Conversation of the week....

Student: Miss Willis, here is a concern. where can I find one million dollars?

Me: If I knew do you think I'd be working? :)

Student: Yes you would because you are nice and want to help people.

And thus why I'm excited to go into teaching. :)

Happy Halloween!!!

I had an excellent Halloween! Hope you did too!

Disneyland!

I was very excited to go... just in case you couldn't tell. ;)

After a crazy few months of school and work, I decided a break was much needed. And so with a few friends we took a weekend trip to the happiest place on earth. :)

TEACUPS!!! :)

I got a little wet...A great weekend with great friends! :) More pictures can be seen here or here.

July? August? September? October?

So when people other than my sister bug me about not having any new posts this must really be a problem. As for a little recap of the past couple of months:
July -

• After the amazing quick trip to Idaho, the following weekend. My good friend and roommate Michelle and I went to go see Wicked! It was fantastic. It was my second time seeing it, and it was just as great. It never ceases to remind me of my dear companion Hermana Kimsey who had the whole musical memorized and would often burst into song. :) On funny side note... during one scene Glenda accidentally threw her wand off of the stage, the actresses tried to play it off, but ended up bursting up laughing. Luckily it was at a not so serious part of the production.
• 
• Then the following Sunday we had a small reunion. Heidi and Nicki came over for dinner with Michelle and I. The four of us lived on the same floor our freshman year, and it is amazing the experiences we have had nearly seven years later.
• The third weekend in July brought a fun trip up to Snowflake for the 24th celebration.
• We had a ward campout up on the rim. After a 2 hours drive we turned into the camping area and spent another HOUR trying to find our group. Of course it was pitch black, and no cell phone service. As Michelle, Kristalyn, and I drove it was definitely a test of our patience. :) We had a great time playing games and talking. I woke up early on Saturday morning and went and took a few pictures that you can see here. :) As you can see in the picture below we had to get a little inventive with our cooking utensils for breakfast. Overall a great time was had by all. :)
  
• The last weekend was also spent up at a friend's cabin near Heber.

August -

• I found out that I had been accepted to graduate school at ASU, and would be starting in three weeks.
• This resulted in three frantic weeks of getting things in order, including trying prove Arizona residency. (Really where else would I be a resident? I have been registered to vote in Arizona since 2004 and I've had my license from Arizona since 2003.) $50.00 bucks an insane amount of paper work, and four weeks later I had my residency.
  
• With school starting my life ended (Working full time forty hours, interning for six hours, and fifteen hours of class adds up quickly)
• The second week of class, I made a quick stop a copy shop only to come out to my car which would not start. After a nice call to AAA I got it jump started, and drove to class in downtown Phoenix. Then at 11:00 pm as I'm trying to leave the lovely parking garage my wonderful car would not start again. Some kind souls from class tried to help me jump it, but ended up frying my jumper cables. So with another call to AAA someone came to jump it... no luck...so another hour later I got to push my car out of the parking garage and load it up on a tow truck. Oh I should mention that the security guard felt the need to keep me company and talk my ear off in fact he talked to me up until the second I closed the door of the tow truck. This was my first time in a tow truck, and you can imagine at 1 in the morning it made for an interesting trip home. My new friend, Joe, gave me his life story including being 50 and blowing all of his savings over three years of doing nothing. He also used some choice words to describe his relationship with his girlfriend who is 15 years younger than him. As frustrating as it was that my car would not work, I felt very blessed to feel safe the whole time.
  
• We moved from our lovely little apartment to a house way too big for us house, but we love it! :) Come and visit we have plenty of space!

September -

• What the heck happened to September???
• Honestly I'm not sure I have any real recollection of what happened... hmm... this is a bad sign.
  

October -

• And here we are finally at October...with a promise and resolve to be a little better.

I am only including this because one friend mockingly told me "now you'll have to blog about it" Well while walking back to my car after spending some time in downtown Phoenix with friends, I noticed this beautiful tree. I could not resist the urge to climb it, much to the embarrassment of my accompanying friends. It was a great tree to climb. I highly recommend climbing trees even at 25, I think there is something healthy about escaping to the top of a tree. :)

Why hello there...

