a change in scenery

whenever fall finally rolls around and the weather starts to become slightly bearable, I always feel like I need a change in scenery. I just want to spend some time watching the leaves change and having different jackets for fall and winter. Here I have 2 jackets, one kind of warm one and one pretty warm one. That's really all I need. I want to go somewhere with crunchy leaves and chilly winds. I just want to experience a cold winter. We haven't gone back to the east coast for a winter since we still lived there (when I was 2). Just because my parents lived in snow all their lives and hate it doesn't mean that they have to deprive us of it. But they have made us soft, raising us in the land of 65 degree winters. Then they have tortured us with 115 degree summers. Why would anyone ever want to live here?
But I am starting to think that my change of scenery will most likely take place in about a year and a half. Which is, my graduation. I think that I should definitely go to college out of state and somewhere where I can actually experience what real weather is like. Chicago, New York City, Boston. I'm not sure where I'll end up but hopefully it involves red and yellow leaves or I'm going to be soo disappointed.

and i've never been to boston in the fallllll.
veggie tales reference complete.

Cheers,
Cayla

the importance of smelling good

right now lauren & madelyn are sitting in lauren's room senselessly screaming at each other, so I am out here being normal.
anyway, I have been thinking, and there are several things that make a person attractive, right? I mean obviously there is hair, smile, eyes, which are the most important, and I guess that leaves on the face... nose. I don't know how you feel about noses, I mean they are definitely important, try making a sim hot when you can't get the right nose, but no one really says "Oh my god he has the cutest nose ever!" (except lauren). But then of course there is personality i.e. sense of humor, wittiness, intelligence, musical ability, whether or not they have a british or australian accent, etc. Then there is the huge one of how they dress. Sense of style really depends on the person you are liking, so you may have to kind of adjust based on them, but there really is no denying if someone just wears really bad clothes. One thing that you probably haven't thought of, is how a person smells. Sense of smell is often the first sense that people think they could live without. But really, it is super important. Sense of smell helps you taste things and the smell of something invokes the most vivid memories. Every time I smell verbena lime lotion from bath and body works it reminds me of when my family went to ocean beach and lauren got super sunburned and she had to keep putting on that lotion. then it reminds me of all the gross beetles that were in my house. yeah, all that from just a whiff of lotion! But anyway, how someone smells can instantly change how you think of someone. Say there is this kid who is mildly attractive, then this kid that is miles ahead of him in good looks (he has a fantastic nose). so you sit by both of them and the one that is super hot doesn't really smell like anything, I mean he doesn't stink but it's nothing to remember. then the kid that is mildly attractive leans over to ask you a question and BAM, he smells delicious. he suddenly becomes great and you want to talk to him all the time and next thing you know you totally love him. why, because he smells fantastic and you will remember his wonderful smell. Trust me, next time you see (smell?) a guy that smells good you will think of me and love him. this, of course, brings up the topic of wearing too much cologne, but that is another story, which I will tell eventually if I do not suffocate in spanish due to the boy sitting next to me. (fyi the boy in front of me totally smells good, though).
So yeah, smelling good is good. So go out and buy a perfume that people will remember so that boys will love you, because they care about that stuff too. and definitely don't forget the forgotten sense.


Cheers,
Cayla

marry me?

so, as any young girl would (yes I'm still a young girl, okay) all I do is think about and "plan" my wedding. No one is allowed to roll their eyes because y'all know you do it too. Anyways, when thinking of my perfect wedding (to a rockstar, obviously) I always find myself at a bit of a road block. Obviously I'd want to marry someone all serious and sexy like john mayer:

because even though he has kind of a bad attitude where he thinks he's god, I could deal with it because I've had to deal with a lot of regular boys that think that too. john mayer just gets the bad reputation because he's famous. anyways, everyone wants the sexy brooding john mayer, but also there is that part of us that still gets excited for christmas and watches disney movies. i don't think john mayer watches disney movies. this boy, on the other hand, does:

duh! he's a completely adorable little baby that will stay in with you on the weekends to watch finding nemo. he's soft-spoken so you don't have to worry with dealing with a huge ego. perfection? notttt quite because you still have the john mayer up there. so I was thinking to myself who could be the perfect combination of these two? OBVIOUSLY:

why hadn't I thought of this before?

is this totally creepy? yes, but it's hard to convey that I'm joking (a little) across the internet. but andrew mcmahon is still the perfect boy. anyways, yesterday we went to the state fair and while it was miserably hot and overcrowded, I managed to bring home a new little baby. his name is bode (like boat-ie) and he is a tiny little guinea pig. I will put up a picture once he stops hiding every time I walk into the room.

also, this weekend my best friend squidney stayed over for four nights and it is quite obvious that we need to move out and be roommates asap. she's really great, but everyone already knew that. I was having a REALLY bad week (more like six months, but anyways) and sydward helped me get my mind off everything bothering me and distracted me with more important things like rusty spoons and my house being haunted.

so I am off to do some shopping for bode, some treats and a new water bottle, possibly a bigger cage because he's way bigger than sloanebear. also I need to buy some things for my big and transatlanticism by death cab so I'll want to kill myself a little more. okayyyy sweet!

cheers,

lauren

say whaat

Cayla and I are dealing with an increasing problem. For whatever reason we've decided to talk like every section of the United States. Now it's not that accents don't have a part in our past, when I moved here from Ohio (alright, it was Kentucky), my voice was so weird I can barely understand myself in old videos. I was already picking up on the southern accent after four days in New Orleans. Here's a few things that we struggle with saying, and the reasons behind them:

First: You say it: fir-st
We say it: furst
Reason: Andrew McMahon. He was born in Concord, MA then moved to California (stalk stalk stalk), so just like us his accent is all over the place. He also says "to give a... different show" really weird. There are a few more things he says weird, but they're all pretty random.

