Finally it is Thanksgiving!

Another Snoopy Thanksgiving
Photo Courtesy of The Success Box

I have decided not to start this blog with a “Hi” or “Hey there” I feel like I always do, so I am just going to get straight into this post. It is almost Thanksgiving. I am honestly so excited! I can not believe it is almost that time. I feel like just yesterday it was January 1st, 2015. Can you believe it is almost the end of the year?! It has gone by way too fast, but I’m happy to finally be celebrating Thanksgiving. 

It really hit me today that Thanksgiving is only four days away today when my family went shopping for the food. There are so many dishes at Thanksgiving dinner that I can only have on Thanksgiving. (I mean who eats stuffing and cranberry sauce yearly!) But I think only eating these dishes once a year makes them taste better. Waiting a whole year in anticipation makes them taste so much better than if I had had them just last month. There are way to many good dishes on Thanksgiving! I have always wanted to make this one dish and this year my family has finally decided to let me make it! This dish is Pumpkin Crème Brûlée! I am so excited and can not wait to make this. But my absolute favorite dish will always be the candied sweet potatoes. Plus I love waking up and cooking all day. I may not be the best chef, but I love helping make this meal. Spending the whole day in the kitchen with my family will always be my favorite memory growing up. But food is only one part of Thanksgiving. 

Think about it.
Photo Courtesy of Dog News

It is a day for us to recognize all the wonderful things in our live. There are so many thingsI need to be thankful for. My step father who makes everyday a little bit more funny. My mom, who is honestly the best mother ever. Not only did she give birth to me and decided to keep my annoying little baby butt but, she has tried her very best to push to me to always do my best. She has made me a better person and been a remodel for me. My sister, who I know will always be there for me. No matter how much we fight I still love her. She has also helped me become a better person. And even though I know she will not read this, I love her with all my heart and honestly can say she is a truly amazing beautiful person. I am grateful any of the other amazing people in my life. I am thankful for roof above my head and the food on my plate. I am grateful for being able to flush my toilet paper. Yes I am grateful for this. Costa Rica showed me how much I really love being able to do this. I am grateful for so many things and if I was to list them all then you would never be able to finish this post. I am thankful for all of the big and small things. Thanksgiving is the time that we all get to contemplate these things. So thank you for reading my blog. And this Thanksgiving try to think of ten big and little things you are truly grateful for. I hope you have a fantastic Thanksgiving! Until next time.

- Morgan  <3 :)

My Strange Addiction: Pick Up Lines

Hi there and this is another attempt at a funny post! I am going to speak to you about pick up lines! I have recently fallen in love with the cheesy phrases that males often use to ask out girls. I know, I know these are really bad, dumb, and often annoying. But you can’t help but laugh after you hear them. So I have basically become addicted to pick lines! Yes! You heard it right here. I, Morgan, admit I have a problem with pick up lines! (The first step to getting better is admitting you have a problem.)

Just found this! Freaking love it!
Photo Courtesy of Editorial Design Taxi

My fascination with pick up lines all started at my last race of the xc season. My friends and I had just finished our race and were standing next to the course cheer on the varsity girls team. When all the sudden these varsity boys from another team run past us. One of them runs past us and asks us “Are you tired? Because you have been running through my mind all day.” My reaction if course was to choke and say ah. Of course right after my friends and I just started laughing! We all couldn’t stop thinking about this pick up line and it all went down hill from there. The whole bus ride home we were looking up pickup lines online. Some were incredible such as “Are you a parking ticket? Because you have fine written all over you.” Some were really quite bad “Are you a fire alarm? Because you are really loud and annoying.” And some were so inappropriate and gross that I would prefer not to share them.  

One day last week I ended up resorting to pick up lines as a form of comedy. We were performing speeches in Drama and our teacher would tell us to tell jokes while she was finishing grading the previous persons speech. Eventually people ran out of jokes. And me being the super awkward and uncomfortable person I am I got up in front of the class and said “Um I don’t know any jokes but I do know some pick up lines.” Then I preceded to tell the entire class some of my best pick up lines. I started out with the running one and then followed with the classic parking ticket and even added my personal favorite “Your lips look lonely, would they like to meet mine?” I don’t know if it was just me, but I thought I was pretty dang funny and I hope the class did too. 

