Who Tells Your Story? Sept 3-10

"Look Around, Look Around at how lucky you are to be alive right now!"

Im very grateful for these amazing ladies I get to live with! They uplift, strengthen, and help me daily!

Sometimes your housemate makes you a delicious Sunday dinner and you eat it on your cute back covered porch!

We hosted a giant game night Sunday night. We invited a handful of people and they all brought someone. Our house was packed!! I didn't even know half of them. And these pictures were taken before like 10 more people showed up!

Love them!

My kids found this caterpillar at work and named him Joey. I quickly sent a text to my co counselor to tell him the good news!

Sometimes you sit on the couch and try to get some homework done... yeah. This is our thoughts on that.

Sometimes you have days where everything just frustrates you. Im so grateful for friends that are very quick to come give you hugs!

I was talking to Jessica who is going to school in Florida and I convinced her to come stay with me because all of her classes were canceled for the hurricane. I wanted her to be safe and I really wanted her to come visit me..even if I was leaving for the weekend. But she did!! YAY!

Thursday night I quickly left work and drove to the airport! Look how pretty it was! It was insane!

Friday was delightful! We started off strong with some pastries! Always a good idea. Then we were walking down the street to find a yummy lunch and BAM! NANDOS! This is one of my favorite restaurants in England! 

 

I love Chicago!!

We went to the art museum which was amazing! Without fail I cry when I see Van Gogh paintings. I could just sit and stare at them for hours. Also they have my favorite Hopper painting! I died. Also, we really enjoy this bunny.

 

 

Do you see a chicken or a ballet dancer? 

But really. I am in love.

 

Had to go on the boat tour! Im sorry for the lack of selfies taken on the boat tour. The couple in front of us took enough to last 5 lifetimes though.

Our friend didn't want to miss out!

Mr. Rogers meeting Abe Lincoln

HAMILTON. 

I got to intermission and realized I hadn't breathed. 

It was Incredible. Amazing. Spectacular. Brilliant. Inspiring. Funny. Tear Jerking.

 

 

Thank you Reid for the perfect trip! I was SO grateful to see Ryan and to see a show that inspires me. AH! So wonderful!

The trip home was a little crazy. My second flight they had us on the plane ready to go, then they kicked us all off for a maintenance thing and wouldn't tell us what was going on. Finally after almost two hours we were back on the plane! Then I had an hour drive to get home. 

I got home and had a crazy night! I went on a date and watched the end of the BYU-Utah football game. Sorry BYU... 

I loved coming home and having Jessica there! I never want her to leave!! I had a good Sunday morning and church and then had dinner with some friends. That night was the world wide devotional with Elder Bednar. That was great and then we went to Hymns on a Hill and then had a jam session at Colby's house. This is a frequent Sunday event :) 

I don't know what the plan is or whats in store! But life is crazy!

First (crazy) Week of School!

Sunday was an interesting day... Im in 3rd ward but went to 1st ward because Anna Taylor was giving her mission farewell talk. So after her talk I had a meeting with my bishop who gave me a calling. I am the Relief Society Secretary! I then went home, had an interesting conversation with someone, and then went to my ward.

That night we had a stake presidency fireside. This is the first time it was just our new presidency. I love seeing how different presidencies work and different people do things. Im grateful for President Doxey and his counselors! We ended the night by going to Hymns on a Hill which was wonderful :)

Also.. Taylor's new music video? Thoughts?

I can't believe school started!! What in the world!?


Monday was good! I had Institute with the wonderful Bishop Rasmussen, Biology... yup waited till the last second with that one, Psychology (by far my favorite class!), and Advanced composition. I had lunch with Colby, Jessica, and Cody Barnes. I adore them! My last class gets out at 2:20 and I have to be to work at 2:30.. Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays are a little crazy!

Tuesday I have a 7am Bio lab, and then volleyball with the men's volleyball coach who is awesome!, and my senior paper class all on Herman Melville with my favorite professor. 

Its going to be a good year :)

Tuesday night I was with Alayna and Chalae catching up on life. We decided to head over to Jonzzeys where we heard people were watching a movie. We ended up just sitting outside talking to Colby haha! I am just super grateful for good  and kind people who keep me laughing endlessly. 

Please pause and appreciate this beautiful color coded graph I made for biology.


Also, Look at this butterfly I kept seeing at work!


Thursday night a friend of mine, Jordan, came into twon to visit before he was going back to BYUI. He invited a ton of people to Cook Out and we had a super fun and crazy time! As a group we decided the next morning we were going to wake up super early and go watch the sunrise on the parkway. Great!



So Alayna and I wake up bright and early and are getting in the car when I get a text from Colby telling me that Jordan isn't waking up..so they arn't coming. Well Alayna and I were up and we wanted to see the sunrise so off we went! It was soo fun!
 

