suck on that one Matt Briney

I just made the most amazing play ever on words with friends using my iphone 3GS

I'm back in the Saddle

Well to be honest I was never really in the saddle, so I guess I'm trying to find my way into a saddle. I'm bad at this whole blog thing. I have lots of thoughts and I have random adventure's I'd like to share but sometimes said adventures get in the way of actually writing about previous ones. So.... I've made a new goal: blog once a week. That's totally doable. Right? Right. Positive self talk - believe it, become it. However for now, I'm going to breeze past the last 3 months in pictures so everyone is up to date and I'm starting fresh on Sunday.

I get to go to the temple every week and I'm obsessed with going.

Business Card oh Business Card how I love thee

My job even allows me to go see crazy musicians like Michael Bolton

I joined a ward softball team and met lots good people and made fun friends

We celebrated the Mrs. birthday

I went to SoCal to visit friends and finally got to go to the 500 days of summer bench <3

Went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium

I have lots of random adventures with Jodi - she somehow always seems to get free food, this time from the 7-11

Halloween Parties

1920's golfer and Flapper

Oh hey, remember that time I was on Good Morning America?

Hold me closer Tony Danza! - Amazing live

Helped a client make the world's largest cotton swab - I'm going to be in Guiness

Finally went to the Airplane Graveyard - Officially crossed off my bucket list

I have a J O B

I started my great adventure out west on Saturday. I flew from Indianapolis to Phoenix with my, ultra Xanax-ed, sister Erin. I am living with her and her husband Aaron for a few months while I get everything figured out.

Mr. Aaron, as we like to call him, is very well connected in the community. He thought Ania, of ANGLES PR, and I would be a great fit. I was fortunate enough to meet with her yesterday. Accept a contract position today and will start tomorrow.

Heavenly Father is so good! :) I've been in Tempe for 3 days and I have a job for the next 3 months. I'm thinking I made the right choice when I decided to move here.

Life without a car

As many of you know, I lived 2,000 miles away from home for 4 and 1/2 years without a car. Many have asked yourself several times, how is possible to live so far from home with no car. I have 1 very important person to thank and 1 very important asset to thank.



# 1 Craig Shipley and his car - may she rest in peace
He was always so willing to give me a ride, drop me off, pick me up, road trip to Utah and back in one day. I would have not made it without him or his car. Especially that last semester of school. So Mr. Shipley I say thank you for all of the rides and good times.



#2 To quote Julia Roberts: 'They're called boobs Ed'
Never, and I mean never underestimate the power of your feminine whiles on a member of the opposite sex.

Arizona or Bust!

I BOUGHT MY PLANE TICKET LAST NIGHT! I'M MOVING AUGUST 28, 2010!

Chop Chop

So I decided it was time for a change... and I chopped all of my hair off about a week ago.

Then my sister in law kindly reminded me of all the hairstyles/colors/cuts I've had in just the past year alone...please let me review with you.

First there was the super awesome fire engine red which was my personal favorite. If I could I'd be this color forever.

But then I had to tone down that bright red for one Samantha Tilletts wedding :)

For Bruno though I thought he would like a nice chestnut brown... I was right :) we did the jump on dance and may have sweat on eachother once upon a time...

Before returning to BYU- Idaho for my last semester I wanted to return to a saucy shade of red, I think this goal was both realized and accomplished.

Then I let the red tone down a bit and fade into a nice sangria red if we were going by caryola standards.

I was also fake blonde for a day and boy of boy did I get lots of positive feedback. High school perves were coming out of the wood works making comments on my Facebook page...

The fake blonde did however inspire me to go blonde for real... but in degrees this would be step 1 strawberry blonde.

Along the way I thought Why not get straight across bangs? Who doesn't love those?

For graduation I went ahead and had step 2 completed for my mission to plaitnum blonde

But oh wait, I graduated and didn't have a job...step 3 along with my dreams of being gainfully employed upon graduation were washed away once again with this $10 rinse from wal-mart

As you can imagine my hair was SEVERLY damaged to say the least... so I CUT IT ALL OFF! I LOVE IT. LOVE IT. LOVE IT.

All Things Stevie

So it's true: Stevie Ann Loftfield, will no longer be Stevie Ann Loftfield... she's going to be Stevie Ann Gerratt. She's marrying a boy on Saturday. Shouldn't boys still have cooties? I dunno maybe that's why I won't be getting married on Saturday and she will be. Sometimes boys still have cooties. Anyways that's besides the point. This blog is all things Stevie. All of the things that I have loved learning, sharing and experiencing with Stevie over the past 4 years.

You see Stevie and I met August 22, 2005. Yes, I can tell you the exact date. It was the day we moved into the dorms together. I'll never forget it. Stevie was quiet, shy and terribly upset about the fact that her family was leaving her in the frigid cold as they returned to the Arizona sun. :( I remember wondering if she was going to be ok. It was touch and go for the first few days. It seemed almost instantly that Stevie, Katie and I shared a bond. This weird quirky little bond that unless you're a part of you probably don't understand. Sometimes Stevie and I would IM each other from our bedrooms about how weird we thought some of our roommates behaviors were. bahaha and that was only the tip on the iceberg when it comes to weird roommate behavior. I giggle as I look back at all of the things we experience together. I couldn't imagine going through it with anyone else.

