MI HERMANA

SO. this is my sister Hillary:

She'll be graduating from Logan High at the beginning of June

In July, she will be going here for college:

And I can't lie, I am REALLY jealous! I have never even been to Hawaii let alone to live there. 

I can see it now, this is how Hillary will study for all of her tests:

This will be a typical day in the life of Hillary Dodd:

While I will be enjoying this for 6 months out of the year:

But, the real reason I am blogging about this is because I am going to miss my sister so much! Its going to be so weird having her live so far away. Good thing there's skype, right?

Love you sister and good luck with everything!!

TIM TAM SLAMMin

Have you ever had a Tim Tam Slam?

My friends and I did it last night- to say the least it was a delicous and refreshing way to welcome in that cold May snow. (Snow!!??)

HOW TO:

#1: Bite two of the four corners of your Tim Tam. Bite the two corners that are diagnol to each other.

#2: Put one of the bitten ends of your Tim Tam in a glass of hot chocolate and suck inward, using the cookies as a straw.

#3: Once your done slurping, stuff the Tim Tam in your mouth and let it melt in your mouth. Mmmmmmmmm

This Is How We Do:

Courtney Tim Tamming it up

Jennika, Sam and I

Our Group of Tim Tammage

Next, I would like to introduce you to the Sisterhood.

You like our shirts? Wal Mart special. Thank you very much!

Oh. and here are the boys. They're pretty cool too:

If you're looking for a tasty treat, a Tim Tam Slam is your Solution!

2nd Year of College.. Done!

I have officially completed my second year of college.. and it feels real good! This semester I have had a really busy schedule which has been as follows: 

Monday: 8:30-12:30 Classes

3:00-6:00 Work

Tuesday: Class, 8:30-9:20

Babysit: 9:30-5:30

Wednesday: same as Monday

Thursday: Babysit, 9:30-5:30

Friday: same as Monday and Wednesday

This Thursday will be my last day of babysitting because I'm not doing it for the summer, and I'm kind of sad about it! If there's one thing I have learned its staying home and taking care of kids all day is not a walk in the park! Its pretty tough sometimes. I have a lot more respect for you moms out there. But don't get me wrong, it is so fun too! So here are some pics of the freaking adorable kids I have been playing with all semester:

Ellie on the left and Cash on the right:

Cash, Beck and I:

Beck and I:

This week is Finals Week and I am already done! I only had two, one on Monday and one on Tuesday. It feels SO good to be done. I am free! I've spent a couple long nights in the library, but maybe some of them have been more productive than others because I do things like this: 

Take pictures on the Mac:

And my favorite: We played Sardines on the third floor. SO FUN :)

Other than that I've just been doing the usual, hanging out with friends both new and old: 

And last but not least, I would like to inform you all that I have finally decided on a major! It is... (drum roll please).....

Graphic Design!!! I am super stoked about it. It is something that I am excited about doing so I know its what I'm supposed to major in. I am all finished with my generals now, so I will start the art classes for it in the Fall. I can't wait!!

And this summer: I don't really have any huge plans, I will still be working at Stucky Chiropractic:

And I'd like to give a shout out to Sue because I bet she is reading this:)

Anyway, that is my life right now! Life is good. 

PS. I'd like to take this moment to thank Kevin for being so persistent on me updating my blog. This post would not be here without him.

hahaha

On a more serious note... what I have learned lately:

Sometimes life is hard. Sometimes God has a different plan for us than we have for ourselves. But if you have faith everything will eventually turn out okay. This is something I have learned as of late. I'm being brief but I don't want to go into detail.

I was given this quote when I needed it the most and I absolutely love it so I thought I'd share:
Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of — throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.

C.S. Lewis


I heard this one in Institute today: 
Patience is not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all that we can—working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!

Impatience, on the other hand, is a symptom of selfishness. It is a trait of the self-absorbed. It arises from the all-too-prevalent condition called “center of the universe” syndrome, which leads people to believe that the world revolves around them and that all others are just supporting cast in the grand theater of mortality in which only they have the starring role. -Pres. Uchtdorf

Best Spring Break Ever! -Tijuana, Mexico

This Week for Spring Break I went with an Organization Called "Charity Anywhere" to Tijuana, Mexico. There were about 33 people, and we were all from Utah State. Originally, I only knew about 3 people but now I have a bunch of new friends! Its great! We Left on Saturday morning at five in the morning. That's right, we drove there. I slept most of the way so it went by really fast.:) I was a little nervous going to Tijuana, with all the things that have been going on there lately, but I'm happy to report that I made it out alive! And I really didn't see anything super skechy, so that was good! The first day we were there, Sunday, we went to church, where I couldn't understand everything, but it was still good to go to church. Then for the next five days we were all split into groups and assigned to work on various projects. Such as, building the walls to a house, building roofs for some house, putting stucko on some houses, building a fence, building a retaining wall made out of tires, digging a hole for a septic tank, etc, etc. There were some members of the church who would feed us every night! They fed us the most delicious mexican food, I think I gained about five pounds this week! One night they even threw us a dance party for one of the girl's birthdays, with a dj, cake and all! It was an amazing trip! Here are some pictures:

This was the view from the roof, we could see the border line fence and San Diego in the distance.

This is my car pool in front of the church on Sunday. I thought it was so interesting, this church building was an exact replica of the churches I've been to in Torreon, Mexico and Cuenca, Ecuador.


This is where we stayed at- it was an abandoned hospital so it was free! It was actually pretty nice. I slept on a cot and lots of others brought blow up mattresses.


This is on Sunday when we went to the orphange and played with the kids. They were adorable, and loved to be played with! Orphanages always break my heart, I wish I could adopt them all!

This is one of the jobs we did, we weeded the grass along this tire stair case so that the kids wouldn't get their pants all wet when they went to school in the morning.

At one of the houses we were helping with, a mom, probably in her mid twenties taught us how to make authentic Mexican flour Tortillas! I wasn't too good at it at first, but they were delicious!

I'm pretty good with a hammer and nail now... haha, We helped to make the framework for the top level of this house. It took quite a lot of team work!

Courteny and I had the daunting task of scraping the cement off this wall. We didn't find out till have way through that cement fumes are really dangerous, so we started wearing the masks.

This night was amazing! At one of the houses, one of the little girls who's family's house we were helping to build turned 8 while we were there! She is the one in the pink hat in the front. It was such an amazing experience! Denise's mom didn't know she was supposed to but together a program, but "coincidentally" two of the girls with us were returned missionaries, and both had spoken Spanish on their missions. So one of them spoke on the Holy Ghost, and the other on Baptism, and then the rest of us sang, "I am a Child of God" in Spanish. Then Denise's uncle who had travelled for 48 hours on a bus from Mexico City baptized her. I loved the Spirit that I felt right before she entered the water. After she was baptized, this sweet little girl bore here testimony. I had it translated to me while she was saying it, she is such an amazing girl with such a strong testimony for an 8 year old girl living in Tijuana, Mexico. What an amazing experience!

Here is Me, Courtney, Todd, Kaden, and our new friend Jorge in front of the main houses we were helping with.

Here is the group of us that built the tire retaining wall. If you can see, there is a place where a river runs behind us. (it was dry at that time) Starting this project, it looked pretty impossible. The tires we were supposed to use were all heaped in a pile and they were filled with nasty, nasty "water." We called it the pee water, it was disgusting! By the time we really started working, hygiene went out the window. We put on our gloves and built that wall. It felt SO good to have it finished!

On the last day, we took a half day of work and hit the beach after! It was the perfect end to the perfect week!