Favorite Monday!

I love Mondays! Today's subject is Favorite Flower! I absolutely love flowers. My favorites are easily Gerbera Daisies.



My 2nd Favorites are lilies



Here is an arrangement that was given to me for my birthday from CPM that has both of my favorites in it:



LOVE it!!

and like chilly, I won't say no to dozens of roses. ;) I just love flowers with all my heart. Makes me feel like I have spring and sunshine in my apartment. LOVE it!!

Assumptions...

First off....I apologize for being so extremely vague last night...but it was late and I was tired (the time blogger posts as my "posted at" time is an hour earlier than what I really post at. I have yet to figure out why this is the case.)

Second of all....have you ever heard the old adage making assumptions makes an A** out of you and me? Well...some people seem to think that just because I am so incredibly happy means it's about a boy. While, this is true most of the time, and does explain parts of my happiness I am actually incredibly happy for many reasons. Let me give you the list of top 5 reasons why I am so incredibly happy since I am much more coherent after a fantastic night's sleep.

1. My talk went really well yesterday. I am very pleased with it and the feedback I received. Huzzah.

2. I looked super cute yesterday with my fun, new summer dress. LOVE it.

3. My apartment hosted a movie night and we watched one of my all-time favs, Second-Hand Lions

4. During said movie night, Swing Kid stopped by and that made my night.

5. I am no longer the lone person in my apartment. My roommates have all returned from their various adventures and this makes me so ridiculously happy.


So there you go. The top 5 reasons why I am so happy right now. I hope that satisifies all y'all and your silly assumptions.

happiness

i am so incredibly happy right now. that is all.

a svithe for you...

For those of you who have no idea what a svithe is...check this site out and read all about what svithe is. :-)

All week I have been studying for a talk I had to give in church today with my topic being Faith. I'll be honest; I've had a difficult time preparing for this talk. Faith is such a broad topic, and because it encompasses so many other gospel principles it is hard to focus in on what faith is.

Edith Hamilton explains that Faith is not belief. Belief is passive. Faith is active.

Let me give you some examples of how faith is active.

First if you have a car and you put gas in it, you might be inclined to believe that it will be able to run since you have put the necessary fluids in it. However, no matter how much you sit there and believe, it’s not going to run. You have to take that belief, turn it into faith and act on that faith and turn the key to start the engine.

My second example comes from my life. Last night I went swing dancing as I am wont to do on Saturday nights. So I am dancing last night and I got to thinking how faith is active in dancing. When dancing with a partner the girl has to follow her lead and trust that he will not lead her astray, or drop her. I can believe that my partner won’t do anything but if I just sit on the side believing then I don’t know if that’s true. I’m not exerting my faith. Instead, I give my partner my hand and my trust and he does just fine. My faith has been tried and I now know that he will be there for me.

Thirdly, Many times we have big decisions to make in life. For some of us, we believe that we can get guidance from our Heavenly Father that will help with those decisions. However, if you just sit at home and believe He can answer your question, but never ask how are you going to get the answer? Answers are not given out like candy at a 4^th of July parade; you have to put the question forward in prayer. You have to have faith that Heavenly Father will answer your prayer by actually asking your question and receiving and answer.

In Hebrews 11: 4 it states, "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh."

and in verse 7 it says, "By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith."

Now each of these examples have something in common. They all show you how faith is an action, but they also show that you must have faith in something or someone.

Elder Oaks said in the General Young Women’s Conference in March 1994, “Faith does not exist by itself. Faith requires an object. It must be faith in something or someone. In that respect, faith is like love. Love cannot exist without an object. Love is meaningless unless it is directed toward something or someone. We love our parents. We love our brothers and sisters. We love the Lord. Faith is the same. If we think we have faith, we should ask, faith in whom or faith in what? For some, faith is nothing more than faith in themselves. That is only self-confidence or self-centeredness. Others have faith in faith, which is something like relying on the power of positive thinking or betting on the proposition that we can get what we want by manipulating the powers within us.”

