A year later...

Wow, I really haven't posted in over a year?! How lazy of me. So much has happened in the last year, the biggest and most exciting thing being my marriage to Trevor McIntosh on May 25, 2012. I think we'll make a blog together, so this may be the last post on this blog. Sorry this is so short, I just have a couple minutes. Stay tuned!

My Best Friend

In just 54 days I will be flying into the Salt Lake City airport, on my way back to Provo for my fall semester at BYU. The most exciting part of my flight? Seeing my very best friend in the airport waiting for me :-)

We met last fall, when his grandpa Pelo introduced us at my ward prayer one night. But we didn't really start hanging out until Finals week in December, which was a fun week. Trevor texted me nearly every day during Christmas break when I was home in AZ, and I could tell he liked me. It took me a while longer, till about the middle of February, to start liking him more than just a friend. We started going out in the middle of February, but we didn't really make anything "official" until the end of March/early April. 

April was a wonderful month, and we learned how much we have come to care for each other. Then at the end of April we said a tearful goodbye as I headed back home to Gilbert, AZ for the summer. 

Texting, Facebook, phone calls and Skype became our means of communication, which are great, but definitely not as good as actually being together. We had some difficult times, especially trying to get my parents to understand that I'm old enough now to have a boyfriend. My mom met him when she came to Provo to pick up my brother and me to take us home, but she wasn't able to get to know him enough to like him right away. It was very hard for both of us, but especially for me, since I was kind of stuck between my Sweetheart and my parents, trying to get them to like each other. We finally resolved the problem, and my parents are fine with our relationship now. Which makes me happy :-)

Last weekend my dad and a couple of my sisters and I went up to Provo for a family reunion, so Trevor and I got to planning some dates. We spent the whole day on Friday on Yuba Lake, boating with his family. It was such a perfect day! I love his family, and I know they love me too, which makes me really happy. We got sunburned and tanned, and had a blast! 

We were SO happy to see each other after 2 months of being apart :-)

His lovely sisters Lauren and Abby

Abby kept making a heart at Trevor and me... :-)

Me with Chelsea and Abby. I love their red hair!!

We had a little fun on the tubes :-D

Tube wars!! This was right before Haley fell off...

I love him :-)

Shark!! 

On our way back from the lake we stopped at a yummy ice cream place called Red Barn in Santaquin. It was so good! We had dinner at the McIntosh's place in Lindon, and then Trevor and I went to the Provo Temple to just walk around, one of our favorite things to do. It was so peaceful, sitting there with him, just talking. It was a wonderful night :-)

The next day Trevor worked all day, and my family went to Farmington (NOT Farmville, as I mistakenly called it one night over the phone with Trevor...he teased me quite a bit...haha) for the family reunion. I talked mainly with my cousin Austin, because the girl cousins were all talking about girly things and Austin was the only boy cousin there. It was fun, we haven't talked in forever. Five long hours later the reunion was over, and I headed back to Lindon to go on one last date with Trevor before I went back to Arizona. We went to a delicious Indian restaurant in Provo called India Palace, then went up Provo Canyon to Bridal Veil Falls, since I had never been there, and it would be lovely in the sunset before long. The hours we spent there were my favorite from the whole trip. 

Then we went back to his place in Lindon, and went with his sister Haley and a couple of their friends to get frozen yogurt, then back to my aunt and uncle's house in Provo where I was staying. Trevor came in and met my sisters Rosalie (who is basically my twin) and Katie, and my dad. 

Then it was time to say goodbye again. But this time we didn't feel sad, like we had back in April. We were both so happy from being together again for the last two days that we couldn't feel sad. We were just excited for me to come back in two months, and this time I won't leave again. I don't think I could leave him again, it has been so hard without him, loving him and missing him more and more every day. And that weekend with him was truly the happiest I have ever been! It was so wonderful :-) 

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful man in my life, who makes me want to be even better, and makes me so happy! :-)

Still going...

So basically this summer has been crazier than I had anticipated. I work almost full-time at Chick-fil-A, where I was recently promoted to Supervisor. My new position obviously comes with added responsibilities, and added stresses. But I love it! And I am so grateful to know that I can always work here, so I will never need to job hunt again. My boss has literally begged me to stay here and go to ASU instead of going back to BYU, saying that if I did she would make me a full manager. But there are a few good reasons why I won't do that. First, the atmosphere at BYU is infinitely better than at any other college, with students with much higher standards and better lifestyles. Second, I have a scholarship to BYU, and can't afford to go anywhere else (student loans are not an option, I don't want to go into debt). Third, I have a great job at BYU in the Theater, making props for the shows. Fourth, and probably the most important reason, my very best friend lives in Utah. I couldn't possibly stay here and not see Trevor for that long, it would be way too hard, for both of us.

