these people

so the last time i was home in mesa, i was with my mom, one of my 82 sisters (Abbi) and my aunt Linda. We were chillin over at my grandma's house, playin cards and just laughing at life.
and i thought to myself... i love these ladies. they are they greatest examples i have in this life. they are beautiful and sweet, are wonderful wives and mothers, they serve those around them and yet can act like the biggest goofball 13 year old girls or dirty old sailors (hehehehe) all at once. i hope i can be as cool as them someday.
they are truly my idols

My grandma and my Aunt Linda. been best friends for going on 40 years

Linda and a few of my sisters

But. on top of the wonderful women in my life. i have some pretty swell guys in my life too. one in particular is my grandpa. he is my hero. in everyting i do, he's always been a fan. he wants me and all his family and everyone around him to succeed. he strives everyday to be better.  and without a doubt that guy definitly has a ticket to the celestial kingdom. he's a champion.
back to the story though.. that night while all of us girls were hootin and hollerin he was servin us drinks and bein a gentleman. then, so subtly, without anyone noticing, he came up behind me, slipped a nicely numbered green bill in my lap and whispered "just a little gas money to get you back to school." kissed my head and left us girls to go do some reading. giving. if i could describe my grandpa in a word it would definitly be: giving. he's so selfless. plus he's the coolest. all the little primary girls and boys want to be his best friend. Redge Conrad Stephens. You're the man.

xo. -M

you wonder..

sometimes i wonder.  i like to ask my family all the time if i'll ever get married. they used to tell me yes.. but then i think they got annoyed so they stopped saying yes and started telling me no.  my dad says i'm just gonna live with him forever. my mom does too. i'm okay with that. i'll just make cake and cookies all day. i love baking.. round out all that fat with some chicken for dinner. i also love to cook..

it's weird to me that some people lterally have no idea how to cook. 

back to the getting married thing.  my sister, abbi had this conversation with me the other day.

abbi: you're really old

me: uhhh. last time i checked i was only 19. (in my head: ishh. i am old)

abbi: yea, that's old. you realize you probably are never going to get married

me:dude! i'm 19! i have loads of time! i don't even want to start thinking about guys like that til i'm well over 21.

abbi: yea, but you don't even have a boyfriend. you're never gonna get married

me: well, you're just... (lack of comeback. storms off and whines to mom)

mind you, my sister is 14. i laugh and think it's funny.. but deep. deeeeeeep inside i wonder if she's right..  getting personal here. i'm not the class A, boys at my feet, done-up, makeup and hair perfect... or even done, girl.  and when guys do like me, they typically are the ones who are more femme than i am.  plus, i'm freakishly awkward.  i do really weird things all the time. i get funny looks from people and play it off and pretend that they're actually super impressed with how cool i think i am.

my mom and my grandmas and aunts have these amazing stories of meeting their husbands so young and how it just worked and everything was lalala and peacky keen. I"M NINETEEN! illedgedly that's really old. *sigh* forever alone.

eventful.

so this weekend definitely was not long enough. (weekends never are.) but it was a good one.

 

super blurry. but i saw this guy on the side of the road this week and had to tip my hat to him.  There are a lot of liberals here in Tucson who wouldn't appreciate that sign.

 

 

my roommates awarded me. thanks guys.

i'd like to thank my mom for teaching me how to cook

my dad, for making me cook

and food network for inspiring me to cook good food

 



 

taylor rachele came to visit me! we went to BJ's and the waitress

let us pretend it was her birthday. free pazookie. holla! 

 

 



 

 

made dinner for my roomies. i was told it was freakishly delicious.

but then, why wouldn't it be?

i won the BEST CHEF AWARD.

booyah.

 

meh. another week of school. but thursday i'm going home for veteran's day weekend!

tiana ta'ase's baby shower and esther miller's reception are this weekend.

i heart parties.

 

xo -m

 

happy halloween

well it's halloween and i'm sitting in my apartment. alone. watching abc channel. it's pathetic. My roommates drove to Phoenix to go to some party, but i wasn't feeling it.  so here i am. bored and alone. WITHOUT ANY SORT OF CANDY!

here's what halloween looked like last year!

i miss my sisters.

happy halloween.

xo. -m

lately.

interesting stuff has happened lately.

i got to jump for realz into the sandpit and my body reminded me how sore that makes me. ouch.

i was recently defriended on FB, then readded by a person. (second time this has happened to me) if you're gonna defriend me, then readd me, i might have to hold a temporary grudge against you.  the last guy's request has been sitting in my friend box for going on three years. (serves you right, jerk) oops.

i was serenaded by the love of my life (see below) over Skype.

thanks for that, boo.

