My Cohort!

Well, here they are! This is my cohort (or all the people that have entered the program with me). I will likely spend more time with these 13 people over the next two year, than with anyone else I know! They are all super awesome and I am loving the chance to get to know them! We have already had some good times; dinners, troping, the ropes course, and I can only begin to imagine all the memories we will make over the next two years. This picture was taken at the Ropes Course, which was actually what we did one day for class (I love my program!). It was a lot of fun, but about 3/4 of the way through it started raining so we had to go inside, but still it was fun!

Now, let me tell you a little bit about what it is like in the Marriage and Family Therapy Masters program at BYU. AMAZING! I think that pretty much sums it up! I am loving graduate school! No more busy work assignments (even though they tell you those end with high school it isn't true!). I enjoy every single class and if they didn't give so much to read I would actually enjoy reading it all. Unfortunately there just isn't enough time in my week to read everything and have a social life, so I organized my cohort and our readings and put the two together. Now I only have to read 1/13 of all the readings! we each take one reading and write a short summary and then share it! Best idea ever! The one important thing I did learn from my undergraduate was how to use my resources...and to never do more work than you have to! I am nervous about my thesis of course, but who isn't! But I have already started my preparation for picking out what I want to write and I am not procrastinating. Wahoo!! The first step was to take the Relationship Evaluation Questionnaire with my partner. haha Now I don't care who you are that is funny, cause I have no relationship to evaluate but I have to take it with someone! AWKWARD! I will just get a good friend to take it with me, and then I will know if we are compatible ot not!

I just want to make a note that I am so very grateful for all of the experiences I have had that have lead me to this point in my life. Especially for my mission. Even though you may not notice at first glance, it really did change who I am and how I operate. It prepared me for the challenges of the past year and a half (yes that is how long I have been home! Crazy!) and has definitely prepared me for graduate school, I would be so lost right now without those skills and lessons I learned there! well I guess that is about it for me! Life is so great! I am so happy! And ready for whatever comes next!!

Night Out on the Town with the Roomies

I officially live in Provo and am attending graduate school! And I am loving it! I love my house (I will post pictures soon, I am waiting for my landlord to buy me a new dresser before I take picures), love my roommates, and love my program. First let me tell you about my roommates:

Finding roommates and a place to live was a very big stressor for me this summer. I have never had a horrible experience with roommates, but I really wanted to live with girls who would actually be fun to hang out with too! But I didn't know anyone who was going to BYU and was over 22 (I am done doing the freshman thing). Then through a good friend I heard that a girl, who was in my ward last summer, was starting her Masters degree at BYU this fall. So I did the only logical thing and facebooked her to see if she needed any roommates and where she was thinking of living--because I had absolutley no idea where to live! And she did! She had a place picked out called Canyon Meadows which sounded pretty good to me. It has a pool, work out facilities, and the ward is all graduate students and older working singles!! Wahoo!! No Freshman!! When we went to go look at apartments we happen to run into another girl who was looking for a place to live. Since we had to have 3 girls to rent the apartment we got her number--so I know how you guys feel and trust me it isn't that hard! After a few more stressful weeks we signed for our place. Lindsay Proctor is from Park City and in the School of Psychology program at BYU. Colette Hinchcliff is from Pleasant View and is attending UVU while working as a Dental Hygenist. I love them both, and have a lot of fun living with them!!

On Saturday night we decided to have a night out on the town, just us three. We ended up at a place called Spark. It is pretty much a Mormon Bar. Sounds lame right? Well we actually quite enjoyed ourselves. They have a ton speciality drinks, I got a double berry martini and my roommates each got a mango mojito (all virgen of course). The atmopshere is fun too, lights are low, places to launge, and super sleek. Me and my roommates got all dressed up and went, but it was clear we were still in Provo because everyone else was in a T-shirt and jeans. Serously? That is one of the things I really don't like about Utah. We are so casual about everything. It is suppose to be fun to dress up and go out.

Anyway, they also had a guy there playing his guitar and singing. ALLRED. You ever heard of him? I am sure he is only locally known, but he is known. So after he finished playing we went up and got a picture with him. I'll just add his name to the many celebrities I know.



Lindsay is on the left, then ALLRED and then me and Colette on the right. It was a super fun night! And I think the beginning to an amazing year!

Free Falling!

Here is a link to an edited version of the dvd made for me while sky diving! It was amazing and would have been totally worth the $90 for the dvd and photos had I not won them for FREE!

SKY DIVING

Sky Diving!!!

Sky Diving was amazing...and even though I may walk with a little bit of a limp it was totally worth it! Let me walk you through a few pictures!!















Here we have my friends Scott and Skylar. Skylar is the one who invited me and I inturn unvited Scott.















This is me with my co-flyer (yes I had to have someone go with me) his name is Sugi and he is from Huntsville. He was a ton of fun and always teasing me which I liked!

