No More...

frustrating language barriers...

people shoving things into my face and saying "please! please! quanto? quanto!"

people tearing up the store and sleeping on the floor on the busiest of days

No more... working late enough to say good morning to the security guards on the way home

No more... A Bus. or busses in general.

waiting for a late bus

shoving to get a seat that will only make your butt fall asleep

stopping and going enough to make you hurl

No more... fighting thousands of people to get to the other side of the store

No more... getting yelled at because Cinderella wasn't here today

No more... MOM JEANS!

No more... spontaneous torrential downpours

No more... palm trees at Christmas time

No more... watching tv on a 12x12 computer screen

No more... walking a zillion miles to the mailbox

No more... taking a 40 minute bus ride to go to WalMart and carry all my groceries home

No more... incompetent people (I can dream right?)

No more... magic

No more... fireworks every night

No more... mickey thanking me for making the magic every time I clock out

No more... late nights with my roommates because it's too late to even sleep

No more... giving a little kid cotton candy for their birthday, just because I can

No more... telling families the inside scoop on wait times and fast passes

No more... buying all the unhealthy food I want at WalMart

No more... making friends from all over the world

No more... have a magical day

This has been the most amazing adventure I've ever had. The one thing I've learned more than anything else is, Attitude Is Everything. There are more pessimists out there today than ever before. But, to them I say, don't let the man get you down. ha! Even in the worst of days, someone's got it worse, so the only thing you can do is smile and try to figure it out. Emphasis on smile.

To all who read this: This week, try a little harder to smile. It's the most contagious form of communication. Don't forget that someone is always watching.

I've also never been so grateful for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This church contains the true gospel of Jesus Christ. As I've been here, I've learned that we are in fact a minority, and that there are so many people that are just ready to hear the gospel. Sometimes all it takes, is a smile, so that they don't feel uncomfortable talking about it with you. I've learned how to bear my testimony in a way that doesn't sound like I'm standing at a pulpit. A simple "No, thanks. I don't watch rated R movies..." and "Nah you guys go ahead, I don't drink..." have done me a lot of good in the last 4 1/2 months.

Now it's time to take a day to pack, and then go home and start 2011!! It's gonna be a big year. While I'm here, I'll go ahead and record my new year resolutions, because a goal not written down is simply a wish!

1. Budget. Well, learn how to budget. Have a financial plan for the next few years at the end of the year.

2. Be Healthy. I'm not going to make any eating or exercising goals, because those never work. But, I do want to have a healthy sleep pattern and a pretty healthy lifestyle.

3. Have fun. Secretly I'm making goals to stay home and do homework and not talk to anyone. But, I know that I need to be out livin a little. So I guess I'll make it a resolution to have fun. Heck maybe I'll even go on a date or two... if I can shut up about Trace, which I still haven't been able to do. I can't date till I can stop talking about him! Maybe that will be a resolution... nah.

4. Have missionary experiences. This includes praying for them, and searching for them. It's not gonna be as easy as it is here to have those experiences!

5. Don't get married.

Have a magical day.

Graduation And Such As.

Lookie Lookie! I graduated! My program is coming to a close. And it was been so wonderful. I've loved almost every moment. But, the terrible thing is. Now I hate it. only because there are 60,000 people in Disney World and it is overwhelming and stressful! But, I just keep thinking TWO MORE WEEKS! It's crazy that it's already over. Oh geez I can't even believe it.

It was freezing for a couple days here. No bueno. No bueno at all.

But we did get free hot chocolate! :)

Now here are a bunch of random pictures!

this is me and diana enjoying ice cream sundaes. in december. yes please.

Losto. Smells like strawberries! He's a hugger!

This is the spectacle of dancing lights at hollywood studios! They don't have the same spirit as the temple. but they sure are amazing! and every other song they're synchronized to the christmas songs and it's awesome!

This is me and my i love marriage face.

And here I am being a reindeer. You know, cuz it's christmas.

This is something that was George Washington's or something. I thought dad would like that.

Sleigh ride anyone?

Just hangin with the boss!

a word.

I posted some collages. Don't miss those just because you clicked on the link to this post, and not the one that goes to the blog. Life is good. I'm just trying to be a grown up and apply for jobs, and look for cars, and get some hard core loans because I don't have a dime to my name. I stayed home sick today. I have a tummy ache. and the weird thing is, that's the only way I can describe it. A tummy ache. I feel like I'm five. Oh well. I'll go to sleep and wake up all better (fingers crossed).

