Get Ready for Some Big Changes!

2009 is my lucky #

Hey Everyone! Sorry its been awhile. Our family has some big changes taking place right now! In the next three days Adrianne will be getting married and I will be moving to Washington DC. I'm so ready to get away from BYU for awhile. Don't forget to check out my blog! I plan to update it frequently!

Here's to a new year and to a new life!

It's Official!

I've accepted an internship with the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden!

I feel like such a grown up!

Needless to say, I am very excited and full of gratitude. I'll be working in the registration department, working specifically on a project involving the sculpture garden. We'll be doing inventory, condition reports, moving to off-site storage, and maintaining of the computer data system. We'll also be working on the installation of a Louise Bourgeois retrospective that has been put together by the Tate Modern in London.

I really hope and feel that this opportunity will propel me towards greater experiences to come, such as grad school and an eventual career as a curator.

Come visit me in Washington D.C.! 

The Hirshhorn is right on Washington Mall!

p.s. so I've kind of never actually been to D.C. before... Can anyone recommend a great, current guide book?

I love my job

You thought the Balloon piece was crazy? Today I got paid to make this...

out of this...

It's duck sauce.

Dan Steinhilber is awesome. Everyone should come see his show Dec. 5 through June

REVISION:

Hi.

I got paid to make balloon art today.

With him.

ups and downs

I'm not being dramatic when I say that this past week has been one of the hardest weeks of my life. I've cried, I've prayed, I haven't slept, and I think I'm about two inches shorter. 

I'll spare you all the boring details of my stressful school life but the only reason why it's been remotely doable is because I know why I'm doing it and that I have good things coming around the corner. Plus I got to spend A LOT of time (too much time) with these beauties.

This is Cezanne's Mont Sainte-Victoire with Large Pine.

I'm writing my senior thesis on it. I've been working on it for over a year. It was due last Monday and it about killed me.

This is the Nike of Samothrace. It's so beautiful and I spent all day today writing a paper about it.

Ok well, my horrible week is not quite over because I have to take a French exam by Saturday which means a lot of catching up on reading and studying like crazy.

BUT HERE IS THE GOOD NEWS. On Monday I was offered an internship at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C. I was so surprise when I got the phone call that I was shaking for like an hour afterwards. Oh wait that might have been from my no sleeping, stressing big time and no eating.

Then the next day I received an offer from the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Again I was shocked and really pleased. But managed to contain myself a little better. 

So that's been my week so far. I'm just trying to enjoy the journey, but it's not easy.

oh. p.s. I saw Adrianne's wedding gown tonight and it's soooo pretty. I can't wait for all the wedding festivities.

Vending Machine Art

Let me tell you about this cool thing I did tonight.

Anyone who knows me pretty well knows that I love art and art shows, fairs, and venues, etc. I also love art and charity. So the Department of Visual Arts puts on an annual Vending Machine Art Fair. What that means is that artists create small works of art and donate them to the fair. The works are placed in a vending machine (the kind that has bigger sections where you open the individual sliding door to get what you want out of it). So tonight people could come and take turns choosing a work of art out of the machine, enter your money, and then open the door to get what you chose. All the money went to the Provo Food Coalition. Even though I had to wait an hour and a half, it was an awesome experience. Here's what I got!

The multi-media collage was UNO dollar! and it's really colorful and full of texture and fits in my room quite well. The small (looks like a woodblock print) was $2.50 and I was actually drawn to that one while it was still on the replenishment table. So when it was my turn I bought the collage out of the machine and bought the print off the table too. I really love them! Good job to the artists!

(Caranine, I wish you could have been here! 

You actually called me from Boston while I was waiting for my turn)

stuff

If you were to ask me what I had in my super cute, oh so complementable purse today, I may or may not list the following:

1) my absentee vote ballot

2) a half eaten carton of cottage cheese (breakfast, duh.)

3) a fork

4) ALL of my make-up (no time in the morning)

5) digital camera

6) two CO. Bigelow pink tinted lip balms

7) work i.d.

8) wallet, gum, lotion, cell phone

9) keys

10) black ink cartridge info card

11) 10$ gift card to BYU bookstore

C'est tout! Everyone be sure to vote! What do you carry around?

just in case you aren't sick of looking at me...

Hi. 

This is a slightly awkward and not very flattering no neck picture of me (and blurry). But it's the last picture I took of myself before I got my hair done. (sometimes I take pictures with my camera to see what I look like instead of using a mirror... that's why I have so many of myself. I'm not in love with myself. I swear...)

before...

ok. I got my hair darkened quite a bit and had my bangs cut more bluntly... you can compare them to previous bang cuttings here and here and here 

my hair is half back so I look like I have a mullet but I promise I don't.

