What a Great Weekend!

This weekend was a really good weekend. Yesterday I only had one class. So I went to class for an hour and when I came home I skyped with Julie who is my awesome sister who is studying abroad in Madrid right now. Isn't she gorgeous? Seriously, I have the prettiest sisters.















Then I had to do an assignment where I had to do a lighting set up and light someone... but there was no one around and I couldn't set up lights for myself. So I called Nich who lives really close and was done with class for the day. Then I ended up with an awesome picture like this. haha Jolly Old St. Nich.

My Mom came down to hang out with me for the night. It was awesome! We went to dinner at Zupas and then walked around the mall. (Which doesn't mean just walked around I got a pretty great jacket, thanks Mom!)
















I got an awesome letter this week from my sister Erin who is on a mission in Thailand. My mom brought it down with her. It was one of the best letters ever, she somehow knew exactly what I needed to hear. Missionaries are good at that :) See? She's awesome too, she plays with tigers.









This is the envelope that the letter came in, isn't it great?!
She added a little commentary in the last picture:
"So Asian"


This morning I got up early (7 am!) and went to help film a capstone. I was really cold the whole day. I worked on camera for the first real time, it was a lot of pressure! I think I did ok... There were two Red Epics on set today so instead of doing the second assistant camera person job that I've been trained to do, I found myself being the 1st AC. So I had to focus the camera. I have only done it once before. I made a realization about myself, my left eye is very rarely actually in focus. I'm guessing it has to do with my astigmatism... but I had to focus the camera with one eye haha. It was a little rough, but good practice for when I'll be helping out with camera again next week :) I love working with camera, they are so cool!

Tonight I went to a international movie with my roommate, it was extremely weird. and that's coming from a film major who has watched an unreal number of movies.

When I got home tonight I was just tired... so I sat at home and watched Youtube videos with my roommates :) I found a playlist of 40 of the best cat videos... so worth watching! haha and now I am still not in bed, even though I have now been awake for 14 hours.

See you in 18!

on my tip toes trying to be as tall as Erin

Well, Sister Stolworthy finally left on her mission! (actually it was on January 25th but I haven't written since then.)

We got to spend the morning together as a family before we had to drop her off at the curb. It was a bit of an adventure getting her to the MTC though. We all went to Ihop (Erin's choice) for a big family breakfast. As we were leaving Erin asked me for the keys so that she could drive... then I realized that I had stuck it in my backpack, which was in the car, which was locked. oops!

But things all worked out, we were only stuck for a half hour while we waited for the police to come open the door for us. Then it was on to the temple to take pictures! From the temple we got to say our goodbyes, which was hard, but we got through it. When we went to drop her off, we were only allowed 1 car through. So we all piled into the car and drove her in. haha the missionaries that were helping her were surprised to see so many girls in one car.


Here are some of the pictures from Erin's big day.

Erin decided to help me be a little taller.

All of the girls squished in the car



One last goodbye.



Good luck Sister Stolworthy! We'll see you in 18 months!

Erin's Mission Call

My sister Erin got her mission call in the mail yesterday. So as soon as we got out of class we drove up to our parent's house to open it.

The fateful envelope

Watch her open her call :)

She got called to THAILAND BANGKOK!! It's about as far away as you can get! We are so excited for her. In a family of all girls, I never really thought that any of my sisters were going to go on a mission and now Erin's going to Thailand. It's a lot to swallow at once, but we know that is where she is supposed to go and we are proud of her for making the decision to go.

My family :)

Oh my goodness! Thailand!
Do you know what the Thai language looks like?

Yep. Erin's going to be speaking that haha!

Elder Taylor :)

It's my best friend Colton's 1 year mark on his mission. I have some pictures of him because he's awesome, and this is kinda my way of making me feel better about not writing to him as consistantly as I would like.

He's in Barcelona and he is absolutely loving it!

look how cute he is! "Baby Colton" to quote Bridget

Yep. That's classic Colton

 On his birthday... in February.

No, this isn't a mission picture but it's one of my favorites of him.

 I think this was when we really became friends. haha isn't he awesome?

And your guess is as good as mine as to what he was supposed to be dressed up as...



I miss you Elder Taylor! I'm going to send you a letter very soon. Keep up the good work! :)

Halfway

I need to study for a test but I'm waiting for a powerpoint to download, so I'm going to blog while I wait. Anyway, yesterday was a very big day. It marks Cameron's halfway point on his mission. I am pretty excited, not gonna lie. I wanted to show a few pictures that I've gotten from him since he's left, he's been such an awesome missionary and I can't wait to see what the next year has in store for him.

It's winter there and he gets cold while studying

 With one of his favorite families he taught, he looks so happy

 haha he is so tall!

 I love this one

 Gotta love missionaries

Brazil, you better appreciate and take care of him for the next year.



Happy 1 year, Elder Rogers!! :)

So close!!

I'm almost done with my media arts application!!! FINALLY! It's due on monday. I have been working on this thing all semester! I can't even imagine how great it's going to be to have it done and not have to think about it again until christmas break when I find out if I get in. 1 more analysis and editing a couple more analysis papers and I'm done! I want to turn it in friday so I kinda beat the rush. well, I'm gonna go to bed soon because I'm sleepy.

