Belated Update

First of all, I have to apologize to my readers for how long it has taken me to write another post.

I have been BUSY BUSY but happy :) Colter left for his mission 11 days ago and I have been doing anything and everything to stay occupied! There's always the norm: school, homework, sleep, studying, and hanging out with friends. But I suppose my newest news is that I finally got a job!
I'm going to start this Monday for America Reads, a tutoring program for kids ages 1st-6th grade in which they help "at risk" kids to develop better reading, writing and math skills. I'm actually really really excited, and I have great hours, only working Mondays and Wednesdays!

So that is my exciting event today. This weekend I've been pretty busy though: I went to two service projects and met some other MG's (missionary girlfriends)!
First on Friday night, we went to Feed My Starving Children, a place where we pack hundreds of bags full of dry chicken, vegetables, soy and rice and send it off to places around the world that have a lot of starvation and disasters. You should check out the link if you have time, it really is an inspiring program!
It was also a lot of fun, I went with some friends from church and we were TOLD to "use our outside voices" so we had fun getting crazy and racing each other to fill the most bags.

The next day we went to another service project, where we helped clean up and remodel Lodestar, a HUGE homeless shelter in Downtown Phoenix. Me and my "service buddy" Caldwell (above picture, blue stripes) filled 1/6 of a trash bag with about a million cigarette butts that were outside, and then went inside and helped paint their library. It lasted from 730-1230 and we got a lot done with all the help! The coolest part was that we did it with the Mormon Helping Hands program, and we got to wear their cool yellow vests all day! I felt famous!

Later that night (last night), I went to Qdoba's with some of the girls with missionaries from around the area. We had a great night getting to know each other and just being girls, and I'm excited to hang out with them again (possibly in a couple weeks!)Whitni, Kassidi, Tianna, ME, and Chelsea :)

Happy Birthday To Me

So remember how I've mentioned being surprised a few times, and that I have already said my last goodbye to Colter? Well, plans changed. And I decided to make a surprise trip home on my birthday for the weekend.

There was several reasons for coming home again.
Firstly, I knew no one expected me to come home (as far as they knew, I'm on a college budget) (...oh wait, I still am...) so I knew that it would most definitely be a good surprise for both my family and Colter.
Second, it was my BIRTHDAY for goodness' sake! I thought it was a great birthday gift to treat myself to. (Okay, so my friends here weren't planning on ignoring it or anything.. but sometimes home is just better)
Thirdly, it was General Conference weekend for my church.. which is practically a holiday for my family, because we always have extra people over and it gives my mom (and Second Mom, Rae Ann) an excuse to cook for everyone.

So there really was no other option. I hopped a plane up to Durango and Mark picked me up to take me to surprise my family. It turned out to be a great idea, no one had any idea, and my parents may have been a little surprised but still really happy to see me. I also planned it out with Cindy, Colter's mom, to surprise Colter that night... and I loved seeing the look on his face when he got home and I was standing in the laundry room. Haha!

We really didn't do a lot for the weekend, which was okay with me because I really just wanted to see everyone. We spent most of Saturday and Sunday watching Conference, and then Saturday afternoon I went to Colter's to meet all the family that was visiting that weekend.
That night I said the REAL last "see ya later" to Colter, which was a little hard to do all over again but definitely worth it. I also had to say goodbye to my family too, because this time I'm REALLY not coming home til Thanksgiving.

I got to stay til Monday afternoon, and Monday morning I got to go visit my Grandpa Bart and Sandy one last time before I took off, and it was really nice to visit with them for a while. Then my parents drove me back to the airport. I knew that I had the best idea ever and it was totally worth all the surprised looks on everyone's faces.. And I had really missed my mom and dad so it was good that I got to see them for my birthday :)

Visit for the Weekend

First of all, sorry for the delay. I have had a lot going on these past few weekends (which I will tell you about, promise!) and there's been midterms so I have been busy busy.
Secondly, my phone broke.. So all of my pictures from the past few weekends have been lost. So... this will be a regular old word blog for a few posts. Sorry!

But anyways.
I went home on the 21st (Wednesday) and Colter surprised me by showing up at the airport! It was a great surprise. The airport turned out to be the easiest part of flying, because I have discovered that airplanes and turbulence do not agree with me. Besides that, I easily found my flights and seats and everything and for the most part, people were helpful and friendly when needed.

