Tuesday, November 27, 2012

The Cliche Thanksgiving Post.

Although I am about being original, and doing your own thing, I do have to go along with the trend of these Thanksgiving blog posts. Because I do love writing things that I'm thankful for. Also, I haven't posted for a little while. So, although it's a little late, here you go.

I am thankful for:
(let's take this big long list and divide it into sub-categories, shall we?)

people (don't be offended if I forgot you. I can barely remember my own name these days)
my amazing, fantastic, wonderful, lovely mum.
the rest of my crazy family.
Melany.
Judy.
Harley.
Whitney.
the Man Band (nickname credit goes to Melany): Casey, Roman, Jenson and Mark.
Desiree.
Landry.
Kensley.
Becca.
Jessica.
Kaitlyn.
Keaton.
Carli.

and everyone else that my brain can't think of.

(I'm also thankful for Joseph Gorden-Levitt. Thank's for being so beautiful, you amazingly gorgeous man. Sorry. I have a slight celebrity crush on him)

I'm thankful for: Passion Pit, The White Stripes, Ed Sheeran, Regina Spektor, Coldplay, Noah and the Whale, Modest Mouse, Imagine Dragons, Two Door Cinema Club, M83, AWOLNATION, Ingrid Michaelson, Zooey Deschanel, The Temper Trap, The XX, and many many many more bands that are a part of my life.

I'm thankful for the challenges that I have in my life, because I learn from them and come out a better person.

I'm thankful for hugs.

I'm thankful for laughing my head off with my best friends, late night phone calls with them, and snapchat. I love snapchat.

I'm thankful for Disney, because it makes me such a better person and reminds me to believe in magic every day.

I'm thankful for Harry Potter, because it teaches me about friendship, trials, errors, and love. All tied together with magic.

I'm thankful for school. I'm lucky enough to be able to go for five days a week, and learn something every day.

I'm thankful for big sweaters and combat boots. My uniform. Also, I'm really thankful for the person who invented the sock bun. Whoever you are, I love you.

I'm thankful for whoever puts those hilarious photos on pinterest. And I'm thankful for pinterest.

I'm thankful for my beautiful town. I live in a little slice of heaven that was put on this earth.

I'm thankful for sunsets, and sunrises.

I'm thankful for my church and the gospel. I love my religion more than anything.

I'm thankful for cat videos on Youtube.

I'm thankful for mascara and my curling wand.

I'm thankful for comfy slippers and footie pajamas.

I'm thankful for my talents that I have, and for the talents of others around me.

I'm thankful for this blog, and for all my readers who take time out of their day to read about my life.

Now, we can turn on Christmas music and not feel guilty for cheating on Thanksgiving =)


now for your cheesy quote fix of the day:

Thankfulness


Thankful


thankful













Monday, November 12, 2012

The Emily Approach

Have you ever met anyone that is just all-around happy? Someone that always has a smile on their face and a compliment on their lips. Someone who can make the worst situation the best. I know a few.

I'm very lucky to have tons of amazing role models in my ward and neighborhood, but today I'm going to talk about a specific lady in my life.

You guessed it: Emily.

Emily is by far the happiest person I know. She's always bouncing around, beaming like a little kid on Christmas morning. And when you're around her, you can't help but be happy also. It's a domino effect.

You're probably thinking, "Yeah. She's happy. Big whoop." But seriously. She's not just happy, she's delighted. She's chipper. She is gleeful.

Here's an example:

Once, she was over at my house talking to my mom. My mom was telling her about the laundry room renovations she was planning on doing someday. After she was done describing her plans, Emily looked at her with a huge grin and said,

"I just love knocking down walls. And renovating. And picking out paint colors. I love getting messy! It's just so fun!"

Who loves knocking down stuff?! Emily does.

And I just love that whenever anyone is around her, they can't frown. She's too light and cheerful. And I absolutely love that. I love that she gets excited about anything, big or small. So I've hatched a plan.

I'm calling it, The Emily Approach.

In this particular plan (which I have already been doing for a day and will report on in a minute) I will be striving to be like Emily. I will try to be happy about everything, and take lessons away from everything. I will try to be clean in what I expose myself to. I am going to smile all day. I am going to be grateful for what I have and try not to ask for unnecessary things.