Alright already... I know that it has been long enough since I posted. I have been trying to sit still for a little while, but I did have two trips to California in May, a trip up to Utah mid June, and a trip to Idaho last week. Here are a few highlights from the past month.

Califonia Lovin...
My first trip to California included a wonderful chance to go to the wedding of my dear mission companion Hermana Muntifering, who happen to be marrying Kevin Wheeler an elder and friend from our mission. You couldn't help but smile seeing how happy the two of them were to be getting married. It was a great trip, I even had some down time to myself to sit at the beach to read and take in the sun. It was wonderful. I also rented a car for the first time, which was quite the adventure. I love that even simple things like that make me feel extra independent. :)















Oh and I caught the bouquet....

California Lovin...2 :)
Since I apparently hadn't gotten enough of California the week before I headed out with a few friends for the next weekend. We had a great time at the beach and just hanging out. We were very blessed to be able to stay at Kristalyn's grandparents. It was the perfect location, with quite possibly the best couches in the world. :) We went to a sweet little swap meet, flew kites, made an excellent dinner, and went to a very posh Elephant Restaurant. It was relaxing and fun.


































Going HOME... sort of...
Two weeks later I found myself on the road to Utah for the beautiful Hermana Lind to become the beautiful Mrs. Baker. The night before my trip up to Utah, I was driving home at eleven o'clock at night and I started to hear this terrible noise. I was driving through construction so I thought maybe it was the car behind me. Then the car started to shake, luckily I was only about a tenth of a mile from my house. So I pulled in and the back tire was completely blown out. I was slightly distraught, debating whether I would continue with my trip in the morning. I decided why not. I had asked somebody to come over to help me at nine the next morning to change my tire. But I was up by six and thought I can probably do this myself. So I did. I was quite proud of myself. I think my independence and pride issues may get me in trouble some day. I really have a hard time letting people help me. I enjoy doing things myself. I fixed our garbage disposal, and vacuum a little while ago; there is just something very satisfying about fixing things myself. There is part of me wondering what the next project will be...

















My awesome spare tire put on all by myself. :)

Ok back to my trip. Upon arrival I had a great dinner with some great friends provided by Stacey and her husband Nico. We had great chilean food completos y chorazcos. I love the company of great people, and that is how I spent the afternoon indeed. It was wonderful to be with old friends. :)









The reception was beautiful. The colors were vibrant amidst the lingering storm. Several people from my mission were there including the Evans. They always make me feel so loved. :)
The whole weekend was spent seeing people that I love. I felt at home being back in Provo. Whether it was having lunch or dinner or spending time in a tree the conversations with each and every friend were all very much appreciated. :)

Happy Birthday America!

I love the 4th of July, it is one of my favorite holidays. Perhaps growing up in the military made me particularly patriotic, or maybe it is gratitude after living in other countries that I have come to better understand and appreciate America for what it is. Judge as you may I get a little emotional with patriotic songs including I'm Proud to be an American. I made a quick trip up to Idaho with my family to celebrate the fourth. I enjoyed the care ride up with my brothers, there is something about being with siblings that is irreplaceable. Obviously miss Isis was one of the highlights of the trip, I mean who couldn't love this little girl. :)





















For more 4th of July pictures click here.

I am really enjoying my job. I have the chance to work more with the kids, which makes me happy. I love connecting with them, and watching them succeed it's great. Well I guess that is all for now for my much owed overdue hello.





















One of the highlights of going to Idaho are the sunsets from my grandparents front step.

My most recent project...

So the story behind the chair...
This chair was by our dumpster right by our apartment. I looked it over a few times, and it seemed ok. It just seemed to be scratched up a little, and I thought I could probably do something with it. So I hauled it into our apartment. I sprayed it down and tried to clean it up a bit. Here are a few before and after pictures. I'm still finishing it up, but I'm pretty happy with how it has turned out.
BEFORE:

DURING:








AFTER:

Highlights from the past 24 hours...

7:00 pm Friday - Finding the coolest birthday bag that had a picture of an old man with the caption "Happy Friggin Birthday!"

