Day 1

When I was in high school, Demi Lovato was becoming a popular singer and actress. In her movie, Camp Rock, she sang a song called, This is Me. Basically, she is saying in her song that she is going to let the real her show, and she is going to stop trying to be someone else. That's what I've decided. 

It's too much work being sad and and attempting to please everyone. I am just going to be me, and try to please me, and if anyone else is not ok with that, they aren't worth my time.

30 Day Photography Challenge. Really.

So, I love taking pictures! A couple of years ago, my mom went out and bought a really nice camera. I laughed at her. I thought, "you're not a photographer, what do you know about photography?" But, I forgot, however, how smart and awesome my mom is. People can learn stuff, pretty easily, and now she's gotten pretty good. Every time I go home, because of being a photo-deprived child, I secretly long that she will take me along on a photo shoot and that I can get a few awesome, new facebook pictures :) But, now that I have a decently good camera, I am going to become my own photographer. Right here, right now. Well, starting tomorrow, at least.

p.s. Isn't Pinterest the absolute best website ever? Seriously.

Inspirational Movies and Cupcakes!

I have done pretty much nothing this weekend, except for watch TV and make food. I have been so bored! Well, one of the movies I watched was called 5th Quarter. I basically bawled the entire movie, its that good. It's all about a family that loses their 15 year old son in a car accident, and the boy's older brother goes on to play an amazing season of football in his little brother's name and memory. The older brother's motto through the movie is "play for two". This movie just made me that much more grateful that I have my family, alive and accessible to me. I love my family so much!

I also did some cooking and baking this weekend. My ward is having an activity tomorrow night, so that we can do ecclesiastical endorsements, and the activity is that we are basically playing Bunco and bringing food that we learned to make either from pinterest or a mission. Since I haven't exactly gone on a mission yet, I was stuck with pinterest recipes...however, that wasn't bad at all. Pinterest is basically my favorite website of all time, except for facebook and google, of course!

So the recipe that I chose is Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes. Even the name sounds fantastic! This recipe comes from the blog Annie's Eats, and here's the url for the actual blog..http://annies-eats.com/2010/04/01/chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-cupcakes/. Here's the recipe, below, so that you, too, can experience heaven on earth. Careful, though, these cupcakes take almost 2 boxes of butter (or margarine), so don't eat too many. You'll get fat.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Yield: 24 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS

For the cupcakes:
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cups light brown sugar, packed
4 large eggs
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips (semisweet or bittersweet)

For the filling:
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 tbsp. light brown sugar, packed
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
7 oz. sweetened condensed milk
½ tsp. vanilla extract
¼ cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

For the frosting: 
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
3½ cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
¾ tsp. salt
3 tbsp. milk
2½ tsp. vanilla extract

For garnish:
Tiny chocolate chip cookies
Mini chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

• To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350° F. Line two cupcake pans with paper liners (24 total). In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter and brown sugar. Beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
• Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir together to blend. Add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl on low speed, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, mixing each addition just until incorporated. Blend in the vanilla. Fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula.
• Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cupcake liners. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
• To make the cookie dough filling, combine the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and cream on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the flour, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla until incorporated and smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the mixture has firmed up a bit, about an hour.
• To fill the cupcakes, cut a cone-shaped portion out of the center of each cupcake. Fill each hole with a chunk of the chilled cookie dough mixture.
• To make the frosting, beat together the butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until creamy. Mix in the confectioners’ sugar until smooth. Beat in the flour and salt. Mix in the milk and vanilla extract until smooth and well blended.
• Frost the filled cupcakes as desired, sprinkling with mini chocolate chips and topping with mini chocolate chip cookies for decoration.

Excuses...

So, I am an amazing excuse maker. Seriously. If something is my fault, or I don't want to do something, I make excuses. I am also an awesome complainer. I was told once in high school that I needed to quit complaining about every thing in my life. I am not particularly proud of either of these things.

I found a quote today and it says,

 "The only thing standing between you and your goal is the crap story you keep telling yourself as to why you cant achieve it"

So basically Pinterest is the best ever, because that is where I found that quote. I do not ever exercise because I always tell myself that it is too far away or too much work or I have too little time. I am always eating chips or chocolate because I keep telling myself that its just one time or that I don't have any other food. I've come to realize that it's all a bunch of bull.

So, today, I went through my apartment and took all of my chocolate and chips and crackers and frosting and candy and hid them... in my room, under my desk. That might not have been the best place to put them, but out of sight, out of mind, right? I also worked on homework today and kept television watching down to a single show. (normally I watch 3 or 4 shows or movies, I have that much time!) I also went to the gym. For an entire hour. I realized how much I miss it, and I also realized today how much bigger my body has gotten since high school. Not cool.

I'm not going to promise that I won't ever eat sweets or junk food again, or that I will go to the gym everyday, or that I won't watch excessive television. BUT I will promise to stop making excuses. Today.

Okay...I Caved

So, I love reading other people's blogs and learning about their lives, so I decided, I could do the same thing for whoever would be interested in hearing about me and my life.

Right now, I am a student at Brigham Young University, in Provo, and am in my second year here at the University. This is my last semester at BYU, actually, for a few reasons. I am not graduating, nor did I receive my dream job. I am taking time off because I have no idea what I am doing here. There are about 8 different careers I would love to do "when I grow up", so I figured instead of spending money I don't have on getting an education I don't know what to use it for, I should go on an adventure I can afford...

I'm going to China in August! I am going to be teaching English to elementary school kids, while traveling around China. I will be gone from August until December, which means I will be in China for my 20th birthday. I.am.so.excited! The program I am going with is called International Language Program and is so affordable, only $2500, and that includes airfare, food, housing, and a visa. So basically I am so excited that I get this chance to travel!

The only time I have ever been out of the US of A was when i was like 6 and I went to Victoria, Canada with my dad's Navy aircraft carrier. I know that's cool and all but I want to go somewhere exotic and actually, well, COOL. My dream places that I want to go to are Africa and Australia.I just think Africa is cool, and I would love to go to a third world country and see what its like and to get a new perspective on American life.I want to go to Australia, but I'm not sure why. I guess I think it's cool that it's an island, and it has kangaroos and koalas, and I just imagine it to be really pretty. My little sister said that I should go to Australia and to make sure that I take pictures of the kangaroos, and the koalas, and all the other cool animals.

 I would also like to go to London and Paris, just for the novelty of going there. I really wish I had a job that I could work at until I had enough money for a trip, go on that trip, and then go back to that job until I had enough money for another trip. I think I'm going to be one of those ladies who, instead of going on vacation to see family, I'm just going to live near family and go on vacation, or on service trips, to really cool countries. Like not America. :)