A decision must be reached.

I graduated with my Associates in Liberal Arts from Windward Community College this past May. And since life is about progression I obviously have to keep it moving. So for winter semester (this coming Jan.) I applied for BYU-Provo and BYU-Hawaii thinking I would surely get rejected from one, thus making my choice easy because I would have no choice but to go to the one I got accepted to.

AND THEN..

I got accepted to both. I would be all like YIPPEE!...if I was good at making decisions, but I AM NOT. Still a decision must be reached...and SOON...like end of this week soon. I am currently weighing the pros and cons but still hate having to choose.

sorry no pictures....i'm boring today :)

The zombies are coming!

This is what I looked like last Saturday.

me. Bridgette. Mele. Sarah.

And this is where we went.

The second annual night of the running dead 5k

It was such a fun thing to do. It was a 5k race to raise money for the Huntsman Cancer Foundation. It's called The Night Of The Running Dead and when you registered for the race you registered as either a "human" or a "zombie" then when the race started the humans were given a 2 min head start so that it appeared as if zombies were chasing after the humans. It was super fun to see all the people dressed up and all the different ages that got into it. I would totally do this again. It's a good way to have fun while exercising as well!

we went to ask this girl to take a picture with us...but quickly discovered this she was a he :) lol so fun!

This guy was really into his character. Sticking to his raspy creepy voice and everything...I would have been scared of him had I not also been one of his kind.

The finish line. On the top it says "The End Is Here" 

I had so much fun being dead I think I want to do it again just for fun....I mean while it is still October! 

After the race they had water, oranges, and bananas.

Scarah and me :)

By the way being "dead" while driving to and from the race (held at the Utah State fairgrounds) was so much fun too. We scared people along our way and it was funny to see them laughing at us. Except I think we for real scared some little kids in cars...opps! 

Driving and listening to Britney Spears lol

My sisters make up was most scary I think. She looks like a psycho freak. 

Well everyone hope you're all having a spooktacular October and if you see a zombie coming your way you better RUN!

Top Secret Tuesdays

Last weekend AJ told me not to plan anything on Tuesday because he had a surprise for me and that we were going on a super red hot date. So Tuesday came yesterday and I was kind of curious, but didn't really have any super high expectations...I really thought we were just doing the usual dinner and a movie routine just on a weekday instead of the weekend (not that there's anything wrong with that routine because I actually really enjoy eating and love movies, so that's an automatic good time, every time). About the time I decide to go upstairs and start getting ready I hear someone upstairs. I assumed it was my sister, but when I got to the bottom of the stairs I saw a sneaky guy walking out of my room. He then handed me an orange paper with the words "Hint #1" written on the front of it. Well "Hint #1" lead me to 4 other hints and this little scavenger hunt ended with a little love letter and some money to spend on whatever I felt like spoiling myself with just because he felt like giving it to me. I was smiling like a dork just after reading the letter. Then there was another couple papers folded up with it and I didn't know what it was and thought maybe he wrote two letters or something. So I opened it up and it's tickets to the ZIGGY MARLEY show at the Depot!!! I flew myself downstairs and jumped on him to give him the very deserved hug and kisses. He told me he had more hints to hide and stuff, but that I caught him too soon so he got his bag and pulled out two things: deodorant and nail polish remover. Weird right? haha not to me! Just that weekend before as we were driving home one night I said out loud that I needed those two things. I didn't even realize that he had mentally acknowledged it. What a thoughtful guy right?! He told me we were gonna go to Gateway mall and go shopping, have dinner, then go to the concert.

The HINTS. 1 led me to the front porch. 2 led me to the toilet (lol nevermind) 3. led me to my pillow and 4. led me to my dresser drawer and the letter, tickets, and money. :)

We headed to the mall and the whole way there I was feeling so excited. I told him how surprised I was. Who knew he had that in him! haha not me! LOL At the mall he said whatever I wanted was mine...............WHAT?! K really I felt bad about letting him buy me things because I know I don't need them, but he practically made me. Even things I wanted, but wanted to put back he took from me and just bought them. I felt so spoiled and special and undeserving all at the same time. It was the first time anyones ever done anything like that for me. Sooo shopping! First stop was Urban Outfitters. Second stop was Forever21. Last stop was Express.

Urban Outfitters. I tried this dress on and I loved it! This is the only thing I got from there because I thought everything in there was too expensive and I hate spending that much on clothes.

At Forever21 I thought this dress was cute, I tried it on with tights and just really liked it. I also got a grandma looking sweater that's a little bit ugly, but that's my style lol.

In Express we got this cardigan in grey AND tan, another sweater, and a cute flowy tank top. 

I have to say I felt really bad about spending AJ's money like that. I mean duh I'm a girl and don't all girls love to go shopping? But I feel bad about it when it's not my money I'm blowing and when I feel like that money could be used for something better or more important. Most the time I was walking around with an unsure worried face like I was doing something I shouldn't. I kept asking him like "are you suuuure you want to spend your money on me?" and at one point he even said "I thought you'd be happier..." He just kept telling me to get whatever I wanted and not worry. I think he was kind of disappointed that I didn't want to just go wild and blow all his doe. I was happy though and I've never had anyone do anything like this for me before. I just felt so special. He put so much plan and thought into it from the cute little scavenger hunt and the heartfelt letter all the way to the concert. I loved every single minute of everything we did together.

