Look. My one eye doesn't ever open as much as my other eye. True story.

I like when I follow a blog for a giveaway and then the author ends up being hilarious. 


I like when postcards come in the mail.
Or wedding announcements. I like those too.


I like when there's a yummy cake sitting on the counter.


I like when I have a lucky encounter with a cop.


I like when one of those songs that will never ever get old comes on the radio.


I like when my crafty endeavors end up actually looking cute.


I like when I see people on campus that I know and love.


I like when a little bag of M&M's lasts me all day.
(They're my favorite snack. And I'm 6 years old.)


I like when I give a speech and then people want to know about the topic.


Mostly, I just like when I have two happy days in a row.




Life is good around here, folks.

FACE.

A list of [birthday] things

1) He is an utterly adorable romantic, and I am a sucker for it.

2) He has one of those really smart, remember-everything minds.

3) He's a really great listener, even from 2,000 miles away.

4) He has a great love for learning and is well on his way to becoming a gospel scholar.

5) He is a true musician, through and through. Born with it.

6) He also likes math, apparently, and he's good at it. Same goes for soccer? (These are recent developments...)

7) He's "healthier than a horse," according to last week's family email. Hahaha, 'twas hilarious. HE's hilarious.

8) He knows the values of hard work and honesty and service and loyalty and diligence and I could continue here for a while. He's an all-around good guy.

9) He bears an incredibly eloquent testimony every week, letting us know without a doubt that he knows without a doubt.

10) He is living and breathing obedience on his mission; therefore,

he is the best missionary in the world.

Happy birthday to that one missionary, the one who is steadily becoming more and more amazing, the one with whom I am steadily falling more and more in love. 

[Insert a handshake here. Or a hug. Whatev.]

See you in a year!!

I've been coloring

That first one is totally an 80's flashback, but the other two look very different in real life. I was just trying to match stamp pads to paper scraps, but these are addicting to play with! 


Why are colors so dang cool?

Equations

(Because I miss my math classes)

Cinnamon(Toast Crunch) - gluten = Cinnamon(Chex)

KSL5 - Bruce Lindsay = sadness

Public speaking = speaking + hand movements

Public speaking - speaking = ASL

(Ok, not really. But today we had a lecture on how to use your hands when speaking and apparently every public speaker ever in the whole world could use more gestures. Or something. It just felt like both my classes today were ASL.)

"Pinterest Weekly" emails ≠ weekly

(I don't get it either.)

Jennifer Holliday + Jessica Sanchez = soul!

11 months + 13 months = 2(year)

1 day of high school choir + another day of the same = flashback²

1 bottle of lotion ÷ (5 people × 3 bathrooms) = magic

Thank you, Jenna, for the ecard.

Any equations you'd like to share? I'd love to hear any you come up with!

I've been waiting

for the end of May.

Because this song is quite possibly in my top 5 for "Greatest Songs in the History of Ever."

Bublé absolutely slays me.

Padre and the Coche

I should mention that yesterday was not all lucky. 

Here's the deal. 
My car is "un pedaso," as my father would say. 
(That means "a piece" in Spanish...and you can just infer the "of what" that we're leaving off there.)
On my way to school yesterday, the tube attached to my power steering fluid got a little tired and sprouted a hole.
By the time I got to campus, all that lovely, emerald, necessary-to-life-and-safe-driving fluid was GONE.
And the front of my car was leaking green tears.
And there was a trail of smoke coming from both ends.
And I almost couldn't turn the steering wheel. Like I almost hit the far curb on a left turn with two lanes to spare because I wasn't strong enough to turn the dang wheel.
And it was scary.


So I hollered at Dad, who was (fortunately) on his lunch break. 
He came to campus and saved the day, of course, as he is wont to do.
He got my car into a parking spot, which I had been unable to do. 
He told me it was reparable and not to worry and a "what would I do with my free time if there wasn't something wrong with your car?" joke and a few other things to calm my verging hysteria.
I went to SLC, grateful that I had not offered to be the driver of our class-wide carpool. 
When I came home, my car was in working order. The steering wheel turned and everything!
(Apparently it smoked and smoked and smoked the entire way home, though. Poor baby.)
It's most likely a temporary fix, though. Just about everything in my car is a temporary fix.


So life is not all lucky and hunky-dory. My car is un pedaso. I drive with my brake light and engine light on every day. My safety is probably jeopardized on a regular basis when I drive it (that's not sarcasm). I was almost stranded last night in PROVO, of all places (that is sarcasm). And I barely survived the ordeal emotionally and mentally.