i went to a crossfit party and did a group WOD. kids. i'm in good shape. but i've lost a little mojo when it comes to being in crossfit shape. ouch. plus, i got offered my first beer there. hahaha funny dude, i'm good. no really. i don't want any. yea. i'm serious.

i went out to dinner with my roomies and some girls that also live in our apartment complex. they were so adorable and we had a lot of fun. i love meeting new people.  it allows me to stretch my awkward social skills. (well some people think they're awkwrrd, i just say i'm friendly and entertaining. my mom would be so proud.)  anywho. said girls are investigating the church and are coming with us to church on sunday. yay! new friends!

i made some delish cookie reese's oreo brownies. yea. so good.
curtesy of pinterest. pinterest is my life.

i took them for my team. (gotta prove having a white, Mormon on the team is semi-worth it.)  they gorged.  and then one of them took the leftovers home. and posted a pic on instagram saying "i love having Mormon teammates, she brings us snacks!) needless to say, my roommates want to stab the kid.  sorry girls.

i should start taking more pictures. but my phone is an embarrassment to technology.

well. that's all for now.

 

xo. ~M

chambray shirts and a headband

had to share the cuteness of me and my roomates. we are quite the adorable crew.

note: my mother hate headbands. she calls me pocahantus or however you spell that.. whenever i wear them, i get made fun of. it fuels the desire. i tend to wear ninja/pocahantas style headbands a lot. just try and stop me!

xo -m

weekend rundown.

I got to go home this weekend and spend a little time with the family!

i got in a little after 7 on friday night.  So i got to go catch the last half hour of my brother's football game.  my little brother is 17 and a beast.  he's huge and he totally owns it. someday when he plays professional ball, don't say i didn't tell ya so. i just think he's the coolest kat.





masi's bro, masi, me and koleykins

masi. he's my boy. i love him.

 
so saturday came. and it was my baby sister's 1st birthday. FYI. when my family throws a party, we throw a party. there's always amazing food and the best people come.



 

 Happy Birthday, Ellie!

 

 

that's Taylor, the best friend

 

baaaah. i miss my family. they're the best. no like seriously. i have the greatest family known to mankind. they are so funny, cool, loud, obnoxious, and awesome. I'm not lucky, i'm blessed. 

 



ketchup.

lets play ketchup.. err i mean catch up.



me and ames

 


L to R me, amy, nick, torie, and ashten

 

so last last weekend, on friday night (the 5th) we went to TERROR in the CORN! spooky. i know. it was pretty much the scariest thing i've done.  it was like a half hour walk through a corn maze, that had every possible scary thing from chainsaws to clowns. plus it was dark, scary, and i had no boyfriend to hold on to.  At one point i grabbed Nick's shirt, and he like yelled at me to get off. (what a jerk!) but really, i spent the whole thing screaming and running and covering my head. it was awful, yet totally worth it.  truth is, i detest scary things. scary movies make me squirm and i cover my eyes half the time anyway, but sometimes you gotta get a little bit scared.  it's healthy.

 

the next night we decided to go to another scary place. only this place wasn't scary, at all. LAME. it was this sort of attraction scary theme park. the only good part oabout it was the green apple cotton candy and a comedic show. (that show was totally crude, but our non-mormon friends all wondered if our "innocent minds" could even comprehend the jokes.. uhhh do i live in a box? no.) so it was totally NOT worth the $25. i was bored.

 

next...

 

brianna + me (i'm partially ugly)

 



 

this is my team.

we climbed a mountain together

MT. TUMAMOC

it was a struggle.

imma minority

 

 

however. that night we surprised my roommate, Ashten. She likes  is totally obsessed with Disney.  So being that her birthday is this month we got her Disney on Ice tickets.  The entire time while we drove there she thought that it was a surprise for me and that we were ging to the movies.  As we walked toward the auditorium Amy passed out the tickets and Ash goes "this is your surprise, Mar!" and i was like "jokes on you, Ashty, read your ticket." she struggled. she couldn't figure out what were were talking about. then she saw it. now mind you, there were lots of little girls in princess costumes all cute and ecited walking towards the auditorium as well. these kids did not even compare. Ashten was like jumping up and down and screaming and hugging us and smiling. it was precious. the show was pretty cute too.  They did  princess and the frog, cinderella and tangled.  Ash sang along and was bouncing around in her seat like any other disney obsessed almost 19 year old. i love that girl. she knows how to be excited. so afterwards we went out to eat at Red Robin (ashten's fave) and blared the music, top down, in Amy's convertable. it was a solid night. best. surprise. ever.

 

 

 

 

 

yaaay. thanks for playing

xo -M



i've used 571 tissues today.

sometimes you have to stick Kleenex up your nose in order for you to get some work done.

so what? i'm grumpy.

sometimes you're grumpy. why are you grumpy? because the world gives you this big long list of reasons to be grumpy. what are those reasons? i'll tell you..

