September

Hey guys! 

So I don't know about anyone else, but I am so excited that SEPTEMBER has finally come! 

It's one of Connor and I's favorite months AND it should be one that has the time start picking up again which will be awesome! Fall is slowly approaching and I am getting more and more excited! Back home in little 'ol Prescott I always wanted summer to last just a little longer, but now that I'm living in the hottest place in Arizona, aka The Valley, I just want the temperatures to drop and not be above 100 everyday! I'm already getting a little tired of sweating just from walking outside for a minute. So, I am welcoming fall with open arms! 

I'm trying to get back into the swing of things here with this blog but then I find that I'm on this one all the time and never my tumblr, and then vice versa. Which is a problem because I really like to keep the two evened out! (Nobody cares!) But forgive me if I forget to post on here for a couple of days .. or weeks.. or for however long it is this time! 

Everything has been really good over here. I just moved down to the valley so I have a new ward that I have to go to...but I've only gone once. The first Sunday that I was here because my sister went with me. Then, last Sunday, I was back home for one of my really good friend's farewell talks and stuff. So now it's 11:20am here on this lovely Sunday and I am sitting in bed trying to get myself to go to church. It's not that I don't want to go to church... it's just that I don't want to have to go by myself and meet new people and deal with that awkwardness of never having gone by myself. Next week a good friend of mine who was one of Connor's companions is going to be all moved in so he's going to be in the same ward as me and then I'll feel more comfortable going. Ahhh I don't know. I just want to be righteous and everything but even that first week with my sister was super awkward and people didn't even try to say hi or ask who I was or anything. :/ Help! 

Anyways, I have a ton of homework to still do. It's like a never-ending thing once the semester starts. I've also been sleeping way too much. Hahaha. Last night I took a nap from 6-9:45 (for almost 4 hours.. what the..) and then went to bed at 2 and woke up about 20 minutes ago. Yeah, I need to work on that one. But hey, it's college, so really there is no such thing as a sleeping schedule! 

And well here's a picture of my suite mate and I from this week! 

I took terrible. 

PS My missionary looks just like Jef from The Bachelorette. It's uncanny. 

And that's all folks! 

11 Months Left

I honestly cannot believe how fast time is flying! It is the greatest feeling in the whole world to know that soon enough my beautiful little missionary man is going to be back here in my arms for good! One of the bummers about it, though, is that he's going to be at BYU-I while I'm going to BYU... so we're going to be long distance but less distance than if I chose to stay here in Arizona! SO I guess I have to look at the bright side of things and be thankful that I even have him in my life at all! I don't know how I was so blessed... He has changed so much in the mission field but only for the better! He is such a MAN now! Ahhhh I need him to be home!

The one thing that really makes me miss him and want him back the most is when I have dreams about him being home... Ooooh man that is the worst thing ever to wake up to... realizing that he still has 11 months. But then again 11 is way less than 24 and it's almost in the single digits so I guess I should just take what I got and be happy with it! Once the new year hits time will fly so fast that I won't even know what hit me... Just gotta get through the holiday season and all will be perfect! 

So last night I did something that I have always wanted to do since Connor has been on his mission... I ORDERED A PIZZA FOR HIM AND HIS COMPANION!!! Yes! I finally did it! And I told the pizza delivery guy not to say who the pizza was from so he definitely will have no idea that it was from me. I am so excited to hear what he has to say about the random pizza being delivered.... I can't decide if I should tell him it was me or not.... We'll see ;) 

Anyways! 

As far as the life over here in school goes... all is pretty good. Class yesterday was fine... and now I have 3 today so we'll see how today goes. Homework hasn't been too bad so far since I've been really keeping up with it but the one thing that I haven't done is read the book that is mandatory for my ASU 101 class and the entire school to read. Buuuut the teacher is awesome and emailed all of us yesterday saying she knows we haven't read it so not to worry about the discussion questions and stuff. Woooo! The one time I procrastinate reading a book and then I luck out! 

