My Best Friend's Wedding

It was beautiful and wonderful and I am SO happy for Brad and Karlee! I love them both so much. I love them so much I cried all through the little tribute I tried to give at their wedding luncheon (I am my father's daughter :)! They are perfect for each other and I wish them the best in the years to come!


The night before the wedding reception, at our makeshift Bachelor/Bachelorette party...yeah....we went to Maverick...


Haley, Karlee, and me at the reception. It's too bad Janna couldn't be there, but we're so glad she's happy in London!


Don't they look so happy? I love it!


I love her so much. I am so grateful for all the support she has given to me throughout the years. Her friendship means so much to me! And she looked absolutely beautiful!

Dating Don'ts: Part 3!

Click here for Parts One and Two!

7. Do not send a text, meant for your mother, about your date, to your date. Especially not if that text is calling your date "fickle."

8. Don't honk/text/call your date when you get to her house. Go to the door. According to Paul Hennessy (one of the greatest TV dads of all time!!), Rule One states: "If you pull into my driveway and honk you'd better be delivering a package, because you're sure as heck not picking anything up."

9. Do not invite your date to a family activity where you refuse to speak to or even make eye contact with her. Do bring her home from said activity before 2:30 AM. Do inform your date if you're so angry you can't ever speak to her again.

It probably sounds like I have a lot of bad dating experiences...I really don't; it's actually quite hard for me to come up with these "don'ts" sometimes. But rest assured, I know from personal experience that you shouldn't do any of these things on dates.

Somewhere in the crowd there's you.

Noelle and I made this video the summer before she left on her mission. So many good memories!

Hope of America

Of course I took the EQP with me to see Hope of America. We sat in the very front row...



Right behind Elder Lund and his wife (stalker picture, Josh took it)...



And Noah Hartsock and his cohorts.





See that red stripe standing up with their arms in the air? Those are my Orchard Hills kids. I love them so much. They give me hope in my abilities as a teacher, because they were so sweet, kind, loving, forgiving, and understanding. Teaching them during the month of March changed my life. I fell in love with teaching all over again. It's hard. I'm definitely not perfect, but seeing the light in the kid's faces lets me know there's no turning back. I am going to do whatever it takes to be the best teacher I can be. And I know the kids are going to help me along, because they're so awesome

But oh boy I'm overwhelmed!

Missionaries

So, a lot of my really good friends are on missions right now; it's so great! Unfortunately I'm not the best pen-pal, but I just love that my friends are so awesome :) They are all fabulous missionaries, I'm sure!


I'm a little bit late on this, but Sister Mills is going to be an awesome missionary!! I'll miss her, but this is what she's been talking about since we were kids playing Barbies! Go Jan!!



And then there's Hannah, Noelle, Matt, and Mark! Yes, they used to be my desktop background. I love reading their weekly emails and blogs--Mark's especially, because he's such a hilarious writer. Cracks me up!



Last but not least, Elder B. (no, that is not him, but it's how I imagine he looked with a beard)! His emails kill me because he's hilarious, plus he's British, so I am constantly learning some new vocab. Like "chuffed." Just awesome!

I don't see a rainbow, do you?

I feel like I'm treading water right where the riptide is the strongest.

"Death by drowning comes following exhaustion while fighting the river or ocean current...a swimmer in a strong rip...should relax and calmly float or tread water to conserve energy. Eventually the rip will lose strength and the swimmer can swim...away from the rip and back to shore." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riptide)

Huh, really? "Relax" really is the answer?!

Done! I think I can do that! After this Sunday.

How I'm feeling...again.

"It's knowing what they want of me that scares me. It's knowing having followed, I must lead. It's knowing that each person there compares me to those in my past whom I now succeed. But how can whatever I do for them now be enough?"

Luckily, the EQP and I kinda feel as though we've been prepared to serve together in this capacity. And, as he says, we're going to hit the ground running on this. We spent last night talking strategy and we're ready for the game to start. Tomorrow night we'll hit the court.

I just hope that I can be loving and compassionate!

"I know expectations are wild and almost beyond my fulfillment, but they won't hear a word of a doubt or see signs of weakness. My nigh on impossible duty is clear. If I can rekindle my ancestor's dreams, it's enough."

Done. Finished.

I'm pleased to announce that I am finished with finals and with my undergrad coursework (with the exception of children's lit, which I am currently taking through independent study...)!

It definitely feels weird--I think it was just yesterday that I finished my first official day of college.

Yep! There I am, on my very first day of college!


And here I am on my very last day of finals. I'm leaving the BYU Cougars to becoming a full-fledged Orchard Hills Cougar! Wooohoo!

(I won't technically graduate until April 2012, so stay tuned for that...)

I have loved studying at BYU, and while I'm excited to teach this fall, I'm a little bit sad about leaving my school behind. But I've learned so much, and had so many "life experiences" that have been added to my resume...I'm grateful for my time at school.

And I'm ready to start this next phase of my life!