Weekend Wonders: Three.

SOAR is over. No more small groups, sub sandwiches, or shuttle duty...at least until next summer. Up next? Connections. But first: bridal showers, hair appointments, weddings, job interviews, and vacations. Summer is winding down...but I'm so ready for school to start I can barely handle it. 

A few other things I'm excited about? This weekend's wonders. 

 I want every single one of these pillows.  My bedroom this fall is going to be grey and white...and blasts of color like this. 

I'm making this salad soon. Avocados are easily my favorite food on the planet, and this just looks divine. 

 You'd think having a mom that owns a cake business would make me hate cake...but you'd be surprised how much I absolutely love frosting. Combine cookie dough and frosting, and you have the ultimate girl comfort food. 

 This wall art craft looks like a blast and a half.  I love quotes, and I could easily make a thousand of these for my new room. 

Anyone who knows me even remotely well, knows that I love hairdye. That said, I haven't dyed my hair for almost three months. I have a hair appointment on Tuesday, and I'm STOKED. My cousins have raved about this girl for forever, and I finally caved and scheduled an appointment. I'm loving this hair color; perfectly faded, blonde enough for summer, but keeps the dark I love. Does anybody have any other suggestions for this girl's crazy mane? 

With SOAR over, I only have one job to worry about this week..and maybe even a Bear Lake trip this weekend to plan. Also, a job interview on Tuesday! We'll see how that goes...and then I get to recover from that with hours of pampering my hair. Life is looking real good this week. 

We're in the class A-Team.

When I saw my name on the list of members of the 2013 A-Team, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Of the 42 people, I knew a grand total of one person. I was one of three freshmen, and was so intimidated by some of the people I didn't even know what to do with myself. 

As a freshman, I was sure I was in over my head and was going to suck at advising and helping all the incoming students. I had no idea 

what I was doing....or how awesome this job would be. A-Team isn't a normal summer job. It takes a special kind of passion--or insanity--to work with stressed and frustrated parents for 10 hours a day, eat the same sub sandwiches for a portion of your summer, and let a bunch of incoming students know your most embarrassing moments of college so far. Very few jobs require you to prepare a two hour presentation on dating for 200 students, wear a Walmart-esque uniform day in and day out, or scoop gallons of ice cream every afternoon. Nowhere else could you get some of these people to dance to Sara Bareilles on stage, find so many professional Candy Crush players, or hear the variety of ice breakers we've come up with. No one else understands the true meaning of stub rub, how good it feels to come back to a residence hall where all the students are asleep hours before you thought they would be, or realize how serious we are when we say we never want to eat a chicken caesar salad wrap again. While the early mornings, long days, and angry parents made me question my sanity at points...the  ridiculously late nights, burrito runs, and dance parties made up for the craziness. We're all very different people; we have different likes and dislikes, different passions and fears. We're from different backgrounds, cities, and states. We all want to do different things with our lives, and go in different directions. Despite our differences, we work. We love Logan, we love that we can call ourselves Aggies, and we love Utah State. I don't know how many of you can honestly say you love your job, but I can. It's as rewarding as it is exhausting, and as tiring as it is exciting. We've finished our semester of training, and SOAR wrapped up today. In the last seven months, these 42 coworkers of mine have changed how I feel about school, broken me out of my comfort zone more times than I can count, made me love USU more than I already did, and become some of my very best friends--and I'm so glad I get to work with this bunch of crazies every day. 

19 years young.

Maria from Sewn by Maria nominated me for a Liebster award! I've seen these around the blogs I follow, and never would have guessed I'd get one. Probably one of the coolest birthday surprises I've had today! 

Here's what the Liebster Award is:

The definition:
Liebster is German for sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome. How nice is that?
Blogging is about building a community and it's a great way to connect with other bloggers and help spread the word about newer bloggers and blogs.

The rules:

1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog and link back to the blogger who presented this award to you.
2. Answer the 11 questions from the nominator, list 11 random facts about yourself, and create 11 questions for your nominees.
3. Present the Liebster Blog Award to 11 other blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed and leave a comment on their blog to let them know they have been chosen.
4. Copy/paste the blog award on your blog.

11 Questions from Maria:

1. Why do you blog? I'm an English Literature major, and writing has always been my happy place. I love words, and I love meeting and finding out about new people. Blogging is my favorite outlet to do just that. I was also a layout/graphic design manager for my high school, and blogging lets me do a little bit more of what I love. I miss working on layout and design more than any other part of high school, and this lets me experiment in my own way! 
2. Dogs or Cats? Honestly, I'm not much of an animal person. But I think I'd choose dogs. My family has a German Shepherd, and we...tolerate...each other. But I'm not huge on animals. 
3. What is your favorite color? Grey. Dumb as it sounds, it's true. Or purple. 
4. What is the strangest food you've ever eaten? I really don't think any food is that strange! My family loves sushi, so we eat a lot of that raw fish, caviar, seaweed. I love calimari as well. I'm not a picky eater by any stretch of the imagination! I just really don't like milk or bananas. That's it! 

5. What is your favorite movie? I really love all movies! Some of my favorites are 17 Again, Safe Haven, Taken, Get Smart, Funny Face, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Miracle, Mean Girls...
6. What's your favorite music genre? Anything but rap. I'm a huge country fan--it's on my bucket list to see Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood before I die--but I also love artists like Fall Out Boy, Jimmy Eat World, Mayday Parade, Go Radio, We Are the In Crowd, Bon Iver, Sara Bareilles, Regina Spektor, Ed Sheeran, Of Monsters and Men, and so many more. 
7. What do you want to be when you grow up? ;) A mom. That's really all. :) I'm an English Major, and I've wanted to be a broadcast journalist since I was little. But ultimately, I just want my own family to take care of. 