Here I am again. 

I painted the sunflower picture a la van gogh, van gogh-esque, van-gogh-ian style (take your pic) when I was in 2nd grade.

The painting of the lady with the parasol I bought from an artist at a market in Aix-en Provence. (my second favorite place in France, next to Paris) I was going to make an awesome gaudy, golden frame for it in the Framing class at BYU, but now I can't cuz I'm going to D.C. Kind of sad but kind of not really. Guess the ugly black frame will have to stay a little longer.

Here's a preview of what I'll look like on Halloween...just imagine me with the same possessed looking face (bags under eyes included) but in all black and with tons of black make-up. That's right...Maggie's going Goth for H-dub.

These pictures are making me think that I really need to wear more makeup (real makeup not goth makeup).

my remedy...

Ok I know my last post was a little dramatic. (but it was true...and still is...)

but after I had my little stress attack I kind of just snapped and haven't really done much since then. my bad. I've been sleeping A LOT. I played some flag football. definitely skipped my French class TWICE and didn't read the book I supposed to. oops. I watched Love Actually (edited) with Holly on Thursday night. My Thursday and Friday classes were cancelled by the profs. Friday night rolled around and I went to my ward's octoberfest party and then watched the ward's ultimate frisbee team play. Then Holly and I went to get yummy caramel and chocolate and toffee covered apples from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Co. and saw The Secret Life of Bees. I had a good cry. Went to bed and woke up this morning at 10:45. So I'm not complaining anymore!

And I'm going to get my hair done today. So it's a pretty good weekend. I just need to try to squeeze in some hw and I'm good!

Have you ever heard of...

no time to eat

no time to sleep

no time to do homework

no time to study for tests

no time for a social life

no time for cleaning

no time for showering

no time for fashion

no time for work

no time for exercise

no time for internship applications

no time for church duties

??????????????????????

I have. It's called MY LIFE.

seriously, a miracle

Remember how only a couple days ago I posted that I needed a new purse? My awesome roommate, without even looking at my blog and therefore completely unaware of my urgent need, came into my room earlier tonight with a "late birthday present" and it was this:

Is this not exactly what I was going for?

I found this pic off the internet and there's only one small difference. Mine's not brown per se but more like a shiny bronzish color that I actually like way better because I can wear it with brown and black!

I consider this a small miracle in my life. Do you agree? :)

fashion dilemma

I have a question... ok...I have a kind of picky kind of whatever sense of style. But I usually won't buy something unless I REALLY want it. Well, I have a cute brown purse that I use A LOT and it's in major need of retirement. I desperately need a new brown purse. I think I prefer a kind of over-sized, over the shoulder kind of bag with a natural feel and with not a lot of ornamentation. Something I can use with khaki pants and flats and also wear with brown heels and tweed skirts. Does anyone with a lot of time on their hands want to be my personal fashion consultant and help me find a cute purse? If you find any post the website in the comments section. THANKS!

have a secret?

Have you ever heard of postsecret.blogspot.com?

 I love it. Ok look, I can't say you'll love it too, because some of the images and secrets are a little questionable. But I really love the idea of creatively expressing a deep secret that you just don't want to keep hidden anymore and sending it off anonymously to the editor in Germantown Maryland. Each Sunday he goes through the previous week's secrets and posts them on his weekly blog.

The idea is that you can express a secret--serious, funny, disturbing, sad, whatever you are feeling--on one side of a postcard and mail it anonymously. I assume that the editor receives hundreds of secrets each week and from all over the world, so to be published on the weekly blog or in one of his books is kind of a big deal. 

Well my friend (anonymous, remember?) who introduced me to this whole thing went to a postsecret party a couple weeks ago and created some secrets. She sent them off and this week she was published TWICE on her first try! I'm so proud of her! I kind of think she won't mind if I post them on my blog because they're on the postsecret blog. So here they are:

ok this one caused MAJOR controversy! which I think is HILARIOUS! There's a place where people can make comments and I'm afraid my friend offended a lot of people. Good for her!!

And this one generated lots of comments thanking her for a message of hope. A lot of people felt like they could relate or they hope that someday they could.

I'm so proud of my friend for her awesome messages! She's famous! AND controversial! Nothing better than that!

YAY YAY and more YAY!

So my previous post was kind of an appetizer for some of the EXCITING things that are going on right now... I'll explain in the order that I found out the news.

Friday night my bestie friend Alisa and I went to our mission reunion which was kind of blah but you know we had to go and support our beloved OCM and the Motzkuses. It was really fun to see some old friends though...anyway...we then went up to Bountiful to stay the night at her parents' house. Whenever I go up there it's like going on vacation and staying at a 5-star resort. It's always so relaxing and fun and Ralph and Teresa are the bomb.

