Here's to 1/4 of a century...

My parents have been married for 25 years, today. That boggles my mind. 25 is a big number, eh?! I'm so grateful to them and for the great examples they have been in my life. I feel so blessed to have been raised by parents who believe in working hard at their marriage and keeping their love strong through the thick and the thin. It's cute to always see them snuggle, kiss, and laugh at each other. Cheers to love, and cheers to the best parents a girl could ask for.

THEN

NOW

I love you Dadio and Madre. You da best.

You can find me in the library...

With these cute boys....

 And this cute girl...

 2nd floor. Periodicals. 3rd table from the window. All day. Everyday.

Looking like this. All day. Everyday. 

Juice. A little Asian boy. And a failure of a daughter.

My mom came home with TONS of juice the other day. She's went of diet coke and feels the need to substitute its absence with every kind of juice known to man. She was so proud of all her good selections that she displayed them on the counter for all of us. She's a hoot! Stupid brother kept knocking a carton down every time I tried to take a picture though...

So...sister-in-law took action and made it possible for me to get a picture with all the juice boxes standing up. This seriously makes me laugh everytime I see it, this soooo wasn't staged. Go Aubz!

....Dad?? Are you trying to shoot mom???

Yesterday at dance, a little Asian boy stopped by. How sweet.

I HATE to decorate. Hate it. It causes me stress when my mom asks "does this picture look better here? or...*moves it 0.5 millimeters*... here?". Our house is beautifully decorated thanks to mother, and I feel like a failure of a daughter because I don't share the same love of decorating with her. So, to compensate for my lack of interior design skills, I show my support by shopping with her and Nik and carrying everything around for them. If that's not love, I don't know what is.

And she's at it once again....

Beautiful Mia was up on the Velour stage this Friday for take two. If I told you she did amazing, it would be an understatement.  Her talent blows me away, not to mention she's hi.la.ri.ous! Love you Mia girl, you rocked it.

Glad they put up with me.

Monday-
ME: "When are you going to open those pretzel M&M's Nik?? They've been sitting on your dresser for the last 2 months!"
NIK: "I don't want to open them because as soon as I do, I know you're going to eat them all."

Tuesday-
ME: "Nik, I opened your M&M's. I think I ate them all. Don't be mad. It was an accident."
NIK: "RIIIIIIIIK!!!!! I didn't open them because I knew this would happen!!!"
ME: "I just don't understand why you tried to prolong the inevitable..."
NIK: "I can't believe you ate all my treats, who are you?!"

Monday-
ME: "Mom, who's your favorite child?"
MOM: "I don't have one."
ME: "Will you just say that I am? So I feel good about myself?"
MOM: "Sure Rik."

Tuesday-
ME: "Nik, I'm sorry, but Mom said I was the favorite child."
NIK: "Actually, she told me that she doesn't have a favorite. But she did say that I was her smartest child, and that Myke was really funny, and Ryan is Athletic."
ME: "Oh ya?! What did she say about me?"
NIK: "She said you have nice hair."
ME: "oh."

Break time.

Soooooo grateful for this little break that graced my presence this last weekend. Break from school. Break from homework. Break from eating healthy (Rik, do you ever eat healthy?) Break from dance. Break from work. Break from the gym. Break from chores. Break from a lack of sleep...etc. It was BLISSFUL!!! However, Black Friday shopping...not so blissful. Happy Turkey day to all y'all! Let the reviews, study sessions, and finals begin!

I'm getting paid to do whaaaaaat?!

I have the best job in the whole world. I actually have two, but I think that one is slightly (or not so slightly) better than the other. I mean...look at these girls! How could you not love teaching these cuties how to dance??

I've been snapping pics like crazy of the 80+ girls I teach, so.....more to come playas, much more to come.

Sister, Sister.

Look who came to the library and studied with me till late, late last night!

Wow...aren't we looking mighty fine?! See my hair? Want the look? Sweet, just pile your hair on top of your head and stick a pen in it. Voila! Perfect for late night studying. The boys dig it. Psyche! Last night Kaniki goes... "Rik, you're hair looks really good!" I say, "really?!" She says "uhhhh....no".

Speaking of looking great...Nik and I were going to grab a bite to eat the other day and started to laugh when we noticed how awesomely homeless we looked.

I sure do love this chick! She's the coolest cat in town.

Untitled.