8. If you got to name your own planet, what would you name it? Pluto. He got gipped. 

9. Who is your hero? My grandma. She passed away when I was a sophomore, and I still consider that one of the hardest experiences of my life. I learned so much about family, grief, and myself...but I wouldn't want to go through that again for all the money in the world. My grandma was the perfect example of love, service, and selflessness. I just hope I can be half the person she was some day! 

10. What is your favorite holiday and why? I LOVE the Fourth of July. Fireworks, BBQs, friends, and it's in the middle of the summer. I just love America, I guess. 
11. What is your favorite family tradition? Not a very sentimental one, but I love it anyway: when I was in elementary school, a really good family friend fell off his roof putting Christmas lights up [he was OK, don't worry!]. In an attempt to make light of a scary situation, my family created a mannequin in honor of him, and placed him on our roof so that it looked like he was falling as well. Our neighbors loved it so much that we have continued to place Steve on our roof in various poses every year since! We recently moved to another house in our neighborhood, and people now drive INTO our culdesac just to see Steve. Inventing his pose and watching people's reactions as they see him is one of my favorite family traditions. 

11 Random facts about ME:

1. I'm currently a student at Utah State--and I'll be an Aggie til the day I die, but I want to go to cosmetology school someday and open my own salon.
2. I love Audrey Hepburn. 

3. I'm a natural blonde, and my hair is naturally curly. Hair-dye and my flat iron have become my best friends over the years. 

4. I was the Computer Technology Sterling Scholar for the Northwest Region of Utah [and I have absolutely no idea how computer coding or any of that stuff works. Thank heavens for layout and design].

5. I don't like dessert unless it's chocolate. Anything else is a waste of calories. 

6. I'd be completely satisfied if the only foods left on Earth were avocados and chocolate ice cream. 

7. I have an aunt that is two years younger than me, and an uncle that is two years older. 
8. I probably talk more than anybody else on the planet. The first time I came home from school, my parents looked at each other and said, "I finally figured out why it's so quiet now. You talk so much, Ashley!" Whoops. Like I said, I love words. 

9. I don't have a single athletic bone in my body, but I love to run. I've completed the Ragnar Wasatch Back four times! 

10. I can name just about any font in the Adobe Creative Suite and I'm a closet art history nerd. I took AP Art History my senior year and have never loved reading a textbook more in my life. 

11. I once spent an entire summer in Nauvoo performing in the Nauvoo pageant for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. 

My Blogger Nominees:
1. Bre from all about bre.  We went to high school together, and I'm in love with her and Dalton's relationship [Dalt also happens to be one of my best friend's cousins]!

2. Mckenzie from Makin' the Most of the Moments. One of my roommates and very best friends in the whole world. 

3. Jessica from Oh the Blissful Life.  Jess has the cutest style, some great tutorials, and I just adore her. 

4. Karli from After the Manner of Happiness. Cutest love story ever. Pretty sure she doesn't even know I exist, but I'm in love with her blog.  

11 Questions for my Nominees:

1. What is one food you couldn't live without? 

2. If you could go anywhere in the world by any means of transportation, where would it be and how? 

3. You've invented a candy. What's it called? What does it taste like?
4. Three celebrities you want to be best friends with? 

5. Most irrational fear that you have? 

6. What is your favorite line of song lyrics?
7. One movie you wish you had been cast in?
8. What item on your bucket list are you most excited to complete?
9. Least favorite TV show? 

10. What Disney princess are you most like? 

11. What is your pet peeve? 

Thank you again for the nomination, Maria! 

Weekend Wonders: Two.

After a week of movies, Tiki parties, hours and hours of the Sig Ep boys, work, sleepovers, attempting to go to the Cache Valley Cruise-In, watching Brian try to make friends with a couple monkeys, and actually attending my single's ward...it's safe to say it's been a good week. ...it's time for bed. Besides, it's Birthday week! I'll finally be 19 on Wednesday, no big deal. But first, this Weekend's Wonders.

This song, that quickly became the anthem of our trip to Huntsville. Justin Timberlake is just as good as he was when I was little.

This kitchen.  Gray is my favorite color...and I'm kind of obsessed with this design.

These initial rings. Simple--and slightly perfect.

And finally, these words.  I'm surrounded by some pretty successful people...and sometimes I forget that I'm only 18. I've got plenty of time to be where they are.

God bless America.

I don't think there's a holiday I love more than the 4th of July. 

It's the middle of summer, you get to eat BBQ all day, and end the night with fireworks. I can't think of anything better than that. 

This year, I went to Huntsville with a bunch of A-Teamers & friends. 

We barbecued all sorts of hot dogs, kebabs, meat slabs, and french bread. 

We watched people get hypnotized, tried on some fairly ridiculous cowboy hats, and danced like a bunch of white kids. 

And then we watched the fireworks and sang along with Toby Keith at the top of our lungs. 

[This is the song we were all screaming. Nothing says "America" like an angry country singer, right?]

America is a wonderful place. We have the freedom to do what we want, when we want, with who we want, how we want. There's nowhere else you celebrate your country's birthday with thousands of fireworks across the nation...and I'm so blessed to call this place home. 

Happy [late] Fourth of July! 

While you last.

I know it's barely July...but listen to this. 

Probably my new favorite song [and it helps that these two artists are two of my very favorite]. 

Music is a wonderful thing. 

[summer fling, anyone? #yolo right, Laur?]