I got my christmas package from home. I have a lot of pride in the fact that my family is so big that they can all give me a present and it makes the 12 days of christmas :) I was ecstatic to open up a pound of the most glorious fudge EVER! mmmmmmmm!!!!! My roommates didn't mind either. haha! I can't wait to start on number 2 in 6 days. Also still waiting patiently for my package from Elder Rodgerson. Christmas won't be so bad. it's just around the corner and the end of my program is too! Which is crazy! straight up and down! It's been the best and it will be bitter sweet to leave.

Peace out girl scout.

Formal

We had so much fun at formal!! Brad took as all as his dates and got us all pretty roses. We danced the night away and were quite sore the next few days.

such character!

Emily and I had a lot of fun meeting characters on our day off! I also accomplished Mission: Space. Which I'm still feeling the consequences of. Getting blasted into space puts quite a toll on your stomach. But, we had a lot of fun.

Just an update!

On the cutest missionary out there!

Here's the family email he sent out today. Can't believe it's been three months! yahoo!!

It's beginning to look a lot like christmas!

We finally have snow here in the england manchester mission! Tuesday and Wednesday were absolutely beautiful with all of the snow fall! It was incredible and all i wanted to do was be outside and street contact! And then something very interesting happened. It rained. Apparently it rains year round in england. It was the weirdest thing seeing the snow melting from the rain fall. And then over the next couple nights it froze and the whole city is an ice rink. Crazy weather. The sun came out today, so that was nice to see. But I really wish it would snow some more.
I finally took the time this morning to go get my haircut from my boy ramin, however, I walked all the way there and he was out today. He wasn't exactly top today. If you know what I'm saying. So I come home to just cut my own hair with a three all over (I don't even think it's approved) But then I go to get in the shower and of course, all the hot water is gone.So I spent an hour heating up water on the stove and then dumping it into the bath tub. I got it all figured out and I look so fresh and so clean. The life of a missionary right?
I got some pretty big news for all of you at home. I purchased a winter coat and boy is it fresh. I strolled on into the Gap and stumbled upon a wool overcoat for over half off. it was originally £120 and I got it on sale for £50. The Gap still stands as my favorite store of all time and has yet to let me down. I also saw that denim looking button shirt that i got from michelle inkley there, apparently she is a little ahead of the european fashion curve. Did bryan ever get my letter? cause I still haven't seen his response. Some hometeacher he turned out to be! JK yall. I also went to legoland but it was a total bust. It was like fifteen pounds to get in and it was tiny. Got some good pictures though. I also sent katelin a christmas package and you will all probably make fun of what I sent her and yes, it was extremely bold. But, make sure she knows not to open it until christmas. Thanks!
The other big news I have is that Elder Green and I will be getting a new companion. We will be in a threesome until the end of the transfer. I am not exactly excited. His name is Elder Mlynar from Detroit. He was my district leader at the MTC. Apparently him and his companion were struggling so he is getting put with us this evening. It's gonna take a lot of adjusting. We have a young man named Hadrian in our ward who is leaving on his mission to Brisbane, Australia in january so we will be going on a lot of splits with him. Get twice the work done, you know?
We also got a new ward mission leader this week. His name is Brother Wood and I'm not sure how good of a job he will do but we will find out. He is super nice and always feeds us. Which reminds me. I may be sick of the food they feed us but it is delicious. The lady at the distribution centre doesn't know what she's talking about. It's like having thanksgiving dinner at every meal. and they always have dessert. No matter what. But it is rare to find a napkin at the table, which I find odd. Also they eat with the fork in the left hand and the knife in the right. I can't do it. It's way too hard.
We are going to the sullivans for christmas and I am trying to work out a way to play fifa on christmas as well so make sure ashton stays on x box live! I am looking forward to calling you as well, I only get an hour though so keep that in mind. Thanks for the christmas packages as well! Our flat looks great still and I am looking forward to opening all of my christmas presents! The whole mission goes to the preston temple together for christmas so I will be going there on the 23rd I believe so I am looking forward to that. I sure hope you didn't forget to send a christmas card to me! Feel free to send me pictures of the family and things going on at home. I love getting pictures in the mail!
That is pretty much all that is going on over here. We have found some solid new investigators and the ones we do have are progressing incredibly! There is too many people to tell you all about but we are continuing to work hard and I will let you know how the adjustments to two companions goes! I love you,

Trace

Happy Thanksgiving?

Well, Thanksgiving was a little different for me this year. Obviously. So first off I'll introduce my two FAVORITE work friends. Danielle is from Minnesota, she got here in June and leaves the same time as me. Megan is from Washington and got here in July? I can't remember. We all work in the same place. We're all about the same age. and our senses of humor are pretty much exactly the same. I'm really glad we found each other. So! We all work on Thanksgiving, but we had the day before it off. So we decided to spend the day together as "family" and celebrate!