When Elder Oaks says that faith requires and object he means that we must direct our belief towards something and act on that, whether that be the gas in our running, our dance partners, or our Heavenly Father. I believe that most importantly, we must have Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

We have been taught that this first principle of the gospel: faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. When we have faith in Christ, several things happen: we recognize that we can return to our Heavenly Father because of our faith. When we have faith in Him we accept and apply his Atonement and his teachings. We know that He has the power to keep His promises, we trust in Him and what He says. We are blessed because we have faith to obey Christ.

I have had experiences in having faith in my Savior. During this past December, (about finals time in fall semester) I applied for some summer camps where I would be a bunk counselor and a dance instructor. I actually got to interview for 2 different camps. One camp offered me the job on the spot; the other offered me a job the next day. I started praying about it. (I would be there now if I had done it) I had a hard time with it. However, every time I thought about going to camp and being a counselor I freaked out, I got super nervous, and I didn't feel comfortable. However, I hadn't made a decision yet. Fast forward to the first week of school. My best friend and former roommate now missionary in Georgia came out to Utah to get some stuff, she visited me. She and I talked about my future. I told her about camp, and at this point I had had blessings telling me that I had good things going for me, but no yes or no to the camp question. I was told to talk to people about it; well my friend was a camp counselor in Oregon. We talked about it, what I would do if I didn't go and what not...and she gave me her opinion. She said, "Alishka, I would be the last person to tell you to not go, but I don't think you should go. (She was the first to say that, everyone told me to go, my parents had been pretty neutral)" she said that every time I talked about camp I got all shaky and closed up and when I talked about other things I lit up and was happy again. I agreed that the idea freaked me out, and that night I decided to act in faith and ask the question not WHAT should I do, but ask the question if not going to camp was the right decision. The power I felt that night as I listened to the spirit was pretty powerful. I took the opportunity the next day to go to the temple and confirmed my answer that I wasn’t to go away to either of these summer camps.

This experience taught me that believing Heavenly Father can answer my prayers is only half of the battle. I have to have faith and ACT on that belief. I had to get down on my knees and really ask. I didn’t really receive my answer until I did that. I think part of me knew all along, but I didn’t have the faith to ask at first.

Faith is definitely an active part of life. You can't just sit around and hope that things happen by just believing...you have to act on that faith and put trust in your someone or something that it will all work out. Believe me when I say that I have had the experience of taking my belief and making it faith by acting on that belief, and it is so worth it in the end.

Friday Love....

1. Birthdays are like a holiday in my world. I love birthdays!

2. Spring and Fall are my favorite seasons because the weather is perfect, the smell of rain is wonderful, it's not too hot nor too cold, and the flowers and fall leaves are beautiful!

3. I feel my best when I've just gotten back from a run, taken a ballet class, or had a wonderful date.

4. Chicken Cordon Bleu is my favorite food! (and I can never say no to ice cream...)

5. First impressions are never quite right, and yet we still use them in our daily lives.

6. The best piece of advice I ever received was to live life to the fullest - and never regret anything.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to all the possibilities on my plate, tomorrow my plans include call-backs for a dance company (more on that later) and swing dancing, and Sunday, I want to have a great experience speaking in church!

And the Winner is.....

Wow! So many people entered! Well...it was the most comments I've had anyways...there were 17 peeps that commented + 2 shout outs. :) I feel so loved! I know you're all waiting to know.....and the winner is.....

[drum roll]

Jodie!!

Yay! I first met Jodie, through her husband Age. We all worked at the same place on campus, and had many fun times making movies and helping professors with Blackboard and many other crazy shenanigans. Jodie rocks with her cute little boy and another one the way! So get ready for your sweet grab bag of fun things for your car! My little grab bag includes the biggie pack of gum for your car (like the commercials!), an air-freshener, (a cute tree one!), and one more little thing....an actual car. :) Send me an email through my profile with your address and I'll get that in the mail!

