It's a School Night

I'm about to begin my last year of school ever. So bittersweet! I've been a student for 19 years and I've actually loved it all.  I have so many good school memories.  

{Warning: The english in this post is very poor.  It's mainly for my own record-keeping!}

Elementary school at Evergreen Elementary

 Walking down to the bus stop on Lauren Lane. Winning the coloring contests for the school calendar.  All the holiday parties.  Being embarrassed by my mom's reindeer antlers at the Christmas party. My mom bringing me boxed lunches. Loving the ropes in P.E. Hating the computers. Playing 4-square every second of recess. Jessica Eames was my bff. Lizzie May. Loving heads-up-seven-up on rainy days. Living for Buddy Field Day. My lunches packed by my dad with a cherry 7up and butter on my sandwiches.  My teachers loving my sandwiches and trading me cause they were so good. Being a total teachers pet. Loving Pat Nally. Mr. Flannagan and parties at his house. Pen-pals with the 5th graders. Sanrio boxes on our desks. Playing tons and tons of night games every night of the summer.  Hung out with my bff Lauren all day everyday- we met at the "green box" where our backyards met. I was always playing with Jade too- she had two ferrets and I remember she brought them to my house one time and I freaked out when she let them loose in my bathroom. Swimming til 9 pm at Queensmill pool. Riding bikes. Playing with the neighbors Paige & Brittany. 

Middle School at Midlothian Middle School

Don't remember too much here.  Loving the mall and going every week.  Hanging out with Kara Ramey everyday and shooting hoops in my driveway. Sean O'Laughlin calling me about the homework for science class- Sean and I never got it, I think we did it all together. Hanging out with Lauren and Carolyn after school. Birkenstock clogs (they're so terrible looking!) Overalls. Cotillion.  Everyone racing to Arby's afterwards. Nervous about gym cause i couldn't skate. I turned 12 and started going to YW every week.  Loved the kids at mutual. The Witts picking me up for basketball practice in the "seminary car". Sitting outside on the fence talking with Jordan and Wes. Started the NYC mother daughter trips. The first two years it was me and my mom, and the next year Bryn & her mom came too. 

High School at Midlo High

Lauren driving me on the first day freshman year cause she was 2 years older than me and we stopped by McDonalds in the mornings.  Listening to "country grammar" a billion times. Then seminary started and I started riding with Jordan.  Taking David Fife to seminary in the RAV4 with us. Jordan running over a rabbit and I cried forever about it. Rolling up to seminary 20 minutes late everyday.  Ryan Witt was always on time and I was always late, and we came from the same place.  Our teacher gave us crap about it everyday. Jenny Waters & I were the "bobbsey twins". Megan Fisher & Megan Hensley. Trying out for field hockey when I had never played a day in my life. Field Hockey camp w/ Colleen. Neither of us made the team, so I ran cross country and she played volleyball instead.  Working at the bakery during the summers.  Prom with Mike Vedomske & Mike Dennis. Jenny Waters was my bff. Junior year of high school I became extremely health-conscious.  We're talking I would order my pizza without cheese. I worked out like crazy... loving running and group exercise classes.  I remember when I couldn't even drive yet my dad would take me to kickboxing classes at Robious. Sunday Park.  Ohhh, Sunday Park! Matt & Drew Whitlock. Chandler. Working so hard in school cause I really wanted to go to BYU. Checking the mail in my fuzzy pink robe and finding out I got in, and being SO excited. 

