Long time no see....

Wow the last time I posted was Thanksgiving--Christmas came and went (although not really because it is STILL snowing) and lacrosse season is finally near! So many things have happened since last post but instead of trying to summarize it all I will just say, Christmas and New Years went fantastic. We spent New Years in a cabin with all the cousins and grandparents and grand-uncles/aunts and little kids. It was a blast. The most memorable part of it was probably spending 3 hours learning the line dance from the new Footloose. Natalie is a great teacher--not to mention patient. My mom, sister, cousin Andrea, Natalie, and I performed it for all of our family before dinner. All who did not witness would probably not believe how skilled we truly are.

 I could not have asked for a better holiday season. 

January came around and brought school, which is the real reason why I haven't posted. Okay, that's a lie, I just haven't been in the mood. Call me [crazy] but this whole blogging thing does not come easy to me... My posts are few and far in between, but I'm okay with that.

With all the stresses that come with holidays and going back to school there was an added stress--one that can only come from following your mailman (but mine is a girl, so mail-woman??) around for days on end. I had submitted my mission papers December 20 and was anxious to receive my call, of course the Big Guy has to have a sense of humor because my call did not come until the end of January. Something about opening the mailbox and finding it empty--or worse, with ads for sales at all the places I DON'T go to--drained me emotionally. When you know it's right, when you've already had to wait years since you decided to put papers in and you want nothing more than to dedicate 18 months of your life to the Lord it gets a little tedious. Eventually, after many tears and heartbreaks, it came!

With friends and family gathered all around I had the most wonderful experience of opening my call. I had never felt so much love and support, not to mention all the pressure from having all the attention focused on me. With shaky hands, a heart full of joy, and help from those more experienced I opened the envelope... The Idaho Boise mission awaits me in June.

As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints I am absolutely ecstatic to share the one thing I love most, this wonderful gospel. 18 months of doing nothing but sharing the only truth found upon the earth, sharing the importance of families and the love God has for us. Until I get married, this will be this will be the most important and fulfilling work I will do. I cannot wait for June to come around, I can't wait to love and serve the people of Boise, ID!

THANKSgiving, or Giving Thanks

This year's Thanksgiving was very, very different from any other year. Our dinner consisted of the best pizza in San Francisco and a movie in the hotel room. Sound like a complete disappointment? Well, to us, it was one of the most memorable Thanksgivings in our live.

More to come on my trip later. Just thought I would leave a cruel cliffhanger...

I am thankful for so many things, above everything I am thankful for my family.

Worst Movie EVER?

Twilight. and the rest of the saga...

Sometimes I have the t.v. running in the background while I'm supposed to be doing homework (when I'm really blogging instead). Seriously, Kristen Stewart stresses me out, her acting is beyond horrible. However, like most people who hate Twilight yet are strangely attracted to the movies, I'll probably end up watching the last movie anyway. *sigh* Hollywood knows how to keep us hooked...

But that has nothing to do with what I want to write about. I really need to learn to update more often, unfortunately I have a horrible habit of stressing myself out to the point that I don't want to do any of the homework I'm supposed to do. So where do I turn? To blogging of course--and catching up on Lost with the fam (speaking of Hollywood...). Horrible habit. So here I am, trying to desperately remember what it is that I have been doing these past couple weeks. It is such a good thing that I take pictures, otherwise I would be at a loss.


November 3rd, thats a good place to start. I met Sydni in English freshman year, she thought my name was Susan for like 3 days until I was brave enough to correct her. It sort of became our inside joke and we hit it off from there. We had our second section of English together again and had some good times, even hit up the Halloween dance that year! Anyway, beautiful Syd got engaged last semester. Her wedding/reception was on the 3rd way up in Altonah, Utah. Nat joined me on our little 2 hour road trip to the reception (thanks for bearing with me Nat). It was so good to see her, she looked so happy! We had a lovely dinner and desert, watched the daddy/daughter dance--shed a few tears--and the newly weds danced the night away. I'm so happy for this girl!

I absolutely love getting mail. Nothing makes me happier than seeing my name on an envelope, even if it's from Sprint, haha. So here is a little shout out to Liz for making my day! I loved my letter, even if it took like 2 weeks to get here from Jerusalem. I miss her and Sara and I can't wait to see them in December. Thanks Liz!

 Oh the adventures that lacrosse bring... The sun has been setting earlier because of our time change, we didn't really realize that until our usual 5:30 practice felt like 9:00 practice. That definitely did not stop us though, we pulled cars around and turned on the headlights! It was definitely one of the most memorable practices ever. We may be few but we sure are dedicated, I love these girls already. It is going to be a great season!

