Monday Moods: Happiest People

LOVE THIS QUOTE!!! 

Last week I was in lovely Florida, so it was easy to make the best of everything :) Now that I'm home, I'm not gonna lie I wish I was back on the beach but I've got to make the best of going back to work and back to reality. I've been so blessed in my life, which can make it easy to focus on the negative when things don't go your way or when you"don't have the best of everything".  

So this week let's make the best of everything :) xoxo

Must see this blog!

As of lately I have become an addict. I AM ADDICTED TO PINTEREST! Now I would consider this a healthy addiction (besides the time spent in front of a computer screen) because I have discovered new recipes, found inspiration, gotten fashion ideas and come across amazing websites.

Today, I  kept seeing awesomely cute outfits and found the blog of Miss Sydney and her husband Tyson! 
The Daybook.

Not only are the outfits she posts so perfectly put together but she's from Idaho (I think) sooo really close to Utah. I mention this because she is LDS which makes me even more excited because I know that their culture can get the bad wrap of being a little "stuffy" (just repeating what I've heard)...and her blog and fashion are anything but stuffy. Her style is so fresh and her positive personality can be felt in every post! Plus all the clothes she wears are not super expensive...and she does giveaways :)

I love this blog, check it out!

Click me>>>The Daybook.

Monday Moods- Oprah's Quote

This quote is so simple but profound. Love it! Try something new this week, step out on a limb and reach for a goal that you have been thinking about for a while :)

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 Hopefully I can stick to this- but I'm thinking every Monday I will do a "Monday Moods" post. Something positive that will help us all start our weeks off on the right foot in the right frame of mind! (since mondays kinda suck sometimes haha)

Busy Bee...not so alone :)

This post makes me laugh...my last post was about how "alone" I felt and I haven't been able to blog in a while because I've been so busy!

I've had a bachelorette party, bridal shower, and wedding all in the past week! I went boating and to lagoon (Utah's theme park) on Saturday. My 21st birthday is tomorrow!!!!!!!!!! And I've got another wedding this week! Whew! I love it!

Being busy is great and it's even better because I've been spending all that time with family and friends! Totally contradicts being alone :) I'll post the details and pics of all these adventures once I have a chance to breath!!!

I feel alone

I know I'm not...but I feel alone. This might be because today I am in a pessimistic mood (girl hormone issues). Recently I've began to notice my friends and all the other friends they have other than me. Now I am not saying that I expect to be the only friend they will ever have but I'll admit I feel out of the loop. And it doesn't help being graduated while your other girlfriends are still in college. But it's not just that. Many of my friends are married and so they have new lives where they hang out with married couples and it just seems like the old things you used to enjoy (i.e single ladies night, sleepovers) just aren't much of an option.

To be honest I'm not sure what I expect to get out of this post (or what you will get out of it) besides an expression of excessive complaining. But I know this is common. There are the few of us who are lucky to have that group of besties we've had since middle school and then there are those who might have one or two besties that are luckily still around (that's me). Yet, we are all so busy that at times I question if I even have a steady, official best friend. So what do you do? Is this the moment when it's time to become your independent self where you can go eat at a restaurant alone? Or do you search for new friends?

Having friends is such a conundrum because you spend your life trying to have as many friends as you can, spend your time, money and energy trying to keep them but in the end you may end up with none of them. Your family is the one type of friend that never leaves (in most cases). So do you make your family your friend? Well in my situation (I am an only child), going to Vegas with your parents and bar hopping can only last so long, age 55 max. True, my boyfriend is my best friend but again, he can only take so much shopping and pmsing...

Now I can't keep writing this post without saying that yes, if I put more of a conscious effort to reach out to my friends and stay up late on weeknights (12am) I may not be feeling this way. Yet, have you ever heard the term out of sight out of mind? Well this is what happens after college. If you aren't on campus or at the sorority house or at weekends parties, people think you've died. I can't even count on both hands how many times I've come out of my dungeon to attend a party and 3 trillion people are like "oh my gosh I haven't seen you forever!! Where have you been?!" ....oh...so is this why you've started writing my obituary??

Luckily we have facebook and twitter to make us feel semi involved with the rest of the world, yet even that only goes so far. Example:

Friend #1: "Hey girl i miss your freakin face we need to catch up"
Friend #2: (extremely surprised and ecstatic) " oh my gosh I know!! Can we please do lunch or a girls' night asap?!"
Friend #1: "Yea I'm down lets do it next week!"
....[20 weeks later]....
Friend #1: "I miss you so much where have you been?!! Let's please do something!"

Yea you get the (exaggerated) picture. So anywho, if you've read this far (thank you), what do you think? What do we do when we reach that point in our lives when friends are important but are so hard to keep/find? Well I guess it's kind of like dating. It reminds me of the movie "I Love You, Man" where the main guy is getting married but has never had any close guy friends so he's in search of his best man. He ends up trying to meet guy friends at the gym, bars, etc. and puts in a hell of an effort to go out with his new man friend and spend a lot of time together.

