an eclipse

first of all, sorry i suck at blogging.

second of all... eclipse may or may not have been the best movie i've seen all year. still debating. all i know is that it was amazing! leah, kami, kristine and i bought our tickets like two months ago and ever since then we have been anxiously awaiting june 30th! haha it was great. our showing was at 12:05. we had our traditional dinner at BJ's and then headed over to the red rock for our movie.

kristine and kami made us all matching t-shirts! we felt awesome in them.

kami and leah in our sweet shirts. they have jacob and edward on them... even though it really should just have edward...

kristine and me all giddy before the movie started. hahaha.

it was an intense movie! i am excited for the next one.

fun fact: i peed my pants a little bit for the first time in who knows how long! i drank a huge dr. pepper before the movie and about halfway through i had to pee so bad. it hurt. i kept telling myself i could make it one more hour because i didnt want to miss any part of the movie... but i hit the limit and either had to choose peeing on the floor or in a toilet. luckily for the fellow twilight fans around me, i picked the toilet.

twilight is so fun... one of these days i will reread the books.

and to all you haters out there: bite me.

beautiful day.

today was the day i have been imagining in my head for the past six months. at school, when i wanted to drop out and burn all of my books, i instead pictured days like this and they made me hopeful.

i LOVE summer!

i woke up today, changed from my pj's into my swimsuit, and headed over to leah's house. we picked up cafe rio. i had a free meal. cafe rio got new sphere-shaped ice. the salad was perfect. we got it to-go and then set up our tanning area and ate and talked and tanned!

i love living in las vegas and being able to count on the sun shining every day. even though all it takes to lay out is a swim suit and the sun, i feel completely relaxed and content haha. like my own perfect little world.

photo courtesy of zoe jane. haha. zoe is the cutest little thing. we hung out with her for a little bit...

THEN, i came home to my lovely family. my family is the greatest. we went to farm basket for dinner-which was amazing as usual- and i got to say hi to my three favorite workers there! and we are watching AFTON for a couple 0f days. she let me carry her into farm basket... it was kind of a big deal. she doesnt let anyone hold her besides her mom or my mom. but i got her out of her car seat and walked her in. very exciting moment in my life.

she would be so much cuter if she was nice. but even when she screams and cries, i still like holding her. i love her.

then the cherry on top of today was my grandparents came into town! they are so cute. i like having them around :) they're always keeping us laughing.

i loved today!

t-boy

(i cant sleep. heres whats on my mind...)

i LOVE tanner.

he is the funniest little boy i've ever met.

he makes me laugh so hard sometimes that i cry.

he is forever talking, singing, telling stories, or cracking jokes.

i missed tanner a lot while i was at school! luckily we had skype and phone conversations weekly. his skype chats always made my day. whether he's telling me about a "hot chick in second period" or showing me new origami creations, he's always got me laughing.

here are a few favorite memories:

1. when tanner found out what a tampon was, he literally passed out. i dont think i will ever forget that day haha... cant wait to tell his future girlfriends!! :)

2. this is a family favorite. one night my family was talking about something ironic, and tanner asked what "irony" meant. my dad explained that irony is like when mitchell is absent on the day that he gets a perfect attendance award in seminary. tanners response was "they made up a word for THAT?" hahaha.

3. lately tanner has been singing every night. the past two weeks have been "what do you want from me" in a deep opera voice. i snagged a video of it on my phone.

i really hope you can hear it haha! sorry its sideways.

4. tanner has gained quite a bit of weight in the past year. he loves to show off his new belly haha. i remember one night my mom was sitting at the computer and tanner would go right up behind her and lift his shirt up and dance and then when she turned around he would quickly put it down and act normal. this went on for at least five minutes!

5. i dont even know how many times he's made me spit water out at the dinner table. its like his never-ending goal. i take a sip and the challenge is on!

