2010 in Review.

I can not believe that 2010 has come and gone. 

It seems like just yesterday I was leaving DC, graduating, trying to debate between saying twenty-ten or two thousand and ten, and writing my 2009 review post and reminiscing on the amazing year I had in 2009.  

And now 2011 is literally just around the corner.

And I think this year Im going to settle with twenty-eleven.
The other just seems like too much of a mouth full.

When I wrote my 2009 review I knew going into 2010 held a lot of unknown. This was my first year not in school and supposedly my first year until adulthood.

2010 has brought on...

A lot of changes. 
And for someone who self admits to hate change, thats kind of a big deal. 

A lot of heartbreak.

A lot of frustrations.

A lot of fun.

A lot of moving. 

A lot of crying. 

A lot of new friends.

A lot of new experiences.

And a lot of the unexpected. 

And with that my 2010 Year in Review..

January. 

I moved back to Utah! I lived in a apartment that was not Lanai. After being there for a week I got an amazing job at Oak Canyon Jr High. I still miss that job! I took a trip to Vegas with the Lanai Crew to see Bardi. Celebrated my 23rd Birthday! 

February.

I saw Jason Castro in concert with my roommate Aubrey. Went to a Monster Truck Rally instead of having a Valentine's Date. Two trips back home to escape the cold. 

March.

Busy month. 2nd annual trip to Dodgers Spring Training. Partied with the Lanai Crew at a wedding. Got to see Allie Barker again! Went on lots of dates. 

April. 

Got a boyfriend. Experienced a Spring Break for the first time in four years. Went to General Conference. Graduated from college! It just became more official walking across a stage. Went home for a weekend to go to Disneyland and attend first Dodger game of the season.

May. 

Finally started to enjoy somewhat warm weather in Provo. Lost my two best friends Taylor and Chanel by having them move away from me. Prayed a lot. My job ended. 

June.

 Decided to move home! I packed up my car and drove to LA all by myself in the first week. It was definitely an unexpected change in my life. Went to a lot of Dodger games. Went to Temecula to see some of my Lanai friends. Two Kobe Bryant sightings. One of my most favorite people, Lillie, came home from her mission!

July. 

Started to somewhat have a job. Experienced first round of heartbreak in the year. Decided I needed to make friends in order to be more happy. Made awesome friends. Kelly and the kids came to visit. Hung out by the pool everyday with the kids. Went to the beach a lot. Drove up the coast with family to see some beach towns, San Fransisco and the Dodgers. 

August. 

Went to Newport to see Taylor. Reunited with GH kids. Started to love living in LA and love my NR3 ward and friends. Really became BFF with Rudy. He helped me in so many ways, and more ways then he probably knows. Started a new job! More trips to Dodger games and the beach. Continued to debate on what I should do with my life.

September.

Went to Las Vegas and St George to see the Lanai Crew and go to JB's wedding. Stayed up late, walked the strip and partied with all of my favorite people. Went to a concert. Do I need to mention that I went to Dodger games? Realized that I was super happy living in LA.

October. 

Probably should have started looking for a new job, but I didnt. Went back to Utah for the first time since Spring and for the first time not actually living there. Got to see my Provo friends as well as family for my cousin's wedding. Realized I didn't really miss Provo. Went on lots of dates. 

November. 

Back to unemployment. Its the story of my life this year. Started temping again, depended on the day if I liked it or not. Went to the beach the first weekend. Went on lots of fun outings with friends: karoke, City Walk, powderpuff football, Auto Show, Hollywood Park, Girl's Night, Harry Potter. Robyn. Needed these fun outings to get over douche. 

December. 

Continue to temp while trying to look for a job. Continue to stress on a daily basis about my life. Got to hang out with Annie and Chanel. Continue to party hard with my NR3 friends and love every minute of my new crew that I have. Lots of Christmas celebrations--Temple lights, candy can lane, Newport lights, Gingerbread house making, Secret Santa with friends, Christmas movies. Spend time with the fam for Christmas.

