u.s.a. meets native american

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absolutely, positively, LOVE this. to the point where i want to abandon the "4 siblings with gold iphone cases" idea that we are talking about and get this as my iphone case. can't tell you how suiting it is for me. i don't know who the artist is but i wish i did! that way i could see their others pieces. when i see this i see someone combining the first people who lived on the american continent mixed with the united states. a perfect blend of the past and the present. as for the symbols - they are many different tribes symbols and not just one tribes. it's bringing together many different people and all under the flag.

excitement

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for years and years my family has been obsessed with les miserables. we have all read the book and seen all the movies and always listen to the music. we all did something for the two times our high school did the school edition of the musical. matti was marius, mika was gavroche, and kirsi, my mom, and i did the hair and makeup for everyone.

so needless to say with all this history kirsi and i literally peed our pants when we found out they were making the first every movie rendition of the musical. i squealed i was so excited! then we found out who the cast was and honestly i think its all very fitting. the other day they released the first official trailer for the movie. needless to say kirsi and i got excited all over again. its going to be so good!






                                        

it's gonna be big folks.

glitz and glam

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absolutely, positively, MUST try this as soon as i get home where my vast collection of glitter and sparkles are. of course i'll be trying the gold first. it just screams of glitz and glam. i found this picture on pinterest and ever since have been obsessed with it. but now i just need an occasion to be so dolled up. besides, it doesn't exactly match the yoga pants and big sweater look i have going on at the moment. or maybe this is exactly the thing to spruce up my current grunge look.

brave

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 i am SO stinkin' excited for disney's pixar's first ever princess. her name is merida and she is scottish. it's going to be so golden i cannot wait! i have been watching the trailers for months now. the tie is getting closer and closer at hand. i only wish they would have a midnight showing. i would be all over that. it's funny, when i always get so excited for something it's usually a kiddy thing. ex: disneyland, tangled, the princess and the frog, grandparents coming to visit, dessert. that last one is especially true. but what can i say? these things just speak to me. all i'm sayin' is there's nothing quite like fighting a gaggle of 6 year old girls for the first row of the first showing of a cartoon princess movie, or the hannah montana movie. 

favorite line of the whole movie: "if you had the chance to change your fate, would you?". it just sends shivers up my spine.

i am the lion

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 have you every been on a spiritual journey? go ahead, ask what kind of weird things i do in college. well, let me tell you. a spiritual journey is where you meditate and find your other half, your totem, your power animal. the other day when i was at my friends jess and tawn's house we went on the journey to find ours. technically you are supposed to have incense burning and the lights off, but  we didn't have any incense and we didn't want to turn off the lights; however, after much intense meditation we all discovered our power animals. jess was a cougar, tawn was jaguar, and i was the lion. maybe one day, if you're lucky, i'll tell you how i discovered my power animal, but here is everything the lion stands for.

"when you walk, walk like the lion. be proud to be who you are, exactly as you are. hold your head high. look each person in the eye and silently say to yourself: i am the lion.

the lion will fill  you with courage, the courage to be who you are and show it to the world. he will teach you how to roar our with your power, displaying your talents and announcing your presence. he will teach you to have the courage to be yourself, always and in all ways to know the deep truth, that you are exactly  as you should be. after all, you are the lion.

the lion is power, but power contained. he will teach you the strength of quiet command. he will teach you to hold yourself with such presence that merely being around you will fill others with respect and awe.

know and be the quiet strength of complete confidence. speak calmly and with authority. act from a place of personal truth and wisdom, a wisdom that comes from the quiet times you spend just being and feeling your deep connection with all that is.

 walk with grace and strength. hold your head high and once in a while, give out a resounding, magnificent roar. after all, you are the lion."

be inspired

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hi, i'm leena and i have a dirty big secret. i'm addicted to pinterest. i find myself pinning more than i find myself on facebook. but i can't help it. it's just so inspiring to me. sometimes you just need it for a little inspiration, or a lot of inspiration. i can't help but get ideas for my future house, plan my wedding even when i'm not even dating, but mostly i find myself looking up quotes and pictures.

werk it

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i found this picture on pinterest. every time i look at it i bust up laughing as if it were the first time. no joke. i think it is hilarious and everyone should see it. this kid reminds me of a couple different people i know. this bunch looks like a group of home schoolers, being a home schooled child i feel safe in my statement. it just looks like a nest of misfits who find solitude in one another. i also love the ratio of girls to boys. 5 to 10.  love. it. all.

what are your thoughts?

she's only my best friend

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as you probably already know, savanah is my best friend. i haven't seen her in 5 months. it's torture. we try to skype as often as possible, but that is too hard because of the time difference and our busy schedules. the planets are not aligning in our favor. to make up for this we try our hardest to send love notes to each other via facebook. these entail anything from how much we miss each other or notes to reassure us that we will live through whatever woe just happened. we post these as often as about every other day. some of my favorites include these.

can't wait till were reunited.

