Stormis

new blog!

2010-02-04T18:21:00.001-08:00

Okay, so I've been trying and trying to fix my blog and then I ended up doing something that makes it to where I can't even add a cute background. Sheesh. So Spenser decided that I should get a brand new one anyway since it is now the two of us!

Now introducing mine and Spensers blog...

www.spensandstorm.blogspot.com

Check it out!...well maybe give me a couple days :)

2010-02-03T16:05:00.000-08:00

I'm frustrated. I just want to change my blog to make it all new and cutesy before I can get motivated to really start blogging again. I don't remember what I did to get the layout I have...so now I don't know how to get rid of it to add a new one. Any ideas?

2010-01-24T18:21:00.000-08:00

Hello...

Anybody out there?

I'm still alive, and I have been meaning to blog... but you know how that goes. I decided I wanted to wait til I have my wedding pictures and then I could blog about everything that has been going on in order. Oh well.

Everyday I tell Spenser, "I want to update my blog" or "I really should update my blog" and then I just don't. And tonight, I got online and had a comment from a friend that asked if I would ever blog again. How nice to know that someone cares. :) I promise I will. It has been a long weekend so I am too tired to talk about everything that has been going on. But hey, this is a huge step for me! Thanks Jerrae! :)

Conference!

2009-10-14T22:09:00.000-07:00

Conference weekend was a BLAST! Spenser and I met in Flagstaff on Wednesday night and Becky was nice enough to let us stay at her apartment so we could leave early on Thursday morning. So, we drove up Thursday....ate at the Old Spaghetti Factory, went to the mall, and visited with his aunt. We also drove around and found his old house/neighborhood. The drive up was so great, Spenser is just so much fun! We have a blast together, we just laugh and laugh and talk and laugh and just act so stupid when we are together. It makes it fun for sure! :)

On Friday we just walked around Temple Square and hung out all day until it was time to go to his Mission Reunion. We met up with his old companion to follow him to the reunion, and he took us on quite the detour. An hour and 15 minutes later we got there. It was fun to be there with Spenser, and meet a lot of the people that I only heard about in letters for 2 years. Spenser was so happy to be there, I was excited for him. But I felt so bad that we were so late.

I ran into SO many people at the conference center. It was pretty fun! I ran into Steve which was totally unexpected, I got so excited when I saw him I just took off as fast as I could to go say Hi. Lol, and then stupid me I didn't even take a picture with him! It was so good to see him though! My brother Noah came with us to conference, it is always fun to see him! And I also ran into Perla :) There were a lot more people I got to see, it was fun! The weather was so nice up there too! A bit cold, but still nice.

One of the major perks of the weekend was that I got to meet up with my girls from Ecuador! We met for dinner, and just got to catch up and reminisce about old times. One of the girls that was there is from Canada. I had no idea she was down for Conference and I just happened to see her at the Conference Center but she was outside in the stand-by line and I couldn't go out and see her, so we just tried to talk through the glass, it was pretty crappy, I was so excited to see her and couldn't even hug her! But she was at dinner, so it's all good. I was shocked to see her though! It was so fun to see all of the girls, Ecuador was a such a great time in my life, and those girls became such good friends! Yay for reunions!

It was such a good weekend! Spending that much time with Spenser was AWESOME. 37 more days and we won't have to live far away from each other anymore! Hallelujah!!!!

Addresses

2009-10-10T12:01:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone!

I'm working on addresses for the announcements... so please send me your address. If you don't want to leave it on here, just email me. Stormcloud05@msn.com

Thanks! :)

We're Engaged!

2009-09-22T06:16:00.000-07:00

3 years ago I went to EA for my 2nd year. There was an opening social that first night so me and Becky went and were so excited to see all of our friends again. I remember exactly where I was standing and who I was talking to when I looked over and saw this super cute boy that I had never seen before. He was standing there with a bunch of other new guys, and for some reason I just could not take my eyes off of this particular one! We made eye contact like crazy all night, and I will admit it's because I couldn't stop staring, but hey he wouldn't stop staring back! And you'll never guess what happened next!? Nothing. I went home, and was like "well crap! I should have just talked to him!" haha, oh well...there were more oppurtunities. I would see him all the time and when we would pass each other on the sidewalk or in the wellness center he would always say "Hey" and oh my goodness my heart would just melt! haha. He happened to be friends with an old roommate of mine and when he realized that I was friends with her he started asking questions. We finally met one night at the Institute. I worked up the courage to go sit right next to him on the stage while we watched basketball. We introduced ourselves and all that good stuff, and then I remember him saying "Your eyes are so pretty!" I'm sure I blushed and got all smiley, but I tried to play it cool... then I asked him how old he was. "18" he said. And I thought..."Oh crap! He's younger than me, and hasn't been on a mission yet!" haha, all this time I was thinking he was so much older! But I still just couldn't stop thinking about him and was always hoping i'd run into him again. Well thanks to my friend Sam (who I will be forever grateful to!) gave him my phone number and he text me one day...it went something like this... "Hi this is Spenser, I don't know if you remember me from the institute but I was wondering if you wanted to go on a date with me sometime." haha what a chicken, asking me in a text message. But of course I was so excited and I ran to Becky (who I had just passed walking to class) and showed her. We did our whole excited ritual and then I was late for class. So that night he took me on our first date and i've never had a better first date in my life! We went goofy golfing, shared ice cream, watched a movie, played on his longboard (which is way harder than it looks) and talked forever! I didn't want the night to end. I went home and said "I like him! I like him! He's so cool!" and all that... and luckily he liked me back and we were together everyday after that until he moved back home the next semester to get ready for his mission. Well now he's back and we're getting married!!! He asked me on Friday night at the Diamondbacks game! I was so surprised. He had me convinced that he didn't have a ring and didn't know what to buy so we were supposed to go ring shopping on Saturday. But he lied! And it was so fun. I love him so much, and I am so happy to be the girl that gets to marry him and be with him forever! He is so funny, he makes me laugh all the time! We have been through a lot together and it has just brought us closer. We will be getting married November 21st in the Mesa Temple, and our plans are to move up to Idaho to go to BYU. I'm so excited to start our life together!

He filmed the whole thing when he proposed to me, so I uploaded it to YouTube and added the link if you want to watch. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO6oDe6LY8c

I can't wait to marry him!! :)

Scary Stuff

2009-09-16T21:37:00.000-07:00

So this past weekend I took a trip up to St. Johns, I didn't take any pictures all weekend, but I got the best video footage ever. When I go to St. Johns me and Spenser always end up just cruising around in my car. So this time, we brought my video camera along for the ride and set it up on the dashboard. We turned the screen towards us to make sure we were both in the shot, and just ended up leaving it that way. Well you know how on cameras they have a little record button so that you know if it's filming or not? Well on my camera it is just a red dot right at the top of the screen in the middle. To me, it's just a plain ol' red dot that I don't even think much about, I just make sure it's there so I know it's filming. Well to Spenser, it's really scary... So.. all the sudden he sees the red dot... and he kinda looks at it, and then looks in the back seat and then finally looks back at the camera and says "What is that red?" So I look at it and for a second am just looking and thinking "Well duh, that's the record button." But instead of saying that, I just pretended to be freaked out by this little red dot... I kept looking in the back seat and acting like I could see something...I actually made myself CRY, don't even ask me how, but he was convinced I could see a ghost or something. But I was cracking up the whole time, so I thought he woulda known.. haha anyway...the video will tell the story better than me, but I thought I'd give you a little idea. Now, here's the thing. I'm not a cruel person that likes to scare people, in fact I think it's awful because I HATE the feeling of being scared. Any kind of scared, but especially the freaky kind of creeped out scared. So i don't know what came over me...BUT, I put a little clip of what Spenser was doing to me all night in first so that you can see that he maybe kinda deserved it. haha. He always likes to look past me with this concerned look on his face or like he sees something behind me and I always freak out and jump or turn really quick to see whats there.. and he just gets the biggest kick out of it. So here's what really happened. Enjoy :)

(I tried for days to get the video to upload...and nothing. So I just put it on YouTube. Here's the link... )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXqSj9eUazk

Drama Drama Drama

2009-09-08T19:55:00.000-07:00

Wow, for those of you who are wondering.... yes I am still alive. I just went on a blogging strike there for a while. I know, how stupid. But, life was stressful and I didn't feel the need to share all my drama with you. :) But not to worry my friends, everything is just great and i'm a happy girl.
Man, it's been so long that I don't even know where to start. I am still living with my parents. It's nice to live at home, it really is. Not only do I have my own room, I save money, and I get to see my family all the time.

Lately, it seems like I have been doing this a lot...
For about 4 months now I have been having a lot of problems with my stomach. I get really sick when I eat. It just got to the point where I was hardly eating anything at all, I've lost 17 pounds over the past 4 months...which is wonderful, I won't complain about that part...but the feeling like crap part has not been fun. At first the doctors thought it was an ulcer, because I was stressed to the max and that is a big cause of ulcers, and my symptoms were a lot the same...after having an Endoscopy, they discovered it was in fact not an ulcer. So I have just had test after test done to see what is going on. After that, they moved on to my gallbladder. I don't have gall stones or anything like that but my gallbladder only functions at 26%, so it's low...but the doctor doesn't think that means we have solved the problem. So this week I have to have more labs done, and an MRI on Monday. I just keep hoping and praying they figure it out so I can start feeling normal again.

I am having a ridiculously hard time getting more pictures to work on this post...so i'm going to the next one...

2009-09-08T19:32:00.000-07:00

Well i'm sure most of you know that a little over two years ago I sent off a missionary, his name is Spenser. We wrote the whole time, and I waited until he got home from his mission...and once he was home...things were a little hard on us for awhile...okay they were a lot hard. But we got through it and are officially back together and as happy as ever. He still lives up North and i'm down here, so we are 4 hours away from each other... gotta love the long distance thing. But it's not that bad. We have seen each other every weekend for the past two months. It's so fun! He comes down or I go up there, and either way we have a blast! It will be nice when we don't have to do the long distance thing anymore. We haven't lived close to each other since December of 2006...sheesh. I'd say it's about time! :) He is still just as funny and amazing as he used to be. I forgot how much he makes me laugh... I laugh so hard sometimes that it just hurts so bad, and I beg him to stop being funny...but of course it just eggs him on! Oh well.. good ab workout.. and way too much fun. We are just a crazy pair, sometimes we freak even ourselves out, and wonder why we are so weird. But it makes it that much more fun. I am SOOO glad to have him back. He's only a phone call a way...instead of a letter that sometimes takes way to long to get to me...I hate when he has to leave, or I have to come home... but at least I know it's over...the wait is over. It makes saying goodbye that much easier. Before his mission I hated my life every time we said goodbye, cuz I knew it was just that much closer to him leaving for 2 years, but now it's just until next time! And it gives me something to look forward to every week. I am one lucky girl. He brought me back all the letters that I wrote to him while he was gone, and I have been putting all of our letters together in binders. I decided to make it as cute and fun as possible, and it's been quite the project. But it's been so fun! I was feeling bad for being a slacker at writing in my journal over the past couple years, but my letters are a great journal, I forgot about so many things, it's so fun to go back and read them! And the same for him. It is going to take three 3 inch binders to hold all of our letters...but before I finished decorating the big binders I put the letters in small ones just to keep them nice and organized.

That's a lot of love right there. :) We both wrote just under 100 letters to each other while he was gone.

Here is one of the finished binders....

Well thanks for reading my blog friends, I will be better at blogging now. I'm done with this "strike". It's overrated! :)

Summer Time

2009-05-14T19:03:00.000-07:00

I love the summer so much! Every summer for the past 5 years I have worked at the Buckeye Pool as a lifeguard/swim coach, but for a couple of years before that I was a volunteer swim coach. I love it so much! Work is just FUN! And it's so rewarding to see my kids improve each year. Today I was telling my mom that I am so excited about tomorrow because I don't have to work I said "I just get to go to David's graduation and then to the pool" and then I thought....oh duh, the pool is work. I guess I just love my job! :)

Today finally made the end of the semester official for me! I forgot how nice it feels to finish up a semester. But in two weeks I start a summer class. It's my first summer class ever, and i'm dreading it. I'm used to just working at the pool all summer and just relaxing... so it will be a change, but it will be fine! It's only for a month.

I have been a huge slacker at taking pictures lately... but when I do I will be sure to post them. :)

The 2nd Time

2009-05-05T19:57:00.000-07:00

So I decided to give Twilight another try. The first time I saw it I was so unbelievably disappointed and devastated with it. I was so in love with the books (and with Edward Cullen) and the movie just ruined it all for me. BUT, everyone that felt the same way said that they liked it better the 2nd time. It took me a long time to even have the desire to give it another try, but I did. And I actually liked it a lot better this time. There were still a few parts that I wasn't a huge fan of, but whatever, it was pretty good actually. And I just keep thinking the 2nd movie will be even better. So thanks to everyone who told me to watch it again. There is hope again after all. Ha ha.

The Boys are Back

2009-04-26T21:22:00.000-07:00

I just love having nieces and nephews, it's the funnest thing! We have a lot of dance parties when they come over. I've tried to film them a few times cuz it's the cutest thing. I put together a little video tonight just for fun, so if you're interested, here it is... :)

Happiest Place on Earth!!!...

2009-04-19T18:13:00.000-07:00

Nope, I didn't go to Disneyland. That may be the happiest place on Earth for some people, and I have to agree, it's a pretty great place, but for me Flagstaff tops it all! I came up to Flagstaff for the weekend, just because! Because I LOVE it here, and I love my friends here! When i'm in Flagstaff I am just super happy, and I always have a ton of fun, and just forget about everything else for a bit, it's so nice. I drove up on Friday night and me, Becky, and Jay went to see the movie Seventeen Again. I loved it, I thought it was hilarious, and had a lot of good quotes, not to mention that Zac Effron is a beautiful person! ha ha. The movie was so fun, and the company was even more fun! My friend Jay is just a ton of fun to be around, he makes me laugh so hard! Before the movie we stopped by the Relay for Life thing that was going on at NAU to check it out, and see Perla! It's always fun to see her! And her nose is looking SO great! She still likes to bring it up cuz she thinks it's funny to watch me cry, lol. Gosh Perla you're SO stupid! :)

Saturday morning I drove up to Holbrook to visit Alli. Her and Kyle just moved into a new house, it's super nice. I love it! It was way fun, we just chilled out all day, her brother-in-law was making a new doorway into the living room so there was an awful lot of noise and dust, so me and Alli just went to her bedroom and chatted and played with Macy. It was tons of fun! I'm so glad I went! Alli and Kyle are too cool, and Macy is just adorable! Thanks for letting me come play guys! :)

I drove back to Flagstaff Saturday night and me, Becky, and Perla had a little movie party. We watched High School Musical 3. Don't be jealous. Lol, it was quite the Zac Effron weekend. Ha ha, I am lame, I will be the first to admit it, but I love the High School Musical movies, and I even have the songs on my iPod, haha...man i'm cool. Me and Becky love to jam out to those songs. Good times. We got food first and then came back and watched the movie at Becky's apartment, it was fun as usual, and then after the movie was over we ended up laughing SO hard for so long, because we are a bunch of freaks. I thought I was going to lose it I haven't laughed that hard in a while! Becky is sooo funny! That girl can fake cry like a champ. haha. Oh man, my friends are crazy fun! We have such a good time together, i'm so glad that I have silly friends, nothing is better than just hanging out with friends and being a little goofy, life would be way too boring otherwise!

Today we went to church, and then afterwards me, Becky, and Tici went out to Lake Mary and just chilled under some trees with blankets and took naps and talked, and just relaxed. It was lots of fun. I LOVE Flagstaff! I love the weather, I love my friends, I just love it. Being here makes me miss living here so much, I want to move back here for next semester so bad, but we'll see what happens!

