"if there is no struggle, there is no progress." -frederick douglas

-disclaimer- this blog has been revamped!!! yay! i'm pretty excited. i have a new name, new design, new new new!! change is good. plus, i'm trying to enter the blog world more, since so much emphasis has been put on it in all my journalism classes. so we'll see how it goes. you'll be seeing a whole lot more posts from me...probably not every day but at least a couple times a week.

annnnd...i love love love looking at fashion blogs so i'm going to try to do some of that myself too. i mean, most days i just throw on jeans and a hoodie (along with some kind of parka...haha...kidding...) before class, but i do have those days where i try to look particularly cute. and looking cute makes you feel good. so i'm gonna do it more often.

heres what i looked like today:

shirt: mila couture, undershirt: downeast, pants: ross, belt: thrifted, shoes: ross

okay so heres the deal. i love shopping at ross dress for less. its my favorite place. just because the clothes can be so cheap. so the majority of my stuff is from there. but. rexburg doesn't have one. the nearest is IF. sooo i enjoy finding little boutiques around rexburg that aren't too bad, actually. the most recent one is mila couture...where i got the green lace shirt. guess how much i got it for. did you guess $1.05? i bet you didn't. well thats how much it cost me. yeah, amazing, i know. its because mila is not only a boutique with new stuff, but they have a downstairs which they call a "fashion exchange". you can bring in your old clothes or simply just clothes you don't want anymore and they will buy them from you for cash or store credit. and that, my friends, is the story of how i ended up spending a buck oh five on a brand new shirt.

anyyyywhoo...the semester has been pretty....cruddy so far. but i'll spare you the nasty details and just say that my life is now in turn going in a hopefully, fantastic direction. 

mucho love!  

christmas happiness

These are all the things that made my Christmas happy. well, there were many more, but i had the best Christmas EVER. emphasis on the EVER. i'm so thankful for all i have. such a great Christmas gave me a boost to tackle on this crazy new semester. lets hope it was enough :)

i don't want a lot for christmas, there is just one thing i need

well hey there. we all now know that sonja is officially the worst blogger in the history of blogging, but she doesn't really care, she's gonna blog anyways. and will eventually get better at it and will have thousands of readers someday. promise. and yes, talking in third person is the new cool thing to do. :)

anyways! since i suck at blogging and haven't really blogged all semester, i figure theres no point really in talking about whats happened and all, just that its been really really long and difficult. but, i'm deciding to look past that and get excited for the new semester just around the corner! i just have to survive through a couple more weeks of class and finals, then i'll be freeeeee for christmas break! which brings me to the whole meaning of this post....my christmas list!!! 

now, i'm serious, there really is only one thing i really need for christmas. all the other things i just want, and could live without. probably. haha. i've had to go through three semesters of college with a computer that barely even works sometimes. and i'm afraid the old thing is at the end of its rope. most of the times i just wanna throw it off my apartment's front porch and let it crash on the parking lot below. so to save my laptop of this cruelty and to save ME from pulling each and every hair out of my head due to frustration, i would like a macbook pro for christmas. since i'm a photographer, this computer is the best. my life would become so much easier and i would be able to get things done in half the time it normally takes me to on my craptop (for reals, it took me eons to just finish this one silly little post). now, mom and dad, you don't want your beautiful daughter to become bald do you? i didn't think so. (i've told my mom that i would be 100% okay with getting that and only that for christmas) but just in case someone wants to get me a little something else, {wink} heres the list:      

1- Macbook Proooo!!!!

2- Mossimo Supply Co. Kaden Tall Buckle Boots (Tan), Target, $34.99, (size 8) here 

3- Just one...or two...or all three skirts haha, from left: Bed of Roses Skirt, $38.99, Tiny Tiers Skirt, $34.99, and Tea Time Skirt, $32.99 all from Downeast Basics (medium) here 

so yup. there ya have it folks. also, a couple other things i would like, and that are definitely a bit more practical, if you will, are a memory foam mattress (or just any foam mattress really) for atop the cruddy mattress of my bed in my apartment in the burg, and a pot, because i have almost everything else but that and i always have to use one of my roommate's (not that thats always a problem, but sometimes one isn't clean or is in use or whatever). and hey, anyone is always welcome to help buy my textbooks for winter haha. 

i go back to rexburg tomorrow morning! i've had such a wonderful and relaxing week at home (besides the fact that i figured out i'm allergic to our dog, even though i've been around him for a decade) but i unfortunately have to return. i got to actually sleep, give my little sister bunches of kisses, get surprised by my roommate who i haven't seen in what seems like forever (only about two months) and another good friend, eat tons of yummy thanksgiving foods, see my little brother get baptized, and watch the traditional anne of green gables marathon with my sister. and that was just the overview of my break....post with pictures to follow shortly! 