• you wanna go to bed, but you know you need to load the dishes because it's your duty as a roommate to do your assigned chore on the assigned day. but how the heck do you load the dishes when they aren't unloaded and you're too nice to say anything to your other roommate so you just do them yourself, cuz you're just annice person like that and you don't want anybody to know that, in reality, you are effin tired and you just want to go to bed.
• feeling like crying, but not wanting to look like a crazy person, because your roommates don't know you that well yet. The emotions are reaching their peak. i see waterworks in the near future.
• a runny nose in the middle of a math lesson and no tissues. sniffing only works for so long then you're happy you wore a black shirt.
• when your roomates don't save any broccoli or cauliflower for you. meanies.
• annoying boys that can't keep their mouths shut and have to tell the whole world that your old roommates smoked weed and that you said you didn't like them and a girl who was not your roommate but was friends with your old one and is also on your team is standing right there listening. IDIOT! can you not freakin tell that the look my face is telling you to shut the hole in your ugly, fat head? flippin bear larva!
• the cookie that you were saving for later tastes like cinnomon gum becasue you let it sit too close to the cinnamon gum.
• the pineapple soda that you wanted to taste just like JONES pineapple creme soda just doesn't do it for you
• your coach forces you to do 4 hours of practice, that at first you don't think is all that bad then you get home and realize that the false reality has cracked and all the muscles in your body are making you writhe in pain and you feel as though you're experiencing the back labor of a woman pre-epidural on the birthing table.
• and even though you have said pain, you still have to do said dishes
• you keep drinking said soda wishing that it tasted better
• the Ben and Jerry's peanut butter cup ice crfeam you saved for later has all the peanut butter cups eaten out of it. ARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
• no matter how much you eat you are still hungry and wish your body didn't crave chocolate and raw cookie dough this time of night
• a 9 page research/persuasive essay is due and you have no desire to sit down and do it
• you need to half an hour of cardio everyday, but you didn't do it for a few days and it got easier to just not do it, and now you're out of habit and all you want to do is suck it up and do it, but then you remember how sweaty and smelly you get and that you might end up doing more at practice that day anyway so what's the point. then you don't and you feel lazy and say you'll do it tomorrow but you don't.
• you wanna cook a gourmet meal, but you're debit card will be in a wheelchair for a year if you even consider spending that much money.
• you don't have a T.V. and you can't keep up with the Kardashians or watch anything else, so you're forced to go over to other peoples house where you get sucked in and forced to stay for 2.5 hours longer than what you wanted to originally, because again, you're just too dang nice to say anything
• when you're too dang nice to say anything and it causes you a hecka large amount of problems
• when you eat the last of your dill pickle sun flower seeds
• when you keep forgetting to take your online quiz for the easiest class on your schedule so you look stupid and lazy.
• when you run out of almond milk and have to substitute it for normal dairy milk and you know you're gonna have gas later
• when you're gonna have to get weighed in front of all the skinny twigs you run around with everyday. males included.
• when you're tired of beating yourself up over you're body image and wish it would just listen to what you're telling it to do.
• being scared that you'll never find a husband and that your mom is right, that you're too critical and that you're gonna push away the right guy, then you'll be alone till your 40 and the widowers come out looking for a new romance.
• gross boys who think it's okay to talk dirty in front of you regardless of your urging them to hush up.
• when you are constantly told what to do, and you have to do it
• when you are being controlled by a schedule that guards you from 9 am - 8 pm. it sucks.
• shopping sounds like a fun thing other people get to do, but you are banned from it.
• when you're trying your hardest in everything you do, but it just doesn't seem like your work is REALLY paying off, or that the progress is going to take 5 years
• when you try harder than the people who don't actually care, but can't beat them
• when you miss your mom so much! and you want to talk to her, get advice from her, laugh with her, hug her, be goofy with her, be the real you with her because she thinks you're more fabulous and awesome and doesn't judge you or condescendingly call you "weird" or, laugh at you, or give you funny looks or make fun of your issues, (okay, maybe sometimes) but she makes you feel more talented, more important, more unique, and more loved than anyone else in your life.  it's quite possible i have the best mom in history.  actually it's a solid fact.

you know what helps cure grumpiness? venting. thanks for reading

xo -M

just a thought

so today as i was walking to my car to head home from school, i saw this older man.  I noticed he was walking towards me, and since there was nobody else in the parking lot i prepared to kick some old man butt.  He handed me a pamphlet instead, titled, "Are you good enough to go to Heaven?"

