summary of the past 5 months...

I know, it's been forever since I've posted. Scott and I have been so busy and haven't had as much access to the internet as I would have liked this past summer. But now that things are starting to settle down, I think its time for an update!

April ended with a trip to Peru! Scott and I both interned at the Area Office for the Church there. Scott worked in the HR department and helped create surveys and update information. I worked in Travel and helped train area travel coordinators and missionaries on how to use the Church's travel programs. I also helped plan the Mission President's Seminar that's taking place this October.

Besides working, we got to spend 2 months with my family...and we even got to travel a little bit! :)

The highlight of the trip was probably our trip to Cusco. We went to Machu Picchu and took some different tours around Cusco and the surrounding cities/ruins. We spent a week there with my whole family. (Katie and Rory came down just for that trip and were able to spent a couple weeks with us).

Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of our other trips, but we were able to travel around Lima a little bit and we took a trip to Ica. In Ica, we stayed at a resort called Las Dunas and had a lot of fun swimming, playing basketball, and dune buggying/sand bording. I will have to upload pictures when I get some!


We got back from Peru towards the end of June...just in time to start Summer Term at BYU. I signed up for one class at the Salt Lake Center at 5pm every Tues and Thurs. Other than that, I am taking 2 online classes...my last undergraduate classes ever! My plan was to graduate this past August. BUT, while I was interning in Peru, the Travel Department at the Church Office Building Headquarters in Salt Lake offered me another (this time payed) internship in Salt Lake. So, because I am now working full time in Salt Lake, I didn't finish my online classes in time...which means I don't technically graduate until December. However, I was still able to walk in August--which was really fun since I got to walk with Katie. :)

Here we both are after Commencement.

Katie after her Convocations.

Me with my Geography buddies (minus Stephanie).

The family after my Convocations.

The rest of the summer consisted of spending a lot of time with both my family and Scott's family (including an almost successful camping trip). As well as several of my friends getting married. The most exciting of which, was my old roommate/bridesmaid Sami!

All four of us old roommates. I can't believe we're all married now! :)

P.S. I stole this picture from Kate. :) Thanks!

As of recently, I am still working at the Church Office Building. They are hoping to hire me on full time before December...hopefully it will work out. I'm also working on my finishing up my classes. Scott is back in school full time and working part time at the Provo Library. 

We recently moved into a new apartment that is much bigger and much nicer. Thanks to Katie's in-laws, we're getting a great deal on it and we feel really blessed. I'm now working on decorating! :)

On that note, I should also mention our new callings! With the change in housing, we moved into a new Ward and got new callings. I am a visiting teaching supervisor, and Scott and I together are the ward emergency preparedness leaders. We are really excited about it! I have been thinking about how we need to start a food storage and all of that a lot recently so this calling is perfect! 

Anyway, this post is getting a little long, so I'll end it here. Hopefully I'll be better at keeping up with things for now on. (I'm also making a new resolution to take more pictures). But I can't promise anything...

"i'm a big kid now!"

Does anyone else remember those pull up commercials? I've been thinking a lot about growing up lately and that song keeps getting stuck in my head...

Ever since I can remember, life has always been about the next privilege or experience I'd get just for getting older. I couldn't wait to be a "big kid" or "grow up" so I could do everything I wanted to do! It seems like most defining moments in our lives come about through a progression of time and thus, age. For example, turning 6 meant going to first grade, 8 meant getting baptized, 12 meant getting to sit in the front seat of the car and going to young women, 14 meant starting high school the next year, 16 meant getting to date.

For as long as I could remember, age 18 meant going to college. But somehow, I bypassed that rule and, by graduating from high school a year early, I started college at 17. I believe this was a turning point in my life. Since then, I seem to have avoided all the normal age rules and I really believe it has drastically changed the course of my life.

After being at BYU for two short years, I found myself engaged to a wonderful man! I always figured I'd get married around 21 or go on a mission and then get married at 23 or so. But somehow, that plan never really worked out. (And thank goodness!)

Not only did I get married at 19, but now, at 20, I'm wrapping up my undergraduate career. Somehow I managed to choose a very short major (after switching a couple of times) and the plan was to graduate a semester early. However, after getting married, and realizing how expensive it is, I thought I'd try for an entire year early. So I somehow managed 18 credits this past semester and after 3 internship credits in the spring, and 9 more credits in the summer, I will officially be done with my bachelors degree.

As nice and exciting as it sounds to be done with school, I find myself increasingly worried about what happens after graduation. For the first time in my life, I'm not sure I want to grow up.

