green smoothies, fruit smoothies, etc.), carrot chips, Cinnamon Quinoa Bars, and Banana Egg Pancakes.
And can't wait to try: Raspberry Eggs and Lemon Crepes!

Dear Weekend:
I want you to come faster. Conference, home, family, sunshine, sleeping in, and home cooked meals.

Dear Rue 21:
Although you drained a good chunk out of my bank account last week, I sure am loving all my new summery outfits. Most favorite--white pants, plaid shirt, tan flats.

Dear Race Training:
Unfortunately my sanity is not allowing me to run the Utah Valley Marathon (thank goodness I can defer my registration to 2014), but Ragnar here we come! I am ecstatic!

Dear Thyroid:
From the signs, I'm assuming that its you that's been giving me all the troubles lately--dry skin, breaking nails, falling out eyelashes, fatigue, and worst of all, forgetfulness--not acceptable in my job. Something will have to be done soon.

Dear Lake Powell:
I am desperately missing you these days. I can't wait to try out my new water ski on your beautiful blue waters this summer. Please don't miss me too much.

Dear Y Awards:
You are coming up so quickly! Amazingly, I am not feeling stressed yet. We have definitely done a good job of prioritizing our tasks. Can't wait for you to get here April 10th! Miss Gillian and I will be grateful when we pull you off successfully as the event of the century!

Dear New York:
Our plans to see each other are going to have to wait another year and a half. Some changes have come about. However...

Dear San Francisco:
I am now hoping to see you sometime soon instead!

Sincerely,

 

Christmas for the Masses

Remember how I got a new job?
Well, guess what? I LOVE it.
Just a little bit lot.

Starting in October, I was thrown into the fire of Christmas planning.
Yes. In October.

Christmas in BYU Athletics is kind of a big deal. And filled with lots of blue, silver, and white decorating. No red. Obviously.

Christmas planning has included:

• Department Party Planning
• Christmas Card Creating, Ordering, and Delivering (Total ordered: 6500)
• Kneaders Christmas Basket Ordering for University Contacts Gifts (Total ordered: 98)
• Poinsettia Ordering (Total ordered: 60)
• 12 Days of Christmas Charity Event Planning, Coordinating, and Delivering
• Athletic Department Gift Decided, Ordered, and Delivered
• University Gift Delivered
• Christmas Decorating

Yes. My Christmas has been busy already.
Not to mention a bazillion shopping trips. So many, in fact, that I have no desire to do my own Christmas Gift shopping. My Christmas Gift to you is this lovely blog update on my life. Conceited. I know.
But Merry Christmas.

With all of that ordering, my office, went from bad messy to worse messy.

But the decorating went underway, the cards were created, gifts were ordered, charity money started coming in, and and the poinsettias were delivered and are now dying. Gotta remember to water them...  

And of course major party planning proceeded.

1. Department Christmas Gift: Large Beach Umbrellas. Ready for the beach anyone? Yes.
2. Poinsettias
3. Small Christmas Tree
4. Office Decorations. Yes. Red. It's Christmas. Get off my back.
5. Christmas Card
6. Is decorating always this much of a pain??

The party was absolutely successful!
But wow, our group is growing. An expansion is definitely going to have to happen next year!

Party Decor and Tables:

A BYU Athletic Department completed with 500 Guests, Cosmo, Gingerbread Houses, Coloring, Sugar Cone Christmas Tree Decorating, and Minute to Win It Games.

After weeks and weeks of planning, coordinating, ordering, delivering, and decorating, my office is finally tidy, kind of. I'm almost Christmas-ed out, shopped-out and decorting-out, but boy,
I LOVE my job!

A Coming of Age

In 1.5 weeks I will move from:

• BYU Athletics Secretary for Soccer, Gymnastics, and Tennis
• 6 Hour Work Days
• 30 Minute Lunch Breaks
• Only 401K Benefits
• A Cave Office

To this:

• BYU Athletics Administrative Assistant to the Associate Athletic Director
• 8 Hour Work Days
• 60 Minute Lunch Breaks
• Medical and Dental Insurance + 401K Retirement Benefits + Paid Holidays, Vacation, & Sick Time
• Legit Office

It's a coming of age. I actually have to be a real adult now with a real full time job.

