well HELLO

Sorry it's been a while since I've posted. I've been a little busy.
Let me give you a quick update:

I switched my major! I was going into Business Management but when I saw how many more accounting classes I had to take I wanted to shoot myself. SO I decided it was time to do something else. I'm now a Communications major with an emphasis in Public Relations! I'm really excited about it! Now I just have to survive the rest of this semester.... BLAH

Work has been a very humbling experience. It's been kind of kicking my butt but I'm fighting back now. And I will dominate!

There's someone I'd like you all to meet...

This is the boyfriend :)
We've been dating for about 3 weeks now and we spend like every second we can together:
This is at my friend's daughter's 4th birthday party

BYU football game (BYU won!)



Anyway he's pretty wonderful.

I hope you all have a FANTASTIC Thanksgiving! The boyfriend and I are going to spend Thanksgiving with my aunt's family in Salt Lake! Happy eating!!!

Bestie Day 2011

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

Today is a beautiful day! Know why???

It's NOT because my alarm went off at 7:25 this morning (which I couldn't figure out why...then I remembered it's because I didn't do any homework yesterday...and I have stuff due today)

It's because today is PAY DAY!

Whoever said money can't buy happiness LIED because when I checked my bank account and saw that I actually have money now, I wanted to jump around my room singing "I've got a dollar! I've got a dollar! I've got a dollar hey hey hey hey!" I did see a pinterest quote once that read: "I know that money can't buy happiness but money can buy icecream, which is practically the same thing."

ANYWAY

Just wanted to show you some pictures from last Saturday. BECAUSE I wanted you to know that I DO have FRIENDS and sometimes I don't have to WORK on a Saturday night and I DO go out and have FUN and NOT sit ALONE in my apartment watching TV. Oh wait...I don't do that...ever...

WHATEVER

SO me and my besties ate a spooky dinner (which I don't have pictures of) and watched SIGNS in a sweet fort at bestie Keri's apartment and then went to a corn maze in the DARK

SHADE

The most wonderful thing happened to me this week.

My store opened on Thursday.

If you didn't already know, I work for the Gymboree Corporation. Over a year ago Gymboree bought out a women's clothing store called, Shade. Just after Shade left the mall (which I was SOO upset about because I loved their basic layering tees - seriously I almost cried) I started working for the Gymboree Corp. in one of their children's clothing stores, Crazy 8.

Almost 2 months ago I found out that we were going to re-open Shade - at MY mall.
This is the project that my district manager (love her!) picked me to be apart of. Originally I was going to stay at Crazy 8 working as a manager like I have for the past year and also work as a manager at Shade. I was a little disappointed that I wasn't going to be able to give all my time and attention to Shade - not that I don't love Crazy 8 but this Shade project is an experience of a lifetime!
How many people can say that they had the opportunity to build a new brand for a company? And be apart of the first store in the country!

Last week I found out that my district manager (again love her!) talked to corporate and convinced them to let Shade have a part-time assistant manager (there was no assistant manager position to begin with). She told them that she already had someone who would be perfect for the position. That person is ME!!

I am the assistant manager for the first and (currently) only Shade store in the USA!

I seriously cannot describe how wonderful and seriously amazing this past week has been for me. I feel like everything that I've learned during the past 5 years spent working in retail is finally coming together for this project. I've enjoyed every single second of this 40+ hour week and I can't WAIT to see what happens between now and January (as of now we're only open till after the holidays).

I feel like I can start to see what Heavenly Father has been doing with me over the past 5 or 6 years. And I can't even begin to say how grateful I am for how everything has been turning out. I truely believe that Heavenly Father knows the deepest desires of our hearts - because I can tell you, I would never have guessed and I didn't even realize it but I had been longing for this.

I found this quote on pinterst and it totally describes how I feel about my store (and I know that's like totally crazy and you probably think I'm nuts for feeling this way about a store but it's just everything about it): "And then my soul saw you and it kind of went 'Oh there you are. I've been looking for you."

I'm love with my store, it's like my baby. And our whole team is just fantastic. I just know we're going to rock it!

Check out the Shade website and you'll see for yourself how wonderful it is: www.shadeclothing.com

Curse you Facebook!

So I have this crush on a kid in one of my classes. K, I just think he's cute. I really don't know him that well. We've talked like maybe 5 times.

Instead of being a normal person and just talking to him and try to get to know him better...I decided to facebook stalk him. <--Mistake #1

I realized that I didn't even know his name. So I couldn't even find him on fbook so I could stalk him.
Instead of being a normal person and just asking him his name (you know so we could TALK more), I (like a creeper) looked over his shoulder in class and saw his name on one of his papers. <--Mistake #2 [I blame this one on all the spy shows I watch]

Yay I found out his name and now I can find him on fbook!
So of course late Friday night I fbook stalk him. <--Mistake #3 [I was alone. NEVER fbook stalk someone by yourself. You'll end up doing something stupid. Trust me.]