what do you want for christmas/how was your break and thanksgiving? 

mumbo jumbo

Well this is probably just gonna be a bunch of mumbo-jumbo since there are quite a few things on my mind lately it seems.
1. The fact that Rexburg is getting colder. What the heck? Fall is meant to last longer than a month for goodness sakes! Yeah I’m from a place where it rains like 9 months out of the whole year (nonstop) but fall still is extremely pretty in Hillsboro, Oregon. With all the gorgeous colors on the trees: bright red, rich brown, firery orange, and sunny yellow. The air is especially crisp because of the rain that falls often. But when it isn’t raining, the sky is bright blue and the sun is shinning. But here in grand ol’ Rexburg, this happy time only lasts for barely any time at all and then the snow is falling and the air is so freezing that without proper protection, you very well could die while walking to class. Yaaay. I’m so excited!
2. Boys are stupid.
3. Seeing good friends of mine go through hard things makes me really sad, because I feel their pain. I am an extremely empathetic person and therefore, what they feel, I feel. Well, at least some of it. I don’t think I could possibly ever understand exactly what they are going through, but I know that I can at least relate. And most of the time I feel the need to help them, but a lot of the times don’t know how and just have to hope that me being there for them will make a difference in their trial.
4. I really need to stop eating candy. My plan to be healthier is not really working out right now…haha…
5. I must already be having a bad week because all I want to do is sleep. And that isn’t always good (and I know it) because it means I’m in a bad mood or sick or cold or just plain too tired of being around people. Sleep is like my drug/addiction. I tend to overdose on it sometimes without even really realizing it.
6. Turning 19 is very un-monumental or exciting or life changing. I feel no different at all. Now if I were a guy, I’d most likely feel different because then I could go on a mission but nope I gotta wait two more years. But at least I can submit my papers in a year and a half, and I suppose that really isn’t any time at all.
7. Which brings me to the thought I’ve been having lately that time seems to be going by very very slowly yet awfully fast. And I don’t know which one I’d rather it be.

Sorry to be all lame and depressed and no fun and not positive like i usually try to be. its just a weird week. But of course it can always get better, not worse. :)

keep on keeping on

so, right now all i care about is keeping on! things have still been rough: in the last two weeks i've been to the doctor like 5 times and got my blood drawn twice!!!!!! but i just found out today that my results came back normal so thats a relief. today i took a 4 hour nap or something and woke up way surprised that i slept that long.

and right now i'm watching history as the chilean miners who have been underground for 3 months get rescued. its amazing that they've lived that long, with eating a tiny piece of bread and a sip of milk every day. so far 3 have been rescued. it simply is a miracle! and their strength gives me strength! if they can survive for three months underground, i can survive another week of college, with food to eat (even if its the classic ramen) computers to use, bed to sleep in, and friends to help me. :)

also, watching this rescue and the reporters covering it reminds me why my career that i'm working towards is so important to me. i want so badly to be there, letting the world know what is happening by the minute and using the story and experience to inspire people.

anyways, i had the blessing of going to utah not this weekend but the one before for conference! i wasn't actually able to go inside the conference center when i was in salt lake sunday because i didn't have a ticket but that was okay with me because i got to watch the sunday afternoon session with cal who i haven't seen in months in the joseph smith memorial building :)
but most of all i was happy to see mis padres and my mormor! they picked me up from my twin's melanie's apartment in provo saturday and we spent the day in provo together and had lunch with my cousins christer and karl and karl's cute wife socorro! i also got to see haleeeey badaley!!! i've missed her. we walked around university mall together saturday night with every other lds woman and their dog since priesthood session was going on.

conference was great and i learned so much. i also appreciate President Packer and his talk. he is completely right. our Heavenly Father would never make someone be born with something that goes against his laws, especially since He loves us. the Church also released a response to the HRC petition.

"The Church’s doctrine is based on love. We believe that our purpose in life is to learn, grow and develop, and that God’s unreserved love enables each of us to reach our potential. None of us is limited by our feelings or inclinations. Ultimately, we are free to act for ourselves."

i really like this quote.

here are some pictaaaas from conference!

mels and i! i heart my sister.

my mama!!! at the reflection pool temple square

cal and i :)

my minolta! i got some great shots of the temple and developed one for my photo class and i'm pretty proud of it. i'll eventually scan it and upload it here.

anyways i'm gonna go make some toast or something so peace out! and keep on keeping on! :)