WHEW!

So now that I have updated the blogging world on my sophomore year its time to get started on what is happening next! Tomorrow is my last day of work for a few weeks as I will be going back up north for about three weeks on sunday. I leave from my sisters for Rhode Island on the 28th and I will be there for a week! Its probably my favorite week out of the whole year because we camp, and eat lots of seafood and lay out on the beach daily - Its wonderful!! After that Ill hang out at my sisters for a little bit and then head home for a few days with the fam. On the 12th at 1 am... yes, 1am, Ill be picking up my friend John from JFK. During our trip to DC (if you dont know what im talking about, look down through my sophomore year in photos blogs, youll understand) he mentioned how much he liked the east coast last time he was out here (He is from Vegas) and I dropped the idea of him coming up to visit at some point. John, being the assertive type, began looking at flights and saw that he could find a very cheap one to fly out east in august. This just happened to work with the time that I would be up north and therefore we could drive down to school together. Now if you knew John or Myself you would know that this trip could not merely consist of driving to school - No. Over the week or so that we will be on the east coast/on our way to school we are taking full advantage of having my car and two big appettites for adventure. We will be going to Boston (and hopefully get to see one of my good friends Diana), NYC (to see all of the museums, Ground Zero, Brooklyn Bridge, and Lady Liberty - probably from a distance because the less money we spend, the better) and we will be hitting up Washington DC again on our way down to school. On top of this the missionaries are coming over for dinner one night, Ill get to give John a tour of the prettier side of NY - the Hudson Valley of course, and since my little brother plays Lacrosse like John gets to scrimmage with my brother and his friends (I, being the wonderful friend I am, am bringing up his pads and sticks so he can play properly and without being hurt, I hope).

So there, my friends is what I will be doing for the next GLORIOUS three weeks, I will not promise to blog during those weeks, If I do it will be a nice suprise and if not then I will catch blogspot up when I come back.

CIAO!

Sophomore Year in Photos - Final

Scroll Down to see in order :-)

Ill post better pictures when I can but these are my roomates, Katie & Janelle. Katie graduated from SVU in May and Janelle and I are both starting our Junior years this fall. We have had a lot of fun so far this summer.

4th of July - We went with a group to VMI (Virginia Military Institute) to see fireworks.

This is a picture I really love. There are some gorgeous backroads where Im at in NY and this is one of my favorite to go and take pictures, especially near sunset.

Cailin and I in her golf cart at the end of my sisters driveway. We were waiting for my dad and brothers to come, since they still didnt know I was in town earlier than I said I would be. About a minute after we took this picture it started to sprinkle and then DOWNPOUR. It was ridiculous trying to get back up the driveway and inside with all the rain, of course all Cailin and I could do was laugh at our luck.

I suprised the fam by coming home a few days earlier than they thought I was. Cailin was my first stop. Only her mom, My sister, knew that I was coming so she was very shocked to see me as was my grandmother. She was a little furious though because I had been calling her and my dad all day to talk and ask directions, she had know idea I was driving :-) This is Cailin on her pink golf cart with the blanket I made her for our camping trip that I leave for on Sunday!!
John & Becky in the Air & Space Museum in Washington DC. While watching Night at the Museum 2 (great movie) with John, he discovered that I had never been to DC to do all of the touristy stuff, you know see the museums and monuments. It was then we decided that before he left we would go, and so we did. Our adventure lasted a full 24hrs, where we left at 4 am and returned at 4am. We were able to see a handful of the Smithsonian Museums, The Capitol Building & The Washington Monument - the latter being from a distance though. We were also lucky enough to see the end of the changing of the guards at Arlington and a few other ceremonies. John and I will be going again near the middle of august on our way down to school.

