Redesigning a blog- Lots of work

I spent the whole weekend designing my blog. I did not realize how hard it was and how careful you have to be? I deleted my widgets many times, but in the end this is why I love my blog and it was worth it...

1. It's a way that I can keep in touch with everyone while I'm working and in school
2. I was able to make the header something that reflects me.. What can I say? I love shopping.
3. I'm extending my life. I read in an article in US News that people who blog are more happy because it's another way of communicating.

Let it snow! Let it snow!

The snow just never stopped coming over these past few weeks! My aunt was supposed to fly in on December 19th, but her plane got canceled with the arrival of the first big storm. My cousin from Corona, Cali came over to stay with us over her school break and it was so much fun to have her. I love my cousin!

Since she has never really experienced the greatness of snow, she was super excited with everything from the snow falling to icicles. It made me realize how much we take snow for granted here. I know that each time I hear about a snow storm I have 3 thoughts in my head...

1. This sucks, we have to shovel the snow.
2. Traffic is going to be a pain in the you know what....
2. It's is so cold and my hair and purse is going to get wet.

Having my cousin here brought me back to my childhood. We took her sledding and my dad even found our sled from when we were little and our hot pink snow pants for my cousin too.

We also made a hecka-tight snowman. We have a video of our efforts. We had a brilliant idea of rolling the snowball down the hill in my backyard, but it was gigantic, so it created a few problems trying to make the head and the middle proportional. We had to have four people to lift the head on and also one person standing on a chair. In the end, our snowman was awesome! Since it hasn't been as cold, the snowman looks like he's been losing weight. It makes me sort of sad.

Start of a New Year!

Can you believe another year has come and gone? Every year when the clock strikes 12 o clock, it always makes me feel a little sad. I look back on the year and realize how quickly time flies. What have I done with my life? What have I seen?


It's so easy to let time slip by. I wish I had done more this year.


There were some highlights for 2008, some mile stones:

• I went to Cabo San Lucus with my best friend Kim by ourselves. This was my first time out of the country, other than Canada and it felt very adult like.


• I started the MBA program


• Took real golf lessons instead of just getting tips here and there. Also bought a pink golf set.


• I got new and exciting responsibilities at Zions

It's time to set up New Year's resolutions! Here are mine listed below...

1. Lose 25 lbs
2. Hit past 150 yards with my irons
3. Get at least 6 hours of sleep a night

Tell me what some of your resolutions are!

Mission Impossible!!!

My sister's boyfriend came over and met my parents for the first time on Friday. Our family doesn't know much about him. I guess things went well and the night ended after a trip to the bowling alley where my car got stuck in the snow. Everyone had to get out of the car to push and a cop drove by and did not even stop to help. I don't get it? Aren't cops supposed to help? Especially for a bunch of girls?

My car got us home safely and my sister and her boyfriend headed outside to say good-bye. I went upstairs to clean my room when I heard my cousin and youngest sister come barreling up the stairs... "Put on your black hoodie and follow us!" I have no idea what is going on, so I follow my cousin. She opens our front door and tells me to be quiet, but follow her.

As we are basically crawling on the cold, icy ground. At that moment, I knew exactly what we were doing. We crawled up towards my sister's car. My cousin whispered,"Look over there." I take a peek and I am truly scared for the rest of my life. We caught my sister and her boyfriend making out in the car. We were about to head in when we heard the door open... "Crap!" We didn't know what to do, if we sat there my sister will catch three sitting ducks. If we went on the other side, her boyfriend would see us behind his car.

There were two choices: Be caught or run. We choose to run. We ran like the wind into the house and my cousin was yelling, "Take off your hoodie and jump in the bed." For some reason, no one ever questioned any of her instructions. My dad heard the screaming and asked what was going on... Well, he knew what was going on, so he stomped out in the garage and busted my sister.

Whoops... We didn't mean for my dad to catch them, oh well next time go down the block. This was my first and probably last spy mission. All that spy work made me pull my thigh muscle and it still hurts, so I've learned my lesson.

Everything is closed!

So, thursday night I came home from work and realized I needed extension cords and a spatuala for the big pancake breakfast I was doing at work. Yes, I am a pro pancake flipper. Believe me... IHOP should hire me. Anyways, it was about 12:30 and I thought Smith's would have to be open. Oh no... Smiths, Walgreens, even the Chevron was closed.


What the heck! How can all these places be closed? I am in SLC... The big city, the city that never sleeps... wait that's Vegas. Anyways, still even in Layton, Wal-Mart is open 24 hours. The only thing here open was Beto's and I don't think they would like it if I asked for their spatualas.


