Hello?

I wonder if any of you follow this anymore? I think we should get together again :) I was going to say in May when school is out, but I'm pretty sure none of us are in school anymore...weird- we're getting to be old ladies!
Sam, when do you leave for Africa? We should do it before then.

And by the way, I was tempted to tell you all when I saw you last, but we hadn't told our families yet so it didn't feel right. But we're having a baby boy! It looks like Elise, Merideth, and I are all due within a week of each other, which was totally not planned but cool anyway.

What is new with all of you?

Crisis Averted

Proverbs 31

I decided to search one more time and apparently I had just overlooked one little scripture in my search results.

thanks for the help.

HELP!

For the past couple weeks I have been thinking of a chapter in the scriptures that I have felt was dedicated to women and their worth. I decided to finally read it tonight but can't find it. I was almost positive it compared women to rubies or something like it. I have now spent the last twenty minutes searching for this chapter and it seems to have disappeared. I have looked up rubies, women, worth, precious and there are great scriptures about all these but they are individual scriptures instead of whole chapters, which I am sure it's a whole chapter. I am beginning to wonder if it is one of those things that I read it a while ago and got much more out of it than was actually written on the page. The fact that I can picture it in my scriptures makes me think it is real though. I thought I remembered having referred to this chapter in this post back in May when we first started the blog. D&C 31 is not the chapter I am thinking of and in fact doesn't really fit what I was trying to say in that post. I must have written the wrong reference or I am just going crazy. Does anyone have any idea what I am talking about? can you help me or should I just check myself into the mental hospital?
I love you girls!

Do You Have Room for the Savior? - Christmas Music Video

Hello my beautiful sisters!

If you have not heard this beautiful Christmas song it is a must!
I sure am missing all of you and love you so much! How about an evening Christmas party?!?

Love,

Elise

I love you

I was just sitting at my computer getting ready to prepare my lesson for tomorrow. I am helping to teach 4th grade at Mapleton Elementary School and I love it!!!! My class is spectacular! Yesterday we went to mars (on our chairs tilted towards the ceiling) and today we learned about water and took a picture of a bird. Life is wonderful. Our family ward is spectacular and I couldn't help but think of all of you as I talked to Adam's little sister and she mentioned how she lives in our old beloved 162.

I think Heavenly Father has some wonderful lessons for me about little children because I just received the wonderful calling to serve in the primary. Along with that I feel overwhelmingly blessed to have been set apart as a temple worker last Tuesday. Chris and I keep busy BYUSAing and doing homework (which we do;). We love each other and love life. I miss you all and love you with all of my heart.

p.s. a while ago our beloved Sam Crane put on the best homecoming dance ever! It was at the aquarium and we had a blast!

Hello From 1291 N 300 W....still lonely with no visitors ;)

It was good to hear from Sam and Sereen in their posts/email. I agree we should do something this weekend. I'm trying FRANTICALLY to get work off and if I don't get it off, we'll be staying here in Provo Saturday night for Priesthood, so maybe we could do something then!

Life has been CRAZIER than ever! I'm at the hospital more than I'm at home and I see less of Jed than when we were dating! But even with how busy it is, we've found time to use our camping gear 4 times now (one time we backpacked behind the Y to the top of the mountain and in the morning came back through an intense storm , the whole time wondering if we were going to make it out....) BUT we've learned to plan it safe and we're planning a trip to St George to do some camping and hiking (and maybe go to some SUU homecoming events because I'm still a T-Bird junkie) We're going Oct 14-15. I know you don't have fall break, but if any of you are able to, we'd love you to come with us!! We're meeting my sister and some other friends down there.

Last funny thing....you probably all know I'm a pretty bad penny-pincher you will ever meet and I DREAD shopping. Well, I went to Target the other day (armed with handy Target giftcards) and went on a $400 shopping spree....and I LIKED IT! We are now equipped with a camera, camping grill, jumper cables, hair trimmers (if anyone trusts me to practice on them, I'd be happy to!), and other things. Maybe this is a turning point for me and I'll learn to actually enjoy shopping? ....haha, probably not.

Anyway, I hope you girls are enjoying life! I love you!
Bethany


p.s. This is a picture from my brother's wedding 4 days after mine. Crazy 4 days for my family, but it's been fun :)

Helloooo!

Hello my dear sisters! I miss you all sooo much! When can we make plans to all see each other?

I can't believe we're already 4 weeks into Fall Semester. It's been going pretty fast! I am taking 15 credits. My classes are good....but lots of work :) My absolute favorite class is Mission Prep with Brother Bott. Amazing! 2 hours a week is never long enough!

