summer 2012

     so it's summer.  has been for 2 weeks.  school is done, stress is gone [mostly], and life is good!
     i was supposed to go to europe with my school for a humanities tour but due to medical reasons i had to withdraw.  it's okay, though, because my body comes first and i'm doing everything in my power to make it all better.  because i didn't go on the trip, i'm home a month earlier than i would have been.  what am i doing with my time?  working, of course!  i am fortunate enough to have my [perfect] job back at buena vista hospice care!  i am working in payroll and doing little bits and pieces of other work here and there.  i can't even begin to tell you how thrilled i am!  
     however, none of my friends are home.  and most of them aren't coming home, either.  my three best friends are staying up at school [1 in idaho, 1 in utah, and 1 in new york] and i'm all by my lonesome with a car, a job, and the beach 15 minutes away.  how will i survive!?
here's how [and why] i'm going to have a great summer:
[1] mom and i have decided to make a bucket list of movies that we're going to watch this summer.  the theme is "sports triumphs" and we're going to pick a few movies from every sport and watch happy movies about the underdogs overcoming hardship and persecution to ultimately win!  i'm super excited.
[2] camp. DUH.
[3] my missionaries start to come home!  first one comes home in 2 1/2 weeks!!! i am STOKED.
[4] i'm making my way through the '100 books you should read before you die' list.
[5] i have started going to fitness classes at j raw fitness.  i took a STEP class last thursday and it was the best decision i've ever made.
[6] mom and i are also going to relive some of our favorite childhood outings, like going to the natural history museum and science center.  i think we also might hit up the santa barbara zoo!
[7] vacations to new york, north carolina, and montana?  yes please!
[8] i'm going to take up sewing.  first accomplishment?  make a huge rag quilt so i can bundle myself up when i go back to the frozen tundra of rexico.
[9] family vacation.  destination TBD.
[10] read the entire book of mormon AND doctrine and covenants [cover to cover].
     sound like a spectacular summer?  i think so too.  ladies and gentlefolk, john wooden had it right when he said, "things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out."  let's incorporate that beautiful motto into our everyday lives and realize that things may not work out the way that we had planned, but they will ultimately work out the way that they should.


happy summer 2012.  


xoxo ollie pop.

happy birthday to my little millie

today is my little sister's birthday.  although, she is hardly "little" anymore.  it's weird to think that mahterian daughter #3 is 17.  in honor of her birthday, i figured it would be perfect to list 17 reasons why i love my julia, aka millie.


[1] she is drop dead GORGEOUS.

[2] she is always super concerned about sanitation and cleanliness.

[3] she is incredibly stylish.  

[4] she is a soccer goddess. [she's the one with the bun on the far left]

[5] she's like eliza thornberry and can talk to animals.

[6] she wears my mom's old songleader uniform to school on game days.

[7] she can do whatever she sets her mind to.

[8] she always has the best halloween costumes.

[9] she has beautiful teeth.

[10] she's the only girl i know who still wears those old school roller skates.

[11] she can impersonate kristen wiig almost better than kristen wiig herself.

[12] she isn't afraid to let her true self show.

[13] did i mention her impeccable style?

[14] she is one of those people who can pull off the socks with sandals look

[15] she's a gleek and proud of it

[16] she can eat food more sexual than anyone i know.

[17] she has big hopes and dreams for her future career.

happy 17th, sister. i love you to the moon and back.

xoxo ollie

cheerleaders

i am a grateful girl, let me tell you.  having grown up in a ward since i was 8, i have had so many people influencing me over the years.  i can't even count the numbers of second moms i have.  these people make up the ali that is here today. they have been my cheerleaders through the thick and the thin, and i am so thankful for them.

folks of ag2, past and present, you know who you are.  thank you for always being there for me.  thank you for realizing the potential that was always there, that i just found.  thank you for constantly greeting me with hugs as i come home for the holidays.  thank you for complimenting me on my successes.  thank you for being my second family.  thank you for constantly having my back.  thank you for always seeing the good in me.  i am eternally blessed to have such awesome cheerleaders.  

xoxo thankful ollie

apparently...

here's a conversation between my friend lindee and i:

L: ali, you don't blog enough

A: what?

L: i can't remember the last time you posted.  i mean, minus the one about camp you wrote a few days ago.

A: what's wrong with camp?

and that, ladies and gentleman, is the voice of my people- my followers- who want me to blog more.  so i have decided to give you random blurbits [blurbs + tidbits] of the exciting life of ali.  

ali [proper noun]: a 20 year old girl who is studying accounting at byu-i.  she has tourette's, thus making her awesome and a little bit loud at times [my friends and roommates would argue that i am super loud all the time].  here are 20 interesting facts about her: *told in first person by ali, the lady of the hour*

[1] like stated above, i am an accounting major.  before you scold me and ask if i am psycho, let me just say that I LOVE NUMBERS.  i love meticulous number work.  the conceptual aspect of accounting isn't my favorite, but give me a balance sheet and ask me to make a few journal entries, and i'll make sure your debits and credits are equal.

