weddings

so Char wanted to sit down and watch a hopeless romantic movie...

i pulled out all of the good romances that i had here in utah and we ended up choosing "Father of the Bride"

i love this movie, i could probably say that it is my favorite movie

i can see my father reacting the same way as steve martin's character when i tell my parents when i get engaged.

however, as much as i love this movie- i want to hate it right now because i am no where close to getting married and i want to

i want to get married- I DO!!!

but somehow i can't seem to make it happen.

ahh love, romance, weddings, and marriage... how i long for it.

a decade in the making

Because I have nothing else to post about thus far in this new year. I have come up with some very good highlights of my past 10 years (2000-2009). This does not include everything... if it did- you would not be reading it anymore.

2000: It was the freak out of Y2K. I was in the 6th grade- my first year out at Space Coast Middle School. I was the low man on the very small todum pole of middle school. I started band class and enjoyed playing the flute. At the end of 1999- Jennifer was gone off to college out at BYU for her first year so that means that I had the room at the house to myself for the very first time. I was a beehive and one of a few girls in my class. My 13th birthday happened in this year and I officially became a teenager. I finished the year in the 7th grade.

2001: 7th grade… I finally knew my way around Space Coast and wasn’t at the bottom nor the top of the food chain there. I went to my first concert with Jennifer and her friend Heather- it was the *NSYNC PopOdsessy Tour. We drove up to Jacksonville, FL to see it. Twin towers got hit and it was all over the news. I started the year off in Beehives and finally made it to Mia Maids on my 14th birthday. There was the excitement of Youth Conferences, EFY and stake dances. I had the biggest crush on Chase Hill and little did I know then that it would last several years. Started the 8th grade in this year.

2002: 8th grade and all the glory that surrounds being at the top of your school. This was also the year that they announced that they would be turning our middle school into a Junior/ Senior High School and adding one grade each year. This was the year of my very first EFY and Youth Conference. The theme for EFY was We Believe. For Youth Conference we went over to Orlando and helped out parents with children who had spina bifida. It was my 15th birthday. I got my drivers permit and started to learn how to drive on my dad’s mustang which was a stick shift. I quickly gave up and declared that I would not be driving any more. My mom quickly came to my rescue and told me I could use her car. Started my first year out at Space Coast as a high schooler… as a freshman but the highest grade in the school.

2003: Made the decision to stay at Space Coast This was the first year we had marching band- but it was small and we didn’t compete, just went to the competition and played the Star Spangled Banner. Jennifer graduated from BYU and the whole family came out to see it. I remember that I felt so sick as we circled the Great Salt Lake. For the other semester of school in this year I was in my 10th grade year… and as I’ve said- still on top. I finally turned 16 on my birthday and was so excited that I could start to date- I was legal. Nothing different happened… and still hasn’t on that front, but I have come to some sort of terms with it. I got my driver’s license and didn’t have to have the driver’s test for 2 reasons… I had taken driver’s ed and my dad took me to get my license in his TPD patrol car. I moved on up to the Laurel’s.

2004: I was in the 10th and 11th grades and still on top at school. For our first competition in marching band- we did a Movie themes themed half-time show (Jaws, Superman, Star Wars, Jurassic Park). We got a superior. Competetion was held in Palm Bay, FL. I was still attending youth conferences, EFY and pretty much all the stake dances. Started the 11th grade and was taking dual enrollment courses. It was my 17th birthday.

2005: Went to my very first Josh Groban concert. It was up in Louisville, KY and dad was so good to drive Jennifer and I up there and spend time in the hotel room as we went to the concert. Was in the 11th and 12th grades and already knew that I was starting to feel like I wanted to get out of Space Coast (or senior-itis as it is called). I turned 18 on my birthday. It was my last year competing in marching band and we did a pretty good half time show. The judges thought it was too fun and gave us an excellent. It was a Latin themed show. It was held in the Orange Bowl in Orlando, FL. Girls camp, youth conference and EFY were all still pretty good and I enjoyed being at them.

2006: I was a senior and would graduate in May. I was taking dual enrollment type classes in order to get my C.N.A. license. We were the first graduating class from our school and it felt so good to get out. I was able to attend girls camp as a youth leader and was able to go to my last EFY and youth conference. In the fall I headed out to the wild west- to Rexburg, ID to be exact. Where I would start my college education in the frigid cold. In the fall would be my one and only semester at being a college freshman because I came into college with so many credits because of dual enrollment. It was this semester that I had the roommates of Dafni, Heather, Larissa, Mandi and Carrie. We lived in Chapman Hall. I turned 19 on my birthday. It was this year that I was able to see my first official fall and my first snow fall. I spent Thanksgiving break with Mandi and her family. I was able to go home to FL for Christmas.

