Back in the Burg...

First of all, I would just like to note that it has officially been over a year since I have seen this...

Or this...

Or this...

                                                                                                        Or this!!!   

And I have only seen TWO of my amazing Disney friends within this past year (yay Abby and Eleisha!), but it was literally only for a couple minutes with each of them! So so so sad. And I have yet to see my amazing roommate/buddy Chelsea since we parted ways in the Orlando airport one year ago. LAME! I miss my Disney buds so much! Somebody needs to take me back to Disney, as I have been over the past few months going through HUGE withdrawals. I couldn't care less if it's Disneyland or Disney World... just take me! Anyway... end Disney rant...

Now I am finally back in Rexburg!!! Yes! I moved back in the to the good ole Pines this past Thursday, April 15. I wish I had something more interesting to report so far... but to be honest this has honestly been one of the most boring weekends of my entire life. But it has had its good points! Like the fact that I'm already completely unpacked and ready to jump right back in to school. I have eliminated any possible distractions. And on Friday night I went to a wedding reception... Gracie Lou's!!! It was really really really weird... but it was also beautiful and Grace looked absolutely amazing! I'm so happy for her. Later that night Steve, Rachel, and Hallie visited me for a couple minutes, which I loved! I miss my brother and sis-in-law so much! I'm glad I had a chance to see them before the reunion in July. Can I just say though, that all four of my nieces are the most adorable, lovable, most genius little girls in the entire world?! I feel really lucky to have seen all of them (and my amazing sisters Tiff and Taralyn and bro-in-law Bryan, whom I also love, by the way) before school starts on Tuesday. Just look at these girls! ADORABLE!!!

I have also met two of my five roommates, Caitlin and Melissa, and reunited with two old ones! These lovely ladies...

                                                      
                                                         ...and I met up last night and had great fun! Charlotte and I went on a nice walk and discovered a super cute new boutique on Main Street that sells cute shirts and accessories and baby hair bows and stuff for pretty decent prices. It's adorable. Then Charlotte, Marina, their roommate Devi, and I went up to Nauvoo to visit our old friend Jeremy and ended up staying there until about 11:30. The boys in that apartment are HILARIOUS and we had great fun. I think it was a good way to kick off the semester. So now today is Sunday and I went to church in the BYU-ID 83rd ward once again. We have a new bishopric, which was interesting, but further than that it was rather uneventful. Singles wards at school tend to be kind of boring the first couple weeks. We had a couple of really good lessons though! Hmmmm... now that I think about it, I guess this weekend could have been a lot worse! Yeah- I've had a great weekend! I guess that's all for now. I would post pics of the apartment, but it's exactly the same as my other two apartments, so... most of you know what it looks like! I'll let you know how my classes go! My first one is my cooking class! Woohoo!

Spirit of Elijah!!!