 Sounds super silly but it is what it is. Once our friends are not readily available to us (tunnels connecting our houses) we are faced with the reality of actually "trying"! It's so hard, but if having a social life is important you've got to make it a priority, just like with anything else. If you want to be in shape you've gotta make time to go to the gym. So lo and behold...if we want something in life we've gotta go get it! It's the simple saying of "the phone works both ways!" Call them and MAKE them hang out with you haha, if it takes a few times of you taking the initiative first then so be it, they'll come around. And if they don't, damn flakes, then they aren't worthy of being your friend anyway :)

Watch Out! Identity/Credit Theft Prevention

I am sure all of you have been nagged by your parents or by Oprah about protecting your credit cards and social securities numbers. Yes it is all annoyingly repetitive but worth listening to...Luckily I've never experienced my bank account being hacked (*knock on wood*) but I have had many friends who have been victims of credit fraud.

Recently one of my friends received a text message saying her debit card had been deactivated and she needed to call this number to reactivate it. It was a recording that sounded similar to her bank and asked her for her card number and last digits of her social security. Seems typical right? Turns out some guy in California hacked her information and was withdrawing money from an ATM! In fact, just the other day I just received an email from Chase Bank asking me to verify my information because it couldn't be processed...but wait, I don't even have an account with Chase Bank...sooo scary!!

Anywho here are some tips I've either read about or that have been drilled into my head by my lovely parents!

1. DON'T keep your social security card in your wallet, memorize your number and keep your card locked away in a safe place.
2. ALWAYS check up on your bank accounts, make sure there are no weird charges. This will also help you keep track of your balance so you don't overdraft :) Also check your credit report from time to time to make sure everything is correct (i.e. accounts, addresses).
3. NEVER give your entire social security number over the phone, internet, or mail, no matter who it is. They should only be asking for your last four digits. It is only ok when you are applying for a credit card or it is school/government related, but even then make sure it is a secure site!
4. DON'T respond to a text or email from someone who is asking for your personal information because these days it can be made to look like an official email from your bank, but ends up being a trap. If you ever give out your info make sure you know who you are talking to and make sure any contact you receive is coming directly from your bank's website (even websites can be hacked). Not to mention, you can always go into your bank branch and do it in person just to be safe.
5. CONSIDER opening a separate banking account to use for online purchases amd only transfer the amount of money you need.Yes, this is a pain but it's definitely worth the extra effort because if that account gets hacked they won't have access to the millions of dollars you've got saved up in your main account ;). The Internet can be a scary place these days, you never know who is waiting on the other side to steal your information.
6. TRY to change your passwords often, yes this is also a pain, but again worth it because hackers can get into your emails and still any information they find. And don't use obvious passwords like 123456.
7. SHRED, SHRED, SHRED!!! I am somewhat OCD when it come to this. I shred everything! Even my receipts from McDonald's because it has the last four digits of my debit card on it. Believe me! There are people out there who dumpster dive as a hobby. All it takes is one non-shredded bank statement or even a poorly torn apart paper for them to uncover your personal information. Invest in a shredder.

Hope you can use some of these tips!!

Lake Powell!!!

Spent the past week in Lake Powell and I am not very happy about being back home! But I had a great time! I went with Greg's family again this year and it was even better than last year! We stayed in the most perfect spot and had great weather. It did storm for half of one day but I was still able to get my tan on :)

 This year I was convinced I would clear the wake on a wakeboard but the water ended up being too  choppy to even wakeboard so we spend most of the time surfing which I am pretty much pro at (aka "pro" means without rope). <<<video watch it<<<

Greg's cousins brought a jetski which was so amazing to have, I had a hoot of a time throwing Greg off the back of it (and getting thrown off) and showing Greg the speed demon inside of me (55mph). Since we had the jetski we were able to go to the area we stayed at last year. We found the place where we carved our names in a rock and were able to carve "2011". It was crazy to sit there and realize that one year ago we were sitting in the same spot :) 

last year's picture

2010

this year <3

2011

My favorite part of Lake Powell is sleeping on the very top of the houseboat and falling asleep to the stars and waking up to the sunshine...yes the spiders and bugs freak me out sometimes but it's fun sleeping outside. Speaking of spiders...one night we all came back to the houseboat and as we were parking the speedboat someone yells "spiders!". There was a bizzilion spiders on the side of the houseboat, oh and the best part was that one was a black widow! With a red hourglass on it! Now I'm sure you know what that means, but for those of you who don't, the female black widow is the most poisonous spider! One bite and you're a goner! Luckily my manly boyfriend smashed it with a bottle and we were safe. Yet I still kept replaying the episode of "I shouldn't be alive" where the little boy got bitten by a black widow and was only saved because his dad smuggled a vaccine from Mexico. 

Anywho...we all had a great time. Greg's nephew, Kaden, who is barely 5 years old got up on the wakeboard, he is going to be a professional!! We had a "relaxation station" which was perfect to lounge on all day and catch up on my reading :)

  Lake Powell is so beautiful day or night.

I was so grateful to be able to go and spend time with such a great family and enojy the beautiful scene and sunshine of Lake Powell, I think I might have to go back tomorrow I had such a perfect, fun time!!