Story #306: Music

Kate Vogele is someone I'll be listening to for a long time. Her music rocks! I love love love her style, lyrics, and of course, music. I discovered her unintentionally after listening to S.H.E's 爱就爱了(S.H.E is a popular girl group in Taiwan by the way). I realized S.H.E were doing the cover for Kate's song, "Angel" so I had a listen to it and it blew my mind. I love both versions but Kate's voice stayed in my mind for weeks.

This week I rented the series that I used to watch when I was at BYU-Hawaii. It was called "One Tree Hill." I watched 3 seasons of it and stopped watching it for years until recently when I had an itch to watch some American TV series again. I of course started from "Gossip Girl" and then went back to "One Tree Hill." I found out that they are still filming the series and it's in it's 8th season now! So I rented season 5 from Netflix and started my road down One Tree Hill again. In this season, Kate Vogele was in a few of the beginning episodes and she of course played as a young and talented song-writer, singer girl. She sang more great songs that I love and I decided to tell about her to everyone I know. Great things are supposed to be shared, right?

Story #305: Road trip (Wyoming, Montana, Alberta, British Columbia)

This road trip took us to several of the most beautiful national parks in North America.

We went first to Grand Teton, then Yellowstone, then Glacier National Park, then up to Calgary for a night, then off to Banff National Park in Alberta and Yoho National Park in British Columbia, Canada.

All I have to say about this trip is it was eye-opening... and lots of driving!

I enjoyed every bit of the trip. From the driving to the sight-seeing and to the camping.

Everything is fun with Mr.L around. for real.

We camped out only at Grand Teton and Yellowstone. The rest of the nights were spent in hotels, and in the car for one particular night when we drove the whole 18 hour home. Mr. L and I took turn driving. I've never driven for so far and so long. It was kinda fun to drive long distance on wide empty roads, but kinda stressful to drive on windy narrow roads. One thing that made the driving durable was the conversations we had. I think the best thing about road trip isn't the destination, but the journey there.

We packed a ton of instant foods for the trip.

We got lots of mashed potato pearls, the kind that they sell at the bishop's warehouse, that you can just add hot water to it and it tastes soooo good. It is my favorite kind of mashed potato. It's light and delicious.

I also insisted on bringing healthy foods, such as salad and fruits for the road. I pre-cut the iceberg lettuce and put it in the zip-lock bag, then I cooked some hard-boiled eggs in the morning of our trip and put them in a container in our big cooler, and I also made sure we brought bacon bits. Bacon bits are like the essential addition to most of our meals -- salad and mashed potatoes. Of course, we brought crackers and bread for our chicken soup. So basically we have healthy and good meal every single day while we were on the road! I didn't even have problems with constipation like I did on so many other trips. pardon my brutal honesty and the mention of something gross.

My favorite part of the trip was Yellowstone and a botanical garden in Banff, Canada. I really loved the two lakes that we saw in Canada too. So gorgeous and serene. I also la-la-la-love the waterfalls in Glacier National Park.

Albeit tiring, this trip has helped me fall in love with nature all over again.

I also discovered that camping isn't all that inconvenient and annoying anymore because we were actually able to get electricity for our hot pot, bathroom to use at anytime, and air mattress was just as good as real bed.

I forgot to take pictures of our tent I was too busy cooking when Mr.L set up the tent.

But out tent was so great! It was spacious it can fit up to 5 people! and we brought our pillows and covers as well as sleeping bags.

Seriously, our car was packed! from food to accommodation to toiletries to clothing.

I guess for me camping isn't just about bring the bare necessity, it's about trying to be as comfortable as I can so I don't hate it. I did it. I enjoy camping now, as long as I get to not sleep on the ground and have access to bathrooms whenever I want.

After so much talking about the trip, here's some pictures for you to see. I will be posting all of the pictures on Facebook just cause it is a pain to post pictures here. So come to my facebook to see more of the pictures!

The Grand Teton, Wyoming

One of the many glaciers at the Glacier National Park,Montana

Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone, Wyoming

Lake Louise in Banff National Park, Alberta

Emerald Lake in Yoho National Park, British Columbia.

Story #304:I am back!

Hi peeps! How's your week?

Mine was so much fun, so much driving, so much instant food,

so much nature, and so much sight-seeing.

I've taken about 1000 pics in about a week.

I would've taken more if I weren't in the car so much.

Oh ya, our road trip took us to Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Glacier National Park, Calgary, Banff, and Yoho National Park in Canada.

