I Believe in America

 Well folks I just spent the last 5ish days campaigning in Las Vegas for Mitt Romney. Although we didn't get the results we wanted I had an amazing weekend and wouldn't trade it for anything. It was such an exciting feeling being a part of the team, even if just a small part. I met so many kind people and we all felt a bond by our hope for America. I learned so much about the race and the implications and I am very glad that I took the time to be involved. Every morning all of the volunteers (from Utah, Ido and California) met up for our morning rally, full of cheers and speakers to pump us up for the day. Then we set out in vans and started knocking doors. We had a list of people and we'd just knock and leave literature (political talk for flyers haha) at homes. They'd get us all together in the afternoon for a speaker and dinner then we had the night to ourselves. I went out on the strip twice with some friends and had a great time. I've always hated vegas, it's just dirty and nasty but I actually had fun this time. One of my favorite things we did was at the Coca Cola store. You can buy a tray of 16 coca cola sodas from all of the world, Watermelon soda from China, Mint soda, gross Italian soda. It was so fun to taste all of the different flavors. We also stopped by the M&M store and bought ourselves some patriotic red, white, and blue M&Ms. I also loveeed the fountain show at the Bellagio, so beautiful. The first night it went to "I'm Proud to be an American" which was quite fitting. It was overall a very fun weekend. I was so proud to represent the Romney Ryan team in Vegas and I will continue to pray for America and our President.

 

 

On a different note October has ended and November is in full swing. My Birthday month gotta love it. Here's a link to a new thing I'm starting, the Monthly Montage. A new friend I've made up here makes great weekly Monday Montages and I'm copying hit a bit. I've realized how fun it is to have a lot videos, so check out October's Video here.

On an Art note, my 2D design class decided to put up a show of our work on the 5th floor of the HFAC. The night before we were suppose to put it up I decided to stay up all night and turn one of my little church sketches into a nice little painting. Here it is. It's one of my favorite things I've done so far. That's why you've probably already seen in on Instagram and or Facebook. Sorry bout it.

Also I just happened to run into my Art teacher on Friday and his drawing club and they invited me to stay. It was with a lot of the Studio Art professors here at school including Brian Kershisnik who is a well known and awesome painter. It was really cool to sit in our their drawing club and listen to them talk about art and life. I think i'll go again this week.

Halloweekend

Just some lovely fall pictures with my girl Camrie.

BYU Museum of Art was my favorite place this week. I spent some time going through the fairly recent Andy Warhol exhibit which was lovely. The MOA cafe is also one of my favorite places to eat on campus! AND the museum store can keep me entertained for hours. There's a book there called "All my Friends are Dead."It's hilarious. If you ever see it in a bookstore take the time to read it cause it's the funniest little book i've ever read.

My bed=my real favorite place.

I thought this was pretty, the view from the top of the Utah Valley Convention Center

After a halloween dance party we all stopped at Sammy's for some pie shakes and burgers. I love this place, such a fun atmosphere and good food.

Mint oreo pie shake...I get it every time

Guys I got to hang out with pretty much all my favorite girl friends in one place.

Ella

Kenzie

Megan

Camrie

Jane (she's a zombie tourist obviously)

Lovely October

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love fall. Oh so much. Last night we went up to a friends house in midway and carved pumpkins, drank cider, watched Halloween movies and just had a grand time. The girls slept at one house and the guys at another and joined up for chocolate chip pancakes in the morning. It was so much fun and good bonding time with new friends.


Also folks I got an iPhone so get ready for more posts with more pictures! So happy.

a good costume, a good concert, some good weather, a good future

a good costume...
Well folks October has hit and it's that time of year again. The time of year when girls take advantage of Halloween and being wearing smaller and smaller things. For mostly this reason alone I've always hated Halloween. I went to my first costume party of the season and instead of taking the approach of most girls (wearing as little as possible) my friends and I covered our selves up quite well and went to the dance as Polygamists. It was quite funny, we had name tags that said Wife #1, #2, and #3 and one of our guy friends was our husband. It was so surprising to see how many people loved our costumes. In fact it seemed like the skankiest girls liked it the most and kept asking for pictures with us. Anyway the dance was fun, the costumes were fun, it was just a fun night.

a good concert..
One of my friends asked me awhile back if I wanted to go to a concert with him at the Velour (Provo's hip music venue) and I'm down for pretty much any concert so I said yes. Well we showed up last night and to be honest I didn't even know the band's name until we were at the door, but they're called Book on Tape Worm and they were soooo good. It was a cool experience in itself. Unlike most concerts they set up chairs which I was grateful for, it was nice to relax and soak it all in. They had the entire venue decorated in fake trees and twinkling lights and it felt very much like walking into a fairytale. They were so soo good and I loved every minute of it.


good weather... 
Fall in Utah is incredibly beautiful. I literally walk out my door everyday and loose my breath at the sight of the gorgeous mountains. I seriously can't get over them. For one thing the mountains are just huge and striking but they're also so bright red and orange and for the past couple days there have been foggy clouds constantly rolling over them. I love this crisp, cool weather with everyone dressed up in little coats and boots. Saturday was our Homecoming Football game and we had a black out. The team had sweet new black uniforms and we all sported black as well. Afterwards we had a tailgate dinner with a bunch of friends and it ended in a photo shoot against the beautiful mountains.



