What I have been up to...

Okay so it has been awhile since I have blogged...I know! Life has been crazy! School has been taking over my life. I have learned a lot but had some hard days during the semester which I am thankful for the experiences that they have given me. I am so thankful for my family and roomies for always helping me to keep going!

Here are just some pictures from the semester. The first few ones should be at the end but it didn't want to move. These are from the snowflake temple with two of my roomates.

Kristine, Alex, & Me

That's right...we are that awesome!



I love us!

We went to the Mesa temple early one Saturday morning too!

Driving back!

Okay so we went to Utah for conference in the beginning of October. We found out that there was this big conference dance up there, so we went to it! This is us getting ready!

All the ladies at the dance. Me, Alex, Kristine, Christy, Tiffany, and Melanie.

We went to a store and they had these sunglasses. What do you think? Stylish right!?

We are so cool because we went to EAST HIGH where they filmed High School Musical. So we had to do a jumping picture.

Then we did individual shots, notice everyone else's technique except for mine...

Kristine

Christy (she was the most excited about going)

Alex

Yeah then there is me who looks...special

Roomates! Christy, Kristine, Me, and Alex

All the girls!

Kristine and Me

MY FAVORITE ONE! MY ROOMIES! Love these girls so much!

Waiting in line for the Sunday morning session in the rain! But it was so worth it!

All of us!

Okay this is our apartment family picture. We have an inside joke that we each are a different member of the family. Kristine is the dad, I am the mom, Alex is the oldest child, and Christy is the baby of the family. Hence the family picture! Haha!

Random statue on route 66!

Back to School!

So I have been back in Flagstaff for 3 weeks now and it has been great! I am enjoying the cool weather and being back in the trees! I am loving living in my new apartment! I have amazing roommates! We are always laughing and having a good time!

This past week was my first week of school. It is going to be a busy and crazy semester. I am taking 19 credits this semester! In my program this semester we are focusing on special education. All my classes are on special education. My placement for the first nine weeks is in a high school English resource room. I am looking forward to my placement but at the same time I am not. Because of how the class is run. It will be interesting and I know I will learn from the experience.

Some of things I have been up to in the past weeks are... I went to Lake Powell with friends for an Institute day activity which was amazing and it was super windy so we all ate a lot of sand. Arianna and I made a weekend trip up to Flag for a little vaca before school. All kinds of adventures in Flagstaff. And this weekend I made a mini trip to the valley to go to Calli and Richard Gurr's wedding reception. It was very pretty! Calli looked gorgeous! And it was awesome to see that Forrest is home too! Trying to refinish a dresser. So I have been busy and loving life!

The last few weeks have been a blast for me! I have had so much fun with good friends!

I went to Eagar for 3 days for my best friend Levi's farewell. Kristine and I drove up on Saturday and came back on Monday. Driving with her was so much fun and we were laughing so hard the entire weekend! On Saturday night Kristine, Levi, and I (we are the best trio ever) climbed Eagar's water tower and it was such a pretty sight. Loved it! Then Sunday we went to church and Levi gave such an amazing talk, the spirit was so strong. Then we saw everyone else and hung out with Levi's family the rest of the day. It was such a fun weekend! I am going to miss him so much! But he is going to be an awesome missionary in Ogden speaking Spanish!

Everyone who went. Kristine, Me, Alex, Kelsey, Levi, Liesel, Rhonda, Marquerita, and Tiffany.

Then two weekends ago Arianna and I went to the Keith Urban concert! Her dad gave her tickets for her 2oth birthday, so we went out and celebrated the occasion!

We had awesome seats!

I know we are pretty dang cute!

With our Keith shirts on!

During two parts of the show Keith came out into the audience. The first time he was right in front of our section! It was pretty sweet!

Love him!

Awesome light up guitar!

Just hanging with our man!

Our cute boots!

It was so much fun going to the concert and celebrating Arianna's birthday! I love hanging out with that girl! We have had some great times lately!

Summer Update!

So it is summer time and I both love and hate it! I love having more free time and being able to sleep in. I have gotten to see several of my friends who are still in the valley. And that has been a blast!! But I HATE the heat!

