Today.

Well... here I am. Standing in front of my door ready to start my last semester of my undergraduate career EVER.

Slightly sad. Slightly exciting. 

After attending my MWF classes, I am already in absolute love with my classes this semester.

(which, hopefully I get into Abnormal Psych-- #2 on the waiting list!) 

A girl asked me today, how will I stay motivated this semester? Honestly, I feel more motivated than ever. It is my last semester and I am ready to finish it strong! 

I bought the BYU planner today in the bookstore and found the best quote on the first page I opened up to:

"What will you take with you when you finally leave BYU? First intellectual discipline. Second, I hope you will develop a spirit of fellowship, a social ease, the capacity to mix and mingle with people wherever you meet them, of low caste or high caste, recognizing their strengths and powers and capacities and goodness. Third, I hope you will take with you an unassailable spiritual strength.

-Gordon B. Hinckley"

Obviously that quote was meant to be. I looked up the {talk} it came from, which was clearly even more amazing and it was given 2 days after I was born! ... even more meant to be :). I have LOVED my time at BYU. Absolutely loved it. I love this school so much and especially what it stands for. I really think I have gained and better developed all three of the things President Hinckley mentioned during my time at BYU.
Anyway, I am sure I will blog more about my feelings of graduating as well as my love for BYU more this semester.

On a different note, here is a picture of what I made for {dinner} tonight, Chicken Curry in a Hurry. Absolutely delicious.   

Ok, over and out.

The Flourishing Families Project

As the majority of people know, I was a research assistant for a research study this summer through BYU. The study was called The Flourishing Families Project and was SERIOUSLY the best job I have ever had. There is a really good article that goes into pretty intensive detail about the project if anyone is interested click {here}. (I would recommend it!)

I'll just fill you in a little. It is a study that has been going on for 6 years. We have 500 families in Seattle, WA and 200 here in Provo, UT that we have been tracking. This summer I was personally responsible for 45 of the Seattle families. I had to contact them, get them to want to continue in the study this summer, pester them throughout the summer to get them to remember to take their 45 minute survey online and then do all the office work that went along with that. I had 36 of the Provo families that I was responsible for in a team of 3. We had to get these families to take the surveys plus we would go into their home, hook the kids up to electrodes that monitor their physiological changes in their body (kinda like an EKG), run through a few different tasks with them while videotaping them and then do that office work too. It was seriously an opportunity of a lifetime because it is so rare that undergraduates get this type of hands on research experience. 

A lot of people have asked me what they have found from the study. There are 8 professors on the study and all write research articles based on their specific focus. If anyone reading this is interested just let me know and I could refer you to some really interesting articles! They go anywhere from dad's helping their kid's learn persistence to violent video games leading to aggression.  

I will forever be grateful for the opportunity I have had this summer. It has meant so much to me and taught me A LOT. I have made amazing connections as well as some of the best, hard working friends I'll ever know. It has better prepared me for graduate school as well as has solidified my desire to further my education. I would recommend EVERYONE to get an experience like this. Find a professor and ask if you can do research with them. A lot are looking for students to help and the time you spend working with them will be well valued, I promise! 

I could really discuss this for days because I have loved this project so much this summer. They are looking for new research assistants for next summer (or will be later in the fall) so anyone interested let me know and I'll tell you how to get in contact with the field director. 

Anyway, here is some documentation of our team this summer :) 

Love them. 

This is us in our office on our last team meeting day. We work in the JFSB which is BY FAR the sweetest building on campus :) 

We wanted to have some team bonding time so we went up to City Creek in Salt Lake. It was so much fun!

Our absolutely delicious cheesecake at the cheesecake factory. Have to admit... it was my first time ever eating there and was amazing of course. I LOVED it!

This is Chantel, she was on my little Provo team. I loved working with her so much and am so sad (yet proud of her) she graduated this summer and is going on a mission. Definitely a friend I will always remember!

 Official :) 

Loved them. Loved this summer. Loved the project. Love families that flourish. 

Final Composition

Last Monday I finished one of my favorite classes I took at BYU, contemporary dance. 

I did not grow up dancing... I actually grew up doing just the opposite. In high school I was an athlete, I played volleyball and ran track. Once I came to college though, I wanted to try something new and decided dancing would be a lot of fun. I started out with a History of dance class then took beginning ballet my freshman and sophomore year. My junior year I decided to switch it up since I wasn't quite getting the ballet technique down and took beginning jazz. I have always had an  interest in contemporary dance as that is probably the closest style to my crazy dancing at home so my senior year I decided to try contemporary out. 