 As I mentioned, I dressed up as Katniss for Halloween this year. I lost all record of it but something miraculous happened! Since my family and I had missed out on the Sierra family coming over to trick-or-treat we decided to recreate Halloween! We have grown to love this family so much. I spent the summer taking care of these beautiful kids while Carla was pregnant with baby David--she gave me one more kid to love! Her family loves our Colombian arepas so we made an evening out of it! Gus Gus dressed up as a little puppy--tail and everything and Sofia was a beautiful princess. Tina put on my cowgirl hat and my mom brought the arepas! We had a great time. I love this family.

Snow is here! My doggy is not the only one that's excited about it. I love the snow, but with it comes one of my pet peeves... I am kind of upset that the world is ready to skip over Thanksgiving just cause we have snow, Christmas music on the radio already?! Don't even get me started on Costco and Walmart... Something about hot chocolate (you already know how addicted I am to the stuff), warm blankets, jackets, scarves, movies... Ah it's my favorite time of the year! 

 On another note: My poor puppy is getting old... She's almost 8 years old and her back is starting to act up. We had to rush her to the vet this last weekend because she could barely walk, $100 dollars and 3 bottles of pills later she is back to normal-ish... I wish she could live forever...

This has been a fun week for my sister and I. We like to go on random adventures to the mall, to UVU in search for tickets for the Synergy dance company's performance on Thursday and of course, a hot chocolate run! Love this little tyke, many more adventures to come!

Blessings

They come when we least expect it... Or when we need it most.

Bishop called me into his office yesterday after church, someone in the ward offered to pay for my whole mission.

Whoever you are, thank you. Thank you so much.

Tender mercies. Heavenly Father is aware of our needs, our desires, our hopes.

Happy Halloween!

I usually hate halloween, something about all the gore and scary people kinda freaks me out. This year hasn't been too bad. I've gone to a couple parties with friends rocking my Katniss costume and I look pretty dang legit. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures... about that a little later.

I found a temple buddy! Alyssa-- one of my all time favorite people--volunteered! I loved going to the temple with her and grabbing breakfast at Kneaders last Thursday. We investigated the car accident outside the window and discussed our lives. Oh, and it snowed for the first time! It ended up being a really beautiful day. I visited Carla and her kids, they got to play in the snow for the first time!

About the phone thing... I have been having issues with calls lately, turns out I had to go all the way up to Murray to see if they could do anything about it. The erased my whole phone... no more pictures of playing with Carla's kids in the snow and no pictures from the previous weekend. Unfortunately my only source of journaling is through pictures, I'm in big trouble.

Saturday night I spent all night worrying about what I was going to speak on during Sacrament, then my bishop called and told me I didn't have to speak anymore! Bad news is, I have to speak sometime in November... I think I have spoken more than anyone else in my ward.

Sunday night I hung out with Carter and Leandra for a while. It was fun to catch up with them and see their new puppy! We had a nice dinner together, it was a lot of fun!

I feel like this week has dragged on forever. I still have to wait until tonight at midnight to sign up for next semester's classes. Fortunately I have them all picked out already, just need to wait until it opens!

Have a lovely halloween-and be safe! *This is the only holiday where it is acceptable to eat stranger's candy...sorta*

#extremecheapskates

#theworstshowintheworld... seriously. You are allowed to watch one episode, let me know what you think. TLC has the most interesting/addicting shows.

Anyway. Take a look at this:

Do you see that? No homework due until Monday! Let the heavenly chorus begin! Who celebrates a whole weekend with no homework? THIS GIRL. 

Last week flew by! On the weekend I hung out with Kaylor and Ben at the Provo eXtreme Air Sports place, which was a TON of fun! We dressed up for the halloween dance held there and got to jump on the huge trampolines and play in the foam pit. After we got some frozen yogurt and went back to Ben's apartment to play some guitar and sing.  

This week has dragged on and on. It's only wednesday and I have had something due every day. I lost my planner last week and I went absolutely crazy! I got behind on a lot of stuff so this week has been catch-up week. Luckily I got almost everything done so all I have left is to read a couple chapters for my marriage class. I might actually have some veg time! wohooo! 

For those that know me know that I have a deep love for concerts. Actually I just love music. For my half birthday yesterday (another wohoo!) my buddy Amy, her friend Shaunelle, and I went to the All-American Rejects, Parachute, and Boys Like Girls concert. Here are some pictures from last night.

Parachute at the top left and Amy's love Tyson Ritter's camper.
No big deal. 

AAR

The men of the night!

So funny story about the picture above, we decided to head home pretty early so we started to walk to our cars... guess who we see!?!? Will from Parachute. I chased him down so we could get a picture! Look at his beautiful face! Oh and on the left we have Tyson Ritter. Crazy, and even more drunk than we could possibly imagine but one heck of a memorable concert! Thank you Amy for such a fun night! 

Last of all, I love my mother. I had drawn a balloon on my hand-made chalkboard and she made an addition of her own:

Thanks mom!

P.S.

There is nothing better than hearing my mom and sister laugh in the living room over Modern Family... Life's simple pleasures.