2007: This was my sophomore year in college. For the winter semester I moved across the parking lot to a cooking dorm… Barnes Hall. Here I would live with Mandi again and meet two girls named Katelyn and Kaitlyn (or Katelyn squared). Jennifer came out and picked me up (after quitting Target) and she had a surprise for me. She wouldn’t tell me where we were flying to and why we were going. We ended up in Vegas and we stayed at the Aladdin/ Planet Hollywood hotel. And we went to a Josh Groban concert in the MGM Grand hotel. It was pretty much a-maz-ing!!! For the summer I went home and worked with Kelly Home Services. I went to visit Jennifer up in Baltimore before I was to fly out to school out west and because we had bought tickets to see another Josh concert from the 2nd row. We couldn’t pass up those tickets. This time the concert was in Pittsburgh, PA. We drove up there in Jennifer’s car. It was the Pittsburgh concert that I was able to touch the hand of Josh 4 times. Not only that but I was able stand at his knee when he sat down on the stage and sang “NWIA”. That is the 1st C.I.A. trip that no one knows about. The following weekend we drove all the way up to Toronto, Canada. That also was a fun trip. Jennifer and I had a huge timetable because we were due on a plane in a couple of hours after we arrived back in Maryland. The weekend before BYU-Idaho started dad drove me up to North Carolina to meet Jennifer for our 3rd Josh concert that year. We stayed at the same hotel as Josh and Jennifer swears that she walked past him in the hall as she was going to the elevator. After all those wonderful trips, I went back out to school and this time lived off campus in Kensington. I lived with Katelyn and my new roommates were Lindsey, Jessie, Kierstin, and Kelsie. Jessie ended up moving out and we got Becki. It was a very nice apartment and I loved everything about it. Jared was now gone on his mission to India. That Thanksgiving I flew out to Baltimore, MD to be with Jennifer. Christmas we were both able to go home to Florida.

2008: The winter semester of 2008 was still up in Rexburg, ID. I was a junior now. Now the roommates were Lindsey, Kierstin, April, and Katelyn. I decided to reapply to BYU in Provo, UT along with Kierstin. She got in, I did not. Mom came out this time to pick me up from school and we were flying into Maryland to see Jennifer around her birthday. While in Baltimore, Jennifer got an email about this special PBS taping concert with Josh up in New York City. Being the hacker that I am I hacked into Jennifer’s email and sent an email saying that we could go. This concert was on a Thursday night I think. Jennifer got a call from someone on Josh’s team and said that we would be there. She started freaking out because she had clinicals that day and didn’t think she was going to be able to get out of them. We thought of so many possibilities on how to get up there. Jennifer skipped her clinical to go to New York. I bought Amtrak tickets and we headed up to New York, it was probably the fastest trip we’ve ever been on. It was a good concert and now that concert is out on DVD. It was my first time to New York. (2nd C.I.A. trip) Mom flew out and I followed a couple days later. I went home to FL for the summer and worked at SeaWorld Orlando and lived with my half brother and his wife so I wouldn’t have to commute as far every day. I got my first car- a Toyota Camry and I named him Fred. I checked my email and got one from BYU in Provo, UT that said that they had reevaluated my application and that they would see me in the fall. So the decision was made to head down to Provo in the fall and to defer that semester up in Rexburg, ID. For the fall semester I felt like a freshman all over again. I had no clue where things were in Provo. I moved into Moon Apartments and my roommates were Hailey, Charleah and Symantha. Thanksgiving was spent up in Salt Lake City with Jennifer. Christmas was also spent up in Salt Lake City and it was my very first Christmas away from home. I made my first huge snowman that was about 3 feet tall. We headed down to Vegas again to go to the Las Vegas Bowl Game to see BYU play Arizona… and because Jennifer was there we didn’t win. I decorated my car and that was fun when the bus full of BYU football wives saw and starting pointing at it.

