Easter : )

First off, let me just say how good Easter was for me this year.  What a spiritual day. I feel like this year I have finally come to appreciate the Atonement more fully and what Christ has done for each one of us.  I am so grateful for His Resurrection and for the chance for all of us to be resurrected again some day.  

Secondly,  me and Freddie were invited to his roommate, Todd's, House in SLC.  His family was one of the nicest families I have ever met.  I'm serious.  Such nice peeps  (haha get it)

Luckily, I brought my really nice camera from School and was able to take their family pictures for all of the Wilde family and for each individual family as well.

I really liked this candid shot.  No one knew I was taking it.  These kids were so much fun to play with!

Here is our Provo Family Easter picture for our Mama.
All of the kids just loved Freddie, especially this little girl!

"Hey lil girl... bring me some of that cherry kool aid!"  (you know what I'm talking bout Freddie)

I had to throw in this pillow that Emily made for me for my birthday.  It is absolutely gorgeous and I wish I knew how to do this.  Emily gives the BEST presents!

Photoshop Kids

This past week and a half, I have been doing my practicum where we go into the schools and actually teach. I taught at Canyon View Junior High School and it was a communications class, which I was very excited to teach something that I am going to teach one day.  Other groups taught electronics classes.  Me and my group decided to do a unit on Photoshop and teach them the basics.  Little did we know, kids are a lot smarter than you think.  Most students caught on real quick and were really good.  I enjoyed every moment and the kids were awesome.  We became bffs by the last day haha

 

The first day we taught them the basics of photoshop and how to cut out pictures and use filters and layers and stuff like that.  The second day I taught some basic layout design principles and then we taught them how to morph two animals together.  That was so much fun.  The last day that we taught we had the students make a magazine cover and a school ad and then presented them at the end of class.  The kids were awesome.  Most stayed on task and caught on quickly.  I loved it when I saw students helping other students.  It was fantastic!

Here is the magazine cover that a student, Caleb, made.  We took pictures of each kid holding a white piece of foam core.  we taught them how to make a picture within a picture and then make a magazine cover out of it.  There were so many other good ones that I wish I would have taken back with me.

We also had the students make an advertisement poster about any issue they wanted.  This one was my favorite.  This kid had some legit skills.

This is Jessie's ad that he made for himself as if he were running for student council.  I thought this one was clever.

This is the vampire Hilary Duff.  Some one did this on the first day of class when we taught them some of the basic tools for retouching and cutting out photos.  Kinda creepy I know.

Be Thou Humble

I don't blog very often about spiritual things.  It's probably because sometimes I feel embarrassed since I don't know who reads my blog besides my family and a few friends.  I'm going to do it anyway because I always love to share what I have learned.  So here I go...   

For the last couple of weeks I have been struggling/thinking about doubts, fears and inadequacy.   I have definitely recognized this the whole time and I knew I needed to overcome this.  I prayed really hard and I just wanted Heavenly Father to immediately fix my problem.  Last week I realized that the speed of the course that we are on does not matter, but in the direction.  I knew I was headed in the right direction, but I just wanted to fast forward all of my problems.  Challenges take time to over come.   

This girl in my ward gave an excellent lesson in Relief Society last week on being Valiant in the cause of Christ.  It was exactly what I needed!  Hopefully I can be of help for any one.  Satan's greatest ability is making us fear and doubt and feel as though we are not strong enough.  We may feel inadequate, but we have to remember that Heavenly Father is there and all we need to do is open up to him.  Prayer is the means.  He is willing to listen and he is willing to help.  Even Christ at the very end of his life asked for Heavenly Father's help, and then he said "thy will be done."  Heavenly Father is constantly reaching out to us and blessing us  and it may not seem like that all the time.  Some of the blessings may include someone who reaches out to us or it can even be the absence of something like fear, or doubt, or stress in your life.

Mosiah 5:15

"Be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in good works, that Christ... may seal you his, that you may be brought to heaven, that ye may have everlasting salvation and eternal  life, through the wisdom, and power, and justice, and mercy of him who created all things, in heaven and in earth, who is God above all. Amen."  

We then went on and talked about our strengths and weaknesses.  We are given our strengths to fight our weaknesses.  Look at your weaknesses as an opportunity for growth.  We have so much potential.  The relief society teacher then asked for 3 volunteers to brag about a person in the room.  One of the girls bragged about me and she said the sweetest things about me.  It just made my day.  She then had those same 3 girls brag about themselves and this was a lot harder to do.  I realize that I need to be better at this.  I can go on and on about someone else and recognize all of their good qualities, but it is so hard for me to see mine.  I then read in D&C 46 where it lists some spiritual gifts.  I recognized the gifts that I have been given and I am so blessed to have them.  

"Be thou humble in thy weakness, and the Lord thy God shall lead thee,
Shall lead thee by the hand and give thee answer to thy prayers.
Be thou humble in thy pleading, and the Lord thy God shall bless thee,
Shall bless thee with a sweet and calm assurance that he cares."

Since being out at college for the past 3 years, I have discovered some of my true weaknesses.  My only hope is that I can use my strengths to overcome these.  I have so many blessings and gifts to be grateful for.  I have loving family members, friends,and a bishop who care about me.  They keep me going.  More importantly I have a loving Heavenly Father who loves me and knows me better than any one.  He wants me to succeed.

Oooo kaaayy on a lighter note, here are the top 10 highlights of my week!

1. I bought my plane ticket to London tonight with about 5 other girls and I am soooo excited.  Ill be gone from June 22 to August 10 and it was kiiinda pricey.

