Becky...

NYC at Christmas is magical.

2012-01-04T20:56:00.000-08:00

Granted its NYC...it's always magical.

the rainbow that stretched across capitol hill this afternoon.

2011-12-27T21:13:00.000-08:00

I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth-Genesis 9:13

white house christmas cake

2011-12-21T16:54:00.000-08:00

I received a copy of this year's White House Christmas Cake recipe thinking i was mighty lucky and it was VERY hard to come by and/or top secret. I got my family all excited when I told them I was going to make this top secret white house cake enjoyed only by the Obama's and a select few... than my mom googled "white house 2011 Christmas cake" and it came right up.... so much for being a Washington insider.

Pumpkin Cake with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting
A recipe from the White House Pastry Kitchen

Cake
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
1¼ cups dark brown sugar
4 eggs
¾ cup vegetable oil
7 ounces of pumpkin puree (either homemade or from a can)
¼ cup whole milk, warmed

Pre-heat the oven to 340° Fahrenheit.

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ground ginger, baking soda, nutmeg and ground cloves into a large bowl. Put this aside. Whisk together brown sugar and eggs with a mixer. Beat in the vegetable oil and then the pumpkin puree. Add the dry ingredients mixture alternating with the whole milk in three parts. Mix well and scrape the sides and bottom of bowl between each part. Grease and flour bundt pan. Bake for about one hour. Let the cake cool in the pan and then turn out onto a cooling rack. For the finishing touch, pour the orange cream cheese icing over the top of the cooled bundt cake. Makes one cake from a 2 quart bundt pan.

Frosting
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon orange zest
1 vanilla bean or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 ounces butter, softened
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 pound cream cheese, room temperature
Pinch of salt
½ cup fresh squeezed orange juice, strained

Place cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar in bowl and use a mixer until it becomes a smooth cream. If you are using a standing mixer, use the paddle attachment for the best results. Add the softened butter to the bowl. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a plastic spatula and then add the orange zest, vanilla bean or extract, heavy cream, pinch of salt and orange juice. Set the frosting aside until you are ready to pour over cake.

christmas in the desert

2011-12-21T16:34:00.000-08:00

one of the highlights of our christmas season every year is going to Ethel M's cactus garden and seeing the lights as well as getting a free chocolate. and though this year's highlight was perhaps seeing them ACTUALLY making chocolate in the factory (seeing as i have been to Ethel M's factory at least once a year the past 23 years of my life and never ever seen any chocolates being made) the lights were just as fabulous as usual. even though i did accidentally walk into a cactus while admiring the lights.... one of the risks you take living in the desert i suppose.

holiday hayes family

2011-12-18T21:16:00.000-08:00

it's good to be back home. i had to work last minute saturday and missed my 6:30 am flight out of DCA... so after i got off, i went to the airport at 2 pm hoping to get on a flight within a couple of hours as stand by... well they couldn't get me on a flight til 6 pm. so instead of going back to my house, which is literally 5 mins away from the airport, i just hung out for 4 hours and then flew to wisconsin... and hung out there for 2 more hours... and then finally made it home, literally 12 hours after i got dropped at the airport in dc. WHATEVER. i am home now so that is all that matters. home to celebrate christmas with the fan bam and partake of holiday festivities and cheer for a full week. and my family is so so so so so amazing and waited for me and anna hayes to return to decorate the tree. and just like hayes family christmas trees, this one looks pretty dang good, if but a little who-ville-like. and we managed to only break one family heirloom ornament this year... one of baby anna from 1991... nothing a little gorilla glue can't fix. so merry christmas from the holiday hayes family.

tumblr. maybe one day?

2011-12-13T21:02:00.000-08:00

i really wish i knew how to use tumblr. but i dont. so i end up just looking at other people's tumblrs and being impressed they understand how it works. but seriously the internet is really out to get us. youtube, facebook, pinterest (killer), tumblr, so many blogs, hulu.... seriously what did people do at work before the interent? jk. but still....

i found this on tumbr. and i love it.

vegas christmas.

2011-12-12T21:00:00.000-08:00

did you know i come from one of the coolest, most vegas-y families around. it's true. no one does christmas more vegas, more sparkly, and more loud than the family hayes. we have been in that town a lot longer than most and i am so proud to be a native las vegan and to be going home to my family and my town at the end of the week. i found this old card my dad had scanned a few years back from when he was the only hayes kid, and my grandparents and him literally lived in the middle of no where in vegas. i love my dad. i love my grandparents. i love this card. i love christmas. and i love las vegas.

white house.

2011-12-10T22:21:00.001-08:00

I was able to visit the White House to see the Christmas decorations last week (all 37 Christmas Trees!) It was BEYOND beautiful and an honor to visit at Christmas time. NO I didn't see my BFFLS Barack and Michelle, or their dog BO (who, let's be honest, would be just a little cooler to see than POTUS)

yes this happened.

2011-12-06T20:06:00.001-08:00

1029 now has a tree. a christmas tree. decorated by yours truly. it may or may not look like las vegas exploded in all its glitter-y fabulousness all over the tree, but i like. merry christmas to you from me 1029. you have been very good to me this year. perhaps one of the best things as far as my new life in DC goes. i love your attic, my attic, le attic, with its slopped ceilings only i can stand under and your complete lack of A/C and heating. your tiny lime green kitchen and your nook. oh the nook. i love you nook. oh and the wood floors and laura's back door and her quest to feng shui her room. and CC's BRIGHT white room and her sound machine. i love the basement with its warm laundry space and carrie's and allie's mystery rooms. and the never ending flooding of the basement and the furnace that can/will kill. i love the backyard and the trees and the strawberry bush and the glowing green frog. and its leaves. oh so so so many leaves. if anyone would like to rake leaves, there are many at 1029. i loved that day in May when it was finally 80 degrees and i laid in the green grass in my backyard and ate an orange popsicle and basked in the warmth of an upcoming summer. and the driveway. oh that driveway, what a nightmare. the driveway i cannot back out of (granted i only tried once) and the giant tree which i thought was going to be torn down... at which point i was prepared to chain myself to the tree to save it. also when lee and ben tried to climb the giant tree and failed. 1029 with our neighbors across the way and the crazy blue mini cooper lady who disappeared and leslie next door and the cat lady on the other side and the guys across the street. and 17th street, with the best block party ever. 1029, thanks for a great year.

(1029 is my house number)

christmas cake.

2011-12-06T19:46:00.001-08:00

yes i made this. yes it took 3 hours. yes it is 6 layers of christmas-y goodness. yes it was worth every single moment, and im not even an eggnog fan! it directions are as follows:

Eggnog Cake

Makes 2 9-inch rounds, or 6 6-inch rounds
Ingredients

FOR THE CAKE
4 eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup eggnog, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into 16 pieces

FOR THE FROSTING
5 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
pinch of salt
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tablespoon eggnog
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To make the cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray cake pans with nonstick cooking spray and line the bottoms with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, eggnog, and vanilla; set aside.

In a large bowl, or the bowl of a standing mixer, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. With the mixer on medium low, add the butter one piece at a time until the mixture looks sandy, and just start to come together. Add half of the eggnog mixture and mix on low until it just comes together. Increase the speed to medium high speed and beat until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Reduce mixer speed to medium, and add the remaining egg mixture in a slow, steady stream. Continue mixing until thoroughly combined, scraping the bowl, as needed.

Divide the batter (18 ounces in each 9-inch round, or 6 ounces in each 6-inch round) into the prepared pans. If baking 2 9-inch rounds, place both pans on the same rack and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs clinging to it. If making 6 6-inch rounds, place 3 pans in the oven (on the same rack) and bake for 13-15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs clinging to it. Repeat with the remaining 3 pans. Run a paring knife around the outside edge of the cakes, turn them out onto a wire cooling rack, and peel away the parchment paper. Allow to cool completely before assembling and frosting.

To make the frosting: In a medium bowl set over a pot of simmering water, combine the egg whites, sugar, nutmeg, and salt. Heat the mixture, whisking often, until it reaches 160 degrees and the sugar is dissolved.

Pour into a large bowl (if using a hand mixer), or the bowl of a standing mixer with the whisk attached. Whisk on medium high speed until stiff peaks form, about 8-10 minutes. The mixture should also be room temperature, at this point.

With the mixer on medium speed, add the butter, 1 piece at a time, and beat until incorporated before adding another piece. Continue to beat until thick and smooth (if it looks curdled or soupy, just keep beating it until smooth again, another 3 minutes or so). Stir in the vanilla and eggnog until incorporated and tint with food coloring, as desired.

next time you go to NYC...

2011-11-07T20:15:00.000-08:00

walk across the brooklyn bridge. it's unreal. i promise.

easily one of my top three things to do in the city. oh and try to go on the most perfect fall afternoon.

nevada day.

2011-11-07T09:48:00.000-08:00

I'm a week late but that's ok... last week was Nevada day and what better way to celebrate Nevada day but by hanging out in the Nevada Senator Harry Reid's Office in Washington DC. Oh wait, i do that everyday....
Anyways in HONOR of Nevada Day, I made NV cookies. And or course they were a hit and got prominently displayed/eaten up in our front office. I am so blessed to work with a bunch of Nevadans trying to make a difference for our little (but actually very big) state over 2,000 miles away. We miss home a lot but thankfully the office is a little bit of home away from home.

autumn

2011-11-07T09:33:00.000-08:00

fall has arrived in the district. this past weekend was prehaps one of the most beautiful i have enjoyed so far in dc. the temps were perfectly fall like (mid 60's) all the trees have changed and were at their PEAK as the weather experts say. it was so magnificient. I kept telling everyone to ENJOY it now becuase who knows how long it will last. On Sunday before church, oh side note... i have church from 3-6 pm, it gets dark at like 5 pm now... which means, yes i was in Relief Society and it was dark outside, it was weird..... anyways before i went to my midnight church i went for a big bike ride on the Potomac river trail and i cannot tell you how BEAUTIFUL it was. the water was a deep dark blue, not a cloud in the sky, and all the trees were orange, red, purple, and yellow. it was perfect.

oh and the night before me and the roommates went to Le Pain Quotidein for Hot Chocolate. It made me want to move to Paris, oh maybe just consume extreme amounts of Hot Chocolate this winter season.

steve jobs.

2011-10-05T21:13:00.000-07:00

I know I haven’t blogged in months. Whatever. Don’t worry, my life has still been great. There is so much going on blah blah blah blah whatever. However, I need to write about this. Steve Jobs passed away today. For those of you who know me and my family, you will know that we are Apple people through and through and have been from the start. I was the girl who had to learn how to work a PC when I got to college in the library. Rick click??? What on earth is that??? You mean you cant just drag and drop??? That makes no sense. Wait this computer freezes??? We always had Macintosh's growing up. The Hayes family always was and always will be with Apple. My dad was was there in 1984 with the first release in the most random computer store Provo had to offer. We endured the dark days of the 90’s and from the very start of the apple revolution with the iMacs in the early 2000’s. And now as i sit here and type this on my Macbook Pro with my iphone and ipad just inches away I think of all the many great Steve Jobs/Apple memories I have.

