Elders & Engagements

Alrighty you guys. This is going to be one dang exciting blog post. Just sayin'. Friday was pretty cool. It started out with classes as usual, and dollar lunch which was sandwiches. EJ was away at a work lunch so Sydney and I had to latch on to Taylor. He didn't approve. 

Later in the day I drove Sydney to meet her mom halfway so she could go home for the weekend. When I got back, I went to Sister Nymeyer's house for a dinner with the missionaries. She is so sweet and her house was absolutely perfect. I'm moving in when I grow up. 

Here is Elder Deere and I posing awkwardly. It has been about 6 months since I last saw him so it was really exciting. But since we aren't allowed to touch, this was the resulting picture. 

Lauren was being a cutie as usual.

The roomies (minus Syd) and Sister Nymeyer. She's awesome. <3

Saturday morning I woke up and found a new friend on our Cracker Barrel game. I thought his pose was very cute. He knew exactly where to go. 

I was very proud of the lunch I made myself that day too! It was a veggie sandwich with avocado, tomato, and sprouts. I added some cilantro, mayo, and mustard. Yummy!!!

The YSA Regional Activity on Mt. Lemmon was Saturday night and it was AWESOME! Nothing negative to say about it. So much fun. 

Camp Zion sign. 

Annabeth on top of the world. 

Annabeth being a model. 

And EJ being a ... model. 

That's much better. 

I tried my hand at modeling as well. 

Happy mountain goers!

Chillin.

I really like pictures of myself, in case you hadn't already noticed. 

The scenery was absolutely beautiful. I freaked out and took a million photos. Reminded me so much of home - nice to have some greenery and rolling mountains. 

Annabeth wore her new turban and looked like a hip gangsta. 

Now the exciting part. We had been planning for a few weeks that Taylor would propose to his girlfriend Natalie on Mt. Lemmon since that is where they met last year. It was so hard to keep it a secret from her oh my gosh! But totally worth it. My photos aren't very high quality since they are from really far away on my iPhone, but you can imagine how it went. 

Taylor standing behind Natalie as she reads "The Natalie" (like "The Robin" for those HIMYM fans out there)

Down on one knee. 

After - it was so hard not to squeal the entire time we were watching from the bushes/trees.

I thought the sky/landscape looked even prettier after they were officially engaged. It seemed fitting.

Here's a photo of EJ, Annabeth, Taylor and I Titanic-ing on the edge of the mountain.

Friends!!!

Smack that. All on the floor.

Those involved in setting up the proposal (Clark wasn't there yet)

After the proposal - all those involved (minus Syd and Lauren who are in Mesa)

And to tie it all off I thought this photo was absolutely adorable. Action shot of Taylor getting down on one knee. It was such a happy day! Between the friends, engagement, yummy food, beautiful scenery, and the absolutely rockin' dance party - it was extremely successful. I am sore and tired from the dancing but I guess that is how you know it was good. 

Meet Opruh

OK guys so I know I JUST blogged earlier today but this is too exciting to pass up. Annabeth went out and....we got a betta fish! We now have a new friend named Opruh.

Here is Annabeth talking to Opruh on the ride home. They made faces at each other. 

Opruh loves his new habitat. 

He even has a turtle friend to keep him company. (no one tell him that it's fake)

To finish off this blog post, I thought I'd share some of the questions that we SHOULD have asked the sales associate in the pet store. 

1. So can we just breastfeed him?

2. Can we use the water conditioner on our hair?

3. Where are the betta leashes?

4. Is this water drinkable?

5. Do you have a straw I can borrow to drink his water?

6. What temperature do we cook him at?

7. How often should we brush him?

8. How often do we have to bathe the fish?

9. Can he swim?

10. Do we actually have to feed it?

11. Can we crossbreed him with a cat?

12. Will he be offended by his female name?

13. Can I pet him?

14. Where's his penis?

12 shades of gray

Alright so I'm going to start out with talking about Tuesday. On Tuesday morning we all woke up and had an impossibly tough time getting out of bed due to the fact that it was roughly 50 degrees in our apartment - we were all shivering! But I wore a shirt that I got in the Labor Day Sales so that made it better. It was still horrible. 

