Of Late

   I had to return my rental car yesterday, (the other guy's insurance paid for it) and now I am car-less. Pretty awesome considering how Blake and I have the most opposite schedules you can imagine.  My cute little brother is letting me borrow his car today for school and work.
   School is pretty fun actually, now that all my classes are in my major it's a whole lot more interesting.  I'm writing for the Daily Universe this semester and it is CRAZY! It's a ton of work but it's pretty fun.  There are so many deadlines it's really hard to keep up and everyone has to be working on a few stories at a time or else you fall behind. I get to cover trials, immigration, the White House, health care and whatever else I get assigned to. I love it.  I've been to court following a case that happened on BYU on-campus housing last April and I get to follow it through to the end.  It can be pretty exciting. I got to cover the Patriotic Service on Sunday which was AMAZING! (even though I was already working on it as a member of the stage crew.. thanks mom for volunteering me for that by the way:) you haven't been before, you are missing out.  It is such a beautiful program every year. Steve Young did amazing this year.
   Other than that, I'm still doing makeup at Nordies.  I love my job because I meet so many fun, cool people, and let's face it- I love makeup.  
   Blake's taking an English class and working and taking some research credits, he just signed up for a ridiculously expensive MCAT prep course but it will for sure be worth it when he rocks the MCAT.  We're playing on a co-ed softball team and it is SO FUN! We are undefeated in case you were wondering. 

Okay here's a random picture of us in front of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican-- just because I miss it.  Please excuse the Saved By the Bell style jacket tied around the waist, I was sick of carrying it.  

Looks like I spoke too soon..

   A half an hour after I published the last post titled "Boring Post" I decided to take a shower to wash all the paint off from the painting my table.  While I was in there, I heard the loudest CRUNCH!!!! It sounded awful.  Metal on metal, screeching brakes.  Then somehow, I forgot all about it.  I was finishing my makeup when I heard a knock on my door.  It was my mother in law with a terrible look on her face.  She told me my car just got hit.  I looked outside and saw: 

 Where did my trunk go? (In case you were wondering, my car is, well was, the white one)

             It just hurts to look at

   My car looks like the flying nun from the front.  I guess the universe decided my life needed some spicing up.  A student at UVU was driving home from class and looked down to pick something up (probably code for "was texting") and hit my poor car.  He hit it so hard that it moved the car about 12 feet forward.  The blessings in this situation are: Blake and I decided after an embarrassingly large number of months to clean out our trunk TWO days ago! We took a bunch of stuff out that would have been crushed to death and left mostly blankets inside.  Blessing #2 the guy who hit my car had a baby 2 weeks ago, SUCH  a blessing his baby wasn't in the car.  His airbags deployed and he blacked out for a minute, his baby could have been really hurt. Blessing #3 no one was hurt.  Blessing (in disguise) #4 Our car is probably totaled and the insurance company is probably just going to have to give us a check instead of fixing it, so.. new car? (This is going to take some time for me to see it as a blessing because I loved my honda and it was the best, most reliable car that we could have had for a long, long time.) 


   Anyway Blake had a nice surprise waiting for him when he came home from work, and I learned to never ever publicly declare that anything about my life is "boring" ever again.  

Boring Post

  
   Blake takes the MCAT in May but he and his friends Garrett and Joe study for it probably three times a week already. I really hope he gets into the U.  (Never thought I'd ever want anyone I loved or cared about to get into the U :) If he goes to Utah then we can stay relatively close.  I think Blake is kind of excited to go somewhere far though. To be honest, the thought of being so far away from my siblings is a little unsettling for me.  Fingers crossed Utah!
   School starts for both of us on Monday.  I'm excited to go back because I love my major SO, SO much! All the classes, projects, everything, it's all so fun for me! Even though I love it, I've been a pretty big whiner about finding out it will take me an extra semester than I thought to graduate, but a few nights ago I had a dream that I graduated and then I had nothing to do.... so I realized that I need to enjoy every minute of this! 
   This morning I finally got around to painting my coffee table.  I'm so excited to finish it, I'm going to mod podge cool wrapping paper on the top of it, I'm so excited to see how it's going to turn out.  