My dad goes to MacWorld every year. In 2006 he took me with him as a present for my Senior Year of High School. We got up at the crack of dawn to wait in line for hours and hours to get in to see the Steve Jobs keynote address. It was a dream come true to go and the auditorium held thousands so we were sure we would get in. Well turns out we should have gotten up 3 mins earlier because the people in front of us got in.... but not us. We were the first to be turned away to the overflow, after over 4 hours of waiting. Surely there was room for two small Hayes’s to stand in the back, but no, we watched from the overflow. I was devastated. Thankfully they didn’t pull an Oprah and give everyone a free Macbook under their seats but it just wasn’t the same watching from the overflow. After the keynote we headed over to the showroom to see the new products on display. I was messing around on a laptop when I looked over a saw a crowd of people gathering around a man and a computer just a few down from me. That man was Steve Jobs. And I saw him working on a MacBook Pro about 10 feet away. The trip all the way to San Francisco was worth it, just for that. I wanted to thank him and of course couldn’t due to the bazillion people around him. I should have.

Those of you who went on my study abroad with me might remember me as the girl who always found the Apple stores no matter what random location we were at. It was the first place I went to when I got to London. It is a big and beautiful Apple store and if you ever make it to London, be sure to visit, on Regent Street. I went to the apple store and stood there feeling welcomed and at home in a foreign land. Everyone there is happy and has something in common. Apple stores reminds me of home. They are familiar. In fact my one dream in life is to work at an Apple Store (ok maybe not ONE dream, but its still a main one). I want to wear T-shirts and vans to work and sell ipods to old people. I have even gone through a few midnight life crisises and filled out applications to work at Apple Stores.

This afternoon, I was on my ipad after work checking out Twitter. I saw a tweet that Jobs had died, didn't believe it, and then they all started coming through. My heart dropped. But I think that's how Steve would have wanted me to find out, on my ipad. It’s weird being so sad over some one's death that I didn’t even know. But then again it’s not. Steve Jobs’ has had such a large impact on so many aspects of my life each and every day and I will miss him. So thank you Steve for everything. Thank you for your simple and straightforward attitude. Thank you for making it cool to be a nerd. Thank you for making this insane life just a little bit more bearable. Thank you for being my dad’s favorite person. Thank you for giving me an excuse to stand in line for hours. Thank you for my ipod, iphone, ipad, and of course, my Macbook Pro which I will never ever give up. Christmas and birthdays in the Hayes house wont be the same without you. I know Apple will go on and it will still be cool, but it wont be the same. Steve Jobs was Apple. So Steve, you better get some iphones up there on the icloud, I know my grandparents could use them...maybe we could face time or something. For now Steve Jobs, farewell. Perhaps what makes me most sad is that there will never be another … One More Thing....

life.

2011-06-14T07:38:00.000-07:00

the last few weeks/month has flown by in a crazy, insane, whirlwind of events. i went to Boston and saw my beloved cousin miss sarah and dear friend Rachel. Dreams came true when i saw the RED SOX play at Fenway and FELL IN LOVE with the city of Boston. I will return there someday. I went to NYC twice where the always fabulous Anna has become a star TV reporter this summer. Saw two broadway shows, spent way too much money and ate more than my 5 foot body can handle. Sister Anna has come down to see me in DC and we had a Memorial Day weekend filled with America lovin and baseball and black bean burgers (since we are of course vegs). I ran a race in the mud with Marines yelling in my face with co workers who are all apparently faster than me. and been to several a baseball game to cheer on my favs the NATS! I have eaten my way through DC multiple times and (big shocker) am GREATLY improving my DC driving skills. I've made great new friends in the ward and am LOVING life here in the District.

Last night I did some ward hopping and went to FHE with the DC2nd ward. It was on the rooftop of a apartment building about 4 blocks away from the Capitol and it was an absolute blast. beautiful people, great conversation, and some hilarious moments. FHE on the rooftop in a city, that wouldn't happen in Provo, UT. and everyday i pinch myself that i get to live and work here.

me and miss sara at FHE last night. loving our lives.

i think you should read my sister's blog

2011-06-14T07:29:00.001-07:00

mainly cause her life is SUPER exciting. not that mine isnt, but still. she is coming to see me tomorrow and i am beyond excited.

http://annamatkinhayes.blogspot.com/

midnight in paris.

2011-06-14T07:20:00.001-07:00

first place I fell in love with in Europe was Paris. went back again in 2008 with my beloved study abroad program. needless to say, i love the city, along with the rest of the world it seems. with this confession, i HIGHLY recommend you go see the new Woody Allen Film Midnight in Paris. it is in fact quite lovely. and Hannah and Sara highly recommend it.

graduation happens.

2011-05-03T22:12:00.000-07:00

we took way way way too many photos graduation weekend. def. worth it though. click the above collage to get a sample.

ps my room in DC is like 1 million degrees right now in case you were wondering. and its not even into May yet. humidity=my doom.

capital bikesharing

2011-04-30T17:05:00.000-07:00

bikesharing is my new fav. DC started bikesharing back in September and they have def. won me over. a few weeks ago there was a livingsocial deal for a year long membership for the bikes and i signed right up. there are over 100 bikeshare stations and over 1,000 bikes in circulation! let me tell you how it works in three easy steps:

1. check out bike

2. ride bike wherever you want

3. return bike to whatever station is closet to where you end

its brilliant and EVERYONE is signing up. which means:

a. it is the cool thing to do and not nerdy

b. lots and lots of bike stations and bikes

c. lots of bikesharing friends.

thank you dc for being so cool AGAIN.

the other night me and mah bffl/roommate celisse went for an amazing bikeshare bike ride through Arlington. complete with speed riding at the end to reach the docking station on time. #ilovethisplace

People who love capital bikesharing:

natasha matkin-hayes.

john rhoden.

becky hayes.

celisse coppel.

this is what graduating with becky and chris looks like.

2011-04-30T16:20:00.001-07:00

too bad chris fell asleep as SOON as we sat down. i kid you not. i look over, and he was OUT. thats ok. we played fruit ninja the last hour. sorry you are going to half to tilt your head halfway through. ps i am BOSSY in this video. why didnt anyone ever tell me!?!?!

so i graduated last week....

2011-04-30T15:59:00.001-07:00

and they sent me proof today. literally. stamped across the front of it. who would even think to steal a photo from the internet...i would never ever ever do that (cough cough) anyways i LOVED graduating. thanks to ALL my wonderful fam for coming out. you have NO idea how much it meant to me. sometimes i think, "i wish i had a big mormon family like everyone else," but then i realize I DO! thursday was commencement which is when everyone goes together and walks in. it was great fun meeting up with people and walking in the Marriott in a big mass. i loved walking past professors and Cecil and Elder Scott just chilling under the tent in the front. that night we had a delish dinner at Little Gloria's and EVERYONE came including my bffl Hillary

the next day was convocation where ALL life sciences college kids walked. loved that. they read my name and i was legit scared walking across the stage. so scared that i didn't even hear anyone cheering for me and got all sad that no one had. my mom later assured me there was lots of cheering. thank goodness. 4.5 years of hard work deserved a cheer! annalise was probs my fav walking across the stage with her arms up waving at everyone. it was classic annalise.

so here is the proof. the funniest thing about this is they just snap the pic in front a green screen right before you walk out. they have like a million people making sure you dont have lettuce in your teeth and then you smile and walk. my fav background is of mini Jimmer floating up in the corner. seriously? would people buy that. i actually might.....

i know everyone is sick of it... but i LOVED the royal wedding!!!

2011-04-30T14:05:00.000-07:00

every single moment of it. obviously. me and laura woke up at the crack of dawn and laid in bed and watched it live in Arlington. i might have cried. ok i did cry. and i might have looked at all 1 million of my london pictures the night before in honor of it. i am not one who recommends dwelling on the past but man alive did i love love love living in london. i had this great idea to live blog during the royal wedding since that seems to be the new cool hip thing to do and i knew everyone would love my commentary, but i couldnt bring myself to reach my computer at 5 am. it required too much effort. so now you will get a delayed, reader's digest version of about what i thought....

first off kate's dress looked rocking OBVIOUSLY. that is no shocker. i also loved the cars they drove to Westminster abbey in and how all the tv people kept saying they were so british. and the vans full of royals. so funny. brilliant. i thought kate's mom looked like more of a gold digger than kate does and didnt look at all that happy to be there although she was probs just nervous that her daughter was getting married to the future king of england.... i loved the trees in Westminster. beautiful. oh and her walking down the aisle with her dad.... killed me... can you imagine doing that and prince william didnt even turn around and then prince harry did and it was so so so cute and prince harry is a BABE in his royalty/military uniform. and then they started signing Guide Me O thou Great Jehovah and it sounded just like conference. anyways vows were great. program was great. i loved the preacher/archbishop man delivering the sermon from the floating pulpit above the crowd and he pretty much said have lots children. and then the carriages rides were beautiful with pippa or whatever her name is and prince harry put in with all those random kids. oh btw i looked up who all those kids are.....random.... looks like it doesnt take much to be a flower girl/ mini prince at a royal wedding. oh and then the kiss, or should i say KISSES..... those royals need to hit up some mormon weddings and see how much of that actually goes down here in america. here are my fav pics:

ok this was just hilarious. them driving around in a convertible with cheapo balloons on the back.

everyone marching to the palace to see them was great. nothing i love more than a sea of humanity.

check out flower girl number two there on the left. she was not very happy.

my wedding is going to be a real let down after this one...... high standards have now been set.

royal wedding

2011-04-16T22:31:00.001-07:00

I am beyond excited for the Royal Wedding. and this video is hilarious cause they all look just like the royal family especially that Camilla that no one seems to like except Prince Charles. Anyways I am already planning my royal wedding outfit to wear to work that day and I of course will be watching the whole thing on CNN. remember when I lived in England and saw the queen and a whole bunch of other important royals, but NEVER the princes. england fail.

Workity work work

2011-04-16T15:31:00.001-07:00

This is what I look like at work. In case you were wondering. First line of defense=me

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

East coast summer, part 2

2011-04-16T15:26:00.001-07:00

Summer is the best season for a variety of reasons some of which are: no snow, it's warm, school is out (this doesn't really apply anymore) my birthday happens, and it's BASEBALL season.

Went to my first game of the season this week! Go NATS

People in DC go to games in their work clothes, example... John above. It's kinda weird. I guess it's cause we all work all the time and have no time for trivial things like changing. Cause we dont. It's exhausting.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

sometimes the stars just align.

2011-04-16T14:28:00.000-07:00

life is great as of late. good friends. good roommates. great location to live in. beautiful weather. i have been blessed.... and sometimes the stars just align right in life. like right now.

example, I work for:

-the United States Senate Majority Leader

-who is a member of my faith

-a democrat

-from my state.

that wont ever ever ever happen again. i am not lucky, i am blessed.

top of the capitol.

2011-03-25T16:40:00.000-07:00

life looks pretty great from the top of the US Capitol Building.

before I went I was wandered the climb to the top was a bit scary and difficult. it was TERRIFYING. I thought I was going to fall and die multiple times. good thing I didn't. steepest stairs ever. Congress needs to find some money in the budget to install an elevator up to the top.

Apotheosis of Washington. Want to know about this painting, come on a Cap tour, I will teach you everything.

terrifying. 180 feet up.

looking West. I fall more in love with this place each and every day.

and looking East. Supreme Court and Library of Congress

and this is where I work. senate office buildings. hollllllla.

Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday

2011-03-21T20:17:00.000-07:00

So it's Friday last week, and I am sitting at work thinking about my weekend plans etc. My DEAR friends from London are in town (Alex, Brooke, Marin) and they are going to Philadelphia for the weekend with Sara. So I start to think to myself, I should go with them...but alas they are already driving there, how will get there?? Well as you know the East Coast, in incredibly lame when it comes to parking options, but is beyond AMAZING as far as transportation options go.... AKA they have Amtrak. I love trains. I think it is because it reminds me of Europe. Anyways, I get on amtrak.com and the next thing I know, I'm running towards Union Station to catch a train towards Philly. Let the fabulous weekend commence.

One two hour nap later, complete with a married man falling asleep while leaning on me, I am in PHILADELPHIA. Of course being car less, I start walking towards our hotel which shall remain nameless, ok I will tell you, the Ritz....and meet up with the gals. Now let me tell you there is NOTHING like spending a semester in London with people to bring you together. I love these girls. Some of the greatest moments of our young lives were shared together. They get me and I get them. The Ritz is of course, fabulous, and the next morning we get up and set off to meet up with my BEST FRIEND FOR LIFE AND FOREVER AND EVER (BFFLAFAE) Tatini Datta. Who lives in Philadelphia. Another soul mate. We precede to see the sights, spend some money, eat some Amish food and live the good life. All things I am particularly fond of, especially the Amish food. I always feel a close bond with those of an unusual culture and religion a bit from the norm.

Reading Market, here we go.

dont mind if i do.

Amish pretzels change lives.

Tatini and I at Reading Market.

And liberty bell. Obviously.

Oh hey beautiful spring day in the city of brotherly love

le group.

the Ritz aka Caesars Palace of the East

Fancy living.

Thanks for the free apples.

yes, hundreds of men dressed in green dresses ran past us. I dont judge.

The Rocky steps. No, I have never seen Rocky. Yes, I ran up them.

Bye Philly. No I have no idea who that is in my picture.

parallel parking and other complicated things.

2011-03-16T21:36:00.000-07:00

So I have been in dc almost two whole months. That blows my mind since I feel like I havent really done anything except go to work. Which is mainly true. To say these last two months have been stressful, lonely, difficult, and terrifying would be a understatement. I am having a great time and DO NOT regret my decision to move to DC by any means, but it has been tough moving here. Things are finally starting to fall into place and I am getting into a normal lifestyle again.

For example, the first month and a half I was here, I had no where to live. I slept on couches, air mattresses and in some random girls room. It was fine, but not normal and very hard to maintain a routine. I didnt really have a kitchen so I had to eat out for every meal. Which gets old and expensive after about 3 days. All my stuff was in suitcases, which I left in my car, which I essentially was living out of . Crazy times.

That phase of DC is NOW over. As of tonight, I have been in my new house on 17th street for two weeks. We had furniture delivered this evening. My room is almost clean and organized and I only have 4 more screws to somehow fit in my last piece of IKEA furniture to put together. Oh that's a hilarious story. The story is pretty much that I hate IKEA. The place overwhelms me to no end and I hate putting together furniture and I have a whole pile of screws and nails left over that somehow didn't make the cut.... thankfully my dear friend Hannah is so nice and put together like 98% of my stuff. I have no patience. She does. So when I was still living in MD, I went to IKEA like 4 times in one week to try and figure out what to buy for my new attic. like I said, IKEA stresses me out BIG time and is not the 500 days of summer fairy tale world most people make it out to be. Sara came with me the last night before I left and by SOME MIRACLE from on high we got everything in my car. Thank you Ravster. I thought I was going to have to make two trips down to VA to get my stuff there now that IKEA boxes dominated my car, but I got everything in and hit the beltway bound for Virginia.

And now I live in northern Virgina and have to pay state income taxes. I was still technically living in Nevada up until now so my paycheck didnt have state income taxes taken out cause we dont pay them in good ole NV, but I got this weeks today, and guess what, state income taxes...gone. Also today is st patricks day. which is one of my favorite fake holidays. Sadly I did not dye my milk green as tradition, mainly because I have given up milk for almond milk. ALSO today in the senate cafeteria they had corned beef and cabbage which I LOVE but vegetarian becky (going on 6 whole months) cannot eat corned beef. fail.

anyways. title of this post, parallel parking. a skill that is MOST def required in the East Coast. good thing I am a BORN AND RAISED West Coaster where we have AMPLE space and plenty of non parallel parking spots. And I kind of have zero parking skills to start off with. Basically where I am going with this is that parallel parking is required here. and I cant do it. I have TRIED to learn. It is impossible. my mother says its genetic and she can't either. I will take that answer. Also I cant back out of my driveway at my new house. Its kinda long, but not really that long and I literally cannot back out without some being like "YOU ARE GOING TO HIT THE FENCE, GO THE OTHER WAY" and then "OH NOW YOU ARE GOING TO HIT THE HOUSE, GO THE OTHER WAY" it's embarrassing. whatever, I'm over it. tomorrow is Friday. I love Fridays. and LONDON friends Alex, Brooke, and Marin are in DC for a week!!!!! Do I hear a BEST WEEKEND EVER somewhere in my future.

On my walk home from work tonight, I saw the driver of this bus parallel park between two other buses. with mere feet on either end. are. you. kidding. me.

that is all.

oh hey friday.

2011-02-25T21:25:00.000-08:00

love weekends. love weekends esp. now that i don't have to study during them. also i am about to move into this ADORABLE house this week.

i am excited. so excited. i have the whole attic to myself and it is wonderful. and there is a breakfast nook by the kitchen! and it is in Arlington, VA and about a 5 min walk away from the always fabulous Pentagon City (including the NORDSTROM and COSTCO) and only TWO metro stops away from DC. this is my official invitation for EVERYONE to come visit me. Fly into Reagan airport because i can come pick you up since it is 7 mins away from my house. I'm moving in with 4 girls i don't know. hopefully they aren't ax murderers....also i sent them an email asking if we could get TV and cable (because that is essential to my happiness ya know) and they didn't really seem to like the idea....so maybe this is a bad idea. also i wonder if they have found my blog yet???? heyyyy girls (who i don't know yet) if you have!

shot out to Miss Hillary Gamblin for being a genius and getting in grad school. so proud.

also i am buying the first season of the west wing on DVD right now and am so excited about that too. greatest show of my life and now that i live in DC it will be even more great. also TV people really need to stop making such good TV shows that i have to watch every week.... it is getting difficult to keep up!

as we go on.

2011-02-22T19:39:00.000-08:00

I just bought plane tickets to go (back) to Provo and do this again...

that's right GRADUATE! this is me and my (tall) cousin alex at our high school graduation back in the day from GVHS. I had black robes, because you see I am a genius. no really. I am.

I am so excited all of a sudden. since I was done in December and BYU doesn't do graduation ceremonies in December I could either walk A. before i was done with school or B. in April

after I had already been done and left for a few months.

OBVIOUSLY I picked B. actually I didn't know if I was going to go back but then I thought about how SAD I would be when I saw everyones' pictures on Facebook and me not being in them.... and then I realized that is a silly reason just to go back. but still. I LOVE BYU and will definintely shed a tear at the graduation. I can still remember my first event in the Marriott Center. It was like the first thing I did at BYU, new student orientation. I want to go one last time to that wonderful building where I went to so many basketball games and devotionals, musical performances and who knows what. I want to be a cougar and rise and shout and walk around my campus and take a few last pics in front of the sign and hike the Y and eat in the Cougareat, one last time. it will be great. so great.

also, I need to sing this song, as put by the ever so profound Vitamin C, to every single one of my friends at BYU:

As we go on

We remember

All the times we

Had together

And as our lives change

From whatever

We will still be

Friends Forever

happy presidents day.

2011-02-21T18:38:00.000-08:00

DC is a pretty cool place to be on presidents day, i must admit. although turns out it is a pretty cool place to be ANY day. today we (me, sara, hannah, and dain) roamed about DC in very frigid temps and got a bit rained on and a bit turned around on some buses. but still had a fabulous day including trips to:

-chipotle (all good adventures start with some sort of mexican food)

-national archives

-national gallery

-getting bus confused. i am pretty confident about my sense of direction and ability to navigate, but DC is CONSTANTLY testing me...and often wins

-passing our current presidents home. 1600 Pennsylvania ave loves.

-and dinner at an unnamable american restaurant.

all in all i am pleased with my prezs day. happy we have our current president. and glad to go to work tomorrow in our nations capitol.

hey president jefferson

i had hannah convinced these were real dead civil war soldiers. for like 30 seconds.

sara s. and me.

hannah. lover of fine art and good music.

from sea to shinning sea.

perfect timing.

2011-02-19T22:20:00.000-08:00

Before I moved out here, one of my beloved aunts told me that the thing that would be most difficult for me would be being away from my family. I casually brushed this aside thinking how I had been away at college for 4 years, had lived abroad, and already spent time in a variety of places across the US. Being away, no problem. and though I have been fine, (mainly, except for the annual walk home from work on Fridays when I call my mom and try oh so very hard not to cry but it rarely works and I end up having tons of people staring at me in union station) I miss my family so so so much. and being all the way out here in DC makes me realize just how grateful I am for eternal families and how BLESSED I am to know that we WILL be together forever.

Like many Mormons, most of my ancestors walked across the plains to get out west, to be with the Saints and to practice the religion that they and I know to be true. I am so grateful for their sacrifices and so grateful that the gospel has spread throughout the world and that I can meet here on the other side of the country and go to church.... sometimes I actually feel bad knowing that they walked ALL the way across the country and it took months and they left so much behind and struggled so much, all I had to do was jump on an airplane and I was here. but I know I cant live my entire life in a perfect little world surrounded by only Mormons (BYU cough cough) so as difficult as it is, and as far away as I feel from those I love so much, I am happy to be here in DC at this point in life, and hopefully setting a good example to those who are unfamiliar with my church.

Today I went to IKEA to attempt to buy bedroom furniture. I got stuck in traffic for two hours and had lots of time to think. Time to think about my job which I LOVE and hopefully can keep. Time to think about my family and friends who I miss all the time. Time to think about how I am used to knowing millions of people but can literally count the number of people I know in DC on my two hands. I was sitting in my car CRYING by myself in a traffic jam (I cry a lot more lately BTW) and was going on the beltway in a direction I had yet to go. Anyways, I turn the corner and like it was straight of a church talk, the TEMPLE jumps into view. Sticking straight out of the trees like some ridiculous castle. Yes I had seen the DC temple before, but never when I was having a mental breakdown driving down the road by myself. It is quite impressive and certainly doesn't blend in at all.... but it was perfect and exactly what I needed to see at that moment. I can do this. I can be out here, even by myself.

and no I didn't take this picture....I need to focus ALL of my attention on driving here. but this is EXACTLY what it looks like.

so I am far far far away from my home. and family. and friends. and huntington beach. and clothes (still). and warm weather. and palm trees. and BYU. and roads that actually make sense with people who can drive. but I am so grateful to be here and so grateful to know that I don't have to walk across the plains to get back home :)

one week of work. done.

