occupy(ing) my thoughts

marriage has been on my brain as of late.

i really want to be married, but only after i...

live in italy for a year (or more) nannying/teaching english

serve a mission:) --that one is quickly approaching--

join the peace core

be taught a bollywood dance by a beautiful indian man in india

on: playing football with small children

1. they will ask for re-dos, do-overs, and rewinds when something happens that they don't like

2. all will demand that you throw the ball to them

3. pushing, shoving, and crying will occur

4. they will tell you that you suck, even though you can actually catch and throw the ball

5. you will have fun more fun than you had in a while

blah.

second guessing my major.

i just dont know what to do with myself!

(name that movie)

Little Drummer Boy

I am slightly obsessed with this song by josh groban. i looove it which is a bit funny because when I was younger I used to think it was very annoying. One day while I was listening the lyrics really stood out to me and I was just over come with emotion. I found the lyrics to be very sweet and touching. Here is this poor little boy that has nothing he can give to baby Jesus. So he plays his drums, the only thing that he could do for the Savior of the world. He shared his talent with the new baby.

Listen to it.

Absorb it.

and Think about what you would give to Jesus.

things that have been on my mind for one reason or another

whenever i take out eggs from an egg carton i have to take them out so the remaining eggs' weight is evenly distributed. for example, if i am using two eggs i will take one from the upper right hand corner and one from the lower left hand corner on the opposite side.

also this boy is rather attractive.

i meet him in italia at the GANZ (giovani adulti non sposati)

dear Sister Campbell, you are assigned to labor in....

the WEST INDIES mission

here's a map

which thankfully was included because i had no idea where the West Indies were

I am sooo excited to serve the people of the West Indies. I'll be sharing the gospel in my native tongue of English (although I hear their accents are pretty sweet and it takes a while to catch on). Whoa for warm climates and tropical rain storms!

and winner for most awkward photo of the night. haha.

but look how happy we all are.

secret time

so there have been many awesome things happening in my life, such as receiving my mission call, but i will get to that post later. it deserves more time that i have, as i am only blogging this because it's a small distraction from the massive paper i have to write in a foreign language and i think this a rather funny.

okay here is my secret. i havent showered since sunday. and here it is tuesday night...well technically wednesday morning.

when school gets busy i give up on the minute details of my life such as showering and making my hair look presentable.

will this last longer than the three almost four day span that it has come to? only my weak and tired body can determine that after i roll out of bed (if i even go to bed)

when its a choice between twenty minutes of sleep or a shower. sleep always wins.

thats all for now,

ashley

cultural diorama

single non-latino white female from moderately sized city in northern california
*this is a project for my multicultural education class in which i had to identify three artifacts that represent me socially, culturally, and ethnically.

If someone were to walk in my room one of the first aspects that they would notice would be all the books that are occupying my shelves, nightstand, and desk. If they were to look a little harder they would also notice the boxes of books that take up space in my closet. Even when I think about it I cannot pinpoint the one book that got me hooked on reading, I guess I have always been a reader. When I was little my mom was always reading books to me. I have a very distinct memory of me sitting on her lap as she read, for probably the millionth time, The Napping House by Audrey Wood. Books provide me with love and strong emotional connection to stories, characters, or issues being explored.

Books represent me, not because I am exceptionally smart which I’m not, but because I love to learn and explore other words, perspectives, and do what I cannot do myself. Books can keep my attention better than any film or television show. They are filled with wisdom and thought provoking themes, characters, and lines. It is these aspects that grip me by the heart or gut and force me to think of something I have not thought of before. They are able to do something I cannot. In life I feel that experience is one of the most important ways to learn and to find out who we really are, through books I can have so much more experience than I could just on my own. Books are a part me because I am a part of them.

I think that this artifact from my life represents me in several ways. First I am from a technology based era, a time when having tens of thousands of songs on a piece a plastics smaller than card and almost as thin. The world I live in is fast paced and always changing and advancing and almost anything is only a finger touch away. I have an iPod nano and since I have had this particular iPod, Eloise as I call her, there have been many new editions improving the quality and capacity of my music listening needs. I however have refused to trade her in because she is mine and I would never betray her for the newest, shiniest thing.