After shopping it was off to dinner at the Olive Garden. YUM. OG never disappoints.

My super red hott date :)

As I was telling the waiter I wanted water AJ puts his hand up to stop me and says "Can I get two waters and a vanilla italian soda for the lady? Thank you." LOL after the waiter walked away he turns to me excitedly smiling and says "I always wanted to do that....and I just did it!" hahahahaha man what a dork.  He freaking cracks me up! 

Then off to see Ziggy! I love reggae/island music. It NEVER gets old, for real that is why I like it. Pop and rap and all that trendy crap is cool to listen to for a little while, but then it gets played out and I get sick of hearing it...it gets OLD. Reggae never does and that's why I love it. You can listen to the same reggae music you listened to 10 years ago and it's STILL good. But needless to say the concert was the shiz. That was my first time seeing Ziggy Marley live and he was so good! I didn't get any pictures cuz I hate trying to get good pictures at concerts and wasting time worrying about taking pictures instead of just enjoying the music. So me and Aj just danced the whole time and took a picture after :).  But WHOA to all the pot heads burning right there in the crowd the whole time. It smelled like straight weed the whole night lol. Security at the Depot needs to get that under control for all us non stoners out there.

After the concert.

The stage.

FORWARD TO LOVE. ZIGGY MARLEY. AJ even bought me a tshirt after the concert! Don't worry bout my hash looking face either k...its 2:30am and i'm an insomniac! lol

On the way home I was buzzing off the good vibes and reliving the whole night in my head and thinking about how so so SO lucky I am to have someone like AJ as my boyfriend. It made me think about how that whole thing with the fall of adam and how if you never knew evil you'd never know good. Same with not knowing true happiness without sadness. And I think in a lot of people's lives it takes having a really (excuse my language) shitty relationship to realize what a really good one is like. And I've had my fair share of dating losers....just look at the past two years of my life wasted on the biggest A-hole. I can honestly say AJ treats me the best I've ever been treated. He makes me happy al the time not just some of the time. I don't have to search to find the goodness in him, and I'm not the only one who sees it. On the way home I told AJ that I wouldn't even want to look at dating anyone else because he's so good to me so there would be no point. And it has nothing to do with how much he spends on me. Really this is the first time he's ever done anything big like this and it felt a little too extravagant for me...I'm sure his bank account will take a nice looooong while to recover from this date night before we can even think about doing this again. I would have been happy if our red hot date night ended up being a frozen pizza and a redbox, but I'm grateful and very appreciative of my thoughtful caring hot loving boyfriend who planned such an awesome spontaneous random date for no reason at all except that he loves me....and I LOVE HIM!

Short story, long.....

I came into my room to read my scriptures (Richard G. Scotts talk from saturday morning conference first session just made me want to lose myself in the scriptures, I seriously need to make reading/searching/pondering the scriptures more of a priority in my life and not just a thing I do before I go to sleep at night...but more on conference later). Conveniently my laptop just happened to be sitting on my bed. Heres my thought process:
- If you open that laptop you ARE NOT going to even touch your scriptures.
- uhhhhgghmmmm yes I will. I'll just check my facebook REAL FAST and then be done and get on with the reading.
- Pssshhhh yeahOK.
- no really this time I'll just check it fast kine.
- Ok............................
annnnnnd an hour later after checking facebook, playing bejewled, and reading everyones blogs...here I am...my scriptures still on the floor and me still on my stupid laptop. BUT I am still going to read my scriptures after this. I HAVE TO. So I will.

Short story about myself and......

THIS GUY, my father :) Taken 2/28/93 my birthday and baptism day.

...so I've been living in Utah for 4 1/2 months already and only last month decided to clean my room. Gross right? ahh whatever when I moved to Hawaii 5 years ago somehow my Utah room became the leftovers room for everybody. Literally my mom got rid of my dresser and put like left over storage crap in my room. She has a whole corner devoted to her craft things. My sisters decided they needed an overflow closet and it was full of extra tops, dresses, and jackets/coats. Ridiculous. So when I moved back in I kind of didn't really feel motivated to clean THEIR things and make room for all of mine. Since I had no dresser a lot of my clothes ended up in folded piles.....on the freaking floor. RIDICULOUS. haha Anyways since I have a super awesome boyfriend he noticed my need for a dresser and last month he got me one. So as I cleaned to make room for it and moved some things around I went through a drawer in my room. It was full of old cards..birthday cards, valentines cards, christmas cards, etc. So I started going through them to decide which ones I should keep for sentimental value and which ones could be thrown out. I started to notice that A LOT of them were from my dad :) I don't think he ever missed a birthday even if they were late.

