day twelve... {12}

Day 12: a picture of something you love:

The temple :)

..................and THAT'S a sip of Livi's Lemonade!

day eleven...{11}

SORRY THIS IS A DAY LATE!!
(i had doctors appointments, and in fact after I post this, it's exactly where I'm headed to yet again.
It's okay though, only 2 more test until they diagnose me!)

Day 11: a picture of something you baked:

Last Thursday Jacob's Sisters-in-law, Sister, and I got together and made these PANDA cupcakes!  :)

Aren't they cute!?

.....................and THAT'S a sip of Livi's Lemonade! :)

What to do?!

What do you do when you go to turn in your last paper and find out, that you've been going to school for nothing.

That's right....

a.b.s.o.l.u.t.e.l.y

NOTHING.

................................................................Sigh....................................................................

Let me replay the conversation I had with my teacher today.

"Here's my resume"

(the last paper we had to do was a resume)

"Alright"

(insert awkward silence while she looks over my resume)

"Okay, so you actually are not getting certified, so I would take that off of your resume"

"Wait, we don't get certified?"

"Nope, you get a certificate of completion in Medical Office Administration and that's it"

"But, when I signed up they said I would be certified at the end this class?"

"Yeah, that's the case for every program here BUT MOA (medical office administration)"

................grrrrreeeaaaatt..................

so what now.

I guess I kinda started noticing the red flags as I looked for job opportunities, and was slowly finding out that some of my friends had just landed jobs that I was going to school for.
....with no training.

................................................................Sigh....................................................................

What do you do when you find a school that fits PERFECT to your study and learning habits, gives you AMPLE opportunities in the medical field, a degree, a free laptop, and you have a really good feeling about it, when all of the sudden at the very end of the 5+ hour orientation session with only you, your mom, and the advisor, and the advisor drops the bomb that it costs

OVER FORTY THOUSAND DOLLARS TO ATTEND THEIR SCHOOL!?

................................................................Sigh....................................................................

What do you do when you decide to look for scholarships to see how much money you could even possibly get to attend that 40,853 dollar school, and ALL of the deadlines for the scholarship applications have

CLOSED?

................................................................Sigh....................................................................

 

What do you do when ALL of your friends are going to school, going back to school shopping, and feeling skinny and tan in their new pair of jeans,
 and you're not.


..................................................................Sigh.....................................................................

Well my friends, you blog about it. Because in a way, it sort of makes things all better until you click the post button, then you just go in your room, or play solitaire on the computer for hours.... and STEW about what in the world your going to do and where in the world your going to go next.

................................................................Sigh....................................................................

On a brighter note, I'm nannying again and LOVING it. Clare and Kris seem to be slowly getting better. There's a blog that will follow their journey to recovery HERE if you would like to follow their progress. And it's a good thing I do musicals because we seem to find new health problems of mine every show! I had doctor visit number one today! With a promise of at LEAST 3 more visits. Gotta love it! :) ANYway. I hope you're all having a great day. Thanks for letting me vent. Haha. :)

........................and THAT'S a sip of Livi's Lemonade! :)

day ten... {10}

Day 10: A picture of your favorite food

Well... I LOVE italian (which is what we broke our fast with today, mmm), and cafe rio... but right now, I have a weird obsession with...

rootbeer/sherbet floats! mmm... OBSESSED!

.................and THAT'S a sip of Livi's Lemonade! :)



my best cousin

In my family, I've never really had a certain cousin that I was really close with. You see, my cousins ages range from late 40's to 2 years old. I don't have any cousins my exact age. I mean I always got a long with my cousins, we just weren't very close. Yes, we do see each other every first Sunday of the month, but that is about it.

That was until the summer before my junior year.

My cousin Clare and I were talking about this very thing when we decided that WE would be come close cousins.

And we did!

 We had sleepover after sleepover, she went to my high school's homecoming, and we talked ALL the time. Well she graduated at the end of that school year and went to SUU so we didn't really see much of each other the next 2 years, but we still made sure to catch up with each other at least every 2 or so weeks.

Last October I received a picture text of a diamond ring on her very important ring finger, announcing that she was ENGAGED! I was SO excited for her! January 2011 she got married to Kris and became Clarissa Olcott. She had a BEAUTIFUL wedding, even though it was 10 degree's outside. ha ha, brrrr. 

Well after she got married, she and her husband moved to Meadow UT. Where all of the sudden, Clare became a farm girl. And she LOVES it! She has chickens, dogs, a rooster, and as of Tuesday this week,

a Llama! Ha ha.

We haven't really talked for a while, but a couple weeks ago she texted me, and we started to make plans for me to go down and stay a weekend at her house and teach her how to sew and do crafts and things together. I got SO excited thinking about doing stuff with her again. This week we were trying to put schedules together to figure when the best day would be that I could go down. I seriously can not wait.