We drove an average of 6 hours a day.

By the time we saw everything we wanted to see, we couldn't wait to come home.

I just got done sorting through all the pictures but I haven't uploaded them yet.

So you'll have to wait til next blog post to hear all about our road trip.

At the mean time, I am obsessed with this treasure I found.

I think I found it in a wedding site called Project Wedding or something like that.

It is soooooooo cute and I really really want one.

My problem is I am not a fan of sugar cookie at all. not one bit.

I guess that shouldn't stop me since I can make other kinds of cookies and use them.

All right, I am getting it.

check it out here!

Story #303: Southern Utah weekend

Last weekend, I skipped class (the class talks about nothing important anyways),

and drove the 3 hour back to our beloved Toquerville and St.George.

St.George was okay, Toquerville was fantabulous!

I got to see my buddies, Max and Nikki.

Max still smells as bad and Nikki seemed to be so quiet.

I'm sure Max still remembers me even after the 2 month absence.

I fed him the dog treats I bought when I still lived there (I wonder if anyone ever feeds them the treats, there were still a whole bag there), and he showed me some tricks I taught him (sitting and jumping).

Oh...it was so good to see them.

Of course, there's my sweet mother-in-law, my two bro-in-laws, and our old bedroom.

Having our own space is great, but I sure miss the company of my mother-in-law

and the opportunity to make fun of Kendall.

It was so nice to see our neighbors at church too,

and my sunbeams!!!

They still remember me!

They were one of the reasons I am so sad to leave Toquerville.

I don't have small buddies like that here anymore.

It feels like I am deprived of human presence in my life here.

well, except Mr.L who, to me, is like a zombie, anyways.

We had to go to St.George, just cause Mr.L's only friend lived there.

Actually, he has more friends than just Paul,

but it seems like he only hangs out with Paul.

We also did two fun photo shoots when we were there.

One in Toquerville at our friend's house (with pond, hammock, dock, and swings!),

and one at a park in St.George.

I seriously love styled photo shoot.

I love the effort and all the props that make a photo shoot stand out and fun.

It's funny how I LOVE doing all these even though I am not paid to do them.

What is wrong with me?!

I hope to do more styled photo shoot like these ones in the future

(when I have more $$ to buy props, and when I have more time to handmade some props).

On the day we came home, it was Mr.L's grandma's birthday celebration.

We celebrated it at my mother-in-law's house.

So all the little cousins and aunts and uncles came too.

It was so good to see everybody again. and the food was GREAT!

I miss not having to cook on Sundays. my sweet mother-in-law was the one who cooked for the whole family on Sundays.

Question.

So now that almost everyone on my FB has a photo album, entitled "Summer 2010" or something like that.

Should I follow the trend and post my pictures on FB too?

The reason I feel tempted to do that is I want to share some pictures with my friends who don't come to my blog.

But at the same time I felt that if I do share, I lost some kind of privacy,

especially now that I am getting more friend requests

and add people whom I have never seen in my life.

It's to get my business name out there.

So...what's a girl to do??? Advice, anyone?

Sand Hallow reservoir. There's nowhere in the world that has such dense blue sky. Only in Southern Utah. The blue looks so pretty against the red rocks.

It rained pretty dang hard when we were there.

The lightning struck pretty close to our home, in our neighbor's yard.

A ditch was formed.

The tree that was struck by the tree that morning. Our whole house shook.

The pipe that goes a long the hill in Toquerville. It's one of my favorite spot.

It's right by the main road and it is ALWAYS cold no matter how hot the day was

and no matter how long it was exposed to the scorching sun.

The photoshoot in Toquerville.

I cannot stress enough how pretty Toquerville is.

So many nice spots for pictures.

St.George Photo shoot @

Vernon Worthlin (sp?) Park.

An ice-cream truck drove by so we decided to take some pics using it as our backdrop.

Story #302:Ahh...the field of purple that makes my heart sing

On the same day that we went tubing in Provo Canyon, Mr.L and I went

to the Lavender farm in Mona.

Because I have so many friends in Europe (most of them are my high school friends who went there for college) and I go to some Chinese forums where hundreds of Chinese students in Europe post their pictures every single day, I came to know and fall in love with lavender farms.

every summer, everyone and their dog posts pictures about their trip to Lavender Farm in UK/France. Imagine all the purples and all the fragrant in the air!

Fortunately since there's a Young Living lavender farm here in Northern Utah,

we don't have to fly to France to see the lavender farms there.

