Getting a little bit stronger.

If I've learned one thing recently, it is that life is always changing.
Just because you believe one thing, doesn't mean everyone is going to be on your side.
Just because your life is going great, doesn't mean it is going the same for the next person.
Just because you have something planned for life, doesn't mean it's going to happen. Either right then, or even at all. People will enter your life. Some will stay a day, a week, a month or even years. People will change your life for better or for worse. People will teach you lessons whether you realize it at the moment, or even years down the line. Struggles will come into your life to test your faith in yourself,God and others. Struggles will either make you weak and pull you down or they will make you stronger. No matter the struggle, battle or twists and turns life throws you, you have the ability to take that event and learn from it and grow from it. I'm not the best person to come to when it comes to asking about an easy life. I've had my share of twists, turns and emotional rollarcoasters to make anyone queasy. If anything else I've learned in life, i've learned that "Life is a balance of holding on and letting go". Hold on to the good. The memories, people and lessons. Let go of the regret, hurt, grudges, bad memories and well... people. I know I use that little quote a lot, but it's one that holds true to so many things. There will be times when life hits you blindside and turns your world upsided down and you're left lying there feeling like nobody knows what you're going through, feeling like there's no way you can ever make it through the next hour or the next day or the next week or month.It doesn't happen over night, But you'll turn around and a months gone by and you realize you haven't cried and that you've grown because of the trial. And then later on in life, whether its for a friend, family member or even future children, you'll run into somebody who is going through, dare I say it... the same exact thing that you yourself have once gone through. And guess what? You'll be able to help them through the same thing. Your heart may never be the same, but tell yourself you'll be okay. Cause even on your weakest days, you'll get a little bit stronger.

LIFE: UPDATED

wow. kinda spaced the fact that I have a blog.

These past few months have been SO busy for me that I have barely had time to think, let alone remember I have a blog! So here's the run down on what's been going on since the last update.

1- Moved out into an apartment down by UVU in Orem. Had a really good time but moved back home for the summer to save some money so I can A) Buy a car and B) go back to school in August! The goal is to start at either UVU or SLCC in August going into Business with focus on Sports Management.

2- I started back as a Massage Therapist working back at Alpine Spinal Rehab with Dr. Clark in Provo. I've LOVED being back and having an awesome clientel. Its VERY busy and high paced with crazy work hours but i've gotta admit, I'm SO greatful to have a job and to be as busy as I have been! It's been busy enough that I get to hire another therapist under me to help out which will be great! :)

3- During the first week of March me and Ben had a chance to go back to Virginia where he served his mission for a few days and it was one of the neatest experiences to see where he had served, the people he had worked with, hearing the stories.... everything!! My sister Emily is serving back there right now so it was neat to see what she's seeing. Sadly though... we didn't see her but mission rules right?! :)


Flying over NYC at sunrise.... epic!


The Youngs.... nicest family!
Virginia Beach...♥ love!

4- If you remotely know me at all, you've probably caught on the the fact that I LOVE .... okay more like I'm a lil obsessed with country music. I've grown up listening to it, go to countless concerts, download to much music, geek out over artists and bands... you name it. On April 1st (yes... april fools) I won tickets to the Montgomery Gentry Country Showdown Tour when it comes to Utah this summer. I was stoked and then they told me I was qualified to win a trip to the Academy of Country Music Awards and to listen the next morning when they drew the winner. I honestly almost didn't listen cause I figured the chances were slim to none but at 7:15 April 2 the DJ goes "If your name is AMANDA HAWKES you have 9 minutes to call in, you just won an all expense paid trip to the ACM AWARDS". Pretty sure both me and Ben lost it about then. We both started screaming and I couldn't compose myself and barely remembered the number to call. But long story short I won the trip the the Academy of Country Music Awards. Holy crap. Dream come true! It was honestly the 4 best days of my life! We got put up for 4 days 3 nights in the MGM GRAND HOTEL, Roundtrip Airfair, Tickets to the ACM AWARDS, After party, Brooks and Dunn : The Last Rodeo concert, the Kenny Chesney 3D Movie... which he came to and tix to the concerts on Freemont Street! It was seriously the biggest dream come true i loved every minute of it!
our awesome hotel!!
heading out to the strip!!
Front row for Luke Bryan Concert on Freemont Street!
Ran into Justin Moore on the way back from the pool! (Backwoods.Smalltown USA)
All dressed up for the ACM awards... incredible night!
J.D Haas our awesome trip host!!


Lady Antebellum and Luke Bryan singing "DO I" at the after party!
Eli Young Band at the after party... so good!

James Otto@the after party pretty sure I FLIPPED when he walked out total surprise love him!
I meet James Otto! This man is one of my all time favorite singers and he's pretty freaking hot too. Pretty sure I was total star struck and could barely talk to him!

