July!!

Finally! Yep, I know that's just what went through your mind :) I finally updated my blog-- but would like to point out, I'm still within the once-a-month range :) It has been a very busy summer, so I'll list some of the highlights:

1. First time in Vegas! Went with my family for the 4th of July and to see the musical, Jersey Boys (absolutely loved it!). It was hot! (110 degrees). The first night, I wasn't in the best mood and didn't like the city. I believe the thought that was going through my head was, "great, a homage to gambling, sex, and alcohol-- just what this world needs." The next night when I wasn't so hungry, tired, and ornery, it was a lot better. However, I decided it is a good thing I don't live in Vegas because I believe I have the potential to be a slot machine addict-- I had a fun late night with my mom. This also brings me to the 4th of July-- the best holiday of the year!! We decided not to stay in Vegas-- too hot and way too many people. We ended up in Cedar City at the Shakespearean Festival and instead of watching fireworks, enjoyed a great rendition of Taming of the Shrew. The play was great, but just not the same to celebrate the 4th with the Bard as to watch great fireworks.

2. I started a salsa class! As in the dance, not the Mexican condiment. It's been a lot of fun and while this is my first attempt at learning dance, I feel like I'm gradually getting the hang of it. When I move back to Provo in a month, I'm hoping to find a place that teaches lessons and/or just has a fun place to do salsa. If you know of any, let me know.

3. Also began an LSAT prep class. Law school has been a dream/goal since I was in high school, so I'm taking the beginning steps to get there. I don't know exactly what the future will bring, but I'll be able to say I don't have any regrets that I didn't try. And I love my class! It's a lot of fun and i actually look forward to it during the week! My favorite sections right now are the games and reading comp. sections. Over the past few weeks, I've been doing better and hopefully will continue to do so as I'm working to get faster.

4. The movie, Mamma Mia! came out last week! Listing this as a highlight of my summer may justify my obsession with Broadway shows. But this has been one of my favorite shows since I saw it in high school, so I was very excited. I must say, they did a good job. A lot of fun and if you like the music of Abba, I would totally recommend it!

5. I've also been on somewhat of a craft/cooking-spree lately. While surfing the links on Rachel's blog one day at my highly productive job, I found a pattern for the cutest baby dress. I immediately wanted to make it and luckily have one friend, Suzannah, who has a newborn baby girl. Luckily Lydia is still small enough that the pattern fits and she is adorable! This is a picture of how the dress turned out. There are a lot of other little projects and recipes that I found and would love to do-- if I get to them, I'll post more pictures.

Back for a Utah Summer!

This weekend I went on a YSA camping trip at the Heber YW camp. It was a fabulous time. There was a campfire and I learned a new pyro trick using corn starch-- enough said, it was a good time :) Saturday morning, however, we woke up to this:
The bottom picture say "June 6." It was good packing snow, not good write-with-your-finger-in-it snow. Ahh, Utah weather!

GRADUATION!!!

Thursday and Friday of this past weeek were graduation!! And I'm thrilled! I ran into a friend after Commencement who told me I haven't bee n a student for like a year; I told him I was a full-fledged student up until Tuesday when I found out I passed my Indepent Study class from hell. But it's done, yay! It felt great-- as I was sitting through the ceremony I was remembering how high school graduation didn't really feel like a big deal and realized this graduation felt a lot more significant. I feel like I'm glutton for punishment as I'm heading back in the Fall, but for the summer at least, I'm relishing in the feeling of no homework/papers/exams/whatever!




The classic BYU grad shot










Beautiful flowers sent by my grandparents in Atlanta who weren't able to make it out to Utah.

All's Well in the World

So I feel like all's well in the world again because I have a set direction and life plan for for the next little while. Yesterday I found out I was accepted to the BYU MPA program. It was a little nerve racking because I got an email from the Marriott School saying I should have received a message regarding my application status, but I hadn't. So I called the program advisor who told me this is going to be really anticlimactic, but they will send a letter saying 'congratulations, you're accepted' tomorrow. Oh well, I was just glad to find out because it's been like Limbo waiting for the past month. And I get to return back to my home sweet home, the Tanner Building. Yay!

New Beginning

As I type I am sitting in the Utah State Capitol on the last night of the session (and therefore my internship). It's been an 18 hour day, so I'm exhausted, but thoroughly grateful for the experience I've had working here. I'm also amazed at how quickly 45 days passes! I think more than anything, working at the Capitol has reaffirmed my love for government. I find the legislative process utterly amazing-- and even more amazing that bills are passed through and governmental progress is made. I've had more insight into the process of law making than I could have imagined, and it's incredible. I feel sad that just as I feel like I'm getting the hang of working here, it's over. But that's how most things are, I guess.

As this experience ends, I'm also pretty reluctant to realize that this is it. This is the final part of my undergradute experience and that feels really strange to think I'm done. It's kind of like in two hours I will enter the "real world" -- (though I always hated when my professors used that phrase in classes). I'm sure it's no different than a birthday when you wake up and are another year older, but don't feel significantly different. Regardless, it's the turning of a page in life. So tomorrow begins a new stage (...ie looking for a job... joy).