Last night, I had to go study for accounting. Let's be honest, I'm not very good at accounting, so I had a lot of studying to do, but I saw my best friend Sanam there. I was studying away when I noticed her bag of FLAMMIN' HOT CHEETOS! So both of us got really thirsty and could not concentrate. We had to get a drink... Thirst=Bad. Ironically there is no vending machine in the library, go figure.

Well we decided to make a quick stop at the 7 Eleven. Oh man, a powerade, chips, and warm cup of cocoa later I was ready to roll. That is until Sanam told me ghost stories... one especially dealing with "donna" the ghost that supposedly lived at my old sorority house.

If you don't know me, I'm sort of a chicken. Ok, I'm the biggest chicken alive. So as she's telling me all these accounts with Donna, it really scared me. She mentioned Salt Lake is really haunted because she heard there was a massacre and ghosts still roam the place. People... THIS IS SCARY!!!!

So luckily I feel ok with my final because I did not get a lot of studying done. I didn't get a lot of sleep either because I'm just going to say it... Last night I was scared of the dark... and the boogie monster.

A few thoughts...

I hope everyone is doing great! Happy Thanksgiving and I cannot believe it's already Christmas time! I feel like it comes around so quickly, then it's gone again.

The MBA program is going well. There is only 2 weeks left until the semester is over and I am so excited for a break. Zions is good and very secure, so don't worry your money is safe. You should all be proud I have not fallen once this whole month, so I don't have any of those stories to tell you.

Since I do not have the pleasure to talk to each and every one of you on a regular basis, here are my latest thoughts...

Fashion

With winter fast approaching, what is the latest fashion craze? That is a good question. It seems like this year, there isn't a must have for winter. In previous years, it was the pancho, rainboots, but what about 2009? After careful research, here is my list of top 5 must haves for winter...

1. Black, grey, red, and white dress coat. This is a great fit for every girl and it gives an extremely sophisicated look.


2. Purple, teal, or fushia purse. Winter is more subdued colors, but you can still look young and hip with an accented purse.


3. "Designer" boots. Don't think you have to go spend $100 on Guess boots, but you can find knock-offs that have similar designs for more than half the price. This way you get the look and the feel.


4. Knee-high boots. These are must haves in every girl's closet. Knee-highs go well with any outfit. You can dress them up with a cocktail dress or even a skirt to go out on the town. The cutest look is knee-high boots, short black dress, and a peacoat to your knees.


5. Accessories. I know you may ask, what type of accessories, but no need. I will tell you. Over the past few years, gold has been all the rage, but silver is always timeless. You must be very careful not to OVER accessorize. The first step is to chose which item you want to highlight. If you choose a pair of fancy earrings, make sure to wear a simple necklace, so you do not take any attention away from the earrings and vice versa. Make sure all of your jewlery are in the same tone as well (all gold, all silver). Also, be careful with trying to match too much. For a younger look you can try mixing and matching different jewelery.

Entertainment and Hollywood

For all of you, the Jonas Brothers are the hottest thing out there along with Hannah Montana. So if you haven't listened to them... DO!

Still a fan of Brad and Angelina. I love their kids too.

Britney is making a comeback, hopefully it lasts for a while. Her poor kids!

Economy

1. We are officially in a recession. Do not panic... We've been in it for a while and this is something the economy goes through every 10 years or so. The only reason this time is worse is due to the credit crisis because of the subprime lending.
2. If you have money to invest in the stock market... do it now! It's a great time to buy, but you have to research your stocks carefully and decide if you would like to be a day trader or longer term holder. In this market, it is not ideal to be a long term holder, but if you are, you can get some stocks at great prices. For example.. Aeropostale, which is one of the strongest retailer now is priced at $12.75. It was at $37 just six months ago. If you are a bigger risk taker, look into stocks that have potential to go back up from a consolidation or corporate restructure like Starbucks or Freddie and Fannie.
3. The housing market in Utah is still strong. It has slowed down substantially, but prices for condoes have not fallen yet, which means we are still doing ok. Once the condo market falls, then Utah has joined the leagues of other states facing a housing crisis like Nevada and California.
4. Job versus education. While I am doing both, I do think that this is a perfect time to further your education. The job market it tight right now and skill advancement is always a plus. Also, if you've mastered those skills and graduated, the market may be up by then, which is a win win for you and your employer.

Life

1. Love, laugh, breathe, and be kind.
2. Smile as much as you can... no one likes a grouch.
3. Give back to others... even if it's just making cookies for a neighbor.

Bye for now! Love you all. MUCHO LOVE!!!

What you've missed... Not much.....

Hi everyone! I know I've basically been a hermit since school started and I feel so out of touch with all my wonderful friends.

So normally, I would not be a blogger, but my wonderful boss Megan, who hears all my stories said I should write the Adventures of Linda.

