Big Changes

I'm moving to Utah! It's been a whirlwind couple of days, but thanks to help from Darrian I got a job at Radi8 Creative in Sandy. I'm so excited to start working there. It's an amazing company. 

So post-grad life has definitely been an interesting experience. If you remember, I moved to Las Vegas for a job at a PR agency, and after a few months I got let go. It was a huge blow to my pride, but I pulled together and got a job as a communications specialist at a tech startup four days later. There are a lot of challenges with a startup, and one of them is being dependent on a financial backer. Long story short, I switched jobs within the company and the startup went under. And then after that (and a lot of it I can't say because of legal issues and because I honestly don't know) the financial backer, my new boss, stopped paying me. I haven't gotten paid since Thanksgiving. 

I didn't tell a whole lot of people because I was embarrassed. I mean, I graduated from one of the top PR programs in the country, and eight months after graduation I'm on round 2 of being unemployed. I felt like everyone else had their life together and I was just not with the program. 

I can't lie and say that I handled this trial very well. There was a lot of crying and not sleeping and freak outs and anxiety and anger. I'd like to say that I trusted the Lord and was full of faith, but that's not the case for the most part. I was angry, and I felt like I was doing everything right but still not getting what I wanted. But when I humbled myself and really trusted Heavenly Father to just help me day to day, I was able to reach out to more people and be open to help, which is how I got the job at Radi8 Creative. 

So Utah, I'm back like I forgot something. See you Saturday.

Perfect Provo Weekend

I just got back from a much-needed weekend in Provo. It was good to see so many of my good friends still in town.

Highlights:

• Eating. Always eating.
• Chatting till 6 am with Alex and Robin
• Cubby's with blog friend turned real friend Brittany
• Christmas shopping with Alex
• Visiting Mr. Logan Larsen, or my new favorite boy. Too bad he's only four months old
• Lights on Temple Square
• Freshman year reunion to say goodbye to Taylor and Aly as they start their new life in Iowa.
• Visiting Jane and her precious married apartment
• Sister Wives (with commentary) with Nathan and Elizabeth.
• Touring campus with Jeff and swapping memories

Oh Provo, how I miss you.

Christmas Memories- 2008

I think I peaked at this moment.

Karaoke Star

I've always wanted to be a famous singer. It's like, my not so secret dream. I have a decent voice, not great, but decent enough. But I choke when I get in front of people. It all started with my 7th grade show choir auditions. But it's this nagging feeling in the back of my mind whenever I see someone else sing. I was born to perform, baby.

We've been planning to go to karaoke night for a while. I knew that this was my chance to finally perform in a safe environment where no one would really judge me. I decided on "Like a Prayer" by Madonna (hey, if I was going to channel my inner Sam I knew I had to sing Madonna. That's just how it works). I practiced for weeks. Like, played the karaoke version on YouTube and sang to myself when no one was home.

We finally went to karaoke night at Pizza Pie Cafe last night. I put my name in and waited. And waited and waited. We were there for almost two hours before they called my name. Well, first they called this girl named Lacey who turned out to be eight years old and could sing a mean version of "Someone Like You." I was a little worried about how I would top that, but whatever.

So I go up there and I am shaking like a leaf. The organ intro comes on and I start...

"Life is a mystery..." Whoops. Microphone wasn't on. Thanks for catching that one, overweight DJ.

I could feel the tunnel vision coming on. I wanted to die. But then all the randoms, I mean, audience, decide to get up and start dancing along. They probably felt sorry for me, but I'll take it as them being my adoring fans.

I decided to just go for it. Everyone was singing along so I couldn't really hear myself. But I did all the things I wanted to do. I did an audience point. I danced a little. When it got to the "let the choir sing" part I got everyone in the room singing.

Basically I lived the dream. And you know what? Next time I'll probably shake a little less. And maybe everyone won't keep gesturing for me to put the microphone closer to my mouth so they can actually hear me.

Easter Traditions

In the Connor family, we have lots of Easter traditions. We follow the trail of candy to our Easter baskets, dye eggs, the works. Holidays just aren't the same up at school. My mom sent me a box of chocolates, but I really wanted to do something Easter-y.

We went to Macy's and bought the old school egg dye and eggs. I literally had to Google how to make hard-boiled eggs. Trophy wife in the making, obviously. And I was a little rough on the eggs when I put them in the water so some of them turned into these:

WHOOPS

So today I had the boys over to dye the eggs. And you know me (or you don't, that's fine too), I love planning activities. Like from 5-6 we will dye the eggs and then from 6-6:30 we will divide into teams and have an egg hunt. And then I have to remember that I really have no authority over these people and they don't have to do what I say. Weird.

Then Ryan took it upon himself to hide the eggs in our apartment. He set up a couple decoys (mugs turned over all over the room so we'd think there were eggs under there. Sneaky). Oh and funny story, he hid one of the eggs and poured dye into my cup from dinner yesterday. So I go to take a sip of Diet Coke for strength and get...a mouth full of purple dye. Grossest moment of my entire life.

March Photo A Day

I was a little better at doing Photo a Days this month, I didn't get lazy till the end of the month :).