But I am very grateful for my father who would save me from any such circumstance in a heartbeat, and who did so yesterday. It was more than luck that landed me with him for a dad.
Aren't dads just the greatest? Except mine is the greatest of the greatest. 

Thanks Dad for everything you do--but for today, especially with regards to my car. I love you! 

Love, Sassa.

Lucky, Part 17

Today I went to a public speaking conference thing in SLC for the Mountain West chapter of the National Speakers Association. It was a sweet deal organized by my teacher for us to attend with a student discount, and it counted for class time today. It was also a great opportunity for networking and acting like real adults. Also, it was held in the Founders Room of the Zions Bank building, which overlooks Temple Square and apparently is ritzy. Basically just a really great experience across the board. 


I had an especially lovely time. I quite enjoyed the view: 

(Do you see that?? I was secretly happy that the meeting lasted long enough for me to get a nighttime picture of the temple, and then it did. Hello beautiful!)


However, my real stroke of luck wasn't just the fact that I got to attend, nor was it the fact that I got to stay long enough for the picture I wanted. My real stroke of luck was winning the following: 

(Back story: for public speaking, we each gave self-introduction speeches. One of the things I mentioned was my brilliant luck. The class thought it was hilarious, but probably lots of them thought it was a joke.)


(They don't think I'm joking anymore.)


Winning #1 = $50 bill. We had an activity where everyone wrote their name and number on a card. The cards were then collected, paperclipped to some money (amounts ranging from $1 to $50), and redistributed at random. We were to call the person whose card we received right then and return to them their card with the money attached. The poor person whose card I called got one of a bunch of $1 bills. The man who called me returned my card attached to the only $50 bill in the activity. Word.


Winning #2 = free book, Paid to Speak. There were door prizes. I won the first one they announced. This was kind of business as usual, but my classmates noticed of course. One whispered loudly from the back, "That's the lucky girl!" and then the man who had previously given me the $50 bill said, "Yeah she is! She also won the 50!" And then my whole class about lost it. Double word. 


I probably shouldn't take advantage of this luck so often because it makes me feel bad for other people, but I can't not enter drawings. Ya know? The guy across from me at the table today said I should write a book on how to win things, but I didn't have a clue what I'd put in it. Here's the deal: you can only win as many drawings as you enter, so enter a lot if you want to win any at all. And then just believe you're lucky, and it will seem like you are. There's my advice. Go fight win everyone!



(PS: Somebody please tell me to start taking my real camera places again. Instagram doesn't cut it for the blog.)

Something to think about

I've mentioned before that I don't believe in multitasking. This doesn't mean that I never multitask myself, but it does mean that I avoid it whenever possible. Ok, really I know it's always possible, I just don't always do it. Even as I sit here, I'm constantly switching between typing this, eating a pudding cup, texting, and checking for a new blog post from that one missionary. I have five tabs open in Chrome, and although I know there's nothing new on Facebook or Gmail, sometimes I take a quick glance anyway. NOT multitasking is clearly something I need to work on. 


Does this kind of stuff stress out anyone else like it stresses me out?? Yes, yes it does. I know it does. Dave Crenshaw knows it too. For one of my classes this week, we're going to a speech conference something-or-other where he will be speaking, so I looked him up and came across this gem:

(If you can't watch it all, just watch the last 5 minutes or so.)


Multitasking may stress you out and decrease productivity, but more importantly, it also makes those around you feel insignificant. Think about it: if you are conversing a friend and reading a cereal box at the same time, are you really listening to your friend? Probably not. I  knew a girl who decided to walk out of any conversation where the other person took out their phone for a quick text or other distraction. She reported that nobody she ever walked away from mid-conversation ever found her later to finish what either she or they had been saying, and some people thought her very rude. That is so truly, terribly ridiculous! (And I'm sure a lot of us do this. I know I do.) How can we so easily put a task above a person? I think this speaks volumes about our society.


This is one area I really need to work on, starting now. I will be more invested in my little sister's math homework. I will not check Instagram in the middle of conversations. I will dedicate my attention when working on my own studies. I will pay attention to humans!

This is one of my favorite quotes:

"Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved."

--President Thomas S. Monson--

Amen.

13 May 2012

Today was beautiful.


It's been a crepe-eating, indexing, hair-experimenting, Instagramming, missionary-Skyping, mother-loving kind of day. 
And I've loved every minute.


This is a shout out: I love you Mom! 
And this is a hint-hint: I'd be fine with chocolate mousse for dinner every day.
And this is a confession: I've never loved Mother's Day more.


