I'm a Diet Coke addict, a student at the University of Arizona, and I'm a Mormon.

I'm not really in the mood to hash out all the things that have happened in the past week or so, so we will save that for a later blog post. I was inspired by my roommate Annabeth to write a blog post about myself for those of you who have only gotten to know me on the surface. Also, I'm slightly bored at work so I decided to blog.

Here are maybe 20 things about me and maybe more depending on what I feel like:

1. I was born in Houston, Texas and I consider that to be my "home". It confuses me when I have to tell people that my family currently lives in California.
2. I spent 2 and a half years living in Johannesburg, South Africa due to meeting the needs of my father's job.
3. I have one older sister named Katie who lives in Richmond, Texas.
4. My family has never had fewer than 3 pets since I've been alive. We currently have two dogs and two cats (I'm basically obsessed with Dewey and Charlotte).
5. I think I could live off of steak and cheesecake alone.
6. I came to the University of Arizona for their Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences program, only to switch over to Elementary Education this semester.
7. I grew up with a Jewish mother and a Catholic father, and somewhere along the way I became a Mormon.
8. If I have any free time (and motivation) I like to make things. Food, crafts, friends, etc. I'd rather make something than buy it.
9. Being in control of things gives me peace and comfort. That's why I like driving so much.
10. I started kindergarten a whole year early so I have always been a year younger than my classmates.
11. I love to sing in the car, shower, and in my house but I'm terrified of singing in front of large groups of people. Even after four years of choir I would still have panic attacks before each performance.
12. I've been told quite a lot that I am a loud person. I get that from my family - when we are together we all yell over each other in an attempt to be heard when in reality no one is listening.
13. My mother lost 50 pounds a few years ago and she has become a fitness queen ever since. Go mom.
14. I'm only somewhat addicted to Diet Coke.
15. I live with three awesome girls who always keep life interesting and fun.
16. I don't do things halfway. In my life I'm either all the way in or all the way out.
17. Did I mention that I'm in love with my dapple dachshund, Dewey? He makes me so happy and he's probably the best cuddle buddy I've found so far. I've never met a dog who wants to be near people so bad in my life.
18. My roommates and I used to have a fish until Annabeth took it to her parent's house over Christmas break. We have yet to see Opruh again.
19. I don't know what I would do without my friends that I've made here in Tucson. They help keep me grounded and provide comfort and joy during the crazy school/work week.
20. I worked at the Gap for about a month and a half in October. It sucked so bad. I quit and now I just work at the SALT Center on campus as a front desk assistant. I basically greet people as they walk in and deal with phones and mail.
21. My bucket list is made up of things that I want to do, but I know I will have to make an effort for them to happen. There are only two things on it: 1) visit all 7 continents in my lifetime (4 down, 3 to go) and 2) find a Greek restaurant/club and break plates (even if it means going to Greece).

I made the list 21 facts because I wanted to be rebellious. Props to you if you read that whole thing. I will include a wonderful picture of the love of my life as a reward for reading it.

Too school for cool

HELLO everyone!! Yesterday was my first day back at school and it rocked!

To start out, Sydney and I headed over to the institute to park and take a first day of school picture.

Then I went to my Spanish class and my teacher was so cute and nice! She's a little Mexican lady and her accent is the best. I'm excited for that class.

The next class I went to was Sociology. I'm not going to talk about that one much but we'll get to that later.

After Sociology, I ate some lunch and then went to the SALT Center for my shift of work. After work, I brought EJ something he left at our house, and then I went home. Since we didn't watch Pretty Little Liars on Tuesday, we celebrated it yesterday. In our house, PLL night means Chipotle. So we got Chipotle, brought it back home, and then ate it while we watched it. We had some technical difficulties getting the show to work but it was all good in the end.

After PLL, I got everything organized for today and then went to bed. Unfortunately, I didn't go right to bed, because Sydney and I stayed up late having roommate chit chat. It was worth it for the bonding though.

That brings me to today! My first class of the day just happened to be with my BFF Sydney! We are taking Theater Appreciation and so far it is like the coolest class ever. We have to watch plays and attend performances on campus and talk about them. For two theater/musical/choir/play nerds, this class is perfect. Here is a picture of us enjoying ourselves before class started. Oh and it is in the nicest building ever! I want to be in that class simply because of how cool the classrooms are.

After class, I went to meet with an advisor because....drumroll please....I switched my major! I am now technically a Pre-Education major and I will be able to apply to the program next fall. My advisor was super nice and I found out that I'm not as far behind in the Education program as I thought I was, which was super nice. My advisor also told me that two of the classes I had signed up for were useless so I didn't go to my next class. That is why I didn't talk much about Sociology - it has now been replaced by a Religion class. My other class is about Italian authors and Renaissance works and I have yet to go to it since I only enrolled in it this afternoon, but my first day will be on Tuesday. 

