I'm Engaged!

Well, my big news is that I'm engaged!!

I am engaged to Josh Franzen and I'm so happy! Here's a picture of us

Now for the questions everyone wants answers to:

So how did he propose?

Well, it started out in the morning with a vase of roses and a letter by the bathroom sink. As I went throughout the day there were more letters hidden in my notebooks. The last letter I had, to be opened after my last class, told me to go out to the parking lot south of campus where Josh was waiting in his car with one more letter. There were 6 letters in total. I am proud to say I only cried while reading 4 of them, although the other 2 did make me tear up a little. Then we drove up to a little overlook area on the side of one of the mountains here. It was there that he popped the question! ...and I might have cried again...actually, I did cry again. They were sweet letters and I was so happy that the man I love wants to marry me!


How did you two meet?

This one is actually a pretty funny story. He asked me once, as we were dating, if I remembered the first time that we met. I said "Yeah, I went to Star Wars night at your apartment at the beginning of the semester and kept going every week" to which he replied "No! That's not the first time we met!" Then he explained when the first time we met was. He reminded me of a service activity in the second week of September that our ward had done, visiting a rehab center and singing to the people there. He asked if I remembered that and this conversation followed:
Me: "Yeah, I remember that"
Josh: "That is where we met the first time"
Me: "But I don't remember meeting you..."
Josh: "We did meet then! And after the activity a bunch of us went to 7/11 and got slurpees and we all talked! I talked with you for like an hour!"
Me: "Uh....."
Josh: "Do you seriously not remember this???"
Me: "Well, I remember the activity, and I remember going to 7/11, and I remember talking with people, and I remember a lot of us were talking about our missions, and then someone from Rose's mission walked past and they started speaking Italian"
Josh: "But do you remember meeting me?"
Me: "um.............no............."
And he has teased me about forgetting the first time that we met ever since that moment.
But wait! We discovered that was not the actual first time that we met!
One day we were talking and he was telling me about how in the MTC he and his district would tell the quality of the day by how well they could peel the hard boiled eggs in the morning. If the whole shell came off in one piece then it would be a good day. If it chipped off in tiny pieces then the day would be bad. He said that one day he was the designated egg peeler. He cracked the egg and it was raw! So he went to complain to the cafeteria worker and overall had a terrible day that day. Well, just a reminder, I worked at the MTC cafeteria a while ago, and in this earlier blog post I mentioned a day where there were some raw eggs and a missionary had come to complain to me. So I asked "When were you in the MTC??" He said "February 6th, 2013" I said "No way!! That is the exact day I got hired to work at the MTC cafeteria! I also remember the raw egg day! That cafeteria worker that you complained to was me! I was the one working at the station with the hard boiled eggs that day!"
Crazy.

If someone had told me after the day of the raw eggs at the MTC that I would end up marrying the missionary who complained to me about raw eggs I would have said that was impossible. But I guess that nothing is really impossible!


So that is my news for right now! I'm engaged! I'll get married this summer! I can't believe that I'm old enough for this!

Happy New Year!

I have kind of been forgetting that I have a blog, so one of my New Years resolutions will be to update my blog at least semi-regularly.

First I'll give a quick update on my life.

I finished fall semester here at BYU, my first semester since getting back from my mission. I survived and did even better than the semesters before my mission! Yay!

I saw Star Wars Episode VII on the opening night. I did my nails and my hair for the occasion.

Here are my nails. Stormtroopers and lightsabers. Here I have not yet perfected the lightsaber, but the next time I tried they were amazing.

And here is my Princess Leia hair!

The Princess Leia hair was a bit of a challenge. First I tried making normal buns, but teasing the hair like crazy before twisting it. That kind of worked, but wasn't as big as I wanted it. Then I thought of making a sock bun, but I didn't have any of those special foam things, and I didn't really want to cut the toes off of any of my socks. Plus I thought that would still be too small. So I introduce you to the t-shirt bun! I made it the same way you'd make a sock bun, but with rolled up t-shirts instead of socks. It made the perfect Princess Leia buns. My hair was looking so good that I won two gift certificates to the movie theater! Awesome!

