Amy Rose Marie

So I just wanted to show off my Beautiful little cousin Amy!

I remember when Amy was born I was 9 and I used to hold her as often as I possibly could and I would sing "Little Bunny Foo Foo" to her a million times over and over again until she would fall asleep.

I just LOVE her to pieces and can't believe how big she is getting! 

she is SO GORGEOUS!!

This is her yesterday when I went to her volleyball tournament in Leduc

This is Me and Auntie Nita~ She is the Bomb-diggity 

 Me and the Beauty-Queen herself :)

Wowza she is getting so darn grown-up! when I get home she will be in grade 10!!! 

This is blowing my mind!!!! Look out Uncle Marty! You have one gorgeous little lady on your hands!

Love you Amy Rose Marie

The count down is on!

So I seem to have fallen off the face of the earth for a bit here....

What have I been up to? 

Well getting things ready for the mission seems to be on my mind non-stop! I am so excited!

Official countdown as of today (which is Sunday March, 18, 2012) is:

72 days until I enter the MTC!

which means only 71 days until I fly out.... Wowza! time is FLYING by! 

I was able to go through the Edmonton Temple for my first time on February 25th 2012.

I absolutely LOVE the temple :) 

Now when I go there I don't just have to chill outside 

I am SOOOOO Blessed to live so close to a temple. I can get to the Edmonton Temple from my house in 15 minutes, so I am taking full advantage of this while I can. Seeing as the only Temple in my mission is in Regina Saskatchewan I have a feeling I won't be attending much once I leave.... 

I have been able to attend quite a few times since I went and I Love it more and more every time I go. 

Here are a couple pictures of me the day I went through for the first time:

 It literally hadn't snowed up here ALL year! and then the day I go to the Temple we got a HUGE blizzard like storm. Auntie Jen said it was to prepare me for 

"Winter-peg" ;) hahaha  

The snow was pelting me in the eyes the whole time we were trying to take this picture...

As for other preparations...

~I have begun shopping (Thanks to Ashley & Karla- you guys are life savers)

So I think I'm good for Winter outfits....minus tights still need a bunch of those.

 but unless I find some summer stuff I am gonna be one boiling little missionary come May when I leave... 

~Licence has been renewed as of Yesterday- I am good to go until 2017 now.

~House is rented out

~Employer knows I'm leaving (& said I had a job when I got back if I wanted it....Bonus!)

~Camera- check!

Slowly but surely things are coming together it is CRAZY how things have worked out so perfectly to make this whole thing possible. When the idea of serving a mission first came to my mind about 2.5 years ago it felt like it was an impossible/ unreachable dream. But the Lord has prepared a way and lo and behold I am going on a mission! I leave for Provo in 72 days! how CRAZY is that! 

It honestly still hasn't hit me yet that this is for real. I mean I know I am preparing and the day is getting closer and closer all the time but it still hasn't hit me yet that in 72 days I will be serving as a Full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. My whole life I never thought in a million years that I would serve a mission and now its actually for real happening and 

I CAN'T WAIT!!!!

To be honest I don't think the reality of it will hit me until I am on the plane. 

Heck it probably won't sink in until I am flying home at the end of 2013... 

I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be going on a mission I am so blessed! and am so grateful for the changes I have made in my life and for the joy that it has brought me. 

I know the next 18 months of my life are probably going to be the most challenging and hard 18 months I will have experienced thus far but I know that I will learn A LOT and it will help me to become more of the person I want to be.

I have so so so so so so so so much to be grateful for! 

Man I LOVE life! 

I am so blessed LIFE is GOOD :)

Mission call!

So it FINALLY came!!!! I can't believe it is FINALLY here! I FINALLY have a legitimate mission call! WOWZA! This is really happening :) So the 2 weeks that I waited from the time I found out it had been assigned until the day I finally received it were a little nerve wrecking not gonna lie... But then finally on Friday February 3...
I got a text from my tenants out in Spruce Grove that said
"there is a Giant white envelope from a church in the mailbox for you...is that what you've been looking for?" 

YES!

So I immediately called my Mom because her and my Dad wanted to drive up and be with me when I opened it. So they started driving up and I stayed at work to distract myself haha. Cool thing is Mama & Papa (my grandparents) happened to be up at my aunts for the weekend so I was able to open it with them to.

