The New and The Old.: 2010

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Inspiration.

Footprints in the Sand

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.

In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there was one only.

This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints, so I said to the Lord,

“You promised me Lord, that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?”

The Lord replied, “The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.”

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Hope and Faith

"God doesn't care nearly as much about where you have been as He does about where you are and, with His help, where you are willing to go. Faith is for the future." -Elder Holland

"Hope comes of faith, for without faith, there is no hope. In like manner faith comes of hope, for faith is the substance of things hoped for. Hope is critical to both faith and charity. When disobedience, disappointment, and procrastination erode faith, hope is there to uphold our faith." -Elder Uchtdorf

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Goodbye to Good Friends.

This past weekend I went down to Saint George for one of my best friend's, John Challis, mission farewell! It was a blast and it was great seeing him and his family from the last time I went down to St. George, earlier this summer, with Mikey. At 8 in the morning, Nicole and I drove down... I was soo tired from my family reunion that I had her drive on the way down, intending to take a turn, driving back to Draper. We also met up with our friends Mikey, DeLaney, Alex and Seth... it was great seeing some familiar faces from BYU! John's talk went really well and afterwards we went to John's house for some visiting and food! Unlucky for me, I caught a 24 hour stomach flu on the way back so I had Nicole drive again, which I felt soo bad for. Other than that it was such a great trip! Soo... Good luck to John down in Ecuador! I know he'll be such a great missionary and I can't wait to see him and all my other guy friends in 2 yrs... wow, what a long time! :(

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

I Hate Goodbyes.

Great, I only have a few guy friends and cousins left to leave, just sayin.... GREAT :(

Monday, June 28, 2010

Oh, How I Love My Family.

This past week/weekend I had my family reunion, on my mom's side. It was awesome to see all of my extended family after such a long time! Thursday started it off with boating at Deer Creek Reservoir! It was great to get our jet ski out for the first time this summer... I forgot how much fun they are, and of course, it was great having the Schmidt's boat out there too! I got crazy sunburned but now it's turned in to a nice tan!:) That evening more people showed up and we had dinner in our barn and took family pictures up at our Heber property. Afterward, the teens and kids all played in the "teen zone" set up in our quonset hut. That night everyone camped out on our lawn. It was great to see our property being used for the first time with that many people. Friday we had breakfast at the barn again. Then we spent we spent a few hours cleaning up so we could head up towards the Heber Valley Camp. First, we stopped at a church for lunch and had a typical family talent show, which was quite the entertainment. Then we all cleaned up again and headed up the camp. That afternoon we set up all of our belongings in our cabins then headed to the lake for some fun canoeing and paddle boating. We all had a blast being around all of the beautiful nature, in the mountains. In the evening, my cousin mark cooked us an awesome Hawaiian dinner then we all gathered around and had a bonfire with s'more and entertainment. The night ended with an awesome, full-moon hike that my cousin Jared took all of the teenagers on. Saturday was that last of the reunion. We did a challenge course with team building activities and a zip line, ate lunch, then ended with the closing ceremonies, then said our goodbyes. What a great few days with the fam :)

Saturday, June 19, 2010

FINALLLYYYY.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have an announcement to make. I FINALLY FOUND A JOB. For the time being I'm going to do office work for my Aunt Julie and Uncle T.G. It really is a relief to know that I have work up until I can find a job in Provo. This was perfect timing since I was just beginning to worry if I would be able to pay off my Russia trip on time... looks like everything's gonna work out just fine :)

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

It's My Burfdayy!