I spent Christmas in Idaho. It was cold. Very cold. One day, as we were going to church, it was -11 degrees. Why do people live there? 

Ok, so now it's the New Year. It's 2016. It's 3:00 a.m. and I'm not tired at all, plus my bed is covered in a mountain of clean clothes that I dumped there after doing my laundry this afternoon and I'm not quite ready to tackle that yet. So I figured I'd make a few resolutions and update my blog. So here they are, my 2016 New Years resolutions:

• Go back to my no sugar diet, except for one dessert per week. It was really good while I was doing it before the holidays
• Read the scriptures every single day
• Practice Portuguese every single day (Hey, maybe I could combine this with the previous one by reading the scriptures in portuguese every single day! Brilliant!)
• Don't stay up until midnight during the school week unless there's a really good reason to be up that late.
• Use more accessories. I have jewelry and scarves and things, but hardly ever use them. I might as well put them to use and look a bit more put together
• Compliment at least one stranger per day
• Do something interesting with my hair at least once per week instead of just wearing it how it dries after showering
• Re-learn spanish well enough to hold a conversation

I think that's a good list for now. I may add to it in the future. But now it has gotten to be 4:00 a.m. and I actually am getting kind of tired. This is later than the time I used to wake up when I worked as an early morning custodian! That's crazy! I'm so glad I don't have that job anymore!

Have a great 2016!

I'm Back!

Wow, it's been so long since I've written on my blog. To be honest, I forgot that I even had a blog. But now I remembered! Yay!

So, what's new in my life?

Well, a lot of things. It's been 2 whole years since I last wrote something. In that time I served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Bahia, Brazil. So I do speak Portuguese now. Look, I'll write something to prove it.

Agora eu falo português! Eu amo falar em português!

So that took up a year and a half of the past 2 years.  I will possibly make another blog post in the future talking more about my mission. Or maybe like 20 blog posts about my mission.

I came home from my mission and I worked for a couple months, and then I came out to Utah. I met up with Bailey to visit Zion National Park and go camping and hiking and all that fun stuff before she left on her mission. I hiked Angel's Landing, and as someone who is scared of heights I felt very accomplished upon reaching the top.

Look! Here we are at the top! We didn't die!

After that I got moved into my apartment in Provo, and I started my third semester at BYU. It's been going pretty well. I've been getting good grades, and my classes aren't too hard...sort of. 

I guess I can go into more detail for the recent stuff in my life. I went to my stake's Halloween party on saturday. I didn't know what to do for a costume, so obviously I decided to browse pinterest for ideas. I found some cool pop art makeup pictures, and I decided to give it a try and be a pop art comic book person for Halloween. I started with painting my fingernails.

I really like how they turned out!

Then the hair and the makeup.

Isn't that awesome?

And here's the complete costume:

I made little quotation bubbles too!

So yeah, I had fun with my Halloween costume. Now I'll just have to try to recreate it for other Halloween parties and actual Halloween. 

Other than the Halloween party I can't really think of what to write about....but I will think of things and I will write them! It's getting late and I'm going to sleep so that I can do well on my physics exam tomorrow.

Until later when I think of more awesome stuff to write!

A Topic Worth Blogging About!

I haven't blogged about anything recently, because nothing interesting has happened. I work, I sleep, I eat.....that's about it. There isn't much excitement there, so there hasn't been anything that I saw worthy of putting on my blog.

But now I have exciting stuff in my life!

First, I have to start with a sad story. My good friends, the Thrailkills, recently lost Neal, the father of the family, after he had fought leukemia and other illnesses. When Marci called me to tell me that he was going to die I just cried with her on the phone for a while. Then I decided that I really needed to go to Idaho for the memorial service, and just to see the family. On Tuesday, the 8th, I found out that the memorial service would be held on Friday the 11th. That meant that I needed to quickly find a plane ticket without paying ridiculous last minute prices. I did manage to find one! So then I quickly packed all my stuff so I could take off on an adventure to Idaho!

