Conference Weekend

I'm sure I've mentioned this many times before but i love going home! I love just being in Provo and being close to those that I love and care about the most. This semester is pretty crazy so I wasn't planning on going home much but at last moment I requested the first weekend of October off work and went home. My bioorganic chem lab goes until five on Fridays so I was little late than normal hitting the road, and if it wasn't for my sister and her friend Adaiza riding with me I wouldn't have left that late because I hate driving in the dark due to a huge fear of my car breaking down in the middle of no where and what's worse than being stranded would be being stranded in the dark. Anyways, we made the trip and after saying hello to the family real quick I headed over to Yoasis(which is a delicious real frozen yogurt place inside the hogi yogi. The yogurt itself is good but even better with their delicious toppings from real fruit-granola, and vanilla wafers). I met up with Jenny and we downed ours before Jess, Danny and her family even showed up. It was sooo good to see them again! I love those girls so much and it's always nice to be able to spend time with them.

Of course ours was massive and loaded with toppings

The rest of the weekend pretty much consumed of hanging out with my family and watching conference. It was crazy to think that not only was this the first time in a long time that I got to watch all four sessions of conference, but it's been even longer since I got to watch it at home with the Fam. Conference was amazing!! I abosolutely love the men and women that lead our church. They always bring such great messages of peace and hope in these days of evil and hard times. I just wish we could have conference once a week because it's such an upliftment for me. My particular favorite talks this conference were those that focused on simplifying our lives, of living life for today instead of procrastinating until tomorrow, of having faith not fear, believing in ourselves, and reacting to others in a christ-like manner. These were most likely my favorite because these are all things I need to work on : )
While the boys went to priesthood session saturday night and channy went to a bridal shower, mom, ash, and me went to the D.I where they helped me pick out things for my sweet halloween costume, then we headed over to Red Robin to have dinner. I love food there's no question there but Red Robin definately is on my favorite list of places to eat. It's Delicous!

Right after mom dropped fry sauce in her drink and stirred it up
My little brother is doing a project for Biology and along with it he's supposed to collect bugs and all sorts of other insects. So he starts showing me what he has collected so far and when he pulled out a trantula it was the last thing I was expecting. It was huge and so gross looking that I couldn't help but take a picture, it's dead of course but I can still say I've held a trantula. Who knew we had such creatures creeping around Provo.


Some photos during Sunday's conference:

Capturing these two on camera, actually looking is a rare occasion



It was such an amaing weekend and like usual I was not ready and not willing to return to Cedar Sunday night, but we loaded up all our stuff and made the long trip back. Of course stopping in Fillmore for a potty break, and couldn't help but find a photo op : )

Another bites the dust

It's officially official that another one of my friends from high school is engaged! Last sunday my friend Brittany Herdman agreed to enter into the last legal form of slavery(as stated by 27 dresses) jk I really am so excited and happy for her! She gets married on December 19th and I can only hope that with my work schedule over holiday break that I'll be able to be there on her big day.
Love ya Britt!!

Change of plans...

I've wanted to be a nurse "when I grow up" for a really long time, and so the past 2 1/2 years I've been working towards nursing school and getting my pre-reqs done so I can apply. When I transferred from Idaho it messed me up and put me a little behind in my plans due to having to do more generals at a new school . But by the end of this semester I will finally be done with all my nursing pre-requisites for SUU's program, meaning I could be in the program by spring if I got accepted. Spring's application is due this coming Friday and I was getting everything in order and getting all ready to turn it in and start waiting, then I met with my advisor. He told me that he didn't want me to get discouraged if I didn't get accepted right away seeing as how I'm still currently enrolled in classes needed for the program, I explained to him that I hadn't gotten my hopes up too high but was just going to apply for the heck of it cause I could finally apply. Anyways after talking to him I started thinking about what he had said and started to think of ideas of what to do next semester if I didn't get in right away. I got the impression that it would be cool to get my EMT in the spring, as well as take a math class that's required for other nursing programs besides SUU's. I finally came to the conclusion that I'm not going to turn in my application this Friday but I'm going to wait and apply for Fall, and in the Spring I'll enroll and take MATH 1050, as well as an EMT class. I've always thought it would be cool to be an EMT mostly because I'm really snoopy and every time I see the sirens I want to know what's going on. My plans also include moving back up North for the summer, and possibly permanently if I was to get accepted to a school up there. I'm really excited and feel like a made the right decision. I just can't wait to see how things turn out and finally become a nurse one day. However, I still believe my life is in the hands of the Lord and that he will send me wherever he needs me and wants me to go.

