Sparklerzzz

I spent another night with the O'Gwin's and their fireworks last night.

This time I got to be apart of the choosing of fireworks. Naturally being the girly girl I am, I made Zane buy giant pink sparklers.
They were a hit.

I always have awkward hands..

How adorable are these boys?!

The girls with our pink sparklers, and our boys!

The boys balancing us on one leg, not as smooth as they make it look. 

I may or may not have burned Nate's head with my sparkler cause of this.

PS: Sonny helped me make my own firework bomb this time, and it was pretty much the best one EVER.

PPS: The 4th might be my new favorite holiday. 

pactuuures.

I decided the 30 days is boring me.
I will come back to it when I am desperate.

Since I quit FB, I have found my picture taking to be lacking.
So, I made a conscious effort to pick up the slack these past two days.
And I know those of you who used to creep on me are curious for a little update, and I am a people pleaser sooo.... let's talk!

Braden is near and dear to me, but since we both have our own busy lives {both meaning mostly him} we don't get together that often. Usually I get 10 min visits once a week or so, but this week I talked him into coming to dinner with my family.
Some days I'm convinced my family loves him more than they love me.
I'm okay with it.
We went to China Lilly. The food was delicious, and the company was perfect.

Hillary leaves for her cruise in 2 days, and Lindsey leaves for Lake Powell tomorrow. So I tried to get in some quality time with my besties before they deserted me in Orem.
Yogurtland with Hill obviously. It is our new addiction.

Then Lindsey and I made a little trip to Logan. She had a job interview, and didn't want to make the drive all by her lonesome, naturally being the amazing friend I am, I agreed to wake up at 7:30 and go with her. 

It wasn't bad at all, we had good car talks like always. 

Plus, it turns out Logan is really beautiful this time of year. 

And tonight I got my first taste of 4th of July fever with the O'Gwin family. 

The 4th has rarely been a big holiday for my family, we are more birthday and christmas people, but it's a big hit with the O'Gwins. 

Basically as early as it is legal, they are setting off fireworks. 

They actually take them apart, or tape them up, and turn them into little homemade bombs. 

Even though I had a deadly encounter with a homemade bomb gone wrong, {I was literally saved by a boy's quick reflex to swat a firework from hitting me in the face}, and I had a gas bomb explode all over me, I had a lot of fun.

Pretty neat huh?!

Crazy fun brothers

More on this to come...

Day 9

What I Believe gives me peace and purpose.

This primary song sums it up simply and beautifully, better than anything I could write myself. 

Day 8

Skipping introducing my friends. You guys know them as well as I do, I've made sure of it.

A moment.

I had a sleepover with my Lindsey last night.
We watched bachelor and talked until we couldn't bring ourselves to talk anymore.
When I woke up to come home, this was the outfit I was stuck with.

My gray pajama suit and my steve madden boots with a matching purse.

Not to forget my GREASE hair. 

Good Morning World! lookin' gooooood. 

Day 6

My today started bright and early at 5:30 AM.
I'm pretty sure the only times I ever seen this time of day, is when I'm heading to bed. Never, ever, do I rise at 5:30.
But it turns out if you are going fishing and you need to be there by 7, this is the time you must wake up, and it doesn't matter if you only fell asleep 4 hours ago.
Fish wait for no man, apparently.

So I arrived at Payson Lakes around 8, and sat in a row boat with 4 very entertaining and wonderful people for about 5 hours.
And no, I didn't catch one single fish with my new pink princess rod. Very disappointing. Not at all surprising.

Then, brilliantly, someone managed to lock the keys in the car, and I spent the next hour and a half trying to break into our own car.

When I finally got home, I got to go to dinner with my cute family to celebrate my dad's 49th birthday, and to say goodbye to my sis who left for florida a few hours ago.
We ate at PF Changs and it was soo delicious. More importantly the company was perfect. We laughed, and talked forever. I honestly did not want to leave.
It was perfect family quality time, which is really priceless.

After dinner I got to spend a couple of hours with some of my favorite people, and introduce them to a new favorite. 

Now that I think about it, it really was a perfect day. 

I'm sorry if things seem cryptic. All will be explained in time.

Day 5

My definition of love.

I kind of hate this one...

Since I can remember I have always had a way with words. Not in a clever, witty way like I want, but more like I've never had trouble finding the words to express myself. 

My parents, friends, and boyfriends always comment on this. Every time there is something relatively important I want to say, somehow it comes out just how I want it to the first time.

Braden used to call these little speeches of mine "prepared monologues"

I just love words, writing, hearing, and speaking them; communication is my major after all. 

This is why I hate this question, cause for me, love is unexplainable.

Love leaves me at a loss for words. 

Day 4

I do know how to count, I am just skipping days because I already talked about my parents on here.