On Thursday, I got to stick around home for the day with the family. I've missed the kids a lot and I got to meet the newest foster girl we have, a little one month old that is adorable :) Later that night we went to a family friend's house for a birthday party, and then Mark, Colter, our friend Matt, and Landon and I went to Mark's house to watch the season 8 premiere of the greatest show on Earth:

The Office!!!
Which was not too disappointing, even with their new boss.

Then Friday I ended up going to Colter's house and spending the evening with him and his Momma, and we got pizza and watched Hitch (awesome movie!) and the Food Network.

Okay, before I tell you about Saturday, I'm going to use a lot of terms some might not be familiar with, so I've turned them into links in case I start to sound too confusing.. So just click for more info if you'd like!
Saturday was a really big day for me and my family. We got to go to the Monticello Temple that my church has so we could be sealed to each other. This was the most amazing experience I have ever had! I'm so grateful for a family that loves me and that wants to stay together, because I don't know that one lifetime will ever be enough for me.

Sunday was Colter's big day. He gave his farewell talk to his ward for leaving for his mission. My family and I went and he did a really good job. I'm so proud of him for wanting to help our church and serve the Lord, and I know that Panama is going to be so blessed for having him for 2 whole years! After church, I spent time with him and his parents and I helped his mom makes lunch, and then went home and Colter and I had pie with the family before I had to leave for my flight. Then I said my goodbyes, and Colter took me to the airport where we said our "See Ya Later" for two years, since he's leaving this Wednesday.

It was a fantastic weekend, and I was so excited to go... However, that just wasn't enough for me ;)

I Am So Pumped...

...To see these two people right here:Yes, of course I still want to see everyone else, but I've already talked about them. Now it's time for my Colter and Codi rant. Tomorrow I fly home for Colter's missionary farewell on Sunday, so I get a long weekend to hang out with my Kirtland family and friends again! Yay!

So Codi here:
Is one of the three girls my family is currently fostering. And she is the most adorable 2 year old I have ever met! Apparently she's been quite the terror since I've been gone, going through her "Terrible Two's"... but I don't care because at the moment I miss her like crazy!
I'm sure this weekend once I do something she won't like she'll throw a little fit at me too, as two years olds often do, but until then, I am very excited to see this little cutie.

Speaking of cuties...
WARNING: I am about to go on a girly rant, so if you don't want to read about it I suggest you log off my blog now :)

I AM SO READY TO SEE COLTER AGAIN.

I have not seen this kid in over a month and it's driving me crazy! The worst part is he's been hunting since the 12th, and therefore out of cell phone service, so I have not even heard from him for the past two weeks, with the exception of a surprise phone call on Saturday.
I really don't even know if I get to see him tomorrow when I fly in, because there's a good possibility that he'll be hunting til Friday, but I'm coming home for his farewell, so pretty dang better show up before too long. :)
When he wasn't hunting, we discovered the miracle of Skype, and this little innovation has been the coolest thing since grape jelly in my opinion. When you have fairly good webcams, the conversations on Skype are so much better than cell phones because you can talk and see each other and it costs nothing! I've used it to talk to my family too, and lemme tell ya, Skype definitely makes distance easier to handle.

So as I've said, tomorrow I fly home! I'm a teensy bit terrified though because I have never been on a plane before. The scary part isn't the airplane though... It's the airPORT! I am so scared that I'll get lost or I'll miss my flight or somehow manage to get on the wrong plane and end up in Costa Rica (wait... maybe that wouldn't be so bad....) or something. AND to top it off I have a 2 hour layover in Denver for two hours before I even get where I'm going.
It should be quite the adventure... But I'm still very excited. I will write all about my trip home when I come back, so until then, wish me luck!

Mark Weekend!

So this weekend Mark came to see me!!! He's in his senior year in high school right now and since I have school here in Arizona we only get to hear from each other every once in a while.. but this time he got to come here for the weekend!

He came on Friday and stayed til this morning for Labor Day and we had a lot of fun. Friday afternoon after he got here we walked around campus and got frozen yogurt from ZoYo. Since it was Labor Day weekend, the kids who didn't go home got a little party-crazy, so his first impression of college wasn't exactly the most common but we didn't stick around any of those kinds of people if we could help it.

The next day we decided to go to the Tempe mall and do some shopping. The hardest part of the day was the public transportation, just because I've never used it before and I was in charge of getting us to the right buses and metro stations at the right time but we eventually got it.


