Safe Walk

In our ward the Elders Quorum put together a safe walk.

The girls liked to give them a hard time about it.... like me who was always trying to catch them while they weren't there....

and this time I have proof.

Just ignore the fact that Jeff from our ward is sitting there in the corner studying. :D

Happy Halloween!

Fall Fest!

So I threw my first party at my apartment this semester!

Halloween is favorite holiday... I don't know why. There is just something about getting to dress up and people giving you free candy. YET no one ever feels pressured on halloween to do anything extra... just have a great holiday.

So my room mate and I decided to throw a party... but not just a halloween party... a Fall party where we could do all the fun stuff you do during fall! We made caramel popcorn, carved pumpkins, had a bon fire and watched a movie after wards.

I did learn that the host of a party really doesn't have as much fun at the people at the party, and not everything turned out the way we planned... but all in all I think it turned out good.

Things I've never done...

Well I can't say that I haven't won a game of scrabble in my entire life anymore...

CUZ I WON ONE TONIGHT!!!!

Oh Jenelise and Eric thought they had me taken... see how I was only at 93 and they were already past 100...

THEN I pulled out "jigs"

OH SNAP TRIPLE LETTER POINTS AND DOUBLE WORD POINTS

60 points right there....

and I took the game!

I really should take national headlines... "worst spelling in the world takes scrabble game"

DONE AND DONE

I finally did it!

I submitted my mission papers! Woo Hoo! (now the Bishop and Stake Pres. just have to do their thing)

This is the face of the soon to be Sister Enders! (this is the actual photo I submitted with my papers)

True Blue...

SO this past fall I realized that I have never been to True Blue... and for those of you that don't know what 'true blue' is then let me enlighten you...

Every fall BYU pumps tons of blue foam for people to play in at the Helman Halls field. It's basically a really fun mess. There is an area where the foam is spraying and you and jump around in it, there's another place you can slide down the hill in it, and another place you can 'foam wrestle" in it.... basically just a good time in the foam. Everyone comes out completely blue and sometimes the blue can even stain your skin for a day or two.... This is the aftermath of my 'blue experience.'

So if you ever go to BYU, you HAVE to go to True Blue at least once!

Oh look...

Utah can be pretty when it wants to be....

Let's Be Friends

So back in 2002 PVPH reopened. However, this also reopened a long rivalry.

Penn. is known for impeccable academics...

while PV is known for its top game sports.

Polar opposites.

But why can't we be friends and share the hill?

Impossbile.

But in another state...

PALOS VERDES POWER UNITE!

Random #2

So sometimes we did "out of the ordinary" things at EFY.

Like having the kids pretend they were bacon.

Turned out to be quite entertaining for the rest of us.

EFY: Las Vegas

It has taken me quite a while to put up my Las Vegas EFY pictures, but I thought my blog wouldn't be complete with out them. Las Vegas was a really good experience for me. These two weeks of EFY were the first ones I was accepted to and so I really felt like I was suppose to be there and there was a reason why I was these particular girl's councilor. My first week was hard because one of my girls was inactive and the only reason why she came was because her stake paid for the trip. She also had a lip ring that I had make sure she didn't try to wear. This week I also had the most health problems with my kids. One of them got dehydrated, another cut her stomach open while playing games, and another cut up her leg by shaving (like the worst shaving accident I've ever seen!). But I started praying with the room mates each night and even sang to some of my girls so they would go to bed, and I felt like I got to connect with them better.

My second week I had the greatest girls ever. They were a lot like my second week of girls in Santa Barbara (which I hadn't written about yet so I'm gonna talk about both of them here). They were just really good girls. They were from all over, but in both groups, the room mates came together. This made it really nice because they already had a friend they were comfortable, yet I was really impressed how they still tried to branch out.

EFY was hard but it was still a really good experience that made me grow.

EFY: Santa Barbara, CA 02

If last week was a hard week. This week was a breeze. The week actually flew by for me. I mean it was hard having the hottest male councilor as my co.

It was pretty much impossible to win the love of my girls, though I tried for a while. But my girls were SO good. They were the older group and about half of them weren't even from California.

I loved them. I was sitting in their testimony meeting and I was just overcome with the feeling of how much I love each one of them. They really were special girls.

We had some pretty great guys too. Derrik and Shane were my favorite though. :D

I was really sad to see the end of the Santa Barabara EFYs for this year.

EFY: Santa Barbara, CA 01

This was probably the hardest week of my life- okay okay lets go with summer instead. I'd like to think I've survived worst things than a bad week of EFY.