That stupid boy D is still just as confusing as ever so I don't even wanna go there. hahha Pretty much all I think about lately is my missionary so it doesn't even matter. That boy is just causing me way too much stress in my life so I am trying to stop with the worrying about him. Of course and I am happy and content last night even though he never texted me when he was out of class to hang out so he asks me if I can help him with the Calc 2 home work that we have due today. And I guess that I will because I'm a nice person but WHY MUST I BE A PUSHOVER TO EVERYONE. It is honestly ridiculous. 

Well. Now I have to go register my friend for his stupid class because somehow he can't. I really need to stop doing everything for everyone else. It's getting old hahaa 

Wassup College

Okay once again, hello bloggers! 

I apologize for being MIA again... this time for a couple of months! 

But I have some updates for you all, the first one being that I'm at Arizona State University, west campus, majoring in Secondary Education (math). I moved down here last weekend and it is already the best thing to ever happen to me! 

Here's just a little picture from move in day. 

(Dakoda, Julia, Myself, & Emily)

Julia is going to the tempe campus but Koda, Emily & I are all going to west together. 

Excuse my ugliness that day. It was hot in Phoenix hahah

I can't even explain how happy I am to be away from little town Prescott and back in the bigger city area. There's really nothing that I can complain about as of now! Except that my roommates boyfriend likes to sleep over and that can get a little bit awkward... but oh well. As long as they aren't doing anything inappropriate I really can't complain too much about that considering I'm at a non-LDS University and not everybody has the same views as I. 

As far as my dorm room, it is the cutest thing ever. Here's just a picture of my bed: 

Is it not just completely adorable!? And it's comfortable... something that I was not expecting. 

One thing that makes me really, really happy about living in the valley now is the FOOD. There are so many places here that I was never able to go to because they were just so far away. Now, every time I search some restaurant on my map, it's usually never more than 20 minutes away tops! You have no idea how excited that makes me! My sister and I stopped at Culver's one night for some frozen custard. The best. I just have to share a picture of that for all of you, too: 

Does that not look just completely fantastic!? It is. 

WARNING: If you don't give a crap about my first week at school, don't waste your time reading this whole next section. 

Alright, so a little bit about what exactly I have been doing since I got to school. Classes started yesterday (& all I had was Calc 2 and my Special Ed class) so I didn't have to worry about that all week. Saturday I moved in with the help of my foster sister and the family. Sunday we checked out the new ward (Glendale YSA) which was alright... I never thought I would say this but I think I liked the Prescott YSA more than my new one... but maybe I just haven't given it enough time yet. Connor's companion that he had at one point just moved back home (to Glendale... small world) and we're going to be in the same ward now so I guess that will make it better! And hopefully I can get Dakoda to come to my ward instead of the one that is where he lives (WHY must he live half an hour away from the campus in a different Stake... maybe he'll be in my ward since he goes to ASU West... Let's all pray for that please) Hahaha. But anyways. I dropped my sister off around 6 that night and then headed back to my dorm and hung out with my new suite mate, Alyssa & her boyfriend Jake. You'll be hearing a lot about them at some points I'm sure because they're awesome. Then on Monday, Dakoda and I went to tempe for a Luau that was supposed to  be happening but... it didn't really. So then we left, hit up In-N-Out on the way home, and then went back to West to the foam party that was happening. It ended up being a thousand times better than I thought that it would. We ended up soaking wet with soap and water (getting in our eyes ... which wasn't pleasant) and dancing our night away. It was on a grassy field so we ended up muddy as heck. When we were done with that we went back to my room, showered, and then just layed around on the computer watching youtube and such. 

Tuesday night was the fall welcome concert so I didn't do too much during the day, but then went with Alyssa & Jake to tempe and met up with Koda, Emily, Julia & our new friend Maria. Here are a few pictures from that! We were sitting the 6th row back! 

 This is Maria & I. (She's on the right....if you couldn't tell....)