The first forum of the year was crazy! First, every student got an Ipad! Next, Alex Boye showed up, sang, and then announced that he will be filming his next music video at our school and we are all in it! Exciting things are happening to our little school.
 


As this could be my last fall here for a while, there are a lot of things I want to do around the area that I have never gotten to before. One of those being the pie festival!! I gathered some friends and off we went to Lexington on a very rainy and kind of cold Saturday Afternoon. Im very grateful for these friends of mine!


Also grateful for the friends that decorated our window haha!


We had our first football game of the year! It was a little strange seeing the new crimson color but overall I think it looks pretty good! We didn't win, but I had an awesome time with my friends!


I love Rainy days! I think they are soo beautiful!


I saw this quote this week and I loved it! Its something I really learned this summer and the past few years. You always have a choice. You choose who you spend your time with and you choose what you do with your life. YOU make it happy! :) 

Coming Back Home! Aug 10-26

I debated writing a whole post about my summer and EFY but I realized that I have too much to say even in a blog post. I need to write a book! I really hope to document and write everything down with pictures, because this summer was such a big blessing and gift from my Heavenly Father. It was the most healing and spiritually uplifting summer and I miss all my EFY people dearly. Im so grateful that I was able to experience being a counselor!

Im grateful for my family and our spur of the moment trip to Disneyland! It was soo awesome! Im grateful we were able to make it work!
 
 

I get very excited when I get to return home to Virginia. The drive was good and long! Thank Goodness for my Dad and Harry Potter audiobooks. I really wanted to stop in Nauvoo and my Dad made that happen! What was funny is we arrived on the day that EFY had just ended there, so I saw participants and counselors everywhere! I will never escape the EFY life haha! I hope to return to Nauvoo to spend more than a few hours there, but I was so grateful and happy we got to go!

 

When we arrived in DC we spent a fun Sunday night with the Garfields. We went on a gorgeous walk around a battlefield and ate delicious food!

 

I was so excited to drive back to SVU! The only problem was that I am use to being back on campus this early for RA jobs. So I usually have lots of running around doing training and checking residents in. But this time it was just for work which didn't start untill Wednesday and I was SO bored... I just kept wandering like a lost puppy. I also couldn't move into my house until Saturday so I was house hopping.

But some good moments in that week:

-This random leaf lying perfectly on my car

-The goat field I found

-Heidi making me lots of food!

My first Sunday in my house was great! I woke up, ate breakfast on my porch, read my book. It was delightful!


The first half of the week was really boring... I literally sat around all day and organized my room and then went to work. I was going crazy!!! 

Monday was the eclipse though! I must admit that I was not on the bandwagon until I actually saw it. We had about 88% totality here. Everyone gathered on Chandler Field and every time there was a break in the clouds everyone would freak out and throw their glasses on. It was very entertaining. 
 

We've been having a Princess Diaries watching party! Can't beat that!


I love living in a house! Our friend John came over and we were teaching him how to compliment girls haha!!!


Don't worry everyone, my kids are making sure I stay in fashion!


I went to the gym this week with my housemates! WHAT? That's right. Lauren went to the gym!

So because I was so bored and had two very willing hands, when checkins started on Thursday I woke up early and volunteered my services.
I basically just stayed with my friends Colby and Bailey and we helped move people in, deliver water, hang up signs, and other random odd jobs. It was a lot of fun! And then that night we all went to the football scrimmage, Ihop (Thats right! Lexington has an Ihop now), and blasted the new Taylor Swift song the moment it came out.
 
(Note: School colors are now Crimson...)

Friday I wandered around campus and joined in on some of the orientation events. I am friends with all the Student Government people this year, so I just find myself helping out for random events. I love it! 

I got home from work and Alayna invited me to go with Rachel to get tacos at a taco stand. We arrived and they were all out of tacos... but we ate at Mono Taqueria instead, which is absolutely delicious!


That night we had an outdoor movie in front of main hall. The feature was the 5th Pirates of the Caribbean. I thought it was pretty good!

Saturday I helped set up for the dance. We started around 1:30pm and didn't finish until about 6. The more leadership roles you have, the more you really do appreciate all the work that goes into the events to make it happen. 

Before the dance Colby and Jahren and I went to Cook Out and then Walmart to buy cups for the dance haha. Good times! The dance was a lot of fun! I danced and then sat and helped swipe people in. I love my friends :)

Other random moments from the week, there was this massive spider at work! I wish you could truly understand its huge size from the picture. It was basically the size of the door handle.


I swapped the lofts hill for this one. It has a slower incline and goes on forever haha! I feel completely out of shape every time I walk up it! HAHA

I am very excited for this semester! Lots of exciting things happening and lots of awesome people! Here we come Senior Year!