Besides work, I'm currently taking a Statistics class at Chandler-Gilbert Community College, just half a mile away from my house. My dad works for the Maricopa County Community College district, so I get free tuition. So why don't I just go there for free, you may ask? My first day on that campus explains why. I couldn't breathe because of the cigarette smoke, I couldn't look anywhere because the girls barely wear anything (yes, it's hot, but wearing less clothing actually makes more skin exposed to the sun, therefore making you hotter-duh!), and I had to force myself to not listen to anything because of the terrible language. There is not as much respect for the teachers, and people don't take their education as seriously. That is why I go to BYU.

The class isn't that hard, it's just kind of confusing because much of it feels like the same kind of problem over and over again, just slightly different variables changing which formula you use. It gets really frustrating when I'm taking a quiz or test, looking over my notes, and everything looks the same, so I don't know which formula or test or method to use to solve the problem. And it's also difficult because the term is only 5 weeks long, so the whole semester-long class is crunched into only 5 weeks. That means every day is equal to about a week of class, so I can't miss a day of class lecture, and I have to keep up on homework and quizzes and tests, which are all online. My days are long, with class from 9:20am to 11:30, then I go straight to work till 7:30 or 8, then home to do homework, then repeat the next day. It's long, but I'm getting this class out of the way, so I don't have to worry about it at BYU, and I'm earning lots of good money for my tuition and rent for the upcoming semesters. I'm counting my blessings, and there are so many.

My class ends next week on the 7th, when my summer break will really begin. But until then I'm doing homework every available minute and trying to keep my A in the class. And just counting down the days until I go back to Provo, and back to Trevor... :-)

I haven't forgotten!

It has been exactly 4 months since I last posted. Yeah, I'm a lazy bum. I haven't forgotten to post, I have just been busy. BYU's semester ended about 2 1/2 weeks ago, and I have never been so relieved to end a semester!  It was a hard one, with more work than I had anticipated. But also many wonderful and fun things that I hadn't anticipated either. :-)

So now I'm back in sunny, warm Arizona, working at the Chick-fil-A I worked at during my Senior year of high school and up until I left for BYU. My boss Kim said she would love to have me come back and work whenever I can, so I took her up on that offer during Christmas break and am working there again for the summer. I can tell she and the other managers like me, because I get almost 40 hours a week, paid above minimum wage, and often give me more responsibilities than my coworkers. What good blessings to have such a great job with fantastic hours and pay, and to not have to go job hunting when I got back from school! I am so grateful.

My boss has also made me her personal babysitter. I have babysat for her a couple times in the last few days, and I'm actually waiting for her to pick me up right now to babysit for the rest of today. She has two cute little kids, a 2-year-old named Gabe, who loves basketball and watching Caillou on TV, and a 9-month-old named Brooklyn, who just loves being held and playing on my lap. Since Kim is my boss and makes my work schedule, she actually put babysitting on my work schedule for this week! It made me laugh when I saw "Call Kim" (about babysitting) instead of hours to work that day. I will work well over 40 hours this week, nearly 30 of them at Chick-fil-A and the rest playing with Kim's kids. I love it! :-)

Yesterday when Kim picked me up to babysit she mentioned a couple of my coworkers who have left on missions recently, and that she wishes they could have stayed because they are such great, hard workers. She is not LDS, so she doesn't quite understand how important missions are to young men. We started talking about the Church, and I was quite surprised how many questions she had! We talked all the way to her house, and in the evening we talked again all the way back to drop me off at my house. When we drove by the Gilbert Temple construction site she asked if there was any way non-members can go inside the Temple. I got very excited, and told her about the Open House before the Dedication, and that anyone, LDS or not, can go inside and see how beautiful it is. She seemed excited too, so I will make sure I let her know when the Open House will be. It was great talking to her about the Church! And kind of ironic, because the lesson in Relief Society the day before was about Missionary work, and in Sunday School we talked about sharing the Light of Christ. I was so grateful to be able to share my testimony and what I know about the Church to my boss, and that she seems interested. She said she is very open to other faiths, and since there are so many LDS people working at our Chick-fil-A she has many good examples of Latter-Day Saints.

I'll try to be better with updating my blog during the summer, since I'll have more time than I did during the school year. But at least I finally got around to it :-P

Of feet and things...