 March 1- Up:  Elevators in the ASB
March 2- Fruit: E's banana
March 3- Your Neighborhood: The Elms, baby
March 4- Bedside
March 5- A Smile: A text from Timmy Timmy Tim Tim
March 6- 5 pm: In da gym
March 7- Something you wore: one of my many grandma cardigans
March 8- Window
March 9- Red: sauce at P.F. Chang's
March 10- Loud: I still don't know why I didn't take a picture of Ryan ;)
March 11- Someone I talked to today: Poor Andrew, someone is tired
March 12- Fork: Ryan's fork ring that he wears every day, rain or shine
March 13- A sign: my first time hiking the Y in forever
March 14- Clouds
March 15- Car
March 16- Sunglasses
March 17- Green, at Hayley and Ali's awesome St. Patrick's Day Party
March 18- A corner of your home
March 19- Funny, This little picture got us honked at, but it was definitely worth it
March  21 (where I started slacking off)- Delicious: Nutella Cheesecake bars, courtesy of Charlotte Chen
March 22- Kitchen Sink
March 23- Moon
March 24- An animal: Duck on the new stream by Rape Hill
March 25- Breakfast: carbo load
March 26- Key
March 27- My name: In a Calvin and Hobbes book
March 29- Feet: Ryan's Van's
March 31- Where I relax: my bed

Provo Bucket List

So a couple weeks ago I decided to list all the things I wanted to do before I left Provo for good (maybe, still not sure). There were probably fifteen things on the list, color coded for which things were group activities and which ones were family and which ones were stupid. I made homeboy come over and put each of the activities (except the stupid ones) in my planner. We had every weekend and even some weekdays planned out. So help me, I was going to finish everything on my Provo bucket list.

Then this week happened. I was in Salt Lake every day for the Adobe event, most days for over 10 hours.  It really threw a wrench in the Tuesday frozen yogurt/karaoke and weekend RSL game/feeding the ducks/cooking dinner on the grill. I was actually pretty mad about it. I was throwing my stuff in my bag to spend the night in Salt Lake, trying to make homeboy feel guilty for not taking me to get frozen yogurt when he dropped some serious knowledge on me.

We're not going finish everything on the list. We have work and school and Bradley Lab and church callings and roommates and families. The most important thing is that we spend time together. It doesn't have to be the planned down to the minute. It can just be going to Target. Or getting Burger Supreme. Or watching Firefly even though I hate it. Those are the most important things.

Lately

1. Guitars (Kevin's on the left, Ryan's on the right. I feel like their personalities are captured perfectly)
2. I got texted this little gem the other week. I literally screamed.
3. A typical Saturday night: hummus and pita chips and talking about Mitt Romney.
4. Crafting, still a secret what it's for though :)
5-8. Hiking the Y. We made it in 29 minutes, I'm shooting for 25 next time.
9-10. St. Patrick's Day in Salt Lake
11-14. Anthropologie. I want it all.

Recipe for Awesome

On Saturday, Rainn Wilson (Dwight from The Office) gave a talk at South by Southwest about recipes for personal awesomeness. You could follow #soulpancake on Twitter and read other people's recipes. People listed family, friends, even Harry Potter and dinosaurs.

I don't know my recipe for awesomeness. I know the basic things, like faith and family. But I think it also includes things like polka dot skirts and cowboy boots. Like having a picnic with leftover Chinese food and Diet Coke. Like guitars and ukeleles. My little BYU family is a part of the recipe. Jumping pictures and people that are willing to participate in jumping pictures are in the mix too. And sitting in the sun is probably the biggest part.



















You may notice that there is a very important person missing from this family event. The father figure, if you will. Someone was struggling a little with Daylight Savings, poor thing.

Party Time

So for the past couple years, I've had this dream of being an event planner. I look at websites like bash, please every day. I have boards full of party ideas on Pinterest. This semester, I'm taking an event planning class with a couple of my friends.

As part of the class, we are in charge of planning one event for the whole class. We decided on throwing a sweet sixteen surprise birthday party for our teacher.

We started with a color palette of mint, black and white. A pretty good idea if I do say so myself.

 We spent hours gathering and preparing everything we needed for the event. 

 

Hayley's mom made the tulle garland with glitter and mint tulle from Hobby Lobby.

We gathered mason jars from DI, friends and family. 

 

We got this banner from Lindi from Love the Day.  I absolutely love it.

Kimmi was able to get cupcakes donated from The Cocoa Bean Cupcake Cafe. We had Madagascar Vanilla Vanilla, Grasshopper and Better Than Whatever.

 

Kimmi also made the most delicious cucumber sandwiches. You take cream cheese, mayonnaise and Italian seasoning and mix it together. You spread that on a baguette and put a cucumber and some seasoning on top. They were a huge hit.

Hayley got green and black candy from Winco and Peppermint Place. We put them in jars we found at DI and wrapped them in ribbon from Hobby Lobby.

Kirsten's mom let us use her lace tablecloths, which added a vintage feel to the whole event. We found the best flowers at Smith's for $5. The final touch were some "presents" wrapped in cheetah and polka dot wrapping paper.

 

The event was a HUGE success. We had speeches and even a Justin Bieber impersonator. Our teacher loved it, and offered to hire us to do her daughter's birthday party next weekend! Keep your fingers crossed.

Photo cred goes to Ali Ann Kirk. And Ryan Gray and my iPhone. 

For more photos, go to Hayley's blog.