Yesterday, I was watching a movie with my Dad, Mom, and Kristy, when my Granny called.

(In our house, when Granny calls and doesn't ask to talk to my Dad, you know that something has happened to one of our family members)

I walked over to my mom and tried to get her to tell me who it was but she was listening too closely. From what I could get from the conversation on my mom's end was that someone was life flighted to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center and that it was someone that didn't live very close by. I decided to be patient so I went and sat down to continue watching the movie. When my mom hung up the phone, the last person I thought she would say, was the name that came out of her mouth. It was Clare & Kris. All Granny knew was that they were in a car accident and in serious condition. Kris had been life flighted to the hospital immediately, and they kept Clare and tried to get her to regain consciousness. But after trying for a while, they decided to life flight her too. Kris that night finally regained consciousness, but Clare still hadn't.

This morning Granny called with more information on their condition. Clare has a broken pelvis in three places, a broken arm, broken ribs, and head injuries. Kris has broken ribs, lots of cuts on his face, bruised lungs and heart. They are still in VERY serious condition. Turns out it wasn't a car accident. They were on an ATV ride and fell of a 45 foot cliff and hit a tree at the bottom. It is a MIRACLE they are still here at this very moment. I guess it didn't really hit me last night that it was her, but now it has. They are in InstaCare so I can't go see her, but I have been praying for her every minute possible.

"I know not by what method rare,

But this I know, God answers prayer.

I know that He has given His word

That tells me prayer is always heard

And will be answered, soon or late,

And so I pray and calmly wait.

I know not if the blessing sought

Will come just in the way I thought,

But leave my prayers with Him alone,

Whose ways are wiser than my own—

Assured that He will grant my quest,

Or send some answer far more blessed."

(Eliza M. Hickock)

Any prayers in their behalf would be greatly appreciated.

I'm praying for you Clare and Kris, and as soon as your out of InstaCare you better know, I will come and visit you for how ever long you will be there for. Stay strong. I love you.

.................and THAT'S a sip of Livi's Lemonade

 

"A man stands tallest when upon his knees."

~ President Thomas S. Monson

This was our homecoming group, 2008

This was at my 17th birthday party

And this is Kris and Clare on their wedding day :)

BOM CHALLENGE!

I must be in a competitive mood. Ha ha.. Because I'm doing another Challenge! On facebook I noticed some of my BYU-I friends were attending a "Reading the Book of Mormon" activity. I clicked on it to see what it was all about, and apparently as of 2 minutes ago, 8,908 people are going to be reading the Book of Mormon from
Sept 1- Dec 31. They say it's

2 chapters or 4 pages a day (approx) to finish the Book of Mormon by Dec. 31, 2011.

 So I will be attending, and I hope that you all choose to attend as well! If you would like to have the thrill of clicking the "attending" button on FB to join everyone, click here. They have a print out list, for where you should be on what days. So happy reading!

Let the challenge begin! Knowing me, I'm going to start this challenge this weekend because I tend to get behind...
ha ha.

........................and THAT'S a sip of Livi's Lemonade!

FYI, in the 5 minutes it took me to make this post, the attending number is now 8,936.

Lets do it! :)

Day nine... {9}

Day 9: A picture of your favorite book that you own:

So I'm not really good at picking a favorite because pretty much if I own it, I like it. Cause I bought it. Ha ha.

I'm currently reading this book for the first time ever and I'm liking it so far so that's good.

I also wrote about this book being really good, and it is still one of my favorites. If you're in the mood for a tear jerker. Everyone I've had read it has cried, including Jacob:

I really like to read Jack Weyland, Nicolas Sparks, Anita Stansfield, Stephanie Meyers, and authors like that. I'm a die hard hopeless romantic. I ONLY read romance novels. So that's why it took me so long to start Harry Potter. But I have a bet with a certain missionary so I must read the whole series within the next

9 MONTHS.
Wish me luck! Ha ha.

........... and THAT'S a sip of Livi's Lemonade!

day eight... {8}

Day 8: A picture that makes you laugh:

This was taken when we had family pictures. This is my niece Sophie and my brother Clayton. He does this to any and every little kid. I remember him throwing me in the air multiple times when I was a little kid, and he'd through me VERY high. :)

(example below)

anyway, that first picture makes me laugh every time I see it. :)

..................and THAT'S a sip of Livi's Lemonade!

day seven...{7}

Day seven: a picture of your favorite quote in your handwritting:

.........and THAT'S a sip of Livi's Lemonade!

life

Here is my Sunday quote... which I love more than any other.

Sigh.. isn't it so great? Because life really is not easy. But in the end, no matter how many trials we must endure, it will be completely

worth it.

