tourists for a week

As you may have seen, we spent a week in my old stomping grounds in the beautiful San Francisco. My heart was so, so happy being back and being able to show Bryan where I spent almost two years and of course spending time with my 3 kiddos.

For those of you just joining in, I lived in SF as a live in nanny for almost two years to the most amazing family with the most amazing kids.

We did literally everything there is to do in San Francisco. Complete tourist status (except Alactraz because it was sold out, wahh!) Beach, wharf, the bridge, ate at a different restaurant for every meal, spent a night in the country on a beautiful vineyard, cable cars, Giants game. It was amazing.

The kids didn't know that I was coming so we were able to surprise them and it couldn't have gone better, they FREAKED after they finally realized who I was (and that took a lot longer than I expected hahaha). It was great, and of course we didn't record it but its fine, it was great:)

We stayed with my uncle Randy who is seriously host with the most. He was so amazing to us and I'm so glad we were able to spend time with him.


I shared all my pics on FB so I'll just share my favorite few here:

ps- my sister will be home in 3 days!!!

A Series of Fortunate Events

This time of year always makes me super nostalgic. It's the time of year I graduated high school 5 years ago, Bryan left on his mission 4 years ago, we both came back to Utah 2 years ago and I started school 1 year ago all around this time.

Do you ever think about the decisions you made or events that happened to lead you to where you are now? Like I just think about if my parents had picked a different neighborhood to live in back in 2000, I wouldn't have met Bryan and married him 14 years later. Also, if I hadn't decided to date Bryan, I may have not decided to think about seeking out my own adventure while he was serving his mission. I wouldn't have lived in San Francisco, I wouldn't have met my nanny family or some of my very best and closest friends.

Or sometimes when something didn't work out the way you'd planned, it turned out for the better. Like when I wanted to start school in February of last year but things didn't work out with my financial aid so I had to push it to May instead. If that hadn't happened, I probably wouldn't have the job I have now, or have the friends I do.

Right now, I'm super bummed because my goal was to be done with school by the end of July but I did the math and I won't actually be done until the end of September. But I'm sure there is a reason for that and something wonderful is going to happen that could only happen if my schooling got pushed back.

I also wonder how on Earth I didn't see Bryan for TWO. WHOLE. YEARS. like, what?! That is such a long time! Nowadays, I hate having to leave him for a few hours for school in the mornings. ha ha. It's kind of embarrassing. But he's just my favorite:)


We bought a truck this week. We are SO EXCITED. We cannot take it up into the mountains. Also, guess what, we are going to San Francisco in 107 days. I check my countdown every single day because I'm so excited but it turns out, that makes time go by super slow.

Have a great day and I hope everyone is enjoying this incredibly beautiful weather! And always remember this:

I couldn't resist this ^^^ Baylor insisted on rollerblading when I went on a walk with my parents tonight hahaha.

i only post on the weekends

friday:

dinner at roam

 saturday:

shopping for the missionaries

(cause we're the best girlfriends ever)

sunday:

church

twinning

and a relaxing evening on the beach

now everyone just look at how gorgeous my sister looked for her sr. homecoming.

SENIOR. now for a flashback, here's my sr homecoming:

MJ

RIP michael 4 years ago today. (it's still technically the 25th in SF)

lets just all take a moment (or 15) to watch thriller because it's great.

writing prompt

"write a letter to your 16 year old self"

Dear 16 Year Old Mia,

First off, you're awesome. 

Second, here your babyface trying to hide your braces:

Next is, do what you want to do. My favorite song right now is called Who You Are by Jessie J, (she's not popular for you yet but just wait, she's pretty great). But I want you to take the advice from this song:

"sometimes it's hard to follow your heart.

tears don't mean you're losing everybody's bruising.

just be true to who you are" 

Don't be afraid. Go try out for the volleyball team. Then the basketball team. Then, I want you to try out for student body office. 

Then I want you to know that the football players are not all they're made out to be. You'll date one or two then, believe it or not, you'll be one of those missionary girlfriends. Guess what? He wasn't the quarterback, but he's amazing. And he's someone you know right now. And he's amazing.

Don't worry about having a lot of friends, you don't need them all. A few close ones are all you need. And after you graduate, those are the ones who will be your friends forever.

Don't fight with your sister. It's silly. None of it matters and one day, she'll be your best friend.

