Graduation.

I am so loved!! My entire family drove, long distances (and some endured many trials) to attend my graduation and share this special moment with me. I can't believe my graduate experience at BYU is finished, and that 2 years have gone by. Its been an incredible experience, and one that has definitely shaped my life. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for enlightening me to take this opportunity, and also to my Father, who introduced me to the option of an MPA :) Thank you to everyone for your support and love throughout this stage in my life. WE DID IT! :)

My Birthday.

So this is a bit over-due, but its been a BUSY week for me this last week! So, this is me catching up. Last Monday was my Birthday, and it was such a fabulous day. It started off with flowers from Ryan :) And then a mani/pedi with my roommate, and then a PICNIC at the park with my favorite friends. I couldn't have asked for a better day. Great weather, great activities, great friends, and LOVE from my family and loved ones. Thank you all for being a part of my big day! :)

Waiting for my candles.

So, its my birthday ... and my mom blogged about me. Check it out here.

I just want to take this chance to say THANK YOU for all of you who have put up with me for the last 24 years. I can honestly say I wouldn't be the woman I am today without each of you, and your influence for good in my life. I am so so so blessed with wonderful family and friends who LOVE me and show me that love every single day. What a glorious day to look back on my life and realize how truly blessed I am.

Thank you.

I've learned that in Utah APRIL = SNOW.

We got 6 inches--- 6 INCHES! Last night alone.



This is a view from my house this morning.

An Ode to my brother, Matthew

I guess I'm behind in my blogging since my family has already blogged about this, but it's my turn to brag-- My little brother got his MISSION CALL!!

The whole thing was quite ironic-- I was able to attend conference on Saturday, and as I turned my phone on after the afternoon session, I had a few texts from my parents saying:

Mom: Guess what came today!
Dad: We are conference calling at 4:15 your time

[Note: Matthew lives in Hawaii as he is attending BYU-H, and the call was sent to my parents house. So mom and dad actually scanned his call to him in an email for him to read, without them looking at it themselves]

Well, good thing it was exactly 4:09 my time, and I was in the chaos of the conference center with 20,000 other people!! Once I got outside (which was actually much quieter than the inside of the conference center) I stood between the temple and the conference center, and intently waited for my brother to read his call.

He began ... Elder Hunt, you have been called to serve in the "wait... I can't read it" (we all begin thinking he can't pronounce his own mission call when he says) Salt Lake City, Utah--- uhhh silence. We can't believe what we just heard, and he can't believe what he just read!

"Dad, is this an April Fools joke?"

After all the commotion had died down, and we realized this was indeed his call, I told him "Hey Matthew, I'm walking the streets of your mission field!" I'm not sure if that helped.

Needless to say, Matthew is very excited to serve the Lord and the people of the Salt Lake City Mission. He will serve well, and we are so proud of him!

Oh, another piece of irony. We just found out Ashley gets released July 9. Matthew enters July 8.

An Ode to my Nephew, Nicolaus

So I was running out of the house this morning, wanting breakfast, and so naturally, I grabbed a bag of Cheerios and sliced Strawberries to eat in class. As I sat in class with my cheerios and strawberries in hand, I couldn't help but think of Nic -- who loves cheerios and LOVES strawberries. Maybe I'm a child today... and I'm totally ok with that.

LOVE YOU NIC

March Madness

This is a momentous day--- the first time I have ever filled out a March Madness Bracket. Too bad I'm loyal to BYU, and am already losing :(

Question of the Day

For those of you who were around me at this time last year, I began what I like to call, Question of the Day. It's really as simple as it sounds. I wanted to get to know my friends by asking them random questions each day---to see how they would respond. So, for those of you who don't gchat me daily, feel free to respond to the question below with a comment :)

What would you describe as your perfect day?

Feed My Starving Children



Last weekend Ryan and I had the opportunity to put together dry-packed meals for starving children in developing countries. This non-profit, based in Minneapolis, collaborates with local CPGs, like Cargill and General Mills, to create these meals and send them out to over 60 countries throughout the world.

Volunteers are invited to come to one of the FMSC packing locations, and put together the meals. The hairnets, pictures in front of the map (coming soon to this post), and working side by side with friends and strangers, eating a sample of the meal after; are all part of the FMSC experience. We had a great time, and heard some great Minnesota accents :)

PIZZA! FRENCH FRIES! PIZZA!!

Although these words usually connote lunch ... for me on Saturday they were my only saving grace to get me safely down the mountain.

My roommates and I decided to teach ourselves how to ski. Or at least that's what they told me. In reality, they had all at least grown up going skiing at least a few times---so I was the true novice at the sport. You can notice in the pictures how comfortable I feel with two 5' pieces of wood strapped to my feet on the side of a mountain.

In all reality, we had a FANTASTIC time. The weather was gorgeous. The company was incredible and luckily I was able to offer some entertainment as I screamed down the mountain and occasionally found myself stuck in a bush, or face planted in the snow (see pictures below). I look forward to future skiing adventures where I can actually show off the skills I gained after just one day at Park City Ski Resort.

Too excited -- we can barely contain ourselves!


Ok, Here Come The Individual Shots:
Jess


Holls


Janelle


ME


Brookie


First time on Skiis


Ready to Rock and Roll


Look at that Form!


And there's me ... face-planted on the side of the mountain. The girls LOVED this. (It made the picture of the day)


These are the "Beginners" I was with:


We Love Skiing!




On the Lift


Pizza was only appropriate for lunch


Such a great day.

Belize Travel Log...

