The Dirty Dash #1

here are the first of probably many more to come of the dash. these are from my camera Nikki's husband used to take pictures. they are mainly before and after's because he video'd the rest. i will get some pictures of the obstacles from the others and post those later!
this was so ridiculoulsy fun! and so ridiculously hard! oh man...i was not prepared for the majority of it to be up a mountain. hills are not my fav. but the obstacles and the mud made it so worth it. it was so fun.
our team name was: 'Hot' Pink Ladies. we were definitely a hit. people would always yell 'go pink ladies' and whistle at us...it was funny. thank you Walmart for the amazing outfits. we did learn our lesson with leg warmers though...they add about 10 pounds to each leg after you hav been trugging through the mud.
here are some pics before we started to get filthy:



i couldn't resist not putting cutting out the guy with the tight jean shorts on in the background...i think it makes the picture better:

here is us trugging up the hill...we had probably the .2 miles left so this is us with 6 miles behind us... wonder what got us so cover in mud? stay tuned for future posts =):

this is us walking down the hill to the grand finale obstacle...which got us covered in mud.. we look so B.A. in this picture...that is because we are:

final filthy finish for sure: (like the mud that is covering my teeth??)

i love all these girls...we had so much fun!

Phoenix concert

the Phoenix concert finally came! it was very good...they are awesome live. the opening band was kind of annoying and they changed the venue and i didn't like the place it was at. it was to small for the type of show they did. heather forgot her i.d. so we had to stay down below with all the crazy youngings but their music was amazing! they did lots of different things with lights that made it pretty cool. and i am about 98% sure ReAl Salt Lake's goalie was there. Nick Rimando is his name...we couldn't remember that for the life of us when it was necessary. his driver was waiting outside of the venue after getting ready to hold the door for him and we were going to stay and stalk but we couldn't remember his name! what kind of stalker does remember their stalkie's name??





"Lasso"

"Rome"

i think he learned his lesson...

this is what happens to your car when you throw me in the lake when i DO NOT wanna get wet...

payback's a %!#@& =)

totally random payback but i had like 500 extra flyers from a church activity and decided to put them to good cause. the other side was the best but we didn't get a picture of it.

i also found this picture on my phone...for some reason it cut off the bottom where it shows pake under the car... they want to be just like their dad and they are so cute

one of those moments that make life better..

i had an awesome lunch today. i wish this world was filled with more awesome people so everybody could have an awesome lunch everyday...
so i went to go pick up some lunch @ Doolittle's for me and a co-worker. i order the food and they told me it would be about 15 mins so i just sat at a table and people watched. there was a middle-aged guy - who will now be referred to as Joe- sitting @ a table all by himself enjoying lunch..than a couple walks in who he obviously knows but not incredibly well..they spent a few minutes catching up and than the people went to order. well in the meantime Joe told the workers to put their lunch on his tab. when the couple was getting ready to pay i think they spent about 3 minutes trying to get the lady to take their card. all she was saying was 'don't worry about, he is a great guy'. i was totally taken back...seriously how often does this actually happen? the couple went and sat with Joe and they laughed and caught up. if only there were more Joe's in this world.
well my 15 minutes had long come and gone and we were on about 25 mins. normally i would be fuming but i wasn't...i was actually in a great mood. there was a girl in front of me who had meal for herself and about 5 others and she was trying to handle it on her own. so i did my Joe act of the day and helped her carry all her stuff out. i than went back in a proceeded to wait. i think a waited a total of about 35 mins but wasn't mad at all and i got a yummy free cookie!
this was a great way to start the weekend... i love kindness. what would we do without it?
my goal to you is to be more like Joe... i know most of us don't have a ton of money to pay for people's lunch here and there (but if you do have the money please help us poor people out!) but small acts of kindness can make a world of difference to you, to them, and to those watching you!
Have a great weekend amigos!

a love and updates

i have a love for quotes... anyone who has seen my room know this because they are all over my white boards. sometimes i hate it because i find all these wonderful quotes and have no idea where to put them or what to do with them. if i could find a purpose for each one i would love it... so here are a couple i have fallin in love with over the past little while:

'Peace. it does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. it means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart' -Anonymous

'Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Design is knowing which ones to keep' -Scott Adams

'Patience is not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all that we can - working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our heart are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!' - Dieter F. Uchtdorf (one of my favorite people ever!)

'Sometimes the world tries to knock it out of you but I believe in music the way some people believe in fairy tales.' -Anonymous

quotes rock!

i have no pictures to post currently but i shall soon. this week includes the Phoenix concert & The Dirty Dash. i will have many after this week.

i ran a 5k last Saturday and shaved 2 minutes off my original time. can you believe i am actually running? yeah i can't either. sometimes i think i have gone crazy and sometimes i hope that is true...i love crazy.

autumn offically begins thursday.. i love autumn..i hate what comes next but i love these next couple months. probably the most gorgeous time of year but it also brings many awesome things. such as Halloween. i bought my ticket for Thriller and have my custome all planned out. it's getting me a little giddy!

the remodel of the bathroom is slowly but surely coming... my parents now want me to paint the cabinet below the sink. which means a lot more time. its hard when i work everyday all day. i will post on the progress.

oh and i have orange hair...we will see how long it lasts before it all fades away but i am diggin it.

and now...enjoy your day!

here's to the crazy ones...

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?
While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

— Apple Commercial, 1997

this is why i love Apple...