53 days til Christmas! (technically it's 52 not counting today but we wanted it to be 53)
actually it's past midnight so it's 51.

I got the GREATEST gift for Elder Rogers for Christmas!!! I'm SOOOO excited. I've never been so excited about giving someone a gift but I've never bought a presnet that's so perfect! I got him a wire head massager! and anyone who knows Cameron knows he's a major sucker for a good head scratch or massage but obviously since he's on a mission he's not going to have anyone to help him out with that so I bought him a head massager. It feels amazing! I'm going to hold on to it for a few weeks before I send it so I can enjoy it and then he'll get it for Christmas (in 53 days)

Email Day

I am living for emails right now. It's a little sad, I admit. But I love getting weekly emails from a certain Elder on his P-day. For the past 3 or 4 weeks since he left the mtc he hasn't had time to write me any letters. That's fine with me because I understand that he's busy and doesn't exactly know what's going on all the time because everyone is speaking Portuguese so he doesn't have much to say. So right now the only contact I have is email once a week on wedesdays. I get so excited to see an email in my inbox. But in the email today I was told that I would be getting a letter in the next week and a half so I'm so extremely excited about that. I'm still not waiting... Right now just no one else has sparked my interest enough for me to have the desire to even go on a date with them.

Something exciting is about to happen in my life though!! I'm going to California this weekend! What?! I have never been... oh my goodness a girl near me's phone just went off and her ringtone was party in the USA, wow... anyway, we're going to Disneyland! It's me, Michelle, Kristin, Michael, and Skylar (my roommates and 2 super great guys from our war) PARTY! I'm so excited. it's really putting a crunch on my time for doing homework though. 4 days gone like that... which is hard when you have 5 papers and 3 tests due in the next week. Speaking of which, I gotta write my history paper so adios!

Letters

oh how I love letters! I love opening up my little mail box and finding a letter in there with my name on it from one of my friends! Nothing else in my life right night compares to the feeling of getting a letter, which is a slightly pathetic reflection of what my life is right now but I'm finding a lot of joy in little things. I'm getting a little letter-ed out though, I've written more letters in the last month than I've ever written in my life. I think my friends are going to have a better record of what's going on in my life than I will. I have the greatest friends, I miss them but I'm so proud of all of them for being on missions.

July

 Missionary letters... I love writing letters. I've come up with a few reasons why but they all seem lame when I say them out loud but I'll just leave it at I love writing letters. (I just read that the price of stamps might go up so I'm gonna have to stock up on forever stamps so I don't have to pay more for them) My 2 best guy friends just left on missions, Elder Cameron Rogers left last week for Brazil and Elder Colton Taylor is reporting tomorrow for Barcelona. So lots of letters and lots of stamps.

This weekend was super fun. I went up to Granny's house and we had a big family reunion that turned out having almost everyone there. The only granddaughter that wasn't there was Julie. We spent the day eating TONS of delicious food and hanging out with family. I was hoping to try wakeboarding again but the water was too cold so I wimped out. I guess I'll just have to go up there again this summer and try it. Maybe I can bring some friends... that'd be fun. We'll have to see. Our family was great though. I'm actually jealous of my mom and sisters who are still up there, even though there's not much to do once the rest of our family leaves.

Summer Vacation

It's weird, it's summer but I'm spending my time going to class and doing calculus homework. My mom and littlest sisters are in Idaho at my grandparents enjoying their summer and Julie's in Europe. It doesn't feel like summer to me, but I get glimpses of it as I talk to my mom. Last weekend we had a Stolworthy family reunion, so fun! I have the coolest cousins ever! We have quite a bit of fun together. We all have very similar senses of humor meaning that we can laugh at anything someone says. To quote Rachel, "we make a joke and run with it, then squish it and murder it." haha and our family's just getting bigger as my cousins are getting married. 2 of them are getting married in the next 3 months :) and there are more to come, I'm sure.

Also, I got a bike! I haven't had a bike in probably 10 years but I love it, I ride it to campus.
(I would put up a picture but my cameras are up in Idaho with my mom)

In a week and a half I'll be up in Idaho with my mom's family celebrating the 4th of July, I'm excited. It's gonna consist of a triathalon, good food, and boating (including skiing and wakeboarding)

My friends are leaving on missions, here's part of the list:
Nathaniel: today
Cameron: 1 week
Colton: 2 weeks
Brad: 4 weeks
crazy... I guess I'm gonna have to buy some stamps

Firsts

I'm moving out today. I'm feeling better today about it all than I did yesterday. I'm thinking about the things that I've done this year that I've never done before...

