Monday, February 24, 2014

my friends are the absolute best.

Kelsey and Sam both know me so well! {AKA they both know my addiction to mugs, hot chocolate, Target, and the idea of London}.

I woke up this morning with a message saying I had a package... and this is what it was:

{Sam is the sweetest} 

And the other day, Kelsey sent this ADORABLE mug to me! I've been wanting this mug for months, ever since I saw it at target last fall, and she knew that so she decided to help a poor college girl out and buy it for me! She is the most amazing ever. {on another note, the other mug in the picture was also made by Kelsey... talent}


Sometimes I'm amazed by how lucky I am to have such wonderful best friends (: I miss them both so much! Colorado is too far away.

Thank you girls! These made my day soo much better!

-Erica

Saturday, February 22, 2014

194 days.

I'm just a little excited, in case you were wondering. This week I start my London IAS class... aka I meet the people that I'll be spending almost 4 months with this fall! I can't help but be really excited about it...


Well... maybe I should go do homework now, since it is almost one and I have yet to do anything productive. Have a great weekend!

-Erica

Thursday, February 20, 2014

advice from my best friend and a random blog.

last night, as I was taking a break from homework, I decided to go read Sam's blog. She had a post of 50 little tid-bits of advice that I highly suggest looking at... it's right here.

My top favorites from her advice would have to be:

     4. Don't compare your boyfriend to Gilbert Blythe. It's not fair to your boyfriend or you.
     9. Don't lose yourself trying to love someone else.
     17. It's more important to support things you believe in then it is to hate things you disagree with.
     22. It's ok to go to movies by yourself.
     23. Don't use people and love things, love people and use things.
     26. If you want to be happily married, marry a happy person.
     30. There's no heartache Mr. Darcy and a giant bowl of ice cream can't help.
     31. Stop saying 'I Wish' and start saying 'I Will'
     35. We're all the people we chose to be.
     42. Hot showers make all bad things seem a lot less bad.
     49. Prince Charming isn't a fairy tale, he's a myth.
     50. Stop seeking out the storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight.


Also, a friend on facebook shared this blog post with some good advice {specifically, I'm a huge fan of advice #1 and #6} Seriously, if you ever need some therapy, just go read some lifestyle blogs and do some Pinterest quote searching. You will feel better, guaranteed.

And now I'll leave you with my favorite quote of the moment {thank you Pinterest!}:

{this quote is from her book "small and simple things". It's a great book, folks.}

-Erica

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

meet Emily!

Danielle and Jayson had sweet little Emily on Monday. She is the most precious baby ever! I got to go and see her yesterday and I have never seen anything as amazing as a sleeping newborn baby. Plus, seeing Evan and Caitlin with her was absolutely adorable. So, meet my newest niece Emily!


Isn't she beautiful??

-Erica

Sunday, February 16, 2014

sometimes we stay up all night.

allnighter. {check}. yeah... Cady and I didn't end up going to sleep until 9 a.m. Believe me, we really didn't mean to stay up all night. it all started after we got home from watching Walter Mitty at the dollar theater and going to Crepes... Kayla, Cady, and I decided to make a megabed {push our two twin beds together} and have a sleepover. *This started at about 1 a.m., please note.* We then ended up taking about a million pictures {give or take a few} because we are teenage girls and that's what we do, because we're cool like that.

{the following pictures basically show our friendship, so I had to include all of them.}







I love these girls! When I got to college, I honestly didn't know that I would meet and become friends with such awesome people.

Well, after our giant photo session we ended up just sitting around talking {because it was a sleepover, after all} The three of us could probably talk for a week straight.

Then came about 4 a.m.... we decided we weren't tired at all, at which point we went to Del Taco. I highly suggest doing this, guys. On the way home from there, we decided to take a sunrise hike! {we only had about an hour before we'd have to leave anyways!} We were originally planning on waking up and hiking Saturday afternoon, but that'd be LAMEEEE compared to a sunrise hike!

We got back to the dorms and looked up hikes. The one we planned on going to was closed, so we stuck with hiking the Y. Kayla ended up falling asleep but Cady and I were still pretty wide awake!

here, have a picture of us after hiking to the top and not sleeping for 24 hours straight
I absolutely love hiking, especially when you get to watch the sun rise at the top. It was so peaceful and quiet! I'm pretty sure that sunrise hikes are good for a person's health.

We went to breakfast at the cannon after that, then finally got to go to sleep! {Which, we still didn't get very much sleep because by then it was the middle of the day.} So... not much sleep, but sooo worth it!

Hope you all had a great weekend (:


Erica Michelle

Saturday, February 15, 2014

piano concerts//chocolate fountains.

In case you didn't know, yesterday was Valentine's Day. {big surprise, huh?} That meant that everywhere you looked here at BYU, you would be reminded of this lovely holiday. To celebrate, I spent the week...

at the "Cannon Center After Hours" {free chocolate, guys. you can't turn that down.}


taking myself to a concert {yes, I seriously took myself on a date.} Quote of the day: "You must be your own before you can be another's." I'm takin' it serious. I was the best date ever, if I do say so myself... I went to see the BYU Philharmonic featuring Marc-Andre Hamelin. If you haven't heard of him, you are really really missing out. He was the most talented musician I have ever seen in concert. It was such a phenomenal concert!



Then I got this wonderful little package in the mail from my mom! If you didn't celebrate Valentine's Day with your mom's homemade sugar cookies, I feel quite sad for you.


