The confetti droppers.

http://entertainment.time.com/2013/12/30/the-fabulous-confetti-fete-a-times-square-new-years-eve/

Claire sang me to sleep today (while she was supposed to be napping)

Do we have a volunteer for closing prayer?

*pause*

I volunteer!...I volunteer as tribute.

Looking for work again. 

I Believe

 "Except in the case of His only perfect Begotten Son, imperfect people are all God has ever had to work with. That must be terribly frustrating to Him, but He deals with it. So should we."- Jeffery R. Holland  (“Lord, I Believe”)

Strangers

I like candid pictures...and taking of pictures of people I don't necessarily know. Near booming NYC attractions, it's easy to take pictures of people without them noticing (some I asked.)

Mrs. Doubtfire

What a selfie

Here are a few of my favorite things..

Shirley Temple's Save My Social Life

It's been a week of celebration in place of goodbye's.
Even if my length of stay is prolonged, I wouldn't be working with the same people in the same place at the same time again. I guess that's how the hustle and bustle of New York is all about.

Monday- SCENE 1 - Tom and Jerry's FRENEMIES WRAP PARTY INTERIOR
I stepped in dog poop twice in two blocks right before I arrived. Dave can't walk in a straight line and this habit of his runs me into a lot of things. Like dog poop.
Wrap parties are the best. I'm glad instead of teary goodbye's everyone just takes the time to relax and laugh. I don't drink. Sometimes it can be a little hard when everyone wants to do shots but is also wonderful because Shirley Temple's taste SO GOOD. Everyone got to meet Dave for the first time too and I'm happy to have a trophy husband. MMMMmmmm.
I am very surprised that I was even invited to the wrap party seeing that I was only an intern and even the producers weren't invited to our crew party....or other interns. Beth also took the time to give me a red moleskin with a handwritten "Thank You" inside. For me? Really?! Everyone else had a black moleskin and I'm pretty sure she gave me a red one because of my duties with blood on shoot days.

On my days off, I usually spend my time at the gym because I have a free two week pass and I miss the gym. I also saved up my days so that I could have it when it was too cold to run outside. I tried a recipe and added so much cornstarch it turned into a goo. Not my best creation.

Wednesday- a crew member of mine found out I'm going back to Utah for the time being and decided to try and get me a job to stay in NY. In one day I applied to a lot of jobs. It was slow in the office.

Thursday - SCENE 2 - Williams Abode - INTERIOR
I had sent a resume to my friend Jessica Cooper just for kicks and giggles and within a few hours I had an email from an executive producer in Salt Lake City. By 1:30 I was in an interview on a 6 person conference call, all because Jess gave me raving reviews.

Friday - SCENE 3- Atlas Media - INTERIOR
I receive news that the digital media team in Salt Lake really like me and if there is a job opening in the next week they will contact me. I also went out for "drinks" with two other interns right after work since it was Michaela's last day. There are loads of irish pubs near Atlas, I hadn't noticed until this night. They ordered two pitchers of beer and after a while, they got very giggly. There was this drunk man who looked just like Andrew Jarvis if he were black dancing in odd ways right behind Angelica so at times it was hard not to be distracted by him. The music was so loud that when I arrived home to greet Alex Page, I thought they were whispering when indeed their volume was normal.

Saturday - SCENE 4 - NYC - EXTERIOR
It was a crazy day to go to the city but Al Page was only with us for 24 hours and Dave designated me to be the tour guide on the snowiest coldest day. I must say I didn't do too poorly considering we hit Times Square, Rockefeller, 5th Avenue, Grand Central Station, Bryant Park and the Empire State Building. The weather was so numbing it hurt and in the morning Al didn't think he needed a coat. Despite our pleas and commands he decided to head into the city with a mere hoodie. Within 5 minutes of walking around, he was ready to find a store with coats and we directed him to a plethora of options at Uniqlo. We also ended up going to 3 more bars with Alex this day...which is actually quite funny but once again I got my friend "Shirley."

