BYU PR Program, Check!

Based on the amount of hours I've spent with this group this semester, you could maybe call this a family picture. 

Meet "Communicare: your healthcare communications resource."

(We did not intentionally cut Ben's daughter out of this picture. She's way too cute for that. It was an unfortunate accident.)

Jordan, Jenna, Maddie, Amie, Ben

Yes, we did have to make up little a team name for our capstone group. No, we did not make it up until the day before our presentation. Actually, a lot happened the day before the presentation. Probably a lot I shouldn't publish in the online world? Just know we are all immeasurably grateful for Jenna's ability to pull an all-nighter and STILL give a flawless presentation at 9 AM. 

The capstone project of the public relations program at BYU involves getting a class client (sorry, can't tell you who, confidentiality laws...), splitting up into groups, then competing to develop a campaign that the client chooses to implement at the end of the semester.

I loved doing healthcare communications with these people. They are all so impressive, and we had way too much fun together throughout the semester. Thursday alone involved about 10 hours together plus every variety of junk food available. Did you know that pretzel M&Ms exist? They do. I even had that feeling moms always allude to, that if-you-eat-too-much-of-that-you'll-make-yourself-sick feeling. Kind of always thought they were bluffing?

This project marked the end of the PR program at BYU. I graduate next Friday, then move to DC at the end of April! My internship is technically my last requirement to graduate. 

Stoked.

You should live here.

Look, this kitchen is so cute. And it frequently has baked goods. 

Living room. Also cute. Frequently has girls staying up way too late and laughing about who knows what doing homework.

So you should buy this contract. Preferably if you're single, female, and living in Provo. 

Unfortunately, I think I just eliminated the vast majority of my readership. But at least now you can share in my stress :)

13.1

Race Day. Have you been to Moab lately? The whole town is organic and made out of granola and mountain bikers. It made the whole experience feel just a little more hard core, even though we have a long way to go before we would qualify as a Moab-ite.

I haven't been there since we hiked arches when I was 13. I kind of just remember we went to buy ice cream after, but then my dad made us boycott it because all proceeds went to draining Lake Powell. 

Anyways.

 This is our before picture, somewhere during the time everyone waits for the shuttle and uses the bathroom a million times. 

Kimberly's sisters came down with us and cheered us on. I love being around sisters even though it makes me miss mine. My parents met us in Moab, too. They got in that morning so I didn't see them before the race. 


It was SO fun turning the last corner and seeing the finish line and my parents at the same time. I did a little dance for them. Then I kept running. 

My Aunt Tanya ran it as well! She's a professional at this, I don't even know how many races she has done. It was so fun to see her there! 

The race was great overall. Kimberly finished in two hours and I am SO proud of her! 
Then she was there to cheer me on when I came in 30 minutes later :)

Kimberly and I are happy happy happy to be done with the training process. Now we get to choose how long we want to run instead of following a calendar. And I get to eat Reese's Eggs whenever I want. 
Right?

Race experience made possible by: 
Kindal's running mix, ibuprofen, Ali's coaching, the man who offered everyone beer at mile 6 (took the laugh, not the beer), Clif Shot energy gel at mile 8, the old women who played bongos at mile 9, Alma 30:44, my parents' cheering, and lots of grateful prayers for a body that can run if I teach it to.

Feels weird to have the race finished! 
Now we're just ready to finish being sore :)

By Popular Demand

And by popular, I mean Michael's.

 

This is the most vicious, terrifying harbor seal we could find on Google Images. 

I guess it does add a little legitimacy to his story.

Seattle | Long Post, Long Time Coming

I think Michael and I possibly drove farther than any other BYU students over Presidents' Day weekend. Maybe that's why I'm not blogging about it until now? A lot of homework time was sacrificed in the making of this trip.

Look, Idaho! And that, my friends, is the only picture of a "Welcome to (insert new, exciting state here)" sign that we got. BUT I added two to my list; this was my first time to Oregon and Washington. Northwest corner, check.

We drove up to visit Allison and her fiance, Adam. Even though we heard a lot about Adam last summer, we still wanted to check him out before she marries him in June.

We approve.

Adam is going to medical school in Seattle, and Allison moved there after Jerusalem. They were so nice to give us the grand tour of their city! We loved visiting them.

Seattle in one word: colorful. Interpret that as you will. Look, the city has trolls under bridges. Three Billy Goats Gruff style. We climbed it.

And picked its nose.

The market! Saturdays and markets are just meant to go together. 

London taught me that. 

Sometimes that lesson causes some sentimental Saturdays when I have no market access. 

Pike Place Market. It's famous. 

We watched a movie in 8th grade once to learn about being positive employees no matter where we worked. 

The whole movie focused on Pike Place Market. 

Must have been memorable because I don't know why I'm bringing that up.

They really do throw fish a lot.

This...is the gum wall. 

I just really like it because every piece on that wall is not on the ground, and not on my shoe. They're also not under a desk in the library. I am very grateful for this wall.

