Yesterday I had TWO finals... stressful day! One of them was for communications and the other was an oral final exam for Spanish. I was really nervous for the communications one, so in order to be prepared I stayed up until 4am studying... mistake #1. Second mistake... thinking that because I felt comfortable with the Spanish exam I didn't need to study for it. Turns out that I did! I went into my professor's office for the oral... and just completely froze up. He would ask me questions, and I just stared at him. Stumbled out a few answers here and there but could not remember the conjugations of the different verbs! Specifically the subjunctive and command forms. So needless to say I walked out of that office feeling lower than low... hoping maybe have pulled off a C. ...If that. I was so frustrated with myself!! The lowest test score I have had all semester in Spanish was a 95, but I managed to ruin that streak in 5 minutes flat! So on the drive home from campus I was still pretty upset.. I even cried a little! Embarrassing. I think I'm getting more and more emotional as I get older...and it is usually over such trivial things. Haha I need to work on that! I can't just ruin my tough-girl image, can I? :) Anyways, I finally get home and walk inside, hoping to be able to just lie down on my bed and have some time to happy up. I hate it when I'm ornery, it's not me at all. But like every trial, I KNOW that Heavenly Father has something for us to gain, something for us to learn. And in most situations, I think it comes in the most unexpected ways. I also believe that ALL people are put into our lives for a reason, at certain times for a divine purpose. Here is yet another example of this, of Heavenly Father's love for all of his children. This is what I saw as I got out of my car, before I even reached my front porch steps.


She had hand-picked me a vase of daffodils!! How sweet is that. And how can you NOT smile when you see something so beautiful?? There is a little piece of heaven in a child's smile, I'm sure of it. So pure, so innocent, so forgiving, so loving. I love this little girl more than just about anything and am SO grateful that I am blessed to have her in my life. I have sure learned a lot from her, and I think I now more fully understand what it means to 'be as a little child.' I love you ALIZAE!!

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After 23 months of working as a teller at the Bank of Utah, last FRIDAY was my very last day! Bittersweet. I am really sad to leave but excited for the adventure that lays ahead of me. It has been such an amazing job and I have gotten to be good friends with alot of amazing people. I have also learned and grown a ton! I've learned alot about finances and about how to balance a checkbook and just how to save and to be smart with my money. I'm sure these skills will come in handy quite often now was well as in the future!! I am sure going to miss all of the crazy customers and funny people, I consider quite a few of them my friends! However, I won't miss the creepy winks from old men... :) OR the city ladies setting me up on dates with their "Very good-looking" sons and/or brothers...when in reality they turn out to be eccentric 28 year old men. Or in the other case, a not-so-humble egocentric law enforcement officer. Both very nice men... just not my type. :) I'll miss the bank!! Hopefully I'll get to come back to work when I come back from Mexico... we will see though!

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ONE week. SEVEN days. ONE HUNDRED SIXTY EIGHT hours.

.......until.......

MÉXICO!!!!

I'm a bit excited... can you tell?? :)

Revenge of the NERDS!! ....and Provo :)

This is Ashley Thayne, one of my very best friends!! I love her so much. :) Ok, Let me just start by saying how much I LOVE my ysa Branch! The people, the leaders, the friends, the activities, my calling, the whole deal. I have learned a lot through my responsibilities in the branch, and have also made some amazing friends! I am so grateful for the friendships and the associations that I have made in my branch, I love it!

This last weekend we (the activities committee) threw a "Revenge of the Nerds" dance! And it was such a success!! We had about 150 people there during the peak, and I think everyone really had a great time. We had lots of food, a chess set and a map puzzle set up in the corner (initially intended just as decoration, but ended up being a big hit, with at least one person there ALL night :) hahaha) and Saved by the Bell was playing all night, projected against a screen on the wall. The funnest part I think was finding a nerd outfit and dressing up! Everyone was really creative, it was fun seeing everyone's costumes.







