awesome people

dear love,

i know it's been a while. but, as promised, i am giving you something worth waiting for...my latest stalker pictures. enjoy!

this girl knows where it's at. can someone plleeeeeease tell me where she found that thing? my birthday is in three weeks...

this is an old one i took over the summer. please notice the amazing choice of shorts overalls with sperry's. can you even???

this is hot off the press! i saw this out my window as i was waiting at a stop light today and i definitely took this right before the light turned green. shhh don't tell, but wow. amazing!

the mullet never gets old

dear love,

today i saw something amazing. i saw a little pre-teen boy with a legit mullet. and wranglers (they were TIGHT!!) and a wife beater. and a mullet. needless to say, when we saw this little guy we knew i had to try to get a picture with my phone because it's a widely known fact that i take amazing stalking creeper pics of weirdos. sorry to say i didn't get to take one because right as we caught up to him, he did an about face and headed the other direction. it would have looked really crazy if we did the same thing and followed him so the moment was lost. we didn't get that picture. but please just picture it in your mind and smile.

it may or may not have looked a little like this

nut-el-ahhhh

dear love,

i have been trying to come up with some fancy and exciting way of saying this but i've decided just to say it simply--i'm in love. yes, i love my fiance but i'm actually talking about something else. here it goes...

I LOVE NUTELLA

i can't even help it. i love everything about it. i love the way it's always the perfect melty consistency. i love it on toast, on pancakes, on ice cream, and even just by its little self on a spoon.

i've done a little research. the sources vary somewhat, but they all agree that nutella was originally created during times where cocoa beans were either unavailable or too expensive. pastry makers wanted a way to keep the chocolatey flavor going without the expense of chocolate. so they found hazelnuts! what a miracle!

sometimes i have to force myself not to buy it because it can disappear way too quickly. other times i'm so good about eating just a spoonful everyday. i had my spoonful today and it was a great day! you should try it.

plant girl

dear love,

i like plants. i love the way they look inside or outside, tall or big, flowers or no flowers. plants just bring life to a place. one time i even planted a tree in thailand.

because of my love for plants, i am officially the "plant girl" at work. i fill up our little pitcher and walk around the office watering the plants. it takes me about 5 pitchers full before i finish. we have a wide range of plant life in the office. keeps us healthy. keeps us happy.

on to a more important note: i was walking to work this morning and i realized something major. i saw the landscape crew right by the SWKT working their little buns off. these guys (and girls!) are for reals. they wear their grunge jeans and their i-dont-care-what-i-look-like shirts and they just work hard all day. i always see them on campus and think nothing of it. today was different though. i realized today how much i secretly want to be one of those people. i want to wear gloves and break my back bending over and use a shovel once in a while.

ok seriously

dear love,

i was walking home from work the other day and i realized i REALLY had to go pee. like, there was not going to be a way to make it home. so i stopped in the JSB on my way back and ran to the bathroom. on my way, i saw this:

i did a double take and didn't give it the attention it deserved because i had to pee so bad. but when i got out of the bathroom i snapped the pic and i just want to say a few things about to this girl, whoever she may be.

first i would say, "hi. how are you? are things going okay in your life?" then after a little small talk i would dig deeper, you know, get to the core of who she is. "so when you were studying that day, what exactly was going through your mind? did you just get new undies and you wanted to show them off to the world? or maybe you thought boys would totally dig the posish (pronounced 'puh-zish', emphasis on the 'zish') you were laying down in? or maybe it was just comfy and you had no idea how suggestive it looked." after we became best friends, i would kindly tell her that she should probably not do that anymore. the end.

another confession

dear love,

i used to be a little obsessed with watching oprah...there, i said it! i don't really know why and how the obsession started, but it began some time during high school. when my parents got tivo, i would come home from practice and chill on the couch and check out what oprah had going on for the day. i have to admit, i think she helped me become a better person. here are some things i've learned from oprah winfrey: (let me just say that i'm kinda joking and kinda not here)

• there are lots of sexual predators. don't trust just anyone with your children.
• people look a lot better on her show than when the cameras surprise them at their houses. makeovers? mmhmm.
• she did shows about eating disorders and all kinds of other issues specific to the teenage years. i was really scared from the pictures and interviews with anorexic and bulimic people.
• i think i kinda learned to love myself more. appreciate who i am. (i don't know?!)

anyway, the list goes on. my point is, i went through a little time period where oprah was a dear friend of mine. we hung out after school and sometimes even on weekend nights (nerd!). my freshman year of college, i actually kind of attempted to schedule my classes to not be a 4:00 so that i could chill a little by the tv and see what oprah had to say that day. the past few years i have grown less and less attached. it's all apart of a healthy evolving relationship.

today, however, i find myself at work during the time that oprah is on. i'm finding myself wanting to be home so that i can watch oprah...out of nowhere! what the?

guess what?

dear LOVE,

so i haven't written on my blog in for-e-ver (said like the classic sandlot boys) because i've only had one thing on my mind lately and it's been a little bit of a secret. but now it's not a secret anymore and i'm going to shout it on the roof tops, i tell ya!

I AM GOING TO BE MRS. PAIGE SMATHERS. that's right, i'm engaged! it happened officially last tuesday night and it was perfect. he proposed where we met last august on one knee and everything. the sun was setting behind mount nebo and the rest of the scenery was this beautiful shade of deep green from all the rain we've been getting. he said this cute little speech and we both just soaked the moment in. it was perfect!