Out of the rut.

I don't know what it has been but the last few months I have just been in a rut. Not a big one, like not even big enough for me to realize that I was in a rut. Just big enough for me to be able to get down on myself for little things and not really focus on making myself better. I don't know if it's the stress of getting a job or the quick change from professional student to professional job seeker but something was getting me down. I don't know, it could have been the weather. Whatever it was though it's gone. 

I'm finally motivated to do things again. I went to the gym twice this week. TWICE! I know big whoop but in the last 6 months I think I've gone to the gym like 4 or 5 times. Pathetic. So two times in one week is pretty awesome. I started a craft project that I have been meaning to do for probably a year now. I folded laundry from the last two loads we did. (at least we've had clean clothes) I'm starting to enjoy my internship more. I'm being more social with the wonderful people around me. I'm starting to make more friends. I'm starting to cook more, which I love. I have even been trying new recipes and adding heaven forbid vegetables (note cooking with and eating are not always the same thing).  Everything is kind of turning out pretty good. Nothing is perfect. I still haven't finished my craft project or put away all of the laundry. I still don't have a job and I'm still not super social. But I'm happier. I'm motivated. I feel good about myself and those around me. 

So I realize I just let you all know how much of a slob and lazy person I have been the last few months. Feel free to forget all of that. Especially the laundry part. But the point is that life is good. People go through hard times. Depression, anxiety, ruts. They are all real and they happen to everyone and more importantly they are different for everyone. My rut ended randomly, maybe due to some unseasonal sun, or socializing, or eating a bit healthier. But you or someone you know might have an entirely different situation. All I can say is that life is really good and it's worth fighting to make the best of it. I know it isn't easy for everyone, but I know that one day everything will actually be okay. It will never be perfect but it will be okay and it will be good. 

This kind of took a turn for the random but I just want to thank everyone who has been so supportive of me. Even if it is just a smile or words of advice or just being a wonderful person to be around it has made a difference in my life. So thank you. 

For more inspiring and well-put words on depression or anxiety check out this amazing talk that we should all probably listen to at least once a month. 

Spring Calling

I realize that pretty much the entire country has had a pretty awful winter. East coast got it pretty bad this week. There was that one "national hate Florida day" where the entire US was freezing while it was like 75 degrees in Florida. Yeah, my mom was there that week. Rude. But this winter for me at least was like 30 times better than last year. Not only has it been warmer and less snowy but my apartment isn't 50 degrees. Instead it's probably about 78 which is too hot but I'll survive. Regardless of how much better this winter is I'm still dying for spring. Spring is easily my favorite season. The sun/warmth, the flowers and new trees, and everyone is just happier. My green thumbs are starting to itch, which is strange because I have never really enjoyed gardening. 

Dan is in the same boat with me. We want a garden! Luckily for us we are moving into my grandparents house while they're on their mission and they have a beautiful back yard so we get to have a garden!!!! 

Every time we go over to their house (at least once a week) Dan and I start talking about how excited we are to live there and all the things we might be able to do with their garden. It's pretty awesome.

To tie us over until May we're just fiddling around with fake flowers and store bought bouquets. Also my Pinterest might get a little garden crazy. We don't even have enough windows to give a potted plant proper sunlight so that will have to do for now. My current obsession right now is our front door decoration that I made (with lots and lots of help) at our relief society craft night. Inspiration from here.

Attempts at Being a Domestic Goddess: Roasted Po.Tay.Toes.

Some of you know that I am an awful eater. My family here in Utah gets together most Sundays and I have a few key cousins that will always offer me vegetables or mashed potatoes as a joke, knowing I won't accept. Yes you heard my right, I don't like mashed potatoes. That's a weird one, I know. Don't ask.

Anyway one Sunday my Grandma Westover made these amazing roasted potatoes and just asked me to  try one. Anyway I looked at them and I was like I'll take an entire plate thank you. I like potatoes when they don't taste like dirt aka fried and crispy. Up until then the only way I was getting potatoes were from potato chips or fries. These roasted potatoes are amazing- they're basically fries but  healthier? Hopefully healthier. 

Here's what you do (recipe courtesy of Gma Westover)

1 potato per person

Olive oil

Garlic salt

Pepper

Cooking spray

Bowl

Knife

Glass casserole dish

Heat oven to 400 Degrees

Cut up potato into bit sized chunks (the smaller the crispier)

Put in bowl

Drizzle olive oil. You don't need a ton, just enough to cover the potato bits

Add garlic salt and pepper. It's hard to tell with the salt so don't over do it but you can see the pepper better.

Stir it up

SPRAY CASSEROLE DISH- I have forgotten to do this EVERY time I make these. It is awful. #firstworldproblems

Put in glass casserole dish. With fewer potatoes use a smaller dish if you have one 

Put in oven once heated to desired temperature

Leave in oven for 30 minutes. Check and stir. Put back in oven.

(If you have forgotten to spray your casserole dish you'll find out now. The potato will stick to the
bottom and it's just annoying. You can repent now and move the potatoes over to one side, spray, move them to the other side, spray, and then evenly redistribute before putting them back in the oven)

Check again in 15 minutes.

Check again in 15 minutes.

It takes a total of 1 hour to cook but if you want your potatoes a little less crispy don't feel like you have to use the full hour. Also, if you're using fewer potatoes (1-2) check it about 5 minutes early on the last 15 minutes. That's when they're about perfect.



























Enjoy!

Birchbox: It's like having a mini-birthday each month

So a few months back I saw an ad for Birchbox, this cute little company that offers monthly samples of cute little cosmetics or gadgets or food. I immediately looked into it because as a poor college grad I didn't/don't really have the budget to just go out and buy makeup or treat myself to cool little things. The sample boxes are $10 each and include about 5 samples of some pretty quality stuff personalized for your needs and desires. Honestly, it's a pretty great idea. So of course when my mom was asking what I wanted for Christmas I was like, "hey! there's this awesome thing called Brichbox you should check it out". So my mom got me a 6 month subscription (she got one for herself too because, why not?).

So now that it's February I have received 2 boxes and it is SO much fun. You just come home one day and you have a cute little box on your steps and you open it and there's all this cute little stuff like sample perfumes, mini-shampoos and conditioners, lipstick, nail polish, Chocolate. I kid you not my first box had a full Ghirardelli chocolate bar in it.

Another great thing about Birchbox is that after you get the samples you can go on their website and buy the full sized thing if you end up loving it (and can afford it). I seriously see no down-side to this service. They also have a Men's Birchbox with great shaving creams, colognes, man-cessories (hats, techy gadgets). They're $20/mo so a little more pricy but if your or a special guy in your life is into fancy creams and gizmos then it might be a good little gift.

I'll be doing some product reviews on the stuff I get in my Birchboxes for the next few months, but really you should probably just check it out for yourself!

*Birchbox did not sponsor this post but they're welcome to at any time ;) #freesamplesforlife?

Back to Happy and SUNSHINE!

Sorry about the last post guys, that was a bummer. Unfortunately I still don't have a job but I am working with another awesome start up and doing HR and some marketing for them too which is pretty cool. I guess I just have to get my experience the hard way. 

Anyway, one benefit of not having a job or school is I can pretty much take off whenever I want! Last year Dan and I went to Las Vegas with our dear friends Jake and Cassandra. (You can see the info from that trip in the archives) This year we decided to do the same thing (unfortunately Jake and Cassandra couldn't come with us this time :( ) and it was absolutely perfect! We left on Friday afternoon (Valentines Day- romantic I know) and got back last night (Monday- President's Day). 

Friday we had a delicious dinner courtesy of my Aunt and Uncle who also hate buying into Valentines Day gimmicks and just spent time with our crazy, cute cousins. We really enjoyed the food and the kids really enjoyed jumping all over us. The three youngest all especially like Dan and he was so wonderful and patient and *played with them (*read: took a beating). I married a pretty awesome guy. 

Saturday we did the most amazing hike followed by spending time with Dan's sister and got totally ripped off by Treasure Island that night. We had been planning on going to Cirque de Soleil's Mystere. We were supper lucky and were able to get 3 tickets for the show we wanted with all 3 seats together the day of the show for a too-good-to-believe price. Well we show up to Treasure Island and get our tickets from will call and there are only 2 tickets. So the person selling tickets to Mystere that night thought it would be a really good idea to lie to us and tell us we were getting 3 tickets and then only reserved 2 seats for us and charged us way more than we would have paid for 2 tickets normally. So we got a refund and peaced out of that place. I'm not sure if I'm more annoyed with the fact that they lied to us or with how stupid of a business decision it was to only reserve 2 seats for 3 people.  So instead of spending $120 we went and saw Robocop and got dinner, so I think we got the better end of that deal. Take that Treasure Island!

Sunday was such a relaxing day, we just spent time with cousins and played games and watched TV and ate more delicious food. 

Monday was also wonderful. Dan and I went out and met up with his sister, Emily, and went to the Hoover Dam (insert every dam joke here). I had never been and it was pretty neat. Very interesting art deco inspired architecture and mythological/astrological influences in their decor. Afterward we went to lunch and played with Emily's roommates dog for a bit before we sadly had to come back to Utah. 


It was such a wonderful weekend and we are so grateful to our amazing family members who made our trip so amazing! Love you!!

Life of an Unemployed College Grad

I graduated from college about a month and a half ago. Up until that point I had been a student for nearly 17 years of my life and then one day it just stopped. I took my last final exam and walked away. I didn't have a job, an internship, anything. I graduated unprepared to face the real world.