Ok, so as most of you know, this weekend has been LDS General Conference, which is one of the best weekends of the entire year! I loved every second of it. But I have a confession to make... my mom and I really enjoyed Elder Russell M. Nelson's address (the one on family heritage) in the Sunday afternoon session, that we sort of... got distracted and ignored the rest of the session. I guess you could say that we were inspired. Anyway, following his address, we both immediately got on familysearch.org, the church's genealogy site, and started randomly looking up family lines. It honestly was one of the coolest experiences of my life! We learned so much about our family that we never knew about before. Most of our amazing discoveries began with my great great grandmother, Julia Ann Crandall (born 1841), who is my Grandpa Boyer's grandmother. First, we followed her family line back to the 17th century to John and Priscilla (Mullens) Alden, my twelve great grandparents. We started to do a little bit of internet research on this couple, and it was like opening a treasure chest! It didn't take long for us to discover that John and Priscilla were not only on the Mayflower, but John Alden was supposedly the first person to step off the Mayflower onto Plymouth Rock in 1620. He was also the roommate of Miles Standish, the Captain of Plymouth. We thought this by itself was amazing, but then we kept finding more and more AMAZING facts about these ancestors. It turns out that John and Priscilla Alden were involved in the first, and one of the most famous, love triangles in the New World. Priscilla had two suitors once they reached Plymouth- John Alden and Miles Standish. Miles had sent John to Pricilla to tell her that Miles wanted to marry her. But Priscilla saw that John loved her too, and she said what is considered to be one of the most famous lines in history, "Why don't you speak for yourself, John?" He left, but came back to tell her that he loved her. He obviously won, and here I am twelve generations and nearly 400 years later! Another descendent of John and Priscilla is the famous poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who happened to write an epic poem about their courtship, "The Courtship of Miles Standish." John Alden also went on to  become the assistant to the governor of Plymouth and served on the jury of one of the two witch trials held in Plymouth. Incidentally, their son, John Jr. was one accused in the witch trials, but he escaped days before his execution. So basically... my family is awesome! Anyway, my mom and I actually went on to find 9, possibly 10, direct ancestors who rode over on the Mayflower's first trip to the New World. We also discovered a LOT of different nationalities that are in my blood that we hadn't known before. I'm mostly English and Norwegian, but we also found a lot of German, IRISH (on both sides! I've always wanted to be Irish), French, etc. But it's when my family line goes REALLY far back, say... to the first century... that you find the really good stuff! It turns out, if you look back far enough from Julia Ann Crandall's line, I am directly descended from royalty! Scottish royalty, English kings, Italian kings, A king, queen, and princess from Spain, LOUIS I ('The Pious')- Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 799, Louis VIII ('The Lion') of France, Louis VIII, CHARLEMAGNE of the Holy Roman Empire (who is known as not only the father of all French and German monarchies, but all monarchies of Europe), and "Ole King Coel" (you know from the song?). It literally goes all the way back to the year 6 AD. Anyway, a lot of you probably won't care, but I am really really excited. It's so cool and fun to find out that you are directly descended from people who played important roles in not only American history, but world history! So you all better start treating us Clark and Boyer people better, cause we're direct descendants of some of the most famous royals in World History!!! I'm a princess! And don't you forget it!!!

Carol Jeanne Loveridge Clark

(September 8, 1930 - February 6, 2010)

Carol Jeanne Loveridge Clark, our precious and loving mother and grandmother, age 79, of Springville, Utah, died at home on February 6, 2010, after a valiant battle with cancer. Born September 8, 1930 in Springville, Utah, to Joseph LeRoy and Mary Grace Fullmer Loveridge, Carol was the youngest of five children. She married her high school sweetheart, C. LaMar Clark, on May 9, 1949 in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. They were married for 49 years, inseparable until LaMar’s passing in 1998.

Carol loved music and was blessed with an exceptional singing voice, sharing her talent as a soloist and in various choirs. She was active in her community, including as President of the high school PTA, where her innovations and leadership led to the establishment of the overnight senior graduation party. Carol served as a voting registrar for many years, as an EMT, and in other community service endeavors. Active in the LDS Church, she fulfilled many callings, including in the Primary Presidency while in her 70s.

After raising her children, Carol returned to school, earning her degree from Utah Valley University to become a licensed practical nurse. She worked for Utah Valley Hospital with its blood drives until her retirement.

All were welcome in Carol’s home, drawn to her generous heart, wise counsel, and delightful sense of humor. Whatever the need, Carol had an innate gift for identifying and meeting it. Her love for others was limitless, evidenced by the steady stream of friends and family who traveled great distances to visit her in her final days.

Carol’s most powerful love was saved for her husband and children. She was diligent in giving her time, talents, and efforts for her family, providing them with many cultural and educational opportunities. Blessed with a legacy of tough pioneer resiliency, she never complained about her own tribulations.

Carol was preceded in death by her son, Richard Dale, and beloved husband, LaMar. She is survived by her children, John LaMar (Cheryl), Russell Ray (Daina), Kathleen Muir, Stuart Lynn (Teresa), Kelly Jay (Wendy), and Michael Ryan (Elsa), 18 grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren, her sister Leslie Francis (Reed), and numerous other loved ones. Her greatest legacy was her ability to make each of them feel that she loved them the “mostest”.

Funeral services will be at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, February 13, 2010, at the Spring Creek 1st Ward LDS chapel, 860 East 200 North, Springville, Utah. A public viewing will be held from 6:00 to 8:00 pm at Wheeler Mortuary, 211 E. 200 S., Springville, Utah, on Friday, February 12, 2010, and one hour prior to the funeral service at the 1st Ward chapel. Interment at Springville Evergreen Cemetery. The family encourages donations in Carol’s name to the LDS Church Humanitarian Fund.

