If you really knew me..

I'm being a copycat. Emily Barkdull inspired me with her blog post of "if you really knew me" and I thought it was a fun idea :) Thanks Em. Here it goes:

If you really knew me you would know that I wear my retainers every night. Along with that, I love pajamas. Not just a ratty t-shirt and sweats, but actual night gowns and flannel tops and bottoms. Nighttime is my prettiest time :)

If you really knew me you would know that after Christmas, St. Patrick's Day is my favorite holiday. 

If you really knew me you would know that I don't like my freckles BUT I do like my one dimple so I think that kind of makes up for it. I also like letting my hair dry naturally into a weird frizz ball

If you really knew me you would know that from the time I was in seventh grade until now I've planned out what I'm going to wear for the first week of school. From my hair to my shoes, I stick to it.

If you really knew me you would know that I love love love to dance.

If you really knew me you would know that I like to paint my nails all sorts of crazy colors in crazy patterns.

If you really knew me you would know that I dream of Italy. I can't wait to go there someday.

If you really knew me you would know that I can fall asleep anywhere at anytime

If you really knew me you would know that I am a TV junkie. I visit Hulu frequently.

If you really knew me you would know that I love to read. Oh I love it so much. I especially love to read while I'm taking a hot bubble bath.

If you really knew me you would know that I can predict movies freakishly well. Along with that, scary movies are so fun to watch and My Girl is forever my all time FAVORITE movie.

If you really knew me you would know that my parents played my parents in the ballet The Sleeping Beauty.

If you really knew me you would know that I sometimes get teary eyed when I watch my parents interact - they are adorable.

If you really knew me you would know that my favorite hymns are "Where can I turn for peace" and "I know that my Redeemer lives". My favorite Christmas hymn is "Silent Night".

If you really knew me you would know that I was supposed to be named Mary Jo.

If you really knew me you would know that one of my favorite things to do in the summer is eat creamies on the roof as the sun goes down.

If you really knew me you would know that I have an obsession with lotion and perfume.

If you really knew me you would know that I never wanted to go to BYU. Now I'm a dance major and I love it.

If you really knew me you would know that I want a chocolate lab. (A dog, not an actual lab to eat chocolate in.)

If you really knew me you would know that I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

If you really knew me you would know that my favorite scripture is Ether 12:4 and Nephi is my favorite Book of Mormon character.

If you really knew me you would know that there have been two days in my 21 years of living that have been truly perfect. February 21, 2010 and October 5, 2011.

If you really knew me you would know that I have a favorite spot on BYU campus.

If you really knew me you would know that Becky and I once lowered the price of Gossip Girl season 3 at F.Y.E from 60 dollars to 25. We used a concept from a book that we are going to write called: Charisma, it will save your life.

If you knew me you would know that my heart aches when I don't see my roommates for long periods of time.

Firework

Today is my mother's birthday.

Happy Birthday mom, I love you. I love you so much.

I've been thinking about why my mother means so much to me. It's kind of a silly thing to think about really, of course she holds a special place in my heart. She's my mom. I cannot imagine my life without her and I wish I could take back some things so that there would never be a doubt in her mind that I appreciate everything she does for me, even when I don't show it very well.

I just want to say I'm sorry mom. You know, for all the times I acted like a bratty teenage girl. I wish I could say I couldn't help it, but we both know that's a lie. Is being mean to your mom a part of growing up? If it is, I wish it wasn't because I have never meant it. I promise. I love you so much. 

Abraham Lincoln said, "I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life." One reason, out of the thousands, of why I love my mom is how often she prays for her children and how much she thinks of us. Our pain is her pain, our happiness is her happiness. My first year as a dance captain was really hard for me. I would feel sick before every football game because I was so nervous I was going to make a mistake. I put a lot of pressure on myself. Before every game I would text my mom and ask her to pray for me. Before any Cougarette function in general I would ask her to pray for me. Her response was always the same, "Of course Sarah, we've been praying all day." Then after the game she would always follow up and ask me how I felt about everything. When I didn't have enough faith in myself, I would remember her prayers.

Mom, thank you for your example. Thank you for spending a part of your prayers pleading with Heavenly Father in my behalf. Thank you for believing in me and supporting me in my every endeavor. I love you.

Cindy Russo is quite sassy and competitive. In this regard I may be her complete opposite. I definitely have my days when some sass comes out but she has got some serious attitude! I love it. I love it, although this is the only time I'll admit it, when she gives me advice on how to handle my dating life - or the lack thereof. She definitely has her opinions. I'm no longer shocked that her advice consists of something like me going up, grabbing the male in question and just laying one on him. In her mind, "how can you know if you even like him if you never kiss him Sarah." Good question mom, you'll just have to trust me on this one.