During May I took a class called America & The Enlightenment taught by Dr. Lora Knight. We had a great class, seriously so much fun. We quickly became friends, and held lots of study nights/pizza parties. For our final we even invited Dr. Knight over to my house to watch Amazing Grace, eat A&E pizza (Pineapple & [francis] Bacon) and make the t-shirts we are wearing in this picture. This class was done over 4 weeks, so 2 weeks in we had a midterm and then another 2 weeks and we had a final. It was very fast paced but like I said, we all enjoyed it or at least the company. Right-->Left (including our given nicknames which we took from the material we studied) Gayle Smith (John Smith), Hannah Porter (1/2 of The Fronde), Alex Doxey (Francis Bacon, the Audacious Young Punk), Mariel Porter (1/2 of The Fronde), Colleen Moore (Publius), Myself (Marie Antoinette), Kristy Wright (Nathaniel Bacon), and Dr. Lora Knight (Olympe De Gouges) - Not pictured is Tim Meyer (King Louis XVI - I think.. Marie Antoinettes husband)A Joyful Spirit Cafe! This is where I work. I have worked here since the end of April 2008, and I do like this job, despite what I may say some days. While at work I will most likely be doing one of 5 things - Register, Make, Grill, Delivery, or Cleaning - sometimes Ill go between more than one depending on how many people are on that day. I am typically a closer which means I get to do the end of the day closing jobs, which includes dishes, sweeping, mopping, and my favorite - bank/drawer/tips = $$.

Ana and Mila. As I came out of the baptistry I saw Mila screaming and crying. She was about 1 at this point and did not like being seperated from her Mommy. My friend, Fale, was watching both Ana and Mila so I went over to help and sure enough she calmed down quickly. We played with them for a couple of hours while their parents were doing sessions. It was great to be able to help them have time to do something like that.Mallory & I on my wards temple trip. This time we were able to do baptisms and spend a lot of time in the visitors center. DC has always been my favorite temple but I grew to love it even more this trip.

Horrible picture but this is Paul & I at Lee-hi's around 12am or so. Megan and John were on the other side of our table and most pictures from that night are blurry or just shouldnt be posted, however Ill post this one just so you can see how Paul and I matched that night - Completely not planned. He just came out to the car and we both happened to be wearing the same obnoxious shade of blue.

Sophomore Year in Photos - Part 4... almost there :-)

Most Recent Pictures First

My house is the yellow one. The blue house belongs to our neighbors FW & Brinn. Our Bishop lives across the street, Mormons everywhere!
Mal & I before Spring Ball. The only things we bought for this dance were our sunglasses.

Mal and I on the day of Spring Ball. We drove to Roanoke to try on dresses and see if we could find mal something. I think this picture is pretty representative of our personalities.. yes?

Tommy, Matt and Holli at the last SVU lacrosse game of the season.

Last SVU game of the season. The team they were supposed to play didnt show up so they played each other. On the ground we have Scott, the goalie, who was playing up this day and wrestling him in the grey jersey is Chad, the Coach. Best part about this game was that we could hear everything they were saying, basically all the trash talking they did. One of the most entertaining games all season.

I call this "Starving Artist". Megan and I would often go to the studio to paint after dinner. We had both taken Intro to Drawing together in the fall and were sick of drawing bottles from that class and then we had to do structure paintings for Oil Painting... Not even our Carbon Leaf Pandora station could keep us sane. (P.s. If you dont have a Carbon Leaf Pandora station.. you need to get one) Mallory and I on a Sunday Drive I guess, this may have been around General Conference time. We drove up to the Blue Ridge Parkway to have a picnic but there were too many bugs so we sat in my car and ate and got out to take a few pictures. This, ladies and gent's, is Mallory pretending to fall over the Shenandoah Valley

So this is a horrible picture of us both but this is Megan and I in Elon, North Carolina. This is the farthest south I have been so far. It was a three hour trip to see who else but our mens LAX team play Elon. Elon had some nasty fans but our guys were happy to have at least us. Clearly we were going a little crazy here.

Mallory & Scottie - Mallory was working or had a class during the games after we made shirts and so this was when scott was able to see his shirt. On the back it has his number and INCHWORM, his nickname.. Im sure there is a great story behind that.

Shirt #2 - Logan "Tin Man" Murray (Mid) aka Kentucky & I. Logan had two numbers during the season so I just had his nickname on the back of this shirt. His family was actually at this game and his mom asked to take pictures of our shirts.

Shirt #1 - Brayden "Big Mac" Duran, #3 - Attack. I was only planning on making a shirt for brayden when I saw Logan at Lee-Hi's (local truck stop, 24hr diner thats popular with us students) and he said I needed to make him one too, so I had two shirts to switch between games.