It has been a long time since I last posted so I thought I would just upload a couple of pictures I took in the last few days. Funny thing is that I just realized both of those pictures are of my feet. Haha!

See that hole in my skin? That's what happens when you are ballroom dancing for almost 2 1/2 hours straight! My good friend Logan Palmer is on BYU's International Championship winning Ballroom touring team, so I asked him if he would help me work on my technique for Cha Cha for my Social Dance 280 class. What had originally been planned as a 1 hour practice session ended up as nearly 2 1/2 hours of some of the most fun dancing I have ever done!! We worked on Cha Cha, and he taught me really advanced technique and steps, way above my current class level, but since I have danced so much before I really wanted to learn more. Then another couple came in and started playing Samba music. It has been months since I have danced Samba, so we did, and he taught me the whole routine that the beginning Latin ballroom class learns, and more fun stuff! Then that other couple turned on Rumba music, and I told Logan I have never danced Rumba but wanted to learn, so he taught me the whole routine for Rumba from the beginning Latin class as well! In just over 2 hours I learned two whole routines, lots of advanced technique, and many fast, complicated steps. He was impressed with how fast I picked everything up. He said that since I learned both the Samba and the Rumba routines, I can skip that Latin class and go on to the next level up! And he recommended that I try out for one of the teams next semester! Sweet!! :-)

So what you see in the picture is where one of the straps on my Latin ballroom heels rubs on my foot. It was rather painful, but I was having so much fun I barely noticed. Today in my dance class, however, it still hurt, even through the bandaid I put on it. Gotta toughen up my feet! 

After we practiced, I opened a fortune cookie Logan had given me from when he ate at a Chinese restaurant earlier that day. My fortune said, "All your hard work will soon be paid off." I said, "That means I'll make Touring Team, right??" Haha, I wish!!

This was taken a few hours ago when I went to take the trash out. I thought I was crazy for wearing flip flops, since it's only 15 degrees outside with quite a bit of snow on the ground, but apparently someone else is even crazier and went outside without any shoes at all!

There are many more pictures I could add, but I gotta finish this up. FHE starts soon. This is going to be a crazy week with school, homework, my job, preparing a talk for Sunday, getting my planning committee together to help me plan a week-long ward activity (every day we apply different parts of our "Personal Plan to Become Like Christ", which we were all given at Stake Conference last September), begin applying for scholarships for next year, hopefully go to the Temple with my cousin, and somewhere in there do my laundry and dishes, and maybe sleep if I can get around to it.

On another note, Happy Half-Birthday to me tomorrow!! On July 11th, 6 months from tomorrow, I will be 19! :-)

Good times from the first semester

Cosmo liked my Nauvoo Prairie Diamond ring. Some guys standing nearby said he should make it a real diamond!

A beautiful, peaceful Sunday morning at the Provo Temple. It started raining soon after this, so I got to walk home in the rain.

Some of my FHE family doesn't come to FHE (They are definitely missing out!!) so during one of our FHE's we carved pumpkins, and I carved these to give to the two apartments, one guys and one girls, who we love and miss.

Mommy, you will be proud of my bread-making skills, especially my first time completely by hand, not even an electric mixer. My roommate said they were very good, and I agree with her, if I do say so myself! The one on the left is apple cinnamon with apples, sugar, and cinnamon rolled up inside (my dad taught me how to do that), and the one on the right is plain white. They were so GOOD and our apartment smelled amazing with fresh bread!

The sunset was beautiful that day, making all kinds of pretty colors on the clouds over campus.

I opened the door to let my Home Teachers in, and this is what I see. They had used Sharpies to draw mustaches on their fingers. My FHE Brother/Home Teacher Dakota, on the left, has a mustache, and my FHE Dad/substitute Home Teacher Alex, on the right, has a soul patch. They are crazy, but what can you do, they're family...

These books are a series written by my aunt, pen name Sandra Grey! Go READ them! They are phenomenal!! The book on the right, Trespass, is the newest book in the series, and was on the Best Selling shelves in Seagull Book. If you have any questions about them please ask!

While our roommate Rachel was home for Thanksgiving, Charlee and I went Black Friday shopping for Christmas decorations. I bought this little pre-lit tree and the candy canes, and Charlee got a stocking for each of us. I also got lights to put around our windows. It feels all Christmasy in our apartment now, I love it :)

Halloween pumpkin, Thanksgiving duck (was taped to a flyer about a Thanksgiving party), and Christmas lights. We just love holidays.

