Wandering London

I've now been in London one week and already feel myself falling in love with this city. We finally got some sun and blue skies this weekend and Lauren and I took full advantage. I love Denise for sharing one of her dearest friends with me. We traipsed around the city, quite aimlessly, and just soaked in the sights.

 

We started near Parliament, wandered through Trafalgar square, stopped for some lunch in Chinatown, meandered in and out of shops near Oxford street and kept a growing list of restaurants we wanted to come back to.

 

This gentleman needs no introduction. Isn't he looking handsome?

 

We had to stop in Anthro where Lauren and I both lost our hearts over flower pots, candles and overpriced measuring cups. Oh, and this lovely wall of green. Sigh.

 

Good thing I lost my heart at Anthro because Liberty would have just broken it. I had read about the amazing fabrics here but underestimated what I'd find. Stunning stationary, beautiful yarn, quirky furniture and, of course, fabric that made my heart go wild.

 

We stopped by Buckingham palace to say hi.

This window display inspired me to try my hand at bundt cakes. They've never really grabbed me before but this window display was just so simple and lovely.

 



Can I have this for my front porch, please? It's either this or a 'Dublin door.' I'll take either.

 

Saturday night, after a day full of walking I went home to recuperate while watching conference. Sunday I went to the V&A Museum before meeting up with Lauren. We walked through Kensington gardens before going to her parents' flat to watch the 'Sunday morning' session at 5pm. Overall, a delightful weekend. I'm just so glad it decided to stop snowing!

I've Landed

Well hullo there. It's high time I get back to keeping this up, I suppose. The last couple of weeks have been just lovely. I have the best roommates and friends a girl could ask for. Two weekends ago Michelle (Blood), Laura (Pearson) and Denise (Mann) decided to kidnap me for the day and fulfill all my bucket list wishes (at least those in San Fran). I was thrilled that Michelle (Ziser) and Kelly (Madsen) both came, too. And I can't forget Brooks and Josh who were such great sports and joined us for the last half of the day.

The day started with a stop at the mosaic staircase that I've been dying to see. It's just as beautiful in person as I expected it to be. I was so excited I nearly jumped out of the car before Kelly had a chance to park. After oohing and aahing, we then hiked the rest of the way up the hill to a lovely view of the city. Oh, how I love San Francisco.

Next we drove to the northwest side of the Golden Gate Bridge to catch a breathtaking view of the city. That's where we had an incredible picnic (many thanks to Denise who makes a pretty mean peanut butter and jam sandwich with banana...yum!) and enjoyed the view. Oh, and tried to be subtle as we stared at the cutest couple getting engaged. One or two of the group may have made an excuse to walk to the garbage in order to peek at her ring. I hear it's gorgeous.

Then we found our way back down to the city to catch a cruise that took us under the bridge. The day was sunny and there were sailboats galore. I tried to capture it but no picture really did all those white sails justice. I can only encourage you to go and see them sometime.

After a lovely walk to the book store and a yummy bread bowl at Boudin's we went to get a dark chocolate hot fudge sundae (say that 5 times fast) at Ghirardelli Square, because I love them SO MUCH. We then made one final stop to see the Bay Lights before going home exhausted. It was such a lovely day with some of my favorite people. I felt rather spoiled and quite loved.

Before I skipped the country, Laura and I made one more pilgrimage down to the Boiling Crab. Oh, my mouth is watering as I type. I just can't get enough of this place. I have two food dates when I get back home...Boiling Crab with Laura and frozen yogurt with Melissa (Della Gatta). Priorities :)

We also had a fun St. Patty's day where I made, dare I say, a pretty fabulous cake (you can see it below before I finished frosting it). It was seven layers of green goodness. Those who missed it will just have to come next year.

Since I don't really say goodbyes we had a small 'cheerio' party with my favorite ladies in the Bay area. We drank tea and ate scones and just chatted away.

And now here I am, sitting in my cute little flat in London with six months of grand adventures ahead of me. (No, I did not take the pic below but will have lots to share with you in no time.)

hello again

I am embarrassed that I've been gone for so long but please forgive me because I'd like us to still be friends. So much has happened since March so I won't bore you with all the details but here are some highlights.

I went to Breckenridge with the MBA gals (Janice, Sarah, Julie and Kayce) and we had a grand time dog-sledding. And I mean to brag when I say I was pretty darn good with the sled.

I graduated with my MBA from BYU in April. Here is my last day of school. I was pretty excited/super sad that day. I LOVED my time in the program and already miss all of my school friends so much.

One of my best friends, Sarah (Mayfield) Shirley got married in June. I have no pics from her wedding but I love this one of us on from one of our temple excursions between classes. Love that girl!

I decided it was high time I replace my counter tops. Silly me, I was so excited to take pictures of the demolition that I never took an 'after' picture but I think they turned out great and just in time for me to move out...oh the sad irony of life.

Marlene and I decided to celebrate our decade birthdays (30! and 40! but I won't tell you which is which) by going to Paris (with a small jaunt to Heidelburg). We had a wonderful time wandering around Versailles, the Eiffel Tower, eating yummy food, taking a hot air balloon ride, road tripping, hiking to the top of Notre Dame and soaking in all of the loveliness at the Louvre. Such fun memories! Now we just need to plan 40 and 50...any suggestions?

This was our view from our hot air balloon ride...normally I hate heights but this just swept me away in the best way possible.

A vacation is not a vacation (or life a life, really) without delicious food. Nutella and banana crepe, yes please!!

