Ice Cream and Shakespeare March 16-21

Monday was a good day. It was ABSOLUTLY beautiful outside! Once are classes were over and we ate lunch, we sat outside in the sun on the chairs. It was so nice! I think Genny and I were there for almost three hours and we had many friends come and go throughout that time. I did have stuff to get done though, so I worked on a little bit of homework and then I told Genny we could go for a walk. When she knocked on my door she said, "So you have two options. One we can go for a walk or we can go get free ice cream at Dairy Queen." So we hopped in the car and went to go get free ice cream! It was the perfect day for it to! For FHE we had a balloon tower competition. All you could use were tape and balloons and you were trying to make the tallest tower! My family won!

This week was election week. So Tuesday, Savannah and Daphne and I went to go meet all the candidates, even though we already knew them :). After that we went to Walmart to go get some things and I bought super cute running leggings. After that we went to Cookout and got a super yummy corn dog! 

Wednesday, I was really looking forward to. About an hour away in Staunton is the home of the American Shakespeare Center. They have built a replica of Shakespeare's Blackfriars Playhouse. During their Renaissance set they put of shows as they would have been put on in Shakespeare's time. My Theater History class read Taming of the Shrew and that was the show we were going to go see. We left at 2:30 and went and got a tour of the theatre. It is beautiful and our guide was super great! After the tour we went to dinner at a pizza place and then walked up the street to a super yummy gelato shop. Staunton looks like Mainstreet in Disneyland! It is so cute! We then headed off to the show. It was amazing! I was so impressed with the acting and the whole production!

Thursday classes went well and then I worked a double shift.

Friday we had a great forum by Charlie Bowen, who was just appointed President of Student Life. He and his wife are the cutest couple ever and they are extremely nice! At 2:30 Ewa, Nicole and I went to a class help session for an upcoming lesson. After that Ewa and I were hanging out in the Library and then myself, Nicole, Kailey, Brigham, and Jared all went to Applebee's for dinner. After that Kailey, Nicole, Sadie and I watched a movie and then we went and watched the school showing of Mockingjay Part 1.

Saturday Rebekah offered to take me to lunch. So we went and ate at the cute bakery again! Then we went shopping around and enjoyed the pretty day outside. After that I came back and helped set up an event The Review was having called Pasta Prose and Poetry. It was so nice outside and I don't think the word was out very much so we didn't have a ton of people but it was still fun! After Savannah and I went on a quick run and then ended in the Lofts parking lot for the start of the Lofts easter egg hunt. It was crazy. They covered all three floor hallways and lobbeys with eggs. We could enter the building using all three entrances and when they yelled go, we went! It was a mad dash! It was hilarious some of the creative hiding places they came up with! They also numbered some of the eggs and had a drawing. I loved it because it just emphasized that we are all a big giant family!

Sunday was amazing! We had a special Stake Conference at 1:30 with a Elder Kacher of the Seventy. He was amazing. We had a lot of good speakers and one thing that they do a lot at our stake meetings is that the Stake President will get up and choose random people to come bear their testimonies. This happened for eight people and then four people were called up at random to sing a hymn A capella in four part harmony. Then Elder Kacher and his wife answered submitted questions and it was awesome! After church Savannah and I went on a two mile walk in the sun and then ate dinner. 

SPRING BREAK March 9-14

I loved spring break!!! (Get ready for picture overload!)

Monday I started off the week by going to the Jonzzey's project again. I worked there for a really long time! We started at 10 worked till a little after 12 and then had pizza for lunch. We continued to work till about 3:30 and then I got Savannah and we left to go to Walmart because I had an eye appointment to update my prescription so I could get new contacts.  The doctor was this old man from the south and he was hilarious! It was a very interesting eye appointment to say the least. Last week I had gone to Walmart one night with Savannah and I was starving, so I bought this super delicious sandwich. We decided that for dinner (because the dinning hall was open during the time of my appointment) that we would have a picnic outside Main Hall because it was so warm outside. So we bought Italian sandwiches, string cheese, chips and cookies! It was beautiful outside! We probably sat and talked for about 2 hours.

Tuesday we woke up and at 10:30 and Daphne, Ewa and I drove to Charlottesville. I had been there before with my family and I was super excited to go back. It was pouring rain so the drive was a little bit scary but it was good. We arrived there and finally found the parking garage. We headed down to the main pedestrian street and the first thing I saw was the book store!! So we went in. We hung out there for a while and then we continued down the street. We then walked up to see the statues of some generals and then went and saw the old court house. Then we went back to the pedestrian street and ate at this burger bar place. It was soo YUMMY! The sweet potato fries were also delicious! After that we went back out shopping and stopped in another book store where I found a book by Sister Wendy! In Art History, Mrs. Hughes showed us some videos by Sister Wendy. She is this nun who talks about art in an amazing way! I always thought she was super awesome and funny and when I saw her book I obviously had to buy it! We shopped some more and got gelato (it only passed one of my dad's tests... so it wasn't the best). We drove back again in the rain and everyone in the car fell asleep! We got back at about 5. I just sat in my room and watched Netflix while knitting my blanket that I have been working on since last semester. At 9, Ewa and I left to go meet John-John at Cook Out for dinner. We hung out there till 11 and then came back home.

 It was really wet!

 YUM!

 Yay Sister Wendy and art!!

