Merry Christmas!

I've been in Europe for 11 days now and loving every minute of it. We were in Paris for 6 days and now we're spending 6 days in the beautiful, vast countryside of Belgium. I love the contrast between the dirty, busy, metropolitan city and the calm, quiet, tranquil country. Both are great...but completely opposite in every way. After Christmas we're going to Germany for a few days and then back to Paris for New Year's Eve...I'm excited for the adventures that are in store as we continue our journey.
I've taken about a million photos so far, and even though the photos never do justice for the real life experience, I've posted a few of my favorites below (PS it was so difficult for me to try to limit it to 30 haha)

Enjoy! And Merry Christmas!!!

 Me and Amanda in front of the Louvre!

 I love taking pictures of Amanda taking pictures...

 Delicious!!

 We did an ANTM photo shoot in the country...so great!

 

 DIE!!

 Bike ride in the country...yes!

 

 This was the most delicious waffle I have ever tasted!!

 Hippie bracelets!

 Christmas Eve!

 Just one of the delicious plates we had for our feast on Christmas Eve!!

 Crazy game of Jenga at midnight!

10 days...

In only 10 days I'm going to be leaving on a jet plane to meet my cousin in Europe for the Christmas break. I'm SO excited...seriously can't contain myself.

Sneak peak: I'm going to be here on New Year's Eve...

I'll post some pics of our adventures when I get over there (or when I get back). But since I'm leaving so soon and will be quite busy over the break exploring new cities...I've been thinking about new year's resolutions recently...

I've never really been big into new year's resolutions. I mean I definitely set goals for myself, some that are written down and others just in my mind, and I try to improve and grow and become better, but new year's resolutions have never been my strong point. Maybe part of that is because I don't want to set a bunch of big goals and see them fail after a month or two into the year. And maybe it's because I hate going to the gym during January since it's PACKED full of people who will only be there for two or three weeks before the crowd dies down as their new year's resolutions fade. I don't know. But I've been thinking about giving it a shot this year.

What should I do? I have some ideas bouncing around in my head, nothing too concrete yet...but I'm kinda excited about some of them...

I think it's a good year to try this whole "new year's resolution" thing.

picture here

babies...

My little nephew is the cutest thing in the entire world. I'm not biased, that's just the truth. This past weekend was great because my whole family came home to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas in one weekend (we celebrated Christmas since most my family will be gone for the real Christmas), Trevor and Melissa and Thompson, Nate, and my parents and I all slept over at the house and got to spend lots of time together. It was the best. This is a video of my mom giving Thompson a haircut to show you how adorable he is. Isn't he the best?

I think he's part of the reason I'm already baby hungry...

so proud...

Trinity women's soccer finished another amazing year this last weekend. It was rough to watch it end short of everyone's hopes and dreams, and my heart broke for the players. I re-lived and remembered my final game the year before, as it is forever sketched in my mind, knowing how they were feeling, wishing I could be there to hug them and cry with them.

To the team, I have to say congrats. You had a killer year and it was incredible to watch you dominate. I am so proud of you girls. I know it didn't last as long as you hoped it would, or as long as it should have, but you have to be proud. You just have to be.

It's been one year and seven days since my soccer career ended (but who's counting?). I wish that I could give these seniors some advice. Maybe some words of wisdom to help them feel better and help them know what to do. Anything. But I'm at a loss. For the past year I've struggled myself to fill that void, I've been searching for something I can do that will replace it, trying to keep myself busy and not think about it constantly. But the truth is, even after 12 months, I still miss it terribly. But I've realized that's okay.

Although I've been searching for something to fill that void, the reality is I won't ever be able to replace it, and I don't want to replace it. It was an incredible journey with amazing experiences and opportunities. Yes I have disappointments, frustrations, and I occasionally replay vital games in my head, trying to figure out how I could have changed the outcome. But the reality is, that doesn't matter. And I'm slowly realizing that.

I don't have any profound words of wisdom or comfort. I wish I did. But I am happy to say that I can look back and be proud. And that pride, for some strange reason, is comforting. I am proud to have been a Trinity women's soccer player. That means more than most people will ever know or understand. Only those who were a part of it will truly get that.

creative baking...

So I found this recipe online...and I just HAD to try it...

S'mores Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies (recipe found here)

Who would ever think to make a s'more and then put it inside a chocolate chip cookie? Brilliant. I have to say that they were quite delectable. However, I give a warning...they are HUGE! I made only half the recipe, but it made 5 ginormous cookies (you can look at the pictures for proof)

The cookies were good, and very creative, but they weren't my favorite treat. I mean don't get me wrong...they were quite tasty...but I wasn't crazy about the "cookie" part, it felt kind of dry...

So...I decided to heat the cookie up and dip it in milk (or almond milk)...I decided these were pretty delicious when I did this.

And let's be honest...I will probably eat all of them. 

dear future...

dear future hubby,
sometimes I think about you. I think we should hang out sometime soon.
love,
me

alumni weekend

This past weekend I was re-united with my former team, room-mates, and friends.

It was so great to be back at my home in Texas. The weekend was filled with fun, laughter, humidity, tears, yelling at referees and opposing teams, pouring rain, losing my voice, breakfast tacos, and so much more. I miss it already. BYU is great...but just SO different.

a call for help...

I'm am amateur blogger.

When I post pictures it puts a giant white border around every picture...I can't stand it...it drives me crazy. I tried for about an hour to remove it tonight, but I failed.

Anyone know how to get rid of this?

With love,
Danika "desperateamateurblogger" Wright

Growing up...