Be that as it may, I am excited (terrified) of getting a big kid job. Yep, thats right, I'm in the process applying for my first real job. Its not what I originally had in mind, but it has all the benefits plus a fairly good entry level wage. And honestly, I think I have a pretty good chance of getting it. If I do, it will most likely mean moving closer to Salt Lake and not as much time at home as I was hoping. Oh well, I'm trying not to get my hopes up. I guess we'll just see where life takes us.

...

And next week, its taking us to Peru!

For those of you who don't know, Scott and I will be interning for the Church in Peru for six weeks this spring and we're very excited! It'll be great to finally be able to introduce Scott to my home (South America)! :]

thank goodness for husbands

So, I feel like I owe the blogging world and explanation for why it has been so long since I've posted. Let me start by saying it has been an incredibly busy past two weeks. Why so busy you ask? Well, let me tell you...

(and I promise it gets better at the end. If you don't want to hear me complain, feel free to skip to the end :] )



My first mistake was taking 18 credit hours this semester (the most you can take without getting special permission from important people). Truthfully, it wasn't a mistake, but there have been some moments of regret this past semester... Anyway, it seems like I always have a paper to write and a test coming up. Because I sometimes like to complain, I took the liberty of looking up just how many papers I have written this semester. 23. Yep, I have written 23, at least 3 page, double spaced papers in the past 12 weeks. And I still have 5 more to write in the next two weeks. 



I also have a job. Because I needed to take 18 credits this semester (to graduate in August) I decided to work considerably less hours this semester. So I cut my usual 20 hour work week down to only about 12-13 hours--to hopefully give myself more time for homework. Until two weeks ago, that was going just fine. 

I blame the last reason I have been so busy on the International Study department at BYU. This summer, Scott and I are moving home with my parents so we can do internships at the LDS Church Area Office in Lima, Peru (more on this later). I'm doing mine for credit. Little did I know, the preparation for this internship might end up being the death of me. Of course I am exaggerating, but I'm honestly starting to think the internship credit is not worth what they have put me through this semester. 

•  When I decided to do my internship, nobody in my department had any idea that I would have to go through the IS Office. So when I found out, it just happened to be the same day that the application to do an individual internship is due. Lucky me. I got to run around collecting all the necessary forms, recommendations, and paperwork instead of going to class. Luckily, I have a very kind professor and boss who were willing to write spur of the moment recommendations for me. 
• Second, I then had to meet with Mr. Know-it-all who is in charge of the program and has become one of the people I have grown to most dislike at BYU. Not only did he awkwardly ask me if  I am pregnant or planning to conceive before the end of my internship, he also neglected to give me some very important information and refused to let me out of the "required seminars"
• So on top of my 18 credits this semester, I also had to start going to weekly seminars that will "help me avoid culture shock" when I go do an internship in the place I call "home". (I'd also like to mention there is a Mexican in my class who is going back to Mexico to do an internship in a place that is literally his home and he too is being forced to come to the seminars--ridiculous!)
• As I mentioned earlier, Mr. Know-it-all "forgot" to tell me that to be registered for my internship, I have to fill out a "course contract". So, when the deadline came and went, and there were several of us who hadn't turned one in, we of course received a scathing reprimand. Awesome.
• Also, not only do I have to pay $660 to register for my unpaid internship, I also have to maintain BYU insurance AND pay for supplemental international insurance. In order to get this insurance, we had to email Mr. Know-it-all's assistants our travel dates and places. To be sure that this got in on time, I sent the email over a week in advance. So you can imagine my surprise when I received another scathing email the day after it was due. Somehow, they had "misplaced" my email. 

We shall see if I end up getting credit for this internship. With the way things are going, I've most likely already neglected something essential.

So while this department has made my life a living nightmare, things at work have also gotten increasingly more stressful.

About two weeks ago, my boss was diagnosed with stage three (the worst stage) of diverticulitis and was hospitalized. Just as he was starting to get better, they found an abscess on the outside of his colon and he began getting worse again.  However, miraculously he began healing on his own without surgery. The only bad thing was that he had thrown out his back and needed some physical therapy. Regardless, he decided to come into work (about a week and half since he was first hospitalized). While at work, he passed out and then had a seizure. The doctors aren't sure what caused the seizure, but needless to say he most likely won't be back this semester.

My boss is the kind of guy who everyone loves and most get along with, however, he is very much a workaholic and fairly stuck in his ways. His bosses have kept urging him to let someone else do some of his work. So, he trained me to do his filing, scheduling, other computer related things, and some of the ordering. However, he still did a lot of the ordering. After being hospitalized, basically everyone realized that nobody really knew what he did or how he did it. Since I'm the only supervisor trained on Eatec (the ordering system), it fell to my responsibility to do all of the ordering. So of course, it was also my fault when I failed to know what to order or how to order everything we needed for everyday. All the extra work has also meant many extra hours, so instead of working my leisurely  12-13 hours a week, I've been working around 17-18 hours a week. Needless to say, I've been a little busy.

