father's day

this is my daddy and i think he's the handsomest and the smartest man (besides brett of course!)

and he's the best dad a girl could ever have

and i love him tons

thanks for being such a great dad and continue to be one!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!

just one of those days

at work yesterday we were selling jambas for a $1 and the WHOLE day felt like this...

it was the most atrocious day of work ever, i really don't think i've felt more stressed and freaked out at a smoothie store.

and the line was seriously ^that looooooooong^ ALL day. i was going nuts, i really wanted to break down and cry. and there were many times i almost did, but there was just no time. no time to sit down for 2 seconds. it was seriously H.E.L.L. when my shift was over i ran to the car where brett was waiting and couldn't believe i wasn't in jamba anymore, i was SAFE. i actually liked working at walmart during black friday better, at least i wasn't having to make anything. it'll be interesting to see how many jambas we made though! so then i get home, turn my scentsy on and brett just held me. and life was great again. also some nice phone calls to my mom and sister, a visit to steve and gwen (they ALWAYS make my day) and lots more big hugs from brett made me completely better!

you know after the horrifying jamba ordeal brett and i talked and we thought that waiting in that big of a line for so long was definitely NOT worth a $1 jamba. not. at. all. but no offense to those who came, it was REALLY refreshing to see smiling faces i knew and said hi to me! thanks.

so at our pca meetings every now and then someone would give a little presentation on one of the polynesian islands. and today my friend marco talked about new zealand and the maori people. and what i found to be really interesting was that the maori people was REALLY into their family history. i find it inspiring that ancient cultures from LOOOOONG ago kept such amazing records of their geneology. and one way the maori tribes kept their records was on their face by a form of tattooing. its called the ta moko and they actually chisled the ink in their faces creating grooves instead of a smooth surface. like so....
i am very glad that we don't really have do that nowadays. can you imagine our family history class? brett and i just tattooing some faces? haha

the maori tribes also preserved their family history through these ancient weapons called the taiaha. its that long pole thing the dude in the pic is holding. it was a way for the warriors to bring their ancestors into battle with them. it reminds me of stories i've heard about past wars where knights would go into battle with the virgin mary or Christ on the back of their shield as though they're with him. so with the maoris they had their ancestors on the their side. i mean, would you want this guy comin at ya?

its just so cool how the ancient people preserved their family history, pretty much like how the Old Testament and the Book of Mormon is. marco also talked about how on some people's faces they would have a circle tattooed, representing eternity and that families are together forever. seriously, how amazing is that?

happy as can be!

today turned out unexpectedly HAPPY for me!! i love when that happens.
today in class we had our critique of our "light" assignment, where we had to take pics using artificial and natural light. this is one of the ones i submitted...i know...whatta jamba nerd. this was also the pic that sis. bates had on the slideshow and thankfully NO ONE criticized it. and i was completely fine with it. i'll take my critiques of my pics on that little piece of paper the teach gives us with our grade on it, thanks.


today was also when i wrapped up my scentsy party orders that i had on saturday. i put in my own order and i seriously got 10 scents for $15 when it would usually cost like, $50! just part of the SWEET rewards for throwing a scentsy party! i'm so freakin excited to get my scents in...so.freakin.excited. :D


blechhhhhh work sucked today though, that was a sucker of my day. it was just one of those REALLY annoying days. i couldn't really tell you as to what was annoying, it just was.


so after work i was starving and just a little grumpy (mainly b/c i was so hungry!) that i told brett i'm not cooking! let's go out! due to the lack of options of GOOD restaurants here we of course went to idaho falls. a good dinner and a good stroll through some stores ALWAYS make a happy alyssa.


so what also added to the happiness was our wicked performance we had at the crossroads up at school, i'd say it was one of our best ones yet! and it was pretty much the "polishing up our moves" gig for our even bigger performance on sat. let's hope it goes well!

alofa,

alyssa

my girl charlene

HAPPY 22nd BIRTHDAY TO MY BEST BUD CHARLENE!

she and i met when we were 14. our moms' made us hang out even though we thought the other was weird. but we clicked instantly. she's my 1/2 filipina sista from anotha mista.

she's my best friend (besides brett of course)
we've shared so many memories and adventures that i wish i wrote a book about 'em.
she helped me to be more confident in myself, be more outgoing and not take things too serious.

she was with me when we first went to college and helped me to not be scared. cuz i get scared easily...we went latin dancing ALL the time! HOTATATATA
charlene's my WARPED TOUR pal! we went to DC and SLC.
those were some of the most freakin fun times in my life.

we've grown up so much since we've met but we're still little girls at heart.

she can tell you some REALLY EMBARRASSING stories of me!

i think she's the most BEAUTIFUL GIRL.

she's going to make such a great missionary. i'm so proud of her going on a mission.

luv you tonz charlene!

happy birthday again and may you have MANY MORE!!

i hope we still get to make lots more memories in the future!

love, alyssa

bad freakin day

wow, what a horrible day.

so in my photog class we critique each other's pics as a class. and for this assignment we were supposed to take pics of something from our "bucket list" (which for those who don't know what that is, it's a list of stuff you wanna do before you die) and mine is to go down in a sub and see the titanic. weird i know, but i've been obsessed with the titanic since i was younger. so yeah the only way i thought i could capture that was getting a mini titanic and putting it in a vase full of water and rocks.

but my class butchered my photo. they said it was confusing and that i didn't follow any rules blah blah blah, how the heck am i supposed to portray something that was pretty difficult to even convey? i mean, yeah i could be cliche like half the class and take pics of random little kids to show that i want kids someday or whatever. at first i brushed it off but after thinking about it the whole day i felt so defeated and that i'm not creative at all.

WHATEVER

HATERZZZ

another thing thats been making me miserable is my lack of sleep due to ALLERGIES!!! i'm pretty much allergic to pollen, hay, dust, and cats (brett's allergic to cats too so we're def not having any dumb cats in our house) i feel like my face is swollen, my nose is always red from blowing in tissues and i sound like i have a cold b/c of my stuffy nose. don't get me wrong, i LOVE the hot summer better than the crappy freezing winter but my allergies come back and slaughter my head. so work sucked, i had to be on the register for 6 hrs while rubbing my nose and sniffling. ughhhhh i felt so gross. i didn't want customers thinking i sneeze in their jambas or something. but working with rach helped me to not be completely miserable at work...

reaching into the past

brett and i got to go to the Temple today and brought some of our ancestors' names with us to do baptisms. i brought some of my filipino family's names. it's so much personal when you are doing ordinances for your own family. of course doing other people's names are just as great a blessing, but when its your own family, it just feels even more amazing. i felt the spirit strongly in the Temple, knowing i'm helping out my filipino ancestors. i want to be with my family forever, ALL OF THEM. i LOVE going to the temple with my husband. we're so blessed to have the rexburg temple just 5 mins away and try to take advantage of being so close.

so for my photog class our first assignment was to take pics of something we love. and for this assignment we haven't learned really anything about how to take better pics, so not bad for not knowing jack squat about taking pics huh? i decided to take pictures of my french horn. little known fact about me, i played the french horn for 8 years! seriously. and i still wasn't anywhere near being a pro. i stopped ever since i got married, (you can thank brett for that, jkjk) but when i took out my horn for photographing it was like seeing an old friend again. and surprisingly it still worked! i'm thinking of starting up again but i don't know, we'll see......

my mumzy

happy mother's day mommy!

thanks for being AMAZING.

i l♥ve you!