Woke up this morning to an actual blanket of snow, with more falling, as opposed to our half inch we got a couple weeks ago that melted within the day. It was breathtakingly beautiful!! My first time walking to church in the snow went remarkably well too, I never slipped once in my heels. :)

Almost the end of the semester...

It's hard to believe there are only two weeks of class left, then finals, then heading back home to AZ for Christmas break!! But it will be a much needed break, that's for sure. And it's much warmer in Arizona than here. Today there was finally a good snow of a few inches that stuck, but back home it's raining. Go figure!

This past week of Thanksgiving break has been a nice, relaxing, almost lazy week with classes and only on Monday, then just studying a bit during the week. I didn't study as much as I should have though, because I spent a lot of time with family here in Provo, and procrastinated and just got lazy. But I did make it to the Anatomy Lab on Saturday for a few good hours of studying on the cadavers and models before our Lab final tomorrow! Plus I will have about 4 hours of study tomorrow morning before we take the final, so that will be greatly appreciated.

Anatomy is such a fascinating class! I love learning about the human body. Many of my friends wonder how I can handle seeing and handling cadavers and various body parts for studying, but it doesn't bother me. It is so amazing that these people and their families have been willing to donate their bodies for thousands of students to learn from. It doesn't bother me, because Heavenly Father created our bodies, in His image. So in effect we are studying how His body is made as well. Isn't it amazing that we are modeled after Gods? There is so much to learn about the parts and functions of the body, and I'm only just beginning. But what I have already learned is so fascinating, and it amazes me how everything works together to make our body move, think, digest, feel, and everything else it does. I'll admit, at first it was rather strange to have the bodies there in front of us, and the TA's expecting us to touch and move them, but I got over it really fast. I was actually the first person in my class to touch a cadaver, to help my TA flip him over to see the muscles on his back. SO fascinating!! Did you know there are muscles inside the walls of many organs, all over the sides of your eyes, and all over your hip bone, inside and out? If you think about it, every direction you can move is because there is a muscle pulling your limb in that direction. Now think about your hands. The palms and backs of your hands, as well as your wrist and all up your forearm, are all muscles to make your fingers move. At least 30 muscles in your arms and hands move your hands and fingers. And your hands also have the most nerve innervation, giving your fingers more sensation than any other part of your body. Now tell me that's not amazing!

Anyway, now that I have gone on a tangent about Anatomy and how incredible it is.... :)

The lesson I felt like giving to my Visiting Teaching sister today was probably meant for me. It was from Elder Bednar's talk in Conference, "Receive the Holy Ghost." He speaks about the "importance of striving in our daily lives to actually receive the Holy Ghost." He says we shouldn't just expect the Holy Ghost to be with us because we had hands laid on our heads and were given the Gift of the Holy Ghost. We have to "desire, to seek, to work, and to so live that we indeed 'receive the Holy Ghost' and its attendant spiritual gifts."  When you're given a gift you don't let it just sit on your table and never touch it. You use it. The Spirit is the same way. We can't go through our lives not utilizing this marvelous gift given to us by our Heavenly Father. The Holy Ghost wants to be with us, he wants to help us, if we have open hearts and minds to let him in. One of my favorite handouts I ever got in Young Women was a picture of Christ embracing and comforting a young woman, with the scripture John 14:18, "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." Christ knew how much His disciples would miss Him, so he gave them the Holy Ghost to comfort them and be with them. How wonderful a gift that was. In Elder Bednar's talk he gives a quote from after Joseph Smith's martyrdom, when he appeared to Brigham Young: "Tell the people to be humble and faithful and [be] sure to keep the Spirit of the Lord and it will lead them right. Be careful and not turn away the small still voice; it will teach [you what] to do and where to go; it will yield the fruits of the kingdom. Tell the brethren to keep their hearts open to conviction so that when the Holy Ghost comes to them, their hearts will be ready to receive it." We need to not only be seeking for the Holy Ghost, but also have an open heart to receive him. That's probably why I needed this lesson, to remind me to listen and feel for the Spirit, not just expect him to be there. I need to invite his companionship. Companionship....what an interesting word, that just hit me. A companionship is not a one-way, "I'm in charge" kind of relationship. It requires working together, both asking and listening to each other's advice and counsel. With the Holy Ghost as my companion, I can ask him for guidance, help, and comfort, and he will answer me and give me what I need, if I listen and accept it. I can't tell him what I want and expect him to just give it to me, I need to ask for what I need, and realize that whatever answers I get, whatever I'm guided to do, is what's best for me in the long run, and may be blessing others as well. I'm so grateful for the companionship of the Holy Ghost, and strive to be worthy and open to his guidance and peace.