That is all. Over and out.

Banner brought to you by: Mariah.

SO CUTE

I am a major sucker for cute baby videos on YouTube.

This is my favorite one today:

Also, if you're wondering, I am definitely not watching High School Musical 2 and eating Skittles tonight...

Ok, that's a lie, I'm doing both those activities.

No shame, no shame.

Pictures as promised.

Best friends forever at the Special Needs roadshow

These kids are rockstars. I'm engaged to the one on the left.

My friend Alyssa is too cool for school. She made this shirt cuz she does art.

I love these friends. And I love Brett's mask.

Alyssa is Thor, I am Black Widow. I didn't mean to be that creepy.

Oh, these two are adorbs! I am not sure which superheroes they are though...

"Hiking" to Bridal Veil falls. I know I've said I love everyone in these pictures, but I love these two too!
And I really loved the lighting in this picture.

And that is how last week went.

I guess summer started or something...

I accidentally took a break from my computer this week. 
I honestly didn't mean to, but it seemed like too much work to pull my laptop out of my backpack and plug it in. So I didn't. 
Good news: I survived, and I didn't even miss anything. 
I did have 137 blog posts in my Google reader, plus about 10 more on the private blogs I read and actually have to visit in person. 
That was kind of a beast to sort through. 
But now it's plugged in and probably going to stay that way because that was all too much work to do again next Sunday. 


Here are some things I did:
:: I saw The Avengers at midnight. Thought I'd fall asleep, didn't even come close because it was genuinely awesome and rather entertaining (read: funny). Slept in til noon because I didn't have class on Friday. All around win!
:: I gave a speech about myself in Public Speaking. I used visual aids in the form of common games (dominoes, Jenga, cards). It went fine-not-great (I'm trying to make that a stand-alone word. Is it working?).
:: I went to a Cinco de Mayo party last night and didn't walk into my house until 2:00 AM. That hasn't happened since...ever. But it was lovely to chat with Heather, so who needs curfews?
:: I hiked to a waterfall with two friends and had a rough round of Balderdash, but it was a seriously fun evening. 
:: I made a birthday present to send to someone in Mexico. It leaned toward sentimental (as opposed to useful), but I think he'll like it. Basically I wrote a lot of my favorite scriptures and a few other notes on a pad of sticky notes, with enough for about one note per week til next June. Also my mom was really awesome and sent some Nutella. 
:: I fell in love with a new guitar solo. This didn't used to happen so regularly...
:: I ate my first J-Dawgs hot dog. I don't like hot dogs. I liked this one a little bit.
:: I saw another movie that I kind of don't want to claim. But don't go see The Lucky One.
:: I attended Special Needs Mutual because it was roadshow week, and like the purple lady says in Anastasia, "We never mees eet!"
:: I learned that I speak like a Utahn. I don't think any of us can be rightfully surprise by that. I am proud of where I'm from, people!


And here are some things I didn't do:
:: I did not travel the world.
:: I did not get any mail. 
:: I did not finish my last chore on Saturday. 
:: I did not be frugal. 


Pictures forthcoming.

This is the result of a very productive evening.

Tonight's activities included:
:: some hard-core and completely shameful Facebook stalking
:: some Justin Bieber songs
:: and a complete lack of control in the Oreo truffle department.


All in all, not my best use of time. Oh well.


Fun fact: I use Picasa for all my photo-editing needs (which fortunately aren't incredibly intense because let's be honest, Picasa isn't incredibly intense either). Picasa finds faces for me and essentially tags them as I upload photos. This is both good and bad--good because I don't have to do the sorting myself, and bad because it sees EVERY face that ever enters my computer. It was obnoxious at first to see so many strangers from the backgrounds of my photos in the Unnamed folder, but then I started naming the best ones (as inspired by Bri one time). If I get a particularly memorable background face (usually super creepy or super hilarious), I name it. Some of these names are as follows:


Best Photobomber Ever
Bountiful Boy
Buzz Lightyear
Esmeralda
Jafar
Jane Seymour (this one was really her...in the MoTab Christmas concert)
Not a Face
Rapunzel (also valid, fo' rillz)
Walt Disney
Yikes


As you can see, I'm just getting started. These will certainly get more creative as time wears on. And just for fun, I'd like for you all to meet Yikes:

Do you see him? Do you see his eyes boring into your soul from behind Emeralda's Prophecies? I am not talking about my father here. Please enjoy a close-up:

I hope he doesn't keep you from sleeping tonight. Wish I could guarantee the same for myself! Ok bye.