Memorial Day Weekend

Alright I had the greatest three day weekend ever. It was so perfect! 

Friday I went cliff jumping at Lake Grapevine with the usual suspects and it was just fun to be outside in the happy sunshine taking advantage of the beautiful weather and time with these boys that will be heading out soon.

Saturday I went boating with many of the same suspects and I got the worst sunburn I've gotten in years. So that was awful. But in the great words of Dolly Parton, and this is a rough translation, if you want the rainbows you've gotta get through the rain. So hopefully if I can get through the red painful sunburn part I'll make it to the tan part.

Sunday we woke up and had a showing at 10. But church starts at 11:30 so my funny parents took us to one of our favorite look out spots. We took a few self timer pics and then my parents made me go sit in the car so that I didn't get any more sun and we proceeded to have scripture study.

So typical.

Then I headed to Coppell to Scott's mission farewell! Thank GOODNESS he doesn't leave for another few weeks because he is one friend that I'm really going to miss.

He's great.

Then had a lovely Sunday afternoon and listened to Dad, Amy and Chris sing the duet with Bon Jovi and Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles, oh, I don't know, about fifty times.

Then on Monday headed over to our good friend the Murdock's house for a BBQ/Pool partay with another fam.

Love these girls!

My parents are quite the story tellers.

Clearly I partied a little too hard. Maybe I can stay awake all day next year.

Lake Dallas & Texas Tea

So I've come to the realization that I only blog/tweet/instagram/everything about three things. Texas, my little sister Kate, and what I eat. Lucky you! This post is about all of the above. Sorry bout it.

Today was such a great day. 

So today was Katherine's "Texas Tea" which is equivalent to an end of year show. It includes singing and dancing songs praising the Lone Star State and teaching us about the state motto (friendship), fruit (ruby red grapefruit), mammal (longhorn) etc. My mom and I dropped her off at school all dressed up as the native Texan that she is and went off to run errands. 

We crossed over the lake up north to Lake Dallas! I've heard of this city my whole life since it's less than ten minutes away but have never actually been there before. Holy cow. It is a whole different world. Brings the term "small town" to a whole new level. Total population: 6,166.

We had to go get some specific tool from this specific Ace Hardware store with this charming sign out front. "Get in, get help, get on with your life." Alrighty then. 

This is Main Street. Where I live is a green and hilly suburbia and I love it that way. So fascinating to think about growing up just ten minutes north and having such a drastically different upbringing. 

Found this gem of a cupcake place. Really truly one of the best cupcakes I've ever eaten in my life.

Then we headed back down to Highland Village to Kate's school for the performance!

I was especially impressed with the dessert selection... they looked straight outta Pinterest.

I love this sweet cowgirl sister of mine!

It was really fun to be with my mom. Sometimes I get bored without my older sister Jen home right now but then I feel so lucky that I have a friend as my mom too. She's great.

Sunshine

I've always been obsessed with sunshine. I was born in the sunshine state. I was such a happy radiant that child that my parents literally called me "Sunshine." I lived the first few years of my life in the San Francisco bay area where my dad finished school at Berkeley. My parents also drove a big blue van. And although all of the above would qualify them as so, my mother and father are not hippies. They are straight edge, white collar, conservatives. 

I digress. Just musing. In elementary school I began to sign my name "Allison Sunshine Riding" and I was convinced that my teachers really truly thought that "sunshine" was my middle name. Yeah. Insert other various childhood stories validating my obsession. Actually in high school I was given some Forever Sunshine perfume from B&BW and that's all that I've worn since.

And I am moving to the rainy state. But it's not just the rain. It's not having the home base that I've had for the last sixteen years of my life. Buuuut I will love it there I am sure. In the meanwhile, I'll enjoy the sunshine here in Highland Village. Yay for having showings and having to get the kiddos out of the house. Win-win.

To continue with the sunshiney theme...

Crushys

Is this just me? Oh okay. Cool. I didn't think so.

Finally Summer

I finally feel like it's actually summer.   

I've been to all four of my favorite mexican food places and haven't missed a Taco Tuesday yet.

Chatting/Laying out with my fave girlies

Texas Rangers game with fab seats

Six trips to Bahama Bucks so far...

Our house is officially on the market as of yesterday, and we've already had three showings which is great/inconvenient. I was at the gym but then I had to stay there for two hours, which was actually great. Very relaxing. Anyways, now that the house is on the market, there's not much to do but to sit and wait. Aka no more staging/cleaning/clearing/dusting/anything the house.

Also I'm weirdly obsessed with this song. We all know Pitbull is a guilty pleasure of mine. Sorry I'm not sorry.

