NEW LOOK?

Hi friends. If you've read my blog before, then you will notice that my blog (yet again) has a brand new look! If this is your first time coming on to my blog, don't worry. The previous designs weren't that fantastic. I really like this now though, so let's see how long it lasts. 

The month of April has definitely been good to me. I got to see my older sisters, I finished my longboard and have even practiced longboarding outside (I'm actually pretty good), and I FINALLY finished going through all my clothing/cleaned my ENTIRE room! It took me about a month, but I finally made it happen. Clean rooms rock. 

So, I've been reading a book recently and I want to share what I think about it with you. It's called I Am That Girl, written by Alexis Jones. I'm only on page 73, but it's already changed my life (in a cheesy "discover who you really are" kind of way). The whole message of the book is basically, 'find what you're passionate about, and then DO IT.' In the book, there's a quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald (excellent author, horrendously troubled man) that says, 

"For what it's worth: it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There's no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again."

I love this so much. How many times do we find ourselves getting caught in an everyday routine? Wake up, do the things we're expected to do, go to bed, repeat. Don't get me wrong, it's totally okay to have a routine, and we should definitely be doing the things that we're supposed to do everyday. I'm not suggesting that to make the best of your life you must avoid all things regular, ordinary, and day-to-day. I just think that our lives can be a little more than that. I believe that every day we should try to do something extra. Whether that thing is for ourselves, our family, our friends, or even a stranger. I think that by going out of our way to do something different each day, we can improve not only ourselves, but those around us. Making something of your life isn't a big extraordinary life changing event. Instead, it's made up of the little things you do each day to better yourself and strengthen the relationships with the people you love. 

Okay sorry, rant over. If you're interested in getting that book, you can buy it here. 

OKAY, last thing. Easter is this Sunday and I am so super duper excited for like 7 different reasons.

1. Easter food duh

2. Easter baskets

3. Half price chocolates the day after Easter.

4. uhm

5. I guess I didn't have as many reasons as I thought

6. THIS NEXT ONE'S REALLY IMPORTANT THOUGH

7. HE IS RISEN. I love Easter so much because it is the day that Jesus Christ was resurrected! I encourage all of you to go to THIS website and watch the video. It's absolutely beautiful. I know that because of Him, "Guilt becomes peace, regret becomes relief, despair becomes hope, and because of him there is no such thing as an end." 

I hope you all have an excellent Easter weekend! Thank you for putting up with my crazy rants. And don't forget to be grateful for everything, because life is pretty awesome.

Oh, I almost forgot. Here are some things to listen to:

Lanterns // Birds of Tokyo

Sing // Ed Sheeran

(This is Ed's new song, and it is SO good.)

Okay that's all.

XOXO, 

gabs.

DIVERGENT AND ALSO PANCAKES AND HEALTHY LATE NIGHT SNACKS

This is being written at late-at-night o'clock on Sunday. I'm just about to go to sleep, so obviously I should write about my life when I'm in an almost-asleep-but-not-quite state. Well, here goes nothing.

First item of business, I went to see Divergent on Friday with my little sister Christy.

THAT.

MOVIE.

All I can say is: IT WAS PHENOMENAL.

Theo James was in it, so basically even if all other aspects of the movie were terrible (they weren't, don't worry), I still would have loved it because he is THE PERFECT HUMAN BEING. Here are a few pictures of the beautiful man, just for fun and because I can.

LOOK HOW PERFECT.

Okay I'm sorry I'm done Theo James obsessing (for now). 

Other reasons Divergent was amazing:
1. Shailene Woodley ROCKS and totally owned her role.
2. THE MUSIC WAS AMAZING. Ellie Goulding was really involved in all of the music, and I love her so I was really interested to see what the music score would be like. I won't lie, I was a little wary before I saw it because having a popular musician involved with a music score can turn out pretty lame, but Ellie rocked it. There's one scene where her song Hanging On is playing (video of the song at the end of this post) and it probably changed my life, it was absolutely perfect and fit into the scene so well and asdfhajkgl I'm still stunned by it.
3. It was just perfect and everyone should go see it.
4. Theo James.


SECOND AND PROBABLY LAST ITEM OF BUSINESS.

