Tuesday, February 28

Welcome to the unexpected week from heck.

ECEn 313 exam:
tomorrow - 10+ hours study. 3+ hour exam. 

History of Creativity exam: 
Wednesday to Wednesday - little study. 10+ hour exam. 

PDBio exam: 
Thursday to Monday - 4+ hours study. 1 hour exam. 

ECEn 320 Exam: 
Thursday and Friday - 8+ hours study. 3 hour exam. 

DanceSport - 
Thursday to Saturday - several hours of rehearsal. countless hours of competition. 
right
smack
in the middle. 


PLUS all other "little" labs and homework assignments to top it off. 


another week + end on campus. 
all day. 
every day. 
this is going to be so fun. 







I love my major. I love my major. I love my major.  I love my major. I love my major(s).

Monday, February 27

Friends

If there is one thing I have learned this semester, it would be the importance of friends. 
Friends come in many forms. 
Best friends. 
Girl friends. 
Boyfriends. 
Moms. 
Dads. 
Scriptures. 
Brothers. 
Sisters.
Jesus Christ. 
Heavenly Father. 
Patriarchal Blessing. 
The one thing they all have in common, 
unconditional faith in you. 
They support you. 
They trust your judgement. 
They believe in you.  
They know you. 
True friends will be there for you through the thick and thin, 
through good and bad. 
True friends love you. 

 I have the best friends. My mother and father, older brother and baby sisters; they are my rock.  My eldest brother, Jesus Christ, is my Savior. My Heavenly Father believes in me. My best friends and girlfriends support me, trust me, uplift me.  My boyfriend inspires me. The scriptures guide and enlighten me. My patriarchal blessing encourages me. 

My friends are what keep me going through the day.  They are what makes my life worth living. 
I will always love them and be there for them in return, to give them the attention they deserve.
My hope is I can be as good a friend to them as they have been to me. 

Wednesday, February 22

My future home.

I've been thinking about how I want to decorate my future home.  
In History of Creativity we have been studying Rococo and Neoclassical art and architecture. 
I think it's beautiful.  

What do you think?
Rococo

OR
Modern Neoclassical

OR 
Country Chic

OR 
perhaps my decor is determined by what country I live in....


5 points to anyone who guesses the location of the aforementioned picture.
Is it bad I am dreaming and hoping and wishing about graduate school already?



Saturday, February 18

I checked my phone for pictures to see if it was real.

Marathon dream. But it's pretty dang ridiculous. So you should read the whole thing. You will be glad you did.


I was in a big city, it was summer.
My mom, sisters and I were walking through the streets shopping
when I saw Kim Kardashian and her little boy Liam walking next to us.
Kim was wearing trouser dark denim jeans, heels, fitted tee, flowy sweater jacket, and sunglasses.
My mom started talking to the other Kim,
and they "bonded".
As we kept walking,
we came to our resort.
Turns out,
Kim and Liam were staying at the same resort.
Before we went inside,
my mom gave Kim a big hug and said,
"I'm so glad there are modest people like you in the world to be a role model"
I nearly busted up laughing.
The look on Kim's face was one of embarrassment for my mom.
My mom clearly did not know who Kim Kardashian was,
and I don't know if she even knew this Kim was famous.....

So we go inside, change, and head to the pool.
We see Kim and Liam playing at one end.
My mom waves.
Then we decide we are hungry,
so we go to the FOOD COURT
at our resort.
It's a giant 3-story building filled with every single fast food and Chinese restaurant in existence.
after a very long time trying to decide what to eat,
we order and they deliver it to our lounge chairs.
I don't even remember what I decided on....

As we are eating,
the huge waterfall at one end of the pool lights up and starts moving forward.
The lower tier of the waterfall turns into a water covered stage,
and from under the upper tier out walks Dolly Parton.
She starts performing this huge concert.
EVERYONE is dancing.
Including Dolly, who is up on the side of the pool kind of being naughty.
When Dolly finishes,
The lights change.
Next to the waterfall there appears an indoor surfing machine.
Out pops Justin Bieber.
Surfing.
On the side of the pool.
As he's performing,
(while surfing)
He keeps looking at me and winking.
The whole time I have to take pictures because I cannot get over what is happening around me.
But the whole Justin thing is creeping me out a bit.

The performance ends.
We head inside
AFTER saying goodbye to Kim and Liam.
Then head out.