2011-01-29T15:16:00.001-08:00

Well BYU just lost to New Mexico so now I am in a bad mood and I didnt even get a chance to blog about the victory against San Diego State. argh. anyways. HEYOOOO and greetings from Washington DC. I got here on Sunday and have been working hard ever since. being back in Reid's office has been great. love being on the Hill and it was great to already KNOW who I was working with. So far going to work is about ten million times better than going to school because:

1. I get paid

2. there is no homework

3. no studying required

4. I get paid.

yep. I think I am going to like this.

Today I went to the National Portrait Gallery which just happens to be one of my favorite in DC. and GUESS WHO I SAW. You probably wont be able to guess because I think I was like one of 5 people there who actually knew who he was....guess....guess. ok I will tell you, Warren Buffet. Don't ask me HOW I recognized him, but I did.

anyways according to wikipedia:

Warren Edward Buffett (pronounced /ˈbʌfɨt/; born August 30, 1930) is an American investor, industrialist and philanthropist. He is widely regarded as one of the most successful investors in the world. Often called the "legendary investor, Warren Buffett",^[4]^[5] he is the primary shareholder, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.^[6] He is consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people. He was ranked as the world's second wealthiest person in 2009^[7] and is currently the third wealthiest person in the world as of 2010

Yep. That is cool. And no, he did not offer to fund my extravagant and ritzy life style. Dang it...Anyways I followed him around a bit and snapped this beauty:

ps BIG BIG BIG BIG shout out to SARA and roommates Jayci and Kim for letting me crash at their place. I will forever be indebted to them.

whyyyyyy

2011-01-20T13:23:00.001-08:00

why why why WHY does all this EPIC basketball have to happen when I AM NOT THERE??? COME ONNNNNN.

oh well. still love JIMMER JIMMER JIMMER.

this is unbelievable. i CANNOT wait for the San Diego State game.

thank you CBS College Sports for actually EXISTING on my TV.

surprising.

2011-01-18T19:34:00.000-08:00

i stumbled upon this ad from a few years back today and was remind how much i love it.

caption reads: without them we didn't think you'd believe it was Nevada.

maybe i could get a job as a showgirl.... probably not. I'm too short.

74. is nice.

2011-01-18T00:26:00.001-08:00

Did you know I live in the township of Paradise, in unincorporated Clark County. turns out the MAJORITY of the famous Las Vegas Strip isnt EVEN in Las Vegas, it too is in unincorporated Paradise. who knew. i did. bam.

Anyways, today in unincorporated Paradise it was 74 degrees. According to the Las Vegas Sun, this is the warmest it has been on January 17 since 1976 when it reached 72 degrees. It felt like summer. Well not summer cause summer in Vegas ( i mean unincorporated Paradise) is 115 degrees. So it felt like the one nice weekend in mid-March we normally get.

My family went and strolled about the fancy new trail system that just opened at Sunset Park in honor of warm weather and Dr. MLKJ. We walked around a bit and appreciated all the desert landscape. It made me remember how much I love being home.

ps. speaking of parks, did you know in third grade I named a park. Yep that is right. My one claim to fame. There was a contest at my elementary school to name a park that was being built just down the street. Pretty sure my dad came up with the name because there used to be Paiute Indians where we all live now and they grew grapevines...I think.... maybe not... I don't know, I have never seen any grapevines in Vegas. Anyways I WON and I was on the local news and got to read my essay about the park at the grand opening. It was very exciting. Too bad I have been to it like twice in my entire life. It is kinda ghetto. Maybe I will go by and visit tomorrow...since its all of like .5 miles away from my house. Now I am excited. Good plan Becky. I think there is even a plaque with my name on it or something.

i like this. most dont.

fancy desert landscaping. because we dont have water. or trees. only palm trees.

my parentals enjoying the sun.

ps.

2011-01-15T22:47:00.000-08:00

i (think) found somewhere to live in dc.

i am coming.

back.

see you soon.

photo cred, miss natalie

happy birthday grandma.

2011-01-15T20:54:00.000-08:00

dinner might have been about three months late, but it was a great celebration!

loves to aunt heidi, aunt kristen, uncle bob and of course grandma and grandpa.

turns out the Eiffel Tower restaurant is a swanky place to eat with a fabulous view.

things i will miss about utah...

2011-01-15T00:40:00.000-08:00

Dear Sundance,

You may be small and people may hate on you, but I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for helping me get through 4 winters of college. Thank you for helping me become a better skier. Thank you for having the cutest cafe with perfect hot chocolate and the best general store. Thank you for having wind generated power and for being only 20 mins away from BYU. Thank you for allowing me to make ski friends and run into friends on the mountain (not literally). Thank you for NOT letting me break any bones and for meeting the greatest people on the ski lifts. Thank you for "ski to the parking lot" and for night skiing. Thank you for the back mountain and Pipeline and Bishops Bowl/Bash. I will miss you.

Love,

Becky

home.

2011-01-14T23:22:00.001-08:00

Greetings from sunny warm Las Vegas, Nevada. Yes it was over 70 degrees today. Yes I loved every moment of it. So now I am an official college graduate, living in my parents basement (well we don’t have a basement, so I am just living in my bedroom...but basement sounds more dramatic) This is an odd phase of my life. It's not like I don’t have plans. Cause I do, I am moving back to Washington, DC in three weeks (hopefully, fingers crossed) but what will happen once I get there is a bit of a mystery to me... but it's an adventure, right??

My entire life I have always known what I was going to do next. I knew I was going to work hard in school. I knew I would go to Huntington Beach in the summers and BYU for college. I knew I HAD to go to London and wanted to be a biology major. All those decisions were easy. And now it’s a bit more difficult, but more exciting. In all my free time I have at home now I have been going through a lot of my stuff in my room. I am pretty good about not saving things (which some might think is a bad thing since I throw away important school projects and such) but it's amazing to me looking through all my old notes and papers how much I did in college. College was great. But now it is over. I learned a lot, made many great friends, and became a better person. Thank you BYU for providing me with so many opportunities.

Tonight I went to dinner with the dear Macrae, one of my official first friends, if not the first, at BYU. I can remember walking down to the VERY END of Chipman 1200 (my dorm) to my room for the first time and meeting up with my roommate, Chelsea Marie Osborn the Third. Since Chels and I both went to GVHS, we already knew each other. As I dumped my stuff in the room, I looked across the hall and saw two girls unpacking their stuff. The first thing I thought was, "Gosh they sure have a lot of shoes." Those two girls would turn out to be some of my favorite people from my college experience, Dayna and Macrae. We had some great times together that freshman year and all throughout school. One of the highlights was probably when Dayna set a BYU trashcan on fire trying to burn her Chemistry 105 notes. Hilarious. Oh and for a week, we thought Macrae died cause she was super sick and never left her bed. We pranked each other and drove with each other to church. We went on trips together and shopped and went out to dinner, a lot. We saw dollar movies together and pretended to be asleep so others could seemingly "be alone" with guys. It was a great year. And now fast-forward five years. Dayna is in LAW SCHOOL at BYU. Chelsea lives in NORWAY and is MARRIED. Macrae just got back from practically a year in AFRICA and I am moving to DC. Seems like we turned out alright...despite the hours of time not studying, sitting on each others beds...

so from this......

to this....

love you DAYNA and MACRAE!

Sorry for all the old reminiscing. I think I have to do it during this transition phase.... I have also spent a lot of time in the last few weeks looking at blogs online. I hate looking at blogs online cause it makes me think all these people have better, cooler, and more exciting lives then me. But it's not true. I mean I live in FABULOUS LAS VEGAS OF ALL PLACES. Tonight, while at my FAVORITE Margaritaville for dinner with Macrae and I looked around at all the lights and signs and people and craziness that is the Strip. It was beautiful in a weird sort of way and it is my home. I love it here and no matter where I end up, I will ALWAYS come back to a FABULOUS Las Vegas.

this is a happy place.

2010-12-28T22:46:00.001-08:00

Huntington beach has always been my fav place in the entire world. spending time here at Christmas is grand too because its not cold and snowy and everyone loves the beach in the winter, esp me. so happy New Years/Christmas time from sunny southern California.

a few thoughts, TRON is kinda weird. like I really wanted to see it a lot and then I did and I thought it was kinda weird and I didn't really get it, but the main guy in it was way attractive so that was good. also Wii GLEE karaoke revolution is the greatest Christmas gift. especially when used at 9 am. at full volume. I am an AWFUL singer fyi, but I LOVE GLEE. alsoooooo I love will schuester. and ice skating on fake plastic ice is a bad idea.

much love, becky h

ps, the best place to stand in the world.

my favorite part of christmas

2010-12-22T11:13:00.001-08:00

besides spending time with my family, remembering the birth of my Savior, baking cookies and eating way too much is....wrapping presents. i'm not even good at it! i just love it. three days til Christmas. is it time yet???

well i am done with college

2010-12-20T22:22:00.000-08:00

4.5 years later I am done with my college education. I feel much smarter. ask me a question. at my home ward on sunday, I was hanging out with my dad during sunday school in the clerk's office and a ward member came in and asked me the steps of mitosis. and I COULDNT remember. how pathetic of me. I mean I could spout off the steps...just not in the right order... anaphase, metaphase, telophase.... argh it was SO embarrassing. I dont even think he knew I am a bio major which I guess makes up for it a little. anyways. college=done.

finals week always is AWFUL. so much stress and pressure to do well on tests that will determine your entire grade. and its cold outside. and you just want to celebrate christmas. anyways i survived and passed.

well I guess I barely survived..... so I had four tests to take. two scheduled, two whenever. the two to take whenever were my hardest and easiest. so I decided I would take the hardest first, then the two scheduled which were just medium hard and then finish my last test and last testing center experience ever on a high note. so Monday came and I took genetics. trial OF MY LIFE. four hours later I walked out and passed and cried with joy. literally. ask my mom and everyone in the JSB around 2 pm.... Tuesday morn came and I had evolution at 7 am. arghhhhhhhhh worst idea EVER. 7 am tests. but that was over. and then Wednesday I had my last real hard test. conservation biology, which just happens to be my major. so i get up Wednesday morning to study and walk to my bathroom and am starting to get ready when all of a sudden I feel like the room is spinning and I am going to DIE! It is all kind of a blur, but I remember thinking, I need to lie down, so I was going to walk to my room. and thats all I remember. 10 mins later I wake up on the FLOOR of my room shaking violently and my face is THROBBING in pain and my knees are all scrapped up. my best guess at this point is I blacked out and missed my bed and as I fell, I hit my face on my WOODEN desk thats a few inches away. needless to say i felt like the end was near...

So I pry myself up and drag my body to campus to take a 3 hour test, which is mainly essays...my favorite, not. and then back to my room to collapse for the next 20+ hours. it was awful. my face got all swollen and it looked like someone punched me. not a good way to end my college experience. but, hey, I survived and managed to take my last test on Thursday. good bye testing center.

now i have this NASTY yellow bruise on my face almost a week later.

so merry christmas to you. perhaps tomorrow i will tell you about how me and anna almost DIED driving home in the middle of the night from Utah. BAD IDEA.

so close.