The concert was better than I expected, although Far East Movement sucked. And then it rained like crazy that night so we all ended up freezing our butts off standing outside waiting for the shuttle. And then D and I fell asleep the entire way home. Theeennn on Wednesday I went to the school job fair, lunch with Emily, and then hung out with D until around 6. 

And yesterday I had class for the first time at a University! Here's a picture of that:

Then I had another class, lunch with D&E (I'm getting lazy with spelling out the names), went to the library to do hw with D (which didn't end up being very productive) annnnnd then I drove back home to little ol' Prescott because there is a ton of stuff going on this weekend here. And that's about it. 

I am so sorry for how long this post is and how much random crap that it has! 

Anyways, I've got a lot going on this weekend that doesn't really matter too much to the world of bloggers but I'll update you on all of that next week sometime... maybe. I'm really gonna try to keep up on this blog of mine. I really suck at it and I want to be better so that I can remember important things like college! 

So I told you guys a bit about my situation with "that guy" before, yes? The one that was always confusing and I never knew what was going on with him? The not-my-missionary-guy. Yeah? Okay well if I never told you his name or if you haven't gathered that by my blog post thus far, it's Dakoda. Whom will never see this blog, hopefully. Because that would be the death of me. Anyways, yeah, we're going to the same school and have classes together and hang out pretty much every day but so far, so confusing. I still don't know what the heck is going on at all, but I really don't care at this point! Because college is fun and there are plenty of new guys here to be discovered, so if he wants to keep being like that it's his thing and I'm just gonna do my own thing... while hanging out with him and being friends and stuff. GAH. I have so much to say about him but I'll just wait and update you all about that next time something happens because I am sick of describing all of the things that have happened the past week. So. You'll find out about that as the time comes. 

And for this of you wondering about my missionary, we are still just as good as ever. We don't write very much but he sends me an email every Monday and I send them to him every Sunday so we are in contact still, and all is well with that! We're just waiting to see how things go when he gets home... which by the way is in 11 MONTHS! Where the heck has the time gone!!!?? I don't even know! HE'S ALREADY BEEN GONE FOR OVER A YEAR. WHATTT IN THE WORLD. Okay. Done now. 

Thanks for reading <3 Love you all. 

EUROPPPEEEE

Alright guys. I know I've been pretty MIA for a while, but between finishing up school, graduation, and spending 2  weeks in Europe, I think I have a good excuse! 

So I am officially done with high school forever! Felt like this moment would never come. I'll be heading off to Arizona State University (w/ Barrett Honors College) sometime this fall. Probably on the west campus but I'm not sure yet. And I'll be majoring in something like math, or secondary education. I'm not too sure of that either yet. So we'll see! 

As for spending 2 weeks in Europe... I did. With a group of people, some of them incoming seniors, some of them my friends who just graduated. We went touring all over Germany, Austria and France. Nonstop. It was amazing, better than I could have ever imagined. I'll have to post pictures later when I finally put them on my computer. I'm still really jet lagged from the 9 hour time difference so sometime when I'm not always tired, I'll post more about it. 

I'm sorry for not posting at all lately but I will again ASAP to update you all on the new happenings in my life :) 

Prom and other things

Hello, bloggers :)

I've been sorta MIA lately and the main reasons are as follows:

1. Work... I've been working a ton lately. It's ridiculous.

2. Prom was on Saturday night so I was busy preparing for that... (I'll give more details and stuff about that later!) 

and 3. I went over to the Bertoch's house yesterday because Connor's brother, London, just got home from his mission and I finally got to see him!  (I'll detail that later, too.)

So it's been a pretty good past week or so since I've last blogged. 

I got my senior pictures taken this morning by an LDS woman that I really love. I'm hoping that they turned out as nice as I'm hoping they will. They seemed like they were going pretty well so! I'll post some of them once I get the CD full of them which should be sometime this week.

Now on to Prom details! First of all, here's some picture of my date and I and stuff. He's my gay best friend, Azain, so as you can imagine, prom was a BLAST.

