Lights... Cameron... Ashley!

Last Saturday evening I made plans with my friend Elise and roommates to go see the movie The Help at the dollar theater. I decided, now that the day was basically over, I would get in the shower and maybe look presentable to go out in public. I told the roomies it would be a quick shower, but we all know that didn't happen. As I'm finishing up, I hear pounding on my door! My roommate Ashley was asking if I was almost done. I get ready and come out with my zebra towell (made by sis-in-law Ashley) wrapped around my head. I checked my phone as I was coming around the corner and saw that I had 6 missed alerts--all of them were calls from Brielle and one from Brian. Did someone DIE or what?! I look up and see (and hear) a bunch of people out in our living room. They were all waiting for me! "Emily, do you want to go karaoking?!" (which I totally thought they said Caroling. I was all up for that too). Ummm... what? I thought we were going to go see The Help. But whatever. I called Elise and she was up for going. We all crammed in the car and heading to Rigby where we crashed a surprise birthday party for some 16 year old, or so, girl. They made our group go upstairs because I guess, they didn't want us to be up on stage singing when we weren't even there for the bday girl. But it's okay. It was our own little party up there anyway ;)















Wednesday night, Cameron, Ashley and I went to the park and took some pictures for our photography class. We're learning about different lighting. We had already taken our natural lighting photos and now needed to take our artificial lighting pics. Cameron said he had this steel wool stuff that we could connect to a wire, light on fire, twirl it around, and then take a pic of it with a slow shudder speed. We tried that out after we took pictures of just regular flash lights that we moved around with our hands. That was at Porter Park. It was pretty sweet.

A Good Day.

I don't know why, but yesterday was such a GOOD day! I woke up late (which results in looking a little homeless) and was a couple minutes late to my 7:45 class. That's not how I like to start out my days... but for some odd reason, I was over happy. Maybe it was the fire alarm that was going off at the Romney building on my way to class--totally made me wish I had class in that building. Maybe it was my teacher, Brother Brugger, and his dry humor. That's probably what it was. He got me laughing. I love it when I'm in those kind of situations... me laughing by myself, crying. Wow. I LOVE laughing!
Anyway, when I got home, I decided I should make me some pancakes. I didn't have any Karo syrup to make syrup, so just plain pancakes would have to do. It tasted so good to have something other than a typical college student breakfast--a piece of bread, an apple, etc. And that's of course eaten while running out the door. I seem to always be eating on the run. So yeah, after making pancakes, I cut up a very bruised peach the best I could. I usually have a system with cutting peaches that make them look decent, but this morning was different. I got out some Light Vanilla Yoplait and spread it across my pancake and then topped it with my sad looking peaches. It was divine. I think my mouth was crying.
The rest of the day, I was just so happy! Laughing outloud while walking by myself at anything that was remotely funny... Life is just good. I've decided that I can be this happy every day. I have so many reasons to be happy and so many things to be grateful for!

Walk in the Park.

Just kinda the same old, same old.

"We're goin' to Jackson..."

This last weekend Ashley, Brian and I made a trip to Yellowstone before the bad weather came around. It was so fun! Brian's taste of music is very unique... he had us listen to some Dean Martin, James Taylor, and who knows what else. As we entered Jackson Hole, we sang along with Johnny Cash and June Carter to "Jackson." That song is a CLASSIC. Every time I think of Johnny and June, I think of Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman (I know, I know, don't judge. I'm a fan of the good-looking Jane Seymore and Mt. man Sully). They were guest stars a couple times on the show. So yeah, that was tender.

When we arrived in Jackson, we obviously needed to eat. We ate at Mountain High Pizza Pie and it was pretty much life-changing. We got the bacon ranch pizza (I think). My mouth was weeping! We walked around a bit, looking at a few different shops and Brian's favorite art gallery. After our short visit in Jackson, we headed out!

In Yellowstone, we went to a bunch of cool sites and waterfalls. On our way, we stopped off at the Teton View Lodge (or something to that affect) and got the best view of the Tetons! It was beautiful! I couldn't capture how it looked on my camera.

After all of our stops it got dark, so we decided it was time to head home. As we're driving along, Brian suddenly pulls off of the road and stops the car. Ash and I were so confused... I thought he had to go to the bathroom. He got out of the car, pulled out some blankets from the back, and said, "we're going star gazing!" We walked through some trees and sat in front of a lake... or a river. I wasn't sure because it was dark. We sat on this tree log with our blankets and just gazed up into the sky. SO amazing. After a while, we started taking pictures... and it got kinda crazy. We would say an emotion, and then quickly take the picture. We were pretty much blinded because of the bright flash. We were laughing so hard I was crying. I will never forget this trip!

Square Ice Cream and Lemon Photos

Yesterday was SO great. So many good things happened. I ran into a friend (Symphony from camp) while coming out of my Psychology class, took a nap, had some Little Ceasar's pizza with Brian, went to a top-secret waterfall (with Brian, Cameron, and Jess), stopped off and had some SQUARE ice cream(!!) and then drove through Ririe on our way home (where my Gma grew up). It was just a GOOD day!

This semester I'm taking an Exploring Photography class. For our first project we are supposed to take 24 pictures of one object in various places. I chose to have my object be a LEMON because my camp name was Lemon. I'm going to post them here because I can't remember how to get in to my photography blog. Here they are!

Sausages, Housecoats, and MuuMuus

Alright, take a look at these bad boys. Yesterday was obviously Labor Day. My grandma and grandpa Clarke invited our family over to their cabin up Big Cottonwood Canyon for dinner--smoked apple chicken sausages were served. Okay, just hearing that makes you feel a little queasy, don't you think? I was surprised. They tasted pretty good. I just can't really think about what I'm eating, or else I lose my appetite. But overall I enjoyed them... so highly reccomended in my book.

It was nice getting together with the grandparents. My parents, Chris, Jason and I were the only ones that could make it from our fam... typical. It's crazy how much has changed. Everyone (5 children of 8) is married and starting their own little family while the three youngest are left in the dust. Chris has already started at BYU and living there in Provo. I start school next Monday and will be leaving this Saturday early so I can get all moved in, purchase my books, and hopefully find a job. That means Jason is left-over. Poor guy. He has been working at a Ranch in Wallsburg, making some big bucks for the mission (Brasil). So he is gone basically all day. My dad is also always gone on trips or out saving people's lives.... so HE is always gone. That leaves the mother at home. If you catch her in the middle of the day, she's probably roaming around in her "housecoat" --NOT a muu muu. She get's pretty defensive about that. Let's see what the difference is... shall we?

Housecoat (noun)--a woman's garment, usually long and loose, used for informal use at home.

MuuMuu (noun)--a woman's brightly colored dress, esp. one traditionally worn in Hawaii

Okay, looking at the pictures, I would totally rather have a MuuMuu... how 'bout you?

Starting...again?

Wow. I can't believe I'm starting another blog. I started a blog in 2008, but didn't get too far with that. Because I rarely posted, I decided to make it into my photography blog. And still I rarely post. This fall I'm taking a photography class, so I'm sure pretty soon I'll be posting more images. I guess I'll keep that blog alive. This new blog "lemonem" is going to be a day-to-day blog of what's going on in the exciting life I live. I was reading some of my friends' blogs the other day and really enjoyed them! They were documenting things that I had forgotten. I think keeping up with a blog will help me keep a regular "journal." I can type quicker when I write. So I guess we'll see how long I can keep this up! Wish me luck.