Only 4 More days!!!

I'm giving my farewell talk in my home ward tomorrow and the university (single's) ward. :) I'm excited! Then tomorrow evening I'll be set apart as a missionary.  Then Monday I'm off to Utah with my mom.  Then Wednesday is going to be the BEST day ever! well of my life so far.

Oh and I wanted to let you all know about my 'mission' blog.  It's right here :) Just click on the link, bookmark it, follow it or just read it whenever you like. My mom will be keeping it up. 

Magnets...

So my brother Spencer bought my dad a set of magnets for a gift.  Spencer was thinking that you can't go wrong buying magnets for the guy who loves them.... and he was right! My dad has enjoyed playing with the magnets A LOT! He has been walking around with them last night and tonight.  They're little round magnets and they came in a square (as seen in the pictures...) and none of us could figure out how to make them back into the square last night!! It was super frustrating!
Then this morning with dad and my combined efforts we were able to get them back into the square! (me doing most of the work... since dad's fingers are still not healed completely from his surgery.)  It made me happy.  Anyway this was just a silly post for today. Love you all! And 5 days until the MTC!!!!!!!!!

Amish Friendship Bread

So this past June, a friend of mine gave me a starter for Amish Friendship Bread I made it and loved it!! Since then I have been telling my mom that I wanted to make it again.  I did some Google searching and found a recipe for starting it.  :)  We made it! And we finally were able to bake it today. :)  It turned out to be just as yummy.

in the bowl.

 

The bowl had Amish looking people on the side. :)

We made little loaves too! :)

One of the batches before going in the oven.

Finished Product! :)

Then the afterthought of it all is that I'll be in Pennsylvania in about a month!! So it's perfect that I'm making Amish Friendship Bread right?! :) Also one week until the MTC!!! I'm so excited!!

Only 4 more weeks left to go!

I know it has been a while since I've last posted... Sorry about that!  I know school has been out for weeks but I've been busy getting ready to go on my mission.  :) I have gotten most of my clothes and I've worn a couple of outfits to make sure I feel comfortable in them. I feel like a missionary in them. It's great!! I am so excited to go. I'm still working on trying to finish the Book of Mormon before I leave.  But I have quite a ways to go... :/  But I will finish it!!
And to my brother Ben who was constantly asking me if I had done any research on Pennsylvania yet... Well I have! :) I have found some interesting stories from that mission on the mission site.  And I saw some names of people I might meet while I'm out there on the same site.  But who knows. All in all I'm just very excited to go and be a missionary!! My appointment to be set apart as a missionary is set for 7 pm September 11. :) 

Pictures from Graduation

Here are a few pictures from the day I graduated. :)

School is Over! (well for now anyway...)

I am officially a graduate from Brigham Young University Idaho. Graduation was amazing and a good experience.  I couldn't stop smiling when I walked across the stage and received my diploma (cover). I wish it were my diploma!! haha But I know that I have graduated cause I have passed all of my classes. :) So no need to worry there.
Anyway once I get pictures I'll post them... I just wanted to say I'm a college graduate with my Bachelors in Social Work!!

Tomorrow?

So this morning I woke up thinking wow it's Thursday. Then the thought crossed my mind that graduation is TOMORROW!!!!!!!!! I can't believe I'll be a college graduate as of tomorrow. I just need to take my last final (wish me luck!) and then tie up a couple of loose ends and I'll be ready to go... After school is done I just have to pack up all my stuff.... Umm yeah I'm not very far on that at all. Which is weird because I'm usually packed way in advance. I guess I just don't want to leave! But that's it for today!