When I'm not in class, I can usually be found in the BYUSA office. I love my position in BYUSA! It can be super overwhelming and time-consuming, but it is absolutely the best experience, and I have already grown so much from it. I know this is definitely what I'm supposed to be doing this year. I'm also a vice-president in the Nonprofit Management Student Association, so that is fun too....definitely not as good as BYUSA, but it's ok :)

As for the other aspects of my life, I am glad that BYUSA and school keeps me constantly busy and on campus all day because the ward/apartment situation has been kind of disappointing and not so good so far. There are a lot of different factors contributing to that. So once again, I am so grateful for BYUSA and the friends that I have there!

I've realized that I've come to a point in my life where I don't know what is coming next. I can't plan even 6 months ahead, and it kind of scares me! I will turn 21 in January, and I am considering a mission. I'm not thinking about is seriously enough right now to make a decision, but I hope that sometime this semester I will be able to decide. Everything else seems to hinge on whether or not I am going to leave my life here for 18 months. All the questions I get from people have started to make me anxious. "When are you graduating?" "What are you doing next summer?" "Are you doing BYUSA / NMSA next year?" "What are your plans after graduation?" And the dreaded "Are you dating anyone?" But I know I shouldn't let all this get to me, so I guess I will just take things one day at a time :)

I love you all so much, and I hope you are doing well. I get to see Elise pretty often, but the rest of you I am missing a lot! Let's get together soon :) I LOVE YOU!!

Sam

Are you all still alive?

It has been far too long since any of us have posted on here and I think it is definitely time for some updates.

Jared and I have been living with his Grandma in American Fork for the last couple weeks because our apartment wasn't available until September 1st. Do you know what the date is today? that's right we were finally able to get our key and start moving our stuff in! Since we are both busy with school and work we won't actually move all of our furniture and start living in it until Saturday. I am so excited to finally have our own place and my very own kitchen!! Don't get me wrong it has been great living with his grandma. We hardly ever saw her and loved her company when we did. We are very grateful for her willingness to let us stay there and it was a great situation but I am ready to finally settle.
I am also very excited to have you all over (you will always be welcome to just stop in) as well as be able to host parties and game nights and stuff when we finally get settled in our apartment.

I am taking 16.5 credits and working 20 hours a week. So far things aren't looking too bad even though this is the biggest load I have ever taken at once. Jared is taking 15 credits and also working 20 hours a week with a couple side free lance jobs. We both thought that it wouldn't be too bad having such a big load, from what we have heard productivity and grades go up when you get married. What we were never told is that even though you aren't distracted by five other roommates who I love and always wanted to socialize with I am now living with my best friend who I could and do talk for hours with. If I wasn't dedicated before I'm going to have to be now. Only one more semester left! after this semester I get to look for full tie job with a social worker to work on getting my SSW, take one more general class and graduate in April. I am so excited!

I love you all and hope to at least hear from you or even better see you soon.

miss you all

This will just be a quick update. I have been wanting to post for a while but just haven't taken the time because I am either planning a wedding, with Jared, helping my mom so she doesn't get too stressed. Now I am sitting here missing all of you so I thought I would make sure you all knew that I still exist.
Bethany, I am sooo excited for you! My engagement story is coming but I should be cleaning the house before my family gets home from our family reunion. I was there from Monday until last night. I came home last night so that I could spend some time with Jared and sleep in my own BED.
Mimi, I was so excited when I heard you and Sterling were dating. I want to hear more about it.
Sam, I hope you don't mind but I want to tell Tyler what you said (Balcony Talk) he would think it was hilarious. Don't worry every one has always gotten those two mixed up.
Elise, I I agree with Bethany we need to hear your story.
and of course I miss Kelli and Heather. I love reading their letters, what great examples they are.
Aside from being busy with my family and preparing to get married in 40 days Jared and I have taken on a project together. We are the new event leads for the Florida State game. One of Jared's best friends from the mission is Ryan Greenburg and he asked if we would like to get involved. We're both pretty excited to get involved with BYUSA again and to have something to work on together. This also means I will be coming down to Provo at least once a week to come into the office during office hours. This also means I will get to see you all more, if not in the office then I will have to drop by your apartment every once in a while.

Now I really need to get back to cleaning, just wanted you all to know that I love and miss you!

Oops

Elise, thanks for keeping this blog updated.... and oops from all of us slackers who don't keep it up for ourselves ;)

Things are absolutely fabulous in my life! I finally am over a case of food poisoning that I got after a lovely dinner at that Tucanos with Mimi, Sterling, and Jed-bubbly-umpkin

(haha, I thought I'd throw that in. I've never ACTUALLY called him that in case you're wondering...but I may have to try it. Gag*twitch)

You've probably heard the story...but Jed and I got engaged on June 21st around 4:00pm, when both he and I were 22 years old

(We were both birthed on June 21st; he at 4:36pm, and me at 11:03am one year later.