a good future...
In Sunday school today my teacher brought up a phrase that I love, he siad, "Have faith filled action not fear filled reaction." I've been thinking about that lately and I it applies to me a lot, especially after the big conference announcement. I've always wanted to serve a mission but when the opportunity prevents itself two years early I started rethinking. My first thoughts were fear filled reaction, thinking about how I turn 19 in a month and how a mission would be harder than I had imagined. Then I calmed down and have taken a more faith filled action approach. I really feel like this announcement's timing is important for me and I feel good about going on a mission but I probably won't be leaving until end of summer so our family can have a month or two with Spencer home and us all together. The more I think about a mission the more excited I get. It's weird talking to my guy friends now and realizing we're all leaving around the same time. I feel like this is a very exciting thing for our freshman class especially and I'm so inspired by so many already stepping up to the call.


My newest art project "foxy"

Thank you Megan Baker for taking beautiful pictures and sharing them with me. 

Madison's currently listening to...

Say for Certain and Greenleaf by Generationals

Nancy From Now On by Father John Misty

Our Deal by Best Coast

Pretty much any Sondre Lerche song

Open Season by High Highs

No Surprises by Radiohead

We Don't Eat by James Vincent McMorrow

Lovely Cup by Grouplove

Anna Sun by Walk The Moon

Little Boxes by Walk off the Earth

Either Way by Beta Radio

I'll Never Leave You- Rogue Wave

Love Away-Captial Cities

College Round 2

*International Cinema- I love love love going to the International Cinema, I've seen two really good films these past two weeks. The first was Paris je T'aime which was a combination of about 20 short stories all set in Paris. I just want to go to Paris so badly. It was the funniest mix of really artsy deep stories to weird vampires and cheap fake blood. I loved it though. The second film I saw was The First Grader about an 84 year old Kenyan man who takes advantage of the government's new policy of free education for all and tries to go back to school to learn to read. It's an incredibly inspiring and sad but good movie. The music is awesome and the kids are the cutest things ever, watching them in school reminding me a lot of the sweet Indian kids that I miss so much. I highly suggest watching both but if you don't have much time watch the First Grader, so good.

*Group Dates- I'm a big fan of group dates. It's a good way to get to know new friends. Last week I got bored in Sunday School and I planned a massive group date. Basically I set up all my friends and it was one massive blind date. All 15 couples went to the good ol' Nickel City where we played some game and a lot of laser tag. It was way fun. A little stressful setting it all up but way fun.

*Dance Parties- I may not be a good dancer but man do I love a good dance party. The first month of school that's like all we did but it's slowed down a little bit.

*Midnight In-N-Out Runs: It's become somewhat of a tradition to fit as many people as I can into my car (sorry mom, i'm safe I promise..) and head over to In-N-Out at midnight on Sundays because at midnight we aren't breaking the sabbath anymore. It's actually quite funny to see how many people show up at midnight, it's quite the party.
*Tunnel Singing- Alright this is sooo BYU so don't criticize (eh utah fans) but on Sunday nights they have tunnel singing, basically about 100 kids show up at the tunnel by the Marriot Center and we sing hymns and people announce their mission calls. It's really a cool thing to be a part of.
*True Blue Foam Slide- This actually happened yesterday but as one of the Homecoming week activities they had a huge slip-n-slide with blue foam. It was so crazy but so fun. I was blue all over, still am in some spots actually, even my contact got dyed blue. It was soo much fun to just dive into pits of blue foam. So weird but so fun.

*The Cannon Center- For you not familiar with BYU the cannon center is where all the kids in the dorm eat. It's honestly one of my favorite places on campus. It's so fun to go in there and see everyone...I mean everyone. Sometime's I'll walk in with one group of friends eat, see another group has walked in, go sit with them and just keep floating around. It's such a good meeting place.
*Classes- My two favorite classes are not Art (2D design) and Sociology. My Art teacher is the bomb. He's in his mid 30's not married and just awkward and great. He gives very open ended assignments and really wants you to focus on art that you love and in developing your style. I love love love it. He has great insight but the class isn't too structured. And he's so funny, such an awkward funny guy. Our assignment for class on Tuesday is to bring our all time favorite song and play it for the class haha college is great. Sociology is awesome as well. I love talking about all these theories and how we are influenced by the society around us. It's so fascinating. Every time I walk out of class I have a new way at looking at situations and people knowing a little bit more of what's behind their motives.

*Stover Hall- I seriously love the dorms. I'm not sad one bit that I don't have my own bathroom, kitchen, or even a living room area to hang out. I love the girls on my floor and I love just walking into each others rooms whenever and staying up late watching movies (lately megs is making me watch all the classic disney channel movies because apparently I had no childhood haha) and chatting about who knows what.
*Football Games- I love BYU football everyone knows that. It's been so fun going to all the games and sitting with by Bountiful friends. This weekend is our homecoming game and the team got new black jersey's their sick I'm excited for the blackout!

*Alpine Slide- The alpine slide is a must for me and we went last weekend and the hills were beautifully yellow! Living in California for two years has made me appreciate Utah's beauty way more, the mountains are gorgeous especially during the fall!

*Friends- I am very grateful for my friends. I have a solid group that I hang out with but it's also fun cause we're always meeting new people. I am very lucky to have met such good and fun kids.

there's probably more that I'm not thinking of but there ya go. College is treating me well.