Happy Homecoming

Last week was the week that I always look forward too in school, Homecoming week! more so since I've been to college because the activities that go on during the week are a really nice break from all the stresses of work and school. With my new position at work I was actually able to go to pretty much all the activities this year too. Some of these activities were everything from pep rally's, outdoor movies, smashing cars, comedian show (Eric O'shea from New York), BBQ's, Parties, Luau w/dance, smash mouth concert(yes I totally went), parade, and of course the big game!
The story behind the smash mouth concert is this: I really had no intentions of going to the concert, because I had no desire to see them in concert. However, by Thursday night the school was passing out buy one get one free coupons(go figure they were having a hard time selling) so my roommate Candice and I decided what the heck, we have the night off and their cheap so we went. It was so much fun! We felt like we were 12 again dancing around in the aisle surrounded by people of all different ages. We "rocked out" and had a blast!
Saturday morning(the day of the big game) I was feeling really ambitious so I woke up early and went running before the parade that afternoon. Brooke and I met up with Jacqui , her boyfriend Lance and his family to watch the parade . The parade was a lot different then I had imagined it would be, it was actually a parade. We had all the important people from our school in all the little fancy cars, but we also had cool "floats" from clubs in our school as well as bands and dancers from our local high schools. It was actually fun to watch even though the wind that day was exceptionally crazy!
I'm a really big sports fanatic so when it's game time I love to get in school spirit and cheer at the top of my lungs. I don't understand football as much as other sports but I still love to get into it . Brooke and I painted our faces for the occasion and we got there early to get a decent seat in the student section, and got roped into saving seats for the others to join us later. Now a little history on our football team, we're not that good... at all. We got our first win three weeks ago for the first time in 2 years. This years season brings a new coach and it looks like our team actually stands a chance. They played a great game which held the crowds there until the end, me screaming and jumping up and down occasionally, but they lost. The final score was 14-19. In the last two minutes of the game we had a chance to score a touchdown but the other team intercepted the pass and they fumbled to lose the game by five! I was really disappointed but yet proud that we had actually held our own against another team. Way to go T-Birds!
After the game we got a group of friends together and went to wingers. I love wingers! And this time it tasted especially good since I got a free meal (my friend Robert bought my dinner to make up for giving me a massive bruise on my foot a few days earlier).
Homecoming week was a blast full of getting no studying done and getting very few hours in at work but it was totally worth it and I already look forward to next year.

Time Flies!

I cannot believe that it is already September! there are two bad things in this: Summer is over, and winter is well on it's way. Quite depressing. However, this summer went out with a pretty big bang. On August 19th I was able to make the trek home to Provo for a whole week! Going home is always amazing, but this time it was for my best friends wedding. Throughout the week/pre-wedding I had fun going to education week attending classes with my sister, mom, and sometimes bro-in law during the day, then play all night. In fact most of the nights were spent getting ready for that big event. Jenny and I were bridesmaids for the wedding and we were determined to buy all new stuff, and so we did. We went to store after store, night after night buying little things here, big things there and anytime one of us would start to feel guilty about the amounts we were racking up on our credits cards we would simply remind each other "It's for the wedding". Some more pre-wedding events included, getting pedicures/nails done with the bride and her little sister alli, the mom/non-dirty bridal shower, and hanging out at the hotel the night before the wedding, "getting to know"/terrorizing Danny's family. .