Don't cut your hair, it was cute and all but I'm trying to grow my hair out and if I hadn't chopped it, my hair would be THAT much longer.

Those AP classes you take sr year? Turns out, you actually need to study for those. So please do. Maybe you could get a scholarship instead of having to pay off a student loan. 

You have amazing parents and they will literally become your best friends.

Enjoy the time you have in high school. Because once you graduate, you will never see half of those people again and you will have to be a grown up and get a real job and pay taxes and miss people who leave. Be active and meet  new people. 

Also, enjoy the astro van while it lasts.... *tear* 

You WILL get out of Utah, I PROMISE so stop whining about it. You'll actually end up missing it once you're out. So savor every snowflake and every sunburn. Especially the ones you get in the same day.

Have fun. Spend time with your family. Pray always. Share your testimony. 

and lastly, here you are 4 years later:

Love, 20 Year Old Mia

time flies

it has officially been 2 years since i graduated high school.

2012 // 2011

wow.

writing prompt 5

i've slacked off on my writing prompts lately. but i'm here to finish what i started. today's is:

"tell about a lesson you learned in middle school"

in middle school. i had like, zero confidence. and i tried REALLY hard to 'be cool'. too hard. and i was just... awkward. and i was scared of boys. 

i was always taller than all the boys, i had crooked teeth and big bushy eyebrows. 

i eventually learned to love myself. and i learned "who cares what other people think about you?" i think every girl eventually realized this at some point or another. 

i also realized that the more i didn't care about what other people thought of me, the more friends i made and the more people wanted to be around me. and i've noticed that in other people too. i don't want to be around people who have no self confidence or self worth. it's sad. 

i also learned to wax my eyebrows and now they're my favorite feature, is that weird? learning how to do my own hair was a good thing too i guess.

i forgot these things i learned a little when i got into high school. i was too scared to ever try out for volleyball or student body office and i regret that more than anything. i'm so glad to see my siblings go out for the things they want and not letting fear get in the way of that.

and i sometimes see it in myself even now. so i'm setting a new goal starting NOW. i'm not going to be scared. i'm going to be me.

i've posted this before but i'm doing it again:

moral of the story: sing like no one's listening, love like you've never been hurt, dance like nobody's watching and live like it's heaven on earth.

writing prompt: 3

"what is the oldest piece of clothing in your closet that you still wear?"

(please ignore the dorkiness of this picture)

my dad got this sweatshirt on his mission and i have been

wearing it ever since i can remember.

plus, it's totally 'in' right now. bonus.

writing prompts

hello readers. i hope you all enjoyed conference. and if you didn't, it's not too late. you can find it HERE.

anyways. i've been feeling a lack of inspiration in my blogging lately. then i found a little gem on pinterest called 25 Writing Prompts so, starting today, i am going to do one a week for the next 25 weeks.

here we go! the first prompt is:

What is your earliest memory?

i kind of have a jumble of early memories but i'm not sure which came when. but most of them take place at my gramma and grampa oaks' old house with all my cousins. one i remember specifically is i had just painted my nails and i went to show my cousin dj and i just kinda shoved me out of the way and quickly said "cool". hahaha

another is making forts with sheets and the laundry lines outside. and climbing the tree in the backyard and picking grapes and raspberries and watching the rides at lagoon from their porch.

i also remember having lots of movie posters and cut outs of characters from movies. or maybe i made that one up? confirmation mom and dad?

i had a cabbage patch doll named katie that i remember singing a primary song to and thinking i had an amazing voice and i was going to be a famous singer.


i hope this works cause i think it's kinda fun. have a wonderful week all and remember the words you heard from God's prophets and apostles today and keep them with you.

neverland

today is thursday. which means instagram is filled with #throwbackthursday photos. 

as you know, i love tbt, so today i posted this photo:

this was taken on september 23, 2011. not that long ago right?

well, in response to the picture, one of these lovely ladies above commented:

"i know we have all said this a million times, but i miss this"

it's insane how fast life moves! like, i absolutely LOVE where i am

and what i'm doing right now but, things were simpler when this photo was taken.

and about the same time of this photo, i was thinking high school was simpler.

and in high school, i thought jr high was simpler and so on and so forth.

i guess as life gets better, it also becomes more complicated. 