We started by going to see Disney's new movie, Tangled. Now stop what you're doing, don't even finish reading this, and go see Tangled. it was probably the greatest movie I've seen in a VERY long time! I laughed my head off, and cried a little too. It was so wonderful. Go see it. I'll talk to you in an hour and forty minutes.... (oh, we saw it in 3D, but I'm sure it would be just as good otherwise)

Welcome back! How did you like the movie? good huh! Did you like the part when.... psych! I know you didn't go see it. ya lazy bum.

Next! Next we went to the Florida Mall. I've never been, because I don't have a car (but megan does). and oh BOY was it wonderful to be at a mall!! This was the funniest thing there. If you know Trace well enough... this will be hilarious to you. Okay you don't? well let me give you some background.

Trace loves hip hop. There is a hip hop group called the wu tang clan. Don't look them up. Anyway. They like to rap about "wallabees". So of course, Trace discovered that there is a kind of shoe called Clarks Wallabees. And of course, he found them on ebay. for forty dollars which he reminded me every five seconds was a steal. He wore them all summer. with shorts, with pants, it was awful. they're terrible shoes. Anyway. he got over that phase. then he goes to england and finds out that they're English!! they're based out of england. that's crazy. so he and his companion BOTH bought clarks wallabees in black leather. i can't even imagine how expensive they were. because the ones he got for forty... i priced today. they are $130.00. I found a Clarks store in the mall today. I was ironically wearing my I heart UK shirt. that's funny.

Here's the picture of his shoes.

Here's him in England with his new black ones.

And here's me in front of ours! How funny!

My Thanksgiving dinner was a DELICIOUS burger at five guys burgers and fries! I felt like I was home again. mmmmmmmm

And of course, we shopped and shopped. here's some of my new things. Don't worry I didn't spend TOO much! I also got a phone. Thanks heavens.

All in all it was a wonderful day. We had so much fun together and we all forgot about the fact that we were missing out on our awesome families.

But here are some things I'm grateful for nonetheless.

1. The gospel. I've noticed more than ever that it is truly the only thing that brings true, real, lasting happiness in this life.

2. My family. I miss them a lot, but they're always just a phone call away (yeah took that for granted)

3. My best friends at home. They too are a phone call, text, facebook, or email away. They still listen to me ramble on about disney and trace and other things I can't shut up about.

4. My roommates here in Florida. I couldn't ask to live with better girls, they're such great examples to me.

5. Elder Rodgerson. Talk about a ray of light. Watching him become this incredible missionary has blessed my life so much. And if for some reason, we don't work out, I will still be so grateful for everything he has taught me, and the relationship we have.

I am grateful for lots of little things too. Like my bed, food, my Duffy bear, my technology that I can't live without. What a great holiday this is!

Love you all. Very much. See you in January.

Everyone Relax.

There is no news.

I was 1 of 3 out of 300 to learn the advanced dance routine at the college program disney entertainment audition. this was a few weeks ago.

well today I found out they didn't need me. I say need, not want, because I'm sure they wanted me :)

I'll be home in January as planned, and I'm ecstatic.

Happy Disneyversary!

3 months ago, I had lunch with my four best friends. Cyndi Emelia Jo Jo and Trace. Then I went to ice cream with my family and Trace of course. Then I said goodbye and left on my biggest adventure yet. It's been wonderful at times, and terrible at times. But, I wouldn't trade it for anything. I'm having the time of my life.

Having my family here was GLORIOUS. there are many much pictures on Facebook. But, here's one that you'll probably get with our Christmas card as well.

Tune in next week for some earth shaking news. Or maybe some news that won't make a difference in anything. But, believe me, you'll wanna tune in.

Merry Thanksgiving?

Alrighty. So Cami and I both had the day off today. We slept in... well I did. Then we just chilled all day because Kelly was sleeping. (she's costuming the castle show for christmas and they have middle of the night rehearsals. her shift is 10:30 tonight to 8:30 tomorrow morning. poor girl.) After I made a wonderful casserole (cuz I'm gonna be a homemaker when I grow up) we decided that we weren't gonna have much time once the holidays hit so we needed to get our Christmas decor up. So we hopped on the Walmart bus and off we went.

We came home with the loot (including 2 huge bags of halloween candy that were 50% off. and got to work. (after we had the Christmas music playing of course) We had 2 boxes of lights. we put them over the closet and bathroom doors and they looked so cute. Then disaster struck. Half the lights went out. it was awful. We tried so hard, switching fuses, testing lights, anything we could think of.

So I think I went into fight or flight mode. we decided we needed to go to publix. Which is about a mile away. So I put on my tennis shoes and started running. In the dark. In the rain.

