.lauren mcquiston.

organize your day

2011-07-20T14:46:00.000-07:00

look how amazing this is.

At least for people like me who have to be organized at all times. I also tend to plan a lot, like every thing that could possibly be planned, i will. and even if I have everything memorized I still check my google calandar to make sure I'm getting everything done.

I think my favorite part of this is the hydrate section! I am always saying I need to drink more water. now I can check it off!

http://www.lifes-a-journal.com

bitter sweet

2011-02-01T16:18:00.000-08:00

Don't you think corn can be bitter sweet sometimes? In the spring it can taste slightly bitter, of course adding a little butter always makes it taste great. But in the fall the sweet corn just melts in your mouth.

:unfortunately the title of this blog post has an entirely different meaning to me:

Let me take you back in time, I can't remember exactly when this all started but elementary school will give us a good place to begin.

:HIVES:

My summer's were filled with these lovely little bumps that covered my entire body. After a few of these encounters I went to an allergy specialist to find out I was allergic to every.single.plant.grass.tree.weed there is in utah. (thank god for benadryl.)

A few years later, and being very used to the hives, my lips, ears, eyes, basically whole face would swell up. Have you seen Hitch? Yes I looked like Will Smith in the scene where he has an allergy attack. So another trip to the allergy doc and they told my mom I had "mystery allergies" because sometimes I would react worse than other times. (in other words, I was allergic to more than that but they couldn't figure out what).

{ highschool}

I start fainting a lot, for no reason. I got diagnosed with Hypoglycemia: a condition that occurs when your blood sugar (glucose) is too low. along with constant hives, and swelling of my lips on a regular basis.

{college}

I start getting horrible migraines, and was very tired all.the.time!

I went to Spain to study abroad for 6 months and when I returned I started getting very sick. I got blood test after blood test to figure out if I had a bacteria from spain (or crones disease, IBS, Celiacs disease, food allergies) I had to get an endoscopy and discovered that my body doesn't absorb nutrients or fats. (which is not a good thing) So I went to yet another specialist who noticed some interesting levels in my blood that suggested food allergies. My eczema clued her in on the allergies, but long story short I got diagnosed with Allergies to:

Wheat

Corn

Soy

Fish

Shellfish

Peanuts

and Chocolate.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I lost about 10 pounds during the period where I cut all of this from my diet, but I wanted to know how serious these allergies were since my diet consisted of fruit, vegetables, and meat. My allergy doctor told me that the food allergies were not severe and I probably had intolerance's to some foods but I could go ahead and start eating the foods mentioned above. Well I started getting sick again, and it tool me a while to go back in but FINALLY we figured out that corn is the big problem. This took weeks of testing foods and seeing what I reacted to, but I am so glad I finally know.

Thats the Sweet part about this.

...

now for the bitter

corn is in everything! even benadryl. This is a huge change for me, and its going to be hard. I have to read lables for EVERYTHING I buy now. I feel so defeated after going grocery shopping and ending up walking out of the store with fruit, veggies and nothing else. I am trying to be so positive about it, but it has to be one of the hardest things I have done. I cant go out to eat unless I order a salad with NO dressing, I cant really even eat anywhere but home unless I know exactly what is in the ingredients. and the worst part, and maybe its a good thing, I can't eat candy. (corn syrup)

but I will adjust.

So far I have made a small list of things I cant eat, and I'm sure this list will grow a little but if your interested here it is.

:corn:

:corn syrup:

:corn starch:

:baking powder:

:powdered sugar:

:corn flour:

:gluten:

:pop corn:

:dextrose, glucose, fructose:

:malt:

:mono- and di-glycerides:

:vanilla extract:

:vegetable oil:

:lunch meat:

:shredded cheese:

:hot dogs:

:potato chips:

I know this wasn't the happiest blog post you have ever seen so next time I will tell you everything i can eat. and make that list even longer :)

feb

2011-02-01T15:50:00.000-08:00

Happy February!

ps. my wonderful boyfriend actually made me this latte. cute huh?

run.run.run

2010-11-09T16:53:00.000-08:00

I feel like my blog is boring lately, so I decided to pick up a new hobby to have something to update about. So that something is....

{Running the Salt Lake Marathon}

Who: Danielle and I

When: April 16, 2011

Where: Salt Lake City, Utah

Wish me luck!

XOXO

chelsie...

