happy easter!

image by hillsong united found here 

happy easter! today i'm choosing to remember what Jesus did on the cross so many years ago. it really is the most important part. not only did He die for us, but He conquered death and rose again! He did what He said He would do. He wasn't a liar. He was and is our Savior. i'm very thankful for this and i'm praying this morning that since more people will be going to churches today that they would hear the gospel message and respond to it and want a personal relationship with God. and i'm praying that you all have a sweet day with family and friends! i'll be eating so many delicious foods at my aunts house with my family. i can already feel the food coma coming on (as well as like five pounds i'm going to gain from eating so much). it's so worth it though.

PARKS AND REC

i can't believe i haven't written about this sooner. but, back in january we got frantic texts saying that amy poehler and adam scott would be filming scenes for parks and rec just a few minutes from our house at the orange circle. so me and all my friends who are obsessed ran down to the circle. as you can see, natalie and two of my friends got to meet adam scott while jessica and i were getting everyone waters -.- heather got to throw away her water outside of someone's trailer (the costume trailer most likely hah) and we watched amy and adam do a scene together for about thirty minutes. she even said hi to us! we're best friends now. so cool.

remember when

remember when i wore this headband to cover my bangs for two months? at least it was really cute! also, remember when the place we went to for melissa's birthday was fantastic! downtown fullerton, you are good. good food, good stores, great places for coffee and tea. just good. also, remember when cathee came to church with me and my sister? it made us very happy. especially when we got pieology afterwards.

someone take me back to pieology, please

kean coffee is amazing. pretty much anything with latte art is rad, but kean coffee is especially rad. pieology is fantastic (minus some of the staff, unfortunately). it's basically like a chipotle, but for pizza. i want to go back every weekend. i also wish i could hang out with emily and jess every weekend. well, pretty soon i will be with jess all the time since we'll be living together! eeek! so excited.

book review(s): reached and requiem

spoiler alert: i'm going to talk about the ending to the matched series and the delirium series. so if you haven't read either of these yet or don't want to know the endings then don't read the rest of this post.

i absolutely love reading books. it's something i always look forward to and something i really enjoy doing whenever i have a free moment. getting lost in the world of whatever book i'm reading and imagining what the characters are feeling or going through is something i really cherish. over the past few months, two books have come out with the last book of their series. and i was really looking forward to reading them and getting to know the conclusion to each of the books. but, that never came.

first, when i read reached, the book ended so horribly. it was completely open-ended and i was pretty mad. the author didn't even say what really happened to the society. she wanted the readers to imagine what would happen to the world on their own. and excuse me, sometimes that is fine for a book to end that way, but not in this kind of book. i wasn't extremely invested in the characters, so i let the ending slide. i thought the author was a dumb idiot for leaving it so open but whatever. i moved on.

the next book i read, requiem, was one that i was really looking forward to. it's my sister's absolute favorite series (or i should say was) so i was looking forward to reading it and discussing it with her. boy, do we have  a lot to discuss. actually, no, not a lot to discuss. just a lot of things to get angry about. could you imagine if you had a favorite series and you had invested your time in learning about the characters and seeing them develop and how they're relationships develop with the other characters and then be left in the middle of everything with no explanations or closure? like right at the climax the book just stops? yeah, that's exactly what happened in this book. to say i was ticked off is an understatement.

anyways. ally condie and lauren oliver, i'm really disappointed in you both and i feel like you let your readers down big time. we buy your books to get lost in your world. we don't want to figure out the ending on our own. that's why we pay to read your story. it's really a big cop-out, in my opinion, to leave the reader with no answers whatsoever. and it made me feel like i had just watched lost again. i was left with so many unanswered questions and had no idea what really was going on. it was almost a waste of my time.

life lately

 

life has been good lately. over the past few weeks i went to my friend's wedding (they even had donuts for desserts!), have been running with natalie (we're doing the couch to 5k and the drop10 challenge right now!), had my last day at school with friends, went on a hike with nat and siaira (and watched a guy jump off a cliff and almost die basically), went to the beach with austin and walked gracie to the dog beach, then went to ruby's and bjs in one night for free dinner and free pizookies. gosh i love oreo pizookies.

last final. ever. happened yesterday.

as of yesterday, i am officially done with college. i took my last final, went to target with nat to buy cheez-its, came home, asked nat to take a few pictures of me, and hopped in the planter... tried not to fall over but did and then celebrated the day by not studying for the cpa exam! it's nice to take a day off from studying (for that exam because believe me i was studying all morning for my final). the night also consisted of me making shrimp and chicken tacos, going on a jog, reading requiem, and a taking a long nap. pretty good day in my book. 