When I was 12 I was at a dance competition called New York City Dance Alliance. I was in the junior room competing for a scholarship. She knows I'm not a very aggressive person and I will never forget her looking at me before I was supposed to audition and telling me to get in the front row. Her competitive nature provoked my almost non-existent sassy attitude and as I looked at her, I walked to the back row. I can be a pill sometimes, but hey I still got a scholarship. For some reason I just didn't want her to tell me how to do it. (remember I was entering that bratty teenager phase) Oh and have I mentioned that I can count on one hand the performances and competitions that my mother has missed? I've been dancing since I was 4 years old, you do the math.

Thank you for always being my biggest fan. I know that even if I didn't get that scholarship you would have kept on loving me and kept pushing me to do my best. And no, you can't arrange my marriage. But yes, I still love you. 

My mom told me that her theme song is Firework by Katy Perry. Seriously? All I could say was, you go girl. Now I can't listen to it without thinking of her. She has so much spunk. When Taylor got home from his mission we would do this thing where we would become really obnoxious out of no where. Kind of like we were 10 years old again. One day she got so sick of us that she looked up from the book she was reading and calmly spit Diet Coke on us. Spunk. That's what that is, it was so dang funny.
  
It's your birthday mom, go out and do whatever you want. "cuz baby, you're a firework." I love you so much, I hope you have the best day. 

Love, Sarah Elise 

 

Eating food that isn't healthy is fun

I made a list of my favorite treats, sweets and snacks while I was eating french fries in Legends Grill today. Consequently french fries happen to be one of my favorite treats to get for myself.

1. Crispy French Fries

2. Flashin' Fruit Punch

3. Strawberry Cheesecake

4. Cheesecake in general

5. Banana Cream Pie

6. 7 Layer Bars

7. Reeses

8. Graham crackers and milk

9. Sugar Cereals

10. Peanut butter moo'd jamba

11. Jamocha shake from Arby's

12. Cinnamon Rolls

13. Mineral Water

14. Egg Nog

15. Cadbury Eggs

16. Peanut butter cookies with kisses in the middle

17. Chips and Salsa

18. Buttered Toast and Hot Chocolate

19. Vanilla Bean Frappuccino from Starbucks

20. Oreo Cakesters

I'll leave it at that for now.

Sick Days

The last couple days I haven't been feeling too great. My throat hurts, I have a never ending array of headaches and now my nose is stuffy. Apart from feeling crappy, I'm not sick enough to really get out of anything. I can still function. When I take good medicine I forget that I don't feel good. When I am around good people I forget as well. My roommates have been the best. They are always taking care of me. This week I'm physically sick, next I may be emotionally unstable... who knows?? :) But I know I can always count on them. Why am I even writing about this? Good question. I'm not really sure except for the fact that it's 2:52 in the morning and I still can't sleep. And to put it out into cyber space again how great the girls are that I live with.

Enjoy some Damien Rice. He's the equivalent of a bowl of chicken noodle soup right now.

The Blower's Daughter

Hallelujah

Delicate

You know you go to BYU when...

you are walking to your car after a super long day. Thinking about who knows what, you realize almost too late that a creepy silver car is following you. When you stop to ponder what this could mean, the car drives up to you, rolls down the window, and politely asks, "are you leaving?" This is the moment you realize that you are being used for your parking spot. You kindly oblige, hop in the backseat and have some seriously awkward small chat. The socially different man drops you off and you drive away. Then you say you to yourself, "wow I just broke all rules regarding 'stranger danger'."


I may or may not have truly become a zoobie today.

Daydreaming

 Today I’m going to get a little personal. I think the relationship between myself and my blog could handle something like that, we’ve had a good run so far. Over Christmas break I did a lot of walking down memory lane – watching home videos, looking at scrapbooks, watching dance videos, talking with family, with friends and reading old journals – that sort of walking. It was a bittersweet feeling, there is so much I wish I could change or do slightly different but at the same time I was content knowing that that was my past and I am a better person for it. Except for maybe the mushroom hair cut my mother mercilessly imposed on me for the first 8 years of my life. I love you mom, but I don’t think that was ever in style. 

  I’ll save pondering the psychological side effects of that for another day 

But even though I’m so happy with the way things spanning junior high to college have turned out, I can’t help remembering daydreaming a different ending to some of it. My daydreams were mostly impossible, you can’t change what happened by simply imagining it, and yet a part of me always held on to some hope that just one time I would snap out of it, wake up and reality would have altered somehow. Then there were those moments where I did in fact wake up and life was how I dreamed it. Not often because how exciting would life really be if all we thought suddenly became a reality – it might actually be scary. Like a little princess in a children’s book my dreams came true. I could look out, in the palm of my hand or in one of those snow globes and see something truly magical.

