Hey I Heard You Were a Wild One

The month of March was que bueno! The best part about it is only one more month till school is O-U-T. Booyah. I'm ready for the semester to be done. One year of grad school down, two more years to go. Luckily SLC opened up the new City Creek Mall to keep me sane. Granted yes, it is just a mall. But new things are always oh so exciting. And yes, I did go opening day. And yes, I have been back like ten times. But no, I have not bought a single thing there. My little job at the WF doesn't give me enough money to shop downtown. Scratch that. I bought dinner at Chick Fil A the first day. That's about where my checkbook max's. The joys of being a broke college student.

I digress... Back to city creek. Here are a few of my pics.

Lovely Tiffany and Co. Found my dream ring there. Now just need a dream boy.
Inside Nordy's. It's smaller than I thought, but I loved the dressing room/hangout spot. And the Gucci shop had a gorgeous purple dress. I asked if I could touch it and the lady there said I could try it on! Yah right. The thing cost the same as a semester of tuition. I'd rather not take the risk.

The Coach store. Much smaller than I was expecting

This is the outer part of the food court. Looked beautiful. The doors to the shops are pretty cool, opening like a garage door. Fancy.

About three weeks ago, right after City Creek opened, Josh came up to SLC to hangout. He made a call to a guy he worked with to see if we could get into the condos at City Creek. And we did. It was pretty cool. We went to the top condo first. It cost 2 million I believe. Crazy. But the view was worth it.

Looking down

You could see the temple right between the other buildings. I bet it'll look so pretty during Christmas time.

Another view from the top

I just took pics looking out of the first condo we went into, but I got to go inside a bunch of condos. I wish I would have taken a picture of the insides, or me inside them as proof. I'm a loser. My favorite was a condo that was more level with the tops of the buildings downtown. It had a door out of the main room that opened up to a patio. You could only see the Angel Moroni on the temple, but I loved it. Now I need to save up $450,000 big ones.

Oh the life I live.

On to more important things...

Mini Cadburry eggs are my all time favorite. Hands down. Don't judge me, but I ate one bag already, and just bought another one on clearance. But it did take me almost two months to finish the first bag, so I don't feel so bad. Plus I need something to keep me awake while I study for finals. Justified.

I absolutely love living down town. I took this pic on one of my runs. It's just a three mile loop from my apartment, down around temple square and back. I absolutely love running around the temple. It brings peace into my life for sure.

As do hamburgers.

Lovely dinner with Mauri and Xanning. They opened a new burger place a couple blocks from my apartment, so we had to go there right away. It was alright. But Xanning did get a fry that was bigger than her face. Bonus.

I've decided to go granola and stop straigtening my hair (don't fret, I still am shaving... but I may embrace the full granola life and stop. Joke. Sick.) Matt, one of my favorite WF customers and I have twinner hair now! I made him take a picture with me to document it. So great.

Sushi Ya! Good friends + all you can eat Sushi= fat and happy me. Life is good.

I'm pushing through the last two weeks of the semester now. I am excited to be done, but a little apprehensive to what the summer is bringing. I have to do an internship at a residential treatment center. As a therapist. Oh man. This could be good. Or bad, very bad. No i'm sure it'll be great, it just makes me feel so grown up. I'll be doing that 32 hours a week and then working at the WF (for now) 20-25 hours a week. Monday through Saturday. All that matters is that I will get summerfest off, and 4th of July off. The two most important days of the summer. And, I'm totallly going to see the Beach Boys at stadium of fire. I feel as though I am the only person who cares, but the Beach Boys have always been a favorite of mine. The first c.d. I ever bought was their greatest hits. I am that cool. Jealous? You should be.

Things to look forward to this summer:

-Finishing the semester

-Spencie's Iron man, which also means a weekend trip to St. George with the babies!

-Summerfest

-My mom's first half marathon (I'm going to try and do the full, but I've gotten lazy, so we'll see)

-Summerfest

-My Gma's 75th bday bash in Portland. Stoked to head back to Oregon/Washington.