Feelings:

• Sad to miss out on day to day interaction with awesome coaches and athletes
• Man! I'm going to miss my incredible soccer team! (Ranked #4 in the Country!)
• Gonna have to get more sleep at night so I can actually wake up EARLIER to run... ugh.
• Super nervous for the overwhelmingness of a new job
• So stoked for this new opportunity and the adventures it will bring!

P.S.      Dear Future Husband:
                       I can give us awesome insurance, tickets and put you through school if need be.
                       Just thought you'd like to know.  :)

Pocketheart Love

Clear back in July, when the leaves were bright green, the days were blazing hot, summer flowers were in full bloom, 

and BYU campus was wonderfully quiet, 

as BYU Athletics Office Professionals, 

we created some pocketheart love.

Between about 20 of us, we made just under 150 pockethearts for Primary Children's Hospital. These hearts are given to the kids and it's amazing that such a simple, little thing could make them feel special, important, and loved.

We had a few crazily creative persons in our bunch. 

And we had to embellish the hearts a bit.

Of course we had to leave our BYU mark...

Wayyyy above my skill. Thank you Jenny.

I had the wonderful opportunity of being the deliverer of these wonderful little pieces of love. 

Thank you Primary Children's Hospital for letting us serve you.

Feel free to follow this great tutorial and create some pockeheart love of your own!

For the Love of BYU Football = Ticket Giveaway!

How do you feel about Brigham Young University Football?

Gosh, I LOVE football season!
Well, if you didn't know, I work in Athletics and I have some tickets to giveaway for free!
You could be sitting at a BYU Football Game this season!

Winner can choose from 1 of 3 games to get 2 tickets to:

• October 5, 2012 vs. Utah State 8:15 PM LaVell Edwards Stadium
• October 13, 2012 vs. Oregon State Time TBA LaVell Edwards Stadium
• November 10, 2012 vs. Idaho Time TBA LaVell Edwards Stadium

1 Parking Pass will be included with tickets.
(Official Schedule Found Here.)

Enter via Rafflecopter below.

Good Luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

For the Love of Summer

Summer Lovin #1: Ragnar Running

Team Lock & Load

Summer Loving #2: BYU Soccer Camp Coaching
(Thanks to Coach Jen, I looked just like part of the team. 
Which lead to the love of cute little girls, soccer ball signing, and feeling like a star!)

 

Team "Too Legit to Quit"

Summer Lovin #3: Boating

At Yuba Lake

Summer Lovin #4: Sunsets

Although fires across the state are continuously destroying many things, they sure make for beautiful sunsets.

I absolutely cannot believe how crazy-busy-fun Summer is in Provo. There is so much going on all the time and I love it!! However, my sleeping habits are not loving it. Some days I feel so tired I can't even make rational decisions. About anything. 

Oh the tragedy, right? 

Thus, yesterday I resolved:  

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead. 

Bring it on, Summer!

A Run, Skip, and A Scoot

A Run:

With only 9 days left until the Wasatch Back Ragnar, am I fully prepared with the coolest, and hopefully fastest, new running shoes.

A Skip:

I'm skipping for joy in anticipation for when this new mode of transportation is complete.
Thank you Daddy for finding a smokin deal and for being such a great fixer-upper!
Even though you can't tell by the picture, there is wreck damage underneath that's being fixed.

FYI: Almost checking off #53: Own A Mazda.
(See right side bar. But with that, I might never check #55...)


A Scoot:

Let me just tell you a little story.

So remember back in 1999 when pokemon cards were the rage, Harry Potter's adventures had just begun, gas was only $1.22 per gallon, myspace became popular, we knew every word to any Backstreet Boy song, and life didn't get any better than when the Razor Scooter came out??

