General Conference Weekend

This weekend I went to Utah with JAKS. To start off the weekend...

Friday, was the day we left. SUPPOSED to leave at 10:00 a.m., but Sterling said he'd be over at 11:00 a.m. and we didn't correct him. So he came over, and ended up going to Wal-Mart for us to get a swifter so we could clean our kitchen floor. Somehow a dead moth was squished, dragged, and splattered all over our floor by the fridge. Someone didn't clean it up. jerks. haha. Soooo. He goes to Wal-Mart and get us the swifter as us girls are still packing, showering, and so on. We... woke up at like 10:30 haha. So, he is back when I am ready, so I clean up the floor and work a sweat doing it too. Afterwards, go to take a test in the testing center before we leave. I get back, and make us Hot Dogs and Pretzels.. what a good meal huh? So, we end up leaving... it's 2:00. We are soooo like our mothers. Leaving later than we planned. Maybe a little worse though. haha. So here we go, driving down to Utah!!! 4 hour drive or so. Once we get into Salt Lake City, we head over to the Gateway so that the wonderful AKS -no J I already have one- could go to build a bear and create their own best friend/daughter/son. However, we ran into something much more spectacular. FOREVER 21!!!!! Too bad for Sterling, we HAD to go in. I only spent $40.00. yay for me. Got a skirt, little hat thing, earrings, and 3 head bands. Nice job me. So, as we are leaving forever, and starving we decide to go eat. Food court. haha. Next is time for Build a Bear. :D Kami, decides she doesn't want one. (What a liar) Sterling is too cool for one (another liar) and Ariel is the one who wanted one so badly she didn't care about the money! haha. This is how she got her furry little Leopard, Lily.

I convinced Sterling that he too needed one, so meet Goob, the turtle. (The name of Goob should tell you all about Sterling's personality)

So Kami's turn to get hers!!!! A koala is what she wants, and a koala is what she gets. Now her and my brother are twins. Koala, Sydney the Koala. It was Kaci, the Koala, but... Kaci was too hard to remember for some reason, and she liked Sydney better so she is now Sydney. Meet Sydney.

Now we are LEGS! (Lily, Ellie, Goob and Sydney) They are the foundation of JAKS!!! Legs are the bottom of people. hehe. Yay for that!

SO, after getting their loved ones, we headed over to West Jordan, which is where Kami lives. Which is about an hour away from Salt Lake City. So, we head over and meet her Mom, and Dad. They were very welcoming. We ate some Americanized... something haha. I don't remember, but it had Hamburger meat and cheese in it. Boy was it yummy!!! So, afterwards we went in the basement! (everywhere has basements outside of California!!!) So, then we took over Kami's sister's room and that's where we were going to be staying. Afterwards, we left for Provo around 10:00 p.m. to take Sterling there so he could have someplace to stay. No boys allowed to sleep with us!!! :D So, we take him to BYU - Provo and then afterwards are like 15 minutes into our drive back to Kami's house, when we realize that Sterling left his pillow and blanket in my car, and I also forgot that I was going to be picking up my friend Cameron from BYU to take him back to West Jordan so he could stay with his uncle that night. So, we had to turn around. However Sterling was already gone from his place so he said he could live without it. So Cameron, was at the movies and wanted us to wait for him. I said I don't know, so it was a.. maybe. So JAK went to the Creamery and got some ice cream. We totally loved how nice the weather was there because it's already cold in Rexburg to when you walk outside at night you MUST have a jacket on. So the weather was nice in Utah. No sweatshirt needed. So after we are done, we get a text from Cameron saying that the movie is out and to come get him. It was actually a very long conversation soooo I am going to leave out the middle. So, we go find the theater and then get him and he tells us he just needed a ride back to Provo, and considering it's 1:30 in the morning now that he can't go to his uncles. LAME!!!!! We tease him about that a lot now. So, we get back to Kami's house at around 2:30ish, and like, are EXHAUSTED! but don't go to bed till around 3:00 a.m. because we are crazy!