-Stadium of Fire with the Beach Boys, and other 4th of July festivities

-Tickets to see Wicked

-Flying to Ohio for Rechelles wedding (the same week school starts)

Between my intense work schedule and my few festivites I'm sure this summer will fly by. I just hope to get a little bit of time to relax and play too. We will see. This will be my first summer post mission not taking summer classes, so that'll be nice. I've been in school straight since Jan 2010, so it'll be a nice to take a little break. Just gotta make it two more weeks! (PS, don't judge my gramatical and spelling errors. I blog to blog, not to be graded, thus I don't care.)

Well, back to the books.

Zions!

I've been debating the last few days if I should make this post or not. My life has taken a few twists and turns in the past few weeks... anyway... I decided, why not. It's my life, and it was a fun trip, so here I am.

I wanted to get away from life for a little bit, so Josh and I headed down to Zions for the weekend. Well, we stayed in Cedar City and then drove to Zions for a day to do some hiking. Angels Landing. Oh man. I've heard it was intense, but add snow and ice to the hike and it makes for an exciting afternoon.

This is essentially what our path looked like for about 2 hours. Several times we literally had to pull ourselves up the mountain, or let ourselves down.

Me in an awkward pose...

The veiw from about half way. The rest of the hike was pure snow and ice.

Some lady at the top wanted to take our picture. She took three, and this is the only one without her entire finger in the picture.

It was a really nice weekend getaway. Wish it could have lasted forever. School has been pretty stressful this semester. Different than how it was stressful last semester. I'm learning a lot though. And, I have been working on a practicum placement for next year. It's so weird planning that far in advanced. I didn't get the one I wanted, but I know I'll end up where I need to be.

On a much more depressing note... Celine got cancelled. I'm devestated. I'll have to get ticktes to go another time, but I don't think I'll be able to go back to Vegas again till October. Such is life. Good thing I had a little vacay while I could.

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

The past five months have been full of twists and turns. Most of them unexpected, several of them I hoped for, and others I have despised. It's taken a toll on me in a lot of different ways. I've discovered that I loathe change. I have a really hard time adjusting to new situations, new environments, and new stages in life. But I'm coming out on top and starting to live the life. And I'm loving it. Here's the brief timeline of my past few months...

(My little brother and I celebrating my three acceptances into grad school!)

(My mom, me, and J.B. rockin at graduation!)

( Me and my bird legs wakesurfing at Lake Powell like a pro)

(Me, Alli, and Mauri! Livin the roommate dream)

(My brief visit to the great state of Washington. The minor family , finally, got baptized! It was such a great weekend, and I was so blessed to be able to go.)

(Spencie, Me, Mauri, Alli, and Rob after the Halloween Half Marathon. Chels ran it too, but we lost her somewhere in the huge crowd!)

(The babies with Santa! Baby A was actually stoked that Santa came, he just has a funny way of showing it...)

That's the general re-cap of what's happened in the past little while. This next year is going to be fabulous. I've decided to focus on myself this year and focus on doing what's right and helping
others. Here are a few of my "resolutions" if you will.
· Call more, text less
· Read the BOM by the spring G-Con
· Run my second marathon (I'll be doing the SLC marathon this April!)
· Get a 4.0
· Write in my journal more often
· Fulfill my callings and work in the temple again (I think it'd be amazing to work in the SLC temple!)

Those are the basics of my "resolutions." My family is also doing a "biggest loser" competition. Haha! I love my family! It will be great for all of us to get into shape and just be overall healthier. I made the goal to lose ten pounds. Ha! I've never tried to lose a pound in my life, but here's my chance. I'm super competitive and hate to lose, so
I'm working hard (I say that while I eat a mini bag of m&m's). So I've been training for my upcoming marathon and doing p-90. Holy crap that's tough! But it feels so good and keeps me sane. I've learned that when I don't exercise regularly I go a little nutso. Running keeps me sane. Plus it lets me eat candy. Yum.