Where does it go?

Lately I have been thinking a lot about time. It's crazy! You spend your entire life gearing up for a single event- your birthdays, baptism, going to high school, graduating, getting married, etc. Then all of a sudden the day is past, and you are years ahead, looking back trying desperately to remember the details of the day. I remember being so excited to finally get in high school. The day couldn't come soon enough. I know this is a corny cliche, but it really feels like a week ago when I started my life BHS, but I am happy to say that I have changed a LOT since then, and I wouldn't trade my experiences since then for anything in the world. The thing that has brought this on the most is thinking about my amazing Grandma Clark.

As I have grown up, I've always considered her to be invincible. I had my first major dose of reality in regards to Grandma about a year ago when she tripped over a high chair in California and injured her pelvis and shoulder. Since that time, she has been diagnosed with and treated for ovarian cancer (which included both surgery and radiation), received shoulder surgery (which had some pretty serious complications, resulting in her admittance into the ICU), diagnosed with lung cancer, which then turned out to be in her brain, and ultimately was given just weeks to live. Every day she is getting weaker and weaker and she has only days left- if that. Now, I know I shouldn't be sad. Once she dies she'll be free from her pain and will finally be reunited with her husband and her little boy. But I can't help but be a little stunned. Back in January of last year, I had come to accept the idea of her passing. I was in Florida at the time and I even told my managers at Disney that I may have to take temporary, possibly even permanent, leave for her funeral. But then she pulled through in California and went home to Springville, and, in spite of the oxygen she was now constantly wearing, I allowed myself to believe again that she was invincible. Then came her diagnosis with cancer, and she seemingly pulled through again! Then her stay in the ICU, where once again, she pulled through.

All year long I have had to keep preparing myself for the possibility of her death, but then pulled back into an imaginary dream world where it looked like Grandma would be around for a while. But this time, she's not going to recover. And it, for whatever reason, is so hard for me to accept. I can't imagine a world without Carol in it. It's crazy to me to think that next time I'm in her house, she won't be upstairs at the crack of dawn making Belgian waffles. I am never going to have another opportunity to hear her read the Polar Express on Christmas Eve. I just can't imagine being without her. I love her so much and I am greatly going to miss her, and the love that she gives everyone she comes in contact with. But I know I'll see her again, and personally believe that she will always be present when her loved ones need her. Her spirit may be leaving this earth, but there is something that is NEVER going to change. It's something that has always been, and something that my mom and I promised her when we said goodbye for the last time- to love her the mostest forever and ever! And I know that she will continue to love her family the mostest forever, too!

Why???

I know it's hard to believe- I'm leaving Facebook. The world is coming to an end!!! ;) Honestly I'm sort of surprised it's such a big deal to everyone, but that is a big part of why I'm ending it. First of all, while I feel the Facebook is an excellent tool in keeping in touch with friends and family, it has become far too overused in my personal life. It distracts me from homework, family, and the people that I am with in reality. If I'm bored, I always turn to Facebook rather than finding a productive use of my time. The other thing that drives me CRAZY is that I'm friends with so many people online, but in real life, we don't even say hi when we see each other. If I'm not really a friend with that person in reality, why should I humor them by giving them a higher friend tally? Basically it comes down to this: I spend WAY too much time online, and Facebook has gotten me into some pretty sticky situations in the past. This is more of a self-control move than anything else. This doesn't mean that I love anybody less, it certainly doesn't mean I want to lose contact with anyone, and it is not a personal attack on any of my Facebook friends. I simply want to reunite with reality. :) Now that I am leaving Facebook, I will do my best to update my blog more often, just in case anyone cares to know what's going on with my life. AND I still have an email address and a cell phone number! Just let me know if you don't have it. Basically, my point is that I'm not completely dropping off the face of the earth just because my Facebook account is. :) Love ya guys!

This past weekend my choir went on BYU-Idaho's sacred music tour. It was AMAZING!!! We sang in Twin Falls and met some awesome members, but the highlight of the weekend was definitely our performance at the Tabernacle on temple square. I have always dreamed of singing at the tabernacle (so much!), and it was everything I ever imagined. The spirit in that room is absolutely incredible, and the acoustics are every performer's dream! :) It was an amazing experience. I wish you all could have experienced it with me. But I'll be getting a DVD of the performance later in the semester if anyone wants to watch it.