ever since i started watching once upon a time, i've become a little fairy tale obsessed,

peter pan has always been a favorite. and the idea of neverland is just... no words.

looking back on moments in my life, i wish i could have been in neverland

so that moment could last just a little longer and i didn't have to grow up quite yet. 

i live 700 miles away from my friends and family. 2,700 miles from 

my boyfriend. i have a job where i will have to pay taxes for the first time.

i'm not complaining, but as you should already know, i'm a big reminiscer.

as ferries bueller once said:

2012

we have survived the apocalypse and now here we are. another new year has rolled around. i would say it's been an overall great year. thinking back to a year ago right now, never would i have thought i'd be living in san francisco with a missionary in south carolina and 50% of my friends on/ getting ready to go on missions. tis wonderful.

i made another silly little video to share my 2012 year in pictures so enjoy.

i also think i have bragging rights because i actually achieved all my resolutions from last year.

(ps- i know this post is about 4 days late buuuuut, i couldn't get the video to load so
when it didn't load again today, i just decided to put the link.)

happy weekend everyone!

baby beluga

i feel like i've been doing lots of reminiscing lately, but driving home from palm springs (a post to come, once i recuperate) we listened to kidz bop probably 7 of the 9 hours. and it got me thinking "wow. my parents NEVER put on kids music and now i understand why" but then i got thinking harder... yes they did. and they loved it as much as i did! did anyone else listen to baby beluga by raffi? 

if you haven't, maybe it won't be as fun for you to listen to as it did for me because i grew up with it, but you should still give it a listen:) anyways, i downloaded the album on itunes the second i got home (after my dad sent me clips of all the songs). my dad said "it's kind of comforting" and he couldn't be more correct. i'm gonna burn it for little girl for her birthday this week. and probably listen to it myself a couple (or a lot) times throughout the week.

anyways. enough rambling. have a wonderful night!

never again

found this here little gem on pinterest and thought i'd share it.

just a little bit of childhood comin back to haunt you.

4 years

this is me and my bestie megan at the beginning of our senior year of high school, back then we would ALWAYS talk about how we wished we could fast forward 4 years. 

that was 2 years ago. we're half way through that time we wanted to fast forward through. and i don't think either of us are where we thought or planned we'd be. for better or for worse. for example, i never in my wildest dreams would have thought i'd be living 770 miles away from her in san francisco, ca. we both had boyfriends at the time (mine being the same one i have now and hers being someone neither of us really even talk to anymore) we wanted to fast forward and get married and start our lives and families. but, i think what we would have fast forwarded through would have been something sad to miss out on for the both of us, such as being roommates and adding 4 more to a friendship or break ups and girls nights. or how boring and predictable life would have been if our lives had gone EXACTLY how we'd planned them to be at the ripe age of 17.

and now here we are. and who knows what else the Lord has in store for us two.

i'm just grateful that one thing hasn't changed; the fact that i still have my sugar plum as a best

friend. always one text or phone call away. 

the 90's

i found this link on pinterest called "333 Reasons Why Being a 90's Girl Rocked Our Jellies Off" (credit to Tarah Block) and thought it was hilarious so i thought i'd share. i also picked out my favorites in case you don't want to read all 333 reasons:

fruit stripe: because who doesn't want a tattoo to match the color this gum turns their tongue?

lisa frank: my cousins would appreciate this one. you cannot tell me there was a single girl my age

who did not want lisa frank EVERYTHING

tattoo neckalces: we all had them

butterfly clips: we also all had these. pretty sure i've still got a few somewhere back home

tamagotchi: now this one i never had. but my sister did and i was SO jealous

jurassic park: such a great movie to this day, in fact, i was watching it just on sunday

backstreet boys > n'sync: bryan was always my favorite. but my mom liked kevin with his big, bushy eyebrows

cat's cradle: STILL fun to play

jelly shoes: the greatest shoe ever created

roll on body glitter: school, play you name it, i was wearing it

warheads: we ALL knew purple was the most sour. and i was the queen

of not making a face when it was in my mouth

see through phone: pretty sure we had one of these growing up.

or maybe that was just a dream of mine.

90's <3

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this is old news to my roommates (because i can't stop telling them) but... i am missing them SO MUCH right now! i wish i could bring them all out to san francisco and share my new life with them and we can laugh and dance and pop each others zits just like the good old days.

i love you girls!

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