Saturday morning I watched the first session of General Conference. Like maybe 10 minutes into it I got the best news EVER! President Monson announced 5 new temples. I was happy you know to just listen and be excited for whoever got a temple but then he announced the GREATER KANSAS CITY area and I grabbed Alisa's leg and gasped so loud and screamed! Alisa and her family are from KC too so it was super exciting to be there with them during the announcement. Ralph of course, being a church employee, was involved in the decision process so he already knew and then he gave us the inside scoop on where it will be located...between Lawrence (go Jayhawks, kind of) and Leawood. Kind of in the middle of nowhere but still in a very prominent place.

St. Louis Temple

I'm so excited for all my Missouri and Kansas friends and family! When I was twelve and went on my first temple trip with the youth, we had to rent charter buses and drive 12+ hours to Dallas to go to the temple! FUN trip but lame so far away. I did enjoy meeting all the cutie texas boys though. Anyway then we got a temple in St. Louis which was awesome and so beautiful. That was 3-4 hours away. I've seen so many of my family members and friends religiously devote entire Saturdays to going to St. Louis and spending the whole day in the temple and driving. Soon we'll have one only about 45 min away. SO MUCH BETTER and so exciting. The temple is the most wonderful place on earth. My family and I have received so many blessings through the temple including the opportunity to be an eternal family. Only through the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and the blessings of the temple is that opportunity possible.

I was also really excited about the ROME temple. I learned last night that it will be right across from the Vatican. HA! In your face! And I really hope it has awesome architecture.

OK next news...I hope you're still reading because I know this is getting long. After the afternoon Saturday session I checked my e-mail and found out I was accepted into the Washington Seminar program for winter semester 2009. It's a program that BYU has that takes a group of students to D.C. and we do internships in our chosen field. I'll live in the Barlow Center which is a BYU owned facility and I'll intern at a museum! I'm not sure which one yet, but the rest of this semester will be spent working with the program to secure an internship. I'm really excited and can't wait to immerse myself in a world renowned museum like the Smithsonian and learn so much, not to mention spend time with some great friends that will be in D.C. namely, Sheryl, Ginette, and Kiersten. Also I totally want to take trips to NYC! ok That's my good news. Have a good day!

making me smile...

baby harrison

bremen+suzanne

washington d.c. (as in me living there starting jan 09!)

Red Rhinos!

golden hour

the "countdown"

Fall leaves

Mission reunion

sleeping over in Bountiful

general conference

graduating in april

this look (want those boots now!)

weekends

5-O and ranked #8!

sleeping

peanut m&ms

HELLO TEMPLE IN KANSAS CITY! ONLY BEEN WAITING FOR THIS DAY MY WHOLE LIFE!

lowering gas prices

My favorites...

Ok I stole this idea from Kim's Blog. I thought it was awesome so I did it too. Here's how it's done.

1) Go to Flickr

2) In a separate tab go to Mosaic Maker

3) Set up your mosaic criteria by choosing 4 columns and 3 rows

4) Go back to Flickr and type in the search field the answers to the following questions.

5) Using only the first page of search results, find and click on a photo that best represents your answer.

6) Copy and paste the URL into the spaces at Mosaic Maker.

7) Save your finished Mosaic to your computer and post it on your blog. Don't forget to explain your answers!

Now here's the questions:

1) What's your first name? Maggie

2) What is your favorite food? Salad

3)What high school did you go to? Raytown High School...I like this pic cuz whoever took it was driving through downtown Raytown after attending a B-ball game at RHS.

4)What is your favorite color? Gold

5)Who is your celebrity crush? Jim Sturgess...he's what I like to call a secret weapon

6)Favorite Drink? Water

7)Dream Vacation? Paris

8)Favorite Dessert? Chocolate Cake

9)What do you want to be when you grow up? A curator at the Met

10)What do you love most in life? Art museums

11) One word to describe you? Fancy

12)Your Flickr name? no name (don't really get this one)

Enjoy!

a 12-hour trip to Lagoon

Jonah and the whale

Today I went to my good friend Jessie's baby shower. She's cooking up a cute little boy and his name is Jonah. I thought about Jonah in the Bible and decided that this little Jonah can really relate to what Bible Jonah went through. They're both sitting around in a belly. So I made him this little onesie.

The other girls made super cute onesies too! There are several cute little whale themed ones as well as some cool artsy ones that only Jessie and her little museum posse could appreciate!

