Beautiful Music

I keep playing these a cappella's off of youtube. They're both so moving, and the first one reminds me of my Virginia home.

I'm listening to Pink Floyd.

Why? Because I just bought a Pink Floyd tshirt. And I would feel really lame wearing it without actually knowing anything about Pink Floyd...

So I am listening.

And you know what?

I have no regrets.

It makes pretty decent background music.

And, most importantly... The shirt is super cute.

The back of my head does look kind of weird, though... Almost pointy?

So Much Food.

We don't think my parents have quite figured out yet that half the kids are no longer living at home.

This means..... lots of leftovers.

It Can Be Magical.

We look so happy... but the truth is that we'd just eaten WAY too much lunch at Sammy's in Provo and were sprawling on the grass full of both food and self-loathing.

But it was pretty nice out.

Butterfly Circus

I have a couple of friends on missions who I get emails from weekly. One sister mentioned this video, and said to watch it with the Atonement in mind. It's beautiful.

Summer in Utah.

I lived and worked in Logan for a little under 2 months, quit, and have been traveling the state with my family, and then with Colin's family. One might think of it as a symbolic trade-off. Haha. I'm funny, but I jest.

The biggest thing to report is that my face has subtly darkened and my hair is longer and blonder. I am thrilled. I would say that I'm tan, but people laugh at me when I do that.

We took family photos because Jake and I are leaving to serve missions in September. I'll be gone for 18 months, he'll be gone for 2 years, and Ben may leave in the interim. So it's our last family photoshoot for awhile. It was a real last-minute thing. But I like how they turned out, haphazard color scheme and all!

The missionaries-to-be.

Jake and I went through the temple together, and a lot of my dad's family was there. My maternal grandparents came down from SLC, as well. You may have already heard, but there's actually already a "Lauren no-middle-name Hafen" serving in Paris (where I'm headed), and her grandparents are the temple president/matron at the St. George temple, so talking with her grandma was just really neat.

After 3 months of intermittent skyping, texting, and a couple of phone calls, I could finally bask in the presence of Eagle Scout Colin S. Smith once again. I like him, so it was exciting.

Coincidentally, tomorrow is our 23-monthiversary.

We had a fabulous Pioneer Day, which is a strangely patriotic tradition 'round these here parts, considering the original pioneers fled the U.S. and its government for Mexican territory... (I'm pretty sure it was Mexican at the time... Saying facts publicly on the internet always makes me nervous. I don't like being wrong-- especially not publicly.)

Happy Pioneer Day from Ivins!

We also went hiking in Zion National Park, rafting in Lava Hot Springs, ID, visited with my grandma in Santa Clara, UT, and various other fun activities. But I either don't have pictures of those things, or they're not flattering pictures of me. So no photos.

We also went to the wedding reception of our dear friend and my former roommate/fellow Phi Alpha Theta sorority member/nerdy history compadre, the beautiful Randi Leigh Jones Cline. Except I think she's dropping the Jones and just becoming Randi Leigh Cline. A beautiful southern-sounding name.

She looked happy to see us, which made me feel validated and special. 

So there's that.

Over and Out.

How to Talk to Little Girls

I posted this on Facebook a few days ago, but I just like it so much that I'm putting it on here, too.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-bloom/how-to-talk-to-little-gir_b_882510.html

Clothing

I've been scouring the interwebs for modest clothing. Free stuff would be chill.

http://www.dandygiveaway.com 

Perfect Playlist

I have a playlist that never fails me. It suits pretty much every mood. Here are some highlights:

1. First Day of My Life, Bright Eyes
2. California Stars, Billy Bragg & Wilco
3. Murder in the City, The Avett Brothers
4. January Wedding, The Avett Brothers
5. Little Things, One Direction
6. The Gambler, Fun.
7. I'll Fly Away, Alison Krauss & Gillian Welch
8. Blackbird, The Beatles
9. Merry Go 'Round, Kacey Musgraves
10. Lifting the Sea, The Hunts
11. Hallelujah, The Hunts (Leonard Cohen Cover)
12. Every Storm (Runs Out of Rain), Gary Allan
13. Two-Toned, Elephant Shortcut
14. Half Acre, Hem
15. Carry On, Fun.
16. A Thousand Years, Christina Perri


I can't get enough of these songs.

That Skirt

Forever ago I posted about this skirt.

And then I found it on ebay! Yesterday! And I bid on it! I had the only bid. And then I left for work at 11:10. The bidding ended at 1:00. While I was at work. And I lost it by FIFTY CENTS.

I am so mad. The other person got it for $25.49, free shipping.
So I've been scouring the internet looking for more, feeling 6 months of regret weighing on my shoulders.