   So, on an unrelated note: is anyone else weirded out by the Ashton Kutcher camera commercials where he's walking around at a party and taking close-up pictures of girls he doesn't know? Creepy Ashton, creepy.

Steele Strong

This is Blake's cute cousin Rachel.  Rachel is a gorgeous, spunky, fun, easygoing, talented, athletic girl.  She is an amazing volleyball player, way fun cousin and all-around happy girl.  Early yesterday morning Rachel was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

Rachel is incredible.  Ever since the diagnosis (keep in mind, it's barely been a day) she has kept her positive attitude and outlook.  We finally got to visit her today, and despite the "CVC" tube that was surgically inserted into her chest, the small doses of chemotherapy that they started her on, and the incredible amount of exhaustion and nausea she felt, she was happy, smiling, and joking around with everyone.  In fact she even told us "when I go bald, I'm going to draw a line down my head to look like a butt like on Cool Runnings."  She is hilarious.  Rachel is a shining example to everyone around her.


Her family started a blog so we can follow her journey. You can see it here.  Right after she found out her diagnosis, she updated her facebook status to read, "Steele Strong."  Please keep Rachel and her family in your prayers.  We love you Rachel! Come home soon!

People from Blake's Mission

     Since Blake served his mission in Spain, he was really excited to get to reconnect with some of the people there that meant a lot to him.  I was able to meet some incredible church members.  From an elderly couple who were the first members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in southern Spain, to recent converts who knew more about sacrifice and gratitude than I can even imagine.  We had the greatest time. 
   A lot of the people Blake taught were immigrants to Spain from Bolivia, Peru, or other third-world countries.  They were incredible people who didn't have much but were so genuinely willing to give of what they did have.  I wish I took a picture of all the food people made for us.  It was so amazing, we had just barely met them, (and there were a lot of us) but because they knew and loved Blake they would invite all 7-12 of us to dinner and prepare amazing meals.  These people exemplified the light of Christ.  It wasn't just one family either- three different families invited us in on extremely short notice to have dinner with them.  

   This is Esmerelda and Abraham's family.  They were incredible. Every decoration on their walls was either a picture of Christ or of the Temple.  They were extremely welcoming and opened their home to people so freely.  One of the people that really had an impact on Blake from his mission is Shirley (in the red).  Blake and his companion started teaching Shirley the discussions when he was there.  She was so excited to set a date for her baptism.  Two weeks before her baptism her entire house burned to the ground.  She and her 3 children lost every single thing that they owned except for the clothes on their backs.  I can't even imagine what it would be like to lose everything. She still kept her baptism date despite her huge personal tragedy.  

   

                                     

This is Sara. She was hilarious! She didn't really say anything, she just sat in a chair and put these fake lips and teeth in her mouth. She was adorable.   

 

This is Elianel.  She was such an angel! We met her the first night at Esmerelda and Abraham's house but she couldn't come back the next night for dinner so she left presents for me, Blake's mom, and his little sister McKell.  She gave Laurel and I brooches. (I'm wearing mine in the picture below) and she gave McKell a beautiful bracelet. 

                  

The guy in front is Archie.  An adorable Filipino (that's with an "F" right?) man that made us the most incredible food.  He and Blake have kept in touch since Blake came home.  He sends us Christmas cards and letters. Blake said that one day in church he complimented Archie on his tie and Archie immediately took it off and gave it to BLake without even saying anything.  He is the sweetest guy.

  Blake and Archie again

The Perez family from Peru.  She made the spiciest hot sauce that I have EVER tasted! And I love spicy food!

With Hernan and Sonja... and their little dog Titi.  They were so funny! Even though only two people in our seven person group spoke Spanish, we were all laughing the whole time.  And Sonja made the most incredible empanadas! 

  
   Los Reyes.  The couple on the left were the first members of the church in Murcia.  Hermano Reyes writes poetry and he read us a ten page poem in Spanish.. no idea what it meant but it sounded beautiful!