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

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they say "absence makes the heart grow fonder", but im not entirely sure how i feel about that. sometimes i believe it and sometimes i dont; however, right now i believe it. i miss my family. i miss my best friend savanah. i miss nipomo. i miss cheap food. i miss strawberries. i miss california's beaches. i miss the mustard fields. i miss driving (never thought i would say that). i miss all my friends back home. i miss spending saturday nights with my favorite kids i babysit. i miss my dog fluffly. i miss it all so much right now. i have been in hawaii for 5 months. i am however excited to announce that i will be home in exactly 14 days! i can not remember the last time i was this excited. i have been having a count down for the last 30 days. i cannot wait to be home and be with everything and everyone i love.

only 14 more days.

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I am the best babysitter ever. Why, you may ask? Well because the other day when I was watching lil Abbs and Charlie they couldn't fall asleep. When they came to get me to read more stories to them I agreed. But as hard as Abbs tried I wouldn't read her "awesome shark book!" to her. Oh, no no. Instead the girls listened to me reading the Book of Mormon :) Yup, thats right. Worked like a charm. Girls were out sooner than expected :)

Glitz, Ni-Ni's, and Tantrums

I have probably watched this clip . . . .200 times maybe. It just never gets old :) My absolute favorite part is when both her fingers are up in the air, but only one finger is being waved. Its just so priceless :) Please, enjoy.






Are you thoroughly horrified now? Good. Now that you are you should know that Juana,  the mother, had a mental breakdown in the middle of the pageant because she said "kenzie's been acting up lately and it's just too much for me". That added so much more meaning for me :)

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Goodbye Bucky. You have been good to me. I will never forget you. They way you would break down on the side of the freeway at midnight. The way I fondly placed surfing stickers all over you so it would seem that you were just my "surfing car" and my real car was simply in the shop. The way you smelled moldy for a week after it rained for five minutes. The way your seat belt would never buckle so I was driving illegally for a year. The way your air conditioning was the best air conditioning I have ever known. The way your treated me when I napped between classes. The way you were missing a hubcap. The way you started violently shaking if I went over 65 on the freeway, and why my parents loved you for that. You were an automatic way to ensure my parents that I would not and could not speed. I loved how you were a woody wanna-a-be. How you were 20 years old and still would haul my entire family with all of our bags, including all 10 bags Kirsi always brings. How your heater never worked and dad had to buy me one. How I could never completely get the dog hair out of you. They way you would take me and all my friends on a road trip and save us from having to take a sobriety test from the cops. (thats another post) The way your trunk had to be propped up with a stick to keep it from smacking me in the head. How your gas gauge would lie to me and say half when it was truly empty. Bucky where ever you are in car heaven, know that I will miss you and you will never be able to be replaced. (but when you are it will be with a newer, working, car.) Bucky you have been well loved and will continue to hold a place in our hearts.

R.I.P. Bucky Kentucky

5 Reasons to be a Follower of Savanahs Blog

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Everyone should be a follower of my friend Savanahs blog.

1. She posts more than I do which might be a plus.
2. She's beautiful
3. As a 17 year old still has a GINORMOUS crush on Nick Jonas.
4. Has a hilarious little sister who cries at least twice a day on a schedule. My favorite story ever is when she came running to Megan (other sister) crying. When Megan asked her why she was crying she sobbed "I don't know!".
5. She's friends with me, so she has to be cool.
Word

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As you should know, this is Ryan Seacrest. I found this on the Internet. The caption read. . . .

"Don't Worry. There is still HOPE."

S. B.

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On Sunday History was made in our house. For twenty-something years my parents have been married. And in that time they have never ONCE watched the Superbowl. Well for the first time ever Mika made us watch it on Sunday. It just felt weird. Mika kept telling us that we had to watch it because we would be watching history in the making. My dad replied by saying "if you make us watch it, that right there is history in the making". So Mika turned it and and twenty minutes later I look over from my computer and everyone, including Mika, was asleep. Super exciting stuff obviously.

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I have the hardest time wanting to read my scriptures before I go to bed. I can never seem to do it in the morning and in the day time is too hard. Bedtime is the only time it can get done but I'm ashamed that it is usually about the last thing I want to do after I have jumped in my big cozy bed. Recently i have come across a solution to this problem. My motivation?? Rapunzel. Yes Rapunzel is my motivation. Why? Because I have an AWESOME Rapunzel bookmark that was given to me by the nice woman working at Disneyland. I use it as it is supposed to be used. As a bookmark. And ever since I have started this I simply can't wait to read my scriptures so that I can look at it and get all giddy. :) Hey whatever works, works.