My brain just works this way

September is the best month of the entire year. I've always absolutely loved it. There's so many great things about September. First of all the name of the month is just a cool/pretty name. The air is cool, the sky is sapphire blue (must be why the gem stone for Septem

ber is Sapphire), and the sun is warm. It's a month of new beginnings. New friends, new goals, new classes, new activities. It's MY month. The 11th is my birthday, and this year it's my 25th which I'm totally excited about, but that's a whole other post yet to come.

When I walk around outside, everything about September brings back memories about some of my most favorite times of my life. The cool breeze, warm sun, and first crunches of leaves create an aroma that gets my heart pumping, 

thinking about all those after school cross-country work-outs and races with my best friends. It makes me want to run.

For some reason I can't separate that desire to run from the inherent excitement that comes with Homecoming. I haven't really been involved in Homecoming in college, but in High School I was all about it. I would run my workouts while gabbing with my girl friends on the team about the boy I was excited about. I went to that dance all four years and each time with a boy I was really excited about. I always secretly hoped our workouts would be down at the soccer field or past the football practice field.
September also brings back nostalgic memories of the short time I spent at Truman State in northeastern Missouri. "The Harvard of the Midwest" they called it. Those red brick side walks and brick buildings covered in ivy are just not something you see out here. Bremen and I had so much fun that semester. He threw me a surprise party for my birthday. With so many memories and nostalgic feelings I can't believe I only spent one September there.

I've started yet another fall semester here at BYU. I sure love this place too; I'm sure I'll love it more when I'm gone. I've studied French for over 10 years; it's my minor. You'd think I wouldn't be scared to death of French class. Today I think I peed like 6 times the hour before class because I was so scared to go. Well I went, and you know that feeling you get sometimes when you just know you are in the ri

ght place at the right time? I felt it once again but this time in French class. I even spoke in class. I was proud of myself. Why did I have that magical feeling? Because my teacher spoke the most beautiful French and I understood him. Maybe it was beautiful because I haven't heard it all summer. Not only did he speak the beautiful language of French, but he spoke MY language-- of the arts. We discussed how we know when something is beautiful. It can be a physical feeling-- a swelling in the heart or a jolt of excitement. It can be because the word usage is beautiful or because you find yourself being swept away into a new world. Or even because you can relate with a character. She becomes me. We watched a short film and analyzed it. We talked about interpreting. There's nothing better in this life than interpreting a message so that it spe

aks directly to you.

My teacher then introduced the scriptural foundation of the class. It just so happened that it came from my favorite chapter of the Book of Mormon. 1 Nephi 11. He shared verses 10-11.

"And he said unto me: What desirest thou? And I said unto him: To know the interpretation..."

I think I audibly sighed in class when we read that. I just love that chapter so much because it is so visual and it speaks so much to me about the life of Jesus Christ and and how it relates to the teachings of the Book of Mormon. What a tender mercy that my teacher could share such a personal message for me in a class that brings me such a

nxiety. It made me feel like I can handle it and that it will be quite enjoyable.

Here's my new hair for the season. It's kind of different but I like it.

I'm not ready...

So Adrianne and I are homeless right now and living at Jordan's house. Tonight was soccer night. Both Cameron and Tyler had games so Jordan and Mike went to Cameron's game to coach and Adrianne and I went to Tyler's game to try to do the Soccer mom thing. Totally freaky experience. First of all I get really into sports and I tend to trash talk the opposing team and cheer really loud and obnoxiously for my team. So as you can imagine I was loudly complaining about the difference in size between the purple team and the white team. Tyler played for white and was the tallest kid on the team. Everyone else was really small. The purple team was full of monsters who were fast and good at dribbling and even scoring. They won.

The worst part was that Adrianne put me in charge of treat duty. Everyone knows that all the kids are out there pretending to have their heads in the game but all they think about is the treat they will get at the end. Well after counting 14 white jerseys about 10 times I finally conceded that we didn't have enough treats. We had 12 rice crispy treats and 10 capri suns. Luckily as I was running out the door to the game I grabbed two chewy granola bars to eat during the game to tide me over till dinner. So I added the granola bars to the treat pile and decided that 2 kids would have to have a granola bar instead of a capri sun. That still makes 12 and 12. We were still short treats for two kids. Well, Adrianne and I decided that we'd grab Tyler after the game and ask him if he could hold out till we got home and we'd get him a different treat. That still left 1 kid without a treat. So we decided that we were sure that at least one kid would maybe not want a treat or that they would be in a hurry and their parents would run off with them before the treats were handed out.