I've got some traveling plans in the works right now that I'm totally stoked for. First up is Las Vegas for spring break!!! I'm finally making my dreams come true and going to see Celine Dion!!! I giggle when I think about it. I'm ecstatic about it. So that's in March. In May the fam is going to St. George to see Spencie do the Ironman. The kid is a champ. He asked if I
wanted to do it, to which I replied "I'm not a man..." When they come out with the "IronWoman" then I'll consider it. So that's May. June I'll be heading to Oregon for my Granny's 75th b-day celebration! Woot woot!

(I'm hoping we get another just as fabulous family photo like this one taken in 1998.)

In August I'm going to Ohio to see one of my BFF's, Rechelle, to marry her redheaded boyfriend.

(Love this lady. She came to my farewell wearing jeans and thought it was the funniest thing she'd ever done. )

I've never been to Ohio. I've never wanted to. It'll be good though to see a different part of the country. It's been awhile since I've been to the East coast. I'm starting to think of where I should go for fall break... Lately I've been wanting to go to Costa Rica. I've heard good things about it, and it's apparently fairly cheap. So sign me up. Anyone want to join me?

So that's that. A little bit of last year, and a little preview for 2012. What an exciting time. While 2011 had some serious challenges, it was the best year of my life. I learned a ton and accomplished so much. I graduated from college with honors, got into all three grad programs I applied to, was a research assistant, finished my first semester of grad school, bought my first car, moved out, taught a few college classes, learned how to wakeboard, snowboard, and wake surf, and went on several mini vacations. It's going to be hard to top! But I'm up for the adventure. Life is so good.

Can men and women really be friends?

Man I wish I was more talented at this whole blogging business...

Watch this vid on youtube. Super funny. And totally true.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_lh5fR4DMA&feature=share

On another note. I've only got one more week of finals and then my first semester of grad school is over! Freedom! For two weeks anyway...

My Thoughts Exactly

"I forgive myself for having believed for so long that... I was never good enough to have, get, or be what I wanted." - Ceanne DeRohan

Summa Time!

Good thing my homie Will Smith used to be a musical man. What would I do with no summer theme song. "Summa summa, summa time!" Oh the lyrics of a fabulous season.

(my first ice-cream on a stick of the season!)

I decided I needed to set some goals for this summer, lest I accomplish nothing and waste my days away. So, my top ten adventures this summer are... (drum roll please)

10.) Hike Timp Caves

No this is not a picture of me. But it could be.

9.) Watch as much of this show as possible...

And learn to lift my leg like that. And get calve muscles like that. I know that wont happen while I'm watching the show. So...

8.)

I'm going to have to run this race. Yes. Have to. I may have to buy a new foot and two new knees to do it, but I miss running crazy distances at all hours of the day. I see other people running and I want to hit them with my car. Not really, but I think you can sense the envy I have when I see others hitting the pavement while I sit around and eat bon bons all day.

Moving on.

7.) I need to spend a lot of time here...

In order to look like this...

Haha! I saw this pic and about died! I don't really want to look like that, but I want to get a fabulous tan. So tan that people wont be sure if I am white, or black. I've got 3 months...

6.) On the 6th day of summer, I really want to see...

Jesus! Sort of. I want to go to the Mormon Miracle Pageant. AKA the Manti Pageant. It's June 16-18 and 21-25. Who's with me?

5.) I need one of these... Yes, it's a passport. Yes, I am 25. No, I don't have one. I need one. And I need the Coach passport cover. Yes. Need.

4.) I want to read 5 books. That seems lame, only five, but I have a problem starting books and then actually finishing them. My goal is five for this summer. Five and the Book of Mormon. I don't really count that as a book... even though it is the best book ever! If you'd like to know more about it, go to mormon.org, or just ask me!

And I have no idea what these books are. They do not look like my type of books though. If you have suggestions on books, please let me know!

3.) MOOOOOOOOVE.

And it really might take more than two men, and several trucks. I've got a bunch of junk. One of my bad habits is I find everything sentimental, and therefore keep way too much junk. I atleast admit it, right? I'm moving to SLC as soon as I get me one of these...

2.)

