i hiked the "Y"

After attending BYU for 5 years, I graduated without ever hiking up to the big Y on the mountain.  I'd taken many pictures in front of it, but never actually climbed.

But this weekend, I finally did it!

It wasn't too fun of a hike.. it was SUPER steep.  But I got a great workout that's for sure! Plus now I'll never have to worry about moving out of Provo without ever hiking the Y... that would just be embarrassing.

EFY

All the screaming from the energetic EFY kids that have been infiltrating BYU campus this summer can be heard from our balcony.  Though this is sometimes quite annoying, it takes me back to the days when I was an EFY participant down in San Antonio, TX.

There are quite a few Latter-Day-Saints in Texas, but I remember thinking how amazing it was to have so many LDS youth in one place.  We all had an immediate connection because of our beliefs that aren't so common down there, and because of that I made life-long friends with the members all around Texas.

 

I went to EFY all 4 years that I could and the experiences there really helped shape my life and my beliefs.  Here are some of my favorite EFY memories:

• The CRAZY counselor I had my first year at EFY that made us bend down in every direction and do aerobic moves with our arms to make sure that our clothes were modest enough.
• The testimony meeting where one of the boys in our group declared his love for one of the girls.. inappropriate, yet HILARIOUS!
• The night the the four of us that shared a dorm were talking on the beds and one of them self-destructed with a girl on it.
• The ridiculous poem that Brittany and I made up (there was a poetry contest, but don't worry we didn't enter).  Andrew even caught it on video.

• The scriptures that were put into song so we could memorize them.  I can still sing them perfectly, by the way.
• Last but not least, I am so glad for the testimony strengthening experiences that I had a EFY. 

"Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, E, F, Y!!"

ready to work out

Since summer started, I've had a lot of time on my hands.  I've been reading a lot, done a little scrapbooking, and have been able to keep the apartment really clean.  But now I can start working out everyday because I got a GYM PASS. It was a steal too.. $9.99 a month with no contract!

I'm really excited because I love working out, but I hate running around Wymount where there's only hills.  And now I can use weight machines and everything!

So the next time you see me, I might look like this...

our first anniversary

On Sunday, Matt and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary!  It's been an awesome year and it has just flown by.  Matt is the BEST HUSBAND EVER and I'm excited for many, many more years of marriage.

Since our anniversary was on a Sunday, we celebrated the whole weekend.  Saturday we went to dinner and then went bowling.  I beat Matt by 20 points.

On Sunday, we made dinner together .....and for dessert: year old wedding cake.  Yep, we saved our cake.  And it still looked pretty darn good.  It tasted okay.. kinda dry.  The filling was a yellowish color, so we both left that part on our plate, but it tasted a lot better than I expected. 

 

Happy Anniversary to us!!

bruises

Last night Matt and I realized how many bruises I have at the moment. Go on take a take a wild guess...

Seven! That's right I have seven bruises right now! Don't worry, my husband is NOT abusive, but some of them were, in fact, partly his fault.

First, there's the large bruise on my leg.  This one was my own doing.  We went to the batting cages on Saturday and I hit one right to my own shin.  It KILLED!!  Matt went in next and nicked one of his pitches to the crotch, so then I didn't feel as bad.  But as you can see, this one still hurts.

Then there's the 6 bruises on my arm, and these are all from the same event.  Matt and I also went country dancing this weekend (it was a very eventful weekend) and we saw two other couples from our ward there.  We were learning some cool moves from them and decided we'd try learning a more advanced move.  This required me to jump from a sitting position on the ground up to onto Matt's back.  FAIL!  It didn't hurt that bad at the moment, but several days later, I still have proof...

You can only see the two bigger one's here, but there are six of them.

The moral of the story:  Don't listen to Matt when he insists that a dance move looks doable.

college grad

After five long years of studying in the JET with the greatest people ever on way too little sleep, I've finally graduated.  I am a little sad, but it's so great to have not one, but TWO degrees completed!

Graduation was last Thursday and Friday.  I was lucky to have my family and grandparents along with Matt's parent there to support me. Elder Scott spoke to us on Thursday night and that was really neat.  Only at BYU do you get such a wonderful perspective on graduating college and going out into the world to do good.  Friday was for the Physical and Mathematical Science college and although I did not get to cheer for them, I got to graduate with some of the best friends I've made since I've been here in Provo! I was also able to get pictures with my favorite mathematicians, so you could say my day was pretty complete.

Here are just a few of the pictures we took... I had to smile so much this weekend, I almost thought I was getting married again.

And what comes after graduation??  A JOB!

I'm am lucky to be teaching math at Spanish Fork High School starting this fall.  So I will get a nice little break for the summer before entering the real world.   It's a 2/3 time position which will be a great way to start my teaching career and since I did my student teaching at SFHS, I already know some of the student and feel comfortable there.  I am super excited to be a real teacher! Go Dons!