In the end it was a great year.
There were some rough patches. But it was fun. And I learned and I enjoyed it.
I am ever so grateful for my growing testimony in the Gospel that truly helped me get through this year of change.
2010 wasnt as good as 2009 and I hope for an even better year for 2011.

Some things I want for 2011:
More fun.
More friends.
More change. But in a good way.
A job.
An apartment. no offense ma and pops.
Love.
And more adventures.

{Happy New Year!!}

Christmas Time.

Christmas is over??

How did it come and go so fast. 

We had a great Christmas season at the Robins home this year. 

The best part was easily having my sister Kelly and her family escape the snowy land of Utah and enjoy some rain (as well as some sun) in Southern California. Kelly has been a bah humbug and not come home for Christmas in 8 years. It was definitely a needed visit. 

Due to the excitement and fun I actually decided to just enjoy the time together and not snap away so many photos as I usually do. So with that I dont have too many pictures to share. 

Some of the highlights from the trip included going to The Grove, playing lots of video games, walks around the neighborhood, basketball in the cul de sac, the annual Christmas Eve party, Denny's Christmas Eve breakfast, lots of shopping, seeing Gulliver's Travels, lots of puzzle making, getting fought over by my buddies and of course opening up lots of presents Christmas morning. 

 The baby girls. Both kinda drama. Love necklaces. Love their mommas. One has a mullet, the other has lots of hair. Both cute. Love them both.

 Mama Mia and her Identity Disordered Eyes. 

The huge Christmas tree at The Grove. Laura and I took the babes around as Ella and my mom and Kelly were in the American Girl store. I kinda loved pushing Kate around and pretending to be her mom. I think we could pass.

All the kiddies. There are only six and it was still a struggle getting this picture.

Christmas Eve with Miss Ella Bella. 

Shopping a few days after Christmas. Chase wanted a new Dodgers hat. I tried to convince him to get this one so he could look like a thug. He didnt agree but still cheesed up for this shot. 

Christmas truly is the most wonderful time of the year. 

And so of course I still have N Sync "Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays" as my ringtone. Just for a few more days at least.

lee bee and annabell.

My senior year of college, Whitney and I were going to room with two semi random girls. 

We were a tad nervous. 

We hadnt done that before. 

These two random girls turned out to be Christina and Annie. 

Those nerves I felt never materialized because within a matter of days we became such good friends. 

They both went on missions. And I missed them A LOT.

If you dont remember how much, I blogged about multiple times.

As they were about to come home I literally began counting down.

I should have had made a paper chain. I was just that excited. 

It was so great to talk and the phone with them and be able to be real friends again. 

After a few weeks of them being home Annie called me one day. 

A: "How far away are you from Los Angeles?"

L: "Um, I live in LA..."

A: "Can I come visit you?"

L: "YES PLEASE"

And a week later she was on a plane to come see me!

Unfortunately she came into town Friday afternoon and I had to work. But my mom picked her up and they drove to my work to take me to lunch. When they got there Annie and I definitely had one of those "running to each other and jumping up and down as we embraced" moments. We were both just that excited to finally see each other after a long year and a half. 

Annie and I need some good quality BFF time. But I also wanted to show here around LA since she has never been here before. 

Friday night I took her to Hollywood. A great place to go after the mish. 

The Pantages Theater. 

Grauman's Chinese Theater.

The Kodak Theater.

And sneaking into The El Capitan Theater (and almost getting to see Tron for free)

Saturday, We snuck in Annie to the gym (we got really good at being sneaky)

And then headed to The Grove to do some awesome shopping and get more into the Christmas Spirit. 

Saturday night we got to see Chanel! As she made a stop in LA on her way to Mesa. Cause if she came to LA one more time and didnt stop and see me I was gonna shank her. 

