Conference Weekend

I Love Conference. 

Lets face it, its basically a good excuse to be lazy and hang out in Pj's all day, while being spiritually uplifted, nothing better, right?!

Well, Saturday was just that. After conference, Elissa, and i threw a Bridal Shower for our best friend/my roommate, Anna. Elissa is definitely her mother's daughter because she came in with the cutest crafty decorations, while i provided the desserts and a game.  The only bummer is that Anna is getting married (obviously) which means she is not going to be my roommate anymore, and, seriously, i am so sad! She has been such a great roommate, who i can always come home to and know that i can just spill my guts to and be able to get advise about what to do or just be able to have a good laugh with...but we will always have our friendship (cheesy, i know, haha)!

{The Advise Jar}

{Dessert Table}

{We kept it simple & did just a brownie bar}

{Elissa's ADORABLE banner and cute "pom poms"}

{Danica, me, Anna, & Elissa}

Sunday, Danica and i were able to get conference tickets for the afternoon session from our Bishop. And what made it even better is that Janessa decided to come up with us in hopes to just get a ticket there.  So when we got to the conference center, we were saying goodbye and good luck to Janessa with getting a ticket (because there were SO many people outside too asking for a ticket) and there was a cute couple next to us that apparently saw us saying bye to her and the couple had only one ticket, so they just gave it to her! I was so glad that Janessa was able to go in too! After conference, Janessa, Danica, and i went to my Grandma's house and was able to have Sunday dinner with her and Roy, and it was just so good to have a home cooked meal and have some good family time. Afterwards, we listened as my Grandma told us how she met my Grandpa. It was so adorable and it made me so grateful for my family. Overall, it was a great day full of uplifting messages, laughter, and overfilled bellies.

'

 {silly faces}

 {me, Danica, & Janessa}

I'm Back

So I realized at the end of Summer that i totally forgot to Blog...oops! Well Summer was good, very busy! I was at J. Crew, waitressing at Farrell's and nannied for a couple of weeks.  I went to the Price is Right with the Ellsworth family! Sadly, I don't have pictures though since we weren't allowed to bring cameras in, but watch on September 27th for our big day on TV!  I also did a New York City trip which was so fun!

{Jared, Danica, Courtney, Britten, & i}

After spending a few days in the city, I went to visit Tyler, Kim, and Benton for a day too.  It was so fun and so good to catch up, thanks Kim and Tyler! p.s. i love that little boy!

{Kim & Benton}

{Benton & i}

AND

Now I'm back in Provo, for my Senior year?!?! Seriously, I can't believe that I am graduating in April?! Anyways, I'm back in my same apartment and ward that I loved and missed!

Friday I had my Freshmen Reunion, which was SO weird, but fun and so good to see all my old friend from way back when..

My favorite girls {Emily, Erin, & i}

Most of our group...still missing a few

{Ethan, Emily, Alex, Erin, Jace, and i}

p.s. notice the awkwardness of not knowing if they can stick their arms around a married women (Emily). haha!

Saturday, we went to the Real Soccer Game, which was a so fun not only because of the soccer game but we also got a little concert afterwards by OneRepublic!

Everyone

{Courtney, me, Danica, Lon, Trevor, & Brandon}

Besties

{Brandon & Courtney}

Waiting for the concert to start

{Trevor, silly Lon, Danica, me & Brandon}

OneRepublic

It was such a fun night full of laughing, dancing, good fish taco's (who would have thought in Utah?!), and good friends. Thanks Courtney for the awesome tickets!

Mixed Emotions

Well here i am on Thursday night all by myself at home...and i choose this?

Yep, a big thank you to jobs at J Crew and Farrell's, sunny weather, family, and the beach, i choose this.

Well let me back up, to explain the whole title of this post "Mixed Emotions" with two different thoughts

Thought #1:

Britten graduated! 

p.s. Congrats! But i seriously can NOT believe it! Well i can, she worked hard, but i can't believe that it was only 4 years ago they were graduating and i was doing this...

Yeah, embarrassing picture, i know, but thats what us girls do. 

Anyways, with that, i can't believe that it was only 3 years ago i was graduating from Capo

And on top of that, i will once again be graduating from BYU in one year!  I feel like i just graduated from Capo last year, maybe?!  Where does time go?

Thought #2:

I am all ALONE! 