You guessed it. I did something stupid. I sent a friend request. <--Mistake #4. We've only talked like maybe 5 times. He probably doesn't even know my name.
But of course I justify it because we had talked so long in class earlier that day. Why would he not want to be fbook friends with me?

Monday rolls around. He still hasn't accepted my friend request. I'm not too worried about it because maybe he doesn't get on fbook that often. But that still doesn't keep me from feeling awkward when I get to class. Because I know that I sent the request. But has he seen it? And if he has, how come he hasn't accepted it?

Then comes Mistake #5 [no I didn't say anything to him in class], I looked on his fbook again. Guess what. He's been on his fbook since I sent that embarrassing friend request. He still hasn't accepted.
AWKWARD.
And of course it's too late to take back the friend request (which I learned you can do).

And we wonder why I'm not dating anyone....

Curse you Facebook for providing girls with opportunities to do stupid things and embarrass ourselves.
Because I don't already do that.

One Year

One year ago today I started working at Crazy 8. I seriously can't believe that it's been a year already. It still kind of feels like my 'new job'.
Let's do a flash back shall we??
I started working for Crazy 8 because things were not going well at American Eagle. I had been working at AE for over a year and a half. I had worked at 3 different AE stores and had 4 (going on 5) different store managers. I had just spent that summer helping the assistant managers run the store without a store manager and instead of pulling up someone from the store (...like me...) to be an assistant, they hired someone outside the company. I was sick of having to prove myself over and over again to every new store manager.
So I kind of started looking around for another job. I was praying and trying to figure out what I should do. And then one day I was heading out of work and a woman walked in. I asked her if I could help her. She said yes, she was looking for a sales lead (lower manager). I said, "you're looking for me." Yes she was. Within a week I had my job as a sales lead at Crazy 8.
During this past year at Crazy 8 I've been pulled up as temporary assistant manager (because our assistant went on maternity leave for 3 months) and I've been hand picked by my district manager to be head sales lead on a 4 month corporate project.
I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am to be apart of this corporate project. I'm so flattered that my district manager picked me. She told me that the second she found out about this project she said, "I want Rachel on this." This is such an amazing opportunity to build a new brand and to be apart of something so new. Corporate will have their eyes on this project and I can't wait to show them what I'm made of!
Of course any chance I had for a social life was shot the second I said yes to this project...I'll still be assistant manager/sales lead at Crazy 8 while being head sales lead at this new store...plus I still do special projects for AE...AND I'm going to school almost full time...
:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

He just wants to hear from us

Alright. I know I haven't finished my August photo challenge...I'm having a few challenges with my laptop. But no worries because I'm getting a new one this week (sigh of relief and gratitude) so hopefully I'll get that finished soon.

Today is Fast Sunday - for those of you who have no idea what this means...it means that during the first hour of church members of the congregation have the opportunity to stand in front of everyone and share experiences that have helped them draw closer to Jesus Christ. Or to just share with us what they believe (we call that a testimony). And believe it or not but it's actually one of my favorite parts of the church. Now don't get me wrong, there are people in the congregation who tend to just talk and talk and sometimes the talking has like nothing to do with the Savior. You know, the people you just roll your eyes at when you see them getting up to speak. Luckily the ward I'm in is fantastic.

Sometimes I feel inspired to go up and share my testimony. But today I did not. Today I sat back and enjoyed listening to others share their testimony and was greatly strengthened by what people said. One girl talked about prayer. She said that there are times when she goes to pray and thinks to herself: oh God doesn't want to hear from me today. He doesn't want to hear about everything that I did wrong and about all the things I could do better.
What she said made me evaluate my attitude about prayer. I feel a lot like she does: oh, God doesn't want to hear from me today. I fall short so many times and I feel like my life is just the same all the time. I work like a crazy person. I'm trying to survive school. Help my car to last just a little bit longer, I almost have money to get it fixed. Please help me not feel like a idiot when I see my ex in class. I'm sorry that I think pretty much everyone is stupid and please help me to be more Christ-like.
But this girl said something that made me feel...well stupid for not remembering that it's totally true, but also realized that it's something I need to feel for myself. She said that even though she sometimes feels like God doesn't want to hear from her because she's not perfect, that it's totally the opposite, that despite that she isn't perfect, God WANTS to hear from her anyway.
He just wants to hear from us.
Even if what we have to say isn't all that wonderful or fantastic. Even though He knows that I have like no patience for people and that I beg and pled for the same things every day, He just wants to hear from me. And me in my imperfect [yet perfect ;)] state can't seem to remember that. God loves me. And I'm grateful for people who bear their testimonies and for those testimonies that touch my heart and remind me of what I already know but always manage to forget.