I will post some pictures of the weekend tomorrow. I don't have a way to get them onto this computer. I should probably be going home tonight so I can get some homework done tomorrow, but I hate leaving, so me and Becky are going to have a homework party in the library tomorrow morning until she goes to class. What fun! :)

Conference Weekend

2009-04-08T16:02:00.001-07:00

This past weekend me, Becky, and Perla drove up to Utah for Conference! I LOVE road trips! I don't mind all the driving, I mean by the end of the drive I am definitely ready to be out of the car, but I enjoy it a lot! You stick yourself in a car with the right people for a few hours and it can be a ton of fun! I'm sure i'm the most annoying one in the car, because i'm all about jamming out and having dance parties! That makes for some good times, and great video! :)

We left on Saturday morning around 4 am and headed up. None of us had a good breakfast so we stopped at McDonald's in Page. I ordered a McGriddle..it looked good in the picture... turns out it was disgusting! It was bacon, egg, and cheese inside of a stinkin pancake with maple syrup! EWW! Needless to say, I didn't eat it...I only ate one side of the pancake and threw the rest out... who wants to eat a cheesy pancake?! Come on McDonalds! Seriously...they should advertise better that a McGriddle is in fact a McNasty!

Unfortunately, our dear friend Perla got hurt on the trip. We stopped in Gunnison Utah to visit some friends. They wanted to take us for a ride in the Rhino...it's kind of like a four wheeler, but bigger, and...well I dunno. It's a Rhino. Well the guy that was driving was a stupid idiot and went down a hill that he shouldn't have gone down with 3 of us in the backseat, cuz we all got some air and when Perla went up she hit the bridge of her nose on the bar at the top! Her nose started bleeding like crazy, but from the huge gash at the top, not from her nose! And it was swelling. Poor girl, you could tell it hurt so bad, and it instantly swelled up. The guys mom helped out a lot, cleaned it up nicely and superglued the cut back toghether, and got ice packs for us. So we watched conference there, and I held an ice pack on Perlas nose for her. She was icing it all weekend, and taking medicine for that pain...she found out that it is broken. Ugh, I just feel terrible! But she was awesome the whole trip! I never heard her complain or be negative about the situation at all! She's my hero, I know that I would have been a baby the whole time! What a great example she is to me! I love that girl. I'm so sad she got hurt, I wish it would have been me, I just felt so awful the whole time! She didn't even know the friends we stopped to see, so she could have cared less if we stopped. I'm so sorry Perla!!!! I owe you a road trip now! Let's plan it! :)

After conference on Saturday, our friend drove us to the Manti Temple. It was about 20 minutes from where he lives. Oh my goodness, it is such a beautiful Temple! I want to go to the pagaent in June so badly! ROAD TRIP! :)

It was pretty funny on Sunday, we ran into some friends that we made on our cruise at Temple Square! So we took a picture together! They were such a fun bunch!

I also got to see my dear friend Kiara. I met her at EA, we used to be neighbors! I really love that girl, she's awesome! It was so fun to see her!

My brother Noah lives in Utah. He has been in Provo but just recently moved to Logan, so he drove down for the weekend to go to Conference with us. I was so happy he came! He is tons of fun, and so funny all the time! Plus, it was nice to have him there to drive us to Temple Square, otherwise we might have had some trouble! Who knows! Thanks Noah! You Rock!

After the first session on Sunday, me and Perla stood on the corner where huge crowds of people were walking in, and held a sign that said "Have any extra tickets? :)" We got SO many tickets! We picked the ones with the best seats, and gave the others away to other people with signs! It really is possible to get into conference with having tickets in the first place! Yay! Thanks to everyone who shared their extra tickets! We got amazing seats the second session! Me and Perla sat about 20 rows back from the podium. I had a perfect view of the first presidency!

I was so excited! I was like a kid at disneyland waiting in line for the coolest ride when we were going in! Lol. I couldn't believe how close we got to sit! Conference was so amazing! I am so glad we went! Going to the conference center is amazing. If you've never had a chance to go, I highly recommend it! And singing with that massive congregation is awesome too! I had a great time!

Road trips are too fun! I hope I get to go on a lot more in my life!

I had a great time with Becky, and Perla. They are awesome girls! I have been so blessed with such great friends! :)

"The Fun Ship"

2009-03-30T12:04:00.000-07:00

Well, the cruise was amazing! It went by way too fast, and definitely was NOT long enough of course, but we had such a good time while we were there! I never want to go on another vacation unless it involves a massive ship! lol, it really was awesome. I love being out on the water like that. And there is just so much to do while you are actually on the ship. It's awesome. Our room was on the lowest level, and it was a tiny room, but it was just perfect for us! We didn't spend a lot of time in there anyway, so it didn't matter. But honestly, I don't see why I would ever need a bigger/better/more expensive room on a cruise! Although, I did feel like we walked a lot of stairs and rode the elevators a lot! So we took a TON of elevator pictures! :)

It was nice not having to ask someone to take our picture! :) A lot of the times we would get on and start to take our picture and forget to press the button, and then we would stand there wondering why it was taking so long. haha, we aren't that smart I guess!

One night I managed to have a TWIN! Oh my gosh, I couldn't believe that we actually had the same exact outfit! It was pretty funny. Luckily I had already met her and her friends and we were already "cruise friends" so we just laughed about it and took a picture together. We met a lot of really cool people on the cruise actually! 3 different LDS groups of friends that came for Spring Break too! So it was lots of fun!

The food was great, and always there when we wanted it, lol. And it was way fun to be able to order room service whenever we wanted it too, and it was included! Cruises are awesome! The room stewards are amazing too, they are constantly cleaning up our room and making sure we have everything that we need! They even cleaned the hair out of my brush, haha I could not believe that! We had a lot of fun! I am so sad it's already over!

On our way home we stopped to vist the San Diego Temple! It is so gorgeous!

It was tons of fun! I can't wait to go on another cruise!

Spring Break...kind of!

2009-03-12T21:37:00.000-07:00

Well I had my last two classes before Spring Break today, but it seems like a joke. I have just the same amount of homework as I do every week! What is the purpose of a break if we don't actually get a BREAK! Oh well, I'm still going on a cruise! :) I just have to get all my stuff done ASAP so I can actually relax on the cruise and stop worrying about everything I have to do. It is a much needed vacation. I can't wait to just play with Becky and Cheyenne, and just chill out! Only 6 more days!

Whitney's wedding was lots of fun! As the videographer I was there for the whole thing, which was fun! Her reception was way pretty, and lots of fun! I brought my own camera to make sure to just get regular "we've been friends forever, let's take pictures at your reception" pictures... but I was busy filming, and dancing, so I didn't. But I know that my mom got a couple of good ones of Me, Whit, and Alli. I will post them when I get a chance to get them from my mom.

The Saturday that we took Whitney's formal pictures, I managed to sneak into one picture... lol

Here's me and Alli waiting for them to come out of the Temple!

Alli of course was able to go inside, so I got to watch Macy. She's stinkin cute by the way! Well some day when I get married, I'm the lucky one! Cuz Whitney and Alli will both get to come inside! Getting married last does have its benefits! :)

I've known Alli and Whitney for so long, I can't even remember the first time I met them.. but I do have tons of great memories with both of these girls! Like the time when me and Whitney made eggs..."Are you sizzlin? Cuz i'm HOT!" ha ha, guess you had to be there! And the time when me and Alli were at swim practice and she popped out of the water and said "I smell...DUCKY!"... "Inside Joke." Don't worry Alli, I got your back.

Today I went tracting with the sister missionaries. That was a new experience for me, but it was actually a lot of fun. Everyone was very nice, a few people seemed interested, a few were totally NOT interested, and some were just nice and chatty. It was fun, and the sister I was with was super nice. It's definitely something I thought would freak me out, but it really didn't at all! Anyway! That's all that's new with me. Chao!

2009-03-08T10:32:00.000-07:00

Everything is going pretty good. Babysitting is good. I'm enjoying it more and more each time I go. Ethan is such a cute little guy, and has such a fun laugh. His mom works from home, so she's always there, and she's really nice. It's a good job to have right now. It's nice cuz it doesn't feel like a JOB, it's fun. :)

A few weeks ago, our little poodle Moose had a pretty traumatic experience. I was the only one home for the whole weekend, when a dog we were babysitting for the neighbors, decided to bite Moose. Moose is the SMALLEST dog you will probably ever see, and a golden retriever, no matter what size it is, is huge compared to him. So a big jaw like that biting a little jaw like Moose's...not good. Long story short, it broke Moose's poor little jaw. He screamed and screamed that whole night, and I took him to the vet the next morning. A few days later he came home. He had to have surgery, and get his jaw wired back together. Not so fun. But he's healing and doing much better! I never have liked Moose much, and I won't lie I still am not his biggest fan, but it was awful, I hated that there was nothing I could to do help him. Poor little guy! Here's a picture after surgery...

My good friend Whitney is getting married this week, and she asked me to do her wedding video. I'm very excited about it, and very happy to do it! Making videos is so much fun, the process is fun, and the finished product is even more fun! I can't wait to finish it. They are getting married on Tuesday, I'm super excited for Whitney! Yesterday we took her formal pictures, it was lots of fun, and I think I got some good footage! It's not hard to keep a bride and groom smiling :).

Only 11 more days til I go on a cruise!! :)

Have a fun week everyone!

What's new??

2009-03-01T21:52:00.000-08:00

Well, there isn't a whole lot going on in my world. Well, there might be a little, but it's nothing I want to blog about :) Lol

So things in Buckeye are going good. I'm babysitting for a lady twice a week. She just has one baby, he's 6 months, and super chubby, he's so cute and fun! A little spoiled (but who's not at 6 months?) lol, but hey he's my only job, so it's not a problem! :) School is going great, I'm sooo glad I changed my major! I really enjoy my classes a lot! They are fun and interesting, and they actually get me excited! So that's a nice change :)

I haven't been up to much...nothing at all really. The other night I went to the Talent Show for my ward. Me and my two friends Chelsey and Brittany told jokes as our talent. We thought our jokes were funnier than the audience did, but they got a kick out of us laughing at our own jokes! Hey as long as we got them to laugh right?? It was lots of fun, I'm glad they asked me to join in, otherwise I probably would have stayed home like a loser. It's hard to just jump into a new ward with new people. But i'm trying! It's a good ward, and there are a lot of people I already know, but I do need to work on being a little more social! I miss my flagstaff ward and friends A LOT! I keep trying to find a weekend to go play up there, and nothing has been working out! BUT, in two and a half weeks I am going on a CRUISE with Becky and Cheyenne! We got a great deal, we are soo excited! It's 3 nights over Spring Break, wahoo! I need a break! And it will be soo nice to play with my girls!

Last weekend was my good friend Whitneys bridal shower! (Thanks for the pics Alli :) ) And CONGRATS to Whitney! Her and her boy are super cute, and I'm way excited for them! The shower was lots of fun, I got to chill with Alli and laugh and be silly, and I also got to see a few old elementary school teachers! Funny Story! One of them was my 2nd grade teacher and I was telling her about my brothers wife who is pregnant, and she asked if it's there first baby, I told her "No, it's there 4th." So she responds..."Oh! So how many do they have!" I about LOST IT! And she taught ME in 2nd grade? LOL, the other teachers laughed pretty hard and gave her a hard time, she meant how many of each (boys/girls) do they have. It was pretty funny! Anyway here are a couple pics from that!

My friends are so cool! :) Other than that, I'm just busy editing videos, and doing lots of homework! I have been a huge slacker at taking pictures which is so unlike me dangit! But when I finally get some new pics, I'll be sure to post :)

I guess it's about time!

2009-01-23T09:20:00.000-08:00

I've been a major slacker with my blog, and Perla keeps getting after me! I keep saying I have nothing to write about, but really there is just SO much going on that I feel like I don't know where to start!

Well life decided to throw a HUGE surprise at me, and I moved back to Buckeye. Wow, I never thought that would happen! I felt like it was right, and where I needed to be, so I made all the arrangements with school, and everything worked out really well! So now i'm officially moved back in with my parents, and taking a few classes at Estrella Mountain. I'm really happy to be back, it's been good so far, but man I miss my friends in Flagstaff! I will definitely have to go up for some visits!

The weekend that I moved back, Becky came down to Buckeye with me on Friday night, and me, her, and Cheyenne hung out again! Yay!

The week before I left was really fun, I spent every night at Becky's house except for one. We had a fun little get together at our apartment. Me, Perla, Jay, and Becky! I gave everyone pedicures and we watched movies. Lol, what a night! It was way fun! Man I am going to miss those nights. But it's ok, being home is really good too!

I went to my first classes this week at Estrella, and it turns out that one of my teachers was my elementary school Principal. I'm SO excited, he's the coolest, and he's such a great teacher! When I was in elementary school, we would always go to his office and hang out, he'd give us sodas, and candy... sometimes we got to do the morning announcements with him! We thought we were pretty cool! :) So i'm way excited to have him as a teacher this semester! I forgot how overwhelming school can be sometimes, and it's only the first week! Ugh!

Anyway, so that's that. I'm back in Buckeye, weird I know, going to school at Estrella, and looking for a job! So far I haven't had much luck with that!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-07T20:23:00.001-08:00

Wow it's 2009, this is the year that I thought would NEVER come, and here it is! I can't wait to see what this year brings! Bringing in the New Year was tons of fun for me! Me and Perla threw a little party at our apartment, Steve came from Jo City, and our two friends Kent and Shane came from the valley.. and then just some friends from flagstaff came over! We had dinner, and snacks, and games, and a dance party! It was way fun, we stayed up until about 4 am, it was dumb...don't do that, don't ever do that. Lol, just kidding it was way fun!

On New Years Day we took a happy little road trip to Steve's hometown, Joseph City, and had a bonfire out in the Bad Lands, it was "toteco" lol, ok for those of you not in Flagstaff it was totally cool! Man, my friends are weird :)

Friday we took a little trip to the Grand Canyon, good times! I forgot how beautiful that place is! It might just be a big hole in the ground, but it's a pretty amazing big hole! lol
Overall, it was a fun fun weekend! We took tons of pics, but I'll just post a few! Happy New Year everyone!

2008-12-24T12:55:00.001-08:00

I'm not capable of keeping my hair the same style/color/whatever (that was for you Steve, lol) ... so anyway, I cut it short and dyed it blonde again! I really like it, having short hair is super easy, but I so badly miss having really long hair that I can do all curly every once in awhile. Oh well! Maybe some day! Although, i'm starting to belive my hair will never be long again, I just can't stop cutting it! Here it is.

2008-12-23T21:11:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday Perla got a phone call from Steve saying that he was coming to Flagstaff and needed a place to stay. Because of the snow he ended up getting in way later than expected. So he showed up at 2:30 am, we left the door unlocked and let him crash there for the night. Because of the crazy snow storms all week he was stranded in Flagstaff until Wednesday afternoon! It was SO much fun having him back with us! We have all missed him terribly! Jay came over one day and we were all back together again for a little while, it was awesome! All week we just played and had a great time! It was super fun! I love my friends, they are the best. Here are just a few pics of the week.

We got tons and tons of snow up in Flagstaff this past week. NAU was closed on Tuesday and on Thursday because of the darn snow, which meant work was closed for me too! So I got 2 snow days, which turned out just fine :) And I was glad for that because getting to work would have been way too scary, especially since there is a huge hill I have to go up to get to work. And my little car just doesn't do so well with that.

Now i'm back in Buckeye for Christmas. I will be here for a total of 10 days! Yay, it's been SO fun so far!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Katie's NAST

2008-12-23T20:52:00.000-08:00

Well, it's about time I update my blog! I haven't had internet in my apartment until just recently! These past couple weeks have been SO much fun! My dear friend Katie moved up to Flagstaff this past semester, how unfortunate for me because I was in Ecuador! But at least I got to be with her for a few weeks. The day before she moved home we all got together for dinner at Garcia's and then went to a diner for some hot chocolate in downtown Flagstaff. No one makes me laugh harder than Katie Scott, oh man! I will miss having her around! We were roommates my very first semester at EA and have been friends ever since! Anyway here are just a few pics from that night...Katie's NAST, lol..she tried to say it was her last night and it came out Nast...we had a good laugh about that for awhile!