I swear I'm not pregnant... even though this picture sure makes it look like one of those expecting pictures ;)

Annnnd here is one on the way to dinner, which we had at Wildflower. Nom. 

And another one :) 

And here is one of me and Connor's lovely sister! Not the best picture of us, but it's the only one we really got together at prom! 

So there are those! Seriously prom was a blast. The venue had a maximum occupancy of 135 and at all times there were about 3-400 people in that room... so you can only imagine how hot and thick and smelly the air was in there...disgusting. But then there was also an outside area that we could go to so all in all the place was really nice. We had a cool waffle bar and an ice cream sundae bar (neither of which I actually ate anything from...but it was still cool). The music sucked.. just like any other dance. All in all though, it was basically what we made it.. and my friends and I made it FUN! I can't even explain how glad I am that I went. I would've been really missing out on a great experience.  :)

Okay enough talk about prom... now time to talk about LONDON!

And by London I don't mean England... I mean Connor's older brother who just returned from his mission which he served in San Antonio Texas! Yee haw! (I'm never doing that again.) 

So he got home on Wednesday but I didn't get the chance to go over and see him until yesterday. Lemme tell ya, it was awesome. He is so cool and so much nicer than he used to be and so much more spiritual and everything. The mission worked wonders on him and he's really different in some ways but deep down he's still the same ol' London, which is awesome. I'm sure that's how it's going to be when Connor comes home, too. Oh, so London has a girlfriend, and her name is Bethany and she's mine and Connor's best friend, too. And so seeing them together was fantastic, but it made me super jealous and made me super impatient for connor to get home! hahah. I want him here and NOW. But I can wait! I can do this. Haha 

Mormon prom (aka morp) is coming up soon and I really want to go. But I can't decide if I want to go alone or as a couple with someone... I think I'd rather just go alone so that I can dance with whomever I want and not have to worry about feeling tied down or ditching anyone. That's probably a good plan. And then I can dance with my oh so cute friend as much as I want ;) Hahah. That is.... if he doesn't bring his non-LDS girlfriend. One can only hope. 

Moving on ;) 

Alright I really have a paper that I need to write. It was due today but I didn't go to school so hopefully as long as I email it by tonight it'll be fine. It's so stupid how much we have to write papers in English 102. I feel like I'm always writing one. Gah. Senioritis to the MAX. I can't stop procrastinating. Blah! 

Kay I'm gonna go work on that. 

Maybe.

Hopefully.

....

Eventually.

Goodbye IBS!

Okay so here's the big thing of the day! 

I FINALLY GOT A LETTER! 

A REAL, GENUINE, LOVING LETTER! 

You have no idea just how much this means to me! I get letters like once a month and usually I'm pretty disappointed afterwards because it just asks about life and tells me some details about the mission and never really has enough love in it. So then I end up getting down and feeling unloved. But lemme tell ya, the letter I got today was the completely opposite!!! 