So I finally got to Spruce Grove at about 8:30 ish I think and checked the mailbox!

Sure enough it was there! 

This is my Extremely nervous/ excited face!

In my mind I am thinking "WOAH BABY! this is for real!"

So I had to talk to my tenants for a bit then I headed over to Auntie Jens house.

Where no one had a clue that it was here they juts thought I came out to drop some stuff off and visit. Which was legit because that was the plan... 

So then about 5 minutes later my Mom & Dad walked in and Mama was like "what are you guys doing here?" and then I said "I have something to open" she took a few seconds and then she got SUPER excited and kept saying "Oh my! Oh my! Oh my!" haha it was pretty funny 

So then we all gathered around in the Living room and I opened it up.

I covered up the actual call letter with the info packet so I could read it one line at a time and not skip ahead. 

So I read the first line that says

"You are hereby called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."

Then I move it to the next line and I start to laugh and I say "Well this is funny!"

and I continue to read...

"You are assigned to labor in the Canada Winnipeg Mission"

I continued to read and I report to the Missionary Training Center May 30 2012, and I am English speaking.

I am SO EXCITED!!! 

I have never been east of Alberta! So this is foreign to me ;)

I am soooooo grateful for the opportunity I have to be going on a mission! 

I am soooooo excited to FINALLY have a mission call! 

I am sooooooo excited to be going to the Canada Winnipeg Mission!

I am sssoooooooo grateful that I am going to be speaking English!

I am sooooooo happy that I am going on May 30 because it gives me tons of time to get everything in order!

My favorite part of the whole thing is that for the past few months as people have been trying to guess where they think I am going every time some one would guess somewhere crazy foreign my response every time was "Let's be serious I am going to Saskatchewan"

My mission covers the entire province of Saskatchewan! hahaha

My mission is HUGE! it covers all of Saskatchewan, all of Manitoba, a HUGE chunk of Ontario, a little piece of Minnesota and a tiny little snippet of Alberta.

How cool is that!??!??!?!?!?!!

and the best part is that I do not leave until May 30 which means I do not have to work myself to death for the remainder of my time in Edmonton because I have adequate time to get everything situated! So I will be able to relax and have some fun before I go! YAY! less 12 hour days! woohoo!

"Goin to Winnipeg!" 

According to Google this is the Manitoba Flag

look at the cute little buffalo... haha 

I LOVE my mission already! 

  

"PATIENCE is a VIRTUE"...... (that I clearly do NOT have)

So I am being tested yet again.... apparently I have a lot to learn haha. For those of you who know me you know that when it comes to patience- well I don't really have any. 

I started my mission papers back in May 2011, I had a plan (as I always do I can't really function without one) Plan was slowly fill out application till September. Get medical and Dental in September/ October-ish send in Papers early November. 

All went as planned till November when during my final interview I discovered that I could not send them in until 4 months before my date of availability not 6.

So I was on hold again... till the end of December. December 30 to be exact.

Well those next 6 weeks were by FAR the hardest weeks since I made the decision to serve. Everything that could go wrong DID, I was SO discouraged and had lost my desire to serve all together.... then when I really thought about it and prayed I knew that I needed to go through with it.

My impatient self not wanting to wait ANY longer moved my date of availability up to April 20 so I could send them in December 20 instead of waiting till the 30th. 10 days BIG woop! right?

So December 22 they were officially submitted to Salt Lake City.

Where yup you guessed it another hold up... My papers were flagged at the mission medical office for about 2 weeks before they were submitted on for assignment. 

A MILLION urine samples-multiple doctors appointments and a kidney ultrasound later... Salt Lake realized they had flagged it for no reason and forwarded them on without any info from these tests. hahaha

Ya'll know how much I LOVE doctors ;) that was a lovely experience. 

So they were forwarded on for assignment during the week of January 11.

Then I waited.

On Sunday January 22 I was informed by my stake president that my call was assigned on Friday January 20.

So since then I have been waiting..... and waiting...... and waiting......

My life has been flashing before my eyes for the past 6 years until this past month. 

I think Heavenly Father is trying to teach me patience. 

I am not doing so hot if that is the case.... haha 

ANY DAY NOW!

