AZ Lovin.

For those of you who don't know, Arizona has its 101st birthday last week - Valentine's day to be exact. And since then I have thought a lot about good ol' AZ and how much I miss it. I miss the sunsets. I miss the warm, and the sun, and the wedding clouds. I miss my tan. I miss sandals and sun dresses. I miss the clear blue sky. I miss palm trees, and cactuses, and rocks. I miss hot asphalt and running through the sprinklers to cool down. I miss the flat.I miss monsoons and lightning storms and always being a little bit scared the world was ending. My heart shall forever be in Arizona. Desert girl through and through. 

And I love this etsy find! [hint hint mother ;)]

A, You're Adorable

So this valentine post is a little belated, but it's not very focused on the holiday, so bear with me. 

The night before, my roommate was talking about a cute valentines present idea from Pinterest, which was a alphabet flip book of sweet compliments. And I said, "Oh, like the A, you're adorable song." And none of my roommates new it so I sang the whole thing from memory, with the sign language letters like Mrs. Hubbard taught us for the Grandmother's Tea 15 years ago (I feel old that I can say something happened 15 years ago). Then I thought about memorizing The Night Before Christmas, and how I can still recite ALL the colors in Joseph's technicolor dream coat, and about how everything in her room was Mary Englibright, and how special we felt when we got to take a handful of Jolly Ranchers (which for our little five-year-old hands, couldn't have been more than about 8 pieces), and how we loved to visit her classroom as a helper when we were older. Mrs. Hubbard was an amazing teacher and I am so grateful for her influence in my life. 

Gotta love Mary Englbright. 

V-Day

Happy Valentine's week everybody! To celebrate, they have been playing lovey-dovey music in the Wilk, and today was jazz standards. They played Don't Get Around Much Anymore and I found myself singing along. It took me right back to the good old days in Premiere. I miss singing, especially jazz. So here's a tribute to some great girls and one super awesome bearded guy :)

 

Now Don't Get Around Much Anymore has been stuck in my head all day so I looked it up to listen to it and rid it from my brian, and I found this super cool music video from the 40's. Enjoy!

Rasputin

So today in Poly Sci we learned about Rasputin. And when I say learned about, I mean my Professor mentioned him for about 5 seconds in passing during a discussion about Tsar Nicholas. Anyway, he was a crazy, corrupt, pretend-monk, magic-practicing advisor to the Tsar. When I hear Rasputin, the villain from the movie Anastasia comes to mind (which, by the way, I can't believe they made a kids movie about an entire family being brutally murdered).

This is what I mean. How creepy is that dude?? When in fact this is the real Rasputin. Who is not much better than the cartoon.

So the thought train had started and I turned to the only place to find about random historical events:  Wikipedia. Because while kids' movies are awfully entertaining, they sometimes teach misconceptions about history. For example, Rasputin, however creepy he might be, didn't curse the Romanov's. It was the Bolshevik Secret Police at the order of Lenin (thanks, Wikipedia). And while we all love Dimitri, he either didn't exist or died with the rest of the servants in the basement of their prison house. So sorry to ruin Anastasia for you, but I think the historical account is pretty entertaining to. Fun fact: the last to die were all the Tsar's daughters because they had sewn 1.3 kilos of diamonds and precious gems into the lining of their dresses to keep them from Lenin, and the jewels deflected the bullets and bayonets. 

Sorry if this was a bit grim, but it fascinates me. So to lighten the mood, here is a video of everyone's favorite song from Anastasia. 

Thinking of Graduation.

So the influx of graduation announcements has begun and it has got me thinking back to my graduation. I feel like this is my mantra as of late but, graduation seems like a lifetime ago, while little things like buying a graduation dress and writing my talk for seminary graduation seems like they just happened yesterday. This has got me thinking about graduation. And I promise I won't get sappy about new beginnings and all things overused, I simply want to remember an important milestone in my life, spent with people I love and miss because they are spread across the globe! 

All my missionaries. Miss these great guys.