Horseback Riding and an Engagement

Glorious day - I had so much fun on this shoot tonight. We went up South Fork and rode horses up to a meadow where we took some beautiful engagements for my cousin Kinzie and her sweetheart, Quinn. I love how they turned out and can't wait to show them to you. Yay :) Here is me riding a horse for the first time. It was also Britani's first time riding. That was fun to experience this with her. I'm glad I wasn't the only rookie going ;)

Oh and here are some from the actual shoot! Enjoy :)

Kalista

I've been working on some portraiture and was doing film photo yesterday but ended up doing some digital as well, and this is how they turned out. I'm thrilled with the results :)

Don't Fear the Darkroom: 1

Here, ladies and gents, would be a lovely photo that I took down in St. George this past weekend, which I love and wanted to share with you all. Kinzie was holding my camera and taking some shots and so I decided to take one of her crouched down with the sweet shadow. I added a 2.5 contrast filter and did some touching up because of water spots on my negatives (ha, totally my fault). Anyways, here is this beauty. My first public share of my darkroom stuff. :)

Date: 13 April 2013

Location: Snow Canyon - Utah

Medium: Gelatin Silver

And We're Back - and I'm headed to live in the South! :D

Since juggling two blogs is rather difficult and neglecting a blog that I've had since my sophomore year of high school makes me feel guilty, I've decided that the only choice I have is to just start going on here again. I like that idea. So here we go - I'M GOING ON A MISSION!!!! WOOHOO! I've been called to... well... why don't you just watch the video and find out :)

I get a little teary-eyed every single time I watch it. It kills me! Haha, but I love it so much. It's so... me. Haha, and my dad... gotta love him. Quinn, Kinzie's boyfriend, even said he was sincerely excited for me. I think that is the nicest and most sincere thing I have ever heard him say. Haha, I might come back being more of a redneck than him ;)

Alex, who is currently serving in Reno, Nevada, just caught wind (aka he finally received my letter) this past Wednesday of where I was going. He stated, "When I read where you were going, I smiled cause that is just so you." I took it as a compliment. Of course it's "so me" because that's where I'm supposed to go. Obviously, the Lord knows what He's doing. I'm glad that I'm staying in the states so that I can continue to write him instead of having to switch to emails to save on postage. Same with the family of course. I trust the USPS far more than internationally. There are so many perks of staying in the states, it's crazy. I'm just sincerely so excited. I absolutely love it. I've been shopping a bit here and there and did a lot yesterday, but my next big step is when I go through the temple next Saturday. It's going to be an interesting week leading up till then, but I know that it'll come faster than lightning :)

 

 

Extended Break

I skipped class today already knowing that it was just a second review of the test... it probably wasn't my brightest idea ever - but it just comes to show that I wanted to get a lot done today, but haven't really. I wrote down a list of stuff that I needed to finish today and I think that I've only finished one thing besides "breathe" and "eat" since 2 o'clock this afternoon. But that's not much considering that my food handlers permit took me two and a half hours to do. Today has just been kind of a lame day and that's all there really is to it. Kinda stinks. Well, I'm basically done with this semester and ready for a new one - too bad I still have finals in the way. Looks like I'd better get down and dirty with the books. And starting a new job. And a presentation tomorrow. Should be exciting? Yippee.

Expressing Thankfulness [Day 14]

Today is an especially good day. I just love it. I'm grateful for one of my best friends who got called to the Alpine German speaking mission - I'm grateful for his upbeat and happy attitude all the time. Love this kid :)

Expressing Thankfulness [Day 13]

Well, I'm not staying caught up very well, but I would like to express gratitude for my institute classes. They're freaking awesome. Mission prep AND Teachings of Joseph Smith. It's so fascinating. I love all of the spiritual uplifting that I get from them. They're magical. I also love the people that I have met at school. They definitely make it worth going to.

Today I'm especially grateful for Clayton and the intellectual conversations we have (haha, if you could call them that) and the merciless teasing even though we've only been friends for a short while. I enjoy listening to his opinion and look forward to getting to know him better. Granted, I can't answer a lot of his questions - but I enjoy his company nonetheless.

I also love Scott - we're like BFFs. He sits in front of me in my Joseph Smith class. My ginormously tall friend has the sweetest smile and always makes my day when I see him. He's just fun to mess around with. I know you'll get married some day Scott ;)

Of course there's Devin. He sits next o me in my Joseph Smith class. He shared his candy with me today. And I can't forget to mention the cheesy grin on my face when he shared his Sour Patch Watermelon candy with me today. It was fantastic! :D

And last, but definitely not least, there's Lexi, who I've been friends with forever - we finally have a class together! Mission prep! Yay! :) We even joined it around the same time. It was fantastic. And I'm looking forward to going into the MTC with her next week as an investigator. It'll be an amazing experience, I already know it.