I love it so much that I'm going to put it right here on this post! vvv

Samantha, 

My love. It has been brought to my attention that I am being a crappy missionary boyfriend as of late. This should come as no surprise to you, seeing as how I have never been the greatest boyfriend. ((Okay, he's a wonderful boyfriend and always has been.. don't know why he thinks he's not! Hahha)) I decided it is high time that I take a little while to explain to you just how much you really mean to me. I am sorry if I trunk you out haha. =)Dude you always talk about how you miss me more than I miss you and how you're going nutzo, but you really underestimate what it is like for me. Just because I can't write as much as you do doesn't mean I care about or think about you any less.It seriously drives me crazy to think about you so often. My mind is on you always, sometimes even when it shouldn't be. My mind is constantly drawn to memories of you, thoughts of what and how you are doing presently, and dreams of our future. I am consistently reminded of just how dependent I am on you and it drives me friggin crazy. I don't like needing other people. I like being able to function all on my own, I always have. But I realize the reality of just how much I could not get by without you around. I am so friggin in love with you it makes me wanna puke up rainbows and unicorns. Its that cliche, Hollywood, one of a kind, kind of love that is, in most cases, utterly revolting. And no matter what I do for the rest of time, I don't think I could ever get rid of you lol But I have come to terms with that. And I'm happy that I found somebody that can take the crap I put out. I guess I really just want you to know that I love you completely. And I will for like....ever. Never ever worry I am forgetting about you or loving you less because it is not happening and it never will. We have something very real, and just because I try to focus my mind on the work here doesn't mean I don't have to fight every second of the day to keep it off of you.Never forget what you mean to me, and all we have been through. We are getting close to halfway done darling, and soon you will be in my arms again. My rough estimate on the countdown is about 469 days from now. That is chump change dude. We got this. ((Okay this part isn't lovey but it's funny haha))Okay so that new temple here is opening soon and I got to go through it. It was way sick. I enclosed the brochure. My fridge just made a loud noise, it is dark and the middle of the night (I woke up, couldn't sleep, decided to write). I almost crapped my pants. I am positive a serial mass murderer lurks us every night too. We live in the middle of nowhere. I wrote you a song. I am going to play it for you. It is real nice and what not. I am sure you will enjoy it. Or you won't. Just tell me you like it okay? I worked hard on it d00d. I am running out of things to write. I think I will send some pictures with this too. Then you can smile and stuff. Oh! Last week I had this really great area! It was about you and it ruled. =) Then I woke up and it sucked =(I love you more than I can say, Sam. You are so loyal and loving. I hardly come close to deserving somebody as special as you. Yet you insist upon me. Never ever doubt our future, and never doubt how deep you have those claws in me. lol. I adore all of you. Don't forget it, sweetheart. 

♥ Eternally yours, 

Connor Bertoch

If you didn't take the time to read all of that, you suck! 

....No just kidding I'm not offended at all. But it really is worth reading for those of you who like lovey cute things and those of you MGs out there who want know that even when it seems like he is forgetting you, he's really not! That is how I was really starting to feel, and then I got this and now I know that I was just worrying about nothing, and I'm sure a lot of you are going through the same thing. 

So don't give up! Having faith is the biggest part of waiting! 

Okay but there is one really big topic I would like to address having to do with having faith. 

It's a little thing I like to call:

Putting everything in Heavenly Father's hands.

And also....waiting and dating.

Personally, I am 100% pro waiting and dating, just because I feel like I have a ton of growing to do, and for me, dating is a big way that I am going to grow. I've already lost my parents so I'm pretty much on my own, but I don't feel like I've grown as much as I need to before I get married, and I think that's because I haven't dated enough. That doesn't mean that I don't completely love my missionary or that I doubt our relationship or anything of the sort. Because that is not the case. I am completely, utterly in love with that boy. But the fact of the matter is, he is gone for 2 years.....and I am not. I have always been a very independent person, but when he was here and we were together (we still technically are but ya know what I mean)  I became very dependent on him. I think that it's natural and normal to be dependent on your significant other, but I'm a little bit afraid that I became too dependent on him. I need to learn how to keep myself happy, which is why him being on a mission without any instant contact with me has been such a huge blessing in my life. Some of you may not have the same problems that I do or need to mature or grow in the same ways that I do, but that's totally fine! Waiting and dating isn't for everyone, and I didn't date for the first 5 or so months of his mission, and I decided that it is what is right for me after much prayer and thought. I feel like Heavenly Father gave me a taste of the type of guy that I really want to be with, and now he wants me to take this time to date, grow, mature, and prepare myself for him. One of the biggest things that I have done since Connor has been on his mission, has been to put everything into Heavenly Father's hands. I'm no longer the girl who chooses to sit at home on a friday night watching sappy movies and eating ice cream. I am no longer the girl who depends on a letter for her happiness or gets mad at her missionary for not writing enough. I am no longer the girl who has put her life on hold for a boy. Because I put everything into Heavenly Father's hands, because I have faith that He has a plan for me, whether it be to stay with my missionary or marry someone else. And I am okay with whatever the outcome is. I have been so much happier and less stressed out since I have made this decision. I couldn't stand getting my hopes up only to have them brought down if my missionary and I didn't work out, which I see so often on the group and in real life, that I know that it's a very real thing that could happen to any one of us, despite how perfect our relationship seems. And that's because Heavenly Father does have a plan for us. He knows what is best for us, and who is best for us. I find so much joy and relief when I think about it. Because I know that even if my missionary and I don't work out, I will have a perfect eternal companion that Heavenly Father has given to me. This is basically one big random rant or something, but back to waiting and dating. For those of you who are against it, that's totally fine! Because like I said, everyone has a different waiting experience and different needs. Nothing wrong with that. But for me, I have had so much fun waiting and dating! I don't really go on a ton of "dates," but I do flirt with a few certain people at school or at work. Right now, there's this really great LDS boy who I've known for half of my life, and after the new ward boundaries we got, he's now in my ward! And so we talk a ton and text and flirt and lemme tell ya, it's SO much fun!  I love having that male figure or whatever in my life. It keeps me from sitting around and moping all the time. I'm not going to say that he makes me realize how amazing my missionary is, because I don't think it's very fair to say that about someone that I actually do like. He does have qualities that my missionary has, and I love those qualities in both of them. He has some flaws, yes, but so does my missionary. No 2 guys are the same, and no 2 guys have the same flaws. So I do my best not to compare them. I love my missionary to death, more than anything really. But dating has been such a fun and good and eye-opening experience to me. I've really realized how young I am and how important it is for me to still be dating and having those experiences with guys. I don't feel ready to get married right now. Some girls do, but I just feel like I still have some growing to do before I do, and this dating has helped with that.  I don't even know half of what I'm saying anymore so I'm just gonna stop here before it gets even longer! Hahaha 

