Baptism

AMAZING!!! Tonight I had the wonderful opportunity to attend my friend from high school, Christy Williams, baptism. There are not words to describe how fabulous this evening was. Christy was just beaming with the spirit and she was just so happy!! I am so grateful I was able to be there on her special day!

Kristi, Christy, Cristina
-Because that's not confusing!! lol-

Cheese Fries

Yes, I am dedicating a whole blog post to my dad's cheese fries!! Honestly if you tried them, you would do it too! lol Honestly though for some reason no restaurant's cheese fries can compare to my dad's- believe me, I've tried to find some that even come close, and it's not possible!! My dad has kind of made a tradition of making cheese fries whenever my best friends come over. Which just gives me an extra little incentive to keep them around- lol! ;)

Cheesy goodness

The master chef at work!!

The happy consumers!! -And don't judge, but yes C Squared and I ate the whole pan of fries, just the two of us!! TOTALLY WORTH THE CALORIES! lol

Rub Some Dirt On It Wuss!!

I for sure never thought I would be putting my thoughts and feelings out into cyber space for all to see like this, but I feel like letting you all know what's going on and everything. I would be lying if I said that these last few weeks have been easy. Even after my epiphany two weeks ago, things have been rough. Pretty much like a roller coaster. I have had my good days (my ups) and my bad days, REALLY bad days (my downs) but through all of this I have been learning a lot about myself and I have been able to grow closer to my savior. I kept letting myself stay down and the bad days would continue, I have finally realized how much control I really do have over how I feel and whether I have a good day or a bad one. Today was a day that I told myself 3 weeks ago would be a bad one and I kept telling myself that all the way up until this morning. Today- May 28, 2008 is a date I probably won't forget anytime soon, it was my departure day from the MTC. Today was the day I would have gone to Texas. I of course kept thinking that today would be a miserable day because I am here instead of where I wanted to be. But that all changed when I woke up this morning. My friend Adam texted me and said to check out the pictures he had just put on his blog and I had just enough time before I left for work, so I quick booted up my laptop. Those pictures were a tender mercy. I looked at all of them and remembered the good times I had with each and every single one of those great missionaries and my teacher Hermano Wing. I thought of the amazing adventure they are about to take part in and what great missionaries I know they all will be. Instead of feeling down on myself and dwelling in the fact that I wasn't leaving with them- I realized how blessed I even was to go to the MTC in the first place and meet all of those amazing people who became family to me. The Lord loves me and I know it, he wants me to return to my mission and serve him. I will return, I will keep my head up and as my dear friend Adam would say to me I will "Rub Some Dirt On It Wuss" and take the struggles as blessings, learn from them and grow stronger. I will have a new departure date someday and that will be the one that I will NEVER forget!!

Back to Work!!

So as soon as I came home from the MTC I needed to keep myself busy so of course I needed to find a job. My old job took me back without any hoops to jump through so I went ahead and signed on with them. I work for Gilbert Public Schools Summer Day Camp program (called VIK). I am a counselor over 24 third graders and today was the first day of camp.

So excited to go back to work- can't you tell? Look at that so fabulous bright red VIK shirt, I for sure missed those in the MTC! lol Not really!

I decorated my classroom with Extreme sports stuff. I didn't take many pics of it- but this is a poster I made.

I decorated the back of the door and all over the walls with skate stickers and pics of snowboarding/surf/ skateboarding from magazines. I got many compliments from the other teachers and was told I had the best decorated classroom!! Yay! lol

Memorial Day Happenings

I was invited to three different BBQ's on Memorial Day and each of them was a ton of fun and a ton of food!! The funny thing was there was different food at each one!! Yay! lol I took tons of pictures at all of them- so here are some of them!


PARTY #1 GRANDMA'S HOUSE

I swam with all of my cousin's at my grandma's and my cousin Jake and I kept competing with each other. Whether it be noodle fighting or the above picture- trying to catch Splash Balls while jumping off of the diving board.

Ha ha I was victorious!! I caught a ball in each hand!! Too bad Jake could do it more times than me. He is 7 years younger than me and yet he can beat me in lots of things- and he LOVES that fact!! lol He's a good kid, I love 'em!

Keeping cool in the shade my Great Grandpa- he turns 100 in July!!!

Sadly yes, those crazy women are related to me. My mom and my Aunt Jill.

Me with the girls! My sis in law Sarah, My baby brother's girlfriend Ingrid and her little sister Anna.

Like mother, like daughter

Crazy random self portraits are the BEST!!

My aunt brought over a bunch of hair stuff to give my cousin Allison- so I decided to play beauty shop and do Ally's hair!! lol She wasn't too impressed with my work!

Then it was my turn to get beautified!

Gorgeous, no? Lol me with all of my little hairstylists!! Love these kids!



PARTY # 2 JENNIE'S HOUSE

Keith got off work and joined us for this party

Crazy little Emily- she was having fun with all of the adult attention, being the only kid and all

Jessica and her dog (I think it is more like a dog parading around in a rat suit)

My mom and her best friend Jennie

Erin- posing awkwardly! lol


PARTY #3 THE PARK
As you can see, this party involved getting wet!

Really WET!!

