Krispy Kremes

Grandma and Mom with our first dozen of Krispy Kremes in far too long!

We used to have Krispy Kremes all over Arizona, but then sadly they all went bankrupt and the state was left without a single place to buy good donuts!! Well as luck would have just a few months ago they reopened one of the Krispy Kremes here and all of us donut lovers are oh so happy!

Freak of Nature

Ok so anywhere but Arizona this might be considered "normal". In AZ this is anything but normal- it is CRAZY!! We have been having some pretty cool storms this summer and we thought we had the last of them two weeks ago, but now they are back with a vengeance!! Last night dad and I went to see a movie and when we came out of the theater it was raining and there was insane lightining. When we got home it started raining even harder and the lightning was continous- the whole sky was lit up and I almost felt like I was at Disneyland watching Fantasmic or something! My parents and I sat out on our back porch and enjoyed the show! ha ha


I recorded this last night while standing at my front door! I love how one of the flashes of lightning is so bright that you can see the car parked out in front of my house!! I love storms (as long as I am safe and sound while watching them)!!!

Courage

So, I don't talk about it much- but this period of my life, the waiting period, is the HARDEST thing I have ever gone through. Coming home from a mission and then waiting to get better so I can go back, man I never would of imagined how tough this would be. I have grown a lot during this time and I have learned to really turn to my Heavenly Father. It has been such a good thing for me, this whole coming home experience- but I would be lying if I said it wasn't REALLY hard. I have about 2 months left of waiting and preparing and getting better- than hopeful around November I will be back on my mission! As I have been waiting I have been keeping my mind focused on returning- I have a burning desire to serve a mission and I want to go back so bad! Everyone around me has been affected by this whole experience and they have all been helping me out so much.

This week my Grandma was so sweet and found this necklace for me. She bought this for me because she was thinking of me and all that I am going through. The necklace stands for courage and this is what it said on the box "Courage of the heart is courage to believe in your dreams... Never give up on your dreams". So now I wear this beautiful new necklace everyday, it reminds me of how loved I am and also that there are people behind me supporting me no matter what. My dream is to serve a mission and I will never give up on it and I know that I have many people who will never give up on me. I am so blessed. Thanks to all of you who have stood by me through thick and thin. Thanks Grandma for this beautiful reminder! I love you!!!

How to best describe last night?

Well honestly I would say the best way to describe last night would be "Peace and then Cat Killing" I know I know, I've got some 'splaining to do! Well first off Cristina and I went to Jamba Juice and then went over to the Mesa Temple to walk around the grounds and talk. We had a great time talking and I took some pictures, it was even nice temperature wise! It was great to just be able to talk with my best friend and also enjoy the amazing peace and comfort that comes from just being on the temple grounds. Well after we finished our Jamba we headed into the visitors center. I was so excited to see sister missionaries!! I talked with all of them and then I found one who had only been out 1 1/2 weeks! So we talked about the MTC and she even knew one of my teachers! It was really cool to be able to have someone to talk to that related to all of my feelings about the MTC and stuff. Cristina was a good sport while we spent a good ten minutes talking about things she had no clue about! It was overall a great experience at the temple (like always!)


So beautiful!!

C Squared

Lovin' my Jamba Juice!

The gorgeous Cristina

I love the temple!! Always such a great feeling there!

So after our fabulous and uplifting time at the temple Cristina drove us back towards home. Well on our way this white thing came out of the middle of nowhere, ran right in front of our truck! We both screamed seriously "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" and Cristina slammed on the brakes, but to no avail we heard an eery thunk thud sound and Cristina made the mistake of looking in the rear view mirror and saw little fluffy flailing about as it breathed it's last breath! So ya after our peaceful time at the temple we cap off the evening by killing a cat! ha ha what next!

Let's get Creative!

My friend Jennie and I went to this place called "Creative Hands" last week and we painted ceramics. I made a pizza plate and was surprised that it didn't turn out too bad. I usually can come up with awesome creative ideas for any type of art project, but my execution of said idea is not always the best! lol :)

Painting my plate! Fun fun

The finished product- I went and picked it up yesterday once it had been fired and everything. Notice also that my hair a week ago was a total mop!! Ha ha yay for haircuts! lol

Sweet Apple Pie

So the other day I decided to do something for this family in my ward, I could tell they could use a little TLC. So I figured I would bake- but I couldn't do something plain and simple so I decided to learn how to make apple pie!!

My first apple pie- this one I cheated and used store bought filling and crust.

This one is from scratch- took way longer to make, but some how I had an insane sense of pride when it came out of the oven looking all awesome!!

The baker and the pie! he hee I was so proud of myself- I baked and didn't mess it up! lol


I gave both the pies away so I don't know how they tasted, but if they were as yummy as they looked then I think I did good! ha ha :)

The Magic of Letters!!!!

I love letters! I love everything about them- writing them, sending them, receiving them, reading them!!!! Best invention ever was the US postal service- not kidding!!