A few days later, my friend Shane came up to Flagstaff for the day. It was lots of fun. Me, him, and Perla went to Little America to check out the christmas lights, it's definitely not as exciting as the Temple lights, but they are still pretty! Perla made us her delicious peppermint whipped cream and hot chocolate, oh man..so tasty! It was a way fun day! And that was the first day of our HUGE snow storm! Anyway, here we are :)

FINALLY!!

2008-11-28T21:11:00.001-08:00

Well it turns out I am allowed to post pictures after all! So now you can all see my adorable Ecuadorian kids! There are soo many I would love to post, so I tried to narrow it down. Here they are, aren't they stinkin cute?? I miss them so much everyday!

2008-11-24T21:53:00.000-08:00

Can you say ugly and stupid?
Yep...Edward Cullen is apparently ugly and stupid. Not in the books, but definitely in the movie. How disappointing. The whole movie was a huge disappointment for me. Thank goodness I saw it with Alli, because she laughed at the same things I laughed at! They should not have made such a GREAT book into such an AWFUL movie! Yuck! Everyone has an opinion on it, and lots of people loved it. I wanted so badly to love it! And I just didn't! I think people that see it and haven't read the books will think it's ridiculous, but I don't know....has anyone seen it and not read the books?? Please, share your thoughts. Was it good at all?! Edward was a completely different character in the movie, his personality was so opposite...he's not a RETARD! And the whole meadow scene..please, get it right people. Hey Alli remember when Edward almost threw up..."Hello." AWKWARD! Ok well, I hated it. I'm so disappointed, and now I have to re-read the books I think, so that I can have good images back in my head! :)

2008-11-09T19:44:00.000-08:00

Well things got a little tricky while I was trying to get everything figured out, but it eventually worked out. I'm not going to be at Sam's Club after all. I got a job at a Daycare/Preschool instead. My friend Kilie hooked me up. She works there, so she gave me an application and told me to just at least go in and talk to her boss. I'm so glad I did! I am so excited to start working with kids again! Everyone kind of cringes when I say "Daycare" but I loved my time in the orphanages, I just love working with kids. And I know from much experience that it can get frustrating at times, but hey, from my experience the good definitely outweighs the bad. Kids are just too cute! And my boss seems to be super nice, and I will get to be working with my friend Kilie. AND, it works out great with my school schedule. So i'm pretty excited. It pays a little less than Sam's Club, but it's a long story, and I feel good about it. I start on Wednesday! Which means I will be back in Flagstaff on Tuesday! :)

Tagged

2008-11-09T19:39:00.001-08:00

Well my sister tagged me awhile ago, and I never did it. I saw that someone else did it and it reminded me. Anyway. The tag goes like this:

Go to your fourth picture file
Post the fourth picture in that file
Tag four people
So here is the picture...

I'm not a huge fan of the picture, but what the heck I was tagged. This was in Boston, I was waiting for the underground shuttle thing to go back to my hotel. That was one eventful weekend! Now I tag... Steve, Alli, Katie, and Kilie!

So Blessed

2008-11-05T12:47:00.000-08:00

Well I am definitely counting my many blessings today! I found an apartment and got my old job back! Well I guess it's not completely set in stone yet, BUT... my friend said that I can move into her apartment tomorrow if I need to, so that's just peachy! And I went into Sam's Club and they were so happy to see me, and they all asked if I was coming back. I told them how I was having trouble applying online because I need a pin number or something, so my boss was trying to find it but couldn't and the lady that knows how wasn't there. So he told me to come back in tomorrow so I can apply and get started! Everything is just falling into place so perfectly, I'm so excited. I am in Flagstaff right now, but I can't wait to really be here! :) And it's so soon! I am feeling very blessed today :)

Good Times

2008-11-05T07:57:00.000-08:00

Well things have been really good the past few days. I'm finally used to being home, but I still haven't found a job. So I kind of just feel like i'm floating around. But luckily I have had stuff to do this past week, and fun friends to play with! Last Wednesday Alli came to Buckeye, so I got to play with her which was tons of fun! And she is so cute and pregnant. It was way fun to see her! Then on Friday, Becky came to Mesa to visit her B-friend and me of course! :) So I went out to Mesa on Friday and we both stayed with Cheyenne. The three of us had tons of fun together of course. I just love these girls. I wish we all still lived together, those were definitely some of the best times! Becky is dating a boy out in Mesa, he's lots of fun, and has a lot of really cool, fun friends...so we all hung out together all weekend. I was so excited to be with Becky and Cheyenne again! I stayed out in Mesa until early Monday morning. But on Saturday I went home for part of the day to help Seth with the boys. I just love my nephews. They are so adorable and fun...I love having kids around, kids are the best! I'm not gonna lie I look forward to the day when I can have my own...anywho! Here are some pics from the weekend. We were being a little silly in the car :)

And now i'm up in Flagstaff for a few days loving my life because i'm here, and hating it because i'm not living here. :) I am so in love with Flagstaff! I just want to live here for the rest of my life. I've just been playing with my friends and getting stuff ready for next semester. I'm trying to find a place to live NOW so that I can be up here and just work, instead of working for a month and a half at home...that is if I could find a job down there. But if I could have it my way I would move up here asap and work at Sam's Club again....Sam's Club isn't the problem though, it's finding a place to live. So wish me luck! I just want to be up here so bad! I love love love it, and I have the funnest friends up here! Last night I went and watched Get Smart with my friend Jay. First of all, if you haven't seen that movie, see it. It is so hilarious! I loved it, and watching it with Jay is the best ever. I saw it with him in the theatre too, and we just laugh soo hard when we watch it. Last night we basically just laughed the whole time, because we knew what was coming. Good times! It's good to be back.

Home

2008-10-27T20:17:00.000-07:00

Well I made it home. I've been home for almost a whole week now. It's so hard to believe that it's already just over...just like that. 3 months...gone. It was the best 3 months of my life, and I would do it all over again if I could. Saying goodbye was just as hard as I imagined, but coming home was harder than I expected. I miss my kids terribly, and think about them everyday. I want nothing more than to be able to go visit them again someday. I've been sick with "walking pneumonia" since I've been home, which has made the transition even less fun. It's been great to see my family and everyone, but it's just so hard to all of the sudden be here. Not going to any shifts with my kids, i'm just here...doing nothing! I need to get back into the swing of things, but being sick has made it go a little slower. But i'm going to get on the ball, and get a job, and just get on with it I guess. But I will never forget my experience in Ecuador, and my goal is to go back for a visit! Anyone who wants to help out in the orphanages just let me know, and I will tell you how you can help out. And if you know anyone that is interested in volunteering there in Quito, also let me know, and I will hook you up with the best experience of your lifetime!

The Amazon trip at the end was amazing! It made me want to move to the jungle! Cooked bugs aren't so bad...it just tastes like bacon :) And I didn't run into any freaky animals...just huge spiders...but nothing I couldn't handle. Ha ha, ok I love my house and my things, but the Jungle really was so cool! And people do just live out there like that, it was so neat to see. The people there were just so great. I could tell lots of fun stories about it, but i'll just leave it at the fact that I was in the Amazon Jungle for 3 days, and it was super cool and beautiful. Here are some pics!

2008-10-14T08:24:00.000-07:00

Well, it is officially my last week here in Ecuador. I can't believe it. I only have 3 more days at the orphanages, it is such a sad feeling. Thursday we have to say goodbye, and I just don't know if I'm ready for that. It is going to be so hard. But at the same time, I am getting excited to come home and see my family, and friends, and eat real food...good food...american food...healthy food...just the food in general! :)

On Friday we leave for the Amazon, and come back on Monday. It should be fun, I am not feeling excited yet though, I probably won't be excited until i'm on my way there, because all I can think of now is being with the kids these last 3 days. I have already said goodbye at two of the sites, and today is my last day at another one. Thursday is my last day at the two main sites that I go to. So this week will be emotional, tomorrow is our banquet. I made the slideshow that we all get to watch tomorrow night, i'm really excited for Banquet, it will be really good, but really emotional probably, dangit.

Anyway, last night was my last night shift! Night shifts never bothered me, they were actually really nice. The only part I hated was walking to the night shift room, once I was in with the door locked I was fine. Last night, we were without the key to get to the room, and we had to sleep in the kids playroom. It was miserably uncomfortable on the floor, and I hardly slept, but my shift with the babies went really good, they sleep like champs...we have such good babies here! I can only hope that my own kids are so well behaved ALL the time!

Anyway, I will update again soon. Hopefully with pictures next time. I am still trying to recover from night shift :) Goodnight...

Se Cayo!

2008-10-09T19:07:00.000-07:00

Well...I got my cast on Tuesday and then on Wednesday I was supposed to get crutches so that I could actually walk. My foot still really hurt on Wednesday morning, and it was impossible to hop around with that heavy cast so I had to miss shift. Then by Wednesday afternoon when it was time to go to Casa´s, I still didn´t have crutches. But I decided that I was going to Casa´s if I had to go on my hands and knees! So I went, and I ended up walking on my cast for about 2 hours! My cast got tore up, and became completely worthless. My foot was hurting from walking on it, but not as bad as I expected it too. So, after shift I took off the cast. My foot is still hurting me a lot, but not as bad as it was on Tuesday. I´ve been walking on it, and by the end of the day it´s ready to rest, but it´s definitely getting better. So thats happy!

Going to Casa´s on Wednesday was the best day of my life! I hadn´t been for a whole week and it was so awful not seeing my kids! When I went, they all ran to me yelling ¨chica chica!¨ and ¨estormy!¨ ¨tormenta!¨... oh it just made my heart melt to see my kids again! It was my picture day, I got so many cute pictures! It just kills me that I can´t put them on here and show you! There is a little boy named Jacob that I have just completely fallen in love with. He has just clung to me since I came back, and I love it. We got attached to each other, but before I was gone for the week, he would still go inside with his ¨mom¨ a lot. But not for the past two days, he´s just been hanging out with me and i´m loving every minute of it! He gives the best hugs, and says the cutest things! If I could bring him home with me, there is no doubt in my mind that I would! The great thing about Jacob is that he understands that when I have to leave and that it´s time to say goodbye, and he just gives me big hugs and says ¨chao chica¨... oh my goodness, it is going to be so hard to say goodbye to Jacob! I have to come back to Ecuador and visit him!

BROKEN

2008-10-07T15:09:00.000-07:00

Well ok, so it´s not broken. But I have a vicious cast. I stretched a bunch of ligiments and the doctor said if I walk on it it will just get worse. He wanted to leave it on for 2 weeks but I am going to the Amazon next Friday so he said he will take it off next Thursday and I can just use a brace. I can tell you how I really feel or say that it´s totally ok. lol ok ok it´s not so bad, as long as I get crutches soon and can go to shift I am just happy as a clam. But this thing is HEAVY! And I just can´t wait to try and take a shower with it... but hey.. it was all free. So that was nice.

What´s the brightside?

2008-10-07T12:34:00.000-07:00

In about a half hour I am going to the Children´s hospital to get my foot x-rayed. We know someone there that will x-ray it for a cheaper price. Anyway, I´m crossing my fingers that it´s not broken. Yesterday when I got to shift, I stepped out of the van and my foot slipped off the sidewalk. It twisted and popped and hurt really bad. SO, I stood there trying not to cry, but that didn´t work out so well. And then after being carried up to the Nurse´s office and realizing that my foot is not going to feel better in time to make it to Casa´s I continued to cry. I haven´t been to Casa´s since last Tuesday, and in the van before I hurt my foot I was informed that I might only be able to go to Casa´s ONCE my last week. That would leave me with 5 days left to go. But now with my hurt foot, that left me with four. Well here I am once again missing Casa´s, which leaves me with the possibility of only having 3 days left to go. It just kills me. The time to leave is coming way too fast, and I want to take advantage of everyday that I have here. I talked to my mom on the phone this morning and she told me to look on the brightside. However, she couldn´t think of one. Well, the brightside is that it´s me that is hurt and not one of my kids. I would rather have a broken foot and miss a few days with them then see them with a broken foot. (Although, the not seeing them part sucks) So for my mom, I found the brightside. And the other brightside!... I am going to have a very strong left leg after all of this hopping around! :) It´s probably not broken...but I will find out soon enough, and hopefully tomorrow I will be able to walk and go see my Casa kids!

Yesterday made me realize just how hard it is going to be to leave these kids. It was really hard on me not going to Casa´s for two days even though I knew I had two weeks left. And not being able to see them yesterday hurt way more than my foot. But the biggest ¨brightside¨ of it all is just the oppurunity that I had to come to Ecuador. I would do it all over again if I could. These kids are amazing, and will forever be my babies.

Mitad del Mundo

2008-10-02T05:54:00.000-07:00

Well now I can say that I have officially been to the Middle of the Earth. We went to the Equator for our field trip last friday! It was actually really cool.

But first! Before we went to the Equator, we stopped at a Daycare along the way and played with the kids there. It is a pretty poor daycare in the middle of nowhere, so we played with the kids for awhile and then gave them a treat that we brought. They were all really cute...but definitely not as used to see Gringa´s as the kids we normally see. Here are the kids eating their treats.

The last Friday that I am here in Quito we are going back to this Daycare to help paint. I am so excited! They asked OSSO to help out with providing the paint, but we all decided it would be fun to paint it too! We get to draw pictures and make it really fun! I can´t wait, I think it´s going to be a lot of fun!

After we left the daycare we went to ¨the Crater¨...I was expecting to walk up and see a huge hole in the groud...but nope. This is what it was:

It was a gorgeous view, just not what I was expecting. It´s a valley that is surrounded by Volcanoes. There are tons of Volcanoes in Ecuador. A cute little old ecuadorian man told us all about them, and although he was mostly speaking English it was still hard to understand. But it was still cool!

Finally, after that we made our way to the Museum and the Equator! The museum was way cool...our tour guide spoke really good english, so we were able to understand everything. We learned about old tribes in Ecuador..and we learned about the different creepy animals in the Rainforest. Let me just tell you, it got me pumped up for the Amazon! lol

The Equator line was so interesting. It´s so weird how it all works. They showed us a ton of different things. The one I thought was really cool was when they showed us how the water flushes in different directions in the hemispheres and how it just goes straight down on the Equator line. Weird. And on the line it´s possible to balance an egg on the head of a nail. And they had us walk with one foot in front of the other with our arms out straight to our sides, with our eyes closed, and you can feel the pull from either side. Anyway. there was a lot more about it, but it was really interesting. And of course, we got some pictures on the line!

Guinea Pig...It´s what´s for lunch.
Yep it was. We ordered one guinea pig (Cuye) so that everyone could taste it. It came out looking like a cooked guinea pig, which completely freaked me out! But I tasted it. It was ok. But the fact that I was looking at a guinea pig with its head, feet, and all that...well one bite was enough for me. Ew.

Afterwards we finished up part of the Quito Tour that we missed. We see this statue everyday. It´s on top of the hill across from our main orphanage. I didn´t realize how MASSIVE the thing was until I was so close. I felt very small. It was cool to see it up close though. You could walk up in it, but it cost a dollar, and I didn´t have a dollar. Haha, that sucks.

And this was the view of Quito when I was standing under the statue. It was amazing. The picture doesn´t do it justice. It is so cool. It looks like Quito never ends.

This next picture is for my mom and dad. Sorry I didn´t do a dance around it though. lol Maybe next time.

