Part 2 of my seven month hiatus!

So part 2 will consist of the first part of June. June was an INSANE month! I had my first competition in about 3 years, my first time back out since going through the surgery and all that. I turned 18, graduated from high school, and had my good friend from Michigan, Anne, as a houseguest for a week.

So, starting with the competition!

It was only a spin event, where you basically do 3 different spins, so the whole debacle lasted about a minute and a half. But still, being my first time out I was incredibly nervous. I did get some great pictures though! :)

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After the competition, I decided I wanted to have a big birthday party to celebrate my 18th birthday. I actually turned 18 on June 18th :) So I spent the first 2 weeks of June planting about a thousand flowers in the backyard and getting everything ready for the 80+ people that showed up. It turned out to be an amazing party!

Me and Yuna :)

Will, Deanna, and Yuna

Taryn of Style-Phenomenon and Victoria

Tori and Yuna

Deanna, Tori, and Yuna

Taryn and Victoria :)

Gracielle and Eder

Just a few of us :)

Dino, Geena, and Nick

Mindy, Shannon, Remy, Michael, Erica, and my baby Jett :)

Little blurry, my grandma took this one!

My Grandpa and Nana! :)

My Dad and Grandpa with the Fox Family

Christy and my cousin Emily

The Alevizos

Eder, Gracielle, and Diane

<3

Will and Deanna, what dorks :D

Yuna and Taryn!

Anna and Tori!

Love my bestfriend!!

Victoria and Gracielle

My favorite picture of the night, they were dancing

And finally, my CAKE! I got that chocolate motherload cake from Claim Jumper :) 6 layers of pure heaven!

I'll post part 3 soon! I'm thinking my seven month hiatus may turn into a 4 or 5 part post! I just have so many pictures....

xoxoxoxo

I'm back! Part 1 of my seven month hiatus

Well, I'm completely ashamed. I haven't blogged since FEBRUARY! What's worse is I've actually been meaning to do this blog post since February......oh gosh.

Anyways, I thought I would include some pictures of what I've been up to for the past few months! Unfortunately since I have about 60 plus pictures, this is going to be a 3-part post. So for part 1 I'll include pictures from February-May.

For the first two weeks of February my friend from Zurich came to visit me and stayed with me. We went to Disneyland, Los Angeles, Santa Monica Pier, and many, many malls. All that girl wanted to do was shop! I never thought I'd say I was sick of shopping, but let me tell you after those two weeks I didn't go near a mall for two months!

Well first up are pictures from my favorite place on earth, Disneyland :)

Just a little side note, I've been riding this horse on the carousel for 18 years :)

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Santa Monica :)

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Just a few random pictures from Disneyland again :)

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And now for the main event, PROM! My good friend asked me to go with him to his a few months ago so I kept my promise, even though I really didn't want to go :p

I wore a dress my mom gave me, that she bought in 1988 and never wore! My shoes were my favorite part though, I finally got those black suede spiked Edelman's I've had my eye on :)

And....

I got a haircut! Yes I took the plunge and chopped it off! I donated 15 inches to Locks of Love :)

More to come!

xoxoxoxox

La La La La Lita

I know I know I fell behind again, and the sad thing is I've been meaning to do THIS post for three weeks. But this has to be a quickie, I'm on my way to pick up my friend from Switzerland at the airport! I met her in 2007 at an international competition in Morges, Switzerland, and I had another competition in Grindelwald, Switerland, in 2008 and I had dinner at her house in Zurich. We kept in touch and she emailed me last September to ask if she could come and see me :) I'm super excited, it's her very first time to the United States and she's staying with me for two weeks :) I'm super pumped to spend three days at Disneyland. YES.
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So anyways, I got an awesome pair of Litas for Christmas! They are ridiculously comfortable, which I was definitely not expecting based on their height. I decided to get the taupe ones, and hopefully soon I'll buy the black, grey suede, brown distressed, and that nude suede. Ugh I love these shoes too much.

Taupe Suede Litas worn with J Brand pants, leather jacket and Sinful tee.

Since I'll be taking my friend everywhere around Los Angeles and such, I should have plenty of new posts coming of our escapades :)

xoxoxox

New Beginnings

I'M ALLIIIVVEEEEEE!
I've been so busy with the holidays and school I haven't had any time to blog. I went to Vail for a week to see my surgeon and all my friends that I made when I went to have surgery last December (I had a congenital hip impingement that tore my labrum), and then my computer has been acting up, making it difficult to blog. I have to replace the hard drive for a SECOND time....grrrr.

So, HAPPY NEW YEAR! Can you believe it's 2011? Where did the time go? I have many resolutions for this year, and I thought I would share them :)

New Years Resolutions:

*Blog more (heehee)
*Get all of my triple jumps clean and consistent
*Train to get back into competing shape
*Be ready for Cup of Stockholm in March
*Make it to the 2012 National Championships
*Finally get my selling blog up and running
*Complete more photo projects
*Finish school early


So....of course the first resolution...BLOG MORE. It's so beyond difficult for me to do this. Way more than I had originally anticipated. I wear skating clothes 5/7 days a week, and the other two days I essentially wear pajamas. And with school always in my way and training for most of the day, the little free time I have is devoted to mindless TV watching or relaxing with a good book. I actually think I'm going to revamp my blog a bit and feature book reviews and baking. I'm a closet French pastry chef :)

The other resolutions are of course skating related. It's been quite an adventure for me, especially in the last 4 years. I've been injured for the majority of those long 4 years. Mysterious hip pain and multiple stress fractures put me off the ice for months at a time. The 2008 and 2009 competition season I competed twice. I must have been on the ice for maybe 4 out of 12 months. It was heartbreaking. I was unmotivated and depressed, and a personal problem concerning a close friend who did something so out of line and completely betrayed me put even more strain on my mental health.
It was not a good time. Then I finally found out what was causing my hip pain, and I had to go through a very complicated surgery to repair it. The surgery was about 3.5 hours long and my surgeon did about 4 different procedures.
Through weeks of pain and rehab I slowly made my way back. I had to relearn how to walk, and I relearned how to skate. I think I am most proud of myself for those first few months, for not giving up. It was probably THE hardest thing I have ever had to go through.
But it's made me a different person, and I will never again take my gift for granted. I feel as if I've been reborn, given a second chance.

I am a phoenix. I live by this quote:

"Only after disaster can we be resurrected. It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything."- Chuck Palahniuk


So my other resolutions are actually goals that I know I can do, to prove to myself that I belong in this sport and I am a success story.

So tell me, what are some of YOUR new year's resolutions?
xoxoxox

Suprise!

Hey Guys, This is Taryn from Style Phenomenon! I'm popping in to do a guest post while Alyssa is away in Vail. She's off in the mountains where its beautiful and snowy and magical while I'm stuck here in SoCal where its warm and sunny and bright all year long. You may think it sounds like a dream, but it gets old very fast, especially to a rain lover like me. Since I can't have my fantasy white Christmas here I've been pouring over wintry inspiration photos which I thought I'd share...