Announcements are sent!

Graduation announcements have been shipped! WHAT!?!! I hope you all post my pictures on your fridge :) and yes i bought a special new shirt for these pictures so they better go on your fridge!!!! love you all.

I applied for a position in Boise today. Most of the jobs I apply for because they seem interesting, but this one I applied for because I think it was made for me. Yes, I said that. It is doing case management for a Toddle Program in Idaho working with developmentally disabled toddlers. It uses my social work skills and the population I have been working with for the past 3 years and that I absolutely adore. Pray they consider me. I actually really want this one!!!!

love you all.
A

How do you handle change?

I suck at handling change... yet that's what is coming up for me. I have ordered my cap and gown. My graduation announcements came in the mail the other day. I am done at my internship on April 2 and school ends a couple weeks after that and on May 2nd I GRADUATE!!!

It's so crazy to think that as I turn 25 my title as student officially ends. While I will continue to learn my whole life, I will no longer be a student enrolled in school. It's kind of a scary thought for me, that is all I've really known since I was 5 years old.... class, readings, papers, and tests. When graduate school ends I will no longer have to do those.

I can have a life again!

Also, I really do not enjoy job searching. Getting emails that say I do not qualify for positions really sucks. But I cannot allow myself to be discouraged. I am applying and inquiring for any open positions I find... and yes some of those openings are here in St. George, so don't be surprised if I end up staying. I promised myself I would go where the job was, so if by the grace of God I get a job offer and it happens to be down here in St. George I will stay.

This is stressful...

But I'm great with stress :0 hahah not. I go on lots of drives, find myself at the gym alot, and work hard to not let the stress get the best of me.

Wish me luck.

Its race time again!

A couple weeks ago my friend Becka told me that she had a 1/2 off coupon for a half marathon. I said alright if it's half off let's do it! Little did I know the race was in 1.5 weeks... which makes it this Saturday February 8th. It's an all girls half marathon in Ivins Utah. I am excited to run a race with her and I think we are going to make some awesome t-shirts to wear while we race. So wish me luck, I haven't ran more than 5.5 miles since the St. George marathon in October but who needs to train!?! ....my brother Ryan sure doesn't. Ryan I am following in your footsteps and just going for it! 13.1 miles. Run Like A Girl half marathon here we come!!! Pictures and results to follow the race on Saturday :)

Here's some pictures of me and Bex having a grand ole time together!!! We really are dorks :)

2014... on to bigger and better things.

           Have you ever just sat there and looked back on a year and realized that you hated it yet loved it at the same time? Well, that would be me, tonight. I hated 2013, yet I love some of the changes it brought to my life. This year started out great as I had just spent 3 amazing weeks with Christina helping her after she had baby Emery. I got back into the flow of school and had even been promoted at work. However I soon learned that school, management position, internship and training for a half marathon was a lot of work! I became a stressed mess and was not happy with how I was handling everything. I survived though and I was proud for getting everything done. School ended and that brought about me moving into a new place. My birthday rolled around a week later and resulted in my relationship with my best friend ending. I am lucky enough to have an amazing brother who lives close by who let me escape to his house for a few days to deal with it all. Summer turned out to be great in some aspects with vacations and trips to see my family.  Work sucked but I had a job and was grateful for it. School started again in August and stressful life was back in swing. Only this time it was a FULL MARATHON I was training for!!! I didn't train as much as I should have but I did it! It felt great to cross the finish line!!! Over Thanksgiving Don got Christina and I tickets to WICKED and it was awesome!!! Such a great show! I got to get out of St. George for 3 weeks for Christmas break to spend time with family and it was much needed and a blast. 
             This year has taught me a lot. I had really close relationships end and learned the meaning of true friendship. It was a struggle and I don't wish this experience or the pain on anyone but I know that Heavenly Father has truly helped me through it. I became a lot closer to my wonderful siblings through it all and I have felt God's love for me. I know that He knows who I am and is there for me whenever I need him to. I have felt the comfort from the Spirit and know that if those relationships hadn't ended I would not be where I am. I'm not where I pictured I would be in my life, but I am learning to love every day. Let go of past pains and move forward. 
In the words of Rascal Flatt, 

"I've dealt with my ghosts and I've faced all my demons

Finally content with a past I regret

I've found you find strength in your moments of weakness

For once I'm at peace with myself

I've been burdened with blame, trapped in the past for too long

I'm moving on" 

I look forward to 2014 and hopeful all that it can have in store! Here's some pics of the good times of 2013!

  

May.. What a Month!

Ryan and I ran the half marathon in April. It rained and it was cold but we finished! I was so proud of us for actually going through with the race.

I finished school on April 24th! and I must say that I was pretty impressed with my grades! I had a lot going on last semester and many times wanted to pull my hair out in stress and frustration, but alas, I got a 3.717 and my accumulative GPA is 3.858!!!