College at BYU 

Best 5 years of my life! Freshman year being so excited to be in a new place.  3 days into it I thought it was the weirdest place ever when some guy wanted to go "pretend ring shopping". My favorite roomie was a BYU cheerleader so she was never home.  I loved the girls downstairs and am still good friends with them today. Met Jessie, who would remain one of my closest friends the rest of my BYU career. Jumping the belmont fence with these girls. Hanging out with Eddie all the time because he had a car! Taking the bus to 24 hour fitness with my roomie. Not minding the dorms.  All sports passes. Going to every basketball, football and volleyball game. Dance parties. Tons of brownies. Getting a whopping 2.6 GPA! Not minding one bit because i had fun. Moving to Belmont sophomore year and having the best time. When I think about sophomore year I can't help but smile as a billion awesome memories come flooding through my mind.  Moved in with Chi, across from Paige and Jordan (& honorary roomie Jenna).  Goooood times. RNC trip to north carolina, sleepovers in the 164, tons of eating, burritos at all times of the day, random people always in and out, dessert parties every sunday, skiing, kickboxing with every girl we knew, bonfires, shopping when we failed tests, packages on my doorstep everyday cause chi loved to shop online, id come home to chi tutoring every boy at byu because she was an accounting genius, swimming with our clothes on at king henry, fishtailing in the stang when the roads got icy, N.B. & C.H! working at Pizza Factory w/ Jess and eating all the breadsticks in the back while working maybe 10 hours a week. They for sure lost money on us. Sachin. Getting Real Estate licenses with Paige. Whole chickens from Goodwood for class treats! Moved to Lanai for the next 2 years for some more good times. Started the PR program, loved the kids in my program, mainly Tyler, Jenna and Adam. Worked at Pier 1. Dated some boy eddie thought was girly and he still mocks me about that. Sleeping on the roof of Eddie's house. Allie Barker. Haley Nielsen. Chanel Wright. Still Paige & Jessie. Flash-cards: on the front 1 on the back B (paige you know exactly what I'm talking about!) By this point knowing most of Provo everywhere we went. Decided to go on a study abroad to Israel.  2 months before I left started to fall for Eddie- threw me for a loop! Had the experience of a lifetime in Israel then it was off to LA for an internship. Moved to Canyon Meadow with Paige & Amy. Dated Eddie the whole year.  Fell in love. Camping in MOAB with eddie's friends. Kansas for the summer. Engaged. 

Masters at BYU 

Got married. Honeymooned in Park City. Had a successful albeit very difficult first year of my program. Karla was my BFF, Emily, Char and Jared were my other good friends. Karla, Jared and I did most of our assignments together. Christmas in California. Attended every BYU basketball game.  Jimmer obsession. Summer adventure in Louisiana. Moved to SLC.  Eddie started law school. And here I am starting my very last school year ever! 

Whew.  I for sure left important things out. That was clearly for my own record, but it's unbelievable how enjoyable my school years have been.  Having written that, I realize I've been in school my whole life! Those aren't just school memories, they are life memories.  It's impossible for me to separate the two because they're so intertwined.  I'm so nostalgic tonight remembering all the good times I've had with all the good people I've met not only at BYU, but at Midlothian High, Midlothian Middle and Evergreen Elementary before that. It's the end of an era for me. I still have a mixed bag of emotions when I hear the words "It's a school night!" after a long, fun summer.  After this year I will be excited to go through it all again with my own kids, because it is one fun ride. 

a summer hike

we're trying to soak up the last few weeks of summer before things get really busy with both of us being back in school.  these pictures are from our hike up big cottonwood canyon this week- it was beyond beautiful.

*side note. every single person that passed us yelled "redskins!!!" at us.  it pumped us up and made us pick up the pace! this is the first year i've ever been genuinely excited about football starting- i give credit to marriage. 

looking sharp during his first week of school

Moving Week

i'd like to say our week has looked like this: 

but in reality it looked a whole lot more like this:

every time moving day rolls around, i always come to the decision, at least once in the process, that i want to either throw or give all my stuff away. i'd rather live with very little than have to move it all! but it was sure nice having eddie around to help.  this was our first married move together so we had twice the stuff. (i guess we had the same stuff going into our 1st married apt. but i moved in a month before him so it wasn't the same). 

before we even left louisiana we decided we were going to hire movers. but since we made good timing on the drive back and we were feeling so efficient, we just started moving ourselves the day after we got back. we moved most of the little stuff ourselves then hired a guy to help us move the big stuff.  like our giant couch up 3 flights of stairs. you kind of learn a lot about yourself during a move.  during the couch fiasco, when we didn't think it would even fit in the stairwell, i kept saying "lets just sell it. no big deal. ill go list it on ksl right now." but eddie wanted to make it work! and he did. 

we got super lucky and ended up moving into my cousin's condo instead of the apartment in holladay, which turned out much better. an accurate comparison of the two is heaven to hell. 

it sure feels nice to be 90% settled.  i always love the fun part of unpacking and organizing once everything is in place. we already love the area up here- our first day here we were missing the provo bubble, but it's growing on us. a lot. our 1st apartment, Parkside 206, was a real gem and we're so lucky to have lived there for a year! but we are thrilled to have made the move to SLC.