Today I ate a bowl of special K, and some grilled chicken at Carrabas.
I promise I am not anorexic, just a busy day, no time to eat.

Fascinating right?

Gone CRAZY.

I interrupt my 30 days to make an extremely important announcement.

I have gone CRAZY.

I can't really explain why it happened, or how.
But somewhere between yesterday morning and this afternoon, I went insane.

I have deleted my facebook.
I have had a tiny desire to do this for quite some time now. I am way to involved with that social networking site it's verging on disgusting.
And I suddenly hated the idea of people watching my life, and being able to twist and contort my reality into whatever they want.
And I realized I didn't want to be twisting other people's realities around, on accident or not, either.

I want to live my life without so many eyes on it.
Eye's I don't like, or don't know.

This I am sure, is a phase. I will back on FB eventually, hopefully with a healthier relationship, but as for now, I am crazy.

I also broke things off with my red head.
This one had a bigger thought process behind it, but it was still very sudden.
I didn't know that was what I needed until I woke up this morning.
I love the boy so much. He was my first friend at USU, and now he is one of my best friends.
He came into my life with such perfect timing, and brought everything I'd been needing with him.
In less than a year he has already begun to shape me into the adult I'll soon be.

The problem is, I don't know who that adult is going to be. Not yet.
And I can't let the boy shape me completely.
Some parts of me, have to be mine and mine alone.
So I woke up this morning and decided today is as good as any day to start taking a more active role is figuring out who I am, or more importantly, who I want to be.
So I very respectfully, closed the red door.
Leaving it on a question mark rather than a period though.

There is a certain someone who kind of inspired all this craziness.
Someone I hardly know at all, but I can tell already that one way or another, they are going to change me forever.
For the better.
Maybe I will introduce you one day.

Without FB, the blogosphere will be my life now.
Tune in for pictures, stories, and updates on my new crazy.

Day 2

I had my first love when I was 12 years old.

I told you I love love, and love relationships, but I failed to mention how truly early that love developed.

I was in 7th grade, with long, middle parted, uncolored hair.
So long ago that all of those have already come back in style, 

His name was Conner Hansen. He was obsessed with me, and still had braces. 

(but he was handsome, okay?!.)

He would call me on my home phone, after 9 when he got free minutes, every single day, until one day I fell in love. 

Except for the fact that I wouldn't let him talk to me at school, and our moms had to drop us off at each others houses, we had a fairly mature relationship for preteens. 

We talked on the phone everyday, we spent time together everyday, we had mutual friends, our families loved each other, and loved that me and conner loved each other even more.

He was the first to hold my hand, cuddle with me on the couch, and kiss me in the doorway.

We planned our marriage, until 8th grade came around and I decided he apparently wasn't THE ONE. 

That's when the slew of many boyfriends began... but that's really another story for another time. 

Granted we were not old enough to know anything about real love, but whatever love there is when you are 12, we were in it. 

And we stayed friends. 

For years every time my heart was broken, I called Conner. He always knew what to say.

After all this time the only picture I have of us is sophomore year, 

with my 12 extra pounds and Conner's lovely middle finger. 

Conner is now serving a mission, for those of you wondering where he ended up :)

The Next 30 Days

Feeling the need to blog, but having nothing to blog about.

The solution:

Day 01 – Introduce yourself with pictures and words

Day 02 – Your first love


Day 03 – Your parents


Day 04 – What you ate today 


Day 05 – Your definition of love


Day 06 – Your day

Day 07 – Your best friend


Day 08 – A moment


Day 09 – Your beliefs

Day 10 – What you wore today 


Day 11 – Your siblings


Day 12 – What’s in your bag


Day 13 – This week

Day 14 – What you wore today

Day 15 – Your dreams

Day 16 – Your first kiss

Day 17 – Your favorite memory


Day 18 – Your favorite birthday

Day 19 – Something you regret


Day 20 – This month


Day 21 – Another moment


Day 22 – Something that upsets you

Day 23 – Something that makes you feel better


Day 24 – Something that makes you cry

Day 25 – A first

Day 26 – Your fears

Day 27 – Your favorite place


Day 28 – Something that you miss


Day 29 – Your aspirations


Day 30 – One last moment

Let's Begin. 

Blog Titling

My adorable friend Hillary is going to start a blog soon, {don't worry I will let you know how to stalk her when it comes time} so tonight we sat at Farr's ice cream trying to think of clever titles. I was not good at this...

Let's go ahead and state the obvious, my title is not clever. 

In fact it's just a mouthful. 

When you create a blog spur of the moment, and it's asking you to type a title, the pressure is on. You didn't think this through, you have no idea why you are even trying to come up with a cute title cause you have absolutely no idea how to blog, and no one is ever going to read it anyway.

All I could think was "I'm pretty sure I can't do this..."