2.  I bought this really great shampoo and conditioner that Emily suggested and I'm in obsessed with it. 

3.  Friday night, me and my ward went to this indoor water park place, which was so awesome because it is still snowing outside and it is almost April!!!  I can not wait for spring.  Lots of fun things in store. 

4.  I rented Twilight yesterday and realized just how bad of a movie it was... but yet I still find it very intriguing.

5.  I stumbled upon this really good forum called Thinking Habits and Dispositions which was also just what I needed to read this week. 

 http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=7483 

6.  I played tennis a couple times, which is one of my favorite things to do.

 7.  I got a 20 page letter from my grandpa about how he proposed to my grandma.... um yeah still have not finished that one.

 8. Watching American Idol.  Matt Giraud is hands down my fave and I was so shocked when he was in the bottom 3!  I'm lovin' this season.

 9.  I got a  "Kiss me I'm a Bulldog" bright green, XXL shirt in the mail from my dad.

10.  And the crowning moment of my week was seeing Gary Coleman come into Costa Vida! Yeah I know he is not all that exciting, but when you are in Provo, you take what you can get.

Whatcha talkin' bout willis!!!

Cheerio y'all!!

Twenty One!

Wow what can I say? I really had such a great birthday!  I'll do a run down of what happened that day...

7:00 am

I wake up and walk out my room and there are streamers every where and my room mates had made me breakfast, which included the fluffiest waffles ever, scrambled eggs, and ovaltine! yummm

8:00 am

I show up to my class and every one sings happy birthday to me while this girl in my class, Jenny, plays the guitar.  Haha my major is seriously hilarious-- we can do what ever we want. 

9:00 am

I get a call from my wonderful sister Emily.

11:00 am

Me and Freddie go to J- Dawgs where they have the most amazing hot dogs you will ever taste in your life.  It is definitely worth coming to Provo and trying these delicious dogs.

11:30 am

Me and Freddie head over to the creamery where freddie picks out my cake mixes for that night.

1:00 pm

I skip all of my classes and took a nap... totally worth it.

7:00 pm

Me and a few of my freinds go out to dinner at the Pizza Factory, where I had never been before and i loved it!  They actually give you a free pizza for your birthday shaped as your age.

9:00 pm

Me and a bunch of friends head over to the Tumbling Gym, which is the funnest place in Provo!  We had a blast!

10:30 pm

We head back over to my place for some delicious funfetti birthday cake!

I have made some really wonderful friends since I have been out here in Provo and I am so incredibly blessed.  I don't know what I would do with out them!  It's also so nice to have Freddie around and I can't wait for my little sister Amy to come out here next year!

Also this week I had my first prep class for study abroad in London.  Here are some of the pictures they showed us of the London Center... I just got even more excited to do this once in a lifetime experience.  We learned a lot about the history of England and its surrounding countries in the prep class and I found it all so fascinating and it felt so good to learn about these kinds of things other than technology stuff.  All in all, I am so excited!!

As promised...

I know I know... you are probably freaking out right now, but I am so glad that I went for it.  Here is the new do!!! It's a bit too dark right now but it will fade some and I love it!!!

London's Calling!

I would like to officially announce that today I found out that I got into BYU's study abroad program in London!!!! You have no idea how excited I am. I will be going for the summer term from June 23 to August 13.  There is still lots to do to prepare, but now I'll  just celebrate.  Thank you to every one who has helped me in any way (especially to my sister Jessica).  It was an intense process, but definitely all worth it.  I love y'all.  We really are dreamin' big in 2009!

(Also kind of a random side note: I need some input on how I should get my hair done.  I'm thinking I want to go full brunette this time.  I've been trying to go gradual but I think its time to just go for it.)

V-Day, V-Day.

For some strange reason, I really got into Valentine's Day this year.  I don't know what happened, but I guess I'm a fan now.  I think it is a cheesy way to let the people around you know how much you love them.  I just love love.   

I really wanted to bake and make lots of fun treats.  Since all of my room mates were out of town, me and my neighbor Whitney decided to combine our baking forces and call it a party.  This is what became of

 it-- TONS of sweets, an unexpected amount of people, a kissing wall, and a chihauhua.

Here is a heart shaped fruit pizza I made.  I have the best recipe...

1/2 c. butter
1 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. oil
1 egg
1 tsp. cream of tarter
1 tsp. baking soda
2 c. flour
1/4 tsp salt

Mix butter, sugar and vanilla, then add oil and eggs. MIx well then add the rest of the ingredients. Mix just until blended. Should refridgerate but if no time okay.
put in a jelly roll pan and spread evenly and bake at 350 for 10 min

2 -8 oz cream cheese

1/2 tso almond extract

1/2 tsp vanilla

2/3 c. powdered sugar

 

Cream together all ingredients well and spread evenly over the cooled cookie crust. Use and assortment of your favorite fruits thinly sliced and place on top of cream cheese spread (blueberries, strawberries, kiwi, raspberries, peaches work welll

For some reason the guys willingly put on lipstick for the kissing wall... What can I say Marci has a talent.

I LOVE the Gruwells!  Eliza brought her Valentine present with her... the cutest little chihauha I've ever seen (besides Bruiser of course haha)

The incredible Miss Whitney.

Me and my friend, Jay, who just got back from his mission.

Me and some of the girls in my ward.  They are so sweet and I just love my ward.

Hahahahaha is all I gotta say.

and thaaat's a wrap!