2009: I started the year in Utah. I was declared a senior at BYU due to credit hours I had. I was still living with Sam, Char and Hailey at Moon. In April, Jennifer and I went out to California!! It was so much fun. We went to San Diego, Los Angeles, Anaheim (Disneyland and California Adventure), Manhattan Beach, San Francisco, San Jose, Sonoma, Napa, Malibu, Santa Barbara and others. We got to see the Golden Gate Bridge, vineyards, LA temple, Oakland temple, San Diego temple, LA live and a “house”. I got a job as a nanny for a family in Draper, UT. They had 4 kids and they were lots of fun. Started my 2nd semester as a senior and was taking lots of fun classes and ended up with a 4.0 GPA for the first time in college. Jennifer and I went to Boston one weekend. We were able to go to Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts. I was again not selected for the nursing program at BYU so I changed my major to Family Life. I decided to apply to Duke for their accelerated program and found out that I was selected to get an interview. I was able to go home for Christmas break and it was cold in Florida the entire time I was there. We put off having Christmas until Jennifer got there on the 28th and it got further put off until New Years Eve. Jennifer and I went to Disney for part of our Christmas presents to ourselves and we were able to upgrade them so we’ll be back in 2010. That is when I saw my hot rugby boy from Durham, England. Ah, good memories! We celebrated the New Year with Chinese food and something that resembled Welsh’s sparkling grape juice (kinda). My parents were also awake to bring in the New Year, which is very unlike them. We didn’t last very long in the New Year- as we only stayed up until 1am or so.

With reading this... you would think that a) I like Josh Groban, b) I like to travel c) I've been in school way too long and d) my life has become a lot more interesting once I started college.

I can't wait to see how much my next 10 years will change. Hopefully lots of exciting things are going to come my way.

thankful this time of year

Somedays we forget
To look around us
Somedays we can't see
The joy that surrounds us
So caught up inside ourselves
We take when we should give.

So for tonight we pray for
What we know can be.
And on this day we hope for
What we still can't see.
It's up to us to be the change
And even though we all can still do more
There's so much to be thankful for.

Look beyond ourselves
There's so much sorrow
It's way too late to say
I'll cry tomorrow
Each of us must find our truth
It's so long overdue

So for tonight we pray for
What we know can be
And every day we hope for
What we still can't see
It's up to us to be the change
And even though we all can still do more
There's so much to be thankful for.

Even with our differences
There is a place we're all connected
Each of us can find each other's light

So for tonight we pray for
What we know can be
And on this day we hope for
What we still can't see
It's up to us to be the change
And even though this world needs so much more

There's so much to be thankful for

this time of year it seems that most people try to go out of their way to be nice and to greet other people.

i know that what i have wanted to do i haven't always got.

but i do know that i am on my way to bigger and better things.

i am about to graduate from college in 9 months with a degree in family life.

to some that might sound like a fluffy major.

it's not. it is amazing and it will help me in my life once i become a wife and a mother.

i don't know if i will go to nursing school, i don't know if i will go to Duke but there are some things i do know and for those things i am very thankful.

i am thankful for:

the knowledge that i have of the gospel

the opportunity that i have to be at byu

the roommates that i have

my parents and siblings

temples and the ordinances that are performed there

the chance that i will have to be a wife and a mother

my residence in the USA

trying to figure out what the future holds for me

So Friday, Oct. 30 I heard back from the nursing office. It wasn't a good response. I think I've come to accept that decision. Only because I can kinda see a graduation date in sight. Yes, that's right. I'll be graduating from Brigham Young University in August 2010 hopefully. So technically it's only one semester from my 4 years after high school date. I thought that was pretty good seeing as the major that I'll be graduating in hasn't been offically declared.

Let's go back to Friday.

I woke up after sleeping in. Decided to head to the temple to do baptisms to get my mind off things, spent 2 hours there. Came back and destressed my body with a workout. Took a shower and passed the remaining 2.5 hours with catching up on my weekly t.v. shows. Then 5 pm comes around and I decide to check my email. (At this time no one was home with me.) I open it up and automatically go to the 2nd paragraph where it states "congratulations" or "we're sorry to inform you". Well mine said "we're sorry to inform you". I shout out "YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!!" I didn't know what else to say at the time. So I sent out text messages to my family who I thought would care and sat there. I was fine until it hit me and I started bawling. Then my mom calls and it gets worse. She reminded me that I said that I wouldn't cry. I think I went through all stages of grieve in that one conversation. While talking to my mom, Charlie comes home and sees me crying and comes and sits next to me on the couch. I get off the phone and explain everything for Char and we have a little heart-to-heart chat. I am very thankful for a roommate like her. She made my day better!! She suggested we go to dinner and we go to Olive Garden. We get back from dinner and she goes to study and I start letting things replay in my head and the water works start again. I made myself so sick and my eyes hurt so bad so I just laid down on my bed and actually feel asleep. I slept until Sam got home and told her. And we had table time. Then it was back to bed for me.

