Practice What You Teach

2011 was an absolutely amazing year. A lot of changes came about in my life, which was difficult at times, but I am so thankful for all of the memories and for those amazing people who have shared this year's journey with me! Here's a few of the highlights of 2011! -In January, I got to perform in the Broadway Cabaret at my school. I was given the amazing opportunity of having my own song and a trio! It was a blast working with the amazing Van Slykes and of course my wonderful friends! Performing in this production was such a great part of my senior year! -At the end of February, I was accepted to BYU. I spend the next couple of weeks deciding whether I was going to go to BYU or BYU-Idaho in the fall. It ended up being quite the ordeal, made even more difficult by the fact that I had never set foot on either campus in my entire life. My parents and I did extensive research about both schools. I made pro/con lists that went on for pages. Eventually, I came to a decision, but

Oh my goodness, at this time on Thursday I'll be completely done with my finals and on my way to the Salt Lake City airport to fly home! I can't even begin to express my excitement! I haven't seen my amazing family since August! I'm seriously going to cry when I'm reunited with them in the airport! I'm not even joking, I'm really going to cry! I have missed them so so SO much! Two of my best friends, Sydney and Christine, are coming with my family to pick me up from the airport and I am so ridiculously excited to see them too! I just can't wait to spend a quality two and a half weeks with my family! Here's some of the things I'm most excited to do: -go to D.C. and see the tree at the White House. I promised all of my friends that I would take pictures of their state trees. -go to the D.C. Temple with my family and the Bobby's and see the lights and a show at the Visitor's Center! -have sleepovers in the living room with my sisters -J

I can hardly believe it! In 12 days, I'll be taking my last final and then flying home! Every time I think about seeing my family again after 3 months and 3 weeks apart I get excited all over again! It definitely wasn't easy to be so far away from home. I had my fears about coming to BYU for sure. I was worried that I would get homesick, which I did of course. I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to handle the work load. It's so funny to talk to my friends now and realize that we all had the EXACT same fears, and that we all had moments when we first got here when we felt homesick or lonely. Here's a few of a things that has made my first semester of college so incredibly amazing! 1. My AMAZING friends I have seriously met some of the most amazing friends in the world here at BYU! We have so much fun together, and they have become like sisters to me! Some of my favorite things we've done have been: -loitering in the Cannon Center forever and ever -my HARR

Well, of course because of the fact that Thanksgiving is tomorrow, I have to write a Thanksgiving blog post. It's just the protocol I think. I am so very blessed and have so much to be thankful for! 1. MY FAMILY! I may be slightly biased, but I'm pretty sure I have the best family in the world. My mom and dad are two of my biggest role models. Even though I'm at school 2,000 miles away, they are still always there for me no matter what. Just yesterday, my dad helped me find a paper that had somehow disappeared on my computer while I was completely freaking out. My sisters Amy, Jenn, and Abby are my best friends in the world. I love that we talk about anything and everything! We are so supportive of each other and have so much fun together! I love them so much! 2. MY FRIENDS I am so thankful for my BYU friends as well as my Virginia friends! I feel so blessed to have such great friends who care so much about me and I care so much about them! I know that the memories

Say what? I'm almost done with my first semester of college? It has literally FLOWN by! I'll be back in Virginia for Christmas in only 24 more days, so basically 3 and a half weeks! I'm a little excited!! After Thanksgiving break, I only have two more weeks left of classes, and then finals! AHHH! I love Christmas more than anything and I am SO excited that I get to spend it with my amazing family! Being away from them for 3 1/2 months has been super hard, so I can't wait to spend time with them! Thank goodness BYU is amazing and makes being so far away from home completely worthwhile! This weekend, good ole Provo got it's first snow of the season on Friday night! My good friend Alyssa is from California, so it was her first real snow! So obviously, we had to go on a snow adventure around campus and take tons of pictures! It was a blast! Kaylee and I mimicking the statues behind the HFAC! We went to the library to warm up and took some pictures with the Chr

WHOA what a weekend! So tonight, I went to the BYU vs University of Idaho football game with some friends and looking at our tickets all of us had terrible seats. Naturally, none of us were going to stand for that, so we walked into a random portal and hoped for the best. Lo and behold the front row was completely empty! So, we decided we would sit there! It was AWESOME! I high-fived Cosmo (our school mascot)four times and we got to see an AMAZING touchdown right up close! We think we may have gotten on ESPN, because the camera guy came like right in front of us! It was SO COOL! We won 42-7! Yay for the Cougs! I'm sure all of you avid readers of my blog are DYING to know what a Harry Potter conversion means. Well, allow me to explain. On Monday night, my friends Anna, Kate, and Alyssa and I were facebook chatting because we just missed each other and we were too lazy to leave our rooms. Somewhere in the conversation I mentioned that I kind of liked the Twilight series. Bad mistak

