I've spent most of my life riding horses. The rest I've just wasted. ~ Anonymous

It's really been feeling like Seattle the last few days, due to the fact that it has rained constantly for the last 48 hours. I'm actually not bothered by that at all though. I love falling asleep to the sound of rain pinging on the skylight and thunder crashing overhead. In the morning, I walk out on my deck with a cup of hot chocolate and breathe in the scent of freshly washed earth. The moisture amplifies the green of the grass, the blue of the sky, the darkness of the ground, flooding the land with intense color. It's simply stunning.

I had the pleasure of going to Pike Place Market yesterday with my friend Kaelyn. Honestly, it's one of my favorite places in the entire world. I love walking up and down Pike Street as fragrant perfume wafts from the flower stalls and light reflects off the stands of shiny produce. I laughed when a tourist gets a fish thrown at him and stopped at my favorite little bakery for berry cobbler. I got a Strawberries and Creme "coffee" at the first Starbucks ever and came home with a bag full of seafood and produce. I officially checked off buying myself a bouquet of flowers from Pike on my list of things to do before I die, and my are they beautiful. Five bucks for a big bunch of fresh irises.

I love living here, with such access to great produce and seafood. I've been really getting into cooking for myself. Tonight I made baked Parmesan prawns with roasted asparagus and sauteed garlic mushrooms with fresh green beans and spinach. Gorgeous on a plate, tasty in my stomach.

I'm excited because I have even more awesome plans. I'm going into Seattle twice again this week, once for the Northwest Folklife Festival on Friday and again with my roommates on Saturday. I love being a Seattlite!

Horses lend us the wings we lack. ~Author Unknown

Here's just a short updater post. I've had this realization that what I'm doing this summer is creating roots. Figuratively and quite literally. I'm reconnecting with my childhood and setting off on my own, but also, I've successfully planted a vegetable garden. ;) I feel accomplished in my role as a home maker for myself. Besides, my little plot is looking mighty fine. I'm going to have my own fresh produce in a little while!

As you know, I've been doing a lot of job hunting and have had several interviews. I definitely have options and have been offered a few different ones. Now it's just a matter of picking. I'm leaning towards being a nanny for a family in my area. I'd have charge of two adorable boys and be paid (very well, mind you) to take them to the zoo, museum, park, etc. Sounds perfect for me. :) I'm liking the idea. The other ones sound good too though, but at least I won't have to worry about going hungry!

An interesting thought of mine - I've been taking Molly to Marymoor frequently and just love observing. You can always tell which dog belongs to who, not just by their behavior, but by the way they look. Frail little women have their itty bitty poodles and there's always the big guy with the tattoos who calls over a big mastiff with a studded collar. The stereotypes crack me up every time. I think Molly and I match - slim, moderately athletic, affectionate, with loads of wavy hair. ;) We're a perfect fit.

In riding a horse we borrow freedom. ~Helen Thomson

This is officially my first post from Seattle! My mom was awesome and drove up with me last week and helped me settle in. She spent the week with me job hunting, doing chores, and preparing my apartment. I took her to the airport yesterday, so today I was completely on my own.

Let me tell you, freedom is the best feeling! I love this. I love having my own apartment. Just me. Alone. With Molly. It's spectacular. I posted a few pics of what I see when I stand on my deck. Yes, my own personal deck. I have patio chairs and everything. I love doing housekeeping chores. By myself, I went to the hardware store to buy fencing and a plumbing cap. And then fixed stuff. I re-caulked my bathtub! How amazing is that? I found multiple locations by address alone. I drove all over town(s) with no help and didn't once get lost. I feel so accomplished right now! And I got so much done. My apartment is clean, I'm unpacked, and I'm already cruising through my long to-do list.

I'm so loving Seattle. I was worried that maybe I'd just built it all up in my mind - this magical place of my childhood that's not actually as great as the fantasy I've put on a pedestal. But it is! It's green and beautiful and drizzly and sunny all at the same time, and I couldn't be happier about it. I took Molly to Edmonds today (found it by myself, oh yeah) and we got our first taste of the beach for the year. I've got seaweed on my shoes, sand on my pants, salt in my hair, and wet dog smell in my car, and it's amazing. It was just so gorgeous. And it's warm here, which is a welcome change. I haven't worn a coat in a week.