Yes. I need a job. Bad. Currently I have two temp jobs. One as a summer camp counselor, and one as a health educator with the Department of Public Safety. I tell teens not to drink and drive, slow down, and wear their seatbelt. Lets just say I'm a natural. But I need something a little more permanent. Growing up is so hard... Luckily I have the most important summer event ever to keep me motivated. And I mean ever.

1.)

This picture represents the greatness that is my favorite holiday. The 4th of July! For me the celebration begins with Summerfest, June 11, and continues through the 24th of July. Fireworks, BBQ's, parades, hot weather, swimming, and so much more. It's a fabulous time of year. I love it! And, this year the 4th falls on a Monday, so you better believe I will be having a 3 day celebration! Stadium of fire on the 2nd, party on the 3rd (in a religious, keeping the sabbath day holy sort of way), and parade morning of the 4th, fireworks at night, and a BBQ everyday! Life does not get any better than this!

Oh summa time.

It's going to be one fabulous summer.

Song of the moment...

Time to tell me the truth
To burden your mouth for what you say
No pieces of paper in the way
'Cause I can't continue pretending to choose
The opposite sides on which we fall
The loving you laters, if at all
No right minds could wrong be this many times

My memory is cruel
I'm queen of attention-to-details
Defending intentions if he fails
Until now, he told me her name
It sounded familiar in a way
I could have sworn I'd heard him
Say it ten thousand times
If only I had been listening

Leave unsaid unspoken
Eyes wide shut unopened
You and me
Always between the lines

I thought I was ready to bleed
That we'd move from the shadows on the wall
And stand in the center of it all
Too late, two choices, to stay or to leave
Mine was so easy to uncover
He'd already left with the other
So I learned to listen through silence

Leave unsaid unspoken
Eyes wide shut unopened
You and me, always be...
You and me, always be...

I tell myself
All the words he surely meant to say
I'll talk until
The conversation doesn't stay on
"Wait for me, I'm almost ready,"
When he meant "Let go,"

Leave unsaid unspoken
Eyes wide shut unopened
You and me, always be...
You and me
Always between the lines

Crazy 8's!

After a super intense day, I am finding myself wasting time and blog stalking people... and I found this jewel...

8 T.V. Shows I Watch

1. Say Yes to the Dress

2. Say Yes to the Dress, Big Bliss

3. Say Yes to the Dress, Atlanta

4. VH1 Jump Start

5. The Office

6. Glee

7. So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD)

8. Cupcake Wars

(Honestly I don't have time to watch a lot of t.v. Or at least I didn't until school got out. And yes, apparently I'm a little obsessed for Say Yes to the Dress, but who isn't.)

8 Favorite Resturaunts

1. The O.G. (Olive Garden)

2. La Jolla Groves

3. Cafe Rio

4. The Chocolate (don't know if that counts, but one item here is the same amount of calories as a full meal anywhere else)

5. Texas Roadhouse- really it's only for the rolls

6. Red Robin

7. Subway

8. Jamba Juice

8 Things I Did Yesterday

1. Zumba

2. Took a two hour nap... at 7:45a.m.

3. Took a test, ugh

4. Watched Dr. Oz- it was an episode on whether or not childhood obesity is a form of parental abuse. Super interresting, if you're into that sort of thing, and I totally am.

5. Watched Oprah. How could I not.

6. Wrote up lesson plans for classes today. Boring.

7. Umm...

8. Read my scriptures

8 Things I look Forward To

1. Summer

2. Vacation, all I ever wanted

3. Sleeping tonight

4. Grad school. GO UTES!

5. Getting a big girl job

6. SYTYCD to start!

7. Harry Potter 7.5

8. Getting a passport and using it

8 Things On My Wish List

1. Warm weather and a tan (does that count as two? I say no.)

2. A scholarship for grad school

3. World peace. And yes, my list is in order of importance

4. For Oprah to come back already

5. An NSYNC reunion tour

6. Lime green TOMS

7. My knees not to suck so I can run

8. A vacation. Or multiple vacations

8.5. To see Celine live!

8 People I Admire

1. Jesus

2. My mother

3. My father

4. The person who invented sticky notes

5. P-Money (If you really know me, you know exactly who I'm talking about)

6. My favorite professor, Sue

7. Anyone who dresses up in a mascot costume on a 100 degree weather day

8. Elizabeth Smart (I'm watching the news, but sure, why not.) (And P.S. John Edwards has a love child that he lied about? Is that the new political trend? That does not earn my vote.)