It's not every day you wake up on a rainy morning and the first thought that pops into your head is "The Prophet of the Lord is coming to speak to my school today!" Well, I was fortunate enough to wake up to this very thought this morning! What an unforgettable experience! I still cannot believe that I was in the same room as the prophet listening to him deliver a message that was directed towards me and my fellow students here. It was so amazing to me that the moment he entered the Marriott Center, every single person in that packed room stood up out of respect and love for this incredible man. He started out his talk with a hilarious story about how one time he was speaking at a devotional and was not wearing his wedding band. He explained that he usually doesn't wear one, because he perspires from his fingers and the band falls us. He assured us that he is happily married. Anyways, one girl in the audience thought that he had been proposing to her, and called his h

Today was one of those days where nothing particularly huge happened. It was just full of a bunch of good little things. Today: -My new phone came in the mail! -I got so excited about setting up my new phone that I lost track of time. My first class starts at 10, and I glanced over at my clock and realized it was 9:55. I left right away and somehow still made it to class on time. What is usually about a 10 minute walk somehow only took 5 -I got to have lunch and catch up with Rachel today after two weeks of trying to coordinate our busy schedules -When the Verizon store lady activating my phone got evidently annoyed with helping me, instead of being mad, I just laughed and said to myself, "I'm in the real world now!" -I actually understood what was going on in Biology for once -my last two classes consisted of "watching movies" which really meant texting my friends and my cute sisters -I turned in my 8 page Anthropology paper, my first midterm, and a h

The past couple weeks of school have been super stressful. Last week I had a million tests. Okay three, but it felt like a million. First was a Book of Mormon test. I was honestly shocked at how hard it was and convinced myself that I failed. Yesterday I was looking at my grades on Blackboard and discovered that I got a B on the test and have an A in the class! I did a little celebratory dance in my dorm. It was beautiful. Then I had tests in Biology and Sociology too. It was probably the most fun I've ever had. I already despise the Testing Center. You walk into that seemingly endless room full of desks and you can just feel the tension. It's awful. This week was my week of papers. Three to be exact. That was super fun too. WOO. Next Monday my midterms start! The fun never stops! However, in the midst of all the stress of school I've still managed to have some fun! First things first, IT SNOWED! IN OCTOBER! It didn't hit the ground, it just snowed in the mountains an

General Conference is amazing! I just love it every time! Conference weekend started out with the most amazing football game EVER on Friday night against Utah State! In the last few minutes of the game we were down by four points and needed one touchdown to win. In the couple minutes of the game, Riley Nelson led the offense to get the ball closer and closer to the end zone with a series of plays (yes I am VERY well versed in football...) With 15 seconds left in the game they scored a touchdown and the crowd went WILD!!!! We were screaming and going nuts! Then we all rushed the field! I thought I was gonna be trampled, but thankfully that did not happen. Even though a football player did accidentally smack me in the face. I was secretly a tad bit starstruck. It was so much fun!! I absolutely LOVED all of conference, but I'll just write about a few of the talks that were my favorites. I got SO excited when President Monson announced that the Provo Tabernacle was going to be rebuil

I absolutely LOVE this quote from President Uchtdorf's talk at the General Relief Society Meeting: " Sisters, wherever you are, whatever your circumstances may be, you are not forgotten. No matter how dark your days may seem, no matter how insignificant you may feel, no matter how overshadowed you think you may be, your Heavenly Father has not forgotten you. In fact, He loves you with an infinite love." It never ceases to amaze me that my Heavenly Father knows and loves me. The past few days, I have been feeling very discouraged about school. I get kind of stressed about my grades, and have a tendency to be a bit hard on myself, as we all are, when things don't go as well as I would have liked. Yesterday was a particularly discouraging day. I knew that remaining discouraged and wallowing in self pity would get me nowhere, so I prayed and asked my Heavenly Father to help me get over my discouragement and move on. As I was walking to our hall bathroom, I noticed that so

BYU is amazing. It's just plain amazing. I absolutely love it here! These past three weeks have just been so full of fun and blessings! My classes are fantastic, I've met some wonderful new friends, and have just been having the time of my life!   My three favorite classes are Book of Mormon, World Dance, and of course choir! My Book of Mormon teacher gave us the assignment to read the first half of the BOM in two weeks! I have never EVER read it even close to that fast, but I was excited to take on the challenge! I found that I now understand the sequence of events better than ever! It was such a cool experience and strengthened my testimony of the BOM! Plus, it doesn't hurt that I now have a 100 on my first assignment! In my World Dance class we learn dances from a bunch of different countries and it's SO FUN! I love it. Then of course I love choir. That's just a given. We're singing a Gospel Choir like song, and those who know me well know that I'm pretty