This fish is the reason why we can´t pee in the Rainforest. If you do it follows the stream and swims inside you and continues to grow. And THEN, it digs itself out. EW! I will definitely not be peeing in the Amazon water.
The snake skin on top is Anaconda. Also found in the Amazon. It was massive, and that isn´t as big as they get. Oh goody.
Well things are going great! Tomorrow we are going to Papallacta for our field trip. It´s basically a bunch of natural hot springs. I hear it´s amazing and so fun. I´m pretty excited!

2 more weeks and I leave for the Amazon. Where has the time gone!? The new girls get their site assignments today, which means next week we will be training, and then we have to turn it over to them on our last week. I can´t believe it. It makes me so sad to think I will be leaving so soon!

Changes

2008-09-24T08:39:00.000-07:00

Well, there have been quite a few changes at the orphanages this week. Six of the older kids moved up to Casa´s. When they turn 2 they get to move up. Everyone is so sad because they won´t get to see those kids again since they are in the Casa´s..which makes me feel really bad, because since I am one of the lucky Casa site leaders, I still get to see them 4 days a week. I can´t even imagine how hard it would be to already have to say goodbye.

Since 6 of them moved to Casa´s, that means lots of changes in the orphanage where they used to be. The kids that are old enough moved up to Sala Tres, and one of our babies in Sala Uno moved up to Dos. SO, now we only have FOUR babies in Uno, and Sala Dos looks so empty now. It´s so weird...but it´s so great for the kids when they get to move up. Lots of changes for them, and for us!

Everything is going great. Now that there are 6 new kids at Casa´s, it´s been a lot crazier there. But definitely fun! It´s so hard to keep so many little kids entertained at once. Yesterday, I got them all to sit around me for about 20 minutes and do the activities that I brought, but then of course it didn´t last and they all started running around. Sheesh! But it´s so fun! I love that the kids at Casa´s know me by name. One of the little girls calls me Tormenta...it´s Stormy in spanish, I think it´s so cute. I told all of the kids that was my name in spanish, but she´s the only one that calls me that consistently. Oh these kids are so fun, 3 and half more weeks...I can´t even think about it, it just kills me.

It´s so nice here in Ecuador, because I have NO worries and nothing to stress about. The only thing that I will have to worry about is making the slideshow, but until then..nothing, and even then it won´t be bad. I just go to shift, play with the kids, and then just chill at home...and just relax. This is best place to be!

Pictures

2008-09-20T14:00:00.000-07:00

Well. Here are some recent pictures! The picture above is from our Fiesta for Angel and Jenny! There birthdays are just a few days a part, and let me tell you, Ecuadorians know how to throw a party! It was lots of fun! Angel made a surprise slideshow for Jenny, and then we had some dancers, a mariachi band, food, cake, and a dance party! It was so much fun! I love being here in Ecuador! Here is a pic of me, Alicia, and Aani in the Mariachi bands sombreros :)
Here are Angel and Jenny! Feliz Cumpleanos!
This is at the Artesian, the best shopping ever! There is so much jewelry, I love it!

I was being a freak trying to catch a taxi. haha, it took awhile.

This is Angel and Jenny´s little girl. She is adorable.

Here are me and some of the volunteers chillin in the Poo van.

One of the many views of Quito. We were supposed to tour the big cathedral, but there ended up being a ¨political demonstration¨ near there, and it was too dangerous. So hopefully we will still have a chance.
This is the whole group, except one that stayed home.
This is me and Annalise at the Artesian with one the cute, little old ladies that work there.
This is a little girl that runs around with her brothers begging for money. She also asked if I would take a picture with her and then wanted to see what it looked like. She is cute, but they never stop begging...even if you give them money!
Next week we get to go to the Equator for our field trip! I hear it´s lots of fun! I´m excited. I only have 4 weeks left, the thought of leaving here just kills me! So I won´t think about it. But man the time is flying!

Bittersweet

2008-09-17T05:42:00.001-07:00

When I first came here to Ecuador we had a baby that was sick in the hospital. So we had to have a volunteer with her 24-7. She is the cutest little thing, and when I say little I mean LITTLE. She is tiny! She was born May 12th, and another one of our babies was born only 2 days earlier and is HUGE! It is so hard to believe they are so close in age. Anyway, luckily for Isabel she got to go home shortly after I got here, and has been doing great ever since! And I just love this little girl. SO..last night I had night shift. I got into Sala Uno, where all the babies are (there are 6 babies) and I saw that Isabels cuna (crib) was gone. I asked the volunteer in there where she was. Little did I know, she went back to her parents yesterday! I couldn´t believe it! My little Isabel is gone forever, and I had no idea. I didn´t even get to say Goodbye and kiss her cute face one last time. I feel worried and a stressed about it, because I don´t know where she is, I don´t know what her parents are like, and I don´t know if she´s being taken care of! But I have to trust the workers and nuns judgment on this. My only thing is, if her parents left her here just 4 months ago, why do they all of the sudden want her? It just scares me, but i´m sure it´s better. I just hope they will love her as much as I do, and as much as she deserves to be loved.

2008-09-16T09:04:00.000-07:00

Well, things are going great here in Ecuador. The new girls have been here now for almost 2 weeks. It´s hard to believe. The time is just flying by. I´ve been going to my new site, the Casas, and I am loving it so much! It´s fun to be able to work with kids that are a little bit older. Mostly, I play with the kids that are 2 to 5 years old. And it´s fun becasue since me and David are the only ones that go, they know us by name! So instead of being just chica, i´m also stormy, or
Tormenta. Sometimes Stormy is too hard for them to say, so I tell them my name is Tormenta in spanish. It´s pretty funny. I love my casa kids! They are tons of fun!

Last week we did an activity with the older kids. We broke up into groups and went into the casas and they taught me how to say things in spanish, and then I taught them in English, and we labeled lots of things. Like the desk, the chair, the curtain, the clock..just stuff like that. It was lots of fun! Sometimes we would get confused and have to use the dictionary, but mostly it was ok! It was hard because they would point to something, and I wouldn´t know what to call it in English, cuz there could be so many different things. Apparently, english is a lot more complicated :)

I have been learning a ton of spanish words, the only hard part is making them into a sentence! Lol, I know that if I was here without tons of people to speak to in english I would learn so much more! I am trying to learn as much as I can though! And it´s really fun when I will talk to the little kids and then realize that I just understood and was able to say something back! I know that when I come home and talk to my nieces and nephews i´m gonna slip up and say stuff in spanish, they are going to think i´m crazy! haha

So today I had ¨food bleaching¨ instead of morning shift. Tuesday is food shopping day, so when they come home with all the fruits and vegetables we have to bleach and clean them. It´s so weird to do that, but hey I guess it´s better to be safe than sorry. It´s just so different from back home. But it´s fun!

There is a serious sickness going around the volunteer house, luckily it doesn´t last that long. But I think me and only a few others are the only ones who haven´t managed to get it! Thank Goodness! Everyone has been throwing up, which means shifts have been a little more complicated with fewer people. Hopefully it passes soon, I think it´s pretty much done with though.

We had a huge shopping day on Saturday in Otavalo. Man, I thought the shopping was good in Quito. Boy was I wrong! We all got some great stuff! If I had the money, I could spend so much here, it´s all so great! Anyway...this post is getting rather lengthy. But things are good here in Ecuador. I only have 4 and half more weeks left! It´s so hard to believe! The kids are so fun, I am going to miss having kids run to me yelling ¨chica, chica!¨ when I get home! I wish you could all come and visit!

2008-09-14T20:07:00.001-07:00

You know when something so great happens, and then you wake up?? Dreams. Oh how we all wish they could come true, right? Well, last night I had a dream. And unfortunately it has to, and will come true. And soon. Too soon. I had a dream that it was time to say goodbye to my kids here in Ecuador. But for some unknown reason, since dreams never make since, it was only a few. The kids were leaving, and we had to say goodbye. My little Jose, Carlos, and Kerlly...I hugged them and cried and cried. I knew that I shouldn´t cry in front of them because then it made them cry, but it took everything in me not to. Ugh, it was awful, I was so sad. I didn´t want to say goodbye. And in just 5 short weeks, I have to say goodbye to them, and all my other kids. I grow more and more attached to these kids everyday, and just the thought of leaving them breaks my heart, and now after that dream, it all feels too soon. I am so happy for my time here in Ecuador with these kids, they are all so amazing. It is gonna be hard.

Just for Fun!

2008-09-08T08:21:00.000-07:00

i am: Stormy Carroll
i know: how to make videos
i want: to get my package!
i have: 6 weeks left in Ecuador!
i wish: I was skinnier.
i hate: brussel sprouts!
i fear: fire
i feel: anxious to get my package
i hear: cars driving by.
i smell: nothing really.
i crave: Quizno´s...so much!
i search: for things when I lose them, lol i dunno
i regret: not bringing more jump drives for pictures!
i always: wear a camisole under my t-shirts
i am not: in the U.S.
i believe: that anything is possible if you put your mind to it
i dance: like a freak!
i sing: even more like a freak!
i fight: ...hmmm, i´m stumped
i lose:..it´s what happens when I play cards with Alli
i win: ... it´s what the game is called when I play cards with Alli
i never: win when I play cards with Alli... haha
i listen: to music when I get ready in the morning, except not here..but at home
i am scared: that i´m gonna be really sad when I leave these kids.
i need: is necesito in espanol

and last but not least:

I TAG: Everyone. Why not?

Out with the old in with the New...

2008-09-06T16:56:00.000-07:00

Yep that´s right. The ¨old girls¨left yesterday morning, and the new girls came on Thursday night. It´s so strange...I like it, and I really enjoy the new girls, but it´s just so different, and now i´m an ¨old girl¨, weird. But it will be really easy to adjust, especially once all the new girls get into the swing of shifts and such. It´s such a weird feeling..I love these kids dearly, and now there are all these new girls here, and I just want to make sure that they love them as much as I do. haha which is definitely not a problem, considering that these kids are impossible not to love!

This week has been INSANE! Ever since I have been here in Ecuador I have been sleeping like a queen. 8 hours a night is no big deal, at home that never happened. I love it! And it´s definitely nice to have sleep here since we work at least 10 hours a day. Well not this week. Starting with Tuesday night, we had our general meeting, and it started late...so we were already tired..so everything was extra funny..and the meeting went on way too long! Then Wednesday night we had the banquet for the group leaving, and then stayed up super late cleaning for the new girls. Thursday night we waited for the new girls to come around midnight, and then stayed up chatting until about 2. Finally Friday! I knew I would get sleep...nope, not even at all. I got sick again, and couldn´t sleep at all! But no worries, I went to the pharmacy tonight and found nyquil...I will definitely sleep tonight :) Well its not nyquil, but its the same thing, I hope. lol

I start officially going to Casa´s on Monday! I´m so excited! I went twice this week to meet with the guy in charge about what we will be doing, and it got me so excited! Anyway, things are A LOT different around here..at the house anyway...luckily everything is the same with the kids, just as amazing as ever.

I will try to have a better update soon! Love you all!

One Lucky Chica

2008-09-01T17:15:00.000-07:00

Could I be any more lucky? I don't think so! I am so excited. Let me tell you why. Here in Ecuador, we have a few different sites that we go to. We have our main site that we go to the most, we work in the cunas with the babies from newborn-2..and then also at that site there are the casas with kids from 2-15 years. We have the special kids site, a site with a wide variety of ages that all live in "families" and a site called girls house. Each volunteer is put in charge of a site. We (the group I came with) just barely got our site assignments. I was hoping SO much that I would be able to be the site leader for the Casas. Well guess what?! I AM! I have known for awhile now, but today was my first day to go. We just went for training, and we will start going regularly on Monday. Anyway...I feel like the luckiest volunteer to be able to go to Casas. The Casa kids are adorable and amazing. They are so fun, a lot of them are older. Which is really fun. It's nice to work with kids that don't wear diapers and can talk, haha even though I don't understand. But we are working on that. Today after we had our meeting with the pshychologist we had some time to go outside and play with the kids. We ended up playing volleyball with the older boys. They are tons of fun! They were probably about 11 or 12 years old. We used a swing set as our net :) It's fun to be able to play with the kids like that. I'm so excited to start going regularly and really get to know these kids! I think it's going to be a blast! Every thursday we will meet with the psycologist and plan the next week...like what age group we will have, and what activities we will do. There are only 2 volunteers lucky enough to go to Casas! Every day will be different, sometimes we can just play, or help with homework, or plan an activity.. but no matter what, I know it will be so fun. These kids love having us around, and are so full of love. I LOVE BEING HERE! I have 7 weeks left... which is not enough. I am so blessed to be here. I wish everyone could come and meet these kids.

Well this week will bring a lot of new changes. The "old girls" will leave and a new group will come.. I will now be one of the "old girls" that's so weird. But it will be good, I'm excited for a new group, but a little nervous. Cuz the two groups here now get along so well...but i'm sure we still will.

Along with my Site at the Casas, I am also in charge of communications committee, which means at the end of my time here I will make the slideshow for my group. Ya ya. Although, it will be weird using a different program, i'm excited.

Anyway, that's that. I love this. It gets better and better everyday!

Oh my gosh...

2008-08-31T09:07:00.001-07:00

So here in Quito, I have gotten pretty used to being stared at. I'm american with light hair, light skin, and light eyes....so it's a pretty normal thing to be stared down. It's so funny, these people act like they have never seen a real life american before. haha.

Anyway, today we were walking home from church and we crossed the street and looked over and realized it might have been a bad idea. A big group of guys were walking towards us. Anyway, we kept walking, and the last two guys in the group stopped dead in their tracks when we walked closer to them. With wide eyes one guy said "Oh my gosh...you're white." haha, Yes sir we are. We all laughed pretty hard!

Guayaquil

2008-08-29T17:33:00.001-07:00

Well last Friday we had our field trip to Guayaquil. It's a long drive, I think they said it was about 8 hours. Anyway, but we flew. It was about a 45 minutes flight there, but it only took about 30 minutes to get back. The plan was to go to the temple and do baptisms and then do some other things. Well our flight ended up being way late, and by the time we got to the temple it was too late to do baptisms. Boy was I bummed! I was looking forward to that the most, but it turned out being an amazing day, so it was ok, although I still really wish we would have got to do that. However, we still got to see the temple, and it was beautiful. I loved it. We took lots of pictures...

Since we couldn't do baptisms, luckily we had a Plan B. We went to the zoo instead. I have never in my life seen such a gorgeous place. It was so green and amazing, I pretty much enjoyed the trees and plants, and flowers more than I did the animals. But they did have a lot of cool animals too! It was so pretty, I still can't get over it. It was very hot and humid though, so we all felt pretty nasty. But it didn't matter cuz it was so cool :) And then after the zoo we went to a mexican food restaurant. YUM! I thought it was way good. Different than back home, but still way good. Here's a pic of the group before we started our tour of the zoo...
One of my favorite parts in Guayaquil was when we went to the Boardwalk and the lighthouse. There was a big body of water (haha i have no idea what it was called) but it was pretty :) And we walked along the boardwalk and just chilled, and then stopped for ice cream. THEN, the best part! There was a place where we could walk up 444 steps to the top where the lighthouse was. Each step was numbered, and all of the buildings along there were so cute and colorful. And there were cute little shops along the way. The view from the top was gorgeous! It was lots of fun.

There is a park in Guayaquil that is filled with Iguanas! Just a bunch of stray iguanas chillin in the park. They were everywhere! And they were all over in the trees! I saw one FALL OUT of the tree! That creeped me out, and I steered clear of the trees after that. What if I had been standing there? Haha...I guess not very many people can say they have had an iguana fall on their head..but who knows maybe more than I thought at this park. Ew, I didn't love it..and I didn't touch them. The other volunteers picked them up, and put crackers in their mouth and layed on the ground and the iguana would take it out of their mouth. Gross. haha, it was cool I guess....if you are into that kind of thing. This is as close as I got... :)

I loved it in Guayaquil so so much! I would love to go back there someday. It's so gorgeous. Anyway! That was that.