8:00 pm - 12:00 am - My friend Logan Ash's Birthday party. She has a water slide in her backyard... pretty sweet. Three of us did a little relay race in which we jumped off the diving board, kickboarded over to the other side of the pool jumped out, ran to go down the water slide, swam to the other side climbed up on a rock. Ok so maybe you had to be there to understand how exciting it was. Then unfortunate event of the evening... I got stung by a bee!

4:30 am Drove out to a church welfare farm about an hour and a half away for a Service project.

10:00 am - I pull up to a stop light to turn left. I glance over at the car next to me and the guy happen to look over at me at the same time. I smiled not thinking much of it. I glanced back over noticing he was rolling down his window. I thought maybe he needed directions, so I rolled down my own window. He didn't need directions. He simply said "Thank you for your smile. It made my day. I don't know why people don't smile much anymore." I replied "You're welcome." The light changed and I was on my way. It made me a laugh a little.

12:00-3:00- Worked on reupholstering my chair. It is a little harder than I thought, but still a lot of fun. Pictures will come.

4:00- Saw the new X-Men Origins movie. It was pretty good, not phenomenal.

6:00- Dinner at a great sandwich shop.

7:00 pm - In the parking lot on the way home I found a penny heads up :) Something good must be in store. :)

A trip to the land down under...

So did I mention I went to Australia. I guess I have felt a little overwhelmed trying to summarize our trip to Australia. To say the least, it was amazing! This may get long so I apologize in advance.

DAY 1

First off I loved just going through customs and getting a stamp in my passport that said Australia! I could hardly believe that I was actually on the other half of the world! Plus the customs guy was very nice, and welcoming which was a great foreshadowing of all our interactions with the people of Australia.

• It just happened to be that our hotel was right next to a LDS Church in Sydney. So before checking in we sat in on a local singles ward. It was a great meeting. As always it is wonderful to see the gospel alive and well all over the world. Also it was here that I got the first impression of how many immigrants are in Australia from surrounding Asian countries. They had gospel principles in Thai, Chinese, Korean, and English.
  

• While at church I looked and saw somebody that I was sure I knew. Sure enough it was a guy that had been working in Spain while I was a missionary, and also a friend of a friend. Cecilio was extremely nice, it was nice to feel like we automatically had a friend in the city.
  
• After going to church we wandered across Hyde park and ran into an Irish Parade. I guess one of things I crave and adore about cities is the life they have. There is always something going on.
• After checking in we walked through the Botanical Gardens on our way to the Harbor. In addition to seeing many beautiful flowers, plants, and trees; we found several large spider webs and heard very strange "bird" noises. The bird noises soon were discovered to be BATS, big bats, and lots of them. They were hanging from the trees everywhere. Slightly creepy.
• As we crossed one street I paid close attention to the traffic as it was a bit confusing having them drive on the other side. In fact I was paying so close attention to the other side that I did not notice a bicyclist coming straight at me as I stepped off the curb. After nearly getting hit the kind cyclist simply said "HELLO!" but in a jokingly nice way.
  
• As we continued the walk through the park we saw the Opera House for the 1st time. It slightly reminded me of being in Paris last summer and seeing the Eiffel Tower for the first time. It seems to be the land mark that screamed HELLO you are really in Australia!
  
• The walk around the harbor was beautiful. There is something very peaceful about watching boats move on the water. Except perhaps when it is a party boat blasting music with tons of people in white T-shirts dancing. None the less the scene of Opera House, the Harbor Bridge, and the sailboats was fantastic.
• We continued our jaunt through the city over to Darling Harbour where we at dinner at Pancake on the Rocks.
  

DAY 2

• This was Beach day. But we decided to make it a bit more interesting by taking a bus to Clovelly and then hike along the coast to Bondi. The hike was spectacular. The coastline was gorgeous, and the weather ideal. Please see some of the pictures here.
  
• As we ate lunch the birds decided to join us and swarmed by our feet to pick up any crumbs.
  