Sunday - SCENE 5 - Bloomfield - INTERIOR
The weather was so bad that church got canceled. Honestly, I don't think it was bad enough to cancel church but I guess I'm more used to snow than New Yorkers. It was also a big day because my dad got released as stake president....lets just say a lot can happen in 10 years and note that when he was called I was 13. Ben will be a great fit. Both Dave and I are very close with Ben and his family. Ron also got in early Sunday morning and it's a blast having him around. I like that Dave's parents even tease him. That nut.

Today is my last day at work. Sad face.

I believe in shirley temple's.

Flourish

Today I started worrying a lot about the future. I mean, there is  a lot to think about but there is one word that has been sticking in my mind despite the fear of the unknown.

While taking the senior exit survey for BYU it asks you whether you would describe your current situation in life to be "flourishing" or...ok I don't remember the other F word but it was similar to "failing." I could honestly answer that to me, my life is "flourishing."

Since then, the word "flourish" continuously is on my mind. I need to have faith that my feelings will continue this way. If so, I have no need to worry for it will all be alright.

I believe in flourishing.

Screenshots

I'm going to be on TV (various episodes) in January. Oh joy. Haha, I find the scenes pretty ironic considering that I don't drink.

 No shave November.

Last Episode, Rockefeller Tree and Face Painting

"....Monday you went to work, came home, and we fell asleep super early. It was wonderful. Tuesday you were gone until after 9 or 10. Which was also wonderful. Wednesday we worked out pretty much all day. What? Say it say it, what. Thursday was our magnificent day in the city and we did gloriously beautiful things, no questions asked. Friday night you worked, came home and both of us for some reason were exhausted so we went to sleep. Saturday was a great day, we worked out for hours, did laundry and yea and then we went to our dance thing, it was great. I think there is a reason I don't do the blog posts, catch my drift? Catch my, feel my, catch a drift? It's a rhyme time to be in a prime time. Where should I put these cookies? Lizi babe?  What? What are you laughing at, huh? What chu laughing at girl? Hey, Hey I said. Don't start writing stuff down what I say."-Dave

There's a time in your life that you realize you have just met an interesting person, not saying that everyone doesn't have their own odd quirks but you come across people who are extra special once and a while. I was requested to shoot on Tuesday for the last episode because we were going to have to do the kill scene twice and they wanted their "blood specialist" to be there.  Cleaning up the fake blood was extremely difficult because we used 4 times as much blood than usual, plus some cranberry sauce for coagulation. I actually spent my entire lunch hour cleaning up after it. This made me lose my appetite, spaghetti definitely didn't look appetizing after that.

I have found a mockingjay on set, if I hum a certain song by our second camera man I can hear the song eventually jump from each person until everyone in the crew has hummed it. My personal favorite song to make contagious on set is "Elmo's world." The story behind that is that a few episodes ago, they asked me to name a rap song and then they started singing some strange arrangement of who knows what so I said, "Elmo's world?"

The lady at the location we were shooting talked to her dolls as if they were real children. Plus, she had a tons of dolls in every room, the creepy kind that stare at you wherever you are in the room. To top that, there was a hibernating bear in the backyard. We could see it from the back porch window.

At the end of the day, I was washing the dishes we used in our episode and that's when it hit me. Life suddenly ran in slow motion. I could see other crew members running behind me in the reflection of the back window and just sunk it in-trying to enjoy the dwindling moments. I don't know why but I seem to always be the only person that is not ready for these types of things to end.

Wednesday I set up a LA Fitness guest pass account so that I could run these last two freezing cold weeks. I guess Dave thinks we worked out all day. I made Champ pose for pictures and he wasn't thrilled about it.

THURSDAY WAS A BIG DAY FOR US. I woke up cranky, when things come to an end I can sometimes get a little on the snarky side but the best medicine was going to take pictures in the city. Dave gave me a limit. I was only allowed to take 2 pictures....I only took 400. I got up the guts to take pictures of strangers at the Rockefeller tree because the people were usually too distracted by the view to notice me, my personal favorite is a picture I took of a girl taking a selfie (believe me, it's a funny one.)