Second I feel that this artifact represents me because I love music, there is not a day that goes by that I don’t listen to at least a song or two. I appreciate all types of music as each variety speaks a little differently to my soul or heart or feet. Songs have the power to change people, whether for better or for worse. No matter what mood I am in there is a song that speaks to me even if the song is solely instrumental. I have a weakness for piano and cello pieces, probably because I cannot play either instrument. The melodious sounds that are produced from the piano and/or cello, to me, seem to be heaven inspired and it is when listening to these two instruments that I think most profoundly about who I am.

In my room there is a framed picture of Christ that I have had since I entered Young Womens when I was twelve. My leaders gave it to me as a welcoming gift and as a reminder to always be thinking about Christ. I feel that this picture represents me because I focus on centering my life on Christ. Being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints religion is not only in my life it is a constant part of life. It has shaped my cultural and social values through the principles and beliefs that are taught.

I feel that this picture represents me because it shows that I am relying on a power that is bigger than me and bigger than the entire world or universe. There is a being that knows and controls more than I can. I feel that this picture represents me because it shows that I am a follower or Christ, a Christian, that I believe in the gospels and believe that through Christ I can become a better and closer to who God wants me to be. I think that this picture also reflects my views on morals, what type of people I associate with, and with this specific picture that I am a member of the LDS faith.

a little catch up

so there have been many small things that i have wanted to blog about but i never did get around to it (school has been pretty all consuming okay) so this is me catching up.

i love brown eggs. when i am older and have my own family and house i want to have a few chickens in a coop and collect their eggs. they are so much more awesome than white eggs.


my roommate is a strange one. this is how she calls cats, such as the one that showed up at our intramural soccer team. oh our intramural soccer team, that's another post all to itself.


sometimes people say i'm quirky. probably becasue i do things like this.

i dont like eating cold applesauce so i warm it up by putting a sauce bowl in a bigger bowl of hot water to get the applesauce to room temperature.

i went on a hike with my bestie eliza, now hermana probst, up provo canyon before she entered the mtc. it was absolute beautiful.


we got some practice harvesting the field.



and found the tree of life.
i'd say it was a successful day.

i made stuffed zucchini for dindin. me and kj enjoyed it immensely although it was no where near as good as nonna's.


alexis gave kj surgery on her finger which she slammed in a car door. we watched a video on youtube about how to preform such a surgery. psh who needs a phd when there's youtube ta teach ya all ya need ter know.


and then we dressed up for that pagan holiday.
kj is mc hammers illegitimate white/asian child
alexis is in a onesie
and i am ethnic.

performance anxiety

**warning this post contains potty humor**

Dear girl in the bathroom wearing way to much make-up and boots that could harpoon a whale,
could you please leave. You have been in here FOREVER staring at yourself in the mirror. A bit vain are we? I really need to take care of some important business but I cant while you are in here. Maybe if we hadn't made awkward eye contact through the crack of the stall door i could, but unfortunately we both looked at the exact same moment in the exact same location and now I cant. please leave! I need to go!
Sincerely,
apprehensive bathroom goer

HP: more than an entertaining story

Harry Potter was a huge part of my childhood. I grew up with Harry, Ron, and Hermione fighting their battles right beside them. I dont know who made this video but I think its so beautiful. The song by 30 second to mars coupled with the images from the movie provide for a powerful impact. I know it's only harry potter but think of the implementations this has of change, friends, love and forgiveness.



The battle between light and dark is still raging around us, but we know the outcome. Light always triumphs over darkness. The war is won.

Whales on Stilts: a book review by me

Whales on Stilts: M.T. Anderson's Thrilling Tales by M.T. Anderson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Lily thinks of her self as an average twelve year old and why wouldnt she when her two best friends--Katie Mulligan of Horror Hollow and Jasper Dash, Boy Tecnonaut-- are famous for the daring adventurous adventures which they both have series on. But Lily's averageness chnages when she finds out that her dad works for an evil scientist who plans on taking over the world with whales, on stilts! Katie uses her smarts along with the help of her two pals to save the world and her grandma from this whale invasion.

I loved this book. It took me the first five pages to realize that Anderson was making fun of the sci-fi fantasy thriller as well as a lengthy list of other things such as product placement and popular yet stupid movie lines. This book had me laughing out loud.
a couple of my favorite lines:
"My mother was a Razorback whale. My father was a very lonely sailor"

"I was a little worried that you had fallen asleep or were you were calling from the john. Your uncle Sid does that, you know...Sometimes he grunts while talking."