This Past Weekend

(Unfortunately I have no pictures... sad!)
This past weekend was the most amazing weekend of my life. :) I was able to go and receive my own endowment Friday evening. The temple is such a beautiful and incredible place.  I LOVED it! It all made so much sense. Then it was great to have gone with my brother and my sister, their spouses, my parents, and then aunts and uncles. I also had a wonderful close friend there who came with her husband. It was so great to share that experience with them!! Once I got to the Celestial room, everyone swarmed around me offering me congratulations. It was wonderful!! :) I especially enjoyed having my mother as my escort.  Knowing that she was there and was supporting me in every step of the way was the best.
Then my dad and I took the opportunity to go to the Draper temple Saturday morning.  It was such a great reminder of the covenants I had made the night before. It also felt so wonderful to remember that I was there on behalf of someone who couldn't be there for themselves physically. :) Once I got to the Celestial room, I knew I had to offer up a prayer of gratitude to Heavenly Father for the temple and for all the many many blessings He has given me.
I had mentioned to my dad that I wanted to see a sealing.  There just happened to be a few couples in the room who were waiting to go into their sealing rooms.  My dad went up to an ordinance worker and asked if she could ask a couple if we could observe their sealing. She came back and said the couple didn't have a lot of guests and that it would be okay for us to come.  So we got to see this couple get sealed. The ceremony was so beautiful!!
I can't wait to go back to the temple! I'm planning a few temple trips for the next couple of weeks cause once I go back to El Paso I won't get to go very often. Then I will get to go in the MTC but I won't get to go for the rest of my mission.
Then also this weekend was a family reunion on my mom's side. It was so great to see all of my family. and get to spend time with them. It was great to play with all my nieces and nephews.  They're all hilarious little kids. :) It was also really great to see my grandma. It was great to learn more about her and my grandpa from the different activities. Anywoo that was my weekend in a nutshell. :) I love you all. Keep on smiling and being who you are.

Yeah It's been a GREAT day!

Today was the last day at my internship.  :( Sad! I'm going to miss the people there. They were awesome!! I learned so so much! They threw a going away party for me and the other intern it was awesome. And they gave us such sweet smelling flowers! What could be better??

Then tonight there was a mandatory meeting for the people who were self-cleaning their apartments (and I was one of them...unfortunately.) As the meeting was going on my roommate Jenessa and I were looking at each other going uhh we don't want to do that and we both saying we'd rather pay.  We thought that it had to be an all or nothing type of deal. So all of us had to pay for the service or all of us had to clean. And it turns out that it wasn't an all or nothing type of deal!!! So Jenessa asked if we could switch. Our manager Anne went and called the person in charge of the cleaning and found out it wasn't too late to switch!!! :) :) So Jenessa and I ran home and switched to the cleaning service. To me it is TOTALLY worth paying someone else to clean my apartment for me so that I don't have to spend the time cleaning. Then I can spend more time enjoying graduation and more time celebrating. Not having to worry about cleaning.

Then my last thing, I am going to UT tomorrow! Yeah!!!!!!!!!!! I get to see the most amazing family ever!!  Then on Friday I will be receiving my endowments. :) And I will get to see one of my best friends ever!!! I'm so excited to be attending the temple so soon. I couldn't fall asleep last night cause I was thinking about how excited I was. And I could feel the Spirit so strongly telling me that I was doing the right thing. It was incredible. It doesn't seem real that it is less than 48 hours away because I've been anticipating this event for a month!

The Good the Bad and the just plain Weird?

Oh my goodness! I know I say my life is always crazy but seriously this semester has been SO crazy!! I feel like some days I've been running around with my head cut off.  But somehow I've been blessed to have enough hours in the day to accomplish all the things I need to do.