Now I'm going to go and suffer through some homework and quite possibly work out how I'm possibly going to work full time now that I have a new job. Woo. Wish me luck.

Expressing Thankfulness [Day 11]

I got pulled out of Sunday school today and was asked if I would teach a primary class today - I was hesitant at first but then realized that hecka yes I wanted to teach today. It was super spur of the moment, but it was well worth it. I'm grateful that I was able to teach them today and that I was able to get to know those kids who had just been baptized this year! Go CTR 7. Woot :)

Expressing Thankfulness [Day 10]

Today I am most grateful for a wonderful night spent with a wonderful friend. Even after spending very little time with each other in the last year, we are still great friends and can talk about just about anything. It's fantastic. We sat and chatted while he made dinner for his sister's date tonight. I got some too and it was DELICIOUS! I told him he could make me dinner any night. I just miss being around him a lot. I miss all the jokes and just sitting and doing nothing for long periods of time. I just miss him all around. We've already made plans to do stuff over winter break. It shall be marvelous. Be prepared for magicalness my friends.

Oh, and just so you're aware, he'll start spreading rumors that I drop hints very subtly and he's finally catching on. Don't believe anything that he says ;)

Expressing Thankfulness [Day 9]

Today I had the chance to go back to my old high school (Timpanogos) after getting let out of class early and went to get my official transcripts transferred. It was pretty great. Then I ended up walking around and sitting in on A Cappella and such. I really really loved seeing everyone. I guess the easiest way to explain what I'm thankful for is to say that I love all the wonderful people that see me and not only remember me but are excited to see me. It's so fun. It makes me feel really special and loved and it just makes my day even further. So if I saw you at the high school, it was REALLY great to see you. :)

Expressing Thankfulness [Day 7]

Today I'm grateful for proactivity. Not because I've been proactive today - in fact, quite the opposite, but I just thought I would let you know that I have a book report due in the morning and I haven't exactly started it. Let the BSing begin. Not to mention that I have the beginnings of an English paper due in the morning as well. Heck yes. I rock at this whole procratination thing!

Okay, for reals though:

• I'm very grateful for all of my friends who got their mission calls tonight.
• Nate: Alpine German Speaking Mission (consists of Germany, Austria and Switzerland
• Cam: Germany Frankfurt
• Several others got theres, but these are the ones I'm most excited for! These two guys are stellar and are such great examples to me and everyone else around them!
• My counsellor, Juanita, IS THE BEST! She is just so fun and spunky and loves to have fun. It's just hilarious! I mean, who else will suggest we shut the door and watch YouTube videos in between our meeting. Seriously, she is the best :)

Expressing Thankfulness [Day 6]

Happy National Election Day! Woo! So I skipped half of my English class this morning in order to go vote with my parents. I met dad there where he was already standing in line and it was a good time. I laughed inside (out of irritation) when one person said, "I bet I know who YOU voted for." I told him that I voted straight Democratic - which is a lie - but it's good to keep the world on it's toes. Just because I'm a Mormon and just because I live in Utah and I'm getting ready to go on a mission does NOT mean I support Romney. I support Romney for other reasons - NOT JUST BECAUSE HE'S MORMON. Come on people, I'm not a total idiot. I'm grateful that I have the right to vote and that it is my civic duty to do so. It was all in good fun. Besides, I didn't have to sit through the entire LAME library lecture in English today. Yay for bigger and better things! :)

Fun little story:

During this time of the year FOUR years ago (aka the last election time), we were rebellious 9th graders and decided to put together our own party. I'm not quite sure WHAT we were party wise, but we had fun doing it either way. Izak ran for president and Craig was his partner as VP. Oh, it was just fantastic. If Izak wasn't on his way to Mexico in a month, I might have been tempted to write him in... ;)

Expressing Thankfulness [Day 5]

Today was quite a bland day, but what I do know is that it doesn't make an excuse to not find something to be grateful for. Today I want to express specific gratitude towards my self-confidence. I have several things (friends, family, personal choices) that I have to thank for it and I couldn't be any happier. Sure, I have my off-days, but we all do. Today was especially interesting since I wore a dingy white t-shirt, a pair of jeans and my favorite pair of shoes - not to mention that my hair was in a messy braid. But I was still perfectly fine in my own skin. I love those days where it does not matter what I look like, it just matters that I'm living, breathing and smiling. :)

Expressing Thankfulness [Day 4]

There are so many things that I can be grateful for today! It's fantastic!