*short story within my short story that's actually starting to seem not that short: for those of you that don't know I was born in Hawaii. We lived there until I was nine then my parents decided together that we should move to Utah  so that me and my siblings could all get a better education...hawaii's public school education is less than stellar. My dad owns a landscaping business in Hawaii and the plan was for him to sell it and be with us in Utah. Well work was always so busy and he never sold his business so he would just go back and forth between work (hawaii) and family (utah). It was a HUGE sacrifice on his part, but he did it for us and it really says a lot about him and his love for his family. And that is just how we grew up. With my mom raising us and my dad working in hawaii and being with us when he could, it was normal to us but to other people it was hard to understand. Everyone would always think my parents were divorced or something because my mom lived here in utah with/raising us kids and my dad lived in hawaii, working. But no my mom and dad are and always have been happily married. In fact just this year they celebrated their 30th anniversary. They are both great examples of selfless love to myself. Only now that I'm older do I realize how abnormal that living situation was...I can't imagine being my mom or dad and being apart from their other half for extended periods of time. It must have gotten lonely at times. Man, my parents are amazing! But this story explains why I always got birthday cards from my dad on my birthday...because he was usually in Hawaii and not physically there. Now back to my long short story....

Anyways I started reading through all the cards my dad sent me and well....I'm just going to let the cards speak for themselves, heres some excerpts from his cards:

" 2-23-99 8:30AM" (yes he wrote the date AND time lol)
"I can't believe that you are 14 yrs old. I miss your birthday but remember that I think of you and the rest of the family everyday. Got to go now work is calling me. I love you. Stay well and you be good."

"Jenny I am sorry that this card comes in late. I am also sorry for not being home for your birthday. You are now 15 years old? Time sure goes so fast. Anyways I want you to know that I think about you and the rest of the (our) family everyday. As you know how I stuck here in Hawaii with my work. I would love to someday soon be able to work in Utah and be with all of you. I miss being with my family. Here is a few $$ for your birthday. Jen always remember to travel on the straight and narrow and follow the church teachings, mom and dad's teaching and keep the Lord's commandments. I love you, Dad."

*MY PERSONAL FAVORITE*
"Jenny, I am sorry again that I am not home for your birthday. Anyways here is a few $$, go buy yourself a present. It is a gift of God that we are well and grow. It seems like only yesterday that you were this cute big eye curly hair baby that I and mother brought home from the hosp. Now you are 16 and it is hard to believe. Where have all the years gone? Even though you're 16 here are some of the things that you can't do.
1. Cannot date
2. Cannot drive
3. Cannot have freedom to do any undesirable things.
Please seek to do the things that is desirable to the Lord. Like stay in the straight and narrow path and keep the Lord's commandments. Give thanks to the lord for your being well now that you're 16 and pretty as ever. Read Proverbs 3:5-6. Promise me that you'll read this scripture, ok? Happy b-day. Love Dad."
My dad thinks he's pretty funny...but I'm pretty sure his list was all serious haha. But Proverbs 3:5-6 reads "5-Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6-In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

This is a valentines card-
"Jen always remember my advise and counseling or preaching- Stay home sometimes do not go and hang out all the times- It is safer at home. Work hard at school. Pray, read scriptures everyday and obey- do not go to sleep after school."
(apparently I had a problem of coming home from school and sleeping for a few hours and then staying up all night. My mom always tried to wake me up cuz she hated when I would stay up all night and not get sleep for school. It wasn't my fault though....it was just a normal teenage circadian rhythm, look it up...I learned THAT in school.)

"2/27/03
Jenn, I know this will get to you after your birthday. Late is better than never. However this doesn't mean I love you any less. I want you to know that I am proud of you. You've been a good daughter despite the fact that I refer to you sometimes as the lazy one. I want you to know that I love you as you are. We have had our differences but it is so because I care about you and the rest of my children. You have grown up so fast I can't believe it. You are about to graduate from high school and go on to college. It is all a blessing. Stay in the straight and narrow and you'll be blessed. Happy Birthday. Love Dad."

One Christmas card that I must have kept because it makes me laugh-
"Jen, Despite our differences when it comes to boys. I want you to know that I still love you. Love always, Dad."
HAHAHA right?

My mom and dad helping set up for my sisters wedding.

Anyways I am soooooo eternally grateful for the family I have and for the parents I was born to. They are just the greatest examples of hard work and sacrifice to me. They have shown me what love is and what it means to show love for your family. I have the hardest working dad ever. He has given up so much for his family I can't even begin to imagine the half of it. Although he wasn't physically there a lot of the time he has always made sure to keep us in line. I love that in almost all his cards he constantly reminds me to stay in the "straight and narrow" and "follow the Lord's commandments". I think it's pretty apparent through these cards that my dad did his best to teach us the Gospel through word and through example. He has always been a good example of giving thanks for what we have be it a little or be it a lot. He has always told us to be grateful for what we have and has constantly reminded us that what we have is from the Lord and to give our thanks to him. He has been a great example of relying on the lord even when times were hard for him. I admire my fathers strength. He is the strongest man in the world to me and I love him so much. I hope the man I someday marry is as great an example to our children as my dad has been to me.

In Hawaii. Missing my older brother.

My dad, me, and grandpa (moms side) in Florida at a miami heat vs. jazz game.