6. one thing i will never forget about tanner is "the butterfly moment"... he was playing a game with my aunt. she would name an animal and he would act it out. she said a butterfly, and tanner jumped up in the air and flapped his wings. not quite sure what he was thinking, but he kept flapping until his forehead SMACKED the ceramic tile in the front entry way. he had a huge goose-egg for weeks. there's still a little mark if you look close.

he's a funny kid. i love him!!

lakes cleaners

i dont think i've ever fully expressed to anyone how much i love my job.

come august i will hit my two year mark of working at lakes dry cleaners!

yes, i know i complain about working a lot. ever since i moved home i've been working 40+ hours a week. and there are definitely bad days and whiney customers. but truth be told, i adore this place.

reasons why:

1. carol

i IDOLIZE my sweet manager. i wish i had a picture of her, she is the cutest thing ever. carol is one of the most amazing ladies i've ever met. she wakes up at 3:00 a.m., just so she can get to the shop by 4 and have a head start on cleaning... even though we don't open until 6! she is the definition of charity. while our prices may be a little high ;) carol is so giving. two weeks ago, a rival cleaners had some machines break down. without thinking, carol called them up and invited them to share our machines and pressers while theirs are being fixed. cool, huh? another thing about carol: she is a charmer. you think i'm a brown-noser? she is incredible. a customer will yell at me about something, i will try so hard to make them happy yet it rarely works. without fail, every time i ask carol to help me with customers, they leave the store smiling. i dont know how she does it... but i'm hoping it will rub off on me eventually.

2. the people

there is a special bond between middle-aged women and their dry cleaners. not sure why, but each and every one of them feels a need to sit and chat- which i love! they'll tell me of recent trips, family issues, anything! every article of clothing has a spot or a stain that tells a story. i, the privileged counter girl, am the recipient of all of these stories. some are hilarious! some are disgusting. but it is so fun to get to know all of the customers on a first name basis. they ask about BYU, i ask about their kids. its awesome. we've had customers bring us treats, make us CDs, give us sports tickets, discounts at their workplace... the list could go on and on. we make awesome tips from certain people because they love us so much haha. last week, my coworker dani and i split a $50! we've gotten so close with a few that we are facebook friends. i love people and i love talking to people! i guess this is the perfect job for me :) some customers stay and chat for over 10 minutes. some tell us jokes. its just fun.

3. the clothes

i get to be entertained by people's clothing. we've had just about everything imaginable brought into the cleaners. whether its a polar bear or taco costume, disgusting lingerie, or this weeks model the BANANA... we have a blast joking around with them!

i pull it off nicely, right? its fun trying on things (dont worry it doesnt happen a lot....) and seeing everyone's different tastes in clothing. i'm always awestruck when people bring in new clothes and i look at the price tags. definitely some big spenders coming to the lakes cleaners. most memorable is a hideous navy plaid blazer... price tag still on it: $2,300. BARF. pretty sure i could put that to better use than a stupid blazer. that's almost a semester of college. it makes me sick.

haha anyway, i love my job.

its been fun being home and seeing all of my regular customers again :) we missed each other.

makes me want to drop out of college and work here forever.

-ashley

gram b

this is gram b.

she has about 20 other names... helen, constance, connie, grandma barnes, etc. sometimes i forget which one is the real deal.

a few weeks ago, gram b got diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. saying it is scary is an understatement. pancreatic cancer is when a tumor grows in the pancreas (go figure), and in most cases by the time the tumor is found it is already huge. the person doesnt know its there until its bad. she is already in stage 4 of cancer... not a good sign. but let me tell you something- this woman is more cheerful than anyone i know!

this past week before i came home from college, my family made a detour to idaho falls to visit gram b. i'll admit i was a little scared to see her... but the trip was great. i feel like i got to know her so much better in the past few days. my respect for her has skyrocketed.

one day, while my mom and dad were running errands, tanner and i took the video camera and sat down on the couch with gram b to interview her. it was amazing. i cant even think of the right words to describe. it was fun and interesting and i was on the edge of my seat the whole time! we asked such a huge range of questions. from "whats your favorite color" to "how did you meet grandpa" to "did you go to prom in high school"

awesome experience.

by the end, all three of us were bawling (me tanner and gram). she is so cool. we asked her what she thought when she found out she had cancer... and she straight up bore her testimony to tanner and me and said that she had been so blessed in her life so far, and if this is what God wanted her to go through next then she would. she has the best attitude anyone could possibly have in her situation. i tried to put myself in her shoes and i couldnt. i dont know what i would be thinking? i'd probably be mad at the whole world.

but she is so happy. she is hopeful. she's my hero.