View all my reviews

what a lil play play

i stumbled across this video today. oh how i miss the days of my youth when boy girl relationships were this simple. although at the end it gets a little dicey.

this saturday night

i am sitting at my desk writing a paper, catching up on glee episodes while eating from a carton of udderly chocolate. yep. this is my life. it makes me laugh.
ps finn=sooo attractive!

a little inspiriation

future missionary

This is the picture that a member of the twelve or the first presidency will see when selecting where i will serve the lord full time as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

i had a bazillion ideas...

this past week i had so many ideas of things i wanted to post about, but alas my slacker side got the bets of me (well i dont really know if it was my slacker side because i was frantically doing homework and trying to figure out how to upload a mission photo-which took FOREVER- that i was supposed to have dome last week so i guess in a round about way it was my slacker side because if i had done my h-dub when i was supposed i could have blogged. okay that's enough of a side track)
ANYWAYS, i encountered many things that i wanted to share with you.

1. on friday i read this article in the salt lake tribune. anytime i hear anything about breast milk it takes me back to 10th grade english when my teacher was talking to us about how beneficial a 'mommy farm' would be. The article talks about how a california company is selling breast milk that is donated my women (obvi becasue its impossible for a man to donate breast milk) to hospitals. The article talks about the ethics, more or less, of selling this donated mommy milk. I found a few gems in the article while reading:
"A California company is eyeing Utah for its abundance of notoriously health-conscious, breast-feeding moms."
a. notorious: widely and unfavorably known. really, why would health-consciousness ever be considered 'unfavorably known'. could this be because of the word of wizzum that the many latter-day saints support? humm.
b. "Utah mothers breast-feed at rates, well above the national average..." this made me laugh out loud.
c. the article also mentioned how mom donate, sell, and trade their breast milk online. strange? i think yes is the correct answer.

okay thats enough about boob milk. now on to better things (at least in my opinion)

2. La Bella Lingua: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's most Enchanting Language.
Its a book I'm reading, one of my besties said when she saw it she just had to buy if for me. so sweet! im so glad she did becasue i LOVE it! I'm only about fifty pages in, but man its so good. the author is just talking about how much she loves the italian language, with words and phrases thrown in that are in italian. "everything just sounds better in italian". and she could not be more wrong.
im currently in Ital 322 advanced composition and let me tell you its kicking my butt. sometimes i just get so discouraged becasue i feel like i will never be able to speak this wonderfully beautiful language. i hide the tears that well up in my eyes during class and hope no one will notice what an idiot i am. doubtful. its at times like these when i have to remind myself why i am studying italian. because i love it. thats all (and the men are on the attractive/romantic side). the more i study the more i love it and the more i get frustrated that i am not progressing as much as i would like. but i love it and i seriously cant image my life now if italian is not a part of it. Dianne, the author, helps to remind my why i put myself in this high anxiety situation. so i trek on, not giving up simply becasue i love the language.

here are a few lines from the book that make me smile...
"...a single word in Italian can reveal more than an entire paragraph in English"
"Take, for instance, Tommaseo's entry on Italy's national pastime (present and future): flirting, which translate into fare la civetta, or 'make like an owl'." She then goes on to describe the difference words that italian have to describe the type of fliriting from a civettino, a precociois little boy flattering a pretty woman, to zerbinotto, a fop tpp old for such foolishness.
"A shrewed furbacchione who obtains a learning a coveted building permit for a rectangular, cement-lined hole in his backyard by describing it not as a swimming pool (prohibited by law) but as a storage vat for water that local firefighters might need to douse a blaze"
she also describes congiuntivo as the sexiest verb form.
whats not to love about this book or the italian language. She talks about how one cannot separate the italian language from their culture. i think that is why i love this language so much. its so rich and full or life, love, passion, tragedy...okay thats enough of a rant about my obsession with la bella lingua

there was more i wanted to write but i didnt write down my inspiriations on my tiny post-it so those ideas will float with the wind until they land again.

i hope all of you have a great week.
you can expect more post as i recommitted my self to being a better blogger

mostly becasue i feeel weird putting it on facebook

I AM ALMOST DONE WITH MY MISSION PAPERS!!!!!!
i cannot wait until i am a full time missionary for the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints.
seriously, i dont want to wait i want to go now!
send me anywhere.
General conference was amazing and i learned much about being a missionary!
whoa!

today has been a good day

When i was at the high school today i witnessed girl a trying to help girl b cover up a hickey. first with foundation. that didnt work. then girl c suggested that they use chapstick first and then put on the powder cover-up. oh those teenagers and their undeveloped frontal lopes.

i am wearing a cute outfit.

i went to the dentist today. why is this a good thing you ask? well i LOVE going to dentist. i have the best dentist ever. there are televisions on the ceiling and i have never been in pain while they were working on my mouth (and i've had my fair share of cavities and one root canal). also my teeth are now shiny and clean.

i saw someone that makes me smile today

and i am going to the temple tonight!

whoa!!!!!! today is great.

the name makes me simle and tickles my tounge

loooove this.

ps sorry i have just been posting videos lately. ive been super busy/lazy, but i promise some writing is coming soon.

who are you!?