And to all y'all that commented but didn't win...it's okay! There will be another time, another giveaway....just keep visiting so I feel the urge to keep blogging! Y'all rock my world!

today...

I was sitting in my Financial Management class. Enjoying the very entertaining professor, thinking that I might be able to handle this class if I can keep my mind where it should be, when he started talking about iPhones. How did we get on this subject you might ask...I mean, first day of of Financial Management and we are discussing Apple and their products? Well...it all came about because we were discussing what companies should do with extra revenue, etc. How to invest, where, etc. So the Apple company was used as the example and my professor expressed his want of an iPhone.

Now, I have a phone, it does things, and I'm happy. I have read about others and their iPhones, or want thereof, but have never really thought I should get one myself. Anyways, the whole point to me bringing up the whole iPhone thing is this: I saw an iPhone today. For me iPhones have only been a commercial. A cool new toy that Apple has brought out that they are pushing through their commercials. Today, the iPhone became real for me. I saw it. I kind of got excited that I saw one. It was cool. It's a cool phone kids, really cool. But that's it, it's cool. It has the same features as many other phones like it...but it's cool. That's what Apple is kids, cool. I don't know if I can buy a product just because it's cool. Anyways...that's all I wanted to say.

I saw an iPhone today.

loving life

I love life. Truly, life makes me really happy. This weekend has been wonderful. I finished my finals on Thursday evening. I did fairly well, and I'm going to get pretty decent grades this term! Which makes me super happy.

Friday, I picked up my copy of The Host by Stephenie Meyer from my good friend Katria. I spent some time in the sun reading it that morning and then went to work. Work was slow and I had the opportunity to read a little bit there as well. After work I went to help with my former studio's Jazz show as a stage manager. I love being a stage manager. Something about it just speaks to me and makes me really happy. :-) After that I came home and finished The Host (such a good book by the way! I loved it) and watched Dan in Real Life with my roommates. What an amazing movie! I liked it lots and lots.

Saturday I slept in, spent some more time in the sun (I love the sunshine!) and then helped out at one of the ballet performances for my former studio. I enjoyed helping out, it was fun! After that I swung by the store to get a few things for dinner. I showered, did my hair, and then made dinner for dance boy. He came over and ate dinner (which ended up being SO good!!) and then we went swing dancing. After that he took me home and I watched Mad Money and King Arthur with my roommates. I love my roommates. They are awesome!

Church today was wonderful and I really enjoyed the lessons and talks today. Soon it will be time for movie night which the feature tonight will be Monsters Inc. Yay for Disney Movie Night!! :-D I hope all of you had a great weekend too! Don't forget to enter my giveaway, and while all y'all do that...I will prepare my mind for a whole new term which starts tomorrow. eek! :P

The Five Tag

The Five Tag

5 years ago: (2003) I was getting ready to begin my Senior year of High School, going to summer ballet camp, learning choreography, and getting ready for girl's camp with my little sister. Also, this is when Chugly (the car I drove senior year) came into my life.

5 Months Ago: (January, effectively) Hard Things happened. President Hinckley passed away. I got horribly sick.

5 Things on my to-do list

1. Study for Kinesiology final
2. Study for Christian History and Restored Gospel final
3. Take finals
4. Go to the Temple with Roommate S
5. Relax!

5 Snacks I enjoy:
1. Frozen Grapes
2. Fruit Snacks
3. Granola Bars
4. Ice Cream
5. Fresh Veggies

5 Things I would do if I were suddenly a billionaire:
1. Go to Disneyland
2. TRAVEL!
3. Pay off school loans
4. Pay off rent for the rest of year
5. Invest for later

5 of my BAD habits:
1. procrastination
2. staying up too late when i have to wake up early the next day
3. forgetting to do my dishes
4. day dreaming
5. sleeping in class. :S

5 Places I have lived:
1. Cougartown, UT
2. Hometown, UT
3. Bloomington, Indiana
4. Ogden, UT
5. Roy, UT

5 Jobs I have had:
1. babysitter
2. newspaper delivery person
3. ballet teacher
4. receptionist
5. secretary

5 things people don't know about me: (some of you might know these...)
1. I don't like spaghetti
2. I have never been to Disneyland
3. I play the flute
4. I love reading
5. I'm allergic to these jelly shoes.

