Only In Utah

Courage

This is my brother and his wife on a recent trip to Disneyland. He titled this text "Courage on Splash Mountain."

It totally looks like he just wet himself.

Love it.

The Rock...as in Dwayne Johnson

Or, as I lovingly call him DRock.

So, he and I have been roommates for the past 7 months.

Cool, huh?

Here's the story:

So, my (awesome) co-worker Erica is in L - O - V - E with Mr. Dwayne. She and I fight all the time about who's better, The Rock or Zac Efron. (There are valid points to both crushes, but - even after 7 months of living with DRock, my heart still belongs to Zac).

I mean, really...

Ok, back to Dwayne. So, Erica is head over heels in love with the guy. So much so, in fact, that her husband Ron is well aware that if Dwayne shows up at her door to take her away, she has to go. It's that serious.

So, for months, I have scoured the Internet for a life-sized cardboard cut-out of The Rock. Well, one cold, (lucky) January day, I found one! I was so excited! I immediately ordered him and a few days later, this arrived on my doorstep:

Over the past few months, I have documented our adventures through photos. Her birthday is in July, so we had a good few months together.

My favorite part is that he is wearing full-on leather from head to toe - oh, and a vest with no shirt. And that his shoes have bling. He's awesome.

I put these photos in an album and gave it to her the same day DRock broke up with me and moved in with her.

Here are some of our adventures:

Well, now that he's gone I have a lot more time on my hands!

My roommates and I had fun putting him in random places to scare each other. Good times.

So, on the big day, my co-workers and I got to work early to decorate Erica's cubicle and so that DRock could be waiting for her when she got to work. When she walked in and saw him, she screamed, "I love him!" It was so awesome.

He hung out in the office from Tuesday to Friday and everyone loved him. Even the ones who said they didn't really did.

And, now he lives with Erica and everyone in my apartment misses him. She said that he can still visit sometimes though. Maybe we can work out a joint custody arrangement.

New Baby

I got to photograph this adorable little baby recently.

I really wanted to take her home. It's weird that her parents wouldn't let me.

33 Things

So, to make this year a little more interesting (and to concentrate on something else besides getting freaking old), I have decided to make a list of things to accomplish this year.

33 Things To Accomplish While I'm 33:

1. Learn to knit
2. Read The Book of Mormon cover to cover
3. Go on a blind date
4. Watch an entire b&w movie
5. Get a facial
6. Meet a princess
7. Send Cabo scrapbook to Grandma & Poppa
8. Hike the Y
9. Learn to say 'shut up & kiss me' in 7 languages
10. Write a life sketch
11. Scan childhood photos to JPG
12. Memorize a song on the piano
13. Test drive a sports car
14. Eat creme brule
15. Learn to cook 5 new dishes
16. Memorize 20 scriptures
17. Perform a musical number in church
18. Lose 20 lbs
19. Go to Vegas
20. Volunteer at a soup kitchen
21. See a live play
22. Visit a beach
23. Visit a new city
24. Hold a new baby
25. Take pictures of a waterfall
26. Fill out birthday calendar & use it
27. Ride a horse
28. Give $ to someone in need
29. Take an online photography course
30. Publish a photo
31. Work out at least three times a week
32. See a live sporting event
33. Take voice lessons

I have done most of these things before, but am excited to work my way through this list. 

I'm looking forward to a great year! 

Birthday Fun!

I had the best birthday! I went to work because I'm saving my PTO to go see Kyle and fam at the end of the month - then for Disneyland in October (Woohoo!). I say I went to work instead of 'I worked' because, to be honest, I was a bit distracted the whole day. Not a whole lot of work happened.

There's something awesome about a day that's all about me.

I got a bunch of texts and phonecalls and everytime someone posted something on Facebook, I got a notification on my phone. I definitely felt loved, but that's why I was so distracted.

Everyone said really nice things. My favorite family in Spain, the Guerras, left a message that made me smile all day:

"Hey Cali... Feliz Cumpleaños. Espero que tengas un día muy, muy especial porque tú te lo mereces. Te echamos mucho de menos y esperamos poder volver a verte en otra ocasión. Te queremos."

(Happy Birthday! I hope you have a very, very special day because you deserve it. We miss you a lot and hope to be able to see you soon. We love you.)

This August marks, TEN YEARS since I've been home from my mission and it makes me so happy to have people that still remember me there. It's awesome!

I went to lunch with my friends Melinda and Shellane. I made them endure the sub-par food at Wingers because I was so excited about my annual free Asphalt Pie. And, just like every year, I was not disappointed. (I hope they are still my friends. Wingers really needs to step it up on their regular food. But, they don't need to change a thing about their pie). I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of us at lunch. Oh no, the signs of old age are starting to show!

My great pal Amelia took me to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. After a wild game of Wiffle Ball this past weekend, I've been having some major back pain, so I was not able to sit on the birthday saddle (I was not disappointed at all. I hate that thing! But I love, love their heavenly rolls, so I just can't stay away). My roommates Carie and Amy and our friend Melanie came too. Carie volunteered to be my saddle proxy. It was awesome. She's so great!

After dinner, Amelia took me to see Source Code. It was good, but I didn't want to put much thought into the movie, so I probably didn't understand it as much as I could have. But, looking at Jake Gyllenhaal for 2 hours is never a bad thing.

Today, my awesome friend Nikki and her kids took me to Zupas. Yum! I only had an hour to hang out because I had to get back to work (you know, to finish all the work I didn't get done yesterday), which definitely wasn't enough time, but we still had fun. I look completely awful in the picture we took of me and her, but these are her adorable kiddos.

(Aaron - in the middle - was having a great time, I promise!)

And, the celebration is not over (just ask Kyle, he makes fun of me for having month-long birthdays) - Cade and Krystal and I are hanging out tomorrow night for more birthday fun.

My friend Marla told me today that I can swap the numbers in my age if it made me feel better. Sadly, that won't make much difference this year!

Bring on 33!

One More Week

So, I volunteered was elected to be the birthday organizer/decorator/card buyer and passer arounder for my office. This is ironic because I am the worst at remembering birthdays. (Anyone who reads this blog should already know that about me). I have a list of all my co-workers' birthdays right next to my computer and I still don't remember them.

Maybe this new responsibility will force me to be better.

So, I spent some time on the card aisle at Target today. I love, love cards. The writers are so hilarious - for the most part. I was laughing out loud today. People were watching. It's fine because I was having such a good time. Of course, the funniest ones were not work appropriate, but I did find some good ones.

Here's the one I bought for my birthday - (pssst, it's in a week!)

(we've all been there, right?)

Then this is the inside:

Yeah, it's not weird at all that I picked out my own card.

Changing Lives - one Magnum Double at a time!

I have the incredible opportunity to be part of Big Brothers Big Sisters and get to 'mentor' an adorable girl named Justice (I can't remember if I've talked about her before on this blog). She's so great and such a blessing in my life. We hung out a couple of weeks ago and I had to introduce her to Magnum. So we headed to the nearest Walmart. Unfortunately, they didn't have Magnum Doubles, so we got ones with almonds. They were great, but not as good as Magnum Doubles. I told Justice that she'll just have to wait to have her life changed another day. I'm sure she thinks I'm crazy. 

(not the best pics - sorry. I don't have time/desire to edit them)

Then, a couple days later, Anna, Angie and I stopped at the exact same Walmart on our way to the drive-in theater in Mt Pleasant and found Magnum Doubles. Hooray!

It was such a great night!

Anna and Angie are currently on a study abroad trip in Ireland. I'm so jealous, but super excited for all of their adventures - and that they get to drink European Orange Fanta which is liquid heaven.