2010-09-29T21:00:00.000-07:00

Chelsie, you will be missed by me and everyone else who ever met you. I will always remember running, going out to an italian dinner and trying on all the sale items at Dick's Sporting Goods until we realize that under-armor sizes weird and we wear a large. I will miss you kicking my butt in the park city half marathon and going to the sandbar. I will just miss everything. I love you and will miss you everyday.

Happy Birfffday

2010-09-17T14:32:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is Patrick's birthday, but I wont have time to post tomorrow since we will be doing all kinds of fun birthday hiking, biking and enjoying our last few weekends of warm weather.

So Happy Birthday!!!

{and I had to post a picture of the banner that took me 2 hours to finish. I think it turned out cute though!}

{oh.baby}

2010-09-17T14:26:00.000-07:00

We had a baby shower for 2 ladies that I work with. It turned out so cute that I had to post some pictures. We had sub sandwiches and pickles in a cute "to go" box. And all sorts of cute desserts. (I made the cupcakes). Thanks Kim and Allisen for having babies so we can have amazing work parties.

LETTING GO TAKES LOVE

2010-09-09T15:13:00.000-07:00

To let go does not mean to stop caring,
it means I can’t do it for someone else.
To let go is not to cut myself off,
it’s the realization I can’t control another.
To let go is not to enable,
but allow learning from natural consequences.
To let go is to admit powerlessness, which means
the outcome is not in my hands.
To let go is not to try to change or blame another,
it’s to make the most of myself.
To let go is not to care for,
but to care about.
To let go is not to fix,
but to be supportive.
To let go is not to judge,
but to allow another to be a human being.
To let go is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes,
but to allow others to affect their destinies.
To let go is not to be protective,
it’s to permit another to face reality.
To let go is not to deny,
but to accept.
To let go is not to nag, scold or argue,
but instead to search out my own shortcomings and correct them.
To let go is not to adjust everything to my desires,
but to take each day as it comes and cherish myself in it.
To let go is not to criticize or regulate anybody,
but to try to become what I dream I can be.
To let go is not to regret the past,
but to grow and live for the future.

To let go is to fear less and love more
Remember: The time to love is short

-Author unknown

read.write.eat.sleep

2010-09-07T21:06:00.000-07:00

I feel like all I ever do lately is read a chapter for class tomorrow, or write a last second paper. here and there I get some food and sleep in, and then its more reading and more writing. I am ALWAYS at school. The good news is that where I spend most of my time (i.e the preschool) is my favorite part of my day. Which is a good thing for both me and my mom (who funded my education...and I am SO thankful) but most of all, I finally know that my degree is actually something I love. My preschool class is so cute, and I get so excited to have a class of my very own one day.

inspiration

2010-09-03T14:23:00.000-07:00

photo from simply seductive

I am in love with this room. The library is amazing!

lately

2010-08-27T16:35:00.000-07:00

so apparently I have been missing since I got home from Italy (June 5)....

Here is my summer in a nutshell.

June 19 & 20 I did the Ragnar Wasatch Back with my cousin and some friends, we ran 188 miles from Logan to Park City Utah. My leg was about 13 miles total. Our team took 33 hours, but we still had fun! This is a picture of the "girls car" right before we started at 5 am. There were also 6 boys on our team, but we hardly saw them since we were sleeping while they were running. This was probably the hardest thing I have ever done.... so I'm doing it again from Lake Mead to Las Vegas in October!

Patrick and I went to one of his friend's wedding in Spokane over forth of July weekend. We also went camping in Cour d'alene right on the lake and got to see the best firework show for the 4th of July. But of course I have no pictures of that.

Over the 24th of July I went to Wyoming for Frontier Days. HA. I am not cowgirl enough for wyoming.... But we still had fun!! We went to a KISS concert which was awesome! This is us waiting for KISS to come on stage. We had REALLY good seats!

And this is a surprisingly awesome picture I took on my PHONE!

And I honestly cant remember the weekend but sometime in August we went to visit one of Patrick's friends Andrew in Boise. This is the boys fly fishing, and I just kinda hung out and got some sun. Oh and about 37 mosquito bites!

And last minute Patrick and I went to a Dave Matthews concert! It was really fun!

Overall I think I have had a pretty amazing summer... Now I just can't wait for fall!

Italy {day10

2010-07-09T20:03:00.001-07:00

{Day 10}

saturday may 29.