This one is kinda cheesy ;)
Image Courtesy of Your Tango

So, I decided to take it to the next level. I thought if I was so good at delivering pick up line that maybe I would be amazing at creating them.  I have been trying this for a couple of weeks and I have only come up with a couple. It is a lot harder then I thought it would be and my first was so bad that I’m not even sure if it counts as a pick up line. I was eating an Oreo and I came up with “Let’s make an Oreo. I’ll be the cookie and you’ll be the creme.” Honestly this doesn’t even make sense. This is when I started to notice my problem...I had taken it too far. So I decided to seek help for my problem. (Cue cheesy inspirational music) I am on the right road to curing my addiction of pick up lines. It will be a long hard journey, where I will have to endure lots of pain and tragedy. It will be a time of great hardships and trials. It will be hard, but at least I know I have the support of my family and friends... I...I (sheds tear)...JUST KIDDING! Until next time!

- Morgan <3 :) 

Winter Has Arrived And Means a Lot More Than You Thought!

Why hello there! Recently in Park City it has changed from fall to winter! This means it snowed! YAY!!! I am so excited! Part of me was sad, but at the same time happy. I am sad because summer is over. All the summer fun is over. There are a lot of things about summer I am going to miss, but seasons come and go and I am finally ready for winter! 

Incredibly beautiful Park City during the winter!
image courtesy of: Park City Peaks

Every time I step outside it is like a beautiful dream! The snow covers the grounds and sparkles when the sun hits it. The mountains look as they have been frosted with snow. The trees look like some one has sprinkle powder sugar over them. Every thing is just too gorgeous. It reminds me of all the fun memories and activities of winter! I can’t wait to build snowmen and have snow ball fights with my friends. (Don’t judge. You are never too old for these things!) I am way to excited to go skiing! And finally I can not wait and may even refuse to wait any longer for the holidays! 

Winter holds the most incredible holidays of all time! It is my most favorite time of the year because everything is so happy! There is a holiday every month! November=Thanksgiving. Yes, I consider November winter. Deal with it. I mean there is snow outside isn't there? Well at least in PC there is.

Snoopy Thanksgivings are the best.
image courtesy of: Emma's Trend

December=Christmas. (my all time favorite!!!) January=New Years/my birthday. (My birthday is a holiday…right?) February=Valentines day. Some of these may be minor holidays in the eyes of some but they all remind us of something happy we need to celebrate! These holidays all remind me of what you need to be happy! When I think of Thanksgiving I don’t just think of food and turkey. I think of all the incredible people and things I have in my life that I am so grateful for! When I hear Christmas I don’t just think of presents. I think of my family and how much I love them. New Years isn’t just some lame holiday where people get drunk. It is a day where we all get a clean slate. A day to start over and change our lives for the better. Valentines day may be a small and lonely day for some, but it can remind us of how important love is and to take time to share that love with someone. I believe that you need all of these to be truly happy. Winter isn’t just a time for snow and holidays. It is a time for us to remember what we need in order to reach true happiness. These months, to me, represent gratitude, joyfulness, family, change, and love.

There is so much that winter brings and I can’t believe that the happiest time of the year has arrived. Winter will always remind me of what is really important. I don’t think it is until know that I have realized how much winter means to me. Not only is it a gorgeous all the time or the time in school where we get the most breaks. It is the time where I find myself joyful all the time. 

p.s. There will most likely be more holiday deeper meaning posts to come…hope you enjoy them! :)

Sorry if this post was a bit scattered it just kinda came out! Winter just excites me and I am so happy it is here! Hope you are too! Until next time! 

