Another Year Over

January:

• My 6th semester at Utah State University
• Undergraduate Teaching Fellow for Creative Arts
• Old friend came home from mission (nervous) and we started talking again
• We threw the most EPIC Vegas Party

February:

• IWA Formal Dance
• Started the Mariposa Program at Mount Logan Middle

March:

• Clinicals at Orion Junior HighDate with Travis to the Jazz game (Marrie meets her future husband!)
• Festival of Colors!

April:

• Amazing General Conference
• Another fantastic Recycle, Redesign Fashion Show
• Dad falls out of a tree, spends 9 days in the hospital 
• Old friend starts talking to me again (Chris)
• Reunite my friendship with Cameron.

May:

• 6th time taking finals
• Move home for the summer
• Spend A LOT of time with my new best friend Cameron

June:

• Join a flash mob
• Watch Nathan graduate
• Go to the premiere of Kid History 5 with Cam

July:

• Do the flash mob
• Introduce Shantel to Chris 
• Janelle and Brad get married
• Marrie and Jordan get married
• Take the PRAXIS!!!

August:

• Vacation in Las Vegas
• Jaimie and Daniel's wedding in Arizona
• Move back to Logan

September:

• Meet Landon
• Imagine Dragons Concert
• Overnight Ward Retreat
• Another great Fashion Show

October:

• General Conference!
• Start dating Landon
• My BIRTHDAY!! 
• Travis comes to visit (incident)
• Meet Lauren and Jerrica

November:

• Best friend Jamie leaves on her mission
• Spend every day with Lauren and Jerrica
• Stop dating Landon (Cry my eyes out to Cam)
• Clinicals at Ogden High
• Wonderful Thanksgiving

December:

• 7th finals week (last one ever)
• Move home from Logan for good
• Christmas
• Shantel and Chris get married

He's my BEST friend

So I know I always talk about my best friends, and I sure do have a lot of them.  My life became so much better when I found out I could have more then 1 best friend!  Some of my best friends even have specific titles such as "boy best friend" and "girl best friend."

On this day I particularly miss one of my best friends that I have had FOREVER! He is my brother Jordan.  He really is my best friend of all best friends.  We are 20 months apart and have always loved spending time together.  We always had little sibling spats (resulting in Mom making us sing primary love songs to each other until we loved each other again), but we have never really been in major fights with each other.  We just get along really well.  In high school we even hung out together and had the same friends.  He was only a year behind me in school.  Well, Jordan is on his mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Portland, Oregon and he only has 5 months left! I can't wait to give him the biggest hug ever!  Somewhere along the journey I started calling him George, no clue why, I just did.  The name has stuck.

Warning: There are a lot of pictures, but I LOVE them all.

At first I wasn't excited to not be an only child anymore.

But then I decided I LOVE him and we were never apart after that.

Don't judge our BEAUTIFUL couch.

We loved to cuddle when we were little.

We had the best cousins to be with.

I always loved being the big sister.

Yes, we have been in jail together.

More kids came along, but we still loved each other most.

Then one day I became a lot taller than him. (no comment on my hair)

Smoking Blows hat, tyedyed shirt, baseball pants, and Airwalk shoes: the kid had STYLE!

Our attempt at glamour shots...

Our group of friends that we shared.

Jordan's number 1 idol is Gene Kelly.

When we took Jordan to the MTC I helped him Shave.

We were both crying...

I love my brother SOOOOO much!

He will always be a Cool Cat in my book.

Mawage!

One of the best days of my life so far occurred yesterday December 27th.  Two of my closest and dearest friends got married... to EACH OTHER!

It it all started when I got the bright idea that my friend Chris should meet my friend Shantel.  Yup they met July 4, 2011.

They went from this:

To this:

I love you both so much!  Best of luck with your marriage!

What I Got!

First of all, merry Christmas everyone!


So I am probably a total nerd to be excited about some of the presents that I got but OH WELL!


#1- A filing cabinet (for all the papers I have for when I teach)
#2- File folders to put in my filing cabinet
#3- Hanging dividers to organize my filing cabinet
#4- Flash drives (they will soon be filled with lesson plans)


I received a lot of other great things as well but those are the four things I am most excited about.


The things I gave that I was excited about:


#1- Star Wars pajamas for Ben (he LOVED them)
#2- A digital picture frame for my momma
#3- I made my dad a  bean sprouter and handle hot pads for his cast iron pans (my dad likes weird things)




This Christmas was very interesting.  First we woke up and opened a few presents, then made breakfast and then went to church at 11.  We came home from church, made more food, and continued to open our presents (my family has this tradition that we all sit together and open up our presents one at a time (it can take forever)).  We weren't even finished opening them when my brother Jordan called from his mission in Oregon.  We talked to him for a while.  That was super fantastic.  While we were talking to him my Grandma and Grandpa Welch came so we visited for a while.  By this time it was 5 pm and we still had presents to open.  