Today we took a day off from traveling, slept in, hung out by the pool. pam made really good pork for dinner and we went dancing at the disco across the street!

Discotecho!

the girls

dinner

our star shaped ice cubes

Chillin at the Pool

Italy {day9}

2010-07-09T19:42:00.000-07:00

{Day 9}

Florence

today all ten of us (me, amanda, mom, todd, joe, tierney, chris, joey, pam and john) went to florence. We took a train from castiglioncello and got there around noon. We tried to find a restaurant that amanda had been to but after we couldnt find it we just ate by the duomo. We all went shopping, and then to see The David and a little more of florence Our was home was a nightmare! We were told to take a train to pisa, but the train stopped in some random town and said it was the last train of the night. So we found another train to Pisa. When we got to Pisa, we weren't sure what train to take, so we jumped on one hoping it was the right train. We asked another passenger if this was the train going to Livorno and he told us we were going back to florence. We started FREAKING out and thinking we were going back to florence. But we ended up in Livorno safe and sound. There were no more trains back to Castiglioncello though until 11pm so we paid 50 euro for a taxi ride home. We made it back though and ended up going out to dinner at the best restaurant I have been the whole time here. I dont usually like fish and i loved it.

Italia {day8}

2010-07-09T19:27:00.000-07:00

{Day 8}

.Bolgeria.

All 10 of us went with micro (our taxi driver friend) on a

wine tour in blogeria, it was such a good tour. We learned all about

how they make the wine and then we got to do some tasting. We ended

up buying about 15 bottles and then went to lunch in the town. It was

a huge lunch. They brought out a whole bunch of cheese and meat and

bread, then a huge bowl of pasts. We were all so stuffed.

(the pictures loaded backwards)

The Sunset

The whole gang in bolgeria

the vineyard

italy. {day7}

2010-07-09T19:12:00.000-07:00

{Day 7}

My family rented a car and drove to Livorno and Sienna, it was so fun. In livorno we went to the farmers market and walked around a little. Siesta is from 1-4 so everything closed and we decided to drive to sienna to kill some time. In Sienna we went to Il Duomo and then had lunch in the Piazza del Campo. It the most amazing pizza ever! Then we did some shopping and decided to head home. We took a different way home and it was so beautiful, it was the Tuscan country with the most windy roads I have ever driven on but the most amazing views. Our car has only one cd so we listened to beyonce "all the single ladies" the whole time haha.

I got kicked out of the Duomo because my shorts were too short so Amanda and I were taking pictures while we waited for my parents.

These guys wanted a picture with us. HAHA

the best pizza ever!

Il Duomo

amanda & I entering the wall of Sienna

Just an awesome cappuccino

My HUGE sandwich I got in Livorno

Italia ♥

2010-06-20T20:55:00.000-07:00

so blogger is taking FOREVER to upload photos. I only have patients for 4 days of my trip, but i promise the rest will come soon!

{day 1}

.May 20.

Our adventure finally begins. We were flying out of Las Vegas

so we decided to stay a day there and soak up some sun by the pool.

We stayed at the flamingo hotel. It wasn't the best, but the pool was fun!

We went to margaritaville for dinner. It was hilarious, a girl slides down a
volcano and lands in a giant margarita. We walked around the strip a
little and watched belagio fountains. And thats about it for Vegas.

there were really flamingo's at the hotel

Amanda and I on our way to the pool

watching the Bellagio fountain show

the margaritaville girl.

{day 2}

.may 21.

we left Vegas around 4 pm. This was the worst flight I have
ever been on!!!!! I decided to take an ambien to help me sleep for
the entire 12 hour flight... Can you say FAIL? I felt so out
of it and sick. I was saying the weirdest things. I
ended up sleeping a little but it was not worth it and I will never
take an ambien again.

Before the flight to london.

{day 3}

.may22.

We finally landed in London at 10 am. We had a 6 hour layover so
we took the train into London and went to lunch and walked around town. It was great!! Of course I tried fish and chips, and we saw Buckingham Palace. We left London and landed in Pisa at 10 pm and finally got to our amazing villa! We all passed out because we were so tired from our 3 day travel.

the whole gang at buckingham palace

Amanda & I

we had to get a phone booth picture

fish & chips

me and amanda again.

...and again

{day 4}

.may 23.