The Good!!!!
-I've been getting AWESOME grades on my Child Development tests.  I won't tell you way that's surprising to me... It has to do with my bad study habits...
-I have been doing pretty good on all my Ab Psych tests. Which is awesome refer to the above mentioned bad study habits... :) I'm not too super worried about not passing that class anymore. (I was before I took the class)  And I have really enjoyed taking that class which is awesome!
-My awesome brother Ben and I have been going out to lunch together. It's fun to hang out with him now that he lives in Idaho Falls. :)
-I read a book called "Mother Had a Secret" By Tiffany Fletcher. Umm AMAZING! It is based on Tiffany's true story of growing up with a mother with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). DID is fairly rare and it was so interesting to read how this woman learned to cope with how hard life was having a mother who had this challenge. I encourage everyone to read it because mental illness is something that affects us all directly or indirectly whether we realize it or not.
-I attempted to recreate my mom's Raspberry Chocolate Chip Cookies... Well it turned out I didn't get the right raspberry flavoring so I used raspberry lemonade flavoring... and the dough didn't taste that good, it was too tangy... But the cookies taste awesome! My roommates even liked them. I had to be reassured that they tasted okay before I made the 2nd batch... :)
-I GRADUATE in TWO weeks! (What?!!)
-Next week I'll be seeing my favorite family and a couple of awesome friends. :)
-One week until my life will be permanently changed for good with the first thing among a series of major changes... :)

The bad...
-Someone shot one of my truck windows with a BB gun... and shattered the window... So now there's duct tape on it and it looks lame... but at least glass isn't falling all over the place when I'm driving... cause glass is falling out... you can hear it! And the window makes a lot of noise when I'm driving on the freeway.
-I haven't been getting enough sleep! Ahh! Probably should be asking myself why I'm not in bed at 12:15 am...

The just Plain Weird??
-Raspberry Lemonade Chocolate Chip Cookies actually taste pretty darn good.
-My room has exploded as I am starting to pack it up for the last time I'm at BYU-Idaho. *sniff* I'm going to miss this room. I've lived in this room and this apartment for the longest period of time!
-I had something else I wanted to put buuut I forgot... Much not have been that exciting!

Just Some Recent Stuff...

Well ya'll know that this month has been big for me... I turned 21, got my mission call, I even got accepted to a graduate school! (I applied a few months ago before I officially decided to go on a mission... so I turned grad school down) And I was thinking I haven't really put any pictures! So I need to put up some pictures from my birthday and yeah. So hope you enjoy pictures! :)

My roommates Bre, Jenessa, and Lauren.

Me with my birthday pie. ;) I like pie better than cake ok?

Some of the people that came to my party. Joe my home teacher and my friend Amanda.

Some more people that came and unfortunately I do not remember their names... That night was the first time I had met them... but they are in my ward! haha.

Opening my presents from my roommmates! :) This card was from my roommate Bre.

I got a picture frame! Jenessa told me I had to put pictures of my roommates in it for while I was on my mission.

SLIPPPERS!!!!!! :)

Fishy!

A cute little note thing.. I need to use it!

MY MISSION CALL!!!!!!!!! I was so excited when it came I took a picture of it.

I was also so excited that I took a picture of me holding it before it was open! Then I shoved it under my mattress and finished my midterm then I came home and carried it around with me for the remaining 5 hours I had until I opened it.

Starting to open my call!

The guesses! :) No one guessed Pennsylvania but some one did guess New York and a part of my mission is in New York... So I guess they were close. 

Then my mission call. :) This has all the important info on it. :) Where I'm going, when I report and the language I'll be speaking... which is English by the way just in case ya didn't know.

Moments That Matter Most

I saw this video on my friend's blog (Jaime I told you I was going to borrow your idea!) and I thought wow that is totally what I needed to hear today.  So I just wanted to share it with all of you.  Then to remind myself as well as you, that the moments that matter most shouldn't be overlooked.

Today has been a GREAT day!

First off I just want to say that today has been a fabulous day! I just started the day off happy and things have just gone well.  I got an A on a test for my Child Development test! Woo! (I've discovered the BEST time for me to take tests! Too bad that's in the morning and the only morning open is Tuesday... and my other classes don't have tests those days... Boo! or else I'd rock those too!) I also did fantastic on a quiz for my child development class.  Then the best thing of all that happened today was I scheduled my appointment for my endowment session!! :) I'm so excited! I'm going to go through the Mt. Timpanogos temple (hence the picture...)!! :)

Only 100 Days Remaining!!!