Book & Music Time & Week's Trend

Music:

Mayday Parade: Any Where But Here

Mayday is one of those bands that got me through a hard time...i owe a lot to them. when my heart was broken they were the ones that helped me get a lot of my frustration out, so when their new album came out i had to get it. its a pretty good album and the lyrics are of course once again awesome (seriously the best songs when you have just broken up with someone) but one of their main singers (Jason) actually left the group and he was my favorite. i miss his raspy voice in the all the songs. definitely a good album but not the same with out him... i did hear he started a new band called Go Radio so I am going to go check it out, i will let you know if it is any good. favorite songs are The Silence & The Memory.

The Maine - Black & White
my all time favorite Maine album. its awesome. remember my teenage crush? ya this is him:...still crushing ;). the songs on this album are a lot more mature than the other albums, you can tell they are maturing as people and as a band and John's voice is AmAzInG! love it. Fav songs are Inside Of You & Right Girl (both acoustic and album versions) & Fuel To The Fire.

Phoenix - United
i had to complete my Phoenix collection and this was the last one. my least favorite of all the albums but if your like me and gotta have them all its still good. i get to see them on the 23rd so excited! still don't have a date. who wants to be my date??? fav songs are Party Time & Summer Days

Books:

WARNING: IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW THE OUTCOME OF MOCKINGJAY DO NOT KEEP READING.

MockingJay - Suzanne Collins
ok...i got a lot to say about this one. you all know by now that i am a huge Gale fan and if you have read the book you know she doesn't end up with Gale so obviously i don't like that part.. i actually really liked the book..i read it so fast mainly cause i wanted to know who she picked but i still enjoyed. it is also a little more violent than any of the others. BUT the book actually gave me anxiety at the end. the moment she opened the door and saw Peeta planting the roses my heart drop. i honestly started to get anxiety and almost started crying. the whole thing with Gale seemed so real life to me. it's like having someone in your life that being with them all the time feels so right and they know you so well almost as well as yourself. and than the ways of the world pull you apart and give you different ideas on the way you want to live. it's not how life should be but unfortunately it is and i hate it. the thing is she didn't choose Peeta over Gale, she honestly didn't make a choice that way. Peeta was there and she made a decision not to change that, which i think was the wrong choice. i guess with books you expect a happily ever after and this one ended so life-like and sucky. grr... still my favorite books but so frustrating.

anyways...their is my rant. this is my only book this time. i re-read the first to in preparation for this one.

This Week The Trend

since i am on here this evening i am going to do this a little early this week. last week was good. i de-junked a lot. felt good. i need to do that like once a month cause i build up things so fast. this week is:

Train for a 10k in the MUD

literally. i have to run that race in 2 weeks and i am not sure i am going to make it! i gotta gotta focus on that for the next couple weeks...

dirty dash

me and 4 of my friends just signed upt to participate in The Dirty Dash on the 25th... haha so excited. if you haven't heard of the dash it is 10k run that involves many obstacles which involve mud...and lots of it! i am so stoked!!! i have a lot of running to do beforehand... 10k is going to kill me..but i can do it. so can you girls if you are reading this! check out the website...you will want to do it too after looking at that.

My Labor Day Weekend

aren't holidays the best? i love when sunday night comes and i know i don't have to go to work in the morning...it is the best feeling. i didn't do anything extremely exciting this weekend but i still very much enjoyed it. i spent the majority of it working on my bathroom remodel. below are some pics.
i bought this old kitchen cabinet at a garage sale and painted/antiqued it to hang above my toliet:




i wasn't going to put the doors on it but after i look at it with all my junk in there i think i am going to. i didn't do those to begin with so that is another project to put on the list!

i am also going to be making a new hamper, putting up some blinds, making a collage, and finding other wonderful things to put around like this:pluse check out my new shelves...i dig them. i got lots of work ahead of me but after this bathroom is done it is going to be like going to the ocean everyday =)

i also saw 2 mice this weekend...is that some kind of bad luck? i haven't seen on in real life for probably over 10 years. i saw one sitting by the door of the movie theater (creepy, i know) and a dead one under my dad's new corvette (aka mid-life crisis). weird.
i also spent the weekend de-junking. i threw away loads of papers from college. i have a hard time throwing away stuff so i had this cabinet stuffed with all my college papers, handouts, assignments...i think i got rid of about 3 grown size trees (i recycled though). i have a hard time accepting i wont need something in the future so i keep everything...

which brings me to This Week The Trend:

de-junk

i got rid of some friends on facebook yesterday which was nice...what else can i de-junk?

well hope you all had a good holiday weekend and enjoy your week!

attention all you book readers!!

mhmm may I have your attention please!

book lovers:

me and some friends are starting a book club. wanna join? you sure should, we would love to have ya. our first book is MockingJay by Suzanne Collins... if you haven't read the series you better get started. we are meeting tuesday september 21st...probably around 6-7p. i will give you more details if you wish to join. send me an email if you wanna. melbel2885@msn.com.

teenage moment...best hair product ever...and some goodies to watch

Totally having a sixteen year old moment and majorly crushing on the singer from The Maine. (he is pictured below in the middle.) i wanted to post the music video but had a hard time doing so...so click the link above. he is just so good looking and that voice oh man...that voice. it makes me melt (and if you know me well you know where =) )

so you are probably wondering about the best hair product ever huh? ya..i would be too. it is DRY SHAMPO! i absolutely love the stuff. i have been using the brand KMS California but there are others out there. this stuff is amazing...its not the best to wash your hair a lot if you didn't know this, so when it comes to the morning you would normally wash your hair spray some of this in, it takes the oil away and whala: you have clean looking hair. its great if you work out a lot to and are always sweating...i hate washing my hair after i work out everyday..it leaves your hair smelling so fresh and so clean. try it!

last but not least. here are some goodies for all you music lovers to watch...3 of my favorite artists/bands: