Thanksgiving and More

Emily gave my mom some pictures of Thanksgiving so I thought I might put them on the Blog.

The Food

Ryan (my cousin) got married this past weekend. He got married in the Manti temple. After going through work issues, I got the weekend off and I got to go. I am glad I have a nice manager. I WAS scheduled for saturday but I got the day off. So, we left on friday morning at 6:00 in the morning. The car was cramped! It has been a while since I took a Utah trip as a family. I was so used to there being younger smaller people in the car so there was more room to move. But, this time we are all grown and all big. It was a long 10 hour drive. We made it though.

I got to see snow! Even snow falling. I was so excited! I have not seen snow in a long time. It was fun to play in it. I even made a snow angel. But, it was so cold. Definately not cool. :) The day of the wedding, I got to drive to the temple. My first time driving in snow. I was kind of scared. I got all the way to the temple without any mishappenings but when I got to the temple entrace, oh boy. There was snow and mud and I started sliding. I was so scared! I had no idea what to do so I stepped on the breaks. Later I found out that I was not supposed to do that. Scary. I am so glad no one else was there because I am pretty certain I would have crashed into someone.

I was so not prepared for the winter. I had a dress on, no nylons, and open toed shoes, in the snow and cold winter. I do not believe that is a good combination. I definatly thought my toes would fall off. You know that feeling when you can't feel your toes but they hurt? Yeah. I had that feeling. Not very pleasant.

My family decided to take pictures together and I will post some of them up. Bubba didn't smile in a lot of them but they are pretty good anyway.

We had quite an eventful day on the wedding day. Going to the wedding, going to the lunch, realizing that buck ate 2 pounds of chocolate, trying to get buck feeling better, Audrey eating some of Grandpa's medicine, Audrey going to the hospital, buck eating rat poisening, giving buck so liquid stuff to make him throw up, and just all the other wedding things. Quite eventful. Oh and Jaden was sick the whole way up. It was almost like we were not supposed to go on the trip, but I am glad we did.

We went home on Sunday and there was a lot of snow falling at one point. You could barely see three feet in front of you. That hapened for about an hour or more. Kind of scary. We got home safely though and buck is still living. :)

Here are some pictures.

This is kind of an awkward moment but it was so funny. You had to be there.

My Fabulous Parents

Candid Moment

Family Pictures

And the reason we came up

Gobble Gobble

This weekend was really fun. It was really relaxing. I probably should have done some studying or something but did that happen? Nope. It was just nice to spend time with family since I don't get to do that very often. I somehow managed to get the day off on turkey day. How I managed that I have no clue. I didn't even get called in. Phew! So, I woke up and said that it was going to be a great day. We cleaned the house up really well and then it was time to go eat. So I got all prettied up and went over to Toby's house to eat some Turkey. It was really really good stuff. Although, there was just not enough potatoes. I don't think there ever is. I LOVE potatos. After dinner, we all rested for a while and then it was time for a game. A game of Settlers. I have not played that game in a while. Turns out, I didn't win. But I got really close. Jaden beat me. By one point. It is fun when you are the one about to win instead of the one watching a person win.

While playing the game, there was some yummy yummy pies going into my stomach. My favorite one was the bannana pie. Love bannana pie! Tori, Tessa, and I planned to go take pictures this day and it seemed that we were not going to be able to. It gets really dark fast now. I don't like that. But, even though it was dark outside, we went to go take pictures. So, here are a few pictures we took.

Okay so that was a lot of picture and we still have some more. I have become a big fan of Picasa. Free photo editor. Not the best but I like it. There is a really cool one of Tori and her cello but I can't seem to get it to come up :( Oh well. Hope you enjoyed the many pictures of the fabulous turkey day. There are other pictures I will post up because I remembered that we did something fun Thursday morning but it is time for me to go to bed. :)

Halloween

Sam and I decided to do something a couple days before halloween because we both had work on halloween night. So, we decided to carve pumpkins. It was pretty fun. I didn't get to do it last year so I had to make up for it. I decided to do a spider web with a spider off to the side. I had a cheeter stencil thing that is why it looks the way it does. Alot better than what would be able to come up with. Sam did a cyote/warewolf. Can't decide what it is. :) He was creative and did his own design showing off his artistic abilities.

Kitchen Plans

Sam and I went on a really fun date. He surprised me with what we were doing. I had no idea what we were going to do til we got to our destination. Our destination was not a place I was thinking of at all in my mind. He drove to Lowes. What in the world were we going to do at Lowes??? I had no idea. He told me previously that I had to be creative and that we were going to go to different stations and we had to pick out some things we liked and that we might actually agree on some things.