There are only 100 days remaining until I enter the MTC.  I'm so excited for my mission in the Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Mission!! It is going to be such an amazing and wonderful experience! :) I did a little math and I think I'll be arriving to Pennsylvania right before the October General Conference.  That will be a neat experience!  I won't know for sure how long my stay in the MTC will be until I actually check in. :) I've started getting ready. I filled out my acceptance letter and I bought a new set of scriptures since my old ones are dying... and since I know I'll be speaking English. :) There have been so many emotions running through me the last few days.  It has been just a crazy few days.  I again want to say thank you to everyone for all your love and support. I love you all so much!

The Opening of my Mission Call!!!!

Saturday Afternoon at Mesa Falls

My friend Jackee and I went up to Mesa Falls yesterday and it was way fun.  We went into the gift shop and there were a whole bunch of animal skins. It was actually way interesting! I thought of my dad the whole time I was in there and thought he would have enjoyed it. So I took lots of pictures.

Lower Mesa Falls

Porcupine. It's CRAZY you can see the needles and it also has a caution warning against touching it haha.

Black Bear

Coyote, Wolf, and a fox

more animal skins.

Deer Head

Moose Head

Upper Mesa Falls

Me in front of the Upper Falls

Jackee and the Falls

Another look at the Upper Falls

Cool Plaque.

The Guessing Game still continues...

But not for much longer!!!! I received an email from my bishop this afternoon informing me that my mission call was mailed from Salt Lake today!!!  I can not express to you my excitement and joy over this.  I really wasn't expecting my call to come this quickly but I know that it was supposed to because of the inspiration I got and how fast I was able to fill out my papers and how everything just worked together to make the process easier. It was incredible! So my call should be coming on Tuesday or Wednesday.  :D :D I am really hoping it comes on Tuesday...  But if it doesn't... I'll survive until Wednesday... I guess. haha :)
Anyway until then keep on guessing!

Let the Guessing Begin!

If you haven't figured out or read on facebook already... well, I'm going on a mission and just finished my mission papers as of today! I'm so excited and have never felt this good about anything in my whole entire life. :D  So here it goes, let the guessing begin!!!

This is the picture I submitted for a form I was filling out recently... If you can't figure out what form it is from this picture... Well, you'll just have to wait for another few pictures/posts that I promise will be popping up in the next few weeks.

Friday the 13th

My friend Tara invited me to a get together at her apartment tonight. The plan was to celebrate it being Friday the 13th by making cookies and watching a scary movie.  I was all about the cookie part and had somewhat planned on going home after making the cookies but then I decided that why not stay for the movie too?  (I generally do not like scary movies.) So I stayed and I told myself to  not get creeped out that it was just a movie.  And that basically worked for the most part. 
We started watching the movie. We meaning Tara, two of her roommates, one of her FHE brothers and me.  During probably the first 20 minutes of the movie, one of the roommates got up and went back into her bedroom.  She closed the door that apartments in Rexburg usually have between the hallway and the living room. The end of the movie was rather creepy and right after the credits started,  the rest of us were sitting in the living room.  Well the door between the hallway and the living room swung open. (It opens into the hallway. so we couldn't see behind it...) (and I was the one sitting right next to the door...)  So we all just looked at each other and we were like what just happened?? So Tara and her other roommate called the roommate in the back to ask if she had opened the door (they had been scaring each other earlier).  So we were even more majorly creeped out and we wouldn't go back there. And we hugged the wall by the door. Then I decided to go home. While I was walking home, a cat ran out in front of me and scared me even more. I screamed. It was hilarious. I'm finally calming down.

I'm attributing all the events of tonight to it being friday the 13th. :)

May Update...