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Can you spot whats wrong with this picture??

And no, it is not my messy hair.



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This is an email I received earlier today. It is terrifying!



"MAKE SURE YOUR DAUGHTERS, FRIENDS, RELATIVES, ETC. KNOW!


This was written by a guy from KVLY-TV in Fargo .


This is something that happened to us on the way back from vacation last


week. At first I didn't think much of it until now. The reason we were a


little suspicious is we had been riding in a jeep all day with 100


degree temps and we stopped at a truck stop for something to drink.


When I was leaving, a young girl followed me out and asked what kind of


cologne I was wearing. Well, after 7 hours in the car sweating, I


don't think you could tell if I was or was not wearing any cologne. We just got in the jeep and said no thanks.


Then it was about 3 weeks ago, I was at a service station in Birmingham


getting gas. It was about 9:30 pm. I was approached by 2 men and 2 women


in a car. The man that was driving asked me 'What kind of perfume do you


wear?' I was a bit confused and I asked him 'Why?' He said, 'We are selling some name brand perfumes, at cheap prices. I said I had no money. He then reached out of the car and handed me paper that was laminated; it had many perfumes on it. I looked quickly at it and gave it back. I said, have no money. He said it is OK, we take check, cash, or credit cards. Then the people in the car began to laugh. I just got in my car and said no thanks.


Then I received this e-mail yesterday and it sent chills up my spine.


Please read this. It is no joke. Here is the e-mail I was sent:


Dear Friends:


I know not all of you are women that I am sending this to, but am hoping


you will share this with your wives, daughters, mothers, sisters, etc.


Our world seems to be getting crazier by the day. Pipe bombs in mail


boxes and sickos in parking lots with perfume. Be careful. I was


approached yesterday afternoon around 5:30 PM in the Wal-Mart parking


lot by two men asking what kind of perfume I was wearing. Then they


asked if I'd like to sample some fabulous scent they were willing to


sell me at very reasonable rate. I probably would have agreed had I not


received an e-mail warning of a 'Wanna smell this neat perfume?' scam.


The men continued to stand between parked cars, I guess to wait for


someone else to hit on. I stopped a lady going towards them, pointing at


them and told her about how I was sent an e-mail at work about some one


walking up to you at the malls or in parking lots and asking you to


SNIFF PERFUME that the y are selling at a cheap price or at least


compare to which one you like best.


THIS IS NOT PERFUME... IT IS ETHER!


When you sniff it, you'll pass out. They'll take your wallet, your


valuables and heaven knows what else. If it were not for this e-mail, I


probably would have sniffed the 'perfume' but thanks to the generosity


of an e-mailing friend, I was spared whatever might have happened to me


I wanted to do the same for you.


PLEASE PASS THIS ALONG TO ALL YOUR WOMEN FRIENDS AND PLEASE BE ALERT AND BE AWARE. IF YOU ARE A MAN AND RECEIVE THIS, PASS IT ON TO YOUR WOMEN FRIENDS.


Ladies, this happened to me yesterday and I didn't smell the perfume


either, thanks to this email. This is true. Believe me, I know. I was


over by Big Lots in the parking lot at lunch time when I was approached.


So either day or night, it does not matter. There were 3 guys together


when I was approached . I called the police when I got back to my desk.


Like the email says above, LET EVERYONE KNOW ABOUT THIS - YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY, CO-WORKERS, whomever. It helped me. The first thing that popped into my head was this e-mail warning."

Monster Drinkers

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When Monster drinks and the like first came out me and my siblings had a very sound talking to from my dad about them. He says they are gateway drugs and that under no circumstances is it ok for us to drink them. He associates them with the kids who sell drugs behind Vons. You know kind. The ones where their parents didn't buy them a belt to keep their pants up. The ones that zip around on skateboards or bikes. The kind the cops always seem to talking to and keeping tabs on. Whenever dad sees someone walking on the side of the street with the above description he always says to whoever is in the car "Monster drinker". One of my favorite times he did this is when we were walking by a dark ally on our way to SLO Farmers, there were some kids hanging out in the dark and he looked straight at them and said "Monster drinkers", and kept walking. Needless to say it was the best moment of my life. Me, Matt, and Mika burst out laughing I thought we would explode. Dad didn't get what was so funny. But it was too funny to forget about.

Naturally when I saw this picture in the AGHS parking lot I immediately snapped a shot and sent it to my dad. He responded by saying "Where can I get one?" It was great.

Then for Christmas I made my mom get him an HitMan Monster drink. He opened it and didn't know what to do with it. Once he realized what it was he couldn't stop laughing. Then he immediately wanted to throw it away but we made him keep it. :) It sits in his closet staring him down everyday. :)

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Read about my smooth texting skills here. I'm a sly dog. What can I say??