Can I just say how absolutely wonderful it is to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints? My heart is positively overflowing, and I'm sure this is the shortest blog ever, but I really just wanted to speak (or type) what's on my mind. The gospel is... I don't even know how to describe it. I am so grateful for the opportunity I've had to know the truth! Maybe it's just the Christmas season getting to me :) Either way, I just wanted to take the chance to say how much I love the gospel and how unbelievably blessed I have been to be a part of Christ's true church. I love it, I really do.

One time Me, Wendy (not my mom), and Callie went to Mt. Graham for the afternoon to play in the snow. There wasn't actually a whole lot of snow (which is really frustrating because it snowed on the mountain for 2 days straight after we went up!!) but the whole trip in general was, in a word, sublime. The scenery was gorgeous, being away from the city/college was rejuvinating, and just the overall feel of the day was so needed. It was so awesome.

This was our first stop. About half way up the mountain there's this little place where you can pull over and the most beautiful tree and stream were there! It looks like something off of a postcard doesn't it? We were astounded. But then again you kinda had to be there because everything around it contributed to it's awesome-ness as well.

There's us! Duh. You can see the stream in the background!

We love snow!!!


We played snow-baseball...

Wendy and Callie on the slide of the road! Haha get it? Like "side of the road" but it's a slide?

And a lovely sunset to finish off the day :) It was absolutely fabulous.

Thanksgiving Weekend

So...I went home again for Thanksgiving. It was a crazy weekend, from driving home through the unbelievably thick rain and thunder all the way to singing with my sister at a Farewell (which we rehearsed for on Saturday!) and then skipping out of town less than an hour afterwards! But it was totally worth it. And I made sure to document everything because I knew it would make for a spectacular blog! So here you go. Enjoy. Please. Uhkay!

First off I just wanted to show you some of the stuff I was lookin at on the way home. For some reason that day was absolutely BEAUTIFUL at every turn! Good stuff.

In case you can't tell, that's a chocolate on my pillow, greeting me at my arrival. My parents are so weird :)

Awwww! Look at my big brother with his little daughter. He was singing and playing for her. She chimed in too of course. He was trying to get her to sing the Little Mermaid (or "memetz" as Emma calls them) song but she wasn't buyin it. Later that night tho she marched right over to the piano and started playing "chords" and singing that Little Mermaid song! It was one of the cutest things I've ever seen.

Thanksgiving = game night! We had the Colvins over and Derek brought his woman :) Yes, Derek was actually home for more than 24 hours! Proud day at the Spencer residence.

Sorry this picture is so Myspace, but i wanted to get the dress in the picture. When Chelsea and I went to Texas Roadhouse to eat, a waitress brought her a dress for Winter Formal (she works there too). She tried it on in the bathroom. I thought it was funny.

Aaaand this is what typically happens when we eat at Roadhouse. No more than 3 minutes went by the whole time without one of the workers coming up and talking to her/us. Good times man.

Look at my niece! She's just so smiley!! At least this one likes me :)

Friday night we went over to Chelsea Crace's house to play Rockband! We failed on Livin on a Prayer. Hahaha! Um.... look at the picture again. Wilbur Robinson anyone?

Saturday night we went to watch the movie Australia with Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman (hello...why else would I go?). This is a picture of us being sad because I honestly probably cried for the last hour of the movie. And several times sporadically throughout the other two hours. Oh yeah, it was 3 hours long. But VERY good.

All in all it was a very good but CRAZY weekend! Oh I forgot the picture of Ami, Kira, Aaron, and Me at Applebee's! Oh well. We went to Applebee's :) I got to spend lots of time with my friends but LOTS of time with my family too. Quite wonderfully dispersed if I do say so myself. I reeeeeeeeeeally didn't want to come back. I can't even express to you how much I didn't want to come back. But I did so there's no point crying over the past. "There's no use crying over every mistake, you just keep on trying til you run out of cake!" Uhhhkay! Hahaha it's from a song. Honestly. I'm really tired, give me a break. Anyway, like I said it was a great weekend. I can't wait to go home for Christmas break and go shopping at Target with Ericka!!!!! I'll never take a real store for granted again :)

What am I thankful for this Thanksgiving? The lessons I had to learn the hard way since moving away from home. They have made everything so much better :)

Suprise!

SO.... Thursday night Candice comes over to my dorm to talk to me. "Stephenie I'm so homesick and I just wanna spend some time with my parents and I can't wait til Wednesday! Let's go tomorrow!" ........Ok! Sounded like fun to me! So the next day we pack up her car and head home! I love spontaneous...ness...ness... ok. She told her parents she was coming. I did not. I didn't tell a soul! Aren't you proud of me?! Hahaha It was so hard! Anyway, suprised everyone when I showed up to their houses. So worth it. It was probably the best weekend I've had in a looooong time. So here are some of the happenings of my trip home... it was so awesome I just had to share :) Yippie Yay! Uhkay! Hahaha...