The plane ride out there was pretty interesting. I flew into Salt Lake City, so that I could pick up a car that my grandparents were letting me use for the weekend (THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!) But getting out to Salt Lake was a little ridiculous. I flew from Baltimore to Dallas, Dallas to Los Angeles, and then Los Angeles to Salt Lake. For both of my layovers I was supposed to have enough time to get off the plane, perhaps take a bathroom break or buy some food, and then get on my next plane. Well, that did not happen at either layover. We arrived in Dallas earlier than scheduled, but another plane was running super late taking off, so our gate wasn't open. Eventually, after sitting there for half an hour we were able to get into a different empty gate. Unfortunately, I now had only 15 minuted until my next flight stopped boarding. Adding to that misfortune, I had to get to a different terminal clear on the other side of the airport. The fastest way there was the sky train. I got on the sky train, and then guess what! More bad luck. The sky train had technical difficulties and had to stop for a while. By the time it got started up again and over to where I needed to be I only had a few minutes left, but thankfully I made it to my next flight on time. I was already having so much bad luck that I guess more had to be added to it so that the universe could laugh at my misfortune. I was stuck on a middle seat on that flight in the middle section, between a larger woman who wanted to sleep the whole time, and sometimes flopped over towards my seat, and an asian guy who, no joke, set up this whole little work area consisting of 2 iPads and an iPad mini, plus a mouse, a keyboard, and headphones. He also fell asleep. Then, I REALLY needed to go to the bathroom, but I would feel bad waking one of the people I was sitting next to up so that I could get out. I decided that whichever of them woke up first would be the one that had to move. The asian guy with the mini office woke up first and I felt bad asking him to move his whole setup so that I could get by, but thankfully he didn't seem too upset by it. Anyways, adding to more bad luck that plane landed super late, so when the plane landed I only had about 20 minutes until my next plane took off. I felt kind of rude, but I squished past a ton of people to get off the plane before them. Then, I found out that because my next flight was on a tiny commuter plane I had to take this bus to a completely different terminal specifically for tiny commuter planes. Well, that was not good. I had 10 minutes until my plane took off. I asked if they could call and let the next flight know I was on my way, but they said it was leaving whether I was there or not, so I started running to the place I needed to be to catch the dumb bus. When I get over to the bus place the guy wouldn't let me on the bus because it was full. I kind of freaked out at him, and our conversation went a little like this:
Airport guy: "Sorry miss, but that bus is full"
Me: "MY FLIGHT LEAVES IN 5 MINUTES!!!! I NEED TO BE ON THAT BUS"
Airport guy: "Oh......okay.....well I'll see if we can make room"
Me: "Please let me on the bus!!!"
Airport guy: "Okay, you can get on the bus"
I think I scared him a little bit, but I got to my plane 30 seconds before they closed the doors, and 1 minute before they took off, so scaring the airport guy was okay in that situation. I promise I'm a normal person and don't usually freak out at people like that...

Anyways, even though the layovers were a bit crazy, I got to Salt Lake as scheduled, so that was good. Then I met up with Mahea, and we got some dinner, then picked up Chloe from the Frontrunner station, and then made the drive up to Idaho. We visited the Thrailkills, and then Chloe went to stay with her aunt, and Mahea and I stayed with my aunt and my grandma (another huge THANK YOU to them!)

The next day was the memorial service, and it was all very nice. Of course it was sad and I cried a lot, but I think I laughed just as much, if not more than I cried. Neal Thrailkill was a big goof, so it's only appropriate that we laugh at all the funny stories of him at his funeral. I was also very glad to see Sister Silver at the funeral and hear an update on her family, and especially Stewart after his accident while on his mission. I'm so glad he's doing well!