He hates taking pictures so he never smiled (agh!) but he was mostly a good sport anyway. We walked around Arizona Mills for a while which was a lot of fun, and this mall I actually kinda new my around already since I'd been here a couple times before when visiting Tempe. He also let me pick out my early birthday present since he won't see me for my birthday and I got a few feather hair extensions! I've been seeing them in a lot of people's hair lately and I thought they were the coolest thing so Mark let me pick out some and the lady put them in my hair :)

On our way back to campus after the mall we got on the wrong bus but eventually made our way home and then decided to go to the Mesa temple! I completely forgot to take pictures while we were there but I have this one with the temple in the background :) This temple is quickly becoming my all-time favorite, it is just so beautiful and very close to home for me.
Also, I am NOT a tree hugger... I just really like palm trees, they remind me of summer.

On Sunday we went to church and then hung out with my friend Riley from my ward, and I made the boys too many pancakes for them to eat (I'm used to cooking for a big family, whoops!) And then we just sat and talked and watched YouTube videos for hours. It was so much fun and I'm glad I got to finally show off my new home to someone, it made me feel sort of grown up :)

"Givin' Em Hell"

This weekend has been extra crazy and fun so now it's time to update!

Thursday I went to my FIRST Sundevils football game!!
It was so much fun and I love that football games never change, other than get funner as you get older :)

At first I didn't know if I was going to have that much fun because I didn't know anyone else who was going to be in the same section as me but decided to go anyway for the love of the game... and I'm so glad I did!! I ended up quickly making friends with the students sitting around me and we all got super pumped and excited together throughout the whole night.

This was my view of the student section from where I sat (more like stood, you were scorned for ever resting your feet in the student section) As you can see everyone is holding their pitchforks up, this is kinda like ASU spirit fingers and a much cooler alternative in my opinion ;)

I know this picture is really blurry but I don't care because it's SPARKY our mascot!!! I was really really lucky because I just so happened to have an empty spot next to me the one time Sparky decided to come find a place to stand in our row. He came and watched the game next to me for a good two minutes it was so awesome!! And it kinda gives me more perspective on what it must have been like for little kids when I would go stand by them in my Bronco mascot uniform back in high school. AWESOME FEELING.

Oh and I suppose I should mention how good my seat was... I had one of the best seats in the student section by far. I waited 3 hours in the blistering hot sun to get a spot in the second row of the stands, 50 feet from the 20 yard line! And I was on the jumbo screen twice!!

I had no idea the student section was this ginormous until ASU Sports posted this picture on Facebook.. See all the gold? That's us!! In the "Inferno" aka the student section, if you are caught wearing ANY colored shirt that isn't gold, you're kicked out. That even includes maroon! I now understand why they're so strict, because we looked awesome.

Once the night was over I was SO flippin tired I don't even remember climbing into bed, but it was so worth it because we beat UC Davis 48-14. Next week is the game against Missouri and everyone is expecting big things, so I guess I'll be back here next week at 3:30 to get my good seats again!

Am I Homesick?

So I've never been homesick before, and I've never really understood how you catch it, but I'm pretty sure this is what homesickness feels like.

Today Colter is hanging out with my family and last week my best friend Mark hung out with them too, and it just feels weird that my everyday life is going on without me there.

I talk to my family at least once a week, and Skype them on Sundays.. Life in Kirtland sounds as crazy as always. Don't get me wrong, I'm loving that I'm no longer babysitting and cleaning (as the big sister) all the time, but I do miss some things:

LIKE THIS KID.
He's starting to grow out of that obnoxious-little-brother stage and I miss the talks we've had that have really made me grow close to him. He and I always had late night talks when he'd come sit on my bed and talk about school or girls or whatever drama he was in at the moment, and is really good at making me laugh when I've had a long day.


Secondly, and very especially, this guy right here.
I miss hanging out at his house, watching the spanish news channel and talking for hours.
I miss singing to blasting White Boy music in his truck when we're procrastinating going home.
I miss taking twice as long at WalMart because he tries putting extra items I don't even need in the cart.
I miss how easily he can ruin a potentially good movie, without fail, every. single. time we go see one.
And most of all, I just miss having my best friend around that can always make my day better by just making me laugh and reminding me it's okay to be completely retarded sometimes.


Even though it makes me sound completely crazy, I miss my chaotic, hectic, drive-me-up-the-wall family. (John not pictured) The two adorable girls my family is fostering are cuter and cuter every time I see them, and it feels really weird not to have kids running around everywhere I go.

I know that things will get better again once I have a job and start getting more busy myself, but until then I thought I'd just add a small tribute to the "other life" I don't intend to leave in the past. :)