This week we went on a field trip with the kids! Talk about fun! We each got to pick one kid to take and be in charge of! We took a bus an hour away to the Quito zoo. I took a little guy named Jose, I love him so much. He was so excited on the bus ride, and then he was so chill and well behaved at the zoo! He would get all excited and point to the animals, and then say "ciao" and wave at them when we walked away. Oh man, it was such a fun day! When we got back to the bus we fed them lunch and drove home. Jose was pretty excited to look out the window again, but then he finally fell asleep and I got to snuggle with him, which never happens here. It was so fun for all of the kids to get out of the orphanage, and to each have one-on-one attention. I wish we could do it every Friday!

Well things are great in Quito! I've been here one month now! Hard to believe!

Try Again!

2008-08-24T20:23:00.000-07:00

Oh man, funny story! Tonight I was helping out Teela (another volunteer here) copy some pictures from her jump drive onto the computer. Well something went wrong and this stupid box popped up to tell us what happened, but of course it's all in spanish! So all I can tell is that a certain picture didn't work. So we were going to try it again. Well that same box just came popping up! I kept pressing cancel and then continue, and it would still pop up! Well there was one other button I could have pressed but it was in spanish, and I couldn't tell what it meant. Continue and Cancel were so obvious. So I had Caleb (another volunteer) come over to tell me what it meant, because he is pretty good at spanish. He told me to just hit cancel, and I explained to him that I had tried cancel and continue! So he just pointed to the middle button and said "Try Again"...So I, being the smart girl that I am, said I have tried so many times, what does the middle button mean? He said "Try again"...so a little annoyed I said "Caleb just tell me what it means." Again, he said "Try it again"...now a little more annoyed, I was like "Caleb, I did, just tell me what it means!"...then at the same time it clicked for me and Teela. The middle button meant TRY AGAIN! We laughed so hard that I even cried a little. It reminded me of the story "Who's on First". Wow, how stupid can I be?!

Shopping in Quito...

2008-08-22T09:59:00.000-07:00

Is amazing!!! So the second week that I was here, I got really sick. It was really crappy. We get a field trip every friday, and if not it's a free day. Well I was sick as a dog so I missed out on free friday. Everyone went shopping. I was so bummed. BUT last week I had an afternoon off, and so me and another volunteer decided to go shopping. We went to a place called the Artesian. Oh my goodness, best shopping ever! I loved and wanted everything! haha, seriously if I could...I would spend so much money there. But, when I went I spent about 35 dollars and got so many great things! I got 4 bracelets, 6 pairs of earrings, and a necklace! I LOVE the jewelry here...seriously it is the prettiest, coolest, cutest, funnest jewelry ever! And so cheap! And the nice thing is, you can bargain and talk the people down even cheaper. I feel kind of guilty doing that, but they are all for it, so hey why not?! Then I got 4 really cute bags, a jersey, and an adorable pair of PJ's. They have all these cool places where they will carve stuff in jewelry or anything for you. I bought a couple souvenirs for Becky, they are fun...no pictures because it's a surprise..and Kathy! I got you a thimball from Ecuador! It's so great, I was so excited when I found it! But no picture of that either, it's a surprise..even though I just kind of ruined it :). Anyway, the shopping is great! I wish you could all spend the day shopping with me at the Artesian, you would love it! There are so many great things..it's a good thing I don't have lots of shopping oppurtunities. Everything is so cheap! I love it! Anyway, here are some pics of the things I bought.

My earrings and bracelets. (I have gotten two more pairs since this picture...so cute!)
My fun bags! Gosh, and these are nothing..there are so many choices. I love them all. Some of the more expensive ones are so great, I might have to consider buying at least one expensive bag (like 15 bucks)...these were all like 4 dollars or less!
My Jersey...
And my super fun pajama pants! The pants of many colors :)
Who wants to come visit and go shopping with me? Any takers?

It's about time!

2008-08-22T09:45:00.000-07:00

I am a slacker! I have wanted to post so bad and fill everyone in on what I've been doing, but i've been so so busy! PLUS, I have had a heck of a time trying to get pictures to work on this computer! I was finally successful...but to make things easier I just uploaded my pictures to facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3997110&l=78096&id=623010450

So that's the link. Check out my pictures if you are interested! It's just some. There are some from the night we made ice cream, our field trip to Mindo..and just random ones! Yay for pictures!

So i'm having a great time! I love the work here, the kids are so fun! They are the dang cutest kids and just so full of love! Unfortunately, I can't put any pictures of the kids on any websites or email them...so the pictures of the kids will have to wait until I get home. But trust me on this, they are adorable! It's been lots of fun. I've had at least two shifts everyday..sometimes 3! We have to work a night shift in the orphanage with the infants. It's not so bad, it's actually really nice! We don't get much alone time here, so night shift is a good chance for that. The babies usually sleep really good! Oh, it's so great. I just love it here!

We get to go on a field trip every Friday! Last Friday we went to a place called Mindo. It was about a 2 hour drive. I was so so sick for about a week, and the day we went to Mindo, I was just barely feeling well enough to go, but I didn't want to miss it! The drive was GORGEOUS! We drove through the mountains for a long time, and then finally came to the tiny town of Mindo. I couldn't believe that after driving that long there were actually people living up there! Mindo is gorgeous, it's so green! First we went on the zipline. There were 13 different lines that took us on a trail through the jungle. Amazing! The ziplines were so fun! We got to do some cool tricks with the guides to. Talk about crazy! There were two tricks..the butterfly and the superman. The butterfly is where you face the guide and then he holds your ankles and you go completely upside down and just hang there! I did it, it was scary but SO cool! Then the superman you put your back to the guide and wrap your legs around his waist, and it just feels like you are flying! So cool! We all got a chance to do both. After the zipline, we hiked down to the water, the most beautiful hike i've been on yet, and went down a slide that was built into the wall, or jumped off the cliffs. They were too high for me, so I just went down the slide into the freezing cold water. But it was way fun! After that we got to go rafting. It was crazy! There were 7 big tubes tied together in a big circle, and we sat there and held on tight, because the water was vicious and there were so many rocks! But the two guides that went with us were so good at controlling the raft. It was freezing, but lots of fun! It was a great day! I want to go back to Mindo so bad some day! Check out my pictures on facebook! Here's one of me doing the superman!

2008-08-06T19:38:00.000-07:00

I'm having so much fun! We finally took lots of fun pictures tonight! But the thing is, we just use everyones cameras and then have to wait for everyone to put them on the computer so we can share! Which is a bummer, because i'm always SO anxious to look at my pictures! So hopefully soon I can show you some fun ones!

Tonight we got the wacky idea to dress up like a bunch of crazies and make homemade ice cream and dance while we shake it (the ice cream)! Ha ha, it was lots of fun and the ice cream was muy bueno! Anyway, i'm having lots of fun, but I still LOVE to hear from people at home..so please email me anytime! stormcloud05@msn.com :)

Safe in Quito!

2008-08-01T12:59:00.000-07:00

I made it! I got into Quito last night around midnight. Which was 10:00 your time. The flight was long and vicious. I left Salt Lake and flew to Houston, which was about a 2 and 1/2 hour flight. Then we had a 3 hour layover in Houston and then a little over 5 hours to Quito. I didn't sleep at all! Talk about a boring flight! But it was ok. I was with 10 other volunteers and we watched 2 movies.

When we landed in Quito I felt for the first time..overwhelmed with excitement! I just wanted to jump up and down! We all got our luggage, thank goodness! And then went through immigration and customs, which wasn't bad at all. The directors picked us up and took us back to our house. We got our room assignments, had a little meeting, called our families, and then went upstairs and talked to the volunteers that have been here until 2 am! They got me so excited! Everyone is really nice here. I'm so excited to get started. Today we have just had orientation. Pretty boring day. Tonight they are taking us out for dinner, and then tomorrow we will have our first shifts at the orphanages. I cannot wait! I'm so so excited.

Hopefully I will be able to post pictures soon!

Fun in Flag!

2008-07-26T00:15:00.000-07:00

Well I ended up staying in Flagstaff until this morning! I was there for almost a whole week! Definitely the best week of my whole summer! Although, I am SOO bummed, because from the time I was in Pinetop to the time I left today I hardly took any pictures!! The batteries in my camera died, and I never got new ones. Dangit. So I have a lame blog with no fun pics, except a couple that we took on our phones.

Becky worked all week, so while she was at work I stayed at the apartment and started working on the trek video. On Tuesday night I went to institute with her and then we met up with some friends at Del Taco for Taco Tuesday. Becky had a test to take, so I went and played at Jay's house with him and his little brother, we just watched a movie, but of course it was a blast!

On Wednesday, me, Jay, and his brother Zac, went to Snowbowl to ride the ski lift! It was so fun! I took my camera, so Jay didn't bring his and then the darn batteries died...but we still got some on our phones. It was such a beautiful day! And the hike up isn't so bad when you get to just sit back and enjoy the view :)

I hung out with Jay and Zac pretty much all day on Wednesday. It was so fun! We went to eat, watched a movie, played cards...Becky had a date so I couldn't get all the Becky time in that I wanted but I still had so much fun...and she had a great date so I suppose it was ok :)

Yesterday I spent the whole day getting ready to go to Ecuador! I had quizzes to take and things to buy and just lots of stuff. But in between that I went to lunch with Steve! Good times with that boy, i'm going to miss him! He's heading up to BYU Idaho this semester! It was nice to get to play with him one more time before I leave! And once again, lame that I didn't even take a picture with him! What was I thinking...I sucked at having a camera this week!

Jay took me out for ice cream and then we all went to Volleyball! It was so fun to play volleyball again! I loved Thursday nights in Flagstaff cuz we always played at the stake center! And I actually got kind of ok at playing over the past year!

Me and Becky stayed up late playing last night! I'm gonna miss that girl while i'm gone! It's a good thing 3 months isn't that long because I can't wait to move back to Flagstaff! I have the best friends there, we have so much fun!

Well things are crazy right now, so the next time I blog will probably be when i'm in Ecuador, so consider this my "Ecuador Blog" from now on! I can't wait to tell you guys all about it, because that means i'm actually there doing it! :)

Sorry about the no picture thing, this week was SOOO fun so I just had to blog about it :)

5 more days and i'll be in ECUADOR!

Fossil Creek x 2!

2008-07-25T23:46:00.001-07:00

Last Wednesday the Buckeye Stake had a Pioneer Trek in Heber. My dad asked me to go as the videographer. I fought it to the end, but ended up going. However, I am so glad I went, it was an amazing experience! Everyone should go on a trek at some point in their life! It would have been awesome to have completely participated, but as one of the photographers I was quite spoiled! Don't tell :). Me and my mom had such a fun time together, I love that when I am with her it just feels like i'm with a friend instead of a mom...she is so funny! We had a lot of good laughs. Spending that time with her definitely made all of the stress of making this video worth it! The other photographer that was with us probably thinks we are mental! :) And we might be...

Anyway, after the Trek was over on Saturday I went to Pinetop and finally got to take a shower after 4 days! So see...I wasn't that spoiled! I have never appreciated a shower more! Saturday night me, Becky, and Cheyenne went to Snowflake for the rodeo and for a YSA dance. It was tons of fun! The dance was such a blast! I saw lots of old friends that I haven't seen for awhile. Anyway, on Sunday we went to church and then afterwards I went to St. Johns! That was so fun, I was so happy I went! I met back up with Becky and Cheyenne in Flagstaff that night, and then Steve and Jay came over and we all watched the video I made of our year at NAU and we made our plans for Fossil Creek the next day!

Me, Becky, Cheyenne, Jay and his little brother, and Steve all went! The car ride there was such a blast! We played the "name the artist of the song" game and I sucked! Jay was the winner by a long shot, but if I asked nicely he would give me more points and I think I pretty much cheated my way to 2nd place, haha!

The hike in was a dang good hike, we hiked in from the bottom this time instead, and it was pretty hot, we were super excited to see water when we got to it! We went to the same place as last time but it was so different! The water level was higher, the current was faster and harder! The water wasn't coming over the dam this time either, instead it was coming from the side so it pushed you into the rocks if you didn't get under the current. It made me soo nervous, and water never does! SO! Me and Jay decided to go into the cave at least once...so we dove down under the current and I was following him in and all the sudden I saw him freak out and kind of turn around...so I just turned around and went out so he could get out too. I came up in the current and was freaked out that Jay wasn't gonna come up! I was ready to go back in, but then he popped up and he had hit his head on the rocks and was bleeding and had a nice size bump! The current was crazy and scary, and I had a icky feeling so I decided that we should pick a new place. So we just hiked up to a swimming hole with no current and a fun rope swing. We all had a blast! I love fossil springs! The rope swing was a little scary at first, but I finally got the hang of it! I was sad that all of my friends didn't get to play at the Dam and see the cave and everything, but I felt really good about leaving, it just really freaked me out this time.

But it was a blast! The hike out wasn't bad at all, and it even rained on us a little bit. We all went to eat after, and then decided to go see a movie at 10:00. The new Batman movie. It was good, but kind of a bad idea to see a late movie after a long day at Fossil Springs, I struggled so bad! The movie was good though, but we were all dozing off pretty good throughout it. But it was such a fun day! Yay for Flagstaff and fun friends! :)

Fossil Creek

2008-07-13T09:11:00.000-07:00

This past Wednesday me and my whole family went to Fossil Creek for the day! Noah is in town, so we were all able to be together. My mom stayed home to watch the kids though, which was a bummer....but it was so nice of her to do so that all of the kids could go! Our cousin Nate and his wife Kim met us there, and then Tara's cousin Alec came with us, and also my friend Jay. We got stuck in really stupid traffic in Phoenix, so we got a later start than we hoped for, but it turned out fine. The only thing that really sucked was how long Alec and Jay had to wait for us!

The hike in was fun! It's not a hard hike in at all...it's mostly hiking down into it so we all just chatted and had a good time. We hiked down into where the dam is. It's the prettiest place! It's such a fun place to swim. There is a hold under one rock where you swim through it and then come up on the other side and climb up a rope to jump off the cliff there. Luckily for me, it's not very high so i'm not too chicken to jump off. Once we would jump off we would all stand on a little ledge and then dive underneath the huge current from the waterfall. There is a really cool little cave back in there!

We took an underwater camera, but it didn't have a flash so the pictures from inside the cave didn't show up. We all had such a fun time. I love it there. We only had one accident..David and dad hit heads when David dove off...no one knew what happened, or that Dad was under the water. They were both ok, but it gave us all a little scare!

The whole day was such a blast! The hike out was all uphill, and after swimming all day and getting tired, the hike out wasn't the funnest part, but it wasn't too bad. I'm not gonna lie though, I was sooo sore the next day! But it was all worth it!

Me and Jay had so much fun that we are going to go back up again with some other friends from Flagstaff next week! Yay! I can't wait!

Birthday weekend!

2008-07-10T10:27:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to blog about the weekend of my Birthday but I keep forgetting...or just being lazy..one of the two! But anyway, my Birthday weekend was so fun! I went up to Flagstaff on Friday evening. Me, Becky, and Steve went out to a bon fire for the Friday Night Activity with the institute. It was lots of fun, it was fun to see a lot of my friends from Flagstaff. After that we went to a friend's house and played the game Apples to Apples...its such a fun game..and the cards that you get are supposed to "describe you" so I ended up being Scary and Awkward.. ha ha hopefully its not true!