SO therefore, we are the same age for exactly 5 hours and 33 minutes)

After having lunch, walking on the Jordan Parkway, browsing around Target, and whatever else Jed could think of to stall until we could meet his sister and she could sneakily give him the ring, we FINALLY headed up the canyon to hike Donut Falls.

Halfway up the hike, we pulled off to a little clearing and he asked me to give him a little private dance lesson so we could practice dancing for our wedding. After dancing in the clearing for awhile, he said "I got you something for your birthday," got down on one knee and proposed. I was very happy, said "yes" (duh), gave him a kiss, and he proceeded to hug me VERY hard.

(Caution: when you hug someone really hard, you may squeeze unwanted gas out of them, and it is very embarassing, but very funny at the same time)

SO the next thing that was said after the initial acceptance (this is embarassing to admit, but since you girls are the only ones who read this and I think you'll appreciate it...) was "Uh, we need to clear the area!" Which made us both laugh and perfectly demonstrates how I unintentionally ruin any romantic setting he ever makes (but he still wants to be with me for some reason anyway). It was pretty funny, but unfortunately I get the feeling that this part of the story will be what is passed on to our kids and our kids' kids' kids....

We went on and finished the hike and as we hiked back we found some fellow hikers to take a picture of us (they were the very first to know of our official engagement). We then proceeded down the mountain, through the canyon, onto I-15, and to my house for a combined family BBQ/birthday party.

Pretty sure this was the best birthday present ever :) Ah, geez...I love this kid!

p.s. Keep August 10th open

Elise....Sereen....we need your stories and pictures now!

On Behalf of Mimi and Sam

They are both anxiously engaged in good causes.

On Behalf of Myself

I am also engaged to be married....figured I would help keep everyone updated on the news.

On Behalf of Bethany

She is also engaged to be married.

On Behalf of Sereen

She is engaged to be married.

On Behalf of Kelli Haws

This is Elise writing on behalf of Kelli Haws. She is extremely busy as she is currently an EFY counselor and has just been informed she will be leaving on her mission next Wednesday, June 16th instead of the previous July 28th. We can pray for her to have enough time to get everything together!

Now I am Elise and just wanted to say that I am marrying Christopher James Peterson on August 20, 2010 just in case you didn't know;) We are excited and once again my wonderful schoolwork has been a little on the back-burner. All I can say is that the Lord knows what we need so much better than we do. It is in Him I am putting my faith and trust. My prayers reach out to each one of you my beautiful sisters. Thank you for blessing my life with your light. You are remarkable.

Love you,

Elise and Kelli

Memorial Day Weekend

Hello Sisters!
First off, I love you all so much, and I really miss those of you who I don't see on a daily basis! We really need to make some plans together before you all start going on missions and getting married and what not!

I had a really great Memorial Day weekend, so I'm going to fill you in on some of the highlights! I was home from Wednesday afternoon to Tuesday morning, and it was so good to be there. I went to my sister's graduation. She was Senior class president, so she got to speak, and it was great. She has officially decided to go to Southern Virginia University after receiving a $15,000 per year renewable scholarship. It's really crazy to think about her going to Virgina. We are all going to miss her, but it's going to be such a fun experience for her!

On Friday I got to spend some time with Dallin. Our stake's singles ward went on a temple trip to the Twin Falls temple. Dallin and all of his friends that are getting ready to leave on missions did all of the ordinance work. It was really cool to see them have that opportunity to exercise their Priesthood in a way that they never had before.

Saturday was a girl's day, and it was a lot of fun! My mom and my sisters and I had a shopping trip in Twin Falls. It served as my Mom's birthday present (Her birthday was on Sunday). And then we ate dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant!

Sunday was Dallin's farewell, and he gave a really great talk. We went to lunch at his house for several hours afterwards with friends, neighbors, and extended family. (And Adam Ruri! He is dating my friend/neighbor! So funny!) Later that night we had cake and ice cream back at our house for my mom's birthday.

My brother Mitch passed the sacrament for the first time on Sunday. I went home for his Priesthood ordination two Sundays ago, which was done by my Grandpa.