First off I had to work really hard to even get to EFY in Santa Barbara. I was originally suppose to do EFY in Thatcher, like a past blog shows, but I switched with someone who was from Arizona. My reasoning was two fold. One, this allowed me to go home and visit my family, which was something I wasn't gonna turn down. And second of all teaching the youth of California was the reason I even applied to be an EFY councilor in the first place. I wanted to teach the kids that were like me when I was younger. I was once in there shoes and EFY had a great effect on my life. I wanted to part of the greatness that is EFY. So when I saw the opportunity to go to California I took it.

The week started off pretty good. My group this week was actually a group of two girl councilors and one boy. So that meant there were 2X as many girls for each guy.

The kids were also 14-15 year olds. I was really excited about this at first because I thought, oh it'll be like teach my little sister who is also 14. Uhh, it was and that was one of the reasons it was so hard. 14-15 year olds are very different. They have much more energy and are really just all over the place. I had a hard time controlling my group. Many of my girls were super chatty. It was so hard to get them quite to talk about spiritual stuff. On top of that one of girls had special needs. She was super independent and did great, but I was always worried about her and how she was getting along. I also had a girl that was not a member in my group. She would always ask random simple questions about the gospel during lessons. I worried about her and didn't quite know how to handle her questions. She needed them answered but the rest of the girls really were just annoyed and had different needs. Eventually I got to talk with her, and I learned that she has a very hard family life as well. I really didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to relate at all. I hope I helped her in some way.

During this hard week it also hit me that I might not suppose to be there. I was suppose to be in Thatcher until I switched. That was also hard to handle. It is such a boost to know your suppose to be there with the particular kids (they always tell you that when they give you the list of who is in your group. They remind you that you have been picked for a specific reason)... but I didn't have that, and I second guessed everything. Giving my all was harder after that. ((Which made me think about my mission... If I go, I have to KNOW without a doubt that I'm suppose to be where ever I go; or I will falter I think.))

The week wasn't all bad though. I learned a lot about my self. I learned how to be a better councilor. I learned that I need more than 5 hours of sleep a day and crying when you normally wouldn't can happen when you have lack of sleep.

I still loved my group. Even though sometimes they made me crazy I still loved them and enjoyed being their councilor.

There was the triples in group, who were really shy at first but eventually opened up and great. There was Lori, my favorite girl. She was so strong and confident in herself, yet not in puffed up way, but in a way that brought other people up. I wish I would have been as strong as her as a 14 year old. And there was David. My favorite boy.

He just always made us laugh. He had a good sense of humor but he could get down to the gospel stuff when the time came too. There was also Justin, who like to hit as many girls as he could, and then a couple of them fell for him, which of course freaked him out and he avoided them like the plague. Then there was my girl who found a boy who liked her back. But that plan was frustrated because he lived two hours away and they were only 14. (I silently laugh to myself when ever I think of the two of them). I also got to know a lot of the councilors this week when we had extra duties to do. The california team was pretty awesome... minus one... but we won't go in to that.

The week was still awesome, with the ever-so-creative EFY games, banner making, lanyard escorting, eating in the DLG (which was the best cafiteria yet and is actually in a Jack Johnson song: Bubbly Toes), and overall fun!

EFY: Flagstaff, AZ

Flagstaff Arizona was my very firs week of EFY this summer, and what a week it was. I don't know if I could ever love a group like this one again. They were my first group, and they all know they hold a special place in my heart.

At first I was scared and nervous. I had an older group and I was really worried because I'm actually only a few years older than them. I wanted them to like me so much, and I was super nervous because I didn't know exactly what I was suppose to be doing every moment of the day. The all the other councilors were from Arizona too and they all seemed to know each other either from past weeks or other places- which made it hard to break into their group. The week ended up being great though!

Our session director ended up being this amazing man, Brother Rose. He is originally from Idaho but now lives in Utah. He used to be a cop and a seminary teacher (at the local juvi facility) but now he just teaches seminary. He actually also served his mission where I'm from! His stories were great and captivating but always tied into the gospel. I learned so from Brother Rose. He also touched me on a personal level. One day when I was having a hard time just walking along minding my own business he caught up with and started talking with me. If I have a mission president I hope he's like Brother Rose.

I also had an amazing room mate. Her name was Lanae. She was less than 5 feet tall, but she was a great room mate. Around 1 am she was the funniest person alive... jumping on the bed asking to play with her... that is until the RA from down stairs showed up at our door and asked us if anyone was throwing a bowling ball around... oops!

Then there were my girls. Samantha, Libby, Makyla, Meagan, Sara, Sara, and Aubrey.

Our boys were pretty great too.

I loved getting to know each one of them and the different lives they led.

We had some good EFY fun as well...

Every morning we started out with some scripture reading:

We had game night and banner making:

And maybe, us councilors got a little to into it...

We also had a cheer we pulled together at the last moment:

We had a great musical program: (which about 3 of my kids participated in! I was so proud!)

And last but not least we had an AMAZING pizza night!