DISTRACTIONS

i am quickly writing this blog post for the mere reason that after this is published, i will have literally NOTHING to do besides study. (or sleep. both of which are beneficial to me in my current situation)

in the past few hours i have washed my face, used my neti pot, made my bed, organized my shoes, wrote in my journal, had a friend change my facebook password, ate, brushed my teeth, changed my clothes, taken out the trash, organized things in my room, and after that i even moved every object on my desk onto my bed (see photo) so i would sit here and only focus on physical science and nothing else.

of course i kept my computer next to me so i could play my "study time" playlist that includes instrumentals and piano jams. i've reread five chapters in my physical science book in preparation for my final exam tomorrow.... and i'm about ready to start drawing on myself i am so bored. i hate science. it makes my brain hurt. i would rather write a 50 page paper about something interesting than read 50 pages (thats my current standing in the book) about tiny little particles and stupid laws that i dont know how to define and how specific forces work.

so this is my remedy. taking stupid pictures of my book and me. there are other funny ones but considering i have family who read this, those pictures will remain hidden. i can't believe i only have three more days left here. everyone is saying its so "bittersweet".... but in all honesty i am only seeing the sweet right now. i cant wait for the sun and my bed and my family. i miss so much about vegas. i've wanted to start packing so bad but i am forcing myself to wait until monday. i could have been done two weeks ago, i've been so excited to leave. but i keep telling myself that after i finish all of my finals, i can reward myself by throwing all of my possessions into boxes and hitting the road. PEACE OUT P-TOWN.

ash

sum up my life

i've realized this week that anytime i am doing anything, it includes or revolves around one of the following:

1. physical science portfolio

every wednesday i have a physical science lab for two hours. we do six experiments each class. i had to type up every single experiment we've done this semester along with the procedure, results, questions and answers, AND come up with two experiments i could do in a class room that demonstrate the same objective for each experiment. all in a certain format. THEN i had to do a lot of research and come up with 45 completely different experiments that demonstrate the principles we have learned about this semester. type them all up. make them a certain format. arrange them by subject. make table of contents. make another table of contents. works cited page in correct mla format. it's been a real stressor. but today at approximately 2:50, i took it to the wilkinson center and got it bound. my work is done.

BEHOLD:

countless hours, hard work, and dedication. right here in these 150+ pages.

2. this hoodie

make fun of me all you want... i dont care! eddy gave me this hoodie before he left and i wear it constantly. it smells SO good. it makes me happy :)

why are guy hoodies so much more comfortable than girl hoodies? not cool. the day it stops smelling like eddy i will probably punch someone.

3. bieber fever

uh-oh.... it's hit me. i never thought this day would come. for some weird reason, i am in love with justin bieber right now. yeah, i know he's 14. and i still like to make fun of him. but i've had his songs stuck in my head for about 5 days straight. whether i'm listening to him while doing homework, at the gym, or humming in the shower... i love it! this is my favorite at the moment... i love this video haha. so nerdy. the best part is at 1:32 ish... oh jeeze.

4. life savers

i've probably bought 10 little rolls this week. i'm obsessed. they are so nice to suck on in class.... haha and they make me not hungry all the time. little dietary tip. not like they're good for you or anything. but i suppose its better than eating a real meal every hour.

ANYWAY. these are important aspects of my life right now.

last day of school is the 13th... then i'm taking my finals and packing up!

i can't wait to be home again :)

i miss the sun, my job, my mom, afton, swimming, friends, farm basket....

what could be better than vegas?

-ashley