A TV Show I'm Currently Addicted To:

Once Upon A Time is on ABC on Sundays so I usually can catch it on Hulu or ABC.com the next day. This is the shows first season and it's a bit cheesy, but I still watch it. I love how the show classifies all fairy tale characters in our world. And Prince Charming is quite charming. . .I think it's very appropriate for young teenagers girls and their mom. Watch it. You're only 5 episodes behind!

Why Beckanisms?

I created the name of my blog title. All my life I have had people play around with my name to make nicknames--but I decided when I got a blog several years ago that I wanted to share my thoughts on anything. Thus,

Beck + -isms = Beck(an)isms

And I loved the quote, "Never suppress a general thought." It keeps following me around showing up in lessons, challenges, talks and has become a favorite. I hope to always be positive--although, I'm human. :)

Christmas Delight #1

Utah Valley Bell Choir

Free concert at the Provo Library tonight.

I have always wanted to go to watch a Bell Choir. Actually, one day to be IN a Bell Choir. I think it is so, so cool! I was ecstatic when I found out about this opportunity and it didn't let me down. Babies were everywhere. Children were really funny. Music was fun! And I got to sit on a window sill even to listen because there were no seats available. An excellent start for Christmas and my desire to do a lot of delightful things and FHE.

When My iPod (Erwin) Is On Shuffle The First 10 Songs To Play

1. The Lord's Prayer--Mormon Tabernacle Choir

2. Lullaby--Jack Johnson

3. Turn Me On--Vitamin C [I didn't even know Vitamin C was on my iPod...]

4. Ain't No Sunshine--Vocal Point

5. Upside Down--Jack Johnson

6. Vanilla Twilight--Owl City

7. King of Anything--Sara Bareilles

8. Elder L. Tom Perry--April 2011 General Conference

9. Good Life--One Republic

10. Brown Eyes--Andy Davis

What's In The Make-Up Bag?

This is dumb. But let me go and grab it...I still haven't put on my make-up yet today, so this will just get me one step closer to finishing the morning.

-2hair-bands

-2 things of eye-shadow

-eye-lash curler

-complexion-touch top thing

-old mascara

-really thick mascara

-2 eye-liners

-tweezers

-eye-lash brushes

-2 silly bandz (an alien and space ship)

My Favorite Place To Eat Would Be. . .

Yoder's Restaurant and Bakery

In Montezuma, Georgia (about 45 minutes away from Byron) there lies a ton of agriculture and a couple of blocks of land with the name "Yoder's" everywhere. A Mennonite dwelling, community, homestead, etc. Anyway, the Bakery here is to die for...mmm mmm mmm their Cherry Pie. And their food is SO GOOD.

The building you see (that looks like a Barn) is where you eat the food. There's amazing wood-work on the front porch to sit and rock with the folk. And on the left of that building, there's this side-door with a Bakery of really cheap homemade everything bakery! The semi-barn you see at the very left of the photo is this awesome Gift Shop. They sell really pretty Gazebo's out in front and inside there's homemade knick-nacks that are really cool. I would recommend it to everyone--the drive is long--but really pretty!

The Last Thing I Purchased:

They were on sale, $3.97 at WallyWorld. And since they're going to be taken off the buyer's market come the new year and released every 7 years--I decided it was an essential purchase for my future home. Maybe Santa will get me the last two to finish off the set?

Shanksgiving!