Oh my goodness, I do realize I haven't blogged in weeks! Ahhh! Not much besides school and school and school and my internship and oh church and more church have happened... (My life is exciting huh? ehh I guess not) I've just been way busy. I'm mainly blogging this because I know I haven't put up a post in a while. I'm trying to stay on top of my classes which can be hard sometimes. Especially when I totally forget about stuff but I'm way lucky to have teachers who are nice to send out reminder emails. I don't know how I'm going to accomplish everything I have to do especially with my calling.  I guess the Lord called me to this position because I needed to learn how to delegate responsibility inside of just doing it all myself. Though I did decide the bishopric is making it easy for me to procrastinate because they haven't called everyone to their positions yet... Even teachers for Relief Society! ahhh. They're getting there... it's only 3 weeks into the semester... Anyway... I'm going to love this calling and all the girls in my relief society. I know that they are all amazing and they have so much to give the church and the people around them.  I have good feelings about this calling.  :) That's basically the sum of the last 3 weeks. I'm still alive and loving life as always.

Happy (Early for today) Easter!!!

My friend Autumn and I dyed some eggs today and then we made deviled eggs. :) It was way fun!

Before we started.

Autumn

Me :) I was excited

The egg that was dyed every color at the end!

The finished products.

More of the finished products

These eggs peeled PERFECTLY! When I say perfectly, I mean we maybe had 4 or 5 of the eggs that got dents in them from peeling, neither of us had ever seen something like that and we don't know how we got so lucky.  And everything about them should have meant that they wouldn't peel perfectly.... If you want to know more of those details ask me later.

Our finished product of deviled eggs

The First Couple of Days

So the first couple days of the semester have been alright. They have been busy for sure! Yesterday I had 3 classes and I think I am going to like them all!  I had populations at risk (we pretended to be homeless the first day... it's totally a social work thing... don't ask), abnormal psychology (I was able to add that class!! Whew!), and child development (my night class that is only once a week but it going to ROCK! I love it!) :) Then I went to my internship for all day today. And it was awesome! I was slightly brain fried cause we (me and the other intern) were introduced to everyone at Health and Welfare.  Then they were trying to teach us how to log into our computer and stuff like that. I feel really official cause we have our own email there. I'm so silly but I'm way excited about it.  I like being busy and I'm definitely going to be busy that's for sure!

Well today walking out of my internship I was rudely welcomed by a parking violation on the passenger side of my windshield. RUDE!!! I started to worry cause I know I parked in the right spot but I almost had to wonder if I hadn't. 

Good thing it was FAKE! :)  Otherwise I really would have had a heart attack and cried all the way back to Rexburg.  (Not going to lie I was pretty mad right when I got it)

Reflections of the Past

My friend had been commenting on how so much had changed in the last two years and how it had gone so fast and how those days seemed not that long ago at the same time.   So I starting thinking about it about the last two years.
Two years ago I had just completed my first year of college, two years ago I had just moved into an off-campus apartment for the first time, two years I had no idea what exactly I wanted to major in (well I had ideas just not a decision) and two years ago I thought I was so far away from so many of my dreams.

My friend Haley and I in the dorms right before the end of the Winter 2009 Semester

If someone had told me that I was going to be sitting in my room working on stuff for my calling and of all the crazy things that have happened this weekend, I would have told them that they were insane and were probably lying to me. But this is my reality!!  I am sitting in my room two years later preparing for my last and final semester at BYU-Idaho(well only if I pass all my classes... Mom! I will, I promise! Stop worrying!), preparing for how busy it is going to be(I'll be juggling school/internship, church/calling, social life, and an institute class), thinking too much about stuff, and worrying how in the world I am going to do well in my calling that I am so excited for, preparing to graduate as a Social Work major, still having dreams but being so much closer to achieving them.  
I am now looking back at the last few years of my life wondering where the time went and how much I have loved almost every moment.  I am looking back and seeing where I learned new things and learned and became a better person.  While I am looking back,  I'm looking forward to the future with hope and excitement!!!

A picture taken not long before of the end of the Winter 2011 semester. :)