What a crazy, weird, wonderful, amazing day!


Here is one of my most favorite Christmas songs:

My Obsession

So I know I have talked about Kid History before, but seriously it is one of my obsessions.  I can watch them over and over and over and never get sick of them.

Obsessions are even better when you can share them with your friends.  Cam, Jerrica, and Lauren can quote Kid History with me for HOURS!  We love it!  I don't think I can go an hour without quoting from one of the episodes.

So! For your viewing pleasure! Here are all 7 episodes!  Even if you have seen them already  watch them again!

Lets take a walk down memory lane!

First of all, it is official that Emily and I should never be allowed to watch anything that combines T-Swift and Saturday Night Live... Hay is for horses and chicken and fish! Hit me three times and I'll grant you your wish!

So today I was remembering my childhood and the experiences I had that have shaped me to the crazy amazing person that I am.  So here we go!

My Family

The first memory I thought of is one of my favorites.  I have had a best friend literally since birth.  Jamie and I have spent years and years together making memories.  One time she and I were sitting in her basement being weird and talking about the weird things that we usually talked about when her dad walked in and said "Wanna hear a joke?" (John Beal is a very quiet and shy man so he didn't often say much to me)  Of course we were excited to hear what he had to say.  This was his joke, "Once upon a time there was a girl named Jamie..." and then he broke into a fit of laughter.  Yup, that was his joke.  What a silly man.  Another joke he told us was "Once Melissa was riding her bike and someone threw a refrigerator at her..." followed by another fit of laughter.  What a silly man.  The Beal home has always been one of my homes.  I will never forget the time when Cari and I decided that the boys who took care of their lawn were super hunky cute.  So... we put socks in our shirts to make us "bigger"...  Yup.  Beals also had a playhouse in their backyard that we used to love to play in.  Their swimming pool was the best!  Endless hours of pretending to be mermaids and failing to swim like a mermaid.  We also used to hide from cars in their front yard.  On the way to the Beal home I would have to walk through a section of tall grass that always had snakes in it.  We never saw them but we could hear them.

After singing for the Winter Olympics

My house was always a fun place too.  The neighbor kids and I used to play Swiss Family Robinson in our front tree.  Scotty and I were always the mom and dad...  My neighbor Melissa and I used to make concoctions of leaves and tomatoes and put them in the low parts of our front yard.  We were convinced it was witch bait and that we would catch all the witches in the neighborhood with it.  My family has a swing set with a basket swing on it.  We used to pretend it was our canoe and we would sing "just around the river bend" over and over.

Halloween when I was 9.  ( I used to be the tallest  kid in my family...)

When I was younger we ruled the neighborhood.  As kids we ran free and wild.  We used to ride our bikes as fast as we could through the cemetery and pray that the ghosts would not grab our bikes so we would fall.  Melissa and I were always trouble makers but never on purpose.  One time Melissa rolled my little sister Emily down the stairs because she was too heavy to carry.  Not the best idea we ever had.  She and I also had a plan to catch the local cutie and feed him gumballs and kiss him... I don't know where we came up with these ideas...  We used to LOVE eating open faced grilled cheese with sprinkles.  Yep, I recently tried it again... it is as disgusting as it sounds.

There were also some scary times in my childhood.  Once I was down the street being babysat when the neighbor dog got into the yard.  My babysitter tried to get it back over the fence but the dog attacked her and ripped her lip down to her chin.  It was SO SCARY!  I will also never forget when Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped.  Even though it was the middle of the summer I refused to sleep with my windows open in fear that someone would kidnap me.  My fears became worse when there was a man in the neighborhood that tried to kidnap one of the girls I went to school with.  I think I still have a slight fear of being kidnapped...

Ben and Em when we were all young

From playing soccer to running the neighborhood, my childhood was never dull.  I will never forget a lot of these experiences.  They have made me who I am.

Teacher's Pet?

So my whole life I have been the "teacher's pet."  Its not like I work hard to make teachers like me, they just do.  I think I was born to be a teacher and I feel like my teachers have always been able to see that.  Somehow this always creates a bond.  I remember my first grade teacher inviting me to her daughter's birthday party because she thought we would be really good friends.  Made me feel good.  I was always the one my teachers picked to do little jobs for them.  Sometimes I was even put in charge of the class when they had to step out.  Yep... I was that kid a lot of other kids hated.  Elementary, junior high, high school... teachers LOVED me.

So, is it surprising that this same thing happened throughout college?  The instructors in my department have asked me numerous times to help them.  Two of them even came to me and offered me teaching assistant positions.  This same pattern has been true for my instructors outside of my major department.  When one of your professors asks you if you would like to babysit their child because you are someone they want to have around their child consider it a compliment.  I sure do!