Yesterday a funny little thing happened. I really wanted to make pancakes last night, so I texted my parents about it. Here's how the conversation went:

Me: Can I make Pancakes
Dad: I don't know.... But you may make pancakes if you can!
Me: When I was using can, I was using it's secondary modal form as a verbal modifier asking for permission, as opposed to expressing an ability.
Mom: I've never loved you more, Gab.
Me: Does this mean I can make pancakes?
Mom: Yep

I ended up not making pancakes, and instead had a healthy late night snack of milk, fruit, and watermelon!

SOOOOO fit and healthy.

Well, I'm getting pretty tired now, my friends. Goodnight, and have an excellent week!

XOXO,

gabs.

P.S. Here's the song I mentioned.

Hanging On // Ellie Goulding

Hi friends.

So, it's been a while since I've posted on here. 18 days, to be exact. It's not you, it's me. (Don't worry, I'm not breaking up with you.) The simple truth is that I thought nothing exciting/blogworthy was happening to me. But let's just think about that for a second. This is a blog about my life. Quite literally anything that goes on in my life is worthy of being on my blog. So, thus begins the first of (hopefully) many "Normal Day In The Life of Gabs" post.

First, let's talk college plans.

Last time we spoke, I had officially been accepted into the college of my dreams. I also mentioned that I found a roommate, and I am happy to report that said roommate and I are all signed up to live in the dorms together in the summer/fall/winter! Since we are doing summer term, our assigned housing registration date was the very first day that registration opened, which was definitely a relief. No 3rd floor room for us! I also mentioned registering for classes for the summer, and let's just say I'm really excited about my schedule. It's pretty easy, but not so easy that I'll be bored. AS IF I COULD EVEN BE BORED AT COLLEGE. Good one, gabs. Another summer term perk: since I'll be going into fall semester as a 2nd semester freshman, my date to register for fall classes is a good two months before all the other freshman that are starting in the fall. THIS IS FANTASTIC because it means I most likely will not have to take an 8am class, which I already know would be the death of me. One more exciting, college-related thing: My roommate & I officially have tickets to see Carrie Underwood at the Stadium of Fire on the 4th of July! She performed at the Stadium of Fire back in 2010 and they got her to come again this year and I am SO EXCITED. This concert will be a super fun way to start out this summer's crazy adventures. 

Moving on, let's chit chat about my clothing situation. 

Since we last talked, I have done 9 loads of laundry, and I'm estimating about 3 more until I'm entirely done going through everything that I own. I've gotten rid of about 2/3rds of my stuff, so that's good and also extremely depressing. I also realized that a majority of my clothing is either black, gray, burgundy, navy, or white. I don't really know what that says about my personality, and I don't really know if I want to find out....oh well. 

Another thing, I redesigned my blog.

Probably not the most exciting thing in the world, but I think it's cute and that's all that matters so HAH. 

Here's this last thing: this is a song that I've LITERALLY been ADDICTED to the past week. It's so catchy. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED: if you listen to this, it WILL be stuck in your head for approximately all day/week. 

Goodness Gracious // Ellie Goulding

Have an excellent weekend, my friends!

XOXO, 

gabs.

happy monday, this is March.

Today is Monday. As someone on twitter put it, 

#tru

Besides the whole "monday" thing, my life is pretty great. I got into the college of my dreams, I signed up for great classes, found a rad roommate, and now all I have to do is wait! ...and live up senior year because it should be one of the greatest years of my life and I shouldn't just breeze through it, I should appreciate all that I have while I can, yadadada. I've heard that so many times that I could probably recite a 5 minute speech with different reasons why I shouldn't rush through my last few months of being a senior and living at home. But I won't, because that'd be a pretty weird way to spend my time.

ON A DIFFERENT NOTE, it's MARCH! For those living not in Minnesota, march probably means sunshine, warm weather, and SPRING. 

NOT FOR ME THOUGH.

Oh no. Here in Minnesota, the snow is still taller than me. It really truly is bigger than me. I'm 5'2, and in some places there's around 6 feet of snow. 

THAT 

IS 

RIDICULOUS. 

For me, March brings a few different things. Warm weather not being one of them. 

