N is for New York

Last Wednesday, I decided school would be over for me (even though it didn't officially end till this week). I needed to get out of Provo, so I convinced my mother to fly me out to New York to go to my dear friends beautiful wedding, make contacts and do interviews. I then emailed my teacher, Professor Kelly, asking him how mandatory the only mandatory class all year was. If you are a Comms major at BYU I highly suggest taking every class from him, he's great. Also Dr. Mouritson, but he's retiring. Here's a sample of what I did.

Thursday -- I travelled half the day, then went to my Aunt Cathy and Uncle Gary's apartment in Manhattan where I met up with them and my cousin Kelli, her daughter DeLaney, and two of their friends. DeLaney badly wanted to go on a carriage ride, so we walked to the carriages at Central Park and had a pleasant ride through the park. It is always interesting to see how people use Central Park as their back yard. It's as if they have no shame. For example, here is a man waving flags in the park last year. What the heck?

After the carriage ride I headed directly to Madison Ave to meet up with Ashley Burnett. We then went down to the Shake Shack to meet her friends for dinner, and were exasted when we got home, but stayed up to watch American Idol. Ashley fell in love with the Daughtry video, and we may have watched that 100 times this weekend. Love you Ash :)

Friday -- All my friends had to work, so in the morning I ran from Ashley's apartment to the park and down to my Aunts. Below is how far I ran, but it was in the park, not a straight line as shown.

I showered when I got to my Aunt's, then went shopping and to lunch with Kelli and DeLaney. Then we all took wonderful naps. DeLaney slept on the bed, but ended up sleeping on the couch with me, so everyone was on the couches and no one slept on the bed. After that we went to my favorite place for dinner, Patsey's (on 74th and Columbus -- check it out if you live in/visit NYC). They went to see The Little Mermaid and I went to spend time with Ashley.

Saturday -- A WONDERFUL day! Amanda Johnson married Matthew Dalton in the Manhattan Temple in the morning and had a beautiful reception at Battery Park Gardens in the afternoon. It was a great time with good friends. Sad story from the day--I had two really cute pairs of earrings that really helped to pull my outfit together, and I put one in each ear to ask Ashley which one I should wear. It wasn't till I was on the subway half way to Battery Park that I realized I still had one in each ear. I then debated which was more embarrassing, going to a wedding with clearly mismatching earrings or going naked (without earrings). After much deliberation, I went naked.

This is me with Amanda. see-no earrings :(

Amanda had beautiful fake crystal decor at all the tables. Unfortunately, later we found out these had lead in them! But, good news, we are all still alive and kickin it! Below are examples of some of the fun easily entertained girls had at the wedding:

Crystals. Everywhere.

Fun at the air vent.

Sarah's Great.

The Drunk The Stoner

The Beautiful Bride Amanda

Bottoms Up The Delicious Cake

After the wedding, I met up with Bridget (who just got back last week from playing professional volleyball in Spain) and we went to Whole Foods and chilled in Central Park. The pic below was taken at One Central Park West, but sorry the pic is bad and you can't see the amazing view of the Park and the East Side. I miss my Bee! What happened to Florida for grad school 08?

Bee left the city around 8 and I spent the rest of the night with my old roomie Natalie. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pics.

Sunday -- Ashley and I went to church and then to Cathy and Gary's to break in the dining room table. We made delicious salmon, red potatoes with rosemary, and green beans. It was so good, I'm thinking about making it again this week. That night, I just hung out with Ash and Kimmy, and then their friend came over and we had pazookie. And man, I'm dang good at making pazookie.

Monday -- I job shadowed my friend Jane at Mindshare for a couple hours to see a media planner in action. Then I met my friend Kenton for lunch at Union Square, where I went shopping for a little bit. Then I met Ashley to go see Rent. It was amazing. I love the soundtrack! I'm actually even listening to it right now... The only thing that sucked was my allergies started to get bad and my eyes were itching? and we tried to take a picture and I looked nasty, then we took another one but my eyes were closed, and then we took the one below but I look goofy. So I gave up. Some days are just bad picture days. Aren't Ashley's eyes such a beautiful peircing blue? I'm jealous.

Ashley and I at Rent in New York

Tuesday -- Hung out with Cathy, lunch with Ashley, went home.

Well, that was a little sum up of my trip to New York. I'm so excited -- I leave for Jerusalem in ten days!!!

H is for Homely

Last week, my mother told me that homely people need to get married too.

Thanks Mom.


Below is the definition of homely provided by urbandictionary.com


Homely:
(Adj.)

Not attractive or good-looking: a homely child.
Lacking elegance or refinement: homely furniture.
Of a simple or unpretentious nature; plain: homely truths.
Characteristic of the home or of home life: homely skills.

Examples:
That is one homely child.
Your trailer is homely!
You are kinda homely aren't you?
You are one homely dresser!

elle is for lemons

If life gives you lemons, make lemonade!

As you can imagine, this week life dealt me lemons. Literally. My roommate went to CA and brought back lemons from a lemon tree in her yard.

So what do you do when you get lemons? That's right, make lemonade.

16 lemons + 2 girls + homemade simple syrup = delicious lemonade

Whit found the recipe online recipe and mixed the "simple syrup" to perfection.

I squeezed the lemons. Not as easy as it looks.

Proof it's from Whit's yard--it still has its umbilical cord attached!

After hard work, twenty minutes and starting from scratch, we finally achieved our glorious lemonade. Boy were we happy! It's delicious, if you live in the Provo area, you should come get a glass of our hand squeezed ice cold lemonade. Maybe we'll set up a booth or something.

This is Whit and I excited about our lemonade!

Prior to making the lemonade (which happened around midnight), Whit and I decided to work out. We decided to do Boot Camp--a DVD Whit bought at the grocery store last week. And man that was a work out. We were both glistening by the end of the workout and simultaneously decided that we would probably be sore tomorrow.

Not going to lie, this is not the original picture we took. The original consists of us holding this with frightened faces...

Love Lauren