And Tada! Title, donezo. 

Now that I discovered I love blogging, and some people actually read what I write, my blog title is something I choose to ignore, and I invite you to do the same. 

Soul Surfin Yes Women

Yesterday I was inspired by 2 pretty stupid movies.

Soul Surfer and Yes Man.

The first had me and my Susan's eyes welling with tears, wishing we lived in Hawaii, but mostly wishing we were doing something with our lives.
The second we went through a lot in order to get our hands on.
A few days ago I saw Yes Man in the 5 dollar bucket at Walmart, I remember cause I stared at it debating whether or not I was going to buy it for 10 minutes. So when Susan and I simultaneously decided we both wanted to watch Yes Man, I knew exactly where to get it.
The problem was that the bucket had been refilled recently and all we could find was a million copies of The Pursuit of Happiness. Naturally we decided to take out all of the movies and stack them on the ground until Yes Man was found.

Somehow these 2 pieces of pure art inspired a lifestyle change for me and Sue. 

We are done worrying about the future so dang much. Every thought, every action, does not need to relate back to the big f. Instead, we are going to do whatever we feel like doing RIGHT NOW. 

or at least we are going to try... I've been a hardwired planner since birth so it'll be a tough habit to break. 

In addition to the right now, we are going to be Yes Women!

Not quite as drastically devoted to the word yes as Jim Carry was, but we are still entering into a committed relationship.

Hopefully all that yes leads to something worthwhile. 

Join us?! It's gonna be loads of fun.

Bumpin with the Borups

So the truth is finally going to come out...

I am going to open up to all of you followers.

Im addicted to the Kardashians, it' a guilty pleasure.

Any form of the Kardshians. Khloe and Lamar, kourtney and Kim, just the whole K  Klan in general.  

This is a little embarrassing to admit. I am aware that they are not the ideal role models for anyone, but basically I want to be them. 

More specifically, I want to be Kourtney. She is cracks me up.

"clench your teeth, clench em." 

(newest episode reference)

I am afraid I am more like Kim though, not in "the hot sister" way but in the "not even half as entertaining as the other sisters" way. Im working on it. 

My sister and I decided we are going to be like the kardashians. 

The Borup sistas people, watch out! Soon you are going to hate how much you love us.

And when you are talking about us, we want you to somehow work in the phrase, "Bumpin' up with the Borups". Thank you!
(my sister just told me that was "REALLY stupid"... see what happens when I try to be funny?!? failure.)

We are just as pretty right?! 

(Photo taken as we blog and watch the kardashians)

PS,

Potential guilty pleasure, Ice loves CoCo. Look into it, if you have a soft spot for all things E!. 

So hey, now that I have shared a dirty secret with you, will you all just follow me already. publicly would be preferred. There is something about your blog being followed that just makes you feel good, so consider it charity. 

Cause I KNOW you're reading this!!!

Sun, Sun Sun.

The pass of all passes is overrated. I prefer to soak up my sun here...

Where I don't run into all of Timpanogos High, but get to lay out poolside for hours with the company of a few of my favorite people. 

It's what my summers are all about.

Graduation Real Quick

So my little Catherine Camera graduated last Thursday, and I am so proud of her!
It was such a fun day full of friends, laughter, and pictures galore.

I wouldn't have miss this occasion for anything.
How happy she is right now is obvious, she is so excited about her next adventure, as she should be!
And I am so happy that I get to be apart of it all. I can't wait to make more memories with my best friend all summer, and more importantly at Utah State!

the best friends. 

Some cute girls of 2010

LOVING this girl. It's becoming an obsession. 

To The Class of 2011

Today is graduation for many of the friends I left behind at Timpanogos.

Congrats you guys, you got through high school!!!

Whether they were the worst, or the best years of your life, I want to give you all a little advice for your next step.

I just finished the adventure that you are about to embark on. 

I didn't do everything perfectly, learn from me. 

But I did do a lot of things right, follow me. 

1. Don't peak in high school. 

Don't let high school be the best years of your life. Decide today that whatever you are doing next, you are going to be better, you are going to work harder, and play even harder than that.

2. No matter how you feel, get up, get dressed and show up.

I might have stole that from a list Alysha shared with me, but it stuck with me.

No matter how bad you don't want to go to class, how badly you don't want to answer the phone call, reply to the text, go on the date, to the game, to the dance, the party, get up, get dressed, and show up. And my mom always adds, "If you're going to bother showing up, then show up big." So go ready to learn, wear a fabulous outfit, and an even more fabulous attitude. I can promise you, you will never regret following this rule. In fact, choosing to ignore this advice will bring the biggest regrets of all. 