Don't forget to post a comment if you want to enter my giveaway!

400th Post!!!

Well friends, this blog has reached it's 400th post. Incredible yes? I was brainstorming the other day on what to do for this wonderful milestone in my blogging career, and I decided that this would be a great time to introduce the new addition to my life. Señor Guapo!



Yes dear friends, this is Señor Guapo. My adorable, silver 1986 Honda Accord that I purchased to get me around town.


Along with my christening of Señor Gupao I decided that a giveaway is in order! This giveaway has to do with cars and will consist of fun things for your car!

This is how it works: Just leave a comment on this post before 11:59pm on Tuesday, June 24th. One lucky winner will win my fantastic car giveaway and I will announce the winner and the prize on Wednesday, June 25th! Oh, and if you give my giveaway a shout out on your blog you get to enter twice - 'cause that for sure deserves a reward. (make sure to let me know if you've given me a shout out so I include you twice!) And if you are new to the blog or you are anonymous or you don't have your blog linked in your profile - make sure to tell me who you are and where you live!

Good Luck, and hooray for 400 posts and Señor Guapo!

Favorite Monday!

Today's favorite Monday = favorite summertime activity. Unfortunately for me my past 4 summers have been spent in school. Well, usually spring term is just work and summer term is school. This year I'm doing school both spring and summer terms. That is not my favorite summer activity though. I love the smell of sunscreen and chlorine. I love getting wet in the pool. However, I hate getting sunburned, but I love all the fun one can have in the sun. I enjoy hiking and bbq-ing yummy foods. Most of all I love all the fun holidays that happen in the summer time that = good food, fun parades, and fireworks!! YAY! Someday soon I won't have to do school work during the summertime. I might have to work, but I won't have papers and tests. That will be the day! :-D Also...stay tuned for all the awesomeness you could ever imagine in the next post! It is going to rock your socks off!!!!!!!

It's a Small World

If you have lived in Cougartown for any amount of time longer than 2 years, you know that this place gets really small, really quick. Take tonight for example. I went swing dancing on campus (because it's free and so much fun!) and I'm sitting in a chair as a song begins to play and this kid in a red shirt (who will be known as Swing Kid) comes up to me and says ,"Alishka right? Want to dance?" I said sure, but had no idea who this kid was!! It was slightly discomforting that he knew my name, but not horrible. We got to dancing and he asked how I'd been, and I was all, "I'm sorry, i don't remember your name, and how do I know you?" Well....we couldn't figure it out at first and chalked it up to being some dance class or ward or something long ago. Except, I knew that wasn't it! So later he sat down next to me on the floor and we got to talking. He mentioned that he was a designer, and I asked him where he worked on campus. He mentioned my former place of work, and I was like, that's it!! The incredible thing is that Swing Kid said he doesn't do the best with names, but becuase I sent him emails all the time for work and stuff, he remembered me. It was SO funny. He was a really good dancer too. It was so much fun! :) dancer boy and friends were going to come, but they didn't and it's their own loss. I had a blast dancing and will definitely make it a weekly event. There weren't many dances that I sat out tonight, but it was mostly because I was tired and stuff. :)

Anywho...tonight was definitely a blast and a half! So if you ever find yourself bored on a Saturday night. Go swing dancing on campus! And if you don't know where, shoot me an email and I will tell you!! Ciao!

Hurray for Fridays!!!

I am so happy it is Friday! Enjoy my Friday fill-in, and I'll try to post that story I promised later today...