I still don't have a job but thank the heavens I have an internship so I don't just waste away. Do you know how awful it is to go from writing papers nearly every week to doing absolutely nothing? For the first two weeks I spent my days looking for jobs and because we didn't have a couch I looked for jobs on my bed. Dan would wake up and go to school and I'd wake up, force myself to shower and get dressed and then look for jobs. You guys, you can only look/apply for jobs for so long because there are only so many people looking to hire a recent graduate with a degree in Sociology trying to enter the world of Human Resources with little to no experience.

In the last month that I have been back in Utah and looking for a job I have had 2 interviews and I have another one next week (pray for me). One with Sprout-Kids where I now work as a Human Resources/Social Media Marketing Intern about 15 hours a week for no pay and one with an HR firm that didn't hire me. So, for the... 15-20 jobs I have applied to in the last 4 weeks only 3 people have contacted me. This is worse than dating!

I am so grateful for my internship and for the opportunities it has given me to expand and create new skills and develop more expertise in the fields that I am interested in. And even though they didn't hire me, I'm really grateful to the company that I had an interview with. I'm so grateful to the companies that give me the chance to become something great.  It feels good to know people think your skills are valuable and that they find you employable. It feels awful to be ignored by companies who only require a high school degree or equivalent but want 5 years of HR experience for their HR assistant position.

I know this is no fun to read but this is who I have been the last few weeks and I feel it has changed me a little. I wish I could go back 3 years and tell my college sophomore self to do things differently, but I can't. I do want to change how I act in the future though and I think this experience has helped me to kind of reevaluate myself and what/who I want to be. 

Ode to Hannah

My little sister Hannah turns 16 on Friday and I am entirely NOT okay with it. Hannah and I are about 7 years apart so I'm only really used to her being a child and 16 is officially no longer a child. Hannah will be dating and driving and who knows what else. So here, on this blog, are my thoughts on Hannah. 

We'll start from the beginning.

About 17.5 years ago I was an only child. I remember specifically all my friends had siblings and I was just lonely. I wanted someone to sit in the back seat of the car with and I wanted a friend. I wanted a sister/brother. I had been taught from a young(er) age that God heard my prayers and that they would be answered so I went into my room and knelt down and prayed for a little sister/brother. I didn't know until much later that my parents had been trying to have another baby and that my mom was having a hard time getting pregnant but about a year later my mom told me she was going to have a baby. I was so excited to have a little sister. I don't remember much about my mom's pregnancy but I remember when Hannah was born and going to my babysitter's house and watching Hercules and eating Mac & Cheese and then my dad came and picked me up to go see my new little sister. I remember holding her and I remember playing with her as a baby. I remember I got really mad at my parents because they told me I could help give her a bath and then they didn't come get me so I didn't get to help. I just wanted to spend all my time with her and take care of her. She wasn't their baby, she was my sister. 

Now this sounds like I was a wonderful big sister but about the time Hannah started voicing her opinion and acting for herself I stopped being a good big sister. I think it started when Hannah was beating my head against the floor with my ponytail- so about a year old I think... I don't remember that incident but I think we can blame that on Hannah. Hannah and I would butt heads (less literally) for the greater part of our childhood, not horribly, but we were never super close. It's hard to be close when you're 10 and 3 or 16 and 9. 

Hannah grew up spunky and fearless and full of energy. She would run in circles around our house and until you found her asleep on the floor. She would try anything and generally she would be great at it. She was smart and funny and could do pretty much anything she set her mind to. She is still that way, she's one of "those" people. Jerk. 

Hannah was just becoming fun when I moved to college. She was 11 and I was 18. By the time she was 13 she was much more fun and we started to get along really well. She was/is very grown up. We liked the same TV shows, music, movies. We finally had things to do together and talk about. It took about 12 years but we were finally friends. 

Today I consider Hannah one of my best friends and a wonderful role model. She has grown into a wonderful teenager. She is kind and a good friend. She is intelligent and funny and strives to do her best. She is everything I wanted to be in high school and what I want to be now. I am so lucky that my prayers were answered with my wonderful sister Hannah, I couldn't ask for a better little sister. Even though I hate that she's growing up, I'm really excited for Hannah and I to grow closer as she becomes more of an adult. I'm excited for her to start dating and I'm going to start saving money to make sure I can fly up to Washington to beat up any boys that break her heart. I'm excited for her to become more independent, if that's even possible, and for her to really grow into herself and become the amazing woman I know she will be. 

Hannah, I love you so much and even though I was a pretty crappy sister growing up I have always loved being your older sister. I wish you the happiest birthday and I wish I could be there to celebrate it with you. I hope only good things ever happen to you in life but know that I (and Dan) will be there for you no matter what happens. Love you and happy birthday from your favorite big sister!

Love you HanBanan!