Kenny Chesney came to introduce his new 3-D movie...kinda cool!
I dragged Ben to Toby Keiths Bar and Grill...it was closed for the night but o'well! :)
Our last "Bucks" before heading home. We lived on these things in Vegas.... yum! :)
5- My brother Luke graduated from UVU last month and will start med school in August! Congrats Lukie we love you!!


So yup. there's what's been going on over the last few months. Upcoming events : LOTS of Concerts. Bear Lake. Reunions. Oregon Coast for a WEEK with Ben's Family. Camping. BBQ's!!

Busy Busy Busy!

Don't worry, I didn't run off with Tiger Woods, I'm just horrible at remembering to update my blog...whoops!I think more has happened in the past month than I have room to write about, but for kicks and giggles we'll see how much I can fit in. I'm about a month behind schedule so don't mind if some of this is out of order.

~*~ BEAR LAKE~*~
Last month Me, Ben, Brian,Krystal,Carmen and Kassandra all took off for the weekend to my Grandma's cabin in Bear Lake for a little get away and had a pretty stinkin good time. We all got up there late Friday night but ended up just playing games,eating dinner and watching movies.

Saturday we got up and attempted to head up to the Paris Ice Caves. Attempted being the keyword. We got about halfway up the canyon, but due to the fact that mother nature dumped a load the night before we ended up getting Ben's explorer stuck and just ended up turning back around.-Don't let this picture fool you... I was totally helping push-

On the way back to the cabin, the girls wanted to stop and try out the lottery, and seeming how we had nothing else to do...We all decided to take a chance and try
and win big. Yet again.... Try being the key word.

-products of our EPIC fail-

Sadly Carmen and Kassandra had to head home Saturday afternoon so it ended up just being Brian and Krystal and me and Ben but we still made it fun. We played Imagine If, which got interesting to say the least. Found out WhipCream kisses rock. Made dinner, and then Krystal made deliciousness in a pan, and basically just relaxed, but it was way fun to say the least. I don't think anyone really wanted to go home or the weekend to end.

-whip cream kisses-

-playing imagine if-

-last picture picture before heading home-

~*~ BEST FRIEND BIRTHDAY DINNER ~*~
Every year me and Dani celebrate our birthdays together by usually going to dinner or getting people together. This year we decided to check out Pirate Island Pizza in Orem with a bunch of our friends and it was so fun! Granted there was a pretty good sized group of us so we didn't get to visit with everyone very well, but after pizza and some arcade games..... we had fun!

-Best Friends.Est 2004 (ps dani I stole your pic)-

-Dani and Alex totally took home the loot of tickets-

-Lea and Hayley bug at dinner...thanks for coming girls!-

-Me and Ben once he finally got there-

~*~ IN THE NEWS~*~
My little sister. Yes. I said little sister announced a few weeks ago that she is getting married this coming January to Austin Soderquist. They meet over the summer, and started dating the end of summer beginning of fall and are perfect for each other!

-congrats kids we love you-

BYU won the "Holy War" this year against University of Utah in overtime. It was EPIC!

-the field after BYU won...woo hoo!-

Last night me and Ben went to the Kbull 93 Low Dough Christmas Show and it was SO much fun! Tickets where only $10 bucks and we figured for Phil Vassar, Bucky Covington and Bomshell that wasn't to bad! Origionally they had us seated in the Wheelchair section but there was a bunch of empty seats down lower so they let us move. All of the artists did awesome, sadly my camera sucks at zooming in so the pictures sucked...boo.

-Phil was AMAZING live... I was way impressed!-

-just waiting for the show to start-

So anyways..... that's my life as of lately. Busy Busy Busy!! Have a fabulous holdiay season and don't forget to test out the mistletoe! :)
♥ love ya kids!

Pet Peeves.

Okay so I've had it brought to my knowledge lately that I have some of the oddest pet peeves.
There are the littlest things that don't phase other people but drive me completely bonkers.

BIGGEST Pet Peeve.
Plastic water/soda lids that you have to twist, and crack apart from the small plastic piece to open. That little piece that breaks off, oh my lanta. Drives me INSANE!!
Texting Peeves.
1- I hate stupid forwards. I'm pretty sure if I forward this text to 10 people an angel isn't going to appear magically and grant me three wishes
2- If you are older than 12 and texing me, don't text me "wat up yo?" or anything even close to being spelled like you're just learning how to spell. You're a grown adult. Use your big kid words and spell correctly! Seriously. text me like a retarded. I'm not replying.
Driving Peeves:
1-Drunk Driver. I don't frankly care if you drink. But if you do, don't drive. Stay the night, call a cab, I don't care. But when you start putting other peoples lives in jeopardy... yeah don't get me started.
2-Slow drivers. Seriously.....Green means GO!!

Random Peeves:

When people continually don't follow through with plans. Yes. I understand if something occasionally comes up, or something comes up last minute. But if every time something is planned, you bail... you're officially on my list.

When at a restaurant and somebody feels the need to be on their cell phone and talk at the top of their lungs so everyone can hear their conversation. Seriously.... go outside and take the call. We don't care about how annoying your mother in law is or how crappy work was. Leave it at the door buddy.