Now that I've ranted for a lot longer than I planned on, I feel like I need to mention that although my life has been so stressful, it really isn't as terrible as it seems. I do have plenty of things to be grateful for.

• I'm grateful that I have a job. I'm grateful for all the extra money we're getting from all the hours I've worked. I'm grateful for the experience I'm getting and I'm grateful I can help my boss out. 
• I'm grateful for BYU and that I'm able to attend. I'm SO grateful that I'm graduating in August and I can go get a real job and make real money.
• I'm grateful for my parents and that they pay for my tuition. I'm grateful for my dad for coordinating our internships.
• I'm thankful for the Church and for Sundays and for our callings
• And most of all, I'm thankful for my wonderful husband who can always make me laugh and distract me when I'm most stressed, who is always willing to do anything to make my life easier, and who loves me, no matter how much I complain. 

Thank goodness for husbands.

and so the countdown begins...

It's been a while since I've written--mainly due to the fact that while many of my friends from around the world are taking spring break right now, I'm in the middle of probably one of the hardest weeks of the semester. (I guess thats what I get for taking 18 credits this semester...).

So, since I don't have time to sit down and write for fun, I decided I could still look on the bright side of things. I graduate from BYU 5 months from tomorrow! 

After a lot of trial and error, I finally figured out how to add a countdown to my blog. It's not really where I want it but hey, its better than nothing. Hopefully I'll figure out how to move it as I get better at this whole blogging thing. (And maybe when I have more time).

The End.

take me to....the coldest country in the world

After convincing pretty much everyone (myself included) they are moving back to Utah this coming July, my family has accepted a position in Moscow, Russia. To their benefit, they really did think they were moving back. But, my dad was offered a position and they decided it was an experience they didn't want to give up (that definitely would have been my choice too!). So while I'm sad they won't be around for the next couple of years, I'm very excited for them! Especially since this means Scott and I will have to take a trip to Europe sometime in the next two years... :)

My mom is excited because she'll get to wear one of these:

 

In light of this announcement I decided to look up some interesting stats about Russia:

• Oymyakon, Russia is third on the list of coldest places in the world (#1 and #2 are both in Antarctica). The coldest temperature recorded is -96.0 Fahrenheit.
• Russia is the largest country in the world. It spans 11 time zones and borders 14 countries by land and 4 by water.

• While more than 81% of the population is Russian, the other 19% are from more than 100 other nationalities.
• There are 88 men per every 100 women (possibly because the life expectancy for women is more than 13 years longer than the life expectancy for men...)
• Adult literacy: 99.6%
• Russia is home to the 10th largest dessert in the world 

 

(Kyzylkum Desert)

• Also home to the largest lake in the world (as well as the 6th and 9th largest)

 

(Caspian Sea...which I guess they consider a lake..) 

• Has the 6th largest population in the world
• Moscow is the 24th largest city in the world with a population of 8.4 million 

• Russia is the 4th biggest producer of cereal in the world (USA is second)
• The 4th top consumer of tea in the world and the 5th top consumer of cocoa. 
• Russia is the top producer of nickle and the 2nd top producer of platinum and aluminum
• Russia is 7th in the number of tourist arrivals 
• Is ranked 11th in terms of Winter Olympic Games with a total of 27 golds, 20 silvers, and 13 bronze medals (not including the most recent Olympics)

• Because Russia does not have an LDS Temple, Moscow belongs to the Helsinki Finland Temple District. Below is they temple my family will belong to:

Well, I hope those were as interesting for you to read as they were for me to find... Anyway, I'm excited for my family and I can't wait to go visit! :)

homesick

Home is where the heart is. Thats what they say.

If this is true, my heart must be torn into pieces. I feel like I've left a little peice of myself in every country I've lived in. People say that now that I'm married, my home should be where my husband and I live. And I do feel like Provo is more of a home now that I live with a husband instead of roommates. But even so, I will never get back those pieces of my heart that I've left all over South America and the Caribbean.

This past weekend I've been thinking a lot about Chile. Although I experienced many small earthquakes while living there, it was almost impossible to believe that an 8.8 earthquake hit my home. MY home. My mind was in denial as I saw pictures of collapsed bridges and damaged streets and buildings--places I've been many many times! How could something so terrible happen to a place I love so much?