1. Riding an elephant, go para sailing, and go to Disneyland is high up on my bucket list.
2. My favorite quote is To live is to dance, to dance is to live; it's from Charles Schultz in the Peanuts comic strip, spoken by Snoopy.
3. Writers of the 100 Hour Board that blogged inspired me to start blogging.
4. Strawberries are best fresh. I love eating them plain, on strawberry shortcake, or covered in chocolate!
5. My roommate jumped up on my bed and tried to get me out of bed in the last dream I remember having.
6. The most enjoyable time to go for a walk is in the early evenings just as the sun is going down.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to visiting with friends and going to a sweet shameless dance partay, tomorrow my plans include possibly a bridal shower, an audition for a dance company, and swing dancing on campus and Sunday, I want to play with my family!

Thankful Thursday

Today, I have many things to be grateful for. Also, I have an awesome story to tell...but it will have to wait for another day. So for now...here is what I am grateful for:

1. My Parents. They are awesome. They do so much for me and pretty much rock my world.

2. My new-ish car. It is great knowing when I need to go somewhere or have things I want to do (every day until Sunday) I can do it without having to bum a ride off of someone. AWESOME!!!

3. The opportunity to teach again. I got a phone call yesterday telling me I am definitely needed/wanted next year as a teacher. I am SO excited to be teaching again! Yay!!

4. Sunshine. I love it.

5. My roommates. They are freakin' incredible.

6. Chocolate chips.

7. So You Think You Can Dance. It's going to be an amazing season.

8. My awesome job where we have contests to see who can drink the most water at work. Today, I'm losing. Yesterday, I won. :)

9. Flowers that smell good. mmm....flowers.

10. Bath and Body Works' sale, so that I could have my favorite scents to wear again!

a picture

Okay all you picture oriented people... here is a general image of my car, see I don't really want to put a picture up here until he is named, you know, kind of like christening him or something. so here is picture



except because my car is 22 years old it's a little faded. It is silver, and the paint is peeling a little bit by the tires....but other than that this is pretty much what my car looks like. Now go vote!!! Thanks!!!

Poll

Well dear friends....the time has come for a poll to name my car. I have had a few name submissions by friends, bloggers, roommates....and here are the choices:

Asher
Bud
Petey
Ralph
Seymour
Senior Guapo
Skipper

Please pick your favorite by either visiting this link: http://www.survey.com/cgi-bin/pollxp.pl?poll=355

or by clicking your choice on the poll to your right. Thank you for playing! (p.s. the poll will close on Saturday at 12:00, midnight MST)

i'm sorry

I've neglected to post that I have purchased a car. Yes, I finally found something that makes my heart sing. It is an adorable silver 1986 Honda Accord. This cute car is the same age as me with only 153,000 or so miles on it, I'm hopeful it will run for a while yet. I keep waiting to post so that I can post with pictures, but I forgot to take pictures when it was light outside, so my car will have to wait for it's unveiling on another day. :)

Also, i'm taking name suggestions. It must be a manly name. Currently the names that have been suggested are Petey, Skipper, and Ralph. I will accept a few more, use my veto rights, and then conduct a poll. So please help me decide! All manly names are welcome. :) Thank y'all!!!

My Favorite Monday

This week's challenge is a picture of your dad. I don't have very many...plus I try to keep identities secret over here in my little blogging world. This is my dad at Christmas time. My dad is awesome. There is a long list of things he does for me and they're all amazing. I love my Dad a lot. Happy Father's Day!!!

Friday!!!

Today is Friday! And we all know what that means!!! Friday Fill-ins!!!!

1. Idle hands are bored hands.

2. I love taking my computer into the bathroom so I can sing in the shower.

3. My favorite time of the day is when the birds are singing, the sun is just coming in, and the air smells crisp and clean.