I spent an hour worrying about this and begging Adrianne to take the responsibility and whining that I was just not soccer mom material. We debated who was most "soccer mom" worthy and SHE would have to be the one to handle the treat fiasco. Adrianne says, "Maggie, you are 24. You could have kids of your own by now. I'm 19." I said, "Adrianne, you have a boyfriend and are closer to being married and having children than I am." She said, "Maggie, you served a mission and are therefore much more capable of handling this..." I SHOULD have said, "Adrianne your major is Recreation Management and Youth Leadership. Therefore this is exactly what you study. You HAVE to do it." but instead the whistle blew and the game was over. Adrianne shoved the treats in my hands and said, "Go Maggie. You can do it!" I was freaking out.

I walked slowly over to the white team and I pretended to be all confident and stuff. I grabbed Tyler and asked if he would wait to see if we had enough. He said sure. I then held out the treats and started asking the kids if they wanted one. I had a few takers but realized the kids' hands were so full they were dropping everything. FULL OF TREATS!! Some other mom had beat me to it! Granola bars and Sqeez-its! I couldn't believe it! I was getting the dirtiest looks from the moms and dads and coaches. Why was I out there giving out double doses of sugar!!! And who was I? They didn't know me. I could have been some psycho woman out trying to drug up their kids! Well it turns out the other "mom" didn't have enough treats either and so she was glad I was there. I still walked away with extras. Then she very politely tried to ask me who I was and why I was there trying to give out treats. SHE was in charge of treats. I said I was there representing my sister who was Tyler's mom and that she had asked me to hand these out. The lady was confused but polite and I felt so idiotic.

Adrianne and I walked back to the car with Tyler and I ate a rice crispy treat while I explained that I would be the most bomb mom ever.

We paused the heated discussions every once in a while to snap a few weirdo pics.

Seriously, she puts up with so much from me.

I conquered the GRE...

I was going crazy the last hour of my study and I took a few pics to document the insanity...

I was also completely freaking out...

So I took the test and did ok. Right now I'm just so proud of myself that I did it! I do however want to try to take it again so that I can try for a better score.
...when will it end?...

Mystery Destination

It may appear that we vacationed on some white sandy beach...but don't let this picture fool you. Oh no my friends, this picture was taken basically in our own backyard. I have spoken recently with many friends (including many who grew up here in the lovely Beehive State) and they have admitted to me that they've never been to the Great Salt Lake. WHAT?! It may feel like death and destruction as you venture out in the blazing heat to a lake that is dead, swarming in flies and, frankly, reeks, but look at it! It is so beautiful here and definitely everyone should come visit it. Where else can you float on just 6 inches of water?

We seriously had to walk a mile across burning hot white sand to get to the water!

Here's Tyler and Jeff getting ready to splash in the water! (Keep your eyes and mouth closed!)

Jeff, Tyler, Ann, and Dad. I was the designated picture taker that day so no pics of me (plus I was wearing yellow that day so I would have seriously disturbed the color palette I've got going on here)

seriously so pretty! I loved the muted colors and how the scenery just blended.

I love watching my dad teach his grandkids the same tricks he taught us!

not dressed appropriately for hiking...

Dad and Ann came to town a few weeks ago and brought Jeff with them for his first trip to Utah. It was fun to get to relive some of my childhood experiences by tagging along with Jeff for all the fun!

Here we all are after riding the ski lift to the top at Sundance. We got off and hiked around for a while and I was definitely wearing the wrong outfit but when has that ever stopped me?

Here's Dad looking really cheerful with Cameron. They shared a seat with me and Ann and Jeff followed behind in the next one.

I gotta admit it was kind of scary but was totally peaceful and fun too.

Ann was freaking out...

Here's the boys playing in the water after the ride.

Aunt Maggie is the bomb.

I babysat these cute little guys a few weeks ago and one of our activities was to dress up and take pictures. Here's what they came up with...

Trevan ran straight for his Doggy costume and cowboy hat (??)... :)

Tyler became the best spiderman ever. Toby's got nothing on this kid's form... (can't wait to see Tyler translate these moves to the basketball court!)

Cameron as always was the most creative of all. Nice combo.
Stay tuned to see these pop up at their wedding receptions in 20 or so years!

My newest obsession is the blog titled: Frolic

I can't tell you enough how wonderful everything is that she features and she updates it daily. It brings joy to my life!

I'm so in love with this wallpaper I could scream. I never thought I'd say the words "love" and "wallpaper" in the same sentence!

Today I also bought for $2.50 a piece two gloriously gaudy gold decorative frames. I'm excited to decorate my room with them. Sorry I don't have a picture of them. I can't wait to take the Framing class here at the MOA so that one day I can make my own sickeningly gaudy gold frames.
I guess you could say those are my two most recent obsessions.