-Morgan <3 :)

Park City Girls Are Buff

Hey there people of Earth (a.k.a who ever is reading this) My goal was to post regularly, but this blog does count as a grade for my english class. So I am going to be posting this today so I can focus on quarter finals. Yippee (note sarcasm) Okay now we can get to what this post is actually about . . . CROSS COUNTRY! Don’t worry I'm not posting this to rub it that I'm athletic, but in case you're wondering. HA I'm athletic! (sorry I just had to.) The real reason I'm writing this because I've found something I love and am proud of myself for all I've done. I thought that by sharing about it I could encourage some people to get out and find something that they love to do. Now that we all understand, let's begin :).

Aysia holding up a broken fork at our
after practice snack.

I'm going to start this by saying I only started running about five months ago. It was the end of eighth grade and the cross country team was talking to students about joining. My friends talked me into going to the meeting at our school. After the meeting I decided I would join over the summer. And then the journey began.

The first xc practice was at the team captain, Claire Breiholtz, house. You could either go two or four miles. Being smart I chose to go two. This was a hard run for me and I was one of the slowest girls. I was self conscious, but everyone on the team was super supportive! I went home that night motivated to work hard. I started summer training the first Monday of summer. Here is a quick idea of the basic training schedule for cross country. Mondays are long runs, Wednesday are hard speed workouts, Fridays varied, and then Tuesdays and Thursdays were easy days. My long runs started out as four miles, easy days were two miles and I was slow at intervals. At the end of the summer my long runs were six miles, easy days were four miles and I was faster at intervals. It was unbelievable how much I'd improved.

Selfie after the first race. (I am a
little ashamed. . .)

My first race was on the first day of school. I know terrifying, right. I was horrified and was so worried that I would be the slowest. The race day came; I was petrified. I remember the start of the race in great detail. All the different teams gathered at the starting line. Our team did our cheer for the first time. We but all of our hands in and scream "PARK CITY GIRLS ARE BUFF HUH!" I saw the man with the gun walk out on to the field. I thought I might pee myself. (I almost did.) The man put his arm up slowly. I knew he was going to pull it any second. My heart was pounding in my chest. After what felt like forever, but was really only a matter of seconds, the man fired the gun and we were off. 

 

I could never describe to you the exact feeling of what it is like to run in a race. You feeling like you are going to die but you want to run super fast. You are mentally and physically tired. That first race was horrible. It was hot, there was a huge hill, and it felt like it went on forever. It was all a blur. I just remember seeing the finish line and I trying as hard as I could to sprint the last 100m. I remember crossing the finish line, my legs instantly felt like jello and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I got my time, 35:51 minutes. I was so happy! I thought I would get over forty minutes. It was one of the hardest but greatest days of my life. 

Park City Cross Country Freshman girls after Region race.
 From left to right: Hailee, Savannah, Chloe, Alana, Kirsten, 
Aysia, Claire, Maddie, Me, and River.

Getting to a more recent update on my racing career. The season is now over for me. I went to region and that is as far as I will get this year. (State is only for the top seven runners.) The last race was intense. I felt huge pressure to get a PR. I will not go into extreme detail about the race, but I will tell you that I did get my final PR for the season. I ran a 5k in 26:33 minutes. (Final times for all of PCXC) I dropped a total of nine minutes and eighteen seconds. This is a major improvement. I am very proud of this. Cross country has made me happier and has given me so many new opportunities. I've made new friends and they mean the world to me. I am so happy we are all friends! Overall cross country has completely changed my life for the better. I just felt the need to share my story and I hope you enjoyed. Until next time.

- Morgan <3 :)

Healthy Life = Happy Life

Why hello there, person reading my blog! I am going to let you know that it is ten o’clock and I am very tired but still writing this post. I made a goal to myself that I would try to post this today. Since I have been very busy I am just starting to write this post. But I do declare it will be published on Sunday, October 11th, 2015! (I like to follow through with my goals…) Speaking of goals one of my biggest goals in life is to try and stay healthy. It may seem crazy to think that a teenage girl wants to be healthy. I am not saying that I am the healthiest person alive but I do try my very best. Don’t worry I do break and eat ice cream once in a while, but I do see the importance of being healthy. Now I am going to tell you a little bit of my story and why I think it's so important.

Crazy early runs <3.