Where did all my friends go? Ohh wait they are all back in Provo! 

Seriously, they need to make a BYUCA.  Because i just cant handle snow and i want my friends back.

i stinking miss...

 The Ward Crew

My Jeru Crew (side note: also can't even handle that this ended a year ago!?!)

This girl...(Thursday mornings wont be the same)

The Capo Crew

 But most of all my roomies.

No one warned me this was going to happen, dang it!

The End.

Open Airways

This semester i volunteered for Open Airways School Program.  Every Friday afternoon, my friend, DaLynn, and i would go to an elementary school in Provo and teach kids that already have asthma, how to deal with it.  It is a great program, and i learned a lot, not only about asthma but about my thoughts about my future career.  I learned that i could never be a teacher, i don't like having to call students out and disciplining them, especially when i don't know them that well.  It did reaffirm my certainty that i love kids, they are so fun to work with and have so much energy.  They also never cease to amaze me on how much they know, and how they soak in so much information.

Here is our little class :) (we usually had a few more students, but they were a no show?!)

Park City - The Canyons

Park City was a BLAST! We left on late Friday afternoon.

(me, Fred, Ethan (a.k.a. Savory (last name)), Courtney) 

 Here is the view from our room

After arriving we all went out to dinner at Loco Lizard, which was delicious!

Night #1 Group (john, fred, jared, skyler, danica, courtney, britten, savory, me)

After dinner we went back to the hotel and went straight to the jacuzzi and steam room, which we all were so excited for!

After jacuzzi/steam room, our friend Savory was hitting the shower first so we decided that we wanted to do a prank on him so we got the blender to poor cold water on him while he was shower, but he got out too quick!  So then when i hit the shower they decided that i should be the victim instead...hahaha!

After the shower, we stayed up wayy too late playing Quelf and "Would you Rather..." with lots of treats including salt water taffy (6 lb bag from Costco), Pirates Botty, and lots of Dr. Pepper.

Saturday afternoon...since we didnt wake up til 12 :) Jared made Pumpkin Waffles with Cool Whip which were so so so delicious!  After breakfast/lunch we went to the Outlets where we hit up J Crew (my fav), Gap, Banana, Volcom, etc.  After dinner, again, we then hit up the jacuzzi but when i was walking out from changing from the bedroom, Savory scared me soo bad!

Saturday night was filled with LOTS of poker...

That night we also watched What Lies Beneath and again stayed up wayyy too.

Sunday was filled with sleeping, more hanging out, cleaning up, and packing up.  Overall, it was a great weekend, filled with lots of inside jokes, laughing, and little sleep.  Thank you Aunt Carolyn for a fabulous weekend before the death of finals come.

(The Core Crew that stayed the whole time)

Heritage School

I had a very interesting experience.  I went to Heritage School which is an At Risk School for 7th-12th graders.  I went there to educate the students about the new harmful tobacco products (like the ones that i talked about with the legislators at the Capitol).  We educated these students at a Health Fair that they had going on.  I helped teach with another girl from my major, and it was fun because we split up our booth and we had it down.  First the kids would look at a pig's lungs that were all black and gross, which was a visual of how much damage smoking can do.  And then they would move on to my section where i would talk to them about the new smokeless tobacco products.  Then they would move onto my friend and they would spin a wheel and win a prize.  While we were teaching these kids though we had posters of comparing the tobacco products, old tobacco products, mints and gum to show the similar packaging and how harmful it could be for a child.  When i would show this image to the kids some of them would say little comments like "ohh mann those menthols" or "dang i miss..."  And it was just so shocking that even though they are at this school and are over their addictions those feelings come back so quick of those tobacco products just from that little picture.  And the first group that we got were these little 7th grade girls, but now being older i feel like they all looked like they were 10 rather than 13 or 14, but in my head i just kept thinking, "man, what got these cute little girls into a school like this?!"  They come from such different life than what i have been raised.  Overall the experience made me so grateful for my life and that i wasn't exposed to these addictive behaviors that can mess up your mind and lead you to destructive behaviors and lifestyles.  Thanks Mom and Dad for raising me in a home where there is love and the gospel.

