got my hair did.

So, I got my hair done today!! My sister Becca told me this weekend that it looked gross. And she was right. My hair has gotten SO LONG in the past few months that it was super scraggly at the ends. Besides, I did my annual dye-it-black-and-let-it-fade-to-my-natural-color thing at Thanksgiving, and it had faded weird.

SO......

I got it done today! And the coloring is a little wild, but I'm obsessed with it. Hooray for changing it up a little!

SIDE NOTE:

I need to start documenting my life in the form of photos.

...soon?

Hit the Reset Button!

My family is incredible.



I think that is pretty much the sentence to sum up last weekend with my mom's side of the family in

{Brian Head, UT}

It was so fun! Despite getting a minor concussion on the first run of the first day of snowboarding, getting basically snowed in on the second day, and getting a fatty snowball to the face at an impromptu snowball fight on the third day (I was an innocent bystander, with cotton leggings and a snow coat on, filming the thing), this weekend was a much-needed break from the sad funk I had been in.

After going through a very saddening (but necessary) break up a couple of weeks ago, I had been in a sort of strange state. I had pretty much been in one relationship or another for the past year, so consequently I have lost regular touch with many of my regular friends. While I very much miss them, I haven't felt too up to the task of regaining those friends yet. So, I have had a lot of alone time and not much to do with it. (Que finding new shows to watch on Hulu)...

{But this weekend was exactly what I needed!!!}

With my obscenely incredible family surrounding me, lifting each other up and generally just being awesome, I was reminded of what I am striving to achieve in my life - the ultimate source of happiness and progression - obedience and a commitment to the Lord. How lucky am I that I have such amazing examples surrounding me! I am back on track, I am actually doing school work, and I cleaned my room. Not bad (ask my mom how significant the cleaning my room part is).

Anyway, just a little {{THANK YOU}} to my family, to the way they strive to live their lives, and to the way they inspire and encourage me to be the best I can. And ESPECIALLY to my {GRANDMA SEDGWICK} for putting it all together and for her wonderful example - she's going on a mission! What an amazing legacy! I'm just lucky to be her progeny. Way to go, Gram, you're incredible!!!

{{I'M SO LUCKY, AND I'LL NEVER FORGET IT}}

Can't I Leave Yet?

So, I'm sitting in the library, trying to get some studying/homework done, but all I can think about is my family's trip to Brian Head this weekend! Seriously, all that stands between me and that weekend is tomorrow and everything I need to prepare for it.... which happens to include my first exam of the semester. I don't know how all of my classes went this long without a single exam, so I should feel lucky, but did it have to start TOMORROW? Come on. All I want to do is go to class tomorrow and feel free and easy and then drive on down to meet up with the fam, but NO, I must take an exam. Boo. My motivation is waning. Well, according to a previous post, it has been waning for about 6 months now. On top of it, this exam is for my Political Science 110 class - a prerequisite to my major (I am in my second-to-last semester) and I have taken entire courses on some of the topics in this class. So naturally, I feel like it's not my most interesting or productive class. Alas, I must endure. I think it's just so bad because I am so excited to see my fam.

Man, they're great.

Now, before you start to think that I am hopeless and I won't get through this winter (which is not really a crazy notion and I've thought that myself from time to time), I will share ONE ray of light in the midst of this freshman-level-ridden, snow-storm-darkened semester...

My roommates and I bought plane tickets to HAWAII this week!!!

hooray!! I am seriously SO STOKED for this trip. The prospect of going back to beautiful...

{KAUAI}

...will help me prevail over this wretched time of year they call ...winter... And who knows, maybe I'll have made some progress by the time we go and have someone to miss back home... should I be looking forward to that too this semester? ...maybe not. I guess only time will tell... Until then, this actual double rainbow (which I captured during our family Thanksgiving 2010 trip) is what I actually know is in store for me. Not too shabby.

New Resolve!

I realize that my posts for the past year have been very few and very far between. That is going to change. Though nothing super exciting happens in my life, my sisters and mother (love you guys) like to live through me. So, my new goal is to make this blog a frequent outlet and updater... like it was meant to be in the first place haha. Stay tuned!

Senioritis.

My good friend Laura Clayton posted this as her facebook status today -

Senioritis (n) A crippling disease that strikes seniors. Symptoms include: laziness, an over-excessive wearing of track pants, old athletic shirts, sweatpants, spandex, and sweatshirts. Also features a lack of studying, repeated absences, and a generally dismissive attitude. The only known cure is a phenomenon known as Graduation.

I totally have it! Of course I already knew that I was one of the many afflicted by this all-consuming disease, but this just put it into better words. It's a little difficult being near the end of this undergrad road, mostly because I am struggling to find any kind of outside source to push me into excelling in my final classes. I'm in a major that is difficult for me, I don't want it to lead to any kind of career, and I find myself generally without academic purpose. Grad school is definitely not for me, and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel has made me want to run to it... I'm so close! The problem is, senioritis has definitely crept in, and it's like a disease that paralyzes your legs, making the end impossible to reach. Nevermind that I hate running in the first place.

