HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!!

Today is my mothers birthday!  My mom is REALLY great & I wanted her to know how much I love her & so I've compiled a list of silly things I love about her.

This was on Christmas Eve - she was cooking & had powdered sugar on her nose, but didn't know it.

1. She's always very supportive of whatever I choose to do.
2. She goes over her text limit.  I love that she texts.
3. She's a die hard cougar football fan - goes with my dad to every game & cheers loud.
4. She knows more about Hollywood stars than I do.  My sisters & I will be talking about some celebrity & she'll pipe in & say things like, "Didn't they break up?"  She knows her celebrity gossip.
5. Sometimes when we get her laughing really hard she snorts.  Its hilarious!
6. She's very fashionable - spends more on clothing than I do & used to complain about how much I spent on a pair of jeans - very cute.
7. She has a great "happy face."
8. She's very good at the game 'Reverse Charades' - very funny.
9. She cares about my education.  Everytime I see her she asks me about my classes & how school is going.
10. She'll watch sports with my dad.  So awesome.

I could go on forever because my mom is amazing!  I love her & I hope that she knows it.

My sports column dedicated to father & brother this week:

The weekly issue for the UVU Review comes out on Monday each week so last week while I was contemplating what to write for my sports column I decided that since it would come out on the Monday of Thanksgiving week I would write about who I have to thank for my sports knowledge & career choice.

Click HERE to read it.

This week's articles ... Enjoy.

I am loving being the sports editor for the UVU Review, but I don't get to write as much as I did when I was just a sports writer or the assistant sports editor.  I miss that a lot, but here is what I wrote for the current issue. 

Feature on UVU Volleyball's Lanni O'Reilly - this was the last feature I will do on UVU Volleyball, and it makes me sad.  I've really enjoyed covering the volleyball team the last two seasons.  The girls & coaches are fantastic and I really cherish the relationships I have made with them.

Article featuring UVU Volleyball's Seniors on their victorious 'Senior Night'.


Enjoy!

Face lift & update

I'm busy as hell, so don't come at me for not posting for a while.  But here's an update:

I got distracted from homework tonight by my struggling blog that apparently got the background I had on here deleted.  I don't know why.  But I gave it a face lift.  I like it.  For now anyways.

Here's what's going on:

• The newspaper, school, paid job #1, paid job #2 and free lance work consumes my life.  In that order.

 Here's what's coming up:

• Trip to Louisville the end of October with the newspaper.  Yes, I will bring back an overpriced Louisville Slugger.  For me, not for you.
• Trip to NYC again in the spring with a fellow editor - for a day with The New York Times.

Here's some of my latest work (the links anyways - you have hands, click on them):

• Feature of UVU Volleyball's Kayli Doxey - one of the BEST volleyball players I have ever met.
• My favorite column I've written so far this year.
• Women's Volleyball Preview I wrote before their season started - they LOVED it, by the way.  Seriously.  They asked me to print up copies on card stock for them.  They love me and I love them.
• Another column I enjoyed writing.

Here's what music I'm enjoying right now:

• Love The Way You Lie (feat. Rihanna) - Eminem
• Anywhere But Here - Safetysuit - I went to their concert a few weeks ago.  It rocked.
• Just A Dream - Nelly
• Club Can't Handle Me (feat. David Guetta) - Flo Rida

Well that's enough.  My blogging time has run out.  Must get back to my busy life now and the homework I put off tonight.  Well, maybe.

Golfing with a 4-year old in pink boots, need I say more?

A couple weeks ago my brother called me & asked if I wanted to go hit golf balls with him and his daughter Addi. I was able to leave work early so that I could join them & I'm so glad I did. My niece was so funny... as soon as I walked into their house she said to me, "Kira are you coming golfing too?" When I replied with a yes she was super excited. My favorite was her outfit, especially her boots - which she calls her "Hannah Montana" boots. Before we left the house Nate said told Addi to go change her shoes & she refused & I'm so glad she did because they are awesome!

We headed up to the Spanish Fork golf coarse and paid for a couple buckets of golf balls. Addi needed a small golf club so the lady behind the counter found one for her & she was so excited that it was her size.

We headed out the the driving range & Addi had to have her own bucket so she grabbed an empty one & started filling it up with golf balls from her dad's bucket & I think she would have taken all of them if he would have let her... she was just so excited.

Here's some photos & videos:

She was trying so hard to hit the golf balls.