• We had a great swim at Bondi Beach. The water was a great relaxing temperature, and the waves were great. Someday I need to learn how to surf. The only slightly tragic part of the day was forgetting the sunscreen... let's just say the lack of Ozone and my pale skin had an unfortunate meeting.
  
• After cleaning up we headed back to downtown Sydney and ate at the top of the Sydney Tower. The restaurant at the top rotated offering a 360 view of Sydney. It was marvelous. We tried to time it right so that we could see it during the end of daylight, and as the city lights came on. It was spectacular. Also as a part of dinner we ate something original... Kangaroo meat. It tastes like ham, just in case you were curious.
• On our way back to our hotel we stopped by the YSA FHE and enjoyed a game of spoons while talking to a few members. There also happen to be an Elder serving there from Spain. I love how small the world is sometimes.

DAY 3

• The great adventure for this day started with renting a car. I am quite proud of us, I was a lot more hesitant than Michelle about renting a car. I'd much rather use public transportation, but it worked out great. Learning to drive on the left hand side of the road was an experience, but we survived without any major incidents. Well a car almost ran into us, but that wasn't our fault.
  
• The whole purpose of renting the car was to drive to Blue Mountains just outside of Sydney. I highly recommend this little excursion to anybody going out there. We visited a couple of little outlooks, and then drove to Wentworth Falls. We had expected to just get a view of them but ended up hiking all the way down to them. Instead of simply returning the way we came, which I might add would have included hundreds of crazy stone steps back up we decided to wander down a path along the side of the cliff. It was an excellent decision. We saw several other waterfalls along the way. We ran into few other people, so it was extremely peaceful. Again please refer to the pictures found here to get a better idea.
  
• We topped of the jaunt around the Blue Mountains by seeing the Three sisters. Legend has it that a father protecting his daughters turned them into stone.
  

DAY 4

• We took a ferry to Manly which more than anything provided an incredible view of the Harbour. We also enjoyed a little walk on the beach, and a light lunch. I might add that I fell in love with the cute boy that served me my sandwich. Really with a great smile and accent, what more could a girl want. :)
• After taking the ferry back to Circular Quay we got a tour of the Sydney Opera House. It was quite enlightening. I thought the Opera house was older, seeing as it has always been the icon of Sydney in my mind but it is only 30 years old. We heard the Sydney Symphony rehearse in one of the concert halls, the music was fantastic with superb sound quality. Someday I'll have to hear an actual performance there.
  
• That evening we flew up to Cairns to begin a slightly new adventure. When we arrived at our hotel it was quite late but this cute little old man came out to let us in and even gave us a glass of milk.
  

DAY 5

• Cairns was a lot more tropical than Sydney, including insane humidity. The fact that we were in a more tropical area became more apparent as I woke up to the crazy sound of birds outside my window. It was actually kind of fun to hear the differents squaks.
  
• We got up early and had a little shuttle pick us up for our trip to go snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. To say the least it was an incredible experience. Having the fish swim that close to you, and see all of the different types of coral is quite breathtaking.
  
• Trying to learn my lesson from Bondi I applied sunscreen several times to my back. Forgetting the fact that my legs were floating in the water. I got the worse sunburn of my life, ouch it hurts thinking about it. I wish I taken pictures of it.
  

DAY 6

• We took another tour while in Cairns out to the Daintree Rainforrest. We also got to visit a Wildlife park, feeding Kangaroos and Wallabys. I LOVED feeding the wallabys. They are so small and cute. They grabbed my hand and just ate. It was so much fun I loved it.
  
• We took a small detour to Mossman Gorge. I hopped in the water with a few others from the group for a swim. The water was extremely refreshing. There was a part of the river that sat calm as it pooled between the rocks but if you swam just right into the current it would shoot you down stream. It was quite entertaining.
  
• We had a fantastic guide for our walk around the Daintree. Joe, our guide, was quite the hippie and had spent several years living in the rainforrest. It was great because he had a great knowledge and love for the land. I was constantly fasicnated by plants ability to adapt to survive.
  
• We also enjoyed a little riverboat tour down the Daintree where we saw a few small crocodiles and a snake in the tree. Apparently just a week before we were there a little boy had gotten eaten by a crocodile. Eeek.
  