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The weekend of the 9th and 1oth I made my first trip to Provo...ever! I had to go down there for a training for ILP, the program I'm going to Mexico with. I went with my friend Ashley Thayne, and we stayed with her sister's family who lives in Provo so we didn't have to drive home Friday night and come back Saturday morning! I am so glad that Ashley came with me, that would have been such a long boring weekend without her! The trainings were from 8am-5pm each day, so she would drop me off then take my car back to her sister's or just do whatever during the day, then she'd come back and get me and we just played in Provo! Friday night when I got done we went for an amazing run, it felt SO good! The weather was beautiful and we got to run right along side the Provo river. Then later Friday night we went to a bridal shower of one of her friends, then drove around random apartments parking lots. :) Early Saturday morning we got up and hiked up to the Y on the mountain! That hike is a lot harder than it looks, just in case you were wondering! But it was really fun, and good exercise. And we learned that the Y looks very different when you are up close, you can hardly even tell it's a Y!



Can you see the Y?? Look really close... :) The one below is us standing on the Y! You can hardly tell what it is.



Hahaha.... at the bridal shower I won a blue ringpop!! ..and it turned my teeth blue! :)

Jake!

So this last Monday as I was driving home from my night class, my tire blew out!! It scared me so bad... I have never had that happen before. I was on 36th street when it happened, so I had to just pull over onto one of the side roads to get it taken care of. This little side road, by the way, was a pretty shady area... and I was in a little bit of a PANIC sitting there by myself!! These big guys -about 6 of them - with hoods on and just creepy looking, kept walking in and out of the house that I was parked by, and kept passing my car and glancing over at me... scary. So I quickly called my mom, like I do in any situation that I am at a loss of what to do! :) She put my brother on the phone, he asked what I needed, and was there in about 30 minutes. Longest 30 minutes of my life. Oh I forgot to mention what the weather was this lovely evening! It had been raining off and on all day, and was super cold and windy. When Jake arrived, it had started snowing.... and by the time we finally got the spare on it was a blizzard!! Jake was SO patient though, standing out there in the cold wet weather fixing my tire for me while I sat in his warm truck. He was out there for about an hour - probably due to the lack of tire-fixing supplies I had in my car (I didn't even have a star wrench!) so he made do with tools he happened to have in his truck. But we finally got on the road again and I've never been happier to pull into my driveway and go into my warm house.

I'm so grateful for Jake though!! I don't know what I would have done had I not been able to call him and know that he would be right there to help me. He has the biggest heart and would really do ANYTHING for me... anything. He is the best brother, and I love him a lot. Thanks Jake!



This is probably my favorite picture of me and my bro, I love it! It was taken on our cruise in March of '09.


Oh I forgot to mention a funny story that came out of all of this. :) When I first talked to Jake he asked me to call the tire center at Walmart to see if they were still open, if we could stop there and have them repair my tire. So I texted google to get the number, then proceeded to dial the number that it sent back. ...801 - 737 - 0092. Ring.. ring..then on the third ring - "hello?" said the voice of about a four year old girl. A little caught off guard, I said, "Umm... is this walmart?" All I heard in response to my question was her cute little laugh, then she called out to her mother, "Mommy!! this girl thinks our house is Walmart!!" she laughed a little more, then.. click! Hung up. Confused, I looked at my outgoing calls list. Turns out that I had the number right, but instead of 801, I had dialed 807!! Area code of... Ontario, Canada. :)

General Conference!

April 3-4, 2010




This is one of my favorite weekends of the whole year, I love it! I love turning on the TV (or radio or computer, there are many options nowadays :) ) and being able to listen to inspired words from PROPHETS and APOSTLES of God. And it seems that no matter what the talk is about, even if it's about fatherhood, I can always find something that applies directly to my life, or a situation that I'm in, even problems that I'm dealing with right now. It's amazing! It reminds me of how grateful I truly am to have a living prophet on the earth today, who receives guidance and revelation from GOD specifically for our day, for US. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and I KNOW that there is a God, that He loves us, and that He has a hand in our day to day lives. He knows us each on a very deep and personal level, and I know that He sends people - friends, family, even complete strangers - into our paths to help us, to teach us something, and to bless and enrich our lives. And I KNOW that Thomas S. Monson is a PROPHET OF GOD, that He has been called of God, and that His words come directly from God. How lucky are we to be able to listen to these prophets of God all weekend. I love it!

Here's an analogy that I think pretty accurately describes my feelings for conference! :)

General Conference is like Christmas. Except... they actually focus on CHRIST, It comes twice a year, and instead of temporal presents, we get Spiritual ones!!