Rather than feeling relieved that I wasn't there when it happened, this whole event has made me wish more than ever that I was there right now. I want to making sure everyone I know is okay. I want to help clean up the areas that were hit the hardest. But most of all, I just want to be there. Back home where I belong.

if I had all the money in the world...

I would go here:

and stay here:

and see this:

 Someday, I will.

2008 part 1

One of the biggest failures of my life is probably my inability to keep a journal going. I must have 10-20 notebooks, diaries, or journals where I half-heatedly tried to record the most important parts of my life. But needless say, they didn't last very long. Despite my failures, I really do believe keeping a journal is important.

Thus, today is the first of (hopefully) many  
"Journal Entry Thursdays" 

I know 2008 was a long time ago, but many life-defining-moments happened that year. (even though I didn't know it at the time).

March 20th 2008

I met Scott Gregory Keyes.

At the time, we both worked for BYU Catering. I began working there (because I needed a job and my sister was a captain and convinced me to apply) as a waitstaff in August 2007. In October I was promoted to Maitre-d, which basically means you get more responsibility, work more hours, and have to work with the costumers a lot more--but mostly, I did it for the pay raise. 

March 20th, I was put on as a Maitre'd for probably one of my biggest banquets yet: a 404 person Regular Serve (as opposed to a much simpler buffet) in the WSC Ballroom. And because I was so very experienced by this point I was given a Maitre-D trainee to train at the same time. His name was Scott. Scott was a very hard worker, always running around doing whatever it looked like needed to be done. Unfortunately, that was not what he was supposed to be doing. He was supposed to be shadowing me. Which basically means he was supposed to be following me around so that he could learn what Maitre-Ds do. So because he was always off doing something "important", I was constantly chasing him down so I could show him obviously more important things. 

Needless to say, I was slightly frustrated that night and Scott didn't make a great impression. Despite this first impression, Scott and I were both dating other people at the time. So of course, nothing happened right away.

May 2008 

Captain Promotions!

For those of you not familiar with how Catering works, a Captain is a student supervisor who is put in charge of events. Captains work with their full-time (or three-quarter time) ECs (or event coordinators) to carry out events. They do everything from preparations before the event to carrying out the actually event (where they are put in charge of a varying number of other students) to cleaning up after the event. 

Basically, being a captain is a lot of work. But, it comes with more hours (which I was looking for that summer, since I wasn't in school), more money (which I was also looking for that summer....), and more social life (which I didn't necessarily need. but hey, why not?).

Scott and I were both promoted that May and became Captain Trainees. Not only that, but because of EFY and a lack of full Captains, we were thrown into several banquets together while learning how to do things on our own. 

Here is a picture of Scott as my Maitre'd on one of my first Wedding Banquets 

(shortly after becoming a Captain)

 

He is sad that the flower I gave him fell out of his pocket.

ps. we were nothing more than friends at this point

June 30, 2008

Our first date.

Summer of 2008 was partially, for me at least, characterized by Catering Date Nights. These basically consisted of all the Captains being paired up with other Captains to go on huge group dates on Monday nights. They were a lot of fun. 

For the first date, we had a bonfire and roasted marshmallows and made s'mores. Interestingly, Scott and I were paired up for the this one...

 

... and he was obviously a lot more excited about it than I was.

 

...to be continued.

blogging...a slippery slope

I'm one of those people who limits the activities I do during each semester so that I will be forced to get all my work done early so that I won't have anything to procrastinate with. For the most part, it seems to work. Especially since getting married to him. I no longer feel like I have to have a life outside of my school work because I'm happy.

Anyway, I have a little ritual that I do before I start my homework everyday. It goes like this:
1. check mail
2. eat something (usually unhealthy)
3. do my daily sudoku calendar
4. check gmail
5. check facebook (I'm pretty good at limiting my time on here)

Finally, I'm ready to start my homework.

Recently, however, I somehow got sucked into the blogging world. It might be because I know some really great writers. Or maybe since (like I said before) I have no life during the semester, I'm really living vicariously through the lives of some bloggers I know. But most likely its because, deep down (okay maybe not so deep...), my fingers are longing to blog.

Well, no matter what the reason, I've become addicted to blogs. Checking blogs has become number 6 on my list. And really, its getting a little out of hand. It started with just some friends and family. But after a while, I became almost depressed when no one had updated their blogs. So I began browsing....and now I've become enthralled in the lives of acquaintances and people I don't even know.

So here I am. Starting one of my own. Maybe it will destroy my addiction. But probably, it will just aggravate it.

But really, who cares?

School isn't really that important anyway, right?