Megans Shirt was for John "Johnboy" Trout, #2 all the way from Vegas.

There is John, #2, in action, I think Logan is behind the cage. This was a funny game because the opposing team had a few players that looked like they had just been picked off of the football team and handed a stick, for example, #85.

On our hike Mal and I brought lunch. Lots of goodies including Pepperoni, Ham, Bread, Apple slices, Pineapple, Cheddar Pringles and Goldfish - YUM

Sophomore Year in Photos - Part 3!

Again, photos are backwards with the more recent ones first.


Hiking with Mallory around Panther Falls Spring Break - Hanging with Cailin

Happy 72nd Birthday Dad! (I made his cake)

Spring Break - I went to Boston to see Diana

Di & I in Boston

My side of the room in The Lofts

Bray & I

LACROSSE!! Basically, my social life for spring semester included going to all these games. It didnt help that I dated a lacrosse player but I really love the sport.

Super Bowl - Cardinals vs. Steelers or Awkward Angle vs. Crazy Face

How we stayed sane during our hours of Statistics Homework.

Mallory and Nate - Kelsy and Ryan from HSM

Rika and I - Sharpay and Gabriella, fighting over Troy as always. These were our costumes for the Disney Dance

Rika convinced me to go ice skating one of our first nights back. Also the night I met Brayden

Christmas Break - Camille and I kidnapped Mallory for her birthday

Cailin and I pulling a "Lady and the Tramp" as she called it with cookies over Christmas break

Sophomore Year in Photos - Part 2

These are backwards with more recent photos first.

A Joyful Spirit Crew at our Christmas party
Winter Ball with Mallory

Happy Birthday to ME!!! - Two Cakes!

Leaving NY for VA after thanksgiving

Mal and I over my birthday weekend, yes, it was a weekend celebration

At the mall shopping for my birthday and writing a letter to Santa

Halloween Dance with Mallory (Gangster Barbie), Dax (Tourist) and Myself (Soccer Barbie)

Halloween with the Joyful Spirit Crew. The 3rd "little pig" left earlier.

We suprised Ashley for her 19th Birthday. Ran into her room with Balloons and Silly String, kidnapped her and made her wear a batman mask to ensure her blindfold woudldnt come off and took her to Waffle house... did I mention this was all at 4:30am?

Sophomore Year in Photos - Part 1

This is Sassafras aka Sass, Oreo, Little Bit.. poor thing had a million names. Everyone called her something different but she was Sassafras :-) This was "our cat" down in Carriage. We werent really allowed to have pets but she was a stray so we fed her and gave her a bath once and of course played with her a lot. We did eventually find her a good home though.

This is Chelsea and I. We were neighbors, and pretty much twins while she was here. We even did a road trip back to NY early on in the semester.

R-L we have Diana, Mallory and Natalie. Out of the crew from Freshman year Mallory, Amber and I were the only ones left at school. All of the guys (Josh, Stephen, Kenny, John, Geoff, and Jordan) were either on missions or about to leave on missions. Diana and Natalie both moved out to Utah though at different schools. We were lucky enough to find a weekend that Natalie could fly out and John could drive down from PA to see us but we didnt tell the that Diana was also flying out. We convinced natalie that we were going to the mall in Roanoke and had to tell john we were going to get diana so he wouldnt think we were leaving him out of stuff. As we pulled in to the airport Natalie got a little flustered and wondered if we were putting her back on a plane but then she saw Diana and all made sense. We had a great little reunion and hopefully we will get to do it again, maybe even before Natalie gets married in december.

This is one of the first nights back to school. While I was in Carriage - apartment style housing, Mallory was in The Lofts which were the girls dorms. They had some sweet closet space which Mal loved once she discovered what a great hiding space it made. I eventually moved into the Lofts for Spring Semester.

Mallory and I at the Washington DC Temple. We are in the DC temple district and every October the school does a service trip where we all go up there and do some weeding, planting and you know all the christmas lights? Yup! We get to put those up. It was a really cool experience especially since I hadnt been up there since My family was sealed there in '97.

Homecoming! Chelsea, Myself and Amber went with our friend Shaun and had loads of fun this year.

Chelseas last day in BV with Shaun and I. Sad day to see the Maymester crew break up.