I started the MBA program at the University of Utah in August and let me tell you it is a lot harder than I ever thought it would be. For some reason, I thought it would be a breeze, but I was totally wrong. It is challenging and very time consuming, but it is so great to be back in school and I've meet a lot of great people. I didn't think I'd make any friends, but I have... Yeah me!

So here are some events that you've missed... Some of the dates say "ish" because I don't remember... I can barely remember what I wear the day before and pray that I don't commit a crime of fashion by repeating my outfit!

Around August 16ish...
So we had orientation week and I was wearing these absolutely cute bohemian sandals. I was feeling so fabulous, rocking those sandals walking up the stairs in the CRCC, when I fell flat on my face! So I looked around, no one in my class had witnessed this, but about 5 or 6 other random people had... Oh well, at least these strangers got a good laugh right? So I kept walking, but I didn't realize that all my pencils, pens, etc... were falling out of my backpack until this nice boy kept tapping my back and handing me these items. I was so embarrassed that I ran even faster up the stairs and that just made it worse because more things started falling out. At that point, I should have just made a move on this kid right?

August 28th
I moved into my condo and Amber, Janae, and Preston helped move all my furniture and thank goodness we had them. My couches were so big, they wouldn't fit through the hallway, so we had to pull them over the balcony! You'll all have to come visit one day or another!

Around the first week of October... POWER OUT!!!
We had Rocky Mountain Power shut of our power! Can you believe it? I had called and sent my purchase contract through in September, but all of a sudden my roommate calls and says we have a note. NO MORE POWER!!! I was so mad... So I called the power company and they said they could not take my purchase contract because it wasn't valid and they needed a lease... Um... DUH!!! A rental lease or a purchase of a condo? Which is better? So I had to ask for a manager... Michelle this reminds me of your stories about your mom... and we found out the agent had no idea about buying a home, so he or she said it was invalid... Can I just say I've never been more thankful for power! I totally missed having a hair dryer!!!

October 1-- Pants Gonzo
I had just finished my econ class (PS. I stink at econ) and I was heading to work. Well, I was texting my dearest friend Sawaiba and walking... Bad idea and tripped over a board in front of the CRCC. I fell hard... My lunch bag flew, my laptop bag still has dust marks on it, and my sunglasses fell off. So thank goodness my phone was ok, but I can't say that for my pants. They had dust and dirt all over and would not come back. If I had fallen by myself, I would have been ok, but 2 of my classmates were walking in front of me and turned around to see if I was ok. Then we had to walk to the parking lot together :( Anyways, my pants had dust and dirt allover and I had to go to work with them on. When I walked in, Julio laughed his face off!

So my favorite pair of pants had to be thrown away. There was a huge hole... the material must still be splattered on the board in front of the CRCC marking my fatal fall. It could have been worse... I only skinned my knee a little.

So moral of the story... DO NOT WALK AND TEXT... HAZARDOUS FOR YOUR HEALTH AND PANTS...

October 7--- Fall in the dark

I have a 7:30 class and I absolutely love the teacher, but 7:30? Let's be honest... that's like a punishment. Anyways, I was in my class when my teacher gave us a break. Well, I walked back and sat in the wrong class room. The teacher looked at me like I was the craziest person in the world.

So it was her fault, she had the door open, basically welcoming me into the classroom, right? Well, my correct classroom was next door and when I went in my teacher had turned off the lights for a movie. So I could not see anything and was crawling up the stairs and completely tripped on someone's backpack. I would have fallen all the way over, but I caught myself with my hands. Um... Who knew people left their backpacks of the floor and that you couldn't see in the dark?

October 9---The cupcake disaster!!!!
It was Tony... one of my favorite group member's birthday, so I decided to make him cupcakes for the class. He is just the nicest kid ever! I absolutely adore this kid. He's the one that I can call if I have a stats question at midnight. Tony's favorite color is orange... so I had the brilliant idea of dying the frosting orange. Somehow, I tipped the whole thing of orange food dye all over my clothes, the floor and the table. I don't ever recommend doing it. It is the most time consuming thing to try to get out and my clothes are still stained with splotches of orange.

October 10--- Keys in car trunk :(
I was heading to class and packing all my things in my car to head home after work. I thought I was going to save a lot of time by doing it in the morning instead of having to come back after work. So I head out throw my books in and turn around to grab my laundry bag... all of a sudden like a slow motion movie, I see my trunk start to fall. I couldn't even grab it in time and unfortunately my car keys were in there too. So I had to drive my sister's car until my baby sister could bring me my keys.

So basically these are the adventures of Linda! Stay tuned for more if you are still interested... If not, I don't blame you... My life is pretty much school and work, but there are a few fun details here and there...