So I'd like to report day one:

I thought of this plan the night before, so I woke up feeling ready to be happy! This was on Saturday. I got out of my bed and came upstairs to find the world covered in a beautiful blanket of snow. I was already excited about that. I do love snow. And then my mom said we were going to the mall. To look for mattresses. Not so excited about this one, but I did want to get out of the house, so I got dressed and off we drove. I got carsick on the way there, but I did not throw up! I was happy about that! But my happiness was tested on the car ride, where I learned that when we go to Florida, we're probably not going to Disney World, because we can't afford it.

I'll admit. I shed a few tears. Disney is my complete life and that was the part that I was looking forward to the most. I felt bad for myself. And I knew this is where my plan was going to have to save me. So I quickly dried my eyes, and thought about how I was lucky to even go on a vacation. I can go to the beach, or swim in the pool and I still get to go to Harry Potter World. I had no room to complain. None at all. And I'm only fifteen, I still have plenty of time to go to Disney World. It'll all be okay.

The next time my happiness was tested was at Macy's. I saw this sweater. This beautiful sweater. But then I reminded myself that I wasn't going to ask for anything. Because I am grateful for what I have. So I took a deep breath, pulled my own sweater that I was wearing around me tighter, and walked away.

Soon, my mom and grandma were busy in their own little world of shopping, and I was determined not to ask for anything. Not one little thing. I have enough clothes, and I don't need anymore. But it got really hard with my mom and grandma showing me all these items, so I decided to walk around the mall by myself just for fun.

This part was hard too. I got a lot of weird looks. What teenage girl goes shopping by herself? A loser? A loner? Does she smell bad? The answer is no. So whenever I was met with a weird look, I returned it with a smile, which got me an even weirder look.

And after walking around for a while, I finally went home, exhausted from my day of being happy.

Stay tuned to see how this works out.


and just for kicks:

this is the best thing i've seen all day



hahahahahahaha!


word up home slice




Monday, November 5, 2012

write something.

let's give a hand to Pinterest for inspiring me to blog this weekend.

Just. Do. It.
found this and decided to write.



Here's the 411 (what the heck does that mean? 411? It makes no sense.) in English, we had to write about our names, how we got our names, what they mean to us, etc. And I was really proud of mine. But, I really really hate sharing my work in front of the class, because everyone else in there is like Shakespeare. Their words are so much more beautiful than mine, and I am so jealous of all of their writing abilities. Seriously. Whenever they share something, I just want to cry from the beauty of it all. Their words hold so much meaning and loveliness. It blows my mind. It's totally crazy how these sophomores can write such beautiful things. I gotta stop ranting about this, but I wish you could just read their pieces of writing. Then you'd understand.

So in class I basically feel like a cavewoman compared to Einstein. And that is why I never share anything in class. But I have been forcing myself too. I need to get over that uncomfortable-ness that I feel when I share what I write. It's not the actual sharing, it's the content.

Here's an example: I write, "I walked to the red door."

They write: "Completely breathless, I ran to the red door. The red reminded me of warmth, and love that I once had known, but was lost now."

So I refrained from sharing my name memoir to the class, although I was really really proud of it. So I'm sharing it here, where I'm not compared to anyone, where no one is forced to listen to me, and where I am completely comfortable and in my element. Here we go.


Emmari. It's a fancy name, meant for someone sophisticated. I, am not sophisticated. My name feels too big for me, like a a hand me down sweater.

My mom once told me that Emmari mean "wonderful." But to teachers, classmates and random people on the street, it means "name that I can't pronounce."

Emmie seems a little more comfortable, smaller shoes to fill. Emmie is my every day name, one that everyone knows me by. It's the name on the top of my assignments, on the roll call, or doodled all over my notebook.

I love my name. On the first day of school, I'm always the one the teachers remember.

I didn't always like my name. When I was little, I would beg my parents to change it. I would try to get them to call me a different name. Like Jules. Yes, out of any name I chose Jules. One night, I was crying because I  hated my name so much, and my mom came up with the nickname Mia. Emmari, Mia. It kinda made sense. But it lasted a whole two seconds before she called me Emmie again.

A lot of people call me something different. My little sister calls me Ommie. My old orthodontist called me Mari. (I still have no idea how she got that out of Emmie. Maybe EmMARI? I don't know)

I basically have three different names. On my learner's permit and other documents, I'm Emmeri. On my church records, and when I'm in trouble, I'm called Emmari (my mom decided to change the spelling of my name right after she wrote it on my birth certificate. Now I have to go through all these stupid steps to replace the e with an a. ugh). And my every day name is Emmie. The one that people know me by.

Maybe one day I'll become sophisticated and fill the big shoes of Emmari, but for now, Emmie is just fine.