2010-12-14T15:17:00.000-08:00

I am but 24 hours away from being done with my college degree. thank heavens. it has been a crazy and stressful, but mostly enjoyable journey. and guess what, I passed genetics. this might mean nothing to you, but it was the greatest day in the history of my life. now I must focus and study one last night and I will be done.....but it is soooo difficult. on another note, this finals week, and December in general, has been EXTREMELY mild weather wise as compared to years past. it snowed like once and has been like in the 40s everyday which is NICE. i can remember last Christmas finals it was the coldest i have ever been in my entire life. actually i retract that statement. the coldest i have ever been was at the 2002 Olympics in SLC when my family was at Ski Jumping up in Park City. I have never been colder ever before...so last Christmas finals was the second coldest i have ever been. one day i woke up and there was like 2 inches of frozen ice in my bedroom along the window. how on earth that happpened, me being a biology major/ biologist, i have no idea. it was so cold.

anyways i am DONE with Genetics, i am done with City Planning, and I am done with Evolution, peace out skeletons....

i think you should take a study break and watch this.

2010-12-13T20:47:00.000-08:00

this being my news reporter sister. turns out she is a REAL LIVE LEGIT news reporter and will one day probably host the Nightly News. Highlight of my Mondays were watching Miss Anna on KBYU News.

2010 was a great year.

2010-12-09T20:54:00.000-08:00

and i am looking to finish strong. watch this.

see you on the other side (of finals, and college)

chase the chickens.

2010-11-27T09:55:00.000-08:00

another reason being at home is great, i get to play "chase the chickens" with my little cousin Jack. this consists of running around my backyard trying to catch our chickens. it's hilarious. especially when the chickens try to fly away.

my family raises chickens at our home in las vegas. apparently raising chickens in cities has become the "hip" thing to do in recent years. well we have been doing it as long as I can remember, so I will credit us with starting the trend. we never have more than 5 or 6 chickens at a time, and the highlight of the year is when we get BABY chicks in the spring. and they are SO cute and adorable. although i am not much of an egg person, fresh eggs (which also happen to be organic) from the backyard is the way to go.

christmas in las vegas.

2010-11-26T22:05:00.000-08:00

welcome to christmas in sunny las vegas,

where we put lights on our lemon trees.

christmas hit las vegas this morning with full force

(it's been going strong in utah for a few weeks now)

and i was ready and prepared for Black Friday madness.

40% off at all my favorite stores, thank you.

so have fun decking your halls (or palm trees in our case)

Chocolate Chip, Cherry Rugelach

2010-11-24T16:29:00.000-08:00

these are my absolute favorite christmas cookie both to eat and make. in fact, it was one of the first things i wanted to do when i got home. so i highly suggest you make some. cause my family already gobbled up all of ours. my mom has been making these for years and they are truly a Hayes favorite.

ingredients:

dough:

2 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
6 ounces chilled cream cheese, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

filling:

1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
12 tablespoons cherry preserves
8 tablespoons dried tart cherries
8 tablespoons miniature semisweet chocolate chips

8 tablespoons finely chopped walnuts

1/3 cup (about) whipping cream

preparation:

for dough:
Blend first 3 ingredients in processor. Add butter and cream cheese and cut in using on/off turns until dough begins to clump together. Gather dough into ball. Divide dough into 4 equal pieces; flatten into disks. Wrap each in plastic and refrigerate 2 hours. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Keep refrigerated. Let soften slightly at room temperature before rolling out.)

for filling:
Line large baking sheet with parchment paper. Mix sugar and cinnamon in small bowl. Roll out 1 dough disk on floured surface to 9-inch round. Spread 3 tablespoons cherry preserves over dough, leaving 1-inch border. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons dried cherries, then 2 tablespoons chocolate chips, 2 tablespoons cinnamon sugar and 2 tablespoons walnuts. Press filling firmly to adhere to dough.

Cut dough round into 8 equal wedges. Starting at wide end of each wedge, roll up tightly. Arrange cookies, tip side down, on prepared baking sheet, spacing 1 1/2 inches apart and bending slightly to form crescents. Repeat 3 more times with remaining dough disks, preserves, dried cherries, chocolate chips, cinnamon sugar and walnuts. Place baking sheet in freezer 30 minutes.

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 375°F. Brush cookies lightly with whipping cream. Bake frozen cookies until golden brown, about 40 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks and cool completely.

thanksgiving week. day one.

2010-11-22T16:27:00.000-08:00

I am home. In las vegas. Thank goodness. And last night, my mom and dad and I were sitting around discussing thanksgiving and the wave of family gatherings and dinners and general holiday festivities that are about to commence. My dear father suggested that perhaps this year instead of going to the traditional thanksgiving dinner at Grandma's, that we head out to our ranch (which happens to be in the middle of no-where California desert) and deep fry a turkey. To which my mom and I both responded the only thing we have ever heard about deep frying turkeys is people's hands getting burnt to a crisp and backyards catching on fire and the turkey exploding. Not a good idea. In fact just last week I was at target and I saw this HUGE box labeled Turkey Frying Oil, and then in small letters on the side it said, "enough oil for one turkey." Seriously. That thing had enough oil in it to supply a McDonalds for a week. Disgusting. My dad says that is why we have to go to the ranch, so if it DOES explode, it wont burn our house down. Good thing we are just going to my grandma's who will calmly cook the turkey in the oven.

...ok so i just spent like 20 mins watching peoples' turkeys exploding on thanksgiving in deep fryers on youtube. yeah...NO WAY we are doing that. although the ranch would be the IDEAL place to deep fry anything.....

BYU loves america. and i love evolution.

2010-11-18T21:47:00.000-08:00

Before I came to BYU, I thought I was already a BYU expert. My dad went here for undergrad and law school and my mom also attended law school here. So needless to say we stopped by BYU all the time when my family would come up to Utah. On my first day of college we went on a tour of campus for new student orientation and they showed us the bookstore and the library and the MARB and all that. Of course they showed us the PRIZED Maeser building, BYU's one and only somewhat collegiate-looking building which consequently makes it the CROWNED JEWEL of the Y. "I am better than this silly tour ," I thought to myself...and left.

Anyways, I can remember in high school my mom talking to me about how on campus they played the Star-Spangled Banner every morning and night when they put the flag up and lowered it at sunset. She told me how she would be late to class in a snowstorm and would hear the Star-Spangled Banner somehow magically start playing all throughout campus and of course you have to STOP whatever you are doing and stand there in the blizzard. I was excited to hear it for the first time and was certain it would be in my first week of class. Well my first week of class came and went....and then the first month and then before I knew it, my entire freshman year was over and I still hadn't heard the Star-Spangled Banner echo throughout campus. Then one day, sophomore year, I was sitting in a cubicle in the library studying away. It was in the evening and since this was SOPHOMORE year, not FRESHMAN, I had discovered that we were in fact supposed to study in college and that was the point of the library. Anways I am sitting there studying and then all of a sudden I hear these drums/trumpets and think to myself, "what on earth is that." And then ALL of a sudden I hear the STAR-SPANGLED Banner playing! Finally the time had come and I was hearing it!!!!! Even though I was in the library, and thankfully sitting by a window, I was able to experience the ultimate form of patriotism possible on BYU campus.

Ever since then I have only heard it about 8 or 10 ten times in all my many years here. I think they mix it up every night or change it based on the sunset or something because it is most def. not consistent. And tonight was one of those blessed nights where I was hurrying from the testing center to the library and I heard the drums start and then the Star-Spangled Banner blasting magically throughout campus. I stopped, as did most everyone else for a restful moment because we all know how much I LOVE america. And of course there were those ANNOYING people who just kept walking. I mean what the heck, they ALL cant be CANADIAN. Have some respect..serious. Maybe tonight was the last time I was lucky enough to be outside to hear the national anthem play....who knows...but I was glad to participate in it, one last time.

I am sure going to miss this place.

From my evolution lab today. I wish I would evolve into a taller person.

sunday.

2010-11-14T21:24:00.000-08:00

it's nice to be loved.

nicole and jamie: thanks for the cupcakes filled with delicious cream cheese-ness.

anna hayes: thanks for the fabulous plate of assorted desserts. some many options

katie and andrew: thanks for the cookies, both the dipping and non-dipping kinds. you are too kind.

hillary: thank you for purchasing large costco pumpkin pies. pumpkin is a vegetable right?

it seems like everyone was out to make me gain weight today....or they are just nice friends...or they just feel bad for me.

this week will be a killer. but i am confident i can get everything done. and if i do (even if i dont) i will be home this time next week. in my warm las vegas home. with my family. eating. watching football and parades. baking pies. playing the piano. going shopping. watching harry potter. sleeping in. and not studying.

oh and in case you were wondering.. Little Drummer Boy is still the worst Christmas song in the history of the universe.

kittens. inspired by kittens.

2010-11-14T18:37:00.000-08:00

I know this is old youtube news, and everyone has probably already seen it a million times. but i saw it for the first time this weekend, and about died laughing. enjoy.

i'm her mom! no she's not!

brilliant.

november

2010-11-09T22:15:00.000-08:00

November is the month of gratefulness. I should be grateful everyday of my life, and I am. For a wonderful family, a bright future, amazing friends, the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, and my iphone.

I am grateful to go home in two weeks so this can happen again.

and this. yes that is me. in a santa suit last thanksgiving break. merry christmas to you.

i heart harry potter.

2010-11-09T21:12:00.000-08:00

Everyone plus or minus my age by 5 years seems to think that they were the first to LOVE Harry Potter. And though Harry Potter has had a major impact on our generation.... those who are my exact age (graduated HS in 2006, born in 1987/88, were in fifth grade when they were released in America) were the SAME age as Harry Potter (eleven) when the books first came out in America. We are the true Harry Potter pioneers. We were the ones who waited in line BEFORE it was famous to get the books. We saw the first movie at midnight. and the second. and the third. all of it.

I loved Harry Potter books growing up. Everyone did. They were magical (totally lame i know, but true) I can remember laying in bed reading the books all summer til my mom banned us from re-reading them over and over again and made us read other things, like "The Classics". Although it seemed like the end of the world at the time, looking back...it was probably a good idea. The movies were OK, we still went and saw them...but nothing compares to those books. I didnt read them in 2 days like everyone else did. That was stupid....because then they are over too quickly. I read them in about a week, savoring EVERY BLISSFUL moment.

The last Harry Potter book came out on my birthday. July 21, 2007. It was a great day. What better birthday present could have i asked for??? I remember standing in line at the Barnes and Noble in Huntington Beach waiting for the last book. Oh and that year my mom let us buy TWO copies since it was my birthday... that was nice....anyways as they handed me my book it felt like they were handing me the last chapter of my childhood. So weird. I had just finished my first year of college and had a real job at a bank and felt like a semi-grown up, and here i was being handed the last beloved harry potter book moments after i turned 19.

Next week, the first portion of the Deathly Hallows comes out in theaters, and it will be the FIRST Harry Potter release I have not waited for at midnight. I decided I hate midnight movies and am a grown-up and shouldn't go see it until Thanksgiving break. Makes me kinda sad....but I feel like its a good decision. I can remember when the first movie came out....I think I was in eighth grade...me and one of my best friends, Tatini, went at midnight of course. As we waited the COUNTLESS hours for the film to start she turned to me and said...can you believe that we will be in COLLEGE when the last ones come out. The idea of college seemed SO distant and hardly possible. Well now Tatini and I are all grown up. And so is Harry....a little bit behind us...... but thats ok. Tatini is all graduated from College and going to Med school. I am going to be graduated in a month and off to DC. Its crazy, but I will ALWAYS love Harry Potter. always.