YIKES!

this whole thing seems so surreal... I NEVER thought in a million years that I would be going on a mission

it's kind of hard to believe actually, and hasn't really sunk in.

I don't think it will feel real until I am on the plane and even then it probably won't feel real. 

I have made progress in the patience area though I did not drive to Spruce Grove tonight to check the mail...

(I have my tenants checking the mail box instead haha hopefully they checked it!?! what if it's in there right now?! YIKES!! guess I won't know till tomorrow)

2012! ALREADY!?!?!?!

WOW! it's 2012! that's crazy! it never ceases to amaze me how fast time seems to fly by. I hope everyone had a wonderful New Years. I know I sure did. I was able to go my friend Kim Archibald's cabin down by Wateron we all spend the evening with tones of amazing snacks and playing games. Then around 10:30 we got all bundled up and headed to Waterton to Bears Hump. We hiked it pretty quick and were at the top to ring in the new year! It was so much FUN and such a cool way to ring in the new year!

Sorry for the bad quality pictures.... they are off my phone. My camera isn't working lately which makes me SUPER sad casue I LOVE taking pictures.... I keep forgetting to take it in to get looked at :(

This is the crew on the hike up

 This is the Waterton townsite @ midnight on New years eve 

 Jeffy & I we drove down together from Edmonton we left @ 5:30 in the morning on New years eve so we would have time to stop @ my parents for a bit. Needless to say it made for a long day haha. 

But we survived and actually made it till 12!

 Getting ready for the official countdown!

 Attempting to light sparkers on top of a SUPER windy mountain

this was quite the task!

 Kim Brought up Sparkling juice and little dixie cups for everyone haha She is the BEST!

Robyn & I were trying to light this sparkler and it wasn't working @ all they were trying to take group photo's and so we both turned away and looked at the camera for a minute and when we did this it lit and we didn't notice till it started to burn our hands! haha  

Happy New Year Kim!

 FINALLY got the sparklers lit!

We had sooooo much fun ringing in the new year on the mountain! I LOVED it! 

that beats a dance or a house party any day! 

One of the highlights for me was Emily (Kim's sister) brought a crazy carpet to the top. I crazy carpeted ALL the way down bears hump. Which was a pretty stupid idea because I was the only person who didn't have a light (my little lantern died) So I laid on my belly and crazy carpeted face first down bears hump in the dark. IT WAS SO FUN!!

I only had one major crash where I shot off the trail and the side of my body smoked a tree and then I was launched face first into the bush. A few very minor scratches on my face, and a pretty sore hip but other than that no damage. So after that little mishap I decided this was a pretty stupid idea. 

So I got back on the crazy carpet and continued down the mountain. hahaha 

 I am easily entertained

I think if it would have been daylight I probably would not have been brave enough to do it because I would have been able to see how rocky and steep the upcoming areas were.... which I know sounds backwards. But ignorance is bliss right? haha jk

This is in the car on the way back to the cabin. My phone was pretty frosty it was in my snow pants pocket all the way down... I'm lucky I didn't smash it on a rock.

 Emily has wanted to have a confetti fight for a few years now I guess so she unleashed the confetti when we got back to the cabin... What a MESS! haha 

 We were trying to get a picture of the confetti flying down from the loft but it wasn't working

We made hot chocolate and played some games and visited when we got back till about 2:30am then we all headed to bed so we could be up for church bright and early. The Archibald's are simply the BEST!

They made us scones for breakfast! They are so wonderful to open up there cabin to us all the time! It is ALWAYS so much fun to go there! I LOVE it there! and am so grateful for their friendship and kindness and willingness to share it with all of us!

Thanks for the wonderful start to 2012!!

So lets re-cap 2011:

If I remember correctly my new years resolution was to keep up with this Blog. I'm sure I could have done better but I did make a significant improvement in how often I Blog. I only missed one month where I didn't Blog at all. So I would say that resolution was a Success. I have come to realize that there is ALWAYS room for improvement and that perfection cannot always be attained and if I can accept that it makes life A WHOLE LOT less stressful! 

I started off the year attending U of A working towards my bachelor of Education Degree.

Took a few random trips with Brett:

Portland was the last Big one before he left on his mission.