So we go to the back of the store and end up in the kitchen areas. We sit down at this table and he pulls out some graph paper and tells me that we are going to design a kitchen. So we did. He drew his layout and then I drew my layout of how we imagine a future kitchen to look like. Then after our layout, we went around and picked out a sink, counter color, cupboards, dishwasher, floors, fridge, and stove. Then after picking out the items in secret, we revieled our plans to eachother. We both like dark cabinents and a cool oven that goes into the wall.

It was so simple yet so fun. No cost at all.

I have decided that since class is cancelled, I would write a couple things down. A couple lot of weeks ago, I had the chance to actually go to Jaden and Tori's concert. I love going to there concerts to show support. It's just what I do. I would feel bad if I didn't. Tori's concert was first and it was amazing. I have never heard an Eigth grade do as well as they did. (Sorry Tessa, I don't remember what yours sounded like). They were amazing. Especially in the first song. They did this amazing amazing cresendo. I was blown away. The whole thing was like that.

Then I went to Jaden's. Previous to the concert, Jaden gave me music downloads of the songs they would be playing and there was one in particular that I absolutely love. It is called O Magnum Mysterium. I love it. They played it pretty well although I thought they would do better at it. I think I just held to high of an expectation. But it was pretty much awesome anyway because jaden is in the highest band ever in his Junior Year. Who knew??? I didn't. I didn't even get into that band til my senior year. I think maybe because of teacher favoritism??? I don't know. Jaden also wore a tuxedo for the concert. (that is concert dress). I didn't even recognize him. I walked right by him and he had to stop me and tell me who he was. It was funny.

Since I am talking about music, I will confess to everyone that yes, I did take out my flute a couple weeks ago. It has been a while. Okay, a couple months but I did it. I played and it was amazing and I miss it. I wish I was in a band again as well as piano. Who knew I would miss it so much?

This is just a random picture I decided to put in. It is of me and my little cousin Audrey. I love love love it. I want to frame it but it gets really blurry when I expand it. It is still really really cute anyway.

Life Update

Life is just great. I can't complain except for the constant battle of tiredness. After a great summer of sleeping in and fun, I said goodbye to that life at the end of August. I started school again. I am in my third year of school working toward my bachelors degree in Speech and Hearing Therapy. I AM SO EXCITED!!! The classes are hard though. Who knew speaking and listening is so difficult. So many muscles, ligaments, bones, and tissues not to mention all the motions off all of those. Crazy hard. I am taking Anatomy/physiology of Speech, Anatomy/physiology of Hearing, a building relationships class, and Phonetics. I really like phonetics. My teacher gives examples of how some kids say some things and it is so funny to hear what some of them say. For example:

One of the kids my teacher heard replaced a word he did not know with yellow. So instead of saying Saxophone the kid would say yellowphone. The kid did it with a lot of words that started with S. It is interesting to me. I can't wait to start. :)

That is my life pretty much. I can't think of any cool stories to tell. I think I will go to sleep now. :)

My New Hair

This is step number one. I got my haircut finally. I was debating on growing it out as long as I could. But it just stopped growing. At least it seemed like it. So, I finally convinced myself and my mom that it was time for a haircut. After a little research on hairstyles, I found one that I liked. Really liked. Mom did what she does best and cut my hair and got it to look almost exactly like the picture. I really like this hair cut. ALOT!!! I love short hair.

Oh and step number two is coming soon. I want to color my hair a dark brown. I have the color already but just need to do it. Hopefully soon. I am excited. I love experimenting with my hair. :)

The Longest/Funnest Week Ever!!!!




Not this past week but the week before that, I had the chance to go to my "roommates" wedding. I absolutely love her. It was such a fun fun but exahusting week. I left on tuesday night. It was not a bad trip even though I had to drive five hours by my self. That was the longest I have driven all by my lonesome. I finally got to Deming, New Mexico. That is where she lives. To my luck, it was dark and very very hard to find her house. I had to call her and she had to find me.



Her dad's birthday was that day so when I got there, I said hi to the family and we all sang happy birthday to her dad. Jason, one of Abby's brothers, "flirted" with me. Abby said that he does not usually warm up to people fast but to me he was talking to me and trying to get my attention.


I felt very loved in that household. They included me like I was part of their family. Austen, another one of Abby's brothers, sang in front of me. Abby told me that Austen would not have done that in front of anyone. He is a really good singer too.



Wednesday was pretty fun. We drove to Albuquerkee. Three hours away. And all the way there I was in front of Jason and he was messing with me the whole way there. He was flipping my hair every once in a while. Don't worry. I got him back.


Thursday was the longest day ever! Abby has a two younger sisters. One is about eleven and the other is only 5 months old. I had to basically take care of the 5 month old all day long. Abby did her endowments that morning and her mom was with her of course. The baby's name is Emeree. She is breast fed so she was not happy that her mom was gone for so long. The first part of the morning was nine to ten. Then at ten the baby got fed. Then she had to wait the rest of the time for her mom to come back. The baby got really fussy after a while. Then I decided to take emeree to the temple grounds. She was screaming her head off but when I got to the temple grounds, she got really quiet and fell asleep in my arms. It was like she recognized the holiness and sacredness of the temple.