• I'm so very grateful that I have the courage and self-confidence to go visiting teaching by myself. Some stuff happened with my companion and so I ended up doing half of my teaching for the month and got to meet with my sisters. It was fantastic. 
• I'm also extremely grateful for this wonderful fall weather that we're having because I got to walk to the sisters' houses and it was just a nice breath of fresh air.
• I got to visit with Grandma Jean tonight. I don't make it over there often, but I felt that I needed to go over there today. I've been thinking about her and it was fun to see her :)
• I spent time with my sister last night. That hasn't happened in a while, so I was grateful for our adventure at Wal-Mart. We never did end up watching a movie because by the time we could, we were both super tired. Kind of ridiculous, but WHATEVER. I did get new curtains and they are black. and magnificent.
• Since I struggle with fasting from food, I've decided to take a break from Facebook tonight. It's ridiculous to realize how hard it is... but it's also a nice breath of fresh air. I've filled my Sunday with so many great things rather than wasting my day away on social networking and homework. (Homework is still important, but I had a friend challenge me not to do any on Sundays... we'll see how this goes over... haha.) SO I am grateful for my abilit to find wholesome activities and not waste time.

Happy Sunday everyone! :)

Expressing Thankfulness [Day 3]

For as long as I can remember, my family always separates our cans from our other garbage, and every once in a while, we gather all of these cans up and take them to the recycling plant down on Geneva Road and trade them in for cash. So what I've decided to do is collect all of our cans and put that money towards my mission fund. I absolutely love the fact that we are able to do this. Granted, aluminum is only about $0.60 a pound, but hey, every penny counts. I'm so grateful that our family has been doing this for forever and that I can collect all these cans for a good cause. Of course this won't get me all the way to $10K, but it's a good start :) (Just for a rough estimate, this is only about $15-20 worth of aluminum, BUT it's better than nothing! :))

Expressing Thankfulness [Day 2]

Today I'd like to express gratitude to my friends who always make me better and love me for who I am. Especially when we laugh uncontrollably at movies or when we get together and just make memories - kind of like trespassing while longboarding and hiding from them like a two-year-old in a grocery store. You guys are seriously so wonderful and without you, my life would be boring. You rock :)

Oh, and if you haven't had the chance to go see "The Perks of Being a Wallflower", you need to. That is all :)

(Don't worry if you're picture isn't here, I love you all the same. These are just the pictures that I have on my computer currently :))

Expressing Thankfulness [Day 1]

Today I am grateful for my ability to find the good in people. I played a game (and am continuing to play) on Facebook and the main idea is for someone to send a random number of their choice to my inbox on Facebook and I post a status using that number to write to them. The idea is to tell them the good things about them. It's fun because it forces me to think in a certain way and sometimes it's hard for me, so I like to find the good in people and share it with them. Some friends I've known for a long time and I some I don't know as well, but I still did my best to be genuine.

Here are a few things I said about some people:

5,000,000,000: hey there little brother :) you are so fun and spunky and are always looking for a new adventure. You're so lively and wonderfully fantastic and I love all of your witty jokes. They make me giggle. I wish we lived a little bit closer so that we could hang out more often, but of course you are closer than you used to be :) miss you booger :)

13: Well, we've had our ups and downs in the last few months, but they were all worth it. I love how close we are and I love spending time with you. I'm sorry I've been so crazy lately. You've been a good friend to me and I love you. I love that you're so open with me and that you're so comfortable around me. I also love how funny you are and when I get you on those random tangents about things that you love. It's fun getting you to talk a lot because it doesn't happen very often. I also love that you're so spunky and full of life when you wanna be. It's magnificent. I love that you're so passionate about what you love and you treasure those that you love. You're incredible. Never forget it :)

2: You are, no joke, one of the FUNNIEST people I have ever met. And by far the best story teller. How do I know this? Because of how you made our ENTIRE group of like 20 people bust up laughing and die while rolling on the floor because we were all laughing so hard at your stories. One of the best dates ever. You always have a smile on and are doing your best to make everyone around you feel better when they're down. You are a sweetheart. You are going to be a wonderful missionary. Always remember to keep smiling and lifting others up, because that's what you do best. Love you kiddo :)