I was tempted to buy the same one in olive straight from the website, which is on sale for $37.60. But then... shipping... and tax... and suddenly it's almost fifty dollars.




Dear someone: Please sew me a skirt just like this.

Thank you.

Mission Calls

So many have been submitting mission papers and receiving calls lately that it seems at times as though calls are a simple, automated response to geographical demand.

But I stumbled upon this:

“I have had [many] experiences feeling of the Holy Ghost…But I’ve never felt what I have felt as I have…participated in the assigning of missionaries…Because of technology, it is possible for us to have your picture and the information about you displayed. And then quickly, on that same screen, all the missions of the Church with all of their needs are displayed. Within minutes, and sometimes less than a minute, the impression comes so powerfully that it would be, if it were a single instance, something that you would never forget. Can you imagine sitting there for hours at a time, having that happen time after time without interruption? I testify to you that it is real…[The Lord] somehow not only knows you but loves you enough to ensure that your call is where He needs you to go to teach the children of our Heavenly Father.” (Pres. Henry B. Eyring, “Called of God,” address delivered at the Missionary Training Center, Aug. 26, 1997).

What we actually did in Michigan.

Forever ago I wrote this post about fun things you can do in Michigan.
I wrote it in anticipation of my boyfriend coming to town, but the list included a lot of museums, and museums in Michigan aren't free (unlike the Smithsonian in DC).

So here is a really late list of what we ACTUALLY did in Michigan-- cheap things to do in Michigan!

1. We went to Hell.
There wasn't actually a whole lot to do or see, but now we can say that we've been to Hell. Take that, Dante. And there were amusing signs. Like "The road to Hell is paved with potholes." #MichiganRoads

2. On the way back from Hell we stopped by Island Lake to play in the lake. There was lots of goose poop (a Michigan landmark). We also threw around with some lacrosse sticks. Colin and I went back to Island Lake/Kensington Park later to ride the tandem on bike trails and to kayak. 

3. Detroit's Historic Fort Wayne (1845)! This one was on that original list I made, and it was actually really cool! We were lucky enough to be there to watch to the surrender to the British. They even had a canon going. We talked to some reenactors and saw their cool historic paraphernalia. As two history majors, it was pretty neat. Plus, you could walk through portions of the original fort, which were AWESOME. Additionally, it's location on the Detroit River allowed us to see across to the Canadian shore, and driving there gave Colin the opportunity to experience some of Detroit's deterioration. This was definitely a favorite. You only have to pay for parking. I wish we'd taken more pictures here!

Reading some exhibits inside

The river (& Canada) are behind us.

Surrendering to the British

 4. Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum. This is absolutely free to wander around and admire the mechanical marvels, but if you can leave without spending any quarters on their games, I commend you! They had some REALLY OLD things. And some more modern ones. We took a couple of friends with us, and it was a lot of fun.

A wooden pig. Why not?

 There's a LOT in there.

There were some more standard games...

Lot of rounds of basketball. Colin was pretty much the champ.

And some less standard...

We tried to cure Colin's arachnophobia. He had a hard time with it.

Zelda, the fortune-teller. She's pretty old.

I don't remember what this guy is, but if he's the one that was supposed to give me a massage, it was pretty lame. But he's super old, too!

5. Woodward Dream Cruise. People come from all over to experience this. UNFORTUNATELY, I screwed up and we got there late in the evening after most cruisers had already quit, and got to see more SUVs than we had anticipated. But if you're in Michigan at the end of August, don't miss this!

6. Sukho Thai. Colin loves a Thai place in Silver Spring, MD, Ruan Thai, and always brags about how it's pretty much the best. But after eating at my family's favorite, Sukho Thai, he had to admit that he'd been one-upped.

7. Visit downtown Birmingham, the social hub. Yoga-doing soccer moms and corner-sitting middle schoolers congregate here. We walked around, met a friend, and grabbed a smoothie.

8. Visit Ann Arbor. Home to the University of Michigan, it serves the interests of the college-age demographic. We went to Five Guys, ordered fries, and stole peanuts, which we fed to fat and friendly squirrels.

 Sitting at Five Guys

 

We also got bubble drinks and a cookie and visited the spot where JFK announced to organization of the Peace Corps.

Enjoying Bubble Drinks

On the spot where JFK announced the formation of the Peace Corps

JFK

With friend/tour guide/Ann Arbor resident, Corey.

Graduation Goals

My goal before graduation is to make it onto some of the Communication Department's SVU propaganda. A pamphlet, a commercial, a billboard... whatever!