Vanilla: You say it: va-nell-a
We say it: va-nil-a
Reason: Adam Young. He's from Minnesota, he can't help it.

Bag: You say it: bag
We say it: bay-g
Reason: Adam again, we listen to way too much Owl City

Y'all: You say: you all/everyone
We say it: Y'all (obviously..)
Reason: lots of girls in my sorority say it, it's catchy

So yeah... we're easily swayed by our music to change our speaking styles. Maybe it's because we listen to them so much, or there's something wrong with the language part of our brain. You know, the left hemisphere. Whatever it is, we're annoying but we're learning to deal with it.

Enrique and his girlfriend (Snooks) are chasing each other around outside. They're so cute! Pebble is barking at the door because she wants to go out and eat the fertilizer in the grass. Umm I don't think so.

Cheers,
Lauren

hidden under umbrella beach

I know Cayla already wrote today, but I haven't written in a while and have a few things I've been thinking about.

First off, today I successfully evicted the wind spider from our home. I thought it was a scorpion and was completely horrified when I looked closer and saw that it had really long legs. You can google a picture because there's no way I want to look at one ever again. Also, when you do look them up, keep in my mind that they run ten miles per hours. Sweet.

These past few weeks have been STRESSFUL. Finally, last night I stepped back from everything and realized that even though there are a few negative things in my life, I've been really blessed with the great things that I have. I'm not one to go on about blessings, so this is pretty important. Also you know that Cayla and I are really into lists, obviously since she already posted one today, but here are some absolutely unbelievably amazing things in my life that I couldn't live without:

MY FAMILY: this is pretty obvious, but they keep me going. sometimes I just can't wait to get home so I can sit around with them and talk about random things and have random dance parties and dinners in the dining room. we're all slightly crazy, which i guess keeps our lives pretty interesting.

MY FRIENDS: there are four girls in my life right now that I know for a fact I couldn't survive without. They listen to me complain about the same things over and over again, answer my texts messages at 4 am, watch spongebob and family guy with me, let me barge in on them at 10 o'clock at night. for some reason they continue to let me bother them and I love them so much for it.

MY SISTERS: being in a sorority is like nothing I've ever done before, and I've never loved belonging to anything this much. I've met some of the most amazing girls, and I adore spending time with them. They're all so amazing, we're all so different but have enough in common that we can all get along. They always make me feel better if I'm stressed, and are always willing to get coffee or ice cream when I need a break. They tell me when I'm being a dork and don't disown me when I have my blonde moments and say really stupid things.

MY PUPPIES: yes, obviously. My little dogs are so adorable, and I love how they always know when I need someone to snuggle with. Just seeing them makes me feel better, and I would bring them everywhere with me if I could.

MY MUSIC: we all know that I sold my soul to Andrew McMahon freshman year of high school. and with him, along with an other select few (ahem, adam), I can just tune out from everything around me and escape for a little while. I always know that when I don't feel like talking to anyone, I can turn on my music and feel better anyways. Andrew, where would I be without you?

My life wouldn't be complete without these things, and I love them all. These obviously aren't the only things that keep me going, I have my little girls that I nanny that always make me feel better, my tiny owl books and my chocolate soy milk juice boxes. My life is so quirky, and I would never want it any other way.

cheers,

lauren

Revision to #65

So I was looking over our blog, like I do everytime I get really bored, and I noticed one thing on our list that we added was "visit every major city in the US." That's pretty straightforward, but when I looked up the top 10 most populated cities, the list was kind of disappointing. I guess cool places to visit and where people want to live are two totally different things. So I found a map that listed all the major cities and after a few minor revisions (i.e. dumping Phoenix off the list forever and ever) I compiled a list of major cities in the US that I would actually like to visit:

• New York City
• Denver
• New Orleans
• Las Vegas
• Los Angeles
• Chicago
• San Antonio
• Philadelphia
• San Francisco
• Washington DC
• Seattle
• Miami
• Indianapolis (so going during football season)
• Boston
• St. Louis
• Atlanta
• Nashville
• Portland
• Baltimore

See I had to ignore some pretty major cities, because I really had no desire to visit them and this is my list and I can do whatever I want with it. So I made sure that all the places CSI takes place in were on the list and made sure Detroit and any other places in Michigan were not. (It's really nothing against people from Michigan, well it really is, but I just don't like that state. It's hard to explain and slightly offensive as to why I don't like it) These may not be the biggest cities but they are ones that I am interested in visiting and (hopefully) everyone knows where they are. In case you were wondering I have already been to LA, DC, Seattle, Boston and Baltimore and soon to cross off Chicago and hopefully New York, but whose to say I can't get a head start. It is my list.

Cheers,
Cayla

good days and freeways

if I could think of one thing all of my best days ever have involved, the only common denominator would be me. My good days have been scattered over concerts, trips in big cities and friday nights spent in. But if there is one thing that should be peppered in to anyone's list of good days, it's a swing. There is something about just going back and forth on a swing that is relaxing, fun and reflectful that can complete any good day or simply make one. Right now I am currently on a swing, typing this on the miniscule keyboard of my phone, enjoying a sunny, breezy day in flagstaff. I've been here so many times before, but something about it just being me and nature out here made this day a little better. Of course it's definitely not just me and nature because I am less than 4 feet from our house, there is multiple golfers on the course just beyond the fence, and I can hear the freeway. But it smells like nature and I'm in a transcendental mood, so this will have to do.

cheers,
cayla