3. Find Balance

This is the most difficult, if it's even possible, but making a conscious effort at trying to be balanced will leave you better off than if you don't try at all. You have to find a balance that works for you, and it won't be the same as anyone else's. Make time for yourself, for your roommates, for your family, for your lover, for your old friends, your new friends, make time for work, and for your school work. Discover how you can be completely happy, and fulfilled. Don't let school overwhelm you, your lover drown you, your friends control you, or your family pressure you. There is a balance, find it. 

Those are the big three for me. There are a lot more.. 

keep your body healthy, it matters more than you might think. ALWAYS be nice. Include others. Get good grades. Date. Grow up. Have fun. Don't burn bridges. Buy a laptop. Do what you are supposed to do, don't make someone else do it for you. Take pictures and write it down {start a blog}. 

The list could go on and on, but the three I chose are all encompassing, what I wish I knew a year ago, and what I'm still trying to master. 

Congrats class of 2011. It only gets better from here,

 if that's what you want.

Love,

Someone who was exactly where you are one year ago.

Time flies. 

Rekindling

I've discovered my latest craze, reconnecting with old friends.

Let me introduce (and reintroduce) you to some people I have rekindled the flame with recently...

She was my best friend my sophomore year of high school, well to be perfectly honest there was a point where she was my only friend... Those painful, slightly awkward and mostly embarrassing memories are not something we are going to revisit here, but we can talk about the lady who stood by me through it all, Lyss. 

After a slow fizzle of the friendship, and a few years of rarely talking, we are back on track. She is all grown up, out on her own, has an adorable boyfriend, and is the funnest/easiest person to talk to. 

Even after all this time, we know that we are going to love each other no matter what. 

The more we screw up, the better the stories are over our traditional chilli's lunch.

{We both looked a little rascally tonight, so naturally we covered our faces for the photo}

I've introduced you to her before, but I have underestimated how much I love CC. Since I am home for the summer, I get the privilege of seeing this girl pretty much whenever she can fit me into her schedule. And let me tell ya, the "friendship is just kicking off", to quote the exact words she just texted me.

She is hilarious, more adorable than ever, and still holds my heart :)

This summer, and next semester, are looking up with this little treat back in my life. 

This stud right here, is Landon. We have been friends for a long time now, but recently we have been talking and spending more time with each other than ever and I am LOVING it. 

He is the most genuine and kind nut I have ever met. Not to mention, he is constantly making me laugh, and saving me from boredom on a regular basis. 

Life is good when you have these people around. 

Go rekindle some old flames people, it's good for you :)

Mi Familia

Lets talk about what I've been doing the last couple days.

Spending a whole lot of time with these people...

My adorable family!

Maybe it's because I spent so much time away from them this last semester, or maybe I'm just going through a little anti-social phase, but recently I end up spending my nights at home and I'm enjoying it. 

Let me paint a picture for you.

A Mother Daughter Scene:

Mom and Daughter talking in their sweats on the mother's bed.

Mom: "Do you wish you could hang out with Darren this weekend?"

Daughter: "Uh, Yes." 

Regular old mom's would probably say, "oh I am sorry, you guys will see each other soon enough."

But this mom says, "Lets go down to zion! I will lay in the sun, and visit with my family and you can go play with Darren all day."

And Daughter says, "Mom, you are the coolest mom I know."

And Mom replies, "Oh great, remember that when you're old and you hate me."

Thus, my mom is cooler than your mom. 

Not to forget, my dad is adorable and my sister is a a gem who loves me unconditionally.

How could I not want to spend all my time with these people?!? 

I am one lucky duck. 

Don't Underestimate the Duff

"Never let the fear of striking out, keep you from playing the game"
Remember that cheesy quote from the Hillary Duff classic, A Cinderella Story??

Well that little pearl has been on my mind a lot lately... Naturally, since everything Duff says is so thought provoking.

But seriously, is there ever a time when fear should keep you from doing what you want?
I mean, where does self preservation come in?
Or is self preservation just a form of pride? Just people scared of feeling vulnerable or looking foolish?

I think at the end of the day, even if I look like a dumb nugget, I'm heartbroken, and I lose the game, I'd respect myself more, and have less regrets, knowing I gave it an honest shot.

Am I right?!?

But then sometimes I think, "Girl, why did you sit on the porch swing crying your eyes out for him to stay with you?! How embarrassing you dingy! Where did your self preservation instincts go?! Stupid."
Just as a hypothetical, non-specific example....

Im rambling over here. Trying to get my thoughts out so I can fall asleep.
And maybe dream of Chad Michael Murray; prior to the Sophia Bush debacle, of course.

You should most likely ignore this post completely. 

Home and Then What?

So we are home from St. George.. Now what?

I had been looking forward to that silly little weekend for so long, and now that is has come and gone I am left with nothing to look forward to for the next 3 months.
Too soon to plan another trip to southern Utah?

What are you guys doing with your summers?!?