Christmastime in the city has officially became my very favorite time of year. They encourage CHRISTMAS on every street corner and wrap entire buildings up like presents. Walking around is a magical experience, I'm so glad I have survived long enough to walk around NYC during Christmas season.

I had a friend who recommended that I try a butter beer from starbucks, I asked if it had caffeine and my friend reassured me that it was decaf. Well, they were wrong. After walking around 3 miles in the city, I was tired until I had that drink. Suddenly, my speech became fast and I wanted to go to the gym. We went and I did a zumba class, didn't feel like I was expending enough energy and then ran 5.5 miles....do you think it had caffeine?

My family celebrates a European Christmas holiday called The Nikolaus, our version is a lot less scary than the original holiday. So Dave and I tried to inconspicuously find out what everyone's favorite candy bar is. That turned into Maja yelling to everyone in each corner of the house, asking their favorite candy bar. We put everyone's boots on the front porch, filled their shoes with candy and then waited until morning....then it rained all night. So much for that idea lol.

Friday was the last day my crew was in the office...I'll be a little lost without them in the office. Atlas decided to have a lot of meetings on Friday too so it was a very busy day. I walked around in the rain all morning. Went to two very long meetings and one significant question later, I still had to finish all of the expense reports. By 8:30pm Alex told me to just go home, she even took everything left to do out of my hand. I will finish those up next week but I wanted to make sure she got everything done she needed to.

Saturday we went to the gym and got ready for Maddie's dance fundraiser. They recruited me to be a face painter....little does Katie know how much I LOVE to face paint. I can space out everything else in the world and focus on creating a beautiful masterpiece on a childs face. I only got like 10 faces painted by the end but they were glorious. The same thing happened this time that happened last spring at my niece's carnival. The other face painters get really weird around me...do you remember that Linda? It's odd because I'm not trying to compete or anything, I really just focus on butterflies, unicorn's and fairies. There usually is one really loud girl that begins yelling, "I'm an artist, I want to paint your face." I'm fine with that, paint their face. If they are in my line, let them decide haha.

The dancing is phenomenal there. It's a dance studio that is run by an Alvin Ailey alumni and you feel the emotion from every dance. There also was a tiny little redhead that looked exactly like Sadie Coleman dancing to the nutcracker.

I believe in giant Christmas Trees.

Will

Some of you already may be aware that I am on a film crew with the Discovery channel. The catch is we recreate murder scenes and I have officially been promoted to "blood specialist." Ironic, right? I often get reminded of how temporary our mortal existence is.

So, as morbid as this may be I have decided what I want my funeral to be like.

Specifics will be written in my journal but if it is never found hopefully someone will find this. Any main speaker at my funeral is required to share 3-5 of the funniest moments you have shared with me, anyone else may have 1-3.

I just want the people I love to be happy. 

The Champ is Here

I love the dog that we are staying with. I wish I weren't allergic to him.

34th Street, Macy's Day Parade and Thanksgiving

On Monday at work, I finished the binder. Well, up until episode 210....and made a to-do list for the rest..and a table of contents. It made Alex so happy she shrieked with joy to see it (basically, that means it was totally worth it.) We also had our last pre-production meeting. I guess they started their first episode while sipping milkshakes at the the diner on 34th and to fulfill the tradition we all went to the diner on 34th to discuss episode 212. I have seen a lot of the small diner, which I don't think is particularly popular but is in a sublime location. It was much more than a production meeting, we all discussed what we're doing afterwards (which is pretty all around nothing since Frenemies ends at such an awkward time) and options of what to do from here. I cannot believe how wonderful it is to work with people who value your strengths. I know I have a lot to learn when it comes to filmmaking but working with a crew that recognizes the importance of hard work and helps me learn where I fall short will be hard to leave and start again. 