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Saturday came bright and early as Jenny and I woke up early to get ready. Jenny was amazing at assisting me with curling my hair, as well as make-up (she's really not as nerdy as most mechanical engineer majors). Jessie's old roommates from BYU-I, Lindsey and Kiersten, carpooled down with us and 3 of our friends from high school caravaned down with us to Manti. We left later than had planned so I found myself driving like a crazy person to get to the temple in time to see them come out of the temple. However, when we got there we ended up waiting at least 30 mins before they came out and all the while we kept questioning why we weren't down playing at the carnival going on at the fairgrounds across from the temple grounds. It's a good thing we love Jess so much and waited in the hot sun.

After sticking around for some photos at the temple we attended the wedding luncheon at the Manti House Inn. It was set up outside in the back, underneath the Gazebo. We were all starving by that time so the food tasted amazing and all of us had races and contests to see who could finish what on their plate in front of them first. Real mature we know. My personal favorite part of the wedding luncheon was when Danny sang to Jessie. It was amazing! He sang come thou fount, which just so happens to also be my favorite hymn (well old hymn I guess), and I'll admit I almost cried. By the time it was time to leave the luncheon all our adrenaline from the excitement was wearing off and we all realized just how tired we really were. We made the trip back safely to Provo all with the intentions of taking a nap before reception time.

*Now I have to explain this picture a little bit. The first time I met Danny I had really tall heels on and he felt extremely intimidated, so Jenny and I both bought really tall heels to wear just to purposefully make him feel intimidated. Also, we have been giving him a super hard time about the wedding, telling him constantly how much we hate him for ruining our lives and taking Jessie away from us so we wanted to re-enforce that fact of our hate towards him with this picture

The reception was just as amazing and crazy as the rest of the day had been. It had finally sunk it that Jess was married, and that we were still very single. There was a huge turnout for the reception which included lots of friends from high school that I had not seen in a really long time. It was great to catch up and see everyone again. It brought back lots of great times from high school and all the crazy fun things we did together.

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Pretty much what I'm trying to say here was that the whole day was amazing, full of bittersweet feelings, and lots and lots of pictures. And even though I teased Danny a lot I really am grateful for Jess to have found such a great guy who makes her happy, treats her like a queen, truly loves her, and is the kind of guy she deserves. Best of luck to the two of you : )

lovin the olympics!

I was talking to a resident of mine the other day at work and we started discussing the olympics and she said to me "isn't it neat how every 4 years we have the opportunity to show the world that we can all at least come together and unite in competition". Her comment got me thinking a little bit as I went on with my day and I realized just how right she was. With all this turmoil and fighting going on in the world the olympics brings a sense of hope that we can support each other and cheer each other on while we watch our country and others succeed.

Summer olypmics are my favorite and I have once again discovered why....

Need i say more??

Haha Summer olympics is when the male atheletes show it all as oppossed to covering up in the winter : ) The clothes come off for events such as swimming, diving, sand volleyball, and even gymnastics. okay yes there are more to the olympics then the extremely attractive men and their muscles, I love watching the events and seeing athletes win medals and get rewards for all their hard work. I'm always amazed to think about how much practice and hard work they have gone through to get to where they are today (however thinking about that also makes me realize just how lazy I am). So yay for the olympics and go team U.S.A!!

Vegas Bachelorette weekend

My best friend Jessie is getting married on August 23rd, Jess and I realized a couple months ago that we have never really traveled anywhere together, except salt lake of course. So we decided we were going to take a trip somewhere before she ties the knot. Both being poor students we chose Vegas so that we wouldn't have to spend too much money but still have a good time. As August got closer I wasn't quite sure the trip was really going to happen, however, the trip had evolved into our best friend Jenny coming with as well. Long story short we finally decided on a date that would be close to Jessie's bridal shower so that our friend Lindsey, that we met up at school in Idaho, could also come with us. After our date had been decided on I ended up getting a pretty big promotion at work and wasn't sure I would still be able to get the dates off that I had requested for the trip, lucky for us everything still worked out. Well except of course that I ended up working 11 1/2 hours on the day of the shower and wasn't able to make the trip up to Provo, which was a real disapointment but I still had the hope of the amazing weekend.