4. The last tea I drank was something herbal, but I don't remember when.

5. I like to lay out in the sun, play with friends, BBQ really good food, go hiking and relax in the Summer.

6. My mother always said "Don't do anything I wouldn't do, and if you do, name it after me."

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to Humor U with jerkface, tomorrow my plans include taking a Kinesiology test, possibly buying a car, and eating good food and Sunday, I want to get my visiting teaching done, watch a fun movie with friends, and make cookies for munch and mingle!

A Letter

Dear Future Husband, wherever you are-

I hope life is treating you well and that you are happy. I just want you to know of a few wishes I have for my future husband that I would like to happen. Just so you can prepare now. ;)



Wish #1 - My first wish is the wish that I hope every girl has, and that is that you will treat me well. I deserve the best and I want someone who will love me and call me and be my very best friend. I like it when boys treat me well and I hope you plan on doing that.

Wish #2 - My second wish is something that I have wished ever since I can remember, and that is the wish that you will take me to the temple to get married. In fact, this isn't so much a wish as a requirement. The gospel is the most important thing in my life. It is my light, my guide through life. So yeah, temple = where we're getting married. ;)

Wish #3 - Now, this wish is going to seem....odd, but I really would LOVE it if you did this. I would like you to sing Everything by Michael Buble to me at our wedding reception...or at least at some point. I love this song, and I think it is so cute. I guess it would be even cuter if you wrote me a song...but that's asking a little much. ;) ALSO! I hope you're okay with dancing with me at our wedding. I love dancing and it is such a huge part of my life, dancing seems somewhat required. ;)

I hope those aren't too unrealistic wishes. I have more...but I feel like these are the ones that are most important to me. So there you go. The wishes of my heart. :-)

Much love,
Alishka Babushka

Favorite Monday

I haven't participated in a couple of weeks, Mondays just tend to be SO busy! However, I couldn't turn down Favorite Color Monday. Now, I don't have just one favorite color. So I picked my top 2 favorites...




I love these two colors. They make me happy.

feelings...

I hate feeling insecure. I hate feeling like something hard is coming. I hate the feeling that soon I am going to lose it all and start to cry at the most inopportune time. Up until 20 minutes ago I wasn't sure what was causing all these feelings. I wish there was something about it that I could do, but it's that time of year. With a huge paper due tomorrow (with 2 pages to go) another paper due on Tuesday, a test due Tuesday, and a test that will need to be done by Thursday (i think) its no wonder that I am an emotional train wreck waiting to happen. Part of me thinks that having someone to hold me and tell me it will be okay would make it better, but at the same time I know that I have to be strong. Because really the thing is I don't have someone to hold me and tell me it will be better. However, I have my Savior. He is always there for me and can pull me into his arms and comfort me and let me know that it will be okay. So for now that is where I am turning, to my big brother, my Savior, my Redeemer. I know in the end it will be okay and I'll learn something new about myself, but until I do feel okay I am giving it all to him. He can handle all of this. I can't. Not right now. There is too much going on for me to handle, I can't take it anymore. I am done. Good night.

Shindig 2008

So...my apartment hosted a "shindig" last night. It was a blast. We all invited some of our friends, and I actually had people I know show up! It was quite exciting!! There was much food, laughter, and happiness in our living room last night. :-) I had a lot of fun and got to catch up with a few friends that I hadn't seen in a long while. That is always my favorite part of parties. The part where I invite some friends, they say they "are coming" or "are maybe coming" and then they DO show up and I am so surprised because I wasn't sure if they were actually going to come or not. Fun times. It was an interesting evening filled with BS, Catchphrase (a very intense game might I add), Texas Hold 'em (or something like that?), and Phase 10 (because its not a party without phase 10). There was also a movie: The Forgotten. A good movie, but odd at the same time. A few jumpy parts, I didn't think I'd seen it so I started to get into in the beginning, and then I realized I had seen it. Definitely a good movie with fun people. I love my roommates, they are awesome people. Also, I love parties. Yay!!!