Wednesday was the worse and best day. Ewa and I woke up and decided that we were going to spend the afternoon in Lexington because its one of our favorite places! We also had to go to Walmart. So off we go down the hill from the lofts. I pull out on the main street and.... got pulled over. I was soo mad!! He said I didn't do a complete stop at the stop sign and I was just mad. We then headed to Walmart and then went to town. We walked around and made the stop in our favorite bookshop, the Bookery. We talked and walked around some more till we found a yummy looking bakery. We ate in there for a late lunch and then headed back home. Even though we had just ate at 2 we decided we were going to go eat in the dinning hall as well. We had about an hour before 5, so we went and talked in front of Main Hall. At 5 we went to dinner and ran into John-John. He asked if I had been on a run yet today (yes, it has become a "joke" to everyone), but he was being serious. I said no and he asked if I wanted to go with him after dinner. He is on the cross country team and is super in shape.. I was thinking, "um.. sure but i'm super slow and not in shape AT ALL". I told him this and he said it would be fine. So I went and changed and put on tennis shoes and off we went. The first place on the run were three hills! I can barley run on flat ground! I died.. I kept walking and he was just laughing at me. We got to a part where the rest was down hill or flat and so we ran most of it.. maybe. But basically I died! We got back and then just talked on the stairs for a few minutes. After I was in pain from running, Ewa and I came back and we started to watch Broadchurch!

 This is a book I helped a little bit with at my internship! I loved the feeling when I saw it in an actual store! So cool!

 Cranberry Chicken salad wrap! So good!

Thursday was Camille's birthday! I called her in the morning and talked to her for a little bit! I can't believe she is 11! Our plan was to have a lazy day. It was super warm so we went down to lunch with our books in hand. After we ate, Ewa and I just went and sat on the rocking chairs in front of main hall for 4.5 hours. We talked, slept, and read our books! It felt so good in the sun and at dinner we realized that we were totally sunburnt! It was super relaxing and a much needed do-nothing day. After dinner we came back up and Daphne came and asked me if I could give her a ride to Family Dollar. So I took her there for a quick shopping trip and then came bak and met a group of people at the women's lacrosse game. They played really well but the refs were pretty bad. They were tied and in the last second the other team scored but it shouldn't have counted. It was really sad. After that we came back to my room and skyped Alley who was opening her mission call!! She is going to NEW ZELAND! AHHH! She kept it together pretty great but I was definitely crying! I was sad I couldn't be there to give her a big hug! She is going to be amazing!!! We then FaceTimed my family to watch Camille open her birthday presents. Then Ewa and I watched some more Broadchurch!

 So at one point Alley had called me so we could talk about her call, and Ewa managed to drop one of my knitting needles between the tiny crack between my closet and my desk. So we had to get creative. We tapped a hanger on to a ruler and then put tape to stick onto the needle. This contraption came slowly to our minds after much time struggling.

Friday we also didn't really have a plan. We went to lunch and then Lauren and I just sat in the hall outside my room and talked for about 2 hours. I then came in my room and knitted some more and watched Netflix. We went to dinner and after that decided we should go for a drive. It was kind of rainy outside but still really pretty. Ewa, Lauren and I ended up going on a two hour drive on the parkway and then we headed outside of BV about 35 minutes to this really pretty footbridge! It was cold but so pretty to go walk on! We came back and watched School of Rock and then welcomed Savannah home from New York City. We all sat and talked and it was great!

Saturday was our temple day! A couple weeks ago we were talking about going to the temple and I was talking about how I didn't want to drive and how they like you to have an endowed person to help with baptisms if you are a walk in group. So we were talking about this and we decided we would ask John-John who said he would love to drive and come with us. We left at 5:40 in the morning!! We drove for an hour and then stopped at McDonalds for breakfast. Then we drove the rest of the way and got to the temple about 10. A huge youth group got there right before us so they asked if we could wait an hour. We went over to the visitors center and looked at the really cool new model of the temple. We also watched two of the missionary and family movies. It was great. We went back over to the temple at 11 and we waited in the lobby for probably 40 minutes till an escort could take us to the baptistry. Another girl was a walk in and they told her to join us 4. Turns out she was from Utah visiting with her school (Utah State). Her name was Emily and she was awesome! There were also a ton of weddings going on and so a 12 year old boy named Isaiah hung out with us and then did baptisms too. It was only like his second time and he was super cute! They squeezed our little group in between this big group and we were in and out of there pretty quick once we finally started. I always like going with friends and knowing the people that help with conformations and baptisms, so it was very fun!  After the temple we were all starving so off we went to the only place you go after a temple trip.. Cafe Rio! Oh it tasted sooooooooo good! After that we drove back and it was raining pretty hard (It was raining on our way there as well) so I was very grateful I was not driving! Saturday was also Pi day. So when we returned Daphne, Anna, Lauren, Savannah, and Whitney went to Walmart to buy Pie! We bough a lemon, chocolate, and apple. We also bought bread and spinach dip for dinner. We went up to the third floor lobby, plugged Daphne's computer into the TV and watched Tangled! After that we ended up sitting and talking in the hall outside my room till 12:40! I came in and took a shower and then went to bed.

It was a great break! It was kind of fun being on campus when no one was around! It was so peaceful! Here we go... last half of my freshman year! CRAZY!