These are just some of the letters I have received from my missionaries since I have been home. The stack I received in the MTC is even larger!!! I have 9 missionaries who write me and I faithfully write them each at least once a week. For those of you who don't know- I have 7 missionaries from my district in the MTC that have become like my family and I receive letters from and write to all of them. I also write and receive letters from two more missionaries: my little brother and my friend Chris.

Oh how I love going to the mailbox every day when I get home from work! I get so excited when I get letters!!! As soon as I see an envelope with my name on it I immediately jump for joy!!

This is my baby brother in Denmark. He is holding up a letter he just got from me and his caption for this picture is "The Magic of Letters!" He loves getting mail as much as I do- maybe more if that is even possible. The other day he wrote me and said that he received 5 letters from me in one week!!! He told me how awesome I am and how happy my letters make him. He asked me if that was all I did all day- write letters? ha ha practically! lol Seriously my favorite thing in life is bringing a smile to someone's face and the best way I can think to do that for my missionaries is to write all 9 of them as often as I can! Mail is amazing and missionaries are amazing, put the two together and Missionary Mail is UNBELIEVABLE!!

Growing Up

It seems like just yesterday that I was pal'n around with Adam and company, but now we are just so old! ha ha This past weekend Adam got married and as I was sitting at the reception I just couldn't stop thinking how weird it all was, and how grown up we were becoming. Adam is for sure not the first of my high school buds to get married but for some reason, his wedding hit me. Ha ha I guess I am finally realizing that I have to grow up!!

Adam and I after I kicked his butt in Basketball for the last time right before he left to serve his mission in the Texas San Antonio Spanish Speaking Mission (yes the exact same mission I was called too)

Me with the groom on Friday night. Were all so grown up now. Ha ha well at least I grew out of the bleach blonde hair and boy clothes phase! lol but I can still kick butt in basketball!! :)

3 little words

There are 3 little words that seem so very harmless, but for me they are the cause of most of my fat related problems. "LET'S MEET FOR....."-these are truly evil words. Whatever comes after these words is truly a cause of my distress. It could be dinner, lunch, ice cream, jamba juice, you name it and we might as well add 5 extra pounds to my thighs!! The biggest problem is I love these 3 words because they mean spending time with my friends and family!!! I came up with a solution though- the next time someone says those three words to me I will add "a salad with non-fat dressing" to the end. ha ha No really though I have been going out a lot lately and there is no end in sight any time soon. Before I go back on my mission there will be countless goodbye lunches, ice creams, dinners and so on. I wouldn't miss those for the world, let alone extra pounds added on to various parts of my body. I have decided that I will just work on loosing all this "let's meet for...." weight on my mission!!! Lot's of walking, right, that'll help? lol


Some pictures from my most recent "Let's meet for...."s









And before you leave a comment and say it, yes I know that to solve my little fat problem I could make healthier choices at my "let's meet for"s but seriously, where is the fun in that!?!

Summer Camp is.....OVER!!!

Yay it's over it's over it's finally over!!!

It's a good thing too- because as the above pic shows, we got a little crazy towards the end!! Ha ha I am now working for the same program, just before and after school. School starts tomorrow!!! I will be working a split shift so I will have tons of time to do things in the middle of the day. I will finally have time to study more, go out with the missionaries, go to the temple and spend time with family and friends. If you are free any days during the day- let me know so we can do lunch or something!!!


Oh and also as a side note, this is my 200th post!! CRAZY!! I think I have an addiction- to blogging!

Cousins

I have been watching my cousins all weekend and it has been pretty fun! I love my cousins and spending time with them is always a blast. I took them to Golfland to play video games, to the movies, out to dinner and I TRIED to take them to do other things, but they don't want to!!! They would rather just hang out at the house! Man that is totally the opposite of me when I was a kid, if you offered to take me to a movie or something I was always game! lol Guess every kid is different!

Max racing motorcycles with Jake and Allison looking on.

Jake racing in Mario Kart

We had a air hockey battle and Laura sadly never won a game! ha ha

The things they chose to do instead of get out of the house:

Jake would rather lounge on the couch and watch X-games

Laura was totally engrossed in "Breaking Dawn" the new Twilight book

Allison wanted to play video games

And Max was in the zone watching Star Wars

Kids are so funny sometimes!! But hey they can entertain themselves pretty well which makes my job easier I guess! lol

A Taste of My Own Medicine

PAYBACK- funny at first, then messy! lol My friends Steph and Chels deciced to deliver (some deserved) payback. If you remember several weeks ago I posted pics of what I did to my friends' cars at work. Well I had totally forgotten about it until yesterday, the last day of work. I walked out to my car and this is what I found!!!

The marshmallow thing is an inside joke between us- I came out to see this message written with shaving cream next to my car.

That is shaving cream and marshmallows on my car window- nasty!!

Toothpicks and seran wrap

Ya my car was covered in seran wrap, that was fun taking off- j/k

The empty pack of marshmallows was seran wrapped to my tail light! Man it was funny but the marshmallows were a mess!!!! It was a pain to clean the gooey mess off my windows, but hey it's all good cause next it's my turn for payback and it's gonna be GOOD!!!!