Saturday was Stake Conference and I tried so hard to listen for promptings that would help me in this very stressful time. Sunday the same thing. I didn't get any life changing revelations so I was back to my usual prayer and scripture study.

The tears still come and go. But they are not as bad as they were on Friday.

I go to the advisement center on Monday to change my major from pre-nursing to school of family life. Well they tell me that I have to do a petition because I'm a senior and they don't like seniors changing majors. I try to tell them that it's not a real major and they still make me do all the paper work for it. So I do it. And then the guy at the desk tells me that my petition has to go get reviewed by the advisors, the director of the program and the dean of the school and that I should know whether or not my petition has gotten approved next Tuesday.

So if it is approved then I will have 2 semesters left after Christmas. Winter 2010 and Spring 2010 with a graduation date of August 13, 14, 2010. It seems so crazy that it isn't that far away. I don't feel like I should be graduating yet.

Then hopefully it's back to school in the fall for an accelerated nursing program. But if that doesn't work out then I'm still thinking of serving a mission for the church.

I have a lot of things about my future that is unsure and I don't like that. It's faith that I need- in order to step out into the darkness a footstep or two and it is then that the path will be lit again.

I've left out a lot of things about this whole experience but the gist is there. Now I'm trying to figure out what the future holds for me.

Maybe I'll just start traveling the world in August or maybe I'll meet my future husband my last semester here and get married 3 months later... :)... not!

I'll never know until it happens and then I'll look back on my life in several years and wonder why I ever worried as much as I do.

Boston in the Fall

Very long post about our trip to Boston... just fyi.

So last Thursday Jennifer and I flew into Boston via the JFK airport. This was my first time in the great state of Massachusetts. We flew out at 11:55pm on Thursday and got into Boston around 10:30am on Friday. It was an insanely long flight on very few hours of sleep. We got into Boston and we decided to drive around a little bit and see the wonderful sights of the Fall. We were both exhausted so we headed back to the hotel and decided to take a little cat nap. This cat nap of ours ended up being a little longer than we intended. Once we got back up we went out driving around again and decided to eat at T.G.I.Fridays. Yes, we ate at a chain restaurant when we were practically in the seafood capitol of the world. The food was still tasty though. Then we again head back to the hotel.

So on Saturday we got up early to have breakfast at the hotel. Then we headed to the Cranberry Harvest. We met some very nice BYU fans while walking to the buses. I was wearing a BYU shirt and they stopped us to talk. (BYU football won Saturday's game- 59-21... just random side note.) We rode a short bus, yes- a short bus, to the bogs! It was so fun to see the bogs. Jennifer was so excited during the entire time. We watched them take cranberry's out of the bog and into a very large semi-truck. We also saw a puppy running through the water filled cranberry bogs. We thought it was very funny. Then we went through and got all the tasty treats that were for sell. We purchased the MOST AMAZING seafood chowder. It seriously had entire lobster claws of meat chunks in it. Along with lobster meat- it had shrimp and scallops. It was SO good. We also got some caramel puffcorn and root beer flavored popcorn. We also got a tie for our dad for Christmas- it has state maps all over it seeing as he loves to travel. It was a very fun start to the day. After that we drove all around Massachusetts. We drove down to the southern end of the state to see if we could see Martha's Vineyard without having to get on to the $70 per person ferry. We saw a little bit of it but I would have liked to see it. We weren't able to see Nantucket. Then we drove out to Cape Cod. It was so pretty and FREEZING!! We decided that if we were on Cape Cod we should have a seafood dinner then. Jennifer got a surf and turf dinner and I got a lobster shore dinner. It was served with drawn butter, clams and a baked potato. Lets just say I had tons of fun with the lobster bib and playing with the lobster itself. Jennifer took lots of pictures of me. I ended up driving part of the way back to the hotel because Jennifer was exhausted. (Yes, I drove the rental car... shhh, don't tell anyone.)

Sunday, we didn't end up going to church but drove around and headed south. We drove around Boston and found Trader Joe's and looked for the one thing that I love from that place- Dark chocolate covered Cashews. They didn't have them. I was so disappointed. We also saw crew people in the river that was by Harvard. I had the biggest smile on my face. Then we headed south on 95 to head to Rhode Island. It was small and it didn't take long for us to drive through it. Then we got to Connecticut and headed to New Haven. We weren't able to see the campus of Yale but it seemed like it was a very nice place. Very pretty. We visited with an old co-worker of Jennifer's and had dinner with her and her roommate. I played with their very cute dog- Tinkerbell. We started to head back to Boston and we drove through Hartford, CT and Springfield, MA. Once again I got to help drive us back. It was so fun.