How can you NOT have fun with the two of us in the car, right? :) Oh man... I'm suprised I'm still alive.

Ok funny story... I'm driving Chelsea's beast of a car out to the BOONIES for Ryan's bonfire and I'm following Matt Kirkland who is following Tanner Nelson cause I have no idea how to get out there. The funny part: Those guys are going like 65 on the dirt road!! I don't speed! I can't do it! Technically....there was no speed limit. But if there was it would definitely be less than 65! So I, being scared to death, drive at the horrendous level of 55 on this completely dirt road where I can't see ANYTHING because of all the dirt flying everywhere, but I can barely makeout Matt's tail-lights. So I'm trying to go fast so I don't get lost in the desert with just Chelsea, but I can feel, literally, that I have minimal control over this car. She's sliding all over the place on the dirt! I can make her go straight or turn but there was no friction and I felt like I was racing in the Tokyo Drift movie!! It was terrifying. But then we left the bonfire to go get Kira and bring her back and now that I knew my way around I thought I was hot soup and I sped like I was training for the Indy-500!! Sorta :) Now, driving on the Ocean-to-Ocean bridge.... THAT'S terrifying! Especially with a cop at the end :(

Here's my girls! Oh man... I miss my best friends so much! I've gotten to see them the last couple times I've been home but this was the first time since I left in August that the three of us hung out together and it was awesome! I swear to you I was on the verge of tears the whole night. Partly because of how much we'd all changed and I knew it would never be like it was in high school, but mostly because I love these girls so much and I knew that high school or no high school we're still.... ok this is sounding way too much like it needs a daytime Emmy. Long story short: I love them! They're my best friends and it was so great to just sit there and talk and take a bazillion pictures :) Love 'em. Love 'em!

Ok...I know I look very strange, but I think this picture really illustrates the overall summary of the weekend. It was just way relaxing and everything turned out so great and I was so happy just to be with my friends and my family and...yeah it was awesome :)

So there you have it. A lovely insight into the world of Stephenie. It was a great weekend. I can't wait to go back in two days!!! Hahahaha oh goodness...

Time Flies...

Ok so I just wanted to catch everyone up on what's been goin on. If I could sum it up: Lots of nothing and no sleep. Needless to say I'm starting early with my good habits :) No, I am definitely getting good sleep tonight. I found out the hard way that it's really no fun to walk around school for 2 weeks straight getting very little sleep at night. Who woulda thought? Anyway, here's some pictures of what's been hapnin the last couple weeks. Enjoy!


This is what happens after we stay out at Jerry's all night. You'll hear more about Jerry's at the end of this post. That's Courtnie's bed with Leah underneath and Callie perpendicular to both of them. I opted to sleep in my bed. Call me crazy!

Wouldn't be a party without a human vacuum or elephant jousting now would it?! Words can't really explain what goes on in Kaitlyn's apartment, so I figured I'd post the pictures and let you guys figure out the rest :) Oh and that's my good friend Bryan pushing my good friend Tanner holding onto my good friend Wendy's feet. They are insane, in case you couldn't tell.

Ignore the beast with no makeup on. This is Me, my good friend Bryan, and Callie on our way to go stargazing at the football field! The all-knowing Joe Larson took his fancy shmancy telescope so we could see the craters on the moon!! And the stars were awesome, but the moon was alittle too bright. We're gonna try again in a week or so. Right Joe? :)

Cheetos Party!! Notice the 3 ft bag of Cheetos on the ground by Serena. Actually they're from Mexico so they're "Totis" or something like that. Anyway, we watched Kung Fu Panda and Get Smart and we ate Cheetos, Cream Puffs, and white chocolate covered pretzels. Remember those Ericka? Good times... good times.

Here we have our little group at Jerry's (Thatcher's version of Denny's). This happens like...3 or 4 times a week at the most unreasonable hours of the day. Yes, day. It's usually about 2 or 3 in the morning. But so much fun! My roommate, Courtnie, far right, works there so either we go visit her while she's working or just go hang out cause we know everyone there. It's lots of fun. Like I said :)

FYI... I CAN'T WAIT TO COME HOME FOR THANKSGIVING!!!! Not that all this college stuff isn't fun or anything, it's just that... I've got plans (a jam session to end all jam sessions! And Chelsea/Stephenie Day!!) and I get to see my family and Ericka's kiddos and to eat Mr. Gs!!!!! PLUS Thanksgiving is the last holiday before.......CHRISTMAS!!!!!!! So yes, I am stoked! It will be grand!

I Stand All Amazed!