I lived on my own

I met tons of people

I wasn't a tag along or after thought, I was one of the 1st people invited

I was in my first relationship

I went to class or didn't as I pleased

I got a debit card

I was out til 5 or 6 in the morning

I had my first kiss

I packed up all of my belongings on my own

I had my first break up- though it didn't last :)

I wrote a paper every week

I was ok with a little bit of PDA

I picked my own classes

I signed a contract

I broke some rules (only minor ones :) )

I learned how to play so many card games

I watched boys open their mission calls

I said goodbye to my best friends ever

I wrote my first missionary letter

I got out of my comfort zone and went places with people I didn't know

I hiked the Y

I learned more about myself than I ever knew before

I went to my 1st concert

I made more decisions than I have had to before

What an amazing year.... I don't know if any other year in school can possibly compare. That's what I'm going to miss the most, the amazing things that I've experienced and the people I experienced them with.

The End

My first year at BYU is now drawing to a close and it has me reminiscing. I've seriously loved this year, I think it's pretty safe to say that it's been the greatest year of my life so far. I'm not big on change, especially drastic permanent ones like this year ending, me flying back to Kentucky, and not being able to see my guy friends again. (and the ones I do see again it'll be 2 years before that happens) That's extremely difficult for me. I've been dreading the end of this semester as soon as we got back from Christmas, which is probably why it's flown by. I haven't done a very good job of recording all of the amazing things that have happened this year so I'm going to attempt to go over a few of my favorites now.

The Keith Urban concert: it was like the 1st week of school and Michelle Metcalf and I got tickets to the concert. We needed one more person and I happened to have Cameron's number so I texted him and he wanted to go. It was so fun! My 1st concert ever and it was the 1st time I really hung out with Cameron. I started dating him like a month later.

The shaving cream war: EPIC to say the least. Tons of us out in a park throwing shaving cream at each other... awesome. Can't say I've ever done anything like that before, although I should have because we used to do it at girls camp but I never wanted to.

Hiking the Y: Cameron invited me to hike the Y the day after the shaving cream war, haha all of these memories are the first 2 weeks. what can I say? we were excited! Anyway, Cameron and I had fun together and later that week he asked me on a date, so I must have done something right that night. It was fun going up there and seeing the city lights then we had to hike down in the dark, that was an adventure!

Floor sleep over: We went up to Kristin's cabin and all hung out. I think this helped so much with the amazing unity that we all have now and I'm so thankful for that. I'm going to miss all the girls!

True Blue: We went and got covered in blue foam! it was so fun! And yes, this is slightly a Cameron memory because we met up there and hung out the whole time. Once again, it was something that I never would have been ok with if I wasn't at BYU.

Corn maze: a huge group of us went up to Thanksgiving point and went through the corn maze. It was amazingly fun! This sticks out to me because Cameron and I started officially dating a few days later. (I'm not meaning to tell the story of my relationship but those are the memories that stick out to me.)

Halloween: We got the amazing idea to dress up as the Scooby Doo Mystery Gang and it was a huge hit! I've never enjoyed Halloween so much! Random people were coming up and taking pictures with us because we looked so good. (Not to brag or anything)

BYU vs Utah game: The 1st time I really truely got into a football game. It was thanksgiving weekend and I had hurried back from my Granny's house so that I could make it to the game. We ended up winning in overtime! It was so exciting!! After the game a small, really random, group of people went to Bridget's Aunt's house and watched a movie in the movie theater room in her basement.

My birthday: It was a really good day. That night Cameron, Colton, Bridget, and I went bowling and I broke 100 AND won! When we got back we played Disney Scene It and I won at that too!

Kristin's birthday: We had a surprise party for Kristin! She had no idea! It eventually turned into a crazy dance party... so great...
Cameron's mission call: It was a thing that I was both looking forward to and slightly dreading. Where in the world was Cameron going to go? ... without me. selfish, yes, but honest. He got called to Curitiba, Brazil! His call has completely changed our relationship in ways that we never thought possible, for the better. I'm so excited for him and yes, I'm going to write, and no, I'm not going to wait.

Valentine's Day: I've never enjoyed it until this year when I got a dozen roses from my boyfriend! :) not to be superficial or anything, just having someone on that day is so much better than being single like I've always been.

Festival of Colors: It was a Hindu festival where you throw a bunch of colored corn starch at everyone, it's amazingly fun, it's just really hard to breath for a minute when the colors first go up. It gets everywhere too, but it's so worth it!

This is just a few of my memories.... and this is a REALLY long post. Oh well, not very many people actually read it anyway :) this is more for me to help me remember things anyway. Gosh, I loved my freshman year!

Will

Today I opened up my mailbox and couldn't help but do a little happy dance because inside was a letter from my friend Will who left on a mission in January. It got me reminiscing.

I met the crazy guy when I was 14 and we talked all the time on myspace and AIM. We went to efy together a couple of times and hung out during Youth Conferences and every stake activity (dances)
<--- funny story. the guy in the back was my "date" to the banquet and he wasn't very happy when Will came over and sat with me. Now those two boys are in the same mission together. Ironic?
Megan, Will, and I were pretty much best friends. It was awesome :) Basically, I'm gonna miss this guy. It's really fun writing to him though, who knew we'd be friends for 5 years and I'd write him to on his mission? Of course, I hoped I would be able to haha but I don't think I realized that it could actually happen.