I also had a short career as a landscaper this summer. My friend Janice and I decided to mow lawns for a few weeks since we suddenly didn't know what to do with ourselves after school finished. I had an older gentleman question whether two MBA gals could mow his lawn. And I just have to say his lawn never looked better! Aside from our 'cursed' Mondays (our BEST Monday resulted in 2 stolen gas cans and a broken weed eater) we had a great time driving around talking about life and mowing lawns.

I finally made my way to Cali in August. Janice was good enough to drive down with me. I packed up my belongings and headed to the Bay. Did you know that the song "We Built This City" is all about San Francisco? Well, it is and for good reason. It's awesome down here. I can hop on the train and head into the city or jump in my car and drive to Napa anytime I want to.

I love the people in my ward, I have a great job and awesome coworkers, and my roommates are the best. So, basically, life is grand.

PS Visitors Welcome!

Patience...check

Isn't there a way I can just hurry up and learn patience and get it over with?

Go Team(s)!

Loved me some BYU Football this year!

Supporting Jimmer and the Jazz...was a little emotionally confusing at times.

And for the record, we don't discriminate against boys...they just scattered when the camera came out.

Luck O' The Irish

Last week I went to Ireland for a field study through school. Five of us (Benjamin, Brandon, Chris, Mike and I) went to visit the Kellogg's headquarters in Dublin and then swung by Wales to visit two of their plants. Here were the trip highlights:

1. They lost my luggage on the way over and I had to go to headquarters on Monday in my jeans and no makeup. Not the best first impression I've ever made. BUT everyone there was extremely understanding and even more helpful.

2. I finally got my luggage just minutes before checking in to our flight to England. Whew.

3. The guys thought it would be hilarious to hide my luggage when we landed in England (at 1 a.m.). I was easily convinced and on the verge of tears when they confessed. "Aren't you so glad you have your luggage?" they anxiously asked, hoping I wouldn't kill them. Thrilled.

4. Love me some Irish and British accents.

5. I got to see them make Special K Cereal and snack bars. The plants smelled amazing! For three days I was craving bowls of cereal.

6. We went to an awesome dinner with leaders from both plants and had just the best time. They LOVED having us retell the luggage story.

7. Our driver Morris. He became our unofficial tour guide to and from the plants each day. Which was great because that was all the sight-seeing we got to do in Wales.

8. Mike pulled the red emergency cord in the bathroom thinking that's how they flush the toilet in Wales. Nope, that's how they set off the alarm. Lisa never let him live it down.

9. Wearing hairnets. Pictures to come.

10. Everyone at the plants and at headquarters really went above and beyond for our visit. I may or may not have been a bit emotional when we had to say goodbye to everyone from Karen, Lisa and Chris to Aoife and Sam. Not to mention the other 70 people we met during our focus groups. We really did have the best time.

I Think I Can

I've spent much of the last 1.5 years of my life in the same building, often the same room (Tanner W208 to be exact). So last semester I decided that I needed to expand my world beyond excel sheets, business books and, more importantly, beyond the Tanner Building. And expand I did.

I started by taking ballet. I was quite excited about doing plies, learning how to leap more gracefully and improving my posture. Excited, that is, until I discovered that it required me donning some pink tights and a black leotard. I nearly dropped the class but then decided it was just part of the experience and I was going to embrace it. Well, I may have embraced the experience but the tights and leotard really never took a liking to me. Despite all of that, I loved it. So much, in fact, that I decided to branch out yet again.

Enter swimming class. Growing up I never had swimming lessons. I take that back. Becca (my sister) taught me how to back float and I think my brothers were trying to teach me how to swim when they threw me in the deep end of the pool. Thankfully I learned the back float before the latter took place. I still suspect Becca knew what was coming and taught me the back float so I wouldn't drown. I soon learned how to doggy paddle. This evolved into a rather awkward and inefficient stroke of my very own that has gotten me by all these years. Truth is, I love swimming. I love the smell of chlorine and being in the water. So, I thought it a good time to take a swimming class.

Day 1: Freestyle. You mean you have to put your face in the water and only breathe every few strokes? Gulp.

Day 2: Turning. Do a flip in the water and push off from the wall. Easy, right? I have to confess that something in me really believed that I could do a simple flip and I was going to nail this maneuver. Turns out, I can't. The poor teacher saw me struggling and came to help. I was not only embarrassed that I couldn't do a flip but also that I was keeping him from helping everyone else. I tried to let him off the hook, "I promise I'll practice this later," I said. Didn't work. He insisted I try to go deeper in the water. Then he told me to keep my chin down. Then he told me to try using the line on the bottom of the pool to keep me straight. After inhaling a couple of gallons of water and several rounds of pleading we were still at it. Finally he told me to just do a handstand in the water. I was skeptical but went down. Then my feet flipped STRAIGHT over my head and I popped up facing the right direction. Breakthrough!

Day 3: Butterfly kick. This should be fun. We sat on the side of the pool and practiced the technique. I have to confess, I was really good. Then we got in the water. Miraculously, Melinda can propel herself BACKWARDS while doing a forward butterfly kick. It's pretty amazing. I sucked up my pride (as if I had any left) and asked the teacher what I was doing wrong. After watching me kick several times he said, "your form is really good." So why am I somehow moving backward? It baffled even him. With some work I am happy to report that I can now move forward. I just haven't yet figured out the breathing thing.

Day 4, 5, 6: Breast stroke, dolphin kick, misc drills. I'm improving. Far from great, but improving.

Moral of the story: get out of your comfort zone and don't be afraid of looking like an idiot. It might be fun.