Day 26: something borrowed

We are currently borrowing this fan thing from, well I dunno who. I wasn't home when this all happened. Something is leaking water all over our carpet - that I already knew because I'm the one who emailed the apartment people about the problem. While I was at work someone came to 'fix' the problem. I have no idea what happened but all I know is that I came home to this really loud and annoying fan.

I was just hoping that they would replace the carpet....

Day 27: something blue

Day 25: something old/something new

This is my NEW quilt that my mother made me of OLD jeans and fabric she had when I was baby.

Day 26: something borrowed

Day 24: architectual feature in your home

So my apartment is kind of boring...like there isn't anything fantastic that I would take a picture of for this post...so instead you get to see pictures of me sitting on the couch, eating a popsicle, with my new hair color!!!



Day 25: something old/something new

Day 23: someone walking

This was taken last year while I was hiking in Southern Utah.

Day 24: architectual feature in your home

Day 22: getting ready for the day

Day 23: someone walking

I am a big fan of blogs: from another blog

Today in Church we talked about TALENTS. This is something I've been subconsciously thinking about for a while.

Wishing that I could be like more like Keri Ranzenberger, who just makes everything look good! I wish I could just throw my hair up like hers and have it look that good. Or that I could be as funny as her (which is actually why I started my blog in the first place because I thought that I could maybe be as funny as she is).

Wishing I could have the courage to just buy something and change it to look just like I want it to just like the women who's blogs I follow do.

Wishing that I had my own place...not owned by some apartment people...that I could decorate however I wanted...so that my apartment could be just as cute as ones I see in pictures and blogs.

Wishing that I could take pictures and make them look as cool as Lara Nelson's that are on her blog.

Wishing that I had the self-assurance that Alisha Geary has and how she always makes me feel better about myself after talking to her.

Wishing that I had life figured out and that I was more put together and looked as beautiful as Miss Ashley Jones who looks freaking gorgeous and totally put together every time I see her.

Wishing that I could always be happy and laughing like Megan Tucker - because she's always laughing and that makes me laugh.

Wishing that I had the desire to keep cleaning my apartment like my roommate Alex Hodge, who's always cleaning which makes me feel bad because I just want to lay around...or blog...

Anyway I could go on and on and on and on about the women that I wish I was more like. But I read this blogpost today and I really appreciated what she said. So thank you: Jones Design Co. for this post...and for letting me post it on my blog. Because let's be honest...I wish my blog looked as cute as yours...


I am a big fan of blogs

Day 21: using reflection

You can see my mom taking my picture in the reflection of my sunglasses. Cool huh!

Day 22: getting ready for the day

Day 20: current love/significant other

[Let me just start off by saying: I am SO funny...and clever...and creative...]

My current love AND significant other:

CAPTAIN AMERICA (not to be confused with my brother dressed up as Captain America...I'm talking about the one in the movie)

I just get really excited to see him:


and he just makes me feel like the Princess that I am:


I HEART YOU CAPTAIN AMERICA!!!!

Day 19: place you go often

The Temple: okay so this is the Salt Lake Temple...I don't go there that often. But I realized that I haven't taken a picture of the Provo Temple since I was in the MTC um like 3 years ago. I try and go to the temple once a week. I go to the Provo Temple because it's like a 10 minute drive away from my apartment...it would probably be more like 5 minutes if I didn't hit every red light on my way there...which is what usually happens.
I love Temples. I think they are all so beautiful (except Provo...I'm sorry but I think it looks like a space ship...which is probably why I don't have many pictures of it) But all temples are the House of the Lord and they are all special.

Day 20: current love/significant other (this should be good guys)

Day 18: a relative

I had a really hard time deciding which relative I wanted to pick for this post.

But I've been thinking a lot about this one lately. This is my brother Adam. I seriously love this kid more than I can even say.

Day 19: a place you go often

PUPPIES

So today is my day off and well, it's been a sad couple of days. My betta fishes died last week and my baby girl is gone and I think I deserve a new pet! So my friend, Alec, spend the afternoon with me going from pet store to pet store trying to find me a new pet.
Pets are expensive.
Pets are dirty.
Most pets that I could keep in my apartment creep me out.
So I think it's going to be a while till I get a new pet.
But just look at all these cute puppies!!!!!
Look at this one: his head is burried in the corner of the window

And these two sweeties!

And this little poodle shared a cage with two white kittens!


I WANT A PUPPY!!!!

Day 17: your night

My night: sitting on the couch watching a movie...and eating lots of popsicles

Day 18: a relative

Day 16: with a friend

Meet my friend Captain America - also known as my brother David.

Dave may be my youngest brother, but he is also my friend.

Love ya Dave :)

Day 17: your night

Sydney

Sydney - Syd - Sydo - baby girl - pretty girl - princess



I'm sorry we couldn't save you. But we do love you baby girl. oh boy do we love you!

