Catching up

So it's been foreeeever since I last posted on here... Here are some highlights of what's been going on with me lately.

• Broke up with Brad almost 2 months ago
• Got in my first car accident pulling out of the school parking lot.
  
• Went to NY for a week and turned 18. While there we did LOTS of shopping and saw The Phantom of The Opera (so incredible!) and Wicked (my 3rd time, but still amazing) on Broadway.
• Got Swine Flu and was down and out for all of Homecoming week my senior year. Buuuummer.
• Qualified for the National Merit Award based on my test scores, which puts me in the top 15,000 seniors nation-wide
• Saw The Killers and Pacific Lights (my friend from EFY's band based out of California) in concert
• Found my future husband in the guitarist from PL, a Mormon kid who also lives way far away in California :( haha
  
• Had my photography published in the phoenix New Times magazine- Best of Phoenix Edition 2009
• Went to Nauvoo this summer and got to do baptisms in the Nauvoo temple. Super cool experience.
• Planned a service project to take family pictures at a homeless center for families
• Am slowly making progress on BYU apps
• Our stake got 3 new wards from another stake, and new wards=new boys to date ;) holla!

Well, that's about all that I can think of that's gone down since i blogged last. I'm just trying to enjoy senior year and make the most of it!


National Merit Awards Night

It's Haircut Time!

So after close to 10 years of having long emo flippy hair, Brad finally decided it was time for a change (not without a little coercing from Becca however). After weeks of agonizing indecision he finally took the leap of faith and let me take him to Emily's to have his hair cut short.... and yes, it was as big of a deal as I'm making it sound. His hair was his trademark, his baby even.
Here's the journey:

The before shot

We thought it would be cool to stop here and leave him looking like Peter Parker gone emo from the 3rd Spider Man

Almost done... will he like it???

The final product. Aw it's not so bad now is it?
Goodbye awkward little Brad, hello studly man Brad :P

P.S. You're welcome Sister Anderson. Presenting your son with short "church boy length hair"
:)

Fourth o' July

Ariel, Brad, the parentals, and I went downtown to watch fireworks this year for the Fourth of July.
The fireworks show was pretty bomb, but the show we put on in our backyard after was the best part of the night :)
After we got home, we found about 15 boxes of reeeeeeeeally old sparklers and poppers and commenced lighting them. Que hilarious fun.

At the fireworks show

Sparkler madness

We felt like Harry Potter...

He's a bird?

The aftermath

Tay Swift

My friend Bethany and I got Taylor Swift tickets really last minute the week of the concert, but we were able to get really cheap floor tickets. We went out to Jobbing.com with a couple of our other friends and had dinner out there before the concert.

Bethany and Madeline

Bethany and I
Yes I'm a dork and wore my cowboy hat and boots

Bethany, Madeline, and me

Bethany and I went down to our floor seats which were fairly close, and we watched Gloriana (Tay's opening band) and Kellie Pickler (who wasn't that great) from our seats. Then Taylor came out accompanied by a large about of screaming provided by the masses of preteen girls.
Taylor sang her first few songs from the main stage, then went off stage. At that point we found out that she was coming down to a small revolving platform about 5 feet from our seats. We moved up closer to the little stage and waited for her to come down. When she came down singing Hey Stephen, I'm a bit embarrassed to say that I joined ranks with the screaming preteens, and she even grabbed my hand as she was walking by. We were one of about 15 people that they let through the ropes to go up close to Taylor as she sang on the little stage, and it was way cool being that close to her.
After singing a few songs on her little stage, she worked her way back up to the main stage. Emboldened by being so close to Taylor, we pushed through the standing crowds until we were front row against the stage, and we stayed there for the second half of the concert. No joke, I was 5 feet away from Taylor Swift for a good hour. Amazing! She grabbed my hand 2 more times, and it was so much fun!
The entire show was really well done, and she is even more amazing live than she is in recording. The show ended with a waterfall pouring down on her during Should Have Said No, and the falling water spelled NO as it fell. So cool!! But enough drooling over Taylor, here's some of the close up shots i got in between screaming like a little girl and singing my head off.

On the small stage

Coyote's jersey with Swift on the back

During the waterfall

"Prom?" he asks

Last Saturday while I was at a Young Women's conference, Brad was quite busy at my house. He spent over an hour putting 1,200 sticky notes on my car. Each one had something prom related written on it.

On my door it said open for nerds, so I opened the door expecting to find candy, and there he was with candy AND roses. There were two nerds inside my car :P

His prom is April 25th and I'm way excited! I have yet to ask himt to mine though, which is on may 16th. I will have to get him back for this ;)

Hamlet

Brad helped me with a Hamlet project I had to make. The assignment was to pick a well-known quote from Hamlet and make a visual representation for it. It could be in any form. I decided to take pictures. I still need to figure out how to bind the whole photo progression together though...

Valentines Day

For Valentines Day this year, Brad planned everything so it was a total surprise that night what we were doing. We got to his house and he had a table set up with candles and fancy silverware and the works. We made dinner together, spaghetti, and ate it at his little table. He wanted to set it up outside on the top of the mountain, but it was too cold. After dinner he took me up the mountain where he wanted to have dinner and brought a blanket so we could look at the stars.
We gave each other presents, I got him a really cute hockey patterned fleece blanket because he plays hockey :)
Finally we came back to his house and decorated cookies and hung out with his little sisters until he had to take me home.
Keeper? I think so :)

Hoopcoming

Brad's school had their Hoopcoming dance, but none of his friends wanted to go, so a big group of us went to dinner at Cheesecake Factory dressed up in fancy clothes instead. After dinner we walked around Keirland Commons for a while and froze our butts off. Everyone stared at us because we were a big group of teenagers in formal clothes wandering around the stores. Lots of old ladies stopped us to tell us how darling we looked and to ask if we were going to the "Junior Senior Prom," so we would explain to them that prom wasn't for a few more months lol. Since we were all so cold we decided to go back to Brad's house and hop in the hot tub until curfew.

I had fun getting to know Brad's friends better and hanging out with his crowd. Awesome night!

Ariel's going away party

The star of the party.

Showing off my new haircut :)

Best friends :)

Jared dancing

"Oh go is the jam!"
haha

The girls

Nice swimsuit Jared...

Me and AJ

Ariel and her... date?

Ariel and Kelton




So the weekend before Ariel left, Kelton and I told her that we were going ice skating. For the whole week before, she was sooooo excited about her and Kelton doubling with me and Brad to go ice skating and she would not stop talking about it. All the while, Kelton and I were planning a surprise going away party for her! The night finally came, and Brad and I picked her up and told her we were on our way to pick up Kelton. When we got to his house, she jumped out and ran to the door to get him. He aswered after she rang, and pulled her inside for a hug. When he spun her around a bunch of our friends were waiting on Kelton's stairs to surprise her! She was so surprised she almost started crying. It was amazing. Kelton and I were pretty proud that we kept it under wraps for a whole weekwithout her findingo out.

She was a bit sad that she didn't actually get to go ice skating with Kelton before she left, but all's well that end's well, because we took her ice skating the next Monday when we were off of school :)