On August 7th after the bridal shower they all drove down to Cedar and stayed the night with me in my apartment. Needless to say the 4 of us cramming in my room and all of us having not seen each other in a long time, we didn't get much sleep that night. So the morning came early but we all anxiously loaded our stuff and hit the road. Our first stop of the trip was st. george. Jenny randomly enough needed to buy contact soulution and I some new sunglasses. I was unsuccesful but after spending an hour at target we were back on the road to vegas.

Jess got a cosmopolitan magazine for her shower and with the theme of our weekend being focused on what is about to happen in a little over a week, we read all about sex tips and tricks on the way down to help teach and educate our little jessie : ) By the time we reached Vegas we were all starving so we made a pit stop at In & Out Burger before checking into our hotel.

We got really lucky that Jenny just happens to know a guy from work that owns/helps manage the Marriot hotels and he was able to get us an amazing deal for two nights. As soon as we checked in we all stripped down to our suits and hit the pool. It felt sooooo good to relax and enjoy the incredibly hot weather. Also I realized that you never know when your going to use random things that you store in your trunk. For example: I bought two pool noodles months ago for a trip to Sand Hollow with a friend and they ended up coming in handy for this trip as well.

After swimming we were anxious to get ready and start shopping!! We went to the Las Vegas Outlets and ended up spending about 4 hours there before we once again realized we were starving and made an immediate trip down to the strip where we enjoyed an amazing dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Granted those around us probably didn't enjoy their dinner as much as we did because we were laughing, goofing off, and as Jenny made a point of it to constantly say " act like we were twelve". After stuffing ourselves clear full of delicious food, and cheesecake we continued to shop around the shops in Ceasers before heading over to the Bellagio(my absolute favorite casino/hotel in Vegas) where we browsed around the gardens and watched the water show, which I describe as the show that makes you want to grab the closest guy to you and make out with him. It's that amazing! We were all exhausted by the end of the night that we drove back to our hotel and soaked our feet in the hot tub before heading to bed.

Another good thing about staying in a hotel not on the strip was complimental breakfast! It was so nice to be able to stay in our PJ's to eat and not have to drive around to go find food. And we took it to our full advantage by stocking up on some fruit and dry cereal to store in our room for snacks. After breakfast we were back at the pool soaking up more sunshine and causing more entertainment(or annoyment for those around us). Jenny and I re-inacted some musicals by singing at the top of our lungs, dancing and splashing around the pool.

Hunger eventually stirred us to get ready and head to find some food, but before eating we ended up getting distracted by the fashion show mall. For those of you who haven't been in this mall it is amazing! it is soooo huge and full of awesome stores, and a great food court that we eventually ended up finding. We ate at a place called Great Wraps and it's times like these where I wish we had restaurants like that in Utah because it was really yummy. Shopping got the best of us and we stayed in the mall for 5 hours before heading down the strip to show Jess the M&M and Coke factory. The M&M factory was great but unfortunately the Coke factory was not so good seeing as how it's under construction for remodeling and they seem to have crammed the whole 3 stories of stuff onto one floor. But the coke was still great, and we all enjoyed it by going around the table making funny toasts to each other and our friendship.

The rest of the entailed more browsing on the strip and goofing off enjoying each others company and taking full advantage of the fact that anyone can act like an idiot in Vegas and no one cares. We got all dressed up by the vendors trying to sell us stuff, and make what they thought were good deals. We all got henna tattoos as well before making our way over to where a man was performing any song on the keyboard that people requested. Of course we made our requests and found ourselves out dancing on the dance floor with strangers. After dancing and more walking on the strip we once again realized how tired we were and so we made our walkback to my car and drove back to our hotel for our last night in Vegas. I must say I was getting depressed that our little vacation was ending and that it was going to be time to return to the real world and life. Also depressed because it had started to hit me that we are indeed loosing Jess to the married crowd and that things will never be the same, no matter how hard we still try to keep in touch and hang out. Jessie and I weren't ready to go home without taking one more trip to the pool and hot tub, which ended up turning into a photo shoot by the pool side.