To make matters worse, I just visited the advisement center (again) to see if I could apply for graduation, and I just found out that I have 22.5 MORE credits to do before I graduate! I thought it was only the 17 from my major, which would be easily done by June, but I forgot about my ONE GE left aaaand the 120 credit requirement for graduation... There it goes, that light at the end of the tunnel has become much more dim. I was hoping to finish by June and then do a term internship somewhere like DC. Looks like that might have to wait until next Fall. Which might be cool, actually.

What I really want to do, I've decided, is start my own business; but how can I possibly start my own business without any kind of business experience in the first place! So much to figure out, so ill-equipped to do so. Luckily, I have great parents who advise me every step of the way. Although, I have felt like they've given me some conflicting advice.

At one point, one of my parents (I won't name who, Dad, don't worry) told me, in more eloquent and rational words, to spend my time finding a husband. Hey, no complaints here (and my interpretation of his words might have been just that - MY interpretation haha). But that adds another stress to my life. I am in Provo - the Mecca of Mormon dating. How do I leave a place like this to spend my time in a singles ward somewhere, with way less options and a much smaller pool? We'll see. I guess I'm jumping the gun. I still have until August here... but then what?

Ok ok! I'm finally putting up some of the best pictures from the rest of my experience in Jerusalem. Mind you there are memories and stories and details and much more that we saw and did, but I think this is the best of what I got! And, it will be easier and much more entertaining to post a ton of pics instead of try to write it all out. No one wants to read all of that! So here goes...

Jerusalem - March and April

Anna and I at the Church of the Nativity - this is the hole in the ground where the manger apparently was.


Church of the Nativity - Bethlehem

Ceasarea! This city was once a huge port on the Mediterranean for Rome. The ruins of the marina are still visible under the water

Church of the Anunciation - Nazareth

This is the boat we took across the Sea of Galilee!

Beautiful view of Mt. Arbel from the middle of the Galilee

This is Gamla. It was so cool! It was like a camel's hump rising out of the valley. It felt like we were in Middle Earth or something.

Top of Gamla. It was a steeeep drop on all sides

Fish restaurant in Tiberias. They basically just gave us an entire fish with slits cut out. We ate the eyeballs AND brains! It was nasty haha

Oh my. Will Emmett. He was the love of every girl in the program. Look at that face!

Cool church

These prayers are written on paper and stuffed through a grate in the floor of this church.

Best field trip EVER! We got to go to this half natural pond (it was dammed) and went swimming! We had beautiful weather and a break from going all day.

Cooool Bet Shean. A huuuuge old city with tons of stuff to see. Complete with amphitheater, bath houses, main markets, public toilets, dwellings, and a synagogue on top of a mountain!

Beautiful sunset on the sea of Galilee. There's 3 of my classmates!

We found Paradise AND Winnie the Pooh's tree! What else could you ask for?

Nimrod's Fortress - WAY COOL. It's a huuuge complex on top of a steep hill and we had free reign for like an hour!

Overlooking Haifa bay above the Bahai Gardens

The Bahai Gardens. Notice our professor, Brother Hamblin, is facing away from the camera. He loves to joke around with us students who he says he despises but actually loooooves.

Palm Sunday - Ethiopian women on the roof of an Ethiopian monastery, adjacent to the Holy Sepulchre.

I believe these guys are Armenian. Cool service in an upper level of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Palm Sunday.

Above Damascus Gate, the gate we usually used to go into the Old City.

So when we left for Jordan, there was a bus stop there. When we came back, it was gone! There had been a few riots in those 4 days!

Oh man, these people were awesome. On the Palm Sunday walk they were right behind us the whole time, singing the same line to the same song and then sounding battle cries. Think OOooOO!!! While moving your outstretched tongue back and forth from one side to the other.

Thouuuusands of Christians, all coming together to celebrate Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem! Palm Sunday was quite the experience!

Terra Sancta. A BEAUTIFUL church in the Old City

Me, Anna, and Ali at Shepherd's Fields outside of Bethlehem

Garden Tomb - Easter Sunday

Anointing Rock, Holy Sepulchre - Easter Sunday. I looove this picture.

PETRAAA!!! Woooow this place was absolutely stunning! This is the treasury, which you may recognize from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. This kind of thing went on for an entire valley though. It was INCREDIBLE.

At the other side of Petra lies the Monastery, which is larger than the Treasury. They spent a LOT of time carving these elaborate entrances to like a 30 square foot room.

So we followed some random staircases up some random rocks and found this! It was a cool house or something. Everywhere you looked there would be another staircase to take up through and over rocks.

Mary, Ali and I. We all bought those necklaces there! They were like $1. Unfortunately, mine fell off later that day at the mall by our hotel :(

The first part of Petra that you see as you come out of the valley. so cool.

The Dome of the Rock. Sooo beautiful.

St. Peter in Gallicantu! This church was so cool and I think it might have been my 2nd favorite church ever (excluding temples), maybe even my 1st.

Church of All Nations, next to Gethsemane

Neat door at the Church of All Nations

View of the gated part of Gethsemane

My beautiful roommates and the Old City in the background! Anna, Becka, myself, and Stella. I will love these girls till the day I die!