After we got back to the house, we just had to take pictures. What else do you do when you're with Marci Thrailkill and a big group of friends? We took fun pictures of all of us together, we took subtly awkward pictures, we took silly pictures, and basically we just took pictures of everything. Now I have tons of pictures I can pick from for my Facebook profile! I think that probably half of my profile pictures are taken by Marci because she's amazing!

The next day, on saturday, we went exploring in Shelley, Idaho, and Chloe helped us find this awesome treehouse that some of her aunt's friends had built. It was amazing! It wasn't just a little treehouse, it was probably a 5 story tall treehouse, with bridges and ladders and hammocks! It was so cool! Although some of it was a little bit scary....the bridge seemed like it was going to break at any moment, but I guess that just adds to the excitement of it all, right?

On sunday, we went to church at the Thrailkills ward, and guess what! I ended up being the sunday school teacher for the 16-18 year old class. That was a bit random, but hey, it all worked out. I guess stuff like that happens to you when you're a future missionary just waiting to leave...people make you do stuff. Later on Sunday I went to dinner at my Aunt Elaine and Uncle Brad's house along with my Aunt Judy and my grandma. That was pretty nice. I don't get to see all the family from Idaho that often.

On Monday Mahea and I left Idaho Falls to drive down to Utah again. We stopped by BYU campus and visited people for a few hours. (If you are my friend and are currently at BYU and I did not see you I'M SORRY! I would have loved to see all of you....but I was only there for a few hours) I only ended up visiting a couple of friends. I said hi to Ryan Nebeker, my best friend from freshman year at BYU, so that was good to be able to say hi and catch up with him before leaving on my mission. I also got to see Tim Nysetvold, who I haven't seen in 3 and a half years! It's weird, because it seems like so long, but it also seems like it hasn't been that long at all. While I was with Tim, we stopped by to say hi to Spencer Waters, so that was good. We gave him some prune juice, just because. One thing I do have to say about BYU is it's so weird to go back especially with all the construction they're doing! I got so lost in the Heritage Halls because there are a ton of new ones! I do miss BYU a lot, and I'm super excited to be a student there again after my mission!

On Tuesday I flew back home to DC. Nothing crazy happened with the flights this time, but I do have exciting news from my first flight from Salt Lake to Phoenix!!! I saw the Grand Canyon for the first time ever!!! I was looking out my window pretty much the whole flight because we were passing over some awesome mountains and rock formations, and then all of a sudden, there's this HUGE canyon, and I know that it just has to be the Grand Canyon so instead of just glancing out the window, I was starting intensely at it. The guy sitting next to me said "Why do you keep looking out your window? It's just rocks down there" I said "No, that's not just rocks, that's the Grand Canyon, and I've never seen it before!" To which he replied, "I don't think that's the Grand Canyon. How are you so sure it's the Grand Canyon if you've never seen it before?" I just said "Well, it's a really big canyon" and kept staring out my window. A few minutes later the pilot comes on the intercom system and says "Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to invite you all to take a look out the window as we pass over the Grand Canyon." So ha! I was right! And the Grand Canyon was pretty awesome!

So now I'm home safe and sound. Maybe I'll update this post with some pictures tomorrow, but for now it's late and I'm going to bed. Don't expect another blog post anytime soon, because my life will probably go back to work, sleep, and eating, with occasional Netflix in there too. Not much excitement there.

Mission Call!

I got my mission call in the mail a few days ago! I'm going to be going to the Brazil Salvador South mission on December 18th!

This Whole Mission Thing is Messing With My Sleep!

I have recently finished my papers for my application to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Ever since I've finished my papers I've been having weird dreams about when I'll be called to serve or where I'll be called to serve.

The first dream was shortly after I finished my part of the papers. I had a dream where I knew where I was going on my mission, but everyone was telling me it wasn't a real mission and it was upsetting me! I can understand why they were saying that though, because last I checked, a mission to a haunted house in California to preach to ghosts isn't a mission in real life.