3212333: First of all, what you wrote about me - you SERIOUSLY made my day. In fact, you made my week. Nope, scratch that, my LIFE. That is seriously what I hope everyone will see in me. Of course I say stupid things sometimes, but I'm only human. Okay, this status isn't about me, it's about you. Whenever I think about you or see a post written by you on Facebook, I always subconsciously wish that we were better friends. I watched you all through high school wishing that I had gotten to know you better, but the opportunity just never came up. We never crossed paths much, but I know that people look up to you. I don't know what kind of challenges that you've overcome in your life thus far, but I can tell that you didn't make it to this point in your life by giving up. Keep on smiling and remember who you really are. Thanks for looking for and seeing the best in me (and everyone else around you). You are absolutely wonderful. If you ever need anything, I'm here for you, even if you just want to talk :)

 

Now with this girl ^^^, I need to post what she wrote about me, because well... you'll just have to read it...

 

7: You mentioned that we don't know each other very well. You're right - but let me share with you what I do know about you. You want to be good; you have a desire to be good and to spread good. You are one of the least judgmental people I know. You're friends with so many people; so many entirely different groups of people who are all so diverse. You have goodness within you that attracts so many others because you make them feel welcomed and good about themselves. I think you are darling. Thank you for accepting me.

 

Doesn't that just make your day? I almost started crying and the amazing thing with that, is that I hardly ever cry. I mean, I cry a lot more than I used to, but I usually don't get too emotional in that way. I don't know how you feel about people cloggin up your newsfeed with a bunch of random people that you don't know who they are, but in all seriousness, it's better than that crap that people have been posting now-a-days. It's positive, uplifting and I am so grateful for that. The more time we spend on being positive and optimistic, the less time we have for being negative and destructive of others. I'd say it's a good trade.

 

"If you look for the good in people, you'll find it."

That awkward moment at the temple when...

So I go to the temple every week right? Well, we usually go every Tuesday and there just so happens to be a very cute brother there who works in the baptistry and just so happens to be relatively closer to my age than any other brother working at the temple ;)

He also happens to be very cute, and we have had many laughs with him in past weeks. For example, a couple weeks ago, Dallin got called "Sister Openshaw". He usually does get called "Sister Openshaw" because he usually goes after his sisters, but this lovely brother happened to call him a sister IN THE PRAYER. We all busted up laughing after the prayer and it was hilarious.

Okay, so today I go with just my sister and we're sitting in the baptistry where this cute brother is (of course) and we wait for a while and it's totally my turn and I walk into the font and he takes me by the hand (as does he with every girl so they don't slip), we exchanged greetings (and I assume that he remembers me after several weeks). I put my other hand on his wrist and then realized that I didn't let go of his hand. HAHA, seriously, I can't get over it. We both realized that we were basically holding hands.... and immediately (and awkwardly) tried to fix it. He apologized really quickly and oh my gosh. It was just really embarrassing. Hilarious, but TOTALLY embarrassing. Well, I hope that I provided you with a laugh, or at least a smile.

Moral of the story is: if you think the guy working in the temple is cute, don't forget to bring your brain with you. This is sacred work people! Now focus!

Switching Roles

Tonight is kind of weird. I should be studying for my Art History Exam tomorrow... but I'm not. I know, I'm sUUUper disciplined. I'll just be glad to have this test done and over with.

So you're probably wondering why tonight is weird... well, it's not because of procrastinating... it's cause I'm emotionally unstable currently. I need to get myself in check! It would just be nice if a certain someone would just go on his mission already. Yep, that would be good. Then I could more fully focus on mine. That would be nice. But he helped me work through things. And he helped me feel better. It was weird because usually I'm the one comforting him... odd. We definitely switched roles tonight. The world is turning upside-down my friends. Run for your lives!

Just the Little Things

Tonight I'm finishing up on some stuff for personal progress. No, I haven't finished yet, but I'll be finishing tonight. I know it's about time I got around to wrapping it up, but that's not the point of this post. One of the experiences requires us to go back and read two general conference talks of our choosing that relate to womanhood. I instantly thought of the talk that was given in the October 2011 General Relief Society Meeting that was given by Presiden Uchtdorf.

One thing that impacted me the most as I watched and listened to him speak again tonight was his emphasis on enjoying the small things. He pointed out that a lot of the time we are so focused on the end result in our journey through life that we forget to notice all of the other good things in our life while we are trying to obtain that BIG goal, when in reality, we should be able to realize the happenings in our lives that are small and simple. Whether it be something that happened today or yesterday that was somewhat insignificant, but just so happened to make you feel that much better and maybe happened to put a smile on your face.