I absolutely loved it!

Since my freshman year I've had a goal of performing in front of an audience sometime before I die.

I can proudly say I have finally accomplished that goal :) 

At the end of my contemporary class we had a final composition which was a 2 minute dance we had to choreograph our selves and perform in front of the class as well as others who were invited. Here is the dance my group choreographed. I was really happy about how it turned out!

Just a little disclaimer: the girls I danced with have been dancing for 20 years so try not to compare... I'm clearly not good but I can say I had so much fun doing it and although not good I at least feel a lot more confident!  

BTW I am the one starting on the left.   

I just hope this can motivate other people to get out there, try something new, and accomplish your goals because really anything is possible no matter the age you start it :) 

Anniversary

A year ago yesterday was our 1 year anniversary! I can't believe it has already been a year since we got married. We have definitely gone through a lot in the past year that has brought us way closer.

Let me tell you, I have been so excited for our anniversary! The night before I was laying in bed unable to fall asleep as if it was my birthday or something. After thinking about that for a while I realized it is our little family's birthday! I love that idea. It's so fun to be able to share this "birthday" with the one person I love more than anything. I am so happy Clark and I took the step of faith a year ago and decided to conjoin our lives and merge them into one. It has been a crazy year that is for sure but I know it has made me a much better person. I can honestly say I have learned to become more selfless and recognize what is best for US and not just me and my life. I know being with Clark has made me recognize how I treat people as well as what things matter most in life. Clark has really shown me how to see the best in people and to give them the benefit of the doubt. More than anything Clark has made me feel good about who I am. I know the confidence I have in myself has increased exponentially because of Clark of which I am so grateful for. This has been something I have struggled with most of my life and I feel like I can finally see myself coming out of my shell and being comfortable with who I am around everyone.

I love how Clark has had that effect on me. 

Anyway... enough about my feelings... I can talk about them for days. 

Here is a little look into how our anniversary went. Clark sure did spoil me this weekend. 

 Swimming at our hotel, the Chateaux, in Deer Valley 

Walking around Deer Valley's little village.

I tried out the red lipstick look that night... not sure what I think about it yet 

We had THE most amazing dinner I have ever had out! It was a delicious 3 course meal for $100!! --Clark knows how to find the deals though and got it for $30. Proud of my man. 

Here is a pic of our asiago cheese bread. It was to die for. 

Oil and vinegar with thyme

Our drinks! 

My appetizer, Creminelli's fine meats with baguette, goat cheese, and marmalade. 

Clark's appetizer, fried clams with a mustard sauce and lemon juice. I am proud to say I really liked it!

My main dish, pork tenderloin with spinach and almond salad.

Clark got the steak

Such a cutie

My dessert, a chocolate pudding cake with berries. It was SO good. Way better than it looks in the picture.

Clark's, homemade blueberry gelato 

We hit the night on Main Street. Have to say I was a very happy girl. 

Love him. 

We later watched our wedding video and ate our wedding cake. Have to say it was so good even after being frozen for a year! If anyone wants some let me know cause we have a lot left and it's just too good not to share!

The picture we took yesterday for our 1 year. 

Cooking Adventures

Like I said in the last blog post I am taking a cooking class right now and today we had something they like to call 

THE MAGNIFICENT MEAL

We have been preparing for it all semester by learning how to cook and home make things in the kitchen. 

Here is the meal that my group prepared today for the magnificent meal. 

The menu consisted of a focaccia bread (which is actually what I made) that we dipped in oil and vinegar as a side along with a pear salad and homemade poppy seed dressing.

The main course was actually a recipe I suggested and have made before (which is Clark's favorite dinner btw) which was Greek yogurt marinated chicken with rice, cucumbers and tomatoes (we would have had onions too but it went above budget...) feta cheese and of course homemade pita bread. 

Then for dessert we had a peach yogurt parfait. 

Along with making all of the food from scratch we had to come up with table decor to go along with the theme. We tried really hard to keep a Greek theme and I think we actually did pretty good with what we could find! 

I provided the leaves on the table complementary of the walnut tree outside our house as well as plums also from a plum tree along side our house. 

The coolest thing about this meal we had to make was we had to keep it to $3.00 per person, all together we had 6 people so this meal was a total of $18! 

A couple of things I really learned from this class is the fact that

1. Cooking things from scratch is actually really easy

2. Cooking things from scratch is actually really fun

3. Cooking things from scratch is actually really cheap! 

If anyone would like any of these recipes please let me know and I'll just post them along with.

Also, if any BYU students are interested in this class its SFL 110 and take it from Smith.

:)