Sunday night i am sitting at my computer doing some last minute homework that i forgot about when my phone starts humming the charlie brown theme song. i have received a text. this was rather exciting since i havent received a text all day. i click the option to view now. its an unidentified 801 number. here how our following conversation went:

?: hey whos this
me:you first
?: ben montclair
me: dont be offened but i dont know who you are. how do you have my number?
ben: no idea. where are you from
me: california...lodi to be exact
ben: hmm. name?
me: ashley campbell
ben: oh youre like 19 huh
me offended: no.do you go to byu?
ben: i did
me:seriously how do you have my number? you texted me first
ben:idk?
me: did someone give it to you? was it in your phone? i reallu dont understand. also you dont have a fb do you? yes i looked you up. failed.
ben: haha. wait whats your name
me: ashley campbell. also how long ago did you leave byu? like 2 or 50 years ago?
ben: 2. lol you work in the mtc
me: nope. went there a few times as a volunteer
ben: hmm.
me: this is really funny. but really you have my number so...think hard because this is going to drive me crazy.
ben: sammys?
me: ive been there before for a few concerts and stuff. do you know an alexi trottier?
ben: who?
me: shes one of my friends that knows like everyone. i though maybe that was our connection. obviously not it. question: why did you text me in the first place?
ben: remember meeting a guy cause you texted him and he was mad first but later you met up at sammy where you got his pic?
me: haha. no. did that happen to you because thats funny. did you live in the miller apts last year?
ben: nope. picture time?
me: what?
ben: like send me a pic
me: you first

he then sent me a picture of himself. did not recognize him at all, but he is pretty cute. i then sent him a picture of this creepy old lady that i have in my phone. he thought it was funny.
i still dont know who he is and he doesnt know who i am. will we ever figure it out? if you know a ben montclair please tell me because im really interested in how he got my number.

on: being losers

Whenever i have a hard day, feeling like a loser, i think of/watch this video and it helps to remember that there is a bright side to everything. i may not always to the best, smartest, prettiest, funniest or any other kind of est, but i am me and i can be happy any ways.

l'equip petit from el cangrejo on Vimeo.

yip yips

just discovered this. my favorite parts are the beginning and ending. wahahahahaha.


also to answer your question yes i just learned how to upload videos to my blog.

THESE people MY friends

thanks kj for always quoting this.

10 years

i was sitting on the couch tying my shoes-blue and white vans- while my mom was pouring me a bowl of cereal.

प्यार : thats love in hindi

yes. look at all the love conoodling going on here!

miss. campbell

so i have started my "field experience". I currently go to a seventh grade english class every morning for a few hours. It has been interesting. here are a few selected bits from my first week with the sevies as the eighth graders call them:

mrs. fuller: its the best thing since sliced..........!?
boy in class: HAM!!!!!
mrs. fuller: umm no.

as i was correcting their conflict stories i came across this little nugget, or maybe i should say big nugget.
....and then batman threw a grenade at the door and it exploded BOOB!!! and then the joker.....

im sure there is more of this to come.
this just confirms to me that i am in the right major.

on: music

got this song free from itunes awhile ago. im kind of obsessed.

really ashley, really

the three day weekend messed me up. i went to my morning class as always because its the same everyday and then i went home, took a nap, read, shopped for food, did homework and the i got a text from Liz, "i missed you in classed today" OHMYGOSH!!! it was 4:06 PM! i missed both my afternoon classes. what the heck!? where in the world has my brain gone to. its not just with school. i cant seem to remember anything. for example i was at ward prayer with my roomies and we striked up a convo with some young men. later that night we were invited over to play cards with some other guys who we meet at another ward activity. we get there and this guy is there that i dont know and i ask him "who are you" he tells me and i say oh Alexis then informs me that i already meet him like twenty minutes ago at ward prayer and i was like no i didnt.....really did i? indeed i did. how embarrassing. not to mention this same thing happened with his roommates the previous week and one of them had been to lodi. where im from! and i couldnt even remember. my brain is going to pot. not that i do pot because i definitely dont. anyways, i hope my memory improves. maybe pot would help. hahaha just kidding.