Now you know a few more useless facts about me. Your life just got that much better. You're welcome.

I'm Gunna Bleed RED!

That's right. My blood is running RED. I got accepted into the U. I applied to three different Grad programs at the U (truth be told I'd rather go out of state, but tuition is $$$), and I was accepted into two of them. The other was my third choice, so no tears were shed, except maybe from my mother because it was the program she wanted me to go into. Master's of Social Work, her baby. Now I have to decide between the other two, and I have to do it within the next week. Program 1: Master's of Public Health. An awesome, awesome program, and the "gold star" of health programs as one of my teachers calls it. It's very clinically based, and is super intense. Lots of Doctors and Nurses actually apply for the program so they can have the MPH letters behind their names because it makes them legit. I can get any health job with this degree, and I can do lots of research, which I love. Program 2: Master's of Health Promotion and Education. My favorite teacher, the one I'm working on a research project with (and at the end of it, I will be published! woot woot) has practically paved the way for me in this program, so that's nice. I will focus on obesity and eating disorder prevention, which is my passion. If I choose to go on and get a Ph.D. then this program is the way to go. However, if I choose to just work, then I limit myself by not having the MPH credentials... lame. Decisions, decisions. And I have no clue what to do. In other exciting news, the Justin Beber movie, Never Say Never, has changed my life... okay, maybe not. But it was probably the best movie I've seen in a long time. I'm currently waiting for it to go to the dollar movie theater so I can watch it over and over, one dollar at a time. Shay and I went to see it for our Valentine's Day date. It was fabulous. We rocked our J-Bieb tee's and jammed for all TWO HOURS that the movie lasted. It was blissfully magical.

(Don't judge me. I don't know how to rotate the picture, or delete them... Or make new paragraph unless there is a picture in between them. I'm lame, I get it.)

Baby Searle and Sister Hendricko came home! I now only know one missionary left in the WKM. Crazy. I used to own that place and know everyone there. But, my last comp is now home, and all but one of the elder's from my last district. Seems like yesterday we were having my going home party, and playing pranks on eachother, but it was nice for me, Lowry, Hendricks, and Baby Searle to be reunited. The four of us had a blast in our district. Man, I miss the mission every day still...

I'm a Senior, so I decided that I no longer had to go to class all day, every day. I played hookie for a day and went and saw "So You Think You Can Dance" auditions in SLC. It was magical. Me, Shay, Steph, Jen, Travis (he loved it more than the rest of us) and Vicky all went together. We were supposed to dress like we were going to the club... I've never been clubbing, how am I supposed to know what to wear! Anyway, I'm excited for the season to start. Mainly because I want to see if I'm going to be on T.V. and because when SYTYD is on, that means it's SUMMER!

Less than a month to graduation. I don't know if I'll make it... but I'm sure trying. It's getting harder to go to class, especially because it's starting to get sunny outside. Side note- Spencie wants to run a marathon. I said, perfect, sign me up. We ran 11 miles yesterday, which I skipped Stat's to do, and I got mega sunburned. But running in the sun was totally worth it. However, my knees are like the knees of an 80 year old 500 pound man. I don't think I'll be able to do the full marathon with my knees. Maybe I can do a half. In the mean time I told Spence I'd bike next to him while he runs. We'll see how that goes... Anyway. Life is ch-ch-ch-changin! I'm growing up so fast...

GOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLL!!!

I know January is the time that people set goals, but I'd rather just forget January, and start fresh in February. Don't worry, I'm 25 and I still struggle to spell February... I have to think about it every time. It just doesn't seem like the letter "R" really fits in after the letter "B". It's rather annoying to me actually.