*uhhhh oh great here goes someone trying to sell me their religion, what do i say.. maybe i jsut book it.. and he'll go away.. no comprendo?? i look mexican, right?*

"if you died tomorrow, do you think you'd go to heaven?"
"sure i do!"
crinkled look. "why do you think so?"
"well. first off I'm mormon, so that is what begins my belief of the afterlife.."
"mormon? how long you been mormon?"
"i was born and raised LDS"
"so you and your family, and all the rest of your family is mormon"
"yes sir."
"well, keep loving God and valueing the gift of life he's given.. and (more quietly) watch out for that book of mormon"
"ha! what's that supposed to mean?
"well according to the book of mormon, Jesus and Satan were brothers by blood, and the bible says that Lucifer was an angel that had no relation..."
i interject "well don't you believe that here on earth we're all brothers and sisters? i mean we all came from the same Heavenly Father.. satan is just our fallen brother.. wouldn't it make sense that he's also Jesus' brother?  I have adopted siblings that aren't blood related and i still see them as my brothers and sisters.. (smiled) just a thought..."
".......(attempts to think of something).... thanks for taking the pamphlet.."
"yep, have agood day!"

i never thought i could actually verbalize my beliefs like that. i'm kinda proud of myself. I'm loving all these little missionary opportunities i'm getting to experience. I'm so lucky.

stay classy y'all. -m

i like food.

So the other night I decided to be an extra nice roommate and cook dinner for my roomies. (I know, I'm an angel.) I still feel indebted to them because they so graciously allowed me to move in with them after the fact. I love them. so here's the result...
 .

looks delish? i know. They're like homemade Hot Pockets. 

ingredients: creasant rolls, cheese (literally whatever you want), little bit of mayo, and sliced up ham.

• open the cresents. lay them out flat.
• mix the mayo, cheese, and ham together
• fill the rolls with about 3 tablespoons of filling
• press another roll on top of the origianl and filling
• press the edges with a fork or your thumb

cook at 375 degrees for 12-16 minutes.

so delish and so easy. and the even better part? you can fill them with virtually anything, like tuna, or chicken, spinach, and cheese, or if sweet is your thing nutella! when you take them out brush on some melted butter and powdered sugar. ahhhh. i love easy recipes.

p.s. I have a crappy phone. In about 6 months I get an upgrade and you can bet your mom I'm getting an iphone 5. boom.

p.s.s my nails are really cute today. score.

xo, M

shocked.

today is a day that will go down in history. I, Marlee, ran my mile in less than 8 minutes, 7:35 to be exact. (the crowd goes wild.. ahhhhh ahhhhh ahhhh) Look. I know you're not impressed. But. I haven't ran a mile that fast since seventh grade and I was in really good shape in seventh grade. sheesh. stop hatin.

 

I.AM.A.CHAMPION!

 

xo, M

my new life.

dang. took me longer than forever to start one. but I have. I have a blog. Am I incredibly proud of myself? as a matter of fact yes! yes I am.

So I'm a poor, little freshman in college at Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona, but I grew up in the Valley of AZ (Chandler, then Gilbert, then Mesa). Pima is 5 miles away form UofA. (p.s. I'm an ASU fan, so living here has been weird. I'm surrounded by kitty cat lovers. gross) The most incredible things have happened to me while I've been here and I only moved in a month ago.

It'll take incredibly long to describe them all vividly, but I'll do that from now on.
buuuuuuuut.

• I received a scholarship to come here. I long and triple jump for PCC and I adore it.
• I gained the courage to stand up for myself, and what I believe
• I said no to drinking and drugs.
• I met people who believe the same things I do.
• I made friends without my momma's help (this is unheard of)
• I got the courage to say something about a situation I didn't want to be in and people understood and let me have my way. aka. I moved apartments
• I bought my own groceries and paid my own rent. whaaaaa?
• I got an instagram
• I moved in with 3 other LDS girls, who are on the PCC tennis team, whom i already love to pieces.
• I had a spiritual powwow with said girls, that has built a bond already
• I turned 19!
• I mastered my mom's Italian lentil soup. (okay, maybe it's not as good as my mom's.)
• I go to practice everyday, and work my booty off. (yea folks, imma be a champion.)
• I haven't spent my money on anything superfluous. (I'm a shopper. like it's bad)
• I changed my mind on what i want to major in again.. (pediatric nutrition vs. social work)
• I drove all the way to Mesa and back to Tucson all on my own.
• I do my math homework. (should've done it in high school)

Reality is, I love where I'm at.  Most my friends went with all the other kids from my high school and went to your atypical Mormon colleges.  I took a different route. Went somewhere where I would know absolutely nobody. I stepped outside the bubble I've been living in for the last 19 years. I took a chance and it's scary.  The people talk, do things, and live much differently than what I've ever known. But. I love college. And I'm on my knees everyday thanking the Lord I did. I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be.