Katy's Tour of Hollywood (Mad Libs style)

Good morning, ladies and pickles, boys and radiators. My name is Jose. I am your personal nostril guide. For the next six hours, we will delight in exploring romantic, slimy Hollywood, the glamour tape dispenser of the world. Let's start off with a bang and visit Grauman's Gritty Theatre, Hollywood's most slippery tourist attraction. You'll see etched in cement the foot-peanut butter & jelly sandwiches and weenis-prints of the most famous spiderwebs ever to adorn the cracked screen. Then it's only a hop, skip and a trophy to Beverly Hills, the playground of the rich and lumpy. You will feast your tonsils on the million dollar deer of movie stars. You'll actually get to visit the home of today's hottest diaper, Jose Jr., who will sign autographs for the low, low sum of 17 dollars each. And here's the big one! For lunch, we'll be going to a studio commissary, where you can rub knuckles with today's leading actors and actresses. All aboard!

Mad Libs Fun

I mentioned in my last post that I got a giant book of Mad Libs for Christmas. The book has brought many a laugh (or atleast it did the one time I used it), so I thought it would be fun to break it out again and share a little laughter with you.

Here is where you come in: The first person to read this will be the person who gets to participate. I repeat, only one person needs to leave a comment with their answers. I will then include your answers and share your Mad Lib with the world (aka my blog readers).

Before getting started, let me just remind you of a few things:

a NOUN is the name of a person, place, or thing. Sidewalk, umbrella, bridle, bathtub and nose are nouns.

When I ask for a PLURAL, it means more than one. For example, cat pluralized is cats.

an ADJECTIVE describes something or somebody. Lumpy, soft, ugly, messy, and short are adjectives.

Ready? Ok! Be the first person to leave a comment with the following and I will then post your Mad Lib:

Plural Noun x5
Person in Room x2
Noun x4
Adjective x5
Part of Body
Part of Body Plural x2
Number

{HAVE FUN}

rewind

I may have taken a hiatus from blogging in December, but I was still having some really great times. This post is dedicated to the last 2 months and a few of my favorite moments.

I had the priviledge of seeing the lights at the Mesa Temple with my fellow Branch members:

saw some more lights at the Phoenix zoo:

hung out with lots of friends:

kissed some boys' windows:

possibly connected lips with other people and/or things:

and just had an overall great time.

Oh yeah, it also snowed at my house in Mesa, AZ...quite the exciting/unusual event (you have to look closely, but believe me, it's there):

And then I got sick.

Christmas came and went. I was still sick. But look how cute my tree looked this year:

Not many pictures were taken during Christmas (and believe me, they wouldn't have been pretty anyway), but I did really enjoy that day. I spent some time with the family and was spoiled by Santa, as usual. I got some hair bows, jewelry, calendars, gift cards, a huge book of Mad Libs, and a cupcake maker. I tried out the cupcake maker today and was quite disappointed. Case and point below. The cupcakes produced look more like thick pancakes. Very deceiving based on the pictures in the book. Oh well, perhaps it will be better suited for mini pies or something. But the most exciting gift I received was a sewing machine. I must admit, it kind of freaked me out at first. I don't know how to sew! But since then I have been kind of teaching myself and even got started making my first quilt. Below is a sneek preview:Exciting right?? Seriously, sewing is all I think about these days. It is an exhausting and expensive hobby, but I am loving every minute of it!

New Year's Eve came and I finally felt good enough to celebrate. It was a pretty eventful night and the new year looked so promising. And it has been. Not that it has been perfect...especially this last week, but it will be a year of big changes for me. I hate change, but sometimes it is necessary. I am sure I will delve more into this subject at a later time, but for now, I think it's best to keep it to myself.

Yay! I think I am not up-to-date on my blog! I would promise to be better, but you and I both know that is not going to happen. Hopefully I will be checking in again soon! Thanks for reading!

A new resolve...

I know, it has been a new year for 9 days and I am just making the time to blog about my new year's resolutions. I wish I could say that my blog title, "A new resolve" means that I will resolve to blog more often, but to be quite honest it's not gonna happen. But I am excited about this new year and the possibilities it holds.

Before we dive into my plans for 2011, let's take a look back at my resolutions made for 2010. Remember this? I did exactly what I said and posted my goals so that I could see them everyday. Then there just became a time when I stopped looking at them. Let's review how I did:

1. I will go through the temple. Well, it happened. Not exactly how I had planned, but it was exactly what I needed. I did go through the temple on April 8th, but I went through the Salt Lake Temple instead of the Nauvoo temple. It was so special because my best friends and my extended family members could be there. This was by far the greatest goal I accomplished this year.

2. I will lose 50 lbs by my birthday. Seemed reasonable enough because that gave me six months, but I am sure my pictures tell all. Epic fail.

3. I will exercise regularly. Haha. Didn't do so hot on this one either. I would go through spurts, but nothing consistent.

4. I will read the Bible. I was doing really well on this one until my Branch decided to do a Book of Mormon reading challenge from May to August. I got out of the habit of reading, and then I got to Kings...and it all went downhill. Those books are not very exciting to read...

5. I will look for the positive in all situations. Did really well for about 2 days, and then I went to work. Enough said.

6. I will find ways to serve and fulfill my callings. I would say that I accomplished this goal. At one point during the year I had 5 callings. Now, I am down to one. But it is by far the most challenging and time consuming calling I have ever had. But I get through and know that I am blessed for my efforts.

7. I will organize and de-clutter. It may not have happened when I wanted it to, but due to a very lengthy illness at the end of the year, I was able to purge a lot of unwanted things and make room for the important stuff. Oh, and I have kept my room clean ever since then.

8. I will communicate more frequently. I think I did a little better on this one, but still think I can improve.

9. I will scrapbook more. Given the fact that I hadn't scrapbooked much the year before, I will chalk this one up to a success!

10. I will get asked out on a date. It happened. Two and a half times to be exact. Much better than the previous year, but a girl needs more dates to find a husband...

So there you have it. I give myself a 45% completion rate. Not bad, but definitely not acceptable. My theme for last year was "Enjoy the Journey." I did do a lot of enjoyable things, but I allowed myself to wallow in self pity way too much and focus on the negative. Which leads me to my theme for this year:

I got this little craft idea (and all the components) from my favorite store in Utah called Rod Works. I just thought the quote was nice, but it wasn't until the last week of December that it hit me that this should be my yearly theme. It is perfect for everything I have been thinking about and going through lately. When looking at my big crybaby post from last year, I realized that my struggles I had then are the same struggles I am having now. Some things never change. We cannot change our past, but we can definitely look forward to the future. I think this year is gonna be great! I made some big changes the last week of December and know that with the help of the Lord I can accomplish big things. So with that in mind, here are my {again, very personal} resolutions for 2011:

1. I will make more time for scripture study

2. I will lose 30 lbs by my birthday

3. I will learn how to sew and will create my first quilt

4. I will spend less time on the internet (aka Facebook)

5. I will exercise more often

6. I will manage my finances more efficiently

7. I will think to thank

8. I will communicate more

9. I will keep my room clean (or atleast presentable...so I won't be embarrassed if friends come over and need to use my bathroom)

10. I will get asked out on a date.

Do some of these sound familiar? I know I included some goals from last year but obviously they are things I would like to continue to improve on. I think I will have a better completion rate this year just because my goals are more achievable. Like I mentioned before, I am excited about this year. I know it holds great things for me. And I hope that you all have a great year too! I love you all!