On Wednesday, the 30-day writing challenge thing said I should talk about my wedding. Not happening, since I"m unmarried and I'd rather leave the wedding dreams to reality and my mother's ears. Then yesterday was Shanksgiving! And I was suppose to put up a song that matched my mood?! Umm, probably Simple Things by Jim Brickman. An old favorite. I use to listen to on repeat when I was reallllllyyyyyy little while I bathed in my mom/dad's bathtub. Since we all know parent's bathtubs are more ideal then the 'kid's bath'. She always kept some musical-playing-device in the bathroom as she got ready and I think I was obsessed with the song. Anyway, we had a great day. When I'm home on vacation--life slows down A LOT (more details coming about the empty nesters in another post). Maybe it's the South. Or the lack of things to do, places to be, homework assignments to be written, but I usually end up sleeping, reading, watching movies, occasionally talking to the parents, following Macey around and bothering her and then starting over. It's quite refreshing anyways. But I decided that I was grateful specifically for the simple things: to be home, doing my own thing, not being too productive, helping mom in the kitchen, sleeping in, catching 5 minutes of Macey's Parade to watch Santa come, and yes, even having a holster attached to my hip with my dad making me practice dry firing the pistol, or going to spend Thanksgiving with the Peterson's. There's just a simplicity of the way of life that the men--non-nonchalantly watch football; the woman in the kitchen trying to finish the cooking, keeping things warm, breaking kitchen appliances, keeping 'ze babies out of the way, and hoping it all tastes good and no disasters really happen. And then the simplicity of toddlers. Grant and Blake are so cute. It was fun to actually spend time with them too--trying to understand Blake and do things "again, again". I loved the simple things of the quiet evening--watching Jane Eyre, the 4-hour one, upstairs with Mom 'til the late evening hours, just like old times. And then me finishing the poorly-written but decent book I was casually intrigued in reading. I'm grateful to be home.

Meet Goat Face: The Animal I Would Keep As A Pet If Macey Wasn't Around.

Edumacation:

Get one! I am.

It's the thing to do.

If you ever really want to

Hear my thoughts on the subject

Ask me in person, okay?

And I"ll tell you.

Shanks!

Notice the perfect bell curve? Can you tell I'm taking Statistics right now?

The Retired Couple And Their Dog.

I lived the retired life for a week! John gave up his precious Skymiles to send me as a peace offering to Georgia for the week of Thanksgiving because he backed out of his flight and Thanksgiving plans with my parents. I am pretty spoiled by my brothers. So I found out that I had a ticket and then left 12 hours later from Salt Lake. Thank goodness I have awesome friends who took me and picked me up from the airport. It was great surprising my Mom and Dad though! I've always wanted to surprise somebody by showing up and it was well worth their happy surprised faces to see their favorite child home! For a week! And I get to go home in 3 weeks! S.P.O.I.L.E.D.

Anyways, I immediately began noticing that things were different than when I originally left for college and left them as empty nesters.

I moved to Georgia with Mom and Dad, I spent 4 years with just me and them at the dinner table, Church, movies, FHE, scripture study, prayer. I am SO glad I convinced them to let me keep Macey my Junior year. It was so fun to be there for her puppy puppy years and then leave her to still be a stinker-pot (as Mom calls her) for my parents to adjust to life without me. And Macey has just waltzed right in to be a huge part of my parents routine. It's really quite adorable. And now--going on 3 years of me being away--I can tell that the parents have finally gotten into the routine of being around each other ALL THE TIME and doing their retired such activities/new hobbies:

-Morning walks (sometimes together) with Macey

-Macey's restlessness til Dad plays this game where he throws treats down either way of the hallway for her to go and fetch Help in the kitchen. Then her daily mid-morning nap on various rugs/parents room. Lunch time stroll through the house to see what's up and if she can see any bunny rabbits in the front yard from the windows to bark at, afternoon in the backyard soaking up the sunshine, coming in to be let out of the house without her leash to get the mail with Mom--pretty exciting for her, then off to beg for attention and play, and follows the parents around at dinner, and then off to lay in the bedroom soft carpet for evening naps.

-Mom cooks breakfast, lunch, and dinner

-Dad drives the kids to school (he's a bus driver! LOVE IT.)

-Mom reads, sews, plays the piano, cleans, Blogs (that's new)

-Dad still maintains his many hobbies which have expanded with the use of the internet and time. (hunting, maintaining his dutch ovens, guns, food storage, a form of blogging with others who believe its the end of the world (AVOW), listen to talk radio FAITHFULLY at 12 noon with every radio in the house blaring, and every Monday he's gone as a County volunteer firefighter!!! And going to the County Political Meetings and lunch meeting every Wednesday.

-Mom loves her TV Shows, which I miss watching with her in the evenings, and Dad still goes to bed quite early.

Of course when I'm home we change a few things due to us rubbing off on each other. But life slowed down A WHOLE LOT, when I was home. It felt so familiar. Funny how much life changes within a few short years but when you step back into the old lifestyle it all comes back deja vu with familiarity sensors going wild. But that's for another post.

The Best (Girl) Friends.

This question: "Whose Your Best Friend?"--I dislike. Everyone knows that you can have more than one bestie--basically. And that family and boyfriends and roommates (generally) at the time usually trump the other friends. Best friends become the "best" for different reasons. And when we're really close they move in and out of the bestie category. But I just decided to take the names that first couple of friends I am closest too right now who I am grateful to be me because they are in my life. They're the friends that I hope we stay in contact; if not, then I'll use my stalker skills to hunt them down. Rather than showing you how I remember them, I decided to show how they're all different and unique by showing you their current Facebook profile as of right now:

Emily Watts

Lovingly referred to as:

Emiline

Em wins the loyalty award because we have been friends since the beginning. Like Washington beginning. Like 1st mormon friend. We became friends through the years of awkwardness, HUGE changes (moving to Georgia and Utah for us both), and we have always stayed close. We just know each other. We're different--but we've grown so much. But I absolutely know I wouldn't have had half the experiences I have had without her. She's the one who is NOT the morning person but will wake up early to drive me to the airport or stay up all night editing my paper. Selfless, she wouldn't think it--but she is and she has taught me a lot about it. I know we'll always be friends. We can be friends at a distance or I can live right above her; we can go months without talking if we're living states away and then spend summers together--it doesn't matter--we just pick up where we left off. I love Em for her care-free, optimistic mood in life. No matter what, she's there for me. And her clothes. :)

Megan Wright

Lovingly referred to as:

Sunshine

I wouldn't have transitioned to Georgia very well, or at all, if it wasn't for Megan. I loathe this girl! (Inside joke) Megan is a sister. We shared High School together. Peach County. She is The Southern Girl who got me to talk with an accent, wear pearls, have Vera Bradly, straighten my hair, dress up every Thursday, love window-down-driving-country-music blaring, love a good tan, and we respect each other and our beliefs. Megan is Baptist; I'm Mormon. People told her she couldn't be my friend. But we proved them wrong! I know we'll be at each other's weddings and will always have that connection. After all, those years in High School learning about life, gaining independence, breaking ups, and countless sleep-overs just bond people together. It did for us.

Baylee Martz Haynie

Lovingly referred to as:

Bales

Meet Bales. Gah! I love that this was her photo (although her wedding and engagement photos are GORGEOUS). But, this photo shows Baylee. The Baylee who loves Marching Band and is madly in love with our Drum Major. We met as Freshman at BYU and spent 2 wonderful years together. She taught me how to be Relief Society President, knows way to much about a lot of boys--probably because she asks and then just listens--and I"ll recount the same story after story of boys I currently like. We bonded at 6:30am in the snow in COLLEGE. I love her so much until we became roommates and inseparable 'til she met 'ol-man-Jared, her husband. They fell madly in love and I was lucky enough to see it all happen. I think I"m one of the luckiest people alive to have lived with Baylee my Sophomore year, and spend as much time as I did during her short single years because I got see her change. She claims she's no good with change--but she's better than ANYONE I know. Which is why she's going to be such a great mother. She does everything before me, and then humbly teaches me how to do it! I HOPE beyond hope, we always stay in at least phone-call-friendship; she's a special one.

Natalie Hodges

Lovingly referred to as:

Natty

Oh, how I love Natty. Basically this picture sums her up! THE END. Haha, but seriously. Pictures speak 1,000 words. Natalie is one of the most talented, righteous, optimistic, color-yellow, best-pruners, best EFY-er's, best piccolo-sitter-next-to-at football games, and overall just a GREAT person. I'm so curious to see who she marries. She has no fear and can laugh with anyone--definitely a spiritual gift. Natalie and I met in BYUs Marching Band Freshman Year, pruned together on our work crew last year, and were roommates in Rexburg this summer at EFY. I miss her like crazy, even though I see her 3-4 times a week. I'm always down to having a good conversation with her.