Mmm, more markets. I wish I did my shopping here every week.

And I wish someone brought me these every week. 

Flowers from a market, what's better than that?

Don't worry, that was hypothetical -- I know you won't be able to come up with anything.

They're getting married in DC on June 18th, people. 

And I will be there! That's where I'm doing my internship to finish up school. Then after that I will ... oh wait. I have absolutely no plans after.

Let's not dwell on that.

I just liked this.

Don't tell Allison, but the REAL reason we went up to Seattle that weekend was for the Pacific Northwest Yo-Yo championship. Michael is obsessed.

Ok, that's not true. But we did spend two hours a few minutes being jealous of a lot of insanely talented yo-yoers. I felt like we discovered an entire hidden community. But then we saw other BYU sweatshirts and I realized that we didn't really discover anything - Mormons are all over free entertainment.

We rode a ferry out to Bainbridge Island one night. People can bring cars onto ferries. I tried not to think about that too much... but I feel like any boat with cars on it has a good chance of sinking. 

Water robs me of my faith.

It was incredibly windy and enjoyable. The front of the ferry was almost too windy to handle. There were some small children that couldn't get enough of it, actually. I was convinced they were going to be blown off the boat.

Water, no faith, remember?

Michael has a rough past with the Puget Sound. I shouldn't tell you this because Allison has the copyright to the story, but he once faced a vicious harbor seal in those waters. He was just paddling along, then suddenly a growling seal emerged from the water and tried to climb onto his kayak. Somehow he managed to fight it off with his paddle, but once he pushed it back, his kayak flipped over.

I think he was a little nervous during the ferry ride, but it was good for him to get back to the scene of the incident. Closure.

See? Vicious.

We accomplished a lot over the weekend, including this ridiculously hard puzzle. Don't be fooled by the picture, in real life all of the pieces look pretty much identical. 

Really, though.

See? It was hard. But we did it. For some reason we just couldn't leave Seattle without seeing the finished product.

And then ... we had to get in Saturn Saturn and drive home. Fourteen hours, again. 

I thought I would finally experience the feeling of wanting a road trip to be over and actually get sick of driving.

Didn't happen.

If fourteen hours isn't my limit, I wonder what is? I need to find out...

Look, Washington is beautiful.

The entire weekend was sunny, the whole rain reputation must be a myth.

We spent all of Thursday in the car, played Friday, Saturday and Sunday, then drove...

and drove...

and drove...

...home on Monday. 

I. Love. Road Trips.

p.s. This is Oregon. We stopped at a lookout point because I had to touch it. Now it is officially counted on my list :)

Next weekend: Road trip to Moab! It's race time, people.

Here's to you, Jerry

The Jazz just lost.

Lost to the Suns (better them than any other team ... except maybe the Celtics), and lost their longtime legacy.

The news of Jerry Sloan's resignation didn't really sink in for me until I watched the game tonight. I drove Jenny and her kids down to Cedar this weekend, and I'm glad I got to watch the game here. This is where I remember loving Jazz games with my mom, popping popcorn and watching Stockton and Malone read each other's minds. And Hornacek wear short shorts. We always popped popcorn. Could be the source of my addiction?

And Jerry Sloan was always there on the sideline. He started coaching the Jazz when I started, well, life. No denying 1988 was a good year. It felt so weird to watch the game tonight without him on the screen.

Nobody took his resignation harder than Ali, I love how much she loves him. She needs to come back home and draw the Jazz logo on our street in chalk again, like she did with her friends back when her team was in the playoffs with the Bulls.

I think people would still drive around it like they did then.

Here's my favorite article about Jerry from the Washington Post. So, all in all, emotional week ... but, go Jazz. :)

Enemies turned addictions:

Running. Sometimes I still dread the getting-started part, but definitely addicted to the feeling you get once you're in your groove. Plus I love any chance I get to listen to Kindal's hand-picked running mix, while I run around in the SUU Track shirt she gave me. Basically, she's my sponsor. Thanks girl.

Garlic. Random, I know. But I used to avoid anything and everything that came into even minor contact with the stuff. Ever since my cooking class last semester, I have entered a mindset that everything I cook should have garlic added to it. Like I'm depriving (insert almost any creation from allrecipes.com here) of its full potential if I don't give it garlic.

Waking up before my alarm. This used to just seriously make me mad. I always felt like I had started the day as a victim of instant deprivation. But a week ago we heard a wonderful devotional from Elder Kikuchi that made me realize waking up too early is wonderful. He challenged us to wake up just 7 minutes earlier and read the Book of Mormon every day. Now when that happens, I just get excited :)

Road Trips. Oh wait ... I've always been addicted to those. Good thing I have two planned in February! Cedar with Jenny and her cute kids, then Seattle the next week! Thank you, Presidents, for giving us a Day. And thank you, Allison, for being in Seattle and letting me come visit you! SOON! Is it weird that I'm excited for 12 hours of driving?