Addi showing off her club a golf ball.

My favorite... she's very serious about golf.

When we ran out of golf balls she was so sad - she took the matter into her own hands & takes off onto the green and starts picking up the balls she hit that didn't go very far & started filling up her bucket again. Then she wanted to practice putting so she grabbed a golf ball & went over to the putting green.

As we took the buckets back into the clubhouse & Addi handed the lady back the golf club, she said (in a worn out tone), "I had fun." It was hilarious! We had a good time!

Update ...

I was recently told by a great friend that "I'm terrible at my blog". It wasn't offensive, it wasn't personal, it was the absolute truth. I am terrible at updating my blog. I used to be really good & then lets face it, I got extremely lazy about it. So here is a little update.

Since my last blog the end of the semester stress took over & school got really busy. Since the semester ended I got really lazy & have slept a lot, been running a lot training for my next race that is June 18-19 (yes two days) and have been working a lot.

The end of the semester busyness consisted of the usual end-of-semester final exams & final projects as well as a very important application process.

The application process went well & for the next year I will be over the sports section of the UVU Review as the Sports Editor. I have worked towards this position for the last two years. I began as a sports writer for the first year & then worked as the Assistant Sports Editor for the last year. I'm without words excited about this opportunity I have been given. The UVU Review has been like a second family for me & I absolutely love every thing about it.

In other good news ... in meeting with my academic counselor this last semester we figured out a graduation date. I am pleased to report that I only have two semesters left. I will be able to walk at April 2011 graduation, will do my final internship during the summer of 2011 and will receive my college education diploma at the end of the summer.

Random side note... about a week & a half ago I was at work & almost lost the top part of my wedding ring finger (not a good sign I don't think). For those of you who know what I do as a job your probably immediately thinking I cut myself with a box cutter... but your wrong. I was making some keys on our ancient key machine (something I have done weekly for the last five years) & my finger got smashed in part of the machine & was stuck between two heavy parts. Instead of loosening the part of the machine that was holding my finger in between the two heavy parts, I panicked & pulled my finger out. I could not believe the pain, it was unbelievable!! I couldn't even scream it hurt so bad. Of course I was at work & wanted to look tough so amazingly I didn't cry, but damn it hurt! My finger bled for quite a while & I was in so much pain by the time I got the bleeding stopped that I didn't really know what to do so I took some pain medication I had with me & within minutes the pain subsidized a little bit, but I still had a few hours on my work shift & lets just say they were not happy hours. I honestly probably should've gone & had it looked at, but I didn't. For about a week I had to wear a makeshift bandage or at times bandages just to keep my finger protected enough so it wouldn't hurt so bad when I did everyday things. It was hard to function with everyday stuff like typing, washing my hair (that was interesting with one had), texting, etc... It has finally healed enough to see the damage that was done. Basically I have a crack across the bottom part of my nail & it is indented into my finger (if that makes any sense at all). I can finally type mostly normal again, for a while there I was typing one handed, not so fun - especially for a writer. It still feels funny & looks nasty, but I'm just glad I still have the whole finger.

Ok that side note was kinda lengthy... my bad...

Ok I'm done blogging now. Your welcome Misti.

I fell in love...

For five days in March I had the opportunity to go to NYC for a journalism conference with the UVU Review & all I have to say is I fell in love with it & now I will likely move there. Allow me to take you through my trip. This may be length... but enjoy.

We were lucky enough to be staying in Times Square at the Marriott Marquis Hotel. We arrived and it was pouring rain... and some random person got in my picture.

We got all checked into our hotel & even though it was nearing late evening & it was raining super hard, we weren't going to let that keep us from the city. We were starving so grabbed some famous NY pizza (delicious by the way) and then headed down to the subway & took off to do some exploring.

The next morning it was still raining a little bit, but it was neat to see the fog cover atop the buildings.

We had the entire day to do whatever we wanted since our conference classes didn't begin till the next day. We all decided we wanted to go to the MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art) - this building is beautiful and huge. It was remarkable to stand and look at works of art by Vincent Van gogh & Pablo Picasso, paintings that were done so long ago, and I was looking at them in real life - remarkable, just remarkable.

On the fourth day I was there, a colleage of mine decided that we should try & get into The Late Show with David Letterman on standby. We submitted our names & headed down to stand in line after some morning classes.

We stood in the standby line for probably 45 minutes & didn't get in, but we did get to see Jennifer Aniston exit the morning taping of The Late Show with David Letterman which was really cool!