This is me in scotland in front of the Elephant House cafe where JK Rowling first dreamed up and scribbled the notes for Harry Potter books. It was a pilgrimage of sorts coming here and can I just say it looks just like you would imagine inside, cozy and warm like the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade.

Ch - han - ge.

2010-11-03T21:41:00.000-07:00

i am ready for a change. my life has essentially been the same the last four years. granted there were some MAJOR adventures thrown in there (london, oregon, skiing down cliff faces) but its been pretty college-like ordinary for the majority of the time. which is good. i mean college is great. who doesnt like studying ALL day ALL night for tests. working on endless projects. pinching yourself NOT to fall asleep in class. never really having anything to eat and never really knowing what to eat. or what to do. ever.

wow, thats all really negative. college has been great. i have had SO many great memories. made countless friends who i want to be with forever. i have done great things. learned a ton (forgotten a lot of it) and laughed and cried and dreamed and hoped. ive changed my mind about my future about a gazillion times and still dont really know what to do. but i think its coming together... and i think i might have my next big non-college adventure coming up. which is TERRIFYING beyond belief. but we all have to do things that seem terrifying, right??????

and some things are more terrifying then others. thats ok though. i think.

my family is coming this weekend. words cannot express how excited i am. i need to see them now more than ever.

mom. dad. lizzie hayes and me at the last football game. we all love BYU. especially Lizzie Hayes.

gosh i miss these three back home in vegas

(and california and oregon and everywhere it seems they go without me and miss anna)

vote.

2010-11-01T19:35:00.001-07:00

as most of you know, i am pretty political. i am passionate about what happens in our country and believe in our government and its ability to make positive changes. i spent my summer in our nation's capital and saw first hand how these changes can and do happen. However, i do not blog about politics and try to avoid political debates with my friends as much as possible. mainly because i get so frustrated with what they say and think should happen...... although i would say that my group of friends does not represent the traditional make-up of BYU political beliefs....but i just get so frustrated at people when they argue their political beliefs that i DO NOT agree with, and the last thing i want to happen is to be mad at my friends. i know that is bad. and i shouldnt get mad. i should improve

this being said, i would like to blog about politics today since tomorrow is the midterm elections. midterm elections are not only extremely important to our country, but especially to our beloved state of nevada. senator harry reid is up for re-election and is neck and neck in the polls with his opponent sharron angle. I could tell you why you should vote for reid tomorrow, but i am sure most of you from nevada have heard both sides over and over and over again these last few months. i am sure you are sick of it. which is completely understandable. so let me just say everyone should vote tomorrow...regardless if you are from utah or nevada or california or wherever..... it is so important. every vote counts. and i do NOT want to hear all you BYU students complaining NON STOP about things you dont even understand when you dont vote.

happy november 1

2010-11-01T13:24:00.000-07:00

i love the first day of the month. its like a mini new-years. a fresh start. especially when that first day just happens to be in the month of NOVEMBER.

a wonderful month filled with falling leaves, crisp morning, warm apple cider, and thanksgiving.

last night we (Me, Em, Christine, and Annalise)

had the most wonderful halloween dinner to celebrate the holiday and the season.

thanks miss annalise for making us dinner in a pumpkin. literally.

happy nevada day.

2010-10-31T19:33:00.000-07:00

oh guess what, today is halloween. which just HAPPENS to be my fifth favorite holiday. in case you were wondering the order of favorite holidays, they go as follows:

1. fouth of july. 2. thanksgiving.3. christmas. 4. valentines day. 5. halloween.

ok. so halloween is a great holiday because it is also NEVADA DAY! which is the anniversary of NV becoming a state back in 1864. i dont know if other states have state holidays, but in nevada, it is a REALLY BIG DEAL. mainly cause we all have school off. yep, i never had school on halloween growing up. even if it was on a thursday or something. day off, in the middle of the week. it is amazing. then they decided to mess with reality in like 10th grade and switched it so the day off matched up with a weekend. not as cool.

we nevadans celebrate nevada day by leaving nevada and going to the state we all secretly wished we lived in, california. seriousness. everyone goes to california, mainly disneyland, on halloween. like my mom and my dad and my sister lizzie were there yesterday. not me though. i was here, living the dream, in provo utah.

so halloween was on a SUNDAY this year and all semester I have been saying I was going to wear my halloween costume to church. well i was Katy Perry and CLEARLY that is not church appropriate. some kid in our ward dressed up as an old man and came. that was quite hilarious. i like halloween, especially at byu. granted most things are funnier at byu...

you want to see my halloween costumes over the years??? i bet you do.

ok so this is me as a cute little tot dressed up as some sort of pumpkin/scarecrow/witch. adorable. also i am sitting on my mom's lap who, yes i look a lot like. and baby anna is sitting on my great-grandma dee's lap.

a few years later. i guess i am some sort of robot and anna is a pumpkin patch with a cat? my mom seemed to be into these poncho like halloween costumes.

oh hey fast forward 8 years. lizzie is now alive and i was in fifth grade. i remember it was the first year my mom let me BUY my halloween costume at the store. not make it myself. and i picked an M&M. original.

and then i was a witch for the remainer of my childhood. and anna was always a witch too. with that nasty green hair. thats my fabulous grandma karen in the pic with us.

and then i got to high school and decided i was too cool for halloween. so i always just spray painted my hair and felt like a rebel. i was a troubled youth. not really. at all. notice grandma karen and grandpa chuck also pictured. love them.

and then senior year of HS roles around and i once again decide halloween is cool, except a witch will no longer cut it. you now have to be "hot" on halloween. oh high school. so somehow i convinced my parents to buy me this go-go dancer outfit.

oh hey college. freshman year. me and roommate chesea were thing 1 and thing 2. across the hall bffl Macrae was the Cat in the Hat. clearly

sophomore year in 2007 at grand old monticello. i was uh....not sure.... what i am supposed to be. i think a go-go dancer again. but i think i might have switched halfway through to be a lepruchan with Jonno. also we re-used the thing one and two costumes. our creativity only went so far....

and then LAST year we were cereal box characters. that was a brilliant costume. in fact some random guy on facebook from Philadelphia messaged me the other day saying if you google image search "honey nut cheerios bee" our pics come up off of the blog. on page four. yep. famous. not sure why he felt the need to tell me that...kinda creepy.

anyways,

HAPPY NEVADA DAY!!!!!!

what are you being for halloween?

2010-10-30T16:53:00.000-07:00

i'll give you a clue for my costume.

thats what you get for waking up in vegas...

home for the weekend.

2010-10-27T19:43:00.000-07:00

i had the most wonderful weekend this past week. me and some lovely DC friends went to vegas for a day and then to st george to see miss/sister amy's farewell before she leaves FOREVER (or 1.5 years) for her mission. i normally hate going to vegas with BYU friends. everyone is always like, "oh hey lets go to vegas...that will be fun." and i am always like, uh its dirty, hot, disgusting, and not that much to do." thankfully this trip was NOT like that. i love my DC friends. we shared a lot of great moments together this summer and i am glad those great moments have continued on into the fall. part of me doesnt want to leave in 50 days mainly cause i dont want to say GOODBYE to them.....

anyways we packed up and headed out friday afternoon. after i was VOTED out of the drivers seat.... ps why hasnt anyone ever told me i am a bad driver.... Russell Barfield got us to Vegas safe and sound. we headed straight to the Strip and watched the Bellagio water show a couple of times. every time i watch the show i think to myself, " i would be happy sitting here and watching this the rest of my life." Viva Las Vegas was one of the songs they did and i about DIED i was so happy. i LOVEEEEEE my home and las vegas. then we went gambling of course. cept i forgot my ID and am terrified of getting in trouble so i didnt gamble. John however won $6. so it was a success. the next day we went to the DAM! which is hilarious cause you get to make DAM jokes. we walked across the giant new bridge that opened up like 5 mins before we got there. it was terrifying and exciting. and then we went BACK to the Strip and people shopped. i mainly just walked around and enjoyed my city.

then it was off to st george to see miss amy. we had a wonderful rest of the weekend spent with good friends, great food, and comfortable lodgings. amy's lovely family got us swanky condos by the Green Valley Spa so we were living in the lap of luxury for awhile. its nice to take a break from provo, school, life every once and a while....but i am starting to FREAK myself out about leaving this place in less than two months.

goodbye miss amy mcdonald. you will be a fabulous missionary just like you are a fabulous human being. give it the old college try!

welcome to fabulous las vegas.

2010-10-18T21:22:00.000-07:00

i am going home this weekend.

home to be with those i love the most.

my family has lived in las vegas for four generations. that is rare.

i love las vegas. it is my home. always has been, always will be.

i love the desert. and the palm trees. and the lights. and the tackiness.

love this pic of my dad (on the right), my fabulous aunts and my fabulous grandma back in the 60s when elvis, the rat pack, and the mob ran las vegas.

cap tours.

2010-10-17T23:33:00.000-07:00

while in DC this summer I gave A LOT of Capitol Building tours. A LOT. what can i say, it's my great wit and charm, who else would Senator Reid send to lead Nevadans around the Capitol Building??? I would guess I probably gave about 45 tours this summer.... to various groups of people ranging from one person, to 35 middle schoolers soaking wet from rain, all the way up to a gazillion boy scouts. honestly giving tours was probably the funnest thing I got to do at my internship. walking people around, most of which were from the greatest state in the ENTIRE world....Nevada of course....., and show them the CAPITOL BUILDING which is of course where EVERYTHING IMPORTANT in America happens. it's the building where the decisions that have shaped our lives have been made. so much history has occurred within those walls. i got pretty good at giving the tours, not going to lie. the other day i was laying in bed and couldn't sleep and started thinking about the Capitol Building ..... then i started thinking of my tour schpeel in my head and was surprised at how much i wanted to give a tour again!!!! so if i make it back to DC (cross your fingers) and you come visit, i will lead you around. and show you all the secret places in the Cap.

tours are also hilarious because interns from all the state offices lead them. which is pretty much thousands of college students stuffed in the Capitol Building for the summer. No one really knows what they are talking about (besides me of course) so you would overhear all sorts of crazy stuff from other intern led tours. probably the most common, and stupidest, was that the Senate Rotunda chandelier was on the TITANIC. not true. promise. it's also hilarious running into intern friends (like Peter Ott and Hannah Lockhart) on the tours cause you like cant stop and talk but you can smile and act important cause you know other people who work in the Capitol, even if they aren't senators...just other college kids.

i got to give cap tours to some pretty sweet people this summer like Katie Hatch and Tatini and my wonderful aunt Kristin, uncle Bob and cousins Brett and Derek as well as some cool BC'ers like Mandy and her Mom. My family even came out to see me and i got to take them through the capitol. that was hilarious cause i was used to giving the tour to people i don't know and here i am telling my mom and dad about the Capitol Rotunda, trying not to laugh. One time on a Capitol tour, Vice President Joe Biden walked right on by. Nancy Pelosi, whose office is inconveniently placed right outside the Capitol Rotunda walked by ALL the time. she is a real crowd pleaser. And then one time i was giving a tour to this lovely Japaneses couple, who i later realized probably had no idea what the Senate even was, and like half of Nasa's astronauts walked by including some famous Japanese astronaut and i thought the couple was going to pass out they were so excited. needless to say George Washington's intended grave wasn't the highlight of their tour.

this is me being awesome. and giving a tour to my family.

and this is a quick clip of me giving a tour when my cousins came through. i talk fast. Brett doesnt look very happen at the end, clearly i need some more jokes.....

thursdays are the third best day of the week.