Saturday, we wake up super duper early because conference not only starts t 9:00 a.m. but we have to drive 45 minutes to get to Salt Lake, and get 5 people ready and fed to get there. Not to mention it was pouring. So, we leave at around 8:30, which we thought was extremely late!!! So, we goooo and get there on time, walk to the conference center and it is magical just walking in! I had so many goosebumps!! They just wouldn't go away! I didn't mind. I loved the feeling. Hearing the Morman Tabernacle Choir (MoTAB) AWESOME! AMAZING! Beautiful!!! Inspirational. I have a feeling Ariel will one day be up there with her amazing voice. I should post one of her video's up here. Later. :) So conference... oh, seeing the prophet!!!! Not only was this my FIRST time watching conference, I was able to ATTEND my first viewing. Wanna know a little secret too??? We were on the first floor, in the 23rd row! On my ticket it actually says "guest of the president." Like how awesome is that! He gave us the tickets. All thanks to Kami, my lovely. I can't even explain how I feel about my best friends!!! They are just fabulous! So, after conference, I have never seen so many people walking in my life. There was actually traffic/a line to cross the street while walking! So, we get to my car, FINALLY and then have to wait an hour to get out of the stinkin parking lot. Bummer. It was funny, because... Utah driver and California drivers... just don't mix. :D I was trying to be nice considering we all just came from this great holy place, and we're all LDS, but... they were just ridiculous. It's let one in, and you're good (karma wise) well this one car was going no matter what! I was ready to scream. But I laughed instead. haha. And then another car tried getting in after, and so I scooted up and basically was saying "nuuuuuuuuuuh uh!" So.. we get out of the parking lot, and then since we're hungry, we go to Olive Garden. Think about this picture, 3 extremely gorgeous, modest girls walking in with their church clothes on into a "fancy" restaurant. We walk in, and the host was writing our name down in the .. little book thingy, and then the manager or someone says, would you like to be seated now? Dude, we felt special. haha. Granted it was in the cafe, but that made us feel so OLD! haha. Some sophisticated women sitting in a little cafe, talking, gossiping, about our life. It was splendid. Yummy food, YUMMY dessert!!! Chocolate for all of us. No, we're not pigs. :D No, I haven't gained 8 pounds since being up here. :D hehe. Okay, I have but, meh, I don't care. So... we're eating through 2nd conference. :( We had to eat! and if we went back to Kami's house it would have been right when conference was starting and we wanted to go exploring through Sal Lake City. We went to this FABULOUS hotel. You have to be like extremely rich to stay here. There was a VERY nice garden/courtyard. Not to mention it was still raining so it was even more beautiful!

Kami's photo of me
My photo of them

This one is cuter!

So now that I am done showing you my best friends... haha. After this fabulous experience in the gardens... we left and I believe we went back to Kami's house right after. We were there for a little bit when we had to leave to go to Kami's grandparents house! Oh my was that a wonderful place! So many kids, so many aunts!!!! Haha, all the men were at priesthood. It was a house full of women and children. Who woulda thunk. Typical Mormons. :D jk jk. But man it was wonderful! Girls talking from all different directions. It was almost very hard to keep up. WE DID IT though! haha. So, once the men got back, we all had a Family Home Evening. We learned Choose The Right, which was awesome, because I didn't have that song memorized considering I never went to primary. haha. But sheesh what a good lesson. I now (kind of) have Choose the Right memorized. Yay me!!! I could pass it off I think. hahaha. Too bad I'm 18, and in Relief Society. Dang I'm old. So, end of the night, we go to SUPER Wal-Mart to get some treats for Sunday's conference. Yummmm. Then headed back to Kami's house. Her brother Richard was there and we all ended up playing pool till like 1:00 a.m. Nooot smart. Then we brought out guitar hero. Not smart again. haha. I played like 2 games until I realized... man I am tired, I'm going to bed. This was like 1:30. Aparently they all stayed up till 3:00 a.m.!! Crazy earthlings.

Sunday: You'd think we'd be awake for conference... but Kami didn't want to wake Ariel and I, because we had a long drive home that day. Isn't that sweet????! However, we felt like horrible people for missing the first conference. :[ Bad us. Once first conference was over, (we saw 15 minutes of it) we left to get Sterling in Provo. Too bad it took us till 2nd conference was about 45 minutues into it to get back. Oooops. Bad again. So we went back to Kami's and watched the rest of conference and then, Ariel and I showered for our nice trip back home. BUUUUUT we didn't leave till 5:30. Bad us. We ended up playing the piano, and just goofing around, so we didn't get back home till around... 10:00. About halfway through the drive, I just thought I didn't want to drive anymore, so I got off the freeway and Ariel and I switched. Soon after that, I was laying on Kami's lap and she was stroking my hair. Oh she's wonderful. Ariel, thank you for switching spots with me, and Kami, oh thank you for comforting me! Sterling, you suck. hahahaha. :D We didn't like you the road trip home!!!! :D I bet he doesn't even read this. Or know I have one. Ohhhh well. Butttttttt ride home, dark and cold. Boogers. I think we went to bed kind of early that Sunday night, but I don't recall. Oh well. That was my weekend down in Utah. I hope I didn't forget anything. If I did... OH WELL! It took me forever to type this. I saved so many drafts before completeing it. Meh, oh well! Loved Utah and loved Conference! Thank's again Monson's for giving us tickets!