Even through life’s pitfalls and drawbacks, I don’t think I’ll ever stop dreaming. Because as many times as I have woken up and life wasn’t a fairy tale or I fell short when I wanted to be perfect, real life would happen and it was sometimes better than my own human mind could even begin to imagine. Daydreaming was just a step for me to be ready for the unimaginable. It’s those moments that are the climax of the movie, my movie, and your movie. All the girls in the theater are holding their breath, guys are probably acting like it’s not affecting them, but secretly they have the same wishes for themselves and for a split second you see what you’ve always wanted to see. You’re the leading lady, finally, of your life movie and it’s more than you could ever want.

I can only imagine what dreams will come true, but in the mean time I really love what real life has given me. It was a nice walk, walking down memory lane.

25 Things I Love

Just going through my photo's today. I could have put up 100 things that I love but for now, I'll stick to 25.

1. Weddings

2. Rain

3. My Family

4. Being an Orem Tiger

5. Random days to cook Belgian Waffles

6. To Dance

7. Out of control, frizz-ball hair

8. No Braces!

9. Spending time with dear friends

10. Tie-dye shirts

11. Waffle parties

12. Belgium

13. Being a Cougarette

14. Plaid Day

15. Concerts

16. Being an Aunt

17. Riding Rollercoasters

18. BYU

19. Sleeping

20. Beautiful Days with FERRIS WHEELS!

21. Doing things impulsively. Like running the Dirty Dash.

22. When best friends get their fairy tale endings

23. Dressing up, even when it may not be cool

24. The temple, the gospel, my Savior

25. Matching shirts

Just a good Saturday night

Saturday night was awesome. I think it was well deserved and long awaited on everyone's part. Sam, Mel, Becky and I started out at Rumbi to have a nice dinner. We started talking about the broya's and how supportive and wonderful they are. So we decided to show them that love and bought them cookies, made a rap and spent the rest of the night with them. Going from playing some basketball game involving dares to Classic Skating (Which ran out of skates by the way) to Miracle Bowl. It was a wonderful night.

Cookies, we really do love these boys

This is the result of someone finally making a stupid basket. Sarah and Steve had to sit in spider for 4 minutes.

Then someone else made a shot and Ryan had to spend the rest of the time with us. It was comfy cozy.

How we felt about Classic Skating not having any skates for us

We enjoyed ourselves regardless

Vogue? I'm not sure, but we're great right?

Bowling Crew.

Bootylish

Ponytail

Chudawump

Melinator

Bunkbed

Tater tot

Zeus

Love these girls

I Won't Give Up- Jason Mraz

Today has been one of those days where I woke up at 10. It's becoming more and more frequent. Where the roommates and I did P90X... well they did but when Tony was asking us to "jab, cross, upper cut, hook" I couldn't take myself too seriously. Then again I shouldn't do that anyways when exercising. Where I got myself a Flashin' Fruit Punch from Wendy's and loved every sip. Where I was so happy for Melanie and how she's being treated so well by dear Jordan. Where I thought of how great Sam and Jesse's wedding is going to be. Where I danced with beautiful souls. Where Sam showed me a new song that I'm going to spend 1.29 on to buy. Where I felt lonely. Where I got super excited for a summer in Provo. Where I was once again reminded of how much I love the girls across and down the hall and one duplex away. Where I thought of this quote over and over again (Thanks Sam). 

YOUR JOURNEY HAS MOLDED

YOU FOR YOUR GREATER GOOD.

AND IT WAS EXACTLY WHAT IT NEEDED TO BE.

DON'T THINK THAT YOU'VE LOST TIME. 

IT TOOK EACH AND EVERY 

SITUATION YOU HAVE ENCOUNTERED

TO BRING YOU TO THE NOW. 

AND NOW IS RIGHT ON TIME. 

It's been one of those days, ya know? 

Welcome 2012

I'm a few days late in welcoming the New Year officially but hey, better late than never right? The last few days I've been busily running around Orem and Provo, staying off of BYU owned streets of course, trying to get things situated before the new semester starts. I love being organized, I love making resolutions, I love a fresh start. Before I get ahead of myself, here is what I did over Christmas break.

I spent Christmas Eve hanging with Kailey and my family

We can't wait for the festivities to begin

Grandma and Owen. This poor little guy did not feel good.

Missing Stephen, Alesha and the boys but here is the Russo clan

Then I went to Idaho to hang out with my crazy nephews, I love being Aunt Sarah

Tripp and I

The newest addition, Eli Louis Russo.

New Years Eve with Xandra and Emily

Em just looking really good

Ben and Xandra

We were each others dates

Welcome 2012

 It was a good holiday. I feel like I could have used at least one more week of bummin around doing nothing but now is as good a time as any to get life moving again. Too bad this is what this evening is consisting of:

putting my room back together. Always a joy.

Welcome 2012, here's to a brand new year with new goals and new memories to be made.

Resolutions

with the exception of a few, some are too personal to share

1. Keep my car clean

2. Help my mom finish my high school scrapbooks

3.  Pass Chemistry :)

4. Attend the temple at least twice a month, hopefully more

5. Find something to smile about everyday