Oh my goodness!! I just came back from one of the most amazing firesides OF MY LIFE!! But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the very beginning. A very good place to start...

Ok. Today was one of the best days in general. We were up kinda late and able to sleep in kinda late because church starts at 1:00. So Me, Keari, and Callie get up at 11:30 to go to brunch. It was very good! Tots, french toast, and ham! I was so happy. Our cafeteria is notorious for its less than satisfactory foods, but not this morning! Then we get ready and go to church. Our Relief Society lesson was on the Second Coming. Awesome subject! And it definitely helped me to feel more comfortable about the topic, which always happens when I have lessons about it. Then Sunday School was completely combined, which was lots of fun. Plus my friend was teaching the lesson and we were sitting right up front and he's such a funny guy so... it was great. Sacrament Meeting I got to lead the music. Nuff said! And of course they were some of my favorite hymns. Master the Tempest is Raging! Awesome! And the talks were really good as well. About agency and choice and accountability. It was good.

After church we were asked to help set up chairs for the fireside. I got to push the dolly with chairs back and forth!! It was totally awesome! I was singing and skipping the whole time cause it was so fun and everyone looked at me like I was crazy but, hey what else is new? 10 minutes later a group of us went to the nursing home and sang hymns to the residents! And we sounded so good!!! It was one of the best things I've ever done. SO satisfying! Then our group hurried home and ate dinner together. Corndogs!!! I mean, come on! Can it get better?! I was soooo happy! AND it was a perfect chilly temperature outside and it was sprinkling! Awesome.

Around 6:30 we went to get good seats at the fireside. Front row baby! And the guys sitting next to me were so awesome and one of them turned to Me and said "Do you realize we are going to hear from an Apostle of the Lord?", which I knew but didn't fully comprehend until he said it. I don't even know what to say about the fireside, it was so amazing. First the Tucson Mission President's wife spoke to us, and she was SO SWEET!! I just wanted to give her a huge hug! And soooo spiritual, of course. Then the President spoke. He bore an amazing witness of the Prophet Thomas S. Monson and the teachings that we recieve from the Prophets. Then Sister Christensen (the member of the 1st quorum of the Seventy's wife) spoke to us. She was so sweet as well and had a smile on her face the whole time! She was just so happy, and she spoke about how important the scriptures are to us and it was very good. And then the moment we'd all been waiting for :) Elder Craig C. Christensen, of the First Quorum of the Seventy, spoke to us. First of all, he LOOKED like a general authority. You could just tell he has so much knowledge! And we can have it too! Anyway, the entire chapel sat there in awe, practically, as he spoke of the Holy Ghost and how much we need Him. Also he assured us that this stage we're at right now IS just a stage, and that we need to prepare for tomorrow today. He said he could see the future in us, and that we need to prepare. Tomorrow is today. I was getting SO tired, because it was just like watching Conference and you know how you get all tired because it's SOOO much spirituality to take in at once? That's how it was. All four of them were just the most amazing people and everything they said was so good and so necessary and I could specifically tell that Sister Christensen was prompted by the Spirit to say something about being who Heavenly Father wants us to be. It hit hard, and of course I was crying through the whole thing! :) It was so amazing! Like I said, I don't know if I've ever been to a more amazing fireside. It was like an AMPM: too much good stuff.

Uhkay! :) So anyway, today was probably the best day I've had since I got to EA. I sat there the whole time at church and was amazed at how much I need the gospel in my life! Every single Sunday I am in awe because of how wonderful it is to go to church and how wonderful I feel because of it! Oh! I love it! So much. Today was just exactly what I needed. I haven't stopped smiling all day. I got to meet new people and SING and hear an apostle of the Lord speak to me, almost specifically. It was such a wonderful day! I couldn't keep it in any longer :)

Viva McCain/Palin!!!

Yippie Yay! I VOTED TODAY!! It was probably one of the most excited and intimidating things I've ever done. First of all, I was so careful about filling in the bubbles correctly because I'm a freak like that. Secondly, I had a nightmare a couple weeks ago that I accidentally voted for Obama instead of McCain!! Talk about horror! And third, I just want to comment on the satisfaction of voting. It was soooo awesome!! I was smiling the entire time I was at the polls and I just kept thinking "I'm voting for the next President of the United States!" It was very exciting. And the best part is I had the most awesome feeling as I was leaving the polls! I just felt so good about what I'd done and the fasting and prayers that were contributed as well and it felt amazing to know that I was letting my voice be heard. Haha ok I know I'm getting alittle too philosophical but in all seriousness it was an amazing experience. Let's just hope the results are what we hope they will be. Me and Callie are going to sleep in the common room and try to stay up as late as we can so that we can keep up with the incoming results. Should be fun! What a good day! :)

McCain/Palin and YES on 102!! Woo!