After meeting with my advisor, I had a lovely lunch with my friends Sydney and EJ, and then Sydney, Lauren, Matt and I went to Institute class! We are in Doctrine and Covenants, which is a continuation of the class I took last semester. For those of you who don't know, the "Doctrine and Covenants" are a set of modern-day revelations for our Church. They are from the 1800's and they are really fun to study because it's really cool to get to see how revelation and doctrine changes as the world changes. It is definitely easier for me to relate to the Doctrine and Covenants because I feel like it's more relevant in my life. Sydney was kind enough to be our pianist in class. I think she's a cute pianist. 

School seems to be really good this year - and I'm excited to keep going! Tomorrow I have Spanish again, then my Religion class for the first time. Then I have Devotional (a lecture series class at church), Dollar Lunch (also at church), and then a SALT Center shift. This weekend is extra exciting because Taylor and Natalie are having their Tucson reception, and we have no school on Monday! 

Canvas and Cabernet

As one final hoo-rah before Katie went back to Texas, the girls went out to one of our new favorite places - Canvas and Cabernet! Only one of us was into the "cabernet" part of the night, but that's ok. Basically it's a place in downtown Walnut Creek where you go to a painting class and the teachers are really fun and they walk you through a painting step by step. You're there for 3 hours so they added a booze element to loosen people up a little bit. We are dying to take my dad there and see what he comes up with... My mom and I went there for the first time over the summer and we loved it so much that we decided to go with Katie over Winter Break!

Before we went to our painting class, we stopped at one of my very favorite restaurants around home, Jules pizza! They seriously have the best gourmet pizza ever. It's inexpensive, close, and super yummy. I got the veggie pesto pizza and the barbecue chicken, as always.

This picture is sideways but I think you get the gist. 

Painting time!!!! Our inspiration was Van Gogh's Irises. Here is a picture of that painting so you have a reference. 

Here's how it started...

The instructor had her own up at the front of the class so we could watch as she painted along with us step by step. 

My cute Mom and sister painting away. 

Roughly halfway through...looking a lot like kelp. 

Action shots!

This was during our drying break. Unfortunately I had a searing headache the whole time and I was quite grumpy. Around the drying break I forgot to keep taking pictures so this is the last one...it was also a late class so it was hard to stay focused and awake. But I managed to take a picture of the finished product....

Ta dah!!!!

Since then, my break has been full of Netflix, food, sleep, friends, dogs, family, and all the other good things in life. I've got doctor's appointments and old high school visits lined up for the rest of this week as I get ready to go back to Tucson and have a fresh start at school this semester! I could not be more excited. 

Winter Break!!

So to start off, on Friday Lauren and I, along with our dear friend Cody, took a mini roadtrip over to Thatcher. Let me tell you, it was like stepping into a whole new world. The snow on the mountain was absolutely beautiful and it was oh so fun to be able to have a getaway and play in the snow for hours! We ate a ton of good food and met some really cool people while we were there. Shoutout to Cody for showing us the ropes and being our official Thatcher tour guide. I'm so thankful for good friends who are always up for an adventure and for Lauren, who is the best partner in crime out there!

I became really obsessed with trying to get a picture with snow in my hair. I felt like an ice princess!

As I grew up in Texas, South Africa, and California, I didn't grow up seeing much snow. My family took a vacation to Lake Tahoe in 2006 shortly after we moved to California, and I saw some slushy snow last year in Tucson. Needless to say, I was super excited to be in snow again and to have all day to play in it. 

Some of Cody's friends were volunteer firemen so they let us into the Pima firehouse and let us try on their outfits. I think I shall start wearing this to church. Super classy and flattering. They also took us on rides in the firetrucks! So cool. 

Saturday morning (December 19) was EJ's graduation part 2! It was full of Richardson antics, awesome speakers, and a huge snowball fight!! So cool. 

Above is a picture of EJ and I at his first graduation ceremony, the one on Thursday night that was for his college only. 

And here is the official graduate!!! I'm so proud of my best friend for graduating with honors, and I know that he is moving on to bigger and better things. 

Once I came home from Tucson, it was time for CHRISTMAS! Which has always been my favorite time of year (yes, even when I was Jewish) because of how magical everything seems. Even though it's stressful and being around family sometimes brings out the worst in all of us, I feel like it's hard to truly be angry or sad around Christmas. 

Here are my cute parents at dinner on Christmas Eve!

And Katie and I. It's our family tradition to eat Italian food (specifically lasagna) and go to the movies on Christmas Eve. We haven't done exactly that in a while, so it was really fun to go to our favorite Italian restaurant, Mangia Mi, and to go see Saving Mr. Banks together. 