back to school

...and i already feel like im drowning.

a note on: sharing a bathroom with boys

no matter how many times i walk into the bathroom the seat will be up. is it really that difficult to put it down.

a day trip to the bay and the nostalgia that it brought

i heart sf.

on monday i went to san fransisco with carole and justina. i was so excited to go becasue i have never been before, except that one time i went camping underneath the golden gate bridge for youth conference. we hit up all the touristy spots such as chinatown where i tried a chinese doughnut which was disgusting! we went to pier 39 and watched the seals and foreigners, walked around fishermens warf as well as the rest of the city. we walked up and down the crookest street in the word, lombrad not wall st people...sorry bad joke. but by far my favorite thing that we did was go to little italy.
as soon as we enter neighborhood a man came out of his shop and yelled at the man in the next shop over in italian. voglio parlare con te! my heart accelerated with happiness. oh hearing a real italian speak italian, mama mia, che magnifico! further down the street there was a man smoking outside a restaurant and i asked him if he was italian and he was so we began to have a conversation in italian! it felt so good to speak the language again. oh how i have missed it. we talked about where he was from, me going to siena and why he came to the states. needless to say my friends were impressed with my schveet skills. i still fumbled like i always do, but i love the italian language sooo much. its part of who i am now. we continued to run into italians throughout the day wether they were working or on vacation. i even followed some around at pier 39. yes i know im a creeper, but i just loooved hearing them speak. che comodo! guarda! towards the end of the day we went to this gelato shop in little italy called naia. i was expecting overpriced disappointing gelato but i was pleasently surprised. naia had decent prices and good gelato even better than that one place in lucca where we ate horrible gealto that one time. i talked with the girl behind the counter as i tried many of their flavors ranging from corn to toasted coconut and she told me that they make their own milk base right in the store and just as the italians do they make their flavors using the actually fruits, nuts, ect.

i will definitely be making a return trip.

old love

>honey look at this. its a heart made of seaweed!
oh thats great sweetie. here, let me take a picture of you by it!
>alright
oh dear you are so beautiful
>stop that right now you handsome man
say cheese
>cheese!
lets walk off into the sun holding hands.

well atleast this is how i thought the conversation went...

santa cruz: some things that happend

so every summer starting last summer the girls in my family take a vacation. last year it was to lake tahoe and this year it was to a larger body of water known as the pacific ocean. so from monday to monday we (my grandma and her offspring: tammy, kristin, michelle and my mom, the cousins emerald, noel and tara, plus my uncles girlfriend and her mom and their new baby riley, oh and my grandmas sister sue) spent time "bonding" and by bonding i mean everyone did whatever they wanted and most of the time we were doing it together weather it was shopping, sitting at the beach, searching for sea shells, fighting, hair dying and doing, eating, or bike riding we were in some sort of a group.



while at the beach roasted some 'mallows we and by we i mean my aunts slightly less than sober husband, had a hankering for some pizza so naturally we had it delivered right to us, on the beach.



i ate a deep fried twinkie at the boardwalk and was disgusted that i liked it.



my grandma fell down. although she denies this saying that she just needed to pee. sure granny.



i spent some time with my cousins. interesting fact: emerald, me and noel were all born six months apart.



i remembered friends and had flashbacks to me being less than nice to my brother becasue he didnt take his friends when i let him have a very small sip of a drink of mine.



i ate a pop gummy candy that i havent seen in years. mmmm.

i would insert a group picture here if we had taken one, but we did not.

spending time with my family is always interesting and although they may embarrass me and i feel somewhat/a lot like a misfit when im with them i enjoy having them around. hahaa

love on the rocks

these have been harder to find outside of europe. i mean they are not even kissing!

signposts: santa cruz

around santa cruz there were quaint signs and colorful painting nearly on every corner. it was refreshing to see. i have a special liking for the hotdog sign welcoming visitors to come and eat a hotdog for the low price of three dollars. i think it came with a bag of chips also, but i didnt buy one so i dont know for sure.

the quiche

i made this the other morning. i'd like to say that it turned out pretty well and if we're being honest that doesnt always happen when im in the kicthen.