I will start my story by saying part of my “New Years Revolution” this year was to try to be healthier. You are all probably thinking “Ha no one ever follows through with those revolutions" but I did try. It started out slow. At first I used a 7 minute workout app.  I don’t think I even made it a month using that. Then I started going to yoga with my mom. My family starting eating salad and more vegetables. One day my mom wanted me to go with her to a yoga class but I just wasn’t feeling it, so I went for a run instead. This started my running career. I was very slow and didn’t do a whole lot in the began, but then I started to run more frequently. I decided to join cross country team. I worked hard and ate healthier. I didn't feel gross anymore. Making these life changes made me happier and healthier.

Recently I had to take some days off of running because of an injury. I went back to feeling how I used to feel almost instantly. I couldn't wait to start working out again. I went back on a workout day and it was hard! I never thought a couple of days could make it that hard. I then recognized how much the end of the xc season was going to effect me. I was terrified. Then I realized that there was still a lot activities I could do to remain active during my off season. Here is a list:

1. Start going to Hot Yoga again

7 minute workout picture guide.
Image courtesy of: The Weight Zone Factor

2. Run on the treadmill or get a bunch of warm clothes on and go run in the snow

3. Ski as often as I can

4. Follow along to workout tapes or workouts I have found online (I found a great youtube account for these. It's called Blogilates. Can't wait to try it!)

5. Go to fitness classes at my local gym

These are just some of the possibilities. I have thought of these new ideas and honestly they excites me. I realized that I can stay happy and healthy even without running after school every day. It will take some getting used to but I am sure I will figure it out. One thing that I hope you can take away from this is that trying to be healthy isn’t that hard. It makes you feel better. So set a goal for yourself try one new active activity. Find something you like to do then go for it. Being healthy is a guaranteed way to become happier. And I know that if you try you will feel healthier and happier. Until next time!

-Morgan <3 :)

Afternoon Tea With Grandma

Hey there people of earth! (a.k.a who ever is reading this) It has not been too long since my last post but I would like to think a lot has happened. First of all, I added a new widget to my blog. It is just a list of 5 things; I plan on changing it once a month or when ever I get bored with the current one. This month’s is 5 Reasons To Be Happy! I just thought this would be something amusing for you to look at! 

Lake Louise Banff, Canada

Ok good, now that we are all clear let’s talk about something else that has happened recently. My grandma is in town! (YAY!!!) My grandma lives in Arizona so I only see her once or twice a year. I have been super lucky to be able to have seen her multiple times this year! I love her and try to make the most of my time with her. Hint: She is probably going to be reading this so . . . HI GRANDMA!!! Anyway the reason my grandmother is town is that my parents decided to go to Italy without me or my sister! Like what the heck man. So while they are away in the land of purses and amazing food my grandmother is watching my sister and I. Since my grandma is here we try to make the most of it by going to high tea. Even if this was only my second time I loved it. The first time I went to tea was in Canada this summer at Lake Louise with family! (picture for reference) The Lake and tea was gorgeous there and super fancy! (Warning, I love taking photos of food and fancy things so, there will be a lot of pictures.)

Pretty table setting

So at one pm on October 4, 2015, we went to the Grand America for High Tea! It was incredible! Anyway we arrived at the hotel, and we sat down at a cute little table with a couch and chairs. The table was set beautifully. The first thing the waiter did was put a little jasmine flower bulb in a glass with hot water. She then explained that it would rise and then bloom.  This was one of the coolest/prettiest things I have ever seen. The flower was incredibly cool to watch bloom.

Jasmine Flower fully bloomed

Then we order our teas. I ordered the Organic Spiced Berry tea. This was amazing and one of the best teas I have ever had. Once we order our teas we started with the first dish.  Strawberries and creme chantilly, which basically is a fancy way of saying thick whipped with strawberries. This was truly simple and I do have to say not tremendously fancy. This does not make it bad because come on who doesn’t love thick whipped cream with berries? We were off to a great start.