2010-10-14T23:03:00.000-07:00

i havent opened the beloved (and always time consuming) photobooth on my computer in awhile....and this is the first thing i saw when i did tonight:

miss these two a lot. i mean i get to see mandy quite a bit...but not as much as i did this summer and i havent seen the sweentser in months so there is a serious void in my life.

this is me right now in case you were wondering what i looked like. creeeeepy.

tonight was the reid /angle debate. i love election season and politics so much. maybe it is because my parents do. maybe it is because i love Nevada and am passionate about what happens there. maybe it is because i was in DC all summer....but then again i went to DC because i love politics. so that puts us back at square one. i guess i love it because i have really seen how the individual can make a difference. as corny as that is, it is true...i have seen it first hand. that my friend is what makes this country so great, and i guess the reason i love all of this political nonsense.

i love this place (this place being DC) and these people. and the stuff that happens in that great building upon whose steps we sat on the fourth of july.

picture stolen from miss natalie

angry birds.

2010-10-13T22:05:00.000-07:00

two summers ago i worked at the Long Beach Aquarium in Southern California. let me tell you blogosphere friends, that is a great place. if you ever have a change to visit, you need to. and lets just say my summer internship this summer (united states senate majority leader's office) was a little bit different from the summer of 09.....a lot less messy.

anways this afternoon i got to work at the BYU major fair at the Washington seminar booth. i am not quite sure why we have a booth at a fair for underclassman looking for majors...but we do...and it was awesome....and i am sure we convinced many young minds to work in DC. while there Peter C. started drawing pics of lorikeets on a napkin because i mentioned them to my dear friend Brooklyn. it made me miss lorikeets. isn't that weird. me, missing birds.....but i do. i want to go back and play with my favorites so badly! (if they haven't killed each other...which lorikeets have a tendency to do)

i loved showing the lorikeets to kids visiting the aquarium. they were always so ENCHANTED that the birds would crawl on my head and up and down my arm. little did they know i would bribe the birds with food. sneaky. they loved when we would do tricks....which mainly consisted of me holding the lorikeets upside down and pretending to drop them. it was hilarious when dads and moms would be just as amazed as their kids when the birds would land on them. the lorikeet aviary is a magical place.

rescued.

2010-10-13T11:41:00.000-07:00

i sure hope everyone is watching the miners rescue going on right now. it is one of the most beautiful things i have EVER seen. i was crying last night as they pulled the first man out and he embraced his son. i love humanity. and when good things happen.

i just took a test.

2010-10-09T12:33:00.001-07:00

happy saturday. its going to rain. i can tell. not that i can feel it in my bones or anything..... the sky is filled with rain clouds. i like to look at the rain from the inside for like 3 mins.... then i dont like the rain anymore. im studying in the library right now. wooo hooo. about to go to the football game in a couple hours. please please please dont let us lose.

give peace a chance.

2010-10-08T14:54:00.000-07:00

this is what we do. sit. and visit. and sing?

2010-10-08T01:45:00.000-07:00

"you guys, i watched glee and i liked it."

-KJ

the view out my window.

2010-10-05T19:29:00.000-07:00

i forgot its HOMECOMING. and if its HOMECOMING, that means they TURN ON THE Y on the mountain. its beautiful! i have been trying to take a pic for the last ten minutes and its not working. but this is what it looks like, I promise! i love BYU.

autumn is here. finally.

2010-10-05T16:35:00.000-07:00

the other day i was driving home from somewhere in provo. for those of you who havent been to provo before, BYU has a GREAT location. granted our campus itself is kinda 70's ish for my liking....the mountains that surround campus are absolutely breathtaking and we are like .25 miles away. in the summer the trees are lush and green and in the winter, snow blankets everything.

yesterday it rained for the first time in awhile and the mountains got all cloudy and misty. it was stunning. i love autumn. i love autumn in utah. i am going to miss this place.

this is the view from my window looking out towards Y mountain. best view in provo.

on an unrelated note. Vanity fair just released their list of most eliglble single women in the world. and guess who was number 6 just behind Betty White and Lady Gaga, Elana Kagan, the new supreme court justice whose confirmation hearings i attended this summer. and remember that one time me and all the Barlow Center-ites were eating at DELISH Good Stuff Eatery and we saw Ms. Kagan and then followed her to her car (which just happens to be a VW Passat in case you were wondering) that wasn't creppy. at all.

yes i took this pic...from the loft above. stalker.

katie hatch stewart

2010-10-03T19:43:00.000-07:00

this weekend was good. i have been having a lot of good weekends lately. my time in provo is quickly coming to end, and i am making sure to savor every last moment.

conference weekend is always lovely. me and sister anna went sunday morning. i only fell asleep for about 20 mins so we are counting it as a success! had a lovely little visit with the cute matkin family and played a wonderful game of Judge Jack post conference!

but perhaps the highlight of the weekend was Miss Katie Hatch, now Mrs. Katie Stewart's wedding. i sure love that girl. and have since we were bunkmates back in london. it was a very "katie" event, complete with stacks of books and twinkle lights. perfectly accented with orange, which as we all know...everyone looks their best in. as i walked in, i almost cried seeing katie sitting next to dear andrew, beaming with joy. she deserves to be happy more than anyone.

i can owe a lot of things to my time spent living with katie hatch. from bunkmating in london and her strange sleeping habits, to that cute little 4plex we lived in on 7th, and finally living in the "condo" i am def. a better person from living with her. she taught me wicked good event planning skills. we threw some pretty grand events. like the first london reunion. and the disola baptism reception. the katie hatch birthday apple party of 09. and of course the classic st patricks day breakfast. she taught me the difference between effect and affect. once. i cant remember it currently. but at one point she taught it to me. we discussed the odd provo weather. discussed our friends and current events. we talked about the future and families and byu. katie's awkward, yet well thought out emails were always a riot...like the one to our professors back in london informing them that it was snowing. bad idea. we helped each other decide what to wear to various functions and if it was a straight or curly occasion. we ate midnight snacks together, even when it wasnt midnight. even now, as i sit and type this, i am sipping a mug of warm cocoa, very katie-like of me.

i sure do love that katie hatch (stewart). i mean i know she's not dead or anything. and lives just a half a mile away. and i am sure i will still get to see her a lot. but still.

dear katie. good luck on your marriage. dont forget i exist. come see me sometime. and hopefully one day, you+andrew and me+_____ can go back to london at christmas time and go ice skating in hyde park just for old times sake.

free food.

2010-09-29T17:43:00.002-07:00

there is something about free food that draws 20-something year olds like a moth to a flame.

i ate A LOT of free food this summer in DC. like a lot. several times a week.
most of them were lobbyist receptions trying to sway members of congress one way or the other, but i would have to say 90% of the attendees were college Hill interns such as myslef.

some of the BEST Free Food Reception (FFR's for short) were the ice cream social and the soy bean association one.

the ice cream social is an annual summer Hill event with interns assigned to stand outside by their respective offices for hours waiting for ice cream. it was magical

and the soy bean FFR was great because APPARENTLY everything was made out of soy. well that was the most delicious soy cake and soy coke i have ever had.

oh thats another thing. at FFRs there are ALWAYS open bars. thats why all my lovely intern friends wanted to go. lots of free alchohol. not me though. i would go up to the nice bar man and ask for a coke, and he would always ask mixed with what? and i always replied, mixed with MORE coke.

it was great. i miss DC. and free food.

i am about to go to another FFR right now at BYU. this time free Costa Vida is on the menu. i would put money on the line that there will be no open bar.......or open coke bar.

i'll see you all in the coming fall.

2010-08-27T11:30:00.001-07:00

this is it. last school semester. forever.
(for now at least).

back to school is a great time. if you can get over the fact that back to school also means end of summer. i had an LL bean backpack back on my first day of school ever. in 1993.

roman holiday.

2010-08-12T00:24:00.000-07:00

mine starts tomorrow...

i miss intern row.

2010-08-11T22:36:00.000-07:00

what i will miss about DC.

a photo essay.

created using pictures from my iphone.

my intern friends. over the summer, in senator reid's office we probably had over 30 interns come through. but these 4 were with me through it all...in the office, giving tours, eating lunch, partying after work, and working like crazy in 522. Yale Ben, Miss Diana, Katie, and Meghan i miss you already.

Eating in the Dirk for lunch. (can you spy a senator behind andrea and peter ott?)

Riding the ONE and ONLY Secret Senate Subway, which turns out isnt that secret....

THE CAPITOL BUILDING. and giving the BEST Capitol Building Tours Congress has EVER seen!

522. best. senate. office. ever.

living here.....

... and doing a whole lot of this.

i love these people.

seeing famous people. all the time. nancy pelosi in the khaki suit...

going to baseball games.

and probably more than anything else...georgetown cupcake. (just kidding...kind of)

happy 24th of july.

2010-07-24T20:10:00.000-07:00

happy pioneer day.

i am oh so very grateful for all of my pioneer ancestors who walked and walked and walked and walked. go church!!!

dont me and miss anna make cute pioneers. gv stake trek '06

first off, let me make up some lame excuses....

2010-07-24T19:12:00.000-07:00

in the infamous words of my sister anna hayes, blogging fail. EPIC blogging fail on my part. i have done so much since my last post, so much in fact that i cant remember half of it. its crazy that i have been in DC for over three months and have two weeks left. the time has flown by. i have met so many wonderful people, learned so much, and really got a hold on what i want to do next in life....its crazy that in a month i will be headed back to Ptown for one last semester of the Y before i am done. gah. i cant think about it right now, cause i will freak myself out.

ok so instead of writting about all the amazing stuff i have done in the last month and didnt blog about...i am going to focus on last weekend. and this week......

my father dearest, sister anna, sister lizzie, and mother came to visit last weekend and it was a grand adventure. on saturday me and my dad went on a potomac boat cruise, rode the C&O canal in georgetown, walked all over georgetown, and ate lots of food. the next day miss anna joined us, and we went to the eastern market, spent 4 hours at the Newseum, and went to ew the Norman Rockwell exhibit. oh and we went to NANDOS of course. LONDON FLASHBACK! woot woot. on monday i got to give my whole family a capitol tour and we went on the worlds best DC cupcake tour led by ME of course. cupcakeries we visited: hello cupcake, baked & wired, and the BEST georgetown cupcake. mmmmmmmmmmm

on tuesday i did the UNTHINKABLE and took the day off of work. i know right. but the fam bam was going to Monticello, and i just had to go along. it was a grand adventure. the highlight of which was probably when we thought we were being followed on the way home by a large Hummer. i kid you not. the hummer was changing lanes with us and everything. so my dad pulled into a gas station to try and ditch it but THEN the hummer pulled over too and we thought we were doomed. my dad sped up and ditched the thing, years of watching 24 finally paid off........

on tuesday the FAM BAM left. tuesday also happened to be the GREATEST DAY OF THE ENTIRE YEAR. what day might that be you ask...why JULY 21st of COURSE!!!!!!!! my birthday. in the morning we had a breakfast in the hotel and i received many gifts.... and then the family left. i went to work. working on your birthday is WEIRD. after years of beaching, disneylanding, and shopping on the bday .....but oh well. it was a blast to be with the REID INTERNS. who i love so much. that night me and miss amy mcdonald went to see Mary Poppins at the kennedy center. amazing. spectacular. fabulous.

i love this place so much. and am going to miss the BC when they kick us out in two weeks.