Katherine Steinacker

Lovingly referred to as:

Stinker-pickle or PleaseSlapMyButt or WigWam Lover or RSP or Dragonfly or My Current Roommate or Chill Dog

She's going to hate me, but I had to save the best for last right? I LOVE Katherine (she's on the left). She's so chill that sometimes I see how long it will take her to snap at me. Usually, it's at the end of the day, right after dozing on some books, and I do something to really get her and then BAM! She yells or throws something and I'm just ecstatic inside. Immature of me, I know. But for some reason, she brings that out of me. I hope for and dread the day Katherine gets married. I love being her roommate. She's the first roomie I have ever gotten into long discussions at night with and NOT fallen asleep first. She's super chill and just a down-to-earth, realistic person. She just DOES when a thought comes in and has opinions, but doesn't get over-heated at them at all. Most of the time, she listens and tunes me out. But I absolutely love the days that she opens her mouth and then just doesn't shut it. I could listen to her forever, and she has an awesome laugh. And she loves sports like Sis. Watts (that's saying something). And I love being with her all the time. I love her clothes. And I love that I know she's doing what the Lords wants her to do--be with me.

And and and and and

I miss her!

(And you better comment Katherine, because you always stalk this blog but NEVER do!)

My First Date. . .

Let me take you down memory lane.

I was sixteen and wearing jeans with a button-up plaid green and blue shirt. I went with Jake Harris, the Bishop's son (cliche--I know). We doubled with his older (married) sister Jenee and her husband Scott--they already had 3 kids. I think. Yeah, that's right.

We went bowling and then to dinner at O'Charley's. I think I had soup. It was fun. I think it was a little awkward, but I'm not sure why (most sixteen year-olds are awkward at that age). Maybe it was because I knew this was a date. And that was just really weird. Or because we were with a married couple and I have NEVER heard of my parents going on a date before that wasn't to the movies. I thought it was strange--yet cool, that Jenee and Scott could bowl too.

For some reason, I'm pretty sure after the date, Scott and Jake went back to their house to watch a man-flick and Jenee, Nicole Wallentine (who had been watching her kids) and I went back to my place to watch a chick-flick with my mom. Funny how we still managed to divide into our gender associations by the end of the night.

The end.

My Old Chump Carrots.

For being raised with boys and with her top 5 movies being decently action-packed ones:

THE FAVORITE

(movie--that horrifyingly--my mother didn't introduce me too until I was 15!)

Would have to be about the dramatic, simple, and hilarious life,

of a red-headed girl,

and her (make-shift) family

in a beautiful location.

Anne with an "e"

Some Favorite Quotes:

-"My life is a perfect graveyard of buried hopes. That's a sentence I read once and I say it over to comfort myself in these times that try the soul."

-"This is the most tragical thing that has ever happened to me."

-"Can't you even imagine you're in the depths of despair?"

-"I thought nothing could be as bad as red hair. Green is ten times worse."

-"Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088727/quotes

Hopeless Romantic For 3:51.

[Please push play before reading for the full effect of the story.]

Once upon a time there was a five-year-old Becky who was born in the 90s and who loved music. Absolutely adored it. From turning up her Mother's boombox in the kitchen and jumping on the trampoline to taking music and dance classes and choreographing songs with the neighbor kids, to being obsessed with soft rock on the radio anytime she was on the go; music was always around and always on. Her first memory of the song--that you should be hearing in your ears this very moment--became her favorite song on a drive home from a brother's baseball game. They were driving down this long lane of trees in the dark, windows open, 92.5 (?) blasting, and it was either a Wednesday or Saturday (because that was Becky's day to sit in the front seat of the Suburban), and Donna Lewis came on with this song. From then on, every time this magical song came on, imagine Becky's little blonde head holding a gleaming smile shouting the words with with her lisp (she unfortunately had until the 4th grade with a few letters) at the top of her lungs.