Mommy and Daddy cried and they held you till you were gone. I think Dad (aka: Alpha Male) will miss you most.

I'm sorry I always had to leave you. The look on your face when I came down the stairs with my suitcase a few weeks ago nearly killed me. I think you knew what I didn't yet know. But I gave you a kiss and told you that I love you. I miss you a lot already. Going home next time will be really hard because you won't be there to welcome me.

We miss you:
barking whenever you heard the doorbell or whenever there was an animal in the backyard
walking inbetween our legs and standing there so we'd scratch your butt
farting every time you got off the couch
demanding that you got a place on the couch whenever we watched something
licking our faces everytime we had family prayer
running round and round and round in the backyard
licking the boys' feet because they had wounds
always listening to Dad and following him around because he's Alpha Male
tilting your head to the side anytime we said something to you because you were trying to figure out what we were saying
having to get a haircut because your hair would get so long that you couldn't see anymore
running all over the house to find everyone after you had a bath
not going into bedrooms for very long because they somehow scared you

I miss sitting with you. You would sit and I would sit on the ground next to you and we would just sit there. I would pet you and you would try and lick my face. But we would just sit there. I just loved to be next to you.

Well, here's to you pretty girl. Your family LOVES you. Loves you loves you loves you.

Day 15: something that makes you cry

My dog Sydney is really sick. We don't know what's wrong with her. She's on her second medication. If it doesn't work, we're going to have to put her down. So far, the medication isn't working...

The thought of losing her makes me cry.

Day 16: with a friend

Day 14: favorite treat

Okay so I don't have just ONE favorite treat. But Now and Laters are my new obsession! I can't find them at any grocery store. The only place I can find them is at a candy store in the mall. It's completely over-priced but totally worth it!

Day 15: something that makes you cry

Day 13: something you have made

I made a HUGE mess! I'm in the process of moving into the apartment downstairs. I have to be moved out of the upstairs apartment by 9 am Monday morning - however I can't be completely moved into the downstairs apartment because people are coming to paint the apartment on Tuesday. So I can't really unpack till after the apartment is painted. I don't like this...

Day 14: favorite treat

Day 12: your hands

This is what my hands look like after working 8 hours: dirty and gross - and I can never seem to last a day before my nail polish starts to chip off.

Day 13: something you have made

Day 11: favorite activity

So today has been the awful day that won't end - so I'm sorry that this is an old picture but it'll work.

(One of) My favorite activit(ies)y is laying around in my pjs, pigging out, and watching a show. Current favorite show is: That 70s Show. Current favorite pigging out treat: oreos

Day 12: your hands or family hands

Day 10: your shoes

Okay so these aren't ALL of my shoes. I have more packed away in a suitcase. Well, hello, it's summer folks! I can't have my winter shoes out right now. What am I nuts?

Day 11: favorite activity

Day 9: shadow

I took this while I was at home - taking my dog Sydney for a walk

Day 10: your shoes

Day 8: what you wore today

pink shirt: American Eagle
white undershirt: DownEast
skinny jeans: PacSun
shoes: ForeverYoung
purse: Target

Day 9: shadow

Day 7: out your kitchen window

I live on the 2nd floor of my apartment complex. Not the greatest view but its a view none the less!

Day 8: what you wore today

Day 6: yourself working

This is me at work.
The store is closed and I look at the back wall and this is what I see.
I guess the kids decided they needed to try on almost every pair of shoes on this wall and the parents...well they decided they didn't need to clean up after their kids....
If you think this is bad, you should have seen the denim wall.

Day 7: out your kitchen window

Day 5: photo of a favorite nook/space in your home

Okay so my favorite space in my apartment hands down is my bed. But my bed is in yesterday's picture so today's photo is of my new favorite spot in my apartment. This is the top of the entertainment center. Who wouldn't love this spot?! This has everything happy: flowers, white pitchers, princess crowns, cake plates, and cute signs.

Day 6: yourself working

Day 4: a morning photo

My flight was delayed an hour and a half so I didn't walk into my apartment until almost 2am. I also had to open my store this morning.
I woke up with a headache.
This morning I was ironing my new dress that I got yesterday and the fabric split and so now it's ruined. I almost cried.
I got to my store and found it was a huge hot mess. And the schedule wasn't done for next week.
So I had a headache, I was really tired, I was upset about my ruined dress, and my store was a hot mess.
It was not a good morning.

Day 5 - photo of a favorite nook/space in your home

Day 3: fun with chalk (fun with cousins)

So I don't have any chalk. I also didn't want to go buy chalk just for this photo challenge.
I did however, spend time with my family on Lake Sammamish a few days ago. Hence today's photo challenge is: fun with cousins





Day 4: morning photo