Then last night was spent going to the dollar theater, crepes, Del Taco at 4 am, a sunrise hike, and FINALLY going to sleep at 9 am. That is a great story to be told, but I'll save it for the next post. Instead, I'll leave you with this picture that I find absolutely hilarious.



Sincerely,
Erica Michelle

Saturday, February 8, 2014

I survived!

Good news! I made it through this week. It took a lot of studying and homework and diet coke and one melt down, but I made it, so that's good, right?


^^This is what my week looked like in a nutshell^^

I had midterms this week. lots of 'em. and papers. and yeah. It was pretty fun, I'd say. This week beat my finals week last semester. What will happen when I'm in a bunch of upper level classes? I'm scared.

my last little rant: I liked multiple choice tests until there were a bunch of questions on my econ midterm that were answers A-H. yes, as in a, b, c, d, e, f, g, and h were all options for the answer. all I ask for is good grades. why.

On to a happier subject... My ward is playing assassin. Just in case you're wondering what the heck I'm talking about, it goes something like this:

Get a partner. Randomly get assigned a partnership that you and your partner are supposed to hunt down and "kill" {aka... mark them with a highlighter/marker before they get you}. Once you get that team, you have to get whoever they were hunting. And it keeps going. on and on. All the while, you're being hunted by a partnership and you have no clue who they are. There are only a couple safe zones: the dining hall and classes during class time and Sunday's.

Basically, playing this game means you are paranoid. all the time. The first day I literally walked around campus with my highlighter at the ready... just in case anyone came running at me.  I mean, I'm sure everyone thought the 64 freshmen walking around with markers and looking paranoid was pretty entertaining. Wellll... long story short, if you ever play this game, be partners with Kayla. She's pulling us through, thanks to an epic hunt down of our first partnership {which, by the way, were Cady and Hunter. I still say the drawing was rigged, Harrison!}!

You can see some quality pictures of Assassin day one right here!


In other news, I'm here {once again} to force my strange taste of music on you! Yep, you're welcome. Thanks to Pandora, I found this wonderful British band:


Also, I'm currently in love with this:



Well... after this long week I'm finally off to bed! ...hoping that I won't wake up a hundred times during the night because of dreams about failing my tests {yeah, that's actually what has been happening the last couple days}

Sincerely,
Erica Michelle

Saturday, February 1, 2014

intramural champs+some awesome dates//other stuff.

First things first, guess who won our division of BYU intramural mixed doubles tennis? Dylan and I. Yes, yes, we're proud too (:


Secondly, I went on an AWESOME & CREATIVE date last Saturday?? Yep... Hunter and I used {in my case, nonexistent} artistic skills on a Jackson Pollock inspired painting date. {Hunter, however, is a fantastic artist... unfair.} I highly suggest this, folks. It was seriously great fun!


I know you wish that your phone camera was as high-quality as mine (;


Then a group of us went to the men's volleyball game. After that I went Disco Roller Blading! {I mean, I literally cannot roller blade to save my life... the poor guy I went with... but still a great night!}



Here. Have a picture of Cady and I laying on Kayla's bed, being lonely because Kayla has a job and whatnot {so does Cady... I am the outlier here....}. So she wasn't hanging out with us. Tuesdays and Thursdays are rough with her at work. Lame.



Here. Have another high-quality photo of Cady, Hunter, and I at Roll Up Cafe {aka the best crepe place in the world}. Sometimes you hit a limit on the amount of homework you can do... which is where 11 p.m. crepe runs come in handy.


Oh wait, now you get to see the adorable picture of Caitlin and Evan that Danielle sent me. My nephew and niece should get the award for being the cutest Bronco's fans (:


This is the truth of life, Cady and I decided. Last semester we went the "Social Life" and "Good Grades" route. This semester we're going the "Good Grades" and "Sleep" route. D's get degrees... but unfortunately they don't get you BYU scholarships. {poor college student problems}. Plus... I'm pretty sure 95% of my nightmares revolve around failing tests. A's are a lot harder to come by than they were in high school. So, yeah, that's fun. I guess doing well in school kinda makes a person feel better too (:


Sam sent me an application I'm supposed to fill out after going on more than 2 dates with someone because she's so far away. My best friend is  h i l a r i o u s  folks.

Once again... I just really enjoy music so here's the soundtrack of the day:



And of course- the pin of the day:


Sometimes we get caught up in trying to be the person that other people want us to be. Even when those other people want what's best for us, that doesn't mean they they know us. They don't know all of our goals or our thoughts or our wishes. Ultimately, only you and Heavenly Father know who you truly are. And that, my friends, is why I think that being true to who you are is possibly the most important thing you can do. {did that sentence make sense?}

Here's to a great weekend! {one full of studying for my 4 midterms and 2 papers that all fall next week. oh yay.}

Sincerely,
Erica Michelle

excuses and a giveaway.

Hello everyone! Guess what? Blogging has taken a back-burner to other things such as studying for a million hours a day. {exaggeration}. But nonetheless... I'm here with a surprise. I'm taking part in my first ever blogging giveaway! Hosted by Mindy! The prize? Ad space on all of these beautiful blogs!

On another note, I will be blogging all about intramurals, dates, and other festivities as soon as possible {aka... tomorrow hopefully}. Have a great day and enter the giveaway! (:

Sincerely,
Erica Michelle