[isn't the Capitol beautiful?-- picture is of the rotunda]

Update for the New Year

So I happened upon Ashley's comment a few days ago, and it's true, this update is *shamefully* overdue. It even took me a while to remember how to make a new post (I know, bad). But a quick summary since the last post: I stayed on at my internship over the summer at the Dept. of Ag in DC which was so great! My biggest feat there was getting the signatures of 13 ageny heads on a project-- while it seems relatively simple, that was by far the hardest thing in my eight months there. I traveled to the Hill Cummorah Pageant in Palmyra, New York City when my sisters visited me in DC, Boston to visit friends and ended up having a fantastic side excursion to Maine, and Atlanta to visit my family there. I then came back to Utah to finish my last semester of classes at BYU and had a crazy busy, but great time. Overall, 2007 was an utterly fantastic year! Last week I quit my job at Independent Study a day early (extreme happiness for me!) and my mom, sister, and I went up to Rexburg to go through the temple open house (picture). It was absolute beautiful! I've since moved back home (still adjusting) and I'm looking forward to an internship at the Utah State Legislature starting later this month... I'll for sure post pictures from that!

The Big Easy

In May I got to go on my first ever businesss trip to New Orleans. I went down with a group of co-workers for a couple days of conferences at the National Finance Center. It was such a great learning
experience as well as fun to see the city and try the fantastic food they have there! These are some sites from Canal Street, where we stayed. One of the most interesting things to see down there was the damage that is still there from Katrina. Driving on the highway, you can still see devastated neighborhoods that are uninhabited. They're like modern ghost towns-- it's very weird. On the drive home one day, we saw a neighborhood that flooded just from one afternoon of rain; it was a very humbling sight.

These are some sites from the famous French Quarter. St. Louis Cathedral with Jefferson Square in the foreground and an example of classic New Orleans architecture. The Quarter was a really cool place to see with all the shops and restaurants. I didn't dare wander down Bourbon Street by myself, but the rest of the Quarter that I saw was very neat.

Home Again, Home Again

I was able to make it home for a few days to visit people and take care of some business at school. It was a quick trip, but wondeful to be home :) I was lucky to be home the same weekend as my friend Charlotte's farewell talk in her student ward. After her talk, I wet to see Temple Square and the flowers were so beautiful.

Probably the highlight and my favorite... fire in Provo Canyon. We built that baby with no lighter fluid!! I picked up a few skills at Girls' Camp :)

Barlowites in Provo. From the look of my face, Aaron just said something incredibly shocking and D Scott either ate something sour or just hates the flash. Lindy's thinking hard about the roasting job she's about to attempt :)
Aww, keeping warm
An attrocity of the worst kind... cinnamon bears are better than that.
I like to call this 'el disgustingo.' Combination s'more, roasted cinnamon bear, and Starburst. Proud of ya, Stephane.

Whirlwind Tour of the East Coast

At the end of April, my mom came to pick me up in DC after my internship ended (well for the semester anyway, as I'm now continuing it through the summer). We had a wonderful time seeing the sites of the East from the fields of Amish country and Palmyra to the opposite end of the spectrum, NYC. The monuments of the National Mall by night... stunning.

Our next stop was Lancaster, PA, home of the Amish.
Monday must be wash day; there were lines of clothes everywhere that made for colorful displays of traditional Amish colors.
We enjoyed a nice ride on part of the beautifully restored Pennsylania Railroad.

My mom in our Amish buggy ride (and our guide who was so adorable)
Couldn't pass up a tour of "Chocolate World" in Hershey, PA!
Beautiful Niagara Falls, still with a lot of ice. Also my first time setting foot outside of the US (I'm on the Canada side here, quite exciting!)

We also made a stop in Palmyra, NY to see the church history sites. What a wonderfully amazing place!
Me and my mom in the Whitmer cabin, where the first meeting of the Church was held. It's amazing to think that room is where it all started.
Umm, yes, we're in NYC and this is what we do for hours... gawk at the American Girl Doll store. Yes, I'm 20; yes I had to wait in a line of 8 year olds to get my picture taken; and yes, I bought a new dress for my doll... which she looks pretty darn cute in, if I do say so myself.
Love of my life, Broadway. We were able to see Disney's production of Tarzan and it was amazing!! Needless to say, I loved every minute!

Baaarloooowwww!!

As of 4/21 I officially no longer live in the stake center/fishbowl known as the Barlow Center. It's a sad time, this has been the home of one of the best experiences ever! As someone far more journalistically savvy than I put it, don't be sad that it's over, but happy that it happened. I'm definitely happy it happened. Everyone
Ahh, hanging out in the hall :)
Last hurrah at Five Guys

Being Spontaneous, Yay!

So I'm doing a little catch up, but this is a little bit of what I did over Easter weekend. I had a great time going on a spontaneous roadtrip with my friend /big sister Emily to visit her cousin in Roanoke, VA. On the way down, we stopped in Charlottesville to visit Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson.

For most of the drive down this is what we saw... farms and fields and cows. It was very picturesque.
We came across some funny signs, but this was our favorite... Tinkling Spring Rd. :)

Another interesting sight. This truck had maybe 100 fire hydrants on it.
We had a great time hiking part of the Appalachian trail to McGhaffe's Knob. Here's us on the knob.
Emily and her cousin Mei in front of Mei's cute cottage.
Beautiful springtime! There were dogwoods all over!