Practice What You Teach

       Since I'm apparently way too tired and burned out to focus on homework, I thought I may as well write a little blog post about Thanksgiving Break! I got to drive down to warm, sunny, California for the break with my lovely roommate Alyssa to visit her family! It was a full house as her grandparents and her brother and his wife and their adorable little daughter Addie were also in town for the break! We got there on Wednesday night and Alyssa's wonderful mom had dinner waiting for us! She's the best. On Thanksgiving day, we ate our hearts out and then just relaxed! I also got to talk to the entire extended family on the phone! I am so excited to see everyone in just two more weeks! There's never a dull moment, that's for sure. Then, Alyssa's sister in-law talked us into venturing to Target, which opened for black Friday, which is now apparently Black Thursday at 8 pm. The line at the first Target we stopped at literally wound through the entire shopping ce

Last Christmas, I was over at my grandparents' house as is our yearly tradition and my grandpa and I were hanging out in his office. We were talking about the recent lowering of the age at which girls in the church can serve missions from 21 to 19, my age at the time. I told him about how I had prayed a lot about the decision to serve a mission, and had felt that it was not what I was supposed to do, at least not at that point in time anyways. I told him that even though I had reached this conclusion, I had an itch to travel and see the world. Grandpa paused for a second before saying that he thought that every college student should have the chance to go abroad and experience a new place. He encouraged me to seriously consider going on a study abroad. Me being the planner that I am started immediately asking myself tons of questions. When? Where? How? I knew study abroad programs weren't exactly cheap and I had to pay for it somehow. Despite all of my questions, the more I tho

The summer after I graduated, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir did a concert at Wolf Trap. During the concert, Alex Boye performed two solos with the Tab Choir singing back up. Amy, Matthew, and I were all sitting with different people, so we were sitting there texting each other about how much we loved him. The three of us have this maybe only slightly far-fetched dream of one day singing in a Gospel Choir, and he's kind of our inspiration. While Matthew's been on his mission, we've been sending each other Alex Boye music, which in our case means he sends me mp3 files of Alex Boye songs and I send him back names of songs to look up because frankly technology makes no sense to me. Just last week he sent me a recording of him singing "How Great Thou Art" which I'd actually never heard before and it was beautiful. Anyways, a couple weeks ago, Women's Chorus was asked to perform at the Christmas lighting ceremony at the River Woods shopping center in Provo. I frea

I realized today that I haven't actually posted on my blog anything about my semester. I finally have a little bit of free time tonight, so I thought I'd give a little update! -Taking 17 credits and working has definitely made my life a little crazy. So far my grades are good though *knock on wood.* Despite the slight craziness of my class and work schedule, I absolutely love my major. I can't even begin to describe how wonderful it feels to know that I'm on the career path that I'm supposed to be on. I have no doubt that I am supposed to be an Elementary Education major. A lot of times while I'm sitting in my classes I wonder what I've gotten myself into, but I know this is what I am supposed to do and that the Lord will make up for all of my inadequacies! - I'm singing in the BYU Women's Chorus this year, and it has been an amazing experience! I've gotten to perform in my first concert, and then be a part of the Homecoming Spectacular along

      Today I was thinking about how I would respond if asked the question, "why did you spend eight hours of your weekend listening to a bunch of talks?" For me, there are several answers to this question. First of all, I try to always go into Conference weekend with a question. I keep this question on my mind as I am listening to the speakers. Without fail, each time I am blessed with inspiration and answers. This time was no different. Every single session there has been something that I have starred in my notes and transferred to my journal that has been an answer to the question that I had on my mind this time. It feels as if the Lord is speaking through his servants directly to me.       Conference combines two of my favorite things, words and music. There is always a Mormon Tabernacle Choir number that touches my heart. This time, it was "O Divine Redeemer." This piece has a special place in my heart. I will never forget the conversation that I had with my

So since last year's cross country road trip wasn't enough, we decided to take ANOTHER ONE this year! Only this time, my dad decided to rent a car, which ended up being a LITTLE smaller than we would have hoped! We managed to be comfortable enough though and woke up bright and early two Saturdays ago to start off on our adventure! We spent the day driving from Virginia to Kansas, watching lots of movies and episodes of How I Met Your Mother of course! We got to Kansas around 10, and Jonathan took Amy and I on a brief tour of Kansas, with an essential stop at Sonic for drinks of course! The next morning we went to church with the Shipps! We had a great time getting ready while Jonathan blasted his favorite song, "Mary Did You Know?" on repeat! I mean it's never to early to start the Christmas season! He is too funny. Everyone in the Shipp's ward was so nice and friendly, we loved it! We spent the rest of the day just hanging out and enjoying a delicious dinner

Now that I'm all moved in to my new apartment and classes have started, things have slowed down a little bit, at least for the time being, and I finally have some time to update my blog! I have a lot of catching up to do! First off, my summer job! I literally had the best job this summer! It was exhausting, but it was by far the most rewarding job I have ever had! I worked as a counselor at Summer Fun, the day camp at the Herndon Community Center. I had rising 5th and 6th graders in my group. I was a little hesitant at first, because I always had thought that I would enjoy working with younger kids more! Boy was I wrong! My 10 and 11 year olds just had so much personality! Even on the not so good days, they cracked me up constantly! No matter how exhausted I was at the end of each day, I was always excited to go back to work the next day and spend the day with the kids! It was such a privilege to get to know them! On the last day of camp as I was trying to leave, I had a huge group

About 3 weeks ago, after an adventurous trip that included lightning striking next to my plane and being stranded in the Chicago Midway airport for a night, I made it home to beautiful, green, humid Virginia for the summer! Thanks to amazing professors that let me take my finals early, I was able to watch my amazing little sister Amy graduate from high school! I am so excited that she's going to be at BYU with me in the fall! I spent the rest of the week in training for my summer job as a camp counselor at the Herndon Community Center! The following week, we got to meet the kids! I have two co-counselors and we are over the 5th and 6th graders! They are such a fun group of kids! They constantly make me laugh and are so sweet and fun to be around! I can't think of a better summer job for me!I'm definitely learning a lot that will help me in my future career as an elementary school teacher!  I absolutely love kids, and I feel like I am in my element when I am working with the