We're now driving through a beautiful countryside.
We stop at an old ranch that has been transformed into a gorgeous, chic boutique, restaurant, and hangout.  After walking around, buying a few things,
eating a few things,
I notice one of the super awesome girls I went to BYU-Hawaii with.
Turns out she owns the place.
She designed all the clothing and trinkets in the boutique,
and is SUPER successful.
She was married and had a little blonde boy.
But the father is always away - either for business or military, I didn't ask -
so we didn't get to meet him.
My mom makes one of her classic moves,
and spills on her shirt.
So what does she do?
Walks into Catherine's closet and starts trying on shirts.
Not the boutique,
Catherine's CLOSET.
My jaw is hanging wide open, I'm in utter shock of what is going on.
After trying on nearly 2 dozen tops,
my mom decides on a Louis Vuitton cardigan and sweater tank number.
Her shoes somehow were ruined too,
so she grabs a pair of hunter green Prada flats from Catherine's closet.
As we head out to leave,
My mom says bye and thanks to Catherine.
I'm still without words.

Then we drive to our next resort.
In the hotel room -
solid white and crystal -
I decide to unpack and lay down.
I go to bring my toiletries into the bathroom,
and it looks like a temple baptismal font.
No joke.
It's exquisite and vaguely familiar.
Come to find out,
They are about to begin construction on a new LDS temple next door,
and are trying out a few new design ideas here in this resort
so they can be perfected before being implemented in the temple.

Then some other things happened,
I think I may have gotten on a Deer Valley ski lift at some point...
And there may have been a little Michael Buble too..
I just can't remember all of it.


It was crazy I tell you,
CRAZY.
Not going to lie - I almost checked my phone when I woke up this morning to see if those pictures of Kim Kardashian, Dolly Parton, and Justin Bieber were actually there.



Tuesday, February 14

Happy V. Day


Seeing as tomorrow is V. day, 
and I actually have a V. this year
I thought I'd share a funny/silly story. 

And a picture of this divine looking cake. 


Tonight, 
as I was about to leave campus, 
I began to feel sad because a certain boy didn't join me to study. 
It has to be getting close to my emotional time 
because I nearly started crying realizing how much I already missed him. 
I'd seen him all day. 
And we'd just parted ways for dinner a few hours prior. 
Nonetheless, 
I put my books in his locker
and headed home. 
When I got home, 
he called. 
And asked if I had left already. 
*Oh yeah*
He was just down the hall running some experiments. 
And I had completely forgotten. 
Here I was, 
upset
and upset at myself for feeling so upset, 
when he had been there the whole time
and I was the one who had left him. 

Silly, silly Ali.



What are you doing for V. day?
Are you celebrating with a certain someone, 
or 
EVEN BETTER
celebrating the wonderfulness of your awesome self?!
And your awesome friends and family :)

Monday, February 13

Saturday, February 11

My lonesome.

Sometimes.
I escape to work alone.
The times that I want to work in peace and quiet the most,
I am disturbed the most.

I need to find a new quiet spot.

Thursday, February 9

It's all worth it!

Calloused hands and feet,
blisters,
aching back..
And I love every minute of it!

This semester I decided to have a little bit of fun
so I signed up for 2 dance classes.
Modern and Latin Ballroom.

Last night,
we had a mock competition between the International Ballroom students.
I danced rumba.
Seeing as there are 2 more girls than guys in our class,
the shortest girls (aka ME) had to second partner.
I didn't mind because I paired with one of the better guys in the class.

As the competition went on,
couples were getting cut,
but Josh, Caitlin and I kept making it.
Exciting right!
Except soon there was only one heat,
which means Josh could only dance with one of us,
which means because I was partner #2 -
I had to find a new partner.

Thanks to our wonderful teacher Christina,
she hand picked another good guy from our class who had been cut.
New partner!
We danced semi-finals,
then were called on to the floor to dance in the final round (6 couples left!)

Guess who messed up BIG TIME in that final round?
me.

But apparently the judges didn't notice because my new partner and I won!

I love dance.
Can't wait for more :)

Don't critique this too bad - I'm a beginner

Monday, February 6

What've you been doing lately?

I've been fairly boring,
life consists of:

- Studying
- Sleeping
- Eating
- Studying
- Church
- and a little more studying....

The good news is,
though I spend 50-80 hours a week on campus
I don't mind so much.
I am very productive,
AND
I get to spend all that time with a boy I really like :)
I think we're more productive when we study together.
Crazy right?


*BREAKING NEWS*
I created a FB group.
"This is what engineering does to you"
It's quite entertaining.
You should check it out.


Also -
mi familia increible
was in town last weekend. 
It was such a fun visit.


updates of my oh so boring life shown in picture form below :)

Matt Costa @ BYU
 
 
 Dad Mom Mandy Me Samantha Grant
 My sisters are just the best
My parents and bf are pretty awesome too ;) 
Deer Valley
Driving back to P town
BYU BBall game v. Gonzaga 
It was a mustard yellow Sunday at church
Happy Birthday Rem! 
Don't I have the most GORGEOUS roommate ever?
I love you KP!