It's still so hard to believe I'm in COLLEGE! I absolutely love BYU! My mom and I flew into Utah on Tuesday. We met up with my grandma when we arrived at the SLC airport. We then went to Deseret Book and looked around for awhile. There was so much stuff there! Then we went to Temple Square and walked around! After that, we met up with Colleen for lunch. Then my mom and I walked around some more and got a really neat tour of the Conference Center! We got to go up on the roof and got a really great view of Temple Square! Then we went to Kathy's house where I took a two hour nap, to help get over what I dramaticized to be a horrid case of jet lag. Somehow I've managed to adjust to the time difference. It's a miracle really. Anyways, we went to dinner with the Utah family then I went back to Kathy's and totally crashed. I was exhausted! Wednesday morning I moved into my dorm! I'll post pictures later, I'm kinda too lazy right now. I got to meet my awesome

I never anticipated how difficult going off to college would be! I am honestly SO excited, don't get me wrong, but at the same time, it's been really hard! First off, I've been working on packing up my room! It's so weird to see my closet so empty! I've made list after list of stuff that I need to pack/get and the "fun" never seems to stop! It has been pretty fun to see all of the stuff that I find when going through my room though! Papers from classes I've hated, letters and card from people, purses with my long lost camera buried in the back of my desk drawers, and so on! It's also given me quality time with my mama, who's been fervently helping me through the packing process! Then of course there's the good-byes. Literally the worst thing ever invented. It's such an oxymoron, I mean what's good about saying "good-bye" or "see ya later?!" English is SO weird. Anyways, I've been SO blessed to have had some r

                   I apologize in advance for the nostalgia of this blog post. In 20 days, I'll be leaving Virginia. IT is going to be SO weird, because I've lived here since I was 3 years old. Two different houses, but they are within 4 miles of each other. I've been so blessed to have so much family close by. My mom's sister and her family have lived down the street from us since I was about 8 years old. My grandparents live about 20 minutes away, and my Aunt Becky lives close by in Arlington. Our family has become really close as a whole for that reason, and I love that so much! In addition, as cliche as it sounds, I think NOVA is SO pretty! Provo has a lot to live up to, I really hope those mountains pull through! My friends and I like to joke about how I'm going to forget what a tree looks like! I'll Google them every day just in case. You never know, I may get to busy to stop and think about what a tree looks like. I've also gotten a great education he

I can't believe that my baby sister is 14 and starting high school!! Here are 14 things I love about my Jenn! 1. She will just say and do the most random things that are SO FUNNY. I literally can't get through a conversation with this girl without laughing hysterically at least once. We talk a lot, so needless to say she keeps my life interesting! 2. She has such a great sense of style, something that I on the other hand was not blessed with. She helps me find cute outfits and will never hesitate to give me some constructive fashion criticism. If I had a dime for every time she's given me her judgment face followed by the classic "WHAT are you WEARING?!" I would have a lot of dimes... 3. She is a wonderful singer! I really don't think she realizes how good she is! I love that she's a little budding soprano, because the soprano section's totally where it's at! I'm not the least bit biased! 4. When Jenn is passionate about something she

Oh my goodness. I'm an adult. That's just so weird. Honestly though, I'm pretty much still a kid at heart. So anyways, I had such a fun birthday! The festivities aren't even over yet! My birthday's lasting a solid week and it's beautiful. I'm all for it. Anyways, the day started out with me waking up to someone banging on my bedroom window. I LEAPED out of bed. I was absolutely TERRIFIED. The incessant banging on my window was shortly thereafter followed by incessant banging on my front door. I opened it to find my cute cousins Michael and Jacob standing on my doorstep. Jake sang "Happy Birthday" to me, then the boys left. My dad had left Abby and I my favorite breakfast: bubble bread! So good! Then after I picked Abby up from swim practice, we took a spontaneous trip to get a delicious smoothie from Robeks. Then, my best friends Hannah and Micala came over. We played Guitar Hero, and then went to our favorite restaurant, Charlie Changs, to get som