We were being pretty crazy and I'm sure anybody who would have happened to look out of their hotel room at any point during that time would have got a laugh out of us, or have turned us in seeing as how we were down there after the pool was technically supposed to be closed. Luckily we didn't get caught and we were able to enjoy our craziness before heading up to go to bed.

The next morning we woke up early so we could grab some breakfast and pack up our stuff so that we could be on the road at a decent time, so we wouldn't make Jessie late for her bishops interview(she took her endowments out on tuesday yay!). I was super tired after the weekend and so I really had to make myself stay awake on the drive back to cedar, I blasted the music and sand along to help me stay awake : )

It was an amazing trip and I had a blast! I'm grateful to have such amazing friends and that we were able to have the opportunity to have one last fling all together before the wedding. I'm also grateful that we and my car survived the trip because taxi drivers down there are absolutely crazy! probably some of the most impatient people I have ever seen. Thanks for the great trip girls! I love you all!

here are even more pictures from our amazing trip:

Quoted...

I absolutely love quotes! I don't know what it is about them but I love to read them and I also collect and save those that really impress me. Whether it's about life, love, happiness, or the gospel I find them amazing. Here are two quotes I found the other day.

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens: but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”
- Helen Keller

"I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything goes wrong. I believe that tomorrow is another day & I believe in miracles."
-Audrey Hepborn

My ABC's

A- Attached or Single? Single
B- Best Friend? Jessie George, Jenny Pate, Jeni Sorenson, Candice Woods, Julia Smith, My sisters
C- Cake or Pie? Rainbow chip cake w/rainbow chip frosting is amazing!
D- Day of choice? I love Sundays! and also wednesday hump days
E- Essential item? definately my camera. take it everywhere with me. also my phone rarely leaves my side.
F- Favorite color? red(on purses and shoes), also brown and pink
G- Gummy bears or worms? worms as long as their the sour kind
H- Hometown? Helper and Provo Utah
I- Favorite Indulgence? sweets! any form of chocolate,ice cream, candy, dessert. I just love them all!
J- January or July? July! it's warm, no school, and full of celebrations, including my birthday : )
K- Kids? love them but for me far in the future
L- Life isn't complete without? laughter, friends and family
M- Marriage date? non-existant
N- Number of brothers and sisters? 2 brothers, 2 sisters+1 bro-in-law
O- Oranges or Apples? hmm...now this is a hard one but I think I'll have to go with oranges since their easier and more convient to eat with my fake tooth.
P- Phobia and fears? phobias: so many! I'm terrified of snakes. but also have common fears found in little kids: robbers, rapists, pitch dark etc.. also leaving this life before i'm ready
Q- Quote? see the top and side of my blog
R- Reasons to smile? sunshine, favorite song on the radio, flowers, family, inside jokes, rockband, dance parties, receiving letters, taking pictures, little kids, funny old people, mastering the hula hoop, feel good movies, bonfires, so many more,the list goes on and on.
S- Season of choice? summer.
T- Tag someone else: ash
U- Unknown fact about me: I have a fake tooth and without it I would have a gaping hole right at the front of my mouth.
V- Vegetable? broccoli, carrots, and most recently cucumbers in salads. YUMMY!
W- Worst Habit? procrastinating, and assuming the worst in guys (workin on it)
X - Ray or Ultrasound? been there done both. neither are fun.
Y- Your favorite food? I love it all! I can never get enough of it all.
Z- Zodiac sign? Leo

Mama Mia!

It seems that the summer is well known for a time when really amazing movies come out and this summer has been no exception. I of course went and saw batman at the midnight showing and loved it, but I must say that the next day when my sister Ashlee and I saw Mama Mia I found my favorite movie so far this summer. It was soooo good!! I wanted to get up and dance, and was laughing throughout the whole movie. It really is such a happy "feel good" movie. All these broadway muscials keep being made into movies, like hairspray for example and I am definately in favor of it continuing : )