Then a while later I had another dream. This time I didn't know where I was going, but I knew that I was supposed to report to the Missionary Training Center on August 2nd. I was super confused by this and I tried telling them that I wouldn't be 19 by then so I shouldn't be old enough to go into the MTC. The response that they had was that I could either go then or I could wait 10 years to go.

Last night I had another dream and this one was the only one so far where I've had both a destination and a report date that actually made sense. In my dream last night I was called to the Brazil Fortaleza mission, Portuguese speaking, and my date to report to the MTC was August 28th. This actually all made sense because that is a real mission, and the report date is on a wednesday, which is the day that missionaries do report to the MTC. The only weird thing about this one is that I put my availability date as October 1st, but I have known people who have been called for a date earlier than what they put as their availability date.

Hopefully all these crazy dreams will end soon and in a few weeks I should find out where I'm going and when I'll be going!

Take the Helm

Here is the next post from the Launching Leaders program. I know that it's 2 in one day, but I didn't have the idea of blogging these until today!

In order to be successful, you need to know the difference between being proactive and reactive. We have been raised all our lives to be reactive, for example, your mother tells you to clear your plate, so you go clear your plate, or your teacher tells you to write an essay, so you go write that essay. You can get along just fine in life doing that, but in order to really be successful you need to be proactive. Do things because you want to, not because anybody tells you to. Become what you want to become.

Part of becoming proactive and successful is creating a plan. Elder Ritchie says take a few minutes out of every day to make a plan. It doesn't have to be elaborate, just make a list of what you would do if the day turned out just the way you wanted it to. After you've made this list, mark next to each item an A, B, or C. A is for things that absolutely must be done that day. B is for things that would be good to do, but are not absolutely essential, and C is for things that would be nice to do, but don't really matter all that much. I'll make an example list briefly for my day today:

• Go to work - A
• Deposit my paycheck in the bank - B
• Do laundry - B
• Clean up my bedroom - B
• Go to my friend's house for a get-together with some of our high school friends - B
• Check Facebook - C
• Update my blog - C
• Scripture study - A

There's more that I could put on that list, but that's probably good for now. So far today I've only done my C things on my list, so that's probably not too good. Those should usually be last, if you've done everything else on the list.

Another piece of advice that Elder Ritchie gave us was to draft yourself a personal Constitution. To begin, identify your values. These begin with the statement "I am." Then you need to prioritize your values so that the most important ones to you are first. He also talked of the importance about closing the gap between your stated values and how you really live your life. He has seen people who put the value "I am a loving father and husband" before their value "I work hard and am financially independent" but then these people spend all their time at work making money, and not enough time with their families. Writing and prioritizing your values is a good way to discover any gaps and attempt to fix them. Next, in the steps to write your Constitution is to establish your goals. Write things like "I will (insert goal here) by the time I'm 35" or "I will (insert goal here) when I get each paycheck." After you establish your goals, you need to use your values and goals to determine how you will accomplish your goals for today. This goes back to making the plans daily. Your values should reflect in your list. Ultimately, using your Constitution and your Plans you should be able to determine what you want to become in life and be set on a good path to take you there.

Elder Ritchie did give us a warning though. He said not to get stuck in your comfort zone. He compared your comfort zone to being a bouncy ball stuck in a cone. All that the bouncy ball has to do in its life to become successful is to bounce around. If you drop a bouncy ball in a cone, then it will bounce a few times, but then eventually come to a rest and stop bouncing as it settles into the cone. This is like us. We have things that we need to do to become successful, and if we settle in a comfort zone we may say that we're still making progress so it can't be that bad, but eventually we will come to a rest and stop progressing. Don't be distracted by unproductive things like too much Facebook, or Pinterest, or TV shows or video games. There are even other things that can be distracting and may hinder your progression even if it seems like you are still progressing. You need to continuously set goals for yourself to avoid being stuck in a comfort zone or to get out of a comfort zone that you are stuck in.

When you take control of your own life, then you can steer yourself wherever you may want to go to become successful in life. Time is a series of continuous events that you need to manage well in order to be successful.