I digress... Goals. Setting new goals have been on my mind since November, but I have procrastinated setting new ones because I have had no idea what I want to accomplish. I'm still slightly clueless. My mission President, the amazing PMB, had me set three, one year goals, prior to me going home. I am proud to say I accomplished all three! Here's the review:

1.) Attend an activity once a month. As outgoing and friendly as I am, I hate social settings. I'd so much rather spend my weekends at home, alone, and do something I want to rather than force myself to be social. My last month in the mission I was burned out of being social. Talking to lots of people, forcing awkward dinner conversations, and being with someone 24/7. I wanted to dig a hole and never come out. So I made the goal of doing one social activity each month.

My first calling at home was as a member of the activities committee. Then I served as RS 2nd Counselor, and was in charge of planning monthly activities. God would do that to me... Above is a photo of the fabulous 80's exercise party we planned. It's kind of blurry, thanks to the fabulous lighting in the church gym, but that's me, dressed in an 80's outfit, following a Richard Simmons exercise video that was projected on to a very large screen. We had healthy smoothies, Just Dance on Wii, and the Karate Kid playing for those who wanted a little less physical activity. We had a dance off as well to Micheal Jackson "Beat It" for the boys, and Cindy Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" for the girls.

Thanks to my fabulous callings, it was easy for me to be social. And as time went on I didn't have to work at it anymore. Not that I'm some fabulous social butterfly now, but I can hold my own.

2.) Attend the temple twice a month.

It was really easy for the first two months because I was only working about 20 hours a week. But once school started up in January it got a lot harder. But, being as blessed as I always am, and I say that humbly, I was asked to be an ordinance worker in the Timpanogas Temple. My bishop told me he submitted my name and that it would be an amazing experience for me. He also told me it was only a 6 month commitment. When I arrived at the temple for my interview with a member of the temple presidency, I was informed that it was a 2 year commitment! I haven't done anything in my entire life for 2 years! I change schools every couple of semesters, my mission was only 18 months, and I haven't lived in the same place for two years since I was in High School. But, I told them I'd do it and I haven't regretted it since.

Being in the temple each week has given me a new perspective on the gospel. It's so simple, and plain, yet deep and complex at the same time. The temple allows all that are worthy to come and feel of God's love, and learn according to their level of current knowledge and preparation. I love seeing people's faces as they enter the temple. They always seem to be smiling and grateful to be in the house of the Lord. My life has been extremely blessed as I've been able to spend each Thursday night in the temple for the past year. I've still got at least a year to go! But I look forward to the new things I will learn and strengthened testimony that will come as a result.

3.) Run a marathon. I thought it would be appropriate to have a physical, spiritual and social goal. My physical goal was to run a marathon. Michelle and I ran a half marathon two weeks before I entered the MTC, and it was fabulous. I decided then that I wanted to run a full marathon. On the mission I ran almost every morning for exercise. I would make my companions run with me, bike next to me, or drive me to the local High School track and sit in the car and sleep while I ran. I conned a few companions into running 10 miles with me too. I was a pretty hard core sister. Companions either feared me, or loved me. Anyway, I came home and found a marathon to run. I trained for what seemed like forever, but in reality it was only 4-5 months. I would have to wake up at 5 am some days just to get a good run in, but it was worth it.

My marathon was June 11, 2010. We started running at 530 am, so all of those early morning

runs paid off. It was raining for the first half of the marathon, so I was soaked from head to toe. My shoe was so weighed down with water, it rubbed against my foot and bled from mile 10 to mile 26. It looked sick, but didn't hurt at all. I got super tired, and my muscles were in so much pain around mile 23, I told myself, "if I see my family drive by, I'm getting in the car with them and going home!" Haha, luckily I didn't see my family till I rounded the corner to the Provo Mall parking lot, where the finish line was. Travis was there first, and he called Jenny to tell them I was coming. They saw me run by, and they cheered for me, and then they ran to the finish line to watch me cross. I actually have a video of me running, but I look so ridiculous in it, I have opted not to post it. I tried to leap across the finish line in joy, but when I landed, I stumbled and almost fell! Haha, it was amazing! Despite the weather conditions and bloody sore, I finished in 4 hours and 17 minutes. Not too shabby for a first timer! And, I'm just about to start training for my next marathon...