[2] i have come to the decision that if i could miraculously eat wheat and dairy for one meal, i would eat a chicken quesadilla from baja fresh.  or a cheeseburger on garlic bread from BJs.  or a frozen custard sundae from BRCs. can you tell i miss not having any food allergies?

[3] i'm already having a difficult time spewing random facts, and i'm only on number 3.  here we go.

[4] i am currently in like with simon and garfunkel and fleetwood mac.

[5] i have a difficult time being crafty because my OCD takes over and i end up destroying my artistic masterpiece if it has anything i deem "imperfect" about it.

[6] i haven't willingly watched a scary movie since 2006.  they give me nightmares.

[7] i only write with sharpie pens.

[8] i was training for a half marathon but shin splints cut that journey short.

[9] i played clarinet for 3 years in the middle school band.

[10] i really like writing poetry.  as weird as that sounds, i love it.  and not deep, emotional poetry, but funny quirky poems.

[11] my tics [involuntary movements caused by tourette's] are escalated by emotion.  when i'm uber stressed, they're uber bad.  when i'm relaxed, they're relaxed.

[12] i think i'm the funniest person i know.

[13] even though i live 15 minutes away from the beach i think i can count on one hand the times i went last summer.  that will be changing when i arrive home in may.

[14] i frequently get complimented on my handwriting.

[15] speaking of which, i absolutely love writing letters.  i wish people wrote letters more often.

[16] i could use a back massage right about now.

[17] my best friends and i have known each other since we were 18 months old.

[18] i would definitely want to be best friends with myself.

[19] if i could, i would live in running shorts.  or leggings.  i'm that girl who always wears leggings as pants.  sorry not sorry.

[20] i think at one point last year i had 14 different pairs of vans.

oh, here's a random story that you may or may not find entertaining...

i've had "yellow submarine" stuck in my head for the past few days.  but not the "we all live in a yellow submarine" part that everyone and their mother knows like the back of their hand.  no, i had the beginning stuck in my head - "in the land where i was born..."  ask my roommates.  i've been prancing around the apartment singing it at random times.  do they love it?  you bet your bottom dollar they do.

xoxo random ollie

camp.

it's almost the most wonderful time of the year!

i'm so happy i could almost pee myself.


just kidding.


but seriously.  camp is the best time of the year.  and it's only four months and 10 days away!!  and what's even better about camp this year is that my friend drew is coming!  drew and i have been friends since sixth grade.  we both played tennis at westlake tennis and swim club.  it was around that time that i was getting diagnosed with TS and when i learned that he had it as well, we both became more comfortable around each other.  having a fellow friend who has TS is great because he understands what things i'm going through.  tics are only the tip of the iceburg -- the mental and emotional side of TS is something that isn't talked about very often, but it is about 90% of the disorder.  


this will be my third summer as a volunteer, and i FINALLY convinced drew that he should apply as well.  i'm super happy to be able to share this experience with a friend who i grew up with, and i hope he gets as much out of it as i do.

these are my campers.  i love them with all my heart.  being a kid is hard enough, but add TS on top of it and it's a very difficult road.  i'm so proud of the them and can't wait to see them. 


xoxo twitchy ollie

ponytails are a girls best friend.

my roommate, logan, recently got me hooked on ponytails.

now instead of having to wash my hair every day, i can straighten it and throw it up in a high pony!

and this outfit [the one with the sweater] was a huge hit.  last saturday we went to IF to go see a movie, and i threw on this outfit.  it looked stellar, so i wore it again on monday.  i received many a compliments.  proof that outfit repeating within 72 hours does have its perks.


xoxo high-pony lovin' ollie

they say.

people say that loosing weight is the hardest part of any journey.  folks, they're wrong -- keeping the weight off is the hardest.


i've been struggling a little bit.  it's been over a year since i hit the 50 pound weight loss mark and i'm not losing anymore.  but then i look at myself and think "while i may not be losing more weight, my body is changing immensely."  while this is all fabulous, i still wish the weight would just drop off like it did at the beginning.  and since the marathon training had to stop [shin splits :/] i haven't been working out as much as i should be.  honestly, i'm just so swamped with accounting homework and trying to pull my grades up to A's before the semester ends.  i keep telling myself, "this is only temporary", but then i don't go to the gym for a few days at a time.  who am i kidding, it's more like once a week-- if i'm lucky.  and the urge to eat is just coming upon me like no one else's business. my gahl, i just want to eat everything.  my rationale is that since i've already lost the weight that i can eat whatever i want.  but here's the thing.. i'm not at my goal weight yet!  hell, i'm about 30 pounds from my goal weight.  i know that i need to be going to the gym and eating better, but i just haven't been.  and it scares me to death that i could be gaining weight and that i could put back on my 50+ pounds.  BUT I WON'T.  i cannot and i will not.  i'm just going through an extremely stressful time that i want to eat my way through.


it WILL not happen.  i WILL survive.  only one more month of school and then i can finally get my life back.


xoxo discouraged ollie.