Well, back then, razor scooters cost like $200. And with as much begging that I did, I'm impressed that my  parents didn't cave and get me one. Instead, they taught me to be a responsible saver and save my money to buy one myself. But guess what? 75 cents a month just didn't add up fast enough before I wanted to start saving for a car instead.

However, now that I am an absolutely responsible, saving adult,
my childish dreams have not been deterred.

With the price significantly lowered, and my saving money significantly increased, this little beauty came today.

And I'm going to ride it every day to work until it's too cold.
 Yes, it will definitely enhance my youngest-employee-in-the-whole-BYU-Athletic-Department image.

Gotta keep up appearances right?

With all these new modes of transportation,
the world is just impatiently waiting to be explored!

A BYU Smarty Pants

After a wonderful sleepover last night with this pretty girl before she becomes a missionary and after not getting much sleep, needless to say, I didn't really get ready for work this morning--just threw on some jeans (thank goodness for jean Fridays), flip flops (actually not allowed but I totally forgot), a hoodie, and put my hair in a pony tail.
Classic yep-I-didn't-really-care-about-getting-ready-this-morning-look right?

I had to take a few extra things to take to work today so I packed a backpack along. What do ya know when about 20 million more people actually randomly talked to me on way in to work and on my way out. I didn't give it much thought until I tossed my back pack in my car to drive home. And then it hit me-- 
I looked like a BYU smarty pants student today.
Wow. Woulda thought? The glasses probably added greatly to the smarty pants-ness.

We all know smarty pants go to BYU. But did you know (I found this out yesterday), that the acceptance rate for BYU is now 56%? Or that the average GPA of incoming Freshman is a 3.9 or higher? Or the average ACT score is 28? Yep. All those little Freshman are major smarty pants aka brainiacs.

In almost 9 months of work in high heels and skirts (with the exception of jean Fridays), I only ever got a few "hi's" or smiles or maybe a "how are you doing today?". Is it really that intimidating? Hoodies, jeans and a backpack make me more approachable? Weird.

Moral of the story: wear a backpack to work and don't get ready. Finally. A legitimate reason to explain to my boss.
(No offense intended. Just pure observation.)

Two J's in a Pod

Today I scrapbooked. Oh yes. Some of us still do it the old fashioned way. And LOVE it!

Today I scrapbooked about a very special girl--Jenna. Yep.

We were Two J's in a Pod last summer and I miss her so so much!!

The day I left Cedar City last summer to begin my new chapter in life, was a sad day indeed for the  

Two J's in a Pod. 

That day, Jenna tore up an old piece of paper and wrote little notes to me and stuck them in all my stuff that I was packing. I was finding little notes from her for weeks after! I still come across notes every now and then. I'm sure I will still have more to add to the pile in the future.

Today I put all the cute little notes that I've found, to date, in my scrapbook. 

Cause I'm ridiculously sentimental like that.

The hardest part about that simple little task was removing my most favoritest note 

and adding it to the page.

I have looked at this baby every single day on the dash of my car for 8 1/2 months. 

It's almost totally sun faded, but the love and friendship has not.

So Jenna, my dear, I promise, no matter where our lives take us, I could NEVER forget you!

Don't you forget me either! Love you and miss you!!

We're still Two J's in a Pod.

Jenna and Jena

Purple

Since I was in kindergarten, I've always been taught that if you mix red and blue you can make purple.

Here is the ironic thing:

My School Color when I was in Elementary: Red

 

My School Color when I graduated to Middle School: Blue

My School Color when I happily left Middle School behind and moved to High School: Red

After Graduation I attended Snow College: Blue

With an Associates Degree behind my back, I breezed my way to Southern Utah University: Red

And now, with a Bachelor Degree, I work at Brigham Young University: Blue

The next stop, you may ask? Let's not go there.

So I've asked myself, do I bleed blue or do I bleed red? 

Neither. Sometimes I just have to be purple. 

Sorry. But it's where my heart belongs. 

Now can't we all get along?