Today is my Dad's (insert age here) birthday! I'm sure he doesn't want me to post it on the Internet, adults are always sensitive about that. So this blog post is dedicated to my dad and all of the reasons why I love him: 1. He's one of the hardest workers I know. He understands the value of hard work, and that's something that he's not me over the years. He has been successful and achieved so much as a result. 2. We watch all of the same T.V. shows. Well most of them. We have a similar sense of humor and find the same things completely hilarious. 3. He's so supportive! He never misses any of me or my sisters games, concerts, plays, and so on. 4. He's raised our family in the Church. He converted to the Mormon Church when he was 21, something that definitely did not come without difficulty. He sacrificed a lot to join the Church, which has helped me realize how important the Gospel is and that I should never take it for granted. 5. He's alw

It seems that whenever I'm avoiding doing something, I blog. Today it's unpacking from my amazing vacation to the beach. So anyways, this Thursday is my 18TH Birthday! How did this happen? When did I grow up? I can't believe that I'm going to be an adult! It's just too weird! Hanging up in my room, I have a picture collage that my mom made me for my sixteenth birthday. It has pictures of all of my birthdays leading up to that point. Now readers, I will take you on a virtual tour of birthdays past! Ready or not, here we go! I really wish I had some pictures on my computer, but alas, I do not. Maybe some day. AGE 1: Well, for my first birthday, there's a picture of little me popping out of a box that says I'M 1! In the hair department, I was a bit of a late bloomer. There is ne'ere e'en a hair. Well, it happened eventually. AGE 2: Ah yes, the year of the curly afro. You read right. Ringlets sticking up all over the place. It was a mane that could n

Absolutely nothing in this world beats a week at the beach! I absolutely love it hear at Nags Head! My grandparents rented a HUGE beach house, and our whole family is here, 21 people total! Literally if I could live in my dream house, it would be this one. It's right on the beach, has a pool AND hot tub, there's a movie theater in the basement, and the interior of the house is just plain beautiful. Oh there's also the fact that every bedroom has a T.V. and DVD player. In addition to that, the house has an ELEVATOR. I've hardly used the stairs all week. So yes, we're livin' the good life. We've spent most of our time here down at the beach. There's nothing I love more than swimming in the ocean! It's just so much fun to be in the water with my family! My cousins and I also really like to go boogie boarding. We've had some hard core wipe outs as well as some cuts and scratches, but it's worth it. We always compete with each other to see who can

I just got home from Trek this afternoon and it was a WONDERFUL experience! I had the best family ever and it was so fun to have the Poultons as my Ma and Pa! On Thursday, we pretty much walked the entire day. I noticed the Lord's tender mercies from the very start. By lunch time on the first day, I had blisters on both of my ankles. I found that I was able to ignore them while we were walking along the trail and enjoy the experience. I knew that the Lord was blessing me with a good attitude, and I was so grateful! It was also pretty hilarious to listen to my mom and YW leaders fussing about my feet. It was cute. I love them. I was also amazed by the fact that every single member of my trek family did more than their fair share of work pushing the handcart. Some people needed a little encouragement, but everyone helped. Everyone's positive attitudes were truly contagious. We sang, talked, counted to 100 at one point, and whenever a part of the trail got difficult, we encouraged

Well, it's finally summer! It's been great so far! It's been so wonderful to not have to worry about school and all of the stress that comes with it! I miss my friends, but two (possibly three) of them are coming over today to see our new basement and watch a movie! We got new furniture in our basement and rearranged everything! It looks so nice, and there's the fact that our basement feels like it's doubled in size! There's a lot more space for people to sit and watch T.V. and I really love it! I've spent a good chunk of this past week getting everything all finalized for BYU! I'm SO excited! I kept changing around my schedule! Those who know me well know that my picture should be next to the word indecisive in the dictionary. I'm not exaggerating even one bit. I can't make decisions. It's such a problem. Some class changes were due to findings on ratemyprofessors.com. Back in HIGH SCHOOL (so weird that I can say that now), when I would chec

So there I was, sitting in the Patriot Center with the Herndon High School Class of 2011. All of the speeches had been made, the awards had been given, and now it was time for the presentation of the diplomas to begin. I sat in my seat as the students with last names A-E were read off. Before I knew it, my guidance counselor motioned for my row to stand up. As I walked up to the stage, it still hadn't hit me that I was really...GRADUATING. As the last names beginning with F continued to be read, I was closer and closer to approaching the front of the stage. Then finally, it was my turn. "Sarah Nicole Freeman" my counselor read. I walked across the stage and received my diploma as my family and friends cheered for me! It was a truly exhilarating moment! After I shook my principal's hand, I embarked on the long walk back to my seat. It was on that walk back that it really hit me. I MADE IT! I felt a sudden weird mixture of emotions: mostly excitement mixed in with a lit