That was pretty much my whole day. Taking care of the baby. I was so tired. My arm was way tired but I loved it.

Thursday came and THAT WAS TIRING. That was the time to decorate for the reception. I got there at ten that morning and did not leave til four. It took that long to get it taken care of. It turned out really really pretty. Here are some pictures below of the reception. I danced with Austen and Jason that night. Also with Audrey for a while. It was fun. I wish I took more pictures than I did. The next morning I left and drove a long long time. I went to go pick Sam up from his week long EFY. I was excited to see him. I have not seen him for a long time. Well, to me it was a long time.


Abby and her Husband Hector Gonzales.




Yeah, I took a picture of my shoes.




Abby's sister Audrey. Such a cutie and so small.



Audrey and I. We had a photoshoot.

GRADUATION, GRADUATION!!!!!!

Well, in case you did not know, I GRADUATED!!!!!!!!!! I did it. Two long, fun, hard, exciting years later, I have my associates degree in general education. It was so exciting to graduate. My mom and Tessa came down and watched me walk across the platform, shake the hand of a person I cannot remember, and watched me get my diploma covering. The diploma will not come until July though. That is kind of a bummer.

It was exciting to be able to walk with Sam. It was not alphabetical so I got to be right next to Sam the whole way. I enjoyed it. Sam graduated with an associates in music. Here are some pictures of the graduation. Hope you enjoy.

Power Outage

Do you know what is really cool and not cool at the same time? Power outages. The reason they are not all that cool is because when you look at a stove for the time, it is not there. When you want to cook dinner, you can't because the stove does not work. If you want to heat something up in the microwave, you can't. Then there is the fridge and the freezer. There is the worry that the food might go bad. Especially when you have chicken in the fridge for that nights dinner.

There is a cool part to it. One thing is that you have to do something besides getting on your computer, which would be out of batterie. Homework for example. Or read a book. Or you could talk to someone. You could go get the mail and get a letter from your grandma. That happened to me. I like when I get mail. It would be cool if the power went out in the night time. Having to use flashlights and candles. How fun would that be? Probably get pretty old after a while but it would be cool nonetheless.

I went without power from 4:00 til about 7:00. I asked a police officer what happened when I went to go check the mail. He said that someone blew a transformer. I actually knew what that meant thanks to physics. It left all of Safford, Thatcher, Pima, Benson, and a couple other towns without power. That is a pretty big blow up. Crazy.

I don't know what to title this one....

I can simply state that I have a friend. A really really really good friend. And this friend happens to be a boy. So, I am going to tell you that I have a wonderful boyfriend.

We have not been dating for very long but we have known each other for about a year and a half. This all started happening in February. The first thing that made me believe that he wanted to date me or made me believe that he liked me very much, happened a week before my birthday. He is in the A Capella choir and the choir sung at an institute devotional. They sang this amazingly beautiful song. It was in spanish but it was beautiful. I happened to see Sam that day after the devotional and he asked me what my favorite song was. And I told him that even though I did not understand the words, I really liked the song. So, later that day I saw him again. (I saw him more than I usually do). He told me that he had a surprise for me. He asked if I was going to be home later and I told him yes.

I got really excited to see this surprise. I had no idea what he was surprising me with. So, later finally came and he knocked on my door. He had a piece of paper and he gave it to me. Then he left because he had a bunch of things to do that night. I read the paper and there were the translations to the song that I liked. What a nice boy. Especially since he had no time to do that, that day. He had a whole bunch of tests that day. But that was not all on the paper. It had certain words that got to me. He said something like, "It has certainly been nice to see you so much today although my desire to do so is never quite sated (which means satisfied. I had to look that word up). We will have to fix that." What a sentence right. That is not a sentence you say to just anyone. That is like a love letter.

Anyway, to make a long story short, we went on a walk on Feb 12Th. I.E. our first date. Then he said the desires of his heart. He said that he would like to start dating me but wouldn't do so if I felt like it was not the right thing to do. But, I told him that we could "try" it. See if it works. Go on a couple dates. But a couple dates later, I wanted to see him more and more. I was just fascinated by him. He is an amazing guy. He is a very strong member. I like when he teaches me things from the scriptures. I want to be able to have that kind of knowledge of the Gospel.

There are many ways he is amazing. We can talk and talk to each other. I can trust him. He respects me. He is funny. Especially to Tessa. It is funny to see them together. Lots of reasons. He has had so many experiences in his life. Good ones and bad ones. There was one time, the second week I was dating him, and these girls made fun of him. He was not doing anything bad. He was just being a nice and friendly Sam. And they made fun of him. I got so mad when he told me about that. I was not pleased with girls at that moment.