Since we didn't get into the show and we were already away from the hotel we decided to go see some more of the city. Here's what we found.

THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING!

For the next two & a half days we were in classes all day learning from amazing media personnel & got out to go explore the city as much as we could, but it wasn't until the last day I was there that I really saw the city.

It rained the entire time until the last day & I was ok with that, because what I saw the last day I experienced the last day was what made me want to move there.

The last day began by going down to the Today Show at 5:30am with one of the girls in my group & hanging out there until we got on t.v. - and yes we did! It was so much fun!!

Me & Merinda. Yeah, my sign says "Hi Mom! I made it to NY!"

NBC News Studios

After we got onto t.v. we were freezing so we left & walked back to the hotel. Later that day a couple of us were fortunate enough to get into a media tour at Marie Claire magazine - so we headed down a few blocks from our hotel & found the building we were in. It was right near Central Park and Trump Tower. We went on the media tour & met the lead designer, copy editor, a photographer, and an artist that work for Marie Claire magazine & they were all so fun & super down to earth - which was not something I expected, but people will surprise you.

Entrance to Marie Claire Magazine - Pretty snazzy!

At this point in the trip I was pretty down because I hadn't been able to see the city from above during the day. I had seen it at night from the top of our hotel, but I wasn't able to see it during the day, which has always been a dream of mine. As we were walking around the magazine office we walked into a room and were listening to the lead designer talk about the operations of the magazine when one of the guys in my group elbowed me & pointed to the glass windows - I was blown away by the view of the city. It was absolutely breath taking & I was speechless. Here are some shots I was able to sneak while they were talking to us, there not great because I just used my iPhone, but you'll get the picture.

Here is a few more of things we were able to see the last day - now mind you I took over 200 pictures while I was there, so there's plenty more, but I won't put you through any more than this.

Central Park! I LOVE IT!!

Trump Tower - HUGE

Statue of Liberty - Beautiful!

Ground Zero - very humbling & emotional

Manhattan LDS Temple - quite the experience!

I was fortunate enough to capture this moment while we were down at ground zero - this is my favorite picture of the entire trip.

Two ground zero workers taking a smoke break, chatting & perhaps reflecting on the events of nearly ten years ago.

My 2009 and those 2010 New Years Resolution Things...

2009 was an interesting year for me. It started out a pretty rough year for me, but became really quite an excellent year for me. The end of 2008 was a hard time for me, so that ran over into 2009, but during 2009 I entered into the second semester of being a part of the UVU Review. This program has changed my life. I have Parker Donat to thank for getting me involved with the UVU Review. I met him during the fall of 2008 in a couple of communication classes & he urged me to start writing for the paper. Thanks Park!! From the fall of 2008 to today I have gone from just a silly writer goofing around, to the Assistant Sports Editor. This last year with the Review has been the best year yet, being able to get more involved with UVU athletics & getting to know the athletes & coaches more has be so much fun!! I can never say this enough but I love the UVU Review & hope that 2010 with them will just get even better!

This last year I was able to accomplish three of the greatest achievements of my life thus far:

Most of you know that I am a big runner & I have a boss that is a even bigger runner. For the last four & a half years that I have worked for him he has urged me to take on marathoning. For years I have enjoyed short races such as 5 and 10k's (3 & 6 milers), but this year I took my boss' advice & entered a half & full marathon. The half was amazing! By far the greatest running experience I have had thus far & will run it again this year. The full marathon was interesting... devastating... and a wonderful experience all at the same time. Training 20 miles only to get injured during the marathon was completely devastating, but having my family there for me was really amazing. I was able to go through the temple this year and become endowed. It was amazing & has changed my life. My family & closest friends were with me & I was very grateful for that.

New Years resolutions to me are kind of ridiculous because I believe that you don't need to wait till a new year to make resolutions, which are just goals... you can make goals any time of the year & accomplish them just the same. But it never fails, people always ask me what mine are so here they are. Most of these are things that I have set over the last six months & will continue to set more this year.

Run two half marathons this year: Hobble Creek again & probably SLC

Register for the St. George Marathon again & if I get in, run the hell out of it!

Do a session in all of the Utah temples

Make it back to Mesa

Become the Sports Editor for the UVU Review

Save enough money to lease a condo after I graduate

Count my blessings every day!

Touch millions with the written word

Happy 2010! BRING IT ON!!