I'm rather proud of the Nutcracker setup that I make every year. Can you tell I like things to be symmetrical and organized?

We love animals in this house and during the holidays there seem to be so many in our tiny house. Owen thinks he's a lap dog, which isn't necessarily true because he weighs 75 pounds. 

Present opening time! Onesies are a must. 

My lovely sister made me some custom wooden spoons for my kitchen in Tucson! They have cute different designs on each one. :)

More loving on Owen. 

Dewey was definitely in on the action. 

Owen displaying how much of a lap dog he truly is. 

I made Katie a piece of art with a heart over Houston, now that she lives near Katy I figured I would make this for her, because I know that no matter where we lived, her heart was always still in Texas. 

Poker face is always a must. 

Duck lips for new lipgloss. Dewey is showing off his new bone as well. 

My wonderful Aunt and Uncle who live in London sent me these beautiful Steve Madden boots! They are my first pair of real leather boots and I was so in love with how good they smelled! Nothing beats new leather smell. 

The day after Christmas, I boarded a plane at 5:30 AM to head off to Utah!! I had only been there once last October, so this was my first time being there in the snow. I was so in awe at how the mountains looked from the plane.

I'm rather proud of this sunset shot that I got as we were descending into Salt Lake City. 

Once I was there, I was thrown straight into wedding mode! Natalie and her cousin picked me up from the airport, and after we got her friend Justine as well, we stopped by her grandparents house for some breakfast. After breakfast it was time to get a hair trial done and have lunch with the girls!

Natalie looking like the beautiful princess she truly is. 

After hair and lunch, we went back to the grandparents house to assist Natalie's mom and sisters with all the last-minute touches. Natalie's sister, Collette, got married the day after Natalie, so there was a lot to be done. Their mother made all of the flowers for both weddings out of fabric and they were so beautiful! We helped with steaming the dress (Collette did that part), cleaning vases, wiping down mirrors, and doing everything we could to make sure that all of the centerpieces would be perfect. We had a little bit of downtime where we helped Natalie pack her weekend bag for after the wedding, then we headed off to the nail salon! 

Gettin sassy while having a pedicure.

After the nails, Natalie and Justine took me to Orem where I played laser tag with all of my Tucson friends! Among the group who road-tripped up was EJ, Sydney, Dakota, Mark, Steph Luc, and Clark. After laser tag, we went back to our beautiful hotels that Taylor's mother generously provided for us. The next morning - it was wedding time! We went to Taylor's house to help him get ready and then it was off to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple!

Sydney and Steph Luc had both brought their cameras to film the wedding, so you know I was hamming it up and trying to get them to take pictures of me at every moment. 

Selfies with the bride and groom are a necessity at any wedding. 

Anddddd poker face yet again. 

Hotties. 

The weather was beautiful! There was still snow on the ground but it was sunny and not too cold. 

In between the sealing ceremony and the reception, we went to Target to pick up some last minute cards. We still had time to kill so we went into Seagull Book (an LDS bookstore). My favorite item in the store was this food storage kit, endorsed by none other than Marie Osmond. What a gem. 

She's a wise woman y'all. 

Reception time!!! Here is the whole Tucson crew!!

One of the missionaries who used to serve in Tucson was there! Shoutout to Sister Rupp (Bethany). She was babysitting her nephew who was such a cutie so I kind of stole him for a while. It was a good conversation starter. The wedding was so much fun and I love Natalie and Taylor so much! They are such kind and warm people, and I know we are gonna party it up at their Arizona reception. 

After Utah, I came back to San Ramon and I've been having a pretty quiet and relaxing time. I went out to lunch with Wes one day, and it was super nice to catch up. Monday night there was a choir reunion party which was fun because I hadn't seen or even talked to most of the people there in a while. Thanks Natty for always being the host of our choir parties!!

On New Year's Eve, I babysat for one of my favorite little girls of all time, Madison. I have been babysitting/nannying for her since she was 5 months old. She is now 4 1/2 and I love her as if she were my own! Her little sister Mackenzie is pretty cute too. We watched Brave, How to Train Your Dragon, and part of Hercules. Madison even got to stay up a little late because it was a holiday!! While I was babysitting, my mom sent me this gem of a photo.  

Dewey is a total Jack Mormon. 

Now it is New Year's Day and my mom and I just got home from having a foot reflexology massage! It's one of our favorite mommy daughter dates, and it certainly relaxed us. Now we are more than ready to go out to dinner and celebrate Katie's 23rd birthday! It's not until the 4th but we are celebrating now because she is flying back to Texas on the 3rd. 

For  your viewing pleasure, please enjoy this video of Owen opening up his Christmas present.