Here I am getting all strapped in with the help of Sugi, it wasn't but a minute after this picture was taken that I found out that I was the lucky 100th costumer this month! That means this super cool guy followed me around the whole time and shot pictures and recorded the entire jump, which would have cost me $90!! Talk about lucky!!


























Here is the three of us in the airplane on the ride up. It took maybe 20-30 minutes to get up to 12,500 feet. I could even see the good old Cache Valley from where we were. Scott's instructor looks like he is bored out of his mind, Skylar's was way fun and Sugi was awesome!!














Here I am getting ready to jump out of the plane. This was the only part that was truly scary and that was the best because it gave you the biggest rush!! I can't believe I jumped out of an airplane!!


Here is the jump....I really don't remember that much about this part...oh well better go again!!


















And here we are free falling! We did some weird flip thing out of the plane and then a 360. This was my favorite part and I wish he would have done some more flips and such!




























Look how far up we are! Crazy! At this point it was just really windy...doesn't even feel like you are falling.














It almost looks like no one is attched to me! Yeah I am that cool they let me fall solo!

This is when he let the the parachute out. I actually didn't even notice until I saw the chute, I thought it would hurt but it didn't!


Here I am coming in for the perfect landing!

Psyche!! I totally crashed! My right foot caught and was pulled under me! At first it didn't hurt and I didn't notice the blood, but once I got my jumpsuit off I knew it was time to find the first aid kit!

Here is the after math of what it looked like. At this point we figured it was just scraped.

These are the two ladies who helped to get me all bandaged up. They were super nice and I was very thankful for their help!

However the bandages didn't last long...I had to rebandage them 4 different times that night!

This picture was taken sunday afternoon, it wasn't until now that I realized I might have a sprained ankle. Look how swollen. And I hobbly but all in all it was worth it!!

Going to a Baby Shower while you are single..

First off I don't recommend it. It is the first baby shower for any of my high school friends I have been to. It was fun too see all the girls, catch up, and see where they are in their lives. That lasted about 10 minutes... and then I realized I have nothing to talk to these girls about. So they continued to rant and rave about their preferred brand of diaper, the best way to get rid of diaper rash, to how they are going to afford their second while going to school, and their husbands job taking them on yet another adventure. And since I was the ONLY single girl there... my attention got turned to who they can set me up with. I had at least 5 people trying to set me up. Now if you know me, you know I really don't mind being set up, but can we please make the arrangments in a more private setting. As a group they have taken my love life into their hands, 'She can't do it so we now must intervene for her benefit, and we need to all discuss this openly and come up with the best option'. So an hour into the shower I made sure I had a good excuse to leave... and now here I am home on a Wednesday night blogging. Maybe I do need their help...

My life could be a dating movie....

...and all I would like to know is the ending. It's a bad sign when you are getting set up on a blind date and even though you have the date set up for a given day the guy wants to meet you before hand cause he is just so excited to meet you (his words not mine). Why is he so excited? He doesn't even know me? So we meet. Now I am at home praying for the off chance that I will have to drive to Provo tomorrow to sign a housing contract so i won't have to go on our date. So what is worse the guy who is overly anxious and persuent of you or the guy that is ever asking you out without ever advancing the relationsip. No cuddling, no holding hands, nothing. Why is he still asking me out? I don't get it. Is he even interested? I am not sure which is worse but I have them both.
There are normal daters out there right? If nothing else I hope this reminded all those old married folk to be thankful for their spouse! Maybe once I move to Provo their will be normal boys...probably not but oh well.

sUmMeR fUn

On May 1st I graduated. It is a weird feeling...especially sense I will be going to school this fall as a grad student...I don't quite feel that excitment from being done. But I am least done with one step! I graduated with Cum Laude honors. After the ceremony (because I am in the College of Agriculture) they gave everyone their own little tub of ice cream! Best College Department Ever!

The night before I graduated we had a Margarita party with all the girls! This one is my favorite picture. A baby in one hand and a margarita in the other. Meredith you are the best!

This is every one with their margaritas, I guess Camilia is following in Merediths footsteps!

Because I am a college graduate, but will also be a grad student this fall I have decided to not work full time and play a lot more! This is me and some friends at the demolition durby dressed up as white trash as we can. Yes I am pregnant! and yes the boy in the teal jacket has a real mullet!

This is me and my friend Andrea. We drew matching tattoos on ourselves. Billy jo and Bobby jo. So precious right? After we got all dressed up we went to Wendy's to grab a quick bite. I was so embarrassed to learn that one of my former students from student teaching was going to be taking our order. I maintained a pretty professional dress while i was student teaching, but i guess that went down the drain with one silly night.

Here I am with two good friends, Sami and Andrea, after a flour fight! The summer fun never ends!