Monday was our flying back day. We had to be up around 4:30am. Our flight was supposed to be a non-stop flight back to Salt Lake. We got on the flight and I didn't really feel good. I almost immediately fell asleep on the flight and I got woken up by my sister telling a flight attendant that she was a nurse and that she could help. At this time I was kinda freaking out. I had no clue what was going on. Jennifer finally comes back and she explains to me that we were going to be making an emergency landing and that we were about 2 hours out. She told me that they thought that a man in the back of the plane had had a heart attack. So we finally got down on the ground and we are trying to figure our where we were landing. So the EMT's and the police officers came on the plane and I was trying to read their patches to see what city we were in. Finally we figured it out that we were only in Buffalo. That's it. Just Buffalo. 2 hours into the flight and we were in Buffalo. And then we were on the ground for another 2 hours waiting for the EMT's to do their jobs and then the mechanic had to come check out the plane, the emergency equipment had to be replaced. We finally took off again and we had another 4 hour flight to Salt Lake. Let's just say if my stomach hurt before it was 100 times worse at this point. My stomach was cramping. But needless to say we made it back to Salt Lake only about 3 hours later than what we were supposed to do. I missed both my classes on Monday but I was so happy to be back in Provo to see my roommates who had an awesome weekend without me.

Oh and our rental car was a very hot, very bright yellow Eclipse. It was HOT!!

Surprises!!

So on Sunday as my roommates and I walked out of our door to head to ward prayer I looked down and I saw a package of candy corn by our door. We were so confused. So we decided to put them out that night at Linger Longer that we co-hosted for our ward. We were pretty sure it was from someone from the activities committee as a thank you for doing what we were supposed to do that night at ward prayer. So we asked Cait and she said it wasn't done by her but she wished someone had done that for her. So after that we were more confused.

Today, Sam gets home today and there was a box of popcorn in front of our door.

So our curiosity grows even more. We want to know who is putting these wonderful little snacks in front of our door, for what reason and if it is for one person or for all of us.

So we are going to be looking more closely at our front door and see if we can figure out who this person is.

Do we have a secret admirer? And if so, who does the secret admirer like? Or is it just a nice person in the ward?

Conference

This past weekend was General Conference.

I feel so blessed to be out here because I have had the chance to go to the conference center at least once for every conference.

This past weekend I was able to go to the Saturday afternoon session, I always like going to that one in particular because that's when all the Brethern and officers of the church get sustained and I get to be apart of that and hear one of the counselors tell the Prophet that from what he can see in the Conference Center it is an affirmative. It's such a cool experience to be that close to the Prophet and the Apostles and to feel of their wonderful spirit.

I was able to go with my 2 roommates, Charlie and Sam and my sister. It was Sam's first time and I am so happy that she was finally able to go. I hope it was a special experience that she will remember for the rest of her life. I always find it funny that as soon as you walk out of the conference center there are tons of protesters. Sam got a kick out of one of them that was talking about sharing your husband with your mother. (A guy and about 10 girls were dressed up in pioneer clothes and had signs around their necks saying that he was Joseph Smith and the girls were wife #1- #23 or something like that.) She laughed out loud... it was pretty funny. If only people gave our religion a chance they would see how true it really is and how we believe in normal things just like everyone else.

I love conference because it seems like it rejuvenates me and makes me want to be better at everything.

My favorite talk given, by far, was Elder Jeffery R. Holland's talk. He is so powerful and he doesn't leave anything out and he tells you how it is and doesn't hold anything back. I always look forward to hearing him speak.

During conference I was still anticipating hearing Elder Wirthlin's name. And it saddened me when it was never spoken. How I miss that man. He always had such a sweet spirit about him and very inspirational stories.

A new Florida temple was announced!!! It is going to be in Ft. Lauderdale. It will be amazing to see Florida with 2 temples now! That was a very cool and surprising announcement. I am happy for those that this temple will serve.

I just love General Conference. Charlie tivo-ed it so we can watch it as much as we want now. And with that we will have to wait another 6 months before it comes around again.

Oh, and Charlie and Sam's brother Adison got his mission call on Friday!! I was able to be apart of the family 5-way phone call. It was amazing to hear him read his letter. He will be serving in the Cordoba Argentina Mission and will be reporting to the Provo MTC on January 27th. From what I know about him- he will be an excellent missionary and will serve those people in the best way he knows how!! So my congratulations goes out to him!!! Serve well and return with honor!!