Thumper and Satanic Shirts...

So I realized to day that many of you haven't met Thumper yet. He is one of my best friends in the entire world and has been serving me in stress reduction and anger management. I love him!!! Here he is...

Isn't he beautiful? I love him! :) Playing the guitar really is a big help in getting me through this semester. Especially with stuff like this:

This is what I lovingly refer to as "the wall of death." Yes, that is all Dr. Pepper, excluding of course the four cans of Red Bull perched on top. Three of my roommates have become flat out addicted to Dr. Pepper. Which is fine for them if they want to do it, but it's kind of a huge pain. One wrong move in the living room results in all 144 cans falling down! Then you have to rebuild it, and it takes forever... sigh. And now my yoga ball can't have nearly as much fun out there as it used to. Poor ball...

This is the other thing that's forcing me to overplay the guitar. A wretched fitted shirt. I love my sewing class- I really do, but I have learned that fashion design and tailoring are NOT the careers for me. It's not even really halfway done yet. I still have to build and attach the sleeves and hem the sides and finish the collar and sew in buttons and button holes and hem... It's great!

This is the lovely collar that is being so nice to me. I has literally taken me about 4 hours of pinning, sewing, unpicking, and re-sewing to get it to look this good. And it's still nowhere close to perfect. I think that shirt collars are a creation of the devil... :) Anyway, other than the evil shirt and the suicidal Dr. Pepper pyramid, life is pretty good right now! My classes are getting pretty intense now, but luckily it is mostly stuff I love! And this Friday marks the beginning of our choir tour called "God's Everlasting Love." It's a beautiful oratorio based off of poems that Elder Bednar wrote. So I have the premiere concert this Friday (which Elder Bednar is coming to!), then the following weekend we are performing in Twin Falls and Salt Lake City (in the tabernacle!!!), then we have the closing concert the next Friday. The preparation is really time consuming. I never realized how much work Women's Choir would be. In addition to class time this week, we have two additional 3 hour rehearsals. But the music is gorgeous and I love to sing, so naturally I love all the rehearsals.

Pics of Fall 2009

So here are some pictures of my amazing pictures of this semester. I stole them all off of facebook, so they aren't the best, but my camera is still out of service. Tiffany, this is for you! So you better help me out. :P

These pictures are the product of pure boredom. Charlotte (left), Marina, and I spent probably two hours trying to get jumping pictures. Most of them turned out like this one, but this is my favorite because we're all in different stages of a jump, but no one is actually off the ground. :)

This is our first successful shot. Unfortunately my face isn't very cute when I'm in the air. :)

That extra roomie is Heather. She got home like an hour into our jumping and decided to join in on the fun.

This is my least favorite, but my roomies think it's funny, so whatever. :)

This picture is taken at the Rexburg temple. It's one of the first weekends of the semester. Marina and I try to go together because we're room roommates and we both are class free on Fridays!

It's pretty!

This is a picture of me ironing my pillowcase for sewing class. I want to post pictures of my other sewing projects eventually.

This is our lovely front door. Marina, Charlotte, and I got bored with our apartment, so we decorated! It was actually the same night that we took the jumping pictures. Why were we so bored? I bet we had tons of homework to do.

Semester #3

I don't have any pictures or anything, but I just want everyone to know that I'm having a super fun semester! This semester, I volunteered to work for the new student orientation, Get Connected, and had TONS of fun- I made lots of new friends and had amazing spiritual experiences. It's changed my entire outlook on BYU-I and I'm actually enjoying it again! My roommates are awesome this semester. No personality clashing so far, and that's a record compared to my past apartments. This semester I'm taking awesome classes (except for science), my favorite of which is Women's Choir! I can't describe how amazing it feels to be in an auditioned choir again. We're singing in devotional on Sep. 29, which is always fun. I also get to go on choir tour to Twin Falls and Salt Lake, which I'm also super excited about. Hopefully I'll get some good pictures soon, but my camera is poop. :(

I'm BAAaaaaaack!

Hi peoples! :) I don't have anything exciting to say right now, except that once school starts up again next week I'll be blogging more, so you should start paying attention again! Oh yeah, and I'm auditioning for Women's Choir this semester, so I would LOVE it if you'd all pray for me to make it. Thanks, I love you all, and peace out!