Sadly, we didn't decorate any graves on Monday. We don't have any family buried in the area, and with everything going on that weekend we couldn't travel anywhere. I planned to go home Monday afternoon, but then got a better offer and postponed my travel plans until early Tuesday morning. I spent the evening with a very cute friend from high school, and it was quite great! He says he hopes to do it again soon...I hope to as well! :)

Late that night after I returned home, Dallin came over so we could say our final goodbyes. It was not fun. We both held it together pretty well, but it was really hard. Dallin is my very best friend and has been with me through so much. I talk to him about everything and go to him whenever I need anything. He knows me better than any of my other friends, and outside of my family, he is the person I care about most. I have been thinking a lot about how long two years really is, and I now have experienced how hard it is to send someone close to you on a mission. I was a mess for most of the day Tuesday, but I have been fine today. Althogh this part is hard, I'm so excited to have someone so close to me on a mission. I can't wait to start getting his emails and see the growth and progress that he will make!

The whole Dallin thing has made me think a lot about what I will be doing in the next two years of my life. It kind of scares me to think how many things can change in two years. However, I have had a mission for myself on my mind all weekend. I'm not ready to make any decision yet, but I want to prepare myself to make a decision at a future date. So I bought a Preach My Gospel book to start studying, and I'm taking Mission Prep from Brother Bott in the fall.

As of yesterday, I have housing for Fall/Winter. My friend Kristen had an opening come up in her apartment, and she really wanted me to live with her. I had no plans at all yet for housing, so I agreed and signed a contract to live with her at the Colony. I hope it was the right decision...I didn't feel that great about it...but then again my emotions were all out of whack yesterday!

Ok I'm sorry this got to be so long. I love you all and miss you so much! You should each be aware that there is a Summer Fun Calendar and To Do List at the Moon and each of you are invited to all of the chosen activities. And let's for sure plan to do something all together!

Only 2 weeks of Spring Term left! Woooo! I love you each a lot, a lot , a lot! Have a great week!

Sam

Finally! I'm posting something :)

I've wanted to post for awhile, but I never know what to write. However, I have come to the conclusion that even at the risk of writing something completely boring, I still want to write something, so here's what's on my mind right now...

Things this summer have been incredible so far! I am working 2 jobs, the first at the hospital in Provo, and also drug testing (I know how repulsed you all were knowing I watch people urinate, but I can guarantee that I see worse in the hospital, lol) Thankfully, even while being uber busy with my two jobs, I have still found time to play. I am still getting to know my new roommates, but luckily when I need a break from my quiet apartment, I have my two lovely visiting teachers (Sam and Mimi) living right next door. Things with Jed are still going great, sometimes I still find it hard to believe it's all working out this way when just a few months ago I was struggling and didn't even think there was a chance things would happen like this! Through everything that has happened I know our break was for the best and God really does know what's best for each of us!

Here are some things I've missed about you girls:
Mimi: You singing or whistling in the shower when you thought no one was home
Sam: You always being willing to listen to my frustrations and laugh at what I said...even when it was ridiculous.
Elise: Your genuine concern for each of us...and March Magnification goals that helped us grow
Kelli: Yoga! I made my sisters do sun salutations with me a few weeks ago and they thought I was crazy...
Sereen: You making cookies, but leaving some cookie dough for me to munch on later

I love you girls and am so glad I had the opportunity to live with you and learn from you! I'll try to keep ya updated on what's happening and share any funny experiences I have with you.

~*~Bethany~*~

p.s. No, that picture of Jonah didn't have anything to do with my post; I just wanted to post a picture and that one made me smile :)

Internet

I just had a little thought....remember how the apostle's have been encouraging us to find ways to use media/internet to build testimonies...well, after reading your most recent posts I am just beginning to see the importance and impact of what they really mean! We have living prophets on the earth today!

All my love,

Elise

Gratitude

Hello My Beloved Sisters,

Just wanted to let you know how much I love all of you. You are each in my prayers and in my heart. Thank you for blessing my life with your remarkable testimonies and examples. What a tender mercy our Father gave in blessing us with each other. You are truly angels in my life and I hope to send prayers of gratitude to Heaven all my days for each one of you!

Thank you,

Leesee

Mothers day has been fabulous! I love the feeling in my home, it was like everyone made an extra effort to be kind and loving. My family has always been wonderful, I absolutely love them and for the most part we all get along very well but for some reason there was just a little different feel today. Maybe it was just me becoming more sensitive to any little thing and even more aware of the many blessing the Lord has blessed me with. Since my mom has made similar comments several times today I would guess that there has been something different between my family today, I loved it and hope we can continue to grow closer together so we can have this more often.

When was the last time any of you read D&C 31? one of the talks in church today was on that chapter and I was thinking that this is one of those chapters that pretty much everyone has heard of but it isn't commonly discussed yet it is so important for us to remember. I propose that we as women should read/study it at least once a month. Like the girl who gave the talk said "if women have one flaw it is that they forget their worth."

I love you girls. Don't forget how amazing each one of you are.

Love,
Sereen