But as a fall-back, should this goal fail, I can say that I've been featured on the university's website. You can find me on the homepage:

I can also be found on our library's homepage (unfortunately- it's not a particularly flattering portrait):

It was humid. No hair cooperation.

Actually, neither picture is very flattering, but it's a decent back-up plan!

Blogging

Sometimes I feel like I should probably have a style blog because I impress myself with the outfits and accessories that I throw together.
But then I would have to figure out how to take pictures of myself without humiliating myself in the front yard.


I also want to be a mom with a photography business on the side.

And an etsy shop.





I read too many blogs.

Fame & Fortune

So we didn't make the home page (lame) but we're practically famous for being so geeky.

Check it out!

http://svu.edu/news/archives/2013/students-win-top-awards

Being Cultured

At the National Gallery.

My Life

The Abduction of the Sabine Women

I am currently enrolled in a course entitled "Saints Signs and Symbols: Reading Medieval and Renaissance Art"

So I'm writing a course paper about the classical story of the abduction of the Sabine women. And how that story has been politicized in modern art.

Here are the paintings I'm looking at:
(Primarily the first three, and just drawing a little comparison from the last two)

Jacques-Louis David

Picasso

Picasso

Picasso's Peace

Picasso's War

So yeah. I'm learning lots about Picasso. The paper is more interesting than I thought it would be, but at the same time I feel like I'm probably kind of butchering it with a deluge of quotes and facts. We'll see....

It's on Repeat

This group came to play for a benefit concert at my university, and they are my new jam. Seriously.

My roommate and I have them on repeat, ALL THE TIME.
The Hunts. (A family of seven kids.) They're on iTunes. You should buy their album.

They also have awesome covers. Just sayin'.

Baby Baby Baby

So my boss has a baby.
I think she's almost five months old?
But she's come to work meetings a few times, and tonight my boss had this little girl with him when he stopped by for a minute to see how things were going and sometimes...

I will catch this little baby just staring at me and smiling.

It kind of makes my day.

It makes me feel like THE coolest person, really.

I just want to grow up to be a baby whisperer. It's official.

Siblings Day!

I changed my Facebook profile picture to match Rebekah's in honor of National Siblings Day.

I know, my head is tilted the wrong direction.

But getting this photo was SO MUCH WORK that there was no way I was about to try again to fix it.

No one was home, my camera was dead...

So I had to wait around for my battery to charge enough to be functional, and then use the 10-second timer. And keep the camera balanced on a desk, angled correctly... there were some bloopers.

Like a Ghost.

Forgot to set the timer.

Forgot to set the timer. Again.

Happy National Siblings Day!

P.S. I'm only aware of the holiday because of my Facebook newsfeed. Honestly.

The Final Haul

As my high school French teacher would say, I am currently feeling "screwed, blued and tattooed" (say it with an Irish accent).

There are two more weeks of class before finals.
And I have these two papers I need to write... One is supposed to be fifteen pages, and I can't say that I've started it, yet. Every time I think, "Man, I need to work on one of those papers," I choose to work on researching the OTHER one. It's going to be an issue.

But HEY, that presentation I mentioned in my last post actually went really well! I ended up just scripting the whole thing and then looking up when I could. It was cool because it was just a conference full of history nerds, and they seemed to enjoy my research! They laughed at all the right places, and even in some unexpected ones. It was cool to have people enjoy my research as much as I have.
And there was a hot tub at the hotel we stayed at, so that was cool.
My roommate went to the conference, too, so we had an absolute ball.
Our ride up was SO NERDY.
There were four of us students along with a history professor, and our conversations were pretty much identifying favorite presidents, and postulating the political affiliations of various Disney characters. Geek squad.
And my paper DID place, which I had legitimately not expected. Here are some photos of the weekend! (which you may or may not have already seen on Facebook)

On the road!!

Lookin like a mess, but holding the coveted certificate!

All of us! You can probably guess which is my roommate. JJ, the guy in the blue shirt, took first place in the U.S. history category. 'Atta boy!

We're intense.

We were pretty stoked for the hotel...

I had the back row allllll to myself! It made it difficult to hear what Dr. Mosser was saying up front. Oh, well.

Giving my presentation! "Yanks and Franks: Franco-American Relations in WWI France." Colin came up with the "Yanks and Franks" part.

Jared, Randi, Me. Geeking out.

They served cookies during the awards ceremony.

Chipotle and frozen yogurt on the way to the conference! So excited!

I told you we were excited for the hot tub. But I had some last-minute reading to do and Randi wanted to review her presentation and we didn't want to waste any time soooo.... multi-tasking. 

I dripped my wet hair on my only copy of my scripted presentation. #Fail

Our super official name tags. My hair kept getting caught in mine...