Wedding Dress Shopping

So almost a year ago I was having a very bad day due to broken hearts and such. My dear dear friend Josh, (also someone who I had dated previously to this and which also makes this story ten times funnier knew about my hard time and decided to take me to the mall to cheer me up because he knew that I love shopping. (Lately my love for shopping has turned into more of an obsession)
We were walking up and down the mall and we almost reach the very end, but in the corner there is a wedding dress store. I stop and look for a minute and comment about how I liked certain ones on display and couldn't believe people would actually wear the other ones.
I told Josh I was just going to walk into the store to get a better look at one dress that I thought was pretty. He walked in with me. We were in the store for less than 35 seconds when one of the ladies came up to us and asked us if she could help us. I replied very quickly no we are just looking. Then she asked if we were looking for anything special. Josh couldn't keep quiet and quickly replied YES SHE IS. I look at him and my eyes were giving him this message of I am going to kill you. The lady asked what I was looking for and after a few seconds I replied I like lace. Her eyes got wide with excitement as she lead us down an aisle of lace dresses. 
She asked me about certain styles and other questions and I answered them all the while turning back looking at Josh just stand there laughing. I motioned to him to come with me, so that I wasn't fed to the hyenas all alone. He finally followed and the lady pulled out several dresses.
The lady asked if I liked a certain one, and I answered honestly to the questions until she said okay should we get you a dressing room. At that point, I froze. This just got real. I tried to insist that I was fine and that I was just looking and that I didn't want to try on any of the dresses. Josh of course had to speak up and what did he say? "Oh don't listen to her, she wants to try on the dress." I shot a dirty look at Josh as I tried to laugh and play it cool in front of the wedding dress ladies. The lady then asked us how we met and I said I dance in Living Legends and he does the Lighting. She was so excited for us and then asked us when the big date was. I looked at Josh and he stayed quiet. I decided to get back at him for this whole wedding dress shopping trip. "Oh he hasn't asked me yet," I replied. The store workers were kind of shocked and mad at Josh for not taking advantage of the opportunity yet.
The girls teased him and then we were off into the dressing room. Yes I did try on this gorgeous wedding dress. Let's say it was dream wedding dress material. Only about 1400 dollars plus the money for a veil. Pocket change, honey, pocket change.
I came out and Josh had his little phone camera ready to take some pictures.

Thankful

Throughout the month of November, I decided to keep a blog post listing the things I was grateful for each day leading up to Thanksgiving.

1. A warm bed to sleep in when the long day is finally over. After a long day at work I was exhausted and my nice warm comfy bed was there to greet me.
2. Loving friends who are willing to go on fun adventures, even if it does mean being at IHOP until 2 in the morning. A big thanks to Brian for driving even when his car had no gas.
3. A job that pays the bills. It may not be the best job or pay the best but I have all my basic needs covered. I feel that for a college student in a college town, my job is such a blessing to have and to make more than minimum wage.
4. Medicine to make me feel better. Curse being sick. 
5. The blessing of school and being able to attend an LDS Private university where I can learn about things secular and religious. My religion classes are some of my favorite classes I've taken at BYU.
6. A government that lets me voice my opinion. I voted for the very first time today! I still have my I VOTED sticker still on my sweater.
7. A fridge to keep all my food cold (which really consists of the cookie dough I bought at Walmart).
8. Wonderful friends that will put up with me at the mall when I see lots of jewelry. I caught up with CC, a friend of mine from high school, and she loves shopping as much as I do.
9. Grateful for a car to get me to school while it is snowing. Today was the first real snow of the winter. I was not made to live in snow. Born and raised in Utah and I've never been skiing or snowboarding. Yuckkkk. But I am also grateful for the snow. Utah is a desert, believe it or not, and when you lived there 24/7 for your entire life, you realize what a blessing water is in life. 
10. Grateful for coworkers who put up with me being irritated when our computers are offline and customers that are willing to be patient.
11.Grateful for the Gospel and the opportunity I have to go to church every week to be uplifted and edified.
12. Telephones for communication. How lost I would be without my cell phone.
13. Marco when he tells me he still loves me even when I look like death itself due to an early morning final
14. Missionaries who serve the Lord and are continually converting people to the Gospel without a day off, even on their birthdays. 
15. The best guy friends ever. Brian was willing to go with me to see the new Twilight movie, no matter how "not manly" the movie is and even though he was worried he would be one of the only guys there. I think I owe him a manly movie.
16. Musical theater. I had the opportunity to go see my little sister as the lead in the school musical. She did great. I'm so proud of her. I even saw her kiss a boy on stage! Is it true? Is my little sister really old enough to be stage kissing (or real kissing) boys? 
17. People who are willing to listen to me vent after a bad and long day at work.
18. Wonderful friends that I am willing to call my family. Tonight we had a Thanksgiving dinner with all of us and can I just tell you how much I love each and every one of them. Turkey and ham. Mashed potatoes and gravy. Stuffing and pie. 
19. A house. I may have had to clean the house after the dinner, but I am so grateful to be living in a house and not in student housing this year. It has been such a blessing.
20. A day off from school. Cancelled classes is the best thing, especially when you are ready for a break.
21. Friends who come visit me at work. One was my friend Christian, who is brother to Jabari Parker. I mentioned to a coworker, who is a big sports fanatic that he was Jabari's brother. His response? No it couldn't be his brother, he's too short.
22. Family. I finally made it home for Thanksgiving today. I don't think anything can beat spending time at the dinner table with the four loves of my life: Mom, Dad, Carli and Cece. We've been through a lot and we still have even more to face. But we get to face everything together. Ohana means family and family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.

Waking Up In Vegas

Friday night Adam came over and while planning our next trip to Vegas, we reminisced on our last Vegas trip. I completely had forgotten about this video until he reminded me of it. I watched it today and laughed my head off. Here's to Paris! 

Vegas 2012 from Teresa Maria Mendiola on Vimeo.

Luz De Las Naciones

"While I dance I cannot judge, I cannot hate, I cannot separate myself from life. I can only be joyful and whole. This is why I dance." -Hans Boas

Luz de las Naciones: October 26 and 27, 2012.

Adventure Is Out There

Adventure is out there!
But first we have to wake up.

Halloween

Oh how I love Halloween and wish it came more often. Too bad I didn't do much when it came to festivities. But Alex and I did carve pumpkins! He made this awesome Buzz Lightyear. I made a very special looking Hello Kitty. But it was probably the best pumpkin I've ever carved, so I was actually very proud of my pumpkin. I love carving pumpkins with this kid. The last time I carved pumpkins was with him also. And that was two years ago! Why on earth didn't I carve pumpkins last year? I don't know. 

We took forever deciding what we wanted to carve for our pumpkins. 

I almost thought about doing something simple, like a Nike swish logo. But I wanted to look like I was more creative than that. But my creativeness idea and inspiration came from a picture I saw on Google. So I still have to work on being creative. 

The roomies and I all dressed up. Marina went as a hitwoman, but I like to call her Laura Croft: Tomb Raider. She bought actual airsoft guns and I shot one! Yes, I held and shot my very first gun. I went as Snow White. And my personal favorite? Katie went as Bon Qui Qui. Yes bad hair extensions, crazy killer nails, ghetto fab earrings and all. Unfortunately, she used actual nail glue to stick on her Bon Qui Qui nails and they're still on, just a shorter version of them.