The Intern

I thought I should take a quick minute and write my thoughts down about my internship. It is quickly coming to an end, which has become very bitter sweet to me.

I had a hard time starting this internship. I get a lot of anxiety about trying new things, putting myself out there, and being critiqued. Most of the time I don't let it get to me very badly. I work through it and all is okay. With the internship it was hard to work through. I didn't know what I would be doing and even once I started, everyday was different so I couldn't mentally prepare myself for what was to come.

I constantly was telling myself it was okay, that I just needed to try my best and all would be great. Most of the time that worked. but sometimes I still felt like my brain was pulling in all different directions.

Luckily I got a pretty good handle on my emotions and learned "come what may and love it." I took one day at a time and really started to love the things I was doing.

I never did anything super duper amazing, but I felt I learned and grew so much from this experience, I would not trade it for the world.

A lot of the time spent there I was fixing mistakes/ problems that had already been made. I was assigned a box of clothing that each item needed something to be fixed or just finished on it. I spent a lot of time working on that and other times working on fixing things that needed to be done asap. One week I fixed probably over 100 or more zippers. In that week I sure did learn a lot about zippers and how to fix them.

Going into this I knew I wasn't the best sewer in the world. To be honest I wasn't that confident in myself at all, which is why it was such a mental struggle for me. But as I started to perform the tasks I realized I do know a lot of what they are wanting me to do and what they are talking about. Sure I didn't know everything and I was constantly asking questions and seeking help but I also gained a little bit of confidence in myself. I realized that I can do these things and if I work really hard I can do a really good job on them.

I loved getting an inside look on how a company like this runs and how they accomplish things. It was an eye opening experience that really made me see what I would like to accomplish and do in my life.

Overall this internship, being an intern at Shabby Apple taught me more than I could have ever imagined. It was the perfect experience for me to have and really made me grow not only as a seamstress but as a person. I really learned how to deal with those times when I get way too much anxiety. It was the perfect learning experience for me. I love Shabby Apple and the clothing they make and the things that they stand for. I am so proud to say that I was able to intern there and gain such amazing experiences.

love,alex

Beginning of the End

This week I went to my last first day of school. It was bitter sweet. But I was thinking, 'Let's be honest, this won't be me last day of taking classes, just my last first day of my bachelors degree.'

It was my last first day from all of those first days, from kindergarten until now. This is what it all leads up to, a college education. Yes I could go on to get a masters or whatever else I want but this is what I have dreamed of for years.

I made a promise to myself that I would finish my bachelors degree. And even though some days I would ask myself 'why am I even doing this?' I know that it will be one of the best decisions I have ever made.

I think about being done with school and it scares me. I don't know what to do without school. I do not know what life is without school. School has always been there, so when it ends and something new begins, it is going to be a scary and an exciting transition.

At this point I don't know what I will do after graduation but I am really excited about it and I can't wait to see what it brings.

This is going to be a great but hard semester. I'm taking two family classes and those are what will make this semester difficult. They are going to make me think and grow and become such a better person but the amount of work I need to put into them is going to be challenging. Then I am taking an art history class for my minor in visual arts and that is going to be even more difficult. The memorizing and studying is what gets me scared. The class is interesting and I am excited to learn about it all but I am not excited for the tests!

Then I am auditing a pattern making class. I already took a pattern making class at BYUI but I wanted to learn more and we never learned draping at BYUI whereas here we will work on it for three weeks.

My last class is a tailoring class. At first I was just going to audit that one too but I found a way that I can make it a 3 credit class instead of a 2 credit class so that I can use it to graduate in December and not have to take another class.

It is going to be a great semester full of learning and growing and I am really excited about it. I hope it isn't going to be as crazy as I expect it to be and I can balance all of the reading and studying with the creating and sewing.

wish me luck!
love,alex

Lake POWELL 2013

After the Brown family left, our summer vacations weren't over just yet! The day we got back from St. George, Andrew's brother Aaron flew in so that he could go to Volleyball camp at BYU for the next two weeks. We hung out with him on the weekends and when the camp went to seven peaks we met up with him and got to play around for a few hours.

I went on the orange slide for the first time. This probably isn't a great accomplishment for most, like Andrew, but it was for me. I finally convinced myself to do it. The line was short so we went up and we had to wait for like 10 minutes because the life guard wasn't there. Turns out that someone had just gotten hurt (they just hit there head on the side of the slide wall so nothing too crazy but..) but luckily I didn't know that until after I went down. It was a scary experience but I have to admit it was fun and I have already gone on it again! ha yay me.