I gained a testimony, a legit one, I had a testimony of the gospel before but 2011 was a MAJOR growing year for me, I learned A LOT about who I am and who I want to become. 

I look forward to continuing on this journey :)

I had a BLAST with my room mates! we did all sorts of random things, then in May they ALL changed on me, and the adventures seem to continue, which I am grateful for. I am so grateful to have such wonderful people in my life to have fun with and help me through the rough times. I am truly blessed to have such wonderful friends and to have gained so many new friendships over 2011.

I finished both my student teaching practicums. Which means I am half way to have a bachelor of Education degree... What a roller coaster that was. WOW. I attended University for a full year and in May 2011 I just didn't feel right about the whole thing. I was supposed to move to Pincher Creek area in August to get ready to start teaching in September. I could NOT stop thinking about a mission. So at my final meeting with the division I finally decided (literally in the meeting was when I made my FINAL decision) that I would no longer be moving south to teach and I was going to go back to welding full time.

I am so blessed I made this decision and was pretty scared because I didn't have a job to fall back on. My previous employer had kept me on staff as part time/call in employee in order to keep my pressure welding tickets valid. When I called literally like an hour after my meeting with the division. I was calling to tell them that I was going to be looking for a new job because I was no longer moving south. My position had been filled so I didn't think going back to work there was even an option. before I even had a chance to say any of that my boss asked me if I wanted my old job back. he said that the person they hired to take my spot had literally JUST given their 2 weeks notice and if I wanted I could have me exact same position back. I knew right then and there that I had made the right decision. 

One of the main reasons I decided not to go through with the teaching thing was because I could not stop thinking about serving a mission. Once I escaped my contract I decided that I needed to start preparing. The BIGGEST road block for me has been my debt. I own a house, and had taken a year of school that I couldn't afford and had accumulated a bit of debt by backing out of my contract, not to mention my stupid credit card. I jokingly said at one point "2010 was my year to have fun and do whatever I want 2011 is my year to become debt free" I honestly did not think this was possible. lets just say I had A LOT of debt. But I have been VERY blessed with available overtime and health and energy to work the excessive overtime that I've been offered and I am happy to say I am about a month away from being debt free! That has definitely been one of my BIGGEST accomplishments of this year! heck probably of my life. I have worked so hard to make that happen it's actually hard to believe I have almost achieved that goal.

I started my mission papers WAY back in May knowing I was not going to submit them for a long time. It was my main focus heck it was my only focus for the past 7 months. I had EVERYTHING ready to go for my stake presidents interview November 2. I thought we would be submitting them that day. My date of availability was set as April 30th due to my financial situation and I THOUGHT I could submit them 6 months before date available to serve...... well we finished the interview and everything was good to go and then we realized that my date of availability was 6 months away and the stake president informed me that I can only send them in 4 months in advance. :( 

So that was all good we decided we would send them in on December 30th. and I was O.K. with that for about 2 weeks. Then I started to panic a little bit and almost decided not to send them in. I even registered myself in school next semester and the whole works. I have since realized where all the opposition was coming from and after much thinking/ studying/ praying and all sorts of other things..... 

I KNOW that I have made the right decision I could not wait any longer so I moved my date of availability up 10 days and my mission papers were submitted to 

Salt Lake City on December 22 2011.

What a CRAZY journey it has been to get to this point! I have never been so tested in all my life. 

I am SO excited to receive my mission call. I am so grateful for the growth I have experienced over the duration of my preparation so far and am so excited to see what's in store for me.

People keep asking where I hope I get sent.... To be honest I don't really care. I mean of course it would be sweet to get sent somewhere Ridiculous but in all honesty I will just be happy to get a mission call and to have the opportunity to serve. I am so excited for this next adventure in my life and I know it will not be easy, in fact I imagine it is going to be one of the most challenging things I ever do, and am definitely stepping out of my comfort zone. But really that's what life is all about. If we don't take chances we don't grow.

I have always LOVED hearing peoples mission experiences and it's crazy to think I will be having my own here pretty quick.

I have no idea what's in store for me in 2012 but I am sure excited! so far the year has started off GREAT! I rang in the new year on a mountain with some friends.... spent some time with my family and now am having the first relaxing day in FOREVER!

I hope you all had a wonderful 2011 and I wish you all the BEST in 

2012