Yesterday was my birthday and I turned the big 19. Dang, I feel old. Although, I do feel like 19 is such a random and kind of unimportant age haha! 20 is going to be much bigger! I had such a great day. I wish I was home in Georgia so that I could have spent it with lifelong friends but I had a great family-filled day with a few friends... not to mention TONS of Facebook birthday wishes, as always haha! I spent a lot of time with family during the day. I also went shopping with my younger brothers Steven and Jeremy and my sister Katie.... it was soo much fun! Later that night I opened my gifts. I got a bunch of random small things that I love! I also got a new phone and a NEW GUITARRRR! :) Don't worry, i've already started to learn! I decided I'm just going to try and teach myself rather than taking lessons, since I have so much time on my hands. Then I'm going to try and get into a guitar class at BYU in the fall... we'll see how that goes cuz it seems like that's nearly impossible:/!! That night I went out to dinner at Noodles and Company(my favorite in Utah)... both sets of grandparents and my aunt and uncle and their kids joined us too! It was a lot of fun. My favorite part was how my Grandma Jo tried to run out of the restaurant with her oxygen tank after making the servers sing happy birthday to me.... oh how fun! The night ended with a good ole chick flick with my mammaaa! :)WHAT A GREAT DAY :)

Sooo Much Time on My Hands...

So this summer has definitely taught me patience since I am still currently looking for a job after almost two whole months. It's definitely a little frustrating. Especially since we moved, it has been hard to find tons to do. SOOO, lately i've become a little obsessed with some things and have a little more time to watch, do and learn many different things. I've been watching a lot of t.v... wish I say I didn't, but here are some of my favorites and what I plan to make of my summer for the next few weeks!

*Running*

Recently i've become obsessed with running, especially when

training for the half marathon soon. I love it! Hopefully I can stick with it!

*Glee*

One word... OBSESSED! Seriously, I never missed an episode

this past season and I downloaded all the music... I love it!

Thank goodness there are reruns this summer, but fall needs to come

already so that season 2 can be here also! I can't wait :) :) :)

*Letters to Juliet*

All time , new favorite movie. I went and saw it the other

day with my mom and sister and I absolutely loved it.

It was such a completely chick flick... funny, romantic, and

just good alll around... I would definitely recommend it!

*Pretty Little Liars*

This is such a good show. I don't really ever watch t.v. during

the summer, but since I have a little more time on

my hands thanusual, i've decided to pick up this new show. It's

kinda dark but at the same time it keeps you your

feet wanting to know more each time you watch it.

And of course, I'm going to learn more on my GUITAR I just got

for my birthday. I can't wait to bring it with me to BYU too! :)

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Oh COLLEGE...

So Morgan (my roommate for fall and winter) and I are soo excited that we picked out our shower curtain/colors for planning our bathroom! Funny, and a little early, I know, but we just can't contain ourselves! We are soo excited for living in a condo this coming school year! Yes, that's right, not an apartment, a CONDO! We'll have our own washer and dryer, a huge living room and kitchen, our own bathroom and ahh it's just gonna be great... no more laundromat-type ordeals like Helaman Halls haha! I seriously don't think we've passed over the topic of our excitement of living off campus during any of our conversations! As much as we loved the dorms, we're ready for a change. Besides, it'll be fun to meet new people and all that jazz! We're just sooo EXICITED!!

Here's a sneak peak...

AND...

After much anticipation of hopefully getting some of my classes changed...fail... guess I'm just gonna have to wait until the begging of fall, which I hate because then you miss getting the syllabus and what's going on in each new class you add, during the first few days... sometimes even the entire week! It's soo frustrating, especially since I signed up for classes before a lot of people in the same grade as me! Gahh, if only classes in college didn't actually give assignments on basically the first day... but it's okay, I still love you BYU:) Oh and not to mention that I miss you OHH SOO VERRY MUCHHH!:( Come to me faster!

Here are the classes I finally decided to stick with....

*Accounting 200

*Statistics 201

*Political Science 110

*New Testament 220

*Social Dance 190- I'm soo excited!

*MCOMMS 320 (Business Writing)

I'm definitely in for a harder semester but luckily i'm soo close to applying to the Marriott Business school... only a few more semesters then here I come! :)

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!

Happy 10th Birthday to my little brother Jeremy! I love you. I can't believe my younger siblings are already getting so old! We went to Thanksgiving Point to watch the IMAX movie... Jerbear's request haha! Then out to dinnerr with the family... It was nice to have my brotherJosh there, since he isn't home that often and, of course, it was great to have both sets of grandparents there! :) That is the great part about living in Utah! We get to see all the wonderful family that lives so close to us! This weekend has been a blast... this is definitely one of the highlights though!