Let me share a personal example of my own that may help you better understand what President Uchtdorf is trying to help the women of the church (as well as anyone in the world) should consider. Although this example may seem simple, I still believes that it exemplifies exactly what he is trying to say, but only on a much smaller scale.

We all know that Monday is known for its stigma of being the worst day of the week. We generally tend to dread Mondays and always tend to look forward to Fridays and the beginning of the weekend. This also causes us to maybe not enjoy the rest of the week as we are just trying to make it to the weekend alive. But here are some things that I realized made the last week worth my while.

Last Sunday, I had a meeting with my bishop to talk about going on a mission. I then went to mission prep after that and enjoyed the wonderful lesson given by Sister Nyland. Also, something to mention is that our mission prep class (which I had started attending before they made the announcement) had tripled in size! There were a whoppin' 12 people there! Heck yes. Haha, anyways, after that I was able to spend some time with a dear friend.

Well, then Monday rolled around and I was able to sleep in because I didn't have to leave until about 11:30 that morning. Fortunately, I was able to make a list of all of the wonderful things that had happened that day, as well as on Tuesday. I love realizing the little things. For another experience in personal progress, I had decided to write down at least 3-5 things every night for a few weeks of things that were good that happened that day. This was during a time where I was really busy and didn't have much time to fully write out the happenings of my day, so even when it was a somewhat rough day, I was able to sort through everything that occurred that day and write down even the smallest of things that turned out to make me realize that I had had a wonderful day. Here's an example:

November 10, 2011 - I had to sweep and mop the wrestling room today [by myself] and Izak was nice enough to stay and wait for me. I was definitely grateful for that - it was awfully nice of him to do tha for me :)

November 11, 2011 - This morning before the [freedom] assembly, we were doing a few run throughs and I ran to the back of the gym and ran up the bleachers and tripped and fell. And somehow managed to get a bruise on top of my foot. Ha... yeah, it hurts, but it was hilarious and embarrassing a bit. Especially when Dad spoke into the mic and said (rather loudly), "Hey, did everyone see Savanna trip?"

November 14, 2011 - Today was a minimal day, which was nice. I always love those days.

November 15, 2011 - [In choir today] singing those wonderful songs was awesome. We even went out into the hallway where the acoustic was much better and it was just wonderful. I hope that we'll be able to do it again tomorrow. It was just very therapeutic whenver we sing those wonderful songs with such power. It was just freaking awesome. Durtschi said that when we get a little better, we'll go out into the commons. That will be freaking sweet!

November 17, 2011 - I asked Coach [Harris] why he asked me to be a manager. Seriously though, I didn't volunteer, he asked me, therefore I asked him why. He said, "What? You don't want to?" and I said, "Coach, if I didn't want to be here, I wouldn't." "Oh, alright." (Of course this is where he smiles and he has the most contagious smile. It's awesome.) "But really, why?" "Because I like you. I think you're awesome!" Haha, okay. I'll take it :)

So as you can tell, none of the things that I just shared with you above have any life-changing qualities, but they were just expressions of gratitude for the little things. Some are simpler and others are more detailed, but things like this still just make me smile. It also made me realize that my life really is good and it only takes a small amount of time to think about and write down the wonderful things that happened throughout your day. It makes you a lot more grateful for the little things and the tender mercies that carry you throughout the week. So here's the last one of the night that happened last night:

October 20, 2012 - Yesterday after spending 3 hours at the Provo Temple, I didn't really do much for the rest of the day. I ended up meeting a couple of girls in PG to take their pictures for Sadies. (I miss high school dances.) After I got done with them, I headed over to Shawna's house to hang out and wait for Nikki to get home so that I could go and watch some movies with her. I was getting impatient and Brett had invited me over to hang out with him and so I decided to head over there to his house to hang out. We ended up watching Charlie Chaplin, which was fun because Brett had never seen any of his movies before, and we just talked the whole time. It was nice to get to talk to someone who is SO good at listening! It was also fun to try and get him to talk for long periods of time (about REALLY random things). I talked about some of my frustrations and he just patiently listened and heard me out. Another thing that I noticed was when Ruth came downstairs, she was laughing and crying (apparently a sign of exhaustion) and Brett immediately got up to give his sister a hug and to comfort her. It was really sweet to see that. It just made me love him even more. :)

Enjoy your night everyone and remember to look for the small and simple things (Alma 37:6-7) to brighten your day and help you to be happy on your journey! :)