DAY THREE

We saved the best for last.  On Sunday we spent the whole day in New Orleans doing a few things eddie & i had already done, but still managed to do a lot of new stuff with jord. 

On the way down we stopped by our favorite plantation, oak alley, to show jordan the gorgeous trees & plantation house.  After waiting 20+ minutes for my camera lens to defrost because of humidity, we just grabbed a couple pics and left instead of doing the actual tour. 

We've been trying to go to an exhibit on Hurricane Katrina all summer, but just missed it every time. We made sure not to miss it this weekend! It was one of the highlights of the whole summer.  It had live footage of the news during the whole week of Katrina, as well as live footage of the actual hurricane.  It was unreal. Then you went into a room and they had different tv's set up all over the room and would turn on one at a time and talk about a different part of Katrina.  Ie. the hospitals, super dome, heroes & first responders. 

They had an axe on display that was used to cut through the roof to get a woman and her daughter out of their house via helicopter.  There was an audio recording from the lady and she said on the day of the hurricane her daughter said, "Mom, look outside the rain is starting to come down harder" And when she went downstairs to look there was two feet of water covering the floor. It all happened so quickly. 

Can you even believe this warning?? 

This boat was found in a parking garage next to one of the hospitals.  After floodwaters trapped two thousand people, including more than 200 patients, in the hospital, a few staff members spotted the boat and began using it to evacuate people. It carried up to 39 people at a time. 

{given that jordy works in a hospital, one night while he was here we sat around reading stories about how the hospitals in particular were hit by katrina.  the stories were terrible. with no power/water/anything you can imagine how bad things got.} 

The Katrina exhibit was on the first floor and the Mardi Gras exhibit was on the second.  Extreme opposite feelings walking though these two! But it was nice to not feel as heavy when we left. 

butter pecan praline cones

Then we made our way down to see the destruction.  Here's jordan up on the flood wall 

We discovered this whole apartment complex that was totally abandoned.  The insides were completely gutted and stripped of everything but the bare structure. It was very eerie.

Where's waldo 

We drove around for an hour or so looking at the lower 9th ward and more specifically the rest of Brad Pitt's project.  The best part about it was passing an older woman on her front porch who waved and gave us the biggest, most genuine smile.  You know life's been hard to her and I couldn't believe how friendly she was to us obvious outsiders.

Then we made our way back to the french quarter for some shopping and relaxation

I love the street entertainment!

Waiting for the st. charles trolley

 being gentlemen and giving up their seats for some ladies

the most unexpected highlight of the night! i was obsessed.  these guys were straight from the tv show america's best dance crew. they were incredible- they go by"white gold". i wish i had pics, only video.  if you're lucky i'll figure out how to upload it on here.

i could do without the naked girls and endless drunk people on bourbon street at night, 

but i love the live jazz music! 

DAY TWO

The highlights of Saturday included: 

the gator tour

almost missing the tour and laughing about how nothing has changed- we're both still late to everything

when our tour guide kept referring to us as a couple and neither one of us cared enough to correct him

seeing the two GIANT gators that were hiding last time

jordy grabbing boudreaux's (15 foot gator) tail 

walking around baton rouge 

missing the tour of the capitol building by 2 minutes 

debating going to the circus 

LSU drive-thru 

dinner at Sammy's- hoping to introduce him to crawfish but when we discovered we just missed crawfish season... getting another po-boy

home for UNO and me asking him every question under the sun about his job/life/love and him being so patient and answering every single one

{1 foot away coming straight at me.  this is when i leaped over the boat and

 into the arms of the 14 year old girl on the opposite side of the boat. }