When I finished, they awarded me with a fabulous medallion, which makes running 26.2 miles totally worth it! My family, Stephanie, Michelle and Brock all came to watch me finish. I have the best family and friends in the world!

On to my new goals. I still don't have any concrete ones, but I want them to be awesome. My current ideas are to graduate college (which is going to happen, so it's kind of a lame goal), read 5 books that I really want to, read the New Testament, get a real job, go to grad school (that's out of my hands right now), buy my first car, move out (I don't know about that one though, so don't get too excited Mom), and pick up a hobby. That's all I've thought of. I can't decide which one's I really want to do though, so it makes it hard. None of the goals above are screaming at me. What to do... Any ideas? I need to hurry and get started because time is passing quickly...

1 Year Plus!!!

I figured since I've been home from my mission for over a year, it's about time that I updated everyone on my life. Here are a few, yes, only a few, of the pics of the exciting things that I've been up to in the past year. In no particular order. I'm not that blog savvy, sorry.


Oh the Doty kids... how we've missed each other.




Baby A, my oldest nephew, is getting so big! And he needed to be potty trained, but big boy panties scared him. So me, my two sisters, and SIL put them on our heads and danced to music to show him how cool they really are. Now we know why he pees his pants when he wears them!




Yes. I got a snuggie! Actually, some members through me a going away party the Sunday before I went home, and one of my favorite families gave it to me! Best. present. ever.




The girls of 14E. My roomies before the mission. This is us at Danielle's baby shower. Too bad all three of them had to ruin my life and get married. Now my roomies are my parents, and younger siblings... not like room roomies. But housies.

I went back to WA for a visit. I got to have lunch with a few of my favorite elders, and see a ton of people that I taught. It was a fabulous week.

My little Michelle got married to the other missionary she was waiting for. It's a good thing I like Brock, or we could have some serious issues... Her wedding was beautiful, and it was my first time wearing heels. Ever. As long as I just stood there, everything was okay.

My BFF Hilary and I trained an ran a marathon together. This is probably my all time favorite photo of us. And trust me, we have a lot of good ones.

I ran, and finished! my first marathon. I had a friend from school, Lindsey, who ran it as well. They gave us fabulous medals when we finished. I tried to scam a "Boston Qualifier" shirt from the table, but the man wouldn't let me have it. Something about shaving off 37 minutes from my time...

This was the first time my entire family had been together in about 2 years.

Me and my little Bro-ha, Spencer. We partied for a day at a REAL game. I looove soccer.

Me and my dark hair (it's now super blonde). I loved it. I grew out my hair my entire mission. I would tell people I couldn't cut it because in Utah you have to have long hair to get married. Then you cut it the week after you tie the knot. It's always been a dream of mine to fool a boy into marrying a girl with long luscious locks, only to chop them after they can't get out!

A classic tradition of Utah County residents is to attend Festival of Colors. I don't really understand the purpose of it, but it was fun to get super dirty and nasty for a day... or a week because the color stained my hair.





I dated a cute little boy. Don't judge my hair in this photo... We went to the Festival of Trees and my favorite tree was the one over Josh's shoulder. He said, "Your favorite tree's are the ones where you can't even see the tree!" So true.




My Mom's side of the family had a little reunion on the Oregon coast. I love the Oregon coast. So do my cousins, as you can see by this photo.

I celebrated my favorite holiday, the 4th of July, in style. A bunch of us camped out for the big parade in Provo. We basically rock.





I've done so many other fun and amazing things too. I'm in my last semester of school, and I just finished my Grad school applications. Crazy. I'm working in an awesome, somewhat boring, but awesome job on campus as an intern the the VP of Academic Affairs- I'm kind of a big deal. I went on a super fun trip to Lake Powell, and even learned how to wake board. My current hobby is snowboarding, but once the snow melts I'll be back to running. I've made new friends, learned a ton, and been unbelievably blessed. I'm excited to see what my future holds!