My whole life I have been the teacher's pet and my whole life I have been in denial about it.  Well today is the day I accept it.  I am a teacher's pet! (In the cleanest and truest sense of the title)  That is my role in the world!  And I am here to tell you this isn't always a bad thing.  The teacher's pet title is only bad when you are the brown nosing teacher's pet, which I AM NOT!  I don't have to do much to make teachers like me ;) I am excited to be an actual teacher and see the other teacher's pets out there.  We tend to be a hated breed, but if you get to know us we are really great!  Just ask my friends!

Bucket List

Bucket List:

• ·         Go to Africa
• ·         Tour Europe
• ·         See the Grand Canyon
• ·         See the ocean
• ·         Go to Hawaii
• ·         Live in Vermont
• ·         Go to Maine
• ·         Go to the Sacred Grove
• ·         Get married in the temple
• ·         Have a family
• ·         Have my own perfume line
• ·         Get a teaching job
• ·         Go to a Pink concert
• ·         Own every Audrey Hepburn movie EVER made
• ·         Adopt a pet
• ·         Become fluent in German
• ·         Learn to skateboard
• ·         Go scuba diving
• ·         Write a book about my life
• ·         Fly in a hot-air balloon
• ·         See the Northern Lights
• ·         Go on a road trip
• ·         Create my dream home
• ·         Make the perfect meal
• ·         Fall asleep in a grassy field
• ·         Fly in an airplane
• ·         Forgive everyone
• ·         Tell everyone I love that I love them
• ·         Visit a castle
• ·         See the Mona Lisa
• ·         Dance in the rain
• ·         Kiss in the rain
• ·         Drive down Route 66
• ·         Catch a firefly
• ·         Spend a whole day watching Disney Movies
• ·         Build a blanket fort
• ·         Pet a lion
• ·         Own a Subaru
• ·         Design a pair of shoes
• ·         Ride in a taxi
• ·         Watch the sunrise at the top of a mountain
• ·         Go to a MLS game in Brazil

Times are Changing...

I am approaching the end of a chapter in my life.  This has been a long and exciting chapter.  I have grown a lot and experienced every kind of emotion.  I have become a different person.

I am excited, scared, nervous, and thankful to start a new chapter.  I thought I would be more sad about the end of this one, but I'm not.  Don't get me wrong.  I am sad to not be with those I love in Logan as often, but something inside tells me that this isn't goodbye, its see ya soon!  There are new people Heavenly Father has waiting for me to bring me new things.  I am excited to see what the next chapter of my life brings.

Peace is an amazing feeling.  It is something I take for granted.  I am blessed to be given peace that gives me courage to face this changing life.

I invite you to come along with me and enjoy the ride.  Lets see what Heavenly Father has in store for us now!

In the mean time here is a reminder of who we are and why we are here!

Best Friends are Very Few

There are just some people that will be your friend forever. One of these people in my life is one of my very BEST friends Brianna Sue Petersen.


Along time ago in 7th grade we had gym together. We would change and then walk to lunch together. Little did we know that this would start an amazing friendship. In 8th grade Bri moved to Morgan... I was sad. Our small friendship hadn't had time to really grow to something amazing yet. I would see her around a few times, like once I remember being at one of my soccer games in North Ogden and she was there with her mom.


Bri finally moved back to good ole' North Ogden in high school. We were always friends but it wasn't until senior year where our little friendship blew up into something MAGICAL!!


Bri and I were both part of the FCCLA council at our high school. You know what this means! We spent basically every single day together. We had another friend who was with us all the time too. The three of us spent basically all our time at school together and then all our time after school together. Even when Bri and I both had boyfriends we spent tons and tons of time together. This time in our lives was a little confusing, I mean we were both dating boys named Chris making girl chat time kinda interesting!


I will never ever forget the time that we went with the student government to deliver gifts to families our school had raised money for. Bri and I had done a project to go along with Quarters and Cans where we set up quilts in the commons and students would help us tie them. We were able to give the quilts to these families as well. Going through an experience like this really has a way of bringing friends closer.


FCCLA is a club. Clubs mean retreats and competitions. Retreats and competitions means long drives, hotels, and long hours of sitting in lectures. This gave Bri and I ample time to get into mischief. One of these retreats happened to fall on my birthday. We had a little party in our hotel room. Some boys friend another school joined us. Don't worry, our adviser was supervising us the WHOLE time (much to our dismay). Bri and I were there to have fun. We didn't care much about the leadership activities and we found lots of ways to entertain ourselves. This trip brought about our motto "Bananas Unite! Bananas Split!" (When you say this you have to put your hands together above your head on the word Unite and then when when you say Split hands go down to your sides) Did we do this in the halls of our high school you ask? Maybe... This was also the time we renamed our adviser "Timber." I will spare you the boring details.


