I'm in India! More of an update soon!

Today

Thank you Dr. Martin Luther King for your vision.

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.