1. March is the beginning of the 3 month long adventure of spring cleaning.

So, I have a pretty messy room. And when I say messy, I mean MESSY. But the thing is that it's not clutter or garbage or anything other than clothes....SO WHAT IF I HAVE A LOT OF CLOTHES. March is the time that I finally start doing all my laundry that I have neglected to do all winter. But this spring is extra special, because guess what? Dorms are TINY. And I am not about to bring ALL of my clothes out to college with me, or else I would LIT.ER.AL.LY be swimming in clothes. So, this spring I am going through all of my clothes and getting rid of a majority of them. Maybe I'll have a garage sale. Maybe I'll just give my old clothes to friends or goodwill or my little sister. I don't know. All I know is that by the end of April, my wardrobe will probably be cut in half. Which is technically very good, but I just can't stop thinking of how many clothes I will have to give away. A quote from the great book Perks of Being a Wallflower depicts how I am feeling nicely.

"...I am both happy and sad and I'm still trying to figure out how that could be."

2. MARCH BRINGS SPRING BREAK(s)!

Since I take most of my classes at North Hennepin, but still have one at the high school, I get TWO SPRING BREAKS. Or no spring breaks. But I'm trying to be positive, so I GET TWO SPRING BREAKS! 

North Hennepin's spring break is March 8th-16th, during which I still have choir. Maple Grove's spring break is March 29th-April 6th, during which I will still have my college classes. Even if I still have some school responsibilities during each of my spring breaks, it's not as much as I usually have, so I still plan on relaxing and watching a lot of netflix. 

Personally, I think we should have another Christmas this spring break, because spring break feels more like winter break than winter break did.....which obviously means that we should celebrate Christmas again. I don't know. Just a thought.

3. MARCH BRINGS OTHER THINGS! 

Although it's freezing outside, March is the month that most stores begin to put out their spring clothes. SO MANY ADORABLE CLOTHES THAT I REALLY SHOULDN'T BUY. Oh, what's new.

4. Last great thing about March: MY MOM WAS BORN THIS MONTH! I love my mom.

5. ALSO MY BEST FRIEND COREY WAS BORN THIS MONTH TOO! happy birthday bae.

ALSO, HERE'S SOME MUSIC YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO! 

This song is called Sonnentanz - Sun Don't Shine. It's originally by Klangkarussell (what a mouthful) and Will Heard, but my favorite version of this song is this Acoustic version, done by Will Heard & the lovely and ridiculously talented supermodel Cara Delevingne. Turns out the girl can sing too. That's just not fair.

Well, until next time, my dear friends.

XOXO, 

gabs.

MY DREAMS ARE LITERALLY COMING TRUE.

GUYS GUYS GUYS

I got accepted into BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY, aka BYU, aka GABBY'S DREAM SCHOOL.

I am so incredibly excited. Like, soooo excited.

Here's some great things about BYU:

1. For starters, it looks like THIS:

My sister took this picture TODAY. Look how absolutely stunning that is!

2. NOT TO MENTION, I GET TO BE WITH MY SISTERS.

sorry Christy, this was the only pic I had of Cami, Allie, & I. But I LOVE YOU SO MUCH and will miss you soooo incredibly much! #somuchlove

3. BYU IS THE GREATEST PLACE EVER???

I mean. C'mon. It's basically the 2nd happiest place in the world. 

(Behind Disneyland, duh. S/O to my disneyland crew. Love you guys.)

ALL THAT I CAN THINK ABOUT IS HOW IN 112 DAYS I WILL BE AT COLLEGE!

I'm doing summer term, so I'm planning on leaving June 16th. I'm taking Calculus 1 & Book of Mormon, so hopefully I won't be too stressed out. Yay for having brothers-in-law that are good at math and have to tutor you because they're related to you. 

I'M SO EXCITED TO BE A COUGAR!

song of the moment:

Strangers by Seven Lions with Myon & Shane 54.

THIS SONG IS SO MUCH FUN TO DANCE AROUND TO.

It's on the soundtrack for The Mortal Instruments. I have not seen the movie, but the entire soundtrack is really phenomenal. Highly recommended by this girl.

THANKS FOR LISTENING TO MY RANT ABOUT COLLEGE!

XOXO, 

gabs.

literally nature, you're being so rude.

Hey hi what's up my friends, one thing that I extremely dislike is snow. And guess how much snow has fallen in the past 24 hours? I have no idea to be completely honest, but enough to make any 18 year old girl that already hates snow go crazy. The only upside is that all of the things I was supposed to do yesterday/today got cancelled, so my bed, laptop, and I have been having some really good quality time. Example: this selfie is one of probably THOUSANDS. It's fine. 