Growing up is strange. Don't get me wrong, I truly do love it...it's fun, exciting, and full of adventures and opportunities...but...it is still kind of strange.

I like looking back to see where life has taken me. It's quite exciting. However, at this particular moment in my life I wonder where life WILL take me...what does the future hold?

Some people know what they want to do in life from day one and they go for it and they succeed. I've never been that way. There have been times in my life when I was frustrated with this, but I've come to understand that people are different and I guess that's not really how I work. I usually have ideas and random dreams that will stir about in my mind for awhile. Then I will research more about these dreams, look at the details, and decide what seems to work best at that time...and then I pray to know what's right and just kind of go for it.

That is how I ended up in Chile for 10 weeks to study spanish...as well as in Washington D.C. for 10 weeks for an internship.

That is how I ended up in Texas for the past four years of my life playing soccer for a small, yet wonderful, university. And I cannot explain how happy I am with that decision.

That is how I chose Accounting as my major, despite the common stereo-type that only extremely boring and lifeless people work in the field of Accounting (which is quite wrong by the way).

And that is also how life has brought me back home to Utah for grad school at BYU, something that never crossed my mind four years ago when I moved away.

So where will life take me next? Not just physical location...but what will I do?

I'm not sure at this moment. I have many different ideas of things I want to do in life. Some may be far-fetched, and some pretty certain. There are many possibilities and excitements...followed by many uncertainties and fears.

Despite not knowing everything that's down the road...there are some things I do know. I know God has a plan for me and that He is watching over me. I believe that my somewhat randomness in life has been a result of the Lord leading me. And I know that as I strive to better myself, trust in the Lord, follow Him, and make the most of this stage of life, everything will work out and I'll end up where I need to be.

the new place...pros & cons

I'm finally moved in and living in Provo! Neato. Here are some pics of mine and becca's first few days living in our cute little home (until Lala moves in)

First, we have a garden in the backyard. It looks like a mangled mess since it was clearly never weeded, but regardless it still produced some yummy tomatoes and anaheim peppers. Me and becs decided to make homemade salsa with our fresh ingredients from the garden. I do not lie...this was seriously the best salsa I have ever tasted in my entire life...truly it was. Store bought salsa will never be the same. It was so flavorful and every bite I was dumb-founded how delicious it was. I'm going to be talking about this salsa for the rest of my life. I'm going to tell my grand kids about it...that is how incredible it was.

Isn't it beautiful?

Saturday night we made some yummy cookies. These were really tasty...but didn't come close to being as fabulous as the salsa.

Sunday was fast Sunday, so after church we decided to make some fajitas to go along with the salsa. Needless to say...these were simply marvelous (compliments of the rich, luscious flavor of the salsa).

Me and becs also went long boarding around our neighborhood a couple times, which was quite pleasant.

Overall the weekend was fabulous in our new house. However...

Our landlord told us that they would clean the carpets when they moved out so that we didn't have to worry about it. Well since our house still had a little bit of a smell, and we were hesitant to walk on the carpet barefoot cause it just felt dirty...me and Becs were a little skeptical whether they actually did clean them or not. So I emailed the landlord and asked her and she replied and told me they did.

Well...still being skeptics, we decided to clean them ourselves anyway. Here is a picture of the first bucket of water after cleaning just a small 3 by 5 foot section:

Cleaned the carpets?? Ha...I don't think so! Gross! So we spent about two days deep cleaning the carpets and going over them repeatedly. The water never ended up clear (unfortunately)...but it looks and smells a billion times better, and at least now I feel good about walking barefoot in my house.

Special thanks to my mom and dad for helping me move...and thanks to my mom for coming and helping us clean the nasty carpets. Much love!

Culture Shock?

Is it possible to have culture shock within your own culture? I never really thought about this until now. Today was my first day of classes at BYU, and since I've been down in Texas for school for the past four years, coming to BYU is quite a change.

At Trinity I was either the only Mormon or 1 of 3 members. Here at BYU I look around and basically everyone is Mormon. At Trinity there were only 2500 students in the entire school. Here at BYU...35,000? I went from being the minority to being part of the large majority. At Trinity people are often scantily dressed, wearing anything (or nothing) from extremely short skirts...so short that most people see way too much...to low cut shirts exposing plenty of cleavage and bare skin. Here at BYU...well people are simply dressed modestly. And at Trinity I was a college athlete...here at BYU, I'm just a regular student.

Even though it's basically opposite from my experience at Trinity and I may or may not be experiencing a little culture shock (despite the fact that it's my own culture)...I must say it's quite nice as well. People dressed modestly and using clean language (no F words, thank goodness)...is so refreshing. Having prayer before every class starts and having my professors converse about the Gospel and the scriptures as if it's a normal subject for everyone...well it's definitely different, but I like it.

It is certain that BYU is a pretty unique place. But I think I'm going to enjoy my time here.

TUWS

Preseason started today for Trinity Soccer. For those of you who don't know what preseason is, basically it's the first couple weeks of the soccer season, which consists of two-a-days, fitness tests, classroom sessions, exhaustion, and lots of excitement.

It feels weird that I'm not going back down to Texas for another soccer season...kind of hard to believe. All day today I have been thinking about my lovely teammates who have been running fitness tests in the scorching Texas heat. However, despite the running and the heat, they get to play soccer and come together as a team...which is simply marvelous. So, as I was missing the whole experience I decided to try and run a couple fitness tests myself. It wasn't nearly the same...not even a little bit...but somehow it made me feel better.

Good luck girls! I expect you to kick some major butt this season. I will be creepily stalking you from the website because I miss you.