Saturday morning me and Becky went to hike Mt. Eldon. It was fun, it's a good hike...it was pretty hot, and there wasn't enough shade...we finally decided we had enough and didn't quite make it to the top, but we went far enough! :)

After our hike we got ready and went to Sam's Club so I could say hi to people that I worked with, it was fun to see everyone. It was super busy, so I didn't stay too long. I don't miss it there, but I did like working there and I loved the people I worked with! After that we went to the mall, I had a traumatic experience...but I'm not sure it's blog appropriate...ha ha. No, we had fun. Then after that we were bored, and the weather was so nice outside that we decided to go chill on a blanket outside. We were just chillin enjoying the weather. We had plans to go to the movies with Jay so he came over and chilled with us outside, until we decided to go eat and then go to the movie. We saw Get Smart...OMG...it is the funniest movie ever! Becky and Jay had already seen it, but they wanted to go again. I was so glad, because I loved it! We all laughed so so hard! Not only is the movie hilarious, but sitting next to Jay made it 10 times funnier! ha ha he was just cracking up the whole time!

On Sunday after church we all went over to our friend Perlas house for lunch. mmmm it was good, and tons of fun!
After that me and Becky decided to go outside and chill again, this time with a big green pillow :) And as we were walking, Jay drove by and saw us so he stopped and we all just hung out there for a couple hours! It was so fun! We just chilled and then took fun pictures!
We went back home. Becky was going to the fireside, and Jay and I really didn't want to go... I know we're bad...but the topic was Science and Religion, and those are always SO boring! So me and Jay just chilled and played cards, and then we made those funny jib jab videos! We were laughing so hard my face hurt! After the fireside, Steve came over and we had cake and ice cream for my birthday! Yay, it was so fun!

On Monday, it was actually my Birthday and Becky had to work, so I woke up and chilled at the apartment and got ready. Then at noon I met her for her lunch break. I just hung out with her for an hour, we went to Buffalo Park, it was fun as usual! Then I went back to the apartment and Jay came and took me to Quiznos for my birthday! YUM thats my favorite place :) It was such a great Birthday! I had so much fun with my friends up in flagstaff I did NOT want to come home! I can't wait to move back up there! Ever since I left i've been homesick for Flagstaff! :) But I came home Monday evening and Alli and Whitney took me to dinner and it was SO fun! We had some funny jokes going on. Good times! I have the funnest friends, here and in Flagstaff!

Fun FuN FUN!

2008-06-29T23:22:00.000-07:00

I'm having so much fun in Flagstaff! I don't want to go home! Jay came over tonight to hang out, and he got the brilliant idea of making fun jib-jab videos! So we did! They are so hilarous! I have never laughed so hard in my life! And then I set my camera up to film without them knowing, and we showed Becky and Steve and we are all laughing so hard..I might post that video later. Anyway...enjoy our silly jib-jab videos! We sure did! :)

Ballet!

2008-06-29T23:21:00.001-07:00

Try JibJab Sendables!

Disco!

2008-06-29T23:20:00.001-07:00

Try JibJab Sendables!

Square Dance!

2008-06-29T23:17:00.001-07:00

Try JibJab Sendables!

2008-06-29T15:56:00.000-07:00

I'm in flagstaff! Becky doesn't have that many songs on her computer, so when we want to jam we have just been looking up songs on youtube. Well today we were trying to find good church songs to listen to, and I came upon this one. I really like it. These guys have a lot of videos on youtube, they are so good! Just thought i'd share :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD_ibxy270Q

Ok i'm too stupid to figure out how to upload the video. I dunno how...so thats the link if you're interested.

Fun Friday!

2008-06-27T12:55:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, I coach the Buckeye Bullfrogs swim team during the summer. I absolutely love it! Things are going really well this summer, and all of my kids are improving so much! It's so fun to watch them get better, and get really excited about it!

In past summers, we would always have "Fun Friday"...but we have pretty much gotten rid of that completely. A lot of the kids that have been with the Bullfrogs for awhile remember that Friday's used to be a fun day and they always beg to play games. But since i'm not supposed to play games, I tried to make it fun a little more fun today. There is a tradition in swimming that when it is someones birthday the whole team "swamp swims" them. That means that you have to swim a 50 butterfly, while everyone is making tons of waves in your lane, making it much more difficult! Well my birthday is on Monday and all of the kids knew that, so they wouldn't let me forget that they get to swamp swim me, but i'm going to be in Flagstaff so they did it today. I forgot how hard it is! But it was fun, and the kids definitely liked it! With my younger kids, I decided to just do fun relays with them today, and since we were short one person, I swam in the relays with them, they thought that was fun! I'm not fast like I used to be, but I did have to swim slower since they were so young, ha ha. But I definitely coach some 11 year olds that can kick my trash!

One of my 9 year olds, Caitlin, got me flowers and a card for my Birthday! I thought it was the cutest thing! I love my swim team kids!

My Highschool swim coach, Kathy, who is also my boss now, has always been someone that I really admire and look up to. She is a great swim coach..she has her moments like everyone, but through it all I have always loved Kathy! I love being able to work so closely with her as her assistant coach. Her Birthday was yesterday, and I wanted to do something for her. I didn't have a lot of time, because I didn't remember it was her Birthday until the day before. Alli's mom Kathy is also amazing and another Kathy that I love so much, :) anyway...she helped me make a really cute clip board for my boss Kathy. It turned out so cute, I was really happy with it! I gave it to her last night at the swim meet, and she really loved it!

I'm off to Flagstaff today! I can't wait to spend the weekend with all my fun friends up there! It's going to be a great weekend! I'll be sure to blog about it, and post pictures!

Hair Cut!

2008-06-11T17:08:00.000-07:00

So i've been wanting to cut my hair short again for quite some time. A couple weeks ago I had Alli's mom cut a inch or so off and I really liked the shorter look. I have always wanted to do the longer in the front shorter in the back cut, but have always been too chicken. So anyway, after thinking about it for so long, Alli got her hair cut and I just couldn't handle it anymore, it made me really want to cut mine. So I did! It's a good thing Alli loves me and let me copy her, although our hair looks different cuz mine is longer, but I hope you don't mind Alli :) Anyway, here it is. What do you think?

THE what?!

2008-06-03T17:00:00.000-07:00

So I have a funny story. Last week I went to FHE in the singles ward. I was out with some friends before and my mom text me to let me know that her and my dad were going to a movie, and invited me to come along. I text her back and told her that I was going to FHE. She text back and said "the what?"

No mom. Try again. FHE.

A few texts later, after mentioning again that i'm going to FHE, she says "it would be really nice if you would finish your sentences."

Ok. So i say..Mom..F H E..it stands for family home evening. She texts back and says that I put a T in the first text. I ignored her.

About 20 minutes later I get another text. Oh oops, I see that it says FHE now. sorry.

Good going mom. Sheesh!

Ha ha it was hilarious, I loved it!

What, a singles ward in Buckeye?

2008-05-26T21:16:00.000-07:00

Yeah..that's right. There has been a singles ward in the Buckeye stake for a while now. I am alwyas so hesitant to go to it...and I almost considered not going to it while i'm home for the summer, but i'm actually glad I changed my mind. It's actually a pretty good ward. Luckily I had a friend drag me to FHE with him tonight, and it was lots of fun, I met some new people and talked to some old friends, so i'm actually pretty excited about trying it out for the summer! Who ever would have thought the Buckeye stake would have a cool singles ward? lol :)

Pictures from our trip!

2008-05-23T15:51:00.000-07:00

C for Cheyenne!

R for Rebecca!
C for....Carroll!

Waiting in line...

Yay! Alli and Kyle!
Still waiting in line
Driving over there
The Ocean!
We wrote cute stuff in the sand for the video i'm gonna make!

Downtown Disney

California!

2008-05-23T15:21:00.000-07:00

Well last weekend was our big trip to Disneyland! It was so much fun, and of course it went by way too fast! I had to work until 7:00 on Friday night..and as soon as I got off I came home and Becky and I loaded up all my junk in her car and headed for Buckeye. We spent the night at my house, and got little to NO sleep and then woke up on Saturday morning at 3:00 to hit the road! Cheyenne met us here in the morning. My mom was so nice and let us take her car, it was so great to have it! I thought I was going to struggle driving because of lack of sleep but I actually did good. I was too excited to think about being tired! And of course we had tons of fun on the drive there! I got lots of it on video :)

We got to Disneyland at 10:00, we couldn't check into our hotel until 3 but luckily they still let us park there. We spent pretty much the whole day at California Adventure on Saturday. We got lucky, the lines were pretty good. We never had to wait too long. By 3:00 we were so tired and decided to head back to the hotel to check in and take a nap! So we took about an hour nap, ate dinner, and then headed back to the park. It was open until midnight so we knew it would be ok to miss an hour. And we all really needed the sleep! When California Adventure closed we headed over to Disneyland and it was so unbelievably crowded, the lines were way too long...so we just went back to the hotel and swam and sat in the hot tub, then went to bed. We were all pretty tired on Saturday but it was still tons of fun.

Sunday we woke up and got ready to go to the beach! It was about a 25 minute drive to Newport Beach, and we got there at such a good time. We found parking pretty fast, and the beach was hardly crowded at all. We played in the water for a long time and then decided to just lay out. Becky was paranoid about Sharks and stuff like that in the water, but I told her not to worry about it...and then guess what! We saw a shark! ok ok so it could have been a dolphin but all we saw were fins and that was enough to freak us out! Luckily we weren't in the water because I would have flipped! And don't worry I got it on video to prove we saw it! But no one was attacked, so no worries :)

We ate lunch and then played some more. I forgot how much fun playing in the ocean is! The water tastes absolutely disgusting but it's so fun it doesn't even matter. Becky wasn't too happy that me and Cheyenne kept going out pretty far, but we loved it, the waves were getting so big. I got really brave, and then finally got taken down by a big wave, and was done being brave. It knocked me to the bottom and scraped up my leg, and I swallowed so much water, by the time I got up I was freaked out and thought I was going to throw up! ugh, but it was worth the fun we had all day!

Sunday night we got ready and went to Downtown Disney and just walked around and took cute pictures and fun video! I can't wait to make the video of our trip! It will be my 2nd Disneyland video!

Monday morning we woke up early enough to be the first ones at the park...well obviously there were other people, but we were pretty much first in line. We thought it opened at 8, wrong! It opened at 9, but at 8 they let you inside the main square. So we waited in line to get inside the park until 8:30 and when they let us in we were so excited, we ran to be the first ones to Splash Mountain...but then we were stopped by a rope and had to wait until 9:00 to get to the rides. But we were the first at the rope, so when they let us through we were the first ones to Splash Mountain. The line stayed short so they let us stay in our boat over and over again. We went 3 times in a row, and they were gonna let us keep going but we wanted to go to other rides. We got so soaked on the first time down! But it was ok cuz it was soo hot!

Alli and Kyle were there for the Jo City senior trip...so we got to hang out with them for a few hours! I was so excited they were there, it was tons of fun. I cannot remember a time at Disneyland without Alli! It was there one-year anniversary too, hard to believe...a year ago on that day was bitter sweet for me with Spenser leaving, luckily for me a year later I got to spend it at Disneyland!

We were all rested on Monday so we had a blast! We played all day long and had such a good time! We used the fast passes so we got to hit a lot of fun rides, and we went over to California Adventure some too. YAY for Disneyland! It was sooo fun! I am so glad we went! I had so much fun with Becky and Cheyenne!

We left around 9:00 on Monday night and got home around 2:00 in the morning. We were exhausted! Cheyenne passed out the whole way home, so luckily Becky kept me awake..she was struggling too so we helped each other stay awake. We told each other stories about our cute missionaries...that always helps :) And then around midnight we finally got our second wind and had a lot of fun until we got home!

It was so fun! I'm so glad we did it! We are hoping to go again this summer, but just to hang out at the beach for a few days! Woo-hoo!

Mothers Day Weekend

2008-05-14T17:46:00.000-07:00

Well I went home this weekend to film that wedding for the video i'm making. It went really good. On Friday night they had pictures taken of just the two of them. It was a lot of fun, I didn't get fun footage like that with the first video I did, becuase they didn't take pictures of just the two of them really. I went straight home after filiming on Friday night to edit it together...Alli and Whitney came over and hung out for a while, it was so much fun...so needless to say I didn't get a whole lot done until they left, but I didn't care, I was glad they came. I stayed up until after two editing it, but I think it turned out cute. Anyway. Saturday was the wedding, so I had to be at the temple a little after 9:00. The couple that got married is Breezy's brother-in-law Darren, and his new little wifey Allison. So I watched Maylee outisde the temple during the sealing. She is so stinking cute. No seriously, the most beautiful little girl I know :)

Anyway, after taking pictures at the temple, they had a luncheon at the Landmark, it was very pretty, and they were nice enough to let me eat too :) It went really well. I was happy to have a break from filming though. I went over to my friend Cheyenne's house until it was time to go to the reception. I was there for about 4 hours. We just chilled, it was so fun. I miss being her roommate, she's such a cool girl!

Then the reception was at 6:30, it was a very pretty reception. But they stood in a line for over an hour, which meant I could only film so much until I needed something exciting to happen. So I just got to chill and eat some delicious cake and hold my adorable niece. She is so fun, I can't wait to be around her all summer! Take that as a warning Breeze, your not getting rid of me :)

Mother's Day was tons of fun! The whole family came over. We just chilled, and I got to see my Aunt Annie and Aunt Karalee, which is always so fun. My mom decided to watch all the videos that I made at EA with Cheyenne, so my whole family watched, gosh...i'm a weirdo...ha ha the videos are so funny but so embarassing! Oh well, it was so much fun making them, I don't even care!

Monday night we went to Josh and Lacy's house for Justice's Birthday party. It was the first time I have been out to there house, because i'm always at school. It was fun, I love being able to see my nieces, I don't get to that often. We just ate pizza and ice cream and hung out. Good times.

Tuesday morning I headed back up to Flagstaff cuz I had to work, ugh. I am excited to move home, so being home for so long made me really anxious to finally be back. I didn't want to leave. But oh well, two more days of work and then i'm off to Disneyland with Cheyenne and Becky! WOOHOO! I cannot wait! And then i'll be home for good, working at the pool again. YAY for summer!

Here's Maylee again! Isn't she cute!?

Almost there!

2008-05-07T23:57:00.000-07:00

Well I will be officially done with this semester tomorrow! All I have to finish is my script, I have 44 pages, I just need 4 more! I went to the comm building to finish it today and the server was down, so i couldn't get on the computers. Now i just have to cross my fingers that it will be up and running in the morning so i can finish! WOOHOO!

Although it's so exciting for the semester of school to be over, it's always sad to leave my friends, especially my roommates! We have too much fun together! The other night we had a dance party, and then took some fun pictures! Tonight was our last night together! :( My roommate Jeanette drives buses for the campus, so we went on her last run of the night with her.

Anyway, here are the most recent pictures. My first year at NAU is over...it's so sad, I will miss it here. I can't wait to come back!

2008-05-01T13:25:00.000-07:00

Well..school is almost done! I have completed two classes so far, and I just have one left. Two papers to write, and my final sitcom script. So no tests, just lots of writing..I'm so excited to be finished! I can't wait for it to be summer again and to only have to worry about work! I think it's going to be a fun summer!

This past weekend I went to Alli's house to visit. It was tons of fun. I met her and Kyle in Jo City cuz he was the DJ for the prom, wow....it was kind of funny...very different from my prom, but hey as long as they had fun right! lol.. Me and Alli went back to her house and played the Wii, it was the first time that I have ever played one! It is soo much fun! This is pathetic, but my arm was so sore the next day, haha!

On Sunday at church everyone thought I was Alli's sister. I mean sure we have the same color hair, but do you really think we look like sisters? I'm sure everyone thought I was the older sister and they probably all felt bad for me that I wasn't married yet and Alli is... haha! Anyway, after church we had dinner at Kyles moms...YUM...I love homemade food, it's not often I get to eat delicious food like that! Me and Alli hung out at her house for a while before I left, it was so much fun. Her house is so stinkin cute, I can handle the part about her being married and me not being, but man am I jealous that she has her own house! haha, I can't wait to not have roommates and to only have me and someone else to clean up after. And I definitely can't wait to decorate my own place the way I want it...I love roommates, so much..but it will be so nice to have my own place someday!