sundays are for sister dates. V.4

Sundays are for sister dates. But today we just took photos in our backyard since I had to leave right after we got home from church. We figured out that Natalie sucks at taking jumping photos of other people and that Casey will roll into the wall in the backyard just so she can roll over a bug. We also made fun of how ugly the pants are in the sisterhood of the traveling pants. It's because Blake lively wore them.

because...

going running with your friends and then laying around on your front lawn is way better than studying.

last day of school. ever.

today is my last day of school. ever. (besides my one final next week). it's so strange to think that after so many years, this part of my life is coming to an end and pretty soon i'll be a full-time, business professional (hopefully have my CPA!) adult. i couldn't find any school pictures of me from when i was little, but those would have only been from pre-k because i was homeschooled from kindergarten through sixth grade. i'm really proud of myself and i'm happy that i stuck through school and completed my degree. i took my time in college (i went to school for 6 years), but i honestly had a hard time picking what i wanted to major in. it's such a hard decision and i envy those people who just know what they want a degree in or what they're good at and just go for it. but that wasn't me. i was okay at a lot more things than being amazing in one particular subject. i did always like math though, so after majoring in stats for a while i stuck with accounting instead. 

anyways, i'm really excited with where i'm at in life. i'm so thankful that i had the opportunity to go to school and now have the opportunity to work for a wonderful firm starting in july. i'm not sure what God will do with my degree in accounting, but i know that i just need to continue to be open to whatever it is that He has for me and for my life (professionally and personally). i'm so glad i did it! yay for college degrees!

study break

my brain hurts. studying for the CPA exam sucks. the few things keeping me distracted sane include:
  + working out (which is going really well for me and my sister, i might add!).
  + watching tv, including: sons of guns, workaholics, say yes to the dress, the walking dead, and any of the apartment/house buying shows my mom has on (my tv show selection is so random! hah!).
  + trying to read books (currently reading requiem and attempting to finish the bell jar. almost done!). i have been missing reading so much lately, but i feel so guilty whenever i do read because i know i should be studying. it sucks!
  + fun run. go download it. you just need to.
  + blogging. not necessarily me posting, but reading other people's posts. it helps me so much to get my mind off of things. what would i do without you, blogging world?
  + free cheesecake cards to cheesecake factory.
  + trying out new recipes (even if i don't end up liking them).
  + making future plans. i'm dreaming of when i'll get to move out in a few months and decorate my own apartment! it's so exciting!
  + car rides with my special someone.
  + & snapchatting friends throughout the day.

and now that i've posted this, i'm back to studying. i know, you're jealous.

rain, please.

photos found via: 1, 2, 3, 4 (my sister and at lake quinault in the olympic national forest)

i know spring is coming soon and everyone is all excited about warm sunny days (and i am too, just not as much), but yesterday it rained and it made me so happy and that much more excited for my trip to washington/vancouver this summer. i know i'm in the minority, but if it rained almost everyday i would love it. 

churchill - change

another new favorite that's been on repeat. it's funny, once i find a song that i love i'll play it over and over again for a few weeks straight. at least. do you do that too? or am i the only one? anyways, enjoy!

regenerate retreat

my sister and i have been going to a new church now for the past six months and it has been wonderful. natalie and i grew up with the pastor's wife (our families are like families) and it has been awesome to see how God is using her and brenen. back in january, we went on their college retreat up in lake arrowhead and had such a rad time. we even made friends (i'm still so proud of us!). we didn't spend a whole lot of time outside, but the weekend rocked. i hadn't been on a retreat in a while and it was nice to get away and just hang out with some good friends and spend some time with God. and the worship was phenomenal. i loved it!

 it was so great getting to hang out with people i grew up with! the photo above is of a group of us who grew up together and who's parents are still very close. it's so cool seeing us all grown up and those of us who have a relationship with the Lord. we are blessed! i can't wait to go on another retreat and to get to hang out with these long-time friends again (hopefully that happens before next year!). God is awesome!

sundays are for sister dates. v.3

sundays are for sister dates (plus friends!) at pieology, visiting our old pastor's new church for their new re-launch, having to go to chipotle since pieology lies about being gluten free, freaking out about the fact that delirium is going to be a tv series (how would they even do that?!), and then napping for as long as you can before you have to study for your cpa exam. again. (it still is no fun.)