There's a Walgreens right by it, so I went in there first (panting and soaking wet). No Christmas lights. So I ran over to Publix. No Christmas lights. BACK to Walgreens. I figured someone knew where I could find Christmas lights. A lady finally said she had some in the back. For some reason she just had these weird white ones that were 10 bucks, but I had come too far to back down. So I got them. And sprinted home. And it's a good thing! Cuz if I didn't, we wouldn't have been able to make...

THIS

We improvised with only one and a half strands of lights. and we got this cute sign/ornament for a dollar.

We took one with the flash on so you could see the cute sign.

We also got this cute nativity set for 10 dollars. I think it's so stinkin cute.

We're currently watching Rudolph. It's nice to feel the christmas spirit, and even nicer to live with someone who loves it as much as I do!

Happy Christmas Harry.

Dontcha See It?

This is Trace's favorite shirt. I gave it to him for his birthday. Purple is his favorite color.

This is Duffy. The Disney Bear. He's so dang cuddly I had to buy one!

And this... this is what I got my Duffy. It took a lot of crazy photoshopping because the actual graphic on that shirt is NOWHERE to be found online. But, here it is :) on my Duffy. He snuggles with me while I watch Lost, it gets kind of scary.

He'll do for now :)

"If you don't have time to read or pray, you're far busier than god intended." when i asked a kid in my ward who was walking back to his apartment after church to share a spiritual thought from the meeting with me on my way out to work, i didn't expect him to say the exact words i needed to hear... from practically a stranger.

straight up.

I can't keep it in today. I miss home. Real bad. Here are some of the things I miss the most.

1. Water. the water here is gross, I'm sorry to say I'm practically used to it. But, my face isn't. it does horrible things to my face.

2. Mountains.

2a. FALL. The weather is beautiful here, but I don't get to wear boots and scarves and cute pea coats. Just longer short sleeves and capris sometimes. the only leaves that aren't green are dead.

3. My family. Believe me, I love my roommates, but holy cow would I rather sit in a room with my family. Even though I'd probably get teased much more than I do here... I think I'd rather be there.

4. My bed. A foam pad has increased comfort, but it's no squeaky daybed in the basement.

5. Cars. Having the option of driving would make my life SO much easier.

6. Cyndi and Emelia. again, love my roommates. but, their idea of fun is watching old musicals. which I love! I do! but, I could really use some more... chill... friends.

7. I'm annoying myself with this list. I'm done complaining!

See you in January. Oh, and can't WAIT to see the little girls in a few weeks! Still no letter from Trace, if it doesn't come by monday, something is quite wrong with the postal service.

Keeping my chin up.

a wonderful weekend!

this was the most perfect weekend! jim had some meetings so they came a little early to play with me! I bought a voice recorder to send to trace so his mama got to talk to him for quite a while. and his grandparents and aunt and uncle happened to be here! (aunt and uncle from the other side of the family, so crazy!) So they all said hi on it. it was so much fun. Kristi just told me all kinds of memories about Tracery. like how he sucked his thumb when he was little, and how when he was little, at night he'd walk into the bathroom and come out as different characters. apparently he has a whole repertoire of accents. as he got older, he had characters that he repeated. and he added one. tony. tony was handicapped. it's so sad. but so funny. he once pretended to be handicapped for a whole night and fooled one of whitney's friends. later that month, when he was acting normal the friend sheepishly asked whitney "isn't your brother handicapped?" yeah. that's the rodgersons for ya! love them though :) I don't know if I'll end up being in their family, but I sure wouldn't mind it!

two week safari?

cute england pictures.

knockin on doors in england!

kristi: I was saying mmmmmmmmm!

oh the beach was so wonderful!!!

who loves dole whip? me!

this prince eric looked just like tyson. i was laughing so hard watching him dance around the stage.

this was kristi's favorite. and we were pretty sure it was trace. he was the exact same height.

she was so cool about going on all the rides! even this one!

downdate

I would call this an update, but that's really what I do when I have some excited things that have been happening. So this is more of a downdate. So!

I just work a lot. I'm terrified for the busy season. But, it'll be fine.

I went to animal kingdom with my friend Vicky from LIVERPOOL! I have a wicked good accent when i'm with her. haha!

until a real update...

keep it real.

technically, this is for kelsey

Alright here we go, picture time!

Here's me at my castle. it's mine. I dont' care what Cinderella says.

Partners. (in crime)

We have a mutual obsession with disney popcorn. I think they lace it with crack cocaine, cuz i'm addicted to it.

we like to take dangerous, in motion pictures.

this is my favorite ride. 0-60 in 3 seconds? yes please.

this is the real red power ranger outfit. which is so awesome.

when you're taking a picture by yourself... it gets awkward so I do this pose all the time haha

except this time... the characters are very aware when people are taking pictures with them!

this parade is one where they stop and dance in the street. and let me tell you, frozone has moves.

home sweet home :)