My family went on our family vacation a few weeks ago to a cabin in Greer, AZ. It was so much fun to be back in the trees and cool weather. We went for a whole week. We had tons of fun in the mountains relaxing! Also, I loved the thunderstorms we had!

Also, on Monday I had a double endoscopy procedure preformed. Which is when they stick a tube down your throat to look at your stomach and then a colonoscopy which looks at your large intestine. I was pretty scared to get that done but I got a sweet note and bear from one of my best friends, Arianna wishing me luck. The process was not fun at all! I was the youngest person there by like 40 years which was weird! But I did it. They took some biopsies to test and the results came back with nothing. So I still don't know what is making me sick. I have been doing pretty well but I still have days where I am sick.

So not much is going on in my life but still loving it! Just hanging out with my besties, going to the movies, and going swimming so I am not so white and thats about it! I am starting to get ready to go back to Flag to start the fall semester, which is exciting cause I miss the mountains and trees!

Craziness!! Beware: Super Long!

So life was keeping me super busy for awhile! I felt like I didn't even have time to breathe. I have been learning a lot from school and have gained so much! I got a new placement after spring break, and I just got done with it. I was in a first grade SEI (Structured English Immersion) class. There were 14 students, 8 boys and 6 girls. These kids kept me super busy but I will miss them tons. They were such cuties!

So starting in the front: Laying down is Fidel (genius). Then Bryan (comedian), Emily, Samantha, Jesus (sweetheart, said the funniest things, one of my favorites), Osbaldo (wanna be gangster but sweetie), and Alex (cutie). Next row is Vanessa (fashion girl), Marissa, Ms. Uthe, Kevin, Victor, Jenifer (super quiet), Evelyn (loved to test me but then was a sweetie), Me, and Eric (comic and sweetheart). The personalities they have in 1st grade are hilarious!

Silly Pic!

School definitely had a lot of ups and downs for me this semester. I wanted to give up so bad at times but I am glad that I am still going to be in the PRAXIS program. 19 credits was a lot. But I feel more prepared to have my own class someday soon! I learned about dealing with angry parents. 3 weeks before spring break I got pulled from my placement in 3rd grade without any warning. I had a really horrible and bad day the day before and then I walked in that Tuesday morning and told I had a new placement. I never saw it coming and all I was told was that a certain parent had a problem with me. It was really hard and later found out that the parent thought I was too authoritative as a teacher. She said either I would be moved or she would pull her daughter from the school the next day. The 3rd grade teacher and my director told me that she was just one of the parents and that I was doing great. It was still very hard but then I was put into a special ed room that did reading for grades K-3. The teacher was amazing and it was a good opportunity. I know now that it was supposed to happen even if it was difficult at the time. I learned how to handle differences and situations with professors and being professional. I am looking forward to next semester and being in a special education class placement.

To make a long story short in the last few weeks of school, I also had a sharp pain on my left side (Appendix is on right). So that made things harder. I went to several doctors, had tests done and they thought that several things were wrong but none of the things were it. They gave me pain medicine that knocked me out, which made doing homework hard. So yeah my side still is bothering me...I have to make some appointments to see if we can figure out why my side is hurting. But I am doing okay not to worry!

I moved into a new apartment as well. I am excited for the girls I am going to live with but sad to move out of my old apartment. If everything keeps on track I only have a year left at NAU until I student teach. Which I am very excited about!

Since it has been forever since I posted here are some pictures from the semester! I love these people in the pictures, they make my life so much fun!

Dance party on snowbowl! Alex, Me, Kristine

Megan & Denver Finch Wedding in Eager

Making wishes, with Pennies in Eager! Me, Alex, Liesel, & Levi

Easter Pageant!

Melissa and I ice skating! Melissa is going to be my neighbor and is my ward & is my bestie in my ed program!

Ward outing to Grand Falls!

Chilling in the sun after hiking to and from the falls!

It was cold at our dance party!

Shooting! Lets just say I showed up some of the boys! Haha!

Thats just a sampling of some of the things that went on!

Oh and Derek graduated from high school!