You guys! I'm in such a funk lately,  I can't explain it. I usually don't post stuff like this on my blog. I'm all about the fluffs and sparkles of life being published for the world to see.... but since I'm "keepin' it real", I think it's okay to be completely honest and real right now. Let's face it, life isn't glamorous and amazing all the time, and I'm not about to pretend that mine is...it's definitely not. I feel like it's safe to say that I'm struggling lately. I feel like I have NO idea what I'm doing with my life. I've actually known this for awhile, but I've been able to put that little fact on the back burner. Unfortunately, I feel like the time has come and big decisions in my life can't be ignored any longer. Bad news is, I don't feel any more qualified to make these decision than I did a year ago.

I need a major. There's no more GE's to take. Do you know how many majors there are to choose from? Not only do I need a major, but I need to find motivation to finish out the classes I'm enrolled in now. I've been a straight A student my whole life...I don't get why I'm having such a hard time being excited to learn lately, it has never happened and I don't know how to deal with it.

Scheduling. I have to schedule every minute of my every day, and it's getting on my nerves! I take on a lot of things 'cause I'd rather be busy then have nothing to do...but it's getting out of hand. Want to hangout with me? Cool...11:00- 12:00 pm is your scheduled time. Want to grab a bit to eat? Sweet! But I'll be reading homework assignments through lunch. Rik, want to come to FHE with us for once? Sorry Mom, I'll be in the library all night. Right now I feel super guilty for writing this terribly negative blog post instead of studying for Biology. Boy, I can't wait for Christmas break. Guilt-free, unscheduled down time is calling my name.

Do I even need to mention my love life? Word to the wise: don't send off a missionary, it's just rough. I think this may be the main cause of my current "funk"....I think I'm going to go on a boy strike. Forever.

On the reals, I don't mean to complain, but this is life! I gotta have the downs to have the ups, right? Hopefully my next post will be so awesomely uplifting that it puts glitter and sparkles to shame :). Until then, peace and love peeps!

It's what I do, It's what I love.

I was a mother of 4...

 I babysat the Astle kiddos while their parents went out of town. Let me tell you...these kids are my favorite kids in the whole world.  I wouldn't mind being a mother of 4 this instant if my kids were exactly like them.  We spent the weekend wearing ourselves out with playtime 24/7. 

  We went to the BYU game until they got bored.

 Little Sophie got bored about 5 minutes into the game, but somehow we managed to get her stay until halftime.

 We went to yogurtland...a favorite treat, and basically a tradition when I babysit them.

 I wish I could say this was all the sugar they got alllllll weekend. But I basically let them eat whatever they wanted. Look how nasty that yogurt looks though!! Sugar Galore!!!

 Fat cats was a hit. Johnny beat us all, even me. BUT he had bumpers people, I didn't!! Oh well. I gave him a dollar for winning, and of course he got more junk food from the vending machine...like they already hadn't already been eating like crap all weekend.

 Look how cute they look in their church clothes! I thought it took me a long time to get ready every Sunday for church...imagine getting 4 kids ready too! I have a whole new appreciation for mothers that get to church on time.

 We took their scooters up Provo canyon and road them down to a park. The leaves were unreal!

 I packed them a nice picnic of my wonderful cooking. PB&J's at their best. aaaand some more junk food, naturally.

 We played kickball, frisbee, 500, and whatever else we could think up. Poor Soph kept getting hurt. I think this picture was taken right after she wanted to be pitcher for kickball and her brother, Nicco, kicked the ball straight at her cute face.

The weekend was the best. I love you Astle kids!!

PS. Midterms are over and I want to do a little jiggy dance right now because I'm so giddy. Tonight I didn't do any homework, or studying, or test taking, or anything related to school. If that doesn't deserve a jiggy dance, I don't know what does.

PSS. What the heck is a jiggy dance? I've never used that term in my life.

PPS. How are you guys liking the new layout of my blog? The picture of me is waaaaay too big. But I don't know how to make it smaller. Technology dweeb here. Help?!

PPSS. I apologize for all my spelling errors in the past and here on out. I'm always too lazy to go back and edit it super good. (well?)

Just on my mind...

Do you realize that this boy gets home when he is 20...and it's his 20th birthday today???

To say I'm stoked is an understatement.

Procrastination isn't, but should be, my middle name.

AHHHHHH! Midterms can die a slow miserable death! I have 3 more this week and I have no idea how I'm going to get through it alive...last week's studying and test taking almost killed me. Stress. I'm sure my procrastination isn't helping my stress at all, for instance, instead of spending my weekend studying (like I should have been),  I went to St. George and Vegas with a few of my favorite peeps. And instead of studying now (like I should be),  I'm blogging. Where are my priorities people???? Meh, oh well. You're not human if you don't procrastinate sometimes. Here's just a few pics from Vegas aka: procrastination at it's best.