We even taught Aaron how to do his own laundry at a laundry mat! He is going to BYU-I in the fall so we thought it was important to show him how that type of thing worked because his complex has its own laundry mat. It was really funny and fun to teach him how it works and some of the unwritten rules, like you don't have to sit there and wait for it like some movies show.

On Aaron's last day of camp we got to go watch him play! He was on the top court of the camp so they got to play the BYU team! It was fun to see how they compare. If you didn't know, Aaron is a really good Volleyball player. Andrew played as well and so did their dad. He played on the BYU team back in the day.

When the game was over we left for LAKE POWELL 2013! It was about time for that to happen again :) we had been waiting for a while!

I think I say this every year but Lake Powell is truly magical. It is SO beautiful and peaceful and the perfect way to spend a week. We look forward to this the moment we come off of the lake the year before to the moment we get onto the lake. Being surrounded by the red rock and beauty of God's earth is a real spiritual experience. I also love that you can disconnect from the rest of the world. No facebook. No cell phones. No instagram. Just us and about 15 other people and the beauty of the earth.

Richard brought all the boys shorts from back in the day.
 shorrrty shorts. look at all those legs! 

At Trails End - this is the place we eat after we get off the Lake. 

This year I failed at taking pictures.. at least on my own camera. I took plenty of pictures using other people's cameras except for my own! gr. I will just have to get a copy from everyone.

This was a pretty relaxing year. We had the Sorensen's, the Turnbull's, Julie and Val, and for the first three days we had Andrew's Aunt Joyce and Uncle Rod and Cousin Katie with her son Trevin. We went to West Canyon which was so nice. There weren't a lot of people this year, probably because the water was so low. But it made for really nice water wake boarding in the morning. For two of the mornings I was able to wake board out of the canyon because everyone else wanted to wake board in the channel so they could do their tricks. It was AWESOME because I had perfect water! It was glass the whole way out. I loved it and really made me enjoy my run! I think I am slowly getting better at wake boarding. It is hard that we just do it once a year but every year I think I get a little more comfortable than the last! Now I just need to try snowboarding.

Andrew was jumping and throwing tricks the moment we got on the lake. and then he went head first into a wake and might have gotten a slight concussion.. or something like that. He was really hoping to get his backflip down this year. Maybe next year sir.

This year Julie and Val brought some paddle boards and I was SO excited about it. I have always wanted to paddle board even though I thought I would be horrible at it. But it turns out it is not too hard unless you have really bad balance or a wake that comes rollin in. HA I was working on staying up with that. I don't know how people do it in the ocean! It might take me a while to learn to balance on that. I also did a little bit of kayaking which was equally as awesome and relaxing.

We also had a few wave runners. Let's just say it was a.w.e.s.o.m.e. Every year since coming to Lake Powell I have slowly been getting more and more comfortable on them. This year, on one day especially, I went all out and it was awesome. I kept trying to see how fast I could go on it and then we started jumping tour boat wakes. Which let me tell you are the scariest things on the lake! I thought I was going to get eaten by a wave! but it was awesome! Andrew and I had a lot of fun going out for rides on them and exploring the beautiful canyons!

On Sunday we held our own church service and then went for a hike in another canyon. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen! My jaw was dropped the entire time in awh.. or because I was in freezing cold water. But it really was incredible. You know those pictures you see of the small slivers of canyons and you look up and they are just like rolling hills but they are rocks that are horizontal? Yea, that is what we were walking through. It was one of those hikes I will never forget. These next pictures are all from the hike and honestly the pictures do NOT do it justice.

All of these pictures were taken with the GoPro so thats why they are a little funky

amazing right??

Like I said, the pictures do not do it justice 

this was the end of the hike 

that is the end and if you can see it that hole is where we had just come from

On the way in we were helping each other climb this
 so on the way out we were helping each other down

On the way back to the house boat there was a storm chasing us. 

This is from a morning run but its the same landscape of the picture above just with sun! 

I also got to read the book Divergent by Veronica Roth. Andrew had already listened to it on tape and said that it was amazing so I knew I had to read it, especially because the movie is coming out next year. and he was right,  I.could.not.put.it.down. It is so so so gooood. I think I read it in two or three days. I had to finish it so that I could pay more attention to the people around me. HA. If you liked Hunger Games you will LOVE this book. It is a trilogy like Hunger Games. And has a strong female main character. Honestly you just need to read it!

It was a good year at Lake Powell. We are already counting down for next year.
Hopefully I will get more pictures and post them later!
love,alex&andrew

p.s- if you went to Lake Powell and have pictures, SEND THEM TO ME! thanks :)