EFY 2008!

Hello All! This summer has been so busy! I'm so sorry for not being diligent at posting often on my adventures.

My summer adventures started off with 2 sessions as an EFY counselor in Flagstaff, AZ. Holy Cow! What an amazing experience this was. I can definitely agree with statement, "EFY counselors are the most over worked and under paid employees out there." The days started around 5:30am and ended around 12 if you're lucky...but usually it was later- especially if you had girls that didn't want to go to bed. However, everything was totally worth it!

So many adventures happened these two weeks it would taken hours to write them all but here were a few highlights.

1. I felt like i learned more than the participants! (i know what you're thinking..."that's not how it's supposed to be!" lol)
2. My girls were all so great...and i even knew some of them from home.
3. My brother was up there my second week for his first time! And Collin's sister was up there the other week!
4. I got to play tug-of-war with 2 of my girls' towel under the door. They put it there to block the light so they didn't have to go to sleep so i attempted to pull it out through the crack between the door and the floor! ...i failed in this attempt to pull it out because they had the other end on the other side of the door! I had to knock and tell the to "come get your towel before i steal it". DISCLAIMER: I'm not mean...we actually became better friends after this.
5. One of the participants there was a kid i used to babysit...weird!
6. I had a set of twins each week! Both completely opposite. The first week we named the set "EFY angels" because they were so sweet. And the second week the twins didn't want to be there...sad day!
7. My testimony was strengthened
8. I could be insane at the dances and the kids thought i was super cool! :)
9. Pizza night was always good to hear about all the girls little weak long crushes on the boys in their company! Great topic seeing i always had 14-15 year old! lol
10. I met some awesome new friends!

So so many great memories. Here are just a few pictures!

I love my girls!

The end of the semester calls for a girls reunion...LUNCH! I became great friends with these girls right after I graduated but most people think i've known them for years. All of them went to Mesquite High School together and have known each other for much longer but they are now like family to me. When people tell you that the friends you make in college are the life long friends -I completely agree! These girls are amazing!

Here they are...

Alissa, Brooke, Katie, Katie, Mindi, Caraline, Me, and Dawnee!

Dawnee! ...she's ENGAGED! So she stayed in Utah over the summer. This is the only time I got to see her while she was down and I was so excited!

"Girls just wanna have FUN!" :)

Hello Summer!

School ended almost a month ago! The semester ended great which was very exciting. However, it consumed my life for a while so i'm excited to be back doing things that I like to do more than homework.



I decided to make a quilt. Originally I was thinking about making a hard core quilt that Brittnee would probably have to coach me through but then I changed my mind. Instead I made a quilt with big squares using most of my high school shirts. It's not perfect but it turned out pretty cute. The edges are fabric with sheet music. It's the size of a twin sheet...here it is. (sorry about the bad photography...it was hard to get it all in one shot)

As for the rest of my summer...i'm going to be an EFY Counselor for two weeks at NAU, going to the great place of IDAHO! And then it's back to work and a summer school class.

GREAT NEWS! I got hired on at ASU next semester to be an accounting tutor! I'm pretty excited becasue I can work there on the mornings that I don't have school three days a week and if no students come in I can work on my own homework and still get paid for it!! :) Not a bad deal!

Hope everyone is doing well! Love you all!

JAZZ has officially been conquered by yours truely!

Alright- i couldn't let this exciting/ relieving day go by without a quick post to share my happiness. So i've been taking this Jazz in America class online this semester...specifically MUS 347, for an upper division general credit. I'm not going to lie, i took it thinking it would be a piece of cake- a non-stressor class if you will. Well, it turned out to be just the opposite. All the lectures are audio which mean hours and hours of listening to this boring guy talk while you sit at the computer and take pages and pages of notes on facts and different sounds clips of jazz artists that he inserts. So the tests come along- which are online as well obviously and you're thinking "no problem, i've got my notes on a word document (searchable) and i've got my sound clips accessible. Needless to say, those confident assumptions were wrong as well. THE TESTS WERE REDICULOUS! More than half the test was listening to sound clips and identifying which time period they were from, who and/ or what they were playing/ or who is most likely not to be, etc. Oh and the tests are timed- 50 min for 50 questions. Needless to say, my test scores had an extremely terrible downward sloping trend and i had scored worse on two of the three tests than i have in my college/ high school career. I was a little scared! BUT great news of the day! I pulled a B in the class! With some extra credit, massive studying, and another person (aka another brain) to help...we all survived! Moral of the story: work hard until the very end...don't give up...just never take that kind of class EVER AGAIN!

Smiles all around! Finals are almost over :)

April Conference!

Hello all! My qwest for improved blogging continues! I love reading all ya'lls so I figure I have a duty too. Life is going well! About one month left of school and things are really getting down to the wire. This semester is really giving me a run for my money. I'm definitely having to work for my grades...some are turing out, some i hope will turn out, and some don't have a very bright future (but i'm still giving them encouragment :)).

This past weekend we took a journey up to Utah! We left early Friday morning and came home late late Sunday night...alot of driving in not alot of days is not recomended but definitely worth it! Nothing compares to the great times of singing in the car or trying to figure out where the heck you are in this foreign land. Saturday we were able to watch both sessions with one of my best friends that moved to BYU, Dawnee. It was so good to see her and all the other girlies whom I love!

We had tickets to the Sunday morning session of conference this year! What an amazing place that is! I have gained an amazing appreciation for conference through being able to go and see it in person. It really gives you a new perspective on things. The apostles are inspired men called of God.

Caraline, Dawnee, and Mariah!

Naomi Deighton- my friend from England who's going to BYU. She loves it here in America!

Who Does this?

THIS IS REALLY EXCITING! Last Friday I went to my first phoenix suns game. As we sat in our Row 11 seats about 45 minutes before the game started, I was approached by a guy asking me if I wanted to help him out by participating in a game. I asked what it was before agreeing and he said, "At the 2nd time out of the 2nd quarter you will be playing wheel a fortune in front of the entire crowd. The clue is 'an award' and you need to say these letters." Being a little nervous I still agreed. At the 1st time out of the 2nd quarter the same guy came and pulled me from my seat and had me sit in an isle seat so I would be ready when the next time out was called. It was hilarious because all the people around me asked what happened and why I had to move...I think they though I was being disruptive or something. Anyways the time came and it was me, the main emcee, and the gorilla on the jumbo-tron! I guessed the word right and confetti came falling down, I won $500 to Discount Tire, and a large bag of Suns apparel! Woohoo! I loved it! What are the chance?? I want to go back :)

Pirate?

So it's been a while (ok a VERY long while) since i've posted. But life is good no worries...it's just super busy! School is insane...I feel like i'm sacrifices sleeping time to keep up. I got a new calling in the middle of last semester. I am currently the RS secretary which, despite your thoughts, can be a bit time consuming as well. I've also been dating Collin for the last couple of months which is going well...so of course, I must make time for him. oh and you can't forget about work :) So as you can probably relate there's too much to do and not enough hours in the day. However, I read a time management article and it said "don't manage your time, manage yourself." So that's my goal. haha

As for being a Pirate- I hope my pictures are able to upload. My ward had this "Who dun it?" murder/kidnapping mystery activity and I was one of the actresses in it. I was Uma Scar, the galley wench...but we weren't supposed to say that in the church so my title was modified to "galley girl." haha I speculated this activity but it turned out to be pretty fun.