And that pretty much concludes the adventure that we had in Australia. It was a fastastic trip, and I highly recommend it to anybody. The land is beautiful and the people are polite and friendly. I hope that my future includes another trip to the land down under.

A sigh from the dust...

As my sister kindly informed me today, my lack of blogging over the past six weeks is the equivalent of decades in real time. I guess I haven't felt the need to express myself, or well simply didn't feel there was much to report.

All the same, here is a simple update as to what has happened over the past six weeks:



The end of January I was suppose to run a 10K... ha I chickened out and just ran the 2 mile race. But all the same it was a fun atmosphere, and inspiring to someday actually run a 10k. (By the way the lovely ladies in the picture are Amber, myself, Michelle, and Jackie) Amber ran the 10k, major props to her. Someday....


Over President's day weekend/Valentine's day I made a quick trip up to Vegas to visit my sister. It was a very calm visit, but very much needed and enjoyable none the less. I enjoyed watching little miss Isis play at the park. I ended up leaving a little bit later than I should have on Monday afternoon/evening, and ended up driving through the worst rain of my life for 5 straight hours. I don't think I have ever gripped my steering wheel so hard. I also sang at the top of my lungs to avoid thinking about the insane rain beating down on me and being kicked up by the trucks in front of me.

The end of February my parents treated us to an amazing trip to Disneyland. They picked me up on the way, and it was fantastic. I love Disneyland, after all it is the happiest place on earth. I think our faces express this adequately.

Last week I made a quick trip down to Tucson to see my brother in the play Footloose, he played the principal. It was quite entertaining, but yes the best part was seeing my brother dance at the end. :) Who knew he had it in him? (Although if you ask him, he would kindly bring up the fact that I would force him to dance to hawaiian music in the living room all growing up. )

This is not much of a post, but hey better than nothing right?
I can hardly believe that I have already been in Mesa for 6 months. It has been crazy, but I am grateful for the opportunities that have come. This time 5 days from now I will be contemplating my future on the beaches of Australia and perhaps will have more to report when I return.

Gotta love the weekends...

Some highlights

Friday night - Dinner at the Euro Cafe in Gilbert. Mmm Mmm Mmm. Then friends over for games.

Saturday- Running errands. I bought a ticket to Australia. Yes. I will be going to the land down under. :). Elder Bednar's fireside.

Sunday- Great eat and greet dinner with the Relief Society. Trip to Snowflake to visit my grandpa Willis.

Grandma's Kitchen. Good memories. :)I love my family. Of course since there wasn't a way to get across the icy creek my dad had to make a bridge.


PetroglyphsMy parents... Can you tell I come from a happy family? :)



My little brother Thomas

Overall it was a fantastic weekend.

Some pictures...

After feeling a little bit of success with my pillow I decided to try a baby's quilt. I was pleasantly surprised with the result. I had imagined the lady bug in my head, and it was nice that it turned out like I had imagined it.

4-4-4-4

4 random things about me
1. I normally skim a magazine from the back to the front
2. I have always wanted a Magic Bullet (and I got one for my birthday he he he :) )
3. I like to brush my teeth slightly intense (just ask my sister)
4. I love chocolate chips

4 Movies I could watch more than once
1. Clue
2. While you were sleeping
3. You've Got Mail
4. Remember the Titans

4 T.V. shows I watch
1. The Office
2. Biggest Loser
3. Family Feud
4. Friends reruns

4 Places I've been
1. Venice
2. London
3. Paris
4. Machu Picchu

4 People who email me regularly
1. My missionary brother
2. Kohl's
3. NY Times.com
4. Southwest Airlines

4 Favorite Foods
1. Almonds
2. Broccoli
3. Hawaiian Haystacks
4. Quesadillas

4 Places I would like to visit
1. Australia
2. Hawaii
3. Japan (Anywhere in Asia really)
4. Egypt

4 Things I am looking forward to this year
1. Grad School
2. Discovering new things
3. New Friends/Old Friends
4. Sticking to New Year's Resolutions... :)

4 People to TAG!
1. Amanda
2. Rachel
3. Spencer
4. Candra