Tuesday we arrived in Oneonta (did you see my "Macys Day Parade" picture? I was there....just a lot earlier than the rest of the parade.) It's a good thing we decided to leave a little earlier for Oneonta because apparently the weather was going to be absolutely nasty Wednesday and Thursday. We had quite the snow storm but I didn't find it nasty, rather, I felt the weather was welcoming the holiday season. Kim practiced her aerobic routine with me, I think it was odd for her because we do aerobics a lot together but we never are facing each other. I am well aware that I am an awkward mover. 

During this visit, Lucy figured out how to say "Dave" and everything became "Dave." The car keys were "Dave," my phone (has a picture of him on it) was "Dave," any bearded man in the mall was "Dave," the picture of Jesus in the hallway was "Dave" and we both preferred this over last time we went to Oneonta (she literally cried everytime he came near her.) She was also very concerned that dave wasn't included in whatever was happening. If Mary and I were giving soft tickles to one another, Lucy would command us to soft tickle him. If she had to take a nap and everyone was giving her kisses, she would then say "Dave?" My name was occassionally "Dave" as well because I guess "Lizi" is harder for an 18-month old. 

Wednesday I was informed that my exam had been graded and I promised Dave I wouldn't check my score until after the Thanksgiving break....well, I peeked. I got the exact score I needed to graduate, what a miracle! I became a little sad because I didn't really end college on a strong point but then I remembered how wonderful it was that I'm where I am and that the next day is Thanksgiving I got over it quickly (Thank you btw for those of you who sent me kind words about my last blog post, I didn't intend to be depressing but thank you for being so nice to me.) 

Thanksgiving Day 2013 we spent in a cottage-like home, toasty on the inside and enough snow to play in on the outside. Kim is the best cook in the world. Buddy and Mary fight over who will be "willed" Kim's cookbook, Buddy apparently thinks it would sell on Ebay for 14 million dollars. I also missed my dear Grandma Pace today, I always think of her around Thanksgiving. The holiday smell alone reminds me of the great Thanksgiving's I've spent near my Grandmother. My mother was so kind and roped Erika into setting up skype so we could see the family. Not only were Grandma and Grandpa there but I got to see CLAIRE JARVIS. I totally understand that 2-year old and miss her often. I love it when Katie calls because I will often get to speak to Claire as well (I like speaking to Katie too.) Near the evening, we welcomed in the holiday season with some desserts and games. I'm pretty sure I win every game of zilch that I play....right Dave?

Friday We got to see Catching Fire. I know, everybody loves the movie. I admit it was done very well. I won't lie, it makes me so anxious but the book did too so at least it's consistent! Living in conditions so bleak as the setting of the Hunger Games really scares me. Kim and I exercised everyday while I was in Oneonta too but that's because we both find exercise therapeutic.

Saturday, we loved being in Oneonta but it began to set in that our stay was coming to the end...and that we don't know when we will be able to see the Noorlander's again. I tried really hard not to focus on that fact, I hate goodbye's and I say goodbye's too often. We set up Christmas decorations and Danny is a great decorator. I also can only go so many days without taking pictures or filming something and I couldn't handle that it had been a while so I spent the evening filming Lucy dancing in front of the christmas tree.

I met a woman on Sunday who turned 100 last month. I also was called the "calm" one in my family although we asked Dave if that's true and he disagrees that I'm calm. Kim made the best pretzels on earth and I have been craving them lately so it was perfect to be able to eat eight soft pretzels to help my craving. The family let us skype in on Advent in the evening and it was a perfect ending...for now. 

Today at work I talked to four strangers about their lives. I guess people are more talkative right after Thanksgiving. OR I'm a more social person after I've spent nearly a week with Kim. That makes more sense. We also went into what I picture Bakery Heaven would look like. Dave refuses to eat our advent calendar chocolates though, he is too afraid they will taste like cardboard. I do not have a fear of eating chocolate.

I believe in the Holidays.