Tuesday afternoon EJ escorted me to the SALT Center to talk to his boss and I was interviewed and....drumroll please.....HIRED! I have a job working as a front desk assistant at the SALT Center! Yippee. When we got home it was....absolutely disgustingly hot. So nasty. The air conditioning just wasn't working. But we attributed that to the fact that it had overworked itself in the morning. I had a lot of sketching to do for art so it was a late night for me haha. Here is a picture of my work area. 

Since I happened to purchase the same jeans as Annabeth had posted up on her blog, I decided my blog wouldn't be complete without a "new jeans butt photo" so here it is. In all of its glory for your enjoyment only. 

Yesterday (Wednesday) during lunchtime I went to hang out around the institute and Taylor, EJ, and Joren all happened to be there! Joren is one of the students that Taylor and Sydney help mentor for their jobs. Joren is a vampire and he cast a lot of spells on EJ and I and even did one that turned me into a vampire!!! I'm still getting used to using my powers though...Here's EJ and I during one of the rare instances that neither of us were being cursed. 

That afternoon I had art class and it was the first time we actually got to paint! It wasn't painting anything exciting necessarily, but my classmates admired my work and said I did well so it was exciting for me! Here is my grayscale assignment. AKA 12 shades of gray.

We also had to do our proposals of our project and my teacher seemed to really like mine so that was a happy moment for me!! I can't wait to see how everything turns out. Annabeth and I are currently baking in our apartment and trying to figure out where we can go that has really good air conditioning. But we also have to be around so the AC guy can get in. So you see our dilemma......Until later! Wish us luck with the air conditioning. Peace love and happiness

Labor Day!!

Alrighty so I'm gonna start out with a post about our dinner that we had on Saturday night. It was going to be my turn to make Sunday dinner but since it was Fast Sunday I decided to make it on Saturday. I knew there would be a lot of food so I invited the boys over (Taylor and EJ of course! And Trent came along). I made lasagna which actually turned out to be really good in my opinion. And I don't usually like lasagna all that much! It just randomly sounded good to me. Anyways. Onto the picture portion of this blog post. 

Here's the Ceasar salad I most carefully prepared from the storebought bag. 

Mmm. Lasagna. Totally needs a lot of cheese. 

 I thought our dining room looked cute with the places all set so I took a picture before all the craziness happened! Haha - nothing too out of control. 

Here's a photo of Sydney before we ate. She is a total gangster. 

And Annabeth is being a model. As usual. 

Syd enjoyed being the head of the table. 

Taylor enjoyed sitting next to Sydney so he could tease her the whole time. 

That brings me to Sunday, which was pretty cool as Sundays usually are. Sydney looked super cute in her new outfit from Down East and she matched her drawing that is up in our kitchen so I just had to take a picture! She also happens to match our chairs. 

Posing like the portrait. 

I did Annabeth's hair for church and wanted a picture to document my handiwork. 

Roomies that sit next to each other in Sunday School are da best. 

We <3 scriptures on our phones. 

Sunday night "movie party" at our place. Because the other party we tried to go to was too full. 

So we played Apples to Apples instead. Here are the cards that I won - which are supposed to describe who you are as a person. Hmm...I wonder what mine say about me. 

Today (Monday) we went shopping to catch up on all the Labor Day Sales. I had to wear my timeturner so I could make sure I made it to every store before closing time. 

Here's Lauren on the prowl in Forever 21. 

And afterwards I took this photo of me biting my sunglasses for our group message...don't ask. We basically spent all weekend group texting each other while we were in the same room as one another. (Us meaning the four roommates plus Taylor and EJ). We are just weird. Haha. Here's to the second week of school! I hope it's as good as the first :) But with fewer injuries. 

A post about my best friend

Hello everybody. I thought I'd take this time to celebrate the love of my life, McKenzie Richardson.

She's actually a model in real life. Tyra Banks ain't got nothin' on her. 

The gate to heaven looks something like this. 

I can feel your halo. 

Modest is hottest. 

Chubby bunny. 

So basically McKenzie is the best person ever. There is no other person who I can be completely myself around and act like a freak and say extremely inappropriate things with. It helps a lot that she belongs to one of my favorite families ever. And she's pretty cute to top it off. If only she lived here in Tucson, then we could go to beauty school together and join a sorority and spoon all day while eating strawberries and watching the Kardashians. To sum it up, McKenzie is my boo bear.