A neighborhood walk.

2010-06-15T18:07:00.001-07:00

This is where I am right now. A church we stumbled upon on an evening stroll. Isn't it enchanting?

-- Post From My iPhone

Location:Georgetown

contact cards.

2010-06-13T21:47:00.000-07:00

front.

back.

there's normally a phone number. of course.

you want a contact card? cause i have them. this is me. trying to be semi-grown up.

summer in the city: nyc edition.

2010-06-13T21:12:00.000-07:00

(click on the collage for pics)

Memorial day weekend me and a few dear friends boarded the SKETCHIEST bus ever headed for new york city. it was literally the scariest form of transportation I have ever participated in. we got dropped off around noon and were picked up by dear Aunt Kristen who quickly swept us up and drove us to her FABULOUS Central Park West apartment. can I just say that I love NYC. I always have. I always will. it was the first big city I have ever really been to. I can remember leaving once when I was younger and turning around looking out the back of the cab my family was in ..... seeing the city fade out of site in the distance with tears streaming down my face....thinking how much I loved the city.

sadly i think the main reason I liked new york so much was the idea that I could literally live in an apartment over a GAP.

while in nyc here are some of the highlights:
visiting the apple store in NYC.
Yankees game. (despite my DEEP hatred for the Yankees)
cheesecake in times square.
riding the Stanton island ferry to see the statue liberty.
stardust restaurant with singing/dancing waiters and waitresses.
west side story with john and jeff.
hanging out some more in times square.
canal street shopping.
magnolia street bakery.
church at the NYC temple.
ground zero.
30 rock.
breakfast in SoHo.
TOPSHOP

and finally...seeing GLEE LIVE which deserves a blog post of its own.

world cup.

2010-06-13T18:43:00.000-07:00

i love world events. i have never been much of a sports person. but i do love the olympics. and am currently loving the world cup. lets just say its a deep love of humanity in general.

so yesterday me and some of my fellow BC'ers (barlow center interns) went to Dupont Circle in DC to watch the USA v England match. it was madness. and i have literally never been hotter in my entire life. bodies squished against each other. drunken georgetown crazies. english fans randomly sprinkled throughout the crowd. i enjoyed it all tremendously.

so listen to this song. and think of world happiness and unity. and soccer.

today was great.

2010-05-21T21:42:00.001-07:00

last night i had a paper due. it was awful. i was literally up til like 3 am working on it. as was the rest of the Barlow center. I went to print the paper and there was literally a line of people waiting to print their papers. and THREE AM!!!! it was crazy. needless to say, everyone was tired all day. we got to listen to some great speakers today as well as TROMP all over Washington DC in our HOT (as in warm) business attire. but the highlight of the day was definitely getting to go to the Capitol building with the Barlow Center-ites and stand on Nancy Pelosi's balcony looking out over the Mall. it was amazing. i loved all of it.

me and Hannah, a fellow staffer/intern.

and tonight we went to LDS SINGLES NIGHT at the Nationals Game. UMMMM two of my favorite things in the entire world. baseball and LDS singles COMBINED. yeah thats right. awesomeness.... the best part was when they played that song that everyone always jumps to before BYU basketball games in the stadium and EVERY SINGLE one of us barlow center interns instantly started jumping and yelling "GO COUGARS" it was hilarious. oh and we got the wave going. NBD.

highlights at work this week:
taking Miss Katie Hatch on a Capitol Tour. love her.

seeing the maverick John McCain on the Senate Subway
being in the Capitol Building during the Joint Meeting of Congress with el Presidente of Mexico was speaking.
giving lots and lots and lots and lots of Capitol Tours.

iron man 2

2010-05-13T21:42:00.000-07:00

we just went and saw iron man 2. it was awesome. iron man 1 was one of my favorite movies for a long time....actually still is come to think of it....and iron man 2 was pretty amazing as well. the fights scenes were terrifying, esp the first one at the race track. i was freaking out. but overall the movie is WAY good and flys by. go see it. oh and BLOG SHOT OUT to one of my BFFEs for life, HRH Jorydn Canady who is the biggest RDJ fan to ever walk the planet. ever.

i think we can all learn from Iron Man who never freaks out about anything really and doesnt stress, even when he is going to get blown up by like 25 drones manufactured by some crazy Russian. good example RDJ.

urban living.

2010-05-13T21:34:00.000-07:00

i have alwasy loved the idea of urban living. going on trips to NYC as a girl growing up, i loved that you could live in a city with everything you could possibly need in it and walk everywhere. i rememeber when i realized one time in New York that people actually lived above a GAP and it was like the greatest realization of all times.

well now i am urban living in DC. its epic and awesome. and i point it out all the time to my fellow BC'ers as we have been dubbed. one of my favorite things about urban living is that we shop at Trader Joes which is just a block away from where we live. a few times a week we take our reusable grocery bags across the street and stock up on organic goods. its great. i walk the aisles and just stare at all the chocolate covered organic nuts and variety of cheeses from around the world and the beverages that seem to only come in two flavors, alcohol and sparkling. its awesome. my mom always shopped at Trader Joes back in vegas. maybe thats why i like it so much. go TJs!

hey friends. i have missed you.

2010-05-13T21:00:00.000-07:00

ok i have been SERIOUSLY failing in the blogging world as of late. not my fault. work is SO busy. let me tell you about my normal day. get up at 6:30. shower, breakfast, get ready as fast as i can. im out the door by 7:30 and walk to the metro station thats just about a 1/4 of mile from where we live, Foggy Bottom. awesome name i know. jump on the blue or orange line, ride it to metro center where i get off and switch to the red line. take the red line to union station and then walk to the Hart office building. work is great. i love it. today i saw Al Franken and gave two awesome Capitol Tours.

after work i head home and by the time i arrive back at the Barlow Center its like 6:30. hit up the gym for an hour, and then back home to eat dinner and sit around for a few hours with everyone else before the whole process starts over again. its crazy. its stressful. its urban living. and i love it.

last weekend we had the chance to go to Valley Forge and Philadelphia. Valley Forge was nothing but a boring field and a lame Ben Franklin impersonator. and we stayed at the SKETCHIEST place ever created. i stayed in some pretty sketch hostels in europe, but this one had them ALL BEAT.

the next day we headed to Philadelphia which was great because i got to see the one and only Miss Tatini Datta. BFFE for Life.

the trip was great. i loved getting to know everyone better and becoming friends. i also love bus trips especially when we get to stop at Truck Stops. truck stops are one thing the East/Midwest has mastered, and the West is seriously missing out on. i loved stopping at truck stops when i did Church History Trip in high school and the truck stops in England were so much fun as well. they always have everything you could ever imagine and the biggest bathrooms....ever.

i am SO stoked for the weekend though. the weather is even supposed to be nice and everything. go Washington, D.C! annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd bunkmate extraordinaire Miss Katie Hatch is in town visiting her bro and his fambam. and i get to give her a CAPITOL TOUR on monday. words cannot express my exictement.

i love baseball. and america.

2010-05-05T21:16:00.001-07:00

Go Nats!!!! And go Willingham!!!

when i walked in the stadium i almost cried. no surprise there right...

loving summer.

2010-05-05T21:13:00.001-07:00

This week has been a blur. So much going on..... So much to do in DC. I have lots to tell but for now let's just talk about how I went to a Nats game last night. And bought a shirt. And LOVED it. And how Friday we are going on a trip to Philadelphia and I get to see bffe Tatini Datta. Cause I am so excited.

New friends.

On my walk to work.

I love baseball games.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Loving summer

my job is awesome.

2010-04-28T20:08:00.000-07:00

i love it. i commute to work on the metro.

i wear business attire everyday.

i get to tell people i work on the Hill.

AND most IMPORTANTLY

i get to ride the senate subway all the time.

this is going to be a great summer.

welome to DC!

2010-04-25T16:36:00.000-07:00

i have successfully made it to Washington DC and survived a few days! packing provo and driving back to vegas and then unpacking and then getting anna home and repacking for DC all in two days was kinda crazy. but i left friday morning bright and early aboard a nonstop flight set for our nations capitol. can i just say that i really really hate flying. but i like going places. and i like airports. i just dont like sitting next to strangers for hours, having to always make people move to go to the bathroom and never really being able to sleep.

ok so i got to DC and jumped on the shuttle headed for the BYU Barlow Center. got here and was SOOOOO happy. i LOVE BYU and ALL of its buildings. no matter if its the WILK, Cougar Stadium, the London centre, or the BYU BARLOW CENTER! no one was really here yet but a few of us went on a walk to the lincoln memorial and then down the mall to the white house and back around the barlow center.

oh hey lincoln...you are just so BIG

saturday morning i got up before everyone else did and discovered that we live like 2 mins away from GEORGETOWN. which also happens to have every cute store every invented.

anthropologie. check

banana republic. check

H&M. check

Sephora. check

J Crew. check.

yep.

oh and georgetown cupcake. mmmmm

this is some place called red velvet....not georgetown cupcake. but still good. they didnt have any more red velvets so i had to get some chocolate ganache cupcake that tasted like heaven and had a 24 K gold leaf flake on it. yep. i ate gold.

ok so then we went to buy food at Safeway which is not only far away...but not that good and SUPER expensive. i have renamed it Sketchway. i now exclusively shop at Trader Joes. which is my FAVORITE grocery store and about 5o feet away from where i live. thank goodness. hello organic east coast summer. we also went to the French Market being held in georgetown and got some delicious pizza. mmmmmmmmmm. i like this city a lot. more and more people came saturday and now i feel like everyone is here. and awesome. i want to be everyone's friend. and guess what. there are MORE GUYS here than girls. never in any of my BYU experiences has anything like this ever ever ever happened.

today was CHURCH. i LOVE church. and church in different places is always so testimony building. and the ward here is AWESOME. so great. and riding public transport to church brings back great memories as well :)

on the way to church we passed by a bus sign advertising National Earth Day-Climate Change Rally on the Mall and i was thought to myself....oh ok that sounds like something i MUST attend. and so we gathered some other BYU liberal-types and headed over post church. it was AWESOME. John Legend and STING were performing apparently. we missed them. but saw the Reverend Jesse Jackson calling us all to sustainability repentance. seemed sabbath day appropriate to me. despite the excess amounts of smoke from weed drifting through the air.

avatar: "like fern gully with an environmental message"

oh hey new friends. slash i went to london with two of these people.

my neighbors, the obamas. hey can i borrow a cup of sugar?

i like this place. a lot. and the JAZZ are winning right now. and thank you to some rich church member who donated GIANT TVs to the Barlow center. i have never seen a bigger TV hanging on a wall ever.

done.

2010-04-19T09:45:00.000-07:00

i just took my last final.

hello summer.

ps. look how short my hair was last summer.