HAPPY

BIRTHDAYYYYYY :) :) :)

Riverwoods 10K :)

Today I ran the Riverwoods 10K with my dad! At first we were a bit nervous, since we didn't train like we said we would! It ended up being soo much fun. We decided to walk and run, just taking it easy since we weren't as prepared as some of the other people! about 50 degrees! The weather was PERFECT... it was overcast and It started at Bridal Veil Falls, which was GORGEOUS! Oh man, I though driving up the Provo Canyon was gorgeous, running down the bike trail was even more so! Funny story... so the buses left the pick up area before the race so my dad and I got a ride up with some of the timers... long story short, they dropped s off at the wrong placed and we ended up walking 2 miles to get to the start of the 10K... oh boy! But I really want to sign up for the half marathon in October... doing this 10K was a motivation to me. Hopefully i'll start training more soon so i'll be prepared for October! This summer my dad and I are gonna start doing a bunch of 5Ks and more and build our way up!

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Soo Sad, Yet Soo Proud! :)

Oh man... it's soo sad yet awesome that all my guy friends from BYU are leaving. Especially this past Wednesday, it seems like sooo many people entered the MTC! Even though it's pretty sad that most of us are going to have to find new guy friends in the fall, I'm so proud of all my guy friends because of how willing and enthusiastic they are about leaving their normal lifestyle to be missionaries and serve the lord for 2 years, taking a break from school and all... IT'S SOO AMAZING! One of the things I loved about BYU is how for the most part, all the guys were worthy priesthood holders that I could turn to whenever. I'm soo proud of all of them! On Tuesday night I said bye to Aaron Larson, who's serving in Birmingham, Alabama. Good luck to him!

Friday, May 28, 2010

Home Sweet Home... FALSE! I Miss GA :(

Oh boy... even though this summer has been quite relaxing, I can't help but miss Georgia. Especially seeing pictures all over facebook of everything going on back home makes me miss it even more. Utah's great though... I guess it's a fresh new start!! This is why I miss GA...

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Russia Bound!

Even though August 2011 is soo far away I figured i'd just vent since I'm soo excited. In fall of 2011 my past roomy Lindsay and I are going to St. Petersburg, Russia through the ILP program, where we'll be teaching little kids English. This is going to be such a neat experience because I was born in St. Petersburg and i've never been back since my parents adopted me. We're also going to Sweded, Finland, Latvia and Estonia! :) I'M SOOOOO EXICITED! Hopefully this next year will fly by!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Summer... Easy Liviing... St. George :) :) :)

Summer is FINALLY here! As much as I LOVED BYU, it's nice to be able to relax. Here it goes... This past weekend I went to St George with Mikey Caplin, DeLaney Westfall, Alex Hoeft and we all stayed at John Challis' house... oh how i've missed them! We went hiking, boating, went to a dance and it was just a lot of fun! What a fun way to start of the summer! I can't wait for this summer to actually begin. I have soo many trips planned! My family and I are going to Mexico for 2 weeks to do humanitarian work. We also have a family reunion and a cabin trip to go four wheeling.. should be pretty fun!

Georgia! Home Sweet Home! :)

Summer started off with a visit to Georgia! I didn't get to see that many people since all my friends were still at college but I did get to see friends from my ward and I stayed with Elysse for a few days! It was a lot of fun and it was nice to visit all the people I grew up with for the past 14 years of my life! It was definitely fun getting together with all the girls from my old ward and going to Yogli Mogli.... soooo goood :)

Oh BYU... How I Miss You So!!!

Wow! Where do I even start with BYU. It was such a great experience! I love all the friends I made and all the fun, crazy times I had with everyone. I had the best hall... TAYLOR 2200:) Next fall is gonna be hard with all the boys gone on missions but I'm soo excited to move in to an apartment with one of my best friends and I know i'll meet awesome new people!! Fall 2010 here I come! Here are some, well many highlights from this past year...

Second Semester Roommates...