OOPS

2008-04-28T23:41:00.000-07:00

I felt like the biggest dummy on Saturday. I was getting ready to go to work, and while I was getting ready, the girl that is going to be moving in in July came to look at the apartment so I got distracted. While I was doing my hair I kept thinking that something looked different with my makeup..or something, I couldn't figure it out. I just thought, well maybe my face is finally clearing up. haha, so I didn't think about it again.

When I got to work, I looked in the mirror and finally realized what was different...I completely forgot to put mascara on! What the heck?! I have no idea how i did that...for some girls that is no big deal, but for me it is. I wear mascara everyday, so I looked so weird. I seriously wanted to turn around and go home to put it on and just call work to say I was running late. Haha, but instead I just sucked it up and went to work. I felt dumb, but i'm sure no one even thought twice about it.. lol.

What a Relief!

2008-04-24T13:34:00.000-07:00

I finally finished my first wedding video! This semester has just been crazy, i've been so busy with work and school, and this wedding video that I have been working on has taken me way too long! I feel so bad that it took be so long to get it done, but i'm just so happy that I am finally finished!

I think that it turned out really good, I really hope that they like it! Yesterday motning I had it all done, the only thing that I needed to do was make the covers for the DVD case, so I made it in photoshop and then I went to kinko's to get them printed, because I can't afford Ink and i'm running low. So anyway... i got them printed and looked at them, I double checked the names to make sure they were all spelled right, and then I used their cutting thing to cut them so they would fit in the cases. You would think after looking at them so much I would have noticed my stupid typo! Haha.. but I didn't. So i sent them to her, and then afterwards I realized that instead of putting BRIDAL party I put BRIDAY party. ha ha ha, how stupid can I be?! So instead of just feeling like a total idiot, I emailed her and told her what I did and said i'd make her new copies. It's better to laugh it off then to just feel stupid right? haha, here's the picture of the case after I finished, including the typo. Gosh, i'm dumb sometimes! :)

Overwhelmed

2008-04-22T12:02:00.000-07:00

The Semester is almost over! I can't believe it! Only 2 more weeks! No finals for me this semester, not sure how I managed that...but I do have a lot of projects and papers to write! It feels like I will never be able to get it done! But i'm sure somehow I will manage.

I cannot wait until the summer! The more I think about living in Flagstaff for the summer, I love it... and I hate it. The thought of not being able to go to an outdoor pool whenever I want just kills me. Ugh. This will be my first summer to be working inside instead of outside by a pool.

I think it may kill me.

I've been tagged

2008-04-19T11:58:00.000-07:00

Breezy tagged me. Except I don't have this many people on my list. So i'll figure something out.

1. Answer the questions about the list of friends/family that you have on your blog.
2. If you don't have the number of names that the question asks, answer the question about the next name that you have not had a question for your your list.
3. Tag your friends and family.

When did you meet the first person on your list?
-I met Kilie on one of the first Sunday's here in Flagstaff. In Relief Society they had all of the girls stand up and introduce themselves and say something interesting about ourselves. So I introduced myself and said something interesting about me is that i'm waiting for the most amazing missionary...and that I plan to wait and not date. Haha, So after we all sat down Kilie turned around and said "oh my gosh i'm waiting for a missionary too!" so after Relief Society we talked about our cool missionaries, and have been friends ever since! :) Love ya kilie!

What do you like about the third person on your list's blog?
-Chris and Kati. Well i've known Chris forever, becuase he's Alli's older brother, he's always so funny. I've loved Kati ever since I met her, she is just one of those people that is always so nice and so fun to be around. But the thing I love most, is that Kati waited for Chris and now they are married with 3 kids :)

What do you like best about the 5th and 6th people on your list?
-Well my mom is the 5th person on my list. This could go on forever..the things I like best about her. I love everything about my mom. She's the most amazing mom anyone could ask for. Liz and Dewey are 6th. I don't know Dewey very well, but i've known Liz forever. I remember being little and always wanting to grow up to be just like Liz! She's just so amazing, everything about her, she's such a sweetheart! And i've always loved her long beautiful hair :)

How long have you known the 8th person on your list?
-I have known Katie Nalder since my senior year I think. Maybe it was my junior year. She moved to Buckeye with her family, and she probably thought me and Alli were crazy! haha

What impresses you about the 11th and 22nd person on your list?
-Steven and Megan are 11th. I don't have a 22nd so i'll just stick with 11. I don't know Megan very well at all, but I guess i'm impressed that she puts up with Steven :). Haha jk, I've known Steven forever...I think the thing that has always impressed me the most is how helpful he is towards other people. When we were in High School he was alwyas there for me and Alli no matter what! He's just a great friend and a great person!

Say something nice about the 27th person on your list.
-Alli and Kyle are next on my list. They are my favorite! Alli is hilarious and adorable all the time. And Kyle is so fun! I couldn't have picked a better guy for Alli. You guys rock! :)

I now tag... Tara, Taytum, Kilie, and Mom!

The Weekend

2008-04-08T09:50:00.001-07:00

This weekend was so fun! Me and Becky decided not to go to Utah after all. The drive was just too long for such a short period of time! So we went down to the Valley instead. We did a little shopping on our way in, that was fun, and I got some cute things! I got these new white heels that are so adorable, I cannot wait to go to church so I can wear them! :)

Friday was my mom's birthday so we had a barbecue at a park up by my house. It was lots of fun. We just hung out, ate, and played on the swings and the slides with my nephews. I love having nephews, it's the funnest thing ever!

Then on Saturday we watched both sessions of conference with my parents. I have to be doing something or else I fall asleep. So in the first session I gave everyone pedicures...including my dad! haha. But don't worry I didn't paint his toes. Then in between sessions we tried to go over to the lakes to take a kayak out, but it was too windy, so we couldn't. We were bummed! During the second session of conference I spiral curled Becky's hair for her, it takes a long time, so it kept be from falling asleep the whole time. After conference me and Becky got all ready and then my mom took us over to the lakes to take fun pictures of us! They turned out so cute! That's them over there -->
haha we got a lot of cute ones, I know I know... they look like engagement pictures. haha, but they're not.

Saturday night we went to the comedy club with our old roommate Cheyenne and her friend Danielle. I love the comedy club! If you haven't been to the Jesterz (Theatre 168) in Scottsdale, you need to! It's so fun. It's all improv, and hilarious everytime! And very unlike the disgusting show I went to in Boston, it's appropriate for all ages...just good, clean humor! After the comedy club we went and ate at Applebee's. I was a little bummed that we ate at Applebee's out of all of the yummy places in the Valley but we were starving and didn't know where anything else was. But it was still delicious.

Sunday we just watched conference, this time I gave Becky a little manicure, and crimped her hair. haha. I know it's pathetic, But i really do listen better if i'm doing something else! Conference was really good as usual. It was so weird not hearing from President Hinckley, but it was all really good. And it was cool seeing the Solemn Assembly, and just seeing the switch to a new Prophet. Our church is so cool :)

After conference was over, i was so exhausted and me and Becky still had to go out to Mesa, and then back up to Flagstaff. I was getting angry because I was so tired and the thought of driving was not helping. haha. So we took very much needed two hour nap and then went on our way. We went to visit Becky's brother in Mesa, and then our roommate met up with us and we came back up to Flag. It was nice to get away, and just relax. No worries about school or work. It was lots of fun! I can't wait for the summer! Not too much longer!

April Fools!

2008-04-01T11:12:00.000-07:00

April Fools Day is probably my favorite day of the whole year! It gives me a chance to trick people, and I love doing that! However, this year i'm just not feeling up to it, which totally sucks! I started feeling sick last night, and it hasn't gotten any better, I even called in sick to work, which I never do! I hate calling in sick, but I knew I wouldn't make it very long. Hopefully sometime today I will be able to come up with somthing good to use on someone, but we'll see.

I'll just share a few of the jokes that I have played on people in the past couple years.

I'm not sure how many years ago it was, but me and Breezy were sitting in the kitchen and I noticed a spider crawling on her neck...seriously it was there...and so of course I started screaming and she was freaking out and smacking herself to get it off... and we never saw where it landed or anything, but it wasn't on her anymore. Then about 20 minutes later we were sitting in the living room and I just pointed at her and started screaming and told her the spider was still on her...she jumped up so fast and freaked out and was screaming and flipping her hair all around, i just busted up and said April Fools..she was mad, ha ha but I got a kick out of it!

Two years ago I was down at EA and I was trying to think of something I could do. I finally decided I wanted to get my dad, and I got lucky and got my mom too. I called my dad and told him that when I woke up and went out to my car that all of my tires had been slashed and my back window was busted! I was asking him what I was supposed to do, and he was of course mad that it happened but was telling me everything I needed to do, and he just couldn't believe that this happened, especially at EA, and the whole time my mom was hearing the conversation, and was buying into it too. So my dad told me that I needed to go to a tire place and all this stuff, so I asked him if he thought they would be open on April Fools day...he said he wasn't sure... ha ha! He didn't catch on! I finally said DAD April Fools! And of course they both hated me for it, haha I got them so good!

April Fools Day is fun, I'm usually so aware of it, because I love tricking people so much that I never believe anything anyone tells me. I am kind of mad that I got sick and couldnt go to work, cuz I had all these tricks planned to do on customers that came through my line! haha it would have been funny! Oh well, I guess there's always next year.

Happy April Fools Day everyone! I hope you all trick someone!

Ready for the Weekend

2008-03-31T12:16:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited! Me and Becky have always wanted to go to Salt Lake for Conference, and it has just never worked out...but we are actually going this year! There are quite a few people going up from NAU. Me and Becky are driving separate because we can't leave until Friday, but we are really excited. None of us have tickets, so we'll stand in line and see if we get in, and if not... no big deal, there are plenty of places to watch conference on Temple Square! On Saturday we are going to watch conference of course, probably go to the big mall across the street for lunch and maybe shop... Saturday night we are all going to a mormon club.. that should be interesting! Ha ha hopefully it's better than our lame institute dances, but we're excited. Me and Becky still don't have a definite place to stay...but we are working on it. I'm not too worried about it :)

I can't wait for the weekend, I know I just had Spring Break, but I am already ready for another break from SCHOOL! Only 5 more weeks of school, then finals! But who's counting...

2008-03-27T16:38:00.001-07:00

I have to go to work soon....and I would much rather be taking a nap. :)

My Final Decision

2008-03-22T21:19:00.000-07:00

Well it's final. I am not going to be moving home for the summer after all. And i'm really excited about it! As much as I love to be at home with my family, I just wasn't excited about everything else that goes along with it. I really like my job here, and I don't want to change jobs...and although coaching is fun, working at the pool under Buckeye management just gets too stressful! AND if I moved home I would still have to pay rent until my lease is up, so in all reality I wouldn't save that much more $$ at home... so i'm staying! And i finally feel excited and relieved about the summer, before I wasn't so sure.

So since i'm staying, I took the test for the supervisor position at Sams Club. I passed, so when it comes time to hire a new COS, i'll be interviewed for it! Wish me luck!

I'm so excited i'm going to be in Flagstaff for the summer!!

Where does the time go?!

2008-03-21T19:42:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally decided to go home for Spring Break after all. I had planned on staying up here for the most part. But at the last minute I decided to go home. I was going to head to Holbrook on Sunday, and all day I just never felt good about leaving, so I kept putting it off. Then i decided that maybe I should just go home. So I packed my stuff up and headed down. It was snowing, but not too bad, so I didn't think it would be a big deal. Well it was! There was an accident, so I ended up sitting in traffic for an hour and forty-five minutes..and I was only 17 miles out of Flagstaff. So i got off at Munds Park and came back! It worked out better that way I guess, but it was still kind of a pain. But luckily, I didn't go to Holbrook, because I either would have waited 5 hours in traffic or been in a bad one, becasue I guess there was a HUGE pile-up on the I-40. Anyway!

I didn't tell my mom I was coming home, because i thought it would be more fun to surprise her! I surprised her all right, and scared the crap out of her! It was hilarious. I walked back into hre bedroom to find her and I couldn't find her and then I turned around and saw that she was outback cleaning her bedroom window, and she still hadn't seen me, so I ran towards the window as fast as I could, and she jumped and screamed so loud! It was the funniest thing! Then she saw it was me and still screamed, but said "Stormy's here!" I love it when a surprise works out!

Being home was lots of fun. I love just hanging out with my family. On Wednesday night we went to my Grandma's house for my Aunt's birthday party. While we were there all my little nephews were playing together, and being so cute...and it just made me think about how crazy it is that i'm already to this point in my life. It just seems like yesterday that I was the little kid playing with all of my cousins, and now i'm just the Aunt that likes to sit around and talk to all the other old people! haha.. no but really, it's just crazy to think..it will be even more weird when i'm the one with the babies though. sheesh.

Anyway, now i'm back in Flagstaff...cuz I have to work this weekend, so none of my roommates are back, but it's kind of nice having the house to myself. Last night I still had friends to play with but tonight EVERYONE is gone, so I just get to cuddle up on the couch and watch a movie or something. But I'm loving it! Time goes by way too fast sometimes, only when I have a break from school though, any other time, let it fly by! 5 more weeks of school and summer break! woohoo!

And although i've decided to move home for the summer, I still have mixed feelings about leaving Flagstaff. Grr. Sometimes I just hate making choices!

Anyway here are some pictures from the week!

I just don't get it!

2008-03-12T18:46:00.000-07:00

I just went to mym storytelling class, and tonight we had to present our stories from our midterm projects...some of the stories were cute, some were funny...and some were just AWFUL. What is wrong with people today? They were vulgar, and gross, and just awful... I was so uncomforatble listening to this kids story, and it was only 60 seconds. 60 seconds of disgusting! And then..to top it off...we had to vote for the best story after everyone went and he WON! I'm so mad, I want to email my teacher and just tell her how I feel! I don't care that I didn't win...I could really care less... but the fact that it's ok to read stories like that in a classroom is supposedly ok is sick...and it's that much worse that people vote for it! Our world is SICK! I'm so glad I was raised the way I was raised. I love the church and everything it stands for. I wish everyone in the world agreed! Ok sorry... I just had to vent... ugh.

Star of the Show

2008-03-10T11:37:00.000-07:00

So I went home this weekend to see my mom's play! First I went out to Mesa to do some stuff for another wedding video that i'm making...then I met up with my friend Cheyenne and she came out to Buckeye with me.

My mom's play was so funny! She did such a good job! I was laughing so hard, she played her part so good! The audience loved her!

The play was a western spin on Cinderella and Snow White... and my mom was the wicked step mother. haha, I'm glad she's not my wicked step mother :) Although it would be pretty entertaining if she acted like that!

I'm so glad I was able to go home for it. She was in another play over the christmas break and I couldn't get work off so I had to miss it! But this made up for it, and I can't wait to go to her next one!

Date Night!

2008-03-05T22:42:00.000-08:00

Every Wednesday night me and Becky have our "date night". It's so fun, normally we just go to dinner, we always share something and then share dessert. We try to go to a new place every week. There are so many good places to eat in Flagstaff. But occasionally we just go to a repeat place because we love it so much. Tonight we decided to switch it up and instead of going somewhere real nice, we just went to Quiznos and then went to a movie! We saw Step Up 2. If you loved the first one, you'll love the second one! I love watching them dance! It makes me want to dance so bad, but I just don't have it in me! haha, but it's fun to think about.

Ecuador- Here I come!

2008-02-28T08:53:00.000-08:00

For those of you who haven't heard, i'm going to Ecuador next semester! I applied about a month ago to volunteer at an orphanage in Quito. I have been going just crazy waiting to hear if I've been accepted or not. They called me last week and told me that were trying to get a hold of all of my references and they couldn't, so I had to give them some more names. But I was so happy because it meant that they were working on my application and I should find out soon!