And dirty!!

Some of us "water balloon volleyball" players

My two best friends! A girl is lucky to have one best friend, but man TWO!!! It's such a blessing!

Muddy Buddies

My uncle and cousins invited me to come out riding with them today and I jumped at the chance!! I think I almost forgot how much I LOVE getting on a quad and just ripping it as fast as I can! It was so much fun and it was just the first of many more riding trips to come before I go back on my mission. The weather was perfect and since it just rained all day Thursday, Friday and this morning the trails were nice and muddy!


The Kids all lined up- ready to go!! Take a look at how shiny and clean those bikes are- it for sure didn't last long!! (I took the pic so obviously I'm not in it, but that orange quad off to the side is the one I rode. A Yamaha Blaster 250 Two Stroke)


Max and Allison before the ride- they are so clean!!!


Laura in her new riding gear that she got for her B-day!!


Jake showing off- popping a wheelie on his 400!


Max showing off some of his mud!


Muddy Jake next to his muddy quad. -You can tell he was wearing his chest protector while we were riding cause the middle of his jersey is pretty clean!


Jake and I were definitely the muddiest!! His quad USED to be black!! lol


Some of the gear- covered in mud!!


What a nice cousin I have, I pose for a picture with her and she goes to dump water on my head!! lol Look at our pants to see just how muddy we are!! And yes I have some serious helmet hair- what can I say?

Erin Graduated- yay!

Me and the Grad! -And just so you know I WAS wearing girl clothes but they got all wet cause I got rained on, so I changed into my cool comfy clothes (yes, they are boy clothes- deal with it! lol)

Oh how cute!! Erin the High School Graduate

Mom is the unsuspected victim of a gangster photo! lol


So my friend slash fake cousin (her mom is my mom's best friend so we grew up together) Erin Bradfield graduated from Gilbert High School last night. I was planning on going but then guess what, it POURED DOWN RAIN!! So mom and I opted out and met up with them after for cake and a little celebrating! Congrats to Erin she is such a good kid- I'm Proud of her!!

Sending My Love to the MTC!

I miss my MTC family like CRAZY!!!! I never thought I could get so attached to 9 random people, but oh did I ever! I have the hardest time not being able to talk to my companions! I grew so close with them and we went through so much together, I love them SO MUCH!! I send them Dear Elders almost every day, but it's so not the same! The one blessing out of all of this is my teachers, they really aren't my teachers anymore. They are my friends now and I get to talk to them everyday!! It is so amazing and it helps so much!! So anyway last week I sent my whole district (5 Elders, 2 Hermanas and 2 Teachers) a little care package with some funny stuff (inside jokes- we have MANY of those) and some practical stuff too. Well they all leave next week!!! Ahh I can't believe it, so I wanted to send them one last package while they were all together. So I had to be creative with this one because I didn't want to send a bunch of random stuff they would either have to leave at the MTC or try to use or what not. Plus I have to keep it as cheap as possible because there are 9 of them and it all adds up and also just sending the box alone is ten bucks, plus I am dirt poor! lol So I went to party city and tried to find something to send them all.

They had these cute plastic character cups and so I found one that fit each person and then also got some stickers to go along with it. I then found some cute things to fill up the cups. I got creative and wrapped them each up in cellophane and what not!! It was quite fun and I think it turned out cute!

Here is all 9 of them- I had so much fun picking out specific things for each person- I seriously spent like an hour at party city!!!

And of course the box couldn't be plain and boring!! No way!! Stickered up Hermana Kleisler style!! lol I miss them all so much and I know that when they get this they will know how much I love them all!!

The Lunch Bunch!

I went to lunch yesterday with a bunch of people and it was really quite fun!! So ya, here's a pic!

Happy Birthday Big Bro!

A pink cake? Manly!!

Keith and his wife Sarah

Some of the fam!

I love my big bro!!! Especially when he attempts to look cool- like in the above pic! lol


Keith turned the big "23" on Friday so last night we had cake and ice cream with the family to celebrate! I am pretty much a big fan of my big brother!! He is a great example to me. I love him and hope he has an amazing twenty third year of his life!! Woot Woot!

Back into The Swing of Things

Here are a few pics from my week. I have gotten back into the swing of things and back into life! I am loving it and am doing so well!! I am honestly so happy- happier than I have ever been before (with the exception of some of my really good days at the MTC). I have so much hope and I am filled with desire to live my life to the fullest and stay positive no matter what happens! I know there are tough times ahead of me, but I have already faced some way tough times the last two months and I know I am NEVER alone!! Life is GOOD!!!

Hanging out at Sonic and being silly as always!

My 'Ness!! So good to have my friends again!!

Cheese it up C Squared!! I love my 'Stina!

Pretty sure there is not a cuter 20 month old on the planet!!!

I loved spending time with my Annie baby this week!

I love love love this girl!!!!

So totally styl'n!

Ya that's right- best babysitter ever award, take her to Joe's BBQ and let her stuff her face with chocolate chip cookie!! he hee

And who can ever forget crazy fun friends who meet you at Joe's BBQ!! Boy did I miss those yummy giant baked potatoes!! Oh and Kilie I missed you too! lol