Few weeks ago when we called to make a reservation for a tour, we were told that we need to make a reservation at least a couple of days before we go to the farm.

So this time, we tried to call to make an appointment earlier.

Mr. L called and we were told that the lavender had been harvested. can you imagine my disappointment?

There were still some more lavender left, only they were not going to be purple purple.

I decided to take the chance to just drive down to the farm without making any reservation and hope that I'll be able to see some lavenders.

And I did.

So I am quite happy.

Now I am ready to die. kidding!!

a little girl who happened to be at the farm visitor center for a wedding reception

I love dragonfly!! I don't see them very often here.

Story #301: Ingrid and Katie. And Grooveshark

Do you guys know who Ingrid Michaelson is?

I came upon her music by chance and have fell in love with every single song she sung.

Actually, I've only heard 3 albums of hers but they are all so good.

Her voice is calming for me and most of her music is soothing and light and make me happy.

It is so hard to find songs like that anymore.

I mean, Taylor Swift and Colbie Caillat made good music too, but their songs are too popular and are played on every channel almost everyday.

I think Ingrid's songs are fresh and are just what I need at the moment when I have more than 10 tabs open on my browser trying to get inspiration on my up coming styled photoshoots.

What about Katie Melua? Do you like her music?

I came upon her music by chance as well.

I love reading other people's blogs because I get new info all the time and sometimes I stumble upon the things I love so much that I would not have otherwise known if I hadn't read their blog.

It is good to not know what you're missing because you're content with just what you know most of the time.

But finding things that you love is so much more liberating than being satisfied with just what you know. That's why I love exploring.

sorry I side-tracked a little.

Anyways, Katie Melua has a really good voice.

The kind that I like.

The kind that I don't mind to listen to all day long.

Her song "Just Like Heaven," is my favorite.

Go have a listen on Grooveshark.

Speaking of Grooveshark, it's now my favorite internet radio.

I used to like Pandora. I still do, on my iphone.

The Pandora radio on the internet is pretty annoying sometimes.

I hate it when ads are involved.

Even though it is a good feature that it finds similar artist and genre of songs for you, sometimes I just want to listen to one artist's songs!

So I am so glad I found Grooveshark...through my usual blog reading :)

Do you have any music or artist that you might want to recommend me listen to??

Please suggest.

Story #300: Photoshoot

Remember the Mommy Model competition I was in last year?
Thanks to all of your votes I was one of the runner-ups and so I got a free photo shoot this year.

So in the end of June I got the photoshoot done.

I always thought that I love modeling, I mean I love to take self-portrait when I first got my point-and-shoot camera, and loved it when people asked me to model for them.
But modeling is actually pretty hard and sometimes tedious.

My smiles looked forced after 3 seconds.

Even though I often direct people on their posing while I am shooting, I actually am not very good at posing.

My body can only do like 2 different poses and that's it.

Modeling is definitely not as glamorous as it looks. I mean, who truly enjoys wearing heels that they can barely walk in and climb in a train or jump in the air?

Maybe Lady Gaga does, but for normal people like me, it isn't a treat.

Because I am so fickle and indecisive and contradict myself most of the time,

I'll have to say that I do like it when I get to do something like that once in a while.

C'mon! I get to have free pictures that are professionally done and an excuse to dress up!

I just don't like it as much as some people who do it professionally.

At this particular shoot, I was injured. Well, bleeding counts as injury, no?

Anywho...I scratch my hand on a super old + rusty train coach.

My skin split open and out came the blood. Quite a lot of blood. It even stained my jeans a little.

Since I am such a professional model(you know I'm jk, right?) I made no sign of pain. I didn't even wince!

I even joke that I have super high pain treshold that I prefer needles to medicine. While Mr.L went and buy a first-aid kit (he's sweet like that), we did half of this shoot.

I am automatically entered into the competition because I'm a runner-up and all.

So please come and vote for me like you did last year. I am not sure when exactly is the voting date (she changes it everytime), but I will definitely keep you posted.

I hope i win this year because look at my shoes.

It's a WINNER!

Oh, the contest is based on the shoes, not looks of the model.

So I think I should be able to win because my shoes are so hot!

If I don't, it's okay. But it would be nice if I do (you know what I'm sayin'???)

That's my photographer friend, Emily. She's very talented and gave me a ton of tips. She inspires me. I love her!!

It's not easy to climb up to the coach. I had to stand on Mr.L's thigh and had him pushed me up. A lot of sweat went into that. haha..