Perhaps the best thing about Sam, is that he is so very much in tuned to the spirit.

We have started talking about marriage. But at first it was not the word marriage. It was just talking about what forever was. Then we went to the temple one day, spring break, and after doing baptisms, we walked around the temple grounds and then sat down on a bench and then he told me of a couple questions he had and that they were answered. Then he started to talk about forever and mentioned that he would like to see me for a very long time. Then I asked him forever long? Then he nodded yes. I have already began to think about staying with Sam forever so it was not that big of news for me to accept. I was kinda relieved that he still liked me enough to see me for a long time.

So, yeah. That is me and Sam. I love him very very much. And I cannot wait for the moment when he asks my dad for my hand and proposes that we get married. It is going to be a very happy moment and a sad moment at the same time. I will be leaving the protection I get from a loving Bubba. :) I will have to fully trust Sam to bring me the same protection that I get from Bubba. Even though Bubba and I are miles and miles apart. I can trust him though. He will not let anything bad happen to me.

That is a big portion of my life. Hope you enjoyed. :)

Introducing....


I thought I might introduce myself. It has been a while since I have written and so much has happened. I thought I might want to update my extended family and family about what is happening in my life. This is going to be very exciting to tell you all about what I think is cool and exciting.

In February, a couple significant things happened. The first thing was my birthday. Hate to break it to you, but I am no longer a teen. I am two decades old. 20! Crazy. It felt very weird to tell people my age with out putting a teen at the end. But it is no longer weird to tell people that I am twenty. It is pretty cool actually.

My parents surprised me on my birthday. I got up to go to the gym early in the morning. When I got back, I was very very confused as to why not only the red trooper being in the parking lot, but also the white trooper in the parking lot. I could not believe that my family were down in Thatcher. So, I rushed into my apartment and my parents were there. Cooking me and my roommates french toast. Very very very great surprise. They brought birthday presents for me. I have never had a yellow shirt. At least I don't remember. But I got a really pretty yellow shirt. I love that shirt. Then I got a Josh Groban CD, the sound track to the Emma movie, a card from Grandma Ralph with money, a card from Norma, The movie P.S. I Love You, and for some reason I cannot remember anything else. Maybe that was it. Oh, I got a belated present from mom and dad. It was another book from John Schmidt. That is a funny story in and of itself. Thank you for everything anyone who showered me with presents. :)

The next thing that happened in February is going to go on a new blog. It is a pretty exciting one. So, here we go.

Is It Better to be Busy??

It is only the 3rd week into school and I am already so incredibly busy it is not even funny. I am seriously going all the time. I am sure all of people are like that. I have so many classes. Especially the music classes that you need to practice for. That is what takes up most of my time. I am grateful for being busy though. It beats having to find something to do. Have I told all the classes I am taking? Well, I will right now.

1. Physics
2. Intro to Stats.
3. Writing about Literature (english class)
4. Symphonic Band
5. Symphony
6. Flute Choir
7. Mens Chorus

That is about all the classes I am taking but I still have a few extra curricular activites.

1. Piano Lessons
2. I work as an accompanist to people who are taking vocal lessons.
3. I have to work on a piece for a festival. I get paid for that. That is a good thing.
4. I also have to work on a piano piece for my symphony class.
5. I just barely got roped into playing piano for the Institute Choir.

That is all that I can think of. I think that is it. Oh, I guess the flute teacher wants me to be part of the pit for a musical the drama students are putting on. I don't know if I can do it though. My life is already so busy and stressful.

I am in the process of finding a job so I can pay for rent and food but that is not happening. There are not a lot of job opportunities in Thatcher. I have applied for two jobs and hopefully one of them hires me. We will see what happens.

Well, that is what my life looks like right now. Not too terribly exciting but that is alright.

One More Semester!!!

Here I am, back at school. After a very good winter break, I am back at Eastern Arizona College. I have mixed feelings on being back. I really enjoyed the family this break and did not want to leave them. But you have to do what you have to do.

I only have one more semester!!!! That is if I pass all my classes. If I do, then I will be able to get my Associates. I am so excited for that. It feels like it has gone by so fast. Hopefully this semester is just as fast. I made a countdown to the last day of school and I have 113 more days left. That is including the weekends.

This winter break was fun. Forcing myself to exercise (that was not so fun), running with Tori, hanging out with family and friends, and many more exciting activities. Christmas day was way fun. Us kids were nice to our parents and woke them up at 6:30. We wanted to wake up at 5:30 but we were nice kids this Christmas. We did something different this year. Instead of waking up and going straight to the presents, we read a Christmas story on my parents bed and then we said family prayer. It was a really cool experience. I liked being able to think of Christ first and being gathered as a family for prayer.

That is pretty much all that has happened lately. I just can't wait for the semester to end. Wish me luck with every thing I have to do this semester :)