Strawberries and creme chantilly

Then we got our second course. (I’m not quite sure if I should call it a course or not. Oh well!) The second course was mini sandwiches and scones. I forgot to take a picture of this because I was just to excited to eat them. There were five different types of mini sandwiches. A cucumber with cream cheese and an olive slice on a piece of bread. A small piece of bread with egg salad garnished with a mini slice of tomato and chives. Then there was a bun with steak and other yummy stuff (sorry I forgot what was on it, all I know was that it was really good.) There was also a mini ham sandwich with swiss cheese. And finally, a mini bread loaf stuffed with lobster salad. They were all extremely good.

Yummy sweet treats

After we all ate the mini sandwiches we ate our scones. These are my absolute favorite. When you have scones at high tea they typically bring you three different spreads. A vanilla clotted cream, strawberry jam and lemon cream. All I can say about the scones is that I would perfectly fine if I showed up to tea and they only gave me scones. They are just that good. After that they brought out the desserts. Yes, the main food at tea from my past experience is that it's all sweets. Now I am not complaining, but it can be a lot. And when they brought out the dessert tray I almost died. I mean look at this! On the top you have three different homemade gum. Then on the middle plate there were citrus madeleines and strawberry jam filled cookies. The cookies were one of my favorites. Finally, on the bottom plate was French vanilla macaroons, a vanilla tart with raspberries, and a white chocolate mouse in a chocolate shell. It was all so amazing! I didn’t even get a chance to try them all! Everything was all to good, so I decided to save the mouse for later! 

From left to right: My grandma (Maria), Me, and My sister (Madison)

Selfie!

In the end, Afternoon Tea will always be one of my favorite things to do! If you live in Utah I would definitely recommend going to the Grand American. Click here for more info Afternoon Tea at the Grand American. I really hope that this can become a tradition that I have with my grandma and that I can do with my kids when I am older. It is a fun way to get dressed up and eat awesome food while feeling super fancy. I hope I can do this again and encourage everyone to try and go! Until next time!

-Morgan <3 :)

A Very Punny Post

Hi there and welcome to my first blog post ever (dundunduuunn). I have been trying to think of an amazing blog post to be my first, but I came up with nada. So I am just going to talk about puns! Yes puns, I’m not just yoking around with you (haha see how I did that). Warning, this is the start of many puns. First let me give you the definition of a pun. A pun is a joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words that sound alike but have different meaning. Now that we are all clear on what a pun is I am going to try and give you some eggs-cellent examples. Numero uno, if you ever are for some reason eating bagels and see a really cute human being (a.k.a Dylan O’Brien) you can say "hey look at those bae-goals!" If you don’t get this one then first smack you self. Second I will explain, you are eating a bagel and Dylan O’Brien is ultimate bae goals. Add those together and you get bae-goals!!! Another pun that I always use and is a personal favorite of mine is that is so punny! You would use this if someone just said a pun and you think it is funny. You would then reply to them by saying “that was so punny” then wink. Finally if you have a guy that you order wings from (I know I do ;) ) you could order wings with friends. Once the guy has your wings and rings your doorbell you could yell “I’ll get it! It’s my wingman!”. Now that you have some example I am going to talk about how much I love puns and why. Here is a list:

1. They are very punny (sorry I just had to).

2. They make people laugh

3. They make you laugh

4. They make the world laugh (basically puns just make people laugh)

5. Puns are a easy way to slide humor into your ordinary life

Picture Courtesy of : Dose of Funny

Now in all honesty this post is very cheesy and you probably won’t ever use these, but they’re still humorous, well at least I think they are. If you love puns just as much as I do I have linked a website to help you come up with puns. Pun Generator These puns may not be the best but it gives you a start and helps you understand how to come up with your own puns. If I am being honest with you right now I am not that great at puns either. I know, I know, you are all probably sitting there like “What??? I would have never guessed that” or “Thats a lie Morgan you are freaking amazing at puns”. But it is true. I have just recently started to love puns and am just starting my pun making career. Most of my puns are unusable and totally unrealistic, but at least I try. So new goal for anybody out there reading this blog right now. Try to say a pun once a day! It will add more humor and make you happier. I know they have made my life more unique and humorous! Until next time!

-Morgan <3 :)