After getting some much needed sleep we got to see the town we were staying in, Castiglioncello, and it was so beautiful. We walked into town, which has one grocery store and about 3 restaurants. It's tiny but so cute, the beach is right down the street and also amazing. and so is our villa.

the cute little beach right in front of our villa

Me and Amanda's room

This is the creepy troll we found. We decided to make a fun game and hide it around the villa every night somewhere completely random and whoever found it had to hide it the next night. It was really funny.

the driveway

the villa

the beach again

the stairs to get to the beach. kinda sketchy

the pool

our first gelato

a late night walk on the beach with my gypsy

{Day 5}

.may 24.

We heard vada beach was an amazing white beach from reading the guest book at our villa, so we decided to take the bus and go hang at the beach. The day started out a little stressful because we missed our first bus and had to wait 35 more minutes for another one. Then we missed our stop because they don't announce the stop or have signs or anything. We didn't know we missed the stop though until we found a beach that was deffinetly not white or amazing! It smelled like fish and there was nobody there. So we walked back to this cute little shop where we bought our beach towels and asked the people how to get to "the white beach". With our broken italian we finally realized that we went to far. So we called a taxi to pick us up. The taxi driver Mirco ended up being awesome and telling us all kinds of things we should do while we were there. When we finally got to the beach we wanted it was really beautiful and we had a great time. (But I still liked the beach in our front yard way more)

pre-dinner gelato

Playing "asshole" before dinner

mom & todd at dinner

My HUGE dinner. haha

{Day 6}

.may 25.

we had a chef coming to our villa so we decided to stick around so we would be home in time for dinner. We went to the beach in front of our villa and rented some chairs and umbrellas and hung out there all day. The chef came and it was not very good, and it was way too expensive for the quality.

/amanda & I before dinner

pam.tierney.mom

dinner

Joe & T

Mom & Todd

{can't wait}

2010-05-15T20:18:00.000-07:00

for...

{Italy}

I am leaving in 5 days and I seriously cannot wait! I really need a break from work and even though I have been out of school for a week, I still just need a vacation... and what vacation is better than Italy?

This would be the villa I will be staying in. amazing right?

and this is just a cool picture I found

I also cant wait for...

{summer time}

[1] Patrick is moving to Utah! ♥

[2] the warm weather. I love skiing but lets be honest, snow is not normal in May.

[3] having some extra time to read books that I choose rather than books that are assigned for school.

[4] running outdoors again. and running in the Ragnar Wasatch Back!

[5] swimming

[6] i will have more time to bake. i miss it.

[7] did I mention that Patrick is moving to Utah?

oh & one more thing...

{I can't wait for Allisen & Kim to find out what their having}

I really think about it all the time and get nervous/anxious/so excited for them! haha I cant imagine what it would be like to be the one in their shoes! I ♥ you guys!

spring?

2010-04-06T07:36:00.001-07:00

...not so much

spring break

2010-04-06T06:54:00.000-07:00

So I didnt take too many pictures but here are a few from my trip to Seattle

The "Original" Starbucks

Patrick in the underground tour of Seattle

Pikes Place Market

rabbit holes

2010-04-04T20:20:00.001-07:00

Happy Easter!

zebra

2010-02-02T20:43:00.000-08:00

Happy birthday Amanda!

school...

2010-01-20T19:34:00.000-08:00

is insane.

don't know why I'm taking 18 credits.

BUT...

I graduate in May and then off to ITALY!!!

{that's all I have time for}

5.five.5

2010-01-14T20:02:00.000-08:00

5 things I always have in my fridge:

diet coke

cheese

pickles

milk

tortilla's

5 things I always have on(or in) my nightstand:

water bottle

lamp

remotes

chap stick

a book

5 things I always have in my bathroom:

q-tips

lotion

flat iron

comb

clean towels

5 things I always have in my car:

my ipod & phone charger

a pen

almonds

benadryl

chap stick

5 things I always have in my purse:

lip gloss

planner

camera

glasses

wallet

winter break.

2010-01-10T20:43:00.000-08:00

Before school starts and I don't have time to update this I thought I would put up a few pictures of my break.

Bowling at the new Jupiter Bowling Alley in Park City

Ice Skating at the Gallivan Center

Skiing at Snowbird

At the Broncos Game... We got box seats!

Skiing at Park City

let it snow. let it snow. let it snow.