OH YEAH and finallllllllly saw The Avengers which was AWESOME.

Gray/Rainy

It has been very gray and rainy, but actually really pretty. Also I've decided that I need to get used to gray/rainy weather anyways to ease the Texas-Washington transition.

See?? Pretty! Also this past week I've been told  (by people that have never been here) that where I live is brown and has no trees. I would disagree.

Happys

• picking Kate up from preschool
• Chipotle. Sonic. Chicken Express. etc. (I'm food oriented.) 
• going to the gym with my mom
• actually going to the gym every day this week until thursday, when I instead opted to take two naps and eat a whole chocolate bar. It was a great day.
• getting asked out on dates
• spending an entire day organizing my closet. Ending up color coordinating my sisters short sleeved shorts, long sleeved shorts, and t-shirts too. My mom doesn't believe me when I say that I have OCD...
• Bahama Bucks
• driving around in thunderstorms
• taking Mark & Matt to the library
• sitting down and playing the piano as loud/long as I want
• mission blogs
• the cute missionary in my ward (i'm in love- judge me)
• running into my best friends moms
• this youtube video
• wedding receptions
• Hoodie Allen
• actually talking on the phone with Jen since she's back in the country
• Google+ hang outs
• sitting and reading books with my cousins
• shorts & a tshirt combo... everyday 

Clearly I'm so incredibly busy doing incredibly important things and that's why I haven't been blogging. Jk.

Here is Kate explaining the difference between Texas and Tejas.

Froomie

To be completely honest, I never expected to become good friends with Sydney. We are very different and our paths never crossed in high school. I was just relieved that I could room with a normal/nice (little did I  know) girl that I could get along with but we'd probably have different friend groups. Actually when I first approached her about rooming (see above pic) she didn't even respond. Hahaha but it all worked out and we became best friends. 

 

I am incredibly blessed to have a friend like Sydney. We are completely on the same page academically, spiritually, and socially. Which makes things really nice. She is hysterical but kind, happy and a wonderful listener. One time in December or November I think I started making a list of all the things that we both like and I came up with all of these in about ten minutes.

• FaveRed starbursts
• Original Chips Ahoy
• Texas
• Dining Plus
• Justin Beiber
• The Texas Rangers
• Flower Mound, Texas
• Smart Water
• Aquaphor
• Target
• Zupa's
• Christmas music
• making our beds
• having a clean room
• singing in the shower
• Instagram
• Brigham Young University
• Subway
• leggings
• boots
• Hiding a specific sonic toy in eachother's things
• watches
• country music
• Twitter
• earrings
• nail polish
• The Bachelor, Revenge & Modern Family
• naps
• Hulu
• Bath & Body Works
• lotion
• Baby Goldfish
• Honeycrisp apples
• Take 5 Bars
• Blue Bell ice cream
• water bottles
• Purple
• reading books for fun
• singing to ourselves
• talking to ourselves
• Temple Run
• Writing letters
• The Pendulum Court Cafe
• Calenders/planners
• Online shopping
• Cranberry Raspberry Vanilla Sprites
• Bath and Body Works

I could go on but this post probably isn't as entertaining to the general public as it is to me.

I LOVE MY FROOMIE!

froomie- /noun/

A froomie is both a friend and roommate. This term should only be applied when you have a really great, wonderful, ideal, exceptional, roommate who is also a very good (in some cases your BEST), honorable, terrific, and sublime friend. It should not be used if you have a good friend but they are bad roommate or if you have good roommate but they are not that great of a friend. In those cases, they are just your friend or roommate. If you have froomie, cherish them!

Taylor Hall

 Well, I woke up feeling decently sentimental so I was looking through byu pictures. This is what I saw every day when I walked out of my dorm to head up to class.

First week of school

Fall!

Winter

Really Winter

Spring

Taylor Hall you were oh so good to me! You gave me the most adorable RA and sweet hallmates and wonderful friends and a ward with the cutest boys. Even though your vending machines were broken for an entire week (clearly still not over it) your laundry machines always were dandy and you had empty music rooms where I could go play the piano while I was waiting for my laundry and pretend I was in a music video. You provided a lobby where I could get awkwardly picked up for dates and feel like such a freshman. You gave me another roommate for next year! (shout out to Nicole, haaaay) Personal thank you to the Taylor Toilet Reader, you provided some welcome entertainment. Also it was nice to be in the same hallway where Jen was. Lastly, thanks for not having a stupid nickname stereotyping the girls that lived there like some of the other dorms. U da best.