So I'm really sorry for that huge long rant or whatever, I hope you didn't read all of it. If you did, I hope you took some advice or something from it! haha

Anyways! Nothing much new has happened. 

But that letter from Connor / Elder Bertoch totally made my whole day... or week haha

I love him to death. I really do love him.  

in-n-out burger, hermin, dogs, countdowns

Seems to me that In-N-Out has been my home this week! And by that I mean I've been working everyday and in an hour I'm leaving to go work some more! Definitely not complaining because I really do need the hours and the money and I'm working on getting my raise, but it's just weird because it seems like I haven't done much else this week. 

One thing I did do, however, was kill a fish the night that I bought it.... Now, don't think that I'm a bad pet owner or anything of the sort. I bought this fish from Walmart and long story short the guy told me the wrong directions on what to do the first day of having the fish. And I woke up and poor little Hermin was belly up. 

On another note, my dogs are the cutest things in the world. I really love that I got to bring them with me here from my old house. I don't know what I would have done if I had to give them away. It would be a really sad time, that's all I know. But seriously they are the cutest. Look.

This one is Jake. We've had him since I was 2 years old... so he's about 16 now. He's a german shepherd/husky mix and he's the sweetest old dog that has ever lived. We've been through everything together and I never ever want to have to lose him. 

And this cutie right here is my 2 year old saint bernard, Kujo! He's a big dummy goof ball and I love him to death. He's the sweetest thing ever, like a big teddy bear. Not to mention he's adorable. 

So there's that! I've been realizing a lot lately that I need to spend more time with my dogs while I still can... Jake is gonna be gone soon, and I'm leaving for college so I won't see either of them ever. I wish that they were still indoor dogs like they were at my house. I felt so much closer to them then. But oh well! Sad dog reminiscing over. 

I really wish that I had more interesting things to say about this week, but I really don't! 

There are a few exciting things I'm counting down for that are coming up close though!

Connor gets to call home in 21 DAYS!

& Graduation is in 34 DAYS! 

Hurrrrayyyyyyyyy! 

And then I'll been on a plan to Europe in 38 DAYS! 

I cannot wait for this summer. It's so close I can practically taste it. 

I should probably be going and getting ready for work about now, so more updates will come later. :)

Toodles.