#ShamelessSelfie

Since there's really nothing exciting to talk about, I'm just gonna talk about all of the things I love at the moment! This is so exciting. Probably only for me, but who knows? Maybe I'll talk about something that you end up loving as well, or something that you already love and then we can bond over it and become best friends. Friends are cool.

1. COLLEGE CLOTHES

Well obviously I love clothes. Lately I've been trying to find clothing that is good for college AKA clothes I can easily throw on, but that are still cool enough that people will think I put in an effort/am not a total slob who is too lazy to put on real clothes. Here are some cool examples that I found online and will hopefully own soon(ish):

Aren't these rad? I especially like the last one. Because it's true. 

(If you also like these clothes, I found them all on wanelo.com. That place is phenomenal.)

2. MUSIC

This is R U Mine? by Arctic Monkeys. I saw them (via livestream) perform this at the Brit Awards, and it was absolutely PHENOMENAL. They are soooo talented, and I'm obsessed with the whole AM album.

3. MORE MUSIC.

I've also really been enjoying Bastille. You probably know their song Pompeii, which is a great tune. Their entire album, Bad Blood, is ridiculously good. They did a cover of We Can't Stop and it's GREAT. 

Enjoy.

4. UHM

I don't really know. Basically all I do is look at clothes and listen to music and read books. I would write about The Fault In Our Stars, BUUUT I wrote about that last time. I guess I don't love as many things as I thought I did. Rats.

5. ONE LAST THING THOUGH THAT I FORGOT ABOUT TILL NOW

This is the absolute cutest thing you will ever see and if you disagree with me then I'm sorry but you're so so so wrong.

SO ADORABLE WOW.

I hope you all have an excellent day/weekend, and I hope I don't die from something like snow blindness or something like that. Only in Minnesota would that be an actual problem.

XOXO, 

gabs.

PS. Sorry this was awful, I just needed something to do other than refresh twitter and online window shop. Thank you, and goodnight.

SO MANY EXCITING THINGS

I PROMISE MY LIFE ISN'T REALLY THIS EXCITING ALL THE TIME. I SWEAR. With that said, another REALLY EXCITING thing happened today. Tonight. Whatever, same difference.

As most of you probably (don't) know, I LOVE John Green. He is an amazing author who has written 4 out of my top 5 favorite books: Paper Towns, An Abundance of Katherines, Looking for Alaska, and The Fault In Our Stars. 

As you all probably (don't) know, The Fault In Our Stars is being made into a MOVIE. Yes, that's right. And John Green himself is helping out with the movie, so you KNOW it's gonna be good. You can watch the trailer here! 

So, moving on with my story: Tonight at approximately 9pm, a very close friend (hey Belle) tweeted something about getting a signed copy of TFiOS at Target. I obviously responded with "what" and she then proceeded to tell me that Target had a few signed copies of TFiOS, that also included a behind-the-scenes movie moments video, and to top it all off, was 20% OFF. I don't remember the last time I ran downstairs so quickly. Probably Christmas or something. Anyways, with the permission of my parents, I drove to Target as quickly as I could (while still obeying all traffic and speed laws) and bought one of the last 3 SIGNED copies of The Fault In Our Stars. 

JOHN GREEN TOUCHED THIS BOOK. 

AND HE SIGNS HIS NAME LIKE THIS

And so, here I am. Just a poor girl with seminary in the morning that will most likely stay up half the night re-reading her favorite book that just so happens to be signed by her favorite author. I'm pretty sure my copy was his favorite copy ever printed.....probably.

OH, another exciting thing that happened today: part 2 of yesterday's post. 

David Jordan, the action movie guy, offered to do an over-the-phone interview! Which is so exciting because I get to REALLY TALK to him. But also terrifying because what if I start to ramble and say something dumb? Your prayers are all very much appreciated. Thank you. 

Also, another lady responded, and turns out she's been the music supervisor for some really cool projects, including Chicago (the movie), the ORIGINAL Fame TV show, The Replacements, and The Pink Panther! So so cool. I am so excited to have the opportunity to talk to such talented people!

Life is awesome. Have a great night/day/life.

XOXO, (I think this is becoming a thing)

gabs.

PS: If you're interested, John Green has a fantastic website. He makes YouTube videos, this week's video being "18 Great Books You Probably Haven't Read." You can watch that video and many more, plus learn more about him here: http://johngreenbooks.com :)

PPS (pss?): Once again, I didn't proofread ANYTHING. #sorrynotsorry #again