I'm still searching for a job, but I have more hope. I have a few interviews lined up for this week and a woman who wants me to nanny. Now I think the question is not if I will have a job, but what job. I've applied for some awesome jobs and internships that would be preferable, but I won't hear about them for awhile. Should I accept offers now or hold out for better ones that might not come? It's a tricky situation.

In the meantime, I'm doing everything I want to. There's no one to tell me no. If I want to drive to Pike Place for the day and buy myself flowers, then I can. I might tomorrow, actually. ;) If I want to spend the day strolling through Marymoor, why I shall! If I want to sit in bed and eat ice cream, I probably won't because it's a waste of my time, but I totally could. I'm so proud of myself that I'm actually doing amazing things and using my time well. I had a full day. I could have not, but I filled it. And I'm pleased. :)

I've got all these plans, Seattle, and I'm so excited. The summer is here, and I'm ready. Bring it on.

He has galloped through young girl's dreams, added richness to grown women's lives, and served men in war and strife. ~Toni Robinson

I'm going to post briefly in honor of Mother's Day today. To all women out there, regardless of their parental status, happy Mother's Day! I believe that all women have the capacity to be mothers to someone out there, and so I value all of their loving influences, from my actual mother to those that have simply functioned in a maternal role for me. Thank you.
I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure yesterday, which I found very fitting to be the day before Mother's Day. I was surrounded by fantastic, beautiful, strong women on all sides who had struggled and fought and conquered. I was so impressed with them. I was on the verge of tears at several points in time, standing in the midst of such incredible people. Seeing thousands of people all walking and running towards a common dream, a cancer-free world, was truly inspiring. I'm truly impressed with the women I am honored to interact with on a regular basis. They are such wonderful examples to me.
I really do love my mother. She's one of the most fantastic people in the world, regardless of gender or age or experience. To me, she is and will always be Superwoman. She can do everything, from teaching to construction design to legal work to mothering to music. She's the most capable woman I know. Because of her, I know that with the help of the Lord and a lot of elbow grease, we can accomplish anything we set our minds to. I love her so much. I thank Heavenly Father for her loving presence in my life every day.

I would travel only by horse, if I had the choice. ~Linda McCartney

It's been a long time since my last post, but that's how blogging works for me. Like a really inconsistent journal, honestly.

Quickly, I'll fill in the end result of BYU's 2010 semester. Despite my 17 credit hours, I managed to pull a 3.5 GPA. I feel really good about that considering how hard it was and the amount of work I put into my schoolwork this semester. That does, however, mean that I lose access to my academic scholarship for the next year, because I needed a 3.67 or something to make the cut for renewal. I was getting worried about this when I received an email from my department for a partial scholarship from Life Sciences. It's exactly what I needed. Tender mercy. My mom was so happy.

I've been home in Sandy almost two weeks now preparing to drive up and spend the summer in Seattle. I really can never describe the way I feel about that place. Sure, I grew up there and I have lots of memories and old friends that I want to get in touch with (as well as new ones that I've met at BYU through a variety of ways.) But there's something more about it. To me, Seattle is magic. It's the wind whipping your hair so hard as you stand on a rocky, gray beach that you can't see where the water meets the shore. It's waking up and always seeing the tip of Mt. Rainier, alone and tall. It's laughing as I drive by four Starbucks lined up on the same corner. It's the green, green, green landscape and the trees that go as far as you can see. A part of my heart just longs to be there, to soak up all it's foggy mysteries and listen as the wind sings it's special Pacific Northwest song.