2009-11-08T12:22:00.001-08:00

I never thought I would say this but I cant wait for winter! I want it to snow and I want it now! I just got new skis, boots, bindings, and poles and I am so excited to start skiing again! I haven't been in such a long time because I started snowboarding in jr. high and then I have had 3 surgeries on my feet. But I just got all geared up and I can not wait!

here are my new boots, and my ski's are this same model but mine are black instead. :)

more halloween

2009-11-07T17:50:00.001-08:00

here are a few more pictures of my halloween costume.

get well soon

2009-11-07T17:48:00.001-08:00

My little brother got shoulder surgery so I made him cupcakes. I haven's posted anything in a while so I thought I would put up a picture.

peacock

2009-11-01T20:40:00.001-08:00

here is my halloween costume this year. I made it myself and thanks jessica for the picture!

castiglioncello

2009-11-01T20:37:00.000-08:00

This is the villa that we are staying in when I got to ITALY for graduation next may! I am so excited! My mom and todd just told me today that they are taking me with them! yeahhhhhhh!

i hate theieves

2009-10-20T14:53:00.000-07:00

I know "hate" is such a strong word and I'm ususally very cautious of using this term to ever describe another person but thats how I feel right now! Yesterday I got home from lunch and a hike at red butte gardens to my door being unlocked. I thought it was strange because I never leave my door unlocked so I thought my roommate Danielle must be home from work early. I walked in and her purse was sitting on the couch and all of the lights were on so I thought nothing of it. But she always sets her keys on the counter and there were no keys. So I called her name to see if she was home before walkng into my unlocked apartment. Nobody answered. It took me a few seconds to register that someone might actually break in to my apartment because I have always thought "that will never happen to me" but as I took another step into my apartment I noticed our TV was GONE! it was a 56 inch LG flatscreen and it was just GONE!! at this point I was still in denial because I thought "oh maybe danielle is moving the tv into her room and the tv in her room out here" because I saw some of her artwork in the hallway had been taken down and I thought maybe she was just begining to move things out of our apartment. At that point I noticed the sliding glass door was open and I knew I had closed and locked it the night before so I immediatly ran into my room to find my macbook gone as well! my drawers were all open and I after searching to see what else had been taken I realized both of my ipods were gone... at that point I went into danielle's room to see her drawers had all been dug through and her macbook was also gone! Overall they took our tv, both of our laptops, ann 3 ipod's. And to me thats not even the worst part! What is making me so angry is that I cant sleep now and I am scared to even go home alone during the day! I think someone had to have been watching me to leave and it scares me that they know what car I drive and what I look like! Its just so creepy and I am so ANGRY! thats all.

I did it...

2009-08-22T09:53:00.000-07:00

Danielle & I after the half marathon (13.1 miles)

Crossing the finish line

before the race.

more cupcakes.

2009-08-12T15:25:00.000-07:00

So my frosting was totally melting because it was so hot but I haven't posted anything in a while so i thought I would put these up. They were really cute before they melted.

{summer}

2009-07-01T18:36:00.000-07:00

Cupcakes I made for fathers day... not much but my dad sure liked them!

I took Sam to Las Vegas last weekend as a graduation gift. We stayed at the new Trump Hotel and it was amazing! There was a T.V in the mirror of the bathroom. On the first day we walked the whole strip(my feet hurt so bad). We stopped in a few hotels to cool down and I played 1$ in penny slots in every hotel we went in! I won 10$ at one point :) We ran into one of those half off ticket stores and bought tickets to a cirque de sole show called Zumanity, it was a really different cirque de sole show but we had a really good time. The last day we went to the wax museum and that was really fun! Other than my scalp getting sunburned I think we had a great time!

Hiking with Mia and Marley. They love getting in the river and getting really dirty!

Mother's Day Cupcakes

2009-05-11T20:07:00.001-07:00

Sunflower Cupcakes I made for Mother's day.

Sam's Graduation

2009-05-08T20:34:00.001-07:00

Sam graduated from the University of Utah today with an honors degree in International Studies and SUMMA CUM LAUDE! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

Europe 2008

2009-04-19T09:06:00.000-07:00

Just a few pictures from my study abroad last year.

2009-04-19T08:55:00.000-07:00

This is the first fondant cake I made. The colors didn't turn out to be what I had in mind at all, I was going for a more chocolate brown with pastels and it ended up neon pink and green with a weird light brown. oh well. who knew the coloring was the hardest part. Hopefully more to come.