Then it became an old 90s hit and rarely came on the radio. Seven years later Becky decided to start one of her first searches on the computer to find this song name and artist. Once she did, she BEGGED for the CD, which wasn't even available in any entertainment/music stores. Luckily, her Mother found an old used CD from somewhere and surprised Becky with it. Oh the joy! Even after the hundreds of new favorite tunes that have been chosen to be played on repeat over and over and over again (sorry Mom, Katie-1st roommate ever - freshman year, Baylee-sophomore year, and Katherine-junior year) on Becky's trusty CD clock/radio, stereo, iPod, desktops and laptop. You probably have never even heard this song. This song trumps all. Guess it shows the hopeless romantic I am. :)

Titrhy Dya Clahlegne

Six months ago I would have said these things were kinda cheesy in my opinion:

Day 1 — Your favorite song.
Day 2 — Your favorite movie.
Day 3 – Your first date.
Day 4 – Your favorite photograph of your best friend.
Day 5 – How important do you think education is?
Day 6 – A photo of an animal you'd love to keep as a pet.
Day 7 –Your wedding.
Day 8 – A song to match your mood.
Day 9 – A photo of the item you last purchased.
Day 10 – A photo of your favorite place to eat.
Day 11 – What's in your makeup bag?
Day 12 – Put your iPod on shuffle: First 10 songs that play
Day 13 – The meaning behind your Blog name
Day 14 – A TV show you're currently addicted to.
Day 15 – Something you don't leave the house without.
Day 16 – Something you crave for a lot
Day 17 – How you hope your future will be like.
Day 18 – 5 things that irritate ME about the opposite/same sex.
Day 19 – Something you’re proud of in the past few days
Day 20 – Your favorite poem, book, and fictional character.
Day 21 – A photo of something that makes you happy.
Day 22 – Nicknames you have; why do you have them
Day 23 – A picture of you last year and now, how have you changed since then?
Day 24 – A photo of something that means a lot to you.
Day 25 – Who are you? What makes you different from everyone else
Day 26 – A photo of somewhere you've been and a picture of somewhere you want to go.
Day 27 – What kind of person attracts you.
Day 28 – In this past month, what have you learned?
Day 29 – Something you could never get tired of doing.
Day 30 – A photograph of yourself today + three good things that have happened in the past 30 days.

Nevertheless, I'm going to do it. I think I was reading through these things and decided they were all cool ideas to think and write about.

You Know You're A Growing College Adult But Still Feel Like A Child When...

-you cycle from being really prepared and organized to procrastinating and being lazy

-you go crazy because of the aforementioned cycle and your inability to snap out of the 'teenaged-ness' to the responsible adulthood you're finally craving

-you feel lonely because you don't have family around

-you miss your brother like crazy when you feel like you're going to have a mental breakdown (since the last 3 years of college you had his shoulder to lean on when you needed to vent--it was his duty to listen to you)

-ALL of your woman professors begin to look like you're mom, same skin level of wrinkled-ness, attributes, etc.

-you desire for all those woman professors to give you a motherly touch

-you ache for a long hug (preferably that of a baby's nestled hug)

-you anger easily because of the school work load, expectations from family members, and calling activities and the people in your committee who regularly bail on you after promising to do something

-then within 3 hours you get a KILLER sore throat, chills, fever, the whole works.

-you feel like you could cry when you realize the Lord is really there for you and for once (on the day of getting sick) you do the unthinkable, letting go of all pride and text your visiting teachers and home teachers. and they bring you throat lasanges, orange juice, priesthood blessings, lemon+honey-tea stuff, soup, more lasanges, and the roomies give you some needed tlc

-and after 14 years of attending school you realize that even though you're down in the dumps emotionally and phsyically, time will always move forward. so by tuesdayyou know you WILL be done with 4 midterm exams, 22 pages (several papers), 5 quizzes, 1 football game, 1 job interview for the summer, so many pages to be read, 1 service week, 1 ward social, 1 temple trip (yay!)

and then, i'll be able to take peaceful naps whenever i want, take my time accomplishing my shanksgiving to-do list, watching episodes, reading books, and thinking of everything these last 20 years has helped me become grateful for. oh the life of a growing college adult.