So there's a few random peeves of mine. Just a little vent session.

Halloween 2009... BOO!!!

I think I celebrated Halloween this year more than any other year.
I'm not usually a huge Halloween buff but for some reason this year I had more to do with it.
The Halloween season started off with a couple haunted houses towards the beginning of the month. I'm a complete wimp when it comes to anything scary but when a cute boy invites you to go to something you naturally say yes and go. And man am I glad I did say yes!! Mine and Ben's first date was The Haunted Forest in American Fork and it was SO much fun!! We kept getting lost and back in the places you're not supposed to be, but it made the night interesting! Ben is a huge "Haunted House buff" so he was all over the chance to go out to Tooele to the Haunted Hospital a few days later. So again naturally when he asked if I wanted to go... I said yes! Both Haunted Forest and Hospital were way good and scary!! I'm not going to lie though I kind of just held on to Ben and let him lead the way... I hid behind him the whole time... bhahaha :)

Okay so this picture wasn't taken at either of the haunted houses but I just really like it for some reason. Trust me to screw up a picture!


Ever since my mom married Dick, "Fred" has been a part of our Halloween Holidays. Fred is a lifesize dummy that sits in front of our house sometimes year-round but usually just around the month of October. Dick will move him every few days, and it's always fun to watch people look for him as they drive by. Sometimes he's on the porch, front lawn, tractor or randomly on the roof. When Luke and Marie got married Luke carried on the tradition for his house. In my opinion Lukes "Fred" is a little more realistic and creepier... I LOVE ♥ it!!

First thing I think of when I hear Halloween is homemade Spudnuts at Grandma Tami's house. Pretty sure I go into a complete sugar coma after leaving her house cause i completely fill up on them! Okay..... so I know alot of you are asking "What the heck is a spudnut?" It's hands down the best doughnut you've ever had. Better than Krispy Kreme! And yes... Spud= potatoes.
I went over and somewhat helped on saturday make them and they where a dream come true.
Some how I didnt end up with one stinkin picture though...ugh!!

I was really lame this year when it came to a costume. I'm not one of those girls that use's Halloween as an excuse to dress like a slut and prance around showing what their mama gave them. I was a little bit more conservative with my costume. My BYU jersey, two black lines on my face and blue sparkly fake eye lashes and called it good.
I went to a couple different random parties with friends and it actually was all pretty fun, plus people had some pretty rockin costumes!!
Mikela and Spencer rockin the witch and vampire style.
Baiey and Chris off the Hillbilly Hook!
I love my lil hillbilly Juanita!
Devin kept freaking everyone out with his mask.... it was epic.
Abby from NCIS and the Firefighter

Pinocchio What do you know... he is a real boy!!!
apparently zombies dont appreciate kisses????

So anyways.
That was Halloween 2009. Nothing to exciting but hey. It made for an update!!!
♥ love you kids!!!!

Q:"Why couldnt the boy ghost get the girl ghost pregnant?"
A: " Because he had a "HALLOW-WEENIE"

bahahaha... that came from my mother of all people!!

♫♥Framing Hanley Concert♥♫

Tuesday night was yet again another concert night in my books,shocking I know.
Dani introduced me to the group Framing Hanley a little over a year ago, and I fell in love with their music. They're a five piece punk rock group and luckily for us, not very well known yet. We went to their show back in March and had a blast! The venue was packed, and we ended up grabbing front row, chatting with The Veer Union (opening act) after and grabbing pictures with them and a few of the guys from Framing Hanley. So needless to say when we heard that both Framing Hanley and The Veer Union where coming back to Utah and for $10 a ticket, we where stoked!!
I ended up going up to Murray Theater around 4 to wait in line so we could make sure to get front row and was like the second person in line so we where good there. Okay so basically we could have shown up 20 minutes before the show and still have got front row if not really close. There was literally less than 100 people at this show.... depressing!! Needless to say though we had an AWESOME TIME!! I dragged Ben along, later to find out that was his first non country concert. And Dani and Alex, and Rylie and his date Amber came so we had a pretty good group.


Waiting for the show to start!!
The first opening act was called Transmit Now and actually weren't to bad.


The second group, JANUS? JONUS? We're not really sure what their name was but none the less I dont think ANYONE was impressed with their stuff.


Entertaing outselves between sets!


Third act, The Veer Union. I actually dont mind a few of their songs, and honestly they are some of the nicest guys I have ever meet! Looks can be decieving, so don't judge a book by its cover! :)

BEST FRIENDS! Honestly, I think I've lost count on how many concert's we have gone to together!!

I just really liked this picture for some reason!

Nixon from Framing Hanley.
Kind of a cool action shot!
Nixon right above us. Yeah dont mind the fact that he was all sweaty and it dripped on my face...yuck!!!!

Overall it was a really fun night and great show!! Hopefully they'll come back soon!! :)

♥ love you kids!!!