We definitely all stayed up until 4 AM chatting and catching up and seriously talked about everything. And I couldnt have loved it or needed it more. 

Sunday came and they went to church with me. It made me miss Lanai so much. I miss our RS A TON. 

Of course when they left I cried and was so sad. Sometime amazing weekends suck when they have to come to an end. But I am so grateful for both of them in my life.

I miss you girls! 

Thank you Annabell for coming to visit me! I loved every second of it. It was seriously an amazing weekend. 

I miss you so much. 

I miss us being roommates. 

I am so grateful for you in my life and the amazing blessing of having you move in with me. 

You will always be one of my bestest friends. 

I love this girl! and need her back in my life!

faux roommates.

A couple of months ago I was venting to my friend Rudy about not having enough close girlfriends here in LA. Granted this was just more recently after moving back, but I still felt like I was lacking a good group of close girl BFFs.

His response was “I can see you becoming good friends with Mindy”

“Ya me too. I like her. I want to become better friends with her.”

Mindy is from Sandy. Moved her just a few weeks before me to be a nanny for a lady in the stake.

She is bomb.

Super funny. Super cute. Amazing dancer. Always up for a party. Loves talking about boys. Gives awesome advice.

We started hanging out more. Dodger games. Sleepover at my house. Robyn concert. Girls Night Out. Temple trip. Dances.

The more we hung out the more I loved this girl.

Two weeks ago she called me in a panic. See the lady she works for is an absolute wench. Problems happened and as a result Mindy and this family were parting. She packed her bags and that night she moved in with me.  Unfortunately I had to work most of the days she was living with me. But when night time came and we were all hanging out with friends I absolutely loved turning to Mindy and saying “ready to go home?” like we were legit roommates.

On Monday I didn’t have to work and the forecast was about 80 degrees. With that, we headed to the beach. In December. Need I say more? We had the most amazing time. I think Mindy and I repeatedly said, “This is the BEST day ever” We could not have had more fun.

We walked the pier.

Rode bikes along the strand.

Walked on the sand. Felt the water.

And took a ridiculous amount of photos.

It was the perfect day. So much fun. Lots of laughs. Good chats. Good shopping. And a great way to go out of California with a bang.

The horrible part of all of this is that after living together for a week we became even better friends and I loved her even more! And then she had to leave and move back to Utah.

I miss you Mindy!

Come back to LA.

And lets be roomies again. But for reals this time. Not in my parent’s house.

i aint no student, im a teacher.

I love being nostalgic. I love looking back, reminiscing and remember what I was doing at a certain time on a certain date. And today is just one of those days. 

Today makes one year since my very last school day as a student teacher at Wilson High. 

There is not a day that goes by that I do not think of that school. Those students. My students. My classroom.

When I signed up to go to DC two years I had no idea how profound of an impact that experience would have on my life. 

Yes it was hard. 

There were many times I cried. 

I had to make a list of things I love about teaching to get me through those stressful and difficult days.

I contemplated dropping out of student teaching and just hoped they would still let me graduate without finishing.

I started counting down the days and lessons I had to plan. 

I had to pray real hard every morning and night for strength. 

But if I could go and relive my school days, my very last dance party with my students, I would do it in a second. 

Of course all of those stressful moments are overlooked when you remember a group of students telling you that World History is their favorite class. 

When a student says that you are a great teacher and they learn so much everyday. 

When one student, who is always late and never does his work, comes up to you after the lesson and asks: "Ms. Robins, what are we going to be learning about tomorrow?"

When they get captivated by World War I. 

Well mostly trench foot.

When they come into my classroom during prep, just to say hi and chat. 

When I teach them about Teddy Roosevelt and they get excited about the Rough Riders and DMX.

When on my very last day of class every single one of my students gives me a hug goodbye. 

I miss all of that. 

I miss the dance parties, sharing horoscopes and our today in history moments. 

I miss the excitement of seeing them learn, because I taught them.

 I miss being called Ms. Robins.