This past weekend I went home to see Breezy's new baby Maylee, and ended up not being able to see much of her at all :( So while I was at home chillin with my mom she got a phone call from the people about Ecuador. I guess they always call the parents as a last reference. So after my mom hung up the phone I was asking her what they said, and she started to tell me, and not 2 minutes after she hung up with them, they called me! They asked me a few questions about the rules and if any of them would be a problem for me. The biggest question is if it will be a problem for me to date the native boys there, ha ha not at all. But I guess they give american girls A LOT of attention. When I went to Italy it was the same thing, but I was far from flattered. Anyway, after that she told me that they would like to accept me to serve in Quito with the July group! I am so excited! I leave July 31st and come back October 21st!

I will be serving at an orphanage, and taking spanish classes everynight... I realize that it's not going to just be a dream vacation, but I think it will be an awesome experience. One that i'm sure i'll never get the chance to have again. We also will have free time, and days off to go out and see the sites, but mostly all of our time is devoted to the orphans there. I have known a few girls that have done it and have absolutely loved there time there. I cannot wait!

Also, they offer a trip for the volunteers at the very end to the Amazon. I guess we stay in a remote lodge, which means we have to take canoes to get to it. We'll stay there for 4 days and 3 nights! She said we do things like riverwalks and spearfishing! Sounds fun right? I couldn't quite picture what staying in the Amazon would be like, but fortunately I found out where we will be staying and got to see lots of pictures, and it looks amazing. If your curious, check it out... www.yachana.com !

So since i'm going to be gone for 3 months I've decided it would be best for me to move home for the summer to be with my family! If all goes like I hope it will, I will just transfer down to that Sams Club and work at the pool coaching as well. Then hopefully I can just get a leave of absence at Sams and work there when I come back, and then just transfer back up to the one in Flagstaff when I start school again in January.

I am so excited for this experience! I always said I wanted to do this, but now it's really happening!

How Rude

2008-02-25T10:19:00.000-08:00

Everyone keeps telling me that i'm a bad blogger.

Ok maybe I am.

Queen of slacking

2008-02-06T09:26:00.000-08:00

My Cute Family!

It's true, i'm a slacker! I haven't updated my blog in so long! Alli text me a while ago and told me that I was officially the worst person to have a blog, or something like that! haha. So, I decided it's time to change my reputation, and maybe be good at having a blog :)

Well Christmas Break didn't last long enough of course! So the new semester has started! It's pretty good so far, I still have a super busy schedule. I thought it was going to be better because my only thing on Monday and Wednesdays was going to be a 5:30 class, and no work.. well I ended up changing my minor from Photography to Visual Communications, and had to change my classes around, which means now my monday and wednesdays are full of classes, but hey at least I don't have to work right?! So for my new minor, I have to take two art classes first. Right now I am taking a drawing class. Wow, the first day I went he had a full size skeleton set up in the front and we had two hours to draw it! It actually didn't turn out so bad, it's been pretty fun...and I enjoy it more than photography, so thats good!

Monday was the first Snow Day NAU has had in a long time! We had a nice snow storm come through this weekend! My dad and Seth came up on Monday morning and we went to Snowbowl to ski for the day! The Carbonneaus came too...it was so fun! Unfortunately, I only saw Alli when we got there and when we left! I was so bummed, me and her use to ski together all the time and would have so much fun! We would always get more brave when we were with each other! Ha ha, but there will be more oppurtunities!

Thursday night is my favorite night of the week! We have volleyball at the Stake Center every Thursday, and its alwasy so much fun! When I was at EA I would never play volleyball, because it seemed to me that people weren't as forgiving if you missed a hit... but here everyone is really nice, so i've actually been able to get better! Volleyball is so much fun! And although i'm still not as good as I wish I was, I really have improved a lot since August! It's become tradition (or maybe a bad habit, haha) that we go to Dennys afterward! No matter what time we get done playing! It's usually around midnight, so needless to stay I never get enough sleep on Thursday nights, but it is always worth it! I love the friends I have made up here, its so much fun!

So one of the major perks of living in Flagstaff is that I see my family more often! Seth and Tara have already been up here about 4 times I think, and its so fun to see them! The last time they came they brought all of their boys with them..I was so happy to see them! As much as I love living here and being on my own, I miss my family, and love every minute I have to see them! My mom has also come up and visited a few times, the drive is just much better than the drive to Thatcher, thats for sure!

Well, since it's been so long I'm sure that I have A LOT I could talk about, but maybe my life jsut isn't that exciting! :) And don't worry Alli, I will try to keep up with my blog this time!

Tis the season to catch the flu

2007-12-18T21:38:00.000-08:00

I love this time of year. Christmas lights, hot chocolate, christmas songs, snow... and everything else that goes along with the Holidays. All except for one part, the sick part, this is such a pretty time of year, and such a happy time, but it's also when everyone gets sick. ugh. I have pretty much felt sick all weekend, and you know i'm really sick if I don't want to eat, i've been living on one meal a day all weekend because food is just not appetizing. I left work early tonight cuz I felt so awful, but I finally felt hungry tonight, so I think I must be getting better. My roommates are all gone except for Becky, it's been such a blast with just us two! But tonight she was gone babysittting, so I collected all of my loose change and went and got Quiznos to go, and rented a movie... although its becuase I felt like crap, its kind of fun to have a night to yourself like that occasionally. But now Beckys home and we are going to stay up and watch Felicity, I love that show! I've never lived away from home when I'm not going to school, i've always gone home for all of the breaks. I'm so excited to go home to see my family, but it's also really nice to be here and just being able to chill, and only work, and not have to go to school. My grades have still not been posted, UGH...I can't stand the anticipation of knowing if I passed my class or not! Please cross your fingers, and pray for me that I will pass this class, I cannot handle to take it again!
Well I am still cameraless, so I never want to update my blog with out fun pictures to go along with my stories, but I guess since i've been kinda sick there really wouldn't be fun pictures anyway! But soon enough I will have some fun pictures and hopefully some fun stories! Merry Christmas everyone!

Living in a Winter Wonderland!

2007-12-13T22:02:00.000-08:00

Things have been pretty crazy this past week! It was finals week which means i'm finally done with this semester! I don't think I have ever been this excited for school to be OVER! This semester was my hardest by far, for a while I wasn't sure that I would survive, but somehow I did.

Anyway, so last Friday it rained and rained like crazy all day, and the rumor was it was supposed to turn to snow! The rumor was true! From Friday night until Tuesday afternoon it snowed like CRAZY here! I've never experienced snow like this before. It is so fun! I had to work on Saturday, but the snow wasn't too bad when I left for work. By the time I came home though, it was pretty heavy...needless to say, I was scared to drive home. I didn't drive my car again until Wednesday night cuz I was too nervous. The main roads are really clear now, but in my apartment complex it is still so icy! Tonight after work, I had to sit in my car for 20 minutes before the ice finally defrosted and I could see out my window! It's insane! I'm not used to it, but I really love the snow! This was my car on Tuesday after I brushed off some of the snow!

On Monday me and Becky thought it would be fun to walk to Wal-mart. There was so much snow, but it had stopped for a little while. It was so fun, we walked to Wal-mart, then Bashas, and then to Kohl's, by the time we left Kohls it was snowing so much again, and we still had to walk back to Campus so Becky could pick up a paper. We walked so far in the snow, and it was freezing! We were soo wet too! But I loved it at the same time. On the way back to our apartment we caught the campus bus and it dropped us off right by our apartment, thank goodness! I can't believe I never figured out the buses until now, they are so fun! This is us before it got too snowy.

So I think my finals went ok, but the grades aren't posted yet, hopefully by tomorrow! I can't wait any longer to know if I passed one of my classes. Ugh. Cross your fingers that I don't have to re-take it, the teacher was awful!

So my mom and Kathy came to visit yesterday, and Alli drove over from Holbrook. So we all spent the day together. It was lots of fun! I love living in Flagstaff, not only because I absolutely love it here, but my mom comes to visit me so much more! I don't get to go home for very long over the break because of work, so luckily I live close enough that my mom comes and plays with me :)

For those of you that have seen me lately, you know that I was letting my natural hair color grow back out, so my hair was really starting to look bad! My roots were like 5 inches of brown, and the rest was blonde. But I haven't had any money, or guts, to fix it. I was too scared to go all brown again. Well when my mom came yesterday, her and Kathy convinced me to go all brown, cuz it really looked like crap! So we got some color and kathy dyed it for me, and since my hair was so blonde, it made my hair turn like a grayish-brown-green color! It was so ugly! Fortunately, Kathy knows what she's doing, so she fixed it, and my hair is officially brown again. I was freaking out, and was so scared to have brown hair again, but it just seems completely normal because I had it brown for so long. I really like it, now i'm afraid i'm going to want to keep it dark brown. We'll see :) But mom and Kathy have threatened me with my life if I use my straightener because my hair is so dead, especially after dying it more than once the other night. Sheesh. Anyway! Here's a picture of my brown hair, and my cute new snow boots! Cuz I live in SNOW! Can you believe that ?! My first white christmas! I love it!

The Formal

2007-11-20T07:29:00.000-08:00

So this weekend was the formal dance for the institute, and like I said I asked a boy named Josh. Luckily someone was nice enough to switch shifts with me at work so that I could have some time to get ready. So I got off work and came home and got ready with my roommates. I borrowed this dress from my friend Perla, it was very pretty, but I wanted it to be poofy-er! So! I put another skirt on underneath and hiked it up so it wouldnt hang out the bottom! haha, then it was bunching in the back so I probably looked like I had a few extra rolls, but whatev! haha. Anyway, So Josh came and picked me up and we went to the dance. I was a little bummed with the way the dance turned out, the decorations were so good, everyone looked so nice, but the music was lousy and they had too many lights on! Nobody dances with that many lights on because everyone can see them! And if you have ever been to a mormon dance, not too many people can really bust a move! haha, BUT even though that part of the dance was kind of lame, I had a lot of fun! Josh was a really fun date!
These are my cute roommates, Becky wore the dress that I wore to prom in high school and can only dream of wearing now, they all looked so pretty! Its so fun to get all dressed up sometimes! And other times, its just much more fun to be a scrub!
I was the only girl in my apartment that asked a boy...so that was kind of a bummer cuz then we didnt have a group, but it was ok! I had so much fun. I love dances, sometimes I just miss being 14 & 15 and going to the lame church dances every saturday night! ha ha, they were amazing!
After the dance me and Josh went to "the place", Mike & Rhondas that is, and shared some yummy food. Overall, it was a ton of fun!

2007-11-12T16:13:00.000-08:00

Tara keeps getting after me for not updating my blog! But even if I have SO much to say, I feel like its not even fun because I have no pictures! When I went to Boston, not only was it a TERRIBLE experience but I broke my digital camera, sooo....now i'm pictureless! And SAD!

But I guess I will update anyhow :)

This past weekend was tons of fun! I went home for the weekend because I filmed my very first wedding! Wedding Videos is what I want to do with my life! :) ha ha, but seriously...and after this weekend I knew for SURE that its what I want to really get into. Since it was the very first wedding i've done, I realized that I still have a lot to learn, but I am SO excited to edit this video and see how it turns out! I think it will turn out good. I got ALOT of footage, I was filming from 11:00 until 9:00, so i'm sure I got something good in there! :) It was a beautiful wedding, and lots of fun, so it made it that much better!

After the wedding I went to visit my old roommate Cheyenne, she is such a fun girl! Man I miss living with her! We had TOO much fun together sometimes, it was crazy fun! When I got to her house, i was cold so she let me borrow a hoody, and stupid me, put it on backwards, how do you even do that!? All of the sudden my face is covered and I was so confused! haha It was pretty funny, Cheyenne laughed her face off! So she took a picture on her phone...here it is. I know, i'm dumb :)

This week has been crazy, stressful, obnoxious and SO fun all at the same time! Our electricity was turned off ONLY because APS is ridiculous!! Stupid idiots. I was mad! And they knew it :) But it didnt help, those jerks. That same day I dropped a jar of pickles at work...yep...pickle juice EVERYWHERE! Leave it to me. My list could go on with everything that went wrong on Tuesday but I stayed surprisingly happy most of the day! And now I just laugh about the whole day! But it really was stupid.

Tomorrow night is the girl ask guy formal dance at the institute. I'm very excited for it! I asked a boy named Josh, he's a lot of fun. My friend Perla is letting me borrow her super pretty dress, i'm so excited! I just have to get jewelry to match! I've never asked a boy to a dance before, i've always wanted to but usually am too chicken to really do it. So this time I did! But i'm sad, cuz none of my roommates did, but they are still going which is good!

Life is ridiculous and crazy, but fun! I will make sure to borrow someones camera tomorrow night so you can see pictures from the formal!

2007-11-06T12:55:00.000-08:00

Well things have been a little hectic here in good ol' Flagstaff. I've been having fun though. This past weekend was lots of fun. The Friday night activity was ice skating. I love ice skating! I skated with Perla for a long time, shes such a fun girl, I met her this semester. She makes me laugh so hard. All she has to say is "YOU...laugh at my joke!" and i'll laugh forever, ha ha everyone should know her. School has been hard, and my weeks are really busy! I work A LOT, luckily I really like my job,since I spend so much time there!

I don't think that I have ever looked forward to Sundays as
much as I do this semester. I love my ward, the past two weeks
at church have been amazing! Just what I need to hear every week. I am so blessed to have the gospel in my life, it makes all my trials worth it! Every Sunday is just a reassurance that I can get through anything. This is me and Becky before church last Sunday, we love Sundays, cuz we can just play together and not feel guilty about not doing homework or anything else that normally stresses us out! I love Becky, she is the funnest girl!

I've been blessed with GREAT friends! They help me through so much. I get along with my roommates so well! The past two Sundays have been really fun, after the fireside we've invited a bunch of people over to play games! This is me and Jeanette last Sunday, shes my roommate, she is such an amazing girl! I'm SO happy to be here in Flagstaff this semester, school has been HARD and stressful, but these girls have made it all worth it!

2007-10-28T11:11:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the Halloween dance at the institute! It was the best turn out i've EVER seen at an institute dance! The decorations were SO good and everyone was dressed up! It was soo fun! Me and Becky went as Lady Bugs!

This is my friend Steve, he was some kind of evil sorcerer, he was hilarious!

We had a lot of fun! Afterwards, we decided to go eat at "The Place" but we werent the only ones, I think half the people at the dance decided to go, but it made it that much more fun! We were all still in our costumes and we all sat munched together in the same room! I love the institute here, we all get along great!

2007-10-26T12:04:00.000-07:00

Alright, well I told Breezy she had to get a blog, and mom too, that way we will all have one! So i guess I better keep up my end of the deal,and actually write on my blog. I had to create one for my photography class, and now we don't even use it, so I just know you will all be so happy to know what happens to me on a daily basis :) ... well maybe not daily, but often enough! School is going pretty good, its pretty tough right now, but i'll survive i'm sure. That is if I can bring up my stupid F! Yea thats right, my first F in college...stupid idiot! Working at Sams Club is really good, I like it a lot, I work a lot though so i'm very very busy but it makes the time fly by! I can't wait for this semester to be over, just so that I can say I survived my first semester at NAU...so cross your fingers that I do survive!

I love it in Flagstaff! Its sooo nice up here. The weather, the people, the institute, my ward, everything! I've made really good friends here so far, its been so fun!

A couple weeks ago, me and my friends were just chillin and decided to be spontaneous! So we went and took jumping pictures! Hows that for spontaneous?! Haha, but we ended up having a blast doing it! We never really got a good one of us all, but we had fun!

2007-09-04T14:11:00.000-07:00

Favorite Picture.
September 4th, 2007