So, Bri and I decided to live together when we came to Utah State. We also decided that we needed to be roommates with other people. We didn't want to kill each other. A little before this decision we had a falling out with our third amigo. Again, I will spare you the details. High school girl drama. With this change in walked our new third member. Little did we know this friendship would end about the same as the first. But these experiences only made mine and Bri's friendship STRONGER!


Living together was a BLAST! We always had a ton of fun. We both went through nasty heartbreaks but again this made us stronger.


The next year we didn't live together again but we were still really good friends.


Junior year we decided to reunite and be roommates. I have to say this was my favorite year of college. We always had so much fun, life was dramatic but never too dramatic (only interesting), and we made so many new memories.


This year the plan was to live together again. Well that did not work out. The saddest part is we hardly see each other anymore, but when we do it is like nothing has ever changed. We just pick up where we left off. Bri and I both have very chill personalities. Some say we don't care enough... which may be true, but as a team we ROCK! We have a friendship that will never die. EVER! I love you Brinanna.


As the saying goes "God made us best friends because he knew no mom could handle us as sisters."

All the Little Things

Sometimes I am sent little reminders about how important I am. They are always little but they always mean a lot to me. First, I had a study group yesterday. You wouldn't think anything happy would come out of that. I mean, let's be honest... studying is never really a happy occasion. Well wrong this time. The group I was studying with is so fantastic. We work together so well. I actually enjoyed it! Who woulda thunk? This class I was studying for has rekindled an old friendship. Some friends just brighten your day every time you see them. Well this kid is one of those friends. Even better, we were assigned to the same group! What luck we have! Two of my very best friends just happened to decide to go to the library at the same time I had my study group. Imagine my delight when I found them there! Nothing better than a few friendly faces. IWA has always brought some really great "little things" to my life. Last night it brought me food and laughter. Possibly the two best things this world has to offer... Waking up in the morning on my own without an alarm clock giving me a heart attack is so great. I loved not having class until 1:30. Having time to get a ton of my projects done before class ROCKS! When a friend you haven't seen for a couple weeks texts you to see if you want to go get lunch jump on the opportunity. MMMMMM Wendy's. Getting to class and finding that my instructor has provided each of us with a yogurt parfait is a MAGICAL experience. (Fresh fruit and all) Meeting some of my best friends on the bus and just sitting with them at their apartment for a little while is one thing I really value. Setting up for a ward Christmas party can be a lot of work, but not when their are many hands. It also feels good when people compliment the work I have done... Getting to be with one of the greatest guys in the world at the party made it so GOOD. Having a chance to talk to Lando one-on-one is even BETTER. Knowing that he cares about you is the BEST! Hearing my mom's voice on the phone brought me peace. Getting an email from my best friend since birth was so FANTASTIC! I love you Jamie Katherine Beal. The people in Armenia are so lucky.

Well people, little things add up to big things. The little things are what bring me warmth. I love you all! (Seriously my heart burns with love for everyone on this earth) Quote of the day: "Just make it a whole fruit salad!" -Jerrica

Words Unspoken

Sometimes in my life there are a lot of things I want to say to people that I can't.  SO I am going to say them now... (these are fake names just so you know :) )  I am kinda borrowing this idea from my friend Elise at Elise's Pieces http://eliseypants.blogspot.com and her Dear Boys posts...



Mr. Fisherman,
I love roller coasters... I don't like this roller coaster... make up your mind!

Laverne and Shirley,
Lets stop over thinking every little thing and enjoy life!  Boys are dumb but I submit so are we.

Larry, Moe and Curly,
What are you guys going to do without me?  Good thing I have a cell phone ;)

Gloria,
Leaving you is going to be bitter sweet...

Howard,
Let them be! They are adults and can take care of themselves.

New friend,
I think I like you... do you like me?

Kiss and Run,
Thank you for not making our encounters awkward...

Best friend,
I love you more than words can describe...

Mr. Band Guy,
Sorry about your head... :)

Hey you,
You want to be a teacher because...???

Old Friend,
How are you going to justify this choice?

Boy Best Friend,
You are too picky for your own good.

Teach,
I like you as a person but your class has been a waste of time...

Love birds,
You are welcome.  You owe me.

Okay I said it all.  It is kinda refreshing to let it all out.  (I promise I am not a mean person.  Just sometimes I don't understand people and feel like I can't give it to them straight.  New Year's Resolution maybe?)

Well, time to study!

I DID IT! I DID IT! I REALLY REALLY DID IT!

Dear World!
I FINALLY finished my Interior Design Portfolio.  Yep, it took me what felt like my whole life but I finished it! I wish this meant I could have an exciting life again, but alas, it does not.  Now I move to my Secondary Education Portfolio.... luckily I have part of that done already.

One day life will be easy again... but until that day I will just be grateful for this education I am getting.

Want a glance at some of the stuff I have done for Interior Design?