Real Game

So my new great friend from my ward, Courtney, got us a great deal for the Real Soccer Game and a big group of us all went, it was super fun!  This is a view from our great seats

Being silly while watching the game, they think they're gangster or something?! haha

(Ethan, me, Fred)

Our group: Nick, Jared, Courtney, me, Skyler, Ethan, Mal, Fred, Emma

It was such a great game, we won! yay! Even though it was a bit on the cold side, we still had a blast all being together, smelling the delicious sports foods (such as churros, my fav :)) and bundling up together, Thanks Court!

The Capitol

So i went to the Capitol last Thursday and went to educate our legislators about dissolve-able tobacco products. We educated about the toxicity of the product and how the packaging is targeted toward youth.  Here is an example:

 Meet Amanda, she is great, she is from Laguna Niguel.  I drove up with her which was really fun.

 This is the "All Stars" as what Jenn calls us.  We are her go to girls when she needs a BYU connection.  Jenn works at the Health Department in the Health Promotion Department.  I loved working with her because 1. she is so passionate about her work 2. this is a job that i have been considering so its been nice to see her and how she works and see what the job entails.

(Denise, me, Jenn, McKenna, McKenzie)

This experience was so great because i learned so much.  I learned that legislators are people too.  When i first talked to our legislator i was super nervous but we kept talking to him he was so nice and interested in us.  I also learned the difference between educating and lobbying.  I educated.  I also learned more about and experience the government, something that 9th grade U.S. History didn't cover.  

Happy Valentine's Day!

Soo I've been really bad at Blogging..oops! But my life has gotten a little crazy lately. Recently i have gotten involved in a tobacco group and we are educating the legislator about dissoluble flavored tobacco. So i am going up to the Capitol on Thursday, February 24th, to go educate them! Super nervous about it, but hopefully our legislator will listen up. And on the 25th i am going to be starting to teach elementary school kids about Asthma prevention, which will be way fun, have my own little class :)

Wait, so backing up..Happy Valentine's Day! I didn't do anything too special. i went out to dinner with Britten, Danica, Skyler, and Courtney. We called it a poly-date (polygamist) since it was 4 girls and 1 guy.  We went to Zupas, yum :) And then afterwards i went to Golden Spoon, of course, in celebration of my single-ness.

Also, i went to Sundance with Danica awhile ago. But it was great, fun little get away from Provo.  Its always nice to get out of Provo once in awhile, even if it is just to Park City. We weren't able to go to a movie but it was fun to go and see all the action that was going on.

Happy New Year!

I have been looking forward to this weekend for a while. Ever since the invite went up on Facebook, i was getting pumped. Elissa Stapley has been throwing a New Year's Eve party for 2 years now, and the first two were out of control fun, loved them! Tons of people, dancing, socializing, food...what else could a single girl want?

Now after going to Jerusalem with Elissa we had all these great mutual study abroad friends, that we LOVE! After some easy convincing some of them decided to come down since they had heard about this party from others at BYU and how epic it is.  So with three different airplane tickets and two cars full of Jerusalem kids came down for a weekend of fun!

New Year's Eve we went to BJ's for dinner, reservation for 15, it was so much fun and yummy! Here is some of the crew:

Diana, Ron, & Anna

Mary, Kelsea, & Lindsey

Alex & i

Dan Jones, Jon (or as we call him Tall Blonde), & Steve

 Sadly i didn't bring my camera to Elissa's party since i knew that it would just get in the way of dancing. Although we did take some great cheesy Prom style pictures at my house which maybe ill post later. After Elissa's party, all of the jeru-crew came over and slept at my house. By 4:30 a.m. there was a total of 11 kids sound asleep.

The next morning, after eating some cinnamon rolls, we headed down to our friend, Kelsea's, house who lives in Oceanside for her birthday.

 Ron, Anna, & i

After Oceanside, we headed up north and went to Balboa Island and did a classic california dinner of Ruby's on the Pier. 

Us waiting for our table...

After Ruby's, stopping at the Candy Barrel, and some walking around, we went back home and played the name game, which i fell in love with (i had never played before)! Then we had round II of cinnamon rolls, since all my friends could not get enough of their deliciousness. In the morning, everyone was packed and gone by 8:15 a.m. :(

The weekend was a blast and it went by way too fast! The whole time we were together we all reminisced about how it was just a year ago we had all even met each other! Its crazy how close we have become, and yet we still seem to can't get enough of each other and crack each other up. i just love these kids so much!