There was that whole awkward get to know you period, luckily that didn't last long. We bonded over little things, we walked on campus together and ate our meals mostly at the Galley. Oh the Galley. Found memories ensue just by saying the word Galley. Once we were in the friend zone it seemed only natural bonding with other girls in the dorms and pulling pranks on some of the guys we know. It escalated to egging Bidulph Hall and then being required to do 2 hours of 'community service on a Friday night on our end. But don't worry the boys always seemed to one up us. This time it was a dead squirrel delivery courtesy of Pizza Hut. Then there was that time we went to a foam party and ended up taking a shower together with Katie because it was just to cold and slippery to take turns. We had roommates with fake engagements and marriages, one that liked to cook beef strough and stink up the entire apartment, one that was antisocial and probably spoke 10 words to us the entire semester, well she wasn't antisocial in general, just to us. We've ran around most of Idaho, Utah and Arizona together.

Over the years we took Horseback Riding, Book of Mormon, Field Biology, New Testament, Visual Media, Advanced Visual Media, Book Arts, Mass Media and Preparing for Eternal Marriage. I have spent from 7 am to 11 pm in the same room on campus and I didn't want to kill her. We just laughed through it and helped each other make it with a little help from Kitty and a place we like to call Jamba Juice.

Stevie I love you. I am so proud of you. I'll miss my 'Stevie Ann Loftfield' but I'm excited to welcome Stevie Ann Gerratt into my family.

15 years ago today

It's the 63rd day of 2010 but lets jump back 5,475 days

The year is 1995

President Hinckley was the Prophet

Michael Johnson beat the world record in 400m indoor track

John Candy died

Bill Clinton was the President of the USA

Gloria Estefan's song Everlasting Love was number 1 on the Billboard

top 100

The World Summit on Social Development begins in Copenhagen

Best part of 15 years ago I was baptized :)

Post Secret Round 2

Coming to a mailbox or hopefully our favorite .blogspot near you. A month ago Danya, Sarah and I went to EKU to hear Frank Warren from Post Secret speak. On the trip home we all made the deal to create our very own post secret postcard.

A few of my favorites from the site are included below.

Prayer

My dad is in the Branch Presidency that I attend. This also means when he needs someone to give a 20 minute talk he comes my way. In a few weeks I'll be talking about prayer.

My thesis is this: When we pray and we ask Heavenly Father for blessings we desire he gives us two answers. Either one - He says yes and grants our desire or two - He says I'll give you something better.

So to all of my blog friends, I am asking you... yes you. To contribute to my talk. I need insights. I need experiences. I need thoughts. If you have anything about prayer you'd like to share I would appreciate it.

berodda@gmail.com

Rumors true

If you've tried to get in touch with me in the past few days and I haven't responded, I promise there is a good reason. I wasn't just silencing my phone for the fun of it. Well maybe for some of you I was but lets not get into that right now.

DRUM ROLE PLEASE

I've applied to Grad School.

A Master of Arts in Student Affairs Administrator in Higher Education

Ball State University - Muncie, Indiana

The last week has been a little crazy to say the least. Within 1 week, 7 days, 168 hours I decided to apply for grad school and had to have everything for the process turned in.

I had to:

Apply for admission to the Grad School

Get 3 people to agree to be professional references

Write 2 essays

Request transcripts

cough up 50 bones for the administrators outfit, i mean admissions fee

send e-mails

Apply for admissions to my program

As of right now I have been admitted to the Grad School, but that really means nothing unless I'm admitted to my program. . . I interview on the 20th.

Cross your fingers. I couldn't be more excited about the possibilities of going to grad school. I feel positive about this decision and have fallen in love with the program.

So until the 20th this is all I will be saying about grad school. AND depending on how my interview goes, this may be my only mention of ever applying...

Post Secret

I have been a lover and admirer of Post Secret for quite some time. On Thursday I had the opportunity to go to my first ever Post Secret event!!! It was fantastic! I made an 8 hour road trip to get there - 4 hours there, 4 hours back.

Along the way . . .

Danya tried beef jerky for the first time ever: it was delicious!

Listened to Glee volume 1 & 2

Made some fast and furious like moves on the freeway

We didn't actually have tickets when we go there, BUT thanks to some kind strangers in line we got 3 tickets! Thank you Richmond :)

Listened to Frank tell the history of Post Secret

Best Part of the trip: Frank singed my book

Thanks Frank, you've given me several great memories.

At the end of the night he told us "Free your secret and become who you are." So as a challenge I am inviting everyone who reads this blog to share one of your secrets with me. In return I promise to share one of my secrets with you. I also will share with you a special website that Frank gave us with access to 90 additional Post Secrets. . . . Happy Secrets :)

Pittsburgh...

So it's TRUE... I'm applying for jobs in Pittsburgh. I recognize this is random, and slightly odd which makes it right up my ally. SO I thought I would do a Pittsburgh by the numbers to help you see the appeal.

10 universities

2 stakes

16 state parks within the greater Pittsburgh area

200 interactive exhibits at the Carnegie Mellon Science Center

3 rivers - Ohio, Allegheny and Monongahela

1 YSA Ward- AN ACTUALLY WARD!!!

3 professional sports teams; baseball, football and hockey

1 super legit Andy Warhol museum

1,200 places to get a pierogi

10 museums

1 international airport

Having a puter makes me a BFF

Most people I know LOVE to have their picture taken. I'm not quite sure what it is about having a camera in your hands, or a Mac with an internal camera that makes everyone want to be your best friend.

My niece Masyn is only 3 years old and is seriously giving everyone, even you craig shipley, a run for their money! Last night I came home and she said 'uhhh brooke can we take pictures on your puter' She can't quite say computer yet so we just call it a 'puter' and my oh my did she bring out the cheese.