 

Also another fun Sunday thing... My dance partner from 3-9th grade today had his FAREWELL! SO crazy! Time really does fly by! I couldn't believe it! We haven't really done much together since 9th grade but it's amazing how close we still are. We haven't talked but today when we were with each other it was as if we had never not been talking. He is AMAZING and he is going to be a WONDERFUL missionary in the Ghana Accra mission!

(side note--My former stake president, President Judd is his mission president! Aka the religion teacher at BYU that everyone loves/Brother Judd's dad/former general Sunday school counselor, he's so lucky to have him, we all love the Judd's!)

ANYWAY, I really am so excited for him and even though it was kinda sad to say goodbye, I can't wait to hear about all of his adventures! I LOVE seeing all of my friends leave on missions! Not because I want them to go away for two years, but because I'm SO excited for them, and proud of them for the decisions they have made! This gospel is so amazing! :) It was so much fun to see all of my old ballroom friends and coaches that I thought I would never see again! And also to just see Casey for a few more minutes before he packs up and leaves. :)

So I hope you all had a wonderful sabbath day, just as I did! :)

.............and THAT'S a sip of Livi's Lemonade!

This picture was taken tonight at his open house, he's to my left. (the tallest one) He has grown SO much!

Notice how much taller I was when we were littler... yeah.. I hit is SHOULDER now! :)

.....dancing the swing in the rhythm competition at nationals, we took 3rd!

The tango....and this was our last of 4 dances in smooth, before

we won first, taking the national title! :)

day six... {6)

Day 6: a photo of your favorite kid show:

Well of course it changed through out the years so let go with preschool age. There were 4 that I had to watch daily. Here they are:

Barney

Mr Rogers

Banana in Pajamas

Lambchop

................and THAT'S a sip of Livi's Lemonade!

day 5...{5}

Day 5: A picture of you as a baby

............and THAT'S a sip of Livi's Lemonade! :)

Here's just a little more :)

I was my mom's personal vacuum. As I crawled I would pick things up and hold it for her to come get it.

Popeye the sailor!!

Eating Clayton's mission call

Saying goodbye to Clayton at the MTC

Baby blessing

Me and all my siblings minus Todd

bottoms up! (my favorite position when I was little)

day four... {4}

Day 4 a photo of something you want to try but you are too scared to try it:

Well, I can't really think of anything that I'm "too scared to try". But I guess, I was really, really, scared to try out for "Little Women"... So here's a picture from our first rehearsal! :)

It felt SOOO good to be back! I can't even BEGIN to tell you! And we had so much fun! We found out that we actually have parts in the show, so that will be fun! We can't wait to actually start performing, even though we are just starting, and we hope you will all come and see the show in a few weeks! :)

.......................and THAT'S a sip of Livi's Lemonade!

BIG news!!

Okay, so I kinda lied... to ALL of you fellow readers,

and I'm SORRY!

But now I must tell you the truth. Because the truth is really, really, exciting!!

So on Tuesday, you may have noticed my blog post titled, "Auditions". I mentioned that no it did not mean I was trying out for a musical, nor did it mean I wasn't. Well.... I did. :)

Last week I had a friend inform me about auditions at the Scera for their upcoming production. After stewing over the pro's and con's about trying out, two hours before auditions I decided, I WOULD try out.

Some of you may have already put it together between that post, and my two facebook status' "Sometimes it's hard to breath" and "You never know until you try". Ha ha.

Well, this show only calls for 15 women and an even smaller cast of men. At auditions there were 83 girls that tried out. I felt really really really good about  my audition, it was the best I've sung in a very long time. But, lets say, my hopes were not very high. There were SO many talented girls, and after all, it was my first time auditioning for a show out of high school.

Anyway, Wednesday morning I received an email informing me that I had been selected to attend CALL BACKS! Woohoo!! Of course this meant I was even MORE nervous. Especially because I read in the email that they were dance auditions, and I HATE dance auditions. I never feel like I do good. When I got there that night, the choreographer was talking and then the most amazing words came out of his mouth. "For your audition tonight, I will be teaching you a little bit of the Viennese Waltz"

YES! YES! YES! YES! YES!!! Ha ha ha!

I was SOOOOO incredibly lucky! Lets just say I felt that I dominated at that audition. For some reason it was pretty hard for some people, but I did it with ease. I LOVE ballroom. And the fact that all the dancing in this show is ballroom made me want even MORE to be in this show.

(sorry, I had to have a rare bragging moment)

There were about 60ish girls that were there at call backs and as the dance auditions came to an end. They kept 18 girls and all the men to stay for the second call back. As the director talked to us I was fully excited to just go home, not get called back (again) and pray that I was cast in the ensemble. But as he read the 18th name, to my surprise, the name was MY name. I had been called back for the youngest/shortest lead ha ha. (Of course) For some reason I was really at peace. I listened to a saved voice mail from January, and I really felt calm. It was amazing! Everyone that was called back was walking around singing the song for the part they were trying out for over and over, and I just sat and talked with who ever's nerves weren't getting to them.