I'm so excited to go back. I'm going to three months to enjoy the area and get some time to myself. That's something I've discovered about college. No matter how much you love them, people are always around. It's not that I need alone time - I love people and anyone I know will tell you how much I thrive in social situations (and how much stamina I have in them) - but I am excited to have down time. I'm going to be living in the exact same apartment that my entire family camped out in the winter before we moved to Utah, only this time I'll be alone and don't have to sleep on the floor. For all those asking, no, I do not yet have a job, but yes, I am planning on working. I have a few interviews lined up and several possibilities. Let's cross our fingers (or more effectively, pray) that something pans out well. I'm also happy that I'm getting to take my dog, Molly. I know people think it's dumb when people get attached so much to their pets, but Molly is my home dawg. ;) I can't pull that kind of sarcastic pun off. Amend statement. She's my pal. She's got that awesome dog quality where she always loves me, even if I only got a 3.5 this semester. Actually, she really doesn't care about my grades at all. How refreshing is that? And she is just the right amount of quiet companionship that will keep me from being lonely this summer living by myself, and so I'm very appreciative I get to take her. And I know she's happy about it. She gets to go to her favorite places in the world again - Marymoor Dog Park and Edmonds OLA. Can you say over 600 acres of doggy heaven? And a beach just for canine friends? Yeah. She's a happy girl.I'm bummed about a couple things though. I don't get to take Silver, or any of my horses, up with me, which means this will be really the first summer I don't have access to riding any time I want. I don't know how I feel about that. It's such a part of my life, and I love being able to come home and hop up on a horse any time I want. It's limited while at school, but it's only 45 minutes to come see my girls. Now it'll be 14 hours. I feel a little like I'm abandoning them. They won't get work, and I won't get to ride. Hopefully there will be some merciful soul in my area that has horses they want worked, and I can at least pack around on someone else's horses. We also got two little kittens last week. My mom has been looking for some more barn cats to stick around, so we found the cutest little brother sister pair. We named them Tony and Pepper (Tony Stark and Pepper Potts, from Iron Man, thanks Connor). They're only six weeks old right now, which means that I'll miss a lot of their growing up while I'm in Seattle.

I'm also bummed about the separation from friends. I was talking to my roommate about how we feel we haven't established relationships with people that will really be able to stand three months apart, and have little to show for the year socially. To a degree, I still feel that way, in that I'm afraid I'll lose the closeness that I actually have established. And that's a great fear of mine. Replacement. But I've also come to realize and value the amazing people I've had opportunities to spend time with. I've been truly blessed to associate with all manner of people that have helped me learn and grow personally. We can't focus on what's in the past - it's much more important to move forward and see what happens. That's way scary, but it's life. Man up, Elissa. It's not the end of the world. It's just the end of part of what was my world, at least for a little while. And I'm okay with that. This is the kind of change that's good (cough, Obama, cough). I keep telling myself that I like my kind of change. If I tell myself enough, maybe I'll fully believe it. ;) I'm definitely starting to.

This has been a long post, but I suppose it doesn't matter because not many people will actually suffer through it. It's tangible evidence that I do have things on my mind, and that my brain wasn't entirely turned off by the end of finals week, and that's enough for me. I'll update next week when I arrive in Seattle. In my mind, I wrote that in all caps with stars shooting out of it. :) For now, I have so much laundry and packing to do. Yikes.

There is just as much horse sense as ever, but the horses have most of it. ~Author Unknown

Hey all!

Yesterday was the first day of classes at BYU, and like always, I seem to have overbooked myself. I'm taking 17 credits this semester - I may die, p.s. - and so my schedule is pretty packed. I have classes every hour from 8 am to 2 pm on Mondays and Fridays and from 8 to 5 on Wednesdays. Crazy. I get done really early though, which is nice. And of course, I love all my classes so far! I really like my professors and am excited to really delve into my major, so I'm not going to drop any of them. I'll just have to buckle down. I think I'm using my time wisely though and taking advantage of what I can to help me along. Wish me luck!

Also, I went to the elementary school today (being it's Tuesday morning) and saw Kailey. I love that girl! Service really helps open your heart. I'm so glad I have so many opportunities to serve.

O for a horse with wings! ~ William Shakespeare

Today, I attended the Brighton branch up Big Cottonwood Canyon. It's so gorgeous up there! There's something really special about being in a chapel with enormous glass windows facing right into a snow-covered mountain slope dotted with evergreens. You can see God's hand, right there. We attended the branch with our Pace cousins, which means we got to spend time with baby Olivia and Bradshaw. They are so adorable. I gotta be honest - between the mountain that was close enough to touch if the glass weren't there and a smiling, pretty little girl, I had a hard time paying attention. But when I did, it was wonderful. The branch presidency spoke so I feel we were there for a really inspired meeting.
Later, when I was back at home, I decided I wanted to update my laptop's music (because all my old, good stuff is on the family computer) so I went through all my family's old CDs. My mom used to be cool! She has all these original CDs from Duran Duran, Creed, U2, INXS, Sting, etc. I feel like I hit a jackpot! I guess as I've aged I've gained an appreciation for the "classics" and now I see my mom in a different light. At least a little bit. :)