The purpose of this trip was to observe a medical training for my field study project. Ponseti International is a non-profit who trains doctors throughout the world on a non-surgical approach to treating club-feet. This is an amazing method, and I have found myself becoming a 'missionary' for it. Go to www.ponseti.info/ for more information.

So here's what I was doing in Belize:

Observing.


Helping children (observing).


This is #1 of 5 casts to make her feet normal.


By now she should have had all of her casting, and her feet are NORMAL. She will be able to run, jump, play, walk--everything.


Daily Living.


Fresh Coconut.

After the medical aspect of the trip, we were invited to go to Ambergris Island (also known as San Pedro) and live the resort life:

Which included a boat ride to the island at sunset.


The Island.


Our "villa".


Morning Kayaking rendezvous off our dock.


Yup that's me, lying in a hammock.


Church.


Our last picture on the island.

We had a valentines party. It was a huge success. I'm going to let Kristin tell the story:


Kristin's Blog

UNBELIZEABLE

Totally unbelievable that I got invited to go to Belize for a school project. Note: I found out about this on a Saturday, booked my flight Monday evening and left early Wednesday morning. CRAZZZY!

Since I was in CA (for meggies wedding and some interviews) and my passport was in Utah (where I live) -- I had to enlist the help of a friend to Fedex it to me. Isnt it amazing what FedEx can do for us? 24 hours later -- passport in hand, I head to LAX. I stayed the night in LA and woke up at 3am in order to catch my 6am flight. Who knew that LAX doesn't even open until 4:15? I spent my few minutes of downtime after checking in to read the newspaper...something that doesn't always happen in Provo.

After that I hopped on a plane to Dallas, grab lunch in Dallas and catch a 3 hour flight to Belize. Such a quick flight. So as I land in Belize -- it just looks like jungle down there. The airport is tiny and the best part is when we landed...and then turned around on the airstrip to head back and park. I walked off the plane (where do you get to do that anymore?) and into warm humid paradise (kinda). My group met me there at the airport and we headed to the hotel.

As we pull up to the hotel, we realize we are located on the ocean. It is beautiful! (see below). Our room looked over the Caribbean Sea and we were pretty sure we landed in paradise.

Meggies Wedding!!

So there was the first... and her name is Megan. The first of my girlfriends from High School to get married. Now, here is just a little shout out for my girlfriends from Stockdale High. I moved back to Bakersfield my senior year of High School, and became fast friends with a group of amazing girls. Megan is such a gem and the sweetheart of our group. She is so kind and giving and caring of others -- you can't find a person that doesn't adore her. So we weren't surprised when an amazing man fell in love with her and wanted to take her to the chapel.

Luckily I was able to travel home to attend her wedding and dance the night away with Brooke, Karah and Nicole. The ceremony was beautiful (her dad presided), and we loved the video Artie (meggies husband) made for her---especially since we saw ourselves in a few of the pictures :)

Here are some pictures of the event...

MIA

I know, its been a while since I've blogged, or been on g-chat, let alone in class or called any of you. I'm sorry things got a little crazy over the last few weeks.

I took off to CA for my girlfriends' wedding, then I got sick, then was traveling with pops for some networking/interviews/meetings, and THEN I got invited to go to Belize! Crazy, right? So between the logistics of getting ready to leave the country, and being out of the country, I've been MIA. I can't wait to catch you all up on my excursions---esp the pictures of tropical paradise.

FIRE IN THE HOLE!!!

So I've had my laptop for 4 years now. A good stint for a computer, I think. Although I've faced many computer woes in the last few months, luckily I have some great friends who have helped me and helped my computer hang in there until I'm done with school and (hopefully) get a job, and can afford a beautiful new piece appendage of my body... aka a new computer.

In addition to the wear and tear my computer itself has taken over the last few years, also my laptop cord has also suffered some normal wear and tear damages. I noticed on Tuesday that the cord wire was frayed. I remembered this happened a few months ago to my brothers computer, and that my dad had fixed it. Assuming that "fixed it" = slapped some electrical tape around the fray, I asked my friend Spencer to wrap some electrical tape around the wound.

As I held the cord steady, smoke seeped out of the cord. A small stream of smoke quickly lead into more and more smoke, which lead to a FLAME. Yes, folks, a FLAME. Of course I screamed, threw the cord across the room, and then proceeded to be mocked by my friends. It was a great time.

Needless to say I'm taking the cord back to my Dad to fix (apparently fix=more than electrical tape) and if he can't fix it, I'll pay the $80 for a new cord.

Sigh.

I almost don't know what to say to this:

http://sev.prnewswire.com/entertainment/20090107/LAW03007012009-1.html

Apparently everyone is jumping on the congress bailout bandwagon?!

WEATHER REPORT: SNOW

Pretty sure it hasn't stopped snowing since 1:00pm yesterday afternoon. I've had to scrape the snow off my car at least 3 times now. And when I say scrape snow, I mean at least 4" each time. This morning was the worst.

After spending 10 minutes getting the snow off my car, I tried backing out of the parking spot and GOT STUCK. Like seriously, stuck. This nice man got out of his car and taught me how to get out of the mess I had gotten myself into.

After finally getting out of my parking lot, it took me 30 minutes to go the 3 miles to school. Needless to say I regretted getting out of bed at 7am for class this morning.

I thus declare it a SNOW DAY. (oh did I mention it hasn't stopped snowing?)

Deliberating over the perfect gift? No need to look further: The Keyboard for Blondes (click on picture for larger image)



Click Here to purchase.

Watch an incredible video about this season and sending joy to everyone throughout the world.

Joy to Everyone