(One of which, come to find out after discussing we both had missionaries, was Jacob's partner in "The Music Man" at the Scera a many years ago... ha ha SMALL WORLD! :)

I did REALLY good when I auditioned once again, and as we did a cattle call, I noticed the director had memorized my name. (Good sign? yes.) I was really feelin' good. At the very end he told us we wouldn't hear from them until Friday night at the latest, and then we were on our way!

That night I realized, I wanted more than ANYTHING to be in this show. Not just to have a distraction to make time go faster. ;) ha ha. But because I wanted to meet new friends and just have the thrill of being in a show once again!

Well, yesterday while I was getting ready to go to a friend from schools house to watch a movie, I decided I would check my email. And to my surprise,

THE SHOW HAD BEEN CAST!!!

My heart started racing as my phone took--what felt like--5 minutes to open it!

And as I read the first part of the email, excitement plunged through me,

"Congratulations! You have been cast..."

WOOHOO!!!

That's all I could see while my phone took another 5 minutes to open the rest of the email.

FINALLY

a couple hours later, I found my little name on the ENSEMBLE list! :)

And I am SO SO SO EXCITED!!! :)

I have a feeling that this is going to be just what I needed, and that I am going to gain some really close relationships with this ensemble because after all... the show doesn't call for an ensemble. Which means... we are only in 5 out of 18 songs. Which means LOTS of down time back stage. Which means LOTS of friendships made.

YAY! :)

So I just realized I haven't even told you the show yet! I'll give you a couple clues.

1. I've been in this show before.

2. It is really near and dear to my heart. Like, VERY near and dear.

3. It makes me cry, regardless the situation (Yes, I'll have to wear waterproof make up backstage)

4. I got a role in this show that I was NOT expecting, which I grew to realize the character was exactly like me.

5. Have you guessed it yet??

6. It was the last show I was in.

7. It rhymes with Wittle Lomen....

And if you didn't catch it from that completely obvious last hint:

I have been cast in the Scera's production of

LITTLE WOMEN!!!! :)

So may my nights be full of dance and song for the next 9 weeks. :) Yes, we open in 6 1/2.

(Insert excited "eep!" here)

I can not even BEGIN to tell you how excited I am! It's running out from my toes to my ears! Wait... reverse that. Ha ha.

I have MISSED the theater so much. I've been out of it for a year, and seriously

I could not be more over joyed!

It runs from September 22-October 8. I would LOVE to see you there. This is a BEAUTIFUL show. And even though I don't have much stage time, I know you will love it and just maybe you will understand why this show is my favorite show.

Anyway, rehearsal starts tomorrow (as if I needed even ANOTHER exciting thing to put in my schedule this weekend. :) And I can't WAIT! :)

And ANOTHER bonus, my friend Heather made the show too! She was Meg and I was Marmee in high school, but now we will both be in the ensemble together. :) My favorite role. :) I'm SO HAPPY!

Anyway, I've blabbed on enough, I hope your weekend is full of love and excitement. For this little girl is so happy, I think she's died and gone to heaven. Because she's definitely on cloud nine right now. :)

.................... and THAT'S a very exciting sip of Livi's Lemonade!

day three... {3}

Day 3 upload a photo of

the weirdest thing you have ever eaten

Well I don't have an exact picture, but I do have a picture of me looking at Elaine's dish and just about to eat it. You see cruises are FAMOUS for their food. But when you go to dinner, and expect to see delicious dishes, sometimes you see some REALLY gross stuff. Elaine being the one that tried something weird every night (and then we would go up to the lido deck and eat fries and ice cream) decided she would order for her appetizer, this "different" dish.

What is it you Ask??

ESCARGOT!!

Yes. I've eaten snails.... :)

They weren't that bad, but I don't think I will ever eat them again... ha ha.

And just for your enjoyment, and a view into the Mabey's lives. When ever we go to dinner, we take pictures to keep ourselves entertained while we wait for our food. So here are some of the funny pictures we got from that night.

papa-san

miranda

LOVE dad's face.. ha ha

lainey

......................and THAT'S a sip of Livi's Lemonade! :)

Day two...{2}

Day Two, a photo of you and your best friend. :)

Okay.. well... this is a smidge obvious... ha ha. I'm not going to say much, because I already did, but if you wanna know the story... click HERE.

Jacob :)

But besides the obvious, I also have....

My mom and my sister :)

The Kochermaywagsblinsmellswainsens

 

Kristy and Cc

 

Michelle

And Rian :)

Lets just say I'm blessed with one too many great friends to choose :)

................ and THAT'S a sip of Livi's Lemonade! :)