 

My 24th birthday came, and thankfully left. I had to work a graveyard last minute that night and then come back seven hours for my normal shift. I had slept 2 hours in 2+ days, and I was a MESS! ha. I do not do good on no sleep. My mom got me some cute clothes though and a new bike! The bike is fun to ride around town. Thanks MOM!

 

 

Bree and I are officially signed up for the St. George Marathon on October 5th! 26.2 miles may kick our butt but we are starting to train on Saturday mornings again. This includes waking up at 5 am to beat the St. George heat and currently get our run in before I work at 8 (i'm trying my hardest to get rid of that shift, you'd think after being here 2.5 years they'd do what I wanted haha)

 

My car battery died the other day and I didn't want to have to call a certain someone (he is who i used to always call down here for car problems), anyways, Dad told me to just go buy a new battery since my car wouldn't start being jumped and ask Bree's husband to try and replace it for me. Well I was feeling a little crazy and attempted to just replace it myself.... and I DID IT! woot! I had to call Dad during the last part cuz I didn't know the battery was bolted down on the bottom but other than that I did pretty good I think, the car still runs so musta done something right!!

 

I have these two friends... Sherry and Kylee. I work(ed) with them at Danville. And the two punks both decided to up and quit and move in the same month! I pretend to be mad but I am SO happy for both of them, I just miss and will miss them. Sherry left earlier this week to flight attendant school so for the two weeks before she left we studied airport codes every chance we got! We came up with some funny and really random ways for her to remember the codes, but it worked because she texted kylee and me yesterday to say that she got a 100% on her test! and then Kylee moves next weekend up to Orem to be a nanny for the summer.

 

I went up to Mike and Judi's last weekend for a couple days. It was a random trip but much needed. I love going up and visiting them so much! I had a blast. William and Thomas made me play superheros with them, I would have to make up the missions they would ahve to go on and decide who they would rescue. They are so cute and it was a blast. The trip ended watching William play baseball. He is a STUD!

 

and the last part. Bree sent me an ad posting the other day for an adoption respit position down here and told me even though the ad had closed the day before to try and apply for it... so i did. the position was filled but the man that got my resume responded with this, and it made me feel really good about myself and have hope for when I graduate....

"according to your resume, you have amazing qualities and would be an asset wherever you work"

 

countdowns

17 days: half marathon
21 days: end of school
28 days: my birthday!!!

april is gonna be a crazy month! i'm going up to salt lake in a few weeks to run my half mararthon with my brother. my first year of grad school ends in 3 weeks and its stressful and crazy with all the group projects that come with the end of the semester.

my one brag moment :)

I am just gonna take a minute to brag about myself right now. haha. okay, so I have like NO faith in my writing ability. I dread turning in every paper because I feel that I do horrible on all of them. About a month ago, I wrote an 8-10 page paper for my class. and today.... I got my grade back..... 39.4/40 = 98.5% on the paper. I don't think I have EVER done THAT well on a paper of that length. So I just had to brag and say that I'm awesome. :) A TON of thanks goes out to my wonderful sister for editing said paper (and every other paper I send her) and for being awesome.

I have less than a month left of my first semester of grad school. I can't believe the semester has gone by so fast. I am so excited for it to be over. Excited to read a book that is fiction , de-stress, and to go out and visit the ginger farm! :D

Thanksgiving is next week. It is crazy this year has gone by so fast! I saw Mike and Judi last week and it was so good to see them down here in St. George. I think I cried more when they left me though than I do when I leave their house. Why, I don't know, but I did. So Mike and Judi, listen to my persusasion skills and just move down here. K, thanks :)

Let's see, what else is there..... oh anyone that knows me knows that I like to take pictures and that I take a lot of them on my phone. Well, my darn tooting phone won't read my SD card, and I haven't found the time yet to go into the store to get it checked out, so I can't take pictures on my phone right now, and it is so weird for me! I usually make whoever is with me take a picture of whatever I want and then send it to me haha. I'm weird I know :)

also, I decided the other day that I am going to run a half marathon. At first I was just going to train to run one so I could have motivation to do some cardio and was talking to Christina about it. Ryan told me that there is a half marathon in Salt Lake in April and that he'd run it with me. Woot! It will be fun and something new to try! :)

here are some of the last pictures i took on my phone....

 connor likes to do the "airplane" then i tip him over and he falls onto my blankets :)

 

 i was a drunken house wife for halloween


my old roommate Micki moved up to Provo and came down for a wedding and we went to Vegas and went to Buffalo Wild Wings, yummy!

 

 me and the best friend

 

 connor likes to be goofy. drinking water from the sink

 

 meeting nathan for the first time :) Thomas didn't want to be in the picture, and wouldn't even let me take a picture of him that weekend. haha. and isn't nathan just adorable!?!?

 

 me, danyel, and Elmo on Halloween.