<33333

Love

I have a love for my major, which is Professional Preschool Education, which will end up being my minor in 2 years after I get my associates degree and THEN Child Development will be my major once again. What a great program this is. So, back to me loving my major. today we watched a movie about how to calm children. The Calming Reflex is what it is called, 5 S's. This was so interesting and this got me to thinking... man, my mom must have been so stressed if I didn't go to sleep. She's told me numerous times however that I was a good baby. I even heard that I slept through the night. (Sure does sound like me! :D) I've however heard stories from my Aunt and Uncle, that once she left me with them and I would NOT stop crying. They tried whatever they could, even took me for a drive to calm me down. No offense to them, but this makes me so happy to hear, because it just shows how much I loved my mother. The special bond we had then, and the special bond we have now. When hearing her tell me how much of a good teenager I am and all this, all I can think of is.. well you raised me. I love you Mommy, and that class inspired me to tell you about how much I love you. If you were stressed when I was little, I could only imagine why. Babies crying is not something parents want to hear. So thank you VERY much MOMMY! :D Once again, I just hope that I can raise my children like you. Be a strong mother, and come out with great children and a great husband. You are and have always been my hero.


MUAH!


Olive Juice


- Jess

<3

I'm in the hard times right now in life.. but I am terribly grateful for my loved ones up here. They're great distractions. I've never cried so fast in my life before today. And then I don't think I have ever stopped the tears fast like that also. A'lyce, Alison, Ariel, Kami, Sterling and Ellie were in my living room. I couldn't cry in front of them. A'lyce saw me and so did Sterling, and that was already too much. Nobody should see me like this. I am a happy person. I want to be a happy person. I of course texted the first person I know to go to when I have these problems, and he tried to help, and he did, he distracted me. Thank you Michael. But then I got Ellie and she is really my lifesaver. I take care of her as if she is my child. Someone to take care of and try so hard not to cry in front of. Not to mention the wonderful JAAAKS that was in my living room at the time. I absolutely love the school I am going to. I can right now, as I am hurting, count my blessings and look at the bright side of things. My best friend from home just told me "God has his plan for you Jess, and for all the harship he tets you with, you will find your happiness." He is the best person to quote, because he can always cheer me up. Mikey, you are the only person I have talked to continuously since being up here. Granted the first month it wasn't that much, but lately, you have been there for me like no other. I haven't told you much of what has been going on, but today when I needed you, I could count on you. You were the first person, I told about how excited I was about my new major. I am so glad that we have been friends for over 4 years. Longest friend of my life right there. I am extremely lucky to have you as a friend. So, I have a little smile on my face right now as I think of my wonderful friends in my life right now. JAAAKS and Mikey. You guys are the best. Thank you so much for making me smile 24/7. Telling me daily how much you love me, and I tell you guys how much I love you .. MORE :D. I cannot wait for this weekend, when all of us drive down to Salt Lake City for conference. Once, I heard a talk that said that when you go to either, class, devotional, or just church, come prepared with a question that you need answered. I know this weekend at conference, my questions will be answered and my mind will be more at ease. The Lord is there for me, and is looking out for me everywhere I go. He knows the people I needed in my life, and has sent them to me and vice versa. I love you all. Thank you for being so strong.


I LOVE YOU!




Meet JAAAKS minus me.

Ariel

A'lyce

Alison

Kami

Sterling

Blessings

Yesterday, was basically any normal day.

Went to Book of Mormon
Took a 30 minute nap
Went to Child Development
Came home took an 1 hour 30 minute nap
Woke up, went to Devotional.
Went to Math 108
Came home, and have no clue how the time passed.

At 6:20, I had an interview with the Bishop to get a Temple Recommend.
Oh, I was so happy!!!! I now have a Temple Recommend. :D So around 9:00 our friend Sterling was done with his calling, and so my roommates and I went for a walk to the Temple!!! It's beautiful!

We sat on the floor outside the back and just talked for about an hour and then walked around the Temple. Took random pictures like always and then walked back to our dorm. We are all so chill, that we can just go back and sit there and somehow time passes by. So, I ended up making, Kami, Ariel, Sterling and myself an egg, cheese, and bacon burrito. Yumm. My favorite. haha. Sterling says I should be a lunch lady, because one of my hair's were in his burrito. Nasty. hahaha. Short hair problem number 1. So, it was a nice evening. I can't explain how excited I am about my recommend, and the fact that I have so many blessings in my life. My friends, my family, the temple so close by. We are officially JAKS with Sterling and it is awesome. We love eachother so very much. All of us together as one. Thank you guys. You help me out with so much, with stress related things, and you always know how to cheer me up and make my wild side come out. Joker face??? hehe. By the way, I am not a nerd for wearing my retainer to the temple! I love it!!! :D Well it is time for me to be heading to my child foundations class. Woo hooo? I love you all.

- Jess

(I think I left a lot out.)