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!

22nd birthiversary!!

'twas my birthday on april 26th!

hooray!

i turned 22!

here are some delightful highlights from my birthday...

brett bought me this really "PRETTY" perfume. it is SO lovely! i've been wanting it forever! i love him so much!

my birthday landed on a monday so of course not being able to celebrate on the actual day we celebrated on the saturday before. we went to red lobster cuz i LOVE seafood and haven't been in years. but the nearest one was in pocatello, which is about an hour away. the food was really good and i got a berry mango daiquiri, virgin of course! daiquiris is my ultimate fave drink right now and hey, its my birthday. brett's stomach can't seem to make up its mind whether it likes seafood or not. and on my birthday his stomach decided it doesn't like it at all. poor brett.

after dinner we went and saw the movie date night with tina fey and steve carrell. i thought it was way fun, but as my friend rachel would say, there was a little bit of poop in the brownies...

on sunday our great friends steve and gwen brought me flowers! it was SO sweet of them. they're so darling. and on monday my girl ailinh brought me a huge margarita cup filled with boxes of candy. i've also gotten the final seasons of i love lucy from my bestie charlene and a box of goodies from my parents. they got me more peeps! yummmm. and thanks to brett's parents for getting me a gift card to a restaurant! eating is what i do best. i have such amazing friends and family and i'm so grateful for them. and i'm so blessed to have lived 22 years of a good life and hope i have many more to come! also i'm EXTREMELY grateful for my sweet husband who takes care of me so good esp when its mah birfday. thanks honey!

alyssa is goin back to school

wait, i thought she already graduated?

yeshhhh. i'm actually considered a "student" while i'm here and i also needed health insurance. i deferred winter semester and since you can only defer once at school i have decided to take a class. and it could be ANY class i wanted. so i have chosen art104 exploring photography. i've always wanted to learn more about photography and how to take better pics. i don't really plan on becoming professional or anything but i want to take really nice pictures of my future kids. also this class teaches about how to become a better consumer of camera products, which i desperately need. i have no clue as to what the good stuff is. i've been to one class so far and i'm super excited. i think this'll be a great semester. haha it does feel weird being back on campus walkin around. shoo, i thought i was done with all this. but you know what the apostles say,

"DON'T STOP LEARNING!"

p.s. pca has started up again this semester and i'm so pumped. we already have about 5 gigs coming up. summer is the most eventful for us. bam!

what happens in vegas II

the continuation of brett and alyssa's grand vegas adventure.....

during our stay in vegas we wanted to go attend a session in the Las Vegas Temple. going to the Temple helped us to see a much PRETTIER side of vegas. the temple was SOOOO beautiful.

after going to the temple we went to the famous filipino restaurant that everyone (my parents and my aunt) told me about.

the food was bangin!!!

on our last day we went to mandalay bay and saw the shark reef aquarium...

this aquarium tunnel was way cool, sharks and all kinds of fishies swam above you! oooo

they had a sting ray "petting area" that grossed me out, they felt so slimy and i was scared they were gonna bite my fingers off, but the workers assured me they were perfectly harmless. freaky.

after the aquarium we decided to spend our last moments in vegas SHOPPING!! window shopping that is. we went to caesar's palace and WHOAAAAA. holy expensive!!! they had the uppity uppest stores ever. just some stores i dream of being able to shop when brett's makin the big bucks.

but there was one store i've been DYING to go to. and that was christian louboutin at the palazzo. its been my dream to even try on those famous red soles.

and it was heavenly. and one day, i shall have them, just one day.

seriously, one of the greatest vacations brett and i have ever taken. especially having our friends steve and gwen with us. i don't think i've ever laughed as hard as i did with them. i sure hope we get to go again!!

the end.

i swear.